#sorry for this negative post

[bookcub]

Cozy Fantasy and Why It Doesn't Work

I think I am among many who feel like they should love cozy fantasy and have found it an incredibly lacking genre.

This newly branded "cozy fantasy" genre that has taken readers by storm since 2020 and while it is new that books are now marketed as cozy, the genre itself isn't new. Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones is a great example of the genre before it was labeled and also how to make it work.

Cozy fantasy is defined by many as fantasy with low stakes. Fantasy aesthetic but less sword fights. On paper, it sounds great. But the execution has been less than stellar for readers like me. The lack of physical stakes has also impacted the emotional stakes of these books, creating forgettable characters with boring problems. As a romance reader, I find this frustrating. Romance is known for being a predictable and formulaic genre, the now defunct Romance Writers of America defined romances as needing happy endings, a term romances have continued to follow. Yet these romance texts manage to have low physical stakes (how to date your neighbor, how to confront your toxic friends, etc) while still maintaining high personal stakes that keep readers invested and begging for more. So I was initially confused why cozy fantasy authors struggle to write texts that connect to readers like me.

I think I have found the answer which is the genre is just here for vibes. It is all about aesthetic, not even worldbuilding that fantasy is known for as most cozy fantasy I read have so many problems as soon as you ask one question. It is hard to acknowledge that a genre that is pitched to work for readers like me doesn't work for many of us. Especially because occasionally there is one that works beautifully to my taste.

I often say my favorite cozy fantasies that are more contemporary are short and visual, which I plays into the idea of the genre being an aesthetic. The Bakery Dragon by Devin Elle Kurtz is a good example because it is a simple story that is given the perfect amount of pages and gorgeous visuals without dragging on when the message is very clear and easy to understand. Books like The Phoenix Keeper and Legends and Lattes have absolutely nothing for me, their very clear message hitting the reader over and over so the readers don't miss it and focusing on the aesthetic of worldbuilding rather than the reality of the fantastic elements within the world.

I guess my point is. . . I realize this genre isn't for me since I have realized it is more of an aesthetic than anything. .. .but I want it to be. Should I let it go and put my efforts elsewhere? Or should I keep exploring this new trend and find the hidden gems?

[yellowheartz]

Err, no offense. But I absolutely can not stand useless people in a classroom. No, no, don't get me wrong.

It's fine if you don't know what to do, as long as ur trying to understand and actually trying to do something.

But if ur the typa asshole to be smug and defend yourself for being none other than a piece of trash in a room, then maybe. Oh, idk. Keep your head down and be quiet?

[miraculouslumination]

Y'all realize that you can (and probably should) treat trans women and transfems as people right. Like you can acknowledge that they face a lot of awful shit and are targeted with layers and layers of bigotry without like. Putting every trans woman and transfem on a marble and gold gilded pedestal.

Trans women and transfems shouldn't be respected because they're goddesses with girlbulge or hot dommy mommies or divine feminine. You should respect them because they're people, which means they aren't perfect and will do things you won't like or think is weird/gross, but you should still respect them. You should always treat them as people first and foremost, rather than a mythical figure in your political fantasies.

[oneshotprincess]

i think the thing that annoys me most about 'bad dad' clark fics is the fact that they feel really mean-spirited about superman in general. almost like they're telling ppl 'seee! superman's not great after all! he's just as bad as you and me! in fact, he's worse! look at how he's treating this innocent child' and it's almost like lex luthor himself is running a smear campaign on ao3

[blueberryfruitbat]

AI and Tumblr

In the event of any kind of AI Art API is to be trained on this platform I do not give permission for my art to be sampled or used to train AI without financial compensation, artists hold the copyright to our art and any intentional mimicry or sampling of my art by an artificial intelligence is infringing on an artist's rights to their creations.

We as artists will not take this grim proposal between Tumblr and Midjourney laying down, this was the last safe heaven for a lot of us and you are now holding knives to us entirely to solve your financial woes instead of offering meaningful solutions. You are going to bleed your community of all trust and all revenue you still eek out of us. Your ways have changed from one of a community built around passion for fandom and the creative mind to one of greed and exclusion. You have been showing true colors and they are ugly, they are sickening, and they will kill your platform. If this deal goes through, may your platform die slow and painfully, may you watch your most loyal of whales walk away and leave you drying out in the hot pavement that is bankruptcy.

[butchvamp]

we know EA interfered a lot with veilguard, i definitely do attribute the "sanitization" of the setting directly to EA's meddling, i even think to some extent taash's quest and the corporate representation feel of it all was influenced heavily by EA and not just weekes. and i think a lot of the companions being so shallow and their quests feeling half-baked is also mostly due to time constraints and rewrites/cut content-- the writers genuinely did do the best they could with what they had, and i feel for them and their frustrations. but. there are also just a lot of really bad decisions made elsewhere, too. like i said the racism has always been present in these games and it's always been a problem, it's literally baked into the worldbuilding, though i can definitely agree that some of it was potentially made worse specifically in veilguard due to constant rewrites and the loss of context and cohesion, but like... it was always there to begin with... and it's not "unfair" for players to point this out.

both things can be true-- EA absolutely fucked these people over, and we shouldn't be speculating conspiracy theory-type shit about the writers hating fans or whatever when we know. we know EA interfered, we know there were creative differences, we know they ruthlessly laid off a lot of the people that poured their blood, sweat, and tears into this game! EA is both stupid and actively malicious, they get no sympathy from me. veilguard absolutely is a casualty of the current state of the gaming industry. and i also think there were a lot of poor writing decisions made independently of that as well, that are fair to criticize and question. a lot of these problems are the same problems we've seen in every single DA game, and this consistency makes it clear this is not just an issue with corporate overreach.

but i really feel for everyone involved with making this game, this shit was clearly a very long and tiring fight, i can't even imagine the kind of constant corporate shitstorm they had to deal with for ten fucking years, and personally there is no NDA in the world that would keep me from talking shit. so these guys are stronger than me lol

[idwl]

sorry i keep posting about transandrophobia and ive made a post similar to this yesterday but oh my GOD youre all just going mask off lately arent you. do you guys just think its "fun" and "quirky" to make jokes about the bigotry of trans men.

[miracle-negative]

I was going to post it on Killer's birthday..(;´༎ຶД༎ຶ`)

[l3irdl3rain]

which is more annoying. someone with a morbidly obese cat who insists it’s a Maine coon VS the person with a husky who insists it’s a wolf dog

[fancyfade]

Tim in Damian-centered comics: Either referred to as 'smart' and just is not the main character, or if he gets beat up there's still situations explaining why and he's portrayed as a generally concerned person (link)

Damian in Tim-centered comics: amoral, stupid, thoughtless, making the wrong decision and siding with supervillains, OOCly judgmental in situations he's previously been less judgmental in, gullible in situations he's been previously less gullible in -- (examples in link (link) that aren't zdarsky's batman, but like. all of zdarsky's batman)

fans: they're treated the same ^_^ Look Tim called Damian his baby bro ^_^ It's so cute

[karofsky]

while I'm doing my own interview skimming, this Harvey interview has a sweet quote as well

[arson-09]

Have been seeing some discussion again about tamlin being a good High Lord or not and I just have to remind everyone of one of the best little facts from acotar I never really seen mentioned.

Acotar, Chapter 25 Page 221

She [Alis] simply said, "Summer Solstice. The main celebration used to be at the Summer Court, but... Things are different. So now we have one here, too. You're going."

"so now we have one here too..." Because of amarantha and Tamlin being just a good person he allowed anyfae from any court to come to spring. And because no one could really go back to their courts for their respective solstice celebrations, Tamlin made sure Spring Celebrated all of them

I just think that's such a cool fucking thing. That Tamlin cared for the people coming to spring for safety, and he made changes to help everyone feel comfortable and at home. He cares about the people who live in Spring, he cares so damn much :(((

[reanimatoryaoi]

[bi-chimneyy]

"it's common to be uncomfortable with a daddy kink-" you are missing the fucking point, blacklist the tags (even for that specific ship) if you have to, skip that scene if you're streaming it, whatever, but for fucks sake do not imply that a gay man is predatory or perverse for making a fucking joke - with his boyfriend who initiated it - that's the homophobic bit

[remma-demma]

I’m actually scared of alienating some of my followers and moots with all the trans discourse I’ve been steeping quietly in and contemplating, but… I’m trying to not let being scared shut me up about this. That, in and of itself, is erasure and silencing.

Fuck staying quiet. Trans men and mascs deserve a voice, and we, as a group, are not oppressing or invalidating anyone else by using that voice. (Obviously there are shithead exceptions!! Anyone can be an asshole.)

I really hope that if I ever speak about any of this in the future, that people recognize that it’s not ever, ever trans femininity as a concept I have an issue with. It’s people who

- try to divide the community

- are reinventing gender essentialism from the ground up but make it trans

-police other people’s identities and decide for them what oppression they must face because of a tiny set of superficial traits

- simply. Don’t understand what intersectionality means.

- disregard and invalidate anyone who doesn’t fit a very specific (binary, rich, white, abled, flawlessly passing) idea of what it means to be trans.

None of those things are specific or exclusive to one identity. There just happens to be a community of transfems who are currently espousing many of these ideas as gospel. They are understandably defensive because of real actual transmisogyny they face. But other trans people are not your enemy. Accusing anyone and everyone who tries to point these flaws out as radical transmisogynists is simply not true. Pointing out bigotry is not bigotry in itself.

I don’t want the trans community to constantly be at each other’s throats. We each have to sit down and think if we ever catch ourselves blaming an entire other marginalized group for our issues. That’s just fascism babes.

[soup-mother]

imagine getting your cutie mark and it's just a picture of you getting really angry at a trans girl for not wanting to watch rocky horror with you.

imagine if that was the unique characteristic about yourself that sets you apart from others