#this is why i say that ao3 and fandom spaces in general are not safe for kids

[anti-ao3]

also have you noticed how proshits love infantilizing mentally ill folks? like how they ridicule them for being triggered by fiction or that they're stupid, clueless kids that don't know when to click away from a fanfic? worse yet when some of these mentally ill people ARE kids (or were kids when they were traumatized)?

i don't like that.

[haunting-heroes-creative-games]

✨ Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About The Haunting Heroes Discord But Didn’t Want To Ask ✨

Are you looking to join this DPxDC server but don't know what it's about? Are you new to Discord and want to figure a few dynamics about it first? Then this is the post for you!

We're Super excited to share with you some of the features you can expect when you join the Haunting Heroes DPxDC Discord server.

🔷 I’m new to Discord. What is Discord?

A noble question. Discord is a messaging/private server application where you can join servers to chat, text, and video call people. Lots of fandoms have servers dedicated to their beloved show/book/comics/blorbos

It’s a popular platform because a) it’s free and b) it’s very easy to organize.

Haunting Heroes, as such, is essentially a private chat room where you can talk about DPxDC with other fans. There are other DPxDC servers, but you can never have too many!

🔷 What do you do on Haunting Heroes?

We do a lot! If you’re here, you may have seen the results of the Writing Games we’ve played, like "Who Wrote That?" as well as "Guess That Fic" (a fun way to give fic recs AND test your DPxDC fic knowledge!).

We also share updates of fanart, non fanart, and fan fics, as well as recommendations to stories we’ve read and enjoyed.

And we have plenty of ways to discuss ideas: from canon resources to headcanons that intrigue you; from prompts to workshopping your story ideas; from asking for a beta-reader to sharing your progress. Sometimes this even happens live while doing a sprint with others.

🔷 What does ‘18+ SFW’ mean?

18+ is fairly straightforward: you have to be 18 years or older to join our server. So why SFW?

We decided to emphasize the Safe For Work aspect not because no NSFW content is allowed—we have a flourishing NSFW category as well as a Dark Category with channels for people to talk about it to your hearts’ content! We welcome more mature content, but not everyone wants to engage in it, or only want to engage on their own terms. Being able to curate what you do and don't see is important to us, hence the separate categories (and having to self-select a role to see the NSFW + Dark channels)

We add SFW when talking about HH because ‘18+’ on its own has certain connotations (just like ‘adult content’ or ‘adults only’).

Why, then, are we an 18+ server? We appreciate the under 18s in our fandom, and there are lots of fandom places that are open to all ages (for example, this blog!). But there are older fans who feel more comfortable in an adult oriented space. We noted that a place for adults only in the DPxDC fandom was missing, and wanted to fill that niche.

🔷 Why Should I Join?

✏️ If you’re a writer, you can find a beta reader or ping the Ideas Helper role if you want some help with your story. You can find and share resources for various things, such as writing, art, and how to use A03.

🐱 We also share lots of pictures of our pets!

💡 We have fun emojis and stickers unique to Haunting Heroes, many made by people who are part of the server.

⭐️ We have a starboard! If someone says something you find funny, react to their post with a star emoji; if a post gets 9 stars, it gets shared to the board! It’s like the highlights reel at the end of a Mario Kart Race, but user generated. It's a good way to quickly know what's been going on in the server.

🐰 Our Bunny Hutch (AKA prompts sharing category) is always hopping. Enter at your own risk! You may go there with the intention of dropping off one prompt for someone else to adopt, and leave having adopted 4 new WIPS of your own!

And most importantly, we are a fandom community looking to share with each other the things we love doing or seeing in the fandom. You are likely to find writers, artists, and commenters you know from AO3 or Tumblr, but you might also find new friends to hang out with or be inspired by new things while lurking.

🔷 What can I expect upon joining?

☑️ Once you join, you will have to read our guidelines to make sure you agree with them and know what you can expect in terms of how we handle the server.

☑️ There are also roles to be selected so you can customize your experience. Some roles will allow you to give information to other members (such as the pronouns you select), others will give you an aesthetic (such as color roles), others are pingable and alert you for specific activities (such as movie nights ,or a new writing game being set up, or when someone wants others to bounce ideas). Some will also grant you access to specific sections in our server, such as dark or nsfw channels, which won't be visible otherwise.

☑️ Don't forget to also select the 18+ role which grants you acces to the whole server. This one is made specifically to confirm you agree with the guidelines and are 18 or older, since that's our sole requirement to join the server.

☑️ Once you define your roles, you can check our server roadmap to guide you through the many channels we have in the server with descriptions for each of them and the bots we have available to help through the experience.

☑️ Don't worry if you get a few pings upon entering: we have a welcome mat where others will greet you once you're in.

🔷 How can I join?

To join, send us an ask confirming you're 18+ and someone in our team will send you the link. You can find the ask box as "Ask us anything here" at the top of our blog or clicking here. Please make sure you check your inbox for our reply. If you sent us an ask and haven't gotten a reply in 48hrs, please let us know either replying in this post or contacting one of our mods.

We hope you have fun and fulfill your hero-haunting needs💚👻

[valyrfia]

I mean this the nicest way possible but have you considered the fact that you just .. hate RPF? Wich is fine, like you said it's a gray area. It's not everyone's cup of tea, actually! It's not even mine because I actually came across those trailers you said! And I instantly went "ew wtf" and I clicked not interested, and then I another showed up, and clicked not interested, and then the algorithm went ok got it, and it's been a while thankfully, that hasn't showed up. So, what I mean is, there is content in the internet that is weird, that's for sure, but there's like... Ways to avoid it? And the way that this has been a persistent subject in your blog in such a deep way makes me think that you suffer it more than anyone, wich is fine but just, don't look at it anymore? I don't know what to say honestly because, again no to be rude but youre making the MOST out of it. And it's like you're treating fandom culture like this deep dark secret when its as public as it can be and I promise you the most a person can do is feel weirded out and mute that content, and hope it doesn't show up.! But for example, I hate povs content, and that has to be the most persistent content I've seen so far on F1, full of "you're the wife/girl/sister" blah blah and I'm a lesbian, I've clicked not interested so many times I lost count and IT KEPT showing up (until i figured muting y/n, driver x reader helps) so if it keeps you more calm there are ways to avoid content you dont like!

I get where you’re going with this but also, nah. I’ve always loved RPF and will keep consuming it whenever I can. I just make a big stink out of seeing it outside of tumblr and ao3 because of algorithms and the way I was taught to interact with RPF about fifteen years ago in which….these things have to stay within their intended circles at all costs. This is back when fandom content was not cool and mainstream and unless you kept your fandom life and your actual life very separate you get bullied to hell for it. Now, I often feel like the pendulum has swung a little too far the other way and there’s such a massive influx of new people because fandom culture is trendy that fandom etiquette is starting to collapse. The treatment of RPF being one of them.

RPF differs from POV content in two ways. The first is that POV content is a little more accepted than RPF in the general consciousness, usually because it’s het but also because it’s very obvious this is a self insert fantasy which while I imagine is awkward for drivers to see, can be easily laughed off as being so obviously just a fantasy. RPF on the other hand builds off of pre-existing relationships and lore and is usually slash, which already introduces an awkward element (and you can say the men shouldn’t have toxic masculinity all you like, it’s not just them that’s the issue it’s everyone who perceives them and the content), also it’s more difficult because people DO talk about these pairings platonically. In order to not experience Lestappen on my tiktok FYP, I can’t interact with any video that mentions those two in the same breath ever because the algorithm will eventually push me ship content even if I don’t want to see it and I click not interested. This happens over and over again.

I love RPF which am just on super high alert about RPF safe spaces being breached because I know from lived experience that it doesn’t bode well. This is also just personally not the way I was taught to interact with fandom, and again I’ve seen enough shit in my time to understand why that etiquette had to be enforced.

[aerkame]

I will no longer write for other AUs for Welcome Home (please read in full)

TW: Mentions of NSFW/pedos

I know some people only followed me because of a fic or two I might have started writing on for another Welcome Home AU, but recently I have started to notice the increasing toxicity of the fandom overall. Yeah, I've been other fandoms I know there is toxicity and I know there's a lot of nice people in this fandom, but I have NEVER seen it this bad. Out of all the fandoms/fanbases that I have been in, I have never seen such a huge problem regarding pedos, NSFW art/writing being shared and looked at by minors despite the creator's wishes, general toxic behavior, and a large amount of mentally unwell people working their way into groups of children or safe spaces. I ended up having to delete quite a few NSFW art pieces on twitter because I found minors had seen it and some guy decided to make a comment on my OC Lilith that I was not comfortable with.

I also do not feel alright having to restrict myself on what I write or draw because a single person might be "triggered" or "offended" by it. I know I put warnings when they are needed, I should not have to feel like I'm walking on eggshells in this fandom. I do not need anonymous asks telling me how I should and shouldn't write or what I can and can't say.

Because of how bad it's been and seeing more and more creators leave the fandom, I have decided to no longer engage in other AUs or creators unless it's from a follower (I know you guys are fine), friend, or person I know I've talked with before, OR if it's Clown himself. A lot of people forget that Welcome Home isn't what people keep writing it as. Welcome Home isn't even close to being done, we're just riding off the AUs right now. It really rubs me the wrong way that all I ever see on AO3 now with fanfictions are smut fics mainly and some pretty disturbing stuff.

There is so much, too much, s3xualization in this fandom and the romanticizing of serious and dangerous themes/topics. A lot of times believe or not, when I draw buff characters with no shirts, it really is just anatomy practice. I do not understand some of the comments I get sometimes in my inbox. Yes it's fine to tease a bit, but my goodness some of the comments I have seen before are concerning. I never intend on s3xualizing the characters and yet I always get anon asks going a bit out there with s3xualized comments. It's why I haven't really drawn that stuff in a while. I can't tell if people really do s3xualize that stuff or if they're seeing it as anatomy practice with a bit of tease like I do.

I have been bottling A LOT of things up recently and it's hindered my ability to really write or draw how I want. I'm always scrapping ideas and giving up halfway through.

It's always "Is this something that people are going to s3xualize?" "Is this something that might offend someone in x category?' "Will people like this new character?" "Am I good enough for this topic?". It's not healthy and I know that it affects my creativity and mentality, I won't be restricting myself anymore though. I will write/draw what I want, just please heed my warnings when I put them there and don't ignore my boundaries or the boundaries of others.

Now, regarding my own two AUs (I dropped the Dream one because I have something special planned for TFP), The Finfolk AU and Alive AU. I WILL continue writing/drawing for them. They are my own AUs with my own characters added in them. A lot of people that interact with me are followers and I know you guys would never disrespect my OCs or invade boundaries and I love you so much for that. Of course my rule on requests remain the same. NO NSFW for the normal Welcome Home, but NSFW is allowed for Finfolk AU requests.

Unfortunately, all of this does mean I will not continue the fic I was writing for @clownsuu Mob AU. I'm sorry, I just really do not feel like writing for an AU outside of what I know in terms of the person who makes it. I am not sure how to explain it other than I don't feel alright with it unless it's like an AU from someone I know or at least talked to before? Just at least a person I know on some personal level. I don't want to explore the fandom right now, it is a mess with the people in it...do not take this the wrong way, I DO NOT hate anyone outside of the people I know, I just don't feel comfortable in the fandom at the moment and I will not leave you guys behind either. So in short, I plan to just stay in my own lane so to speak and do what I can for the ones who follow me for what I do.

I will however finish the Villain fanfiction as it's not exactly anyone's AU? Not sure how to explain that, it was a series of asks for it. And obviously I will make a full long fanfictions for the Alive and Finfolk AU.

I know I said I don't want to vent on here, but it's getting hard for me to ignore. Everytime I type or pick up a pencil to make something on here it doesn't feel right.

[utilitycaster]

(Long ask warning)

Hello! I'm jumping on the appreciation train to say thank you so much for all of your meta and analysis! I just found your blog today, and you've already given me so much clarity and context for things I've been noticing in the CR fandom lately.

I quite literally spent my summer living under a rock (in the woods leading spelunking for scouts!) and so was completely out of the loop from early June through September. And while I am not yet caught up (I'm about to start ep. 65), I have been going through the tags and ao3, because I primarily engage with fandom through fic and I don't care about spoilers. And I can't help but notice that everything being written for c3 lately is just... monochromatic. The Hells have such interesting characters and premises. One would think they're ripe for creative and interesting fic. And yet even what little gen fic that I have seen since returning to civilization has largely been boiled down to reiterative mush with vaguely shippy overtones. I can totally see this being indicative of the cresting and waning of the Imodna and Callowmore shipping you've been discussing.

I've gotta ask though, is it really just shipping that is causing this problem? Or is there something else in the source material that you think could be affecting fic in particular?

This is the first time I've been in a fandom with ongoing source material in over a decade. I'm used to watching people beat dead horses in their own little corner, safe in the knowledge that I can block them and it isn't going to affect my experience in the slightest. I guess I'm just having a hard time believing/remembering that shipping can be this incidious.

So a couple of things: first, I was not heavily involved in fandom until Critical Role; I have a decent amount of background knowledge from being on Tumblr and because I do tend to look into/research this kind of thing because it's very interesting to me, but you will probably have better snapshot of what fandom looked like 10 years ago than I do. Second, fanfic has always been a tiny aspect of what I've engaged with and I do find the bulk of it to be dull and samey (which is why it is a tiny aspect), so again, you probably are a better judge of the quality of fanfic elsewhere.

With that said, as part of a much larger discussion of which I only have as mentioned pieces of the puzzle, I do think there's been a shift over the past decade or so of like...people expecting the source material to reflect fanfic-y desires, and resenting it when it does not; people not seeing the point in enjoying non-canon ships; and a broader theme of self-infantilization. This has to a small extent spilled over into published fiction, though thankfully there's plenty that isn't that. It's not just shipping (though that absolutely can be insidious to the point that people have been harassed and doxxed over it); I think it's a general taste for pablum that has been growing within fandom spaces.

I'll link a few posts I've made and a source that, while I cannot vouch for it per se I did read and found enlightening at the end but I think a really indicative example as of late was the fandom response to the show Good Omens (spoilers for Good Omens S2 in the next link if you are by any chance avoiding those). Obviously do not do anything obnoxious to the person who wrote this question, but there are a worrying number of people in fandom spaces who believe this unironically and uncritically: fiction exists to "save us from hurtful reality." And I do understand that the tumultuous politics and world events of the past decade are probably a factor; but I mean, have you looked at literature from the first half of the 20th century (or like. the second half, for that matter)? It is, in my opinion, only going to help put our modern world and issues in better context and honestly make you feel better in the long run if you read, say, The Great Gatsby or The Things They Carried instead of burying your head in lower case song lyrics ... (hurt/comfort, fix-it, happy ending, 6k) and like, to be clear, I have written a small portion of lower case song lyric-titled fics myself but most of them aren't terribly happy, and even so, god I'd be horrified if that was all people were reading.

We've seen it across fandom at large with the polls; I have not watched season 2 of Our Flag Means Death in part because I've realized with horror that this mentality has swept, plague-like, through that fandom; people are acting like having a canon queer ship on a small premium cable show in 2022 is world-changing and unprecedented while also kind of ignoring everything that isn't the central ship (including valid criticisms of how this takes a real-world plantation owner and turns him into a goofy fop, how there's precious few female characters and none in the main cast, and how the actually far more groundbreaking nb character is pushed aside in favor of the core M/M ship). Spoilers for Good Omens again (sorry in advance, Good Omens 2 was a realization point for me how deeply and widely this rot has set in in some places and I have a bunch of sources of people being like "guys stories require conflict and tension to be good" in response to the overwrought moaning that the story wasn't unambiguously happy) but this is another author responding to the "the desired endpoint of all fiction is obviously to have your ship living in a small house together in bliss and anything else is torment" mentality.

In addition to shipping another factor is, I think, people overidentifying with characters and as such being reluctant to actually put them through any sort of hardship, however minor. I recently reblogged a post about the origin of the concept "Mary Sue" and it led me to read a bit about its history, because it was in fact created by women. It was a woman in the Star Trek fandom who was sick of spending money to buy fanzines (pre-common home internet, let alone pre-Ao3) only to find the vast majority of the stories to be this "here is my self-insert who is perfect and beautiful and pure and every other character thinks she is the greatest even if that's entire OOC". It was a frustration with the abandonment of the characterizations in the original work. And that's true today - I have read a popular Imogen and Laudna fluff fic to see what the deal was and it stripped out so much of their premises and characterizations it was unrecognizeable as them but for the hair colors and occasional cringeworthy attempts to replicate Southern US dialect - but what was notable is that those people were at least being honest and writing OCs (though to be fair a lot of them were also young white teen girls and the only woman in TOS was black and that was probably also a factor). Now, you get people who cannot tolerate any analysis of characters that is less than flattering because instead of having an OC, they are identifying so strongly with, for example, Imogen or Ashton, that they cannot separate out the real character or understand this is not an attack on them (or, to be blunt, as someone who sees some of my own worse traits in both those characters, a necessary critique). It's not shipping, but it is that same "fiction should only ever be a soft blanket or a flattering mirror, never a dark mirror and certainly never a door" mentality.

I do place a little blame on fanfiction itself; I think having something that is roughly made to order and tells you exactly what it is up front means people start to think that is the only way, and that's why we have people claiming Chipotle is the height of cuisine while making gagging noises at the authentic Mexican restaurant except for fiction. I think fanfiction can be great; it's fun to write and I have read some great pieces. But a lot of it is mush and formulaic and as that Mary Sue history points out, always has been.

So anyway, to Bells Hells: I think past campaigns also had a lot of dull fanfiction; I think the Nein lent themselves more to poorly written angst than poorly written fluff but yeah a lot of that was really samey and bland in its own way. Fanfiction has always been formulaic to a degree but I think we're starting to see the generation of people who really have read more of that than like, books, and sure there are shitty books, but man there's a LOT of shitty fanfiction, and increasingly, I find that shitty published books are bad because they're too much like fanfiction. [If I get the chance today I have a post I want to write about the ignorance of fantasy tropes in the current fandom which I think is also driving some of this and which I alluded to in my post about shipping; like, I feel the almost automatic but oddly thought-free resistance to gods and fate and the 'right' way to respond to a tragic backstory comes from this ignorance; this also is a case in the D20 fandom when they've dipped into sci fi.] Shipping definitely is a factor, and I think again C3 has an influx of fans primarily here to ship in that "my ship must become canon and must 'win' for some arbitrary definition thereof" which is probably why so much of the fanfic sucks, but again, this is a larger self-infantilizing and entitled mentality that goes beyond mere ships.

Further reading (mostly my own posts but not exclusively)

The fandom echo chamber (also Good Omens spoilers in a broad sense), not by me

Some discussion on queerphobia being inserted only as a tool to assist with specific shipping narratives (I think this ties in again to like. people need obstacles to justify why the characters aren't already in their cottage by the sea but once the characters are together they discard these obstacles even if they are systemic and would still exist, which makes for really bad fanfic bc it's clearly poorly plotted and thought out)

Me on why this campaign isn't good for shipping but a lot of the fandom showed up primarily to ship (might be the post that prompted this ask tbf)

Fandom monocropping (not my post)

My treatise on Imogen and Laudna specifically which honestly, even now that they are canon, still largely holds up re: the fandom and a related one about similarly fluff-centric Change is Evil and the highest order of fiction is Two Blorbos In A House With Zero Problems mentality (not by me but I've been part of that discussion)

[rainofaugustsith]

There was a post about the dearth of f/f stories on Ao3, and yes, I feel that. There was a post about it I responded to, and I wanted to take the time to express my own thoughts more fully.

First, I don't think anyone should write anything they don't want to write. Fanfic is for fun. You should write what's fun for you. I don't generally write m/m or f/m couples. I've read both fanfic and published books for both which have been wonderful but as a sapphic woman my general preference is to write stories that are f/f. I don't feel obligated to write m/m or f/m; there are plenty of other writers out there who are doing a great job with that.

Second, nobody has to like a character. If one routinely dislikes most or every character who is a woman/gay/BIPOC I do think that may point to something significant about bias the person might want to explore, and if one holds these characters to unreasonable double standards vs. the white/heterosexual/cis/male characters that also speaks to bias. And don't even get me started on whitewashing; when a character is clearly BIPOC and he's mysteriously white in every piece of fan art, things that make you go hmmm. But no, if you don't like a specific character, nobody's holding a gun to your head to make you change your mind.

Where there is vast room for improvement, though, is the way women in some fandom spaces actively try to tear down female characters and ships. It's not enough for them to dislike female characters; they have to ensure that everyone knows it every day, and that anyone who feels differently is completely excluded from the fandom.

I've been in fandoms where women fans have actively tried to get female characters killed off, removed from the story, given less screen time and fewer lines because oh noes, the camera isn't focusing on their male blorbo for two seconds, or another character actually gets to take the lead. I've been in fandoms where fans have gone out of their way to harass people who do appreciate women characters and ships and alienate them out of fandom spaces. And in such cases the fact that wlw might actually like to see relationships and characters who reflect their orientation is dismissed as something unimportant. I've seen message boards where people who hate female characters rant about every bit of screen time, every line, over and over and over again even in topics that have fucking nothing to do with that. I've seen Tumblr posts trying to appreciate female characters where these fans immediately jump in and try to railroad it to their male blorbos.

Does that have a chilling effect on f/f and fandom of female characters? I'd be hard pressed to say it doesn't. Who wants to be in fandom spaces if you're going to be trolled? How can fandoms flourish in that environment? In addition, if you've screamed enough to get the writers to reduce female characters' roles - as they did with Rose Tico in Star Wars, for instance - those characters have much fewer chances to get good story arcs and lines, and to develop in ways that would make them more engaging and might actually attract more fans and writers.

Don't write f/f if you don't like it. Don't read it if you don't like it. Why ruin it for those who do?

You make the fandom you want, on some levels - you block and TumblrSavior the trolls, you curate your experience, you create a safe enclave. Having said that, if there was less aggression against f/f fans from their own fandoms, one could imagine there would be more people willing to write f/f.

[bapydemonprincess]

I’m 24 and I’ve been in this fandom since like 2010 . So not the entire time it’s been around but I was here for its main surge I feel like. And I won’t lie, when I was 10 and a majority of the fandom did ship sebaciel publicly and people made you feel weird for not shipping it, I definitely did engage with it. It was pushed on me as a 10 year old by a majority of the fandom, and I didn’t see anything wrong because I was younger than ciel/same age and I was like “yeah I think Sebastian is cute and I’m the same age as ciel so—“ BUT you know as I got older I’d say even by 14 I had the realization of how gross it was and how I didn’t actually ship it it was just that they were the two main characters in the fandom and that typically main characters are the ones who get shipped and that at that time in the fandom it was impossible to not be faced with ship stuff. And I was groomed by adults in the fandom on this very website. They knew my age and would send me smut and talk to me about myself and flirt and I honestly feel bad that I ever did engage with the ship. I didn’t know any better. But now as an adult when I do see sebaciel stuff I find myself questioning if they’re just young and if they’re going to grow out of it too and I wonder if maybe they’re also having it pushed on them by older fans like I was. I find it concerning because i know what it did to myself and what kind of situations I was put in because of it. I try to avoid the adult ones because unfortunately I think if they haven’t grown out of it and realized the implications of the ship and how it does affect real life I don’t know that they ever will. I hate that this fandom has such a bad label on it. Every person I mention it to is like— “oh the pedophile demon anime?” And it just sickens me. Idk this is kind of just a rant and I wanted to offer my thoughts as someone who has been in the fandom a long time and as someone who was in the fandom as a child even. I’m sorry if this is weird ask to send but I see you posting content about it sometimes and it made me feel safe to share my thoughts

Well I am not personally good at answering these types of asks but I am glad you felt safe to send this to me, specifically, and get it off your chest, it's all good!! 💖 And glad to know you came to realize how bad the ship was at one point, I'm always happy to see that happen once in a while in kuro, because there are so many folks around my age refusing to accept the truth and doubling down on proshipping, and also I notice very recently too trying to cause problems on purpose for antis in their spaces. 😒 It's getting hard out there since the new anime came out, and a lot of those types have attempted to return.. likely from twitter where they ran off to last time they were booted (some quite literally banned hmm I wonder why) from tumblr.

And the worst WORST part knowing proshippers around my age is knowing.. remembering.. the very beginnings of kuro, seeing the early fics on ao3 by those guys, who really started it all, knowing somewhere they're still out there.. some even maybe with kids of their own WHO KNOWS... Ugh.

And I hope new fans, no matter their age really, make sure to be careful esp on here in the main kuro tag, for these proshippers have been constantly- AND VERY BLATANTLY I MIGHT ADD -trying to advertise their blogs and discords as safe spaces for interacting... CLEARLY trying to start/continue the process of grooming that is so well known in fandoms like kuro at this point.

Overall just use block on tumblr recreationally, it's free real estate ✨, stay safe in general, and again don't be afraid whether on fellow anti blogs like mine send messages or if you feel more comfortable make posts of your own on your own blog expressing how you feel, getting it out of your system.

Hope my response was okay (I say because I'm at work at also health-wise a bit out of it so sorry grbhjfkugu) and hope you, anon are currently doing okay now!! Thank you again for sharing your personal experience!!

[damnfandomproblems]

Since one ask in response to Problem #4927 has generated several replies in a short time, I've decided to consolidate the ones I've received into one post.

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Anon:

You know when you see an ask that's so off the mark, and you wonder to yourself hm, which of the blogs I recently blocked for having 'proship dni' in their bio (because no reasonable and properly informed person would have that in their bio) could this be? This. This is that ask

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Anon:

I wish I could block people who send anons to other blogs because sometimes the take is just so misguided don't even want to try unpackong it

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Anon:

Most people seem to agree this is an ice cold take, but I want to add this too (without assigning blame to anyone who does this, since there isn't actually anything blameworthy about the example): I think part of the problem with all these people (including anon) thinking proship means "I ship (thing)" is bolstered by the fact a ton of people who ship certain uncomfortable, or controversial, dynamics often have "proship" in big words at the top of their blog. And anyone who sees this ends up conflating "proship" with "I ship (thing)"... Even though the causation is actually the inverse. As in, they ship (thing), so why wouldn't they be proship, a stance that says ship and let ship? Would be awfully dumb if they weren't. Meanwhile, a lot of proship people who don't really have controversial or dark or whatever else ships tend to not have "proship" at the top of their blogs, which just solidifies the conflation of "proship" meaning "I ship (thing)". Some do, but most don't. But like another commenter said, I feel like we might need to just move away from buzzwords all together, because clearly people won't stop trying to repackage what they mean, and or misinterpret them based on first-glance, passing observations. That second part is mainly why I think "proship", while the root is pretty damn self-explanatory, still confuses people.

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Anon:

"stop calling yourself a proshipper if you only like mix-raced and other such safe stuff," Okay, two questions: 1. Do you realize mixed race ships are actually super controversial and dangerous to ship, because some antis will say you're either fetishizing (even if you're not), or accuse you of "tokenizing" a non-white character by shipping them with a white character? 2. What are your parameters for what qualifies as "safe"? Because you're already showing one of the biggest anti (or pro-censorship, if you really don't want to use "fandom words") hypocrisies in the book: attacking certain subject matter while giving other kinds of subject matter, which are arguably just as taboo, a free pass. For instance, most antis don't bat an eye about shipping Hannibal and Will Graham (Hannibal NBC series) because that, despite the plethora of physical and mental abuse, is just that. It's not sexual taboo, just every other kind of taboo. So I ask, what are your parameters for what is "safe"? Because chances are, they will either be contradictory in some way, or just make no sense.

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Anon:

["Make a new term" fucking lol. Should proshippers go make their own Ao3, too?] My reaction exactly, lol. Also, for anyone who didn't already know: AO3 literally was created by proshippers. One person actually shipped Wincest and Thorki, and wanted a censorship-free (within the confines of US law, obviously) space to archive that stuff. Hence AO3 was born. The people who made AO3 are now middle aged or nearly there, and aren't going to take your shit. So in that sense, it's more like: listen up, all you annoying-ass censorship-happy babies: AO3's source code is public, it's all there, you're free to make your own space, if you don't like the one WE created, then YOU came barging into, then YOU started screaming about containing stuff you didn't like.

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Anon:

I am a fandom oldie and I miss when "proship" and "anitship" were just terms used in fandom with no deeper meaning. You could be both a "proship" and "antiship" person simultaneously because it was a ship by ship basis. I miss when they literally just meant "I like this ship" and "I do not like this ship". No argument on morality one way or the other. No harassment. Just people loving their fictional characters' dynamics and enjoying them with other people. Example: a NaruHina proshipper meant you shipped Naruto and Hinata for any reson (maybe you liked their chemistry). A NaruHina antishipper meant you probably not only didn't like the ship, but were actively against it for some reason (could be any reason like you shipped NaruSaku or something, that you didn't like their dynamic, or any other reason). It wasn't about the ship being "problematic" or whatever. It was just a personal feeling.

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Anon:

For Christ’s sake, a lot of issues could be solved with a Google search (proship means anti-harassment, anti-censorship, ship and let ship) or just blocking and moving on. Or just resolving misunderstandings instead of leaving dirty laundry out in public. I do not use the proship label. I am very against censorship, hence the meaning of the label, but I’m not slapping a label on myself that essentially boils down to, “I don’t like this, so I’m not gonna look at it/imma block people or tags because I don’t like it” and then moving on. And because ironically, people who have easy access to the internet where, again, Google is free, will slap on a false accusation on me over fiction. And that is something I do not want to deal with. Before someone goes, “I have been harassed by proshippers more than antis,” those people are NOT proshippers, those were actual antis. Or alternatively, “there was a kid that got groomed by proshippers,” again, those people are NOT proshippers, those are predators. Again, Google is free, look up terms, and wash the bias you have for specific people out of your eyes and out of your ears. Use your critical thinking skills.

[real-total-drama-takes]

I have a dumb question?

Why everyone mad at the smut?

But those say I would never draw questionable outfits to many said characters, but it's not smut they will say.

When I go on AO3 I was 12ish mostly was more not kid friendly or teen friendly, I guess.

My solution is baby gate:

We kick out all the kids and teens out. Call their parents, snitch on them for looking up smut, block their access to internet, and never let them grow up ever. In fact, we should ban total drama for the new generations because it's too grown up for them in general (I am joking... this a joke)

See that's not nice or solving anything.

Or other solutions we ban anyone from the fandom we just don't even dox them to point the take their own life (I am not serious about this too)

So either you think teenagers should never see anything related to smut to sexual to inherently grown in general.

So, do we raise children who are not our own and band together to ban them off Tumblr and the total drama fandom as a whole to save "purity" and protect the children in general?

Because most of you sound like the church.

I want safer ways of teenagers to grown up in general, do want teens reading smut or watching porn.... NO. I rather they not but I can't raise or control these teenagers.

BUT... I don't want them to end up like me.

I was sexual assaulted growing up a lot sometimes reading a safe smut scene between who teens that loved each other at that time made me understand what happened to me was wrong. I don't want to realize years later they were groomed, abuse, and used like sex thing because instead of exploring it out in a fictional space of writing then doing it in reality.

So maybe we should write more with tag only for adults, toxic relationship included, main characters aren't good people here.

Sex is not everything.

Love is not everything.

A lot of things aren't everything for many.

You sound like bitter old people, and I am higher than Jesus for not liking smut or ever writing smut.

People exist even if we don't want them too.

Smut and porn been here longer than this fandom as a whole.

We can do something about it but with understanding, respect, and without judgement as growing adults and adults in this fandom.

Also, you can mute writers, block, and call people out ONLY WHEN NEEDED TO!!!

Point in case this more complicated than it seems.

Courtney to Leshawna to Katie to Alejandro to Lindsay to Heather are often in sexualization, stereotyped, and fucked in manner that I don't like at times.

Like if you go I am writing this for letting you know from my own personal experience that I been sexualized or harassed as a child to teen as black teen like Leshawna or in case of Alejandro stereotype... I wrote this story to release my pain, confusion, fear, and the placed burdens of others off me for now in my story of fanfic.

You go WELL I DIDN'T LIKE IT AND THAT NEVER HAPPENS IN REAL LIFE....

Your ignorance is a privilege I wish I can say I crave as a child to teen. Unlucky for me I had to go through awful shit then if it's in my stories then why are you still here if your judgement is I don't belong to you- you who is high and mighty so damn powerful- even skilled writer at that.

You complain but not create.

You don't like what you see or read then create better and make it a safer place for others like you.

Shame is badge of honor at one's home were parents don't believe you growing up.

Some others are here to escape, some for joy and community, some for since 2007 times them growing up with this fandom but now we divide ourselves like we aren't in a fandom called total drama.

We need to address the fact that no wants to hurt child, we don't want any child to teens scarred or burden at a young age, but to not realize they themselves are people makes me feel like maybe we should do something in were maybe whole 2 weeks just teen/child friendly context for the new generation joining the fandom.

From an abused child to teen that had no sex education until 16 years old due to the lgbt+ club in my high school forced in my system after saving me from getting sexually harassed by an 18-year-old boy that I thought was being just nice to me. Now a growing young adult in therapy who can't live with themselves and what happened to me.

It's just cartoons and fandom to some of you.

Some people find families to love to reasons to live in brain rot of total drama.

I really like sillies here and the stories some you of you put on AO3. We can't always control what we like or dislike...

Some writer age them to 33s to 40s

But I will say I don't like 12 to 30 ship or rareships that only smut. That's problem I don't want to open up on

I don't like self inserts or OC dating Duncan and being friends with Gwen but hate on Courtney 24/7 or something similar to that only because that's my own opinion to deal with, but I am not like oh I would never... I am like could never and mention each time without doing something about it.

You know how I deal with it? Mute.

Even Block as last option.

So the point is we can do better as a fandom, yes! And no!

No because you guys keep fighting with yourselves more than anyone else I have ever seen.

I don't write smut, but I make drawing of the said characters in very tiny to sexual context, yet I am not like those awful smut writers!

Dude... you are at the level of the smut writers too. Bestie the glass house of the fandom is in shambles from the hot air and rocks we keep throwing and missing at each other!

So maybe tag as only mature and not for teens.

UH>>>>>>> there must be more I left out too.

I am fanfic writer, and I want to leave because I think I am more harm than good now with some of your talks what should not be in this fandom or what should.

I regret to inform you that I wish to cancel my mind and never wrote if it meant you guys were going treat me like I am in church again and I am their hopeful for belonging but instead everyone wants me to never be me or even be there because I am not like you.

I don't know how to please you when I am trying to just exist and write stupid cartoons kiss, be parents, and be mature.

Instead I guess I can only write 55 million words of 33 million stories of them never growing up, no kissing, no friendship, no affection, just drama and competition in general to please thy holey moley of the fandom.

Also we should write more asexual or queer relationship in a health manner.

AND STOP BEING RACIST TO LESHAWNA--- WHY YOU ARE LETTING HAROLD AHHHHHHH AHAHAHHFH DO THAT TO LESHAWNA

I am emotionally not okay, and I didn't know where I can say this. But the point is I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT FANDOM DO YOU WANT FANS WHO FEEL SAFE, HAPPY, AND CREATE FOR THE FANDOM OR SHAME ALL THAT AREN'T LIKE YOU OUT HERE.

LOOK THERE'S SHIT WE NEED CALL OUT AND NO ALLOW BUT ARE WE MORAL POLICE

DO THE HEAVENS SAY TOTAL DRAMA FANDOMS MUST NEVER WANT SEX OR GROWN UP?

I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON BUT YOU GUYS ARE FIGHT?

ARE YOU FIGHTING?

FIGHTING FOR WHAT?

FIGHTING EACH OTHER OR SAFER PLACE FOR ALL?

SOME US NEED JOBS AND BASIC NEED MET BUT WE GO HERE HAVE FUN THEN SEE THIS AND I AM LIKE WTF IS HAPPENING?!

ARE WE FIGHTING? WHY?

I need someone else to explain to me like I am 3 years old. To do less harm in general and understand wtf going on

[ja3yun]

Maybe I’m naive or maybe it’s the brain rot… but am I being completely delusional in thinking that tumblr is almost 99.999% a fan site that artists (especially kpop idols) do not engage with and probably don’t even have much regard for? Like this is a space for the chronically online. Most people don’t use any of their own personal information/faces/identifiers bc this is not a real place; it’s a black hole. That’s not to say that your work here is insignificant (it’s helped me a lot to escape from everyday anxiety and stress so thank you 🙏) but it's not like you or any other adult writer are writing these stories and then spamming them on Weverse or any other platform where the members are active.

I guess my point is that we the adults that engage in 18+ enhablr are minding our business and keeping the fantasies in fantasy land and then going to work in the real world. Like we do not know Enha for real. Some people apparently don't have jobs or lives, so they send hate to people online and act like they are personally offended on behalf of adult men they don't know and never will. It's giving desperate fan that thinks going to the airport to get an interaction is more sane than staying at home, kicking your feet, and giggling at imagining meeting and knowing the boys in real life (95% of the time as non-idols anyways which is another degree of separation).

I'm sorry for ranting. I'm just a huge believer that fanfic is a very safe and respectful way of engaging in fandom because we leave the real people out of it. We're not screaming inappropriate things and sexually harassing the boys to their faces, which happens way too often. We're engaging in community fan-to-fan which to me strengthens the fandom. There are things we talk about as Engenes that will never make it back to boys and thats okay. What makes fandom fun is not always the direct connection to the artist, it's the community we build because of them.

I hope you and the other amazing writers on this site know how important you are ❤️ thanks for taking your time to write and engage 💐

anon this is so!! you get it exactly. i think a lot of us post here because why tf would enha know this place exists? and its a safe place really bc if you want smut, you come here or go to ao3.

i think hate to writers is so petty bc it is the one form of media you can easily avoid? like to see smut you need to seek it out yknow? i never write in the general tags or post inappropriately, so for people to find my blog must mean they are looking for smthn 💀

hate comes w any platform, esp to creators of any kind so i kinda knew what i was signing up for. some of it kinda makes me go??? like im not making the boys out to be horrible or bullies like i try and write them as nice as i can so some of the hate saying i 'tarnish' their name is so false lmao

thank you anon, i'm sure every writer here appreciates the kind words and also, just the fact that you understand is enough for us

ilysm <33

[burst-of-iridescent]

in relation to the ask you got about zutara loosing popularity���i say this as someone who’s been a zk stan for almost ten years now, but the ship was never that popular outside of fandom culture you can find on tumblr, twitter, old forums, fanfic sites, etc. i joined an atla facebook group some years ago and had to leave because of the totally unwarranted hatred people had for zutara. honesty, i think some people underestimate the huge impact atla had and still has on non-fandom people. everyone loves it. the ‘normie’ fanbase is made up for a solid % of cishet men who are indeed misogynistic and homophobic, and not because they don’t ship zutara so they must be bad. i mean, have you seen all the hatred characters like katara and korra get for simply being humans with flaws? that’s mostly cishet men talking. zukka also is massively popular on twitter, tumblr and ao3, and that is because this specific fandom culture is known for not really caring about canon—yet i read some nasty stuff about them. i personally am not a fan of the ship but certainly not because they’re gay. but a lot of ‘normie’ atla stan’s are dudebros who can’t stomach the fact that a beloved male character of theirs can be gay.

fandoms might seem huge from the inside, but it’s a small group as opposed to the many people that consume a piece of media and then just… move on. that’s the reality with every big non-canon ship, not only zk. spend a day in the hp fandom and you may end up thinking everyone is crazy about drarry, dramione and wolfstar—but casual watchers don’t care about any of those, and though i don’t know the numbers, youtube is a huge platform, so i think it’s safe to assume that casual watchers outnumber fandom people.

yep, i agree. i've only been in zutara fandom since early 2021, but having been in a variety of different fandoms since 2013, there is a really major difference between how fandom works and general audience works for the same media property. it's just a natural consequence of the significant disparity in interest and passion.

and like you said, it's also extremely difficult for zutara fandom to exist in fandom spaces outside of tumblr. i've never been on facebook, but that sounds like an awful experience, and sadly unsurprising. instagram, tiktok and reddit in particular are just horribly toxic cesspits that love to hate on zutara and zutara shippers at any opportunity, and though i'm not on twitter, i've seen enough of the drama that goes down there to know it's probably not much better. tumblr is pretty much the safest space for zk fandom (which is saying a lot, given the levels of hate and harassment here alone) so obviously polls conducted on sites with a low presence of zk fandom are going to be skewed against zutara.

that's why i don't really care how well we do in polls or how popular we are. i would ship zutara even if it was just me, myself and i against the world lmao. having this wonderful community that is constantly creating and collaborating and enjoying the ship together is just a lovely bonus.

[seoafin]

hi Morgan! I hope everything's going well! I just wanted to stop by because, aside from ddao/fic updates, I really enjoy reading your posts & your blog in general (you're literally .. the stsg writer to me but i swear. this isn't going to be another ask abt me complimenting your work, I must be getting boring 😂) so I just thought of sending something in to have a chat but please feel absolutely free to ignore me if I'm bothering you or if you're busy :)) !

I've only now seen the rude asks you got recently (i've been living under a rock due to exams, sigh) and the Gojo hate anon had me flabbergasted . . as a Gojo girlie/fucker/everything myself (and a Gojo bullying lover. he 100% deserves it 🤩) the honesty left me speechless 😭.  Not to mention the person who rated your fic when bookmarking it on AO3 .. ?!?! that was so incredibly disrespectful. Maybe I'm naive but I could have never imagined it was a thing before coming back to fandom spaces - you aren't the first author I see pointing out this behavior from readers on the site .. I think it's just insane how people can be so gratuitously rude (and allow me to add tasteless. the 3/10 was definitely personal).

I've also seen your more recent posts about not wanting to write the next Gojo scenes in ddao (tbh i get that. he is the character I struggle to write the most & in general .. he is the hind of person he is yk what I'm saying 😂) but I'm glad you're finding some motivation to work through it! please stay strong 😂!! What do you think is the hardest thing abt them for you? As a writer, or personally, either point of view is fine! is it anything in particular like the dialogue .. any part of the writing process, or is it him in general (that would be an incredibly valid answer too 😂)? I personally find him pretty hard to write - it's likely a personal limit, but especially when some kind of romance or pining is involved. I mean the dynamics are probably already going to be some flavor of messed up and chaotic when he's in the picture (especially with Geto) .. hence why I think if I was in rip!mc's shoes i think I wouldn't have survived the mess 💀. He definitely wouldn't be helpful at all in such situation .. Geto is just so much better at presenting and promoting himself to others than Gojo is, despite being equally messy and messed up behind the facade. Which is a fairly obvious statement. But what makes him hard to deal with is the fact I think Gojo would likely open his mouth and say something outta pocket/offensive and/or misleading about his feelings and then act frustrated about how you can't see he's insanely pathetic about you. He might even think he's being obvious but he's actually being insufferable and in a way that would make anyone's brain hurt lmao. As of now, I think he somewhat tends to erroneously apply the same logic he applied to his relationship with Geto - except it's obvious their case was an exception to the rule (hence why he just creates more chaos and misunderstanding) .. he regarded him as a peer more than he did with anyone else,, and I also think Geto was more used to his bullshit than anyone else could be (re: your manipulation tactics post .. their love language is psychological warfare. so true). But this is my take and it's likely not 100% correct so I'd love to hear your thoughts if you wish to share any! I've actually been loving your characterization of him. It's been refreshing in the sense that I think especially a Geto stays!AU Gojo but also in general a younger version Gojo would've been a pain to be around and I think you really delivered that feeling well!

Also - I love every time you get a message with people telling you abt how you turned them into Geto fuckers. As a Geto hater (i want .. to kiss .. him ......) I can safely say I did that to myself too - it's inevitable. I started writing for him because I wanted to get rid of the thoughts but it backfired. I slowly turned myself into a fucker. truly dug my own grave. that's what he does to people 💀💀 !! I remember you saying how you wouldn't stand him irl (am i right .. ? I can't find the specific post so i hope i'm not making a huge gaffe right now LMAO) and tbh i think I wouldn't be able to stand both him and Gojo irl. I would literally have eyes only for Shoko. the only woman ever. sigh

Soo yeah, this is it for this silly ask! I hope this message finds you well - in the meantime, keep up the good work and have a good day😊!!

HIIIII sam <3333 LMAOOO YEAH THAT 3/10 WAS PERSONAL 😭

with gojo it's not rlly him that's difficult i think im just finding it increasingly difficult to write for a character that im not as personally invested in. at this point writing gojo is more of a habit than anything. i've been writing him for ages so i know the way i want to write his character and everything about how i characterize him so it's mostly free sailing now!!!!! im actually really excited for the expanded HI arc in the anime so i can recontextualize my fics through the added info and sashisu interactions in the anime!!!!!!

oh yeah i think gojo is definitely a bit blind to the nuances of other people and/or considerate in a way that comes off as inconsiderate (his treatment of ijichi). also he and geto just.....fell in love. and i like to think falling in love with each other was even easier than becoming friends. one day it just clicked. they understood that they loved each other the entire time so there was no need for an extended courtship. i think in regards to stsg's relationship there really was no big change. a lot of things actually stayed the same lmfao.

ripmc is difficult because she actually needs like....articulation of their feelings and something more than just patience. softness maybe. also where geto just intrinsically understands, the last thing gojo actually wants is to detail every single thing he loves about not just rip!mc but geto too. geto probably teases it out of him anyway LMAO gojo is still kinda mortified at his early behavior and treatment towards rip!mc although he has apologized for his antagonism. i just KNOW it keeps him up at night 😭😭😭😭😭😭 he's still growing out of his immaturity. geto never left. the blue spring goes on for longer. he gets to be a teenager for a little longer. you know!!!!!

[voxofthevoid]

Hi Vox! Is me, werewolf anon. How you been? Hopefully feeling better from your sickness?

I took your advice and started reading "The way it follows you home" and so far it's been a fun ride! Past Gojo being jealous of Future Gojo over Future Yuji is adorable lol. Also your "Itadori sensei" seems so much more responsible than Gojo ever was! But I must admit my favorite part was Future Yuji giving the watch to Past Nanami. Even though for this Yuji, Nanami has been dead a thousand years, he still misses him so much. I thought you wrote that wistful nostalgia and pain really beautifully and I'm glad that Past Nanami understood how significant this gesture was. Good job! I'm looking forward to you finishing the rest!

And I usually don't wade into ship discourse because I find it exhausting but I read you've been getting some negativity and I'm so sorry to hear that. I truly don't understand why people want to invest that much time and energy into shitting on other people's likes when they can just focus on what they like. The tags are RIGHT THERE. The back button is RIGHT THERE. It's the reader's responsibility to set their own boundaries. The whole point of AO3 caters to that.

Also I really appreciate how THOROUGHLY you tag. You even expand on the author notes. So these haters literally have no excuse! For example, I tend to stay away Noncon and am selective about dubcon. I'm really grateful the care you put into first warning the readers because then I can make my own choice if I am in a headspace to read it.

And I want to emphasize that I think you should write whatever the hell you want because it's YOUR space. Just like it's MY job to create the online experience I want.

THAT BEING SAID...you are definitely the author I go: "Hmm...I usually don't read fics with this tag but I'll try it because it's Vox." 😂 Like the captured mermaid Bucky fic. Oooh yeah I definitely did a thousand yard stare after to process that one lol! But I love how your fics help me get out of my comfort zone and explore in the safety of fiction. And no surprise, I've loved every single one.

So what I'm trying to say is, you do you. I think there's many readers who are grateful for all your hard work.

Here's a token of my appreciation. It's not much but hopefully it puts a smile on your face. Once again cursing Tumblr for being unable to attach an image file on anon asks! Take care!

https://u.cubeupload.com/Anon9000/Xu1nOV.png

Hello there!

Ahh, I’m glad you’re liking that fic so far! It’s close to the end. Penultimate chapter will go up in a few hours, and the final chapter will be out in Feb, the cosmos willing. Gojou reacting to his own self entertains me endlessly, so I keep writing it. Two versions of that…very loud personality existing at the same time in each other’s vicinity would have one hell of a blast radius, and putting Yuuji squarely in it is one of my favorite things to do in JJK. And I do write Yuuji as a more responsible teacher than Gojou, true! But you can guess that his decency and restraint rarely last.

Not over Nanami’s death yet, huh? Mood though 🍻 It’s great to know that was your favorite scene! And I'm glad the emotional elements came through well.

Stay safely out of ship discourse, my friend. It ain’t worth it. It tends to come find me, but ah well. In JJK, it’s not even ship discourse that keeps haunting me; it’s fucking top–bottom discourse. I haven’t run into anyone pissy about my choice of Le Problematique ships yet (and I sure hope it stays that way). And top/bottom is one of the few things I don’t tag, solely because several instances of hypocrisy in general fandom pissed me off and I’m spiteful on a good day, but it’s also not something that’s hard to figure out. Those familiar with me know I stick to a single dynamic, and others will learn. Otherwise, there’s trusty CTRL+F. That all aside, I’m glad you like my tagging practices! I try to make it so that those who want spoilers/warnings will be able to access them, while those who don’t can hide the additional tags and ignore my drop-down warnings.

I did do a double-take when you said you tend to avoid noncon and then name-dropped the captive mer!Bucky fic—but in a good way! I can’t tell you how wonderful—that’s not a strong enough word, really—it is to know my fics can be that kind of a safe exploration for you. That’s hands-down one of the greatest compliments I’ll ever hear about my stories 💗

And don’t worry, I’ve mostly found very lovely people in fandom. JJK is a little more obnoxious about certain things than I’m used to, but the vast majority of my readers and fellow fans are kind, supportive, and delightful. I’m prone to getting pretty pissed off when assholes pop up in my inbox, but it usually leaves me ten times as determined to keep doing my thing.

I LOVE THAT YUUJI! Holy shit, he’s adorable. I want to pinch his cheeks and also eat him 🥺

I've saved that to my fanart folder for future pick-me-ups. Thank you so much! You’re a sweetheart 💗

[syrupsyche]

10, 14, 19 for the violence ask thing? <3

Since ur anon idk which fandom I should gun for...so I'll just ramble incoherently

10. worst part of fanon

I've already answered this, with specifics to the les mis fandom so I shall now apply this to fanon in general:

I'm not sure if this is just me being aroace or what but the fixation on needing to constantly ship characters all the time, even if the piece of media itself is void of romance and is all the better for it.

Once again, I'm not saying that you should never engage a media with romance: fandom is a self-indulgent space and projection is the norm. But it is tiring to only see romance and/or smut about a character when you simply want to see meta or non-romantic art/stories/discussions about them. It's similar to that booktok trend of only advertising their stories using tropes (grumpy x sunshine, mlm etc.); if shipping and romance is the only thing that keeps you in your seat WRT a character or even the piece of media as a whole, then it's a pretty sad takeaway from it.

Typed this whole thing out and now idek if I actually answered the question correctly. Sorry anon, this is what I've got 😔.

14. that one thing you see in fics all the time

Going Les Mis specific: Combeferre wearing glasses 🤭 Yes yes it's a pretty nerdy stereotype but I can't argue with it bc I'm a nerd and I wear glasses. Also people get 150x hotter wearing glasses and Combeferre is already pretty hot so.......

Also smth Combeferre-adjacent, there's never a universe where Enjolras and Combeferre are not soulmates, platonic or otherwise. I WANT WHAT THEY HAVE!! they clearly love each other in canon, in fanon, in AUs...god they're insane.

19. you're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like…

Under 18s look away I guess? Nothing explicit tho: I got into more NSFW fics recently, with tags I never thought I'd click onto. They're extremely well-written and 8 times out of 10, they tend to use smut and kink to delve deeper (hah) into character exploration as well. That's what I like about fanfic/non-profit writing: topics that would often be taboo in mainstream publishing can be safely explored on page and there's no need for censorship or anything palatable! What you see in the tags is what you gonna get; you've been warned after all! Which is why I dislike the recent trend of demanding censorship on Ao3....

I guess I'm 'ashamed/horrified' about this because I am still rather sex-repulsed IRL lol. I read everything up until the actual intercourse and then my eyes glaze over and only refocus during the aftercare. It's crazy.

(Also I just realised the contrast between my answers for 10 and 19 haha. Yes I love works of smut; yes I'm frustrated when a fandom is oversaturated in smut; yes, both statements can coexist.)

[laceratedlamiaceae]

Dubcon is there for the cases where it's like, the scenario doesn't leave space for 100% explicit consent (like fuck or die but also the kind of fic where all the characters want it but aren't sure of the other's motivations or that they're all on the same page relationship-wise etc etc), it doesn't line up 1-to-1 with real life consent bc it's fiction and you can push it further without making the reader feel they're in noncon territory, since you're in the characters' heads. For some people it should line up or it's fucked up, for others it's more about if it hits the spot kink-wise or falls flat, or they've got different expectations based on story genre or canon context. What constitutes dubcon or noncon or "fully consensual doesn't need a tag" and where the lines are is A Fandom Debate that has been going on for decades and changes with cultural/fandom context and time too. I've heard this is why ao3 doesn't have dubcon as a warning, there was no consensus there, but the rape warning is generally more clear when it applies (bc 99% of the time it's written like that on purpose) and if the author isn't sure they can use the "chose not to use archive warnings" tag.

Im also getting annoyed at the amount of Izzy fic that doesn't tag dubcon or noncon but like. Clearly this is the entire point of the fic once you read it. Like the consent issues and Izzy being deeply uncomfortable or distressed or feeling like he can't say no safely are important factors in here and this is treated as aah but it's fine bc he's Izzy like (????) That's A Kink, author. That's a ducon kink you've got there. Sometimes straight up a rape kink. Please for the love of fuck own it, so I can filter it in or out depending on my mood. It's not even a content warning tag of the "may contain traces of peanuts" variety at that point! It's peanut butter! It's what this fic Is About!

It's also getting increasingly harder for me to trust trans Izzy fic by authors I don't know, bc so many of them feel less like this guy is trans and more like "Nagging ex-wife needs to be Taught a Lesson is my shit, but I can't be like that to a female character, that's illegal. So Im going to use this guy instead and change the pronouns" or like, I also don't want to read about sexual violence against a trans guy! I get that this is a kink trans men may have, just like how women have rape fantasies, but I don't have it and I would like to be able to filter it out. Sometimes it's a matter of writing skill, sometimes it's a matter of this getting mixed in with the general trouble people seem to have giving poor kinky sub Izzy the right to consent to things, like being a sub makes him less a person (which happens in other fandoms but I haven't seen it get this prevalent before)

(in reference to this post)

Thank you! I wasn't aware that this has been the subject of fandom debate, but that makes sense. It would be nice if more people at least just went with "chose not to use archive warnings," but I guess that would require them to think about whether there's consent in their fic to begin with.

And yes, it's baffling to me how people don't get that their works contain rape when that's the entire point of them. There was some art going around recently about an AU where Izzy was a pirate hunter and he was blindfolded, expecting to be having sex with Stede (and IIRC it was implied that that wouldn't have been fully consensual either), but then it was revealed to be Ed who removed the blindfold and used it to gag Izzy. Literally the entire point of it was that Izzy was uncomfortable, and obviously there was no way it could have been consensual, but the artist didn't tag it for rape and neither did anyone I follow who reblogged it; I actually convinced myself that I was being overly sensitive and misinterpreting it but now I'm not so sure.

I've been lucky enough to avoid anything too awful in trans Izzy fics, but I have seen a decent number of posts that seem to be taking the "Izzy is wife-coded/woman-coded" idea (which I don't have anything against, to be clear) and taking it all the way to "Izzy is literally a woman, except I don't want to genderswap him so I'll just make him trans" as if that isn't super transphobic, so I'm not surprised that awful stuff like that ends up in fics.

The stuff with people headcanoning him as a sub (because it is just a headcanon, despite any textual evidence for it) and using that to justify awful things happening to him is so infuriating for me! I've seen a lot of fics tagged for "dom/sub undertones," whatever that means, with no other warnings, and it's just Izzy being raped except it's okay because he's a sub and therefore he must be okay with anything anyone does to him. It reminds me of people using the masochist Izzy headcanon in similar ways (see this post).

[onthemerits]

okay im getting a little overwhelmed by the jegulus discourse (tm) surrounding the strike but i need to rant abt something tangential (and that seems to be going unsaid) so here goes:

there needs to be a more productive conversation about how adults and minors can interact respectfully and safely in shared spaces, particularly with regards to different forms of queer generational trauma and internalized biases (read: transphobia).

this is really long so the full essay is below the cut, but

TLDR: if you're sending trans people messages telling them that writing about sexuality wrt their own identities and lived experience is "perverse", "weird", "gross", "predatory", or "pedophilic", pls check yourself and think about why you feel uncomfy before proceeding

(also if you feel the need to harass/send hate to people on behalf of unnamed "others" or for "safety reasons", odds are you're the problem)

CW: discussions of transphobia (specifically kink/ hyper-sexualization and accusations of predatory behavior) teen pregnancy, grooming, age-gap relationships,

first, i want to state the obvious and say that adults and minors are in very different stages of life. as much as this may offend some underage people, adults have more lived experience and have had more time to process their internalized biases and phobias. they have had both the freedom and responsibility of adulthood. and this brings new revelations and understandings.

this does not necessarily mean that adults are necessarily phobia or bias-free point blank, but it does mean that there are a lot of things that would understandably make minors uncomfortable (even as woke as they are) simply because they have not had exposure to those things. and on the flipside, minors should not be blamed or bullied by adults for their discomfort.

with all this in mind, it is the responsibility of adults to create adult-only spaces and for minors be mindful of what they could be exposing themselves to when they enter those spaces. a lot of the discussion around "no post november" seems to pit tumblr (old hp fans) against twitter and tiktok (newer, younger hp fans).

i've seen a bunch of arguments that "minors dni" and "tags" don't take away from the fact that "offensive" content exists, specifically in the case of underage relationships and sex (often with content that is deemed pedophilic).

i empathize with this immensely, and i understand why the idea of an adult sexualizing you would feel uncomfortable. but i think it's important to note that thats not what's really happening.

if someone is writing a sexual relationship between two minors that isn't flagged with the hallmarks/abuse of age-gap relationships, then there isn't any real danger to minors reading it. if there is no grooming going on, if there is no glorification of age gaps, if there isn't an infantilization of one of the characters, then there's no real predatory behavior that would have a marked impact on a minor.

even if there there was a depiction of an age gap and an artistic depiction of predatory behavior, if the story is marked as for adults then writing and posting the story is not predatory behavior and it doesnt make the author a pedophile. for all you know, they could be processing trauma that they underwent as a teenager and is now creating art for other adults to share their experiences.

it is not fair to compare this to the fetishization of lesbians or gay men (which does exist in this fandom) because unlike straight cis women readying gay smut, we have all been minors at one point, and that experiences comes with a lot of trauma, especially for queer individuals who grew up before queer rights gained popular traction.

on the love of all that is holy and unholy, i beg of you to think before you call something disgusting, especially if it is created in a space that is not meant for you.

in this case, i am thinking very explicitly about discussions of trans sexuality in the fandom. anyone who has been on ao3 can see that smut, explicit adult content, and mild sexual content are a big part of the online space across all ships. Dramione and Drarry have some of the filthiest (non-derogatory) content I have seen in my entire life. much of it is written by people who have been actively involved in the harry potter community since the early 2000s, and are therefore older than 20, and a good chunk of it is written about 17-year olds.

however, as soon as things like pregnancy, trans sexuality, or any combination of the two are brought up, it's "fetishization" no matter what the context. im not here to defend or attack the mpreg tag (especially in other explicitly kink-related contexts), but trans sexuality and explicit content that is trans focused (specifically ftm) is not inherently kinky or fetishization. there are so many things that are fetishized by the world (trans people tend to be in that bucket) but that does not mean writing those things is inherently fetish-related. in fact, calling it "fetishization" reinforces that idea that trans people cannot exist sexually without being reduced to a kink.

this is further perpetuated by the fact that cis (and occasionally straight, re jily and pregnancy) underage sexual content is only ever given a slap on the wrist. (and also this is extremely fucked up when u think abt how some fics reduce women in the fandom to plot points-- thinking of "lily is only relevant to birth harry" fics)

in fact, the double standard is so enormous re all the girlies that want self-insert fics with their gay favs. the straight-up obsession with cis mlm ships that straight women in this fandom seem to have is something that largely goes unspoken about. but we don't cancel people for writing self-insert fics or check to make sure female authors are queer before they write mlm sex scenes.

(there are a few cases where trans regulus seems to be flagged as a self insert for cis women which is transphobic and fetishization in and of itself, but i promise you that the likelihood of this being written by a trans person is 0.00001%)

this is all to say that attacking trans authors for writing about trans sexuality and trans versions of experiences that are "cishet" is transphobic. but how does this come back to minors?

well, there is a long history of queer individuals (trans people specifically) being called pedophiles or predators for expressing their lived experiences and discussing sexuality that deviates from the norm. while most people in the marauders fandom are comfortable and content with cis queer "sexual deviancy," there seems to be more contention around trans queer "sexual deviancy." it can be seen as inherently "problematic" or "predatory," even when it is just trans people writing about their own lived experiences.

obviously not all trans people are perfect, not all queer people are perfect, and predatory behavior exists from people of all genders and sexualities blah blah blah disclaimer disclaimer.

and in all seriousness if someone feels genuinely unsafe and specifically targeted in online spaces, please speak out. this is an attempt to alleviate harassment, not silence people who are being groomed by strangers online.

but it feels like everyone is so quick to call out "problematic" in an attempt to distance themselves from JKR that you're just coming back around to doing her work for her

(this is very terfy, "anti-trans for safety reasons" behavior)

(also this is just me feeling attacked but if you come at queer adult marauders fans for being "harry potter adults" (derogatory) when you're in the same fandom, pls stop)

*if you disagree with this and what i'm saying, feel free to send me a respectful, preferably non-anon message*