#mostly about how WRONG fandom is

[thelaurenshippen]

genuinely think it's good and healthy to follow at least one person in each of your fandoms who reblogs good gifsets but has just...absolutely dogshit takes on the show, or who ships that ship you despise. keeps things fresh. keeps things grounded. you gotta stay humble

[the-way-astray]

alright everybody can we please stop tagging me/talking about me in the notes of pro keefe/sokeefe posts. i know strieefe has made it so that it's really funny to talk about how much i love him and how much i'm in denial when i say negative things about him under those posts (and that's all in good fun and not the problem), but we have to think about the fact that the ops are just trying to make a positive post and probably don't want a keefe hater in their notes /srs

[dykedvonte]

why do you hate Joshua Graham or Honest Hearts so much?

This DLC and character represents a bigger issue with fandom spaces I have but particularly fallout fandom in general.

Fallout tends to tackle a lot of topics controversial and not. The first two games it’s heavy cause they are the most satirical and direct with how anti-war, nationalism and etc… they are. 3 loses this as it’s very clear once you play or learn about all the games that Todd and a bunch of guys at Bethesda just liked the 50s post apocalyptic aesthetic and refuse to actually critique the ideals of the time period like the earlier titles.

New Vegas is the game that really gets back into it a degree it almost seems like it’s taking too much on. There are things done exceedingly well while other things are done horribly wrong . I’ve made posts about it before and plan to make a big series of posts (it’s a lot of writing) but my biggest gripe is with Honest Hearts and all the gross and white savior esque depictions it has of indigenous peoples. The entirety if FNV does not do the injustices faced by indigenous people correctly on any count. My two biggest complaints are with the Khans and the tribes in Zion but I’ll talk about the former on a different post.

Both characters of Daniel and Joshua are the most accurate depiction of white saviors I’ve seen and I hate how the DLC tries to justify and defend them. The DLC treats Joshua like this man who has repented for his past actions when he is just retracing his steps after his cruelty bit him in the ass. He was one of the worst parts of the Legion and it is all but explicitly stated that if you don’t force him to be non-violent he will turn the tribes of Zion into the legion 2.0. The Dead Horses and the Sorrows are horribly infantilized by both Daniel and Joshua who both use them for self serving purposes guised by religious duty. The White Legs are the horrible stereotype of violent and savage indigenous and I personally think a lot of their interlinking with Ulysses, his hair and Ulysses character in general are distasteful and very telling of how BIPOC or POC where involved.

But outside of the game it’s the weird obsession people have with these characters ideologies and trying to make them seem more interesting/philosophical than they are. Tumblr is an echo chamber and many fans of Fallout are not the people on this site. Many people are not educated in the issues these characters convey and how poorly they do or used these characters as a poor introduction for their takes. Contrary to what a lot of people believe in, fallout has a prediomeny white cis male fanbase. More importantly a large portion of the fanbase is white.

You can joke how FNV made you trans or see the numbers on post/fics or diverse headcanons but these are kiddy numbers compared to the millions that consume the franchise and aren’t in those more aware spaces or don’t engage in the spaces the same way someone like me does/has to. Their views shape a lot more than people realize and it’s exhausting to be in a space where people don’t correct the more subtle yet toxic aspects of it but also adopt them into some weird quirky view point on the characters or issues. Some people don’t realize and some people don’t care.

My main issue is just the idolizing of these sort of thing in this fandom space and people try to acts like a game like fallout whose tagline is “War never changes” and has never had a game not revolve around political or militaristic factions issues isn’t that deep or doesn’t relate to real issues. I think it’s mainly caused by how over powered you can become and how you can strong arm your way past these learning moments as majority of people who play this game do play it as a power fantasy where they can do so as they please (which of course, go ahead it’s fun) but never take in parallels or lessons in the story as if it was just another first person shooter.

Also like another personal gripe is Cazadores spawn like hell whenever I’m there and I have not found a mod that works to mod them out so I have to play Indigenous Racism the DLC while getting jumped by giant wasps WHILE helping Mormons. Like I cannot catch a break.

[purplepixel]

You like Casey Jones a lot. What do you think of her being shipped with April?

Yes.

It's prob the only ship I care about in rise. I like to believe if the show had like 7 seasons then this is where we'd end up. Casey/April is a TMNT classic. And rise's version is enemies to lovers + GAY? My recipe for an OTP.

Having said that, I am a little weary of capril in the fandom simply bc Casey is a VERY underrated character, and I HARDLY see her but when I do, it's shipping art/fics (I will say this is changing). But I fear sometimes that people only like her to ship but don't care outside of her being with april. The fandom hasn't even scratched the surface with casey's character post show/movie and I'm more interested in exploring that rn than the romantic side of things.

[ladyluscinia]

OFMD fandom has me thinking about Protagonist Centered Morality, like, in general.

I feel like we only call it that when we think it's been handled wrong and are criticizing it, even though - let's be honest - we have all bought into some degree of protagonist centered morality in our favorite show. Like. It's the beating heart behind the very idea of a Mook - the faceless darkside minion that your heroes can destroy without any moral consequence for that action because who gives a shit? It's basically inescapable in every cop-show (or reskinned cop show like spn), chosen one story, action movie, revenge quest, underdog tale... we fucking love it when the universe agrees "yeah they earned that" and will generally just roll our eyes at people going "ok but you know your fictional murderers are doing bad things, right?"

Until we don't.

And, like, as an offshoot of this... 99% of the time, when you're criticizing a show for its protagonist centered morality, the most straightforward way to get your point across is complaining about whatever happened. "X did Y and then we're just supposed to forget about it?" Or "X is being such a hypocrite about Z!" And then someone else (real or hypothetical) pushes back with some point about how the story / other characters / etc. don't treat this as a problem and that kicks off the framing criticisms. But is it really about what they did?

People will object to the protagonist centered framing of actions they don't consider that serious, and be satisfied or unconcerned with the framing of actions they find borderline unforgivable. Protagonist centered morality can casually handwave (or seriously penalize) the whole spectrum of morally questionable actions from being a shit in high school to committing massive war crimes. Sometimes the primary complaint is that the protagonist already took a stance against this action, so now being fine with doing it themselves is hypocritical and out of character, and the problem with protagonist centered morality seems to be more that it's letting the OOC part slide.

The concept engages with genuine criticism of a characterization or character's actions as a shorthand, but the part it's actually complaining about is closer to feeling the narrative failed somewhere on a meta level to calibrate how much the audience should care about this event (and what level of in-universe caring would then satisfy).

It's not (at least usually) a fancy way of putting forward character crit of the good guys - most people who want to do that are just going to do so directly. If anything it has more in common with being upset at a story for breaking your Suspension of Disbelief (usually in the arena of character relationships).

[act-more-like-a-dog-sirius]

and I love being salty with u too bestie 💜

i love being salty with u @act-more-like-a-dog-sirius

[al-luviec]

still haven't moved on from zane in this episode (aka I hit tag limit again and am unhappy about it)

[svtskneecaps]

so what i'm putting together from osmosis and the wonderful livebloggers and the incredible arkanis english updates account is something like this

Prefeito Jota: Hello, I'd like to hire you to investigate what happened in my city/island(?)!

Bagi, who was previously "invited" to a mysterious island/city by its elected official, subsequently trapped on the mysterious island/city, investigated the deep mysterious history of the island/city, came to no conclusions, found her brother after years of searching, was separated once again from her brother, gained and lost an adopted daughter (possibly to being kidnapped by the island government, which was evil), gained and lost a demon fiancée (possibly to being dragged back to hell, so there's no way to find her), gained and lost a close demon friend to dubious circumstance (did he die for his children? is he with skeppy in the gas station?), and has had an unknown amount of time to process and/or suppress all of this: Sure! :D

[nostalgia-tblr]

Every Doctor Who Production Team: "How the **** did they work out the shocking top-secret plot twist already?!?!"

[harpieisthecarpie]

Mildly important fanwork/fandom interaction questions! Anyone can feel free to answer!

Thinking about fandom interactions, I'm wondering about how we as fan communities can create fun environments and engage with other fans more!

You can answer (or not answer) however many of these questions as you want! The questions bolded with their number in purple are the ones I'm most curious about.

Feel free to reply in the reblogs, tags, or comments!

If you can, please reblog so we can get more answers :)

Questions below!

(There's sections for fans that make fanworks, fans that interact with fanworks, and fans that enjoy fanworks but don't interact.)

Fans that create fanworks (fanart, fanfic, edits, etc):

A1. What are your favorite kinds of interactions/comments? Ex. Long rambles, analyses and theories, strings of incoherent garbled yelling

A2. Where do you like to get them? Ex. Ao3 vs Tumblr, reblogs vs tags vs comments, in DMs?

A3. Do you want or enjoy people creating stuff inspired by or modifying yours? (Creating as in art of your fic, fic of your art, etc. Modifying as in translations, podfics, etc)

A4. Do you want or enjoy people promoting your stuff? Ex. fic rec lists, sharing in groupchats, posting about your stuff with links to it

A5. How do you feel when you get nice comments or have good interactions?

A6. Most importantly, what would you say to people who are scared to or or don't know how to start interacting with fanworks?

Fans that enjoy fanworks and interact with them:

B1. What kind of comments do you like leaving and where do you leave them? Ex. Ao3 vs Tumblr, reblogs vs tags vs comments

B2. What makes you more likely to interact?

B3. What made you start interacting?

B4. Have you made any friends or mutuals by commenting and interacting?

B5. Has leaving comments and talking with creatives changed how you feel about or approach your own fanworks?

B6. How has interacting with fanworks and the guys who make them improved your fan experience?

People that enjoy fanworks but don't interact (no judgment! We're all different 💛):

C1. Do you want to interact more? If you do, what makes you want to comment or interact?

C2. Is there anything holding you back? Ex. nerves, unsure how, bad past experiences, etc.

C3. Do you make your own fanworks? Has that affected (or been affected by) your choice not to interact?

C4. Are there ways other fans could help or encourage you to interact or get involved? Are there any ways you want to encourage yourself?

THANKS FOR ANSWERING IF YOU DO :D

PS. Add a 💛 or <3 to your response/reblog if you want me to make an anonymous survey focusing on this topic!

I'd compile and post the results so we can see how our fellow fans think :)

[jessicas-pi]

Maybe it's because I hate hating characters. Maybe it's because my brain runs on 100% crack (except for the moments it runs on 1000% angst.) Maybe it's because i want to hit a metaphorical hornets' nest with a baseball bat.

But I just gotta say, I think that "traumatized, grieving teenager who has slept for 4 of the past 72 hours and is keeping himself together with nothing but an unholy amount of caf, the burning desire for revenge, and space duct tape panics and acts on Worst Instinct Possible," is genuinely a more accurate interpretation of lux kissing ahsoka than just "assault."

[ljesaw]

i like writing young fire lord zuko because he's still grappling with his identity and he's still in the trenches of his trauma and unlearning the harm done to him and the harm he's done. and something i think is so important for someone who is going through that is that it's not just BAM he's redeemed and he's changing everything for the better and it's perfect. i think it's just as important to highlight zuko's conflict with trying not to Be Like Ozai as it is for people to be wary of zuko because He Is Zuko. like i think he's struggling both with taking up his father's horrible mantle but also with the name he's created for himself. because not only is it "zuko is a victim and he's trying to heal" but it's also "zuko was horrible and he has to reconcile that side of himself with who he wants to be going forward" and that's not easy

[the-abyssal-system]

Singlets stop talking about systems as if you’re an expert because you follow some on tumblr challenge (also warning the tags here are a huge rant so feel free to ignore that)

[jaqobis]

it just seems like an incredibly weird adaptational choice to not only create but linger on the question of why wasn't anyone else the dragon reborn because it misses the fundamental point of the dragon reborn. any poor schmuck who is the dragon reborn will have their identity, agency, and will crushed and overwritten. wielder of saidin or saidar, they will be reviled and feared. all their wishes and desires are irrelevant to the pattern. their bodily autonomy is irrelevant to the pattern. the dragon reborn is horror. rand was starting to exhibit suicidality about it even before he knew he was destined to die. which would be interesting if that were part of the question, of how would anyone else respond, but suggesting anyone else might be a "better" dragon is missing the narrative. there is no better or worse dragon; the pattern is here to grind whomever it needs down to fit the specific role it needs so that reality can continue. stripping out these elements to focus on the above question is a removal of some of the things that make wot distinct from any other fantasy.

[lohstandfound]

ignore this.

learning to shut up when i dont have anything new to say to the discussions my mutuals are having about the treatment of the female characters in this show and fandom

even though ive just gone ahead and rambled in the tags a bunch of bullshit

[inf1nyxw0rlds]

i love complexity. except of course if it's about me . hope that helps