#/idk but all ff fandom seem to be this way

[mjm5655]

☉ What fandom do you believe needs improvement? What could you do to do that?

hella sweet munday // accepting ! // @stovthearted

the yakuza one, there needs to be more active blogs of more variety of the characters, but other than that, from what i seen of it so far, i've enjoyed this fandom quite a bit compared to the last one i was in where i was nearly seeing some kind of drama on the daily ...

which was the ffxv one, i had an ardyn blog when it was at its peak, & well, that fandom had way too much drama ( a lot of it was petty too, stuff that could have just been sorted out ooc privately ), people had to be particular around duplicates because there was also so much theft going on, & it did leave me with a very bad taste toward duplicates for a while, i had hc, thread ideas, & graphic style stolen to the point people thought i had 2 blogs of the same muse. as well as some of the ships i was requested to write, i didn't really like a lot of them, so i ended up being dropped like a fly constantly. what i did to improve it ? i ended up just going crossover with ardyn a lot of the time in the end, & wrote with a tight knit group of friends who remained in the ffxv fandom.

i honestly not seen any of this in the yakuza fandom though ? it's small, but honestly this fandom seems to have zero drama, & everyone just seems so chill to hang with.

[thatdeadaquarius]

Heyo, Idk if you still do sagau but I hope you do 🙏🙏 anyway, this is lowkey wholesome but imagine one of acolytes were trying to communicate with a child but then they realize the child is deaf but reader so happened to be nearby. So then, whatever the character is saying the reader translates into sign language and its just a wholesome sight to see. Btw srry if this isn't what you usually write 😓 add anything to this if you want

OH NO THIS IS EXACTLY ALL THAT I WRITE RN ANON DW MY LOVE 😍

(*update: im so stupid i thought ur sunglasses pfp was a anon and didnt look any closer💀i aint livin this one down)

(Spoiler: i do plan to do imagines for other fandoms bc i have such niche AUs or ideas for them, a lot like this whole language stuff for Genshin Sagau :D )

IVE WANTED TO LEARN ASL FOR SO LONG BUT I HAVENT GOTTEN THE CHANCEEE theres no classes for it where i live ;/

THAT IS TO SAY I LIVEEE FOR COMMUNICATION STUFFFFF

Also srry its kinda short i just could only think of this cute little scenario- 😗

Rest in peace bc i have a whole fat post i wanna make about neurodivergence + general accessibility issues in Teyvat and their countries

Like where r the ramps babe

Where r the non-narrow ass doors

Why r we just constantly made to hike up mountains when we dont have to

And dont come at me with that,

"Theyre in their medieval age! They cant make stuff like that!"

Yeah, u right, they cant.

If they dont be ✨️creative ✨️and they dont use their fucking ✨️magic ✨️

Liyue got floating rocks and they cant make a goddamn disability elevator?? Bitch tf?

THAT IS TO SAY IN A VERY RANTING COUGHPASSIVE AGGRESSIVE AT GENSHIN COMMUNITY FOR NOT REPPING DISABILITIES MORECOUGH

WAY OF SAYINGGGG

Literally almost no one gets sign language in Teyvat

(despite the fact that in my perfect teyvat, sign lang. is superior bc everyone could make it the universal lang. ESP if we go by the cool AU of diff countries have diff languages, like Germanish lang for Mondstadt, Frenchish for Fontaine, etc.)

Off topic again srry-

◇

But you took a class once!! Or even checked out the alphabet and casual convo on ur own time :D

So u just chillin with Kazuha, Thoma, Sara, Gorou, and Kokomi (they vistin the main island to see u!! :] )

Meanwhile a little girl is walking around nearby, and is kinda going in circles

Almost like shes scared to go too far one way or the other,

So being the caring soul he is, (rlly all these boys here rn would notice and help lol)

Thoma comes up to her and squats down trying to talk to her :)

...

Yeah, she didn't say anything, just kinda,,

Motioned with her hands??

She looks like shes doing some kind of code to them..

Oh!

Thoma finally recognized this, its that hand language!! lmao hes got the spirit

so he asks Kazuha to try and see if he knows it or can even figure it out-

Nope. Nada de nada.

Then Kokomi, Sara and Gorou (whos a sweatin nervous mess he doesnt know how to act around kids esp kids in distress he seems like the type lol)

They all fail, Kokomi looks concerned bc she thinks the kids lost, but there no frantic parents nearby, Sara is trying to slowly understand what motions mean what i.e. points to a rock = learn sign from child etc,

Kazuha is trying to get the wind to help locate upset guardians nearby, and Gorou...

... is just 🧍‍♂️

LMAOOO

◇

So after a minute of this (bc u had originally been away at a street food vender, hey those dango were rlly good dont judge urself)

U come back, and see this mild flavor of chaos-

And are just like

"Oh ffs- just shoo, i got it guys"

And just, slowly, go thru some signs with the little girl to get the keywords at least

She lights up and is like bouncing, she goes hella fast at first but slows down when she gets ur hearing

Either way, she looks a lot happier now

U explain for her to the others to confirm her parents got seperated from her

She got lost and where she last saw them

u finally help escort her to the street she last saw her parents on :] !!

◇

Meanwhile the whole allogene group, shopkeepers, and Inazumans around you:

😦😯🥰🥺💓💞💘💖

Kokomi is holding back a squeal, shes gotta keep up her image, ahem-

Sara is like,, minutely vibrating?? Lmao

Kazuha is watching u like a fireworks show, intensely and yet fascinated

GOROU'S TAIL IS KINDA WAGGINGGG AW LOL

And Thoma just looks like a puddle of affection, just absolutely melted (he loves kids + he secretly loves you = dead Thoma)

Other people look weirdly, proud? Like theyre like "yeah thats our god, fuck yeah, knowing diff languages, go off, Your Grace 💅 " LMAO SORRY COULDNT RESIST and also some fascination

♡

Anyway, 2 very stressed looking dads see yall and the girl and one of them run up to hold each other

She starts rapidly signing, explaining to her dads the adventure she had and the cool people she met <3

The dads look at u and r like 🤔😶😱 "YOUR MAJESTY??!!" (VIGOROUS HAND MOTIONS)

They sign like,

"We're terribly sorry about you seeing us like this, we usually are much more together than this, a crowd just swept her off, its very busy today. Thank you so much for helping our girl, my Lord!! 😭😭"

Theyre like almost crying, oh geez, u reassure them and sign back that it happens to any parent at some point and that is matters more that they tried to get her back :]

◇

Meanwhile the rest of the group and the citizens are just watching yall like its the most amazing Olympic level tennis match in the world LMAO

Heads all in sync, watchin yall like 👋👍🙏LMAO IM SORRY

AW IT SUCKS ABOUT WRITING BC I CANT RLLY DEPICT SIGN LANGUAGE AS COOL AS I CAN IN COMICS OR THRU ART

THE EMOJI HANDS NEED SIGN LANGUAGE DAMMIT-

♡

🎵 Hi, it's me. I'm the problem, it's me. 🎵

That is to say none of yalls asks r eaten up, at least im pretty sure? Dw abt it im chugging along having the time of my life hehe >:)

Yall are fEEDIN ME TONIGHT!!

Hope yall r having a good weekend and have no hw if ur in school, or i hope ur shift goes good tomorrow! :]

Love yall!!

Cheers,

🌒🌧🌊Aquarius♒️🌌🌘

♡the beloveds♡

@karmawonders / @0rah-s / @randomnatics / @glxssynarvi / @nexylaza / @genshin-impacts-me / @wholesomey-artist

[snowblack-charcoalwhite]

The way Condal, Hess and co write certain characters, especially Alicent, just makes them look like some kind of aliens who cannot comprehend the core of human nature and familial bonds (motherly love, sibling dynamic...) . I mean, fine, maybe they aren't parents honestly have no idea about their private lives nor do I want to know ), but that still doesn't justify the atrocious manner in which they have been portraying Alicent's relationship with her children. And I dislike the explanations that come from one part of the fandom (she married against her will, never wanted those children, never felt freedom...) I mean, I don't deny these, but they are not enough to explain or justify her weird (and sudden imo) detachment and dare i say, borderline hatred of her sons. Not to mention that this was the life of westerosi women, basically every one of them. Also, Ryan talked how Alicent and Viserys had "a loving marriage, just weren't in love " and generally holds Viserys in high regard, so he obviously doesn't see him as Alicent's abuser or anything. That's why i cannot understand what is the point of showing her so disgusted by her children and incapable of showing them love. Otto's influence? Maybe, but still not the greatest explanation. And she seems even harsher and distant to her sons this season than Otto ever was to her. She doesn't seem broken over Jaehaerys, she doesn't seem overly upset over Aegon (he's burned alive and is dying ffs and she won't shed a tear), Aemond is apparently an ireedemeable monster in her eyes fur some reason, even before RR... It's so frustrating that there are people who eat it all up and justify it as a genius and subtle storytelling with a lot of details that we "the whiners" refuse or are unable to grasp. Idk, I really liked her in s1 and although she was a bit inconsistent in ep 8 and 9 I hoped it would be retconed. Unfortunately, this season I'm watching a character I don't recognise anymore. And the worst thing is that she doesn't suffer from a lack of screentime like Aemond or Helaena do. Almost everything on tg revolves around her and yet I still have no idea what is her goal or who she is anymore.

Sorry for the rant.

Hello!

I could not agree with you more. Not sure if some kind of personal/family circumstances of HotD writers played a role in them fumbling the Greens family dynamic so badly but I am convinced that their "women good men bad" narrative policy did.

In "Driftmark" Alicent orders for Luke's eye to be cut out (and immediately, in public) - and then attacks Luke and Rhaenyra herself. But a few minutes (in show time) later she repents - and after that, apparently, she is all for "violence is reserved for men" agenda. That's where her disdain for Aemond (in whose name she was about to commit a public act of violence herself) is supposed to come from, I think. It doesn't even feel like she is horrified precisely by the fact that he might have almost killed (deliberately at that) his own brother. Lack of consistency and logic? Yes. Obliviousness at best, hypocrisy at worst (from Alicent, I mean)? Yes. But who cares, right? Alicent does not support the evil deeds of men - and that's what matters.

And her treatment of Aegon looks even more moronic. Girl, you put him on the throne against his will! After her meeting with Rhaenyra she knows it was a result of a misunderstanding (the favourite trick of this show, dammit - but it is a topic for a whole another conversation) but how is Aegon to blame for it?

I can relate to Alicent growing tired of being used and manipulated - but IMO (I agree with you here as well) this is not a good enough excuse for her to fully go into the "fuck yourselves, the lot of you" mode. But for the writers it is, at least it looks like it. They were trying to sell us the bullying of Aemond by Aegon (combined with the former's desire for power) being a sufficient motivation for Aemond to get rid of his brother (during the civil war where they are supposed to be on the same side no less) - and now they are trying to justify whatever Alicent does with her being a child bride and so on and so forth. I have no love for Viserys (or sympathy for Otto - where it comes to him pimping his teenage daughter out to the king) - but turning Alicent into this and expecting everyone to eat it up? Come on. Even some casual viewers are going "WTF" watching Alicent's scenes with her children, never mind those who are familiar with Fire and Blood.

And double yes to the point about the show very heavily focusing on Alicent to the detriment of many other characters (Aemond first of all). It feels like the writers believe that all that audience is supposed to know about Aemond now is that he is a bad guy - and they give him just enough screen time to show that. Meanwhile Alicent has loads of it - just so we could get a really good, really long look at her face and understand just how bad patriarchy failed her.

So, as I see it Alicent is now no more than a means to the end of hammering home the main idea of the show. How does she do that and what happens to her character in the process is unimportant - at least, to the writers and showrunners.

Sorry for the rant as well🙈

[buckera]

ngl it's really starting to make me sad that some hardcore b*ddie shippers don't seem to care about the characters at all unless it's in the context of b*ddie. would it be so wrong to have buck and eddie remain best friends who share a closeness that's more like family? they love each other deeply and their relationship isn't lesser if they don't become romantic partners at some point in the distant future.

and honestly, can't we all at least agree that eddie has some shit to figure out and deserves to have time (and his own damn storyline) to do that, with his closest friend by his side to support him?

meanwhile buck is embarking on a whole new joyful part of his life as we speak. idk about you but i was really touched by the scene in which buck comes out to eddie; it could not have been better. buck's arc, and all the ups and downs that are sure to come with it, can only be made better by having eddie there to support him imo. like damn, take the b*ddie shipping goggles off and support them as individuals for a hot minute.

(oops sorry for the rant)

you know, it just pisses me the fuck off that ever since Tommy's introduction, people have been off the rails, inventing reasons to hate on fictional characters, get all up in arms about how long their ship was built up for, if it's canon or not, if it's endgame or not, harassing each other online etc etc

why are we acting like we're in kindergarten and there is only one Barbie to play with?? ffs. I'm a buddie shipper, I love buddie, they are soulmates, they have everything to go all the way and stay there, but the way hardcore buddie shippers behave makes me feel like I stepped in shit.

and to a lesser degree, but bucktommy shippers aren't innocent either. coming up with acronyms for deadset buddie shippers? really? kindergarten bullying 101. moaning about how bucktommy is canon and buddie is fanon so it has more "value" as a ship?? you mean to say that the fake people on my TV can have differing values when I imagine them kissing in my head?? do you even hear yourselves?

I am trying not to engage with any of this and I have been unfollowing and even blocking people for putting it on my dash. but unfortunately a larger portion of the fandom looks like this right now and that makes it harder to keep my peace — or to not be associated with the "bad apples" just for shipping one or the other.

I'm tired. you all gotta start acting like adults because this is a joke.

[not-goldy]

Heyy! just found your acc and I am absolutely loving it here. idk if you'll read or reply to this but im writing this just because im kinda disheartened seeing some of these jikooker's behaviour. like i get it, we should always be open to the possibility of jikook being in a relationship with someone else but to see them dropping jikook in a matter of seconds after one shady grainy video drops is just... some are still adamant that jungkook does infact have a girlfriend. I've been seeing so many "jikook broke up", "jikook just bros", "jikook poly", "jikook were just fck buddies" it feels like these jikookers are just heavily insecure and somewhat believe certain taekookers' theories as they've been going off about how jikook haven't been close in 2023 and they are no longer 'glued together' just because we don't see it.

its like they were just ready to drop jikook and found this video issue to be the perfect opportunity lol....i honestly don't know where im going with this dkdkdjflkdjf but yeah. i dont think it was jungkook in that video (pretty obvious if you ask me) and I'll keep supporting jikook. jikook's bond is so different than all the other duos in bts and them not dating would be more shocking than them dating each other. ig these jikookers don't wanna act how taekookers did in the whole taennie situation but that's the thing this jungkook thing is in NO way similar to the taennie proofs we got. we got HD pictures and saw their managers in their video ffs.

also the acc that posted that video on weibo went on to post a clearly fake edited video of "jungkook" roaming around his apartment when asked why don't they have more videos of jungkook if they had so much access to jungkook's apartment, and had their lie get debunked so yeah. mindless rant over i guess. JIKOOK FOREVER.BTS FOREVER.

I almost logged out but since you love it here I love it here too🤭

You see right there- even if it was Jungkook in that video it is not conclusive of anything. It's just back hug. Looks like a younger boy worrying his Noona to me and if it wasn't then we need to talk about a little things called consent. Sis looked like she could use her personal space.

Besides, if it were him, nothing special there. He does that with every one. Almost all BTS members. I remember a video of Jimin asking him what he was doing clinging onto him behind him.

He did it with the tattoo girl and said there was nothing between them. How could this have been any different?

I feel people aren't used to seeing him interact with girls that much so they get uncomfortable getting glimpses of him around girls.

They will tell you he is the handsiest member of bts but then turn around and act flabbergasted when he gets handsy with anyone that's not their bias.

I'm glad he put those fake rumors to rest.

If that video was him that would have amounted to some heavy charges cos why we peeping at people's homes with cameras 🥲

The creepy things obsessed fans do and the lengths they go to give me chills. No respect for his privacy whatsoever.

He has friends other than jimin. He has FEMALE FRIENDS as well. People need to get used to that fact and stop acting like a disturbed beehive whenever the topic comes up.

He has female friends cousins acquaintances dancers assistants etc and he has a unique dynamic with each.

The entire Fandom needs to grow up.

For now I'm just embarrassed for them. Imagine cooking up a lie that didn't even take 2 secs to be shut down. The audacity they had to come into our dms trying to convince us we are making excuses for him and not accepting facts meanwhile the delulu ones were them all along.

And they seem to forget some of us are part of the groups they meet at to cook up these elaborate narratives just to stirr up shit. They dumb as fuck.

[icallhimjoey]

https://www.tumblr.com/icallhimjoey/740793662862229504/i-know-someone-also-left-the-fandom-recently

Different anon here but I think you knew her? Apparently, she was told by a few people that the way she writes was a lot like yours. I've read her fics and they seem okay to me but Idk 🤷🏼‍♀️

People in this fandom can be so cruel for driving people away when they just want to create and share their love for our little Joey through their art 🫤

it's dumb and shouldn't happen, we're not in secondary school ffs, this is not a place where we go and tell a someone "you're a copycat for buying that jumper because she has a similar one and had it first"

if i have a problem with anyone on here, i will reach out to them myself and do so privately (which i have done on 1 occasion and the issue was resolved immediately, no hard feelings on either side at all) i do not need anons telling my friends MY FRIENDS that they're copycats, it's so stupid, i hate it

i am kindly requesting for people to not make other people feel bad on my behalf (because it feels like that's what this is)

[ca-suffit]

Hi! Have you watched Jacob interview? He made very clear he dislikes Loumand and kinda make the same point Lestans do, they are all monsters so you can’t judge them. He also said Louis know he has some kind of power ove Lestat, he means Lestat loves him so much he knows how to hurt his feelings and being cruel I guess. I love him but he gave some points to the worst part of the fandom :/

Putting this ask with this too: "have you watched jacob’s interview with autumn? he hates loumand so. much. and he does not seem to like armand much either lol maybe no jassad interviews was for the better"

I watched and took extensive notes and bitched on twitter.

To touch on Loumand first, here's the one positive thing he said that I wanted to get down word for word, cuz I knew the fandom would overlook it (not any of u, I mean in general).

"And, like, I think the fact he jumps into that relationship with Armand so quickly…which I think is, like, um….I think that it is based on something. There is an attraction, there is a pull. But, like, the fact that he jumps into that relationship in the way he does. And he has to construct this kind of dream version of Lestat. He's not able to be on his own. He's just not one of those people. He has to have a distraction and he has to have, I think, something to fight against. Like he needs…a….like a foil? He needs…he needs like…some…some passion but also somebody that he can disagree with and have a problem with. And it distracts him from all the problems he has with himself." (From the "Louis is finally living on his own" segment)

But, ya, overall...aside from saying at a point that he does feel bad for Armand (and complimenting Armand as an individual character outside of being with Louis), it is v heavy on disliking Loumand and kind of killing it all dead p instantly. He does say "Fuck Lestat" too but he also refers to them as "soulmates" and mentions the "vampire bond" and all (which I thought everyone agreed is not....rly real? Not in the way Louis is using it to excuse his pull to Lestat, anyway, but...idk w/e). But, ya, he says at a point that he feels like Loumand never rly even spent much time together. That Louis was always out eating and doing something and Armand would stay behind and "play house."

He also does later touch upon a fear of being too dismissive of them but also says he didn't understand their relationship in the book either and feels like the show is true to the book (it is and it isn't).

I mean. I think there's a lot that could be talked about more in all of this but Autumn isn't someone who...asks about much, so here we are.

Like. I fucking hated that whole "can't moralize," "they're all awful" shit too, bcuz ya I know the fandom is gonna run wild with that. I also think, sry to Jacob, that it's shit to say that? There's a lot u can still explore in a topic about a character's motivations. There's a LOT of racial motivations for things in these stories, for example, and it's v harmful to gloss over them and say they're all awful and it's just what it is. I also don't expect only the actors of color to speak on this tho, I think white actors should be talking about this more often too bcuz there's more protection there to speak about it without being seen as "a problem." I'm not trying to go too hard on Jacob for this part, just like I don't think Delainey needed to be the one asked about the trial (and still the only one who has been?).

There was a little bit of the cruelty part that I liked (this is in the "Louis's cruelty" section) where he calls threatening Lestat with "vampire loneliness" a "mutual punishment." I think there's a lot to explore there for the character of Louis, for the Loustat relationship, for what it does to Lestat too. But...not in this fandom lol. Not with the "mutual punishment" prbly leading to some bullshit about 1x5 again ffs. But there was a rly bad post in the last week about not being able to see all these "book" Louis qualities in Jacob's Louis and this is such a prime example of some real Catholic shit Louis does.

This is long. I might write separate posts later going into more stuff from my notes and having this sit in my head some more.

I want to be clear tho that this isn't meant to be any excuse for slamming Jacob or simplifying this down to shipping wars or whatever else. It's overall all connected to racism issues in this fandom and the ways that all of these conversations (or lack of them) affect these things too. All of these actors are their characters as well and all tend to speak from their perspectives and also know these stories from other angles and goals of the show instead of whatever reasons we're all here. I wish the interviews had more depth but I'm not trying to create more friction in the fandom with reducing this down to some kind of soundbite like "fuck Jacob cuz he doesn't like Loumand!" or w/e.

[dairy-farmer]

Sorry if you've already touched on this, but what are your thoughts about the discourse/discussion about Tim in the comics and Tim from the lens of A03/fan fiction?

For example, I hear a lot from old comic fans about how the series with Tim dating Bernard was doomed to fail bc 'the writer wrote him like her fanfiction version of Tim and not the real character'. There was a lot of discourse with canonical announcing Tim as queer, and that's kinda all these older comic book fans seem to keep coming back to. Idk, there just kinda seems to be an underlying feeling of misogyny towards the female writers and anti lgtbq vibes that it's hard to hear like a real arguement against the series.

I guess as a long time a03/Fandom person, I'm so used to just creating another little reality for the things I disagree or want to explore with a character, that it's strange to see people so upset that Canon doesn't flow the way the want.

it's no problem!! and i haven't really touched on the newer comics all that much mostly because i also don't particularly like them, not for any specific reason-they're decent enough but i don't really think they're 'tim'-but i do know what you're talking about. on twitter and tumblr i see a lot of different takes regarding tim and how he's written in this newer robin series.

for starters: i get what you're talking about where criticism of the comics might partly because of anti-lgbt attitude. especially since tim getting confirmed to be bisexual made A LOT of people mad (including ppl who arent homophobic but are mad that it wasn't THEIR favorite robin who got confirmed queer like dick, jason, or damian etc). comic bros and even casual comic fans who had never even heard of tim or even gave a shit about him were now furious. and while there might be ppl with genuine critiques- some of hatred of the way tim is written in the newer comics you really have to take it with a grain of salt because it very well could be comic bros hating because "robin isn't gay".

same with the writer, meghan fitzmartin. in general, women DO have an uphill battle when it comes to working in comics because it is very male dominated. and it's no secret that a lot of comic fans are opposed to women writing in comics. so misogyny, and even jealousy also plays a role with how much criticism is ACTUALLY warranted. but that doesn't mean a woman in comics isn't allowed to be criticized if they do a bad job or do a botched execution when their job is supposed to be making good, enjoyable, stories that do justice to the characters. i do think meghan may have some decentish ideas but whether she genuinely has the writing chops to deliver on those big ideas is well...iffy. but then again i genuinely don't keep tabs on comic writers or they're projects so maybe that will change.

when it comes to the critique of tim being written like a "fanfiction" version and not a "real" version of him i do see what they mean.

when I think of fanon tim I think of all the mischaracterizations that have been popularized. a coffee obsessed gremlin that doesn't sleep who is deeply insecure and agonizes over his place in the family, thinking he doesn't belong. people LIKE that tim is portrayed like that (in fanfiction) otherwise that characterization wouldn't be so pervasive in fics (there's also the possibility that a lot of ff writers DON'T know any better because many don't read comics but they do read fics and so they base their portrayals solely off what they read in fics resulting in this racoon eyed, coffee loving character who they believe to be an actual portrayal when it's really just someone's idea/exaggerated interpretation of tim).

i really don't see a lot of that in meghan's writing, the issues with tim's writing with her are different. if anything WFA is the one that really have the 'written as a ff character' vibe. but that series is also SUPPOSED to be deeply unserious as a fun slice of life universe where nothing goes wrong for anyone ever as a soothing balm for the oftentimes depressing stories in batman comics.

but in meghan's writing I also don't see a lot of what i consider to be core tim values. is she the best writer for tim? no i don't really think so. but there is a certain degree of understanding for his character. I see the comics and I can recognize that it's tim. so it's not offensively OC.

a lot of complaints seem to stem from his relationship with bernard being too much of a focus. people say how tim does too much thinking about him when...he was a lot worse in the 90s with steph. I remember getting so irritated when entire comics of robin would be narrated by steph or about her, i'd be like 'I want to read about ROBIN and his adventures, not steph, why is she even relevant?'. but tim's relationships to other people are a core part about him so you just have to take it.

the part that i think is justified in critique is in talking about whether her writing of bernard dowd is good. that is a much easier thing to answer. and its that its not good writing. in fact it's a pretty bad, inaccurate portrayal of him given how he was written when we first knew him. he's sort of been...sanded down? kind of remade into some new, almost unrecognizable character that fits into what she believes would be a nice, wholesome, gay partner for tim. which is an issue for me because we have seen and know what tim is like in relationships. tim had tension with, disagreed with, got annoyed with, fought and argued with his other partners like stephanie and ariana. but he also enjoyed himself and was happy with them. there was a balance there of good and bad because tim's unique situation of being robin made it so there had to be good and bad. with bernard it's all very passive and easy. they don't argue, they don't really fight, or have any struggles in their relationship when trying determine compatibility. avoiding tension in the relationship when tim has a track record of it makes it almost seem like she's afraid of the risk of portraying a gay relationship in anything less than a golden light. which is not good writing. BUT it is also very NEW. so maybe that will change (but there's a similar problem with jon kent and his bf so idk)? i personally believe kon would've been a more ideal partner with their shared history, chemistry, tension, the fact that fans have wanted it for decades, and the fact that it would've been such a good addition to the arc of self acceptance for kon's character. and many of the issues that tim being with bernard wouldn't be a thing because tim and kon famously don't see eye to eye 100 percent of the time and so their relationship would struggle and grow as they go from friends to romantic partners.

ultimately in my opinion to write a truly good tim drake you need to be able to accurately portray the thing that made him such a great robin: his heart of gold. tim cares about doing the right thing SO much. he cares about helping people. he's not some cold, unfeeling calculated computer who uses people as pawns and abandons his morals at the slightest inconvenience or seduction to the 'dark side'. and he's not some coffee drinking hacker man that is 20 steps ahead and smug about it.

tim worries about people, he's upset at injustice, feels guilt at not being able to save people, is judgy, sometimes a brat, sarcastic, gets angry at people for throwing their lives away, gets very invested in things that catch his interest, is too curious for his own good, nosy. he lies through his teeth and then bats his eyes in sweet as pie innocence. will think VERY rude thoughts about people but will bite his tongue because he's a nice boy👼 but sometimes things slip out. he is somehow simultaneously able to be the 🥺 and 😈 emoji at the same time. his odds of making bad decisions increase by 100 fold if in the company of other stupid teenagers.

now i write tim as a very exaggerated version of that core self. that's what a lot of ff authors do. they choose a handful of traits they like best about him and spin entire fics about it. i don't think writing tim as a fanfiction version of himself is a bad thing because some fanfic is genuinely better than the source material and that comes from being very good at understanding the character. the tim of today can't be written the same way he was in his golden age, the 90s, because a lot of his struggles and hurdles that he dealt with in those comics are over. they're done. tim can't be 30 years old and still wondering if he's doing a shit job as robin. tim IS a good robin and he should be able to acknowledge that (funnily enough one of his clear acknowledgements of that is often wiped away by fics- that being the titans tower scene where jason asks if tim thinks he's the better robin and tim, without hesitation, says yes) a lot of older fans are clinging to problems that tim has already resolved. he's not thirteen and insecure about his abilities. he's not on his first relationship with someone (but he is in his first relationship with a boy). he's not still learning how to navigate his relationship with batman and the rest of the family or struggling to come to terms with his civilian and caped life. do some of those things still trouble him on occasion? yes but they're not the main focus anymore.

tim has to have new problems, new challenges, new growth.

i had some hope for new tim comics.

would i like to have seen more tim centric material or at least good stories. and often times in the new tim comics tim was exactly the same at the end of the issue as he was at the beginning. tim struggling with his identity is something that made an appearance in 90s comics a lot but I think for the newer ones that it would've been better received/more interesting if it were...written better?

idk. i don't know a single comic fan that loved every detail of their fav's comics. was it the best run? no. but it was okay enough i guess. it was lukewarm, not standing ovation worthy but also nobody should be throwing tomatoes at the performers either, it just earned a polite clap of acknowledgement which i don't think is a very bad thing but still i hope we get something better!

[decepti-thots]

for so long I have felt like a weirdo for thinking that the jro pregnancy stuff is deeply unhorny. but I am going to say it now: it's only horny in the way that the alien franchise is horny: there are definitely people who are horny about it, but it's primarily about the non-sexy aspects of pregnancy. i get that it's a funny joke but a non-insignificant people genuinely act like it's "the writer's barely disguised fetish". birth is weird and scary and fascinating, even more so in robots. im probably more defensive about this than I should be but it's kind of upsetting to me that this is where the discussion always ends

I'll put this under a cut so as not to spam anyone's dash bc yeah I went off on this ask haha (positive).

I actually felt so insane about this very topic I ran a damn poll on my NSFW sideblog and the thing is: the majority of folks voting agreed no, it's not inherently, textually horny. (I would know; I know horny when I see it, ffs!) Which vindicated me! Because I agree it's so ridiculous a thing to unironically, sincerely insist is super horny, given the text, lmao.

Like, it's extremely obsessed with pregnancy, but this is not the same as 'a fetish', and tbqh I think the 'fetish' joke just shields any actually interesting discussion of what it's doing. I think the Alien comparison here is actually really telling; it's absolutely a visceral thing, a thing concerned with the body and how it functions, sometimes against our will. And it's not unconnected to sexuality or eroticism in how those things are discussed more broadly, in the sense it's talking about a thing that intersects with those elements in the abstract, but it's not. Like. It's not a "fetish" thing, and if the characters it involved weren't referred to as 'he' in text I think less people would be calling it that, and actually it kinda sucks that every time I bring it up I have to block people who see 'pregnancy mentioned' on my completely sfw posts as an excuse to go off on their personal fetishes in detail, or their desire to speculate on the imagined fetishes of the writer in equally graphic detail. (BTW, it's genuinely uncomfortable seeing people obsessively speculate on the imagined fetishes of a creator, I think. We should all do that a little less in public.)

I mean not to be a total killjoy or anything but like... treating pregnancy in itself, even in the most abstract way, as inherently fetishistic and inappropriate (the people reblogging my innocuous posts about pregnancy metaphors with fucking trigger warnings! 'mpreg trigger warning' being a normalized way to tag pictures that are just Trans Dude Who Is Pregnant!) is uh. I mean we live in a world where pregnant people are often massively marginalized by society period, and seen as somehow inappropriate for public life, and especially anyone who is remotely GNC. Like the idea that something is inherently obscene about a pregnant person is, shall we say, not apolitical. It is in fact a thing that people actually have to fight against in real life. I mean. Fandom doing this to a text that in fact is most notable for treating pregnancy weirdly neutrally in these terms is... frustrating! I think we all lose out when we refuse to engage with weird, funny texts that have things to say about these topics that fall outside our expected frameworks, like, say, 'this is A Fetish TM'. That's limiting! If we want to talk about what IDW1 phase two does with gender, we cannot do that properly if every time we talk about MTMTE we get weird about it doing sexless genderfree pregnancy metaphors, and instead make them funny mpreg jokes, tbh! IDK! Seems counter intuitive! And I genuinely think MTMTE/LL's bizarre approach to the thing is so interesting precisely because it's so odd and offputting. What if we actually examined it. I think we can find some good stuff in there, frankly.

And truly the especially frustrating thing is that the comic itself, for all it is objectively weird and hilarious and 'why the fuck is this even HERE' about it... is just never that. Like. I posted those excerpts because it IS weird and it IS wild and it IS quite funny in its way! It's alien robot body horror in a kids' cartoon franchise turned to an unexpected end! But you know what it actually manages, somehow, to never be? One: weird and misogynist about pregnancy. Two: weird and transphobic about it involving vaguely, ostensibly 'male' characters. Make all the mpreg jokes you want I guess, but MTMTE is many bizarre things but it never gives one single shit about the gender binary, and tbh I think it's genuinely kind of embarrassing the fandom saw a comic that did insane robot body horror pregnancy shit and was like. Okay well. But the mpreg tho.

Like. I've joked for years that I want to do a transmasc read of the pregnancy stuff Roberts did in TF seriously, same as I think a transmasc read of how Alien presents fears around "male pregnancy" in a trans context would be great. And for all my jokes, I genuinely would, actually. I think it's legit very interesting how Roberts manages to divorce the presentation of horror of pregnancy from gender in a way that mitigates the gendered subtext somewhat and gets at the loss of autonomy in a broader sense.

anyway it truly sucks that fandom is so fucking shitty about this. to give a little extra context, i talk about a particular transmasc humanformer AU sometimes that involves pregnancy and. i have had to Delete Some Fucking Asks about that thing, which. well that happens in normal regular real life and people talk about it like a fanfic trope (derogatory). so. i am a little sensitive to people getting Like This about the topic, aha.

sorry i went off on one anon, can you tell. i also find this frustrating. i relate. i am totally with you. god it would be so much less interesting to read it as horny so like, why is this the ONLY MODE we seem to have tbh

[pockyandsoda]

omfd s2ep8 spoilers & rant

originally posted to my twitter acc

i am genuinely so confused by the amount of pure vitriol some of you have towards izzy and izzy fans?? i get not particularly liking a character or agreeing with the way other people see them, but some of y'all are being absolutely disgusting towards others. what happened to cringe culture being dead, huh? insinuating people should be embarassed or ashamed to have a reaction to characters they like - having big emotions about media you love is part of being in a fandom! you're no better or less weird! oooh look at you being unwilling to forgive or accept character growth! wow! so morally superior and cool! just because you dont personally agree that a redemption arc was deserved or done well doesnt make it a fact btw.

ive been watching this season with casual viewers who are not a part of online fandom at all, and they have all very much enjoyed izzy's arc and him as a character, they are able to see the narrative importance of it, as are the writers and the crew. again, you dont have to agree. but dont act superior.

at the end of the day, this is a silly pirate show made mostly for 'haha's, and ALL of these characters have done HORRIBLE things, they're pirates ffs, that's kinda the whole point here guys! and those things are ridiculously easily forgiven (by our standards) again, because they are pirates and this is not a serious show.

izzy fans are sad, some are very very sad, maybe even a 'weird' amount! so? do you really need to dunk on them for lolz? make it out like they're insane for even liking a character that the show itself actively likes and supports and clearly wants the audience to like (in s2 anyway, and if you deny this then sorry but you're being willfully wrong)? idk why any of you are remotely surprised people like this character? starting to think some of you just wanna be edgy and seem sarcastic and cool and superior for your 'witty' twitter commentary tbh.

and of course sending any kinda negativity towards writers/cast/crew is disgusting and pathetic, but im seeing that from izzy lovers and haters alike on my feed, so dont you dare try and make it seem like a pro-izzy only issue here. and y'know what? it's also disgusting and pathetic to belittle and mock other members of the fandom, and im only seeing one side engaging in that behavior, please do humble yourselves and remember the times in your life when you have had a strong emotional reaction to things happening to your fav characters and ships. dont forget that you are also a loser with a fandom twitter/tumblr account.

and for the record, i thought the finale was genuinely good, as was all of season 2 in my opinion. all this immature negativity and faux superiority is making this fandom toxic. izzy is a popular character with viewers (casual & otherwise) and the creative team, who had a decent redemption arc. that is a fact, whether you like it or not. people should not have to feel hesitation about posting anything remotely positive about izzy out of fear of judgement or ridicule. save your cutting twitter remarks for actually problematic people.

im not even particularly attached to this damn character but the way y'all have been behaving has annoyed tf outta me.

[i-did-not-mean-to]

20 questions for fic writers

Thank you so much @thenookienostradamus and @lordoftherazzles for the tag...

Let's see...

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 554 (with two not revealed yet as we speak...). Many of those are collections, though.

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 1,986,915 (erm...yeah...well)

3. What fandoms do you write for? Tolkien (The Hobbit, LOTR, The Silm). (+ the odd AU or Richard Armitage movie)

4. What are your top five fics by kudos? Tumblr Imagines (Wild Mix of everything) , October 2022 Ficlet run (same), A key change (Remix Fic), Black (Thorin x OC), Silm imagines and ficlets (Wild Mix again)

5. Do you respond to comments? Yes, in due time. I struggle a lot with being overwhelmed at times (imposter syndrome, fear of not knowing what to say, comments heaping up), but I am so thankful for every comment that I do try to answer them all in a timely manner.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I've written about 1k fics; I do not remember all of them :s I generally don't write angst, so I really couldn't say. Sorry :(

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Everything? I am a Happy Ending person, so most of my fics (eventually) get a happy ending :D

8. Do you get hate on fics? Not yet (crossed fingers). At times, I get comments I don't really understand (autism ahoi), but I hope that people didn't mean anything mean by it :)

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? SMUT? ME? Noooo *cough*...Let's say it has happened! What kind? What kind do you want, baby? MF, FF, MM, trans characters, non-binary characters, threesomes, it has all happened. Sweet and tender? Check. Rough and dirty? Check. Dubconny and dark? Check. Just tell me what you want, and there is a good chance I've either done it or would do it :D

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? I have written one crossover for an event (where characters go into a whole different franchise). Otherwise, I am an AU bitch. Disney movies, musicals, you name it.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Again, not that I know of.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Once for an event. Otherwise, I think one could call what @cilil and @melkors-big-tits did for the calendar co-writing. In a way, many collabs with artists are co-written. Any event collab is co-writing (to me). Me stealing @cilil's ideas is co-writing. Me asking for ideas on the @fellowshipofthefics and @tolkienpinupcalendar servers is co-writing. So...yes...yes I have, and I've loved it.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? Ori x OC, Maedhros x Fingon, Eönwë x Gothmog

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Black. It's one of my first fics, and there's only a chapter or so missing...but I don't know if I'll ever finish writing that last chapter. There are a few more where I've written 1-5 additional chapters and never uploaded them...for reasons (?). By now, I am too ashamed and lazy to get back to them.

16. What are your writing strengths? Versatility and speed. I am a mediocre writer in my 5th foreign language, and I make no bones about it. Nevertheless, I am willing to give anything and everything a try :D

17. What are your writing weaknesses? I am extremely wordy. It takes me too long to get to the smut. I refuse to describe settings and geography, so all my plots seem a bit floating and vague.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I avoid using languages I don't speak which includes Tolkien's languages. I am too afraid to make mistakes or to sound cringe to people who know better than me. As for RL languages...a word maybe, but a whole sentence (again) might feel contrived...IDK everyone does as they want, but I am not feeling it for myself.

19. First fandom you wrote for? Hamilton (and yes, those stories are orphaned and can never be traced back to me) Otherwise, the Hobbit LOL

20. Favourite fic you’ve written? Monkey-business, because I really liked writing that fic. It's a kitschy Hallmark Christmas story featuring Ori (not interesting, I know). But that's my personal fave lol...

Hmmm, let's tag @maglor-my-beloved, @lathalea, @scyllas-revenge, @laurfilijames, @middleearthpixie, @littlesweetdressmaker, @legolasbadass, @urwendii, @cilil, @the-red-butterfly, @fishing4stars, and @elentarial to get a good mix of people :D

[inchidentally]

JSYK I'm with you on containment breaches. Tends to go hand in hand with girlfriend harassment too. Countdown to Rebecca's account going private in 3..2..1

I can't remember which post I left tags on about that but yeah the "corporatization" of any rpf always spells trouble. it's why I don't rb any of it from the main F1/Netflix/sports accounts. LN4 media doing it is I assume with Lando's OK but even there it's a bit... uncomfortable.

rest behind a cut so nothing goes into tags

(this is probably way more than you were asking for anon but apparently these text posts is what I do now)

look. carlando was my main ship when I got into F1 fandom and is going to stay in my top 3 forever. but I keep the lines drawn nice and sharp. I l-o-v-e shipping them but I'm also aware that they're literally big brother/little brother and that all of the physicality and closeness is identical to Charles with Arthur. that and the fact that Carlos is sahuuuuuper straight and folks just confuse euro dude behavior with friends for gayness. Carlos was the one who pushed for Lando to grow up and get a gf and Carlos himself was practically engaged for 6 or 7 years. his own sister gave Isa her wedding bouquet ffs. he's so confirmed heterosexual that he can't be alone for more than 2 seconds between girlfriends lol

but between McLaren content on social media getting absolutely bombarded with irrelevant carlando comments and the hate toward Rebecca ramping up every single damn day (I'd say it's a solid 80/20 mostly of rpf hate toward her and the remaining being plain old jealousy) idk it's not feeling good rn. and it's mostly on IG and a bit on YT (I don't use twitter) but yikes at how much Lando content has something about 'he's thinking about Carlos' or 'omg just like Carlos' or carlando when it's nothing to do with carlando. Lando works so incredibly hard at the two to three careers he's running consecutively and it feels pretty damn insulting to reduce him to one F1 friend - however close they are. Carlos has nothing to do with Quadrant or Lando's YT work or his own sponsorship work. that's Lando doing all of that.

that and when the Today show interviewer pushed the "bromance" angle you could see Lando get kind of fed up (which they tried to edit out) and steer the question back around to actual racing. tbh he even seemed a little icked by DTS making such a big deal about carlando and he and Max joked it off.

even through my Singapore euphoria I could tell Carlos and Lando were walking media ppl back from going too literal with the DRS and saying no, it was advantageous for Carlos and yes, Lando absolutely would've overtaken him if he could have gotten the win for himself. I've actually really respected Lando reminding people that they're not in these rarefied positions to do anything other than try to win or as close to it as possible. they're not making millions and living the high life just to throw race results in the air and play favorites with their friends !!??

and this whole "competition" between carlando and dando/charlos/landoscar/whatever is absolutely not making it's way onto my blog lol. I do know that a lot of people in tumblr are just joking when they do that and I think the 'angst' posts are funny but wow IG and YT are not playing around. they're making videos trying to like disprove other Lando ships and it's ??? (funniest one is the Vegas opening ceremony thing and fighting over who Lando was waving to, Daniel or Carlos) these dudes are absolutely not having real life in-fighting about which of their friends they like "better" or who is their bestest friend. (especially when Lando in the same interview as above stated that F1 drivers - Carlos included - are not his actual private life friends so uh oh how does that play into the competition?? it's so absurd)

I'm not a wives and girlfriends obsessive but I absolutely I am not here for them receiving anything negative from F1 fans unless they themselves have instances truly, openly as problematic as the drivers often are. even then I'm wary bc the sexism motive and double standards run so deep in fandom against women. Rebecca has done nothing but exist as Carlos' gf and it's just a sea of "there's something fake about her" and "body experts" claiming the relationship is fake and that she's "obviously a beard" while he's actually with Lando. that last part craaaaacks me tf up because these men travel to Middle Eastern countries where homosexuality has the death penalty or prison.......... they are NOT gonna be out here referring to themselves publicly as a bromance and their ship name if they're trying to keep this huge gay secret while they tour maximum home o'fobic countries???

I have a few extra thoughts about why folks have especially latched onto being proprietary about which men Lando is closest to or "should be with" when it comes to rpf but I feel like we all kinda know why. I'm over here writing pages of text about him which is lame in it's own way - but even I acknowledge that his greatest attraction as a person is himself and not his relationships to other people. it's why he's the sun that a lot of this content orbits around.

I'm also genuinely glad that Lily's existence and Oscar's quiet but firm reminders of her arrived alongside the landoscar fandom happening. I don't personally see any hate toward her and no one's in denial. even the rare fic that has him and Lily fictionally break up is fully fair to her. I've also posted a lot about how I genuinely love real life Lando and Oscar interaction even more than the rpf (and I love the rpf lol) and honestly the feeling seems shared with a lot of us from what I've seen. so especially if Lily uses her engineering degree to start working in F1 it's good to know that she won't have to deal with crazed conspiracy theories about her being an F1 industry plant to keep Oscar's dick out of Lando's hole or whatever.

for anyone who's read this far or skipped to the end tldr I'm always going to ship carlando and landoscar (and even dando) as well as charlos. but as a carlando shipper I really hope the commodification of it dies down before it truly starts to piss off Lando or Carlos. or Carlos has to put his foot down like Lando did and say hey, stop harassing my girlfriend it's weird.

shit's just been feeling very 'forced' lately to the point of imploding and I'm uncomfy :/

[silenthillmutual]

ok now I kinda wanna hear your hot takes about the patho fandom 👀

putting beneath a cut bc idk how long this is

my hot takes about patho fandom generally fall into one of two catergories: 1. stop taking literally all of your characterization and information from the hbomb video and 2. stop making artemy and daniil generic tall-short blonde-brunette seme-uke top-bottom cardboard cutouts in fic. and they kind of bleed into each other if i'm being honest.

i tend to see two kinds of characterizations of artemy and daniil that strip all nuance and three-dimensionality that made them interesting to me in the first place, and then i think fandom tends to respond to the fanonization/flanderization by doing the exact opposite. both in fic and in analysis. so i'll see a lot of posts and fic and whatnot that treat daniil like this incompetent idiot who cannot even administer flu shots properly and never has a nice thing to say or think to or about anyone, and this gets coupled with a huge amount of fic and posts where artemy is this sweet gentle herbivore (someone even said he would be a vegan which was just baffling) who is incapable of ever doing anything wrong to anyone in his life. less often i'll see woobified daniil with all his actions excused and explained away to make him into someone who is never intenionally a dick, paired with borderline abusive artemy who is a literal serial killer for fun. and also fuck anyone and everyone else in this game because no one seems to give a shit about any other character. (which isn't to say that no one's writing or interested in writing about it; it's rarer, but people in the fandom also just do not give a shit about interacting with anything else. rarepairs get little and gen fic gets nothing.)

i know everyone gets bent out of shape about 'gatekeeping' things like fandom but like i'll be honest, if you openly and proudly proclaim that you've never interacted with the narrative of pathologic on any level then i kinda don't give a shit what you have to say about it. in analysis or fic. and why should i? who would read a book review written by someone whose sole interaction with the material was a nostalgia critic review of the film adaptation? because that's kind of what it feels like.

also the way the fandom interacts with the stamatin twins is just really really odd to me. people will woobify and infantilize peter worse than i see them doing to anybody else (although murky is a runner up like ffs she is autistic not a toddler stop drawing and treating her like she's 4) and make andrey out to be a saturday morning cartoon villain. and as an andrey stamatin fan i'm kind of tired of the endless "anything and everything potentially negative about peter is andrey and andrey alone".

[tariah23]

Uh….

There’s sm stsg fan content of Gojo being a rapist bro 😭… whaddahell… Gojo, stand behind me. Getou, I will save you. These ppl don’t deserve them.

One of the reasons why stsg makes me gag 90% of the time unless I think about it myself or if it’s from certain artists who don’t fandomize their mental image of Getou into a sensitive and weak housewife (Getou receives the Kakyoin treatment unfortunately. If you’re familiar with jjba fandom shit, especially from back when SDC was specifically airing then… yeah…) or Gojo into a super abuser who intimidates ppl on purpose and uses his strength to inflict pain on others because he knows that know one would physically be able to do anything to stop him. Not to mention the groomer HC (have seen ppl literally call Gojo a groomer in a giddy manner like “Gojo is on his way to Molest [redacted] 😍!!! My favorite groomer!) stuff via his students, especially Yuuji and Megumi because yaoi, right. Like… he loves kids, he’d never harm a child. He’s talked about how he wants to protect children on multiple occasions like man. Gojo has never come off as a pervert or anything like that before in canon. He wore Nobara’s skirt that one time (and ooc, especially if you aren’t familiar with jjk or his character at all, it would seem weird as hell that he’d even do something like that but he’s literally just silly as hell and acts like a big kid when it comes to his students. He’s always in a mood to joke around and tease them. And idk if some ppl would think that he was a pervert for that one hilarious bonus scene from S1 where he was pretending like he was Megumi’s piano teacher or whatever tf like it was whatever, it was silly!!!)

It’s wild. I think ppl like the idea that he’s this oh so powerful man and it gets them excited about what he’d probably do to let off some steam from being overstimulated with power and so on. Like where does he release his pent up stress. It’s pretty gross tbh. Why HC him as an abuser… (the fact that abuser Gojo HC’s are so popular. The curse of being a well loved and mega popular character from a mega popular shounen I guess 🗿. Not to mention, being the face of said shounen. Eek.)

It’s about the same in ff from what I’ve seen (just merely scrolling by the tags bro. I barely read ff but lord…)

[the1975attheirverybest]

the 1975fu is idk fucking with my participation in fandom. am i wrong or does each new post feel equally ridiculing as well as affirming? like the last one about parasocial relationships is like what are you trying to say? are there good sides and bad sides? are you poking fun? who or what is this about? is it about fans who try to be at barricade every show? i am so super conflicted and confused but i mean... it makes me want to alienate from the band to somehow step away from this perception. sorry, dont want to shit on your day but ive been feeling ofd about it since the new posts - 🎧 (emoji for recognition)

Okay I have A LOTTTTT of thoughts about this stupid account. I’ve actually reached out to Brad Troemel about it.

I’m working on a long-form response to it. I hesitate to call it an “essay” cuz it’s not like it’s gonna be published anywhere official. But yeah it’s just taking a little bit of research into some fan studies things.

BUT in the meantime, let me say this: fuck that shit. Your experience being a fan is perfectly valid the way that it is. You don’t need to distance yourself from the band or adjust or alter how you interact with it or with the guys or anything. This account is a misguided attempt at being a “cultural critic” which completely misunderstands how fandoms work because it’s not part of any fandom. Moreover, not all fandoms are the same. An assumption that this weak and unfunny account seems to take for granted. Let people enjoy things. It’s 2023 ffs. Instead of making fans feel bad, try therapy.

[snowdeong]

My opinion on what just happened (because I'm black and African and while antisemitism and anti-blackness aren't the same, they way that these issues show up in kpop are similar and I've wanted to rant about them for a while)

Also this is so messy but I'm one of those people that needs to write out my thoughts in longform to understand how I feel about something so if anyone actually reads this hwghwg sorry.

First things first, at the end of the day Chae's probs not an anti-semite. Ofc that's not for me to say like I said I'm black and ugandan, not Jewish, but simplifying the whole thing to just Chae as an individual won't solve the real problem at hand here. THAT BEING SAID wearing that shirt and posting a pic on her ig with a fuck tonne of followers from different places in the world is insensitive and anti-semetic plain and simple whether she's aware of that or not. She's not just posting this to certain fans who'd know all the context lmao. And again context or not, that symbol is harmful all the context in the world won't erase that. We as fans should be educating her not trying to hide that it happened wtf? The problem is bigger than just chae or the group or even the kpop industry yes but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't raise awareness about wtf happened and talk about it.

Idk why kpop stans boil serious issues down to "protecting their faves" or attacking an idol they dislike. This is serious and fucking hurtful in a real way wtf??? I really think our concern should be for all the Jewish folk and other affected groups randomly seeing someone they might stan wearing such a hateful symbol casually and then also having to see people defend her like??? Liking someone or something should also mean having the capability to criticise that person or thing. You can stan someone and call them out on bullshit.

Also something I think a lot of koop stans don't seem to understand is that all these companies don't actually give af about us beyond our money. So being a global group doesn't actually mean the company will do the work to teach their idols that being a global group means that there's some shit you should be aware of. And I say teach the idols not because I don't expect them to do individual work, but because we've seen how this cycle goes lmao. An idol says or wears something offensive, the fandom gets mad, they rush an apology and the loop continues. Companies that actually gave af about us would see this shit happening to other companies and go "okay here's shit you should and should not know" to their idols. But they don't and they won't ever probably and the sooner we learn that the sooner we'll stop being so "surprised" when this shit happens.

Now about Chae as an individual. I'm def dissapointed but again I'm also not surprised. And I don't mean that in a "oh obvs she's bigoted" way like Chae is such a loving person and I really admire and love her I wouldn't stan the group if I thought they were shitty people. If she said she said that she didn't know what that meant I'd really believe her because I know that if she did she's not the sort that'd be out here flaunting hate on her instagram of all things. I might be deluded from stanning and all but I genuinely believe that.

Pop culture is racist, pop culture is anti-semetic, pop culture is queerphobic, pop culture is bigoted. The way that a Ugandan would probably be confised if you asked them what that symbol is, I'm sure is the same way it is in SK because the western content that's transferred over is extremely whitewashed shit (that's the context I mentioned earlier). When I say whitewashed I don't mean just white people I mean that the majority of it is white approved tm, it fits within the white patriarchal cishetnormative framework that's been established and pepetuated for years and years and years. That's not to say we shouldn't do our individual research ofc like especially if you're going to be an idol ffs, we should always be mindful. But again, if all the stuff readily available to you is bigoted then you're not going to look at a shirt with a certain symbol on it and immediately get that wearing that is fucked up.

(We also need to take into account the fact that that symbol means something totally different within different Asian religions. Not an excuse for her, just a fact that a lot of people unfortunately don't know cause they don't know anything about Buddhism and the like. I personally only learnt this last year while reading Bleach)

I don't say any of this as a defense I just think that we as minorities need to understand that the world is designed in a way where our trauma is constantly downplayed and erased. And that fucking sucks but that's how oppression keeps perpetuating itself. As a black kpop stan I've had to see so much bullshit lmao so I know it's hard to accept that there's a possibility that none of this will change. I'm all for assuming the best of people but it's also important to keep this in mind about everyone.

I really hope Jewish and other affected folks heal from this and recieve a genuine apology for the love of fuck. I do believe that Chae's not a hateful person truly but I hope that this teaches her, the girls and all other artists that it doesn't stop at just not being hateful. We have to put in work to be mindful, that's the best way to be loving to the people around you. I also hope jyp as a company takes this as an initiative to actually teach their idols shit about world issues if they're gonna be promoted globaly (but tbh I'm not holding my breath on this lmao like companies ain't shit)