#imagining in-universe fandom discourse is so fun

[berrywinkle]

You know, I think in-universe there would be shipping wars in the SOLDIER fanclubs where geneseph fans would have flame wars with sephgeal and gengeal fans. I can just imagine the fan club drama when both Genesis and Angeal go missing/declared dead and suddenly Zack shows up all the time around Sephiroth. Poor Zack would be the subject of so many locked forum debates for «stealing» Sephiroth or «usurping» Genesis/Angeal

[lloydfrontera]

You know, regarding Lloyd's achievement in history and whether ordinary citizens know him or not made me crave post canon modern au.

Imagine seeing an in universe fanfic authors notes in ao3 or twitter crying about how they simply wanted to write a story set in Lloys time but they just keep diving into rabbit holes.

Kinda like

"So i was writing an historical au set in Alician era where the MC had a detour in Cremo and he was admiring a statue by the sea with a local explaining its history. Of course, I needed to do some research only to found out that Lloyd Frontera, YES, THAT Lloyd Frontera who made the Pantara railroad defeated some sea monster, nearly died and got statue for it"

Maybe someone from Beneto Kingdom being so confused because all he learned from history in school (Beneto history) is that Lloyd is just some brilliant engineer so he got specially confused on why in the movie he was watching set in Alician era is Lloyd fighting a goddamn bone dragon.

I'm interested on how scholars and political figures bemoan and analyse Lloyd's action and achievement but ordinary people's Internet discourse could be so much fun as well.

Javier and Lloyd getting the Alexander and Haphaestion treatment on whether they were lovers or not. The discourse would be so toxic lol.

oh my god forget changing the history of civil engineering forever, sparking the nastiest discourse ever on history/fandom internet forums is lloyd's true greatest achievement akshfksdg

he's the go to historical domain character used to set the time period for a historical movie/book/series. he's the guy writers insert to give their work a more period accurate vibe. everyone knows just enough about him to make really passionate history nerds very angry about all the inaccuracies and made up facts that are taken as common knowledge.

i'm thinking people of completely different online circles all knowing about lloyd in some capacity but regarding completely separate facets of his life and work and being so surprised when they accidentally find yet another whole field lloyd revolutionized. like.

a sword nerd who's really into the concept of the asrahan core technique and knows perfectly well that lloyd helped invent it getting gobsmacked about the fact that's the same guy that laid the ground for modern sewer systems.

a fan of historical romance stories who is used to seeing lloyd as a fun cameo in the background of stories set in the alician period being really confused when they open their book on thermodynamics and see there's a whole chapter dedicated to a method lloyd figured out to create ice without the need of magic.

a train enthusiast who is really fascinated by the rudimentary switchback system lloyd frontera implemented when the concept of a train wasn't even known in the empire being completely dumbfounded when their friends invite them to see a movie about that one time lloyd frontera and his knight defeated a knight of hell in namaran.

i think it's definitely a meme to post "so i was doing research for my asfahan au and went on a rabbit hole and guess who fucking built the qanat that's widely regarded as the only reason the kingdom didn't fall into civil war. take a wild fucking guess" "was it lloyd frontera" "IT WAS FUCKING LLOYD FRONTERA OF COURSE IT WAS"

i'm also certain there would be some guys who think he's overrated and people should really stop talking so much about him when there's so many other historical figures who are just as interesting and not as recognized 🙄. to which people immediately go "mad cause your history blorbo didn't defeat a bone dragon aren't you" at them

Javier and Lloyd getting the Alexander and Haphaestion treatment on whether they were lovers or not. The discourse would be so toxic lol.

they definitely get the alexander and hephaestion treatment you are so correct. they're also the achilles and patroclus of the modern magentano girlies. there's a bunch of 'queer retellings' of their lives. they're the go to example for homoerotic friendships. there's a bunch of edits that mix historical paintings of them with ship fanart with that 'history hates lovers' song playing over them. dudebros get really angry about it. llojavi truthers pull out their 20 pages long annotations that start with "they fucking slept in the same bedroom for years" and it only gets worse.

there's one poor person online who just really fucking wants to know how and why lloyd frontera changed faces one day out of the blue with no one ever explaining it. there's no official records. no member of the royal family ever made a statement about it. why is everyone acting like the frontera family didn't have one eldest son for 25-29 years and one day suddenly had a completely different one. what the fuck is going on.

so. yeah. i'm a little obsessed with this concept actually ajkshdksa

[einsatzzz]

Heya there Ein! Question time for you! Have some Meta asks.

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

For Kurumi

What plot points would change due to the inclusion of your character in canon?

For Kana

What headcanons/theories do you believe fandom would invent about your character?

What controversies/drama would your character incite in fandom?

Yui

What would be the ‘incorrect but wildly popular’ interpretation of your character in fandom?

and for any character of your choosing

What is the wildest crackship you can imagine for your character, whether in-universe or in crossover?

And this one's the last for the fandom OC ask! Thank you for sending this one Lix hehehe That last one was so fun ngl I hope my answer for that is funny enough!

Kurumi: What plot points would change due to the inclusion of your character in canon?

I already answered here! But to add one more, it would be that after Gokudera's debut/focus chapter, the next one would be Kurumi's instead of Yamamoto's or that chapter where they have trouble with this asshole teacher. 🫶✨

Kana: What headcanons/theories do you believe fandom would invent about your character?

I also already answered in the link above too. But I'll give you one more on the house! I feel like there would also be theories that Kana was raised separately from Kurumi for some reason. Each person will come up with different reasons for it that they would connect as to the reason why Kana grew up to have those types of vibes.

Kana: What controversies/drama would your character incite in fandom?

I have an answer for this here too! But of course, more extras for you Lix! 🥳🥳 It's kind of related to my answer to this ask actually, but shipping aside, there will definitely be discourse between how different people would interpret her character. I can see people causing drama and complaining if they see another person who's interpretation of her is on the other side of the spectrum. It would also be guaranteed that there will be those types of people who can't handle morally grey characters, straight up just saying that if you like characters like Kana then you agree with her views and beliefs shown in the story 🤣😭🤣😭🤣😭

Yui: What would be the ‘incorrect but wildly popular’ interpretation of your character in fandom?

I answered this here too! An additional one I can think of is that, I feel like people will just see Yui for whatever he's showing in the surface - a goofy/unserious character obsessed with robots, which ignores the other aspects of his characters and the layers that he has beneath.

Any Character: What is the wildest crackship you can imagine for your character, whether in-universe or in crossover?

LMAOOOOO OK I'LL LIST DOWN THE ONES I CAN REMEMBER SDBFHSVDF MOSTLY FROM MY BROTHER

Bel x Kurumi - Suggested by my brother who loves Varia. In his defense, he said it will be a Prince x Princess ship, which is actually pretty cute...in theory. Bel isn't really your standard shoujo prince, is he? hahaha Though I feel like they'll somehow get along in a strange way if they ever meet in the main story.

Mukuro x Kana - Another one suggested by the same brother, who is also a Mukuro GOAT truther. He said it's because they look like they're the same breed of nasty, and also in consideration of this one secret Kana lore I told him about. I have no counter for that but just for this one certain thing, they'll be each other's haters tbh. One of the reasons why I think he's lowkey trying to convince me to ship them is because he wants more Mukuro screentime in my arts and KHRe 🤣🤣If I somehow get into this ship someday, you can either thank or blame him 👍✨

Enma x Hiyori - Cooked up by my brother again, who also likes Enma. His headcanon is that those bandaids on Enma's face are from when Hiyori keeps treating him whenever he trips or get beat up by bullies. Lowkey cute????? I should ask for his other ships, though it would definitely involve Varia, Kokuyo Gang or Simon Family.

Hibari x Ryuuka - Something that crossed my mind when thinking of silly scenarios where TYL Hibari gets caught up in a time slip. Of course, this is crack because they live 200+ years away from each other dfbhjvfshdf I even have an old rough sketch for the scenario, though I didn't really finish, where he thought Ryuuka is Kana? He's very ready to fight her, as usual, but this one is always cooped up in her lab. Ryuuka probably thinks he's Alaude or Alaude's relative. Anyway, I didn't really think that deep for this.

[eponymiad]

For Yuletide this year, I wrote this pseudo-Vox article for @newtsoftheworldunite's gift. The premise is a modern-day feature article in the QT universe where Shakespeare wrote a play about the king who married the queen who cut off his hand, and what the modern discourse about their real relationship would look like in both historian and fandom circles.

I had a lot of fun with it, and I crammed it full of both fandom references and non-fandom references. I made a list of all the ones I could find when I reread it (I'm sure I overlooked a few), which you can check out below the cut.

Princess Bythesea novels by Phresine are a reference to in-world bodice rippers from @hoeratius's Princess Diaries AU, for which both she and @hippolytas have written fic.  

The Genny Diaries is a play on The Lizzie Bennet Diaries 

The Setran Eugenides & Ira is a nod to my beloved Bride & Prejudice, a Bollywood Pride & Prejudice adaptation (and imo the best P&P adaptation) 

Wikipedia talk pages are basically a discussion page on every Wikipedia article to help editors behind the scenes make decisions, fix citations, and discuss what should/shouldn’t be included on the page 

Clothing references: the birds and twigs are a canon reference (thanks, Pheris), the wild fennel robes are a nod to a comment on a post MWT reblogged that someone else later made art for (she also reblogged the IRL coats which are beautiful), and the “ornate, traditional” clothing was a reference to Greece's really stunning regional clothing.

The rings were inspired by posy rings, which were popular in England and France in the late Medieval period. The inscription on Irene’s ring—Yours to command—was a legit inscription I found on a list so you can imagine how fast I added it in.

The poem is heavily pilfered from Sappho fragment 94, although it’s been edited to pay tribute to the most beautiful woman on earth 

The “life size statue” fights were @hippolytas's idea (among other things in this fic, but that’s what I remember most clearly) 

The Friends finale reference is a little joke for myself. Ross/Rachel were *the* will-they-won’t-they couple of the 90s and 00s, and I told some friends earlier this year that I think if Matthew Perry and Courtney Cox had had 20% less on-screen chemistry, the romance narrative might’ve shifted to who Monica would ultimately pick and let that be the big finale moment (and, frankly, have given Ross and Rachel’s storyline more creating room—but I digress). 

The RPF fics are all references to QT fanfics. The missing scenes and wedding night fics are obvious, but the two AUs are are this sci-fi one where the Attolia AI trains the guard and one of my own, Where Did You Come From, Where Did You Go? 

I'll update the list if I notice any others, but feel free to ping me if you think I've missed one! There are some other easter eggs in there, so if you think you spotted something else—you're probably right!

Thanks to everyone who has kudosed and commented on this fic, and to @thecrenellations and @cartograffiti and @hippolytas for their help and cheerleading, would legitimately have lost my mind if not for them <3

[jinzouactor]

thanks for the fic rec! Mogami trauma is very fertile character building ground and it’s so blown past in the series…I mean I know mp100 isn’t evangelion but still. i indulgently want nightmares of horrifying plant abomination mogami

also not to darken your inbox with Discourse but the age thing,,, yeah. i found that out like a few months ago and it’s one of the reasons i will jerk away from fandom at large like a hot stove. i always assumed they were at least mid-20s bc (hc) mine has the eye bags of someone who never recovered from grad school tbh

literallyyyy i meanto me the mogami arc sticks out as the most hopeless feeling part of the series but him being deployed again against minegishi also reminds you of that horror.

i think it feels like a fairly complete arc. mob finally winning over him -> captured by matsuo -> escapes to defeat minegishi -> end of mogami, suits mp100 as a series. but as a minegishi main i like to make a fuss about it.

using their plants in battle as an extension of themself and suddenly having that control ripped away? must feel bone chilling. and it grabbing you by the throat with its skeletal form. much fun. i would like them to have nightmares about it, given that it was the most pivotal thing in their character development. i think that reminder of guilt and that they promised to be a good person would be good for them. i imagine it gives them an odd relationship with morality for a while as they start developing a conscience but it takes a while to get rid of the habits and attitudes they cultivated during and before their time at claw. i love self-flagellation

and yeah sorry for talking abt the age thing but i have thoughts... yeah i feel like NO ONE expected that, and i had fallen too in love with the guy i made up in my head for lack of information to be receptive to this new concept of them. I'm sure there's pretty interesting ground to be explored there re: Claw's child esper training etc but I just don't really care for it with respect to Minegishi. other people can tread that ground.

I just think there's a bit of romanticism in "you can restart life at any time" like in Serizawa's case. In typical Mobbed Psycho fashion I just think its funny to be told by a 14yo to get your shit together at Your Big Age. my personal hc is that they dropped out of university to join Claw because no other future seemed possible for them, even if they didn't entirely trust Suzuki (as mentioned in the WD-arc)

entering the real world at late-20s early-30s after losing developmental years to Claw and the difficulties from being an esper that led them to Claw in the first place. like moeeeee that's a kind of moe to me ...

[thecactifindahome]

Tbh, I kind of can imagine that? Maybe bevause I watched the show first and shortly after finishing it I went to the books... But I get what you're saying and I'm ready for him to fight back and even snap if he wants to. Have you reas New Tales of the Vampires and Mayfair Witches too? Do you like them? I've decided to read all of them at least once, just to understand more of this universe as a whole and then re-read the ones that are relevant to the show and/or I enjoyed the most. I finished Pandora yesterday and now I'm around 80 pages into Blood and Gold. I loved the former, B&G is too early to tell, but I admit Marius is not my favorite, so who knows... But I'm excited to see Pandora and Bianca again, including any appearance of Armand, even if it's brief. I struggled with Memnoch, but the chapter he was in was 100% chef's kiss 0 notes from me. 😍 Anyway, why do you feel that way about Rolin? Has he said anything frustrating? I haven't seen many interviews yet, and the few I have, it's mostly with the actors. I see people's interpretations of his interviews on the tag all the time, but I've seen so much distortion and stuff taken out of context on other fandoms before that I want to fact-check first. And I will eventually, it's just that right now I'm prioritizing the books because I'm sick of seeing different opinions all the time and not being able to join book discourse. 😅 But I believe it would be creative suicide to waste the potential of such compelling characters, specially someone as rich in terms of baggage and development as Armand. His arc is so eventful and touching that he could have his own show with 10 seasons and 200 episodes tbh. And don't worry about Tumblr being weird and the late reply, I just enjoy chatting, whenever that happens. I can take long to reply too, so I get it. For me getting a proper answer is better than a fast one. It's all good. 💗

I'm going to be wailing and tearing my hair if we don't see him having fun while committing some terrible harm next season 🥺 Getting ready to hunt Malik isn't enough, I need him to tear somebody's scalp off for no real reason except that he likes their hair.

I've read Pandora and Vittorio, although I have to admit Vittorio left no impression on me whatsoever and I couldn't tell you anything about it except that there were no returning characters in it, lol. But Pandora is great! It's kind of revelatory to see who she was before the catatonic despair, she's so fiery and alive, and funny and rude. The only downside is that it makes seeing her so dead inside later on sad ): I read The Witching Hour a thousand years ago, too, but it didn't really grab me. I didn't dislike it as such, I just didn't click with it. It might have just been bias due to hating the witch/vampire crossovers so much, though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Blood and Gold is compelling to me, even if there are some things that make me grind my teeth pretty hard (Bianca got such a raw fucking deal, and oh my god the theater era, I'll basically accept not trying to get him out of the cult due to fear/shame/Akasha but there’s no reason not to send him a letter like 'Hey Amadeo, I'm alive, glad you made it out'). But he's got a lot of depth to his character, and he makes it pretty clear that he knows why he keeps ending up alone. And as a Roman history enjoyer*, Marius' idealization of Rome is exactly what you'd expect from an Augustan era wannabe-patrician (his half-Gaulish ass was definitionally a plebeian). Is it distasteful to the modern reader? Absolutely! But that was a highly typical perspective then.

Rolin Jones, well, I'll say two things: his fixation on everything having to serve loustat is starting to warp the basic sense and structure of the show, and reading the s2e8 script made me realize that he does too much cocaine. I don't think he has a clear vision of the show beyond romance and badass moments, I think the other writers are the ones trying to do something more. And like...how many times does he have to say that Daniel’s turning was spiteful and will never be shown before people believe him? Why would he keep downplaying and trying to manage expectations for D/M, a highly popular and acclaimed aspect of the books, if he actually intends to spend much time on it? Why would he try to unhype his own show? I'm at work so it's hard to dredge up citations, but his choices themselves are indicative imo.

Oh, I know what you mean, some people are incredibly dishonest, or maybe just delusional, about the book content. Or maybe I'm being ungenerous and they make these grand declarations because they sincerely don't understand what they just read, who knows? But people will tell you nonsense like that Lestat never loved Armand, which is simply a stupid thing to say, because they're pathologically insecure about their otp and try to establish themself as such an authority that nobody feels the need to see for themselves. Mad respect to you for going to the books 😊

*Not that kind of Roman history enjoyer, of course, it was a dumpster fire that is a far better cautionary tale than anything to admire and only a lunatic would try to emulate ancient Rome. But god damn, it's fascinating.

[septic-selfships]

Am I in the frame from your point of view?

My name's Jasper, welcome to my selfship sideblog! I'm pan-aro and agender. Most of my f/o's hover in the (queer)platonic sphere, but all of my Ego f/o's lean romantic. I'm mostly going to reblog stuff here, but I occasionally do ask/reblog games and original posts too. I'll also post NSFW stuff here, all tagged and my original posts will usually be under cuts.

My main f/o's at the moment are Marvin the Magnificent (JSE Ego Media), Sunday (A.ltrverse comics), and Jackieboy Man (JSE Ego Media), and I'm pretty comfortable sharing! I also like having friends who selfship from the same media.

Card suit divider and galaxy divider from @cafekitsune | profile picture from @florenceisfalling | blinkie made in blinkies.cafe

More stuff under the cut

❗❗NOT A FANDOM BLOG❗❗

My self insert is Valerie Hart, an 18/23 year old (depending on the f/o, 23 for the older ones) who loves writing and anything covered in hearts, bows, and frills. They use they/it/love pronouns.

I try to stay out of discourse, but I'm firmly anti harrassment and post dark content sometimes. Otherwise, minors and ageless blogs should tread with caution because of the NSFW stuff (unless I know you from Main for either one).

Most of my selfships aren't problematic, but Anti is Anti, and that's where a lot of the dark content will come from, along with The Twins.

And speaking of which! I don't ship myself with their creator, rpf isn't my thing. This is for the characters that he made, all of which are featured in the comics (besides Stacy)!

Tags:

Text posts will be tagged with [#selfship]

Art and other visual stuff will be tagged with [#framed photos]

Photos that reminds me of them will be tagged with [#aesthetic]

Gushes/adoration posts and texposts that remind me of them will be tagged with [#love letters]

Selfship games will be under [#game time]

NSFW stuff tagged as [#nsft] and suggestive stuff tagged as [#suggestive]

I also made the tag [#comfort] for selfship posts with comforting themes, like "your f/o loves you", "your f/o supports you", and imagines about giving and receiving comfort

Additional specialty tags:

🕊️ wedding plans 💚🩵: stuff related to my eventual selfship wedding with Marvin.

📚 study partners 💚🩵: Babysitter AU stuff with teen!Marvin and teen!Sunday.

🪄 travelling show 💚🩵: Old Lore! AU where Marv and Valerie are stage magicians.

🐾 liar liar 💚🩵🩶: posts regarding Marvin, Sunday, and Higgins from the C.T.A.L. universe made by Fruity. Valerie's not in it so no Valposting. Also Marvin and Sunday are teens throughout it and it's a horror story so keep that in mind.

💻 internet boyfriend 🖤💚: Old Lore! Anti and Valerie AU where they met via the internet. Includes a lot of Soft! Anti.

🦇 midnight crimson ❤️💙: Vampire! Jackie AU. Mostly normal but he's. A vampire.

💀 create a monster 🩷��: stuff pertaining to my MH version of Valerie.

📖 destined to be 💘🩷💜: stuff pertaining to my EAH version of Valerie.

My f/o's in alphabetical order:

H.eathers 1988-

Heather Duke (Duke my beloved)

JSE Ego Media-

Antisepticeye (glitch bitch)

Jackieboy Man (hero boy)

Marvin the Magnificent (magic man)

Stacy Brody (princess in pink)

(and all of the Old Lore versions of them!)

M.onster High-

CA Cupid/Cupid Asteria (love genius) (she's also in the EAH universe lol)

Frankie Stein (G3) (sparked to life) and Cleo de Nile (mummy queen)

Toralei Stripe (G3) (cool cat)

???

??? (glitter and lashes)

??? (power chord)

R.ainbow High-

Krystal Bailey (reporter on set)

Lola Wilde (Wilde heart)

Veronica Storm (bubblegum vampiress)

R.ide the Cyclone-

Jane Doe (headless doll)

Mischa Bachinski (bad egg)

V.oid S.ilver

Nico (darling brother) and Nicola (dear sister) (polyship)

Higgins (pet f/o) (cosmic kitty)

Sunday (golden bear) (mostly polyship with Marvin)

I hope to have some fun over here!

[chiechie97]

20 Questions

Tagged by the wonderful @practicecourts! Thank you for the tag 💗💗

*

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

10!!!!

2. What's your total AO3 words count?

188,018 which feels insane!!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Harry Potter (More specifically the Marauders)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

These Cruel Delights

Stage Lights

Tiny Miracles

Paint Brushes and Spell Books

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I always try to!! For me comments encourage me to keep writing and I like to let people know that I appreciate them taking the time to comment on my work.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

*Sit's there awkwardly with a pil of unfishinshed fics*

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Definetly Charred Pineaple Margarita's and a Bagel. One of my fluffier fics and has a cute ending imo

8. Do you get hate on fics?

No thankfully!! I could never imagine hating on an individual fic, if you don't like something just leave. Fandom discourse is a whole other bucket of worms.

9. Do you write smut. If so what kind?

I dooooo or rather I tryyyyyyy. It's pretty regualr run of the mill smut, and it's absolutley plot driven. I want to get better and feel less awkward while writing it!!

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

No i do not. I don't really enjoy cross over personally, borrowing other worlds can be well done thought.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No I haven't thankfully!!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No but that would be so cool if it was!! I'd love to see These Cruel Delights translated into either French or German once it's done, but my written language skills in both languages aren't good enough.

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

No but i'd be very open to it. It seems like a lot of fun and getting to play off of another authors style would be fascinating.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

Jily, duh. 😉

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I will finish ALL of my works I'm not putting that energy out into the universe ���

16. What are your writing strengths?

100% dialogue. I adore writting dialogue, it's so fun and allows you to build relationships and dynamics. I really want to try my hand at a text fic one day because i feel like it's a great way to build a dialogue only fic.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

description and scene building. I feel Like i haven't captured a way to describe a scene in a natural and flowing manner.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I think it can be done so long as it's either translated or feels properly placed.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Narnia actually, back on the good ol' fanfiction.net as a wee baby teen. (but we don't talk about that one😗)

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

The Devil In the Cloakroom and These cruel Delights!!! The devil in the cloak room was SO much fun to write and i can't wait to finish it either this week or next <3

I THIIINK everyone has been tagged, but i tag @uncertainwallflower and @tiffanytoms

[into-september]

Speaking for myself, I keep running into this problem with Miraculous Ladybug where I deep down rate it on the same curve as you: it's cute and it's funny and it's absolutely bonkers, and it's good at those things. The problem is: I'm a part of the fandom which doesn't rate it on that curve and which has always been torn between two camps:

The first: the people who insist that the show is genius, that everything Thomas Astruc touches is gold, that there are genuine and important messages to the events in this story, everything will be explained next season, trust the writers

The second: the heterogenous but universally exasperating crowd of salters who have their hateboners for Marinette or Adrien but almost always the Love Square, who insists on taking everything and anything happening in the worst possible meaning, who think that mangling Astruc's name is the epitome of intellect

My problem is that neither of the two camps are right, and both of them operate on opposit modi of willful denial. While the show is delightful, it is also deeply flawed on all story levels going beyond the singular episode, and the commentaries made by the writers are making it pretty clear that a lot of the "genius" is either accidental or exists only in fandom meta, not in the canon text. And so I run into this problem where I love the show for being dumb fun, but the moment the show asks me to treat it as something serious, its shortcomings are impossible to overlook (and make no mistake, with the patricide, the political commentaries, the philosophical quagmire that is the human sentimonster storyline, S5 demands that I take it seriously)

Yeah, I didn't enjoy much of S5 after "Passion", and there is a certain bitterness in that because I love so much of what happened before that.

Will I watch S6? I genuinely don't know. Most of the things that fascinated me no longer exist: Adrien won't ever get to confront his father. The Love Square was resolved in a manner more unsatisfying than I could've ever imagined. It's made amply clear that Ladybug and Cat Noir's partnership never did have any vital part in neither their respective character arcs nor the story as a whole. Future seasons will see attention spread across some twelve or thirteen characters I have no particular interest in watching, because they never had even a fraction of the personality and chemistry that Adrien and Marinette do. One of the two or three secondary characters who had something intersting going on was written out of the show in a manner so mean-spirited that I struggle to believe it was written by professional adults writing for children. The same writers have demonstrated time and again that they're not above ham-fisted messages on topics which they only have the shallowest of understanding of, or using their text for getting into petty discourse with the haters on twitter.

The irony is, most of this is a fandom thing, not a show-for-itself thing. I'm sure S6 will be as cute and as funny and as wacky as the previous seasons were, but I don't know how capable I am of watching the show without the analysis glasses on any longer, and I don't want to be That Person making acidic comments about sure, watch them introduce another storyline they'll never resolve. At the end of the day, Miraculous Ladybug is harmless fun that was conceived to be nothing more than that, and it deserves better than cranky millenials complaining about how it's not anything more than it ever tried to be.

(...though I reserve the right to be sore about Adrien's story arc, because really)

Everybody is posting their opinions about the interview about the Miraculous Ladybug season 5 finale, and I feel like I should as well, but I'm not sure I have much to say. There's just a few things that stick out to me:

First of, it's just very funny to me that the team started out with Bug Noire, and worked backwards from that, and that's why Adrien ended up in the isolation chamber. One of the most controversial things about the entire finale happened because Marinette wearing both Miraculous would be cool. That's just plain funny to me.

Second, I have not yet seen a better option for the finale. They did kind of write themselves into a corner there. The story is all about Marinette, but Adrien is the one to whom all the plot points attach. What do you do with that? Compare and contrast the movie, which I saw on the same day as the finale: It's all Marinette's story, until the big finale, where she just lays there and watches as Adrien and Gabriel resolve the main story by themselves. That option sucks, too. It's not terrible, but it's disappointing. I think all the arguments of Adrien can't be there because of Chat Blanc or Ephemeral are nonsense, even if they come from the show's head writers. But it's true that Adrien can't be there, because if he is, the story becomes about him instead of Marinette. If you know a fanfic that found a good way to resolve that, let me know!

As an aside: I know there are people who are disappointed that we didn't learn more about Emilie and the past of the adults, but I think that was never going to happen. I know I made a post about this years ago but I can't find it, but basically: Emilie was an interesting mystery for fans, but she was never relevant to the plot, least of all Marinette. This is the same kind of stuff as with the Marauders back in the days of the Harry Potter fandom, where a certain subset of fans went wild over all the hints. But those were never promises, they were just flavour, telling us the world is bigger and adventures have been going on since forever.

My final and most important point here is something quite different: I am grading Miraculous Ladybug on one hell of a curve. Have been doing that since the first episode I watched. I am willing to forgive most any jank in the storytelling if I get some cool and cute moments, and the show is full of those. So in that regard, the season 5 finale was no problem for me whatsoever. Yes, there is a lot of jank, but also a lot of cool stuff, and that makes me happy. There's a kung-fu crocodile! What more needs to be said?

(Aside: I know there are people who hate the kung-fu crocodile, and that the Couffaine boys are now mystical monks out of nowhere, with no explanation. I assume these people either hate fun or are arguing out of bad faith. If there's one thing in the finale that was obviously objectively 100% a good thing, it's that the crocodile knows Kung-Fu.)

Now, I'm not saying that you should grade the show on a curve, I'm just saying that I do. Yes, it's not entirely rational. Yes, there are plenty of shows out there, including shows aimed at similar age ranges, that don't require this. But if I didn't grade Miraculous Ladybug on a curve, if I didn't rate cute and fun and exciting over great interesting story, if I didn't separate the potential for fanfics from the actual way the stories are told, then I wouldn't be in the fandom to begin with. This is explicitly not a defence or apologia, it's just an explanation for why I have no trouble disregarding the janky parts. I know others disagree, or agree in principle but then some of the janky parts were just too bad for them and broke the spell, and that's valid.

But personally, I have no major problem with the season 5 finale. Yeah it was weird and quite a few decisions were stupid and didn't help any overall story. But I had fun, I'm looking forward to season 6 and I am going to write more fanfic. That's what matters to me.

[sublime-beyond-loss]

I find the current discourse in the TSP fandom to be deeply troubling. Namely this thing of trying to force artists to conform to certain interpretations of TSP just because they don't like the current trends within the fandom. Imagine the Now You See Me AU not existing because it depicts the narrator with a much softer personality, or because it uses a thin narrator design. Imagine that AU not happening because the artist arrived in the fandom late and the first thing they saw was the current arguments going on in the TSP tags. For all the hemming and hawing about the fans getting too far away from the source material, to try and force them to conform to certain narrator personality traits or body type is to go against exactly what TSP is. There is no canon. Everything is contradictory. It is up to you to come up with your own interpretation of it and yours is just as valid as any others. 

If you don’t like current trends within the fandom then it is up to you to put more of your own interpretations out into the world. Let people have their own. Trends come and go within this fandom and the tides will inevitably turn. To do otherwise is to try and force TSP into a box and that is just as bad as any ‘bad’ trend within the fandom that you personally happen to dislike. 

For me, I tend to dislike the lovebug AU because it has a non-consensual angle to it that I find uncomfortable and creepy. However, I stay in my lane about it and let people have their fun. If you dislike that there are too many anime narrator designs, or not enough narrator designs with a unique body type, or not enough heavy narrator designs, or you dislike that he is depicted too soft or that people focus too much on his asshole side while ignoring his insecurities and softer side, be the change you want to see in the fandom, because you are acting against the spirit of TSP to try and force others with their own interpretation of it to conform to your interpretations of it.

To put my own perspective on it, I view Stanley and the Narrator’s relationship as one of two creative forces that have a very complicated relationship that is often messy and at odds with each other, but they are ultimately inspired by one another to get more creative in their interactions with each other. Thus why I greatly dislike the the idea that it needs to be enforced that their relationship is inherently toxic and unhealthy because that is not the way I see it and to try and force that perspective upon my interpretation of TSP is to destroy exactly what I find so fun and compelling about it by trying to force me to see my version of them, of two passionate creative forces pushing against each other for all of eternity and the amazing art that comes from that universal, fundamental push and pull, to boil it down to nothing but an inherently toxic relationship takes away everything I enjoy about my interpretation. Let people have their interpretations, even if it means same-y designs or for the characterization to drift away from the source material, because to do otherwise just as surely closes the door on unique interpretations by trying to force others to adhere to how you ‘think’ TSP should be depicted. 

I am not trying to start any fights by saying any of this, but I felt compelled to throw my two cents out into the ongoing discourse. Please keep it civil if you do decide to respond to this because I have no desire to fight anyone about a game that is deeply subjective and open to all sorts of interpretations. 

[seawitch62]

What if your fantasies became real! Too real!

Alcohol and sex mentioned

Yandere

Word count 2351

             Tulpa.

In contemporary paranormal discourse, a tulpa is a being that begins in the imagination but acquires a tangible reality and sentience. Tulpas are created either through a deliberate act of individual will or unintentionally from the thoughts of numerous people. (Novo Religio)

⌨⌨⌨⌨⌨⌨⌨⌨⌨⌨⌨⌨

"Work, study, classes" is this  what my life has become? The computer monitor silently mocks. Tapping away at the keyboard, crunching numbers, and for what? Student loans!  A degree which may or may not be beneficial. When Covid 19 hit it was decided that working from home was the prudent way to go. After all, the employee's health is important. It was fun at first then it became as mundane as any office. Locked in the apartment with no human contact, just online meetings. The classes are even online classrooms. Yes, stopping the spread of the Covid is very important but what about my sanity? The need for human interaction! Music, my solace, my constant companion. YouTube  watching music videos. This is where it all started my obsession, if you can call it that. It all started when I watched NCT 127….

Kpop opened a whole new world, I immersed myself in the culture of fandoms, and read all the fanfiction I could find. Watched all music videos countless times. Scoured YouTube for all the content that was available. Gradually a favorite emerged or bias as is the term, Taeyong the leader. Handsome and talented, what is not to like. So I researched him extensively, storing my fave photos. Basically I became my own personal expert on him. I even went to the extent of photoshopping myself into his photos.  Crazy right? What can I say I was lonely! 

🛌🛌🛌🛌🛌🛌🛌🛌🛌🛌🛌🛌

🎶🎵Imaginary lovers

Never turn you down

When all the others turn you away

They're around

It's my private pleasure

Midnight fantasy

Someone to share my

Wildest dreams with me

Imaginary lover you're mine anytime

Imaginary lovers, oh yeah🎶🎵

The fantasies and stories I conceived within the realm of my own imaginary world. They kept me warm and well satisfied on many a lonely night. Even as the restrictions eased up, I found I did not want to leave my home, the security blanket of my own private Idaho kept me wrapped in contented delight. Groceries and other needed supplies delivered to my doorstep, work and classes continued from the comfort of my castle. Reality and illusion became a thin line, yes I knew where the line was drawn but still I delved deeper and deeper into my own little universe. Concocting story after story Taeyong and I are always the central characters. As time passed his personality evolved. I deviated from his  well publicized persona and developed another.  This Taeyong was mine, all mine! He in turn was devoted to me, me only! Jealous, possessive and territorial but all mine! In hindsight and what I know now, I lost the plot. Previously in the real world any guy acted this way, he was dropped in a heartbeat, but this is not real its mirage, a day dream, a trip of the mind.

🥂

One particularly gloomy cold night, sipping Sauvignon blanc and feeling very sorry for myself, I did something my sober self would never do. I posted one of my doctored photos, Taeyong and I enjoying a romantic dinner, I added a caption "who is she?" Of course I posted anonymously, giddy from the wine I consumed I watched as the fans chatted and debated, the text now blurry and out of focus due to copious amounts of alcohol I called it a night and went to bed. Never believing for a moment it would spread from the chat room I had just exited. I was wrong! 

The jackhammer in my head never let up, the talon grip of pain a constant, simply put a hangover. My own stupid fault drinking all that dry grape juice. Barely remember stumbling into bed, stomach churning, head beating like a drum. I spent most of the day in bed. Finally a reprieve in the late afternoon,  with a fuzzy head but I could hold down a cup of coffee. Progress! Shower and change a light meal feeling somewhat human again. Checking my favorite social media, my post with the photo had blown up, in fact it had gone viral! Fuck a duck! It was everywhere. "What have I done?" Besides  making  a complete fool of myself! In a panic I tried the useless, I deleted the original post, "who is she?" But it was too late so many people had shared, downloaded and uploaded to other social media sites, it was now an entity of its own. A monster made from my own drunken loneliness. It will calm down, these things always do, right? Watching in horror as the photo garnered more and more online attention. With the wave of momentum came the usual, it was fake, but something else was also gaining speed, she is so lucky, wish it was me. The fans made up scenarios that they felt suited the photo.  Inside I just wanted to curl up and die of embarrassment. "What an idiot!" My only happy thought was this will die down soon. I soon discovered when something is viral it does not disappear overnight as much as I wished for it. With a life force all its own all I could do was wait it out. 

🧊

Persistent knocking at the door broke my concentration. This account I was working on had loops and bumps as if Loki himself created it. A tangled web of names and numbers with many paths. Knock knock knock. Damnit! Standing in frustration at the interruption, "maintenance? No cant be? Delivery? No? Salesperson? More likely" wish they would piss off! 

Standing by the door, peeping through the peephole, "no!?!?" I've lost it! Slowly backing away as the knocking perseveres, heart racing, palms sweaty I once again look at the determined knocker. It is Lee Taeyong's doppelganger.

🛎

Once the shock subsides, opening the door. A man the spitting image of Taeyong stands. Handsome, well dressed and smelling delightful. "Sweetheart, finally!" With a look of concern on his handsome face "I was getting worried when you didn't answer" as he strides into the small abode as if this was a common occurrence. Taeyong proceeds to wander into every room as if he is looking for something. "What are you doing?" Without blinking an eye Taeyong responded "making sure you are alone!". Stammering "who are you?" With a look of concern Taeyong gently raises his hand and runs his fingers along the puzzled frightened face "babe it's me! Are you okay?" Flinching from his touch and stepping back "I'm sorry I was drunk" mumbling trying to make some sense of the situation, seeing his baffled look "the photo".

"Photo? I have no clue what you are talking about, are you drunk?"

"What? No"

"You must be ill, you need to rest" he states with confidence.

"I… I… yes,  when you go I will".

Taeyong stares, "you need chicken noodle soup! I will be back" and with that he leaves.

Door locked and bolted, "was I punked?" That must be it! The fans found me! Maybe I'm dreaming? A nightmare! Or due to isolation my egg cracked! Nerves frayed as the body reacts with slight jerky movements. "Calm down, be real, get a grip" 

Alerts from the computer draw me back to reality. I'm logged in, I'm awake, it must be one of my daydreams! That's it.

🪀

Logging off from an arduous day of work, feet firmly now set in reality. 'Dinner time!' Knock knock knock

"No!"

"Open the door, I know you are in there" an irritated Taeyong demands. Upon opening the door there he stands takeaway bags in hand.

"Chicken noodle soup as promised" walking directly to the kitchen and setting up the table for a meal.

Staring in disbelief as he works his way around the kitchenette. Knowing the placements of everything needed. "This isn't real?" 

"Real? Yes it is babe, I got your favorites as well" he grins.

After a scrumptious dinner, Taeyong insists that he cleans up, and suggests we watch some television. Cuddling, the scent of his masculinity intoxicating, arm firmly planted around my shoulder. Laughing and commenting on the sitcom, 'they are coming to take me away hahaha' plays in my frazzled brain.

This scenario, one of my best! The sex, orgasmatic, a tender yet demanding lover who knows all the right moves, then some. Lost in the veil of reality, fantasy slowly the invading conqueror. Weeks pass, Taeyong my lover, ever thoughtful, always concerned for my well being.  The line between reality and what is not, fades, becomes obscured and slowly loses focus.

Today is a big day, a lunch, well business lunch, the powers that be, suggested a luncheon to do a face to face catch up. Basically check up on their employees. Excited to see co-workers, stupid yes, but to see real people who are not a figment of my imagination, I need it.

Parking the vehicle in my allocated parking space, it was nice to get out, take in fresh air, see people, and communicate. The food was delicious, but more importantly it knocked me back to reality. My asinine behavior has to stop. Foolish, daft fabricated reveries end now! Time to find a real flesh and blood guy, not an illusion.

With dusk, the stars shine, cuddled under a blanket on the couch watching television. Phone by my side, its lighting up like a Christmas tree, texts and incoming calls, ignoring all, the messenger of my sanity Taeyong blows up my phone.  "It's not real!" I tell myself over and over and over.

Ten thirty pm, bedtime, work tomorrow, thinking of the accounts that need my attention, with heavy eyelids, sleep.

Awoken by an erotic dream with Taeyong, I realize I'm not alone. Just as I am about to let out a scream a hand covers my mouth

"Shhh shhh babe it's okay its me"

"Taeyong?"

"Who else were you expecting?" He demands angrily.

"You are not real" yelling at my imaginary lover.

"Not real?" He states, " I will show you how real I am!"

Stretching and purring like a well satisfied cat, toast? Eggs? Bacon? The established aroma of breakfast drifts through the small yet cozy apartment. Realizing I'm bereft  of clothing, 'I was really on one last night' Hungry, I need to make breakfast. 

Someone is in the apartment! Looking for a weapon, any weapon, a stiletto, red to be exact, well, work with what you got. Armed with a red high heeled shoe, stealthy making my way to the intruder, Taeyong pops his head around the corner "great you are up, breakfast is ready"

"You"

"Who else babe"

The shoe is still positioned above my head, "I'll take that" Taeyong grins.

The food tastes real, delicious in fact. "You are not real, I can not see you anymore! I have to end this" 

Slamming the utensils on the table they hit the plate and bounced onto the floor. "I don't know what is wrong with you? But my love I am going nowhere! Do you understand me?"

His tone and facial features are set in stone. Anger that is close fury radiates from him. Why am I scared of my imaginary boyfriend? This is my dreamscape, my imaginary landscape, do not back down! 

"Its over" grabbing my handbag i decide to run from my flight of fancy.

☕

The Cafe, warm and inviting and best of all no Taeyong!

The croissant melts in my mouth and my third cup of coffee hits the spot. The waiter, a good looking guy, flirty and funny makes me laugh, something I have not done in a long time. Leaving a generous tip I head home, those accounts need my attention. Turning the key with hesitation, telling myself it's you, you have the power. The place is empty. Work, I need to get to work!

Enjoying the pizza delivered by door dash, feeling a sense of accomplishment although weary time for bed. Before dozing off, patting myself on the back for the progressive steps that I took today, slumber is welcomed.

Friday, last working day for this week, time to crunch away.

Knock knock knock

"Shit" ignore it 

Knock knock knock 

Silence 

The door opens, Taeyong, a very angry one, enters the apartment. 

"Dump me so you can flirt with the coffee shop guy?" 

Ignore him, he is not real!

"Dont ignore me!" He demands

Looking at him he looks so damn sexy today, ignore him!

"Not real not real not real" becomes my uttered mantra.

"Not real?" he roars.

"Enough! a fucking enough!"

Grabbing my hand he storms out of the apartment.

☕

The Cafe? Back at the Cafe. This time Taeyong is here. "I see your boyfriend is working"   the good looking waiter heads to our table "can't stay away huh?" Taeyong scoffs at this light humor. "Ready to order?" He enquiries, "yes a coffee, Caramel flavored and a croissant please". Scribbling down my order "and you sir?".

Wait, the waiter is taking his order, then he departs to the kitchen.

"No" 

"No"

"No"

"I've lost it completely" I must still be in the apartment. 

"You are  a figment of my loneliness"

"I am very much real, flesh and blood, and today my love I am going to prove it"

🧭

The whole day passed as if in a blur, the places the shops unknown to me previously whizz past me in an unreal whirl of sensations, a whirlwind  of disbelief. Everyone saw him, spoke to him, pinching myself, digging my nails into my palms till they bled, I could not wake up, or dissipate the illusion of him.

🌪

Nestled safely in the confines of the apartment although not alone.

"I'm going to say this just once, listen well my love, I will not tolerate your flirting, or ignoring me, you belong to me, me only, I do not share! Understood?".

Nodding.

"Now go make us dinner!".

[findingjoynweirdstuff]

I have been redirected from lost to ask you about the peaceful ways of this fandom before antis attacked (/hj) cuz as a new person, all I know is discourse.

Oh, hello! (and hi Lost o/)

I can’t imagine what it’s like for new fans joining just now. I am so sorry, hope you’re still finding it fun enough even with all the hell?

It’s kind of hard to conceptualize how big mcyt’s gotten in recent months to be honest. Every time something from this fanbase breaches containment I’m reminded of how painfully visible it all is.

Now...I wish I could tell you about “the good old days” and how they were so good and peaceful and calm, but I think that’d be looking at things through rose-tinted glasses.

To be honest, the thing about sparking up the discourse and the hatred isn’t even that it’s new. It’s just more constant.

My first exposure to DSMP specifically, and I’ve said this before, was the Pizza Hut situation. DSMP wasn’t really it’s own fandom yet? But, the time that I started actually watching and getting more engaged and following along was...well, a bit on the topical side, actually, but it was #kickschlatt. Mid-July 2020.

My memory of it isn’t perfect — it’s almost been a year now — but to sort of illustrate my point about how the discourse isn’t new but the places it’s coming from are, this situation sparked a huge conflict not really between mcyt fans and non-mcyt fans, but between dttwt, sleepytwt and schlatt’s fanbase. It was a hellhole of infighting. Sleepytwt were angry about Dream banning Schlatt, dttwt pulled one of the first instances I can recall of actually getting a negative hashtag about the SMP trending, which all the CCs thought was immature. But the damage had already been done since everyone mistakenly thought Dream had banned Schlatt because of the hashtag, which...yeah. 

It wasn’t pretty.

The thing about this discourse is that it’s been around for a very, very long time. It’s just that twitter’s not really made much...progress? They’ve just been repeating the same mistakes over and over again as if it would actually end up better this time somehow. They even got a #kick_______ hashtag trending pretty recently and as far as I can tell, most of them hadn't even been there for #kickschlatt. They were repeating history not even knowing they were doing it, and just like last time, it was an ineffective mess that didn’t actually help anything. 

And that, to me, is the big problem here. 

I know we joke about Twitter discourse being six months behind Tumblr, but honestly I don’t think it’s even that? It’s not really that they’re lagging behind so much as they’re just... completely stagnant, really. They haven’t gotten better in a year, they’ve just gotten larger.

It’s the same thing a year later. The thing about it nowadays, is that it’s just the same old crap but more. It’s #kickschlatt but a new one every fucking day.

#kickschlatt didn’t work because CCs aren’t obligated to listen to Twitter, and I really wish the community had learned from that. Instead, they’re just trying it again. Criticism is fine, but you just can’t expect people to always see or hear that critique.

CCs are not your friend. Like, genuinely. Not just for the meme, but actually. And I’m not saying that because of that they’re immune to criticism or something, but when you have people trending ‘tommy neg’ and saying that Tommy’s running from his problems because he’s leaving the app for his own mental health? That he HAS to be listening to them shouting at him or otherwise he’s some sort of horrible person?

That doesn’t sit right with me. 

Like, not to bring out the dreaded p-word, but it kinda strikes me as a little...y’know...slash parasocial. CCs don’t have to listen to you. They aren’t obligated to talk with you or interact with you. You can have discourse and civil discussion amongst yourselves as a community without the CCs even being involved! Hell, that’s how it works on Tumblr. We talk amongst ourselves, we disagree sometimes, but never do we expect a CC to be here watching us saying shit.

Saying that “complaining about Twitter = complaining about minorities” just rubs me the wrong way because like...Twitter’s a platform. It’s a specific community. Minorities aren’t specifically limited to one fucking bird app. When CCs complain about Twitter, trust them to mean that they’re complaining about Twitter.

Yeah...I dunno. Maybe I’m being pessimistic. Maybe it has gotten better in SOME way, but I just haven’t seen it. It’s just gotten more frequent. It’s just gotten nastier and more mean-spirited. For every person trying their best to be helpful and actually educate, there are ten more voices screaming and shouting and drowning them out. The thing about Twitter is that you can’t have a conversation with an angry mob. You can’t turn to a buzzing hivemind of anger if what you’re looking for is guidance.

The thing about the “old days” isn’t that they were without conflict and completely peaceful. It’s just that you had some time to freaking breathe. Nowadays it seems like even something so universally beloved like MCC’s been tainted by that toxicity.

Everybody’s just...angry. all the time.

It’s the natural life cycle of a fandom, I think. When it grows large enough, eventually it’ll have to deal with more and more negativity and hate. Unfortunately for us, a large part of the fandom is on Twitter, which is just...the straight up worst platform you could possibly choose to deal with discourse on.

Tumblr isn’t perfect, but jesus Twitter is built for toxicity. Which is how you get situations like this. It’s how you get entire groups of CCs leaving the app because sooner or later, it gets too toxic to deal with. 

So, here’s a little piece of advice:

This won’t be the last time. 

The next controversy will come, and then the next one, and the next one, and the next one after that. Heck, you probably already know that.

And you know what?

You, a random fan, are not obligated to care about every single thing that happens. Because if you feel like you have to keep up with every little piece of discourse, sooner or later you’re gonna burn yourself out.

So sit back, take a deep breath, relax if you gotta. Fandoms are for fun, not for stress, and I hope you find that here.

(Sorry if this got a little long and rambling!)

[alligatorjesie]

You know it's just the weirdest thing how I'm able to enjoy my fandoms and also still do a lot of community good.

I do free invasive plant removal and free native horticulture consulting. Basically I help neighbors ID plants in their yards and let them know if they're native or invasive and the best removal method to apply.

Here's an example: This is a nearly 90 year old tree in the neighborhood that was being killed by a highly invasive plant called 'Winter Creeper'(Euonymus fortunei);

I'd been walking about the area and noticing it for a little over a year. One day I caught the neighbor in the yard and let them know what the plant was and how it was killing their tree, then offered to kill it free of charge.

Meow here is that tree again after we cut the vine back;

And we can tell it's Actually Dead because THIS is what wintercreeper usually looks like in the winter:

That tree may actually live another 90 years now. I've done this for free to a lot of trees around here because this nasty shit is growing on everything.

I also leave a 'free' pallet in front of my house where I put excess food/herbs/plants from my personal garden.

And when I'm not doing all that hit which if I'm being very honest here takes up a shit load of my time outside of fandom activities I also offer

completely free of charge

my personal services to counterprotest our towns very own low rent Westboro Baptist Church whom frequently protest our local pride and drag show events;

This was more fun than selling dildos at a furry con. Which was up until this point the most fun I've ever had yelling to get people's attention.

1,000/10 highly recommend

extraordinarily cathartic.

And when I'm not doing that honestly fairly noble community good I'm drawing and reading reylo smut.

I can do both things and feel fulfilled in both communities.

These are not mutually exclusive activities.

Meow you're free to correct me if I'm readin' you wrong here and I will apologize to you personally but you're smoking actual crack cocaine if you think ANY culture is free from political influences.

Nothing is free from political influences.

In fact it's common to have your political views influence the media you choose to consume.

That's actually Very Normal.

We're not here to say shipping reylo will fix prison reform,

that's fucking stupid,

mostly because we should all know by now that prisons in many countries were never designed to reform a goddamn soul.

America actually has keeping slaves as a form of criminal punishment written into their constitution.

... so... unless that part get removed sometime soon prison reform is a fucking pipe dream.

But we can all agree learning to understand that people can sometimes do bad things but maybe with a little sumpin' call Basic Human Compassion they can grow to become better people overall and how that isn't really a bad moral journey to set on.

Which is The Moral Lesson fandoms like reylo offer.

Which, unsurprisingly, influence and reflect our real world values.

It's fun to explore bad guys with good causes.

Sometimes it's fun to imagine a 3rd option where the characters you love pull off the unthinkable and actually work together to fix the problems in their universe since we're all woefully unable to resolve them in our own world.

We live in a capitalistic hellscape where our basic rights as women are being striped away form us right before our eyes and sometimes it's fun to image the world being better.

Big changes can start with a little empathy.

Also loving the irony of OP saying how fandom discourse isn't driven by politics in a fantasy space epic Heavily Influenced by politics.

OP... Have you ever watched a Star Wars?

I'm going to be a little bit of a cunt here for a moment.

So you'll have to either forgive me or hate me forever for bringing it up but do understand I just wanted to know purely for me. I was really curious about how much time you spend on your tumblr vs myself.

If HBomberGuy has taught me anything it's laying the facts out very straight for everyone to see is a fun activity for all.

Learning things is fun!

For the month of december this year I had a grand total of 231 posts/reblogs and part of that number is a whole ass Star Wars TROS fixit comic I meticulously tagged and reblogged each page since the creator at that point hadn't had Anyone reblog some of their pages and I felt like it was a good use of my time in the fandom community to give them the reblogs they deserve.

You on the other hand had over 656 posts/reblogs.

And a lot of it's just shitposting. You even mention how you love to shippost in quite a few of the posts.

Which is fine man. whatever. you tumblr how you wanna.

but consider some people are active in fandoms, can understand how politics can drive fandom discourse even if indirectly, and have a life outside of tumblr before calling a whole ass fandom out for being terminally online.

Now is a good time to reflect inward.

if you think ship war discourse is about real life political viewpoints turn off your phone and go volunteer at a soup kitchen.

[symptoms-syndrome]

What is your opinion on the movie Split, if you have seen it, with regards to how it depicts DID? Because like I feel like someone with DID would be offended but at the same time don’t KNOW whether they actually would be? Like when I see anti-asexual or anti-Irish sentiment and think “Hmm. Well that is certainly offensive from an objective viewpoint, but am I personally offended?” I do feel like if the twist behind the ‘Beast’ alter being superhuman was that he had been bitten by a werewolf, because there were so many hints towards him being a werewolf and the whole backstory they gave the protagonist about being a hunter, I feel like it would have suited the story better and avoided the ‘all people with DID are evil’ trope. Am I saying this right?

I honestly don't give a shit about it's depiction of DID if I'm being 100% honest. It didn't bring anything new to the table or introduce anything that hasn't been said or in the public consciousnesses. While I definitely don't think depictions like that do anything good for DID, I don't think they have the same level of impact that people act like they do.

I can't imagine any scenario in which someone would watch a movie like Split and think "yeah that's probably how DID works," like if I disclosed my diagnosis to someone and they thought I could climb up walls or whatever that would give me more concerns than "wow that's an offensive idea of DID."

Counter to that, I personally find some depictions of DID made by people with DID (or supposedly with DID) more offensive than Split. Things like TikTok or YouTube videos where alters are all super defined, switches are clear, all the parts are fun and cute and it's just presented as "LOL fun people in my head! Watch different alters react to flaming hot Cheetos!" Or "informational" posts about "how to react to someone with DID" that say things like "ask who's fronting! Don't act entitled to niceness from all alters! Give stuffies to littles!" are for me, far more offensive mostly due to them being more, IDK, realistic? Or grounded or believable. Like someone is more likely to believe I want to be greeted by part name all the time than they are to believe I have an alter that can bend steel bars. Maybe that's that person's experience, but they're often framed more as a "universal" experience with DID, which is worse than smth like Split, or even smth like that documentary about that murderer with DID, because both of those are sort of like. About one specific person more than they are about DID on a whole I guess? Or present themself as such.

I did think it was a shitty movie just from a movie standpoint LMAO. It was just kinda boring.

But also when it comes to media in general I think people do put a lot of undue weight on it, sorta putting the cart before the horse and focusing on the wrong things. Like I honestly rly enjoy United States of Tara even tho it's like, in my experience not really accurate at all to my experience with DID or a lot of people I know. It's entertaining, and IMO that's the main like, priority with media. And like, re:cart before the horse, it's almost like acting like Sixteen Candles' depiction of an Asian man is why those stereotypes exist, as opposed to that depiction being a reflection of already-existing racist ideas.

I also really love Fight Club, even though it (if you look at it through the Tumblr-typical very narrow lens and strip all nuance from it) could be said to fit some offensive stereotypes I guess. It's to date one of the best depictions of dissociation and confusion about time loss stuff I've found describing my experience. I related to it really hard NGL.

I guess the TLDR here is that I think there's a diff between "offensive" and "inaccurate" as well as a difference between smth being offensive in a hypothetical way as opposed to offensive in a way that like. Actually matters. I think people get really caught up in media stuff bc they have Tumblr fandom discourse disease and it's an easy thing to be like "that bad" as opposed to things more nuanced.

[avenger-hawk]

I don't judge people who ships but is it just me or the whole shipping thing is what mostly ruins ANY fandom in anime?. Like it's okay to ship for fun and there is nothing really bad about it but some just went over board and started attacking people personally. Some would even claim the character and they would get mad if you ship him/her to other characters. What's worse is some shippers would push their "SHIP" to you even when it's obvious that the pairing is not your cup of tea.

Sorry for the rant it's just that I like your blog and your posts that I also want to know your opinion on this, it's okay if you disagree tho. No hard feelings

I agree and disagree.

I agree that some shippers push their ship on others and it's annoying, like canon shippers pushing their shitty pairings on authors and fanartists creating content for their pairing. Or shippers who in order to push their ship attack other people's using some fake morality standard.

I disagree that ships ruin fandoms. Discourse ruins fandoms. Fake morality ruins fandoms. Pushing real life situations and issues over a fictional universe ruins fandoms. Stupidity ruins fandoms and all these things I mentioned come from the stupidity of certain people.

Shipping is a fandom activity, just like ranking characters' powers and discussing a character fighting some other character they never fought, or even some other anime character. Why such activities are not considered ruining fandoms? The problem is not the shipper shipping some crack pairing or whatever, just like the problem is not the nerd imagining who'd win between Itachi and Byakuya from Bleach. THe problem is the stupidity in the fandom. The lack of respect. The lack of understanding that fiction is not reality and that real people on the internet are not less important that fictional characters.

Also I don't trust your argument because from what I saw those who use it are either not that invested in the show so they are ok with anything, even shitty pairings, or they are shippers of a pairing that is popular but also hated a lot, and they don't like to see drama and they'd just like others to accept it and move on. Not saying that you are like this, but this happens a lot. From those who kinda liked the ending or let it grow on them and are tired of antis, to shippers who pretend they're 'woke' like SN/S criticizing those who like bottom Sas because 'they switch' but in reality they are totally topSas fans, but since having a preference is bad for their woke image, they say others are pushing their ship on others and they could just have fun and be positive. So to me this, and the equivalents, sound like fake positive stuff that is actually trying to impose something else.

[pochapal]

rank every year of the 2010s from best to worst i want some pochapal lore

[warning for discussion of my fucked up mental health and my myriad traumas. we’re really opening the pandora’s box here gang]

ok time for me to overshare on the internet again! super long post because i can’t shut up and you asked for it. anyway, by objective ranking: 

#1: 2012 - halcyon era, my personal peak. spent the whole year writing hunger games oc fics with my deviantart fanfiction besties whom i still think about all the time and always hope are having the best possible day. if you were here for this era understand i still hold you so closely and dearly in my heart <3. 

#2: 2013 - god i was such a good example of a human being back then. was the year my writing like actually took off and i had a healthy balance between creative stuff and a social life (said social life consisting of spending lunchtimes at school breaking into classrooms and discussing fandom shit with five other people. reading homestuck updates in the music room on one person’s really shaky mobile data...legendary). highlight of the year and maybe my life was in the april of 2013 when i got out of failing to submit a hard deadline essay by telling my english teacher i wrote a whole novel over the two week break and then producing said novel. god i wish i had that level of like. fucking confidence back me back then knew what i wanted and how to get it. 

#3: 2010 - the last year of childhood. i was 12 and played pokemon all the time with my friends and went places and had a moderately successful youtube channel and it didn’t matter that i was bullied so badly at school because i was basically high off life. summer of 2010 was so good specifically. i’d used to get the bus with a friend and go see movies and break into historical sites and get into normal childhood mayhem and maxed out my pokewalkers twice a month and i was buzzed because i had two (2) whole friendship groups to choose from and that was such a huge deal to me the terminal social outcast. it was so simple and carefree and even though everything and everyone involved in this era grew up to suck except for one specific person i kinda really miss it.

#4: 2018 - this was the first year i wasn’t depressed to the point of nonfunctioning. it was 20gayteen, i was on antidepressants, i was as close to thriving as i got at uni (going into town with people once a week, attending art and culture events, getting good grades across the board), i started to write for fun again, i got my cat whom i love dearly, i was exhibited in my uni’s city’s literature festival, GOD i actually nearly attended a pride event that year can you imagine. this year was basically my life’s second peak. miss getting the 8am train and daintily sipping on a cherry coke to keep me from passing out. wish this time could have lasted longer.

#5: 2019 - kinda absolute middle of the road year not for lack of anything happening but because the overwhelming amount of good and bad things cancelled each other out. so like there’s the fact that i was at the top of my uni game this year, was basically making the first steps into a professional writing career (covid i will never forgive you for killing all that dead </3), finally saved up enough to buy myself a gaming pc, and the summer after the homestuck epilogues, but equally 2019 was the start of the Pochapal Gender Fiasco which is by far the most horrible thing i am still currently undergoing and i burnt myself out mentally about halfway through the year (being stuck overnight in a hospital for a panic attack absolutely horrible horrible irredeemable) and then got like super death plague flu that i was sick with for three months (literally recovered less than a month before rona hit. god’s cruel karma.). so like...it kind of averaged out? the good shit was good but not as great as other years and the bad shit was awful but nowhere near as terrible as it could have been. gotta give a shoutout to 90% of my current mutual cohort for following me in 2019...omelette route gang make some noise !!

#6: 2014 - oof. this year essentially marked the start of a four year long downward mental health spiral because everything fell into awful alignment. i’d just turned 16, finished secondary school, had all my friends up and ditch me at once, was home alone for a whole summer, and was hit with Sudden Intense Body Image Issues that i couldn’t explain until uh. after very recent developments lmao. this one goes out to the me of july 2014 who did nothing but lay in bed and listen to the same two marina albums on a loop because fuck i’m attracted to men and also my facial and body hair are really starting to come in and if i think about this for too long i will literally kill myself because oh god i can’t handle getting older which is clearly and definitely the issue going on here. my brain fucking broke super hardcore and it’s a miracle that an overeating disorder was like the worst thing i walked away with. 

#7: 2015 - downward spiral year two!! i was so volatile this year it was such a mess. i was totally socially isolated after a brief stint of falling in with a group of people at the start of my first year of sixth form until january where in quick succession a) it turned out every single one of these people was friends with the person who sexually assaulted me whom i obviously had a lot of complicated feelings towards and b) baby’s first crush came out as bisexual but in the “women and also trans women” kind of way which tore me up so terribly in ways i couldn’t begin to understand. no words for the experience of seeing a girl kiss a boy and crying so hard at night you threw up because you could never be her no matter how much you wanted it. actually kinda get the sense what was going on there was bigger than just some crush lmao. then after that i was so mentally ill i basically attended school less than half the time and it was the only year in my life i failed my exams. i ended up having to resit my entire set of first year a level exams because jesus christ was i in such a bad way it was a miracle i even showed up to them. all i did was either have anxiety attacks or enter bedbound depressive slumps for weeks at a time. but it’s okay because it gets worse.

#8: 2016 - downward spiral act iii: the spiralling. prefacing this by saying that i actually had two whole good months (april - may) in that i was functioning enough to do my exams and finish school with decent grades. the rest was super extra mega terrible. my school attendance for year 13 dipped below 65% and literally the only thing that kept me from being kicked out was the fact that i was naturally smart at the subjects i took and also because the school would have a lot to answer for after letting me get to that state despite having a hefty file on how damaged i was. keep in mind every single part of this was fully untreated btw - i was just floundering around and letting it all fester. i spent three solid weeks going to school but locking myself in the bathroom all day every day and having mental health episodes then going home like nothing else happened only to continue the breakdown that night. then things got kicked into fucked up overdrive when i moved out to uni and was cut off from what little support structures i did have. it was so bad all i did was cry all the time and never went anywhere to the point where three separate sources recommended me to the wellbeing and crisis counselling service that i stopped going to after two sessions because i was fucked up in ways cbt techniques could not even touch. at least i tried to make an effort for the first two months of uni which like. good for me?

#9: 2017 - what lieth at the base of the spiral. helltrench year. i was at literal rock bottom. i stopped going to class, i didn’t hand in a single piece of work. i lied to my parents and would book trains each day only to go back to my student flat and sit there and contemplate suicide. like i would just slump on the floor in a catatonic state and vividly contemplate one of four or so ways i could end my own life. i only didn’t because i wanted to wait until the summer to collect my last student loan and transfer it to my parents as an apology for my death which obviously didn’t end up happening. honestly i can’t remember much of the first half of 2017 that’s how bad it was. i remember taking a gender studies class and the teacher made it Weird that i was the Only Male Student in the room and then she sent me a scolding email after i walked out halfway through a class and never returned. apparently i got into a lot of online discourse in this year but i don’t remember anything other than being put on a blocklist by the milkfic author over ace discourse which is funny if you have the context. mostly i just baited terfs and weirdo freaks to get them to say horrible things to me as what i guess amounts to some kind of digital self harm. anyway breaking point came in late august when i got kicked out of university and then nobody could ignore it any more so there was no choice left but for me to seek out help and recover enough to function which luckily i did. i really Do Not remember 2017. you could tell me anything about that year and i’d probably believe you.

#10: 2011 - extra circle of hell for this little fucked up gem of a year. on the surface it wasn’t actually that terrible, until the Summer 2011 Domino Effect Of Bad Shit. up until like may/june it was a pretty all right year! i was 13 and had a surprisingly successful youtube channel uploading pokemon soundfont remixes to an audience of i think ~350-400 subscribers at my peak? anyway then i got hit with the early summer triple combo of childhood friends moving away, cute and quirky sexual assault at the hands of a person in my friend group, and then having some Really Great and Super Appropriate interactions with adults on deviantart. like obviously there’s the actual ptsd-inducing event which totally disrupted and killed the person i was right up until that moment and reshaped every facet of my life for better or worse (there’s an alternate timeline where that didn’t happen and i got into electronic music and/or coding instead) but really it’s the events that followed in its wake which were kind of more fucked up. so like all of a sudden i was super aware of my body and me growing my hair out and being mistaken for a girl in class suddenly became this Less Innocent thing and i ended up spending hours overnight going to transgender questioning forums and looking up hrt timeline videos and having the wikipedia article on tracheal shaving saved because it was a life raft to me whose voice was imminently gonna deepen and i was simultaneously reeling with constant trauma flashbacks and the whole thing was so so fucked up. then i was on deviantart and i don’t remember exactly how but a small group of furry guys ten to fifteen years older than me started messaging me and encouraging and requesting me to produce nonsexual fetish stuff for them and talking to me about stuff like if i’d ever thought about growing up to be gay and i didn’t think anything of it for a long while because they called me a very talented writer and it felt so good to have someone be nice to me after being so alone and isolated for months on end. anyway the only reason i got out of that before it got bad was because they invited me to one of the big furry sites and i was weirded out because i thought it was a porn site and thinking about sexual stuff was a huge trauma trigger so i just ended up blocking them all and pretending like it didn’t happen. at the time half this shit didn’t bother me but in retrospect holy fuck 2011 was such a damaging year. to think if like three events didn’t happen i wouldn’t be the fucked up mess you see before you today.

god fuck this turned out super long but i’m not apologising because this was a therapeutic exercise for me and also constitutes as one of the biggest pochapal lore dumps of all time. come get your food or whatever.