#this isn't overtly About that fandom

[cardentist]

hey, so people need to be aware that youtube is now (randomly) holding basic features for ransom (such as being able to pin comments under your own videos) in exchange for Your State ID/Drivers License, or a 30 Second Video Of Your Face.

not to pull a "think of the children," but No Actually. I've been making videos as a hobby since 2015 (and I've had my channel since middle school), I was a minor when I started and I'm not sure I would have understood the kind of damage something a seemingly simple as a video of your face can do.

this is a Massive breach of privacy and over-reach on google's part No Matter What, but if they're going to randomly demand a state ID or license then they absolutely should not allow minors to be creators.

google having a stockpile of identifying information on teenagers is bad enough, but the Alternative of recording your face and handing it over to be filed away is Alarming considering it opens the gates for minors who Aren't old enough to have a license.

and yes, there is a third option, but it's intentionally obtuse. a long wait period (2 months), with no guarantee of access (unlike, say, the convenience of using your phone's cameras for either of the other two), with absolutely No elaboration on what the criteria is or how it's being measured.

it's the same psychological effect that mobile games rely on. offer a slow, unreliable solution with no payment to make the Paid instant gratification look more appealing (the "payment" in this case being You. you are the product being offered).

and it's Particularly a system that (I think intentionally) disadvantages people who don't treat their channels like a job. hobbyists or niche creators who don't create regularly enough or aren't popular enough to meet whatever Vague criteria needs to be met to pass.

markiplier would have no problem passing, your little brother might not be able to. and while Mark's name is already out there there's no reason why your little brother's should be too.

something like pinned comments may seem simple, you don't technically Need it. but it's a feature that's been available for years. most people don't look at descriptions anymore. so when there's relevant information that needs to be delivered then the pinned comment is usually the go to.

for my little channel that information is about the niche series I create for. guides on how to get into the series, sources on where to find the content At All (and reliably so). for other creators it can be used for things Much More Important.

Moreover, if we let them get away with cutting away "small" features and selling it back to you for the price of your privacy, then they Will creep further. they Will take more.

Note: I have an update to this post here: [Link]

[katstiel]

After just having finished Teen Wolf for the first time, I can't stop thinking about Sterek. I am just so fucking fascinated by the phenomenon of this ship.

What is fascinating about it, is that there is BARELY any textual support for the ship at all. These two characters pretty much stop interacting after 2 seasons. If I'm being honest, their chemistry isn't even anything that wild. Any overtly shippable moments between the two can be counted on one hand.

What is fascinating, is that I firmly believe this ship exists due to the meta-textual context surrounding the show. Imo there are 2 main parts to this:

1. Sterek is a perfect example of queerbaiting in the original sense of the word. Because despite not having seen the show at the time, I vividly remember the boat video circulating. If you don't know what boat video I am talking about, just search YouTube for 'Sterek boat'. It is probably the most insane marketing stunt I've seen for a show.

And, after looking into it, it seems that the creative forces behind the show actively encouraged fans to ship Sterek through Asks here on Tumblr and other social media posts.

If this marketing hadn't happened, I don't think Sterek would've ever been as big as it became.

2. Derek as a character has no real purpose in the plot of Teen Wolf, except in the 1st and maybe half of the 2nd season. He is there mainly for the gratuitous nudity and objectification. Tyler Hoechlin is shirtless in so many scenes that frankly, it's a little ridiculous. In most other YA shows from the same era, he would occupy the love interest role for the main character... Except, Teen wolf's main character is, unlike most other fantasy/ya shows at the time, a guy. More importantly, the male main character Scott's entire motivation in the first few seasons revolve around his own love interest, Allison. So obviously, Scott isn't available to pair Derek up with. That leaves Stiles. Stiles isn't technically the main character, but he is the closest after Scott.

Stiles is also queer-coded like crazy. I don't know how the fandom reacted to the S3 moment where he talks to a bisexual girl, but if I had been in the fandom at the time, I would have taken it as explicit confirmation that Stiles is bi. There is no other way to interpret that scene, and no other purpose for it to be in the show.

So we have a classic, hot love interest character with no obvious romantic partner, and a queer-coded, almost-main character. The logical result is Sterek.

So like. Without the marketing or the context of similar shows of that time, there really is no reason to ship Sterek other than a vague "their dynamic is fun" that could be equally applied to many other pairings on the show. Which, for the record, is a completely respectable reason to ship something, but it would never have resulted in one of the biggest ships on Ao3 (at one point, it was second to only Destiel) on its own.

I'm not even gonna apologize for how long this post turned out because if I could, I would write an entire academic research paper on how this ship came to be. It is genuinely a fascinating case.

[explodingchantry]

Anders isn't my problematic fave because he isn't problematic. I think the wider concept of anders being 'wrong' the fandom has is a clear example of how biased the writing has been in the games. It's the same reason why people hate Jowan, or why they think the kinloch hold mages were stupid. There's a clear bias in the writing and framing of it all that guides the player towards feeling negatively.

The majority of answers you can give Jowan in Dao are negative, mocking, or downright insulting. The ones who aren't are just... Neutral. You can be a bit sympathetic to him in the circle origin but by the time you meed him in redcliff most of your dialogue choices are so fucking mean. In my replay I was trying desperately to be nice and sympathetic to him but the best you can do is be neutral and let him go but for every rude dialogue option there is no "you've been through something horrible, I'm sorry" or "you were manipulated, loghain took advantage of your vulnerability, I'm sorry" it's soooooo.

Likewise, I always make sure to speak to every single npc in the mage origins and the One mention of uldred before the broken circle quest is from the one mage who tells you about the different political faction enchanters are in, and it's with absolute disdain. That mage thinks uldred is annoying and it's implied that the other enchanters think so, too. Uldred who was an activist for mage liberation is treated as annoying for being an activist.

Then he turns out to be a blood mage and to have killed the majority of the circle, turning them into abominations. The message is clear: those who seek liberation are wicked. In the first game of the series, thus in the game which introduced the concept of circles at all, their existence is justified by the text. It overtly says: look at all those foolish mages, how dangerous they can be when One of them is wicked. Can you imagine if they were free? Can you imagine those abominations' destruction if they were out in the open?

Something similar happens in the mage origin, with Jowan. Through the whole origin, whilst Jowan is painted as annoying, he's definitely seen as a victim. Up until he uses blood magic, that is. Suddenly, the player is likely supposed to think "oh, so they were right to want to make him tranquil after all". Instead of being a way to show that the circle will often turn innocent mages tranquil, it shows you that greagoir was right to distrust Jowan, because he was indeed a blood mage. Instead of showing you how paranoid those in power are about mages, the writing justifies their fear and hatred.

Bear in mind this is the first game and likely the very first thing that happens to a lot of new players. The game does not expect you to know the intricacies of its lore yet, doesn't expect you to understand that blood magic is actually fucking neutral unless you sacrifice people for it. You might be tempted to argue that it's setting up for that realisation later and for you to feel bad about Jowan later, realizing he was led to blood magic because it was his only solution, because he and all other mages are caged like dogs (except this is ferelden, so the dogs are better treated than them). But then you've got the redcliff fiasco where it's obvious the writers expect you to fucking hate his guts

And while dragon age 2 is more overt in its depiction of mage suffering, it also tries to pass on the idea that kirkwall is a special case, that it's only the gallows that are this bad. That it's just Meredith whose craaazeyyy 🤪 and not just Meredith being a product of a corrupt system. The writers expect you to think of Anders as an unstable extremist, or as his writer puts it, a "bipolar terrorist" (note that ofc there's nothing fucking wrong with being bipolar, but I don't think his writer cares!)

With different writers and the exact same set of events, Anders blowing up the chantry would be easily recognized as a positive, as an act of justice, of rightful rebellion. Instead it's seen as a tragedy, a mistake. Instead Anders is categorized as a villain, morally grey even though Hawke themselves has a higher death toll than he ever will.

It's a lesson, I think. In narrative bias.

[mary-laib]

As much as I wish timebomb could have gotten more moments together in their universe, I do believe that excluding those moments was both better for Jinx as a character and one of the most feminist things I've seen done by a show that never exclusively talks about feminism. And I feel like it also better displays Ekko's care for her. He is fully willing to take a step back and let her have an identity that is wholly seperate from him.

Jinx is the most subtly pro-feminist character I've seen in a while. There's no yelling about the unfairness of being a woman, there's no trying to make her have more masculine characteristics in order to make her "better" than other women. She is a girl who dresses femininely, loves pastels and arts, who can fight with weapons and is a total badass, but isn't overtly compensating her feminine nature with strength, and while she has a love interest, he is not even second to her character and development. His love for her doesn't have any effect on her as a person.

Arcane is truly about two sisters and their relationship and I think that timebomb having more moments would overshadow the fact that the show is about HER and VI.

I think a lot of people tend to forget that and let things like JayVik overshadow that this show was really made for the girls and I think that their characters deserve to be celebrated more.

Anyways love to the Arcane fandom ❤️

[the-shifting-long]

on the subject of voice favoritism/misogyny in the StP fandom I frequently encounter people discussing what the Parallel Princess says about the voice that accompanies her (such as the Spectre/Voice of the Cold pairing, what her being a ghost means for Cold, or Witch/Opportunist, how she impacts him) but never what that Voice says about the princess, and it gets to the point where people literally phrase it as "his" princess, this is the Stubborn's princess, this is the Paranoid's princess, like a.) why are we assuming the male voices who never even interact directly with her in the majority of the chapter 2s somehow "own" the respective parallel princess and b.) why is it never the inverse, where the Voice of the Stubborn helps inform why the Adversary is the way she is, or where the Voice of the Hunted is the Beast's Voice, like.

The Chapter 3s ESPECIALLY are often chapters where the Voices often directly reflect the princess' mindset as well as the player's-Fury as the Broken, Stubborn princess who, similarly to Cold, believes herself to be numb but very much isn't, Cage as the Broken, Cheated princess who thinks escape is impossible, and prior to the Skeptic/Paranoid swap, HEA as someone who doesn't act her on own but will take what she can get similarly to Opportunist and who is Paranoid, Thorn is both Cheated and the most overtly romantic with the player...obviously, this isn't the case for every chapter 3, but once you notice it, you see more chapters than not follow this trend. I feel like I've seen exactly one person who isn't me point that out. Genuinely surprising.

[cpvnksabm]

Things I Think RTC Did Well In Disability Rep (in 2016-2018 scripts)

exactly what it says in the title. i'm not touching on the pre-2016 scripts because i dont know enough about them and i'm not talking about the 2022 script changes for obvious reasons.

disclaimer, this is all my own opinion as one disabled person, other people may feel differently and that's fine.

Ricky's disability in general

Ricky is a young person who uses mobility aids. He can't talk, implicitly due to dysarthria. He has a degenerative disease, specifically a rare disease which is heavily implied to be neuromuscular. And it's stated outright that his disease is lifespan-limiting and that he's dealt with his own mortality in life.

And all of these things are very underrepresented!

I'm not going to claim that all of these things were explained perfectly or explored in detail in the canon. But just having them on-stage, in my opinion, is a big deal in itself. And it's also a big deal that Ricky is a main character, who has the same character depth as the abled characters, when so many characters like him are reduced to ableist props for other characters' story arcs.

I understand there's been some confusion about the specifics of ricky's disability, in the fandom. And I know part of the confusion comes from the fact that the script didn't explain everything, and glossed over most of the details. But honestly? The fact that so many RTC fans didn't initially understand parts of his disability - such as the fact that it's likely neuromuscular, or the fact that his inability to speak is implied to have a physical cause - just makes it more important that these things were represented on-stage in the first place. They're so underrepresented, little-known, and poorly-understood that many people don't pick up on them even when they are represented!

Just showing these underrepresented disabled experiences on-stage has potential to help a lot of disabled people feel seen, which matters.

Ricky as a victim of ableism

Okay, this one might be controversial, but i'm speaking from the heart here.

Ableism is a huge part of Ricky's backstory and character - the whole Zolar thing is stated to be a coping method to deal with isolation & cruelty. Throughout the musical Ocean infantilizes him in dialogue, and in her song she argues point-blank that he has no reason to be alive due to his disability. The rest of the choir aren't perfect either - sure, nobody else says anything ableist, but they're all bystanders to Ocean's overt ableism, nobody really holds her accountable or acknowledges that what she's saying is fucked up. On top of that, Ricky says after his song that nobody listened to him while he was alive which, combined with the whole choir being shocked upon learning about his deeper thoughts, pretty clearly implies that they all ignored him previously.

And it's so fucking realistic.

Look. I'm not saying that Ocean's ableism was ever handled perfectly in canon. I am saying that when I saw a post-2022 production with the able-bodied Ricky script, I got a sinking feeling in my gut when we got to *that* part of WTWN and I realized the ableist lines had been removed/replaced. Because facing ableism is a huge part of my disabled experience that I barely ever see even acknowledged in media, let alone represented accurately, and the more I face ableism in real life the more I feel I can relate to Ricky, and that is so important to me.

Depicting bigotry in fiction is always difficult to do right - it's a rough balance between "this is not okay and we should not imply that it is" and "many people believe this is okay, wrongly, and that needs to be shown accurately". Sure, you can make it so the antagonist character is overtly ableist and every sympathetic character explicitly says "I do not agree with your ableist views!" and that way it's 100% clear that the ableist actions are wrong. But real ableism isn't just like that. Sometimes real-world ableism is a group of perfectly nice people who just never think about the disabled kid, or how he's doing or whether someone should talk to him, because they've been taught to ignore him. And sometimes it's a girl who swears to God that she's a good person, who considers herself an ally, whose voice stays sweet and kind as she switches between talking to her disabled classmate like he's 5 years old and claiming he doesn't deserve to live.

I think the brutal honesty of ableism in RTC is important. Yeah, it's pretty fucked-up when you think about it - Ocean openly sings about why Ricky shouldn't live, every ableist character is presented sympathetically, nobody is ever actually held accountable for ableism on-stage - and that's just like real life. I'd like to think that it could act as a wake-up call to some abled fans, who are similar to Ocean (+ others) and who could learn to understand the flaws in their worldview when they realize you're not supposed to agree with what she says in WTWN. But even more importantly than that... it makes me feel seen, in a way that I couldn't feel if Ricky's experiences with ableism weren't shown so realistically.

SABM, like, all of it

Do I even need to explain this? Disabled person has a whole furry-themed musical number. That's cool as fuck. God I wish that were me.

Okay, seriously. I think SABM is wonderful and important for a number of reasons. Like all of the character songs, it's important for expanding Ricky's character - not only is it a main glimpse into his interests, but it sets up for us to learn more about his personality and the selflessness that would later lead to the touching Savannah scene. It shows us his deep internal thoughts - it confirms that he has deep internal thoughts - and explains how he's been coping with the ableism he faces.

SABM is weird. I like that. I like that Ricky gets to have weird interests and a weird self-insert fantasy, while being disabled - I like that being disabled isn't treated as his "weird" trait, such that giving him weird interests as well would be "too much". Because that happens a lot! Disabled people are expected to be completely average in every other way to "make up" for our disability. And, yeah, SABM is kind of horny - and that makes sense! Ricky is a teenager, he's in his final year of high school, most people his age do have sexual fantasies. Other characters also reference sex in various ways so it makes sense that Ricky would. And I think it makes sense for SABM to be weird because part of Ricky's backstory is being ignored and isolated due to his disability - that's the sort of thing that, long-term, can leave people without a clear reference point for 'weird' and 'normal', or just leave them having no reason to care about being 'weird' because they're ignored anyway.

But also, if I may get analytical for a moment. Throughout the musical until SABM, Ricky faces a lot of ableism from Ocean, which isn't really commented on - she infantilizes him, both by assuming he's incapable of deeper thought/understanding and by being shocked at the idea that he might talk about porn or sex, and she also argues that he doesn't have a reason to live with his disability. Ocean is a flawed character and an unreliable narrator, but for the first half of the musical, you could be forgiven for thinking maybe you're supposed to agree with her and view Ricky as some pitiable child.

And then in comes Ricky's introduction, followed by SABM. And clearly Ricky isn't mentally a child, in any way - he's developed a whole complex story with deep worldbuilding so that he can imagine himself having sex with alien catgirls. But it also makes it clear that Ricky does have valuable ideas to contribute and, heck, just things he enjoys - which feels significant to me when a few songs ago it was being argued that there's no reason he should be alive.

As I said earlier, the ableism Ricky faces is extremely realistic and relatable to me. And SABM makes it clear that Ocean's ableist views about him are untrue and harmful, without breaking the realism for her to turn directly to the audience and say "By the way, you aren't supposed to agree with most of what I say about Ricky - I'm an unreliable narrator speaking due to my own biases!"

Basically - SABM is a subtle deconstruction of all the ableist things said to/about Ricky throughout the musical. It's an incredibly important part of the musical and an important way to represent a disabled character. And it's also a fucking bop.

Why this is important

Representation matters. That's a concept that has been explained a lot, by people who can articulate it better than I can - I won't fully explain here, just google "why does representation matter".

Look - over the years, many aspects of RTC's disability rep have been criticised in various ways. And a lot of that criticism is completely justified. Many topics were handled confusingly, not fully explained, and not properly explored like they could have been; erasure was pretty much baked into the script, with Ricky becoming able-bodied in the afterlife, and while some productions have tried to alleviate this by retaining his mobility aids nobody has found a workaround for his inability to speak in a genre where it's important for him to sing; and in recent years his disability has been entirely erased from the script, in an incredibly ableist way.

I'm not saying RTC is perfect; far from it. But if I thought there was no value in RTC's disability rep, and Ricky was just some offensive caricature, I wouldn't be in the fandom.

In fact, it's because I love Ricky and see him as valuable disability rep that I think it's important to criticise the parts of the musical that aren't handled well & the issues with disability erasure. RTC had good disability rep - that's why I think it should be improved, why it can be improved, and why i think we should fight against erasure. That's a big part of why I hate the 2022 script changes! Because they erased something that was important to me!

A lot of the things I loved about RTC in the first place are things that I frequently see glossed over, or downright erased, in fanworks. I think sometimes people don't realize the significance of these details, so I wanted to share why I think it's important! Some of these details really need more exploration and more love!

Overall, I think it's important to understand that media can't always be sorted neatly into "good representation" or "bad representation". And that talking about the good things and criticising the flaws can both be important. I really wanted to share my perspective on this topic. Thanks for reading!

[cringefaecompilation]

okay since i have felt i've been really negative i am going to be positive and talk about something near and dear to my heart. fanart redesigns!

this design of braius by @phi-guy is delightful, including the mustache variant. i'm not a big fan of him as a character, but this is a great compromise with the holstein patterns on his humanoid face that previously left a few furries disappointed.

fcg is a very tough character to stylize, given the whole... aeormaton of it all and that they're so intricately designed that any attempts to move any part of their body around tend to make things they do in-game not make sense. the blades of grass emblem being revealed as bloody fingerstreaks, for one. but this design by hugo cardenas strikes a good balance between canon and fanon where you don't have to sacrifice accuracy for imagination or vice versa

imogen sadly doesn't receive a lot of redesigns in fandom and even got hate (?!) for people putting glasses on her. but for the people that do a little more than that, i would have to give my favorite design to @rokiie! it's subtle, but i love that she's musclechubby and mixed, and her curly hair and ponytail is adorable. @jadequarze also has a nice looking mog, though theirs is more angular than bulky.

ashton is another character hard to redesign... because his original design is so damned complex it feels like a downgrade to change it. so not a lot of people do and focus more on his outfit and body type. so that's why these two, by @magscherer and @ladysantos are so great! little tweaks that make him fat or simplify him are so nice

@lyadrielle has the most complex chet redesign i've ever seen. i love how in-depth it is, and even if full head of hair chet isn't canon, i still adore the fluffiness of it. also quick shout out to @colealexart giving chetney a mustache because i love it.

conversely from her girlfriend, people love to redesign laudna, if not just to pump up her creepy factor over her "bizzarely beautiful" factor. @astoriacolumnstaircase and @paragonraptors do this in a fun-scary way! i love how spindly they make her, like a praying mantis. for a more scary-scary way, @cpprcoyote's laudnas are stunningly creepy and lovely. @galacticjonah's take on her is also very cute with her billowing fabrics surrounding her like a security blanket. good stuff!

being the mixed orym truther guy, naturally i love art that makes him a man of color, and this art by @therosecleric hits the mark for how i see him in my head. i love his curls, his jaw, and his strong nose, and it's always good to give him muscles in a way that don't make him look like a tween who powerlifts. the previously mentioned @magscherer's art of him is a bit more hobbit-y but still scratches the same itch. love me a brown eyed orym. @jennydolfen also gets points for her terrific hobbit/halfling proportions

@jam-etc's critical role redesigns might not be for everyone, but i love 'em all. dorian here looks so friendly and seeing his native culture depicted so overtly in his outfit is awesome! no whitewashed dorians allowed. on the same token, here's a repeat of @therosecleric's dorian art because it also is great to see him with curly hair and a wide nose. this design by @caitmayart with dark cloudy speckles on his body is incredibly nice as well.

and of goddamn course fearne gets the most art. it's fearne! there are so many good pieces of her i could not choose one. i love ones that play up her goat-y nature, like @willowbirds, @rainbow-roll-art, and @phi-guy again. and i love fat fearnes, like these two by @marmadelin and @countslimeula. this one by @maluspumilaa is so beautiful, making her a little more fey and extremely animalistic. all fearnes is good fearnes

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Do you think all the characters are assholes?

Because i think they are despite their tragic backstories and i also don't think they appreciate Yuu enough, except for maybe the first years

I mean, the TWST characters are (mostly) inspired by Disney villains... Plus, they’re immature high schoolers still in the process of emotionally maturing. Of course they're not going to be perfect balls of sunshine. They're all going to be rude or have faults in their own ways, but they also have their strengths and charm points. I do call them assholes (lovingly), but I would hesitate to slap a singular label on any of the characters when they're all very well-rounded and morally ambiguous.

On the topic of Yuu, I think it makes sense that most of the cast doesn't really "appreciate" them. To begin with, most of the characters are not the openly sentimental types; they wouldn’t overtly express that gratitude even if it were present. Then we have to consider that Yuu isn't directly involved in their character growth or arcs in most cases; it's often the other characters who are confronting the OB boys or instigating, physically battling them to snap them out of it, and then comforting them afterwards.

As early as book 1, that pattern holds true. Ace is the one that initially pissed Riddle off. Adeuce are dueling Riddle. Ace decks Riddle and claims his last straw. Trey is the one calling out to Riddle as he's losing it. It's the members of Heartslabyul who gather around Riddle when he reawakens following the OB. (I'm not going to go through and list off what happens in every single book, but I'm sure you can think of many other instances... Lilia insulting Leona, Deuce and Epel having the heart-to-heart on the beach, Octavinelle's plot against Jamil, the twins checking up on Azul post-OB, etc.) To me, it feels like it is the boys and their bonds with one another responsible for the change, not Yuu's involvement. Yuu is usually along for the ride and actually does and says very little despite all the fandom jokes about "being the school's unpaid but overworked therapist" or Crowley's shallow claim that Yuu can help the boys learn to cooperate (which feels more like a vague ruse only shown in the prologue to shoehorn Yuu into the plot). There's actually very little in-game that shows them being active in helping the students change for the better. Much of the time, the boys can resolve their own struggles to get along without Yuu being there (like all those pair-ups in book 6–sure, it may have taken a while, but the fact remains that they did eventually resolve their own issues and cooperate without Yuu having to orchestrate for them; this also happens many times in events like Port Fest, Wish Upon a Star, Ghost Marriage, the Halloween events, etc). A very common complaint (at least among English speaking players) is that Yuu isn’t “involved enough” or that they don’t have a big impact on the events of the story. Therefore, most of the boys not feeling close or indebted to Yuu makes sense from their POV. What has Yuu actually and explicitly done to help them? Not much. It’s mainly in individual fan interpretations where Yuu/a Yuusona/an OC in Yuu’s role is actually able to play a more substantial part in each characters’ life and growth. In general, the standard in-game Yuu is more of a "fly on the wall" character that witnesses events unfold rather than someone who plays a large role in each book. The boys are seemingly the main characters, not Yuu. It's just convenient to have Yuu/a blank slate in the story because they, as an outsider, need TWST concepts explained to them (thus making it easier to give exposition to the players who may also be unfamiliar with the information). The first years, by comparison, are closer to Yuu simply because 1) Yuu is implied to be in the same year level as them (so they're more likely to be exposed to one another) and 2) their preestablished relationships with Grim, Ace, and Deuce opens them up more to first year interactions. "Friends of friends", if you will. It makes more sense than Yuu being appreciated and loved by everyone/most people in the main cast of 22ish. (How many people do you know irl that have 22ish significant friends?) They spend the most time together. Everyone else tends to stick to their own groups (with maybe the exception of Heartslabyul, since Yuu is already close with Adeuce). They’re just... not as intimate with Yuu, and therefore not as inclined to find much appreciation for them.

I want to clarify that this doesn’t mean there are zero instances of the characters outside of the first years expressing gratitude toward Yuu. Like, of the OB boys, it’s only Vil who consistently apologizes for the trouble he caused (note though: it’s not specifically to Yuu, but to everyone in the VDC/SDC squad. Yuu is then given prize money from most of the other boys as thanks for letting them crash at Ramshackle… Of those, only Kalim cites being grateful that he was able to stay and have fun with everyone because of Yuu green lighting the decision. This makes sense, as Kalim’s one of the few who wears his heart on his sleeve and is friendly to most. It just isn’t true for the majority of the cast, and we shouldn’t expect it to be.

As late as book 5, you can see characters like Leona not being so happy to be called out to or for Grim to act all buddy-buddy with him. That indicates to me that the rest of the cast is not that close to Yuu + related parties and doesn't have a real reason to be. (Note: I'm not counting character voice lines here as proof of friendliness with Yuu, as it can be argued that the relationships and events explored in the cards don't run in tandem with the main story and are meant more as fanservice for the players.)

Again, while it's not that fun to read in a narrative, it does leave things open-ended for anyone who wants to self-insert or to expand on those blank relationships for their own characters. I believe this is by design to appeal on an individual level to players. You get out of it what you put into it!

[puppiekit]

One thing about the warriors Mapleshade hate train era of the fandom that still pisses me off actually is how people swore up and down that Mapleshade MUST be an unreliable narrator and so therefore nothing she expirienced or thought could be in any way accurate.

When in reality it was just the fandom making up bullshit headcanons out of thin air and portraying it as canon just so they can excuse Thunderclans blatant hatred/xenophobia, assault of a mother, and banishment of literal babies. Nobody wants to admit the fact that Mapleshade was severely screwed over and had every right to be pissed the hell off! (and don't get me wrong murder is inexcusable but like.... you guys baby so many other murderers in this series please stop playing)

Because outright saying "Mapleshade lying is worthy of assault and/or death" will reasonably earn you a WTF response, so people exaggerate her aggressors victimhood by making up bullshit about Mapleshade being a "baby trapper" or an "overtly possessive toxic girlfriend", and/or crafting some make-believe soppy sad backstory for Frecklewish. All to make Maples decision to lie seem worse than it in actuality was, or actively malicious in nature, and deserving of the recieved "punishment" (assault and death of her children).

Like... I cannot state enough how much it pisses me off when people discredit *the literal POV expiriences of the book protagonist* just to make up random crap about her clanmates and craft some elaborate tale where Maple is the worst and has sucked all along. When we know literally nothing about them, and especially Frecklewish, except that she made a stupid assumption, is willing to beat a mother in front of their kids, and quiet frankly didn't actually give a shit about those kids the moment she realized they weren't blood related. LOL

Like completley out of nowhere people decided Mapleshade lying was the worst crime ever commited in the history of the series... UNLESS you're literally any other character in the series to do it like Bluestar Leafpool Squirrelflight Yellowfang etc etc etc.... When they get flack for lying it's unfair and they were doing what they thought was right! But also it's completely unacceptable for Mapleshade to lie about her children's half-clan heritage in an environment where her peers are violently hateful and xenophobic. Because it hurt their feelings ... LOL

And don't even get me started on the fact that, quiet frankly, Frecklewish and Oakstar were being unreasonable from the very beginning by being hateful and blaming Riverclan for their loved ones death. They literally sent their son/brother INTO BATTLE and are now mad that he DIED? What the hell do they think happens when you send people out to beat eachother up (often to the death)??

Battle and death is such a normal and accepted part of clan culture it genuinely baffles me people dont realize that, as understandable as their grief, their anger/hatred is pretty crazy, even if Appledusk *had* killed Birchface. They were wrong to assume Birchface was the father and they were wrong to project their hatred on Mapleshade and her kits. Not a single action made by them was reasonable or excusable. You don't put that kind of pressure on a single mother who *explicitly avoided stating her kits father* and get all mad when it isn't who you assumed it to be. Like it's next level stupidity

[werehounded]

the blonde from bridgerton (i can't spell her name so whatever) would not be the ideal femziraphale casting

the ideal fem aziraphale is michael sheen in makeup and/or a dress, or michael sheen just using she/her pronouns, or many other ways we could go 'ah yes that's a fem presenting aziraphale!!' bc if crowley doesn't have to change his body to look what people deem 'fem' or 'feminine coded' then neither does aziraphale tbh

tell me more how fat fem people need to fit into neat hyper feminine overtly hourglass boxes for you to consider them fem.

tell me more about how you probably treat trans and gnc women and fems.

tell me more about how you don't have an issue with david tennant playing crowley/crawly in fem presenting scenes but want to fan cast the hell out of aziraphale for potentially doing the same.

tell me more about how the only difference between their corporations are cosmetic and that both are agender ethereal beings who just took a fancy to a certain body/corporation which just generally HAPPENS to be masc, though crowley is very much more explorative afaik in canon of his gender, we don't know that aziraphale ISN'T also like that. we have limited flashbacks of 6k years of shenanigans.

the fatphobia..... it's coming from within the house fandom...

try harder. do better. be less fatphobic. fat fems and women, cis and trans, gnc and very gender conforming, deserve better than to see this shit in fandom spaces; they get enough of this irl i imagine. i know i get this as a fat masc, just the other way around with the expectations.

it wears thin. you don't need to fancast something which already has a cast member who isn't an arse as far as we know, so why replace him? because he probably wouldn't do the whole long lashes jessica rabbit corseted to hell fem look? because aziraphale might just say 'i feel different today. hm. might put on some rouge' instead of do what crowley does and go over the top with planning his outfit?

i reckon it's because aziraphale is a fat character played by a man who isn't skinny himself.

god FORBID genderweird fat people do anything look gnc or be trans or agender or genderfluid or like. exist. at all.

[meta-squash]

Have I made a post about my "why Ianto Jones was the fan favourite" theory yet?

So of course we all know that Ianto was the fandom darling the whole time the show was airing and has continued to be so for years after (the fact that the shrine is still up 15 years later says a lot). Much as we love him, it is interesting to see how much he is as close as a main character can get to being a side character when it comes to the original canon show. But I think there are a number of factors that, combined, meant he turned out the fan favourite.

Keep in mind that I'm writing this only thinking about what fans were going off during the original airing of the show: so the episodes themselves, any aired behind the scenes stuff, and the companion captain's logs etc on the BBC website. (There were also the tie-in novels but I think fewer people read those than watched the show/saw the website.)

The two most shallow aspects I won't go into very deeply, because one isn't very interesting and the other is both obvious and fanfiction has delved into it for years. The first shallow aspect is that Gareth David Lloyd is quite handsome, has some great cheekbones and a lovely voice. The second is simply Ianto's relationship with Jack and his queerness in general. I'm not going to go into that much, fanfiction has done this for me, but I do think a big important thing regarding his relationship with Jack is that at no point does Ianto go through a gay panic moment, questioning his sexuality or his attraction to Jack. He may question the nature of his relationship with Jack (as in, whether romantic/committed or purely sexual etc) but he never freaks out about his attraction.

A slightly less shallow but still not terribly deep reason is because Ianto gets a pretty distinct personality. He's got those bland smiles and a tailored suit, but he's also sarcastic, has quips and comebacks and is generally prepared with a dry comment for most moments. He's quick-thinking and in canon seems to kind of have a jack-of-all-trades basic knowledge of a lot of things. He has an element of darkness or ruthlessness running through him that comes out on occasion, but he's not as overtly intense as Owen. He's also not terribly confident, despite the sarcasm: his relationship with Jack is tentative, in CJH it's obvious he's kind of figuring out what role he plays in the group still, and he's the only character who consistently shifts from being in the field to being a home base support. But through all this he is distinctly a person.

Another is his lack of character growth. Not that he doesn't grow and change throughout the show (Cyberwoman is a huge episode for him, obviously. So are the things that happen in Countrycide and in To The Last Man). But you can track how much Gwen and Owen and Jack change from the first three episodes of series one to the last three of series two. But Ianto doesn't get whole episodes dedicated to big changes or character development, which means the fans want to give him some! The fans want to see him change and grow and learn more about him. (Side note: I think Tosh is equal to Ianto in this respect; sadly Tosh is left by the wayside due to the double whammy of racism and sexism/fangirls generally being more interested in writing about queer male characters.)

A similar factor is where he sits in terms of character hierarchy. Jack and Gwen get the most number of episodes in which they are the Main Focal Point of the story. Owen comes next, mostly thanks to his double or triple episode arcs of Out Of Time/Combat and Reset/Dead Man Walking/A Day In The Death. Then Tosh, and finally Ianto. Which means, like I said above, Ianto is as close to a side character as a main character can get. We get moments where the story truly focuses in on Ianto, but far less than everyone else, and I think it makes the fans want more. Especially because the episodes that focus on him, like Cyberwoman, Countrycide, and From Out Of The Rain (and CoE), are all pretty emotionally intense episodes.

A fifth factor is his lack of Problem Character traits. Jack, as charming as he is, is massively hypocritical, acts without thinking, acts coldly or reacts badly when his employees are in crisis, and generally is not great at leading despite his role as leader. Gwen is hypocritical in a different way, makes mistakes without ever seeming to be punished or truly learn from them, acts on her own assumptions or emotions without stopping to think on other perspectives. Owen is a spiky asshole, says and does things to antagonise others, is sexist and annoying, and generally acts rashly. Toshiko also lacks Problem Character traits (unless you count her crush on Owen), but she's again hampered by sexism/racism. Ianto doesn't seem to have many negative traits that are big enough to cause annoyance or dislike in fans; his flaws are often minor issues that have to do with the specific episode. It's only in series 3 that we begin to see him show slightly negative or frustrating traits (his inopportune questioning of his and Jack's relationship, mostly).

A fifth factor is actually everyone else's relationship with him. He's the one character whose relationship with everyone else is fairly well defined by the end of series 2. Jack and Ianto have their friends-with-benefits-but-obviously-something-more relationship, of course. Ianto and Owen antagonise each other throughout the show but in season 2 it's more like brothers sarcastically bickering than actual hate. Toshiko and Ianto seem to have a good relationship but we actually don't see them interact that much in canon. Gwen and Ianto seem to be fairly good friends and have trust in each other's skills and actually support each other quite a lot.

But I think the most important factor in Ianto being the fan favourite is how incredibly malleable he is in terms of all the little details of his life. In the show, we see the inside of everyone's flats except Ianto's, we see snippets of their after-work lives except Ianto, we know most of the basic details of their jobs at Torchwood except Ianto. We know their interests and skills and we get episodes that focus more on one or the other character -- except Ianto, whose only major focus episodes are Cyberwoman and From Out Of The Rain.

This means that the fans know what Ianto's personality is like at work, we see his relationship with Jack and with the others, and we get little tidbits of knowledge (the stopwatch, what Tosh overhears during Greeks Bearing Gifts, comments about Ianto "knowing everything") but we don't actually know a lot about him. Ianto being an archivist wasn't ever confirmed in television canon, it was for the most part a fandom creation (though it was part of the novel Slow Decay which was released after the end of series 1). Ianto has set personality traits, but the details of his life are mould-able, unknowns that can be played with. That includes things from as minor as what his flat looks like to what his job was at Torchwood One and what skills he might keep hidden. We don't really know anything about his past before Torchwood, we don't know anything about what he does when he's not working. We don't know what his hobbies are, if he's as tidy at home as he is at work, what music or films or art he likes or books he reads. In contrast, I can name at least two of those characteristics for all the other characters.

But Ianto's malleability is really really important, because it means he's the perfect half-sketched character for fandom to play with. Fandom gets this character with a distinct personality, glimpses of a past, and interesting interpersonal relationships, but with zero other known details, and it gets to fill in all the blanks. Fandom gets to explain why and how Ianto joined Torchwood One, why and how he has certain skills, what he's like outside of work, how (and if) he and Jack interact outside of work, all this stuff.

Ianto is fandom favourite because he is perfect scaffolding for interpretation, projection, exploration of character and storyline. He ticks the boxes of pretty and queer, which definitely also help. But I really do think that if canon told us as much about Ianto as it tells us about Gwen, Ianto would not be nearly as interesting or nearly as beloved. Part of why the fandom mourned Ianto so much when he died is because of his potential, because (unlike Gwen) there was all this detail we hadn't learned, and his relationship with Jack that could have grown further, and character development we could have watched him have. Ianto is the fan favourite not because he's a beautifully rendered character, but because he's a character with well-built scaffolding and the beginnings of something more that fans could latch onto and get creative with, in ways far and beyond what they could do with other Torchwood characters.

[bunnys-burgers-are-the-best]

even though i'm immersed in another fandom now, i can't leave unfinished the picture i started a long time ago 🙏🙏🙏

some headcanons and image details below 👇👇👇

I can't keep quiet about how similar Bunny and Scott are at their core, if you think about it. Maybe it's just my headcanons that I'm leaning on too heavily, but to me they're not opposites, they're two sides of the same coin. They're an image of the same figure, which is undeniably influential on Abel in both DSAF and Dialtown; Bunny isn't an overtly opposite figure, if you think about it more deeply (these are probably my headcanons, like I said, but I can't keep quiet about it anyway)

Bunny, in one way or another, has probably no less influence on Abel than Scott did in DSAF. I don't see them as enemies who are ready to step on each other's throats without regret - but rather as some competitors who pretend to be enemies (because they don't know how to overcome their pride and maybe don't know how to behave in personal interactions very well, and therefore act a little childishly, exaggerating rudeness towards each other, which is not capable of manifesting itself in any other way). They act as if they are ready to tear each other apart at any opportunity - but in reality, if something happened to their opponent, they would not be as happy as they should be. I see them as such competitors who motivate each other by their existence (even if it is difficult to call it competition due to the thriving burger joint and the Funfair crawling along the bottom).

Unfortunately, not only DSAF but even Dialtown is not the most rosy and carefree place: Abel definitely has a difficult backstory - possible family problems, an incident with his brother, and as a result - problems with alcohol. The Funfair could probably be a more profitable and popular place if he had enough willpower to fully engage in it. Do Bunny's words press Abel even deeper into the asphalt? Maybe, but the fact that they partially motivate and inflame him - it seems even more likely to me. I believe that the connection between Bunny and Abel could be as strong as Abel and Scott, if they were open, honest, and knew better how to behave with each other. I believe that Bunny could be a strong figure no worse than Scott - but his character is simply not as open and carefree in terms of communication, and therefore their relationship looks a little ridiculous, aggressive, despite possibly good intentions for each other.

[undead-cypress]

Some MRF thoughts that I don't have shitpost images for but I feel like nobody but me and my tiny group of freaks talk about. I promise this isn't another "it's QDS!!" post

(spoilers)

- there's universal themes here for sure but this game is still entirely about Japan. Like honestly I feel like some nitpicks ppl have about the game can just be summed up as "this isn't reflective of America". I could elaborate but it'd take a whole essay with how dense this could get. And we know people hate to read

- there's no romance or dating because the devs knew that's what all anybody would talk and think about if they added any. They learned their lesson. Unfortunately for them this will not deter anybody

(frankly I think there is a canonical intended love interest but it's not who most ppl think it is and whatever happens between the characters in that regard is none of my business unless it's for making shitposts lol. Nor does it really matter to me)

- there's a few things lost in translation, but tbf there was no way to really translate them, they're mostly visual puns and unspoken running themes. Like how the "Prince" archetype in Japanese was more like... Ruler? Sovereign? It's not really a hereditary kinda title, nor was it gendered. But it doesn't have the same weight in English, and usually refers to monarchs, so. Also "Savior" was "Messiah", because it was supposed to have a more sacrificial connotation. I'll probably make a whole long post about the Healer line design stuff later. "anxiety" being 不安 (lacking safety) and 不安心 (unstable heart). Like it still absolutely means anxiety and there's no better way to translate it but anxiety doesn't have the same weight in English as 不安 does in Japanese....

- for a game literally titled "a metaphor about fantasy reflecting reality" people sure aren't picking up a lot of these extremely obvious metaphors. I'm not even talking about the ones they literally spell out in the text, I'm talking about stuff like. The Sanctist Church isn't really talking about Catholicism or Christianity because they're not that big a deal in Japan, and this game is still about Japan. Sanctist Church is about the LDP. Y'know. Abe

- and then there's actually very good trans subtext? I don't even know it should be called subtext because it should be overtly obvious to Japanese people. It would take a long post for me to explain here though.

- speaking of, Junah is my favourite character. Absolutely did not expect that but she's incredible. The dialogue in this game is so carefully considered, especially hers. There's people saying her story is too simple - I'm sorry you've fallen for the trick. Hope you figure it out soon

- I actually don't think there's a single second of filler in the game, which really is a foreign feeling. Maybe because I do design, but the storytelling even in the random enemy, battle, and dungeon designs are all so intentional. You might have to play on hard to fully experience how the game nudges you to play or navigate certain ways that subtly informs you way more about the story and characters. They built it around the story rather than having the story be an afterthought. I haven't seen them attempt this since p3 tbh

- I think DDS/QDS enjoyers will get WAY more out of this than anybody. And some P3 enjoyers, if they're the type of p3 fan who's more obsessed by the literary influences and themes than the fandom perception of the characters. Also a little bit of musing on Nocturne, but I'm feel like I'm the only one who noticed (._. )

- ppl saying the game is grindy or hard - lol skill issue. I did 0 grinding ever, even against the dragon towers. Being Megaten Georg outlier that should not be counted didn't even help me in this aspect because I started off playing as if it was megaten and immediately got humbled. If you pay attention to what the game is saying (in the "please pay attention and think about what you're reading" game), it's really well balanced.

- like yeah this game rewards you for thinking and reflecting, the more you mull it over the more interesting and fun it is. I think that's where the true enjoyment is, and the game isn't subtle about this either. Which is why it's WILD to me I still see posts of ppl complaining about stuff that if they thought about it for more than 2 seconds are either just untrue or has a point or was a setup to be resolved later.

- the vistas on the bottom half of the map is either a reference to the laser cannon from Paradise Lost OR GODZILLA and I'm the ONLY PERSON WHO NOTICES THIS????

- honestly I'm so glad I go out of my way to read weird stuff a lot because truly. What you get out of MRF as a person who's a little too hyper aware of literary techniques, design intention and media presentation is so delicious. I'm literally here rotating shot compositions and event sequences and the story telling in the UI design in my brain (Will is sideways on the screen because they're. Lying down). The fuckin shade on the screen you can pick "this isn't utopia" option being the shot showing you the most billboards...

- this explains so much about the past few major games they've put out tbh. They really wanted to do more stuff like DDS and perfect the vision they couldn't get with p3 due to hardware limits and later financial troubles. It's like every single grievance they've had with executive meddling put into one game. Ppl know them as the persona guys but I remember they also made DDS and Nocturne and that weird Maken X thing 🫡

- I've been jokingly calling p3 depression simulator and catherine anxiety simulator I'm gonna start calling MRF recovery simulator because that's kinda one of the underlying themes

- Louis is so funny. "Nobody will commit atrocities anymore if I commit all of them", I'm paraphrasing but, girl, what kinda QDS5 Heat logic....

On less serious notes:

- Atlus still sucks at official merch...

- I might be making notes on the Raidou style Eupha game that exists only in my head

- and the comedy road trip movie where Strohl and Hulkenberg must find Will who is pretending to be kidnapped for plot reasons, and Gallica didn't tell the two because they're not good at acting

- I still think it's very funny that the dogs at the beginning would either kill you in one strike or even if you kill one, give you nothing. They fungered me. I don't think the parallel to Fear and Hunger was intentional but that was an extremely funny coincidence, to me 😂 immediately upon the start

- I referred to More as Ike the entire playthrough as a joke to my friends because I thought it was funny they have the same voice and both games' about fantasy racism. And then I got the Radiance skill from the Prince archetype... "Behold... I walk a path of radiance..." (Not what they actually say but I said it a lot)

- I think wanting to fuck Louis is fine and hilarious but Will isn't the most fitting character to project that onto. They hand Zorba to you on a silver platter and people deny him and for what. His awesome design? Dedication to serving cunt? Awesome accent? Sexy fucked up arm? I weep to see my son's established personality sacrificed in the name of fucking Louis. It's like people giving Hulkenberg ass. Why would you do that to her, her flatness is the charm point. All that to say horny is fine I just wish so much of it wasn't OOC.

- however, I did make a lot of dumb jokes towards the end of the game that it must be canon we never fucked Louis because otherwise we can just teleport the gauntlet runner straight into his ass, Antman vs Thanos style, killing him immediately

- addendum:

Me: man I wish there wasn't so much OOC art of the MRF characters

Manga: hold my beer

Me: Hulkenberg would obliterate you

[ingravinoveritas]

electronic-chocolate replied to your post "Just wanted to make a separate post about this…”

I had an argument on here with someone who said that michael is a straight man who's just started queerbaiting bc he wanted to appeal to the gomens fandom💀

@electronic-chocolate Oh my God. That has to be right up there with someone calling Michael a non-practicing bisexual a few months ago. What's interesting to me is how five years ago, people talked a lot more easily/readily about Michael's sexuality--not his sexual orientation, but in the sense of viewing him as a sexual being--whereas nowadays, he's been rendered almost sexless. I know the "family man" image Michael has been boxed into is at least part of the reason for that, but it's hard to think that this isn't also an unconscious response to his queerness becoming more visible and more loud (as if it wasn't visible/loud enough already) in recent times--specifically, Michael's overtly sexual comments about David.

In 2014, Michael talked about Sarah Silverman putting her hand on his butt and made cheeky quips about Lizzy Caplan's breasts on the MoS commentary, and nobody blinked an eye. Ten years later, he's not making those type of comments about a particular woman, or any woman. Instead, Michael is making those comments about David--about his slinky hips, his sylph-like chest, about how attractive David is--and suddenly, it's a big deal. People are seeing what's in front of them and either rationalizing or outright ignoring it, all while choosing to believe those comments couldn't possibly have those same sexual overtones because Michael is talking about a man.

But not only is the argument of the person you mentioned entirely specious on a surface level (because as we know, real people cannot "queerbait," as that term applies to fictional characters/media), it also manages to ignore absolutely everything Michael has said over the last five years about playing Aziraphale and Good Omens in general: How he decided before filming even began that Aziraphale is in love with Crowley, and the acting choices he made in every scene with David that were in the service of that relationship. The way Michael has said he always misses being Aziraphale when they're not filming, and how he doesn't know where the character ends and he begins.

There is also the fact that Michael has played a tremendous number of queer roles over the years--long before Good Omens--and none of them had anything to do with appealing to a fandom or fan base of any kind. Michael once previously said that every character he plays is "him"--that is, there is some piece of the character that is a part of who he is. And when you take that sentiment and put it alongside the multitude of queer roles and Michael's recent comments on the death podcast about his crush on John Taylor and his struggles with gender expression, it forms a clear, rounded picture of exactly who Michael Sheen is.

Not "queerbaiting"...just queer. Even if he doesn't label it specifically, and also because he shouldn't have to. Insisting on calling Michael straight despite all of the above and everything else Michael has shared about himself erases every part of his sexuality, not just the parts someone is uncomfortable with. I just wish more people understood that...

[olderthannetfic]

People on fandomsecrets are really mad this week about other people reviewing fanfiction on goodreads and I don't want to litigate whether people should or shouldn't use that website in that manner right now, because the thing I'm actually wound up about is:

when someone asks why, they say "BECAUSE FANFIC ISN'T BOOKS!!!1!1!" as though this is supposed to explain everything, and when asked to elaborate they basically just find ways to say "fanfic, by virtue of being fanfic, is not a book, which is a different thing from fanfic, by virtue of books being books which are not fanfic" in more and more words without adding any coherent information.

Fanfic is a type of story. Books is a type of physical object. In the digital age there are now lots of professional ~official~ works of literature which have never once been published in a physical form. The comparison is meaningless to begin with and also doesn't answer the question.

Is this just a way of ignoring the goodreads thing entirely so they can stealth complain about the Wattpad thing where people used to that site call all stories "books"? Is that what's going on here?

--

Sighhh.

I know some people think Goodreads is for Real Books™, but a hell of a lot of what's on there is trashy romance novels. I myself am an author... of indie selfpub m/m mystery novels that are overtly fandom-adjacent in that BL way. Like most people in that space, I'm mainly focused on ebooks. Why are these things not fic? Well, because we sell them for money and we don't call them fic and because we've done a successful find and replace on the character names.

I think people have trouble articulating why fic is not books because they're used to thinking in terms of content, and they know perfectly well that Goodreads is full of content that might as well be from a fic.

But no, I don't think this is an anti-Wattpad thing at all.

What they're trying and failing to articulate is that fic is not a book by virtue of its author not intending it as one.

Fic authors, or at least ones adhering to a certain kind of AO3 culture, mean their work to be a not-for-profit gift for their fandom community. They often have a horror of it escaping containment to reach the eyeballs of outsiders.

Now, frankly, with the multitude of Goodreads users reviewing original omegaverse mpreg romance novels, I'm not sure that the site actually counts as outsiders, but that's how the people going "Fic is not books!" feel. It's a violation to bring fic there just like it's gross when a talk show host digs up some horny fan art to show to actors so they can have a good laugh at fandom's expense.

[separatist-apologist]

you had an anti rhys phase? what changed your mind?

It's not so much that my opinions changed or softened so much as being that anti was actively impeding my enjoyment (I have turned off the ability to reblog those old posts because they used to get revived every six months (I wrote them back in 2021).

Additionally, critiquing Rhys' behavior in the story IS useful, but at some point it kind of became like, my issues aren't so much with the character but the writer herself. SJM makes consistently questionable choices that I find I don't always enjoy, especially when it comes to her aggressive heteronormativity and like, obsession with very rigid gender roles that have spilled into nearly EVERY corner of popular fantasy.

I have tried to critique SJM's writing a couple times before I ultimately stopped. Just speaking generally, the fandom treats critiques of SJM like a critique of them personally and people would send me the most hateful, vitriolic asks. When I was critiquing Rhys/Cassian's behavior, I was getting a lot of overtly racist rants delivered to my askbox, too. It was just too much.

I decided to focus on what I did enjoy- I also made a lot of real life friends (an anon once claimed it was "yikes" to stop anti posting about Rhys because I'd made REAL LIFE fandom friends which still makes me laugh like, girl Rhys isn't real and can't be held accountable for his crimes first of all, and secondly friendship is nice and I recommend it), which heightened my enjoyment.

Ultimately, I think, fandom is what you make of it. I think there is space to be critical, but I have also noticed that people who tend to engage in a lot of the more negative aspects of the fandom don't hang around as often because it burns them out.