#or that it is strange for me to interact with fan content of my source and fan creators for it and that we will be ostracized as a result of

[project-changeling-zero]

My Riley! ( Unfinished Design )

.

i don't see much fan content of Amanda the Adventurer ( maybe i'm just not looking in the right places tho ), so i wanted to start with my personal design of our playable character, Riley!

╔═✬✩══╡˚✧✬✧˚╞══✩✬══╗

𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠...

.

[ source found: picrew.me ]

visual inaccuracy identified. image source is incomplete. modifications required.

⋘ 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑎…⋙

new information found.

Riley Park is the adopted nibling of Kate Park.

Riley Park is non-verbal // speech limited and usually signs, gestures, texts, writes, or draws to communicate.

Riley Park, at this point, may be younger than Rebecca Colton.

Riley Park suffers from C-PTSD, anxiety, and depression, as a result of discovering the tapes, the Entity, and Kate Park's, Joanne Cook's, and ( possibly ) Jordan Cook's deaths.

Riley Park is subject to isolation-induced decline.

Riley Park is subject to pretending Rebecca Colton // Amanda is in their presence, likely a coping mechanism.

Riley Park no longer trusts Wooly.

Riley Park doesn't know if they can trust anyone anymore.

Riley Park... may trust Rebecca Colton. she's all they have left.

Riley Park must find her and Sam Colton.

processing...

new informa-

informa-

infor-

in- in- in- innnnnnnn-

...

⋘ ᴛʀʏ ʟᴀᴛᴇʀ. ⋙

╚═✬✩══╡˚✧✬✧˚╞══✩✬══╝

i'll likely draw my Riley's official design soon! the picrew serves more as general details than anything else, to give you a basic understanding of their appearance in my head.

some extra information:

i hc'd Riley as adopted from the time we'd begin to learn about Rebecca! and i thought it was interesting how they both have R's as the first letter of their name...

their hair is actually longer, wavier, and a different color! the options i had didn't suit 'em. their design is inspired by Aubrey and Robin by creaturecabin.

personally, i see them as softspoken, friendly, and adaptive. however, they tend to people-please and get themselves into uncomfortable situations just to make others happy. aside from morbid curiosity, that's likely part of the reason Riley did as Kate said and looked into the tapes.

you can't tell me this kiddo wouldn't be fucked up after everything they experienced in both games. i think, after a while, it was the main reason they became attached to Amanda // Rebecca, because she was the only one there who understood. Wooly was originally a source of comfort for them, but after he became more... insistent, Riley began to pull away, too. and then, well...

maybe it's because of the insanity of it all, but Riley finds a strange soothing feeling in the Entity. perhaps it's related to them pretending Amanda // Rebecca was physically there.

if i could, they'd have a metal bat.

definitely not projecting, but they got at least mild daddy issues.

.

if the community hasn't, i think people should make their own versions of Riley! this was fun and i have so much brainrot over possible interactions between them, Rebecca, and Sam. mayhaps even found family who suffered the absolute horrors.

if Sam ends up dead, i'll cry.

[lifeisstrange-incorrectquotes]

Welcome to Life is Strange Incorrect Quotes!

Now that I have your attention, go donate to and reblog some Palestinian fundraisers here!

For the rules of the blog:

Asks and submissions are always open! Asks will be posted as their own posts with the submitter credited in the tags.

Be respectful. Seriously.

I include all characters from the games, comics, and books. However, to keep this blog consistent, I don't include crossovers with other fandoms or OCs. You will likely see certain characters more often than others, but that's mostly due to the submissions I receive.

Spoilers are included.

Some triggering and vaguely NSFW content will be included, but I try my best to tag such posts appropriately. If you have something specific you'd like me to trigger tag, DM/ask/comment and I'd be happy to oblige!

If a user interacting with my blog has harassed you or another user, you can let me know through asks/DMs and I will take appropriate action. However, my asks are NOT a place to spread slander about users because of your own personal vendettas. Any user found to knowingly make fake allegations against others will be blocked.

All quotes are about fictional characters, so all ships and in-character headcanons go. If you don't like a ship or a character, don't interact with the post and move on. (It's that simple!)

I still can't believe this has to be said but don't threaten people, fans and creators alike. You can respectfully disagree with someone's opinion or criticize a game without threatening or insulting people.

Since Life is Strange is inherently political, I will get somewhat political here from time to time. For the record, I support LGBTQ2IA+ rights, immigrant rights (documented and not), climate action, a free Palestine, an end to all forms of discrimination based on both identity and class, and I believe in the power of the working class over the corporate elite. (And I hope you agree!) Discrimination and oppression will be discussed, and this is not a politics-free blog. However, I will try my best to tag triggering topics appropriately.

I try to include sources as best I can, but there are still some I'm unable to attribute. If you know the source to a quote I haven't tagged, please DM/ask/comment and I will edit it in!

With all that serious stuff out of the way, enjoy!

[crediblebombthreat]

Recently watched Zootopia for the first time at the behest of my boyfriend and our mutual friend.

Easily in the top three most horrifying experiences I've ever had in front of a television. I'd argue it's even worse with almost a decade of hindsight -- the racial psychosis is one thing, and it definitely begs for analysis, but the psychosexual derangement and the naively sinister "meritocratic liberalized girlboss end of history eternal future" themes legitimately scared me. Knowing this movie came out around 7 months before the 2016 election makes my fucking stomach hurt. Hillary Clinton popularized the term "superpredator." I think I'm gonna throw up.

I kept thinking back to what (admittedly little) I know of Maoism while watching this movie. Maybe he was right, you know? About everything, even the sparrows. A healthy culture, one that has a vision for its future and a love for its people couldn't make something like this. And this was made by the Disney corporation, right smack dab in the middle of the 2010s where they were practically defining American pop culture. Maybe it's just that Americans over a certain income bracket all have the same psychosexual neuroses about race and class -- to the point of it being invisible to them. Maybe it's every American: I feel like there's a level of nonchalance to how people approach it. "Oh, you know, that's just how Zootopia is hahaha. Isn't that weird lol there were no lizards or birds?"

I mean, I dunno though. I feel like a lot of people's only interaction with the movie that isn't just passive consumption of a movie that just so happened to be in a movie theater comes from shitty CinemaSins style video essays. I think if more people did a close reading of the movie they'd walk away like I did, "wow, that was scary, I'm scared. I think America is doomed and I'm frankly not sure if that's a bad thing." Like, even the most bland Marxist reading of this movie -- that it's a world with race distinctions but no class distinctions -- cascades into a billion different contradiction fractals within the USAmerican psyche.

I dunno, I guess the furry fandom at large has desensitized itself to how fucking strange this movie is, but it gave me conniptions. I had to pause it every 15 minutes or so to calm down. The movie was icky, it made me feel gross.

The most shocking takeaway for me, however, is that the Zootopia Abortion Comic is not a drastic escalation of the moral stakes or self-seriousness of this movie. It's certainly less glamorous, but after years of making fun of this comic and asking myself things like "hahaha!!!! what kind of freak would watch a Disney movie with fluffy little characters and immediately jump to the moral issue of abortion??" --- I can sort of empathize with the artist's genuine confusion at the general reaction towards the comic. It's clear that they watched the movie, sincerely imbibed the themes, and created fan content from that perspective. Not a very uncommon thing for fanartists to do! The comic isn't something like fanart where Stephen Universe has to tearfully kill Hitler. More like fanart of Stephen needing a tetanus shot and empathetically talking down an antivaxxer. Kind of weird, sure, but definitely in line with the themes of the source content. It's just that -- in the instance of the Zootopia Abortion Comic -- the source content's themes consist primarily of an insane and tone-deaf reading on a prominent social issue. Go figure.

Anyway, needless to say I'll be buying tickets to Zootopia 2 on opening weekend.

[sawlvr]

☆ intro ☆

this is a long awaited intro post lol, i'm not really sure what to put so i'm just gonna include my interests and dni list :p

interests:

⭑ arcane

⭑ cyberpunk2077 (not edgerunners since i haven't watched)

⭑ saw

⭑ silent hill

⭑ tlou

⭑ tomb raider

⭑ sims 4

⭑ rdr1/2

⭑ sonic

⭑ fnaf

⭑ bill and ted

⭑ x-files

⭑ piggy

⭑ blue eye samurai

(and many others but the list would be massive lol, i put some more in the tags if anyone wants to read them!)

pls dni:

⭑ general dni criteria (such as homophobia, racism etc etc)

⭑ proshippers

⭑ problematic celebrity fans

⭑ big micah and silco fans (i hate those characters i'm sorry)

⭑ caitlyn kiramman haters

⭑ vi haters

⭑ mel medarda haters

⭑ honestly anyone who hates my favourite characters

⭑ those timebomb shippers (or any who don't respect my opinion of not liking the ship)

⭑ people with no media literacy

⭑ people who have weird hcs (by weird i mean like just generally very strange that ur average person looks at them like 🤨)

⭑ people who make vi extremely masculine (like to the point of basically being a man)

⭑ lowkey people who have opinions i don’t like 😭

anyone who interacts (or who i see, depending on what thing it is) who is on this list will get blocked)

things i don’t like:

⭑ life is strange

⭑ timebomb

⭑ cassandra x grayson (idk the ship name)

⭑ jayvik

⭑ mizu x taigen (idk the ship name)

⭑ sonadow

⭑ anyone other than mary linton with arthur (unless it’s eliza obviously 😭)

⭑ people who think hating on popular things makes them deep 😭

other:

⭑ i block anyone who pmo i won't lie

⭑ i found these dividers on google, if anyone has the proper source pls lmk and i'll credit

⭑ i have ocs for most of the media i like

⭑ i am wlw/sapphic (lesbian or bi idk.. ◕ ᴗ ◕ ?)

⭑ fem4fem 😋

⭑ most of the time my favourite characters are my favourite because i relate to them in some way or they’re similar to me (if not then i just think they’re awesome sauce 😼)

⭑ i won’t interact with content i dislike most of the time, even if it’s from a creator i like (includes media, ships, characters etc)

that's it (i think)

thanks for reading :D

edit: forgot to add some tags :p added tags of more of my interests

[madara-fate]

About this: https://www.tumblr.com/madara-fate/764428238627995648/hi-madara-i-wanted-to-ask-you-something-about?source=share

I think your answer is correct but I think that here you wouldn't have much input because you're not familiar with spoilers so you can only judge as a reader who doesn't interact with fandom and you can't give a honest answer to this question. I do see the spoilers and since you don't see the official account spoiler page, you can't be hyped about the chapter. Here's the issue.

It's true the spoilers released by the official account generate hype and anticipation but the Sakura stans here are correct.

The monthly spoiler (sometimes it's one page and sometimes they release 2) is about the chapter contents.

I'm gonna give you a two examples.

When Himawari became jinchuriki, the spoiler was the biju-dama and it was the key element of the chapter.

When Hidari and Jura infiltrated Konoha the spoiler was both at the library and it was the plot of the chapter.

All spoilers are the center piece of the plot of the chapter.

Here, I can't blame the Sakura stans as well as the Boruto stans, both are equally right. As much as I agree with you that we can't hype ourselves from 1 page of 40, the nature of the spoilers the official account releases is the opposite.

The spoiler page chosen to be Sakura confused fans because we thought that was what the chapter would be focused on.

The issue at hand is that once the chapter was released, the spoiler didn't mean anything because Sakura's input in the chapter was so insignificant and disconnected to the plot of the chapter, so it didn't make any sense to attract fans of a character missing for 4 years to tune in into a chapter that had little to no input of that character.

Sakura healing Inojin didn't have a narrative weight in the chapter because it was focused on Shikamaru's trust put on Boruto and Boruto's interrogation. Sakura's page can be easily removed from the chapter and it wouldn't affect the focus so it is strange to see as spoiler.

I think that the best option would have been not to choose Sakura as a spoiler (and so you avoid that the fans get excited) and to leave her as a surprise element part of the chapter; and later when Sakura really does something worthwhile that has to do with the plot, to take her as a spoiler.

I think that, Kishimoto having spoken about Sakura in August in the Paris interviews and knowing that Sakura's fandom is the biggest and has a lot of online presence, they tried to attract that part of the fandom to give more clicks to the chapter.

Having said that, obviously the spoiler did its job and appealed to Sakura fans, but regardless of whether she had appeared, her mere presence in the chapter would have generated quite a bit of buzz because she's a very popular character, she is Sakura Haruno.

Hope I made myself clear.

I think your answer is correct but I think that here you wouldn't have much input because you're not familiar with spoilers so you can only judge as a reader who doesn't interact with fandom and you can't give a honest answer to this question.

That was definitely my honest answer. Whether or not that answer is backed by experience with spoilers is a different question, but the honesty shouldn't be questioned. I know you probably didn't mean to imply that I was being dishonest, but I just wanted to clarify.

Here, I can't blame the Sakura stans as well as the Boruto stans, both are equally right. As much as I agree with you that we can't hype ourselves from 1 page of 40, the nature of the spoilers the official account releases is the opposite. The spoiler page chosen to be Sakura confused fans because we thought that was what the chapter would be focused on.

I understand the Sakura fans feeling that they were misled based on previous patterns with the nature of their spoilers, trust me I get it. But that doesn't change the fact that generally speaking, spoilers are not and should not be used to give an overview of the chapter, they should only be used to spoil exactly what was shown, nothing more, and you even reiterated that you agreed with me on this. That's just the harsh reality of it.

The issue at hand is that once the chapter was released, the spoiler didn't mean anything because Sakura's input in the chapter was so insignificant and disconnected to the plot of the chapter, so it didn't make any sense to attract fans of a character missing for 4 years to tune in into a chapter that had little to no input of that character.

Spoilers should never mean anything though, because they can very easily be taken out of context and give readers false impressions. Only the chapters themselves mean something. People just tend to give spoilers far more significance than they actually warrant. But I'll reiterate that the spoiler did its job in getting fans hyped for the chapter. Was it underhanded? Probably, but it is what it is.

Sakura's page can be easily removed from the chapter and it wouldn't affect the focus so it is strange to see as spoiler.

Perhaps it was strange specifically in this case because you're telling me that their spoilers are usually more in tune with the contents of the chapter. But generally speaking, whatever is included in spoilers for a chapter is fair game.

I think that the best option would have been not to choose Sakura as a spoiler (and so you avoid that the fans get excited) and to leave her as a surprise element part of the chapter; and later when Sakura really does something worthwhile that has to do with the plot, to take her as a spoiler.

Perhaps, I'm not gonna argue with that. My only point in all of this was just that the spoiler did its job, and that fans shouldn't allow themselves to get carried away after seeing 1 page from a 40 page chapter, regardless of previous patterns.

I think that, Kishimoto having spoken about Sakura in August in the Paris interviews and knowing that Sakura's fandom is the biggest and has a lot of online presence, they tried to attract that part of the fandom to give more clicks to the chapter.

Probably yeah, and they certainly succeeded. Let me reiterate that I understand the frustration regarding that, but it is what it is.

Having said that, obviously the spoiler did its job and appealed to Sakura fans, but regardless of whether she had appeared, her mere presence in the chapter would have generated quite a bit of buzz because she's a very popular character, she is Sakura Haruno.

💯

[ebbyxiii]

I'm very happy to be making progress again on my beloved fic since the last-- FOUR MONTHS?!

No way, you can't tell me it's been four gosh darn months since... oh. Oh wait. No. It has. I checked. I made the note just to embarrass myself as a reminder. A stab at future me. Yeap. I did that. Welp. That's just how it is folks.

Anyway, my darling torment "We Fear the Cry of Monsters" fanfiction is taking off. It just passed 1,000 views on AO3 for the main body and is doing pretty well in other (smut) areas. Which is incredible. I'm so thankful for all the comments and the interactions I've received because of its contents. As a merge between the games Cry of Fear/Afraid of Monsters/ and "Grey", the themes are dark, morbid at times, and indicative of the interpersonal battles of self-control. We all struggle with something. To write about such specific traumas has been very cathartic toward my own. This project has helped me grow as an author and as a member of a weird and awesome community.

In this group of tales, Simon Henriksson takes on the challenge of facing the truth about what really happened to him on The Black Day - the worst event of his young life. Through moments of doubt, perseverance, and opportune interactions, the Author is able to uncover his memories both through a new novel entry as well as in the hospital where he permanently lives. Simon reunites with David, the man behind the wheel of the car that crippled him, who harbors a sinister secret. Grey, a companion from Simon's teenage days. Sophie, his romantic obsession. And Purnell, a pharmacist and mentor who refuses to give up on his patient. (Set in the aftermath of the events of the good ending in Cry of Fear - there's your warning for any spoiler alert concerns.)

I sure would love if you'd come have a peek if you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format ;) It's coming close to a conclusion. I can't promise when, but I'll be finishing this project as strong as I can. I'm excited for what's to come. Maybe I'll find you there... at the Source of everything.

We Fear the Cry of Monsters

[crownleys]

Have you noticed any trends/patterns in what makes you 'fannish' about something? (Particular mediums, character dynamics, aesthetics etc.) Also, is there anything you love but don't feel the impulse to engage in fandom with?

This was a really interesting question, and I had to sit and think about it for a while before feeling like I had some good conclusions to share with you, Anon! I think in general there's three things that have to be in the mix that get me feeling 'fannish'/involved in the fandom for something: 1) Regularly engaging with the source material 2) A good community 3) Space to play

I'll put the rest under a cut because I'm sure I'm about to ramble for a while

So, with regards to point one, it feels relevant to mention that I don't particular feel like I've been a member of too many fandoms. I'd say two, exactly -- Zombies, Run! and The Wayhaven Chronicles. I've dabbled with things like The Locked Tomb Series and Dragon Age of course, but I never necessarily felt like part of the fandom, just because it was so large and multifacted, and I only briefly engaged with it as someone who contributed to those respective fandoms. But with ZR and TWC, they're both things that have stuck around longer, mostly because I've continued to play them for a very long time. I got started with ZR about 10 years ago. When I was my most active with it was when I was going out literally every day and listening to missions, which helped keep the story and characters really fresh in my mind. It also helped me constantly think up new themes and ideas I really wanted to explore within the setting and with the characters. Similar with Wayhaven -- I played through all the books when Book 3 came out in April and I've more or less had a play-through going since then. My actual play-throughs have fallen a little on the wayside just because of life things but I'm still thinking about it & engaging with the source material a lot. So I guess my point is, to truly feel 'fannish' about something I need to be a little bit obsessed, lol!

As for my second point, I've truly felt my most 'fannish'/part of the fandom when I find a good community to interact with. One of my favorite parts of being a fan is actually getting to talk about the material in question -- play with it, theorize, etc. The Zombies, Run! Fandom when I joined was amazing for that, and there continued being a really good group constantly discussing meta on their Rofflenet website the entire time I was a player. There was even a weekly zoom book club to discuss the current releasing missions! It was awesome! And with Wayhaven I feel like I've found a really nice circle of mutuals to sit and talk about the books with (and also obviously, my dearest Delucadarling, who I constantly talk about it with). Which brings me to my last point, is I really like having a lot of space to 'play' and feel fannish. With ZR, it has a huge sprawling universe of a zombie apocalypse, and only a very small portion is shown to the players via the audio. It leaves a lot of room to imagine what happens around the missions. And with Wayhaven, since only a portion of the story is out, it leaves a lot of room to imagine with happens next to all the characters. That is the sort of thing I really find motivating! And there's for sure plenty of things I love that I don't really engage with the fandom for, or engage pretty lightly. For example, I've really been loving Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks, but I haven't really done more than chat with a few friends about it. Similarly for a lot of the books I read -- I'll talk about them with a friend or two but not really seek out a lot of online content for them. I also watch a lot of cooking competitions, lol, so that's different for me to. If you've stuck with me for this long thank you! I really appreciated the question and I hope you have a great day <3

[leonard-chia]

MDA20009 Digital Communities Fifth Blog post week 9

Topic:

Finding My Place in a Fandom: A Journey of my Community and Connection

Hey everyone! Super excited to share my story with you all again! So, today’s topic is all about fandoms. Honestly, I used to be the type of person who wasn’t into any of that—no fan groups, no following fan pages, none of it. But, as they say, time changes people, and here I am now, fully embracing the fandom life!

Discovering the Fandom Community

So It started with a single interest, a piano piece compose by Chopin that caught my attention and slowly grew into it more the I aspect. Suddenly, I was part of something bigger, an online community is a Instagram page of people who shared my fascination, my theories, and sometimes even my strange sense of humour, my behaviour captures the essence of fandom: a community driven by intense enthusiasm that interacts with society, shaping new cultural meanings and values through shared social experiences (Fuschillo, 2018). Now I realise that Fandoms have this unique way of turning all people who have same interest into friends, and for many of us, they become spaces that offer acceptance, understanding, and an endless source of connection.

Why I Feels Like Home in the fandom communities

My Fandoms communities often feel like a home away from home. They’re places where you can express excitement without judgment I mean sometimes, We share our quirky, unpopular opinions and crack up over inside jokes that only fellow fans would get. For instance, we speculate: if Chopin, the legendary piano composer, had lived longer or if Poland hadn’t been invasion by imperial Russia, would his musical style have evolved differently? Would some of his iconic pieces even exist if history had taken a different turn? It’s all part of the fun! I found myself surrounded by people who saw the little details and appreciated them as much as I did. Being in a fandom meant finding a group of people who not only enjoyed the same things I did but understood why I cared so deeply about certain things.

This sense of connection goes beyond just shared interests. Fandoms can offer a unique type of support. If I posted a question, I’d get responses from fans who wanted to help, offer insight, or just share in my curiosity. In those moments of excitement, when someone shares a piece they’ve just discovered, I feel thrilled to explore something new along with them. And whenever someone learns a new piece and posts it on the page, I share in their happiness because I know firsthand the effort and dedication it takes to practice and improve.

Finding My Voice ( My Species )

One of the best parts about joining a fandom has been discovering ways to contribute. Watching others create fan art, write fanfiction, or discuss music theories really sparked my own creativity. Whether it was doodling, writing, or making memes, I felt inspired to join in on this collaborative, creative space. Even though I don’t often post my own content, I find myself quietly enjoying and appreciating everyone else’s work. It’s funny, but despite not engaging much, just liking and sharing posts makes me feel connected and part of the fandom community in a meaningful way.

A World Without Borders

Another remarkable thing about fandoms is how they bring people together from all around the globe. I’ve connected with fans from different countries, backgrounds, and life experiences, learning from perspectives I wouldn’t otherwise encounter. And because our bond is rooted in a shared passion, the usual social barriers seem to fade. Whether a friend is from across the street or across the ocean, our shared fandom makes us feel close.

This is also thanks to the development of social platforms that provide convenience, The growth of social media encourages fan culture to become a participatory culture, changing roles and actively impacting society and the economy (Jia, Li & Ma 2021).

Conclusion

In the end, being part of a fandom has taught me the true power of connection. I used to feel hesitant about identifying as a “fan” of anything, but now I see that fandom goes far beyond pop culture or celebrity followings like K-pop or pop music. Fandom can encompass a love for classical music, historical figures, or anything else that sparks a passion. I have a deep respect for all types of fandoms, and I truly admire anyone who has found a community they can call their own.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed diving into the world of fandoms with me! Keep exploring, creating, and sharing what you love, because fandoms are all about building connections and celebrating our passions. Until we meet again—see you all !!

Reference

Fuschillo, G 2018, ‘Fans, fandoms, or fanaticism?’, Journal of Consumer Culture, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 347–365.

Jia, B, Li, J & Ma, J 2021, ‘Transformation of Fan Culture Under the Influence of Social Media’, www.atlantis-press.com, Atlantis Press, pp. 2173–2178, viewed <https://www.atlantis-press.com/proceedings/ichess-21/125967353>.

[hypome]

BRIGHTER SHORES

A preliminary opinion (i.e. Early Access review)

Brighter Shores is made by the well-regarded original team behind RuneScape- a game which is most known to me by how strongly its community still loves it after 23 years. I cannot talk about Brighter Shores without talking about RuneScape, as it feels like a spiritual successor and is clearly a labor of love.

The RuneScape and Original RuneScape community is also frequently referred to as one of the most pleasant (i.e. Non-Toxic) communities; and you can see this evidenced by the content they make and their interactions with other users. Some of the community even holds an in-game Olympics, and this in a version of the oldest iteration of the game (OSRS). I would argue that the community is so loving towards this game because of the community, which is a strange sentence to write. But, I digress.

I have never played more than a few hours of RuneScape. It has just never clicked with me, despite being inundated with it through my marriage to someone who holds it as a special interest (how else would I know about the Gielinor Games, one might wonder). As an outsider, I've enjoyed the things my spouse has shared with me about the game, and have acquired a good bit of knowledge about it and its mechanics. I still never got it, though.

I get it now. Brighter Shores is my version of an OSRS addiction, but with a better UI. The same witty British style of writing that OSRS players love (and cannot be understated), a similar game progression loop, and the 23 years of watching a pseudo-previous version function with its community have laid the groundwork for what feels like the start of a very successful game. The decision to make this game was even sparked by countless amounts of fan feedback to the creator of RuneScape for MORE! ANOTHER GAME! And maybe he is where that thread of love in the community comes from, because he reacted with, "okay. It will take years and years of work, but you loved it and I loved it and cheers to that." (Not a direct quote, obviously. I imagine there was a lot of no's at first, enough to fill a couple decades.)

The progression feels streamlined, but not 'grindy', which is one of the most frequent descriptors of OSRS and RS. There is a grind in Brighter Shores if you make one, but the team has stated that their goal is an experience that casual and hardcore players can both partake in. If you only have a little bit of time to regularly dedicate to this, they want you to enjoy it without having to put in the hours that someone with more free time is able to devote. And that's a hard thing to create for a game.

To give further praise to the team; they have already proven themselves to match their positive reputation with how quick and receptive they are to player feedback. Many features have been optimized or implemented, and others have been made goals or things to brainstorm on in the future. And yet this game was already in-and-of-itself an optimized version of its predecessor!

I encourage you to try it if you find it at all interesting as a concept. I have played 17 hours so far, and it's only been out for 4 days (though, maybe I shouldn't admit that).

RELATED FLAVORS

old school MMORPGs

being helped by the player community / helping the player community

the unmatched experience of seeing usernames like CostcoHotdogs and g0rp

Creating potions / magical items

Cooking food as an objective or source of income

[snowstories]

The reasons Papyrus Undertale made the exception shortlist pretty much speaks for itself I feel (infantilized to the point of absurdity) and I don't want to spend too much time on him because he's a pretty uninteresting case to me, and other people have fought that battle for me. Laios Dungeonmeshi however I DO want to elaborate on because whatever the fandom's got going on with him actually is interesting to me.

Prefacing this: I have only read around thirty chapters of Dungeon Meshi and am not in the fandom. In fact I honestly don't even like Dungeon Meshi all that much. Like it's fine, it's just not hitting me the way it seems to for a lot of other people. I do not seek out Dungeon Meshi fan content, so y'know, do not take any of this as some kind of Expert Analysis In Dungeon Meshi Fandom Ableism or whatever. These are obversations made by an outsider who wants to study the way fans in fandoms interact with autism like a bug. Perfectly possible I'm missing nuance or I'm flat out wrong etc etc.

But anyway Laios is fun because this is a case of a character who is not only pretty much universally regarded as autistic by fandom (not all that unique all things considered), but is in fact so autistic in the source text that deliberate coding is not just likely but probably the most logical explanation. As far as I know we have not gotten any kind of word of god confirmation on his exact diagnostic status but at this point it's all but irrelevant. Point is, Laios has been near-universally accepted as autistic by the fandom with extensive canon backing, and moreover, this is a fact that is praised and celebrated. I've read some very interesting and nuanced analysis of Laios's autism. I think it's rad as hell how much fun everyone's having with this autistic little guy.

At the same time people will absolutely not shut the fuck up about what a weirdo freak he is, like he's suuuuuuuch a freak guys like he's SO abnormal lmao. Now this raised my eyebrows, for what I'm assuming are pretty obvious reasons when I lay it out like this, but in and of itself? I don't believe calling an autistic-coded character a freak is inherently ableist. I call myself a freak frequently for my autism. This is not ableist, and me calling an autistic-coded character a freak (affectionate) because they remind me of myself is not ableist either. Context matters; this is why I believe most claims of anti-autistic ableism to be overblown. A lot of them rely on a shallow kind of criticism where merely calling a character cute or childish or asexual is grounds for (for example) intantilization, when that's actually not at all what infantilization is about. If a character's agency isn't taken away due to a presumption of incompetence and mental immaturity then that character is probably not being infantilized. Calling Laios Dungeonmeshi a freak, even if a lot of people do it, is not necessarily ableist in and of itself, because words only really matter insomuch as their context does.

So what really makes this ableist is not just that people are calling Laios Dungeonmeshi a freak specifically for being autistic (though y'know. despite what I just said people could probably stand to be a little more self-aware about the fact that this is what they're doing), but specifically that people call Laios Dungeonmeshi a freak and then proceed to describe all the ways even his friends hate him for it. The sheer amount of jokes I have seen from SPECIFICALLY the fandom, not the manga, where the gag is that Laios is so weird and socially incompetent that he's insufferable even to his friends has crossed the line from 'kinda strange flanderization of canon' straight into 'guys do you think about actual IRL autistic people like this?'

It's not the word 'freak' itself I take issue with; I've seen perfectly fine and even relatable posts affectionately talking about how much of a freak Laios is. It's the unspoken, continuous assumption by the fandom that Laios's freakishness not only alienates him from a lot of people and society (a demonstrably true fact in canon, objectively correct assumption, kind of the whole point in fact), but that it makes him fundamentally annoying to be around. Casual jokes about how much Chilchuck wants to strangle Laios every time he talks to him are one thing if they're made by one or two people, and another when it constitutes some 70% of the jokes I see with them together, and Chilchuck always specifically wants to strangle/harm/kill Laios for infodumping or being socially incompetent (i.e. saying weird things). I took these jokes as an example but they're made with practically every character in the series except his sister; for another example, 'Marcille only puts up with weirdo Laios so she can fuck his sister and doesn't actually care about him' is another frequent one I see.

This also goes beyond 'Laiso is not actually liked by his friends because he's a weirdo freak' straight into 'You, personally, would not like Laios because he's a weirdo freak', usually framed as 'funny' posts like 'Laios isn't [fandom/Tumblr/whatever] type of autism he's [trait deemed offputting by OP] type of autism you would NOT hang out'; these sometimes carry the implication that OP is built different and would get along with him, but often just... do not. Second one is uncomfortable for reasons I hope are obvious, but even the first still usually reveal some very telling things about what OP does or does not consider 'offputting' autistic behaviour. Why is talking for half an hour about a children's cartoon NOT offputting behaviour, but talking for half an hour about, say, World War II or fishing or human anatomy is? Why is flapping your hands not offputting, but maintaining unbroken eye contact is? (All actual examples coming from posts I've seen that follow this structure btw.)

Let me be clear: sometimes, often even, the second type of posts are clearly intended as pushback for the sanitized/one-dimensional view of autism in online fandom spaces. I have criticized this myself, at length, repeatedly. I get it. Again, context matters, and these are posted in the fandom context. I don't necessarily think every single instance of this post type is inherently ableist, some are clearly vent posts that got taken wildly outside of their context. But an overwhelming majority reveal a deeply distorted idea of what autism actually is and who are or are not considered 'offputting' autistic people, even in the fandom sphere. It presents a false dichotomy of 'accepted' vs 'rejected' autistic people and completely fails to identify that the primary thing that defines these categories (to the degree they even exist, because no kind of autism is all that accepted even in the bubble of fandom spaces) is a) level of care needed and b) whiteness or non-whiteness. Like man, the guy they're implicitly describing as insufferable and offputting is a guy I've met twenty times over at the autism hangout and gotten along with just fine. A majority of even the terminally online autistic Owl House/Steven Universe fans clearly being used as a strawman in these posts would get along with them fine. Your idea of what 'offputting and difficult to get along with for the normies' entails is distorted and kinda concerning.

Which will then go one step FURTHER moving away from jokes into genuine analysis based on the idea that Laios Dungeonmeshi is somehow uniquely annoying and offputting due to his autistic traits, but whereas in canon this is framed as largely being an issue on part of the people who inexplicably hate, distrust, or are weirded out by Laios for no real good reason, these types of analyses instead put the onus on Laios, explaining at length why certain characteristics of his ARE weird and freakish and uncomfortable on some kind of objective level. These often also pull up examples of his friends being weirded out by him to support this argument. Weirdly these analyses are often made in a very cheerful, supportive tone, praising Dungeon Meshi for its portrayal of autism by showing them a genuinely offputting freak rather than an uwu santized autism. Most analyses of Laios's autism and its role in the narrative are not like this, for the record; I've found the vast majority of meta and analysis I've seen on the subject genuinely interesting and insightful. It's not acknowledging that Laios is viewed as weird by almost everyone on some level that's the problem, or even explaining which specific traits cause this and why: it's specifically the framing of Laios's flavor of autism as uniquely and innately offputting that's ableist. Again, it reveals some very strange assumptions on part of the writers regarding what they do and do not consider offputting.

What all this compounds to is a fanbase that consistently pretends that Laios is fundamentally and uniquely unlikeable as a person due to his autism. His friends think he's a weirdo freak who can't communicate who they barely put up with, a majority of people (at least on this site, maybe in general) wouldn't want to put up with him if they met him in real life, and this is somehow a realistic and positive portrayal of autism. It's a baffling fandom state that I've never seen before. I want to study you guys like a bug.

Anyway if Dungeon Meshi actually framed Laios this way he would not be a positive portrayal of autism, but it doesn't. Yes, many people find Laios offputting (especially when they first meet him) and assume the worst about him. However, as stated earlier, this is usually framed as an issue on their part more than anything, and usually there's additional factors entirely outside of Laios' control that don't even have anything to do with him (such as rumors) that aided in this assumption. Second, yes, while Laios' friends are sometimes weirded out or annoyed by him, they still clearly enjoy his company; they are not putting up with him, they care about and enjoy hanging out with him not just in spite of his autistic traits, but often because of them. Third, and most importantly, the fundamental reason I blame this fandom phenomena on ableism more than bog standard fandom flanderization: Laios is not that weird! Laios is not weirder than any of his companions! He is not uniquely weird!

Pretty much everyone in Dungeon Meshi is weird in their own way! Everyone in the main party annoys or weirds another out at some point! Laios is not special! As a matter of fact, the party member who most often weirds out the others is not Laios, it's Senshi! Laios, Senshi, Chilchuck, Marcille, and Falin are all, for different but often overlapping reasons, considered weird and offputting by society at large, and all of them have at some point weirded out their companions as well. Laios is not special, and it's extremely strange that he's singled out as a unique little freak by the fandom, because the manga never does this. Laios is a freak, sure, but so are all of them. That's kind of the fundamental appeal of their dynamic. So why is Laios the designated freak in fandom spaces, when, say, Senshi chose to live in the hell dungeon for decades because he enjoys it and has gardens on barely-legal magical creatures he fertilizes with the poop of dungeon parties? Why is his weirdness insufferable whereas Senshi's isn't?

Sure, Laios is weird. But the fixation on his weirdness specifically above all other characters who are at least as weird as him, in combination with specifically framing him as uniquely insufferable for it, is in my opinion caused primarily by ableism.

I have gone on record multiple times saying that I believe most claims of anti-autistic ableism in fandom are at best overblown and at worst completely unfounded. However the exceptions that prove the rule are Papyrus Undertale and Laios Dungeonmeshi. People actually are weirdly ableist about them. I think this is especially strange bc I've rarely if ever seen anyone point out the casual ableism with which most of the fanbase seems to approach Laios.

[petrichorvoices]

I don’t know why I still attempt to be presentable on here. This is Tumblr. I don’t need to restrain myself from reblogging an annoying amount of stationary images if I want to, this is exactly the site for doing that.

[applesandbannas747]

does pacat rlly not care about fence anymore 😭 i feel like it’s much better than dark rise and could be better than captive prince too…it’s been a year since i last consumed anything fence-related and i really don’t understand what’s going on with the series?? but anyways i like ur fics a lot & agree with ur reviews of srb’s novels, which also could have had so much potential but ended up kind of sucking in a lot of ways.

Pacat is a mystery to me. Personally, I believe Dark Rise is his best work--it shows much better pacing than Captive Prince and gets the same impact and feel without going to such extreme and explicit horrors, which shows a lot of skill (I know CP is his most beloved series but he's improved a lot since writing it haha). What gets me is that Fence STARTED really strong and I counted it as his best work for sure. There were fun tropes and dynamics, interesting characters with a central relationship promising contention, fighting, and tension, and some fun elements in the mystery of Jesse and potential in the reveal of Nick's lineage. And you could tell there was passion in the project...but even by the later issues of the original 12-issue run, Pacat's social media reflected a large disinterest in Fence, and that disinterest has shown in the story as Fence continues to progress.

I try to logic and rationalize and analyze everything Fence related and literally every time I do I get met with 'it's not that deep' from the actual canon lmfao but I'm going to offer my rationalization anyway lmao the only reason I can think to justify Pacat's lack of interaction with Fence on Twitter besides not caring about it much is that it doesn't fit his brand. Which is only defined by two other series, but it's very much a high fantasy/historical fantasy dark romance with stomach-churning undertones and much darker themes than Fence. So I gave him that excuse for a long time. Fence doesn't fit within that brand at all, so from a marketing standpoint, it makes some amount of sense to focus more on the other franchises. However, I think this strategic thinking is giving too much credit--Fence has always had really shit marketing so either Pacat has no mind for marketing or he doesn't care to market Fence, which both get us back to the only real reason being he just doesn't care about it as much as his other things.

Do I expect Pacat to be hanging out in the Twitter FENCEtag? No. But I do think it's strange that he'll post tweets saying happy birthday to other people's books the day they come out, but literally didn't ever make a Fence Redemption announcement or say anything on the release day. The most he's done is retweet a couple things from BOOM! and 2 other outside sources. And this is regular behavior--he didn't do announcements for RIVALS or RISE either and didn't promote them at all. Yet Dark Rise gets announcements all the way along--title announcement, release date announcement, cover reveal, etc etc etc. He also posts and retweets fanart for his other 2 books really regularly, yet he didn't even retweet all of Jo's (the co-creator and illustrator of Fence) pieces for the Fence event Jo hosted in April, let alone bother with much fanart of it. There's just no reason for the vast gap in involvement and enthusiasm other than him very strongly preferring his other projects and not bothering with the effort of interacting with Fence. He'll occasionally ask culture questions (like if Americans say 'coz' for cousin or how to say something in French) but that's legitimately the best argument there is for his interest or care in the project.

And lastly, his lack of interest shows in the story. He handed his story off to someone else to write novels for and simply let her go wild without regard for how it impacted the comics or the fans. Further, Pacat lost track of his own story and characters between Volume 3 & 4 in a way that I cannot excuse as anything other than inconsistent characterization. And I know I'm biased there, but I make so many people in real life read Fence that I don't jabber at about it/pull into the fandom (so they have no knowledge of my takes), and all of them have commented on the 180 the characters made between the volumes. And, listen, if I wouldn't accept that kind of inconsistency in characterization when grading my 12-year-olds' narrative writing projects, why am I still sitting here trying to excuse the lazy/poor writing in a published and successful author? The pacing is also telling--a lot of conflict was skipped over 'off screen' between the volumes (which, say it with me folks, is lazy writing). Nick's resentment toward Seiji turned into full admiration sans any ill feelings or acknowledgment that even if he IS hot shit, he was still a major asshole in his initial conception, and Seiji apparently agreed to drop his thing about Jesse (you know, the thing that had them in a fist fight approximately 40 pages of comic before). There was no build-up to their relationship or resolution of the conflict that made it unhealthy (expect to have Nick 'admit' Seiji was right to treat him like shit...) These things push the story along a lot faster; rivals to lovers moves really fast if you skip all the tedious development of the characters getting to know, respect, tolerate, and then like each other. Pacat loves rivals/enemies to lovers and (to be blunt) mean/cold bottoms, so it is so fucking bizarre to me that he'd speedrun the relationship and change the characterization so much when it's directly moving away from his preferences (see: Captive Prince, Dark Rise). I don’t know how it happened from anything other than sheer laziness or from not caring about Fence so deeply that he let SRB overwrite the characters and romance he'd originally created.

Last, there are just SO many inconsistencies and copyedit-level mistakes. And I get it that typos happen, but it happens so much that it's like,,, are you even rereading the scripts before you throw them at your publisher? And the continuity errors are massive at this point. Seiji's year in France, which was apparently the result of his loss to Jesse, is only possible if time travel exists and also timelines exist simultaneously. How do you fuck up so big when constructing a story you care about? At least by the time it gets published, you should be sure it's READY to be published. It's like he's writing issue-by-issue as he goes with no plan and can't be bothered to skim through the previous issues to check for things.

I just can't come up with a reality where Pacat actually loves Fence when this is all the care he gives it. We are so so so lucky to have Jo--she is literally the most amazing and gives so much love and care to Fence, and it shows...I just wish Pacat's writing didn't affect her contribution to the comic too. But she at least loves Fence even if Pacat doesn't seem to tell her all that much more than he tells the rest of us LMFAO

This turned into a WHOLE messy essay, I just have a lot of thoughts and they've been brewing for years so sorry to go off on my mad ravings and thanks for tuning in XD and also!!! I'm so happy you like my fics TT.TT <33 and also that you see my point about the novels uwu

[kochanski]

Lot of interesting character stuff in Ouroboros and Duct Soup although it's difficult to say I like the group dynamic. Not gonna get into the misogynistic writing, we all know women be shopping etc etc, I just want to talk about how Kochanski fits (or how I think she should fit) in with the boys

I think Kochanski and Lister do have some chemistry, like, the moment when he tries to draw her a bath and make her evening nicer was really sweet and completely caught me off guard since in most episodes she's the one taking care of him. I'm not a fan of the way their relationship is handled in Ouroboros so it was nice to get a Lister redemption moment in Duct Soup.

I also liked that Kochanski decided to mess with him by briefly lying about her reality, although I'm conflicted about the actual content of the conversation (idk, not the worst thing in the world, but as a gay person it does feel a bit uncomfortable to joke/lie about alternate Lister's sexuality). But there's potential for mischief here and I think that's really important, given that she's been presented in her debut as a relatively no-nonsense character/straight man to the boys' chaos. This interaction brings her from being a reactionary character to stirring things up herself and I really appreciated that.

I do like the witty insults and some of the interactions wrt Kochanski and Kryten's rivalry, but it feels like a way more annoying/sexist version of the Lister-Rimmer dynamic. Rimmer wouldn't (probably) have seriously sabotaged the ship in order to screw Lister over- not saying he wouldn't think really hard about it, but their relationship has kind of a weird affectionate feel that's just missing from Kryten and Kochanski's. Obviously this is me scrabbling to take off the shipping goggles I've welded to my face but you know. Their antagonizing does have some foundation of friendship, where K&K don't have that at all. It is strangely endearing how much value Kryten places on his relationship to Lister, but it plays as controlling and petty in a way I don't care for.

Interestingly, early on in Ouroboros, Kochanski desperately needs to know why Kryten doesn't like her, and seems distressed that he doesn't. I kind of wonder if they weren't close in her reality, which makes me even sadder that they hate each other here.

Kochanski and the Cat don't seem to interact much at all in these episodes, but I did find it cute that the Cat follows her orders enthusiastically and tries to impress her. Of course this is likely a sexual pursuit based on the way he talks about her to Lister, but I would actually kind of love if she was His Person like an actual cat. I really like when Cat displays feline behaviors so I think it would be sweet if they had that weird unconditional bond, and I think it would be funny to see Lister a little jealous of that and try to win back the Cat (unsuccessfully) with food or other bribes. Just my two cents

Obviously, we almost never get her interacting with Original Rimmer, but it would be an interesting match. She and Rimmer have a lot in common vis-a-vis wanting to put order to the chaos, and they have similar backgrounds, although Kochanski comes off a lot more posh and upper-class than Rimmer ever has. Still, I think they would have some of the same tastes and be able to empathize with one another to some degree. I'm divided, however, on if Kochanski's competence and rank would be a source of jealousy, or if he would be relieved to have her in charge and start kissing up to her the way he does in the brief flashback in Ouroboros. As the show goes on, Rimmer kind of blossoms into this guy who actually halfway knows what he's doing as long as he doesn't pause to doubt himself, so I think Kochanski would recognize that in him and try (and absolutely fail) to nurture that. They're also both characters prone to anger and rage, but where Rimmer's presents as passive aggression, Kochanski is willing and able to be straight-up aggressive, definitely more so than Lister ever was. I don't know, I think the comparisons are interesting.

Okay wow this is a longer post than I thought but hopefully it's a fun read. Worth noting I'm only 5 episodes into series 7/have been skipping around a bit so it's entirely possible that I'm missing things. I just feel like if this is the character development season, it leaves some things to be desired and I really want to fill in those blanks

[vrishchikawrites]

Ok so like

This is by no means an insult, attack or anything of the aort to you personally, i enjoy your content and opinions and i fully mean this respectfully....

But i find it so interesting that some people can hate a particular character and not read fics about them?

Like, from my first interaction w fandom in general, i could read any relationship/ plot/ ooc as long as it is well written. Even if i hate canon characters, i can usually read them in a positive light. Hell, i can read any JC fix as long as i know if it's positive or negative so i know what to expect

And then i found tumblr discourse

Again, this isn't something I'm criticising, just an observation I'm curious abt, since detachment from the source material seems to be so scarce fandom wise

Ok, so - here's the thing. The problem isn't fans loving JC and writing him favorably. If that was an issue, many reasonable people in this fandom wouldn't be so miffed about it.

The problem is - we can't avoid them. You said it yourself, "as long as i know if it's positive or negative so i know what to expect"

We don't know what to expect.

Everyone wants to tailor their fandom experience. You mentioned you can read almost anything as long as it is well-written. That's a good thing because it opens up the entire fandom for you. But some people have specific tastes and triggers. They would want to look at the content they like and avoid what they don't like.

That isn't possible in this fandom.

I write canon characterization of JC. I am forced to tag is anti-jiang cheng. People write fanon characterization of JC. They don't tag it Jiang Cheng-friendly.

We get fics where JC is suicidal and people are gaslighting WWX - making him feel insecure - in the main Wangxian tag. And that is presented as ok for JC to do. They say it is suicidal JC, they don't mention that JC, Jiangs, and everyone is gaslighting the fuck out of WWX.

Then we have a perfectly good fic that we get invested in and find ourselves in a hole where WWX has crippling self-esteem issues, the Jiang family is abusive, but is brushed aside. There's no tag mentioning OOC WWX with self-esteem issues.

We have fics where Wangxian cheat on each other - with JC. And there's either one or more abusive partner involved. Partner abuse isn't tagged.

We have fics where all of WWX's morality is transferred onto JC. But JC isn't tagged as OOC.

THIS ISN'T TAGGED.

In fact, we have people using deceptive tags like angst with happy ending - Wangxian only for the happy ending to be for WWX to die at the hands of his abusive spouse. Again, no warning. The problem is so common and so many readers are blindsided by it that people have told me they clock out of the fandom because of it.

It isn't something as simple as an attachment to the source material. I am the last person to say fanon characterizations aren't allowed. I have been writing fanfiction for over two decades. Fanon characterization doesn't bother me at all.

There are fandom olds, good people, who will tag fics that are favorable to JC as JC-friendly and I don't think many of us have an issue with them. The problem starts when it becomes difficult to find a good fic where a canonical antagonist isn't allowed to walk all over the canonical protagonists. It is difficult to find a fic where everything that makes WWX so great in the canon is turned over until he only has surface characteristics of WWX but underneath that surface, he's someone we don't know.

Detaching yourself from the source material is one thing. But do you know many fics are out with WWX or LWJ having a bucketful of mischaracterizations? I have a near-crippling problem with depictions of severe self-esteem issues. I was drawn to WWX because, despite everything, he doesn't have severe self-esteem issues. So many fics include WWX with low self-esteem, severe self-deprecation without tagging? Because they consider it canon? I noticed that because I'm sensitive to it. But there are things I am not sensitive to, but other people want to avoid. Those things aren't tagged either.

It is frustrating for people who want to experience fandom, who want to be comfortable in fandom, but somehow have to deal with poor tagging, strange characterization, abuse justification, morality discussions, etc.

Fan content longer a favorable space for many fans. There are only so many fics you can clock out of before you start feeling completely disgusted by the situation.

So the response to all of that shit? Create a fandom vent space where people who do not like all of these things can come together, vent, and share their thoughts on. Venting in the story's comments section or in the author's space is bad form. A venting to people who have experienced similar things away from the creator's space? Fun and good form.

Also, added bonus, every time I see a meta, discussion, or answer an ask that forces me to think - my understanding of characters improves and I incorporate it into my fics.

to conclude - people can be detached from the original source material. But you bet people will rebel when someone tries to shove them in a particular direction. The more stans try to shove people in the direction of fanon characterization, the more people who like canon characterization will cling to it and defend it.

That's human nature.

All of this discourse? A response to being shoved and forced to bear fanon interpretations with complete disregard.

As people keep saying, the Chinese side of the fandom doesn't experience any of this shit.

Also, to clarify - I mean none spitefully or disrespectfully, despite my blunt language. This isn't a criticism of you or your ask, but of the state of this fandom.

[fictionkinfessions]

As much as I adore interacting with fans and fan content pertaining to my source, i often forget about the… more strange side of fandom.

There are times in certain communities, i’ll see someone say things about me that are…quite frankly, awful?? I understand that being from fiction, many don’t see me as a person and act accordingly, but I believe i still have a right to be uncomfortable.

Thank you for listening,

- The Narrator (tsp)

[supertunanana]

I’ve debated writing this for a while, because who wants to read my inane thoughts on the matter? What are my opinions really worth in the grand scheme of things? I’m not so self important to think this will be of any value. But, I’m an extroverted thinker, so this might help my brain finally shut up, and that’s worth something to me. 

The hypocrisy surrounding Jikook. 

Are they a couple? Maybe. I legitimately don’t know. I don’t default into thinking they’re straight. I don’t default into thinking they’re gay. Every member is a blob, sexually, until they define themselves one way or another. Because honestly, I don’t care. That’s between them and their potential paramours. There’s nothing wrong with either option, heck there’s nothing wrong with both or none. Live a life, man... good luck! 

And I have no problems with shipping, to the extent it is done in a sane way and fans do not impose their ships onto the actual people. What I mean is, if you think Tae and JK look good together and you want to read stories or draw art of them as a couple and you want to explore their dynamic, you do you. However, it crosses a line when fans get mad when real people or real situations do not adhere to their fantasy. When they contradict footage and quotes and the feelings of those involved because it doesn’t fit into their little shipping box, that’s when it’s a problem. Be realistic. Have distinct lines between fantasy and reality, between what you might like and what is actually happening. 

It is this reason, that I think shipping generally innocuous and indicative of the shipper more than the celebrity, that I also don’t think the celebrities in question need to be defended against shipping. Because  if it is distinctly fantasy, then unless they express an opinion on the matter, most celebrities don’t really seem to know about it or care. It’s harmless. That defense, those hackles raised, again say more about the fans than the celebrities. When Xiao Zhan’s (XZ) fans got pissed off that some fanfic writer was portraying him as trans, XZ never weighed in on it. It wasn’t until those fans, in DEFENSE of their idol reported the writer and those of their ilk to the censors in China and got AO3 blocked on Chinese internet, that’s when XZ stepped in. And not to thank his fans for defending him, but to apologize to all the innocent Chinese fanfic writers who lost their work and their sanctuary because a handful of his fans had gotten the site banned. Again, the problem here was fans imposing their own beliefs on the celebrity, in this case thinking he would be upset by this and thus needed to be defended. They ended up causing more harm than good.

So the crux of this, what’s been kicking about in my brain, was the need for the fandom to “defend” JK from “shippers” the day after “hickey gate” and why these things only ever seem to focus on Jikook moments.

First off, “hickey gate” stemmed from footage that was a full, editorial choice to be shared on the part of Hybe and BTS. It was behind the scenes, closed set, pandemic lockdown footage edited together and released as official content, not some concert fancam or paparazzo on the street catching a private moment. They chose to leave in both Jimin and Jungkook on TWO occasions addressing the bruise/bite/hickey on JK’s neck, with the source being attributed to Jimin both times. Thus, people discussing this after the fact is a natural biproduct of it being shared. Is it even “shipping” when we are given the footage and the explanation? Is it not just a strange fact? This isn’t someone superimposing a fantasy onto them. This is the boys flat out saying Jimin bit JK and left a mark on his neck. I get debate over whether it was a bite or a hickey might lend itself more to “shipping”, with the latter being more shippy, but seriously, just looking at it would make anyone to question whether the BRUISE was more a hickey than a bite mark. What it says about the nature of their relationship is a whole other animal, but the fact is, it happened. And people are going to have THOUGHTS and FEELINGS about this. And that’s obviously something Hybe/BTS were ok with to share it in the first place (seriously, we would have never known, we DIDN’T even have a whiff of this until they put the whole thing on the DVD, so they were obviously OK with this leading to speculation, because how can a member saying they BIT another on the neck not?). All the content we are given of the boys snuggling, biting, ear sucking, tenderly addressing each other, etc.. is mostly a choice. And that choice will lead to questions and debates, and they’re obviously ok with it. It’s not wrong for people to be like, “huh” when they do questionable things and choose to give us said content about the questionable things. 

But, there always seems to be this backlash when it’s Jikook. We have to “defend” JK, a fully grown man, who brought up the bite himself on camera from people talking about the bite as he himself said it was given to him. No backlash to people saying Jimin claimed doing it to cover up JK’s secret girlfriend (uhhh, when homosexuality is a no-go in SK, that seems a weird choice, but sure, ok.... like just cut it from the footage and slap some make up on like they do during the concert, since none of us noticed it then, and move on if you want to cover it up). But that’s allowed supposition despite having NO EVIDENCE to support it. And what we are TOLD actually happened is not ok and “shipping”?!? 

Worse, when days later some innocuous “TAE AND JK WERE STANDING NEXT TO EACH OTHER OMG! THEY’RE IN LOVE” trends, where is the “save JK from shipping” rhetoric? That is CLEARLY shipping. I’m not saying Jikook shippers don’t do this, too, they do. And I laugh and shake my head at every little thing being dissected and offered as “proof”, but there always seems to be this backlash when it’s Jikook. ESPECIALLY when it’s undeniably... different. Neck biting. Ear sucking. “with JK at 4 a.m.” when they found out Dynamite got number one. Golden Closet Tokyo. These things are facts. Again, they’re... weird facts that do lead me to raise an eyebrow a lot, but they are facts and they were shared by the members as facts. I don’t think it’s necessarily shipping to think weird facts are weird and may lead to conclusions that don’t adhere to the THEY ARE ALL INHERENTLY STRAIGHT manifesto so many fans seem to have (and I think “straight until proven otherwise” is a shitty perspective anyone could have in any walk of life and again speaks to inherent or unconscious heteronormative perceptions in society - hurray -_-). 

But even the dumb shippy stuff that ALL other combos have, is always an ISSUE when done by Jikook. Their bond or interactions are downplayed by major accounts. They’re an outlier. Some shippers even try to make it out like they hate each other (whaaa? HOW?!?!).  Any odd interaction that really is just odd is deemed “shipping” and cast off into the no-no void, where it’s WRONG if you side-eye it. And I know WHY. I know it’s because they ARE different and they do do stuff people just don’t want to look too closely at because it makes them uncomfortable, so it’s easier to just deem it all “other” and “crazy supposition” and get rid of it. But it’s frustrating when it’s legit and it’s stuff they’re choosing to show and give us. It’s frustrating to be told you’re not allowed to go “huh, weird” because now you’re just a crazy shipper. 

And again, I’m NOT saying Jimin and JK are in a relationship, because again, IDK, but I’m also not saying they're NOT either. I’m going to keep side eyeing the fuck out of some of the stuff they do and just enjoy that they are 100% each other’s person in the interim. And if that makes me a crazy shipper, then I guess that’s what I am.