#yes i realize it is deeply uncool that i have so much useless fandom memory

[stopitjon]

The second-weirdest thing about all the drama surrounding The Article (the first being Sean Howard's initial tweet reactions, obviously) is how people outside the fandom proper seem to truly believe that RQ had maintained a spotless reputation up to now and that the fandom is unwilling to accept that it's not perfectly unproblematic. Lol. Lmfao, even. You'd think the fact that posts criticizing The Article uniformly state "I'm completely sure there is some bullshit happening, just not as reported here" would be a clue, but WHOOOSH.

I mean...does anyone hate RQ more than RQ's fan base? A single one of their employees sneezes at an inopportune time and this fandom will go apeshit. This is the fandom that uncritically swallowed a callout post about RQ in which several Problematic Events being called out were perpetrated *by the writers of the callout post,* who didn't even bother to conceal the evidence. This is the fandom where fans decided that a (horror!) podcast should be their safe space and then harassed the shit out of the writer, company, and anyone in the general vicinity when said podcast dare portray things that upset them. MULTIPLE TIMES.

People haven't only ever been on RQ's case for stupid reasons, either. The company didn't really listen until the volunteer Discord mods walked out, but a lot of people were vocal about their disappointment with that whole situation beforehand (and afterward, of course). I actually don't think podcast transcripts would be such a prolific thing now if this hadn't been an issue people were raising about RQ podcasts for a long time. And there certainly have been some valid points made about racial stereotyping and representation along the way.

Anyway, it's really funny to see people act like we've all been frolicking about eating gumdrops up til someone on the outside dared say something negative about RQ. God I wish that were me.