#originally posted on livejournal

[anghraine]

Okay, breaking my principles hiatus again for another fanfic rant despite my profound frustration w/ Tumblr currently:

I have another post and conversation on DW about this, but while pretty much my entire dash has zero patience with the overtly contemptuous Hot Fanfic Takes, I do pretty often see takes on Fanfiction's Limitations As A Form that are phrased more gently and/or academically but which rely on the same assumptions and make the same mistakes.

IMO even the gentlest, and/or most earnest, and/or most eruditely theorized takes on fanfiction as a form still suffer from one basic problem: the formal argument does not work.

I have never once seen a take on fanfiction as a form that could provide a coherent formal definition of what fanfiction is and what it is not (formal as in "related to its form" not as in "proper" or "stuffy"). Every argument I have ever seen on the strengths/weaknesses of fanfiction as a form vs original fiction relies to some extent on this lack of clarity.

Hence the inevitable "what about Shakespeare/Ovid/Wide Sargasso Sea/modern takes on ancient religious narratives/retold fairy tales/adaptation/expanded universes/etc" responses. The assumptions and assertions about fanfiction as a form in these arguments pretty much always should apply to other things based on the defining formal qualities of fanfic in these arguments ("fanfiction is fundamentally X because it re-purposes pre-existing characters and stories rather than inventing new ones" "fanfiction is fundamentally Y because it's often serialized" etc).

Yet the framing of the argument virtually always makes it clear that the generalizations about fanfic are not being applied to Real Literature. Nor can this argument account for original fics produced within a fandom context such as AO3 that are basically indistinguishable from fanfic in every way apart from lacking a canon source.

At the end of the day, I do not think fanfic is "the way it is" because of any fundamental formal qualities—after all, it shares these qualities with vast swaths of other human literature and art over thousands of years that most people would never consider fanfic. My view is that an argument about fanfic based purely on form must also apply to "non-fanfic" works that share the formal qualities brought up in the argument (these arguments never actually apply their theories to anything other than fanfic, though).

Alternately, the formal argument could provide a definition of fanfic (a formal one, not one based on judgment of merit or morality) that excludes these other kinds of works and genres. In that case, the argument would actually apply only to fanfic (as defined). But I have never seen this happen, either.

So ultimately, I think the whole formal argument about fanfic is unsalvageably flawed in practice.

Realistically, fanfiction is not the way it is because of something fundamentally derived from writing characters/settings etc you didn't originate (or serialization as some new-fangled form, lmao). Fanfiction as a category is an intrinsically modern concept resulting largely from similarly modern concepts of intellectual property and auteurship (legally and culturally) that have been so extremely normalized in many English-language media spaces (at the least) that many people do not realize these concepts are context-dependent and not universal truths.

Fanfic does not look like it does (or exist as a discrete category at all) without specifically modern legal practices (and assumptions about law that may or may not be true, like with many authorial & corporate attempts to use the possibility of legal threats to dictate terms of engagement w/ media to fandom, the Marion Zimmer Bradley myth, etc).

Fanfic does not look like it does without the broader fandom cultures and trends around it. It does not look like it does without the massive popularity of various romance genres and some very popular SF/F. It does not look like it does without any number of other social and cultural forces that are also extremely modern in the grand scheme of things.

The formal argument is just so completely ahistorical and obliviously presentist in its assumptions about art and generally incoherent that, sure, it's nicer when people present it politely, but it's still wrong.

[redscharlach]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: DR. SEUSS - Works Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Additional Tags: Poetry, Parody, Crack, Humor, Slash, Podfic, Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes, Audio Format: MP3, Audio Format: Streaming, Audio Format: Download Summary:

Could you slash green eggs and ham? Could you be that kind of fan? You might not slash them, so you say But read some fanfic, and you may...

*************

@jennisaisquoi79 has made a podfic version of my ancient Dr. Seuss spoof, Can You Slash Green Eggs and Ham? (alternative title: Oh, The Places You Shouldn’t Go!). And she’s done a really great job! Go and give her lots of kudos!

[herheartdisplayed]

He felt glorious, he grabbed my hand

Showed me lies I couldn’t understand

I fed him time wanting to become something

Empty pride, in return for nothing

He fed me lies, so I gave him fear

I gave him time, so he gave me tears

So much lost time wanting to become something

Empty pride, in return for nothing

[helenvaughans]

i have to say, i wish i was more a part of the livejournal generation instead of just being a 13-year-old lurker at the time. now THAT was a social media platform...

[dabihatemail]

me when ive found 2 of the fics that have altered my life for better/worse as a teen... hell yea

[alchely]

Diplomatic Relations my beloved, third time I'm rereading this fic because it's just so good, also, in the very small corner of GaaLee fanfic it is basically the foundation upon which all other GaaLee fanfic are built on, I'll never get tired of reading it.

[amtrak12]

.... There's apparently been a month long Lucifer prompt event that I had no inkling of because it's on Twitter. aka the broken ass site that is unsearchable and way, WAY too public while deteriorating in functionality every single day.

Fandom, what are you doing?

[lilacpaperbird]

reblogging this post from 2011 to add a high resolution version of this wincest fanart

[gildedphoenix]

Archived from LiveJournal

Today, something reminded me of the existence of my old LiveJournal account so I went to see if it was still accessible. Not only is it still up, I still remembered my password from the last time I'd logged in! And then I managed to navigate the site while it was in Japanese, because I changed the language setting at some point.

I didn't have very many posts but I did have an old story, which I give here to you in all it's original, unedited glory. (I was 20 when I wrote this in....2009.) I'm not even going to read it until I post this, so I can resist the urge to correct typos or bad writing.

Tease to get you to keep reading below the cut "I do not want to know if the leg over there is really mine. It is better for my sanity if I don't think about it. It is hard to ignore that the leg is wearing my shoe."

MAR. 30TH, 2009

Quick writing

location: At work

Just submitting a couple of quick writings from when I was at work today. The Plane Crash~

I think I'm dying. I'm not completely sure. I never really got an account of what dying feels like. From the moment i woke up, I couldn't feel my legs. I still can't feel them. In fact, I can't feel anything below my hips. It's just as well because I can see a leg, detached and bloody, laying a few feet to my right. I think it's mine. At this moment, there is a rather large sheet of metal pining me down at the waist. I do not want to know if the leg over there is really mine. It is better for my sanity if I don't think about it. It is hard to ignore that the leg is wearing my shoe.

My vision is half blurred and i think i lost a contact. Or maybe i have a concussion. I can hear people screaming and it is kind of comforting to know i'm not the only one dieing. I am not alone. i guess at the same time I am. I'm not screaming, so nobody knows I'm over here. I'm not sure if I'm really still here anyway. It is kind of a floating feeling.

I am past the point of pain. Am I dead yet?

I think I'm dead by now. My reasoning is that if I am not dead, I shouldn't be able to look down at my body laying under that scrap metal. I am looking down at myself though. I'm still not sure if I can say that I am dead, because I can see myself breathing. I can see the blood running out of my cuts. That's why my vision was so blurry. There is a cut across the surface of my eyes. My vision isn't blurred anymore though. I think this is shock. I should have stronger reaction to being dead. Looking back down, I decide that the leg I saw was mine. I'm still not sure if I'm dead, though I'm definitely dying.

I turn around as one of the remaining jet engines explodes. A few of the survivors are close enough to the blast to be killed instantly. They are now standing over their dead bodies just like I am. One man screams as the flaming debris lights his clothes. The empty body continues to scream even as he looks down at himself. He looks down as if it is happening to somebody else and I know I must look the same.

I turned again to watch as a mother pulls her daughter's spirit out from under a pile of rubble. The rocks shift to reveal the pale hand of a child. The screaming hasn't stopped yet, but somehow I know we are all out. As one unit, we turn away from the wreckage. A person is waiting for us.

In life, I was an Imaginative person. I contemplated what I would see upon death. An old man clothed in an unbleached robe is standard for anyone raised in a christian background. I would even have been content with 'pearly gates' nestled among clouds and angels waiting at the sides, clipboards in hand.

The person in front of me is different from all that.

"I" She says, "am Mother Nature. I know many of you are expecting some kind of omnipotent 'god,' but you have been fooled. I am here to make the passing a little easier. I am here to let all of you know what to expect."

She sounds like a teacher on the first day of class. Making the same speech to a new group of students. She continues.

"I know many of you have questions.I will answer them en mass. First, no, we cannot bring you back to life. You died because your body can no longer hold your spirit. Second, there is no heaven, hell or purgatory. There is no singular mind you will meld with. There is no 'great whatever in the sky.' This is the afterlife.

"This is what will happen in your after life. The afterlife lasts for one year. After that year, you will be placed into a mother's womb to be born in nine months, give or take. And, yes life begins at conception. If you are aborted or do not make it to term, you will die again. You will be given another year of afterlife and you will be placed into a new mother.

"You cannot choose anything about your new family. You will be replaced into life in the exact same order you were removed from it. This will happen exactly one year from now. Being born will erase any and all memories of your previous life and the after life. Birth is a very traumatic experience.

"Until the year is over, there are rules you will be bound to. You cannot break them. If you want to try, feel free to waste your time. Rule one- The living cannot hear you. Point blank. End of story. Rule two- you cannot effect physical objects. Put simply, you don't exist. You don't need to eat and you have no body temperature you need to maintain. You do not need to sleep. If you want to go somewhere, you can walk, glide or simply will yourself there.

"When it is time for you to be reborn, Father Time will come get you. For the next week, you will be bound to your body. You must remain within range. This range varies from person to person. After that week, you can wander around as you wish. You will always be able to call on myself of Father Time if you have additional questions. Feel free to get to know each other and enjoy the next year." She finished her sentence and simply dissolves into light. Sunshine.

Wow, the afterlife. I'm not sure how I feel about this.

[coldsaturn]

hiii! i have a question i thought you might be able to answer: how did aftg originally get so popular? i know it was mostly word of mouth on tumblr (still is, i think) (who says this website is unmarketable!!) but what were the early days of the fandom like? personally i've "only" been here since 2016, and by then the series was already decently popular. i remember at that time that the fandom was really welcoming and kind in a way that felt really exceptional to me, and it definitely contributed to me picking up the books, which is the only explanation i can really think of for why it got a bigger following than some to other books which did receive a whole big-publisher marketing campaign aside from it just being well-written. do you have any theories for why it got so massive on here? and do you know how the first readers found it? i hope you don't mind me asking you this, but i remember your blog from wayyyy back when and thought that if anyone had the answer, it would probably be you :)

Hello! I always get so happy when I can talk about the early days of the fandom <3 Sit down here around the fire, let me tell you about this wondrous tale.

So, story time: it was spring 2013, I had just finished a thorough read of In The Company Of Shadows and I was starving for another black hole. It was automatic for me to look up the goodread lists ICoS was featured in, to see what other titles I could pick up, and ended up on the list called "Online M/M stories that deserve to be published". The Foxhole Court was right there (it's not anymore because it IS published <3), so I read it. That was the start of the end lmao

If I remember correctly I didn't wait too long before reading TRK, but TKM didn't come out until the end of the following year, so in the meantime I all but shelved it as something that had incredible potential but that was possibly doomed to never be completed. Fast forward I think the start of 2015 when I accidentally stumbled upon TKM and I couldn't believe I could finally know how the story ended. Nora had a blogspot where she talked about the books (including updates between TRK and TKM), and I remember trying to get as much info as I could on this series. And that was it. For a bit.

So, by the first half of 2015, the fandom was made by people commenting on her blogspot, on her livejournal, the book pages on goodreads, and Ao3 literally had 2 fics ( webarchive gives you what we saw - btw Don't Speak Against The Sun is FIRE and instantly became a new standard for f/f for me). You can still find all this content online. Tumblr had a handful of scattered posts about TFC, mostly Nora's mutuals/friends on tumblr, and a couple of readers screaming into the void with no one answering their call.

I was pretty active on here, especially in the bellarke fandom, and I engaged with mutuals and other blogs often enough that I knew if I talked about something, at least someone would reply. A mutual was reading The Raven Cycle and got me curious enough to liveblog it myself. Instant love, of course, and if you've read TRC you know how strong the found family vibe is. So at the end of my liveblog (we've reached July 2015) I threw out a comment where I recommended AFTG as another worthy title. With the first book being free while the other two were only a dollar each, it sounded a fairly easy commitment. One mutual decided to read it (if you're reading, hi!!!) and liveblog it, and that got the party started.

A party of 2, and I'm not kidding. While we chatted and made up headcanon after headcanon on the phone, the intention was to get others interested in this story. But they'd never do it if there wasn't enough content around to engage with and motivate them to blog themselves, so we started with quote posts, liveblog reactions, a few timid edits and poems. An important choice was figuring out which tag to use (at the time tumblr search only scrolled through tags, not post content): "all for the game" was an actual sports tag, "the raven king" was the title announced for the next TRC installment, "the king's men" was the last book of the trilogy and it wasn't even the free one, so we settled for "the foxhole court" which was an empty tag. Even now my blog content is organized around "tfc" because of it, even though we took over all the relevant tags. A couple other mutuals I had from bellarke fandom got curious as well, and now we could consider ourselves a proper group. We were so starved for fan content that whatever you put out would be automatically reblogged and enthusiastically engaged with. It was a happy little fandom bubble. Then Nora noticed us and started interacting with us, and you got the birth of what would become the extra content page as she replied to our questions.

I possibly had a little bit too much time on my hands because I appointed myself as fandom archivist and tour guide. I reblogged every single post I saw in the tags, and I started a welcome page where I could keep track of everyone announcing they were reading the series. It was meant as a way to find mutuals to interact with since tumblr hadn't yet "canonized" all the tags, and it was entirely possible to lose each other in dashboard chains. I used to reply to everyone reading the series by "officially" welcoming them into the fandom, linking them the page where they could find mutuals, Nora's blog, and the extra content present up to that point. Oh and there was a fictional exy team where you could choose your position and then put it in your blog for fun or roleplay it. I also used smashword's gift system to buy the series for whoever said they couldn't pay for it, just to try and avoid pirating the book (good for word of mouth, bad for sales). This was on my side, but this fandom had so many people pouring their entire heart out I still get emotional thinking about it.

Everyone (before January 2016) made as much content as they could, be it meta, fanart, fanfics, headcanons, edits, wikia pages etc. We had fandom challenges where we pronounced the names of the characters and aftg keywords with our native accent, others where we said our favorite scene. Every headcanon was the first headcanon ever seen in the fandom. The fun thing was that at the time there was a strong etiquette toward "if you have nothing nice to say then don't say anything" so fan content really went in all directions with basically no limits. We tagged for triggers and that was it, we had free reign. For those who were around at the time, the sin squad was a group of us fans churning out the saddest/filthiest/fluffiest/most problematic content we could think of.

Then we reached January 2016. We were around 300 in the fandom at that point (I know because I counted them, literally), it had been slow but constant growth where each new fan brought at least other two people with them, and we had around 20 posts per day in the main tag. Then someone bridged the gap between us and the TRC fandom. If you ask me how the fandom got really popular, that's it. The TRC fandom was stuck in hiatus waiting for The Raven King, and now you had 300 rabid foxes spamming aftg content on tumblr, using trk as tag, too. Popular fanartists that were active in that fandom helped making aftg known, and semi viral posts did the rest. We went from 300 to 700 people in a couple of months, and shortly after I had to stop adding people to the welcome page because the post broke. I didn't even know that could happen. It wasn't long after that we were featured in the tumblr end of year recap for book ships. We were so many it was suddenly possible to meet in real life! Cosplays, tattoos, merch. You name it, someone in the fandom did it.

But how did it feel when we were only 20 people and a cardboard dog cutout? It felt like the most chaotic book club ever, and every new fan was automatically a friend. Nostalgia is a lying bitch, but I really don't think I'm making shit up here. We had fun and made great memories.

By the way, if you want to see how things were in 2015, you can! Just go through my archive starting from July 2015 (I think 17th) and onward. You can also search my blog for the tags "fandom history" and "started from nothing and now we're here", whereas here you can find a list of aftg fandom tags I used.

Tl;dr We were starving for good content, we wanted to have fun together, and we were lucky enough to half-hijack a bigger fandom in hiatus. That was all the marketing AFTG needed on tumblr.

[kybelles]

NOTES FROM PACAT’S LATEST M&G

(FEB 1, 2025, SYDNEY)

Akielos Research: She joked that her main historical research question was "what era had the hottest weather/clothes?" leading her to choose ancient Greece for Akielos. She discovered historians haven’t figured out if ancient Greeks wore underwear—deciding Damen must for practical reasons, like preventing chafing while riding.

Vere’s Setting: She was fascinated by late medieval France and chose "Laurent" for the name, so he had to be French. Akielos and Vere were inspired by various historical settings but don’t strictly adhere to realism. They are pastiches of many different places. She had to avoid certain anachronisms, like naval technology, to keep the world-building consistent.

Capri’s Origins & Writing Journey: She started writing Capri on LiveJournal without expecting it to be published, and wasn’t concerned with being politically correct or censoring herself. Having grown up with a violent childhood, fantasy offered her an escape. The final books are almost identical to what she posted online, except for a few name changes (e.g., Rabat became Vere, Margaret became Jokaste).

Writing for Comics & Paragons: She found writing a hero like Superman much harder than villains, as heroes require deep moral consistency—something harder for her because morality is complex and subjective. She believes paragons are essential in literature because they are aspirational figures who show us what good can look like, something missing in the current trend of grimdark and anti-heroes. Her favorite paragons are Wonder Woman followed by Superman.

Romance & Fantasy: As a kid, she resented love interests in stories because she just wanted to read about horses. Despite writing romantasy, she doesn’t read much of it because a lot feels derivative (like Twilight or ACOTAR). She’s critical of the genre’s lack of evolution beyond common tropes—essentially bodice-ripper romance, but with fantastical elements added, and wonders what will come next once readers have exhausted these clichés.

Queer Representation: She’s excited about the current "golden age" of queer publishing, noting how things have changed since her early career, when publishers wouldn't even depict the content of Capri on the cover. However, she’s frustrated that many queer stories still center on sex. She’d love to see stories where a queer character just exists (e.g., a queer detective), without their sexuality being the plot's main focus.

Capri's Writing Process: Capri was originally meant to be one book, but the characters’ deep hatred and evolving relationship required more time to develop into pure love without feeling forced. She intentionally crafted Laurent and Damen as opposites, with each possessing qualities the other lacked. This made them complementary and drew them together, reflecting the “opposites attract” dynamic, where their differences ultimately made them perfect soulmates for each other.

Romantasy vs. Fantasy: She defines romantasy as a subgenre where the romance is so central that the fantasy plot wouldn’t exist without it, whereas in traditional fantasy, the hero's journey can stand alone. Even though she writes romantasy, she doesn’t fully love the genre because it can lack depth beyond the romance.

Book Recommendations & Influences: She enjoys books like American Psycho (a critique of capitalism), The Alexander Trilogy by Mary Renault, Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, The Bell by Iris Murdoch, The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen, and everything by Dorothy Dunnett.

[spnsummergen]

Summergen 2025 Sign-ups are LIVE!

✨ Let's celebrate 20 years of SPN fandom together! ✨

[Summergen has run since 2007, as a summer festival of gen SPN fanworks! Originally headquartered on LiveJournal, it has moved to AO3.]

What is Summergen?

Summergen is an anonymous, prompt-based, gen fanworks gift exchange originally designed to help Supernatural fans while away the desert months of summer hiatus. Since the show has ended, we just can't quit it. SPN is the Hotel California of fandoms. :D

Basically, you'll submit a set of prompts for a fanwork you'd like to receive. In return, you'll receive a set of prompts from someone else. You'll have just over a month to create a fanwork of at least 1,000 words (fic) or art equivalent (use your best judgment, stalwart artists!). Once you're finished, you'll submit it to the AO3 collection. It won't be visible yet--we'll slowly reveal one fanwork per day, keeping the creator anonymous. Once all fanworks are posted, we'll do creator reveals and see who made what!

Important Dates

June 1 – June 14: Sign-ups.

June 15: Assignments sent out.

July 21: Fanworks due. There is an automatic one-week grace period following this deadline. If you need just a few more days, assume you have 'em.

July 28: Deadline for withdrawals or extension requests. If we don't hear from you by midnight of the last inhabited time zone (Samoa Time Zone, UTC +13), you will be in-default and at risk for not participating next year.

July 29: Posting begins!

Sign up on Ao3!

[detailtilted]

New Enhanced Edition - Fangoria 2008 with Jared

Direct link to video. Link to YouTube channel. (23 videos available.)

My latest video is up. This was at Fangoria in Austin, TX in January 2008.

Footage Found/Recovered

My video is a little over 42 minutes long. There's uninterrupted coverage from the beginning of the panel up until 39.5 minutes in. After that, there are two gaps of unknown length that I couldn't fill.

Jewels667 on YouTube had 38 minutes' worth of great coverage for this event, but the videos had become private. (In 2021, YouTube automatically changed unlisted videos to private, so that might be what happened here.) I was able to make contact and they kindly made the videos public again, and granted me permission to use them for this project. I used 20.5 minutes' worth of their video and 31.5 minutes' worth of their audio. They had 3 minutes and 46 seconds of coverage that none of the other videos had and some of the better-quality audio. The videos have thousands of views, so a lot of you may have seen them before, but they were new to me and I was very excited about them.

@j2spntranscripts, who has incredible video-finding skills, also found two videos with 21 minutes' worth of coverage on DailyMotion that I hadn't run across myself. I didn't use a lot of content from them, but I did use a few minutes and it was very helpful to have another audio source to listen to when refining my subtitles. You can find the links on the aforementioned blog, or in the credits on my video description.

Audio

Jared called on fans in the audience to ask questions, and they didn't have mics, so they're usually very hard to hear. I determined which video source picked up the fan question the most clearly and included that in the audio. If it wasn't clearly audible in its original form, I increased the volume drastically and added some background noise suppression tools to try to make it as clear as possible. It helps a little, but there are still some fans who are nearly impossible to make out. You'll notice more audio fluctuations in this video than usual (mostly just when the fans are speaking) due to my sometimes-drastic audio manipulations to try to hear the fans.

What's Next?

I'm moving on to the Los Angeles convention from March 2008 next! While searching for more videos from this convention, I learned through an old post on LiveJournal that a fan going by the name of Candygramme had recorded some great videos from this event that aren't on YouTube. I was able to make contact and she generously sent me everything she had, so I'm excited to share them. The biggest treasure is the full video of the main J2 panel. She also caught about half of Jensen's solo panel and 4.5 minutes of the Breakfast. Her video quality was much better than the other videos I've found from this con.

For the parts of the panels not covered by her videos, the video quality will be very low and I expect there to be some large and frustrating gaps in Jared's solo panel. But the existing YouTube coverage of this con is limited and pretty difficult to watch, so I'm excited to put together something more coherent than what we have today, and I'm especially excited about the footage from Candygramme that newer fans have likely not seen.

Before/After Comparison Photos

The Fangoria videos didn't upscale, and the original colors weren't too bad, so you won't see a big improvement in video quality on this one.

A recap for anyone not familiar with this project…

In December 2023, I started a project to enhance old convention videos. The project is mostly focused on Jared and Jensen, but there will occasionally be videos with other actors. I'm upscaling the videos and making other visual improvements, adding extra content to clarify various references, and adding human-generated, color-coded subtitles so you can better understand the sometimes-chaotic audio. The subtitles can be auto-translated to other languages via YouTube.

My goal is to publish the best, most complete, and most watchable versions of these older convention panels yet seen, but this is only possible thanks to the fans who captured the footage in the first place and were generous enough to share it with other fans. My video descriptions on YouTube will always credit my sources.

If you have any old convention videos you'd be willing to contribute to this project, please message me! I can also be reached at DetailTilted@gmail.com. If I can get them to upscale (I can't always), I'd happily send the upscaled files back to you for your own collection whether I use them or not.

[idlingintheimpalapodcast]

New Episode Alert: “Don’t let your stories haunt you.” Interview with Nyxocity, SPN FanFic Author

Y'all. You. All. Guys, gals & enby pals.

A fandom dream come true is happening this week. @nyxocity is on our podcast!

NYXOCITY.

The Homework 'Verse. Rising Force 'Verse. Like Staring into The Sun. It's Not Living (If It's Not With You)

Whatever your tastes, if you're into wincest, you've heard of Nyx. And she came to talk to USSSSS.

I don't know what else to say. Just listen y'all. But make sure you listen to the very end. Cos we got an exclusive scoop from Nyx that you won't wanna miss!

Listen on Spotify Watch on Youtube:

Chapter Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:42 - When did Nyx get into Supernatural? 00:03:59 - Nyx’s Blorbo 00:07:18 - Did Nyx watch all the way through? 00:11:20 - Nyx’s take on the show ending 00:13:36 - Mystery Spot verdict? 00:19:56 - Scoobynatural feels 00:20:23 - Nyx is a forgiving viewer but she has her limits 00:26:52 - Living through Hellatuses 00:27:53 - Ghostfacers 00:28:53 - Season 3 Cliffhanger 00:31:49 - Favorite show characters 00:37:46 - The start of Nyx’s fanfic journey 00:39:56 - Any original fiction? 00:41:30 - J2 is very close to original fiction 00:42:53 - Does Nyx get fic ideas from the fandom? 00:44:56 - How has the fandom community changed over the years? 00:47:33 - The rise of AO3 00:48:23 - The Nyx treasures to be found on LiveJournal 00:49:06 - What was Nyx’s first Supernatural story? 00:53:09 - The backlash over slash way back 00:54:23 - When did Nyx start writing J2? 00:56:51 - The Reader Insert movement 01:01:38 - Sons of Anarchy and SPN crossover 01:07:44 - Metafic Wincest with Stranger than Fiction 01:11:24 - Dean takes issue with being the bottom in so many fics 01:13:33 - Like Staring Into the Sun 01:22:25 - Back on the J2 train 01:24:04 - Homework Verse 01:45:19 - When you have more story to tell, make it a verse 01:48:47 - Getting Dom Sub relationships right 01:53:23 - How does Nyx decide if a story idea is gonna be J2 or Sam and Dean? 01:55:56 - Fanfic tropes 01:57:32 - Current work - Retroactive 01:59:14 - Time travel love 02:06:11 - Writing and posting on a schedule 02:10:39 - Will reader feedback affect the story ending? 02:12:17 - The super power of reverse engineering a story 02:13:41 - What inspired Retroactive? 02:16:29 - The humor in Stranger than Fiction 02:18:46 - It’s Not Living If It’s Not With You Verse 02:20:05 - Does Nyx have a favorite story that she’s written 02:22:18 - Nyx’s fave fanfic authors 02:24:16 - Can you still find the older fics on LiveJournal? 02:26:12 - Are Nyx’s stories springboards for other creative works? 02:30:33 - Nyx doesn’t just write 02:31:44 - Time for Kasey’s questions 02:34:09 - Nyx has a major announcement 02:40:12 - Kasey’s secret question 02:42:37 - Final thoughts and words of wisdom from Nyx 02:49:49 - In shock and awe outro

[wisteria-lodge]

hi, i just wanted to drop in and ask if you know of any other blogs that post hp meta/discussion that are also very jkr critical? i love everything you write, but many of the other blogs i find when perusing tags are... questionable. its kind of a requirement for me to know that the people posting hp on my timeline don't hate trans people so if you know of anyone else who meets that criteria, i'd love to be linked!

Okay. Now the last thing I want to do is write a callout post (or the opposite of a callout post? A call-in post?) BUT. I do also know that this site can be hard and frustrating to use before you've built up a good follower list for yourself. I know it was definitely rough for me there at the beginning, when I first exploring HP tumblr.

So, this is not meant to be a comprehensive list, this is me going through my recent reblogs and DMs, and if anyone feels they should be on the list (or wants to be taken off the list - people use their fandoms to have a good fun chill time, and I respect that. Having a good fun chill place to exist is unbelievably important.)

But I would say these are are blogs who regularly write meta about Harry Potter that is primarily rooted in the books, while remaining critical of the books in way that I enjoy, and are some combination of funny, earnest, and academic (and drama-free, that's a big one.) I haven't gone and background checked them all or anything, but these are people who I've either had good, meaty conversations with in the DMs, have publicly posted about disagreeing with JKR and her political views, or that I've just followed for a while without any problems. Or some combo of the above.

As I'm sure some of the people on this list will tell you, we *definitely* interpret the books differently and have different headcanons, but their style of interpretation is one that fits with the kind of experience I want to have.

***

@saintsenara - a new follow, but I'm in the process of reblogging their back catalog, and they've definitely written about how to be a HP fan in post JKR-swan-dive-off-the-deep-end world, in the context of their absolutely hysterical crack ship series.

@thistlecatfics - bio says "fuck jkr in a canon compliant way" which I rather like. Their last post was a link to their new Sirius/Fanon Sirius one-shot - which was so sweet, clever, and well-written. Which I think is very much their vibe. I massively enjoy their "Harry Potter Characters in Therapy" series.

@pangaeaseas - a really fun follow. They post a lot, they're funny and their ideas are unique, original, and sometimes totally off the wall. It's like they keep throwing out fun little bookclub prompts/discussion starters, and then we all have a really nice time.

@its-the-allure - lovely, and my intro into some really fun, chill fandom communities. @etl-echo-audiobooks is fantastic, they do live readings of fic of their discord and then turn them into audio books. Did one of my metas once! Also they're currently running a Drarry fest, I snagged a prompt but there are plenty left.

@the-phoenix-heart - has been a mutual for a while. Their original stuff is mostly art, when it comes to text-based stuff they're more of a commenter and reblogger. But they're a GREAT commenter and reblogger. They know their stuff, and I would feel weird leaving them off the list.

@blorger - always has an interesting take, especially when it comes to worldbuilding, and they always do their research and cite their sources. Their last post was all about debunking the popular fanon that the non-Snape teachers are really prejudiced against Slytherin as a whole. Also, great fic reccomender.

@360degreesasthecrowflies - probably the most political blog on this list, which they would definitely agree with. What I really love about them is the way they're willing to go into historian mode, and find and repost some really excellent HP Meta originally written for Livejournal. I was never on Livejounal, so all this stuff is new to me, and I feel like it also provides a really good perspective on fandom history.

@arkadijxpancakes - really well-written, well-thought out, well-supported meta. Great thoughts on worldbuilding. One of the only blogs I've found that really digs into the Weasleys, but they have great takes on everything. Has a very reasonable, focused, lets-get-to-the-heart-of-the-issue vibe that I really appreciate.

@riddlesmoon - followed me recently, and I know you don't post as much original content as you'd like, but I think your comments are hilarious and very insightful, and you *should* write more meta.

@hollowed-theory-hall - another person who can cite their sources really impressively. Tends to do very comprehensive deep dives into worldbuilding out things like the magic system and in-universe politics, or doing very in-depth text-based character analysis. I also love it when they post designs and art, because they went in a very different direction than the films did, but it still totally works.

@trothplighted - I know them from their main blog, which is about literature in general and not HP, but this post got them to resurrect their HP meta blog! I've had fun discussions with them, and they have good takes on other literature, so lets see how this goes :D

@regheart - A good, mellow follow (but with absolutely zero tolerance for JKR and her antics.) A good blend of art, fic recs, and fun good takes. Just read a post of their reccing fics that are pro-Jilly, but still willing to dig into their potential issues as a couple. Which I think is pretty representative.

I 100% expect to add to this list as I think of/find more people, but that should be enough to get you started.

[thisweekinfandomhistory]

Thank you for your consideration! This week, V and Emily are joined by a very special guest, Heidi Tandy AKA @heidi8, who is on the show to explain the intricacies of fandom and copyright law because, well, she was V's attorney for the event this week in fandom history. In 2011, V made a fanwork map of the fictional country of Panem from The Hunger Games novels -- not the movies, which had not even been officially announced yet -- and in 2023, Lionsgate released an official map of Panem that looks... extremely similar. (You can see a side-by-side below). Emily and V had questions for Heidi about what fans can do to better protect themselves and their fanworks from poaching by big corporations, what exactly constitutes fair use, and whether V is allowed to say that the whole happening sucked. Have you ever created something that became canon? Would you want to interact that way with your fave fandom?

Sources

Left: V's original map of Panem, as posted to LiveJournal and Tumblr in 2011 and adapted for The Panem Companion in 2012. Right: Lionsgate's official map of Panem, made for merch for The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes in 2023. Click image for full-size.

Original Map Post - LJ Original Map Post - Tumblr Booklist Review of The Panem Companion

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