#i already retweeted this on twitter but its so awesome i need to reblog it

[akumathreblogs]

Angry guy yells at game: internet erupts.

Preface

So who is Angry Joe? He is a reviewer online who focuses on games and is prone to anger. That’s pretty much all I know about him since I only see him via crossovers or cameos of reviewers I do follow (Linkara being an example).

What is Kingdom Hearts you ask? First, how is living under a rock? If you really don’t know (and I seriously doubt you don’t), Kingdom Hearts is a series of games by Square Enix that allows you to travel to various Disney Worlds and help their problems. Now if you ARE a Kingdom Hearts fan, you know there is more to this story but to quote SuperButterBuns “there’s only so much a story summary can help you with”.

And that’s where this problem arrives. Apparently Angry Joe is planning to review Kingdom Hearts 3. And his first tweet on this subject that was brought to my attention said this: “I literally have ppl telling me not to review the game or they’ll brigade me & harass me if I don’t play ALL of the previous games first.” A lot of people decided to retweet him, saying that he isn’t professional despite a following tweet saying “No. I’m a bit smarter then u give me credit for. But if the game isn’t friendly to new players then I have every right to say so.”

And again, he is getting criticized for not doing work. Looking through his twitter to find the direct links to said tweets, I found he replied to someone I do follow with the statement: “What I said Is I'm going to take it from a new players perspective and NOT play all the other games to personal completion. I planned to watch story summaries to get up to speed. Is that okay with you? You just made assumptions and reacted to those. Is that your error or mine?”

So on my reblog tumblr, I reblogged that if a story is good, it doesn’t need supplementary material. And I got reblogs saying why would people play the third game of an ongoing story first or my examples are not valid to compare with. So instead of continually reblogging it, I will pretty much make my argument here.

It Will Be People’s First Game

An argument is that with the collections so readily available, why would you start with 3 when you could get the collections before that? Well, let’s start with the best argument for new commers I didn’t realize till recently: they have an XBox One. Kingdom Hearts 3 will be the first game of the series to get on that system. Keyword: FIRST.

As far as I am aware, the Collections are not available to the XBox One. You would think they would mention the collections before KH3, but it looks like they aren’t. This interview about KH3 states the following: “Similarly, Nomura didn’t completely dismiss the possibility of HD collections on Xbox One, but noted that he isn’t sure demand exists outside of the West.”

And that’s why Kingdom Hearts 3 must be able to stand on its own. This game has to so the possibility of those collections to be on the XBox One or the entire series on the Switch. Because if Kingdom Hearts 3 fails to live up to its expectations, then it could be likely that this maybe the last Kingdom Hearts game.

For those with PS4s already, why would they start with KH3 over the Collections. You get more games for much cheaper and it’ll prepare you for KH3. Why wouldn’t they get them first. Well, to quote SuperButterBuns again, “recommend just getting the first collection to see if you like the series first” Then if people bought the collection and find out they don’t like the series, then KH3 will lose its steam. Square is counting on KH3 to be a best seller and eventually make people want to get the collections, not the other way around.

People will jump in a sequel before the prequel

People said my examples of the Marvel Cinematic Universe doesn’t count because its a universe while KH is an ongoing story. They also countered by saying nope to my MGS analogy and said that like Mass Effect or the Witcher Series you can’t jump into a sequel and expect to get the story. Well, I decided to look up how they did on VGChartz and see how much it holds true.

Metal Gear

The highest selling game of the series is MGS2 for the PS2. It sold 6.05m units to MGS1′s 6.03m. MGS4 (the one I see people argue the most that you can’t just jump in) sold 6.00m units for the PS3. MGS3, on the other hand, sold 4.23m. When you add Subsistence and the PS4 HD Collection (the first one since they weirdly added multiple) you get 5.96m in total, but that is under the assumption that each individual unit sold has only bought those specific versions.

Mass Effect

According to the chartz, ME2 sold 3.10m units on the 360. Followed by ME3 with 3.04m. And the original game only sold 2.91m. So based off the 360 alone, there have been more players for the sequels of Mass Effect over the original. And while that game gives you the option to continue playing the character you built from the previous, it is optional so newcomers can jump in without having to go through all that.

The Witcher

The Witcher 3 sold 7.54m units alone. Looking at the chart alone you can tell the total of the originals doesn’t come close. On the Wiki, by September 2014, the series reached 8 million copies. The Witcher 3, conversely, in March 2016, CD Projekt Red reported that the game had shipped nearly 10 million copies. So there is a high chance that the Witcher 3 is their first game.

Kingdom Hearts

To finish this off, the original Kingdom Hearts sold 6.40m units. The sequel, on the same system, sold 4.33m. Now if you have to play all the spinoffs to get the story, then that means 2.48 people did not play the GBA game: Chains of Memroies (1.85m). And all the games before the collections get lower and lower. Again, to quote SuperButterBuns, “has covered many platforms to an almost absurd degree” and as they pointed out, NOW is a better time to get into the series thanks to the collections.

So how did the collections do? 1.5 for the PS3 did 1.85m, 2.5 did 1.25m. The PS4 versions did 1.36m and 2.8 for the PS4 sold 1.09m. In total that is 5.55m units sold in total. This is assuming people only bought one of them (which is immediately thrown out since the PS3 needs you to buy both individually while the PS4 requires you to only buy one). So taking out 2.5 on the PS3, that means 4.30m units were sold for those wanting to prepare for KH3. Which is about as much as the original 2 sold and still far from the original 1. 

In short, by looking at the numbers alone, there is a high possibility that people who buy KH3 will be making their first purchase to the franchise through this game. There is a precedent for people to jump into a franchise in a later installment in games and I bet there are numerous examples of other media as well. But since this is a game, I focused on examples through that.

An installment of an on going story can stand on its own

Despite what people think, an on going story line and a universe are the same thing: it is a major story split apart by smaller events. So if the story is good, it can stand on its own without needing the supplementary material. And I will be giving examples.

Metal Gear Solid 2

The game begins with you controlling Snake. Through this prologue, you not only get used to how the game works but you also get introduced to Snake if you’re a newcomer. It gives you enough information to know what role he will play in the rest of the story, as your focus is now on Raiden. You learn of Raiden’s backstory, his quirks and motivations and when the reveal of it being a simulation is revealed you’re just as shocked as he is.

And if this game did its job well, it will not only make you look forward to the next game but also wish to play the original. Playing the original is not needed to enjoy MGS2. In fact, not playing would most likely help as a common complaint I hear about this game is you don’t play as Snake. So while the Prologue will introduce Snake to newcomers, it pretty much sets up disappointment for those who have been expecting to play as him in the sequel.

Metal Gear Solid 4

This story once again begins with you playing as Snake. While you learn about how to play this game, you will also learn about Snake's motivations in this game. You'll find out that he is dying as is pretty much on his last mission. You understand Liquid Snake's plans and why Snake has to stop him. And there is plenty of information as well as cutscenes where past incidents are explained, but can be skipped and still know you have to stop a terrorist. And not playing MGS2 won’t stop you from thinking Cyborg Raiden is awesome.

Kingdom Hearts 2

Yes, Kingdom Hearts 2 can be played without the need to play KH1 or Chain of Memories. In the opposite of MGS2, you play as Roxas in the Prologue so while you’re learning how to play the game you’re learning more about him as a character, So when you find out about his true origin, newcomers should be hooked to the story and wish to find out what happens to Roxas. And if this game doesn’t give you the answers, the following games should.

As for Sora, you get reintroduced to him, noticing the similarities he shares with Roxas, while understanding his motives for finding Riku and uncovering Organization XIII’s true plans. If this story did its job well, it would make you want to get into the rest of the franchise. But of course, even if they do get the story they could still complain about it without it being related to understanding the story. MC Chris’ rant of KH2 has him not playing the original yet his criticism is more about the story KH2 presented. Which is saying that its slow compared to Resident Evil 4.

Conclusion

Yes, there are plenty of people out there who will review Kingdom Hearts 3 with the knowledge of the past games. Examples, if you didn’t figure out one of them yet, is SuperButterBuns who also gives you a video about which order should you play them in. Another example is SomecallmeJohnny who has reviewed every game in the series so far. So you do have plenty of options for those who are fan of the series.

But for newcomers, they may see this game and want to jump in because of the Disney worlds they presented, not really caring about the story itself. And there has to be someone who represent those people who are curious. As far as I can see, Joe is a professional when it comes to reviews. When trying to look up moments where he doesn’t do research, the only one I found was about Halo 5 and removing the split screen options. Apparently he was ranty in that video about it and while I can imagine it was over the top, the reason it was taken out is definitely a negative.

So let Joe review the game. You’re still going to buy it regardless of what he thinks or says. And since his review is going to be based around the newcomer, he’ll either give them the warning to play the originals before this one or say “jump right in, this game is awesome”. Unless the game play sucks like if it is like 358/2 Days.

[retronator]

Brilliant explanation. Your view on it is interesting, some of which is subjective, but I care because I use the app (and social media at large) primarily to look up art from around the globe—I mean, how else would I be able to? I look at pieces on tumblr for longer than 3 seconds; I get inspired and share awesome work all the time. The 3-second threshold only applies to me when I get put off by the blurry display and it can completely change the art I'm seeing (compared to the original save)...

It is very subjective, I agree. You can choose which place to look at art though, especially since many artists post on multiple platforms. 

This is another subjective choice of course, but here are the reasons why DeviantArt is for me the best website to find/look at art right now:

No noise. Everything posted is art. Yes, it also has journals, and status updates, and polls, and forum posts, but those are all separated away from the main art queue. If all you care about is art, this is exactly what you can get.

Notification queue. Posts from people you follow all get added to notifications. This means you never miss anything from your favorite artists. On Tumblr and Twitter, unless you follow very few people, it’s impossible to look through every post. Unlike with DA, you can’t filter out just the art.

Groups for discovery. Similar to Facebook, groups are places to find artists you didn’t know yet about. It’s not any better than reblogs/retweets, maybe even worse, because anyone can submit to groups whereas with reblogs/retweets you already (usually) like that artist’s taste, so their recommendations will probably suit you. But at least there is some discovery built in.

There are many things wrong with DA, from its cluttered design to lack of moderation in gallery categories (isometric pixel art is full of things that are nothing but), but the no noise+notifications combo really outweigh it for me.

Can we do better? Yes. The problem with DA is also that not everyone posts there. Some artists are only on Twitter, some just on Tumblr, some just on Pixel Joint … We would need one central place where:

There is only art.

You can follow artists so you never miss their artworks.

It has all the art, from everyone/everywhere.

That’s what my Pixel Art Database aims to be. Key pieces of technology need to be developed for this to happen:

An artist database with everyone’s social media accounts.

A spider/crawler/robot that collects all the posts from these accounts.

An algorithm that filters just (pixel) art from all the posts. 

User accounts for following artists and tracking which artworks you’ve seen already (notifications for new ones).

Once you have all these running, you can say which artists you want to follow and it will theoretically give you a stream of just the artworks that these artists have created. Then you need a system for discovery/recommendations and you’re onto a good start. Of course with a clutter free viewing experience (absolutely no ads next to artworks).

So that would be my ideal way for how to look up art from around the globe.

[ponyregrets]

No One Told You Life Was Gonna Be This Way

Kabby social media AU, 3200 words, T

did u know that 1. it is @kane-and-griffin‘s birthday 2. she accidentally went viral for ranting about Friends and 3. once I start thinking about how A Thing (random example: Marcus Kane writing viral Friends tweets) would go down I cannot stop until I just write the thing

anyway happy birthday claire!!

Marcus Kane is, unfortunately, very familiar with the Nice Guy phenomenon.

It's an occupational hazard of writing science fiction, especially in the internet age; all he has to do is look for his most obnoxious fans, and he finds an unfortunately loud contingent of entitled mostly white men who believe that the world owes them women and happiness without any effort on their parts. It's something he tries to combat as much as possible, wherever he can, and he knows it works in some cases. For every reader who's turned against him for being an SJW cuck (whatever that means), he has another who's expressed appreciation for his opening them up to perspectives they hadn't considered and broadened their empathy and understanding.

That's what sci-fi should do, as far as Marcus is concerned. The heart of science fiction is acceptance and unity.

Which is why he tells Bellamy, "I need you to do one of those Twitter threads for me."

"For what?" Bellamy asks, wary. As Marcus's assistant, he seems to think his most important duty is talking Marcus out of interacting with social media. And he may be right.

"Ross Gellar."

It takes him a second. "The guy from Friends?" he finally asks.

"Yes. I want to explain to my followers why he's bad romantic lead and role model."

To his shock, the response is instant. "Okay."

"No arguments? No lecture on how that isn't what Twitter is for?"

"No, fuck Ross," he says. "What do you want to say? I'll make it happen."

Marcus clucks his tongue. "I'll write up a statement."

* Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Last week, while ill, I watched Friends on Netflix for the first time. So, a thread on friendship, romance, Joey Tribiani, and Ross Gellar.

O @o-so-cool reblogged Sometimes my brother's boss is pretty okay.

raven @queenreyesthefirst reblogged brb adding @kanemarcus to non-sucky white dude sci-fi authors and shipping him with @scalzi

Finn Collins @finnishfirst reblogged this is kind of interesting but way too hard on ross. he does a lot of good things! see thread

Bellamy @bradburybell reblogged this is not nearly hard enough on ross

Clarke Griffin @clarkegriffin reblogged Relevant to your interests @ark-abby

*

"So here's what I think happened," says Bellamy. He's brought Marcus a coffee without being prompted, so whatever it is must be bad.

Marcus takes a sip of the drink. "When?"

"With your Twitter rant."

"Ah. I assume there are a lot of protests from the louder, stupider portion of my fanbase about how I've allowed the liberal fake media destroy my mind and masculinity?"

"Yeah, there are some of those. But, uh--it went way past your fanbase."

"Excuse me?"

"This is your most retweeted post ever. Not even close. It's viral. You've got people fighting you, people telling you it's a revelation, and about a thousand new followers already. In the last day."

He frowns. "Is Friends really still that popular?"

"Apparently." He shrugs. "Clarke says you made Buzzfeed and a couple of the other aggregator sites too. She and Raven have been texting me updates. They think it's hilarious."

"What does that mean?"

"Honestly? I don't fucking know. I told you when you hired me I'm not actually good at this stuff. I tried to warn you."

"You did." He takes another sip of coffee. "So, what do you think happened?"

"My sister retweeted it, and she spends about ninety percent of her time thinking about her social media brand, so she's got a ton of followers. Then Raven picked it up from her, her tech friends got a hold of it, and after that--" He shrugs. "You got out of your niche and into broader Twitter, and I'm not going to be able to find anything useful in your notifications for weeks. It's all Ross/Joey shipping discourse. Clarke's words, not mine," he adds.

"Should I be concerned?"

"I don't know. I guess we'll find out if it actually sells more books. And Clarke thinks we should try to leverage it into more publicity, she's got an idea for that."

Marcus hasn't actually met most of Bellamy's friends, but he references them enough that he knows who they are. Octavia, sister, Raven, ex-girlfriend, Clarke, current girlfriend. He also knows that all of them are more familiar with social media than Bellamy is, so he's not surprised that he consulted them.

Mostly, though, he still can't believe anyone really cares about this.

"An idea to leverage the Friends discourse?"

Bellamy shrugs. "Apparently this fit into an ongoing conversation she's been having with her mother. Abby Griffin? She writes for Ark AV. She did that think-piece about what mainstream science fiction gets wrong about female characters."

"Ah," says Marcus. He remembers the article, which had been harsh but ultimately fair, and an interesting take, once he'd gotten over the initial hurt of being used in a not entirely positive light. "I didn't know that was Clarke's mother."

"Yeah, I figured I'd tell you later. Once I didn't think you were going to call her up and argue with her about how much better you've gotten."

"And now you don't think I will?"

"Honestly, I don't care. I just want to see you guys fight about Friends," he says. "That sounds awesome."

"So, you have no ulterior motives here. Just looking out for my best interests."

"Obviously."

"If she's Clarke's mother, I assume she's local? Or will I be fighting her on a podcast?"

"We were thinking Starbucks on Saturday. Caffeine and lots of witnesses."

Marcus finally lets himself open up Twitter, now that he's had enough coffee. He almost always has some notifications when he looks; he's a public figure with a passionate fanbase, he's used to people trying to talk to him on Twitter. That's why he has a Twitter in the first place. But the number of notifications has never been so high, not in his memory. And, as Bellamy said, it really is a lot of passionate Friends discourse, both for and against his opinions. It's an overwhelming amount of love, hate, and passion. Like discovering an entirely new world.

He thought he understood fandom, but apparently he has a long way to go.

"Starbucks would be fine," he tells Bellamy, a little faintly. "I'd enjoy that."

*

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus A lot of new followers today. Here are a few notes for you:

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Replying to @kanemarcus I am a published science fiction author. Those of you telling me to just write a book instead of many tweets, I have written many books.

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Replying to @kanemarcus You can find the link to purchase them in my header.

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Replying to @kanemarcus I have never claimed to be an expert on Friends. This was my first time watching, and these are my impressions based on one viewing.

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Replying to @kanemarcus My opinion on the Friends canon does not invalidate yours. Yours is as valid as it ever was. But if you feel threatened, examine that.

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Replying to @kanemarcus My ideas may have merit you're reluctant to fully accept because of your own perceptions of how things should be in relationships.

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Replying to @kanemarcus If you followed me for more Friends content, please be aware this is an outlier. I usually talk about science fiction.

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Replying to @kanemarcus On that note, would anyone like to discuss the Hugo Awards?

Masper @gogglesdonothing Replying to @kanemarcus ross/rachel is forever tho

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Replying to @kanemarcus and @gogglesdonothing I'll take that as a no.

Jonty @themediumgreen Replying to @kanemarcus and @gogglesdonothing I'm so sorry Mr. Kane just ignore him I want to talk about the Hugos tell me all your favorite winners do you like Chuck Tingle

Jonty @themediumgreen Replying to @gogglesdonothing I CAN'T TAKE YOU ANYWHERE

*

Marcus will admit he does not feel broadly prepared to seriously enter the Friends discourse. He is, after all, a neophyte. If there are scholarly works on Friends, he has not read them. If there's any academic discussion of these issues, he is not familiar with it. His knowledge is vague and still forming, but for some people, this show was a huge part of their development. It matters to them on a deep, personal level.

For him, it was a decent use of his time while he was sick and confined to his couch. He had a fever for most of the first season. He's not sure he's prepared to fight anyone about it. Based on his mentions, he has many, many fewer horses in this race than other people. But maybe that's a good thing. Maybe his perspective as an outsider is valuable.

Or maybe he just wants the chance to sit down with Abby Griffin. Because instead of spending the past week either working on his next book or even familiarizing himself with Friends and the criticism surrounding it, he's mostly been researching Abby Griffin herself. He'd done it some after the first article Bellamy sent, curious to see her other work, but he'd been busy with a deadline and hadn't really had much time for that, had barely scratched the surface of this woman.

He doesn't have time for it now either, of course, but it's at least relevant to something in his life. And, as Bellamy and his friends have pointed out, this is at least good publicity. It's not a complete waste of time.

The Abby Griffin stalking might be a waste, but he can't help it. She's interesting. The pop-culture writing is, apparently, a side job, something she never intended to get seriously involved in. The website had been her husband's, and when he passed away, Abby and Clarke had taken over its upkeep, and Abby had started producing content when she had time. Given her full-time job is as the director of internal medicine at the hospital, he's frankly amazed she has as much time for content as she does.

And it's good content. She and Clarke have a weekly column where they discuss a movie they went to see together, and the female characters in science fiction piece was apparently part of a series. Her taste is good and her opinions are interesting, and by the time he's meeting her, he has one big question, and one only.

They get through introductions and are settled in at the table before he finally lets it out. "Honestly, I don't understand how you can like Ross."

She lets out a surprised laugh. "Excuse me?"

"Bellamy said he was looking forward to us fighting over Friends, but I have trouble believing you disagree with my opinion of Ross. I don't know what we'd be fighting about."

She smiles into her mug. He'd known she was beautiful from the picture he found on the hospital website, but it's different to see in person, and more awkward. Bellamy and Clarke are hanging out at their own table, pretending not to eavesdrop; it's not an ideal time to be caught staring. "I don't know what he told you, but I didn't disagree. It was an impressive rant. Well reasoned and accurate. I was more interested in discussing why you posted it and the reactions you got. I saw it wasn't popular among some of your readers."

"To say the least."

"One of the things I've been curious about since getting involved in online fandom is what counts as acceptable ways to interact, especially for those of us over thirty or so. I saw a lot of people asking why a heterosexual man in his late forties would care this much about Friends at all. As if that was the problem."

"Judging from the angry responses, plenty of heterosexual men are very invested in Friends. Although I'm not sure how old they are," he grants.

"Age is the biggest issue, in my experience. You'd been participating in an acceptable way, as a creator, but once you show yourself to be invested in Friends shipping--"

"I stepped into the wrong part of fandom."

"That's my thesis, yes."

He considers. "Am I on the record?"

"I'm not a reporter, Marcus," she says, sounding amused. "I'm not trying to trick you into saying something I can use against you. But if you'd like to officially be off the record, we can say that you are."

"My hope with that post was that it would make some of my readers rethink their attitudes towards women and romance. The number of responses I got to Valena's story in Bright Sky Morning that boiled down to her being wrong for not returning Pavel's feelings even though he'd been so devoted to her was--staggering. And depressing."

"Did your female readers appreciate it?"

"They did. Apparently Jin was a much more appealing partner."

Abby smiles. "I certainly thought so."

It's not his first time meeting a fan, of course, and she might not even be a fan, in the sense they're talking about. But she's read his work and has opinions on it, and that's always a little bit flattering. Especially when they align with his. "I'm glad. I was hoping he would be." He clears his throat. "So, you'd like to talk to me as a forty-eight-year-old man who publicly had opinions on shipping."

"And to get your thoughts on Monica and Chandler," she says, all innocence. "If you don't mind."

He can't help smiling himself. "Not at all. I'm all yours."

*

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Expanded my horizons this weekend with the High School Musical trilogy. A curious cultural phenomenon.

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Replying to @kanemarcus I appreciated that Troy and Gabriela didn't go to the same college, but still stayed in the same general area.

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Replying to @kanemarcus I still don't think the couple has much of a future, but in an unrealistic movie, I appreciated that nod to practicality.

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Replying to @kanemarcus Very disappointed about the last-minute attempt to cement Ryan's heterosexuality. Let children have LGBT role models.

Murphy @firstnameredacted Replying to @kanemarcus If you're seriously going to be talking about Disney movies from now on I'm unfollowing you, I don't give a shit about this

Marcus Kane @kanemarcus Replying to @kanemarcus and @firstnameredacted Please do.

*

"Look," says Bellamy, two months after the first Friends rant, "I'm not going to pretend I'm good with crushes, but it would be a lot easier to just ask Abby if she wants to get dinner off the record instead of coming up with new weird shit to have opinions about on Twitter every week."

"I assume the timing of this isn't a coincidence," Marcus says. He was just getting his coat on to go meet her.

"You've already got a standing coffee date. Turn it into a real date. I'm begging you."

"You don't enjoy my opinions on the High School Musical series?"

"I actually do, I'm just getting tired of blocking people. Also, I don't know if you're aware, but dating is awesome. You should try it."

"I appreciate your concern. You don't think it would be weird for you if your boss was dating your girlfriend's mother?"

"No weirder than whatever's actually happening right now. And don't even try to tell me you're not asking her out because you're worried about how it would affect me."

It does sound absurd, when he puts it like that. "No. That wasn't a major factor."

Bellamy rolls his eyes. "Just ask if she wants to come check out the Descendants franchise with you next weekend. Definitely a solid pickup line. Chicks dig it."

"The what?"

"It's like the spiritual successor to High School Musical. I'll send you a link. You should know this stuff if you're really going in on this."

"I should give you a raise."

"That too. Say hi to Abby for me."

It's not entirely accurate to say that he thinks about what Bellamy said as he walks over to his weekly meeting with Abby. Every time he walks to her favorite coffee shop near the hospital, he's thinking these same kinds of thoughts, so it's not really Bellamy's fault. He enjoys Abby's company company and would be happy to see more of her. He already knew that. But it's been a long time since he navigated anything like this.

If only Friends had prepared him for this kind of romance.

"Marcus," says Abby, giving him a smile when he sits down across from her. As usual, she's surrounded by papers, and he sometimes doubts that she'd even have time for a relationship. She does keep herself busy. "I enjoyed your meditations on High School Musical."

"I'm glad to hear it. Bellamy says it gave me a net loss of followers, but not as much of one as he thinks I deserved."

"I'm not surprised." She considers him. "I didn't mean for our friendship to hurt your career."

"I don't think it is. Plenty of people just read my books and never even find out I'm on Twitter. It's not a large percentage of sales. You're blaming yourself for the High School Musical tweets?" he adds, curious. They are her fault, broadly speaking, but he wasn't sure she knew.

"If you don't keep coming up with hot takes, we don't have much to talk about."

He laughs. "I hope we'd come up with something."

"I hope so too."

The conversation lags, but it's not a bad lag. It feels like she's given him an opening, and it's his job to figure out how to take advantage of it.

The easiest way would be to simply propose a dinner date, as Bellamy suggested. But he's never been good at simple.

"You know, you never told me your favorite relationship on Friends."

"I didn't?"

"No, we usually talk about my opinions."

She levels her gaze at him, considering. "Do you know what I think when I watch Friends now?"

"No."

"They're all so young. And don't get me wrong, I met my husband when we were young, and the two of us were happy, but--sometimes it worries me how much emphasis we put on meeting people early in life. The younger you are, the more romantic it is. And that's one kind of romance, but it's not everything. It makes me want to shake all these kids and tell them that life doesn't end at thirty, or forty, or fifty. You'll keep on meeting new people, and you can still be happy."

He lets himself reach for her hand, and relief floods him when she lets him take it, even turns it over so she can squeeze his fingers. "So your favorite relationship on Friends is the one Rachel has when she's forty-five and Ross is dead?" he teases.

"I hope you're not comparing my husband to Ross."

He has to laugh. "No. I would never."

Abby's smile is warm, and it's suddenly so easy to not be nervous at all. "Good. Because the rest of that was right."

"Good," he agrees. "I was hoping you'd say that."

*

Sky Crew Reviews @kaneandgriffin New list from @kanemarcus: top 10 YA sci-fi books for adults! Up next, top 10 adult sci-fi books for teens. Age is nothing but a number.

Murphy @firstnameredacted Replying to @kaneandgriffin I will pay you to stop

Bellamy @bradburybell Replying to @kaneandgriffin and @firstnameredacted when are you actually going to unfollow like you keep saying you will? asking for a friend

Murphy @firstnameredacted Replying to @kaneandgriffin, @firstnameredacted, and @bradburybell I keep hoping I'm going to come back and he'll be normal again

SJW Cuck @kanemarcus Replying to @kaneandgriffin, @firstnameredacted, and @bradburybell Don't hold your breath.

[msyukari]

Fandoms

So I’ve been a fangirl with TV/movies, video games, and books for longer than I’ve been in any fandom. The only fandoms I ever participated in were for Star Trek and some video games like Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid. Most of my friends in RL watched most of the same shows I did so my “fandom” talk was usually reserved for them. Star Trek and Metal Gear Solid were the ones I participated the most in through forums. Anything else I’ve dabbled in and observed others talk online various social media platforms about whatever it was I was a fan of.

This is because I didn’t have a large interest in debating or talking with others since so many I knew in RL already watched the same things I did, or read the same things I did. I don’t even want to get into the amount of theories and insanity I had for Metal Gear Solid with my friends or with forums I was involved with, because really that is an endless topic of discussion. Needless to say I’m not a causual fan, and I fangirl pretty hard about some things I like.

Every so often I will comment on twitter or especially FB, and then lately tumblr with how I feel about the things I’m into, but it’s never a long ongoing conversation. I’d rather read and observe what others say and retweet/reblog the majority of the time. Some people in fandoms often have rose colored glasses about the shows and characters they’re into and I get that, because I suffer from that too sometimes, but it can also be one of the more irritating things about being in a fandom. 

Some people can become pretentious in their opinions and invalidate how you feel. The most heated discussions I’ve had have been about Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica. However this is participating in forums and talking in RL and those are more structured environments. Forums are organized by topic and threads and they’re much easier to follow ad they’re moderated. Closest thing to this now is FB groups that admins monitor. 

So based on all of that past history, I end up slowly somehow getting involved with the fandom of a little Australian prison drama called Wentworth which is based on the original show Prisoner: Cell Block H. Being in the US it was available on netflix and my mom was already watching the show and I had to move past my initial wariness that it was just a OITNB clone but with an Aussie twist. 

I soon discovered both shows are very different I fell in love with it, and I found myself in the predicament of becoming very attached to the show’s main villain, Joan Ferguson played by Pamela Rabe. I have other favorites in that show but the show really took off for me once Joan Ferguson arrived in season 2. Sometime after finishing the 4th season on netflix, I decided to read FreakyTits fanfic after I found out they actually had a ship name for Joan Ferguson and Vera Bennett. 

I was later introduced to some in the fandom that way and told that many are on twitter after I found some on tumblr. Hardly anyone I knew in RL watched the show and I was starved for more fan interaction because it was one of the first times I was obsessed with a show and some of its characters (especially one or two in particular) where no one other than my mother watched it. She’s a big fan of the show too, but only she can handle so much with fangirl obsessions. 

I’ve been on twitter for 9 years and usually used it for random forms of entertainment and pop culture and it was mainly used as a political account in the last couple years during the election. So I followed a few and interacted here and there, but I preferred observing and felt a little uncomfortable interacting with so many who had such strong opinions about Joan and the show. I have strong opinions about it too and the last thing I wanted to do was “step on the toes” of some others who had been in the fandom longer. I mainly didn’t tweet with too many because my TL on twitter is filled with politics and news, so I had to force myself to interact with others more.

I was much more content in my own little bubble and talking with some people, and reading FreakyTits fanfic. But eventually I started writing my own fanfic and that started a whole new type of interaction with fans of the show. I witnessed a lot of fun, arguing, passionate view points, drama, and bullying from the entire fandom as a whole. I didn’t always feel like I fit in. I always think of myself as an easy going person (even when I’m passionate about my interests), and sometimes I can be a bit of a chameleon depending on the people I talk to. 

In the last few months in the Wentworth fandom, I’ve gotten to know a few nice people who I now consider close friends. Some of them are mixed between American and UK fans. It’s nice to find American fans because there are so few of us that are willing to watch it over OITNB, but we’re growing in numbers. I sometimes feel my sense of humor is best understood by the fans in the US, so I seem to feel more comfortable with US fans, but there are some awesome UK fans too. It’s also even more awesome knowing that many fans of met each other at meet and greets the actors, and this creates a special bond among fans and makes it more personal.

I have noticed that there are some who have been in the fandom a long time and like all social settings, whether it be in person or online, there are always going to be people in groups who go with others they feel the most comfortable with or the most in common. In that way it can seem a bit “cliquey” but I don’t believe this is always done deliberately, I think it can just be hard to get involved with people who have been interacting for a year or longer. 

However, I’m not in the fandom to gain popularity or care about the popularity of others. I just want to have fun and talk about one of my favorite shows and characters. Fandoms can be great and fun, but they also be toxic and carry drama. I’ve seen it happen in every fandom I’ve come across online. It’s especially more apparent because it is online, where people say and do things they wouldn’t normally do because it’s more anonymous. First and foremost, I must always remember I’m dealing with people online and not in person, and there are only a few I talk to who I believe are their authentic selves, and not like a secret identity that they display online to others, or another version of themselves. 

I also believe it’s not the fandom’s responsibility to make anyone feel a certain way. Yes it’s nice if fandoms are welcoming, but they are there primarily to talk about the show and its characters and interact with others. If you make friends along the way, that’s great, but the moment I put my sense of self worth with others online (which I’ve done a few times), is when I know I need to reevaluate what is going on in my life to make me feel this way. 

Context is often lost online and many can misconstrue it to have different meanings and interpretations. People become reactive and triggered by something they assume is about them, especially in a fandom where some interact with other on a regular basis. Despite my constant interaction with the fandom I’m in, my life doesn’t revolve around said fandom, nor do my tweets and posts always have to do with anything fandom related since I have RL friends who use twitter and tumblr as well.

So remember, fandoms are fun but they can be a little crazy sometimes and when it becomes too serious to where you’re not having fun, just take a break or find others you feel more comfortable talking to. Sanity and serenity are what’s more important, not my need to fit in to any social dynamic, online or otherwise.