#the good outweighs the bad

[heretherebedork]

Do you know what's wild to think about? It was four years ago that I first talked to someone else about watching The Untamed and tried to convince my friends to watch it and completely failed and came here to start yelling about my newest fandom because I'd seen gifs here and figured it was a good place to share.

Four years ago, I had no idea what BL was and had never watched a show in Thai and was only just starting to watch more subtitled shows after a long break from anime.

And now here I am, in my little corner of this fandom, 500+ shows under my belt, new friends, new issues, a whole boatload of meta, just as many gifs and so much joy that I struggle sometimes not to just tell every person I meet about how great these shows are.

And I love it here. Even with the struggles, even with the people who approach this fandom so, so differently than I do, even with the shows and fandom reactions that have broken my brain... I have found so much joy here. From friends found and kept to friends lost to anons of every flavor to new shows and old shows and all the tropes I've come to love... it's been a fascinating journey and I hope to stay on it for as long as I can.

So what I mean is... thank you. This fandom is big and beautiful and ugly and scary and wonderful and a gift and it has given me so much and I hope I've given just as much back and I wish some people found it easier to disagree but I've also learned just as much from that as I've learned from sharing joy and I love so many of you.

Four years.

Four years.

So many shows, so many boys, so much queer joy, so much queer love and so much more is always coming.

[tasteleeknow]

on a positive note i’m so fucking grateful to all of you for being so supportive and lovely to me since i popped up here. the people that leave me little comments or drop into my askbox or even just quietly reblog, you’ve really helped me over the past few months during a tough time. i can’t express how much i value this space, everyone that shares it with me and the discovery of a new hobby. thank you!

[thisisalovestry]

and btw being a dyke is a gift from god for an endless list of reasons

[gwandas]

One thing about me is that you're not gonna catch me telling people to "get some reading comprehension" or telling people to "go reread the book" because as someone who did read the words on the page and references them quite often, ACOTAR is insanely contradictory and it all depends on what the reader chooses to latch onto.

[quetzalpapalotl]

"If you like a piece of media that's good you will run out of things to say about it but if you like a piece of media that's bad you'll be forever entertained" I don't know about you guys, like, I won't pretend I don't give in to haterism sometimes and that criticizing the narrative choices of media (even media I like) is fun, but I also think is very fun and rewarding to try to articulate why I like something and a good piece of media should give you a lot to say about it. Like, if I genuinely think that something Is Bad then I will just lose all motivation to engage with it.

I don't know, an imagined fanon piece of media that exists only in potential is always going to be better than any actual real and finished text, because in the former you can only think of it in terms of what's supposedly good about it without even running into the issues of execution. And Iove a good what if, but ultimately is not something I can properly read or watch and have solid opinions on, when I could be spending time with another media that I actually like and is finished.

[anstarwar]

Do you ever just stop mid scroll with the sudden realization that we have this trash fire of a site literally chock full of amazing talented kind silly people just doing their thing and sharing their things with each other???

Like, we have art, we have writing, we have witches, we have crafting, animation, gifs, fandoms, vines/TikTok’s, and infinite more things, this site has so much amazing, all just here for us to absorb and share with each other!

And on top of all that, sometimes you make neat connections with strangers who aren’t strangers for long!

I just…I just think that’s neat

[robin-hood-for-freedom]

Liberals, and leftists to a lesser extent, really care more about the aesthetics of their political figures than their substance.

Barrack Obama continued, or even expanded every single horrible policy of the George W. Bush administration, but he was handsome, articulate and gave off 'cool' vibes, so its okay

Tim Wells had horrific covid policies, and responded to the George Floyd riots in a way that satisfied absolutely nobody, but he has a kind of midwestern 'dad' charm and thats what really matters(to liberals)

Joe Biden was a corrupt war monger but he portrayed himself as a kind of caring grandfather, until the signs of his mental decline were too obvious to ignore.

Donald Trumps REAL crime in the eyes of liberals isnt any of his policies, but the fact that he's rude, brash, in articulate, braggadocios, and kind of funny-looking.

[wispscribbles]

hi i just discovered your beautiful art so i obviously needed to scroll down your whole blog to catch up on everything you posted haha

i just wanted to say that i got way too emotional after reading that post of yours regarding mw3 and your mental health… on one hand i’m so sorry that you felt that way, but on the other i feel it with my whole heart

ghoap content especially for me helped me these past few months with my mental health in ways i would never have expected, it was my solace and inspiration, i started working out too and got back into drawing, got a lot better at it as well!

but unfortunately i get way too fixated on fictional stuff and there comes a time that my brain switches up and connects the things i liked and comforted me with things that make me extremely uncomfortable and stressed out, especially if i fall down a fandom rabbit hole that i would never have searched up, beacuse i know myself, i know my limits and triggers but i feel like i’m not a part of the fandom if i don’t like and interact with every single headcanon, art and ship

these past days i was really down because of that, and the things i read (why did i do that???) and now when i think of ghoap i think of that stuff and im scared that i alienated myself from the one thing that made me happy

but discovering your art and with that your post reminded me that im not alone in these feelings, even if it’s not the same exactly, and i wanted to thank you, for sharing your thoughts that time i guess haha <33

((sorry for rambling))

Long reply under 'keep reading' !! CW: talk of triggers and MCD

Always feel free to ramble my way!!! How nice you could find some comfort in my art and ghoap stuff. Especially in my mw3 post. I've been considering deleting it a few times, but hearing it maybe helped to read in some way makes me happy I left it up.

I get where you're coming from - I very much use these fictional characters as a safe space, but ppl view them very differently. There's room for it all, "don't like, don't interact" is very much a policy I agree with. It's important to mute words and be aware of your own triggers as you browse stuff in this fandom, because there's such a wide variety of stuff out there. You do NOT have to interact and agree with every thought people have on this ship, that's impossible and super stressful. There's plenty of stuff and headcanons I don't vibe with. There are no 'requirements' that you have to meet in order to enjoy fiction.

It's part of why I enjoy ghoap - that their dynamic resonates and has sparked so much creativity and outlets for so many - but it also means there's gonna be a lot of stuff u don't necessarily agree with or feel comfortable with. For example, a lot of folks use the MCD in mw3 as a way to explore grief, which I think is really cool, but on a bad day that could potentially get my brain in a bad headspace, so I only check out that art and those fics when I feel okay. There's also a bunch of stuff I'd never want to interact with, and that’s fine !!

I'm personally quite vanilla and a sucker for exploring the softer, more domestic aspects of these characters. It's what brings me joy. I know there are parts of this fandom who don’t vibe with what I make at all, and would call it untrue to the characters. Some creators enjoy exploring the more violent or toxic sides to the source material. That's just how it is, we all need different things from fiction. As long as we're capable of chilling in our respective sandboxes, then all's good.

But if you're like me, and enjoy the softer things, then definitely be aware and careful while exploring this ship and fandom. I've seen takes on these characters that are so far removed from how I view them, that they're basically the complete opposite, and it can leave a very bad taste, especially if you're the type to hinge your safe space on fiction.

Just... be mindful of yourself and your potential triggers, be respectful and don't interact with things that make you uncomfortable to the point of feeling unsafe. Shape your own online experience to your best ability.

Hope you're doing okay and still find joy in ghoap <3

[stuckinapril]

at the risk of sounding incredibly cheesy… tumblr has genuinely played such a huge part in helping me grow into my multicultural identity. growing up in the us, not being religious, just generally not feeling incentivized to connect w my arab roots—all of it has contributed to me being insulated from my iraqi side for a very long time. now it’s so so different. ever since my trip, something has fundamentally changed. and seeing the people on tumblr genuinely care for palestine has also touched me so deeply. volunteering at a refugee center for middle eastern refugees was the best decision i ever made. i’m just so glad to have my biochemical makeup & to be iraqi. like i feel so fortunate. my schedule is busy but i cannot wait to buy so many history books about iraq and to just dive in. i am the luckiest girl alive

[anistarrose]

yeah i'm not gonna fucking lie. the amount of untagged ship posts, ship content being added in the notes of my own non-shippy posts, and shippy comments being left beneath my explicitly gen-tagged fics, are making me straight-up NOT want to be a part of the gfalls fandom these days. this is not some bullshit "boo this ship is problematic" discourse post; i'm fully confident about 99.5% of shippers know that abuse is bad IRL. this is a fucking "i'm seeing my NOTP injected into my AO3 comment emails" post. this is an "i'm seeing my NOTP when i go in the tags for different fandoms entirely" post. i've spent vastly more time in this fandom enjoying myself than not enjoying myself, but it literally makes me more romance-repulsed. in fact, it's always made me more romanced-repulsed. it ironically helped me realize i was aro; that's how romance-repulsed it made me. i was far too optimistic to assume this year would be any different in terms of romance-repulsion. if you see me taking a step back from fandom and tumblr, this is why, and if you don't see me doing that... well, i still probably should be, it's just that even amatonormative fucking fandoms deserve image descriptions

[soaps-mohawk]

2024 really stuck its middle finger up at me

[rowlfthedog]

Apologies for the recent developments of not tagging stuff properly for my character archive and also not responding to asks, I am Going Through It. Also related to my art coming to an absolute halt this year

[campbyler]

hey bylertwt user here. moved to privbylertwt w my oomfs. they’ll prob see this so guys ily all soooo much but like. this is UR fic. it’s not even a hc atp it’s ur world that u created w these characters. if u say mike or will, or any of the characters for that matter, wouldn’t listen to an artist or like a show or game then that’s UR choice bc it’s the world u guys wrote?? so apologies on behalf of all my twt moots bc they love to argue w each other and clearly that jumped over into their interactions w u guys, the authors. love acswy sososoosososo much and they do to, and it seems like u guys get that all of the intensity comes from a place of love bc this fic is honestly like the Big byler fic. at least in my eyes. again love it so much. so much in fact that the sneak peak u posted for ch10.2 acruslly made me tear up at work. i had to go hide in the bathroom for 10 minutes bc acswy will gets me so worked up LOL. so. thanks for writing this world and allowing us to experience it!!! 🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼

hello and thank you this ask was so nice! obviously we have had some very fun and lighthearted and joke-y interactions on twt w our readers before and we love being able to post and reply to people so easily but it just gets kind of weird when we get asked very pointed and leading questions (usually “would acswy mike (and occasionally will) do/like/listen to ___”) and we say no because of (actual in-universe reason that we have thought out) and then we get that person and five of their mutuals jumping down our throats at once over something so unserious and lighthearted. we’re pretty good at taking a joke and rolling w the punches, and no one wants to be the person that has to say “hey can we fr cut that out” and ruin the fun but sometimes people definitely take the banter too far and it just feels like we are being accosted more than anything else and it isn’t fun anymore. thea and i both struggle quite a bit with deciphering tone online and our varying flavors of neurodivergency do mean that sometimes we get overwhelmed by stuff like this, and we’ve been called defensive and sensitive on there for our responses to things, but i can’t imagine anyone would be having a good time in this sort of situation — especially when we do initially try to de-escalate the situation or clarify what we mean or ask it to be toned down just to have people double down or get passive aggressive instead. like……… it’s just not fun for us at that point. our readers are welcome to hc anything they want about our universe and characters, but if you specifically ask us about it and we give you an answer you don’t like for a specific reason…. idk what to say! you asked! obviously when something gets more popular it will invite a lot more opinions from a lot more people which is totally fine and we don’t really care about that, but idk …. starting those arguments or being hostile in interactions With us or purposefully putting them where we can see it when we are active on there is just weird to us and we don’t love it. anyways thank you for your ask and your kind words!! we appreciate it a lot 🫶🏽

[frunbuns]

I think one of the saddest things about this season is that during the final episode I just wanted it to end so I could get it over with

[charliespringverse]

i think it should be possible to scream without making any noise or disturbing anyone or inviting any questions . just sometimes . as a treat .

[bad-traffic-smp-ideas]

freaky life - a freaky friday type situation where you have to act like another person on the server and it’s randomized every episode. (like scott would have to behave like grian and grian would behave like bigb and so on.)

like in secret life, yellow lives can guess who you’re pretending to be. a correct guess has a reward (yellow life gets some resources) or a punishment of some sort (one who gets guessed has some sort of disadvantage the rest of the episode)

i just think they’d be silly :)

Have you heard some of Joel's impressions. Scarily good, actually