#the fanfic part of the fandom is especially dead so most of these are old

[ywpd-translations]

Fic rec! (part 1)

Here are some of the fanfics I have bookmarked on my AO3! I have a few more, so I'll do a part 2 of this soon enough. All of these fics are amazing, so please go read them and show the author some love!

If you have fics to recommend please share them!!

Under read more because it got long~

Makishima/Toudou (TouMaki)

Yowamushi Pedal Three Sentence Fics by mikkimouse (Toudou/Makishima / Fluff / 1282 words /Teen and Up audience. It's a collection a lovely short stories!)

Hanging on the Line by Jaela (Toudou/Makishima / 2026 words / Fake relationship / general audiences)

five times they didn’t kiss and one time they did by Yellow (Makishima/Toudou / 4003 words / 5 times / general audiences)

Aoyagi/Kaburagi (AoKabu)

reminisce by foodandfandom (Aoyagi/Kaburagi / 1253 words / general audiences /Kabu has a crush but of course he's oblivious about it /beautiful beautiful fic, I love it with all my heart)

Imaizumi/Naruko (ImaNaru)

on the west mezzanine by monkeyingaround (Imaizumi/Naruko / 3743 words / Teen and up audience / literally one of my fave Imanaru ever!!)

your hands on my cheeks (your shoulder in my mouth) by monkeyingaround (Imaizumi/Naruko / 6115 words / Explicit / basically the nsfw version of the previous one! Just as amazing)

Your Eyes by Allen_Nara (Imaizumi/Naruko / 4018 words / fluff, kissing, touching / Mature)

Butterflies by LadyMarshmallow (Imaizumi/Naruko / 1326 words / fluff, mostly Imaizumi's thoughts / not rated)

Manami/Onoda (SanSaka)

I can still use it by sky_prince (Manami/Onoda / 3913 words / general audiences / so so beautiful, this author really has a way with words)

Kinjou/Arakita (KinAra)

ready to start by joestars for phantomdoodler (Arakita/Kinjou / 3047 words / Fluff / General audiences)

do you want to be with somebody like me? by joestars (Arakita/Kinjou /3082 words /domestic fluff, getting together / Mature / god i absolutely adore this!)

third time's the charm by kinjoy (Arakita/Kinjou / 2115 words /Fluff, first kiss / general audiences)

time to go home by softintelligence (Arakita/Kinjou / 4165 words / magical realism /teen and up audiences)

Danchiku/Kaburagi

Trial Run by GingerCinnamon (Danchiku/Kaburagi / 1749 words / love confessions / general audiences /absolutely adorable)

Urakubo/Niwazuma (NiwaUra)

a beginning colored blue by championhestu (Urakubo/Niwazuma / 1284 words / general audiences / literally my favourite thing ever basically the only fic about them I haven't written myself i own this author my eternal gratitude)

Ishigaki/Midosuji (IshiMido)

Dragonfly Circle by Anonymous (Ishigaki/Midosuji / 11808 words / Explicit / it's been so long since i've read this one but i remember i adored it)

A Night, Your Night by Anonymous (Ishigaki/Midosuji / 7356 words / love confessions, angst / mature)

Arakita/Makishima (MakiAra)

One Hell of a Declaration, Darling by hostilovi (Arakita/Makishima / 9834 words / pining, future fic / teen and up audiences)

Machimiya/Ibitani (IbiMiya)

It's really something by HapaxLegomenon (Machimiya/Ibitani / 1543 words / mutual pining, love confessions / teen and up audiences / a very old one i haven't read in a long while but i remember i loved it)

Onoda/Imaizumi/Naruko

and it's all in my head but– by risquetendencies (Onoda/imaizumi/Naruko / 11792 words / getting together, feeling realization / teen and up audiences / absolutely showstopping, perfect)

Applied Research by rascals (lordlings) (Onoda/imaizumi/Naruko / 17696 words / fluff, confessions / general audiences / again, showstopping)

Midosuji/Onoda (MidoSaka)

A Cast Shadow by Anonymous (Onoda/Midosuji / 55899 words / angst, slow burn, fluff / teen and up audiences / oh god this was so beautiful i need to reread it)

Manami/Teshima (ManaTe)

One More by Anonymous (Manami/Teshima / 45712 words / getting together, banter, flirting / Explicit / i love this fic more than i love myself okay? It's not finished but it doesn't matter it's still worth reading it, literally amazing)

Various Ships

The many meanings of rival by zephsomething (Makishima/Toudou, Imaizumi/Naruko, Onoda/Manami / 1594 words / general audiences)

[stupidlittlespirit]

Hey this was the anon who said you made Ford a cutie patootie 🥺🥺

I really agree with the whole 'bill and Ford were never romantic' vibe. I do believe Ford cared for Bill in a way, but Bill in general is also the abusive partner that enjoys having you in his arms and the moment you try to leave will make your life a living hell.

I think that's honestly why I hate most asshole!Ford fics lately. Except for your of course! Society really sees abuses victims horribly and especially men. Theres a pretty big part of the Fandom that vilifies Ford in a hateful way. Like I know he's done horrible and yes he treated Stanley and Fiddleford bad. But I wouldn't be surprised if his father never brought up Stanley after he kicked out, and expected his wife and Ford to follow. He if he did it was only negative talk on how useless he was. Ford was a child at the time and as he grew up he probably missed Stanley but was too prideful to pick up the phone first. And then he met Bill.

Someone who praised him and told him he was in the right no matter what. Yes he was awful to Fiddleford. But that's what abusers do. They tear down everyone else who can help you until it's only the two of you against the entire world. And honestly, I'm sorry but Fiddleford needs to get some hate for just leaving Standford like that. Being a friend to someone in an abusive relationship is awful. But if you know that they don't have anyone else, you have to put boundaries, you don't just leave! But I also can't blame Fiddleford all the way.

Idk idk I'm sorry for rambling, but honestly I think that's why most of the fanfic writers who write about Ford really forget that he was so horrifically abused and when as he got older all he felt was shame and he was alone for 30 years with that feeling.

First of all, sorry it took me so long to answer this! My PC is fucked and I needed to sit my ass down and type out a proper answer for you because I have so many feelings on this, anon.

This is all below a cut because it's looooong.

tl;dr if you don't care: Bill put a noose around Ford's neck the moment they met and convinced him it was a scarf until Ford was hanging from the rafters, feet twitching, face blue.

TW: Abuse, suicide.

Anyway, the kitchen is open so let's cook!

Bill is an absolutely horrific being.

I fear that sometimes (oftentimes) he gets the fandom woobification treatment where he becomes entirely The Meme or somebody's silly widdle guy and when it happens so much, especially when certain groups of people are hellbent on saying 'this is canon!' dead seriously, it warps perceptions around him.

He effectively manipulates his audience just as he manipulated Dipper and Ford.

Bill is a demon. Not just any old demon, either: The Demon. THE guy. He's vicious and powerful and manipulative, and sure in TboB we get to see that he carries some significant trauma with him but it doesn't mean he is any less than what he is: Evil.

Some trauma influenced behaviours can be explained, but they can never be excused.

Bill is a push-pull, hot-cold, jerk around asshole who gets off on hurting people because he's so badly hurt himself that it makes him feel good to see others suffer even a fraction of what he experiences. There are two types of people who go through trauma: 1. It happened to me and I was nearly destroyed, I'll never see it happen to another person for so long as I live. OR 2. I suffered so why shouldn't they?

It's pretty clear which category Bill fits into, right? So, while he hurts because he's hurting, he has also just grown accustomed to enjoying the suffering of others. It's sustenance to him.

I remember watching GF for the first time and seeing Bipper, and it awoke something within me: That demon is torturing a child. A CHILD. I hadn't been allowed to watch horror movies much as a kid and seeing this line be crossed where something was literally throwing a 12 year old boy down the stairs, stabbing him with forks, threatening to kill him, was incredible to me. I was floored.

Partially because I think it's good to show kids suffering trauma; they're not immune and they're more often than not the main victims. It's a disservice to make adults comfortable by protecting the children in media imo. Even nowadays I'm pissed off when the child character escapes unscathed from the 'all knowing totally evil demonic force' in a movie because I still crave that rawness and cruelty I saw in Bipper when I was younger.

But I digress. It's also because here was a being so nasty that he'd play GTA 5 in a kid's body just for funsies and to get something that he wants. He'd bully and torture and tease and humiliate. That's rough, man. Real rough. Especially knowing the kid was watching it all happen, completely helpless.

Anyway; Bill memes are fun, but not at the cost of forgetting just what Bill actually is.

When it comes to Ford, Bill does the same thing we saw with Dipper, except Dipper has morals. Dipper has love and light and people to keep him grounded.

Ford had none of that. Ford was abused, just like Stan (though I could go on for hours about the differences), and grew up equating love to success and respect to fear. He was set up for social failure. He was put on a very different track to his peers almost immediately and he was isolated from everyone bar Stan from the moment he was born. Stan grounded Ford and kept him human.

Ford had no chance right from the start. The equation of being smart, knowing you're smart, and then having people Grima Wormtongue in your ear your whole childhood, when you're most malleable, that you're responsible for lifting your family out of poverty, you're the Good Son, you're meant for more, you're the one we love the most but only because you serve a purpose so you better not fail or we'll snatch everything away from you and you'll be just like your purposeless brother.... And you don't want to be like your loser brother who we hate, do you Fordsy?

He doesn't start lost in the sauce, but his head is held under until he has no choice but to breathe it in, and when someone is drowning it's hard to tell from the shore if they're having fun or if they're in trouble. Nobody noticed his distress and if they did, they didn't care. He was vulnerable right from the start.

And you're right about people hating male abuse victims. The stats are really skewed on the amount because there's such shame around coming out about it as a guy that we'll never really know just how prolific it is. The same as sexual assault stats for men. But what I can say is almost every male friend I've ever had has told me about a partner of theirs or an old relationship that is just plain old black and white abusive. Most of the time, they shrug it off or don't even know that's what they suffered, and if I have to watch the light change in another man's eyes when I gently tell him "hey, you know that what you're telling me is that he/she abused you, right?" then I'm going to scream. They're looked down on for coming out about it; considered weak and less manly for it. Humiliated for it.

Now imagine how it was when Ford was a boy in the 40's (or whenever he was born, there are no solid dates afaik). He'll have been raised to believe men are strong and that they don't cry, they don't let people push them around, mental illness isn't real you're just pathetic. It's everything I just mentioned but 1000x more intense. Nowadays, men are laughed at. Back then, you'd be ostracised and made the joke of the town until you killed yourself.

So poor old Ford, who is already on the back foot, ends up suffering for his genius and throwing himself into his work when it becomes apparent to him that he 'has no other uses' as a person. He isn't funny, he isn't handsome, he's a freak, he can't hold conversations (all his opinions and from others) etc etc. All he has is his research and his brain.

He loses himself in it. In his excitement (which is innocent and genuine by the way, I don't believe he had bad intentions), he drags his best friend along (and we'll get to Fidds in a minute, I have a lotta thoughts on him too) and ignores other people's distress because he's having fun and 'doing the right thing' in his opinion, he's driving innovation and he's always been told by other, more prestigious people that he's justified in his cause.

His father probably enforced at a young age that people that get in his way are just trying to hold him back (ie. Stan), so; If the hillbillies in this damn town don't have the IQ to understand me, then they're idiots. It couldn't possibly be that I might be encroaching on their lives or causing them problems and getting in their way whilst they try to work as labourers or whatever, it's because they're wrong and I'm right.

And of course, there were times when Ford didn't really actually do anything wrong and was met with animosity, but he didn't have the social skills to diffuse the situation and explain himself in layman terms, so it fed into this Ouroboros of try to be nice and social - fail - create friction - get lost in research - create friction - try to be social - fail etc.

So he's not getting socialisation from others, he's pushing Fiddleford as hard as he can and Fiddleford understandably has other interests to balance which makes him slowly seem less invested, and then, conveniently, up pops Bill.

Bill, who agrees with everything Ford says. Bill, who justifies all the thoughts and feelings Ford has ever had. Bill, who tells Ford everything he's ever wanted to hear from his father and his peers and his brother and his wildest dreams.

Bill, who knows how isolation and flattery works to weaken prey.

You have to admit: Bill's work was impressive. He spent a year, maybe even longer, committing to the bit over Ford. Giving him everything he wanted, feeding his ego, making it seem like all he was doing was helping him and encouraging him and propping him up.

Ford had had a weak form of that before from other people, but those people were parasites. Bill presented as the host and he offered Ford a crutch for the first time in his life. A friend, an equal, possibly someone of even higher standing.

And Ford, who has NO social skills, no street smarts, no emotional awareness, had no idea that nothing comes for free from somebody like Bill, so he jumped into the shallow pool from the 100 meter board with both feet down, eyes shut and hands off the wheel. Ford was desperate for someone to meet him on his level and the moment somebody did, he let himself be swept away by it.

Which, of course, was Bill's plan all along. Bill had probably always been around Ford when he'd first come to Gravity Falls. He'd been watching and waiting for the right time to strike, as ambush predators do, and the moment Ford had stumbled on a metaphorical crack in the path and exposed a weak spot, up pops Bill to hold his hand and tell him that the pavement was in the wrong the whole time and really, Ford shouldn't have to look where he's putting his feet, the whole world should just move for him instead.

From there, it would have been easy.

I think Ford likes to think he's complex and hard to read, and he probably is to people who don't recognise his type, but he's a fucking picture book to the people that do. That's why he works so hard to make himself seem cool and mysterious: because he's really obviously none of those things but simple smoke and mirrors go a long way to confuse people who don't care to look any deeper or are too naïve to do so. If people see the real him, they'd laugh at him (in his opinion).

So Bill, with all his flattery and gassing up, would have let Ford think the ball was in his court for a while, and Ford, emboldened by lies and a literal god-like being telling him he was right (plus everyone else from his past telling him the same thing), got bolder and more intense and lost himself without even really realising it was happening.

Ford, in his enthusiasm, pressed on Fidds even harder and was disappointed that the only man he cared about (other than his brother, because we know he still loved Stan dearly) wasn't able to match his stride. After all, I think Ford probably thought Fidds was the closest thing to an equal he'd ever had, and Bill used Fidds' hesitation to push Ford further away from him.

Once Ford was fully blinded, Bill began to cut off the blood to the other parts of Ford's lifeforce (and there weren't many to begin with) with delicate expertise that even the most prolific of abusers would die to achieve.

And don't forget that Bill also loves attention (he's a genuine egotistical maniac, whereas I don't think Ford is inherently egotistical, I think he's a product of his environment) and Ford gave him that unconditionally because Ford thought that blind worship equates to love, which is only possible through fear and forced, submissive respect. By cutting off Ford's other connections, Bill got all the attention to himself.

That's where the fun part started for Bill. Bill started to make him second guess himself. He tricked him under the guise of helping and then, without Fidds to ground him, Ford bought into all of it. He told Ford the townsfolk hated him because he was better than them, he told Ford he was too good for everyone else, his brother, etc. Bill effectively became Filbrick's voice in Ford's head. He needed to control Ford.

People think 'seduction' is inherently sexual or romantic, but it isn't. Seduction is manipulation in its purest form. Seduction is negative. It is used to pull people away from their path in order to convince them to give up or go against the part of themselves that knows better. It lowers one's guard. It gets under someone's skin and convinces them it belongs there. I've been a sex worker for 10 years; trust me when I tell you I have a PhD in both doing this and being victim to it. (I'm also an abuse survivor and my abusers trained me well in this which is hard to unlearn at times.)

Bill seduced Ford into thinking he was safe and in control right up until the last moment when Bill could strike. He put a noose around Ford's neck the moment they met and convinced him it was a scarf until Ford was hanging from the rafters, feet twitching, face blue.

Ford was never in love with him and Bill wasn't with Ford. You can't be in a situation like that. Ford respected Bill and to command the respect of someone like Ford? Well, you'd have to be pretty special, in Ford's opinion.

Bill only wanted to possess Ford, literally and figuratively. He wanted something to control and use and keep as a pet while he got what he wanted. Every king needs a jester.

There are signs that Bill also, deep down, might have wanted a friend and to be understood in the same way Ford did, but it was a small part of him that came second to his desire to hurt. Bill was also an outcast and he knew how vulnerable that makes a person; why else are all his henchmaniacs outcasts too? Because it's easy to persuade a person with no support into a perceived 'found family' than it is to do it to someone who is grounded by love. It becomes a game of in-group out-group.

Ford saying no to Bill would have taken great strength after all that time and as soon as Bill doesn't get what he wants, he destroys. It would have been an immediate punishment and that whiplash would have been vicious.

Ford, with no real friends, would have considered Bill his bestie, effectively.

Now, idk if you've ever been betrayed by someone you love as a best friend, but it is INFINITELY more painful than a regular breakup. Like, impossibly so. Especially when you don't have many to begin with and you're already damaged by abuse.

My love for my best friends runs deeper than any romantic partner I have ever had and will ever have. To be betrayed (and for me, it was seriously significant) was the worst feeling in the world and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. I attempted suicide (conflated by other things but also because of this friend betraying me) and I will never get over their betrayal. I am wary of getting close to others now because of that and I don't think I'd ever be friends with someone so intimately again, beyond the best friend I have currently (shout out @/ghostbu, i love u).

So to experience a rug pull of astronomical proportion would have been devastating for Ford. We see Ford try to leave, try to say no again and again, literally begging, only to have his life threatened, his body violated, his work destroyed, his entire existence made into nothing. Which is a hard enough fall for someone with a big ego, but for someone who is also vulnerable and frankly, quite very emotional alongside being intelligent, would be gutting. Some people miss Ford's emotionality and reduce him to being The Smart Guy and I think that's a disservice.

So Ford was utterly ripped to shreds, both physically and emotionally, until he could only turn to the person he knew would still come running: Stan.

Stan adores his brother, so of course he came when Ford clicked his fingers. Ford, I think, also adores Stan, but is so manipulated by everybody else in his life that he convinces himself that his emotions do him a disservice and make him weak (as mentioned before about old attitudes), so he can't 'lower' himself to examine them. Bill doesn't help with that, either.

Stan came running and we all know what happened next.

Ford then spends 30 years NOT being the smartest guy in the room and realising he never really was the smartest guy in the room outside of academia. That kind of ego death is brutal and he would have gone through some incredible soul searching in that time period, which is why I think there are several versions of Ford that exist. Childhood/College!Ford, Research-era!Ford and Post portal!Ford. They all different men to me, personally.

So yeah, he's a deeply difficult character to understand imo and he's often a paradox because he doesn't know how to hold all these emotions in tandem; he's black and white, not grey.

Now, onto Fidds:

You gotta remember, Fidds had no idea what Bill was doing to his beloved friend.

Ford kept him a secret because in his view (a view manipulated by Bill), 'they'd never understand us. They'd separate us'. A common sentiment by people being abused. 'They' being really anybody with half a brain who saw how dangerous Bill was and cared about Ford.

Fidds was already absolutely terrified by the stuff he was seeing. My guy grew up on a pig farm in the country, he wasn't prepared for all this stuff to be real. Even Ford didn't know the supernatural was provably real before he came to Gravity Falls.

Now, I love cryptids but if I came across a dogman or bigfoot in real life, I'd fucking shit myself. They're scary! They'll kill you!

He also saw his best friend fucking lose his mind and that's really frightening too, especially with no one around to help.

Fidds had people that loved him back home (and I know he wasn't great to them, that's a different kettle etc) and relied on him. He had a life outside of his research; a son, a wife, a family and probably other friends. He had something to lose. If he died, it would have an effect.

Ford was cavalier because the only thing he thought he had to lose at that point was his work (not true, of course, but in head I think his life came second to his work).

Fiddleford was a victim of Ford's unintentional abuse. And Ford did abuse people, even if he was also being abused. The cycle of abuse is, unfortunately, very very real and it can't be justified just because someone who inflicts it was also a victim: Manson was abused, but no one excuses his crimes.

Explanation, not excuse, remember?

I think Ford was turned into a bad person temporarily and Fidds bore the brunt of that and went on to neglect his own family because he was also being isolated by Ford.

It's so fucking tragic and I could go on for hours about this (I already have, this took me two hours to write). They're really complex people and it does frustrate me when people pooh-pooh them as silly yaoi babies or as just plain bad people. It's never that simple.

And disclaimer: Everyone is entitled to their interpretations, obviously. They're not my characters and this is my own interpretation, so it isn't 'right', it's just how I see them as somebody who experienced similar things as Ford and Stan (minus the literal demonic element).

Whew sorry for rambling!

[chronically-ghosted]

i totally agree that it’s ridiculous for people to write fics for films that haven’t been released yet, but the problem isn’t the smut itself. people have every right to write porn if that scratches the itch.

i think your main point is the most important: it’s impossible to write a thoughtful, inspired fic when we don’t even know the story it’s based on. no one knows who this character is or what he’s like.

at this point, everyone should just call a spade a spade and write pedro rpf. all they care about is seeing his face in different situations.

so my earlier post was not so much a statement on Pedro Pascal Character fanfiction/porn, but the commercialization of art and I interpreted the thoughts and opinions of others through the lens of the medium I most often express myself with, which is fanfiction.

let me be clear: i have no problem with smut - pwp or otherwise. people are allowed to write whatever they want, about whoever they want, with whatever tropes make them happy.

my overall focus (and granted it was probably very muddled by the end of those - what, like three reblogs?) was an interrogation of fanfiction as art, and the state of art in this modern era. and after doing some more thinking and listening to more people much smarter than me (thank you to everyone who dm-ed me directly to talk further about this), my opinion is thus: the creation of content (not art) is more ubiquitous today is not because we are getting more stupid as a society, not because of our failing attention spans, not because we are on the brink of moral collapse but because we physically do not have the mental strength to be intellectually curious as a direct result of constant, distracting, emotionally-draining stimuli.

i can explain what i mean below the cut with two primary examples, specifically regarding the shift in fanfiction cult, and yes, the prominence of smutty oneshots in the pedro pascal character fandom of which this blog is a part of.

I have been in various fandoms for almost twenty years. I have been writing fanfiction for almost that same amount of time. In recent years, I've noticed two trends that initially discouraged me, but that I now believe is a symptom of our adjustment to a modern, constantly online era.

A severe lack of engagement within the artistic artifacts of a fandom

The quality of the fanfiction itself (because yes I do consider fanfiction to be an artform) has gone down hill - mostly.

Lack of engagement:

Art is inherently created to be shared. This is especially true for fandom because the community lives or dies by how many people are interacting with each other and sharing ideas (news, theories, fanart, fanfic, etc). If you say a fandom is dead, it means there haven't been any new posts or fic about it in years. So I don't wanna hear it when people say, "oh write for yourself, you shouldn't be chasing engagement" because that is antithetical to the very concept of fanfiction.

In recent years, I have seen and experienced myself engagement in my work only so far as a like or kudo. This is not how it used to be. Message boards (yes I am that old) and niche fandom sites were constantly abuzz with media sharing and excitement, and everyone enjoyed some version of praise (unless you got hit by the antis but they're never fun anyway). Initially I blamed this drop in engagement on laziness: people just want the next thing, they can't be bothered to appreciate the hard work writers put in and they just see content and art as the same thing - stuff to consume.

But I myself am GUILTY of minimal reblogs and comments and I LOVE what I'm writing - the impact certain works leave me with is long, long lasting but for some goddamn reason, I can't sit down and praise the author's works. Am I lazy? Possibly, but this is also not an isolated behavior and it's on the rise: people do not have time to engage with fandom/fanfic like they used to. Most people I know have worked at least two or three jobs at some point in their lives to just to make rent. This gen z is the first generation in DECADES to be worse off economically than their parents. With an interest rate at 8%, who the fuck can afford the security of a home anymore? We work ourselves to the bone for scraps and the realization that The Dream has officially died. And so what do we want to do in the free time we do have? Engage with the very bare minimum. We want to read things that we can at best skim, things we don't have to think about or engage with in any meaningful way. We want a way to turn off the noise of the next apocalypse and sometimes the best we can do is the tap of a thumb.

Which brings me to my next point: what the fuck happened to thoughtful fanfiction?

But this question is inextricably linked to the points above: oneshots are easier to write, faster to write, and if you write fic that is basically "Mad libs porn" (without ever engaging in the actual medium because it is literally not released yet), you are doing the most minimal work for the most amount of engagement. But I can't fault ANYONE for doing that. It feels good to be told your smut is "so hot" or "this exploded my panties" and in this era where the time available to create is so fucking small and minimized of course you're going to write for the most popular character, whether or not you're interested in the source material because we want our art to matter to someone. Intellectual pundits loooove to lambast our "shorter attention spans" but fuck, when are we allowed the time to think - in between this "100 year storm" that's happened twice in the past five years, or the global pandemic that turned millions of deaths into a political punching bag, or the next video of a white woman crying wolf to the police over an innocent black man, or - or - or - or

In a day where reality and the world as we know seems to be holding onto a thread, we turn to comfort: comforting tropes (dbf to rape/kidnap fantasies), comforting fanfic (pwp), and comforting ways to engage with fandom. There is nothing wrong with wanting your art to be appreciated and there's nothing wrong with inherently wrong with pwp - but I do believe its symptomatic of a MUCH larger and more sinister movement within ALL art right now.

I come from the generation who banished fanfic authors for scrubbing off the filing numbers to their fics and publishing it as original content because, in our communities, they were selling out. Fanfiction is inherently an act of rebellion. Every time you write fanfiction you break canon, an established structure with its own rules and boundaries. So by trying to appeal to the masses, to curb your own writing to fit whatever is mainstream, you are doing a disservice to yourself AND to the art of fanfiction. If something you write becomes popular, wonderful, great, you are very lucky and there is nothing wrong with that either. But do not sell out your 13 beloved fans who WILL take the time to leave a comment, who WILL take the time to reblog because your weird little fic spoke to them on a fundamental level and now is with them for the rest of their lives - in favor of a 100 thumb taps.

If you've made it here, thank you very much for reading. I've added some links to some additional references to see how this concept of "populist" art is having a serious negative down turn in the quality of art, but is also not any one individuals personal failings:

Why the world is addicted to background tv by Kayleigh Day

How Modern Audience are failing cinema by Like Stories of Old

Rupi Kaur episode of Rehash podcast

I'm always here to talk fic and art and what makes you excited about your writing. Much love and please rest. We need you here.

[tommyssupercoolblog]

Incoming very long ramble about the fragility of internet content and the ways some things are impossible or difficult to preserve

The thing that frustrates me most about poppytwt is how fruitless it all feels.

Like, you can't archive or research poppytwt effectively. You can certainly TRY but you'll find very little!!!

You have people who spent years in the poppytwt fandom who can TELL you about fanfics they read, art they saw, friends they made who were deactivated or doxxed or harassed or who committed suicide or are otherwise lost to time, but they'll have almost nothing to show for it because poppytwt was actively designed to be as impossible to trace back as possible, precisely because people were afraid of harassment.

How are you supposed to find, say, Tommy/Tubbo fanfiction? There's some on the actual tag, sure, especially now that poppytwt is for the most part over and it's considered "okay" to ship them now, but I'll tell you right now there are thousands of fics that won't pop up because the fic had no tags whatsoever, or spelled Tubbo like Tvbb0, or used some God awful emoji combination to convey who they were talking about, or were straight up DELETED. Discord servers moved every few years, fanart and fics were usually tagged with censored bullshit or not tagged at all and then taken down and deleted, entire accounts were ALSO deleted, even assuming something was tagged properly it's probably gone.

Most of us in the fandom at the time didn't think to make archives of anything while it was happening, so we've lost like.... probably enough content to make our own small website full of it, and even more chatrooms.

Almost all of the public facing content left is NSFW and/or more controversial kinks like CNC, watersports, etc, which could be because people who post that content are more resistant to criticism anyway but honestly I don't know why that is, and I know sfw content beyond what you can currently find EXISTED, we consumed tons of it back in the day, but it's almost fucking impossible to find!!! And most of it, when you get your hands on a link, is GONE!!!!

It happens with NSFW content too though, if course. Veradie was one of the most popular artists in poppytwt by far and a lot of the art links don't work. Some have archived versions with working links but a lot is gone because the original post leading to it doesn't work, and Veradie, like, the person, is missing. I'm sure she(?) would know a lot about old fandom and might even have archived some stuff, but if you're some sort of internet historian how in the FUCK are you supposed to find her??? She deactivated without a trace!!!

I made friends with a user called Kencydoo on here and one day I logged on and Kency was just GONE without warning or any indication of where they were moving to, no DMs to people they knew, nothing. I don't even know if it was staff or mass reports or a self-deletion. I do know Kency sometimes posted NSFW dead dove stuff and had tags you could block to avoid it, so it's possible one of those posts blew up and got the blog taken down, but I have no level of certainty.

Reese (I think it was Reese?) had people hunting for a "main account" that didn't exist for harassment and doxxing purposes and then ALMOST left (I'm glad you're still here @reesesrambles )

There's no stability for poppytwt content and no real shelf life which means that most of the history and even the harassment that REQUIRED THE EXISTENCE of a seperate fandom is gone. We can describe what the old dsmp fandom was like and why poppytwt exists and what it means but most of the actual concrete fandom blogs or resources are GONE, absolutely obliterated.

Like you can't make a Strange Æons style video about poppytwt, you literally can't, because almost all of it is like the fucking city of Atlantis. There WAS stuff here, but it was constantly sinking.

Most people I know for a fact were involved in poppy honestly just left for the hermitcraft fandom because people over there are like...normal?? The hermitcraft fandom allows RPF and doesn't give a shit about shipping characters who are "sibling coded" or whatever the fuck. They understand the concept of just not clicking on something you don't want to see, instead of launching a twitter cancellation campaign against people. So like if you can talk about a similar, and GOOD source of content that is also actively ongoing and not get shit for it, why would you chose to create for a discontinued peice of content and/or streamers who you WILL get shit on for writing about?? Like if your options are "write grian RPF and be able to not stress and have a fun time" or "write tommyinnit RPF and delete hate comments every day and watch your back constantly" why the fuck would you pick the latter???

And it's frustrating because the fact everything disappears means it feels like you don't even have much to look back on. The friends you made or content you enjoyed about a series you love is all dust now, and if you were into the DSMP for a long time (and therefore in poppytwt for a long time) then it's so much worse. It all adds up.

Anyways that's my ramble on how fucked up it is that entire communities can be lost in an era where things can supposedly be maintained forever does anyone want to drink a caprisun with me

[joanna-lannister]

For the fandom ask! ->8,12,17,18,19,24! I might have asked too many, so pick and choose as you like!! No pressure of course

Hi! Oh no, don't worry, it's not too many! I had fun answering them! Thank you so much for the ask ❤️✨

8. Fandom you're a part of that's the most obscure?

Can I say the JC fandom? Because it's a very small, unpopular fandom, and not many people are fond of Jaime and Cersei together. So even if I'm very vocal about them, I think it's the most obscure one I can think of.

12. Craziest thing you've ever done as part of a fandom?

Oh, I think it would be getting my JC tattoo! It was so big on my arm, I was scared at first, but now I'm used to it.

17. Favorite blog(s) in your favorite fandom?

The JC fandom is kinda dead to be fair but I would say:

@musical-chick-13

@imnotwholewithoutyou

@alexcabotgf (she hadn't posted JC gifsets in a long time, but her old ones are 👌🏻)

18. All-time favorite fanfic?

"therefore each to other bound" by copacet! This fic gave me everything I ever wanted, and the characterization is perfect.

19. Fanfic you read again and again?

Hmmm, I read "therefore each to other bound" a lot tbh, almost religiously. But I'd say "Until Death Do Us Part" by my friend Annie. It's a Modern AU where Jaime and Cersei are married, and I love it to pieces and keep reading it over and over again.

24. Funniest fandom-related story?

OMGGGG Once upon a time, I blocked another JC stan on Tumblr. Her behavior was really "Meh", very childish behavior, and she kept trying to fight br*imes. And so, I blocked her because I didn't like the vibe she was giving off and she was annoying. Girly got MAD, like mad MAD and everytime she tried to make friends with other JC stans, she used to shit on me. Once, years later, she tagged one of her fics "it's better than most of the Pentos AU you'll read" or something along the lines, and it pissed me off, because you don't shit on your fellow writers, especially in such a small fandom, so I made a vague post about it on my blog. I didn't mention her, only in the convo I had with my friend in the replies. But Ma'am was STALKING MY BLOG, LITERALLY. And a few days later later, she wrote a WHOLE LONG ASS POST about me on her blog, saying I was insane and unhinged. I found out because someone send me the adress of her blog. And honestly? It was hilarious, to see her still being mad years later after I blocked her as if I had murdered her whole family. I didn't say anything about that post because it made me laugh and I don't know what she became, but I do know AO3 banned her for her behavior.

[dicenote]

DN Fic Recs!!

Aight, I think the Death Note fandom could use some positivity. And I wanna be positive :D! So here is a list of fics with reviews, aka a thinly-veiled excuse to wildly ramble about brilliant fics made by incredibly talented people. A lot of these works inspire me, so I want to share them with others! If these fics sound interesting to you, I highly recommend that you check them out and give the authors lots of love :D

Anyway, here we go!

Fallout by Zaney HacknSlash Rating: M (FFN) Ships: (Not the main focus) eventual Matsu x Sayu, eventual Ide x OC, background Aizawa x Eriko, (kinda) Mogi x Misa

Dude. Duuuuude. If you want to see an action-packed, angst-filled joyride of a fic featuring the Task Force after Kira, this is it. This is a 10 year old rewrite of the original version of the fic, but it has a lot of the old fandom charm left over from the 2008 original. The plot is centered on the guilt Matsuda feels after shooting Light, and what he has to do when a mysterious enemy forces him to confront that guilt.

I like how the author gives us insight into every major character in the story. The flipping perspectives keep the story grounded in some places, but make it chaotic when it needs to be. Most importantly, I like how we see, inside and out, how tight-knit the Task Force has become after everything they've gone through. I also enjoy how each of the Task Force members have their own dilemmas and struggles that pay off by the end, all to do with loyalty. Overall, Fallout is an epic story with action, suspense, and plenty of original characters that don't overstay their welcome.

True Successor by @mapsareforbraindeads Rating: M (AO3) Ships: Beyond x Light, BeyondTsuda

I think this was the first fic that really helped me get the appeal of Beyond Birthday, and that's a feat all on its own. Here, Vari takes the original story of Death Note and flips it on its head with an idea that sounds like "crack treated seriously" on paper: What if L was dead before the events of the story? What if, instead, he were replaced by someone looking to, "realize what [L] could not"?

The portrayal of Beyond's mental state throughout is simply breathtaking. One standout (not-too-spoilery) example happens when Ukita dies as in canon. Vari does an incredible job of showing Beyond's frantic thoughts to the point where this part is actually stressful to read. I really wish I could go into more detail about how Beyond is portrayed, but it's really worth reading for yourself. Like I said, this fic helped me understand why people like B's story so much.

Even if you've never read the LABB book (I haven't yet), True Successor is an utterly fantastic work that you should check out.

Weakness by Airmid Rating: M (AO3) Ship: LawTsuda

I think I've talked about this one before, but it's worth talking about again. I think of this as "the" LawTsuda fanfic for a couple reasons, most notably in that it really makes the pairing work in a setting that's close to canon. I really adore the way Airmid characterizes L and Matsuda in this fic and immediately contrasts them from each other. The events of Weakness take place before L's death in canon, and the story asks some simple questions: What would have happened if L let himself confide in someone before he died? And what if that person was Matsuda?

I've read some of Airmid's other, longer, works, and while I enjoyed Happiness and Until the End, Weakness stands out to me because it feels a lot "tighter", if that makes sense. Using the bells from the anime, we get this very solid through-line of L secretly worrying and preparing for the inevitable... And then Matsuda comes in. This fic in particular continues to be a huge inspiration for a fic I'm writing, especially for the portrayal of Matsuda as equally earnest and impulsive.

Pretty much anything by Tallulah

Okay, I wish I could pick just one to talk about here. From the short and devastating Axioms to the very long and devastating Broken Hallelujahs, all of Tallulah's works—the smutty and the soul-crushing—have intriguing worlds and deep, dark characters. Just make sure you mind the tags before diving in, these ones get dark. As a MatsuIde fan, I've got to give a shout-out to Saviour. It took a while for me to "get" the style of the fic, but in the end I really loved the tone. The way Tallulah depicts the dissociation and trauma of these characters feels incredibly real, and when the fic drops its unique formatting to symbolize the characters "snapping out of it", you feel it. Broken Hallelujahs has a similar vibe, but its story has more fast-paced action. Ooh, and The End of Days is an incredibly solid, more "canon-compliant", work featuring Aizawa x Ide x Matsuda, a guilty pleasure ship for me.

Twisted Fate by TwilightMaster15 Rating: M (AO3) Ships: None tagged so far, background LawLight

If you've been in the DN fanfic scene, I'm sure you've seen (or maybe read) a "What if L was Kira?" fic. Well, here's a new one. What if Aizawa was Kira?

This is another fic that takes what could be a "crack" scenario and executes it super super well. Rather than getting a childish Kira who calls himself "God of the New World", we have Aizawa, who has become disillusioned by the justice system he works in. The fic does a really good job in setting up Aizawa's relationships, good and bad, with the other characters, as well as showing the very different choices Aizawa!Kira makes versus Canon!Light. Speaking of Light, his motivations and role in the story are very well-done. His inclusion feels incredibly natural, and I can't wait to see what he and L do next.

Kira's Guide to the Munchies by @palant1r Rating: T (AO3) Ship: MatsuLight

I've gotta end this list with a funny one, alright? This fic is an absolutely delightful treat. It's like digging into a nice, warm brownie... Oh, wait.

See, Palant1r doesn't just characterize Matsuda and Light, more like dissects these characters' essences, their weaknesses and fears and flaws, and lays them bare for the reader to see. And yes, this is also true for when Matsuda and Light are tripping fucking balls. This fic is so very silly, but we also get to see the way these characters think, even if their faculties are hindered by quite a bit of weed. A character study wrapped in a goofy concept, Kira's Guide to the Munchies is a ride that you just have to read to believe. Seriously. I was thinking about quoting lines here, but it works better when you don't know what's coming next.

[olderthannetfic]

Holocaust deniers, people who get mad at "forced diversity" (read: any non-white OC, focusing on non-white characters, mentioning any religion other than Christianity, etc.) and anti-queer people are a plague in the comments of Danny Phantom fics on FFN. The vast majority of the DP fandom uses FFN and doesn't want to move over to AO3, basically because there's so much fanfic for it there, so many collections of fics, etc. that it's what everyone's familiar with and has the most content.

I'm really torn because I want readers, obviously - I like the story I'm writing and I want other people to get to read it and enjoy it - but as a Jewish Arab I am a bit hesitant to walk into a place where I know some bullshit is going to ensue. Do you have any advice? Any ways I could possibly minimize the amount of bad comments I get? I know someone who wrote more queer ficlets every time she got a hateful comment on her queer content in the fandom and that did a lot to get people to stop, especially when she mentioned them in the summaries and author's notes as the inspiration that keeps her writing. And I love that, but I can't always get inspired, sit down and hammer out one-shots on the spot like she can.

I know this fandom is like this because the creator is the kind of conservative other conservatives cringe at (especially ever since his church tried to raise a kid from the dead). I know some of this is inevitable in fanfic, since nobody only gets purely positive comments. But if there's something I can do to minimize the amount of garbage I get, I would like to. And I know you've been in fandom much longer than I have (I mean I'm 18 so most people have but you know what I mean) so I thought maybe you might have some tips.

Sorry for the long, rambly comment. I know you get a lot of asks and normally I don't bother other people about my concerns. Learning to manage my own concerns and worries is part of growing up. But I think asking other people for insight is good too, sometimes.

(P.S. you've gotten me into knitting and it's really fun. My mom always said I was too old to learn but you're an adult and you got into it so that made me decide to take the plunge and I'm really happy I did.)

--

Your mom is silly! People get into crafts at all ages!

I think for the trolls on FFN, the general culture there respects the same kind of aggressive douchebaggery they dish out. If you appear totally unbothered and fire back at them, they see it as strength. If you're too nice or too upset, they smell blood in the water. A "LOLOLOL Fuck you too!" attitude will go a long way.

Whether it's worth dealing with them is another story.

[wildelydawn]

2 7 11 17 18 35 40 47 73 for the writers ask game

I know it's a lot feel free to not answer all of them hahaha

Hello my dearest!! I will do all of them for you <3

2. talk about a notable time a narrative or character has looked you dead in the eyes and said “fuck your plan, here’s what we’re actually doing.”

It's very minor because he has so few lines/so little presence in the story, but it's when Big dies in II4Y. I didn't want him to die but I realized he needs to die for Kim to understand what permanent loss is. In chapter one, Kim is dealing with a break up, which is definitely a sort of loss, but once Chay and him begin to matter to each other again, Kim begins to realize that loss can be a lot worse, a lot more permanent. By chapter four, he's sort of gotten everyone back, right? Chay is talking to him, he's hanging out with his brothers. Big's death shocks him into remembering that it can be all taken away very quickly.

7. tell us about the plot of the first fanfic you ever wrote

I know that my first fic was something written for classic Fruits Basket, but I can't remember the plot for the life of me. It was probably fluff or a retelling of Kyo's transformation when his bracelet comes off. The earliest, actual fic I can recall the plot too very vividly is a Supernatural Megstiel fic, in which I rewrote parts of Hello, Cruel World so that Meg Masters finds Castiel's trenchcoat and body. Unfortunately, I deleted that story because I wrote it at the height of SPN, and Megstiel was a rough ship to write at the time lol. I wish I hadn't deleted it! It would've been cool to take another look at it now, or maybe even potentially rewrite.

11. what’s something neat you’ve learned while doing research for something you were writing? also, how much do you worry about doing research in general?

The entire process of making Thai desserts/food for BSC90 has been so great. Like, truly unmatched. Outside of fandom, my research is really depressing and almost always about the Law/law. So to really deep dive into how these foods are made and how chocolate was/is produced in Thailand is really fun. I do take research pretty seriously, and I do what I can to be as accurate as possible. Right now, I'm pretty knee deep in reading about football/football RPF, and I recently followed a bunch of popular players on my Instagram, and that's been pretty wild. And, of course, can't forget my favorite Dutch politicians either. Though, that research wasn't for writing. I just really got interested in reading about the Netherlands and far right government officials. I find myself just rereading or watching Dutch debate whenever I can find translations, fan-written or official.

17. what is your favorite line you’ve ever written?

God. It changes so often, especially depending on my mood. Right now, it's from YLTTL:

The subtle but decreasing hesitations in WIK’s motions make Porchay unsteady and ashamed at the same time. In his dreams, he envisioned WIK as the criminal: keen on stealing Porchay’s heart and laughing mercilessly while walking away, leaving Porchay naked on the floor. He imagined, the other week, after WIK had left him alone, that at their best, they could only ever be temporary bliss: a mistake, heat of the moment, other clichés that left Porchay feeling angry and confused. He had resolved that if the moment were to come, he’d give himself entirely to WIK and blindly hope that WIK would do the same, and they could leave without saying anything more. 

Their togetherness, he cruelly imagined, would be one born of force, passionate with no regard for the future, a story as old as time: those with power taking advantage of those with none.

18. what is your most and least favorite part of writing?

The action of writing is my favorite part of writing. And also finding out if someone reread something of mine. Least favorite part is posting/submitting/publishing.

35. tell us about a character who’s very different than you who you love a whole lot

Definitely Chay. Chay is so different from me. I think what we have in common is poverty and independence, but other than that, Chay is such a bold, forward, dynamic character. He takes what he wants! When I wanted to ask out my current partner, I wrote a letter and then fled the country. Chay, on the other hand, just fucking shows up to where Kim is and calls it a date. I think he's the bravest character in the whole fucking show actually. All of what he does, what he navigates, is mostly done alone and independently and, up to a certain point, by choice. I admire that so much. He takes risks, even if it ends in detriment to himself. He's never static, he's never standing still. He feels things and acts on those emotions. Now, whether he processes them properly or maturely is up in the air, but he's not wallowing for long, and I truly think in a post-canon world, he would continue to do what he can to move on and adapt to his new life. That can be "Chay having a ho phase" or "Chay integrates into the mafia" or "Chay runs to Switzerland, meets Kang Yohan from The Devil Judge, and becomes a vigilante judge when he comes back to Thailand."

40. best piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten.

"You're probably going to get decimated, but everyone will have questions." This came from my dissertation advisor/mentor. And she was right!

47. what story are you most proud of?

It's definitely a tie between YLTTL and Still Painting Flowers for You. I'm quite proud of the latter. It's short and it has, what I feel, is a good balance of canon and a reflection of two very important women in my life.

Thank you for all these questions, my crunchy little friend! It was so fun to write this out hehe.

Ask me writer things!

[kurara123]

COD fandom

This might be chaotic so bear with me. I can make some errors because english is not my native language.

I will be honest. I started to follow COD fandom the time I saw Ghost on tumblr....i think almost one year ago? because of his mask. I knew about COD but I was not interested in a gameplay (i though i has no lore, just dumb shooting game XD). Most of my games fixation comes mostly by watching gameplays on YT. This includes Resident Evil, Silent Hill, FNAF, DBH, Assassin's Creed and COD.

I have never ever play these games!!! I was only watching them for the story, characters and lore.

As someone who is in SW fandom (especially clone wars and clones) I know this pain too much........ I know what are your mental state is like....hell (when last Clone Wars episode aired I was grieving for like a week or more.

But remember it just fictional character(s), story, etc. Just give yourself a time to heal. You can also live in denial....I don't blame you. Create fanarts, fanfics for yourself or for fandom as well. Just keep Soap alive in your works and ignore MWIII.

My advice to COD fandom is this: make your own headcanon (base on canon materials old or new) + fanon and ignore the last installment or part of it (MWIII)

Am I myself in denial? YES ABSOLUTELY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I still believe Tech from TBB is not dead...no body means no dead in SW most of the time)

My COD headcanon would be MWI (i still need to watch it i know...wtf! XD), MWII and Ghost official comic. I still wanna watch MWIII to make as much sense in my hc but the ending is gone for me, non existing! I need to watch older modern warfare games just for the non canon material to work with or characters (Roach!).

Just don't stop creating fanfics and fanarts for COD (for Soap and Ghoap mostly where they are alive)

(in SW for me i ignore sequel trilogy and for clone wars im adding legends material that is not contradicting with canon material that is books, comics and some of old 2d clone wars episodes) that being said order 66 happen and nothing can be done about it (its in the middle of a story, but clones that i like died in canon but i like fanon material and au's for them)

Made some memes, feel free to use :)

Ok, that's it from me. I am still grieving, ngl, it hurts

[sodasa-was-taken]

Hey there, I'm curious about your thoughts on this. If the Gundam fandom particularly the English part isn't very fanfic-heavy, what's up with Gundam Wing having 50000 fanfics from FF dot Net and AO3 combined? And many of them still being updated. They even had a zine last year and I think you can agree that that's admirable for an old fandom. Compared to Gundam Witch, I'm only aware of 2, and one is even dead. Meanwhile, other M/M heavy fandoms have released more than a number of zines already.

I guess I can't help but compare the English fandom with the Japanese fandom which is releasing countless anthologies and events across the board to this day. Like many, I've read that fanfiction is the gage that people care about a fandom so I can't help but wonder if that is an old way of thinking and unlike Gundam Wing fans who are older, the fans of Gundam Witch are younger and just don't care about fanfiction anymore.

This is the first time someone has pointed out a flaw in one of my arguments. It's been a long time coming if you ask me.

I think I might not have expressed myself in quite the right way. I didn't mean to say that the English speaking part of the Gundam fandom isn't into fanfiction but that it has a proportionally small amount of people whose main thing is writing fanfic. I think it's silly to only use the amount of fanfiction to determine the size of a fandom because the skill sets and passions people within a fandom can have vary greatly. Some fandoms are huge on fan songs some barely have any or not at all. Some ships have more animatics dedicated to them than others and while popularity does play a role it's rarely if ever perfectly proportional. That's what I was trying to get at. The only way the output of a specific type of fan work would be a reliable way to determine the size of a fandom is if the ratio of that type of fan work to the amount of people in the fandom was at least somewhat consistent. In most cases it's anything but.

The disparities between Gundam Wing and g-witch makes perfect sense to me, but it doesn't have anything to do with young people not caring about fanfiction. Believe they absolutely do. The thing is Gundam Wing aired on Toonami back in 2000 as the first Gundam show to ever premiere on American television. It was a straight-up phenomenon in the way anime just isn't anymore in the west due to anime becoming a lot more mainstream within the last decade. The way it was distributed meant that a lot of people could stumble into it without already being in certain circles watch a few seconds while skipping between channels and decide to give it a try. This had the potential to bring in people with very varying interest because a lot of those who became fans hadn't actively been seeking out the show.

Compare that to a show like g-witch that came out in a time where streaming wars and algorithms mean you most likely wouldn't have just stumbled upon it unless you were already watching similar shows. People in the west had to main ways of learning about the show: either through someone they know or through the internet. There's basically no way anyone got into the show out of pure curiosity and this is pretty much true for any Gundam show since Unicorn. Anyway, my point is we've gotten more picky because we can be and it makes fandoms more homogeneous when it comes to taste than in the past.

When it comes to what kinda people do choose to watch g-witch there's three main points I've seen people bring up when recommending the show. It's a new take on Gundam. It's well produced. It's gay, I swear. These three things respectively appeal to existing Gundam fans, people who are passionate about the medium of animation, and fans of sapphic media especially those who like animated shows. If they are to join the fandom they're likely more than one of them. Without knowing for sure through what I have been able to observe I would guess it's people falling under the third category who are the most prolific Sulemio shipfic authors. In terms of the amount of fics that is as I'm almost certain it's a bunch of Gundam veterans who are responsible for the 300000+ words ongoing fics.

That was a longer answer than I would've predicted. Thank you for the ask.

[tomdutch]

Hey um I know there's a large chance that you most likely won't see this, but I just have to say this. When you had first spoken up about leaving the fandom I was confused as to why because I didn't really realize how dry it was becoming. I just wanna say how utterly correct you were. It has declined even moreee since your leave (not saying you caused it or anything). I sometimes find myself comparing the notes/reblogs from Tom!peter fanfics to the tasm!peter ones and the difference is astounding ( it has me wondering if anyone even knows that Tom!peter exists). It's really sad, the fandom honestly can't be revived, like where is everyone??? I have so many questions about the decline of content in the fandom ( I know the interactions from the readers played a huge part, but I also feel like there may have been other factor that lead to this.) Did everyone in the fandom just grow up or something?? Anyways, I miss you lots and hope you are doing well and your new fandoms are treating you right.

wow this was a doozy to read but in a good way 😭 the delusional main character side of me wants to think my absence had an impact of any kind lmaooo but to be honest, the fandom was already in really bad shape.

lack of reader interaction personally wasn’t that big of a factor for me, i was incredibly lucky and am still grateful for the consistent feedback and love y’all gave me and i still sometimes look through reblogs on my fave fics for writing inspo :”) it meant so much to me and i look back with so much fondness on all the fun times we had with more interactive series, especially break my heart.

not to sound like i’m giving a ted talk, but what drove me away more than anything was the toxicity of the fandom. granted all fandoms have a certain level of it, but this one was really, truly bad in 2021-2022. there’s only so much consistent harassment and suicide bait a girl can overlook while still feeling welcome and excited abt this space 😭 when i look back at that stuff now i’m honestly shocked so many people stayed as long as we did.

rabid shipping culture aside, i personally feel like the mcu spiderman franchise took a big hit in no way home that drove a lot of ppl away. obviously they couldn’t keep going forever with a 30 year old guy playing a 19 year old, but their creative decisions in nwh are questionable at best to me. the end of mcu peter’s story was so final and abrupt that, combined with how flip-floppy the writers were abt a follow-up trilogy with new characters and a time jump, didn’t leave much room for fanfic to carry on. they quite literally erased mcu peter as a character and individual from the mcu itself lmao it would be pretty hard for people to write copious fanfics about a guy who has no one bc no one knows who he is and his family is dead as hell.

that being said, i really am sorry you feel like it’s difficult to enjoy and share your passion in this space. that feeling sucks and i hope that, if you write fanfic, the lack of engagement and content doesn’t stop you from being creative and sharing what you wanna share. trends and fandoms come and go in waves, you never know when a piece of media or an actor has a revival in the general public. i don’t know what roles tom has going on but if you feel inspired to engage in them when the time comes, i’m sure there will be ppl there to interact. you’re never too ‘grown up’ to enjoy fandom, especially not one as iconic and timeless as spider-man in all variations. if there’s a character, there’s ppl out there creating art for them.

in the meantime, i hope life treats you kindly as well and thank you for your ask :”) if you ever wanna chat with me, i’m still active on my main, or if you’re more comfortable here i still check in on this blog every other month 💛

[margridarnauds]

If I may ask another, Romeo et Juliette?

A musical that I have a very, very complex relationship with.

It was one of my first French musicals -- not one of my favorites (I have ALWAYS been an Atia and Chouet girl), but one of my first. Good music, Aimer was one of my eternal, lovestruck romantic songs from my teen years, the OTP song to end all OTP songs; Verona was one of my favorite musical songs (once an Escalus fucker, always an Escalus fucker), I loved C'est le Jour (being used to historical lit and period dramas means I have....no reaction to first cousin marriages, so I shipped Tybalt/Juliet, sorry lads.)

There used to be a dedicated French musicals fandom on here, so I was talking with people who were more invested in it than I was, me and a friend once listened to the London cast together and memed it to death. And when that community imploded, I joined the RetJ fandom more specifically after a couple of years. And...I did enjoy it. I was mainly in my own little corner, but I was talking about it, I was creating content for it. I didn't agree with everything, especially the way that Japanese productions were routinely dismissed, and I thought that people could be very harsh on individual productions in a way that wasn't particularly fun, but...I did enjoy the experience. I did enjoy working with other people, especially since, as a Toho fan and ESPECIALLY as an Escalus fan (and as someone who really cares about the women more than Mercutio), I was very locked in my own little corner with a few other people.

I fell in love with the musical. And with Shakespeare's original. I still think that this is My Adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, because it is really wonderfully faithful while modernizing it without being grimdark or cynical (yes, even the Hungarian.)

And...I refuse to go into details, because I have no intention of dredging up old ghosts, but it ended. Badly. I evacuated myself from the communities I was part of, leaving them to someone who hated me because I didn't want to split the fandom. I wanted to leave quietly, discretely, while potentially keeping some bonds. They used it as an excuse to spread their smear campaign to my old circles, something that I only found out about over a year later. No one bothered to tell me. I noticed that people were pulling away, some people have even blocked me on here, or else quietly unfollowed me, but I didn't know why and I tried to convince myself it was paranoia. I reached out to someone and they assured me that nothing had been said about me. Something I later learned was untrue. I won't accuse that person of lying, because I don't have a timeline, and I understand wanting to keep the peace, but my reputation and my mental stability were NOT acceptable collateral damage. I was suicidal, dammit, and I'm not just mad at the people who started the smear campaign, but the people who didn't bother to listen to me when I needed them the most.

And...I would say I'm not bitter about it, but actually, I am. Of COURSE I'm bitter about it. Even if I wasn't the most active member, I was there for years. I deserved better. And it has profoundly impacted the way that I still carry myself in a fandom context, because some part of me is always looking behind my shoulder. (I. Have never been able to join the BG3 fandom in the way I'd have liked to for a number of reasons, including my ongoing fear caused by this incident.)

...but, by the same token, I did rebuild myself, bit by bit, with Takarazuka musicals, including the Zuka RetJ. I wrote RetJ fanfic for myself and, without having a fandom to worry about appeasing, I wrote what I wanted -- some of my longest fics of the last three years have been Benvolio/Escalus fics that I almost CERTAINLY wouldn't have published when I had the dead weight attached.

So -- gorgeous musical, the Toho production will eternally have a place in my heart. I'm very happy that I can look at it without shaking now.

[cursedvibes]

Sorry I have to rant, I just saw post on reddit about how Gege hates his main trio and has completely destroyed them(I'm paraphrasing) and I get it everyone has their own opinions and they can complain etc etc but the whole thing was so dumb!😭 Literally stupid reasons only because they have made so many assumptions about how the story would/should go. These last two chapters have caused such a mayhem in the fandom. People are impatient, quick to make predictions, and get upset when they things don't happen their way. And that's one thing I really don't understand and absolutely hate, how fans of a media think that they know how the story should go better than the creator itself, especially if it's something like a manga which is released on a chapter by chapter basis. Only two chapters have been out! There is more to come! Don't be hasty to judge and please have some patience! Hell! even the shippers are mad I don't know if you ship fushiita, sukuita or sukufushi but it's really chaotic right now. Fans seem to think Yuuji's only purpose was being a vessel(which is a pretty gross way to think about him in my opinion) and now he's useless. Btw thanks for the earlier ask you answered about this because I was also upset about it but that had more to do with 'megumi is the perfect vessel actually' and not Sukuna being separated from Yuuji, anyway you really helped me deal and understand it. Thank you for that! Your blog feels like a safe haven for Yuuji and Kenjaku fans. They're both so underrated and completely overshadowed by other flashier characters (megumi, Yuuta and getou respectively) I cannot tell you how happy I was that I've found like-minded people like you. They're both my faves and I feel so sad that they're ignored by most of the fandom especially Kenny who's only misfortune is being in gojou's ex's ex body.

Well, I got completely derailed and this is more of a rambling than a vent. Sorry for sending such a long ask😅. Thank you for being a part of this fandom. Also, you are very funny even your tags are so hilarious, they make my day. Keep up the good work! And have a good morning/night!

Thank you for the nice words! Funny on the internet and having correct takes on fictional characters, such high praise 😌 I'm gonna add it to my CV

It is quite a shame that Kenjaku is so unpopular. Honestly don't know why? They have the looks, the smarts, the connection to the main character (although somehow that often gets overlooked beyond the milf jokes), they drive the entire plot and have an entertaining personality. But most of the time people don't even notice that. They're just Geto 2.0.... Or a grumpy conservative old man. No idea where that characterization came from or why it's so prevalent, but especially in fanfics I see it a lot.

Yuuji is very popular, but he's often turned into Pink Naruto, despite them being very different besides some standard shonen tropes. Naruto without Kurama is unthinkable (well until Boruto happened, but that was after Naruto's main development was already over), so the same must apply to Yuuji, right? If Yuuji doesn't have Sukuna, what's the point?

Also, I don't know what it is with this fandom and going off the rails every break week. Like clockwork the "Yuuta is the real mc because he stronk and his laser beam go pew" take comes back every time and people make up the wildest stuff. I'm surprised by how many genuinely think Yuuji is dead dead. Done. Story over I guess. Megumi hasn't gotten any points, so that's clearly not the case yet. If not, he obviously has to throw around some Infinity-level technique to "prove" he's the mc. They also already see Hana at the bottom of Megumi-Sukuna's stomach I guess and/or Yuuji as Angel's new host. Somehow...how would she even get to him so fast? And sure, switch one manipulative 1000 yo sorcerer for another...what a fun and unique concept. At this point I'm more looking forward to the next leaks because it will give people something meaningful to talk about than the story (not true, I really want to know what happens next, but these takes are very annoying).

I haven't heard that Gege hates the main trio before, but I certainly see it paraded around a lot in regards to Yuuji, even though Gege clearly says in the fanbook that that comment was simply about how he is hard to write and they want to make sure to do him justice. Of course an author can get a bit exasperated, but that doesn't mean they hate the character. If that was the case, Gege wouldn't put this much thought into Yuuji.

In regards to the trio, with how jjk works and everything that's been happening, there was no way they would stay together (assuming that's what people take issue with). It's basically a tradition. Sashisu, Nanami & Haibara, Maki's group, the Kyoto gang, they all got separated, some even died. Honestly, it would be pretty unrealistic for the Tokyo trio to stay together. And as you said, things just started to pick up, much can happen. Megumi is probably gonna resurface for at least a little bit before he dies - or not who knows. Nobara's situation is a bit iffy, but she was never as important as Megumi or Maki so eh. If she comes back, I need her to be properly integrated into the story. She has no connection to the current plot, any of the main villains or adds to the lore. Her coming back with some new strong technique would be nice, but what's her function gonna be besides moral support for Yuuji and killing some less important enemies? So far I don't feel like she needs to come back for parts of the plot to progress. If she doesn't, it wouldn't be a huge loss. Therefore, if it happens, I need some character exploration for her. I still think it would be neat if her grandma somehow shows up and does...idk something, but she sounds awesome (knew from the start not to trust Jujutsu Tech, best woman) I want to know more about her.

I don't really ship any combination of Yuuji-Sukuna-Megumi, so I don't know what happened on their side. Fanartists have put out some very dramatic, traumatic and bloody ItaFushi art recently, which I appreciate, but that's all I know. After ch 212 I got the impression shippers liked the new development for the angst. Didn't know that changed, but I'm really not that in touch with that side of the fandom. Either way, Yuuji not being a vessel anymore sounds more like it would be beneficial for them (separate bodies and all) unless you're really into the possession trope.

[soopsiedaisies]

18, 22, 24 👀

Hiii!!

18-It’s absolutely criminal the fandom has been sleeping on…

Within the HP fandom, most things have already been done—but that doesn’t mean they’ve been done well or often enough in a fandom of this size, which means to me that it’s being slept on.

Personally I’m really interested in the Potter family and I just don’t see enough absurd theories about them. You’ve got this pureblood family that’s like… INCREDIBLY old: according to extended canon, they’re only two generations removed from the Peverell brothers (who were born about two centuries after Hogwarts was first established), considering Ignotus’ granddaughter married the first person in the family who took ‘Potter’ as his last name.

The Blacks have SO many fics with HC’s about their Long and Beautiful (and Horrible) History, but the Potters (the paternal family of the main character) get like… what? A mansion, sometimes? Or all their power comes from their Peverell ancestry, or their Gryffindor ancestry, or whatever Old and Powerful Extinct Family is left. There’s only a couple of fics that explore some quirks other than their hair or bad eyesight, or explore some funny little ancestry, and I genuinely think that’s a shame. Let the Potters weird and/or creepy, please (with the ODDEST collection of stuff in their vaults)

22-Your favourite part of canon that everyone else ignores

This one’s difficult because, again, most things in canon have already been covered and therefore ‘everyone’ is obviously an overstatement… but dammit if I don’t love (and hate) all the memorial shit Godric’s Hollow. From a wider perspective, this is being discussed with some frequency (at least, in the fanfics and meta I read), but that mainly focuses on the hero-ification of Harry and his dead parents in general. But keeping the destroyed house up and putting a sign on it, and having a statue of a young family commissioned and placed in a cemetery feels… weird to me? Because like, who’s it for? Not for Harry, at least—especially considering he wasn’t taken to GH at any point in his life and had to go himself with Hermione whilst they were actively being hunted down.

The intent behind it I can sympathise with: it’s for wizards and witches to remember the end of the first wizarding war. But it just feels so… tourist trap-y. Imagine thinking it’s a brilliant idea to have a statue made of two dead twenty-one year olds and their baby as a memorial for the war they accidentally ended. Accidentally!!! I just KNOW that neither Lily nor James were thinking about the war effort when Vee broke in, only about the survival of their child. And their house still standing… I dunno. Like I said, I get it to some degree, but it also feels foul. Like this violent end and the sacrifice these people made for their son is something to gawk at.

That being said, it is one of my favourite bits in canon because it only underlines how fickle and nosy the wizarding world (and the world at large) is. I’m sure it was seen as respectful in-universe at the time, but it’s really just the cherry on top of the absurdity that is Harry’s fame. I really liked that bit in A Marauder’s Plan when the house was being cleared out and reality set in—the dishes, the towels, the toys, the newspaper… it all still lying there, at which point Bill questioned why the entire world had been celebrating the death of two young parents and elevating an orphan to hero-status. It’s just so… I dunno. It got some emotion out of me, at least.

24-Topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

Which ships are supposed to be the best, and which shouldn’t exist because they’re supposedly morally wrong. I’ve got a lot of tags blocked on Tumblr and I don’t frequent Twitter (sorry, ‘X’) so I thankfully miss the bulk of it, but just also… in general? Why are you threatening to dox people or sending death threats over a fictional SHIP?? Have you perhaps not yet developed the ability to predict potential consequences, or are you just a bully? It makes absolutely 0 sense.

[dreadlord-mr-son]

I was in the shower just now (because a bug rubbed itself all over me) and my mind wandered, as minds do. And it landed on Harry Potter.

And I had a realization that's been a long time coming.

I maybe would have thought of it sooner, if I hadn't been resisting the "if you so much as mention a Hogwarts House you're dead to me" crowd so much.

I've been stubbornly clinging to the IDEA of Harry Potter fandom. Why should I cede ground to the bigots? To the transphobes and the antisemites? Stop giving her money, yes. But the idea that just being into the fic and fandom was giving her attention? Was supporting her? Why should I accept her framing? What happened to stubbornly enjoying things our own way out of spite?

But this was holding me back from the self-reflection I needed to realize...

The franchise really doesn't have anything left for me any longer?

It's not that I think it's BAD. Not like the folks who are sour graping "well it was always terrible writing anyway". But when I think about it. About making fanart, or fanfic, or headcanons, or anything? Meh. No interest. No desire. Nothing to hook me. Nothing to stir strong emotions. Only scraps and pieces left to make me look twice at all.

And most of what I still like about it isn't unique. Boggarts? Fear beings? Plenty of other fantasy has those. House elves are basically brownies reinterpreted to be worse. I can find so much stuff in other fantasy worlds.

This especially stands out as I get into other old stories from my childhood. Ones that I sometimes look back on with longing and curiosity. "I should reread/rewatch that!" I think. But not with Harry Potter. I don't... feel the urge to revisit it. It's not repellent but neither is it attractive. It's just there. Part of my past. Existing.

So I think it's time to do what I did with the Yogscast and take what few parts I still want and walk out with them.

Tuck Draco under my arm and throw Snape over my shoulder and carry them away like war spoils.

I suppose it's no surprise, for me at least, that what I still want are the ambiguously villainous characters. The rich boy too scared to either commit to or reject evil, and the bitter misanthrope who betrayed evil for petty personal reasons.

Characters who aren't good, but who could be given a path to be better, if they were led down it by the nose. I could find places to put them. I'd have to translate them, for most. Fit them into new settings and new worlds. Reskin them to belong somewhere else. But I've done that before. I have practice. It pretty much counts as one of my hobbies, at this point.

And if I took ones riddled with fanon and headcanons? Well, that's no mistake. I took the ones I wanted best, after all.

So I guess... that's where I am now. After finally waving the smoke from my eyes and getting a good look at where I am. Picking through the burning rubble for the last treasures left and heading out with them.

You win, JKR. Even my spite isn't strong enough any more to keep clinging to your world. I leave it in your hands.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some psychic white horses to reintroduce myself to...

[mechanicalinertia]

STMPD Recommends Bubblegum Crisis Fanfiction: DeadboltDon's Silent Rift

You know how last year, I lost my mind over Most of The Way To The Moon? Reader, I thought that such perfect Bubblegum Crisis fanfiction could never be written in our fallen day and age, that the really good shit was all in the nineties and the aughts, never to return in this decade. That I would have to be a lone soldier writing this stuff. I was wrong, suffice to say.

And now, I have been proven wrong thrice. Both by this fanfiction, and then by CodyLabs' Once Upon A Midnight Launch. As I begin the process of spinning up a new, better fanfiction project, this fact fills me with boundless joy, especially because it gives me something to review that isn't old or weird or horny or Yours Truly 2032.

And it came out of nowhere, too! Only a week old as of the time of writing, and from a user who I knew liked BGC on reddit, DeadboltDon just dropped this puppy, all 50K words or so of it, on us like that. I just found it, just binge-read it, and I am going to tell you, right now, it's time for you to read it too.

Okay, so here's the setup: Megatokyo is a city whose outer districts are absolutely fucking overrun with trash. Waste from electronics, vehicles, Boomers. Even if those wastelands are postapocalyptic nightmares where only the insane and Moorlockish live, that's still a whole lot of waste, a whole lot of things that are, well... one character in this fic calls it 'ungarbage'.

The main cast are scavengers - an ex ADP-jockey, an old guy, an ex-Outrider... and Lou. Yeah. Lou. The Sexaroid we all thought died in Moonlight Rambler. Weird, huh?

Well, things start creepy, that's for sure, when the team brings in the arm off a Knight Saber hardsuit, and then decide to bring it back, because the Sabers to them are living legends, nightmares who'll happily kill them to retrieve said piece. And the Sabers do show up. Sort of. Black hardsuits with silent flechette-throwing crossbows, something that we know aren't the Sabers, can't be, but who are they, then?

Well, Lou and company wind up in ADP custody, only for the Sabers to break them out in an unhinged rampage through the upper parts of the HQ, where Jeena Malso is an absolute fucking unit, and then a horror-movie like scrabble through vaults loaded with dead Boomers coming to life. Things get... dicey. Not to spoil anything, but the people behind the black hardsuits are a) unexpected villains and b) fucking terrifying because of that. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time for the final fight, I'll say that much.

Oh, and there are references! The WKUK's Sex Robot, various types of power armor stuck in the ADP's prototype division (eg. the Kerberos Panzer Cop suit), and a bunch of quotes from an UrbEx handbook. They're welcome. They energize the fic even more than it already crackles with violent life.

I wish I had more to say about this fic, beyond how much you should go and read it right this instant. Instead, I'll say this much: I think we're in the middle of a minor paradigm shift for Bubblegum Crisis fanfiction. My own work, Cody's work, and so on. I might be the guy who keeps coming back to this fandom, maybe most people are writing one-offs, but the fact that a superfan like myself can expect quality work like this as a baseline for BGC fanfic makes me think the future's bright... especially since I know of more than a few people who are working on new fics as we speak.

I say this with the utmost love: If you have a Story Of The Knight Sabers you want to bring to the internet, don't hold back. Give us everything you've got. Now is the time to rise together, to fill up the silent rift with light and noise.