#when i read their source material i am NOT gonna be okay

[deergravity]

i'm just going through my likes and WOW WOW WOW! this is giving me feeeeelsss

things i'm noticing-- so iryna is reaching down for desa, like she's on solid ground and desa is falling or drowning, and drowning strikes me particularly because of the instinctual reaction to grab whatever comes near you when one struggles in water, an instinct that can doom you both if the rescuer doesn't approach correctly, and you push your would-be savior down under the water so you can take a few last breaths. and would you look at that, desa is gripping her wrist, pulling herself up? or pulling iryna down? the balance between them will decide their fate.

and then, and then, the light in desa's eyes. while we're in this water metaphor, she's a lighthouse, filled with power, an ever burning flame, but one that is guided, directed, that must be controlled if it will serve its purpose. a guiding light, yes, and a warning--danger lies here. don't come any closer. there may be land, safety and comfort, even, just over the horizon, but can you reach it? is the vessel light and quick enough to avoid the rocks? or maybe sturdy enough to survive being dashed against them? what desperation, what desire drives the ship forward?

turning the metaphor a little-- seeking the light in the darkness, longing for the flame because it is better to be burnt than to freeze, better to live quick and hot than die cold and alone. and the flame reaches back. what then? does it consume you? do you smother the fire? or does it light your own wick?

the divine magic of fire, to multiply itself. one flickering candle, now two. twice the light, twice the heat. the circle of light grows.

Her anchor

[ltleflrt]

So I happened to see one of the tags on that fanfictions are not books post, and I saw the dumbest fucking take.

"Imagine asking for a book recommendation, and someone sends you a fanfic link."

Yeah okay, also imagine if they recommended you the last book in a series? Nobody is going to do that, because it's a story that wouldn't make sense without knowledge of the prior content. I'm not going to send someone a fanfic link without knowing if they're familiar with the fandom first.

Also, who is asking for book recommendations from people without having an idea that the person has similar reading interests? I'm not going to ask a random stranger for a book recommendation. I'm going to ask someone I know. Someone I've talked to enough to get an idea that we like the same things.

If I am talking to someone who might also be into reading, I might say "I read a great book over the weekend", even if it was a fanfiction, and tell them about it. If they express interest in reading it too, I'm going to ask them if they're familiar with the source material. Then I'm going to ask them if they like romances. Then I'm going to ask them if they like queer romances. Then I'm going to ask them if they like *smutty* queer romances. And then I'm going to ask them if they mind reading on their phone/tablet/computer. If they say yes to all of those questions, I'll send them the link.

And if we're not talking specifically about something that I just read that they're interested in too, and they just say "hey, you read books a lot, got any recommendations?" I'm not going to have an immediate answer for them, because I have a very wide variety of interests, while still being extremely picky, and I do not assume people like the same stuff I do. I'm going to ask them what genre they like, how do you feel about standalone stories versus series? Do you like stuff that has romance in it even though it's not the romance genre? Have you ever read fanfiction? Based on those answers, I might ask them even *more* questions to narrow it down. Do you know how much I've read?? Thousands of published books, thousands of fanfictions, hundreds of audio books. I can't even think of everything I've read. I might need to know what you like in order to even REMEMBER something that might be of interest to you. But yeah, I MIGHT send you a fanfic link, even if you've never read fanfic before. It has happened. And she read it and loved it and recommended it to her daughter. She did NOT recommend it to her own mother, when her mom wanted to know what story they were talking about. She's like 90, and they were afraid a gay cyberpunk story would be too much for her sensibilities.

Like, people aren't asking for recommendations from each other without having conversations about it. And people who make reading recommendation lists for social media usually have a specific flavor of reading material that they're known for, and a stranger seeing that on the internet is either gonna say "not for me, thanks" or be like "oooooh *click*" depending on whether that list has things that are to their taste.

If someone wants a book rec from me, and they don't want to talk about what they're interested in to give me an idea of how to curate to their tastes, I'm just going to recommend the Encyclopedia Britannica 15th Edition from 1984, the "L" volume, so that I can watch the light leave their eyes.

[jellyfishcharm]

i am currently getting into the marauders fandom, and i am overly confused rn. i have never had an interest in reading harry potter but after begging from my best friend i started ATYD, and because i wanted to understand it better i started the actual harry potter series (pirated, fuck jkr) i have a ton of questions and i dont really think theyre things i can look up, so i turned to tumblr.

(please keep in mind i have not read the harry potter series so im like completely lost)

1) what is the source material for the marauders fandom? i thought ATYD was what jump started this whole james, sirius, remus thing but apparently it’s been going on since like 2003 so i’m just confused what is the canon information? the most confusing is wolfstar and how people talk about snape. is snape good? is he bad? am i missing something? was james bullying snape or snape bullying them? and is wolfstar supposed to be the “canon ship” or smth?

2) why is jegulus so popular? don’t get me wrong i love the concept of it from what i know (not very much im afraid) but i thought james and lily were like the end all be all canon marauders couple?

3) why is james desi? im all for it and as a black/jewish/gay girl myself the whole representation of poc and jews in harry potter along with jkr just put me off from the series for years but nothing about james reads as brown for me, so im just wondering how people got to that conclusion

4) why is there this weird hierarchy in this fandom? i keep going online and seeing old fans complaining about how things are so different now but like.. that’s how fandoms work? things are gonna change? it’s okay to like things that are old in fandom i mean i definitely do but it’s like they have such a superiority complex over others it’s kind of putting me off

5) why is everyone forgetting that the marauders were a group of little white boys in the 70s? they’re literally wizard racists (i thought)? i just don’t know how everyone thinks they’re so progressive when so many of them are wizard nepo babies. also

i really don’t want to seem negative or like i’m allergic to fun, i really love the fanfictions and the cosplays i’ve seen, this fandom seems so fun and the fact it’s been going for 20 something years is so cool, but i just have a lot of questions and im hoping the tumblr community can help me. i’m hoping reading the original series will clear some things up for me, and if you guys have any other harry potter/marauders related things to tell me as i get more into the series/fandom let me know!

(i’m also fairly new to being so active in fandom spaces so be nice)

[zephyrstargame]

well here's something I can do!

this is a little spin on an idea i've been seeing around that i think is wonderful... I personally, am not in the best financial place to be donating, but i can use my platform as a game developer to help out and do something cool at the same time :3

In exchange for donating esims to gaza, I'm gonna populate the world of Zephyr Star with your characters as NPCs! currently: OPEN!!

Here's the deal-- scurry on over to gazaesims.com to figure out how to buy and donate an esim to the people who need em-- any plan works for me, as long as you're gettin something out there!

then slip into my DMs (or anywhere else you can contact me directly) and show me a screenshot of the email, preferably with timestamps for proof that it's from after this post was posted... or really, any proof that you did do the thing-- also show me:

a reference image for what character you want me put in the game

what this character should say as an NPC (just a few lines at most) (optional; if you'd like i can just write some general dialogue instead)

how you would like to be credited in the in-game credits (ie what name i should put)

below the cut are some submission guidelines and extra notes, please also read that if you're interested :>

here are some general submission guidelines:

nothing too lewd, please!

or racist

or otherwise offensive

fandom ocs MIGHT be fine if they're Legally Distinct enough from the source material, but try not to get me sued here

In general, this game's world has No Humans, but that's not a strict requirement-- just a general suggestion

and keep in mind that characters with super intricate details might have to be simplified in order to work as pixel art

otherwise, anything works! furries, robots, sentient objects, your cat, whatever

and here's some notes, so you know what to expect:

i'll take anywhere between a few hours to a few days to finish, depends on how i'm feeling... either way, i'll tag you in a new post when i'm done!

the character will be done in small pixel art, with maybe some additional effects if i feel it works for the design

i will adjust the sprite size depending on the character-- an average sized character is drawn on a 32x32 canvas but if it's like a giant or really tall or something, i'd make it bigger so that the scale is accurate

everyone also gets a zoomed in headshot for the dialogue portrait

no secret bosses, shopkeepers, or other special story purpose for now, sorry! these are just some guys that stand around and say 1 or 2 lines as you go about your adventure

im putting the characters in various places at random, but if you want your guy to be in a certain type of location in-game let me know

this game is STILL in relatively early development-- but i do promise that each and every submission will be in there by the end! it might take yeaaaars for the full game to finally be out, but i'll be posting screenshots as I put em in the game so you know im not slacking around :>

and alongside the screenshot, i'll also post the sprites on their own if you'd like to save them for yourself

legal stuff uhhhhh im not good at legal stuff-- by participating, you are giving me permission to use your submitted character in the final game-- credit will be given in-game where you would expect to see it (the credits) and i will not claim ownership of any of your guys

(cartoon mafia boss voice) if at any point you want your character scrubbed out of the game, or you want anything changed, let me know in my DMs or anywhere else you can contact me and *click* *sinister laugh* we'll make it happen

no money goes to me ever, im not even gonna be the middlesnake between you and the esims-- i just think its less of a hassle to work this way -w-

did i get everything? i think that's everything... if i forgot something important sorry i'm a scatterbrain failgirl who has never done anything like this before im trying my best okay

may the rift be filled with your cool little guys! but more importantly, let's keep gaza connected! free palestine! 🍉

[cozzzynook]

But what if cybertronians did have another way to reproduce besides hot spots that were far and few in between and cold constructs that often caused disabilities.

What if they had the typical reproduction of housing a spark in their chassis and the sire builds a protoform that the carrier of the spark has to approve. Thats the normal way things happen, all three of those.

But what if there was another one.

One they said didn’t exist and would “take care” of any bot caught with this “abnormality.”

A bot that could get sparked with transfluid from a spike and spark merging.

The spark starts in the chassis but goes down to whats called a forge tank and their frames make the body with the materials they have and outside sources from metals and energon they consume and transfluid from the sire.

If they don’t get sparked their forge tanks sheds and they bleed energon from their valve and even their spike at times.

Its seen as a disgusting and abnormal trait because it’s something organics do even if these bots don’t carry exactly like an organic.

Cybertronians have long lives and so carrying and building one to term is not the standard human nine months but a thousand years.

The bot has time to hide it but the hard part is staying hidden after realizing and leaving.

So maybe Rodimus is one of the unfortunate bots who is an “abnormal carrier,” with a spark condition called spark flutters that he’s had since emergence.

His spark was acting odd and thats why he went to see First aid.

He snuck in, late when bots would be in recharge and he didn’t have to explain why he was grasping at his bulging chassis and tanks.

He expected to hear he needed a new dose of spark medicine and that his forge flush was coming.

Not the screen display to show him a new spark within the dissent tube slowly making its way to his gestation tank.

He stared at the screen for so long he didn’t realize he stoped venting and First aid was trying to snap him out of shock.

He doesn’t know how or when but he woke up in the private room with First aid reading his vitals. He has no memory file of passing out and his processor has such a terrible time trying to think of anything more than getting a cup of energon for his dry cords.

“Please don’t panic again. It’s not good for you..or the new spark, should you choose to keep them.”

He snapped his optics in a daze trying to stabilize himself, his gyros were spinning and his frame was weak.

“I’ll have to excuse you from work today, your spark needs to rest and your frame needs help stabilizing. I don’t expect an answer now but in the mean time until you decide we’ll have to keep the sparkling healthy for your own sake. Okay?”

And he’s nodding even if he doesn’t know because he can’t get his voice box to work nor his helm on straight when its a few hours later Drift and Ratchet are barging through the medbay demanding to see him.

Of course First aid refuses without his consent and he’s told with a gentle tone when its still just the two of them and he’s blinking back tears because he never told them he could abnormally carry and they’ve only recently found out he had spark flutters.

They weren’t even in a relationship, they were just fragging almost daily and sometimes sharing habs when his forge wasn’t flushing.

How could he tell them this?

That he was carrying one of or both their sparklings and would be for the next thousand years?

“Frag,” his voice breaks and he covers his face plate in tears and First aid is telling them to leave which he’s grateful for.

“Frag, frag, frag,” he sobbed, tanks clenching and spark stuttering.

“What am I gonna do?”

[doverstar]

how do you feel about writing kiss scenes? because, admittedly, I enjoy reading and writing scenes where characters are making out, and I think it can add to the story- like the fic I'm writing, one of the characters is terrified of intimate relationships, and it would be a natural conclusion for their relationship to end with a lot of kissing described, but do you think the principle of writing a scene where characters are just making out is ok?

Wow, people have been asking me deep questions lately - not the norm. I like it!

So, are you asking because it's bothering you? Are you asking because you want to know whether it's right or wrong? That answer will determine what you think of my answer!

Do you want me to make this long? I can-

So! Great question. Are you asking about the principle morally? My feelings morally? How I feel about writing kiss scenes is this: don't do it in detail.

I don't read kiss scenes - not ones that go into detail - because it's usually exciting feelings that I shouldn't be having over a book (or fic). It's emotional pornography, is what I'm saying. Other people might be adept at going cold in those moments, feel nothing; I'm not like that, and I don't know many who are.

Why are you writing them making out?

I'll explain my thought process real quick. For me, I write kiss scenes very intentionally. I don't talk about physical details much at all, unless it's to drive home a point about a character's feelings. Showing and not telling. I just recently got used to writing kiss scenes after I was married. I've only ever kissed one person: my husband. And only after he became my husband. I am in perfect comfort and contentment with my own kissing experience, which means, happily, that when I write kisses, I am a little more comfortable than I used to be - and I have the perspective of someone who has only ever kissed the man she loves, who has her full commitment, till death do us part, and I'm expressing that affection and commitment through physical interaction like God intended. I'd imagine that's not the experience of most people when it comes to "making out".

I don't talk about the characters' mouths, or write in a way that drops you, the reader, in the place of one of the characters if I can help it. (I can only control so much.) If I write a kiss scene, it's not about immersing you and putting you in the scene and trying to get you to feel like you're making out with one of the characters. I write it because it's what should happen; it's the natural progression of a relationship - or because, especially in fanfiction, it's what the characters would canonically do based on what we've seen in the source material. Good fanfiction is immersive because it's accurate.

I talk about when it happens, why it's happening, how it makes the characters feel, maybe I mention hands, maybe, if that helps in terms of conveying a feeling the characters are having, but that's it. I write kisses the way I've experienced kisses - an expression of love. So I focus on communicating love, the way a kiss is supposed to, and not on communicating lust.

I'm not writing a kiss scene so the reader can feel butterflies (if they do, okay, but part of that is often because relating to a character is natural in the writing process and people by nature crave affection). I'm writing a kiss scene because it's part of the story, and the relationship, and that's it. Which means if the characters would canonically make out, I would pull the door shut and leave them in peace, cut the scene there, because even if they would do it, married or not, that's intimate, and I don't want you, the reader, feeling lust because of two fictional characters. Intimacy is by definition a private thing. I'm not here to create emotional porn. I'm here to write a good story. And I, the writer, could easily be sucked into emotional porn by writing, in detail, a makeout scene! So I'm not gonna do that, and from what I've seen, stories suffer for pure self-indulgence. There are whole genres dedicated to emotional pornography, and I'm not in that boat. I'm paddling my little dinghy as hard as I can in the opposite direction. Ten-year-olds can find and read my stuff, and if they do, they will not be losing their innocence because I got swept away in attraction to a fictional character.

You said in your story, the characters are making out, and that that's the natural conclusion to a story about one half of the ship being terrified of intimacy? Right? Yes! Okay - makes sense - but I would argue that there are other ways of showing this character is dropping their guard and learning to grow in that area. You can say they made out after that first initial kiss in a myriad of ways without going into great detail - without parking the readers in the room for half an hour, watching two people eat each other's faces off.

Disclaimer: the vast majority of fic readers would love it if you did that. That's why they're reading. That's what they're looking for. They want to be excited. They want emotional pornography. And the question for you to answer then is, do you want to write emotional pornography? Why are you writing what you're writing?

Also, tiny additional note - you say just making out, but making out is a lot of physical interaction for a longer time period than one kiss. It's not just anything. It's a big deal, and it brings big emotions!

Now, if you believe what I believe, and you agree with me, you won't be comfortable writing emotional pornography and you'll pull the door shut so the story can continue and show that Character Whoever is growing in intimacy without having everyone watch them suck face. Because the story's not about that butterfly feeling you get when you imagine yourself making out with someone; it's about [insert theme here]. The goal of your story shouldn't be "and this is how I'd feel if Character A kissed me". That's not a good story. That's the Twilight saga. That's Bella. That's a pair of brunette, emotionally-vacant pants. Are you sewing pants or writing a story?

woo

let me inhale here

Anyway, I'd say study your motives. If the characters would make out (and I would argue, again, that making out is not necessary to express that a character is growing in the area of intimacy and facing their fears; there are tons of other creative ways you can do that), just allude to it in one line or less and then move on. Close the door. Cut the scene. People do kiss a lot, that's realistic, and especially when there is real, honest love, but the setting in which they do so matters morally, and I can't think of a single reason your readers need to know every last detail of that makeout scene other than evoking lust in them and, consequentially, in you. Because writing is personal and you can't not be standing in the TARDIS with the Doctor when you're writing a Doctor Who fanfic; if you're not there, neither are your readers.

Philosophically, I say don't write makeout/kiss scenes in great detail. Find ways to express the things the kiss (singular) is supposed to add to the story, and then close the curtain. It should be there for a reason, and the reason shouldn't be "I just want to place myself in this situation in my mind".

That's what I think!

[aerodaltonimperial]

Listen, Imma be real with y'all for a second.

In 2022, the Chrono Cross remaster came out for PS4. And that summer, I wrote a 50k epic about my two favorites from twenty years ago and dropped it on a long-dead fandom for an absolute rarepair. It was one of the most ridiculous, fruitless things I've ever written. I knew very few people would read it. I think I never got more than 50 hits on it. I did it anyway, because it was fun and I had a great time and I knew it was good. And then I got into wrestling, so I sort of never looked back at it, because I was writing other things.

I cannot tell you how many times I have opened up my AO3 account in the past... 6 months or so, and thought, so, people were only my friends while I was writing what they wanted, huh? I stopped writing this, and people just fled? I have opened up my old Hookhausen fics and sat with one finger hovering over the delete button so many times, because if that's all people cared about from me, I was gonna nuke it out of spite. I'm not necessarily proud of it, but it's felt awful this past half a year writing in such a bubble, and as my therapist can attest to, when I feel hurt, I lash out to hurt other people in turn. Vamp is the only reason I won't do it. But it's been so hard being plunged back into writing alone after so long of people caring what I was doing. It felt like writing that CC fic again, only this time, I knew that people had simply lost interest. In me as a person, really.

Fic is the only place I feel worth anything as a writer. Years of failure, and fandom is my only source of positive feelings about my own words and my own work. It's hard to lose that, especially in the wake of giving up a decade-long dream. It's HARD to lose the only thing keeping you going with a hobby, and I'll be the first to admit that I haven't been handling it well. I used fandom interaction on my fic to help fill all the pieces left exposed and smarting from failing at trad pub over and over and over. It's not a bad thing to do, really - a lot of writers suggest doing this, to help build motivation and confidence while trying to get published. But it only works when there are people there to read your fic, haha. Fandom, for me, has been contributing to my depression symptoms big time. At one point, my therapist suggested maybe I should step out of fandom and fic writing, because it was spiraling my mental health. And to have him tell me that, after our years together, really opened my eyes to how bad it had gotten for me in regards to my self-worth and self-confidence.

I got a comment on that CC fic this morning. It happens so rarely that it really caught me off-guard, but it was one of the nicest things ever, and I sat reading it thinking... okay. This is worth it, isn't it? That fic has been there for years, garnering so little attention it wouldn't have mattered if I had deleted it. I was reminded this morning that it does matter. That single comment on an obscure fandom that peaked twenty years ago and still never had many people in it, made me feel like spending my time in fandom is still something worth doing. I can't thank that reader enough for taking the time to leave it for me. If you ever think that your interaction with people's work doesn't matter, I hope this helps you feel differently. Maybe people aren't reading your fics right now, but maybe they'll find a fic you poured your heart and soul into a couple of years later.

Not sure why I am posting this LOL. I expect people will unfollow me. Sometimes, I feel like I can't talk about these things without seeming like a bitch, but y'all already know I'm a bitch anyway. 🤣 We write fic because we love it, because we adore the source material, because we have passion for the characters. But we post because we want to share and connect with people. It just feels so much like that second part has somehow gotten lost recently. Anyway. Back to your regularly scheduled Tumblr lives. 💚

[katerinaaqu]

Hi I hope you're doing well :))))

I have questions about your fanfictions!!!

Well for me fanfiction is a story written about characters from a popular media, that's it. Like the AUs on Tumblr. Like someone could write a fanfiction where Penelope is the one to go to war etc. Or one where Odysseus dies, idk. I read a bit of your fics and I saw in the description you said your fanfictions include analysis of the universe? And I'm confused? Do you analyze the stories or do you write stories about the universe and add new takes?

I wonder is your fanfictions are like most fanfiction, or if they are more translations with analysis? Or if you don't really add much to the story and just explore a bit more a chapter by adding dialogues?

Hello I am doing okay thanks Anon and thank you so much for your amazing question!!!! I shall try to answer to the best of my abilities.

Well by n large that is true but I name it as "fanfiction" because I would consider myself a fan of epic poems so I want to differentiate myself from the original. Apart from that I believe the term "retelling" fits more in my stories than general fanfiction thatplaces characters in settings not compatible to the story but I name them also "fanfiction" to show that my story is my interpretation of the media and transfered through text in my style

Huh? I must admit I am confused Anon. Where do I mention I analyze the fanfictions? If you are referring on my tag "katerinaaqu analyzes" I analyze the material; the text and the culturl details behind it, see for example my latest analysis on th association of Odysseus with the ram:

Generally I analyze a phenomenon I see in the texts and then I bring forward the text that is compatible with it, in this case the description of Odysseus "looking like a ram".

However at the end of every story I provide information on the original text and the reason why I decide to use the specific way to write the text and what got me inspired etc. For instance an example was for my fic Survivor's Guilt and Survivor's Duty, I explain in the after note why I made Odysseus live the mutiny of his men through his cup (Odysseus himseld says that he was filled in the details by Calypso in the Odyssey) so I kinda explain my choice to use that specific tecnique to do it; to show it was purely my imagination but thatit was inspired by the actual text Now I would argue that what you said "nalysis of the universe" still applies here because "my universe" is the actual original text (obviously what I write is out of my head especially when I "fill in the details" between the gaps but I still follow the actual text to write or on occasion sources that come from other writers) For example I combine several sources when I wrote my story "Philoctetes Inspiration" because in Sophocles's Philoctetes we see Neoptolemous going with Odysseus in Lemnos to take the bow and arrows of Heracles while other sources claim it was Diomedes. So my story kinda...combines these two narratives; I place Diomedes being the original partner of Odysseus but Neoptolemus the one to go and pick it up:

So what I do is that I differentiate myself from the source by claiming that this is purely my invention but I still name the actual sources that made me choose this.

"Or I don't add up in the story and I just add dialogs" hurts my feelings a bit, Anon! Hahahaha! XD But it is valid critisism. I should say that I lean more to the latter (although whether I add something or not to the story is up for the reader to decide); basically what I do is to take the original script and then my brain kinda gows "how would an accurate transport of the myth would sound like if it were a modern movie?" so basically getting inspired by music, soundtrack or other I read the original book, make the translation of the passages and then I write down the existing dialogs a bit more modernized or add up some extra ones whenever I need to add more to a scene. I have an example of analysis how I use the sources to write my stories in this post:

Basically to show how the passages of the Odyssey are translated within my style and writing. One example that I have where I use about 90% imagination and 10% Odyssey is my story on the conquest of Ismarus. That part was told by Odysseus in only a few and vague phrases, as I mention to the footnotes of my writing. He only says that "they conquered the city, they killed the men, they enslaved the women and divided the loot". In Polyphemus we also see how he spares Maron, the priest of Apollo who gives him the godly wine that later Odysseus uses to get Polyphemus drunk. Then Odysseus mentions how his men recklessly wanted to stay and that a lot of wine was drunk at the beach and that at the counter attack of the Cicones they lost 6 men from each ship. As you see I didn't have much to go on so when I wrote my story "Ismarus! Ismarus!" I tried to stick to the original story's description but obviously added all the rest:

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Now for the characters' behavior and dialogs I base my interpretation a lot on the original Odyssey (Especially for Odysseus) and some of the scholiasts whenever I agree with the interpretation.

So to summer up when it comes to my full-fledged analysis it is when I analyze the original material and my sources. When I add some information under the stories is either to show what part of the lore I am using for my stories and why I choose the specific interpretation, sometimes give some background info (for example for my story "Guilt" that I mention why it is culturally weird for Odysseus to drink unwatered wine) and then in my stories I try to follow the original source as much as possible and when I add details I try to be as lore-accurate as possible but also of course add dialogs according to how I imagine the full on dialogs and behaviors to go in that situation again having the original book as a guide. (For example my one-shot "I take that back" where I try to imagine how the scene after the battle would play or how in my one-shot "A Lament for a Life" how would Achilles cope with Patroclus's death after the revenge was over and how there is a potential stronger bond between him and Antilochus)

I hope this answers your questions Anon! ^_^ Thanks for the chance to analyze this!

[einsatzzz]

give me your favorite manga or anime of all time. NOW. like, the ones who changed you as a person. if you are okay with questions like that!

Charlotte!!!! More anime/manga asks yipeeee I'll give you the three I can think of rn! For this one, Gintama is definitely my all-time fave but the others are in no specific order at all

Gintama - This one started off as a comedy at first and it really took its time endearing me to all these quirky and funny characters, while also showing glimpses of the layers beneath them. Then comes the "serious" arcs, that's when I start screaming and crying when I get to know more beneath those layers. The comedy is definitely still the highlight in this series for me, whenever I feel down I would pick a random Gintama episode and just watch it. Tbh, even if it has 300+ episodes, I can confidently say that I probably already rewatched it at least three times by now. But another highlight for me here is the mangaka's godtier ability to shift the tone between say comedy and serious/heartwarming moments, the transitions feel really smooth and it doesn't feel forced or out of place. I mentioned this in Jojo's ask, but this series really helped/supported me through my most depressed teenage years and it's probably not an overstatement to say that its one of the reasons I'm still alive rn. One of the quotes there that I can still vividly remember is "It's always darkest right before dawn". On the more goofy side, even to this day, I still have that one monkey's long ass name memorized lmao (the tagalog version specifically) Even if I change interests and fandoms, it will always be #1. The writing style, the characters and the comedy in Gintama are all such a huge inspiration, as well as a standard, for me. If you're familiar with Gintama, you can see lots of pieces of it in the way I want to portray and execute my own stories.

Pandora Hearts - THIS ONE CERTAINLY CHANGED MY BRAIN CHEMISTRY AS WELL. ITS ALSO VERY MUCH A MASTERPIECE. But my brain treats it the opposite of Gintama, in the way that after I finished reading the manga - I never reread it again. That's just how much the story destroyed me so thoroughly. I'm so afraid to re-experience it lmaooo I cried a lot of times for the characters there and the plot twists are nothing short of insane. I really love how complex the characters, their relationships with e/o and their lore are in this story. This series really fuels the angst + extremely complicated story lover in me. It's also a huge inspiration for my stories 🤭🤭🤭 If you're not familiar with this one, I recommend searching this one anime ost it has called "Lacie" (to avoid spoilers, don't go for the sideshow ones dkdhdj). I'm so attached to that ost, it has been a source of both comfort and sadness in one package. One of these days, I'll get enough courage for a reread...

IDOLiSH7 - I discovered this idol series when I was in college! (specifically experienced it first in the mobile game form) I thought its gonna be the usual happy lighthearted idol story that I'll move on from after a few weeks BUT NO! BRAIN CHEMISTRY CHANGED!! I didn't expect them to go so much deeper than that and I didn't expect to love & be attached to all the main characters, it's insane. Some of the characters' problems like Mitsuki's even hits so close to home, it really made me go *pause and starts walking around the house*. And thats just part 1 of the story, and then it's gets even worse (in the best way possible) in further parts. It doesn't help that the anime for it was done with a lot of love and care in it, elevating and improving the source material even further (adding/emphasizing symbolisms, more foreshadowing, etc). I just know that the main people involved in the creation/production of its anime were also as much of a fan as I am 🥺💖✨ (THE SONGS ARE BANGERS TOO!!!)

That's all for now, let me know if you want me to list more hehehe I rambled a lot for each of these three, but tbh, I still don't think it's enough to express hm these series meant to me dkdbmssbsn

[4th-make-quail]

May I ask a clarifying question on your boundaries? I don’t consider myself “proship” or “anti” as I think those terms are reductive, and two people who may both fit under one label could have incredibly different opinions. However, I believe that the way I interact with media could be something that someone would call “anti”, in that I find it more interesting to look at fiction through the lens of reality rather than “fiction doesn’t effect reality”, by which I mean when reading Lolita I like to go “okay so what is this saying about how the psych profession saw csa at the time?” “How was this influenced by Nabokov’s own experiences?”, I see Marius and Armand as a reflection of child sexual abuse and enjoy analysing it under a more realistic lens, and would find wincest more interesting as a look at enmeshment between siblings under an abusive parent, rather than a ship (although what people mean by the term “ship” is also really vague and can differ wildly).

Based on that, and what you say in your pinned post, would you prefer I don’t interact? I wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable!

Okay so to preface this, I don't go into much detail in my pinned because I hate the whole thing, and I hate spaces which are super dedicated to the pro/anti discourse. I try to keep my online spaces free of discourse and drama because its simply not fun! I don't want to spend my days steeping in negativity.

This got very long, so I'm gonna put it under a cut!

So. The thing is anon, the proship label originally came about as a response to antis, to describe people who don't actually care what other people ship ("ship and let ship", "your kink is not my kink and that's okay" and all that), but it's been massively conflated these days and now people take it to describe what they call problematic ships or art. You're right about them being reductive terms - and in fact, I have a lot of freak friends who are super into things I personally dislike or am outright squicked by (and vice versa), because we're not a monolith.

My stance entirely is this: I don't care what other people ship. I don't care how they ship it, or how they want to analyse and engage with that source material. I think what people ship and what art people enjoy has no say at all in what their morals might be.

What you describe as how you engage with those pairings is a completely valid interpretation! Preferring to look at a relationship through those lenses is perfectly fine, and in fact lots of people do this under the umbrella of meta.

What I personally mean by "ship" is the usual description - I want those two characters to have a romantic and sexual relationship. However, I also have no issues with people who don't have that viewpoint because it quite literally doesn't affect me unless they go about harassing others.

Liking a "problematic" ship dynamic doesn't mean you also condone that thing in real life. There's a reason one of the top sexual fantasies is noncon (see: any women's magazine list of these), and it's not because the person secretly really wants to be raped in real life. It's because human beings enjoy exploring taboo subjects in a safe and fictional environment.

Where my opinion stands on this is simple. If you think it's okay to harass people for the ships they like, if you think it's acceptable to write call out posts and smear people's names because of the ships they like, then I don't want to know you. If you think liking Marius/Armand makes that person a paedophile, or that liking underage ships leads to the person eventually moving on to real life kids, or that being an incest shipper means you're gonna go fuck your own sibling, again, I don't want to know you.

The same goes for both sides of this frankly stupid issue - far too many people who call themselves proship proudly love to dunk publicly on antis or people who don't share their viewpoints, which imo makes them just as bad! If someone's out there being awful to people who don't ship their problematic ships, then it's just as bad!

This is also why I don't do any DNIs or anything like that. If I see someone start to follow me and they have big obvious "PROSHIP DNI" in their info, then I will go ahead and block them, but otherwise I'm not interested in policing who can interact with me in that way. It's not for me to decide whether someone else wants to interact with me, it's on you to decide if you want to.

I'm not gonna be going out and ripping on people who dislike a ship I like, or who engage with art in a different way to me. However, if I come across posts in my tracked tags or on my dash expressing anti sentiments, or going on a negative rant about something I love, then I will also probably unfortunately be blocking that person. I don't like seeing negativity about shit I love on my dash or in the tags (really, does anybody? lol) so I'm proactive about that because a) it depresses me, and b) I spent a long time in the ffxiv fandom, where people think liking Garleans makes you a nazi apologist, and where they love to go on ranting screeds about how my favourite characters should die painfully, and I'm honestly not about that in my fandom life.

Anyway, all this to say: if you're comfortable interacting with me, a Marius/Armand bitch who does indeed enjoy their fucked up relationship because of how fucked up it is (and finds it incredibly sexy, actually), then I'm fine with you interacting with me. I'm not gonna be sharing or posting about that specific ship anyway, and I'm certainly not gonna be awful about people who find it distasteful or triggering or even just plain don't like it for whatever reason. It won't make me uncomfortable in any way to interact with you because you engage with those things in a different way to me, as long as you don't also engage in the other activities I discussed further up.

Sorry this got so long, anon! Hopefully it all makes sense. As an aside, I'm not interested in having any debates about these issues with anyone and will not be engaging with arguments about it. Sensible discussion, yes. Arguments, discourse and wank? No. Thank you for understanding! 💚

[moe-broey]

Sorry I'm gonna thrup. I feel violently ill. Something sinister is overtaking me. LIKE oh boy I've been away for too long I gotta ref some source material to perfectly capture the Cunty Alfonse. Where he's just a Cunt. Extremely cherished trait of his, by me. So I'm sifting through my Alfonse folder looking for screenshots and in my head, I'm thinking yeah it's gotta be the Alear FBs. But I'm just gonna make sure. Okay. I make sure. And

GOOOODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD WHAT IS YOUR FUCKING PROBLEM!!!!!!!!!!!‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️

You've known her for LIKE TWO DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!?!?? WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEMMMMM WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS YOU'RE MAKING ME SO ILL. SICK. IN THE HEAD‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️

You have NO idea what this dialogue does to me man I am just. Every time I fucking read it, it guts me and strikes me in the heart and it's like. Okay. You're INSANE. INSANE fucking thing to say to someone you've only known for a few days. MAYBE A WEEK. AT MOST. When I think about it, this happened fresh off the coat-tails of Book 6 I think, probably after losing Bruno. So like. That's the logical explanation, especially common to regress back to old habits/ways of thinking/ESP ways of protecting yourself when you just went through something Like That.

BUT LIKE. Context is important yes, informs the feelings/decisions here, but I wanna. Talk about how this line just Fucks with me SO badly. It invokes SUCH. SUUUUUCH a VISCERAL response in me and I just. "I could lose my will to fight" YOU'RE INSANE!!!!!!!!!! IT'S FINE!!!!!!!!!! IT'S LITERALLY FIIIINEEEEE you've known her for LIKE A WEEK it's literally fiiiiine and like, even if it was longer even if she was a really good friend and you were super close It's FINE. People come abd go all the fucking time man IT'S LITERALLY FIIIIINNNNEEEEEEEEEEE

Alfonse fucking SUCKS actually because sometimes he drops a line like this and I feel physically unwell about it. He just fucking Says Things you would have to waterboard out of me and you probably reasonably very quickly Could but you WOULD. AT LEAST. HAVE TO WATERBOARD ME FIRST. COME ON MAN get it TOGETHER ‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️

There's like. No greater point to this post no analysis no character study Nothing. I jusy need to kill him. Badly

[haethyre]

X-Men 97 Thoughts

My personal opinions

Okay. So I grew up with X-men The Animated Series. It was one of my fave shows. It always came on late at night on Toon Disney (at times i shouldnt have been awake LMAO) so it has a special place in my heart. I was very surprised that of all things they decided to "continue" it. So, when I heard about it, I did a full rewatch (even that ungodly last season where quality took a nosedive OOF) Anywhoo! Started and finished 97. Those who know me best know at heart I am a big OG fan of my fandoms and am trepidacious of reboots/even continuation reboots, bc lets be honest most of them are all about stomping on the source material, SO I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Xmen 97.

You could really see how much they tried to capture the feel of the old show and the characters. The voice replacements were surprisingly well done. (i mean, Wolverine is a little off, but i'll give the guy a break its been like...28 yrs XD ) The animation looks amazing. Even if i'm taking some points off for the hair hfgjhdf haha

Now the storyline.... The elephant in the room. We all know the one. I have been a Romy fan since I was a kid and yes, when I was a young girl in Borders, I did come across the comic that showed the RoguexMagneto storyline. I hated it then and I hate it now. Its just...weird. (Again, my opinions. If you like it, power to you. Enjoy, but its not for me and this post isn't for you) but its even weirder in the show, and ill tell you why. As a Marvel comic reader, I'm well acquainted with the fact that everyone gets with everyone. That is just a trope of Marvel comics. All ships of imaginable and unimaginable proportions happen. BUT I think when doing this, they really should have thought it through a bit more in context of the show's universe alone . Bc I'll be real, if you're coming in from TAS, this kinda hits you out of nowhere. She had no form of connection with Magneto in the past show. Like....they had a makeshift funeral for him and she didn't even care. She was just worried about Gambit being stuck in space. So, their "secret" just seems so random and out of place. I do like that it was used for her to understand fully her feelings for Gambit, but man was it frustrating to see him just killed off when he was one of the best characters.(even if it was really well done and the animation, again, was amazing)

There's talk of him coming back as "Death" which is a storyline I'm not familiar with but I also heard talk of the original showrunner idealizing a timeline where Rogue and Magneto have kids....so... IDK It all just left me a bit frustrated and disheartened bc Romy was like one of my earliest ships before i knew ships were a thing. To see what happened to it made me sad, even if it could be part of a long game to get them to their HEA. (and thats always an if bc we don't know, even if the original guy isn't in charge anymore)

Other things that bugged me a little but not too much. Gonna bring up Morph. I love Morph. They were always a fave and they went through so much to finally be back on the team again. I really don't understand why they changed their character design tho? I read it was to make Morph look more like the character changeling from the comics but this is again something that doesnt make sense coming out of TAS bc Morph always had that other appearance throughout the entire show. I mean...it could have at least been explained... Also, as far as the feelings for Wolverine, i kinda found it funny XD bc in TAS, it always seemed like it was the other way around jkhfgjkdfh Wolverine was so attached to Morph and wouldn't let 'em go. That being said, I kinda wish they didn't go this route if its only meant to be unrequited and sad. AGAIN. I know. Marvel is all about unrequited drama jfhdkjfdh but hasn't Morph been through enough??? That being said, I love the ship even though I know its doomed. Wolverine is the worst person to be down bad for tho. Mans falls in love at the drop of a hat fhghdfjhsd

Other than these couple things, I really loved the show. Some people said "why are they shoving so much story into such a short amount of time" XD The storyteller in me would like to agree but i will be honest, there is nothing more like Xmen TAS than smooshed storylines jkdfhfkjds with random one-off eps in between. XD So, I was fine with it.

I liked the conclusion with Scott and Jean, as messy as it was. The family fun time was a pleasure to watch.

Xavier and Magneto. They really highlighted their messy, but still devoted relationship from the original series, so that was nice to see. I was glad to see him back in the red suit LMAO bc the one he was wearing all season was weird for me.

I loved Jubilee's journey, and it was cool that they brought Alyson Court back for that one episode.

I was very pleased overall that they didn't tone things down and since censors are different these days, they could show more stuff they couldn't in the 90s. So, I am looking forward to more seasons (and pleeeeease for the love of god give Romy back to me i am begging)

[bitimdrake]

Do you have fic recs by any chance? You really seem to have a lot of comics knowledge so I trust that you know what’s accurate to the source material and what’s not :)

you know I've gotten a few asks about this and I never quite manage to answer them, because I'm always convinced that I will somehow end up with a perfect and complete rec list if only I wait to reply just a little longer.

SO I'm gonna try cutting myself off at the head this time, and not giving you a prefect list by any means, but at least giving you an answer:

Here is a collection that I'm slowly forming for fics that really feel like they're actually based off comics. It is currently very small and people are welcome to bookmark to it if they find other very comics-based fics, but it's a start.

And a couple random recs as I scroll through my personal bookmarks:

Redrawing the Lines (11k) is fantastic Batman Reborn era Dick & Tim & Damian fic, and it continues as a series after.

also the second before the other shoe drops (8k) about the same trio. AU where Damian makes a murder attempt in a subtler way--but most important, is not demonized by a narrative that instead gives everyone a fair shake.

will we ever get to the other side? (5k) Dick & Tim in a very specific era where Dick's life is falling apart and filled with trauma, and Tim has just been hit with a huge smack of grief and also trauma, and neither is at their best but they're trying.

Everything by @silverwhittlingknife is ideal Dick & Tim content, and all deeply rooted in comics. I will call out:

The Return (11k), which is Dick's pov of Tim coming back to Gotham after Brucequest

only you will have stars that can laugh (9k) which is sad and loney but also sweet on Christmas

Red Letter Day (42k, wip) in which god Dick is trying his fucking best to hold it together okay. (aka everyone is kind of prickly, Dick is stressed, there's a Mysterious Wednesday of unclear importance, and I love them sm)

@flybynightwing has equally comics-based and also absolutely fascinating and compelling fics. I'll call out:

How Far Love Goes (99k) a case fic that draws in everyone in the bat family, with a tilt towards Dick (although the Steph is also fantastic), and turns into a reflection on Bruce as a parent.

goal-oriented mindset (5k) Catalina's pov, meeting Dick again well after everything went down. Subject may not be for you, but I find it SO interesting and roll it around and around in my head. (And it is of the very very rare selection of actually comics-based fics about that arc.)

It's a Wonderful Earth-218 (7k). A thoroughly depressed Dick goes to a world where he was never born, it's a wonderful life-style.

(And carrying on with various authors again:)

Hate and Love are Two Sides of the Same Coin (5k + 13k sequel) every member of his family is forced to say what they like least about Dick. The fic makes no secret of its thoroughly contrived premise and doesn't particularly care to justify it either, but still comes out with great characterization and relationship reflections.

Mikey Dies At The End (4k), outsider pov centered around Jason as the Red Hood, which is so very confident in its characterization of him and has zero considerations given to fanon and it's an excellent read.

A Meditation on Railroading (24k), a Tim-centric fic that deals heavily with his relationship with his dad. This one is not really canon at all, but it is good, and its version of the relationship is compelling.

Young Justice Visit the Suez Canal (3k) look this one is pure 90s-style Young Justice humor. We're here for a good time.

Aaand I know there are many more good fics, but I have run out of steam and I am trying so so hard to remember that some answer is better than no answer. Though I am very sorry to all my beloved writers & mutuals who have written excellent comics fic.

Anyway final tip is when you find an author who knows what they're talking about, go through all their fics, and then go through all their bookmarks.

[tmntkiseki]

In my TMNT 2003 rewatch, I'm only two episodes away from the Big Brawl arc and it's going to be interesting rewatching these episodes now that I've actually read some of Usagi Yojimbo.

Like, full disclosure: Back when I watched through TMNT 2003 the first time, while I didn't dislike Usagi, he was one of the most boring members of the recurring cast for me. He was pretty much only able to hold my attention for as long as he showed up on-screen, after which I'd be like "Well, okay! Now where's Leatherhead?" Which sounds really, really, really bad, I know, but that's just how it was. And if Usagi wasn't able to catch my interest as a character, then there was no way I was going to get invested in his dynamic with Leonardo. They've got a nice friendship going on and some cute interactions, but there really is no greater depth to their relationship than "Peter Laird and Stan Sakai felt like having their OCs interact." (Ironically, I'm pretty sure the episode where their dynamic is at its most interesting, "Samurai Tourist," is also the episode that pretty much killed any chance of me becoming a Leosagi shipper.)

And the thing is? I don't think any of it is the fault of Usagi or the TMNT 2003 writers. I do believe my original lack of interest in him is merely a consequence of his nature as a crossover character. No matter how well-written he is in a piece of TMNT media, you are never gonna get the full scope of his personality, the world he inhabits, or the people that he interacts with on a day to day basis. Which, you know, isn't the worst thing. If anything, it's all the more reason to read the original Usagi Yojimbo because in his natural element, Usagi is absolutely fantastic. I am so deeply invested in both his personal journey as a character as well as his relationships with those he meets along the way that it's almost strange to think that I thought he was boring at all.

Anyway, I might have some more thoughts to share once I do get around to rewatching The Big Brawl, but yeah. My opinion on Usagi has more or less done a 180 just because I took the time to read his original source material, haha.

[starleska]

I'm not gonna lie, you're really convincing me to start writing/drawing/animating Y/N x Wally Darling stuff...

You have great concepts and the simp in me is being fed and I love it AHEGAJAGAJA I just worry that there's a chance that Clown had advised against it and I've yet to see that in a post somewhere in the past. But seeing as you're enjoying writing all the Reader x Wally Darling stuff with no worries (good on you btw!), it's all okay right?

/nm /gen

hey there Laurs!! aww, thank you very much 🥰💖 i love getting messages from people inspired by my fanworks, it makes my heart all fuzzy!! just a little endless cycle of good vibes and creativity :3c now, the bulk of your ask is a tough one to answer!! i know i've posted a lot of fanworks for Welcome Home, but at the end of the day, i'm just a fan like anyone else, trying to do my best to respect Clown's wishes. honestly, given the chance i would love to talk to them and ask these specific questions that a lot of fans have been firing in my direction. i have reached out, but understand those messages have likely been drowned under thousands of others!!

so @partycoffin, on the off-chance you're reading this: i hope you're doing well, and taking care of yourself in this terrifying, exciting time!! thank you for sharing your lovely world with us - we're all just so in love with your characters and universe 🥰💖 if you'd like to talk, please feel free to reach out. it would be great to know that you're okay, and i'd be happy to field any questions you have about your bustling new fandom (who have been destroying my own notifications for the past two weeks!!). it may be presumptuous of me, but perhaps having an inside look on what questions fans have might help make this explosive growth seem a little less scary. however, there's no obligation to reply - we're thankful all the same :3c

as far as i am aware at the time of writing this post, i don't think Clown has any problems with Wally x Anon/Reader/Y/N fanworks...or at least, i haven't come across any sources stating so.

the big thing that (if i'm understanding the guidelines correctly) is that Clown doesn't want us to be putting any NSFW Welcome Home material into the main tags. we have to remember that Welcome Home has blown up very quickly, and Clown deserves a chance to breathe and adjust to all this success before laying out those boundaries (if he wishes!). that's why, although i do write NSFW for other fandoms i'm refraining from doing so for Welcome Home until stated otherwise. i can't imagine how stressful it must be dealing with so many notifications, people impersonating, trying to sell their work, exhibiting invasive and creepy behaviour...on top of the overwhelming demand for new Welcome Home stuff. i think as fans we should just vibe and play in our own little bubbles without stressing them out too much, and adjust when we receive new information. for instance, i didn't know when i made my Wally Darling edit that they were uncomfortable with non-canon art being associated with the main game. i've since reached out to see if i should take the video down with no reply, and went with the consensus of a group of fans i asked for the opinions of - to leave it up until asked otherwise. pretty much - i don't think Wally Darling x Anon fanworks contravene the guidelines that Clown has given us so far. they aren't inherently NSFW, and i'd hope that anyone who is making NSFW fanworks is tagging appropriately, as is the courteous thing to do. i'm of the opinion that fans are going to do fandom things, and there's always going to be folks making adult-oriented works, and that's okay!! but i'm also always happy to respect the wishes of the creator in terms of how they'd like that work to be tagged and presented. i think Toby Fox did it best when he first suggested the 'Undertail' tag for NSFW works - a real stroke of genius that i see lots of fandoms still using today. again, do take this with a grain of salt! i don't know Clown, and very few of us do - we're just all interpreting his words in vastly different ways, and that must be terrifying to deal with; thousands of people getting very angry or very sad because they think they can or cannot do a specific thing they never actually said. it's not anyone's fault that Welcome Home blew up so suddenly and there wasn't time for precautions to be taken, but it is the fault of those fans who are overstepping boundaries and need to re-examine their relationship to this art. it sounds like you're good to go on making those animations, and i would personally love to see them 🥰 thanks again for being so sweet about my silly headcanons!! it's honestly been quite scary adjusting to the amount of attention, but please know i'm grateful and appreciative of every ask, reply and message that comes my way 💖

[franollie]

ok so back in december i posted some old marauders art i found in my digital sketchbook, and i said something along the lines of i want to make a post on the marauders fandom and how it’s changing fandom as a whole. and then i forgot about it. BUT BEHOLD! Fran’s study on transformative fandom through the marauders fandom! strap in because this is gonna be a long one:

I want to preface this by saying i have a lot of nostalgia for harry potter—more specifically the marauders—but i obviously do not support jkr and her transphobia.

reminder that I am critiquing the marauders fandom as a whole. as a w h o l e as in the collective fandom. not you specifically. okay?

now, if i remember correctly, the marauders fandom started because people shipped wolfstar and wanted to explore their dynamic in hogwarts. simple as that.

then, it came out that jkr was making blatantly transphobic comments. at this point in time, i had moved away from the harry potter fandom as a whole because i saw something shinier to hyperfixate on (hello sailor moon), so i’m foggy on the details in terms of the marauders fanbase at the time. but from what i understand people started pointing out the racism in the series as well.

flash forward to 2020–the marauders renaissance on tiktok. suddenly the marauders fandom was no longer just wondering what the 4 marauders + lily would have been doing in school. it had expanded to involve a diverse array of characters with agreed upon backstories. And it was really fun to dive back into the fandom. for many, it was reclaiming a series that held a lot of nostalgia to a lot of people from a bigoted woman.

however, i think with the rise in popularity of the marauders fandom—an entirely transformative fandom—fandom as a whole made a switch from creating fanworks out of love and respect for a piece of media to caring about the fan content first and foremost over the media itself. that’s not me saying that the marauders fandom is to blame for everything wrong with modern fandom—the lack of community, the complete disregard of canon characterization, lack of media literacy, etc.—but i do think the marauders fandom gave all these issues the little nudge they needed to take a deep rooted place in how fandom works.

when fandom becomes canon, it’s easy to ignore genuine problems within the fandom as “oh well its not really canon”. But thats really only true to a certain extent. Most people within the marauders fandom consider ATYD as the canon they follow when ATYD is in fact fan fiction. additionally, i’ve met people in the marauders fandom who haven’t read ATYD.

the marauders fandom is quite literally whatever you want it to be, and that’s fun but it’s not fandom in the traditional sense.

remember those new characters i mentioned earlier? well a large majority of them are women including many women of color. however, these women are almost entirely used as props for the boys’ stories and are entirely one dimensional. (lily is snarky and smart, mary is fun loving, marlene is a party animal, dorcas is cold-hearted softie, pandora is ditzy, but most importantly they’re all ✨girl bosses✨). that’s not to say these girls dont have potential for interesting stories or that no one writes them as three dimensional characters. but the fandom at large uses them as props for their favorite mlm ship. jegulus having more fics than jily (the only canon ship in this fandom) alone proves this point.

“but what about marylily/pandalily?” also great ships that i love, but they only really exist to get lily out of the way for james to be with regulus. thus, they are inherently supporting the internalized misogyny of the marauders fandom. i’m not disregarding people who do genuinely ship marylily and pandalily, but that is where the ships stemmed from.

first and foremost fandom is about loving the source material so much you’re inspired to engage with others who enjoy the source material. you can’t really enjoy fandom if you don’t know the characters or world you’re working with; kind of a “you have to know the rules before you break them” type of situation.

i could talk more on the internalized misogyny within the marauders fandom or how we can use the marauders fandom as a study on fandom in the modern age. instead, i’ll leave on this note: as i said before, fandom is about loving the source material so much you want to engage with others who enjoy the source material, and at the end of the day the source material for the marauders fandom is harry potter. and i don’t have much love left for a series that is transphobic or a fandom that doesn’t treat its women with the same care as it’s men.

to reiterate: i not implying that everyone who enjoys marauders materials supports jkr, in fact i’d go as far to say most marauders fans are actively against jkr. however, i feel uncomfortable in a space that fundamentally cannot exist without harry potter.

i have a lot of ideas for marauders stuff and i still enjoy these characters (namely dorlene and jily) but me including my versions of these characters doesn’t really solve the problem. atp can the problems even be solved? idk this got away from me, and i still have more thoughts.

so yeah! peace love and trans rights 🫶 probs won’t post much marauders stuff—not that i really did before but some of you follow me for marauders content for some reason???