#this is technically fanart but this artist also worked with the author so I think it's as canon as I'm gonna get

[do-you-know-this-queer-character]

Do you know this queer character?

Neil is Demisexual and MLM and uses he/him pronouns!

[sherryrowen]

Here! Have a Brick!! (Brick belongs to @popatochisssp )

Here’s that character reference sheet I was talking about in my other post. I kinda… overdid it with this one (*laughs nervously). I just did this for fun, and to practice doing reference sheets.

If you’ve read Tangles you’d know most of these are from scenes in the fic, if you haven’t read it you’re probably not going to understand the context of these, so you should probably go read it, it’s on AO3!! Moving on, the only one of these that is technically not really in the fic is the one the bottom left corner, with him working on the blanket, but I mean, I can’t be the only who pictured him working on it? Right??

Now that we are talking about the blanket, funny thing is, since English is not my first language, when I read the part about the colors of the blanket I got a little confused and first thought it just talked about just the color Sedona, so ended up making a this version of the blanket with different shades of Sedona.

After closer inspection I thought that it didn’t look “butt-ugly” so I went back to the fic to double check, and then I realized I read over the part were it mentions the others colors in the blanket (oops). I went back and fixed it then, and sure enough that color combination is “butt-ugly”! I also made another mistake, in the upper right corner, I drew a store shelf, but in the story they’re reaching out to a basket, sorry!! I’ve been working on this one for a couple of days, so I just called it done and left it like it is, anyways there’s something called artistic liberties, so guess it’ll be fine.

Also, if you’re wondering who’s the girl, since this is a character x reader kind of fic, I just based her off the typical Shoujo protagonist, you’d be surprised to see how many shoujo protagonists are short haired brunette girls. Years ago I remember realizing this and I thought that since brown hair is very common, that the authors did that because it would be easier for young girls to project onto those protagonists and Immerse themselves in the story.

About the Mechanism that helps him open and close his jaw, I’m no engineer or anything like it, I just thought it would be fun to see a design of the mechanism that could work. Realistically speaking, it probably wouldn’t work but it was fun to design it either way.

That’s all! Oh! Here’s a bonus!!

A sketch of Brick pre-surface (idk why he has an axe, I think saw a fanart of Horror sans with one so I decided to draw it)

Also this little animation inspired by this fanart of Horrorfell sans by @caycanteven

[cactiired]

I can't find any of your old Grahamscott art pieces, did you delete 'em by any chance? I see works by you on the internet but I can't seem to find them anywhere on your blog

Hi! I get this question quite a lot still which I understand because of the reposts and I should probably issue a disclaimer in a pinned post or something.

Yes I've deleted and archived most of my old grahamscott works because:

A) I'm tired of being seen as the (insert a fandom here) artist. Quite a long time ago I did fanart for things I was passionate about. Since I was like 14 fanart was my creative outlet and source of joy at the time and I just felt like posting them online. People liked the stuff I drew which was amazing! And obviously I still am happy to hear that people liked the way I drew well known characters.

But by now I have been drawing my own characters for years. It's not that I don't still have a soft spot for the video games and books I was into but that they're no longer the thing I spend hours thinking about and drawing.

B) I would like people to follow me not because of an expectation for new fanart about a thing they like but because my original art and stories would be enough on their own. If they're not interested that's fine and I'd rather have people not follow me if life is strange or other fanart is the main thing they wish to see because that's not what I do anymore.

It's also just personally frustrating to have my old work being brought up again and again. While I understand that it's easier to connect with fictional characters that are well known and fanart is an awesome medium in that sense that it brings people together. But I've worked hard to improve in art technically and am proud of where I am today. My old art is okay but my goals in style were much different back then so I don't even see myself in any of it anymore. It's kind of like seeing old pictures of myself at 15 still finding myself. Same happens artistically.

I know I can't really control others finding my stuff since a lot of my works have been reposted to the point I have no authority on who sees it and who does not. And that's the internet I suppose 🤷 whatever you post stays there forever. But maybe some can find me through my old art and stay for the stuff I create now. Because I found my artistic voice. I love what I do. I love my silly little characters and their stories. I love sharing them with the world and seeing people still finding something valuable in the pieces even when they're not of already known characters.

[tyrantchimera]

Just want to make my stance clear: I am anti-AI because these programs are being fed with author's or artist's works without the creator's consent. This is theft, because the writing/art is being used for a purpose not intended. Art and writing are shared, for free usually, with the intent for someone to read/see it and enjoy it. NOT feed it into an algorithm to make a product for someone else. It's unwritten social contract, sure, but that doesn't give anyone the right to use someone else's product like they own it.

This is especially true for art AIs, as there are often options to literally copy certain artist's styles. It's like you made stickers to sell using someone else's fanart. Sure, you made the sticker, but unless you bought the rights (or asked permission) for that artist's work to be used in that manner, it is theft. Or maybe you traced their images to sell your own versions of it. Technically you made the art, but it was only possible as a derivative of someone else's effort. And I can guarantee you that VERY few creators would be happy if someone traced their art and then touted it as being the property and efforts of the tracer.

This is also plagiarism in a sense, especially for writing AIs, as "content" that was made by someone else is being sourced into these things and spat out the other end without any proper accreditation, even if altered. Any monkey's uncle who has done a modicum of higher level science knows just how massive an issue proper accreditation is when writing academic papers. All information, except for common knowledge, MUST be given a source. If you read a paper saying that, for instance, the metabolism of a certain animal is increased by (x) factor for (y) reason, you cannot simply state this fact in your own paper. YOU MUST CREDIT THE SOURCE OF THIS INFORMATION. It is a legal issue if you do not.

The people who make these AIs do not make their own art to feed to these programs. They do not write their own books and stories to teach to these things. How could they? You need thousands to train such a program. So they take it from somewhere else. The program cannot be held accountable for what it does, as it is only doing what it is trained to do. But the people using them seem to think nothing of HOW these things were trained. And very often, the machines are used to replace trained writers or artists. Why pay someone to make something for you, who can only do so because of YEARS of experience, when you can use an AI at a fraction of the cost? An AI that was unethically trained on that artist's work, without their consent, to create an image similar to the artist's abilities? Can you not see the issue here!?

Therefore simply using them is extremely unethical in my eyes. To say that using AIs isn't outright plagiarism or theft is a brand of obtuse ignorance I cannot stand. That sort of entitlement, to use someone else's efforts and "products" to further your own ends, is utterly immoral. I will NOT be swayed from this stance either.

[aela-gen]

This is some fanart for

Three Girls and The Mansion of Skeletons (comic)

and

Three Girls and The Mansion Of Skeletons ( Reader X AU Sans and Papyrus)

Which the three girls are basically the main characters for the fanfic the middle girl is technically the Y/N for the fanfic but in the comic that is being made is other one of the authors oc's for the story.

if you haven't read the story or seen the comic go check it out, I already linked them up above I really enjoyed the story and the author of the fanfic is a really good writer and the person who is making the comic for it is an amazing artists

also here is the other socials for the people for the book and comic

Author of the Book: Goldenwolf16

and I think this is the authors tumbler because this is credited as the owner of the characters in the tumblers comic: galaxyravenwolfx.tumblr.com/

Artists of The Comic: Camie

also here is their tumbler for more clear pictures of the comic: www.tumblr.com/camiecomics

also for the designs in the fanart I used the concept art on the comic's tumbler here it is and I also used it for the colors for the art so I could get the colors right

Doe Mae: www.tumblr.com/camiecomics/683813599853101057/concept-art-for-the-new-comic-im-working-on-im?source=share

Suzie: www.tumblr.com/camiecomics/684008158733238272/wolf-lady-more-concept-art-for-the-comic-hehe?source=share

Autumn: www.tumblr.com/camiecomics/684455354046791680/autumn-concept-art-the-main-main-character-of-the?source=share

And here is a speed paint and screenshots for proof I made it

And as you can tell It took me 2 hours and 32 minutes

Edit:

I also made the girl into Gacha Life 2 for fun here they are

[fall-for-tolkien]

Hi, I was recommended this event and it sounds very fun and I´m thinking about joining but even on your website you are not very clear about ai art after saying on your Tumblr post that that´s where you should go for answers about it

On your page this is what is standing:

I don´t want to join an event that supports Ai "art" so I want to be sure before I join

Hi there, it's Zhie -- I'm the one handling the AI art questions. I serve on an AI taskforce, and I have twenty years of AIML experience, which strangely enough means I get to field AI related questions for both work, and play here in the fandom spaces. Below is what we have written on our website regarding Generative AI and Accommodative AI. As an artist who deals with some super fun (sarcasm intended) neurological things that make my hands shake, I utilize a Cricut to cut out things I have designed, and then I put them together, and art happens. A Cricut is technically a robot; the interaction with Design Space to make it cut things can be interpreted as a Accommodative AI tool. I tell it what to cut, but it makes the cuts for me versus me with a scissors (which is literally dangerous for me sometimes -- on June 7th I cut myself with a pair of scissors because of the above mentioned hand tremor things, and it was not fun and also a little embarassing. Getting old sucks, but the alternative is worse, so, life goes on.)

Can you please let me know what portion is unclear, or what specific questions you have? On the flip side, if the scenario I have already described related to Accommodative AI is already something that makes you uneasy, no one is going to fault you for sitting out this event. Not every event is for everyone; everyone has to find where there happiness is.

The comment about 'whatever you say is art is art' relates to jerkfaces who will comment that a particular thing isn't art or shouldn't be considered art -- and has a lot to do with a presentation that occurred at Oxonmoot where pieces of fanart were displayed and the person running the panel made fun of the art for things such as, how an Ent looked and how they should be depicted, or particular styles or cultural representation found in art that made a lot of people feel bad about their interpretations. It also relates to things like, you painted a rock? That's art. You doodled on a napkin? That's art. You made a sandcastle version of Gondolin and took a photo? That's art. That statement was part of our rules before we added in the AI addendum (found below for reference).

PS -- Another option for this year for you might be to join the Discord, watch the event, and decide from the way it runs and what occurs whether or not you're comfortable to join in next year. We don't gatekeep our Discord; we welcome anyone who participates and anyone just interested in knowing more to join it and interact.

AI Content Information

Generative AI is not allowed for the complete creation of written works, end of story.

AI tools may be permitted for creation of elements that assist in the writing of the final product. Example: Using an AI generator to help come up with a title, or a AI tool to create a map of a neighborhood used in the worldbuilding for the story. If you are uncertain, please connect with Zhie. (Zhie checks the Discord frequently, but you can also send a message to the event email and ask to speak to Zhie about AI.)

Generative AI is not allowed for the direct creation of art in most of the galleries.  Generative AI used as the end result of a piece of art is permitted only for the In Memoriam gallery, but must be labeled as such. It still counts as a submission from whomever asked for it to be submitted, however, per copyright law, this type of art cannot be copyrighted and the person who submitted it is not the creator of the work, the tool is.  This means the tool used to generate the art must be included as the author, with a link to the tool which was used.

Use of generative AI as a starting point for art maybe permitted.  An artist must make significant contribution to the finished art for it to be permitted in galleries other than the In Memoriam gallery. Example: An artist uses AI to generate a particular pose, then uses this as reference to create a new piece of art so that someone's legs don't go flippity floppity the wrong way. If you are unsure, please connect with Zhie.

Use of accommodative AI tools is usually permitted.  These are instances when a tool is used to supplement the creative process.  Examples include, but are not limited to, an AI removal tool in a design program, or use of machine-aided technology to produce items which will be further manipulated to create the final piece. If unsure, please connect with Zhie.

Zhie is the final authority on AI decisions.  Please do not poke at other mods if you don't like Zhie's answer.  There is a good chance Zhie will send Finrod to bite you (and not in a super fun way). 

If at any time we are asked to remove a piece of AI generated art due to copyright infringement, we will comply with current laws and regulations.

[chaoskirin]

AI Art is *NOT* Derivative By Law. Here’s Why.

A lot of people are making the argument that AI art is derivative, but they don’t actually understand copyright law. I think they might read what might constitute a derivative work, but don’t also check the exceptions and the relevant case law to determine what is not able to be taken or copyrighted.

FIRST:  The copyright for derivative work ONLY covers the new elements of the work. AI work has NO new elements, therefore, it cannot be derivative. 

This is actually specifically so copyright holders cannot extend their copyright to prevent work from falling into public domain, but it also protects copyright holders from having their own works copyrighted by someone else. 

SECOND: The copyright holder of the original work MUST AUTHORIZE ITS USE IN A COMPILATION.

Even if the work falls under all other definitions of “derivative,” if you are using someone’s work in a compilation (and yes, THIS INCLUDES COLLAGES DONE FOR PROFIT!) you must acquire the original creator’s permission. If you don’t, you cannot copyright the work and you may be subject to prosecution.

THIRD: I think this should go without saying, but apparently it doesn’t: AI-generated works cannot be considered parody, as they are not a commentary on the original works. They claim to be all new works. 

---

Most copyright holders do not pursue the prosecution of derivative works even if copyright is technically violated, because they do not experience financial loss by their use. This includes fanworks (like fanart and fanfiction) because the original copyright holder generally cannot prove damages. And even if they could, they would most likely suffer more damages were they to prosecute their fans.

But copyright does not REQUIRE prosecution to maintain hold of the copyright. For example, while Blizzard is very positive about people using their intellectual property in fanart, they are allowed to decide at any time to disallow this or even prosecute people who create fanart. This is unlikely, because they use fanart as free advertising, and prosecuting would also disillusion fans and discourage use of Blizzard products.

The problem with AI art is that while it is sometimes composed in such a way as to make it difficult to tell whether any individual work has been used, the following statements are true: 

1. The original artists are not credited

2. The original artists are not compensated

3. The prevalence of AI art compilations using the art of other people has resulted in job losses for artists in general.

Because copyright holders can easily prove loss in this situation, it absolutely is something that can be litigated in court.

[highlordofkrypton]

So, in one of the binding groups I'm in (and one of the reasons I made that post that blew up about how ppl are ruining fandom), we have discussions about this and I haven't looked into them, but maybe this helps the discussion?

Japan has a different POV on fan generated stuff; they see it as additional promotion for the original works, which is why it's encouraged.

Fanart can technically argue that for some works, it's not the actual character. Like, you could say that you didn't commission Clark Kent. Just some black haired dude with glasses, if that makes sense? You also have such stylistic art that it can easily be said that 'oh, it's not x character, actually' but someone who has the same features.

Whereas in fanfiction, it's using the same words, same names, same background and it's harder to argue that it's not from that original source, if that makes sense?

Those were the two major points, but my addition is:

For a lot of fandom media like movies, comics, etc. They're a lot bigger than one person. DC isn't gonna come after my ass for this one fanart, even if it blows up. Even DC artists themselves said that they're ok with illegal comic sites bc the company sends them THERE to search up references (it's too good of a database). It's just such a waste of money, time and resources to hire lawyers and go through the process of going after fanart. This is just one example that I can think of and how I personally see it. I don't... actually work for DC or have researched this. Definitely yapping here.

On the other side, authors are lowkey petty lmao. They're not a blended into a larger brand or thing. Their writing is their brand. I feel like they don't mind fanart because it's like an ode to them and their creation. Plus, the art usually stays pretty close to the author's vision or whatever. Fanfiction can be seen as competition. Like... some people would feel threatened maybe? That fans are really into x fanfiction. Plus, the vision, characterization, etc. gets warped. Authors can be a lot more possessive because it's their character and their worlds.

Think about how many fanfiction writers basically came up in fanfiction just to turn around and shit on their fans/community. Looking at u E.L. James.

Anyway, long story short, I feel like it's a pride/humility/possessive thing. I know I'd personally love if people did stuff with my OCs, but some people aren't like that. Some people don't like community and want their word to be law.

That's my 2 cents and I hope this gives stuff to think about??

I see people continue to lose their shit over printed fanfiction - and yes it's obviously illegal and yes most of the time it's not even the actual people who wrote that fanfic who sell the prints (which is EXTRA scummy) but I keep wondering....

Is it really different from selling fanart prints, stickers and other merch? Why does the community accept doing art commissions of licensed characters, but printed fanfictions (assuming they were done by the actual writer) are where everyone is losing their shit and worries about legal repercussions?

Like, I see fanart sticker sets with stolen artwork on Amazon, but printed fanfic will bring down the legal hammer on fandoms? I just don't really see it.

[kuwdora]

Witcher Commenting Event & Community Engagement

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this post that @jackironsides reblogged a few days ago about the lack of engagement with fanworks.

Comments are great. Commenting can be hard (more on that later) but receiving them is great, right? We want to support each other as a community and continue to squee about our blorbos and meow meows together.

(nostalgia time) I come from the old livejournal days where it was usual to see conversations happening in comments for days or weeks on end, even on short fics. People writing ship manifestos, fannish newsletters, community recommendations and commenting on those too. People reccing fic and meta. Things just were a little easier to find and engage with. Things didn't get so lost in tags or in a discord server you didn't know exists.

I have been thinking about the ways we could be social and connect to each other again and comment more. I love the Witcher Flashfic discord server because there are “Live readings” that groups of people perform on your fic while your story is under anon for the week. It’s incredibly fun to both be the author watching this anonymously while people READ YOUR STORY IN REAL TIME (or during a backread). And it is SO MUCH FUN fun to read a story together and comment WITH PEOPLE. Riffing off your squee and comments about the style, the plot, the characters in a fic. It’s like a book club! It’s so much fun.

A DREAM:

So I got to thinking. What if we tried something something similar to discover, read, and comment on fanworks TOGETHER? I have this dream:

A Comment Crawl, a la pub crawl. Except instead of pubs, we are visiting fics and art and vids and everything else and leaving comments on it together. (Fanwork Crawl doesn’t roll off the tongue the same way, okay…!). Target all kinds of fanworks: fic with no comments, few comments or are older than 6 months. Fanart that only has reblogs but no one ever told the artist what they like about the piece, not even in tags. Etc. etc.

We could put up a list of fanworks that are recced/nominated based on a theme and give people that window of time to read and compose a comment. Then we go and drop our comments on the AO3, tumblr post/etc during a designated window of time. Build off each other’s squee in the comments like I KNOW we do in discord. Let the creators see our avalanche of love and squee together.

Commenting can be hard and stressful when you don’t know what to say or think or what the creator is looking for.

Maybe you don’t know how to comment on a fanwork you’re unfamiliar with because you’re not an artist or a vidder or cosplayer or don’t know how to show an author how much you enjoyed the story.

This can be taught! There’s even work that @longlivefeedback has done in 2018 where they created a COMMENT BUILDER TEMPLATE that we can modify for Witcher related squee. For your personalized squee. Remove that inhibition and hurdle to comment and show love for the things that you spend all that time reading, reblogging and dropping links in discord.

We can learn from writers and artists how any scrap of feedback is going to mean the WORLD to them. And we can learn how to make more technical comments on things, too!

I have created a survey to gauge interest in A Comment Crawl for Witcher fandom. Please fill it out here if this sounds like something you would like to participate in or help organizing. I would really love help on this if it’s something people want to try!!

SURVEY HERE

I also have a ton of ideas about how create engagement through writing recs lists and creating fannish teams to go on treasure hunts to go together and look for fanart, fic, fandom-inspired jewelry, gifsets/etc based on a theme and then write a recs list to the public community. Link/tag the creators so they know how much their work is being loved on by other people!!

Is this reccing thing something that sounds like it might be fun for you to participate in?? @fancakeofficial is a pan-fannish reccing community that sort of inspired me in my thinking in how great it would be to have more recs in Witcher fandom in a more centralized way. They have a presence on tumblr, twitter and dreamwidth and people have been submitting themed recs for years and it's definitely a community I go to when I am looking to see what other people liked and to find something new. And sometimes my stuff gets recced a decade after I made it! It's fucking WILD and amazing feeling!! I would love to see something like this for Witcher fandom if possible..

Truly, recs are like... comments and kudos turbocharged because someone went out of their way to tell other people why your fanwork is great and get more eyes and squee on it!!

There is so much excellent rare pair fic out there in Witcher fandom. There’s amazing character-driven stories and hidden gems in the juggernaut pairings. There’s some fucking incredible femslash out there, omfgggg. So many of these stories get lost amidst the volume of fanworks and don't get comments or squee and it's can be so lonely. There is SO MUCH INCREDIBLE ART AND VIDS AND COSPLAY and gosh, so much amazing creativity out there.

*takes a deep breath*

So yeah, I would like to try to figure out a way to bring people together and comment together and squee together that can happen more outside of discord where the creators can see, squee and even participate with us!!

Anyway. This is very rambly and I am probably forgetting a million details because my brain has been on fire because of 10,000 other things. BUT I am putting it out there!! Hoping some folks would like to hear me out and try something like this.

Signal boosting is greatly appreciated!! If we build it, will you come??? Leave me your details in the survey! Let me know what you think!!

P.S. If you are a rare pair writer there is another round of @witcherrarepaircommentexchange will be open for nominations again in November so PLEASE be sure to check that out!

Tagging people that I know have many more followers than I do who might have followers who could be interested...

@fangirleaconmigo @jackironsides @limerental @ghostinthelibrarywrites @bomberqueen17 @brighteyedjill @sargassostories

[itsclydebitches]

Here's a quandary I've suddenly found myself in: where do you stand on writers deleting their own works, fanfiction or otherwise? I've had this happen to me on more than one occasion - I go to look for an old favorite and find it's since been deleted from whatever site I read it on.

On the one hand, I'm inclined to think that, "Sure. The author wrote it, it's their call. I don't own the work - I certainly didn't pay for it. It's their decision, even if it's disappointing."

But at the same time I can't help but consider the alternative - if I believe in death of the author (and I do), that an author's work fundamentally isn't solely theirs once it's been published, posted, etc., then it also seems wrong to have a work deleted. Stories aren't the sole property of their creator, after all.

But then I circle back. D'you think there are different obligations between authors and readers and the works being made in fandom space? I know if I had bought a book and the author decided they wanted it back, I would feel pretty comfortable telling them no, given I'd paid for it and whatnot. But that's a different world from fanfic and fandom space generally.

So. You're insightful Clyde, I'm curious as to what you'll have to say here (and to all y'all thinking about it, don't flame me. I haven't decided where I stand here yet - haven't heard a good nail-in-the-coffin argument for or against yet).

Val are you a mind reader now? I’ve been thinking about this exact conundrum the last few days!

(And yeah, as a general disclaimer: no flaming. Not allowed. Any asks of the sort will be deleted on sight and with great satisfaction.)

Honestly, I’m not sure there is a “nail-in-the-coffin argument” for this, just because—as you lay out—there are really good points for keeping works around and really good points for allowing authors to have control over their work, especially when fanworks have no payment/legal obligations attached. In mainstream entertainment, your stories reflect a collaborative effort (publisher, editor, cover artists, etc.) so even if it were possible to delete the physical books out of everyone’s home and library (and we're ignoring the censorship angle for the moment), that’s no longer solely the author’s call, even if they have done the lion’s share of the creative work. Though fanworks can also, obviously, be collaborative, they’re usually not collaborative in the same way (more “This fic idea came about from discord conversations, a couple tumblr posts, and that one headcanon on reddit”) and they certainly don’t have the same monetary, legal, and professional strings attached. I wrote this fic as a hobby in my free time. Don’t I have the right to delete it like I also have the right to tear apart the blankets I knit?

Well yes… but also no? I personally view fanworks as akin to gifts—the academic term for our communities is literally “gift economy”—so if we view it like that, suddenly that discomfort with getting rid of works is more pronounced. If I not only knit a blanket, but then gift it to a friend, it would indeed feel outside of my rights to randomly knock on their door one day and go, “I actually decided I hate that? Please give it back so I can tear it to shreds, thanks :)” That’s so rude! And any real friend would try to talk me out of it, explaining both why they love the blanket and, even if it’s not technically the best in terms of craftsmanship, it holds significant emotional value to them. Save it for that reason alone, at least. Fanworks carry that same meaning—“I don’t care if it’s full of typos, super cliché, and using some outdated, uncomfortable tropes. This story meant so much to me as a teenager and I’ll always love it”—but the difference in medium and relationships means it’s easier to ignore all that. I’m not going up to someone’s house and asking face-to-face to destroy something I gave them (which is awkward as hell. That alone deters us), I’m just pressing a button on my computer. I’m not asking this of a personal friend that is involved in my IRL experiences, I’m (mostly) doing this to online peers I know little, if anything, about. It’s easy to distance ourselves from both the impact of our creative work and the act of getting rid of it while online. On the flip-side though, it’s also easier to demean that work and forget that the author is a real person who put a lot of effort into this creation. If someone didn’t like my knitted blanket I gave them as a gift, they’re unlikely to tell me that. They recognize that it’s impolite and that the act of creating something for them is more important than the construction’s craftsmanship. For fanworks though, with everyone spread around the world and using made up identities, people have fewer filters, happily tearing authors to shreds in the comments, sending anon hate, and the like. The fact that we’re both prefacing this conversation with, “Please don’t flame” emphasizes that. So if I wrote a fic with some iffy tropes, “cringy” dialogue, numerous typos, whatever and enough people decided to drag me for it… I don’t know whether I’d resist the urge to just delete the fic, hopefully ending those interactions. There’s a reason why we’re constantly reminding others to express when they enjoy someone else’s work: the ratio of praise to criticism in fandom (or simply praise to seeming indifference because there was no public reaction at all), is horribly skewed.

So I personally can’t blame anyone for deleting. I’d like to hope that more people realize the importance of keeping fanworks around, that everything you put out there is loved by someone… but I’m well aware that the reality is far more complicated. It’s hard to keep that in mind. It’s hard to keep something around that you personally no longer like. Harder still to keep up a work you might be harassed over, that someone IRL discovered, that you’re disgusted with because you didn’t know better back then… there are lots of reasons why people delete and I ultimately can’t fault them for that. I think the reasons why people delete stem more from problems in fandom culture at large—trolling, legal issues, lack of positive feedback, cancel culture, etc.—than anything the author has or has not personally done, and since such work is meant to be a part of an enjoyable hobby… I can’t rightly tell anyone to shoulder those problems, problems they can’t solve themselves, just for the sake of mine or others’ enjoyment. The reason I’ve been thinking about this lately is because I was discussing Attack on Titan and how much I dislike the source material now, resulting in a very uncomfortable relationship with the fics I wrote a few years back. I’ve personally decided to keep them up and that’s largely because some have received fantastic feedback and I’m aware of how it will hurt those still in the fandom if I take them down. So if a positive experience is the cornerstone of me keeping fics up, I can only assume that negative experiences would likewise been the cornerstone of taking them down. And if getting rid of that fic helps your mental health, or solves a bullying problem, or just makes you happier… that, to me, is always more important than the fic itself.

But, of course, it’s still devastating for everyone who loses the work, which is why my compromise-y answer is to embrace options like AO3’s phenomenal orphaning policy. That’s a fantastic middle ground between saving fanworks and allowing authors to distances themselves from them. I’ve also gotten a lot more proactive about saving the works I want to have around in the future. Regardless of whether we agree with deleting works or not, the reality is we do live in a world where it happens, so best to take action on our own to save what we want to keep around. Though I respect an author’s right to delete, I also respect the reader’s right to maintain access to the work, once published, in whatever way they can. That's probably my real answer here: authors have their rights, but readers have their rights too, so if you decide to publish in the first place, be aware that these rights might, at some point, clash. I download all my favorite fics to Calibre and, when I’m earning more money (lol) I hope to print and bind many for my personal library. I’m also willing to re-share fic if others are looking for them, in order to celebrate the author’s work even if they no longer want anything to do with it. Not fanfiction in this case, but one of my fondest memories was being really into Phantom of the Opera as a kid and wanting, oh so desperately, to read Susan Kay’s Phantom. Problem was, it was out of print at the time, not available at my library, and this was before the age of popping online and finding a used copy. For all intents and purposes, based on my personal situation, this was a case of a book just disappearing from the world. So when an old fandom mom on the message boards I frequented offered to type her copy up chapter by chapter and share it with me, you can only imagine how overjoyed I was. Idk what her own situation was that something like scanning wouldn’t work, but the point is she spent months helping a fandom kid she barely knew simply because a story had resonated with her and she wanted to share it. That shit is powerful!

So if someone wants to delete—if that’s something they need right now—I believe that is, ultimately, their decision… but please try your hardest to remember that the art you put out into the world is having an impact and people will absolutely miss it when it’s gone. Often to the point of doing everything they can to put it back out into the world even if you decide to take it out. Hold onto that feeling. The love you have for your favorite fic, fanart, meta, whatever it is? Someone else has that for your work too. I guarantee it.

So take things down as needed, but for the love of everything keep copies for yourself. You may very well want to give it back to the world someday.

[saizoswifey]

Hello, I hope you're doing well, wifey. I have a question that's been bothering me if you don't mind answering! What's your take on the practice of taking commissions for fanfiction? I've seen people get aggressive enough to threaten to report any fanfic writers who advertise/take commissions. And while I'm aware it goes against the ToS for many companies (but then so does creating fanwork under copyright law smh) I also feel like it's a very slippery slope, seeing how the majority of our fanartists widely rely on fanart commissions alone to support themselves and I feel singling out and judging fanfic authors with far more derision is very hypocritical.

I would really like to hear your thoughts on this, if you do decide to answer. Thank you!

Hello, anon! I am doing well, hope you are too! 

First of all, people get weirdly aggressive when they see fanfic writers opening commissions and I can not, for the life of me, reason as to why this is. Other than the fact that they think writing is a ‘lesser’ craft (compared to digital/traditional art in fandom). Which is bullshit. 

And if you are someone who subscribes for an artist's patreon, has ever paid for an art icon of your favorite character, likes and reblogs fan art etc etc and you attack a writer for opening up commissions you should really take a good look in the mirror. 

I not only think it's acceptable for a writer to take commissions, I actually encourage it. For a few reasons. 

You deserve to be paid for your hard work. Writing is difficult and takes a lot of time. Time you could be spending doing other things. If you are at a point where you’re taking requests often and rearranging your day, losing sleep, in order to fulfill them--it’s time to get paid for your work. 

Taking commissions will make your writing better. If you plan on taking your writing into the professional field at any point, commission work will help you see what it’s like to work with deadlines and crunches as well as taking someone else’s concepts and creating something with it. Even if you don’t plan to move into the professional field, these are all still great skills to have. It can also shed light on areas you’re weak in so you can work on them. Whether that’s certain tropes or genres, or whether your time management needs work. Commissions will help show you things you didn’t even know about your own writing. 

All fanworks are technically against copyright, yes. But fanfiction for the most part does have a safety blanket of ‘fair use’ which allows us to create works with characters as long as it’s transformative and not using any direct quotes from source material etc. The reason why so many people are still creating fanworks is that most of these companies really don’t give a shit. These big statements are an umbrella to cover their ass. They don’t care about someone writing fanfic commissions here and there. They don’t care about someone doing 12 $5 art icons of the characters for some followers. 

What they DO care about is someone making thousands selling a line of sweaters with the characters, or someone plagiarizing the work and putting it out as their own, or selling a book that’s a word for word a copy of the game/media. Stuff like that. They know they can’t stop every single person from creating, and I don’t think they want to. What they want to protect themselves against are people abusing the system.

Here is a take you can read originally here that I really think will help people understand what I mean:

“Think of it like this: You're having a wedding and you hire a band. You pay them to turn up and play your favorite songs because it's YOUR wedding and you want to hear the songs YOU love.

That band isn't breaking the law by playing covers. Nobody's going to refuse to go and see Ed Sheeran because you can just individually pay a cover artist to play Ed Sheeran songs instead.

And it's the same thing with individual commissions for fanfic. Intellectual property laws are there to stop plagiarists from co-opting the income streams of original content creators. For this to have any kind of impact on that creator, it needs to be widespread and easily distributed. Getting paid to write a fanfic for someone else's personal enjoyment doesn't impact the original author's income stream in the slightest.”

If you are hesitant in any way that a particular game or company may not allow you to do a commission, email them. I’ve done it and most of the time they say they don’t care, esp if it is a person-to-person exchange for PERSONAL use and you’re not ripping off the media and trying to sell an ebook out of it or something. Or they may say sure that’s fine as long as the profits are under X$ amount. 

[aquickstart]

thanks for the response! (i had the propaganda question) still haven't seen movie so will wait before digging for those spoilers but definitely curious about the writers/artists comments regarding the comic and arcs you mentioned! it's fascinating that the creators are able to pull off what seems like a very queer-coded relationship despite even in spite of extreme censorship which i think is very different from queerbaiting (again, not having seen/read the source material) but there's been a lot of recent discussion in fandom spaces about this with respect to chinese media as well so am very interested to learn about how creator intent faces off against state censorship and what people end up still picking up on after the fact :) thanks for your thoughts!!

of course!! i'm very eager to discuss anything Major Grom-related to the best of my abilities (and i leave room for doubt and correction because i am fairly new to the fandom, fyi). here's a brief summary of some relevant info; i won't be including creator names and links here so it's not searchable, and also because it's all in russian (again i can do it in dm's). AND i'm sure you can find it out on the Bubble Comics website!

re: canon text itself. according to official extras, one of the characters was initially supposed to be a generic bodyguard type, but the story required him to become a more important companion for the antagonist; to be very brief here, he ends up essentially what the antagonist values most in his life and is narratively mirrored to the protagonist's girlfriend in one of the story arcs. it all comes down to a very pointedly dramatic, tragic, and emotionally charged moment for Igor Grom with his gf, and Sergey Razumovsky with his bodyguard. you know. a very casual bro moment for the latter pair, obviously.

re: creator feedback. the main artist & co-writer of the series has a multitude of what you'd call fanart pieces of these two characters in, like, a romantic relationship. i can't quite say they're canon since they're not included in the actual printed versions, but nothing in the comics contradicts or discredits the possibility of these scenes existing in the canon universe throughout.

the main writer/producer/Bubble Comics owner used to be very much against any kind of non-canon shipping, but he's radically changed his opinion over the years, which he expressed just recently in one of the official Bubble Comics podcasts. him and chief editor/producer are both very open to fan content and encourage any type of fan interpretation, which, to me, doesn't come off as pandering to the audience as much as it does as genuine gratitude and understanding of how storytelling and fandom spaces work. kudos to them from me for that.

as a side note, i do have some uhh uncertain feelings about the chief editor recently being a bit too eager to support the queer ship in question. some people see it as sort of queerbaiting wherein he's playing into the hype, but to be honest he seems like a geeky guy himself who's just generally very comfortable with his own sexuality. do whatever you will with that. i think he's allowed, maybe would be cool to tone it down a bit, but also, maybe not. it's all within reason, i guess.

re: queerbaiting & censorship. here's the part i dread discussing the most because the very concept of queerbaiting is a bit blurred in fandom discussions. i personally believe it becomes even more complicated in places like russia; like you mentioned, i do think this specific case is something other than queerbaiting. like, how are you supposed to do queer rep in mainstream media if you can get prison time for doing it? i think it's very much the case of context and reception, and if you look at the core fanbase, it's got a lot of queer people and/or folks who support the opposition.

of course, it's important to examine the authors of the content and their possible motives: the aforementioned main writer/company owner is linked to pro-state publications through his relatives, so yes, his money does come from the state, technically, at least in part, or at least that is what some people believe and i have no way of proving either point. still, i personally differentiate that from Bubble Comics being state-sponsored (like, FondKino did not sponsor the Major Grom movie, and FondKino sponsors so much of mainstream russian cinema). some people don't, and i guess i get their point. i firmly believe i'd go insane if i filtered every creator i've ever been interested in through the lens of absolute moral purity especially in russia.

but i circle back to the fanbase aspect of it: at some point i think it's equally important to look at interpretation and reception of content as well as its creators. if queer people find themselves relating to the story and the characters, i think it's doing something right.

maybe not though. maybe we are all just being tricked into consuming pro-state propaganda because we are obviously all idiots and my donations to medusa and doxa and ovd-info are nonexistent and dissolve into the air <3

[shirlleycoyle]

How 9/11 Became Fan Fiction Canon

Every fictional character you can think of has experienced 9/11 in fanfiction.

A Clone Wars veteran with two lightsabers is on United Airlines Flight 93 and prevents it from crashing. Ron and Hermione get caught up in the chaos as the towers fall. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and her friends watch the attacks unfold on TV from Sunnydale. We have spent 20 years trying to process what happened on 9/11 and its fallout, and that messy process can be tracked through the countless, sad, disturbing, and sometimes very funny fanfiction left across the internet.

Many of the fanfics written in the weeks and months following the 9/11 attacks seemed to directly respond to the news as it happened, processing the tragedy in real-time through the eyes of characters they loved. In the absence of a canon episode where Daria Morgendorffer paid respects to those lost, writing fanfic about these characters also experiencing trauma helped fans cope.

One YuGiOh fanfic published on fanfiction.net in May 2002 could have been ripped exactly from what this writer experienced that Tuesday morning. “It started as a normal day,” user Gijinka Renamon wrote. Yugi and his friends were in school, where their teacher informed them of the attacks and sent everyone home from school.

“After reading people’s 9/11 fics, I decided to write my own, and put a certain character in it. And Yugi and his pals were my first choice,” the author's note reads, explaining the connection they felt to United flight 93 and the World Trade Center attacks. Given that they lived in Pennsylvania, and “it’s close to New York, I felt really sad about it.”

Stitch, a fandom journalist for Teen Vogue, told Motherboard that this reaction to 9/11 is not at all uncommon in fandom.

"Fandom has always been a place that positions nothing as 'off limits,'" she said. "Historical tragedies like the Titanic sinking and atrocities like… all of World War 2 show up regularly across the past 30 years of people creating stories and art about the characters they love. So, on some level, it makes sense that 9/11 and the following 20-year military installation in the Middle East has joined the ranks of things people in different fandoms turn into settings for their fan fiction."

Reactions depicted in a handful of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfics published in the weeks after the attacks ring a little truer to the characters. “Tuesday, 11th September 2001,” written by Anna K, almost echoes the lyrics from “I’ve Got a Theory,” one of the songs in the musical episode that aired in November 2001. “We have seen the apocalypse. We have prevented it. Actually, we’ve prevented quite a few. So we know what they look like,” they write, before taking a darker turn. “They look a lot like…New York today.”

Killing demons and vampires doesn’t phase the Scooby Gang, but when preventable human death is brought into the picture, it’s gut wrenching.

“What am I supposed to do…When I can’t do anything to save the world?” Buffy cries  into Spike’s chest, watching the attacks unfold on TV in a fanfic the author described as being “about feeling numb and helpless.”

In “Blood Drive,” Kirayoshi writes about Buffy and her friends saving a van full of donated blood meant for victims of the attacks from a group of thirsty vampires. One Buffy the Vampire Slayer fic even takes a blindly patriotic turn, where noted lesbian witch Tara McClay helps Xander hang an American flag from the window of the magic shop to make Anya feel better.

Experiencing 9/11 as a young teenager was overwhelming not just because of the loss of life. Almost immediately after the event itself, it was as if the entirety of American culture re-oriented itself towards an overtly jingoistic stance. As we get distance from the attacks, seeing the tone of television and movies from the early 2000s is jarring, and some have gone viral on Twitter. In the world of pop music, mainstream musicians like the Chicks, formerly known as the Dixie Chicks, were blacklisted from the radio while Toby Keith sang about putting a boot up the ass of terrorists. On the Disney Channel, a young Shia Labeouf reading a poem he supposedly wrote about the events. The poem concludes with the line, "it's awesome to be an American citizen."

In a world so completely saturated with this messaging, it is not surprising that fanfic authors started including 9/11 in their work so soon after the event. Even The West Wing had a strange, out of continuity, fanfic-esque episode where the characters reacted to 9/11. In some cases, it made sense that the characters in the stories would be close to or a part of the events themselves.

"For characters like John Watson or Captain America, the idea works to an extent," Stitch told Motherboard. "In the original Sherlock Holmes works and the 2011 BBC series, Watson had just returned from Afghanistan. For Captain America and other Marvel heroes, 9/11 was something that was addressed in-universe in The Amazing Spider-Man volume 2 #36. Technically, 9/11 is 'canon' to the Marvel universe."

In “Early Warning: Terrorism,” a fanfiction for the TV show Early Edition in which a man who mysteriously receives tomorrow's newspaper, predicting the future, avoids jingoism, but tries to precent 9/11 from happening. This fanfic remains unfinished; it’s unclear if the characters successfully prevent 9/11 in this retelling.

Largely in fanfic from the era just after 9/11, when many young authors were trying to emotionally grapple with it, the characters don't re-write or undo the events themselves. It's this emphasis on the reaction to tragedy that colors the fanfiction that features 9/11 going forward.

Although fanfiction authors have been writing about 9/11 consistently since soon after the event, whenever that fanfiction reaches outside of its intended audience, it looks bizarre.

A screenshot of a Naruto 9/11 fanfic on the Tumblr subreddit comes without any context, or even more than two lines and an author's note. It’s impossible to suss out if this falls into the category of sincere fanfic without the rest of the piece or a publication date, but modern-day commenters on the Reddit thread see it as classic Tumblr trash.

Screenshot from r/Tumblr

“Bin Laden/Dick Cheney, enemies to lovers, 10k words, slow burn,” one user joked in the replies, underscoring the weirdness of Naruto being in the Twin Towers by comparing it to a What If story about Cheney and Bin Laden slowly falling deeply in love.

It’s hard to tell how much of the 9/11 fanfic and fanart starting a few years after the attacks is sincere, and how much of it is ironic, and trying to make fun of the very concept of writing fanfiction about 9/11.

A 2007 anime music video (in which various clips, usually from anime, are cut together to music) that combines scenes from The Lion King with Linkin Park’s “Crawling” and clips from George Bush’s speeches immediately after the attacks feels like the perfect example of this. Even the commenters can’t seem to suss out if this person is a troll or not.

There’s no way that My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic 9/11 fanart could be serious, right? Especially if the description pays tribute to “some of the nation's most memorable buildings,” and features five of the main characters as child versions of themselves. The comments again are split between users thanking the artist for a thoughtful remembrance post, and people making their own headcanon for why Twilight Sparkle is surreptitiously absent from the scene.

Screengrab via DeviantArt

There’s Phineas and Ferb fanfic that combines a 9/11 tribute concert with flashbacks to Ferb being rescued from the towers as a baby, written on the 10th anniversary of the attacks. It jumps from introspection to lines like, “‘Quiet Perry the Platypus. I’m trying to listen to these kids singing a 9/11 tribute.’”

The author's notes make it more likely that they meant for this to be a tribute piece, but it doesn’t quite make sense until watching a YouTube dramatic reading of it from 2020, fully embracing the absurdity of it all.

“For me, 9/11 is synonymous with war. It completely changed the course of my life," Dreadnought, the author of a Captain America fanfic Baghdad Waltz that sees Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes fall in love over the course of the war on terror, told Motherboard. "It’s the reason I joined the military, and I developed deep connections with people who would go on to deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq. These very much felt like my generation’s wars, perhaps because people I graduated high school with were the youngest folks eligible to serve at the time.”

Dreadnought told Motherboard that although they didn't deploy, their career has kept 9/11 and the trauma from it in their mind. After seeing that people who fantasize about Steve and Bucky getting together seemed particularly interested in reading fanfiction that related to 9/11, they decided to try their hand at it.

"I had to do something with all of that emotionally, and I’m admittedly a bit emotionally avoidant. So I learned through fic that it’s easier for me to process those feelings and the knowledge of all the awful stuff that can happen in war if I can turn it into something creative," Dreadnought said. "Give the feelings to fake people and then have those fake people give the feelings to readers!"

To Dreadnought, who is a queer man, the experience of researching and writing this was more cathartic than they first expected, especially as a way to navigate feelings about masculinity, military culture, and queer identity. But they said the research they did, which included watching footage of first responders at ground zero, was what helped them finally process the event itself.

"It was like a delayed horror, and it was more powerful than I expected it would be." Dreadnought said. "When I was eighteen, I was pretty emotionally divorced from 9/11; I just knew I wanted to do something about it. So coming back to it in my 30s while writing this fic, it was a very different experience. Even the research for this story ended up being an extraordinarily valuable exercise in cognitively and emotionally processing 9/11 and all of its second and third order effects."

Fanfiction that features 9/11 provides an outlet for people who still grapple with the trauma from that day. But Stitch warns that the dynamics of fandom and how it relates to politics can also create fiction that's less respectful and more grotesque.

"With years of distance between the stories written and the original events of 9/11, there seems to be some sort of cushion for fans who choose to use those events as a catalyst for relationships—and Iraq and Afghanistan for settings," Stitch said. "The cushion allows them room to fictionalize real world events that changed the shape of the world as we know it, but it also insulates them from having to think about what they may be putting into the world."

The tendency of turning these events into settings or backgrounds for mostly white, male characters to fall in love has the unintended effect of displacing the effects that the war on terror has had on the world over. Steve and Bucky might fall in love during the war on terror, but they would also be acting as a part of the American military in a war that has been criticized since it started. Fanfic writers in other fandoms have come under fire for using real world tragedy as settings for fic before. In the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake Supernatural fanfiction about the actors Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki going to the island to do aid became controversial within the fandom. There have also been fics where characters grapple with the death of George Floyd that is written in a way that displaces the event from the broader cultural context of race in America.

"A Captain America story where Steve Rogers is a 'regular' man who joins the US Army and 'fights for our freedom' post-9/11 is unlikely to deal with the war’s effect on locals who are subject to US military intervention," Stitch said. "It’s unlikely to sit with what Captain America has always meant and what a writer is doing by dropping Steve Rogers into a then-ongoing conflict in any capacity."

After enough time, “never forget” can even morph into “but what if it never happened?” A 19k+ word Star Wars alternate universe fanfic asks this question, wondering what would have unfolded if someone with two lightsabers was on United Flight 93. This fic, part of a larger fanfic series with its own Wikia, considers what would have happened if Earth was a military front in the Clone Wars.

In this version of events, a decorated general who served in the Clone Wars is able to take back control of Flight 93 before it crashes, landing safely and preventing even more tragedy from happening that day. In the end, all of the passengers who made harrowing last calls to their loved ones before perishing in a Pennsylvania field survive thanks to the power of the Force, and are awarded medals of honor by President Bush.

Twenty years after the attacks, it’s painful to think about what would have happened if people got to work 15 minutes later, or missed their trains that morning. There weren’t Jedi masters deployed to save people in real life, but for some of the fanfic writers working today, the world of Star Wars might feel just as removed as the world before September 11, 2001.

Fiction serves as a powerful playground for processing cultural events, especially generational trauma. The act isn't neutral though; a decade's worth of fanfiction that takes place on or around 9/11 shows how our own understanding of a traumatic event can shift with time.

How 9/11 Became Fan Fiction Canon syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[nyerus]

Hello! I have a question. There seems to be a difference between what Xie Lian looks like in Chinese and Western fandom. I read the book in Chinese first so I get confused sometimes. People think because he is a martial god he is supposed to be big, but I can tell you that's not true. In wuxia and xianxia people like martial artists are very lean even though they are strong. Because fighting comes from qi, not muscles. That's why they can jump great distances and walk on water. So on Chinese fanart XL is drawn more slender. Also technically his body is still a 17 year old correct? So why do people think XL is big? Sorry for my English.

Hello i asked before. Also Huahua is described in the original Chinese as tall and broad as well. Honestly, it seems some people don't understand Chinese martial arts culture when they read. I look at art on weibo a lot more because so. Again, sorry for my English!

Hi there anon! Thank you so much for giving your perspective! And your English was perfect, no worries! :o

I think the main reason is what you already said. For a lot of Westerners, especially younger people, MXTX works like TGCF are their first foray into the genre. Not only into danmei, but into xianxia/wuxia/xuanhuan. So they aren't able to reconcile their preconceived notions with what is the actual depiction (or what they personally want it to be), based on their new and limited understanding of the world mechanics. I think in many cases it's as simple as "character strong, so character should have muscles" but indeed, it ignores how and why they are so powerful: their qi, cultivation, etc. (Personally, I think this does a disservice to XL in particular, as he is renowned for his mastery of these. He is underestimated because of how he looks, but packs quite the punch.) Since there aren't good equivalents in Western stories (apart from just magic), it causes a bit of a cultural divide.

A part of it also has to do with Western masculinity standards and that many people in Western fandom see a male character not adhering to those standards and get confused or even offended. Without realizing that these are not universal standards, or were not historical standards. In pretty much every c-novel I've read, or c-drama I've watched, many males are considered ideally handsome while being described as elegant, slender, etc. Some of my fave Chinese actors are this way as well lol. There is also a lot to do with some folks wanting to be subversive in their personal portrayals of XL, which... that's a whole can of worms itself. I think that would also be beyond the scope of this post. Suffice it to say, even Fei Tian portrays his male characters the same way as other danmei authors. So that’s another thing.

And also yes, XL is indeed stuck at 17 years lol. With what it implies, I was always under the impression that XL would forever look the same as how he ascended. (Because other gods also seem to be this way.) Even when he is hurt/etc he always heals back to that state eventually. I think also a lot of people assume, since he's known for doing hard labor and such as a result of busking, he would become more muscular? But that never made sense to me because if one wants to assume that, then one also has to keep in mind that he's more often than not starving, and there's no way he's building muscles like that. It's hard enough to build muscles on a full belly, even for men! It's also confusing because characters like MQ -- who are also martial gods -- don't typically get the same treatment in art. He's almost always depicted as a prettyboy, even though he and XL have almost the same body type. XL is actually shorter than him, and XL is referred to as a prettyboy himself in the story in various places LOL! And yeah, it's then doubly confusing to see people *downplay* HC's hard-earned physique on the other hand. :/

As you said, XL’s body type is actually described in the novel directly. Plus both his manhua and donghua portrayals follow that. Same goes for HC as well. So.... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anyhoo, I hope this helped, anon! It's a messy matter in western fandom, and personally, I like to keep my nose out of it. I enjoy good art when I see it on places like twitter or tumblr, and either mute or block depictions that I really do not like! It’s all about curation~ But yes, some of my favorite artworks are from weibo too! ❤

[deliciousscaloppine]

Hot Takes Galore: A brief overview of fandom backlashes that influenced fanfiction writing traditions as I have personally experienced them:

In today’s segment I am going to talk about copyright infringement.

First let me preface this by saying I have only ever been in 3 fandoms, starting from 2008 and I have never been terribly active - like this blog has been the most active I’ve ever been in any fandom ever. I am not going to talk about particular fandom dramas because I am pretty clueless about that. What I am going to talk about is that friction between “reality” and online spaces that brought about changes that are still in effect today in the way fanfiction is written and perceived.

In 2008 as I was entering, nearly every piece of fanfiction had a disclaimer about the author not owning the characters, which were the property of Corporate Entity X, or Author Y, and also not profiting from the work in any shape or form. At the time getting money from writing fanfiction was a gigantic taboo, and almost no one did it, or advertised that they did. 

But as I understand through convention culture printed writing did circulate in exchange for money (zines), and at least in Japan one could sell doujinshis (self-published stories and comics, often within the framework of another work) in certain events. Although this was largely considered “illegal” under copyright laws, and artists could be persecuted or blacklisted from entering the industry if discovered. That’s also why fanartists often to this day may screen where and when their work is viewed, and move to take down reposts, or call others to protest if artworks are circulated without permission outside of the artist’s page.

Older fandom people also hated authors that moved against fanfiction, a big case being Anne Rice, the vampire lady everyone - including me - copies when writing about vampires. And now I am going to talk a little about that.

Usually, writers, just sit somewhere cosy and write, and often they have no idea, absolutely no idea, on how to manage their writing properties - usually a lawyer does that, and lawyers want A Lot Of Money (A brief brush with justice and lawyers over a civil dispute I won, cost me 1000 euros out of nowhere, in a single day, and no I couldn’t avoid it because I was the accused one, so I had to appear with some representation). 

So sometimes, quite often, it’s a lawyer that activates a writer or other artist to move against “smaller” copyright infringements, in order to make bank. And if one suffers such a case, they should make it as apparent as possible to the other party that they have no money, and the pressure will go away immediately. But even MORE OFTEN a small copyright infringement, may lead to a sequence of bigger ones, and ultimately the de facto loss of rights from one’s writing properties, and of course revenue. 

And for a lot of published authors, they just don’t know for how long they can publish things - publishing houses that have them signed can close, book sales can drop, tastes change, personal problems, and anything else may mean that they could find themselves without a source of income at any point in the future, while they are aging and becoming more and more irrelevant. 

A very famous case currently, is that of Alan Dean Foster, the writer who has done some novelizations for movies like Star Wars and Alien, and is no longer receiving revenue from that - while his wife is hospitalized and their family needs the income - because Disney absorbed the company that had signed the contract with him, and chose to not honor the previous contract. To make them pay he will have to go into a huge legal battle with a corporate giant, which he cannot afford. But they still absorb income from these novelizations.

But how does fanfiction tie into that, and Anne Rice’s case (which if memory serves right, also went through a series of personal problems, including her husband’s death during that time). 

So for a lot of writers, fanfiction may be that tiny breach that may threaten their rights in the future from tresspases of distribution networks. Meaning, people write vampire fanfiction based on Anne Rice’s work? What if another publishing house used the template of her works (historical settings, bleeding orifices, religious themes, homosexuality and sexual trauma etc) and produced a royalty free series of such works with a team of professional writers that do not own the work - who often have less rights, like not owning the characters, or the storylines, participating in a very small scale, so their payment goes down etc)

And in this way EVERYONE SUFFERS. Big Name Published Author fades into obscurity and goes into poverty and payroll writers are horrifically abused.  

A lot of hobbyists, and hobbyist writers whose sole dream is to be published in some shape or form, do not really care, and do not concern themselves with the legal aspect of creation, or the technical skill that it takes to produce writing on a consistent basis, which can only happen if you’ve got your basic needs covered. So they might see this type of backlash as inherently privileged. 

But it’s not really a privilege, there has been a global recession in basic working rights for everyone, and lovers of fiction don’t have to condone, of course, attacks against them, but they need to put that kind of backlash in perspective. Someone did write the content you enjoy, THEY ARE NOT DEAD YET, and may have opinions on how it should be managed, especially when it pertains to their livelihood. 

It’s a delicate balance that we all must keep in order to keep corporate regulations out of it.

For instance with the recent danmei explosion The Untamed brought forth, Ao3 was banned in China. Now a lot of you might know that this was caused by some real person fic involving the actor Xiao Zhan, which led to a whole other level of drama. But make no mistake this was a political act to protect the interests of the domestic publishing industry as it prepares to do an international opening that will bring in several billions from foreign markets.

Because Ao3 has been expanding as a platform globally it brings about changes, and in many cases steals readers away from traditional publishing, so it becomes unacceptable economically for a bunch of hobbyists to influence tastes, market mores, and create sensationalism around certain properties out of literally the blue. This is not a good thing for a lot of corporate thinking, they set the product and we are supposed to buy it. We are not supposed to go, it would look greater with a bunch of anal, and then put forth a million words altering the character of the intellectual property.

Why you ask? Again, because another publishing industry might choose to imitate the style of danmei fanfics and produce works that hijack readership, or lead to breach of contracts, making an unsafe environment for workers in this industry (Xiao Zhan’s case.)

Nowadays I see more and more fanfic authors coming out of their shell to ask money for writing in the form of donations, patronage and commissions, as fandom involvement is also becoming vastly monetized. The market of conventions coming into social media platforms. A strange more exists still in which while “legally wrong”, as long as money is not asked on the publishing platform (Ao3), it may not count as copyright infringement. But fanfic authors, may still be treated with hostility for this, for not “deserving” to profit from someone else’s properties, or even worse for “stealing” readership. 

For instance a recent argument I have seen from lgbtq authors, is that they remain unsupported by fandom spaces, who often proclaim themselves as lgbtq or lgbtq friendly (something that is not true), but at the same time they are not looking for published lgbtq stories, or authors, or even treat these with open hostility, or a lot of bias.

Fandom is not comprised from “readers” in the traditional sense, definitely not friends of literature, and it’s free, no one really has to pay anything to read a published fanfic.  So it’s a pretty loose demographic with no set characteristics, and no interest in investing time and money in something for long. It’s an online social activity and not a readers’ movement, highly influenced by peer pressure and branding. It’s basically a gigantic group of people who don’t really do anything for no one, and may develop a parasitic connection to intellectual properties (I am sorry peers, it’s the truth). 

And it’s perhaps the biggest counterculture scene at the moment in the developed world. To this day it treats even its own authors with tremendous suspicion, disregard and dismissal, meaning that even if someone can get some money and recognition locally through writing fanfic they are on thin fucking ice at all times for all the reasons but mostly attracting unnecessary attention to themselves and subsequently the scene.  A pattern that we will see is endemic to all forms of fandom backlashes.

So to this day in contrast with fanart, fan writers may not be compensated for their troubles, but may also be ousted from their domestic professional spaces for writing fanfic that may infringe on their intellectual property. 

The thing is, for me, that fandom culture can become incredibly supportive of corporate practices that harm actual people (writers, they are people too) but when they realize that the same corporate practices may be used against them, it’s too late to realize that it’s not a lottery of who wins by crying more, and by the time that happens, a corporation or industry who has used them to do its dark bidding, can stop catering to them  because ultimately they have become again irrelevant once a well defined demographic of  readers and viewers has been secured.

So if you are going to do counterculture, at least do it right. Be respectful of the writers/authors of the content you consume and mindful of their troubles, do not generate public strife that brings in political regulation in favor of corporate interests. Become interested in writing culture, support your fanfic authors with lasting engagement in their work, even if it escapes the narrow confines of a certain fandom. It’s simple. Eat, live, pray, fuck, or something.

[pokegeek151]

I know it’s technically fanart day but I am objectively the best artist in the world so it wouldn’t be fair for me to participate. Instead, I have a tiny bonus fanfic treat that is sort of connected to one of the fanart prompts. We can just pretend this is unrelated to Fowl Fest. Though I’m going to use the tag anyway

The fight barely lasted a minute. The attacker was big, but he clearly relied on his bulk to give him the advantage. Butler, in addition to being taller and bulkier than even this man, was also a master of his craft. The attempted mugger barely got a strike in before he was handily disposed of.

The small knife sticking out of Butler’s pectoral was not ideal, however.

Artemis had hardly paid attention to the encounter, though he paused what he was doing when he saw the knife. “Will that require medical attention?” he asked calmly. The blade was short, and Butler seemed more annoyed than anything else, so Artemis was unconcerned.

Rather than answer, Butler pulled the knife from his chest and it came away completely clean. Artemis watched curiously as the man reached into the pocket in his jacket lining and pulled out a small novel with a nasty hole in the middle the same width as the blade.

“Unfortunate. I was in the middle of that one,” Butler complained.

Artemis allowed himself a small chuckle. “Fortunate though that it was the book and not your heart,” he said. “It will be easy enough to get you a new copy. Rather unprofessional to keep a novel on your person while working though, isn’t it?”

Butler refrained from rolling his eyes at his charge. “Stakeouts are long,” he explained. “And people don’t pay attention if they think you aren’t, either.” He turned the novel over in his hands, inspecting the damage. The back cover just barely showed a tear. The woman on the front, her head tilted to expose her neck, looked beheaded.

“What were you even reading?” Artemis asked, noticing the cover. He reached out to take the book for his own examination. When Butler briefly moved it out of reach, Artemis raised an eyebrow. The man sheepishly handed it over.

“Minerva got me interested in romance novels,” he said, carefully watching Artemis’ expression. “I’ve been reading through the author’s library. She’s quite prolific.”

Artemis said nothing. The cover depicted a woman in a flowing nightgown swooning across the page as a man in a dark suit gazed longingly at her bare neck. Butler, his ever-stoic bodyguard, one of the most dangerous men in the world, was reading a vampire dime novel. Artemis was not one to judge someone else’s taste in literature, at least aloud, but the content of the novel was not what shocked him. At the bottom of the page, in elegant cursive, was the name Violet Tsirblou.

Butler shifted, and the movement drew Artemis back to the present. The boy cleared his throat and practically shoved the book back into Butler’s hands. His voice clipped, he said, “I am sure we will be able to find you a new copy.”