#this is like how I get random fannish stuff

[illwynd]

Get to know you better tag game

tagged by @rynfinity. ty!!! :DDD

Last song I listened to: Frank Zappa's "Dirty Love." Some trivia was going around among my co-workers the other day and one of the questions was identifying the musician who said a particular quote, and one of the older guys thought I was too young to know it. Lol sir I may be a millennial but I am a millennial whose friends ask them to identify random oldies songs on the radio because It Is Known that I'm into a bunch of obscure shit, and you think I won't know who Frank fuckin Zappa is?? The funny thing is I had never actually heard the particular quote before, it just had his vibes so it was a good guess. But it was making me realize there's a good bit of Zappa I'd never really listened to. So!

Currently watching: In terms of fannish stuff, I'm sort of halfway through a Tour of Duty rewatch? Also waiting for moar Sandman and moar Iwtv, and living in blissful ignorance of whatever tf marvel is doing these days. More generally, the other day I found out that a few years back there was a show based on popular creepypastas, and I am a sucker for creepypastas. So I'm sort of watching that. (Also very curious how the IP issues were dealt with in a genre that so commonly has anonymous and communal authorship lol.)

Currently obsessed with: At Wondercon last weekend I impulse-bought a clear green acrylic contact juggling ball, because wouldn't that look cool for a Loki cosplayer to do? I do not yet rly know how to contact juggle, and it will be a loooong time before I can even think of doing a Jareth cosplay on the strength of those skills, but the damn thing is super fun to play with regardless. I'll just be over here, pondering my orb.

Tagging: @hechizero-emplumado, @actuallyvady, @pyrebomb, @philosopherking1887, @your-dark-thor, @neph-le-geek, aaaand oh anyone else who feels like doing the meme can say I tagged you :)

[melrosing]

As your not a big fan of fantasy books in general. What drew you into loving asoiaf? What got you hooked?

now that I'm invested in asoiaf I do genuinely like the fantasy elements of the story, but the stuff that really pulled me in was the human drama and political intrigue etc. I love the character work, almost all of the POVs feel fully realised and subvert typical tropes in really interesting ways (imo). I like the inter-generational drama (the reasons I like succession are v similar to the reasons I like the Lannisters), like if I want to understand Jaime and Cersei and Tyrion I can look to Tywin, and if I want to understand Tywin I can look to Tytos, and if I was to understand Tytos I can look to Gerold, like it's a russian doll of intergenerational trauma what more could a girl want.

and on that note I really like the scope! GRRM obviously feels this need to account for all details minor and major, so that even with everything that's already on the page there's room to extrapolate so much more. i mean here I am writing who knows how many words about a fake 20-episode long robert's rebellion tv series lol like this all happened before the series even starts and yet I hardly need to make anything up bc there is so much to draw on just based on all the random little details we've got here and there from characters reflecting on the same events from different angles, and trying to piece together portraits of the people who died based on the recollections of those on the page who remember them..... it is so fun)

and yeah usually I prefer to read about that kind of thing on a smaller scale but the drama that plays out in AGOT is so engaging that upon initiation I didn't find it so much of a chore to keep track of all the various houses and lands etc in order to understand the full implications of each thing that happened - it felt like it was worth the effort. generally it's the 'keeping track' of it all that I find grating about fantasy bc I really want to just get on with the story rather than keep on top of a hundred magic systems and sub-species of pixie.

and obvs asoiaf is low fantasy rather than high fantasy, i.e. there aren't intricate systems to the magic and or complicated genus for each of the creatures, so that made it feel a lot more accessible for me as someone who just isn't very interested in those kinds of details. Dany's magic is made up as she goes along, it's never explained, and that's the same for pretty much all the fantastical elements - it's very show don't tell. and even though when you count it all up there are quite a lot of fantastical features and subplots, taken together with the rest of the story it's more like.... seasonings I wouldn't usually choose but ended up liking just fine in this overall dish lol

and finally asoiaf just really appealed to me from a fannish perspective! I really hate when you're trying to dig deeper with a work and you quickly start to realise that the writer(s) just weren't thinking that hard. it feels like striking concrete with a spade, like it's a one-sided conversation rather than something both the writer and the reader are participating in. I think some fans are perfectly fine with that and good for them - who cares if the author built the work to sustain your analysis if you're just having fun doing it - but for me it's a complete killjoy, I end up v frustrated and like the work isn't worth my time

so here's GRRM who is so fixated on the finer details that he's churned out a history book like 700 pages long and a bunch of short stories and also another history book just to add a bit more texture to the main story. and I don't have to worry about network input or co-writers or actors' intentions or whatever other external conflict or influence cos for better or worse it's all his story. and that just suits me better lol, it's one guy and his shitty computer, and me reading the shit he wrote with it. pure and simple living in the moment no phones in sight

also jaime and brienne are everything to me xo

[codelyokooutofcontext]

Today marks the one year anniversary of this blog's first post!

One year ago today, I acted on a whim and made a new blog to post moments from this show that, without context, look absolutely insane. I thought it was funny, my friends thought it was funny, but I didn't really have any big plans. I thought "I'll keep this around for a little bit and then probably drop it". Like I usually do with most projects of this nature.

If you'd told me I'd still be here a year later, I wouldn't have believed you. I especially wouldn't have believed you if you told me how many followers this account would amass in that time period. Honestly even being here now and seeing all of it, it's still a little hard to believe.

Thank you all for supporting this ridiculous little blog. It means a lot.

And after all this time, perhaps it's time for a proper introduction.

Hi, I'm YoshiStack! I've been utterly obsessed with this show since I was 4 years old and I've been involved in the fandom in some capacity since I was 13. Given that I'm about to turn 24 here in a little over a month, you could say I've been here for awhile!

Aside from this blog and the other few video edits I've done, my main contribution to fannish materials is fanfiction! I mostly write gen work about the friendship between the characters, as that's always been one of my favorite parts about the show and characters. You can find my CL work (and other oddities too if you're feeling adventurous) on Ao3 also under the name YoshiStack.

I'm also on YouTube! Right now I'm wrapping up a playthrough of the original Super Mario RPG before the remake releases and in the middle of a playthrough of a childhood game of mine, Thrillville: Off The Rails. I'm still a novice when it comes to recording stuff, but I'm having a lot of fun doing it and it'd mean the world to me if you checked it out.

(And as an aside: if you have audio or video editing you need done, hit me up either on here or the email I have listed on youtube! We'll see if we can work something out!)

Zero obligation to check out either of those ventures, but it'd mean a lot to me if you did!

Now here's some answers to some basic questions for CL and this blog that you may or may not have wondered about:

Favorite Character: Definitely Aelita! I love her arc! Her development from this character the others feel very protective over to ultimate sass master is so fun to watch

Favorite Episode: Oh that's so hard. But If I had to pick just a few...[REDACTED UNTIL POLLS CONCLUDE]

Spoilsport. Favorite season then?: Oh this one is easy! Season 2 for sure! It does a great job introducing all the new elements you need to know about in the beginning of it (Franz Hopper, William, Sector 5, etc) and has well done pay off at the end. And the stuff in the middle is just downright fun! A well executed season all around

Favorite Sector: Prooooobably forest? Something about all the trees is fun to me. Honestly I like most of the sector though. Minus desert. Too much desert in S1

Favorite Monster: I used to be all about the Bloks, but after running this blog for a year now I've gained an appreciation for the comedy that the Tarantulas often pull off. From well timed devirtualizations to killing one of its buddies with their own lasers, they're unintentionally really funny!

Favorite XANA Attack: I unironically love the food monster. Also the rat army. It's absolutely horrifying but pulled off so well

Favorite relationship: Ulrich and Aelita all the way man. Platonically I mean, their friendship is so underrated in the show itself but the few times they get to interact they're just gold (I am Jerlita trash too if you want to know more in that kind of relationship sense)

How do you pick out of context moments?: Honestly most of the time I just pick a random few episodes and skim through until I find something. Sometimes I'll have a particular moment in mind, but sometimes the funniest clips come from me just mindlessly looking through some episodes

Will you ever do Evolution out of context?: I considered using a clip from it for April Fools Day but I got lazy and never got around to it lol. Aside from that idea though, I don't know Evolution well enough to pulls clips from it, and I'm just not super interested in doing so at the moment. If anyone else reading this though has a burning desire though then you absolutely have my blessing (not that you need it obviously)

What do you think about the idea of the show possibly getting a continuation?: So I’ve always been pretty set in my thought that the show doesn’t really need a continuation. While more backstory on Project Carthage would be cool, it never really mattered to the Lyoko Warriors in the end, and the idea of bringing XANA back after they fought so hard to bring it down always felt cheap to me. They had their fight, they won, let them move on in peace.

That being said, the idea of the brains largely responsible for the original show having a genuine interest in continuing does have me at least a little intrigued. It’s way too soon to say whether or not anything will come from that interest of course—TV is a complicated thing and interest from creators alone isn’t enough to make it happen. But if nothing else, it’s nice to know that even all these years later, there’s still interest in the show and these characters from them.

How long will this blog be around?: Honestly I have no idea! I never thought I'd make it this far! I have no plans on stopping any time soon at least—there's tons of episodes I haven't even touched for out of context moments, so I'm not running out of material any time soon!

For now I’m just going to letting things run their course naturally and enjoy the ride.

That’s all I can think of to put here, but my askbox is always open for more questions!

Thank you all once again for your support for this year. I hope you'll join me going into our next one and beyond.

Here's to another year out of context!

[inktog]

I recently read The Northern Caves by nostalgebraist and I thought it was quite good and then I read it again and I thought it was even better…it starts very grounded and then gets very weird, in a way that is frustrating but cohesive.

The crux of it for me is summed up by the podcast guys: "Fannish analysis is on, almost you could say a continuum with the sort of paranoid and delusional thinking that Lotke ended up with." The story feels about fannish analysis, engaging with it as both a social phenomenon and an art form. The "separation," that magic infohazard, shares a number of traits with Aaron's theoryposting—excessively literal, internally consistent, totally arbitrary, a deep source of purpose for its practitioners. This throughline is what makes the story cohere for me. (I think it also applies to the podcast guys themselves, who are wrong about everything because they approach the events from a, not necessarily literal like Aaron, but very limited perspective. Truly, it is insane how wrong they are. About everything.)

Other stuff. Chesscourt itself is Homestuck-coded; TNC is act 7, Aaron is bladekindeyewear (I don't know the authorial intent here—maybe bladekindeyewear is only one of a Type of Guy that nostalgebraist is riffing on more generally—but Aaron is very bladekindeyewear). TNC feels like a love letter to fandom, kind of; the early-aughts setting lets you play up the "random group of people joined by common interest who would never otherwise be in a room together" aspect that you don't get as much in the social media era. Really good character voices, especially for such a big roster. I appreciate the unreliability of the narrator and ambiguity of the maybe-spec-fic elements; simultaneously makes me want to put on and take off my Aaron goggles. I did not realize on my first read that Jenny was dating (or "dating") Kelsey; not sure what to make of that except that it makes the podcast guys look even more clueless.

[rosysugarr]

random post bc this was on my mind based on a chat I'm having with a friend: I just wanna remind everybody that hyperfixation and being into something in a fannish way are not the same thing.

Hyperfixation means that you obsess over something so wholly that you struggle to actively think about anything ELSE, lose sleep or miss meals because of it, etc etc, like. Hyperfixating on something is not Healthy. I mean, it's often attached to various serious mental illnesses, but somehow I still feel like this needs stating. Hyperfixation is fixating on something at LEAST to the point that your brain has genuine trouble thinking about things outside of the hyperfixation/you struggle to have conversations that aren't About The Thing.

You can be a huge fan of something and think about it a whole lot without being hyperfixated on it!

LIKE for me for example, when I'm hyperfixating, talking about something besides the hyperfixation genuinely feels like I'm dragging my brain kicking and screaming, like... my brain is a cat that I'm trying to bathe. It actively fuckin fights against me trying to focus on or have a conversation about anything else. I get uncomfortable and anxious about it sometimes, or just mildly stressed bc of how difficult thinking about other things is. I have to actively, consciously steer myself away from it to talk about other things, like. It's the Default Thing my brain goes to.

SO YEAH just a note I guess since there seems to be some lack of clarity on this lately. being a big huge fan of something and being hyperfixated are not the same! If you can easily switch subjects, if you can focus on other things, if you aren't thinking about it nonstop just... idly while doing other stuff or losing sleep/missing meals to engage with the thing, then you probably aren't actually hyperfixated (which is a good thing, because hyperfixation is an unhealthy way to engage with things, but some of us really can't help it, it's just how our brains are wired!)

[tryslora]

Support your favorite creative(s) this season!

So, it’s the holiday season (for values of holiday which can be anything you care to celebrate during the winter months) and you would like to support your favorite creative(s). What are some good ways to do that?

Tell the world about them

If someone is a favorite of yours, there’s a good chance that you know someone else who will enjoy their work. Signal boost the creative’s posts. Create your own post with links to their work. Showcase some of your favorite pieces of theirs with a snippet and a link to the original. Talk about why you love the work (trust me, your favorite creative will love to hear this just as much as your friends will appreciate finding out about something new).

Important side note which I know you know but it bears repeating: please reblog and link to your favorite creative’s posts; do not repost their material. Reposting might sound like a great way to show off what the creative does, but it doesn’t help anyone find them. Please be considerate.

Post reviews of their work

Instructions for this depends on what type of creative you are following. If they are a writer, leave a review on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, B&N, whatever platform you choose. Positive reviews are how writers get discovered.

If your creative is an artist and has a platform where they offer commissions, leave a review there if appropriate. Give them five stars. Help your creative climb the ranks from unknown to well-reviewed!

Follow them on social media

If your creative has a list of social media accounts, follow them! This gives you a better chance to help signal boost their cool stuff (as well as hearing about it when they post!). It also gives you a chance to interact, and to see what they’re like when they aren’t creating. If you like their creations, you might have other things in common. 

Does your creative have a newsletter? Subscribe! You can even forward copies to your friends if there’s something really cool you want to share. A Patreon? Check to see if they have free material posted. Many Patreons allow people to follow at a free level, and while there might be paywall-locked material, there might be unlocked material as well.

Social media is wide and varied these days, with everything from Bluesky and Mastodon, to old-school Facebook pages, to even older-school platforms like Dreamwidth. Don’t forget the little known Pillowfort, or the highly fannish Tumblr. Even better, be aware that your creative may present different faces in different spaces. They are just as human as the rest of us!

Talk to them

I’m serious! Being a creative is like shouting into the abyss… if the abyss happens to shout back, that’s emotional food that can sustain a creative for days. Most creatives have several places where they can be found, either for private communication (check to see if they accept messages/DMs/emails first, please) or for public conversation (social media can be wonderful!). 

Create a transformative work

This won’t work for all creatives. BUT. If your creative is a writer, I would place a bet that they would LOVE fanart of their work. Or maybe that’s just me.

Buy their stuff

Yes, this one requires money, and I am well aware that most of us don’t have the budget for monetary support. And that’s fine! As shown above, there are so many other ways to support your creative and help them grow. But if you do have the budget, picking up copies of their work means you can get great gifts for your friends (and help spread the word!). And if you’re up for it, monthly support via Patreon, or random tips are always nice and appreciated things.

Ask them what will help

In the end, every creative has their own list of things that will help them most, and almost every single one would be happy to tell anyone what would help Right Now.

I’m putting this next bit behind a cut/read-more/clicky-link — whatever is appropriate to the platform you’re reading this on. Because this is the personal bit where I add links to the places you can find me. 

And if you are a creative and you are reblogging this on a platform which allows reblogs, please add your own list of helpful information. If it’s a place with comments, please comment! I want to help by giving other creatives a way to get information out.

Where can you find me…?

TrisLawrence.com is my professional website, with blog posts, upcoming appearances, and links to where to find my Stuff.

I post blog entries on Tumblr, Pillowfort, and Dreamwidth (which mirrors on Livejournal and Insanejournal).

I babble randomly on Bluesky and Mastodon. While I exist on Twi-X, I no longer post there.

I have a professional Facebook page. I have an Instagram. I have a TikTok that I am trying to learn how to use.

I am also active in several Discord communities, if you happen to find me there.

Want to support me? -- Patreon | Ko-Fi | Reblog & Comment

Want to hear more from me? — Join my mailing list

[thisweekinfandomhistory]

Hello, I’ve been really enjoying your podcast and thinking about various incidents that might make for good episode topics and how they could be approached, and since you seem rather receptive to random suggestions, I figured I’d send some in.

The Black Sails vs OFMD tumblr poll, a recent incident where a tumblr poll pitting two pirated against each other caused mountains of drama, a massive unhinged rant from the op of the poll, and a sort of fandom rivalry. Could be useful as a jumping off point to talk about the way comedy and dramas are perceived in fandom spaces and the ethical issues that spring up around media that whitewashes (in the moral sense, but the other definition could play into the discussion too), completely fictionalizes, and glamorizes real historical figures.

More Star Trek stuff than I can recall in one sitting, but Die Seven Die! was a pretty crazy happening, where a bunch of shippers decided to write fanfic of a certain character dying because she got in the way of their ship (she got randomly paired up with a character she didn’t interact with much, and the rumor is it’s because the actor who played him made a joke about it while negotiating his paycheck). The 1982 Con of Wrath, just a classic convention fuck up. And really, just any given thing happening with Spock’s love life at any given time. I know people got extremely nasty regarding the Kelvin Timeline’s Spock/Uhura stuff and more recently with Spock/Chapel.

I think the release date of the first Big Finish audiodrama could make for a good starting point for an episode about the dr who wilderness years, which could focus on the role fan activity can have in rebooting or reviving a dead series. Or, on a crazier note to reach the same point, the release of the music video for Doctor in Distress, which is something I really can’t describe beyond “a compellingly awful charity song made to get Doctor Who back on the air”, and Hans Zimmer was involved in making it.

I’m sure you’ve gotten suggestions for Thanfiction and the Hamilton AIDS incident a thousand times, but how about the time Voltron fans tried to reinvent the concept of original fiction through the lens of fanfiction. As I understand it they were so upset by the ending of the show that they decided to collectively file the serial numbers off of their fandom. Sort of replacing the actual show with a invented goncharov-thing and writing fanfic for the fake fandom they made. Not sure what ultimate point could be derived from that, but it’s sure fascinating from a sociological point of view.

Thank you for writing in!! Sorry it's taken a little while to reply; we didn't want to spoil too many of our own upcoming episodes in our answer, but it's rude to leave you hanging, so here we go... :)

The Black Sails versus OFMD poll is a great suggestion! And I love your take on how comedy and drama are totally perceived differently in fannish spaces and have such, like, essentially different modes of fandom. It would also definitely have to touch on how OFMD in particular whitewashes real-world slaveowners -- although if we do a Hamilton episode, we'd probably talk about that a lot there, too.

Thank you for sending in some new Star Trek stuff! I (V) hadn't heard of any of those particular events, so I'm excited to dig in and take a look. :)

And I love that suggestion for a Doctor Who event! It's been surprisingly hard to find a good record of fannish history, rather than show history, for DW, which is insane considering what a huge fandom it's had for so many decades.

Thanfiction and the HIVliving Scandal are already on the 2023 schedule, have no fear!

But this Voltron thing sounds nutty. ::pencils it in::

[aroceu]

yes!!

i've been putting a lot of free time lately just finding more stuff (and also because it's fun for me) so here's another list of some tools.

here are some guides! they do go through a lot so i recommend reading at your own pace, and you can even start projects on the side based on what you know rather than trying to read and absorb them all at once. i usually like using guides as references more than a how-to manual before starting anything, but for the very basics it's usually a good place to start.

Interneting Is Hard (but it doesn't have to be), a guide on the raw basics of what a website is and how to make one, written casually and friendly for beginners

Marksheet, a thorough and introductory website on how to make a website, from starting with the basic stuff to introducing more complex techniques

The Quick ‘n’ Dirty Guide to Making a Website, a guide for how and why you should make a website, geared primarily towards artists/creatives

sadgrl online's webmastery resources, particularly: the what you see is what you get layout maker (no coding required), and html & css snippets, which i have heard great things about

petrapixel's layout generator, which also allows you to customize and generate your own layout with no coding required

web design in 4 minutes by jeremy thomas, an introductory tutorial on thinking about webdesign/website structure

tutorials at htmldog, which was my primary place in learning how to make a website in like... 2008. and yet they're still so relevant today

make your own website, a beginner's guide to making one's own website. it was written for the writer's 12 year old child if that may be less intimidating than the rest of these guides

other sitely resources!

easily download your ao3 fics for archival purposes and if you want to reupload them

owls' guide to webshrines, if you're ever interested in or have considered making in the shrine in the form of a website for something you really like and are a fan of! from a fannish perspective this has always been common among fan-inclined indie website makers - people just want to make websites dedicated to things they love, because hey, that's what the rest of us are doing in fandom anyway. this guide goes into detail how, why, and some suggestions for how to make a fan shrine!

how to make your first randomizer at lions-garb.net. you can make a randomizer through just inputting the stuff, sure, but this is a small guide on how to do it on the backend so you can also make your own randomizers while also making them look pretty on the internet.

resources list for the personal web, a very extensive list of a variety of webweaving resources, from tutorials to code snippets to tips to ideas! it may seem very daunting so i recommend just skimming it and seeing what catches your eye first, there's no chronological way to learn things once you have the very basics down

kalechips's layout thrift store, which has a bunch of free codes already created as basic web templates that anyone can feel free to take and adjust and edit and learn from to their liking! there's a lot of different already preset layouts so you don't have to worry about that part, and learn and modify them (if you want) instead

petrapixel's coding self-study checklist, a thorough list of some webdev coding necessities that hobbyists may have i missed (i know have!)

and if you get to the point where you want your website to feel like part of a community as much as you are, you can join a web ring!

the fic ring for self-hosted fanfic sites

the fandom webring, a webring for any webmasters in fandom

here's a consistently updated list of current indie web-rings!

In the wake of the TikTok ban and revival as a mouthpiece for fascist propaganda, as well as the downfall of Twitter and Facebook/Facebook-owned platforms to the same evils, I think now is a better time than ever to say LEARN HTML!!! FREE YOURSELVES FROM THE SHACKLES OF MAJOR SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS AND EMBRACE THE INDIE WEB!!!

You can host a website on Neocities for free as long as it's under 1GB (which is a LOT more than it sounds like let me tell you) but if that's not enough you can get 50GB of space (and a variety of other perks) for only $5 a month.

And if you can't/don't want to pay for the extra space, sites like File Garden and Catbox let you host files for free that you can easily link into NeoCities pages (I do this to host videos on mine!) (It also lets you share files NeoCities wouldn't let you upload for free anyways, this is how I upload the .zip files for my 3DS themes on my site.)

Don't know how to write HTML/CSS? No problem. W3schools is an invaluable resource with free lessons on HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and a whole slew of other programming languages, both for web development and otherwise.

Want a more traditional social media experience? SpaceHey is a platform that mimics the experience of 2000s MySpace

Struggling to find independent web pages that cater to your interests via major search engines? I've got you covered. Marginalia and Wiby are search engines that specifically prioritize non-commercial content. Marginalia also has filters that let you search for more specific categories of website, like wikis, blogs, academia, forums, and vintage sites.

Maybe you wanna log off the modern internet landscape altogether and step back into the pre-social media web altogether, well, Protoweb lets you do just that. It's a proxy service for older browsers (or really just any browser that supports HTTP, but that's mostly old browsers now anyways) that lets you visit restored snapshots of vintage websites.

Protoweb has a lot of Geocities content archived, but if you're interested in that you can find even more old Geocities sites over on the Geocities Gallery

And really this is just general tip-of-the-iceberg stuff. If you dig a little deeper you can find loads more interesting stuff out there. The internet doesn't have to be a miserable place full of nothing but doomposting and targeted ads. The first step to making it less miserable is for YOU, yes YOU, to quit spending all your time on it looking at the handful of miserable websites big tech wants you to spend all your time on.

[elephant-in-the-pride-parade]

Just a couple art scams in my inbox reminding me why i quit FFN

These are the only type of fanfic.net emails i get these days and a good reminder why im much happier with AO3 and its commenting restrictions.

Scam 1: Red flags

About an unfinished work, last updated on FFN over 5 years ago. (I finished it on AO3 but not on FFN)

The offer to continue talking on outside platforms. 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

The banal flattery devoid of details specific to the fic, followed by "I do have some questions" designed to tempt you to pursue the inquiry. preying on your desire for deeper connection. I guarentee this "person" has not read that 150k hot mess. they lifted the fic title off my author profile.

The double punctuation at the end designed to be perceived either as error or a tonal choice, to convince you this is a real person.

no corresponsing notification about a recent fic subscription or favorite from the message sender

The handles containing "pixel" and "comic studio" - reaching out will lead you to either a person or a bot who wants to you to pay for art of your fic. (possibly to make you pay for a comic adaptation that obviously you cannot monetize)

Scam 2 red flags:

Author - this is a form solicitation bot-posted to tons of works

no corresponsing notification about a recent fic subscription or favorite from the message sender.

The fic is a work in progress, last published i dont remember how long ago. I was 16. (oh god that was so long ago). There is no reason anyone should even be finding this unless theyre trolling for people to prey on.

The realish name - Who tf uses real names in fanfiction

"I thoroughly enjoyed reading - Parenthese, weird space, fic name exactly as it appears on the author page, parenthese with no matching space before it" - this is a bot script. someone was clumsy or had a shitty ai when they coded it and added that extra space after the parenthese. there is no reason to put this in parenthese sentence structure wise. unless you are a computer or someone without strong english skills and need a container to plug a desired data value into.

Notice also there are no specific details about the fic.

"Enhancing" a human is never going to use this word. if a human does, they have been eaten by corporate marketing speak - run away 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

Replying may get you the offer to talk on an outside platform or to pay money for art.

How to verify an artist is the real deal

Did they read your fic - did they favorite/kudo/follow/subscribe. Have they commented or reviewed the fic itself. If you reach out can they share specific things they liked.

Can you google them and find related Fandom stuff / art and established online history? Do they have a portfolio of art from your fandom. Have they been online for a few years? Be sus of anyone whose accounts are very sparse or new.

Have they ever interacted with you before? or is this completely random?

Is their username fannish? Do they have bookmarks of fic in yours or similar fandom or a few random unrelated fics (some shell accounts can have a few bookmarks to seem real). Basically can you get a sense whether they made their handle to read or just to solicit authors to pay for art?

Finally (because while I personally think it is rude to directly solicit random authors to pay for art, i recognize this may not be universal, and that I've also excitedly commissioned artists i am friends with in the past when they were taking commissions. SO, if youre not put off by soliciting, youve confirmed the artist is probably making a real offer and you want to take it, please please please at least do the following:

Ask for or look for examples of other customers who have paid for and received art.

Be wary of any artist offering you a carte blanche - making art is time consuming and costly and artists making genuine offers - paid or unpaid - will negotiate with you regarding what they can reasonably draw.

Be wary of someone who isnt going to give you a rough sketch of what theyre making for you. real artists will want to make something youre happy with (so you will commission them again) they will want to check if you want adjustments

Research what similar fanart commissions are priced at. If the offer youre getting is ridiculously low, youre not getting a bargain, youre getting AI. if its exorbitantly high, youre getting taken advantage of.

[kneelbeforeclefairy]

I am sitting here thinking about going BACK into a fandom. Most fandoms wax and wane but they're always kind of there. You always like them to some extent, it just changes how much Fannish behavior you do. Some you really move on from. Some stick with you and become a LIFESTYLE even if they're not always in the forefront. (I call these Base Fandoms. Mine is Les Mis. )

But I think there is a Fandom Danger Zone I call Back Into Hell. It's when you liked the thing, maybe were in the fandom for a while, but you eventually moved on and didn't think about it for like. Years.it probably wasn't even your BIGGEST THING at the time. Just something you were into for a while.

And one day. Something snaps in your head and you go. Huh. The Thing. I miss The Thing. I should like....revisit it. Especially if there's been new content since you left The Thing.

Cause every time that has happened with me it has been a HIT BY A BUS level of brain rot and derailing my life.

Vampire Chronicles. Read the books up to Vampire Armand in high school. Was DEFINITELY weird about Claudia. Eventually moved on after a while. Almost fifteen years later get a random craving for Tale of the Body Theif. Reread entire series, plus the new ones, drag friends into hell, cosplay Lestat, create the Blog, have vampire themed birthday party and am now working on my dress for my SECOND Anne Rice Ball.

Hunger Games . Haven't thought about it since college other than occasionally saying "I volunteer as tribute" or something, like every other millennial. Hear about songbirds and snakes, just sorta check it out. Now have reread entire books, watched movies, dragged friends into hell @bestnoncannonship has had her brain rewritten by haymitch and is projecting all her Rural Trauma (we call it Twelve Bullshit) onto him, and now planning Effie's Ruffle Dress of Doom.

Sherlock Motherfucking Holmes. Read most of the series during college when BBC Sherlock was big. Enjoyed it. @bestnoncannonship was WAY into Sherlock. It was a base fandom from when she was a kid. Need something low-key to listen to at work when things are slow, why not listen to audiobooks of Sherlock Holmes? Wind up starting to watch as many adaptations as we can, cosplaying Holmes and Watson, have Sherlock Holmes themed murder mystery birthday party for Ann, give WHOLE ASS PANEL at flame con about why Sherlock is gay and acd knew DAMN WELL what he was doing, and now I know WAY more about Victorian gay men than I ever needed to know.

American Girl dolls. I had Molly as a kid, but wasn't really into her. I did have a Bitty Baby I adored, and a HUGE collection of clothes. Read a lot of the books, definitely credited it partially with making me a history person. But eventually grew out of it. somehow starting seeing American girl stuff on Tumblr. Check in. Now I have a brand new Rebecca and a GROWING collection of clothes. Ann has a Samantha and her clothes. We do doll photo shoots. Drag friends into hell (noticing a pattern here?) Now my mom has a Julie, another friend has a new Molly and a new Caroline, her partner is literally CUSTOMIZING dolls and it up to date on all the new releases. other friend dug up his Addy, and found out he had a rare girl of today ,two more dug up their Kirstens, and at some point we're having an American Girl party.

At this rate the next SLAM is gonna be like Doctor Who or something, though i really doubt this Second RTD Era can stand up to the first one. Also I think when it comes down to it I'm more of a Classic Who bitch. But there always MORE classic Who to watch.

Anyway. Beware the Return. The first time in a fandom is a visit. The second time that shit moves into your brain full time and you can check out any time you want but it will never leave.

[viklikesfic]

some rambling observations about being an autistic fan

So I've been thinking a lot about ✨The History of the Internet✨ lately, and in particular the history of how fans find community, and I thought I'd share these observations into the void. I'd be curious to know others' experiences!

Specifically, I'm thinking about how my autistic way of communicating and socializing maps (or doesn't) to fannish norms and how that's changed over the years.

Some facts about my specific neurotype (because every neurodivergent brain is different!):

I strongly dislike small talk, but I LOVE going on at length with someone about a special interest.

Shared SQUEEE is super affirming to me.

I tend to think in systems and lists, so I love to do things like think through the details of worldbuilding.

I'm on the ace spectrum, and I both experience a lot of my sexuality through my muses and interacting on their behalf and don't really have a personal feeling of desire towards actors (and sometimes squee based in sexual attraction makes me uncomfortable because it feels like I'm misrepresenting my own identity if folks don't get the whole muse thing).

I have highly variable spoons and social anxiety.

I tend to hoard information, and if I like a creator I want to see EVERYTHING they put out, and it makes me anxious to think about missing things.

Okay, cool, so given all that, here's how I've experienced socializing in fandom, and what I'm realizing in retrospect about how different "waves" of this map to my communication and social needs. Note that the "waves" are just how I personally interacted with fandom, of course your mileage may vary!

Wave One (2004ish-2008ish): LiveJournal, mostly. In this era, I was primarily interacting through LJ, and finding fic on random sites around the Internet. I didn't have a ton of sense of connection to other fans, except those I met in real life.

Wave Two (2008ish-2013ish): Dreamwidth, Ao3, and RP. And then DW and Ao3 were born, and choirs of angels rejoiced. This was my personal golden era. First, DW, where I started forming more personal connections through a journal site and its communities. This was the point at which I felt like I actually knew people through being "mutuals," and I generally tried to read everything on my feed, interacting regularly. I went to ConTxT a few times and met fans in person, as well as a few local hangouts hosted by fans. I also started RPing in this era, and for a few years spent regular time in an AIM chatroom pretty much daily with RP partners. I started dating two people long distance from this group, and most of my friends were here. Ao3 also came out in this era and made reading fic SO much easier. My brain fucking loves a database and structured tagging! I also did a bunch of prompt challenges, big bangs, and the like, which I think really helped structure my participation in fandom. Through co-writing I was getting a lot of my sexual needs met (though I didn't really understand that at the time, since it wasn't "real") and the nature of the RP chatroom meant that I could focus on a fictional world and building relationships there, which was far more interesting to me than hearing about the minutae of people's lives.

Wave Three (2014ish-now): Since that golden era, I've mostly been engaging with fandom just through writing and reading, with the exception of one fantastic RP partner I met two years ago through the comments on my fic, who's become one of my best friends. I tried Discord for a little while, but got super overwhelmed. Creating a Tumblr, I'm noticing how spoiled I've been by Ao3! I'm so used to engaging with fic in a way that I can easily see when there's new stuff, and it's really freaking me out that I can't do that here, unless I'm able to dedicate the time to reading everything the author posts about their life in addition to their stories. I think we hypothetically did that back in the DW days, but maybe the difference is that folks are used to social media here, so rather than posting a couple of essays a week like a blog, it's standard to do a bunch of short posts per day? Perhaps in some ways, Discord is more autism-friendly, because it's possible to say "I only want to communicate about THESE topics" and then get to know who the people are who are talking about those things. It's weirdly isolating, I think, to show up to a platform like "HERE ARE MY SPECIAL INTERESTS I WANT TO TALK ABOUT THEM" and then to see others doing that but not be clear on how to engage. To be fair, that may be aging more than autism 😂

I'm not sure if this is, uh, actually reaching any conclusions, but hey, having space to process the thoughts and feelings is nice nonetheless!

[profoundnightwinner]

lady-lamb21

man this is overkill—no one is taking your humanity away, and people are absolutely allowed to criticize you for something you want if you publicly express it. just as you are allowed to criticize someone if they said “hey i really want there to be no laws restricting paparazzi, i just wanna see every single angle of every single moment of someone’s life” (and hey i sure hope you would criticize that…right?)—im not even gonna justify the princess di remark with a response bc…wtf

lady-lamb21

i apologize for my misuse of the word advocating, but the rest of my argument still stands

I hope you don’t mind me replying like this, it is not to @ you, but rather because I think it is an interesting discussion and if anyone else is following it I would like for them to see it as well.

People are absolutely taking other people’s humanity away. It is a huge problem and it has been for a long time.

At first it was just drips. Those weirdoes that you blocked. But they wouldn't stop. They bored into every fannish space on the Internet.

You liked pirates? “Do you realize that pirates were problematic because they looted and stuff?”

—Eh, well, yes, actually . . .

*SCREECH*

There became long, whiny treatises about everything. Everything that people liked were problematic. Anything that was normal and human was problematic.

And they just. Would. Not. Shut. Up. About. It.

The Rocky Horror Show? (And I never even liked that movie . . . )—Problematic.

Liking villains?—Problematic.

Anything fun at all? Problematic.

And eventually, most of the sane ones just left. They found their safe spaces on the Internet, closing out the crazy ones. Discord and the likes.

And the whiny people followed people out into the real world, invading people's spaces there, scheeching about things that nobody in their right mind gives a hoot about.

And now?

The simple emotion of just wanting to say goodbye to a loved one? Problematic.

All of the above is just ordinary human behaviour. All problematizing the above does is leave the floor to the inhuman ones.

Be honest. Did you need some random chick on the Internet to tell you not to harass Liam’s family (the very thought of doing that at least makes me sick). Or behave like a gremlin? Would you have been there, at his funeral, screaming at the sight of the other boys like it was 1999 2013, if it had not been for that post? I don’t think you would have.

And that opens up the question of why whoever that was felt the need to post. And the reason was probably to show Moral Superiority™.

And that sort of whiny performative stuff, it's got to stop. It is so tiring.

And people are sick and tired of it. They have chosen the nuclear option to just get the screeching to stop.

And it doesn't mean anything. I would see treatise upon treatise (all of them dull as dirt) written about mental health, but when it came to an actual person who had mental health problems, our Liam, none of those same people had any grace at all.

Those people have turned the Internet and life grey.

There’s this funny post going around about how the Internet ruins anything fun, and I laughed too, and reblogged it, but the truth is that the Internet didn’t used to be that way.

It used to be so much fun!

It’s being taken over by people who just want to preach without caring, and control others.

Now everything that isn’t as bland as a Coffee Shop AU is problematic. Real people with their messy, real feelings are problematic.

People, and especially girls and women, aren’t allowed to have natural feelings or think about what’s in their own interest at all.

Look, I don’t think everyone who reblogged that post or similar sentiments was the ebil or whatever—I’ve parroted things mindlessly, too. A lot about stalkers and whatever. And then I read all of these nice posts now from people who wished they had said something to Liam— and . . . I keep thinking, was those people filtered away from him by those posts? Did those posts keep some kind, good people he should have found away from him?

And Liam’s father seemed to really appreciate the memorial. And the fans keeping vigil over him. One post I reblogged said that Liam’s father returned to the memorial before leaving :(

It’s not that I think people should run off to be stalkers, or whatever. But maybe we should all just . . . keep our traps shut about things we don’t know anything about? Maybe we don’t need to have an opinion about absolutely everything? Maybe we should focus on having fun and being decent human beings ourselves?

(Still, like, pleasantly gossiping amongst ourselves—if anything, the good gossip has always been hard to come by in this fandom. If somebody gives a bad vibe or whatever. But much less with the preaching! Humility needs to make a comeback!)

If I could give advice to the kids of today, I would say—go out, meet people, drink, smoke a cigarette and have sex. Don’t do drugs.

Since this is Tumblr, I will instead say read that kinky novel, eat a licorice cigarette, and drink something through a plastic straw. (Just throw in the trash later, like all of us always did! Unless raised in a barn!)

Allow yourselves to feel. It is not bad to want things, just don’t be a creep about it. And try to avoid serial killers.

i know you’re likely to find this offensive considering the tone you’ve used to respond to similar criticisms, but i genuinely mean no disrespect when i say: liam payne wasn’t a celebrity first, he was a person. i understand why princess diana had the funeral and public mourning that she did, though i think an argument could be made for the fact that she never wanted to be a part of the royal family and therefore, it could be assumed that she likely wouldn’t have loved being mourned the way royal family members are—but she’s a different person and that’s a different situation.

i think it’s been really lovely to see all the memorials popping up for liam and group events that have been held for fans to express their grief with each other. i think it’s also been really nice to see how many heartfelt posts and statements have been made about him, from fans, colleagues, and family members alike. but liam’s funeral is for his loved ones. it is not for anyone who thinks they’re entitled to his family’s grief because they loved his music. privacy is such a gift, and for someone who was torn apart in the public eye so aggressively, i think it’s important that he’s given that gift at his own funeral at least. i think what you’re advocating for is pretty disturbing, and the way you’ve responded to people who’ve said similarly has seemed pretty inappropriate. i’m sure you’ll respond the same way to this, calling me a bitch and critiquing my reading comprehension, but i read every word love, and you’re just in the wrong here. think about if it was you, and maybe the criticism wouldn’t be so befuddling. leaving anon off so you’re welcome to block or speak further if you’d wish.

all the best <3

I am not advocating anything, that's the thing.

I resent being told what I can and cannot want. And there has been so much of that, both in this fandom and on the Internet at large.

You think a private funeral would be best. And I can see your point.

But that is not what I *want*.

Do you understand the difference?

(Not critizing your reading comprehension. *g*)

Do you realize that critizing people for wanting something that is perfectly natural, wanting to say goodbye to a loved one, is wrong? It is simply human nature.

Princess Diana was also a person first, before she was a celebrity. *Every* celebrity is a person first, before they are a celebrity.

(Oh, and Diana would have loved that funeral, mark my words. *g*)

I am not saying anyone is entitled to anything. I am saying the exact opposite. *You* (*nobody*) are entitled to tell anyone what they are allowed to want.

The fandom police/the thought police wants to tell us all how to think, how to feel, that it is wrong to have wants and interests.

It is *okay* to have wants. It is *okay* to have your interest in a matter diverge from someone else's, even if it is someone you respect.

You have to ask yourself—the people who posted that, if they had received an invitation, would they have gone?

I am not advocating anything. I was peacefully minding my own business on the matter when that video started circulating and suddenly there were even more posts going around.

And I am just so incredibly tired of that kind of performative whining. It does no good and does in fact do a great deal of harm (look at the recent election) and it gaslights people into thinking that having a simple wish or want is somehow wrong.

Beloved public figures sometimes get a big public send-off.

There is no harm in quietly, peacefully, respectfully wanting something like that.

We need to stop letting people take our humanity away.

It is only the inhuman ones that want us to stop wanting.

[olderthannetfic]

I've been low key obsessed with your blog. You've managed to cultivate a lot of interesting conversations and topics, so I wind up always coming back to scroll anything I may have missed. So, out of curiosity, what motivated you to create this blog, and what kinds of conversations and responses do you enjoy the most?

--

Heh. It's just my personal blog. I couldn't get my usual username, so the name is a random joke about some 1990s fandom wank I was reading about at the time. I don't really do side blogs or themed blogs usually. I just have a personal account wherever fandom has moved most recently.

What motivated me to join tumblr specifically was a promise I made to myself back in like 2003 to not be an embarrassing grandma next time we were all switching platforms and to try to be an early(ish) adopter of the next big thing instead of kvetching about it and needing to be dragged by my ear.

By now, I'm much more used to Tumblr, and Dreamwidth feels awkward and unfamiliar, which is pretty funny. I wouldn't have predicted that back in 2011.

--

I enjoy meta. I like it when people have long text comments about how they see a fandom or a trend in fandom. I love it when people post about bits of fandom history I don't know about. I like hearing about fandom outside of English. I like people posting personal impressions and anecdotes as much as harder facts, but I don't like appeals to emotion. I like people celebrating their rare fandoms and underappreciated fannish interests but not guilt trips.

If you really love the thing, go make the thing happen! Don't bitch about nobody else doing it for you! In fact, that's the root of a lot of what I like in fandom: the DIY, can-do attitude of community and infrastructure builders that we see in niche subcultures. I think it's been diluted a bit as fic fandom has become more accessible and mainstream, but it's still around.

Basically, I like an oldschool Livejournal and mailing list vibe. I'm in fandom for conversation and discussion and longform text.

I want that oldschool style but without the depressive wangsting about being left behind or the full dose of 'offa my lawn' that sometimes goes along with it in the genuinely oldschool spaces. I want to see younger people picking up bits of that LJ vibe because they enjoy it and it's a cultural style that can be applied to any community, not because they think they were born decades too late.

It's never too late to go consume old media or research an interest or pick up a hobby! It's never too late to create new communities, using what we like of the old and discarding the shitty bits. Somebody made a Miami Vice discord not so long ago. I was shocked but pleased.

I like it when fans who build things tell me about their cool projects, whether it's a little discord or something as ambitious as bobaboard. I like it when people ask me for help with their research or tell me the results of research they've already done. I love those "how do I find fandom history thing X?" questions that let us dive down a rabbit hole of figuring out what platform the thing would have been on and if there are any wayback links.

I guess I prefer happy things overall. We all need more happiness in our lives. But I'm not someone for whom pure squee of the "So dreamy!" *swoon* variety works very well: I express my love by analyzing and making things, and I like other fans who do the same.

I keep meaning to go back through the BTS a/b/o fic I've read and pick out all the weird gender roles and fun worldbuilding ones and write some meta about how this style of fandom led me to liking a/b/o where before I hated it. That's the kind of happy + navel gaze-y fandom thing I most enjoy. When I find someone else writing this kind of thing, even for fandoms I don't care about, I love it.

I dunno... I think it's pretty obvious what I enjoy from what I spend my time on: longform text, intellectualism, history, telling sanctimonious bullies to stuff it.

[professor-tammi]

yet another Big Azure Gleam Text Post, up to ch. 12 (this is mostly me talking about supports because I unlocked a bunch)

Main story stuff:

- in Part II of AG, the Kingdom is actually invading the Empire, which has been completely taken over by Slithers. Duke Aegir rules with an iron fist, and the Empire’s military apparently frequently loots and pillages the villages in their own country. what’s interesting is that the game goes pretty all-in on “hey, the Kingdom is the invading force now”, and practically guilt trips you about the whole thing via random boss dialogue:

“You force your way into my city and kill innocent people, and you’re shameless enough to claim you’re on the side of justice?”

“How ironic. My territory has always strived for peace, yet it’s the first claimed by the flames of war.“

certainly, one of the more clear ways in which CF was an effective anti-villain route laid in the simple fact that it has you declare war on sovereign countries to force reforms and unification upon them... so AG pulling something similar is an amusing way for the writers to turn the tables here. (the situations aren’t the same, of course, but it is nevertheless A Parallels Thing.)

either way, Dimitri is understandably unsure of whether or not he’s doing the right thing, and the rest of the Lions voice their support of his decision, both because they know the Empire would invade the Kingdom sooner than later if left alone regardless, but also because, well, Slithers. (Felix’s line supporting Dimitri here has him tell Dimitri, “don’t look back”... is that the line. I’ll have to cross-check with the JP dialogue at some point)

- the ch. 11 battle has you go up against Monica and her father, Baron von Ochs. you end up killing him, and Monica vows to avenge him before retreating to presumably show up again later. ... where have I seen this before (it’s a Ran thing. Ran also loses his father and swears revenge. I swear Monica is just girl!Ran)

- after the battle, Rodrigue comments that “only our king will be fettered by the vile moniker of invader”, and Felix chimes in with an angry “don’t put this all on him” (to which Rodrigue tells Felix that it’s his job to support Dimitri through it and Felix goes “hmph, obviously”)

- there’s a little Rodrigue/Shez heart-to-heart scene as part of the story here. Rodrigue comments that Dimitri and Lambert are birds of a feather, but that he and Felix couldn’t be more different... but admits that Felix actually does share some traits with him, but mostly ones he’d “hoped to avoid”. and then he says this:

Rodrigue: “He can’t live without some great purpose in life urging him forward. There is no peace in such an existence -- I know because I’m the same way. As Lambert’s right hand, I devoted every waking moment to serving him. Supporting him. And when he was lost, so too was my reason for being. I had no choice but to search for something else to propel me forth.”

and he’s right! Felix is utterly lost when recruited to non-Lions routes in Three Houses, because those routes all lead to Dimitri’s death... :(

- on a lighter note, this chapter has this cute little Rodrigue + Felix moment in camp:

Rodrigue: I will be overseeing our main base’s defense, per our discussion with His Majesty. Which means I won’t be able to accompany all of you. Do try to not slow His Majesty down, Felix.

Felix: Please. Me, slow him down? I’ll be the one dragging him to the enemy’s door.

Supports + other:

- I only now realized but in the Dimitri/Dedue A support Dimitri makes some off-hand comment about how if he hadn’t been born a prince maybe he’d be a mercenary traveling the world with Dedue and... those are some Sike ending vibes!! :D

- Yuri is basically a honorary Lion in Hopes, and I love that! I liked Yuri in Houses, but none of his supports in og Houses particularly spoke to me, so I couldn’t really get into his character in a, I guess fannish? sense because I mostly get attached to relationships. in Hopes, he has both supports and a paralogue with Ashe (+ Catherine), and also supports Dimitri, Sylvain, and Seteth, who are all AG-exclusive. I think his dynamic with Ashe and Dimitri is especially fun; he’s probably risen to a top 5 favorite character for me now :D (I await the ashe/yuri and possibly also sylvain/yuri content... I’m sure we’re getting some sooner or later....)

- by the way Yuri’s real name is Regulus, in case anyone was wondering :)

- also, Ingrid’s father’s name is revealed to be Gunnar, and I feel the need to point this out bc evidently House Galatea have very distinctly Scandinavian-sounding names, as opposed to the rest of Faerghus being mostly French.

- poor Dorothea has spent the entirety of AG worrying herself sick about Edelgard -- in og Houses I found that she made for a very good honorary Lion between her supports with Ingrid, Sylvain, and Felix, but in Hopes she’s just miserable to be there... to the point that she goes, “perhaps I should’ve died with them.” Dorothea no!! :(

- Rodrigue/Dimitri A convo stuff that caught my eye: Dimitri tells Rodrigue “if you were to die because of me, it would destroy me”... well. that. is a thing that happens. Rodrigue rambles about Lambert a bunch, as you’d expect, and Dimitri says he envies how close their bond was, to which Rodrigue goes “ok don’t tell Felix that he’d be offended” :’D

- the Dimitri/Sylvain support is very interesting as it’s pretty much entirely about politics. they discuss whether people without Crests should be allowed to be nobles, and both characters agree they should; but Sylvain also brings up that the Kingdom needs Crests due to the constant threat of invasion from Sreng, and then goes on to say that Faerghus has basically two options:

1. “Bolster our military and promote prosperity while delicately letting the bloodline dance play out”

2. “Admit bloodlines won’t last forever and create a social system that doesn’t rely on inheritance”

What surprises me is that Sylvain goes on to say that option one is the better option for the Kingdom. that’s... an actually surprisingly conservative take? and amusing, with how often Edelgard fans like to claim Sylvain would agree with her policies. I’m so curious about this that I’ll probably go back and check if it was any different in Japanese

(a bit disappointingly, Dimitri’s response is kind of non-committal; he says it’s easier said than done but doesn’t really clearly indicate whether or not he agrees. anyhow. 2 sounds better, come on, you two)

- Mercedes’ trait of being the most openly flirtatious Lion who isn’t Sylvain is still a thing -- in her A support with Dimitri, Dimitri is visiting her home village undercover and feels awkward about having to introduce himself as someone he’s not, so Mercedes offers to just introduce him as someone “very important” to her and Dimitri’s is like. wait no don’t do that

- annnd Mercedes/Sylvain is perhaps the most blatantly romantic m/f support yet; Mercedes is being married off to a House Gautier noble she has no particular interest in, so Sylvain offers to marry her himself so she doesn’t have to marry the guy. (it’s rather cute!)

- Sylvain/Dedue has Sylvain say Dimitri and Felix are like brothers to him. ... him calling Felix a little brother was also in Houses, to be fair, but I wonder if this is why I never could get behind Sylvix -- they have individual moments that read as romantic, undoubtedly, but the actual dynamic as a whole reads as sibling-like? (idk I just want to figure out why I like or dislike things. that is important to me)

- anyhow, speaking of Sylvain/Felix having romantic moments, that is still a thing in their Hopes!A support, which once again features a blushing Felix :’)

- Felix/Raphael A, of all places, has some extra Dimilix content because of course it does: Felix shut up about Dimitri challenge

Felix: House Blaiddyd and House Fraldarius used to go on hunting trips together. On one trip, a certain prince bagged so many animals it proved impossible to fit them all on the sled. Meanwhile, I went off on my own, encountered a boar, and barely escaped with my life.

[chainofclovers]

Hello! You felt like the only person on the entire internet that I could send this ask to, so I hope it’s okay. I am a huge Hacks person and very much an Ava x Deborah shipper, and also a big fan of Ted Lasso without any strong shipping feelings there. While I’m not into them (and lean Ted x Rebecca but very low key), the intensely negative reaction to Sam x Rebecca just makes me think, “This is why showrunners would never consider canon Ava x Deborah in a million years,” (like take Sam/Rebecca but add audience homophobia into the mix!) and it makes me sad. Tbh, I don’t think there’s any real chance of canon Ava x Deborah, and I get why it would be near impossible to pull off, but it’s just kind of the principle of the thing: are the two ships that different? If anyone can tell me why they are, you can. If they’re not different, how are you able to ship Ava x Deborah (I’m assuming based on seeing your comments on fics). This is keeping me up at night and you’re always so incredibly insightful about fandom stuff generally, and your TL posts in particular have been very measured. Thanks for taking the time to read this!

Thank you for this ask, and sorry for the delay! Not sure you saw this post I made recently about the distinction and overlaps between viewing canon and engaging in fannish activities like shipping, but I wrote it in part because of what you sent. Anyway, I would recommend you read that post first because it will at the very least explain why I don’t tend to think of romantic relationships on TV as the result (positive or negative) of investing in ships.

(Also, I am very flattered that you felt I was the only person on the internet to send this to. I find it hilarious that this is the niche space I occupy online.)

It’s probably incredibly obnoxious to start in on my real answer by quoting some Ted Lasso wisdom, but that’s exactly what I’m going to do: All people are different people.

First, not all fans are the same. It’s true that there have been a lot of negative reactions to Rebecca and Sam’s relationship on Ted Lasso, but there are also plenty of people who are enjoying the storyline. (There are also a lot of people who claim TL has no conflict, others who claim TL has turned into a dark shell of its former show-self, etc. It’s a popular show so there are a bunch of people who’ve turned into authoritative critics overnight.) There are people who ship Sam/Rebecca because they’d like their relationship to be end game, there are people who ship them because they’re hot and having fun together even though it likely won’t be a long-term thing, there are people (like me) who don’t ship them but are still enjoying the storyline and characterizations because of the specific moment these characters are in right now, there are people who wish the writers had gone a different direction but are still along for the ride, and there are people who straight-up quit watching the show because of this and might never come back no matter how well the plot is handled in the end/in the larger context of the show. There’s no accounting for why each fan has the reaction they have, but the reactions are far from homogeneous.

Second, not all creators are the same. But! Having spent an unusual amount of time actually learning about the writers on both of these shows (this is the niche space I occupy on the internet), I do think there’s an important similarity between these two very different shows: in the case of both Hacks and Ted Lasso, the writers and creators don’t seem particularly concerned with placating fans, but they also don’t seem interested in jerking fans around with random twists for the hell of it. (We’ve all heard stories of showrunners who have decided to take a plot in a different direction simply because fans caught on to the original plan...as if it’s a bad thing that fans were invested enough to understand what was happening in the storytelling. That is not what is happening with these shows.) Of course people who work on shows want their shows to be successful and to land well with audiences, but both shows are so beautifully written, and the writing shows such a commitment to knowing these characters inside and out. Do these writers want an engaged audience? Yes. Are these writers at the mercy of fandoms? No.

That’s not to say I feel like I can predict what will happen with Rebecca and Sam or with Rebecca and Ted or with Ava and Deborah or with anyone. But the idea that people who write for Hacks would look at the (mixed, lively, and still in-progress) fan reception to the second season of Ted Lasso and choose to do something different with their characters seems very unlikely. In fact, I’m not even that interested in speculating as to whether the ship Ava/Deborah becomes canon (it might, it might not) because Ava and Deborah’s relationship is already a love story and Ava’s bisexuality (and the queerness of many, many cast members and characters) have already shown that the world of Hacks is a world in which queer people are represented.

Third, no matter what dynamics characters have in common, these particular characters don’t resemble each other very much. It’s true that Sam and Rebecca and Ava and Deborah are all in a situation with a significant age gap and an employer/employee power dynamic to contend with. For me, the similarities really end there. Ava and Deborah isn’t just “Sam and Rebecca + homophobia” even if some fans might feel that way. There are so many factors at play. Race. Gender. Money. What the characters are looking for. What motivates them. What ethical concerns they have or don’t have, and how those concerns dictate their actions.

Sam and Rebecca connect anonymously, which means the foundation of their relationship is really different from the foundation Ava and Deborah build together joke by joke, compromise by compromise, unexpected moment of connection by unexpected moment of connection. Sam and Rebecca are both in periods of significant personal change, and their connection and chemistry feel more like a place for some (sexy) refuge than a permanent partnership. No matter what might or might not happen with Ava and Deborah romantically, their relationship evolves over the course of s1 to the point that they truly respect each other’s sense of humor and consider it a shared language--basically the highest compliment these emotionally-stunted writer-comedians could pay each other. It’s true that every person we meet throughout our lives has the potential to permanently alter us, but a major part of the plot in Hacks is Deborah’s slightly subtle admission that she has a shared language with Ava unlike anything she’s experienced since she was with her former husband. That kind of realization really does change a person permanently, and no matter how you feel about Sam and Rebecca, who are two deep, thoughtful characters, I haven’t seen anything nearly that deep or thoughtful about their connection to each other.

Finally, I don’t bring the same mindset to everything I watch. The connection between Ava and Deborah resonates with me as a viewer because it’s a queer connection between two writers. I’m a queer writer, and even if my life is nothing like Ava’s or Deborah’s, Hacks’ focus on queerness and the creative process reaches me in ways that are specifically tied to what the main characters have together. Ted Lasso reaches me in very personal ways too, but that doesn’t mean I have to question my thoughts on Sam and Rebecca by directly comparing those thoughts to my thoughts about Ava and Deborah. The things I want to create as a fan, the things I feel about the way a show is written, my ethical viewpoint on different relationships, the distinction between linear canon stuff and non-linear fan stuff, my own identities and experiences...all of those are at play in what I bring as I watch distinct things.

This response got a lot longer than I anticipated, but I hope it helps in some way. If you want to come off anon I’m always happy to chat about this stuff! (Or feel free to send me another anonymous ask if you have additional questions about this...I'm not scary, though, and happy to chat non-anonymously.) Thank you again for the ask!

[atlantis-scribe]

Okay I really do love Atlantis, but the amount that some people woobify Rodney actually drives me crazy. And I actually love Rodney as a character but like my boy's an asshole sometimes!! like he's not a perpetual victim, let him be wrong about stuff and grow and improve as a person!! (also the recurring theme of having random women in his life be abusive for... no textual reason?? is a little sus) like I'm getting to the point where I can hardly (1/2)

(2/2) enjoy hurt/comfort with Rodney bc I'm so wary of this... which just makes me sad 😭 Really sorry for ranting in your inbox you are my fave Atlantis blog and I like your take on Rondey

hello there!

please don’t apologize for ranting. my inbox is always open to rants. they’re encouraged, even! (long as I get to rant back lol)

and my oh my is this one of the topics that also get me going, particularly because 1) Rodney is also my favorite character, 2) I, too, see this woobification tendency, and 3) it’s complicated af & touches on several running themes not just in Stargate but in almost all fandoms.

• the Rodney Woobification is ancient practice. the SGA (specifically McShep) fan community has been around for a while now, and the Stargate fandom as a whole is even the birthplace of many established tropes that people still use to this day (Daniel Whump, anyone?). I understand the appeal. hell, I love angst and hurt & comfort for reasons almost exactly the same as other people who woobify characters love to do their thing. I don’t always comment on it (I don’t wanna be That Dick raining on other people’s parades) because it’s a slippery slope that so often leads to outright gatekeeping. there’s really just a fine line between being critical of fic characterization — being ‘true’ to the source material — and having fun with fannish works (specifically, using art as an outlet to do the most bizarre things polite society would ostracize you for)

• that being said, I am also not a big fan of woobie!Rodney. there’s a reason why I had such a visceral reaction to the Post-Trinity Phenomenon & the Lemon Chicken trope.

you have to understand, I came into the fandom a little over two years ago. about a decade too late, really. all the stories have been written, the takes taken, and the discourse over & done with. it’s pretty lonely, but the fun is in trying to sift thru what the OG fans left behind. so to stumble upon such a treasure trove of fics with the same running theme and have such a fierce ‘Nope!’ reaction was pretty memorable. I love Trinity because the Rodney in that episode was allowed to be his most obnoxious, his most arrogant, his most unlikable, but still remain layered & nuanced & complex, and that’s pretty damn good writing there. I saw the ‘asshole’ label when I bought it, after all. I certainly don’t want it erased or buried under a rug. I want it explored.

• canon writing is a-whole-nother problem altogether. it’s hard to justify exactly what makes Rodney (& Sheppard & Weir & everyone else) genuine or true to form, because —  let’s be honest — SGA is not a prime example of stellar TV writing and/or storytelling. it’s addictive as all hell, but it’s severely flawed, and that includes how it handled consistency in characterization. this brings us back to the dangers of gatekeeping and yelling at other people for how they write (however beloved) ‘public domain’ fictional characters.

• what I want to advocate now in terms of woobie!Rodney is for other fans to maybe examine why they like Rodney. is it because we are all just weak for white, asshole geniuses who are shippable with other white (often same gender, often male) assholes? if that’s the case, and you want to continue making your content, go ahead. it’s frankly a pretty boring reason, but we’re all boring nerds here. some more than others. just, you know, tag properly & don’t be rude to other fans who may have different reasons.

me? I love Rodney because yes, he’s a white asshole genius (that archetype is like crack for real) but portrayed so wonderfully by a very talented actor that it left me with a nuanced character whose gaps I can fill with attributes I want to analyze as a lifelong fan of the human condition who occasionally writes fics for popular media. woobifying him would be a disservice to how I see him & the things I love about him, which would then render me unable to enjoy the Rodney I ‘stan’. that would defeat the entire purpose of why I engage with the fandom, because at the end of the day, I’m here to have fun.

• so no matter how much I (and you as well, I suspect, my dear anon) would want to police this practice, it just isn’t our place. the best (and the right) thing for us to do is curate our fandom experience and create the content we actually want to consume. who knows, we may just convince / inspire enough people so there’d be more of the same kind of things we enjoy out there :)

- kit