#its good for the fandom’s ecosystem

[sillyseasides]

🌊 anon here, i’m revealing my identity specifically to bring photo evidence. Bitotter couldn't have found Mysti’s body, they’re seen over Ivory’s shoulder in the kitchen at 27:55

plus the blood thing is a bigger problem for me: here’s a diagram of Mysti’s body relative to the blood around her.

That is not enough blood for how much she was stabbed. And i doubt someone would take the effort to move all those severed body parts. Plus there’s no blood splatter by her neck. Tbf whoever was helping (i think div was helping but thats a dif convo) might have tried severing her neck to cover up the bite. I just dont think they’d have enough time to do all the wounds. I dunno this theory’s still a work in progress.

I know I'm the "vampire theory guy" but I honestly am starting to doubt that a normal person could have pulled off the murder. its just unlikely at this point.

My reason for thinking so is simple, Mysti was in full uniform, and Pyro was fully dressed. Let me explain. According to Seraptor its' the maids' job to make sure the Hemlocks clothes are laid out and whatnot, (while ep 1 did show that Pyro is capable of doing it himself, Mysti was surprised he was up, so its not a common occurrence) and Seraptor also says that the Hemlocks usually wake up around 10:00 at the earliest. Right before Mysti is discovered, all of the others are in the kitchen, presumably preparing lunch given when the Hemlocks wake up. Therefore Mysti would have been found around 12:00pm.

That timeline does not line up for a normal person. They'd need to: Attend to whichever family member they're responsible for, Then murder Mysti, then wash or dispose of their clothes, then change, all without someone noticing they're gone.

Plus, according to the newspaper in the trailer, Mysti was stabbed so brutally certain parts of her body were severed. Where the hell is the blood? there should be a heck of a lot more if that was the case. Not to mention, who would go through the trouble of moving her body if it was in pieces.

However, the vampire theory accounts for this by limiting how much blood would spill, because the vampire would have drunk it all.

-🌊 anon

I’d like to note - It very much seems like someone almost tried to sever Mysti’s head if you look at the back of their neck. It’s covered in blood, as if they had been sawing through before realizing they were running out of time before they got caught.

Also, from what I can tell, it seems like we know who found Mysti’s body. Bit, guessing by the way she was being interrogated by the police. I wonder if that’s why Clown told him to ride in the car, knowing they’d be grilled pretty hard.

[aroaceleovaldez]

i think the thing i'm most disappointed about with riordanverse fandom now versus like 2014 is not only has the fandom not gotten any less racist or queerphobic or ableist (in fact in some regards its gotten worse!) but now it's just boring too. like there's no fandom infrastructure anymore - the community these days is almost entirely source material-driven - and you deviate from canon even slightly people get weird about it. whatever happened to the post-HoO fanon boom. the fandom needs to get weirder again. and self-sufficient. and less offensive.

[desolatediver]

...

[pyrriax]

ANYWHO goodnight tumblr i'll be back on the art grind tomorrow i think 🙏

[communistkenobi]

in the discourse landscape of gay shipping I think a crucial element is the underdog effect. official approval of your ship from showrunners (ie ship going canon) compromises your marginal status as a fandom shipper on tumblr, and in the long run produces a sore winner subjectivity where you must constantly insist that your ship is still good and subversive. destiel is a good edge case as it went canon in the most homophobic way possible, thus maintaining something of an underdog status despite it being explicitly addressed in the text of supernatural, while still ultimately losing its fandom dominance as evidenced by it constantly losing in shipping polls. ofmd shippers in this respect occupy a conflict of class interests in which their gay canonicity confers a level of comfort and stability that gay shippers who have to work in the posting mines doing web weaves will never experience. therefore, we can consider ofmd shippers to be the petit bourgeoisie of the fandom ecosystem, caught between the big bourgeoisie (tv writers) and the proletariat (stuckys), predictably choosing to engage in downwards class conflict to maintain their narrowly privileged status

[that-tall-queer-bassist]

hey, just as a btw, a fic or a series not uploading for a year doesn't mean its abandoned.

Sometimes the authors have shit going on, other wips, or! it just needs to sit and marinate for a bit. Collecting all the flavor and details it wouldn't have otherwise.

it's okay for updates to take a while.

And if you're impatient? Why not leave a nice comment telling us (the author(s)) what you love about the fic or series? say that you love it, and are "waiting eagerly for the next chapter" and/or that you "would love to see x or y happen because it would mean-"

This could be a new fandom vibe because of all the "i have to drop this while people are still interested" energy, but its not universal, and i don't believe its good for the fandom ecosystem.

Have patience, and have compassion. Remember that authors are human and these fics? (or comics, animatics, whatever) This is our art. We care about it just as much, if not more than you.

[mochasucculent]

Well your "Dumb thing that wouldn't leave your brain" nearly made me wake up my partner who is asleep next to me lol

Honestly this fandoms artists making Viktor and/or Jayce (honestly usually both I've noticed, its awesome) is so good. Makes me very happy to see so often, being transmasc myself.

I'm so honored by people legitimately laughing out loud at it lolol thank you

And yea I feel like trans Jayvik is such a beautiful self sustaining ecosystem cause I have seen so much trans Viktor stuff that whenever I see cis Viktor I'm like "where are his top surgery scars???" forgetting that he is not, in fact, canonically trans

[nauticaltrain]

is the way you interpret the stex characters, are they robots or a mix? since they don't feel pain, but bleed oil etc. what is the lore? are they built at a young age or are they built into adults? (p.s your art is delicious too look at !!)

ohohoho boy, the lore i have for you, strap in

(brief note, this is all my personal interpretation and is definitely not the word of god lol. I genuinely love every interpretation and believe that headcanon variety is vital to a healthy fandom ecosystem)

So, this is something I have thought a lot about and still continue to think about. I'm pretty sure I've nailed it down but it might still be a little nebulous so bear with me.

In the most basic sense, my interpretation of Starlight Express, and all of its characters, is that they are real world pieces of rolling stock that have the ability to shift between a train form (primary configuration) and a human form (secondary configuration). Not an uncommon idea in this fanbase.

However, I'm an overthinking bitch, and I love going in-depth on things like this, so let's expand a little.

There are three main phrases that I use to define my interpretation (headcanon? au? lore?) and to keep myself on track when developing ideas. Sort of layers, if you will. They are as follows:

Fabricated manifestation of psyche - This is rolling stock's appearance in secondary configuration, or what we see in the musical. Their human bodies are a cosmetic representation of their will. A psychological trick. It reflects their personalities, their jobs, their mental age, the demographics of the region they serve. There about a million different factors that go into how they look, and like us, they can't control it. (well, except for CB, but he's another story) It's important to note that this is a manifestation. They are not Transformers. Secondary configuration is not 1:1. There are certain things that get muddled in the changeover. Wheel arrangements being different, missing certain parts, changed color palettes. You could open one up and see parts but not in any sort of similar arrangement to their blueprints. I mean, who can honestly picture every single part of their body in perfect detail and then reinterpret it into a new shape? (this is in part my answer to discrepancies between the real costumes and my lore shh shh)

Counterfeit reflection of humanity - This is their minds. They are our copies. They experience everything we do. They work, play, socialize, fight, fall in love. You could talk to a piece of rolling stock and have a fully human conversation. They are people. However, the longer your conversation goes on for, you may notice certain...oddities. Gaps in their knowledge, speaking in rhythmic sentences, constant repetitive movement. Someone copied humans and didn't do the most perfect job. Like looking at human culture through a lens. Many a train has pondered the simultaneous existence of being machine and being alive.

Physical incarnation of industrialism - Now this, is the origin of all of this. The humans did not create trains to be the way they are. Every piece of rolling stock is designed as they would be in the real world: vehicles to transport people and goods from one place to the next. No one designed Greaseball's slicked back hair or big, studded belt, they designed an EMD E7 built for pulling fast passenger trains. My point is, at the advent of industrialism as we know it, the trains manifested their secondary configurations themselves. They are the offspring of humanity, sired by ingenuity and innovation and birthed from the overturned earth of the Industrial Revolution. No one knows how or why, they just are.

So, in summary, they're sort of robots? Sort of a power of the mind situation? Sort of my own self-reflection on the nature of being alive?

Bonus facts!

Indeed, they do not feel pain. In fact, much of their sense of touch in general is limited. It ranges from same sensitivity as human flesh (hands, face, wheels) to just registers contact (shoulder boxes, hip plating, couplers). I have a diagram of the exact distribution somewhere lol

They bleed? Kind of? If parts are pulled off or damaged, they sort of…leak. Also, if their fleshy bits are "injured", the wounds only heal when the actual machinery is repaired. Also also, if you remove a human part (arm, leg, head, etc.) it will turn back into a train part!

Their temperature resistance is notable too. Comfortable is between -10 F to well over 500 F. Anything above or below that, and they start to complain. Wooden rolling stock have a harder time than steel ones.

They're afraid of deep water and tornados.

In addition to their nails being painted in relevant colors (which I believe is a semi-popular headcanon already), their mouths are the same. Some more unnatural colors include, black, yellow, and blue!

Tall! Generally between 12 and 17 feet. Loosely correlates to their height in primary configuration. Some are the same height, some are taller, some are shorter. Really depends on personality. I contemplated once to have their heights be the length of their primary configurations, but that would result in some pretty awkward height differences and they would be too big for their loading gauge.

They always manifest as adults, or at the very least, late teenagers. They kind of age? Sometimes? Momma started out a bit middle aged, but Rusty has spent like 50+ years looking 25. Really depends on the person, workload, environment, etc.

[thydungeongal]

I think that 5E having fanbase that mostly doesn't want to play it is good, actually.

If they really outnumber people who want dungeon combat game, wotc can allow themselves to do a total reboot - make 6E a basically different game, keeping only six stats and foundational systems like d20+stat modifier and AC and HP and classes, but otherwise make a very lite-weight game suited for recreating actual play experience with found family or whatever 5E players want (I don't play 5E).

It's a decision that would benefit everyone. Wotc will profit off new players because they are already trapped in their ecosystem, and even if already avid 5E players don't want to buy new books, newcomers will. 5E players will get a game they actually want. Oldies who don't like it can just move to Pathfinder or OSR, so they won't be deprived of games. Hell, wotc may even start their official line of OSR with new settings and adventures and easily get a share of that market as well!

Like, D&D as it is already suffers from incompatible legacy that can't be thrown out without enraging fans, and if this continues for too long it will collapse. But this way it can survive by transforming into a game that 2020s fandom wants.

Games Workshop pulled way riskier move with Warhammer and ultimately succeeded, I think hasbro can do this as well

Thing is, I don't think WotC will ever do it, because they have pretty much managed to cultivate an audience that is so incurious about game design that they think D&D not supporting the type of gameplay they want isn't a bug, it's a feature.

Ultimately, as I have said before, D&D held hostage to nostalgia because it has to adhere to a certain shape of what D&D "has to be," and even though it's actually one of the worst games for supporting plucky found family heroic narratives people will insist it's good for that because the people in question don't think of D&D's rules in terms of incentive structures and genre emulation, but instead as just "stuff" that the game has which means that the game can do the "stuff." Basically, many of these people think of RPG rules in terms of the shape of dice being rolled, instead of the behaviors that RPG mechanics can actually incentivise and how rules actually shape narrative.

I do agree that D&D not being the game most of its players want it to be is good in some way, but not because I think WotC is ever going to address that contradiction: it means that the aforementioned incurious players who genuinely don't care about game design are kept captured within WotC's walled garden, but at the same time those people who do genuinely care about games producing specific narratives will have to look to reconcile that contradiction elsewhere. We just have to keep throwing Molotov cocktails inside of WotC's walled garden to make people aware of the fact that they live in a false paradise.

[kingofthewilderwest]

Am I the only one who feels like HTTYD isn't as memeable as Shrek or KFP? I know we have "You're as beautiful as the day I lost you." and the famous dancing Toothless, but that one was really from a parody recap. Other than that, I really don't see a lot of memes from it.

I think that means HTTYD is successfully doing its job with the type of narration it intends.

There are comedic lines like "talking fishbone" and "thanks for nothing, you useless reptile" that fandom has parroted since the early days. There's Hiccup encouraging Toothless while the Light Fury looks aghast as a meme template. And fandom can find anything to josh with, be it Hiccup's hot froglegs in HTTYD 2, or Hiccup's love affair with scrap metal from RTTE, or throwing everyone in the dungeon who made a Stoick joke (I am DATING my time in the fandom here, y'all). There will always be moments we play with, as it were.

But HTTYD, while funny, is built on heart. Shrek and KFP have heart, too (especially KFP), but they're built around different vibes (especially Shrek). Shrek was an intentional, abrupt, genuinely shocking aberration from animated fairy tale movies. For people who weren't around when it happened, there's a REASON it was a HUGE, rocking sensation and has become part of permanent culture. Meanwhile, KFP is a comedy action. HTTYD, at its core, is the story of a boy and his dragon, and a boy and his dad. I wouldn't expect fan response or general societal response to respond to these different frameworks the same way.

When audiences think about the impact of HTTYD, they aren't thinking about the pleasurable absurdisms that lead to "You're tearing me APART, Lisa!" or "I don't like sand" (which actually, for the record, I think is an unironically good character scene, sue me).

You ever watch a movie where they try soooo hard to be meme-able? Or they're throwing in jokes at places they shouldn't? I'm not not not saying it happened here, but one of the things I think THW could've improved was by reducing the number of gags it tried to run - while competing for time to emotionally conclude a sweeping trilogy. Sometimes it's not the place for a movie to have the content that'd make it meme-able. HTTYD's always been funny, yeah, and that's part of the franchise's charm. But different types of funny bring different audience results, and you ain't gonna beat Shrek when it comes for appropriate humor vibes for memes.

I could be forgetting a ton in my sleep-deprived state. But I'd agree it's not as meme-able as Shrek, one of the most meme-worthy pieces of media to exist. It means both have their place in the ecosystem of movies, and it makes both of them fantastic for what they are.

[patrice-bergerons]

In the reblog vs likes debate, the motto we should unite under is "reblog more of the content you like to see" or "tumblr is different than social media sites and reblogs are integral here for the ecosystem to thrive" rather than "likes are useless!!!" because the latter sets the counterfactual all wrong and is condescending to the large swathes of the user base who do regularly reblog posts.

I am a part of that contingent; I reblog often and doubly so for original creations like art and fic and gifsets. But. When I simply like something rather than reblogging, it's often because the post in question is not in one of my fandoms so not something I'm directly interested in or I disagree with some of the creative choices the op made but still recognise its beauty/value/the hard work that went into it and i want to give op a little pat on the back. When people say "likes are useless!!! and you suck for simply liking and moving on," the alternative is not me reblogging all of these posts i simply liked, it's me moving on without interacting, and I don't think that's a better world for the artists or my mutuals or for me.

We can encourage people to reblog more while still recognising the value of the little hearts that appear in our notifications from people saying good job! this is neat! as they scroll thru their dash.

[betterbemeta]

AI represents a unique threat to the 'fannish' or 'nerdy' creative ecosystem. It's infesting all creative spheres but fanart, fanfiction, filk (and its peripherals like 'covers of anime OPs') fan music videos or 'edits', fan essays/videoessays, fan films, and cosplay are in serious danger.

"You're on tumblr complaining like the things that interest you are threatened, of course you are, people are dying in the real world," de-cringe for a second.

I am talking about a greater trend or 'dominant strategy' for Online Engagement that sees all fanwork as only profitable parasitism of SEO keywords.

And Media IP is valued by its owners because it is potentially relevant to people.

And people searching for Topics online is, to a machine, data that depicts that relevance. But to human beings, that is 'a fandom.'

"But you can spin any petty online thing to sound apocalyptic," the global entertainment industry is worth over 2 trillion dollars. listen to me.

The issue here is older than AI Generated Media; AI has the potential to speed it up and expand the scope of the problem. In the past few years, leeching money from SEO and interest in popular IP has boomed as a gig. I can't write it all off as a Bad Thing because that could also describe a professional Let's Player or a patreon-funded movie critic. But farther away from normal human behavior the most cynical content of this type is a way for Content Creators to siphon money from an IP's existence. If they didn't get paid, nobody would make it.

For context here, your grandmother cared enough about her star trek 'zine that she was probably printing it and distributing it at her own expense.

Limiting to YouTube as an example, before the AI boom there were already videos that were churned out in industrial quantities to take advantage of search keywords. Maybe they are chopped up clips from a TV show to capture anyone searching for it. Maybe it is a fake/spam video that claims to be clips from the next episode but fakes the thumbnail. But the reason why these videos nobody likes still make money is the same reason that people are able to navigate AO3.

Fanworks and fan-culture-inspired creative work have very specific key words that a machine can learn. This is probably why also it's easier and more popular for AI to generate images or music in a 'genre': a 'novel' or a 'love song' can be anything but a 'fantasy novel' probably has 'dragons' in it, and a 'synthwave' or 'power metal' song are likely to have certain chords and instruments.

Something more recognizable than 'fantasy themed power metal' though, is 'pictures of Pikachu.'

But you don't even have to search for Pikachu or for Dungeons & Dragons; algorithms are good enough to try and predict what you might search for in the future. It is assumed that you might be willing to overlook a lack of human emotions in things you haven't asked for 'yet' because you might be peripherally familiar enough to recognize their trappings. It would blend in with the rest of what a computer has tagged you with, which doesn't contain your feelings actually! Only how 'likely' you are to be interested in an article/video/song with 'magic missile' in it somewhere.

When I think of fanworks I think of feelings that are so big that the original media can't contain them. A shift to a more machine-like outlook seems destructive to me, and like tapping your blood for gold, and also deeply antisocial.

[utdrmv-confession-box]

Transcript: ‪Honestly I hadn't expected myself to send an ask here, but I felt the need to say this. ‬

1. I highly respect the mod for doing things the way that they are; must be a quite exhausting, dealing with a bunch of confessions every day, and I highly encourage breaks. I'm always entertained whenever I see an ask pop up on my feed, no matter what the subject matter is. It's a nice hub, I guess. Keeps me connected in a way to the opinions of people I haven't shared a word with, yet am part of this community all the same. But I digress- its super cool. Keep it up! <3

2. What im confessing.

I find this fandom to be one of the most impressive I've ever really come across, what with how it interacts between members, and how it somehow both disconnects and connects at the same time to the OG source material. Part of our wild and untamed growth as a fandom is BECAUSE of the game that we come from. Undertale is a game about choices and their consequences, we all know that by now- but what I've seen for the past NINE YEARS is what's come of the impact of that chance, that opportunity to dive into another world and spread it apart like a rotten log to see what gooey and weird curiosities are inside.

And in that regard, I feel we're both the hands spreading it open and the bugs writhing underneath. What we've made, the good and the bad, is an ecosystem all of its own. The game is that metaphorical log. We merely live inside and around it, feasting off of it and spreading it even further.

That, to me, has always been gorgeous. It's a wonder of human imagination, in it's most convoluted and mishmashed form. That, if given the chance to peek and create from SOMETHING, we could do amazing things. Undertale was that chance. At least for me, that is. It certainly hasn't let go of its grip on my mind, that's for sure (send prayers lmao)

That's all. Ha, I'm tired. :'')) wanted to let all that out, in as much of a coherent thought process as i could. Thanks for the opportunity. This fandom just means a lot to me; i always found it to be something of a marvel, in spite of all its many, many flaws...(Sorry about how long this is!!! Btw!!!!!)

[pyrriax]

im actually going to explode i think. i think thats what i need to do.

im so normal guys <- had another fic idea. because im normal like that.

[randoimago]

How would Jolyne, Ermes, and Foo Fighters react if their boyfriend has a baby Burmese python as a pet? In Florida, Burmese pythons are considered an invasive species destroying the ecosystem of the Florida Everglades.

Fandom: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

Character(s): Jolyne, Ermes, and Foo Fighters

Note(s): Here you go!!

Ermes

She's a bit iffy when she sees your snake the first time, but she trusts you so she'll try to extend that trust to your snake.

Would gradually warm up to your snake while letting it slither over her. Ermes tenses up and asks you to take it away if it starts coiling around her neck. Even if it isn't restricting, she's not that brave.

Honestly, she prefers the python being your pet than destroying the ecosystem. She's not super nature-y, but she knows enough about invasive species being pains in the asses.

F.F.

Considering they're a whole colony of plankton, they aren't the most thrilled at the idea of you having a pet snake. In their current form, they know they could easily overpower your snake. But there's still that predator v. prey instinct that they have.

But I can see F.F. growing chill with your snake as time passes. They aren't going to let it wrap around them anytime soon, however. The last thing they'd need is the snake realizing that they could be a new addition to its diet.

Probably taunts your snake when you're not around. Just sticks their tongue out at the reptile and make taunts about it being stuck in a cage. F.F. just has a bone to pick with your snake for silly reasons.

Jolyne

She thinks your snake is cool. She debated on getting a tattoo of one when she was younger, but she's seen too many messed up snake tattoos. Your real one is cool though.

Jolyne has had enough of Florida's wildlife, to be honest. But if your python is just a good pet and not going to try to eat her then she doesn't mind touching the little guy.

She's really not scared of it at all. She'll touch the snake, hold it, let it wrap around her neck. She's faced scarier things than this.

Taglist:

@abellaheart-blog @joestarfoundation

[mdhwrites]

The Isles is Particularly Awful for Sequel/Next Gen Stories

With Belos gone, the Isles loses literally the only thing that makes it unique from any generic fantasy setting out there: The Coven System. Worse yet is how much the show tries to blame every bad thing on the Isles on Belos and his collaborators, portraying pre-Belos as utopian, so now that he's gone, you have to retcon that part of the show to have ANY real threats.

That's really the main thrust of this. I could expand but the basic point is that there's just nothing to do with the Isles that's better than doing it during Belos' reign. You could explore the Isles but now you're just messing with monsters in their ecosystem who were never a real threat in the show. You could try to depict the reconstruction but there's no tension between people of the Isles, just a need to rebuild. Besides, how do you even portray that when the Isles has zero culture so there's nothing to explore in how they are besides how they feel about Belos falling which is seen as a positive by EVERYONE if the group shot at the end, where even old enemies are now on Luz's side, is any indication.

Really, the only thing about the Isles that is still intact in a way that makes for interesting storytelling AT ALL is Hexside and pretty much just because it's a generic fantasy school that you can do whatever you want with. Which... Yeah, that's pretty much all I've seen. Despite the fact that the fandom immediately went for fankids after the finale, no one seems to have anything to do with them besides throwing out concepts and shipping. Or, you know, recycling old plot lines but with the new cast, committing the cardinal sin of next gen stories of just having an excuse to reset and retell. *glares at Boruto*

But what else are you supposed to do? Unless you want to say Eda and Raine failed in reforming the Isles, you have no conflict there. You either have to bring back old villains, bring in an invading force, both... Or change things so drastically that I question why you're not just doing an original story since you're having to put in that much work anyways.

I guess MAYBE you could do the Isles integrating with humans but like... The show made it clear that that's not a hard process either direction. And why should it be? The Isles is so generic as to barely feel like the other world that it is instead of just our world but with elves.

Even Amphibia, which ends similarly happy, still gives people more to do simply by the fact that it explored its setting. There's still so much out there. The three races still have to figure out how to coexist. Andrias wasn't a toxic power structure, he was THE power structure and the entire world has to recover from an incredible ecological disaster instead of just a glitter bomb.

So yeah, good on those who are having fun with their fan kids but I'll just continue to hope they don't try to continue TOH, not when they left themselves nowhere to go.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.