#not saying you can’t criticize or be fandom critical btw

[thebestusernamepossible]

Fandom is so tiring sometimes. Like girl(gn) not everything you dislike has to be for some moral reason! And you trying to justify disliking/liking something harmless by basing it in morality is not good for your or anyones mental health. Please stop doing that. It gives reason for my intrusive thoughts to say I’m bad for disagreeing with you even if I know logically your point is fucking stupid. Like it’s FANDOM, it’s not that serious. Chill out. A person is not morally wrong for not having the same favorite book in a series as you.

[lumiilys]

POV: You are taking measures to be able to look for stolitz art in peace

[writing-for-life]

Nuance in (The Sandman) Fandom

Send me asks about everything Sandman-related!

I thought a lot over the past few days, partly prompted by discourse on here, partly due to a couple of “interesting” asks and messages I received (the type you don’t answer). I *think* they might have been prompted by engaging in discourse on topics like anti-blackness/racism, misogyny/sexism, TERF characters etc in The Sandman.

Fandoms are always getting super sensitive if someone shines a critical lens on their favourite works, authors and characters. So to make this clear (in case it isn’t already obvious from my brain-rot blog):

I love The Sandman. I love Neil Gaiman. I have an extremely soft spot for Dream (and Desire btw, who deserves a lot more character analysis than just being summed up as “villainous, sexy bitch”. One day, perhaps ;)).

I can read The Sandman and just get lost in the story, even after decades and many rereads. 

But I can also view it through a critical lens—these things aren’t mutually exclusive.

Not critical enough or too critical?

As fans, we can get trapped in certain thinking patterns, like:

“My blorbo can do no wrong”-syndrome 

“Characters with flaws are inherently problematic and imply authorial endorsement of those actions” 

“Characterisation and problematic subtext are one and the same” (aka overanalysing and looking for problems where there are none is the death of every story, but failing to see problematic patterns where they are clearly visible is a problem, too).

Don't say anything bad about my favourite character

I think this doesn’t need much further exploration. It’s not my personal way of looking at stories through permanently rose-tinted glasses (I always feel it stalls my experience, but my experience is not everyone else's). Some people prefer that type of escapism, and I’m good with that (although the downside is of course that by not willing to engage with issues, we can unwillingly perpetuate them). Live and let live, ship and let sail. But please, for the love of god: Don’t insult people via their inboxes or messages just because their opinions and preferences don’t align with yours. I’m not going to sugarcoat it or phrase it “nicely”: It’s infantile (and a form of bullying btw), end of.

How can you even like a character who's so horrible? And that author must be equally horrible, too

We have to separate flawed characters, even those who are written to be really problematic, from real-life endorsement of these actions. 

Author, narrator and character are three fundamentally different things, and don’t overlap as much as some people seem to think. 

We can write vile, despicable characters to make a point (for me, Thessaly was always a prime example for this, and I explained why here). We probably hate them as we write them. I don’t know what else to say, but this facet of writing seems to get more and more lost on people, and it’s a worry. Crying for sanitised characterisation is one step away from censorship. We explore what is problematic about people and humanity through story. That’s how we process and learn. It’s nothing new, but it becomes impossible if we can’t write flawed and even disgusting characters. 

Face value…

Since I’m mostly in The Sandman fandom, I often read that its ending is hopeless, and that’s supposedly the entire message. 

It is agonisingly sad, yes. But is it truly hopeless? I personally see it as quite the opposite, but of course that’s my opinion, coloured by my life experiences.

I also get that show-only fans often haven’t read the comics, or at least not the whole arc. And as such, their outlook from what they’ve seen so far (and choose to focus on) has to be different by default. I also understand that many people are quite new to the comics, even if they have read them in their entirety. I’ve sat with them for 30 years, and I still find new things on every reread (and I read it more times than anyone should 🙈), and I still don’t feel like I’ve understood it all. Perhaps because I still haven’t fully understood myself (and it’s unlikely I ever will). If there’s one thing The Sandman isn’t, it’s one-dimensional and easy to grasp in its whole depth.

I just wrote a ginormous meta on it, if you’re interested, it’s here:

Subtext, (not so) glorious subtext

This is where it gets complicated:

We shouldn’t mix up characterisation and story subtext. Overanalysing every line to death will always make us find something that’s “problematic”, when it really isn’t in the wider context of the story.

Zooming in is NOT always a good thing. Sometimes, we actually need to zoom out. 

But subtext *can be* (accidentally) problematic. Even in stories we love. And none of this negates what I previously wrote.

Stories have real-life implications of sorts, and we need to be able to talk about it. That’s where those slightly flabbergasting, hostile inbox messages come in, and I want to expand on that "topic of contention" a bit:

Neil himself confirmed that the Endless basically warp reality, and that this is why, after Dream’s failed relationship with Nada, many black women in his vicinity suffer terrible fates (Ruby and Carla in particular). And that this spell is only broken when he dies, and that it is the reason why Gwen doesn’t suffer the same fate. And said Gwen then gets used as a plot device to basically absolve Hob (who canonically really is a problematic character, whether show-only fans like it or not) from his slaver past. Once again, very clearly: No one is making this up. Neil confirmed it (for the comics, and that was over 20 years ago. It remains to be seen if his stance has changed as we move into that arc in the TV show).

I don't think it is correct to imply that Dream as a character is racist (I've read that, too) because he logically can’t be. He holds *all* the collective unconscious. He is also, strictly speaking, not white. He is everything and nothing, and he shows up in many different ethnicities throughout the whole arc, depending on who looks at him. But Neil played with a subtext here (reality warping due to a bad relationship which then affects everyone with similar physical traits) that will read very differently to a black person than it reads to a white person, and we have to understand why that is an *extremely* slippery slope.

Plus, we are supposed to see Hob, who *was* a racist at some point (you can’t not be if you’re a slave-trader—it’s impossible by default) as redeemed. And yes, he *does* regret deeply, good for him (and if I were saying this aloud, you would hear the sarcasm in my voice, because it is indeed all about him. We are to sympathise/empathise with him and his character growth while there isn’t much mention of the people he maltreated). But also: it was a black woman who basically forgave him (with dialogue that personally makes me cringe). And that black woman who offers forgiveness is not truly a black woman—she is a character written by a white man. And as much as author and character are not the same (see above), there is an inherent sensitivity in that power imbalance that we can't brush under the carpet.

I don’t think Neil is racist. Probably quite the opposite, and I can even see that his intentions were good from a storytelling point of view. BUT intention and impact are two fundamentally different things, and telling the story this way (comic version) betrays blindspots only white people have. Just like women have blindspots when they tell stories about men, and men have blindspots when they tell stories about women (and there are a few of those in The Sandman, too). And and and…

As storytellers, we can’t always speak from lived experience. It’s impossible. And that also means we occasionally make mistakes that look bad in hindsight, even if our intentions were good.

I guess the proof is in the pudding: What do we do when people who *have* that lived experience tell us it looks bad? If they inform us why it is hurtful, plays into old stereotypes etc?

Are we willing to listen and yield (both are the foundations of allyship btw), or are we insisting that our viewpoint as someone *without* lived experience is right? That lived experience extends to all lived experiences (sex/gender, sexual orientation, age...), and from all we’ve heard from Neil so far, it seems important to him to rewrite what he sees differently today. Whether they’ll always get it right for the show—we’ll see. At the moment, it looks a lot better than in the comics, and certain issues are already being handled with a lot more sensitivity, but a few problems remain.

Pushing back on criticism that comes from people with lived experience is problematic—I’d encourage us to think about what it looks like if a white majority in the fandom is basically saying that the opinions of POC are essentially “overreactions” (and yes, that happened).

It’s complicated. The Sandman was written in a different time, and I think we have to distinguish between things that weren’t really problematic at the time but have aged poorly (again, Thessaly springs to mind, and I have lived experience as a queer person during that time, so I can see it in context while at the same time acknowledging that I would make changes to bring it to the present day), and things that were always a problem due to blindspots. They were a problem in 1990, and if they don’t get changed, they are still a problem today.

This fandom is generally so much more open and nicer than others I know. But that doesn’t mean it’s infallible, because it’s full of humans. 

Nuance is sorely needed, in both story interpretation and interaction between said humans.

[mediumgayitalian]

I know I’ve been liking all your works on here but I just have to say I LOVE ALL OF THEM SO MUCH <333 they’re just so silly and goofy /pos

Out of curiosity, have you done your take on the “3 days in the infirmary” yet? And if not, do you ever plan to?

THANKS!

thank you teehee silly and goofy is my specialty. and thank you SO MUCH for asking bc the thing is that i’ve been trying?? like i have three drafts barely started right now and i can’t tell which one, if any, are promising. would y’all mind telling me (honestly, i promise i can handle criticism when i ask for it) might be something you would read, and if not, what you like/dislike? thank you in advance!! and they’re rough drafts so please forgive any poor formatting or grammar/spelling. words like /this/ mean they’re italicized btw.

okay, the first one. the idea here is less three days in the infirmary and more pining nico post the three days in the infirmary, but he keeps thinking back to it. here is one such moment:

please let me know what works/doesnt et cetera!!!

okay next one. this one is more classic, it’s literally the three days in the infirmary except whoops nico was exhausted as shit and slept through them entirely and now will is making him stay another three for observation. and they fall in love obviously. featuring in william-andrew-never-shuts-up-for-even-three-seconds solace bc i love him.

i think this one is the most promising tbh but i could be wrong. mostly i just love motormouth will. lmk what u think!!

okay and the last and possibly most iffy one. this one is actually the thing that yanked me full force back into this fandom, creatively, bc the idea wormed itself into my brain and i couldn’t get it out.

i haven’t worked on it in like a month and a half bc i’m nervous people will despise it, but the general idea is that nico gets to the infirmary and will has an open crush on him, like he doesn’t say it but even nico is not that oblivious, and nico has to face, for the first time, someone who is not even slightly ashamed about their sexuality. it’s less of a solangelo fic and more of a nico fic tbh.

i ditched it bc i don’t think anyone will read it, but if you would, tell me please! i’m an attention whore and very motivated when i know i’m getting attention lol.

anyways! please tell me your thoughts! reblog or comments are great, but if you’re shy my anon asks are open :D my DMs too!!!

[nikki-kitty]

I want to say this and get this off my chest. Sakura fans, Hinata fans, Sasusaku fans, and Naruhina fans, this post is not for you so if you’re going to say anything rude don’t read this post.

I wanted to pointed out some things about Sakura and Hinata especially their fandom

Here we got this(not mine btw) What? Did this person ever watched the anime or read the manga at all? I don’t think we never had a canon reason why Sakura became a kunoichi/Ninja nor it was stated why she became one. Hinata had a canon reason I believe, She was a force to become a ninja or something like that but I guess some Sakura fans think Hinata became a ninja to get Naruto to notice her.

Apparently Hinata can’t cry because her husband is never home? Kushina and Minato died for their child and I don’t know how Mito died because I haven’t watched Naruto in a long time but I do have the manga but not the whole collection yet. I mean wouldn’t you be sad and crying that your husband is never home with you and your kids.

Sarada was being rude because she asked a question about her mom marriage?.. Never knew it was rude to ask your mom or dad about their marriage/relationship. Sarada does have a right to ask Sakura about her marriage with Sasuke, Sarada hasn’t seen her dad for years.

Now we’re fighting who’s the best mother now? My personal opinion who are the best mothers are kushina and Mikoto. They actually care for their kids and died for them.

The parents in boruto:

I might get hate for this but Hinata, Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke are all terrible parents. Sasuke and Naruto are both absent for their kids and Sakura and Hinata are literally ok with them being absent for their kids. Whenever their kids say about how they feel and wish their dads were their for them, Hinata and Sakura are like “He has a lot of work or “He has been oh his mission”. It’s also fucking funny how people call naruto a terrible dad for missing out boruto birthday and tried to attend his himawari birthday but failed but Sasuke has missed tons of sarada birthdays and people are like he’s hot or a better dad then naruto? I guess a dad who misses tons of his daughter birthdays is better than a dad who misses one his kids birthday and tried to attend his other one.

Naruto the last: I fucking hate this movie and wish to burn it. SP turned Naruto into a complete dumbass, sure naruto was dumb but not completely actually dumb like goku who doesn’t know what a kiss is. It’s funny how SP took naruto and sasuke bonds and give it ti naruto and hinata. Also why is hinata Charka Is purple in the movie? Oh yeah SP took it from sasuke and gave it hinata. It’s funny how they made this movie just for naruto to fall in love with hinata because they were no evidence of him falling in love with hinata. “But Naruto saved her” yes he did but does that mean he loves her, just because a male character saves a female character doesn’t mean he’s in love with her. Sorry to say this but if you get jealous of your crush wearing a scarf from his dead mother which is a memory to them, then you’re nothing but an asshole for that. I hate fucking SP for changing the personality on some of the characters on this fanfic movie.

Sakura: look I seen some people claim that Sakura can madara, obito, naruto, Konan, itachi, sasuke, karin, and others characters and I want to know give me a explanation of how can she defeat this characters? Yes she is strong but does that mean she can beat everyone, no. Madara can easily beat Sakura probably in like a second or minute, Madara is more stronger than Sakura. Also explain to me how can she defeat Karin who was long ass uzumaki chains and Konan who has millions or thousands of paper bombs, so how the fuck can she handle those. Also some Sakura fans are sensitive if you criticize her, if you say something about her then the Sakura fans will attack them, same for hinata fans they do the same thing of what Sakura fans do. It’s funny whenever someone calls hinata pretty or another female character pretty then some Sakura fans are like “nO sAkUrA iS OnLy pReTTy!!” I guess we can’t call other female pretty other than Sakura.

Sasusaku and Naruhina: I sometimes see on twitter about who’s the better ship sasusaku or naruhina and I will say this, they are both terrible ships/couples. They shouldn’t all have been single because sasuke has never shown any love interest in Sakura and girls. Yes they did have moments together but does that mean he loves her? No. He did care for Sakura in og Naruto but did sasuke love her? No he cares her because she’s their teammate so why are some ss fans acting sasuke loves her because he cares for her as a teammate. Almost the same for Naruhina. Naruto ignores her for years but out of nowhere they married? I mean sasuke and Naruto doesn’t even look happy with their wives. Naruto with sasuke he has a big smile but Naruto with hinata it looks like he has a polite smile where he’s forced to take a picture with his family. Sasuke doesn’t look happy around sakura, he just looks annoyed around her. Also what fucking annoys me that I sometimes see some sasusaku fans compare Sasuke and Sakura to Obamitsu(Obanai x Mitsuri) relationship. Really, you’re really comparing a toxic relationship to a healthy relationship? Let me tell you how sasusaku is nothing like Obamitsu

Sakura: was obsessed with sasuke for years and chases after him.

Misturi: wasn’t obsessed with obanai and didn’t chase him and cares for his feelings and wishes.

Sasuke: doesn’t have a shit about Sakura, tried to kill 3 times, abandoned his family for 13 years, doesn’t know he had a daughter, doesn’t visit his family, looks uncomfortable and annoyed with Sakura.

Obanai: cares for misturi, didn’t try to kill her, didn’t abandon her, looks comfortable and happy around mitsuri.

So explain to me how is sasusaku is like Obamitsu. I bet Sasusaku fans compare them to obamitsu is because

Sakura and Mitsuri: Both have pink hair, strong, both has green eyes, both has a crush on black hair guys.

Sasuke and Obanai: Both has black hair, strong, both has snakes.

Also mitsuri goal didn’t revolve around obanai. But Sakura goal lead to revolve Sasuke.

It’s also hilarious how people will shit on hinata for stalking Naruto and losing fights while Sakura did the same thing as hinata.

That’s all for today. You can always correct me

[ardentpoop]

genuinely interested bc i love critical thoughts on Dean and John, why do u think John is better than him?

I agree Sam is the best, but as of right now, I believe John is worse, gimme ur thoughts <3

I think most people have such a narrow idea of abuse that john registers as More Abusive than dean bc of the show’s (offscreen, retroactive) imagery of him devolving into drunken rages etc. which btw - as if dean doesn’t have plenty of onscreen drunken rages. 😅 overall tho most of the harm john inflicted on his sons was done via his unpredictable absences - and in sam’s case by cutting him off when he refused to live the life john thought he should live. (“you walk out that door don’t you ever come back” from john when sam leaves to go to stanford and from dean when they clash after sam’s forced detox.)

could very well be that if john had lived past s1 he would’ve made things worse - but he also could’ve made things a lot better tbh, by rerouting some of the tension btwn his sons. bc dean goes off the fucking rails after john dies. the reason I say s1 dean is the only version of dean I wholeheartedly sympathize with is that the red flags pop up in s2 immediately after john’s death and he only gets worse and worse from there.

like who do you think did more damage to sam - john with whom sam would argue constantly bc he knew he was wrong abt what was “best” for sam, who died before the worst events of sam’s life could transpire? or dean who develops an insanely long track record of lying to sam “for his own good” and making decisions for him without his consent (which sometimes involves literally punching his lights out to incapacitate him) and questioning his judgement at every major junction and calling him a “freak” and meaning it and showing him that everyone else in their life agrees that dean’s right to do all of it. john was sam’s unreliable father but dean is sam’s literal life partner and he makes their already nightmarish existence worse by refusing to extend a modicum of the trust compassion and understanding to sam that sam unconditionally extends to dean.

I’m sorry but dean’s literally a monster lol no other character in this show makes my stomach turn more frequently than he does. and like I’ve said - there is immense narrative value to that and this show and these characters wouldn’t be the same if the dynamic wasn’t this badly unbalanced… but ppl are so allergic to confronting it. it doesn’t mean you can’t like dean as a character! believe it or not there are things abt him that I find very compelling. it’s just that I want to scream until I’m blue in the face when the fandom or the narrative trots out its romanticized version of him.

[tachiguin]

If you were Kafka, what would you change in BSD

Sorry, this question has been sitting in my inbox for a very long time. I think it’s kinda hard for me to answer this question, because to a certain degree I’m tempted to say “I wouldn’t change anything at all”. Like, for all that I criticize media like Bungou Stray Dogs for various things, I also think that the media we consume shouldn’t be required to be so perfect that there’s nothing to criticize. If anything, criticism is a major part of what drives discussion in fandoms. Moreover, as much as I may feel “Kafka Asagiri shouldn’t have done X”, I’m not really inclined to want to change X about the series? Maybe it’s just because I approach it from the mindset of a reader, not an author, but I think that its OK for me to disapprove of certain aspects of a series, and still not want anything to change about it. Like, if I was given full control to change anything I wanted, it probably wouldn’t be the same Bungou Stray Dogs at all, starting with Mushitarou’s awful hairstyle, BTW. Honestly I might just kill the guy off if it was up to me, I don’t really like looking at his face……. but I digress!

Having said that, I still do think certain aspects of the series could be changed to better appeal to myself. But again, I don’t want anyone to think that my opinion is more “correct” than what Kafka Asagiri himself decided for the series. This is literally just my personal thoughts on the matter, just like how if it was up to me Oguri Mushitarou and his slimy hair would not exist in Bungou Stray Dogs, even though, objectively, he’s fine and well written and nothing really needs to change about him, except I really want him to sue his plastic surgeon, and his hairdresser, like hello? Way to make a guy look unrecognizable, I guess.

Sorry, I’ll stop trashing on poor Mushitarou. I’m serious though.

The two major changes I’d make are the role of female characters in the series, and also the way that the concepts of self-sacrifice and “honorable suicide” are presented. I think these aspects are the biggest gripes I have with the story, but I also think that, especially in regards to the latter, the series wouldn’t necessarily be the same, or even “better”, if it was changed.

I’ve never really made a post going in depth about how I feel in regards to BSD’s female cast, but I’ve mentioned before that I think the fandom really underrates most, if not all, women in Bungou Stray Dogs. But in retrospect, I can’t really blame it all on the fandom’s general misogyny; the way that Asagiri portrays women in his story doesn’t really do anything to discourage the lack of appreciation for his female cast. The thing is that she’s almost always the side chick. She’s an accessory to hang off of his arm. She’s motivated solely by him, whether that be his goals, or just because she—and it’s never really explained why—is deeply and hopelessly in love with him. Who is this “she”? Who am I talking about, in particular? Literally every female character, barring maybe Yosano, might fit the descriptions I gave above. That’s how bad Kafka Asagiri is at giving his female characters agency.

It’s okay to have a character with a plotline that’s intertwined with another character. It’s okay to have a character that’s motivated by external forces. It’s okay to have a supporting character who doesn’t really do much except move the plot forward. It’s starts to become annoying when all of these characters are women, while their male counterparts get the better end of the deal.

Sometimes I hear people say that Kafka Asagiri is good at writing women, and I think, in response, that shounen anime has truly brought our standards down, six feet under the dirt where every interesting female character to exist in animanga is buried. Yes… Asagiri doesn’t shy away from writing female characters who can fight, and even, gasp! Fight well, but this is literally the bare minimum, especially for a magical setting that takes place in the modern age. Asagiri can create female characters with interesting traits and a lot of potential, then subsequently assign all of her traits to serve a male character’s narrative, while actively sabotaging any potential she had by utilizing her as a plot device.

And maybe I would be less annoyed if it went both ways. Kyouka has saved Atsushi quite a handful of times, why doesn’t he worship the ground she walks on and dedicate his entire life to helping her fulfill her goals? Actually, on this topic, the reason why is because Kyouka doesn’t have any substantial goals outside of being Atsushi’s sidekick for life. Now, I absolutely adore Kyouka and Atsushi’s relationship, found family is still my favorite troupe ever, but it’s noticeable that while Atsushi’s search for self-esteem and a so-called “reason to live” is the literal narrative core of the series, Kyouka, who had found herself struggling with a similar internal conflict, is by comparison, almost never explored further. When was the last time the story checked back up on Lucy, and how she’s feeling? Yeah, she’s in a better place now, but isn’t she still haunted by her years at the orphanage, under the Guild’s thumb, being treated like a pawn on the chessboard, just as so many male characters have been shown to feel in wake of their own traumatic experiences? Doesn’t she struggle to find a new purpose in life, now that she’s no longer stuck doing someone else’s bidding just to survive?

We only ever see a brief glimpse into the thoughts and feelings of BSD’s female cast, before the door slams shut, and they’re relegated to some background role where it doesn’t really matter how she feels, she just wants to help the guy who saved her life, that’s all we really need to know before we can start advancing the plot again. Well, I want to know more. 

It would also be great to have more female characters who are motivated by something other than her desire to help or hurt another—oftentimes male—character. How come he’s allowed to delusionally seek world domination, and she isn’t? How come he’s allowed to desperately want to save everyone in spite of a cruel reality, and she isn’t? How come he’s allowed to be motivated almost solely by his selfish need for the validation of another, and she isn’t?

Which brings me to another avenue to consider: characters like Akutagawa and Rampo are shown to be fanatically devoted to another character, to the point that Dazai or Fukuzawa could say “Jump,” and they’d be in the air even before asking “How high?”. But here’s the thing: Akutagawa’s devotion is entirely self-centric, and it’s examined as such. He doesn’t selflessly want to help Dazai, no questions asked, he craves the peace of mind that Dazai’s affirmation would bring about, and consequently does anything he can to gain that validation. Not only that, but it’s portrayed as unhealthy and a problem when Akutagawa blindly does whatever Dazai asks of him, but somehow, this doesn’t apply to Louisa and Fitzgerald, Teruko and Fukuchi? Hmmmmmm!

Simply put, there’s a double standard here, and I’d like it to change, because BSD really does have a female cast with a lot of potential, if only Asagiri cared to utilize it.

***

In regards to Thing I'd Want To Change #2, I remember tag-dumping about this awhile back, but it somewhat bothers me that in order to pass the Detective Agency’s entrance exam, Atsushi and Kyouka were required to put their lives on the line to save another (even though, in Atsushi’s case, it was all staged). This might not have been a problem for me if the Detective Agency weren’t the good guys in this—or even if it was emphasized in some other manner that it’s OK to save yourself first, like c’mon, that’s just common sense, they teach you such in elementary school during a fire drill. But unfortunately, not only was Kyouka’s feelings on the matter never expanded on, Atsushi continues to believe that he needs to save people to deserve to live.

However, I do think that there’s still room for development here. Bungou Stray Dogs is not a completed work, so who’s to say that Atsushi won’t have a different outlook on life by the final chapter? Moreover, I think that in the situation where Atsushi first reached this conclusion (on the subway with Yosano and Kaji), Atsushi was probably in a worse mindset prior. For him, he felt that he wanted to live, but that he didn’t deserve to, so therefore, in order to justify his own existence, he grasped a “reason to live”, a motivation to not simply give up and perish right then and there, alongside a train full of innocent people. It was a very “in the moment” kind of thing, that would serve as a foundation for later developments. Again, I think it’s fine that this is his way of thinking now, but someone genuinely needs to tell this boy that it’s not a matter of “reasons” or whether he deserves to or not, living is just something we do without really thinking about it, so its okay if that he lives in that kind of unapologetic manner.

Still, the Detective Agency’s exam is kind of harsh, yet I don’t think it’s necessarily something I would do away with completely, as much as I would reframe it to better fit the message I would want to send. The thing is that working at a superpowered organization that regularly gets into scuffles with the local mafia is in no way safe, and your life insurance probably won’t cover it when you get magically killed and dumped in the river. So it is understandable if a minimum requirement for becoming a member is that you’re okay with getting caught in life or death situations on a semi-frequent basis. It may also be a desired trait that you’d be willing to rescue civilian lives at little benefit to yourself, though not necessarily always in the context of self-sacrifice. Sure, it’s a crazy way of interviewing for these attributes, but it’s not like people don’t lie on their resume, and also, the Detective Agency was established early on to be full of crazy people. You must be this bugfuck insane to join, if you fail the vibe check you die, sorry!

In all seriousness, I think the concept of living, and in particular, having a reason to live, are a major part of Bungou Stray Dog’s themes, and changing it to suit my own opinions better would probably drastically uproot whatever message Asagiri wanted to send, whatever feelings and opinions of his own that he injected into the characters of Atsushi, Dazai, Kyouka, and the like. Even if I myself do not fully agree with the narrative, I still think its okay to have media that tells a different feeling, shares a different experience, and presents a different opinion.

Anyway, this got really long, sorry I was too lazy to include many embedded pictures to break up the text walls. If you read this far to the end then I appreciate and love you dearly, hopefully I made some degree of sense and didn’t just sound like I was rambling out of my ass.

[bestworstcase]

Quick question: When and how did you start realizing that fandom tends to be hostile or anti-analysis? Was it just something that happened overtime?

i mean. have you ever made a textually-supported point contradicted by popular fanon? people seethe

but it’s also just sort of baked into what fandom is. the whole concept of ‘headcanon’ is inherently antitextual—things held to be true irrespective of the text—and the whole point of fanworks is to engage transformatively with the text. fandom is explicitly not a community oriented around textual analysis, and while analytical readings can (and do) support and enrich transformative works, they are also just not what fandom is about.

so within fandom receptivity to textual analysis is generally lukewarm and varies widely depending on how closely it happens to align with the fanon, and in my experience fandom has a particular difficulty parsing character analysis outside the blorbo framework (ie liking / disliking / personally identifying with a character).

there is in particular a tendency for analytical readings to get parsed in fandom spaces as critical of the story or the characters being discussed; for example i’ve had explicitly positive character analysis of mine (as in, posts where i directly state my appreciation for or enjoyment of the thing i’m talking about) get reblogged and tagged ‘anti-whatever’ because the thing i’m talking about is, like, a character flaw. or something bad that a character did that caused conflict in the narrative.

and i think that really gets to the heart of the, like, cultural divide between transformative fandom and analytical engagement, because in fandom spaces if you say, for instance, “yang has a hot temper she works hard to keep in check” that is generally going to be understood as a value judgment (either a positive remark on her maturity and emotional discipline or a complaint about her expressions of anger) whereas in an analytical context it’s just an observation that needs to be evaluated in terms of whether the text supports it or not.

the consequence of that is that if i write analytically about the role of anger in yang’s character arc—which is a facet of her that i personally really enjoy and think is done quite well—and if that breaks containment and travels outside of my immediate circle of followers (who presumably follow me because they like reading my analysis and who obv know what i’m about) then odds are it’ll land in front of someone who goes “UGH not ANOTHER person picking on yang for bEiNg AnGrY, she’s got good reasons to be mad when she gets mad and also she doesn’t get mad NEARLY as often as these assholes think” (which is true) (yang almost never loses her temper and she’s very quick to check herself on those occasions; and when she chooses to let it out she’s always justified)—because anger is culturally perceived as bad and the social norm in most fan spaces is that you don’t write lengthy posts focused on a character’s flaws (or ‘flaws’) unless you just think they suck.

(<- this isn’t a hypothetical btw. like i’ve gotten blocked over my yangposting being interpreted in exactly this way grbfksj)

the funny part is that while my analysis intermittently makes people SPITTING MAD, the fanfic i write (which follows from my analysis!) doesn’t. i’m sure there’s plenty of people who don’t like my fanfic, but if i write a character in a way that contradicts the popular fanon what happens is folks will comment stuff like “this is such a cool unique take on this character” brfhkg. and that’s primarily why i think it’s a cultural thing, where textual analysis—with its strict grounding in textual evidence and dismissal of ideas that can’t be supported by the text—gets people’s hackles up bc it’s a) examining the text at an emotional remove and thus hard to parse in a social environment where the primary mode of engagement is driven by emotional attachment to specific characters, and b) often perceived as telling people their headcanons are wrong, which is rude.

(sometimes headcanons ARE wrong, in the sense of being textually refuted. that is the entire point of headcanon. i think the experience of fandom is much improved by keeping this in mind. analysis is never a threat to headcanon because headcanon is supposed to be transformative. equally, headcanon is irrelevant to analysis because analysis is strictly concerned with the text.)

more broadly i just find fandom culture to be interesting in and of itself. so in addition to participating in fandom directly i also lurk a lot and pay attention to cross-fandom phenomena (e.g. migratory sapphic and slash shippers) and read discussions about fandom and that sort of thing. and i think approaching fandom from that perspective, it’s sort of a what it says on the tin situation; fandom is transformative by definition, ‘fuck canon’ is an ubiquitous meme, fanon… exists at all as a concept and is widely celebrated as superior to canon, AUs are terrifically popular, “fix-it” fics are terrifically popular, etc etc.

so i don’t think my view here is even unusual necessarily except insofar as i articulate it in a very precise (and perhaps pedantic) way. like the average person in fandom is probably aware that playing in the sandbox is different from constructing a lego set and that people in the sandbox are, as a general rule, not all that keen to make sand castles in strict accordance with the lego instructions. because it’s sand. lmao

[joker-daughter]

alright let me add my two cents because clearly you aren’t allowed to be frustrated in this fandom…

who the hell blamed Tomdayas for Tom’s career choices? like where the fuck did that happen? how does that even make sense? like do you all really think we’re that dumb to think that you guys (or we) have some power over his career or are you all being dense on purpose? we can have opinions and discussions about it though (because what else is there left to do? lmao) and someone pointed out the hypocrisy behind not wanting Zendaya to claim that she owes everything to Euphoria (which is valid and I remember not just Tomdayas, but their stans, meaning the ones who claim to stan one or the other or both, criticizing that at the time) to not questioning when Tom straight up says that about Spider-Man, which again, is an attitude not just shared among (some) Tomdayas, this is not an attack on them for being Tomdayas or on Zendaya, so stop interpreting it that way too ffs

also about “catastrophizing” stuff or whatever because of what he said about his future projects, we heard him say the exact same thing years ago and we’ve gotten one project since then, like you can’t blame his fans for pointing that out, and we’re not saying that we should have gotten these projects by now, we know that he was burned out, we know that he took a break, we know that there was a strike, we know, we’re not stupid, all we want is to know what these are because we keep hearing about it…also about the script reading, I don’t have much of an opinion on it but Tom tends to exaggerate so again, you can’t blame anyone if they want to be cautious in that regard, some of you all are acting like people aren’t allowed to be critical like sorry, we don’t look through rose colored glasses at everything he does and says ffs (also looking at those who clearly weren’t thrilled about that challengers script when it came out) but again, if we didn’t look forward to all of it still (even if we don’t know what it is) we wouldn’t be here wasting our time, that’s for damn sure

and about us wanting “to win stan wars”…what stan war? on tumblr? most of the very few Tom blogs moved from twitter to here because they’re tired of these so called stan wars, but why is it that when we say want to see him work with acclaimed directors, actors or whatever and be in a good and acclaimed project that you all jump to that conclusion? are we not allowed to want success for him outside of the box office? especially after how people (and I’m not talking about fucking stans) have been coming down on him in the past couple years when it comes to his career? and don’t you dare and twist my words into us forcing him into anything, again neither you nor I have the power for that and if he was to come out tomorrow and say yeah, nope, I’m retiring and I don’t want to do this anymore or I don’t care how my stuff is perceived* then fine but clearly he wants to keep working and seems excited about it so why can’t we wish for him to be successful across all fronts with that??? lord

and yes, I know at the end of the day what matters most is what we personally think about his projects, especially as his fans, but you can’t deny that it’s nice to see when they’re more universally celebrated and he gets his flowers for his work and talent…

*which btw he never did but some act like he did, not saying that he’s focused on that but he was clearly thrilled about that CCA nomination so do what you want with that

anyways, crucify me now, Idc

[bamf-jaskier]

I love The Witcher, and I love so many people in this fandom who make amazing content but it is just so sad to be a Witcher fan. I’ve been in many fandoms but I have yet to see anyone that has this much blatant racism everywhere I turn.

I just wanted to be excited about this cute tweet where Anya Chalotra is holding a water bottle

View on Twitter

But of course you go the replies and you see racist and just plain deeply insulting things

And before you say “oh that person is just talking about book accuracy” they are actually using that as a dog whistle because they just want an excuse to be racist as fuck.

Which btw, as a massive fan of the books, it’s such a shame to see “book accurate” turned into a racist dog whistle, particularly on Reddit and Twitter. Just look at some of the replies under the new casting announcement RI released today.

View on Twitter

You have ur blatant racists

Then you have ur “Slavic Erasure” crew who use that as an excuse to be racist

Which is closely related to the “book accuracy” crew of racists

And of course we can’t forget the people who try to say the reason Sapko supports the show and says color of the characters doesn’t matter is because he was bought out

And I love the few people in the replies trying to combat this, and I love how almost all the quote tweets are super positive but holy fuck is it exhausting to not be able to even celebrate the casting of a character.

I often feel like I can’t enjoy the show at all without getting dog piled in some way. And it’s not that I think the show doesn’t deserve criticism, but it’s more like sometimes I just want to enjoy friends without having to dissect every tiny intricacy. I just want to make a nice meme about Yennefer being dorky or Fringilla being flustered around Francesca without having to make some sort of disclaimer about how I hate X part of season 2 or I thing Y is inaccurate to the books.

I feel like many people are so pedantic that they’re finding more enjoyment in complaining about the media than the media itself. and I’ve done a fairly good job of trying to block it out but it’s just difficult when you have to really put the work in to try to avoid constant negativity.

I will say this, Tumblr is definitely the best place that I have found. Reddit and Twitter are practically unusable at times. 

I don’t know what makes the Witcher different than other fandoms that the racism is so consistent, blatant, and common. More so than most places. But it’s just sad.

Sometimes, I just want to enjoy a show I love, talk about my favorite characters (if u know me u know who that is), and feel like there’s an actual fan community.

But it’s just. Hard. And I’m tired. And I know others are tired too and I just don’t know what to do to combat widespread racism of this magnitude.

[elrondsscribe]

Starting fights on here completely unprovoked, but I’m not a fan of pathetic simp Celeborn headcanons. “Uwu he’s just a stupid little meow meow Wife Guy” NO WAY BITCH.

Literally the way that Galadriel and Celeborn get introduced they’re explicitly said to be the same height, both with heavy piercing gazes.

He acts like a ruler: he expects Haldir to report important things to him directly. He’s not meek: he criticizes Gandalf and snaps at Gimli before later apologizing. He’s practical and generous: he’s the one who asks Aragorn “yo how y’all gettin down the river” and gives him the boats the Fellowship needs.

“Galadriel only thinks he’s wise cuz she likes him” get outta here with that bullshit! She calls him wise because he is! He can’t look into the future like she can, but he can clearly spot problems the Fellowship might have and is clearly ready to help provide solutions. He stands up for the wisdom passed down by matrons as scoffed at by Boromir (no shade btw, I love Boromir a lot, but he was the one who made the “old wives’ tale” comment).

So no, I’m not here for Himbo Celeborn hcs, thank you.

EDIT: I also wanna say that I’m already in a minority of Tolkien fans generally and RoP fans specifically for liking Celeborn (and Celedriel) at all! But “uwu short wife guy with one braincell” Celeborn hcs tend to be used by other Celeborn fans as well as Celeborn resenters, so I guess I’ve just put myself into an even smaller fandom minority lol

EDIT #2: This is even pettier but he’s. Not. Blonde!! Why do people keep saying he’s blonde?! He literally has the word ‘silver’ in his name, and Tolkien says in the text that his hair is ‘silver long and bright.’ Silver. Sil-ver!

[jarimaa]

Jujutsu Kaisen Fandom...sigh.

I really wanted to write something about it since jjk season 2 is around the corner, I am excited but at the same time I dread to think how horrible the fandom is going to be. I know it in my bones that bad takes and blatant misinterpretation are gonna flood in the timelines of many people and ruin their experience of this series.

Manga is one of my favorite sources of entertainment and some of the mangas are much better than many celebrated literatures work. Similarly, I love headcanons, but my definition of headcanon is a little different, for me headcanon is supposed to expand on given information regarding a character and not entirely change the motivations and actions of character to the point where it’s an OC with looks of the character. I am not forcing anyone to agree with me, I simply stating my personal way to read a material, But I disagree with characterization of many characters in the fandom. 

I am more of a nerdy reader than a causal one, to me both are fine but then comes selective readers they are the people that have the most horrible takes. They are either are only following the story for ships, power tier, just one or two characters and disregard the rest of story to the point where they miss the importance of narrative, themes, philosophies and motivations in story etc.

I love ships and power system, likewise I love shipping and power scaling, but to a certain extent, i.e., until it doesn’t change or completely disregard canon material. I, as a person, have too much respect for art (any form of art, really) to do that. I used to think it's only the teens/ young ones that have bad interpretations, but I have also stopped believing that all adults have good reading comprehension or narrative understanding of stories. Some teens/young adults have better understanding of story than many adults (‘some’ being the key word) me and my friends completely laugh at the interpretation of certain literature pieces by our professors (most of the time they are junior professors, older professors are quite better in their expression) in the college. But some of them either look too deep or too less in the material without removing personal biases. BTW any person giving their own views is biased because it's THEIR point of view and there is nothing wrong with it. But forcing others to believe that is idiotic.

Jujutsu Kaisen fandom is one of those appalling places. I don’t interact with fandom much, more of a silence reader (I am thinking of writing more to improve my critical thinking and answer writing but let’s see). My head hurts sometimes after looking at the blatant misinterpretation of many characters on tumblr and twitter (I don’t care about reddit as much, there are good memes and joke posts which I enjoy but rarely anything else which is worthwhile, some do pop up but its still rare). Deep characters with beautiful writing like Gojou, Toji, Getou, Mahito, Megumi, Yuuta and Maki etc. are reduced to either ships or “who is stronger”, “X stomps Y” debate. It gets worse when someone who doesn't want to agree with them gets attacked.

I genuinely don’t care about your personal way to enjoy a story, but I implore people to separate their own fantasy/fanon/headcanon from the canon material. If you can’t do that then at least don’t force it on others or attack others for it. It really shows someone's maturity when they says that...they love this headcanon/fanon or theory but at the same they acknowledge that its not canon...they keep this distinction in their minds and don’t shove it down people’s throat, it is the way they personally enjoy the character or story not the 'absolute' way it should be consumed. Its really…not that hard. Just remind yourself that they are somebody’s imagination and not real, you don’t have to fight for their rights, at most hope for a good narrative justification of their roles and the ending.

[volixia669]

Vampire Chronicles Basics

Okay, with the new Interview with the Vampire show coming out, there’s probably going to be some folks who might be curious about the books and wondering why there’s so much disrespect towards the author. This probably isn’t the ONLY primer, but like, whatever.

Note: I never got around to reading all of her books, and some of this is drawing from memory though wikipedia is helpful.

Contextual History Lesson Time!

As a media criticism type person, I find it important to not examine media in a vacuum, and take into account what was happening at the time it was created.

The timing of the first three books is notable. Interview with a Vampire was released in 1976, The Vampire Lestat was released in 1985, and Queen of the Damned was released in 1988.

So we have one book with gay subtext released post free love movement but prior to gay folks becoming more known in society, then two more released during the aids crisis with the queer subtext/text still going strong. This? This is huge. Reportedly, there were people sending Anne Rice letters about how amazing it was to see themselves in the characters. Some these days might roll their eyes at how subtext might be revolutionary, but please understand. During the aids crisis, the queer community, particularly gay men, were being blamed and discriminated against to horrifying levels to the point gay men still can’t give blood.

So for a book series to have not only the metaphor of penetration and being an outbut but also have these characters seem very gay? It’s huge! It’s like a weight being lifted off, even just temporairly, while you go, “Someone sees me and my situation.”

The Vampire Lestat even had Lestat’s mother questioning her gender and deciding to dress and act more masculine. Sure, these days we’d call it “problematic” trans rep for many reasons, but back in 1985? Except for certain more indie films, trans people weren’t even talked about.

Which is a huge reason the series got big among the queer community, others caught wind, and eventually that movie with Brad Pitt was made.

And now we’re in the 90s with a few things happening. One of which being Anne Rice uh...Firing her editor? Not bothering with an editor? Whatever happened, the quality of writing goes downhill.

Additionally, Anne Rice was going through...a lot, and it shows in her writing. She started as one sect of Christianity, left it after a family member died, was athiest/agnostic for awhile, then went to a different sect of Christianity when another family member died, then eventually was in her own thing of believing in God & Jesus but not following any particular sect. Then she died.

This is relevant, as we see Lestat go from prissy rockstar to literally meeting Jesus. So. There’s that.

Another thing that happened in the 90s was the internet becoming bigger, resulting in things like forums, chatgroups, livejournal, and essentially online fandom. People in the Vampire Chronicles fandom began sharing their fanfiction.

Anne Rice hated that. It was her world, her property, her Gary-Stu, and therefore only she could write Vampire Chronicles. She began suing anyone who was writing fanfiction, yes, even the broke teenagers.

She wasn’t the only one doing this of course, but she was certainly adamant about it. Additionally, there’s an emotional element too. Because her work was one of the few popular media where queers could see themselves in, it was like a betrayal to have her say, “No, I hate anyone who loves this world so much they’d write fic.” (not a real quote btw just how it felt)

This is why many fanfic writers in the 2000s, early 2010s, and a few even today write disclaimers at the top of their fic. Because a “I do not own this property. This property belongs to blah blah blah” was one of the few defenses (however flimsy) fanfic writers had. It’s also why, as of the last time I checked ff.net, Anne Rice’s works are not allowed on that site.

That said, from this backlash against fandom, Archive of Our Own and its lawyers were born. The volunteers of OT3 are why y’all will be able to write Lestat fucking Louis into next week and post it there without worrying about Anne Rice’s estate hounding you.

The Books Themselves

So! With that lengthy history done, what about the books? To start off with, while the movie, and this new show are called “Interview with the Vampire”, that’s just the first book. The series as a whole are The Vampire Chronicles.

So we’ve got:

Interview with the Vampire (1976)

The Vampire Lestat (1985)

The Queen of the Damned (1988)

The Tale of the Body Thief (1992)

Memnoch the Devil (1995, the one where Lestat meets Jesus, a lot of people hate it, I think its hilarious with some interesting theological points)

New Tales of the Vampires-Pandora (1998, prequel about an older Roman vampire) New Tales of the Vampires-Vittorio the Vampire (1999, another prequel, about a 15th century Italian Nobleman vampire)

The Vampire Armand (1998, it’s Armand’s story and also I maintain the first 60 pages reads like an M-rated fanfic on ff.net, which is objectively hilarious imho)

Merrick (2000, crossover with another her series called the Mayfair Witches)

Blood and Gold (2001, now the ancient vampire Marius gets his own origin story.)

Blackwood Farm (2002, more Mayfair Witches crossover)

Blood Canticle (2003, EVEN MORE CROSSOVER also was originally gonna be a conclusion buuuuuuuuuuut)

Prince Lestat (2014, Lestat is back and is facing pressure to lead the vampires because I guess all the ones with enough of a brain cell to go that would be a TERRIBLE idea are dead)

Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantic (2016, I guess we’re now in Atlantis?)

Blood Communion (2018)

As you can see there’s a lot of books and content. Especially because Vampire Chronicles wasn’t her only series. On top of her erotic romance series that even my “sure you can watch Criminal Minds while 9 years old” mom was like, “Do not touch that,” she had her Tales of the Mayfair Witches series, which AMC incidentally also has the rights for. So...Lots of books, one world with vampires and witches and Jesus.

However, because of the drop in quality as well as the level of batshittery (no I’m still not over Lestat going to fucking Atlantis), last I checked the main reads are the first three, with Vampire Armand also being thrown in because I mean, after you see Antonio Banderas as Armand you want to know more about him.

Of course by all means! Read more of the books! Maybe you’ll get a laugh like I did! Maybe the quality doesn’t seem so bad to you! Maybe you enjoy batshittery! 

And if you don’t want to give the Anne Rice estate more money because she was a bad person, there’s plenty of libraries that have the books! Trust me. They do. Some might even have them in ebook version, so you can use apps like overdrive or libby to check them out without even leaving your house!

Appropriation in Vampire Chronicles

This is gonna be short since I’m sure there’s whole pieces about this and I don’t have the books in front of me nor am I part of any of these cultures, but I do want to run over that yes, there’s certainly some cultural appropriation in this series, particularly of Egyptian Culture, but also of voodoo and creole culture.

I want to warn of this, so it doesn’t catch anyone off guard, especially since “Merrick” and “Queen of the Damned” in particular are uh. Full of this. I also have no idea if the more recent books are any better in this regard.

That said, I’m curious about how the AMC tackles these aspects, as its already quite clear they’re not following the books 1:1, which is actually going to make for a better story.

Hopefully all that is helpful!

[b1rdbra1ned]

Oh no I hate Fan too. Fan was not a good character in season 2 and he didn't actually face any consequences for his actions. Paintbrush was like the closest we got to Fan being criticised and people considered PB to be the one overreacting. Paintbrush is done so dirty because the fandom put their own belief about the bright lights being family even though Paintbrush never actually got along with them. They talked to tt like once, bickered with lb until the last ep they were in and then there's. Fan..

Also I think I hate fantube a little more after the theyrebasicallycanon polls put enstars against ii. Glad rinniki won they deserve the win against fantube imo.

Sorry I was tired of being critical of ii so I don't like it anymore 😔

But hiiii we haven't talked much in a while ik :(( I'm on holiday rn but feel free to talk to me if you want!

ALLLL OF THIS

Paintbrush was in every way in the right to yell at fan, he constantly bothered and nagged at them and the stuff about marshmallow was definitely the final straw

i only ever liked the whole bright lights family thing because honestly it could’ve worked imo!!! but they just never took that chance they never really developed the brights lights AT ALL most season (beside from marshmallow) the bright light felt more like the comical team (not really but can’t think of a better way to describe them) compared to the grand slams who definitely got way more focus and development

it’s shitty because i think the brights lights could’ve had potential but they were just casted aside until the last few episodes where “oh hey look development!! :] oh wait nvm they’re eliminated now <3” like ????

paintbrush definitely got the short end of the stick here. literally having what was supposed to be their episode mainly centred around tt and lb and having their feelings about marsh being completely casted aside. i wish more was done w/ marshmallow and them vs them and lb

looking back a lot of their scenes w lb just felt kinda off??? i don’t think can articulate this probably rn but paintbrush deserved better

but at the same time i wish the team got more time w/ each other in general, they have so many great opportunities to do it like in the maze episodes but again they’re kinda just cast aside as just comedy

and w/ s3 oh boy i hate what they did with paintbrush and their “arc” in the last few episodes. they quite literally and figuratively took away their edges, i miss sassy, sarcastic confident paintbrush they feel so dulled down in iii and it’s like no one in the writing team understands them at all. it’s like they didn’t even write s2 (but hey back to the point i mentions last post that show writers really ought to stop listening to fans sometimes because this is how fanon seeps in </3)

i hate how the a lot of the fans view paintbrush especially if it’s only ever in the context of lightbrush or shipping (another thing that pisses me off btw is how they’re always treated as irrational and or just plain out abusive FUCK PEOPLE WHO PORTRAY PAINTBRUSH LIKE THIS)

they’re such a great character who gets absolutely fucked over by the writing and fandom (not all of the fandom of course, i love seeing ppls takes and discussions on them but it’s just some fans who just </3)

i don’t like discouraging ships, if ppl are mature and respectful and don’t put other ppl down then that’s all great and stuff but my problem is that i really wish paintbrush was just seen as more than their ships yknow

Fan is.. the more i think about canon him the more im like yeaaa… uh no thanks…. (mainly w/ him and paintbrush and cabby)

idk if im even allowed to say they changed tt this season because.. she didn’t honestly have a lot of screentime last season compared to a whole lot of other characters, but in iii she feels off?? honestly all of them do even the new contestants later on during the season

idk if i have the words to describe why s3’s characterisation is so off and at time frustrating, their arcs too, was going to point out some characters but honestly i could make a case for nearly ALL the contestants the ones who weren’t voted out early at least

that’s the end of my ramble tho, sorry ik i talked a lot about paintbrush, i want to talk about the others too but they’re the one i still even think about. hopefully this isn’t a bit hard to read, ik im not that organised w my rambles sometimes

[brokenmusicboxwolfe]

You know I’m a Doctor Who fan, and have been for a loooong time, but I am really feeling a side of fandom for the first time.

I mean, I knew it was there. Look at the reaction to the Whittaker era. I was no fan of Chibnall’s writing tastes (good ideas, but….), yet I mostly kept quiet for fear of being lumped in with the ones freaking out only because it didn’t fit the gender and race up they were used to. As someone delighted with the increased diversity with the Doc and friends, but crushingly disappointed by the actual episodes, it was awkward. Like, “Look, I’m not enjoying it but NOT for those reasons” calls for something other than the polar opposition understanding so common online (and the real world?)

Anyway, so it’s a “new” era. Surely it would be safe to wade into fandom opinions again, especially because the RTD/10/Donna era had been so popular. Nostalgia would win out, at the very least for this short little 60th revisiting….

Yeah.

So let me say that if your criticism of an episode starts off with the word “woke” or is based on whether it did what rumors had you hoping for (actual ex. What? No Susan?!??) I am soooo not listening!

And, TBH, I’m a bit baffled how a show about a non-human character that gets periodic full body reboots while wandering through all of time and space, offering theoretically infinite possibilities of people and adventures, could possibly be upset by such tiny things like someone being trans or the skin color of a historical figure***. It’s like we have been watching a different series!

(Thank goodness I never watch “opinion” videos in Youtube. Or “watch alongs”.** Have you seen the stuff they keep recommending to Doctor Who fans? Ewwww!)

**I don’t get that BTW, watching someone watching something rather than just watching the thing yourself and having your own opinions. Someone connected to it, someone bursting with info about it, like the best audio commentaries, yeah, I get. But some guy you don’t know? I mean, I see people going “George watched it and loved it!” like it proves something about the quality, and I go “Um, who is George and why do you need someone else’s validation?”

But then I don’t get watching someone else do anything I can do myself. Believe me, I was bored senseless ever damn time my brother wanted us to watch him play video games. Come on, give ME a turn for once! Playing soccer with me family (until the broken bones! LOL) was fun, but you would have to pay me to get me to sit and watch a game. My initials are “SAW”, but I kinda prefer to do.

*** The Doctor Who universe can’t be our own anyway. Heck, every time the Earth gets invades or the Doctor has an adventure with someone famous it moves one more step away. This is kinda great. It just means anything is possible

[comradekatara]

as the most like... knowledgeable and text accurate media analyzer on my dash I wanted to ask; specifically when it comes to lgbt analysis or headcanons for any fandom, what would be you advice on how to avoid overthinking thematic parallels to gender and/or sexuality and how they might relate to characters that aren't more noticably coded to be gay or trans? both to make sure you're not seeing something that isn't there aaannnd also for not second guessing an analysis that you do think is a valid interpretation of the text with nothing more substantial than "but what if I'm wrong?"

oh man. this is the kind of question there’s really no right answer for, because queer theory can be so subjective, and there are such different ways to apply aspects of that framework to any given text. I tend to approach that interpretive space anywhere between eve sedgewick’s postulate that anyone who practices/embodies non-normativity is “queer” and the infamous roy cohn “I may have sex with men but I am not a homosexual” angels in america monologue.

I once wrote an essay on why edgar from king lear is gay as he embodies camp as defined in sontag’s seminal essay (and I will die on this hill btw). really, I think that any queer interpretation is has validity as long as it is a) reasonably grounded in the text (this is crucial) and has b) historical and/or theoretical precedent that you can draw from to make your case.

queer analysis isn’t really that different from any other kind of criticism in that regard, but what can make it tricky is the inherent contradiction of finding a basis to ground your argument when queer theory deals so heavily in the unspoken, the ambiguous, the subtextual, and the hidden. absence, subtext, and subtlety often become integral to your analysis, especially depending on the text you’re dealing with and the context in which it was created.

I think this question becomes complicated when you move from the realm of analysis into “headcanon,” since often people do not care whether their headcanons have basis in the text, or even straight-up contradict them. this is an issue I see in fandom a lot, wherein the text is utterly disregarded without any sort of grounded reasoning. at that point, people will simply say, “this character is queer because I like them,” and while it seems like you would like to ground your theories in the text (as you should!) I can’t exactly go up to these people and say, “that’s bad criticism,” because they’re not actually practicing analysis in the first place. it’s a different mode of engagement altogether.

ultimately, at long as you have a basis for your analysis, there’s no such thing as overthinking, and you should be confident in your argument. but if your claims are baseless, then it’s all fandom, no criticism, and if that’s you, then that’s fine! ...but I will assume you’ve never read a book in your life <3