#i really am fundamentally still engaged with this fandom

[thatswhatsushesaid]

psa that the day there are no jgy stans left on tumblr dot com is the day i am dead

but rest assured i'll go to my grave exactly as i lived: obnoxiously proclaiming to everyone within earshot how great lianfang-zun is. narratively, metaphorically, spiritually. sexually, too, like why limit myself. i like to keep my options open

[whumptober]

I don’t really want to participate anymore if y’all are run by a bunch of terfs, putting Harry Potter on my dash

Anon that is a very harmful and hurtful assumption to make.

Especially since I am trans myself.

I apologise that you feel that way, but as far as I am aware only one HP themed work has been reblogged to the archive blog.

While I fundamentally disagree with and dislike JK Rowling due to her blatant and harmful transphobia, I cannot deny the impact Harry Potter has had on many people. While I have had to continue to do my job with a straight face as people debate my rights in front of me, I understand It is possible to appreciate the art while having a strong dislike for the artist. While I have experienced transphobia first hand, and have fought for medical care, I can respect that others still enjoy what I do not like.

I think this sentiment is best worded in Daniel Radcliffe's Letter in response to JK.

I do not personally purchase anything that may provide JK with any revenue, as far as I am aware fanfiction does not financially benefit her.

I am never going to defend or support JK Rowling, but I am not in the business of ostracising those who still engage with the fandom, as everyone has their own reasons.

We are not here to police what people want to create. We provide the prompts list, and encourage everyone to tag their works accordingly. If you do not wish to see Harry Potter works, you can filter the tags.

This is the first and last time I will respond to this, as I am appalled at being labelled something I am not, nor will ever be.

[emblemxeno]

Hot Take Time!

I think the breakthrough revelation that the Sonic fanbase had about the series' reception during the 2010's, where full-force sincerity in its stories was mocked for being cringe and willingness to stand out in both a gameplay and artistic sense resulted in beloved games being panned retroactively, can be easily applied to FE Engage.

Engage is the most fucking sincere plot the series has had in over a decade. Yes, despite being the guy whose fav FE game is Fates, I think that game was still bogged down by the prospect of following up the blowout success of a game like Awakening and had too many instances of putting in a lot of ideas to see what worked rather than putting the full weight behind a select few core elements.

SoV had the baggage of being a remake while still needing a modern appeal, and ended up with a lot of contradictory aspects. And 3H doesn't know what it wants to be and never did from the ground up.

Engage is different. It wanted to be a grand celebration of 30 years of this great series. It wanted pizazz. It wanted spectacle. It wanted to say "we fucking love this series and we love the fans who supported us."

The characters are flashy and striking to make you remember them. The music is bombastic, with a wide variety of styles so anyone can find a favorite track. The presentation is beautiful, with great visuals and phenomenal sound design. New uber powerful mechanics balanced out by incredible map design, supberb flow, and responsive game feel.

But the sincerity shines brightest with its narrative. The core messages are well written!

Sometimes knowing when to retreat is better than foolhardy bravery. It's always worth considering someone's background and feelings before casting them away. There's never a single easy solution to your problems, and if you think there is, you'll end up repeating the same mistakes. You can find family with anyone, and are not bound solely by those who you're born to. To live authentically as yourself is beautiful and should be celebrated.

The game believes all of those things to a degree which really hasn't been seen since the series was on the brink of death.

But that sincerity was treated as unpalatable, cringe, and plain awful.

The fandom for a series that routinely and infamously has terrible armor designs now suddenly throws a fit because "flower girl has silly dress" or "these characters have face paint/tattoos."

The single laziest form of criticism for FE casts that has permeated the community since Awakening released, that being "the cast is one note tropes that have no personality or development outside of them", came back in full fucking force with Engage.

And it's pretty damn sad. In my opinion, sincerity shouldn't be mocked. Sometimes, you should take a minute and ask yourself "Is it bad, or is it just not my thing? Am I writing off an entire cast's writing because I don't like some character designs? Do I have personal preferences that aren't being met in this instance, and should I learn to grapple with saying that instead of just writing off the product as fundamentally terrible or, at best, half-assed?"

At some point, looking inward and considering community wide commonalities has to be recognized as a factor for why products are received the way they are, rather than just laying blame at the devs' feet for "not making a good product that people wanted." After all, word of mouth is the reason why FE even got this far, considering FE1 was effectively a sleeper hit because people who played it spread the word despite mixed reviews.

TL-DR, Engage isn't cringe, YOU ARE!!!

[utilitycaster]

A couple things before I do this as I said I would here

I’ve decided it’s more effective in the long term to bring up a handful of people than everyone who’s ever been obnoxious, mostly to maintain ongoing leverage, ie, maybe if people leave me alone they can get away with their lower-key shitty behavior, and if people don’t, then they won’t.

Do not harass nor send hate to the people I've mentioned; take the high ground. Blocking, vagueing and openly going “what the fuck is wrong with that guy (gn)” however is chill, but I won’t be taking anons personally that are pile-ons on these people because that is not the point of this exercise.

Similarly I just delete anon hate or post it if I have a funny enough response for it but it won’t elicit this kind of thing for various reasons I don’t care to get into right now.

If my good opinion is important to you, really, the quickest way to lose it is to treat me expressing my own opinions on my blog as a personal attack on you. I wasn’t specifically judging you until you decided I was; now, I will ruin your day or week and I won’t feel sorry.

Now, I’m going to be honest. The reason I haven’t done this earlier despite the shit I and many others have waded through all campaign is that the vast majority of people who engage in harassment, hate, or “how dare you exist and have opinions that aren’t mine, don’t you know the world revolves around me” will then immediately make a post like this, such as the loser who led to this: (rest below the cut)

source

To be clear I do hope they get whatever presumably important medical procedure this is and I too am in opposition to transphobia on an active political level, however, if you take your own shit out on me, a random woman on the internet, I will continue to fight for what I believe to be your fundamental human rights like gender expression and healthcare but there is no right you have that prevents me from calling you a stupid thin-skinned loser and that I feel sorry for anyone who has the misfortune to love you as I suspect you’re incapable of truly returning it, and also your blorbo still sucks. This has been: if you attempt to treat me even slightly like your punching bag, I punch back.

With that in mind let’s go to the people I’m talking about today. If you're not into this, skip the cut.

I think it goes without saying that warrior/inrecovery was an embarrassing blight on this fandom and imo/dna shippers’ steadfast laxity in taking out the trash is yet another reason why this ship ain’t it chief. I’m posting all of the aliases under which they attacked me and others, but they flamed out during the Laudna addiction metaphor and hopefully got help, though as you can see their blog for the past like, decade, is them attacking people over femslash ships, so idk if it’s gonna stick, pals. Anyway, they have a distinctive style so hopefully if they ever rear their ugly head again I’ll be able to get and post an IP address. I did have some suspicions about Tulsa OK but they are not sufficiently founded. Anyway: you can also find them under tlb/wc (they use that one to make death threats); thatguy/10592; clearcowboy/angel; screechingalpha/nightmare; and holysoul/enthusiast, all of which are still up and have the evidence as of posting

Honorable mention to the person who called me a hypocrite for checks notes liking callowmoore more than Imo/dna (series of asks from November 11th, 2023 in which they harassed not just me but many people who had simply interacted with my posts). I have my suspicions as to who it was [noted tar pit from Westphalia, Germany absintheheartbeat, who I also think sent this Dorym ask] but as I have no proof that’s really all there is. While we’re talking about generic tar pits disconnectedkat is a discourse blog that is just generally a piece of shit and is one of those people who clutches pearls about HOW DARE YOU TRY TO WIN AT FANDOM WITH LEFTIST CAUSES ignoring the big elephant in the room of “countless C3 fans lecturing incompetently about this being a revolutionary anticolonialist narrative and how we’re just status quo loving conservatives and then crying when we point out that they are being shitty in real life.” If you are one of those people reading this and finding yourself getting huffy, do take a look at the people mentioned throughout this and ask yourself: are you okay with them? Because if so, then your issue isn’t “it’s mean to call people stupid and attack them on a moral basis”; your issue is “it’s mean to call me stupid”, and you are part of the problem, and, moreover, I am in your walls.

Theshepardshuffle deactivated but I do want to point them out here just to note that I have in fact suffered more than Job and been more steadfast than any US Marine at the hands of imo/dna shippers for the sin of saying “this ship isn’t very good.” I’d also want to point out that they are why I started checking on people I’ve blocked. See, this is a side blog, so if you block me I cannot interact with you, but I can still see you, and our buddy shep joined tumblr, blocked me, and then posted discourse about me constantly not realizing I could literally see it (and to be clear. I know people I have blocked can see this. I hope they do.)

Anyway, the main event: let’s talk about noted racist idiot hecate astralley/wright (main blog bone/heat), to my knowledge a white American cultural Christian, seen here (archive link if they delete it) mocking someone who found Bells Hells’ behavior justifyingly reminiscent of a conquering colonialist army as their family experienced, and horrifying for it (note: this mention is made with everypigeondeserveslove’s knowledge and permission; they are well aware of this bullshit). Hecate decided it was a good time to be a truly unfeeling piece of shit about this in the service of checks notes convincing people that Bells Hells was an anticolonialist narrative. They did, to be fair, just start reading Wretched of the Earth, so they do know who they’re talking over. I mean about. They also accused me of, when I pointed out this article’s discussion of history and whether it was written by the victors, Godwin’s law, which is not really what that means (saying ‘this phrase has its origins in a lot of hateful groups who used it to evade their responsibility in historical events, and also even if history is written by the victors, that doesn’t mean every alternate viewpoint is automatically wrong’ is simply factual), then turned around and claimed, in a truly stunningly insolent case of putting words in someone’s mouths, that criticism of Imogen and Laudna on the basis of their unkind actions was akin to calling them degenerates (archive)to the point that people were confused. This is an ongoing pattern with that circle; you’ll see it with cringefae/compilation too of just. Making shit up. 

What you need to know about them is in the end they’re mostly just a hypocrite and a loser. They’re really into 9/11 jokes, which to be clear I’m not personally squeamish about, but I also don’t go around screaming about how cruel the fandom is to Aeor, a city that is entirely pretend, while joking about real-life civilian deaths. Absolutely terminal case of caring more about pretend people than real ones. As for the idiot part, interesting to claim at one point that Orym would be saved by the Wild Mother and should, and this is a direct quote from someone who, again, is only now reading the first book listed the “Notable Theoreticians And Theories” list on the Postcolonialism wikipedia page, that he should “read theory” and then claim to have Gotten It From Hearthdell after spending much of the intervening time, as discussed, arguing for the deaths of the gods. In fact, I recommend looking back through their blog in depth for a combination of tiktok-brained politics, an utter lack of empathy, and Consistently Getting It Wrong And Lying And Pretending They Didn’t. 

Second person is cringefae/compilation. When they’re not throwing tantrums interspersed with gifs of the pink My Little Pony, or throwing different tantrums about Kipperlily Copperkettle, or throwing different tantrums about Essek and Verin Thelyss existing within the narrative, you can find them throwing tantrums about how everyone but them is a bigot, often in the main tag. This has been commented on by the general fandom, and it is notable that even others in their circle often won’t touch their vent posts (also many of said posts directly attack others in their circle, which is funny to me). Now I’ll just keep it very basic: I think what’s going on is that cringefae does not think they are a very good person, deep down, but is trying to project an image of being a very good person, and so they have decided that people in the fandom, of which I was public enemy number one before they seemingly discovered the native text block function, are the Real Bad People, and don’t seem to have the ability to process. Now the thing about cringefae is that if you dislike a character OR like but would enjoy them experiencing some fictional horrors and that character is not Essek Thelyss; the Briarwoods; a character I personally like such as Fjord when they are on the warpath (they actually seem to personally really like Fjord and I think high key hate that I like him because they have basically no consistent identity other than contrarianism; they do not seem to like anything, really, other than possibly the pink My Little Pony); or a white cis straight man that they do not headcanon as not that, then they will call you a bigot. Now: you may notice, with a quick perusal of their blog, that they believe Ludinus Da’leth to be a racist who started a race war, which would imply Essek Thelyss is nonwhite, but they have definitely argued against this as well, and recently argued both in favor of Ludinus having a redemption arc and also that they don’t believe in zero-effort redemption arcs, because again, there is zero logical coherence other than attacking people they don’t like for whatever reason. I don’t even have links; just scroll down their blog for a few minutes and you’ll get the vibe (bad). They too have a tendency to make up a guy and get mad at that guy (and have to clarify they're just making shit up in the notes); possibly to assume the worst of the fandom in order to feel better about themself. And whereas I think astralley/wright might know deep down they're attacking real people to defend pretend people and hoping no one will notice and call them on it, cringefae seems to be genuinely too stupid to understand the concept of "it can be interesting for a story to be tragic." They also tend to frequently insult the positions of people in their circle and conflate everything they don't like into one person; again, horse-immorality (deactivated) was one of the loudest "bor'dor is a dog" people and cringefae liked them and now is like IT'S SUPER RACIST TO SAY BOR'DOR WAS A DOG because again, it's not about any position, it's just about finding some arbitrary scapegoat and attacking them so that you can feel righteous, and in doing so, they become a cesspit of a person.

I think the kindest thing you could say about cringefae is that in their incoherence it all kind of cancels out, and absolutely no one really seems to take them seriously. They seem entirely unaware of the concept of crying wolf and how maybe if you say that a woman who checks notes happens to openly prefer the canon art of Jester, Yasha, and Imogen to fan redesigns, canon art that was checks notes designed by women and checks notes drawn by women is a “soft MRA” you might be wildly irresponsible in your accusations to the point of eroding an ability in the fandom to actually point out misogynistic views (also, hanging out with astrall/eywright does kind of fuck your image as caring about the oppressed). It’s accusations as a tool against the people they’ve decided are The Bad Ones. And really that’s the thing. I know we’re all online here, this is explicitly my fandom sideblog and I try to keep it light on politics not because they’re not vitally important but because I do see Tumblr largely as an escape and not as a news source, but I would bet good money this is someone who doesn’t like, do anything other than post. Anyway, just kind of a stream of nonstop constantly shifting incoherent bile worth a block. One of those cases where you're like "have people...just put up with this person in their fandom spaces forever? why? don't fandoms deserve to not have a missing stair like this?"

[trianglesimpfordpines]

the thing is. i'm not really interested in arguing over whether or not "billford is canon," because we know the story of bill & ford and interpreting it as romantic or not romantic doesn't change much at this point. whatever they had, whether or not you personally view it as romantic, was very intense, had a profound effect on both of them, and was horribly abusive on bill's part.

deep friendships can be abusive and cause lifelong trauma, just as much as romantic relationships. so i'm not gonna be out here being like "um, billford is canon, cry about it" because it's not my business how any given individual fan goes about interpreting the semantics of their relationship.

that said, though, it's become very clear that romantic feelings between bill and ford are a valid and canonically plausible interpretation. no, that's not the same as "100% explicitly canon," and no, it doesn't mean you have to ship it. but it does mean that continuing to behave as though people who do interpret it as romantic are doing something morally and/or intellectually wrong by having this interpretaion is unreasonable.

since bill was abusive to ford either way, why is it that interpreting ford's feelings for him pre-betrayal as having been romantic in nature is viewed by some people as being Uniquely Problematic? like being interested in the dynamic of their still extremely toxic friendship is normal, but the second you read anything besides friendship into it suddenly you're crossing some sort of line into Trivializing Abuse?

because...like. romantic relationships get ugly in real life. frequently, in fact. it's a very well-known, extensively-documented phenomenon. and, while "the use of romance-coded language to describe bill and ford's relationship in tbob is just a joke" is also a valid and plausible interpretation, why is that Less Uncomfortable than the idea that ford could have been in love with bill? if the goal is to avoid acknowledging the unfortunate idea that a person can hold positive and affectionate feelings for their abuser, then shouldn't viewing them as ex-close-friends be just as bad as viewing them as ex-lovers? after all, platonic or queerplatonic feelings are not "a step down" from romantic feelings. friendship isn't a "lower" tier of love, just a different type.

and most of all, why is agreeing with the romantic interpretation still treated as if it means you can't possibly be taking the story (or ford's abuse) seriously? because this is a common thread i see in a lot of fandoms, not just gravity falls. the idea that applying a romantic or formerly-romantic lens to the relationship between two characters, especially two male characters, can ONLY be done out of a "zomg hawt yaoi 😍" mentality. again, i am not saying you have to ship them or view this interpretation as "canon," but i kinda wish people would spend a bit of time thinking of why, whenever somebody else does ship it, their immediate conclusion is that that somebody else must be a "brainrotted fujoshi" who can't possibly understand how serious abuse is.

like, why is it that so many people think "shipping" is some kind of uniquely frivolous thing that is fundamentally incompatible with (a) actually understanding the story, (b) engaging with any serious and/or uncomfortable themes in a mature or respectful manner, and (c) knowing when a ship is not realistically healthy?

why is it that saying "ford held very deep feelings of platonic affection and admiration for bill, and viewed him as his closest or only friend" all fine and dandy, even though this interpretation does not change the fact that ford once felt very positively about his abuser, but saying "ford was in love with bill" nosedives straight into Gross Icky Weird Freak behavior?

finally, a lot of billford shippers are people who've had personal experiences with abuse. as are a lot of people who are triggered by billford content and don't want to see it. this isn't because the shippers are problematic abuse-fetishizing fujoshis, nor is it because the non-shippers are coping and seething and refusing to acknowledge canon. it is, in fact, because different people, even different people with similar experiences and similar traumas, are going to have different reactions to seeing things that hit close to home in a fictional story. neither party is necessarily "wrong," nor are they necessarily invalidating the other.

and again. just to be absolutely clear. i view all three interpretations (romantic billford, qpr billford, & platonic billford) as valid. the one i personally go with is that ford was in love with bill romantically, but i do not think this is the One True Canon Interpretation. this post is not arguing about the canonicity of billford as a ship.

[britcision]

I’m not gonna lie, I fundamentally don’t get people who can be put off from creating things if they don’t get enough “engagement”

(Comments, likes, whatever)

And it’s not because they’re wrong or there’s anything wrong with liking or wanting to connect over your creations

There isn’t, and I can be motivated by engagement! I see comments and shares and I like to do more of that thing!

But. I can’t be demotivated by a lack of it

I don’t care if something I write gets zero kudos or never has a comment on it. The only place I’ve posted some of my better art was on Redbubble because I wanted a sweater

And it’s basically because every time I see people talking about how it doesn’t feel worth it to do a thing anymore because they’re being ignored is “oh right you get to choose what you make”

Cuz. Uh. That. That’s not exactly the process for me.

And I think that people who do probably have a much more intentional and well thought out creation process! Like people who can do outlines and story boards and multiple drafts and shit

I have at best a nodding familiarity with outlines, and I never met the rest of ‘em

I don’t make things for other people because I guess I am a selfish bitch? No one can make me want to write anything less because I’m not writing it for anyone else

I write for me, for the things I want to read. I share it because I like sharing, and if you all enjoy it too that’s great and we can go feral! And if you don’t, I still wrote it for me

I can still go reread it

That’s my goal

And yeah learning to art really brought this home for me because when I draw a thing there is literally no step in the process where I consider “should I post this”

I finish it, I look at it, I decide I like it, and. It. That’s it, that’s done now. Saved. Maybe sometimes shared if I have a specific reason to?

(But I also really don’t draw unless I have a specific reason to because aphantasia I just don’t think in images so it’s not like you’re missing much)

And I like the engagement too! I love getting to gush with people over the things I love, which is why I write in the first place!

I don’t think not posting is exactly a step the writing process can have for me anymore? I just… I guess I get thinking about it when people are feeling bad for the lack

(And I think it’s probably also to do with the dominant fandom culture I grew up with being “don’t like don’t read, flames will be used to toast marshmallows”)

Because fundamentally I feel like the difference is that those people are writing things and drawing things and making things because they want to, and they want to connect and have that work appreciated by others

Whereas I really am just a little fucking cursed idea fountain spewing whatever the fuck comes out of my brain in every direction imaginable and I am having a fantastic time doing it

I don’t care if anyone else shows up to the bukkake it’s just gonna happen anyway so it’s everyone else’s fault if they get wet

[forgetmesoup]

Ive been going back to my home fandom by rewatching supernatural and man has it brought up A LOT of feelings and thoughts for me. I want to talk through my interpretation of a lot of the stuff ive noticed since i started the rewatch (especially now that i am much better at story analysis) even though its 2025 and this will be a long as rambling post no one will want to read

Ok. starting out i want to say i really love all the characters and while they are flawed i feel that all members of team free will are good people who love each other. i feel like this fandom has a problem where people who very casually watch the show are very judgemental of the team and for me that feels bad to read but thats why tags exist lol. I think Sam is very kind and empathetic! he has made mistakes but a bit of empathy and critical thinking paints him much more sympathetically than the show characters/fandom does. Dean is criticized less but i still want to say that he is an incredibly intelligent and strong character. His actions are always driven by love and he holds on in impossible situations!! everyone agrees cas is great i feel but i gotta compliment him anyways and say hes a really sweet and capable character. i just gotta get it out of my system because the villains (and protagonists) in the show criticize the team a lot and im constantly talking to the people i watch with why we think they are all fundamentally GOOD people.

its a show about love- familial, platonic, romantic, you chose. its about love. and on this blog its going to be fan engagement about love as well:) good and silly vibes here everyone

so anyways, i know hes not everyones favorite but please don't go after sam on this blog im so tired of seeing fans refuse to empathize with him:[ yes s4 was a mess for him, but please stop making addictions out to be inherently evil those of you who are(& you know who u r). it sucks cmon guys. hes always trying his best, the reason he starts in the first place is because he realizes he can kill demons without hurting the victim. he's hurting a lot in these seasons and trying desperately to help people after being powerless to save dean, a feeling he's felt his whole life. yes, its a mistake, but thats it. he's still a good person and character in my eyes. and dean is also hurting a lot in those seasons of course hes going to have a hard time forgiving and forgetting what he views as a huge breach of trust from the person he needed the most!! all that is to say that guys please dont be mean to my blorbos im very attached to them T-T

also im dropping my queer hc for the team:)

dean is very much bi to me! thats kinda it for him i have a lot more hc but thats my only queer one

i always saw a very trans story line with sam and saw a lot of trans traits in him that i found relatable before i even came out to myself. for me he is a demi boy and a romance/sex positive aroace. romance has never been the most important thing to him really, its always something that follows his want for a close relationship and partnership. i think he and cas' relationship is more meaningfully to him than most if his romantic relationships in the show. team free will are his people and his family in a way no one else really is- and he's perfectly ok with that. i like the sabriel ship but more in a qpr way so that them and destiel can go on cute double dates:)

cas is so much easier to break down for me hes loosely pan and non-binary. he just does what he wants and prefers not to stick that closely to labels.

also also holy moly am i struggling through s3-5. i usually rewatch s6-9 the most and i am finding the soul crushing hopelessness and conflict so stressful. im very excited to get through to what i feel like is the closest thing to a healing arc we get for the brothers in the show- it mostly focuses on sam receiving support for his mental health and dean reconnecting with his emotions after going into a survival based shut down in s5. even though the world was still ending it focused a lot on how the brothers care about and support each other in whatever way they know how to!

im very happy to be returning to one of my favorite shows of all time after so long trying not to like it. hope to find some more enjoyers even in the year 2025 ( i kno:l tbh tho not sorry:/)

[sequencefairy]

I've started writing this post like, four times already, and I keep discarding the drafts instead of continuing because it's too close, still. But i know i need to unpack this instead of just letting it live inside of me to fester and rot and make me bitter, which will just mean that the haters won, because it's their fault the joy is gone.

Something happened this weekend here on tumblr and elsewhere in other fanspaces and across the wider internet. Something horrible. I've been through fandom implosions before, I was in the trenches with VLD, I walked through the end of Bleach, but this was orders of magnitude worse.

The meanness. The cruelty. The way so many people forgot that the people on their TV, laptop and phone screens are people. That the words they're gleefully typing into their little comment boxes and their posts are being seen by real people, and not just the people at which they are directed.

This fandom has long had a problem with passive, and also less passive, racism. This fandom has long had a problem with boundaries between ourselves and the people we are fans of. I think these two things combined into a horrid creature that was beyond the imagining of anyone.

I slept very little this weekend. I have been more anxious the last three days than I have ever been in my life. I worried every time I opened the tumblr app what thing I might find in my inbox or as a reply on one of my posts. I worried about friends in the fandom, who were dealing not only with the barrage of vitriol not directed at them, but also who were receiving it themselves for daring to be supportive of the general plan.

I am lucky. I have spaces to retreat to. I have friends who are both in and not in this fandom, who have checked in with me to make sure I'm doing okay. My partner has shouldered the bulk of managing the house this weekend because I couldn't. It was too much to think about how to deal with that when all this was going on inside my phone and my laptop. I am also lucky because I am not a person of colour.

Watching folks in this fandom who I know to be folks of colour wade into the fray and knowing that they are seeing the same takes that I was seeing about Steven and about Ryan, makes my heart want to shrivel up in my chest. It hurt me to watch people turn on Watcher this weekend, but I cannot imagine how much it hurt my friends, who might have been watching people they used to trust or enjoy or feel like they knew, spew racist and hateful rhetoric over a business decision they didn't agree with.

I'm not going to litigate whether things could have been done differently, because it really doesn't matter to me, but I am going to say that a level of trust has been shattered here in this fandom space. I can't have fun with people about Watcher content when I have to check and make sure they weren't among the people who were calling for violence against a man whose crime was poorly communicating a business decision to a fandom they used to extoll as kind and generous. If my trust in the wider fandom has been broken then I have to assume our fandom friends of colour's trust has also been shredded.

This has fundamentally changed how I want to engage with and in fandom, and not for the better. I don't have an answer for what this means for me going forward, but I am just so sad. I am so sad that a place of great joy has been sapped of that feeling and I don't know how I'm going to get it back.

I don't know if I want to.

[raayllum]

25. a piece of advice for taking care of yourself in fandom spaces

I have two pieces of advice basically that loop back into each other honestly.

Don't ultimately care about what anyone else says or thinks

Not caring about or trying to manage what other people think of you or your thoughts ≠ being rude or disrespectful, that doesn't mean it never happen - tone and frustration are absolutely real and I express the latter occasionally,

Other people are gonna ship things you don't or ship the same thing but in a way you don't like or just have opinions that are coming from a fundamentally different perspective or reading of the text and... none of it really matters. You don't have to conform to popular fandom if it doesn't fit what you think (that's basically been me in every fandom But TDP, so it's quite refreshing, and even then I very much felt like a lil island in the immediate s4 aftermath), you can ship whatever you want and so can anyone else. I think the most important thing with this is being self aware, though... like yeah I could hypothetically get annoyed over characters in TDP being childish, but coming-of-age stories are about kids and maturation, so like. I can vent in the proper tags but it may just mean the show isn't ultimately for me, y'know? Or at least that it's something I gotta learn to live with if I wanna engage with the show in a way that balances the salt and the sweetness

Additionally, one of the side effects I've found of being '''popular''' within TDP fandom is that my opinion will be taken as gospel or made out to be more than what it is, which is just my subjective opinion / interpretations, the same as anyone else's. Obviously I think my opinions are Right / grounded in the text (as do many people about their own opinions, whether they align with mine or not), but that doesn't mean everyone else is wrong, like... it's a children's cartoon show, if you're getting regularly butt hurt about what other people think or if they do or don't agree with you or whether ur ideas are popular or not you're not gonna have a good time, and fandom is a hobby. It's supposed to be a good time

Avoid taking things personally at all costs

In a similar vein to "don't care what anyone else thinks/says" that goes double for what they think or say about you / what you think. For me this means that unless I get 1) name dropped or 2) something that is so specific me it couldn't apply to someone else, I assume it's not about me. "Rayllum shippers / stans are so annoying"? Not about me and even if I am annoying - isn't everyone sometimes? Being annoying isn't a death sentence lol. "I hope the fandom takes this well"? Not about me. "People who defend S4 just can't admit TDP has flaws"? Not about me. "Snake boi Callum content is so dumb" is about a tag categorization I started for Callum's characterization, but has since more than taken on a life on its own... and isn't about me.

And even when it is personal, it says a lot more about what frustrates the OP or what they're trying to potentially wrangle than it does about me. Like someone disagrees with me or thinks I'm dumb, specifically? Okay, I know I've thought that about people on occasion, I try not to post it or make it obvious, but I can't control what you do. There were a couple of ZK bnf I thought were horrendously bad at meta that I knew by name bc they were everywhere, and it just meant forming my own atla communities/tags and/or stepping away from the fandom.

On a similar note, I'm still gonna keep doing my thing and I encourage people to block me and/or blacklist tags I use if they don't wanna see my stuff. I know how annoying it can be in fandom to feel like you still see stuff you don't want to if it's everywhere, which is also why I don't put all my stuff in the main tags either, but I'm not going to Stop Posting unless I... want to, which won't be happening.

I guess this all basically amounts to:

Focus on finding your people in fandom, cause they are out there

If you find yourself being annoyed by the fandom every day, or find yourself feeling like you have to rebut every little thing that annoys you (for ex, people saying they don't like Rayllum doesn't bother me, that's a neutral opinion. Ppl saying they shouldn't be in the show feels like more of a theme misread, however) work on stepping away and letting things go

Cultivate being fucking weird and unabashedly enthusiastic with self awareness. If you love a ship or headcanon or plot point that's fucking out there or clearly not happening, fucking go for it! Make or enjoy all the stuff for it you want. That said, maintaining awareness that the story doesn't need to go there in order to be good, or that there's not a lot of plausible grounding in canon, can be important especially if you want to connect with other fans.

Like CHET is my pet theory that has also been wildly fortunate enough to get a life of its own in the TDP / Rayllum fandom(s). I've been prepared to drop it three times. I think more than ever that's where the story is going in S7, and that there's a lot of continued setup for it / Something Like It, but I could be dead wrong, and I'm sure I will love if not prefer whatever route S7 would take instead. I love it, and I have a certain amount of attachment, but the story doesn't owe it to me, similarly to how I'm not owed in fandom to have people Like what I make or make what I like

Like respect should be given for sure unless I make a routine ass of myself, but again, I've been very fortunate that some stuff has caught on as much as it has because it clicked with other people who were already thinking the same thing, or found xyz idea made a lot of sense. And that's really nice! I think it's those things that help build a community. But in fandom you kind of have to be willing to be an Island first, and then if you get stuck being an island permanently, it may be worth reflecting on why sometimes — whether it's because of aggression, shyness, preference, or no real reason except your people haven't shown up yet

[chocochipbiscuit]

20 Questions for Writers!

I was tagged by both @carnalapples and @foibles-fables (and possibly others, I...have been neglecting my Tumblr tags for a bit haha) and am excited to respond!

How many works do you have on ao3?

191!

A lot of the early works were because I was following a kink meme and basically challenged myself to fill a prompt every week. I didn't always manage it, but I still wrote a lot of fics that way!

Life and priorities have shifted since then, but it was a fun challenge to get me more comfortable writing.

What’s your total ao3 word count?

983,653 (soon to be over a million once I post the Fallout Necro AU!)

What are your top five fics by kudos?

I genuinely have no idea, I block those stats. :)

What fandoms do you write for?

I feel a bit slow when it comes to fandoms; I prefer digesting the canon before I write my own fics for it. So I rarely write for newer fandoms. I've also lost a lot of the mono-fandom focus I had in the past, though I both anticipate/fear when that will change once I have time to really delve into a favorite game once more.

That said: I've written for a lot of different fandoms, mostly video games. Fallout remains an evergreen interest of mine, and I regularly offer Dragon Age in fandom exchanges because I know it's an easy match and I love writing F/F for it!

My current predictions for this year are more Fallout, Resident Evil, and (hopefully) book fandoms like The Locked Tomb or The Burning Kingdoms. But I have surprised myself before!

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Absolutely!!! Comments and community are one of the main reasons I share fic. The only times I haven't responded to comments are when it was just rude or fishing. (in which case I usually delete it)

What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't generally like writing angsty endings, so 'bittersweet' is probably the closest we're going to get!

That said, (if you love me) let me go (Ada/Leon, Resident Evil) is probably the closest I've got! Even though the canon itself says they will meet again.

What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I generally write a lot of happy endings, or at least try for a 'happy for now'!

I think what makes a happy ending stick with me is if it feels earned; if I get both the emotional highs and lows of a fic, some struggle before the happy ending.

A Most Edible Thistle (Josephine/Vivienne, Dragon Age) definitely has a big silly rom-com finish, so there's that!

I also have a huge soft spot for never gonna say I'm sorry (Amara/Tyreen, Borderlands) because the happy finish isn't just a declaration of love, it's a declaration that Tyreen actually gets to be a badass hero (completing the heel-face turn) without having to die. (And also maybe a little acknowledgment that her self-destructive tendencies are fundamentally selfish!)

Do you get hate on fics?

Not on AO3. I've had trolls post stuff like "ew het" or "X isn't gay" on now-defunct kink memes, but it was more pathetic than anything else.

I've had hate for being a bi woman who dares to write F/M in addition to F/F and M/M (and thus only writing F/F to 'trick' lesbians into reading my icky icky bisexual 'proghet fic') but that hate was directed towards my Tumblr inbox rather than AO3.

And not hate, but more like 'weird hill to die on, but I'm glad you're dead,' I used to get guest comments on an old fic who would only post 'tag your trans fic'/'tag your trans characters' or some other variation on that, and I just deleted and refused to engage because...I mean, what?

(I'll tag lots of things, but I generally don't tag for identity unless it's relevant to the fic. Same way that I don't use 'characters of color' or 'white characters' for a tag, or distinguish that a F/F ship is bi for bi vs bi/lesbian, though I may include author notes as relevant.)

Do you write smut?

Hell yeah! I started writing fanfic JUST to write smut! :D

Do you write crossovers?

Nope. I've written a few AUs and fusions, but generally don't find cross-overs interesting.

That said, I don't count games or stories set within the same canon as crossovers. (Ex: Dragon Age Origins vs Dragon Age 2.)

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not within fandom, but scraped to sites that charge people for the stories. I've reported them when I've found them.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! what we don't talk about was translated into Russian. I remain delighted that someone thought this was worth the effort.

Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

I am idiosyncratic in my tastes and a bit of a control freak until I get the finished story out! So no!

(I don't even know how that would work...like, alternating chapters with a co-author? Alternating character POV? Could be a fun experiment but also not something I've ever done before!)

What’s your all time favourite ship?

I HAVE TOO MANY.

F!LW/Fawkes was literally the ship that got me into fandom.

Leliana/Morrigan is my original one for Dragon Age.

Danse/Hancock is a current favorite (and honestly rather unexpected because usually I'm all about F/F, but brimming with 1001+ smut ideas for this ship???? UNEXPECTED)

Jack/Miranda remains my favorite Mass Effect ship.

....this is a terrible non-answer and I apologize!

What’s the wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Every WIP that I want to finish, I know I eventually will. If I don't finish it, it's because I don't want to.

(It might be slowly but I know I'll finish it. I have faith in myself!)

The two current WIPs (...if you can even call them that, they're in outline form rather than a first draft or WIP, but I've been told that my outlines are so thorough they count as first drafts, or at least half-drafts) that I want to write but know will take me extra time are:

Keene/Preston fic: Keene's led the Jacobstown refugees across the Wasteland after the Legion destroyed their home, and has ended up in the Commonwealth as the last survivor. Angry and traumatized, he recovers in Sanctuary and struggles with what it means to finally trust someone new. I have a pretty solid sequence of events, I think, but still figuring out the details on the final scene. (As in: I know WHAT I want to happen, I need to figure out HOW it happens.) Also features Marcy Long as Keene's unexpected (figurative) auntie and Keene/Preston managing the incredibly difficult feat of fucking while pining because they get stuck in a sex pollen vault.

Exit Wounds: working title for a fic where after the Minutemen and Railroad ally to destroy the Brotherhood of Steel, Maxson ends up going ghoul. He tries joining a settlement and is recognized by Danse, then forced to confront the difference between forgiveness and second chances. It's emotionally messy in a lot of ways, and feels even messier with the current political climate. It currently gives me the same sort of queasy catharsis that writing The Poison Girl of Vault 101 did, but Poison Girl was a much shorter fic and still took 3 years before I felt comfortable posting it. So. Make of that what you will. (Also, Maxson and Strong DEFINITELY fuck. It's not sappy romantic 'aw look they're boyfriends now!' but they DO fuck!)

...I feel like it's very telling that even with my brain-weirds around Fallout (even though I love it, I can only take fanart and fanfic of it in very small doses) my most recurrent longfic ideas are generally related to the Wasteland.

What are your writing strengths?

Sensory detail, sensuality, and character voice.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Dialogue and physical blocking.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

How I choose to write the language depends on the POV and voice I'm in. For example, if I'm writing a character speaking Cantonese, whether I write it as:

"Happy new year!" she said in Cantonese.

"Happy new year!" she said in Cantonese.

"新年快乐!" she said.

"Gong hay fat choy!" she said.

all imply different things about who I assume the audience to be and the POV character's relationship to the language. (And fair note, I'm an ABC whose own Cantonese is minimal.)

Generally speaking, I prefer not to use italics or capitalization to emphasize that something is in another language, as it feels a bit too 'othering' for me. If I wouldn't write that I ordered tiramisu at a restaurant, I also wouldn't write that I ordered nasi lemak at a restaurant. (as in, I wouldn't randomly italicize them.)

I'm also generally less than enchanted by stories that try to impress how 'realistic' and 'thorough' the made-up language of their elves (or orcs, or whatever) is. I enjoyed Tolkien for the characters and interesting worldbuilding, not because he had an Elvish dictionary.

(Is that snarky enough? :P)

First fandom you wrote for?

Fallout!!! There was insufficient mutie smut, so I had to write my own!

Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

The snarky (if true!) answer is that my current WIP is always my favorite, which means the Fallout Necro AU! But you guys aren't able to read that yet until I post it. :P

That said: I tend to prefer the longer fics for this because they represent a greater emotional investment on my part and they rank more highly in my favorites. :)

....so because I've already been cheating, I'm giving you THREE! Because I feel these three in particular represent the depth and breadth of my interests!

A Most Edible Thistle: my first official romcom of a fic!

never gonna say I'm sorry: enemies to lovers and the kinds of choices we make when looking for redemption!!!

breath (and all the ways of holding): the fic that, in my heart, still represents my most conscious 'leveling up' of what it means to write a longer fic.

...incidentally, they're all F/F, and two of the three contain explicit smut as part of the character study. Which also feels very 'me.'

Now! I tag @anneapocalypse, @themorikelife, @razrogue, @potatoesandsunshine, and @bittylildragon if you are so inclined to play!!!!

[ecoterrorist-katara]

Twitter found your posts about Firelady Katara, and they are being really rude about it. It's super annoying, I'm sorry

Anon, I appreciate the heads up & the nice sentiment! In the future though, I’d prefer not to know about how people react to my posts unless they’re being very nice. I don’t want to engage with negativity & smoothbrain takes, but I am VERY easily tempted lmao. My background in competitive debate / academia / leftist politics means I’m extremely argumentative, but I know nothing good comes out of Internet arguments so I need help ignoring antis. 

Anyway it’s helpful for me to remember that I’m in the Zutara fandom because I love to see people inspiring each other to create things. I’ve read so many wonderful metas, feasted my eyes on incredible fan art and edits, laughed at funny posts, foamed at the mouth over epic fics, and generally have been in awe of what this fandom has produced over the years. I mean…we’ve had colouring books! An EP! Animatics where Dante Basco himself lent his voice! This fandom has been around since before I was allowed to use the family computer and it’s so cool to me that it’s still thriving. By contrast, reacting snarkily to content that other people create is like…the opposite of generative and does nothing to better a community — which is why I fundamentally don’t care for antis and don’t want them to be part of my fandom experience. Anyone can make their half-baked opinion known online, but it takes spirit and dedication to create things you like for your ship. Anyway here’s a reminder that ZK Big Bang signups are still open for one more week! I still haven’t decided which role I want to play in this event but I encourage everyone to sign up! 

[demigodsanswer]

Hello! I'm genderfluid I went searching for stuff on Rick Riordan after finding out he won a stonewall award on The Second Book from the Magnus Chase trilogy. I've read all of Riordan's books as a minor and, upon finding this stuff it's been disheartening to say the least. I'll come back, after doing some research on my own but I'm personally curious about how you feel about LGBTQIA+ representation in Riordan's books.

I want to lead with: if you feel as though the queer and trans representation in the series is not reflective of your experience, or worse, offensive in its depiction, then I am very sorry. I myself am a bisexual woman who was in a relationship with a woman for five years, so I know what it's like to feel like a depiction of your gender or sexuality is simply insufficient or downright offensive.

Your experiences of the representation in the series are valid, whether they be positive or negative. These are fundamentally very personal experiences, and it's rare that any media will ever be 100% representative of our lived experiences. It is completely okay to feel represented where others do not, or to feel let down by a depiction, even if others think on it favorably.

To that end though, I honestly can't comment in any meaningful way on the representation in the series, simply because I am out of touch with it. I never finished Magnus Chase or Trials of Apollo. Chalice of the Gods was basically fun fanfic in my brain, and I haven't read any Hero's of Olympus book cover to cover since they debuted, not 10+ years ago. The only series I regularly return to are the first five, which do not have any explicit queer rep.

There are posts on my blog from 2020 and earlier that are from a time when I was more in touch with the fandom, Rick, and the books, but alas that time has passed. In between when I was last active in this fandom and now, I have completed almost all of a PhD. So a lot of this just isn't in my brain anymore.

What is in my brain is how important Nico coming out in House of Hades was. I will never forget how it felt to see that leak, get the book, and flip right to the page to make sure it was real. It was groundbreaking and so important. It wasn't the first queer rep in a book for middle or high schoolers, but it didn't exist in a saturated market either.

When continually stands out to me about Rick is his willingness to learn, grow, and correct. Sure, I wish he did things right the first time. He probably should have had sensitivity readers for HoO, but it's nice that he did have them for ToA. I think he has proven to be willing to listen to fans and course correct when he needs to. He doesn't just rest of his representation laurels; he keeps trying to make the world more diverse. I think the TV show is a great show of that work as well.

But really at the heart of my inability to be overly critical of him is the reality that I fucking loved Harry Potter. I loved it so much. And I have other queer and trans friends for whom that series was their life. It was the favorite thing, it was their #1 fandom, it was everything to them in the way Percy Jackson is still everything to me. And all of us feel as though Harry Potter was taken from us by the rampant bigotry of JKR. The choice to disengage is obviously also political, but it feels so emotional first and foremost. I cannot separate art from the artist there, and that to me doesn't feel like a political statement; it feels entirely like an emotional one.

So when I think about Rick's efforts, flawed as they may be, all I can think is "There but for the grace of god go I," because if it was him succumbing to the black mold and becoming one of the four horseman of the rise of global fascism, I do not know how I would cope with the emotional loss of this series.

That's not to say that fans should not continue to hold him accountable or engage in dialogue with him. It's just me saying that I'm not the fan who's going to do that. I'm too old, too tired, too out of touch, and I need to finish this degree before it finishes me.

[aerodaltonimperial]

It’s nearing mid-December, I’m loopy as shit due to being heavily medicated for preschool germs that finally took me out, and that means I am gonna be REALLY SAPPY about fandom and fic and stuff for a hot minute, sorry in advance lol.

When 2024 started, fandom was, for me, kind of a shit show. We still didn’t know what was happening with Jack or if he’d ever come back to AEW and were heading into month five of his complete social media exile and disappearance. I had lost most of my OG fandom group after I deliberately walked away from the pairing I’d built my entire fandom reputation on. I was really feeling the effects of the overall decline across all fandoms of engagement and interaction, as things became less community-oriented and more of the (still true) TikTok content creation expectation that we’re still struggling against. It was a tough time! I really wasn’t sure I would stay! (In fact, in January of ‘24, I actually did step away for awhile, thinking I was probably done.)

The year 2024 starting saw me in this fandom writing almost solely for a pairing that A) did not exist prior to me getting obsessed with them in the spring of 2023, B) had not interacted in canon since May of 2023, C) half of whom was not even known to be ALIVE as the new year rolled over, and D) had never, ever been fandom darlings, let alone an actual thing beyond me dragging a few friends into rarepair hell with me.

That’s a really difficult way to be in a fandom! It can get lonely and difficult to keep motivation, and I feel like wrestling in general is hard anyway, simply because of the sheer number of characters and pairings and every single person in this fandom has attached themselves to something different. It’s a tough fandom to be in if you are creating, for sure, because you are really at the mercy of so much outside your control, haha.

We are ending 2024 in a way I never could have predicted, and I’m just so grateful for everyone who has been here or joined in this year or just supported me continuing to write the same crap all the time even if you don’t care much for them! 💚 Thanks to the feud I could not possibly have anticipated actually getting in canon, I was able to find so many new friends this year in fandom. We hit 100 works in the pairing tag before my birthday! I know it’ll never hit the numbers that the OG pairings in this fandom have, but that’s okay, and that was never anything I even expected. I’m just so happy that people are still open to reading my stuff and that I’ve got so many new people to flail excitedly with!

That’s really the part of fandom that matters to me: community. I love flailing with people, and being excited about stuff with people, and bouncing ideas off people. I love creating with people, because for me, that’s what it’s always been about. Being the sole creator gets really isolating, even if you love what you’re doing. And losing my original group I created with definitely factored into how tough I found times this past year and a half.

I didn’t get into this fandom expecting to make waves or anything, haha. I’m still kind of surprised that this rarepair ever took off and got as big as it has managed to, given everything. I wrote a shit ton of words this year as I dealt with the aftermath of finally admitting I failed at traditional publishing, and I’m beyond grateful that people took time out of their lives to read my silly fics. Sometimes people tell me that my fics made them smile on a bad day, or that they go back and reread old ones because they really like them, and I’ll never be able to explain how much that means to me to hear. I am so, so glad that I can make a handful of people happy with what I write. 💚

2024 was a weird year for me. My relationship with writing has fundamentally changed, probably forever, in the wake of failure. This fandom has had some real ups and downs for me that have changed the way I interact with people here. But I’ve also written some things I’m really, really proud of this year. And I’ve made some new friends who are so important to me through fandom. In the end, I’m still here, and I’m still finding joy in creating (when the depression isn’t bad), and I’m just really glad that you are here, too. Thanks for being part of things with me, everyone. 💚

[copperbadge]

I know that it’s been a Very Long Time but do you ever get terribly nostalgic for old/less active fandoms? I confess I recently came back to tumblr and saw that I followed you. I was like, of course Sam storyteller, the Bucky guy. But then I got a hankering for my older and dearer by far love Ianto Jones and went back to reread some of the greatest hits and I remembered. You are not the Loki guy. You are the Ianto guy, to me, and I can’t believe I forgot that. I miss that fandom so much it was so fucking. Toxic. The Gwen bashing, I simply cannot romanticize it in good conscience. But the fic quality and diversity was, dare I say it, nearly unparalleled (in my heart). Like when it hit it really hit you know? A golden age of trashy sci fi indeed. I miss my dead welsh son. Sorry to ramble in your ask box about the dubious old days

Anon, I am so sorry, a bunch of my asks got pushed way down in the inbox and then I forgot they were there, so apologies this is MONTHS late in getting posted.

I, eh, I don't really get nostalgic for old fandoms. Usually I leave them for a reason, but even if I just drift away, my experience of a fandom is pretty fundamentally different from most because of my higher profile. There are things I can't do or say in a fandom that other people could, and there are things that happen to me outside of my control. They're not even necessarily bad things, just stuff like...I'll write a fic in a new fandom, and people from my previous fandom will start engaging with the canon because I did. So often, rather than just falling away from a fandom, I'll leave a fandom and drag a bunch of people with me. They might not even leave the older fandom, but they come along to the new one too.

And often the wanks that pull people in without their consent simply don't touch me because there's a portion of fandom that is either scared of me (or my readers) or just doesn't want anything to do with me. I can't determine which.

Torchwood's a pretty good case in point -- the Gwen bashing was extreme. I wasn't a fan of Gwen but what I saw from the antigwenallies was really, really gross. Still, even though I wrote fic about Gwen and engaged in meta around her presence in the show, I avoided them and thus had exactly one interaction with them ever, which was when they posted up a fic of mine as "anti-Gwen" and I asked them to remove it and never recc anything of mine again. They did, and that was the end of that. Nobody ever came to my posts to attack her or me. Likewise, there was one really, really aggressive anti-Ianto wanker, but she never engaged with me or even as far as I know talked about me, despite the fact I was a huge Ianto fan and wrote a lot of fic about him. I really hated the shit she said, but I also didn't see any value in arguing, so I left her alone and she left me alone. (I won't name her because I checked up on her a few years ago and it turns out she was struggling with serious mental health issues that she'd gotten a lot of help for, and felt really terrible about the things she'd done, so I'm actually quite proud of her. But if you know you know.)

I also just...have a bad memory, so I often don't remember what happened in a fandom, or even sometimes that I was in a fandom. Most of the memories I do have are either vaguely warm and friendly, or "avoid this fandom/person at all costs" based in a negative interaction (which I sometimes don't remember the details of).

So yeah...I mean, Torchwood ended pretty terribly so I don't miss it in part because I try not to think about it. Generally if I have a good time in a fandom and then leave it, it's because I simply said all I had to say there. But I'm usually looking forward, not back, just because the past is a bit of a fog bank for me, most of the time.

[the--journeys]

talk shop chewsday: there's been an ongoing sentiment in recent years of people refusing to read WIPs and/or waiting until something is finished before they binge read (and maybe comment). as the spokesperson for gen z, what are your thoughts on this 🎤

this has been in my inbox for SO long, but only because I didn't have any real working theories at the time it was sent. I'll still add the disclaimer that I am in NO way the spokesperson for gen z because apparently you want me SHOT IN THE STREET but I do have a few thoughts re: younger folks (when I say gen z I'm referring to college-ish age, not the ones nearing 30) and their lack of engagement with fandom as a community, and I think that first and foremost it starts with the "death" of tumblr.

genz-ers like me were around 7-10 years old during the Tumblr heyday. By the time most of us were truly getting on social media, tiktok (or at least its predecessors) was already a thing. Regardless of whether or not tumblr itself was actually dead, most kids who are in college now don't have the "2014 tumblr nostalgia," because they were nine and never had an account in the first place.

To much of the younger half of gen z, there's no concept or understanding of fandom as it exists on tumblr or in Tumblr-adjacent spaces. The nearest is probably twitter, but even that got nuked right around the time this age group would've started getting on it-- and took an immediate backseat to tiktok anyway.

So, what happens when a generation's engagement with fanfiction moves from a space like tumblr over to either the actual archive it's stored on, or else...tiktok? I wasn't around fandom spaces when the shift happened, so I don't know! But I can make some guesses, mostly about the misalignment of social media platform use between readers and writers.

gen z is on tiktok, and on tiktok you've (pretty much) gotta show your face. This makes it an almost immediately inhabitable platform for ao3 authors as it pertains to discussing their status as ao3 authors-- there are a few brave ones who I applaud! but for the most part, authors are on Tumblr and gen z readers are on tiktok/instagram. Therefore! there's little to no engagement between writers and readers and much more discussion of fanworks (think fic rec lists) among readers.

When readers are an echo chamber for each other, they only take into account the needs...of other readers. Many gen z ers do not know fandom as a community of fanfic writers and readers. Does this excuse them from reaping the benefits of fandom communities and not contributing/commenting/making known their appreciation for fanworks? absolutely not. but it may help us understand the problem of "gen z readership" a little bit better to realize that the community aspect of fandom (as it pertains to fanfic, I'm a little less educated on the fanart/other creative works side of things) happens for a lot of gen z (mostly) purely on tiktok, (mostly) purely without input from writers.

I think that @seek--rest is and always has been right when they point to a shift of readers seeing writers as content creators rather than a community to engage with, but the thing I can't answer is WHERE tiktok readers should be accessing that reader-writer community in the first place, if not tumblr. Ideally, it's in the comment section on ao3. But for the ao3 readers who come from tiktok with no reference of what a fandom community before tiktok looked like, or any conception of writers as real people because said writers are fundamentally missing from their fandom experience outside of ao3 (aka tiktok), it's possible that there's just... a really, really huge knowledge gap regarding how important kudos/comments/encouragement is to those fandom writers.

This is in no way meant to blame writers. Being an adult and knowing that fandom creators are writing for FREE should give anyone enough pause to at least leave kudos on a completed work, but I do think the shifting concept of fandom community is a little more complicated than it seems at first glance. I also didn't even answer the question re: WIPs, because I think that you'd need to dive even more into the different motivations for reading along with WIPs in a tiktok community of readers vs other community of readers AND writers to fully explore it. (Dark Matter, which I haven't read yet but NEED TO GET TO, is a great example of some of those motivations/dynamics that are perhaps a topic for another day.)

Anyway. TL;DR: The way fandoms interact has shifted a LOT between the older and younger stages of gen z, and it doesn't excuse a lack of commenting but it's certainly interesting to think about!

[chaifootsteps]

I am one of those people who did not want to call Miss Medrano a terrible person. Yes, we have a bunch of different material in our hands about her attitude towards others, how she constantly sees herself as a victim, what a narcissist she is, but I WANTED to believe that things were taken out of context, that in real life she might not actually an angel in the flesh, but at least a pleasant person to talk to (and still a terrible creator. For me personally, she has become an image of the WORST things I can see in modern animation). However, everything has a limit. And the situation with Salem and Viv's recent tweet has already pissed me off.

We need to listen to victims of violence, but if they talk about Viv or someone from her team, like that fucking pervert Raph, then everything they say is a lie, provocation and hate? And if you also support victims of violence or simply do not throw rotten tomatoes at them, then you are also a hater and a bastard who DARE to think badly of Medrano? And, of course, we should just close our eyes to the bunch of screenshots, rumors and stories that have been accumulating around Vivienne for YEARS. And I may say something stupid, but there cannot be so many scandals surrounding an innocent person. I can still believe that some stories are embellished or exaggerated, but once is an accident, two times is a coincidence, and the third time is a pattern.

And I have a question for Viv and her team. They, of course, won’t see this or will simply not care, but still: aren’t you ashamed of your behavior? You constantly make excuses, engage in outright self-admiration (Viv's recent like about the success of TADC, for example), outright lie, shit on others and allow your crazy fan base to harass, insult and threaten ANYONE who even slightly disagrees with you . Do you really like that the Hellaverse fanbase is despised and hated by everyone around you? And no, I'm not exaggerating. In many other fandoms, it is Vivienne's fandom that is considered crap and the most glaring example of what the audience is a mirror of their favorite artists.

And these people are followed by millions? Are they an example for someone? These pathetic narcissists who just happened to be popular? I really don't want to belittle other people's achievements (especially poor animators), but after all these behind-the-scenes stories, I no longer have any sympathy or respect for them.

That's one of the crazy, awful things about it, isn't it? So many people really did do everything in their power to give Vivzie the benefit of the doubt -- hell, I even did it for a long time -- and then there comes a moment when you realize no, she really is that bad. She's worse.

She's got her nutcase fanbase, but she also hijacks something fundamentally good in people, the part that wants to believe in underdog success stories (also a lie on Vivzie's part, she was always rich as hell) and defend those who are being kicked around. And that's so fucked up.