#is this worth fandom tagging

[desire-mona]

there is something so 90s jimmy fallon about lawrence kutner

[hinamie]

i'm exactly as normal about him as I thought I'd be

[imclou]

can't believe fnaf brought me out of art hibernation man what a turn of events

[mariyekos]

Okay to reblog to help sample size!

[gentlemanjuniper]

Asexuality, Fic, and Murderbot

I'm seeing some heated posts on the tags essentially threatening fans who are interested in writing romance-adjacent fic and I'm getting nervous about the tone that this is striking. As a real-life asexual I have seen my experiences be policed a lot into categories of 'acceptable' asexuality (aka, no romance for you, no life partnerships for you, or are you really ace?) and I really hope that this fandom won't, in an effort to uplift ace and aro people, become hostile to people exploring those identities with nuance and complexity.

I can only speak for myself, but I don't feel like people writing 'ship' fic (say, ART/Murderbot) are disrespecting or disregarding me. I feel like they are asking really interesting questions that brings them closer to my experience: how might two asexual beings navigate a relationship? What might a non-traditional, non-heteronormative definition of 'romance' or 'partnership' look like for two robots whose feelings aren't mappable onto human romantic or sexual feelings? What might intimacy look like without sex? What are the boundaries between romantic love and platonic love anyway, how do we define them, and how can a world of sentient robots allow us to think through those questions through the symbolic space of fiction? I think that stuff is really interesting BECAUSE I'm ace!!!

Idk, I'm not the voice of all aces everwhere obviously. I'm just really hoping that this fandom doesn't become so hostile to people writing fic that we lock ourselves into an extremely narrow definition of acceptable asexuality*. My own relationship to asexuality has changed so much over my lifetime and has involved negotiation with attraction, romance, and sex. It makes me bummed to think we're already policing this stuff. *Focusing on asexuality here because I don't personally know, having only read the first three books so far, if Murderbot is definitively aromantic or not, since this entire conversation assumes that any relationship to romance would be through a bot lens anyway and not human in nature to begin with. Is there a robot equivalent to romance that is distinctly non-human in nature, utterly resisting human binaries of romantic/aromantic? If so what would it look like? This is the stuff I want fandom to not be heckled out of exploring!!!

[renshengs]

hmm i do think that danmei and dangai (censored danmei cdrama adaptations) being many non-chinese fandom people's first impression of chinese media has given them some misconceptions about mainstream chinese media, and it shows in a way that i find very frustrating when seeing discussions about cdramas on here. dangai dramas aside, even if government censorship didn't exist, the chances of your favorite cdrama gay ship becoming canon is about as high as the chances of any of those iconic homoerotic male friendships in a western TV show becoming canon. which is to say: extremely low.

what i think is that internationally huge danmei fandoms like mdzs and tgcf and drama adaptations like cql and shl have really fucked with people's conceptualization of danmei, in that they're using it as this reference point when analyzing relationships in all other forms of cn media, including cdramas and chinese games, which then manifests into people making very bold, very dubious claims about "queercoding" because 2 characters from a random cdrama reminds them of the one or two danmeis they'd encountered that shaped their entire perception of chinese media. basically it's this meme:

many people here need to understand that cdramas and chinese films are obviously mainstream forms of fictional media in china, just like how the mcu or the doctor who franchise is mainstream in the US and UK, or like shonen is mainstream in japan. not to burst your bubble of happy ignorance, but homoromantic relationships such as qingming/boya from the ying yang master are—for lack of a better term—fujobait. they are fujobait. bromances, because those sell well and everyone knows it. popular ships like bakudeku were not actually made canon in mha because shonen is mainstream, and in most industries geared toward maximizing capital, having full-on gay people front and center is considered a monetarily risky move. which sucks, of course, but china is absolutely no different. i promise you that if the govt removed their censorship laws for TV broadcasts, your favorite gay ship from mysterious lotus casebook or the blood of youth or fangs of fortune still wouldn't be canon. they might be allowed a bit more intimacy due to the lack of restrictive filtering, but they are not going to be sucking face for the same reason that gojo and geto from jjk didn't suck face.

danmei is still widely considered niche and risky in china, and if you haven't seen the recent news, authors are still getting arrested for writing it. assuming that chinese fiction, mainstream chinese fiction in particular, operate like dangais where the two guys with the most gay tension would be made explicitly canon were the censors to be lifted, is frankly pretty ridiculous. dangai dramas are adapted from danmeis, which are stories centered on a gay romance and narratively depend on the two guys falling in love. non-dangai dramas are very much... not that, hence why people shouldn't watch them expecting a censored danmei and then forcing assumptions of "my ship would be canon if only it weren't for censorship" on them.

it's very clear when someone who knows absolutely nothing about the actual situation with danmei and queer existence and mainstream TV censorship in china is trying to push their, if i put it crudely, "boss baby meme" perspective onto cmedia. fandom is all about poking at interactions between your favorite characters and giggling and speculating, but i think lots of fandom people (many of them safe in the pockets of their more progressive areas) view govt censorship as this big abstract dam that, if broken, would result in the canonization of all their favorite ships, which is not only an incredibly naive belief but also one that shows how much they view TV censorship as more of a personal inconvenience that's preventing their favorite ships from kissing on screen instead of the looming, deep-rooted issue depriving mainland chinese people of creative freedom it actually is. with cmedia fandoms there's a specific widely popularized "they're so gay omg how did censorship not notice" gag when there's any perceived homoromantic undertones in a story that's both rather insensitive and also ignorant, and many dangai and cdrama fandoms in particular (donghua fans too, link click shippers i'm looking directly at you) could really use some more education and sensitivity regarding this.

i've been in danmei & cdrama fandom spaces for years and post-pandemic this kind of nonsense has definitely gotten worse, especially when you compare shipping discussions here to shipping discussions in cn fandoms. here every 2 seconds someone makes an off-color censorship joke about tgcf donghua and over on douyin they are straight up commenting under the nezha sequel announcement post if there's going to be an oubing kissing scene. granted i obviously cannot see or know everything going on in cn fandom spaces because they are incomprehensibly enormous, but in all the spaces i've been in i've never seen a single censorship joke from anyone. why do people here absolutely insist on making them?

anyway. fandom be normal about chinese media challenge!

[syn4k]

seriously though, Alan Becker's Animator vs. Animation series is fucking legendary and for good reason. don't let the fact that all the characters are stick figures delude you into thinking it's a joke. AvA and its spinoff series, AvM (Animation vs. Minecraft) are both well written, complex stories with well-rounded characters and complex arcs that take themselves completely seriously and are also masterclasses in 2d and later 3d animation.

both series include original soundtracks mainly composed by Scott Buckley and they now have a full team of professional animators working on them, even though the project was started by just one guy (Alan). despite having zero lines of dialogue, they clearly and masterfully characterize every single character that's involved by depicting their body language and actions alone. there is love and dedication poured into all of these projects and it shines through in every second of playtime.

also, these feature some of the most jaw dropping choreography and visual effects in fight scenes that ive ever seen in 2d animation ever. the one in AvA s2 alone is higher quality than most fight scenes in almost all modern professionally made movies, in my opinion. alan and his team consistently push the boundaries of what can be done with animation both visually and conceptually and they never fucking miss. like ever. this shit goes so hard

in conclusion: just trust me on this one

[stealingpotatoes]

Congrats on 50K your drawings are the best part of the SW fandom. 🥔

aww that's so sweet!!!!!! im literally like this 🥰 irl reading this

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Happy Valentine's Day! (and this blog's first post anniversary!)

[idlingmoons]

two of my doodles from different magmas in my discord server ... apricot and daydream by me (feat. @sockonaleash)

misuta and fool by @/venomous-qwille

[wicked-gharial]

i like this comic

[cloudyskydreams]

Hey! I was wondering if you could do UT, UF, And US sans reaction to finding out you have an abusive dad, and how'd they help/deal with it?

Sorry if this makes you uncomfortable! You don't have to accept it.

this hits close to home honestly lol

Quick PSA: If you or anyone you know is in an abusive situation the National Domestic Violence Hotline number is 800-799-7233. Please don't hesitate to call if you need the help or believe someone you know needs the help.

Now onto your regularly scheduled program!

.   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * . .   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * . .   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * . .   ݁ ˖ ࣪ ..   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * . .   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆

Sans:

When you tell him he tenses up and his eye sockets go dark as he listens to the trauma you're willing to share. If you're still in contact with your dad and you want to remain in contact he's going to definitely think it's weird but do his best to protect you no matter what. If you want to cut off contact he's all for it and is willing to help you 100% with any steps you need (like moving out if you live with dad still, getting possessions dad has and might use against you, going with you anywhere dad might possibly show up or be (family reunions and such)) He's going to be one of your biggest supporters because honestly fuck your dad.

Red:

Oh he's fucking pissed when you tell him. He dealt with a fair deal of abuse himself from multiple people (mostly when he was younger and unable to defend himself) I mean his underground fucking sucked and he gets how that trauma fucks a person up. Tears apart a couch pillow in his anger and you might have to stop him from hunting down and fighting your dad. Once he's calmed down he basically tells you you're cutting that asshole out of your life and he'll do whatever it takes to make it happen. More than happy to scare the fuck out of your dad if you want him to and does pretty much everything sans would just with scary guard dog aura. If your dad has a car he sneaks out to your dad's house when he gets alone time and fucks with the engine breaking it and leaving nails for the tires and if not he just settles for a good ole egging and dried mashed potatoes in the lawn before it rains.

Blue:

He listens patiently until you're done sharing with him his expression icy and far away as he sits there. When you're done he pulls you into a hug and thanks you for sharing before telling you you're safe and he won't let that man hurt you any longer. He asks what you want to do and is accepting of whatever your choice is though if you choose to remain in contact he agrees but you're not allowed to go anywhere near your dad without him. If you want to cut off contact he's more than happy to do all the hard work for you so you don't have to see him again. Might even suggest filing a restraining order if you really want your dad out of your life and God forbid he get angry over it and decide to come for you because Blue will not hold back especially since he'll be able to frame it as self defense.

. ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * . . ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * . . ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * . . ݁ ˖ ࣪ .. ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * . . ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆

[evilvvithin]

[waywardmillennial]

Watcher Fandom PSA

We need to lock in chat - our crops are dying. Our fandom has been getting quieter and less active but I think we can change this!

1. Start posting more!

You - yes, you! - can help by making more posts. You don't have to only post art or gifs - anything from text posts, meta ramblings, video clips, screenshots, memes, or reactions are good!

If you make a post about their shows - then go to Step 2.

2. If you want people to find your posts use the tag #watcherblr

tumblr tags are kind of a mess because I think Watcher is a video game and also that one movie, so I say we claim this one. This will put all the fandom posts somewhere we can find them.

(and if your post is for Watcher TV, add that as a tag too so people can filter if they're on the YouTube schedule)

Some gifmakers have already been using the tag #watcheredit so you could also add this if you make any gifs or other edits.

3. REBLOG POSTS

tumblr likes don't do much - we all need to reblog more

maybe you're new to tumblr but here: REBLOGS COUNT MORE THAN LIKES. so make a watcher sideblog if you must but hit that reblog button!

══════

If you're looking for Watcher blogs to follow, I've made a post of content creators and available in my pinned post, and I'll keep it updated.

Secret tumblr hack: if you find a Squad Watcher blog you like you can tap on the three dots on their profile page and choose "Get Notifications" then those posts will go on a separate tumblr timeline! <- that link will be unique to your tumblr

tip: if you see anyone abusing the #watcherblr tag (with spam or negativity) block them and don't engage

[tagging a few blogs to signal boost this please and thank you!]

@avid-corvid @bergoop @bergoose @bergoozter @ghostfillers @ghostpunkrock @inafieldofdaisies @jesus-said-chill @levyfiles @littlekingbergara @mazzyreads @mistchievous @noa-nightingale @oldmanpusspuss @partlyironic @psmith73 @ramavoite @tasty-littl-snack @sequencefairy @toomanywatchers @trashworldblog @watcherwiki @watchersleuth @workhusbands

[destructo-range]

The Sacrifice

creds to @axolotl-on-rice for the idea!

also the sketch i lowkey liked more

[creatureesque]

Klækishögg

closeups ^_^