#when i say People Generally i mean people Not in my inbox. like my twitter feed

[xxplastic-cubexx]

id goon to any charles you guys are weak

Do not speak ill of my inbox …. They are your allies ……

[lettersiarrange]

Since I just checked my ask box for the first time in a hot minute:

Just a note that tumblr doesn't tell me when I have new asks or messages and I rarely check my notifications. Helpful corrections of misinformation/any messages in good faith are appreciated (though it's possible I won't see them until weeks later, sorry), but if something I reblog angers you enough you feel the need to get hostile in my askbox on anon, I reccomend the unfollow button.

I'm also not comfortable posting asks asking for any sort of donations/directing people to your blog for donation purposes, sorry :// I just don't have time to vet asks like that

[writingquestionsanswered]

Bad Writing Advice/"Forcing" Story

Anonymous asked: Do you have any generic advice for forming questions better? Whenever I post a question for writing advice (on reddit, twitter, tumblr, other writing spaces) I often get something like "don't force your story to where you think it should be" I don't get why. If I say something like "I'm changing my main character from a male pirate to a female siren because it fits the plot better - but I don't understand the mythology of sirens. Any tips on where to start?" Often I'll get "advice" like "You shouldn't force your story, let it form naturally..." and usually that's their only advice or something they feel like they have to add before answering the actual question. It's starting to feel snobby. I'm so confused. Am I not supposed to make make decisions/changes if something in my story isn't working? Is that "forcing" or "pushing" it in a way I "shouldn't"? Is making decisions on a story just "force"? This is why I prefer to just come to this blog. Even if I've poorly written my problem, you still somehow manage to find the heart of the question and offer real advice that actually helps. Your answers stay relevant and isn't just copy-paste of something I've seen on the internet a hundred times.

[Ask edited for length]

Every writing group/forum is different, and everyone's experience within them is different, but in my own experience I've found that writing groups/forums tend to be better for advice that isn't story-specific. That's because story-specific advice is tricky. Most people struggle with separating their own preferences or style from the needs of the person asking the question. And when asking a question to a broad group, you're also going to get a lot of people who have nothing helpful to impart but want to be part of the conversation, so they throw out tried-and-true irrelevant gems like "don't force it."

Am I not supposed to make make decisions/changes if something in my story isn't working? Is that "forcing" or "pushing" it in a way I "shouldn't"? Is making decisions on a story just "force"?

As I'm sure you suspect, of course you're supposed to be able to make decisions and changes when something in your story isn't working. And no, that's not forcing it.

Again, I think people are mostly saying that (or things like it) because they have nothing relevant or helpful to say but still want to feel like they're helping. But also, I think some people could just be confused about the actual meaning of "force" vs "natural." They may assume that something you planned is "natural" whereas the change you want to make is "forcing it," but of course the opposite is often true. Sometimes the things we plan make sense before we start writing, but as we start to write and get a feel for the characters, story, or world, we see that what we had planned wouldn't work as well as something else. Using your example, if you had planned to make your MC a male pirate, but as you get into the story it makes more sense for the character to be a female siren, if you made yourself stick to the plan and kept the MC a male pirate--even though the female siren would work better--that would actually be "forcing it." Following your gut instinct that the story works better with a female siren MC is letting it develop naturally.

So, I hope that reassures you! The advice was bad, and groups/forums (with few exceptions) tend to better for advice that isn't story specific. ♥

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[laithraihan]

now i’m kinda curious to hear what you think of proshipping.. if you don’t mind of course

I'll share my thoughts, and if theres anything I say that doesnt make sense feel free to point it out to me because I mostly write with the help of a translator. Under the cut because I wrote too much stuff.

TLDR: proshippers hate me because I dont want to look at glorified depictions of pedophilia/incest/etc, antis hate me because my content isnt 100% sanitized. I stay around anti circles because I find it slightly easier for me to talk about my headcanons with them even though I think they can be insufferable.

So the thing about proshipping. From what I've seen it means being "anti-harassment" and being in support of curating your online experience, which sounds great on paper and that's practically what I do. I have over 3k accounts blocked on my personal twitter to navigate the website more easily and I also dont care if someone blocks me if they dont like my stuff.

Except proshippers never consider me a proshipper because I am uncomfortable with viewing glorified depictions of topics like pedophilia, incest, rape, all that stuff. The same way people are uncomfortable with excessive blood and gore (which I also can't really handle seeing). Whether or not it's always easy to tell if it's glorified is an entirely different topic, which is precisely why I stay away from all depictions in general to avoid being intrusive.

And what's interesting is that I do not label myself an "anti". Mainly because I don't even know what the term "anti" is supposed to mean ("anti-" what exactly. Genuinely please tell me because I actually dont know) But the ones who label themselves "proship" always call me an anti, because again I do not wish to engage with content related to pedophilia etc, and that alone apparently enough to be considered "a person who harasses others over fiction" even if I mind my own business and have no interest in forcing my personal tastes on others, especially if they make it clear that they wont change their mind. Which makes me believe that for a lot of self-identified proshippers, the definition of being "proship" would be more similar to "I love fucked up stuff and if you dont then youre lame and it obviously means you can't tell the difference between fiction and reality" which honestly seems like insecurity to me.

Forgive me for bringing up this up once again but I want to mention an example to make it easier for me to explain: yknow the whole thing with me drawing Minori and Reigen and labelling it "non-cp" which caused a wave of both self-identified antis and proshippers harassing me over that (I'll say that proshippers were more bold about it since the antis harassing me were all anonymous). Proshippers saw me saying "I dont ship that" and interpreted it as me being defensive and in denial, as if I said "guys I swear Im an anti !!! please dont think im a proshipper !!! ", when I meant "I dont want to discuss this with others in a shipping manner because thats not how I see it and I dont want to enter a space Im not comfortable with"

I admit I responded to this situation in a petty manner, but this was after several days of harassment done directly in my inbox and publicly (sometimes I wish yall remembered that group chats and priv accounts exist). My point is that simply saying you don't like seeing pedophilia in fiction is enough for proshippers to believe it's justified for them to harass you over it (and I'm fully aware they'll say it's not harassment, only when antis and "puriteens" do this to them then it's harassment)

Now about the anti side. Don't get me started on them either. If proshippers see me as an enemy then this must mean that I always get along with the ones who call themselves "antis" (I do not). Note that Im only talking about adults here, I dislike beefing with children and I think their feelings about this are entirely reasonable (I'll elaborate on this when talking about internet safety)

But anyways. I think a lot of adults are discourse-brained and do way too much. Im thinking of nonsense like "this ship is problematic because they are 'sibling-coded' so thats basically incest" "siblings giving each other a hug gives me proship vibes" things of that nature. And you're not allowed to do anything that even has the smallest possibility of being interpreted as "problematic", because then they'll harass you for it, and if you clarify your intentions, they expect you to apologize for "misleading" them because clearly they didnt do anything wrong by making assumptions about you.

There's almost no room allowed for creativity with them, everyone has to follow fanon because they consider it canon, if you ever want to try something other than the same boring domestic fluff then it's "too much" (and not even platonic affection is acceptable to draw in certain cases). Which is incredibly fucking boring to me who wants to see different types of content. People even said I was enjoying incest for drawing Reigen selfcest, and that I was "making others uncomfortable" by drawing it. Genuinely seems to me that they only care about moral superiority, that they never think about anything in depth, and I dont think they realize that it also shows in what they create: boring and repeated fanart and headcanons where the only thing you can say about it is "thats cute", nothing more because you saw it ten billion times already. You cant draw two people showing platonic affection that absolutely nobody would bat an eye if it happened in real life, you cant discuss something specific in more depth without people saying you have a fetish for it, and then they'll harass you based on their speculation that it's a fetish. I dont think many realize this, but fandoms are full of autistic people, so it's normal to see people who are interested in very specific things that dont make sense to others! I wish people were less judgmental, but at the same time I dont care if people think Im weird. I think what I mean is theres no reason to mistreat weird people who do no harm to others.

So yeah if you call yourself an "anti" I'll assume youre spend too much time engaging in fandom discourse and you're the type of person to believe that fanart where two people are holding hands is the equivalent to drawing them fucking each other. Which I think is a very childish mindset to have and it's worrying that many adults think this way. I also think that as an adult they should be capable of blocking stuff they hate instead of constantly arguing with people online because at this point it's just mental torture.

The thing about internet safety I mentioned earlier, I'd say this is the one thing that I'll always prioritize discussing whenever proship discourse comes up.... To put it simply: filter and limit the visibility of your content, do not put triggering stuff in the main tags, stay in your own circles. Whether or not you believe fictional rape/pedophilia/etc is bad is irrelevant, my point is that these are objectively triggering topics and should be filtered just like how there are warnings for violence and blood even if it's not real.

"But it's the parents' responsibility to control what kids look at online, this has nothing to do with me!" and I agree with the parents being the ones Primarily responsible. However the reality is that children are online and there's nothing you can do to stop it from happening. Kids will also enter spaces theyre not allowed in, theyre children and children are rebellious especially teenagers, I was like this as a teenager too. You'd be lying if you said you were always obedient since childhood and never did anything you were told Not to do. And you can't really expect teenagers to always block and not interact if they see something triggering. It's your responsibility to block them if they interact with you, because what I see most of the time is adults bickering with teenagers who are uncomfortable, calling them "puriteens", putting them on blast and allowing other adults including NSFW accounts to dunk on them.

Humiliating and degrading teenagers does not "teach them a lesson", it only makes the teenager more stubborn and reactive. Adults must accept that kids will always find their way in there even if your content isnt easily accessible. So I think it's stupid to feel offended at a child because they got upset when they found upsetting content like how any normal child would react. Which is why I wish more adults would keep blocking without saying anything petty to provoke teenagers.

Before someone pancake-waffles me and says "so youre fine with antis doxxing people" no I do not support doxxing. Ive been doxxed so I know it sucks. However the only times Ive seen it go this far is after continuous arguing because nobody knows when to stop. Im not saying this applies all the time nor am I saying doxxing is fine, but there are ways to minimize this sort of outcome as much as possible. Both sides have doxxed people over petty arguments that couldve easily been avoided if they just blocked each other and moved on.

The topic above (internet safety) is probably the only thing related to this where Im actively telling others what they should be doing. It's not only teenagers who are triggered by depictions of pedophilia etc but also adults like myself. In my case Im old enough to block content I dislike without saying a word, however I cant help but think that there's not enough being done about filtering especially when I do not search for this type of content and I still see it all the time.

I also think it's important for me to mention that I have a very poor sense of morality. I do not have a personal moral code that I adhere to, and I mostly stick to the basic universal ones that make sense to me. So I will not discuss the "morals" of consuming this stuff because I am not adequate to share an opinion on this, and I know the most popular topic of discussion related to proship discourse is morality which I frankly find counterproductive. I dont understand why people should care so much if I find something morally correct or not, unless it's to make themselves feel better about having a "superior opinion" to mine. Though I will say that if a man tells me he's into rape "but only in fiction!" then I dont think it will stop me of imagining myself bashing his skull repeatedly with large rocks. Maybe Im too mistrustful of men in general.

Final point I want to clarify is that I am not trying to assert some sort of superiority over people by disliking both sides, like saying "Im not an anti or a proshipper Im a Normal person" or something like that, and Im not expressing a "neutral" stance on the topic of fiction's influence on reality either. There are topics like racism and orientalism in fiction that Im vocal about (which is expected since Im Algerian). I genuinely believe there are many things that are interesting to discuss and should be prioritized, but too many people are chronically online, subjective and defensive, at this point I dont even think it's accurate to say that disliking one side automatically means you support the other side regarding fiction. To me, "proship discourse" is not about the debate of the effects of fiction on reality, censorship in media, etc. It's about everything I described earlier that happens online.

[valyrfia]

I get your concern but ignoring it is the best solution, there's no need to panic at the second your ears hear the word lestappen coming from them. First of all lestappen is not gonna have a "fallout" because they're not friends to begin with so what fallout exactly can they have lol, they already knew the existence of the word lestappen because it's been there for years, and the RBR account for sure makes use of it. And also, didn't Max received an MTV couple award with Checo a few months ago and the sky remained the same? Cant get weirder than that. Or it can idk, I feel like an scenario where any ship name remains in only one single space it's not only impossible, but it's never going to happen, in an ideal word sure, it would be just a dirty secret that no one knows about but stressing out about it it's gonna only be bad for y'all.. But also, if his friend made that comment and pisses Max off very much, or makes him feel weird I'm sure he's gonna be like "don't ever do that again" or something. For what I've seen everyone had your reaction in the chat so I'm sure they got the message that it's a forbidden word

These two back to back in my inbox are first of all. A LITTLE funny.

Secondly, to the first anon, it’s hardly Max and Charles I really worry about, it’s how people can forget themselves when they think that rpf is suddenly “mainstream”. It’s usually a tiny tiny majority who ruin it for the rest of us but do forgive those of us who were around for great rpf fallouts for being a little paranoid. Second anon, you and I are of the same opinion. RPF is fun when it’s contained but when people start to bring explicit RPF content to more public platforms (and ironically, it’s usually content that’s the original author has published on a closed platform, ie. tumblr or ao3). Class A disaster is the jumpy paranoid side of both of us talking but I unfortunately agree.

Also I think it’s good to remind everyone generally. RPF is a weird thing, it’s inherently weird. These are not fictional characters, we’re superimposing our narratives on top of real people’s lives while they’re still around to see it. We all love it and partake in it, but it’s not something that would constitute casual conversation or would be talked about walking down the street. RPF is super fun but be aware it cannot function like a normal fictional ship because these are not fictional characters.

Chestappen vs. Lestappen is a weird one because Chestappen can be waved off as a joke a lot easier (teammates = marriage) and also I get the feeling that it is generally a lot more of a joke. Unfortunately when I see Lestappen stuff not on here or ao3 it seems a lot less jokey. People also seem comfier discussing fic (?!) on tiktok and twitter with Lestappen, which to me IS a cardinal sin. I think a lot of people misunderstand me when I say don’t talk about RPF outside of designated spaces, I’m not saying the shipname is a dirty word that must NEVER be used, or that those who make fun edits on tiktok are evil and should die. I simply mean, people need to not be letting on that there’s anything deeper to the ship aside from a joke. I’ve seen a lot of people scoffing at me and people who have adopted a similar hard stance as me and all I have to say is: humour us because we’ve probably got very good reasons to be wary.

[pebblysand]

Hello hello! So i finished reading ch 22, and i have a lot of thoughts, but one that I kept thinking about, and i don´t know if this was intentional or not, is Robard's character, and how it reminded me of jkr, and her public opinions and persona these last years. How she gradually (and not so gradually, lately) became a transphobic bigot, basically. And i always thought "how did you get there, jk? where you always like this? or you became like this because of the way people harrased you over some tweets?" (i actually don't know, i hadn't read her twitter for years up until today out of curiosity, and... 😬) I kind of felt that with robard's character, i loved that, really. Felt, like most of your story, very realistic. Anyway, i wish you a great weekend full of delicious food, drinks, and whetever you consider fun 🤠

hello! thank you, i'm glad you enjoyed!

this is such an interesting question and one that i've meaning to post about for a long time but have been - i must admit - a bit of a coward about, lately. addressing JKR on tumblr one way or another is always a sure way to get anon death threats in your inbox, an experience that i've had in the past and wasn't keen on repeating. but i think this needs to be said, and it needs to be said publicly.

so, to answer your question, no, this wasn't per se intentional. i didn't set out to have a parallel between robards and JKR, although now that you mention it, i think my thoughts about JKR may have permeated his storyline subconsciously because yes, you're totally correct, there is definitely a parallel there. and, i think your question of: "jo, how did you get there?" is probably one of the most important unaddressed questions of our time.

i've been reading a lot of takes on tumblr lately. metas and purported text analyses that say stuff like: "umbridge is represented as being feminine and having a high-pitched voice, therefore JKR hates women because she thinks femininity is evil" or, "hermione is ugly and therefore JKR hates women because she thinks women have to be ugly to be clever/successful," or "JKR didn't say dumbledore was gay until after the books came out, therefore she is homophobic," etc. and, while i think people are free to disagree with me and i don't want to single anyone out, i think these takes are at best misguided. at worst, a bit dangerous.

misguided because frankly, reading the text and JKR's actions in that way is, imo, demonstrating a complete lack of understanding of history, the publishing industry, artistic creation and symbolism, and overarching themes of the work. it's taking elements of a narrative completely out of context and making them fit into a specific agenda. this idea that: HP is a terrible story, the author is evil, has always been evil, and anyone who still enjoys this work is a bigot. it's an insane take to have when talking about one of the most popular and critically acclaimed coming-of-age saga of the twenty-first century. hermione is a very feminist character. umbridge is also a very feminist character. they are both, of course, subject to the implicit biases of their times and have to be read and studied critically within that framework, but failing to understand the intentions behind their creation shows - again, in my opinion - a very dire lack of media literacy.

having said that, if those takes were just plain wrong, i wouldn't mind them as much - after all, i'm a massive believer in people's right to be wrong. but where i think these takes really pause a problem is that as i've said before, the underlying goal is to prove, by taking things completely out of context, that JKR was "always like this." i personally think that's a terribly dangerous argument to make.

because, the truth is: she wasn't always like this. JKR was a feminist. she was a leftist, a militant. someone who wrote one of the largest odes to love and tolerance and respect that our generation has known. she called to vote labour, advocated for social policies, gave huge amounts of money to incredibly good causes, and was an inspiration and model for thousands of young girls and women worldwide (myself included), both through her own success, and through the strength of the female characters she created. she had her flaws, of course. her belief that motherhood is the ultimate goal is problematic. her urge to take down pornographic fanfiction that involved her works in the early 2000s was unfortunate. but generally speaking, she was not always a bigot. she became one. and that is essential.

i think we too often see JKR as the cause of the problem. and, these days, it's true, to some extent, she is the cause of the problem. she funds abhorrent organisations which tragically seek to undermine trans rights, she uses her twitter platform to spread awfully bigoted ideas and is now slowly falling into antisemitism. but i think what we miss with the above is that she isn't just the cause of the problem, she is also a symptom. just like women who fall into MLMs are both perpetrators of financial abuse to the women in their downline, but also being abused by the system themselves.

JKR is the most famous and tragic example of a trend i've personally seen happen around me time and time again, of formerly left-wing people in her generation and older, slowly falling into conspiracy theories, bigotry and racism. of people who used to be sane moderates (either on the right or the left) now sliding further and further to the right.

i think it is very easy to dismiss these people by saying "they were always racists" or "they were always homophobic/hateful of women" when, in fact, that is not true. were they flawed and were some of their opinions imperfect? sure. but at the core, these people were progressives in their time. but they totally missed the train of modern progressivism. worse, they’re now actively going against it. and by saying they were always like this, we are steering away from studying the real cause of the problem, asking why these people became like this (as you put it: "how did you get there?") and looking for a solution, instead of writing them off as crazies.

i think regarding JKR, we can have conversations about how/why she became like this, although i think a lot of people online are not yet ready to have this conversation. i personally doubt there is a single cause. having read the ink black heart recently, i think two things appear clear to me. 1) she is chronically online to a truly terrifying degree, and this is coming from me, another truly chronically online person. 2) she has reached a level of fame and fortune and isolation that means she is now surrounded by yes-sayers, and is not exposed to much contradiction. i also think it is undeniable that there is a world of difference between the beliefs she expressed in the 2020 essay, which were misguided and potentially harmful, but not hateful, and the current state of her twitter account. as someone who has experienced death threats from trans activists before, i do sympathise with the fact that it’s hard to build empathy with people who yell in your mentions that you should die (in my case, simply for writing HP fanfic). whilst i obviously have managed to maintain empathy and understand that in some ways, this extreme reaction is the unfortunate pendent of the hate trans people and activists themselves receive and the work of a very loud minority, my experience is nothing like the scale of what she experienced. whilst i still think she was slipping into transphobia way before the onslaught of hate she received, i can’t imagine this helped.

but again, i think what is important to understand and realise is that this phenomenon goes beyond internet hate, and goes beyond JKR herself. i always think of my mum's best friend when i think of this. she's eighty-three now but in her day, was a hardcore, bra-burning feminist. she was childfree by choice in a time where that was not an accepted choice, and is one of the strongest, most open-minded people i used to know. yet, a couple years ago, i went to her house on holiday and she explained to me straight up that she'd fired her cleaner for wearing the hijab, saying "i don't want people like that in my house." and, of course, this is abhorrent (and also illegal) but like JKR, like millions of people, she didn't use to be like that. she became like that. and it is fucking dangerous, in my opinion, to pretend like these périple were always these worthless bigots, instead of asking the right questions. "why?" and, also "how can we get them back?"

and, you're right: robards's trajectory in castles is a bit like that. because i think i’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, and again, because i’ve not expressed these thoughts out loud, they might have influenced my writing. and whilst robards in castles was always a bit more on the conservative side, he was someone who fought in the war. he was someone who fought with harry to open the muggle unit, etc. but somewhere along the way, he took a right turn that, again, millions of people in the real world have taken. and there is such a strong drive, right now, to write these people off. to think they are not worth the light of day, and are completely unsalvageable. and, there is such a strong pressure from a very vocal minority of millennial and gen z liberals to just cut ties with everyone and everything problematic. these injunctions to hate JKR and everything she's ever produced, to get rid of your HP tattoos, to stop writing fanfic, is the same as the injunction people make to stop talking to and cut off your racist relatives. and, if you don't do these things, you're a Bad Person™, a Bad Liberal.

first of all, this is frustrating because this sounds a lot to me like a "holier than thou" mentality that has plagued my catholic upbringing. this air of superiority about who is or isn't more of a sinner drives me nuts, and frankly, i've no interest in living in a "perfect" world of only interacting with the most "pure" individuals and materials amongst us. i find that these people are transposing values of fundamentalist religion into the left-leaning sphere in a way that is deeply grossing me out. i do not need a morality lesson, i certainly do not need to be told how to be a Good Liberal or a Good Feminist.

but i also think that this idea of just dismissing the way older generations are slowly falling into the traps of the far right and of bigotry as "they're just old" and "they should just die out" is also deeply misguided. because, again, this is preventing us from looking at the root cause of the problem. and, who's to guarantee that the disease won't spread further? i find it deeply optimistic and borderline deluded to think that we can just let boomers die out and that Everything Will Be Fine. bigotry and racism are a gangrene that spreads and slowly permeates every layer of society. i would know - i grew up in a region of france that was always far-right leaning, and i've watched that disease spread and spread to other regions, other branches of society, in the past twenty years. and believing that this won't touch younger generations, or permanently change the way we think, is a fallacy. we're seeing it happen in france right now. bardella, the new far right leader, is 28 and is now reaching french gen z on tiktok, and it's fucking working! more and more young people are voting for these candidates. and what's the plan here? are we just going to let them die out or further ostracise them too? write them off as permanently morally corrupt? send them death threats to change their mind like so many people did for JKR and her people?

it would be awfully presumptuous of me to pretend like i have the solution here. i don't. and whilst robards isn’t a character that is important enough for me to give him a redemption storyline, it doesn’t mean we should stop trying in the real world. and, trust me, i know it's hard to continue interacting with these people. as i said, i grew up around them and have struggled with holding back screams all my life. when my mum's best friend said what she said, it took everything i had in me not to just walk out. but we've got to keep trying. we've got to keep loving. i still love her. she's still one of the most important, foundational people in my life. and i still love JKR, in a way. i hate what she's saying, but i still believe a change is possible. or else, we're just giving up on humanity.

[joanofexys]

Hi! Sorry for randomly dropping anon into ur inbox, but I’m kind of in love with ur oc’s and I was wondering if you could tell me more abt Ilya? Ik u said they’re just some guy from Penn state and for some reason that really intrigues me lol.

Never apologize I love anons and I'm so flattered you like my little guys. Also sorry this is gonna take a minute and there will be many typos cause I'm typing one handed on my laptop while eating an icecream/my cat tries to steal my icecream bar, not that you needed that info

ANYWAY litte recap on Ilya:

22 years old

5'5

he/they, transman

youngest of 4, has all sisters

Played for Penn State

Now plays for Olympic Court

Goalie

Number 7

I haven't decided on what he majored in yet

Yeah he really is just some guy. He's the only athlete really in his family. One of his older sisters ran track in high school, but otherwise their family is full of musician. Dad is a middle school orchestra teacher, mom is a music professor, his sisters all went into the arts. He can play a, quite frankly, ridiculous amount of instruments and he enjoys them all but he's not particularly passionate about it.

His parents signed him up for little league exy because he saw exy on the tv once and wouldn't shut up about it/was begging them to play. His parents just wanted all of their kids to be happy so they caved very quickly and Ilya developed an intense passion for the sport that obviously never went away.

Ilya's oldest sister (Liliya) is 7 years older than him, the other one 4 years older (Kateryna or just Kat), and the sister after (Tanya) that only a year and a half older. They're all incredibly close despite any age gaps while also very much having a dynamic of lovingly bullying each other

Ilya kind of always knew he was trans and they were always in a safe space to express it. His parents used to joke that they had "3 girls and an Ilya" and they didn't even bat an eye when as a kid he went straight for the "boys clothes" and asked to be called a prince instead of a princess and only responded to being called a boy. At school it was different, in elementary school other kids didn't care but the teachers could be weird about it, and then as a teen other kids started getting mean about it. But his parents and their sisters were always accepting and they filled their house with enough love that Ilya never thought about being closeted or pretending to be someone he wasn't.

He gets recruited to Penn State's team as their starting goalkeeper as an openly trans athlete. His team's respectful for the most part. There are some people who just don't seem to get it, but they're never outright rude or transphobic to him. There are sometimes snide remarks and something Not Cool said on accident and Ilya is always quick to correct it and most of his teammates are decent enough to apologize and try to do better

And he talks A Lot about being a trans and generally queer athlete. He's happy to be one of those people out and proud for everyone who can't be. Ilya has always, unapologetically, taken up space. Not even focused on his queerness, just in the way he exists as a person. If he's in a room you're going to know he's there and you're probably going to know their every thought as well.

They care a lot and they take everything to heart. They're very much a "don't cry cause you'll make me cry" type of person. He's much more willing to take on people's pain and share their burdens than he probably should be.

And he has zero filter. While he's absolutely paving the way as a queer athlete and he has a lot to say to the press about that his press time also has to be limited because he will just say shit. He has insulted other teams, insulted specific players, shared information that he definitely shouldn't have, said "fuck" on camera too often to keep count, and a lot more. He is keeping the Penn State vs Edgar Allan Ravens twitter discourse alive and well with all the shit that comes out of his mouth

He makes his best friend his junior year. She's a sophomore named Alice and she's a defensive dealer. Her sophomore year she comes as trans, MTF, and Ilya is the first person she tells becuase he's one of the only queer people she knows. After that they're pretty much attached at the hip and Ilya would kill and die for her. Her family isn't super accepting so he takes her home with him for the holidays. His family becomes hers and they're more than happy to add one more girl to the family.

Ilya makes court right after he graduates and it's with Jude, Em, Mara, Florian. you know the drill at this point. They're the ones I never shut up about. And I think I'll largely be repeating myself and I don't want to be annoying with that so we'll stop there

Some other fun things about Ilya though:

he never learned how to ride a bike. he will never ride a bike. fuck no (he fell over and scraped his knee once and despite all the balls to the head playing exy that was his breaking point for some reason and he never got on a bike again)

he's a cat person

he teaches Florian ASL and it's the main they talk to each other cause Florian likes to go nonverbal

they were such a huge fan of Jude it took everything in them to not be starstruck when the two first met

the two instruments they stuck with were the violin and the piano

they have an addiction to strawberries

is almost always playing jazz music on a vinyl when they're home/have people over

he has a shitty autograph and Flor has begged him to "get better handwriting" since he signs so much stuff but he's fine with it being an unreadable disaster (Florian's autograph in comparison is gorgeous)

he is an unapologetic foxes stan after they win finals

[aerkame]

I will no longer write for other AUs for Welcome Home (please read in full)

TW: Mentions of NSFW/pedos

I know some people only followed me because of a fic or two I might have started writing on for another Welcome Home AU, but recently I have started to notice the increasing toxicity of the fandom overall. Yeah, I've been other fandoms I know there is toxicity and I know there's a lot of nice people in this fandom, but I have NEVER seen it this bad. Out of all the fandoms/fanbases that I have been in, I have never seen such a huge problem regarding pedos, NSFW art/writing being shared and looked at by minors despite the creator's wishes, general toxic behavior, and a large amount of mentally unwell people working their way into groups of children or safe spaces. I ended up having to delete quite a few NSFW art pieces on twitter because I found minors had seen it and some guy decided to make a comment on my OC Lilith that I was not comfortable with.

I also do not feel alright having to restrict myself on what I write or draw because a single person might be "triggered" or "offended" by it. I know I put warnings when they are needed, I should not have to feel like I'm walking on eggshells in this fandom. I do not need anonymous asks telling me how I should and shouldn't write or what I can and can't say.

Because of how bad it's been and seeing more and more creators leave the fandom, I have decided to no longer engage in other AUs or creators unless it's from a follower (I know you guys are fine), friend, or person I know I've talked with before, OR if it's Clown himself. A lot of people forget that Welcome Home isn't what people keep writing it as. Welcome Home isn't even close to being done, we're just riding off the AUs right now. It really rubs me the wrong way that all I ever see on AO3 now with fanfictions are smut fics mainly and some pretty disturbing stuff.

There is so much, too much, s3xualization in this fandom and the romanticizing of serious and dangerous themes/topics. A lot of times believe or not, when I draw buff characters with no shirts, it really is just anatomy practice. I do not understand some of the comments I get sometimes in my inbox. Yes it's fine to tease a bit, but my goodness some of the comments I have seen before are concerning. I never intend on s3xualizing the characters and yet I always get anon asks going a bit out there with s3xualized comments. It's why I haven't really drawn that stuff in a while. I can't tell if people really do s3xualize that stuff or if they're seeing it as anatomy practice with a bit of tease like I do.

I have been bottling A LOT of things up recently and it's hindered my ability to really write or draw how I want. I'm always scrapping ideas and giving up halfway through.

It's always "Is this something that people are going to s3xualize?" "Is this something that might offend someone in x category?' "Will people like this new character?" "Am I good enough for this topic?". It's not healthy and I know that it affects my creativity and mentality, I won't be restricting myself anymore though. I will write/draw what I want, just please heed my warnings when I put them there and don't ignore my boundaries or the boundaries of others.

Now, regarding my own two AUs (I dropped the Dream one because I have something special planned for TFP), The Finfolk AU and Alive AU. I WILL continue writing/drawing for them. They are my own AUs with my own characters added in them. A lot of people that interact with me are followers and I know you guys would never disrespect my OCs or invade boundaries and I love you so much for that. Of course my rule on requests remain the same. NO NSFW for the normal Welcome Home, but NSFW is allowed for Finfolk AU requests.

Unfortunately, all of this does mean I will not continue the fic I was writing for @clownsuu Mob AU. I'm sorry, I just really do not feel like writing for an AU outside of what I know in terms of the person who makes it. I am not sure how to explain it other than I don't feel alright with it unless it's like an AU from someone I know or at least talked to before? Just at least a person I know on some personal level. I don't want to explore the fandom right now, it is a mess with the people in it...do not take this the wrong way, I DO NOT hate anyone outside of the people I know, I just don't feel comfortable in the fandom at the moment and I will not leave you guys behind either. So in short, I plan to just stay in my own lane so to speak and do what I can for the ones who follow me for what I do.

I will however finish the Villain fanfiction as it's not exactly anyone's AU? Not sure how to explain that, it was a series of asks for it. And obviously I will make a full long fanfictions for the Alive and Finfolk AU.

I know I said I don't want to vent on here, but it's getting hard for me to ignore. Everytime I type or pick up a pencil to make something on here it doesn't feel right.

[emilykaldwen]

I don’t understand what anon means by making people pariahs. This is a huge, massive fandom. If people block you, just go find others to talk to. There is no shortage of people discussing this show and its source material. You can find the ones you vibe with! Someone choosing not to engage with you isn’t a real problem.

This absolutely might be a generational thing. My understanding of those who are currently in their early/mid-20s is that Blocking is a huge thing? Like I remember my youngest cousin being really upset in school about girls blocking her on IG, and I was so confused because these girls at school were mean to my cousin.

And I don't quite remember what she said but basically blocking was seen as ostracizing. Equivalent to me walking into my 8th grade classroom and the whole class going 'ewwww' for... some bizarre reason I had no idea about (I only knew like two people in that school like what the hell?)

Additionally, it might be twitter thing too. I genuinely don't know and Tumblr has always had a culture of 'don't like, just block', which might be confusing for users that aren't used to that.

Point being, I encourage people to block if they're upset. Like genuinely, no one knows if they've been blocked unless you go directly to their blog. I don't have to know you, or anything about you to block. It's something very simple as seeing a post, going 'oh those do not vibe with me' and just removing it from my feed. It's like being at a really big party and choosing not to go to that part of the room.

Blocking is, genuinely, nothing personal for most people.

I will also say when my anons increased last year, I got very mercenary with my blocking, which I think is a normal response for people coming into your inbox when you're literally sitting here with minimal interaction all because I started posting Aegon x OC fic.

[dayurno]

sorryyyy for bringing some type of discourse to your inbox but I just giggle whenever anyone brings up the fact that nora soad andrews a misogynist and their only argument is the fact that he's friends with renee and dating neil who said women are the strongest ppl i know, like i don't personally think he's a misogynist, but i feel like there has to be better arguments for it😭

maybe it's bc the fandom gets on my nerves so I'm more sensitive to any attempts a defanging and making characters more palatable bc I'm not a fan of the widespread fanon versions of the characters also it's sad I feel like the fandom made some sort of progress where discussions were being had about the problems in the series and now after tsc came out it feels like we're back to where the author can do no wrong and it's hard to criticise anything

what do you think about tsc being a triology, I feel like two books can hopefully give Jeremy the depth he needs i remember you found him a bit flat as well when you read the book, I see a lot of people saying he needs to have a mean side or a traumatic past but I feel like a kind, nice character can be interesting without those things and not every kind character needs to have this secret mean side anyway, personally I groaned out loud when I found out it was a triology bc that would mean the fandom would be alive for longer and it's so crazy out of any book fandom I've ever been in for some reason the aftg fandom feels the most obnoxious maybe it's bc the books deal with heavier topics close to the heart so there's more feelings involved🤔the only book fandom who has pissed me off a comparable amount would be asoiaf but that's a whole different thing

I really do try and be happy I'm not even in the fandom anymore and I've never followed aftg twitter accounts and I don't even check the tags I just go on certain blogs but i still see things it's horrible💔like I can't believeeee we're still discussing if Kevins a coward or not and how selfish he is for leaving the nest like we've already argued about this to death on tumblr back in like 2016 now it's the same thing again💔

LOL i understand honestly so many of these discussions are repackaged wide-spread 2015 opinions which don’t reflect the original text that it’s hard to do anything except use the we have this thread every week comrade image and let it go. andrew being misogynistic is not even hard to come to terms with considering it’s not an interpretation or a headcanon it’s the author’s own words and will for the character incorporated into canon. there are things to disagree with nora sakavic for, but ultimately there is a difference between disagreeing with the author and willfully ignoring the intention with which a character was written

& i didn’t really care much for the news, i think the lack of planning and the rushed way the books are coming along are grating on both the author and the fandom, but i don’t blame her for wanting to get this done and over with. it will show more insight on jeremy hopefully, but unfortunately i already don’t care 😭 i think the route tsc took was in general uninteresting and pedestrian enough to not warrant a second thought, and i’m not particularly interested in any plotline beyond what pertains to kevin and the ravens. what surprised me really is the total lack of impact tsc had on the fandom, which is to say, i think it was so in line with the same 3-5 headcanons passed around the last 10 years that it has genuinely done nothing for anyone aside from the people who were already very invested in jean and/or jeremy. it feels like a different fandom from aftg altogether, which i’m happy about if only because it keeps us all locked in different cages, but it still baffles me to see people dedicate so much thought to a book whose characters bar jean are, as of now, the very definition of Nothing burger. all in all the answer to that question and most questions pertaining to tsc is Who cares. because literally who cares

LMFAO staying away from aftg twt is really good for you & honestly all of us. it’s still so funny to me that not even nora sakavic herself wanted to touch that mess. mentally ill white suburbanite teenage shut-in echo chamber ass fandom

[alwida10]

Do you think there is astroturfing around disney properties?

When Ant-man 3 was release, everyone was shitting on the movie but praised Jonathan Majors's performance but after the conviction I keep seeing statements like 'his acting was clownish', 'he was the worst part of Loki' etc.

You know since the recent poll about Loki, as of now 57.3% has passed on him,even after release of season 2 which was trending for a while got me thinking . Like, what happened ? Wasn't it the most watched show?

I really hated what happened to him so much that seeing him makes me eyeroll. My favourite MCU character ruined since ragnorak.

If Tom says he didn't like the show, would the opinion on it change?

Omg, yes! And thank you so much for coming to my inbox!!

So, first of all, thank you for teaching me a new word. For everyone else who -like me- didn’t know the exact meaning of “astroturfing”:

But I think the whole situation is complex.

1) i absolutly think that Disney has a team that does use shady methods to make the public opinion appear better than it actually is. I think it was @iamnmbr3 who noticed that some 5 star reviews on major rating sites looked like they were bot-generated (but it was quite some time ago. I linked the article in my master post). Twitter (now X) has so many bots on it and the platform allows them to tilt polls massively. So, yeah, I agree. But. I don’t think that’s necessarily the biggest influence on the public opinion.

2) I assume this is the poll you refer to. It doesn’t distinguish between series Loki, TR Loki, and OG Loki which might have biased the outcome in a negative way. I know some hardcore og Loki fans who did not vote at all, because they LOVE og Loki, but cannot give series Loki a “smash”. Others voted “pass” because the pic is of TR Loki which is still a turn-off for some. I assume that some series Loki fans might vote “pass” because there are many that never liked Loki before the show.

3) there are different types of fans. The hardcore fans stay, but during the airing a lot of casual fans come rushing in, consume, and eventually leave. These people are often very enthusiastic, sometimes even aggressively positive. by now they will have wandered further, leaving only the hardcore fans behind (old and new ones).

4) a lot of people loved the SHOW but not LOKI. I see these types of fans mostly on Reddit. They like the time travel, or kang, or the side characters or just the mcu. Those as well won’t care for Loki or even vote on polls around here.

And then there is also this trend to attack people for liking stuff produced by people who are in any way problematic. Majors trial made all those people drop him like a hot potato. Perhaps some are now trying to “atone” for saying good things about Majors by roasting him? Perhaps the people who never liked him to begin with feel now it’s “safe” to publicly criticize him, since his supporters must fear being attacked for “supporting a domestic abuser”.

All in all, I deeply agree with you on the series being very bad for Loki (as in “destroying any chance for a satisfying conclusion to his arc, his feelings about the adoption, and the time with Thanos”) and I fear it might also be bad for both Tom and the MCU (as in “the public interest is going down and while the show WAS praised widely it still contributed to the downfall instead of generating or reviving interest”).

And yeah, I have a post on how successful the show was in preparation. 🙈 sorry for being so extremely slow with that one. I prefer focusing on writing fanfics, these days. 🙂 OG Loki is alive in our fics, dear anon. No one can take him away from us! 🫂

[yoongisleftshoulder]

BTS Reacts: Biracial S/O Experiences Racism

A/N: Of course, something like this can be a touchy subject and I will take full responsibility if I write anything offensive or incorrectly. As I've said in previous pieces like this, you are welcome to call me out on any mistakes so I can learn and do better. I personally am not biracial nor have I experienced racism of the sort but my inbox is always open if you need support or someone to stand with you. Also, I apologize but I couldn't find credits for some of the gifs used. I take no credit for the making of them.

TW: General racism, bullying

JIN:

Jin couldn't believe it when you pulled up an antis hate themed blog focused around you. He knew there would be some heat once your relationship was revealed to the public but he never thought people would be low enough to create an entire blog to bully you and insult you just based off of your skin color. It almost blew his mind that someone would take the time to put you down so badly. Jin would gently take your phone out of your hand and close the page, setting the phone down and out of view.

"Don't pay attention to a word they're saying. They're not worth your time, you're perfect the way you are."

Jin made sure the blog and nasty racist comments thrown at you were forgotten quickly, reassuring you that they were meaningless and simply not true.

YOONGI:

Yoongi had been out with Jin picking up food for the two of you when you decided to watch a few video compilations on YouTube that some fans had created for your relationship with him. Most of them were cute and wholesome videos with nothing but positivity in the comment section and you found yourself smiling widely throughout your time reading them. However, on the last video you had chosen, the comments made your heart sink. You weren't sure why they were there all of the sudden but many users had written harsh racist insults towards you, some even going as far as writing out threats. You knew it was stupid and the words were empty and didn't really mean anything but you couldn't control the tears that were forming in your eyes, eventually beginning to spill down your cheeks. Just as you were at peak sobbing and second guessing yourself, wondering if Yoongi really loved you as much as he said, he walked in the door, food bags in hand. Immediately, when he saw you curled up on the couch crying, he dropped the bags and sat on the cushion adjacent to you. He started rubbing your arm, unsure whether or not doing anything further was going to upset you.

"Woah, what's wrong sweetheart?" Your boyfriend asked, his voice soft.

Between sniffles, you did your best to explain how so-called 'fans' were being incredibly racist towards you and saying Yoongi deserved someone of his own race.

Yoongi couldn't believe what he was hearing and was only able to muster out a quiet "What the fuck?" He was pissed to know you were upset and pissed that anyone could say such things to you.

"Don't listen to those assholes, they don't know you and they will NEVER know me. I love you, you're perfect the way you are. They're probably just jealous that there's nothing even mildly interesting about them. They mean nothing."

HOSEOK:

*Ping*

*Ping*

*Ping*

Your phone had been blowing up more than usual. Your boyfriend, Hoseok, was sitting next to you so you opted to check it, wondering who else would be sending you so many texts. Lit up on your screen were texts from your best friend, telling you not to listen to what people are saying on Twitter and that all of those people were wrong about you. Confusion washed over you as you opened the Twitter app to see what was going on. The first thing you saw was your relationship with Hobi on the trending list. Your heartbeat sped up as you tapped on the link to checkout the corresponding posts. As soon as it opened, you were met with post after post about the live you did with him yesterday, where you had revealed your face for the first time. There were comments saying how pretty you were and how sweet you seemed, of course, but among these comments were floods of hate speech. Every single negative comment had to do with the fact that you were biracial. You suddenly closed the app, tossing your phone to the side, startling Hoseok. He closed the book he had been reading in the chair across from you and asked you what was wrong, moving to sit aside you when he noticed tears pooling in the corner of your eyes. All you told him was to check Twitter. Taking out his own phone, he clicked on the trending HoseokxYN link and skimmed through the posts and comments. He very quickly put his phone back into his pocket, unable to read anymore racist words against you. Pulling you into a tight hug, he reassured you that he felt sorry for those people, telling you that they must feel so badly about themselves and have such low quality lives that they had to spew meaningless hate towards you. If anything, they were lower than you and were only doing it to feel better about themselves. Even though the remarks were towards you, it felt painful to read such things and he was overwhelmed by disappointment.

NAMJOON:

As you and Namjoon made your way through the intensely growing crowd inside of the airport, fans yelled and screamed various words of encouragement towards Namjoon. You loved to hear other people showering him with love and positivity, despite the craziness of the crowd itself. You were smiling widely while walking hand in hand with your boyfriend, listening to the fans, until you suddenly heard someone take a jab at the color of your skin. Namjoon heard the person too, stopping for a brief second to turn and glare at them. He shook his head as he turned back around, gripping your hand tighter, pulling it up to his face to lightly kiss your knuckles. Like a chain reaction, that one person being brave enough to say such things to you in front of him set off a wave of more racism. Namjoon began walking even faster, guiding you the whole way, wanting desperately to get you out of there.

"Those aren't my fans. If they were, they would never say such bullshit things to you."

JIMIN:

Jimin witnessing you beginning to cry after seeing racist comments saying you weren't worthy of being with him because you weren't Korean hurt his heart. Your laughter was his favorite sound in the world and he lived to see you smile. Seeing you so upset was painful and made tears prick his own eyes. You were so important to him and yet strangers were bringing you down with nonsense hate. Jimin made sure to pound it into your head that he wanted you and only you; if he wanted someone who was 100% Korean, that's who he would have chosen.

TAEHYUNG:

After a long chat, you and Taehyung decided to reveal your secret relationship to the public after having been together for over a year. Taehyung took the bold leap by posting a couple of cute, romantic photos from Valentine's day on his Instagram. Knowing that it would warrant a little bit of craziness, he did it late at night before the two of you went to bed, planning on checking on it in the morning.

That next morning, Taehyung had woken up before you. Rather than waking you up, he went into the kitchen, fixed himself up some breakfast, and got comfy on the couch with his phone, ready to checkout the reveal reactions. He found himself giggling at some of the comments, even feeling happy over some of the supportive ones he read. Not long after reading, though, he stumbled upon comments he wished he hadn't seen. Many racist insults and death threats filled the comment thread. They were targeting you because you were biracial, spewing hate and saying he deserved better than you, someone who was fully his own race. He couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"How could these people say things like this?" Taehyung whispered to himself, still trying to be careful about waking you up.

The thought of you waking up excited to read the reactions of army only to see your race being the main focus of the thread made him very upset. He pondered whether he should delete the photo or not, wanting to shield you from everything. After a while of thinking, he simply turned off the comments to the post.

When you finally awoke, the first thing you did was ask him about the public's reaction. He produced a white lie and said the staff recommended that he turn the comments off but allowed him to keep the photo up. Although you were disappointed, he would much rather have you thinking that's what happened, instead of being aware of the nasty racist comments that flooded the post.

JUNGKOOK:

The last thing Jungkook expected when you tagged along on a flight and exited the airport with him, navigating through the crowds of screaming fans, was to hear several death threats and racist remarks thrown around towards you. He gripped your hand tighter and tighter with each disgusting comment he heard, knowing he couldn't do anything in that very moment. He glanced at your face multiple times, checking if you were still mentally there, only to see that you had begun crying quite hard. Instantly, Jungkook removed his jacket and held it over you to cover your face as various people with their phones and cameras hounded you. When you were both sat safely inside of the car waiting for you guys, Jungkook pulled you in close, kissing the top of your head while you buried it into his chest.

"You know I don't think of those things, right? I don't care about your race, I love you for you. Don't listen to those people, they aren't real army."

[9w1ft]

Hi 9. I hope you are well. Your blog has been a balm for my soul in dark times, read your comments full of confidence it's like fresh air.

I would like to ask if recently or in the past, you have received unpleasant comments saying that we are wrong in what we believe in addition to adding insults, etc. How have you learned to deal with it and if at any point have they hurt you emotionally?

aw heyy thanks for saying that!

oh yeah over the years i’ve had my share of flack and insults in my inbox or maybe i’ve had an altercation here or there, and sometimes you can put a bandaid on and go about your day but usually it’s still a cut you can feel. i guess the tl;dr: would be, i think that over the years ive learned to find the right blend of environment and outlook that sets me up to have it hurt less. also i think being able to contextualize hate dismantles its power greatly.

the big thing that youve got to have the ability to laugh at yourself. this is such a wild situation to be in! embrace it. a little self deprecation goes a long way. if you let go of the need to be understood by everyone and you recognize how wild of a situation it is that we are in, and if you can laugh about it, it cures most things imo.

next you have to keep the context of the hate in mind. a lot of things i’ve had said to me just dont hurt because i know the people saying them just don’t understand what they’re talking about 😆 maybe this comes with time.. like maybe if you hang around long enough it will click, but people from different parts of the fandom are speaking from completely different languages of meaning and beliefs and so i’ll see a comment and just be like wow that’s so fascinating how this person got compelled to compose that and say it with their whole chest. couldn’t be me!

another thing is just, it has a lot to do with where we are at and what i believe or what other like minded people do. to us, we have kiiinda already reached a kaylor win condition. i know people would disagree and i get why, but to me, in the grand scheme of things, i don’t feel the need to argue or defend because we’re already there. we’ve already made it! all the rest is a bonus to me. and so what this outlook does is it makes any hate seem really really quaint. like don’t care if rude people don’t understand. why would they deserved to? 😆 they should stay right where they are.

i think hate can hurt more when you at a point where you are less confident of what you think or if you want to listen to everyone and make sense of everyone as a way to uphold ‘fairness’ or a sense of a greater community but, when you are around long enough and get a better sense of each groups’ different motivations, you come to realize that your good intentions to involve and convince everyone is a bit of a fool’s errand because at the tops of each group is a core that will never move from their position. in the end it’s just more about a personal journey, i think. and i think usually you pick a lane or a group and just stick to it and most of the drama feels different because when you stop feeling the need to litigate, hate becomes confrontation for confrontation’s sake, and then the hate stops being about you, and you can see it as a part of a bigger thing.

also one key thing… i think it’s eons easier to avoid everyday conflict on places like tumblr than on twitter. it’s easier to curate what you have on your blog and its not a very public facing platform so things are more quiet and don’t spread to the general public. this filters out a ton. and there’s less eyes on your stuff and like people can screenshot and bitch on their own space but it’s not a quote tweet so you don’t really have this sense if you’re being talked about. you can block and even block individual IP’s, or on the flip side you can monitor activity on statcounter and see patterns of where messages come from and it kind of dismantles the mystique of them. tumblr makes it a lot easier to just do your thing. it’s not always in your face. and i would have a different persona and talk differently if i was on a different platform.

and i think people in general are better at staying in their lane here than on other platforms. over the years we have all sort of found our pockets and in general we stay in them, i think! so the stuff i do get is just always worded and delivered in the same way so i know its from the same people so it’s a little bit like kramer popping in on any given episode of seinfeld. it’s just part of the routine at this point 😆

[olderthannetfic]

/726066360417992704/besides-thinking-in-terms-of-clearing-your

I often block for reasons as simple as that someone left an annoying-ass comment on my post and since you can’t just delete replies or hide reblogs, the solution to hide that shit from other readers is for the OP to block them.

Or if someone is really determined to go to the mat with me on some issue — I have the kind of ADHD where if I’m not careful I can lose all day getting involved in some draining and pointless Internet argument. I’ve learned the solution in that case is just remove my ability to do so, and here that means blocking the other party.

I also think that while there certainly are people who define “safety” in the silly ways that are discussed in that anon, as “anyone who might say something that goes against my ideas about Y social justice issue” and then weaponize that to get people with more legit concerns to block them… I think it’s easy to dismiss the “legit concerns” people if you haven’t had certain unsavory internet experiences. Now I say this as someone who always always asks for explanations when I get an “OP is a Y” type thing in my inbox, partly because I’ve had people say that about longtime mutuals who I knew were very much NOT Y and if you’re smart you realize “oh they could be lying about all the people I don’t know too, so I should ask every time.” But what I mean about “legit concerns” is that I’ve been the target or had friends be the target of harassment campaigns (more on Twitter than here) and that changes your relationship to blocking for good. I have friends who’ve tried to be noble and suggest I be too about “I would never block someone just because they disagreed with me in an argument no matter what that opinion is!” and I just wanna be like yeah that’s nice and I generally agree when it comes to fandom stuff, but they apply it to everything and I have to explain that with something like right-wingers, it’s not because I can’t “handle” Republicans or go toe to toe with them in a decade — I’ve done this many times IRL and in more closed internet communities — it’s because every time I give one of them the benefit of the doubt they end up boosting my blog to people who just want to harass me and call me stuff like “ok groomer.”

--

[ludinusdaleth]

hey, i'm new to cr fandom and wasn't there when c2 was airing, may i ask out of curiosity what was the fandom's problem with its ending?

i want to start by saying this post is meant as a personal memory and not an incitement of any discourse. i do not want a lot of asks or replies or anything about this if i can help it. i would also politely ask that no one reblog this as i really just. dont want attention about this when ive discussed it to death on twitter. i also apologize for not having screenshots but i truly cannot bring myself to wade through that again. it was bad enough i still have nightmares about it.

basically, about 3 eps before c2's end, matt clarified on twitter the campaign was coming to a close, and that. did not go well. you see, folk (myself included, though i wasnt part of the following clown show) were very sure c2 would continue a while. it felt unfinished as the empire/trent had to be taken down, and for some of us ludinus was clearly the big bad, etc. so this was incredibly jarring to a lot of folk. and with that came anger. a lot of critique came down to fear of things being rushed, a lack of closure, claims of extreme neoliberialism due to not taking down the empire (i could write an essay on and cite multiple leftist activists who have stated c2 is truthful to the activist tale, not neoliberalism, and also how c3 deconstructs beau & caleb's actions, but everyone is allowed to have their own opinion on it), and that if shadowgast did not fuck in this short timespan the fans were going to kill liam & matt. and threats of killing were the least of what ensued. im just gonna put a tw here for discussion of extreme harrassment and even threat of necrophilia/rape:

people were. atrocious. beyond atrocious. know why 4sd/a lot of q&a events of theirs for a while had no fan questions? partially bc fans were frankly terrible at asking non-ship questions on talks machina, but mainly because folk FILLED their inboxes with insults (and a twitter account was made of screenshots bragging about it) that only the crew would get to filter out, not the cast. know why dani was terrified to show her face on 4sd for a bit? c2 fans would not let up on how it was her cishet fault fjorjester happened. people thought the solution to alleged neoliberalism was to therefore @ travis saying they would defile his veteran fathers corpse. if there was any solid discussion critiquing c2 happening, it was so drowned that actors who had nothing to do with the show told cr fans to stay away if that was how they treated their favorite creators wanting a break. it really didnt help that a certain disgraced talks machina host was firing potshots on twitter when the cast seemed to be just trying to take it all in, so more discourse was kicked up from him. in general besides all of that, you had the average death & even a few rape threats you would expect from the pits of fan entitlement. the way they were hardly the most notable of the insults hurled their way still rattles the mind. and thats just what i saw. my friends have claimed to have seen worse, but if we can help it we dont discuss it in detail, it's that bad. like i said, any idea of an actual conversation about c2 and how someone felt about it from an analysis perspective was not even a drop in the bucket; there was no actual discourse but rather spitting hatred pouring over that mistook personal grievances for excuses to mistreat quite literally anyone around them who didnt agree that threatening to defile someone was funny bittersweet revenge.

the thing is, after the c2 finale happened? i mean, a lot of folk didnt originally like it (i think it's generally pretty well liked now, and i enjoy it), but it wrapped up a lot of issues pretty well. all that terror & terrorizing over a fictional story was really for nothing. and even if it had ended undebateably badly did anything warrant that fallout?

there are of course a few other factors that seperate cast from fandom now. laura also got innumerable threats from tlou fans for playing some antagonist character, twitter is a dysfunctional shithole, and it's just rational the more popular you get to not be buddy-buddy with fans. but that was. a Time, for sure. c3 is a decent campaign but im far from the first person to note that many of its traits are set in trying to find vox machina's fixed story beats so no story beat is left "unturned" and being as un-m9-like as possible, even when they love the m9. a lot of the worst m9 fans now who harrass other campaign enjoyers and lament c2 being "an unloved middle child" are folk who never left the bitterness they held in that time. for as much discourse as c3 has kicked up i really dont think any of it compares to the sheer scale of what happened late may 2021, and im hoping with all my heart it never does reach that level ever again (i think c3 has a slightly smaller (at least online) fanbase compared to c2, and isnt marked by a pandemic hiatus, so hopefully that means something).

i hope i answered your question. i really hate remembering this time but sometimes i think it should be remembered so folk know what the cost of extreme parasociality is. the distance the cast has from fans now is not only earned but maybe should have always been there, so things never evolved to that extremity. but now it's done and gone. i envy people who watch cr on their own merits and didn't get sucked into twitter at the time; it has been fascinating watching folk say they love the travelercon/aeor arcs and the ending. rewatching later c2 really emphasizes how many complaints hinged on extremely online & parasocial headspaces - you definitely wont hear anyone nowadays say liam is a biphobic cishet abusing matt by not making caleb kiss essek yet. i hope new fans have a better time than we did. oh - and get off twitter.

[w98pops]

Still cant believe a fucking terf is in fallout fandom intecacting with trans creators and drawing her ugly stereotypical twink transmasc character. You should be ashamed

What is even happening to my inbox anymore. Idk if it's the same person that asked about Sharky or not, but it really makes me uncomfortable.

I don't know where the TERF stuff even come from, but I'm very open with my political views and yeah, I was a radfem in 2019 or something. I also was a very vulnerable sad russian teenager. I know not a lot of people on tumblr aware of all the intricacies of russian internet scene, but I assume you, anon, have some knowledge, because you called me a TERF in the first place.

There's an internet phenomenon called "alt-right pipeline" and I fell in the simular thing called "TERF pipeline". This shit is inevitable for every single afab person that speaks russian. It's a really big thing. I don't say it's an excuse to be a bigot, but I was 12 when i first touched the internet. I was insecure, very fucking poor and spiteful. Also I had and (still have) some hormone problems and was generally a pretty ugly girl so coped with it by drawing ponies and hating on elusive and mysterious "men in skirts" these smart twitter girlies always talked about.

To be perfectly honest, I genuinely don't understand what russian TERFs are fighting for or against, I was in this shit for solid few years and still have no idea. I mean, now it's illegal to be transgender in Russia (a real law), but it wasn't a win for these angry teenage girls, it was a win for genocidal bigoted russian government, the same one that legalized domestic violence (also a law. its officially not a real crime in this country). I went off the topic and started ranting about my frustrations with the government again FUCK 😭

I tried to say that russian internet is genuinely a fucked up place, but I lived in the middle of Siberia in a village, ideologically only had my orthodox grandma, racist older brother and TERFs on the internet. I only started to learn english a few years ago, so i didn't have enough options before that. Or, to better words, didn't have enough knowledge to be a better person.

I'm really really and sincerely fucking sorry for that. Like, truly. It was really fucked up and I'm ashamed of stuff I said and supported blindly. I now have resources and have some media literacy in my disposal and basic understanding of english to educate myself about the topics I'm talking about. I'm trying my hardest to show support and love to all my queer friends and mutuals, and as an artist I do all I can to be inclusive, not because I feel the need to, but because I want to.

I have no right to speak about trans people and their issues and I won't. I don't know if Sharky is as bad as anon described, because I'm biased (this is my character after all) and not educated enough to acknowledge all the stereotypes associated with transmasculinity. I would really enjoy to hear opinions of my fellow transmen. To address some of my choices regarding his design and writing:

- He wears pink, because it's a quirky color that doesn't show up much in Fallout. Never meant to de-masculate him or to ridicule him. It's my favorite color, after red and brown, which are the primary colors of Wendy.

- He has a silly personality and a carefree attitude because 1) I'm projecting and 2) Wendy needed a character to balance out her awkward and moody autism

- He's a girl's boy and has wives. I didn't have the reason to make him not like girls. I wanted him to be an example of positive masculinity and solidarity. He is a straight dude who loves women. Not just sexually attracted to them or sees them as pets. They are his partners. With their own personalities and lives. Also I wanted to make a full circle 😭😭😭 I'm asexual and bi-romantic. I like boys, girls, all between and beyond boys and girls and don't really think sex is a big thing for me. Aletus likes boys, Sharky likes girls and Wendy likes when there's no sex. Pretty simple, I think.

Hope this explains why Sharky is the way he is. Would still really appreciate an opinion from a trans person. Or any kind of feedback really, because I've been feeling really fucking bad lately and can't objectively reflect on my choices. Also more questions about my OCs are very much welcome. There's a lot of stuff that made me feel like I've been misiforming people, including this anonymous message, and I will specify anything you want to know. Thank you all a lot.