#well does being in fandom for 10 years makes me a old fandom person?

[canmom]

speaking of line rider, I decided to poke my head back into the Line Rider Review channel, which you may remember for going viral in 2017 with Rabid Squirrel's review of the top 10 tracks of the previous year on artistic grounds...

at the time, Line Rider was around ten years old; the baroque jargon and the complexity of the techniques really got people (in much the same way as pannenkoek's half a press video), so Squirrel ended up making a followup video on the jargon, a charming slice of "this person was definitely gonna transition" which serves as a good intro to what the scene was about back then...

since then there have been many developments: more complex musical sync, elaborate animation techniques, etc etc.; it's only grown. so what does line rider fandom look like in 2024?

well... everyone is trans now of course. it's gotten a lot more interested in political and emotional themes, too. the top video is an hour long feature about the author's partner's experience of figuring out they're plural, learning Japanese, as well as the grief of friends they've lost along the way, through the lens of line rider tracks they grew up with - and that's not just one person's thing either, a whooole lot of the tracks on this list are painfully sincere short film dioramas about trauma, dysphoria, abuse and similar topics. Not all of them mind - you've also got experiments that blend between line rider and stop motion, and a recreation of a classic Touhou video from the Chinese line rider scene on bilibili (there's a Chinese line rider scene on bilibili now), but it's very clear how much the taste of this subculture has shifted. I don't mean this to be too cynical - while it's easy to be a bit 'ehh' at the activist-speak of the channel, these videos are incredibly sincere and (sigh, yes, i know it's a cliche) heartfelt expressions.

i think the fascinating thing to me is that all that technical stuff in Line Rider hasn't gone away - you're still doing crazy complicated shit to fling Bosh around the screen, stop and start them, take them on and off the sled, interact with other riders, stage frame by frame animation, etc. Everything is still meticulously synced to music. But now this passes without comment for the most part! That's just the toolbox! Just as reviews of music rarely go into the specific music theory tools - chords, scales, etc. - unless they're aimed at teaching or analysing it for musicians. Line Rider videos have in a sense matured into a whole medium.

It's definitely a fascinating illustration of the ways Being Very Autistic On The Internet is changing. godspeed you guys.

[elexuscal]

The "Top" fics in fandom are not the "Best"

I've seen a couple of posts here in there implying that the ways to find the best fics in fandoms are just to go to ao3, and sort by 'Most Kudoses', 'Most Bookmarks', 'Most Comments', etc. I've also seen some folks say they feel like their fics are failures if they don't make it to the front page(s), or at least near there.

But the simple fact: this is not true.

Now, I'm not saying that the top-rated fics in a fandom are bad.

Far from it! They're often very popular for a reason. Well written, fun dynamics, cool plots, etc. A lot of my own favourite fics have made it to the first page when you sort by "Most Kudos"-- but then, a lot of mine also haven't.

Why?

Because those selections are inherently biased.

What do I mean by that? Just that there are other factors influencing what stories accumulate the most comments/kudoses/etc in a fandom, meaning none of these serve as a neutral metric of quality.

I'm going to explain some of these biases briefly, just so folks get a sense of what I mean:

Age Bias This, I think, is the easiest to grasp. A fic that is three years old just has had more time to gain views than a fic that's three days old. Also, consider that pretty much any fandom needs time to grow. If you're in the first days/weeks/months of a fandom, there probably just isn't that much content being made. If there's only 10 fics on the archive, then 11th one stands out. It'll get a lot of attention. But if that same fic were to come out a couple years later, when there were 11 fics published in a single day, well, people are more likely to miss it. If you doubt me, take a look at the front page of 'Most Kudos' for a fandom of your choice. You'll probably see a lot of the stories there are on the older side- and this is exactly why.

Multi-Chapter Bias There are a lot of ways people find new fics to read, and one of the most basic is just: look at the front page of the most recent updates. Now, this way of sorting fics is exactly what it sounds like. A list of fics in order of when they were most recently posted/updated. But, obviously, if a fic has multiple chapters, it's going to appear on that front page way more often. A 50 chapter epic has 49 more chances to get seen this way than a one-shot. This issue becomes even more intense when you consider the Most Comments sort option. For a one shot, a person is probably likely to only comment once. Maybe if they really love the story and revisit, they'll leave a second or third. But multi-factor fics? By design, people come back every update. And that means a lot of people leave comments every single time. (Or at the very least, after big plot developments and twists!) This is what leads to long-running multi-chapter epics dominating the 'Most Comments' rankings in most fandoms.

Popular Pairing Bias Again, this is just obvious. Some pairings are more popular than others. A rare-pair fic can be just as soulful, hot, and well-written as a story featuring the fandom's powerhouse fic, but if only 30 people are interested, well... [shrug] Less people will click on it, kudos it, and leave a comment. To a lesser extent, you can expand this to any trope. 'Coffee Shop AUs' just seem to be more popular than, say, '1930s Mobster AUs'. That effects what tags people search, and what fics they find. But shipping is such an important element of many fandom cultures I thought it would be the most illustrative.

Positive Feedback Loop Bias And honestly, this is maybe the real clincher. Because I've established some of the things that can cause a story to start gathering lots of kudos, comments, and bookmarks in a first place. But once that starts, you get a positive feedback loop going. Because what's one of the first things a person does when they're looking for good stories in a fandom? They sort by 'Most Kudos'. And then they select the first story on the list, and they like it. So they leave a comment and kudos and... Yeaaaah.

So... What do we do about it?

Well. Nothing really. This isn't really a problem. It's just something to be aware of.

Any attempt to put metrics on something as subjective as art is going to fall short. So don't go rating the quality of your own stories about how well it performs, and don't go chasing those coveted top spots. You'll have a lot more fun if you just write stuff that you enjoy, make some friends, and recognise a lot of factors influence fanfic statistics beyond just quality.

Searching via most comments/kudoses/bookmarks remains one of the easiest and quickest ways to start diving into a new fandom. It's often the first things I do, and found stories I love that way.

That said: I highly encourage you to search for fics beyond just that method. Here are some of my suggestions if you want to figure out ways to get started:

Search up Fanfic Rec Lists. Lots of people put them on their blogs, and websites like TVTropes even have that as a whole feature

Ask for fic recs! Seriously! Post about it in the fandom's tumblr tag, join Discord communities, etc, and just say, "Hey, I'd love to read a story where... [insert the general themes, characters, or plot points you like". People will be EXCITED to share.

Search by specific tags Like, do you really, really love time loops? Search the 'Time Loop' tag in your favourite fandoms. A lot of specific tropes, AUs, etc. are canonized, so you can find a lot of stuff up your alley that way

Browse the most recently updated fics Yeah, I know, it's old school. But seriously, you can find some awesome stuff there-- including stories from new authors just starting out, who could really use a boost!

And hey... if you find some stories you like... Consider writing some fic recommendation lists of your own. Spread the love!

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for telling a school counselor about what my friend does online?

I (F minor) am in middle school. I have a group of friends, about 8 people, but this is about one girl in specific we can call Annie. All of us are mutuals on tumblr, twitter, etc. and we have a discord server too.

All of us are into a lot of the same things, like art, anime, video games, and have a lot of the same hobbies. Most of us also struggle with mental health stuff like anxiety and/or depression so we regularly talk to our school counselor (F, Idk how old she is).

Anyways, we're all really close and we get along really well for the most part, but lately Annie has been doing stuff that really bothers and worries us.

She's VERY into internet discourse. Has 10 paragraph long DNI page, is constantly starting fights with other people, etc. She usually argues about stuff like LGBT+ rights, womens rights, etc. but also a LOT of fandom discourse which is my biggest concern.

A lot of my other friends reblog/retweet stuff like anime gifs, fanart, memes, etc. but pretty much every post I see from Annie is her fighting with someone over shipping or something like that.

A lot of the posts are basically:

Her talking about how disgusting a certain ship or character is

How everyone who likes that specific thing is a degenerate, or freak, or pedo or groomer.

How if you like problematic ships you need to get a therapist, or you deserve to be hurt. Once I saw her arguing with someone who said they write certain stuff due to trauma and she said "You don't have trauma, you're either lying or you actually liked it and that's why you write such disgusting nasty shit"

Fighting with random people and accusing them of being a predator or a pedo

Breaking her own DNI (which says adults, proshitters, etc. DNI) and then getting mad at the other person for responding

It's really upsetting to see because she does this CONSTANTLY. She never seems to use tumblr/twitter to do things she actually likes. I never see her reblog gifs or memes or just silly lighthearted posts about stuff she enjoys.

It's especially upsetting because we're minors and she TELLS PEOPLE THAT. Like she's arguging with people that she thinks are pedos or child predators, while openly telling people her actual age. To me that's like covering yourself in bloody steaks and then jumping into water full of sharks.

I was really starting to get concerned because even in our private discord server she's always talking about how much she hates these people or whatever and how they should die, a lot of the time she says things like "they should get the wall" or "I hope their nasty fanfics happen to them irl that would teach them lol" and it really freaks me out.

She also talks about seeing the "child porn" that these people make which as far as I'm aware is drawings of characters but it still freaks me out how open and calm she is about looking at what she THINKS is child porn. I asked her if it's child porn why is it being linked in callout posts for other people (including minors!) to see and not being reported to the FBI but she just gets mad and changes the subject.

Me and our other friends have mentioned before that we don't like hearing about this kind of stuff but then she just gets mad and goes offline or gives us the silent treatment at school.

A month or so ago I got so fed up and upset, that I took a bunch of screenshots of her tumblr account and discord messages. One thing to note is that her username is VERY specific.

It's a combination of her first and last name and her birth year. Most people will not know that, but if you know her name and birthday, it's easy to tell it's her. She also goes by her real name online which I also screenshotted as proof it's her.

I brought all this to the school counselor, and I told her how worried I was about Annie, and how I think she's doing something really unsafe. Not only is she confronting people she thinks are child predators/groomers, she's telling people they deserve to get hurt in really awful ways, and looking at porn and I don't think this is good for her mental health.

The counselor at first was like "Idk are you SURE it's her? It could be anyone online!" But I insisted that it was and explained the username thing and that this was our private discord server so obviously I know it's her.

She thanked me for letting her know and told me I was being a good friend and then we talked about how I was doing, and then I left. I kind of forgot about it until a week later.

Annie wasn't online at all and I was kind of worried, but then I saw her on Monday at school. I was with our other friends and we called out her name so she would see us and come over and she LOST IT. She started screaming at us and telling us how awful we were, and how we ruined her life.

Idk what exactly happened, but apparently the counselor talked to her and her parents got involved? Her parents now monitor her internet usage, they have child safety stuff on the browsers, and she's only allowed on certain websites for doing research for school, or watching videos on youtube on their account so they can see what videos she's watching, or playing games on steam.

She said that her parents are also putting her in therapy once a week now (with an actual therapist, not the counselor) and she's only allowed to go out with an adult chaperone (either her older sister or one of her parents).

But... None of our friends know it was me who told the counselor. Annie has other friends besides us, so they're also "suspects" for being the snitch. It seems like half of our friends are relieved that Annie is kept away from that kind of stuff and the other half are mad at whoever the snitch is for ratting Annie out and resulting in her having less privacy/freedom.

At first I was happy that Annie was getting help and being kept away from this but now I feel really conflicted. I feel so disgusting talking to her and our other friends and pretending nothing happened, knowing that I was the one who told the counselor.

Annie still talks to us but she's a lot less open. We still have our discord server but apparently her parents will read through the messages to make sure she's not talking about anything bad and that she's only talking to us and not strangers.

What are these acronyms?

[prince-liest]

I’m a sex-repulsed ace, and reading the latest chapter of 666 (as well as your analysis here on Tumblr) made me realize that I have been subconsciously thinking about MY OWN sexuality from an allo perspective? And that it has kinda been messing me up?? Like, ever since I learned that sexual attraction was actually a Thing and that it’s Important To People, I had been carrying around a fear of being deficient in some way and not being able to love to the same extent as allos. (1)

Even though I know logically that’s complete garbage and totally untrue, I felt left out of the loop because people seemed to care strongly about this thing I couldn’t even imagine. Whenever it looked like a relationship might happen I panicked for a reason that I couldn’t understand. But now I’m starting to realize that it’s because I was subconsciously terrified of an ‘ulterior motive’ behind the other person’s reasons for wanting to be with me. (2) That part of the reason they even cared was because of something I don’t experience. So thank you, because this realization just clicked into place while reading your work. The thing is, this way of thinking was just internalized in such a way that I didn’t even realize it was there until literally this week. And I think you’re right; one of the main reasons behind that is because I’ve always consumed media written from an allo perspective. (3) If ace/aros are shown at all, they’re depicted as “lacking” and their character development usually revolves around being “fixed” by the story. When I was ~10 years old my mom sometimes let me watch the Big Bang Theory with her (looking back, maybe not the best decision). Anyways, there was one episode deep into the series where Sheldon (who for the past nineish seasons was probably the closest thing to mainstream ace rep) has sex with his girlfriend for the first time. (4) Afterwards, he says something along the lines of “that was better than I thought it would be”, and it’s presented as a Very Good Thing and a big step in their relationship. I think a lifetime of stuff like that makes it very easy to internalize aphobia and feel like the lesser part of the relationship. Or to feel like the other partner is making a huge sacrifice to be with you. That got wayy too long, sorry. All that was just a lot of words to say that I appreciate you. Take care of yourself!(5)

The portrayal of asexuality that you see in media being almost exclusively as you described is very tedious to me because it presumes that something is inherently lacking in aro/aceness rather than that feeling of "lacking" being something that is induced by societal norms. Actually, one of the things that I find additionally alienating is that fandom spaces specifically have been getting better and better about ace characters - but got damn does fandom not jive with aromanticism. Like, a character doesn't want to fuck? That's becoming a liiiittle more fine, it's 2024, we stan consent. But not shipping someone romantically?? Not so easy, now.

I'm glad that my work has been something that resonated with you in this respect! Alastor cares a lot about his reputation as a demon but is pretty blatantly a person who could not possibly give less of a shit about being "wrong" for not being experiencing romantic or sexual attraction. The explanation Viv gave at one point for his own understanding of himself (that he thinks he's just "waiting for the right woman") actually stuck out to me a lot because it's a very "well, nothing is wrong with me for not feeling anything, it's the world that's failed to produce a suitable person" perspective.

But having that kind of confident perspective of your own rightness in the world is really not often portrayed in media, or even in fandom, which even ten years ago was still in the throes of standardizing "Oh, no! Me, gay? These feelings are so wrong!" style m/m content and is honestly not that far off from essentially that for aro/ace characters.

Anyway, all of that is to say that there's not yet much out there that doesn't frame allo/amatonormative values as the default that "even aro/ace people can (and should want to) achieve," and that it's really fun to write a fic that is unequivocally from the perspective of a character who is aroace and doesn't see it as even remotely a fault in himself. Does he have moments where he's a little confused and trying to process how things fit for him? Absolutely. But he just doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who thinks he owes romance to Vox of all people, hahaha. I've written him trying to conform to allo/amatonormativity more with Mimzy, because I think the social standards of their time could push him into it, but Vox? Absolutely not, he does not respect Vox enough for it to even enter his mind.

And then, on the other hand, writing it from an aroace perspective centers the way that romantic and sexual interest can feel like a betrayal of a good thing. With a character like Alastor, it frames romantic and sexual attraction the same alien way that we usually see aromanticism and asexuality framed as.

In the end, this is just one of a plethora of different experiences that aro/ace people can have, but it's one that I really wanted to see represented more, so I'm very happy to write it. I'm glad that you're enjoying it!

[artandhijinks]

My experience with the worst most toxic parts of the IWTV fandom

Okay, there are going to be details here that are changed or admitted for obvious mostly safety reasons. And I personally don't care if you think I'm lying, but it was still a scary experience and I do think there are people in the fandom that need to be aware this crap goes on all over fictional characters. So warning they're going to be mentions of threats a violence, doxing, harassment, the works, It was bad.

Okay a few months ago. I kicked the hornets nest when it comes to the worst part of the interview with the vampire fandom. I had engaged in some fan discourse. Made a couple of posts. A lot of it had to do with defending the added diversity with the casting of Assad and Jacob. Theorizing about possible characters in the future that can be race swapped how it could be a good thing and how it could be historically possible. You get the idea. I love what the show is done with all the race swapping it has added so much to the story.

And then all the sudden I woke up to my inbox being full of over 100 anonymous ask that ranged from the average calling me evil racist. I didn't know the books. How dare I it was ruining the story. I should kill myself. The usual online internet harassment. It was horrible. And they kept on coming and would not stop until I shut off anonymous ask. And they will remain off because of this but again I had well over 100 messages to go through. And it took me well over a week to go through them but when I got to like the last I think 10 one of them stuck out. Not because it was particularly bad because apparently I pissed off the Armand people who don't realize how creepy it is and kind of comes off as pro pedophilia when all of you insist that he has to be 17 much less the racist issues. There's a reason it took me over a week to go through all the messages they made my skin crawl. But this particular message scared the crap out of me it was a death threat with my home address. Someone cared so much about a fictional character. They tracked down my address and threaten to kill me. So guess who immediately started screenshotting the rest of the messages. And had to make a police report. Do you know what it's like having to explain to cops? Yes, I got a death threat with my address over a fictional gay vampire. No, getting death threats over Tumblr is not new to me unfortunately, but my address was new and that I want documented. So being harassed by a couple racist book purists turned into a police report and me buying security cameras. Thank you Tumblr. I nearly deleted the app.

I don't even know if I want to finish the Vampire Chronicles books now because of you idiots you took it way too far. And the worst part is I'm white. I can only imagine what you idiots are doing to the fans of color. Again someone tracked down my address to threaten to kill me. But again it's documented. I filed a police report and if any of you idiots try something I got cameras now.

And for all those who are going to be demanding proof well I thought about sharing a redacted screenshot or maybe a redacted version of the police report. But I decided I would ask the cops what they thought just to be safe. I'm glad I did because they advised me not to do that and they explained to me there is technology out there that if someone really wanted to they can remove that redacting. And I already have one crazy person that knows my address and is threatening to kill me so I don't want another one. So everyone is just going to have to take my word for it. However the cops were all for me sharing my story because of the rise of things like swatting. A in a nearby police department had to deal with a middle schooler (so a 11 to 13-year-old) who made a bomb threat at their school because they didn't want to take a test. So, they think this would be good for people to hear because what you do on the internet does have real life consequences.

So remember people the internet is real life. These things have real life consequences. And I'm pretty sure these people thought it was a joke. But now I have to worry about things like someone breaking into my house killing me or swatting. Which is something I didn't even think of until the cops brought it up. And it does affect my real life. I'm looking to move and hopefully we'll be out of my house soon. So, thank you, Internet stranger

So to sum it all up. The fandom needs to take a bunch of chill pills and calm down. Because we are literally harassing, bullying and threatening people out of the fandom. Again, I thought about leaving Tumblr due to this experience and now I'm having to move. Thank you. Interview with the vampire fandom please do better.

[floralcavern]

All right I’m finally doing this.

Name’s Flora. I’m a straight woman. This is my side blog. I write fanfics on there. Or you can check out my AO3 account!

Read my original story, A Common Enemy!

I’m 17 years old. I’m in a ton of fandoms, my main ones being The Song of Achilles, Percy Jackson, The Owl House, Wings of Fire, many different Webtoons, TBHK, and many others. I’m Catholic, so don’t talk shit about my religion to me, I’m so tired of it. From that one country where people eat way too unhealthy and likes freedom 👍 I am the embodiment of stressed and depressed, but well dressed. I really like writing and world building. If you wanna check out some of the stuff I’ve written, sort through the tags on my blog by putting in ‘Writers on Tumblr’ Here’s my Spotify account if you wanna check out my 200+ playlists:

Charities:

Free the hostages

Uyghur Muslims in China

North Korean refugees

Political stuff below cut. Look if you dare. 👻🫣🙊

I’m an Israel supporter and pro-Zionism. Sooo.. ya. I don’t give a shit what you think about me. But please know that this does not mean I do not care for the citizens of Palestine. The real threat is Hamas.

My opinion on the IDF (because it’s a lot more complex than you think)

HOLY SHIT PLEASE SEE THIS

Do you really know what it is you’re chanting?

Important

Important 2 (extremely fucking important)

Important 3

Important 4

Important 5

Important 6

Important 7

You guessed it. Important 8

Important 9

Important 10

Oh wow! Important 11!

Heartbreaking.

News on the hostages

Hamas doesn’t welcome Christians

Your antisemitism does hurt people

Fuck Hamas

ZIONISM. IS. SEXY.

They have security for a reason

Fuck UNRWA

Hamas’s war crimes

Al Jazeera is not credible

LET HER COOK

So much misinformation

Antizionism is antisemitism

Hostages

The side of everything that no one sees online

Your movement is turning into a death cult

Have it make sense

This is no where close to genocide

Israel has tried peace over and over again

But-But Israel hates Muslims!

I fucking swear, if I see one more person say the hostages were treated well, I will scream

I’m afraid ignorance is contagious

“The hostages said they were treated in well!” You are gullible as hell..

Y’all can support the existence of Palestine without being racist toward Israelis

This is war, not genocide. Also, Hamas are liars

Get your savior complex out of here and learn to hold people accountable

Free the hostages, holy crap.. (t/w for blood)

Confuse them in their own bullshit!

Ignorance.. ignorance everywhere

You’re actually harming your own cause

The casualty numbers are FAKE

It’s the appropriation of Jewish history for me

Oh wow. Al Jazeera. Lying? Who would’ve thought?

Hamas aren’t freedom fighters

Actually extremely interesting

This literally is a war, no matter how much you deny it

Wait until they learn they’re reciting KKK and Nazi propaganda

Hamas do. Not. Care. For the Palestinians

Experts, people who have studied this shit for years, agree that this is not a genocide

Palestinian origins

The reason Palestine hates Israel and Jews (surprise, surprise, it’s because of Hamas)

Palestinians are taught to hate Jews

Wait until you learn that those “Palestinian hostages” are prisoners who were arrested for horrendous crimes (t/w for description of torture)

What the fuck, oh my gosh, this is awful.

Fuck Hamas and fuck the UN

“From River To Sea” translates… much differently

Other people providing links of info

“How can you support Israel as a Christian?”

Dude, it’s not going to stop with Israel

I think this guy talks about Israel vs Jewish antisemitism really well

[geebeewrites]

★ Hello, I’m Gee and I’m currently looking for new roleplay partners. I’m 28 years old, I reside in Australia, and I’ve been roleplaying in various forms for over a decade now. I’m searching for new partners and plots at the moment so if you are interested in plotting, please feel free to either like this post or send me a direct message. Before reaching out, please read the below to make sure that we’re compatible: 

♥ 21 + please! Even if we aren’t writing smut, most plots will involve mature themes so please, no minors.

♥ I write exclusively on Discord these days, however use Tumblr for initially finding a partner and making sure we’re compatible before moving things across to Discord. 

♥ I’m currently only doing original character roleplaying as opposed to writing within any specific fandoms. I’m flexible in terms of pairings (mxm, mxf, nonbinary pairings), although mxm ships will always have a special place in my heart! I am happy to play any gender but that said, I don’t enjoy being used just to play male characters in mxf ships so please keep that in mind before reaching out.  

♥ I’m currently only looking for partners for the wanted plots on my page, however I’m super flexible in terms of plotting out the specific details and making sure that it’s something we’re both passionate about as this definitely isn’t a dictatorship. I particularly love slice of life, angst, and celebrity plots. I enjoy writing smut and mature themes but I love to make sure that each roleplay is also quite plot heavy and that we’re all getting the opportunity to develop our characters! 

♥ I have some predeveloped muses and a face claim directory on my blog so if there’s a particular character or face claim that really jumps out at you, please let me know! I’m also flexible in terms of changing the characteristics of my original characters to better suit a particular plot.

♥ Communication is key! I know that real life can get hectic sometimes. I personally work full-time and study part-time, however do consider myself a relatively active partner (at a minimum, I aim to reply several times per week but I can often manage daily replies around my schedule). Whilst I’m not expecting you to do daily replies, I am definitely looking for partners that can manage a few replies per week. If you aren’t feeling a particular plot anymore or if things are happening in your real life that will delay replies, please just flick me a message -- I promise that I’m not going to be upset! I’m the kind of partner that likes to talk ooc so that we can plot, share headcanons and muse posts, and build an ooc friendship as well. If I haven’t received any in character or ooc contact for extended periods of time, that does really impact my muse and it can come across as a lack of commitment/interest on the other person’s part. I reserve the right to leave and/or delete servers if that is the case. 

♥ Here are some links on my page that you might find helpful! Top 10 Most Wanted Plots | Other Wanted Plots | FC Directory 

If you’ve read through all of this and you think that we’re compatible, please like this post or send me a message so that we can get the ball rolling! 

[radioactive-dazey]

My thoughts on Thomas Sanders (criticism but more of me complaining)

Something I don't see people talk about nearly enough (read: not at all) is the fact that, we are still analyzing videos that came out 4+ years ago.

It's not the "analyzing old videos" that's the problem. It's the fact there hasn't been any new content since then. It really feels like (at least to me) the fandom (once again, could be just me) is desperately picking at episodes like POF or SVS for any scraps left behind.

I started one of my fics about a year after POF came out and I remember being nervous because "This takes place immediately after putting others first, this could become really dated really fast"

Turns out I had nothing to worry about.

Lack of plot relevant content is one thing. Everything else that has resurfaced rubs salt in the wound.

Oh, and now to address the fandom itself: some of yall have an insane perspective on everything. I'm all for trying to be objective about the criticism (bc lets be real, one or two things ive seen circulating makes me scratch my head,) but blatantly defending Thomas with "he doesn't owe you anything" is so fucking WILD to me.

He's a content creator. It's his job to make content. Ofc nobody expects him to pump it out like a factory machine, and there's mental health to consider, but it is still his job to make content.

I don't even know where this ideology came from. Who sent you all down that path. Was it Thomas complaining setting a boundary over someone demanding content?

For clarification I don't think anyone should be messaging Thomas to demand content but like... come on dude.

Scalding take, Thomas SHOULD thank us for supporting him.

If he's getting burned out from creating TSS content, we as his fandom are entitled to know instead of sitting and waiting. Did you guys know we are closer to the 10 year aniversarry than we are the 5 year one?

It all sucks horribly. I still want to support him. I still want to wait and see what he does next. I still love Sanders Sides and Cartoon Therapy and My Roommate is Hades. But I feel so hypocritical to still support and follow him when all this shit is piling up. I know nobody is forcing me to stick around, but without Sanders Sides, I have nothing going on in my life. This is my only community, and I somehow managed to tie it down with two of my only hobbies with it.

Does he know a chunk of the fandom is angry and now watching his every move? He should.

Edit: oh and I saw spoilers from the patreon of what the new ep is going to be. It's not worth the wait for me personally. Lowkey I think the premise alone is weak asf but I don't know the thing they're referencing super well. Doesn't add much to this post but I wanted to bitch about that too.

[twig-tea]

2023 BL/GL/QL Round-Up Post

I thought for posterity I'd post a reflection on everything I watched that completed in 2023. For me, that means anything that started in 2022 but the last episode was in 2023 is on this list, but anything that will still be airing after 31 December 2023 11:59 my time (EST) is not on this list, even if the bulk of the show did air in 2023.

A few stats:

110 discrete pieces of content (series/films)

clocking in at est. 600 hours of NEW BL/GL content only

from 9 different countries (Cambodia [1], Philippines [3], Hong Kong [1], Japan [18], Korea [19], Myanmar [1], Taiwan [6], Thailand [56], Vietnam [7])

~50% of the content I watched on this list is from Thailand

~85% of my content was on YouTube [40%], GaGaOoLaLa [23%] and iQIYI [21%].

[Note that this year a lot of older GMMTV shows moved off of YouTube and onto Viki so if you're looking at these stats to decide what to pay for, this won't account for that.]

This doesn't include re-watches or catching up on old shows [e.g. I re-watched Love Sick, My Ride the Series, Semantic Error, ITSAY/IPYTM, Our Dating Sim at least 3 times lol, and anything with a s2 I re-watched s1 to prep, among others, watched Fujoshi Ukkari Gei no Kokuru (2019) for the first time] or non-QL [e.g. Heartstopper s2, Our Flag Means Death s2, Taskmaster s. 15 & 16, Uncanny Counter s2, One Piece s1, etc.] but does include films as well as shows, though I don't count special episodes separately (so Wedding Plan counts once, though I watched both the show and the special).

I hope you all appreciate that with this much content, and with my general brand of being unable to make decisions, I really struggled to narrow down a top 10 list. What follows is the best I could do lol

Top 20 Shows I'd Recommend From This Year:

Moonlight Chicken

Our Dating Sim

Bed Friend

The Eighth Sense

La Pluie

Sing My Crush

Tokyo in April Is...

Wedding Plan

Laws of Attraction

I Cannot Reach You

I Feel You Linger in the Air

What Did You Eat Yesterday S2

I Became the Lead in a BL Drama

If It's With You

Love in Translation

Our Dining Table

My Personal Weatherman

My Beautiful Man: Eternal

My School President

Be My Favorite

+10 I liked but I would only recommend with caveats:

Love Class 2

The New Employee [for the Rainbow Rice Cakes]

Let's Eat Together Aki and Haru

Never Let Me Go

Kiseki: Dear to Me

Unintentional Love Story

The Day I Loved You

End of the World with You

A Breeze of Love

Jack O'Frost

Bonus: Not a BL but worth calling out:

One Room Angel

Midnight Museum

Grand Guignol

The Warp Effect

Sadly, of the GLs that aired this year, I wouldn't recommend any of them. The best one was Show Me Love, which was not actually good but had very gorgeous women and a LOT of flirting.

The other huge thing that happened this year was that I stopped lurking! Thanks specifically to @lurkingshan and @bengiyo demanding everyone start talking about La Pluie, because they got me to post my first meta post. And because I started actually talking to people, I started making actual friends, and participated in organizing things like the Be My Favorite clown checkpoint for ep 11. I also disappeared a month because of life, and am still catching up on everything I intended to write this year. But it's been really rewarding finding this corner of tumblr with likeminded people who like good shows, like to think about these shows, and who are interested in talking about them in a way that's insightful and respectful.

It's been a long time since I felt comfortable enough participating actively in a fandom, and I just want to say to everyone I've interacted with this year: Thank you!

Full list under the cut for anyone curious! [Mostly in order it aired but may be slightly off].

Love Bill

Director Who Buys Me Dinner, The

Star Always Follow You, The

Cutie Pie 2 You

Between Us the Series (Hemp Rope)

Reason Why He Fell in Love with Me Special & S2 [international release]

New Employee, The

I Will Hit You/I Will Knock You

Individual Circumstances

609 Bedtime Story

GAPYuri / GAP the series

My School President

HitBiteLove the Series

Never Let Me Go

Moonlight Chicken

History 5: Love in the Future

Oh My God (ToDo) the Series

Warp Effect, The

End of the World, With You

My Blessing the Series

Our Winter (miniseries)

All the Liquors

Once in Memory: Let Me Be Yours

Shoulder to Cry On, A

Jack O'Frost

Our Dating Sim

Midnight Museum

Me, My Husband, and My Husband's Boyfriend

My Colleague at BL Shop might be My Meant-to-Be

Unintentional Love Story

Chains of Heart

Bed Friend the series

Bad Brother the Series

Stormy Honeymoon

Eighth Sense, the

Bad Brother the Series

Future Series

Tin Tam Jai the series

Crush on You

House of Stars the Series

Happy Merry Ending

Boss and a Babe, A

Pastsenger the Series

Love Mate

Love Syndrome the Series

Promise the Series, The

Day I Loved You, The

Our Dining Table (Bokura no Shokutaku)

Our Skyy 2

My Story the Series

Starstruck

Love Tractor

Naked Dining

Luminous Solution, The

Omai Series / Is My Roommate A Foreigner

Stupid Genius

Step By Step

La Pluie the series

Tie the Not

Sing My Crush / Follow the Wind

Tokyo in April Is .../ Shigatsu no Tokyo wa

Senior Love Me?

Be My Favorite

Show Me Love

Dinosaur Love

Low Frequency

Stay Still

Stay By My Side

Jun & Jun

Wedding Plan the Series

Laws of Attraction, the

Love Class s2

Minato's Laundromat S2

Hidden Agenda

Bon Appetit

Why RU the Series [Korean adaptation]

Be Mine Superstar

Star, The Season 2

Love In Translation

My Beautiful Man: Eternal

My Personal Weatherman

Bump Up Business

Naughty Babe Series

Only Friends

Grand Guignol

Dangerous Romance

If It's With You / Kimi to Nara Koi wo Shite Mite Mo

Y Journey: Stay Like a Local

I Feel You Linger in the Air

Venus in the Sky

Kiseki: Dear to Me

I Cannot Reach You

You Are Mine

Breeze of Love / Weather Forecast of Love

Mr. Cinderella 2

Let's Eat Together Aki and Haru

One Room Angel

Marry My Dead Body

Lucky My Love the Series

Pure Vanilla: Recipe for Romance

Absolute Zero

Memories, The

My Dear Gangster Oppa

Shadow

What Did You Eat Yesterday? S2

Middleman Love

Beyond the Star

Bake Me Please

You and My Stars

I Became the Lead in a BL Drama

[horizon-verizon]

You’re a whole coon, of course Rhaenyra hates women, especially Black women, she tried to murder a 16 years-old Black girl, slut shamed her, called her racial slurs, and linked Nettles “ugliness/attractiveness” to her Blackness. Rhaenyra literally acted like a pathetic pick me in regard to Daemon and Nettles. If given the chance, Rhaenyra would have enslaved her. TB must truly despise Daenerys to compare her to Rhaenyra, they couldn’t be more different. (The way Rhaenyra is never mentioned in Dany’s chapters and GRRM has never discussed them in conjunction with the other, finally y’all can thanks HOTD for turning her into a progressive and flawless Mary Sue).

And really an insanely privileged white woman dying after putting a bounty on a lowborn Black’s girl head should be a good thing right ? We just gon have to celebrate Rhaenyra death with Nettles.

If you say so, anon, I guess I'm a straight up coon. 🤷🏿‍♀️

I suppose arguing how no one can be a feminist in a medieval world is coonish. I guess that pointing out how unconstructive it is to go "she wasn't a feminist so we shouldn't care about any possible effect her coming into power like the men before and after her have been able to will have an effect on other noble women's power to maybe implement some pro-women stuff in their own domains" to us analyzing why/how Rhaenyra is important to the history of Westeros and Daenerys is coonish.

I guess it's coonish of me to flout so many non-Nettles arguments of Rhaenyra's supposed bad leadership and amorality not once, but TWICE (that I remember), where it clearly just veers into straight up sexism: HERE and HERE....thus coming into why I even bother defending Rhaenyra (in some points).

It's not like I haven't already wrote several time in several posts how Rhaenyra's trying to get Nettles' head reveals much about the Targ-Andal paradigm she grows up in and tries to use to bolster herself through her going after Nettles to the end. It's not like I don't see how essentially different Daenerys and Rhaenyra are as people through the Nettles event as well as how they grow up and come into their positions of power and how/why they desire those roles:

It's not like I haven't already written about the Black Jezebel stereotype at least three times, including on Twitter and here. It's not like I have defended Nettles not just from "dettles" stans but also from people who call themselves Rhaenyra stans while bashing on Nettles and Mysaria, totally misunderstanding both characters and what even a supporting character is.

But sure, I'm a coon bc I don't want to ignore the journey of Rhaenyra's downfall and make distinct where she decided to destroy another woman vs her being the victim. Sure, I'm a whole coon.

And for the last fucking time, "compare" does not always or only mean "these two things are exactly alike and I will show you how"! "Comparison" analyses means that you will list out what traits or developments two things have, what inspirations, and see how they differ and how they don't. And through such a process, you will find out how many and how well/or not these two or more things are alike and how.

For Dany and Rhaenyra, I never said these girls/women were the same person. I said that both women, as women in male-designated positions of power, have to deal with people in world AND out of world must contend with misogynist feelings towards of their not deserving power or leadership on account of their gender, no matter what sort of characterization either had BECAUSE even with the main series not being like F&B, not being a history book, PEOPLE IN THE FANDOM STILL TEND TO MISREAD OR TWIST DANY'S ACTIONS AGAINST HER CHARACTER AND GRRM'S INTENT. Rhaenyra is meant to contextualize that very experience into a real event of catastrophe, she was set against ever since she was 10 bc she was female and another, older woman wanted power denied to her directly bc she was a woman. This is a fact, you nor I can change that. There is a difference between what we learn from the events to make the conclusions of who should rule ideally and what we should shoot for VERSUS thinking of the situation at hand for what it would have been like for the character.

F&B (having been written after the main series) continues even this "analysis" phenomenon; what do people choose to believe when it's a woman at the center of their stories?! No matter her real circumstances or their knowledge of things not present in their understanding of the world and of history?

I also mention, several times, how it is here, Rhaenyra's end, where the Targs lose their dragons because they have assimilated into the intenser patriarchal paradigm already mentioned to the point where they weakened their women's positions by denying them their autonomy and political powers...which plot sequence wise leads to the end of the dynasty as whole and Dany's exile. I'm must be a coon to not want Nettles, a 17 year old, to fuck a 50 year old, esp with her being his bio daughter. No, anon, I am too repulsed with direct vertical incest (parent-child, grandparent-grandchild, etc.).

Then there is how the Bloodstone Emperor and the Amethyst Empress and how the former usurped tha latter and plunged the entire world into mythological "darkness"--thus leading up to the importance of the Azor Ahai, aka Dany, directly seems to reflect how another brother--Aegon II--usurped his older sister--Rhaenrya--and thus the world loses a strong magical tool against darkness "dragons". An obvious link....

In fact, I tend to repeat how different they are as people! There's this whole thread talking abt the very thing I despise abt some critiques of Rhaenyra. I even say many times that Rhaenyra couldn't have the throne after the Nettles letter, that at that point, there needed a "refresh". Up until then, there was simply more reason for us to not think her a real terror except for maybe Addam and Alyn. But I have my misgivings there and it comes down to timing and grief.

No, Rosby and Stokeworth do not count and why? I already wrote why, but for someone who doesn't stan Rhaenyra or is not a fan of hers but actually stans just Daenerys--the previous ozymalek says:

I have myself said several times how I disliked how they rewrote show1Rhaenyra to make her a much less assertive version of herself, and I agree with others how they made her female-friendless. No matter how amoral or moral she was, similarly to Dany, people have written her sexistly in the show. I believe that this is CENTRAL to the point of F&B, how people refuse to see the point of it.

Finally, I really don't see how the hell show!Rhaenyra even is a Mary Sue or a NLOG, bc for the first, she displays no skill she excels over others at. A Mary Sue is:

Show!Rhaenyra, for some reason, seems "perfect" to some people. Esp with Luke saying so in epi 8. I never felt that way, I always thought she (older, not younger) was too meek and that is her great flaw---due to the sexist writing, but if kept at face value, that's the great flaw. Other definition: Who is inserting themselves into her character on the show? you got proof?

A NLOG (not like the other girls) is a Cersei like character who goes out of their way to destroy/diminish most women who are competitors for their power or destroy any semblance of socially-defined femininity and socially-coded feminine "weakness" so as to appeal to the male authority and get privileges. Problem is that EVERY SINGLE FEMALE MONARCH AND WOMAN IN SOME SORT OF AUTHORITY OVER MEN IN EVERY SINGLE PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY had to convince their male supporters that they were the one they should follow to some degree more than any male heir or candidate--during a time where they had to either fight for their "birthright" or they were planning coups (Catherine the Great), came into power through some accident, or whatnot--that their rule was in it for them. There is no pattern of woman-hating or self-hating to define Rhaenyra as a NLOG, where she consistently tries. NLOGs tend to hate women even in their own "race" or group for perceived acts of upheaval and destabilizing their positions of power. Alicent was and she uses misogyny to do so, so Alicent is not Rhaenyra's victim; other way around. Rhaenyra has all reason to despise Alicent, justified even. It's more than the positions, it's the whole targeting since 10 deal and trying to espouse Rhaenyra's inherent unworthiness for power.

So Rhaenyra deciding to do the Rosby/Stokeworth bit is her seeing how her greatest ally, a sexist man, has basically all her ships during wartime and insisting she does not give those girls their father's seats is Rhaenyra choosing wrongly, yes, but something I don't think that you or a small number of women would bow under considering the other shit she was going through. Yes, even black/PoC women. Again, this is not about Nettles but about women vs women (yes with them all being white or white-adjacent) bc I know that this will be the next thing some will say as a counterargument to what I'm saying here.

You are correct, however, in how similar Rhaenyra's behavior abt Nettles is pick-me-ish and NLOG concerning her intent to turn Daemon back to her and how this was her seeing Nettles as competition for "control" over Daemon, who was one of her principal military commands as well as her romantic partner...and like i said once before, this is a reflection on how this Andal-Targ patriarchal paradigm makes its own female "terrors" through misogyny. To ignore the process is to endanger its justified repetition. Yeah, Rhaenyra ends up becoming like Alicent in that way after the consistent losses, and I mean defaulting back to destroying another woman for a simulation of power. This doesn't mean that she was a feminist or that she didn't intend on using the Black Jezebel reasoning to get rid of "competition" to feel more in control. It does mean that her behavior reveals her enmeshment in the xenophobic, aristocratic, patriarchal Targ-Andal feudalist paradigm that she chooses to use to, again, construct more feelings of power at a time where she seemed to feel she was losing more and more--after the betrayals and the deaths of her sons in that moment. And yet if there is anything to be extracted from her narrative it is how that built-in classism (the companion and parent of racism) can become the thing these women default onto to retrieve/gain the agency & power denied to them. I believe this is also where you can draw a core similarity to Cersei, who is rather the starkest extreme example of that classism making up for her internalized misogyny through her Lannister Exceptionalism.

The discourse has to include how we, the readers, over-blame Rhaenyra for things she has either very little control over or what she had no control over and for trying to, again, assert herself (before Nettles). She's a reflection of her times and situation; doesn't mean she isn't still a victim. You don't need to like her. I never asked for people to do so. I don't care if you do or not, I've never needed that. Just don't lie or twist information or ignore clear patterns GRRM establishes that are also important, or try to erase the lines of harm done to her and undo the work GRRM is doing to point out this pattern of misogyny that contextualizes one very key aspect of Dany's journey: sexism doesn't care how good or classist you are, you are a woman so you will be subject to disenfranchisement, distortion of facts, and destruction...if you are not like Dany, who intuitively and "rationally" discovers lanes of power while reintegrating her being to the natural process and relationships between herself and her dragons for the ecological benefit of the entire world (the Others, again). Unlike Rhaenyra, Dany doesn't fall into the ideological "trap" or the noblewoman's save-grace of exploiting of lowborn people AND dragons but intelligently seeks other non-exploitative ways to use her dragons and those inspired by he bravery. This again, does not erase or override the sexism and specific elements of gender politics that tie these two together.

It's a paradox, not a contradiction.

[aaronstveit]

You briefly mentioned Gale in your post about Lucy Gray being everywhere (🫶🏻) in District 12 and I wanted to ask what do you think of him as a character. It’s been 10 years since I’ve read the books so I don’t remember exactly how things happened in Mockingjay, but I think it’s unfair how people make everything about the love triangle and in order to praise Peeta for everything he does right, they tend to be really nasty about Gale when imo what happened ~ because ~ of him is really heartbreaking and just shows how war destroys people and who they love. Idk if I’m expressing myself well but I think people do miss the point sometimes. Peeta is a sweetheart but there’s no satisfaction to me in simplifying everything that happen by calling Gale a villain or a toxic guy. This sounds so boring sorry, I just loved your post about Lucy okay? Please yes talk more about books here next year! 💌

hi anon!! thank you for your kind words <3 and thank you for your question! i have THOUGHTS about gale so i am soooooo ready to talk about him <3

first and foremost i am & always have been a peeta girlie, he is truly one of the greatest fictional characters of all time and i'll die on that hill. but i actually do like gale, and i think he gets a very bad rap in fandom!

i think the first mistake people make is assuming that katniss/peeta/gale is a love triangle. it isn't. the struggle of katniss choosing between peeta & gale isn't actually about "omg who will she end up with" but about the life she will choose for herself. katniss herself explains it in mockingjay: it's about choosing the dandelion in the spring, or the fire. she chooses the dandelion in the spring because she needs hope to sustain her. she has enough of her own fire; adding someone else's to it will only hurt her in the end. that doesn't mean she doesn't love gale in one way or another. that doesn't even mean that she condemns the fire. she is the fire! it only means that ending up with gale would hurt the both of them.

gale is not a bad character, and he is not a bad person. it's insane to me that people think he's a bad person, actually! he's a traumatized child whose father was killed in the mines and who has spent the formative years of his life risking his life to break the law so he can provide for his family. exactly like katniss. and he's angry about it. but not angry in an abstract way — he's angry in a directed way, in a way that makes him want to change the world they live in. and he should! that's the whole point of the series!

gale spends most of the first games with katniss's family, because he loves her and he loves them and he doesn't want them to be alone. he promises he won't let katniss's family go hungry if she dies. he takes extra tesserae so his younger siblings won't have to, even though they could use the extra food and fuel, even though it puts him at additional risk. he leads 800 scared, hungry, injured people out of district 12 when they're firebombed. when the bombs are coming for district 13, he goes upstairs to check katniss's family's compartment to make sure they're all safe and to grab the things most precious to katniss and her family, risking his own life in the process. he throws himself over katniss when the bombs drop in district 8 and follows her up to the warehouse roof without pause. he lies for her, a thousand times. he follows her across the capitol on the pipe dream of killing president snow. he doesn't hate katniss for her relationship with peeta — he even says that he knows he can't hate her, that it wasn't fair to her. he isn't even angry. he's heartbroken. he's an 18 year old boy in love with his best friend and the world keeps on ending and she was sent to die and the only way she could survive was by pretending to love another boy sent to die — and she might not be pretending, and she doesn't know, and gale is caught in all the middle of it. he's allowed to be upset! everything is so messed up!

katniss doesn't agree with everything gale does. neither do i! i don't think killing the people in the nut in district 2 was the right choice, and i'm glad katniss interrupted. but it's very easy to see where gale is coming from. one of the core themes of the series can be summed up with haymitch's repeated question: "who is the enemy?" over the course of the trilogy, we see katniss begin to comprehend the true answer. she starts off challenging the idea that the richer people in her district are the enemy, even though they don't have to take the tesserae. then she thinks it's the kids from the richer districts who are her enemy, but when she kills marvel from district 1, it feels wrong to her because he's also just a child being manipulated and used as a pawn by a violent government. like her. like rue. the enemy is not any of the people dying in the capitol's mines and orchards and factories and arenas. and in mockingjay, katniss realizes that the normal civilians in the capitol aren't even her enemy. the enemy is the ring of people at the very, very top.

where gale goes wrong is he doesn't reach the end conclusion of that. gale hasn't gone into the arena, he hasn't had to face down other scared children to atone for the "sins" of people they never met. he doesn't get it. he never will, not in the way katniss does. so he doesn't find the same answer as her.

and as for the bombs that kill prim. you see. i really, truly do not believe that they are thirteen's bombs. snow's points in his discussion with katniss don't hold up enough for me personally, and knowing as much as we do about snow, i truly do think he was trying to mess with her one more time. but within the confines of the story, it doesn't matter who dropped those bombs. in real life, yes, it would absolutely matter. but within the books, it doesn't. what matters is that it could have been either of them. capitol or thirteen. snow or coin. the point was they were trading one evil for another, and katniss couldn't be made in a pawn in that, too.

but it doesn't matter, because she will always associate that with gale. it isn't fair, because even if it was thirteen's bomb, there was no way he would agree to that, no way he would help to kill children to prove a point. but she cannot help but associate that with gale. and gale, oh gale. he will always think it, too. he will always wonder if he was the man that killed prim. the little girl he helped to take care of for years, almost another sibling to him. the little girl he helped katniss bring lady the goat home to. the little girl he would not have let starve if katniss died. the little girl he led to safety when the firebombs dropped on district twelve. he will live the rest of his life having to think he is responsible for her death.

i find gale to be one of the most tragic characters in the series. he tries so hard, to take care of the people he loves, to help others, to build something worth having. and he loses very nearly everything for it. and then the fandom vilifies him and treats him like he's worse than president snow. when really, gale was just another exploited, traumatized child whose life was warped and twisted and burned by the capitol.

[terapsina]

SEND ME A SHIP (+ number) AND I WILL TELL YOU... Carol/Maria 2, 15 (Captain Marvel/The Marvels) and because I am me! Hizzie 10, 11, 20

Carol and Maria

2. ...why I do or don't ship them.

I ship them. I ship them quite a LOT. And that's because from the MOMENT we started seeing those flashbacks, it felt like I was watching a love story.

And then they had their reunion and Maria looked like the breath had been knocked right out of her chest. And Carol with this hangdog expression? And the piles of photographs that Maria had kept to remember Carol?

I'm sorry, but this isn't just friendship.

Add in amnesia during which most of the memories that were trying to break through revolved around Maria and her daughter? A kid that Carol was clearly around so much that even after YEARS of being missing she still seemed to think Carol hung the moon? I mean, COME ON, I can be expected to be only so strong here.

And The Marvels did NOT help. If anything Carol was pining after all that she had lost even MORE.

It's like a tragic fairy tale.

15. ...how I wish their story would go/would have gone.

Well first of all I wouldn't have killed Maria. Because it's stupid and I hate it.

Second of all I wouldn't have had Carol ghosting the woman she was clearly in love with and their daughter for 20 years.

Because it's stupid and I hate it.

Or if I did do that, then The Marvels would have involved a very chaotic Time Travel fix it.

Ideally she'd have remained in contact and gotten back together with Maria in the intervening years (FYI here's a fic I found where Carol does go back and it's adorable (or here's an old fic I wrote that contains a smidge of how I would have wanted Carol to have kept in touch)) and though I do think I want to have kept Monica getting dusted by the Snap (because I do enjoy SOME angst), Maria would have been snapped too.

And then Carol would have gotten the both of them BACK.

But that was ideally.

Now, my hopes rest on Carol finding a way to get back the stranded Monica (or to join her). Because if they're making this Alternate Universe Maria be kind of a mirror of Carol... then let's go all the way here and have this Maria be mourning her Carol the same way our Carol is mourning her Maria.

They can be each other's second chance.

---

Hope and Lizzie

10. ...rate the level of stupid they reach in their pining.

Can we reach levels above 10 out of 10? Because... duuude. When you have Lizzie constantly casting herself to play one half of a romcom couple and yet convinced that she's the matchmaker, or third wheel? And Hope being Lizzie's Totally Personal Hero? And Lizzie constantly pulling a Prince Charming on Hope? And Hope obsessing over Lizzie while lacking humanity all at the same time saying with her whole chest how she cares nothing about Lizzie?

AND BOTH OF THEM SOMEHOW COMPLETELY IGNORING THE BIG FLASHING LIGHT OF THE SIRE BOND AND WHAT THAT MEANS?

*voice full of saccharine condescension*: 'oh, honey'.

11. ...how quickly I started shipping them when I got into the fandom.

If memory serves me right... I started shipping them pretty early on. Wayyyyy early on, like before 1x12 even.

But where it became serious was the episode with the dress.

Like, the fact that she just went 'this family heirloom dress needs to be worn by the prettiest girl I know'? Goddammit, Lizzie.

And then of course there's the way you just have to admire the sheer gall of pulling a Klaroline parallel unintentionally?

But most of all... it might have been the way Lizzie spent the episode protectively glaring at the jealous boys. And the way she rushed over to hug Hope when she was about to have her breakdown in the middle of the dance floor.

Also. That face. Specifically.

20. ...how and when they should get/should have gotten together.

Ideally, at the end of the season 5 that never was.

I consider s4 to be the season where Lizzie realized and accepted that she's in love with Hope. Burt also accepted the idea that it was never going to happen and chose to try to move on.

S5 should have been the season where Lizzie is trying to do that while Hope is coming to accept that there's feelings there from her side too and that the idea that she might have realized that too late hurts.

Culminating in a big fight where they finally drop all the cards on the table and address all the things they'd been skirting over.

[wolfstarwarehouse]

hi! So I've followed you for, quite a long time and I've always loved your blog and find it to be an invaluable source amongst the marauders/hp/wolfstar community. I've loved wolfstar for forever (although surprisingly nowadays I tend to lean more towards prongsfoot) but i just wondered like, how do you feel about how wolfstar has changed since you've entered the ship? I used to be really into wolfstar but I feel like, since the large expansion of the marauders fandom and the kind of entering of a second generation of marauders fans, I feel I no longer really fit? Idk, there's a lot of characterization I find has differed from what I've known before and well, it just makes me more inclined to like the older stuff. But I wanted to know what you thought, maybe it was just me getting older. What are your thoughts/opinions on a lot of the newer characterizations/headcanons/ships of this new marauders generation? Like it, dislike it? Also if you have any recommendations of newer wolfstar for older fans, I'd be delighted to hear them.

Hi! Thank you so much for following all these years! I will say first off that I haven't read anything since my last fic recs in February of this year, so I'm definitely not up to date on all of the current trends.

I think it does have a bit to do with getting older, though, or just being in the fandom long enough to see the changes. And having been in the fandom/reading fics for 10+ years, I can tell you that I have seen wolfstar change many times over. I think we all probably have a preference for the kinds of fics that we read when we first got into the fandom, but in my case, the newer headcanons and ships never really bothered me.

If I see something like jegulus, for example, getting really popular, my thoughts are more along the lines of "huh, interesting, not my thing, but if the right author did it the right way I'd probably like it." I don't think there's anything I outright dislike.

No matter what happens to be popular at the time, I try to strike a balance between reading fics that are new and different and those that speak to my own personal taste. You might have to dig a little deeper, but I promise there are still people out there writing wolfstar the way you like it.

tl;dr If you'd ask me about any of the newer characterizations, headcanons, or ships, my response would probably be a polite, neutral curiosity lol. As for fic recs (pulling from my last recs in Feb.), these would get closest to that old school vibe (at least for me):

Don't Make Me Beg For You (Because I'll Beg For You) by CuriousMay

Connect by AllAboutTheDrama

Not Waving But Drowning by possessingtheproperspirit

[eddieydewr]

I have actually seen people say his career is on rapid decline 😂. These sweet little innocent babes are so very sheltered lmao. A 19 year old drinking is not a story. It's nothing. Who the fuck doesn't act like that when they are college aged? Besides that, he has been on the receiving end of nothing but made up shit for months and people just believe yet another story with zero evidence. Let's recap the fake shit people have said about him: - He hates Palestinians - He's a racist, genocidal maniac - He fights with his co-stars - He got dropped from brand deals - He had a mental breakdown on set - He is a pedophile - He's being isolated from his co-stars on set and they won't talk to him - He's being written out of the show and they changed the story And now - he got drunk at a bar and made a scene. At a time when things have been going well for him and the haters are pissed all of the things listed above are proving over and over again to not be true. The best they can come up with now is that he was drinking. Because they are that easily scandalized. Even if it is true, who the fuck cares? It would be the first true thing people have said about him in months. These stories say nothing about Noah and everything about the people who make them up. I'm not even surprised by the amount of people having a mental breakdown over this. This fandom is full of dumb drama. But people need to realize that the only reason that anything on that list above got so much traction is because they kept talking about it. So if you feel bad for Noah that all these people are constantly coming after him and making things up/dramatizing things, don't give them fuel and instead ignore the dumb shit they say. Rumors mean nothing when no one is discussing them.

rapid decline 😭 if finn quit acting to focus on behind the scenes stuff and his music, they’ll say it’s part of his trajectory but if noah does it, they will be like HAHA FLOPPED. even though noah always said he doesn’t plan on acting full time and is interested in doing everything he possibly can, which is already evident with his lifeguarding and volunteering work, setting up businesses, working with brands and sponsorships…

not to be dramatic but i rly think they want noah to kill himself. they just don’t realise the full effect of their words and actions. because they just say it on the internet. them, of all people, should understand what it’s like because i see them get angry at rowling for her part in endangering trans people… on twitter. noah has his own beliefs but he clearly isn’t genocidal, doesn’t hate palestinians, and he’s simply living his life but he’s somehow the worst person to live. their behaviour reminds me of young millennials when they hated on justin bieber. they thought it was funny to make rape and murder jokes about him when he was a kid, way before he started doing stupid stuff. the same happened to noah before 10/7. they’ve always hated him for being “cringe” aka jewish and possibly gay (or straight but simply a melt like bieber). and millie with the homophobic memes.

i know it’s best to ignore shit and not add fuel to the fire but i think the whole culture needs to change. especially when they claim they’re doing it because they care about a certain cause, like palestine. like besties, no. you’ve wanted noah dead for years because haha, memes.

[borisbubbles]

Eurovision 2024: #11

11. GREECE Marina Satti - "Zari" 11th place

Decade Ranking: 38/153 [Above Pasha Parfeny, belowGjon's Tears]

The internet is sometimes so strange yo. Fans went ABSOLUTELY FERAL over "Zari" over release, were sacrificing their firstborn sons (metaphorically. most of them -thankfully- won't ever procreate) declaring it a POTENTIAL WINNER, A CLEAR TOP TENNER. Even now, the chants of ZARI WAS ROBBED are still ongoing even if they calmed down a bit since the Final last month.

Meanwhile, I was sitting on my island thinking "um why do these human skidmarks enjoy that horribe cacaphonous abortion of a song?"

YES, that was the take preshow, and I'm not sorry about it. "Zari" was a lot of shit and most of it was... well... shit. Ethnic instruments that were thrown together with zero regard for harmony, pivoting between "edgy" hiphop and "romantic" downtempo bits at the drop of a pin. The TA TA TA? A throbbing MIGRAINE of a chorus (I guess? I don't get headaches, I only cause them). "Zari" was tailored for Zoomers so again, why is this OLD ASS MILLENNIAL (lol she's three years older than I am) playing up to people half her age... by using TikTok memes? Stick to your generation, nerd. It was like a dozen Greek clichés haphazardly strung together as the ultimate clickbait. Borderline un-fucking-listenable.

Now, I am FULLY aware that take puts me in mortal peril since the first and only step in Marina Satti fandom is to make it your personality. I've accepted the fact that a gang of Zari Zombies will be standing at my front door all

but it's MY TRUTH, children and the truth WILL out!. The song was a mess in studio version and that a hill I'll happily die on! Annoying song + obnoxious fanbase => I was SO ready to rank it low and be veeeeery petty and supercilious about it!!! You know, the usual Me Stuff.

But then... we get to the semi and turns out "Zari" t actually works really well and its fans were right all along lmfao oops!!! MORPH!!

Yeah, "Zari" was just the contemporary and Greek equivalent of "My Slowianie", wasn't it? (you'd better say Yes, because I'll compare them for the rest of this post...x) Esothertic ethic mess that somehow functions as a Stage Piece. Obviously NOT AS GOOD as "My Slowianie" (a social media overlay does NOT compensate for the lack of butter churners - where are the olive press workers, hmm?), but it was a decent enough forllow-up, on the clock ten years after Cleo.

Not a large part in the live being good was Marina herself though. Laryngitis or not, she went HARD.

GIRLBOSS

GASLIGHT

GATEKEEP

This is loads of fun!!! I hear the Satti Stans were disappointed by the stage presentation and that is fuckin' daft. The act was honestly... hot and slay and sold the song. It wasn't without faults (the styling and social media overlays were SOOO tacky lmfaooo), but christ who the fuck cares about a few inaccuracies after Marina took the camera (literally? lol) and ran away with it. Second most charismatic on-stage personality in this year after Ladaniva.

The one-shot camera

into the choreographies

into the explosion of colour

into a diffusion of energy that interacted with the audience-

heralded the metamorphosis from an obnoxious TikTok degenerate into a very well-executed Eurovision entrant that - despite possessing multiple ideas that shouldn't work on paper - got most of its shit right, in the correct dosage. It was more than enough to drag me on board, and I was a massive fucking sceptic! It worked, period.

At the end of the day, 11th place is actually a perfect result for Marina.

First off, it's where I've ranked her myself. (which was unplanned, since i fold the songs into my excel first before I look at their overall placements)

Secondly, I never thought she would be top 10 (then again, the only people who thought that were the contingent of her fanbase that thought she was the main character of Eurovision 2024 (over... Eden, Joost, Baby Lasagna and Nemo? lol.), and also thought she'd WIN which is a whole nother slice of insanity ham.)

And thirdly, some of the things Marina did were better executed by some of the remaining artists so it makes sense she didn't outrank them, here or on the scoreboard. She wasn't the biggest revelation (Ireland was), nor the most charismatic (Armenia were) nor the best girlbop (Italy, sort of), etc. She was very good at all of those things, but not the top dog.

In sum, "Zari" is just too um... unconventional to win many juries over. It did as well as it could have done, and still got left side thanks to a beefy televote. That's a good result in my book. It's good when my negative first impressions are proven unfounded by a strong and engaging live, and even better when these growers are rewarded with highish spots. Such results can only benefit the battles, which needs all the small victories it can get.

Pity I'm really that keen on dragging Olly Alexander into my top ten, huh?

CONGRATULATIONS TOP TEN!!!

(not in order...x)

[rocinantescoffeestop]

[pjo series thoughts - spoilers ep. 1]

First note is a biggie: When Sally starts describing the story of Perseus in the museum, I had to pause. It starts with Perseus and his mother thrown into a box and cast out to sea, to be forgotten about, to die basically. It made me think about how Sally and Percy basically grew up alone, how that situation mirrors Perseus in the myths, and the fact that in the myths the mother-son pair were 'surrounded by sea' (the exact words Sally uses to tell the story, btw) just adds to the parallel.

In the books, Sally describes Poseidon essentially going to the sea and never coming back. In the show, we meet her properly at the apartment and she's standing in the rain, surrounded by water. In short, the 'surrounded by' part of that story is equivalent to 'being shaped by'. Their lives – both Sally-Percy and Perseus and his mom in the myths – had a large part of their lives determined by Poseidon, determined by the sea.

——

• Bobofit? just makes me think of Boba Fett and now I'm picturing Nancy fanart as a star wars clone XD

• Eddie the Super is a bro in this adaptation. I agree with what I've heard some other folks saying around these fandom parts, I like this change from Eddie being one of the poker buddies to being at odds with Gabe, too.

• Sally Jackson listening to 'logical' by Olivia Rodrigo. Sally Jackson being an Olivia fan!!!!

• Gabe and Sally's relationship here... it's not good sure, but in this adaptation, I can see sort of how they could have started, maybe at first it not being about 'protecting Percy', as they sort of have a banter here that doesn't just seem like a watered-down/kid-friendly version of a dysfunctional marriage but also like the remnants of some sort of clicking. Of course, I want to believe that Gabe is still an awful human being, and yeah, the show portrays that he's a slum, a verbal dick towards everyone in his life, has abusive habits like checking Sally's phone without permission, so I still don't like him here. But, there's a difference between series!Gabe and book!Gabe in which book!Gabe was just painted as cut and dry, black and white awful, like the worlds slimiest, grimiest old fool. Maybe it's the act of seeing it instead of reading about it since in the book we ARE the narrator – a twelve-year-old boy with a limited worldview and seeing things more as cut-dry/black-white – and here we're more on the outside looking in, so we can approach the world with a more objective viewpoint, and see details not as 'good' or 'bad' but as just details. Just something like 'life just be like that sometimes' kind of way.

• 'Like a puzzle with have the wrong pieces' hit home for me. Also, describing Percy's attention slips through the mist as 'daydreaming' is such a good way to relate ADHD to his demigodness. I like how the series described Percy's mind and disabilities better so far than the books.

• 'Something that felt real to you that no one else can see?' The way Sally delivers this line... UGH so good at being very subtle in suggesting that she can relate to Percy personally here, hinting at her ability to see through the mist as well despite being 100% mortal. Or maybe that's just me knowing things revealed later in the series and subplanting that onto the now.

• It's hard explaining greek gods being real to your son. LOL undercut perfectly with Walker's comedy ("like– like Jesus?"). Also, Walker's acting? 10/10

• putting Percy and Grover at odds in the series just like in the books but each do it differently – in the books, Percy ditches Grover bc he's acting weird and it's stressing Percy out. In the series, Grover is the one that does the dirty deed and makes sure Percy gets expelled from Yancy. Either case, they both put tension in the relationship (to be repaired later in the narrative). So, before you say anything bad about the differences between book and series, think about the emotional part of it. The series speaks to the HEART of the scene, of the story, even if it's not a word-for-word retelling with visuals.

• "He is brutal, he is relentless, he–" "He is still wearing underpants." Classic Percy comedy akdjfhgklsjdfg I'm in love

• Sally setting Grover up for his emotional journey on the quest by making him swear to protect Percy against all monsters/threats that come his way.

• Oh god, it's even more heartwrenching the second time watching Percy watch his mom "die" – the silence that encompasses the moment, all sounds drowning away, the rain so crystal clear on his face, and his eyes... god. so good.

• I love the last scene. The campers' voices coming out of the blackness, the blackness fading into a hazy purple sunset as Percy's vision come to. Annabeth's voice saying "he must be the one,' as she so wants him to be the one that will bring her along on a quest. just the way the framing lands at the end, with the subtle movement of camper silhouettes shifting away and Chiron front and centre, welcoming Percy (and thus the audience) into the world (into the series). Such a good introduction. So, so good.