#i've already seen some great gifsets but i think there are lots more

[avidbeader]

So, I've been doing the Great Sheith Reblog for a while now, gradually reblogging almost everything I shared before that was tagged as Sheith. Lots of art, gifsets, fics and recs, old merch posts, and meta to go around with the occasional dash of salt because lord, dumbness about shipping brings out the salt sometimes. But most of the time it's a lovely nostalgia hit and a reminder of why I still love this ship with all my fandom heart. It's bittersweet sometimes, seeing the usernames that left with Tumblr's worst decision ever, the fellow fans who have moved on to other things, and yes, the hopes and dreams we had before Season 8.

Long blathering under the cut: musings about the persistence of anti-shippers and what queerbaiting actually means.

But occasionally what both amuses and frustrates me is how things line up because it's 2024 and we still have klantis/antis over on the former Twitter spreading the same lies about Shiro and Keith - about their ages, about how they met, about what their relationship is. Right now over there, arguing is happening again because someone put up a clout-chasing poll about which mlm ship was the most influential and included KL but not Sheith (KL beat Johnlock and then lost to Hualian, so I'm happy twice over). Side note - I think if we take "influence" as a completely neutral term, then yeah, KL has been a huge negative influence on fandoms as it was one of the places that allowed puriteen attitudes and anti behavior to grow unchecked for so long. That helped turn some ship fandoms into cults, in which you had to believe with utter certainty that your ship would be canon or you weren't a "true" fan of the ship. That put more emphasis on opposing a rival ship through wank and harassment instead of focusing on the joy and fun of creating for the ship you supposedly love.

And that poll prodded someone to create a Google Form for soliciting answers as to what the biggest examples of queerbaiting are in media. And of course people are saying KL and Adam/Shiro, among other things that are not at all queerbait. These are examples of people guessing wrong and getting mad about it. Queerbait requires that the producers/writers/etc. say outright that a ship is going to happen and then it doesn't, without any influences from the powers above them making changes. Not received fan "wisdom". Not marketing doing things without consulting the producers.

And I just reblogged someone's ask in which they said they felt queerbaited by Sheith solely because of the "brother" line in "The Black Paladins". The answer is excellent and worth a ready if you haven't seen it on my blog already.

Breaking it down:

KL is not queerbait. KL was never planned as a potential ship and LM/JDS said so multiple times. They said it never occurred to them as a possibility and by the time KL's popularity took off they were too far along in the writing to try and go back and make changes, because animators need time to draw. LM flat-out said she was surprised that it became a thing. If the producers are telling you over and over in no uncertain terms that a ship had never been on the table and couldn't be added to the table now, that's not a case of queerbait. And they spoke of Lance's love interests as female every single time. JDS/LM never said anything that would lead fans into thinking KL was a possibility without the deliberate and willful misinterpreting of their words.

Adam/Shiro is not queerbait. Adam is a minor character in a series with a large cast. He has two functions: to be evidence of Shiro's status as a queer man and to be a "face" for all the pilots that died in the first wave of Sendak's invasion. Some people try to claim that LM and JDS queerbaited with their answers at SDCC 2018, but they're wrong. The only thing LM said was that we would see more of Adam in S7. And we did. She did not promise we'd see more of him with Shiro. That was people inserting what they wanted to hear, just like them trying to elevate Adam's status to a fiancé when again, LM clearly stated that they were serious and considering getting engaged. Not engaged. Not married. Just a couple that was serious about each other but broke up.

I don't consider Sheith to be true queerbait. It might fall under the cryptoqueer situation explained at the end of the post linked above, but JDS and LM were mostly very careful to talk of Sheith in terms of deep friendship and devotion to one another, after the initial wave of support for fan content during S1, prior to the klanti movement taking off. The only thing that skirts the line for me is a quote, I think from JDS, saying that if Shiro had a new love interest it would be someone he has known a long time. Or maybe that was about the romances in general being developed over seasons and not Shiro-specific - I would need to research. (Yet more proof that the endcard "wedding" was not planned since we didn't see the unnamed groom until S7 and they never interacted.) And that was said before studio execs started meddling and caused the trainwreck of S8.

I do think we were supposed to have an open ending for Sheith. Klantis like to point out a storyboard artist claiming that "no one wins" this ship war as evidence that KL was supposed to happen and got changed, but that statement applies if Sheith is left open-ended and Allurance happens, even without the endcards.

When I have a chance, I'll try and dig up the links for the various quotes I mention above. Thank you for reading if you made it this far!

[corleyan]

I was tagged by @pia-writes-things to post 9 of my fave film first watches of 2023, which is only easy as I watched a record low number of movies.

So without further ado:

Marcel the Shell with Shoes on (#1 by a country mile): OMG OMG OMG. If you have not already seen this, go find it on a streaming platform immediately. I was sobbing from like the 2nd minute in--truly an incredible concept, and such a great examination of community, grief, etc. It goes without saying, get the hankies ready.

Femme: opposite end of the spectrum, a revenge fantasy about a guy that gets gaybashed, and then decides to make his attacker fall in love with him. Dark and thought provoking, and probably quite difficult for most people to find online.

Talk To Me: this gets a shoutout mostly because I saw it at a secret screening and it was a cool concept, very well paced, not too many jumpscares (though certainly violent), and with a decent ending (which is hard for the horror indies to nail).

Tar: I doubt I need to say much--I am sure this is a lesbian Tumblr darling. A film that says, hey, women can be cunts too, you know--except unlike men, they'll pay the price for it. (okay, it says a lot more than that, but you already know).

Barbie: I felt such a sense of joy coming out of the theatre, one that I hadn't felt in ages--also I just loved seeing so many dressed in pink for weeks around all the cinemas.

Next Goal Wins: only just snuck this into 2023, a very entertaining comedy based on American Samoa's football team. If you watch Taika Waititi's films, you know what you're getting.

Spiderman Across the Spiderverse: another Tumblr favourite, so no more needs saying--I do think the animation is absolutely sublime and I love how dark they went with it.

Air: aka the Nike Michael Jordan story. I know Ben and Matt are not Tumblr's favourite people (except for memes that is), however the movie is both a fascinating look into Jordan's mother, and her sheer belief in her son's brand and skill--and it's also a really interesting look into Nike. It's also just a damn solid, well acted film.

Glass Onion: another Tumblr favourite...

Tried to actively stay away from talking Ros and Sophie films, or any that I've already blogged or reblogged gifsets of. I could do a few more shoutouts but they sort of fall into a similar category as some of the above.

Tagging the following randoms: @fallonash @realizewherereallies @theycannotfindmenow and @readingtheentrails (think it's just meant to be 4?)

[ferociousconscience]

Hi! Hope its ok to ask, and sorry if its already been answered before: Do you have fav Les Mis adaption? Or a few?

Thank you for asking me!! I've not watched all of them, considering how many there are floating around out there and how many are sadly lost, but. I have spent this year hunting down and watching every adaptation I could. A special thanks to @ueinra for a lot of help in that regard. I recently made a Letterboxd account and a List just for Les Mis. I've plans to go through and review them properly, (Currently I only have Shoujo Cosette reviewed!) but I'd be happy to try to coalesce my thoughts on my absolute favorite for you, that being the four-part silent* Les Miserables (1925) under this read-more! Hiyah!

It's... Hard to grasp my feelings on LM1925, considering how special it is to me. These films really made me love the idea of cinema again. I had never seen a silent movie before, and frankly I thought they were one of those things that were a bit out of reach for me, but wow I am so so happy I watched LM1925. Not only is it a fantastic adaptation of LM, it's also just a fantastic set of movies (miniseries??) in general. The casting, the acting, the sets, the locations, the attention to detail, the quality of the visuals (which often are just frankly stunningly beautiful), the pacing, the atmosphere. Everything just works and is faithful to the feeling of reading the novel. (I will say I watched it without the accompany music at first, but have since gone back and listened to it overtop on a rewatch, and wow what a cool oddity it is. The Sims 1 soundtrack but with a surreal and often nightmarish twist.) I adore Gabriel Gabrio as Valjean. He really captures the idea that Valjean can both be noble, kind, and fearsome all in one. And Jean Toulout as scrunkly and lively Javert...!! I truly love him. I think them and Sandra Milovanoff as Fantine (less so as her playing Cosette, too, wish they would have cast another person) give absolutely amazing performances. This is also a great adaptation for the Gorbeau part of the book, ESPECIALLY Suzanne Nivette as Eponine, wow! What an Eponine! Probably my favorite Eponine. Same with Thenardier, both the Eponine and Thenardier in this one are tied with LM1972 for me. I also just like the... what I'll call "Theater Acting" performances I've seen in this and in the other early films I've watched since. The thick makeup. The funny expressions. The dramatic poses. All this would be considered overacting in the modern day, but to me it just feels alive. It reminds me of a lot of animations, I suppose, and that delights me. I also love love love that they didn't attempt to make big changes to the material at hand (Hell, they even touch on Waterloo in a way I thought was cool!). LM1925 and Shoujo Cosette made me realise that the longer a Les Mis adaptation is, typically the better it is to me. (with. One exception off the top of my head...) I think by the time I had watched all the other adaptations of both the novel and the musical, I had grown fatigued over the different ways films would try to condense things into 2 hours, and leave a lot on the cutting room floor (even if that usually means they focus more on the J vs JVJ aspect that I always have a weakness for), or when they try to cram everything into said 2 hours and turns it into a pacing nightmare. LM1925 avoids all that!

I feel I'm rambling on, so I'll rapid fire some stuff off. I love that they filmed in the actual msurm. I love that they kept things really grungy when the film calls for it. I love the scenes of the barricade, especially the scenes with the national guards spilling in. I love the subtle changes to the valvert side of things, it's truly one of the better adaptations for the shippers. I need to get on making some gifsets. If you love Les Mis, or just film in general, I think you owe it to yourself to watch LM1925. It's free! It's on the Internet Archive! There are download buttons or you can stream it! Please do! And tell me your thoughts on it!

[sainteda]

Hiya! I saw this gifset of Kit speaking about the Wesper slow burn romance in the book vs the fast-paced relationship in the show, and I just thought I'd share it with you 😅

[Link]

hello! <3

thank you for sharing!! i don't keep up with panels or cast stuff at all anymore so i prob would have never seen this otherwise.

i've seen a few people make the same point kit makes, and i think what frustrates me is that the problem with show!wesper isn't necessarily a lack of realism or age-appropriateness (i don't actually know who is arguing that) but the error in the heart of the adaptation. because yes, sure, with older characters certain behaviour will change, so the new dynamics makes Sense (although i would like to say adding more sex is quite literally just the least challenging way of portraying an aged-up character, it is absolutely not a requisite for maturity or realism lol) — but why should it have to?? why adapt a series with the crows as half-fledged, aged-up backdrop characters (who later overshadow the supposed central plot in repeated bouts of cheap fan service) instead of one where they keep their original ages? in the duology, the crows being teenagers is literally crucial to the theme of the story. everything is 10x more impactful and devastating because of how young they are. those ages have purpose. changing them has more consequences than just changing wesper, but i'll never shut up if i start talking about them and i briefly mentioned a few qualms in The Essay, so...

obviously i don't expect kit to say/believe that the show is splintered at its core and tear apart the whole thing but yk 😭

yes, based on the changes, there's nothing illogical about a fast-paced wesper, but also — "if we're a slow burn, everyone's a slow burn" — GOOD?!!!! i have never ever met anyone who doesn't like a slow burn. it's not like slow burns pigeonhole their ships into repetitive tropes; they're universal and can be done a thousand different ways. show!wesper, however 'logical' their development may be as adults (and i'd argue the rush, the forgotten one night stand, the appalling lack of wylan as an individual and the half-hazard attempt at jesper's arc leaves Much to be desired) lacks the deliberately paced mutual longing, (mis)understanding, acceptance, trust, and love that makes book!wesper so great.

i've already talked about my discomfort with show!wesper as the only built and established lgbtq+ rep considering fivan vanished this season and if you blinked you could have missed tamadia entirely, but i will reiterate again that i think that's where A LOT of people's discomfort stems from as well. i think some people arguing in favour of show!wesper might be missing that aspect because it's a very individual, personal gripe. i won't pretend six of crows didn't lean into the bi promiscuity stereotype occasionally, but i've always loved nina and jesper and honestly never felt misrepresented or offended reading either of them. they were both capable, full characters with plenty of other attributes, virtues and vices like all the other characters. on the other hand, a fast paced lazily aged wesper, the liberal handling of jesper as comedic relief with an established pattern for sleeping around (including during important missions), the lack of mention for nina's sexuality OR explicit recognition of jesper's for that matter, all rubbed me the wrong way. personally. and that's not to mention wylan's disability being used as a prop for wesper angst, making me get angry all over again about the way kaz's disability was handled and inej's trauma and and and...

listen, i could complain forever and still find more to complain about. it'll just go on and on. sorry, once i get started i don't know how to be normal or rational about this show, i hope you don't regret your message and ty again 😭

[shimenchus]

...I haven't seen a single toku blog receive any ask about a thea someone? And I follow quite a lot. So unless you're hanging out in some really weird circle of it... (after all, due to various reasons, toku tumblr is more like a bunch of bubbles instead of one monolith.)

What I HAVE seen are a lot of them still reblogging satoryuga's gifsets with positive tags, even to this day. From what I understand, most of them are pretty sure that she isn't a terf, and are against the re-uploader. However, they're not sure who is behind it. And judging by how this re-uploader has the means to doxx extremely personal info of random Tumblr users and create loads of sockpuppets, anything is possible. (For all we know, that person could be the re-uploader, or it could be some distraction to hide the real re-uploader's identity.)

This is also why--out of the fans I've spoken to--they've been trying to deal with the situation quietly (reporting hate comments, leaving supportive DMs to satoryuga, etc). We've already seen from the re-uploader's 2nd blog post (where they @ 'd a few people that were against the re-uploader for different reasons) that they're willing to threaten others too. If anything, I think the more accurate thing to do is ask why they would @ those users in particular (since by @ -ing them, they're turning those bloggers into targets). Clearly the re-uploader sees those people as either threats or easy targets to have beef with.

i'm not hanging out in any weird circles i promise you, everyone i follow in the fandom are just other girls who like sentai. yesterday i saw quite a few people getting told to "block and dni" with thea-nymo which is the real account of the reuploader if you didn't know that, there were even people outside of the fandom getting asks which makes no sense because people who don't know what sentai is definitely wouldn't know who satoryuga is lol

i get the fear around the doxxing, i don't think anybody should be forced to do anything they're uncomfortable with and if there's people in the fandom who aren't liking or making shady posts about satoryuga and have privately reached out to her because that's what they're comfortable with then that's great, more power to them.

i mean, i never in my life got so many grown adults telling me to get graphically and violently raped and murdered until i called them out on harassing satoryuga, i know most people would not have the stomach for that kind of stuff so i fully understand the ones who don't want to openly say anything.

but the ones who are leaning into the "i'm not looking at any evidence because someone told me satoryuga = bad = she should get raped and murdered because i can't think for myself" crowd can find a tall tree to get caught up in.

and most of the people that got @ by the reuploader weren't people who against him, it was people he was against lol considering neckspike got @ and that loser was the first person starting the "this is a hoax none of this is real it's a psychop" stuff against satoryuga.

i think stacaesar and diamondsketches are the only people who got @ that the reuploader was purposely trying to draw attention to, to get the cult to attack them too, because much like satoryuga, neither of them did anything wrong.

neckspike and whatever that artist's name was (they blocked me after calling me a crackhead so i don't remember lmao) are super anti-satoryuga and couldn't make a single argument against her/against the people supporting her without resorting to racism and misogyny, so if anybody sent those two even 1 threat... well, babygirl that's on them lol

thanks for the nice message though, i wasn't expecting someone else from the fandom to see it and give a response like this that wasn't another rape threat/"slit your wrists terf" type message.

[besidesitstoowarm]

"Doomsday" thoughts

i'm realizing i forgot to mention my WIFE freema agyeman in last episode. i'm so sorry baby. i can't wait for s3

anyway this episode fucks severely and kind of reminds me that a lot of diehard ten/rose shippers don't like. GET what makes them work, bc they don't get what makes rose work. i think i've said it before that not only do moffat haters not understand his era, but davies lovers often don't even really like it for the right reasons. or like, reasons that are based on the text instead of the tumblr interpretation of the text. this isn't to disparage davies likers or ten/rose shippers or whatever, just make sure you're remembering the episodes as they happened and not as 1080p gifsets you reblogged 8y ago

anyway! this was a great finale to s2 and to the rose era in general (i'll make a season retrospective w more detail). it's just some goddamn great doctor who, davies is masterful at weaving deep and impactful character work into the classic balls-to-the-wall insane doctor who shenanigans. let's explore, shall we

i love the idea behind the "genesis ark" like tell me that doesn't sound like something that already exists in dw canon. calling back to needing rose's touch bc humanity– the human ability/desire/habit of crossing boundaries, inherently filling every space, colonizing to be less generous– has a power to it. the bit as well about "cybermen will remove sex and class and race and creed" is a critique of centrism bc our differences make us human! they're beautiful! the great equalizer is horrific, imposed violence

i'm sorry if this seems homophobic but i don't think a straight person could have possibly written the dalek-cybermen interactions in this episode. "the daleks have no concept of elegance" "this is obvious" sorry it's just pure cuntiness on a level i have never seen a cishet achieve. i'm not stereotyping davies as just "sassy" or whatever he's deeply talented in all facets but bitchiness is indeed one of those facets

continuing the anti-establishment theme, yvonne walking into the cybermen hell saying "oh god, i did my duty" is deeply telling. the cyberman she becomes crying an oil-slick tear and fighting back saying "i did it for queen and country" is kind of sad and kind of horrifying. it's about the layers

rose gets to flex w the daleks by telling them what she did as bad wolf. "i met the emperor....and turned him into dust" yes!! yes!! get their asses baby!! "both sides had secrets" all the time war seeding is so tasteful and delicious. it works as both bread-crumbing info that will be revealed eventually and as background worldbuilding should they decide to never get into the nitty-gritty. they obviously do in "the end of time" for one and then eventually the 50th but davies plays it just subtle enough that if they never did get deeper into it, i don't think it would have felt like a cocktease

i love the pete-jackie stuff sorry. i love stories about people finding/refinding/etc love in their 40s. they're not the version of each other that they each know but they're close enough and they do love each other. their big hug made me emotional

and of course. the ending. what is there to say about the ending that hasn't been said a hundred million times already. murray gold is a fantastic composer and he CRUSHES it. the fact that ten was ready to sacrifice rose without her consent (which he will later do to donna! themes!), the fact that she fought the narrative and refused until tragedy took over, as it inevitably must. bad wolf bay. "i love you" "rose tyler, –" as tears drip down his face. oh i am just so sick. they were codependent and unhealthy but you really can't deny how much they cared for each other, and even tho i KNOW they meet up again and get their "happy" endings i just. oh it hit. phenomenal acting on both parts, incredible score, oh it just destroys me. a beautiful end for the season and for rose

side note, i did not recall that "runaway bride" was the next story. i totally forgot that we get the season-long gap before seeing donna again. i can't wait to get back to donna, she brings out the best in ten (being divorced and a pathetic wet beast)

season retrospective up soon!

[maxanor]

Ah, I am sorry that I did not manage to reply to that last ask. I shall just continue our topic of horror films and say: i also love everything james wan does (aquaman do not interact), he's a fucking genius and my favorite horror film maker!! did you see his newest film, Malignant? Cause I loved every second of it. Also what's your favorite horror film made in the past few years? (like in 2020 onwards). (and to answer your question very late, my favorite colour is red)

also I also love playing around with blending. I have a lot of fun when I make like color isolated sets, and lyric sets seem to be a lot of too, with lots of typography. Also, I feel you so much, I've also had a giffing block for the past couple weeks. I think the only set I've made was a simple one from a random movie just to try and get some creative juices flowing, though that didn't seem to work much haha.

And I agree, I always have more fun making gifsets if the goal isn't to get notes. Like yes getting notes and validation is great, but that's not the goal. the goal is to have fun and be creative, right?

What are your favorite songs/albums to listen to while you gif?

- psc anon

omg no problem!!!! and no i haven't seen malignant! like i said, i'm not super into supernatural/paranormal horror films but i might have to check it out anyway just for him! honestly i have such a bad habit of watching movies years after they come out, so i unfortunately haven't seen that many in the past 3ish years...the only ones i can really think of are spiral: the book of saw which i watched right when it came out since i was really anticipating it, and then i recently watched X which was really fun. i have a list of about 70 horror movies (i counted) that i've been meaning to watch but it's slow going. i've also been meaning to go see nope but i'm not a huge theater person lmao i really only go out to the movies a few times a year bc i just prefer to watch movies in bed snuggled up with my cat. do you like going to movie theaters for the Experience or do you prefer watching at home?

i loooooove gifsets with typography, i'm always in awe at how beautifully people are able to play around with text effects and stuff like that, bc that is absolutely not something i'm good at sdfjhgds

i'm more the type of person to watch shows while i'm gifing then listen to music. sometimes if i'm in a particular mood i'll throw on a playlist (normally the same 12 hour playlist that i always listen to that has a bunch of different genres on it) or if a new album has just come out by a popular artist i'll listen to that (i've been listening to sabrina carpenter's new album a bit over the past few days). i love procedural crime shows so i'll throw those on, like i was recently rewatching criminal minds and then i also just started a law and order rewatch (of the original version, not svu) just bc i've seen both those shows multiple times and i'm already familiar with most the episodes, since i'm not paying close attention while i'm gifing. what about you? what do you like to listen to while you gif? do you have any music/artists to recommend?

[nonsensegnomes]

hi I trust your taste and opinion. A, is succession any good, and B, should I watch it

oh thank you <3 altho i’m afraid you must be the first person to still think i've any taste after seeing my blog, i mean We Post Supernatural Here Sir asjwdwehdewhfefasdhjsidq

okay so you posed this as two different questions so i'll try and answer it like that & keep the replies separated as objective vs subjective altho i guess tl;dr is: Yes lmao

A) so the annoying thing for me as like. a practicing contrarian, is i do have to admit that this show is exactly as good as tumblr & the academy & all your friends & probably your great-grandfather's ghost have already told you it is. the dialogue is hilarious and horrendous but also so naturalistic that it can kind of lull you into thinking that it's a normal way of speaking for an hour; the satire is so well-pronounced in a way it could only be after getting smoothed out by precursor shows like the thick of it & peep show, and yet there's real emotion beating at the heart of it which never gets undercut to serve a Point; the soundtrack adds so much weight to every moment that somehow the scenes you're most excited by can be the ones where the characters are Just Walking Somewhere; and turns out all that obscene wealth IS obscenely good to look at.

     so, unfortunately all the awards thrown at it are incredibly deserved, and if i weren’t currently (re)watching the sopranos & the wire i’d be one of those people up in arms about how it’s the most special-est tv show to ever deign to fit onto our screens – as it is i Do think it’s the best one airing atm, and it’s def going to find its place quite high up in the canon of prestige tv! (although i do think ppl overestimate the lear influence; they’re just riffing off of similar themes guys!!)

B) as to whether you’d personally like it! well,, listen as a fellow shameless & spn enjoyer, it really is like barely a question; like you know those moments in early seasons shameless when their lives would be doing okay for a moment + then monica would arrive back and just absolutely Bulldoze through the kids’ emotional stability until it’s one crying knotted-up mess that dredges up every toxic part of every family relationship? yeah that happens like every 2nd episode on succession and you’d think it would get old, And It Doesn’t!!! also watching kendall roy like zombie-shuffle through s2 was one of the most deeply satisfying & painful experiences i’ve had watching tv, so like. if you’re trying to figure out why treasured mutuals are making you look at gifsets of droopy old men.... it’s the poor little meow meow effect for SUREEE, and the only way out of that is through so you might as well join in!!

     my word of caution would be that obviously this site can lead you astray in getting into it For Gay Reasons. like, some fun repressed characterisation makes it so pretty much every roy sibling (plus tomgreg obvs, and ig excluding connor?) has SOMETHING homoerotic going on, but i don’t think it’s a service to the story to be engaging with it Only on that level; there’s a lot they’re saying deliberately which is far more interesting! (e.g. roman imo is written as not at all attracted to women, but it serves the show far better if he never addresses this directly/‘comes out’ & instead continues forcing himself into these sexual relationships with them anyway)

     on the other hand... i’m not saying they WON’T do tomgreg bc like. shit’s getting wild (but to be clear if they don’t i never said this – queerbait who?) on the OTHER other hand: If kenstew has a million fans, then I am one of them. If kenstew has ten fans, then I am one of them. If kenstew has only one fan then that is me. If kenstew has no fans, then that means I am no longer on earth. If the world is against kenstew, then I am against the world

also gonna link some classic posts here bc i think a lot of the people just now getting into the show may not have seen these Gems, which is a pity! & also they might form nice little samplers if you want to try a bite of this show!! i'll put them in increasing order of how much canon you'll need to be familiar with so you can avoid spoilers:

Rejected Lyrics to HBO’s Succession Theme

My [29F] husband [31M] has become obsessed with taking over his dad’s company since watching Succession on HBO

waystar royco IS monsters inc

succession if it were real life tiktok + pt 2 (ik there're more but i am Not tracking them down rn!)

logan has the m&ms

the first scene i ever watched oh my GOD what an introduction to this show

notes on Number-One-Girl-ism

kendall roy’s bathroom breakdown but with paper bag playing

THEE classic tomlette moment

it's rotten work / yeah it really fucking is!

not to me not if it's you. but fuck you're looking at potential corporate manslaughter

tomshiv forever <3

s2 kendall really needed to hang out with paddington bear

tomgreg cruel summer amv

does your mother know amv

The California Pizza Kitchen Controversy

the camera as a character video essay

john berryman ‘dream song 29’

saturn devouring his son >:)

ACTUAL king lear parallels

well, kendall, you’ve done it now… amv

anyway come back after you’ve seen to the s2 finale & stream laura marling’s hope in the air – sound of the summer!

(and i am actually contractually obliged to suggest that if you do end up enjoying kendall roy, perhaps try him in girlboss princess of a space-fish-war flavour?)

[heybaetae]

i'm anxiously waiting for my favourite gifmaker to upload their first gifset of 2022 (that is u)

i appreciate this sentiment and am very thankful that you look forward to my gifs! if i'm really your favorite, that means a lot to me.

however, i'm taking a breather for a minute. i posted eight gifsets in the last two weeks, three of which were massive compilations that each took several days for me to finish. my last four posts coincided with the new iOS tagging ban AND the several-days-long tumblr bug that prevented anyone's work from showing up in the tags at all, which i heavily depend on. so that put a huge damper on what i hoped would be an exciting end of a year of putting out content. because on top of what is already a huge issue (the like:reblog ratio), tumblr itself just wasn't showing any of it. i think i self reblogged more than i ever have just in the last week and it still didn't help much.

going into 2022, i'm reevaluating how much time (and sometimes sleep) i'm willing to sacrifice making gifs on here when very few people share it or when tumblr is constantly fucking around with the way we use tags to get our hard work seen. i made 376 gifsets in 2021. i don't even want to think about how many gifs that was individually. don't get me wrong here, i enjoyed making all those things and am so grateful for the support most of my work got last year. i'm the one deciding to make what i do and i am aware that literally nobody is asking me to go so many extra miles. i made more content last year than i ever have and i've been making gifs on this site for a decade. it's a wonderfully creative escape for me, but sometimes that comes with unnecessary pressure, which also stirs up unwanted anxiety when it becomes an expectation to others instead of just a fun hobby for me.

(anon, please do not think that last bit is aimed at you. i believe your message had good intentions, but the wording did trigger some not so great feelings.)

i am going to try to cut back a little this year. by that, i mean i'm going to pick and choose which new content i gif. i'm in the PST timezone, so a lot of new stuff that drops in KST is usually overnight for me. i've chosen giffing over sleep many times unfortunately (frankly, this fandom has a very short attention span on here and if you put out content hours late, it's old news by then and nobody cares anymore) and that isn't healthy. this is a bad habit of mine that i'm keen on reversing. i'll definitely still make stuff, but i am not motivated to do it lately with everything going on with the site.

sorry for this rambly and potentially dramatic answer to such a nice (ish?) message. i do not take for granted that people enjoy what i make. but please, please remember how time consuming it is for creators to be churning out gifsets as often as we do for such a small hair of validation that dies after a couple days. bear with me here. 💜

[inessencedevided]

(You can find the set that this gif belongs to here 💙)

From planning to posting, share your process for making creative content!

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES: When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours

I was tagged by @aheartfullofjolllly. thank you so much Pat! it was really fun to reflect about my own process 💗 You can find her post here and @lan-xichens' post that started it all here :)

Also thank you @huigusu 🥰 (who tagged me for my nie brothers set) I'll get to that one in a few days!

Now Pat gave me two sets to chose from to show my process, so obviously I chose the more complicated one :P

I only work in Photoshop CC 2018. I know that there are programs out there for easier cutting and sharpening but I have only just figured out how to do that in PS and I am too lazy to figure out any other programs right now xD

1. Idea and Planning

This set, like most of my sets with lyrics started with me reading the poem, clutching my heart and going "oh shit this fits my favourite characters!!". The idea actually started with me thinking that the first stanza of the poem would go really well with wwx during the burial mounds arc. Then I realized that the last stanza fits lwj better than him and from there came the idea to contrast the both of them next to each other. This is when I realized I wanted to do a dark-light contrast set, though I did not know that I would go with red and blue at that time. My idea in the beginning was just to do a black and white set

I was really impressed by how Pat said that she plans her sets around exact timestamps. Because I don't do that at all ^^ I just get ideas for which scenes would fit (in this case the wwx burial mounds scenes and lwj's kneeling and punishments scene) and then I watch the scenes to narrow them down.

Back when I made this set, I still used a screenrecorder (AceThinker Screen Grabber Pro to be precise. They have a test version that allows you to record up to 3 minutes) and recorded the scenes I needed from Netflix. This worked well enough but now I have the entire show saved on an external drive and it makes a world of difference when it comes to gif sharpness

Now, in this case I had to repeat this step once because when I was almost finished, I realized that I wanted a gif for the lwj corner but let's pretend I didn't do that and that's the way this gif was always going to look because otherwise this post will be way too long ^^

2. Creation

Short disclaimer: The creation process for this gifset was anything but linear. Multiple effects I used here were things I had never tried before. I just had a vague idea and tried to realize it through trial and error. So whenever I say "then I did xyz", it is implied that I ultimately went back to that step several times and changed stuff ^^

I started with the Wei Wuxian part of the gif. I usually use a frame rate of 0,06 (with some variation depending on gif length and size). I work in timeline so I converted all the layers to a smart layer. Then I resized the gif into a square, leaving big chunks of the gif empty (as can be seen below.) I flipped the gif horizontally, so he is looking inwards. This was simple because I felt it fitted the composition better. Then I imported the Lan Wangji part of the gif, again with a frame rate of 0,06. (Image 2)

After that I created a layer for masking in a separate PS document by rotating a square until it was point down (is that a rhombus?). I sized it to match my gif (540x540 pxl) and copied it over. (Image 3) a bit of masking magic and ta da! There's the basic layout (Image 4)

I put a layer of solid black behind wwx to get rid of the transparent bits (Image 5) and then started adding more white and black to both sides by adding solid whit and black layers that i put masks on and changed the opacity as i needed (Image 6)

("reading" direction: from the upper left to the lower right corner)

Then I fiddled with the colours a bit. The first thing I always do is using the curves layer to get more contrast. Then I use the colour balance tool and the selective colouring tool to get rid of that cql-typical cyan tint after that it's just trying to have it look "natural" while the colours still fit the overall scheme. This was difficult here because wei Wuxian’s side of the gif was very dark and when i turned up the saturation to see which colour dominated it was a very weird mixture of multiple colours. That's when i decided that I'd just go with red on his side, since lwj's side was already so blue and those to look great as contrasts.

After that just came a lot of fiddling with selective colour layers and brightness and contrast unti I has happy. There really wasn't much to it ^^. (Image 1)

After that I added the text. I knew I wanted the two lines to for a square of some kind. So I tried different fonds until I arrived at the one below. The two lines are in seperate layers so I could move them around and change the spacing between the letters until I was happy with the layout. I also changed the layer mode for the text to "difference" (is that what it's called in english? my PS is set to german sorry ^^), keeping their colour white. (Image 2)

I originally hadn't planned adding anything else but I felt like the gifs (plural because I switched between the gifs of this set) was still kind of empty and lacking, so I added the tear down the middle (a tutorial for that is either coming up later or already posted. I recently got an ask for this :)) (Image 3)

It still felt empty after that, so I tried different overlays. Okay no, first I wasted a lot of time on different free image sides but then I tried out different ones until I chose the one you can see in the finished gif. I liked that one because a) I felt the round shape was a nice contrast to all the straight lines already there and b) because once I applied a black and white filter to it and switched the layer setting to "difference" (again, i hope this is the correct translation) it looked a bit like a moon. (Gif at the top)

("reading" direction: from left to right)

And that's it! :)

Although in general, these gifs took so much fiddling! I went back and forth between them a lot and sometimes almost redid the entire thing because I had no idea what I was doing in the beginning and by the time I noticed an error, the only way to fix it was ti redo everything. So yeah, this set definitely is the the one that took me the longest out of all the ones I've posted so far.

3. Posting

I save all my gifs to my drafts first to see what they look like put together and to check if they look any different on mobile. Usually i do this several times and change stuff until I'm happd enough with it to hit post. Once i am happy enough, i can't hold back. Doesn't matter if it's at a time when nobody is online, i hit post 😅

And that's it!

Tagging:

@lanwuxiann for this gifset (I adore it so much. I've looked at it and read it severat times since you posted it and the poem just kills me every time!)

@suibianjie for this gifset (The combination of static images and gifs in your gifs is always absolutely perfect! This one is only my favourite of yours because the light coming from behind wwx is just so pretty!!! ^^)

@sweetlittlevampire for this piece (It was soooo hard to pick a piece of yours because I have so many favourites! But this one is just so out if this world, I want to know how you worked that magic :D)

@wei-gege for this set (sparkling shijie! 😭 that set is so incredibly beautiful! I love how you matched the colour of the overlay with her dress!)

@purplexedhuman for this set (your gifs are always incredible! I chise this one because it showcases both your colouring skills and some really intricate effects)

If any of you have already been tagged or don't have the time or energy for this, obviously no pressure to do this at all! 🥰

(btw, I originally tried to place the actual text of this under a "read more" cut but somehow it always messed with the order of the images, so this ended up as a rather long post. sorry!)

[mrsluthordanvers]

This may seem like a really random question but has writing and reading femslash helped you come into your sexual and/or gender identities? I've been in the Supergirl fandom and other primarily f/f fandoms for quite some time and this is something that I've been wondering about recently.

Yes!!

This got really long, and really rambly, and probably tells more about my experience with fandom then you needed to know to answer this question. But here it is lol

I grew up in a relatively conservative and catholic family with limited access to media both bc of this and bc my family was low income. I remember as a little kid we only had a couple channels and when we did get cable when I was older, my parents would stop pay for it during summer months because they wanted us to go outside.

The only gay media I remember ever seeing growing up in my parents house was Imagine Me & You. I caught it once on TV and I have vivid memories of realizing what I was watching and sitting on the edge of the couch paranoid that my parents would come downstairs and catch me watching it. I remember setting up the remote so that when I hit the quick back button it would take me back to some cartoon channel. And glee. Which I was surprisingly actually allowed to watch. I was always waiting for it to get turned off but it never was.

Both my parents were very big on encouraging reading. When we asked for books, it was almost the only time I don’t remember being told no. I remember I spent tons of time in libraries as a kid and it was one of the only places I was allowed to go after school by myself when I was in junior high. And I loved to write, my mom was always asking her to tell me stories and I was always writing in journals.

Basically what I’m saying is that I really did Not have exposure to the gay community. And looking back it seems really natural that I started reading and writing femslash.

It took me a long time to get into though, and to seek out. Instead I was sneaking Nora Roberts books out of the library at grade 7 because they had sex in them. Sex, I thought, that was safe/healthy/whatever because these were the books my sister was reading. Plus my mom said they were too mature for me, and what’s a better motivator then being told no. I didn’t find famslash until very late into high school bc it never even occur to me that I could be reading cheesy romances that were f/f instead.

My first experience actually reading femslash was Rizzles fics on ff.net. I honestly have no idea how I found it bc at the time I couldn’t have told you what fandom was, or that tumblr existed. The only thing I remember knowing about fanfic was that if you said you read fanfic people assumed you were reading about weird sex about characters and would laugh at you. Honestly I might have only found fanfics bc glee was really big at the same time and I was probably hearing people talk about ships and fanfic even if I don’t remember it now. Either way I found it lol. And I read A Lot of rizzoli and isles fics.

And it helped. Towards the end of high school was when it really started to dawn on me that I might like girls and I didn’t have words for it, I didn’t know there was a community, and there certainly wasn’t people I was willing to ask.

Reading femslash was like opening a door. Suddenly I was being introduced to the same kind of cheesy romance writing I was already reading. I was being introduced to the idea of two women going on dates. Having healthy relationships. Having unhealthy relationships. Soft sex. Rough sex. Falling in love. Getting married. Having kids. And it really started to solidify that I liked women.

Up until that point the idea of being gay scared the fuck out of me bc what I knew was so limited, to me being gay = being alone. It meant I wasn’t allowed to have any of those things and I really resisted that.

Reading femslash was a big part of changing that perspective. It made me comfortable enough to tell a girl at 19 I had a crush on her. It helped me feel like it was okay to tell people I wasn’t straight when I went to university. It prompted me to search out more gay media when I went to university. I started to watch glee again. I watched DEBS, and Imagine Me and You, and Saving Face, and Gray Matters, and Bloomington, and Kissing Jessica Stein, and Loving Annabelle. Basically I went through the LGBT section of Netflix in a year. 

A friend introduced me to tumblr and told me there was a big gay community. I followed some cool people and aesthetic blogs but honestly I still wasn’t quite finding it.

Then I watched The 100 while it was in season 2 in my last year of university. Completely unaware of Clarke and Lexa. I became obsessed lol. They kissed on screen and it was like a switch went off. I don’t know why it was that show instead of anything else I had been watching that spurred me on. But it did. I started looking up accounts on tumblr and following people and reading so so so much fanfic. I had started to find that vast community on tumblr my friend mentioned and started sending people asks and saw people actually answering asks, and posting their art and their writing. It encouraged me to try writing again, and ask a couple people if they would read stuff I posted.

And then supergirl came out and I was soooo excited for it that I started to try mimicking accounts I saw in the clexa fandom. I figured out how to make gifsets, and I liveblogged, and my friend told me to make a side fandom blog or she’d unfollow me lmao. Which I also didn’t know people did. I started this blog just before season 2 happened and it made for the perfect storm. I already had a small following, I was making content (even if it wasn’t great), and Lena got introduced. And suddenly I REALLY discovered how vast the gay community is bc it was suddenly knocking at my door. It was also a big BIG learning curve.

I was reading people’s fanfics and looking at their fanart. I was seeing depictions of different sexualities. And how two characters can be interpreted in such vastly different ways. I was being shown perspectives I hadn’t seen before, some that made me stop and go. Oh. It helped me identify my first label, and then also taught me labels can change, and mine did. I wasn’t just reading fics about two women in a relationship, I was opening fics and seeing me. I saw a piece of fanart of Butch Kara and thought, she looks like me. And then I started to see people writing about butch Kara and commenting about butch Kara and it wasn’t just, she looks like me. It became she looks like me, and that is desirable. And that gave me confidence. I stopped shaving, my wardrobe has started to change, I started buying things I wanted to wear not that I thought I should wear. I learned I wanted people to see me and think I was handsome or attractive before they thought I pretty or cute lol

Writing femslash has a different kind of self reflection. I like to think I have started to notice when I project things on to characters, and think about why those things are important to me. Or why I get defensive over certain headcanons. All things that have made me step back and look at my own sexuality and gender identity. Which honestly I’m still figuring out and is still changing, but I’ve learned that’s okay too (fanfic has also normalized that for me lol)

Art is meant to make you feel things, think about things. I don’t think fanfic or fanart is any different. Sometimes it is just meant to make you feel you horny and sometimes it makes you reflect on whether or not you might be butch. Personally I think it’s very cool that it’s so powerful

[theladyragnell]

May I ask, what is The Great? I've seen some gifs from you and your impeccable taste has already introduced me to at least 4 of my favourite shows, so what's your take on this one? (And like seriously, thank you for being awesome and introducing me to Leverage, Pushing Daisies, Still Star-crossed and Killjoys, you're a gem to have on my dash)

Well, I will take credit for three of those, but I’ve only actually seen two episodes of Pushing Daisies! I hear it’s great, though, and I think I’ve probably reblogged some gifsets because I love it long-distance, I just sort of fell off on watching it.

As for The Great, it’s on Hulu, all ten episodes, though I’ve still just seen the first (though from what I’ve seen, it maintains quality). I do hear it’s much like The Favourite in mood and sensibility, which makes sense because they share a writer--of things I’ve seen, though, I’d compare it most directly to Reign and to the Sofia Coppola Marie Antoinette. It’s the story of Catherine the Great, though it bills itself as “occasionally true.” I would call it more historically accurate than Reign, but not knowing much about Russian imperial history I can’t vouch for the margin.

Catherine is a great heroine--she arrives full of hope and naivete at the Russian court, and very quickly learns a lot of unpleasant lessons about expectations and reality. The characters around her are interesting, and wildly varying levels of likeable. The show is gorgeous to look at, costumes and sets and shots all.

It also comes with some major warnings! And probably more warnings than I know about, considering I’m one episode in. But there’s ... it’s dubious consent at BEST, this isn’t an arranged marriage like Reign or Still Star-Crossed where there’s much hope of happiness in the marriage, Peter treats her terribly in and out of bed, and she thinks she’s consenting to one thing and gets wholly another. So if you’ve got triggers around sexual assault, and around emotional or physical abuse, I’d tread carefully. Also, there is animal death in the first episode! There’s a war going on in the background and I assume it’s going to become a more important plot point as time goes on.

But none of the warned-for things are handled in a way that I found unwatchable, and they aren’t excused--we get to see through Catherine’s horrified and/or disillusioned eyes, so it’s a little brutal but framed in a way I could deal with, and I’m interested and invested in the characters and in the political jockeying that looks like it’s on his way! I do love sneaky politics, and this looks like it’s going to fulfill them.

It’s not, I don’t think, one I’m going to be super fannish about--like, I can’t see myself really writing fic for it unless prompted during a ficlet round or something? But it’s a good and engrossing watch, which is why I haven’t watched more, because quarantine brain is bad for my ability to concentrate and I want to fully concentrate on it so I have to go slow! It’s not going to be on the level of the other shows I got you into, for me, but I do really like it so far.

[nutellaninja0001]

Hey Nutella, what's your emotional relationship like to jonsa at the moment? I've definitely been super excited, but I kinda thought we'd get a little more from the trailer. Last season's trailers felt like they were more Sansa-centric, if nothing else.

Hello!

First I’d like to say that as of right now, my emotional relationship with Jonsa is the best its ever been. I’m confident with all the bits of foreshadowing and logical reasoning to its possibilities has left me with an assurance I never thought I’d have when I first started shipping them. That is also not including all the metas and gifsets of paralleles between them that point things out I’d have never noticed before. Which makes me fall in love with the pair all over again.

I was hoping for a little more from the trailer. (Honestly who wasn’t for how dang long they made us wait!) but a part of me was happy they hadn’t showed much where Jonsa is concerned in the actual trailer. If they had, I would have been afraid of them misleading us. Since I’m convinced it will happen, this is going to be a major twist in the audiences expections of what’s to come in several different ways so I don’t think they want to make it too obvious. And if they had, it might have been too much.

Cause if you think about it, we have gotten a lot Jonsa wise these last past couple of months from the first teaser released of a Jonsa reunion, specifically focusing on Jon’s expression. But it was enough not to question. We all know they are going to reunite next season so this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Then we had the second teaser footage of Jon, Sansa, and Daenerys. Again, something we were already expecting but from the way it was edited, it was enough to show us these 3 characters will have some type of conflict. Exactly what has remained to be seen.

Then we had the Winterfell crypt teaser and for me, that screamed Jonsa in a cryptic way. They make these connections to Ned and Catelyn and in that teaser they told us a story. But for most fans, since this wasn’t actual footage they didn’t see much of it and when breaking it down they only focused on the WW aspect and the parentage reveal. All things that were obvious to us, but because they were obvious it gave them enough room to tell us something more.

So when it came down to the trailer they had to be very careful. I think any and all footage of Jon and Sansa are going to be crucial and one wrong scene, fans might start to catch on and get a weird vibe from it. They need to keep the JD train rolling for as long as possible. But they did give us another reminder of how important these 3 characters will be.

We see Jon and Daenerys together 3 times in this trailer. And of those 3 times it is then cut to a shot of Sansa. Not once, but twice. I hadn’t noticed this at first so I’m just going to credit the entire Jonsa community because they alerted me to this with their breakdowns.

It’s right in our face but it’s easy to miss if you’re not expecting Jonsa or a possible love triangle between the 3.

The season 7 trailers (part 1 and 2) definitely included more of Sansa’s journey of that season. We see her 4 times (if you include the voice over at the end of the trailer and in the beginning in the background of the Great Hall)

But each moment was significant to her character in various ways.

#1 Is when Jon announces he will be leaving for Dragonstone and he leaves the leadership role to Sansa.

#2 Is when Sansa is watching Brienne and Arya duel in the courtyard of Winterfell. That scene was important because although it hints at the Winterfell storyline, there’s subtext in the questions LF asks Sansa of why isn’t she happy.

#3 Is in part 2 of the trailer where her PTSD was triggered by Bran.

#4 Is Ned’s words she repeats to Arya after the execution of Littlefinger.

I know I’m going to sound biased, and I won’t lie and say I’m not. But I do believe they didn’t show much of Sansa this season simply because they couldn’t without spoiling some major plot points. My personal favorites is Jonsa, the Kidnapping plot, and her ending up as Queen in the North.

Generally they had to be careful with every scene but I think the less hints they give us at their journey come season 8, the better and the more shocking the twist. Kinda like how they only showed Tyrion once in the entire trailer.

Overall, I’m content with what we have gotten and even more than I would have hoped for given the teaser clips and I think it will only get better from here.

Sorry this got long.

Thanks for the ask!

[wonderer-ru]

I feel like I should point out before I start saying anything that this is in fact a civilized response. I understand your point, but I don't think that they are really in the wrong for still being supportive. I've seen this a lot with other groups where their fans get upset because they feel like they're being mistreated and overworked, and they aren't always wrong about that, but getting upset to the point that you stop supporting their activites and start 'boycotting' them almost always 1/3

2/3 has the opposite affect. The members themselves will start to feel like they did something wrong and want to work themselves harder than they already are. We need to keep in mind that while BigHit is still strict, they aren’t monsters and BTS aren’t being forced against their will to do anything. Performing on stage has always been their dream, their passion and the place they feel the most happy. Yes they’re exhausted and probably complaining too about the lack of sleep, but deep down they

3/3 would blame themselves if they could not perform for any reason. They keep going because this is what they want to do and it’s a great honor for them to share their passion with us. Even if we worry, we must always show them support, let them know that all of their hard work and sleepless nights are not in vain. Because what would be the point of them continuing their career if we didn’t stand by them and appreciate their efforts always? Even if it kills us to see them like that.

Hello! Tbh, I completely agree with everything you said. The only thing is - I never said “being worried and angry at bighit = boycotting the performances”. Supporting the boys at a hectic time like that is very important. But writing an angry open letter to bighit in a tumblr post is not support, it’s not useful. It just causes drama in the fandom. It’s even worse when those posts make some armys feel guilty for not being angry at bighit or not worrying enough (”putting bighit on a pedestal”, as I’ve seen it being put). And when it’s immediately followed by an excessive amount of heart emojis and “OMG SO CUTE” tags under the performance gifset, feels a bit anticlimactic, ya feel?

I am worried about them too, trust me. I am just not as dramatic about it. And I notice how tired they look, but then I see those same “angry soldiers” being all over the picture of Tae with painfully obvious bags under his eyes (that even make up couldn’t hide!!!), I am like - ??? mood swings much? And I watch the performances, and I get a bit upset every time, but I am also really proud of them. They are being absolute professionals, working hard for us and for themselves, because they fully understand the importance of this wave. And yes, the schedule could have been a little more merciful, but the worst part is almost over now, at least for this comeback. 

What I am saying is - there shouldn’t be a contrast this extreme. And maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned ‘hypocrisy’, but when I see completely polarized reactions to basically the same thing, it makes me question one’s judgment. That is all :)

[fabjohn]

Okay I've been puzzling over this for a few days so I'll just ask, I don't understand what you mean when you say it's disrespectful to write about John's actual death in fic. why/how is it disrespectful?

why wouldn’t it be disrespectful? 

you have to consider that fanfic, for the most part, is just a bunch of thirsty fans writing wish fulfillment. very very few set out to write accurate, biographical retellings of the events that took place during the beatles’ lives, mostly because those things already exist, and there’s like… no need for anyone to rehash it unless they’re like conducting their own interviews or something. but in that case, you’re no longer writing a fanfic. what i’m getting at here is that fic is kind of a frivolous medium, in the grand scheme of things, which makes it unfit for certain topics (the most extreme example being using the holocaust as a backdrop for some shitty love story with a nazi guard and a jewish person as your otp. the argument here isn’t that holocaust stories should never be told; in mature, respectful hands, holocaust stories can be told in a poignant, informative way–see schindler’s list or the boy in the striped pajamas, to name a couple–but it should never be reduced to like a porno fantasy sequence).

there is a gray area when it comes to writing fic, though. a lot of people use writing as a way to cope with their own experiences, so while one could argue that topics such as abuse and rape are too complex to be used as a backdrop for a love story (because, let’s face it, the majority of fics are love stories), we don’t know what the author has experienced. in my opinion, it’s not unreasonable for a young writer (say 12 or 13 years old) who has experienced abuse to write a story in which the hot next door neighbor swoops in and saves them from their circumstances and gives them a better life. on the surface, this is a “problematic” story, but a young writer wouldn’t know that or care, they just wish it would happen. which brings us back to my first point: fanfiction is wish fulfillment. 

so my question is: why on earth would a fan wish for john to be dead? why would you wish to see paul grieving? why would you want to give his murderer any more attention than he already has? that’s the real kicker here, for me. writing about john’s death is different because he was actually murdered. to make his murderer as a character in your fic is like… so gross. to be fair, i think there’s a difference between telling a fic where john and/or paul just happen to die in a fictional way that makes sense with the plot of your story. i just don’t think john’s real death should be taken lightly. 

the fics i’ve stumbled upon that touch on his death (i’ve never read one that was about his death specifically, but it’s been thrown into other fics without reason or warning) use it solely evoke “feels” or make you cry or whatever. if an author can’t make you feel something without bringing up a real life tragedy and reminding you that someone you love is literally dead, i have to question if they’re a good writer at all. it’s an easy, guaranteed way to upset your audience. 

there’s a fic i’ve read (i won’t mention it by name, but i’m sure most of us have read it) that is literally a get together fic starting when john and paul first met. it’s a sweet little story about them falling in love, all pre-fame, but throughout the fic paul has these random premonitions which make him push john away or whatever. so that right there is like just a forced, random conflict and the fic would have honestly been more enjoyable without it. but at the end of the fic, when they finally get together and all is well, the author ends it with something like “but we all know they can’t live happily ever after as john’s life ended on december 8th, 1980 as paul had predicted…” like?? okay?? that literally had nothing to do with the story. it was just supposed to be one last punch in the gut, i guess, and that’s what i find disrespectful. a real person’s actual murder shouldn’t be used for shock value. the fic i mentioned is like 200k; it should be able to make the audience feel something without ending it with “lmao but they’ll never be happy because john is dead.” do you understand? 

again, i’ve never read a fic that is focused specifically on the day john died and paul’s reaction to it, and i imagine that some of them must exist as a coping mechanism. i would never contact any of these authors directly or like try to tell them they’re wrong, because it’s impossible to know their motivation; maybe they had a loved one who died, or was murdered, and they’re using writing as a way to understand their own feelings. that’s totally fine. i would encourage it, even. that being said, i can’t help but side-eye some of the people i’ve seen planning fics like this, when they’re like “i’m writing a 1980 fic and you guys are going to cry your eyes out paul is going to suffer >:))))” 

like. what is wrong with you. why would you do that. these are real people, paul did suffer, and that pain is not our playground. god there’s even a gifset that goes around which shows paul in the 80s tearing up while listening to one of john’s songs, and someone added a caption like “he’s so hot while he’s grieving.” like that is so fucked up?? 

writing about john’s death because you think paul is hot while he grieves, or because you like “paul in pain” stories, or because, for some fucked up reason, you want to write about death in graphic detail, then you’re being disrespectful. i don’t see any way around this. unless you’re very young or very fortunate, someone in your life has died. how would you feel if people were exploiting that and using it as a backdrop for some quasi-love story? 

like, true, it’s very unlikely that paul would ever see our fanfiction (though there are fucked up kids who tweeted images and links to fucking red hall during his twitter q&a and got their asses blocked–good riddance), but i think if we respect him as a person, and respect his feelings and realize that this is something he actually lived through and has to deal with to this day, not some quick little story that you can read for “feels” and will be over in 30 minutes, it becomes unimaginable to use that for entertainment. 

like i mentioned earlier, i’m sure it’s totally possible to write an informative and respectful retelling of john’s death. i just don’t think it could ever happen in fanfiction. it’s not the right medium. 

fanfic is a great, safe way to explore all kinds of topics and kinks, but when real people are involved, that changes things a little. if you want to expand on someone’s murder and tell a story about it, then you should probably write about fictional characters instead imo.