#superwholock era hello again

[petercushingscheekbones]

Guys seriously Merlin being on trending has forced me to revisit my most long lasting teenage, codependent, homoerotic friendship.

She is a big fan and now we are back to frequently chatting and fangirling over Merlin (mostly her). We are really back in 2011 huh?

[g0nta-g0kuhara]

Hello! :] I saw your post recently regarding the pervasive feeling of shame in newer fans re: Danganronpa, and it really resonated. I wanted to offer my two cents as a fandom old/armchair fandom archeologist that's hopefully a little heartening:

I remember back in 2012/2013 when Danganronpa was beloved, during the height of the SomethingAwful TL days. It was a genuinely fun time to be into things, especially as people were getting excited for an EN release, something that I do think the fandom deserves a little credit in making happen. I was there for the UDG release, DR3 anime, and the lead-up to v3's release, and unfortunately, I think the fact that all three of those entries were in some ways polarizing effectively memory-holed a lot of people into believing Danganronpa was never "good" to begin with, which makes it a lot easier to pick out its flaws and give it a bit of a weird reputation now.

(As a tangent, but some more context that might help: Danganronpa also got really big on my neck of the woods in Tumblr during one of the big Homestuck hiatuses. Back in the day there was a lot of fandom crossover, which I don't really think is the case nowadays, but I think for people that were either in both fandoms and had negative experiences, or people outside who disliked either/or, they've been inextricably linked together as part of a particular "time" in Tumblr/internet history that isn't remembered fondly. So, I have a theory that a lot of secondhand Danganronpa disdain comes from misplaced disdain for the other Big Thing at the time.

This also overlapped with the tail end of the big SuperWhoLock era to my memory, which is usually much more focused on which discussing Tumblr history. Which is a shame, because I feel like this particular transitional era of Tumblr "fandom" history has been underdiscussed because of it!

None of this is excusing some of the things I've seen said about DR fans and the ways people have been iced out for liking it, but I find trying to understand the factors at play always helps my mind figure out how to process these things.)

However: time moves on. This isn't permanent. Having gone back and re-experienced the whole series some 5+ years removed, I was able to find joy in parts of the series that, while I was in the thick of a shift in fandom attitude, didn't appreciate as much as I think I should have. I didn't absolutely love everything, but I had so much fun, it almost felt like I was experiencing things again for the first time.

I want to believe the same thing will happen as we get some time removed, as people get nostalgic for things and get older and understand that you can love something flawed, criticize it, and not feel shame for it. I always welcome fresh faces discovering something for the first time, but I think that some day, a lot of older fans can come back and embrace it as well. Sometimes you need time and life and a few extra years on you. I'm living proof of it! :P

Of course, this is just one person's perspective from one slice of the fandom. But I remain hopeful. There really is nothing else quite like Danganronpa for me, warts and all. You don't have to post this publicly or anything if you don't want to, but I wanted to offer a little hope to go with your thoughts. :') and I hope you have a great day!

Oh man, I really really appreciate this message. I am really interested in the perspective of fans who have been here for so long, and I always feel a little out of my depth talking about old (read: 2018 and before) DR fandom because despite seeing a Lot of it in my blog-diving, I still wasn't there. It's genuinely wonderful to hear that it was beloved like that, even if only fully for the first two installments.

I HAVE noticed a weird amount of homestuck/dr crossover in my searches, so that totally makes sense! Hell, my first exposure to DR on tumblr was a homestuck blog I followed back in 2017/2018ish (for the artstyle, I haven't read homestuck) that also posted a lot about Kazuichi. That's super cool!

While I feel like today, there is at least a little bit of fondness (even if it is a little ironic) for superwholock days, I see very little talk of homestuck. And when I do, it is usually with the same flavour of "Wow that fandom was so crazy" as old-DR.

I think there is usually this reactionary retrospective on site-wide popular fandoms to some degree after they start to wane in size. I saw it when I was in the TMA fandom. That thing was a monster, and over all I felt more stressed there than I ever feel now with DR. And after it ended, and really even During those last few episodes, you could feel a level of distaste for the piece of media growing. Although it never really reached critical mass like DR.

Maybe its even more apparent with something like Steven Universe- when it was actively coming out there was so much disdain for it (from some people) and for the fandom. I was there, on the sidelines, but I saw it all and it wasn't fun. But after its finale and a couple years of silence, people now seem to have come around and realized, whoa, so much about all that discourse was way overblown. I feel like a couple years ago there could still have been this sense of "cringe" posting about steven universe, while today its a lot more neutral.

Of course, it's kind of weird to compare DR and SU, and the nature of outside of fandom perspectives on them is not the same. The level of disdain for people posting SU never reached the point of DR either. But if it's anything to go by, I feel like there is hope eventually for people to stop having an immediate knee-jerk reaction to it. To look back and realize, "hey, that was actually pretty good," or "I didn't really appreciate this the first time." Or even just "It's fine actually to have nuanced take on this piece of media I don't like that concludes with them still liking it." I feel like we already got a mini-version of that in 2020, but since that's when I joined I can't speak too much on it.

Small tangent aside, I really appreciate this. I also hope people can come back around to it, or at least appreciate that it made them or other people happy at the time c:

[daughter-of-sapph0]

Hello~ I hope you're having a nice evening!! I wanted to ask you about tumblr eras because I've seen you mention them a couple times now. I've been on tumblr for a while now actually but haven't seen anyone else refer to tumblr eras, and I was wondering if you could explain them? No worries if not!!

of course!

so, I'm probably one of a handful of people who actually uses tumblr eras. I use it as a shorthand to describe when certain events happened and the people who joined before or after those events

Era 1 is from the beginning of tumblr until dashcon. this was from 2007 to 2014 and is the longest era so far. it's notable for the creation of superwholock, the mishapocolypse, oncelercest, and more. it's the first thing people thing of when they think of classic tumblr

Era 2 is from after dashcon until the community guidelines change in late 2018 (aka the "porn ban"). this is actually when I joined (I was originally an undertale blogger). this is notable for the more popular fandoms of tumblr, and some incredibly famous posts like the bone stealing shit or John Green's cock post. it ended when the community guidelines changed to ban "female presenting nipples" and a lot of people left for twitter

Era 3 is honestly when tumblr was at its best. it's when most of the inside jokes were created (eebby deeby, horse plinko, Goncharov, etc). even though tumblr wasn't insanely popular at this time, it had a real sense of community and togetherness that can't really be said about any other websites.

Era 4 is the newest era and the one we're currently in. this was started when elon musk bought twitter and tons of people left and either rejoined tumblr or joined for the first time. this was also the same time tumblr started trying out a lot more new features like tipping, blazing, tumblr blue, and livestreams. I have no idea where tumblr will go from here. I hope that the new users can embrace tumblr's weirdness and that the staff won't introduce a bunch of useless features that kill the site. we'll just have to see.

me and some of my friends are currently making a timeline that will showcase all these eras and most important tumblr events from the start of tumblr to the modern day.

but again, the concept of tumblr eras is something I made up and isn't that widespread.

thank you for asking. I hope that makes sense.