#I see an invader zim character in a poll

[awesomealienshowdown]

@most-mistreated-characters exists and they have skoodge

Skoodge, in canon, gets the same bullying Zim does but a lot more physically abusive. The entire series' first episode has him being bullied by being given the planet Blorch, home of the slaughtering rat people, as his assignment - something that was meant for Larb, who instead got Vort since he grew taller. That shot of Skoodge about to cry? That's him after he learns what his assignment is.

He's been shot out of a cannon at a planet and he should have died from it. He's been mauled by a meat-thirsty hogulus, lived, then was used to bludgeon said beast.

In the unfinished episode "The Trial", we learn that Skoodge has been used and abused since he was just a little smeet. Zim used him as an accomplice to escape to the surface, eventually throwing him under the bus by letting a dermis prowler security droid chase him down.

And then we have the fandom. The fandom loves him, yes, but a significant chunk seems to be in that "we love to bully him too" way. For every person that wants good things for Skoodge, there's someone who wants to launch his ass. Every character in this fandom gets bullied to some extent though.

Anyway, have some Skoodge images for your pleasure. Courtesy of the wiki.

[gayelderstourney]

OLD MAN YAOI/OLD WOMAN YURI TOURNAMENT

Do you love old man yaoi? Old woman yuri? Do you want to see your favorite old man yaoi and old woman yuri couples fight each other? to the death? Well here we are now.

(Btw we only do real gay elders here we are NOT calling dudes in their 30s old man yaoi. more info is in the form and under the read more)

This is my third time running a tournament; I also did @worstcharacterpoll and @youngersiblingstournament & both times i have gained more insight on how to run these properly LOL

well anyway ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS NOW vvv

submissions will close Jul 19 at 8:00 pm CST/Jul 20 at 1:00 UTC

Guidelines and stuff is below, but it's copy pasted in the submission form. Also please submit yuri

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES (Please read):

No real people even if it's really funny

No characters based on real people

Couples must be gay; if one of them is canonically nonbinary though, they will be allowed

No incest or abusive ships

I'll be vetting source material on a case-by-case basis, but just so we're clear I'm not putting Harry Potter or OFMD in the poll

There will be a maximum of one ship per source material in the poll. You can submit multiple ships from the same material, but only one will be allowed if it gets in

AGE GUIDELINES SECTION (because I keep seeing people use the term "old man yaoi" for couples in their 30s or even 20s):

THESE GO FOR BOTH PARTIES IN THE RELATIONSHIP

Human characters with a canon age must be at least 50. This also goes for characters that aren't human but age at the same rate as humans. Please double-check your characters' ages before you submit to save me some headache

If they don't have a canon age, they must look elderly.

No characters that have been de-aged (ex. Purah from Zelda).

For nonhuman characters that age at a different rate than humans: they must be old for their species (ex. Ravenpaw and Barley from Warrior Cats; Ravenpaw is the younger one, and is around the same age as Graystripe, who becomes old enough to retire as an elder).

For immortals/characters with very very long lifespans, they must look old (ex. Gandalf from Lord of the Rings would count; Hythlodaeus from Final Fantasy XIV would not).

Couples that will already be in the poll, so you don't need to submit them:

Fiddleford McGucket/Stanford Pines (Gravity Falls)

Hanayo Nishida/Yoshiko Dojima (Hanamonogatari)

Ravenpaw/Barley (Warriors)

Eda Clawthorne/Raine Whispers (The Owl House)

Couples already under consideration, but will depend on the other submissions if they get in the poll or not; you may submit your support for them if you want to see them:

Walter White/Mike Ehrmantraut (Breaking Bad) (keep in mind this one is mostly a joke)

Ms. Bitters/Countess von Verminstrassen (Invader Zim) (minor characters but I invented this one and I'm partial to it)

The Once-ler/The Lorax (Lorax 2012)

[lethal-spaceship]

Tagged by @sheriffshady

make a poll with five of your all time favorite characters and then tag five people to do the same. see which character is everyone's favorite!!!

Idk join whoever. I really don't like to tag people in such things...

[iz-rarepair-tournament]

IZ Rarepair Tournament Masterpost

This post will most likely constantly get updated so I wouldn't recommend reblogging it, but feel free to like it! But yes, I wanted to make a masterpost of useful information to pin to the top of the blog, so we can all have easy access. I will edit this post as time goes on to present the most up to date information and links.

General About Page:

[LINK]

Tournament Status:

Nominations are closed!

The main rarepair tournament has now concluded and our winner was Tak/Tenn!

More tournaments may be held though, such as an OT3 one, so keep a look out for updates!

Polls:

Link to All Polls

Preliminary Round (Done)

Round 1 (Done)

Round 2 (Done)

Round 3 (Done)

Round 4 (Done)

Round 5 (Done)

Misc. Information:

The first rule of shipping brackets is to have fun and be yourself.

The second rule is to CAMPAIGN FOR YOUR FAV SHIP AS HARD AS YOU CAN AND TAKE NO PRISONERS

I will be reblogging propaganda! You can @ this blog and I'll try to reblog any propaganda I see. Talk up your fav rarepair to your heart's content. Tell us why we should vote for it. You can also send your heartfelt rants to the ask box and I will share it with the masses.

Propaganda can be found under the #shipping propaganda tag, or you can just click [THIS LINK]. And check the notes on the polls themselves before choosing, you might just see some real interesting perspectives on a ship you didn't expect!

You can also search by specific character names and see if anything has been reblogged for a particular character. I will try to be very thorough with tagging in that regard.

Finally, this is said on the about page but I just want to emphasize no shipping wank and no fancop behavior. There will be 'problematic' ships on this bracket. It's Invader Zim, dark and disturbing themes are fully embraced. If you have a problem with that, please block us and leave us to our filth.

Thank you for the interest in our tournament! <3

[p0rk-guts]

THANK YOU FOR 1,000 FOLLOWERS!!! WOOO!!!! YAY!!!!! HI!!!!!!!!!!!

I miss making these teehee

To celebrate I wanna do a poll to see why all you sillies are here. Figure out what the people want. So uh

Obviously this poll only applies to my followers there is no "not following" option YOU'RE EITHER IN LOVE WITH ME OR YOU CAN GET LOST❕xoxoxo 💕

[ultimaterobotblorbo]

The Ultimate Robot Blorbo Competition

Hello there :3, this has been a brain worm of a friend and I's for the past few days and this account finally got polls!

Entirely inspired by all of the craziness surrounding those fun polls of voting for your favorite character. This is to see out of a collection of 32 (skrinkly skrunk sopping wet cats (robots, if we're being technical here!)) contestants who is the best robotic character!

All brackets and characters have already been decided, as said before, a whopping 32 contestants! Match-ups and who goes where with the brackets was determined with a number generator. To keep bias from us two going into the competition. (I feel the P03 profile picture speaks for itself.)

Voting will begin as soon as we finish with the bracket visuals! Depending on the interaction/ interest this post gets, the voting duration may be a day or longer than that.

The contestants so far:

Gir (Invader Zim)

2. V1 (Ultrakill)

3. Closet (Barbie Life in the Dreamhouse)

4. Wheatley (Portal)

5. Nick Valentine (Fallout 4)

6. BT-7274 (Titanfall)

7. GladOS (Portal)

8. V2 (Ultrakill)

9. Yes Man (Fallout New Vegas)

10. Pathfinder (Apex Legends)

11. Mettaton (Undertale)

12. P03 (Inscryption)

13. Metal Sonic (Sonic)

14. HAL 9000 (Space Odyssey)

15. Edgar (Electric Dreams)

16. WALL-E (WALLE-E)

17. AM (I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream)

18. Bender (Futurama)

19. Hal Strider (Homestuck)

20. R2D2 + CP30 (Star Wars)

21. Karen Plankton (Spongebob)

22. Bastion (Overwatch)

23. Connor (Detroit Become Human)

24. Calculester (Monster Prom)

25. Queen (Deltarune)

26. Optimus Prime (Transformers)

27. The Three Robots (Love, Death, and Robots)

28. Canti (FLCL)

29. Claptrap (Borderlands)

30. Tartar (Splatoon)

The last two contestants will be in a very very short part two, as tumblr only allows 30 images per post!

(if there are any imperative suggestions for characters to be added, we are open to them!)

:3

[mythicaldemigoddess-of-deltarune]

Who Is The Best And Most Extreme All-Star Awesome Dad In All The Multiverse

if you think about it, Mr. Doctor Eggman, Doctor Done-It and Doctor Deep technically Co-Parent Doctor Babble and Doctor Don't.

and Commander Shepard no matter if it's the John or Jane version, can be seen as Grunt's Adoptive Parent.

also a part of me wants to vote on both Blitzo and Adam, but seeing as we can only vote on one...I'm going to have to pick, well I want to say Adam but I also want to pick Blitzo...maybe I will think about it...

I didn't want to add Charlie's Dad or Octavia's Dad, I rather not make the option choices between Adam and The Apple Cinnamon Roll Morningstar of Hazbin Hotel...

but I guess I should add those two anyway...

anyway made this poll on September 19, 2024...

I think I will make one more or well maybe two more today as well.

anyway take your time and no need to rush in the choice between the characters in this, you can think about it and decide which of them is the more Awesome Dad.

[raccoonmolars]

FAVORITE CHARACTERS

Rules: make a poll with five of your all-time favourite characters and then tag five people to do the same. See which character is everyone’s favourite!

thnxs for the tag @jan-jan-binks

uh i don’t really know who to tag. mutuals go ham (if you so please)

[rissynicole]

I’ve been wanting to get back into writing on a larger scale

I mean, I never really stopped. But it’s been little one-shots and collaborative pieces between close friends.

I want to write something on the scale of A Parade of Indignities, which was a bona-fide longfic and had a posting schedule for AO3 and FFN.

In case this came across your dash, and you're like "who the fuck is this lady and why would I care about what she writes?" my name is Rissy. I enjoy writing stories for the Invader Zim fandom, and I've been around for several years, writing stories and just kind of vibing. I mainly write gen fics. I used to post regularly on AO3 and FFN, but after I finished my longfic a couple years back, I took a bit of a hiatus.

I’m going to put this poll up to test some waters and use the results to help me make my decision. If there’s any one option that has overwhelming popularity, it might give me some pause for thought.

1) inALIENable. Very Zim-centric and Gaz-centric. Here’s a post that explains this fanfic pretty well. I would probably take the outline back to the drawing board and heavily rewrite the sections I have for it (I'd written about 1/3 of it in 2018, then I put it waaaay on the back-burner). Fair warning, it involves a major character death that occurs before the story begins. It also includes an OC that doesn't dominate the story but plays a key role in the story. I think part of the reason I’ve been hesitant to post it is because I don’t anticipate it gaining much readership. I just envision the major character death/OC acting as deterrents for readers. Stupid to concern myself so much over readership, I know. I get it. I should write for me and me only. I'm going to be transparent, though: if I'm going to devote my time to my hobby after 50+ hours of work a week, and I'm putting in the effort of polishing it up so I could post it publicly, and I'm looking forward to talking about it with people and engaging with the fandom more...then it would be incredibly demoralizing to receive nothing but dead air. I'm sorry. I have no other way to explain it.

If not inALIENable, I have a couple other ideas of stories I could write and post on AO3.

2) An expansion of a one-shot I’ve written and posted on Tumblr. I’m thinking either this prompt or this prompt.

3) Something else entirely. I'm open to suggestions.

[two-packet-bracket]

Welcome to the Two Packet Bracket!

in this bracket, characters who are deemed "A package deal " will compete against each other in a series of polls to see which 2 characters are deemed the most "Buy one, get one". Any dynamic, Any relationship, though I do ask to limit it to 2 characters

Zim and Dib from Invader Zim along with any other characters my discord friends suggest will automatically be included.

this is my first poll so forgive me for any mistakes! master post will be posted once all submissions are in.

[least-sexy-man-competition]

You know. I was not expecting to see Invader fucking Zim in a poll like this. Like. Of the many characters that might come to mind as an anti tumble sexy man, a green, homicidal, bug-alien thing was not one of them.

yeahhh

[frankforested]

5 Favorite Characters Poll (Tag Game)

i was tagged by @girlwiththegreenhat

Rules: make a poll with five of your all time favorite characters and then tag five people to do the same. See which character is everyone's favorite.

Tagging: @dolphin-state-of-being-graceful @rose-petal123 @dietrichs-fanclub @douglasdaelquor @hobnob-moth

[marrys-dream-world]

That recent post you reblogged really sheds some light on what's happened to modern media/fandoms. Their argument, to paraphrase, is "media only writes kind women because they don't want to alienate men. I can't imagine the idea that some people actually want kindness rewarded and cruelty punished on principle, because I personally like mean and cruel people, so I think creators/other fans should worship them as well!" No wonder the ML fandom worships Chloe if morality is based only on "I like."

Is this about this post, anon? Because if it is I just don’t see your point.

The post was about how women tend to be stuck in a box where they have to be non-threatening as possible to the male audience and they end up falling flat because they don’t really have any flaws (or they aren’t well addressed at all). OP wasn’t saying that we should be apologists or anything, just that women should be better written (and, as someone who watches shounen, I agree). Women aren’t allowed to be mean or bitchy because they wouldn’t be a fan favorite. Can you imagine a girl with a personality and background like Bakugou’s in bnha being number one on popularity polls? I’m struggling to. It doesn’t have anything to do with the narrative rewarding cruelty for female characters.

The post was about shounen (and honestly, the only heroine that’s not constantly sexualized and is kinda bitchy and bossy and rude while maintaining their popularity that I can think of is Rukia, my beloved, from Bleach), but since I’m lowkey a ML blog, I’m gonna talk about cartoon exemples:

Helga Pataki from Hey Arnold is a staple for mean, rude, bitchy girls. She’s sympathetic and we understand her, even more after the “Helga on The Couch” episodes, but the narrative rarely excuses her actions. When she popularized a newspaper with fake news? She was punished for it. When she told Arnold off for helping the gang with their problems? She was punished for it. When she stole Arnold’s hat for her weird shrine? She was punished for it. The characters, while tolerating her meanness, don’t shy away from taking revenge when they can or dismissing Helga’s (sometimes) good advice for her attitude. She’s a flawed and deep character and the fans adore her because she’s well-written and compelling.

Gaz from Invader Zim isn’t as much of a main character in her show as Helga is in hers, but god, is she a fan favorite. She is mean and stoic and a bit sadistic and none of that detracts from her character. Sure, she’s from Invader Zim from all shows, being unusually mean is a given, but I do appreciate how for all the characters to soften up the grim dark atmosphere of the show (and still fitting very well in it), they didn’t go with making the girl a sweet character, they went with Gir, the robot dog. Even in Florpus, where her character is a little nicer, she’s still very mean and I like it! Sure, she’s never punished for being mean, but who actually is in Invader Zim? No double standards here, at least. (Also, Game Slave 2 slaps, one of the best episodes from the show).

Even Chloé herself! I like that she’s mean and spoiled and annoying, I like her arc in the show and her relationship with other people. The only thing I don’t like is people acting like she’s way less mean than she is or that her actions were not as serious as they were. Nobody cares if you like a mean character, just own it up and when people say “oh, but they are-” just answer with a “I know that, I don’t think they’re right, I just like the character”. I like Lila as a character too and you don’t see me going around defending her actions.

I can even apply the part of the post where they talk about the hype around characters with zero personality to the ML fandom while setting the girls aside. You-know-who barely has any well developed personality before season 4 and is praised for being a great character and superior love interest. Kagami, meanwhile, gets bashed for breathing. I do think that part of it relates to what I was talking about in the above: Kagami isn’t “bitchy” nor “mean”, but she’s blunt and her personality isn’t as accommodating as, say, Rose or Marinette. She’s a bit stoic and has a hard time connecting with people and comes off as rude at times, but is overall a wonderful girl and people still bash her for things like “Frozer” and “Oni-chan” (even though she was akumatized) and, more recently, “Lies”. Ask me if Luka got half that flack for “Wishmaker”.

(Plus, there were a lot of Félix apologists around even though he tried to assault our protagonist but it’s fine because “Chat Noir does it all the time” (?????) and “Félix is not that bad, he’s suffering too.” I’m not joking, the lengths people will go for white male characters while villainizing girls of color, like Alya and Kagami, still astounds me.)

So yeah, anon, I think you got the post’s message a little mixed up.

[m-ziliak]

What got you interested in animation?

Okay, this is gonna be long and it’s gonna involve a lot of Invader Zim. So as a kid I really loved drawing and cartoons. I drew all the time. I’d get in trouble a lot for it as well because I tended to finish my work early and doodle in the margins of my papers. But one particular cartoon changed the way I looked at cartoons as a whole.  I remember the night. It was a spring evening in 2001. Nickelodeon was going to air two “new” cartoons and they had held a poll on their website to see which would air first. It was between Fairly OddParents and Invader Zim. Of course Fairly OddParents won because it was already known from its Oh Yeah! Cartoons segments. (My sister and I quoted those episodes CONSTANTLY.) I was specifically excited to see it become a full half-hour show instead of the short eight or so minute romp it was. I sat down on my bedroom floor and turned the dial (My TV at the time was from the late 70s or so, I have no idea how we hooked it up to cable.) to 45 and enjoyed. It was pretty much the same as before, just longer. Nothing special. I decided to stay for the other cartoon and on came Invader Zim. I was completely engrossed with it. It was dark, it was weird, it was sci-fi and scary and action! I didn’t know cartoons could be like that! All I thought about that week was the chase scene between Zim and Dib. I was interested in cartoons before, but not like this. A cartoon that wasn’t just comedy! Imagine! On top of that it looked so different than everything else, sharp angles, thick linework, dramatic colors. Somehow the art was so much more vivid and darker than other shows at the same time. That was when I really got into cartoons and saw them as a medium instead of a genera. In high school I began to get an interest in comics, beginning a collection of old House of Mystery books and drawing my own really bad comics out on printer paper. I also got really into JtHM. I figured when I went to college I’d go into the illustration major to learn more about that. But two things happened. First, my friend Jessica gave me her box set of Invader Zim DVDs. I figured I’d re-live the show, so I accepted and put them on and saw they had commentary. I wanted to know who was behind a comic I loved at the time and a show I loved as a kid, so I decided to give it a go and I fell in love all over again. They absolutely HATED working with the network on the show, yet they seemed to have so much fun doing it. Making quips about someone forgetting to draw in cars, messing up on a background character, the lighting being off for an entire sequence, it all was exhausting and hilarious at the same time. I wanted to be like them, the people who made cartoons. They were weird and sarcastic, dedicated yet slackers. They seemed like friends, kindred spirits maybe.  And then came an assignment. When I was 13 one of the last assignments of ninth grade was to make a stop-motion movie. Didn’t have to be long, just three minutes or so. I made a witch, a prince and a monster. It was maybe six frames per second and kinda choppy, but the second I saw my characters move, a fire was lit in me. It was absolutely magic. I felt like that was what I was made for and nothing could ever compare to the feeling of seeing something I made come to life. So I went into animation in college. It’s still like that, I still get excited whenever I see a finished animation of mine. I don’t have a scanner at the moment and haven’t for like, a few years now, so I can’t actually finish anything digitally anymore (Which is why I have so many marker drawings on Instagram.) I have a degree in animation now, but studios haven’t liked my stuff. I applied for a good handful of shows but no one’s messaged me back. I even applied to work on the Invader Zim movie, how wonderful would that have been to work on the one thing that got you into animation in the first place? I’m fine with working on comics at the moment, my Oswald one is getting popular. I have a lot of stories I want to tell but it always feels like there’s never enough time. I’d love to get some of these projects over to animation one day but for now I’m okay sketching out one thing at a time.

[lampurple]

An issue with Tumblr fandom and why big name fan blogs were a mistake*

(*the culture of it, obviously) 

Warning long post, but there are definitely some big points at the end in case lengthy reading isn’t your thing.

In lieu of certain situations that happened in the fandom this weekend, there has been a lot of discussion concerning fandom culture and the problems within it.  I originally didn’t want to bring this topic onto my personal blog, or really even publicly acknowledgement because it’s been a very tense topic that has led to multiple backlashes, hate mail, and negativity.  I think most of the reason I’m changing my mind and even talking about this freely is to clear a sort of conscious.  It’s probably because the OP of the post that got the ball rolling so to speak is a dear friend of mine and while it’s been decided there are some things that could have been adjusted, it’s a topic that has been tirelessly making rounds in the form of frustrated discussions not limited to one person, or even people that are connected to each other at all, except for sharing similar opinions with varying degrees of emotion.  So I feel guilty for not talking about it, especially from a less popular blog’s view, and I realize this might entice some ill feeling toward me from others, not just from random people on the website, but even from people I have at one time or another shared personal stories with, people who know me and have been kind to me, but have taken a stance when it came to what happened.  Stances I may not agree with but I don’t blame them for.

I’m not going to focus on the post’s topic itself.  That’s just a speck of the bigger issue in the fandom that isn’t targeted at a few person group, but a much larger population.  It ignited a conversation that, while I’ve talked about in private before, had me open my eyes a little wider exactly how bad it has gotten and that I hope something can change soon.

My opinions on the poll itself are null, because I’ve long decided against taking it for reasons people can already assume.  I will say that it presented an evolution of tension as it continued, albeit with the intention of being a fun event, and it is a popular event that sprouted intellectual feedback.  And I am not against fandom activity whatsoever, and I definitely believe that you are in charge of consenting to your media intake.  That means ignoring things that you don’t like and gravitating to things you do like.  But sometimes that can mean talking about personal issues in the fandom, be it ranting aloud, salting with friends, or making long rambling posts that people may or may not read at all.  So, I’m gonna do that now.

Something I found progressively uncomfortable when involving myself with fandom is this self-building structure of blogs that sorted themselves as analyzers.  At first, it was a good high for me.  As it still stands, I really enjoy picking apart a character, finding meaning in the plot, predicting what may happen next, sometimes criticizing what has happened and wondering if it may lead to something more acceptable.  Ultimately, meta relies on perspective with some evidence from a source material.  Those who create meta and focus on canon are thought as academics, “smart” fans that are good with words and probably had strong literature skills in school.  A lot of big blogs in this fandom are meta bloggers.  Which is great when you want to know a variety of different interpretations of a scene or quote.  Except tumblr as a website has an issue when it comes to information-heavy blogs.  While they get a lot of support, a weird thing happens that has the populace of these blogs see such blogs as law, specifically big blogs.  This isn’t just a fandom thing!  This is a Tumblr problem!  And it bleeds into the very issue that has been brought to light most recently.

I’ve been in fandom since I was in middle school.  I have been obsessed with Danny Phantom, Wolf’s Rain, Invader Zim...my first real meta experience was with Avatar the Last Airbender and it was coincidentally my first experience to shipping fandom (not isolated to the friends I’ve talked to).  Tumblr was not a platform I used, obviously.  And while issues did happen, and ATLA had its big Zutara vs Kataang war (to which I was an avid 13-year-old Zutara fan), it did not have the same toxicity in those forums, livejournals, boards, etc.  Maybe it was just easy to avoid and find your own niche, but I believe that the way Tumblr is laid out both visually and categorically is responsible for fandom tension.  Everything seems to be in one place and conversations pile on top of each other.  It’s good for sharing creations, news, and memes.  It leads to issues when it comes to analyzing.  This applies to ship involvement in analysis, as well.

I’m not saying that shipping analysis can’t be a thing and I’m not saying that meta-analysts should separate themselves from shipping fandom (god knows I’ve done SO many OTP squabbles when looking at canon material).  What I am saying is that there is an overlapping issue when it comes to big blogs, specifically meta blogs, that share an interest in a ship.  They have every right to talk about it, they have every right to have it at all.  Big blogs have an actual human with personal interests behind them.  The issue lies in how it is perceived by their followers, which leads to how it is perceived by their not-so-big fans, and that has resulted into the post that brought it all from the dirt.  Big blogs are unintentional in forming a following that seemingly worships them because A) they are popular and B) they are confident in their answers and C) they are probably well-educated.  There is nothing wrong with a role model, but Tumblr as a website with its method of sharing from blog and blog and recommended popular blogs and giving them top dash when someone wants to search for a keyword, so then it forms a community that is faced with the content of specific people.  That’s how you get big blogs.  And some of it is luck and good history.  A lot of it is persuasive speech and confidence (with visuals, always with visuals!).  Tumblr platform almost always guarantees BNFs will get a passionately supportive fan group, but sometimes it can get excessive.  It’s something you have to be aware of when you want a lot of followers.  Being a less popular blog though in the past having a relatively steady following, I’m aware of the way bigger blogs affect their followers and other little blogs.  Whatever their opinion is, they are “right.”

How does this affect shipping fandom though?  The issue is, BNFs being just human in reality, they have a right to share their shipping preference and sometimes they do.  Unfortunately, this bleeds into the fanbase and suddenly talking about a ship must be “law” as well.  It’s not really the big bloggers fault.  They love what they love and it’s great to share.  The problem lies within the aggressiveness of their followers.  Tumblr is infamous for its mob mentality because of post subjects merely being separated by tags and...yeah that’s about it?  Shippers of the BNF’s ship feel ever more justified and confident.  Good for you, you get extra meta material!  No seriously, sometimes it’s a beautiful thing to see someone popular say good things about your OTP.  I have personally experienced this proudness when I see people I look up to taking an interest in something I am into.  And evidence that supports their canon relationship???  Yes, I’d feel pretty validated too (ah the irony tbh).  But again, mob mentality Tumblr strikes.  If you dare have a different opinion than a BNF?  You are probably stupid.  Have a different OTP than a BNF?  You’re probably delusional.  Mentally, as much as people can try to ignore it the best they can, they are inevitably going to run into it again.  Suddenly consenting to your media intake gets a lot harder.

What is a good combatant to this problem?  Diversity in BNFs with different opinions, maybe opposing to others, though still in good peace with one another.  Otherwise, there isn’t much of a way to change it.  The problem that started happening with SnK’s meta-fandom BNFs?  Sudden lack of that diversity.  And here is where I call it out without giving names to groups (and this isn’t targeted at individuals, I am talking groups): a lot of respected big blogger role models are generally in the same ship fandom.  Not their fault, really.  Again, it’s tumblr format that keeps putting their information as a highlight.  It’s not that those in other ship fandoms aren’t capable of being meta bloggers, in fact, they do exist, but it is significantly harder to get a name out there because you have the biggest ones you have to stand next too, often time they will outshine the little guys, and worst of all, their ship fandom will belittle you for your content.  This isn’t just pointing fingers at one ship here, this will happen to multiple ships by multiple ships.  Every ship has a rival, but once you start adding analysis in there, not it’s not just artists and writers and graphic makers building their fandom with entertainment and users gushing about their OTP moments, and it’s not even at the same scale as someone saying “your ship sucks.”  Suddenly, people start thinking you are arguing with a truth.  And when you argue with a truth, you have clearly lost your mind and are not to be taken seriously.

I have seen so many damn times someone of one ship (do I have to get specific here?  But I’ve seen it from a few ship names) not just talking trash about a rival ship, but if a blogger wanted to talk about the characters critically, they are suddenly “not allowed to do that.”  Even if the blogger posts about it and gains a bit of a following, they are given an instant label of “dumbass” and if they were to disagree with a BNF’s opinions, the small (probably new) blog is delusional, not smart, ships something different, likes a character that a BNF criticized, and therefore not worthy of being acknowledged except to pick fun at.  It is really damn annoying!  You can ignore hate, but there isn’t much stopping getting through the thick blanket that BNFs are shrouded in with an isolated aura of “rightness.”  Again, this isn’t really the big blogger’s fault and they aren’t always gatekeepers of the fandom; sometimes people make them seem that way.

What is a common BNF problem, though?  Again, not applicable to all, but pretentiousness and cliqueness occurs.  Keep in mind, I’m speaking from a small blogger’s perspective.  And I have been in a cliquey ship fandom/meta group in a different fandom, albeit not huge but a decent following at the time when tags were sorted by recent upload and not most viewed.  This happens!  And it’s a problem when there is no diversity within them.  BNFs are only just people and sometimes there is distrust to speak to smaller bloggers with the fear of being taken for granted for their fame.  No one wants to be talked to just because they are famous.  They start gravitated to those with similar interest as well as similar fandom influence.  This isn’t to say they aren’t genuine friends.  In my fandom clique days, we really were good friends and talked about personal things besides our ships and meta and pixiv artists, etc.  But we were specific on who to allow in the circle because we knew there were people who didn’t care for our opinions and our sureness, and we knew there were people who only wanted to be friends because they wanted a boost in their follower count.  Both of which were unappealing and didn’t make me feel that good.  I’ve since humbled and appreciated genuine interactions more when I entered this big fandom.  I missed the constant interaction, but admittedly the worship gets into your head.  There is definitely an awareness of responsibility the more well known you are.  This does happen to creative content creators, but drama happens most surrounding canon meta blogs.  It is common that BNFs will reblog from one another and pay less mind to smaller bloggers, especially if they have different opinions.  This creates as assumption that a big blogger only acknowledges other bloggers if they are “smart.”  It’s not to say BNFs of a “rival ship” aren’t able to meta or don’t have a lot of attention (hence “big name fan”), but the saturation of one side can intimidate and often silence the other from speaking up, and having to walk on eggshells to talk about what they want.

In the case of the poll, someone deviated from that and...well, look what happened.  Says a lot about a fandom so ready to tear someone apart without being aware of what the true issue at hand is.  It came from a post about a poll, saying it was biased, but ultimately cried out frustration with how certain fans do not take other fans seriously because their opinions clash with a popular blog’s preferences.  This is one incident.  This has been a growing tension that festered in PMs or bitterness to ships that would have not had any had it not been for poor fandom interaction or simply doing nothing and trying to block and ignore-- and it blew up.  It was bound to by someone!  Whether the method was well done, brave, cruel, whatever, it doesn’t matter!  It’s an outcry of what smaller blogs with different opinions think.  That they can’t have any positive influence in their beloved fandom because they are so continuously overshadowing, dominated, sometimes indirectly name-called, vagueblogged about, and that is so so frustrating!

To put it personally as an example, I’m an Ereri shipper.  I multiship, of course, but the first thing people are gonna notice when they come onto my blog is that one of my main ships is Eren and Levi.  Okay, cool, it’s a BIG ship, it’s got a reputation (much sorrow to my tied fav MikasaxLevi because I wish it got just as much content for what its potential is).  I’ve talked about my ship in meta format before.  I just love doing that.  I have gotten snide remarks and vagueblogged about it enough where it seemed nearly everything I was saying was on mute.  I gained very little momentum, which I guess is good because that’s less drama had I been a bigger blog.  And then I saw bigger blogs writing meta that had the same interests!  Cool!  But suddenly, a similar attitude happens.  People of a rival ship who HATE one of the characters because it gets in the way of their own ship and/or people who claim you can’t analyze one character at all because either they are involved in a ship they hate and they see you stupid for it, or their counterpart character is not involved and therefore you cannot touch them.  For example, and even relating to this case, I am an Ereri shipper that will get harassed by (not all) Eruri shippers and everything I say about Levi and his relationships with anybody (not just Eren!) is wrong, and my interpretation of his and Erwin’s relationship in the main series is wrong, and I can’t even enjoy Erwin as a character as much as I want because either I’m wrong or a fake fan, or both.  Imagine wanting to genuinely like a character or relationship, whether or not they will become a favorite, and immediately getting shot down or ignored by those who see what you ship.  Imagine having your intelligence reduced to a single interest so trivial that you can’t get a word in without someone saying you are stupid.  Again, that bitterness festers in silence because talking about it will just bring them right to you.  “Just block.”  “It’s not important.”  “Blacklist.”  Okay, but that still fixes nothing other than limiting your exposure, which is not foolproof.  I shouldn’t have to justify why I like a ship or character just to be taken seriously.  Why is there a sudden assumption that if I like, for example, Ereri, or even Rivamika, I am not worthy of being taken seriously?  Why is it if I like problematic characters that it makes me either stupid or a bad person?  This is a big fucking problem!

So what is the point at all?  Something I noticed that happened along with my friend’s post is a number of messages, anonymous because they are likely too afraid of the backlash at them and cannot handle that, that breathed a sigh of relief and said “finally.”  Finally it is out in the open.  Finally someone pointed it out in a burst of emotion in the most simple and single way.  Yeah, it was flared up and yeah it had a specific focus, but there is a bigger picture that other people are finally discussing out in the open and that is there is biased disguised as law in the fandom and there are a lot of people who use “it’s canon” as if it is a justification for their own harassment or empowerment (by the way “it’s canon” doesn’t mean “healthy” or “toxic” or any other adjectives other than “it happened”).  People who sought the topic as taboo have permission to speak their mind, some adding onto what was said, some making passive posts, etc.  I’m not expecting a big change to happen, but I am hoping that people will become less apprehensive and more sure of themselves that they aren’t alone in an opinion, and that there are groups that are not BNFs and who disagree with them, and that can be shared healthily and publicly.

However, ridicule will happen and I won’t be surprised if I’ll be debated (or ignored) here.  But like I said, I wanted to say something to clear a conscious, because I definitely have whispered bitterly about specific events and broad issues, which in a butterfly effect turns into the talk that happens here and there.  And it’s cool if people want to avoid the topic altogether.  Meta isn’t for everyone and honestly sometimes I wish I wasn’t so into it so I can play the fandom game more carefree (I guess being an artist, it gives me some escapism, though, so at least I’m not consumed by meta or salt all the time).  But I think this is a piece of awareness, this entire situation, that people should look at.  Maybe something will change.  Maybe it won’t.  This is all pointing out what I, as a not as popular blogger, feel, and how BNF of the meta groups are perceived.  While I’m not saying to what extent I agree with the performance of my friend’s post other than I was definitely charged at the time, I feel guilty for keeping it in when others became more and more open with their thoughts, and I know it hurt people and it severed relationships, but I believe that if it’s something such as validating your self-worth, even in something so fictional, then it is worth the sacrifice and burning of bridges.

Things to consider and maybe understand:

Big Name Fans, big bloggers, are only human.  That said, as humans, they are prone to biases, and they have a right to their opinion.  Fandom, consider this when reading meta and figure out if you can accept that.  Realize that they are human with human error, human interest, and personal opinions.  There is literally no reason to take it as law.  Meta isn’t a truth, it is an interpretation.  Everyone has one.  Sometimes BNFs are not always right or they are not always wrong, and most of the time they are neither.

Big bloggers, you do have a HUGE influence on your fanbase, and even being just big on Tumblr, you are automatically recognized in other platforms.  Wherever tumblr content can be shared, if it is shared as a reference, your name is attached.  You are human and you make human mistakes and you have your own opinions.  But be aware that certain actions you do can and will influence your specific fanbase.  How you interact and the people you interact with can be seen by anyone if it is in public, and people are entitled to their impression of you.  It’s unfair that you have to consider your interactions and it’s unfair that people put you on such a high pedestal because of chance and charisma, but don’t be surprised if you involve yourself in something controversial such as ship talk (especially in SnK HOLY MOLY) and get frustrated glares your way.

Frustrated smaller blogs, with this I hope this encourages more voices and opinions, or at least the comfort in the knowledge that you aren’t always alone in your thinking.  You can talk privately or publicly, but you are not delusional for thinking something in your fandom experience is not quite right.  If you can fix it, great.  I highly recommend that if you see a problem, you create a better, improved version of it, something that satisfies you and your group.  It might seem like there is a segregation, but it brings peace to know that you can participate in separate groups.  Create and contribute!  Sulking in silence won’t change anything.

Hate will always come with revelation of opinion, and it’s up to you whether you can accept what they say, or if you honestly want to take a step back and look at yourself and see if there is something that might need to be changed.  Regardless, let the final person you become someone you are proud of showing to others.

OH MY GOD shippers of one ship should be able to analyze a character in their rival ship or characters within their ship without having to get paranoid of people ripping apart their self-worth!  They and you are worthy of talking about any topic in the series, character, ship, plot, setting, etc.

Seriously, stop the mob mentality!

I think that’s it.  Sorry for the length, but it’s been in my head for days...I hope the tension itself can find a healthier outlet.  I’m not so sure, but it’s a hope at least.  But who knows, maybe you are interpreting this whole situation differently...