#via star wars on twitter!

[foxssleeplessness]

The devil works hard but Fandom Shipping Wiki editors work harder (and faster)

[therebelcaptain]

Incorrect Star Wars Quotes

[splorpo]

girls who only like adam driver bc of star wars will never understand my bond with him

[sage-nebula]

I've watched pretty much all of Jenny Nicholson's videos (despite not being into most of the things she's into) for a variety of reasons, but one of the reasons I watch her content is because I think that she seems like a truly stand-up kind of person. Of course, given that she is a person creating content for YouTube, we're only allowed to see the version of herself that she wants us to see. I'm under no illusions about that. But the version of herself that she presents to us, the viewers, seems to be a person who is not only genuinely passionate about the things she discusses (and honest about why she'll hold back on discussing certain topics when fans of those topics can be awful about it), but also who considers the experiences of (for lack of a better phrase) the average person when it comes to the theme parks and other experiences that she reviews.

Three specific instances come to mind: one from the Evermore video, and then two from her most recent Star Wars hotel video. (Side note: she was so, so right that Disney marketing is stupid as hell for not letting influencers et cetera use the common names for things. The average person doesn't know what "Galactic Starcruiser" is, but will understand "Star Wars hotel." Get it together, Disney.)

In the Evermore video, Jenny talks about how she emailed Evermore Park ahead of her visit to try to get more information prior to her visit. Things like whether there was a dress code, what she could expect when she arrived there, information that should have been readily available on the website but wasn't. She mentions that she could have mentioned that she's an influencer and that she probably would have gotten a response (because they never emailed her back), but that she deliberately chose not to.

"So I did attempt to email ahead of my visit, trying to ask basic questions about the park and inquire about renting it out. When I did that, I was intentionally vague; I didn't link my channel, and I didn't use my primary email. And I sort of suspect that if I had done the whole influencer song and dance -- said my channel name, my subscriber count -- I might've had better access to the park, and perhaps even a better experience. But that wasn't the point. I didn't want to call ahead. I'm the mystery diner! I'm the undercover boss! If you can't deliver an equivalently good experience for all guests, that's on you and your business." [x]

Then, in the Star Wars hotel video, there were two instances in which Jenny had to reach out to Disney customer support for assistance, and received absolutely nothing in return. The first was when she paid for a photo taking service, but had absolutely no photos taken of her. When she reached out to Disney customer support for a refund, they refused to give her said deserved refund. The second instance was when she had purchased a large droid figure from the hotel, and had it shipped to her house via the Disney shipping service. The Disney shipping service inputted her address incorrectly (in fact I think she says they put in a completely different address altogether), so her droid was lost. Once again she reached out to Disney customer support to find out what she could do about this expensive item she had purchased, only to be told that they couldn't do anything to help her.

In both cases, Jenny took to twitter to post about how Disney was refusing to a.) issue her a refund for a service she paid for but never received, and b.) help her receive an item she'd paid for but never received. Both times, Disney reached out immediately, issued her the refund, and overnighted her lost item. Jenny correctly identifies that they only did this because she's an influencer with a large twitter following, and has this to say in the video:

"They didn't even ask for my phone number. Like someone at Disney just did the legwork to go into the database, look up my booking info, find my phone number and then call me within a day of the tweet going out. And the person who called me was really nice, and I'm thankful he cared to resolve it. BUT, I just always feel very cynical when I try to resolve issues through the appropriate channels available to all customers and nobody will help me until they find out I'm an 'influencer.' I spoke with several other guests who got [the photo taking service] and had the exact same problems as me, and they never got refunds." [x]

And

"But then after I tweeted about it on my twitter account with a lot of followers, Disney suddenly resolved it and they sent me a replacement. They actually overnighted it to me. And along with it they sent a lot of miscellaneous goodies which I really appreciated. So here again, I feel if this had happened to anyone without a lot of twitter followers, they would have had a significantly more frustrating experience." [x]

I feel that this post will probably read as giving Jenny kudos for doing the bare minimum. And I think that on some level, that's true. But it's true because nowadays, many influencers won't even do the bare minimum. They would have Disney immediately issue them a refund, or overnight the droid to them with the additional goodies, and then make posts gushing about how great Disney's customer service is, despite knowing full well that the (again for lack of a better term) average person who doesn't have a huge internet following would never receive that kind of support from Disney. Similarly with Evermore, most influencers would call ahead and flex their follower count to try to get a bespoke experience to then show on their channels. They wouldn't want the same experience everyone else gets. That won't generate good content, in their eyes, and besides, they're better than that. Don't you know who they are?

But Jenny, despite her follower counts, keeps it real. Yes, she appreciates that Disney did give her the deserved refund and did send her the droid + gifts. But she also points out, both times, that if she'd been a person without a large twitter following, they would not have done that, and people in the exact same position she was with the photo service didn't get their deserved refunds. With Evermore, she didn't call ahead because she DOES want the same experience everyone else gets. She wants to be able to give a genuine review. Whether that review is positive or negative is dependent on the business itself.

Again, this probably seems like giving Jenny kudos for the bare minimum of decency. And I agree that on some level it is. But I also think that, in today's day and age, we really don't get that with a lot of influencers, who are in it for the sponsorship money (and who get their egos way inflated), and so it's nice to have a reviewer / theme park influencer who is honest with her opinions, and who recognizes that yeah, Disney did give her special treatment, but that it shouldn't have been special treatment, that they should be helping all of their guests like this, through the normal channels that she tried using, and they are a shit company for not doing that.

I just really appreciate Jenny.

[feyinvestigations]

Birds on The Bird App Masterpost

All the Gotham Twitter posts can be found here. If you want to be added to the tag list, lmk!!

1 - Meant to be on Priv

2 - Eating burritos sloppy style

3 - Hood's war against being verified

4 - Out of costume intermission

5 - Hoods war against being verified pt 2

6 - RIP Grammy 🕊🕊

7 - Pride Month

8 - tweeting during your lunchbreak

9 - Damian and Animals, a compilation

Tag List under cut

Ask/reply/dm to be added!! Whatever works for you!!

Note: some of the names aren't linkable/taggable via tumblr on mobile due to some users visibility/privacy settings. If you are one of these folks, I'll do my best to let you know of future installments via dm/ask

Taglist

@desicanary // @thegayseance // @soaring-through-the-stars // @thebat-musicman // @percyyeuss // @pathofglory // @andreaissy // @themiraculousec // @gnomewithalaptop // @viola-cola // @milotic109 // @kamala-msmarvel-khan // @suffer-my-beloved-mutuals // @arcadianico // @your-dead-european-ancestor // @asmodeusmustdiexo // @max-volume // @itsmeevie01 // @leagueofbats // @catostrofiqu // @amillionandonefandoms // @shykitten28 // @atlasaurelius // @ihavenohotcocoa // @kai-antreas // @living-on-borrowed-time // @o-i-have-too // @aroaceass // @silverwolf1249 // @cannimochi // @lesbianbooknerd // @scarlettauthor // @twinningglass // @1n0sss // @craptastico // @lovethewitchofendor // @insomniacweebqueen16 // @fashionstatement-deathwish // @brieftimetravelwhispers // @crabs-brencil // @universal-travel-er // @royal-illusion-loves-his-fandoms // @blankliferain // @p1xel-1mp // @kades-stuff // @theweevilofsweetreef // @fablehaven-rulez // @kalifornialove // @justahoomanbeing // @frosty--giants // @you-are-valid-and-deserve-love // @slitherynchiken // @kazbrekkersfedoraaintgotshitonme //

[misscammiedawn]

Thinking about We Know The Devil and Heaven Will Be Mine today. A duology. WKTD the tells the story of accepting you're queer, framed as a horror story of 3 repressed teenagers at a christian summer camp fighting off their inherent queerness and HWBM tells the story of how one accepts their place in society after embracing their queerness.

WKTD uses magical girl tropes in a fairly grounded Midwestern teen experience.

Magical girl stories often involve the struggle of the forces of Good and Evil. Purity and Impurity. Corruption often being a core theme of any girl squad facing down the nightmarish forces. This can be seen from Madoka's approach to the concept which is often referred to as a deconstruction. The Pink Opaque from I Saw The TV Glow overtly uses these themes in the exact same allegory as WKTD with the evil forces attempting to suppress the queerness of the protagonists.

HWBM uses mech anime tropes in an allegorical wonderland where the setting fades away to have the audience engage with the ideas at play rather than the lore. Mech anime often uses the giant robot duels as a method of visualizing ideological struggles. Too often in these shows beam sabers will cross as the pilots yell at one another to embrace ideas of how the concepts of war and prejudice can be battled out of existence.

In HWBM the "war" in play is humans versus space... or more accurately humans versus those who are not of Earth. Versus those who are alien. Versus those who are not human.

The dominant culture versus queer culture.

WKTD frames its tropes via the dating sim mechanics popular within its visual novel medium. But rather than choosing which of the 3 girls the player wishes to romance you must choose which of the 3 you wish to exclude. The idea being to scapegoat one's struggle with queerness by attacking outward, blaming the other, by shaming others into the closet to keep yourself in there.

Lashing outward to prevent reflecting inward.

The only good ending of the game is to accept a polycule dynamic where everyone is seen, accepted and embraced for who they are unconditionally. God's love, in this world, is conditional and one must always be excluded. The devil has room for three.

There is no room in normal society for a polycule. It is inherently queer. The dominant culture is binary and there's no version of a polycule where only a 0 and a 1 are represented. The binary is incompatible.

I recently told a friend that the duology tells the journey of a thousand miles and how it begins with a single step. WKTD is the story of that first and all too important step acceptance.

HWBM is the story of what comes after acceptance. After that first step.

It tells the story of the thousand mile journey.

The ideologies at play are the concepts of assimilation, activism and separationism. In the allegory Earth/Humanity represents the dominant "straight" society and the three characters represent each of these ideologies. Assimilation is to return to Earth, to integrate into the dominant culture and lose some of the inherent joy and "otherness" that being queer brings. It's no coincidence that the character representing this path is a trans woman who is known for defecting from her faction and crossing over to every other side while repeating the mantra "I've never betrayed anyone in my life", it is a coincidence however that her faction's war efforts are lead in part by God's Strongest Chaser herself (as far as I'm aware the Halimede Twitter Account is not affiliated with the game, but I find it funny that the assimilation path is represented by someone who a character whose gimmick account argues "t4t is incest"). It is a life of peace. But it is a life of compromise. Of giving up humanity's dream of the stars. To be grounded and tethered to Earth forever.

The Activism Path represents the idea of staying in Earth's orbit but never surrendering even an ounce of the queer identity for the sake of acceptance. Forcing the dominant culture to argue with us on our terms. Accept us on our terms. It is a life of constant battle but in that battle we will save those on Earth, invite them into the stars, embrace them with acceptance and love. Let them join us or remain where they are. This is a life of constant war, knowing that until all are loved and accepted, no one is and so we continue fighting. Letting people change sides. Nothing changes but maybe it's better that way.

Separation is the idea of abandoning Earth entirely. To become so incompatible with the dominant culture that we are no longer "human" to those who remain tethered. We are unapproachable. Separate. Unique. Other. Queer above anything else and incapable of creating a rational dialogue with the dominant culture. It is picking up your toys and walking away. Going far enough away from the culture war that it will never be able to reach you.

The author of the Halimede account once wrote, while in character, that this is the saddest ending of them all because it's unsustainable and that it does not address the inherent intersectional fighting between communities, allowing wars to simply break out further away from our blue marble in the distant stars. It is a life of abandoning war without embracing peace. To live separate in bubbles apart.

The ending of the game forces you to pick. There is no existing outside of these options. Maybe one day we'll find other ways to be but within the view of this game they are all we have. Embrace Earth, declare war on Earth or abandon Earth.

Choose.

I admit. Since the pandemic and coming out as trans, I've favored Saturn's ideology more than others. Completely giving up on "humanity" and only working within circles of those whose acceptance of queer culture is baked in. I fought so hard to accept who I was and "know the devil", so to speak, that I pulled back and withdrew.

Both games have a lot of themes about the demons ones must face within queer culture and outside of it. The way we hurt ourselves, hurt our allies and how the world outside societal, structural and individual will force us to compromise, to cut away parts of ourselves.

These games are masterpieces.

I wish I found them earlier in my life. I want everyone able to read these words to find them now.

[chipthekeeper]

Star Wars: Andor - The Complete First Season (2022) 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Menu (via @ HDMOVIESOURCE on twitter)

[vittacorle]

if I love you, is that a fact or a weapon?

'the red girl' from 'the bread we eat in dreams' by catherynne m. valente || 'wuthering heights' litjoy special edition Illustrated by felix abel klaer aka superstarfighter || 'i’ve got you under my skin' @ezrul-00 || 'romance or the end' by elaine kahn || 'the haunting of bly manor' (lyrics from 'midnight show': a part of the killers' 'murder trilogy') gif credit @scarychristmas || sandarafreedompark  (via wnq-writers) || 'the hunger games: the ballad of songbirds and snakes' directed by francis lawrence || 'the hanging tree' from 'mockingjay' by suzanne collins || 'wuthering heights' litjoy special edition cover Illustrated by superstarfighter || 'i swear, next time i’ll see you i’ll be funny' from 'in a dream you saw a way to survive' by clementine von radics || coriolanus snow x lucy gray baird @maeroemer || 'i'm not calling you a liar' by florence + the machine || 'star wars: revenge of the sith' gif credit @dani-clayton || c.c. aurel || 'the musketeers' [S01E010] gif credit @thewildmother || 'hunger' from 'dark. sweet.: new & selected poems' by linda hogan || 'dinner & diatribes' music video by hozier || 'the ballad of songbirds and snakes' by suzanne collins || rachel zegler & tom blyth on the set of 'tbosas' via twitter || 'syringa' by john ashbery.

happy xmas month @janeaustenlover!

[thesanktcrow]

"I will train with you"

- Star Wars Official via Twitter

[hazel-of-sodor]

This is going around on twitter so let's try it here

Feel free to send an ask if you want an elaboration on any of these.

1. Thomas/Cassandra as a J72 is long established lore. But something never said is the fact they dont know what they are until the preservation era. As far as Thomas/Cassandra knew, they were an LBSCR E2.

2. British Railways had a secret program from the 60s to the early 80s where they would allow groups to buy engines for preservation, but only if they agreed to keep the engine's survival secret. This was to make the engines/classes seem rarer than they were and driver up their price.

3. Blue Peter was originally male, but after the 1994 Durham wheelship accident and the emergency repairs carried out at Crovan's Gate, Blue Peter reawoke as female.

4. The world is a little bit larger in the AU, with more passengers and freight. This means more members of existing classes like the LNER Raven A2 and Gresley P1, and some classes that weren't built in ours like the GWR Cathedrals and Stone Circle Class.

5. Preservation is a larger movement, due to the engines being alive. There are more preservation railways, and those that exist in our world are better funded, and often larger.

6. It is now possible to circle the island by rail, via the Mantauo line which runs North from Vicarstown to Mantauo, and the Little Western, which extends North from Harwich to Mantauo.

7. Both Stanley and Smudger exist. Smudger, offically named Jennings, was the original No.2 of the Mid-Sodor Railway. She was eventaully sold to the Cronk and Harwick, with Stanley being bought to replace her.

8. Yes Nicole and Samantha are together, and adopted Claire

9. Many 'extinct' classes of British Locomotive have surviving members in other countries. Most commonly in the Americas and Asia, but British Railways refugees can be found in most countries.

10. Flying Scotsman has been part owned by the NWR since the American Tour, which they funded the latter half of in turn for majority ownership. Alan Peglar readily agreed, as it meant Scotsman was secured no matter what happened to him. In the present day the other portion is owned by the NRM.

11. With the greater interest in preservation and the existence of Crovan's Gate, many new builds were finished earlier. For example Lady of Legend was completed in 1975. Tornado is notable in the Au for being the first standard gauge steam engine built entirely on mainland Britain since Evening Star, as all the others had Crovan's Gate built components.

12. With the extension to Mantauo, the "Little" Western is a full fledged mainline, sporting many GWR Locomotives including Castles, Stars, and Cathedrals. Despite this, all agree Duck is still the head of the line.

13. Thomas/Cassandra and Duck dated during the Summer of 1976 while the No.1 was on the Little Western due to storm damage on the Ffarquhar Branch. It ended amicably, although no one but the two of them is certain whether it was due to the pair not working out or Thomas/Cassandra returning to her Branch Line.

14. While LNER P2s were transferred to Sodor during the war, and remained on the island afterwards, they were rebuilt in a manner similar to Gordon and so are considered P2/1s by Railfans. The 2007 Prince of Wales new build is intended to bring back the Gresley condition design, and the P2/1s are all excited to meet their new sister (they all insist it will be a girl, and engines are almost always right about such things).

15. The LNER U1 Typhoon and Big Emma (Big Bertha) work together on the Mantauo line and are shedmates...They're also girlfriends.

16. There were plans to rebuild Henry into a Hudson before the Flying Kipper accident, but the damage he stained was great enough Hatt used a favor Stanier owed him to have Crewe repair and rebuild Henry. As his trailing axle had been destroyed in the accident, Stanier had him rebuilt as a Black 5

17. The Sodor engines take great offense to the "Two Henry's Theory" and more than one pushy railfan has got blasted with a face full of steam over it.

18. Nancy Rushen is now the Thin Controller of the Skarloey Railway.

19. The NWR fleet list is over 100 hundred engines long, despite only containing engines that have appeared in either stories or art.

20. Midlothian is safe and sound on Sodor, although she refuses to set one wheel on the mainland.

21. U.S.S. Enteprise CV-6 is in service with the US Coast Guard as a Helicopter Carrier.

22. LNER 10000 "Hush Hush" does survive, but in her rebuilt form and her name is British Enterprise.

23. All the of the engines from the Fifteen Guinea Special survive, as 44781 Excelsior was saved by the Sodor Railway Musuem when the original preservation attempt fell through.

24. Excelsior joined her sister 45318 Intrepid, who the museum had already preserved, as she had pulled the last regular timetabled steam hauled service on British Railways.

25. HMS Hood survives the Second World War, and remains in service until after the Falklands War. She is now a museum ship.

26. All three Olympic Class would survive to enter Sodor Star Line Service in 1935 (Titanic having forced herself into a turn a second earlier), sold off by White Star Line as a final act of Defiance in the face of their impending forced merger with Cunard.

27. When the American Ocean Liner SS Moro Castle caught fire in September 1934, a White Star Liner recieved her distress calls and came to her aid. R.M.S. Titanic had been leaving New York Harbor when the sos was recieved and immedaitly turned to assist. Her crew helped the Moro Castle's contain the blaze and evacuate the passengers, before towing the stricken vessel to safe harbor.

28. America has had locomotive and sentient machine rights on paper since the 1890s, but it only truly came into effect following the first world war.

29. After the second World War ended up aligning themselves with either the USA or USSR. The USSR, like the USA also had rights for sentient machines. Never content to let the other take the lead in anything, the two superpowers pushed for their allies to take similar measures, leading to most nations steam fleets being protected by the time they were economically capable of replacing them.

30. The exception for Sentient machine rights is Great Britain. Even by the 2020s, the British Government doesn't recognize sentient machines as anything more than beasts of burden, if even that. This has led to political tension between Britain and both the USA and USSR.

31. As a result of the larger world/passenger numbers, the White Star Line planned a fourth Olympic Class. Tentatively named R.M.S. Gigantic, the hull was still early in construction when WW1 broke out. The Royal Navy claimed the unfinished hull, planning to finish the ship as a troop ship, but Germany caught wind of the project, and the unfinished hull was bombed on the slipway by a German Zeppelin. The hull was a total loss, and the White Star Line cancelled the project. After the war, the Line would eventually receive the newly completed S.S. Bismark as war reparations in 1922, renaming her R.M.S. Majestic.

32. As the Titanic Disaster never unfolded, with the liner instead surviving her maiden voyage, J Bruce Ismay would remain the managing director of the White Star Line until its merger with Cunard in 1935.

33. In the United States, roads never took over like they did in our timeline. The Railroads pushed for cars to have the same rights as their engines. While seemingly benigh, this place cars outside the budget of all but the rich. Roads certainly still exist, but are primarily for emergency services and for transporting freight in areas where railroads are impractical for one reason or another.

34. Since R.M.S. Titanic survived, why did the rules and regulations following the disastestill occur. Two reasons, 1. I play by the rule of the elastic timeline. While Context may change, most global events (or at the very least their consequences) still play out. 2. The Liners went on strike. Quite simply it was thie lives and passengers on the line. Unlike Humans, you can't just replace a ocean liner when they Strike. The fact the White Star Liner immediatly announced refits for Titanic and Olympic further forced the shipping companies to fall in line.

35. Sailing ships are often senient, although it takes longer for them to Awaken than those with engines.

36. As computer systems were installed in locomotives, it was found the engines were pefectly capable on instinctually interfacing with them, allowing engines to eventually access the internet, and games.

37. Engines are capable of consuming human food, although wether they like to varys engine to engine. No one is quite sure where the food consumed food and drink go.

38. While the original 26 books of the railway series are based on actuall events on the NWR, they have often been tweaked to better works in their role as children's books

[mpchev]

You like reading fanfics? How about reading about fanfics? 😏

Here’s what I've read so far (or am currently getting through) for my dissertation on fanfiction bookbinding! I'll be updating it as I go until the end of July. If you have any recs to add to the towering pile or any questions/opinions about something on there, I’m all ears!

on fan studies & ficbinding ✔

Alexander, Julia, ‘Making fanfiction beautiful enough for a bookshelf’, The Verge, 9 March 2021 <https://www.theverge.com/22311788/fanfiction-bookbinding-tiktok-diy-star-wars-harry-potter-twitter-fandom> [accessed 12 June 2024]

Buchsbaum, Shira Belén, ‘Binding fan fiction and reexamining book production models’, Transformative Works and Cultures, 37 (2022)

Dym, Brianna, and Casey Fiesler, ‘Ethical and privacy considerations for research using online fandom data’, Transformative Works and Cultures, 33 (2020)

Jenkins, Henry, Textual Pochers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture (New York: Routeledge, 1992)

Jenkins, Henry, ‘Transmedia Storytelling 101’, Pop Junctions, 21 March 2007 <http://henryjenkins.org/2007/03/transmedia_storytelling_101.html#sthash.gSETwxQX.dpuf> [accessed 12 June 2024]

Hellekson, Karen, ‘Making Use Of: The Gift, Commerce, and Fans’, Cinema Journal, 54, no. 3 (2015), 125–131

Kennedy, Kimberly, ‘Fan binding as a method of fan work preservation’, Transformative Works and Cultures, 37 (2022)

Minkel, Elizabeth, ‘Before “Fans,” There Were “Kranks,” “Longhairs,” and “Lions”: How Do Fandom Gain Their Names?’, Atlas Obscura, 30 May 2024 <https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/fandom-names> [accessed 12 June 2024]

Penley, Constance, Nasa / Trek: Popular Science and Sex in America (London: Verso, 1997)

Price, Ludi, ‘Fanfiction, Self-Publishing, and the Materiality of the Book: A Fan Writer’s Autoethnography’, Humanities, 11, no. 100 (2022), 1–20

Schiller, Melanie, ‘Transmedia Storytelling: New Practices and Audiences’, in Stories: Screen Narrative in the Digital Era, ed. by Ian Christie and Annie van den Oever (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2018), 99–107

on folklore, the internet, other background reading ✔

Barthes, Roland, ‘La mort de l’auteur’ in Le Bruissement de la langue: Essais critiques IV (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1984)

Blank, Trevor J., Folklore and the Internet: Vernacular Expression in a Digital World (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 2009)

Mauss, Marcel, ‘Essai sur le don. Forme et raison de l’échange dans les sociétés archaïques.’, L’année sociologique, 1923–1924; digital edition by Jean-Marie Tremblay, Les classiques des sciences sociales, 17 February 2002, <http://classiques.uqac.ca/classiques/mauss_marcel/socio_et_anthropo/2_essai_sur_le_don/essai_sur_le_don.html> [accessed 10 June 2024]

McCulloch, Gretchen, Because Internet: Understanding How Language is Changing (Random House, 2019)

Niles, John D., Homo Narrans: The Poetics and Anthropology of Oral Literature (University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia, 1999)

hopefully coming up next (haven't started yet)

A Companion to Media Fandom and Fan Studies, ed. by Paul Booth (Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2018)

A Fan Studies Primer: Method, Research, Ethics, ed. by Paul Booth and Rebecca Williams (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2021)

Dietz, Laura, ‘Showing the scars: A short case study of de-enhancement of hypertext works for circulation via fan binding or Kindle Direct Publishing’, 34th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media (HT ‘23), September 4–8, 2023, Rome Italy (ACM: New York, 2023)

Fathallah, Judith May, Fanfiction and the Author: How Fanfic Changes Popular Cultural Texts (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2017)

Finn, Kavita Mudan, and Jessica McCall, ‘Exit, pursued by a fan: Shakespeare, Fandom, and the Lure of the Alternate Universe’, Critical Survey, 28, no. 2 (2016), 27–38

Hjorth, Larissa et al., eds. The Routledge Companion to Digital Ethnography (New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2017)

Jacobs, Naomi, and JSA Lowe, ‘The Design of Printed Fanfiction: A Case Study of Down to Agincourt Fanbinding’, Proceedings from the Document Academy, 9, issue 1, article 5

Jenkins, Henry, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide (New York: New York University Press, 2006)

Jenkins, Henry, Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning In A Networked Culture (New York: New York University Press, 2013)

Kennedy, Kimberly, and Shira Buchsbaum, ‘Reframing Monetization: Compensatory Practices and Generating a Hybrid Economy in Fanbinding Commissions’, Humanities, 11, no. 67 (2022), 1–18

Kirby, Abby, ‘Examining Collaborative Fanfiction: New Practices in Hyperdiegesis and Poaching’, Humanities, 11, no. 87 (2002), 1–9

Kustritz, Anne, Identity, Community, and Sexuality in Slash Fan Fiction (New Work: Routeledge, 2024)

Lamerichs, Nicolle, Productive Fandom: Intermediality and Affecive Reception in Fan Cultures, (Amsterdam: Amsterdam Universtiy Press, 2018)

Popova, Milena, ‘Follow the trope: A digital (auto)ethnography for fan studies’, Transformative Works and Cultures, 33 (2020)

Rosenblatt, Betsy, and Rebecca Tushnet, ‘Transformative Works: Young Women’s Voices on Fandom and Fair Use’, in eGirls, eCitizens: Putting Technology, Theory and Policy into Dialogue with Girls’ and Young Women’s Voices, ed. by Jane Bailey and Valerie Steeves

Soller, Bettina, ‘Filing off the Serial Numbers: Fanfiction and its Adaptation to the Book Market’, in Adaptation in the Age of Media Convergence, ed. by Johannes Fehrle, Werner Schäfke-Zell (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019), 58–85

[mariacallous]

In early September, Warner Bros. released a teaser for A Minecraft Movie, the studio’s new film based on Mojang’s nearly 15-year-old sandbox game. Directed by Napoleon Dynamite helmer Jared Hess, it was, frankly, very goofy. Jack Black was Steve; Jason Momoa was sporting maybe the worst hairdo he’s ever had. Everyone involved, even the animated creatures, seemed to think they were in a different movie.

But that wasn’t what the trolls latched onto. Instead, they fixed on the fact that a Black woman—Orange Is the New Black’s Danielle Brooks—was in the Overworld.

As the trailer racked up dislikes, right-wing influencers like Elijah Schaffer and Nick Fuentes posted Brooks’ image next to disparaging comments and made references to “forced diversity” and “woke” Hollywood. It was Gamergate 2.0—a reimagining of the decade-old harassment campaign aimed at rallying against diversity, equity, and inclusion—but aimed at a kids’ movie, rather than a video game.

According to Wendy Via, cofounder and CEO of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, which just published a report looking at the far right’s racist comments about the trailer, the response comes from a new, and also quite old, playbook. “Large-scale campaigns against trailers specifically are a relatively new phenomenon, but attempting to frame ‘wokeness’ as an invisible enemy infiltrating the entertainment industry is not,” Via says.

Via points out that back in spring of 2023, the far-right X account End Wokeness made similar noise about a “Protect Trans Kids” flag that appeared briefly in the trailer for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. The goal of these campaigns is to target “spaces where young, white men are influenced,” like sci-fi movies and video games, which appeal to younger audiences, Via adds. “Providing racist and homophobic commentary on popular franchises through large social media platforms like Twitter and YouTube serves as an effective means to propagandize and recruit young people to hate movements.”

Take, for example, The Acolyte. Earlier this year, the Disney+ show found itself the target of fan backlash while star Amandla Stenberg was subjected to racist comments online. So, too, was Kelly Marie Tran, who played Rose Tico in the most recent Star Wars movie trilogy. The minimizing of her role in the last installment, The Rise of Skywalker, perhaps emboldened diversity detractors further.

Reception of The Acolyte seemed, almost, to be a solidification. Fan unrest in the Star Wars universe is a cousin to, if not a direct descendant of, Gamergate, and since former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon harnessed the energy of that movement and used it to fuel the then burgeoning so-called alt-right, influencers have used similar tactics to convince aggrieved men that their games, their shows and movies, and their country are somehow being taken from them.

By the time the Minecraft Movie trailer dropped, the script was already set. Influencers just had to pick which lines to say.

Whereas 2014’s rallying cry was a more broadly misogynistic, racist one, the Gamergate of 2024 seems focused on the idea of the “DEI hire”—a woman, LGBTQ+ or BIPOC person who ends up blamed for “ruining” something. Pundits used this language to attack Vice President Kamala Harris. Right-wing talking heads pointed the finger at female Secret Service agents for not fully protecting Trump during the July attempt on his life. Fans have lobbed it at the inclusion of a Black samurai in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

Campaigning against diversity in games came into particular focus earlier this year when Sweet Baby Inc., a Canadian consultancy, became the focus of a group of players upset at what they viewed as the “wokeification” of video games. Online harassment of the company’s employees hit new heights last winter when a Steam curation group called Sweet Baby Inc Detected popped up purporting to list all the games the company had advised on, giving people an easy way to boycott certain titles or post bad reviews of them. Even though the company hadn’t touched several of the games, and as founder Kim Belair told WIRED this winter, the company “[doesn’t] want forced diversification either,” the harassing comments continued for months.

On September 4, the same day the Minecraft Movie trailer went up, the US Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against two employees of the state-backed Russian news network RT, in which it alleged that they had secretly funded the right-wing influencer network Tenet Media. The DOJ accused the company of posting content full of Kremlin-approved talking points, though individual influencers working for Tenet say they knew nothing about the ties to Russia and are not accused of wrongdoing. A WIRED analysis of Tenet’s videos, since taken down by YouTube, found several frequently used three-word phrases. Among them: “Black Lives Matter,” “diversity equity inclusion,” and “Sweet Baby Inc.”

Into this firestorm landed Minecraft. As Adrienne Massanari, an associate professor at American University’s school of communications and author of the forthcoming book Gaming Democracy: How Silicon Valley Leveled Up the Far Right, points out, Minecraft (the gaming platform), already had some right-leaning fans. Its creator, Markus “Notch” Persson, who sold Mojang to Microsoft for $2.5 billion in 2014, has sent some dumb tweets about race, and Minecraft “has a reputation for being connected to the far-right pipeline,” Massanari says. Being based on a game connects the Minecraft Movie to Gamergate-like responses in some ways, but it’s also possible that a movie based on “this particular game,” she adds, has activated a certain kind of fan.

Back in August, Deadline reported The Acolyte would not be getting a second season. It was, Stenberg would later say, “not a huge shock” considering the response online. Other reports claimed it didn’t get a second season because it was expensive and didn’t attract a huge viewership. Regardless of the reason, Via says the far right saw it as a victory of the “go woke, go broke” narrative they’ve been pushing.

“Going after The Minecraft Movie may be an attempt to recreate this ‘victory’ and provide the far right with the opportunity to craft the narrative about a series or film themselves,” Via says. “If Minecraft were to perform poorly at the box office, they could point to “diversity” as a reason for its failure and justify petitioning for more media that excludes everyone but straight, white men.”

[thrawnblr]

From Star Wars Celebration 2023: Lars Mikkelsen has finally been confirmed to portray Grand Admiral Thrawn in the upcoming Disney+ series Ahsoka, revealed in an extended, exclusive trailer at the panel. (via Star Wars on Twitter)

[bobafettfanclub]

Since it's been out for over two weeks now, let's talk about that Boba Fett cameo in Star Wars Outlaws You can see him from a distance when going left through the air vent in Jabba's palace For some reason they put his famous Mythosaur skull on the "wrong" shoulder (like in SW:SE and now this) Unlike his other recent video cameo in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, this one is without any voice track ICYMI, we covered the cameo on day one but didn't share a visual spoiler intentionally: https://bobafett.club/swoutlaws HD screenshot from PCGamesN via BFFC fan BobaThinker (Twitter) Star Wars Boba FettFanClub Daily Fett

[centrally-unplanned]

Saw this going around Twitter, a list of "ring wing anime", which I thought was pretty interesting. I haven't seen all of them by any means, thoughts on a few:

Crest of the Stars: Been a long time but eh...its like okay sure it has the ~vibes of militarism and genetic engineering and noble duty and all that. But there is a lot of "war = right wing" energy sometimes that is totally unjustified (war is a universal tool of society unless you are explicitly pacifist, and while pacifists are left most left aren't pacifists), and Crest of the Stars is a good example of that, its just that its a space opera story, its not about validating this or that ideology. But it does have the vibes, i'll give it a C

Gunbuster: Okay, we all know why this is here. Slowly, in the background of the show, you pick up that they live in a timeline where Japan mastered new technology, gained economic supremacy, beat America's attempt to smack them down and annexed Hawaii, and became the first-amoung-equals of a united Earth alliance. It smacks of apologia for Japan's empire in WW2, a sense of revenge for past wrongs. And you have all this other stuff - like oh a bunch of it takes place in Okinawa because Anno was a huge fan of the 1971 film Battle of Okinawa due to its huge action setpieces, but that film also completely whitewashes the atrocities of the IJA. Its all true, like it reflect that cultural milieu.

But it doesn't do anything with any of that. Anno just likes Okinawa guys, he doesn't think Japan should have won in WW2 and rule China right now. And the thing you actually watch is a group of international space pilots serving in the equivalent of the UN Space Fleet experiencing the horrors of war fighting for peace (and also fanservice). Its a world where Japan's economic & technological innovation makes it a world leader via soft power, and international cooperation defends earth. This peak liberalism. C-

Patlabor: Yeah an odd one, like its simultaneously about the corruption of the powerful and all that, but also about the need for heavy policing and the "fragility" of society. This one is one where you can take from it what you want, but if you wanna be right wing yeah sure. B

Girls Und Panzer:

ಠ╭╮ಠ

F-

Niea_7: Wtf is this doing here? Like okay, its humor definitely spills into a bit of racial stereotyping and stuff. But this is an anime about refugees being discriminated against due to disabilities and caste and the humanity behind the outer differences. You cannot weasel your way around that. D-

Urusei Yatsura: By no means have I watched every episode or anything, but I feel like this is a bit of "well its just showing past society right? Therefore its right-wing". And like okay, that isn't entirely off-base, like it has stories about how men and women are Just Different and Being A Man and all that, so sure. But it was also mocking those social themes of the time just as much as it was reinforcing them. Like Mendou is not an aspirational character!

A bit like Patlabor, I guess I can see pulling what you want out of it. But its a bit harder here imo. B-

Space Battleship Yamato: Yeah I'll give you this one. Its just space opera in the end, but the way it sets up its symbols to redeem the legacy of the Japanese empire is far more explicit than say Gunbuster, no way around that. A-

Would be interested in other people's takes on anime I haven't seen or didn't mention!

[ruporas]

hi! I’m an artist who would like to do commissions for Palestine, but I don’t really have an art account/social media presence. as someone who has done commissions for Palestine, do you think there’s a way that I could do something similar, or another way that I could contribute my art for the cause? thanks for your time 🙏

hello! i think i can only advise you keep a look out for people hosting artists for palestine events and joining a team as an artist. on twitter/tumblr, you could search using phrases/tags such as “artists for palestine” “art exchange for palestine” along those lines.

currently, there’s these two i know of who may be accepting artists, i’d recommend you reach out to them via DMs! there’s cartoonist cooperative and sitcomabed’s organized event, both on twitter.

there’s also fandom organized ones so if you dig in the fandom tags, you might come across organized events recruiting artists to do commissions for donations. i don’t think these are currently recruiting, but examples i can find right now of these organized events are Fire Emblem rally for Gaza, Star Wars artists for Palestine, and Grishaverse Artists for Palestine.

if you’re comfortable with the idea, i think trying to host your own and try to invite friends/artists to join might be ideal! i haven’t checked discord art servers yet but if there are servers that allow for planning events like this, i think that could be a good way to gather artists if not by DMing artists on social media.

doing your own commissions for donations is still completely viable!! make sure you know your own limits though and keep a careful track of finances however way you can. i used spreadsheets to keep track of every donation and the processing fees from paypal + stripe if you intend to have an option for indirect donation. it’d be best to focus on 1-3 charities such as for care for gaza, e-sims, pious projects, pcrf, and evacuation funds gofundmes from those in palestine that need to leave. doing it on your own is not difficult, just make sure you’re transparent with your progress and stay organized.

if you ever need a reblog/retweet/share anywhere, dm me the link! i’ll be more than happy to share and hopefully give you a bigger reach! that was my first time hosting something like that, so i can’t say my advice is the best either but if you have more questions on how to host your own, my dms are open for that as well.

hope this all helped in some way, good luck!!