#yes this is about zepotha

[chebits]

It all started to apparently market the music of this one person, like they started the whole "trend". (Also idk why but calling these sorta things 'trends' I don't like??? Maybe I am just old tho lmfao) Which is cool and fine but like... every post that comes across my fyp is like TEE LOOK AT THESE SCREENSHOTS FROM THIS OLD FILM TEE HEE (I LOVE GASLIGHTING HEEHEE) and like, if it had just been screenshots from various other things that would be fine and dandy and like... I'd enjoy that tbh. But no they are making up screenshots using AI and just like... it pisses me off so much. I was also thinking of like... how shitty it is now trying to look up reference and just getting endless AI generated garbage. I'm so mad. Fuck AI.

The tiktok folk trying to make their own Goncharov are using AI gens to fake screencaps and I'm just like... damn yall can't make anything yourself huh.

[toxxenn]

Gaslight Gatekeep Goncharov

[piniatafullofblood]

I think it’s so funny that goncharov happened here on tumblr and then like eight years later someone logged onto tiktok and either decided to rebrand goncharov for tiktok or recreated it convergent evolution style and I can’t decide which one is funnier

[oopshenangians]

Zethopa - Alaine x Maxine Relationship Analysis

!!! SPOILERS FOR UNDERGROUND 80’S HORROR MOVIE ZEPOTHA!!!

TW: brief mention of car/pedestrian accident

I’ve seen a lot of controversy here about Zepotha and I’d like to break that up by giving a character analysis about Alaine, our protagonist. Alaine is dating Danny, one of the antagonists. However, it is obvious that there is someone else who is on Alaine’s mind often. This someone? Maxine.

Groundbreaking for its time, Zepotha really does lean into themes of LGBTQ+ and lets Alaine struggle with her newfound bisexuality. She battles with herself between choosing Danny or choosing Maxine. She knows the safe choice. But she also knows the choice she’d much rather follow.

When Danny is revealed to be an accomplice, it shakes Alaine to her very core. What she knew about her safe option was a lie. This mirrors how she originally feels as she starts struggling with accepting her bisexuality. She turns to the option she wants and craves. She turns to Maxine. This in itself is another breakthrough for Alaine. She realizes that how she feels is okay. It’s not something she needs to be afraid of.

Before anything can happen between Alaine and Maxine, they’re distracted by the now famous Bridge Scene. Throughout the rest of the movie, Alaine and Maxine are close. They share glances, subtle touches, but never go farther than that. However, at the end of the movie we can see Alaine hopeful in her new life after all the horrors that consumed her throughout the movie.

Before the audience can get the hope we see in Alaine’s eyes, there’s a cut to Maxine and Lydia walking down the sidewalk, laughing with each other. Out of nowhere, a car swerves off the street, striking Maxine, killing her. While the credits roll, we hear a voiceover of Alaine receiving the news. In her voice, her despair is evident.

The killing of Alaine’s love throws the realization that in the environment she lives in, there’s no hope for her to live how she wants. She can never fully explore the sexuality she’s only recently come to love. The time she lives in will never allow it to happen.

While very much “kill your gays” of Zepotha, I think it went about it fairly well. The directors and producers knew what they were doing. They called out the homophobic rhetoric of the time. They never once second guessed this decision and it made Zepotha what it is today. I’m so happy to see it getting the recognition it deserves.

[maybepolly]

its so funny how all social media apps want to be tiktok and yet tiktok wants to be tumblr so so so badly

[gaystonerdragon]

no one could do zepotha. zepotha cant even do zepotha. wtf is zepotha? what does it even mean? is it a character? a life force? a god? it is not as structured a vibe as goncharov was. goncharov IS goncharov and thats all it ever could have been. zepthoa could be anything and therefore is nothing and never will be.

tumblr could do zepotha but tiktok couldn't do goncharov

[writing-biting]

Okay, so I saw a couple of people say that we should make Zepotha out of spite. The main thing that keeps popping up is summer camps and aliens (I think someone also wanted lesbians, but I mean who doesn't want lesbians?)

But I'd like to say that this really points out the difference between Goncharov and Zepotha.

Zepotha, in a very tiktok fashion, is being made based on a popularity contest. Zepotha will exist. It didn't already exist.

Zepotha is treated like it's being made, rather than like it already exists. It's an 80s movie not because it was made in the eighties, but just based on the vibes.

Tiktok is trying to make a movie, much more than they're pretending the movie already exists.

Goncharov on the other hand, is treated like it always existed. Tumblr made a fandom and not a movie. The clarifications and contradictions are just a normal product of fandom, especially a fandom of a lost media. It's normal for people to mix up details.

The details of Goncharov depended on people seeing a mentioned plot point and going along with it, 'yes, and'ing the bit. If there was a common plot detail you didn't like, you'd just talk about how much you didn't like that that happened in the movie.

Since Tiktok is writing a movie, the contradictions are more prominent, because people want Zepotha to be the story they want it to be, rather than the story it is.

Like, I find it some of the religious symbolism in Goncharov annoying, I feel like they overdid it with two 'eating the forbidden fruit' scenes, but I'm not going to say 'that didn't happen in Goncharov', because it did!! And there's nothing I can do about that.

[thesquirrelqueer]

making another post about this: the reason why the concept of tiktok making their own version of goncharov really annoys me is because of how forced it feels and also the fact that the op of the tiktok asking people to pretend zepotha exists is just like trying so hard to make an artificial trend so that they can promote their own music and like sure promoting your music isn’t necessarily a bad thing but don’t like try to take an idea that is so ingrained in the yes and culture of tumblr and use that to make people listen to your music it’s just lazy and unoriginal

[soupycawl]

i think the main issue with zepotha on tiktok is that nobody can agree on anything, i’ve found probably about 17 different characters- and all of the “character inspo” slideshows are all drastically different for the few characters that are consistent (maxine being really the only one who is consistent and has a consistent “aesthetic”)

goncharov worked because we collaborated, those in on zepotha aren’t really collaborating at all and that’s why it feels a tad more lacklustre than goncharov

another thing is the total lack of ideas? as such ? like nobody talks about the plot. i haven’t seen any posts about the plot it’s all “omg the carnival scene fucked me up” like YES AND? KEEP GOING I BELIEVE IN YOU

also i’m so moderately certain this was created as kind of advertising for some indie song idk

[lightning-and-lavender-fire]

Ok yes Tumblr did Goncharov far better than TikTok is doing Zepotha, but the problem isn’t just that TikTok is trying to do a Goncharov, it’s that they forgot about that time they did a Ships of the Northern Fleet

[sugaroto]

I was on tiktok and decided to look up zepotha to see what it's like

They're a mess

That's why it won't work

They don't communicate with each other

First I see a video and Elaine(or Alaine?) Is blonde (your stereotypical hot blonde girl) then someone shows a Wikipedia screenshot and she is black (your stereotypical short hair badass) then I see an animation and she is a brunette (stereotypical y/n, mc)

Like at least decide on something?

Also apparently they keep coming up with different plots and characters so no one has any idea whats going on

They can't even agree to what exists

"Maxine is one of the main characters why do people say she's the antagonist" YALL DONT KNOW YOUR OWN PLOT HUH

"Who's Neil? Who's Vincent?"...Aren't you supposed to know? Like if I brought up Ice Pick Joe's twin who had a tragic death years ago people would probably know what I'm talking about?

Also apparently they're trying to change genres? I saw someone mentioning eldrich form? Wasn't it supposed to be a slasher movie?

Also most of the videos that popped up were by the creator. Which... well... ruins the fun a little tbh?

And the fact that there's a whole contest

That's the problem. It's not a meme or an inside joke. It's a contest

As someone else said "people on tiktok try to be better than one another while on Tumblr we 'yes and' it"

Also. How dare they

And this one. Idk what to say about it tbh

[linisiane]

I’m kind of annoyed at the big posts about Zepotha rn. You guys are gatekeepers and don’t even understand what you’re gatekeeping! Cohesion this and lack of plot that. “Skill issue” “Copycat!—” NO. We must go deeper.

Goncharov was a love letter to tumblr fandom culture. An analysis of the way we collectively talk queer themes into existence.

Tumblr blogs dedicated to queer ships. Intricate metas on the queer themes of a work. Screenshot redraws of romantic moments. Comics that are incredibly horny but still somehow capture the original themes. Prompt fills of what we imagine the story could’ve been had there been another (gayer) way.

So many of these types of posts on tumblr are considered reaches or “making things up” by the greater world. But they are analyses made meaningful through this shared sense of community, this shared experience of queerness in a society that doesn’t think of us or our themes as real. Goncharov being “made up” is a celebration of the way we come together to make the queer themes we want to see in the world, especially the ones the world doesn’t think exists. A way to say, “Of course we’re ‘mAkiNg tHiNgS uP,’ Goncharov is made up,” like it’s some sort of metaphor made literal.

Yes, the Google docs and the Martin Scorsese movie framework are a huge part of what made Goncharov work, but what spread excitement are the Goncharov posts just like the ones I listed above. Goncharov isn’t just what we imagine this fake movie to be, but also the fandom/queer culture we imagined surrounded it, and I’d argue that this culture is just as much of a framework for Goncharov as the Martin Scorsese thing was. Why else have non-canonical gay ships in the movie we made up?

TikTok’s problem is that it doesn’t have the original passion and love for queer analysis to gel it the way Goncharov did. Or really anything to gel it beyond cheap clout chasing. No depth, only virality.

It’s like a cute in joke being turned into loveless corporate marketing. Taking something from its original context to prey upon it, ruining what was good about it in the first place. It feels like when corporations tried to recreate Barbenheimer, except it’s someone trying to create a trend on TikTok to market their song, only for the trend to burn out quickly because everybody’s treating it like a joke instead of committing. By its structure (the reblog system) Tumblr is a place of collaboration and building upon what’s come before. TikTok, on the other hand, favors a personalized algorithm pushing viral content over content creators. It’s about reaching the top of a trend or a sound before it dies off in two weeks.

It just rubs me the wrong way how some people act like Zepotha’s crime is being a shitty copy of Goncharov. This is the Fanfiction website. We love amateurism and “originality” means nothing to us. We should be happy to celebrate the people on there making genuine attempts at TikTok edits of the characters or those TikTok green screen filter reviews of the movie or ‘dressing like Zepotha characters’ vids instead of denigrating Zepotha for being too derivative. There are genuine tiktoks out there that do a great job of committing to the bit and crystallizing what fandom formats on TikTok look like, which is exactly what the Goncharov screenshot redraws, horny comics, and queer metas were on Tumblr.

Like, there’s so much to rag against Zepotha—the inauthenticity, the clout-chasing, the way TikTok’s virality algorithm makes art worse, the lack of in-universe TikToks calling out the Zepotha fans for being racist (I’d kill for that TikTok skit!)—that roasting the amateur execution of excited teens is missing the forest for the trees.

[notokaybuthyperfixated]

Me rambling about something no one cares about except me <3

People being (genuinely) angry because something is unoriginal (and I don’t mean a complete knock-off I mean unoriginal) is kinda stupid— like yes someone did something similar— and maybe they even did it better— but does it really matter? Nothing is TRULY 100 percent original, not anymore. We are products of what we see and hear, and often so is what we create. reverse cliches will one day be the cliches, probably, it’s just what’s going to happen. (Yes I did see Zepotha hate, and yes this is why I’m posting this lol) ((BOTH OF THE FAKE MOVIES ARE INTERESTING TO ME)) (((Also, people probably thought about fake movies before tumblur; that’s kinda how movies are written ))) Anyway, both fake movies are pretty interesting and I enjoy hearing about both.

[ineedahugtm]

I’ve seen a lot of talk on Zepotha about how the og creators are trying to use free labor to promote their songs and so I thought I’d put my two cents in-

Let’s get one thing straight, yes this is a lot like goncharov but different so we should celebrate on how creative people have been with this concept instead of tearing them down for being on the “cringe” platform It’s awesome seeing people work together for their silly little movies!

Right up until the og creator ruins it for us all and tries to get in on the trend with that good ole’ free labor. The truth is that while they may have fostered it, the idea is no longer theirs, it belongs to the community and when they try to capitalize on it instead of embrace it as a shared experience they automatically divide themselves from the community and label themselves as selfish in the people’s eyes.

Long story short let’s have some fun and let Zepotha fans have some fun while all spitting on the og creators

[starlightofthesky]

Y’all I don’t understand the hate on here about Zepotha(an 80’s slasher film created on tiktok for an artists to promote their music where everybody pretends its real) basically a “wanna be goncharov”)

its only a day old and people are complaining about it being messy and “not as good as gonchrov” they aren’t trying to be as good. They arent trying to replicate it they are having fun like we did when goncharov was trending and being made and yes, they are unorganized but so was goncharov when it first came out.

Don’t shame the chaos of it all, let them relish in it and find their own way to making it good.