#though i'm still considering starting a substack for posts like these

[godtier]

can we talk about the fandom term "word of god?"

i feel like this term has gotten incredibly muddied over the years and its definition seems to be considered as the following by the majority of people in fandom:

"word of god" means that anything that anyone who has worked on a given piece of media should be considered canon. e.g.: "the voice actor of my favorite character thinks he's asexual, therefore this is word of god information that should be considered canon!"

in actuality, the term is defined as such:

The creator(s) of a media franchise and/or their extradiegetic revelations about plot, characters, etc. A statement regarding some ambiguous or undefined aspect of a work, the Word of God comes from someone considered to be the ultimate authority, such as the creator, director or producer.

the important part is the fact that an "ultimate authority" is defined as someone who had a significant measure of creative pull in the production being questioned.

in large productions, this almost always excludes things such as actors or voice actors and can even extend to writers. while writers are obviously creating the granular details of the media, they still have to get approval for the scripts they write from the person in charge. note that this does not mean that actors/other staff and their input/feedback are always disregarded 100% of the time; there are plenty of cases where an actor speaks up about a line read, provides feedback during production, and makes a strong enough case to where the people in charge actually like the suggestion and go with it.

for example, an actor could suggest that they feel their character would feel more guilty during a scene due to events or actions from a past episode. the director might assess the situation, calculate how much a change like that would disrupt the writing of the rest of the episode, then approve or deny the suggestion accordingly.

but let's say the suggestion is approved. even though that suggestion originated from an actor, what makes it "word of god" is that the director or creator accepted it. that's the key.

actors make statements about their own characters a lot these days. they're much more free to speak about their own feelings and interpretations, what maybe inspired their performances, etc. and these thoughts are more accessible when those actors are either very active on the promotional circuit or they routinely post on places like twitter. this is not a bad thing, of course, as they should be able to do that and not be forced to shut their traps about how they feel about any given character or performance. it's a healthy thing overall.

but when it comes to the act of interpreting media, their statements and ideas are white noise at best. they're hired to perform a character as written by someone else. any statements they make that are not backed up either by the material itself or a producer/director on the material should always be interpreted as headcanon, not word of god. it doesn't help that there's a heavy conspiratorial attitude online anymore, where everyone tries to find the "hidden meanings" in otherwise innocuous personal posts by a staff member who has no decision-making ability. but that's another issue entirely.

now, this isn't to say that i condemn people for adopting those headcanons as their own because i've done that myself for fanfiction and rp purposes. my issue comes in when people parrot the headcanons of these actors and then label them as "word of god."

on its head, it might be difficult to see the issue. but where it gets dicey is when it leads to people bullying others for not following these headcanons as "word of god."

i'll use a very silly example to explain.

let's say that during an interview, an actor makes the statement that they think their character is afraid of snakes. let's also say that there is no evidence of this in the source material, nor is it corroborated by anyone else with authority on the project (remember: this means the creator, director, and/or producer of a project). it doesn't matter why they said it, just that they did.

but let's say someone in the fandom runs with this, saying it's "word of god" that this character is afraid of snakes.

then let's say someone else in the fandom, who has never seen this interview, draws this character petting a snake for whatever reason. again, it doesn't matter why.

what i have seen happen in these cases is that the person who drew the art will inevitably get people commenting saying things like "this is cute, but he's canonically afraid of snakes, just FYI :)"

now imagine instead of "afraid of snakes" it's something more charged. you can probably imagine how it could quickly devolve into bullying or claims of "fake fans" etc. this phenomenon has run creators out of fandoms or at the very least turned them off from creating fanworks of it or engaging with it publicly. this is, of course, not a "win" for the fandom.

i'm not saying all of this to imply it's "wrong" to adopt what an actor says and incorporate it into how you decide to create or interact with the fandom. i really don't care what people create for themselves or friends.

what i take umbrage with is the push to spread something an actor probably spent no more than two seconds thinking about as infallible evidence of their specific perspective being canon and therefore intrinsic to any further interpretation of that character in fandom works. you must acknowledge this throw-away idea the actor had about their character because it's lore, you see, and not doing so means you're either uninformed at best, or are actively disparaging the canon and a "fake fan" at worst.

it also of course interferes with the theory crafting side of things. someone can theory craft only to have someone bust in saying "BUT ACTOR SAID THIS AND YOUR THEORY CONTRADICTS IT." this is despite whatever the actor had said not being reflected in any manner whatsoever in the source material.

this behavior damages media literacy and disrupts the flow of analysis. to include every single thing an actor may say about their character is inherently untenable, because actors are (generally) not involved with the writing process and are not writers themselves. they may often say things that outright contradict canon material, multiple times. you can say "well those are mistakes" but if one is a mistake, what makes anything else they say more credible? it's best to simply discard what an actor might say as, again, white noise when you're analyzing media. you can infer certain things, at most, such as an actor saying about their process "i envisioned these two as reincarnated lovers to get the chemistry down correctly." that may inform the meta reasoning as to why two characters behave a certain way around each other. but that statement taken at face-value does not mean that the characters themselves are canonically reincarnated lovers.

of course, since this is tumblr, some may poke their heads in and point their fingers with "whataboutisms" with regards to things like small, indie productions. if your indie production is three people, then canon may be more malleable by design, sure. but even in the smallest of projects, if there are directors and creators working with actors, the directors and creators still have final say. and if the creator or director/producer agrees that what the actors says is valid, then see what i had mentioned above: it's the person with the most creative agency or authority in the hierarchy of the production that has the final say and are what makes any given fact "word of god."

there's, of course, the purist route where you disregard anything that anyone, creator included, may say outside of the media itself: if it's not in the book, then you don't take it into consideration. but that's "death of the author" and is yet another argument for another day.

bottom line when it comes to fanworks, though: do whatever the hell you want. it doesn't fucking matter. the important thing is that you're respectful to each other and not trying to strong-arm someone into changing what they're making to fit what you want canon to be based on the word of an actor in a 7 second interview clip. if someone draws something you don't like, writes something that goes against your interpretation of the characters, just... block them. it's not debate club.

the only space wherein browbeating debate should be anticipated is in the theory crafting and literary analysis space, where the point is to discuss the canon material itself. but if you come in hot, don't expect to always be received well with someone who has experience analyzing media. just be respectful, that's all i want.

[malusokay]

little question.. <3

I've had this blog for a really long time now, and I always love to keep evolving my content and trying new things (youtube is coming soon, I swear oml), so I wanted to ask you guys a little something.

I'm an avid essay writer. something interests me? essay. something bothers me? essay. watched a movie? essay. read a book? essay.

Would you guys be interested in reading those random essays of mine?? The topics are usually all over the place, ranging from literature, history, and philosophy, to things like beauty or fashion.

Some of my recent essays have been on why artists are so often depressed, the church and art, and why people are drawn towards toxic romance.

I've also been wanting to post some of my poetry on here too, but I'm not sure if you guys would enjoy this type of content; I started this blog when I was quite young and even though I still enjoy the typical Tumblr girly blogging stuff, writing more profound things feels more satisfying to myself so id love the hear what you guys think!! <3

(I also considered substack for this but have no idea how that platform works lol)

[pffbts]

a goodbye letter.

hello everyone, it's been a long time, isn't it?

i haven't written anything in months and tbh even if i wanted to further give life to all my wips, i wish i had even a drop of motivation and energy to do so. some of you might have as well forgotten about my little blog, which had its own humble beginnings. and tbh i don't mind at all. it's been, i don't know almost 5+ years that i've had this blog. i started it out during the last two years of my high school, when i was struggling very much to cope with all the pressure and anxiety. this little corner of the internet became my comfort space. i could pour my heart out into snippets of letters and the love that i received from all of you who were there from the beginning only fueled my passion to write more and of course, helped me immensely in escaping the cruelty of my reality.

since then, i have graduated school. my reality is still harsh but i'm surviving. i have also graduated from my college with two degrees that i was doing simultaneously. currently, i'm preparing to sit down for my master's 1st-year exam coming months and job surfing at the same time. tbh i wish i had enough energy and positivity to motivate myself to pen down something. but it seems like we have to finally pull the curtains down on this blog.

yes, there is a lot of stuff that's still pending to be completed as you will know if you care to check my masterlist. but i'm not going to give you any false hope by saying that someday i will magically come back and finish and place them all in front of you. it would be too selfish of me to keep you on your toes like that.

i know i've let down a lot of you. many have told me me how much, especially my letters have helped you guys during hard times. even though i know i shouldn't even bother to think like this considering i know none of you in-person. still, it's the crippling humanity in me. honestly, i feel sad for myself. my life took so many things away from me. even the capacity to keep this comfort space alive for myself. some of you have left a long time ago. probably life has happened to you all too. i have also met some of you during the latter part of my journey here and i'm very glad that you all loved my work even with all my incompetency in keeping up with the schedules. you guys were too kind to me.

this actually came too suddenly - this realization that something needs to end. i don't think there will come any other time in the future when i'll read fanfics or write them myself. but it's a bit too much to delete the whole blog considering the reblogs will still exist in the tumblr algorithm. therefore, the letters will still be up along with the fics.

although i don't think i will stop writing. i have my substack where i will experiment with my creative writing but that's just my way of growing up as a writer. these days i'm too busy both in my head and physically, i wish i can overcome becoming a moss. my produce is sparse but my want is bigger than that. although for fanfics, there's no want anymore. i've had my fill and i'm sad to say, this is where we part.

pffbts is thus archived. all my posts will remain. if you send in any mundane sweet ask, i will answer them as soon as possible. kindly please don't send in any requests for fics (i've had to delete a couple of them from my ask box and it felt terrible.) i'm not completely going away. as a person, i will stay. it's just the fanfic writing part of me that will take a permanent leave. i'm almost 24 and it's been almost 10 years that i've started out in creating fanfics. i think it's enough, nah? plus writing this post for you all has strangely made me feel calm, as a certain baggage has been let down from my shoulders.

thank you to you all from the past & the present. i hope you all stay well and healthy. it has been truly a good time to have you all with me.

-K.

[cadyrocks]

I feel somewhat comfortable blaming this on the way the internet strips nuance away from things. A lot of very sensible things (e.g. "women take a cold, defensive posture as a defense mechanism because of the ever-present danger of a man mistaking friendliness for flirtation and not wanting to constantly deal with that shit, and this is a result of how we as a society look at gender roles and the patriarchal assumptions baked into them") lose all nuance and connective tissue, and you end up with... well, ideas that lead to this kind of neurosis.

Like, you say this:

No, the worst thing that could happen is that I could contribute to a patriarchal society that believes that all women who dress or look a certain way are sexually available, forcing women to deal with constant unwanted sexual attention whenever they try to simply exist in society.

And yeah, that would be bad. But... like... there are ways to ask people out that aren't skeezy or unpleasant; I'd argue that it happens all the time. It's not self-explanatory (speaking from experience here, I had to learn this stuff the hard way and sometimes I still fuck up), but it is something you can learn to do.

What's being demanded here isn't a constant shame of one's sexuality, or that you feel shame every time you feel attracted to a person of the opposite sex. You, as an individual, are not the patriarchy. You just need to be aware of it and account for it in your dealings. There are a lot of little things I do on a daily basis in this vein - things like "intentionally making space when trying to start a conversation, so that they don't feel cornered" or "not starting a conversation with someone in the train who busy with other things" or "finding compliments that aren't about physical attributes"; things like that. Hell, A.R. Moxon described a similar dynamic in a recent substack post:

When I run trails, I sometimes encounter people in twos or threes but mostly ones, and sometimes, as you might expect, some of those people are women.

I’ve seen pictures of me when I’m jogging; I’m 6’2” and 230 lbs. and even if I’m trying to smile, exertion turns it into a scowl. So, I do my best to seem as non-threatening as possible on the trail. I don’t know how good a job I do, but I try to give people as much of their own space as I can, and make a little unobtrusive cough from a dozen yards back if I’m coming up behind so as to not suddenly startle somebody with my sudden presence, and to offer friendly but very brief acknowledgement if I come upon somebody passing the other way, avoiding any extended eye contact that might be considered aggressive, and I just generally try to give off subtle indications that I will not be a threat, or even an encounter that they will have to negotiate and deal with.

This is not a big deal for me to do, by the way. I happen to know I am not a threat in these moments. I also recognize that nobody else knows this about me.

You are not the patriarchy. However, we live under patriarchy, and I feel like we have a moral responsibility to understand what that means and how it affects other people, and in some cases to adjust our behavior for the comfort of those around us.

Given what you describe, though, yeah, I can imagine you could end up with some pretty nasty views of male sexuality. You're not alone; Scott Aaronson has mentioned the same kind of thing. Hell, one could argue that this kind of view is pretty central to certain deeply flawed essentialist beliefs (think TERF shit). But I don't this level of shame and fear necessarily follows from these ideas. I'm sorry that it led to that in you.

(I do think it necessarily follows from the strawman version of these ideas spread by misogynists, like, say, for example, what the OP is doing, but that's another discussion.)

It's hard.

A necessary consequence of acknowledging the messy, unfair realities of life is a loss of innocence. Needing to think about things you didn't have to think about before needing to confront one's own complicity in systems of oppression; needing to find ways to cope with those systems in ways that aren't immoral. It can be hard, but what's the alternative? Pretending that the patriarchy isn't real? Retreating into the bubble of ignorance peddled so aggressively by those who are quite fond of male supremacy? This is a common response, because none of this is fun. It can lead to a very predictable backlash (example 1: Gamergate; example 2: OP's bullshit) from people who don't want to confront their complicity or change their behavior. The response from them is often to deny the problem, because if it isn't a problem, they can go back to being innocent. Innuendo Studios did an amazing series on exactly this dynamic, "Why Are You So Angry?". I can't recommend it highly enough.

But becoming frozen and paralyzed with fear and guilt isn't a healthy response either. It doesn't actually do anything beyond making you miserable. I don't know how to fix this problem; I just know that the answer involves a better understanding of these issues, not shoving them into a box and pretending they aren't real.

A big reason MRA/Andrew Tate stuff is appealing to so many normies is that it's *significantly* more logical and rigorous than the queer theory stuff that's suddenly become mandated by most institutions.

Now, of course, I'm not saying I believe it. All I'm saying is a young person today is presented with two options: the first says that biological sex is fake and that were it not for oppressive social structures humanity would default into a genderless mass in which everyone looked the same and have no discernable preferences in regards to sexual attraction. The other says no, actually, that's complete bullshit.

Oh, and also, the now-mainstream side is very openly disdainful of young men and male heterosexuality in particular, to the extent that it's perfectly normal for young men to be told that their very existence is the cause of all the world's problems and they will never be able to cleanse themselves of their evil.

Gee golly I wonder why they'd listen to literally anyone else?

People have a natural aversion to ideas that are very obviously insane. Most people have some degree of dignity, or at least a lack of burning self-hatred. It takes a very specific form of prolonged conditioning to make anyone stupid enough to fall for this shit, and I'm sorry but there's just not enough English majors out there to make your little project socially viable.

[m-ariams]

It's been pretty long since I've blogged and I don't really think this account is worth writing think pieces and stories like I used to back in high school lol

I feel like this account is sorta dead cuz I don't really post consistently on here and a lot of the mutuals I have are from almost a decade ago (if you're still active and we're mutuals, hello again! I hope you're doing well).

It's kinda weird re-introducing yourself on a platform where you've been an active member of, but I guess here goes nothing.

I'm Mariam. I'm in my late 20s and I have a writing degree. I've been through several re-brands in the last 5 years and I've learned that labeling myself is not really the move despite being a fixed sign with fixed placements.

But if I really had to label myself, I'd call myself a tarot reader and an astrologer. I often find myself getting shy or worried about posting about my astro takes and info because I have that weird imposter syndrome thing where I think I'm not smart enough in astrology... even though I've studied this shit for years and I have hella books about it.

Anyway, since the pandemic I learned I'm an introvert (shockingly). I used to go out a lot, but it was really me running away from things I wasn't ready to face, which as my Saturn return approaches in the coming months, I'm grateful for finally facing them head on and growing from them lol.

My big 6 is Scorpio rising, Aquarius sun/mercury, Aries moon, Sagittarius venus, and Leo mars. Back in 2022, I learned that I was born 12 minutes later and it shifted my chart wheel 3 degrees clockwise. I went from a Leo midheaven at 28 degrees to a Virgo midheaven at 1 degree.

It was probably one of the biggest breakthroughs for me, especially considering late Astrologer Nikola Stojanovic's degree theory. I went from having a Leo MC with a Cancer degree (28) to a VIrgo MC with an Aries degree (1). This really helped me navigate my career path and how to maintain my public image.

It helped me build myself better. I grew up thinking I had no earth in my chart. I'm clinging onto that midheaven for dear life so I can have some form of practicality and not succumb to my melodramatic rumblings in every other area. It's not easy having a lot of fire and air, especially as a fire moon; sometimes my moods are like hyperactive children on a swing set on a windy day.

Anyway...

I'll start posting more rumblings about tarot and astro eventually but mostly on Substack. I'll be here to reblog some cool witchy and naturey stuff with the occasional memes. If you made it this far, love ya. Hope you're doing well and would love to reconnect if you're down.

I'll see y'all around. <3

[petenicholls]

Pete.ink/weekly August 2022 Week 3 (of 4.5)

Welcome to Pete.ink/weekly for week 3 (of 4.5) of August 2022! Yep, August ends in the middle of the week so the fourth Pete.ink/weekly will be available the first weekend of September. Last week I said I might have some news by the end of the week--yeah, as the month has passed so have my hopes! 😅Just like most months, but hey, I've still been successful with creating content consistently every week since the beginning of March! So, I think we should take that as a win.

Just a quick reminder that I have 3 limited edition t-shirts on sale, all of which will disappear from the internet with in 3 weeks (or less). A great way to support me is buying one and wearing it everywhere you go! Never take it off. Shower in it! This would mean a lot to me! Head on over Pete.ink/merch to take a look at these incredible works of art that will look amazing on you, you amazingly gorgeous human being! That link once again: Pete.ink/merch

Anyway, on with week 3!!!

Monday, August 15, 2022

Some thoughts on this week's FacingLife.WTF:

I keep feeling the need to tweak the female face's design. I really prefer her flat-topped eyes but showing her eyelids does make her look more female to me. Of course, even thinking about this brings up all kinds of anxiety with American culture trying to become more free and open to more than just the two genders. As an ally to all humans, I hesitate to even talk about gender appearances and feel like I'm opening myself to criticism by even having a binary gendered pair of characters. The thing is, binary genders is the world I've known for most of my life. Recognizing and interacting with trans and gender fluid people in my every day life is a common occurrence but because we see them so rarely in media, I'm not able to easily know how to represent them in my own work. In real life it's easy to interact with them--I just treat them like normal people. In art, however, I feel like it's a much more complicated issue. I'm definitely working on it, though.

Tuesday, August 15, 2022

Have you started reading FutureBlog, yet? If not, start here! If you have, go read chapter 5 now!

Wednesday, August 15, 2022

Do aliens not visit us because they are bigoted toward us? What do you think?

Often everyone's pal, Jay The Pal, likes to post a video on Wednesdays called WednesJAY! Here is this week's WednesJAY which breaks the mold of previous WednesJAYs!https://www.youtube.com/embed/embed/9RyQloUvisY

Thursday, August 15, 2022

Week 1 of my 2022 Nerd Shirt of the Day Marathon is complete! See all the Nerd Shirts so far!https://www.youtube.com/embed/embed/YEAfU1lAjEw

Which Nerd Shirt is your favorite?

Stay tuned for the Nerd Shirts from week 2 in the next Pete.ink/weekly or check them out daily by following me on my socials!

Friday, August 15, 2022

Skipped Judgie Bear last week for a special perp walk edition of Goings On! This month's Judgie is a direct sequel to last month's and portrays the true irony of Judgie Bear's existence.

That's it for this week's Pete.ink/weekly!

Please consider supporting me by sharing my work with your friends, following me on social media (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok), or supporting me financially by getting a subscription/membership on my Patreon, BuyMeACoffee, or Tumblr. They start at just $2/mo! Cancel any time! Subscribing to my Substacks is another way to help! Each Substack will run you $5/mo. Again, you can cancel at any time.You can also just throw a couple bucks to my Venmo or Paypal if ya want, too!

While sharing is literally how you will help me build an audience, enough people getting paid subscriptions/memberships/etc is how I'll pay my rent and bills longterm. No one does anything alone, after all. So, whatever you can do, I will appreciate it! Thanks!

And thanks again for reading!

Have a great week and hope you enjoyed my ink!

-Pete!