#why is it always the several year old media with no fandom

[myhamartiaishubris]

Just saw a Douyin edit of Ryuzaki and Arma from light up the new world and it's safe to say I'm not normal about those two either

[daisiesonafield-blog]

This is an answer to a question that nobody asked me, but I saw it asked on Gina's blog @twopoppies and for some reason felt like contributing my opinion, hope yall don't mind.

The question was:

Why is it that Louies are so much more tolerant of Larry Stylinson than Harries?

It is my impression that this is the case, or rather was the case (and I say was for a reason*), due to how their careers have progressed differently, with timing playing a huge role in it. For starters, it's important to emphasize how Harry's marketing and image have always been tied to the sex appeal persona created for him. He was marketed like that as a 16 year old, and it continued like that through all of 1D and his solo career. So the fans that comprise the harries ended up falling in that category for the most part. Additionally, in my opinion, the fact that Harry began his solo career much earlier, and got a high level of success right with his 1st solo album, led him to gain a much larger fanbase much quicker. Whereas Louis' solo career took several years to grow like that, so his fanbase stayed smaller for longer, and as a result it was more likely that he'd have more larrie fans than Harry's fanbase. It's strictly a numbers game.

Now looking at how Louis' been marketed, he was not really marketed as a sex symbol for fans to desire. He was always marketed as safe, a friend, someone you could trust, someone fun. This was done through 1D via his relationship with Eleanor. They always painted that relationship as a steady, long term relationship. From the start saying that she was a childhood sweetheart, and a girl he brought home to meet the family. So that painted him as unavailable as a love interest to the fanbase at large. He was also always funny, so Louis came across as a friend who you could trust and have fun with. Someone to rely on.

I would say that this largely carried on through the beginnings of Louis' career, in part because it was slowed down due to covid delaying it, but also due to its marketing also relying on the friend image. He was a lad, sweet and caring, but a friend. His fanbase grew, but I think there was still a level of balance between solo fans and louie-larries. The pandemic brought in a boom of new fans. People who were in lockdown with nothing to do who fell down the rabbit hole of Larry. So while Louis' fanbase grew, I would say it grew a lot in larries because of 2020. FITF is where things began to change and his fanbase really grew with the larger public. I think this can be attributed to his massive tour and social media presence. His styling and image was sexier during this tour, so he also grew a lot of fans who now viewed him as a sex symbol, someone to desire. That paired with his reported split from Eleanor made him available, which in turn helped grow his image of the "rockstar boyfriend" for people to desire. I think this was also largely encourage through more frequent online discussions of how hot Louis is. Something that wasn't really commonly a part of fandom discussion prior to 2020. Whereas for Harry, it has always been a part of discussion, because it's always been how he has been marketed.

*Overall I think this is rapidly changing, and we've already seen it in how Louis' fanbase has changed through FITF. I don't think the fandom at large will have this dynamic for long, as it grows and changes.

Anyways, this is my opinion. If others have a different opinion or would like to contribute, feel free to share.

[crystallizedtwilight]

I really like how you draw what you love in the moment. I am making a shift in my drawing interests as well, but I'm starting to feel guilty. My friends and followers know me as the (insert fandom) artist. Deep down I know what I am feeling is silly. Draw what you love! Who cares! I know that is the truth. So my question to you is, what do you do when those thoughts come to your head (if it does)?

What a thoughtful question! Below the cut:

Thank you! I've been on tumblr for 10 years and I have come to accept that I will always receive certain messages when I begin drawing a new interest:

"Guess you don't draw X anymore" / "Why did you stop drawing X?" / "Are you ever going to draw X again?" / "I want more X" / "When can we expect more X?" / "We're never going to see X again, are we?"

Though I've emphasized many times that this is my blog for all of my art and all my fandoms, every time I switch interests I am swamped with messages like this 3-4 months afterwards. It's an inevitability, because new folks may have missed that this is a "my current interest" blog, and old folks may not like the new content you're interested in.

At first it really bothered me, because I'd draw like 150 pieces of art for a fandom for 6 months straight, need a break, and the next day people will be like "guess you don't care anymore" like all the art I did wasn't enough.

The reality is: I like the idea of managing one blog for all of my artwork. I like how low-stress it is to have one, singular place I can still use a playground for my interests. I think it's a concept some people have forgotten is an option. Dare we call it a portfolio.

I am aware that the more "modern" way to conduct things, if you want to build an audience, is to have several blogs, each dedicated to one of your interests. But the very thought of managing 100 blogs every time I got a new interest makes my skin crawl and I know it would instantly suck the fun out of it for me.

I don't want to do that. I don't want to "build an audience", I just want to have a fun space for me. There are already so many social media sites out there besides tumblr, and if you're an artist that uploads to more than one, multiplying those by each of your fandoms? Sounds like more work than I want to do.

I can't remember the name of the artist, but I recall a few years ago one of the artists for the show Korra was bombarded with these sorts of messages when they started posting art that wasn't Avatar-related. And they said something to the effect of "I gave 2 years of my life to this show. Let me explore something new." And I'll never forget that. I feel the same way.

The theme of this blog is "my art". That's it. My interests change, sometimes circle back, and change again. And that's ok—that's how artists keep art fun for themselves. Every artist deserves a playground where they can share and connect with other people who are also just as excited about their newest thing. That's the joy of it.

Keeping yourself in a box just because that's what people want or expect you to do is the death of creativity. I am at peace with people unfollowing if our interests don't align anymore. This was never a blog for catering to anyone but myself, and that is ok.

So those messages don't bother me anymore. I know they're coming. I know they will always be there. And, every time, I will find new folks who do want to share in my new interest. I think in many ways I like starting over again. It feels refreshing.

But more than that, I know the importance of keep a space for myself online where I can be as creative and fun and silly as I like, chasing after the latest thing that is making me smile.

[halfmoth-halfman]

Leaving this blog.

With my mini-series finishing up soon, I've decided to leave this blog as well as my AO3 account once it’s finished. This is not a decision I've made lightly, but circumstances have left this a place where I no longer feel safe.

As of now, I won't be deactivating this blog and will be leaving my fics up for anyone who'd still like to read them. I can't say this decision won't change later, but right now I feel that I've put too much work into this blog to simple delete it.

Below the cut is an explanation of why I'm making this decision, and what has been happening on this blog since the end of last year. It's not required to read or anything to understand the gist of this post; it's simply for my own peace of mind knowing that I spoke up about it. There will be topics that are possibly triggering such as harassment, threats, and racism so please mind the warnings and tags.

The mini-series is queued to finish next week, but there will be no more fic polls or wip wednesdays. I'll still be on here to make sure the queue does its job, and maybe post some stuff from my old drafts as a last bit of fun.

I'll have dms tentatively open for the next two-ish weeks for those who'd like to follow my new account, however I will not be answering anything from empty blogs. After that, asks and dms will be turned off, and I won't be coming back to this blog very often, if at all.

I cannot say thank you enough to the wonderful readers I've had and the amazing people I've met. I don't think I would've ever continued writing without your support and friendship. There's nothing I can do to show my appreciation for all of you.

Maybe we'll see each other again. If not, I hope your inspiration is always flowing, and 2024 treats you kindly.

Mothie 💜

Again, TW: rape/death threats, violent racism, repeated harassment, and mental health.

Back in November, I started getting rude, mean-spirited anons. It wasn't anything I was too bothered with because it didn't happen often and, honestly, my inbox gets flooded for a week or so anytime I post about certain topics. I blocked, deleted, reported and moved on thinking whoever it was would get bored and leave.

However, what started as a few rude anons calling me a bitch or stupid turned into a lot of anons being vile and racist which only worsened over the next few months.

I spoke about it in this post (link) near the end of November. In that post, I mentioned that those were the nicer asks and that was not an exaggeration. I have gotten my fair share of shitty anons as seen here (link) when I had to take a break from my blog because of said anons, but I have never gotten the amount of vitriol that I saw in these asks.

When I turned anon off, I started getting even worse messages from empty blogs that would either be blocked or deactivate within a week. When I turned my askbox off, I started getting hateful DMs. When I turned DMs off, it jumped from Tumblr to my other social medias which I had to private, completely avoid, or outright delete.

I got messages attacking my writing, calling me slurs, threatening to find me and rape or kill me, sending me explicit porn and rape videos while insulting my sexuality, and going into gross detail about how much people I interacted with hated me or how I would never be as good as them. I tried to power through it, pretending everything was fine while I pulled away from this blog, from writing, from friends that I loved and talked to every day. Everything about this blog, the fandoms I enjoyed, the people I talked to, made me so anxious because of these constant messages.

I took several breaks while dealing with this in therapy, repeatedly trying to come back and get comfortable on this blog, but within a few days of coming back the messages would start up again, either here or on any of my social medias I tried to unprivate, and I couldn't deal with it.

Only in the last week or two has it started to slow down and stop on a few of my other socials, which is the only reason I even feel comfortable making this post. However, in regards to this blog and my feelings toward it, the damage is done.

I don't think I can ever truly convey how isolating this has been. So many of these messages were about how I've spoken about my struggles as a black woman in fandom, how much of a burden it puts on the people who interact with me, how inferior I am to them and that I am everything that's wrong with fandom.

I felt scared and anxious to talk to anyone about this, especially people mentioned in those messages, out of fear that this harassment would jump to them. There are friendships that I stepped away from that I will never get back because of that. There are friends that I've felt like I was betraying by never telling them about what was happening because I felt too ashamed about letting this get to me.

I constantly worried that making a post like this would feel like, "Oh, Mothie's whining and trauma-dumping into the void about fandom racism again", that those messages would be right and it would force people to feel like they had to support me. Or worse, that people would agree and it would only make things worse. I've wrestled with so much guilt trying to decide to make this post and figure out what to do to make me trust myself again.

Ultimately, I don't think I was wrong for talking about my issues in fandom, and I don't think anything I've said has warranted this kind of harassment. I don’t know the who’s or why’s behind of this, but I've come to terms with the fact that I'll never really know. Truthfully, I'm not sure it even matters at this point. In the end, I think moving on from this blog entirely would be the best thing for me right now.

But, man, does it fucking suck.

This was the blog where I felt comfortable enough to start writing again, to start posting my fics. It's the blog where I met so many friends, got the courage to join new communities, found new hobbies, new music, new things to enjoy in life. It feels silly to say about a blog, but this was a place where I felt like I was able to carve out a space for myself. I put so much work into making it my own, and now the only thing I feel about it is anxious.

Hate messages and threats and racism have always been a part of fandom, and the internet as a whole. I’ve known since I started participating in fandom spaces that it was going to and continue to happen. I've known that I had to have a tough skin, especially if I ever spoke up about problems I faced because no one was going to have my back if I didn't have my own. I thought I had learned how to deal with it, and how to make a safe space for myself. But this goes beyond that. I did not deserve this. No one deserves this.

In some ways, it feels like admitting defeat, like I'm weak or hypocritical for not being as strong as I pretended I was and leaving. In other ways, it feels freeing to start over, and I'm choosing to view look at this optimistically even if it bittersweet. I don't want to let this scare me away from writing or from speaking about things that are important to me. All I can do now is say I'm so incredibly sorry to those I've hurt by stepping away or keeping this secret, and make sure I'm able to at least leave this blog on as happy a note as I can have.

[olderthannetfic]

As someone who's been wondering why there've been so many senseless, needless arguments online about a hypothetical derth of purity in fiction and how it affects people negatively (it doesn't), now learning from several friends who are teachers (with the oldest being a uni professor) that Gen Z (27-11 yo) and Gen Alpha can't read, have poor media literacy, and soley seek fiction to reaffirm their own worldviews without curiosity and with judgement (and a lot of it). I say this as someone who is Gen Z. I'm only 26 years old, but I'm also a TA right now while I'm in grad school. it's not just the middle school and high school students. College students who should be able to do simple literary analysis cannot. Sure these issues (puritanical thinking, absent/poor parenting, lackluster curriculum, etc) have always existed, but with this in mind, it absolutely makes sense why there's so much dumb discourse over things in media that anyone with sense could separate from reality. Even simple things that you learn in elementary school at 6 years old, like "just because the story is focalized through a specific character, doesn't mean they're correct/the protagonist≠morally righteous/you're not always supposed to agree with the POV character or main characters." Maybe it really is the case that, sure some people are being deliberately obtuse, but there are also others who probably don't know.

I've seen it explained to people in fandom and on tumblr with popular series people have read or seen. No, you're not supposed to think Light Yagami is a good guy or a hero. "L is the straightforward hero in Death Note the whole time" isn't clever. It's the main text. No, you're not supposed to agree with Eren Jaeger or military fascists. "SNK is pro military and pro genocide" is just inaccurate. All the characters exhibiting those traits are killed to signal the flaws in their rhetoric. It's actually really unambiguous in that regard, not at all subtle. No, x shoujo/YA fantasy/Ya romance isn't advocating for middle school or high school girls to date men in their mid-20s. Teen girls have always fantasized about adults they find attractive, and these stories (made for and marketed to teen girls) fulfills that desire while protecting them from the possibility of that reality (an adult returning their feelings). No, it's not weird that mythological gods (but I see people mostly complaining about Greek and Egyptian ones) are related. It's purposeful. They're all related concepts and personifications of nature, which is all connected. Get over yourselves. No, it's not weird that gothic stories have incest in them. It was a common practice among aristocracy and nobility all around them world (so, not just a "white people thing"), and it typically symbolizes the decay as social norms. If you feel discomfort, then the story was successful.

On the one hand, sure. It's purity culture, ignorance, misogyny, etc. On the other hand, do the people who harp on about these actually know how to interpret stories? I'm often told "They can't read" as an explanation by others. I'm starting to think it's true, and I don't know how to combat that as someone who may be an educator down the road myself while also being involved in fandom.

--

I'd say it's about 50/50 the usual The Kids These Days scaremongering and a genuine shift.

Reading comprehension can be taught. I was taught to analyze passages in school. Students have to be open to learning, but it's not like some critical language thing you need to absorb before the age of two: a college student who's actually interested in getting better can perfectly well do so, possibly with some help or possibly just with experience.

Plenty of it is anxiety about being wrong and immoral and hurting people too. It's fundie thinking where listening and engaging means capitulating. Lots of people do slowly get over this. Many will calm down about it if they ever get the anxiety meds they so desperately need. Some would probably benefit from ceasing to self harm via social media doomscrolling or exclusively consuming attention span-destroying, FOMO-inducing garbage.

...I say as I answer tumblr asks instead of getting out of bed to start my New Year's resolutions.

[alpaca-clouds]

The Canonicity of the Digimon Wonderswan Games

I am right now a bit back into my old Digimon hyperfixation I am afraid. So let me nerd out a bit more about it, or in this case rant about another thing.

See, I am in a bit of a weird position in regards of this fandom. I am from Germany, where we got the dub names and stuff, but the Japanese cut of the anime. But also, I switched to watching the sub already by the time Digimon Tamers was starting to air in Japan, and had fairly easy access to most of the Japanese media for the franchise through the magic of the internet.

As such I grew up with the Japanese stuff for Digimon in the most part. Including the Wonderswan games, that are kinda legendary in the west. And man, let me tell you: I love those games. They are not really good games, I would argue. Like the game mechanics are just not very polished, and like in a lot of Japanese games at the time you needed to grind quite a lot. But I loved the story and the way it was portrayed. And I adore the game version of Ryou. He is my cute baby boy, who needs a serious hug.

However... Something that I have already been annoyed with was the fact that a lot of western fandom has always seen these games as canon. And I kinda get why - at least in regards to Adventure/02 - given that Ryou gets referenced in the canon a lot. It is canon that Ryou exists in this universe, as well as Millenniumon. And it is canon that Ken and Ryou travelled through the digital world. However... The game as it is, is in fact not canon and never was meant to be. This is because games very much contradict several aspects of the primary canon (the show). Let us go through those things, okay?

Anode/Cathode Tamer

This game takes place on New Years Eve 1999, so about 4 (or really 5) months after Digimon Adventure. Millenniumon, a Digimon that has been formed when the data of the defeated Machinedramon fused with a Chimeramon, messed up the digital world and brought back the villains the Chosen Children had already defeated. Being brought back, they kidnap the Chosen children. Agumon turns to a human child - Ryou Akiyama - as he needs a human to evolve. So, Ryou on his own has to fight through the villains of Digimon Adventure to free the chosen children. He is not a Chosen Child himself, though, being made to borrow Taichi's Digivice.

Now, this game is clearly not canon - the villains being brought back is never mentioned again, and it is explicitly said that spring 2000 was the first time that the Chosen Children returned back to the Digital World after their original adventure.

Other than that... I kinda love how vile the villains are in this game. I really adore it. But yeah, definitely not canon.

Tag Tamers

Tag Tamers starts during the events of the second movie. Diaboromon is defeated and just as this happens, Ryou and Ken get contacted by V-mon and Piccolomon. Millenniumon is back, and it is up to Ryou to defeat it. This time he has to partner up with V-mon, who is already destined to be Daisuke's partner. So Ryou and Ken go visit the digital world together - only to find out, that it was all a trap set up by Millenniumon to lure Ryou back.

This game at once is the one most directly referenced in the Show (with Ken's flashback to getting infected with the Dark Spore) and also the more most directly contradicted by the show. Because while the game takes place in March 2000, the series explicitly names the time of Ken and hence Ryou travelling to the digital world as August 2000, exactly a year post-Adventure. More interestingly we do not see any partner with Ryou in the flashback either, and it is pretty clear that if V-mon ever met Ken or Ryou before, he does most certainly not remember.

It should also be noted that in this game Ken and Ryou both get D-3 Digivices, while in the primary canon Ken obviously received a normal Digivice at this point, that only later turned into the D-3 at the Dark Ocean.

D-1 Tamers

D-1 Tamers takes place not too long after Tag Tamers. While watching over Ken, who is sick from the Dark Spore, Ryou finds an online quiz about Digimon and upon answering it gets once more summoned to the Digital World. Here, he is made to participate in the D-1 Tournament against other Children and their Digimon partners, including both characters from the anime and some original characters. However, soon enough it turns out, that the tournament was just something created by the Holy Beasts to train Ryou up to once more fight against Millenniumon.

Basically, the same from before applies. The kids in this game all have D-3 Digivices, that did not yet exist in this universe. Nowhere in canon is it ever mentioned that Taichi and Co. have travelled back to the Digital World at this point - and mind you, the entire thing with the Holy Beasts also does not make a whole lot of sense considering the canon of the show (with the Holy Beasts just being brought back).

As someone who tends to latch onto minor characters very easily, I loved the original characters in this game, even though they have very few lines.

Mind you, if you have been in Digimon fandom spaces for a longer time, you might have come across the picture underneath before and thought to yourself: "Oh, this looks official." However... It is actually Fanart. To be exact this picture seems to originate with a fan-book on the games called Digimon Crusader. (I have been trying to get my hands on that one before. But I have only seen it two times up for auction and never could get manage to set up a proxy in time - as the sellers were never shipping to Europe.)

This is the book by the way:

Brave Tamer

Lastly there is Brave Tamer, a game that is rather hard to describe, because it involves a ton of time travel. Hurray, because this plot was not already convoluted enough. lol

Basically, it starts with Ryou at the very beginning of the Digital World, meeting Monodramon and then timehopping a whole lot to help both the Chosen Children and Tamers (who also show up here, because the game released by the time Tamers was out), and also get some closure. Please note, at this point in time the digital world has fucked up Ryou's mental health for good. lol

The game ends with Monodramon forcing a fusion between himself and Millenniumon, defeating the villain like this and leaving Ryou out of time with a single Digitama.

The plot of this game, due to the time travel, is a whole mess. I adore the game for the worldbuilding it does for the Adventure digital world, even though this, too, is doubtful in terms of canonicity. There is no real harm to take this as canon for the Adventure-world, though obviously the show itself contradicts this in terms of canon for the Tamers-world.

The crossover stuff between Tamers and Adventure verse is also very confusing to say the least. But yeah, given that none of the interactions here ever get referenced anywhere: This is also very certainly not canon. (Also, for some reason Ryou aged 2 years between D-1 Tamers and Brave Tamer, even though Brave Tamer starts up very shortly after D-1 Tamers ends.)

So, what is canon?

All of this might leave you wondering: What is canon for Ryou? Well, it is kinda hard to say. What we can assume is something like this:

In the universe of Digimon Adventure there is or was a boy named Akiyama Ryou. We do not know a whole lot about him, but based on his design he was probably 10 or 11 years old in August of 2000. When Ken first got called into the Digital World, he met Ryou there, and the two of them defeated Millenniumon, getting Ken infected with the Dark Spore. We do not know what happened to Ryou after this, but it seems unlikely that he and Ken stayed in contact, given Ken never brings him up. It is not impossible that he has died, though this is never confirmed, or contradicted by the canon.

In the universe of Digimon Tamers, there also exists a boy named Akiyama Ryou. Other than the boy from the games, he is not from Tokyo, but from a fishing village near Kitakyushu. We do not know whether he has a mother, but he has a father, as well as an uncle who lives in Tokyo. Whenever Ryou participated in the Digimon tournaments, he stayed with his uncle, apparently. In December 2000, Ryou meets Cyberdramon in Tokyo, and realized that Cyberdramon cannot stay in the real world because it is too aggressive. So he decides to travel to the Digital World together with it. Now, technically you can argue whether Cyberdramon is the Digimon resulting from the fusion of Monodramon and Millenniumon, but Ryou is very much a different character with a different backstory.

(And mind you: No, that US Comic that marries the Digimon Tamers story with some of the game story, is very much not canon, like all US-only material.)

[thissying]

Thanks for uploading ep 1 of the doco – while it’s clearly a highly managed piece of media, it remains a rich text for Max scholars. Entirely aside from padel shirtlessness.

I think my favourite parts were:

Max just being a huge racing nerd, which we already knew but I always enjoy.

Competence kink, especially that final GT3 testing session.

Going from me not knowing anything about his GT3 racing team to ‘oh of course it’s his ride-or-die childhood friend who he’s mentoring, because Max attaches early and hard or not at all’.

Max’s sincere enjoyment of/commitment to The Process which helps him offset being a nightmare of competitiveness. (Something I particularly admire and respect in Alex Albon as well.)

It may have been the editing but I got a kick out of that video call after Suzuka. ‘Congratulations on winning the championship—’ ‘Yeah thanks, now here are many questions about your GT3 race weekend…’

Max looking relaxed in the talking heads even though he was doing them solo, without someone else onscreen to bounce off. Basically the opposite of his DTS talking heads.

(I understand why Max’s horrible dad™️ has such a big presence but for the sake of my blood pressure, on rewatch maybe I’ll use a post-it note to block him from my sight. 🙃 )

I don't see enough people talk about things this way any more in fandom on tumblr, including myself btw, except in tags but even then not so much, so I enjoyed getting this ♥

Yeah, same wrt how huge of a racing nerd he is. The fact that Thierry had to explain to him several procedures of the GT3 car first because it was new to him and then he did some laps and knew exactly what needed to be changed to improve the car. With giving credit to Thierry and the "engineers are stubborn, that's just how they are" comment 😂 And yesss, that final testing session where the head of track engineering is so impressed that he expects to be talking about it during nights at the bar in years to come. I was like: that's our boy, yeah 😊

I wouldn't be surprised if that was how that Suzuka phone call really went! He's so serious about his commitment and guidance to other drivers and it was one of my favourite things we got to see in this episode. Him being direct about things that aren't good without being rough or cruel, making me think that is part his character and part his own experiences (the good and bad ones). He seems good at constructive criticism; "here's what you're doing wrong or what you need to improve and here's what you can do about that." Lovelovelove.

Also, him being more nervous when watching family and friends race than when he has to do it himself because of the control. Which is such a common thing for people to feel (not just in racing) but I love knowing this about him.

I agree about the talking heads parts. Genuinely relaxed! The bit where they cut to his laughter about Thierry's remote control car 🥰

Other favourite bit: the "so much grip" comment about his shoes, in unison like it's an old familial in-joke.

The G-Star RAW interview is a good one! I feel like it should be like a first go-to for (new) Max fans who want to know a little bit more about him, even though it's a bit older already. I never saw any flirting in this though, but I'd put that down more to Edwin Evers than Max!

ETA: also. the maxplaining to Thierry after padel!!!

[asses-to-ashes]

Longass post about some problematic aspects of 2000-2010 fandom, and why antis are not the solution for ongoing problems.

When people my age talk about 2000s-2010 fandom, they usually talk about it with rose-colored glasses as if it was the Golden age of fandom. I've done the same thing in some of my posts at times, and I don't necessarily see a problem with it, especially when you're discussing it under the context of the current climate of censorship and community harassment, but it's important to look back at the past objectively. When I say old fandom in this post, just know that I'm referring to 2000 to 2010.

There is a happy medium that needs to be reached between holding people accountable in fandom and avoiding censorship. The "anti" mindset goes way too far and polices how people explore fiction, but Old Fandom had its own problems with extremely poor behavior. In this essay I'm going to be exploring these problems in old fandom, the causes and solutions, why media censorship is never the answer. It's important to recognize and reflect on these things especially for people who weren't around to experience it. History repeats itself when Forgotten.

My point is not, and has never been that old fandom was worse than new fandom. My point is not that old fandom is bad at all. My point here is looking at problems, the solutions that have been made for those problems, and why they don't relate to censoring fiction at all.

I want to reiterate that I know things I'm about to discuss still happen. You do not have to comment. But it's important that we start looking objectively at Old Fandom as a wonderful, accepting but sometimes problematic (real problematic not the way antis nave coopted that word) space.

Keep in mind that this is an opinion piece. While I do provide statistics, I'm not trying to make any objective statements. My experience is probably different than yours. The experiences of my friends and my sources are probably different than yours.

With that in mind, let's get into it. Click read more for the meat of this essay

Cosplay Is Not Consent

Consent and sexual harassment have always been a huge issue within the cosplay community, there have been countless stories of women dealing with unwanted sexual advances such as touching, cat calls, kissing, and groping in convention spaces. At conventions in 2000, consent was never mentioned. With such a severe problem, the Cosplay Is Not Consent movement began.

This has been a notion that has been around for a while, been posted at some small cons as far beck as 2012. but it really only became a popularized sentiment at New York City Comic-Con 2014, where the phrase "Costumes Are Not Consent was posted publicly in the convention apace, along with a clear anti-harassment policy.

Even though research shows that most sexual harassment goes unreported, the amount of sexual harassment reports had more than halved in the first year of the visible anti-harassment signs and movement. The amount of sexual harassment cases at NYCC remained steady at "about a dozen" per year even as the number of attendees has increased from 151,000 in 2014 to more than 200,000 in 2023- A testament to the increased awareness of sexual harassment within fandom, an ongoing movement to protect attendees with anti-harassment policies.

A policy is only as good as the structure set up around that policy. An increasing number of conventions have a policy, display their policy prominently, define harassment, explain consequences, let guests know how to report harassment, and give separate protocols when convention organizers are responsible for abuse.

Now, instead of an unspoken "look the other way" policy, congoers are more likely to notice sexual harassment, come to someone's aid, and speak out. People who harass women are more likely to be kicked out of conventions and sexual harassment is more likely to be reported.

Obviously, sexual harassment and assault is still a huge problem in convention spaces, but with an increase in awareness around the issue, it's not as prominent as before.

Subsection: Yaoi Paddles, Glomping, and dangerous conduct

Reportedly first sold in 2002 at Otakon, yowie paddles are a wooden paddle with the word Yaoi burnt into the paddle end used for spanking people. They were a huge problem at conventions and caused a lot of people to be injured as a result. There were countless stories on forums about people being hit by random passerbys using a yaoi paddle, and people begged for it to be banned.

Glomping Is a running hug action that's a mix between a hug and a pounce. It was very popular in fandom, specifically around 2005 in the anime and furry fandoms. It was mostly younger people doing this and it caused a lot of people to be injured as well. Glopping incidents sometimes even included biting or groping.

Both of these behaviors were considered very poor etiquette, but were still very common in conventions. They were common enough so that even saying the words yaoi paddle or glomp to a cosplayer my age is like activating a sleeper agent. Your life flashes before your very eyes. Obviously I'm being dramatic here but it was very annoying.

Inappropriateness with Actors

In general, poor etiquette around celebrities is still a thing now. I haven't seen etiquette getting any better, so this point is less about a problem with old fandom and more about a current issue that still needs to be addressed. I'm going to be talking about real people, fan fiction and the blurred lines between characters and actors.

I'm not here to debate the ethics of "real people fiction." For those of you who don't know, RPF is a genre of fanfiction that involves real people. These people can be actors, politicians, historical figures, youtubers, really anything like that.

The problem comes from involving real actors in your fiction about them. What I mean by this is sending the actors your explicit fan fiction, or asking them inappropriate sexual questions. This is more of a problem from the early 2000's. While this does still happen now, it was really prolific in the early Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter fandoms.

Actors would frequently be invited to fan sites that had explicit RPF fanfiction. I've seen cases where actors were asked to sign copies of RPF, actors were mailed RPF, and were showed these fanfictions at meetups and conventions.

RPF never died off, and it's still a very popular genre. Between 2016 and 2017, fanfiction about real K-pop stars. Increased 10% on Tumblr. In 2015, Larry Stylinson was the number one ship on Tumblr according to Amanda Brennan, senior content insights manager at Tumblr.

Celebrities have been harassed for not following a fandom script, online shipping has led to the real life harassment of celebrities. For example, Lili Reinhart reported that her castmate was sent death threats because her character was getting in between a popular ship. This happened in 2017 and represents an ongoing problem in fandom.

Nazism and the Anime Boston Incident

I distinctly remember going to conventions when I was younger and seeing Nazi cosplayers walking around sometimes. They could be from Indiana Jones, Captain America, or whatever movie allowed them to wear that.

It wasn't until 2017 when Rose City Comic-Con updated a change to cosplay policy outlawing Nazi cosplayers including satirical or ironic cosplays which use Nazi paraphernalia or gear. Other conventions have also enacted similar cosplay bands in response to incidents such as the hello Kitty SS uniforms (yes, this is real) and cosplays of other fictional Nazis such as old school Hydra and red skull.

The most memorable incident that I distinctly saw on the internet in 2010 was the Hetalia Anime Boston Incident. For those of you who aren't familiar with hetalia, it's a series that came out in 2009 and initially took place in WWII, and each character is the humanization of a country. There is still debate on the characterization, especially regarding the character Germany- Poor guy was the cause of this specific controversy. The Italia fandom had exponential growth since 2009, and at anime Boston 2010, there was an incident regarding a hetalia photo shoot where cosplayers decided to do a Nazi salute as a joke. Even at the time, the sparked controversy on the Hetalia fandom on livejournal which is why I remember this incident so specifically. There were incidents like this beforehand, but this garnered enough attention online so that lots of photographers made it very clear that no Nazi imagery or posing was allowed.

With more restrictive policies and increased awareness, these types of cosplays became a lot less common in the west. The band are usually around Nazi iconography and symbols such as salutes and uniforms. You still see these cosplays today, such as an example from Hong Kong at Ani-com that took place this month, July 2024.

Where do antis fit in here?

I want to make it super clear that none of these major issues that I brought up here have to do with fiction. The points that are related to fiction, such as cosplaying a Nazi character or sending RPF to actors are entirely based on people's conduct in real life.

People never stopped liking characters like Red Skull, people still write about him and draw him. People should be allowed to write about characters like Red Skull and people should be allowed to like him, the issue arises when you wear a Nazi uniform in a public place.

People never stopped liking Yaoi. Little fan girls never stopped reading exactly the same stuff that I was reading at their age. The difference comes from behavior in real life.

Universally, the vast majority of fandom regardless of the time are able to separate fiction from reality. The problems were never caused by fiction, but rather people's behavior.

In order to stop people from cosplaying Nazi characters, the solution was not getting rid of all Nazi characters in media and harassing people who write about them. The solution was, very simply, to ban this kind of iconography at conventions and hold people accountable for their conduct.

Regardless of the space and the fandom, there are always going to be people who can't behave properly. There are always going to be people who don't know how to treat others. That's just the reality of looking at a group of people, some people don't have common sense. It is not the fiction that causes people to behave this way, but rather having a large group of people in a relatively new scene that hasn't established proper regulations and etiquette yet.

Allowing people to create, consume, and appreciate fiction that is not personally tasteful to you, or appropriate for some audiences, is an important part of society. It's extremely valuable to protect these freedoms, as censorship is a slippery slope.

My next essay will be about censorship in the Cold war era, McCarthyist homophobia, and why comic books were censored for having "anti-american" ideas.

Keep an eye out for that.

[vamos-chilli]

The Internet Tifosi

an informal reflection of online fan spaces by me, a recent member of the tifosi.

I love being part of the tifosi. I love the colour red. I love seeing the passion of the tifosi at races. I love Charles. I love Carlos. I love watching races and highlights from old team lineups I love the greats like Schumacher and Lauda and Prost I love Ferrari.

My path in f1 didnt start with Ferrari, it started with McLaren- my dad is a huge McLaren fan, he introduced me to Lando (and Carlos but primarily Lando) in lockdown and sure it didnt click with me right away; I watched some races with him, he showed me the highlights from the races I didnt watch with him (including several videos of Grosjean's infamous crash) and despite the fact that I wasn't heavily invested it gave us something to bond over. That September when I left home for university it gave us a reason to call each other. When I developed a genuine interest (after I decided I wasn't coming back home after I graduate university) my dad wasn't bothered by the fact that I had shown up at Christmas with a Ferrari hat on, in fact he took it off my head and tried it on himself; "do I look good as a Sainz fan?". From my dad introducing me to Lando, Carlos was the natural next step in immersing myself into the fan community. From Carlos, we found Charles and the Tifosi. I don't have many (or any) friends in real life with the same level of interest in Formula 1 that I have developed, naturally I found myself creating this blog hoping to find a community within online spaces that wasn't available to me in the digital world.

My experience within the tifosi has been... unique, to say the least. I have been engaged in online fan spaces since I was around 14- I made my Tumblr account in 2016 to talk about supernatural, before moving on to buzzed unsolved, and marvel and so on as my interests developed and changed. Within each of these communities I have found a group of people that I felt comfortable around enough to call them genuine friends. some of whom I still keep in contact with despite the fact that our interests have changed. that hasn't quite happened to the same extent with the internet's Tifosi; and there is a multitude of reasons why.

The 'Versus' Predicament

To be rather blunt for a moment- I have never been part of a community that has been filled with so much vitriol for other members, and I was part of the Marvel fandom when Civil War was released (team cap). In fact, it seem that the tifosi are constantly engaged in a Civil War of their own- devoted fans of Charles as the self-labelled Lecfosi and Team55 practically always appear to be at odds with each other. And publicly so.

It is natural for people to have a favourite driver- we've just discussed how ive come to find myself as a devotee to Team55. But as with other areas, fan spaces have seen negative impact in communication due to internet dependancy in recent years.

From my perspective, the issue appears to be a mixture of cancel culture and virtue signalling. Now cancel culture is in itself a manifestation of virtue signalling in which creators or whomever else face mass criticism and attempted deplatforming as the internet becomes aware of potentially problematic past or present behaviour; however given its internet context and usage I've elected to view it as a separate entity.

Internet fan spaces have regressed to a state of defensiveness- in order to promote and validate your approval of one subject you must justify why in comparison to another. This is where the effects of cancel culture come into play. Cancel culture reached its peak performativity during quarantine as the internet and social media became the primary method of protesting and spreading awareness of activism whilst maintaining social distancing and quarantining requirements. As morality became monitored and policed by a younger and younger average user base, it is natural that there was a bastardisation of the phenomenon resultant in the mass cancelling and calling out of any person who spoke or acted in a manner that wasn't deemed correct; not necessarily related to politics or activism at this point, I myself received an influx of mass hatred and cancellations to the point where I was borderline shunned by an entire gaming community for making a joke about everyone hating one of the event mini games ('whats everyones favourite game and why is it not buildmart').

This same mindset is so visibly present within the Tifosi today- both extremes find themselves comparing one driver to the other in order to justify their favour. For example, tensions have been high with Lecfosi and Team55 almost in a panicked state looking to justify why they chose to support their favourite driver with 'Carlos is gifted every achievement Charles would have beaten him if he wasn't held back ' and 'Ferrari fired the wrong driver' filling the comments of Ferrari's Instagram and Twitter posts. This has prompted fans to flock to defend their preferred driver, often in ways which contribute to the animosity. Drivers face this pseudo-cancellation as a result with twitter bios seeing additions of 'Carlos fans din' 'if you like CL16 unfollow me' after every race. Criticisms of the drivers themselves increase, they are placed under heavier scrutiny as the violence between fans increases leading to a never-ending circle of driver-to-fan hatred. it is seen as almost a moral failure within fan spaces to support the wrong driver.

I, personally, have witnessed arguments between fans in comment sections on tiktok- the most memorable being a 'share your favourite driver and why' tiktok in which a Carlos fan received comments of 'Well you know Charles is actually better because x y z'. (I'd like to point out this is not an antagonisation of Charles fans, but this is what actually happened nor am I excusing Team55 from the ability to make similar comment). The notable point here is that Charles was never mentioned, yet the mere fact of someone else preferring the wrong driver in this commenter's eyes lead to them purposefully targeting another Ferrai fan to chastise them on their decision effectively boiling the interaction down to 'you're not allowed to support this driver because I don't like him'.

This is where virtue signalling comes into play. For those unaware, virtue signalling is the public expression of opinion with the intent of alignment with a moral correctness. The internet especially in fanbases weaponises that frequently through the examples of 'dni of you support x' as discussed prior. The followup to that mindset is the feeling of requirement to discuss. For example, when a driver races poorly or is subjected to penalty, fan spaces will see an influx of posts demanding fans to defend their driver (How can you support him when he drives like that), mass criticising the driver (he doesn't deserve his seat why isn't he fired), or public statement of disapproval because of the social requirement to misalign yourself with the incorrect actions of another person without genuine belief behind the statement as oftentimes excuses will be made for their preferred person in a similar situation. At times it appears that the primary interaction of some people within the Tifosi is to engage in critical commentary on their disliked drivers.

Criticism? Or extreme negativity?

With call out and cancel culture leaving the political sphere it has severely impacted the positivity of fanbases as criticism becomes a primary, almost necessary, aspect of fan culture. Of course we talk about critical consumption in which you are able to analyse and evaluate the content which we consume and become aware of its biases and flaws, however this has snowballed to become criticise everything you consume. Thus, the animosity of the fan spaces rises once more.

Of course every driver is bound to face warranted criticism- the majority of the grid are socially unaware rich white men, they are destined to say or do something worth criticising. They are bound to say bitchy things and act in ways that you don't agree with because that is just the nature of humanity, everyone does these things. But that does not mean every single one of their actions are worth dissecting under the microscope. And the prevalent attitude of analysing drivers mannerisms, behaviours emotions and heat-of-the-moment radios and comments doesn't display the analytical eye a lot of people think it does.

A lot of attitudes in the 2024 spaces that I have personally seen have centred a Carlos negativity- there have been dire criticisms of the journalistic bias towards him across the first 3 races of the year. Of course, if you don't like him then you're bound to be tired of hearing about him. But what I found interesting was the theories being circulated that he was paying his way into the media or that there was a behind-the-scenes scheme to keep media interest on him. Now, a lot of people perceived this to be a theory based on the culture surrounding Sainz's family wealth and his father's influence when in reality it was likely to be because of the increased interest around his circumstances going into the season- no seat for 2025, rumoured negotiations with several teams, surgery and first non Red Bull win of the season. to analyse this situation critically is not to say 'well there must be a secret reason and I will investigate' but to recognise that journalism is reliant on attention grabbing headlines- a man with no job and no appendix winning a race while still in the post-surgery recovery period is exactly the kind of narrative that will garner clicks. It would have been the same had it have been any other driver in that specific set of circumstances. There is a difference between critical thinking and assumptive analyses and oftentimes they can become conflated in the desire to prove a point.

This is the issue- a lot of people engage analytically with media in order to suggest a particular narrative. Every person is subject to bias, and when that bias is unchecked it can lead to a lot of analysis that are reliant on theory, speculation and assumption in order to maintain the subconscious perspective of the writer. This is why we see a lot of people use demeaning nicknames towards Charles on twitter an simultaneously view Carlos as undeserving in instagram comments- the integral points of their perspective on the driver rest on the moments which will develop their narrative view of the driver as the lesser. Critical engagement cannot rest solely on one the positive or the negative, otherwise you failing to engage critically by cherry picking a perspective in order to maintain a narrative. That is tabloid journalism, or gossip, at best.

I Am In Misery

It is also just not healthy for you as a fan to consistently engage in negative commentary and discourse. I mean that seriously this is a PSA if your fan engagement sees your negative criticism and commentary of your disliked driver outweigh the time you spend enjoying your interest then you need to take a step back and reassess how you want to participate because that is not sustainable for your mental wellbeing.

This is not to say that you must never hate, you must never criticise or say anything bad about someone we all do it- it's natural. But you have to ask yourself if you truly enjoy using another driver to uplift your favourite. Aren't his accomplishments enough to validate him alone?

Ive noticed a complete lack of will to celebrate- in my inbox right now are maybe around 15 asks all talking about how I shouldn't be happy with this weekends performance or else I dont understand F1. I argue the inverse,

I understand F1. I understand that this weekend was not the best performance Ferrari had to offer. I understand the impact of the team racing each other and Carlos' aggression during the sprint. And I have mentioned as much. However, I choose to focus on the positive aspects of the weekend. The tyre management from both drivers was impeccable to gain 2 positions each and maintain them finishing on tyres that were 40 laps old. They made an excellent recovery from the mishaps in qualifying that ultimately earned the team and themselves more points. We maintain 2nd in the constructors championship and 3rd and 4th in the drivers. There are issues that need to be discussed and resolved but ultimately this is not the worlds worst performance.

F1 is entertainment. I want to win, I want to succeed but I also want to be entertained. My mental health has seen a series uptick since I decided to directly seek entertainment. Sure, the drivers shouldn't have been racing the way they were, it had the potential to put both cars in a detrimental position, but it sure does make things more interesting!!! There's almost a sense of parasocialism within the community- a lot of people are hesitant to look for relief beyond the emotions of their favourite driver, and subsequently view every race as a failure in some aspect (just outside of the podium, on the podium but not p1, could've done better if it wasn't for xyz) and that negatively affects their experience as a fan and for other fans who don't share that perspective. It's almost like people have forgotten to enjoy the race, they're so preoccupied with looking for something to criticise.

Now this isn't to say you're not allowed to enjoy critical assessments of the success of races. But thats not what the majority of us are posting (it might be what some of you think you're posting, but you're not). I love watching video essays on races that are done properly with acknowledgement and awareness of bias. I don't love reading posts along the lines of 'why this race actually sucked' (not a real example) because it's not built from an analytical or critical perspective, just a discussion of the race and outcome through a lens of destructive pessimism.

End

This behaviour isn't specific to the Tifosi, it's an internet wide phenomenon. But I've chosen to directly comment on it here because as I said, I've never sen a community with so much hatred for itself. As of 2024, we are all on the same team right now. We have the right to hold our own opinions of the drivers and express those. We do not have the right to argue on the validity of other fans preferences, we do not have the right to directly enter fan spaces (ie the main tags) and spread destructive negativity about a driver nor do we have the right to harass blogs for whom they chose to support.

The inherent negativity is so calamitous to the community. It perpetuates the infighting, it furthers the negative narratives we have constructed of drivers, it only contributes to divide the community as both sides earn reputations of being toxic towards each other. And to an extent, yes . It is true, and that is disappointing. You have the right to choose your favourite driver. However, Charles and Carlos are both talented drivers- there is no need to drag one down to uplift the other. It is instigating behaviour and I'm sure a lot of people comment in that manner purposefully.

Be aware of your parasocial connection to a driver. if you find yourself criticising a driver for an action that you would not criticise your favourite for executing ask yourself why you view the action as negative circumstantially. If you are only able to assess races based on what could have happened, what better could have happened then ask yourself if you find this enriching; do you leave race weekends feeling good and excited for the next race or soured because things might have been better under different circumstances. Don't ignore the problems, acknowledge them and say but what are the positives as opposed to letting the failures undermine the successes.

just have a bit of fucking fun once in a while PLEASE .

as an endnote: I do recognise that the majority of insights and examples I have given in this reflection have been at the expense of team 55, again I would like to reiterate that as someone who primarily finds themself in 55 spaces I a naturally experience a greater exposure to negativity towards that driver as it usually tends to be maintagged or sent directly to myself or other 55 centric blogs. Just as the CL16 community is more likely to be exposed to and remember hatred towards Charles. In no way am I insinuating that 55 fans are incapable of or have not acted in the the same nature, to Charles' detriment. The toxicity remains prevalent on both extremes of the community.

this is a mass response to the people in my inbox thank you for your patience I didnt want to answer like 15 different asks about everything in slightly different ways

[crimeronan]

What’s your opinion on transfemme hunter + lumity polycule, without willow. Or maybe lavender winter with Gus. Asking cause I really like your thoughts on these things?

i'll be real i love both. the thing about me is that i will enjoy any poly configuration of friends, especially ones that play with gender and sexuality. i've seen more controversy with both of these than even with lavender winter, though, which makes me cautious in how i talk about them. because i am constantly aware that a large part of this fandom has High Standards for when ships are Unproblematic (TM) and i'm like...... i think i interact with media differently than you do. please don't eat me.

anyway with the hexsquad i've seen gus described as "guy in the polycule who's not dating anyone, he's just there" similarly to lilith in any constellation of the adults, which is fine and fun. i also think that once they're older, though, he does not Have to be? i get squicked out by interpretations of gus that are like "he's hunter and willow's baby" because uhhhhh. there are Several Episodes completely dedicated to why that is 1) not true, and 2) a disservice to him.

there's an assumption that anyone who polyships hexsquad wants a 12-year-old to date a 16-year-old but like. i've already said i think lavender winter would figure their shit out later in life. if gus joins the polycule when everyone's in their mid-to-late twenties then the age gap Does Not Fucking Matter.

but like. i know that's controversial. these characters aren't real people and i don't know why ppl are still following me if they have an issue with Problematic Content given some of what i've written about hunter and/or princess luz, so. i shouldn't be anxious about stating this. i've just been thru some shit in past fandoms so i'm always expecting the worst. Be Nice To Me.

as for lumiter with transfem hunter, i similarly love it, and that's precisely Because i'm a dyke with a lot of transfem acquaintances i'd be into in a heartbeat. like join my polycule. i am not exaggerating when i say that every "cis guy" i had a crush on in high school (who i thought could maybe save me from my gayness) later transitioned. or that all the things i found fun and attractive about them turned up 100000x percent once they felt comfortable presenting as women.

like sexuality is fluid and i'd still be a lesbian even if i'd crushed on cis guys who were still cis guys. but it makes me laugh. and hunter is one of those characters who can easily be trans in any direction, and i Love Transfem Hunter So Much.

i do still want willow in there though. like if i have a choice between lumiter with willow and lumiter without willow i'll pick willow every time. by itself, tho, still a Great Triad. a+. very clearly something i'd be happy to write.

i guess the takeaway here is that shipping "rules" don't matter so much to me now that i'm in my late 20s and know what i'm about and know why i like things or don't like things. and the other takeaway is that i'll ship Anything that i find cute or interesting. i like transposing my experiences to the media i consume! this is how most people do fandom!

[moonpoolcat]

Personal question but you said in your bio you were abandoned by the last fandom you were a part of? how did that happen if you don't mind me asking?

Oh I can for sure answer that. The last fandom I was a part of was a sci-fi based furry server I had been a part of for years. I treated everyone there like family, my art improved because of them and I looked up to the owner of the server like a second parent an I regret it to this day. However the owner of the discord server allowed children to run her server an be in an area that was 13 an up when it should have been 18 an up. I was openly stalked an harassed by a dam 15 year old for 2 years an I had screenshots worth of evidence and the mods did nothing- The server was severely toxic and I had called out it's issues twice to where I was banned not once but three FUCKING TIMES! Do you understand that they made me to be the bad guy because I refused to keep my mouth shut. She let mods abuse their power an did nothing, she hired random strangers with no mod application to be admins even though there were users who had been there since the servers opening an were never chosen it was all favoritism from the start. One of those bans was for an entire year an they didn't even let me back in after a month when they promised to let me rejoin. I was forgotten... I was a pest. A RAT to them. I was on a list of troublemakers when I had done nothing but try an keep the server safe, even accidentally co-running it because none of the mods were on until I said something that pissed them off. They didn't defend anyone unless it was their stupid little friend group giving them extra privilege's. DO NOT make it obvious you have favorites I will openly hate you for your entire existence. Keep that shit to yourself an don't enrage your fans. This child made unwanted unconsented ships, lore broke an bypassed multiple rules, had a futa kink, misrepresented lesbians, the trans community multiple times misrepresented people with multiple personality disorders, fact checking, an overall being a dick to everyone. As of now I am banned forever an no longer allowed to return, the place I once called home is now gone forever, the countless ocs I drew are long forgotten an i have been abandoned. All because of poor management... This is why I don't talk to younger users an have openly wrote in my bio that I don't want them dm me on this platform. I am openly blunt an none of them would handle an argument with me even if they tried. It just reminds me that no matter what I do everyone will always say "they're just a kid" MAN FUCK THAT! If you do some dumb shit I'm calling you out on it I don't care how young you are you're old enough to make an account, you're aware of what's right or wrong don't be stupid your actions have consequences. You want to be an adult I'll treat you like one. Go fucking cope for all i care. To this day I had successfully managed to get them banned from every server an I will keep doing it until they erase themselves from the internet.

Fuck with my life I break your legs so no one cna help you :) Call this controversial I don't care much social is a distaser now. ELIAM WHITE IF YOU'RE READING THIS FUCK YOU! GO KILL YOURSELF YOU SCUMBAG YOU ABSOLUTELY RUINED MY LIFE. since you can't even bother to change your username on any social media platform. I hope everyone on here knows you're a zoophile for fetishising Dobermans, wolves, dragons, and any form of big cat. No your stupid mutt of a dog is not part wolf stop bragging about it. Your lore an ocs are complete ass no one wants to read that shit garbage you call a fandom. YOU DO NOT HAVE ADHD, no one makes notes of strangers on their phones, stalks their timezones an hits on their oc the moment they create one. You hate everyone who's in a relationship trying to be a third wheel you creep. NOT TO MENTION YOU'RE A PEDO FOR SHOWING PORN TO MINORS YOUNGER THAN YOU! YOU ACTIVELY HAVE NOTHING BUT ADULTS FOR FRIENDS YOU WILL GET THEM ALL SENT TO JAIL! And for anyone else reading this from that server I hope you know that you are all good for nothing traitors an have ignored my pleas for help for far too long. None of you believed in me an none of you bothered to see what this little boy has done. Fuck you all. GO FUCK YOURSELVES!!!

[alarrytale]

I have hundreds of ideas of how to keep fans engagement up without shitting on your fans or stunting. I have hundred of ideas of how to improve Louis' shows and get a more likeable image that attracts the gp.

Marte can you share some of this ideas? I would love to read them.

Hi, Louis' team!

I bet you would. You seem out of ideas and in need of free advice. I've talked about this many times before, over several asks. I'm going to give a few examples of the hundreds of ideas i have lol.

Know your audience/fandom and who you should spend your time catering to

It’s larries, females, 20-30 years old, former 1d stans. It's not chavs living in their mothers basement in Doncaster...

How to do it: Ditch the lad image, the athleisure wear, the toxic masculinity, the Liam Gallagher impersonation and the punk/anarchy/indie image and sound. Stop taking fan favourite songs off the setlist ffs. When you don’t know the lyrics of your songs or the order of the setlist, you can’t afford to change it up. Have one set list and learn it!

What to do instead: Cater to the 37 million followers that already know and love you. Find ways to engage them again. 1d nostalgia always works. Post an unseen pic from the 1d days. Start taking proper care of yourself! The grey's got to go. Make pop/rock songs that's radio friendly, choose the right singles (see the response of the fandom!), dress up for shows and occations (so we can drool and look forward to your outfit), be yourself on stage and interact more with the audience (bond with us!). Show us some personality. Dare to be sexy and show us your ankles! Spend more time showing your personality on social media. Start using tiktok. Make yourself look interesting. It doesn’t have to be much.

To attract the gp and keep your fans loyal you need to act professional

Know your lyrics, be on time, use transparent communication and keep your promises.

How to do it: When you say soon it should be soon, when you say the 28 of each month, that's once a month. When you cancel a leg of tour or change a show in the nick of time, say why it's being done and why it's done so late. Act your age. Don't sweep things under the carpet and let things go unaddressed if the fandom is reacting negatively.

What to do instead: The gp or concert reviewers attending shows will demand that you know your lyrics to have a good experience. So rehearse and keep to one setlist if you have truble remembering lyrics. Hell, use prompters if neccessary. Learn to apologise properly and heartfelt. If you can’t, hire people to do it for you. Nip discontent in the bud. Either distract from it, address it or apologise for it.

Trust is important

Read the room, don't lay blame on fans (it's never the fans fault), don't EVER shit on fans and don't make promises you can’t keep.

How to do it: Monitor fandom. Constantly. 24/7. Keep up with the discourse of the day, fandom reactions and discontent. Feel the fandom pulse so you'll know when the timing is right for announcements etc. You'll learn what needs to change and improve things to make the fandom thriving and content. A happy fandom = free engagement and promo.

What to do instead: If you need to remind people you have a kid and larry isn't real, do the heavy lifting yourself. Don't throw fans under the bus. Do a tabloid denial or post a pic of F and yourself. Don't say the queue system changed because you listen to fan demands. That's bullshit. Stop lying and be transparent. Don't say you love all your fans and call out conspiracy theorists in the same breath. Both can't be true at the same time.

Don't do PR relationships for promo. Bad press isn't good press. It's bad press that's harming your image and growth.

How to do it: Stop doing PR relationships with lesser celebs. No one is buying it. Everyone is laughing, and the only one remotely interested in taking you on are 10 years your junior. It won't give you the promo you need either. Stop shitting on larries for press. Larry talk will always get you press because it's tabloid, but don't do it on fans expense. Do a denial or an interview if you must.

What to do instead: Use platonic female friendships as promo. Go parachuting with Florence Pugh and call the paps or film the whole thing and post on social media. Go visit Perrie and walk your dogs together. It will help rid you of the toxic male image, get you press (two celebs for one) and make it seem like you have a life besides partying. Stop being antagonistic to journalists and hostile to fans on twitter. Start building a relationship and a bond of trust.

Bonus: Start doing charity again (openly), let us back in your life (even if it's fake. I want to know which colour you're considering for your kitchen walls), i want social commentary on social media (what does he think about spitgate, the number of bins in England, and if he'd ever queue for a Stanley cup). I also want (and need) him to speak up against genocide. He's got an anarchy tattoo. Have some balls. He'd get good press from it too and kudos from his target group and the gp. I also need him to tease us more. I want something he's got in the works to look forward too, something not stunt related. Is he signing up for Soccer aid again? Is he doing a big interview? Post some lyrics on twitter. Engage us. Make things exciting and encourage a positive environment. It's not that hard to improve things tbh. The bar is that low.

[the-mspfa-200-favourites-project]

Mr. Tambourine Man Update Notificator

No, you read that title right. This is an Update Notifier, not the ACTUAL MSPFA itself (because the actual MSPFA itself is offsite), with over 200 favourites. That’s pretty impressive. And that’s why I’m not actually going to be looking at the Notifier itself, but the actual star of the show, MR. TAMBOURINE MAN. If there was a BDTH notifier I’m sure it would similarly also make me able to talk about Burning Down The House, but ALAS, there is no such thing. I’ll probably talk about Burning Down The House later after I finish with this journey I’m on, since there *are* MSPFAs out there that I want to talk about that I KNOW haven’t been covered by the “200 favourites” rule. But that’s later. For now, let’s take a look at Mr. Tambo and Urine Man I mean Mr. Tambourine Man.

I don’t know why people feel nostalgia for the old MSPA site layout. I bring this up because this is just one of several times that the old MSPA layout has been used. Probably, again, to bring legitimacy for this being a “continuation” of the original work. But also, the MSPA site layout…kinda sucks? The fact that news is always on the bottom and can’t be hidden from view unlike in MSPFA’s site design is a big miss for me. My eyes keep wanting to go off of that and onto the logs or other parts of the page, and it means that I can’t really focus on the action, and that’s something that you don’t want. It makes me less engaged, less willing to slip into the world of the comic, when I keep getting distracted by the ads at the bottom telling me about Hoodies for sale that’s not EVEN AN ACTUAL AD. Again, Delivery Mechanisms are just as important, if not more so, than the actual text that they are delivering to the reader.

OHHHHH. Good thing I checked, apparently this webcomic was made not in 2020, but in 2016? Which explains why it feels like an Act Omega or Act 8 more than a HS^2-based continuation. It makes sense that 2016 would be the time it first started upd8ing, and then in 2020 is only when the notifier is added to MSPFA, well, continuations are back in the zeitgeist, as they will continue to be for as long as the fandom response to Homestuck is “Man this sucks” (regardless of whether or not Homestuck actually DOES suck). Or, rather, “Homestuck is not living up to my expectations, I wish there was a BETTER Homestuck that DID confirm my expectations of it as a work and a piece of media.” That sentence is a bit of a mess that I just typed but whatever.

But yeah the thing about Homestuck^2 Continuations is that people want to see the suffering of the characters END, and 2016 Act 7-based continuations is that people want to see the suffering of the characters CONTINUE. Because like, that’s what’s going on here. “I want more content from Homestuck” versus “I want Homestuck to provide closure.” It’s interesting that these two impulses kind of live side by side with each other, and often times came from that same impulse of feeling unsatisfied with the direction of a work, and yet take such different forms and priorities. Which I guess is the entire point of the epilogues now that I’m thinking about it? This dicotemachy of “I want to see the characters continue their adventures” versus “I want to see the characters no longer have conflict” is literally just. Meat and Candy. Straight up Meat or Candy. Which continuation style do YOU want to see done? More story, or less story and more character moments? I think I’m having a slight mini freakout over how Homestuck saw this happen all the way back in 2016. AH! And because MSPFA wasn’t even a thing as we know it today (2017 I believe was the first year of the new site), that’s why Mr. Tambourine Man isn’t on there to begin with. I’ve cracked it wide open I tell you! Hahahaha!

Getting back to the website differences between this hosting site and MSPFA…I am slightly feeling the lack of arrow key movement functionality. Like, the command system is really cool in terms of titling pages and stuff like that and I know I’ll probably write up what I think about all that jazz in the future but…having to click to advance to every single panel kind of changes my relationship to it? I kind of have to be. Deliberate. Move my mouse over to the command, internalize the command, click on it, read the page, click to the next panel. It makes several panels of slow movement in a row different, that’s for sure. Less Flipbooky, I guess is a way to describe. Idk if I’m making sense, but these are my thoughts currently going through my head reading this.

Okay hang on. Now I’m beginning to remember why using another site might actually be benefictal to a storyteller. That being, of course, that you can transform the site into a machine, an actual legitimate bonified game that can interact with the audience and make them WORK for the next stage in the story. And make strange trickery happen. Like suddenly making the “go back” button go back to a different scene or something. All this to say that I’m not 100% prepared for reading the rest of Mr. Tambourine Man but I will say. That I *am* invested, and I *am* curious to see where this might lead me. So I guess for now, go check it out, but be aware that it might not be all that it seems? I’m getting that vibe right now.

[self-indulgent-paw-patrol]

You know how you always apologize in the tags when you go on a Paw Patrol rant? Well, I for one really enjoy your little essays, I love how unashamedly passionate you are about Paw Patrol, how you overanalyze and theorize about it just like I do, it's why I love this blog so much, I love nerding out with you over these cute cartoon dogs

How dare you do this to me when I'm sick and emotional (/j) 😭🫂💜 I'm gonna cry (edit: ok I actually did, a bit XD)

Seriously now, thank you so much too. Every time I see you popping up around in any of my askboxes I go like "OH MY GOD COTTON CANDY SENT ME AN ASK AGAIN AAAAAAAAAAA I LOVE THEM SO MUCH LET'S SEE WHAT IT'S ABOUT THIS TIME" - really, Blue and Eryx can confirm, I go nuts for a whole minute or two in our little Discord server XDD it's always a joy to see you around.

I guess I tend to apologize because it's a little like an automatic reaction... It wasn't THAT MUCH or that bad, but I've been told numerous times I shouldn't focus so much on things that are soooooo not for my age. I always have to remind relatives and their friends that it's people my age or older who get to work on producing these things in the first place. And I know people hear these things since early on too, it's annoying, like what the hell, let us live our little lives, we're not actively affecting yours XD

I still find it funny, how passionate I got about Paw Patrol, because when I started watching it, I wasn't expecting to get SO INTO IT.

When I stop to think, most my profile pics on social media/messaging apps are now of Paw Patrol. I've been watching it since January, right after my dog Dakota died. I got now two blogs (and a half bc I'm sorta "helping" Eryx with her askblog of Everest/Tracker/Rex so I was added as a mod there) only for Paw Patrol stuff instead of mixing it around in my personal blog like most my other interests/fandoms. My Telegram art channel has been 90% Paw Patrol arts this entire year so far, except for commissions. I met amazing people in this fandom and even got one hate comment LMAO there's this old Tumblr saying that states your blog hasn't truly started until you get a hate message 😂 Heck I even bought three toys so far! It's been AGES since I last bought anything fandom related for myself, on anything at all. The one thing that comes to mind is the Lightning McQueen origins storybook last year (still gotta remember to buy Jackson Storm's and Cruz Ramirez's too). I usually make/paint/craft my own stuff instead of buying (one of the several reasons I relate to Rocky!).

I just, wow? It's real. I got this whole thing going on and it makes me smile every day and I don't want it to stop any soon. I started watching the show as a way to soothe myself and relax my stressed brain after Dakota's passing. Didn't expect to get so far. I'm glad I did and that I'm here with you guys.

Thanks for being part of what makes it so special for me too, Cotton Candy. You're amazing and I love it whenever you show up bringing more stuff for me to talk about 💜 PAW PATROL IS ON A ROLL, MY FRIEND, LET'S GOOOOOOO

[cilil]

Would you ever write for another fandom (non-tolkien)? 🧐

Thanks for the ask!

The quick answer is yes, but also no. Here's why.

Generally I always have one main fandom that takes up the vast majority of my fixation and that I write for. There are always other fandoms too that I will sometimes visit to see what's going on and what stuff they're making, but in those I'm as much of a ghost as I used to be in Silm when I first got into it. Basically nobody sees me, nobody knows me, nobody realizes I'm there and quietly reading fic and looking at art.

In recent times, now that I'm more used to sharing what I create and interacting with fandoms, I've strongly considered branching out and maybe writing a fic or two for other stuff I enjoy, however...

I'm not comfortable writing for things before I haven't gotten DEEP into the entire thing

I'm picky with fandoms due to past issues

Let me explain.

As for the first thing, I know that many people are eager to jump right in when they find a new thing they enjoy and go right to creating fanwork and let me be very clear, that's awesome and as always you do you. But I'm both a curious kat and anxious so I need time to get to know the characters, gobble up the entire lore and make up my mind about stuff. My anxiety and perfectionism demand that I get at least a decent, if not good grasp of everything first so I get it "right".

(I do realize that there are probably a whole bunch of people out there who think my Silm takes are shit and I'm ruining this or that character and getting things wrong, but in this case I can look back at years of reading, research and headcanons, so... by all means, that's a fight we can have. I can stand my ground here.)

Again, not saying this is the right or better way, that's just how I prefer to engage with media and create for it.

As for the second thing, I'm very picky when it comes to deciding which fandoms I want to create and share writing for. No, before anyone gets any ideas, this is not about numbers. And if you don't believe me: If it was about numbers, I certainly wouldn't have spent yesterday evening writing about Mr. Manwë Súlimo out of all the Tolkien characters ;)

The main thing I look at in fandoms are their vibes, particularly how chill they are with stuff. If it's a fandom that's currently blowing up, there tend to be some pearl clutchers and bad actors coming in, so I stay out. If I see a lot of controversy, like character bashing or ship hate or bullying and harassment, I'm not willing to create for that fandom. For example I recently watched another episode of a series I'm currently enjoying (some of you may know what I'm talking about...) and then I saw several comment threads going like "these characters are totally sibling-coded" and leading into "I can't believe people ship this" territory. No, the characters were not even related and no, nobody had even talked about shipping them. That tells me everything about attitudes that I need to know. And after having my old fandom (hi there, I hate you still, hope you enjoy not getting the sequel fics you begged me to write :)) ruin my enjoyment for the ship that I came into the fandom for in the first place, I'm not doing this again.

Yes, I do realize that a toxic judgemental subset of fans don't speak for everyone and that there most likely are cool people in those fandoms too that I would be friends with, but for my own mental health that's a boundary I have to draw for the time being. It may be that my fuse is just extremely short at the moment and that I dip in my toes at a later date; after all, there was a time where I was technically writing for both Silm and my old fandom, so it's very much possible.

But for now, this is why I'm writing Silm only and have no concrete plans to write for other fandoms.

[alpaca-clouds]

Why is it so hard to deconstruct Magical Girls?

As some might have noticed, I have recently been rewatching a lot of old anime from my teen days. And something I cannot help but think about while doing this is: "Why is it seemingly so hard to deconstruct the magical girl genre?" Because here is the thing: I know several attempts at genre deconstruction for this specific genre... But none of them are actually what I would count as a genre deconstruction.

Basically, deconstruction of a genre usually means that a genre is played straight. Like, you take the usual tropes of a genre and play them straight or with some sense of realism. Which we have plenty of in a variety of genre. I mean, with the rise of the superhero stuff over in the west, we have a ton of superhero deconstructions (like The Boys or Invincible), that mostly go for the most obvious issue with superheroes: "What if Superman was evil?" While also dealing with some other stuff, like how superheroes might be organized and controlled, how this would work with capitalism and so on and so forth. Now, a lot of folks are bored with "Superman, but evil", but yes, it is a very clear deconstruction.

In anime/manga we also have a ton of deconstruction going on. I mean, by now it should be fairly clear: Yeah, my original fandom obsession was Digimon Tamers, which basically deconstructs the first two seasons in many regards. And when it comes to the monster taming genre, there is also Narutaru, which is a deconstruction of the genre. And I might talk about Narutaru on another day.

There is also a ton of really great Mecha genre deconstructions - though ironically speaking, I feel like most of the Mecha genre is already deconstructing itself. When your biggest franchise (Gundam) in a genre frequently is build around the premise of: "You do realize, that this is about child soldiers, right? RIGHT?!" then maybe deconstructing the genre is not that hard.

But somehow... magical girls are different.

Like, there is a variety of shows that are kinda attempting to deconstruct the genre, but... Well, if you look on TV Tropes for the Genre Deconstruction Trope, it explicitly calls out that a Genre Deconstruction is "playing the tropes of the genre straight and more realistic", and it is explicitly not "some tropes of the genre, but darker and edgier".

And here is the thing: Most of what I know as Magical Girl Deconstructions, is actually "darker and edgier", not a straight up deconstruction of the genre. Which is not to say that they are bad! Hell no! I enjoy most of them. But they are not deconstructions.

Let me go over the three that left the biggest impact on me. Though first maybe we should define what makes Magical Girls?

I mean, the genre has changed a whole lot ever since Sailor Moon appeared on the scene. And maybe that in itself is a thing, because in some regards Sailor Moon - like Gundam - was fairly good at deconstructing itself. Never the less, I will go with the ideas that have been prevelent in the genre since Sailor Moon, even though there was magical girl media before it, that worked by different rules.

One or more girls usually between 12 and 17 years of age get a magical power to transform into super heroines.

The story usually is set in the real world.

Usually they will draw those powers over some sort of mascot character or multiple characters.

The shows usually mainly exist to promote merchandise, which is why the magical girls will usually have a ton of magic items and weaponry.

Almost always there is gonna be some fetch- or collect-quest involved for powering up those items.

The power of friendship!

Romance might or might not play a role, but it will always be secondary to the aforementioned power of friendship.

Usually the magical girls will fight "monsters of the week", that often are normal everyday things that get filled with evil magic by the villains.

The villains often are some sort of otherworldly empire, that has come to earth to either take over or collect items of some sort.

My Otome: Now, some people say that MyHiME is also a Magical Girl Deconstruction, with which I absolutely do not agree, where the fuck are my cute costumes and transformation sequences? MyHiME if anything to me reads like a monster tamer deconstruction, really. But MyOtome? MyOtome is a Magical Girl Something for sure. But... Well, it does not really deconstruct the genre, does it? This already starts with the story being set in a different world from ours, and with the girls not really being "chosen", but the setting being a school for magical girls. While some of the first half of the show does play with some of the typical tropes (monster of the week and such), the story fairly quickly goes to deep into the politics of its fictional world and the war story. While yes, technically you absolutely can argue that magical girls are in fact also child soldiers... They are not usually soldiers in a literal war, and the entire fantasy politics stuff - while I absolutely loved it - does not really feel like a real deconstruction. Instead it feels more like a fantasy war story, that you also put magical girls into. Yes, those magical girls behave a lot more like realistic teens, but that does not make it a deconstruction.

Uta~Kata: Alright, let me talk about my favorite of these, despite me being rather disturbed at some of the fanservice considering the girls are like 13. In Uta~Kata we have one girl, who gets magic powers, which is fine though, as several magical girl shows actually have just one main character. It is also set in the real world. However, this is where it ends. Because... Well, there is no fights. There is no evil. There is no weapons. There is none of the usual tropes. It is basically just deities mindfucking with this one girl to find out something, that I shall not spoil, given that nobody knows this series for some reason. But basically the only deconstruction in it is: "This is a girl with magic powers, and the girl works more like a realistic teenager would." Which... Uhm, yeah, no, does not really make it a deconstruction, does it?

Madoka Magica: Madoka is probably the one really well known Magical Girl deconstruction, but I once again will argue that it does not really qualify much as a deconstruction - because the thing that makes the entire draw of Madoka Magica is that it does not play the tropes straight or realistic, but rather subverts them completely. The entire concept of Madoka Magica is build around the idea that the girls are supposed to die/be corrupted by design, which is a twist on the usual magical girl formular, not a deconstruction. While Madoka Magica is good at playing around with the aesthetics of the genre, the show does not really play any of the tropes straight, but rather puts in completely new tropes in that place. Sure, some of those tropes (teenage girls being moody and this makes them so great for corruption) are kinda based in what the genre offers in itself - but it also does not feel like a straight up deconstruction.

Again, nothing against any of these shows. I love them dearly. I do. I just find it... interesting.

And I am honestly starting to wonder at this: Why is there not a straight up deconstruction of a Magical Girls show? And be it just as a manga or comic or something along the sort.

Sure, the shows above do deconstruct single aspects of the Magical Girl genre, but never the whole thing.

Like, thinking of deconstructions of other genre, there is like a ton of stuff I could see as a deconstruction of the magical girl genre - without actually going into fully subverting it and twisting it around. I mean, especially Uta~Kata and Madoka go more into psychological horror than actually into the deconstruction, right?

Something I would more expect to see in a genre deconstruction would be:

Magical Girls actually running into issues in regards of keeping up performance in school/clubs while also saving the world.

Magical Girls running into issues keeping their identities secret and actually facing consequences because of this.

Yeah, obviously, I also could see "Magical Girl, who gets bullied, uses her powers on the bullies" (or, depending on how harsh you wanna go with this, you could also go for more severe scenarios like: "Magical Girl who gets sexually exploited by a teacher uses her powers against teacher".)

Something in regards to: "Well, what if the power of friendship starts to break?" As well as actually kinda deconstruction the entire "friendship and love" dynamic that Magical Girl stuff does play around with a lot.

Given how prevalent sapphic subtext is within the genre, one could probably also work with that.

The entire merchandise/weapons/item thing is also so ready for deconstruction - something that could go in a variety of directions. Either with how unpractical the actual stuff is, or just how it does hinder plot.

And of course the other prime thing ready for deconstruction: You usually have a fucking alien invasion of some sort in these stories with monsters, and people getting hurt, buildings being destroyed and what not... and nobody from any government gives a shit? No, but really. I would assume that some sort of government would try to get involved here.

There is probably a million other subtropes that one could deconstruct about the genre, but that is some stuff I could think about.

Ironically it would not even need to go fully into horror for that, even though deconstructions will probably always have a slight horror-sensibility about themselves. But... you know. I think if I look at the Magical Girl deconstruction stuff at large (aka the shows that I did not name here), a lot of it is built way too much around shock factor of the violence that one gets shown. And that... is not really interesting deconstruction, right?

Sure, violence can absolutely be a part of deconstruction. And I do not think a proper deconstruction should be anything less than PG13, if not R-Rated. But... Why make it all bloody? Like the main things that one can play straight and realistic, do not need blood. It needs ore like characters being more... batshit.