#ramblings on fandom dynamics

[oobbbear]

I want to post this here too because I’ve seen it happen a few times

Please understand that there are cultural differences and language differences, if you see this happening let the person clarify what they meant, that person might just not be familiar with words the western side of the internet use

[drop-dead-dropout]

ENOUGH with adhd x autism ships I wanna see high empathy autistic who loves everything and everyone and cries when they step on a bug x low empathy autistic who picks like 5 things they would literally die for and everything else is just meh whatever

[bumfuzzled-bee]

! Eight !

[cryptic-bee]

Buncha style study doodles I did based on screenshots from The Gaslight District pilot YIPEE

you definitely cannot tell who was my favorite character. smile

solos of each one below the cut!!

been a while since I did any fanart for something but something about the smiling dead,,, they possessed my brain me thinks,,, ough

[crunchybeards]

I'm sure this has been beat to death by now, but my favourite aspect of Sam as a character is the fact that he truly does encapsulate one of the most pervasive themes in the game, the theme of being humane. Sorry for the really long ramble but I just wanted to get this off my chest and just genuinely commend the game for what it does with its protagonist. Be warned for spoilers for the whole game and some endings.

From the begining, Sam is shown to be an empathetic character, despite being a pseudo-silent protagonist. As different as every route can be, Sam always feels some form of very human remorse. He feels remorse over killing cursed individuals when he reflects in the mirror. He feels remorse for fucking up the ritual and damning the astronomers. He feels guilty over taking the resources of people who have become cursed, even though he knows that they won't be using them anymore. At least once per playthrough, he experiences some form of remorse towards another party.

As far as a reach as it is for me to say this, I personally saw the dialogue options that players can pick as Sam's own thoughts and the specific thoughts that you choose to pick are the thoughts that become fully realised and are added to his overall character for that playthrough. There are often a lot of dialogue options that are negative or reactionary. Yet every single time, there's at least one positive one, one where he feels empathy, one where he believes there is hope for an individual despite how bleak the situation may seem. Or at the very least he chooses to be civil and non-discriminatory towards a cursed person.

As grotesque as the game is and as twisted as the Cursed become, they're still human, they're still people even if not physically apparent. And 9 times out of 10, they still behave like people. My favourite aspect about the game is that there are some characters that seem like they're too far gone, that they only wish to hurt people and yet if kindness is extended towards them, they can still be saved. We see this with the hidden-away garage. The fish and chips shop. The Cursed are still willing to trade and salvage the situation as best as they can. They're making the most out of a shitty situation despite struggling interally with their sanity and adjusting to newly formed bodies.

Choosing to be humane at the end of the world is one of the best things about Sam's character. Nobody would hold it against him if he were to kill cursed individuals indiscriminately. There are several characters that he can befriend who have done the same like Hellen. But being given the option to negotiate, the option to talk and to extend an olive branch, he takes it. He talks to cursed individuals who are lucid, he even befriends a few like Joel. Even in the ending where he becomes a swarming mass of arms and feels overwhelmed by his new ever expanding form, even though he is so scared, he took a moment to calm himself down, pick himself up and get to work helping people. Even as a borderline Lovecraftian being, he actively chose to be the driving force for good. Even though the prior examples I listed are choices that can be made by the player, this ending proves that Sam is a genuinely good and humane person. In the 104 Gods ending, the gods still destroyed parts of humanity and even divided it further. In the Screaming Sky ending where the astronomers ascend into a unified god like entity as the Exhaulted Four, they were actively destroying the planet and killed random people in an unpredictable bloody purge. Every other instance of people being presented with this awesome change, they were destructive, unintentionally so due to insanity, but ultimately destructive. The sole exception to these realities is Sam. When he's aware of what he's become, he helps, he becomes the Saviour of Humanity. He could've been like any of the 104 Gods, start his own cult/ community, be the supreme ruler of Earth because like with the gods, who could stop him. But he didn't, and that's what truly does differentiate him. The Gods could've been lucid and with how they actively do rule over the earth in their respective zones, it appears as though they are. And yet we have Sam, a god in his own right, but is a good person (well except for the Perfect Ritual ending where he overwhelms the earth Xin Amon style but I attribute that to losing himself completely as opposed to his character's intention).

As corny as it may sound, Sam truly does choose to be kind as opposed to choosing the 'right' option of caving into fear and attacking enemies/ isolating himself. To Sam, being a kind person is not dependent on appearance, it isn't dependent on what you can personally get out of helping another person but it's about being a helper of your fellow man, regardless of everything that is happening. No matter the route, no matter the player's input, that humanity is always there and I admire that about him.

Tldr:

[lady-corrine]

THEY ARE GASLIGHTING THE PUPLIC 😭😭 kory really just let him like on Tamaran they have no rule against manipulation, gaslight, gatekeeper, bossgirl all acceptable 🗣️🗣️

Honestly they were having the time of their lives, they are genuinely the couple who would read all those comments and convos fighting over "Starfire and Nightwing" vs. "Starfire and Dick Grayson" and laugh and giggle over it all.

Like the press and public are crazy about them and the drama they invented in their heads about this relationship 😭

The reporters are genuinely loving this whole mess, they're invested 😭

(It's giving old Hollywood scandal 😭)

At its core though, the mess of this entire arc and the jokes aside, Dick's desire to be himself with her and to be seen with her without any masks or pretenses came from a very genuine place:

He genuinely wanted to be able to be himself while being with the love of his life, no wigs or fake names or pretenses.

This is honestly a very interesting arc to explore and I'm sure that we would have had much more of it and much more in depth if their planned wedding wasn't mandated. It's a very fun aspect of their relationship and it also deals with Dick's deep desire and longing to be himself, without masks, while being with Kory. The plan was a mess but Dick's hope for it to work and publicly declaring his love for Kory was very sweet.

It also makes such great material for the funnier and more comedic side, especially considering Kory's fame. I truly hope that someday in the future this will be revisited if they ever get together, or even by the fandom lol. It's a very underrated aspect of their relationship that really shows how complicit and hilarious they both are as a couple. It's lovely 😭

[nite-puff]

this was what their dr:s interaction was originally gonna be. trust me. i’m mr. danganronpa

(no cuz seriously. how are you gonna have them interact and then forget that hiroko canonically has a bit of a thing for takaaki?) (i say this like the dr:s writers even knew who the other captives were)

[jesncin]

Musings on fandom racebends and canon characters of color

It's so fascinating how Tana Moon initially accidentally subverted the "disposable poc love interest" trope. She's propped up to be the endgame love interest that Superboy "earns" by learning to grow up and be responsible. As far as half-assed love triangles go, the one between Superboy, Roxy and Tana heavily favors Superboy being committed to Tana to the point of barely reciprocating Roxy's feelings for him. Yeah of course it's a creepy relationship -but as we've discussed before- the writer doesn't see anything wrong with their age gap. It's a fetishistic, racist and misogynistic fantasy where a teen boy can be cool enough to catch the fancy of a sexy dark skinned woman. At the end of the day, Kesel wanted you to like Tana.

But -because of his own biases- Kesel never fleshes out Tana the way Roxy and Knockout (white women btw) get to be explored. I think Kesel assumed Tana being a sexy lamp was enough to hold the interest of young boys reading. And then when Superboy needed a status quo shift that moved him away from his Hawai'i cast system to that of CADMUS, suddenly Tana just... metatexually fulfilled the disposable brown girl trope. Now Superboy has his eyes on a new quirky blonde white girl at work. Tana comes back to die, so both Superboy and the readership move on.

Looking at the way Tana is treated in fandom; how she's made disposable and barred from transformative re-imagining, how when she is included she's treated as this obstacle to overcome before Kon can enter his real, fulfilling relationships with white partners,,, it's like fandom reinforces the disposable brown girl trope inherit in the bias of canon.

And man, does it gets weird when Kon himself is re-imagined as a person of color. I've talked before about how especially in fandom spaces, it's totally fine to racebend a canonically white character if you see something in that worth exploring. I save my big boy critic pants for canon rather than going after spaces of play. BUT when a character's original solo text is inseparable from racism, I have to wonder what we're saying when we give more humanity to re-imagining a white character (who are often afforded more dimension) as POC over the existing (usually underdeveloped) POC characters.

I've seen this "people care more about racebending white characters than already existing canon poc characters" discourse before and I totally get where it's coming from. Many people are more interested in re-imagining Superman as a man of color instead of getting into a character like Steel or Icon (who have their identity more purposely written into their stories), but that doesn't mean those POC!Superman re-imaginings don't have merit either! But at the same time, a canon character like Kong Kenan fulfills the "Superman legacy character with attitude" role way better than Kon ever did, but he doesn't command the same fandom as a man of color.

I guess what I'm heading towards in this ramble is that I wish there was a balance. If you're compelled into appropriating a canonically white character to be more like you or because there's a story to tell, go for it! But I think it's important to be aware of the ways we reinforce canon's bigotry by only giving our creativity to a certain type of character. Like yes, fandom likes making Kon brown, but do they do anything to dismantle or interrogate the racism inherit in his run? Or have we fed back into the racist misogyny of canon by validating the dynamic still in place? Does Kon now just get to dump and dispose of a woman of color while being brown himself as he does it?

[slasherflicks999]

quick silly doodle bc i havent been drawing AT ALL lately and need to get back to the grind LOL

jeff + BEN being besties as they do

every day they question why they’re even friends and then the next day they forget all about it and hang out again LMAO

i also imagine they’re the type of friends that could go like two months without talking at all and it literally will not matter bc the next time they do talk it will be like absolutely nothing happened and they’re very real for that

my shayla!! :3 ………and jeff too ig ���� /j

[galactic-rhea]

there's tons of twisted and delicious anidala angst in my head of the likes you can't imagine,,,,,

[drop-dead-dropout]

need more fics where harry is so "nosy" he actually kinda crosses the boundary of what anyone would consider acceptable (like borderline stalker behavior, reading kim's journals, going behind his back to ask about him at the 57th, etc) and kim knows he should be pissed but secretly the attention starved neglected child in him is like 👉👈 he cares about us... wants to know more about us.... he's obsessed with us yayyyy we're winning at being the coolest most specialest guy ever :) !!

[thatsgazebo]

The “bud” after “I love you” does NOT devalue it. And NOT just because “bud” can be interpreted romantically, but because having loving platonic relationships with friends is just as monumental.

[virgil-anon]

I enjoy a lot of ships that contain some form of power imbalance (superbat, timkon, lucmond, codywan, etc) BUT the one ship I don't want that in is my tomarrymort. With a power imbalance there's the idea that "person A is strong enough to hurt person B but they'd never choose to do that," but tomarrymort WOULD and HAVE and i need Harry to have agency. They're equals, just as the prophecy says, and I need my fics to really understand that. Sure some scenarios put them at a power imbalance but that's not what I'm here for

[bookwyrm-art-stuff]

I analyze fandoms the same way I analyze the media they're built around and that should concern all of you

[artarete]

trying to figure out relationships between the bishops and disciples (and the lamb) lmao. teeny tiny text under the cut, clockwise starting from Narinder

Narinder -> chained (hate) -> Kallamar Kallamar -> misses (like) -> Narinder

Narinder -> chained (hate) -> Shamura Shamura -> loves all their sibs (love) -> Narinder

Narinder <- creepy (neutral) -> Sozo

Narinder <- completely devoted but will never, ever admit it (lie) (love) -> Lambert

Narinder -> normal (like) -> Mabel Mabel -> politely avoids (neutral) -> Narinder

Narinder <- don't know how to interact in new context (neutral) -> Anja

Kallamar -> scared (like) -> Shamura Shamura -> loves all their sibs (love) -> Kallamar

Kallamar -> smart (like) -> Sozo Sozo -> unnerved (neutral) -> Kallamar

Kallamar -> wary (neutral) -> Lambert Lambert -> killed me but pathetic (neutral) -> Kallamar

Kallamar -> listens to infodumps (like) -> Anja Anja -> pathetic wet lump of a man (like) -> Kallamar

Kallamar <- annoying brother (like) -> Leshy

Shamura <- good chat (like) -> Sozo

Shamura <- killed me (hate) -> Lambert

Shamura -> doesn't know she exists (neutral) -> Mabel Mabel -> loyal to Anja (hate) -> Shamura

Shamura -> on sight (hate) -> Anja Anja -> wants knowledge (neutral) -> Shamura

Sozo -> coworker (neutral) -> Mabel Mabel -> kinda weird (neutral) -> Sozo

Sozo <- good chat (like) -> Anja

Sozo <- beefing over mushrooms (hate) -> Heket

(the text next to Gretygre says "he has friends, I swear")

Gretygre -> adores (love) -> Lambert Lambert -> not making that mistake again (neutral) -> Gretygre

Gretygre -> cute (like) -> Mabel Mabel -> he's fine (neutral) -> Gretygre

Gretygre <- coworkers (neutral) -> Anja

Lambert <- killed me (hate) -> Leshy

Lambert <- killed me (hate) -> Heket

Mabel <- BFFs (literally) (like) -> Anja

Mabel <- forced proximity due to Anja (neutral) -> Leshy

Mabel -> responsibility (neutral) -> Heket Heket -> just needs to grow a spine (like) -> Mabel

Anja -> needed a shake-up (like) -> Leshy Leshy -> gleefully corrupting influence (love) -> Anja

Anja <- tolerating for Leshy's sake (hate) -> Heket

I think that's everyone!

[prettystylinson]

i don’t usually get involved in fandom discourse like this. it’s not really my thing, and honestly, i prefer to just enjoy the music, support the boys, and stay in my lane. but what happened yesterday genuinely got under my skin, especially since my friend was involved. i had a lot to say, and i still stand by it—but i’m also not trying to make this my whole personality. i needed to say my piece, and now i’m probably going to ease back out of the conversation.

that said, people are welcome to send me anons if they want. i’m not gonna bite. i just don’t want to spiral into a never-ending loop of drama when that’s never been what this space is about for me.

i love louis. i love all the boys. and watching the way some people twist things—blowing up his every move, weaponizing trauma discourse, projecting years of personal baggage onto someone who’s just living—it’s disheartening. this kind of behavior is exactly what they might be talking about when they say social media feels toxic. and maybe we should all sit with that for a minute. but i can also acknowledge that the way my side of this—my circle, the way we respond—might be part of what they’re referring to too. we really don’t know for sure, and we probably never will.

also, and this is important: if you’re sending hate anons to people—bullying, harassing, or attacking them for things they’ve said—stop. seriously. that kind of behavior is never okay, no matter what side you think you’re on. i don’t want anyone from my page going into other people’s inboxes to spread hate. this is discussion. it’s about talking through how someone’s behavior can affect others—but that doesn’t mean we should actively bully or target people. that’s not what i’m about, and it’s not what this space should be about either.

i’m here because this band and this fandom have brought me a lot of joy over the years. i want to hold onto that part.