#... this fanfiction was made possible by viewers like you

[whaliiwatching]

the flower (reprise)

[the-crooked-library]

Saltburn was a magnificent film with stunning visuals and a breathtaking score, but I’ve already seen some pearl-clutching about it - so here’s the thing. The only way it could possibly seem as shocking as some people make it out to be is if:

- the viewer has never been on AO3

- the same viewer never read any classic or modern gothic fiction (Wuthering Heights, Carmilla, Phantom of the Opera, Interview With The Vampire)

- the viewer also has never seen Hannibal, Jennifer’s Body, Crimson Peak, Yellowjackets, or really any visual media that draws on gothic and horror traditions

- same unfortunate viewer has never interacted with any kink dynamics in fiction or irl

- AND has never interacted with any vampire media including Twilight, and they’ve never read any fanfiction for vampire media on any site

- this viewer also has never wanted to fuck a single villain ever in their life

- alternatively, the viewer made the mistake of watching it with their family, in which case yeah fair

It really isn’t as fucked up as people try to make it look guys please it is GORGEOUS and dark and passionate and poetic I’m begging you to go see it, like check the warnings but Please don’t let people scare you off

[autistichalsin]

The other day, I saw an anti- I can't remember whether it was here or on Twitter- making a point about fiction being able to do harm. In their post, they mentioned old propaganda media that would stir up, for example, racism, religious discrimination, etc.

And I feel like this actually perfectly encapsulates the sort of intellectual dishonesty (albeit, very possibly accidental instead of malicious) to come from the anti side. Namely, the argument relies on you not understanding what made propaganda propaganda to begin with. Propaganda was not ever called fiction. It was presented, wrongly, as fact. That is the core of what makes propaganda such, and what makes it so damaging. Propaganda is manipulation of people and emotions to a political end, using false or misleading information. If they called it fiction, they would not be able to accomplish this manipulation.

On the other hand, conflating a fanfic on AO3 with decades-long misinformation campaigns run by governmental agencies is its own form of anti-fiction propaganda.

There are cases where it is possible for fiction to mislead. The CSI effect is notorious. However, CSI was, at one point, the most-watched show in the world, with over 33 million weekly viewers at its highest. That is an absurd amount of people; that is roughly equal to the population of Venezuela. But what's notable about the CSI effect is that it was mostly limited to jurors expecting more precision from investigation than police were capable of. This is actually a good thing, because it meant fewer innocent people being wrongfully convicted (ACAB, etc), and further, the effects were easily mitigated by delivering expert testimony to explain the limitations of the technology. Which... is what any lawyer worth their salt would do.

A fanfiction on AO3 with 10000 views, about a "problematic" ship like... IDK Reylo? (What's the current Most Hated Ship?), that is hidden so only AO3-registered users can view it, and with readers required to click a disclaimer that they are over the age of 18, is not going to become embedded in the collective public consciousness enough to cause a CSI effect. It is intellectually dishonest to claim that a single fanfiction has as much power as a show watched by nearly as many people as the population of an entire country, or as a decades-long governmental disinformation campaign. Fanfiction simply does not have the power to exert that kind of change.

[akusaimonth]

AkuSaiMonth 2023: July 8 - August 7

And here we go again! Welcome to AkuSaiMonth, a month of celebrating AkuSai & LeaIsa!

AkuSaiMonth 2023 Bingo

Just like last year, we will be playing bingo again! The prompts on the bingo cards are randomized! Which means, every participant will have their prompts in 1 of 30 different arrangements!

Where can I get the Bingo Card?

To claim your personal AkuSaiMonth Bingo card,

click >> HERE! <<

Using the link on the same device and browser should (in theory) always lead to the same card. However, I would strongly recommend also saving the card by either using the print button on top or by making a screenshot.

How does it work?

The goal is to get one “Bingo!” during the month (Jul 7 – Aug 8) by filling 5 prompts in a row, column or diagonal. 

This could mean one post every week, for example:

Post 1: Saturday, July 8 (IsaLea Day)

Post 2: Saturday, July 15

Post 3: Saturday, July 22

Post 4: Sunday, July 29

Post 5: Monday, August 7 (AkuSai Day) -> Bingo! <3

You are of course allowed to do less than five prompts (one is perfectly fine! <3) or even fill out the entire bingo card (I wish I had your time management skills)!

Rules:

General Rules

• The event is open to everybody, there is no official list of participants and you don't have to register for it.

• You can start and end your participation at any time!

• You can fill as many prompts as you want at whatever schedule works for you!

• The goal is to achieve one bingo, but this is meant as motivation only; it’s not an obligation or restriction!

• Everybody who reaches one bingo "wins".

• There is no prize for "winning" and there is no punishment for "not winning"

Posting Rules

• The event is held on instagram & tumblr, but you can post wherever you want.

• On tumblr tag your works as #AkuSaiMonth and #ASM23

• On instagram tag your works as #AkuSaiMonth and #AkuSaiMonth23

• Mention @akusaimonth in your works both on tumblr and instagram so I can’t miss it!

• Don't hesitate to send me your works per dm if I somehow do end up missing them anyway!

• On tumblr all posts will be reblogged to the @akusaimonth tumblr

• On instagram I will collect all posts in the stories. It is also possible to invite @akusaimonth as a collaborator to showcase and collect your works on the @akusaimonth instagram page as well. All rights to your works remain with you of course!

• If you post to other sites (e.g. AO3, twitter, wattpad, youtube, ...) you can send me the link in a DM on either tumblr or instagram so I can add that link to the instagram stories and tumblr (assuming you didn't post it there yourself). Please let me know where you would like me to put the link and whether it contains NSFW content or not.

• I do retain the right to not share content I find in bad taste and I will ask you to remove it from the #AkuSaiMonth tags as well. I don't expect any problems, but just to be save.

Content Rules

• All forms of content are allowed, including but not limited to fanfiction, fanart, edits, videos, music, …

• The “/” in some prompts means you can use either or multiple of the terms

• All prompts are open for interpretation, there’s no right or wrong way to use any of them!

• You can stay within the framework of canon or create AUs or crossovers or whatever you want, everything is great!

• All content has to be made by you! Stolen fan work is NOT allowed.

• AI generated work is strongly discouraged

• If you want to include fan content made by other people in your edit/video/… you have to get permission first and add credit to the original creator/s!

• Official material can be used with no restrictions

NSFW Rules

• NSFW is allowed!

• Consuming NSFW content happens at the viewers own discretion.

Tumblr:

• Please post visual NSFW under a “Read More” or with the appropriate community label

• NSFW content will be reblogged with an #nsfw tag

Instagram:

• Keep the Instagram NSFW rules in mind (cropping, censoring, ...)

• Please add a NSFW warning in the first two slides of any visual NSFW works.

Disclaimer

• AkuSaiMonth is a fan event only and stands in no relation to any copyright holders of Kingdom Hearts or any of its content or characters.

• The rights to all works remain with their creators and the copyright holders.

• AkuSaiMonth is not responsible for any content created during the event.

FAQ

Who is behind the event?

Original creator and host from 2014 – 2019 is the wonderful @misomilk! This year’s host is @herzblutrose

I lost my card!

If you remember your Bingo Card ID, then that’s absolutely no problem. Let me know and I’ll give you a permalink to the card you pulled!

What does prompt (…) mean?

It means whatever you want it to mean! Have fun with it!

Other questions?

Send me an ask or a DM!

Plain text prompts in alphabetical order:

• Arguments Turned Love Confessions

• AU where nothing goes wrong

• Crossover

• Distortion / Static

• Early Mornings / Late Evenings

• Fake Dating AU

• Far Away / Together

• Farewells / New Beginnings

• Forehead Kisses / Scar Kisses

• Found Family

• FREE SPACE

• Getting Stuck on a World / No Way to RTC

• I Didn't Forget You

• I didn't know where else to go.

• Jealousy

• Magic

• Memories / Snapshot

• Mobsters / Crime AU

• My soul will find yours. (Jude Deveraux)

• Stars

• Summer Snow

• Sun (or Fire) & Moon / Red & Blue

• Tear Marks

• Was it worth it?

• You Have Changed

[clonehigh-takes]

sorry gotta send another fandom take

after reading a post on someone’s blog, i truly realized how insane tophabe is. first of all, everyone used to hate abe’s guts in 2020 for the whole cleo and joan thing back in season 1, which was justified. now the 2023 fandom has snapped around and loves abe, which i can see since season 2 is less focused on abe’s selfishness and denseness and instead decides to torture him so the viewers feel bad. this really makes me wonder how many people hated abe during season 1 and now love him in season 2. personally i didnt really hate season 1 abe (i still think the joan and cleo thing was shitty) but i do like abe more after season 2. i think its mostly because of the abe torture and partly because since all the hate is off abe, its finally cool to make and say positive stuff about him

moving onto topher, im not surprised hes popular. even i like him quite a bit (not as much as a lot of other characters though). chronically online short white boy who claims to be straight, his only friend is a boy who he manipulates and blackmails while claiming he has a crush on a girl, said crush having no evidence to prove it unless you squint, and canonically goes to therapy. yeah hes basically van gogh 2.0 where everyone projects onto him and gives him angst that just barely feels in line with the show. i dont hate topher but god damn the fandom really loves him. i made a whole post saying why i think hes so popular but long story short it was most likely because he had gained a fanbase while the show was dropping episodes weekly, and by the time episode 8 came along mostly everyone was too far deep to drop out of liking topher. part of me feels like this may have also happened to abe in season 1 if everyone didnt binge it instead of watching it weekly lmao

and then there’s tophabe itself. tons of fanart and fanfiction, definitely the most popular ship in the fandom atm, even more so than the canon lesbian couple from what ive seen. ive read a bit of tophabe fanfiction since its basically all thats on ao3 at this time, and i find it so interesting that a lot of it have the events of chapter 8 happen. those events have been the most despicable things topher has done, possibly the worst of anyone in the whole show. and many people tend to brush it off, use it as a way to show topher’s supposed crush on abe. what topher did is messed up, and people barely even acknowledge it. whats unfortunate is i can see why, even i dont normally think about how awful topher actually is whenever i think about him. the show itself basically brushed it off in episode 10, something i feel like they definitely shouldnt have done. the oversaturation of tophabe in the fandom also definitely helped wave off topher’s actions

sorry this kinda turned into a rant about topher, so i wont go any further with that. but i find it extremely interesting to see how the fandom has changed from 2020. gone from hating abe for being an indecisive teenager to using topher’s blackmailing attempt as a plot device in their tophabe fanfiction. absolutely astonishing.

okay what in the fucking bible did you just shit into my inbox

[semiweirdshipper]

I just wanted to get this off my chest. I think the viewers of Weirdo's Slasher/Bad Guy Series deserve to hear it.

I've been writing a lot of fanfiction on my secondary account for a different fandom these past few months. And I've made a lot of new friends, one of which said something that really hit me.

She said that when she wanted to avoid writing/updating specific stories, she had the tendency to jump fandoms. And I felt that because it's what I'VE been doing. I don't think it's my slasher stories in particular that I've been trying to avoid writing, but rather the 'violence'.

All of my slasher stories were hitting that point in the plot where they needed an insane amount of violence and angst to be written, and I think I was suffocating in it. It was depressing me and making me feel trapped, I guess. So I ran off and built a secondary account to hide in.

One thing about this break I've had that I think has helped me is the people I got to talk to and the friends I made. I'm not gonna lie, they're complete nut-cases and a bit crazy, but nonetheless they're amazing people, and they helped me open up in ways I never knew possible. For once I felt like I didn't have to struggle to be strong or even an efficient writer. I just needed to be myself.

I was too afraid to be myself around you guys. I was being too hard on myself, hiding my weaknesses, trying to bite through the discomfort of what I wrote, putting on a wise facade so that everyone thought I was just some kind of inspirational saint. But I'm not a saint. I'm a 21 year old dummy who has a traumatic life and writes fanfiction to vent off steam.

I felt like I had to be the strongest so I forgot to be weak and it built on me until it finally collapsed. I was trying to help so many people that I forgot to help myself. And I'm sorry for that. I'm sorry for this whole sad, stupid post. I just needed to get it off my chest.

Thankfully all the simple, fluffy fanfiction I've been writing lately has mended me a bit. You would never believe what fandom it is either. I myself can't believe it, but that doesn't matter here.

I'm trying to get back on track. I'm sorry it's a slow pace. Luckily the newest chapters for my biggest slasher stories don't involve a lot of violence. I'm gonna sort through them, work my way back up, and hopefully begin a steady update routine. My apologies if my writing appears different in any way, I'm trying to work on it.

If you're curious about what I plan to update, here's a list-

-When a Survivor Bullies

-Battle of The Imaginary Minds

-My Own Exit Gate

-Miracle of The Moonlight

-Reverse The Dancing Knights

-Fate of Broken Roads.

Yep, I plan to give them all updates. I can't promise when and I can't promise how well, but I am going to try. I'm sorry again for everything, especially including this ridiculous post. I just... Really needed to get it off my chest.

Please remember that I love you all ❤️

[miraculousfanworks]

Brief Writing Prompts FAQ!

As you all may have noticed, Writing Prompts have been posted with regularity over the past week, with a new format. In light of this, here's an FAQ (or, uh, a Would-be FAQ) about the writing prompts we post here on the Miraculous Fanworks tumblr!

Where do the prompts come from? The prompts come from out associated Discord Server, where we have a designated channel for people in our community to submit prompts for fanfiction. That's why each prompt has a "Prompt by:" section, indicating which of our server members was responsible for it. Not all prompts posted there get posted on the tumblr page, though. There's just too many. So instead we have a system where if a prompt has to get a certain amount of likes before it's put into the queue.

I made a prompt that's gotten enough likes on the server, why has it not been posted yet? Patience, grasshopper. Even with our restrictions on what can and cannot be posted, we still have a LOT of prompts in our backlog. We're slowly but surely making our way through. To ensure viewers of the tumblr page get a constant stream of content in the mean time, we put all the prompts in a queue set to update a couple times a day. Your prompt will make it onto the page eventually!

I made a prompt that was published on the page, but you didn't credit me correctly. What do I do? Simply reach out to us, and we will do our best to fix the mistake! We credit people mostly based on the usernames and/or nicknames they use on Discord (hence the lack of tumblr or ao3 profile links), so if you'd rather be credited differently then please tell us! You get to be properly credited, and we ensure that our records are accurate. Everyone wins!

Can I write a fanfiction (or otherwise create fan content) based off these prompts? Yes, absolutely, that is what they are here for. Just make sure to give some credit to the prompt's creator! (And if you feel like giving us a shout-out too, well, we certainly won't mind!)

Are prompts posted to the tumblr exactly the way they were posted in the discord server? We try to maintain as much of the original formatting as possible when copying prompts over, unfortunately in some cases that's just not possible. The most common example of this is when people incorporate Discord formatting or emojis into the prompt. It's common practice for people to use our custom character emojis for script-format prompts, and since we obviously can't use those on the tumblr such posts are edited to maintain the intention of the original as much as possible. If a prompt is preceded by a comment from its a creator saying it's a reference to something else on the server, than that comment will usually be removed or edited since tumblr users can't make use of them. Also, if there's a spelling or punctuation error that's particularly jarring then we'll fix it, but usually we try to leave the prompts as they are. If a prompt by you gets published with edits you do not approve of, then by all means reach out to us and we will fix it.

Who's posting all of these? Who's responsible for the prompt titles, and the tags? That would be me. Hi, I'm Maspers, one of the Miraculous Fanworks mods running the tumblr. Posting writing prompts (with editing if necessary) to the queue is my job. I'm also responsible for the majority of the titles given to the prompts, since usually the prompt creator doesn't make one themselves. If the title WAS created by the prompt's creator, it'll be in quotes (" ") and I'll make note of it in the tags. And yes, the tags are also my doing, since obviously those aren't present on Discord.

Why do I see a lot of the same names responsible for creating prompts? Isn't your community pretty big? It is pretty big. But as stated previously, the prompts posted here have to reach a certain amount of likes on the server first, and some people just have a knack for making good prompts! This goes for the stuff featured in the prompts too, some concepts and characters are just more popular. If you want to see even more prompts by even more people about an even bigger variety of Miraculous-related stuff, then come join our server and check out our writing prompts channel there!

I have a question about the writing prompts that isn't answered here. How do I get it answered? Reach out to us with your question, and we will do our best to answer it for you! The Miraculous Fanworks moderating team takes its job very seriously, and we want to ensure that everyone in our community feels like they can come to us for assistance. So don't hesitate to reach out!

Who thought putting Maspers in charge of managing the prompts was a good idea? He's insane. Look I'm just as surprised as you are, really.

Thanks so much for reading this brief FAQ about the Writing Prompts on this tumblr! We hope you continue to enjoy them! Have a nice day!

[happyfeetfuryroad]

You know what's weird?

The last minutes of Good Omens 2 episode 6 should have made me feel sad and frustrated, like the ending of season 1 of OFMD did a year ago. And yet, something is different this time.

Now, I would love to be able to tell that I remember the euphoria of being surprised to see Edward and Stede's kiss, but unfortunately I started watching the show after having all the important plot points spoiled, so while I was still absolutely delighted by it, I wasn't caught off guard like many other people were.

With Good Omens 2, I was only mildly spoiled, and I didn't know any details on what was going to happen in the final episode. The possibility of a kiss was kinda hanging out in the back of my mind, but I wasn't convinced that it would actually happen - and I knew that the ending was going to be angsty, so I was keeping my expectations relatively low.

But. Goddamn. When it actually happened, it was fucking electrifying.

It's weird because, I was never that deep into the ineffable husbands fandom to begin with. I'd read the book and watched season 1 and enjoyed them both, and it was pretty obvious to me that Aziraphale and Crowley were queer (Neil Gaiman never denied this, so it was an unusually drama-free situation too). I never really thought their relationship would escalate any further, because they were already self-evidently together and I didn't think they needed to "prove" it (and I still stand by this btw, I think in a healthy media ecosystem there is a place for subtle queerness that doesn't require any grand romantic gestures to prove its existence). So I kinda left it at that.

Then I started watching season 2, and I started feeling a specific kind of déjà vu. They (and by "they" I mean mostly Crowley) were doing the whole "side character calls them a couple and they adamantly deny it" act that was a signature of 2010s era queerbaiting (Sherlock being a particularly egregious example). However, I knew for a fact that Neil Gaiman wasn't queerbaiting - again, he had never denied the fact that Good Omens is, among other things, a love story, and there hadn't been a single no homo joke that you would expect from a queerbaiting writer - so I just kind of waved it off as a throwaway joke and forgot about it.

And then episode 6 came about. And Crowley began to tear up as he tried to let Aziraphale know how he felt about him.

Oh.

And then he and Aziraphale started arguing with each other about their future, and the tension started to build.

Oh.

And then Crowley said "you idiot. We could have been us."

OH-

And then the music swelled into an epic dramatic choir as Crowley angrily stepped closWAY TOO CLOSE AND-

And I... can't describe the rush of pure dopamine and adrenaline that I felt watching this scene unfold. It was unreal. My heart was pounding out of my goddamn chest. It felt fake. It had to be fake. This is the kind of shit that only ever happens in fanfiction. It was too good to be true.

Then the rest of the finale happened and it was awful but that's besides the point

And even though in a way it was the same feeling of "holy shit, they actually made the main characters kiss" I had with Edward and Stede, this was also very different.

See, Edward and Stede kissed in the same season they got introduced in, and there was no original material that the show was based on (I'm not counting the real life pirates because OFMD is a very loose interpretation anyway). You couldn't really know what you were getting into, so the protagonists completely skipped the queercoded part and jumped straight into "literal protagonists of a romcom" territory.

Aziraphale and Crowley, on the other hand, were already existing characters, in a book and a TV show where their relationship was already established as "queer enough for anyone who pays attention, but subtle enough for a casual viewer to be able to ignore it". Their kiss in season 2 wasn't there to confirm that they love each other, but to make it clear that there is passion in their love. There's that raw, visceral attraction that queer people are so often discouraged from displaying in public because it's seen as uniquely dirty or inappropriate (or predatory, when it's two people perceived as male).

And it's happening late enough into the story that a lot viewers who may be like "I'm fine with gays so long as it's not in my face" will be forced to digest it - but also early enough into the story that we have an opportunity to see how Crowley and Aziraphale's love story unfolds now that the chips are truly down. Which is why, personally, I was happy to see season two end on a cliffhanger.

So yeah. I think I'll go watch that scene for the twentieth time today.

[thestormthatrises]

People that theorize that Armand is either mind controlling Louis or blackmailing him or trapping him with lies or *whatever*, to justify him calling Armand the "love of his life" are giving this god forsaken show too much credit.

Let's get one thing straight:

Louis wasn't looking tense. He was looking *smug*.

Smug, as if to prove Daniel wrong. That he doesn't, and never had, love(d) Lestat.

I know y'all like to seek out deeper meaning in media. That's how The Johnlock Conspiracy and Destiel Endgame and the other thousand other super deep takes that were just so... Tumblr happen. But like all of these, the answer is quite simple: the show is badly written. It is a chimera of a tale, stuck between what the producers wanted to tell (a story about Storyville and possibly very bloody vampires) and the VCs and it failed in telling either of those stories. It is Wattpad fanfiction at it's worse.

Do not expect any brilliant twist from these writers. They don't care for the source material. They don't care about book fans. They don't even care for the viewers (as it was shown by that sham of an episode filled with domestic and sexual violence and no trigger warnings; the nonsense storytelling; the butchered timeline; and how they weaponized you so you could defend their bad, lazy writing).

Lestat is the most cliche and disgusting monsterous version of himself, doing things the character in the books would never do.

Claudia is not the tortured, cruel and broken creature that was as conniving as she was helpless; and that swayed between killing Louis or Lestat and only chose to keep Louis alive because he was easier to control (she loved and hated Louis and Lestat equally).

Louis never once loved Lestat. Never hurt him in turn because their relationship was equal parts fucked. Louis never cared. He only called him "love" to kill him.

Armand is now the love of Louis' life.

This mediocrity will always be this show's reality and legacy.

Cheers.

PS: before another person feels compelled to make the stunning argument of "hurr durr book fan bad", this show marketed itself in being faithful to spirit of the books and the characters. They made a point to repeat this ad nauseam because they needed the books fans to watch this shit.

(I know this is gonna shock you, but the book fans outnumber the show fans by like, a lot XD)

And after all that. After all those promises and reassurances, this mediocre sludge is what we got.

Book fans get to be upset about being used and lied to.

[magz]

Umineko fans of magz followers:

is this good way magz help explain / nudge person that not understand part yet, while on EP7, so of try not outright say answer ?

Am ask because am scramblies n lose track thought / intent what was try say, despite edit for "make sense"

(spoiler imply under readmore)

these are magz message, without put in reply of what other person say (but can guess):

you know how like, "without love it cannot be seen" get repeat a lot in umi

while the "how dunnit" was what those debate n chess games were about they try to expose n nudge the contradiction,

n pattern that keep happening in each game so that can start ask the "why dunnit" n the "why dunnit",

closely intertwined to why beatrice is so keen on tell this story technically she do not feel remembered / seen though... kind of in a literal way

uhh

yeah, battler is kyrie's biological son. but that kind of show moreso how red truths work - "not being asumu's son" was a red herring, because the person beatrice wants to tell this story to is "battler", but "battler" personally defines himself by "being asumu's son" and the sorts of lies/truths he built up over time n mistakes he made from assume this

his assumption n motivations that happened from this, lead to his sin

if that make sense

as in, the way this red truth work - show somewhat how finnicky n overly specific these wording are. no. am even gonna make red truth about this: (red)battler is not kinzo. (/red)

however, kinzo and battler have intentional literary parallels

knox rules only apply thru a mystery interpretation - thus if are treat story as mystery, then would need either follow Knox rules or find reasons why an explanation not violate Knox Rules

yes, are kind of right there yes [context: beatrice love]

also - to find out the How dunnit, then would use Knox rules but it would not necessarily help with why dunnit which is what Willard h. Wright find important, and is try protect / show dignity of

if you stretch the definition - yes, its about lion. but no.

lion is a rare 1 in astronomical chance, of what would be the case if several sins had not had the chance to happen. so they can be used to narrow down what the sins were.

in a sense. could see as being fanfiction, by someone that know the truth, but is half obscure it.

am so sadge

good question

train of thought. lost. one moment

Lion is an answer to one of major "question" the story ask the viewer. n these worlds being combined is for sake of seeing this story being told, from a different angle n to ask different question than was ask in original meta-games

Original meta games were back when viewer / audience n battler were see story as Just "how dunnit".

The reason these story are being shown to Battler (n to viewer), is - can be seen as, because he was the one to deny a type of "answer".

While Battler was also deny the possibility that anyone he knew or should acknowledge, was responsible for what happen in any way. Making him go further away from any resolve wrt "what happened those days".

So basically, his belief "there is no witch, but there has to be a different culprit on island" - deny any possibility that could have happen both on fantastical and mystery level.

While, if was some mysterious additional person, would also deny any connection he had with "culprit", what happened, his sin, etc. - Which why they try make him choose what angle he go with, and initially corner him into realize there no way could be extra person.

But to tackle this "hypocrisy" / "cowardice" when it come to resolve for truth. A truth that involve him, his action, the suffering of those around him, n his acknowledgement of it.

They do so by exploring the worlds made from the forgeries / message in bottles that contradict each other, that were float to shore after Rokkenjima incident n had inspire Witch Hunt conspiracy n true crime speculation fans.

So we are seeing each message. as own world. And those message exist to both scramble the truth, but also say "please keep this story alive". N with these puzzle piece magz have say, am hope that question "why Beatrice want keep story alive" and showing it, and "why Lion exist", and "what the point of these world" - get easier understand Also like. With the way "cat box" work, because of not have any external confirmation afterward from outside the "cat box" (rokkenjima incident - time and place wise) of what actually happen - the original action of making these different message bottle stories that recount differently, mean that they were all outcomes "that could have happen".

which. even phrase it like that is hint. cuz.

"who wrote those bottle messages and for what. when could they have written the messages and what do that imply about their motive (why dunnit) and intent",

"what sort question lion an answer to",

and "what thing consistent between these different worlds (excluding EP7)",

"what make EP7 world with lion in it special",

and "what sort of person would make all this elaborate setup n story, or have to follow these kinds of rules, just to say what they want say" are another angle - since "what the point" would be nebulous

[lily-orchard]

One thing that I do think is going to be intresting is that Gen Z is now in Early Adulthood, meaning that the generation that grew up with ASDF and the mess that most of the 2010s was (both in shows and *waves hands in the general direction*) will soon be making their own shows in the next few years.

Funnily enough it was documented that most kids didn't like a lot of these cartoons, and were the viewers that dropped ship the soonest. A lot of kids just didn't watch Steven Universe because it just wasn't on most of the time. It spent a long time on hiatus and attention drifts. And even among adult audiences, it's reputation is the definition of a mixed bag.

The environment that created the 90's kid art school brat making their anime-inspired magnum opus just doesn't really exist for Gen Z. Revolutionary Girl Utena is no longer "mandatory watching" for gay kids and teenagers. It was only mandatory watching for teenagers back in the 90's on the basis that there was just nothing else to choose from so the attitude of most people is

Gen Z on the other hand grew up in a time where there's tons of LGBT rep both good and bad, so they can be more choosy and don't have decades of precedent demanding that they don't. They don't have that ingrained obligation to hold up crap that just didn't work on the false dichotomy of "bad rep or no rep."

Gen Z gets to choose between The Loud House, the Casagrandes, Craig of the Creek, the Owl House, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, Danger and Eggs, and that's just counting the good ones.

Even beyond just LGBT rep, the Adventure Fantasy genre isn't as universally popular as weebs make it look. Teen Titans Go has stayed on the air for almost ten years much to the chagrin of adult cartoon fandom, the fact that Adventure Fantasy shows tend to only last 2-3 seasons while their slice of life counterparts have been quietly going on for 5+ past their notice is nothing to sneeze at either.

It's important to remember that Youtube metrics don't count for much. Some shows you can talk about endlessly if you need to, but that doesn't necessarily translate into popularity or a lasting impression. These days, Korra has been largely forgotten save for their last second handholding in the finale, and nobody really talks about anything else about that show. It didn't leave a lasting impression.

In truth, we won't really know what made a lasting impression on the kids of the 2010's. The 2000's had tons and tons of cartoons released that lasted for enough episodes to reach syndication and then faded, do you think they knew what would be remembered fondly? Do you think the creators of Teamo Supremo cared if they'd be forgotten? Do you think the creators of Kim Possible knew they had a certified mega-hit? Do you think the creators of Delilah and Julius thought anyone would remember them? Probably not.

All I'm saying is that while the 2010's saw the eradication of unique and interesting premises and pushed everything into two genres, a lot of those shows are somebody's favourite. And a lot of stuff in 2010 was very good, made by people who knew what they were doing.

How many poorly written weeb trash cartoons were made thanks to the brainrot of people who read way too much porno fanfiction as a teenager? Like... three?

[biggiedraws]

i am SO TIRED of time travel stories that end by erasing everything that happened. "and then they went back in time and did it all over again, and made it so none of the bad stuff ever happened! look at this happy epilogue!" RAHHHH it feels so cheap!! even worse is that the time travel itself is usually a REALLY good moment. the desire to fix your mistakes conflicting with the fear of losing all the connections you made along the way and the experiences you shared..... choosing to grieve the life that never was for the sake of the greater good. its a great heroic sacrifice-type moment and i eat that shit up. but then they play the happy little epilogue where the world is saved and no one died and im like what the fuck??? none of the movie even happened!!! we didnt get to see any of the events that led to this happy ending! and if they DONT show the happy ending, thats somehow worse. its open ended in the LAZIEST way. like youre literally leaving the ENTIRE STORY to imagination!

now, there are ways to do this well. its great as a setup for a sequel, and even BETTER as a character backstory (the tragedy of the regressor, if you will). even having it at the beginning of the story, like in the anime erased, can be really really good. as long as the ending follows from what we actually see! dont just skip over everything that actually happened! cause then the ending isnt EARNED.

sure, the happy ending wouldnt be possible without the events of the story, but we're meant to assume that everything was a breeze after that? i dont care about the happy ending of a story that amounts to "i used my knowledge of the future to defeat all the bad guys, and it was so easy and inconsequential that it all happened offscreen". SHOW ME the story that really happened!! show me the unique struggles of someone who knows an alternate future trying to avoid making the same mistakes!! show me a character who is forced to make DIFFERENT sacrifices, who questions if they made the right choice going back in time, who overthinks every decision, SOMETHING. dont force the viewer to fill in the ENTIRE STORY leading up to the happy ending. thats what fanfiction is for

[torchickentacos]

Pokeani characters at the beach

AKA the one where I realize these are just turning into fanfiction outlines. With your help it can be longer and more ridiculous. This program was made possible by viewers like you

Gary and Misty: ganging up on Ash and Goh to splash them. Ash joins in. Goh is in cold, wet, salty misery. Also, Goh would be the kind of person to wear a wetsuit and be flustered by the amount of skin being shown by, well, everyone but him because most people wear swimsuits and not wetsuits. No shame in knowing your personal modesty boundaries!!!

Lana: swimming with a sharpedo fin on her back and grabbing people’s ankles. 

Bonnie: picking up every single sea creature she finds in the tide pools and bringing them to Clemont, who would really rather not be handed a squirming wimpod. 

Dawn, Sophocles, and Cilan: sandcastle contest! Dawn’s is very nicely decorated with seashells, Cilan is (somehow) making an architectural marvel out of sand, and Sophocles is doing his best to make something that isn’t a blob of wet sand (and failing). 

Harley: replaced everyone’s sunscreen with regular lotion. Considered using mayonnaise but decided that would be too detectable. Currently having a wonderful time evil laughing watching everyone burn. (Some people just want to watch the world their friends burn) Other than that, he’s just lounging on a beach chair sipping a martini. 

Solidad: would be stopping Harley but she kind of wants to see what happens. Has spent enough time around Harley to bring her own sunscreen. 

May: Volunteered a little too quickly to put sunscreen (cough, plain lotion) on Drew’s soon-to-be-burned back.

Goh: OH MY GOD WHAT JUST TOUCHED MY FOOT

Lana: just touched Goh’s foot. 

Drew: asleep on a towel under an umbrella. As we saw in Spontaneous Combusken, he takes relaxation very seriously.

Kiawe: I am the sand guardian, Guardian of the sand! (god I hope people still like vines, don’t make me feel old at 20) 

May: frisbee with Blaziken, but she is... not great at it and accidentally throws it too far. 

Drew: Woken up by a stray frisbee hitting him. Deja vu?

Dawn: just realized Cilan’s sandcastle is actually a Palossand that he somehow convinced to help him. What Cilan doesn’t know is Palossand helped because it just wants to steal his soul. Dawn, wisely, read about local pokemon and yells at Cilan for ‘befriending’ a soul-stealing pile of sand. Palossand did not like being called out. Dawn and Cilan are now running away in an effort to keep their souls. 

Sophocles: was ignored by Palossand because Sophocles was already so dejected by his pathetic mound of wet sand. 

Iris: going full Azula and beating the crap out of some people in beach volleyball. 

Trip: has ventured out way beyond the commercial beach area and is exploring the coast taking photos.

Paul: sort of half-following him because he wanted to get away from the noise but also so if Trips slips on wet rocks, he won’t die alone and be swept out to sea. 

[sg-kree]

The Importance of Proper Tagging in FanFiction

trig·ger warn·ing

noun: trigger warning; plural noun: trigger warnings

a statement at the start of a piece of writing, video, etc., alerting the reader or viewer to the fact that it contains potentially distressing material (often used to introduce a description of such content).

"there probably should be a trigger warning for people dealing with grief"

-Google definition

con·tent warn·ing

Noun: a stated warning that the content of the immediately following text, video, etc., may upset or offend some people:

That article needs a content warning at the beginning for a brief discussion of violence.

–Urban Dictionary by user grebe

—----------

The topic of trigger warnings (TW) and content warnings (CW) can be a polarizing one in writing circles. To tag or not to tag, is often the question. It is advisable, however, to veer toward the side of caution, and while omitting TWs is an error that many fanfiction authors have made, it is an error that simply should not continue. 

But what, exactly, is a TW tag or a CW tag?  Are trigger warnings and content warnings the same? 

Trigger warnings and content warnings have graced our media consumption since 1968 in the form of the movie rating system.  This system has been revised over the years, added to TV shows and even includes descriptive reasons for the assigned rating. The rating system was adapted for video games in the early 1990s.  These ratings were designed to give people a means to control their own media consumption or that of their children.  Outside of online fanfiction, the literary industry has been slower to adopt rating systems. Often relying on word of mouth, publishing genres, websites like Goodreads, blogs or published reviews to warn people about content, it is only recently that some traditionally published books have begun to include content warnings.

Fanfiction, on the other hand, has carried versions of content warnings from its early days of internet self-publishing.  I vividly remember discovering fanfiction for the first time. I was excited to have new content for my favorite fandoms.  And there at the top of several pieces of fiction were content warnings letting me know of the death of canon characters or sexual situations that were never present in original works (slash warnings I’m looking at you).

I’ve only written about content warnings up until this point.  Content warnings are warnings about material that might offend a person or cause them to be upset.  For a movie example, think about rated R for language and violence.  When you see that content warning you know there may be a lot of swearing, fighting and possibly weapons.  Viewing (or reading) those things may upset a person due to their age or personality.  A trigger warning is a bit more specific and is used when extreme situations may occur such as torture, rape, or suicide.  They are used to denote situations that may cause a person to relive their own trauma. (Amanda)

You don’t write tags because something is canon or not canon in a show, book, video game, etc. You write tags to warm people of the content contained in your chosen media. Suicide, rape, physical violence are ones that we tag often. But writing about war, PTSD-related episodes, child abuse, even medical procedures could trigger a person. (Joy) 

I read something that had a topic that did send me into a panic. It wasn’t tagged. My breathing increased, I had water welling up in my eyes, and my heart was jumping out of my chest. If I had known what the topic was beforehand, I could have chosen not to read it, or prepared myself knowing the topic was coming. (Joy) 

Someone can be triggered by references to a disease, like cancer, especially if they’ve lost a spouse, family member, or someone close. Coming unawares across a character dealing with cancer, or their family dealing with their disease or death can throw someone into a depression, or even worse. A Tag might read: Cancer or Cancer Death. It gives the reader heads up so they can either not read, or be prepared. (Ginger)

But is tagging really THAT important?

“Eh, this probably doesn’t need a trigger warning,” I told myself all the time. I mean, it seemed silly really. How could someone be triggered by reading something written on a page? If you didn’t like it, then stop reading. Simple as that, I thought, until I actually found myself being the one triggered by something seemingly innocuous. (Jessi)

It was a scene about a child being injured. I’d read the same type of scene many times before with no issues, heck I’d written a similar scene. Except this time, reading it struck a nerve so deeply that I went into an immediate panic attack. My eyesight pinholed, my breathing sped up, my heart rate went through the roof. I was bombarded with images of this happening to MY child. My reaction might have been because I was a new mom. It might have been due to the post-partum depression I was dealing with. Or it might have just been a random triggering event. I’ll never know, but the truth is–the reason doesn’t matter. It was a trigger. Simple as that. (Jessi)

It’s important to note that tagging your content isn’t just to warn people about reading your stories.  It can also draw people in.  How many people search for certain character relationships, enjoy reading a scary story, or are drawn to stories that have sexual situations in them?  The point of tagging is to give the reader just enough information that they can make an informed decision about their media consumption.  It's like a nutrition label.  You look at it so that you can make an informed decision about whether consuming that food is appropriate for your body. (Amanda)

Oh and one other thought… think of trigger warning tags like… well… slash or… fandom tags. You wouldn’t put up a story about Lord of the Rings when you usually write Star Wars and expect people to just read it because you wrote it right? I mean they might anyway but if I’m expecting Obi Wan and I get Gandolf, I’m going to have a WTF moment and go looking for where you warned me hey this isn’t going to be about space wizards this time. (Niki)

So how do you know when to tag?

From that moment I experienced my first panic attack brought on by a story, I never again questioned the need for trigger warnings. I never wanted anyone to experience what I had, especially not when I might be able to prevent it. I also decided to follow two excellent pieces of advice. First, tag and tag often. Second, if you have to pause to think if something might need tagged, it probably does. (Jessi)

Still having trouble wrapping your head around the importance of tagging potential trigger warnings? Read on for one person’s personal experiences. 

I’m probably going to come at this from a very different angle here. For reference, I have SEVERAL triggers that intertwine due to happening one on top of each other. It’s what professionals call CPTSD. The C stands for cumulative. Most of the events aren’t individually enough to have caused PTSD on their own… but when you lose six people in the space of three years, some of whom you loved more than your own parents as a kid, it has a profound effect on how you react to people writing about death. 

A while back someone in my writing group discussed the story she was working on at length with me before letting me read. Because she knew death by cancer is a huge trigger for me. For some of us, the pain of death just doesn’t go away. We learn to live with it but it never leaves us. To this day, I have an aunt that I can’t think about without crying. Not even my most happy memories of her. She’s literally the reason I have my current job and she passed when I was 12. She shaped my life THAT much.

So when people warn of triggers, they aren’t being sensitive. My husband who has his own CPTSD from surviving an abusive parent, then an abusive spouse, has the joy of navigating trigger episodes like opening my mail because it’s an invasion of privacy which seems silly except the parent that did that used opening my mail to berate me about my purchases and goddess forbid I get a letter from anyone and that person mention ANYTHING about something I had said even slightly negative about her no matter how mild as I did not present her as the pinnacle of parental perfection she’d chosen to believe herself to be and therefore physically beat into me at many opportunities. I get to enjoy knowing what things his ex-spouse did that trigger him, etc. That’s his story to tell.

So Cancer, child abuse, those are triggers. Everyone else laughs watching Joan Crawford freaking out over wire hangers but I have flash backs because my delightful mother threw me out of bed the same way one night over something just as trivial and behaved the same way as Joan did and I had either blocked it out or it simply had blended with all the other beatings but that didn’t change the fact that I ended up curled up in a ball hyperventilating and keening in despair for an hour after seeing that because it was almost exactly what had happened to me. But because everyone who had never been beaten like that thought it was comical I didn’t know it was going to be a trauma inducing event. Thankfully I watched that horrible movie alone as I knew the basics of the story and therefore expected child abuse. Just not… that. 

I took care of my dad through six months of failed cancer treatments in a time when most people survive cancer. I cannot express to you enough how devastating it was to fail. How it spiraled me into almost a year of clinical depression after his funeral to the point that I was unable to work or go to school or even function properly. Sometimes I can read about cancer now… but not on… say… September 11th or December 9th. Specifically. For everyone else, September 11th is obviously terrible, but for me specifically, it’s my dad’s cancer diagnosis that we got that morning and THEN the Twin Towers fell. My tower had already fallen. I got up the next morning and begged my dad to tell me yesterday had all been a terrible nightmare. That moment is etched in my mind. 

Onward to heart attacks. Last year I almost lost my husband to what they call the ‘widowmaker’ heart attack. He had a 90% blockage in the main artery of his heart. Had he not gone into the hospital for his strange back pain… he’d be gone right now. My new boss does NOT understand why I don’t like to travel for work without him any more. Does not understand how precious that time I have with him is. How anxiety inducing it would be for me to know I’m however many hours away and if something terrible happens to that man and I’m not there that once again I won’t get the chance to say goodbye. Just like when I was a kid and they didn’t let me in to see my aunt. 

People don’t want trigger warnings because they are being weak or wimps or whatever you’ve told yourself. They want trigger warnings so they can decided for themself today if they can read this story about cancer or a dying pet or abuse or a character they see as wholesome and good going off the rails into an abusive piece of crap with or without explanation because perhaps they NEED that character to stay wholesome and good because they already survived an abuser and they hang their heart on the reality that even someone with obvious and severe PTSD can still be a moral and ethical person no matter how emotionally unsound they are inside. 

Because some part of them… needs to relate to that.

And if you turn that person into garbage… you are telling that reader… oh deep down.. You who relates to this broken man or woman… you’re garbage too. 

We need trigger warnings most of all because we tend to read stories about people we relate to on some level. I have people I look up to and admire on so many levels and I read about characters I can see myself in. I nope out if you get OOC without warning simply because well… I know who this person is.

That person is me. I am them. I see through their eyes. I have lived their life. I too am a broken emotionally shattered mess. And I still keep getting up and fighting day to day just like they do. 

So if you intend to do bad things to the person whose eyes I see through… be so kind as to warn me first. In case I can’t have flashbacks today because I have to spend time with people who don’t wrap their heads around trauma at some point later in the day.

Chat info: 

Amanda: Inquiry: In college I used to read a lot more fanfiction in particular like Star Wars fanfiction. Listen to somewhat of a long-standing tradition that fanfiction on the internet has had content warnings? Back in the good old days of the infancy of the internet when we first started posting our fanfiction there's tons of people who decided that hey they wanted to write slash. And that was always a content warning that was attached to your fanfiction So adding content warnings for anything else should not be a big deal because it's a tradition in the world of fanfiction.

So they think no one reads the beginning information? I understand SG is a militaristic based fandom but plenty of that didn't include torture. So if I saw a content warning for torture I can make an informed decision. It's like reading a nutrition label.

SOURCES:

https://www.filmratings.com/History

[feralgodmothers]

This isn’t a fully-formed thought yet, but I was thinking about the whole anti-Rory vs. pro-Rory discourse in the Gilmore Girls fandom, and honestly - I think the reason why there are so many antis, is because we as viewers tend to hold main characters to crazy high standards.

It’s like people want a main character that is completely relatable to them as an individual AT ALL TIMES. If the main character deviates too far from what the viewer would personally do, they hate them.  They want to watch a show and be able to put on the main character like a skinsuit for the duration of the runtime like it’s some RPG where they don’t have to do anything, because the show just intuitively knows what they want to see at any given moment.   But no!  That’s not enough!  Because people ALSO want someone they can look up to and aspire to be. Someone cooler, funnier, smoother, more altruistic, etc. - because that’s what people would like to think they could be if they just had the chance. People want 100% self-centered indulgence in their tv shows, and by extension - from the main characters at the helm of those shows. They want someone flawed and relatable, but not too flawed (because everything’s a moral hierarchy now, and anyone that might be perceived as less perfect than them is scum). I honestly believe that to a lot of people nowadays, tv shows aren’t accepted as just stories anymore. They’re taken as virtual reality.  And that’s what’s sucking the life out of fiction, because to consume media in such a self-centered way closes you off from what it’s really supposed to be about - imagination, the exploration of the human condition, empathy.

Not to say that you should never criticize a main character.  I do it all the time. There’s plenty of moments when Rory isn’t my favorite character in the world. But that’s the thing - she’s not trying out to be your favorite character in the world. She is a made up person in a fictional world who is just living her life. Can I relate to her sometimes? Yeah. Are there times when I don’t really relate to her at all? Also yeah. And that’s probably true for a lot of us.  It’s okay if you love Rory with your whole heart, and it’s okay if you hate Rory with every fiber of your being.  Same goes for any other main character. But if you feel hatred more often, it’s quite possible that a large portion of your reasoning stems from the previously mentioned standard of self. 

Despite possible appearances, I’m not trying to lecture anyone here.  It’s just a thought I had and something I’m asking for anyone reading to consider.  Whatever show you’re watching, analyze whether any anger you may be feeling towards the main character has to do with the criteria I mentioned above. If so, try to relax, see the character as a separate entity from yourself, and let go of the desire to control the narrative (unless you’re writing fanfiction).  It’s a much more enjoyable state of mind to be in, and it’s really the intended way to consume fictional media in general. 

[sunfoxfic]

You have no idea how nice it is to see someone share my same frustration about Multiplication. Alya is in a unique position that no other character can quite relate too. She’s the only other hero outside of Marinette and Adrien to have their miraculous permanently. She had Trixx with her constantly, and it was shown several times throughout season four how they had a solid friendship similar to Marinette and Tikki’s/Adrien and Plagg’s. And when Strike Back occurred, Alya made the choice to resign Trixx in order to protect him and Marinette—and despite this attempt, she ultimately lost him to Monarch anyway. Does she feel guilty about resigning him? Does she devote time to finding Monarch because she feels she owes it to Trixx to do all she can?

It’s hard to imagine Alya losing her kwami and just not caring about it? And yet that’s what it looks to be in canon. And even if she’s just putting faith in Marinette’s abilities to get them back or something, I would have thought she’d still miss Trixx regardless. Idk, I was just really hoping we’d get a look into Alya’s head during these circumstances. I’m still hoping for a possible scene later in the season, maybe similar to the djwifi scene in Puppeteer 2.0?

Honestly, I wasn't anticipating much out of getting to see Alya's side of the story. Other than like 4 episodes, there hasn't been much time devoted to putting the viewers in Alya's shoes, and I don't anticipate that that's the story ML is trying to tell so I'm not gonna waste my time being upset when it isn't.

Mostly what's upsetting to me is that they didn't leave the room for Alya to spend a few hours grieving. No, after she lost her kwami and everything with Monarch went down, she immediately went to Marinette's side and started playing the Black Best Friend, there to comfort her and make everything better. There's a distinct difference, imo, between "Alya is not shown grieving for Trixx" and "Alya does not grieve for Trixx," and imo, Multiplication firmly puts itself in the latter category.

And they could have done so much even without changing anything about the overall course of the plot if they'd just acknowledged that Alya lost Trixx. If, while she was comforting Marinette, she'd said, "I can't pretend to know how you feel losing all the kwamis, but I lost Trixx, so I know the only thing we can do is try to get them back," that would have been loads better.

But no. The focus immediately shifted to Marinette and then to Marinette's relationship to Adrien, and Alya was happy to let that happen. And it just... I don't usually care to complain about the fundamental story that ML is telling. I can write fanfiction to tell a different story, and I'm happy to do that, and I know that fundamentally, ML is telling a story about bug girl and cat boy. But with consideration of the fact that Alya is always at least halfway into the Black Best Friend stereotype (with exception of Rocketear, I'd say), it just puts a nasty taste in my mouth to see her feelings so disregarded in favor of Marinette and Adrien's romance.