#i never interact with meta posts in general because i’m not here for that and i love all interpretations of a character

[adelcrait]

“anakin in the OT is a man who has spent two decades honing his craft as a highly successful, extremely powerful sith. he is in control of himself and his actions, and that's why he's such a formidable villain.”

This.

i think it's kind of insulting to anakin as a character when people pose him as a perpetual victim of everyone around him instead of a very powerful, very intelligent man who was responsible for his own actions.

i've noticed that a lot of diehard "anakin did nothing wrong" people very deliberately try to erase his agency and portray him as much less intelligent and capable than he actually is. the thing is, we know that's not the case! anakin was incredibly intelligent and successful and admired long before he became vader. he had a deep understanding of jedi philosophy, even if he was unwilling to apply it. we know this, not just from his explanations to padme and ahsoka about what jedi do and why, but from how good he is at killing jedi. anakin could hunt them down better than anyone else in the empire because HE USED TO BE ONE and he could predict exactly how they would behave based on their worldview, ethics, way of life, etc. he just didn't want to behave that way himself. he is the most dangerous person in the galaxy not just because he's powerful, but because he's SMART and he knows his enemy. he might have anger issues, but he's also very calculating and a "cunning warrior." the only one who could send him into a blind rage was obi-wan, but he learned from that and shaped his fury into a weapon he could use to devastating effect. vader was able to kill obi-wan because he learned from his mistakes; he was able to manipulate luke into almost falling multiple times. anakin in the OT is a man who has spent two decades honing his craft as a highly successful, extremely powerful sith. he is in control of himself and his actions, and that's why he's such a formidable villain.

so it kind of rubs me the wrong way when people say that he was always a fragile mess that the jedi order fucked up, or that he was palpatine's helpless puppet. i don't think anakin was traumatized by having occasional disagreements with the council. if that were the case, qui-gon and obi-wan would have both fallen long before he did. anakin was a powerful force user who disagreed with the council and vocalized it, not a bullying victim. i don't think obi-wan is responsible for all his choices, because that implies anakin traded being watto's slave in favor of being obi-wan's, when the whole point is that he chose to become a jedi as an assertion of his own freedom and personhood. palpatine might have thought that anakin was his attack dog, but anakin PROVED HIM WRONG and once again destroyed his chains by defying sidious in favor of love and compassion. his story ends with him embracing the jedi way, saving his son, and being reunited with his old teachers in the Force.

anakin chose to die as a jedi, just like he had once chosen to live as a sith. the power to make those choices was always HIS, not the council's or obi-wan's or palpatine's, because his story and the galaxy at large were always shaped, ultimately, by his choices.

[michelleelizabethtanner]

So obviously, we know that Beth and Rio hooked up a few times… sexually. But what do you think are your favourite non-sexual moments of tenderness between Beth and Rio?

Or whatever you find most meaningful coming from like a non-verbal or basically anything that’s not sexual standpoint. I find their communication so unique but I know a lot of it likely goes over my head.

I’ve sat on this for a bit, Anon. Sorry about that. It was in part because I was using all my Brio time to finish that dang fic I’ve been fighting with for over a year, but also because I feel like I need a rewatch and a refresh on all the details. I haven’t seen any part of the show since last October when I watched a few episodes while visiting a fandom friend (so we basically HAD to do it, amirite?), and I feel like I’m forgetting a lot of the details and just remember the general vibes. I agree, the magic of Brio is in the unspoken. Or rather, unverbalized. Sometimes they understand each other perfectly regardless, and sometimes they don’t (and someone gets shot on accident.)

I’ve named this scene before, but I really love their little discussion about Smurfing. I have more detail about why I love it in this post from a while back which tumblr for whatever reason isn’t letting me embed in a link so here is the whole entire thig https://www.tumblr.com/michelleelizabethtanner/704994865351622656/girl-i-love-all-your-analysis-and-meta-and?source=share

That post also has mention of some of my other favorite moments between them. Some sexual, some not. But always romantic.

If you think about it, they’ve had so few real interactions between them that almost all of them are laden with meaning. There are your obvious ones like “the dubby” and all of 4.08 and his broken little “you just didn’t choose me.” (Whyyyy can’t I link back to my old posts on these topics, this is so annoying!) But there’s also these quiet sideways little glances between them. The dropped eyes. The missed moments when one is pointedly ignoring that the other is watching them.

The “I’m worth it” when he finds out the feds made her an offer, followed by his little shoulder touch with an offer of the whole bottle of her bourbon as a thank you gift when he thought maybe she’d chosen him. So reminiscent of that empathetic little shoulder touch and an offer to drink on his tab from back before things went so bad between them, when she’d told him her husband took her children. That history! Their shared understanding and him showing her both times that he understood her position because maybe he’d been in both those positions himself before.

The quiet “how’d you get that?” when he shows up all embarrassed with his black eye which he’ll never tell her he got over her.

The hurt and bitter “you, me, we – it’s just business,” when he knows they’re nothing of the sort. When he’d killed a woman and made Beth watch to hurt her, and when he couldn’t bear to watch her cry afterwards. And the fact that she’d even sought him out to cry to him at all in that moment. She had no one else. Annie and Ruby both sought comfort in those they loved. And so did Beth, I suppose. She held it all in until Rio showed up and despite his anger she showed him her vulnerability and her tears. And he couldn’t even look at her.

I guess I’m kind of partial to the heavier moments tonight haha. Which ones do you like or that resonate with you most?

[ennard-is-near]

do you have any head canons for Michael afton post scoop? Or any head canons for Ennard? Perhaps how they interact with another? Idk maybe just a master list tbh, I’m hungry for more Fnaf Michael content and it’s a desert out here

Oooh do I ever. Anon thank you so much for sending me this ask, it’s gonna be a doozy. I’m going to separate this into a couple sections, “Things I’ve posted before”, “Michael”, “Ennard” and “Interaction”. I’ve also already posted some of my Michael Afton headcanons in a little list here

They call me irrigation the way I’m about to bring water to this desert. Okay? Let’s go.

Things I’ve Posted Before:

Post Scoop, Michael can’t focus his eyes or flick his eyes side to side. That is to say, he’s always looking straight ahead off into the distance. He can’t see things directly in front of him clearly, and has to turn his whole head to look at things to the left and right of him. This is sort of based off a couple things, first being that because I think the black voids in the final 8-bit scene are empty sockets, and the little white dots are just whatever stupid scraps of remnant are in there trying their damndest. They hardly function like real eyes, he can’t even really see that well even if you put aside all the other stuff. The second is a little more meta, but the gameplay, especially in 1, 3 and 6, where you have to be looking at something to know what’s there, also influences this hc a little.

Post-Scoop Michael also cannot talk. Well, he didn’t try that hard to and then gave up, buts he’s positive that he can’t. It’s not like he really needs to or anything, he maybe interacts with a dozen different living people in the forty-something years he was dead, and really what does he have to say to them anyway?

Michael’s kind of a biter. If you startle him he’ll turn around and bite you, and you will catch some weird diseases. His bite mark is super distinct, which leads into my next point:

He’s got really bad teeth. He’s also missing most of his tongue (this took him a couple months to notice, actually) and his lower jaw is not very well attached to the rest of his skull. It’s mostly from when Ennard forced a giant robot thing through his mouth, and a little bit of just general ware over time.

He’s buddies with a guy who works Tuesday nights at a convenience store near his house. Obviously they’re not really friends, but they form a strange bond where they’re sort of comfortable around each other. Michael only buys batteries and cigarettes every week. At first the guy is a little confused as to who this freak who smells so bad and wears gloves and sunglasses on summer nights is, but after a couple months he gets used to him. Obviously Michael never says anything to him, but the guy eventually plays a little game to figure out what his name is and sort of looks forward to seeing him. During FNaF 1, when Michael skips his regular Tuesday visit, the guy is actually pretty worried about him, figures he finally kicked the bucket or whatever. And then he comes in the next week and buys twice as many batteries and doesn’t miss another week until the guy eventually moves away. (Just realized I already said this in the linked post but I spent a long time on this so you can read it twice)

(About Ennard, not Michael) I’m a huge fan of the voice mimic thing. Literally my #1 in the whole series I think. Like just IMAGINE being Michael and you’ve been sent down to this basement to find your sister and what you found isn’t really your sister anymore, but she still is a little bit. And you know she’s trying to kill you and she’s become part of a weird wire monster, but whatever she is now sounds exactly like her. And it’s sitting there telling you things that you always wanted to hear from her, that she knows it was an accident and that she wants to see you again, but it’s not her. Even though a small part of you must wonder how bad it would really be if you just opened the doors… (This is not a headcanon really, I’m just a fan of this)

Ennard, while wearing Michael, was having the time of their life. Sort of poorly skipping and waving at people and trying really hard to mimic his voice (they never actually heard it, so they’re going off what Baby is saying he sounds like) to say hello to people. Everyone is like “Seems like Michael’s gonna kill himself” because that’s what usually happens after someone gets like that, but then he starts rotting and his neighbors realize he has a different issue and don’t care either way. Bc he lives in a suburban neighborhood and this is how they are. Ennard gets mad because people aren’t talking to them anymore.

Michael (New)

He’s so strange. He has a really weird psyche where he’s essentially convinced that he is only alive as some sort of punishment to him and that his only purpose is to kill his father. Despite this, he’s obviously pretty terrible at making progress towards his ultimate goal so he just spends a lot of time just sitting at the kitchen table and staring off into space. Not even doing anything, occasionally hallucinating but that’s about it.

As the years go on and he really starts to lose it, he actually goes outside more and is henseforth spotted more often by people other than his buddy. He doesn’t really want to be around a bunch of people, so it’s not like he’s going to the mall or anything, but it gets to the point where he doesn’t have really the capacity to care at all about anything except whatever he’s journeying outside for (and of course, his ultimate goal of killing William.) This is how Henry ends up figuring out what Michael’s been up to, he hears a rumor about a weird guy who’s been out lately and is like, “ah.”

He doesn’t have that much remnant in him. Like barely any. Honestly, it’s just enough to keep him conscious and stop him from decomposing to the point where he’s mostly goo. It was just whatever may have been on the scooper, which was likely very little as I’m sure William was careful about that, and a bit from Ennard. Sort of pathetic, really.

He can’t feel, smell or taste anything. The latter two don’t bother him at all but the touch thing is sort of annoying. Eventually he gets used to needing to constantly look (his weird eyes make this especially annoying) everywhere to make sure he knows where his limbs are in relation to his body or make sure he doesn’t accidentally kick something, not notice and lose a couple of toes. This is not a problem for anyone else who’s possessing something, but Michael, as mentioned previously, has not that much remnant in him and this is one of the downsides.

I think kids throw rocks at his house and stuff. He’s sort of a local cryptid, and I’d throw rocks at Bigfoot if I got the chance, so it makes sense to me. He doesn’t really care that much, though, so it’s not a super common thing because it’s not very interesting for kids to throw rocks and not get a reaction.

Ennard

For the sake of clarity, I’ll just call Ennard with Baby, “Ennard” and without Baby will be, “Molten Freddy”

I’m a huge fan of Ennard but I have no freaking clue what their deal is. I don’t think that any of the sister location animatronics are properly possessed except for Baby (I don’t think there’s any more dead people other than the 11 or so we hear about) but I think that they have un poco remnant because William Afton was just fuckin around to see what happened. Funtime Freddy has the most remnant, which is why he sort of takes control after Baby leaves. But I actually think that their behavior is from a combination of their remnant from the five kids (which gets into weird horcrux soul splitting stuff don’t think too hard about it), their own not great programming, and some influence from Baby. I don’t think that each individual Funtime is possessed by a new kid, is what I’m getting at.

I think Baby left on her own. I don’t think she got kicked out, I think she just got sick of everyone and dipped. She probably wanted a cooler robot and some more independence or something. I don’t think Ennard would have kicked her out.

Molten Freddy doesn’t gaf about being seen, why would they? They get spotted all the time, but because they do mostly hang out in the sewers (it’s nice down there) it’s not like anyone really believes when they see them. Like that cannot have been a bunch of metal with eyes walking and talking I’m sure that’s just the wind and some trash. So nobody really buys into the idea that there’s anything down there. They’re also sort of a local cryptid, but they’re a much more varied one because nobody knows exactly what they saw.

Molten Freddy did kill a couple people, I think. Not always children, sometimes, but really it was just whatever. They didn’t even do anything after that (they don’t have the proper equipment to do the whole “wearing a guy” thing again) but it’s just their weird remnant and murder-code combo that just drives them to do this. They never kill anyone as Ennard bc Baby is mostly their leader while she’s there and Baby doesn’t have any motive to do that.

Molten Freddy isn’t really as conscious as you’d think. It’s hard to imagine a level of not-conscious because you will always be conscious and doing things or unconscious and not, but Molten Freddy is mostly code and a weird mix of pissed of remnant. It’s not really as thinking and feeling as the rest of the creatures, more just following basic instincts.

Slight diversion but Elizabeth does not feel bad, not even for even one second, about killing Michael. She fucking hates him for a variety of reasons, mostly stemming from him killing Evan and a little bit of William’s propaganda. Also she thinks he’s really stupid and gullible for falling into her trap (it was a clever trap, of course, but he didn’t have to keep coming down there) and sort of convinces herself that it’s his own fault. Basically, she has sort of a “Serves him right,” mindset about the whole thing.

Added on to that, Elizabeth doesn’t think he’s William because genuinely why would she? That’s clearly not William, and I think she’s smart enough to know that her plan would not work on William. She’d say, “I don’t recognize you,” and the plan would fail there because obviously she knows who that is. I’m getting to ramble-y I could make a whole post about their relationship so I’ll stop myself here.

Interaction

I think, during the events of Pizzeria Sim, Michael is more scared of Molten Freddy than of anyone else. For a variety of reasons, but a lot of it comes from how chaotic they seem to be, while every other creature is just one person (a person he knows, so there’s an extra bit of weird familiarity) but Molten Freddy is much more of a creature than anyone else.

Michael was sort of conscious while Ennard was wearing him. Not all the time, but enough where he sometimes knows what’s going on. The thing is, though, he can’t see anything that’s happening and can only really hear the metal clicking noises so it’s not like he has any idea what Ennard is actually doing, just can feel what his body is doing a little bit. I also feel like the bouts of consciousness get longer and frequent as time goes on because the very little remnant in his body sort of starts to assemble itself and try and do its thing. This is very unfortunate for him, but he’s not a real person so whomp whomp.

Ennard knows that Michael is sometimes awake, they can tell, but do not really care actually. Whatever, it’s not their problem. They can sort of tell what he’s thinking, or at least get the gist of it, but it’s horribly incoherent so it’s more annoying than anything else. The knowing what the other is thinking does not go both ways btw, Michael can’t do that.

Nobody except Baby really has any beef with Michael. Sure, they’re attacking him in Pizzeria Simulator, but that’s more their programming and instinct than anything personal. To them, he’s just a guy that they’re going to kill, which is what they’re meant to do, and Baby hates him for some reason, but whatever.

Another thing about Baby, it’s really awkward for Scrap Baby being with Molten Freddy in PS. Molten Freddy doesn’t care at all but Elizabeth feels like she’s just run into her ex from a bad breakup at the store and he’s trying to make small talk.

And finally, Henry is weirded out by all of this and has no clue what’s going on. He doesn’t know what the fuck Molten Freddy is or where it came from, he doesn’t know what happened to Michael, he doesn’t know why everyone seems to have a complex history with each other (Really, everything lines up except any sort of relation or history with the tangle of wires.) He doesn’t care, that’s Michael’s problem. Connection terminated, or whatever.

I’m done

Okay that’s it! Of course I’m going to think of a billion more once I publish this but I think I’ve taken long enough already! Hope this was enough, and don’t disagree with me at all or I’ll cry (/nsrs) Thanks so much for the ask! Have a magical day <3

[seeingteacupsindragons]

Commenting on Meta: Quick-Start Guide

Inspired by a convo with @hergan416, I realized that while meta writers (me, at least) do still like comments/feedback on their writing, a lot of people probably don’t know how to respond to it very well. Responding to fiction can be easier.

But here’s a cheat sheet for, “Things I Like to Hear About” on my meta writing. I can’t guarantee all meta writers will agree, but I think at least a fair amount of it also applies.

This is not meant to be an all-inclusive list, but to give you ideas of where to start if this is a thing you’d like to do more of this, and maybe some general guidance on how to approach it.

This is divided into three categories: General Comments, If You Agree With the Meta, and If You Disagree With the Meta.

General:

Meta writers typically use different writing techniques than fiction writers, but they do still use them. A lot of it will be in the persuasive or rhetorical category which people are less familiar with, but if you notice them: say it!

Any comments about writing style/voice. Personally, I mix a lot of creative techniques in mine, and there are jokes and asides in there. If they made you laugh: tell me, I wanna know! If a turn of phrase haunts you or really hit you well: let us know!

Things like tone: some meta writers are more clickbait-y or aggressive, some are more wishy-washy, some more authoritative, some more authoritarian—and all of that impacts how it’s received. They might be putting a lot of effort into it.

What is the meta writer’s general approach to meta/analysis/fiction—stuff about that!

Anything you notice that seems like it took a lot of time or effort. They will appreciate you noticed!

Agree:

"I never put those together!"

"I've never seen it that way before.”

“I've never been able to put my finger on this and now it makes sense"

“I’ve never been able to articulate it”

“This would be interesting to explore in fic.”

“I wonder if this could tie into XYZ, too…”

“I wonder where the series might go with this.”

"This also has XYZ implications, too!”

“This is a similar concept I saw somewhere else"

“I really like the way this part of the story was written because XYZ”

“This is well put together because…”

Disagree:

Not all meta writers are gonna want these comments, but personally, I’m okay with them…in some circumstances. If it feels like you’re writing your own meta post, then…a little weird. If you’re opposed to my approach in general, okay, that’s frustrating. But you know what I do like?

Questions about how I got there!

“I’ve always seen it as ABC because of XYZ.”

“How do you think XYZ factors into this?”

“Do you think XYZ changes this?”

“XYZ is what I made of that.”

Stuff like that. Usually I can comment back on that and have a discussion. It’s totally possible we both have valid and yet different takes and both readings are valid! There’s a conversation to be had here!

I'm totally happy to discuss other valid readings and talk about what different readings add and why we might prefer one or the other!

The Most Favorite Comments I get on writing meta tend to be:

Anything about how this changed how you read or write, or think about reading or think about writing/writers

Anything about taking the time to sit down with stuff I write—in this world of infinite scrolling and quick bites, knowing I can entice someone into stopping that for a few minutes is better than gold

Anything about how you got more excited about writing/reading

Anything about what it makes you think of me as a fiction author (I mean…hey, I’m a person and a writer, too)

Anything about how this made reading/writing different or more fun for you

Anything about sharing my meta to discuss with other people

Anything about it making you love the media more

In Conclusion:

There’s lots of ways to interact with your meta writers, and they probably want you to.

[neverheroes]

You’re here! ˳·˖✶ ⋆˚. ∘. Yay fillet ◦ ∿ . *･ﾟﾟ!

This is an every hyperfixation dumpsterfire because I can’t compartmentalise, can I hear a wahoo. Again, if you know me, pretend you never saw this. I need this aside from real life to vent weirdness into the void.

TMNT is a life-long special interest so that’ll probably stick around and recur. The answer to which TMNT I like is “Yes”.

Yes, you can use any of my art you want to as headers or pfps. No, reposting art is silly please don’t do it. This account would get an M rating as a movie but mostly just because of the occasional blood and swearing. Minors are welcome to interact but I am an adult ok I pay taxes. No tcest or sexual content ever, just silliness and thinking too hard about things generally nobody cares about.

Hello more readers! Here’s… more.

I’ve changed my @ to neverheroes but I’ll still be using these location tags. Art tags are ‘bekmadethis’ + franchise. Meta/reviews are ‘bekthoughtthis’ + franchise. Short fictions are ‘bekwrotehis’ + franchise (see post tags)

bekmadethistmnt - ninja turtles

bekmadethisat - adventure time

bekmadethisofmd - our flag means death

bekmadethisgoodomens - good omens

I hope you like style and content inconsistency ^-^ feel free to drop a request.

My big weird™ is that I’ll absolutely be drawing those two 03’s goofy. You know who. Look, the 87 fans shouldn’t have called Leo the gay one so much if they didn’t want me to accept and endorse the message ok.

I’m struggling and inconsistently making a fan comic to teach myself to draw, I’ve always wanted to be even just okay at comic art and never had the inspiration to put in the learning time. It’s accidentally turning into an actual story, just writing itself as we go. 2023 was the year of AuDHD diagnosis and 2024 was the year of learning I’m weirder than I thought. Fun fact you didn’t ask for; when I remember a dream it’s usually a vivid and brutal apocalypse, that was probably a clue.

The ADHD gets in the way of productivity a lot so I’m only ˳·˖✶ ⋆˚. ∘. slay fillet ◦ ∿ . *･ﾟﾟin bursts. It also means I will just randomly make and reblog unrelated stuff out of nowhere.

Grab joy where you can find it. ☆

[yvtro]

I’m sorry if you’ve answered this before as I’m new to the blog (and really enjoying your thoughts!!) but I have a Jason question for you. What’s your opinion on the whole fanon pit madness stuff the fandom seems obsessed about with Jason? I personally hate it because I think it’s problematic and often times veers into abuse apologism as well as flattening his character (and not being canon lol) but I’m super interested to hear your opinions!

no need to apologise, i mentioned it and interacted with many different takes on the topic, but never made a more articulate post about it on my own, so it's nice to have a pretext to do so. especially that my opinion doesn't really reflect any of popular stances on the topic in the fandom. this got very long, but: tldr; i don't like neither canon nor fanon depictions of how the lazarus pit affected jason, but there might be still something of value there. there's lots to talk about though; i refer to aspects such as ableism and the lazarus pit lore in wider dc universe. more under the cut:)

i addressed this many times, but the general assumption that the pit madness is purely fanon is actually not true. while it was never explicitly named in jason-centric comics, it is a prevalent theme in most of his pre-n52 appearances. there's, for example, tony daniel's interview, where he talks about it, and some editorial comments on the matter. the titans towers incident was supposed to happen under the pit's influence as well.

the fact that it appears in comics that used to constitute canon doesn't make it any better, but to the editorial boards' credit, it's not really relevant anymore. yet, the events tied to the concept remain popular in the fandom.

i know that many people focus on the abuse apologism angle when talking about it, and while it is a valid concern, i'm more worried about... the blatant ableism that it comes with. i talked about it briefly here and here, tldr: jason is also portrayed to be going through a (pit-induced) psychotic breakdown, as he has clinical delusions. and in this state – a state of extreme mental health crisis, he is shown to attack rather random targets (because, i'm sorry, tim is a random target given jay's general motivations). this is an extremely distasteful plotline that contributes to SMI stigma. so, to reiterate, what i'm saying is that maybe we should not spend our time perpetuating the idea that being "crazy" or "insane" is excessively used to excuse abuse, but rather ask why dc writers even tied these notions together?

needles to say, i'm not a fan of how the madness trope is used in jason's storyline, not really because i'm worried about whether he is held responsible for his actions – it's not like half of these actions would be committed if not for the vague notion of the lazarus interference combined with the ableist representation of psychosis.

and if you read more of my meta posts, maybe you noticed a common thread in how i like to headcanon that jason needed to actively suppress his innate compassion (known from his original robin run) as a form of self-sacrifice, and painstakingly forge himself into a weapon despite flinching at his own violence. i also tend to emphasise the circumstances of his resurrection, his trauma and his desperate dedication to fixing the world as his main motivations. and the pit madness doesn't exactly go well with those.

having said so, i think there is some space for layering this with the effects of the lazarus pit, and i can't imagine completely getting rid of it when it comes to jason's storyline as a whole. i think people sometimes forget that lazarus pits have been a part of dc comics' lore for much longer than jason's character even existed. i haven't read the recent realeses (i will be catching up soon), so i'm not sure what the writers are doing with them nowadays, but the whole point of the pools is that the power of healing, preserving youth (or even resurrecting fresh corpses to life in some versions) is supposed to come at price. this price has to make at least a crack in the user's humanity. it was previously referred to as for example a "lazarus fever," and usually was followed by even just temporary episode of rage. (i've read it a long time ago, but you might want to check out for example "the lazarus affair," a storyline from early 80s). and well, it would pose some difficulties to explain how jason is running and kicking without being exposed to the pit (unless you want to say that whatever resurrected him healed him completely or that he spent more time recovering, fair game), and the pit has to have some consequences. the tragedy of it is, of course, that he was not put in there consensually, and he would never want to compromise his humanity nor control were he given that choice. so it has to have at least some effect on his state, at least for a while, unless we want to throw world-building out of the window (which you can do, if that's your preference.)

i guess the question is, can we do anything with this element of the story so that it doesn't hinder the significance of other prominent forces, such as grief? maybe it's not that bad that the story isn't straightforward. i know that lots of people like to claim that jason is completely autonomous, but aren't the circumstances of his resurrection already affecting him to the point where a hint of "who's driving" body horror is implied? isn't he struggling with feelings of losing control, which also make him so fixated and methodical? and maybe there is something to be said about the potential internal conflict of wanting to detach himself further from everything that makes him alive and humane (as it makes him vulnerable) vs being desperate to reclaim what the pit has taken from him. i don't know. what i know is that the reverse-baptism lazarus imagery is quite appealing and that maybe all the talk about it helps to bridge the extreme gap in 80s robin -> modern red hood characterisation, by outsourcing at least some of his anger to be foreign to him in an uncanny way.

but then again, it's also not my favourite theme, and i definitely don't centre it in my reading, nor gravitate to interpretations that do. you could even say that the pit influence was very short-lived and didn't matter in the grand scheme of things at all (apart from adding up to a pile of jay's trauma), and it would probably make sense with how inconsistent comics are anyway. i definitely don't want to see any outward psychotic symptoms in it's portrayal, nor for it to render jay irrational to the point where mindless violence overrides all of his motivations (like it did in many books before and as it usually does in fanfiction). however, i still think that it's interesting to look at the narrative in a wider scope and consider what i mentioned.

[starvels]

Cw: Fatphobia, body shaming, disordered eating, suicidal ideation

We talking about that “””banter””” in Marvel’s Avengers when the team bullied Tony about his weight and he talks about being on a juice cleanse?? Because I hate that so, so much. Like. Tony was depressed! and isolated for 5 years!!! And like, Not Doing Ok!

@blossomsinthemist was talking about it and like :(((((( https://www.tumblr.com/blossomsinthemist/721606463816105984/nat-may-claim-she-never-broke-cover-to-help

Plus the fact that it’s heavily implied Nat, that takes part in the bullying, KNOWS Tony was depressed and suicidal https://www.tumblr.com/blossomsinthemist/721588267817025536/i-need-more-fics-out-squareenixs-steve-coming-to

And like you said, he is still thin in the game, but like, so what if he wasn’t? Tony can be any shape and he wouldn’t deserve that! He could still be any shape and still kick ass in a literal power suit. Like. :(

(I kinda liked how I’m the game Tony seemed to have a bit of a hunch to him, man’s a workaholic that is either typing or leaned over a work table and I liked seeing that in a character design (tho it might just be a bad rig and all the characters have it, it’s just hidden under their costumes), but -11000099999 points for the ““banter””. EG Thor all over again)

yeah! that is what i was referring to in this post. as i'm watching playthroughs to make MA content for STG, i found this scene so off-putting and it reminded me of a lot of other ones i've seen in comics. & feeling just the general vibe reading a comic that i am never gonna get to see fat people be heroic. especially not at least, without emphasizing that they're a fat person sure, but they are still heroic, don't worry!

fat heroes' heroism always comes as a caveat to their body shape and weight.

nasty!!!!

but yes blossoms' point here abt tony and perception of self and internalizing a lot of judgement values about his appearance and how fun it is to explore that are so apt!

blossoms always handles tony's relationship with his own body in such compelling and intricate ways that are very tender and vulnerable. and i agree! i also like exploring these themes and playing with how tony relates to being a public figure, as well as how he relates to himself and the ways in which he feels pleasure or contentment or beauty or pride.

to blossoms+anons second point, abt nat knowing, yeah. if you read it just in-text, it can be really complicated by their own individual and combined relationships to trauma and processing and how much info they are sharing between them. that's always very interesting to eke out of interactions w the two of them -- two people who can guard their hearts and heads so intensely.

but taking a meta-textual approach to it, i flat out think when people ascribe their own -isms to characters, they are not thinking about how it fits a character's personality or interpersonal relationships.

we, as the fans, do the labor of asking how it can be internally consistent for a character that grew up without bodily autonomy, that knows intimately how loss and trauma affect your bodily functions, who knows exactly how tony fights and what it takes to do that, who knows that bodies are only one tool in a whole box -- makes fun of someone who trusts her, on her team, for potentially gaining weight. we hypothesis and convolute the relationship and infer from the absences of a canon text. the writers don't have to do any of that work. and that more than anything generally proves to me how shoehorned in all the -isms people apply to characters are.

they're not thinking three levels deep. and to be honest, i like our collective 3 level thoughts better than there, so ! phooey on them!! they don't get a seat at our table.

it literally doesn't matter what your body looks like if you're designing a metal suit to go around it that is based on non-physical input to function. and tony's found family should abso-fucking-lutely not be (even jokingly) shaming him for disordered eating and suicidal ideation, esp not during a battle lol. but yes, tony should have a hunch and neck problems and whine and use a heating pad and tiger balm too much <3 beloved greasemonkey sun.

[literaryspinster]

The thing is with ships like Melvika Melco or whatever else is that...they're such tiny ships. Apart from a few popular fanarts, I've only seen a small handful people on here *actually* "shipping" Melvika and most people who do are just lesbians who think they're hot. It's never going to be canon and it's just a fun thing that a small group of people are doing. It's just a crackship and in no way threatens the canon-ness of Meljay. It's cool to not enjoy it or the characters but the reasons like "They're not good for each other" or "doesn't do anything for her story" or whatever is a nonissue as it's not canon and never will be. Shipping Mel and Jayce with other people isn't always a malicious act of trying to separate them. You don't need to believe a crackship make a good couple because...that's the point of a crackship, sometimes they don't make sense and some people enjoy that. If you don't, that's absolutely fine, but the thought that you need to be convinced if you're not interested in a ship anyway is like...why bother? Let people have their fun and you have yours. And to be honest, people know these ships are never going to be canon. Genuinely! sorry if this comes off as a rant, not my intention to offend and this is not in bad faith, just a responce. It's just I think people in fandoms, in general, should focus more on things they enjoy instead of things they don't, especially if it's small and essentially harmless.

I get all that, and I am a pretty big proponent of focusing on things that I enjoy over things that I don’t, or at least not letting my negativity reach much further than my little corner. You’ll never see me butting into a M*lvika post to hate on them, you’ll never see me spreading negativity in their tag, and this is likely the last I’ll really say about them as I’m truly not trying to be a fan cop or anything of the sort. But I got the ask and wanted to explain my feelings on the matter, even though I knew they probably wouldn’t be taken all that well.

I do get rather frustrated with seeing so much toxicity under Mel and Meljay posts for all sorts of reasons (it seems to stem from the fandom accepting it as canon that she was up to no good with very little pushback) I never want to replicate that energy, that’s not the sort of fan I want to be. My thing isn’t that I think Meljay is being threatened, it’s me not wanting to constantly see hate directed at them in spaces that should be free of that. I can’t control what happens in the show, but I can attempt to curate my fandom experience as best as I can.

As for needing to be convinced that a ship is good actually, again, that’s just… kind of the way I am. If I don’t understand something or see the logic in it then I want to try to understand it, I want metas and breakdowns that find the depth in something that I can’t quite see. If I’m going to ship a pair, it has to be because I think those two people would get along and enrich each other’s stories. And yeah, I was open to shipping them at first, which is why I was initially seeking a good analysis, as I don’t really have a canon interaction to go on.

Lastly, and this is a big one, if I have to see comment after comment about why this character I like’s canon relationship sucks and why this other one would be better, even when I am not at all seeking content about that alternate pair, then it’s natural for me to get curious about why.

That’s me, that’s always been me. But it’s definitely not the way I expect everyone else to be or need everyone else to be.

And I don’t think you’re ranting, I’m glad you came to me with this, and I hope I’ve made my feelings clear.

[longhands-the-second]

Thoughts on volume 1 (disorganized and very sparse, I don’t have the brain capacity for meta this week)

Greetings everybody! I probably won’t be super insightful or anything but I’d really like to have conversations with people (can’t convert my irl friends no matter how hard I try). I’ve really enjoyed reading about people’s thoughts in the tags this week.

Thank god for the people at trigun overhaul they are saving my ass so much time and money right now. It’s really accessible and I appreciate it very much, that shit could NOT have been easy or quick.

I was really iffy on Nightow’s style for a long time, but it’s growing on me pretty quickly. There’s something about that 90s style of manga I was never quite sure about, but Vash’s babygirl eyes are winning me over.

Manga Vash just kind of feels different already? He’s still Vash obv but he feels more blue as opposed to maybe a warmer color. There’s a palpable melancholy about him and it’s making me feel weird. Kind of like I’m seeing the reality of his character and situation? (*I should mention that I’m basing my picture of him on all animated material + a decent amount of manga spoilers.) Maybe part of that is the kind of baby face he has here. He looks younger but seems older? His eyes feel different. It’s the lashes, probably. He looks like a wet cat in a lot of these drawings because of those eyes.

Odds are decent that I’m just weird emotionally right now lol. Probably good this is scheduled to be read slowly instead of all at once. Maybe this is just putting into perspective that his Antics are for his own sanity as much as his image. I, too, make jokes to ignore the Existential Dread. He is more often visibly upset without the theatrics.

WAHOO! (<- obligatory Dante comparison)

Gonna flat color some pages. I have to get it out of my system. It’s killing me they’re like coloring pages I MUST.

The Plants are good and proper fucked up here, aren’t they. I see why Trimax people make Vash an eldritch monstrosity. Very excited to see how much of that is based in canon. Also, wings! (I am going to be normal about this (<- lying)).

Not to homestuck post on the trigun blog but Vash and Knives are so hope/rage coded. Could make an argument for like 4 different classpects for both of them but I’m not that dedicated. This isn’t related to the specific thing we’re reading, it's just on the brain right now. It’s a fun way to think about how character philosophies/personalities interact with each other.

Volume 1 complete! I like Meryl a lot more here. 98 gave me the wrong impression, I think, so seeing this stuff in its original context makes more sense. More often I find myself thinking “oh, that’s more reasonable than I thought.”

Overall I'm enjoying the manga more than I enjoyed my 98 rewatch so far. Once we get into the Meat I’ll probably like it more than Stampede (idk we’ll find out). It’s generally pretty rare for me to like manga more on account of whatever flavor of neurodivergent I am making it fucking impossible to focus on reading long enough for it to not be word soup. Knowing as much as I do about the adaptations is definitely helping with the reading comprehension.

Anyway, I've started coloring a few pages and I might start doing at least one or two per volume if time permits. Got carried away with these ones though. I’ll post them to the tag later.

[centaurianthropology]

I never respond to these @staff​ posts, because they’re generally stupid or optional changes.  The website may be broken, but they’re desperately trying to be TikTok with their Live feature (and not even giving us a way to permanently disable it yet!).  I feel like these social media companies must be run by idiots, so I’m going to try to explain this in simple words:

If we wanted Tumblr to be TikTok or Twitter or Instagram or whatever other Algorithm-driven hellhole, we would be at that website and not here.  They are already doing that thing, and doing it likely better than Tumblr ever would.  The thing Tumblr has is its ‘outdated’ focus on the user experience being completely able to be tailored to the user’s interests.  We are not here to see the twenty latest sweatshop-made fast fashion outfits some vlogger is trying on, or see some viral dance.  Those exist elsewhere.  We are here for weird essays, long chains of meta, screaming about ships, art, collages, whatever.  We’re here for decade-running memes about rats and crabs and skeletons.  We are here because this place isn’t like any other place.  I am able to go to my Dash and see only the people I follow, and what they’ve said chronologically.  It’s encouraged the culture of Tumblr that it’s great to mine someone’s blog for years-old posts and reblog them because they’re still awesome, and everyone is happy that their old posts are still getting interacted with.  

An algorithm kills that.  It turns this place from a weird collection of interesting blogs doing their thing with other interesting blogs that they discover organically through tag interactions to a Popular Kids hellscape where we get Influencers, and our dashes become unusable because we have garbage we were never interested in shoved in our face by an algorithm that keeps shoveling that shit no matter how many times we tell it to stop.  It kills the sense of community that develops because people came together simply through happenstance and shared interests.  It kills the fact that there are no Influencers, because you can literally be a “Big User” and not even know it.  I don’t look at my follower count.  I have no idea what my metrics are, and I do not give a single shit about any of that clout-chasing terribleness.  I don’t want Tumblr to become some clout-based economy where people would garrotte one another and desperately try to mudsling and bad-faith argue their way into success like I see on Twitter.  I don’t want some impersonal endless feed of boring posts like on Instagram, and I desperately do not want to see us become the doom spiral that is Reddit.

Tumblr is unique.  Instead of constantly trying to chase some other social media model of ‘success’, maybe just try being the best weird Tumblr you can?  Maybe fix the bugs and let this place remain the haven from the worst parts of Social Media that it has been for the now almost-decade I’ve been here.  Why don’t you try that instead of being a bargain-basement imitation of some other Social Media website?  Hmm??

Tumblr’s Core Product Strategy

Here at Tumblr, we’ve been working hard on reorganizing how we work in a bid to gain more users. A larger user base means a more sustainable company, and means we get to stick around and do this thing with you all a bit longer. What follows is the strategy we're using to accomplish the goal of user growth. The @labs group has published a bit already, but this is bigger. We’re publishing it publicly for the first time, in an effort to work more transparently with all of you in the Tumblr community. This strategy provides guidance amid limited resources, allowing our teams to focus on specific key areas to ensure Tumblr’s future.

The Diagnosis

In order for Tumblr to grow, we need to fix the core experience that makes Tumblr a useful place for users. The underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use. Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience. 

Tumblr’s competitive advantage lies in its unique content and vibrant communities. As the forerunner of internet culture, Tumblr encompasses a wide range of interests, such as entertainment, art, gaming, fandom, fashion, and music. People come to Tumblr to immerse themselves in this culture, making it essential for us to ensure a seamless connection between people and content. 

To guarantee Tumblr’s continued success, we’ve got to prioritize fostering that seamless connection between people and content. This involves attracting and retaining new users and creators, nurturing their growth, and encouraging frequent engagement with the platform.

Our Guiding Principles

To enhance Tumblr’s usability, we must address these core guiding principles.

Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Retain and grow our creator base.

Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Improve the platform’s performance, stability, and quality.

Below is a deep dive into each of these principles.

Principle 1: Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Tumblr has a “top of the funnel” issue in converting non-users into engaged logged-in users. We also have not invested in industry standard SEO practices to ensure a robust top of the funnel. The referral traffic that we do get from external sources is dispersed across different pages with inconsistent user experiences, which results in a missed opportunity to convert these users into regular Tumblr users. For example, users from search engines often land on pages within the blog network and blog view—where there isn’t much of a reason to sign up. 

We need to experiment with logged-out tumblr.com to ensure we are capturing the highest potential conversion rate for visitors into sign-ups and log-ins. We might want to explore showing the potential future user the full breadth of content that Tumblr has to offer on our logged-out pages. We want people to be able to easily understand the potential behind Tumblr without having to navigate multiple tabs and pages to figure it out. Our current logged-out explore page does very little to help users understand “what is Tumblr.” which is a missed opportunity to get people excited about joining the site.

Actions & Next Steps

Improving Tumblr’s search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards.

Experiment with logged out tumblr.com to achieve the highest conversion rate for sign-ups and log-ins, explore ways for visitors to “get” Tumblr and entice them to sign up.

Principle 2: Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

We need to ensure the highest quality user experience by presenting fresh and relevant content tailored to the user’s diverse interests during each session. If the user has a bad content experience, the fault lies with the product.

The default position should always be that the user does not know how to navigate the application. Additionally, we need to ensure that when people search for content related to their interests, it is easily accessible without any confusing limitations or unexpected roadblocks in their journey.

Being a 15-year-old brand is tough because the brand carries the baggage of a person’s preconceived impressions of Tumblr. On average, a user only sees 25 posts per session, so the first 25 posts have to convey the value of Tumblr: it is a vibrant community with lots of untapped potential. We never want to leave the user believing that Tumblr is a place that is stale and not relevant. 

Actions & Next Steps

Deliver great content each time the app is opened.

Make it easier for users to understand where the vibrant communities on Tumblr are. 

Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds. 

Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Part of Tumblr’s charm lies in its capacity to showcase the evolution of conversations and the clever remarks found within reblog chains and replies. Engaging in these discussions should be enjoyable and effortless.

Unfortunately, the current way that conversations work on Tumblr across replies and reblogs is confusing for new users. The limitations around engaging with individual reblogs, replies only applying to the original post, and the inability to easily follow threaded conversations make it difficult for users to join the conversation.

Actions & Next Steps

Address the confusion within replies and reblogs.

Improve the conversational posting features around replies and reblogs. 

Allow engagements on individual replies and reblogs.

Make it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths within a reblog thread. 

Remove clutter in the conversation by collapsing reblog threads. 

Explore the feasibility of removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed. 

Principle 4: Retain and grow our creator base.

Creators are essential to the Tumblr community. However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing our creator base.  

Being a new creator on Tumblr can be intimidating, with a high likelihood of leaving or disappointment upon sharing creations without receiving engagement or feedback. We need to ensure that we have the expected creator tools and foster the rewarding feedback loops that keep creators around and enable them to thrive.

The lack of feedback stems from the outdated decision to only show content from followed blogs on the main dashboard feed (“Following”), perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of helping new creators. To address this, we need to prioritize supporting and nurturing the growth of new creators on the platform.

It is also imperative that creators, like everyone on Tumblr, feel safe and in control of their experience. Whether it be an ask from the community or engagement on a post, being successful on Tumblr should never feel like a punishing experience.

Actions & Next Steps

Get creators’ new content in front of people who are interested in it. 

Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting.

Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral.

Expand ways to co-create content, such as by adding the capability to embed Tumblr links in posts.

Principle 5: Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Push notifications and emails are essential tools to increase user engagement, improve user retention, and facilitate content discovery. Our strategy of reaching out to you, the user, should be well-coordinated across product, commercial, and marketing teams.

Our messaging strategy needs to be personalized and adapt to a user’s shifting interests. Our messages should keep users in the know on the latest activity in their community, as well as keeping Tumblr top of mind as the place to go for witty takes and remixes of the latest shows and real-life events.  

Most importantly, our messages should be thoughtful and should never come across as spammy.  

Actions & Next Steps

Conduct an audit of our messaging strategy.

Address the issue of notifications getting too noisy; throttle, collapse or mute notifications where necessary.  

Identify opportunities for personalization within our email messages. 

Test what the right daily push notification limit is. 

Send emails when a user has push notifications switched off.

Principle 6: Performance, stability and quality.

The stability and performance of our mobile apps have declined. There is a large backlog of production issues, with more bugs created than resolved over the last 300 days. If this continues, roughly one new unresolved production issue will be created every two days. Apps and backend systems that work well and don't crash are the foundation of a great Tumblr experience. Improving performance, stability, and quality will help us achieve sustainable operations for Tumblr.

Improve performance and stability: deliver crash-free, responsive, and fast-loading apps on Android, iOS, and web.

Improve quality: deliver the highest quality Tumblr experience to our users. 

Move faster: provide APIs and services to unblock core product initiatives and launch new features coming out of Labs.

Conclusion

Our mission has always been to empower the world’s creators. We are wholly committed to ensuring Tumblr evolves in a way that supports our current users while improving areas that attract new creators, artists, and users. You deserve a digital home that works for you. You deserve the best tools and features to connect with your communities on a platform that prioritizes the easy discoverability of high-quality content. This is an invigorating time for Tumblr, and we couldn’t be more excited about our current strategy.

[uselessheretic]

Overall, I find the way OFMD fandom interacts with race, especially in regards to Edward, to be extremely disappointing. I’m saying this from a perspective of someone who is Black, but also as an outsider to Māori culture. I wish people would put in a greater effort to do research before commenting on how they assume race and racism interacts with Ed. I also don’t feel anywhere close to an expert because again, I am not Māori or Polynesian, which is why I prefer to just keep my mouth shut and continue learning about things so I don’t write anything stupid in my fanfictions. So, take anything I say with a grain of salt where I’m continuing to try and educate myself as time goes on and encourage others to do the same. 

The vast majority of posts I see that talk about Ed and his cultural identity are made by people who are not Māori, but still speaks as an authority on it. I’m not saying you can’t talk about Ed and race if you’re not Māori, not at all, but people need to put in the work of researching cultures outside of their own instead of going off of vibes or assuming their own experiences will translate over. 

And this isn’t a personal attack on anyone or their meta, but something like assumptions on how Ed would conceptualize his biracial identity doesn’t necessarily copy over from other biracial groups (I’m biracial Black/white for what it’s worth) and you’re better off looking towards how many Indigenous cultures think of multiracial experiences. But Māori identity isn’t reliant on blood quantum and New Zealand never had a push to force its Indigenous population to prove their ancestry. Even when doing census taking in the early 1900′s the determination of whether someone was Māori or European was based off of the Māori idea of whakapapa which is a concept I don’t think I can do justice to explaining so here’s an article. But was largely based off of self-identification and connection to the culture. I’m severely over simplifying this, and this doesn’t mean there isn’t an inherent lack of cultural conflict for people of mixed Māori descent, but I’m just trying to express that racial identity differs globally, and if you’re going to talk about Ed’s experiences of being biracial, you need to contextualize it. 

Race in the 1700′s didn’t operate the same way it does now, and in general, race in modern day America is very simplified in comparison to other parts of the world because of our unique history. This isn’t to say it’s better or worst here or anywhere else, but that racial categories form differently depending on time and location. Looking at stuff about Ed especially is hard because, and I feel like I’m going insane every time fandom ignores this, there was next to no European contact with Polynesia in the early 1700′s. James Cook is still 50+ years out from his lil exploration trip! What this means in the show is... complicated which is why I assume they haven’t deep dived into Ed’s race/cultural identity because I’m pretty sure Blackbeard was originally written aracially (which essentially means he was written white,) Taika asked if he could be in the show, and Jenkins went “yeah sure there’s no reason why Blackbeard has to be white!” and they decided to not focus too heavily on Ed’s race in s1 and will probably only go further into the topic if they hire a Māori writer to give the topic the care and attention needed. This doesn’t mean Edward is white! He is still racialize as a poc! But for right now, it’s pretty safe to say in my opinion that they’re deemphasizing, not erasing, Ed’s race for s1 until they can take the time to craft a more in depth storyline. 

But I guess speed running some random misconceptions I see in fandom that again seems to be reliant on vibes and assumptions:

Donkey is not a slur against Polynesian people. I think misinfo comes from people seeing the term “moke” which means donkey and connecting this as a slur 

Moke is also not a slur against Polynesian people, for the record. It’s Pidgin Hawaiian and used by locals in the same joking manner one might say redneck. It’s not leveraged by white people against poc. 

Donkey is also not a slur against mixed people. You’re thinking of the word “mule” which is a combination of a donkey and horse and makes up the term mulatto. These are different animals. Mulatto is also specifically a slur against mixed Black people, not Polynesians. 

The drawing of Blackbeard in the book isn’t a racial caricature. Racial caricatures exaggerate specific ethnic features to perpetuate stereotypes and there are specific ways Māori caricatures look. The picture of Blackbeard we see The Kraken based on is actually a play off of the real life drawings of Blackbeard, probably updated to look more like Taika. 

There are specific traits used in caricatures of Māori people and specific stereotypes associated with them. You can see some more information about that here. Just because a picture of Ed is mean, doesn’t mean it’s a racial caricature specifically. That is its own thing. 

Also, Izzy didn’t buy Ed as a slave y’all sdkjbfjsd

The transatlantic slave trade didn’t work this way. I know this is going to sound stupid, but the enslavement of Native Americans was actually illegal. This didn’t mean that it didn’t happen (you can read more about this here) but it took a specific under the table form of using alternative language like indentured servitude. It’s true that Black pirates captured were sold back into slavery if captured instead of hanged, but there aren’t really? Many accounts of Native American/Indigenous pirates in general, so I wouldn’t make broad sweeping statements that this is true for them as well. Either way, the enslavement of Native Americans was largely of children and women in specific locations, and wasn’t fostered by the transatlantic slave trade. 

There is a specific history of enslavement of Polynesian people called blackbirding that involved mostly kidnapping and tricking people in South Pacific Islands and taking them to other locations, often Australia, as “indentured servants.” For the most part, the Māori weren’t impacted by this btw and this was largely in the 1800′s with questionable and shifting legality under British rule where it’s unlikely that the navy would have sanctioned this. Often, the navy were the ones holding court charging people accused of illegal slave trafficking (but also the navy fucking sucks, the rules would change, and people were rarely punished.) Again, this is the 1800′s though because, and I cannot emphasize this enough, the Māori were currently chilling in New Zealand in the early 1700′s because the last time someone tried to land their ship on land, they got chased the fuck out and nobody came back for 130 years. 

Either way, none of this would apply to Edward who is a British citizen (which we know since he joined the navy!) and can’t just be enslaved. Again, as stupid as it sounds, there were specifics rules to who could be enslaved where you can’t just point towards the nearest brown person and buy them from the navy. For Polynesia and a lot of Indigenous groups, the way the slave trade operated for them was much more similar to human trafficking of today where people were kidnapped and transported to far off foreign lands where they didn’t speak the language. This legit would just not happen to Ed and it’s not something likely to be done under official navy business. You can’t accidentally buy a slave it’s just not done. 

Basically, I just want people to do their research before making assumptions on what’s going on with Ed and his identity. I feel severely under informed on the nuances, so again, I simply just try and keep my mouth shut. For a lot of people on here who aren’t Māori or Polynesian, this is a whole new subject that we aren’t taught about in schools and isn’t often brought up in activist circles outside of the region. Please just remember to verify information, and to not assume your experiences translate over on a 1 to 1 basis because race is complicated and changing especially in the 1700s. 

[utilitycaster]

this is fully hitting the wasp's nest so if you don't post it, i get it but like...i wish more of fandom was open to interacting with the material as presented than forcing into their preferred narratives. I like imodna as a concept. I've been interested in it since c3e1 and I'm intrigued to see where it may or may not go. But I would absolutely rather read your takes after an episode than the imodna fans because you're not trying to force every character action so its fit a specific narrative

Hey anon!

I really appreciate this! I hope you don’t mind me using it as a jumping off point to talk about a lot of general fandom response thoughts that have been percolating for a while, but I do want to answer you specifically which is that I’m incredibly grateful you told me. I do this too! I like to follow people who have different favorite characters or ships but who are engaging thoughtfully with canon. I genuinely have a much, much better understanding of Veth, whom I always liked but often struggled to get, because over time I've followed a number of people for whom she was one of their favorites and who write good meta about her.

With that said, people can engage how they want! It’s entirely valid to interpret things through shipping goggles/only watch because you want two characters to kiss (and you can want them to kiss for no reason other than "it would be gay”), or to like or dislike characters based on surface details. It’s just that like…to me, meta based on canon, or talking about the narrative and themes is saying “this is what I see, and I’m explaining it to you in the hopes that you can understand what I see, even if you don’t see it the same way” and shipping goggle interpretations are, ultimately, preaching to the choir. Like, honestly, I was never terribly into it, but I gave Imodna a shot! It hasn’t delivered on anything that specifically interests me and I’m more invested in other relationships for them right now. I'm also still open to things happening in canon in the future that would change my mind. But I'm not personally interested in forcing them to be together at all costs. Honestly, even for things I really, really ship, I never feel that way, because in the end I'm more interested in watching a story.

This could be a whole treatise - honestly the starting point for a lot of these thoughts is that masters’ thesis on toxic fandom behaviors w/r/t shipping that went around - but I’ll keep it relatively short here and if anyone wants me to elaborate on anything here, they can ask.

Basically, as I said above, there are lots of different ways to engage with the text, and the vast majority are valid, but looking at the canon and writing about conclusions drawn from it, or even writing fic that is deeply based in canon and makes smart extrapolations from it, are a way to make your own feelings about the text accessible to others. Saying “I think Blorbo 1 and Blorbo 2 should kiss with tongue” is not. It’s just as genuine and valid to say! I take it in good faith that the speaker truly wants Blorbos 1 and 2 to kiss with tongue! But If I don’t already agree, it’s not going to convince me because it’s not an argument. And, to be honest, if that’s a really common fandom feeling, and I don’t particularly care for Blorbo 1 and Blorbo 2’s dynamic, I might write about the limitations I see in it from canon (on my own blog, to be clear, not as a reblog or anything obnoxious like that). And, if I do that, I don’t mind if someone looks at what I wrote, and says “anyway, I think Blorbo 1 and Blorbo 2 should kiss with tongue”, and continues along their way, and ignores or blocks me and finds like-minded people! I only mind if they start directly engaging with me with the intent of convincing me, without putting in the effort to provide arguments tailored specifically to me. And even then…does it matter if I don’t want Blorbo 1 and Blorbo 2 to kiss with tongue? I don’t have any more control over this happening or not happening in canon than you do.

I think there are two big reasons why discourse can get so fraught and vicious. The first is that  I think a lot of people who aren’t writing in terms of narrative, canon, and argument have very personal feelings about characters, which is good and valid! But they then see a dislike of that character as a dislike of them, which isn’t actually true, both because what makes a good character or interesting ship is not the same as what makes a good real-world person or healthy relationship (insert Anna Karenina line here); and because one person’s dislike of a character can be for different reasons than why someone else relates to the character (eg: the reasons I didn’t vibe with Molly were because he was often flaky and manipulative. If you relate to Molly but it’s because you’re genderfluid and do circus acrobatics and tarot readings, then our feelings are not in contradiction; we’re just responding to different things about him). I also think some people see a preference for one character over another, even if the person expressing the preference likes both characters, as an attack on their favorite. That, to be honest, is just really stupid and they should work through that.

The second, and this is where this does get more judgmental, is that I think that sometimes, people who are responding to surface things or relatability attempt to make arguments that inappropriately co-opt the language of social justice (not that it’s inappropriate to use social justice language when apt in fandom, but like…keep it systemic and about patterns), or which are inconsistent. To use an example, during Campaign 2, I remember receiving two different anons, one in which someone basically said “funny how Essek is granted the grace that Astrid never is; fandoms hate women”; and one in which someone said “funny how Astrid is granted the grace that Essek never is; fandoms hate characters of color”, and the real answer is that Astrid and Essek are very similar but do have key differences and if the criticisms of Astrid or Essek are rooted in misogyny or racism, respectively, then that’s worth pointing out, but I think it’s really unhealthy and unkind to assume people don’t like something because they’re bigoted (and indeed, this demonstrates a no-win situation with two characters each of whom is a member of an oppressed group, so that no matter whom people prefer you can always make this accusation, which means it’s meaningless without evidence.) And, if someone says in your inbox “well I don’t like Essek because he’s a wizard who is interested in power”, then it is valid to say “ok, well, then why are you arguing that I should like Astrid, a wizard who is interested in power?” because you’re pointing out the flaws in their argument. (sidebar: I, personally, like both Essek and Astrid. This is purely for illustrative purposes.)

Anyway I think the conclusion to be made is like, everyone may like what they like, but if it’s important to you that other people like what you like, you need to put in the work, and also, it’s worth examining why this is important to you...but it's that kind of thinking that makes people insist on certain narratives rather than just watching the show, because they are trying to prove themselves right rather than providing predictions and opinions, sitting back, and seeing if they come to pass.

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

My opinion on bnha 329:

You can check in here my opinion about chapter 328, if you want the context.

I'm glad Horikoshi solved many of the things I pointed out last week. And I'm glad that I'm correctly reading into the manga, at least at some extent.

Let's see what we got this week: (long post)

After a long building up of relating Spinner to common citizens, mutants, people with weaker quirks and in general, the audience or the general public, we finally see this being explicitly acknowledged. He's on the end of his arc now, because the people picked him as their voice.

The last point is really important because Spinner now has great power. This is a direct parallel to the way Uraraka took control of the megaphone and spoke for the heroes. Now, it's Spinner's turn to speak for the villains, but because people wants him to do so.

On another note, we got an amazing graphic parallel of Stain and Spinner. While Stain is in shadows, Spinner is bright. And unlike Stain, Spinner has been chosen by the public. He was not there to be a leader, but people recognize him as one. This is very interesting because it shows how much Spinner has grown and how he is his own character, with his own achievements.

We saw Dabi back in a forest. This is a direct parallel to the way he stopped being Touya and got to be Dabi. It's a graphic reminder that we're getting the end of his arc with the Todorokis. What is his last step? We know he has his own plans and we know he wants to make Endeavor suffer, so could he be on a solo mission to achieve his vengeful desires? In which forest is Dabi? Are we're going to get more flashbacks? Are we going to see him back at Sekoto Peak?

Please note that when they mention Toga, it's exactly the way Curious wanted it. Toga is in front of a black background. She's being inserted on a narrative by force and not by choice, because someone else is putting her there. Alternatively, the white background tells us Toga's arc is still lacking definition and scenario for its end. Her fate is yet to be defined.

There's A LOT to say about AFO. Please look how the League of Villains is broken. AFO is using them as puppets. When referring to Spinner, he talks about him like he's a "bodyguard", not an equal or a friend like Tomura used to do. AFO clearly doesn't care about them and he won't stop to consider what they want, unlike Tomura. He has his own things to do and anything else must be forgotten and put aside.

AFO is still hiding behind Tomura. Please note how Tomura is treated like any other nomu. AFO took the throne of the king (Tomura) and made Tomura into a war dog.

Now, I've written some meta before about how Tomura never had an own identity until he met the League. Kotaro denied Tomura being himself, so much that the hand of Kotaro was still making Tomura faceless long after Kotaro's dead.

After Kotaro, AFO took away Tenko Shimura and imposed a new identity: Shigaraki Tomura. Please note that Shigaraki is AFO username, which means that even back then AFO was planning on using Tomura as an extention of AFO himself. And by naming him Tomura he pressured the kid to never forget his anger and sadness, caused by the tragedy of his family. It was AFO who repressed further the kid, all the hands being a physical reminder of such act. The hands were covering his entire face and because Tomura was unable to touch, he was only able to listen, just like the nomus. That's why Tomura scratches his neck so much. He itches for having an own voice, an own personality, an own identity.

If you pay attention to the panels in bnha 329, you can see how Tomura is wearing both a suit that resembles AFO's clothes and a cloak that resembles the one AFO was using on the world where Deku could see the vestiges. Tomura even has the white hair like AFO now. His pose and clothes are a direct parallel to Deku, but in a way AFO is a parallel to OFA.

Tomura has been stripped away of everything that made him himself. He doesn't have the hands, he doesn't have his clothes, people calls him AFO now, he doesn't even have his friends around. He's alone, a weapon and nothing more. I wrote another meta about how Tomura had no identity analyzing a panel from bnha 328. This is the direct consequence of that.

But this is not a separate case. It is pretty normal, in fact. When a system fails, when an entire country dives on a crisis, it's normal for everyone to question their place in that society and their identities.

Deku had an identity crisis and his friends for UA needed to rescue him and reminded him who he was. Toshinori had a crisis and Stain needed to helped him with it. Uraraka questioned too her identity as a hero and from there her speech above UA was born. Endeavor got a crisis, Shoto got a crisis, Toga needs to decide as much as Spinner does who do they want to be, Dabi is facing his old identity and his new identity conflicts...

This is actually pretty good. The narrative around heroes and villains are being questioned.

Who am I and why am I that person?

Do I need to be that person?

What is my role in society? Why?

What are my goals and why? Are they worth all the consequences?

Do I like the identity of my society? If not, can I change it? Can I change all the things before?

Bnha inner universe is walking towards a redefinition. What is a hero, what is a villain, who are they, why they are heroes or villains, etc. These characters were forced into certain roles or they assumed they needed to play those roles, according to what society told them. And now, they are free to decide. Time and time again, in every journey of any hero, the problems of the identity and the self vs the others is vital, and it shows through the decision making system.

On a final note, I'm a little sad that Horikoshi made a female version of All Might to fight Tomura, instead of giving her a more original character design in general. Women in the bnha universe tend to be seen as replacements of previous existent characters, or they are used quickly to further the plot and get forgotten. They deserve a better treatment, being honest.

The kids will get there rest time, because not all the cards are on the table yet. I love that it's the turn of the villains to play, because the final result of the next battles are going to be partially determined by what the members of the League of Villains decide to do.

Spinner will probably betray AFO, because he's not loyal to AFO's ideals but to his own ideas.

Dabi has his own thing going and he's also going to get rescued by the Todorokis. I really want to see Hawks, Endeavor, Shoto and Dabi all in a same fight, because parallels are going to fly around and I bet we're going to found out more about Dabi's heart.

I think Toga is still going to interact with the UA kids and help them somehow. I hope she gets to talk to Deku and make some good friends.

And for Tomura... He needs someone to reach for him. He has lost himself. His determination is gone, the sparks in his eyes, his fire. He needs a reason to fight, a reason to believe. He needs someone to believe in him, someone to call out his name and make him exists. He needs someone to see him. He's the same lost boy who walked on the streets asking for someone to rescue him. He's the same kid that asked for someone to believe he could be a hero. If Deku gives him that, if All Might helps him too, if the League is there to show them their loyalty, Tomura will be able to snap out of AFO's control and break free.

Nothing like a good villain chapter to make me excited about the future chapters. Let's wait and see.

[kazumasdiary]

[ID: tags reading #I AM WEEPING #although if op doesn’t mind me ranting in tags myself #i don’t see sholmes as callous per se #probably because this feels like ace attorney’s brand of humor #not taking concepts waaaay to seriously and sometimes not talking about consequences that would be irl #like sure he can steal the last piece of pizza and maybe unintentionally accuse you of murder. but that’s just how quirky he is]

@phonopsyche​ honestly, i think you’re right! i have a habit of being somewhat unfair to sholmes, probably because, despite being on the record as someone who can and will forgive murder, i still haven’t quite forgiven him for lying about kazuma? which, to be clear, is very much a personal thing, and has nothing to do with anything in the actual story- i wrote this whole post in part to remind myself to give sholmes more credit than i do. i have biases and this is one place where they really show! just because i am particular about the "you let them grieve" thing doesn't mean that there's anything specifically highlighting that as important with regards to sholmes.

and then there's another question, when it comes to how sholmes interacts with people: it's clearly serving a meta purpose of comedic relief, but also, in the story, from a watsonian perspective, how much of this is sholmes putting on an act? because we do get hints that the whimsy is kind of deliberate, even if i missed them at the time- he has this moment in case 1-5 where in one of his grand deductions, he apparently reveals top-secret police information, and you get this conversation:

Sholmes: Hm, well... Hopefully this has taught you a valuable lesson. Sensitive information must be handled with the utmost of care. One can never be sure that someone privy to secrets won't disclose them. And once the word is out, it's out. 

Ryunosuke:...Perhaps I'll think twice before confiding in you next time, Mr Sholmes. 

Sholmes: An excellent idea, Mr Naruhodo. An excellent idea. Ah ha ha ha ha hah! 

and the whole thing is played off as a joke: ha ha, sholmes can't keep secrets and reveals critically sensitive information casually, isn't he so funny? except as we now know, this entire time sholmes was hiding the secret of kazuma actually being alive, not to mention anything he knew about the professor case, so his whole “ha ha i can't keep secrets” joke here feels like one hell of a misdirect, or something, because, no! he absolutely can!

i, think i've gotten sidetracked, but i can definitely say that the moments when he’s appeared to disregard the well-being of those around him stand out to me because of my own gut reaction, not necessarily because i think that the story highlights them. i don’t think sholmes was written to be deliberately cruel. and there's definitely more points to be made about how sholmes fits in with the general vibe and tone of the games! i do not particularly think i am qualified for that one- i'm still playing through said games and also there's definitely major things about sholmes i still don't know- but i’m certain somebody out there with more concrete and detailed thoughts on sholmes has made those points and made them well.

but, yeah- like you said! he’s just quirky like that!

(also, please rant in the tags, i write these posts specifically in the hope that someone will rant in the tags because it is always a delight.)

so, in 1-5, after you invite gina to dinner and she runs away, ryunosuke says,

"Once she's had a chance to calm down, I think there's a good chance she'll decide to come."

the thing is- gina is a pickpocket living on the streets of east end. most days, she probably doesn't know where her next meal is coming from. and i think ryunosuke realizes this, and that's how he gets to this conclusion- gina would need a really compelling reason to turn down free, guaranteed food.

and on that note, courtesy of my friends- don't think about how, in 2-4, gina says she saw gregson wind his watch at the pub every evening. don't think about how that means gregson took her to the pub every day, because even if he could not guarantee her stability in most areas of life he could at least guarantee that she was eating that day, if nothing else.

but the other thing is that, here, in 1-5, as far as we know, this is the second time sholmes has ever met gina. there's an argument to be made otherwise- gina's weirdly acquiescent to iris's insistence that she come along at the end of 1-3, which could imply they knew each other beforehand- but everything else seems to suggest that case 1-3 is the first time she and iris have ever met. so, when iris takes her back, that would be the first time gina and sholmes ever met, and this moment in the pawnshop marks the second.

which means that sholmes saw a young girl, who he knew to be a pickpocket and therefore likely an orphan, who he had met exactly once before, and before she walks away he makes sure to invite her to dinner.

and none of this is said out loud, because of course it's not. gina hates grown-ups. she says so herself. and that hatred is pretty justified- later, when you speak to her in the prison, she says

If you do wot the grown-ups tell ya, it'll get yer mates dragged off by the coppers. Or worse. I've 'ad it 'appen to me before an'all.

the kids in the east end have no one to look out for them. it's why mcgilded could threaten them so easily. every adult, every authority that should have protected gina has instead been used to hurt her.

so any insinuation that sholmes was trying to help her would have probably resulting in gina throwing something at him. and to be fair, most of the time, sholmes doesn't really try to be respectful or understanding- "a great detective is wont to lie" comes to mind, for one. but if he noticed this, too- if he realized that gina probably didn't know where or if she'd have food that night, and that she'd probably reject any offer of help if it was phrased that way- then this scene becomes one of the moments where he does choose to be tactful, in order to try and give someone what they might need.

(sholmes is, perhaps more aware of the people around him than he lets on, and it's a testament to how well his act is working that it took me until about halfway through case 2-4 to realize it. but that's not the point here.)

the thing is that society, as a whole, has failed gina in a lot of ways. it says something, that gina's stated goal at the end of 1-5 is to become the kind of adult that could protect kids like her- the kind of adult she never had.

but we do see a couple of instances where people choose to do better. they give her a chance, where she might not have gotten one otherwise. they go out of their way to make sure, just in case she hasn't eaten, that she is fed.

sometimes we see people get it right.

(as usual, thank you to @ifidogaysomyself for checking my claims.)

[mittensmorgul]

For anyone interested in long-term residence in the supernatural fandom, please have some observations I’ve made over the decade I’ve been here. Take it or leave it as you will, but I’ve found all of this info useful over the years I’ve been here.

I wrote this yesterday, and it achieved its mission of identifying the sort of folks who would react negatively to it (i.e. a lot of block lists have been updated), so now that it’s been edited for content, it’s going under a cut (because that is how we do things on tumblr in general, unless we have a deliberate purpose for annoying readers with excessively long text posts) for the sake of people who actually do care about the fandom and its history. If that’s not you or your reason for being here, then keep on keeping on with your own thing, I guess. For those who are interested, there’s a lot of fandom resources some of us have been building for years that you might enjoy knowing about.

First off, I’ve been informed by a few friends who’ve read through this for coherency’s sake that it sort of reads like a *shakes cane from porch* fandom grandma complaint, but honestly... I earned this rocking chair and goshdangit imma rock now. So apologies for any “back in my day” vibes or faint aroma of tiger balm this post might give off. Then again, it’s loosely based on a similar post from 2012 so like... time is a flat circle anyway I guess.

1. There is no such thing as “tumblr famous,” unless you’re referring to the hilarious and delightful fic of the same name (please go read it, you will cackle). Posting Hot Takes for imaginary Clout™ on this site is kind of pointless in the long run. Sure you can post solely for the sake of stirring shit and getting notes, but the majority of the folks who do aren’t long term residents of the fandom. They’re just tourists moving through our little beach town for spring break. If you’re actually intent on moving to this corner of the fandom for an extended stay, please bother to really feel out the permanent residents and understand the culture and general mood of the neighborhood. It bears no resemblance to whatever’s going on across town where all the bars and beach parities are happening, and those loud, drunken revelers are, again, gonna disappear back to their regular lives or on to the next party eventually. That doesn’t mean the fandom is dying, it’s just evolving.

(funny how I had several comments implying that I’m just trying to keep the fandom from evolving with this post, because I sincerely do want the fandom to continue on for years to come, and that is impossible without evolution. We can evolve without self-immolating, though. mostly i included point 1 for an excuse to push ancient but hilarious fanfic on you.)

2. Once you post something here, it’s been unleashed to the fandom winds. You never know where it will end up, or who will comment on it or add to it. Remember that time Misha tweeted the link to the Epic Cockles Love Story post? No? It was wild. That was 2012. They all know we’re here, and how to find us if they want to. Please don’t take it to their doorsteps.

Obviously if someone is being a dick on your posts, please feel free to block them, but the whole entire point of this site is to engage people with your posts. Being big mad that someone reblogged your post with comments or supporting evidence, or happy headcanons or “HECK THIS IS GREAT BECAUSE (insert personal story about their experience or whatever else made them Feel Things about your post)” is frankly ridiculous. If your goal is to avoid any sort of engagement with your posts, then maybe try instagram instead. From what I understand, there is a SPN fandom presence there, and nobody can tarnish your original posts with unwanted commentary. But the ability to reblog with additional commentary is a FEATURE of tumblr that builds community through conversation. Otherwise we’re all just talking to ourselves in a vacuum, and that’s what actually kills fandoms.

(and for the folks who just want to blog how they want to blog and don’t want people to engage on their posts at all, please feel free to block anyone you want, as well... nobody wants to step on your toes, but most of us also don’t want to walk on eggshells wondering if this post is one of the “do not add comments for any reason” sorts of posts, either. This is a huge fandom and most people can’t even begin to keep track of every creator and their url du jour, and what their personal rules might be regarding interaction with their content. Including a “please don’t add comments” note at the bottom of your posts-- and not in your tags that won’t even show up on reblogs, but in the actual body of the post-- would sincerely help avoid any awkward or unwanted interactions, too. At the end of the day, you are in control of your own fandom experience and the block button exists.

For the record, I block zero fandom blogs (which is why I posted this, I wanted it to reach a wide scope... refer to the opening paragraphs as to why).

3. Since this post was partly inspired by a tag I left on that post going around about how “previous tags” mean fuckall on this site (which you can read here), just a reminder that if you like someone’s tags or feel they add value to the post, part of the Peer Review structure of tumblr encourages you to PASTE THEM INTO A REBLOG. If you do this, then at least credit the person who actually wrote the tags! Don’t just copy someone else’s tags into your tags on your reblog of the post without credit either. They were not YOUR tags. (I have had this happen to tag rambles I wrote and someone else got credited with them on a subsequent reblog and it is FRUSTRATING). Just... don’t even bother to write “previous tags” because WHAT PREVIOUS TAGS?! Nobody is gonna bother to chase back the chain of reblogs trying to find where the mystery tags came from, friendos. That way lies madness.

(for the record, since some folks seemed to focus on this point solely, writing “previous tags” on a post isn’t inherently a BAD thing, but for anyone who actually is here for more than one-off shitposting, then it’s sort of a pointless thing in the long run. This wasn’t intended to suggest people who ARE here for one-off shitposting are bad or “doing it wrong,” but for people who might actually want to preserve that hilarious joke or insightful comment. People delete posts and entire blogs all the time around here. Links break. I get that the upcoming generation just shrugs at that and moves on with their lives, but heck... you don’t have to accept that all entertainment is disposable if you don’t want to. There’s a bizarre sort of nihilism plaguing us all about the impermanence of pretty much everything that feels like something we should be fighting against rather than buying into wholesale, even in our escapist entertainment. I’m just exhausted by the complete loss of joy in community.

*shouts from the peanut gallery* IT AIN’T THAT DEEP, JUST GET SOME FRESH AIR AND LOOK AT A PUPPY OR SOMETHING

Yes... yes it isn’t really that deep, but bigger picture in the state of reality we’re all entirely disillusioned with, are we supposed to just give up on everything, including the things we cling to because they bring us a tiny spark of hope that we’re not all just trapped in this dystopian nightmare and things might actually be worth living for?

*peanut gallery clinging to burnt husks of peanuts in a barren peanut field* but this is how we have chosen to cope

Okay... you do you... I feel bad for you but if that’s the case then this post is NOT FOR YOU. AND THAT’S FINE. I honestly do not care if you don’t care! I mean, I’m sorry anyone has to live in a world that drives them to that mindset, but I understand. This post is for anyone who might look at their lives and their choices and think “no wait, I unironically enjoy this and want more from the experience of that enjoyment than I’m currently feeling.” Everyone else can continue with their lives as usual.)

4. CONTENT THEFT IS NEVER OKAY. PERIOD. Things like “credit to the artist” or tagging gifs or images you found on pinterest as “not mine” isn’t actually credit. If you can’t source an image or gif set, DO NOT POST IT! We don’t REPOST (i.e. save an image and then create a new post with it as if it was our own creation). We REBLOG (click the little square arrows and reblog from the actual creator). That goes for gif sets, fanvids, screencaps, meta, fic... everything.

(hopefully everyone here already understands this one, but I felt compelled to include some “these are stupidly obvious” reminders anyway, since this is ostensibly some sort of advice column. This is the equivalent of the warning label on your toaster reminding you not to use it in the bath. Like... duh...)

5. Close kin of item 4 is SOURCE YOUR SHIT. 

(for 100% disclosure purposes, I specifically discussed this one in this specific way because of an influx of anon ask messages I received in the wake of the finale. Literally the inciting incident for creating this entire post was what I can only assume was a joking ask about a comment Misha made at a con years ago. Someone actually bothered to take the time to type out those sentences to me. I have no idea what they were expecting in reply, or what could possibly motivate them to send this comment about something so entirely random from, again, several years ago. Just a joke? No idea, but whatever... it got me thinking that there might actually be people who are new to the fandom who MIGHT actually care about the fandom history, and maybe they just don’t know where to go for that info, or how to even begin searching through 16 years of history for things they might actually find enjoyment in, rather than just hauling random out of context garbage out on main and pointing and laughing about it now. People are actually allowed to care about things. It’s not cringeworthy to actually care about things, and you are not alone in actually caring, and there’s this whole big room over here full of people who are thrilled to share in that with you. This post is intended FOR THOSE PEOPLE SPECIFICALLY, so if that is not you, please just continue walking by.)

Yes, I know lots of y’all are new around here right now, but dredging up stuff from years ago that fandom has completely debunked and presenting it as TRU FAX again is just exhausting. We’re not trying to be party poopers, but seriously, we have seen it all and are mostly done with extinguishing bags of flaming dog poop on our front porches for the umpteenth year in a row. I’ve seen a lot of posts that have the same tone as “I saw Goody Proctor dancing with the devil” or “I heard kylo ren has an eight pack” and just... the information is there for anyone who cares enough to find it.

This goes double for “why is nobody talking about this thing I just discovered while watching the show for the first time?!” And, oh hon, we have talked it all into the ground over the last fifteen years. We’re happy you’re discovering it again, but I promise we talked about it plenty when the episodes originally aired. We have such a rich meta history that lots of us have worked really hard to preserve. I encourage you to seek it out, if nothing else than as historical artifacts. The way we have discussed the show has been a 16-year evolution. People have written literal doctoral dissertations on this show. Your shitposts are fun! We love reliving our own experience through fresh eyes, and seeing your wonder at experiencing it all again for the first time! But y’all didn’t invent this fandom in the last six months, either.

Meta Sources and Minerals provided by our friendly neighborhood fandom archivist, @lets-steal-an-archive

Academic books and articles about SPN 

A collection of Meta Essays going back to s1 and organized by topic (all of this has happened before, all of it will happen again)

SPN Heavy Meta Archive (s1-3)

Mel’s Dreamwidth archive of meta (s1-12)

Oranges8hands Dreamwidth archive of meta (s1-15, with many similar entries to Mel’s... though ymmv on viewpoint in a lot of these too)

Anyone remember Fandom Wank? Not the concept but the actual LJ... No? Okay have a link to SPN topics that ended up there. Through 2013. We have seen so much... including several fandom containment breaches.

for all your art sourcing needs, please see @theroadsofararchive, the repository for so much fandom art.

need to find a gif of something? canonspngifs is a vast repository of gifsets of the entire series. If the gif you want to use in your post happens to be the first gif in the gifset, in the tumblr gif finder thingy just paste the permalink to that post from canonspngifs (which is easily searchable by episode, character, location, situation, quotes, and sometimes even color and clothing items the actors are wearing... it’s really well organized, especially for tumblr >.>) and the first gif will be automatically linked with credit to the gif creator attached. It makes life easy that way. It’s also convenient when trying to remember something specific but can’t remember what episode it’s from. I’ve used the site to jog my memory before going to the superwiki armed with more specific search results to find episode quotes and references. Or sometimes I just scroll through all the nice gifs for fun, too.

Need a screencap of something and know exactly which episode it’s from? Try Home of the Nutty. You might not find the exact screencap you’re looking for, but they have a complete set of caps of every episode, and it’s an incredibly useful resource for quick reference checks and the like. Just give pages a chance to fully load before clicking on the next one. The site is easily overloaded, but it’s still free to use (and again, with credit... Pretty much every screencap on my entire blog is from HotN unless otherwise credited).

As you can see, this is a fandom built on preserving our history. You absolutely are not required to engage with any of this if that’s not of interest to you, but I can only assume that there are people who would be interested in it if only they knew it existed and how to find it. Well, now they do.

6. A few more notes on tags, and how they work on tumblr. The first 20 tags on your ORIGINAL posts are searchable sitewide, so if you want to be able to find something again, tag that thing first before going on general tag rambles. The only place tags on reblogs are searchable is on your own blog. So you don’t have to put 50 tags trying to get a post seen if it’s a reblog. You’re just spitting into the wind at that point. If you have a filing system for finding things again, then by all means add those tags (again, in the first 20, so they’re searchable), but you don’t need to tag a reblog “destiel” and “deancas” and “dean” and “cas” and “dean x cas” or whatever. Pick one for your personal blog’s filing system, that’s all you need.

(this was only added because tagging and searching on this site is so very broken... I get that a lot of folks don’t care about ever searching their own blogs again for anything, so this one only really applies if you do often find yourself trying to find old posts. If not, then it’s not really relevant.  It took me years to work out a decent tagging system, and at the beginning of my time here I never thought I’d end up camping out here for a decade and falling this deep into the fandom, and I regretted my lack of consistent tags only years later when I realized I actually wanted to be able to go back and find specific old posts again. So... for anyone who wants to err on the side of caution, working out a sensible tagging system really helps if you’re here for the long term. I personally tag content by episode, because some of my other general tags are so large as to be practically useless as a search term. But whatever system you choose to file stuff on your own blog, it really only has to make sense to you. And again, if this is pointless advice for someone who has no intention of settling here for the long term. Please feel free to ignore it. I just wish someone had explained it this way to me ten years ago and saved me the hassle of retroactively tagging something like 30k posts... especially now that using the mass tag replacer is the fastest way to get your entire blog deleted... oops? so yeah, don’t use the mass tag replacer either >.>)

7. Tags on Tumblr DO NOT WORK LIKE TAGS ON TWITTER. If you @ someone in the body of the post, it will show up in their notifications (if they’re the sort of person who even checks their notifications... not all of us do. For the record, I generally don’t...), but putting actor or ship names in the tags on a tumblr post does absolutely nothing. It’s not the same as tagging the actor’s twitter account in a tweet. Nobody’s getting notifications about you tagging a post about Jensen here as “Jensen Ackles.” There is a difference. Please learn it. (and don’t take headcanons and ESPECIALLY RPF or otherwise explicit art or fic from tumblr to twitter and tag the actors in it. That’s just... not okay.)

(I have seen the pearl clutchers getting all in a huff about the mere existence of RPF or even explicit content of fictional characters if it doesn’t meet their purity standards, but tagging those things allows people who don’t want to see it to actively avoid that content here. Nobody has a right to tell people their fictional content shouldn’t exist at all, or that creators of that fictional content somehow deserve harassment or threats for having dared to create such “immoral” content, won’t somebody PLEASE think of the children... and no... you do not do that here. Don’t be the problematic behavior you wish to ban from the world. Learn to use tags to protect yourself from, as i have attempted to emphasize here, fictional content you are personally upset by. That’s a you problem, not a problem for the creators of potentially upsetting content that they tag appropriately for.)

8. General formatting stuff: If you’re writing long text posts, visually break them up so people aren’t faced with one long wall of text. The enter key is your friend. Also, if you put long text posts under a Read More break and send people to your blog to finish reading, please ensure that your blog is actually visually accessible (tiny text, or light grey text on a dark grey background, or a visually busy background might be aesthetically pleasing to you but nobody can actually read it. Loads of folks won’t even try. Which is great if you don’t actually care whether people are able to appreciate your content or not, but something to at least consider if you *do* actively want to encourage engagement with your work. Confirm how your blog looks on both mobile and desktop and make sure it’s actually functional in both, too).

And since I mentioned that most of my experience on fandom tumblr has been in the SPN fandom, here’s a bit of a reminder for folks who are new around here. With the reminder that I have been here more than a decade and still feel like a newbie myself sometimes...

This is an OLD FANDOM. There are many, many people who have been at this longer than some of you have been alive. The average age for creators in this fandom is older than you think (I think of my friends in their 30′s as young’ins okay? okay). With that understood, you are responsible for the content you consume and are exposed to. Curate your experience. Ship and let ship. YKINMKATOK. Don’t deliberately expose yourself to content you find upsetting for whatever reason. Tags and warnings are your friends, not targets for you to attack in some sort of purity war. People will ship things you do not like (or in specific ways you do not like), will say things you do not agree with, and will find their happiness in things you abhor. That is not your concern. Find what you do like, and support and engage with it, and ignore (or block, or unfollow) the rest. Tumblr has a feature that lets you blacklist tags so the content you’re trying to avoid won’t appear on your dash.

Remember the paradox of tolerance.

It is not your job in fandom to police how other people enjoy the fandom. It’s not *my* job to police how *you* enjoy the fandom, UNLESS your enjoyment is in actively harming other real human beings in the fandom. If you don’t like their take on the character or the show or the plotlines or their ships or anything else, you don’t need to engage with their posts at all! The necessary corollary to this is that clarifying misunderstandings or correcting factual misinformation is not “policing.” 

(this is where the peanut gallery reminds me it ain’t that deep, and I plead with them to put down the social media and find just one (1) thing to actually believe in in this godforsaken life, find something other than disdain and cynicism and spite to live for. If those things motivate you to find a larger cause for yourself, then great, use them to your advantage, but use them to find something that makes you a better person or brings you a modicum of joy and connection to your fellow human beings despite living in a dystopian hellscape of a world)

I have seen a lot of posts lately that are founded on the sort of authority that comes with “I watched through tumblr for a few months and then watched the last three episodes of the series” and as such are just... missing the larger context of the entire show, and are unfounded entirely in canon. I 100% appreciate the new enthusiasm for the fandom that we’ve been living in here for years, and it’s wonderful to see new people enjoying the thing we love. Your headcanons are valid, you are valid, but recognize that your headcanons aren’t canon. All of us finale denialists have accepted this in some measure, so we feel you. We truly, truly feel you. But regarding actual canon, we have a resource for that: the Superwiki. Learn it, live it, love it, as Metatron would say.

(which you could discover he said in 10.17 Inside Man, thanks to the superwiki! accept no substitutes!)

(and again, there have been people who have been involved in fandom for years who haven’t engaged with canon in years, either! You can play in this universe however you choose, BUT FOR PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT CANON AT ALL, WHICH I AM AGAIN POINTEDLY SAYING MIGHT NOT BE YOU, READER, AND I’M NOT SUGGESTING YOU ARE WRONG FOR NOT WANTING TO ACTUALLY ENGAGE WITH CANON, but if you DO want to engage with canon, please have some useful resources. Why do people feel personally attacked by being presented a list of helpful resources? Absolutely baffling.)

(also: words have definitions. “Canon” is a specific thing, meaning in this case “the finished media product that aired on television.” Anything beyond those limits is secondary canon (think: john’s journal, which is not canon but canon adjacent at best...), word of god (i.e stuff said by the writers and showrunners), or headcanon (which includes actor commentary-- they may have helped create the show with their acting choices and whatever, but they are not in control of the story overall). If there’s something you dislike about actual canon, you can reject it and supplement it with your own theories or preferred outcomes-- that’s basically what fanfic is-- but that doesn’t make your theories canon (much to all our dismay, that’s just not how any of this works. This is not to invalidate how anyone engages with the show or the fandom, just trying to clarify what seems to have been a source of unintentional misunderstandings. Your theories do not have to be “canon” to be legitimate interpretations.)

***I am setting this section apart, and did make a separate post of just this following information, because this is where we go from being relatively chill about different parts of fandom choosing to interact in different ways and you do you and blog however you want, to “hey can everybody please understand that the way you are interacting with this specific material might be harmful for specific legal reasons, and stating that you do not care about the consequences of your actions does actively make you the asshole here...” Okay, now that we have that understood:

The spnscripthunt collective has been steadily acquiring new scripts (which are posted in full on the superwiki for everyone to enjoy, for free). The language around how some folks are talking about these scripts is... concerning. For very real legal reasons, actually, and not because we’re feeling precious about the collection and don’t wike it when meanies use them in shitposts.

-First off, these scripts are not “leaks.” They are all verified and legally purchased (or gifted, in some cases, but still acquired entirely above board. we didn’t whack anyone over the head in a back alley for these scripts, or swipe them out of someone’s trailer on set).

(in case anyone was unaware, these scripts are the copywritten protected property of Warner Brothers. So yes, how we use them and share them with the fandom could have legal repercussions. We present them as a collected resource of fandom history which SHOULD fall under Fair Use doctrine, but this is untested legal water. Insinuating that the scripts are somehow not entirely legally obtained, or that posting them for public access involved less than 100% transparent and entirely legal transactions is incredibly concerning.

Once again for the peanut gallery, if you don’t care about any of that and are just having a good time with it, at least be mindful of the work and expense a large group of people have gone through to acquire and present the content you’re all too eager to exploit for cheap thrills. Some of us do actually care and are not exactly comfortable with the fact that others don’t seem to care about burning it all to the ground. We can’t force you to listen or behave as we’d hope you might, but at least be aware of the potential consequences of your actions. All we’re asking is for you to not be the douchebag who sets the whole neighborhood on fire with your illegal fireworks display. Is that too much to ask for? more on that in a second, first... a psa)

-If you see a script for sale and are unsure if it’s legit (or believe it might already be freely available in our collection), please feel free to ask us for advice. Our goal is to make as much of our fandom history available to the entire fandom, and we absolutely do not want anyone shelling out money for stuff you can already find for free.

(seriously, we’ve seen a bunch of resellers cropping up selling printed versions of the scripts we bought and uploaded for everyone to enjoy free of charge, or scripts that are otherwise of dubious origin. We’ve been at this for years now and know what’s actually out there. We don’t want anyone to fall for a scam if we can help it)

-Also, the usual reminder that the scripts we acquire ARE NOT NECESSARILY THE FINAL SHOOTING DRAFTS. In fact, the majority of scripts in our collection are NOT. Changes are made daily to scripts, even during filming. Comparing a Production Draft (white pages, effectively the first “final draft” of what usually becomes a series of drafts before filming wraps) to a much later revision (say... green or goldenrod revisions, several of which we DO have in our collection for comparison) and how those earlier drafts often differ wildly from the aired version versus how similar a much later green draft is to the aired version, for example, can teach you a lot about the television writing process. The link above to the superwiki scripts page has a nice little explainer about how this process works.

Differences between our posted scripts (many of which are white drafts, aka FIRST complete drafts, which will likely go through multiple rounds of revisions before filming even begins) and the aired version of the show are not all “acting choices” or a director or editor just cutting whole scenes on a whim. It’s insulting to everyone involved in production to suggest that’s the case.

(and yeah, fine... whatever, make any sort of posts you like regarding how those changes came about, but at the very least understand that it’s not actually the truth about how any of this works. Don’t care that that’s not the truth and want to make the posts anyway because shitposting is fun and that’s the extent of your sense of humor? FINE! You’re entitled to do that! But at least you DO know the truth now, and hopefully so do the people who engage with your posts. Deliberate ignorance isn’t cute, smooth lions notwithstanding)

There’s probably a whole other post to be made on fandom tagging etiquette, but again I don’t really use the tags enough to know what’s going on with that whole situation. I’ve also probably left a lot of stuff out, so please feel free to add things I’ve overlooked.

Thanks also to @trisscar368 and @thayerkerbasy for help compiling this, too. They were kind enough to escort me through the park to feed these pigeons. Now I need to take them out for ice cream. :’D

So I guess welcome to the neighborhood. Make yourself at home, but like... try not to trash the place while you’re here. Some of us live here by choice, lol.

[matan4il]

Hello,

I don't have an ask or anything like that. I just read in one of your answer that you've less and less reactions (reblog, notes, etc.) on your posts and that kind of sadden you I guess ?

So I just want to thank you, since I never did or maybe just one time. Thank you for allowing me to see things from another perspective, to go deep into the minds, hopes and clues of the writers, producers, actors and fans.

Thank you for your time, energy and love that's you share with us. Know that's it's appreciate, even from people too introverted to tell you (and who's not as good when it come to talk/write in english instead of simply read it).

Mille merci et prenez soin de vous ^_^

Oh, my darling! I can’t say thank you enough, your ask made me so emotional!

Yes, there have been less and less reblogs. Less and less notes. You can see it too, if you look for example at the 601 meta vs my most recent 608 meta. TBH, I don’t expect all meta posts to get the same amount of notes. Especially when there’s a week with less Buddie content, I expect less engagement (though it’s ironic, because to me, those are the moments when we could use a Buddie boost more than ever), but when the meta for an ep in which Buddie did have interactions (example: 607) gets less notes than the meta for an ep in which they didn’t (example: 512), it starts feeling like maybe people aren’t that interested in my meta anymore? Which is okay, sometimes people reach the point of “I got the general idea” and move on. If that’s the case, if we do get to where I feel like I’m essentially screaming to myself when I post my meta, I wanna hope I’ll have the strength to take it with grace, be thankful for the good moments and treasure every bit of joy I did bring people before it was time for me to stop. If we get there, I’d like not to be sad about that, but instead be appreciative of what I have had. I'm not at that point yet, because there are still lovely people out there who tell me in the tags every week how much they do enjoy my weekly meta posts. As long as they’re still around, as long as I’m still enhancing their viewership experience, I’ll keep doing my best for y’all!

Maybe I should add a clarification that none of this is out of some obsession for notes. A gifset for a specific meaningful moment or an interesting parallel will always get more notes than a meta post covering several parallels. Yet, I’d like to believe that, for example, the 604 meta post that included a paragraph about the moment from that ep which I giffed here has worth in itself, on top of what you get if you only see the gif. That it’s worth it, losing sleep in order to stay up and write meta right after watching the ep live so it will get posted for everyone who enjoys the meta as early as possible, because it does give people something unique.

So yes, please know how meaningful your words are to me. Thank you so much, your kindness is just above and beyond! It’s my pleasure and joy if you got to enjoy the show more thanks to reading my posts. I’d like to add that I also appreciate it that much more, knowing you’re an introvert (I am as well! I feel you so much, hon! *hugs*) and what it must have taken to send even just this ask. You’re stellar! Merci a vous, ma cherie! Vous m'avez rendu si heureuse! I seriously don’t know how to express that enough, so I hope doing my best to express my gratitude, joy and appreciation of you in your own language helps to show you how meaningful this is to me! *sends endless love* xoxox

(and as always, if anyone’s looking for it, here is my ask tag! xoxox)