#and they're on ao3 in the form of fan fiction

[areseebee]

now that derry girls season 3 is out and available to the world, if there are any james x erin fans who are thinking, "gee, i really would like to see james and erin get together" or, "i know that james and erin will get together eventually when they're older, but it sure seemed like they were awfully close in that finale," might i interest you in a now-complete fic i wrote called smoke break?

smoke break was born after watching the finale when it originally aired in may because i wanted to reconcile lisa mcgee's vision that it took james and erin a little longer in life to officially get together while also considering how season 3 ended with them seeming to have happy, easy intimacy. it left me wondering - what happened in between all those years? smoke break is my take on an iteration of james and erin before they finally get together when they are 19 and a year into uni.

and see, smoke break even has a very pretty cover, drawn by @derrygirlstrash (and recently liked on twitter by dylan llewellyn/james maguire himself).

and, i'm currently working on a sequel, set when james and erin are 27! it's called someday, and is not yet complete, but is still, i think, a good time.

[tossawary]

Part of the problem with discussing how racism manifests in fandom and in fan organizations is that to present a nuanced and thorough take on a complicated problem, which actually consists of a number of different complex issues with lots of different potential solutions each, you have write really, REALLY long posts about it.

And people don't read long posts.

Or they read the first part and get stuck on one point they don't agree with or can't 100% agree with. So they get caught up in proving one point wrong instead of at least expressing sympathy or sharing the parts they do actually agree with.

(Or people make fun of you for caring about "people being mean in fanfiction communities" as an issue. Because caring is cringe, apparently. Racism in hobbies like book clubs and local knitting groups and kid sports leagues is also important, even if it's "not that big of a deal" in the grand scheme of things in your opinion.)

Which can have (unintentional or intentional) vibes of telling fans of color to shut up about racism. Which is rude and understandably upsetting to people who have experienced this kind of harassment. Saying "go make your own archive" implies that the affected fans of color have not been a part of building the OTW or in running AO3 and don't belong there as writers or readers, which is untrue and unkind.

Now, I know that people have a kneejerk defensive reaction to any form of "We Need To Ban The Bad Fic That I Don't Like". I have that too. And I won't deny that this is a conversation partly about content moderation. And I won't deny that within this broad conversation between lots of different people who want to do something about fandom racism, there are probably some people who are calling to ban everything they find even a little problematic. They're always popping up. I don't agree with those people.

I didn't reblog End OTW Racism's Call to Action post the first time that I saw it because my brain wanted to chew on the thoughts it inspired. I thought a lot about how exactly to write detailed policy that could explicitly ban the worst examples of fanfiction used as intentional hate speech provably for the purpose of targeted harassment, while still ensuring the protection of the queer content, the problematic darkfic, and the explicit kinky fiction that the archive was created to host (which EOTWR also cares about). I do want fans to be able to explore some disturbing and distasteful topics, even if they don't always write it well, without being censored. And yet I also thought a lot about the "Paradox of Tolerance" as a social contract and what it meant to be "Fair to Unfair Voices".

I also thought a lot about how AO3 volunteers can never review every single thing posted to the website (which was not being suggested). And about how this issue intersects heavily with the structural issues that leave some AO3 volunteers overworked and underappreciated. And the structural issues that leave some AO3 volunteers feeling isolated, neglected, ignored, or mistreated. And also how AO3 is shockingly enormous now for being the result of volunteer work on a budget that's small compared to other non-profit organizations.

And honestly, I was fucking exhausted from my job that day and I cynically thought to myself, "I'll read through the links later, but I don't really see how changing the names on a bunch of fics is going to inspire great change within an organization."

(And the people behind this online protest are pretty open about the fact that they didn't expect their awareness campaign - and that's what it is: it's just an awareness campaign - to do anything on the front of "Solving Institutional Racism Immediately".)

But then I thought to myself, "Okay, but I do believe in antiracist action. And even if I don't think some of these suggestions are workable with the current state of things, or that the OTW will ever agree to some things here, there has got to be something here that could be done right now to make things a little better."

I kind of like the idea of expanding the required archive warnings so that more well-meaning people will opt-in to tagging triggering material, which is a form of content moderation. Like the way that the "Graphic Depictions of Violence" tag works already. Major Archive Warnings are left up to the author's best judgement unless reported. And even if people repeatedly refuse to use any relevant warning tags when writing blatantly racist stories, when they get reported for not even using "Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings", then we'll be pretty sure that they're doing it to be a jerk, and AO3 volunteers can suspend or ban them for it.

I like the idea of expanding the abuse policy and clearly defining its terms so that Policy and Abuse volunteers can still retain some freedom of best judgement, but also be more consistent about recognizing when someone is being a racist jerk in the comment section or being racist by gifting violently racist fic to fans of color or otherwise behaving badly. And I like the idea of improving the reporting system while keeping potential misuse in mind. And giving PAC volunteers better admin tools and other resources.

Even if you believe that AO3 is largely run by well-meaning queer women, I personally don't 100% trust that every single volunteer will be great at recognizing the many varied forms of racism, or antisemitism, or transphobia, or prejudice against bisexual or asexual or polyamorous people, or against mentally ill or physically disabled people. And part of this discussion is about when individual members of the PAC team have failed to address malicious behavior that is already explicitly covered by AO3's existing anti-bullying policy. Or that can't be solved by just blocking and muting someone.

Like, this discussion is about racism, and it's worth caring about solely for how it affects fans of color, but optimizing the abuse policy and protocols against harassment would better protect everyone. (And also, please do not assume that fans of color are not also older fans and/or queer fans who care about censorship.)

Some of End OTW Racism's offered solutions are suggestions originally made by AO3 itself back in 2020. A huge part of this discussion is just some fans (they're only, like, 5 people) trying to make some noise so that the OTW will give all users a thorough update on their progress. They are trying to raise awareness to keep the conversation about fandom bigotry going and recruit people to show up to OTW Board meetings to ask what obstacles need to be tackled. They want volunteers trying to change things internally to feel supported and for some more transparency on this subject to externally hold people accountable to their promises.

And I also thought, "Fuck it. This post is worth reblogging if only to remind people that AO3 needs work, to educate new fans on the history and present of fandom racism in general, and to maybe make one person out there feel less alone and connect them with some new friends. Fans of color don't have to be perfect to be heard."

I believe that AO3 has gotten bigger than ever anticipated and management of the OTW has only gotten harder. And I think hiring a diversity consultant, as per AO3's own suggestion back in 2020, sounds like a good idea to curb harassment of all kinds and improve the working conditions of volunteers. Outside contractors have been hired before and these professionals have no effect on OTW's non-profit status. A temporary consultant's job would be to identify where the organization is getting stuck and give suggestions on how to fight bigotry, and the OTW Board can just pick the solutions they think will work in practice with their mission statements.

Honestly, I kind of think it might be a good idea to also hire a security consultant of some kind after some of the harassment of AO3 volunteers in recent years. And if hiring some programming contractors would help the coding volunteers build better admin tools and make tag blacklisting happen sooner, then I support that as well. But that's all up to the OTW Board. And I want the OTW volunteers to know that I support their original suggestion to hire some outside professional help, so that fandom can begin to address some of these ongoing problems beyond just acknowledging that they exist, even if it simply starts with AO3 explicitly calling for more volunteers to get the planned work done.

Saying that there's nothing to be done is defeatist. Saying that the affected fans of color and their allies sound too angry or too serious or too ungrateful, or that everyone involved just doesn't understand how hard these things are, is pretty rude. I don't expect perfect solutions on the first try. I don't expect them immediately. I expect some of these things to take the OTW... years, honestly. I don't always feel very optimistic. I find this entire discussion discomforting and depressing. I'm not ungrateful to the OTW and AO3 when the community has been an undeniably good experience for me personally over the past 10 years. I want people to be able to escape into fandom at the end of a shitty day.

End OTW Racism's awareness campaign is one small part of a much broader discussion and you don't have to agree 100% with everything that they say. Or with what other people talking about fandom racism say (and some people, including academics and journalists and media critics and video essayists, have been talking about fandom racism for a long time). And you definitely don't have to 100% agree with what I've said here.

You don't have immediately volunteer all of your time to the OTW to fix these problems to be a good person. We all have other shit going on in our lives. Just... keep some of the points being made in mind moving forward, yeah? If you have a moment, maybe listen to some of the frustrations with an open mind, and maybe show a little extra love to your fellow fans who are going through it.

And if you have the energy to tear down what you think just one of EOTWR's suggestions is as bad - and they are NOT calling for every single fic on AO3 to be reviewed for problematic tropes or racial slurs before posting, that would be ridiculous, and it's disingenuous to misinterpret them that way - are you also separately talking about and supporting any of the antiracist actions and other harm reduction policies that you think are genuinely viable?

[stackthedeck]

Goncharov posting brings a completely different new interesting angle to your what is fanfiction question. If we agree that fanfic has to be based or inspired by a different media, then what is goncharov fanfiction? Does the media have to exist for it to have a transformative Fandom?

aaaah anon I love you so much thank you so much for bringing this to me!! Okay, so my definition of fanfiction is fiction written by self-professed fans in a fandom specific context. So I'm a fan of Spider-Man, I write fiction about Spider-Man to post on ao3 for other fans to read. If marvel hired me to write a Spider-Man comic, I'm still a fan who is writing fiction, but I'm no longer doing it in the context of fandom.

So with that definition in mind, we need to categorize what the fuck Goncharov is. So in my mind, Goncharov is a meme, but it is also the practice of collective storytelling, really no different functionally than Arthurian folklore or any mythology that's been taken out of its original context. We all looked at a pair of boots and said let's write a story together, that's not that different than looking at a mountain and connecting it to the legitimacy of English kings. Goncharov is myth/folklore just very recent and on the internet.

So there is fanfic of Goncharov on ao3. If someone calls their own work fanfic, then it is fanfic. People are not writing these fanfics to add to the folklore, they're not claiming that what they're writing down is canon, rather they're claiming to be building off the canon (that doesn't exist in the sense of the movie, but does exist in the sense that we've all agreed on some sense of truth to it). But because the transformation of the fiction is happening at the same time as the fiction is being defined, the transformation is influencing the collective telling. What is the truth of this story we've all agreed on and what is the fan interpretation in the form of fiction?

In the sense that fandom culture is baked into the creation of this collective myth, all of Goncharov is fanfiction. But because we all have equal creative power over the truth of the fiction, none of Goncharov is fanfiction. Both things are true at the same time. Schrodinger's fanfic if you will.

[the-blorbo-project]

Blorbos at Conference!

Long time, no update, but this project is moving forward! This weekend, we're at a conference hosted by the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, or SCMS, presenting as part of a panel devoted to fan studies.

Why do panels matter?

First and foremost, it's a way to get research before a bunch of other researchers while it's still in progress. This helps catch poorly formed ideas, surface new good ideas, and share what's coming up with the fan studies research communities. It's also good for our humble PhD student CVs!

The Findings

Of course, the most interesting part is what, actually, we're presenting, AKA the findings! They're a work in progress, and the hardest part is the coding (talked about here). Therefore, I'm focusing on what I could do deep analysis on relatively quickly. (note: these images don't have image IDs because I summarize them below, but they're graphic representations of what I talk about in the text).

The majority of survey respondents were young: about 39% were 18-22 and 32% were 23-27. A further 17% were 28-32, about 8% were 33-37, and then it got progressively smaller from there. Shoutout to all 3 respondents who were 63 and over! So glad you're here.

In terms of social media usage, most people used tumblr - unsurprising, since that's where we got our most traction for the survey. Discord was the second most likely. Part of a later analysis will be seeing if these terms are more likely to be used by different age groups or on different platforms, which is cool.

Almost everyone surveyed had heard of these terms. Blorbo was the most-used and meow meow was least used, but very, very few respondents had not heard of these terms at all. This may be in part due to how we used them in our survey recruitment, since we did want to find people who knew what these terms were so that they could define them for us.

These numbers slope slightly down because something broke when we imported them into NVivo (a coding software) and frankly I don't understand it well even when it actually works, let alone when it breaks.

Here's a little visual of the terms you suggested for characters. Unfortunately, NVivo crashes every time I try to exclude words from this word bubble (like "term"), so it's not as clear as I'd like it to be, but there are some interesting ones. Particularly interesting are the cluster of gendered terms; husbando and waifu, malewife, sexyman, boy, girl, etc. I want to do some analysis of this because it parallels some preliminary coding results. Y'all also really find your blorbos scrunkly/skrunkly/scrungly, huh?

I also want to figure out how to tell the visualizer that "glup" and "shitto" go together, because "shitto" all by its lonesome over there is cracking me up.

Qualitative Findings

Like I said, the coding is...so far from done. That's mostly due to some Ao3-author levels of life disruption from both of us. BUT! I can tentatively say a couple of things:

There are notably clear definitions about these terms. We weren't sure if there even really was a definition of "blorbo", but it clearly refers to a very specific kind of one-true-character. By contrast, comfort characters are associated with experiencing positive emotions, and meow meows are more likely to be evil or morally grey (but you love them though).

Unsurprisingly, your characters make you happy. We're distinguishing between general positive emotions, attachment, relatability, and one-true-character belovedness. Also sexiness, but that (surprisingly) hasn't come up that much.

There are a couple of ways in which darker themes come up. Villains remain beloved, but a recurring theme is also using tragedy or trauma in fiction as catharsis.

Finally, there's a lot of playful and tactile language. "Rotating him in my mind" really is that common.

Additionally, I'm really interested in the role of gender. Many of you referred to your blorbos/meow meows as your guys, with some of you clarifying that it was "my little guy (gender neutral)". Others noted that most characters you'd seen people describe as blorbos or meow meows were men/masc. This did not come up for comfort characters. Analysis of the characters you consider exemplars of each definition will help flesh out this analysis.

Still to Come

SO much. Who are these characters? Is a specific character exclusively a meow meow, or are they also a common comfort character? What types of positive emotion are associated with each type? Are these character types or do they speak to a fan's individual (or a fandom's communal) relationship with a character?

Additionally - we didn't ask about neurodivergence, but many of y'all referenced it. I'm looking forward to exploring that as well.

That's all for now! I present this live in about two hours. If you're somehow following this account AND at SCMS, please come by!

[olderthannetfic]

Same RPF anon, and I agree with that, and many of the comments. "Form of" wasn't the right word to express what I mean because RPF is an extremely nuanced thing, but I do believe that there are things you do not do that do not get discussed much? Maybe your fantasies about raping, kidnapping or snuffing some youtuber is the kind of thing you simply don't post? Don't get surprised if you get a restraining order even if it's "just a fantasy" because if I were a celeb or a celeb's security I'd take it as a threat. And please know that I'm saying this as someone who's a sucker for all those tropes in fiction/roleplay myself. Of course, that's an extreme, but something that I've seen and yet, there seems to be very few conversations about the etiquette of RPF outside of antis believing that all RPF is wrong? It's most likely because I just because I do not fuck with RPF, but part of me feels like I'd end up seeing conversations about it along with general fiction discourse? Link me some posts below because I'd like to see them.

I do believe that the majority of RPF creators value their RPs comfort and safety, but I'm really not sure about how to adequately balance keeping a celeb comfortable and having harmless fun.

What should we do when underaged celebs beg their fans to stop writing smut about them and their friends? What about deceased celebrities? How do we prevent RPF content from popping up during a celeb's next job application's background check or a familly member's curious Google search of their name? What about the ethics of editing content of those celebs/deepfaking to make explicit content of them? How do we ensure that celebs can avoid RPF content of themselves easily? What about underaged celebs overall? Etc... those are all conversations that I wish I could see happening more.

--

Anon... I know I haven't mentioned it lately, but I'm very up front about having helped write the AO3 TOS and that I was the one who brought up the absolute plague of Gillian Anderson snuff fic on Usenet in the 90s.

It was explicitly considered and is something AO3 will defend as part of its mission. We don't talk about it incessantly because we had those conversations a long time ago.

My personal view is that if they're kpop stars, who cares, and if they're youtubers, just archive lock your fic.

[kalinara]

There is no position that gives me a headache more than anti-anti fans.

Look, I get that "anti-fandoms" are annoying.

It is ANNOYING to post things about ships and characters and have people make assumptions about you based on your feelings about fictional characters.

I've had it happen to me. Hilariously, it wasn't even about one of my actual problematic ships, but because I had a "meh" reaction to the idea of pairing characters from the Umbrella Academy of all things.

But, I'll disclaim right now, I have plenty of ships that an "anti" could confront me about. There's a reason I don't always stay logged in when I peruse AO3. No one needs to review my fic reading history, including me.

So yeah, I get that it's annoying. And some folks take it too far. There's no excuse for threats or insults. Personally, I don't think this behavior is limited to antis, but as mentioned, I've seen some do it.

But I will always have a knee jerk disgust toward people who act like the very act of criticizing a ship or the reception of a character is the same damn thing.

There's some Bat-shipping post going around that equates people being disgusted by Bat-shipping to homophobia and real world oppression. And no, sorry. That's not the same thing.

I think you can definitely make the argument that moral panic can lead to some terrible decisions, particularly legislatively. Frederic Wortham decided that Batman and Robin were in a pedophiliac relationship, after all, and eventually we all got saddled with the comic code.

But, you know, we can still point out that IF Batman and Robin were in a relationship, while Robin was canonically 12 years old, in a comic book intended for children, that would have been categorically NOT OKAY.

Fans love to try to sidestep any criticism by equating their critics with some kind of censorship boogeyman. As though the average fandom critic has any kind of ability to legislate a form of media. Heck, disgusted fans can't even get AO3 to set limits on blatant extreme underage shit.*

(* Disclaimer: I respect AO3's very consistent position on content bans and censorship. I may not personally agree with every decision that they make, but I respect that it's their right to make it. My point is that the average "anti" has no real influence or power here.)

Here's the thing. If you ship something gross. More power to you. I do too. But you also have to deal with the fact that someone out there is going to say "Hey, that's gross." They may not be talking to you directly. Common fandom etiquette means that they probably shouldn't (unless you're invading the anti-tags, in which case, you're asking for it). But they're allowed to have opinions and say them. Free speech works both ways.

The older I get, the more protective I find myself of the right of people to be negative about things. "Don't yuck someone's yum?" I can yuck if I damn well want. I just need to remember that it's not your problem.

My own position is that fandom goes too far to protect the enjoyment of their largest groups, to the point where anything that could possibly cast a pall on said enjoyment is quickly shushed. We can't point out that a ship involves abusive tropes, because this is fiction. We can't grimace at the thought of an incestuous relationship, because that's judgmental. We can't point out hopefully-unconscious examples of racism and sexism because that would make someone feel bad and discourage them from writing.

I still remember how slash fanfic writers started bemoaning about how they can't possibly write FinnPoe anymore because they keep getting called out for racist tropes. The idea of actually making an effort to IMPROVE somehow never seemed to make it into the discussion.

Here's the thing. If I don't like a pairing, I'm going to say so. If I don't like a character (or maybe more accurately, fandom's treatment of said character), I'm going to say so. If I don't like a trope, for whatever reason, I'm going to say so. It's not my job to muzzle my own opinions to make random people on the internet feel better about how they get their rocks off. Why do you care what I think anyway?

Again, harassment's bad. But I think a lot of "anti-antis" are quick to equate "having a negative opinion that makes me feel bad" with an attack. Not the same thing and we all might be a lot happier if we kept that in mind.

[withacapitalp]

How come "books are books, shows are shows, do whatever you want w characters" doesn't apply to B*lly? Not trying to start drama, just genuinely want to understand. Is it because he's a bad guy I can't reshape him into something I'd like and ignore what's "canon?"

Oh boy Nonnie okay I'll try to be really clear but it probably won't come out super legible. I'm putting it under a read more because I don't wanna clog up my dash w a long explanation (which knowing me it's going to end up being) I also want to say that all of this is MY opinion. I'm no one's ultimate judge, I'm just a guy on the internet who writes stories.

All that to say, this is why I think that fundamentally the idea that Eddie's sexuality and Billy's racism can be manipulated in fandom on the same level is really flawed.

Overall I think that the point of fan fiction is personal enjoyment. Ultimately you're creating something with yourself as the audience in mind. If not, then I don't really get it. So, for you, maybe it can mean that. Do I personally agree? No, but I can't stop anyone from creating something and putting it online. That's the whole point of ao3, no bars, no barriers. When you start putting that kind of wall in place, a slippery slope starts to form, so even if I would never personally partake in some forms of fanfic, I get why it's important to have a place where any kind of fic can exist. Back button exists for a reason, block button exists for a reason, curate your own online experience.

I'm not gonna be the person who says like if you like Billy you're a garbage person, because like that just isn't true? The two aren't automatically associated. Do I think that people who want to erase that part of Billy should maybe examine that urge? Yeah, but I think we all need to look inside and see where systematic racism might make us think things are more acceptable than they should be. I also can't understand people who want to give Vecna a redemption arc, or the people who think Sn*pe was just misunderstood. Regardless, we're all works in progress, and 90% of people to me are capable of learning more and growing and seeing where they might be working with a bias. I know I definitely have my own too.

I personally just will not give him redemption of any form or reshape him, because to do so seems to be disrespectful from my point of view to real life people. I'm not a person of color, Billy's racism is at the forefront of his character, so for me to reshape that and erase it in a fanfic feels like I would be ignoring a serious thing and pretending like that never happened, when it exists in our society in a major way. There isn't a point where Billy's racism ever gets resolved. In fact, the whole thing gets dropped completely in s3 which seems like a really terrible oversight by the Duffers. It's used as a plot point when it was convenient, which is messy and wrong.

But All of that is just background to your real question here which I believe is this-

Why is it okay to change a character's sexuality, but not their bigotry?

For me, I don't really like to equate the two? I think that the idea that someone's sexuality is a 'flaw' that needs to be reshaped is kinda problematic, and we also don't actually know Eddie's sexuality. Everyone can say what they think till the cows come home, but at no point did we get 'Eddie is confirmed gay, straight, bi, etc. etc.' EVERY single interpretation of Eddie's sexuality is someone shaping canon as they see fit right now.

With Billy he is confirmed racist. He is 100% undoubtedly a racist. Not even someone who used to be racist who learned and repented. He was always racist and tried to commit a hate crime against Lucas (I would argue that he did, because holding a twelve year old up against a wall and threatening to kill them because they're black and they dared to want to get to know your sister feels like a hate crime to me) The only reason he didn't seriously hurt Lucas was the fact that Steve stepped in. That's it. He was going to assault a child for his race.

To compare ignoring that to playing with a character's sexuality feels....mm I just strongly don't agree. I don't exactly have words to explain, but I really don't.

I think there are things you can change about characters easily. You can change their sexualities, their ages, their genders, their backstories, but to fundamentally erase something like that just doesn't line up for me.

No call out here Nonnie, I appreciate that you wanted to ask and be open, but this is my question for people who want to change Billy that way- What is it about Billy that is so compelling that it feels necessary to change that part of him? Why is Billy the character you *need* to write for?

Jonathan is a fantastic big brother who has a ton of issues and was abused by his father. If you're having the hankering to try and examine a flawed big brother, he's right there.

Eddie is an outcast (and strongly implied that he comes from an abusive home) and if you're looking to try and write about that, he's right there.

Steve is the character that has actually GONE through the redemption people always try to give Billy. He said slurs and did bad things, and almost immediately went to make amends for them when he was able to acknowledge he did the wrong thing.

Billy never even apologized. He hadn't changed by the time he died, and no I don't think sacrificing himself was some major change. I think that a villain can be tragic without needing to retroactively make them a better person. Billy is a flawed and broken person. Yes that probably relates mostly to the way he was raised and the fact that his family was violent, but that doesn't excuse it. The Byers have an abusive home, and at no point does Jonathan act the way Billy does. I think they're really good foils to each other on what can happen with a big brother.

Anyways this was a really really long answer nonnie, but I hope I got it across why I really disagree with that stance. If anyone was offended or upset, know that wasn't my intenion, and feel free to let me know.

[cartoonscientist]

this has probably been touched on before but so much of fionna and cake ties into the theme of self-value and self care by making references to (what is traditionally viewed as female-centered) fan culture and specifically the debate around whether fanfiction should have “some basic level of quality” or whether it should be considered an unbridled form of self expression closer to art therapy than writing a professional novel (it obviously comes down on the side of the latter)

the theme of Simon not wanting to discuss his “old stuff” that he finds embarrassing and painful because he wrote it in a very bad place mentally, what he sees as mediocre, emotionally masturbatory wish fulfillment that says way too much about his psyche, although it’s shown that other people get a lot out of the Fionna and Cake series, suggesting that it’s a versatile work of fiction which readers can interpret to fit their own emotional needs even if it’s not exactly “high art”

or Scarab’s ultimately self-destructive obsession with wiping out what he considers a “mediocre” “abomination”, even though everyone around him is telling him to chill and let it go and focus on more important things because it doesn't really matter. for years, and even today, fandom has been plagued with (usually cishet male these days, but women used to make up a far larger portion of the snark/anti-fan community) fans who don't only dislike shipping and original characters, they actively seek out creators who do enjoy these things to harass them. or, I'm sure you've seen those people on twitter who get really mad about the fact that leaving long critical notes on ao3 fics (when not prompted or specifically requested not to) is widely considered Pretty Fucking Mean

both Simon and Scarab are basically being told by the narrative to take it easy, to not care so hard about like, the ontological definitions of "art" and "quality". Simon learns to value Fionna and her world, realizing that they have a life beyond the circumstances he believed he created them under. (but when he again tries to assume control, to sacrifice his own well-being for people he feels are more deserving of love than him, his space god girlfriend basically slaps him and says "you are so special and amazing on your own simon, you don't need to hurt yourself, you don't need to try to handle everything by yourself, and actually sacrificing yourself when you don't need to is kind of a dick move, and yes I know from experience because I'm omniscient now" [which ties into what's kind of the thesis statement of the show, Simon and Fionna both feeling like they're not special and don't deserve to exist or receive care and affection because they aren't exceptional, ie don't have magical abilities/live in an adventurous fantasy world; basically, you don't NEED to be super talented and amazing and saintlike to deserve to be happy, you just need to BE, and do your best as a human])

FOOTNOTE: when Scarab told Fionna that what she did wrong was exist, it was painfully reminiscent of transphobic (and anti-ND) harassment (and ultimately added another layer of satisfaction and validation to his defeat) and tbh it's hard for me to believe the writers didn't intend that at least subconsciously

[hispillowprince]

not to "um akshully..." with my first post on my shiny new blog (that is exactly what i am doing),

but ao3 (and initially tumblr to an extent) is, to its core, a "proship" website. the funny thing about this more recent distinction between pro/antis, the terminology itself and the discourse surrounding it is that it's simply rebranding and packaging topics of censorship within spaces that exist for self expression by and for fans/nerds/outcasts/what have you.

the principle of using a tagging and filtering system to AVOID broader censorship (that more often targets marginalized groups and limits freedom of expression) is a progressive one. censorship that is out of the hands of the community is not. this does NOT mean that everyone should simply subject themselves to content that makes them uncomfortable, or that people shouldn't be held responsible for, you know, basic human decency and respecting boundaries with one another...which is why tagging and filtering systems are set in place for us to have the ability at our disposal without altering the experience for others. what it DOES mean is we know that understanding that distinction between fantasy and reality is often integral to our experience in fandom.

we are not spokespeople. we are not and should not be held to a standard of wholesome, squeaky clean representation in our own free time and space we have simply to have fun and find like-minded people. this isn't the writing room for a bloody disney channel program trying to make The Gays palatable to pearl clutching parents, and frankly, when websites like tumblr, fanfiction sites etc are hit with the banhammer, things tend to only go downhill from there and lose creativity and engagement (including sfw creatives!). censorship has always and will always target those that don't fit the marketing bill, aka unsavory "fans/nerds/outcasts/what have you," whom are often - you guessed it - marginalized people that utilize fandom as an outlet.

whether people use fiction to draw inspiration for their art, process and recontextualize things in their lives (like traumatic events, introspection, humanitarian issues and so on), find community or simply have a good time, it is something that makes the human experience so fascinating. we have always and likely WILL always fantasize, dream and create (and share in those things).

to me, the fundamentals of an anti-harassment or proship stance is not that fiction has NO bearing on people or their experience, but that without the ability to make our own decisions and boundaries for ourselves, we are inhibited from learning, progressing and breaking the barriers of what confines us. this includes - but is not limited to - sexuality and sexual content.

sexuality. sex. infamously a natural form of expression/communication that has been weaponized and stolen from people in a sickeningly long game of "if we can't sell it or use it to manipulate and instill fear into you, then we don't talk about it at all." this game is effective in its continued tired controversy over whether or not people are allowed to discuss icky, gross sex in ways that can sometimes challenge our relationship with it and how we've been socialized to approach it. WHY open discussion about these things is healthy and helps set a precedence for being safe and mindful with it.

how does this tie in with proshipping? it's an alignment of values with censorship in this way. it's symbolic, really. we reclaim power for ourselves, making our queer coded villains and monsters something to play with than to shut us out. giving our little faves toxicity as a treat because we know how harmful it is to navigate a world without anyone to guide us through the steps or understand our own history/ies. or, you know, just be horny and silly online and find people who want to do the same.

anyone who claims they're pro/anti and makes it solely about what they deem okay to harass others with earns them my opinion that they're an asshole. anyone who simply does not want to engage with/discuss something that may or may not be considered problematic or controversial is simply a person. we all have lines we draw for ourselves. much like how someone playing d&d or video games doesn't spawn evil cultists or violent criminals, exploring sexual themes through fiction does not a predator make.

so, on that note - the end, lol. i hope this drabble of not entirely coherent figurative fist shaking at the sky serves you, or doesn't. either way, you know what to do when you don't like something! it's called blocking, babeeey. gold star if you made it to the end of this fat essay lmao

drinking water is really important though fr like it's not just a memefied thing it's-

[dairy-farmer]

Whoa, your answer to that question about referring to yourself as a Pro-Shipper, is amazing. Not only you made it clear, but you provided very helpful information! I've got something I'd like to know, what is to be considered "Pro-Ship"? I usually see the term very loosely used and I might not really know about the term itself. For example, I personally (*and secretly) enjoy JayTim (HAHAH yes I actually do, I adore them so much.) would I fall under the term "Pro-Ship"?

I am afraid of being called disgusted for that, I just simply enjoy them so much.

i'm happy that my post explaining my positive stance on proshipping was well received!!!!! i've found that fanlore is a very good source for anyone looking to read about or see impartial views and definitions on a lot of fandom terms and i agree with their description of proshipping which is as below:

"the general concept of a pro-shipper is that they believe "fiction is not reality" and often see every ship as valid, regardless of the opinions others may have towards the ship. For some pro-shippers, this includes incest, non-con, underage, and other forms of relationships that are called unhealthy or problematic."

a ship can't really be labelled as a "proship" ship because proshipping is more for the person doing the shipping like you or me or anyone interested, involved in, or consuming fandom material.

you not wanting to be harrassed or bothered over enjoying a simple ship like jaytim would be a proship desire.

it would likely be an 'anti' who is doing the harassing and bothering. they're essentially the ones who only want to ruin people's good times because they believe (despite all evidence against it) that they're right and have some moral, legal, or religious right to preach, shame, and "punish" strangers on the internet.

if anyone tries shaming or trying to bother you because you're enjoying a ship i highly encourage you block as well as to report them if they're sending threats (because if they're doing it to you they're likely doing it to others)- to whatever social media site you're on!

jaytim is a ship i also greatly enjoy!! and its often described as "problematic" despite more than 50% of the fics on ao3 being labeled as 'general audiences' fics which means nothing explicit such as violence or sex occurs, etc. the reason jaytim is looked down upon is because it's an "incest" ship. this is, however, incest on a technicality because both of them were adopted by the same man: bruce wayne.

but aside from the legality of it (which is dubious because jason is also legally dead so one could argue that tim can't be brothers with a dead boy) neither of them ever occupied the same house, lived together, they don't have a severe age gap, nor do either of them share dna (as far as we know). in terms of 'problematic ships' jaytim is incredibly tame and is the third most popular ship in the Batman- All Media Types category on ao3, right behind dick grayson/jason todd and clark kent/ bruce wayne. by numbers alone jaytim is more popular than every single other canon ship in batman.

no matter how antis may try to spin or portray it- the numbers speak for themselves. the reality is that people who don't like batcest slash fic are in the minority of batman fans because 2 of the 3 largest ships with the most fics written about them are batcest.

your interests aren't disgusting. they're harmless. i'd say that liking an "incest ship" and reading about it for a hobby is one of the most harmless hobbies there is.

there are always worse things people could do in their spare time so i think reading fics of a couple you genuinely enjoy seeing together is a nice way for people to enjoy spending their time.

[chierafied]

20 Questions

Tagged by the super lovely @practicecourts, thanks so much!! 😘

*

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

342

2. What's your total AO3 words count?

1,371,916

3. What fandoms do you write for?

SessKag (Inuyasha), Jily (HP) and rarely IchiRuki (Bleach)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Since all my top 5 fics would be SessKag, I'm gonna not do the top 5 overall but top 2 SessKag, top 2 Jily and top 1 IchiRuki.

Life After Loss (SessKag) Post Canon. Slow burn. Hurt/Comfort. Chapter fic. Rated M. Stranger Than Fiction (SessKag) Canon divergence. Modern era reunion. One Shot. Rated T.

#Jily (Jily) Modern AU, celebrity AU, Fake dating. One shot. Rated G. Much Tweeting About Crushing (Jily) Modern AU. Neighbours. Social Media AU. One shot. Rated T.

Miscalculation (IchiRuki) Modern AU Fake dating one shot. Rated T.

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

I try to, most of the time. As long as I feel there's something to reply to. It's the least that I can do, though sometimes when comments pile up in the inbox it can also feel a bit overwhelming. And sometimes I let them sit there for too long at which point I feel weird answering at all.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I'm very much a happily ever after type of a writer but I do have two SessKag one shots that have unhappy endings. Foil (M) and Vagary (M).

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

Super hard to say, since I'm all for happy endings. I'm restricting my choices to Jily fics since I was tagged for this question thing by my jily fam so... I guess Fall Fluff! It's a 500 word ficlet but the ending is especially sweet. 😉

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Hardly ever. There's annoying comments here and there, sure. I've got anon hate once from someone anti that particular ship. And I did have a popular chapter fic with a plot twist that became somewhat controversial. Hate is a strong word, but I got enough upset comments on it that though it's been a decade, I sometimes still cringe a little if I see a comment notification on that fic.

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

No. I have only one fic that's rated E on AO3. Some of my M rated fics might have sex scenes, particularly the chapter fics. But I don't write smut, I don't even like the word smut and its connotation. Because I like to write sex scenes that are tasteful, that are a balancing act of giving just enough detail and description. I like to focus on the feelings and the relationship development and I don't like naming body parts.

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

I've only ever written one proper crossover, where characters from different series interact (though even that took place in AU setting so it wasn't a crossover in the purest form) but it's never been published. I have done multiple fusion type crossovers, though, in which I take characters from one franchise (Jily) and insert them into the world of another established franchise (The Office). I'd say my Jily The Office AU fusion (In the Dumps, Rated T) and my SessKag Star Wars AU fusion (A Leap of Faith, Rated G) are the craziest, in that I've never watched The Office nor been a Star Wars fan lol

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Once, that I know of. My popular SessKag fic Chain of Love (M) was posted without my knowledge on Wattpad. After a reader alerted me, I tried contacting the thief. When they never responded, I contacted Wattpad and it was promptly taken down.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have. Some of them are pre-AO3, though, so they're not linked with the translated work function. But the one that does show properly on AO3, is a Chinese translation for my SessKag one shot Cold (G).

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

I've made a few efforts with an IRL friend of mine, but they've both fizzled out sooner or later. I'm not sure I'm the co-writer type, honestly. 😅 I used to brainstorm a lot with my friends when I first started writing fic so that was co-writing of sorts, I guess.

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

Since I've been writing them for half my life now, I guess I have to say SessKag lol

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

Their Halcyon Days (M), my Jily chapter fic. There's plenty other Jily fics I like the ideas of, but will never likely finish. Shoot Me Straight to the Top (T) and the Bodyguard AU (M), for example.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Brevity lol. I like my one shots and I've been told I'm good at creating a whole story or scene in very few words. I'd say I'm also good at writing dialogue and conveying emotion. I also like semi-open endings, so I have a knack at ending my one shots at a point where it would be easy to imagine a continuation for them.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Inconsistency. When I don't have a writing routine established, such as now, I will only bother writing anything when I feel like it. And generally I feel like it once every other month, at most. If I don't have a writing routine going, I can happily go for months without writing a single word. I really should work on getting a routine going one of these years. Also I can't stand editing. I don't do first drafts. Or any drafts, really. I want to just write it once and then post it. Which is what I tend to do. I do proofread and do line editing, but I don't tend to do any deeper edits and have little patience to go make bigger adjustments to the story afterwards because in my mind it's finished and I've already moved on from it.

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

I don't hate it, I guess, but I don't see the point of it? Having terminology of another language in a fic is fine, imo. Cultural concepts like kimono or samurai don't really have good enough translations. Also I think using Japanese honorifics in dialogue serves a purpose. You could replace some with Mr and Miss, sure, but when you get to the nitty gritty, there are hierarchy levels and whatnot that English equivalents do not convey. But having entire lines of dialogue be in another language seems a bit unnecessary to me, 90% of the time.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I've since deleted the fic since I was never going to continue it, but the first fic I ever published was a next gen fic for my favourite book series growing up: David Eddings' The Belgariad and the Malloreon.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

I can't pick just one out of 300+ fics, so I won't. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

*

Tagging @gryffindormischief, @siriuslychessi, @kaoruhana08 & @jafndaegur

[bl-bracket]

Since we've started the tropes rounds, I figure I'll explain a bit of my thoughts process behind it.

So by tropes, I mean like tags on ao3 or mdl. They're confirmed plot/character details that are confirmed to be in the series. It is by no means an exhaustive list. Think of all these polls as a skeleton. It's up to y'all to run with it and put more meat on the bones. (Another reason to go check out the form in the pinned post where you can submit character names and plot ideas)

The reason I've structured it the way I have (where you vote through the whole batch and take the top two and then repeat it, ending up with four ones we keep) instead of just taking the top 4 of one poll, is because I wanted to make it so that y'all can be purposeful in which ones you pick. Ideally, the top two from the first part will be representative of the top two most wanted tropes, but then the next part, we'll have the top two most wanted tropes WITH the two confirmed tropes in mind.

And then, because no show can be perfect, you'll be voting on a list of tropes y'all said you didn't like in the original form, with the top one being added to the show. I'll be putting this disclaimer on the polls, but this isn't to say that those tropes are categorically bad or can never be done well, nor is it any value judgement on you if you're fan of some of the tropes on that list (I know I am for a few of them). It's all mainly for shits and giggles on my part because I think it's funny to create an idealized fictional media that still has problems or things you don't like in it.

Anyways I just wanted to verbalize all of that for yall because I realized this was all very obvious to me since I thought it in the first place, but if I don't actually tell anyone my thought process, they might not know what I'm thinking.

[crispycheeto364]

Hello to all this page interests! I'm a writer and a lover of fiction and art.

My main interest is Hermitcraft and the creators/characters on it, so my posting will be about that usually.

I write mostly Grian centric stuff, with Mumbo or with Scar. I mostly write platonic stuff but I do have idea for a romance fic at the moment. While they're the main ones I write about I love all the other creators too and I'm open to writing about them if requested. I'm also a fan of smalletho, rendoc, and some other pairings, but I've not written anything about them at this point.

Now the next thing might be something that turns some people away from my page, feel free to click away if you might be one of those people.

I'm an age regressor/age dreamer. Age regression is a coping mechanism or stress reliever where you take on the mindset of a younger person and it helps to heal you. In no way shape or form is it kink. It's an entirely different thing and is not nsfw.

Alot of my fics are age regression fics, but not everything will be.

You can find my fics on ao3 under crispycheeto

So yea my page will mainly be hermitcraft or agere stuff. If that's not something you wanna see get out of here I guess lol

[bunglegaydogs]

ramble ramble ramble

my eyes are stinging and ive got an agonising headache rn but I'm so bored and I want to ramble ramble ramble rn

not even about bsd (3AM NOT CLICKBAIT GONE WRONG GONE SEXUAL) surprisingly enough

(pls dont actually read this this is purely just me yapping LMAOOO)

just about ao3, fanfic culture, and wattpad really

i just need my thoughts OUT of me before I lose my mind

whats getting on my FUCKING NERVES RECENTLY is the sudden migration of wattpad writers to ao3 - this sounds SO BADDD let me explain

i am gladly welcoming the people who are willing to learn the new aspect and format of ao3 and who are actively trying out the website and adjusting themselves to it! in no stretch of the imagination should these people be shunned away from the site just because they're from wattpad

HOWEVER

the issue lies with the people who come onto ao3 and actively slander other writers/creators who have been using this site far longer than they have, simply because they don't understand the rules and basic etiquette of the website they're invading and trying to take over

not only is it just disrespectful to shit all over a community that has been built on the very thing they're all losing their shit over, but its then creating a negative space on ao3 where a lot of people wont want to write for fear of people like that, or at the very least will make people want to hide their works more to keep it away from the prying eyes of those fucking VULTURES

its the people who just shit all over authors and slander them in their very own comment section where they should feel PRIDE AND JOY at their readers commenting nice and pleasant things about the story they read. not being told to kill themselves or to never write again or receive death threats

ik this is such a bullshit little post but its actually been weighing so heavily on my mind as of late because I've just seen an influx of these hateful people spawn in out of fucking nowhere

i dont know whats happened with wattpad exactly, all I know is that something major was changed and it caused a lot of people to migrate

and thats perfectly okay - if youre going to be respectful and follow the rules of the site you're moving to

these people are so spoon fed on wattpad that they cant fathom the idea of actually searching for the fic themselves - they need to rely on an algorithm so that they don't have to look or think for themselves, really

not only that, but these people come onto the site, knowing exactly what it is (an archive for ANY and ALL type of fanwork, and pretty much anything that is legally allowed is allowed - gore, incest, pedophilia, rape, etc. ik we all know this but yk lol) yet they decide to try and censor these fanworks simply because they don't like it, without knowing the one golden rule - DONT LIKE DONT READ

again this yap makes no sense but imma keep yapping

a post i saw on reddit the other day that stressed me out was somebody complaining about age gaps.

the age gap was legal (Even if it wasn't, don't like don't read)

and they called the older person a pedophile...???

i just dont understand - its fanfiction. FAN. FICTION.

just because somebody writes something does not mean that they endorse that in real life. i write about some heavy and dark shit - half of it I don't agree with. writing is an art form, a way to express feelings and thoughts that are personal to you. even if they're not personal to you, its FAKE. it ISNT REAL. and yet these people cant find anything better to do with their time other than shit on other creators for being pedos or rapists. HUHHHH?

genuinely baffles me

another point that was raised in the comments of that post was people who shit on pairings where someone is really small compared to the other person because it's "child-coded"

GIRLIE WHATTTTT

sorry, brb, gonna go tell all my friends that they're pedophiles for being friends with me bc I'm too small

it BAFFLESS ME MANNN

i have so many more coherent thoughts on this but rn they're jumbled and discombobulated and Im actually on the verge of passing out so gn

[darkness-holds-eternal-light]

So I was interested in reading this one apparently very popular Marauder-fanfiction on AO3 because I was quite curious about a good story and I generally try not to hate against any fictional characters, mainly because I find that absurd. It's like yelling against a wall and believing this is how you change the world and how you prove that you're a good person™ .

But like, does every story and post and fanart and everything today have to be prefaced by saying how disgusting you think J.K. Rowling is? :-l Can you only be accepted with your pals when you regurgitate a hive mind of ugly hatred? That's so sad.

This may come down to an issue of maturity eventually. But I guess I just don't have a lot in common with today's fan-culture and the new generation of this. And it makes me sad everytime. This is so sick to the core. People give themselves a facsimile of identity only through pointing fingers and forming mobs for collective smear-campaigns against an author or a person or whathaveyou. This is a sure way to collectively form a cluster that is going off a cliff and I'm not exaggerating. And this is a sure fire way to create a massive collective ego-shadow that will bring loads of unnecessary pain upon people, themselves included. I really hope this generation finds its redemption arc eventually because right now they're creating a very un-rosy path, especially because they're so so so so sure that they're absolutely right. Because they're high on the temporary emotional gratification that their collective hatred currently brings them. And I'm so tired.

[zingaplanet]

it’s incredibly creepy to ship real people you don’t even know irl, and doubly creepy to describe their relationships as “canon” as though they’re characters and not actual real people?? literally why just ship fictional characters its not that hard 😭

Hmm ok RPF debates have been ongoing since forever and I absolutely agree that there's a fundamental ethical line in it that CAN NEVER BE CROSSED. Like I absolutely cringe when ppl show the actual people their fanworks of them being shipped with someone else. As well as if fans lost sight of reality and they actually started believing their own stuffs, and even worse, TARGET their supposed significant others, this happened so many times and it's such a toxic culture because it harms so many people and hurt their personal lives.

But on the other hand, I also don't believe that people should be punished for, in its most basic form, basically 'hoping' and 'rooting' for certain people to be together. The thing with RPF is, I think the morale boundary is firm that we only imagine said RP in the capacity of its 'public persona', that is, what they have WILLINGLY shred with us in the context of what they're known in the public for, if they're perhaps an actor, an athlete, etc. My interpretation of someone that I might ship in RPF is exactly only from the media that they operate in, their interviews, their performances, etc, or basically what THEY PRESENT THEMSELVES TO THE PUBLIC, (how they are as a tennis player in the tennis world, as a footballer in the football sphere, as an actor in showbiz, etc).

Precisely because we have NO IDEA what their personal lives look like, nor is it our business, that I believe give RPF a little bit of breathing room. Because the part that is 'fictionalised' so to say is the part of them understood to us SUBJECTIVELY through the medium of our social media, press, television, etc. We can never know what they're really like in real life and we only have access to one section of their world, not the others. In a sense, RPF can also be seen simply as another perspective of interpretation, of this 'public persona'. I believe that the way certain people present themselves in media allow multitudes of understandings, rhetorics, and explanations to be made just as with ANY MEDIA CONTENT, without all of them necessarily being true, or even false.

In this context, I believe it'd be wrong to say that there's no element of fiction in it whatsoever either. Because, as much as we'd like to believe it and stay within the moral safe zone, I don't think fictional works are that safe either. A LOT of fictional works are actually based on real people, and a lot of the romance stories or movies you consumed took major part of their inspiration from REAL LIFE events. The difference is, of course, they adopted this persona under a different name, a given fictional name that the writers gave us. For instance, even Holmes and Watson are based on real people and most of the greatest work of fiction has a large chunk of reality rooted in it.

This also answers why RPF is appealing, because in essence, I believebhumans might love dreaming and hoping, but they crave even more to know that there's an element of truth in it, that this story is embedded in reality and that it can also happen to us. Isn't that the whole attractice premises of biopic movies/ historical fictions?

Bottom line is, I think it's frankly hypocritical to morally discredit people who might want to indulge in a different version of reality, albeit if they didn't hide it behind the jargons of fictional names and places. What I think is critical, however and I agree with you here, is that the separation between fiction and reality ALWAYS needs to stay clear, and we need to respect their privacy in parts of their lives that they don't share to the public, but that's precisely why we have safety measures in fanworks, the locked accounts in AO3, how certain posts are restricted etc.

In layman's term, anon, I give you the example of Rick Astley. When rick-rolling became viral, he initially becane really depressed about people mocking him (which in context might even be more horrible than aggressively hoping he ended up with someone else lol as people literally make him the butt of a joke for a decade). But years later, he's come to terms with it and now fully embraces it, singing 'never gonna give you up' to full stadiums, joking about it, even doing a parody of it and generally having a blast reminiscing his youth.

In his own words, he said, "I finally understood that it might be me in all those videos, but it was never actually about me."

I suggest you watch his interview here, he really has some great insights on what it means for the public to 'fictionalise' your real persona and image