#one of my least favorite phenomenons in fandom is when a character will have some bigoted belief that is integral to their character

[devoutlywished]

[contritecactite]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Spread the self-love ❤

Thank you for the ask, Quoth! I think you'd be pleased to know that I had trouble narrowing things down (they're all my favorites today), but I got there eventually.

1. Promised Me a Feeling

Ace Attorney, T, 2.8k, klapollo

Post-AA4, Edgeworth accidentally invites himself to dinner with Klavier and Apollo. It's painfully awkward, but it helps him find the courage to take the next step.

I took a huge internet break years ago (my own 7yg hehe) and only returned to fandom in 2021. "Promised Me a Feeling" was the first time I felt genuinely confident in my writing again, so it holds a special place in my heart.

2. Third Time Charmed

Ace Attorney, G, 3k, Maya

Maya visits the building for the "first time" three separate times. Whether it's housing Fey & Co. Law Offices, Wright & Co. Law Offices, or the Wright Anything Agency, it always manages to be just the opposite of what she's come to expect.

In a lot of ways, this was a celebration of being part of a fandom in which I'm "allowed" to enjoy female characters and to place value on non-romantic relationships. Those were two quick ways out the door in my 2008-2012 spaces.

3. And a Borrowed Car

Good Omens, T, 3.6k, A/C (ambiguous)

Aziraphale falls asleep in the stolen Jeep, Crowley remembers that his flat could use some cleaning, and they end up sharing a very nice room somewhere and talking about things they've lost and time they've wasted. It turns out all right in the end.

An attempt to integrate some details from s1&2 into book canon. Casual intimacy, only one bed (because it's what they wanted), soft with an aroma of their inherent angst. Feels like some of my best characterization, but I could be wrong.

4. Anthems of Joy

Ace Attorney, T, 17k, FranMaya

When Maya and Franziska's intention to get married is made public, they get railroaded into using their wedding to generate good press for the district prosecutors' office. Over the next few months, Franziska finds that her relationship with Maya isn't the only one that gets strengthened in the pursuit of happiness. Also, I wrote what feels like half a Sesame Street episode for this. You're welcome/I'm sorry.

A weirdly personal fic that was a long time in the making. I don't know what I can say about it concisely except that I hope someday I can let go of as many hangups as Franziska.

5. Competitive Inhibition

Good Omens, M, 15k, A/C through the ages

In biochemistry: a phenomenon in which a molecule is blocked from binding to an enzyme by another molecule with a similar structure—like a demon preventing an angel from binding completely to Heaven or, more to the point, doubt and fear keeping an angel from wholly welcoming a bond with a demon. Or: The ups and downs of sharing 6000 years of life on Earth with an angel who wants desperately to be doing Good.

Written for a gift exchange, this ended up being a long series of vignettes that alternate between good times and bad times (with a hopeful ending). I even did some (very) cursory historical research! I'm very proud of it despite it apparently not having very broad appeal.

[rad-hound]

Top five writer pet peeves you have. Hell, artist as well if you have any

TOP FIVE WRITER / ARTIST PET PEEVES

1. Overuse or repetition of tropes or stereotypes in fiction:

This includes, but is most certainly not limited to, tropes you may begrudgingly stumble across on fanfiction-housing websites like AO3, such as: borderline or unapologetically racist depictions of black and brown people. And especially upon the likes of AO3, if you know, you know. As well as fetishized depictions of trans men... of which is sadly common in the Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance community, as well, in primary reference to how they write Raiden. And while I'm no stranger to trans headcanons of my own, a lot of the work on AO3 where Raiden is depicted as a trans man seems... tasteless. Seeing how most of these depictions I find myself irked by appear to have been written by people who aren't trans themselves. Or, at least, not to my own knowledge. (Typically, my know-how is whether or not they tag their work as, "Trans [redacted] written by a trans author." But of course, this is but a shallow assumption to be taken with a grain of salt.) Such other, lesser consequential and controversial repetitive (albeit, with a grain of salt) tropes I often see in writing are primarily some nitpicks of mine, such as how some people who clearly aren't Southern try to write or depict a Southern accent, without so much as speaking to, much less interacting with someone who may live in the U.S. South within an inch of their life. Or how Latino men in fiction are often treated as these... promiscuous, dangerous rebels who fruitlessly try to whisk their love interest away from their already-existing, usually white or eurocentric lover. I see this with how people write Jetstream Sam / Samuel Rodrigues in fanfiction, despite his base depiction not at all reflecting the odd fashion which fans always seem to write him within. Though, I wouldn't know, maybe such depictions are equally as controversial, or perhaps they cannot be compared. But these are ones that I notice right away that sort of make my brain itch. Not enough for me to gripe at a writer face-to-face about it, but... just a thought, since we're here. Don't burn me at the stake.

2. "Woobification" of antagonists & the morally ambiguous / exclusion & sanitization of moral ambiguity in fiction:

The same sentiment is equally applicable in the very opposite manner; the manner in which people who write fanfiction for some reason crank the edge factor up to 90, when the canonicity of aforementioned character's moral ambiguity is much more subtle and lesser obnoxious than they believe. Yet another phenomenon I see occur in characters like Raiden, where—while yes, at points, or a point, he is rather... unsavory—this lesser subtle, more violent side of him comes to surface even once, it feels as though fans completely disregard his other personality traits entirely. But if you were to ask these very same people to give the same treatment to the version of Raiden that is present in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, you will hear nothing but crickets, despite his history of being a child soldier being present and stable within both games. Because, with that version of Raiden, the forced feminization—infantalization—he already endures conflicts with his more violent, unapologetic nature that exists within the canon of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. However, the opposite sentiment was not what I wanted to bicker about, my primary focus being how fans have a tendency to not only water down, but entirely disregard a morally-dubious character's behaviors and history, all for the sake of... "making their favorite character easier to digest," so to speak, so that it may leave less of a bad taste in their mouth whenever they faun over them so restlessly. Or, rather, resorting to the quite popular, fandom-intersectional excuse of, "the writing was bad," to void and excuse the fact that they enjoy a morally dubious character, while also simultaneously voiding themselves of the reality that they—as a person who indulges in and digests media—may or may not indulge in a problematic piece of fiction. When, in reality, the fact that we as people are even able to witness this side of fiction—while potentially unsavory, and triggering, in which case one should browse carefully—should serve as a testament to encourage us to broaden our own palette, and to exit our own comfort zone. Because it isn't wrong to read, or even think about, such stories, and it doesn't make us horrible, irredeemable people for doing so. So long as one isn't glorifying or praising the events or actions which may be portrayed through said stories. Because, at the end of the day, simply reading or liking a piece of fiction does not equal endorsement of anything to occur within it. It NEVER has equalled or equated to endorsement, in any sense of the word. Unless you're very outspoken about your own moral ambiguity and problematic views, simply liking a problematic character whose own views do not equate to your own does not make you somehow equal to them on a scale of morality. No one is judging you for enjoying Sundowner from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, I assure you. Sincerely, a person whose current favorite Metal Gear character is, by far, the most unapologetically evil piece of shit in the entire series. And while it is not the hill I will die on, I've made myself clear.

3. Erasure of key character / ethnic traits of fictional characters in official IP art & fanart:

While this may not necessarily be in regards to how some characters are portrayed within written works or fanfiction, I still believe there is a conversation to be had about how frequently characters—especially characters that are black, brown, indigenous, etc.—are regularly misrepresented through not just artwork created by an IP's fans, but a lot of the time by official works leased by the companies who hold ownership over said IPs. The very same can be said about overweight or fat characters, who may regularly be drawn slimmer or skinnier to better suit the artist's own "comfort level," however even when such artists may be tasked through commission to draw a person's character that may be fat, they somehow still miss the mark. And, truthfully—in both discussing fat erasure and the erasure of POC in fictional media—I find that to be utterly ridiculous, because several black artists across every art or fannish community under the Sun have taken it upon themselves to not only create brushes to better emulate black features in digital art programs, but have—with their God-like patience—taken it upon themselves to create tutorials on how to not only draw black features, but how to color and shade black and brown skin, as well. Unfortunately, official artwork leased by the companies that create these characters aren't all that great about ensuring that all of their customers and fans are well-represented, either, as the most prime examples of companies which come to mind typically have a tendency to either be openly racist, colorist, sexist, homophobic... the whole nine yards. A sort of prejudice that is also very much present in a game like Metal Gear, or more particularly, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, where several of the characters—either Costa Rican or Hispanic—are pasty pale, with very Eurocentric features. (Correct me if I'm wrong.) But, with situations such as these, I find myself feeling grateful for the fans of any IP that create artwork and fanart where these characters are given their proper, adequate features, either to make up for where the parent company of aforementioned IP failed them, or to make up for the already significant lack of representation that marginalized communities receive from aforementioned companies.

4. Usage of generative AI to create literature / fanfiction & for other intents & purposes:

This, in particular, applies to a more broad area than simply fanfiction alone, given people's tendency to resort to using artificial intelligence to pick up their slack in other areas, as well. Such as college essays—of which is already quite common, and often results in students being ruthlessly flunked from their courses for even considering such a course of action, and rightfully so, because most generative AI programs are trained on both accurate information AND misinformation—and roleplay. Where, at some point, I must beg the question: is this truly helping us? Now, don't get me wrong, artificial intelligence has already existed for decades, and has already helped humanity on a number of fronts; from the creation of the internet and its algorithms, to the aiding in the creation of modern medicine... but as we've seen again and again, generative AI really doesn't help anyone. And as we've seen again and again, those who shill and are the most vocal about this push to include generative AI in every facet of our lives have proven that, actually, they don't give two squats about the integrities or livelihoods of human artists. For instance, what we're seeing occur with the Glaze program, where artists are tainting their own art with cloaks in hopes that it would poison the already-vast dataset that exists within generative programs such as MidJourney and otherwise, likely already acquired by legally dubious means. But seeing the founder of Stability AI's willingness to break the law in order to scrape data, we already knew that. But, even when we put aside the very clear legal hurdles that the likes of generative AI present, there is also the very opaque matter of people using the likes of generative AI to not only generate pieces or the entirety of their fanfiction—of which is already a hot topic and very controversial within fandom and fanfiction spaces, particularly AO3—but also to fill in the gap for a roleplay partner which they might not have. Entirely defeating the purpose of roleplay at all; to make friends, connections, and to bond with those you roleplay with. In a manner no infinite amount of shallow AI could give you. And it pains me to see more and more young people finding themselves talking to an algorithm to get those experiences, or to fill in such an absence within their own online experience. To my roleplayers out there: roleplay forums do exist still, and there are thousands of them! Such examples include Forum Roleplay, RP Nation, RPG Initiative, RPGnet Forums... the list goes on and on forever! One that I personally reccommend from days of yore would be Chicken Smoothie, which doubles as a roleplay / art forum, and an animal adoption and trading game. Hell, there's a covert roleplaying community that is present here, on Tumblr! You don't have to resort to a shoddy AI to have a little bit of fun.

5. The concept of competitive & "the academic" arts in school settings / educational environments:

This very much applies to high school and / or college courses, the likes of which encourage students to, for some reason, "replicate" famous artists and their staples from the past. For example, Pablo Picasso, whose style was not only abstract, but a landmark at the time... something the likes of which no one has ever seen before. And it was that... new, innovative way of creating art that drew people in, that still draws people in to this day. As do several other famous artists in this world's history; Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh, Frida Kahlo... even pop artist Andy Warhol. But... that's just it. I understand if there is some deeper merit of experience or a notion of, "hey, I tried this," when it comes to the task of replicating—or attempting to replicate—the styles and staples of famous artists in the past... but the one thing that all these artists have in common was that their minds were new, their works innovative... so why shouldn't art students be tasked to reach within the very same depths of their own soul to bring out their inner innovative artist, as well? Instead of simply replicating art from the past, and putting it into a portfolio in the hopes that some lousy liberal arts college finds them interesting. Of course, learning the history of art, and of famous artists, is rivetting, and is very interesting in its own rite. However, I believe curriculums should be encouraging artists to think outside of the box, instead of restricting them to a singular prompt or already-existing art style to simply replicate. And I understand, while restriction can be quite good for innovation at points... it shouldn't be the entirety of the curriculum. Give student artists a sense of importance, embolden them to discover their own identity through their art! Encourage them to do as they please! I've learned my lesson, and never again will I consider the notion of either attending an art school, an art class, nor will I submit porfolios of my art to any sort of institution. For my written works, maybe... but with physical artwork... that is a very different ballpark.

Anyways, those are my top five artist / writer pet peeves! Sorry, it drones on forever, but I simply had to take advantage of this ask and let it alllll out. So thank you, @miz-orque, for this ask, as it gave me a good opportunity to reflect upon my vices. ^_^

[likeabxrdinflight]

What is your take on Azula's relationship with Zuko? There's a lot of talk about her rivalry with him, but I find it more intriguing to talk about their other facets, like the implication that Azula deep down actually cares about her brother.

There's this odd phenomenon that's been happening in what I'll call ATLA fandom 2.0 (the post-netflix revival) where it seems like you have to pick a side- Zuko or Azula. If you stan one, you can't stan the other. And I haven't cared for that since, frankly, those two (alongside best girl Katara) are easily my favorite characters. So I'm not all that interested in "picking sides" and I'm not all that interested in them as rivals either. That said, it's important to note that their position in opposition to each other is important to the story the show is telling.

Azula is a character in her own right, but she's also a narrative device. As an antagonist, Azula is Zuko's most direct foil. She's his dark mirror, his evil twin (narratively speaking.) So when she's on top of the world, he's hit rock bottom, and vice versa. She represents the worst of the Fire Nation and is everything he could become if he were to give into his worst instincts (again, this is all speaking symbolically, their personalities are quite different). But because of this, she had to fall for him to rise. It's very effective storytelling within the three seasons of the show. Unfortunately that meant there wasn't much room within those three seasons to showcase any more nuance in their relationship.

I'm always torn on this decision by the showrunners, because on the one hand, it's a huge part of why Zuko's story arc is as effective as it is. And all my biases aside, Zuko's arc is very effective and, for a children's show released in 2005, pretty smartly written. It gets a bit overblown by the fandom, it's a pretty basic redemption arc at the end of the day, but it's still a well executed one and I think it's dishonest to pretend it isn't. On the other hand, it came at the cost of actually developing the relationship between Azula and Zuko and, arguably, of Azula's character as a whole. She isn't allowed to have her own arc independent of Zuko because she really only exists (from a writing standpoint) to be that dark mirror. She's not Aang et al's main antagonist. She's Zuko's. She doesn't really get to do much outside that role.

All that said I do think it goes without saying that Azula cares for Zuko. I think it also goes without saying that Zuko cares for Azula too, but he's ironically worse at expressing it (within the main series at least). Because of the way the show was written, however, none of this can be explored except in supplemental material or fanworks. And supplemental material has been...lacking, I think, in that department.

There's some awesome fanworks out there that explore their dynamic, though. I really do encourage people to go back into the archives and find stuff written years ago because stuff written at the time the show was airing/right when it ended are some of the best. The show hadn't yet been lionized as much and fandom opinions of the characters hadn't yet crystallized into what they are now (and also the comics and lok didn't exist so no one had to deal with that.)

[emotionallcowboy]

your new fav ghostface is boring as fuck .

[scream 6 spoilers ahead]

so i never post on here, like ever. i’m MUCH more the “silent scroller type,” so obviously, this was the first place i went to after leaving my screening for scream 6, as i was on the hunt for people’s thoughts and theories. not to anyone’s surprise, the related tags are filled with mostly people fawning over the newest ghostface killer, that being ethan landry, a rather minimal side character with no more than 15 minutes of screen time and no real development other than “you killed my brother, so now you have to die lol.” on paper and on-screen, he is simply not an interesting character AT ALL.

and yet, he and fanfics with him as their subject have absolutely flooded the tags. now, this isn’t a shot at the actor himself because frankly, i don’t know enough about him and this isn’t a shot toward the authors or consumers of these pieces of work, you’re obviously entitled to enjoy whatever you want, as long as it not hurting others. this is really just an aimless, disjointed rant toward a general problem that is not at all new to “fandom.”

as a latino person, i truly struggle to understand why that in the year 2023, fandoms, or at least certain parts of it, insist on devoting themselves to underwritten, underdeveloped, and utterly mediocre fictional white men. more often than not, these characters usually become the most prominent aspect of the entire project, leaving characters, who happen to be people of color, as nothing more but an afterthought. and yes, i understand that for this specific instance, ethan landry, a conventionally attractive white man is revealed to be one of the main antagonists, so obviously he will attract a certain group of people. however, the point i’m trying to make is that he is not an interesting character beyond just being the villain.

some will chalk that up to him receiving not enough screen time to develop his character throughly. others, including myself, will attribute this to poor writing and mediocre performance. and yet somehow he has managed to garner most of the attention, why? there are four people of color at the heart of this movie, and i have yet to see the same type of adoration toward them as i’ve witnessed for easily, the most forgettable character.

as i mentioned before this isn’t some new phenomenon; devotion, a film about the first black naval aviator, jesse brown who is played by the wonderful jonathan majors. in spite of this being a notorious story about a black man, the internet has once again decided to shift their gaze toward the supposed supporting role played by jon’s white co-star, glen powell. another unexceptional performance by a white actor that has taken the spotlight from a person of color.

i wish i could end this in some clever way, maybe giving a suggestion on how this habit could be changed in the future, but i have nothing else to offer other than my frustration. even in 2023, i find that more often than not, when there is a person of color at the helm of a project, whether it be a small indie film or the next summer blockbuster, they are almost guaranteed to be looked over if they star alongside one of the internet’s favorite less than average white man. a pattern that i’ve seen time and time again and honestly don’t think will ever change, but i know that i will give the core 4 their flowers, for as long as we have them.

[marciabrady]

Idk if it's a generation thing with zoomers being clueless about what the Disney fandom was like before they got into it but I've seen so many people deny that anyone was ever presenting faux feminist critiques of the princesses, esp Walt's girls. But I don't even understand why they deny it, it's become a huge phenomenon you still see today and it takes only 5 seconds to use Google and find thousands of articles, memes, videos, comments, etc calling the girls weak and sexist. I feel it stems from these fans just not caring about the particular princesses who tend to be hated on and don't notice the unfair hate because their focus has always been on the popular, safe princesses (ie Mulan or Moana or whoever). If any of that makes sense lol. Just wondering your thoughts!

There's a very apt characterization of what occurred and it definitely comes down to a few things. The first being that a lot of these people didn't really have a strength of sentiment, one way or the other, for the original girls and just kind of assumed and inherited a lot of the misogynistic undercurrents in those contemporary, popular social criticisms that were parading around as feminism. I think a lot of those people pretended to have that passionate, spirited outlook on why Walt's girls were reductive somehow, while never really having had that opinion themselves. Most of those people didn't really spend much time consuming or thinking about their films, but did so because they felt it aligned themselves with being progressive or having a good social image.

There are some people that genuinely did seem to have seen those movies at least once and continued to carry that outlook, but it never really seems to be rooted in anything we see in the films themselves. Those people tend to just view every woman that was prominent prior to the 1960s with the same reductive paint-stroke and feel they were all victims of being socialized in a different time (which is so stupid lol if it weren't for the women that lived in that era, we never would have gotten the social movements we have today, nor the progress we have in each of them; but many people have told me "all woman born before the 1950s are inherently sexist because they're victims of what the system was like" which...). Then, there are people who- again- have seen these movies, but tend to condemn Walt's girls and pin them as a symbol of everything that was anti-feminist of that time, as opposed to actually judging them for the contents of their character. I'll never forget a book I bought at a used store called "Where the Girls Are," because it talked about female representation in the media and harked back to one of my favorite film titles. I was shocked when I read the book and it talked about how Cinderella in such shallow, mean-spirited terms. It brought up so many questions...the author writes that Cinderella had to be attractive, but wasn't allowed to be vain or spend a good deal of her film primping in front of mirrors- and I uploaded a good deal of screencaps to the contrary, but then it ran through my mind...if the author had been aware of that side of Cinderella, she probably would've condemned that too and called her materialistic or looks-obsessed. So it isn't really about what Cinderella herself did or was, but ultimately the author must've just held her up as an unfair expectation of what she, as a woman, was meant to live up to and made Cinderella a figure of all of her childhood frustration. That tends to be the case with a lot of boomers that grew up with Cinderella, and even kids today that write sympathetic backstories for blatantly abusive characters, like Anastasia; they emphasizing with her, despite all of her privilege and the atrocities she's committed, because she would be conventionally unattractive in our world and they project onto her what she must feel and what her lived experience would be, while discounting Cinderella- because she's conventionally attractive in our world- as being shallow or having privilege. It really is a fascinating study of how people view the world, which can be surmised through their view of the characters and how they react to them.

Which, and I have to make this note, but I'll truly never understand how Cinderella, the story about a female orphan who suffered abuse her entire life and continues to build a community and resources for herself so that she can escape and transcend her circumstances, has been painted through history to be a story about women being meek and staying in their place and being complacent and perpetuating so many patriarchal ideals about marrying rich and feminine beauty??? Especially when that wasn't Cinderella's goal, but the goal of the stepsisters who are always putting themselves in competition with Cinderella and are actively wanting to marry money and take a much greater delight in material riches.

[hidingoutbackstage]

Hello! I’m back to talk about Resident Evil fandom misogyny! Are y’all sick of me yet? Too bad!

I know my source for this fucking sucks (it’s ao3) but since I’ve bitched about the horrible way RE fics on ao3 are somewhat reflective of the fandom before, and bc what I saw pissed me off, I’m gonna talk about it.

And unlike some people, if y’all don’t care about it, I’m gonna put it under a cut, and NOT post my annoying ramblings in the main tag as if they’re facts and not just my interpretations and criticism of fandom wide expression

So I was thinking about making a post saying “merry yaoimas (chreon) and a happy new yuri (femslash re ship)” with the latter parantheses actually holding an re ship. But that did make me pause and think, what was the most popular femslash re ship? I know I have my favorites (claida, chamberfield, and ashuela being most prominent), but I’m also aware that those are rarepairs and probably not indicative of the fandom as a whole.

The first thing I did was go to ao3, which, again, while not indicative of the fandom as a whole, is still large and worth looking at. These three under filters should’ve been my first clue that this was going to be abysmal

8.4k m/m fics. f/f isn’t even half of that. Now, when I saw this, I was disappointed but not surprised, and I stupidly saw the F/M being more popular and thinking “Oh right cuz Leon x female reader people are annoying” (keep this in mind for like two paragraphs later)

Anyway, I filtered it to only contain f/f pairings, so I could see which pairings were the most popular, and I genuinely had no idea. After all, most of the games in the series barely have women interact at all, so like, were people shipping Claire Redfield and Jill Valentine in 2000 because they were the only two female protagonists (who had also appeared in two games), even though they’d never interacted? Did the remakes and recent movies instill people with a love for Claire x Rebecca like I enjoyed? Or did we circle back to the late 90s due to the remakes of 2 and 3 where Claire and Jill were protagonists of big re games and thus people wanted to ship them?

In my foolish decision to think about, you know the main characters of the series that spawn multiple games and are iconic staples of the series’ existence as a whole, I forgot one thing: people on the internet are horny first, and human beings second

(gonna use that pic of my dog for image compression, even though this is under a read more)

Ngl, considering that I’d made multiple posts bitching about this very phenomenon, I was more than a little peeved, and also felt dumb for having forgotten about this. So first I decided to filter out the character tag “reader” and-

Um. I mean. What I meant to say, was that I then filtered out all of the relationships that just came from re8 “fans” being horny. Then I was left with this

So out of THAT list of ten ships, only six of them were actually f/f, the most popular having 120 fics and the least popular having 38. If you don’t feel like scrolling back up, there were 3913 fics in the re tag which were tagged with f/f

So I think, generally, that Claire/Jill is the most popular re f/f ship, at least in the ao3 community. Case closed, right?

Wrong. Now I had to see if that was actually true. Because if I know one thing about re writers, it’s that they include f/f as an afterthought or some background bs to a fic focused on a m/m ship

So I counted, and I did my best to split all fics where Claire/Jill were tagged into three types: background, focused, and given equal focus between them and one or more pairings. Some didn’t really fit, like fics that were just a collection of one shots (or more commonly, collection of short smuts) but those I also left out of the Claire/Jill focused count, because they weren’t focused on them. So after going through all 141 (yup that’s really all the Claire/Jill ships there are) fics, here’s the number I ended up with

82 fics where they were the focus ship

14 fics where they were given equal focus between one or more pairings

The rest (45) were neither

Not gonna lie, I was pretty relieved to see that fics where they were the focus was more than half of the total. And as I went further back, more fics focused on Claire/Jill as opposed to having them be a background ship. Also, for fun, I checked the ratings for Claire/Jill fics

And although I didn’t cross reference, I did generally notice a lot more of the fics focused on Claire/Jill were smut first, and fluff secondarily. Most of them too were also either one chapter (complete or incomplete) or generally just short. If a fic had many chapters/high word count, Claire/Jill almost always wasn’t the main ship, and sometimes shared the spotlight with another ship.

So is this reflective of the whole fandom? No, of course not. Is this indicative of a major problem with the fandom not caring about female characters? Yeah, literally all social media is indicative of it.

It’s not like the media itself is incredibly feminist, or full of meaningful character interactions between anyone, regardless of genders, it’s just not good at it and not really trying to be. But I will say that at large, the fandom does seem to prioritize m/m relationships, platonic or romantic, over female characters existences, their relationships to men, and fuck off if you think they care about relationships between women.

I do have a separate post coming about the lack of interactions between women in the media itself, but that’s for another day

[twst-drabbles]

Tbh, regarding the whole reader insert thing. The only few thing that irks is when they make the whole list of insert favorite food, insert favorite drink, yada yada. Like, that takes me out of the immersion because I can stand reading some reader inset with Y/N because I can just put an oc name, or an old oc name that was scrapped and have taken their name like weird fucking fae.

The other one is the fic being in a Japanese setting, like I get it, if it's from a Fandom and all that. But an original reader insert (aka no Fandom attached) and using the japanese setting, is like this kinda tiresome. Especially combine with list of reader favorite food and all that making me scream. Hoi, make the fucking MC despite not being us have it's own personality.

Because my favorite and arguably, the best reader insert. Where it's immersed on what the author wants to show. Like establish who the reader (or MC, which I usually call them) is, and what their role in the world is. Though, I think some may think that it shouldn't be, which sometimes yea, they shouldn't be, but having a character so bland having a literal brackets insert favorite food like what if I said hot shit or an absurdly expensive food that wouldn't make sense if the MC is described as poor.

Regarding that, as uncomfortable as it will make people, nobody can avoid the fact that the Reader Insert is, in fact, still a character in this story. As such, they're going to need at least a base personality cause if the audience can't relate to the Reader, may as well make them enjoyable to read. You know, as a fail safe in case you attract an audience that is 100% not like the Reader at all. I know very well that a lot of shy people are in my audience, and obviously my Reader is not really like that at all, as such, I at least make the Reader interesting cause if they can't put themselves in the Reader, may as well make them interesting to watch as the story goes on.

Yeah the Japanese setting one is rather common, so I can see why that would get tiring. Now, the setting itself isn't what bothers me, what bothers me is when the author's inexperience with that specific culture comes through. Specifically, the phenomenon of American authors trying to write about a Japanese setting, but don't quite understand that there's more to it then what they see in anime and manga. It's not personal to me as I am not related to that culture, but it's usually best to be aware of one's own ignorance as it can easily metastasize into your pride.

[donnerpartyofone]

Two things collapsing together in my mind today:

* Saw some news outlet tweet about an actor who murdered his mother in advance of a planned mass shooting. The actor is not a household name, and so they identified him by a recent role on Riverdale, and somebody anxiously, instantly replied, "FWIW he was only on Riverdale once," as if that were the most important part of the story.

* I'm watching this stupid movie that figures Edgar Allan Poe as a hunky, noble young soldier who courageously solves a mystery that very tangentially references the idea of a "raven". I don't generally object to creative appropriations of classic stories or persons, but it's awkward when all of the second-string characters--haunted, anemic, traumatized ghosts of themselves--more resemble Poe than this boneheaded Ken doll they put in the lead role.

It's crazy how corrupting the whole fandom phenomenon is. On the one hand, you can report a brutal murder and a narrowly-averted mass tragedy, and you get people rushing to the aid of Riverdale, and not the human beings who are, or were almost affected. On the other hand, you have famous characters and stories with a certain valuable legacy, and people will happily strip them of all of their uniqueness until they're just bland, anonymous porn parodies of themselves. This is so bad for culture, it's bad for how we relate to each other and how we relate to art and history. And this is the least important thing but you can't even use the word "fan" anymore and be assured that people will know what you mean. It's just like how we lost the word "nerd"--which used to indicate a certain kind of social reject who is academically advanced and almost rebelliously uncool--when it got taken over by anti-intellectual adult babies who can only get it up for comics and Star Trek and shit when it is converted into a big budget, live action thirst trap. I used to be able to describe myself as a "horror fan" and be understood without too many qualifiers; now I'm afraid to, lest somebody think I mean I that I like to imagine all my favorite villains with smokin' hot non-cadaverous bodies, cuddling and sharing an ice cream float with me, and generally acting like the cast of Saved By the Bell instead of, you know, scaring the shit out of me like the terrifying freaks they're supposed to be. Meanwhile I'm anxiously awaiting the day fandom turns up in the DSM; somebody has to be studying this shit.

[jjorbles]

(Repost) Why we want Batman to beat Superman

Note: This article was originally posted April 24th, 2015 on the Agony Booth, which I used to write for. Since that site is sadly no longer with us, I’m reposting my old articles here. 

Superman: The Movie was released nearly 37 years ago with the tagline “You will believe a man can fly”. Oft repeated, this phrase has since become more than a simple marketing gimmick. It now verbalizes everything Superman represents: Hope, belief in the impossible, and the potential greatness of humankind.

37 years later, we no longer believe a man can fly.

Warner Bros. has just released the first trailer for their upcoming Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. And if you’ve been following my articles at all, you know I’ve been dreading this movie, mostly due to my displeasure with Man of Steel and DC Comics’ projects in general lately. This new trailer has done nothing to make me more optimistic. In fact, I’m more convinced than ever that Batman v. Superman is going to be the culmination of everything I dislike about superhero movies.

Batman v. Superman, whatever else it ends up being, is the end result of decades of heated fan debate: Who Would Win in a Fight? It’s a question comic readers have fought about time and time again, despite the comics being uninterested in answering it until relatively recently. The Caped Crusader and the Last Son of Krypton have butted heads once or twice over the years, but traditionally, DC Comics is much more about heroes teaming up than fighting. Pitting characters against each other for shits and giggles is much more Marvel’s thing. The notion that Batman and Superman should ever be enemies instead of friends didn’t really catch on until Frank Miller’s radical re-envisioning of the duo in The Dark Knight Returns.

But it all strikes me as a silly debate, even by comic book standards. By any reasonable argument, Batman vs. Superman would be about as much of a “fight” as Bambi Meets Godzilla. The only way to even pretend Batman stands a snowball’s chance in hell is to stack the odds in his favor with ridiculous deus ex machinas. “Oh, Batman would win because he’d have a bat-kryptonite ring or something!” Arguments like these are meaningless, because by that logic, anyone could beat Superman, especially if they happen to have kryptonite handy. It’s like saying Howard the Duck would win in a fight with Galactus because he’d just happen to have the Ultimate Nullifier on him.

And the reason why Batman is the frequent favorite in this fight has absolutely nothing to do with the actual capabilities of either hero. It stems entirely from popularity. Batman is generally the more beloved of the two, so when they do battle, writers use any excuse they can think of to have Batman emerge the victor. The insane popularity of Batman in the last few decades is a cultural phenomenon that I’ve devoted a lot of thought to, and to be honest, it kind of disturbs me. I don’t like what it says about the mindset of our culture and what we value.

Before I explain, let me say that while I may often give off the opposite impression, I actually really like Batman a lot. Even the Christopher Nolan version. I just get sick of the fandom’s laser focus on this one particular iteration of the character. I liked The Dark Knight as a film, but frankly, it’s among my least favorite versions of the Batman mythos. He’s one of the most adaptive and versatile characters in all of fiction, and with so many interesting and diverse visions of Batman out there, to be obsessed with just this one seems incredibly dull to me.

And the fact that Nolan’s take on Batman has become such a dominating cultural force worries me, because Nolan’s Batman has some really troubling themes going on when you really look at those films. Batman, at his core, has always had a somewhat fascist undercurrent to him. Certainly, that can be said of most superheroes, since the very concept of being a vigilante crimefighter implies an individual deciding his judgment is superior and forcing it upon others. But with Batman, these qualities have always seemed a little more pronounced. He’s an absurdly wealthy private citizen devoting his resources to assaulting and imprisoning people usually far less powerful and well-off than he is. At the very least, Batman can’t help but feel a tad elitist, regardless of how much his enemies are deserving of his wrath.

But in the Nolan movies, these troubling fascist themes are no longer just an interesting curio in the background. They’re magnified and put front and center. Christian Bale’s Batman is an explicit fascist. Brutal, manipulative, and largely uncaring about the collateral damage of his mission, he violates the civil rights and privacy of those citizens he professes to be protecting, and by The Dark Knight Rises, he and his allies have turned Gotham into a virtual police state.

It’d be interesting if Nolan’s trilogy was meant to be satirical, deconstructing the inherently fascist aspects of superheroes by exaggerating them, a favorite trick of Alan Moore’s. But the tone of Nolan’s Batman films is weirdly unironic, as though we’re meant to see Batman as completely justified in all his actions, and that Gotham City is actually better off sacrificing their freedoms for his protection.

I’m not saying that’s necessarily the wrong way to look at those films; I’m saying they don’t exactly leave much open for debate when it comes to some pretty complicated questions, and instead offer up the moral certainty that Batman is in the right. Bale’s Batman is one of the least heroic versions of the character I’ve seen, and may be even borderline sociopathic. So the fact that this is the version people have most latched onto is deeply troubling to me.

And really, why do people like Batman so much? I mean, I know why I like him. I dig the ninja/gothic/film-noir mystery mash-up aesthetic, and I like the sort of dark Peter Pan-esque story of a broken man who’s still a little boy trying to reclaim his lost childhood inside, and of course he has one of the greatest rogues galleries ever. But why do the people who don’t really like comics, who hate the Adam West show, who like to pretend Robin never existed, who shun all the colorful or weird parts of character, why do they like Batman? Why is Batman the one superhero who seems to particularly appeal to those who don’t even seem to really like superheroes?

Part of it may be that Batman, more than any other A-list superhero, most easily adapts to the “real world”, or at least as close as movies get. At the very bare bones of the Batman concept, there are no sci-fi or fantasy elements. He’s not an alien or a mutant, he didn’t fall into a vat of chemicals, and he’s not a mythological god. He’s just a guy in a costume who fights gangsters. So if you’re looking to make a toned down, “realistic” superhero movie for people turned off by more outlandish fare, Batman is probably your best bet. He’s the only hero with both the name recognition to draw a crowd and the flexibility to go the ever popular grim-and-gritty route.

But I think a bigger part of it is that Batman offers people a certain kind of wish fulfillment that other heroes don’t. Fans will tell you they prefer Batman because he’s “more relatable”, due to his lack of superpowers, but that has nothing to do with it. Surely, the socially-awkward middle class Clark Kent would be far more relatable to the average Joe than billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne.

Batman’s appeal is in his empowerment fantasy. Yes, Superman also offers the fantasy of being powerful, and we can identify with the shy, unnoticed Clark pining over the pretty girl in the office, and we can fantasize about secretly being the all-powerful he-man that can save the day and sweep her off her feet. But the fantasy of being Superman comes with restrictions. Superman is a role model, and therefore bound by a pretty strict moral code. Having all the power can seem a less appealing fantasy when you're not allowed to let your aggression out, or to unleash your id and go nuts. No one wants to be a smiling boy scout all the time.

But Batman is a little more flexible. Of course, he’s also bound by certain rules: He must never kill, and he must never use a gun. But Batman can get angry. Batman is allowed to intimidate and sometimes even torture people. And since Batman isn’t an alien Hercules who might decapitate someone if he gets rough, he gets to play hard. He can beat his enemies bloody. Batman offers the fantasy of being obscenely wealthy, sexually unattached, desired by women and feared by men, and able to take out your anger every night on anyone who looks suspicious.

Let’s face it, Batman appeals a lot to angry, antisocial misanthrope types. They don’t want to be a happy, monogamous goody two-shoes like Superman. They want to be rich enough to have anything they want. They want to plow model-attractive super-villainesses without the responsibility of a relationship. They want to sneak around and blow off steam by beating up anyone they think deserves it. They want to be feared and respected.

So truthfully, the reason why a lot of people like Batman is obvious. But why the fascination with seeing him fight Superman? Many of Batman’s fans don’t just seem to prefer him to Superman, they seem actively hostile to Superman. There’s something almost fetishistic about the way people would love to see the Dark Knight take the Man of Steel down a peg or two.

At first, it may seem like a simple case of people rooting for the underdog. Batman, a mere mortal, is obviously at a disadvantage going up against the godlike Superman, and people love to see the little guy triumph over impossible odds.

But that’s not really what this feels like. For one thing, it’s impossible for me to look at a conflict between a poor, well-meaning farm boy who fights for truth and transparency as a journalist and a manipulative, secretive billionaire on a violent, vengeful rampage and see the latter as the underdog, regardless of who has superpowers.

Whenever I ask people why they hate Superman, the response I get is always along the lines of “he’s stuck-up” or “he’s a wimp”. There’s this perception of Superman as being out of touch, a stuffed shirt, a coward. But any fair reading of almost any of his movies or comics doesn’t really support this, regardless of what you may have gathered from Superdickery. Superman has always been compassionate, brave, and heroic. So what exactly makes people see him as otherwise?

It feels like people want to see Superman punished. Punished for what, exactly? Well, what’s the principal difference between Superman and Batman? Yes, I know it’s hard to narrow down, since the two are night and day, but the one I’m focusing on here is optimism. Batman and Superman have views on the world that could only be more different if one of them was an outright villain.

Superman assumes the best in people. Batman assumes the worst. Superman is more about protecting the innocent, while Batman’s focus is on punishing the guilty. Superman lives in bright, clean Metropolis, and Batman lives in dark, crime-ridden Gotham. Superman lives in a world of hope, Batman lives in a world of fear.

People say they relate to Batman because of his lack of superpowers, but what they truly relate to is his anger. Unlike Superman, Batman lives in our world, or at least our world as we too often choose to see it. We’re pessimistic by nature, because it’s easy. It’s easy to see the bad in things. It’s easy to let all the horror in the world get us down. We dwell on it until it’s all we can see anymore. Mostly, it’s easy because it requires no effort. The world has always been shit and will always be shit, so why waste time trying to make it a better place? Gotham is the real world as viewed through the lens of a bitter person who’s given up.

But Superman is different. He may be a flamboyant fantasy, but the world he lives in is every bit as much the real world as Gotham. It’s just seen through the lens of an optimist. Superman is about hope, and Metropolis is the world as seen by a hopeful person. Superman challenges us to see the good in life, and dares us to actually make an effort to improve things. He tries to show us that life is worth living and that the world is worth saving.

But it’s hard to hope, and easy to despair. People turn away from Superman and towards Batman because he offers the easier path. Superman says, “Yes, life can be hard. Tragedies happen. Your home may blow up. Your father may die. The woman you love won’t even notice you. But you can overcome it. You can save the world. Because inside you’re strong. Inside you’re a Superman.” Batman says, “The world is misery and pain so don’t bother trying to fix it. You’re living in a madhouse. People are maniacs, and the only way to deal with it is to either lock yourself up in your house and shun everyone, or beat the maniacs bloody and lock them away where you never have to think about them.*”

[*Granted, that’s not a very accurate summation of the real message of Batman, but it’s what I think a lot of people take away from him.]

A big part of the plot of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice seems to be the world becoming mistrustful of Superman. The trailer shows protesters yelling at him to “go home”. A statue of Superman bears graffiti reading “false god”. Voiceover narration talks about him as though he’s some aloof deity who everyone fears and mistrusts simply for being so powerful. As sad as this makes me, it may be the most accurate reflection of the current public perception of Superman.

The fantasy of Superman has always been that a man with that much power but also the strength of character to use it only for good could actually exist. That basic human decency could prevail over the corrupting influence of power. But maybe in a post-9/11 world, we’re just too mistrusting to believe in that anymore. The world just seems too confusing and violent for us to indulge in a happy fantasy like Superman.

So those who root for Batman to beat up Superman aren’t doing it because he’s the underdog, but because they hate Superman. They hate him for wanting to save the world and make a better tomorrow. Because they’ve given up on tomorrow. They want nothing more than to wallow in misery, and lash out at anyone who asks them to do otherwise. The strange thing is, I bet when a lot of these people were kids, they looked up to Superman as a hero. Now they only see him as a coward.

37 years ago, we believed a man could fly. Now all we want is to see that man dragged down into the dirt with us.

[finalgirlincollege]

An Open Letter to Halloween Ends

As some may infer from my blog, I have a clear and deeply rooted interest in Horror cinema, specially when it comes to Slasher films, a love that was planted in me literal decades ago during my childhood. Having had very little restrictions on media consumption as someone from the late 90s and early 00s, and with the understanding that all the on screen monsters were fake (thanks to countless hours watching Scooby Doo), I remember watching the first 5 Halloween films (excluding the 3rd) on TV when I was around 8, suffice to say—though thanks to my older cousins, this wasn’t my first experience with Horror films (that honor goes to Ghost Ship, Steve Beck, 2002)—I was immediately taken with this type of movies from then on and my life long passion was born.

Almost 20 years have passed since then and Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978) is still my favorite movie, which made me feel an excitement that I have trouble to put into words when it was announced around five years ago that there was to be a new movie (Halloween, David Gordon Green, 2018) produced by Blumhouse and subsequently two more, firstly because there had been so many years without something from this franchise and secondly, because this time I was old enough to witness the comeback of this phenomenon first hand.

I’m not going to pretend like David Gordon Green’s trilogy has no flaws; in fact, the main motivation for the present text is to delve a little deeper on the deficiencies from the final installment: Halloween Ends (David Gordon Green, 2022) but before I go on, I’d like to touch briefly on why I actually liked the new three entries as a whole, even with the faults I saw in the latest film that I’ll acknowledge further along the text.

Ignoring Rob Zombie’s Halloweens—for I think they should be seen without a connection to the rest of the franchise’s films—, the last entry was Halloween Resurrection (Rick Rosenthal, 2002), a film that seems to be hated or at the very least disliked by most of the Halloween fandom due to the absurdity of it. In my case, my distaste is rooted on the blatant disrespect at Laurie Strode’s Character for, even when having one last confrontation with Michael, truly she seems to die thanks to an accident; I mean, Laurie Strode, who had survived—according to that time line—three confrontations with Michael, dying so unceremoniously! Of course I would be on board with a new storyline that promised to give us an ending deserving of one of, if not the OG Final Girl.

Having seen Halloween Ends on it’s opening night, I’ve been letting my thoughts on it simmer on my mind for the last couple of days. I must add that with this text I have no pretensions of offering an essay or article with proper analytical depth or even objectivity, instead what I would like to do is share some of my opinions with anyone who would like to read them.

One disclaimer I have to present is the fact that I thoroughly enjoy the ending to Halloween: 20 Years Later (Steve Miner, 1998) for I believe the last sequence of the film gives us a satisfactory final battle between Michael and Laurie after enough emotional distress and suspense, ending with Laurie taking hold of her fear and confronting it, refusing to be controlled by it. On the same note, knowing that at least for me it would be difficult to have a resolution that gave me the same level of satisfaction like the one I previously mentioned, I also had Laurie’s death from H. Resurrection very present in my mind, making me hope that at least the finale of Gordon Green’s trilogy could be better than that. In sum, I had little objectivity when criticizing the conclusion to Halloween Ends, but more on that later.

From the start, H. Ends seems to offer something different than the previous film; while the one from 2018 was setting the scene for what was to come and Halloween Kills (David Gordon Green, 2021) was packed with action, H. Ends seemingly wanted to approach the topic in another way, giving a deeper look at the effects Michael or his evilness had in Haddonfield in the last four years since his disappearance at the end of H. Kills.

Furthermore, lets remember that by the end of the previous film, all the spendable characters we had met in the 2018’s movie have been killed, making a necessity to introduce new ones, and though this is common for Slasher films, it is here where I found the biggest flaw. Given that the first two installments of the revival of the franchise work as one (for they are supposed to have happened in the same night), one would expect that the third film work just as seamlessly with the other two even if its set four years apart, which means that not only there must be concordance between the three with having Laurie as protagonist and Michael as antagonist, but the whole universe should makes us feel like we are, in fact, witnessing the conclusion to the on going story.

For that reason, I was quite startled when H. Kills saw the demise of most of the—by now—well known and maybe beloved characters, taking me by surprise when after Cameron’s death, Allyson lost her mother as well, for this is not a loss only in the eyes of other characters but also with the spectator. As such, with the deaths of Nurse Marion, Tommy Doyle and even Lonnie, by the end of H. Kills, aside from Laurie and Allyson, there are very few characters left with whom we have emotionally connected.

If I remember correctly, I think that with the previous films there was some backlash that called them too focused on nostalgia and so maybe the team behind H. Ends was trying to distance themselves from said perception with the last film, but if that was the case or not, I feel like they simply missed the mark completely; by ignoring the elements that would resonate with longtime fans, going as far as apparently forgetting the existence of Lindsey after the first half of the film, they seemingly ignored that this was the conclusion to a franchise that—at least in horror—has no comparison; a movie that 40 years ago cemented the groundwork for what would be known as Slasher film.

Nostalgia isn’t something bad or to be avoided all together, of course in the last couple of years we’ve seen a lot of media that perhaps has abused its use in its production, but nostalgia when used well, can be used as a powerful tool to achieve emotional contentions with the audience that may produce long lasting effects; therefore, if there was a moment to make use of it, I believe it was the highly expected Halloween Ends; sad to say, I feel like that was no the case.

In the new film, not only do we not have any emotional ties with the new characters due to them being new, but might even actively want them gone because they don’t seem to have redeeming qualities, they are rude and annoying and therefore—in a way—deserving of punishment. I must add that it’s because I felt such dislike towards them that their deaths had no lasting impact on me, unlike Vicky and Dave’s death (Allyson’s friends from the 2018’s), the first one being a character I liked much better than Allyson herself.

On this topic I feel like once again in trying to correct the critics they faced after H. Kills in regards to the—according to the Halloween franchise’s standards—abuse of violence that toyed with being torture porn in scenes such as Cameron’s death or the attack to the Caretaker and her husband; the kills in H. Ends ended up being bland and lackluster.

Moreover, it’s the same lack of connection that affects the new antagonist: Corey, because in the end, we don’t really care for him or even Allyson—who I must admit found painfully annoying—, what we really want to see is the final showdown between Laurie and Michael, not a Michael wannabe or Michael by proxy. If they so wanted to have his character as an exploration on how humans have the capacity of pure evilness if the correct circumstances so propitiate, maybe have Corey against Allyson as a way to show her battling her own demons, but not Laurie. As such, given that most of the duration of the film is centered on the older Strode in combat against Corey—both emotionally and physically—when we finally see her against the real Michael, their fight seems to ends in a blink-and-it’s-gone kind of moment.

On the same line of thought, if you see the three newest Halloween films as a whole, which is the way I personally believe they were intended to be seen, H. Ends doesn’t seem to work as a conclusion should. Whether it’s a a text, a visual medium o any other piece, a conclusion is the consequences of all the steps you took since the beginning and throughout the body of the work; therefore, a conclusion shouldn’t have new elements you haven’t been shown before like H. Ends did with Corey.

As I said before, it is common for Slasher franchises to introduce new characters with each entry; nevertheless, usually each movie acts as it’s own, with the only linking factor being the antagonist. On the contrary, each of the new Halloween movies acts like an act in David Gordon Green’s trilogy, making the introduction of all the new characters and themes in H. Ends a structural mistake.

Going back to Michael and Laurie’s final fight, aside from the fleetingness of it, it also lacked theatricality, by which I don’t mean violence, but dramatics. Once more making a comparison with H20, I would argue that the final sequence is quite clean when talking about the gore, even Michael’s beheading was sanitized by being presented with no blood in a quick manner; still it’s no less satisfying then than if we had been given said elements.

On the other hand, in the latest film we see Laurie cutting Michael and we observe as he bleeds out before being taken to the shredding machine where, unlike in H20, we see his body being destroyed; and yet I felt not the same satisfaction because though his death is slow—unlike the rest of the sequence—when he’s loosing his blood, it’s quite frankly simple and boring, not being in concordance with the amount of violence he unleashed on his victims. Even when we see him being thrown in the shredded, he seems to be so far gone that it doesn’t matter, there’s no vindication, sense of revenge or satisfaction.

In sum, yes, Michael is finally dead but I don’t think H. Ends hurt as much as it should’ve. At the same time, I think that I speak for many fans when I say that as much as we love Halloween, and maybe even if we didn’t find the fulfillment we wanted, I truly think that this story must be put to rest after some many years. Not only has the same plot been retold over and over again to the point of excess and unoriginality, but one of the things that has marked this franchise as different from the rest has become it’s own problem: there’s no Halloween without Laurie Strode, and there’s no Laurie Strode without Jaime Lee Curtis.

In Spanish we have a saying that goes, “si no está roto, no lo arregles”, which would translate to “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it”, but we all know that, as Hollywood tends to do, at some point someone will remake this film, they might cast young actors to play the well known and loved characters or change them all together; and in all honesty I can’t say I won’t watch that film when it inevitably comes to fruition, but it will never be what the original was, because with all of it’s flaws and all it’s strengths, John Carpenter’s Halloween and all its predecessors have become an landmark in Horror History.

So, here’s to the conclusion of the Halloween Saga and hoping that this time, Michael stays dead.

With love from a longtime fan,

A.

[hoghtastic]

The way you guys talk about Johanne and Alex being together reminds me of Bill Skarsgård and Alida. People talk about them all the time, and they say literally some of the exact same things, word for word, about Alida that you guys do Johanne. Just worse because it seems Alida groomed Bill into a relationship with her and ended up trapping him by having kids with him? Idk I’m just reading into the drama now but it’s….interesting to say the least

Thank you for your input, anon. 😊 Even though I don't follow Bill's career that closely ("It" and "Barbarian" are his movies that I've seen and come to my mind, though I've probably watched some more), and don't know anything about his personal life other than the name of his father and siblings, I'd agree that discussing a famous actor/musician's love life and a general dislike towards their significant other is a common phenomenon across every fandom. I even came across this "bingo" on another blog, regarding Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner's relationship:

I think in the age of social media, where parasocial relationships are thriving and even encouraged by the industry as means to make more money, people feel closer to their favorite celebrities and entitled to discuss their personal lives (we've already discussed this here). There's even cases of people who genuinely believe they'd have some chance of being together with the object of their affection, if it wasn't for their current girlfriend, who they sometimes portray as some kind of "evil witch" without the slightest evidence. And if this is common across every fandom, it can also happen in regards to Alex, Johanne or anyone else he might have dated/will date in the future.

Although, I believe most discussions here have been about Johanne as a person, her own character and actions, regardless of whom she is dating. People don't "hate" Johanne just because she is dating Alex, nor do they see Alex as some sort of helpless victim who can't think for himself. People knew about Johanne because of Alex, of course, but they dislike her because of some questionable things she's been doing, a position she's put herself in. Her attitude would have been considered bad had she been dating Alex, prince Harry, the guy from across the street or no one at all. (Personally, I wouldn't really like to be friends with someone who pretends to be someone they're not, by trying to pass someone else's art as their own, without even crediting them as their source of inspiration, for example. It doesn't matter if it would be Johanne or a completely anonymous colleague.) So, I believe things aren't so black and white. People aren't "evil witches" just because they're dating your celebrity crush, nor are they always perfect and the best thing to ever happen to them. Just like in real life, sometimes people make good choices when choosing a partner, sometimes they don't. And at the end of the day, as much as we can discuss about it, it doesn't really concern us on a personal level.

I hope this makes sense. But thank you for bringing this up, it's a really interesting topic to think about and discuss! 😃

[gingersnappish]

KYLUX RECS 2020-2021

My Kylux Recs in the last year (Aug, 20 2020 - Aug 20 2021)

SO. MUCH. GOOD. FIC!!! We are really lucky in this fandom to have so much good stuff to read!

Fic is part of the lifeblood of fandom, in my opinion-it shares new ideas and AUs and fleshes out the characters and most of all it inspires and entertains us all and engenders all sorts of feels for the characters-it’s part of what keeps us shipping! So a big ‘thank you’ to all the fic authors out there who work so hard at their craft and are generous enough to share it with all of us!

The following list is by no means comprehensive-there are LOTS and lots more very good fics that have been published in the last year that I haven’t read. I just wanted to offer up a few recs from what I know I enjoyed so far! (I also have more than fits on one list to rec-I’ll try and do another list soon!) As always, I rec based on personal taste, and I highly encourage reading all the tags/warnings on any given work to make sure it’ll be to your taste! -

The Flirtation Of Flowers 

DaisyChainz

https://archiveofourown.org/works/29771553

Words: 5,917

Rating: Teen

Summary:Kylo runs his farm's stall at the Farmer's Market every weekend. He has a new customer, a gorgeous redhead that is curious about the meanings of his bouquets. Kylo doesn't know anything about that, so he makes stuff up to keep the man coming back every week.

My thoughts on the rec: This is the cutest slice of a modern AU kylux-it really nails Kylo’s personality as a (slightly awkward) flirt who is trying his best and just really likes the redhead who keeps coming to buy flowers. Just a sweet little fic all ‘round!

all i have to do is dream

kyluxtrashcompactor

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18709426/chapters/44373613

Words: 11,456

Rating: Teen

Summary:Armitage Hux has been going to the same bar every Thursday for the last year, nursing a crush on the gorgeous, unobtainable bartender, Kylo Ren. He finally gets up the courage to ask him out, only to find out he has some unusual competition: the memory of a red-haired boy from Kylo's past, who Kylo swears is the soulmate that got away from him.A fill for this SoftKyluxKinks prompt:Anonymous asked: Benarmie with young Ben (around 11 years old) having a huge crush on Armitage (16). Hux finds it adorable but mostly ignores him because he's a kid. Flash forward a few years when Ben is all grown up and Hux is the one with a huge crush.

My thoughts on the rec: This is another really cute young modern AU! I like the idea that Ren has liked Hux forever, but this deals nicely with the age gap and that Hux really wouldn’t notice Ren back until they are both appropriately older. And they make such a cute couple-it’s a great progression from just ‘he’s hot’-like, there is a lot more to them than that in the end!

Homecoming 

sigo 

(really, read anything by sigo, it’s all my favorite)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27150808

Words: 13,450

Rating: Explicit

Summary:“We’re off the next two weeks, you know.”“Yes, I know.” There was emergency construction scheduled to fix cracking asphalt too near a pipe in the center of campus. The buses couldn’t run, and that phenomenon was the only thing that ever cancelled classes. Halloween was dead center in the unplanned time off school, and every bar within a fifteen mile radius would be untenable as the students celebrated. Hux was planning on staying home, catching up on grading. He was rather looking forward to an opportunity to reread his favorite novels. They were already stacked by the couch in preparation.“My family always throws a Halloween party and they got word that I could come this year,” Kylo said, shuffling his feet. He looked almost bashful.“Ren, it’s midnight,” Hux sighed at his infuriating coworker. “Get to it.”“I may have informed my entire family previously that we were dating.”

My thoughts on the rec: One of my all-around fav fics from the last year’s worth of my reading material! It’s got the modern AU vibes down pat without losing their personalities or making them too OOC, it’s got the fake-dating trope done REALLY well, it’s got a wonderful creepy vibe strung delicately throughout for the Halloween haunted setting, it’s got plot and make-outs (and more). Can’t recommend highly enough!

Thaw

thesevioletdelights

https://archiveofourown.org/works/28557180/chapters/69982587

Words: 14,316

Rating: Explicit

Summary:They have managed cooperation - efficient cooperation, even - in these past months, which is more than enough. And already nothing short of a miracle for both of them.Still. Ren was a fool to think he could simply run off and keep Hux in the dark.-----When Ren goes missing on a mysterious planet, Hux sets out to find him. He doesn't yet know that he just might find himself.

My thoughts on the rec: This, like all of violet’s fic, is HOT! Like, scorching vibes between them! It’ll draw you in and not let you go ‘til after the boys are ‘done’! And, like all of violet’s fics, the character voices and personalities are also impeccable!

Rocks Break Gifts

elderbwrry

https://archiveofourown.org/works/25840237/chapters/62777839

Words: 16,706

Rating: Mature

Summary:The Rebellion has been crushed, a coup affected, and Supreme Leader Ren and his Grand Marshall Hux have settled into a domestic routine as the joint rulers of the Galaxy. Kylo wants nothing more, now, than to make his relationship with Hux official, but he can't seem to rise to Hux's challenge of a satisfactory proposal.Or, the five times Kylo proposes, and the one time Hux says yes.

My thoughts on the rec: Ahhhhh, the premise in this one is great! Like, I don’t wanna spoil the plot reveal at the end, so I can’t say too much, but there is a really good reason throughout the thing that this is a Five Times type fic and it works! It works so well and while we spend the fic ‘with’ Kylo, when we find out what Hux’s deal is, it is so satisfying! I Paint My Dreams

Marlon

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26685907/chapters/65090566

Words: 26,122

Rating: General Audiences

Summary:Kylo Ren is struggling to make a name for himself in the art world but as the grandson of the great Anakin Skywalker, a legendary pop artist of the 1950s and 60s, the weight of his famous family and his own expectations is a lot to bear.After he’s rejected from a prestigious exhibition because his installations “don’t fit the theme”, Kylo heads to the pub to drink away his disappointment. Later that night as he stumbles home, he’s set upon by some would-be thieves but before they can take what’s left of his money, he’s saved by a strange man with unbelievable Medusa-like powers. The ethereally beautiful man, Armitage Hux, is a visitor from Oweynagat and he has a simple proposition for Kylo - room and board in exchange for making all Kylo’s artistic dreams come true.Sounds easy - what could possibly go wrong?

My thoughts on the rec: Oh goodness, where to start? The Irish Mythology and Fae aspect of this fic is superbly woven throughout the whole thing and the author makes it work really well! Like, this is such a unique and original take on the kylux pair, I love them, especially Fae!Hux in this! And the plot is solid and you get invested really heavily in how they are gonna wind up-at least I did! There’s some beautiful language in this-descriptions and dialogue! And I have a soft spot for Artist!Kylo!

Dating a Monster

mysticmilks

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26703904/chapters/65139415

Words: 30,401

Rating: Explicit

Summary:Ben Solo was raised to be a demon hunter, as everyone in his family has been before him. He wanted nothing more than to prove that he was worthy to his family. He lied to them and went on an unauthorized mission to catch and kill an elusive incubus. His search led him to Arkanis University, one of the most prestigious schools in the country.He was sure the mission was going to be easy, before he met the cute freshman Armitage Hux. This meeting would change the fate of both of them.

My thoughts on the rec: Add another really good one to the slightly-creepy-kylux subgenre filled with demons and dark powers! This is a great depiction of Kylo as a very determined demon hunter and Hux as a very unique quarry! I love the tension in parts of this too-well crafted! The Green Ribbon

xzombiexkittenx, Lilander (art)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/28630845/chapters/70176921

Words: 39,679

Rating: Explicit

Summary:When Ben was fifteen he left the Jedi temple and took extreme measures to prevent the shadowy creature that infiltrated his thoughts from dragging him to the dark side. What he did left him with a great deal of chronic pain and removed his most valuable weapon, but Ben got his stubbornness from every side of the family, even the adopted ones, and he was determined to find and kill the creature.Now Senator Amidala of Naboo, Ben uses his position to make the galaxy a less awful place when he can, but being senator also gave him very useful contacts in his search for the creature. When he met Major Hux of the First Order, Ben thought he could get game-changing information out of him, one way or another, but things rarely go Ben's way and it got complicated much faster than Ben had prepared for. It's never a good idea to mix sex and politics, but Ben takes his fun where he can get it.

My thoughts on the rec: I feel like this is a very original take on ‘Senator Amidala’ Ben, at least from the stuff I’ve read-many props to the author for such a fleshed out universe, filled with likeable, believable OCs, a wonderful plot, great character motivations and voices, and a take on our main man Ben that pulled me in from the get-go! He’s sorta magnetic (in universe and to the reader)! And the sexual tension and sexy bits are very well done! I’m rooting for Ben and Hux in this, on opposites sides though they may be! Comfort Zone

LydiaBSlade

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26783797/chapters/65338117

Words: 66,766

Rating: Explicit

Summary: Hux is running away. He meets a tall, dark, and somewhat annoying stranger at the airport.

My thoughts on the rec: Travel writing at its best; also kylux fic at it’s best! Young, modern them trying to find their places in the world and finding each other in the process is so cute and almost tenderly done in this! This is a gentle, friendly version of modern Kylo that I fell in love with, right along with Hux! And by the way, I’m not kidding when I say travel writing-the southeast asian setting is vivid and enchanting in it’s rich detail! Outnumbered, Outgunned, Outmanuevered, and Winning

Coriesocks, Ellalba (art)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/28217253/chapters/69144672

Words: 80,372

Rating: Explicit

Summary: Hux’s plans for ridding the First Order of Kylo Ren are ruined when Ren discovers his deception. With no choice but to flee, Hux ends up in the hands of the Resistance. It’s not ideal, but at least he gets a break from Ren. Until he doesn’t.When Ren starts appearing in Hux’s dreams, Hux wonders if the stress of being a spy has taken more of a toll on his sanity than he’d previously thought. And if that wasn’t bad enough, he has to deal with constant pestering from Poe and a mildly inconvenient kidnapping. Of course, it’s Ren who saves him in the end. There’s clearly no getting away from him.

My thoughts on the rec: A really interesting take on something that is both a alternate rewrite of what could have happened instead of TROS and a TROS-fix-it of sorts! Hux is stellar in this, we really get a good look in his head and Coriesocks handles it masterfully! I really liked how their relationship develops gradually in this, it’s Enemies To Lovers at its best! Bloodlines and Brandy

EmperorsVornskr

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22989934/chapters/54963601

Words: 130,785

Rating: Explicit

Summary: Sebastian Hux is a native of the Deep South who loathes his origins, and seeks to pull himself from the stifling quagmire, but his bloodlines call him back to the property that has blessed- and plagued- his family for centuries.Unspoken secrets fill his inheritance, skeletons fill every closet, and a monster lurks in the shadows, tied to two bloodlines joined by fate, greed and hatred that has spanned across generations.As Hux learns about his family’s tainted legacy that has now become his burden, he discovers there is more involved than just having to be the curator of property that the locals shun with hushed whispers, that he has inherited more than an estate- he also has a terrible and loathsome horror tied to his very blood.When curious young locals come calling, and Hux’s past tormentors come out of the woodwork to simper and scrabble for a piece of the newly rich, the body count begins to rise, the smell of blood in the old slaughterhouse is getting harder to hide, and Hux realises that he will need to find a better way to pacify the hulking shadow that perches on his roof every night before his hometown’s tiny population is completely decimated.

My thoughts on the rec: This one is EPIC! Like, in length (which it needs every word of for the story that is going on here) and in the great portrayal of Kylo and Hux and their relationship! It’s super original too-not just the plot but the depiction of Kylo as something ‘other’ and the Southern Gothic vibes, and Hux-this is a wonderful take on Hux! He loses none of his edge, in my opinion and yet the reader is ‘with’ him all the way through, rooting for him! The descriptions are killer too-EmperorsVornskr has a felicity of expression that kept me reading (albeit in more than one sitting). Also worth noting that this is a wonderful and carefully handled depiction of trans!Hux, in my admittedly cis opinion. The theme of finding your tribe/your people/and your special someone in this, albeit in sometimes unexpected places is warming! I enjoyed every moment of this fic! Gravity Well

kyluxtrashcompactor

https://archiveofourown.org/works/13062495/chapters/29879001

Words: 176,421

Rating: Explicit

Summary: Snoke is gone, but his death has solved nothing between Hux and Kylo Ren. The First Order's trust in their leaders wanes as they vie for power over one another, and if they cannot learn to work together, they may both lose everything they've worked for.Forging that alliance after years at each other's throats will not be as easy as letting the past die, however—they will face subterfuge, enemies in the shadows, treachery, and being stranded on a hostile planet with creatures out of nightmare, barely escaping constant danger with their lives while having only one another to rely on.And that is just the beginning.

My thoughts on the rec: I realize this one is very well known by now, but I’ll rec it again for good reason! It’s quality long-fic! I love how competent Hux is in this surival-style fic, even without the Force to save him! And Kylo is a badass! kyluxtrashcompactor is a master of the slow burn here and we’re even lucky enough to be getting a sequel (although Gravity Well will also stand perfectly on its own). The writing in this will draw you in and not let you go!

----

That’s all for now! I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I did!  

[chdarling]

Definitely feel free to ignore this and I know JKR has messed up a lot and it’s impt to critique that but I just. Feel like i am constantly hearing in the hp/marauders fandom how JKR did things “by accident” or just “didn’t notice” what she was creating and I have to say, I’ve never heard this get said about male writers. It just smacks of very ~how to suppress women’s writing vibes and belittle the genius of women authors. Like yes she’s problematique now but JKR revolutionized children’s and YA literature…HP did that. Idk it just really feels like misogynistic undertones to me how quickly the fandom is ready to dismiss the creativity, brilliance, and wonder of the series’ author in a way that i never see happen in any of my fandoms where it’s a male creator….just random thoughts that make me sad, don’t mean to stir fandom drama. Love TLE1 and 2, thanks for everything!

Oh, let me clarify: I definitely don’t think she created the Marauders by accident. At all. They are a hugely important backstory to the main plot line and, in my personal opinion, a lot of the heart and tragedy of the series. The interplay between characters, the doomed plot, the friendship…it’s my favorite thing about the stories and I think it’s incredible writing. My whole fanfic is firmly rooted in canon (or at least, I’m trying), so I have a lot of respect for the world she created and the talent that she used in creating it. I’m just piggybacking here.

That said, I do think James Potter’s development in particular was ignored in the canon, and I do think a lot of the James that has sprung up in fanon is, well, fanon that was definitely drawn from all the bits and pieces we get in the books, but never fully realized in the actual story. He just kind of gets the shaft in the books. That’s just my personal opinion, and not an indictment of the whole story. And honestly — he wasn’t a hugely important character to the main plot of the series, so I do understand why we didn’t get a whole book about JP’s exploits or Jily’s get-together. 😂

Look, I have really conflicted feelings about JKR. She was my childhood hero, HP was my escape as a queer kid in a hellishly homophobic environment, and frankly is still my escape as a stressed out adult. These books inspired me to write. I have a lot of love for the story. I also have a lot of hurt related to it — as I think a lot of fans do in 2021.

And sometimes I do feel defensive about it because there’s a lot of negative piling on to the HP fandom these days — I for one get super frustrated when I see those “actually HP was always bad and you’re dumb for liking it” posts, because imho that’s the coward’s way out, and it’s revisionist history. The stories were a genuine cultural phenomenon that got tons of kids to read AND ALSO the author has done some real shitty things. These things can both be true and in my opinion, the latter doesn’t erase the former. It complicates it. So my intention is never to act like HP is no good or happened by accident. I don’t believe that at all.

As far as the criticism being because she’s a woman — honestly I can definitely understand why you’d feel that way because I have definitely seen a lot of misogyny thrown in alongside genuine and important criticism. It sucks and it’s gross and it takes away from the genuine discussion of the harm that she’s doing.

But I am in general very critical of the things I love, which is mostly because the creators of the things I love have let me down a lot. I’m a big believer in never meet your heroes, but sadly all my heroes got Twitter. 🙄 I mostly talk about HP on this blog because that’s kind of my thing right now, but I promise I am just as critical of men. I adore pretty much all the shows in the OG whedon-verse (yeah, even dollhouse) and I will rip Joss Whedon to absolute shreds if given half a chance, for instance. Please hold for my ten page essay on how all the best bits of Buffy happened despite Joss’s best efforts…😤

Anyway, my post about James was just meant to be fairly flippant. 😅 I don’t generally wander into JKR discourse because I don’t have much to contribute other than: She wrote an amazing story with amazing characters that I will always love and will always be grateful to have grown up with and also she is doing active harm in the world that hurts me, hurts my friends, and (imho) goes against a lot of the messaging in her books. It sucks.

(Also, I am very much no JKR or any wildly successful published writer (obviously) but I have had people comment pointing out these really deep and beautiful connections between different scenes that I totally didn’t do on purpose. 😂 so I think it probably does happen sometimes where things writers don’t intend take on a life of their own. I doubt JKR ever imagined when she started writing that Harry’s dead dad would have his own fan base and a discord devoted exclusively to his romance with Harry’s dead mum but here we are.)

Lots of love ❤️

[utilitycaster]

What’s your thoughts on tm9 suggesting working with Trent? Do you think tm9 are being “bad friends”? I have seen a lot of discussion on it and I was wondering what your thoughts are. Apologies if you have already shared your thoughts.

Hi anon,

I have shared at least some of my thoughts but, as always, give me an inch and I will take one thousand miles and then take one thousand more. If you wanted a normal answer, please click on that link and then feel free to stop reading. If you want me to yell about behaviors in fandom that fill me with rage (and also some additional thoughts about the Mighty Nein in this episode, to be fair, which I’ve marked so you can skip to it), read on.

GOOD FUCKING LORD I AM PRETTY SURE A CERTAIN SMALL BUT LOUD PORTION WITHIN FANDOM, AND THIS IS ABOUT FANDOM IN GENERAL AND NOT SPECIFIC TO THE CRITICAL ROLE, ACTUAL PLAY, NOR D&D FANDOM, HAS NEVER HAD A FUNCTIONAL FRIENDSHIP OR RELATIONSHIP IN THEIR LIVES WHAT WITH THE WAY THEY TALK ABOUT CHARACTER INTERACTIONS. LIKE WHAT THE FUCK.

I don’t think that any of the Mighty Nein were being at all inappropriate during this conversation in the first place, and more on that below, but also like, people say insensitive things to their friends all the time! It’s impossible to account for every situation that could potentially upset someone, and sometimes people need to have difficult conversations! I’ve said this before with people in private conversations but there is an exhausting amount of discourse for CR (but also, like, in general about fictional media by people who are Way Too Online) regarding who really understands and cares about whom and it’s like. They are all friends. They have all referred to each other as found family. They all care about each other. And with that in mind, it’s also true that if you or anyone else were to give me literally any pairing of two characters in the Nein, romantic or platonic, I can without considerable effort name an interaction in which one of them said or did something hurtful or insensitive to the other, because this is a thing that happens when different people with different perspectives and experiences talk to each other for any length of time.

A not-insignificant amount of discourse, in my opinion, has nothing to do with how real interpersonal relationships work and is entirely "this is my favorite/least favorite character (or ship) and I think everyone should also think they are flawless/terrible” and if I had to guess this is probably more of the same. But even if it’s not just that, the idea that the only “good” friendship is one devoid of arguments, slip-ups, and even the most minor of transgressions and anything else is “bad” or “toxic” is so divorced from reality I absolutely cannot engage with it without wanting to scream. Which is not to say that a single action by a friend, even a close one, could never be enough to invalidate the friendship. But it has to be a pretty significant and deliberate violation, and in my opinion the events of this episode do not even budge the needle.

With that out of the way before I return to it at the end: I think the overarching attitude of the Mighty Nein on the whole is “this is going to be an incredibly difficult fight, and we need to discuss all of our options, even distasteful ones that none of us particularly like.”

The linked post talks a lot about why I think Fjord brought it up in the first place, but from there, I would say that Yasha was the only one who was consistently on the side of “No,” which is in line with her character. We know Caduceus is fairly sure they’re going to die without additional help and has seen by far the most terrifying visions of what happens if they fail; that Jester likely has some similar ideas to Caleb regarding “if Trent’s with us, at least he’s not going after Marion”; and while Beau brought up the downsides of working with one’s abuser it’s highly worth noting she was still entertaining it: she floats that maybe this could kill two birds with one stone [2:01:10-ish on the Twitch video].

Veth strikes me as the one who came closest to “pushing” Caleb, and this has been a theme recently. I’m not fully sure about this - Veth is often a character I struggle to get a handle on - but I think it’s a combination of her family being at risk in the same way Jester’s is, her own feelings of guilt or shirked responsibility about leaving the Nein after this before Caleb has achieved his goals particularly given how instrumental he was to achieving hers, and a little bit of still seeing Caleb how he was earlier on, when they first met. That last reason is definitely frustrating when it happens in real life, but it’s a very real phenomenon, the first one is wholly understandable, and the middle one is both. Basically, are those actions a little selfish? Yeah, but people are selfish sometimes. There’s a reason why even when I don’t understand her Veth (and, tbh, all the Mighty Nein) feels like a wholly realized person, and it’s because of things like this, where she has real reactions and emotional turmoil in response to an incredibly stressful situation instead of being blandly understanding.

On top of that, anything that denies that Caleb was not entertaining it, particularly after he quite literally says he’s considered it, feels like ignoring his response because it doesn’t fit a particular narrative. It ignores the entire conversation with Essek, in which Caleb is the one who brings it up first, Caleb is the one who continues to argue for it after Essek expresses his discomfort, and Caleb is the one who says he’s frustrated that his attempt to persuade Essek fails.

Returning to the generalized rant but at what point do you (the abstract you, not you the anon) stop overlaying how you think someone should react and actually listen to people? One of the things in this world that genuinely angers me the most that isn’t, you know, atrocities, is when people assume how someone feels instead of asking them and persist in doing so even when told otherwise, and this is probably why the whole “the Mighty Nein are bad friends” statement has prompted such a strong response from me here. I don’t think I’m saying anything revolutionary here but all the arguments in favor of that statement are stupid! If you don’t ask for a hug, sometimes you won’t get one! If you don’t say you’re uncomfortable you can’t assume people will be aware of it! The realest distinction between good and bad friends, actually, is whether they listen to what you’re saying or if they just project what they think you should be saying, and whether they tell you what they want from you or if they make up elaborate unspoken rules that you’re supposed to magically intuit and follow. Not whether they never make mistakes, or disagree, or bring up difficult topics.

Uh, anyway, this is probably a whole lot more and maybe not even related to what you were looking for but really, the idea that a deep friendship can be reclassified into a binary from good to bad based on two conversations, and the related idea that every interaction that isn’t perfectly harmonious must have someone to blame instead of acknowledging the full depth and breadth of normal healthy interpersonal interactions, are both absolutely terrible ideas and I would love if people in general would immediately stop having them.

[bornfromchalk]

I feel like I should explain the whole ‘blorbo’ situation to you… I had to do a little bit of research but I don’t mind if it at least means a little less being lost on this site for both of us.

The term blorbo is a newer term on here and it came from a post talking about how someone can make a more generic post about a fandom- like talking about the character but not naming them in the post but in the tags? Anyways, they were talking about how people bring their own favorite characters from entirety different shows and make it about that character instead of the original poster’s character? Blorbo I’m guessing is a random word they made up for this but it stick and now blorbo essentially translates to a character someone deeply loves or appreciates and will bring up to a point of being potentially annoying. For example, let’s say I deeply like this one character from A Legend of Sword and wouldn’t stop bringing them up, or somehow the most random of things makes me think of that character (like rice or something, I’m making stuff up here)- that I guess could be my blorbo.

Eeby deeby is a replacement term for a strange destination of some kind. That one came from some post about going up an elevator, but having no idea which floor because the screen eeby deeby. Some reason it’s implied they’re going to a purgatory of some kind as denoted by ‘eeby deeby’ which is from what I’ve read is supposed to be like a robot sound. I think that one gained traction because it tied into the superhell joke that a lot of supernatural fans were making when two dudes confessed to liking each other in the show and one got killed pretty much right after and went to the empty- aka, according to fandom, is superhell. I don’t know, I didn’t watch the show.

Glup Shitto apparently is a little joke to jab at the Star Wars fandom for how the names of a lot of the characters sound like gibberish. But also it’s also used as a fake name for a returning character in the series (usually the more obscure parts of the media like a small book trilogy rather than the mainstream films) and praised by hardcore fans but practically unknown to those who are more in the mainstream media of that universe rather than the more obscure portions. It picked up more speed when a new show for the franchise was released that was pretty mainstream brought back a lot of more obscure characters from like the animated shows aimed at a more older kid to young teenage audience.

Plinko horse apparently came from a video of a series of animations. The animations were being used as a visual on how things are projected to move and interact I suppose? Plinko horse was specifically from the Real Time Collision section, with a horse being dropped through a plinko-like board and going through the pegs, biting different ones on the way down. Apparently it made rounds on other sites first (https://youtu.be/Slt4z55PBhI, this is apparently a catalyst for its popularity). Gifs were made and those all had jokes made about them and it just kinda spread. Somehow this amuses us and it’s just now a thing.

Still no idea what scrunglo means, but if I find that one out, I’ll tell you! Hopefully some of this explains a little about tumblr slang.

Ah... you didn't have to go that far for my sake. I am grateful as always.

I think I understand now. So blorbo is somebody's favorite character one can't stop thinking of. And the word is just a placeholder for their name as the maker of the original post wanted to make a statement about the phenomenon without going into a specific fandom or character. It is actually quite smart. This is, essentially, how new words are introduced to a language.

Well, eeby deeby is a... quite funny sound I would say. That being interpreted as "superhell" however, is a little peculiar. Though the contrast itself between the funny and the serious sounding might be exactly what's making the comparison comedic. That, and the timelines coinciding with the surgence of each meme, that is a recipe for an internet gag indeed.

Glup Shitto... another combination of comedic sounds and inside knowledge of a certain fandom. I'm starting to see a pattern here.

The plinko horse seems to be an excellent demonstration in movement, velocity and contact. Why they chose a horse as the subject... might not be relevant to the experiment itself.

Thank you for this holy grail of information once again. This helped me understand certain things and aided me in forming hypotheses about internet culture.

~Albedo