#but also there is a problem and there is a problem in fandom spaces and unashamedly thirsting after actors is a fault

[damnfandomproblems]

Fandom Problem #9415:

People who refuse to tag posts about serious issues, because "people need to be aware of them", or "not enough people are talking about it"

Have you considered that maybe people are aware, but they're not talking about it because they're using the internet to /escape/ from the horrors of the world? Yes, talking about serious issues is very important, but thinking about it constanly isn't healty. It's like sitting down to relax and watch a movie with friends when a random person comes in and demands you talk about important real world issues. "There's people /dying/ and you're just sitting around /having fun/?" I mean, yeah? Because the alternative is stressing out about it constantly, which isn't productive for anyone?

Even worse when they tag a bunch of unrelated fandoms to "spread the word". Like, I'm just trying to look at cool fan art and not think about how shitty the world is! Tagging your donation post with Kingdom Hearts isn't going to get me to reblog it, it's just going to get you blocked. Why the fuck do people keep doing this? It's really annoying!

Anyway, if you're going to post about a serious topic, please tag it properly. Someone blocking the tag doesn't mean they don't care. It could be a triggering topic for them, or they could be using their online spaces as a place to decompress.

(Also seriously, don't tag serious posts with unrelated fandoms. It doesn't do any good, and I'm pretty sure you can get reported for spam.)

[thecorefrisk]

Um, here’s my suggestion to the DP fans who want to only DP content… why not make your own tag??

I’ll probably sound passive aggressive when saying this but I understand. It’s super frustrating trying to find content for one fandom and then seeing completely different content.

Why not make a ‘dp only’ tag? That way anyone could find any sort of Danny Phantom only content without having to scroll through countless of other works to get to it.

I get it, it’s much more easy to put up a wall than build a bridge but creating an entirely new tag for yourselves can also be a rather constructive choice!

(My only question is… why is this an issue now rather than earlier? Is this something a lot of DP fans have been already thinking or it more so a recent thing??)

—

Edit: I posted something similar in the comments and I have a reblog up for anyone to see but I’ll say it here as well! This post was likely founded in my own hurt!! I personally think it felt entitled for me to say, someone else said it sounded condescending. Those two things don’t exactly contradict each other!!

(But the condescension part might’ve been just my lack of understanding of how my words come across to others due to the autism thing, but y’know, no excuse unless my entire family also happened to die before I wrote this. Which did NOT happen if you’re wondering, I’m just scared they will and that’s like, super different.)

I have had a history of being pushed out of things and spaces in which I should’ve been accepted into (ex: autism spaces, other fandoms, friendships). I was trying to ‘nice’ and also give my own opinion at the same time. (A skewed opinion.) I knew the whole discourse made me feel… bad but I didn’t know where it came from and I just posted this in an impulsive decision.

Not necessarily to go ‘ha! Losers!’ But to put up sort of shield to defend myself. So, I am sorry. For the condescension and for the passive aggressiveness. I already knew that was a problem in my speech but I didn’t realize it was THAT bad.

Uhh, let me review the things I did wrong. (I like lists.)

First off, I disregarded a group of people’s feelings for my own. Second, I decided to ‘bring up a solution’ that was more so a half assed compromise which was likely already someone else’s suggestion as well. Third, I also just so ‘happened to forget’ that the DP tag… WAS your tag. That you should be able to go through it without someone else shoving content from a different fandom in your face in all directions.

I mean, if I want my feelings to be heard, I should be hearing other people’s feelings too. It’s not fair for me to bring up my own opinions, expect them to be taken as seriously as anybody else’s, and then not give that treatment. And also I should probably learn impulse control?? I think I have a grip on it unless I feel hurt. Otherwise I’m fine.

It was probably, to me, that the post I first saw about it made it feel like people were going ‘…get out?’ (The post I saw was one asking for people to exclusively use the DP x DC tag for those kinds of posts. Which, in itself, is actually not a bad idea and would allow for further freedom as people are allowed to be separate but connected to the DP fandom and perhaps even the DC fandom.)

Basically, I was projecting my own past trauma onto this random person who just felt frustrated they had to scroll past what felt like a million posts just to get to the fandom they wanted to see. And the kind of posts they saw, might’ve not been the kind that they wanted to see at all which is even more frustrating. They likely wrote in a moment of frustration and it kind of came off as such in their writing. But that doesn’t mean that my reaction is their fault in the slightest.

It means I had a reaction to something I felt was hurtful. I’ve written this line before but when I sat down and actually thought about it all it felt all the truer. ‘They aren’t trying to give you a bad time, they are having one’. I made it about me— which was not cool of me.

So, again, I am sorry. I hope this comes across as me actually taking accountability for my actions and not another passive aggressive fat amount of text like I fear it will be.

Thank you, though! To the people who were so, so nice in the comments. You weren’t, like, mean to me about this even though I was sounding pretty bratty. Some were a little frustrated but it was in a way that I could understand and your hearts were all in the right place. Because even though this seems very small— a fandom having a space on Tumblr to be able to see their own content— it gives people a place where they can meet people who like the same things and even make friends out of it. And you also expressed your thoughts in a way that I could get! Which was super sweet, thank you so much. :>

Mwah, mwah, love you!! 🫶🏼

[ahappydnp]

im 9 months in the phandom and it’s crazy how different things look from the inside vs outside considering all the information is actually out in the open. it’s just hard to pinponit one thing to show people like look it’s all fine, because you get the idea through how consistently they are kind and open and deranged about the small things i guess? and how it continues to shift towards that even if you look at 2023 back from the dead era. tit would be that “moment” to sum everything up bit it’s not made for the outsiders either. it’s not a confession style what-was-wrong-and-right youtube drama vid that people make and that’s easily digestible it’s a freaking stage show that you gotta watch and be invested in. so yeah. i remember so well not getting it and then getting it and you just can’t go from a to b without being innnnnnnn here for a period of time.

i understand how it must be impossible to comprehend from the outside (also welcome <333 happy almost one year!!!)

even when casual fans throw the 2012 shit (that is so misjudged and misunderstood from people who weren't even there) in our face it's like...you do understand that dan quite literally invented the customerserviceblog because he was upset he was being excluded from the fandom conversations and didn't like that people were talking about him and not with him.

dan and phil have always been in the phandom. like that was part of the "problem" is they were so interwoven into the community (of their own volition!!!) and the fact that there was no clear distinction between their space and our space was a learning experience for everyone! and they've literally talked about it!! dan "that's not for my eyes" howell is proof of GROWTH because that man used to be all up in our business

[thinkblotted]

Building a Better Star (aka, the Star Essay)

I like Star. I’m getting that shit out of the way right here at the beginning, just in case. I like Star, I like what she is, I think she deserves better writing. 

Also - these are my takes. These takes may not be your takes. We can have different takes.

Okay? Okay. Let’s go. 

For the purposes of this analysis and suggestion, I’m only going to be going off of movie canon Star, rather than book canon Star, because while they’re basically the same, there are a few background elements in the book that expand  on Star’s internal thoughts and relationships with the boys that you could only get from exposition in the book, and that’s not as available a source as the movie, so. 

Since I’m either posting this on tumblr for the four people who will read it, or filming myself talking about this like a normal person with normal hobbies, I won’t explain who canonically she is because that’s unnecessary for this audience of me and a discord server, but rather who she is as a character as presented.

The thing about The Lost Boys is that it exists as a double edged sword of characterization for all its characters. They’re all incredibly simple, and in that white space that’s left behind where deeper characterization would be put in other movies, here there’s just a void, leaving the audience to fill in the gaps however they see fit with whatever they can glean from the surrounding world. 

The vampires are the prime example of this - of all the characters, they get the least amount of dialogue and have the most void to fill in who they are as characters. Star is the runner up, having more character, but the same amount of void in her backstory. 

So who is Star? 

Star is The Girl of the group, a trope wherein you have a group of characters who make up the core of your main cast and usually they’re all male, with one or occasionally two exceptions being girls - if it’s two, one will be the ‘nerdy’ or otherwise ‘not strictly desirable by main male cast’ role, and the other will be The Girl, who is almost always the love interest of the main male, who, even though she’s more of a main character then the secondary girl, typically does less than them. As presented, Star fits this trope easily, as well as filling out the subtropes that it consists of. 

She’s soft-spoken, pretty, demure, stays out of most of the fights in the story, offers the protagonist advice but never tells him directly how to face the conflict of the story, offers support but never directly physically supports the protagonist. She’s an inciting incident all to herself, but never actually drives the plot forward except to be a shining prize on the mountaintop of the narrative that the protagonist must climb in order to claim. 

After being in the Lost Boys fandom for about two and a half-ish years now, there are some take-aways specific to Star that the fandom tends to play on the most. 

And I want to add in here, I do not have a problem with these traits being assigned to her. Star, like the rest of the cast, is a very malleable character. The void around her is just as vast as the other vampires, and this is fandom - we play with blorbos from our media like dolls. This entire thing is purely based on what I personally would like to see Star become, and since I’m a freak, I don’t just write fanfic, I also do this. Apparently. So take everything I’m saying with a giant grain of salt.

The traits that I most see attributed to Star are:

-She’s a shrinking violet, either unwilling or unable to interact directly with the conflict of the story

-She’s being held against her will to the point that leaving in any capacity is not only not an option, but would lead to physical harm/possibly death if she tried (ie, she’s an abused captive) 

-She cannot be held responsible for any bad decisions she’s made in the past or makes in the current story, or any bad turns the plot takes 

The first assertion is held up pretty well by the canon of the movie, and most of the fandom also agrees that it would have been nice if the movie actually did make Star a little less soft. There have been several outcries for Star to ‘vamp out’ like the Boys did, to at the very least give her a scary vampire face! Her tiny confrontation with Max at the end of the movie would have been a perfect space for that, but unfortunately, the movie has 80s-itis and being the female love interest and a victim in the plot, Star isn’t allowed to be aggressive in such a blatant manner. 

Star also hangs back whenever the Boys have presence on the screen. She’s never in the forefront, sharing the space, she’s in the background, watching them, only observing. The one time she directly contradicts them, ‘Leave him alone’ she’s told straight up to ‘chill out, girl’, and she doesn’t continue the conflict. When she does decide to try and be more forward with Michael, directly affecting things, she waits until there is no other persons of consequence around in order to do so. 

The second assertion of her being held against her will is a little trickier to pin down as a trait, but evidence of this is implied with how she contributes to the narrative - mainly, in asking Michael directly to save Laddie and her from the Boys, or at the very least, the situation she’s in. Though, it should be noted, that Star never makes a direct statement of what that situation is. She hedges that it’s being being driven to kill to sate the vampiric nature, but when taking scenes like David simply saying her name to get her to come to him, being told indirectly to back off when the Boys are hazing Michael, and backing away in a fearful manner when Michael is drinking the blood wine into consideration, there’s the darker notion that she’s being abused in other ways. 

Because the movie is meant to be a lighter flick, full of scary-yet-alluring vampire punk boys and over the top monster-hunting gore, billing it as a ‘horror-comedy’ excludes any deeper exploration or more explicit on-screen showing of verbal, emotional, or physical harm that Star may be experiencing. Doing so would take away from the fantastical and darkly whimsical nature of the story, grounding it too much, and making the Boys, though they be villains, into villains we wouldn’t love to hate.

Thus, the darker implications of what Star might be facing behind the scenes, when Michael isn’t around and before he came along, is left to the audience’s interpretation, as well as any ability Star has to struggle against them. The fandom frequently interprets as none, thanks to the plot of the movie being what it is. 

The third major assertion that the fandom tends to adopt is that Star is largely if not completely irresponsible for the missteps of other characters and for her own predicament. 

This given trait is the most difficult to back up with evidence directly from the canon as it relies heavily on filling in the blank spaces of Star and the other character’s backstories. Star is not responsible for Michael spotting her in the crowd at the concert or deciding to follow after her. Star technically didn’t tell Michael to accept David’s goading to race. Star told Michael she both didn’t know how to help him, and couldn’t explain it. Star is not responsible for Michael’s induction into the Boy’s gang because, well, she told him what he was drinking was blood. Star never directly acts to drive the plot forward until the beginning of the third act when she does admit to Michael that she needs his help, thus, cannot be held responsible even in part to Michael’s involvement. 

Lack or acceptance of Star’s responsibility for her own inability to leave the Boys is even harder to pin down, as we have no movie canon for what her life was like before meeting the Boys. The implication from the world around them is that Star is a runaway kid like many of the people seen in the opening sweep of Santa Carla, likely from a crappy home and was taken in by the Boys but soon got in over her head, but this is never directly confirmed. 

The idea that Star made a bad choice, and was not just manipulated and coerced after the ‘honeymoon’ period with the Boys is somewhat controversial as it paints Star in a less favorable light. She isn’t an innocent victim, but rather someone who made a bad call and refuses to acknowledge her own agency in that decision, instead placing any and all blame on the Boys. 

‘But what if she’s tried that already?’ Unfortunately, that lies entirely in the realm of off-screen possibilities that are not support by any canon. Star in the movie is never shown or implied to have tried escaping before, and in the book she merely has internal monologues about wanting to leave, not that she’s ever attempted it. 

Giving Star any one of these traits on their own isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Star is very much helpless in this situation - she’s in a den of immortal man-eating monsters while only being barely half of one herself, and refusing to take the option that would grant her more physical power to assert control in the situation, because the act required would be a shattering of her moral compass. Regardless of her involvement in how she got here, she deserves to be able to leave and make better choices. 

But giving Star all of these traits at once with nothing else to her flattens her completely. It does her, in my opinion, an incredible amount of injustice to absolve her of any kind of responsibility in her own problems and then rob her of any bravery to take a risk and change it herself.

And that’s not a good character. 

In order to build a better Star, we need to first accept a truth that might be a slightly hard pill to swallow: 

A good Star is not necessarily a protagonist. 

At least, not in the same way that Michael or Sam can be. Michael and Sam are protagonists in that they’re the heroes of the story. They face the main conflict head on and drive the plot forward with their actions, and are who we’re rooting for to win. We see them and their actions as ‘good’. They are absolved by the framing of blame in what is done to them. (Michael in getting in over his head with the Boys by ignoring the reservations and loose warnings of others, and Sam of murder with the fact that the Boys are man-eating monsters bent on getting back at them when one of their own is killed.)

If you make Star a protagonist in the same way, with her needing to be framed as ‘good’ in the story, but only keeping the character traits previously listed, then she’s a boring character. She becomes only nebulously ‘good’ just by virtue of not technically having done anything that could be considered ‘bad.’ Being counted as a heroine only by default. 

And that sucks. That puts her simultaneously on a pedestal where she can do no wrong, but is an empty shell that’s there to smile or cry and do nothing else. 

Often, when talking about female protagonists, antagonists, anti-heros and characters with grey morality or amorality, the added layer of them being women forces ten times the scrutiny on not just how they’re built as a character, but on their creators and why they’re choosing to build the character in the way they are. Any mistakes plot-pushing decisions made by the character aren’t as likely to be accepted as just the character acting in the story, but get traced back to the author. The audience constantly asks the question, ‘if it was a male character, would there be consequences for this act, or are you treating this character special because they’re a woman?’ 

In this case, it’s ‘Michael also fucks up, and yet is treated as a victim, deserving of sympathy and being saved by his brother rather than having to fight all on his own. Their situations are the same. Why not Star? The only difference between them is gender.’ 

This essay is not about whether or not Star is deserving of being saved, nor is it saying that she deserves being trapped in the situation that she’s in. But much like how Star reminds Michael that she did indeed tell him that it was blood in the bottle and he scoffed at her, Star deserves not to be a lifeless doll being acted upon, and a good female character deserves to not be a pretty, perfect Barbie doll that does no wrong and always looks pretty. 

So with the knowledge that a better Star cannot be purely a protagonist, how do we lower her from the boring pedestal? 

My suggestion: by inverting her three main traits

The first: If she’s billed as meek and demure and soft, then make her more aggressive and vulgar 

The second: If she seems to be kept at silent gunpoint, then give her more freedom to act

The third: Make her at least partly responsible for her own situation, regardless of whether or not she thinks she is 

The first revised trait is the most important in my opinion to building a better Star, as it will help direct and reinforce the second two. 

A large part of Star’s lack of presence in the movie is quite literally, a lack of physical presence. Star seems to hate even being near the vampires, and depending on what kind of story you wish to show her in, it could make sense. But chances are, if she’s given the shrinking violet trait, she’s been given the other two as well, and that makes a bad Star. She must be allowed to speak, and more than that - she must be allowed to show emotion. 

Let Star be angry. Let her be hurt in a way that’s not beautiful and languorous, a wilting agony of suffering in silence. And I’ll say it: Let Star say the Fuck word. As silly and simple as it may seem, such a small detail can transform a character. Star deserves to be as rough-edged and imperfect in her words and attitude as any of the rest of the Boys, possibly more if she’s in a situation that she hates! If she had the bravery to run away from home, then she should be afforded the bravery to be more than a pretty, silent, pure woman who doesn’t know what a cigarette is. 

The second revised trait is going to be the most fluid in interpretation because it relies the most on the author or artist or fan’s personal interpretation of what the relationship between Star and the Boys is really like. 

In the movie, Star seems to move with the Boys. She’s usually near them enough that they can keep an eye on her, as we see with David watching Star talking to Michael before the beach race. The only times we see Star distance herself physically is right after the bonfire, where she comes to the Emerson cabin to convince Michael to save her, or when she and Michael have sex. The first time, she seems desperate, like she may not have much time, and the second, she’s been left there on her own while the Boys go out and cavort, likely with the implication that she should stay where they can find her when they get back. 

Again, this is the trait that can be toyed with the most, but a good way to combat the feeling that she’s being held against her will is to give the notion that there are parts of being around the vampires that she likes. There are tiny hints of this in the movie, and the book expands on this. In the movie, there’s a moment during the race where Star seems to be enjoying herself while riding with David - at the very least, she’s enjoying the speed and thrill, if not the person she’s with. In the book, Star and Paul have the best relationship of any of the boys, with Paul trying to cheer her up and promising a ‘happily ever after’. To keep it from feeling like a full captive situation, give Star a reason to feel a bit conflicted over the pack. She’s there in the first place, after all. 

The third revised trait is going to be the most controversial, as it’s a hard thing to admit when people in real life do it. 

Admitting that sometimes, the problems we find ourselves dealing with, are our own fault. We make a bad call, we make a poorly informed decision or decide in the heat of the moment. Sometimes, we are lied to, but the lie is flimsy and we chose to swallow it because it’s what we wanted to hear at the time. I like to ask authors writing villains this - what’s worse and more compelling; a villain who lies, or a villain who tells the protagonist a truth they don’t want to hear? 

And, as backwards as it sounds, making Star partially responsible for her situation is giving her more agency in her story. It gives her a reasonable character flaw that she has to confront and defeat. 

Here is where I’m going to throw in an interesting observation about a specific scene that I think helps lend itself to this particular revised trait: the scene where she asks Michael for help directly. In canon, the scene goes about like this - Star comes to the cabin, Michael tells her that he knows about the vampires, and when he expresses that he thinks it’s basically done for him, Star tells him that it’s not, he’s not fully gone, and that she needs his help to save all three of them. Now, there’s something really, really interesting to me about this scene: Star is NOT a reliable narrator during it. At all. 

To say that she’s lying outright about everything would be untrue, but when you examine it, you realize that she’s being untruthful all the same. When Michael gets upset, accusing her of not caring about him because in his eyes she let this happen, she says that she DOES care about him, using physical touch to reinforce this. When she’s soundly rejected, by Michel slapping her hand away and demanding to know why she REALLY came, she very reluctantly tells him that she was hoping he’d help them. It’s her last answer, the last thing she wanted to say. Obviously hoping that the emotions would be enough to persuade him, rather than just saying that she needed help outright, which would be easier to say no to. 

Secondly, the WHY. Star states that Michael was ‘supposed to be her first, because it’s what David wanted’. When watching the scene, the delivery, the body language, and given the full context of the plot and how we’ve seen Star behave? We can only come to the conclusion that Star. Doesn’t. Know. That. 

Max’s ultimate goal is to get Lucy, and to get Lucy, he needs Michael and Sam to be on board, or at least BE vampires. Killing one of her children would hardly serve that goal. Given the ending fight, Max doesn’t give a dead rat’s ass about Star. And Star? She doesn’t even know Max exists. David telling Star to kill Michael to turn her into a vampire is not only pointless, but going expressly against Max’s wishes. We don’t know how much of Max’s plan David and the Boys know about, or given their personalities and implied relationship with him, even care about, but defying him in this instance doesn’t seem like the smartest thing to do. 

Not to mention - Star does like Michael. She hugs him at the end, she does give him a warning about the blood, albeit a weak one. She does attempt to fight Max in the end, even if she fails. As for her thoughts on David, those are more complicated. Whether the relationship is real, coerced, that she’s simply a pawn being used to tug Michael around or whether she and David did like each other at one time, is unknown, but it is clear that Star knows that David is interested in Michael, and doesn’t like it. So it would then be logical to assume, given this, that Star would assume, based on what she knows and has been able to observe, that she’d pain David in a worse light. Insinuating that it’s HIM who’s pulling the string, assuming what he wants and what his intentions are, even if she DOESN’T. KNOW. 

All this to conclude: Star is an unreliable narrator taking actions based on her own flawed assumptions. Which means she’s going to make mistakes, and miscalculate her position. She’s going to cast herself in a certain light, and like anyone, maybe not want to admit when that light is suddenly not a reflection of her best. 

So, how do I conclude this. 

Star is an interesting character, and I do enjoy her. If you managed to sit through this to get to here, and if there’s anything to take away from this, it’s that I enjoy Star and I want her to be a better…her. She deserves to cuss and spit, she deserves to be angry and sad at her predicament, she deserves to be loved as a whole person and not some untouchable angel. Let her fight. Let her bite. Let her bleed for her freedom and personhood.

Most importantly, if you allow the Boys room to be more than they are presented as on screen, then you can afford to give that to Star. 

Thank you for reading, if you did. 

@misslavenderlady (I almost forgot!)

[extremely-judgemental]

I hate that the critics are still, in a way, supporting SJM or these books. Some of her characters are decent but that isn't enough to vindicate the series from criticisms. People are still rooting for a Nesta/Tamlin/Lucien/Eris book knowing her arcs *will* be a disappointment with mediocre romance and a hefty dose of unfair redemption.

You can pirate the books and tear it down piece by piece, but that is a form of publicity which is a paradox we have to suffer through in order to address the problematic themes. It's going excite someone enough to pick up the book and see what the fuck everyone is going off about.

But the moment you go "reading to criticise it" or "i'll keep going until my favourite gets their book" is also falling for the same hype the stans do. However much you hated the idea of ACOTAR TV, most of you would've watched it just to "point out what's wrong".

And now the merch. Critics are still going to buy that (not at the same scale as the stans, but a sale is a sale). How many of you anti-SJM-Tamlin-stan will resist the urge to buy a shirt with his quote on it?

Why would this woman care about fixing the problems in the series (or her own life) if her bullshit always brings her money? You are better off making something of your own or from fandom space (even they have to pay for copyrights that is again supporting her but at least they get traction to their work) instead of throwing money directly at her.

Critics who support these series are part of the problem too.

[squiddokiddo]

Actually the one who started an empire here is you and the old people here. Like, Idontknowreallywhy , lenle-g , call-me-casual , mrmustachious !

You guys are making everyone afraid to join this fandom after the confrontation you had with a new member a few months ago for using AI and everyone was attacking you. After that I havent seen any new members in this damn fandom since I went online after a while

What the fuck are you talking about?? Who mentioned empires? You are the only one here attacking me, what are you on??

Everyone here hates AI because of the theft involved and the damage it does to the planet, if you type a Thunderbirds prompt into an AI it's is almost 99% going to be stealing from mine and my friends' work. We're allowed to be upset and speak up when we're being stolen from. We told them it was wrong and that was it.

The people you mentioned aren't ruling an empire with some kind of iron fist, we just speak up when something is wrong. No one group of people runs a fandom space, it's a team effort to make this place actually safe and fun, and everyone is involved in that. The reason you probably haven't seen any newbies recently is because this is a niche fandom, it's normal not to get a lot of new people, that's how it's always been.

Also, not important to my point but you obviously don't know anything about the people you mentioned anyway, Casual is younger than me lmao and the rest of them aren't even middle aged yet. If you have a problem with me specifically that's fine but don't go dragging innocent people into this too.

[sceletaflores]

You’re very weird for not putting any translations on your TF Frankie fic for the people who don’t speak spanish. It’s the norm for a reason, you aren’t above that.

okay so since you decided to be an asshole about it, i have an excuse to be mean.

do you know how many fics that get posted every single day are written in english? a fuck ton.

there are a little over four thousand joel x readers posted on ao3, five of them are in spanish. there’s also a little over a thousand frankie x readers on ao3. do you want to take a guess at how many of them are in spanish? zero. ZERO.

i know that doesn’t reflect tumblr’s fic space, and i’m not trying to shit on any of those writers, but it gives you an idea.

non-native english speakers who are apart of fandom are constantly expected to just deal with this exact problem. they’re expected to figure it out, to struggle through it, to never see themselves or their language in the shit load of fics that get pumped out.

while native english speakers, myself included, are quite literally drowning in content. trust me there's no shortage of posts on here and other platforms made for you. yet when less than a handful of lines of spanish, written in fic that's OVER four thousand words of english, pop up with no translation, you throw a fit like i've personally wronged you and suddenly it's "weird" and not "the norm" whatever the hell that means. god forbid a bilingual character is actually written as bilingual?

if this was a real concern of yours, and not an excuse to bitch about something that YOU don’t like because it doesn’t cater to solely you for a SECOND, i would have gladly taken it into consideration. i’m not trying to make anyone feel a certain type of way with my writing. if you came at me with respect, i would have gladly added translations to my fic.

i'm not "above" anything, i'm just trying to make my writing as inclusive as i can.

if a couple lines written in spanish that you can easily translate yourself are enough to ruin your experience, that says way more about you than it does about me.

[kunoichis-stuff]

i need more of your oc Julieta!! i love her! she's so cool!! 😍

JULIET’S IN DAH HOUSE

Thank you for that! Hehe! Actually she’s very much my favorite oc so far!

So, what about we get to know Juliet much more? I think it would be nice for my friends and people who enjoy my content to know about one of my TMNT OCs (who is also a original oc with no actual fandom Im her original versions, pictures above.)

1. Julieta’s name is Xochitl (or Tzochi, which is originally her name in my ocs au that is the parody of Xochitl written as it sounds), but full name is Xochitl Julieta Figueroa Winters, she is a mixed child.

In tmnt 2012, Julieta is the daughter of Max Winters, a CEO and administrator of museums around the world. She was raised in a very trust fund family. Yet, by her mom’s side, she is very cultural and urban, she enjoys fashion and folklore! Again, she is mixed! Indigenous + mixed Latino

2. She is April’s number one fan!

3. She has Aural Skills

Juliet has a weird talent of being good to identify noises, usually she uses it to learn music. Even though she never thought it was the big thing, for methods like the Suzuki Method (learning music by listening and playing along) this works very well. She also uses her sharp hearing to get that chisme (gossip) she likes telling EVERYONE about.

4. Juliet is very tall! Even if in season 1-2 she is taller by inches, she gets taller than Karai!

Also once got called an “vampire from outer space” (she didn’t get the reference)

She has a very nice relationship with t he Hamato, though she didn’t do much, since she got dragged with them after the space arc. In the invasion, Max actually isolated her for a long time until it stopped. (She actually escaped many times, there she started getting some sneaking skills)

She’s actually much supports also a traditional medic. She’s very sweet even if she is not a kunoichi or THAT close to the turtles. They think she’s nice, since she is April’s friend. They slowly started developing a close fraternal relationship

In season 5, she is around 5’8-5’9, surpassingly for someone who was in a place WITHOUT vitamin D from the sun (the vampire nickname went from there). She is also in support, she takes care of wounds and does her own medicines when Donatello is too busy. She likes to help as much as she cans. Since actually she’s there for April. She could actually learn about martial arts, but she is not someone so manually since she also has complications like respiratory problems. Which April informs the turtles about. But she brings comfort to the team woth her soul and soul cleanings (traditional lectures and activities she shares with the turtles). Yes this gal smells like palo santo and Incense, also milk caramel

Extras( @justmaiidraws and @dylniz characters below!)

[hollow-lime-green]

hello oh great fanfiction community !

i saw a stsg big bang event acc today and before that event gets rolling, i would like to say some words about fan events and specifically big bangs in general - without targeting any specific event, and maybe as some food for thought for the community/prospective event runners.

under the cut: the argument for a reverse bang (not femdom)

this is a bit of a ramble but i'm writing this as i have my coffee so you'll have to deal with it being a bit of a braindump.

so let me first just say that i love fan events and i extra love big bangs. the concept of teaming up with someone is awesome. you get to make friends, and specifically you are making friends with someone with a different but related hobby! (art vs writing)

that being said, in all fandom spaces i have ever been in - zines, events, general interaction - there is a pretty heavy favoritism towards artists. you can see this when you look at the number of artists slots in zines, relative levels of engagement in fanart vs fic posts, and, of course, in big bangs (artists select prompts, rather than writers).

now, i am not blaming artists for this (not fully - although sometimes this becomes entrenched in the space's culture, esp with zines and zine groups). there are actual reasons for this:

Zines - art takes up less space than fic - of course you can fit more of them in a zine. also, artists can do merch (imagine writing merch... fortune cookie slips?)

Likes - art is extremely quick to see and ingest, and then smash the like button. writing requires a bit more time investment and usually clicking to a second tab. it is very logical for art posts to get more engagement. (and i think the kind of engagement fics get is often more rewarding - i would not trade my comments for any number of likes. however this, and follower count which correlates, is a good general measure of 'popularity')

Big Bang/Prompt Selection - artists go "omgggg no i can't write the pitch i suck at writing!!"... and i'm going to be so real, i think they're right lmfao. i mean the answer is 'well git gud' but in my experience this is actually true, they struggle to write out pitches.

so yeah, there are real factors that drive artist power/popularity ahead of writers in these spaces. that can also influence the culture of how they are often given priority in fandom events. while i don't blame artists for that, it kinda sucks as a writer. often, as a writer, it can really feel like you're begging for scraps - limited zine spaces, engagement on posts, etc.

which is why big bangs are so great! as a writer, you get a buddy! we love buddies! (not that firefighter ship, i don't know her.) collaboration is great. as a writer, you get to pitch your ideas, and then some artist is gonna see your idea and be like "omg i love that idea" and then they claim you and you get to be buddies, right?

right?

well, this is where the equity problem can come back - because writers are the ones pitching first, they are still in the vulnerable position here. i've been in a few big bangs, and by the nature of this system (writer pitch, artist pick), you often will end up with writers who don't get a pitch claimed, or a situation where artists are pinch hitting and doubling up to make sure everyone is matched up.

which just doesn't feel great.

now, like i said, there are valid reasons for why writers pitch first - fic is more describable (there are events, it's not just a still), writers are better at words (tough to hear but true), and it also takes an ass ton of time and motivation to write (i have even seen some events where there's a big lead time on fic creation, then artists get paired later in the process).

but, consider, it is simply less fun this way. all of these events sort of function on the assumption that an artist will get inspired by fic/prompt - without giving writers the chance to do the same. for writers, there's no spontaneity in this process. we have to be in the driver's seat.

sometimes, a writer deserves to kick back with a pina colada and say "yeah bro what's the vision" as the artist says "ummm... idk i wanna do like.. pastels? kinda like, fluffy springtime? oh and here's a new rendering technique i want to try- [pulls out tablet]"

because the thing is, i can work with that, actually. i think a lot of writers can. all i need is a handful of tags - AU and some general mood indicators - and we can find something compelling to write. you wanna put the character in some ridiculous pinterest strappy outfit? i'll write the choreography of getting into/out of the ridiculous pintrest strappy outfit. you wanna do dark colors? oh the mood of this scene is about to be so dark colors. comic? bro i'll write the dialogue. that's part of why i've been so excited to write for tropefest! it's fun!!

so, a reverse bang, for the uninitiated, is exactly this: a big bang where artists pitch, and then writers select from those prompts.

they are cool and we should do them. thank you for listening to my ted talk. (who am i kidding this is definitely tedx)

[cosmicredcadet]

All this aroace character shipcourse has proven to me that a majority of people that interact in fandom cannot actually interact with characters and media outside of shipping and genuinely I believe you need to learn how to interact with media outside of shipping.

[apradonite]

God the soriel scene. Why can people acknowledge that it was BOTH an irresponsible decision and kris and susie have a right to be upset about it, AND that toriel has the right to move on with sans AND that that she is like a.. hundred times better parent than asgore despite her failings.

Toriel can have failings as a parent without being completely shitty.

(Asgore on the other hand... fucking yikes. I'd respect him a million times more if he was going after rudy, a married man, rather than repeatedly going after his ex like GET AWAY FROM HERRRRR, the only benefit of sans and toriel getting drunk at her house rather than at sans's is that it means that asgore might visit and sans might open the door for him. Hopefully, that will be enough to get it through asgore's skull. I used to sympathise with financial situation, but now i wonder if it's actually brought on by his obsession to get back to "normal," leading him to neglect moving on and taking care of himself)

Sorry for the asgore paragraph. Anyway, I need to see an awkward breakfast scene between her, sans and kris as she tries to smoothe things over and try to properly introduce sans while kris is trying to get out of the door as fast as possible.

Also, we gotta admit the soriel scene is cute. Someone compared it to the lalondes' drinking scenes in the homestuck and think that's important. It's cute and joyful, which makes it hurt a little more (im not wording this right, but hopefully it makes sense? Like, i wanna be happy for her but also ouch. Its the right mix of clashing emotions)

Anyway sans. I support toriel liking him but it has made him too confident. He needs to be bullied by teenagers.

And on a final note, toriel being much taller than sans is wonderful and needed. I keep seeing art that makes lanino much taller than elnina and it gives me the ick. I'm so glad Toriel is so much taller than sans, we need that.

DUDE EXACTLY like yea i 100% agree that not watching how much you drink and getting super drunk when you got kids coming back later that night absolutely wasn't a responsible thing to do (i don't exactly blame her for not calling kris considering this is what. the third time they've gone out to hang with friends via suddenly disappearing and being out of reach. but it still should've been a safe bet that they're coming back at the end of the day) and whether or not that's a consistent pattern of behavior SHOULD be discussed. or even how kris's disappointment might be rooted in how just how fast their whole life is shifting around (especially with a guy that just moved into town) considering the theming of chapters 3 and 4. but some people's criticism of her in that scene is absolutely rooted in the idea that asgore is still entitled to her just because he wants her back and really any mention of "asgore is better/she should've stayed with him" is what gets me the most. she literally could not make it more clear that she's not interested! kris is allowed to be upset and uncomfortable with how quickly and messily their family's dynamics are changing just as much as toriel is allowed to want to move on! let that 6'8 woman hang out with her short ass boyfriend

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Hello Butterfly! Sorry for a weird ask, but i could have sword that i've seen somewhere on your blog a link to an old writeup of r+l=j theory. the info there was the usual, careful combing thru Ned's POV chapters for proof, but i remember it *looking* old, like the most barebones of a webpage, just text on a white background, no header, no footer, barely any margins on the text. not a part of an old forum or anything either, but like someone just made that one page of theory and hosted it themselves. now i'm looking around for it and i simply can't find it :( if you know what im talking about, could you link it? if not, nvm, i know this is a crazy long shot. thank you!!

Not at all a weird ask, believe me! You're asking about the really ancient ASOIAF FAQ I found once, don't worry, I still remember it. This is the FAQ, it was made before AFFC, and was last updated in 2003. (It's hosted on Angelfire, which often amazes me that it's still going, but hey, good luck for us. You can even still make your own Web 1.0-style site there!) And this is the page on the question of Jon's parentage, which concludes that R+L=J is the most logical answer. It's still one of the best resources on that question, lacking only the primary evidence developments in AFFC (the Gilly's baby switcheroo) and ADWD (Bran's vision of Lyanna stick-swordfighting and of Ned praying that Jon and Robb become "close as brothers"). Hope that helps!

[rouge-the-bat]

ive never seen literally anything hp, but man the way some people post about it feels more like theyre going "finally, a socially acceptable thing for me to relentlessly shit on and be condescending to fans about without (much) backlash" rather than, you know, actually being invested in defending and supporting trans people.

like do you want to signal that youre safe for trans people to be around, encourage people to stop monetarily supporting the author, stop posting about her series until ding dong the witch is dead so she wont see it as supporting her, or do you just have fun going "ew people still like this shit? cringe 🤢🤢 it was always awful, find something actually good to be a fan of, dumbasses." do you think thats helping the trans people that the series was/is extremely important to at all.

[ghostinacardboardbox]

CC is one of my new favourite things ever but ill respect your dislike of it far more than i ever will going "I'm not saying you cant criticise the musical but" then express discomfort with people calling out the antisemitism

CC is my least favorite Starkid show ever but I'll respect your appreciation of it far more than I ever will people who go "there's nuance here" in a post that is fully just using polite language to shut down criticism. I genuinely don't know what's so hard about this.

Anyway it's been a Rough Time to be in the Starkid fandom and actually want to complain about things I disliked in a show I was incredibly excited for. Somehow having literally any issues with the show at all means I must be someone who is only here for Hatchetfield and is just trying to bully Starkid back into doing Hatchetfield stuff. Piss on the poor website.

[the-deca]

in light of recent discourse

[lurking-loaf]

Sun isn't the only animatronic doing crafts in the daycare. Sporting the finest in handcrafted cardboard accessories, Fairy Princess Moon decided to swing on by @daycarefriendpickup's Magma this past weekend.

And look, here's the Fairy Sun drawn by @lil-lemon-snails that inspired this drawing!