#or fanart !! but that’s probably more scarce than fanfiction…

[rainyfoxbarks]

This is so niche but please if you find any Kurapika/Leprio/Hisoka/Illumi fics please please please send them to me or tell me the name and author

Me and my Boyfriend fr think we’ve made up the ship cause we’ve only found one fic of it and it wasn’t necessarily all of them dating how we wanted 😞

[ggitty]

(Same anon) As someone who's been in multiple fandoms for years, art-styles that are semi-similar or are extremely different from the source material pretty much comes with the package. It can be very fun at times. (Franchises with very simplistic designs seem more prone to it)

That's something I've noticed with fandom when it comes *CG series, unless there's 2D content or some concept art floating around somewhere, fans seem to have a harder time translating the characters into drawings. (With Jimmy, it's mainly just him you can find this stuff on. The rest of the cast you kinda have to wing it. For such a big show, character refs is surprisingly scarce. And some promo stuff being lost to time.)

*nods* Yeah, crossovers can be cool. Nick and CN had plenty of official bumpers that was just characters mingling with each other outside of shows. (But when it comes down to the shows individually, Jimmy unfortunately has been holding the short{hehe} end of the stick for quite a while now if we're talking just the OG Unite gang. Both official and fan stuff. Planet Sheen left a big sour taste.)

(*Probably why I'm adamant that if the show ever came back, I rather it stayed CG. Not because I think 2D would be bad or an ironic twist that the 3D show comes back in 2D while its sister 2D show{FOP} had came back in 3D, but the sheer fact that it was Jimmy's identity. The fact that people were blown away by the animation from that one car commercial that came out a year after the show ended, imagine what they can do now without the technological limitations.)

Ah yes, classic fandom meme “Original artstyle: 0.0 Fanart: *damn Rembrandt ass painting*" Not gonna lie, I'm a huge fan of this, give me two and don't forget the cheese sauce!

But yes, this show has some incredible amount of content that can be considered almost lost media of a kind. The huge amount of official fanfiction promotional materials, comics, illustrated books and other things released on the prime of the series is almost impossible to find completely on the Internet. I still occasionally dive into the Internet archive or through old forums to see if I can find a new one piece lol

Yeah, I can kind of see it. If I recall the 3D show fandoms I've encountered, they all really either have official 2D concepts that influenced general "fandom art style", or a huge fan base that chews it up for you *cough* Miraculous *cough* and you don't have to think about it much because you get it ready on a plate from more skilled people in this regard lol

It's not a stick anymore, it's almost a broken twig “No.. No Not You Seamus” (this franchise is like a middle child who was abandoned in the mall as soon as he turned 18 and their parents have already replaced the locks in the 3 hours they were walking home)

Oh Planet Sheen... 🚬... I haven't heard this name for a while...

The only good thing I got out of it was the headcanon that it was a Sheen's self-insert fanfic, because if you say that Sheen didn't make a poorly written self-insert fanfics you're lying to yourself lol (I like to joke that the failure of Planet Sheen scared Nick's tops so much that they hid everything related to the show in a separate room in the office and it haunts the CEO like a cryptid lol)

Although the story behind its creation is kind of sad, because it was never meant to be like this, not even being part of JN, and was just forced into one mass of a show. (didn't even allow them to add Carl, so they had to use an artificial substitute, for me, is telling something)

I damn sure agree with you!! And this is coming from a person who loves 2D animation much more than 3D lol (although I also love stylized 3D, it's such a blend of different dimensions that I just drown in it) I don't know if anyone would like to go a little more in the stylized 3D direction, mostly because I have no idea what it would look like in my 2D brain lol, but I'd be interested to see it

BUT I will always be more worried not so much about the style of animation as about who will be responsible for this animation. Because we can get both Trollhunters and Miraculous post S1, it's a gamble of budget and effort lol

[shinidamachu]

In the original inuyasha who do you believe is the most underappreciated character?

Well, to me — and I say this unironically — it's definitely Kaede.

There are some other Inuyasha characters that I feel like could be more appreciated. Kagome and Inuyasha (funnily enough) are on my list because some people just like to be unnecessarily hard on them. Miroku, Sango and Shippo also come to mind, since I frequently see them get sidelined and most often than not, in favor of characters that are... not as important to the plot or general dynamic of the main group.

And don't get me started on Inuparents. It still blows my mind to this day that we know so little about the love story that generated the main character of the show.

But the thing is: in those cases, it's not uncommon to see posts calling out how underappreciated those characters are and, as a response, they do end up getting at least some kind of "recognition." It also helps that they're protagonists.

Even controversial characters such as Kagura, Koga, Kikyo and Sesshomaru (although I'd argue the latter is painfully overrated), receive their fair share of attention and love from their so called defense squads, despite the fact that it's not an universal thing and they could definitelly be more loved.

All of those characters are the target of valid criticism, but also of unreasonable hate and appreciation posts as a counterpoint. But Kaede? She has none of that. Rare are Kaede fanarts and scarce is her role in fanfictions, even though she is a hardcore badass.

And her life story is fascinating as well. We have no idea of who her parents were, or what happened to them, but I think it's safe to assume she lost all of her family (except for Kikyo) at a very young age. All she had, all she knew was her big sister, whom she has always admired and looked up to.

But let's face it... being such an important person, in charge of such an important task, Kikyo were too busy being a priestess to actually be Kaede's big sister rather than her tutor or mentor. As a result, I also think it's safe to assume Kaede had very little of a childhood, which sadly is probably an echo of Kikyo's lost one, in a cycle that should have been broken but wasn't. It's very tragic, but at least they had each other...

Until they hadn't. Kikyo died and whatever was left of Kaede's childhood was gone with her. She took upon herself to follow her sister's footsteps and she does look more happy being a priestess than Kikyo ever was, but it doesn't mean it didn't come at a great personal cost.

At the very least, she spent fifty years mourning her sister while the very man who supposedly betrayed Kikyo — betrayed them, if you consider the anime canon — and killed her, was peacefully "sleeping" on a tree of the nearby forest.

Then she had her beloved sister forcefully brought back from her well deserved rest by a dark witch, but it's not the sister she remembers. She is full of rage and malice. She is feeding off innocent souls. She is becoming the very thing she used to fight against. And the man who had actually plotted her murder was the one they tried to save all those years ago.

The narrative always tend to make us feel sorry for Kikyo's fate, which... totally valid. But it never really addressed in depth how awful everything must have felt for Kaede. Especially about how helpless she must have felt.

That being said, she had a strong personality since she was a little kid, as you can see in the first painel. She is wise, she is fair, she is funny:

Her kid character design was gorgeous (and I wish we had gotten to see a little bit more of young Kaede), but even though she is already an old woman and it's not as close to the action as the others, she is still holding her own when she could have simply retired.

You can see how much of an excellent job she has done protecting the village for those fifty years and she is also a first class bullshit detector:

Not to mention she is a female character who has lost an eye as a colateral damage of a battle, but this has never defined her and most importantly: she never gets her eye magically fixed in the end. It's just there, because that's the way it is: not a big deal. And it doesn't refrain her from doing anything. That's very good, very rare representation.

Finally, I must say: I think the lack of hype concerning Kaede comes from two main reasons.

First, writting. It feels like exploring the her sisterly relationship with Kikyo would have been the most logical, realistic and organic way to go. Both of them would have greately benefited from it, since it would have made the duo even more sympathetic, relatable and appealing, creating an amazing, emotional charged conflict. But they had very few scenes together, compared to other characters that aren't even blood related to them.

I often felt like Kikyo cared more about claiming Inuyasha's life and defeating Naraku than for her little sister and like Kaede, in returned, had a stronger bond with Inuyasha than with Kikyo herself. Which is just, you know, not good. Especially when you have the obvious parallel with Sango and Kohaku, that was used for Inuyasha and Kikyo instead. Such a good opportunity wasted in favor of the dragged out love triangle. What a shame.

And second... I really think it also has something to do with the fact that Kaede is old, fat and not exactly what the kids would call "shipping material" although a few people have pointed out that it would have been cute to see Kaede and Grandpa Higurashi developping a relationship of sorts, even if platonic, which is something else that could have been addressed in the writting, although harder to find the time to.

My point is: people would have been all over Kaede if she was a young, skinny pretty thing they could ship with some equally hot character. I guess even fictional women have an expiration date.

But Kaede is an awesome character. She has taken in Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango, Miroku and Shippo as if they were her own, dumb gradchildren. Same with Rin. And we just don't love her enough for it.

Hashtag peace.

[frostiifae]

Why do we hate Nintendo?

Today, organizers of the The Big House online tournament announced that they received a cease and desist order from Nintendo. 

What is Slippi?

Project Slippi is, essentially, an add-on to the existing Dolphin emulator for Gamecube games. Its purpose is to bring the features of modern online gaming to Super Smash Brothers Melee, a game which was released very nearly 20 years ago and is no longer in production, but remains a popular competitive game with an active scene. 

Slippi has been a godsend to the Melee community during the pandemic. It offers incredibly high-fidelity gameplay with random matchmaking and tournament support, and the developers have emphasized making the game experience itself as close to local play as possible. It’s been so successful that the Big House - a series of major annual tournaments that have been running for almost a decade - decided to host their 2020 tournament purely online using Slippi. 

Who care about Melee? Why aren’t they just playing Ultimate instead?

If you ask a Melee player, they will go on and on about the improved framerate, responsiveness, and other such technical advantages Melee has over Ultimate. I’m going to talk about something else instead. 

It’s culturally expected nowadays that when a new game in a franchise comes out, you stop playing the old game and play the new game instead. But if you apply this way of thinking to any other form of media it’s completely ridiculous. It’s like saying there’s no reason to watch documentaries from the 80s and 90s, because documentaries about the same subjects have been remade more recently. Media exists as a product of its time. It might contain valuable historical insight that remains precious to us for centuries to come. Or, it might just be better. Maybe the older documentaries are more informative, or maybe they’re more engaging to watch. Games work the same way; people will always have their preferences about which game in a series is their favorite, and choosing to play an older game you prefer - especially if you’ve got a lot of friends to play with you - isn’t at all an entitled thing to do. 

The problem with digital media is that having a movie or game by itself isn’t useful. Me owning a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is useless if I don’t also have a Sega Genesis to run it on - and that system is useless if I don’t have a working controller to use to interface with the game. Melee has been facing this problem for years now, as copies of Melee itself and Gamecube systems and controllers become more exclusive and more scarce. There aren’t new games or systems coming onto the market to replace what’s being lost - there are only a finite number left, and when the last one breaks, Melee will effectively cease to exist. 

Ok, well, that’s sad and all, but Slippi is an emulator, right? And emulating is illegal!

Emulating is legal... sort of. Emulation has hidden behind a vague phrasing of copyright law that suggests that, when you own a piece of digital media, you have the right to make copies of it for your own personal use - you just can’t distribute those copies. Owning an emulator, or the ROMs needed to play games on that emulator, isn’t strictly illegal... but distributing those things is. 

The idea here is, in theory, you could very thoroughly mod your Gamecube to connect to the Internet and play with modded firmware using Project Slippi. Modding isn’t illegal, so if you have your own GameCube and your own copy of Melee, which you purchased legitimately, then doing this is absolutely legal. And it probably is what people are doing! Definitely, probably. I’m sure it’s not as hard as I make it sound. Don’t worry about it!

Point is; distributing ROMs is what’s illegal, not playing them. The Big House isn’t distributing ROMs, so they’re not doing anything illegal. And Nintendo knows that; they took a different approach. Instead of claiming that using Project Slippi is against the law, they instead simply informed TBH that they don’t have permission to stream or host a tournament using their game. 

Obviously, Nintendo owns the rights to Melee, and that means they have the right to decide who is and isn’t allowed to stream their game and why. The Big House didn’t break the law, but that doesn’t mean they have the legal standing to challenge Nintendo’s order - let alone the financial resources or emotional stamina needed to get into a legal battle with a company of that size.

I don’t see the problem. Nintendo has the right to do this. Isn’t this what everybody does?

No.

Age of Empires 2 came out in September of ‘99, and it has remained a niche but thriving competitive RTS game over 20 years since then. Fans had to keep the game fresh on their own via modding in new map support and even new civilizations. 

In 2012, Microsoft decided that the game’s consistent support from its fans deserved an offering, and they decided to make an HD rerelease. That’s really cool of them! They also contacted the developers of one of the most popular fanmade expansions, Forgotten Empires, and worked it into an official expansion, called The Forgotten! AOE2 has continued to grow and thrive ever since, receiving enough attention to call for TWO MORE EXPANSION PACKS, and of course leading to the Definitive Edition release last year. Embracing fan support of their outdated product has given Microsoft the opportunity to make money off of something that should be long dead, and now it’s bigger and better than ever before. 

If you ask folks within the fighting game community, you’ll find this isn’t an isolated story - for example, Arcsystems notably once incoporated a fanmade mod that improved netplay into an official patch, lending official developer resources to the group to help them get the job done. When your fans care so much about a game you’ve made that they’ll put in the time and the effort to make that game better and more accessible for everyone, a lot of developers are happy to honor and embrace that effort, and in doing so, they stand a lot to benefit - their games get better, and they might even be able to make enough money back on those improvements to keep growing the game even further.

So if other developers aren’t doing this, why is Nintendo doing it? Simple: They don’t like the idea that people are playing old games. They want everyone playing the most recent offerings, no questions asked. To them, “rereleasing” Melee is out of the question; Smash Ultimate is the only “canonical” version of Smash. Don’t play anything else. Don’t try to buy anything else. This is the only game that exists. 

So what? I don’t care at all about Melee. Why does it matter that Nintendo wants people to stop playing a 20-year old game?

The short answer is because it sucks that Nintendo holds the rights to something they don’t care about and aren’t using, and that they’re using those rights to legally bully people who love their games and want to make them better and more accessible to other people. Regardless of how you feel about Melee or its community, it’s a simple fact that the people who are building Project Slippi and running tournaments love the game more than just about anybody else. For Nintendo to order a C&D against a passionate fan project is a bummer - but for them to do so in regards to a game that they’re not making anymore is downright unfair. They would rather protect their ability to maybe make more money on Melee later, than allow the existing scene to thrive in a way that does literally no harm to them.

Nintendo’s well-known and aggressive policy of shutting down fan-made projects and communities of all kinds has only one objective in mind: they want absolute control over everything that they’ve made. From a certain naive point of view, this is fair, right? But if you take this to its logical extreme, then that means Nintendo has the right to prohibit things like fanart or fanfiction, which doesn’t really seem that fair. Where should the line be drawn?

This is just another battle in a war that has been fought over the last 200 years regarding the idea of a “copyright”, and what gives a person the right to decide how other people will consume media they publish. It has never been about the rights of writers, musicians, or game developers - it has always been about publishing rights. Publishers want exclusive control over the things they publish, because holding exclusive control makes it much easier for them to make money from their products. 

We have a legal term for when a single entity has exclusive control over a commodity in high demand - that’s called a monopoly, and it is illegal. Monopolies pose a serious threat to consumers because they can price their goods however they like, extorting their consumerbase or simply making their product inaccessible except to an elite few, which isn’t considered fair. So if that’s the case, why aren’t video game publishers considered monopolies? It turns out some people in the past believed they should be, and publishing companies have been doing all sorts of legal acrobatics for years to avoid it. Free Culture makes for a good read on the subject, if you’ve got time. (Chapters 6 through 9 are particularly relevant to today’s issues with streaming games and music.)

A lot of people don’t seem to understand the damage that Nintendo’s ridiculous monopolizing practices have done to their own gaming community. It’s absurd of them to expect people to continue to pay for new releases of the same games on virtual console, not just once but every time a new generation of “virtual console” is released - and yet they keep doing it, and it’s just one of many ways they continually screw over their customers at a chance for a few more bucks, and somehow most of their audience thanks them for it. 

So what exactly do you want me to do?

Nintendo’s tried to suppress Melee tournaments in the past, but were forced to reverse their decisions following massive public outcry by the competitors and their fans. Regardless of how you feel about Melee in particular, what Nintendo is doing is scummy and actively malicious to the people that love their games, and the fact that they’re doing it again proves that they’re not interested in learning their lesson. Folks on twitter are using the tag #FreeMelee to protest; lending your voice for a tweet or two can only help. 

More generally, though, all we can really do is be critical of Nintendo’s games and actions, and to ask ourselves whether we’re really getting what we’re paying for. Nintendo will continue to take everything you offer them and will never be satisfied; they will do whatever they think they can get away with - and if their fans never challenge them, they’ll assume they can get away with anything, and that’s bad for everybody - but it’s worst of all for the people who ostensibly love and support Nintendo the most.

[rabbitsparklez]

Where has Rabbitsparklez been?

Anyone who’s been following me for a while (you guys are amazing btw) has probably noticed that I tend to “take breaks” from Tumblr, where for a while I would be active every day, but then be gone for a week or longer. 

Here’s my explanation as to why.

The reason for this is that I have been busy -  but time isn’t the issue here. While I do have work, I still have plenty of free time during the day to check social media and log into Tumblr if I want to.

But the reason I’ve been avoiding Tumblr is because sometimes I need to avoid the Internet for my own sake. I have always suffered from intrusive thinking, and if I see something I don’t like, I can’t just forget about it and carry on. It haunts me for days and distracts me from everything I’m supposed to concentrate on. I have significantly improved my mind and am able to control my train of thought much better, but I’ve decided that it’s not worth dealing with disturbing thoughts if I can prevent having them in the first place. On Tumblr, I never post about my political/religious beliefs or personal information such as my name, age, sexuality, etc, but I will say this: I, for one, absolutely despise mature (sexual and violent) content, even in small doses. The Internet is teeming with offensive content and I can’t change that. Even in fandoms (or should I say, especially in fandoms) for family-friendly shows and movies, there are always those people who shamelessly post vulgar, sick-humored, and even sexually explicit content. If not that, there’s hate on characters I love and negativity about things that are very close to my heart. While I can block tags and people, I can’t avoid everything, nor can I unsee what I have already seen.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a lot of fans’ depictions of the Tangled and TTS characters, and I encourage fanartists and writers to continue doing the things they love and enjoying their fandom. But I have seen things I wish I hadn’t, and I don’t ever intend to see such things again.

I started a Tumblr account for two reasons: To hear about people’s opinions, theories, and love for Tangled and TTS; and to post my own thoughts about it. Even though the show is over, I still love Tangled and chances are I always will. Talking about media you love with other fans only makes it more enjoyable, but it’s meant to be fun and entertainment, and there are people who take it too far into their lives. Not only do they write fanfiction about extremely intimate subjects that they would scarcely talk about in real life, but they get into arguments with other fans and insult each other. (To be clear, I’m not trying to judge anyone. I’m saying this because I see the things that other people say/do and it affects me) I’ll admit, I too love characters a lot more than I should considering that they’re fictional characters, but I have decided not to make it a big deal for my own sake. What is lamenting over someone else’s opinion going to contribute to society? Will I improve my life by feeling uneasy over that inappropriate post that’s swarming my head and churning my stomach? The answer is no! Tangled and TTS are a source of entertainment, not political matters worth feeling hurt about, and frankly, I feel quite ridiculous for ever having taken other people’s opinions so personally. But considering my sensitive way of thinking, I still can’t help but feel uneasy over things I’ve seen, so I have decided to stop exploring Tumblr, so I can live in peace.

Now hold up. I am not leaving Tumblr or deleting my account. I’m going to stay here and make posts for much longer. But I’m probably not going to reblog other people’s posts anymore (I still might, but idk for now).  I do feel bad about all the lovely fanart and New Dream fluff I’m going to miss out on, but I know that the only way to stay away from the drama is to stay away from its sources. Y’know what they say: If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the oven! 

I’m still going to create posts and answer asks (if I get any). I’m still in love with Tangled and I’m going to continue posting about my beloved Eugene and Rapunzel.

TL;DR: I’ve been too offended by other peoples’ content, so I have decided to stop exploring Tumblr. From now on, I will be creating posts but not reblogging other peoples’ posts.

[sonitavalentine]

Ship Game

I guess I was tagged by @eb-byestelle, @eternalyumelove and @purebloodprincess for this. I know, it’s super later to make this now but I was super busy and wanted to make this thing anyway xD

So, uh...

1.What are your top 10 manga/anime ships of all time?

I guess, it’s in no specific order, but:

Kaname & Yuuki, Vampire Knight

Hak & Yona, Akatsuki no Yona

Yuuri Katsuki & Viktor Nikiforov, Yuuri on Ice

Touka Kirishima & Kaneki Ken, Tokyo Ghoul

Tomoe & Nanami Momozono, Kamisama Hajimemashita

Gilgamesh & Arturia Pendragon, Fate/Zero

(I know this gif isn’t from FZ, don’t @ me)

Hei & Misaki Kirihara, Darker than Black

Aaaaaannd... thta’s only seven, but if I add more to have ten, there will be ships from already mentioned animes and I don’t wan’t it to be repeated plus I don’t include ships that are barely in manga. Let it be like this bc I’m a lazy ass.

2. What gif or screenshot most sums up your ship?

I tried my best, look above.

3. Describe your favorite ship in seven words or less.

Have mercy on me, it’s gonna be less.

Kaname&Yuuki: eternal, erotic, painful.

Hak&Yona: Supportive, cheerful, sub/dom (lol).

Viktuuri: distant but close, different but similar, simply amazing.

Touka&Kaneki: tender, patient, accepting.

Tomoe&Nanami: sarcastic, divine, inspiring.

Gilgamesh&Arturia: don’t ship it if you’re in an adequate state of mind xD royal, magnificent, equal.

Hei&Misaki: frienemies and eneriends lol, understanding, unrequited.

4. What’s your go-to episode or scene when you need ship feels?

Kaname&Yuuki: the chapter with vampire ball (don’t remember the number) and chapter 89. Sorry not sorry.

Hak&Yona: hoenstly, I can’t choose. They have so many cool moments. Probably one of them will be the moment I included into the gif - so much care and love in their eyes. And also the moments when Hak teases Yona in the beginning of the story xD

Viktuuri: episodes 7 and 10, of course I think every viktuuri says the same lol

Touka&Kaneki: chapter 125, wedding chapter, the latest chapter. And episode in Re: when Haise saw Touka for the first time - it’s friggin beautiful T_T

Tomoe&Nanami: Yukiji arc. 

Gilgamesh&Arturia: lolol xD Okay, the royal talk with them and Rider - I think this is where Gil got his interest on Saber.

Hei&Misaki: Them sitting under the false sky and talking about stars T_T again, I don’t remember the episode, my memory is a trash can sometimes.

5. What song or songs remind you of your favorite fandom, character or ship?

Here I don’t have much to tell bc not all ships had a song I ever associated them with, but:

Kaname&Yuuki: Apocalyptica feat. Doug Robb - Not strong enough

Gilgamesh&Arturia: Megaherz - Mein Gral

honestly, I can give you a full playlist of songs that remind me of Yume than other ships lol because the music I usually listen to is dark and suits them very well

 Tomoe&Nanami: Buck Tick - Nocturne 

6. What ship are you embarrassed to admit you like?

Ehhhh, okay not like I’m embarrassed to ship them but embarrassed to talk about them because there’s a lot of my friends who have a preference on another ship that is super popular. So it’s Gino and Akane from Psycho Pass xD And it’s weird because I still have nothing against Kougami and Akane, but sometimes something inside me fights with my feelings and tells me that Gino and Akane could do a pretty good married couple. I still see Kougami more like a Kasanova style so giving him to Akane only is unfair xD even though they also look good. So yeah, it’s weird, next question.

7. Do you prefer to indulge in (consume or create) fanart or fanfic of your favorite ship?

Create fanfic, I’m a writer to the core.Consume fanart, I’m a visual type.

8. Smut or fluff?

Smut. However, if you ask me “smut or angst/drama”, I choose angst/drama. I’m not really into fluffy sugar-coated type of scenes lol.

9. What task are you most likely to procrastinate so you can indulge in your ship or fandom?

Nothing, I just indulge into it when I have enough time to enjoy it: I can’t enjoy anything when I know I have Damocles’ sword of an important task above me.

10. How many hours of the day do you spend reading fanfic or looking at fanart or other media?

Altogether (fanfiction, fanart, etc) it’s about 1-2 hours per day, in busy days it’s 0 hours per day :D

11. How many memorabilia’s do you own of your favorite fandom or ship (clothes, plushies, etc.)?

Not many, I have a prefect’s bandage from VK and phone case with Yume, the rest of memorabilia I have don’t relate to animamnga (expect for volumes).

12. If you could own one authentic item from your favorite fandom world, what would it be?

Nothing specific, but I’d give a leg and more for owning the videos of all performance of Viktor and Yuuri - I love figure skating so it’d be amazing to see all their famous entries.

13. What is the strangest thing you’ve done to honor your favorite fandom, ship or character?

Nothing.

14. What fandom have you found to be too toxic to deal with?

To some extent every fandom is toxic, but among those I dealt with VK wins the first place without a doubt.

15. Do you have or would you consider getting a tattoo depicting your favorite ship or fandom?

Nope, I like seeing tattooes on other people, but scarcely I’d decide to do it on myself. If only something not too big and pretty, but not fandom related definitely.

16. If the creators of your favorite fandom asked you to write the ship canon-confirmation episode, what will you write/how will it happen?

I’ll skip it, because most of my ships are canon, and those that aren’t claim more from my side than simply write a small paragraph on how they can become canon.

Okay, idk who already been tagged?, so I go with @white-queen-lacus @yumikuran11 @vk-crzy @yumiko27 @enchantingdaizy and whoever feels like doing this!

[magicrazy-1205]

Fandom vs. Religion: Is Fandom a Religion?

(This is an actual paper I submitted to my college English prof. He said write about anything so I did.)

(If you repost please give credit where credit is due) It is the most moving thing I have ever read. It makes me feel so close to the creator that I am breathless. Tears are streaming down my face, making me look like a fool but I don’t care. I just want to bathe in my feelings and let them infect others. The need to tell others of this wonderful thing. This thing which has reaffirmed my faith in humanity. This book that has such depth and is so poignant. Most people would think I had just found my way into religion. They would be wrong. I had just read The Fault in our Stars, a book that made even my heartless sister cry. This book caused us to go crazy. Anytime the author publishes a new book we must have it. Anytime there is new merch pertaining to the book we must have it. We try to emulate the way the characters behaved. Tried to be just as strong. Before long we joined a fandom full of people just as crazy about it as we were.  It was like joining a religion. But aren’t fandom and religion kind of the same thing. Couldn’t fandom be a religion. Fandom is a religion or substitute religion because, like most religions it has a big following, the characters and figures are emulated in the hopes of becoming more like them, there are a lot of sub fandoms like there are lots of sub-religions, and finally elements of fandom are very similar to those of religion. Fandom and religion both have a large community of people. Most of the time, the public recognizes the religious community more than the fandom community. Fandom occurs more indoors, on the internet, than out in the open. The only reason fandom people are out in the open are for a fandom reason, such as, fan conventions.  As such, any demographics pertaining to fandom are far more scarce than those that are about religion. Also, most surveys are done through the large fanfiction sites. Mainly, Fanfiction.net, Archiveofourown.org, and Wattpad.com, which are all sites for unpublished books and fanfiction. This makes it difficult to get any numbers. Another difficulty is the ever changing number of people joining or leaving a fandom. But there are a few things that are certain. Fandom is 17-25 year old female dominated. There are guys in there too but there are definitely more girls. Another factor is where in the world a person is. It is practically a requirement for a person to have internet in order to be involved in fandom. Some countries don’t have that access. And the last classifier is the fandom itself. Unfortunately I was unable to find any numbers that encompassed all fandoms compared to the rest of the world, however I can use a fandom I am involved in. Supernatural is one of the most prominent fandoms around. Anyone involved in any kind of fandom knows about supernatural. The first episode it aired it was viewed by 5.69 million people. And although viewership has gone down over the past 10 seasons it has not dipped below 1.45 million. That is just one fandom. There are hundreds even thousands more fandoms. And although I cannot give a number I can say it is a majority of the First and Second world countries population are a part of fandoms. Religion also has a large following. Religion is easier to get statistics on because people practice out in the open. They show their faith by going to church and following any holy texts the religion may have and emulating those that are in the texts. Since they are out in the open it is easy to get stats on religion. Jennifer Harper from the Washington Times said that 84% of the world's population in 2010 participated in religious affairs. That is roughly 5.8 billion people worldwide involved in some type of religion. And of those, the main religion appears to be Christianity with a whopping 2.2 billion people worldwide. The global median age for any religion is 28. There are about 14 million Jewish people in the world. This is comparable to supernaturals 5.69 million. If fandom was socially accepted like religion it would probably have more readily available numbers. The fact that one fandom can hold up against one religion speaks volumes for fandom as a whole. Emulation is a big part of anyone’s life. Everyone tries to be better or worse than they are. And to do that they have role models. In the case of fandom, characters are the role models. In religion, a messiah or prophet or creator of the religion.  The difference between the two is the fact that fandoms can dress as their role models. They can act like them and use them to try to be braver or whatever they are trying to be. Cosplay is a way for fandom people to be able to dress up as their heroes in public. This is not blasphemous in the eyes of their peers, like dressing like jesus is. Claiming to be anything like the deity of a religion is considered bad form. The characters imitated through cosplay are able to be related to because they are (usually) human. Even if they will never be them they try to be as like them as they can. In religious teachings, the religious figures have an unattainable level of goodness. Those within a church are meant to be getting closer to the lord by being more like him knowing they never can be like him. In an interview I did with a friend of mine i asked him why he cosplayed. Below is a picture of his cosplay. His response was that he felt like it released apart of himself that related to deadpool. When asked why he enjoyed cosplay he said, “ Because for that short moment of time you can be something you want to be or can be.” He was relating the character to himself as a role model that could be achieved and maintained. Another thing i asked was if liking deadpool had ever affected any decisions or actions he had made in the past. His answer, “Yes; being able to let go of things that could harm me emotionally and psychologically.” This all goes to show that fandom people try to emulate their characters just as religious people try to emulate religious figures. Religion and fandom are large and widespread throughout the world. There are many different types and subtypes. In religion it is mostly because throughout history everyone has a different opinion about creation and death. There are about 4,200 different types of religion not including sub-religions. Christianity as i said before is the largest and most widespread religion. But under christianity a person could divide it down to, "6 major ecclesiastico-cultural mega-blocs" according to the world christian encyclopedia. These blocks are subdivided again by country. Altogether without all the subdivisions there are around 33,000 different denominations of christianity. The first subdivision is simply a differing in opinion. And this is just christianity. There are many many more in the other major religions. And anyone who does not have a religion is basically cast into the atheist division. But that is a minority. All over the world there is something someone is worshipping. The map below shows that.

Everyone is part of a religion, just like everyone is part of a fandom. If there is something a person likes there is a fandom for it. From a prominent tv show to a hobby like knitting, it is out there. There are fandoms for sports, music, people, shows, and hobbies. There is a fandom for bagels, there is a fandom for that one particular blade of grass in someone’s front yard, for goodness sake. But how are fandoms categorized? Well first there is is something a person is obsessed with, whether mildly or highly, and this person joins a fandom. A casual fan does not usually go into depth with his or her chosen fandom. But the more obsessed the more options. For example, on my tumblr page one would find an exorbitant amount of NaLu fanfiction. This is a ship fandom. It is one of the subdivisions of the fairy tail fandom. Which is a subdivision of the anime fandom, which is a subdivision of the tv show fandom, which is a subdivision of the tv fandom, which is a subdivision of fandom itself. Finding a fandom can be tricky with this many subdivisions but with a little perseverance I can almost guarantee it is out there. And one never has to go too deep if they don’t want to or stick with it till the end of time. The amount of sub-fandoms compared to the amount of sub religions is incredibly hard to count. But the fandom is most broadly categorized by its medium. So anything goes really. Except porn. Let me be very very clear. PORN IS NOT A FANDOM! IT IS IT'S OWN THING! But that is the only exception to the rule.  All these subdivisions add up into one whole just like all the subdivisions in christianity.  This all shows that since it has many subdivisions fandom is like a religion. Lastly I will be pointing out the glaring similarities between being involved in fandom versus religion. It is not a commonly accepted thing to compare fandom to religion. However a person cannot ignore the differences between the 2. The things that define fandom as fandom are if it has a large fan base and a lot of fanwork. Fanwork is fanfiction, fanart, any kind of contribution. There are those within a fandom that follow a fanfiction more than the actual thing the fandom is based on. Throughout all this mess though the characters are always the same. And unless it’s an au the work is also in the same universe. There is also fan merch as well. Anything that is sold pertaining to a fandom is merch.  There are also fanvids fanmusic and a million other things i am forgetting. I am not saying all this for no reason. If a person was to think about it it sounds like any religion. A holy text could be classified as a fanfiction. Whether it is based on real or fictitious events makes no difference. Any paintings classified as real art that are based on any part of a religion are fanart. My favorite example is the roof of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo. The below picture is called the Creation of Adam. It shows what appears to be god leaving the garden and adam to go back to heaven with his angels.

This is a form of fanart. It is not an original idea even if it is beautiful. It is a fanart of events that may or may not be fictitious. There is also the merchandise to think about. It has become more prominent in the late 1900’s and now but there has always been holy merch. For example, crucifixes, holy figure statues, rosaries, anything having to do with religion is merchandise. In recent years those types of things have expanded. Crosses on everything. Crosses on leggings shirts dresses shoes jewelry accessories and even tattoos. All this is merch just like in a fandom. And this not even the half of it. There are also the religion based movies, and music. These are also elements that can be related to fandom. These are the similarities that turn fandom into religion. Fandom comforts people in a way that is similar to religion. If a person is stressed reading a book or watching a tv series helps them to relax. It is the same way with religion. People turn to religion in times of need or sorrow or stress. It comforts them knowing there is something bigger than them at play, some higher purpose they are meant to serve. It is also comforting, for me, to know there is someone in the world who suffered more than I am. It helps me to know that my life is actually pretty good and that i  have no excuse for feeling the way I do if they had it worse and still smiled. That is what fandom and religion do for me. I prefer fandom to religion because the characters are more relatable, more human. The characters I choose to emulate are always changing. This is what makes them a good dynamic character. They are like me. Changing to suit their situation, and growing in ways they did not think possible. And there are more people than me who think the way I think the same. Over many many more continents. This is what would make fandom a good religion. Fandom has a big following, the characters and figures are emulated in the hopes of becoming more like them, there are a lot of sub fandoms like there are lots of sub-religions, and finally elements of fandom are very similar to those of religion.

Works Cited "Finding Faith? Fandom and Religion." — University of Leicester. Leicester University, 20 July 2015. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. "Most Popular Fandoms." - Top Ten List. N.p., 2015. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. Romano, Aja. "Is It Possible to Quantify Fandom? Here's One Statistician Who's Crunching the Numbers." The Daily Dot. N.p., 30 Jan. 2016. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. "Khan Academy." Khan Academy. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2016. "The Facts and Stats on 33000 Denominations: World Christian Encyclopedia (2001, 2nd Edition)." The Facts and Stats on 33000 Denominations: World Christian Encyclopedia (2001, 2nd Edition). N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2016. "List of Religions and Spiritual Traditions." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 01 May 2016. "Role Model." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 01 May 2016. "The Global Religious Landscape." Pew Research Centers Religion Public Life Project RSS. N.p., 17 Dec. 2012. Web. 01 May 2016. "Fanfiction Terminology." Fanfiction Terminology. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2016. "Most Popular Fandoms." : Page 2. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2016 Lusby, Allyse A. "Tumblr." Log in. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2016. Sendlor, Charles. "Fan Fiction Statistics - FFN Research." : Fan Fiction Demographics in 2010: Age, Sex, Country. N.p., 18 Mar. 2011. Web. 01 May 2016. Harper, Jennifer. "84 Percent of the World Population Has Faith; a Third Are Christian." Washington Times. The Washington Times, n.d. Web. 01 May 2016. "Fandom Cosplay." Personal interview. 25 Apr. 2016.

[fishylife]

My thoughts on the state of Tumblr

As I said, I’m going to continue using Tumblr but I think that over time I’ll become less and less active. Of course, that is all dependent on the Tumblr community as well, because most of my stuff is just reblogged from others.

I haven’t decided what new platform(s) I’m going to use because frankly, I don’t think there’s a good substitute for Tumblr as of now (for fandom content, anyway, which is mostly what I use Tumblr for). 

Why I’ll miss Tumblr as we know it

(1) The fandom aspect

Tumblr was often my go-to source for fan reactions for movies, TV shows, books, sports, etc. Watch a movie and hardcore ship two characters? Check out Tumblr to see who ships them and what headcanons they have. Saw something happen during a game and want to see it gif’ed? Check out Tumblr to see if anyone else caught it. Finished the end of a TV series and want to speculate what will happen next season? Check out Tumblr to see who has cool theories. 

Maybe this is a weird way to put it, but Tumblr has a high amount of people who have the same “fan perspective” as I do. You can take anything as seriously as you want to. If you want to go in depth and do character analyses, there is also an audience for that, but this is also something you can get on other sites (in fact, I find more serious discussions of this kind on Reddit). For fanfiction, we have AO3 (which honest is such a godsent. That website is totally free and I can’t express how much I appreciate the staff there). If you want to make a dumb joke, start an incorrect quotes blog, or talk about a headcanon that popped into your mind, there will be people who are also into that. This less serious, “supplemental” stuff is what I’ll struggle to find outside of Tumblr. 

I think part of this is attributed to the fact that you can make different kinds of posts on Tumblr. You can have image posts, long introspective pieces, videos, short rants, one-line jokes, etc. Tumblr is pretty all-encompassing when it comes to fan content. This is sort of related to my next point.

(2) The community aspect

The reason why people can make all sorts of posts and it still works is that people’s posts are tied to their personal blogs. Contrast this with Reddit, where most posts are tied to subreddits, so if you want to make a short post with a joke or something it has to pass the rules of the subreddit, which might not be possible. 

However, on Tumblr, you can make a post just shouting into the void. I’ve made posts about obscure stuff (e.g. about a TV show that no one I know has watched), and months later someone likes it. It’s easier for people to shout into the void to look for people with similar interests without having to make it as formal as having to set up a subcommunity. For example, if I just wanted to check out some magic AU headcanons, maybe on Reddit I might have to look for a magic AU subreddit, which is pretty damn specific so there’s a near zero chance of finding something like that. I’d probably look for a magic subreddit (not sure if that exists) or the worldbuilding subreddit, but that’s way too broad to find magic AU. Meanwhile, on Tumblr, I can just look for a tag and anything related will pop up. What I’m trying to say is that it’s a lot easier to look for people who have the same specific interests as you. 

I may have mentioned this before, but Tumblr was the first place where I actually got o participate in fandom. I was a lurker on Livejournal and I scarcely commented on fanfiction, and almost never posted original content. On the other hand, Tumblr offered baby steps for me to participate in fandom. It started with lurking and liking posts. Then it grew to reblogging. Then it grew to commenting in the tags, and eventually I felt more comfortable making my own posts about my own thoughts (and writing fanfiction).

I’m also just going to miss having a personal blog. My blog is a mix of all of my interests, and the mix of interests is what makes it unique to me. I like that my blog is a mix of hockey, soccer, Sailor Moon, Bleach, dolls, movie reviews, and a ton of other stuff. At the same time, other people’s blogs are going to be a mix of things they like, and that’s the beauty of being able to build a personal blog. 

(3) Types of posts

This ties back to my earlier point about how people can make all sorts of posts. Text posts, images, videos, audio, etc. A lot of people have discussed what platforms they’ll be moving to. The popular ones I’ve seen are Twitter, Instagram, Pixiv, Pillowfort, etc. 

I haven’t used Pillowfort before, but from what I hear it’s similar to Tumblr. I hear it’s still in Beta though (and currently has a one-time fee) so I probably won’t be using it for the time being.

In the past, I’ve tried using Twitter but honestly, I don’t like the interface at all. It’s hard to use, it’s a pain to look for old stuff, etc. The biggest thing is that it only allows for short posts. And I’m the kind of person who hates those multi-part tweets. If what you need to say is more than 3 tweets long, you should really be writing a blog post. That’s my opinion. But clearly that platform isn’t the best for longer type posts, like fanfiction, fan theories, character analysis, etc.

Instagram and Pixiv are image-focused. So they’re great for fanart, photography, aesthetic blogs, etc. But it cuts out a lot of other stuff. I suppose you can fit in short witty jokes and stuff in the description parts, but you can’t fit an essay or anything longer than, say, a paragraph. Not to mention these platforms are really more about the visuals. 

Livejournal would have offered the freedom to make all sorts of posts, but fandom is pretty dead there. Also, I hear that it had a similar breakdown on adult content.

Why Tumblr will change

I realize I haven’t addressed the actual reason why this is happening though. As I understand it, Tumblr is enforcing stricter rules on adult content. 

For the past while, I’m sure a lot of people have been dealing with pornbots. The other problem that I haven’t had contact with is child pornography. However, Tumblr hasn’t been able to effectively handle these issues. They attempted to take down inappropriate and illegal content but as a result, a lot of normal blogs were being taken down.

I don’t post much nsfw content here so I can’t comment much, but there will be many people who are disappointed because they do post nsfw but inoffensive content. I just think it’s unfortunate that Tumblr hasn’t been able to come up with a solution to address the specific problem. They’ve tried to come up with a blanket solution. Although the blanket solution might address the problem, it’s also affecting the ability of a lot of normal users to carry out their usual activities. I know nothing about the sorts of algorithms used to combat these issues but I think it’s just unfortunate that a solution can’t be found.

Next steps

Honestly, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’ve always been late to fandoms, so I’ll be waiting and seeing where fandoms move. Maybe when Pillowfort is officially released, I might check it out (if it ever becomes free). Maybe I’ll go back to Livejournal. Maybe I’ll lurk on Instagram. Or finally check out Dreamwidth. I really don’t know. 

But I have a post with some of my contact info outside of Tumblr. Please feel free to ask me for contact info. I’ve never made internet friends before Tumblr, and honestly I think I’m going to miss how easy it is to talk to others purely on the basis of sharing similar interests.