#support these great writers!

[triaelf9]

Wanna support creatives for free?

Hey hey! Trying to reach as many ppl as possible b/c this isn't just for me, it's for all the other creatives who have lost business b/c of the Twitter collapse etc!

Tumblr is great and all, but as for a twitter replacement, we're at the point where we have to push some things to get them where we want 'em

Bluesky! No SERIOUSLY. you can curate your dash SO well, I haven't seen a nazi in probably months?? And when they come in ppl report them and block them and they just languish in silence, it's GREAT. It has nearly all the things, so if you want a better twitter option, it here!

So here's what to do! follow your fav creatives over, make an account, and enjoy a chronological dash with no algorithm! You can get ALL their posts! Join feeds, find new people! Here are more cool tips: https://bsky.app/profile/joabaldwin.com/post/3kz3mxil73c2f No but SERIOUSLY, if you wanna help us out, this how!

Creatives are suffering right now, and honestly, the best step we can start with is funneling over an audience to enjoy our things. There are even cool suggestion collection lists of peeps to follow, my comics one is here! https://go.bsky.app/UoHN1Yq <-- these are great folks who don't have a ton of followers, but are FANTASTIC ^_^ And most ppl made these starter packs! You have so many amazing ppl to choose from!

So if you want to help out suffering creatives right now, for absolutely NO money, totally free, just take a moment to sign up, and then read that list of tips I posted above, you can easily find all your friends and cool ppl. Let's take back our dashes & help out cool folks

please boost this t, or at least poke all your friends to follow over their favs.

And cool favs, if you want a lovely place to post your work, I highly recommend it. The only way it can get bigger is to MAKE it bigger. It's nice to post and KNOW ppl will see it ^_^

It makes me so sad to see folks over there with great work saying they've lost 90% of sales since twitter collapsed and they're not sure what to do b/c the site is mostly creatives sharing great things. but the audience needs to come over too!

please do! sorry for the long post

[nachosncheezies]

In defense of late-canon x files (including the revivals)

I was thinking about this poll after I commented on it, and I kinda want to be brave and say more.

Short answer to the poll's question before I go any further: If you're a new fan and a sensitive sort who thinks you'll struggle with your blorbos Really Going Through It and you really need a happy ending, I suggest you stop at the end of season 8. Do not pass go, do not look at spoilers. Disregard this post entirely, close the internet, and go look at something that makes you happy. (Also fuck every part of society that characterizes sensitivity as inherently weak and bad and some kind of personal failing, you are valid.)

That said, "quality" as a concept is entirely subjective, and the question of whether or not there's a decline in quality for any story is wholly subjective, too. In the case of x files? I'm not convinced there is a decline. I am going to be upfront that I haven't yet watched past season 8, though I am almost completely spoiled on events after that - and the reason I haven't watched yet is not because of how I know events are going to unfold, but simply because I don't want it to end!!! Ohh, the tension between "I CAN'T WAIT!!!" and "Nooo don't be over D:"

When I first came to txf fandom on tumblr and gradually became spoiled about what happens in late canon though, I was often left uncomfortable and tbh kinda queasy about it. As I said in my comment on the poll, the hate for especially the revival and IWTB, or to a lesser extent even seasons 8 & 9, is very well documented. But! There are other takes to be found here on tumblr if you figure out where to look, and my feelings have changed!

The thing is, I have yet to find myself in any fandom where there isn't a vocal subset of fans who dislike the story after a certain point. I am not joking when I say that no one hates the things they love as passionately as sci-fi and fantasy fans. In my experience, it often hinges on the extent to which a viewer has strong notions on where they would like the characters to end up. In particular with series where shipping is a dominant component for the bulk of a fandom, I have almost universally found that there comes some turning point in the story where "let them be happy you cowards" is the dominant view, and things that compromise the attainment of a degree of romantic stability and/or domesticity are, to many fans, annoying at best and despicable at worst. But! As one tagset on the linked poll said:

and I think for any fandom, that last tag especially is so so so important. (I think that's harder for people watching a weekly series live, bc you have so much time to analyze and speculate and dream before the next breadcrumb drops, but I digress.)

So why am I saying this and how do I apply it to x files? Well, I eventually found that there are also a subset of fans who find redeeming things right up to the very end and actually quite like the whole thing! The things that I had seen people rage and ventpost so much about honestly never quite sounded to me as "out of character" or "untrue to the story" etc as those same ventposts made them sound. And I've discovered I'm not the only one who felt that way. Do I love that the spooky squad had to go through all of those things? No, those poor guys D: Life is hard and they have been through so much trauma. But do those events and their choices make sense to me in light of everything that came before? Yes! And I honestly can't wait to see them fight to overcome those things, breaking, healing, always learning, always growing, always getting better.

So if you're wondering "where does it go wrong"... well, I'm a completionist, as many people who've answered that post are, but also my personal opinion is that I don't think it does go wrong. If you're new and interested in exploring why I've gone from "vaguely queasy" to "excited" about the whole thing, or want to maybe balance out the impressions you're getting about the later seasons before deciding whether or not you want to see the whole thing, I'll put a few blog names in the comments.

Final admission: even once I started feeling a little more confident in the possibility that "actually ok maybe I'm not crazy, maybe this all kind of is in character and does make sense", there was one big plot point that I was NOT looking forward to and I thought I would never be comfortable about. In hindsight, I think my discomfort came from the negative responses being SO seemingly universal that I hadn't stopped to let myself truly consider other possible interpretations on that point. (I mean my initial instinct when I first read about it was, why are we mad about this?? CSM is literally the most unreliable narrator in history???? it's obviously fake news?????? this must be either a fever dream someone's having or it's a misdirection ploy against whatever shadowy forces might still be lurking?????????????? but for whatever reason I guess I had halfway written that off.) Happily, just last month there's a new post-s11 novel out, and although reviews for the book as a whole are mixed, it seems to have laid the groundwork for resolving that plot issue in a way I think most fans would be broadly happy with. If you're interested in being spoiled about that and seeing how, I recommend searching #perihelion on @agent-troi who liveblogged reading it with receipts, scroll back chronological-style to the first post on the subject and see how it unfolded. (And never forget that Dana Katherine Scully is the queen of denial as a coping mechanism lol)

Everyone's mileage will vary. Each person can feel however they want! But for anyone new, I wanted you to know that the very many ventposts you might be seeing are not all there is to this show or its fandom. Some of us love it despite - or even because of - all the things that went "wrong". I think we just don't talk about it as much.

[thetriggeredhappy]

Hello! I really liked the recent chapter you posted. I'm excited to see more :]

Do you mind elaborating on Spy's jewishness? It's a very fun headcanon and I'd like to learn what you think about it ^_^

sure! first of all 🍉🍉🍉 to be clear

sniper and spy are the only two who i’ve explicitly stated as jewish within the text, i think, and likely the only two for whom it’s going to come up super frequently, but i also do think that tony’s wife theresa is jewish, as is collin’s wife lily, and i don’t think any singular one of them is the classic Monolith To Represent An Entire Culture Singularly.

i imagine spy was somewhat heavier on tradition for himself, more orthodox, follows kosher, that sort of thing, and that if his family were still physically present enough to be part of his life they would be absolutely flabbergasted that he married an irish catholic woman and even more flabbergasted at how chill she is about it. i imagine spy is a pretty private guy but went out of his way to stay in contact with the judeo-french community in boston. this would’ve been around, like, ~1940 or so? the O’Connell family i always believed to be closer to South End, which was historically a cultural hub in the city. him being part of espionage efforts as a teen throughout the 20s means that he had a pretty unusual immigrant experience for that reason, but i thought it was more interesting to sort of keep spy more grounded in reality compared to the team fortressing of the rest of the peripheral landscape. some of the older boys who remember when spy was around remember how hard spy and ma worked to celebrate the holidays for both catholic traditions and french jewish traditions, and archie for example has tried to pass that on to his own kids as well.

sniper meanwhile i have grounded as kind of the ‘my family is jewish but um y’know not in the way that people hate’ brand ‘palatable immigrant or different culture trying not to take up space in a place that is not necessarily friendly to outsiders’ story. his mum and dad were the only jewish people in their relatively small community by the time sniper was a young boy and they really did try to keep up traditions, but it’s hard when you have no outside support to help reinforce that stuff. sniper has a (relatable) internal sense of being both an outsider to the predominant culture while also not feeling confident enough in it being ‘his culture’ to make any claims for himself. i imagine that if he could meet some of spy’s old buddies in boston and connect a little more with the diaspora he would be able to start feeling more of that pride and connection, but as it is he’s caught between dodging antisemitism and denying a culture that does matter to him but in a way that’s difficult to verbalize and not often asked about.

i think spy and sniper might bicker about it at times in later chapters, next chapter in particular. scout’s ma is definitely going to make at least one more comment about scout getting married to a nice jewish boy though. that trope in media about east coasters is just too much of a staple to pass up.

[warper-in-training]

Some of ya'll need to start parcticing don't like, don't read the hell.

I'm sick of this fandom, ya'll harrass writers and artists away from this fandom over dark shit you can't stomach and ignore. all you did was ruining this fandom. I will publicly say that I'm anti-harrassment, and supprtive of problematic elements in fiction. the game's main story contains elements of incest, noncon, dubcon, interspecies ships, abuse, grooming, etc and some of ya'll are crying over someone HEADCANONING smth cause of their TRAUMA.

the fuck ya'll are attacking them for? they even mentioned they have trauma of what they wrote. don't like it? DON'T READ. I personaly don't like evil Michael hcs.

does that mean I get to attack the author? NO. me being uncomfortable or triggered cause of it has nothing to do with THEM. its MY problem.

writing & hcing grooming, problematic shit, etc does NOT mean someone does it irl. nor supports it. some of ya'll tend to find a small, not so well known person in the community to harrass. hell, i even I bet ya'll harrassed @/devildomwriter over their raph x belph post. ya'll made posts about @/boxbusiness on that confesson blog too so i donr except much.

I'm dissapointed at what this community has become. leave artists alone. leave people alone.

[bitchthefuck1]

you know what, I actually will talk about this because it's bothering me. The issue with focussing so heavily on syd and carmy's potential for a romantic relationship isn't that there's something inherently unintellectual about romance or whatever, it's that a lot of people seem incapable of doing that without immediately flattening the story and ignoring or intentionally misreading any and all nuance for the sake of that romance. Every scene suddenly becomes about how it impacts their relationship, every analysis is done through a romantic lens, every frame or line of dialogue becomes about finding some easter egg or hint that "proves" these people should start dating. Their dynamic is absolutely a fundamental part of this show, but if you can only see it as a will-they-won't-they, you miss so much of what the story is actually trying to say with these two.

There are good versions of this story where their relationship is romantic and there are good versions of this story where it isn't, but as soon as you decide them being together is "the point," you lose the ability to actually judge the story for what it is, not what you want it to be.

[the-real-satan-the-devil-of-hell]

🎉HUGE PROGRESS🎉

With WGA, SAG-AFTRA

And Writers Strike.

r/vfx

But it's not over yet.

Still membership needs to vote. And SAG-AFTRA has to come to agreement too. Which may take awhile. But progress has been made

🖕Fuck Greedy Corporations🖕

Like to charge, Reblog to cast.

Let's complete this.

[marymekpop]

⟢ highlight of the hour: flex x cop [11/16] ⟣

trust in us

[street-corner-felines]

Zero Day (2002)

[babygorewhore]

I don’t understand what it is about the lack of reblogs. It takes a couple of seconds. That’s it and that’s the best way to support someone. Truly. It takes less than three seconds to support someone who spends their time, free time to write an entire story. I see it happening more and more and it’s truly hurtful. Posts either just get liked and that’s it, or they’re ignored entirely. It lowkey makes me want to step away and just read. Do you guys just not like me anymore or something lmao. Like it’s genuinely making me want to step out. I won’t because I’m spiteful but reblogging fics is the best way to support me and other people who write fics and not just 10 minute blurbs.

[the-lights-are-loud]

Found Family

I forget about how much life I have lived.

How much I’ve known

How much I’ve loved

How much I’ve learned

Until I must teach.

It started with 1

A coincidence, a consequence

Giving feedback and reassurance.

Slowly, I gained more and more

Small hands asking for something I love to give

I learned more

I love more

And I teach just as much as I’m taught

Helping me from my darkness

And letting me help you as well

Soon enough, I had this

All of you

My support system

My found family.

And for that

I’m glad I have you all.

[kazoosandfannypacks]

I think my new favorite hack to find a watsonian solution (explainable within the canon of the media) to a doylist urge (this happens because I, the author, want/need this to happen) is to just. assign your doylist desires to another character.

You need your characters to be sitting next to each other in the backseat, despite the fact that it's social norm to leave the middle seat empty? Oh, the driver of the car says, the seatbelt on that side's not working, you'll have to sit in the middle seat. Why's that seatbelt just happen to be broken? Oh, it's not. The driver just wants to see these characters together as much as you do.

[tantumuna]

what's crazy to me is multiple times i've received encouragement to start drawing again, even when i mention that the only reason i've considered drawing again is as a desperate ploy for attention

but whenever i talk about my writing i either get ignored or told to "write for yourself"

like just tell me you don't value writing as an art form. it'll be easier than having to dance through whatever the fuck this is

[thisismeracing]

Since when did we start charging money on patreon for fanfics 😭😭😭😭 is this for real😭

hi, love. I haven't seen that many people doing the Patreon thing when it comes to fanfic, but it's pretty common for people who draw for example to set up a Patreon. I believe that everyone who does, just like myself, needs the money. I wouldn't be doing it if i didn't need to. I figured the Patreon setup was the best idea since it's not really that common for people to tip writers, we've been struggling with getting reblogs and comments, so you can imagine.

Right now, I'm applying and doing tests to get an internship, which still won't be enough because I'm also trying to apply for a master's. So, yeah, I'm really thankful for everyone who tipped me on ko-fi and subscribed to my Patreon, last month my savings were over, and the Patreon money was what helped me pay for some medical stuff I needed (Idk if you saw the whole mick schumacher's sick club, but yeah — huge thank you for everyone who subscribed/donated btw).

We often see fic writers as little robots who don't eat, drink, or sleep. We request stuff, and expect an instant reply, and when we get the content we don't even go back to the page to tell the writer our thoughts. We don't reblog, nor leave comments, but still, we expect them to keep writing and keep sharing everything as if it didn't take hours, sometimes days to come up with a 1k piece polished to what we think readers will like best. I hope I don't sound rude, I'm just trying to make a point because I'm tired of seeing writers deactivating, tired of seeing my friends getting writer's block and then people still demanding things.

On top of that, I'm still posting a lot here, from smau to blubs and long fic requests (and I won't even talk about how some pieces aren't even getting a hundred notes, which always makes me wonder if I'm doing something wrong, if my writing is bad, or if there's anything that I could do to make the reader's experience more enjoyable), and it takes a lot of time, it's even harder to balance the two profiles now, but still, I keep sharing some of my work for free. so please, please, don't make me feel bad about needing money. thanks ❤️.

[the-golden-comet]

I wish there was a way to give multiple likes on my mutuals’s posts. Sometimes their stroke of genius is so profound that one like is not enough. So, I reblog, and comment.

But when their posts show up again on my feed, and I see that I already gave them a like, I scream: “NO. LET ME LIKE IT AGAIN. THIS IS A BANGER.”

[raininyourblackeyes]

My cousin, a published writer, a well-known poet in my country and a literature professor, for whom I've always been no.1 support ever since her first attempts at writing in high school, told me that I must stop writing as a hobby because that's her thing and since I'm writing fantasy mostly my writing could never have any important artistic value anyways.

[benjaminallhope-fulltimemind]

I'm so sorry that you've been getting anon hate. Nobody deserves to be told what you're being told.

Even though I don't support Lily I don't think any of her fans or even she deserves this treatment.

Thank you so much and yeah it's perfectly okay to not like a YouTuber, hell people disliked Dream and for some reason they had to justify their dislike when that isn't the case. While people have a deeper parasocial hatred of Lily the same rules apply, in fact I have an idea that the more you hate someone the more likely you are to believe and propagate accusations, I'm using Dream as an example again because he was someone who had horrible accusations levied against him that people believed uncritically and it took an entire hour long video to disprove everything. So yeah thanks for the support give me a like and a follow if you could I'd appreciate it.