#Fandom thoughts

[atomicpatrolcreation]

‎I've seen a persistent trend in the fandom of portraying Cassie Sandsmark as a queer girl struggling with internalized homophobia or emotional repression. And honestly, that just doesn't align with her backstory, environment, or personality.‎‎

Cassie was raised by Helena Sandsmark, a strong, independent, open-minded woman. She's not a repressive or conservative figure — quite the opposite. Helena has always supported her daughter, even when Cassie’s life drastically changed upon entering the mythological world of the Amazons.‎

On top of that, Cassie was trained by Diana of Themyscira, a canonically bisexual woman who embodies free love, respect for identity, and sisterhood.‎ She was also guided by Artemis Grace, another powerful, unapologetically bisexual figure.‎‎

Are we really supposed to believe that Cassie, raised around powerful, loving queer women, would grow up feeling shame or guilt about her identity if she were queer?‎‎

If Cassie were a lesbian, she would be confident, proud, and surrounded by support. There’s no narrative foundation for painting her as a broken girl who hates herself for who she loves. That trope doesn’t belong to her.‎‎

Now, a character who does fit that narrative is Cissie King-Jones.‎ Cissie was raised by Bonnie, a mother who projected her own frustrations onto her daughter, pressured her to be perfect, and micromanaged her public image.‎ That’s the kind of environment where repression, guilt, and fear of rejection could realistically take root.

If we’re going to talk about internalized homophobia, Cissie has the context, the trauma, and the canon support for it.‎‎ Cassie doesn’t.

‎She doesn’t need that kind of pain to validate her identity. Not every queer character has to suffer through self-hatred. ‎Sometimes, they just grow up in a healthy environment. And that’s valid too.‎‎

PS: If Cassie were queer, she'd be bisexual or pansexual (that's my headcanon and I’m standing by it).‎ She could even be polyamorous — and yes, that’s also crossed my mind, especially because the bond within the core four really lends itself to that kind of reading.‎

[reaperkeiro]

It is like a common toxic mindset

"Abuse didn't happen and if it did, it wasn't that bad and if it was, it's not a big deal. and if it is, it is not Annabeth's fault..and if it was, she didn't mean it…and if she did, it is because she has issues too."

Accountability is important. A good relationship shouldn't have excuses. Why is it so hard to explain that no matter how strong you are, everyone deserves to be treated and spoken to with respect. Do not allow anyone to talk down on you especially if it is someone you love to gain power over you. That is not love. Nobody should be treated that way.

Percy should be with someone who makes him happy in a way that doesn't make him uncomfortable. Someone who is emotionally stable that negates his negativity and could help shoulder the trauma with emotional support. Back at the original stories, he used to speak out but now he hardly does because he feels the need to keep the peace since he blames himself for his own kidnappings. Everyone deserves an environment that brings out the safety or softness in them not the survival in them.

[byshayana]

I've realized thramsay is the Father, hannigram is the Holy Spirit... but who's the Son???

[rewrittenwrongs]

Tim starts a Tumblr account and posts ‘incorrect quotes’ for all the bats, only they’re not incorrect they’re all actual conversations/sentences they’ve had, and he gains a huge following super quick because every line is pure gold. Barbara is the first to find out and agrees to help keep the secret, then it’s Stephanie who either gains access to the account or starts writing fanfic abt the batfam that includes all these details that line up a bit too perfectly with the truth because it’s hilarious, then Duke who thinks it’s genius and either still makes them buy his silence or starts drafting posts for Tim that he said with/to civilians and/or alone on patrol. Then Dick finds out because one of the Titans shows him this funny blog they found and he recognises almost every post, so he starts looking into it just as Tim starts posting Young Justice and Teen Titans ‘incorrect’ quotes too, and they have to blackmail him into silence.

When Bruce finds out he demands Tim delete the account, and instead Tim posts the entire conversation.

[redrvbins]

one thing about me is that i fuck with every kakashi yaoi ever... obikaka? toxic doomed yaoi. kakagai? old man yaoi. kakairu? co-parents yaoi. kakayam? co-workers yaoi. like hell yeah im passing kakashi around like a blunt

[sundeans]

my favorite fic trope is when two characters are in love with each other and one doesn't know they're in love yet and the other thinks they could never love them back and they already act just like a couple and do coupley things and keep having *moments* where any normal person would realize there's more going on but they're kinda dumb about each other and it's a slow burn of them basically being a couple and not realizing it before confessing their undying love for each other

[fallintomidnight]

i just saw a reel where someone has a dark mark tattooed on their arm and the comments were all like "omg me when"... Am I the only person who think that it's weird to have a tattoo of the symbol of a fictional genocide?

[transgwender616]

"Isn't it weird that these 2 completely different characters canonically exist in the same universe?"

No not really.

You, me, Kendrick Lamar, Jaiden Animations, Weird Al, Lynda Carter, Scott The Woz and Sigourney Weaver all exist in the same universe and it's no big deal.

[cybernaght]

The fandom echo chamber: fanon, microanalysis and conspiracy brain 

As someone who has been in fandom spaces, on and off, for 20 years, I find some fascinating trends popping up in the last decade that I thought to be fandom-specific but clearly aren’t. So, I would like to do a little examination of where those things come from, how they are engaged with, and what it says about the way we consume media. This is a think piece, of sorts, with my brain being the main source. As such, we will spend some time down the memory lane of a fandom-focused millennial.

This is largely brought about by Good Omens. But it’s also not really about Good Omens at all.

Part one. Fanon.

The way we see characters in any story is always skewed by our very selves. This is a neutral statement, and it does not have a value judgement. It’s simply unavoidable. We recognise aspects of them, love aspects of them, and choose aspects of them to highlight based entirely on our own vision of the universe. 

Recognition comes into this. There is a reason so many protagonists of romance novels have a “blank slate” problem. Even when they do not, we love characters who are like us or versions of us that we would like to be. And when we say “we”, I also mean, “me”. 

(I remember very clearly this realisation hit me after a whole season of Doctor Who with writing which I hated utterly when I questioned why I still clung so incredibly hard to Clara Oswald as my favourite companion. Then I looked at myself in the mirror. Oh. Well. That would do it, wouldn’t it?)

Then, there is projection, and, again, this is a neutral statement. Projection exists, and it is completely normal and, dare I say it, valid way of engaging with — well, anything. Is the character queer? Trans? Neurodivergent? Are they in love? Do they like chocolate? Are they a cat person? Well, yes, if this is what the text says, but if the text does not say anything… You tell me. Please, do tell me. Because, in that moment of projection, they are yours. 

And then, there is fandom osmosis, and that is the most fascinating one of them all, the one that is not very easy to note while you are inside the echo chamber. It’s the way we collectively, consciously or not, make decisions on who or what the characters are, what their relationships are, and what happens to them.  

(Back when I was writing egregiously long Guardian recaps on this blog I actually asked if Shen Wei’s power being learning actually was stated anywhere in the canon of the show. Because I had no idea. I have read and reread dozen of fanfics where that is the case, and at some point through enough repetition, it became reality.)

We are all kind of making our own reality here, aren’t we? 

Back when things were happening in a much less centralised manner - in closed livejournal groups, and forums of all shapes and sizes - I don’t remember there being quite as much universally agreed upon fanon. Frankly, I don’t remember much of universally agreed upon anything. But now, everything is in one place: we have this, and we have AO3, and it’s wonderful, it really is so much easier to navigate, but it’s also one gigantic reality-shifting echo chamber, with blogs, reblogs, trends, and rituals. 

Accessibility plays its part, too. If you were, say, in Life on Mars (UK) fandom between seasons, and you wanted to post your speculation fic, you had to have had an account, and then find and gain access to one of the bigger groups (lifein1973 was my poison, but ymmv), and then, if you feel brave you may post it, but also, you may want to do so from your alt account if you wanted to keep yours separate, and then you would have to go through the whole process again. And I’m not saying that fan creations then were somehow inherently better for it than fan creations now (although Life on Mars Hiatus Era is perhaps a bad example - because some of the Speculation Fic there was breathtaking), but there is something to say about the ease of access that made the fandoms go through a big bang of sorts.

(I mean, come on, I can just come here and post this - and I am certain people will read it, and this blog is a pandemic cope baby about Chinese television for goodness sake.)

The canon transformations that happen in the fandom echo chamber truly are fascinating to witness as someone who is more or less a fandom butterfly. I get into something, float around for a bit, then get into something else and move on. I might come back eventually when the need arises, but I don’t sustain a hiatus mind-state. This means that when I float away and return, I find some very intriguing stuff.

Let’s actually look at Good Omens here. Season two aired, and I found it spectacular in its cosy and anguished way; deliberately and intelligently fanfic-y in its plot building; simple but subversive, and so very tender. (I will have to circle back to this eventually, because, truly, I love how deliberately it takes the tropes and shatters them - it’s glorious). And, to me - a person who read the book, watched the first season, hung around AO3 for a few weeks and moved on - absolutely on-point in terms of characterisation. 

So imagine my surprise when the fandom disagreed so vehemently that there are actual multi-tiered theories on how characters were not in possession of their senses. Nothing there, in my mind, ever contradicted any of the stated text, as it stood. This remained a strange little mystery until I did what I always do when I flutter close to an ongoing fandom.

I loaded AO3 and sorted the existing fic by popularity. And there it was, all there: the actual earth-shattering mutual devotion of the angel and the demon; willingness to Fall; openness and long heart-aching confession speeches. There was all of the fanon surrounding Aziraphale and Crowley, which, to me, read as out of character, and to one for whom they became the reality over the last four years, read as truth. 

Again, only neutral statements here. This is not a bad thing, and neither this is a good thing, this is just something that happens, after a while, especially when there are years for the fandom-born ideas to bounce around and stew. I can’t help but think that so much of what we see as real in spaces such as this one is a chimaera of the actual source and all the collective fan additions which had time and space to grow, change, develop, and inspire, reverberating over and over again, until the echoes fill the entirety of the space. 

Eventually, this chimaera becomes a reality. 

Part two. Microanalysis 

Here are my two suppositions on the matter:

1. Some writers really love breadcrumb storytelling. 

Russel T Davies, for instance, on his run of Doctor Who (and, if you are reading it much later - I do mean the original one), loved that technique for his seasonal arcs. What is a Bad Wolf? Who is Harold Saxon? Well, you can watch very very carefully, make a theory, and see it proven right or wrong by the end of the season. 

Naturally, mystery box writers are all about breadcrumb storytelling: your Losts and your Westworlds are all about giving you snippets to get your brain firing, almost challenging you to figure things out just ahead of the reveal. 

2. We, as humans, love breadcrumbs.

And why wouldn’t we? Breadcrumbs are delicious. They are, however, a seasoning, or a coating. They are not the meal. 

Too much metaphor?

Let’s unpack it and start from the beginning.

Pattern recognition colours every aspect of our lives, and it colours the way we view art to a great extent. I think we truly underestimate how much it’s influenced by our lived experiences.

If you are, broadly speaking, living somewhere in Western/North-Western Europe in the 14th century, and you see a painting in which there is a very very large figure surrounded by some smaller figures and holding really tiny figures, you may know absolutely nothing about who those figures are, but you know that the big figure is the Important One, and the small ones are Less Important Ones, and the tiny ones are In Their Care. You know where your reverence would lie, looking at this picture. And, I imagine, as someone living in the 14th century, you may be inspired to a sense of awe looking at this composition, because in the world you live in, this is how art works. 

If you, on the other hand, watch a piece of recorded media and see the eyes of two characters meet as the violins swell, you know what you are being told at that moment. You don’t have to have a film degree to feel a sort of way when you see a green-tinged pallet used, when cross-cuts use juxtaposing images, or notice where your focus is pulled in any given shot. This stuff - this recognition of patterns - has been trained into us by the simple fact that we live in this time, on this planet, and we have been doing so long enough to have engaged recorded media for a period of time. 

As humans, we notice things. Our brains flare up when they see something they recognise, and then we seek to find other similar details and form a bigger picture. This often happens unconsciously, but sometimes it does not. Sometimes we do it on purpose: finding breadcrumbs in stories is a little bit like solving a mystery. It allows us to stretch that brain muscle that puts two and two together. It makes us feel clever. 

So yes, we love breadcrumbs, and, frankly, quite a lot of storytelling takes advantage of this. It’s very useful for foreshadowing, creating thematic coherence, or introducing narrative parallels and complexity. It’s useful for nudging the viewer into one or the other emotional direction, or to cue them into what will happen in the next moment, or what exactly is the one important detail they should pay attention to.

Because this is something media does intentionally, and something we pick up both consciously and not, it is very hard to know when to stop. We don't really ever know when all of the breadcrumbs have been collected. It becomes very easy to get carried away. There is a very specific kind of pleasure in digging into content frame by frame, soundbite by soundbite, chasing that pleasure of finding. 

But it is almost never breadcrumbs all the way down. They are techniques to help us focus on the main event: the story. I truly believe those who make media want it to reach the widest possible audience, and that includes all of us who like to watch every single thing ever created with our Media Analysis Goggles on and those who are just here to enjoy the twists and turns of the story at the pace offered to them. And I think, sometimes in our chase to collect and understand every little clue we forget that media is not made to just cater for us.

One can call it missing a forest for the trees. But I would hate to mix my metaphors, so let’s call it missing a schnitzel for the breadcrumbs. 

Part three. The Conspiracy Brain. 

If you are there with me, in the midst of the excited frenzy, chasing after all those delicious breadcrumbs, then patterns can grow, merge together, and become all-encompassing theories. Let’s call them conspiracy theories, even though this is not what they truly are.

So, why do we believe in conspiracy theories?

One, Because We Have Been Lied To. 

All conspiracies start with distrust.

If you are in fandom spaces - especially if you are in fandom spaces which revolve around a queer fictional couple - especially-especially if you have been in such spaces for a period of time, you have most certainly been lied to at one point or another. 

We don’t even have to talk about Sherlock - and let’s not do that - but do you remember Merlin? Because I remember Merlin. Specifically, I remember the publicity surrounding the first season, with its weaponised usage of “bromance” and assertions that this whole thing is a love story of sorts, and then the daunting realisation that this was all a stunt, deliberately orchestrated to gather viewership. 

And, because we were lied to in such a deliberate manner for such an extensive period of time, I genuinely believe that it forever altered our pattern recognition habits, because what was this if not encouragement to read into things? Now we are trained to read between the lines or see little cries for help where they might not be. Because we were told, over and over again, that we should.

(Yes, I think we are all existing in these spaces coloured by the trauma of queer-bating. I am, however, looking forward to a world where I can unlearn all of that.)

Two, Cognitive Dissonance.

The chain reaction works a bit like this: the world is wrong - it can’t possibly be wrong by coincidence - this must be on purpose - someone is responsible for it.

Being Lied To is a preamble, but cognitive dissonance is where it all originates. In so many cross-fandom theories I have noticed a four-step process:

A) this is not good

B) this author could not have made a mistake 

C) this must be done on purpose

D) here is why 

(Funny thing is, I have been on the receiving end of the small conspiracy spiral, and it is a very interesting experience. Not relevant to this conversation is the fact that a lot of my job revolves around storytelling. What is relevant is that my hobbies also revolve around storytelling. And one of them is DnD. Now, imagine my genuine shock when one of the players I am currently writing a campaign for noticed a small detail that did not make a logical sense within the complexity of the world, and latched on to it as something clearly indicating some kind of a secret subplot. Their thinking process also went a bit like this: this detail is not a good piece of writing — this DM knows how to tell stories well — this is obviously there on purpose. It was not there on purpose. I created a clumsy shorthand. I erred, in that pesky manner humans tend to. And, seeing this entire thought process recited to me directly in the moment, I felt somewhere between flattered and mortified.)

This whole line of thinking, I think, exists on a knife’s edge between veneration and brutal criticism, relentlessly dissecting everything “wrong”, with a reverent “but this is deliberate” attached to it like a vice, because it is preferable to a simple conclusion that the author let you down, in one way or another. 

Three, Intentionality 

I believe that there is no right or wrong way of engaging with stories, regardless of their medium, and assuming no one gets hurt in the process. While in a strictly academic way, there is a “correct” way of reading (and reading into) media, we here are largely not academics but consumers; consumption is subjective.

However, this all changes when intentionality is ascribed. 

The one I find particularly fascinating is the intentionality of “making it bad on purpose” because, as open-minded as I intend to always be, this just does not happen.

It certainly does not happen in long-form media. Even in the bread-crumb mystery box-type long-form media. 

When television programs underdeliver, they also underperform, and then they get cancelled.

If all the elements of Westworld Season 4 that did not sit together in a completely satisfactory way were written deliberately as some sort of deconstruction for the final season to explore, then it failed because that final season will now never come.

(There will likely never be a Secret Fourth Episode.)

And look, I am not here to refute your theories. Creativity is fun, and theorising is fantastic. 

But, perhaps, when the line of thought ventures into the “bad on purpose” territory, it could be recognised for what it is: disappointment and optimism, attempting to coexist in a single space. And I relate to that, I do, and I am sorry that there is even a need for this line of thinking. It’s always so incredibly disappointing that a creator you believed to be devoid of flaws makes something that does not hit in the way you hoped it would. It’s pretty heartbreaking. 

Unfortunately, people make mistakes. We are all fallible that way. 

Four, Wildfire.

Then, when the crumbs are found, a theory is crafted, and intentionality is ascribed, all that needs to happen is for it to catch on. And hey, what better place for it than this massive hollow funnel that we exist in, where thoughts, ideas and interpretations reverberate so much they become inextricable from the source material in collective consciousness. 

Conspiracy theories create alternate realities, very much like we all do here. 

So where are we now?

I am not here to tell you what is right and what is wrong; what is true, and what is not. We are all entitled to engage with anything we wish, in whichever way we wish to do it. This is not it, at all. 

All I am saying is… listen.

Do you hear that echo? 

I do. 

[yetanothercrpau]

Reminder: There Is No Canon to Creepypasta and Frankly, There Shouldn't Be

I already made a post about this (it was actually my first one), but I have gotten better at conveying what I'm trying to say here. I don’t know how many people will actually see this, but I hope some do because I think this is really important given how the fandom is going these days.

There is no canon to Creepypasta.

Did you really think the people who made Slenderman or Jeff the Killer planned for them to star in an AMV where they battle to the death with Fall Out Boy playing? Or that they’d be featured in cute ship animations and oWo storylines? Of course not. And the same goes for nearly every character in this space.

But people kept creating. We invented the idea of a shared universe. We gave it lore. We gave it depth. We gave it ships, AUs, Proxies, tragic backstories, and haunted mansions.

There. Is. No. Canon. There never was, and there never will be. And that’s a good thing.

We can do whatever we want with these characters. We already do.

Want a model for this? Look at the SCP Foundation. It’s got hundreds of characters, monsters, and stories and no true overarching timeline. Many of those stories contradict each other, and that’s the point. SCP works because it embraces creative freedom. Creepypasta can do that too.

In fact, calling things “headcanons” doesn’t even make sense when there’s no actual canon to begin with. If your “headcanon” changes a backstory, a relationship, or the emotional tone of the world, it’s an AU. And that’s not bad! AUs are where the most fun happens.

Jeff and Liu can be brothers or enemies. BEN Drowned can be a dead kid or whatever AI hivemind he was in the ARG. Slenderman can be a Lovecraftian nightmare or a weird neutral forest God. You can write horror, slice of life, romantic drama, or comedy.

We don’t need a Creepypasta wiki like SCP has, but if we had something like that? Something that gave space to all these alternate takes without arguing what’s “true”? It could help.

Because at the end of the day, we should feel free to tell whatever the Hell stories we want with these characters and the universe. IF ANY!

You can just have owo Yaoi, Yuri, and whatever a "straight" ship is! You want slice-of-life shenanigans in a mansion Slenderman owns for some reason? GO. FOR. IT. It’s valid.

There’s no canon. There’s only you, your weird brain, and the stories you want to tell.

Thank you for reading.

[lilacpaperbird]

that post about top/bottom discourse reminded me of another thing I've been seeing more lately, which is people "drowning" others' posts (aka screenshotting and reposting them with the water filter on to mock them) ....even when they aren't from antis or haters, they're from people in our fandom too

and it pisses me off when the original posts are harmless, they just have a take the other person disagreed with. I think doing that is mean. and it creates an air of animosity and fear. I'm certain people have stopped themselves from posting (thoughts, analyses, headcanons, ficlets, silly jokes, etc) because they're afraid of "getting it wrong". and that shit kills fandoms

so apply to yourself what you say to antis — don't like, don't read. if you dislike someone's takes on the characters or the ship, simply move on and keep creating the stuff *you* like

some people act like there's a hierarchy and they're clearly on top — like they're the smartest and the only ones with the "correct" opinions, and they have to keep others in check. and that's so silly literally who are you lmao pull the stick out of your ass and have fun

[princessuncertain]

Near canonically disliking L is one of the most underutilised concepts in the DN fandom and tbh that's such a shame

[hanamaria777]

"*insert ship/headcanon* would never happen in canon"

Oh gee well maybe that's why this is a FANdom. Maybe that's why I'm writing/reading FANfic. Maybe that's why I have HEADcanons that i made up in my HEAD.

[rewrittenwrongs]

AU where John Constantine is Janet’s (or Jack’s) ex and still semi-regularly gets calls from Tim or Janet about cursed artefacts they accidentally found and/or brought home. Each time Tim calls him over he ends up teaching him a little bit about how curses and enchantments work while he removes the effects of said curses and artefacts. Occasionally Tim will call him about non magic related problems, like his homework or how to cook breakfast when Ms Mac is sick. And one day he sees on the news that Jack and Janet Drake were poisoned overseas, that Janet was dead and Jack in a coma, and he hightails it to Gotham with no particular plan beyond swinging by the house to say hi to Tim and maybe visiting her grave. And the first thing Tim does upon seeing him is tackle him in a hug, before promptly asking if he can pretend to be his uncle.

Constantine realising BATMAN is the guy who keeps sending him passive aggressive looks and tried (unsuccessfully!!) to claim him unfit for childcare takes years off his lifespan.

[bangs-coffee-fandoms-unite]

I just had the stupidest crackfic idea for a 457 or In-hun fic and I cannot stop laughing: So it’s post–season two, and In-ho is all broody and full of regret and one night, he’s standing on a balcony or something—dramatic moonlight, wind rustling his coat—and he’s like, “If only I could go back… back to when it all began…”

Some ancient, mildly unhinged island spirit that’s been trapped there for ages hears this heartfelt wish and is like, “Ah, redemption! He wants to right his wrongs! At last, a soul seeking absolution. So rare. So noble.”

Cue magical swirls, sparkly lights, whatever—and bam! In-ho is thrown back in time to Gi-hun's first games. But not even 30 minutes in, In-ho shows back up, hair a mess, jacket unbuttoned, and cigarette in his mouth, like, “Okay, I’m good. I did what I came to do.”

The spirit is stunned. “You… you wanted to change Gi-hun's fate?”

“No.”

“To NOT shoot your brother?!”

“Nope.”

“…Then what—”

“I just wanted to rail long-haired, hamster-eyed 2020 Gi-hun against a wall and bounce. Thanks.”

The spirit is, of course, emotionally devastated by the lack of character development and just utterly dumbfounded, like: