#like. do you know how many fandoms I've been in where ���the murder was hot” is the normal take? imagine if we all acted crazy about that lmao

[rotisseries]

this fandom really need to remember that liking villains is perfectly valid as long as people don't go around excusing morally-wrong behaviors.

i mean I'm hesitant to say things like "make sure you're not excusing morally wrong behaviors!" because. it's just like. an annoying attitude to have, like people don't want to have to post about their favorite blorbo War Crimes Mcgee with a paragraph long "DISCLAIMER: AS A FAN OF WAR CRIMES MCGEE, I DO NOT CONDONE WAR CRIMES NOR EXCUSE HIS ACTIONS" and also that is an annoying fandom culture to have to live in. like sometimes it's fun to just be like "haha yeah it was hot and sexy and cool when that villain killed all those people"

but like. everyone has their line in the sand for what's "too far" for a fictional character right? and everyone's is different, but for me and most people absolute no goes are things that feel, too real? I guess? like. racism, homophobia, domestic abuse, etc. are things that are always too far for me to continue liking a character. it's gross and unsatisfying to watch, these are things you're pretty likely to deal with in real life based on your personal life experience, and there’s really overall no way for it to be an enjoyable thing in the story right? but just generic murder is NOT most people's line in the sand

which is why like. there's a difference to me between b1lly stans and henry creel stans. like I just find henry stans annoying because of their lack of commitment mostly. they're all like "actually I theorize that he DIDN'T murder those people" BORING. say he did and you find it hot and sexy idc. also I don't find henry that interesting so by extension I'm not interested in the fanclub. but there’s nothing that actually grosses me out about him having a fanclub, because the murder is fictional and telekinetic and inseparable from the supernatural plot like I'm never going to run into a man who's actually murdered people with his mind and I'm DEFINITELY never going to run into people who hear about real not fictional telekinetic child murder and decide he's cool and sexy and also didn't do it or whatever

but b1lly. well. b1lly is a very real type of violence. there's lots of racist abusers and there’s lots of people who defend them so I just. can't get behind it at all. you DO have a point though that it would maybe be marginally better if they'd at least ADMIT that he'd done this shit lol

so yeah this isn't to say that like. someone's favorite character and how they talk about them is NEVER a red flag, but "this is my favorite character Child Murderer Jones, he murders children and gleefully boasts about all the child murder on screen, and I love him very much and have edited him with cat ears" is fairly standard fandom behavior and not worth moralizing, imo. and sometimes this fandom gets a little puritan about fairly standard fandom behavior

[utilitycaster]

What is the d20 meltdown about? 👀 If you don't mind getting into it

I literally don't know other than vague shit because I'm semi-avoiding spoilers. I'm making this nonrebloggable because we're in pure speculation country.

From what I have gathered, people are mad because I think the Bad Kids kill the Rat Grinders (another adventuring group that's been set up as their bitter, jealous rivals from the start) and they want...redemption or some shit? This is absurd to me like this party was set up as The Enemy from the start.

I am 4 episodes behind so I can't speak to this, and also I admittedly have a rather low opinion of the D20 fandom at large for a number of reasons despite being a big fan of D20 shows, but: I just by chance watched the scene that I would say counts as a point of no return for at least some the Rat Grinders. Like, actually some of the most villainous shit I've seen on this show amplified by how petty and small and purely fueled by jealousy the motivation is.

My guess as to why the D20 fandom is, per whispers on the wind/texting my brother who is caught up/talking to friends not avoiding spoilers, having a meltdown about it is because people have this idea of Brennan Lee Mulligan always making capitalism the BBEG, or occasionally religion or politics.

That is untrue. He does hate capitalism, and that is a theme in the (real-world-ish set) Unsleeping City, but ultimately the thing Brennan sees as the villain is a willingness to hurt, exploit, and dehumanize others for your own goals and benefit. Capitalism and religious corruption are two major examples of this, but in the end, the worst thing you can do is kill people out of a desire for power, or attention, or spite. What Brennan truly hates is what we on Tumblr call a tar pit.

Now. My much more pointed analysis? Kipperlily (and presumably the other Rat Grinders) are deeply entitled people jealous of the Bad Kids, who aren't as academically strong at times but who have leveled up through saving the world at least three times. How many people does killing rats so much that you hit the high levels of D&D save? or even help? Like congrats, you're level 14 from killing rats real good. These guys stopped the fucking Night Yorb. Of course they get the fame and glory, you entitled, self-absorbed little brats. Do you not understand how this fucking works? This is underscored by the fact that they've definitely murdered at least one of their own and almost certainly two (and a teacher to boot) at least in part to get at the Bad Kids.

And herein lies my feeling as to why the D20 fandom is really melting down. Because the loudest and most unpleasant contingent (which is probably why the server is, ultimately, shutting down all discussion channels) have always struck me as entitled self-absorbed little brats who demand precisely what they want when they want it (and also have the literary analysis skills on par with the 3/4ths of a stick of Monterey Jack cheese currently in my fridge) and they're seeing, in real time, that in this story, they're the villain.

But: I haven't seen the next 4 episodes and I could be getting the details of the plot wrong (not the first 15 episodes though, and I do not think the Rat Grinders are going to make the world's best Heel-Face turn in 3-4 episodes, and at this point they're so clearly the villains that to deny it is to admit truly earth-shattering levels of stupidity) and so: nonrebloggable. I'm hoping to catch up this weekend though on both the show and the hot goss, and if I'm right this will become rebloggable.

ETA: I am caught up making this rebloggable but I'm actually more confused, because as my posts indicated this was not even like, edgy. Like I assumed maybe there was a twist where the Rat Grinders appeared to regret their actions or something but failed to do anything about it, making this a little bittersweet? but no there literally was nothing, they went into the final battle still like hell yeah we're going to be the living worst.

[welcometololaland]

911 lone star tag game

thank you @tellmegoodbye for creating this tag and for tagging me 💜 sorry it took me so long to get to it. thanks also to @lemonlyman-dotcom @rmd-writes @liminalmemories21 @freneticfloetry

@chicgeekgirl89 @thisbuildinghasfeelings for the tags and @howtosingit and @captain-gillian mentioning my name, unfortunately for you i have taken that as a tag.

When did you first start watching Lone Star? Who or what introduced you to the show?

someone (it may have been @three-drink-amy) was yelling about the proposal in a group chat somewhere and i was stuck at home, injured, completely unable to walk, miserable and hating life...so I opened a YouTube video to see what the fuss was about. and then i watched all 3 seasons over the next 2 days.

Which season is your favorite?

three

Who is your favorite character? (Bonus: If you answered TK or Carlos, who is your favorite besides them?)

if you'd asked me a year ago, i might have had a different answer, but now (after over a year of almost exclusively writing carlos), i think it has to be him. i just think that i understand carlos a lot better than i used to. aside from tarlos...it's a hard toss up between grace and paul.

Top five episodes. Go!

you don't write 9 fics about push unless you really love push, so it's 3 x 04 every day for me. i'm actually sick for the pilot (1 x 01). i love a good origin story. my three others would be 3 x 13, 3 x 07 and a fight to the death between 3 x 18 for the proposal and 4 x 16 for soulmates.

If you could pick any character to be given a "begins" episode, who would it be and what would that episode look like?

i think the logical choice is nancy, because we really don't know a lot about her. the more she is on the screen the more i am starting to really enjoy her as a character and i'd like to know more. i'm also obsessed with getting as much reyes family backstory as i can. i'm CONVINCED tia lucy has to turn up somewhere. i need to meet that queen.

What is a scenario or storyline that you would like to see in season 5?

total cop out answer for me - i have no hopes because every time i start clowning i get the fear i might curse it. i'm just here for the ride, kids.

What do you think is going on in this still?

see answer above - i think the obvious answer is something about gabriel's death/the murder investigation but i'm not counting my chickens before they hatch or whatever the saying is. (also, they could def be trolling us and it's some scene in which tk is hangry and carlos is calling up the pizza place around the corner to ask where their order is because it's been 50 minutes and how long does a pizza really take?)

We all know about the elusive 5x05 spicy scene that has been teased, so what is your prediction for how it could possibly top 1x02?

it's no secret that i prefer sexy scenes when there's more at stake - a frantic hook up is hot but i prefer anything with feelings upon feelings upon feelings. so i hope whatever it is, it's emotional.

Where was the Tarlos honeymoon in your mind?

i wrote a whole fic about it, so it's hard to go against my own narrative. but i assume somewhere in texas. it definitely wasn't the under the tuscan sun remake carlos had apparently been dreaming about (but i hope they get there one day).

Shoutout one of your favorite fan creations.

there's actually too many to mention, and somehow even though i've only been in this fandom for coming up two years, i feel like i'm a relic 😂 i have so many personal favourites that have come across my dash (a lot of them due to fic/fandom rec friday which i miss with all my heart). but i do want to say that if you create for this fandom in any capacity, whether that is art, fic, gifs, vids, metas etc., your creations are such a gift. every single one adds something that the fandom didn't have before and makes us as a collective all the richer 💜 also, i think it's important to acknowledge the importance of the members of the fandom who are readers or beta readers, or even casual observers. everyone i've come across on this site or in the ao3 comments or discord has such unique experiences and personalities and adds so much flavour to this fandom! so thank you for being here! and thanks to @tellmegoodbye again for giving me an excuse to just ramble on about that.

an open tag because i'm very late, but if you haven't participated, please consider this a tag for you 💜

[feralkwe]

Character asks: for Thancred, 25 and 8. And 25 for Elidibus as well.

yay! i love doing these! you've poked the stick in the great places here! this got very long, lol, so under a cut it goes!

thancred. my pathetic wet cat. my try-hard disaster bab. my unexpected third leg of my ot3.

8. what's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

i can't think of any trend that i see that really irritates me, though part of that may be the corners of fandom i have tucked myself into. he has a lot of layers that i was too stubborn to acknowledge until well into the better part of shb, and i think sometimes fandom isn't forgiving enough after his growth arc, but honestly i'm really not too fussed because i think he skates through on hot white boy appeal in fandom at large. i think it's possible to appreciate where he started, where he wound up, and how he got there without excusing his many mistakes, but i also think it's important to talk about how he worked through it. so that's my answer: i think fandom is either too easy on him or too hard on him with no room for nuance. i keep saying i'm going to write an essay, but idk if thancred needs me to defend him. maybe someday i'll go feral and do it anyway.

25. what was your first impression of this character? how about now?

god i cannot stress enough how much i gave absolutely zero shits about him when i first met him. even given what happens with lahabrea, i wasn't really moved. he screamed 'bland white-haired jrpg protagonist' to me and i only cared because for some reason which wasn't clear to me until i read the short stories, minfilia gave a lot of shits about him, actually. and i adore her. i didn't care about his angst in hw, though he grew more personality and by the end of sb i at least went from indifferent to 'fine, i guess he's here, too'. then, like many people, i spent a good deal of shb utterly pissed off at him until it became obvious to me that he was, despite what i think a lot of people believe, trying his best while drowning in an ocean of trauma with almost no tools to handle it. by this time i'd read his short story content, and understood the context better. i was very ride or die for urianger from arr on, and yamisnuffles teased me that he 'comes with a husband' and i was determined to refuse. i couldn't tell you the exact moment, but sometime around going to the moon i suddenly gave a shit enough to select him as the scion who visits you in your suite at the baldesion annex. and, well, fuck off. i discovered i cared a lot, actually.

now i have a pathetic wet cat in my ot3. i affectionately call the eden raids 'kit's family camping trip'.

same question for elidibus. my ultimate angry murder and get murdered husband.

i have to start by saying that the ascians as villains compel me more than almost any villains in any media i've ever consumed. even accounting for recency bias, they utterly fascinate me, and i don't know if i've ever been so moved by villain motivations. the unsundered specifically strike me as so tragic that it makes me feral. even lahabrea, who i really find difficult to like. but that's retrospect after the entire arc of their part in ffxiv. after lahabrea and nabriales, elidibus came in with a different approach, and that intrigued me. of course i had no idea the larger role he'd play later, but the way he attempted to stand on a moral high ground really hit some buttons. again, i was really into urianger from the get-go, and their apparent partnership gave me a lot of OH NOES to latch onto. i think elidibus is the character that allowed me to really give emet-selch consideration beyond 'my bestie loves him' because he gave me an inclination that there was more to the ascians than had been revealed so far.

he piqued my interest, then enraged me because of ardbert, but the more i learned about his past along the way the more invested i became. the shb patches slowly killed me, and by the end of seat of sacrifice i was sobbing for him. he's just a little guy fighting for the all but forgotten souls of his people. he was pivotal in saving the world, driven to madness by it, and in the end, all alone as the last of the unsundered. yet there are characters within the narrative who lie about him and his motivations. i'm choking up a bit right now thinking about it.

suffice to say pandaemonium rewired my dna and entire brain. by the end of it i was devastated and so in love with him as a character it's almost embarrassing. he was kind, thoughtful, and gave of himself wholly to what he believed in. his connection to wol is so beautifully bookended by it, and the ways he winds himself with them throughout the entirety of the game just hits every character button i have. the very tragic wol/elidibus ship with kit wrote itself in my head from the moment you drop into elpis. i spent a lot of time wondering how he got from the careful man we meet to zodiark and beyond, which is what compelled me to write to the edge (and back again). now i kill him at least three times a week. it's fine. i'm fine. i'm very normal about the unsundered, and most normal about elidibus.

thanks for the asks! what a delight to get to talk about these guys!

[musical-chick-13]

Hey, I saw your post about female characters being ignored and not cared about, one thing I know and tha I've seen is that; even if the female characters and side characters were all female—they would still genderbend them, or latch onto two male characters who have done no shit and give them better characterisation, the fandom will also flatten, cut out, and remove important characteristics of the important female characters, while giving important hc canons and what not to the two male characters.

It is plain old fandom misogy and has always been there from the beginning.

"Even when women and girls are at the forefront of the story, men will always be seeked out in whatever ways possible, and centralised—female characters on the other hand, will always be judged or ignored; people do not want to admit it, but they still have internalised misogyny to worked on, 'fandom is not activism' gives them an excuse and cover to not examine, women's stories or inner lives don't and have never mattered to a lot of people in varying degrees."

Overall, I just resonate with your frustrations and thought I was the only one . . .

Oh, you have come to the RIGHT place, my friend, I rant about this every other day at minimum.

FEMALE CHARACTERS!! WILL ALWAYS!!!! BE JUDGED OR IGNORED!!!!!!!!! Like. Chainsaw Man and Game of Thrones/ASoIaF have been praised significantly for letting all of the women in them be extremely flawed and complicated in differing and interesting ways, and I STILL see people not engaging with them and/or reducing most of them to one (1) characteristic. (Cersei is a "crazy bitch," Sansa is "stupid" (??), Catelyn is a terrible mom, Melisandre is...there; Kobeni is obnoxious, Makima is hot, Himeno is the Worst™, etc. etc.) And there should be an overwhelming abundance of increasingly implausible f/f ship content, right? (There isn't.)

(And ohhhhh, people want to erase the importance of women to the overall narrative and its themes (and their canonical importance to other-usually male-characters) so bad, see: Cersei, Himeno, Irene Adler, Mary Morstan, MCU Natasha, Camille O'Connell, Bonnie Bennett, Lizzie Saltzman, Mai from AtLA, Martha Jones, tbh even River gets a fair amount of this. And then some of this is obviously combined with racism when the character is a WOC.)

And I don't have a problem with genderbending characters-gender is complicated, and exploring different facets of how a character might interact with the world if their gender identity changed is incredibly interesting!! But it's...very telling that, historically, I have seen this happen a lopsided amount in one direction, where the female characters are reimagined as men and not vice versa. (Remember when a not-insignificant number of people could only stomach BBC Sherlock/Irene if they reimagined Irene as a man? And then got mad at Elementary for CANONICALLY reinterpreting Watson as a woman? Good times. 🙄)

Just...so many of these wildly-hated or ignored women are...not any less complex than a lot of fictional men who get popular. (I'm sorry, you want to tell me that Misa is not at LEAST as interesting and worthy of sympathy as K*lo fucking Ren? When she has the backstory she does and presents an engaging dichotomy of "bubbly/silly yet murderous" and deconstructs the idea of extreme single-minded devotion NO I'M NOT MAD ABOUT THIS WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT)

And the idea of "fandom is not activism" is supposed to be used in the sense of "Liking a pRoBLeMaTiC dynamic/character in a story doesn't mean you think that behavior is okay in real life" (finding a fictional war criminal interesting doesn't equate to supporting genocide, exploring a toxic dynamic in fic doesn't inherently mean you hate victims, etc.), and "Paying lip service to marginalized/mistreated fictional characters is not the same as helping and supporting actual marginalized/mistreated people in real life." It doesn't mean, "We ignore obvious examples of misogyny and racism and ableism and transphobia and all other prejudices just because this is supposed to be fun." Biases are systemically ingrained, and any given person will bring those biases into all facets of their life; that doesn't just magically stop happening because one of those life facets happens to be a hobby or form of entertainment. Breaking down and dismantling prejudice has to happen on every level, including the """small""" ones.

The only time I have ever seen people engage with multiple female characters on a regular basis while admitting to their importance and narrative complexity and actually creating fanworks about them is Noir (2001). And that's because there are a whole 10 people in this fandom and the show has no men. (Okay, not literally, but you know what I mean.) And it's just so incredibly frustrating that that's the point we have to get to just for it to be possible for people to bother with a work's female characters on an enthusiastic, regular basis. (Because, as you said-that doesn't always happen even when those conditions are met.)

ANYWAY, I'm so sorry for making this response so lengthy, but genuinely I have been holding this in for a long time. TLDR, you're right and you should say it. You definitely aren't the only one, and I'm so, so glad that somebody Gets It.

[lovecolibri]

Any thoughts about why the 911 fandom has shockingly (at least to me) high levels of multishipping/willingness to drop Buddie as soon as new female love interests enter the picture? It's unlike any other fandom that I've participated in, truly. I'm not like...outrageously pissed because I recognize that this is a fictional show and I have real-life issues that take priority, lol. Buuut I'm about as pissed as I ever let myself get over fictional shows.

The reaction of so many "Buddie shippers" to Buck and Eddie's new love interests has been like cold water thrown on my face. I've seen people quite literally abandoning ship, even though we know practically nothing about these new characters and haven't even seen them interact with the guys, all because they are conventionally attractive??? I thought that people were joking at first, but now I'm seeing very earnest threads on Twitter and posts here on Tumblr about how these women are so hot and funny and sweet, and they'll make peace with no Buddie because of the "happiness" that these women will bring to Buck and Eddie. Whaaaat. Am I living in La La Land for finding this EXTREMELY strange??? We haven't even seen Natalia with Buck, or Eddie with Marisol, and we got, like, 2 minutes of Eddie with the other lady. Was it unpleasant like Eddie and Ana? No. But was it truly compelling, or moving, or anywhere in the vicinity of a Buck scene? FUCK NO.

At the very least, I wonder why these people are still blogging and tweeting Buddie content, why they still consider themselves Buddie shippers, when they've admitted that they'd be perfectly content to sacrifice years of Buddie potential and development for virtually unknown women. The reality is that heterosexual ships nearly always win out - especially on network TV - and seeing these people align with that against a same-sex ship? It gives me an extremely icky feeling. And if you point out that this is odd, you're suddenly accused of misogyny? Again, whaaaat. I'm having flashbacks to BuckTaylor, when a bunch of people jumped ship but quickly realized that there was NOTHING to work with, and tried to come back to Buddie. Maybe it's the same people doing this now! But God, if it's this annoying before we even meet the women, I can't imagine what it'll be like when they ctually enter the picture. I've already unfollowed 20 people and see that list only growing. Cultivate your experience, sure. But it's kind of sad because I tried to do that in the first place. Anyway, I've been pretty shocked by how quickly some people have turned on Buddie.

First of all, I will say some people are perfectly happy multi-shipping and that's fine! It's absolutely not for me personally with a couple I'm invested in (or for you apparently) but some people are happy going with the flow and there's nothing wrong or bad about it. They can still like Buddie and share Buddie content from a fandom perspective and be interested to see where the actual show is going with different couples. I don't get it, it's not how I engage, but I'm not going to tell other people their way of engaging isn't right, or that they can't share Buddie content at all if they are okay with Buck or Eddie ending up with someone else.

With that said, I completely understand how it can be difficult to see especially against a mlm couple that the show doesn't seem to want to commit to, but also refuses to clearly state it WON'T happen while paralleling them to the other couples instead of the other friendships on the show.

For me, I've been leery of following blogs since my season 2 RNM days which was lot of mass unfollowing, and again when I let my guard down and had followed a bunch of people and then s5 and LD happened. So instead of following a lot of blogs, I prefer to go to the search page in tumblr and just do "911". No hashtag so sometimes I get irrelevant things that were just tagged something like "hello 911? I'd like to report a murder" but it gives me things tagged with all variations of 911, 911 on fox, 911 tv etc, as well as LS content AND the search will not pull posts that have a tag you have blocked! So I have blocked tags for characters/ship I do not like, I have blocked anit-tags for characters/ships I love, and then I can see if someone posts content I enjoy but don't see any content they post that I don't like. I don't need to follow everyone or see everything on my dash because some blogs are multi-fandom for something I don't like, or some blogs post about characters I don't like, but not enough for me to want to block them entirely. And sometimes I don't want to block a blog that posts buddie fics I like, but I DON'T want to see other fics about characters I hate.

Filters are EVERYTHING and I think it's important to know you don't HAVE to follow blogs to see their content, you can just go into the search! You could do "buddie" instead of 911 and get similar results, even more so because it won't be pulling as much generic 911 stuff. I already filtered out the "Natalia" tag AND put it in my filtered post content just because FOR ME, I don't want it in the search, AND for people I DO follow, when that filtered post comes up on my dash I want to see which blog is posting about it and what my personal emotional state is in before I choose if I want to see the post or not. I'll probably remove the filter at some point, we literally know nothing about the character, but right now I'm not in a place I want to see it. 🤷🏻‍♀️ And that's okay! There is a lot of relief at knowing it's not going to sneak up on me unprepared. That's how I am currently curating my experience in full, not just my dash and I HIGHLY recommend it. Some people won't tag for things which is why the "filtered post content" is great, and I have also started using the "find in page" option on fics so I don't get jumpscared with an untagged character appearance.

So hopefully these options are helpful! It's what works for me, and while I do still block blogs occasionally, I'm also not going to be going to every blog and researching every opinion they've ever had before deciding on reblogging from them. I do often now do a *little* checking before I decide to follow a blog, but that takes spoons so typically I just stick with reblogging from the search and then checking my dash when my brain isn't in hyperfocus on 911 mode.

(so if you've ever followed me and I reblog from you and never followed back, this is why. I'm a little shy about following back after my bad experiences and don't always remember to check out a blog that follows me in order to decide to follow back AND/OR I see your posts in the search all the time so I forget that I don't actually follow you 🤷🏻‍♀️)

I hope you find some peace on your dash nonnie, but don't feel like you have to give up on seeing some good Buddie content from blogs just because they post other stuff you don't want to see. Filter that shit out and enjoy the Buddie stuff! Whether that means unfollowing and just seeing their posts in other reblogs or the search, or being fine with following and just scrolling past the "this post contains filtered content" notifications, whatever works for you! (I personally end up clicking the "see post" option and always end up as the dead dove meme, so unfollowing and just using the search works best for me since I have no self control.)

[olderthannetfic]

Sorry (and feel free to ignore) if this isn't your purview, but do you have any thoughts on the racism angle of the Anti debate? Not gonna lie, the most convincing (*and* the angriest) anti-AO3 arguments I've seen on this site were from PoC disgusted with how it wouldn't take down stories fictionalizing and sensationalizing stuff like George Floyd's murder, or Atlantic Slave Trade/Holocaust AUs. I haven't yet seen anyone muster a decent counterargument to that.

--

Beware of censorship because you may not be the one deciding what the bad content is.

That is the argument. People just don't understand it or don't agree with it.

Here's the thing: AO3 was explicitly set up to protect art, regardless of horrificness. That is the point. There is no such thing as beyond the pale for AO3, just legal or illegal. This is right there in the ToS. There are specific historical reasons why this is AO3's stance and mission.

It's not a stance and mission everyone is down with, and I can respect that... but if they want a different kind of archive, they need to make or move to a different archive.

Most fic archives have some level of taste or morality-based content rules. FFN does. Wattpad does. Skyehawke did. All the single-fandom or single-topic ones do, if only in the sense that they ban off-topic fic. The big non-English archives like Ficbook and EFP do. Dear god, especially, EFP where you can't write derogatory things about religious figures, among many other rules. Archives that ban tons of shit have always been the norm. Having multiple archives has also always been the norm and continues to be.

If people see AO3 as all of fandom, that's on them.

What AO3 is is one of the few archives that won't delete m/m or f/f dark fic and kink. This fact is directly tied to its extremely hardline anti-censorship stance. A lot of the anti-AO3 crowd fundamentally does not get why this is the case or dislikes how popular m/m is and doesn't care.

AO3 protects reprehensible art for the same reason the ACLU defends Nazis.

If that's not the kind of free speech above all organization you're into, that's fine, but then AO3 is not for you.

On a more specific note, I don't trust people demanding deletion because the vast majority of wanks aren't about things I personally agree are disgusting (hot takes on George Floyd or whatever) and are instead about My NOTP Is Inherently Bad shipwars or top/bottom fights. Or even worse, they descend into "This fan of color is a traitor for liking the wrong kinks". (If you think people don't call each other inflammatory language like "race traitor" over shipping all the time, you're naive.)

People always think they know when an author is white or straight because they write things Wrong or their mind is too fucked up or whatever, but it's bullshit. There is no reliable way to tell why someone wrote something or how much is their intent and how much is poor writing skill. AO3 is a safe space for writers to post without threat of deletion. It is not and never was a safe recs list for readers. That's not its aim.

Anti-AO3 people try to portray this as brave POC striking back against white oppressors, but that isn't how it ends up. Deletion tools are going to be leveraged hardest against other POC who fail to live up to some impossible double standard.

--

Now, as for whether OTW/AO3 should try to be better and help marginalized groups of fans of all types use AO3 more easily, of course they should. The non-bullshit version of that looks like better blocking tools to hide whatever you personally find triggering or gross. Blocking tools, not deletion.

Many anti-AO3 types dislike this approach because their abusive rants about how your kink is bad or you should ship het instead of m/m would get blocked.

But as lierdumoa said in a cogent explanation of how AO3 actually needs to improve, are people looking for solutions that protect POC... or do they just want a chance to punish?

[13tinysocks]

Something about there not being enough "Killer Y/N" in creepypasta fanfictions annoys me. Like it's almost always Y/N being the one to take care of the Creepypasta. And normally, I don't have issues with that, I love those wholesome types of relationships despite it being with murderers. It's a nice contrast. But the problem is that it's usually so unbalanced, like Y/N is doing all of the work meanwhile the Creepypasta treats them like shit. Going through so much angst drama that makes me roll my eyes instead of being invested in the story. Not to mention that Y/N can be written to be so annoying. Like wtf is up with that? I want to read a fanfic where Y/N is a killer that looks intimidating (and can kill you) but is also a softie. And where the Proxy/Creepypasta is the human who looks normal but is absolutely feral and capable of worse.

I just like the idea of Y/N being this super scary killer, and then standing behind Toby , shyly asking the waiter for no pickles.

Toby, a human who you can probably snap like a twig: Uhm EXCUSE ME, they asked for no pickles >:(= Y/N, a proxy who is capable of gory murderous actions, but is hiding behind Toby: 🥰

I hope all of this makes sense, this is just a thought that's been annoying me >:/

Personally I can't stand shy characters in any sort of media. When people write cpp x readers, typically younger writers but I've seen ppl older than me do this as well- they tend to shove all the bad stereotypes on shyness onto yn then crank em to 11. Where are the yn's that eat people? Where are the Hannibal kinnie batshit bonkers yn's? WHERE ARE THE JENNIFER CHECK KINNIE YN'S? PLEASE.

I know why this happens. It's people thinking shy = submissive and many ppl in this fandom are into that sorta thing but they tend to get a little carried away. You can be either of those things without being a cardboard character. You can be shy and still cap people. You can be shy and still strong as shit and fully capable of fending off that smelly fuck who keeps climbing in your window.

On the flip side, people who try to write a "badass" yn typically end up writing yn exactly how men write women in b-movies. Like the hot girl who hangs with guys and fixes car and has two brothers but has no visible muscle or actual grit type beat. It tends to be frustratingly shallow. I want yn's who commit acts of senseless violence because it makes them feel better about themselves because they're terrible people❤️ Just love me a yn who goes through evil character development completely. They don't just kill because Slenderman wants them to but because they need to in order to keep themselves propped up psychologically.

Also? We just need more mean grouchy fuck yn's. I want a bitch in stained clothes to call someone dumb cunt then kill em. (Can u tell I fucking love insane women?)

Now I get taking a more "realistic" approach to a yn. It's what we did with thio yn, normal and on the reserved side. But she also fights back, feels and expressed her anger, and comes out of her shell. Serial killers are scary people to be around. I get writing them as scared. Personally I enjoy writing a more fearful dynamic but this is because I like to use that further down the line in my yn's arc- to exemplify their masochism. I think it's an interesting concept to explore- how a normal person would get with someone so evil.

And can we as a fandom stop writing the weird shit where the pasta is abusive in every single way to yn and they're just like cool with it. I could literally list all the fics I see do this it makes me crazy. Where is the nuance bestie? Toxic relationships can be an interesting thing to write but hey guys maybe not uhhhhhh rape? Then yn's like omg 😳 so dominant omg I'll learn 2 love him. Bitch I'm gonna get you.

[tomatograter]

Do you think Dirk saying that he doesn't like to label himself as gay means he has internalized homophobia? Or does he really just don't like to put labels on himself? I've seen ppl saying it's homophobia but there's ppl in real life that don't feel comfortable with labels so I'm a bit confused honestly, cus we are talking about Dirk and he's... Dirk after all

Easy answer: Dirk is Gay.

Prolonged answer: I think it's kinda weird how some fandom discussion around "Dirk dodging the label in One pesterlog" has largely spiraled way outside of its original context to be talked about in a vacuum, especially when that context is crucial to understanding what is actually being said, AKA — it belongs to a deeply awkward conversation between Dirk and Roxy. One of Many they are implied to have had about the subject of Roxy's sustained, unwelcome, and oft drunken advances towards Dirk (& his splinters).

I'm going to reproduce it plus another bit of text down below, for the sake of comparison.

(To prevent the trickster text from looking like absolute shit, I have altered the background. Read the original here, if you're nasty: https://www.homestuck.com/story/5754 )

Now that we've been reacquainted with how and where that sentiment is expressed, let's try to break down what Dirk is doing here.

He is not receptive to Roxy's early advances, and spends most of the 'intro' for this conversation (not pictured) ignoring when Roxy flirts with him, until she gets upset at how 'boring' he is being right now.

Dirk is the one compelled to apologize.

He proceeds to shut the scenario down as an unwanted probability, eliciting further guilt-babbling from Roxy over how Dirk never wants to play along with the perfect traditional family fantasy, until she finally blows up and says it's because he's gay.

"I mean, yeah, that's what I thought."

Dirk, rather than saying I Am Not Gay, since he looooooves changing a conversational subject, claims that "Gay" is not entirely historically appropriate for this situation, given the non-negligible passage of time and the wildly dystopic circumstances* they find themselves in.

Dirk reassures Roxy he does still care about her.

Dirk is absolutely terrified of a similarly inclined (and intoxicated) Roxy up close. This is the most exclamations he's ever used.

Now, *These circumstances? The loss of 99% of the human race, including their society, customs, culture, and prejudices. (ALLEGEDLY.) It's important to remember that from Dirk and Roxy's side of the timetable, troll culture has been pushed as "the norm" for actual fucking centuries. HIC tried to recreate the caste system by artificially coloring human blood, leading to the death of billions. Faygo came out of the water tap, not water. Troll slang was incorporated into the English language. Humans ceased to organically reproduce. They were actively Discouraged from reproducing, since that's not something HIC could have total genetic control over; rendering traditional marriage and the concept of the nuclear family pointless.

You could also argue that same-gender relationships are not uncommon in Alternia, making "gay" altogether unnecessary by proxy, and that's true! But my point is this one: any union (or at least our society's holy concept of it) between straightie humans would be by definition undesirable under HIC's rule, too. She is the church, the president and the governing body. The population is only as good as they are assets for her to do whatever she wants with, including mass murder.

But wait! While that tracks… Roxy clearly still holds onto very 'conservative' definitions of romance for most of Homestuck. We see this multiple times. Dirk, as proved in conversations with Jake, uses 'gay' as an ironic pejorative. Suddenly it's not Historically Inaccurate anymore, Jake's interests are just gay.

Does this mean the context above is basically worthless, since they don't seem to have internalized it? No.

What must be kept in mind is this: Dirk and Roxy's only "active" link to de facto humanity is our society as it was in the early 2010's. Those glimpses they get by talking with jane and jake. They have all that dystopic context, yes, but the reality that seems the most "unfucked" to them for a grand majority of their lives are the halcyon years before the Condesce's rise to power: back when weed was illegal, BlogSpot was popular, movies sucked, MTV was still a hip channel, and gay generally meant something real bad. The wave of homophobia as a punchline or fear mongering tactic was at THE HEIGHTS. Marriage equality was a hot debate topic. Those were the dayz.

Dirk is keenly aware of the taboo implication the word "Gay" as a self-denomination carries. He's no dummy. But he's rarely direct with his intentions either. He's slippery as a bar of soap. (He's never "straight about his feelings", if you prefer.) And for a guy that cares so much about his reputation and maintaining a curated sense of utter coolness, he wants to avoid outing himself as any sort of weirdo no matter the cost.

But that's not all. I think the gravity of just how much Dirk believes he *owes* Roxy simply for existing as the last human in the same timeframe as her is a severely underplayed aspect of Dirk's core character, together with how much he tries to avoid her sexual advances only to end up feeling like absolute shit over it, because — if they truly are the last people on god's blighted earth, isn't he being "selfish" and "irrational" about not feeling shit for Roxy, in the grand scale of things? Is Roxy not his only friend in tangible reality, even if he avoids the mere suggestion of visiting her? Even if she gets black-out drunk and tries to push him into indulging her, regardless of how many times he's already said no?

(Spend enough time here and you realize how it directly mirrors the jane/jake experience.)

Dirk cares a lot about each and every one of his friends.

He pointedly adapts his speech based on whichever one of them he's talking to in an effort to express that investment. May it be reassuring Jane, fooling around with Jake, or trying to prevent Roxy from falling into a total catatonic doom-spiral; he avoids telling them anything that would be too crushing to hear. That's not what he's trying to do here. Not to say that he isn't bitchy sometimes, but that’s far from the central thing he does. The Epilogues have retroactively led people to believe that Dirk abhors and despises every single person he's ever been close to before (god forbid) LIKING them, and I think buying too much into that assumption ignores the foundations of his canon text, as well as the central motivation behind 99% of his actions in the story. This is the guy that grew up on Friendship Is Magic, has a picture of rainbow dash shamefully glued to one wall and a rainbow poster of Jake's symbol stapled to another, and everything he does is a little cringe attempt to demonstrate his worth by showing how much he cares about people, even when he's punching his actual feelings down instead of up and saying them.

Which brings us back to the load-bearing part of this question: Admitting to Roxy that there is absolutely no fucking way he will ever agree to having her babbys because he is gay is precisely the opposite of what Dirk wants to say, if his intention isn't pulverizing her. So he doesn't. And his worry on this regard is such that it prevents Dirk from even telling Roxy that he does love her, in the platonic sense, as a friend and hell-earth survivor, because he knows that specificity is what that would disappoint her greatly. (He only ever confesses this to Jane, on the death slabs.)

But also I think this is a really funny visual of Dirk's relationship with the word gay, to put statements into perspective:

[ruckystarnes]

Title: Why Didn't You Say Anything?

Author: RuckyStarnes

Characters: Bucky Barnes, Wanda Maximoff

Warnings: pining, minor sexy stuff

Rating: Teen

Words: 807

Written for: @buckybarnesweek2022 | @anyfandomgoesbingo

Event: Bucky Barnes Appreciation Week 2022 | Any Fandom Goes Bingo

Prompt: Day 5 - Seasons or Pining | Free Space

Summary: It drove everyone crazy to see them both pine for the other when neither wanted to say anything.

Type: Moodboard | Drabble

Since meeting Bucky as Clint's vow renewal, he had plagued her dreams. It started off innocent enough: playing games, sharing a dance under the stars, a horseback ride through the countryside. Things that were mundane and easy going until it started to take a turn: scrabble ended with kisses, dancing morphed into a make out session with pressed bodies, horseback riding became seeking shelter during a storm and needing warmth. She would wake up, her body hot and tingling, making her almost embarrassed, and she found it harder to be around Bucky, her face heating each time as her body yearned to find out what his felt like. Clint and Laura tried to convince her to talk to him, even Lila gave her pointers on how to engage with a crush, bless the teenager's heart. Even though Wanda could read his mind to see if he would reject her, she wouldn't, afraid that she was stepping over a line that wasn't there.

Bucky didn't know why Wanda would blush and her heartbeat quickening each time they were in a room together. They shared a dance at Clint's vow renewal, and since, he's been wanting to know more about the little witch from Sokovia. She started to replace the nightmares he often had. No longer were his nights filled with torture and memories of murder and mayhem, but now there was an abundance of light and life: Dancing, horses, and fun game nights. They morphed slowly, like a real life relationship: stolen glances were now met, touches lingered longer, and then there were the kisses. Many mornings Bucky woke up feeling the tingle left on his lips, making the dream feel much more real than it should have been. Steve reassured him that Wanda would not turn him down for a date, but Bucky wasn't so sure. Who would want a damaged man like him?

Months passed of everyone witnessing both of them pining after one another, Natasha and Clint had enough. They each sent a text, Natasha to Bucky, Clint to Wanda.

N: Need to talk. Can't over phone. Meet me at the cabin.

C: Natasha needs some help at the cabin. Meet us there.

When Wanda arrived, she thought she was early, not seeing Clint's truck or Natasha's car. She knew the door was open, like always (no one knew where the cabin was outside of Natasha's inner circle), so she walked in, her hands going to the pockets of her coat.

"They're not here."

The sudden voice of someone speaking had her jumping slightly, turning around to see Bucky sitting at the table, a piece of white paper between his fingers.

"When were you gonna tell me?" he asked, the corner of his mouth pulling up in a smirk.

"T-tell you what?" Wanda replied, her eyes shifting anywhere that wasn't his face as she chewed her bottom lip. She could hear the chair slide against the rough floor as his heavy steps approached her. Her heart hammered against her chest as his scent wafted towards her: woodsy, spicy, and oddly clean. He gripped her chin gently and turned her head so she was looking at him.

"That you liked me? At least that what the note from Natasha and Clint states."

Her eyes shifted to the paper he held up.

"Said that we both need to stop longing for each other and do something about it."

She looked at him with wide eyes, her mouth falling slightly.

"I-I didn't think you would want–"

"If you said something, I would have told you I've been dreaming about you for the last seven months."

"Dreaming about me?" she asked, shocked. "That's crazy, I've been having dreams of you too."

He gave her a smile, his hand moving to cup her cheek. "Did they happen to be about horses?" His chuckle made it seem like a joke, but it died in his throat when he saw her face grow serious.

"Horses? And a storm?"

He nodded, his thumb running along her cheek. "I don't care how or why, Wanda," he started, his other hand moving to her hip to keep her from backing up, "I like you, you like me. Obviously, Nat and Barton wanted us here alone for a reason."

She wanted to back away, wanted to use her magic to put space between them, but her mind went blank the second his lips ghosted against hers. Her hands left her pockets and buried her fingers into his chestnut hair, pulling him closer as she deepened the kiss. Every dream she had of him flashed in her head, and his moan made Wanda pull back slightly.

"I…I can't explain it–"

"Then don't," Bucky replied lowly, his fingers digging into her hip as the other slid to the back of her neck, pulling her into another steamy kiss.

[scandalsavagefanfic]

In your reaction to Nick Robles' Robins #2 pin-up cover you listed Jason having an autopsy scar as a sign that he cares about the character. I'm a relatively new fan of the him, so I wanted to ask why?

I haven't yet seen it in any comics and it doesn't make much sense to me. Both why he would still have the scar after both the Reality-Punch and the Lazarus Pit and why he would have had an autopsy (with a Y-incision no less) in the first place.

It seems to be something Robles consistently includes in his Jay pin-ups (and I'll admit it looks pretty hot in them), but is it actually rooted in canon?

I'm sorry, this is such an old ask though by far not the oldest in my inbox lol.

You're absolutely right that there's no canon precedent for the autopsy scar. 

I feel like Jason almost certainly had an autopsy. He officially died from asphyxiation from smoke inhalation. I know nothing about how and when they do autopsies but I feel like they need one to know that. Not to mention that to anyone who wasn't Batman or Joker, it appeared that Jason died alone, under very mysterious circumstances. His body was entirely broken in many ways that are inconsistent with an explosion, which he was also obviously in... I feel like doing an autopsy would have been a given to discover how this child who was so badly injured really died. Like I feel like it would have been a legal necessity. He didn't die in a hospital where things would have been documented.

The Reality-Punch obviously didn't entirely heal him. Employees of the hospital he ended up in after dragging himself out of his grave noted as much and Talia threw him in the Pit to heal his mind. Not to mention, how the Lazarus Pit works is so inconsistent throughout comics that it's basically a deus ex machina for whatever level of healing you need that sometimes comes with a side effect of madness and sometimes not. Some people headcanon that since scars are already healed wounds, the Pit wouldn't erase them, so if Jason had an autopsy, it would have had time to heal after he returned and before Talia put him in the Pit which wouldn't have necessarily washed it away.

So that's the canon.

The reason I said an autopsy scar indicates that he cares about the character is because its inclusion means that the person has considered how death might affect Jason after his resurrection, something DC does, at best, as an afterthought, if at all. And there are plenty of sections of fandom (and writers at DC) who think that being brutally murdered is something Jason should just shrug off. Partly because they consider death in comics meaningless unless it's their fav and aren't willing to consider the context of Jason's death, both in-universe and in comics history.

Of course, the inclusion of the autopsy scar isn't necessary to prove you care about the character. I personally don't headcanon he has one (I prefer the headcanon that the Pit washed away all of Jason's scars including the ones from being Robin that he was so very proud of and that the thin white line at his throat from Bruce's batarang in UtRH is one of his first new ones). But it can be a good shorthand for "I've thought about how this surreal trauma has affected this character and how meaningful that moment is for his development" which is more than a lot of people do, even at DC.

[utilitycaster]

i was thinking about your post about your frustrations with the way fandom talks about romance and True Loves—do you get the sense that there's been a bit too much romanticizing of the "i broke the world for us" line? because i feel like the reason it works is that it is, among other things, an encapsulation of how selfish the briarwoods were, rather than a depiction of a healthy romantic relationship worth preserving or emulating. and i'm sure the players know this, but with the way people have discussed that quote regarding imodna in particular, i'm not...fully sure the fandom does? it's like people want imogen and laudna to wrap their entire lives around each other to the exclusion of everyone and everything else.

like, the reason that line is interesting to me in relationship to percy/vex is that their relationship wound up serving as a narrative foil to sylas and delilah; while percy and vex very explicitly influenced each other not to go down that path, they also had several other people in their lives who mattered to them and impacted their growth. and idk i just get the sense that rather than examining the idea of unhealthy codependence, fandom just wants to see these two characters perennially attached at the hip, and i can't say i find that idea terribly interesting. (as you said, there's a reason the briarwoods were npcs; a dynamic like that among player characters could get very tiresome.)

You know, it's hard to say, but I think so. The thing is, it's a great line, but the context is actually quite important: Delilah says "I broke the world for us" as Sylas is being killed by Keyleth's Sunbeam, after the aborted attempt to summon Vecna. This is the line of someone who thinks she's failed; it can be seen as "I had to do all this, some of which I didn't particularly wish to do, and then I don't even get what I wanted, which was to spend eternity with my hot vampire husband?

In other words, I think a lot of people interpret this as "I would do anything for my love" and I think that's part of it, but there's also a not inconsiderable undercurrent of "I got in WAY too deep in the hopes of saving his life, and now I don't even get more than five fucking stressful years?" I mean, Delilah is not terribly sympathetic, because of the murders and the necromancy, but it is in many ways indicated that Vecna was rather opportunistic into calling out to a powerful necromancer who happened to be vulnerable and desperate. On some level I have to wonder if, perhaps, prior to her deal, the Briarwoods did have friends; and then with Sylas as a vampire and Delilah going harder on the necromancy work, they had to cut ties to hide the secret, or they lost those friends when they were discovered and kicked out of the assembly. We see them at a point where all they have is each other...but that could be the result of what they've had to do to have each other.

Regardless, I hesitate to attribute this to why people are weird about other ships; I think that comes from a lot of places, and honestly I've seen far worse justifications or characterizations of ships. I think some of this being brought up for Imogen and Laudna when the story has not really backed up that kind of devotion is just because Delilah is in the story and so they're reminded of it. But I do think that saying someone would break the world for someone else isn't necessarily a sign that it's a dedicated and all-consuming romantic relationship; merely that it's one with little foresight or sense of proportion.

[ravenkinnie]

TW: Drugs, substance abuse, murder, violence, the Punisher

Another potentially unpopular opinion I've seen on here (and one that I'll actually rant about) is that, Jason is the only good vigilante in the Batfam because he kills people (think the direct quote is "unlike those other feckless bitches" and something like "when you get saved by Red Hood, you know that you'll never have to worry about getting attacked by the same person again". I don't know how to explain to people that killing the type of criminals Jason killed in canon is wrong and harmful (thinking about the 80 Blackgate prisoners he poisoned - hmm you know the American prison system is pretty fucked up i'm sure they all totally belonged there /s). Like. Jason killing the Joker is one thing, but he literally hasn't killed the Joker - Dick did that, Bruce tried to, but Jason hasn't. But like some people make it out like oh, Jason being a killer is fine because he only kills people that deserve it - who, tell me who he's killing? Sex offenders and drug dealers seems to be the most common reply. And I won't touch the sex offenders but drug dealers? Have you heard of the War on Drugs? Have you seen what happens when people in power decide it's okay to openly promote the killing of drug dealers? I don't understand why people think it's fine for Jason Todd to go around killing drug dealers, as if they don't have families, don't have other things that put them in a bad situation. There's a reason why cops in the US (idk if they do this elsewhere) use the Punisher skull as their emblem - and if you advocate for a Jason Todd that punishes criminals, don't be surprised when the right wing weaponizes him against minorities and the red hood helmet starts to get painted on cop cars.

I wrote a paper on the Norwegian prison system which rehabilitates and releases even the "worst" of criminals and just... I live in the US and it seems like we (specifically white people) have such little compassion for anyone who commits crime. Even after the War on Drugs, even after we learned it was a scam, people fall for the crime and punishment rhetoric time after time. Like I live in a suburb where people are so scared of drug dealers my mom literally called our neighbor because someone cut through our yard (and she thought he looked high or something idk). Which I get it, my cousin died from a fentanyl overdose, I understand you don't want that near your kids. But incarcerating or killing drug dealers is not the answer, and I can't stand it when people take that stance on Jason. You can try to explain the 8 drug dealer heads in a duffle bag any way you want, but at the end of the day, I think the batfamily fandom needs to be more careful addressing this issue because demonizing drugs/drug dealers/drug users is literally one of the ways the American government destroys black communities.

And to think, the Jason Todd stan that this opinion came from replied to me because I commented on how Jason likes to run around in Dick's old clothes - something that has absolutely no bearing on his morals, other than he's thrifty which is a good thing actually, something like 85% of clothes ends up in landfills. Sorry for the rant, you asked for it. Sorry if anyone who sees this likes Jason Todd and is offended, you're not bad for liking him, he has an interesting story, just please don't advocate for murdering common criminals, specifically drug dealers.

AAAHHH NOO BUT IVE SEEN SOME OF MY MOOTS DISCUSS THIS BEFORE

sorry it's late and fucking hot I don't have the most comprehensive reply dbdnhd and I do acknowledge that at the end of the day this is fiction but opinions real people hold come from SOMEWHERE - and I think we have a very ingrained belief that crime/bad deed has to be punished and that there are good and evil people and good people only do bad things when influenced by evil people which is exactly the core of jason's belief - and that's interesting for a batfam character, a former robin!! I like when him and bruce are contrasted based on ethics but I don't like when it's meant to show that jason is right and bruce is wrong

batman is an extremely popular and fascinating character because at his core lies the idea that systems that are in place to 'protect' people are corrupt and it's down to individuals who can do something to go against them and look out for others - that's something that will resonate with people even if irl solution can't be to dress up as a bat and beat tf outta people shdhhshs

I have two points to make here:

a) I'm straight up a fucking anarchist who lives in the woods, thinks aliens are listening, and doesn't trust the government but I don't believe systems are corrupt, I believe they operate the way they are meant to operate to punish and control the populations that the system needs to be controlled to keep up the status quo - war on drugs is such a good example for that. drug dealer also exists as this boogeyman, this idea of an evil person waiting to corrupt and destroy the good people but the fact is: people don't get addicted to drugs bc drug dealers exist, people get addicted to drugs because something, not someone, compels them to do drugs, because something (literal us gov) introduced drugs to their communities and drug dealers are just tiny pawns in that game. additionally, many dealers are addicts themselves who got roped into selling to pay for their own use or who got pushed into the margins of society so much that drug trade is the only way to survive they can find

there are like, whole papers and books and thesis done on this so I'm not gonna act like I can analyse it in a tumblr post dhshsjsj but yeah people who think jason is right usually show this weird superiority of 'oh batman doesnt get how to fix gotham like jason does' and like... no, jason gets played like a fiddle by the system the way people he kills do, and whatever he does will always just hit the other pawns and never reach those actually at the top, those who are profitting from finding scapegoats

and like, batman comics don't have to address that bc it's comics, you can write small lmao but don't argue that jason is somehow more enlightened than bruce for killing

b) this brings a question of, if we decide that there has to be punishment for every crime, who gets to decide what punishment is right for what crime? cause there's not a single person who's infallible enough to dictate what the best approach is in every situation

and batman works best as a traumatised man who's loves his city sm he tries to work however he can to protect people from corrupt systems and offer them second chances wherever he can bc that's who batman is at his core - batman is not a punisher he is a protector and he should never be pushed into a role of the punisher bc he's not edgy enough

also bitches are so hard acting like they would kill every villain cause rip to batman but I'm different, y'all are too scared to tell the waitress your order is wrong shut the fuck up lmao the closest any of y'all have been to being batman is getting your ass beat behind the club on a saturday by brenda in her boohoo jumpsuit

[symptoms-syndrome]

What is your opinion on the movie Split, if you have seen it, with regards to how it depicts DID? Because like I feel like someone with DID would be offended but at the same time don’t KNOW whether they actually would be? Like when I see anti-asexual or anti-Irish sentiment and think “Hmm. Well that is certainly offensive from an objective viewpoint, but am I personally offended?” I do feel like if the twist behind the ‘Beast’ alter being superhuman was that he had been bitten by a werewolf, because there were so many hints towards him being a werewolf and the whole backstory they gave the protagonist about being a hunter, I feel like it would have suited the story better and avoided the ‘all people with DID are evil’ trope. Am I saying this right?

I honestly don't give a shit about it's depiction of DID if I'm being 100% honest. It didn't bring anything new to the table or introduce anything that hasn't been said or in the public consciousnesses. While I definitely don't think depictions like that do anything good for DID, I don't think they have the same level of impact that people act like they do.

I can't imagine any scenario in which someone would watch a movie like Split and think "yeah that's probably how DID works," like if I disclosed my diagnosis to someone and they thought I could climb up walls or whatever that would give me more concerns than "wow that's an offensive idea of DID."

Counter to that, I personally find some depictions of DID made by people with DID (or supposedly with DID) more offensive than Split. Things like TikTok or YouTube videos where alters are all super defined, switches are clear, all the parts are fun and cute and it's just presented as "LOL fun people in my head! Watch different alters react to flaming hot Cheetos!" Or "informational" posts about "how to react to someone with DID" that say things like "ask who's fronting! Don't act entitled to niceness from all alters! Give stuffies to littles!" are for me, far more offensive mostly due to them being more, IDK, realistic? Or grounded or believable. Like someone is more likely to believe I want to be greeted by part name all the time than they are to believe I have an alter that can bend steel bars. Maybe that's that person's experience, but they're often framed more as a "universal" experience with DID, which is worse than smth like Split, or even smth like that documentary about that murderer with DID, because both of those are sort of like. About one specific person more than they are about DID on a whole I guess? Or present themself as such.

I did think it was a shitty movie just from a movie standpoint LMAO. It was just kinda boring.

But also when it comes to media in general I think people do put a lot of undue weight on it, sorta putting the cart before the horse and focusing on the wrong things. Like I honestly rly enjoy United States of Tara even tho it's like, in my experience not really accurate at all to my experience with DID or a lot of people I know. It's entertaining, and IMO that's the main like, priority with media. And like, re:cart before the horse, it's almost like acting like Sixteen Candles' depiction of an Asian man is why those stereotypes exist, as opposed to that depiction being a reflection of already-existing racist ideas.

I also really love Fight Club, even though it (if you look at it through the Tumblr-typical very narrow lens and strip all nuance from it) could be said to fit some offensive stereotypes I guess. It's to date one of the best depictions of dissociation and confusion about time loss stuff I've found describing my experience. I related to it really hard NGL.

I guess the TLDR here is that I think there's a diff between "offensive" and "inaccurate" as well as a difference between smth being offensive in a hypothetical way as opposed to offensive in a way that like. Actually matters. I think people get really caught up in media stuff bc they have Tumblr fandom discourse disease and it's an easy thing to be like "that bad" as opposed to things more nuanced.

[wickedpact]

A ranking of all the TTT stories in order of how much I liked them.

(Oh god this is so long)

1 My Mother's Axe

BABY ANDYYYYYYYYYYYY. Honestly this one had the trifecta of developing a character's motivations, developing a character's backstory, & developing their personality. The story starting out with Andy teaching Nile to use the axe was so charming and fun, and you could feel that chemistry they had in Opening Fire, the way they teased and bickered with each other so naturally. I loved the wedge between them on the subject of the axe, how Nile was perhaps a little too young to understand Andy's feelings about whether or not its the 'same' axe. I also love how the axe is obviously the symbol of the franchise and hugely important, but you never get a sense of exactly how important it is to Andy until you read the story.

I love the entire Ship of Theseus theme, and how it feels so natural that for Andy she has to get attached to the idea of things rather than the things themselves because she'll always outlive the things themselves-- the axe is symbolically her mom's axe, even if physically it isn't. And I love how she clearly clings to that concept so tightly. "This is the labrys she held in her hands...." IT GETS ME.

And the fact that this sense of BELONGING, of FAMILY, of CULTURE is so important to Andy that she clings to it (figuratively and literally) with both hands. And of course it's important to her, she spent so long alone that the woman doesn't even remember her birth name. That axe (or the idea of that axe) is all she has left of her mother and that family/culture she was born into.

PLUS on that note I love how Andy doesn't remember if her mom was her actual biological mother, but it doesn't matter to her. This woman was her mother in all the ways that counted. And how her mom BETRAYED AND KILLED Andy but Andy loved her so much that she avenged her and carried her axe for thousands of years. THOUSANDS OF YEARS!!!!!!

I also loved how the story transcends the timeline of the whole franchise and seeing Andy through the years. Loved seeing her with the varying squads and with varying axes. Also baby Andy was so cute. It was cool seeing her so young. like holy fuck. Andromache The Scythian, Immortal Warrior (but smol). Love that.

Also I think this one is one of the few ttt stories that doesn't suffer from length problems.

tldr: goddammit greg you've done it again.

2 Zanzibar and Other Harbors

Zanzibar my beloved. I've said before, but it's downright comedic how little regard there was for Joe and Nicky's character designs in this story. The same person who does the colors for the regular comic did the colors for this one too, and you can tell, every panel of this story was Beautiful.

Ik there was A Lot of criticism of this one (lmao @ how the fandom had no idea what was to come) but I thought a lot of The Discourse was a bit dramatic. I did think Nicky came off as a little oblivious to Joe's feelings in this story, but I've said before, I honestly think that was a 'tone not translating' thing. It felt like Nicky was nagging Joe for [checks notes] saving innocent people, but Joe was so amused by Nicky's complaints I really do think it was supposed to come off as teasing.

Plus I know the 'Joe running off into danger and Nicky reluctantly following' dynamic wasn't popular (I'm a pretty meh on it meself) but I did love how Joe's impulsiveness (if you want to call it that) was interpreted as heroism and not hot-hotheadedness. All of the examples Nicky and Joe talked about included Joe explicitly saving people. (and it also took A Lot for the nazi to actually provoke Joe).

I also feel like their characterization here was closest to the movie canon-- the bit where they hear the woman scream and Joe goes running in to save her while Nicky swoops in on Joe's heels to comfort her while Joe and the nazi were fighting reminds me of the train car scene. Joe had suggested First that they go find Nile because she needed to be protected, and Nicky later added that Nile probably also needed emotional support. Similar reactions.

But it was So Good, the themes of queer community and the enduring nature of queer culture are Not themes you see in media that often and it was such a delight how it was done. Also it's one of the few more modern TTT stories that has a completely valid excuse for taking place when it did. Chef's kiss.

3 Passchendaele

I love the Duality between seeing baby Andy and then seeing Mama Andy in the very next issue. This story doesn't have a ton of meat to it, but the entire concept of Andy adopting a war orphan straight off the battlefield PLUCKS MY TENDER LITTLE HEARTSTRINGS, and I think it's especially poignant for comic!Andy. I think most people wouldn't think twice about movie!Andy doing something like that but comic Andy is so hardened and almost cruel sometimes, and seeing that even for her the world hasn't beaten all of the compassion from her yet is SO!!!!!!! this woman contains MULTITUDES okay, she's violent and angry and tired and Done but she's also so kind and compassionate and THE STRENGTH OF HER!!!!! Also the idea of her and Yitzhak co-raising a kid together is so damn cute. It was #mysterious pre-Yitzhak-story but now it's cute. holy fuck. It's cute.

& the headbonk panel of her and Zeus lives in my heart. anyways.

4 Many Happy Returns

I Know people weren't thrilled about Booker being in this one, but I've developed a pet-peeve about that: this story was *not* booker-centric. Booker only exists in this story to the extent required to explain the importance of the gesture Nile makes towards him. If there was a story about Booker making some grand gesture of kindness to Nile no one would be saying it was Nile-centric. bc it wouldn't be! Booker exists in this story to explore Nile's kindness, its not about him. I saw that a couple times and it bothered me. anyways.

AAAAAAAAAA I loved this one, the art was beautiful, I loved how Andy Nile and Booker were drawn (like their comic selves but.. more looking like actual people). I loved Andy and Nile's Bants, how Andy wanted to jump right in and Do Violence but Nile was basically telling her to hold her horses.

I feel like I'm just repeating the post I made on this story a few days ago, but I LOVED how Nile's plan revolves not around violence or Cool Mercenary Skills but on Nile's own life skills (as she canonly did a lot of minimum wage job-hopping before the marines in comics canon). Her plan used her skills, not the skills of an immortal warrior, and HER SKILLS were in fact more useful for the situation! lov to see Nile's resourcefulness and planning skills.

AND HOW NILE WAS PROBABLY WATCHING BOOKER??? it's so Much bc 1.) nile knew booker A SINGLE DAY and yet he made such an impression on her emotionally that she had to keep an eye on him and 2.) she said in the movie she wanted Booker to get off free with an apology. Yes she's a member of the team but that doesn't mean she's necessarily going to follow orders like a good little soldier. I also love how she convinced Andy to go along with it. her HEART, her KINDNESS, her THOUGHTFULNESS, UGH.

5 The Bear

Honestly I have like no negative things to say about this one other than a.) character design issues which is less about the story itself and is more of a 'tog comic in general' criticism and b.) too short, but it was supposed to be a tease, so.

But I loved Yitzhak, I wasn't expecting to really like him at all but like I said in my other post, he tickled me. I love characters who are Kind™, especially if they have little reason to be so given their backgrounds. Chef's kiss. Lov him.

6 Bonsai Shokunin

I know this one was a little controversial bc of the outsider POV but whenever I see people upset about that they never point out that the Outsider Guy (the samurai) existed as a reflection on Noriko. His ideas are explained in the text to develop hers. The whole story follows how she gave mercy to a scared young man and in response he murdered Noriko, repeatedly! Who gave him the right to inflict such pain and suffering on the world? In his opinion, the lack of response from the gods was his permission. And for Noriko-- over and over again she dies and suffers because she gave mercy, which lines up with her ideas in FM about how it's their fate to rule mortals and if they don't align with that plan/fate/whatever then they suffer. It shows some background to those ideas and how they developed in her mind outside of Ocean Madness™. Additionally, his idea of 'the Gods have done nothing to strike me down so it's fine if I do these things' kind of explains how Noriko may justify her own morally corrupt actions-- she's died so many times and it's never stuck. Maybe if she did die any of those times, or while she was in the water, maybe that would've been a sign she was doing something right, or at least doing something normal. But she hasn't died. Fate isn't done with Noriko yet. And maybe there's a reason for that. In her mind, it's just not a very pleasant reason, is all.

There were things I was kind of meh about tho. I did kind of wish we saw something of Noriko and the team, or smth explaining the way she was before her dip in the pool-- personality, likes dislikes, etc. but it wasn't bad or anything. It was super vague tho, I had to read it a few times before I got what it was going for. Liked the art. Liked the bonsai metaphor. And of course I Respect the decision to use the 1300s (1200s? I don't remember off the top of my head) rather than using the last 200 years.

7 Strong Medicine

Honestly looking back, this one made me kind of sad because both this one and Bonsai Shokunin explored character's ideas on Fate and The Divine and how that intersects with immortality and I totally thought that theme would be continued, especially with Love Letters. But Then It Wasn't™.

Admittedly.... I had to re-read this one to remember most of it. I liked Booker's ideas on God, 'The conductor of the symphony just may not be very good at his trade' but the plot itself was kind of forgettable. Some fuckin cowboys try to kill a doctor (their second) because he couldn't save their sickly brother. Book tries to stop them, gets killed, and then comes back and kills them all before they get the doctor. Alright. I liked the artstyle because the characters were ugly in a similar way that leandro's are, but way more bearable.

I love the Irony of Booker concluding that there is no such thing as fate or destiny and nothing has meaning, AS HE UNKNOWINGLY SAVES MERRICK'S GRANDFATHER FROM BEING KILLED. Booker getting fucked over by life/god/destiny yet again. It also kind of explains about where the fuck hell Merrick's interest in immortal mercenaries even came from.

I originally had this one a lot higher and then I thought about it and moved it down like two spots.

8 Never Gets Old

I liked seeing Booker interact with his kid. And we got a name for the kid! Philippe was a little bitch though, he was a little obnoxious. I liked how Booker was so thrilled to experience a restaurant with his kid (and since we know he was there before, it can be assumed he went with all of his kids and yet he was so charmed each time). It fits with his line to Nicky in the moon landing story about how you don't appreciate beautiful things 'unless you have someone to share them with'. It was charming to see Booker interact with his kid, and to see him so happy. Also lmao @ Booker's big fat Ye Olde Crush on Andy.

However at the same time it was like.. of all the things to write about,,, I guess? Booker's Night Out...... alright. Especially since Book had so many stories.

I don't know, it was alright. The old man killing him really came out of nowhere, (but the 'Salut, asshole!' panel was funny tho).

9 How To Make a Ghost Town

I've hit a point where talking about these stories has gotten less fun. I liked this one but I felt like Achilles getting lynched was not really necessary for a story that was already tragic (a story that already involved Achilles doing a lot of suffering at the hand of bigots). When we first got the blurb for this story I thought it would be about Andy returning to the squad and making friends with Booker after losing Achilles and them butting heads on the idea of family and when to cut off ties. So a little bit of my underwhelmedness about this one might be just my expectations being different.

Honestly I was pretty interested in Andy and Achilles' relationship and I would've liked to see more of them-- like, what was their dynamic like? What did they love about each other?

But anyways Andy leaving and Achilles getting killed anyways feels so pointlessly tragic (which I suppose is the point..... I don't like tragedies) she left to save him and yet people killed him anyway. Meh.

I did love the bits about Andy wanting to have a domestic life (Andy and her multitudes again) and the little detail about how she buried her axe near the road but he buried his guns under his bed-- he was an escaped slave, he never had the luxury of assuredness like Andy did. It was a sad story.

10 Lacus Solitudinis

'You put this one above love letters crim??? how could you???' easy, lmao.

There was stuff in this one I liked. But to talk about stuff I didn't like: (I'll keep it brief, I know ragging on this story has been done time and time again)

UH, setting aside the 6 year cold shoulder between Joe and Nicky, I thought their chosen method of conflict resolution was... bad at best. Nicky's inability to talk about his feelings was also annoying, especially since the entire point of this story is a fight Joe and Nicky had, and yet we don't get both sides to the story, which is...... important? That fact is especially annoying bc in the absence of Nicky explaining his side of the story, it's absolutely a possible (and admittedly probably unintentional) interpretation of the text that we do get that Joe routinely resolves conflict between him and Nicky by simply cutting Nicky out of his life entirely until Nicky just. caves? Even if it takes years?

WHICH i could get into that interpretation and how fucked up i find it. but im not going to. out of restraint.

I don't know, I think there are a lot of interesting ways to go about this conflict but 'Nicky wants to kill a guy and Joe refuses to acknowledge his existence until he stops because he thinks Nicky is too much of a Good Boy to get his hands dirty like that' ('I wont watch as the world turns his (...) compassion into something ugly'. ) wasn't.. how I would've done it. (I mean you know Joe doesn't give a shit about what Nicky is doing in a moral way, because Joe doesn't even care or mention that Booker is killing those cops too. Joe only cares because he doesn't like the idea of Nicky changing in a way he finds undesirable.)

admittedly I've said before, I do like the emphasis Joe's reaction puts on Nicky's kindness. Joe has a complete inability to cope with Nicky simply Not Being Kind. It speaks to the steadiness of Nicky's compassion all those years. but still that fact doesn't make it the conflict feel worth it

hm. I said I would be brief and I wasn't.

oh well. basically I thought there was interesting conflict potential there but it wasn't done the way I would've liked, and the way it was done leaves a lot of disturbing (and again probably unintended) interpretations to lie.

What I did like? Andy and Joe having that pessimist/optimist dynamic. Joe nerding out about science. Andy not being impressed by The Achievements Of Man. I loved Booker needling at Nicky about his outdated slang and also trying to give him Older Brother advice practically in the same breath. I loved Booker giving The Worst relationship advice ever and Nicky being like 'I Will Not Do That, Ever, Thanks.' the family vibes were so good. The Joenicky vibes left a lot to be desired tho.

11 Love Letters

I talked about my problems with Nicky in this story (and Lacus Solitudinis). I don't know, the story isn't bad but I do hold a little bit of a grudge towards it because its very existence begs the existence of a solo Joe story and we didn't get one. If we never got this story, then we could happily count Lacus Solitudinis and Zanzibar as The Joenicky Stories™ and move on with our lives. sigh.

I remember when we first got the blurb for this story I was really curious about why Nicky specifically + the setting, and the answer kind of feels like 'the author had an idea for a story like this and saw ttt as a good enough place to utilize that idea'. Plus I was really underwhelmed by the Romantic Sentiment in the letter. If you look at it line-by-line, the majority of the letter is actually Nicky talking about how lonely and disturbed he is, rather than actual,, yknow,,, Romantic Sentiment. I mean, compare the van speech and this letter and this letter is just kind of meh in comparison. I liked nicky calling joe wise! and I liked the brief sun/moon metaphor! and otherwise it was eh. It didn't even have cute squad banter, which is why Lacus Solitudinis is above this one.

12 An Old Soul

Nun orgy. Nun orgy?????? Nun orgy.......

The whole story felt like a setup to have a nun orgy. Why did Booker have abs? Why did they do that to Andy's nose? ?????? the art was good at least.

nun orgy.

[madara-fate]

"I'm not gonna say one side is better than the other. All I can comment on are my experiences on the matter, and for me, the Sasuke mischaracterisation in the SS fandom has been far more prevalent, and was the primary reason I stopped reading fan fics years ago (at least not from people I don't know and trust). Now obviously, I'm not about to use my personal experiences to indicate what the general trend is, but it was enough for me to have a rather firm perspective. "

I can understand your side. I've never liked the mischaracterization of both characters within the fandom and it is the main reason why I usually don't read ss fanfictions, neither get excited about them overall. But I find absolutely gross how these kind of Sasuke stans villanize the whole fandom or make stupid claims like "SS fandom don't care about Sasuke", "All they care is Sakura being shipped with hot guys" or attacking Sakura and her fans because in x ss fanfiction Sasuke is treated badly. I never seen this type of energy when Sakura is portrayed being cheated on, abused and despised by Sasuke in popular ss stories, neither I or another Sakura fans who dislike this mistreatment and also support the couple started to shit on Sasuke because of it. But it's exactly what these specific Sasuke stans do with Sakura, this is why I talked about the "weird sense of entitlement" in my first ask. I also dislike how some of them started this conspiracy against the whole ss fans "not caring about Sasuke" using for example, how he's treated badly in a lot of ss stories or how part of the fandom defend her more. The first case also apply to Sakura. There are many stories where she's portrayed really badly, some of these stories aren't even written by genuine SS fans(yes, some writers just use their popularity to get a better audience), there are fans that know more about the common tropes about their writing in fanfictions than their canon selfs, there are some fans who do not understand both characters, etc.

Second topic, it's true that nowadays Sakura receives more attention of the fandom... But instead of these Sasuke stans treat it as a conspiracy, why don't they put 1+1 together and talk about the far more hate she and her fans get? I don't see (at least, not often) Sasuke fans being harassed because they create stuff about him (fanarts, cosplays, a simple post in a Twitter, etc) but it happen to Sakura and her fans in a daily basis. It's absurd considering the fact that she isn't real, but we can't make a post without these haters pop-up from nowhere with very nasty comments, some of which are death/r*pe threats. I was part of the Naruto Fandom years ago and these people even dedicated fanarts of Sakura being brutally murdered by different characters or being r*ped. They call the fanbase toxic now because most of the fans stopped endure the years of harassment in silence and started to give them the same energy (even though I won't deny the fact that Sakura fanbase has a lot of shit people, like any other fandom has their bad apples) but still, they don't care when her fans have been attacked with racist/sexist slurs over a decade.

Another observation toward this topic: Sasuke, despite being unfairly hated and misunderstood by big portion of the Western fandom, also has one of the biggest fanbase and is loved in Western. It's impossible compare the kind of hate they both get and we can't forget that even some of the bash he gets is just another way of bashing Sakura (the same goes to Sarada).

To finish this long ass ask (sorry for this), I was really bothered by these kind of attitude from these said stans, considering how these same people act exactly the way - or worse - they are complaining about. I wish you a nice day. 😊

Well, I've made my perspective on the matter clear, and I'm going to stick with it. I can understand the frustration you feel towards these extremists Sasuke fans whose behaviour leaves a lot to be desired, but I still very much believe that the Sasuke mischaracteristion within the SS fandom is on a much greater scale. That's not to say that I think those Sasuke fans are in any way better, but it's just a trend that I've noticed regarding the mischaracterisation specifically.