#that's not generally how I engage with media

[thecottageinthedark]

#this post is fucking hilarious; but also above and beyond general shipping shitposts#people need to internalize this shit about depictions of sexual violence Yesterday or i'm gonna start throwing rocks#for all mouthwashing fandom's faults re: how it engages with the SA rep in the source material#it's a relief to For Once find a fandom in the modern day that doesn't see people correctly identifying sexual violence in a narrative#and trying to discuss it as such; regardless of whether anyone involved ships anything involved; often bc it's important to them personally#and immediately throw huge tantrums and start screaming at you to kill yourself for ~tainting everything with your nasty ships~#and aggressively flooding the fandom with content that pointedly depicts their relationship as Not Sexual Violence 🫠#in fact often as downright wholesome 🫠🫠🫠🫠#wakes up in a cold sweat from visions of a world where there's a contingent of mouthwashing fandom with#JIMMY/ANYA SHIPPERS DNI AND KYS QUIT PERVERTING THEIR RELATIONSHIP IT'S NOT LIKE THAT YA NASTY!!! in bio#if you had media literacy 🙄 you'd know they're found family and he's her father figudshdldnafsnslgkdndnfm#epilogue you scroll down their blog and it's wall to wall jimmy/anya ship art with NOT A SHIP!!!!!! i just like them ❤️❤️❤️ tacked on#i'm not into that ship myself; but between shippers who are open about the nature of the source material; and people who do This#one party is critfailing at being respectful or Just Fucking Normal about survivors of sexual violence and it's not the shippers lmao#anyway. anyway. relief to find one (1) fandom where you would get shouted out of the room for saying that shit thank god for small mercies#shitposting#mouthwashingtag#sexual violence cw#rape culture cw#rape apologia cw#suicide baiting mention cw#antis cw#the salt files#general fandoms tag

thinking two characters have had sex does not equal shipping at all… i dont have to like it i just know it happened

[spacecasehobbit]

After seeing yet another popular tumblr post with thousands of reblogs bemoaning the state of comments on fanfics these days - more specifically, the supposed lack of commenting these days, as opposed to The Good Old Days - I have decided that this is in fact a hill I am willing to die on. I'm making a separate post about it rather than reblogging the latest iteration, though. This is hardly the first time I've seen these types of discussions, and my issue is with the mindset in general, not any of the specific people who hold it.

In the most recent version, the entire post with all its various arguments and assertions was plenty frustrating across the board, but it included one line in particular that cut beautifully to the heart of my issue with this type of discussion. The line in question:

"fanfic authors now are treated like content mills, and not like valued members of a creative community who thrive on interaction."

Once I read this bit, I had to stop, take a few deep breaths, and then go make my own post before I imploded over the sheer level of NOPE this line inspired. And okay. The thing is... I want to say this as gently and kindly as I possibly can, but I need to be real blunt for a minute, too.

That line I quoted sounds like a wannabe social media influencer.

It sounds like a person who thinks fandom is - or should be - comprised of fanfiction writers, aka Valued Content Creators, and their respective communities of readers, aka Content Consumers, a strictly distinct group from fic writers, for whom they create fanfiction content and who in turn pay them back with attention and validation in the form of comments and praise.

It does not sound like a fanfiction author who enjoys the creative hobby of writing stories based on characters and worlds from existing stories, engaging in their hobby within a community of other likeminded creators of fan content.

Frankly, fandom has always been worst when it starts obsessing over Big Name Fans who wind up treated like elite fandom social influencers, instead of hobbyists engaging in a fun hobby together based on mutual interests. A shift towards the idea that every fanfic writer should be effectively a social media influencer whose community consists of fans reading the content they oh-so-lovingly create (but only if they get enough positive attention from passive consumers, presumably readers who don't write their own fic or expect comments back from the author in return) sounds like an absolutely awful direction for fandom to take.

I don't want fanfiction and fandom spaces to turn into another social media space full of Our Valued Content Creators, all fighting to build the largest "community" of passive consumers turned devoted followers.

Again, that sounds frankly fucking awful.

The people who only read fanfiction are not your fanfiction community, because they are not engaging in the shared community hobby of writing fanfiction. Your fanfiction community is, perhaps, the other people who are also writing their own fanfiction based on someone else's original work.

So perhaps if comments really are declining on fics these days, instead of asking why passive readers aren't heaping praise on every fic they read and making sure it all happens where the Valued Creator can hear it, you should ask yourself how many other fanfics you've commented on recently, and then go comment on another one if you're still feeling down about your own work.

Or, I dunno, find a fic author you admire and send them a message on tumblr, if you've already commented on all of their fics that you read and enjoyed.

Or start your own discord for likeminded fans, or find a way to set up your own fandom forums centered on your personal fandom interests and invite other fic authors to come join.

Or, like, anything that involves reaching out to the actual community of hobbyists you can reasonably consider to be a community you are actually a part of.

Aka, other fanfiction writers.

[zanmor]

best part about Goncharov is that I immediately decided Pacino’s character was my favorite and inexplicably everyone is pairing de Niro’s character with Keitel’s character instead

like how do you not have everyone hooking up with 1970s Pacino? it’s inexplicable and it’s even a rare pair. currently one fic on AO3 pairs Goncharov and Ambrosini, out of 10 fics that even tag that he’s in them (of like 250 existing, some 83 of which feature Andrey)

[kyliafanfiction]

If there's one thing I've learned reading Worm Fanfic and being exposed to people talking about Worm on places like SB and QQ and Reddit is that there are a lot of people who very deeply, truly, on a very fundamental level, are very very unhappy with the fact that Taylor was a villain protagonist and have never gotten over that fact.

Despite the fact that they somehow finished Worm.

Which of course, begs the question - Why? How? why subject yourself to that?

Like, one of the reasons I hesitated to read Worm once I started learning more about it, etc was because I thought Taylor would be an insufferable protagonist to read the POV of. She wasn't, as it turns out, and it's a key reason I'm still reading it but if Taylor had actually been so insufferable, and if I hated everything she does and is in the story as much as some people seem to, I'd never have gotten past like, Arc 6 or 7, at most.

Are there people who will really hate read 1.6 million words? I mean, I know a guy who read all 14 wheel of time books despite decicding he hated the series by the end of Book 1, so I guess that's a thing but like...

Who has fucking time for that shit?

[scholar-of-yemdresh]

Bare with me now but I think certain portions of fandoms reactions to a piece of explicitly aromantic media is telling in a way.

So I think TSV's lack of romance from the get go probably weeded out most of the types of people who aren't capable of interacting with media beyond shipping or romance. But even still I see the occasional er take or reaction to the SV's handling of & lack of romance.

I love how the most impactful plot and story relevant relationships are non romantic. I love how almost romantic relationships/attractions are exes,in the past, made the F up (Hayward the F we're you yapping about man?)or not on screen... All but one which brings me to the reason for my post.

But the strong reactions to episode 36 are tickling me.

A lot of people are upset about the ending specifically how they think the tragedy is excessive and depressing for no reason. Personally I belive Sebastian and Devereux did make it out at the end and that last bit was a ptsd flashback to the incident and I do agree that it'll be a bit much for the NPCs we've been following for a whole 1 hour+ episode will meet a grisly end for horror reasons I guess.

BUT the reactions by people who's interpretation of the ending as being more tragic I feel is interesting. I do not believe people would be as upset if it wasn't a romantic relationship that was centered. If Seb & Dev had been unambiguously "just" friends getting sucked into some nightmare Scooby Doo plot, if it was centered primarily on Dev & his sister, if it was only about those non romantic relationships and an unambiguous Bad End, I Don't believe certain portions of the fandom would've cared as much.

I feel people were waiting for a romantic narrative, wanted their cute assumed white yaoi boys to ship as a reward for "sitting through" all the aromantic relationship stuff. Were hoping for a cute soft fluffy romance that they could ship, the right kind of queer representation.

The aro/ace older woman, the Achillean trans man, the sapphic trans woman, all the myriad NB/agender main/major characters is fine...but where's the cis (white) yaoi boys?(nevermind that both of Seb & Dev's VAs are POC)

Idk I guess this is a fundamentally uncharitable assumption to make about people but I notice things and maybe I'm projecting too much

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

wanna ask how you feel about the eridan bpd headcanon/theory(?? not sure what to call it!) you're so good at your character analysis and i'd love to see your outlook on it

Since I don't have a degree or any formal training in psychology, I feel deeply uncomfortable diagnosing characters. I've made an autism joke before but only because I'm on the spectrum. He's definitely traumatized and anxious, but I mean those as descriptors of his behavior rather than capital-D Diagnoses. I try to focus on those when I can - the cause and effect of cognition, self-image, and behavior - and those factors may very well match up with DSM criteria, but I try not to touch an actual diagnosis with a ten foot pole unless the author has explicitly stated that X character has Y condition.

[anghraine]

"Let people enjoy things" vs "let people criticize things" is incredibly tedious for a lot of reasons, but one of them is that these things are not actually contradictory.

[being-kindrad]

why wouldnt u want more women engaging and reading radical feminist thought even if they don't agree completely.

Where did I say that I wouldn't?

How does this harm anyone.

I'm not sure where I said it does. I asked a question wondering if conservative users would still be interested in radical feminist content now that conservatives parties in the United States control all three branches of government, parties whose goals align with Catholic/conservative people's stances on anti-trans, anti-prostitution, and anti-pornography, where these stances stem from their desires for "classic" ("normal") gender conformity and punishing women.

What does harm radical feminist is conservative women pretending to be radical feminists, as swaglet's post in the screenshot shows. This has been a known phenomena happening on social media for a while now — conservatives appropriating radical feminism for their own benefits, not for furthering women's liberation. It ends up weakening radical feminism, as it confuses would-be radical feminists (leftist feminists) and muddies what radical feminist stances are to the general public.

this is actually a great example of the way women form cliques

I think this is actually a great example of subtle misogyny. "Women form cliques" is an insulting way to dismiss women trying to organize under a concrete political cause. Do people say "men form cliques"? No no, men form organizations, unions, and political movements. Women form silly "cliques." This gives off the same energy as "women are such gossips".

also i do actually interact with and talk to catholic orbiters if u did u would realize they have complex thoughts and feelings about feminism and the church too!

I don't appreciate the assumption that I do not realize Catholic women have "complex thoughts and feelings". What is the word for this backhanded cutesy tone? Passive aggressive? I forget.

Although I'm not sure how one can have "complex thoughts and feelings about the church" as a woman and not realize the inherent sexism in Abrahamism and just defect, but alas, people are complex.

I was thinking about this post lately

and I am wondering, will the rate of Catholic orbiters (and general conservative orbiters) decrease from radblr now that Trump has been elected?

Has anyone felt a vibe on this or not?

I assume they were not interested in actual gender criticism (I figure they are just being anti-trans) or anti-pornography/anti-prostitution/anti-surrogacy from a feminist lens, so would they have a reason to orbit anymore?

[hurglewurm]

me: keeps drawing random one-off fanarts from things that aren't currently big at all

also me: why no notes on my arte

[wizardnuke]

i truly don't understand how people can get really into a fandom without seeing all/most of the material involved. how are you doinf that

[dreameralive]

unfortunately i just don't really care about shipping much when it comes to the slenderverse, especially MH, which makes it. difficult to interact with the fandom on here

[nonbinarygamzee]

been thinking about this and i think what bugs me about it is that instead of engaging with a game with heavy and well rounded themes on its merits, treating anything like this that does a good job of identifying the societal norms its critiquing but doesnt try to heavily obscure through subtext as if its not expressly telling you how it feels, people are treating "getting it" as this exclusive, intellectual comprehension that flies over most peoples heads. and as with anything there are of course people who do miss the point but that has less to do with the way the game presents topics and more to do with how those people engage with media in general. it just feels like a rehashing of how a lot of internet fandomspace has become a slapfight about who really is Smart and gets It and its just kind of bizarre to both be pretentious about understanding themes and narratives and talking about a game that tells you its thoughts very explicitly.

watched a playthru of mouthwashng the other day and i think it is a very good game but im more than a little bit puzzled by the reaction to it being a good game being like.... people talking about how it needs to be studied academically i mean yes it is deep and the topics are very serious but it isnt exactly... subtle at all in its presentation of its themes. which isnt a dig by any means i dont think its trying to be subtle in any sense of the word, it in fact very very openly states with practically every line its thoughts about patriarchal societys tendency to shelter dangerous men from responsibility out of a sense of comradery and the dystopian disdain and disregard for workers under capitalism. im genuinely not trying to be pretentious but i feel like its.... strange that anything with a message about politics is immediately regarded as like ultra deep and difficult to parse and i cant really seperate that from the way people have been radicalized and incentivized not to question the climate we are in.

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

[cws: starvation/food insecurity, fantasy racism, psychiatric abuse, ableism, and Upsetting Pictures.]

-

one thing that fucks me up immensely about pericles before and after the asylum is how fucking skinny he is.

like. as much as obviously the two designs are Very Inconsistent in general which annoys me, look at him pre-timeskip. look at how he's shaped.

his head and face are way smoother and rounder, both in front and back, and the space between his cheekbones and his eyebrow ridge is filled in; his body is rounder in general and his belly is noticeably between his thighs when he's standing up; he has kind of a chubby butt; his chin and neck are softer and wider around, which you can really see with the width of the scarf compared to his shoulders and the angle where it meets his head. it comes up in front of his face more because there's not as much of an angle with his chin to hold it down.

now. compare all those things to this.

christ.

and like, you could argue some of these design differences are tiny things to zero in on in a show that's as loose with its models as sdmi is. but present-day pericles' design is pretty obviously supposed to be unsettling because he's physically built to be a Cute Roumb Little Mascot Creature--so much so that the framework has managed to stick around a little in spite of everything--and has become gaunt and haggard anyway. and you could also argue that the body type changes are just thanks to aging twenty years (and i don't doubt that's contributed).

except. he spent those twenty years in an asylum where the other inmates we see look like this.

christ.

(fun little fact that @thecottageinthedark pointed out also: remember how he literally got caught at one point because he couldn't stop eating sunflower seeds, even during a heist? a high-fat, high-calorie snack for birds? you know, exactly the kind of thing a starving person who finally has proper access to food would be wolfing down?)

(yeah.)

did i mention that this happened in a (fantasy) racially segregated prison, which is technically an asylum so the inmates can be kept there indefinitely, because in an actual prison you're required to have a sentence? did i mention that none of the human characters we see in human prison look any less healthy during or afterward, and on top of that are allowed to move around and socialize? did i mention the absolutely horrific treatment of the asylum inmates is implied to be despite the fact that the (physically abusive!) guard is playing up how dangerous and malicious they are? (you know. except for pericles 🙃)

did i mention the man who got pericles imprisoned--who he had not only done nothing to beforehand, but had helped--says he was there to 'live out the rest of his miserable parrot life in a cage, where he belonged,' and not only do none of the characters we're supposed to side with have anything to say about that, but the audience is clearly supposed to agree with him too?

(did i mention said man--who was in on the crime, singular, that pericles went to prison for!--spends those twenty years living a life of luxury in power while abusing the child he kidnapped as a baby and held hostage his entire life, and when we see him in prison he is not only chilling out and helping the authorities but reading a newspaper?)

did i mention the part where by the time we meet pericles he hasn't spoken in years?

like. man the 'ooooo scary evil abused asylum crazies' trope is bad enough, even when they pretend to lampshade it for a minute before playing it straight; i don't know how they added in All That and made him emaciated and expected no one to find it heartbreaking or even sympathetic. i don't care how bad he was before the asylum (and dear god was he ever), that is horrifying and no one deserves it. god damn.

[cakemoney]

i don't want to put my uninformed foot in my mouth or get involved with the Discourse but i've been seeing the two extremes of reactions to the korean low birth rates issue (on tumblr and twitter both) and i'm just kind of like. look. i feel like "low birth rates (in many countries but especially japan and korea as part of this conversation) are more broadly the result of capitalism/a culture of overwhelming overwork that makes social relationships and having families incredibly inaccessible to young people" and "low birth rates are very much a part of the current conversation about misogyny and social expectations for women in korea especially in the context of reproduction as 'unpaid labor' for women" are statements that can both be true

[endreal]

brb, hooking an ai system trained to write scripts to an ai system trained to produce video from textual input and an ai system that generates descriptions of video content as a research exercise in identifying the most prevalent tropes and plot beats in modern cinema by (manually) cross-comparing discrete productions once content has stabilized at statistically significant similarity.

[muse-legion]

Long before they even met face-to-face for the first time under careful media scrutiny, where smiles were currency but sincerity carefully hidden behind closed doors: Enzo found her insufferable yet oddly intriguing. With sparkling eyes filled with indignation whenever he teased her about the absurdity surrounding their engagement—or how oafish royals really were—he discovered joy in unnerving her delicate composure, while maintaining his guise as charming businessman before prying reporters or critical nobles who watched like hawks circling prey below them. While he knew all too well that their union wasn’t merely about romantic matters, but rather a calculated strategy on behalf of their families—an alliance binding two powerful bloodlines together to legitimize operations veiled under honor—Enzo wouldn’t share the true reasons with Zara; instead, he found secret amusement in watching her squirm.

Their personalities clashed like oil and water; where she sought decorum and propriety, he embodied devil-may-care mischief. "Alright, you do you and I'll do me." He smirked at her mischievously, thinking to himself: you take care of the press and I'll make sure whoever couldn't keep their mouth shut won't be able to open it again. However, he didn't say it out aloud, though if she looked close enough, she could probably get a pretty damn good idea on his thoughts by the look in his eyes. "Like I said, his ass, his business. " It wasn't like he cared about people in general -- except for his family and a handful of friends so he could certainly care less about their thoughts and beliefs. As cameras clicked under dim golden lights, capturing their every move, Enzo turned on his charm like someone switching on fairy lights for Christmas. “Smile,” he teased playfully while intertwining her arm within his own as if to wrap her tightly into this façade. "I am pretty so at least I meet fifty percent of your requirements. Guess you got the lucky end of this deal out of the two of us." He mocked her through gritted teeth so no one else but her would hear his words. "Alright, guess I'll just wing it then. Sorry for your loss by the way."

As far as most of the general public knew, this whole idea of arranged marriages had been pushed away years ago and it was simply not true. They were just something that the royal family had held onto until they needed something which was why Zara was so sure that her uncle needed something from Enzo's family. Why else would he tie her to the man? But she didn't have time in that moment to ask about it and she also didn't want to piss anyone off-- not then and there. "No one is always in control, it doesn't matter how well trained we are for all of this. But that's why people like me exist, to make sure that when the control slips very few get to see it and it doesn't go around." And she'd had to hide a number of slips over the years, some minor but some so big that no one really wanted them getting out. And it was okay that people had those slips, it showed just how much all of them were human. "Look I don't understand why people care but I won't ever judge him for doing it. He has his reasons." And those reasons were usually his family. This time she didn't hold in her eye roll at his words and she also smirked, "And I like my men quite and pretty. Guess zero out of two isn't bad." It came out to casually, as though there was nothing for her to think about with them. "Um-- there's not much. I don't see my aunt and uncle when we have big family events usually. Everything changed after Nate died, honestly."