#but it's not something for the fans and cc's to resolve

[jmjgalaxy]

My understanding of jiminjeong timeline is as follows

Our relationship...?

A relationship where we've been to coin karaokes since trainee days

Let's be forever together

Jiminjeong 🖤(Yu Jimin) - Winrina 🖤(Kim Minjeong)

crd trans foraespa1117

I'm writing down like my notes

They may be rivals as first but they became close friends supporting eo emotions in trainee days

MJ really admires JM even from trainee days while JM sees MJ as cute potato she needs to take care of

JM is good at expressing her feelings she wants her members to know she loves them, and she wants to feel that love in return. However MJ is more practical and not good with words so JM was sulking at MJ for not saying I love you back and didn't let her call her jagiya oncam during Coachella schedule US trip

Coachella yk what happened after that stage

- jmj hang out a lot walking dates -

It's sure that all aespa members bond getting stronger during the hardship

At the same time, MJ changed her hairstyle to blonde bob. That's when JM was down so bad for her (well i guess)

They had hiatus during Sep

In Oct 2022 after pfw, they were so clingy in Paris - they filmed synk road

MJ first time crying out loud on screen (she was so cute) JM already knew what to do she kept feeding snacks to crying MJ

during these times after Coachella I think JM felt the need to protect and take care of MJ a lot - 1st aespa Instagram live Jul 2022, 2nd anni live, and Dec jmj live, and their snow date

remember the time JM said MJ was scared and cried when they were in elevator back from got the beat practice in early 2023

she also started showing her jealousy

That early 2023 Q1 things getting awkward between them and tension

it's obvious from 16 Feb 2023 aespa Instagram live

(also sm having company management issues feb 2023)

Jan 2023 GOT the beat

even in early 2023 aespa girls were not used to saying I love you to eo 😂

MJ couldn't say I love you back but she chose a confession song 'Lips' as her 1st solo song for hyper line concert

🩵

"I could seduce all women if I were a man" - Winter in unhappy mv behind could be in Apr

May Jul Karina mentioned song Bad by Soyoon twice from Instagram story and bubble

👀

they filmed together taking care of baby in retrun of superman and reading story scripts on radio show in May but it's strange they didn't talk about the behinds on bubble or live - awkward times I believe -

there might be tension and disagreement between them anyway their communication was good they can resolve them easily

JM was so supportive of MJ solo schedule in Jul

There something or many happened from Aug to all the tour schedules...Better Things sitcom, 2023 August 22 audiz insta live, and their new flirting moments on stage (the very 1st time we have seen Winter 😚 face on stage)

then 14 Sep 2023 katarinabluu Instagram update autumn is near

In Drama era we got wisky bar date, hot & cold hug (sorry 😂), and JM flirting with MJ on fan meeting

that was the time I believe they're real

The communication between them is good and they understand each other well this is the same for all aespa members chemistry

The need to nurture, care and protect Minjeong is so strong for Jimin I'll write it later

It's nice to write down my thoughts here

full references to all jmjers timeline discussion on cc and ask ♡

thank you for reading 🫶

[nikethestatue]

Is it just me, but I genuinely believe that Gwyn is one of the most boring characters ever. I am so sorry. I am not even saying this due to the ships. She has only ever been a side character that served Nesta, not other characters. I don’t see her as bold and witty as the fandom sees her. I see her as not really having a personality. The antis love to tell us that “Gwyn just came into the series in Acosf but she has more personality than Elain.” I mean, does she really??? Or did they just overhype Gwyn because she was another woman other than Elain for Azriel?? Everyone in the books love Elain, even Rhys. Gwyn only struck me as interesting in the bc when she was curious about Az’s powers. In that scene, she was very humorous and bubbly for what seemed like the first time.

I can't argue, she is generic and pretty boring.

But it only tells me further that she was never meant to be as important as her fans made her out to be. She was supposed to have been equal to Emerie--both had tragic stories, both were there for Nesta.

The whole thing about 'oh my god, Gwyn learned about the Valks! She learned about the ribbon!' was all done to....give her SOMETHING to do.

She is a totally stationary character. Like Nesta, she is stuck in HOW. Emerie can come and go as she wishes. So to give Nesta some kind of sidekick outside of Cassian, Gwyn was invented. And Gwyn was given something to do, so she could play some sort of a role outside of just being a priestess.

I suspect that the whole Lightsinging thing, if she is one, will be resolved in a couple of pages.

Gwyn doesn't really have a story, unless she is attached to someone--either Nesta, or Azriel (as her stans dream of), the Valks. Even the LS thing will be around how impacts someone ELSE. Whatever it's going to look like it will be Gwyn in conjunction to another person(s).

Even her Carynthian title means nothing because she isn't an Illyrian. The only way she'd matter with that is if she ends up with Emerie, as a partner/lover/wife. There would be 2 Carynthian females leading Illyrian females or something.

Look at CC--SJM dropped like 10 characters, who seemed to have been important in CC2.

[misc-obeyme]

Hi CC!

I’m curious about how you feel about the Barbatos-insults-Solomon gag!

I thought it was really funny at first but now that it’s been almost a year since NB came out, I’ve kinda grown sick of it. It feels very prevalent in events and fan works.

As a Barbie babe and Solobestie your opinion is very important! *_*

Love you!💕

Hello dearest Ivy! I hope you're having a lovely evening! 💕

Ah okay, well, I kinda feel the same way about it, honestly.

Considering the fact that they are close friends in the OG, it really felt like a situation of a silly squabble from the start. And Barb was definitely doing it in his own Barbatos way, smiling while also calling Solomon stuff like a sham and so on.

But as the story progressed, Barbatos really got beyond just simple insults. After Solomon summoned him to the labyrinth, Barbatos was so angry he teleported Solomon far away. That's more than just petty squabbling between friends in my mind.

And that's why I had a hard time accepting the supposed reason for Barb's anger. Barbatos isn't exactly known for losing his shit. He's always the calm one, for the most part. And even when he does get upset, it's restrained. So it would have made sense to me if he was just coming up with creative insults. Kind of a passive aggressive thing, like ah yes the sham of a sorcerer that put me eighth on the list. I might've believed that.

But it's so constant and to the point where other characters notice and ask Solomon what he did to Barbatos. And also requiring MC to finally be like okay what is going on with you guys? And even after they supposedly talk it out, Barbatos is still upset with Solomon.

It's been such an unsatisfactory conclusion to the whole thing that I'm personally kinda over it?? It was funny at first because Barb is usually so mellow, to have him saying stuff like that was entertaining. But now I'm like okay can these two please kiss and make up for real?

Because I much prefer when they get along. The way they were in Season 3 of the OG was my favorite and I think it was their relationship with each other that made me love each of them more.

I just think if they're gonna have Barbatos continue to be mean to Solomon, they gotta give him a better reason for it. And if it was only ever meant to be a squabble between friends over something petty, then it should be resolved at this point.

I just want my favorite boys to get along again!

[secret-third-thing]

I don't think Tamlin is getting a novella at all but I do think he is getting some kind of arc in elucien's book, there is no point in her repeatedly bringing him up otherwise, she could have thrown him aside after ACOWAR. Rn though his court is in ruins, he lives as a monster, everyone needs him to step up including eris or Beron will get access to the wall. It makes no sense to just leave it there. I don't think sjm will kill him off because we know of no other significant spring court faes who might take over after him. So there will be some kind of arc but I have no clue what Sjm wants to do.

Yeah I agree! I don't think tamlin would get a novella. My candidates for a novella would be:

Morrigan

Maybe Eris 😂

Another NC multi-pov

Maybe BoE

Hear me out on this next bit.

This fandom likes to focus on ships and "whose book is next" but I like to think in terms of plot and conflict. Beron and Koschei are the two big antagonists I see in the near future and discussing the books from the perspective of what conflict is being addressed is easier (and makes more sense) to me. So forgive me as I route us in that direction. At the end of the day, I don't really care which ship is addressed as long as it serves the story.

As you've alluded to, Beron's book would be very local to prythian and is directly impacted by Spring court's instability. I don't think that tamlin getting his shit together necessarily must happen in order to deal with beron. I think Tamlin's inability to move forward is actually a fascinating way for Beron to make his move. It could be the catalyst! I do think however that Tamlin MUST have his shit together before Koschei's big battle. That strikes me as a "rally the entire gang" kind of conflict and could serve to cement Tamlin's new life/status/whatever.

We also have dusk court and the CC crossover in the background to make things evne more complicated.

So If I were SJM, I would structure the books to be something like:

Acotar 6: Autumn Court politics centric with focus on building foundations of allyship. As an author, I need to get Eris on the throne, as well as build rapport between Tamlin and NC or Tamlin and Lucien. BoE will also have some moments here because we need to lay the foundations for Book 7. Elain is going to have some character development to set the stage for Book 7. We need friction in Lucien's story that can be resolved for the next book. Nesta needs to focus on building valkyries and dealing with the aftermath of the CC crossover. As does Azriel. What does Nesta's new life look like post Baby save?

Book 7: All the players of all the courts are here. The Valkryries are formed. Beron is either thwarted or so far down the villain route that Eris is effectively high lord. BoE get their moment b/c this story is tied to Koschei. We spend more time on the continent. Mythos that we've gathered from previous books culminates here and we will get some kind of revelation that gives us threads for future series/books etc. We spend time in the continent to some degree. I think Elain's arc will end here. also Dusk Court (though that could easily be prev)

As wacky as Sarah can be, I don't think she's particularly innovative when it comes to epic fantasy, so I'm trying to think about pre-established patterns in the genre + whatever influences she's had from other books. This is not meant to be a dig at her, but sometimes I think we 4D chess these books so much and most of the time her clues are pretty straightforward. like... most of the wackiness in CC3, I predicted by nature of being a big anime fan haha.

[pommunist]

im sorry to dump this in your inbox and if you want to delete it please go right ahead, it obviously invites a lot of discourse that you might not want to involve yourself in, but im so frustrated right now. people just keep passing around the same tired nonsensical arguments to try to discredit lea or any of the admins any way they can just to parasocially defend a fucking COMPANY and its just so stupid. "this shouldve been private" did you miss the fact that this started bc they were attempting to resolve it in private and lea got fired for asking for help from pierre? "lea doxxed quackity" she didnt even mean to and she apologized and deleted the tweet as soon as she realized "lea is xenophobic" over a mistranslation. give it up yall Quackity Studios®️ isnt gonna fuck you

First thing first, Xenophobia should never be seen as a « nonsensical argument », whether or not you believe it was perceived as such because of language difference or anything else.

As for the doxxing thing, people can have their thoughts and talk about it, but I won’t because it’s not directly related to the QSMP situation. What I’m trying to say is that these are serious topics than can be discussed, and also not everyone who raised these subjects used it to discredit the admins experience.

The « should’ve been private » argument tho… I can’t like yes, duh, it should’ve ! However it was not possible since communication seems to be a foreign concept within the higher hierarchy of Qstudios so their fault really. I put this in the same category as the « just be patient » argument, like no sorry what we’re talking about is severe mistreatment and exploitation of workers so lets focus on that instead of telling victims and outraged fans how they should act.

Personally I want to focus solely on the workers rights, the way the issues are being handled by Qstudios, the legal aspects of the problems, and just what revolves around the Qadmins situation in general. I have no interest in discussing the character of any CCs or admins as individuals, peripheral issues or fandom « discourse ». Doesn’t mean I don’t care about it just I don’t want to distract the discussion away from the « main » topic.

So if some people sent me anons that were more focused around the doxxing thing, or around being angry at some people’s reactions and were wondering why I didn’t answer them, that’s why ! No hate to y’all, you are still free to use my askbox as a venting place if you want to, I just hope you can understand why I chose, and will continue to choose, not to answer them ✌️

(edit : if you have genuine questions/are looking for answers about the doxxing situation or something else, hop in my dms rather than send me an anon)

Also anon, that last sentence, while I can see where you come from, let's still stay cordial and respectful !

[oceansquill]

That’s absolutely what the whole thing is giving though, when I watched it I also thought that they’ve just decided early on one day that Dream was bad (willing to bet that it was a ‘caught him on a bad day’ sort of scenario?) and just never broke out of the mindset, despite probably having reasons to, reasons that were most likely ignored because it’s usually easier to notice things that piss us off.

Ehhhh, kind of?. Okay here's my thoughts on the situation. I find that a lot of people in dtblr are distrustful/give no good will to other ccs (which is fair! we have been done dirty quite a lot). There are certain narratives that people are kinda drawn into and believe are true and thus read almost all situations through those lenses.

These include: they hated him from the start, they're cold hearted clout chasers with care for little else, or even they're corrupting x person (in this case tommy) who would otherwise be dt pos. Now I don't think that all of these are necessarily always false, just that people fall into the trap of applying one of these first and not actually thinking about what we know and what else might be (which is also fair! this is cc drama, it is not of utmost importance to get the correct take/bog yourself down with this stuff)

I think it's because for them, one thing is true: dteam are good people. From there, that colors the behaviors of those decrying them in a really bad way. I think the opposite base (tommy/jack/whoever is a good person) is what leads to the whole "dream is an evil monster" thing from the other side.

For me, (at least here) I'm coming from the idea that both sides are at least try to be good people. Don't get me wrong, I'm not like a beholder of rationale or something, I'm just attached to both sides while most people only care about one one. Of course, we don't (and probably will never) know which base is in line with reality, but I'll share my thoughts on the matter - as someone kinda sorta stuck in the middle.

From what I can tell, most of them were, at some point, friends or at least friendly coworkers. Shit happened - controversies, rabid fan bases, personal shit in some cases - which caused them to want to distance themselves from dt. The overwhelming hate for dt added to whatever happened, erased goodwill from previously resolved/discarded interactions, which added to their dislike of the dt (I think this is what all the "behind the scenes" shit is). All that culminated in a retroactive hatred of dt which they uh can't really take back atp without massive backlash from their fanbase.

Phil said in the podcast that in the past he gave dream too much credit and used to say "oh he doesn't actually mean it" when he really did. I read this as Phil rereading situations after the fact with the idea that dream is Bad and was always Bad.

I don't think they're malicious people preying on dream's downfall (I've seen wayyy too many phil's a jealous bitch takes on this site - he genuinely does not give a shit). I think a series of misunderstandings caused a massive rift that would take a lot of effort from everyone involved to mend which is probably never going to happen. I do genuinely think at least tommy and tubbo miss what used to be. However, I also think most of the ccs have warped visions of the dt atp which are way too far gone.

Idk, seeing as Bad and technodad are on good terms with both sides, it's hard for me to designate one as Evil. I absolutely think people have done things that are wrong and horrible, I also think people have been misled and just don't think about it too much.

Anyways, that's just my thoughts sorry for the long ramble. I suppose I can't bring myself to believe that none of it was ever real. That the jokes and dynamics and joy were all under false pretenses.

[mcytshipsandmore]

rah I really didn’t mean to start issues I’m sorry-

anon that talked about respecting cc’s but tumblr is a fan space is actually very correct so uh. s o r r y. If it’d be easier for you to delete the ask I originally sent you could do that. Erm. I wasn’t like trying to rile up something, idk. Yeah idk why I brought that up on tumblr where it’s. Tumblr. Yknow what I’ll just see myself out. I’m very sorry for any and all convenience I have caused right now.

No no you are all good anon. I understand where you are coming from and you genuinely wanted to help. I respect that

Its ok to make mistakes and I'm glad that in the end there's no harm done.

As for everyone else, we have mostly resolved the issue so please dont attack anon for what happened.

-🍫

[xomoosexo]

https://www.tumblr.com/xomoosexo/723237473515372544/my-honest-thoughts-on-will-quackity-fall-i-hope?source=share

i saw the other anon's essay and i don't have anything important to add to it except this:

i wasn't very impressed with Q's attempt to sooth over the drama/hate with the qsmp. his tweets weren't problematic in their wording or message, but it sounded more like customer service than a personal message. which, like, isn't necessarily a bad thing. companies and big projects have PR and these kinds of things. but it made me feel like there was a big disconnect between Q, the people on the qsmp, and the fans. it felt like he was treating it clinically, instead of dealing with friends/people he knew personally. it's the kind of language that's a whole lot of fluff, with enough buzz words to sound important, but it has no actual substance or weight. he didn't actually address anything directly

and, well, bringing up the law degree, and how Q tends to shift the blame or focus onto other people .... yeah, it kind of all adds up. that's exactly the kind of language a lawyer would use, bc they know how to talk their way around a problem :/

idk. lawyers aren't inherently evil or manipulative people, but Q definitely has the skills to avoid the heat and avoid getting cancelled/hated the way other ccs are. it kind of sucks after what he's done to his supposed "friends"

everytime q puts out a statement it literally feels like press release pr statement. all fluff that's meant to satisfy people's need for *a* statement. it doesn't actually matter to people if a conflict is resolved or if a statement has any substance or accountability or resolution. just that they can say the issue is over and addressed. I've also noticed whenever he's congratulating himself it's always I'm so proud of me I'm so proud of my community. but whenever something goes wrong it's always "us at qsmp" "our team" and "we are working on it"

[ghostdnfie]

hi! i started this account like yesterday because the droloisms got too bad. and this ask got long as hell, but you asked about the SBI-dream stan pipeline?

*old man talking about war voice* i was a youtube-only dream fan who subscribed back in 2019 because i liked the minecraft videos. i also got into smplive and smpearth through the jschlatt and wilbur lava/water rising videos (skull emoji) and i got into SBI through smpearth where i became a tommy fan. and then i followed him onto dream smp and got really really into the roleplay and i was such a huge SBI enjoyer and inniter and during the height of the pandemic while i was in online school i literally watched all of tommy's streams and wilbur's streams and so many phil's streams (he streamed for like, five hours monday wednesday friday or something and i had a shit ton of channel points, and i probably sent some really cringy chat messages calling him dadza) but even then i mostly followed primeboys (rip) accounts on tumblr or accounts that were at least neutral on dream because it was so annoying when SBI accounts would shit on dteam. and also the entire internet *loves* shitting on dream so i was in the trenches defending a guy whose fandom i was barely even in. (again, i was youtube-only. i loved the manhunts. i was also here when the speedrunning scandal hit. i literally remember the first post i saw talking about it. *thousand yard stare*)

(sidenote: after origins smp i saw people on the SBI side saying that they were glad dream & co. weren't on the server bc they would ruin it which really pissed me off. and also back during r/place in 2021 when people were making a bunch of mcyt pixel faces and they would vote in the discord server on whose face to add and anybody who suggested a dream team member would be downvoted to hell with people saying like "we don't want to make our thing a target" okay but you have almost every single other dream smp member on there so like aaaaaaaaaaa sorry the demons. dreamons, if you will. this sort of negativity was why i mainly followed primeboys accounts and lurked on dtblr far more than i lurked on sbiblr despite being an SBI main. also why i never got too into the hermitcraft fandom despite watching a bunch of hermitcraft because the fandom would act like they were better than you because their CCs were wholesome or something)

anyway i watched the face reveal live, was pretty happy fandom-wise, i had even just got my tommy tshirt (which took like half a year to ship btw...) when. you know.

so then i took a complete break from the entire fandom, like everything mcyt related. i even stopped playing minecraft. and i would genuinely get scared to watch other content creators who are chronically online or to talk to people in my age group because what if they bring it up. i feel like some of my irls are drantis because of some jokes they made but i am absolutely NOT bringing it up and as long as they don't try to engage me in it we can be chill.

for the past couple of years i was mostly trying to move on with my life and occasionally reading things on r/dwt2 when my resolve weakened or when someone would bring up dream unprompted and i would spiral (definitely very healthy and the behavior of someone who has "gotten over mcyt!" hahahahaha)

i made the switch from SBI/inniter main & dream stan to solely dream stan very gradually as i felt like tommy's content wasn't very funny to me anymore. like the last one i remember really enjoying was the clingyduo wedding video. and i really really really didn't like how tommy & co kept joking about the allegations.

& the last week had me crashing out so bad because it felt like the huge huge split between the sbi side and the dteam side that had been festering for so long was finally acknowledged, like when you have a relationship that's been sort of toxic for years and then you finally have one giant blow-up fight and break up.

anyway, i'm one of the kids that dream got custody of in the primeboys divorce. and now i'm dipping my toe into the whole dream team fandom thing by watching some recent vods (i'm scared watching older vods will make me feel. skull emoji) so i made an entirely new tumblr account and a new youtube account with a different email so i can keep my dteam fandom stuff away from literally everything else and hopefully that will be better for my mental health.

also, if i can overshare some more for a sec, mcyt was the first fandom where i got really invested in the fandom as a community and engaged in it instead of just looking at fanart and reading fic. and it's likely going to be the LAST fandom where i do that because hoooooo boy did i get burned out bad. controversy after controversy will do that to you i guess. however i feel i am in this dream stan shit for life now.

(these are some dream levels of overexplaining. he's just like me fr.)

ty for this ask this was super interesting to read!! it always breaks my brain a little seeing 2019 fans bc i realise that was now 6 years ago i was 14 then and now i'm about to be 20 and time isn't real 😭

i can relate to some of the tommy fanisms lol i literally was a bigger fan of tommy than dream in 2021 - though this shifted around the time of george's haircut stream i think? (or maybe a little before that -i remember being in awe when dream posted those suit pics i was just doodling pics of them LOL.) i just slowly lost interest in tommy and the last video of his that i disctinctly remember watching when it came out was minecraft griefing in real life i think? its dated december 2021. (i must say i had to check tommys channel just now for that and good GOD it hurt my soul seeing all the videos i remember getting notifs for and watching right then and there. ;-;)

honestly bc of how much i used to like tommy i cant think about this drama too much or it just hurts thinking about how sour everything turned, how he's more focused on public validation, attention and looking good rather than actually Doing good, how he's just turned into just another chronically online social media user who happens to also be a youtuber, who thinks and spews all the same harmful bullshit those ppl do. not to mention prioritising appealing to the incredibly toxic side of his fanbase in fear of them turning on him and directing that toxicity his way instead (i.e. being spineless). equally applies to tubbo, but i never really watched him much lol.

what u said about the hermitcraft fandom kind of reminds me of what i talked about in this post (tho it wasnt inspired by them at all, i just got annoyed at some phannies calling dnp unproblematic when they're... very much not LOL no one is immune to making mistakes, it's just human and the best we can do is grow, learn and change for the better etc). i really don't like when fans of a cc act like they're morally superior for being a fan of someone who's had less controversy online bc i gurantee it's unlikely they haven't said or done anything harmful offline. everyone has at some point.

what you said at the end there makes so much sense, and it's how i felt for a long time - until i discovered dnp in august 2024, when my belief that i could never get invested in another fandom was at its absolute strongest lol (mainly influenced by the sheer number/severity of controversies we've had to put up with in this one, and for so many years too). and fortunately apart from some dranti/generally not so nice phannies and a minor case of infighting a few weeks back, i've had an incredibly positive experience there and i'm so glad i was wrong about not being able to be invested in another fandom. my very risk averse self was rlly relieved and happy :')

[dez-wade]

At this point I’m begging blue to be the cursed team so that either:

A) they win and every argument with red fans on twitter (tumblr has been thankfully pretty chill) can be resolved with “well blue had to win or the kids would have died. Did you want the kids to die?”

Or the far more toxic B) they lose and it’s all red’s fault because they were too jaded by a single day’s events (as if they haven’t all suffered bffr) and consumed by their selfish competitiveness to reason with. Like imagine the wailing on twitter when the eye guy goes “wow you guys totally screwed that up you’re terrible” and it’s all their precious favs’ fault.

Obviously want the eggs to live but the chathopping and toxicity from certain corners of the community have been so bad this past week, and that’s coming from someone who watched the DSMP from the beginning.

I can assure you Option B would never happen simply because they would never turn on their favorites. They praise their CC's actions on RP, but condemn the same action if it's done by something else.

They would either say it was very slay of them or blame the admins or literally anyone but them. Especially because the winner can save some eggs, so the popular CC's eggs would be safe and they would have little reason to care about the others.

And in Option A they would just keep saying now they're the better team but Blue had to win because the admins made them to be the cursed ones.

When the fandom gets annoying like this, there's no really saving tbh. You just hope there's an arc that would have little reason that your favorite CC won't interact or have anything to do with the CCs that have an annoying fan base.

That's why Morning Crew was easily the most sacred and chill time.

[tiredandoptimistic]

First off, I definitely agree with you about the social weight of the Herondale name being a Shadowhunter thing. It's something I always chafe against on a personal level, but it makes sense for other characters to see family name as something important. Jace's personal conflict over identifying with the Herondales also makes sense, because he's suddenly being handed all this history and pressure to live up to the legacy. Accepting that he's a Herondale so that he can continue the line means accepting that he must become a part of this historic legacy.

The thing with the demon blood is that I think the way you're interpreting it would be more interesting than how it actually is in canon. I prefer the story of Sebastian and Jace both having the same potential for good/evil but being shaped into totally different people by how they were raised (Valentine saw Sebastian as demonic and Jace as angelic and treated them accordingly, and Jace got to spend half of his life with the Lightwoods while Sebastian was left with Valentine for his teen years), but I really don't think that's the intent of the text. Full disclosure, I haven't reread the Sebastian stuff in about two years (I'll get to COG soon), but I remember the story being that Sebastian is literally inherently evil and cannot feel affection. The hypothetical non-evil Sebastian who was never given demon blood is treated as a different person (he's got a different flower card and everything), and part of this is that "good" Sebastian would have Jocelyn's green eyes instead of Valentine's black ones. He gets all the evil burned out of him at the end, and it changes his eye color because the black eyes from Valentine are a sign of his evil nature. I don't think I need to explain why dark eyes being treated as morally inferior to light ones is uncomfortable.

I AM NOT TRYING TO ACCUSE CC OF DOING THIS MALICIOUSLY. I AM A FAN OF HERS.

I guess what I'm saying is just that I think Sebastian could have been a really interesting character if his villainy came from being treated as evil from the time he was born, but based on my memory that isn't what the books do with him. The day he was born, Jocelyn looked into his eyes and saw something nonhuman there. I wish it was confirmed that her revulsion was a result of her mental state, that she couldn't bring herself to love the child who resembled her abusive husband, but I'm pretty sure the books say that she was right to see straight to his demonic nature. (I could be wrong, I'll see what I think about COG this time around).

For contrast, look at James and Tessa who also had demon blood and yet used their powers for heroism. They clearly had free will, and I just don't think Sebastian did. (Jace and Clary also had free will, and I agree that their angel blood never made them perfect people. I just think it's a little odd that Jace's fears that demon blood made him evil was resolved by him learning that he had angel blood instead. It's not that angel blood makes him a good person, it's that he thought demon blood would make him a bad person and was never proved wrong about that).

Like I've said, my memory might be failing me, but I really strongly remember the message of Sebastian as a character being that he had no free will in regards to his villainy, and that he was born evil due to demon blood and the only way to make him a good person would be to burn away all traces of the demonic influence.

I'm also enjoying the chance to think a little more about TMI, and I do still enjoy Sebastian as a villain (much like I enjoy Jace's Herondalism), I just think you can see a bit of a shift in the overall philosophy CC writes with. TSC is very nurture in the small scale and nature in the big picture, if that makes sense; and Sebastian and Jace are where you can see some messy intersection between those perspectives.

My firmest TSC take will always be that Jace should have gone by Lightwood in the end. I get that him being a Herondale makes sense in the grand scheme of the TSC universe (him, Will, James, Kit, and Edmund are all birds of a feather), but his personal arc is far more dependent on the family who raised him. Learning about his biological parents is of course important to him, but calling himself a Herondale doesn't actually feel like a resolution to his identity crisis. TMI is all about rejecting the hatred handed down from previous generations, which is why neither Clary nor Jace identify as Morgensterns. While Stephen was nowhere near as bad as Valentine, he also did even less to shape Jace into his adult self. Robert and Maryse on the other hand actually raised him for half his life, and Alec Isabelle and Max grew up alongside him as his siblings. He's a Lightwood in every way that matters, I don't get why Jace (in-universe) would choose to identify himself as a Herondale when there's nothing tying him to that family but blood spilled before he was born.

Anyways, I'm a Jace Lightwood truther for life, thank you for coming to my tedtalk

[sootsz]

qsmp has accidentally stumbled into a psychology experiment that would make the stanford prison experiment sob in fear. they’ve gotten a bunch of cc’s, and tens of thousands of viewers, to be deeply emotionally connected to pixel eggs. in doing so they’ve presented a problem:

how the fuck do you get outta this

the eggs were obviously never intended to be permanent (logging on every day to do tasks isn’t feasible to upkeep forever) and they were even given a vague limit of When Mama Dragon Comes Back (and then, of course, the “6 days til they die” thing). now you’ve made it so quackity (and his team) have a big ol dilemma, where two things are true: 1) they can’t keep the eggs forever since it’s not sustainable 2) you can’t take away the eggs without, oopsies, emotionally damaging your friends that you invited to have fun on your server.

turns out, when you give a group of humans all their own fully-realized individual who presents as a (weak, vulnerable) child that is in need of care from them, whatever instinct has kept us alive for generations goes “!!!!!” which is both really cool and compassionate, but also kinda concerning!

because, well: not sustainable! and if the eggs aren’t sustainable, what’s the alternative? killing them?? no! just look at jaiden’s reaction to bobby “losing” a life, even when it wasn’t his last one. or bad’s genuinely heart wrenching reaction to dapper losing a life. or how quiet and angry phil got after chayanne and tallulah had a “nightmare,” before it was resolved. that’s not acting. that’s real. what the hell will they do if the eggs actually die? from what i see, the cc’s are taking the “6 days til death” thing as something that’s avoidable. a threat that can be overcome. and for their sake, i hope it is.

ever played a dnd game where you actually feel insulted bc of smth someone’s pc did? yeah. that x20 because there’s SO much overlap between “streamer persona” and “literally just who they are”. and this level of roleplay character bleeding is cool, but i hope the eggs are handled carefully, or all those involved might end up actually hurt.

there’s also the whole added element of fans, many of whom only tune into the streams for egg content. the plot is very egg-centric. the roleplaying and characterization that the cc’s are doing is all centered around the eggs in one way or another. it’s been going on for a month, but it does not feel at all resolved, and plot-wise it would completely mess up so many plot threads happening if the eggs were all to go (charlie’s unresolved deal with lil j, quackity’s goal to bond with tallulah, the trial, etc etc) so if you take away the eggs, you risk messing up the whole vibe they’ve got going on, and facing backlash from fans who are also emotionally compromised by pixel eggs

we inherently want to protect the cute and vulnerable, and by god are these eggs cute and so very fragile. (then, there’s another layer of people’s own issues that they project onto the eggs. be it desire for paternity, some kind of maternal instinct, or, even in the matter of chayanne, using chayanne as a sort of way to cope with loss by making connections between chayanne and technoblade. which is beautiful and very sweet but would give chayanne dying some additional emotionally charged elements which i think should be avoided at all costs). there’s a reason that movies and other media generally do not kill named children characters—audiences really hate it. it’s taboo for good reason.

which leads us to

schrodinger’s egg: until sunday, they r both alive and dead. and this is both good and bad. god help us all

[the-final-sif]

A03 and the SMP Problem

Hello Tumblr!

If you've been a fan of any major SMP for the past however long, you may've noticed that we've got something of a problem on A03. For reasons unknown to me, SMPs are constantly categorized as Video Blogging RPF. Characters on the SMP are forced to share a tag with their content creators and be listed as RPF even when that isn't accurate and makes tagging complicated. Worse, if a content creator plays more than one character, both characters are merged into the cc tag. Which is incredibly confusing, and hard to follow tags for.

In the past, I've contacted A03, and gotten this reply:

Thank you for writing in about Dream SMP. We are currently reviewing the Dream SMP situation and having discussions about creating a Dream SMP fandom tag. The tag wranglers will look into other servers of similar types in the future. If an SMP is canonized, all fandom tags that clearly reference the server will be moved over to the new canonical tag. There are a number of issues we need to work through before we can do so, including ensuring that users are aware the tag is for Dream SMP members, not for other Minecraft streamers. While we can't promise that all the issues can be resolved, please do know that we are doing our best to resolve them.

Now, I was hopeful when I got this message back in November that changes would follow. However, we are now at well over 5 months past, and there's still no changes for any tags. Tags keep getting wrangled and forced into categorizations.

A03 is a fandom space, it is supposed to be by fans for fans, and it's ridiculous that a huge chunk of fandoms, including Dream SMP, Hermitcraft, Last Life, Empires, and more are forced into RPF tags that aren't remotely accurate or reflective of the works. It sucks for the people writing about the SMP, and it sucks for the people writing actual RPF. Series like Critical Role or The Adventure Zone don't have their actors listed, so why should SMPs be forced into the RPF tags?

Thusly, I would like to propose a coordinated campaign to put pressure onto A03 to create proper fandom tags for SMPs, separate from RPF tags, and with separated tags for characters and content creators. I think that a show of support for this change would help demonstrate how many people are currently being effect, and that this isn't something that can just get brushed off. They need to see how many fans are actively upset about this failure of tagging. At the very least, we deserve a public statement with what's going on and the timeline for fixing this problem.

If you're interested in participating in this campaign, my proposed dates are May 1st - May 7th.

During this period, people can, and should:

Send polite, constructive, messages to A03 support requesting:

Separate tags for SMPs and RPF, for fandom and for characters.

Separate tags for characters on SMPs, with character tags only using usernames/character names, not the names of content creators.

Separate tags for distinct characters played by the same content creators.

Reblog and create posts discussing this issue on social media. Encourage your followers on different platforms to reach out to A03 and ask them to fix the mistagging. You can use the tag #SMPsNeedTagsToo on any platform to help spread the word.

Within this tag, it would also be lovely if lists of SMPs that need this change could be created, as well as a list of characters + other tags that will need to be split from the RPF tags. These lists could also be sent to A03 to make the process of splitting easier.

If you are already planning to post a chapter or fic on A03 during this period, consider including an author's note encouraging your readers to reach out to A03.

Remember to remain polite! This is not a harassment campaign, A03 is an amazing website, and the point of this is to call attention to the issue and improve the website we love. Not drag it down.

Equally, please do not be nasty or judgemental towards RPF readers/writers. We're not trying to shame anyone for what they're reading or writing, we just want to have proper categorization so people can post their works correctly!

If this is something that interests you, reblog this post to spread the word, and when May 1st rolls around, get started! If you have questions, feedback, or suggestions, feel free to add on to this post or send me an ask!

[hermithomebase]

maybe this is recency bias, but i feel like subtwt wars (feels kinda dismissive to call everything thats happening that, but i cant think of another phrase) have never been this bad. like you have such casual and blatant racism, gore, death threats, doxxing, etc., all over something that could have been resolved fairly quickly if q did the bare minimum. i think cc's encouraging their fan's beliefs (whether it's vegetta saying there's nothing wrong with the mod or q's silence over his fans harassing people and refusing to even acknowledge usmp) have definitely worsened everything. they feel empowered to do whatever because its against those evil smilers, and (in their mind) their cc's even support them

i think its been slowly getting worse over the course of like, 2 years but i think its so far past subtwt wars atp-its the same thing with like ranboo and bootwt where when you let bigotry and bad behavior run unchecked these types of horribly racist people make a home for themselves there because they feel empowered to be that way in that space. there will always be racist and bigoted people wherever you go but if you ignore it or encourage it Thats when it gets bad

[isa-ghost]

Tbh kinda same. Phil, Sneeg, Tommy, Tubbo, and even tho he's pure variety now: Ranboo are all I actively have tabs on myself. Anyone else I know anything current about is bc my mutuals follow them closely so my dash keeps me up to date.

Anyway, in ref to your tags: Yeah that's probably what it is. Them being friends was definitely at least a part of it. But afaik they aren't anymore, they don't do anything together and Eret hasn't said anything about them? I don't have Twitter so I can't really confirm anything else. :/ Also Eret is rarely on Twitter bc it's a cesspool so there'd be nothing but rumors and speculation from people who are out to get him to go off of.

And all of that aside, I know how to mind my own fucking business to begin with, and I recognize that I don't NEED to confirm anything. If I see or hear that it's still going on, I unsub & unfollow everywhere, it's that simple. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (It'd suck tho, Eret was my first sub ever & I'm 50+ months into it.)

Unlike SOME people in this fandom, I'm not a parasocial & entitled keyboard warrior that thinks attacking CCs and/or their fans over a mistake/choice the CC made (or more realistically: simply because I don't like them and therefore have some fuckass vendetta against them) is activism, so I don't go fucking digging for shit about CCs in order to go on an even bigger crusade against them that will honestly only result in me pissing myself off more while also riling up an obnoxiously loud but tiny minority of mcyt, all of which will just make the fandom hostile and tense for everyone who's just trying to vibe and have fun while accomplishing absolutely fucking nothing the crusade was "intended for." (Can you tell I'm a dsmptwt veteran with how well I can describe the vicious cycle this corner of mcyt is prone to putting itself through? 🙃)

Even IF Eret is still associating with That Person, he isn't evil or whatever like every ex dsmp fan (esp ones that never fucking watched him) tends to act like, that's just a choice they Really Really Shouldn't Make but also something that should be stopped on the downlow. We have GOT to stop being entitled and demanding that any issue there is with CCs has to be immediately and instantly resolved loudly and publicly with absolute perfection by our (9/10 times extremely unfairly high) standards. Look what that did to the end of QSMP with the admin situation. It was a fucking disaster that 100% could've been avoided if we all stayed out of it and everyone involved communicated clearly and civilly behind the scenes.

Mcyt has steadily gotten more capable of nuance since 2020, at least in my corner of the fandom, but there's still so much more nuance left to be desired, especially with cases like this.

If Eret is associating with That Person still, that's Not Great At All but they're not evil for it, just,, Dumb. So like. QB poll OP is still fucking CRAZY for lumping him with Dr*m Team, who 3/3 have proven on multiple occasions they're GARBAGE people.

(And just to clarify, ^^^ all this is dripping with passive aggression towards the dumbshits that do that kinda stuff, not you. You've done nothing wrong here 👍🏻)

also that queerbait poll admin blacklisting eret but no other actual queer ccs from being entered is a red flag

anyway

[enneamage]

Not directly to Generation Loss, but I've been given a lot of thoughts to the younger generation of minecraft streamers and their attempts to do big projects to "break out of" the minecraft mold: obviously, with Ranboo, we have Generation Loss, which seemed to go over well with his fanbase (enough so that he's stated he's thinking of quitting MCC, which is really the only tie he's had to the game for about a year atp), with Tommy, we have his New York vlog series and now his liveshows, and with Tubbo, while still Minecraft-adjacent, we have Tubnet. I'm wondering if you have any thoughts about what would make a cc successful at shifting their core audience into a brand new project that isn't necessarily the type of content that they got famous for. Do the audiences of all three ccs differ enough that they would need different strategies to shift their content? My running theory is that Generation Loss was mostly successful among his fanbase because it played on the tropes that were apparent in his minecraft lore from the beginning: mind control, a protagonist forced to do awful things against his will, a base npc type character that occasionally has overwrought freakouts over their lack of control, etc. It was just in a medium outside of Minecraft.

Meanwhile, Tommy is finding himself in a rut because he can't fully apply his storytelling skills to a non-Minecraft setting (in part because he's focusing more on comedy, and while his fans like his sense of humor, I think, in his lore, they also liked the Marvel-esque main character energy, which doesn't translate when it's just the cc having a huge ego, and the angst) and his vlogs, when they aren't completely on the backburner, seem too formulaic to have their early charm. As for Tubbo, while obviously a minecraft server is, well, minecraft, there wasn't enough "entertainment"/lore/a connection to the streamer to encourage his core audience to play Tubnet, at least not in the form it was released as. In short, I feel traditional mcyt-ers are looking for narratives or entertainment value from these bunch of ccs. Although maybe Lovejoy's success goes against this theory. It just seems like all the younger minecraft streamers have attempted to release a large project within the last year or so, and while that might not be indicative of them trying to leave the fandom, I sense a restlessness in all of them and a wish to move on.

(Okay so this is going under a readmore because it is a long’un)

As of 2023 in a post-lockdown and post-DSMP world I got the sense that a lot of people were restless regarding what to do and where to go next, CC and audience alike. I think that because the DSMP was such a specific time and place in people’s lives it’s inevitable that the majority of people (because those numbers were huge) will have moved on to watching/wanting other things, so retention through sameness may not work, but you’re onto something with the feeling like there’s no in-character story to follow anymore. The thing I poke at from time to time is that there’s no out-of-character plot to follow anymore either, most of the irl narratives have been resolved or brought off-camera so even the RPF people have to scavenge for food.

Lovejoy has a rising star narrative that people can invest in if they want; with them breaking free of associations with mcyt to be treated like serious musicians, and I think it also serves a purpose ofpeople trying to wash off post-mcyt shame in themselves. (“this is Wilbur Soot and this is WILL GOLD” they tweet, as though that is not a literal man onstage performing, but they’ve already decided what they want to believe in.) I’m sensing some misguided stabs to try and not be treated like the bottom of the food chain in the vocal fanbase by desperately trying to push away from the MCYT association, which is probably where those peoples heads are at all around. Most lovenjoyers are fine with it and just enjoy the music because it’s obviously how they got there, but there’s clearly a friction going on.

Ranboo has a kind of watered-down version of that following them. I remember when I first saw someone say very defensively that Ranboo wasn’t an MCYT, they were a variety streamer. Ranboo has been drifting away from MC for a long time, both moving into the variety realm and daydreaming about Genloss. When people win the internet lottery young it makes sense to want to put the money towards a project that they would only be stuck imagining otherwise, and Genloss very much feels like that kind of dream. I would say that Ranboo has successfully pivoted to variety and even completed their first big project, but they’ll need to re-capture that audience every time they make a Generation from now on, which could be hard to do with breaks in between.

Tubbo has also moved into variety streaming, which is kind of a necessity for the hours he keeps. He also has an ongoing love for big projects like Recipe for Disaster. Tubbo’s longterm investment and labor of love was Tubnet, which would have established him as the owner of a server like the one that he used to play on when he was younger. I don’t know what Tubbo’s relationship to storytelling is, I’ve heard he does it on a small scale but he also has a unique love of engineering, which Tubnet was more about. As far as I know there were a lot of things that eventually led to Tubnet’s low player turnout, but one of them had to have been low demand; I remember people saying that there was no use re-inventing Hypixel when Hypixel already had all the Hypixel players. Regardless of if this was fair or not, Tubnet didn’t wind up developing a large player base from his fame, which unfortunately shows that not all attention rolls over equally.

Tommy has been pouring his storytelling skills into writing his live show, which he’s advertising as the best thing he’s ever written as well as his biggest self-disclosure. It’s autobiographical theatre, but also a puppet musical-- we will see what the audience reviews think. Tommy’s been experimenting the most to see that he wants to do next, I know he’s stated that 2022 was a big ‘try’ year for him and he’s also talked about focusing on the quality of viewers over the quantity because focusing on hard statistics made him miserable. I know Tommy doesn’t want to move away from Minecraft, he’s actually very tightly holding on and trying to find ways to love it again, as well as make it worthwhile for audiences. Some of the things Tommy has been saying lately make it sound like he wants to turn back time a bit, recapture what streaming and video gamed used to feel like for him when he was younger, so we’ll see what resonates with the others. There’s a lot of really dense nostalgia around Minecraft (look at these comment sections they’re haunting) and judging from his current taste in video essays he’s got a moderate case of it.

I think the pattern here is marrying the thing that you want to with what audiences want, which is infinitely harder to do than it is to say. Human motivation is fluid and weird, and not many people are going to be able to say what it is they’ll want or like until something or someone is put in front of them. What people want also changes over time, so it can be a bit like chasing the wind or catching an updraft to get in the air when it comes to getting an audience. There’s a formula for the YouTube algorithm, but there’s not a clear map for the less cheap or predictable parts of the psyche. 

Even when you’ve got an audience, when it’s time to pivot over to something completely new it’s kind of time to be a whole new person to them; your function and role in someone’s life is changing. It’s rolling the dice and seeing if you can do and be something that resonates in a new form. People fall out of love with other people all the time, and I think that CCs get the same effect as the seasons change-- sometimes people change and cause a split, sometimes people stay the same and get stale over time. For the same reason that people can be ride or die because a CC is themselves, when someone falls out of love with a cc there’s not much that can make them stay if the rest of the content doesn’t deliver. I don’t see people talk about it at length, but I have seen this image make the rounds so it’s a shared thing.  

Shortest answer is I think there’s no formula that can be divined outside of a retroactive twelve hour video essay breakdown of each individual’s creators strengths and weaknesses, and a matching breakdown of where the audience’s head was at. It’s much easier to look back on something specific and say ‘this is why this worked / didn’t work’ than grind out guidelines beyond ‘avoid making the audience feel completely alienated or betrayed.’ It can really come down to the audience, who can be attracted and put off by people for reasons that seem borderline intangible, like ‘authenticity.’

The good news is audiences need change and newness even if the content they like has a pattern, otherwise they would keep watching the same video. Even channels that make ‘more of the same’ put out a continuation of what they did last time, moving things along or adding to the collection somehow. Whether it’s in-character or out of character or a kind of abstract “I show up to this channel and things I like are on it,” I think people like to be able to make sense of what they’re clicking on so that they keep doing it. As long as the core remains intact, the people who are sufficiently invested in the creator tend to stick around unless life gets in the way.

As for the restlessness, I think that being on the frontier is kind of addictive. Not long ago someone pointed out to me that I had started wondering what the next big thing would be on behalf of the CCs because it’s an interesting question, especially coming off the back of the DSMP blowing up. I think that online can be a very punishing place if you don’t keep up with trends and frontiers since things change so fast, it’s rewarding if you get in early but you’re in danger if you’re left behind. This is actually as true for regular internet users as it is for CCs, think of the strangely potent social shame of using an out of date meme or not being up on the state of The Discourse, you’ll genuinely get punished if you’re too far out of sync with things. We’re in a year that is both hung over on lockdown and desperately trying to get moving again, right in the moment before the answer to what happens next is ‘obvious.’