#AT LEAST GEN 5 HAS AN ACTIVE FANDOM

[jaredthebc]

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Hi everyone I might be getting a non-Pokemon hyperfixation for once wow

(This is meant to be Romeo externally vs internally btw lol)

[the-amber-raven]

I would never delete my fics

I got linked to a reddit thread today where people were being advised to download my mortifying ordeals/Buddie fics, since apparently "now that I'm a BuckTommy shipper", I might be "petty" and delete all my Buddie fics.

So. I'll move past the complicated feelings it gives me to have people hoarding my fics while actively shitting on me as a person (and seemingly not even telling me that they enjoyed my work, although in fairness that could just be a difference in usernames.) That's the nature of fanfic, fandom, and putting things out there on the internet and I accept that.

But I do want to reassure people that I would never delete my fics. I still have the cringy-as-fuck Harry Potter fics I wrote in high school up; believe me those would be first on the chopping block if I was inclined to delete my work. And all of my 9-1-1 fics hold a special place in my heart, but none more than the mortifying ordeals series, which consumed basically a full year of my life and reminded me why I love writing. Hell, I got engaged while writing the final chapters of I once was lost. That fic is indelibly tied to my life now.

And look... I don't think it really matters, nor should I have to explain and justify what I do and don't enjoy about a show or fandom, but this whole experience has upset me more than it probably should have and I can't help but want to get it off my chest anyway.

My favourite thing about this show is the found family feels. I either love or am at least intrigued by every single character that has appeared. You'll notice that family is the central theme of every story I write, whether the story is Gen, Buddie, or BuckTommy.

Because yes, the idea of BuckTommy and how that plays into the family themes of the show has intrigued me and captured my muse.

I've also said before that I didn't think Season 7 left Buddie in a great place in terms of romantic relationship potential - in my opinion, the ghost of Shannon would be an absolutely massive barrier to them getting together right now. The post season 7 Buddie fics have also heavily featured character bashing, which isn't something I generally enjoy seeing, and infidelity, which I really don't like seeing romanticised especially since I've had a partner cheat on me.

So yes, I've distanced myself from the post-S7 Buddie fandom because I just don't enjoy the pervasive negativity I've seen and the way that cheating and violence is suddenly celebrated by a significant subset of the fandom.

That does not mean I've given up on Buddie altogether. I still have a whole list of pre-S7 buddie fics in my to-be-read list that I've been making my way through and 2 out of my 5 WIPs are Buddie fics (both in the mortifying ordeals 'verse, just to make it even clearer that I'm not at all interested in deleting that series.)

But two of those 5 are BuckTommy, because as I said above, their relationship was intriguing to me and it captured my muse.

I don't think those opinions make me some kind of betrayer, or that they inherently make me a "petty" person but I guess I just didn't realise that not-exclusively-shipping-Buddie was such a High Crime in this fandom.

[olderthannetfic]

I recently read a previous ask that was talking about the uneven ratio between m/m ships and f/f ships...and it got me thinking. I feel like a lot of the people complaining about the lower number of f/f ships just aren't looking in the right fandoms. For instance, in the fandoms for Madoka Magica, Doki Doki Literature Club, Sailor Moon, She-ra, and Legend of Korra, I'm pretty sure the vast majority of ships are f/f (or at least in the case of Sailor Moon and Legend of Korra, a pretty even split between m/f and f/f ships). In fact, the fandom that I'm writing a fic for right now has like 95% f/f fics with the other 5% being the occasional m/f or gen fic.

So, I don't know. I guess what I'm trying to say is that if the fandom you're a part of is a shounen anime or something that features prominent male characters, then it's only natural that there are going to be more m/m ships in that fandom, and that it would be good to look at more female-centered media if you're trying to find f/f ship content.

--

Some of it does come from fans who strongly prefer live action with big budgets and are sad they can't find that many active fandoms compared to those for, say, animation. But a lot of it comes from people who should stop worrying what the Destiel shippers are doing and go find their fellow f/f fans.

[devondespresso]

Writers 20 questions tag game!!

tagged by the beloved @eriquin 💕💗💖 i haven't been able to participate in a lot of tag games lately (as evident by this being at least a week late ahnsgdsynkd)(edit: its been way more than a week) but i still really really appreciate the tags!!

divider by @/saradika-graphics

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

7 !! I think i still need to put one up there but i haven't yet cause i wanna edit the ending a tad

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

10,746

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Stranger Thingssssss, and i think its fair to say the Steve Harrington fandom specifically gdnzngxngxgn

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Sweet and Spicy (the one steddie drabble tdnydyndny), My Sunshine, I Can Only Hope Now, Never Again, and Mr. Crayola Henderson

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes absolutely!! its usually a lot of heart emojis and keyboard smashes mixed in with my actual response zgnzgbzgnzng

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

uhhh itd probably have to be Never Again still, i usually like to lean positive with my endings, that whole love-being-alive thing, so whenever i don't its usually because the focus is a different strong emotion that'd conflict with blatant positivity.

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

oo okay also hard to decide for the same reason, I'd say the ending that feels happiest is probably from either I Can Only Hope Now (the Claudia prompt) or Now That We're Alive because both go from sad to happy and hopeful for the future. My Sunshine ends on a good note but its less "aw yippee!" and more "AAAAAAAAAAAA". I like my drabbles (under 400 words) to end pretty fluffy so far, and stuff like Mr. Crayola Henderson stays a pretty consistent light and fun so I don't think the happy end hits as hard.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

no, thank god, not yet anyway

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

nopeeee tho Never Again has an E and M version it's not exactly fun enough to be smut i don't think

10. Do you write crossovers?

also nope

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that im aware?? I'd be pretty pissed if it was but also like. is it doing well? is it popular? 👀

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

not that im aware but i give full permission if anyone wants to

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

nope, most ive done is bounce ideas or beta, but I'd be down to try it!

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

i don't know if i have one?? just in general for stranger things i enjoy steve ships a lot. big fan of Vi and Caitlyn from Arcane but im not really in fandom for that show cause what would i change?? im very much a gen fic enjoyer and if i had to list all my fav platonic dynamics... we'd be here a while xgnzngzgn

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

oh irony my cruelest adversary. a few months ago i was happy and ignorant in my haven of only one active wip. Now there's a small handful, and unless i get possesed with the same emotions i was venting in it, i fear the short Robin-centric letter style thing won't be finished soon. its decent so far but there would be a good bit of editing trying to actually articulate the feeling in a realistic way plus fitting it to Robin's first-person writing style. I don't intend to drop it but lately it just calls to me the least, but that could change

16. What are your writing strengths?

i think its a strange mix of intuition and a technical understanding of writing that works really well for the way i think. Its very broad and basically has no rules, just a understanding of how my favorite stories work, how most writing rules are really trends that tend to work better and then you can dig deeper behind a lot of them to see the *why* behind it. that plus trusting the nagging feeling that something's off makes editing my most productive stage, i can vibe check the area and then start digging dgnxnhxngxng

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

god this changes every time i revisit this draft xumxhmxmxhm this time its probably character introspection. i love writing like a movie and having character action or dialogue or setting or symbols communicate things, but putting down what the characters thinking with similar tact is soooo harddddddd and especially in angst or emotion moments, i want my readers caught in the same thought process as the pov character, i want it to feel so real that even if they never experienced the situation the characters in and even if they know logically the characters wrong, they understand. and that unfortunately involves bypassing their stance as an outside perspective on the matter, which is uhhhhh very very hard xhmznhxhnxhm

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

Depends on the intent, i think it works best when the author speaks the language themselves, and especially with stuff like asl it helps clarify the grammatic differences. I think if its a language the pov character isn't supposed to understand then "said something in x language" works better for universal immersion.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Stranger things babeyyyyyy, i actually started writing the Steve Henderson au first, tho the first drafts of chapters are very different from current ones

20. Favorite fic you've written?

MY SUNSHINE!!!!!!! i am so open about my favouritism with that one, its the most contemplative and atmospheric and emotional and its short enough that i was spending time on every word, every line to make sure it felt right and contributed to the picture i wanted. they say its more achievable (compared to long fiction) to make a perfect short story and that's what My Sunshine feels like to me, the perfect little taste of themes I'm enjoying most in writing rn, specifically with the Steve Henderson au (my second favourite fic xgnxngxgn)

i forget how many ppl im supposed to tag so im gonna do 20, no pressure ofc!! @marvel-ous-m @acasualcrossfade @pearynice @imfinereallyy @tinytalkingtina

@klausinamarink @puppy-steve @queenie-ofthe-void @eyesofshinigami @stellarspecter

@dreamwatch @lightoftheseraph @withacapitalp @findafight @hbyrde36

@vegasol @carolperkinsexgirlfriend @lingeringmirth @momotonescreaming @sourw0lfs

[beingfacetious]

so this year I ~challenged myself to post a gifset once a week, because making gifsets is something I enjoy very much and can always improve in but literally cannot do for money or lbr meaningful validation and I am historically bad at doing things that fit those categories!

I ended up posting 54 gifsets in 2023, one a week plus a few extras lol. A few stats behind the cut just for fun!

Most popular overall: "I'm so glad I met you" with 1,738 as of this morning. Objectively correct. The nicest-looking gifs I maybe made all year and an all-time scene. Made it my pinned post recently.

Least popular overall: A Community set of Jeff making a Dane Cook joke, coming in at a grand total of 39 notes. This was actually a remake of a set I made YEARS ago because I think it's a great joke lmao. A set doomed imo by the youths on my lawn not knowing who Dane Cook is and also tbf Jeff as the only featured study group character.

Honorable mention to the Rangers World Series set I made, but I'm actually floored and delighted that it got 43 notes. There are dozens of us!!

Gifsets made per fandom:

Community: 14 (!)

Doctor Who: 10

Elementary, Mythic Quest, Ted Lasso: 5

Succession: 3

Last of Us, Leverage, Severance, Shrinking: 2

Always Sunny, The Bear, MLB (haha), Scrubs: 1

I'm a little insulted for Elementary tbh! Otherwise this pretty much tracks.

By average number of notes and not counting the one-offs:

Least popular fandom: Mythic Quest with an average of 130 notes across 5 posts. I don't care. I'll win you all over.

Most popular fandom: Leverage with an average of 837 notes across 2 posts, both of which were Hardison/Parker, so...

Most popular fandom not inflated by Hardison/Parker: Doctor Who by a mile with an average of 775 notes per post. Feels good. Feels right. We're back baybee

Interesting split of 18 shippy sets and 36 non-shippy. Including "outliers," shippy sets averaged 621 notes compared to an average of 332 for gen sets. Throwing out the two lowest note-getting posts from each set, the averages jump to 680 and 350. Also not a surprise; fandom loves a ship lol.

Number of sets (avg. notes) per ship, not including one-offs:

Ted/Rebecca: 2 (333) (womp womp)

Jeff/Britta: 3 (267)

Hardison/Parker: 2 (836)

Ten/Rose: 2 (619)

Nine/Rose: 6 (890)

Doctor/Rose: 8 (823)

It shows that I trailed off my RTD1 rewatch mid-s2 lol. (Which seems blasphemous!! but it was never the right time to handle the satan pit episodes, you get it) Doctor/Rose supremacy obviously but also justice for Jeff/Britta, the greatest relationship ever known

Some one-off fandom set thoughts:

The Dr. Cox set was a mostly-for-me fave. The Always Sunny set happened because I thought the Aaron Paul/Bryan Cranston episode was one of the funniest the show has had in years; that episode was also what finally pushed me into watching Breaking Bad this year, which I mostly really enjoyed lol.

The set I made from the finale of The Bear s2 ended up the sixth most popular set of the year with 1k+ notes and it's probably the set I most notice on my activity page every week. It does look really nice but also, I see you, Syd/Richie fandom, and I hear your siren song. Maybe in 2024...

So OK! Hey! I set a meaningless fun goal and accomplished it!! I'm not setting another specific gif goal for 2024 so will probably be a lot more sporadic. Or not! Who knows!

OK pals, thanks for indulging me, happy new year <3

[azems-familiar]

20 questions for fic writers

i was tagged by @voidcat-senket thank you!!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

119!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

alright, this is excluding an approximately 470k-word series i orphaned years ago - 2,453,282

3. What fandoms do you write for?

it depends where the hyperfixation takes me, but it's usually going to be mostly star wars; era varies. right now, i'm actively posting for the Jedi: series games, but i also write for the kotor/swtor eras, and i did tcw fic back in the day. other fandoms i've written/posted for are doctor who, mdzs, and i poke at writing things for mass effect and dragon age from time to time, though i've never posted any of those. i've got a couple other fandoms i've dipped into for the purpose of fusions.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

oh boy. all of these are from like, 2019-2020 at LATEST, there's one on here that's from late 2017, but i wrote for a bigger fandom then and none of my good recent stuff will ever take over these spots because it's for smaller fandoms. alas. please do not take any of these as representative of my current fanon opinions XD

do you love me - this one is never leaving that spot. codywan arranged marriage fic from 2019 that is still very popular. i don't like a lot of the fanon tropes and things we used in that fic these days, but it's one of the longest finished fics i have and i can admit the plot was pretty well done. has 3394 kudos. (that's more than i remember.)

tell the world (i'm coming home) - the one where Vader defects during the events of Twilight of the Apprentice. mostly gen. has 2139 kudos

something inside this heart has died (you're in ruins) - codywan fic where Cody is in Kadavo. has the same issues as do you love me, but definitely has some of the best prose that i'd written at the time in it. has 1752 kudos

follow me (and i will bring you home) - i am not linking this one. a reylo fic i wrote back when tlj first dropped, very old and not among my better works whatsoever, but got popular at the time for being a big ship and posting shortly after a new movie. has 1497 kudos

i just wanna keep calling your name (until you come back home) - post-Order 66 codywan dreamsharing fic that i wrote for an exchange back in 2020. it has 1072 kudos

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

i used to, and i try to get to them on my smaller fics/fandoms these days, but back when i was writing big tcw fics i got in the habit of not doing it because there were so many it was hard to keep up with, so it's a mixed bag of if i do or not these days. but i see all of them, and they all bring me joy. well, most of them. the ones that don't aren't worth mentioning

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

mmmmm that's a hard one. i tend to prefer angst with a happy ending, or at least a hopeful ending, but back in, idk, 2017? i wrote a rogue one fic based off the song whiskey lullaby that was.... pretty grim, lol.

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

lord i have no idea. probably the series i mentioned above that was orphaned? it had a sickeningly sweet ending involving a wedding and a kid for the main pairing, and happy endings for basically every other ship involved.

8. Do you get hate on fic?

sometimes. not often, thankfully, and usually not on AO3 itself, but back in my ffn days i got some, i've gotten a few assholes about stuff before also, and people will sometimes come at me here, but yknow, whatever. i'm used to it by now and i mostly just laugh it off and either ignore it or you get a snarky response

9. Do you write smut?

.....rarely? sometimes? i used to have a hard no policy on it, but i was also raised evangelical with a biiiig taboo on that kind of shit, so i've been slowly working through that and trying to get outside my comfort zone on it for years. i've written a couple smutty things that aren't on AO3, one that is, and i'll be involved in writing smut outtakes for one of my currently-posting series, but i don't tend to enjoy straight up pwp so it'll usually have a character reason for it, or plot. usually.

10. Do you write crossovers?

i do not write crossovers. i do deeply enjoy writing fusions (taking the characters from one franchise and dumping them into the world/plot of the other, but they've always been there). i have a clone wars hunger games au that is still my little baby and a kotor/swtor hp au that is my OTHER baby because it has involved years of work to make the hp universe....functional and not shitty and whatnot.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not to my knowledge, though i've seen a few fics that made me squint suspiciously at them. it's definitely possible that something's been put on wattpad or something without me being made aware, but i don't actively look.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes! the very lovely @anayaghmeya has translated all of my mdzs fics into russian. none of my star wars fics have been, to my knowledge, but i do have an open permissions statement for that sort of thing, so one day it might happen

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

oh yeah, many times. my old tcw fics were cowritten with @thelavenderhimbo; i write a lot of tor era stuff with @ipreferfiction (hiiii beloved) and a little with @sith-shenanigans though none of those have been posted anywhere yet; i'm writing a spyscrapper fic with @dream-of-tanalorr right now, and senket and i are technically cowriting by virtue of posting an RP we're doing to AO3. i like cowriting; when the vibes are good, it works much better for me than doing stuff on my own. i've had it go very badly in the past, but for the most part it tends to work out well

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

i absolutely will not pick one. that being said, the only reason i found my way to fandom at all is Doctor/Rose from Doctor Who, so i feel like i owe them a shout-out for this, lol

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but probably won't?

oh, man, so many things. i really want to eventually finish all my tor-era novelization projects, but realistically those are such huge projects that with the ~mental illness~ it's gonna take a long-ass time if i ever do

16. What are your writing strengths?

these two questions are SUPER hard for me to answer because i deeply struggle with being objective about my own writing. i enjoy writing politics and political intrigue; i'm not so sure if i'm good at it, but i like it. i've been yelled at and informed i need to put "worldbuilding" and "getting deeply into characters' heads" in here as well, so i'm adding it. i like dialogue as well, i find it easier to write than other things, so that's going in here too.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

apparently. lol. ANYWAY i do tend to struggle with combat - sometimes i can really hit it well when it's a strong emotional beat, but writing action scenes that aren't really important for characterization is soooo hard for me i hate it. also, coming up with subplots.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fics?

it.... depends. i used to overuse it, now i rarely do; generally speaking, if it's another language entirely that the POV character understands i'll shift it to italics or some other way of conveying that, if it's one or two words scattered in the meaning should be understandable via context and i'll provide translations at the end. i only rarely use non-English words if the character can't understand what's being said.

19. First fandom that you wrote for?

the first fandom i posted fic for was Doctor Who. back when i was a kid and didn't know what fandom was or what fanfic was, i wrote a few paragraphs of a story set in the Eragon universe, lol

20. Favorite fic you've written?

i've got a couple i want to put shout outs to in here. war has let this age begin (it's where we've gone and where they've been) is my dramatization of my Revan's Mandalorian Wars and i'm still really proud of it after 2 years; it was the first solo-written longfic i'd finished in quite a while, and i'm very attached to my Revan and everything i did with it. i really like this mdzs fic, he said, son, can you play me a memory that i wrote last year. and of course in terms of recent stuff: i HAVE to mention do you taste my pain in this bloodstained place for the amount of worldbuilding and plotting davi and i have done on it - it's the spyscrapper Bad Ending villain pov fic that breaks off from canon partway through Jedi: Survivor.

tags: @thelavenderhimbo @ipreferfiction @dream-of-tanalorr @darthsassacre @prowlingthunder and anyone else who wants to do this, feel free to use this as a tag! (io, i tagged you above for things, if you want to do it you Can but i know you don't usually do tag games so i'm not tagging you down here)

[aboxthecolourofheartache]

20 questions for fic writers meme, tagged by @chubsthehamster -- thank you, friend! :D

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

42 at the moment

2. What’s your total ao3 word count?

269,795. Almost half of that is one fic though, lol

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently most active in Trigun, perennially/intermittently active in Nirvana in Fire, currently dormant in CritRole, and hiatus in Sandman. Interests wax and wane! And who knows what I'll discover next? Not me, that's for sure.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Mate, I write mostly gen fic. I'm not here for the numbers. A kudos means that a whole human being with thoughts of their own spent some of their precious moments on God's green earth reading my thoughts and kinda liked 'em.

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

I do! ...........eventually. sometimes several years later. And why? I dunno, it just feels polite? Also human connection, even digital. That's a thing.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Probably Inference, but that's just because of the canonical main character death. Visitation Hours is bleak in implication, not in actual ending. My definition of "angst" does not always align with readers' definitions of "angst," which can be hilarious for me when I get weepy reactions on something I thought was relatively lighthearted.

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

I do 'equivocal' better than 'happy,' I think? The goal is emotional resolution or emotional discordance. Happy's incidental, which almost certainly means I don't write a lot of happy endings by the standard measure.

8. Do you get hate on fic?

Not hate so much as people who are belligerently confused? I get some bonkers fucking comments and anons sometimes, which I delete, a smattering of entitled weirdos, and a sprinkle of (typically unintentionally) back-handed compliments.

9. Do you write smut?

Nope! Suggestive, sure. Dirty language, if relevant. Implication, when called-for. Smut? Nope.

10. Do you write crossovers?

I have written a short series of crossovers between Machineries of Empire and Nirvana in Fire. Haven't written any since, but they're not off the table.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yup! More plagiarism than theft in entirety, though. At least once had someone lift a whole scene, dialogue, phrasing and all, and claim it as their own with obvious intent to get mileage without credit. And I have happened upon recognizable lines from my fics in other fics enough times to have several nickles. I get miffed about the latter, but the charitable assumption is just that it was a phrase fresh in their minds/recalled without association.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Into Russian, I think? Godspeed, fanfic translators, the strongest of us all.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I've co-written original stuff before, but I don't think I could ever do it again, original or fanfic. Not that it wasn't a pleasant experience at the time!

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

I don't have a favorite ship, but I do have a favorite dynamic, which is the mutual "you're the only motherfucker in this club who can handle me" a la that one Lorde tweet. The buckwildness has to be compatible, preferably complimentary. We're not talking enabling, though that can be part of it. It doesn't even have to be a ship. That grok/trust combination.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but probably won’t?

Look, I don't know what WIPs are going to get finished until I post them, okay?

16. What are your writing strengths?

I like character studies! And I feel like I am getting better at limited points of view, though they keep wanting to slide omniscient.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Same-hatting with @chubsthehamster here: plot. What the characters are doing in any given story is largely just to break up the dialogue and introspection. Things happening? They don't, sorry. Gotta work on this.

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

For straight dialogue in another language, it's still dialogue, and it still has to serve the story, so if it makes more sense to drop it untranslated, drop it untranslated. If the reader needs to know what's being said, italics or paraphrase.

For mixed languages, it's totally situational and depends on the character, too. Did they just get back from an exchange program in France and they're insufferable about it? Are they a very new second language speaker? Are they an expat? A bilingual parent who wants their child to grow up speaking one language preferentially? An academic, or someone who learned their whole vocabulary based on a single vocation (ie: a doctor who can get by using Spanish in a medical scenario but not outside the clinic)? All of that is going to influence their speech pattern.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Nirvana in Fire!

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Just as interests wax and wane, I like some fics more and some less, and today's favorite could be tomorrow's cringe.

Please consider yourself tagged if you see this and would like to play! @ me, if you like!

[liliththunder]

Adoption request for Mahoroba Kanata into the Hakumyu fan community

“Mahoroba Kanata” is a original work of the screen writer Nishida Daisuke, it follows the story of the Choshu clan centered by Takasugi Shinsaku, set in the Bakumatsu period. “Mahoroba” also called the ‘land of blessings’ in the Japanese folklore is something Takasugi dreams of to obtain.

Why do I want adopt it into Hakumyu (Hakuouki)?

The reason are simple and overflowing:

time period and story: 1) both are settled in the Bakumatsu period in a time frame between 1850ties and 1860ties 2) both are concentrate on a contrary opinions, none of them follows the concept of “We are right, you are wrong” 3) there is lot of suffering (maybe a bit more love in Mahoroba) 4) both like to joke and have unique, relatable characters 5) all characters are as well based on real history figures

cast and stuff 1) well as said before: Nishida Daisuke as director (active in Hakumyu since 2018) 2) Tomita Maho: - fourth Chizuru in Kazama Hen                            - playing the role of Shinsaku’s faithfull and tomboiish                                   wife O-Masa 3) Tanoue Marina: - fifth Chizuru in Toudou Hen                               - playing the younger sister of Yoshida Shouin, named                                  Fumi 4) Motonishi Sakiho: - ninth Chizuru in Shitan Kazama Hen                                  - playing the lover of Takasugi Shinsaku, called Ouno 5) Matsuda Ryo: - first Saito Hajime active until Kazama Hen                            - playing the role of Katsuragi Goro

Shinsengumi yes, they do appear and they play a minor role

publication and fandom since it’s on one side an original work and on the other side not part of a series, there’s is no ‘active’ fandom, I would claim (at least outside of Japan) AND they don’t plan on ever publishing a DVD/BD, but since it’s such a high quality play, I find it sad to let it disappear into history’s shadow.

Why is Mahoroba Kanata attractive on it’s own?

It’s easy to be answered, because it has it all: great music, great story, overwhelming feelings, great actors and great acting, fun bits and good bits and and tearing apart sad parts, great visuals, a beautiful stage - did I forgot something?

Whole cast list:

高杉晋作 Takasugi Shinsaku (1839-1867) samurai, who fought against the Bakufu 阪本奨悟 Sakamoto Shougo (https://twitter.com/Sakamoto_Shogo)

山縣狂介 Yamagata Aritomo (1838-1922) 糸川耀士郎 Itokawa Youjirou (https://twitter.com/yohhg)

大村蔵六  Oomura Zouroku (1825-1869) 和合真一 Wago Shin’ichi (https://twitter.com/wagoshin1)

伊藤春輔 Itou Hirobumi (1841-1909) politican in the later Meiji goverment 廣野凌大 Hirono Ryouta (https://twitter.com/hironobimistaff)

勝海舟 Katsu Kaishuu (1823-1899) former samurai, politican and bakufu supporter 根本正勝 Nemoto Masakazu (https://twitter.com/oni_fukucyo)

お雅 O-Masa (1845-1922), wife of Shinsaku, real name Masako 富田麻帆 Tomita Maho (https://twitter.com/maho_tomita6261)

文 Yoshida Fumi, later Katori Miwako (1843-1921), sister of Yoshida Shouin 田上真里奈 Tanoue Marina (https://twitter.com/tanouemarina)

おうの Ouno, Shinsaku’s lover (1843-1909), former Geiko, later nun 本西彩希帆 Motonishi Sakiho (https://twitter.com/sakiho_46)

すみ子 (Itou) Sumiko, Hirobumi’s ex wife 平井琴望 Hirai Kotomi (https://www.instagram.com/kotomi915/)

幾松  Ikumatsu (1843-1886) later  Kido Matsuko (Katsuragis wife) 律 Ritsu (https://twitter.com/LizLiz_ritsu)

吉田松陰 (1830-1859), proponent of the Sonnou Jooi, got arrested and later executed 中村亀鶴 Nakamura Kikaku (2nd gen) (https://twitter.com/KIKAKU0618)

桂小五郎 Katsuragi Goro (1833-1877) later  Kido Takayoshi, former samurai, Meiji goverment politican 松田凌 Matsuda Ryo (https://www.instagram.com/matsudaryo_9)

(pictures taken from the official twitter page : https://twitter.com/mahorobakanata

Still not convinced? Then hear for yourself (and thanks for sticking until the end)

Will you accept my request, Hakumyu-Community?  Thanks for listening to me (I decided to translate it within this year, but please be patient with me LIVE 3 is still being nosy on my desk (;^_^A)

[kinetic-elaboration]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

I was tagged by @she-who-the-river-could-not-hold - thank you!

How many works do you have on AO3?

229!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

1,391,910 words

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently, basically just The 100. I do have some Star Trek ideas on my writing list but that's more like... a long-term plan or something I'm building up to, rather than anything I'm actively working on. In the years I've been in fandom I've written for a variety of different ones though.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

So the first, by a LOT, is this guilty pleasure Star Trek fic I started working on in college. Then What We Built, a Bellarke fic which somehow has over 1k kudos?? At #3, startlingly, A Damned Fool, another Star Trek fic but for a rare pair. Then Rings This True, a K/S fic; and the fifth is We're Home At Last, another Bellarke fic.

A weird thing about this list is that with the exception of the guilty pleasure fic, I really don't love any of these stories. I actually didn't remember We're Home at Last at all. It's interesting that what I love most and what other people vibe with most don't seem to overlap a lot.

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

I do! I try my best to. Sometimes it takes me a long time. Like a long, long, long time. Like I'm trying to clear out my AO3 inbox now and it's so embarrassing how long some of these comments have been in there. I like to reply because I'm a really big advocate for people commenting on fics and I feel like part of putting my money where my mouth is on that includes responding to comments I get (also commenting when I read, of course, which I do). Also, the reason I'm pro-comment is because fanfic sharing is part of building the fandom community but there is no community if people don't interact, and that interaction is a 2 way street. I enjoy talking about these characters! That's why I'm here! So I'm always up for conversations in the comments.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hmmm. This is tough because I don't know how to classify angst? I know that sounds silly but I really have felt out of step with others when the topic of "angst" comes up. I don't think I write angsty fics, but I do write a lot that isn't fluff, and then it is sometimes categorized as angst--and at the same time angst for me is not tragedy; it doesn't have to be, like... death.

Anyway, I would say probably my angstiest fics are A Long Time (a Blake siblings horror with Banshee!Octavia), it is new moon and twilight (Braven/Murven/B/R/M, a rare major character death fic from me), and possibly Release (Murphy/Harper, actually written for Troped's angst round), but I don't know that the endings to them were especially angsty so much as they were, like, bittersweet and full of longing.

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

Man, I've written so many fics that use the classic fanfic structure of 'couple pines for each for a while and then ultimately gets together,' and the ending of all of these fics is basically the same: a kiss or a love confession, often both. I don't know that any of them is happier than any other. The Wedding Planet I suppose has a particularly treacly ending.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I wouldn't say I've ever gotten hate, really. On the long Star Trek fic in particular I've gotten... some comments that I didn't really appreciate, that made me sort of uncomfortable or that made me feel bad. But I don't think there was hate in the heart of the people commenting. I don't think the intention was to upset me, in other words.

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

I've definitely written explicit fic before. It's very findable so I'm not going to deny it. I don't think I'm good at it and I don't really like the sex scenes I've written. I don't really read them either... I just have sort of complex feelings, I guess. More complex than I'll write out here at least. And when I include sex in my work now it's generally either fade to black or, like, sort of a montage of feeling or sensation rather than a literal description of what parts go where. Most/all of the sex scenes under my pen name are just vanilla stuff. I've written some kinkier things, mostly for kink memes, and one anonymously on AO3.

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

Not really. I think I've written one ficlet-sized little crossover some years ago. I'm much more likely to want to do a fusion--putting characters from one fandom into the setting of another or merging styles or settings--rather than a crossover in the traditional sense.

As for craziest... lol, when I was a kid, like middle school age, I started writing this HP/Sailor Moon crossover? Oh, it was weird and embarrassing. (It was handwritten, so not only does it not exist on the internet I don't even personally know where I put it.)

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes. I like people to ask permission before translating (or podficcing, or remixing, or whatever) so I can keep track... but I'm bad at keeping track lol. But I've had a variety of translations and partial translations over the years.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I worked on the alternate S7 Bellarke fic collab a few years ago and I've participated I think in one Big Bang successfully... I'm way too bad at compromise to do writing collabs but I have great fantasies about writing/art collaboration because I have ideas that I think would work better in multimedia, but I can only really do one medium myself.

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

Kirk/Spock

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

I'm going to finish all my fics, okay?

Seriously, I really need to believe any/all of them could be completed one day but realistically... I'll make choices and decide on priorities but I don't yet know what those choices or priorities will be. I think the WIP that is least likely to be finished is oh well, you've got me under your spell, a hypothetically-multi-chapter fic I posted one chapter of in 2017 and nearly immediately hit a wall on. It's still technically on my WIP list but... it's so far away from being worked on, I rarely even think of it.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I have a very good style; I think I'm good at creating atmosphere and setting a scene. Also, I go back and forth on this, but I think I'm pretty good at coming up with original and interesting, unusual ideas for stories.

17. What are you writing weaknesses?

Characters. I think all my characters are kinda the same, or I guess I should say all my takes on canon characters are kinda the same: thoughtful, introspective, lightly angsty people full of longing--in other words, me! Also, really long sentences.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language?

I think people should do what they want. I don't do this because I am not confident enough in my foreign language abilities and I think I would butcher them. Con-langs are more common in my fandoms and I will say I'm not a huge fan of those... unpopular opinion but they really take me out of the world because I just don't believe in them. I'm not convinced by them. Personally, I tend to write everything in English and use narration or speech tags to indicate if something is spoken in another language. Or just context: if a story is taking place on Vulcan presumably all the Vulcans are speaking Vulcan, you know? I do think that if you use a foreign language in your fic, you should include easy to find translations of everything somewhere in the story or notes.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter. I remember very furtively, very secretly, writing some cliche 'new girl moves to Hogwarts' fan fic in my notebook when I was maybe 11 years old. Original fiction writing was already my hobby so it felt very... guilty pleasure, I think. But the first fic I published online was actually several years later, for the musical RENT.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Oh gee. This is a tough one, honestly. It tends to change over time: some fics I love for years and then I just get over them, or get too distant from them, and don't really like them anymore. I think as of right now I'd probably say it is new moon and twilight is definitely one of my big faves. Also The Wanheda Tape, Mountain Lion Mean, you stole from the drugstore, and The Oasis.

I'm tagging (or just saying hello to! no pressure!) @thelittlefanpire @justbecauseyoubelievesomething @fontainebleau22 @easilydistractedbyfanfic @kindclaws @hopskipaway

[purplesurveys]

1687

Have you ever seen a fox in person? I have not.

Would you say you have a quiet mind or do you have a lot of thoughts? I dunno how to answer this...I feel like it’s always either one or the other. My mind can definitely race, but I can zone out quite often, too. I guess it depends on my disposition for the day. Heavier anxiety = busier thoughts.

When did you last do something brave? Earlier, I guess? I’m in Malaysia right now and I tried to venture out earlier all alone beyond the mall that we’ve been visiting the past two days...and doing that felt pretty brave. I circled back though once I realized there was nothing to discover anyway.

Have you ever seen a magician? Well, yes. Idk about other cultures but booking magicians is common in children’s birthday parties here, so I’ve seen my fair share of them.

What's something you remember from your childhood that you wish you could experience again? Falling asleep on any non-bed surface and being carried to your actual bed.

Do you believe in karma? Why or why not? I mean I don’t have a strong, spiritual dependency on it, but it’s always nice when people get their ass bitten back after they’ve been a horrible person.

Do you have a tiktok account? I do, but I rarely go on TikTok. Too Gen Z for my taste and I only keep the app for work purposes.

Do you prefer the scent or color of lavender? Scent.

Would you rather live in a castle or a cottage? I would pick the castle. I feel like previous versions of me would prefer the quietness of a cottage, but at this point in my life I feel like the silence would drive me crazy within the days.

What type of music do you listen to the least and why? Country and techno, if anything. They’re just not my type of music, especially country.

When did you last visit a library? I’m not sure. I was definitely in school, and it was before the pandemic...so anywhere around 2019 to super early 2020.

What's one of your favorite memories from staying up late? When I was active in the wrestling fandom 10 years ago, EVERYBOdy else was either from the US or UK; this meant I was the one who had to adjust for the most part to be able to keep up with the community and with news. That also meant stocking up and chugging cups of coffee from 10-11 PM to be able to be awake for my friends through the night...it was always worth it though. I was able to find an amazing group of friends at the time who waited til I got home from school (the same way I’d stay up for them) until the wrestlers that we stanned resigned/left WWE and we all kind of grew apart from there.

Have or would you ever wear a necklace with someone's initial on it? I don’t think I have, but it’s something I’m willing to do. Initials to me aren’t as bad as, like, a full name or self-portrait.

What last made you laugh out loud? I’m watching Run BTS while taking this.

Do you usually keep water by your bedside at night? I used to, but I grew out of the habit.

What's an interesting fact about yourself? I have not seen most Disney movies. Like I’m pretty sure the entirety of my Disney watch history has only been Pixar films; most else I haven’t seen.

What did you last heat up in a microwave? Some cheesy chicken dish my dad made a couple of weeks ago.

Would you consider yourself lucky? In very few aspects. It’s rarely a word I would use to describe my experiences. What kind of pizza did you eat last? The iconic cheese pizza from Habanero, which was worth every single hype post I ever saw talk about it. I still dream about that damned pizza to this day.

What kind of shampoo do you use? I use Dove usually, but currently I have a Palmolive bottle just because they have a BT21 collaboration and I wanted to try it hahahaha.

How many blue objects are in the room you're in? My luggage is blue.

Would you rather visit an art museum or an aquarium? Museum.

Do you prefer sweeter cereal over unsweetened? Sweeter.

If you could build a 5 artist/band lineup to your dream music festival.. which ones would you choose? BTS, Twice, Seventeen, Lee Youngji, Epik High. What's a habit you have broken or are currently trying to break? I’ve been trying not to stay up until 2-3 AM before a workday.

Have you ever volunteered at an animal shelter? I haven’t but that’s been on my mind for years now. I’ve just been too busy... :( Is there anything currently bothering you? Yeah...I’ve been on leave for like virtually two weeks now, and the amount of workload I’ve been leaving behind is stressful. This is on top of the fact that I have a new associate under me who’s been pretty clueless about what to do, so I’ve had to take portions of my leave to walk her hand through certain tasks; and then there’s also the anxiety of not being sure if she’s able to do the job right. Idk. It sucks. I’m in a sucky place mental-wise. I am extremely grateful for this leave and the two vacations I have taken (my first in seven years), but I also can’t wait for it to be OVER so I can finally be back on track and get rid of that exhausting catching-up feeling. How many stuffed animals do you have on your bed? Do the BT21 ones count as stuffed animals? I’ve got two - one Tata, one Koya.

How much is too much to spend on a pair of shoes? I would probably stop at anywhere over ₱30,000.

What's the strangest thing that you've ever seen someone collect? There are stranger collections I’m sure, but my mom likes to collect tissue papers from different establishments. They’re all unused ok so she’s not gross HAHA, but I think it’s both unique and endearing that she keeps a stash of tissues from like McDonald’s and Jollibee and Shakey’s and where-fucking-ever in the car.

Have you recently been to a concert? ARE YOU KIDDING. I went to see AGUST FUCKING D last Sunday in Bangkok. Bit of a nosebleed seat, but I COULD NOT CARE LESS. I was with Yoongi that night; and it was the one promise I made myself when I decided not to go the unaliving route when I discovered BTS two years ago. I sang and screamed and cheered like my life depended on it and between you and me I still feel like floating on air; I can’t believe my friends and I managed to make it happen.

Who did you last have a phone conversation with? Idk I don’t talk on the phone a lot.

What's the most dominant personality trait you have? I am sensitive.

Do you ever watch sports? Eh, just wrestling.

What's had the biggest impact on your day? The dude who hit on me while I was sitting at the park. That was a nice ego boost because nobody ever approaches me back in the Philippines LOL, but I wish it didn’t happen while I genuinely wanted to be alone. We don’t have any parks in the Philippines so I was Actually savoring my time there, so to that guy I shot down in record time, I’m sorry. Thank you for being nice about it though.

What's your least favorite cheese? I don’t think I’ve ever found a least favorite cheese. What did you last have as a snack? Some 7-Eleven sushi.

What's your favorite decoration in your place of residence? It’s more than just decoration, but seeing Kimi’s memorial box in the living room makes me smile every single day. I like that we have a way to keep him around.

Would you rather read a book or watch a movie? I’d pick the movie mostly because I am a lot pickier with books.

What's your plans for the upcoming week? Finish out my vacation here in Malaysia, then catch up on work starting Wednesday.

When did you last feel rushed? Last Sunday, after the concert. Bangkok concert culture is a bit different from Manila’s and security will clear out the inside and outside of the arena *as soon* as the artist walks off, so after Yoongi left the stage everything was pretty much a blur. We were being asked to leave every 10 seconds even though we were clearly rushing out, lol.

What was the last thing to scare you? I felt like some guy was following me earlier back at the mall, so I felt off and walked as briskly as I can.

Have you drank enough water today? Eh, probably not.

What's your top 3 favorite fruits? Avocado, and that’s it really.

What season do you think is the most comfortable? Neither.

What lie do you say the most? That I’m doing fine. It’s also the safest lie to go with so it’s whatever.

What website do you frequent often besides Bzoink? Twitter, YouTube, Facebook.

Do you have anything due soon? Nopes.

What did you last consume that you thought was nasty? I haven’t had anything bad in a while, actually!

What's a song you feel describes your mood most right now? Hectic by RM and Colde.

[mockingbirdshymn]

Tag Game: This or That Writer's Edition

tagged by @pens-swords-stuff and so. IT IS TIME!!!!

Btw for those I tag, you don’t have to do this or whatever it’s just a silly fun thing I’m doing

- Historical or Futuristic?

Futuristic, if only for the sake of not having to research every single goddamn thing about the 1800s or whatever. Reading wise, though, it’s definitely Historical.

- The opening or closing chapter?

Closing chapter omfg. Like. ITS SO SATISFYING TO WRITE. It’s a cherry on top. It’s what hits the hardest. Opening chapters are amazing to write, but ending chapters? Hit me write in the feels to both read and write. It’s the end of an adventure for both the author and reader.

- Light&Fluffy or Dark&Gritty?

If I’m reading, I adore light and fluffy. Writing wise, and assuming that’s what this context is because it’s from a writeblr account, DARK FOR THE WIN. Angst is so fun to write like. Oh my god. It’s so fun idk how to say it I just love writing it.

- Animal companion or found family?

Kicks my dadvid and momgwen aus under the fridge. Yeah I’d say I like found family. It’s genuinely the best. Finding familial comfort in other people and getting a family when before you didn’t have one. It’s just. I love.

- Horror or romance?

Writing wise it has to be horror. It’s easier lmao. But it also depends on the fandom. For Camp Camp its definitely romance, but overall I like writing horror. I barely write it tho

- Hard or soft magic system?

Idk what this means but I’m assuming it means complex and not complex and I have to say complex. Making those complicated rules is like a little adventure for me. I love worldbuilding sm it’s insane

- Standalone or series?

I don’t rlly write series when it comes to fics. I’ll write sequels and spin-offs but never with the intention for a linear storyline to be spread between fics. For actual books I love writing series, tho I haven’t published anything yet, so I’m going with this for fics

- One project at a time or always juggling 2+ projects?

My current list of projects -

1- Longest oneshot ever, name pending

2- Space Kid Dadvid Momgwen AU ft Max

3- Showtime which I hate now I literally despise the first chapter

4- That one SK and Dolph friendship fic

5- Gwenvid oneshot where the campers play matchmaker and plot twist it works

6- Road trip fic hell yeah

The only real active one is the name pending oneshot, because I love working on it, but every now and then I’ll write a bit for the others.

- One award winner or one bestseller?

Haha I’m actually working on a book right now, and if I end up getting it publish I’d adore it being a bestseller. One, because I adore the idea of that many people reading something I made. Two, because when picking out books to read, bestseller catches my eye more than awards, oddly enough. I mostly write fics tho. Translating this into hits vs kudos, probably hits? But comments are better than everything ever actually. Ily people who do that

- Fantasy or Sci-Fi?

Inhales and exhales. I FUCKING LOVE FANTASY. Oh my god it’s amazing. I wrote a fae fic once for another fandom that was never published. I really liked that one. Fantasy can be so awesome in so many AUs. I like sci-fi but fantasy wins for this one.

- Character or setting description?

I like both lol. I scarcely do really detailed descriptions, but I like both of them equally. Setting is a bit easier and more common in my writing, I think, so I’ll go with that.

- First or final draft?

FINAL DRAFTS ARE SO SATISFYING OMG. To read your fic and fix all the last mistakes, then at least get to publish it? Its so satisfying. Like. It all finally being done. It’s incredible, especially when the fic is one you’ve worked on for a while.

- Love triangle or no romantic plots?

Does a poly relationship count as a love triangle? If so, yes. But I also enjoy writing some good ol’ gen fics. Love triangles where it ends in like choosing one or the other always irks me, idk why

- Constant sandstorm or rainstorm?

Is this a metaphor. My autistic ass could never. But I like the rain and writing the rain soooo ummmmm id say that? Tell me if i missed the actual meaning and I’ll edit it ahdkdjdhe

Uhh ppl I’ll tag to continue this or whatever idk I’ve never done this before lmao: @oreayourlocalannoyingidiot @fruit-kick @personification-of-sloth IDK IF THE LAST TWO OF U WRITE STUFF! SKIP THIS IF YOU DONT

[nevermindirah]

Do you have any thoughts on the use of AAVE for Nile (or lack thereof) in TOG fanfiction? I've been reading some Book of Nile fic and some writers seem to write her as a Millennial™ (using words like "fave" and "woke") but never acknowledge her Blackness in her patterns of speech. I know we don't see her use as much AAVE in the films, but I would argue she's in situations where code-switching would be valued (first in a "professional" environment in the army, then around a group of non-Black strangers).

Hi anon! I have many thoughts on this and I'm honored you asked me! But I should start by saying I'm white and any thoughts Black fans and especially Black American fans have on this that they want to share would be beyond lovely. (I'm not gonna tag anybody bc that feels rude but please add onto this post if any of y'all see this and want to!)

The main reason I personally avoid AAVE for Nile in my own fics is because I'm not Black. But Nile-centric fics by Black writers tend to avoid using much of it too, at least from what I've noticed/understood, and my guess is it's largely for the reason you mention, that she's in situations that encourage code-switching.

In movie canon Nile is highly competent at tailoring her language to each situation she finds herself in. This fantastic linguistics analysis meta shows how skillfully Nile chooses her vocabulary and grammar to meet her goals with different conversation partners in different contexts. In comics canon Nile had a bunch of different civilian jobs before joining the Marines, so she would've had experience code-switching in the ways that made sense for all those different contexts as well as the Marines and her family and high school and wherever else she spent her time before we met her. And now she's spending her time with a handful of immortals none of whom are native English speakers and a fellow Black American but one with a Queen's English UK accent whose professional experience is in the CIA where high-status code-switching is often an absolute must for success or even survival.

Fics featuring Nile are charged with extrapolating from that to how it might show up in her use of language that she's coping with a traumatic separation from her family and her career and pretty much everything she's ever known and now she needs to be able to make herself understood to people who seem to care about her and each other but are super duper in crisis, three (soon to be four) of whom predate Modern English entirely and the only one who's anywhere near her contemporary she's not supposed to talk to for a century. All of these people are telling her that pretty much any contact with any mortals poses an existential threat to her and the rest of the group. How the FUCK is she supposed to cope with that, like, generally? And would it be a more effective way for her to cope if she talked to Andy Joe and Nicky using the speech patterns that she used to use with her mom and brother, to at least retain that part of her identity even if it means having to do a lot of explaining, or would it meet her needs better to prioritize Andy Joe and Nicky understanding what she means with her words over using the particular words and grammar forms she used with her family?

I've seen several fics, both Nile-centric / BoN and otherwise, explore this a little bit in how/whether Nile uses Millennial™ speak. It's often a theme in Nile texting Booker despite the exile because of the popular headcanon that he as The Tech Guy is the only other immortal who understands memes. But Nile's much-younger-than-Booker mom probably uses Boomer and/or Gen X memes and Andy has been adapting to new communication styles for forever as evidenced by her canon high level of fluency with standard-American-accented English.

Which brings us back to people avoiding AAVE because they're not Black and they don't want to make mistakes (or they're not Black and they don't want to get yelled at for making mistakes, though I think many people overestimate how much they'll get yelled at while underestimating how much these mistakes can hurt). I can imagine some Black fans hold back from using much AAVE in fic because they don't want to share in-group stuff with white people who are likely to then adopt and ruin it, as white people so often do with Black cultural stuff. Some links about this including a great Khadija Mbowe video. I'm saying this gently, anon, because you might not know: woke, an example you cited as Millennial™ speak, is AAVE, and that's gotten erased by so many white people appropriating it and using it incorrectly online.

And also there's the part where fandom is a hobby and you never know when you're reading a fic that's the very first thing someone's ever written outside of a school assignment. This cultural considerations of language shit takes a level of effort and skill that not everybody puts into every fic, or even could if they wanted to because they haven't had time to build their skills yet. It's definitely easier for non-Black fans to project our millennial feels onto Nile than to do the layers of research and self-reflection it requires to depict what Blackness might mean to Nile, and it's not surprising that often people sharing their hobby creations on the internet have gone the easier route. There's not even necessarily shame in doing what's easier. It's just frustrating and often hurtful when structural white supremacy means that 3-dimensional Black characters are rare in media and thoughtful explorations of them in fandom are seen by the majority of fans as not-easy to make and therefore Nile Freeman, the main character in The Old Guard (2020) dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood, has the least fic and meta and art made about her of our 5 main immortals.

I've been active in different fandoms off and on for twenty years and I barely managed to write 5,000 words about Sam Wilson across multiple different fics in the 7 years since I fell in love with him. There's an alchemy to which characters we connect with, and on top of that which characters we connect with in a way that causes us to create stuff about them. Something about Nile Freeman finally tipped me over the edge from a voracious reader to a voracious writer. It's not for me to judge which characters speak to other individuals to the level of creating content about them, but I do think it's important for us to notice, and then work to fight, the pattern where across this fandom as a whole Nile gets way less content, and way less depth in so much of the content that's in theory about her, than any of these other characters.

Anyway, back to language. My two long fics feature Nile with several Black friends — Copley and OCs and cameos from other media — but all of those characters except Alec Hardison from Leverage aren't American. It's very possible I'm guilty of stereotyping Black British speech patterns in I See Your Eyes Seek a Distant Shore. I watched hours and hours of Black haircare YouTube videos in the research for that fic and I modeled my OCs' speech patterns on what I heard from some of those YouTubers as well as what I've heard people like John Boyega and Idris Elba saying in interviews, but the thing about doing your best is you still might fuck up.

I'm slowly making progress on my WIP where Nile and Sam Wilson are cousins, and what ways of talking with a family member might be authentic for Nile is a major question I need to figure out. For that, I'm largely modeling my writing choices on how I hear my Black friends and colleagues talking to each other. I haven't overheard colleagues talking in an office in a long-ass time, but back when that was a thing, I remember seeing a ton of nuance in the different ways many of my Black colleagues would talk to each other. Different people have different personalities! And backgrounds! And priorities! A few jobs ago my department was about 1/3 Black and we worked closely with Obama administration staff many of whom were Black and there was SO MUCH VARIETY in how Black people talked to each other, about work and workplace-appropriate personal stuff, where I and other white coworkers could hear. There are a few work friends in particular who I have in my head when I'm trying to imagine how Sam and Nile might talk to each other. From the outside looking in, God DAMN is shit complicated, intellectually and interpersonally and spiritually, for Black people who are devoting their professional lives to public service in the United States.

One more aspect of this that I have big thoughts on but I need to take extra care in talking about is the idea of acknowledging Nile's Blackness in her patterns of speech. There's no one right way to be Black, and Nile's a fictional character created by a white dude but there are plenty of real-life Black Americans who don't use much or even any AAVE, for reasons that are complicated because of white supremacy. (Highly highly recommend this video by Shanspeare on the harms of the Oreo stereotype.)

Something that's not the same but has enough similarity that I think it's worth talking about is my personal experience with authenticity and American Jewish speech patterns. My Jewish family members don't talk like they're in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and I've known lots of people who do talk that way (or the millennial version of it), some of whom have questioned my Jewishness because I don't talk that way. That hurts me. Sometimes when another Jew tells me some shit like "I've never heard a Jew say y'all'd've," I can respond with "well now you have asshole, bless your Yankee-ass heart," because the myth of Dixie is a racist lie but I will totally call white Northerners Yankees when they're being shitty to me for being Southern, and this particular Jew fucking revels in using "bless your heart" with maximum polite aggression, especially with said Yankees. But sometimes I don't have it in me to say anything and it just quietly hurts having an important part of me disbelieved by someone who shares that important part of me. The sting isn't quite the same when non-Jews disbelieve or discount my Jewishness, but that hurts too.

Who counts as authentically Jewish is a messy in-group conversation and it doesn't really make sense to explain it all here. Who counts as authentically Jewish is a matter of legal status for immigration, citizenship, and civil rights in Israel, and it's my number 2 reason after horrific treatment of Palestinians that I'm antizionist. But outside that extremely high-stakes legal situation, it can just feel really shitty to not be recognized as One Of Us, especially by your own people.

It can also feel really shitty to be The Only One of Your Kind in a group, even if that group is an immortal chosen family who all loves each other dearly. Sometimes especially in a situation like that where you know those people love you but there are certain things they don't get about you and will never quite be able to. I'm definitely projecting at least a little bit of my "lonely Jew who will be alone again for yet another Jewish holiday" stuff onto Nile when at the end of I See Your Eyes Seek a Distant Shore she's thinking about being the only Black immortal and moving away from the community she'd built with a mostly-Black group of mortals in that fic. Maybe that tracks, or maybe that's fucked up of me.

Basically, this got very long but it's complicated, writing about experiences that aren't your own takes skill which in turn takes time and practice to build, writing about experiences not your own that our society maligns can cause a lot of harm if done badly, it can also cause a lot of harm when a large enough portion of a fandom just decides to nope out of something that's difficult and risky because then there's just not much content about a character who deserves just a shit ton of loving and nuanced content, people are individuals and two people who come from the exact same cultural context might show that influence in all kinds of different ways, identity is complicated, language is complicated, writing is hard, and empathy and humility and doing our best aren't a guarantee of avoiding harm but they do go a long way in helping people create thoughtful content about a character as awesome and powerful and kind and messy and scared and curious and WORTHY as Nile Freeman.

[excalisbury]

okay I'm curious 📚 and 💌 for the fic rec meme :)

Ooooohohoho these are good ones! (from this post)

📚 A fic you wish you could display on your bookshelf

This one is so hard because if I had the time and energy I would either ask my friend-who-is-a-professional-bookbinder for book-binding advice to bind like all 420 (nice) of my bookmarks or pay her to do some of them. Alas... I will just have to dream of my fic bookshelf.

Anyway. I will narrow down the list slightly for now. And keep it to one fandom.

So for bookshelf fic, I feel like you have to go for things that you would recommend to almost anyone. And I do have a relatively long list for that, honestly... but we do not have time for the whole thing here. So here is my top 5 bookshelf fics, a tragically short list, with reasons for each:

The Space in Between by @whatevertheweather - As I noted in my ao3 bookmark, this fic absolutely destroyed me but in the way a really painful loose tooth hurts so good. Also it's the perfect chunky 100k length for a good looking novel. And I would rec this to pretty much anyone. Like... can be read outside the fandom. Plus I cannot help but imagine it with the fanart @cutestkilla drew of it for the cover 👀 and that would be some hot shit.

Local Hero by BasicBathsheba and breadofgod - this is a masterpiece of the ban and bread partnership. It was coming out at the start of the pandemic and so can bring up some painful memories, but also some really good ones. I just started making fandom friends around then and it was a bright spot to read this fic. Also I'm a jock at heart and love a good sports fic. Being stupidly into EPL for Americans is an endearing family trait of mine and I love it when my loves mix well. Also same as The Space in Between, this fic can be enjoyed regardless of fandom, imo, so huge props for that.

All this soulmate shit by half_witch - It's the loveliest tropiest thing in the best way. I can't get enough of this fic. It's made of nearly everything that makes fanfic fanfic, so why am I binding it into a real book (in our imagination, at least)? Well it's because it's all executed so well it's practically textbook. I must admit, I may not recommend this to Everyone, but I would love to show it off on my bookshelf and have it to reference.

Some Kind of Path by @im-gettingby - This fic fits in perfectly in my scifi bookshelf. It's just a perfect little taste of everything good about spec fic in one fantastical go. I imagine it bound with some illustrations I would add to it. Make it into a little poetic short story pamphlet thingy? Give it out at parties? perhaps.

When the Tides Held the Moon by @vkelleyart - I mean. Eventually I have got to have the real book when it comes out, but for now, the fic version is absolutely worth keeping like a precious pearl on the bookshelf! Reading through this as it came out was such an experience. And marveling at all of Venessa's amazing art with each chapter to boot? I live for those kind of fanish experiences. I'd love to have a reminder of this one.

Aaand I do most certainly have bookshelf fics for aftg, check please! and HP next gen as well, but I have already written a freaking essay. (Low key anyone who wants those recs can send a follow-up ask tho. I'll do another essay.)

💌 A fic that inspired you to create something for it

This one has an immediate and easy answer: rebel rebel.

I literally joined active fandom because of this fic. Even in my many years in the harry potter fandom, I was only a lurker. It took about seven chapters of rebel rebel for me to dive fully into fic art. I made my first two fanart pieces for this fandom for rebel rebel. And that was back when I just drew with pencil irl, took a picture of it with my phone, and colored that picture in photoshop with a mouse. So I have come a long way. (I had to troll thru my archives for those links. yikes.)

But yeah, reading rebel rebel as ban wrote it was an unparalleled fandom experience for me. This fic is obviously an invaluable staple in our fandom now, but I'm stuck in the nostalgia of that first read-through as each 10k+ chapter came out and we all devoured it together.

I have done fanart for a few other fics... notably,, literally all of my own fics 😅, but I'd love to give a special shout-out to Pour Some (Maple) Sugar On Me, which was a labor of love that I wrote with my friend, Liz, for @bazzybelle (my beloved). I drew at least one illustration for every chapter of this fic and they're all pretty great ngl.

[aro-and-tired]

Aromantic Experiences in Fandom: Survey Results

PART 1 - PART 2 - ANALYSIS: TIME IN FANDOM - ANALYSIS: AROALLOS VS AROACES

This survey was aimed at aromantic people, to share their experiences with fandom spaces, creating fancontent, and shipping. The survey got a total of 916 responses. The questions were split into various sections.

As the survey itself was quite long, the results will be discussed into two posts. This post will outline what the demographics of the respondents were and what their general experiences with fandom aree. The remaining sections, concerning content creators, shipping and additional comments, will be discussed in a separate post. Each post will have a summary at the end.

In addition, I plan on adding a couple posts discussing results split by certain variables, as I’m curious to see if different groups express different feelings regarding a few matters.

Demographic questions

Question 1: How old are you?

15 or younger - 14.7%

16-20 - 47.1% (largest group by age)

21-25 - 25.9%

26-30 - 8.3%

31-35 - 2.7%

36-40 - 1.1%

41-45 - 0.1 % (one person)

51-55 - 0.1% (one person)

Question 2: Which arospec identities to you identify with?

Considering the identities I had given as options, from most to least used:

Aromantic - 80.5%

Arospec - 28.7%

Questioning - 11.7%

Demiromantic - 11.1%

Greyromantic - 10.9%

Quoiromantic or WTFromantic - 7.2%

Aroflux - 4.3%

Cupioromantic - 4%

Aegoromantic - 3.9%

Aroqueer - 3.3%

Lithromantic or Akoiromantic - 2.8%

Nebularomantic - 1.9%

Apothiromantic - 1.2%

Arospike - 0.7% (6 people)

In addition, to these, most commonly added identities were Freyromantic, Belluromantic and Reciproromantic. Various over identities were added by various participants.

Question 3: Which of the following do you identify with?

Aroace - 51%

Aromantic Allosexual - 16.8%

Angled or Oriented Aroace - 12.9%

Questioning - 8.2%

Non-SAM Aro or Just Aro - 6.3%

I don’t identify any of these - 4.8%

General Fandom Questions

The first question in the fandom section was a check to see whether or not the participants were currently involved in fandom spaces. 96.6% (885) respondents said they are involved with fandom. 3.4% (31) respondents said they are not involved with fandom.

Involved in fandom: yes

Question 1: For how many years have you been involved in fandom?

1 or less - 4.1%

2-3 - 20.1%

4-5 - 26.8% (largest group by time spent in fandom)

6-7 - 19.7%

8-10 - 16.3%

11-15 - 8.5%

16 or more - 4.5%

Question 2: In general, would you say fandom spaces are aro-friendly?

Unsure - 45.9%

No - 43.6%

Yes - 10.5%

Question 3: If you answered no on the previous question, can you elaborate on why?

419 people offered a comment to this question. For starters, different people meant different things when they stated that fandom spaces aren’t aro-friendly. Some said that they feel fandom is not actively aro-unfriendly, but not friendly either - aro-tolerant, is how someone put it. Others instead found fandom spaces to be actively arophobic. Some people also specified that it depends on which fandoms one considers, with some fandoms being more friendly than others.

Almost everyone mentioned shipping as the first reason why fandom spaces are not aro-friendly. This ranged from people who enjoy shipping, but still feel that there is too much emphasis on it, from romance repulsed people who feel extremely alienated due to how common shipping is. The prevalence of shipping means that gen fics are rarer and receive less attentions. In general, it feels as if platonic relationships are seen as inferior to romantic ones and not worth of being explored.

It was also commented upon that some popular tropes can have arophobic connotations. Various participants mentioned soulmate AUs and Hanahaki disease as common tropes that some aros are very uncomfortable with, or that often have arophobic themes in the way they are used.

Many people also stated that they feel as if aromantic headcanons are less respected than other kinds of headcanons. They may receive less attention, especially from alloromantic fans, and at times even get rejected from fandom. Some aro people have reported having been accused of homophobia for headcanoning members of popular M/M or F/F ships are aromantic (or even just not shipping said ships), and accused of erasing gay people’s sexuality even when their aro headcanons concern characters with no canon sexuality.

On the flip side, the rare aromantic representation that exists is often not well respected by alloromantic fans. Many aros have said that it makes them uncomfortable to see allo fans ship aro characters, but their concerns are also often dismissed by allo fans as simple drama. Some people have even reported being themselves called arophobic by those same alloromantic shippers for being uncomfortable with shipping aro characters - the logic used being, that since some aromantic people enjoy dating, it is arophobic to be uncomfortable with aro characters being shipped. It is particularly hurtful that the same fans who get up in arms about respecting the sexualities of canon gay or lesbian characters and become very angry if someone ships them with a character of the other binary gender are often the same people who happily ship aro characters and ignore any argument made by aromantic fans.

Overall, many aromantic people feel that fandoms can be fairly amatonormative, if not straight up arophobic, and that their identities are often not respected and seeing as more trivial than shipping characters together.

Question 4: Do you think it's easy to find aromantic specific content in fandom?

No - 86.9%

Unsure - 7.2%

Yes - 5.9%

Question 5: Do you think alloromantic (non-aromantic) fans are in general respectful of aromantic interpretations of characters/media?

No - 56.7%

Unsure - 34.5%

Yes - 8.8%

Question 6: Have you ever received arophobic hate or harassment over something relating to fandom (aromantic headcanons, aromantic fancontent, etc.)?

No - 82.1%

Yes - 17.9%

Involved in fandom: no

Only 31 people stated that they are not currently involved in fandom spaces and answered the following questions. This is a fairly small sample. The answers here are reported, but it’s possible that they may not reflect actual trends.

Question 1: Have you ever been involved with fandom before?

Yes - 83.9%

No - 16.1%

Question 2: Is the fact that you are aromantic part of the reason you don't frequent fandom spaces? 

No - 58.1%

Yes - 41.9%

Question 3: From what you have seen, do you think fandom spaces in general are welcoming to aro people?

No - 48.4%

Unsure - 48.4%

Yes - 3.2% (one person)

Question 4: If you answered no to the previous question, can you elaborate on why? 

17 people answered this question. As a general rule, people here had stronger opinions regarding the prevalence of arophobia in fandom compared to those who are currently involved in fandom. Many of them said that they were either personally harassed for being aro when they were in fandom, or that they have witnessed this harassment from the outside. They also mentioned the prevalence of discourse in fandom spaces, with many exclusionists running fandom blogs.

One again, shipping was the most common reason given for fandom spaces being potentially alienating for aro fans, both its prevalence and the existence of things such as ship wars. A few people also mentioned having seen aro headcanons being called homophobic. Soulmate AU and Hanahaki disease were also mentioned as aro unfriendly tropes, and one person also brought up the matchmaker trope.

Someone also mentioned that in addition to aro unfriendly, fandom can also be ace unfriendly, and that asexual headcanons can receive the same backlash as aromantic headcanons. Another person said that while sexual content is common in fandom spaces, most of it is fundamentally alienating to romance repulsed aros, as sexual content almost always involves a romantic component.

Part 1 Summary

Overall, nearly half of aromantic respondents, both those involved and not involved in fandom, state that they feel fandom spaces are not aro-friendly. There’s also a fair number of people who are unsure, and only a minority feels that fandom spaces are friendly to aromantic fans. The amount of shipping that occurs in fandom spaces is mentioned as primary reason why aro fans feel alienated in fandom, especially romance repulsed aros. Many people also mentioned an attitude towards dismissing aro fans, if not straight up harassing them. Fandom arophobia has been remarked upon by various people, and in some occasions led to aro fans leaving fandom entirely.

The majority of fans agree that it’s hard to find aromantic specific content in fandom. A little more than half also states that alloromantic fans are not respectful of aromantic interpretations, with less than 10% of aro fans definitely stating that they believe alloromantic fans support their interpretations.

Lastly, a little less than one fifth of respondents stated that they received harassment due to aromantic headcanons, fancontent, or the likes.

Find Part 2 here

[sanstropfremir]

Sorry if you talked about it but why is that the international scene isn’t really conducive to male solo acts anymore? What changed in 5 years? NCT’s Lab I thought it was just cause of their model, DO’s debut I think it’s a special case but Suho and Kai debuted with promotions. From other companies, in 2021, we had something like 9 or more male soloist debuts. Except for Kai’s, do you feel they are on a lower budget now? Is that why?

oh it's because the biggest kpop act in the world right now is a group that is particularly anti-solo work lol. 2017 was when they blew up in the west so that's why i said five years, but really the number doesn't matter that much. people are more predisposed to think of kpop acts as groups right now and the truth is that groups are just more profitable. more members might mean more upfront costs in training time etc but it also means that there's more variety within the group and a higher guarantee that a fan will latch on to at least one of them. with a solo artist, there's only one of them. a lot of what drives engagement and content outside of the music in kpop is group dynamics and interactions, which. hard to do with just one person, and especially hard to do if a soloist has left a group for any reason. there's a lot of mythologizing by the fans of the groups themselves and so doing solo work (or even just being in two groups, i'm looking directly at you dumbass dream vs 127 subunit twitter fights) is sometimes seen as a betrayal. can you imagine the chaos that would happen if a bts member decided to actively promote solo? that fandom would tear itself apart.

basically all i'm saying is that the industry is a lot different than it was in 2014 and it isn't possible to do the same kind of debut with full scale company backing as taemin had, because the landscape has changed so much. it's just another casuality of the changing times, nothing actually negative about it. there's easily five times as many groups and the groups are larger than ever, and boy groups in general are on the out with the general public in sk. and i don't think it's possible to have true success as a kpop group without having a relatively strong domestic success as well. shinee at the time was already beloved and also was six years into their careers, so they were in a place of relative stability and taemin could feasibly take breaks to produce full albums of music while the others were doing their own schedules. i'm also specifically making a comparison between taemin/second gen and fourth gen, because i think we're over the third gen popularity hump and we're ten months away from losing every boy born in 1994 and earlier, which is not really enough time to establish a strong enough groundwork to survive a two year hiatus. it might mean that we're going to see some more solo work from the younger members left behind, but this is all besides the point. my key point here is that there's just too many groups now and none of the smaller companies have the funding or influence to catch enough attention to boost them up to a level comparable with taemin/a big three company. also no i don't think sm is funding their solos less, it's just that there's no one to match them; yg only has a rookie group, jyp would rather die than debut a male soloist, and hybe knows it would fracture their fanbase and they're not interested.

also for more clarity's sake, i don't think this is a bad thing; i like that there's way more soloists debuting and there's more capacity for them to debut, even if it is on a smaller scale. smaller scale doesn't always mean a lack of creativity or depth of concept. i'm pretty sure half my best of 2021 lists were just stuff from male soloists. i just know that a fourth gen boy isn't going to have the same popularity to fill stadiums in japan for their first solo concert barely three years from their debut.

i don't actually have anything super profound to say about nct labs, i just think sm's pitching it as more 'self-led + project oriented' so they don't have to put as much money towards producing full scale promos. i can also imagine that sm is probably getting more pressure from the artists themselves for them to have more creative control after the repeated successes of older gen soloists in the last year, and this format is a very low stakes way to gauge initial interest in a neo's solo work without the cost of producing something on the scale of what they did for danger or even mmmh. nct has a lot of different avenues on youtube and they've got a huge fanbase so these nct lab projects don't carry any real risk for the company. i straight up saw a bunch of tweets from people yesterday saying they thought johnny was a youtuber and that being an idol was an inside joke. so yea, pretty sure it is a format thing related to nct in order to keep it managable and to combat the fact they're about to enter their military era, because it would be insane to try and full solo debut every neo that wanted to.

[analyzen]

Italian Fandom Meta | Most Popular Types of Pairings on EFP vs. AO3

EFP (2001–, Fanlore) is the most popular writing archive in Italy, and it hosts both fanfic and original fiction. Under the cut you’ll find a breakdown of the most popular types of pairings on EFP in comparison to the most popular types of pairings in the Italian section of AO3.

The Italian version of this analysis can be found here.

TL;DR:

53% of all the chapters ever posted on EFP have been deleted

49% of the registered users on EFP have deleted their accounts

M/F works amount to 60% of the whole website

EFP’s three most popular fandoms (Harry Potter, One Direction, Original Fiction – Romantic) all have a majority of M/F works

On AO3, most Italian works are M/M (56%)

F/F doesn’t have much content on either site (4-5%)

Methodology

I’ve followed @olderthannetfic’s methodology from this earlier Fanfiction.net analysis. Basically, I picked a sample size of 666 chapters and organized them in four categories (M/M, M/F, F/F, Not tagged; more on this later).

Why I chose chapters instead of stories

On EFP you don’t have specific links for every single story. Instead, every chapter you post gets a unique id, which can be seen in the link itself. For example, at the time of writing this the last updated chapter on EFP was this one:

viewstory.php?sid=3974099

Which means that this was the 3'974'009th chapter ever posted on EFP.

Ids follow the usual numerical order, so if a link reads id=3, then there have to be id=1 and id=2, and the next link will have id=4.

So I’ve used a randomizer to select ~1200 unique ids to analyse.

Weren’t 666 chapters enough?

I started out with 700 chapters, but half of them weren’t working. That’s because 53% of all the chapters ever posted on EFP have been deleted from the website.

Thanks to the link of the last updated chapter, we know that almost 4 millions chapters have been posted on the EFP. But EFP's homepage shows different stats:

Registered users: 602395, 205974 of which are authors Last registered user: [blacked out] Total of stories: 517083 Total of chapters: 1869573 chapters Total of reviews: 6222695 Online users: 17 logged in and 53 visitors

While we should have almost 4 million chapters, the stats show ~2 million chapters. Why? Because the stats only show the stories, chapters and users that are still on the website, and they don’t show the stories, chapters and users that have been deleted.

(Sorry, I forgot to translate this one. It reads: Total of chapters posted on EFP between 2001 and today. Orange: deleted chapters. Blue: chapters that are still online.)

Thanks to the stats on the homepage we also have a link to the last registered user. User ids follow the same numerical order as chapter ids, so once again we know that 49% of the users ever registered on EFP have deleted their accounts. That's a lot of deleted accounts.

Categorization

After selecting 666 (accessible) chapters, I organized them into 4 categories:

M/M: contains all stories tagged as “yaoi”, shounen ai” and “slash”

M/F: contains all stories tagged as “het”

F/F: contains all stories tagged as “yuri”, “shoujo ai” and “femslash”

Not tagged: which contains a) poetry, b) stories tagged as “no pairing”, and c) untagged het stories.

As for the untagged het stories, there are two issues:

Many M/F fics simply aren’t tagged

Many gen fics include untagged M/F ships

If the description made it clear that the story included a heterosexual relationship, I added the story under the M/F tag. Otherwise I left it under not tagged.

Also, on EFP “yaoi”, “shounen ai” and “slash”, and “yuri”, “shoujo ai” and “femslash” actually mean different things.

This screenshot here is from the posting page on EFP. It reads:

Pairings * You must select at least one tag from the list, and you can choose up to three tags. Het: for heterosexual relationships Shonen-ai: for male/male relationships with anime/game characters; stories with no sex scenes Shojo-ai: for female/female relationships with anime/game characters; stories with no sex scenes Yaoi: for male/male relationships with anime/game characters; stories containing sex scenes Yuri: for female/female relationships with anime/game characters; stories containing sex scenes Slash: for male/male relationships from TV shows/movies/books FemSlash: for female/female relationships from TV shows/movies/books

The thing is. People either respect the rules and use different tags for different kinds of stories, or they use these tags interchangeably to maximise the chance to appear in other users' searches. Which means that you’ll find RPF tagged with “shoujo ai”, and Attack on Titan fics tagged as “slash”. (More info on this later.)

Findings

On EFP, the majority of the stories are M/F.

To confirm this, I checked some specific fandoms:

Some notes:

Because EFP doesn't have metatags like AO3, what I did was: 1) go to a specific fandom, 2) filter through every single tag, and 3) jot down the number of pages per search. Every page contains up to 15 stories, so for example searching for het in Original Fiction – Romantic gives you 846 pages, which amounts to around ~12690 stories.

The tag in red, “Nessuna”, means “no pairing”. It is used for gen fics but also for untagged M/F fics. This is especially true in some fandoms, ie. Original Fiction – Romantic, and Harry Potter.

EFP’s filtering system sucks. You can only filter through stories with specific relationship tags, but you can’t filter out relationships tag. So what you see in the graph is how often a tag is used... which brings us to some issues. For example, Harry Potter is the biggest fandom on EFP, so much that Harry Potter stories amount to 11% (!) of the whole website. But in the graph it looks like the One Direction fandom has more stories—wrong. Actually, One Direction has many stories tagged as both slash and het, while Harry Potter stories tend to be either one or the other.

EFP’s filtering system sucks, part 2. Because “shounen ai”, “yaoi” and “slash” are often used at the same time, you can't really smash together all three of the tags to get a total amount of stories. I'd say that around 50% of the stories tagged as shounen ai and yaoi probably overlap, but there is no easy way to find out because, again, EFP’s filtering system sucks. The same goes for “shoujo ai”, “yuri” and “femslash”.

Fandoms with a majority of M/M stories

While there are some fandoms with more M/M stories (ie. Death Note, Hetalia, Glee, Sherlock, Supernatural, Teen Wolf), these fandoms are simply extremely small in comparison to other bigger fandoms full of M/F fics. Which obviously skews the numbers in favor of M/F fics.

What about femslash?

EFP suffers from the same lack of femslash as AO3 as a whole. In the fandoms I've analysed, only two have a big enough number of F/F. The fandoms are Glee (which has more F/F stories than M/F stories) and Grey's Anatomy (which has as much F/F as M/F stories, with little M/M).

Original Fiction

I thought it might be interesting to explore the original sections too, especially because Original Fiction – Romantic is the third biggest fandom on EFP after Harry Potter and One Direction. These Big 3 all have a disproportionate amount of M/F stories.

By logic, this would mean the the majority of the userbase on EFP prefers M/F stories. But then, aren't fans always complaining about “too much slash”? If “Any Two Guys” were enough to find slash appealing, wouldn't it be easier to simply write original M/M?

I think that looking at original stories might help us understand why people might prefer slash over het in some fandoms. For example, the amount of M/F stories in Original Fiction – Romantic implies that, when authors have to chance to choose what types of stories to create from scratch, they might prefer M/F stories.

This would support the theory that many people might prefer slash because of the lack of (well written/primary) canonical female characters + how well M/M relationships, both platonic and romantic, are written in canon texts in comparison to M/F or F/F relationships.

Obviously, we have to keep in mind that not all fanfic writers write original fiction and viceversa, so I'm not trying to find a universal explanation here. Also because not every website has a majority of M/F stories.

Which brings us to...

AO3 vs. EFP

As per today 20/04/21, the Italian section of AO3 contains “only” 24777 stories, divided between many different fandoms. To make a comparison, the Italian stories on AO3 amount to 5% of all the stories available on EFP. To make another comparison, the whole Naruto fandom on EFP has 20129 stories in total.

EFP has also been active for 20 years, while the boom of Italian fics on AO3 only started around 2018. We can't really make a 1:1 comparison between the two archives, but we can still try to understand the preferences of their users.

M/M and M/F stories on EFP vs. AO3

EFP: 60% M/F, 25% M/M

AO3: 56% M/M, 23% M/F

The percentages are almost swapped.

This might be because of the archives themselves. EFP has always been the general website for any Italian fandom (and actually at first it mostly hosted M/F content), while AO3 has always had a big M/M userbase. I'm basing this statement on this AO3 analysis from 2013, in comparison to this FFN analysis from 2018 which showed a majority of M/F fanworks, and finally this AO3 vs. FFN vs. Wattpad analysis from 2019, which showed that AO3 has always been the outlier for its majority of M/M content.

Then again, M/M stories on EFP have always been subject to the “usual” type of borderline-to-direct harassment that M/M fans are used to, which is something that still happens to this day especially in certain writing groups on Facebook, where the Italian writing community is pretty active. It wouldn't be weird for slashers to move to AO3, where they know they'll find more like-minded people and less headaches. (Also, the Italian section of AO3 has a lot of M/M RPF that's banned on EFP.)

The “Multi” tag on EFP

The only thing that barely resembles a multi tag on EFP is threesome, which for some reason is often used as a synonym for love triangle. So from the tags it isn't easy to understand if a fic includes an actual threesome (as in, a sex scene), a polyamorous relationship, or a simple love triangle.

This doesn't mean that there aren't poly stories on EFP—it simply means that they're impossible to find using the search system.

And that's all, I think!