#to see what fics were popular

[greenfiredragonfly]

*squints*

Most of the top kudosed fics in the Platonic Soulmates tag on AO3 are RPF. Huh. (I am forever boggled by the prevalence youtuber rpf, but whatever floats your boat I suppose.)

My FMA fic is on page three when you sort from most to least kudosed fics within the tag :3

[shiraishi--kanade]

Another thing I need pjsk fandom to realize:

1) there are literal 10 years old (and younger) children in this fandom;

2) the percentage of these children in the fandom is MUCH, MUCH higher than every single one of you here on tumbrl think it is.

"why do people write so much for popular characters?" "why do people write for kudos only?" aside from the fact that the "write for yourself" is a self-perpetuating issue in every fandom and the fact that every writer deserves engagement with their works, it's because there are kids here. Who want to fit in and get praised for their creativity. Which they can only achieve by writing for popular stuff. So maybe take that into account.

[nostalgia-tblr]

i nearly anon'd the thorki non-con fic out of SHAME but in two weeks it's become my third most clicked-on fic of the year, behind only a multichapter fic and a bit of angsty sifki porn lololol

[necer0s]

So I just finished a relisten of The Magnus Archives, and I’m having real trouble finding any fanfics that mesh with my personal headcanons and understanding of TMA. I love a good fix-it time travel fic, but it’s so hard for me to read a fic that professes to fix canon if it doesn’t deal with the fact that the Web is sentient and perfectly able to arrange a different apocalypse if the Entities aren’t destroyed or somehow bound to never enter reality. Does anyone have a TMA fic rec where the Entities themselves are actually dealt with? I know Esama wrote one, but I’d really love to read more.

[imavikingo]

There is something that I can’t understand and will never understand about fandom “culture”

Why EVERYTHING (or a lot of things) need to be canon or acknowledged by the actors/directors/producers to be accepted by the fandom? In specific ships?

And why when a “ship” (two characters, really) have more screentime than others/other characters aren’t in the picture anymore, people take that as a victory as see their ship as more valid and “actually canon”? And mock/harass others for it?

Also there is this thing people have been doing a lot too: Thats calling everyone that doesn’t like the ship you like names (and also calling them terms that before actually meant something awful but nowadays can be said for simply tagging the incorrect ship in a fucking post)

Canon isn’t always the norm here kid. At least when it relates to ships and scenarios. (Bc if we’re talking about characterization… yes it needs to be canon in a sense or we’re writing/making ocs out of canon characters)

Most of the more popular ships will never be canon and have never been, especially the gay ones. (See Drarry, Narusasu, Frodo/Sam, Johnlock, etc, etc)

So why suddenly we care so much about what NEEDS to be canon or not?

Why people NEED to see their ships be canon so badly?

Sure, I can be seen as a hypocrite because Ive been talking about Stucky a lot in the canon and what happened in EG, but they actually did that themselves. The directors talked about gay characters, the actors talked about Stucky. So actually it isn’t something ludicrous or anything. (I’ve never thought they would actually make the ship canon -bc that would be a big problem for them “how can you make Cap America gay!” And shit- but I thought they would at least make them still be friends or friendly or acknowledge the “bromance” and they just killed the friendship in one scene with the most ooc shit ever). In fact, I’m more annoyed by that. They assassinated Steve’s character and Bucky’s progress.

Nevermind…

Why people fight so much about ships and use terms that shouldn’t be brought into stupid shit like this?

Fandoms are supposed to be fun and to have discussions (in good faith) about the canon. What we like and what we don’t like about it.

Besides, a lot of current media are about stuff that’s been remade over and over again. So they have a lot of adaptations and you can pick and choose too, if you want.

And if you don’t like the canon? Easy! Do analysis, criticize it, write fics, do fanart, do creative shit or simply ignore it! No one is forcing you to keep on watching the show or the stuff you now hate/cant stand. That’s what Im doing at least.

Sure, I criticize some people and movies a lot and get actually annoyed by the disrespect towards/assassination of some characters, but at the end of the day I can only shrug and say “it is what it is” and leave it at that. (Meaning not giving them money for the new stuff/not watching nor caring about it and only acknowledging the old things I actually care about and like)

But I don’t insult or disrespect other people in fandom because of it. And also I don’t harass the directors or actors either, ffs.

Idk, Ive always been on the sidelines of the stuff I follow, I’ve never been on the thick of fandoms so maybe thats why I don’t understand.

And I’ve also not seen so many crazy shit (the most crazy stuff Ive seen is people calling others racists for tagging a ship incorrectly and also others inflating the tag of a ship in ao3 so their ship would be “the most popular” with most fics, in that fandom) because I actually curate what I see. I don’t like a ship? I mute, if I can’t stand a person or a ship? I block em. Simple and easy.

I’ve always drawn stuff for myself, read fics and made headcanons. Only recently I’ve been sharing stuff more openly, so maybe it’s that.

Idk.

I’m just tired of seeing discourse and people fighting over this stuff.

[orcelito]

I'm at the painful "confession" scene during the kage summit arc. It really is so emotional, but also... hm.

When I was younger, like 13 or so, I was a big Sakura and Naruto shipper. They were the first pairing I read fanfic for even. And in a way, I do still enjoy the two of them together... but it's moments like these that really drive home the fact that it Doesn't really work in canon. Not the way that it's set up.

As Sakura puts it, "Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke! That's all you think about!"

She's told that Naruto has feelings for her and decides to use it to convince him to stop going after Sasuke. She does love him, but not in the way she's trying to confess. The love they share is one of comradery, not necessarily romantic. The love of two people who have gone through such pain together, and who have leaned on each other throughout it all. And the fact that she's turning around and saying she loves him "simply like everyone else", now... it's trivializing. And the fact that she's trying to convince him of this, the fact that she thinks she Can convince him of this, is pretty hurtful. They've come a long way from when they were kids, Naruto the goofball vying for her attention while she yelled at him for being stupid. Sakura respects Naruto so much more than before, and Naruto respects her too. So the fact that she's still doing this... She's desperate, really. She thinks the promise he made to her to bring Sasuke home is what's driving him to let himself be hurt over and over and over again in the pursuit and protection of Sasuke.

But she's wrong.

That may be part of it, but it's only part. Naruto wants Sasuke back for himself, too. He let himself be beat up to avoid selling him out. He chases after him with single minded determination. Sasuke is his entire drive to get stronger, to catch up, to bring him home. Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke indeed.

As it is, Naruto knows she's lying to herself. And no matter what she says, he will keep going after Sasuke. Because that's just the person that Naruto is.

[leiascully]

This is not shade but it is funny to me how different mediums in different fandoms have such different expectations of what counts as "success" when it comes to engagement. I feel like I've seen so many posts from gif and photoset makers saying that if they don't get 5000 notes on the next post they're going to delete Photoshop and throw their computer in the river because there's no point and no one engages on Tumblr anymore. Even in smaller fandoms! Meanwhile if I get 50 notes on a story, that's a good day (and I'm, you know, not an unknown person in a mid-size fandom of a certain age and fairly lucky). If five people see it and enjoy it, that's still nice.

I guess visual things are easier to process quickly and reblog whereas stories, especially under a cut (and mine are always under a cut if they're longer than a few paragraphs) are more likely to get scrolled past.

Anyway the point is I wish to all fandom creatives a very all the notes they want (and undestroyed mentions). 🐇

[cuddlytogas]

MUSLIM COSETTE I’M SCREAMING

I LOVE YOUR FIC SOOOOOO MUCH

SAME ANON AS BEFORE YOUR FIC IS LITERALLY LIFECHANGING - LIKE I’VE BEEN SAYING THE USYD COHORT (SPECIFICALLY FOR THE COURSES I WANT) ARE SUPER PRETENTIOUS BUT WHAT DOES THAT MATTER IF I CAN BECOME A LES MIS REFERENCE

sdjfgahsdfjkghaldfkgnadfkha THANK YOU OMG??????? <33333333333

unfortunately, you know what this means, right? and i think you've known it in your heart all along. les amis are........ also kinda pretentious........... UnU

anyway, i had a great time at usyd, but that was for my specific courses and also a decade ago, so lmao that doesn't help. i know it's even more of a capitalist hellscape now, but tbh, what university isn't? 🙃

[lesbiansanemi]

I miss nobamaki….

[not-poignant]

10 for palmarosa (would love to hear what interested you about this pairing)

Hi hi anon!

I don't have a fancy answer tbh for this:

10: Why did you choose this pairing for this particular story?

Because I didn't like any of the other pairings, and because Raphael is a pretty 'thin' character in terms of details, so I knew it would be easier to craft him up in the way I wanted to, because there's honestly so little about his past, and even his general character, that it would be easier to keep him 'in character' while making him the kind of love interest I wanted him to be.

I find Raphael really intriguing and interesting as a character. It helps that he's not human, that he has a monster form (cambion) which is frankly pretty hot (hey wings! Tail! Horns!) and I like that idea specifically of Astarion being with someone who is...more suitable to what he is now - a vampire spawn. Astarion's kind of been expected to be extremely humanoid, even ashamed of his appetite, and I think a devil would be like 'why are you not just killing people? Why are you not feeding more often? I don't get it, you're not a high elf anymore and haven't been for 200 years.'

And you can't really do that with any other character except really Dark Urge or Dark!Companion (sort of) in a pairing. And I don't want to write a durge story.

I also really liked that it left me free to character assassinate my player character, Temter, because I just really enjoy doing that in writing? I like exploring things I wouldn't necessarily pick as game options because they make me too sad. Temter in the game I identify with. Temter in my writing I don't, and I can do what I want with him, which makes him more interesting as 'hero but ultimately shitty boyfriend.'

Also honestly thinking about how all the companions would react to the pairing makes me happy.

It gives me a lot of reasons to also explore areas that are never really explored like Baator, Avernus, even Waterdeep etc. because Raphael has portals there. I'm not limited to Baldur's Gate and locations we visit in Baldur's Gate, and that gives me more scope for creating original characters and locations than a more standard pairing. And I do like a fair bit of creative freedom in fanfiction, especially when I'm also trying to be pretty canon compliant.

...I actually had a longer answer for this than I thought!

(And I also just like... don't ship Astarion with anyone else? Like yes, with my player character, sure. And Gale for fun? Sure. But seriously in the 'I read fics of this pairing' sense? No one. I don't ship him with Halsin, or Gale, or Wyll, etc. Even if I were to pair him with someone else in the future, it still likely wouldn't be a companion so much as like, Underdark Sebastian or something - the majority of mainstream pairings for Astarion are all pairings I'm extremely 'meh' about except for in-game - I haven't read a single fic in the fandom I've liked so far, and that's not anyone else's fault, I really think that's just because I so actively don't ship him with anyone that the game and/or fandom suggests as the main shipping options for him).

--

From the fanfiction / AO3 meme

[frogfacey]

I hate to be like. That Guy who rolls up like heyy are you the Frogfacey of Tma band au from 2020(?) entitled Bizarre Love Triangle fame. I went back to look for the fic bc I wanted to do some fanart but couldn’t find it and was like. Oh Dear. Its one of if not my favorite fic of all time & I guess this is all to ask if 1) you’d accept fanart or it and 2) if there’s any way to get an archive or pdf copy? I adore it and miss it so dearly </3

And if you aren’t that same author I am apologizing profusely I hope you have a nice day / night and disregard this completely

rest of ask -> (*got the year totally off base. 2022 I believe :’) again i am so sorry about this whole deal, I hope you’re doing well regardless and if it is in fact your writing you’re insanely skilled + I adore the way you characterized everyone in it! Tma goths in an awful little band is in fact the best way for things to go.

Also I am happy to message off anon to talk about this I just didn’t want to like. Throw my full weight at potentially the wrong person so to speak </3)

OMG yeah hi thats me! I deleted it lichrally just bc I haven't felt like writing in a whole like two years and it was making me have unkind feelings towards mine previous writing and I felt bad about having a perpetually unfinished fic sitting on the 'net when I had a whole planning document dedicated to it lol (said document says that it was conceived of in 2021 but idk if thats when I posted it). As of lichrally three seconds after I've finished writing this sentence its been put back up! :^D also I started relistening to the magnus archives a few weeks ago so I'm probs going to continue writing it I can like tell u the rest of the plot outline if u want. ripley frogfacey the magnus archives throuple fanfic lore

also yeasyeas I shall cry u may make fanart! I'm still very fond of it I have some of my own doodles relating to it somewhere that I might add to the fic upon reupload. watch this space and all. As a sidenote my hashtag fandom related sideblog is @podgemod which I am presently not that active on but that may change.

[neixins]

the sword and shield part of the prophecy is soooo vague that i’ll rotate every possible theory inside my silly little head and then go “or it could be smth else”. absolute net zero conclusions reached but i had fun.

[sanchoyo]

whys ygo the only fandom I’m in that’s really populated with crackships/rarepairs out the wazoo. Like there’s ofc A Lot of popular ships but no one looks twice at ‘weirder’ ones like ones where the charas never spoke. More fandoms could learn from this 😔

[killuaisaprincess]

reminder GONKI IS MORE CANON 😤😏 so anytime some kg person tries to send hate at you remember it’s just cuz they’re big mad Gonki more canon eheheh 😘🤭

[jyuanka]

"his lips tasted like ice and sin"

[ayoyoungg]

with kpop being so widely popular now, I’m surprised I don’t come across as many Naruto idol-AU fanfics as I used to 🤔 my introduction to snsd was literally a Hinata fanfic lmao