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mariacallous · 2 years

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Almost a year after Russian tanks first began rolling over the border into Ukraine, a war many expected would be over within a month continues to grind on. It’s grimly reminiscent of European conflicts of the 20th century—but it’s also the first war in history where both sides have made extensive use of cheap, startlingly effective small drones, the kind that can be bought at electronics stores or built with simple hobby kits.

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion, I knew two things for sure. First, that Ukraine was going to stun the world with what it could do with small do-it-yourself and consumer drones, a skillset that their drone hobbyists and tech experts had been tirelessly expanding ever since Russia’s earlier invasion in 2014 – efforts led by now-famous volunteer drone organizations like Aerorozvidka, whose members had become some of the world’s premier experts on building, modifying, and using small, cheap drones in warfare. Second, I knew that as an expert in both consumer and hobby drones, I was going to do my best to document what happened next.

As Russia’s ill-fated 40-mile mechanized convoy headed toward Kyiv in early March, a week into the invasion—a convoy that we now know was stopped in large part due to night attacks by Aerorozvidka’s DIY, crowdfunded drones—I created a publicly available Google Sheets database, a place where I could store and classify information related to small drones in the Ukraine war. My goal wasn’t to collect a scientific, or truly representative, sample of drone use in the war. Instead, it was to compile as much publicly available data as I could find, to assemble as many snippets in one place as I could of a large story.

To hunt down these examples of drones in action, I began to monitor hundreds of Telegram channels, Facebook groups, YouTube channels, media websites, and a sea of Twitter open-source intelligence accounts for war updates, relying on Google Translate and assists from Russian and Ukrainian-speaking friends to verify what I was seeing. For each example of how small drones were being used in the war, I compiled link and source information, wrote up brief text descriptions of the materials, attempted to identify specific drone models and locations (when possible), and assigned keywords linked to how the drone was being used. I also began documenting as much raw material of drone use—including videos, photographs, and websites—as I could, in multiple storage locations. I’d then be able to share my data with other researchers, analysts, and investigators down the line.

Now, as I write this in February 2023, I’ve collected, categorized, and contemplated nearly 900 examples of how both Ukrainians and Russians are using small drones in the war. Here are some of the lessons that have become clear.

One company dominates the market. In early 2013, Chinese drone hobby company DJI released the Phantom 1, one of the first out-of-the-box consumer drones that a total novice could use to take aerial photos. Today, DJI is the overwhelming global king of the consumer-drone market, selling extremely affordable, sophisticated, and easy-to-use products that are useful for everything from construction mapping to filmmaking—whose positive attributes tend to overshadow ongoing controversies about just how secure these Chinese-made drones really are. And much to DJI’s irritation, the affordability and accessibility that make their drones so appealing to civilians are also very attractive to soldiers.

Per my database, DJI drones are by far the most popular drones in the Ukraine war, used (and demanded) by fighters far more than any other drone type: Out of the 463 drone incident entries in which I could positively identify the drone being used, it was a DJI product 59 percent of the time. DJI’s foldable, lightweight, and widely available Mavic model has become so beloved that in August 2022, Yuri Baluyevsky, former chief of the general staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, went so far as to call it a “a true symbol of modern warfare,” prompting a fierce, fruitless pushback from both Chinese social media users and DJI itself.

Ukrainians and Russians certainly aren’t pleased about their reliance on a single product made by a Chinese company, as the controversy early in the war around DJI’s proprietary AeroScope drone-tracking system (a system intended for civilian security organizations, and which remains in use in the war by both sides), and persistent consumer drone shortages and price hikes in Russia, after DJI pulled out of the market there, have highlighted.

Combatants are also acutely aware that DJI does have the capacity to remotely geofence drones it produces so that they will become considerably harder to operate within both Ukraine and Russia—a power the company used in 2017 in Iraq and Syria but has so far declined to exercise in the current conflict. But there are few viable choices that match the easy availability, cheap price, and ease of use that DJI offers, and despite Russia’s claims to the contrary, it’s unlikely they’ll be able to develop a DJI-killer where the rest of the world has failed so far.

The non-DJI consumer and DIY drones used by fighters in the Ukraine war are a much more diverse bunch, including popular but hard-to-find quadcopters made by China’s Autel, inexpensive but widely scorned Chinese DJI knockoffs sold on platforms like AliExpress, and custom-built drones (ranging in size from tiny to hefty) produced in relatively small quantities by hobbyist-founded organizations such as Ukraine’s Aerorozvidka. And although a number of small U.S. and European drone companies made highly publicized donations of their own aircraft to Ukraine at the start of the war, I still have yet to come across any open-source evidence of their actual use on the battlefield.

This is a volunteer drone war. In both Russia and Ukraine, people with prior drone industry (and drone hobby) experience have volunteered for the war effort, both to fly drones themselves and to provide training and technical support to others, Volunteers also work to obtain drones for fighters on the frontlines. While both Ukraine and Russia are working furiously to spin up their own in-country drone-manufacturing projects, they still need access to huge quantities of consumer, off-the-shelf drones, as well as hobby-grade drone components (which are almost all produced in China). But DJI says that it does not “market or sell our products for combat operations”, and as of April 2022, the company doesn’t officially sell its products in Ukraine or Russia, either.

But DJI does still sell drones to civilians just about everywhere else, which means that in an odd turn of events, the majority of small consumer and DIY drones flying over Ukraine are sourced and paid for not by governments, but by donors on the internet. Today, a small army of volunteers from both Ukraine and Russia raises funds from sympathetic people on social media (often using crypto), uses the cash to buy consumer drones second-hand from civilian sources, and then transports the aircraft through the border into the war zone. The fact that DJI drones are explicitly sold as consumer, non-military products also makes them much easier to transport across international borders than more heavily controlled, explicitly military technologies—a situation in which Ukraine enjoys a strategic advantage. While it’s been relatively simple for friendly countries to funnel DJI drones across the border in the direction of Kyiv (a process the Ukrainian government made even easier), Russia was already reporting punishing shortages of consumer drones by June 2022.

Ukraine’s drone procurement efforts continue to get more sophisticated. In July 2022, Ukrainian officials partnered with the United24 fundraising platform on the Army of Drones project, an effort to direct drone-focused cashflow to the Ukrainian military. Within three months, the project claimed that it had raised enough cash to purchase 1,400 drones, including numerous consumer-level products.

The picture looks similar in Russia, where a parallel universe of often Telegram-based fundraisers and donations, popped up as soon as it became apparent that the war wasn’t going to be over in a few short weeks – and now supply everything from clean underwear to drones to Russian soldiers on the frontline. However, these online fundraising efforts are not always well-regulated: in one memorable case, a Ukrainian group claimed to have tricked Russian donors into paying for a drone for their side, instead. Just like in Ukraine, these Russian volunteer groups continue to furiously fundraise and to send drones to the frontline today, adapting their requests as the war changes. Calls for parts for explosive FPV “kamikaze” drones, and money to train their pilots, are now very much in vogue, although some Russian commentators lament what they perceive as a lack of official support for kamikaze drone parity. While Russian officials came to embrace the role of small drones in modern warfare over the last year—including training centers, an officially-permitted conference for consumer combat drone pilots in late 2022, and an endorsement from President Vladimir Putin himself—the military’s use of DIY drones and consumer drones made by Chinese sources remains in something of an uncomfortable gray area, as the nation scrambles to create a viable Russian-made replacement.

So what are all these for? Drones are really just flying cameras with pretensions, and what they’re most useful for is looking at things, gaining a perspective you can’t get from the ground, with an intimacy and stealth that planes can’t match. The vast majority of the drone-use cases in my database revolve around documentation, surveillance: tools that fighters can use to figure out where they are, who’s in the area around them, and to project that information out to the rest of the world. Ukrainian fighters regularly stream data feeds from consumer drones back to centralized command centers, often relying upon tools as mundane as Google Meet.

In particular, drones are incredibly useful for targeting artillery strikes. Both Ukrainian and Russian fighters have reported using small drones to help them precisely identify targets, taking advantage of relatively cheap drones equipped with hybrid zoom cameras and the ability to send accurate latitude-longitude coordinates back to both centralized command centers and pilots on the ground. At night, drone pilots take advantage of small drones equipped with thermal sensors, devices that are widely used in the civilian world for tasks such as infrastructure inspection, farming, and search and rescue.

They’re also a PR tool. Hundreds of war-focused Telegram channels, YouTube accounts, and Facebook pages, maintained by people on both the Russian and Ukrainian side of the conflict, now post dozens and dozens of battlefield videos collected by drones every day—dramatic footage that is constantly replayed by the global news media, shaping narratives and opinions.

Not all of this drone video footage is posted by combatants. Drones have become a key part of the war correspondent toolbox, and international news crews have captured huge quantities of drone footage from the front lines. Western journalists used drones to depict massive damage to civilian structures in Kyiv during the early stages of the invasion, civilians’ torturous flight over the destroyed Irpin bridge, and vast numbers of newly dug graves in the same town after its recapture. Meanwhile, Russian Telegram-famous war correspondents regularly capture intense war footage, shot during their embeds with front-line fighters. The world is seeing the Ukraine war through the gimbal-mounted digital eye of a drone: the first war everyone can follow from the god’s-eye perspective of a flying, zoom-lens-equipped camera hovering hundreds of feet over the bloodshed.

While drones are best for looking at things, they’re also pretty good at dropping explosives. At the very start of the war, the vast majority of small-drone bombing videos on social media came from Ukraine’s Aerorozvidka unit, which used custom-built, thermal-sensor-equipped, eight-armed multirotor drones to precisely drop modified, often Soviet-era, grenades onto Russian equipment. By late April, Telegram channels began to fill up with more videos of daytime drone grenade attacks on Russian positions—and increasingly, those grenades were being dropped by DJI drones equipped with 3D-printed dropper devices, which can be ordered in bulk on AliExpress. By June 2022, Russian fighters, who have consistently had to struggle to catch up to Ukraine’s mastery of small-drone tactics (and who complain surprisingly often in public about the lack of official support for their small-drone efforts) had also begun to post their own regular drumbeat of videos of bombing runs on Ukrainian positions.

Innovation has marched on ever since, including a Ukrainian-produced quadcopter rig that can carry six 82 mm mortar bombs, and, as of early 2023, a profusion of new ultra-fast FPV (first-person view) kit-built drones originally intended for racing, which Ukrainian fighters have turned into suicide bombs. However, these tiny kamikaze drones are much harder to fly than standard consumer drones, have a battery life of approximately five minutes, and can only land by crashing into something, meaning that pilots must be well-trained to make use of them. Some Russian front-line fighters are currently attempting to catch up to Ukraine’s FPV drone tactics as well, albeit with relatively limited results thus far.

At the start of the war, quite a few pundits assumed Russia’s sophisticated electronic-warfare devices would swiftly render Ukraine’s consumer drones completely useless. While this hasn’t happened, electronic-warfare tactics remain a constant threat to combatants on both sides. Drone pilots must take part in a constant arms race to outsmart each other’s drone-catching tools and tricks, like one popular hack, used by both sides, that makes it much harder for DJI’s proprietary AeroScope drone-detection tool to spot a “” (IE, hacked) drone—and DJI, for its part, regularly updates its firmware in an attempt to shut these hacker solutions down.

While Russia’s electronic-warfare systems may not be as infallible as previously assumed, a Royal United Services Institute study published in November 2022 still estimated that the average life span of a Ukrainian quadcopter ran to about three flights, largely due to enemy tactics that either disrupted the drone’s communications or successfully struck the drone pilot on the ground. Ukrainians, too, have taken advantage of tools capable of interrupting consumer drone signals, such as the Lithuanian-made EDM4S anti-drone jammer.

In one example from August, Russian journalist Alexander Sladkov, embedded with Russian fighters near Maryinka, filmed as an increasingly unhappy-looking DJI Mavic pilot realized that his drone’s signals had been disrupted by Ukrainian weapons. The group was forced to swiftly flee the scene, as they suspected the Ukrainians would use the drone’s data to slam artillery right into where they were standing. Not all counter-drone methods are high tech: In one recent case, a Russian fighter who’d already lost DJI drones to Ukrainian hijacking tactics attempted to use an extremely long piece of string to leash his drone to him in the air. To his displeasure, he got the string caught in the drone’s motors instead.

Then there’s machine-assisted surrender. In late November 2022, a Russian Wagner fighter surrendered not to a human, but to a drone. As the aerial camera watched, he threw down his weapon and began walking in the direction of Ukrainian lines—and he lived to tell the tale for Telegram. Ukraine quickly capitalized on the video’s popularity and began posting detailed instructions on how to surrender to a drone for Russian fighters, part of the evocatively named “I Want to Live” project. Both Russians and Ukrainians have also used drones to shoot video of fighters surrendering to other humans, which they then post to social media. This aerial footage may violate the Geneva Convention’s rules against exposing prisoners of war to “public curiosity.”

Drones can even help rescue—and kidnap—other drones. Consider a video from January of this year, in which Ukrainian pilots embarked on a mission to “Save Private Mavic”: They managed to safely retrieve their drone in hostile territory by sending out two other drones, equipped with hooks, to grab the fallen soldier and fly it out again. Drones can even be used for rather direct acts of espionage. In January, Ukrainian fighters used a hook-carrying DJI drone to remotely grab a Russian walkie-talkie that had been abandoned on the battlefield. They claimed they were able to then listen in on Russian communications for nine days.

One massively hyped possible job for small drones, though, is missing from my database: delivery. Despite breathless pundit speculation and splashy press releases from smaller drone companies announcing delivery-drone equipment donations to the Ukrainians, I have yet to see any evidence of drones being used to deliver objects other than explosives in any meaningful way. Well, unless you count that time a few weeks ago when a Ukrainian drone pilot repurposed a drone to drop off some sugar—which, while charming, is a long way off from the massive humanitarian aid drone lifts some people expected to see.

War crimes investigators, too, are using drones as data-collection tools. Early in the war, drones piloted by Ukrainians captured video of the alleged murder of a civilian driver outside Kyiv and footage of bodies lying in the streets of Bucha. This information may very well play a part in criminal investigations to come (although figuring out how drone data and other open-source information may be used as evidence in war crimes trials remains a work in progress). French investigators reportedly used drones to capture images of parts of Bucha soon after the Russians departed and appear to have been using the same techniques in Chernihiv. However, civilians who use drones in war zones need to be careful: As I’ve written for the International Committee of the Red Cross, small drones continue to exist in an uncertain space in international humanitarian law, and we still lack real mechanisms for telling friend-drone from foe-drone way up in the air.

What does 2023 hold for the small drones buzzing over the war in Ukraine? Almost certainly, small consumer and DIY drones will continue to pour into the conflict zone in ever-increasing numbers, and combatants on both sides will continue to become more skilled at building them, modifying them, and teaching growing numbers of soldiers how to use them. While both sides are working tirelessly on developing better electronic-warfare techniques to take down drones, it seems unlikely (at least right now) that a tactic that changes the game so much that small, cheap drones will be rendered suddenly irrelevant will be introduced soon.

The skies over 21st-century battlefields are going to be filled with dirt-cheap and startlingly effective eyes in the sky for a very long time to come. However, both Ukraine’s and Russia’s drone armies face a threat that may be unique in the history of modern warfare: A private Chinese company, DJI, holds the power to make their aircraft much more difficult to use and could exercise it at any time. And while efforts to replace DJI are underway around the world, none are at a point where they could seamlessly take over in the unlikely—albeit real—event that the company does make a move. As Beijing and Washington tussle over the watchers in their own skies, soldiers and analysts in the Ukraine war will doubtlessly be watching relations between China and the West this year with very close interest indeed.

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brooklyn-alley-ratcat · 2 years

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Never thought my most popular post would be about Baffy but here we are

#baffy #Baffy 2022 Canon #I’ve been here since 2013/2014 and THIS is my most popular???#I don’t know if I should be proud or crying in fetal position over this knowledge #daffy x bugs #bugs x daffy #bugs bunny x daffy duck #bugs bunny #daffy duck #looney tunes #brooklyn rants #brooklyn not nyc #Baffy canon 2022

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bedlamsbard · 2 years

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Oh, apparently it’s been a minute since I said this the last time:

The Ouroboros series and the third story, All Along the Watchtower, are permanently on hold because over the past nine years I’ve gotten so many nasty comments on Wake the Storm and Queen’s Gambit that the idea of working in that series or with those characters again makes me literally sick to my stomach.

You can see a sampling of things people have said about them here, here, and in my talking about feedback in public tag generally. I’ve been in fandom for over twenty years: these were not my first fanfics, I’d been in fandom for well over a decade by the time I wrote Wake. I’ve gotten every kind of comment under the sun since my LJ and forum days (I came in at the point where listservs were on their way out). Wake is coming up on its nine year anniversary at the end of this year (I wrote the first chapter in November 2013), Gambit will be eight years old next year (first chapter posted March 2014); to this day I still get something on the order of one really nasty comment a month, every two months, which doesn’t sound like much until you realize it’s been happening for nearly nine years.

I’m sorry to everyone who likes those stories, I get way more positive comments than I get negative ones; I consistently get more comments on Wake and Gambit than I get anything else including my active WIPs, Wake is my most popular fic by a long shot; I will never touch this series again.

#every time I sit down to write there's a tiny portion of my brain dedicated to making sure I never ever get the response wake/gambit got #a lot of people who write those comments delete them later but like...I still get the notifications and I Remember #and it's TEENY-TINY STUFF #it's not just the big things!#talking about feedback in public #ouroboros #all along the watchtower

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taylorswiftstyle · 3 years

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Taylor Swift Style Turns Ten 10x10: Awards

Red carpet moments are one of the most fun parts of TSS - documenting Taylor at her most glamourous in designer ‘fits is a rush like no other. Since 2006, Taylor has attended approximately 117 award shows.

In order to make it all the way down to just ten lewks I had to be super choosy and nitpicky - just wait for the candids list to see how hard that was.

Organized in chronological order.

2010 Academy of Country Music Awards: Marchesa gown / Neil Lane Jewelry / Christian Louboutin heels. This lewk is still just as delightful now as it was on Taylor over a decade ago. This enchanting light purple colour, the way the appliques move from one shoulder to its opposite bottom corner to falls in a way to keep your eye moving and is beautiful. The softly curled updo (a go-to of early days Taylor) and simple drop diamond earrings were lovely and soft finishing touches.

2011 Academy of Country Music Awards: Elie Saab gown / Neil Lane jewelry. We all know I can’t resist a Blondes In Yellow™ moment. Nothing about this appearance is overcooked in any way. The tumbling softly brushed out curls, the minimal makeup and jewelry. It allows the buttery yellow gown to shine and it offsets her skin really beautifully. Classy and understated.

2011 Country Music Association Awards: J. Mendel gown / Lorraine Schwartz jewelry. A criminally underrated lewk. I’ve always had a soft spot for the graceful and gentle dove grey gown Taylor wore to the 2011 CMAs. In part because we’ve never seen her after that in a colour quite like this on the red carpet. The pink lip brightens up what otherwise could have read as a somber grey gown.

2012 Academy of Country Music Awards: J. Mendel gown / Lorraine Schwartz jewelry / Christian Louboutin sandals. I still gush over this. Given the presence of three column gowns on this list I guess it isn’t a surprise that this is one of my favourite silhouettes on Taylor. Everything about this look from the smoky makeup, the ashy blonde hair, the gold accents, the modern cut outs, the crisp white all has me swooning. I think really it’s the hair and beauty that really send me over the edge.

2013 BRITs: Elie Saab gown / Neil Lane jewelry / Giuseppe Zanotti sandals. Another trend I’m noticing in these favourites is her full fringe and a polished blow out that draws me in. As I’ve mentioned, these lists are about head to toe perfection. Those shard drop earrings and how they tie in to the metallic accents of the belt and snaky sandals are beautiful and again keep the eye moving throughout the look. More smouldering makeup and a combination of a neutral with hits of gold has my full heart. She looked so hot here.

2013 NRJ: Elie Saab dress / Ofira + Lorraine Schwartz jewelry / Jimmy Choo sandals. Of all the lewks, this is the one that is likely the most surprising. But in going over her appearances that I loved, I kept coming back to this one and dubbed it as the best of her minis. The fit, the embellishments, the fun earrings, and perfectly selected sandals that mimic the texture of the dress. And again that smoky makeup and polished blowout combination I apparently find irresistible. This was a well-styled and signature sparkly Taylor in a gold or silver sparkly mini from head-to-toe.

2013 People’s Choice Awards: Ralph Lauren gown / Sutra earrings / Le Vian ring / Christian Louboutin pumps. Another underrated moment that is a prime example of how styling can elevate even the simplest of looks. This otherwise plain white plunging Ralph Lauren gown didn’t have much going for it until it was paired with stunning aqua earrings by Sutra, a teased updo to give that plunge nothing to compete with, and smoky brown shadow. This was a very mature and well-handled moment of what could have otherwise been an unremarkable gown.

2014 American Music Awards: Michael Kors gown / Chimento earrings / Le Vian + Casa Reale rings / Jimmy Choo sandals. I recognize that this may not be the most popular of my Top 10 choices but it’s the TSS Top 10 which means it’s mine damnit and I say Taylor Swift in gree(eeeeeee)n goes in the Top 10. I think my favourite styling moment is the way the cut of the ring mimics the shape of the illusion bodice. Otherwise, the playful bob and the excellent cut of this gown really allows the beautiful colour and modern cutouts to shine.

2014 Grammys: Gucci Première gown / Lorraine Schwartz jewelry / Jimmy Choo sandals. This Grammy look. Periodt. I’m obsessed with the tailoring of this gown, the execution of ‘sparkles’ that somehow feel more mature than her princess sparkle days of yore, the way the kicky ponytail prevents that mature take on glitter from aging her, the fresh pink lip keeping things from being too stale, the geometric diamond earrings mimicking the design at the collar and cuffs of the dress, and the smoky silver shadow to correspond with her silver gown. Plus that inner eye shadow pop! Perfectly done.

2019 MTV Video Music Awards: Versace blazer + bodysuit / Lorraine Schwartz earrings / Lorraine Schwartz + Ofira jewelry / Christian Louboutin boots. The appearance of this lewk in the Top 10 surprised me too but I guess that’s the power of a pair of thigh high boots and green earrings. I would go so far as to argue this is also her best appearance at the MTV VMAs. The chunky rings play in to the colours of the blazer and the overall proportions of the short blazer meeting the thigh high boots is fun and sexy and perfect for the award show at hand.

What do you think of my Top 10 awards, TSSers?

#tss turns 10

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fffinnagain · 4 years

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10 Years of Sherlock (TV) AO3 stats!

Sherlock fans, new and old, click below to read a long list of graphs and comments about our communities fanworks over the last 10 years. I scraped AO3 again and demonstrate that:

More creators are writing longer works in 2020

Readers engaged more as the fandom changed after S4

Top ten new tags per year for the last 10 years

And a lot more.

PS the code to gather this data and analyse it can be found way over here.

Activity over 10 years

The last 10 years in the BBC Sherlock fandom have been tumultuous, but this community persists, with engagement from new fans and continued creative output. To commemorate over a decade of squee, I’ve done another scrape of the fandom’s imprint on the Archive of Our Own and will share some insights from the numbers in these plots. A very late update on my post S4 snapshot from 2018.

Note: This analysis is of completed public fanworks only, about 101000 of the 122000 Sherlock (TV) works available at present. This is to remove the late WIP effect, which adds a bulge to the last few months, and out of respect to creators who wish to have their material reserved for other registered AO3 users.

The works are still coming

Counting the number of works posted per day, we can see the peaks associated with each series airing (in UK and US). After that, the number of works continues fairly evenly, 20-30 per day, plus seasonal peaks. This rate is continuing on without a hint of new canon in sight. So who is posting all this work?

Creator-waves, monthly output

Years ago I started plotting creator waves, basically I group fanwork producers by the year they first posted to the fandom and then count how many of this group are active in later time intervals. This lets us get a sense of how long people are contributing and whether new fans are getting the urge to create.

This plot of the Sherlock (TV) fanworks on AO3 shows the standard shape of plump participation in the first year of any given set of creators, followed by a slowly thinning tail as they because less active over time. Turnover is natural in fandoms, with most only posting a work or two within a fairly limited amount of time, while a precious few persist for years. The surprise for me here is that the ratio of new creators is higher in 2020 than it was in 2019. Maybe the excuse of lockdown encouraged more folks to take a turn at creating content.

Another way to look at the output of fan creators on AO3 is to see the total amount of words being shared across all fanworks. The total has been pretty close to 300-400k words per month since 2018! To get a sense of what that means per work, I also plotted the median number of words per fanwork in these monthly sets. The median in higher in the last year than it had been staying for a while.

Reader behaviour: Hits & Kudos & Comments

Fan creators are only part of the story. Stats on engagement are a bit trick to interpret, I’ve got some plots here that tell us something about how works have been engaged with over time.

The obvious first to consider is Hits. Above is the total number of Hits given to works published each month. This is the current totals, not a historical snapshot, so we have a very strong bias towards early works, what we might call the Classics Effect. Works that have been around longer have had the chance to be seen by more people, and in particular those works that become must-read classics in a fandom, extending their exposure through prominence in top ranked works and recommendations.

To cut down on the advantage of the classics, we can also consider median hits per work for each month. As most works get a lot attention when they are first posted and then fade out of sight, the median number of hits reflects instead the ratio of readers to creators, basically how many eyeballs are around to look at the latest work, regardless of status. The median plot shows how the hyper-visibility of the few work available before 2012, and then a more steady curve once the fandom had gotten established on the platform after Series 2. Amazingly, the hit rate for the median work was steady through the big bumps in activity with later series, a 1000 hits for median works between 2013 and 2018, followed by a slow decline. I’d expect the 2020 works to continue gaining for a few months yet, but the median is probably 50-60% of what is was when the show was in production.

Kudos counts and medians show a similar story to hits, but there is a dip down around 2013 for kudos reflects the frenzy of productivity that saw the fandom grow during the Series 2 hiatus. Readers were getting spoiled! From the airing of Series 3 (2014) until a year following Series 4 (2018), the median work received an even 60ish kudos and 1000 hits, a niche audience that decreased to 50/750 through 2018-2019. The numbers of 2020 suggest a smaller community of readers again, though these numbers may still rise a bit in the next few months before the median works are forgotten.

The statistic that tells a different story is Comments. Looking at the total comments counts, there isn’t a drop after Series 3 (2014). Instead, the fandom compensated for changing numbers with more feedback and discussion attached to works. This is reflected in the median comment rate as well, which shows seasonal variation but doesn’t really drop off until 2020.

It’s remarkable that without fresh canon we continue to have new creators contributing to the fandom, and while that may be outpacing the readership somewhat, the standard of engagement has been very high. One could say the fandom is chugging along quite nicely!

What about Tags

So, with all that turnover and shifting population, is there a change in the kinds of works being posted? We can look at tags, all tags and freeform tags, to see if there were any meaningful trends.

First up, I did a creator-wave like analysis of works just for tags, to see how tags continue to be used after being introduced. Unlike the creators, tags clearly persist for years. After 2015, it looks like the core tag set has been established, with very few tags persisting in usage per subsequent year.

This graph reports numbers over time that are not proportional to the number of works or creators active. Instead, works on AO3 have been getting more and more tags over the years, with the average steadily growing from 5 in 2011 to 15 in 2020, with freeform tags (not characters or ships) from 2 to 8.

To get a sense of fic and tagging culture changes over time, I counted the most popular NEW tags of each year (wave). Note: this analysis is using exact matches, not the networked associations of tag meanings wrangled into AO3 today, so some things that pop up aren’t new concepts but instead newly popular TAGs for whatever they represent.

2011: 2752 (First year, so all solid stuff, tags that continue to be popular forever)

Angst 323

Fluff 232

Humor 216

Hurt/Comfort 188

Romance 168

Friendship 168

Crossover 138

Crack 121

Alternate Universe 119

First Time 106

2012: 11637 (still early, first references to Series 2)

Fluff and Angst 145

Episode: s02e03 The Reichenbach Fall 97

Kid Sherlock 54

Puppies 50

Sad 48

Episode: s02e01 A Scandal in Belgravia 47

Mathematics 42

Season 2 spoilers 38

Omega Verse 38

Feels 38

2013: 16176 (Omegaverse nomenclature is growing, Top/Bottom terminology, new challenges)

Alpha Sherlock 65

Omega John 61

30 Day OTP Challenge 59

Tumblr: letswritesherlock 56

Top John 49

Sherlock Holmes Returns after Reichenbach 44

Bottom Sherlock 40

Reichenbach Angst 30

Don't copy work to another site 29

Age Regression/De-Aging 27

2014: 19256 (Mostly Series 3 related

Episode: s03e03 His Last Vow 249

Episode: s03e02 The Sign of Three 167

Post-His Last Vow 149

His Last Vow Spoilers 142

Sherlock Series 3 Spoilers 128

2000 AU 100

The Sign of Three Spoilers 74

Fatlock 72

Post-The Sign of Three 66

Post-Season/Series 03 57

2015: 14272 (New challenges, new prominent Sherlolly tags)

Chats 47

International Fanworks Day 2015 34

Watson's Woes July Writing Prompts 2015 27

S3 referenced 25

Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper Kissing 22

English Accent 22

Sound cloud 19

Eventual Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper 19

Protective John Watson 18

but not that kind of graphic 17

2016: 13517 (New stylistic tagging, TAB references, a lot of epilepsy?)

Slowwww burn 92

John Watson Loves Sherlock Holmes 37

Sherlock Holmes Loves John Watson 33

post-tab 30

JME 27

Post TAB 25

Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy 23

Sherlolly Appreciation Week 2016 19

epileptic 19

fraternal love 17

2017: 15067 (Series 4 tags and challenges)

Episode: s04e02 The Lying Detective 133

Episode: s04e01 The Six Thatchers 93

Post TFP 73

Sherlock Series 4 Spoilers 69

Episode: s04e03 The Final Problem 60

Post-Episode: s04e02 The Lying Detective 55

Sherlolly Appreciation Week 2017 50

Post S4 48

Sherstrade Month 2017 44

31 Days of Porn Challenge 2017 41

2018: 10733 (Lost of new challenges, seasonal and weekly)

Towel Day 2018 64

Mystrade Valentines Calendar 2018 25

Kinktober 2018 23

Pregnant Molly Hooper 23

Soft Smut Sunday 23

Tom Robbins 23

Sherlolly Appreciation Week 2018 21

Inktober 2018 20

established universe 16

Always1895 16

2019: 7785 (More prompts, and character attitudes)

Sherlolly Appreciation Week 2019 25

221B Autumn Challenge 21

A-Z Christmas Prompt 19

KatsJohnlockXmas2019 16

Whumptober 11

Poor Greg Lestrade 11

Kinktober 2019 10

Dissonance 10

John Watson is a Good Friend 9

Sleepy Sherlock Holmes 8

2020: 8074 (Not all COVID related, thank heavens)

Mystrade Monday 59

COVID-19 48

Coronavirus 46

Mystrade Monday Prompts 40

Whumptober 2020 36

warning for a covid-19 setting 33

Flufftober prompts 2020 24

Do Not Translate 24

they're all right they're just at home 23

Granada Sherlolly 21

A little note from looking across all freeform tags, not just the new ones, we see a curious pattern with regards to two actions: First Kiss and Anal Sex. They appear amongst the most common tags as of 2014, neck in neck for two years, than Anal Sex drops off the top ten in 2016. From there out, First Kiss stays in the top 5 from that point on, while anal sex appears at rank 9 from 2017-2019 and is gone again in 2020. This probably says something about the fandom, somehow.

Bravo for making it to the end and thank you for reading!

Questions/comments welcome.

#Fandom stats #Sherlock #AO3 #Graphs #python

335 notes · View notes

dirtykpopsnaps · 4 years

Text

Soulmates — Kim Taehyung (soulmate au)

Warnings: None

Contains: Cute soulmates!Tae and Y/N meeting each other

Requested: no

Words: 7, 395 (holy SHIT. I DID NOT EXPECT THIS TO BE SO LONG. But, uh...😳😅)

———————————————————————

The sunlight slowly makes it’s way into my room, spreading across the floor of my bedroom. The sound of my alarm is the first thing wake me up. Groaning softly, I pick up my phone and turn off the alarm, flopping back in bed. Sighing, I open my eyes and stare up at the ceiling. “Do I have to get up? Is work that important?” I ask myself. Finally, I let out another defeated sigh and climb out of bed, walking into the bathroom.

All around me, the house is quiet. I’m fairly sure that my family is asleep, other than one of my parents. I can hear someone down in the kitchen making breakfast. I go into the bathroom and close the door, turning toward the mirror. As soon as I catch sight of my reflection, my stomach drops and I groan loudly, dropping my face into my hands. “What. Is it. With. You. Dying. Your hair?!” I groan, pulling at my hair and cursing my soulmate. Normally, my hair is a nice, pretty Y/H/C. I like it like that. But, then...there’s my soulmate attachment.

You see, in this world, everyone has what is called a “soulmate attachment”. Some people see in black and white until they meet their soulmate. Other people see words that their soulmate writes on their skin. Some have the date that they’ll meet written at their wrist. Mine, on the other hand, is a hair color soulmate attachment. Since the day I was born, I’ve had a large stripe of hair that shows the color of my soulmate’s hair is. For a while, everything was normal. It was black and I liked it like that. Then, right around 2013 or 2014...it started changing every. other. month. At first, it was dirty blonde. That was okay. Then, it was a purpley-brown...I can deal with that. Then, one day, I woke up and it was bright. orange.

At this point, I should be used to it. My soulmate dyes his hair a lot, but...why such random colors? The weirdest day was when I woke up and, for whatever reason, it was half blonde, half pink. I nearly ripped the stripe of hair out. Now, at least the strip is a normal color. The strip of hair is a dark brown, verging slightly on black. I shake my head and sigh, pulling my fingers through my hair. “Just...Just why? I just wanna know why,” I sigh, deciding to ignore it and continue with my day.

Quickly, I go through my routine in the bathroom, then go back to my room. I pull on my work clothes, pulling my apron overtop of the plain t-shirt and work pants. The logo of the catering service I work for is splattered across the front of the apron. Once I’m ready, I head downstairs to grab some breakfast before I have to leave.

When I enter the kitchen, my mom looks over her shoulder and chuckles at me. “I see your soulmate is at it again,” she laughs. I roll my eyes, grabbing a plate from our cabinet.

“Ha ha, very funny. Yes. He dyed his hair again. And I swear I’m gonna murder him for putting me through this once I finally meet this guy,” I huff. Mom calmly tips some scrambled eggs onto my plate and I put my bread in the toaster. She just chuckles again, shaking her head.

“No, you won’t. You’ll be too in love as soon as you see him,” she smiles.

“Mhm, we’ll see how it plays out,” I say sarcastically.

I eat my breakfast calmly, thanking my soulmate silently for not dying his hair another strange color. My boss almost strangled me when I came into work with a stripe of bright blue hair about a year ago. I had to quickly explain that it was my soulmate attachment while trying to avoid his outstretched hands. I mean, there’s not much I can do about the fact that my soulmate dyes his hair weird colors. I’ve just gotta deal with it.

Calmly, I eat the food on my plate. When I’m finished, I drop my plate in the sink and hurriedly kiss my mom on the cheek. “Alright, I’m heading out. Tell Dad and Casey that I love them when they wake up,” I tell her, slipping on my work shoes.

“Will do, sweetheart. Have a good day. Hope this big job goes well!” She responds. I smile and thank her before grabbing my necessary things (ex: keys, phone, wallet, etc.), shoving them into my bag and hurrying out the door.

The drive into work is fairly easy. My work is located in a big building on Main Street and there’s literally no way to miss it. When I get there, I park in the employee’s lot out back and head inside. As always, the shop is very busy. Technically, I double as a caterer and baker. The bakery that I work at is very well known around our town and has won a bunch of awards. We’re always super busy, especially around holidays when the owner makes holiday themed snacks and treats. His peppermint peanut brittle is to *die* for.

I walk into the building and hang my bag on the hook, making sure that everything is there before I enter the bakery. I nod my head once and push open the double doors into the bakery. Already, workers are walking back and forth to give our orders. Several of the booths at the front of the shop are filled with chattering customers. At the cash register, the owner Eli (read like Ellie) turns to me. He smiles softly when he sees my hair. “I see you dyed your hair again,” he chuckles. I narrow my eyes and step up beside him to help with customers.

“The changing hair color is not my decision, El,” I remind him.

“Oh, I know. It’s just funny how frustrated it makes you,” he laughs. I roll my eyes and look at the customer before me.

The man before me is tall and lean with wide shoulders. His hair is hidden under a baseball cap, but I can just see the edges of sandy blonde-grey hair, cut short at the sides. He has a pair of dark sunglasses precariously perched on the edge of his nose. “How can I help you?” I ask sweetly, folding my hands.

“I’m here for a pick up for Kim? Should be a bunch of different bagels,” he tells me. He speaks perfect English, but there’s a slight accent to his voice that tells me he’s not from around here. I nod my head lightly and turn to look through the takeout orders.

Quickly, I’m able to find the large bag of bagels and hand it to him. “Also, I have a catering request set for today. Do I need to come pick that up, or...?” He trails off. I shake my head lightly.

“Oh, no, no. We’ll bring the catering to your event, but thank you for asking,” I smile. I carefully hand him the bag of bagels and make sure that he has a good hold on it before letting go. The man pays for the bagels and turns around, walking out onto the street silently. I watch him as he walks out, tilting my head to see him as he walks away. Eli comes turns to me and raises an eyebrow.

“Well, that was odd. It’s barely 8 in the morning and he was wearing sunglasses,” he points out.

“Yeah...that was a bit strange, but whatever. We need to work,” I say.

No customers are at my counter, so I begin filling the display case again. Eli has an odd way of forgetting to refill the display case at the end of the day. If I don’t do it, soon enough we won’t have a display of any of the baked goods or products that we have. When he sees me filling the case, Eli shoots me an apologetic smile and I just shake my head, laughing lightly.

For the most part, the morning is fairly normal. We get our regular customers coming in before work and even talk to some of them. I walk around the shop to clean off tables once customers leave. Eli and I have short conversations between customers, talking about random little things. Around 9:30, a few of the other workers come in. Eli pulls Garrett over and talks to him. “Okay, Garrett, you’re in charge for now. Y/N and I need to take some of the other workers and deliver to this catering gig, okay?” He says. Garrett nods his head and Eli shoots him a bright smile.

Soon after, Eli and I have gathered a small collection of the other workers, including some from the kitchen. Catering is always a big job, especially for our little bakery, and this was a *very* big catering job. As we all get into the delivery trucks, Eli explains that it’s for some sort of concert. A really popular group that’s been all around the world and have a stop here on their tour. However, it doesn’t fully settle in what he means until we pull up to the stadium where they’re playing. My jaw drops as I look around at everything. Although I’ve been to this stadium before for concerts, seeing it empty makes it seem so much bigger. Seats are scattered everywhere and rise up in a semi-circle around the center stage, which is also a lot bigger than I expected. All of it seems so ginormous.

As I look at the size of the stadium, Eli steps away. I see him walk up to a fidgety man holding a large list of some sort. He strikes up a short conversation with the man and, after a couple moments, the man gives him directions and points towards the large curtains hiding the backstage. Eli raises his hand in thanks and walks back over, leading me towards the catering trucks with a hand on my back. “So, what was that about?” I ask, looking up at him.

“Just asking where we should the baskets and plates. He said he wants them scattered around for the members of the group and the stagehands and such. Also said we should probably put a good amount of food in the dressing room,” he tells me. I nod my head, then a question pops into my mind.

“Hey, El? Who is this for? The stadium is so huge and I’m not even sure who we’re catering for,” I chuckle. He shoots me a kind smile.

“Like I said, they’re a pretty big group. B...B...B-something. I can’t quite remember. They’re a k-pop group,” he says. I nod my head lightly and we finally arrive back at the catering truck.

Without much talking between us, Eli and I begin to unpack the tables first. Obviously, we need the tables to be set up before we can start putting the food on them. The tables are foldable ones that you might use for a picnic, so Eli and I carry them back one by one. When we’re about to start setting them up, the man I saw Eli with comes backstage again. Eli explains that it’s the group’s manager. The manager directs us to set up the tables against a far wall that has minimal decorations. Eli and I start to set up the tables, making sure that they’re sturdy enough to hold all the food that will be placed on top.

After the tables, the tablesclothd are easy to put on. Just throw them over the tables and make sure that they hang nicely and you’re set. Finally, we start bringing in the food. From what I can see as we unpack the truck, it looks like these people ordered about everything that our shop makes, and several plates of each. There’s sandwiches and breads, bagels and rolls. There’s salads and fruit bowls, and even some of the sweets and confections that we’re known for. Slowly, we take back the plates one by one and set them on the tables.

After I’ve taken back about five plates and bowls of randomly assorted foods, Eli stops me from getting more. “Okay, Y/N, I want you to take these next foods back to the dressing room. Fair warning, you’re going to be taking back a lot of food. The manager said most of the food should be in the dressing room at the back of the stadium. There should be a sign on the door,” he tells me. Eli unpacks one of the large, catering carts and starts packing plates and bowls on top of it. When the cart can’t hold any more food and I’m worried I might not be able to push it, he stops and looks at me again. “You’ll still have to come back for more,” he says, biting his lip and looking at everything. I just wave him off lightly.

“I’ve got it, El. I can do this,” I reassure him.

Calmly, I ask directions to the dressing room and Eli points me in the right direction. Slowly as to make sure that nothing falls off of the cart, I make my way back to the dressing room. As I get further into the stadium, I see less and less people bustling around. I make my way down a corridor with posters of the groups that have played here hung up on the wall. At the very end of this hallway, a large door is closed and I can already hear talking behind it. On the door, a big sign reads “BTS”. Hmm...so, that’s their name.

Shrugging to myself, I twist the doorknob and open up the door. Inside, the room is even bigger than it looks from the outside. It’s absolutely *huge* and it’s a good thing that it is. The room is filled with racks of clothes, stacks of shoes, makeup chairs and vanity tables, and several other assortments of objects. Two couches are pressed against the wall and several people are seated atop them. All of the people in the room are guys, all apparently waiting for someone or something. “Can we help you?” Someone asks. I look up and instantly feel slightly more comforted for whatever reason. Standing up from the couch is the man from this morning, although he’s ditched his baseball cap and sunglasses.

For a few seconds, I just stare at him. “Uh, sorry, sorry. Catering?” I say, smiling nervously and gesturing to the cart. The man lets out a slight chuckle and nods his head.

“Um, yeah...I can see that,” he laughs. Looking around the room, I internally groan. There’s no tables set up back here. I shake my head at Eli’s forgetfulness and curse myself for not asking. “Is something wrong?” The man questions. I shake my head at him.

“Oh, no, just was a little dumb. I forgot to bring back some tables for the food and stuff, so...I’ll be back,” I say slowly.

Without hesitation, I turn back around and make my way back to the catering truck. Eli is still unpacking foods and he gives me a confused look when I come back with all the food still on the cart. “Eli...did you seriously forget to tell me that you hadn’t taken back tables yet?” I ask, pinching the bridge of my nose.

“Dang it, knew there was something I forgot,” he groans, snapping his fingers in annoyance. He starts pulling tables out of the truck again and I get another cart for the tables. When the cart is full, i put some tablecloths on top and push it back to the dressing room again.

This time, the walk to the dressing room doesn’t seem as long. I’m at the room again in no time and open the door, pushing the cart inside. All the boys are still gathered inside, but now there are a couple women, as well. Two of the men are seated in chairs and the women are applying makeup to their faces. I pay little attention to much else and start taking the tables off the cart. “Do you need some help?” Someone asks. I gasp loudly and throw my hands up, covering my face. Immediately after, I drop them and grab my heart.

“Oh, Lord, you just scared me half to death,” I laugh breathlessly, clutching at my chest. This new man is also fairly tall. Even with his t-shirt on, I can see bulging muscles all along his arms. I raise my eyebrows in surprise, but look up into his sweet, brown eyes again.

“Do you need some help?” He asks again, nodding towards the tables. I look at them then back up at him.

“I mean...it wouldn’t hurt, but aren’t you busy?” I ask in confusion. He shrugs off the question and takes some of the tables off of the cart.

“Hobi, Tae, some help?” The man asks.

Getting up from the couch, the two new men grumble softly. “You ask if she needs help and then expect us to help you, typical,” the one man, Tae, grumbles. The first man rolls his eyes lightly at them, but they all start helping me with the tables. I set up some of the tables and the help from the three men is very nice. Setting up all these tables by myself would have been interesting. When all the tables are set up, I set out the tablecloths and nod my head. “Okay, I will be back with the food cart in a second,” I tell them. The first man nods his head lightly and I shoot him a soft smile, leaving the room again.

Back and forth, I travel with the carts of food and confections. As soon as I entered the dressing room with the plates of sandwiches and fruit bowls, all the men got up and started grabbing food. I laugh lightly and make sure to remind myself to grab another few plates of sandwiches and maybe another bowl of fruit. I between my travels, I have small conversations with the group of men. They all seem rather nice and ask me random questions as I work, putting the food on the tables. I ask them a few questions in return. A little awkwardly, I do admit that I’ve never heard of them before, but they simply laugh off my awkwardness and say that it’s alright. “If you want to hear our music, all you have to do is look us up on YouTube,” Jimin, a man with light brown hair, tells me. I nod my head lightly at him.

“Alright. I need to go grab some more plates of food because, wow, you’ve already eaten most of the sandwiches and fruit, but I’ll be back. Why don’t you pick something for me to hear when I’m back?” I suggest. Jimin’s face lights up with an adorable smile.

“What do you wanna hear? We have a lot of music,” he says.

Leaning against the cart lightly, I look back at him. “Tell me some of the names,” I say.

“Well, there’s Life Goes On, Dynamite, Mikrokosmos, Boy With Luv,” he starts, listing off random names of different songs. Finally, I just decide on a random song that he mentioned.

“Why don’t you play...Idol? That sounds interesting,” I say. He nods his head once and immediately grabs his phone off the couch. I leave the room again and go back to the truck for more sandwich plates and fruit. Eli’s eyebrows shoot into his hairline when he sees me come back.

“More food?!” He asks in shock. I nod my head, giving him wide eyes.

“There’s seven of them, and they’ve eaten through most of the sandwiches and fruit,” I tell him. He immediately heads into the truck and gets me more plates and bowls. I put the plates and bowls onto the cart and take them back to the dressing room yet again.

When I arrive, I push open the door again and start putting the plates and bowls on the tables. Jimin jumps off the couch and trots over happily, holding his phone out to me. He taps on the video and it begins with the sounds of little bubbles. I giggle lightly at it and how adorable it seems. Jimin chuckles at my little giggle and leads me over to the couch. I sit on the floor in front of the couch and feel several of the members gather around me to watch.

To be honest, the video is very interesting. There’s lots of color and lots of things going on in the video. The music is a very upbeat and interesting song and I actually really like it. However, about a minute and a half through the song, my mouth goes completely dry. On the screen, the member Tae is playing around and singing and just having fun. However, it’s the color of his hair that made my mouth go dry. His hair is *half blonde, half pink*. Immediately I stop the video and stare up at them. “When was this? When did this video come out?” I ask, my voice shaking as my heart rate skyrockets. All of the members give me very confused looks, looking around at each other.

“Um...2018? Yeah, the later months of 2018,” Jimin nods, looking around at everyone else for confirmation. I stare down at the paused video, then up at them again.

“Has...has it seriously been that long?” I ask, my voice quiet in shock. They all give me slightly nervous looks.

“Been that long since...what?” Hobi asks.

“Who...who had the pink and blonde hair? Who is this?” I ask, pointing at the man on the paused screen, just to be sure that I’m right.

Slowly, Tae raises his hand, nervousness written all over his face. I look up at him in shock, almost too amazed to believe it. “I...wow...you’re...you’re my soulmate!” I say in amazement. Immediately, his eyebrows knit in confusion and they all look at me like I’m crazy. “No, no, I can prove it! Look, my hair! I have a hair color soulmate attachment,” I say, picking up the stripe of mismatch hair. All their eyes land on the stripe and they look between Tae and I in shock.

“And...you’re sure I’m your soulmate?” He asks, his voice soft and just as amazed as mine.

“I...how many people have blonde and pink hair at the same time?! But, my stripe of hair changes all the time. I started changing around 2013, maybe 2014 and every few months it changes colors,” I explain.

“What kind of colors has it been?” Namjoon, the man from the bakery this morning, asks calmly.

“Well...all sorts! It’s been purple, it’s been orange, it’s been this like minty green, it’s been blood red. Over a year ago, early April of 2019 I guess, I woke up and it was this bright blue!” I say, listing off just a few colors that it’s been. They all burst into laughter, watching as Tae’s face goes red and he joins their laughter.

“So, you don’t really dye your hair, do you?” He asks, moving aside his hair and letting a stripe of Y/H/C hair stick out a little further than the rest. I giggle lightly, smiling up at him widely.

“Well, honestly, I don’t have to! You dye your hair enough for both of us!” More fits of laughter follow this.

Then, a thought hits me and I lean back against the couch, laughing loudly. “Oh, my God, I’m so happy. I feel so...relieved,” I giggle.

“Relieved?” Tae laughs, his eyes lighting up with that bright smile.

“Yes, relieved! With how much you dye your hair, I was worried your hair was gonna be, like, completely dead! And, honestly, please rest up on the hair dying. You have no idea how many people have commented on it at my work,” I giggle. He throws his hand up in defense, laughing loudly.

“It’s not my fault, I swear! I have to do it for work and stuff,” he laughs. I shake my head at him, finally letting my laughter die down.

“Well, tell them to stop then! This thing has been a pain in the ass ever since you started dying your hair!” I say, pointing at the stripe again. Tae shakes his head at me, a large smile covering his face.

Suddenly, I hear a knock at the door. Namjoon walks over and opens it up, peering out. I hear some talking, then Namjoon pops his head back into the room. “Uh, Y/N? Someone’s here for you,” he says, looking back at me. He opens the door a little more and Eli sticks his head inside.

“Y/N, have you been here the whole time? I’ve been looking for you everywhere!” He exclaims. I blush lightly, still unable to wipe the smile from my face.

“Sorry, sir. They’ve been having a little moment,” Jimin chuckles, looking between Tae and I. Eli knits his eyebrows together and I smile over at Tae, then look back at my boss.

“So, uh, Eli...meet my soulmate,” I giggle, gesturing towards Tae.

Jokingly, Tae strikes a silly pose and Eli just stares at him in shock, then looks back at me. “Oh, you’re kidding,” he laughs, a smile stretching across his face. I shake my head, smiling back at him.

“Nope, this is my soulmate!” I giggle excitedly. Eli smiles at him and walks up to Tae, shaking his hand happily.

“You’re a very lucky man,” Eli chuckles. Tae smiles brightly, looking at me again.

“I bet I am,” he says. I feel another blush stretching across my cheeks and hide my face in my hands, giggling.

“Well, I’m sorry, but I need to take her back to work,” Eli explains. Tae’s smile drops and he pouts adorably at Eli.

“Already?” He asks, sadness creeping into his voice. Eli nods his head softly.

“Afraid so. We still have to get back to the bakery and work a little before locking up.” Tae hangs his head, but then gets up from the couch and smiles again.

“I’ll walk you out,” he suggests.

Calmly, I stand up from the floor and say goodbye to all of the boys. “Well, it’s not *really* goodbye. You’ll be seeing us a lot more,” Hobi points out, smiling cheekily. I nod my head lightly.

“That I will,” I giggle. I hug all of the boys goodbye, then we finally leave the dressing room and make our way back to the catering truck. As we walk down the hall, Tae calmly slips his hand into mine and intertwines our fingers. I giggle again, leaning into his side happily. Eli just shakes his head at us, but he’s unable to wipe the smile from his face.

When we get to the catering truck, Tae lets go of my hand and pulls out his phone. I pull out mine, as well, knowing exactly what he’s doing. Quickly, we exchange numbers, then I slip my phone back into my pocket. “So...are you doing anything tonight?” He asks, looking down at me. I shake my head lightly at him. To be honest, my ‘plans’ had been to sit inside at my house and watch a movie or two, maybe binge a show with my family. A huge smile lights up his face. “Well, why don’t you come back for the concert tonight? I can get you backstage afterward and we can hang out and talk,” he suggests.

“You...You can do that so last minute?” I ask in surprise. He just shrugs his shoulders lightly.

“I’m pretty sure I can. I mean, you’re my soulmate, there has to be an exception,” he explains. I nod my head at him happily. I feel like my heart is absolutely soaring and yet it’s still beating wildly inside my chest.

“I’d really like that, Tae. I’ll be there,” I tell him.

“Awesome! Can’t wait to see you tonight,” he smiles. He reaches out and squeezes my hand once more before I get into the catering truck again.

Eli drives out of the stadium parking lot and back towards the bakery. At a red light, he looks towards me. “So...fun day, huh?” He chuckles. I nod my head happily, my hands folded in my lap.

“Uh, yeah...you could call it that,” I giggle, tucking the stripe of dark hair behind my ear.

“But...if I recall correctly, I thought you always said you would murder him once you found your soulmate,” he jokes. I blush again, hiding my face and laughing loudly.

“Don’t hold me to my word, Eli. He’s too cute to kill. I couldn’t do it,” I giggle. The rest of the ride back to the bakery is filled with bits of conversation and laughter. Eli makes me relay the whole story to how I found out.

Finally, we make it back to the bakery. We park the truck out back and head inside to finish with customers and then lock up. For the last hour or so of work, my mind is so full that I can’t think of anything but Tae. My whole body feels like it’s floating and I can barely even process what’s going on around me. I’m just so...happy! Whenever any of my co-workers try to talk to me, I can’t focus on what they’re asking me. Eventually, Eli has to jump in and explain that I’m a little out of it and he asks them what’s up. I’m still working with customers as much as I can, but it’s almost like my body is on autopilot and doing everything on it’s own. All I can think is ‘Tae. Tae. Tae. Tae.’ and about the concert tonight.

As we close up the shop, I quickly send a message to my mom and tell her about the concert tonight. I don’t need to wait long for a message back from her.

From Mom❤️🥰: That’s great, sweetheart! And of course you can go! But, as soon as you get back from the concert, I want to hear all about it. And you had better get a picture with that man!

To Mom❤️🥰: You know I will, mom😊 Love you and thanks!

I slip my phone into my back pocket again and finish cleaning off the tables around the bakery. When I’m done, I throw the cleaning rag into our collection of rags that need to be washed and find Eli again. “Okay, I’m gonna head out, El,” I tell him. He nods his head and looks over at me.

“I expect to hear all about how the concert and everything goes,” he says, pointing a finger at me. I salute him jokingly and head into the back to grab my bag off the hook.

I head out the back door and get into my car, driving home. As I drive, I try to clear my mind of Tae and think as clearly as possible. I really don’t need to end up in the hospital on the day that I *finally* met my soulmate. Although the drive home has always seemed really short, it feels like it takes forever today. It’s hard to keep my mind focused on driving and I keep finding myself slipping back into thinking of Tae and what he looks like.

After what feels like an *eternity*, I finally get home and climb out of my car. It seems that the rest of my family is already home, so I call out that I’m back. However, I don’t wait for a response and immediately run up to my room and start looking through my closet. Of course, when I finally meet my soulmate, he sees me in my gross work apron, plain t-shirt, and work pants. I want to make a good impression on him and the first thing he sees me in is my goddamn *work clothes* Ugh. I shift through my closet, looking for anything that could make a really cute outfit for the concert. I want him to see my true style, so I decide on something that’s fairly simple. The outfit consists of a black and white striped t-shirt, ripped black jeans, plain white shoes, and a faded jean jacket. I pull the outfit on and look in the mirror, nodding happily at my reflection. My hair is a little messy, but there’s not much I can do about that. My hair is *always* messy.

Suddenly, I hear a soft buzz from my work pants. I grab my phone out of my pocket and a smile stretches across my face.

From Tae😊: The concert starts around 8. You should probably be here around 6:30 or 7.

To Tae😊: Okay, thanks for telling me! Can’t wait to see you again!

Quickly, I check the time and sigh in relief. It’s only 5:30, so I walk downstairs and search around the kitchen for some food for dinner. I haven’t eaten since this morning and I’m absolutely starving.

As I search for food, I hear someone come up behind me. “So...what’s he like?” My mom asks, her voice full of giddiness. I spin around and smile widely at her.

“He’s absolutely amazing! He’s so sweet and adorable and cute and I literally had such a nice time, yet I barely even spoke to him until right before I had to leave,” I laugh.

“Well, do you have a picture?!” She squeals. I shake my head lightly, then correct myself.

“I don’t have one of us together, but he’s a part of the group that we were catering for today, so I could definitely find a photo of him online,” I say.

Quickly, I whip out my phone and go to the search engine, searching up ‘Tae BTS’. My phone immediately floods with results and I go to the pictures, picking one that looks really good. I pick this picture

And turn my phone to my mom to show her. For a few seconds, she just looks at the picture, then she looks up at me in shock. “Oh, my gosh...” she says, her jaw hanging open.

“I know, right?! Isn’t he absolutely precious?!” I say excitedly, taking my phone back and putting it in my pocket. Mom pulls me into a big hug and squeals again.

“I’m so happy for you, sweetheart! This is amazing!” She says excitedly.

For the next hour or so, Mom and I talk excitedly about Tae. Since I have a bit of time, I tell her the story while I eat a small cup of mac and cheese. Yes, I know, not the greatest dinner, but it works, okay? She makes me tell her everything that happened and how exactly I knew he was my soulmate. I show her the music video of Idol and stop at the exact place that I had that day. She starts laughing as soon as she realizes what made me realize he was my soulmate. “Oh, my gosh, the pink and blonde hair,” she laughs. I smile, laughing along with her.

“Who knew that that hair color would be so helpful to me?” I giggle.

After a while, I check the time and nearly jump out of my seat. “Oh, I should be going! Tae said I should be there around 6:30,” I say. My mom hurried me out of the kitchen as I start grabbing my phone, keys, and license again. I shove the things into my bag from earlier and kiss Mom’s cheek lightly before I head out the door. On the drive to the stadium, my hands are shaking in excitement. It’s significantly harder to clear my mind again, but I’m able to make it to the stadium without a problem.

When I drive up, I’m not surprised to see the stadium entrances overflowing with fans. The atmosphere is so exciting and happy, and there’s chattering coming from every direction. As soon as I’m out of the car, I grab my bag and text Tae.

To Tae😊: What should I do? I’m here.

The response comes seconds later.

From Tae😊: I’ll send someone out to get you. Stand by the ticket checker and a security guard will come get and bring you to your seat.

Calmly, I read the message and walk towards the ticket checker’s booth. Just as I get to the booth, I see a large man dressed in all black come up to the booth, as well. He looks around for a few seconds before he spots me and gestures me forward. I come up to the booth and the guard shows the vendor my ticket. The vendor checks it and nods his head lightly, then the security guard ushers me forward. I’m shown into the stadium and taken through the crowds of people buying merchandise. I feel a bit upset that I can’t buy any myself, but then I’m reminded of why I’m here and my spirits soar again.

The guard leads me through the crowds of people and into the stadium seating. Slowly, we weave our way through the seats until we’re right at the edge of the stage. I have to crane my neck up to see the stage a bit, but I couldn’t care less. I thank the guard happily and sit down in the seat that the guard showed me. He nods his head once and walks backstage again. For a while, I just sit in my seat and wait as everyone slowly starts filing into their seats, as well. I feel my phone buzz and pick it up. It’s a message from Tae.

From Tae😊: Look at the left curtain😁

I lean to the side a bit so I can see the left curtain and smile widely when I see him poking his head out. He smiles widely at me and waves, and I return the gesture. However, as more people begin filling in the seats around me, I wave him off and he pops his head out of view again.

About half an hour later, everyone has filled their seats and we’re waiting for the concert to begin. To be honest...this has got to be one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to. There’s so much going on and everyone is having so much fun. True, I get some judgmental side glances from the people in the seats around me, mostly because I obviously don’t have money like they do, but I don’t care. The music is great, the energy is high, and everything is amazing. My spirit soars again when Tae comes on stage and immediately makes eye contact with me. He shoots me a bright, energetic smile and, throughout the concert, he points me out to the other members. I get little smiles and waves from each of them throughout the concert, though it’s obvious that they’re trying not to bring too much attention to me. I also can’t help giggling to myself when the other members have to keep telling Tae to focus on the concert and not on me.

When the concert finally comes to an end and everyone starts packing up their merchandise and things, I stay in my seat. Again, I get some judgmental looks from the people around me and they roll their eyes, scoffing. However, no one mentions my odd behavior and just lets me go. Soon enough, I’m the only person left in the area. A few moments later, the same security guard who brought me here comes out from backstage again and leads me backstage with him. I’m lead backstage and we weave between workers bustling around and cleaning up the stage. He walks me up to the dressing room and opens the door, gesturing me inside.

Calmly, I thank him and send him a soft smile before entering. As soon as I enter the room, I’m tackled by something that is very large and sweaty. I’m nearly knocked right off my feet and I scrunch up my nose at the offensive smell. I don’t even have to think about who this could be. “Taaaae,” I whine, pushing him off, “go take a shower. You smell gross.” He scoffs at me, leaning back and giving me a mocking offended look.

“I want to shower you in love and attention, and you tell me to go shower. Rude,” he pouts.

“You literally just did an almost two hour show. You were dancing and singing under very bright lights. You are sweaty and you smell disgusting. Go shower!” I giggle, pouting toward what I assume is the bathroom door. He sticks out his tongue at me childishly and I repeat the gesture. Finally, he just sighs and turns around, walking towards the bathroom.

“But, as soon as I get out, we’re talking and cuddling, got it?” He says, pointing a finger at me.

“Got it. Cuddles and talking,” I repeat.

Tae heads into the bathroom and a few moments later, I hear a shower turn on. There’s a soft sigh from across the room. “Great...now we have two of Tae to deal with,” one member, Yoongi, sighs defeatedly. The other members chuckle lightly. I flash him a sweet smile and he just rolls his eyes. “I can’t say ‘no’ to him, and if it that says anything, I probably won’t be able to say ‘no’ to you, either,” he frowns.

“Oh, give up the fake annoyance, grandpa. You know you already love her,” Jimin jokes, pushing Yoongi’s shoulder lightly.

“Just because she’s just as adorable as him doesn’t mean I already love her,” he stares, crossing his arms. Jimin gives him a skeptical look and Yoongi sighs lightly.

“Fine, yes, okay. She’s just as adorable as him, and I probably already adore her. Let me hate that I can’t say ‘no’ to them for five minutes.”

“...if it’s any help, you’re pretty adorable, too,” I say, smiling cheekily at him. He narrows his eyes at me, huffing.

Calmly, I sit down on the couch and strike up a conversation with the other members. It’s only about 15 minutes later or so that Tae comes out of the shower. He has just a towel wrapped around his hips and my eyes nearly pop out of my head. GodDAMN am I lucky. His muscles are sculpted to perfection and my jaw nearly falls to the ground. My soulmate is a fucking Greek god, holy shit. The whole room fills with fits of laughter and I hide my face in my hands as it starts heating up again. Peeking through my fingers, I watch as Tae pulls on some clothes from a bag against the wall. The clothes are a simple, plain white t-shirt and some plaid pajama pants. Like, that’s a normal outfit, but also...good God, my soulmate is too hot. The t-shirt clings to his arms deliciously and the pajama pants stretch over his thick thighs. My mind almost short circuits as I look at him.

Thankfully, my mind is pulled away from those thoughts as that same heavy weight lays on top of me again. I laugh loudly, trying to shift underneath himself and yet still unable to breath. “Tae, I literally can’t breathe,” I laugh. He shifts his body more into the couch instead of me and I sigh, wrapping my arm over his shoulder. His wet hair is laid against the top of my breast bone, but I couldn’t care less. I lightly scratch my nails up and down his back. On the other end of the couch, someone makes a gagging noise and Tae just kicks his long legs in the direction of the noise. A loud “ouch!” follows the action and I giggle lightly, resting my chin on his head and closing my eyes. And that is how I spend the first night with my soulmate. About half an hour later, we’re woken up to head to the hotel they’re staying at, but I send a message to my mom and tell her that I’m staying the night with Tae. I do make it clear that nothing will happen, though, just cuddles and sleeping. Thankfully, she allows me to stay and that is where I stay the night...wrapped in my soulmate’s arms.

#dirty kpop snaps #kpop fanfic #kim taehyung #bts taehyung #bts v #taehyung x reader #taehyung x y/n #taehyung x you #taehyung soulmate au #bts soulmate au #soulmate au #bts

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tuiyla · 4 years

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A Definitive History of Bubbline

With “Obsidian” coming out in two days, it really is time for a definitive history of Marceline and Bubblegum’s relationship. And by that I mean the tumultuous road that led us to “Obsidian” from a production and fandom point of view. For a list of Bubbline episodes, check out my Bubbline Guide (and part two) - which I need to update, I know I know. For this post, I wanted to highlight how far this pairing has come and what Bubbline means to queer representation in children’s cartoons.

This is less of an analysis and more of an overview with links to more information on specific incidents to keep it (relatively) brief. I say it’s a definitive history but it isn’t an exhaustive one, so do check out the links included to learn more about how we got here. I realize not everyone cares about these kinds of things but I think it’s important to know how hard Adventure Time’s creators had to fight. Bubbline is a pioneer ship in many ways but it doesn’t always get the recognition it deserves.

Initial Concepts

As is the case with much of Adventure Time, the initial concept of who the characters of Bonnibel and Marceline were going to be is very different than what we ended up getting. @gunterfan1992 explores this and other production tidbits in depth in his book so I do recommend checking that out. The short version is that these two were created to be opposites and with a Betty and Veronica type dynamic in mind where they would both be love interest to the protagonist, Finn.

This didn’t quite end up being the case but remnants of this concept are seen in “Go With Me” (March, 2011), the episode with the first on-screen Bubbline interaction. As Marcy helps - and sabotages - Finn in asking Bonnie out, she also becomes a potential love interest for him but she shuts him down immediately. So while Finn’s crush on PB continues, the notion that Marceline would be part of a love triangle is dismissed. Instead, this first Bonnie and Marcy interaction established that the two already know each other and there’s some bitterness in that past.

“What Was Missing” and the Mathematical Controversy

A potential preexisting relationship between the two was further explored in “What Was Missing” (September 2011) just a season later. The episode was written and storyboarded by Rebecca Sugar and eventual showrunner Adam Muto. Sugar was responsible for much of the character depth added to Marceline and later even played, quite aptly, her mother in the Stakes miniseries. It was Sugar who wrote the now beyond iconic “I’m Just Your Problem” based on personal experiences and suggested that Marcy and Bonnie be queer characters with a complicated romantic past.

“What Was Missing” was hugely important in how it hinted at a complex relationship through character interactions, Marceline’s song, and the last scene twist with PB’s shirt. The AT crew were supportive of the idea and sneaked in plenty of queer subtext, but this is where I have to point out that 2011 was a very different time and it’s thanks, in part, to Bubbline that things have changed. Autostraddle’s article from back when covers what is now known as the Mathematical controversy. Audiences picked up on the subtext and Cartoon Network was not having it. The popularity of the ship soared but the execs were not taking to queer implications kindly.

Great Bubbline Drought

So, the ship has sailed but controversy looms over it. “What Was Missing” s subtle by today’s standards but it was enough to keep Marceline and Bubblegum apart for two years on-screen. Each character went through wonderful development in the meantime, as did the show itself, but there’s a certain sense of bitterness to what came to be known as the Great Bubbline Drought. CN got so afraid of the potential backlash that they waited two years to have a new episode featuring the pair, “Sky Witch” (July 2013), by which point Sugar had left AT to work on her own show, Steven Universe. I’m happy that Sugar got to create her own show and push for even more queer representation, but it’s also sad that she never got to write more for the ship she pioneered.

“Sky Witch” still happened, though, and featured even more subtext, from PB’s side this time around. The shirt returned and there was hope as Marcy and Bonnie were seen hanging out together more often (”Red Starved” and “Princess Day”). Another controversy threatened to emerge in August 2014 when Olivia Olson, Marceline’s voice actress said that creator Pendleton Ward had confirmed a pre-show Bubbline romance. It was a messy ordeal with deleted tweets and questions about whether the two could get together again in the series. Fortunately, though, things changed in the three years between 2011 to 2014 and another Bubbline drought didn’t follow.

The Season That Changed Everything

It took another two years after “Sky Witch” but the ball was finally, inevitably, relentlessly rolling. “Varmints” premiered in November 2015 and three episodes later, the Stakes miniseries kicked off. What season 7 meant wasn’t just breadcrumbs and (not so) subtle songs anymore: suddenly, there were too many Bubbline moments to count. “Varmints” served as a follow-up to “What Was Missing” and a final reconciliation, and though Stakes was primarily about Marcy, it also developed her relationship with Bonnie. Afterwards, it became clear that Bubbline was heading somewhere.

It’s worth noting that the cultural context also changed between when “Sky Witch” and “Varmints” aired. In December 2014, The Legend of Korra ended with Korra and Asami beginning their romantic relationship, and Rebecca Sugar was making Steven Universe more and more explicitly queer by the day. Adventure Time started the ball rolling but now it wasn’t alone as a popular Western cable cartoon with queer characters. However, Bubbline was still very much subtext at this point, just with significantly more hope of becoming more.

Late Series Entanglement

But at what point does subtext become plain text? Bubbline fans sure did have fun with that question between Stakes and the finale. Bonnie and Marcy became near inseparable, with most of their major appearances involving one another from this point on. These included the meet the adoptive dad date “Broke His Crown” (March 2016), the Elements miniseries (April 2017) and the nigh on obnoxiously on the nose “Marcy & Hunson” (December 2017). In fact, all but two of Marceline’s major appearances from season 7 on included Bonnie - the exceptions being “Everything Stays” as part of Stakes, and “Ketchup”, which really wasn’t any less gay.

Bubbline moments really did become too many to count, with the vast majority of them having romantic implications. And with queer representation becoming more and more prominent in Western animation, canon Bubbline romance seemed like a question of when rather than if. I’d like to point out here how this was often frustrating, though. After the very rocky start, this relationship was thriving and was really basically confirmed, but that last little push to make it undeniably a part of queer history was still needed.

“Come on!” - The End and Beyond

The almost three years that passed between Stakes and “Come Along With Me” (September 2018) were much more tolerable than the Drought; after all, there was plenty of Bubbline content in the later seasons. The big question as the finale came was whether Adventure Time would fizzle out on its early pioneer of a wlw ship or follow through, once and for all. Almost four years after LoK ended and just before season 1 of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power dropped, Marcy and Bonnie had an emotional moment, kissed on screen, and ended the series together.

The intricacies of why a kiss was needed as a signifier of romance is a discussion for another day. But wouldn’t it have been strange after almost a decade of build-up for them not to seal the deal with a kiss? And to think it almost didn’t happen, as by that point it was so obvious they were together. Again, I direct your attention towards Paul Thomas’s book, he explains how it was storyboard artist Hanna K. Nyström’s call to add this final detail. Because, come on! Sometimes, you need to be as clear as possible, and that’s the case with queer representation in animation.

Since the finale, the comics have been continuing the Bubbline train - which are not technically canon but one can have fun regardless. In any case, the existence of Marcy and Bonnie’s relationship, of their queer identities, is not something that can reasonably be denied. It was a long road, and, make no mistake, an arduous one, but this is the story of a win. A win for storytelling and a win for wlw relationships.

We’ll Build Our Own Forever

So, there you have it, a Bubbline timeline of sorts. In March of 2011 we had the first on-screen interaction and now, in November of 2020, we’re getting a 45-minute-long special with the two of them as the central characters. They’re canonically in love, with King Princess covers of Bubbline songs and more. I tried to contain myself, for once, and not write too much. I think it’s important that people have a general idea of just how monumental all of this is and how, even just 9 years ago, “Obsidian” would have been totally inconceivable.

Some of this might have come as a surprise to you. It’s certainly not been easy to get to where we are now with Bubbline and it’s yet to be seen how open “Obsidian” will be about the relationship. I’ve been talking about Bubbline for years and attempted to chronicle their relationship many times so I’m happy I’ve finally done it from this perspective as well.

Adventure Time: Distant Lands “Obsidian” is streaming on Nov 19 on HBO Max. If you can, stream it so we can show that there’s popular demand for stories like that of an angry vampire and a despotic piece of gum.

#Adventure Time #bubbline #obsidian #marceline abadeer #adventure time distant lands #at #pb #my thoughts #definitive history of bubbline #there you have it folks #princess bubblegum

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charmedseoull · 4 years

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Interview with sugamins about her work House of Cards (Ao3′s second most hit English work and most hit BTS work)

Before You Read the Interview

Archive of Our Own Transcript

Reddit Transcript Part 1 / Part 2

House of Cards is documented within the Top 50 Most Hit BTS Works on Archive of Our Own Project, otherwise known as T50BTS, by Charmedseoul. It is the second most hit English work on the Archive of Our Own platform, most hit BTS work, and 16th most hit work overall. It centers around the internationally popular K-Pop idol group BTS (Bangtan Sonyeondan) with the main characters being Park Jimin, Kim Taehyung, and Jeon Jungkook. This work is being documented for historical purposes for the Fanlore website with its own page. Charmedseoul is a BTS-focused anonymous historian who plans to eventually document each of the top 50 most hit BTS work on Ao3 as in depth as this one. If you are in contact with any of the authors of these works, please contact her on Twitter @charmedseoul or on Tumblr @charmedseoull.

Parts of this interview have been edited with links to Fanlore and Wikipedia pages for understanding. Any information in [brackets] serves for further clarity for readers and elaboration of information.

Disclaimers: This interview contains spoilers for the BTS Archive of Our Own work House of Cards. The story’s Archive of Our Own tags contain violence and gangster activity, along with discussion of prostitution and drug use. The full tag list is:

Alternate Universe - Gangsters

Gang Violence

Violence

Drugs

Drug Use

Explicit Sexual Content

Explicit Language

Blood and Gore

Blood and Torture

Gambling

Gunplay

Undercover

Disturbing Themes

Homophobic Language

Attempted Rape/Non-Con

Xenophobia

Dom/sub

Threesome - M/M/M

Drug Addiction

Dubious Consent

This interview discusses an 18+ mature work and Not Safe for Work topics. Please read this interview at your own discretion. You are responsible for the content you consume.

House of Cards by sugamins is a multi-chapter Archive of Our Own fanfiction that follows police officer Kim Taehyung’s undercover operation into the gangster world of Haedogje Pa. Jeon Jungkook, shrouded in an air of mystery and dubbed “The Boy,” is the heir to this crime empire. Park Jimin lives with him, acting as a lover of sorts in a high, pristine penthouse apartment. The story follows the three and their complicated relationship where sex, violence, and drugs surround them. Kim Taehyung tries to take down the empire as his moral lines of black and white begin blurring into gray. In this crime-ridden alternate reality to Seoul, everything from the structure of the gangster world to the trust between three lovers is as fragile as a house of cards.

Now presenting the interview with sugamins, author of Archive of Our Own’s second most hit English work and most hit BTS work, House of Cards:

How did you start writing?

How did you get into fanfiction?

How much writing experience did you have prior to House of Cards?

Do you have any literary or artistic inspirations? Any other authors or works that have inspired you to create anytime before or after House of Cards?

How did you become an ARMY [ARMY stands for Adorable Representative MC for the Youth. It is the fandom name for fans of BTS, otherwise known as Bangtan Sonyeondan]?

I started writing fanfiction in 2012. But before then, I used to enjoy writing stories as a child and young teenager. I used to write and illustrate my own stories. I even had a sketchbook filled with my own comic book, which was terrible! But I've always been creative. It started with art and then I moved onto writing when I discovered I was able to be much more creative with my words rather than my pencil.

I first got into fanfiction through my years spent on Tumblr. I had always known that it had existed, but I had never really gone looking for it because I hadn't belonged to a fandom at that point in my life. It was back in 2012 when I stumbled upon an EXO fanfic that a lot of people were talking about (Arbitrage, you can find it on Livejournal.) I read it and then thought...wow, so this is fanfiction! From that point, I started reading more and more, mostly Infinite fanfiction. And then I decided to start writing with the encouragement of an old online friend, and here I am!

In terms of writing experience, I have never formally received education. I stopped studying English Language and Literature when I was 16, instead focusing on Art, History, and Religious Education (purely because I wanted to learn about philosophy and quantum mechanics) for my final two years at high-school. The only experience I have is through writing fanfiction. I started back in 2012, and I've developed a lot since then. I started off small, writing horror short stories and little collections. Brotherhood was the first 'long fic' I created. I was shocked that it managed to get so big because I had never created a story of that size before. Writing helped me gain experience and figure out what worked and what didn't work, what I was good at writing, and where I was lacking and needed to learn. I don't think you can really experience an art form until you start doing it. You can learn all about the techniques and the conventions, but until you pick up a pen and start writing or drawing, you won't ever know what it means to create.

My literary inspiration has always been Stephen King. Which is funny, as he has described himself as 'having diarrhea of the typewriter.' I think that applies to me sometimes. I am a bit of a wordy writer, though I've started honing it down for certain stories. Sometimes, a story needs to be floral and descriptive, sometimes, it needs to be punchy and direct. So, King was my major inspiration, especially with horror. I also enjoy the works of Poe and Lovecraft (I acknowledge the problematic themes in the work of Lovercraft and seek not to praise him as a person. He was a terrible person for sure, but sadly, he had a way with cosmic horror that is hard to find.) I also enjoy Chuck Palahniuk and the dark, seedy and overall zany stories that he has created. I like his style a lot!

In terms of inspirations for House of Cards, I was obviously inspired by the films Infernal Affairs/The Departed. American Gangster and Training Day were also major inspirations (and also because I love Denzel Washington's performances in both films. I mean, who doesn't love him?) But I also drew inspiration from other sources that were less focused on gangs, more focused on the dark, nihilistic state of the world around us. I couldn't recommend the TV series True Detective hard enough. It is one of the best series I have ever watched. It handles dark and disturbing content so well, and its fractured, unreliable story-telling and philosophical musing is some of the best I've ever seen on screen. I highly recommend checking it out, but be sure to check the content warning and triggers because it certainly isn't suitable for younger audiences and those with triggers. In terms of real-life content, I think Ross Kemps' docu-series are very good. Particularly Extreme World and On Gangs. His docu-series show the dark and disturbing side of criminal activity, the drug trade and more.

I became a fan of BTS [Bangtan Sonyeondan] back in 2013. I had already been a fan of K-Pop for some time by then, as I had started listening to various K-Pop and K-Rock artists back in 2009. I knew of their debut, but I had seen hundreds of new acts debut by the time that they broke into the scene, and so I didn't pay much heed. Someone I followed on Tumblr at the time kept posting about how much she loved them, especially Taehyung [BTS V/Kim Taehyung]. One day, I stumbled upon a gifset of Yoongi [BTS Suga/Min Yoongi] being sarcastic in one of their first interviews. I thought he was funny, so I decided to check them out. At the time, they had recently released We Are Bulletproof Pt. 2 [BTS’s second music video release with their debut album 2 Kool 4 Skool]. I followed them from that point, and their first comeback [A “comeback” refers to when a K-Pop idol group releases new music, usually done twice a year.] was also my first comeback. I liked their music [BTS released Boy In Luv and Just One Day in 2014, both music videos of songs from their Skool Luv Affair EP.], but I liked them even more as individuals. I loved watching their shows [Here is a link to BTS’s schedule during 2014 when they had their first comeback. You can find the shows and interviews they were on there.], even though they are incredibly embarrassing to look back on now. They just had so much energy and looked to be having so much fun that I was having fun just watching them. I was a fan, I liked a lot of their songs and followed their activities. But it wasn't until they released HYYH Part One [Hwa Yang Yeon Hwa Part 1 (Korean) = The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Pt. 1 (This is the title in English), released with the I Need U and Dope music videos.] that I really became a fan of their music. I had already created a couple of small horror stories for the fandom at that point. HYYH Part One [The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Pt. 1] inspired me so much that I created Brotherhood, my first 'long fic.' I joined AO3 [Archive of Our Own] and started posting there. I received so much support from fellow fans that I carried on writing, and the rest is history!

How has your experience being an ARMY [Adorable Representative MCs of the Youth, BTS’s global fan base name.] been? Did you ever leave the fandom then come back? How did you interact with others when you first got into the fandom and as you grew up?

How have you been since you wrote House of Cards? What have you been working on?

Are you okay with talking about how old you are now and how old you were when you wrote House of Cards?

Before you even wrote House of Cards, what inspired it? Any TV shows? Music? Movies? Books? Ideas? It could be anything.

How did you start writing House of Cards? Did you finish the entire story then publish it or did you write it as you went? What was the writing process like?

Did you have any beta readers or editors? If you did, are you still in contact with them now? How did they feel about your work?

My experience being a fan has mostly been positive over the years. In the earlier days, back around when I first started writing for the fandom, it was certainly much more positive. I've received so much support over the years, not only in my writing but in my personal life from readers and fellow fans that being a fan of the boys [The members of BTS] really has changed my life. That's not an exaggeration. I doubt I would even be here now without those years having such a positive effect on my mental health. I've never really been the kind to interact with others and form cliques within the fandom, I just like being in my own space and interacting with everyone that comes my way, I guess?

These days, I'm not as active as a writer or in fandom spaces however. I feel like my time in the fandom has started to come up and I don't know how I feel about it just yet. I feel nostalgic for the time when I was first starting out in the fandom and I didn't really know much, but everything was fun. It doesn't feel so fun now, but I mostly contribute that to the effect that Twitter has had on shaping the fandom's growth. Twitter has never been a good place for creatives within fandoms because of issues with algorithms and such. Tumblr was always the better website for hosting artistic content for a variety of reasons. So, I think the fact that everything is on Twitter now has been partly responsible for my decline in engagement and overall enjoyment. I'm currently taking a break from Twitter. The next couple of months will be what makes me either stay or leave the fandom.

Since writing House of Cards, I've been an active writer in the fandom. Over the years, I've added quite a lot of stories to my AO3 accounts and various pseuds. My largest ongoing story is another gang story, set in the 1980s, called Valentino Summers. I actually started writing and publishing it on Ao3 just four or so months after I finished House of Cards—which is wild to think about. Finally finishing House of Cards seems like such a long time ago in my mind, and yet I'm still working on a story I created that same year! I like contributing horror stories to the fandom, especially in the Halloween period. I like publishing series in the month/upcoming weeks before Halloween—though I won't be doing so this year [2020].

When I started writing House of Cards, I would have just turned 22. It was inspired by the song 'Wires' by The Neighbourhood. I might be mistaken, but I believe that Jungkook [BTS Jungkook/Jeon Jungkook] posted a tweet with the song in it. [Jungkook did tweet about this song. Here is the English translation.] I had never heard of the band before, but my partner was a fan of their music. She sent the song to me and I was very interested in the lyrics, so I started discussing them with her. One thing led to the next, and then we had basically come up with the entire plot of the story. We just needed to create the characters. We spent a little while doing so, and then I started doing some research and started writing the story. There really isn't a grand backstory to House of Cards, it just happened so fast. We often come up with story ideas like that, and my partner is responsible for a huge amount of my stories. She has the creative visions, which I then turn into words. We make quite the team, haha~ The inspirations, I mentioned those in my previous answer regarding films and TV shows.

I published the story as I went, though I staggered the updates because I didn't want to post too frequently. I had the entire story planned out from the start——I didn't change a single aspect of the story no matter what I received in terms of feedback. I think a lot of readers assume that writers might tweak things if they sense the audience wants something to happen in terms of plot or relationships. Personally, I don't like doing that. I like sticking to my plans even if I know my vision might not be what the readers want. I think it's important for the story to be created the way I see it because my vision is what made me create it, if that makes sense.

The writing process was surprisingly smooth! You might not think it because the story is big and there are a lot of characters and plot threads to keep on top of, but it went smoothly for me. It flowed just as smoothly from start to finish as Brotherhood did. I never struggled once with writing the chapters, nor did I ever get stuck and wonder if I should change the content in order to make it easier to write. I'm surprised that I managed to complete it so easily because that's not the case with writing now! I tend to be a lot slower now, more deliberate and more open to changes in order to ease the process and the overall flow of the story. In a way, this change has been for the best. I do wonder what House of Cards would be like if I were to write it now, with my different approach to planning and writing. It would probably have a quicker flow, and the word count would either go down as a result of cuts, or go up because of additional scenes I would have likely included.

I didn't have any betas, which you can probably tell from the work. My stories are so big that I never wanted to put the burden of fixing them onto someone else. I know they are imperfect, oftentimes bloated things, but that's just what they are. I did try creating a story with another writer in the past, but it didn't go very well. She would often have conflicting opinions on things and would not have any leeway for anything I suggested, whereas I always had leeway to allow her to change things. Even to the point of completely changing the plot of the story that I had already started writing, and then allowing her to add graphic sexual content she didn't even want to be in the story. She actually stopped writing fanfiction randomly in the middle of us creating the story! She made a post about it being disgusting and nasty and then bowed out. I have no clue if she ever came back! So, my negative experience with attempting to work with someone else when creating a story kind of made me not want to have a beta. It's a wild story, I know!

House of Cards is praised for its realism and accuracy with weaponry, torture, sex, and violence. How did you research these things?

How did you come up with the gangster universe in House of Cards? How did you develop Haedogje Pa?

How did you name the original characters in House of Cards? Did any characters in particular take inspiration from existing characters in TV shows, anime, books, any type of media?

How did you decide on Vminkook as your main characters for the story? What do you see in their dynamic and them as characters?

Jimin is claimed to be one of the best written characters in the entire story. What was your thought process when characterizing him and developing him?

Taehyung is an especially dynamic character whose morals get tested time and time again in House of Cards. What was your thought process when characterizing him and developing him?

Jungkook is one of the characters that the readers spend the least amount of time getting a perspective from, but is incredibly well written in his character progression. What was your thought process when characterizing him and developing him?

When it came to various aspects in the story, I did do research. Most of it never really had an impact on the story itself. For example, I would be looking up gun models that are used by law enforcement agencies around the world and trying to find specs of them so I could learn how many bullets each gun held, or how much a magazine could hold. In action scenes, I didn't want my characters firing off 20+ bullets for a gun that—in reality—holds far less. That's a fact that doesn't really mean much to the average reader, but it meant something to me! I've always hated how many bullets fly through the air in action scenes in films and TV shows because I'm always wondering if it's possible with the firearms featured in the scene haha~ In terms of torture, I've come across the subject through various documentaries and TV shows about gangs, crime and serial killers. I didn't really do much additional research into the topic, beyond reading up on what I had come across to make sure it wasn't fictionalised for drama purposes. Obviously, there will be some lack of realism in my story because I couldn't possibly write a realistic portrayal of gang violence and torture when I have zero personal experience with it. My aim wasn't to give the story 'full' realism (I'll explain more about that in the next question) but to simply create a world that felt real, even if there were little aspects that had to be exaggerated for the sake of the story. Taehyung's behaviour when undercover certainly broke many procedures. The only thing working in his favour that allowed him to get away with it is that the crimes he committed couldn't be directly traced to him. But a real undercover agent would never do the things that he did on behalf of the gang. Basically, this means that the entire story is unrealistic! But of course, it wouldn't be very entertaining if Taehyung simply observed from the background and didn't dirty his hands. So, I had to bend and break the rules a little!

For the universe, I knew that I couldn't base it too much in reality. Because of basic Korean law, it would have been impossible for me to write the gang operating in the way they did in the story—especially with guns. Most Korean gangs tend to use other forms of violence and weapons in order to control their respective areas, rather than guns. My other story, Taste of Ink, has what I would consider a more realistic approach to gang activity—with the main weapons being knives, baseball bats, etc. and the main forms of violence being assault instead of flat-out murder. So, for the sake of allowing guns to appear in the story, I had to create a Neo-Seoul, so to speak. I took inspiration from Korean gangs, and mixed it with influences from other gang cultures in order to create 'Haedogje Pa.'

When it comes to naming original characters, I honestly don't put much thought into it. I like to use real names for inspiration. I often Google various Korean films I've watched and read the cast list in order to find interesting character and actor names. This is because I have a habit of reusing names sometimes. For example, readers of my stories might have come across a couple of Daesu and Goohee characters. Do you know where I got these names from? I picked Daesu from Oh Daesu - Choi Minsik's character in Oldboy. Goohee comes from the manhwa 'Let Dai' - he is the stubborn gang leader that actually has a good heart beneath his rough exterior. I ended up liking him the most by the end of the story, so his name is one that often comes to mind when I need to pick an original character name.

I never really consider real life dynamics when I'm writing because my stories are so detached from reality that it seems pointless including any inspiration from reality. I chose the three main characters simply because, at the time, they seemed to fit the character moulds the best. The other characters fit their respective characters so well (especially Namjoon [BTS RM/Kim Namjoon] and Yoongi) that I simply thought it was best to have Taehyung, Jimin [BTS Jimin/Park Jimin] and Jungkook as the three lead roles. I chose them more based on how I thought they could personally fit the characters, rather than focus on the dynamic. To use Taehyung as an example, I thought that he would fit the character of the informant in my story because in reality, he is intelligent and seemed like he would suit the role. For Jimin, I thought he would be a good choice for a character that some might think is vulnerable or even weak. He is actually very strong and the most important character for the plot progression. For Jungkook, I liked the thought of someone with such an innocent outer appearance hiding a dark secret.

I'm so glad that readers took to Jimin so positively on a whole. I know there are some that hated him, or that hated the fact I chose him for such a role (a 'negative' sex worker role). But Jimin is the most important character for the plot progression. It is through him that the entire plan finally culminates in the explosive finish. I wanted to treat him with care because I understood that his character could go very wrong if not handled correctly. It would have been easy for him to simply become nothing more than a sexual prop, should the story have focused too much on Taehyung and Jungkook as the key players. So, I decided to subvert it by giving Jimin the ultimate hand in the story and allowing him to have more control than Jungkook in the end. If Jimin had not decided to follow through with the plan, if he had decided to snitch or had simply refused to do his part in exposing the gang, the story would've ended drastically differently. But I also didn't want to write Jimin taking control of the entire situation at the end because it would've felt ingenuine. He is a character that has been deeply affected by a lifetime of trauma. I was worried that some might take my portrayal of his trauma the wrong way, and see him not as a character that has suffered immense mental damage but rather as an annoying, weak character that gets in the way of more 'interesting' dynamics. I'm sure there will be readers that think that. Mentally traumatized individuals are often seen in such negative light, be they fictional characters or real people. When writing his character, especially in the later scenes, I wanted to make sure the trauma he experienced would shape his behaviour. Writing the scene of him getting ready to leave, when he is taking his pills and he doesn't think he can do it, it was hard. It was hard getting into that headspace of feeling so powerless in the moment and knowing that freedom is in reach, but not knowing how to achieve it. He was a difficult character to write, but I think he turned out just right in the end.

Taehyung was probably the best character to write. I love characters that start off so morally upright and pristine, and by the end of the story, their backs are bending and close to breaking from the weight of their conscience and misdeeds. His character has many facets to him that made his perspectives so interesting to tackle. From his green days in the gang, where he is horrified by the violence he sees, to the changes in his psyche as he starts to become desensitized to it all. Fundamentally, Taehyung begins the story as a good man, a hero, but by the end, there is no black and white thinking. He has become grey, muddied from his time spent in the gang. Is he a hero for bringing them down? Would a hero do the things that he did in order to bring down the gang? He killed people. He tortured people. He threatened a man with a gun, a man he knew had a deepset fear of guns that would severely trigger him. I think it all depends on how the reader sees it. The hardest thing to write for his character was his troubled descent into the relationship between him, Jungkook and Jimin, and how it affects his thought processes and emotions. I didn't want House of Cards to be seen as a romantic story when I created it. If readers see it that way, they are more than entitled to their own interpretations. I cannot tell them how they can interpret my art, that is not my role as the creator. I don't know if I effectively portrayed the co-dependency between the three main characters as well as I would've liked. But I had never tackled such a story and themes before, and so it was all new to me.

I didn't know that Jungkook had the least perspective from the three main characters. Similarly, I never really put that much effort into creating and developing his character! Jungkook simply 'happened' in the moment. He would appear in the chapter, and then his character would basically take control of the scene. I never really knew what he was going to say or do beyond my rough plans for each scene. I just waited until he appeared and let the creative spirit flow through me. That's how he came to be! I've had that happen many times in the past with characters—they have a life of their own and I've no control over them. In my story, Brotherhood, Taehyung happened the same way. It was impossible to write his character in that story because he was so wild and free-spirited that it didn't feel right unless his behaviour was a total spur-of-the-moment reaction to the other characters and new plot points. But with Jungkook in House of Cards, I don't know why I didn't have him planned out like the others. It's interesting to think that he might've had a good progression when I never planned any of it in detail!

Were there any original characters you particularly liked writing or enjoyed?

When you wrote for the BTS hyung line, how did you determine their roles in the story and characterize each of them?

Is there a reason behind Namjoon saying “brother” or was it a consciously written character quirk?

When you handled more serious subject matter in House of Cards, how did you feel when writing it? Were you ever startled by your own work?

Was there any type of purposeful titling for the fanfiction chapters?

What was your reason for House of Cards’ open ending?

I liked writing Lim, the original informant that helped Taehyung join the gang. I like writing characters that come across as sleazy. In his case, the sleaze was all an act and wasn't true to his character; he was affecting it for the sake of creating a persona. But I enjoy writing absolute sleaze balls too—the kind of guys that have chest hair and wear gold chains and thick watches, who practically ooze oil. I just find them fun! Lim was a good teacher, even when he was rough around the edges. It was sad doing what I had to do to him for the sake of the plot. But I feel like Lim understood the game as well as everyone else, and so he knew he was running on borrowed time.

Of course, I loved writing Bae Goohee too! He was an absolute bastard! I loved writing this figure that is spoken about throughout the story as a frightening man, one so brutal that the readers are already wary of him before he even appears in the story. I believe that Taehyung refers to him as a 'guard dog' at some point. I think Bae is the scariest character in the story for me because he is so ruthless and willing to do any order that the Jeon clan give to him. That kind of blind and unwavering devotion is frightening!

I also enjoyed writing Sungah and Jangmi. I think they're the only female characters in the story that have dialogue? Sungah has a great backstory that I unfortunately couldn't go into too much in the story, but it shaped her character a lot. I like how frank and intelligent she is—she holds her own even in a department filled with men that receive far more praise than she does simply because she is a woman. She also allowed me to add an angle about the unfair treatment of women in jobs that have power, drawing parallels with how Taehyung faces discrimination from his fellow officers when his sexuality is abruptly revealed during the investigation. As for Jangmi, I just liked writing about the wife of a mob boss! And not one that is simply a trophy wife, but actually has a lot of power and influence across the city. I wish I had been able to feature her more, alongside her husband, Jeon himself. But I like the scenes they appear in and I enjoyed writing them.

For the rest of the members, I had Namjoon and Hoseok [BTS J-Hope/Jung Hoseok]'s characters planned right from the start. I had also created plans for Yoongi and Seokjin [BTS Jin/Kim Seokjin], but I wasn't sure how much of a role they would play in the overall story. As I started writing them, I realised that Yoongi would play an important role in both Taehyung and Jimin's character development, and so he ended up featuring a lot more than I had expected. I planned their jobs and then let them influence how I would write them. Namjoon and Hoseok's characters came naturally. Yoongi's character completely took over his job role and basic description and became a really strong character that I'm proud of. Seokjin was a little trickier because he doesn't appear in too many scenes—but the scenes he does are integral to the plot. I needed to make sure that his character said everything he needed to in his limited scenes. He has quite the bombshell to drop after all! Seokjin was also tricky because I wanted him to have an air of mystery around him. I wanted him to be the kind of guy that not even Taehyung and his police connections would be able to unearth much about; a ghost in the system. I would've also liked for him to feature more in the story, but I feel like his character appeared in the essential scenes that the story needed. He was going to feature more in the planned sequel, being one of the first characters to appear alongside Yoongi. He was going to serve an important role, so I'm disappointed that I didn't get to show those scenes to readers.

With Namjoon, I wanted to portray him as a mature character, but not one that was conservative and stiff. I thought about having him say things like 'man' but that seemed too casual and didn't suit his character. 'Man' made him seem more like a surfer than a police officer. But when he said 'brother' in one of the scenes, I realised the word suited him better. It was fraternal, and it allowed him to show some affection towards the other characters without having to have physical contact with them. It's not the only Namjoon I've written that says 'brother' a lot. In Valentino Summers, Namjoon has experience with hippies in the neighbourhood that he lives in, so he also refers to other characters like Jimin as 'brother.' It just seems to suit him! I guess it's because I like creating Namjoon characters that are intelligent and mature, but still have a gentle and warm presence. I could picture him saying it in real life (I'm certain he already has!)

When writing serious subject matter, I'm surprised to admit that I was never shocked by what I was writing! I guess it's because I already knew that I was going to be handling dark themes. I wouldn't have tackled such subjects had I not felt comfortable doing so. Dark content isn't for everyone, and by that I don't simply mean consuming it. Creating it can be very difficult for some writers, and can even cause distress. It's not easy diving into a world that is filled with crime, pain and fear. It's even harder putting yourself into the shoes of a character that is suffering/has suffered. I was never writing in a desensitised state though. Far from it. I'm actually very sensitive to violence in reality. In fiction, it depends on the violence—but I'm usually not too affected by it. I've been a fan of horror since I was a child, and so I've seen a lot of nasty films filled with gore and 'shocking' deaths that never really had much of an effect on me. Unrealistic violence doesn't scare me. But when it comes to personal violence, that is always frightening to me. It's far scarier writing a scene where a character feels threatened by another character and doesn't know what is going to happen to them then, say, writing a scene of a character dying a bloody, ridiculous death in a horror story. Personal violence is much more realistic, therefore it is more unsettling to write. In House of Cards, the violence is very personal. It's in your face, it's inescapable for the characters that are involved in it. But at no point did I ever feel like I needed to stop writing because I was uncomfortable or scared by the content. If I had been uncomfortable, it would have been very reckless of me to continue writing the story.

My word of advice to fellow dark content writers: it's always important to recognise your own boundaries. There's nothing wrong with removing dark content from a story if you get a bad vibe or feel strange when writing/reviewing it. Always follow your gut instincts and never put out work that you don't like.

When writing stories, I vary between titling the chapters and leaving them blank. For House of Cards, I cannot remember the exact method for naming the chapters. Sometimes, the title comes to me when I am writing the plans and I have an idea that just suits the mood of the chapter. Other times, I have finished the entire chapter and I have to spend some time reviewing the content to decide that the title will be. In some cases, I have finished most of a whole story and I'm still not certain what to title it! I feel like with House of Cards, the titles came after the chapters were finished, or at least when they were works-in-progress.

There are some titles that really stand out to me. 'Nice Teeth' for example, is a really ridiculous title. Going into the chapter, I don't think many readers would've imagined what it could mean. 'Submachine Sodomy' is even funnier. I really can't believe I chose that as a title! I'll bet a lot of readers saw it and thought, "Oh no! Not another gunplay scene!" Luckily for them, it wasn't a reference to Jungkook's predilection for firearms in bed.

In terms of chapter titles that I really like: 'Delusions of Grandeur,' 'I Own This Fucking City,' 'Sleeping Dogs Bite' and 'Carpe-fucking-Diem.' I just feel like these titles are very well suited to the contents of the chapters. They are the kind of titles that have bite to them, that hint at action or an important plot point.

As for the open ending, there are a couple of reasons. First of all, I had planned to continue the story in a sequel that would pick up after the events of House of Cards, roughly a year on after the investigation. However, I did not pursue this sequel. I wanted House of Cards to end on an open note for the sequel to continue the story. When it comes to certain stories, I just feel that closed endings aren't always necessary. I often enjoy stories with open endings. With House of Cards, it didn't seem right just closing the book and saying it was over. There was still so much that needed to be explored. Unfortunately, I decided to not continue it. But I still think that House of Cards' ending fits the story.

Were there any scenes or moments or lines in House of Cards that you were particularly proud of or want to highlight?

If you were to write the Yoomin sequel to House of Cards, how would’ve that looked like?

How were readers’ reactions to your work in the beginning?

Did any reader comments stick with you in particular?

How did you take the criticisms and hatred towards House of Cards for its serious subject matter? When did those types of comments start appearing? Also, where did the hatred come from? Twitter? Tumblr? Ao3 comments? Did people harass you at all or hurt you? How did you heal from that?

House of Cards has a lot of scenes. I'm proud of most of them and I think I did the best I could when writing them. I do not really like the sex scenes, but that is because I wanted to write them in a dirty, sleazy way. If I could, I would change them. I like the action scenes, especially the Gold Monkey Casino and police raid scenes. Action scenes are hard to write! Fight scenes in particular are so tricky. I often sit there, choreographing the fights so I can describe them! I loved writing Yoongi's introduction to the story, when he walks into the scene wearing nothing but his underpants.

One scene that I really liked writing is the scene where Namjoon and Hoseok investigate the USB stick that Taehyung sends to them. I personally love Namjoon and Hoseok's characters. I always enjoyed writing them. In this scene, I liked getting to write them in a setting that was not the police department office. A scene where they got to relax and banter with each other, even though they were still working. They discover a horrifying crime ring in the city, but they are left with no choice but to keep it secret because they do not want to risk blowing Taehyung's cover. I do not know why I really like this scene, I just do.

In the sequel, which focused primarily on Jimin and Yoongi, the plans were to have them reunite through Seokjin—who has avoided jail time through a plea deal with the SMPA. They undergo a healing process together as they try to come to terms with what happened to them. Yoongi has a lot of unhealed trauma from his childhood, much like Jimin, which I only got to briefly touch upon in House of Cards. They grow closer from bonding over their traumatic experiences, and they become happier and healthier as a result. Taehyung and Seokjin were also going to be main characters, with Jungkook, Namjoon and Hoseok making supporting appearances over the duration of the story. It was going to be drastically different from House of Cards because it would be lacking in action and violence. It would have been much more intimate, with much more scenes of characters talking and discovering things about one another.

I cannot remember early reactions to the story, I just know they were positive. There was a lot of positive support from the start. As I updated and started to get more and more into the story, I received a lot of support on tumblr too. I started posting chapter previews there, as I used to get asks [On Tumblr, users are able to ask bloggers questions through an “Ask” function. This can be done anonymously or with their own blog username associated with the question.] requesting them. I got A LOT of asks on my original Tumblr from readers that wanted to discuss the characters and certain scenes. It was really interesting seeing just how much the readers were interested in the story, so much so that they wanted to learn even more about the characters and the universe I had created.

Through House of Cards, I have received comments and messages from readers that had addictions. They told me about how they recognised their own behaviors through Taehyung, and this helped them realise what was happening to them. Those comments stuck with me for obvious reasons. I have family members with addiction issues, and knowing that I could help some stranger I have never met before come to terms with their own addictive behaviours had a massive impact on me. Funnily enough, a negative comment stuck with me. It was not a bad comment, by no means meant to cause offence. It was a comment that was left on the story when I was posting the early chapters. I recall the reader asking when the story was going to pick up the pace because it was too slow. It stuck with me because, at this point in the story, Taehyung had already trained to become an undercover agent, had enrolled in the gang, had met and interacted with Jungkook, and had murdered a man. I was surprised that this amount of development had been seen as 'slow' by a reader, as I had thought the plot had been moving very fast.

I never really had any hate posted on the story when I was updating it. I got angry reactions when I had finished it. Because the story had not ended the way some readers had wanted, I think that was what caused the negative reactions. On my original Tumblr, I even got an ask about how an anon reader was going to write their own ending because my one was bad. I told them that I did not want them to take my story and change it like that. I have no idea if they ever posted the ending anywhere. The angry reactions were mostly from shippers, who were upset with the story not ending the way they had wanted. To them, I ask: what were you expecting from the story? I thought it was always obvious that Taehyung was going to do what he had set out to do from the start, so I do not think I misled readers at all. It was a story about an undercover agent taking down a gang—and that is what I wrote.

I know there was some animosity towards me on Twitter too. Twitter is a whirlpool of negativity, I am not surprised. Writing House of Cards made me appear problematic. My partner used to follow an author a long time back, who tweeted about me being problematic—despite having never interacted with me or admittedly read my stories. It was shocking to me that people were making assumptions of who I was as a person based on a story I created. I have never created stories with the aims of hurting or upsetting others. I am a very quiet and private person, and I hate the idea of hurting others. It was strange to me that people could assume me to be this cruel or even dangerous individual, intent on hurting others, because I created a fictional story. Do they think the same of script writers for television shows? Or film directors, who create films with dark subject matter? Do they think published authors are problematic people for writing dark and disturbing content? Do they think certain genres should not exist because they do not personally like them?

I do think it is strange that fan fiction writers are placed on these ridiculously high pedestals of moral absolutism. Fan fiction was created to be a space for creative outlet for marginalised individuals, particularly queer individuals. The heavy censorship of dark and unusual content is putting this entire ethos at danger. I understand not wanting to have certain topics included in stories because there is a risk that the content can be used for grooming or can be presented in a way that can negatively affect young consumers' perceptions (like pedophilia for example.) I certainly agree that there needs to be boundaries in place to stop the community from being flooded with such illegal content. But I think there is a difference between wanting to remove dangerous content, and wanting to get rid of content you do not like. Content can be problematic to you, but that does not make it dangerous, illegal, or bad. For some readers, the content they create is their way of dealing with trauma. Maybe this is not healthy for them. But that is their decision to make, not yours.

I orphaned the story because I did not want to handle the potential backlash. To put it simply, I do not handle negative criticism well. Not because I am stuck-up and think I am perfect, but because I am a very anxious person. Just reading angry comments makes me feel very uncomfortable, often nauseous. I know that House of Cards has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from readers, and for that I am thankful. But I had to distance myself for the sake of my own mental health. Since orphaning it, it exploded in popularity. I am thankful that I orphaned it because that amount of attention would frighten me a lot, haha~

What was your reaction to the fanfiction trailer by Sappiamur?

How did you come to the decision to reveal your real name in the end note of House of Cards?

How did you feel when you finished House of Cards?

How did you come to the decision to orphan House of Cards?

Did you ever anticipate the overwhelming fan reaction to House of Cards?

How do you feel knowing that House of Cards is one of the most read fanfictions on Ao3?

What do you want House of Cards to be remembered for?

What do you hope people take away from House of Cards?

Why do you think House of Cards became so popular?

I had to go back and watch it. It's been some time since I last have, and I'm still as amazed by it now as I was back then. The trailer is insane. I cannot imagine how much work went into making it. It's so good and it fits the vibes of the story to perfection. I think the first time I watched it, I was in shock. I must have repeated it at least 10 times in a row, just to make sure it was real and I wasn't imagining it. Then I think I screamed about it on my social media accounts, haha~ If you reading this have not watched the trailer, consider doing so. I promise you won't be disappointed.

Back when I first started posting fanfics, I used to get a lot of asks wanting to know my name, my pronouns, stuff like that. I thought by adding my name at the end of the stories, it would help cut down on these requests. But I also did so because I used to get a lot of asks referring to me as 'author-nim' and I didn't like being addressed by this honorific. I'm not Korean so I have no right to receive that honorific. So, I included my real name so readers could address me with it when sending me asks and interacting with me. I don't add my name at the end of my stories now, but my name is in my Twitter bio for those that want to know.

When I finished it, I felt relieved! I was so calm in the moment! Looking back on it, I can't remember much. But I do remember finishing House of Cards without any issues. The final chapters flowed smoothly, it all clicked into place, and I had a great time writing them.

I came to the decision to orphan the story after several nights of contemplation. I was considering deleting the story, along with a few others, but my partner and some friends told me I shouldn't do so. They suggested orphaning it instead. So, I did so. I didn't want to delete it in case readers that had started it had not gotten to finish it yet. I would've felt very mean robbing them of the opportunity to finish the story like that. I don't regret orphaning it instead of deleting it. I didn't want to destroy the story, I just needed some distance between me and the story.

I didn't anticipate it, and I still don't understand it! I'm shocked that House of Cards got the reaction that it received. Do I think it's a good story? Yes, I think that I worked hard to create a story that is enjoyable to read. But did I ever think it would get the reaction it did? Not in a million years! I thought that it would be one of my more popular stories because a) the pairings and b) the content. Gang stories usually tend to get a lot of attention because it's a popular genre in fanfiction. I just didn't expect it to reach such a vast amount of hits, kudos and comments.

I'm in shock that it is one of the most read stories on AO3. I don't think I will ever be able to create another story that will garner that kind of attention and feedback. It's a once in a lifetime thing, so I'm immensely proud of myself for achieving such a feat. But really, it's all because of the readers that it achieved such a goal. I'm so thankful for every single one of them.

I just want it to be remembered for being enjoyable, I think. I don't have any grand and lofty ambitions for the story. I think so long as the readers enjoyed it, that is all that matters.

I'm not sure what I would like readers to take away from House of Cards. I guess I want them to reflect on the idea of morality and that not everything is black-and-white. Good people can do bad things, and bad things can happen to good people. It's hard to answer this question because House of Cards isn't a story that I consider to have deep messages in it? There are no messages about acceptance and love and healthy relationships and such, like some of my other stories.

Honestly? I don't know what made it get so popular. I assume it's because of the pairings or the setting of the story. I know that a lot of readers say they love the story because of how well it's written, but I can't comment on that as the creator, haha~ I can't say my story is well-written as I'm not consuming it from an outside perspective. What I can say is that I do think I created a story that has a lot of twists and turns and betrayals, which I think adds to the enjoyment factor.

How are you now in 2020? Are you writing professionally in real life at all?

How do you feel BTS fanfiction has changed over time? Since you’ve been writing for it for so long.

Do you have any messages for people who may read this interview in the future?

I'm not writing professionally. I have self-published two books via Amazon and Lulu. One was a basic re-branding of my story babes in the woods. The other was a total rewrite of Brotherhood, which I called 'Brothers,' featuring a whole new setting and roster of characters. I published them as readers showed an interest in reading original stories. I have been considering rewriting House of Cards as an original work in the future, but I can't say for certain that I will do so.

Since I started writing, I think there's been a lot of changes in the fandom—not only in fanfiction but in general. There's been popular trends that have come and gone (I was around for the explosion of social media and text-based AUs, which I personally am not a fan of) but there's also been a lot of push for more inclusive content. I'm really happy by the amount of inclusive content that I see these days. Despite some pushback from non-queer fans that sometimes have an issue with queer subject matter (for example, trans characters) I think it's wonderful that artists of all colours, genders and sexualities are now proudly creating content they want to see, and not simply just what is 'in demand' from the fandom.

The message that I would like to share with readers of this interview is: stay healthy, stay happy, and most importantly, stay you. I also want to take this moment to tell them this - if you are considering becoming a creator, but you are worried about reception to your work, or that it might not be good enough, stop right now! Stop doubting yourself and just give it a shot! I was once like you, scared that my weird and niche interests and writing would be ignored or even mocked by the fandom because no one would like it. Had I not decided to take the plunge, my life would be so drastically different. I've made so many friends, fallen in love, and completely changed my life by creating fan content. It can be scary, but once you take the leap, you will find your feet coming down on solid earth without any danger.

Thank you for reading this interview. Further below are reminders and information about this interview and Charmseoul’s Fanlore project.

sugamins is still writing on her sugamins Archive of Our Own account today if you are looking for her works. Charmedseoul will not be sharing the author’s social media or contact information.

This interview is a part of the Top 50 Most Hit BTS Archive of our Own Works Project by Charmedseoul. The project documents the works and authors of the top 50 most hit BTS works on Archive of Our Own. All work for this project is done through Fanlore, which is run by the Organization of Transformative Works. However, Charmedseoul herself is not associated with Fanlore or OTW directly. All information documented through this project is done with full transparency.

Authors, works, and fandom culture must be documented for the future. Unauthorized and malicious editing of Fanlore pages will result in a termination of account. Charmedseoul and Fanlore itself protects fandom history’s participants and works. Personal opinion on authors and works may be posted on social media, but may only be quoted and paraphrased on Fanlore.

This interview was conducted through email from September 23, 2020 to October 25th, 2020 with sugamins’ consent and protections under Fanlore’s Identity Protection policies. Unauthorized reposting of this interview is forbidden. Quotation and screenshot share of this interview is allowed.

If you would like to authorize a repost please contact @charmedseoul on Twitter or @charmedseoull on Tumblr. Linking and sharing is appreciated. Translation and unauthorized repost of this interview is forbidden.

Thank you for reading. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer them.

Charmed Seoul. Fandom Historian based on Fanlore.com. Twitter. Tumblr.

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seriousbusinessforhumans · 3 years

Link

Feb 2018

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) counted over 100 people killed or injured by alleged perpetrators influenced by the so-called "alt-right" — a movement that continues to access the mainstream and reach young recruits.

On December 7, 2017, a 21-year-old white male posing as a student entered Aztec High School in rural New Mexico and began firing a handgun, killing two students before taking his own life. At the time, the news of the shooting went largely ignored, but the online activity of the alleged killer, William Edward Atchison, bore all the hallmarks of the “alt-right”—the now infamous subculture and political movement consisting of vicious trolls, racist activists, and bitter misogynists.

But Atchison wasn’t the first to fit the profile of alt-right killer—that morbid milestone belongs to Elliot Rodger, the 22-year-old who in 2014 killed seven in Isla Vista, California, after uploading a sprawling manifesto filled with hatred of young women and interracial couples (Atchison went by “Elliot Rodger” in one of his many online personas and lauded the “supreme gentleman,” a title Rodger gave himself and has since become a meme on the alt-right).

Including Rodger’s murderous rampage there have been at least 13 alt-right related fatal episodes, leaving 43 dead and more than 60 injured (see list). Nine of the 12 incidents counted here occurred in 2017 alone, making last year the most violent year for the movement.

Like Atchison and Rodger, these perpetrators were all male and, with the exception of three men, all under the age of 30 at the time they are alleged to have killed. The average age of the alt-right killers is 26. The youngest was 17. One, Alexandre Bissonnette, is Canadian, but the rest are American.

The “alternative right” was coined in part by white nationalist leader Richard Bertrand Spencer in 2008, but the movement as it’s known today can largely be traced back to 2012 and 2013 when two major events occurred: the killing of the black teenager Trayvon Martin and the so-called Gamergate controversy where female game developers and journalists were systematically threatened with rape and death. Both were formative moments for a young generation of far-right activists raised on the internet and who found community on chaotic forums like 4chan and Reddit where the classic tenets of white nationalism — most notably the belief that white identity is under attack by multiculturalism and political correctness — flourish under dizzying layers of toxic irony.

The Killings Started in California

The timeline for alt-right killers began on May 23, 2014.

On that day, college sophomore Elliot Rodger stabbed his three roommates to death before driving to a sorority house at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and shooting several women. He then killed or injured several pedestrians with both gunfire and his vehicle before exchanging fire with police and eventually taking his own life. He ultimately killed seven and wounded 14.

Rodger left behind a sprawling 107,000-word manifesto titled, “My Twisted World: The Story of Elliot Rodger,” which contained passages lamenting his inability to find a girlfriend, expressing extreme misogyny and various racist positions including disgust for interracial couples (despite the fact that he was multi-racial himself (half-Chinese)).

“How could an inferior, ugly black boy be able to get a white girl and not me? I am beautiful, and I am half white myself,” Rodger wrote. “I am descended from British aristocracy. He is descended from slaves.”

Rodger frequented PUAhate, a deeply misogynistic forum populated by failed “pick up artists” dedicated to revealing, “the scams, deception, and misleading marketing techniques used by dating gurus and the seduction community to deceive men and profit from them.” Discussions about women on the forum are at best objectifying and at worst, violent.

The term, “white sharia,” allegedly coined by Sacco Vandal of the popular alt-right site Vandal Void, is a radical response to Patrick Buchanan’s argument in Death of the West: that the increase in immigration and decline of white birthrates is leading to the end of Western civilization. Rodger’s celebration at the 504um, one of the premier alt-right forums, is the rule rather than the exception, and locates misogyny at the core of the alt-right.

Andrew Anglin, the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer’s founder and chief propagandist, has his own troubling history of vicious misogyny, tracking all the way back to high school.

In the aftermath of Rodger’s killing spree, a user at 4chan/b/ posted a photo from Rodger’s Facebook page with the note, “Elliot Rodger, the supreme gentleman, was part of /b/. Discuss.” This sentiment was echoed by other /b/ users who found similarities between his lexicon and that of the noxious board, including the term “beta,” used by men online to describe themselves as lacking the physicality, charisma and confidence associated with alpha males.... The term resurfaced on 4chan/r9k/ in the wake of a shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, by Chris Harper-Mercer, who killed nine and wounded at least seven others at the college on October 1, 2015. “This is only the beginning. The Beta Rebellion has begun,” one anonymous user wrote. “Soon, more of our brothers will take up arms to become martyrs to this revolution.”

Although never proven, it is widely speculated that Harper-Mercer was a user on the board as warnings against attending school the following day that circulated on the eve of the shooting. Authorities believe Harper-Mercer, who like Rodger was multi-racial, was also motivated by white supremacist ideas. The Government Accountability Office categorized the Roseburg killings as “white supremacist” in an April 2017 report.

2017: A Year of Alt-Right Violence

The first killing in 2017 that can be tied to the alt-right occurred on January 29 in Canada. A 27-year-old university student named Alexandre Bissonnette allegedly brought a semiautomatic rifle into the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City and shot and killed six worshippers while injuring 19—two critically.

On May 20, 2017, Sean Urbanski, a 22-year-old University of Maryland student, allegedly stabbed and killed newly commissioned Lt. Richard Collins, III. Authorities described the attack as “totally unprovoked.” Urbanski approached Collins, who was black, and two friends at 3 a.m., seemingly intoxicated, and said, “Step left, step left if you know what’s best for you.” When Collins refused, Urbanski stabbed him. Urbanski, however, was a member of a Facebook group called “Alt Reich: Nation”.

Less than a week later, Jeremy Christian, a 35-year-old Portland resident, allegedly stabbed and killed two people and severely wounded another passenger on a train while they were defending two young women from his anti-Muslim and racist remarks. Christian, who identified as a white nationalist and had a history of violence and mental illness, had a Facebook page filled with racist and bizarre political content. Witnesses at an alt-right free speech rally in the month preceding the stabbing saw Christian wearing an American flag cape, yelling racial slurs and making Nazi salutes.

Two months later, on July 14, 2017, Lane Maurice Davis, 33, allegedly stabbed his father, Charles Davis, to death at the family home in Skagit County, Washington, after accusing his father of pedophilia. Davis, a conspiracy theory obsessive who went by the name ‘Seattle4Truth’ online and accused his father, not based on his own experience, but instead on his belief that liberals around the world are participating in secret pedophilia rings. Davis was reportedly a researcher for Milo Yiannopoulos and claimed to have ghost written pieces on Breitbart News for the former tech editor.

In the months leading up to Unite the Right, members of the alt-right colonized and organized themselves on the gaming chat platform Discord. This includes Auernheimer who was a frequent participant in the Daily Stormer’s server, “Thunderdome,” where he regularly interacted with site readers and put out calls for action.

Young, White, Angry, Male

According to Dr. Eric Madfis, author of a 2014 paper on the intersectional identities of American Mass Murderers, young, white, middle class, heterosexual males commit mass murder at a disproportionately high rate relative to their population size in the United States.

The rate of mass murders spiked in the 1970s and 1990s. Between 1966 and 1999, there were 95 cases of mass public shootings. Between 1976 and 2008, mass murders occurred roughly twice per month, claiming an average of 125 deaths each month. A more recent study published by Mother Jones identifies 95 mass shootings in the United States since 1982. Of those, 55 (59%) were committed by white men.

FBI crime data suggests that ages 16 to 24 are peak time for violent crime. According to Dr. Pete Simi, Director of the Earl Babbie Research Center at Chapman University, "This is a period of substantial transition in an individual's life, when they're less likely to have significant attachments in their life that deter them from criminal violence."

Madfis’s 2014 paper from the University of Washington investigates the role of intersectional identities in mass murder incidents and argues that young, white males' unique downward social mobility, relative to his expectations, accounts for their overrepresentation as perpetrators of mass murder.

Only one in five mass murderers are “likely psychotic or delusional,” however, according to Dr. Michael Stone, a forensic psychiatrist at Columbia University.

A 2001 study conducted by Meloy examining 34 adolescent perpetrators of mass murder found that 59% were the direct result of a triggering event. That rate jumped to 90% among adult mass murders.

Dr. Elliott Leyton, an expert on serial homicide, argues that contemporary mass murderers often target the perceived source of lost financial stability or class prestige. The alt-right, which couches its mission in terms of surviving literal extinction, routinely laments so-called reverse racism and affirmative action as well as immigration in all its forms.

The grievances collected by those motivated by the white nationalist ideology at the heart of the alt-right often do not begin with racist propaganda, but rather in the toxic communities of the men's rights movement... The age-old racist argument - that black men are 'taking our women' — is made regularly. Racist slurs are chucked around casually. There seems to be a significant overlap with organised white supremacy."

Andrew Anglin once wrote “[o]ur target audience [for the neo-nazi website Daily Stormer] is white males between the ages of 10 and 30.”

Wiring Young Neurons

“Our target audience is white males between the ages of 10 and 30,” Anglin wrote in his “PSA: When the Alt-Right Hits the Street, You Wanna be Ready.” “I include children as young a ten, because an element of this is that we want to look like superheroes. We want to be something that boys fantasize about being a part of. That is a core element to this. I don’t include men over the age of 30, because after that point, you are largely fixed in your thinking. We will certainly reach some older men, but they should not be a focus.”

[Richard] Spencer told Mother Jones in December of 2016 before a contentious speaking engagement at Texas A&M University. “I think you do need to get them while they are young. I think rewiring the neurons of someone over 50 is effectively impossible.”

Undeniably, their efforts have had success. Mainstay racist conferences, like the annual gatherings of American Renaissance and the National Policy Institute, are attracting larger audiences, no longer dominated by their once singular demographic of middle-aged white men.

On a panel at Harvard University in October, Derek Black, son of longtime white supremacist Don Black, who once represented the future of the movement until he renounced racism during college, described his surprise at seeing so many young participants in Charlottesville:

I can say for sure my entire life in white nationalism I went to conferences many times a year. I spoke at them. I tried to organize them. I organized online through my dad's site [Stormfront] through organizations whether Jared [Taylor]'s AmRen or David [Duke]'s EURO or Council of Conservative Citizens … Everybody at these things is gray-haired. Me and two other people would be under 40. That was it. Which is partly why I took this impression that this is not gonna last. And a lot of that is because young people have a lot to lose … Young people who show up to a rally like that are going to get their identities exposed online and then it's gonna be hard for them to get jobs … I cannot actually explain what changed. The one striking thing about Charlottesville…was there's a ton of young kids like college-age or actual college students who got on buses and went to this who I don't think had been to an event like that before.

Alt-right groups such as Identity Evropa and Vanguard America are marketing themselves exclusively to college and high school-aged individuals.

Then, on October 19, barely two months after the chaos of Charlottesville, the University of Florida was forced to host a Spencer speaking engagement under threat of a lawsuit........................ Hours later, three of his supporters were arrested for attempted murder after an alleged confrontation with protestors in which Spencer’s supporters threw stiff-armed salutes and one fired a shot at the urging of his accomplices.

Not Even 21

James Alex Fields was only 20 years-old when he drove his Dodge Challenger into a crowd of attendees and protestors during August’s Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, injuring 19 and killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer. Fields stood with members of Vanguard America during the rally and carried a shield with the militaristic, alt-right group’s insignia on it.

According to police records, Fields also had a troubling history of childhood domestic violence — which experts see in about 1 in 6 mass killers. In 2010, Field’s mother called 911 after he attacked her for telling him to stop playing a video game. Other records reveal that he brandished a 12-inch knife at her on a separate occasion. His disabled mother uses a wheelchair.

Just three months prior to Unite the Right, another young, white man with a history in the alt-right, 18-year-old Devon Arthurs, allegedly killed two of his roommates... in Florida. Arthurs, who was taken into custody by authorities after holding employees of a tobacco shop hostage, had converted to Salafism, an ultraconservative form of Sunni Islam, and begun defending ISIS online a year prior. He was previously a leader of a National Socialist group known as the Atomwaffen (“Atomic Weapon”) Division which formed on the fascist forum Iron March.

In the year leading up to the shooting, Arthurs appeared to be blending his alt-right beliefs with his newfound adherence to extremist forms of Islam. His username changed from Weissewolfe to Kekman Al-Amriki, a combination of the trollish god of “meme magic” common to 4chan and the name of an American member of al-Shabab, an Islamic militant organization. According to VICE, Arthurs also spoke of “white sharia,” a concept exemplifying the brutal, misogynistic core attitudes of the alt-right and those it has inspired to violence.

Leaderless Resistance

In 2014, after longtime Klansman Frazier Glenn Miller Jr. killed three at a Jewish community center and a retirement home in Overland Park, Kansas, Brad Griffin of Occidental Dissent published an article on the topic of “self detonating lone wolf vanguardists.” According to Griffin, “a ‘self detonating lone wolf vanguardist’ is someone who is radically alienated from society and who has given up on persuasion, a fanatacist who is inclined toward violent methods of bringing about eschatological political change, who usually acts alone or with an accomplice in the name of a movement without the support of assistance of any group, and who typically explodes, lashes out, or ‘self detonates’ without warning in rampage shootings, murder-suicides, and bombing campaigns.”

In its just over four years of operation, the Daily Stormer’s audience included at least three readers who were either convicted or indicted for murder.

"An Age of Ultraviolence"

On June 17, 2015, Dylann Storm Roof killed nine African-American worshipers and wounded one while attending a Bible study class at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Roof, then 21, told his victims, including Reverend and State Senator Clementa Pickney, that, “I have to do it. You rape our women and you’re taking over our country, and you have to go.”

In a manifesto posted to his website, lastrhodesian.com, Roof cited the Trayvon Martin case as his inspiration for searching on Google for “black on White crime.” According to Roof, “I have never been the same since that day. The first website I came to was the Council of Conservative Citizens. There were pages upon pages of these brutal black on White murders. I was in disbelief.”

On March 22, 2017, another Daily Stormer reader, James Harris Jackson, was arrested after stabbing 66-year-old black man Timothy Caughman with a sword in Manhattan. Jackson, an army veteran, was 28 at the time of the alleged stabbing. He travelled to New York from Baltimore, Maryland, to conduct a “practice run” for what was intended to deter white women from race-mixing. He told a media source after his arrest that, “the white race is being eroded.”

On Friday, December 27, a 17-year-old white male, reported to be Nicholas Giampa, allegedly shot and killed the parents of his ex-girlfriend in Reston, Virginia, before turning the gun on himself. According to reports, the parents had facilitated the break-up after learning that Giampa held neo-Nazi beliefs.

Giampa’s account also attempted to engage with those of alt-right leaders and organizations like Mike Peinovich, VDARE, the Traditionalist Worker Party, Identity Evropa, as well as Vanguard America, the neo-Nazi group that James Fields was photographed with in Charlottesville. One of Giampa’s main obsessions, however, was the hardcore neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen.

2018 is already off to a disturbing start. On January 2, Blaze Bernstein, a college student who was gay and Jewish went missing and was later found murdered. Friends of the accused murderer, Samuel Woodward, told ProPublica that Woodward was a committed neo-Nazi and member of Atomwaffen which may have as chapters in as many as eight states.

This former Atomwaffen member also said that the events in Charlottesville had a major impact on the group. Its membership doubled.

(selected sections of article)

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red-sector-rivendell · 4 years

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media reccs? 👀 since apparently you are a man of good taste?

Wow thank you 😏 I have a masterlist of movies that have changed me I often recommend to people, I'll just copy and paste here with quick synopses lol, it's kinda long. I'm not super great at writing synopses tho so bear with me

Dead Poets Society (1989)

One of my favorite movies of all time and a total classic. It's about a group of boys at a strict boarding school who are inspired by their new English teacher (played by Robin Williams) to think for themselves and chase their dreams. This movie literally changed my life lol

Quadrophenia (1979)

This movie is based off of the story behind the concept album by The Who of the same name. It follow the life of a young man named Jimmy who is in a gang called the Mods. Theres this huge gang war between them and the Rockers (I think that's their name, it's been a while since i watched it) and Jimmy questions his beliefs about coming-of-age and his values in life throughout the film

Cabaret (1972)

Based off of the Broadway musical of the same name, this movie is about a British man who moves to Germany during the beginning of the rise of Nazis. He meets a woman who basically turns his world upside down, and it follows their love affair and sexuality and anti-semitism, and it's hilarious and heart wrenching and a beautiful movie

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

This is a super trippy romance film. Basically in the universe of this movie, theres a technology that is developed that can delete memories of an entire person from your mind while you are in a dream-like state, and the main character of this movie (played by Jim Carrey) decides to undergo the procedure after a bad breakup. Its soooo good I highly recommend this movie

It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012)

This is an animated film about a man named Bill who is going through brain cancer. Its told from the perspective of an unnamed narrator essentially communicating everything Bill sees, hears, and experiences. This is the movie that got me into film and it is still a complete masterpiece and one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen

The Dirties (2013)

Loved this one a lot back in high school, it's been a while since I watched it. This is a film made in Canada about a high schooler named Matt Johnson and his friend Owen who decide to make a short film for their class about them killing the gang at their school that bullies them, and things take a dark turn. It's a hilarious movie and hits pretty close to home for me in a lot of ways haha

Logan's Run (1976)

Great movie, pretty cheesy though so be warned. This is based off a book with the same name, and it takes place in the future where most of humanity is wiped out except for a small society that lives under a domed structure. No one is allowed to leave the dome, and to control overpopulation, no one is allowed to live past the age of 30. It's really bizarre but I love this movie

Donnie Darko (2001)

Pretty sure this was Jake Gyllenhaal's first big hit when he was super young (I think he was like 19 in this movie but I'm not sure) basically about this kid, Donnie Darko, who is somewhat schizophrenic and has a habit of sleepwalking. After one particular incident he has a near-death experience and starts seeing a man in a bunny costume everywhere who makes him do weird stuff. Another pretty trippy movie with a crazy ending

American Psycho (2000)

Honestly I'm sure a few on this list you've probably seen (most likely this one included) but I didnt wanna leave any out because they're all so good. If you haven't seen this, it's about a Wall Street executive named Patrick Bateman who is a materialistic phony by day and a serial killer by night. I tried to read the book but the inner dialogue was really hard to get through lmao. Awesome movie though huge recommend.

Clockwork Orange (1971)

Yet another trippy one. And fuck it's been a long time since I've seen it so I might get some stuff wrong here. But it's basically about this serial rapist guy who hangs out with this group of goons and they all like to go beat up homeless people and shit, but the main character gets captured and has to go through reformation therapy to make him a better person. It's an extremely bizarre movie but soooo good and kind of hilarious lol

Creep (2014)

Of course this is on my list haha. If you haven't seen it yet, it's a horror movie about this freelance film guy who answers an ad on craigslist to help a man with cancer film a movie for his unborn son. And shit gets weird real fast. One of my favorite horror movies ever, I wouldnt say it's super scary but it's fun as fuck

Hereditary (2018)

If I'm being honest, I don't like a lot of big movies made in super recent years and especially not horror movies (mostly because they're all cheap cash grabs with no substance) but this one is an exception for me. Hereditary is fucking masterful in my opinion, legitimately creepy as hell and well-produced and well written. To put the plot as vaguely as possible without spoiling anything, it's about a family (mostly the mother) who go through some crazy fucked up shit. That's literally all I can say without giving anything away. Super good flick, big recommend

Gattaca (1997)

This list isn't in any particular order, and I love all these movies to death, but if I had to rank them this would probably be on the lower end. It's not a bad movie, it's still great but it's just not as life-changing as the other ones lmao. This takes place in the future where genetic modifications have progressed to a point where you can modify your unborn child's DNA to have the perfect baby. This has led to, essentially racial bias against those who never had that procedure when they were born. The main character was not one of these "special" children, but he wants an extremely prestigious job which requires that of the employee. Through the film, he is trying to fake his identity and fool the company into thinking he is one of these perfect people. Still a great film

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)

Johnny Depp, man, he is something else. I LOVE this movie. Based off a true story and a book written by the man who lived it, Hunter S. Thompson, this follows the adventure of the writer and his attorney as they go on a drugged-out, psychedelic romp through Las Vegas with the original intention being to cover a story on a motorcycle race, but things go off the rails as they both terrorize the entire city in a way. Just a fun ride the whole way, a great movie

The Truman Show (1998)

God I'm realizing this list is long as fuck. Don't watch all of these movies, it might take you a lifetime lmao. Anyway, this is a classic Jim Carrey movie and another one you've probably seen. But again, if you haven't, this movie is about a man whose entire life has been fabricated and shot for television without him knowing. Super great, super moving, fantastic film 10 outta 10 I gotta wrap this shit up

A Scanner Darkly (2006)

A lesser known Keanu Reeves movie, but fuck I wish more people have seen this. This is one of my favorite movies of all time, and it's based off a book which is just as amazing. This movie takes place in the near future, where facial recognition technology has progressed wayyy too far, and drugs have gotten to the point of no return. The plot follows a detective who is undercover in a junkie house trying to figure out who is the top of the drug dealing totem pole, but ends up wrapped in the junkie lifestyle a little too deeply. Seriously, I recommend this movie to everyone who asks, it's so damn good

Fight Club (1999)

Another popular one. If you havent seen it, it's based off a book by Chuck Palahniuk following the story of a man (the main character actually doesnt have a name lol) who meets a guy named Tyler Durden who changes his entire perspective on how the world works. They start an underground boxing club together to help themselves and other men blow off steam and get away from the capitalist consumer-centric lifestyle they are forced into. Big twist at the end, great movie five stars on yelp

Harold and Maude (1971)

This is a weird one. Gotta say. It's about a guy in his 20s who meets an old woman at a funeral and falls in love with her. Sounds pretty ok at face value but theres a lot of really strange subplots and a huuuuge twist at the end (one of the subplots being the guy compulsively fakes his suicide to get his mother's attention) big recommend

Polyester (1981)

This one I cant even explain u just have to watch it its fucking bizarre

Fargo (1996)

Ok lightning round on the synopses, this movie is about a man who wants to commit fraud by hiring guys to kidnap his wife so her father can pay them ransom and instead the husband gets the money but everything goes wrong it's really good

Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

Another modern movie I actually like, last time I watched this I was on shrooms and it was crazy but it's about this hotel right on the border of california and (Nevada I think?) And all these weird people are staying at it and there are twists at every turn and chris hemsworth is a cult leader in it its great

Memento (2000)

GREAT MOVIE GOD PLEASE WATCH THIS ONE it's about a man who develops short term memory loss after witnessing the rape and murder of his wife AND WHEN I SAY THERE ARE TWISTS LIKE EVERY TEN MINUTES I MEAN IT. The film is chronologically backwards, in that the first scene takes place at the end of the story and works back from there in increments of like 5 minutes. Basically each scene is a segment of time that this guy remembers before his memory loss kicks in and he forgets and FUCK it's so good please god watch it

Almost Famous (2000)

This is another one that would probably be low on my ranking but still a great and fun movie, it's about this kid that wants to write articles about rock stars for the rolling stone (based off a true story btw) and he ends up running away to go ride on a tour bus with some band and gets into all types of shenanigans and its great and sad

Parasite (2019)

Another modern movie I love, fuck this is getting too long lmao. Poor family wants to make money and they hatch a scheme to pretend to be bougie and work for this rich family but shit gets weird and everything goes wrong and it's so good (also literally the only film ever that made me speechless afterwards)

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Pretty much lives up to the hype, I totally forgot the plot but it's pretty damn good I remember that lmao

The Warriors (1979)

Fun movie, theres a bunch of teen gangs in New York and the leader of all of em is like "hey we should rally all the gangs together and fuck up the cops so we can rule this city" but then he gets shot by someone in the crowd and the gang The Warriors gets blamed so the whole movie is them running from all the other gangs so they can get back to home base and it's just an all around fun time movie

12 Monkeys (1995)

THIS MOVJE IS CRAZY it takes place in the future where a virus has almost completely wiped humans off the face of the earth so these scientists send this guy back in time to figure out where it came from so they can stop it from ever happening but obviously everything goes wrong and yadda yadda yadda it's amazing

Waking Life (2001)

Gonna preface this by saying this film is definitely not for entertainment, it's kind of an arthouse-type flick. It's the type of movie you have to think really really hard about to watch. The basic plot is the main character is stuck inside his own lucid dream, and is walking around listening to all these characters in his dream talk to him about, idk like the meaning of life and consciousness and shit. It's really good if you're in the mood for that type of thing.

Okay I'm finally done, you probably didnt expect this but I've been meaning to put my movie recommendations on this blog anyway haha. I deleted some just cause it was getting wayyyy too long. If u want a shorter list I can just give u like a top 5 in DMs but there u go have at it, every movie on that list is a banger I swear

#long post #movies #film #cinema #cinephile #ask #movie recommendations #you have no obligation to read all that #really shows how bored i am that i wrote out this whole fuckin thing on my phone lmao #youre welcome?

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kachinnate · 3 years

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tank u for the tag echooo<33 @neverheardnothing

why did you choose your url?

name’s kayla.... thought of the first word that also started with a ‘k’, added an ‘ed’ at the end and an extra ‘k’ at the front and called it a day tbh :pensive: i’ve probably been due for a new one for a while but at this point i feel like it’s too iconic to Me and i’ve had it for so long anyway sdjkngjkg

any side blogs? if you have them, name them and why you have them

i have a cringe vent sideblog that i use very very rarely when i have an overwhelming urge to Speak but it’s either 1. really horribly heinous and i feel like it would cause undue concern if anyone important saw it 2. won’t be deep in a few hours and don’t want to be forced to explain it once i’m over it ESJDHGNIJSDKG .. otherwise no we post All our interests on our main blog in a huge clusterfuck like men

how long have you been on tumblr?

since 2013-2014 i think? i had a different account but i think This one was made like january of 2016

do you have a queue tag?

yep! ‘#good for queue queue queue!’ which is naturally a reference to the iconic song good for you from dear evan hansen (2016)

why did you start your blog in the first place?

i was switching from deviantArt to tumblr because fandom was more active here i believe?? :00

why did you choose your icon/pfp?

tis a drawing i made isdjkngskdg though i am due to make a new one here soon

why did you choose your header?

windows / rain / evening aesthetic good

what’s your post with the most notes?

this lowkey garbo deh comic referencing the ‘alexa play despacito’ meme back when that was popular

how many followers do you have?

870!

how many people do you follow?

313.. which is a lot less than i expected huh

have you made a shitpost?

i have a tag called ‘shitposting’ on my blog so i do believe so

how do you feel about ‘you need to reblog this’ post?

they make me feel a weird mix of guilt and spite so i typically just immediately Don’t reblog them dsngksjdgnsjkfdg.... especially because a lot of them just feel weirdly performative anyway >:’//??

do you like tag games?

yeh!! :3 even if i dont respond to them always, i do enjoy talkin about myself a lil lmao dsjkgnkjdsgnk

do you like ask games?

^^^^!! same deal dskjngkjsdg though even more often i’ll reblog them and then not actually post them bc i lose motivation pensive....

which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

as tumblr famous as one can be in the fandoms we be in, i do likewise think it’s @nothingunrealistic & @unproduciblesmackdown ... and for good reason :relieved: good content lads thank u for ur service

do you have a crush on a tumblr mutual?

a requited one on my qpp, yeth <3

UHHHH i shall tag....... @antpelts , @insanelycooljk , @bandtrees , @thatfriendlyanon , @dauntless-dragayn , @ocdranboo , @fakeblondeabigailhobbs , @lonelyroommp3 and whomst ever else would like toooooooo

#garbage.txt

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ladyonfire28 · 5 years

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My French music Masterpost

So since half of the population is in quarantine right now I thought I could make a list of some french/ french speaking artists and songs that I listen to and that you could also discover since we all have time to kill.

Obviously I cannot put every single artist and song I know and listen to so it’ll be a bit of mix of my favorite albums/ artists of the past few years but also what i’m listening at the moment !

Pop/ R&B

Angèle

She’s a 23 year old Belgian singer. Her first album was a HUGE hit last year and she got 5 news songs out in November too. She’s also been dating a woman for a few months.

I would recommend to listen to her whole album Brol , it’s quite a bop. Also there are two songs about wlw relationship called « Ta Reine » and « Tu me regardes ». That last song was a kind of coming out song btw, we were all freaking out when we listened to it the first time lmao.

Favorite songs: Les matins, Flemme, Flou, Nombreux, Ta reine, Tu me regardes, J’entends

Clara Luciani

She’s a 27 year old French artist. 2019 was truly her year. She’s has an incredible voice and I just love her energy. She’s an amazing songwriter too. Her first album is called Sainte Victoire.

Favorite songs: La grenade, Les fleurs, On ne meurt pas d’amour, Drôle d’époque, Nue, Dors, Ma Soeur, Bovary.

Christine and the Queens

I think a lot of you know her already. She’s also a queer and pansexual artist. I have to say I really LOVED her first album Chaleur Humaine, one of the best albums of the past decade, but I didn’t love as much her second album (Chris) or her new EP (La vita nuova). I mean they’re good, but her first album was really something else. And it’s also just my opinion !

Favorite songs : iT (it’s in English though), Saint Claude, Science Fiction, Half Ladies, Paradis Perdus, Chaleur Humaine, Nuit 17 à 52, Intranquilité, Amazoniaque, Jonathan, La marcheuse, L’étranger

Therapie TAXI

This is a pretty fun band, their first album has been quite popular. They’re pretty unique and sometimes their songs and lyrics are let’s say... bold lmao. I haven’t listen to all their songs though, there’s like 25 songs in their first album and 15 in their second aha. But they also have so many bops.

Favorite songs: Hit Sale, J’en ai marre, Salop(e), Avec ta zouz

Aya Nakamura

Aya is now a r&b/pop superstar here in France and even in other countries in Europe. She’s 25 and you can hear her songs in every night club and party here. Can’t say her lyrics are very elaborated but her songs are real bops and the best to dance to in your room lmao

Favorite songs: Djadja, La dot, Pompom, Copines, Pookie, Sucette, 40%, Comportement

Lous and the Yakuza

She’s a 23 year old belgian artist. She only has 3 songs out for now, but i’ve been pretty obsessed with them. Her lyrics are pretty great too (and she’s SO beautiful omg).

Favorite songs : Dilemme, Tout est gore, Solo

Yseult

Yseult is a 24 year old french singer/songwriter. She’s has a beautiful voice and the beats are also great. I haven’t listened to all her songs though, I only heard her new EP Noir which is great.

Favorite songs: Corps, Nos souvenirs, Noir, 5H

Indie/electro rock/folk :

Pomme

Pomme is very famous in the LGBTQ community in France, but i haven’t listened much to her songs (yet). She’s a 24 year old french and lesbian singer songwriter. Her songs talk about love, anxiety, and even death. She has a such beautiful voice too.

Favorite songs: On brûlera, A peu près, Anxiété, Je sais pas danser

The Dø

The Dø are a finnish/french duo and also one of my favorite band (they sing in english though). They made of of my favorite albums of the last decade, Shake Shook Shaken, which came out in 2014. Their first albums sounded more folk/indie rock, but their third album is much more electro. And the album is about the break up of the lead singer, Olivia Merilahti, and the musician, Dan Levy. One of my favorite song of all time is in their second album Both Ways Open Jaws and is called Too Insistent.

Favorite songs: On my shoulders, Too Insistent, Sparks, Despair Hangover & Ecstasy, Opposite Ways, Anita No!, Nature Will Remain.

Izia

Izia is a singer but also an actress, you may know her from La Belle Saison, Samba, or Un peuple et son roi. I listened a lot to her third album La vague, that was released in 2015. it’s much more electro that what she used to do before. Her two first albums were much more rock albums. She’s got a new album out but i haven’t listen to it yet.

Favorite songs: Hey, La vague, You, Les ennuis, Bridges, Tomber

Mansfield.YTA

The band is composed of 2 women, Julia Lanoë et Carla Pallone. Julia is in other bands/ projects such as Sexy Sushi and Kompromat. Unlike those two last bands that are very electro, Mansfield is something more nuanced. It sounds more like indie folk and mixes different style. You can hear electric instruments but also violin, harmonium, piano etc. And it’s pretty melodramatic. They sing in french and english.

Favorite songs: Et demain déja, Pour oublier je dors, Mon amoureuse, Gilbert De Clerc

Electro :

Stromae

You might have heard of that Belgian guy. His album Racine Carré (released in 2013) is too me the best of the decade and his song “Papaoutai” was a huge hit in Europe. He’s a pure genius. His lyrics are super deep and usually quite dark but he makes incredible beats that are very electro. If his second album is definitely his most popular album, his first one Cheese, was also so so great and his first single “Alors on Danse” was a huge hit (Kanye West did a remix of it). He also directed Billie Eilish’s “Hostage” music video. That dude is just incredible. But after his huge success his did a burn out and his mental health got very bad. He stopped making music since then.

Favorite songs: Peace or Violence, Alors on danse, Dodo, Je Cours, House’llelujah, papaoutai, bâtard, ave cesaria, tous les mêmes, formidable humain à l’eau, sommeil

Rap :

I have to say i’ve been listening to a lot of french rap this past couple of years so i won’t list all the rappers i listen to, especially since i’m pretty sure most of you aren’t interested in rap. But I still have to list some of them that have been very popular recently. France has a huge and very diverse rap culture.

Fauve

Actually that collective is actually not a rap band at all. They do more like spoken word songs but didn’t where also to put them lol. The band broke up 5 years but I still listen to them a lot today. It’s one of my fav band too. Their lyrics are really well written and beautiful. It usually talks about the “youth malaise” and their frustrations, heartbreaks and anger etc. They made 1 EP et 2 LP.

Favorite songs: Blizzard, Cock Music Smart Music, Nuits Fauves, Haut les Coeurs, Rub a Dub, Voyous, Infirmière, Vieux frères, Lettre à Zoé, Paraffine, Tallulah, T.R.W, Les Hautes Lumières

Meryl

Meryl is a 24 year old french martinican rapper. Before making her own music she used to write and compose melodies for other famous french rappers. She’s very influenced by her roots and and she also sings some of her songs in creole. I love how different and diverse her music is.

Favorite songs: Coucou, AH LALA, Béni, Désolé, La brume

Aloïse Sauvage

Aloïse is a multi talented french singer/ actress/ dancer. She released her first EP in 2019 called Jimy and her very first album Dévorantes was released in February 2020. She’s definitely a queer artist (99% sure she’s lesbian but she’s never confirmed it so anyway + her little sister is 100% a lesbian aha) and she talks about lgbtq issues in some of her songs, but also about her own issues and all. Her lyrics are beautifully written. And she’s also a ray of sunshine so there’s nothing to dislike about her haha.

Favorite songs: Dévorantes, Si on s’aime, A l’horizontale, Et cette tristesse, Jimy, Présentement, L’orage

Roméo Elvis

Roméo isn’t french but belgian. He’s the big brother of Angèle. I actually knew about her because of him. He’s less known than her now obviously but he’s still quite popular. His rap is pretty soft and chill. I preferred his collaborations with Le Motel (who was his producer) more than his “solo” album but he still got some good songs on his last album.

Favorite songs: Morale, Nappeux, Drôle de question, Bébé aime la drogue, J’ai vu (feat. Angèle), Lenita, Chocolat, Normal, Dis-moi

Lomepal

Lomepal is a french rapper. He’s known for writing songs that are pretty elaborated with chill and melodic beats. I also call is rap “soft”. He usually talks about his loneliness and insecurities

Favorite songs: 70, Yeux disent, Club, Trop beaux, 1000°C, X-Men, Plus de larmes

PNL

PNL is the most popular cloud rap band of the past few of years. They’re two brothers NOS and Ademo and they’re famous for using vocoder when they rap. Like a lot of vocoder lol. But they’re also very known for working with some of the best beat makers in the industry. If the way they rap is sometimes pretty hard, their beats are very chill and cool. In their songs they talk a lot of their life as dealers in the french banlieue, their struggles, how tough their lives were but also how their lives today isn’t set and how they’re not necessarily happier today. Their third album “Dans la légende” was a huuuuge hit in France, and their latest album “Deux frères” just as much if not more.

Favorite songs: Recherche du bonheur, DA, Dans la légende, Luz de Luna, Humain, Bené, Jusqu’au dernier gramme, Blanka, A l’ammoniaque, Shenmue, Menace, Déconnecté, La misère est si belle

Other songs that I listen to at the moment :

“Le temps est bon” - Bon Entendeur (electro)

“De mon âme à ton âme” - Kompromat (electro)

“Reste” - Maitre Gims feat Sting (pop)

“Les méchants” - Heuss l’enfoiré (rap)

“C’est plus l’heure” - Franglish feat Dadju, Vegeta (r&b)

“De l’autre côté”- Ninho feat Nekfeu (rap)

“Blanche” - Maes (rap)

“La complainte du soleil” - Laura Cahen (from I Lost My Body OST)

Some french speaking “classic” songs that I listen to and that you probably don’t know (from the 50′s to 00′s) :

“Une valse à mille temps” - Jacques Brel

“La foule” - Edith Piaf

“Chanson pour l’auvergnat” - Georges Brassens

“Je t’aimais, je t’aime et je t’aimerai” - Francis Cabrel

“Ma préférence” - Julien Clerc

“La nuit je mens” - Alain Bashung

“Foule sentimentale” - Alain Souchon

“Mistral gagnant” - Renaud

“Sensualité” - Axelle Red

“Manhattan Kaboul” - Renaud feat. Axelle Red

“Onde sensuelle” - M

“Et dans 150 ans” - Raphaël

“A la faveur de l’automne” - Tété

“L’aventurier” - Indochine

French LGBTQ+ artists

This past few years a few lgbtq artists have blown up here and like 4 lesbian artists have been nominated for best new artist this year at the french grammy award called Victoire de la musique (and one of them one the award, Pomme). Unfortunately i’m not very good at discovering new artists so i’m quite late and i haven’t been able to listen to a lot of them. But if you want to discover them yourself here are few lgbtq artists:

Already mentioned: Angèle, Pomme, Julia Lanoë/ Rebekka Warrior (Sexy Sushi, Kompromat, Mansfield.YTA), Christine and the Queens, Aloïse Sauvage

More : Hoshi, Suzane, Eddy de Pretto, Safia Nolin (she’s from Quebec)

#this is a big ass post i'm so sorry omg #but you should have enough artists to discover for the next 45 days lmao #be aware : some songs on here are very bad lmao #but i love listening to bad music sometimes #aimee listens to music #up the baguette #french music #music #music masterpost

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menswearmusings · 3 years

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Dreaming of the Perfect Tan Summer Sportcoat

I don’t know what it is about a tan summer suit or sportcoat, but even when I was a teenager I liked how it looked. One of the first suits my parents bought for me when I was old enough to be part of the buying process was a shade of tan (though in a gabardine wool or something). And looking back, I think I’ve bought, worn and sold around 10 different tan jackets—all looking for the perfect one. Unfortunately the fashion cycle that makes certain color hues popular have just not been on my side this past decade. Usually there’s something about the color of the tan that turns me off—sometimes it’s too yellow, sometimes it’s too beige. Sometimes the fabric isn’t great or the style details aren’t to my liking. I think I’ve explored most of the different variations that you can in this realm. Read on for an overview of those, and at the end are links to the long list of great looking tan sport coats and suits this season from my favorite retailers.

Cotton khaki twill

The easiest to ones to find are unstructured and made in cotton twill fabric like you’d find on chinos. Ralph Lauren, Brooks Brothers, J.Crew all make them. In fact two of the first ones I bought were cotton jackets like this. They can be a slightly more dressed up alternative to a lightweight jacket, but as a warm-weather fabric, the dense twill is not your friend. That said, since they exist on the casual end, they’re easy to throw on and look good with jeans, and even just a t-shirt underneath.

A J.Crew khaki jacket, Obidos, Portugal, 2010

Cotton suiting

Cotton suiting is also a route I explored, and in fact that was my very first foray into this realm. In 2008 I bought a cotton sateen stretch suit from Express, which I wore for a few years, including at my university graduation. Today, I’d avoid the sheen of something like that and go for Drake’s in cotton drill, which is another twill. It’s not going to keep you very cool in the hottest, most humid temps, but on the flip side it can be worn in the cold months and still look good. Drake’s creative director Michael Hill wears their cotton drill suits, and favors them because they gain so much character after lots of wear, much like a pair of raw jeans do. Other brands like Brooks Brothers, Southwick, Hickey Freeman, and Samuelsohn make tan cotton suits, too, in poplin. But of course, I prefer the style and design of the European makers.

Express cotton sateen stretch tan suit, 2009

Pure linen

Linen is the natural summer fabric choice for something like this, for those who embrace the wrinkles it brings. Heavier Irish linen has a better drape than lightweight linen like most Italian mills make, but almost defeats the purpose of linen if your intent is to have something that wears cool in the heat. Either way, a broken in wrinkled tan linen sportcoat is an awesome thing. Worn with pale blue shirt and white or off-white trousers, you can’t go wrong. I’ve never owned a pure linen jacket myself, though I almost pulled the trigger on one last season from Spier & Mackay in a light brown glen plaid fabric.

Spier & Mackay light brown linen jacket I tried but returned, 2020

Linen blends

I have, however, owned one in a linen blend, which is probably the best way to go. Wool-silk-linen is a fairly typical blend of fabrics that helps even out the wrinkle of the linen fibers while also adding visual texture all its own. One such sportcoat I had that I felt was just about the perfect color was from PoLo Ralph Lauren (I ultimately sold it because I preferred the design and styling of other makers). There’s also just a plain wool-linen, like the gorgeous and perfect Sartoria Carrara jacket at No Man Walks Alone made in a Marling & Evans cloth from last year.

Linen-blend Polo Ralph Lauren tan jacket, Southern California 2014

The most recent tan jacket I owned looked like a linen blend but was in fact something different: hemp and wool. After buying and reselling time after time and feeling neurotic about it, a few years ago I just decided to buy something and accept it. I wore it a few years but ultimately, the beige color just wasn’t my favorite. Actually I owned two different hemp jackets over the years; I’d owned then sold an earlier, chunkier fabric that was much more “greige” and was 100% hemp, which I was dissatisfied with the length of back in 2015.

Chunky hemp Eidos jacket, 2015

Finer-weave hemp-wool blend Eidos jacket, 2018

This season’s outstanding crop of tan jackets and suits

This season it’s like every shop I normally buy from has a tan jacket in a beautiful, just-about-right color. When it rains, it pours! Where were all these 5 years ago?!

That previously mentioned No Man Walks Alone x Carrara jacket is the top choice right now (though it’s sold out in nearly every size at this point).

My new favorite entry-level tailoring shop Natalino has a pure linen jacket in what they call “rope” that looks very appealing in the studio photos.

Drake’s is also carrying pure linen suit separates in a warm shade of tan that feels just right.

The other stand-by’s for entry-level Suitsupply and Spier & Mackay typically do something in an attractive shade of tan or light brown each year, this year being no exception. Spier’s is a linen-wool blend jacket in a lighter tan called “sand.” Suitsupply’s best offering is a light tan in an unstructured model.

The Armoury has a wonderful linen herringbone jacket (albeit in their ventless Model 12).

They also have an all-silk hopsack cloth tan jacket in their Model 3 that looks really great.

Anglo-Italian has a slightly darker tan linen herringbone in their excellent single breasted model, as well as a khaki suit.

Polo Ralph Lauren has a 3-piece suit separate in plain cotton stretch, and a jacket in a bizarro stretch fabric combo that nonetheless looks pretty good.

How about you? Does the tan summer sportcoat hold such a powerful sway over you as it does me? Let me know in the comments below! And which of the ones I linked is your favorite?

(Help support this site! If you buy stuff through my links, your clicks and purchases earn me a commission from many of the retailers I feature, and it helps me sustain this site—as well as my menswear habit ;-) Thanks!)

If you’re just getting into tailored menswear and want a single helpful guide to building a trend-proof wardrobe, buy my eBook. It’s only $5 and covers wardrobe essentials for any guy who wants to look cool, feel cool and make a good impression. Formatted for your phone or computer/iPad so it’s not annoying to read, and it’s full of pretty pictures, not just boring prose. Buy it here.

Eidos wool solaro suit jacket I tried on in a shop and was desperately tempted by, 2017

Honey brown Eidos jacket in a super lightweight wool/silk/linen. The color of this jacket was a mistake (the factory mixed up which fabric the coats were supposed to be made in). I might’ve bought it, but my size sold out and the next size up, pictured, was just too big. 2017

Eidos beige with teal overcheck jacket in wool/silk/linen. Eidos always tended greige with their beige/tans, and I just never loved it. I sold this later. 2017

Catch and release D’Avenza jacket in a cotton blend of some kind I tried on via eBay.

This Polo Ralph Lauren wool/silk/linen jacket is probably the ideal color; I sold it only because I was starting to ramp up Italian jackets from Eidos. 2014

Totally unstructured Brooks Brothers tan canvas jacket that fit terribly in the shoulders. 2013