#fanmeta

[sodomhipped]

commenter’s block: the lesser known cousin of writer’s block (1893 words) by anonymous

tags: metafandom, metatext, fannish nonfiction, reader resources, commenting, fandom is community

summary: a guide of approaches and resources for readers who would like to comment more.

[not0a0mundane]

I haven't really watched ATLA, so all the episodes I know are either out of context or due to reading fanmeta but each time I hear or read about Azula's breakdown during the final Agni Kai in "Sozin's Comet"

I think about this gif and how it should have made her mute. This is just so much hot fire coming out of her mouth that I don't know how her body handled it.

[mtsainthelens]

im winding down but here are some final ihnmaims thoughts:

-Benny choosing to eat Gorrister may have meant an ongoing threat of Benny turning cannibal in the future, adding to the urgency. He could have acquired a taste for human blood, so to speak

-Did AM knock Benny down over something as petty as jealousy? Has nobody ever called him out on that?

-Ellen has a fundamentally different relationship with the other humans than any of them have w each other and is routinely abused by them. More fanmeta should probably address the fact she’s been pretty much systematically raped. I can imagine this is why her psychodrama is the way it is.

-Gorrister’s personality change from “commie” to “shoulder-shrugger” does not seem like anything in comparison to the others but i find it more and more poignant and relatable recently. long term study of despair.

[a-non-sequitur]

Vincenzo: Fanmeta: In the finale, Cha-young no longer believed in the possibility that she and Vincenzo would become romantic partners

There is something deeply heart-wrenching about how Cha-young reacts to Vincenzo's declarations in episode 19 and 20.

By staying in Korea instead of going to Italy to help his family, Vincenzo has finally acknowledged what Cha-young really means to him and how he wants her to be in his life. The same man who struggled to reciprocate the hug in the underpass, who couldn't even look at Cha-young when Cha-young was hugging him a second time, who joked about there being a kissing "scene" rather than recognizing the realness of what happened at the art gallery, is now openly declaring his interest and affection for Cha-young at every possible moment. Expressing jealousy, promising to come back, stroking her hair, stating that they were similar to the Cowherd and Weaver Girl, outright confessing that she's always been on his mind since he left A YEAR AGO.

He is finally comfortable in his feelings. He's ready to move forward in his relationship with Cha-young.

But Cha-young isn't.

She spent months testing the waters, pushing the boundaries of their relationship. She knows she's important to him, but he never crossed that border with her. So she prepared herself for their ending. She prepared herself so thoroughly that she cannot even imagine that an alternate ending might present itself. That she might have her fantasies and desires actualized one day.

He compares them to one of the most famous romantic couples in Asian folklore. She treats it as a joke. Even when he pushes that he's being sincere, you can see her dismiss it immediately.

He's staring at her while she gets ready for the reunion, but there is no blush or pleasure on her face when she catches him. There's almost confusion. Remember her expression of expectation when he leaned towards her in the car and she thought he would kiss her?

He stayed by her hospital bed all night and reiterates that he'll keep his promise to come back to her when she mentions it's their last night together. She doesn't even acknowledge what he says - just tells him to leave without saying good-bye.

He initiates a hug with her for the first time in their relationship. She keeps her returning touch light, herself stoic until after he leaves.

When he returns, he says that she's always been on his mind. She isn't touched or shocked. She just... doesn't believe it. She knows that they're important to each other, but the idea that he yearns for her the way she yearns for him was something she stopped believing. This isn't something that could happen, and because it's not something that could happen, what's happening is not actually happening. (Because you can only be hurt by abandonment if you expect someone to stay. And she has been abandoned so many times by so many people that she knows what the more likely ending would always be.)

In that split second, Vincenzo realizes that she isn't misunderstanding or teasing him or flirting or playing hard to get. All those months of him struggling to deal with his feelings, of him remaining reserved and distant caused cracks. Vincenzo once told her to make her heart cold, but he didn't realize she would apply the lesson this way. And that if he doesn't fix the situation right now, no amount of gold will help him remake what's broken.

So he fixes it. And he does so decisively with no room for mis-interpretation or second-guessing, in the way he has always expressed his care for Cha-young: through action.

[ten-ten31]

Es gibt ein neues deutschsprachiges Fanfiction-Forum im Netz:

https://wecanbeheroes.de/index.php

[kanera-ficathon]

Kanera Trope-Athon Phase 4

Here’s the prompts for Phase 4:

Classic Trope Prompt: Prank wars Tag: #prank wars

AU/Crack Prompt:  Enemies to … AU Tag: #enemies au

Shippy (or not) Prompt: Bed sharing and/or pretending to be married Tag: #bed sharing

Standard Fine Print:

You may submit at any time, but we’ll have a two-week creating window before sharing. This gives slower folks a chance to sit on their ideas without someone else filling the prompt before them.  We also encourage you to share teasers and snippets during this period (please tag with “#kanera2k17″ and “#teaser”. Or better yet, tag us in the body of it to be sure we see it and reblog it)

We will begin releasing the posts from the queue on Friday, July 21.

REMINDER: We’re accepting Phase 1-3  fanworks between now and Season 4 premiere! We haven’t gotten any for Phase 3 but I know they would be appreciated so don’t be shy.

ALL of the prompts can be interpreted as your muse desires:  shippy or not, cracky or not, colleagues or more, set in any time period you want (pre-show, S1, etc.).

These prompts are just that - points to jump off from. We encourage you to interpret as you feel moved. Adhere to the spirit/tradition of it or take it in the exact opposite direction.

Use any creative medium you’d like to explore the prompts. This is not just for fics!

We encourage all folks to chime in on brainstorming, cheerleading, and meta’ing. Throw out wacky interpretations or angst or “wouldn’t it be cool if…”

[mochlus]

Can people who write long meta posts on twitter just come back to tumblr I promise writing text posts is a better experience for everyone involved than posting screenshots full of text is

[scoundrels-in-love]

Galen and Saw, Dad edition

Recently, I’ve seen all kinds of posts about Saw and Galen as father figures in Jyn’s life. Some praise one or the other, or none. So, here are my 2 cents no one asked for or wants.

First of all, I think Saw did play a big role in Jyn's life and was closest thing to father figure she had in that time. And I don't have sliver of doubt he loved her, as he could.

So did Galen.

But did either of them do right by her? No. They did the best they could or perhaps, the best they thought they could. They were not perfect fathers, but that is the harshness of reality - there are very few parents who are, especially during a wartime. Even Lyra, who painfully and wisely self-sacrifced to take herself as a tool out of Krennic's equation, ultimately abandoned Jyn in her 8 year old's eyes.

Someone once said out Saw said "there wasn't a day that I didn't think of" while saying that Galen admitted he didn't think of her as a proof how much of bad father Galen was. That's not true - his words were "I only think of you when I am strong", the rest explaining it is too hard to think when he is weak.

It might sound like a cowardly thing to do and something no one loving his daughter would do that. But as someone who suffers from depressions and anxieties, I know how wrecking it is to think of worst possibilities when you are already barely holding on. It destroys your last resolve and Galen needed his resolve (even if we can ultimately question the reason why).

On top of that, Saw knew that not only Jyn had survived to the age of 16, but he had also taught her self-defense in a way only a separatist can. Galen did not have these privileges, when he thought of Jyn, he had to wonder if she survived at 8, at 10 - at any other age, really.  If anyone truly taught to fend for herself in cruel galaxy and if she possesses the fire of his late wife that will make her burn her way through life. (It is more than me metaing, to me it was clearly implied in his holovid.)

Saw knew all of this, felt rightfully guilty about abandoning Jyn, but he had a reason to hope she would get by. Yes, he was visibly relieved to see her there, to know she really had pulled through, which is understandable. And I think Jyn was truly shocked and hurt when he stayed behind to die. (It is one of first scenes we see her actually get really emotional and shout.)

So, in conclusion, I just want to say, this post isn't to bash on either Galen or Saw, just to point out they both loved her deeply and nothing in canon I've encountered suggests otherwise. That they made mistakes, lot of them, is also a fact. But that is life and Rogue One to me is more about life than any other Star Wars movie, even if it happened in a Galaxy far, far away...

[xparrot]

I just got unfollowed over this, so to make it clear for the record:

I don't believe a TV show character can have a 100% canonical sexuality.

With real people, sexual identity is determined by one person -- the individual in question gets to identify themselves, or not identify themselves. But with a fictional character, the "individual" who has such an undeniable right doesn't exist.

For the sake of this argument, let’s put aside the enormous question of how much creators 'own' their characters or whether the audience’s interpretations are equally or more valid. Even if one presumes that a creator does have definitive say over their own characters' sexuality, while many novel characters have a single author who can give this definition, all TV show characters are the product of multiple creators. Everyone who takes part in producing the canon has some influence on that character's “canonical” identity.

So a writer has a say. But how the character's actor chooses to portray them also has influence. As does the the director, and the cinematographer, and the costumers, and everyone else. If a writer says, "this character is straight," that doesn't somehow cancel out an actor saying "I'm playing them as bi." And that doesn't make the character in question either confirmed straight or confirmed bisexual; it means there is more than one interpretation. Schroedinger's character, both straight and bi simultaneously.

And especially with an open, ongoing canon, a TV show that's still on the air, nothing is set in stone as "absolute canon." Even if all the cast and crew completely agree on a particular interpretation now, that doesn't mean a new writer or director can't come along with a different interpretation -- not just for the show going forward, but also retconning past canon. No character's backstory is fixed; there is always room for flashbacks. Unless a canon is entirely closed and there will never be more canon produced ever*, there is always an opportunity to change a character's past as well as their future.

* There are few fan TV shows this is true for, as the very existence of a fandom makes it more likely some license holder will eventually try to milk the property for more. Though there are some, practically speaking; the odds of us getting more canon for, say, The Sentinel are vanishingly small.

For most characters, you can say, broadly speaking, "this character is canonically straight/bi/gay." This is shorthand for "this character is primarily portrayed as and interpreted by the majority of the audience as being [X] in the canon that currently exists."

It does not mean "this character is unequivocally [X] and that is undeniable" because that's not possible, not for any character on TV. (Seriously, Jack Harkness could be rebooted as straight on a conservative network that gets the rights to Torchwood somehow. It's really, really unlikely, but it's not impossible?)

So I believe arguments about any character's sexuality are fair game. This doesn't mean I accept all arguments as persuasive or equally valid. Or that some arguments can't be insensitive or bigoted or just illogical. It certainly doesn't mean that I don't have preferred character interpretations myself, some of which I believe in vehemently (Gintoki is aro and probably ace, I don't care who you ship him with, you're wrong :P).

But because of the nature of fiction, there is always room for debate; no TV character has a single unassailable "canonical identity."

[actualbird]

ive been wanting to ramble bout this for years (like since 2019 HAHA) but i held off on it because i figured the fandom phenomenon i was seeing was gonna be a one off thing. something thatd fade with time.

it wasnt. it's still here and so i wanna articulate what i think about

the fast food-ification of fandom

here’s the thing about fandom right now; we operate on social media platforms that are inherently fast paced. social media platforms these days prioritize new and popular content, but more than that, it creates an audience that is always searching for new content very, very quickly. 

tumblr is a bit of a lesser evil, in terms of contributing to this (still does, tho, dont think im exempting hellsite derogatory, LMAO). but twitter, imo, is a hellscape with a system that hammers this in so so much: the lack of an explorable archive, no account specific tag search mechanism, a timeline algorithm that shows an account's followers the popular tweets first instead of chronologically and oftentimes even if you follow that account you will not be able to see all the tweets that account makes lest you go to the profile specifically. twitter is built for "new new new!" and it's not its fault, i guess, cuz it was not designed with fandom interaction in mind. still, it's become a very popular fandom platform and the "new new new!" mindset the system promotes ends up seeping into the members of fandom itself.

and there’s nothing wrong with wanting new content. but the problem here, i think, is the speed at which we consume fanwork. and the lack of memory for fanwork thats already been made.

fanwork consumption feels like it's going 100000000 mph with these kinds of systems and thanks to the lack of a navigate-able archive or tagging system, it's nigh impossible to find something from even last week. an incredible piece of fanart or fanfic or any fanwork gets attention for 3 days tops before it's lost and very very difficult to find. things are so fast and it's harder to remember them now.

swerve to another point: the trend of silence

im gonna bash on twitter again (SORRY KJSFBSD, like, i do have a twitter btw so im speaking from experience. i'd like to make it clear im not bashing ppl who do like/use twitter, im waving my hands frustratedly at twitter's systems) cuz tweet wc limits make it so that literally not much can be said! additionally, to add comments in QRT takes attention/notifs away from original poster, so if u QRT an art with praise, OP will see that! but if ppl reply more praise to the art on that QRT, OP will not get notified so that praise might as well have been yelled to the void

im a passionate believer that if youve got something nice to say about a fanwork and/or the creator of that fanwork, say it on their turf so they can see it. twitter makes it easier for this to not happen. positive attention and feedback matters so so much to creators and im p sure im not alone in saying that i cherish each and every comment (be it on ao3 or tumblr tags/comments or asks) ive ever gotten

and like, i know the argument to that is "make fanwork for yourself! dont make it for attention, do it cuz you enjoy it!" and "for every feedback you dont get, theres many lurkers who value and love what you do!"

i agree with that first thing very much but only the bit that says "do it cuz you enjoy it!" cuz yea! fandom is about having fun! but also like...isnt the point of fandom the fact that it's not just you alone, but you in a community?

a big draw of fandom, for me, is that it's likeminded deranged nerds all obsessed about the same thing. these are people on similar wavelengths and theyre people PLURAL. do fanwork cuz you enjoy it but the implication that a fancreator should be happy in isolation doesnt make sense cuz thats not what fandom is about.

and as for "there are lurkers who silently enjoy what you make" well...why?

why not say something when youve got something nice to say?

be it fanart or fanfic or fanmeta or anything, if the thought already pops up in your head, why not say it somewhere the creator can see it?

i totally understand if youre shy or if it's difficult to put into words whatever your thoughts are, like, huge mood. but also fandom becomes an infinitely funner space to be in when people are saying things

even a comment thats something simple and short makes the current landscape of fast paced churning out of fanworks feel less like we’re shouting in a forest alone, and more like we’re shouting in a forest and somebody yelled “I LOVED THIS” back. it’s really nice.

this is not a criticism towards anybody, but instead just kinda like, an inquiry to how we consume and interact with fanwork, these days. it’s really fast. like, so fast. tags update daily with new things every single day, every second, and it’s easy to just look and look and not say a thing. and that ease of fanwork consumption also makes it easy to forget just how hard it is to make things. how hard it is to make anything at all.

so much heart and effort is put into every work in fandom, and ive always seen fandom as a space for unapologetic enjoyment and community. treating fandom like a fast-food transaction where u get a thing in 5 minutes and drive off is...well, i dunno. but for me, among many things, it makes us forget just how much heart and effort is in all things.

[radiosandrecordings]

genuinely it's been feeling like their refusal to admit that you're bi is a continuation of the "all ace people are cishet" bullshit

i’m tempted to compile a list of every time i’ve tagged a post ‘i want to kiss jon archivist/martin blackwood/gerard keay so goddamn bad’. round it off with ‘i want to kiss georgie barker/melanie king’ for the full effect because it’s my gender and it’s gay whenever becuase... I say so I guess 

Like my opinion of the kiss within the context of the scene itself has definitely softened after listening to it on repeat many times for the edits I made involving the clip. It doesn’t sound too bad at all really, and I think my initial posts were just in a bit of shock and also playing into my pre-set belief (and trying to badly jokingly riff on how Alex and Jonny had originally said their test runs for kiss scenes had sounded gross - also like if these people are going after other fans but not them for saying that originally their argument kind of falls apart) 

I honestly do not give two shits where the kiss was placed at this point, I’d always assumed mouth until someone said forehead to me and I’m a real sucker for forehead kisses personally so I like that but the whole point of audio is we’re never going to actually know where it was, it’s up to interpretation and not really important to the scene unless you’re trying to bounce fanfic or fanmeta off of it

I also do think there’s a part of it that’s like, a lot of people are new to podcasts and thus aren’t quite aware how normalised stuff like this is in it? So adverse reactions might stem from that but I’ve been through enough shows with mlm kissing (either said by narration or foley) that this one doesn’t actually Matter That Much to me because it’s just one of many, but I get how if you don’t have the same luxury of being normalised to it that I have you might be a bit more defensive (but after all, it’s in the show and no one can change that so your fellow queer having a different take on it is not grounds for this kind of ‘you’re just as bad as homophobic cishets’ attitude that seems to be appearing

[dellyduck]

12 year-old me: *loves to read fanmetas about why and how a ship makes sense* Haha, this is so much fun

20 year-old me: *Has an anxious need to have an argument for my ship* I think they’re cute, but why are they cute?? Why do I think they work?? I need to have something to reply to the haters!!!

[a-non-sequitur]

Short Wishlist for Vincenzo Finale

What I hope happens in Ep 19 & 20 of Vincenzo: 1. Vincenzo initiates the next big romantic gesture.  His affection for Cha-young is clearly present in the way he treats Cha-young (his attentiveness, his frequent touching, etc), but Cha-young so far has done all the first Big Romantic Steps. I think, from Cha-young’s perspective, that she still has some level of insecurity regarding Vincenzo’s romantic feelings towards her -- Vincenzo’s responses to her “testing of the waters” have been, overall, relatively equivocal from her perspective (even the Kiss got undercut by the (hilariously awkward) hahaha-there-was-a-kissing-scene-in-our-acting-ha...ha...ha...sweetie discussion in the car). So the next hug/kiss/confession?  I want it to be from Vincenzo.

1b. I know I'm Always By Your Side will probably play during the next romantic scene, but if Adrenaline could also play one last time but instead of it happening when someone is looking at Vincenzo, it's when Vincenzo is looking at Cha-young... please and thank you. 2. I want Cha-young to complete her character arc towards "noble” villainy by killing Jang Han-seok or Choi Myung-hee herself. She’s gone from we-can’t-hurt-people to openly allowing Vincenzo to use more violent methods in his schemes to Cha-young herself actively torturing people (the car exhaust scenes) and approving their murders away from her (same people) to Cha-young basically ordering Vincenzo to torture/kill someone (his mom’s killer) to accepting the murder of someone in front of her eyes (her dad’s killer).  Her final step would be to kill someone herself, and the ones that would get the “honor” to fit her arc would be either Han-seok or Myung-hee.

2b. I’ve seen some speculation about Han-seo being the one to kill Han-seok, but I personally feel that would be a great disservice to Han-seo’s character arc.  Throughout the show, he has shown extreme aversion to violence and murder, and his plan to kill his brother was an act of extreme self-preservation -- he was in a such a place of desperation and fear and relative isolation (remember that at the time his only source of support was Seong-huk) that, to him, killing his brother was the only way to avoid his own death/not being imprisoned for life.

Han-seo is no longer in that situation of desperation, isolation, and powerlessness. He has more power, more self-resolve, and more support than before.  I personally think his growth as a character has (nearly) reached completion by him finally standing up to his brother (him tightening those handcuffs!!  so emotionally satisfying to watch).  If anything, a more public declaration of undercutting Han-seok or a scene in which he openly betrays his brother for Vincenzo and Han-seo becoming the official chairman of Babel (or some new company) would complete his character arc.  Killing Han-seok would be detrimental to his growth.  (Not that I’m against Han-seo throwing a couple of punches/lamps at Han-seok during the finale!  That’d absolutely be satisfying.)

3. I know Han-seok and Vincenzo have been propped as the “kings” and Myung-hee and Cha-young are the “queens” in the chess analogy, but I really think that it makes a lot more sense that Cha-young is the Black King and Vincenzo is the Black Queen.  I mean, what does the Queen do on the board?  It’s the most powerful piece on the board, can easily wipe out many of the other side’s pieces, able to use a range of moves, it is a much more active threat to the White King than the Black King...

Remember that Vincenzo decided to stay in Korea longer specifically to support Cha-young.  Although he developed some personal stake against Babel relatively quickly (Hong Yu-chan’s murder) and moreso now with the murder of his mother, his actions have been primarily driven by his desire to support HER war with Babel, not his own. And I feel like, if Cha-young were to be killed (which is no way going to happen in the show, but hypothetically), that Vincenzo would of course go on revenge-spree #4 (or 5 or 6... I lose count for that poor man) and kill Myung-hee (because I have difficulty imagining Han-seok ordering her death no matter how angry he gets. it’d totally be a Myung-hee Iconically Bad Decision) and end Han-seok/Babel, but that, ultimately, Vincenzo would have already lost the game.  So... if the script could throw that type of twist (ie either Han-seok or Myung-hee realizing Cha-young is actually the King and switching strategy or Vincenzo himself disabusing them of that notion (a la “tut tut you think I’m the King? you really are stupid”))... I’ll be shouting in glee. 4. The Cassano Family (Geumga Plaza branch) gets another heist to pull (while not overwhelming the finale episodes). I need Cho Yeong-Un and An Gi-seok to work together - their introduction to each other in episode 17 was hilarious and amazing and I need more of that dynamic.

5. Vincenzo builds a roost for Inzaghi.

6. Vincenzo stays in Korea at the end of the show (or stays in Korea for part of the year, and he and Cha-young live in Italy for part of the year - BOTH of them. None of this CLOY or TKEM intermittent meeting nonsense). And he and Cha-young use the hot air balloon not for running away, but just for a romantic date. Cha-young was the one who wanted to try the hot air balloon. Vincenzo kept telling her it was a terrible idea but ultimately caved. Vincenzo is wearing his mother's scarf. Cha-young has a ring on her finger.

(It was a terrible idea. The thing didn't even lift off the ground. Inzaghi may have been involved.)

[kanera-ficathon]

Kanera Trope-Athon Phase 3 Prompts

Are you ready?

Classic Trope Prompt: Trapped in a cave-in/ snowstorm/sandstorm/flood Tag: #trapped

AU/Crack Prompt:  Flirting across secret identities, without knowing who the other one is Tag: #alter egos

Shippy (or not) Prompt: Comparing scars Tag: #comparing scars

Standard Fine Print:

You may submit at any time, but we’ll have a two-week creating window. This gives slower folks a chance to sit on their ideas without someone else filling the prompt before them.  We also encourage you to share teasers and snippets during this period (please tag with “#kanera2k17″ and “#teaser”. Or better yet, tag us in the body of it to be sure we see it and reblog it)

We will begin releasing the posts from the queue on Friday, June 30.

REMINDER: We’re accepting Phase 1 and 2 fanworks between now and Season 4 premiere! 

ALL of the prompts can be interpreted as your muse desires:  shippy or not, cracky or not, colleagues or more, set in any time period you want (pre-show, S1, etc.).

These prompts are just that - points to jump off from. We encourage you to interpret as you feel moved. Adhere to the spirit/tradition of it or take it in the exact opposite direction.

Use any creative medium you’d like to explore the prompts. This is not just for fics!

We encourage all folks to chime in on brainstorming, cheerleading, and meta’ing. Throw out wacky interpretations or angst or “wouldn’t it be cool if…” 

[astephaniebrown]

Theres so much stuff in the Stephanie Brown tag right now and none of it is fun.

Okay Steph said a thing that was beyond the pale and I dont approve either for the record.

She also got a little trigger happy there, which isnt beyond her (to want to tazer a person viciously) but I think that vindictiveness (a side she does possess) should be spared for the, you know, villians?

Anyway, her character was poorly handled this Eternal, and thats really all I have to say on the matter. Its happened before it’ll happen again and while Im not happy about poor characterisation I also acknowledge that it is a thing comics suffer from a lot.

[tehvinter]

I have a headcanon about Solas that he's a fade spirit that assumed a person's body like Cole did?

oh i have never heard that one before??  it makes sense, like maybe he was a spirit of resistance or rebellion.  i really like that idea!  thanks for sharing.  (: