#the writers wanted them to be a thing so badly

[faerie-fang]

the way that every character lost their personal motive and unique personality 😭 death without meaning except for shock value and to further traumatize characters — and i will never get over how badly they fumbled the two core themes of season one — class warfare and sisterhood. the narrative tension of season 1 revolved around an oppressed class and their oppressors and all the different ways that affected characters and manifested problems, and to see it all thrown out for a marvel style epic robot battle??

seeing the rebels of zaun put on enforcer uniforms with absolutely no conversation no terms everyone just willingly teaming up made no sense. seeing caitlyn’s go full fascist because she leveraged her privilege for revenge, calling the people of the undercity animals, gassing them, and then just deciding to change and her little hiccup is barely addressed?? vi losing all her convictions just floating around the story, fucking!! even silco who only appeared in flashbacks and hallucinations going from this powerful spiteful manipulative genius to telling jinx to forgive and break the cycle?? he would’ve been whispering in her ear saying “burn them all my dear” i could go on and onnn

there’s a reason why marvel movies always have their super heroes fighting zombies or aliens or killer robots. they want to give you something that looks fun and full of fight choreography and special effects and epic shots without any moral complication. they don’t want there to be any thoughts that your fave is actually killing people or that there could be any consequences to their epic showy violence. but season one wasn’t that! it specifically showed us how complex class politics were — how people on both sides are good and how people on both sides are corrupt. how oblivious topsiders were and the ways in which people leveraged the privilege they had and all the ways silco was manipulating things in his favor, the trauma of poverty amd being part of an oppressed people and the different ways it manifests. season one was great because it breathed like a real social issue. to not only pivot away from all of that but to not even address it was honestly pathetic.

to give vi an ending where she’s alone except for caitlyn, acting like her lapdog, no happy ending where sister are reunited or there’s any justice for zaun, bringing isha in just to kill her for shock value but also we never really see anyone mourn her, putting sevika on council and calling it a day. having the last episode truly just feel like an ad for league. it all just felt really cheap despite how beautiful it was. the heart was there they just fucked up the writing so bad. i didn’t know all the writers were fired but three but hearing that now makes a lot of things make sense

i cant stop thinking about why i hated arcane s2. arcane is so supremely frustrating because it's not a complete failure. real love, time, and care went into production - especially the animation and voice acting.

this wasn't something that was made quickly and cheaply to turn a quick buck. of course it's just a glorified advertisement for riot games, but it still had a budget of a quarter billion dollars?

and yet, season 2 failed so spectacularly. on the macro-level. how is it possible that the story is so bloated yet empty? so convoluted? so devoid of actual coherent, cogent themes, ideas, arguments, etc.? it's disappointing to see a piece of art made with so much love be so... underwhelming

[bestreadfanfic]

Landscapes / Part 2

Summary: Johnny and Simon are both done with their military service and now live in the English countryside. However, Johnny's time in the military left him disabled and with a lot of unresolved issues. You and your boyfriend moved into their sleepy town and Johnny just knows you need saving.

Pairings: Ghoap x reader

Warnings: Domestic abuse, Soap has PTSD, Violence

A/N: I had a little bit of writer's block. This chapter is a bit sad.

You hated the rain. Not the rain itself but what it represented. Rain meant that you were stuck inside. Most people wouldn't mind staying inside for a few hours. Truthfully you wouldn't either. The problem wasn’t being inside, it was who you were inside with.

You loved your boyfriend. Unfortunately, this love blinded you. Causing you to cut off your friends  and family for the sake of your ‘soulmate.’ That’s what he called himself at least. According to him the two of you were destined for each other.

You weren’t stupid though. The relationship wasn’t healthy and you knew that you needed to leave. It’s not like you didn’t try. Your escape attempt was the reason why you ended up in this small isolated town. 

But, there was still hope. You were saving what little money you could. Little by little. He wouldn’t let you have a job, so money was hard to come back. 

Right now he's more bearable than he usually is. Not his mouth. You doubt he could even go half an hour without spewing verbal abuse towards someone if his life counted on it. It didn’t matter though you long since learned to tune him out. 

The difference was that he couldn’t get up. The man who lived down the road had beaten your boyfriend to a pulp. He deserved it. Actually, he deserved a lot more. 

For some reason, your boyfriend seemed to hate them. You never spoke to either one of them. However, every morning the one with the crutches would take a walk past your house. 

Johnny.

That’s what your boyfriend called him. Well, your boyfriend called him a lot of things. But you were pretty sure that Johnny was his name. Unless his parents were cruel enough to name their child any of the other things that your boyfriend called him.

You don’t know the name of the other guy. Your boyfriend called him Ghost. You doubted that it was actually his name, but your boyfriend liked to play mind games. However, right now wasn’t the time to be caught up over some stranger’s name. 

“If you to go outside so bad, then just go” 

Your shoulders stiffened at the sound of his voice. You knew what he wanted. He wanted you to beg. Beg to stay inside and try your hardest to convince that you wouldn't even dare to think about leaving. But that was a lie.

Opening your mouth you were about to begin your apologies. Words that just seemed to spew out of your mouth like vomit. However, to both of your surprise, the words refused to come out. 

His eyebrows furrowed when you remained quiet. You knew he wouldn't get up. Ghost had beaten him so badly that he had spent the whole day on the couch complaining. He had two black eyes and one eye was completely swollen shut. 

He wanted to go to the cops right after they had left, but you managed to convince him not to. After all, he was the one who put his hands on Johnny first. The threat of legal trouble was enough for him to drop the subject. 

“Out! Out! Get out of my house!” He screamed at the top of his lungs. You hoped he would lose his voice. Maybe then he would shut up. It was pointless to argue with him right now. When he starts screaming like this there’s nothing that you can do to stop him. 

Rushing to the front door you quickly exited the house. The sound of the rain muffled his screaming. You had forgotten both your jacket and umbrella resulting in your clothes quickly becoming completely soaked. 

It wasn’t all bad though. You had secretly been helping the old lady who ran the town’s bakery and at the end of every week she would give you 30 pounds. It wasn’t much but you couldn’t complain. You had already gotten the money for the week but didn’t have the chance to go to the bank to deposit it. 

Normally you would wait until he went off to work. However, with his face the way it was you were sure that he was going to stay home. 

The bank doesn’t open till 1 pm today, so you had to find out what to do for an hour. Shaking your head you begin walking. You were already wet so no point in hiding from the rain. Eventually, you settled for sitting on the giant rock.

The island was surrounded by water. It had large fields that were filled with all sorts of flowers. There were lots of hills and giant rocks scattered in these fields as well. It wasn’t uncommon to see cows, sheep, horses, and other types of farm animals just roaming around. 

You take a deep breath taking in the island's beauty. Under any other circumstances, you would be thrilled to live here. Maybe one day you can settle on an island similar to this one. One that’s far far away from him.

Suddenly the rain stopped. 

Well, it was still raining, however the droplets stopped hitting you. Looking up you realize that someone was holding an umbrella above you. Tilting your head you were shocked to see that the person had a pair of crutches under their arms. 

“Johnny?”

[specialagentartemis]

Do you have a Rowland version of the fish scene or is it just a general distaste? I mean this in absolutely genuine curiosity; I'm not particularly familiar with them, but I liked your criticism of Chambers's novels so I'm interested in your history with the originator of the whole hopepunk thing.

Okay, I admit I haven’t actually read any of their books, unless you count the 16,000 word whole ass novella of a Good Omens Season 2 theory, which I read every stupid word of. That whole thing is their Fish Scene, lol.

The thing is, Rowland has been my parasocial internet nemesis for… a long time. And part of it is petty and personal, and part of it is that they exemplify everything I dislike about certain swathes of the modern SFF zeitgeist.

Some years ago they wrote a twitter thread about how reading romance novels makes you a better person, about how fantasy novels have to hold your hand and explain things to you like you’re a child but romance novels assume you are a mature adult who already understands how Important romance is, that women are more emotionally mature and intelligent because they read romance and/or read romance because they are more emotionally mature and intelligent, and if you think you don’t like romance novels you just haven’t found the right one for you because you Will and Should read them to become a better person. I complained about the amatonormativity and gender essentialism of all this on my twitter, and linked back to it to show what I was talking about, and Rowland replied to me saying no I misunderstood, they were being amatonormative and gender essentialist in a cool, progressive, good way! I said that as an aromantic I was sick of being told that being a mature adult was inherently equivalent to liking and understanding and wanting romance, that being a woman meant that romance was mandatory, and their response was, and I quote, “I’m demisexual. Cool story.” Like uhhhhh being demisexual does not… prevent you… from being amatonormative, gender essentialist, or rude. This was on Christmas btw. I have resented them ever since.

(I learned later they wrote this thread in reaponse to the dramatic meltdown of the Romance Writers of America; twitter context death is real. I had not seen that part and had only seen their twitter thread about how reading romance makes you a better person because all adults Of Course understand and believe in romance.)

When they invented hopepunk, that cemented it.

I’ve complained in depth about my problems with hopepunk as both a theory and a practice in the past. It’s vacuous and the importance placed on it in the SFF world was so annoying. Rowland never managed to define hopepunk in a coherent way and yet acted like it was soooo important and they were soooooo important for advancing it. It was a big wad of nothing new, wrapped up in a vague sense that writing hopeful fiction causes good things to happen in reality like a form of sympathetic magic. This kicked off a very specific strain of sci-fi writers writing stories about how being a sci-fi writer is actually the most important job you can possibly do to change the world.

Rowland’s sense of self-importance comes through in every post they ever make on the internet. They act like they are God’s gift to queer literature despite going on to prove they do not understand jack shit about how stories are constructed. And they wrote 16,000 words proving it.

After the conclusion of Good Omens season 2, Rowland was upset that the season had been structured like act 2 of a trilogy rather than like a fully self contained romance novel with a happily-ever-after. Basically, Rowland decided that because season 2 of GO wasn’t what they wanted it to be, it was “badly written on purpose” and Neil Gaiman was secretly laying the groundwork to reveal that a higher power had been erasing and altering the main characters’ memories the whole time and that almost nothing of what was shown on screen in season 2 was “true” and it would all be retconned into a more straightforward romantic progression in season 3. Yes, advancing a “it was all a dream/illusion” twist as somehow better writing than… it was a comedy and a drama about Aziraphale feeling torn between his duty and his desires more than it was A Romance. It wasn’t what Rowland wanted it to be, which means it was Bad On Purpose and Gaiman would undo everything they didn’t like in s3.

This description captures neither the pervasively self-congratulatory nature of this essay, nor the absolute vapid verbosity that said nothing for thousands of words, nor the extent of the “secret good 4th Sherlock episode” spirit it gave off.

People IMMEDIATELY started making fun of it for being “The Johnlock Conspiracy… 2!” Because. It was. It REALLY was. Symbolism? Character development? Awkward dialogue? Characters changing outfits? Characters caring about other things besides just romance? Impossible! Clearly Metaton was erasing and altering Aziraphale and Crowley’s memories the whole time to break them up, and it would all be “fixed” in season 3. It was absurd. They spent 16,000 words arguing this and their evidence was mostly 1) I don’t understand how film visual language works 2) why are the episodes full of jokes I don’t think are funny 3) why does it end on a cliffhanger, this is a writing error 4) Neil Gaiman is such a perfect writer good at everything who has no flaws and makes no mistakes that anything I didn’t like must have been a Secret Code For Me To Decipher.

“When ur done u can tell me I’m an insane crackpot, and u know what, i won’t even be offended” Rowland wrote. This rather unsurprisingly turned out to be a lie. A bunch of people said that Rowland sounded like an insane crackpot and they got very, VERY offended. (See above: their conviction that everything they write is God’s gift to the SFF world.) They deleted the essay in a huff but the damage was done: I am fully convinced they don’t understand anything about how to construct a narrative that’s not the blandest romance with the most obvious characters and most self-important writing and the most preachy message about hope imaginable.

Also they were the one who wrote the infamous twitter thread about how Beau Brummel single handedly ruined men’s fashion. Because complexity cannot exist, and everything needs to be straightforward, every person or character needs to have a single driving trait, every event needs a single cause, every story needs the same structure, and they alone know how to give it to us, their adoring masses. (And if their masses are insufficiently adoring, they will write an angry tumblr post about it.)

They’re a bad writer and a deeply incurious, self-absorbed Internet Poster. There is no way their books are any good.

[katerinaaqu]

What is your opinion on EPIC using Ovid's backstory for Scylla? For me it pisses me off to no end that it decided to use a ROMAN source for a GREEK poem that EXPLICITLY SAYS THAT SCYLLA WAS BORN A MONSTER

The whole EPIC plot pisses me off 😆😆 hahaha what do you think? 😂 (not to mention I still can't get used to the idea that people pronounce her name Shee-la 😂 like in Greek we say Skylla -same sound as when you say "skill" for instance- hahaha I understand that it is the accent of people but dunno still cannot get used to it hehe)

Hehe jokes aside, I agree it pisses me off too when people establish the work of only one writer especially (and I am saying this as someone who ironically also uses Homer as an exclusive source for many things but still try to see how the sources couple with him) someone with as clear purpose to depict gods and figures as badly as possible. It has happened with Medusa and now I only see versions of Ovid here.

On one hand I understand why he did pick this version of it; he wanted for some reason to have this song and a duet to show how Odysseus is the monster now haha but yeah in the Odyssey it wasn't a cognitive creature but a born monster and had nothing personal against someone; just pure survival. She grabbed his men and ate them like any animal would. Her inheritance is very rich too depending on the myth and one of my favorites shows how powerful she is given how she is a daughter of Typhoon and Echidna at that version and yeah I mean EPIC has ended up using the elleged inspiration of Odyssey as a luxury at this point like I feel lucky if I actually find something of the Odyssey in there. I am not surprised that not even the background information is not taken from Greek sources. Even the sirens that even though they are not described in the Odyssey they were thoroughly depicted in Greek AND Roman sources as women with bodies of birds and Jorge chose to use the much more modern version of mermaids instead so yeah I have stopped looking for similarities with any part of ancient greek mythos in that work yet alone from the Odyssey and the background info of the figures in it coming from Greek sources.

Oh well 🤷‍♀️

[peawinkls]

[corntired]

Fanfiction is so goated actually

No monetary incentive, just writing in one's free time. Some incentive for like kudos and comments, because who doesn't want to hear that someone else enjoyed what they wrote. Just writing a story that is good and/or enjoyable, no real-life pressure to keep it going because god forbid you and other people are depending on it financially.

Writing a story because you want to write a good story, so you can write what they want the way you want, at a pace that is realistic for you, with exactly the plot pacing you want there to be.

[lurking-latinist]

🐈

[brawlqueen]

attempt was made ! all replies will be queued and i think anything holiday related won't expire for me unless you don't want the ask answered. like last month ! they'll just go under the 'seasonal / holiday' title on my asks because the brain fog is real / life amping up so ! also i think mi.zuki is the most smug santa .

also this was last year but still . love reindeer mi.zuki and san.ta a.iba. in my post-canon verse (which is divergent) they're still partners but shared also with d.ate obviously ! i think people should give them a chance since a.iba is a very very solid support system for mi.zuki and mi.zuki keeps aiba amused and can keep up with her in her own way, it's one of the few good things i liked about a.ini. oh well sometime i'll talk about how important a.iba is to her ! plus, the unlimited psyncs are hilarious and show their bond and they bounce off each other's wit and chaotic natures honestly. or rather they bring out the chaos in each other. different bonds but no less important imho ! but yeah i'll post this again later uh...closer to the holidays i guess ?

[fullofmoonsandstars]

I want Roy and Keeley back together so bad. I keep thinking about them holding hands in the trailer as it looks like they are together there but I need Roy to do some healing.

I want to see his growth, acknowleging his feelings and trying to get better with his communication. I’m not saying I want him to completely change, I just want to see him have more growth regarding himself because Keeley deserves more than this. I’m not saying Roy was a bad boyfriend at all, I just think that he could do with therapy or even just figure himself out a bit more before going back into a relationship.

[hoyatype]

When people are trying to figure out what will bring them the most joy in life, I sometimes tell them to examine closely the very things they fear the most �� the outcomes they see as the most embarrassing, the most shameful, the most pathetic. Because somewhere in that murky, terrifying mix, they might just discover the outlines of a life that makes sense to them, that feels right, that could start to bring them satisfaction and sustenance. Let me be clear, though: That satisfaction isn’t hiding behind a finish line that you have to work very hard to reach. When you engage with your core values and big, important dreams, you engage with that satisfaction and sustenance. When you value what you already are, you satisfy and sustain yourself.

heather havrilevsky, 7 mar 2022. "it's time to start honoring your most humiliating desires"

[what-even-is-thiss]

The reason people don’t want to work is that it’s just normal for them to be in bad work environments.

My issue with working at Walmart wasn’t the work itself I was doing. It was the circumstances around it. The concrete floor, lack of places to sit, having to put up with asshole customers, not getting time off for injuries, and bad pay.

If I had been given shock pads to stand on or a few chairs to rest on sometimes, if they paid me a livable amount of money and I was allowed to yell back at asshole customers, if they had given me any amount of training, I would happily work part time folding clothes all day and telling people where the swimsuit section is.

I’m a creative type. I’m a writer. I’m pretty smart, even. But if I could make a living folding shirts and listening to podcasts in one ear and helping people find the scented candles for 30 hours a week? I would. Leaves some mental space free for me to brainstorm. Lets me catch up on my reading with audiobooks.

But instead I was treated so badly by upper management and customers that I’m like legitimately a little frightened whenever I step into a Walmart now. And I only worked there for three months a few years ago.

I’m a good lower level worker. When I’m treated well. I like finishing tasks. I like being helpful. I like having some time to talk to coworkers and some time alone with my thoughts. I’m a frickin team player. And that’s how I was at my first job. I was treated well by my supervisor. I was trained. They were patient with me. I was so good at being low on the totem pole at that job because I was valued and felt like I was being listened to. I was able to sit still when there was nothing left to do which made it feel less bad when we were on a time crunch. I didn’t mind working hard at that job because it was fun even though I was doing all the low level stuff that the supervisors didn’t want do.

But at Walmart I was like that for all of two days. Then I figured out that nobody appreciated my work and if I worked in my normal people pleasing manner I’d kill myself because their standards were high and the rewards for meeting them were low.

So I slowed down. I started avoiding customers. I started taking a lot longer to get to my breaks and to come back from them. I became worse at my job because no matter how good I was at it there would be no reward, no appreciation, and I’d just be pushed further beyond my limits.

My only level of happiness from that job came from the people who were working with me. The old ladies and my department manager who made sure I wasn’t overextending myself. The one other young man working in the clothing department who always got sent with me to unload the heavy stuff and commiserated with me about the shoulder injuries, the hurting feet we were too young to have.

But none of that was enough to make me stay. We were constantly understaffed. I was constantly abused by customers and not able to do a thing about it. I was not paid much at all. So as soon as I had enough saved up for what I was trying to do and my last semester of college was about to start I handed in my two weeks.

I would have found a way to stay if I liked that job. If I liked that job I would’ve pushed myself to my mental limits to finish college and keep that job at the same time. Heck that job could’ve been a rest from college. A place to get away from it. But I hate that job so I got out as soon as I could.

I want to work. I want enough money to live sort of comfortably. I want to have some tasks to do to give my creativity a rest. I want to be a part of something. But the way that modern corporate run work environments are set up does not give me any of the things I actually want out of a job. And I think that’s the same for millions of people right now. A lot of people would happily spend their lives as a waitress or an Uber driver or a warehouse worker or a farmhand or any other “low skill” job you can possibly think of. But with the way the world works right now those jobs are absolutely miserable. It doesn’t have to be that way. I know because I’ve had a fulfilling part time minimum wage job that I looked forward to going to every week. A job where I was listened to and allowed to sit when I needed to. I miss that job. Especially now since I’ve realized that’s not the standard. It should be. People should look forward to going to work or at the very least not get mild ptsd whenever they set foot into a Walmart.

[nomairuins]

we had fun tho the whole family hung out and we did some sporclee and chronophoto and then globle me n lamp nd father did globle bc mein mamma went to sleep. yay :]

[theminecraftbee]

one of the worst things about being a writer is when you have to sit on your hands about a REALLY COOL SPOILER. and you just want everyone to know about the really cool spoiler you want them to know so so so badly but the best way for them to learn it would be to experience it and you also want them to do THAT so you’re just sitting on your hands vibrating and making a low whine while your dog looks at you with concern. and then your friends go “what’s wrong”. and you go PLEASE I NEED TO TELL YOU. and they go “oh okay so tell me”. and you go NO,

[paganinpurple]

AO3 Etiquette -UPDATED

Based on both decent and not so decent replies, I have made some changes to my original post below.

It would seem a whole new kind of AO3 reader/writer is emerging and it is becoming clear not everyone quite understands how the website community works. Here is some basic guidance on how most people expect you to go about using AO3 to keep this a fun community archive that funtions correctly:

As well as likes, kudos is for when the story was interesting enough to make you finish reading. If it sucked or was badly written, you probably left. If you finished it, you liked it - so kudos.

If you really liked it, you should try to comment. It can be long and detailed or a literal keysmash. Writers don't care, we just love comments.

No critisism unless the author has specifically asked or agreed to hear it (so use your notes to say if you want some constructive feedback). Even constructive critisism is a no-no unless an author note tells you it's okay. No, posting it online is not an open invitation for that. Many people write as a fun hobby or a way to cope with, among other things, insecurity and just want to share. Don't ruin that for them. I've seen so many authors just stop writing coz they can't handle the negative emotions the critism brings, and it's only meant to be a fun thing shared for free (pointing out tagging errors is not included in this).

Do not comment to ask the author to write/update something else. It's tacky and off-putting and will probably have the opposite effect than the one you want.

There is no algorithm, it's an archive. Use the search and filter function to add/remove the pairings/characters/tropes etc. you want to read about and it will find you the fics that fit the bill.

For this to work, writers must tag and rate stories. This avoids readers finding the wrong things and missing the stuff they want. I don't care how cringy that trope is in your eyes - it gets tagged.

The tag exception is if you don't want to tag a million things or spoil your story, you can rate it as "chose not to use warnings," and maybe tag the bare minimum.

Don't censor tags. How can someone exclude a tag if the word isn't typed out correctly? There are no content bans for terms so don't censor them.

If the tags are mostly content/trigger warnings, especially if they are things considered very fucked up or graphic, you might want to use "dead dove - do not eat" to ensure people know that you're not messing around with tags and what they get is exactly what you've warned them about.

Character A/Character B means a ROMANTIC or SEXUAL relationship of some kind. Character A&Character B is PLATONIC, like friendship or family.

Nothing is banned. This is an rule because banning one thing is a slipperly slope to banning another and another, until nothing is allowed anymore. Do not expect anyone to censor for you. Because of the tags system, you are responsible for your own reading experience.

People can create new chapters and sequels/fic series any time after they "complete" a story. So it's considered perfectly normal to subscribe, even to a finished story. You can even subscribe to the author instead just to cover your bases.

Do not repost stories or change the publishing date without an extremely good reason (like a complete top to bottom rewrite or an exchange youve written for going public). It's an archive, not social media. No one cares what's the most recent, only what fits their tag needs.

Instead of deleting a story you wrote if you hate it - consider making it anonymous or orphaning it so others can still enjoy it, without it being connected to your name anymore. If you still want to delete it, fair enough.

It's come to my attention that metaworks ARE allowed on AO3, which is something I wasn't aware of. So if you do post an essay or theory, please tag it as such so others can choose to search for it or exclude it. Art is also allowed.

The only reason this archive works is because NON ONE PROFITS. Do not link to your ko-fi or patreon or mention monetary gain in any way or you violate the terms and risk having your account removed. If anyone does link, it leaves the archive open to people claiming it's for profit and having the whole thing removed.

I KNOW there's plenty more I missed but I'm trying to cover most of the basics that people seem to be struggling with.

I invite anyone to add to this, but please explain, don't berate.

[blushinggoku]

Recently I went into the DBS fandom wiki to read about the Goku Black/Future Trunks arc, because I haven't watched DBS past the Tournament of Power and the concept of Goku Black intrigued me so much. I'm so glad I didn't waste my time watching the episodes because Jesus

[swordfright]

this might just be because i'm a bit older than your average mcyt fan, but it makes me kind of sad to see all these younger fans scramble to wipe their mcyt fanworks off the internet the second a content creator is revealed to have done something awful.

don't get it twisted, I'm a big believer in rescinding financial support to ccs you no longer agree with or admire by unsubscribing, deciding not to buy merch, or refusing to give them ad revenue by watching their content. if you don't feel comfortable giving someone money, don't give them your money. material support isn't what i'm talking about here - I'm talking about fanfic, fansongs, fanart. yknow, content that fans create for themselves and each other, stuff that's not for ccs.

in the past year (and especially the past week, obviously) i've seen tons of mcyt fans saying they're planning to delete their art (or that they already have deleted) because they don't want their work to be associated with content creators who behaved badly, and that they want "a fresh start." I've seen fan writers say the same thing about their fics. and like, this is fine, do what you want with your stuff, but i'll be honest...it does make me sad that so many younger fans seemingly have been made to feel such a high degree of responsibility for ccs that they're unable to enjoy fandom (a thing that is FOR US! FOR YOU!) or take any measure of pride in their past fanworks.

again, at the end of the day you should do what you want with your own shit. but what i will say is, if what you want to do with your work is delete it, at least think first about why you're considering the nuclear option. you aren't responsible for a cc's behavior, and that goes for literally anyone who's ever had a hand in making anything you like: books, movies, games, anything. you shouldn't be made to feel ashamed of having created fan content for a piece of media that a shitty person was involved in making. straight up, this kind of shame isn't something i believe should exist in fandom, because it's parasocial in the same way that positive emotions towards media/creators can be parasocial.

and also, as someone who's been involved in fandom for a long time, i can say with confidence that creators will keep disappointing you like this. there are shitty people out there. if you're searching for a piece of media with zero shitty people ever involved in the project, you will not find it. i'm not saying this to normalize shitty behavior on the part of creators, I'm saying this to emphasize that bearing the shame and guilt of every creator to this degree is not sustainable or healthy (and it's not how fandom used to operate, but that's a conversation for another day, perhaps.)

i understand why so many folks are considering deleting their fanworks, and if that's you...think about it before you do it. that's all i'm asking. you don't want to create a habit of divesting yourself of all evidence of having been passionate about art created by someone who sucks, because if you do get into that habit, then your chances of ever truly enjoying a fandom again are, unfortunately, pretty slim.