#if no one else is in a fandom with me does that mean i get to decide the ship names /j

[rabotimagines]

As a fellow G1 lover.. who’s also newer to the transformers show and fandom. May I kindly request a really chaotic bot reader-

Chaotic in the sense of they very much have impulse control, they just don’t use the control part! They can and will say out of pocket things ranging from flirts to flat out saying some of the raunchiest stuff known to cybertronian kind. They love to hang off others if given the okay, will 100% just cuddle whoever if they’re allowed to.

But they also are super sweet, always willing to lend a servo or audial receptor- they love their friends, romantically or platonically. They just want to make sure their people they care for are happy in the war they’re all suffering in.

If it could be with the Autobot base? And maybe with my bots Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, and Jazz?? You’re free to add whoever else you please!!

I do adore your writing it’s amazing!! And easy to go along with to, I love just scrolling through a bunch of it! I hope you have a good timezone!! Take care and take breaks when needed. :]

I shall try to pace myself correctly. Frankly, the robots are the only thing keeping me sane considering the state of the world rn... The horrors may have a hold of my ass but I stay a freak about mechs...

"Chaotic" GN BOT Reader + Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Jazz, Ratchet

Summary: You're Chaotic, affectionate, and, you mean well.

G1 characters: The Lamborghini twins, Jazz, Ratchet

Genre/Theme: Platonic

Pronouns: You, Your, Yours

Notes: I took the "chaotic" as an also off and on the battlefield trait.

Sideswipes one of the few Autobots that's actually usually fine with the physical affection. So it wouldn't be strange to see you hanging off of Sideswipe most of the time. Your arm around his pauldron or linked with his own arm. Sure, he's not a "constant wants to cuddle" type, though, so he'll usually have to revoke privileges when he's not up for it. But about eight times outta ten Sideswipes cool with you touching him in some way.

Sideswipe is almost exactly the same on the battlefield, so he can't exactly scold you for being chaotic there even if he thinks you're going too far. Which definitely takes a lot for him to want to scold you in the first place since Sideswipes impulsive and no bars when the potential to win a fight is on the line. Which usually leads to Cons out right avoiding you both if they see you and Sideswipe together on the battlefield. They don't know what you'll do, but they know sparkdamn well they aren't gonna like it.

If you're cool with it, then Sideswipe will drag you into physical bouts with him when he wants some fun. Wanna do some arm wrestling? Or a full frame spar? If you're game, then he'll be tossing you around and vice versa whenever he's bored and has nothing else to do. That or he's using you to help pull his pranks. Which does lead to you being in trouble, especially if either of you gets caught. But Sideswipe won't leave you out to dry since he's the one roping you into these in the first place. No mech left behind!

-

You better be glad you're getting your physical contact filled in with his twin, because Sunstreaker sure as slag ain't letting you touch him. He doesn't want you scuffing his frame or getting him dirty. Doesn't matter if you were just in the solvent showers- servos off and away. He's messaging Sideswipe to come be his shield whenever he sees you, even if you do respect his boundaries the first time he tells you no. Sunstreaker isn't risking it. Especially not when you're constantly grabbing everyone who lets you.

Sunstreaker doesn't think you're stupid- he knows you're stupid. Because you sure as slag do not seem to care about doing or saying dumb slag when you know it's not gonna go over well. At least it's the entertaining type of stupid. Sunstreaker usually crossing his arms over his chassis and silently stands on the sidelines and stares when you're doing whatever slag you've decided you were gonna do. And he watches the fallout from your own dumbaft choices.

Sunstreaker does take full advantage of the fact that you constantly seem to want to do things for them. Which usually gets him getting verbally reamed out by the officers when he gets caught again, putting his boring menial ark shifts off on you to go race. If he's not using you to get off his shift, he's having you be pack mule for him if he can't (Or doesn't want to) fit something in his sub space. Via having you carrying whatever he doesn't have to be carrying. He gets into it with Sideswipe sometimes because apparently his brother doesn't like how he acts towards you enough to start slag about it. Whatever. It's not like you were complaining about it.

-

Jazz is a bit concerned about your ol' lack of... control. He's used to your by the seat of your aft type behavior, so he's not typically surprised. But that usually doesn't stop him from shaking a helm or tutting his glossia with his signature smile in place. If whatever you're doing dumb is actually seriously dangerous or disruptive, then Jazz will usually scold you if he's gotta. But in all honesty, it usually feels like a mischievous adult cat trying to discipline a kitten. It'll have to be pretty severe if Jazz is gonna scold you proper.

Jazz is also not a mech shy about affection, at least on the ark. Wanna grab him for a few klicks in the cafeteria? Wanna hold his hand down the ark hallway? Go right on ahead. Jazz doesn't like you getting grabby with him off of the base however "Can't have you hanging off of me for the next few klicks. Need to keep up appearances, Capiche?"

Jazz is very nonchalant about you seemingly wanting to do everything and anything for him. He's not royalty or nothin' just your ol' second in command. So he usually has you do things for yourself whenever you try and do something for him. Wanna know what he wants? Go refuel for yourself. Go take a break. Come listen to these new tunes Jazz has saved on his sound system and tell him what ya think. Y'know simple stuff.

-

Your mouth and solvent. Name a more iconic duo to Ratchet, and he might not wash your mouth out with it. You'd be well antiquated with Ratchet due to your own impulsive and rash decisions leading to injuries both off and on the battlefield. You end up in the medbay for some dumb slag once again, and Ratchet would be staring at you with the same withering tired look. Until you start squirming before he's asking "Now was that a good idea?" And waiting to hear your sorry excuse for whatever you did this time.

Ratchet will try to get to the bottom of your own urge to be useful, especially if it's whats causing you to act rash in the first place. Whether it's a psychological one or just an innate part of your programming (or just you), Ratchet wants you to put yourself first, especially in battlefield situations. You wanna do something for Ratchet? Then can you do that for him?

Ratchets not particularly fond of physical affection. He's not adverse to it hardly. It's more something he'll only allow on the occasion. A sideways hug here, a pauldron squeeze from him there. Keep yourself together for the next major battle, and Ratchet will allow a full frame hug! (He says this is a one-time deal, but if you can do it next time as well, he'll give you another one. The tired sap.)

[luca-the-star-child]

I am writing an Sam-Centric fic and WOW her parents really fucking suck dont they?

I think some people end up forgetting how neglecful her parents are! I mean the only thing we see of them doing with their daughter is attempts to "correct" her behaviour and make her fit is, which is so fucked in so many levels

Especially if you consider that they want to "padronize" her, making her to be the perfect little girl. Which is so-! UGH

AND THEY DONT EVEN TAKE CARE OF HER!! Like, when Sam gets sick and were shown an ENTIRE team of doctors (Who Sam seems to alredy know, which implies this happens all the time she gets sick) taking care of her, but her parents? The ones who made her and supposedly raised her? Nowhere to be seem!!

I bet this is not the only time they hire someone else to do their job, they probably had several babysiters and private teachers to do their job! No wonder Sam doesnt really like them

And once we are shown that is the Show, its never elaborated on again???? And is just treated as an "Haha Sam is so rich she has an entire medical team to take care of her" BRO SHES GETTING NEGLECTED

And as far as i remember, Sam never really gets closure about this in the end, she never really gets accepted by her parents or confronte them about it. And look, i know this is because its a gag, a satire on "its not a phase mom!!!" Or on "Alt depressive kid with happy preppy parents" but HOLY FUCKKKKK

Also this may be a bit crszy but her parents give heavy conservative vibes, which does not fit with what Sam believes in and IS.

We as a fandom relly focuses on Danny and the Fenton parents A+ parenting, and it makes sense! But Maddie and Jack cannonicaly care about Danny no matter what, meanwhile Pamela and Jeremy...just want an version of Sam they can mold to their liking, and thats not actual caring.

Sam is not an neglected child in the sense of having physical needs ignored or forgotten, whatever she can buy she can get, but she is neglected in the sense of hving her emotional need shoved aside, ignored or even belitled!

The manson parents probably decide to just shove money and items at Sam to show that they "care" and fullfil her needs, but they dont do anything else.

I mean, thankfully Sam has Ida on her side.

(Which confuses me even more, if Ida is an cool grandma, who cares and understand her grandchild, how did her son turn out...like that?)

[anghraine]

I was thinking about my personal "TOS is really its own thing" headcanons for K/S, and also, that one of the things that really surprised me when I actually marathoned the whole series was the acknowledged ethical issue around captain/crew fraternization.

To rewind back to my ship, lol: I definitely think that Spock and Kirk are obsessively in love with each other, and it's pretty obvious that every other relationship and person in their lives pales in comparison, but I don't actually imagine that they've said or done anything about this beyond the kinds of things we've seen onscreen.

I mean. Yes, that includes things like "when Kirk gets a massage on the bridge for his back pain, he just assumes it's Spock and is intensely uncomfortable to discover it's someone else" + the two of them saying breathtaking romantic things with obvious heart eyes while ignoring the existence of everyone around them + Kirk's most compelling and insightful love interest remarking that Spock obviously belongs with him as if he always will be at Kirk's side + everything "Amok Time" chooses to be + mutual seething jealousy/Spock excising his rival from Kirk's mind while he sleeps + Kirk saying Spock is closer to him than anyone in the universe + Spock regularly abandoning his principles when it comes to Kirk etc etc etc. But I don't think they've actually said what they feel or initiated a (physically) sexual relationship during TOS itself.

Taking TOS by itself and ignoring the regular reboots of their characterizations in ... well, everything else, I definitely feel like they're moving inexorably towards that kind of unambiguous romantic relationship in TOS, just that they haven't quite taken that last step yet.

In fact, I suspect that the "You are closer to the captain than anyone in the universe" statement from bodysnatched Kirk to Spock is likely the most explicit statement either has made about how they feel or what their relationship really is, and it carefully stops just short of saying too much. And it's immediately followed by a) a mind-meld, I think the fourth between them, but the first in which Spock effortlessly melds them without a single word to help, and b) one of the most extended periods of physical contact between them, with iirc over two minutes of Spock holding Kirk's bare hand/wrist on screen as they try to escape together signifying nothing, with scene cuts suggesting the actual duration may in fact be longer (*gasps in Vulcan*).

The show ends with that episode because of the cancellation, but there's something weirdly apropos about it as a finale on a purely shipping level. I definitely felt like the dynamic between them has reached such a point by "Turnabout Intruder" that there's no going back. But I don't think anything more significant than what we've seen has happened off screen, just that the acknowledgment of the nature of their feelings and the shift to an overtly romantic, sexual relationship seem inevitable at this point. And by "overtly," I mean to each other, not necessarily anyone else.

There are various reasons I feel this way. Partly it's the high-octane yearning and repression that both exhibit in very different ways, which I think make more sense if they haven't acknowledged anything yet or transitioned away from pretending it's platonic. But one reason I envision them as Not Quite There But Definitely Going To Be, that I've rarely seen mentioned thus far, is something I would never have guessed from pop culture or even fandom osmosis.

Early in the series, Kirk explicitly states that he considers his crew completely off-limits in a romantic context. This ethical restriction applies only to him and not any other senior officers. Throughout the rest of the series, we're told and shown that Starfleet does not forbid fraternization among crew members of different ranks. Kirk himself says that it would be fine for Spock to have a romantic relationship with Janice Rand, just not Kirk.

And moreover, Kirk never does voluntarily enter a romantic relationship with any crew member. He and Janice Rand have a mutual infatuation for awhile that both handle with as much professionalism as possible. The closest thing to an openly romantic interaction with a crew member is probably Kirk kissing Helen Noel after Helen and Dr. Adams artificially screwed around with his memories and feelings—but we discover in the process that he was the one who refused to do more than dance at the Christmas party, when he backed off and scrupulously talked about space while Helen was the one with the unsentimental sex fantasy who keeps pushing his boundaries even in the present. That's why he's so unusually hostile; they were never together, even as a fling, and she hasn't taken no for an answer.

I guess Kirk and Mulholl agreeing to be possessed by married aliens for a final goodbye kiss is sort of ...? I mean. You get it, sometimes there's some sci-fi plot device, but nothing real and nothing while he has full control of his body and mind.

Kirk's real exes are all former long-term girlfriends, most of them also part of Starfleet and professionals in science or science-adjacent fields, but never crew members.

It's not 100% clear in TOS if the repeated statements and suggestions about lack of Starfleet restrictions on fraternization except wrt the captain is Starfleet policy, or just Kirk's personal stance. Kirk says he's not allowed to have a relationship of that kind with Janice Rand in "The Naked Time," but he's contracted the disease by then and it's part of a generally unhinged ramble. It's later stated that romance isn't forbidden on Starfleet vessels, but that's about crew romances in general and not the captain in particular. So it's difficult to know the real source of the ethical prohibition. Maybe there are actual regulations around this (makes sense) or maybe it's just a hard ethical line that Kirk has independently chosen for himself (also makes sense), but when he's functional and autonomous enough to be held responsible for his actions, this is a line he does not cross.

The point here is that, while I don't remotely blame other K/S fans for ignoring this inconvenient fraternization detail, Spock is a member of Kirk's crew. Yes, he's a senior officer and the highest-ranking person on the ship after Kirk himself, so maybe it wouldn't be as egregious as with someone else—but then again, maybe Kirk propositioning Spock would be considered even more unethical than propositioning Janice, since Janice at least has other authorities over her, while Spock answers directly to Kirk in the chain of command and will do virtually anything Kirk tells or asks him to do.

Kirk and Spock's relationship is intense and [gestures] everything enough that there are scenarios where I could imagine Kirk dropping this otherwise non-negotiable ethical line (the classic is, of course, "Spock's human heritage makes his pon farr cycle erratic and it comes back early ... oh no..."). I don't think we've seen any such scenario during TOS, though.

In any case, I feel like Kirk is unlikely to proposition Spock either romantically or sexually during the five-year mission. After years of constant proximity and yearning and ostensibly platonic hijinks and assuming it would never happen, I could see his resolve crumbling if Spock tried to initiate a romance with him. But that is also unlikely throughout most of TOS, because of Spock's own hang-ups around emotion and attachment—he's struggling with shame over feeling basic friendly affection, and in reality he feels far more than that.

I also don't think their true preferences when it comes to love, or their sense of what love really is for them, are inclined towards casual/undefined relationships or even poly relationships. So I don't personally envision them as FWBs or in a "they were in love but not taking it that seriously" scenario; I don't think either situation would be all that probable or desirable for them. They're both conspicuously jealous of anything or anyone that could possibly compete with their own absolute centrality in each other's lives; Spock never so much as kisses anyone without being dubconned into it and is guilty about having friends; Kirk's entire sexual history when it's not For The Mission is consistently geared towards long-term and sentimentally romantic relationships. Kirk supplies a very clear, emphatic description of love as he understands it:

Is he important to you, more important than anything? Is he as though he were a part of you? [...] But you can't really love him. You haven't the slightest knowledge of love, the total union of two people.

Kirk understands impossible/forbidden love in terms of some fundamental separation from a single beloved, being perpetually apart from them and unable to achieve the kind of absolute joining of lives and minds that he regards as love. (In some ways, this seems an incredibly Vulcan perspective on love, which, well.)

I think he and Spock are close to crossing the last barriers to that point of absolute union by "Turnabout Intruder," given their extreme intimacy as well as the very real possibility of grafting their lives and minds to each other in the way both pretty clearly crave. But I feel like there are only two ways it can really happen: 1) some wildly fortunate circumstance makes it ethically justifiable for Kirk to approach Spock, or 2) Spock makes the first move, which means that unless they're just randomly very lucky, everything hangs on him coming to terms with himself.

Then again, I also think Spock's arc across the show is building towards a point where he is coming to terms with himself in that way, with asserting what he wants, what bothers him, and what he's willing to reach for or accept. By the finale, I can believe he's truly on the point of getting there.

The movies hit the reset and retcon buttons hard, but taking TOS by itself as aired, the arc of their relationship and its development over the course of the show feels more hopeful to me. I can believe that S3 Spock has grown into himself enough to get to the point he needs to be at to make the first ("first") move before much longer. This is the Spock who essentially told Starfleet to go fuck themselves because they wouldn't let him jeopardize a fraught diplomatic situation to search for Kirk, told Sulu to scan for Kirk for potentially years, then defied explicit orders and tracked him down personally. There is very little he wouldn't do for Kirk by S3.

Kirk, meanwhile, has never been anything but 1000% receptive to whatever Spock is willing to give him; he spends a significant portion of TOS looking like he's about to dissolve into hearts at eye contact and a slight mouth twitch from Spock, if that. By S3, though, he's visibly more ground-down and tired, he's been put through further horrors that he often only escaped via his intimacy with Spock, and he's increasingly desperate for real connection. I can believe that at this point, he'd finally be at "fuck it" if Spock's love was on the table.

So I don't think that during the time period of TOS, their romance is formalized at all, or even acknowledged, or that they have a sexual relationship beyond the turbo-charged UST and frequent physical contact (to a degree that seems likely obscene on Vulcan. but as Spock no doubt justifies to himself, they're not on Vulcan). But I also think that by the end of the show, their dynamic has moved towards a stage where the shift to an unambiguously romantic relationship, even if hidden, feels inevitable and imminent. I genuinely feel like they're so close to full honesty with each other at this point that it can't be long, and that's with over a year of the mission left.

[veryace-ficrecs]

The Pitt Fic Recs Part 1

This list will include all ratings and tags, so read at your own discretion! :)

This Is The Day In Chaos by NameStartsWithN - Rated G

As the Pitt descends into its usual chaos, Dr Robby brings coffee and encouragement to his beleaguered team. Samira Mohan and Dennis Whittaker bond, while Mel King finally makes a joke -- intentionally!

The Dead Don’t Answer by NameStartsWithN - Rated G

Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch learned a long time ago that death isn’t quiet—it’s a symphony of chaos, a brutal soundtrack of screaming monitors, cracking ribs, and the rush of hands fighting the inevitable. At Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital, there are always calls for help. Because the dead don’t answer. But the living don’t have a choice.

The Aftermath by AGirlHasNoName20 - Rated T

Two weeks after Pittfest, Robby is presented with a choice. Or: The one in which Robby starts therapy. Don't read unless you've watched the entire season 1.

Rules of Law by jumpfall - Rated G

The night Robby signed his attending contract, he was introduced to the Laws According to Adamson. He likes to hope that if he leaves his trainees with nothing else, it'll be the Addendums According to Robby. - Alternatively, is it really a fandom until there's a five things fic?

To Be A Doctor by mossterious -Rated G

Four student doctors. Four paths to get there. Four points of view. One hospital. — Aka I need to get used to writing different character povs SO HAVE SOME TINY CHARACTER STUDIES I GUESS?!

people come and go on the breeze by sweetmuses - Rated M

Redemption is a hard, long journey. She knows this probably better than most people. You have to keep yourself afloat amongst the madness, being acutely aware of tipping back into the ether. It’s easier to live within the boundless ocean of guilt than to take accountability - because to take accountability means that you’re willing to work for it, and there’s no way of knowing when you’ll slip up and fall.

Or: A reflection on the in-betweens of life, ghosts, and the human condition, through the eyes of Cassie McKay.

In Memoriam by fundotperiod - Rated G

How Robby has grieved and remembered his mentor.

Reflection by ZHH123 - Rated G

She thinks back on all the moments she almost couldn’t bear. The moments that prompted her to question if she belonged in the pitt. Then she thinks of her triumphs.

Last Call by jumpfall - Rated T

“Sorry if I woke you,” Robby says. Jack shrugs. “Middle of the day in my time zone.” He waits a beat, and then asks, “You want to talk?” “No.” “You want a drink?” “You'd allow that?” “No,” Jack says. “Just lets me gauge how concerned I should be.” – 1x15 episode tag.

The Pitt Crew! by megas217 - Rated G

Welcome to the Pitt Crew a story about the doctors and nurses who work in the Pitt.

Sursum Corda by Celebratory Penguin (cpenguing) - Rated M

A few hours after Pittfest, Langdon returns to the ED.

The Way, Way Back by jumpfall - Rated T

Robby, post 1x13.

And I Said Nothing by elpopooley66 - Rated T

Trinity Santos is not okay. She’s never really been okay. But she’s held herself together this long — on caffeine, adrenaline, and silence sharp enough to cut. The Pitt sees it. Langdon sees it. And for once, maybe she lets herself be seen. They don’t fix her. They just don’t leave. Sometimes, that’s enough. Featuring: unresolved trauma, a lobster named Greb, a borrowed hoodie, and the terrifying prospect of letting someone care. Or: the one where she stops pretending she’s fine — and someone finally calls her bluff.

what a weight to live under by shirelings - Rated T

Mel’s convinced she’s made it to the door without anyone noticing her before a voice stops her dead in her tracks. “Dr. King.” It’s said in that sort of way that’s not really a question even if someone else would frame it like that, and Mel lets her shoulders rise up a little towards her ears as she slowly turns. Oh, boy. - Mel does, in fact, talk to Abbot at the end of the day.

Change of Watch by jumpfall - Rated T

When Robby's phone vibrated twenty minutes ago, he'd been dealing with a critical GSW to the adbomen and unable to answer. Now there's a voicemail from Jake.

Even Grouches Need to Go to the Hospital by lolathatch - Rated T

Trinity Santos finds a video of Doctor Robby from his younger days and makes it everyone's problem.

singing in unison by dotsayers - Rated M

Leah's sick the night before Pittfest. Robby gets his ticket back.

just a drop of water in an endless sea by evening_spirit - Rated G

Robby’s going to be fine, a rational part of Frank’s mind says. You’re the last person Robby needs right now, says another part, the one that hates himself. But Frank saw the look in Robby’s eyes and he knows that Robby is not fine. Not this time. And no one else will help. But should it be him? Maybe he should go get Dana? Abbot? Damn, if at least Collins was here. But Collins is not here, Dana doesn’t have anything more to give and Abbot is a pragmatic, a doer, not someone who would comfort another. Then again, neither is Frank. Or--a 1x13 coda where Frank and Robby talk, but it doesn't really solve anything.

Aftershocks by jumpfall - Rated T

Ways they are (and aren't) coping with the mass casualty incident.

living weighs heavier by Antumbra - Rated T

Maybe none of them were ever meant to be alright, not once they’d chosen to devote themselves to this career that could only tear them down and break them apart. Or: an alternate take where Jack finds Robby after his breakdown.

[glittercake]

is it selfish of me to not want anthony to leave marvel just bc i love sam so much, like i want to see anthony as sam for another 10 years if i get to choose :(

like we know how much playing sam & sam as cap means to anthony and how happy and meaningful it is to him. it’s so incredibly disheartening and upsetting to see how sam and anthony is treated by marvel themselves (the fandom is a whole other can of worms) especially when anthony has so much love for sam ☹️

like NO ONE ELSE could play sam wilson like anthony does, marvel should be licking his shoes clean tbh.

yeah just wish his reign as Cap came with as much respect and admiration and enthusiasm as Steve's did.

People on twitter are saying they hope wolverine kills sam in doomsday so steve can take over again. this shit will never change.

Mackie and Sam deserve better than marvel. Mackie is a phenomenal actor and he needs to get out of there and move on to better things that will get him the flowers he is due.

[thebroccolination]

I've got a question about kudos/comments/views on ao3 and I hope you can give me an opinion on it. What do you think of the way some writers get hundreds of kudos/comments while some other in the same fandom get ignored. Does that mean the story is bad or is it just bad fan etiquette. It's messing with my confidence as a writer.

I know I'm not good at it but seeing my kudos drop from 300 hundred when the show had just finished to a few years later when I'm lucky to get 20 kudos is really messing with my head and making want to quit writing or just keep anything I write to myself because everyone thinks it's bad. Should I just stop writing anything.

Considering the way some fics you see aren't even in character get so popular just because the person writing it is popular in the fandom feels a little unfair. That sounds so childish but I thought fandom was supposed to be supportive of all fic writers. I mean that from the point of view that to me it seems fandom only wants a select few writers and ignores everyone else even when the fandom is mostly dead and people spend the whole time on twitter complaining about the lack of fics and demanding fics to read. Meanwhile I'm still here like an idiot writing everything I can think of but getting ignored for it because I'm not one of the popular writers that fandom seems to have picked for all their twitter followers to read. I'm one of the last few writers in the fandom I'm in and I just want to quit and keep everything I write for myself.

I know I sound petty and I'm sorry for that but I know you still write and I wanted to know your thoughts on it. Also I used to read all your WinTeam fics years ago before Between Us aired. I loved them so much even though I've left that fandom.

Okay. Whew. I read this a few hours ago and I've been thinking of how to answer, because I could talk about this for hours.

First of all, you don't sound petty at all, so please don't feel any kind of negativity about yourself or how you feel. Writing can be an immensely emotional process, and presenting your heart to a blank and silent audience is a devastating feeling. I just hope I can alleviate some of it with some numbers of my own and how I've come to see the whole kudos/comments/views thing myself.

Just…forgive me for going on a bit of a tangent first.

The "why is this fic popular" phenomenon has been around at least as long as I've been in fandom. So like. Almost thirty years. Subjective taste is obviously a factor, but also, like…. Y'know how "Twilight" and romantasy spawned that joke that they're "for girlies who missed their Wattpad era"? I think sometimes people just want specific vibes regardless of the writing quality involved.

And now the rest of it:

FANDOM USED TO BE DIFFERENT

I think it's safe to say that fandom spaces have been profoundly affected by the same immediacy bias permeating so much of modern life across the globe nowadays. Fandom is people, and people live in the world, and the world is just a whole fucking lot right now. It would be shocking if fandom hadn't changed from how I knew it when I was younger. The internet used to be a hobby. Fandom used to be a hobby.

When I was a Youth, you had to find fandom spaces online. It wasn't part of The Culture the way it is now. Most people wouldn't have had any idea what fandom was. When I was in university, right before Obama was first elected, a fandom friend of mine drove to my campus to visit me and when my suitemate asked how we met, I told her, "We write porn on the internet," and my friend visibly regretted driving ten hours from Michigan to see me. I've always been a basket of horrors to my introvert friends, and I apologize to all of you. Then we had to explain to her what fandom was. To someone our age. Because fandom was a subculture where the weirdos hung out, and my suitemate had never stumbled onto those corners of the interent. None of my suitemates had, and if they did, they certainly didn't announce it the way I did.

What I'm saying is that fandom used to be a shadowy hideout in the forest where you'd meet in secret with freaks of all ages to discuss your very, extremely serious headcanons for your favorite fictional children, and most of us adhered to fandom etiquette rules like "Don't Like, Don't Read" and "Dead Dove, Don't Eat" and "Ship and Let Ship."

Now, fandom feels like a noisy hallway in a massive high school where thousands of insecure people side-eye the comics on the inside of your locker and loudly tell each other while smirking how weird it is to have comics inside your locker.

At some point (and I've seen debates about when exactly), Normies invaded fandom spaces, and Normies don't like Weirdos, so it seems to me that fandom is having a bit of an identity crisis.

I'm in my thirties, and I silently joined fandom spaces when I was nine years old. If you were a minor in fandom, you very much shut the fuck up about it and didn't announce yourself, because fandom was an Adult Community. Maybe because of this, as well as the more limited technology, fandom moved much, much slower than it does now. People consumed canon in real-time, of course, but watching/reading/experiencing something right away didn't really matter. You could still hop on the fandom train months or even years after the source canon ended and still find active fans. Honestly, most of the good fic was written after the source material ended because people had time to reflect on the source material. Read meta, have conversations with other fans, read other people's fics and take inspiration from them, etc. It was communal.

Like I said earlier today, Voltron's klance fandom is still around, and that feels like a miracle to me. Even though Voltron ended fairly recently in 2018, I remember seeing fans emotionally begging each other not to leave fandom once the show ended. I was baffled by this, but I chalked it up to younger fans who'd never been in fandom before and didn't understand that once the source canon ended, that's when fandom got good. That's when you created meta and fanwork events and all the real meat and potatoes that made fandom such an incredible community space.

But I was the one who didn't understand, because things were changing from how I'd always known them.

When I was a fandom infant in the nineties, people posted fic to Yahoo mailing groups and their own Angelfire websites. Recommendation sites were a huge thing back then, and the people who made those fic rec lists were precious contributors in any fandom. Before fanfiction.net, we found fic to read by perusing rec lists. It was communal. You needed people to find fic. Sure, you could put a pairing name in a search bar and look it up on Yahoo. Maybe you'd stumble across a fic site, but to really navigate through a fandom to find fic, you needed to follow fan-made bridges from website to website.

Now we have AO3, which was built by people for whom that was once the norm.

I say all this because my opinions about fic engagement and etiquette were formed in A Bygone Era.

Let me show you some numbers.

NUMBERS

My highest kudos'd fic is "If It's You" a "Yuri on Ice!!" fic I wrote and posted in May of 2017. It's a 14k* one-shot about Viktor trying to convince Yuuri to do a gravure photoshoot for a Japanese magazine he's become obsessed with, and it's exactly as ridiculous as it sounds. I wrote it in days and threw it onto AO3 expecting a good reception, but nothing like what it's gotten. :') * I added a 2k smutty addition when it hit 2k kudos.

But there's a reason for it doing that well. It's good, sure, but a ton of those numbers are down to timing. "Yuri on Ice!!" ended on December 22nd, 2016, and I posted this fic about five months afterward, when the fandom was still extremely active and people were devouring fic and fanart and meta, etc. etc. etc. (YOI was a beautiful fandom to be part of.) However, I guarantee you that if I had posted this exact same fic in 2018, it wouldn't have reached anywhere near the same kudos, hits, or comments. I just happened to post it early enough.

And the same thing applies to every recent fandom I've been in. The earlier I post, the higher the engagement I get.

I wrote "Home Again" in a few hours back while "Not Me" was airing, and it racked up 1k kudos almost overnight. I was playing around with how Black's return could play out in canon before the show had gotten that far, and the tone of the fic is silly and fun despite the serious tone of the show.

(That same month, I posted a DanYok fic that only got 201 kudos, and since Dan was a controversial character in English-speaking fandom, I think DanYok fics didn't do as well as SeanWhite.)

Likewise, my WinTeam fics all saw their highest kudos/hit count in the two years between "Until We Meet Again" in 2020 and "Between Us" in 2022.

Here's the top eight:

"Who Am I to You" June 2020, 1.9k kudos "Win the Friendly, Win the Deadly" November 2020, 1.6k kudos "Power Play" October 2020, 1.5k kudos "You Can Cry" February 2020, 1.4k kudos "Gentle Learning Curve" July 2020, 1.3k kudos "MUSE" November 2020, 1.1k kudos "the only exception" December 2021, 1.1k kudos "Nobody's Burden" March 2022, 1k kudos

I'm not saying being early and picking a popular pairing is all there is to it (especially if in bigger fandoms), but they're massive factors in fandoms these days.

Take "MUSE": it was a long crossover fic featuring our popular darlings WinTeam, and it got massive engagement while I was writing it in 2020.

The amount of encouragement, comments, outside feedback, and theories that people brought to me while I was writing "MUSE" got me so excited to work on it, I completed it at 143k in about five months. It wasn't even a challenge to do because I was so happy to work on it. I was hurrying to finish tasks for my job and chores at home just so I could write more "MUSE." I added the interludes because I didn't want to leave this world people were enjoying as much as I was. And I knew that when I posted the next chapter, people would comment their reactions and their favorite lines and their guesses of what would happen next, and I loved the little community that built up around this work-in-progress I was increasingly proud of.

Meanwhile, my more recent crossover fic "Heart Like Gold" has had a much, much smaller reaction years later in 2024/2025. Which is understandable!!

There's nothing wrong with "Heart Like Gold" compared to "MUSE." It's mostly down to timing and fandom activity. The three fandoms included in "Heart Like Gold" (SOTUS, Be My Favorite, and Until We Meet Again/Between Us) are all pretty inactive on the English-speaking side nowadays, so any engagement is naturally going to be much lower than what I was getting while writing "MUSE" during a global pandemic for readers stuck inside depending on fic and the promise of WinTeam's series for their hope and joy.

Buuut lower engagement means lower motivation, so I've only written about 23k of "Heart Like Gold" in the year or so since I started it. That's not to say I'm not grateful for the feedback I have gotten. It just highlights the difference between what feedback and engagement can do for a writer's motivation. When "Heart Like Gold" didn't "take off," I decided to put "Heart Like Gold" on the back burner and turn more of my focus on the book I've been working on instead.

That doesn't mean I'm bitter about "Heart Like Gold" or that I'm going to give up writing it. The lack of engagement definitely contributes to a lower interest in working on it, but I do still love it, and I'm lucky enough to have readers that do leave feedback when I update, so I've given myself permission to work on it when I can muster the motivation on my own.

I had an idea for a comment carnival a few months ago, but I didn't get any reaction to it, so I've put that on the back burner as well. I need to figure out how to structure the event better and try again, because we could have so many more incredible writers doing their best work if we could just…tell them more often that they're making people happy with their work.

I only used myself as an example since I have access to my own statistics, and I thought showing how my own numbers dropped over time would show that it's happening to others, too, regardless of how many you got at first.

I don't quite know how to wrap all of this up in a comprehensive way. When I started writing and posting fics online at eleven, there were encouraging people on fanfiction.net who told me what they liked and then asked me to write more. That early foundation of expecting good things to happen when I shared my writing had a formative influence on me. I went into the fic-writing experience very young, so I easily could have encountered hate (or "flames"—when was the last time you heard that?) that would have soured me on the whole experience.

I don't know if this is viable for you, Anon, but if at all possible, try to find a small group of writers, or just one friend who loves your writing. (If you don't already have them.) It may be that you'll find your happiness in your next fandom. Maybe the next fic you write for your current fandom will be the one that earns you the happy glow of "I connected to this person through my writing."

I truly hope this helped in any way. I'm about ready to crash into bed, so I apologize if I stopped making sense toward the end. Essentially, "write for yourself" is fine and good if it's a diary, but fanfiction is communal, and you're not wrong at all to want and miss that element of it.

If you have any follow-ups or questions about incoherent things I threw in while yawning, please send me another ask. :)

[bloomeng]

a lot of people are saying edward but i really hope it isn’t. i love edizzy of course but can we allow this man to have his own life outside of ed for one second. it’s what he deserves.

personally i like the idea of it being his mother.

[witchqueen]

Does anyone have any tips to help stop yourself from comparing your artwork to others, or equating your value as an artist with likes and reblogs?

I've struggled with this for a while and it's getting old, I don't know how to just shrug it off. Any genuine advice would be nice

[oceanwithouthermoon]

i think its weird that i have to make this disclaimer but the internet is crazy so wtvr,, anyway,,

if i say i dont like something, that doesnt mean "that thing is bad and nobody should post it.."

i swear literally every time i even mention that i dislike something, people will go "wow does that mean u fucking hate me cuz i post that thing? ur a fucking stupid bitch and all ur opinions r wrong" LIKE ?? er.. no. just because i say i dont like certain characterizations of certain characters (the saiki k fandom is CRAZY about this cuz i can state an opinion on literally any character and a group of people will still go 'well only we're allowed to post our opinions about them because we're always right!1!1!'), or certain ship tropes (mentioned my hatred of toxic yaoi maybe once or twice on here months ago and people STILL get mad at me as if i said toxic yaoi lovers r evil or something), or certain ships, or WHATEVER, does not mean that i HATE the people who are posting them or that i think they shouldnt post them at all, NO, im just posting about my personal tastes on my personal blog and it would be extremely weird and hypocritical if i decided that i was the ONLY person that was allowed to do that,,

i think the only reason people assume that is because there are a lot of other people on here who ARE like that, and a lot of people toe the line between posting that they dont like something and posting that they think everyone who likes that thing is stupid, annoying, and wrong,, so i guess all i can say is, sorry for whatever made you make these assumptions but they arent true about me so plz leave me alone ʘ‿ʘ ur doing the same thing to me that ur accusing me of but i didnt do it in the first place so ur just actively being a dick for no reason

[lunaelume-n]

.

[anxiously-sidequesting]

To me personally malistaire is the funniest and most pathetic villain wizard101 has ever had AND I MEAN THAT SINCERELY!!! Between doomed children who have been manipulated, groomed, and isolated into becoming products of their environments, someone scorned who has been punished unfairly by having your biological heart torn out your chest and turning your children and all of reality against you to satiate their own ego, a nonhuman entity so powerful and so clueless they unintentionally threaten the lives of everyone around them, Malistaire FELL DOWN BRO. Like yeah you're bitchless now. You and me both. Get in line. Everyone in this room is bitchless. We are ALL living that ✨💅🏾💃🕺 Single Life™. You are a middle-aged man. Cope

[quantomeno]

I always feel mildly bemused when I read people post about stuff like systemic sexism in fandoms, particularly things like about how people complain more about female characters but ignore male characters with similar faults, or the fandoms loving gay ships but not making as much fanworks for lesbian ones.

Part of this is just because I like female characters (despite being male, I tend to prefer things with female leads etc) and I'm not that involved in a lot of fandom arguments nor do I read a lot of shipfics, so I only hear about a lot of the sexism when people complain about it. Which is kind of funny to me in the fact it must exist, but I'm just conveniently shielded from it.

The other reason is some of my earliest fandoms I got involved in were female-majority casts, so most people do ship the women. Like, I think Equestria Daily once put out an apology after they posted a Braeburn m/m fic (admittedly, the outrage from the bronies back then in 2012 or whenever was probably out of homophobia, which isn't nice either, but the point still stands that they were no issues with w/w shipfics and to this day they are the vast, vast majority of shipping fics (mostly because once you've shipped Braeburn, Sorin' and Big Mac together there aren't that many other guys left to ship, but nonetheless)). Or like Barbie with its vastly superior chemistry between the joint female leads over the threadbare male love interest they've thrown in. Even when the male leads are good, it's popular to ship the girls.

I don't think I have anything substantial to say. I just don't understand the issues other men (or indeed women) have with female characters (and women and femininity in general) (I mean I do understand I just find it bizarre it when like a friend of mine once said he wasn't really interested in stories with female leads. I don't know, maybe read more books with better female protags? I have a bookshelf's worth if you want suggestions) (also like when people suggest there needs to be more talk about good female characters like, most of my favourites are already females and I will gladly talk about them till the cows come home). But also that's just me.

Also I kind of do like m/m ships a fraction more but that's like 90% because I'm bi and so, you know, I like seeing guys together because I kind of would like to get together with a guy if the opportunity arose. But I mean other than that they're just ships. Like sure there can be a different vibe or flavour to w/w or m/m or straight ships, but I mean if they're good characters why should my interest depend on their genders? I read things to experience the lives of others, I don't want to just see stories that match my experience. And sometimes I empathise most with the female characters so like, you need to approach characters with an open mind. I don't know.

OK I'm rambling now. I think I made my point. I'm not sure what it was anymore but I guess it's that women in fiction are cool and I don't know what everyone else's problem is.

[maxgicalgirl]

I don’t know if this is a new thing in fandom or just a Twitter thing or what, but I do not understand how people are so invested in specific sexual dynamics for your ship that you can’t even engage in the ship in non-sexual means if the fanart/fanfiction is made by someone who prefers the opposite sexual dynamic.

My assumption is that the person thinks it affects the dynamic of the ship even outside of sex ? Like if they ship Character A/Character B where Character A is the “top” then that character acts more “masculine” or “dominant” while Character B acts more “feminine” or “submissive.” And then if you prefer the reverse, then the characters roles in the relationship are reversed.

I’m not sure if this is an asexual thing for me, but for me even if I prefer a certain dynamic when I’m reading smut for example, engaging with the people who prefer the opposite dynamic outside of that sexual context does not change the way the characters act for me ???? Like if you read/watch/play/listen to the source text the characters come from, the characters’ personality are there in the text canonically ? That’s what they’re like ? Their personality doesn’t change if you’re picturing them in the bedroom ? And isn’t it kind of regressive to think that one character has to be the “man” and one character has to be the “woman” regardless of whether the two characters have the same gender ?

Like I saw someone on Twitter selling dolls but they said they only wanted Character A/Character B shippers to buy the dolls and not Character B/Character A shippers because they preferred a certain dynamic. The dolls are clothed and look exactly like they do in the source material. Unless I am going around changing the dolls to be naked and posing them in a certain way and then posting pictures of them online, you would never know which dynamic between the characters I prefer. What is the point then of limiting who can get the dolls when we all like the same characters and just engage with them differently in a personal sense ?

And even if the artist or writer is writing smut or drawing sexual art that depicts the dynamic I don’t necessarily prefer, I don’t make a big deal about it and it doesn’t bother me or ruin my day. If I’m feeling generous at the time I may still read/look at it, and if I’m really not feeling it that day, I’ll click away. Literally this applies to like 10% of the engagement I do that is sexual in nature, and I’d be missing out on so much content if I really let someone’s smut preferences affect the way I view a drawing or smth.

Genuinely I don’t understand it. I don’t remember fandoms being like that in the 2010s, but then again, I spent a lot of my time on Tumblr and have only recently started to look at stuff on Twitter because of fanartists migrating for more traction and the like.

It’s weird growing up and seeing fandom as a method of engagement change before my eyes lol

[tasmanianstripes]

Sad to see how fast people turned away from "cringe culture is dead" and turned to "anything not canon compliant is bad and annoying"

Character regression

[jlf23tumble]

Jen, v random but I think you follow the whatiwillsay pod? I was wondering if you had thoughts about their larry ep from a couple of years ago? 

I do follow her on spotify, but I don't always listen (depends what I have in queue, the topic, etc). I *did* listen to that ep, though, and I disagreed with pretty much all of it MAINLY because you can't have it both ways, i.e., you can't say here's all this gryles proof, here's all this swiftgron proof, then dismiss larry or kaylor when it's the exact same amount of evidenceTM. Like, I'm all for reaching, reach away! But when you're matching, then match it! If it's fandom bullshit, call it as such, but where there's that much smoke, there's at least a wee bit of fire!

[bbq-potato-chip]

unpopular opinion takasugi is boring esp after the shogun assasination arc im sorry i just dont like him