#the Reddit side of the fandom really should know

[dnfao3tags]

Finding Deleted Fics: A Multi-Method Guide

i feel like we are the fandom who needs this post the most any fandom has needed it ever.

all of these methods require you to know the title, author and/or link of the fic.

[disclaimer: the fic i am using as an example is not deleted, i just can't think of any other fics to use as an example right now.]

Method #1: Wayback Machine

this is my go to method that i always try first.

steps:

every fic on ao3 has a url of archiveofourown.org/[specific-numbers]. you're gonna need that url, doesn't matter if it doesn't work anymore.

eg.

2. now you're gonna go to archive.org and enter your url in the search bar.

3. something like this will come up. it probably won't be saved as many times though, just once or twice.

just click any of the links now, either the dates marked blue on the calendar or the earliest/latest date. that's it.

drawbacks:

often, a problem arises when searching for fics rated mature or explicit.

the site will have archived this page but not the actual fic. though, maybe lady luck is on your side and clicking proceed will lead you to a saved version of the actual fic. but usually not. and not all fics are saved here. in those cases, i have some more methods.

Method #2: Search Engine Cache

search engines like google and yandex often save a cached version of sites, though yandex is much more reliable than google. i'll give you a tutorial for both.

steps (yandex):

the link isn't completely necessary, just the title and author of the fic will suffice.

go to yandex.com and search for your fic by either entering the url or entering the title and author as such.

3. this will probably immediately come up.

just enter the captcha and it should let you in on the first go but there's a glitch i've encountered where you could be entering the captcha completely correct but for some reason the site still won't let you in. for that, you just have to keep trying again and again until eventually the site lets you in. might take more than 10 tries.

4. once you're in, search results will pop up. directly clicking them will only lead you to the not found page. what you're gonna do is hover over the box of the search result and you'll see 3 dots pop up on the right.

click those and a dropdown menu will appear. click the first option 'saved copy'.

and thats it! this is a much more efficient method especially for explicit or mature fics.

drawbacks:

for some reason, when i open yandex in google chrome, i can't see the 3 dots. i can in firefox though. don't really know what thats all about.

i'll show you how to do it with google too just in case yandex doesn't work.

steps (google):

in the url bar, type cache:[link of fic]. that's pretty much it. google doesn't have a lot of fics saved though so you'll probably get a 404 page.

Method #3: Reddit

there's a subreddit called r/DeletedFanfiction that can probably help you out. either search for the fic as it may have already been posted or req it and someone will probably get you a google drive link soon enough. u/throwthisaway11112 is my lord and savior.

afaik it's still up and running fine despite the reddit protest thing (which i recommend taking a minute to look into).

Method #4: Archive.org Database

okay, now you're gonna need a lot of memory on computer for this one. i'm not gonna even bother and try to explain it, i'll just link you to the original post. thank you once again to the anon who sent me this method!

Method #5: Fandom

if absolutely none of those methods work, you can still just send me an ask and maybe my followers or i will have a saved copy. same for any other fandom, i recommend asking around in popular fandom spaces, someone is bound to have it.

[nqueso-emergency]

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Somebody commented “cognitive dissonance” on one of your posts and that is such an apt description.

As background, I am a new watcher of the show (just finished watching season 7 days ago). I literally pressed “follow” to the Bucktommy and Buddie tags within a seconds because I wanted to stay “open” and fresh as a daisy thinking it was going to be a fun time reblogging gifs and reading theories & stories. Then I started seeing things and witnessing behavior that is making my opinion become as hard as cement because I have been bombarded by toxicity from the Buddie side.

“The Tevan people caused this! They harassed the cast! Everything was fine until they arrived!” (Summation) —-> So they are accusing fans of causing issues because they are literally supporting a CANON COUPLE? For bombarding love down on a couple the show runners would like see support for? Make it make sense. Bucktommy has been around for months but all the other issues have been there for YEARS.

What I have seen on various social medias in the short months:

Bucktommy positivity week

A call out to love bomb the comments sections on IG posts to stifle negativity

Lou being called ugly so many times it would be impossible to count

“Bucktommy bones”

Wishing death on Tommy

Freak out over a “Daddy” joke - FYI, if that got your hackles risen, don’t come to San Francisco or you would not survive

Tommy being called a predator

Bucktommy & Lou fans being harassed on twitter for posting anything when all I wanted to see was 911 fun things

The things I saw with my own eyes made my stomach burn and my heart hurt. Of course I drifted to the Bucktommy side and stayed there. Because you know what I see on a regular basis, a bunch of people in love with love. And people who see themselves as Queer person actually being portrayed on TV and are trying to just enjoy it.

My 2 cents 😊

Welcome to the fandom! I hate you had to experience all that shit. Especially as a new person to 9-1-1.

I really like hearing new people's perspectives because it's telling just how fucking toxic the bestie boos are.

My entrance into the actual fandom was nothing but hateful. I had lurked for years and after finishing season 7 I thought I'd interact on reddit because... it's reddit lol who's going to be crazy THERE.

Spoiler alert. A vast majority.

That's why my blog exists because these buddie fans have gotten away with way too much and someone should air it out.

[alaynestcnes]

“evidence upon evidence upon evidence” and it’s just chapter order and stuff like “oh jonnel is definitely the same as jon” (which is basically saying alysanne is the same as alys) or val being blonde means she could be redheaded in certain lights. it’s still all a REACH so no evidence for romance

Looks like you have some gaps in your jonsa knowledge so I’ll help you out a little 😊

A good place to start would be the jonsa compendium with at least 18 points of independent in-text evidence (not including the broader fun stuff like lotr lit parallels). We can also talk about the multiple allusions to Sansa being betrothed to a Targ (not including the ashford tourney theory already included in the compendium); here, here. Some other little tidbots I enjoy (a la 'blood of winterfell', jon/joff parallels, little in-text parallels, and too many others to mention) are in my parallels tag.

There are the BNFs/theorists who have speculated on jonsa; Alt Shift X and Adam Feldman have both found Jonsa to be significant enough to mention. They’ve been invited to have dinner with GRRM, and he has said Adam Feldman ‘really gets’ asoiaf. So, I kinda hold these theorists as just a bit more credible than whatever the twitter/reddit stans have to say.

And I know you brushed off the chapter analysis but let’s remember that GRRM has said that he is very particular about the sequence of scenes and chapters. So, it’s not absurd to say that the construction of the chapters is something that we should be paying attention to. Ignoring that is fine but don’t pretend like it’s Jonsas reaching, when it’s just your own blind bullheadedness. That being said, here’s an almost never-ending post analysing the in-text Jonsa parallels and references. And a literal excel sheet providing And then here there's how whenever Jon or Sansa's chapters have a focus on love and marriage, then the other will almost always closely follow.

That's my little english lit seminar done, but I hope you're not too tired bc we've still got our AP hisory and political science class to go! GRRM has stated before that class is important (especially in relation to marriage) and he hates medieval-set stories where the highborn lady happily runs off with the stableboy. So, it's safe to say that Sansa will not be marrying any old glup shitto the fandom wants to pair her with. Her range of suitors is very, very limited. "Jonnel is definetly the same as Jon"...well, if the shoe fits? Like it just lines up too well, it's just a bit cheeky of GRRM to sow issues of northern succession in ASOIAF, all while providing a precedent for an inter-Stark union as a solution to a very similar issue. You could also make the case that Jonnel/Sansa is more of a foil for Jon/Sansa than a direct parallel (as instead of Jon marrying Sansa to supercede her claim, Sansa will choose to marry Jon in order to secure his position after Targ reveal). And really, is this anymore delulu than something like the Jon/Tyrion/Dany three heads of the dragon theories you see around?

Anywaysss this is just a fast and loose run down and better people than me have developed more comprehensive archives of the ever-extending jonsa meta universe, so please supplement your learning with some independent study: here, here, here.

So yeah…the evidence is a little bit deeper than Jon/Jonnel or Val/Sansa. I’m not trying to preach but calling Jonsa out on a lack of evidence or that we’re reaching for anything is giving very much illiterate on your side. If you wanna come into my ask and be a hater again pleassseeee at least do your research first. Next time there will be a quiz before I take anything you say seriously.

[hms-no-fun]

I know you said you're cautiously optimistic about HS2, but the newest blog post has me kinda worried. The talk of "fixing the fans broken trust" and how even the new writers don't like a lot of story decisions that were made by the old team seem really off to me, like it's throwing the old team under the bus. I want to expect good things from HS2 but when the people working on it don't seem to like the story as it stands right now it really just seems like they might bend over backwards to appease the shitty side of the fandom. What do you think about this whole thing?

this is in reference to the october 30th 2023 news update on the hs:bc website. i give the date because the news posts don't seem to have individual links atm, so if you're reading this in the future you might have to scroll back.

to your worry that the new team might bend over backwards to appease the shitty side of the fandom, i wrote at length in my prior hs:bc post about why i don't think that's gonna be a problem. i'd also caution against reading too much into what james says about the attitude of the hs:bc team at large, for reasons that should be apparent by the end of this post.

i think it's perfectly reasonable to take a diplomatic position towards a fandom that is historically very hostile to this continuation. a lot of people haven't read the epilogues/hs2 and hate on them anyway because of what they've been told they contain, and refuse to question those received opinions on principle. many who did read them seem to have been inattentive or otherwise needlessly aggressive, sometimes owing to a baffling refusal to accept the premise of postcanon. plenty of others maybe just need a reason to think that homestuck is for them again. for this project to succeed, the fandom at large needs to be given a reason to revisit the epilogues/hs2 from a position of safety and critical distance. i have my own barbed opinions about this state of affairs, but it is what it is.

i understand and to an extent share your misgivings over that Q&A post, but it simply is not james roach's job to relitigate the conduct of the hs2 team. to even broach the subject in more than a general sense would constitute the opening of a massive can of worms, because the truth is muddy. mistakes were made on all sides, some worse than others, and to really contextualize where the hs2 team were coming from you'd need to explain the history of the hs fandom, the leadership of the reddit/discord, the overall tenor of twitter post-2016 and especially leading into/during 2020, the history of pgen and the homestuck renaissance, the lack of PR training or oversight or guidance from anyone at WP, the history of audience hostility in homestuck, and on, and on. for what it's worth, i think that context is essential-- but i don't know that anyone working on this project ought to be the ones to tell it (nor do i think they want that responsibility), and a brief casual Q&A post as a halloween treat is certainly not the place to publish it.

and ultimately, none of that has much at all to do with hs:bc. they are not beholden to or responsible for the choices made by the hs2 team. they have been entrusted with the reins of this story, and with that trust comes their own admitted desire to take it in different directions than what was initially planned. the hs2 team did this to the outline andrew hussie gave them; it's only fair that the hs:bc team has the same leeway over the outline they inherited. acknowledging fault in prior leadership, admitting disagreement over past creative decisions, is an olive branch to a largely skeptical fandom. i bristle at some of this because the hs2 team were my friends and i'm very protective of their work and that moment in history, but that isn't james roach's (nor the hs:bc team's) cross to bear. his choice, as the new public face of homestuck, is to move forward rather than linger on the past. it's good that he's burying the hatchet, frankly. i'm sick of that fucking thing.

love it or hate it, agree or disagree, the hs:bc crew has to exercise diplomacy right now. they've reopened the patreon and want to sustain this project for the foreseeable future, ideally without subjecting the workers to intensely traumatic levels of scrutiny and harassment. this involves clearing up miscommunications, admitting fault, gesturing at shared disagreements over story direction, and otherwise putting on a friendly face for strangers. and let's be clear, i know for a fact that plenty on the original hs2 team had a panoply of disagreements with the choices made in the epilogues! the operative condition here is not unquestioning devotion to / hatred of prior material, but a willingness to build upon that prior material constructively regardless. that's what matters most to me, and i have every reason to believe they're taking the constructive route.

i'll end this saying what i've been saying from the start. the measure of this project's success or failure should be taken in the work itself. if james roach blanket dismissed the prior team, but hs:bc constructively evolved in a way that didn't invalidate or undercut prior material, i'd still consider us oldschool hs2 fans the winners. i wouldn't be HAPPY about it, but the art is what we're all here for, and it's the art that people will remember. i think often about how the showrunners of the tv series LOST insisted from day one until the very end that everything in the show had a scientific explanation, despite the fact that they *always knew* this was a bald-faced lie. they told this lie because ABC did not want to fund a fantasy show and would've canceled it otherwise. some fans to this day decry the lack of scientific explanations in the text of the show, even when you point out that the promise of such explanations was false from the start.

point is, there are material realities to leading a creative enterprise. james roach has put himself in a genuinely dangerous and scary position, a fact that's easy to forget with how casual and welcoming his posts have been thus far. but this is perhaps the single most mismanaged property of the internet age, and there's no walking that back without stepping on some toes. over-correction is expected and probably necessary. if it ruffles your feathers, that's fine-- but let the work speak for itself, and judge it on its own merits. all this other stuff is ancillary and will inevitably fade into the distant fog of time.

[earlgraytay]

For the Reverse Unpopular Opinion Meme, give me Dark Souls.

Gwyndolin and the Witch of Izalith are both fascinating characters, and I really wish they got more fandom exploration.

Specifically, I wish fandom would explore the villainous/vengeance-focused side of Gwyndolin's character more often, and I wish that fandom would explore the Byronic/Prometheus/hero side of the Witch's character more often.

Gwyndolin's carrying on his family's monstrous legacy, mostly out of inertia. He's sending so many humans- "heroes" all- to kindle the flame and die in the process. And for what? Gwyn's dead, the Nameless King isn't coming back, Gwynevere is somewhere far away, and Velka fucked right off.

(Velka's another character I wish fandom would explore more. The concept of a goddess of sin is fascinating, especially given what little we know about the concept of 'sin' in Dark Souls... and the implication that she's the mother of Gwyn's children. But that's a whole nother kettle of fish.)

Point is, Gwyndolin is doing some truly monstrous things, in the name of propping up the old order. The old order that's never been particularly sustainable, and is becoming less and less so with time. The old order that full well half the playerbase wants to see torn down. His personal world's basically as over as the Age of Fire is, and keeping things The Same As They Always Were isn't making anyone happy.

Out of all the people left alive in the setting, Gwyndolin is probably the person best equipped to try to find a new way to keep the world running. But he's not even trying! He's just keeping things the same, and meteing out vengeance to anyone who gets in the way of that. For gods' sakes, the Blades of the Darkmoon cut off sinners' ears and bring them back to him.

I find Gwyndolin a deeply tragic and sympathetic figure, but I wish people would engage with this side of him, rather than just "oh, he's got a soft voice and is some kind of trans, let's assume he's never done anything wrong in his life." I'd love to see more people explore just how much of a miserable monster Gwyndolin is. How much fuckery he's doing, while not even seeming to enjoy it. How much agency he's given up to (his interpretation of) the whims of dead people, and how the nature of godhood means that giving up that agency is the worst thing he could possibly do. And how giving up that agency is honestly the politically savvy thing to do! Except that politics is dead and he should know that by now.

Similarly? I'd love to see people explore the Witch of Izalith as a tragic hero. Because, like, fandom doesn't do shit with her, but she's the one person in the setting who even tried to do (what most of us think is) the 'right' thing.

The Witch of Izalith is the one person in this goddamn world who tried to solve the trolley problem by derailing the train. The world depends on the First Flame for everything that humans need to thrive? The First Flame's going out? Okay, let's make a new fucking Flame, then, what are we waiting for?

She sacrificed everything- her followers, her daughters, her son, her husband, even her own physical form! - to try to make this work. She gave everything she had to save the world, making way more sacrifices than Gwyn or any of his children made, trying desperately to save the world-- and it was all for nothing. Her creation of demons made everything worse for everyone. But she kept going anyway, because what other choice did she have?

The Witch of Izalith's like a much more sympathetic Laurence. Sketchy, conniving, yet incredibly idealistic and passionate? Incredibly learned, but in ways that let her do more dangerously stupid stuff faster and more efficiently? Crazy enough to think this just might work?

I love her. I would love to see more fandom love for her, and her daughters, and the witches of this series in general. I get not seeing it from Tumblr fandom- we ship twinks here, sir- but honestly, I don't even see it from the reddit side of fandom that likes to ship the fromsoft waifs, and that makes me really sad.

But yeah. More love for the fucked up parts of Gwyndolin's character. More love for the Witch of Izalith and her passionate intensity.

(ETA: I realized while writing this that this turned into more salt than gushing, because my unpopular opinions about Dark Souls get salty- buuuuuut I do love me some evil Gwyndolin and some Witch of Izalith, so this stands.)

[beautifulpersonpeach]

BPP I'm so exhausted and heart broken over this NewJeans mess. Funny thing is I got into the group after seeing you talk about them late last year, I fell in love with Ditto and started watching them closely. I saw how MHJ would treat them and smile at them in candid shots like the Lolla show, and felt at ease that they would continue to succeed with her managing them.

But since this issue started when I try to express why I'm uneasy with HYBE controlling NewJeans, I'm downvoted to negatives on reddit and qrted to hell on Twitter. Army friends have unfollowed me even though I've said I'm against the hate on BTS. I don't even stan NewJeans the way I do BTS, but because I'm critical of Hybe and siding with Ador, I'm called all sorts of names and yesterday Armys tried to suspend my account. Even BigHit's former choreographer has come out in support of Ador, other idols have publicly come out in support of NewJeans and N Capital came out to refuse Hybe's claims that MHJ met them to take Ador out. I feel things are not as Black and White as Armys are saying about this issue, and that NewJeans is under risk if MHJ leaves.

Everybody is calling me crazy and on one hand it's whatever. I know how kpop stans are in general so I'm not surprised, but I'm truly starting to worry. I started writing this ask 3 times before settling on what I've written now, because I kept getting choked up. I know its just kpop and I shouldn't be this attached, but I'm so scared BPP. Those girls are not even 2 years old as a group and their future is already looking so bleak when at the start of this year, their future was so bright. I remember you said they might technically even get a Grammy nomination this year. I feel sad and angry but I'm unable to express myself freely in all the fandom spaces I usually spend time in.

What should I do? How can I handle this? If it were you, what would you do? Sorry if this ask is super whiny but you always have good advice and I need some right now.

***

Listen, you already know what you should do. You just seem to lack the will to do it, at least that's what it seems like.

ARMY is the largest fandom in k-pop and they've deemed NewJeans as persona non grata. Most other HYBE fandoms also aren't looking too keenly on NewJeans and with how obsessive k-pop stans are in everything they do, this will be a long-term problem for NewJeans and their fandom. If Bunnies were a bigger fandom it wouldn't be too much of a problem, but they aren't, so the lifetime of the group is already halved.

If you only got into NewJeans six months ago and you're already this attached, you need a cold turkey break. Things are looking grim given the girls have expressed support for MHJ, and it's very unlikely HYBE will lose this case. Those girls are more or less done, so I'd say you should cut your losses and start detaching from them now to spare yourself more heartbreak later. Also, block the 'ARMY friends' who are downvoting, quote tweeting, and otherwise harassing you. You're in fandom to enjoy a community about the things you love, not to get stuck in never-ending arguments with people who have little else going on in their real lives.

The primary danger of k-pop, is getting sucked in. A lot of people here are fully, irredeemably sucked in. On both sides of this matter, ARMYs, Bunnies and kpoppies alike, the majority of this crowd is people who think they are normal but have lost any real semblance of perspective on what this industry is and of their place in it. You need to cut loose because you seem to already be in a somewhat fragile state, and what this space does is pervert that hurt you feel into a tribal sort of resentment.

I can't really say what I would do if I were you, because I don't feel attached to NewJeans the way you do. It's a shame the girls have become collateral damage, but given how quickly they became massively successful in this industry, this is unfortunately a more expected outcome for them, than not. It's sad, but that's the nature of things here. I like BTS, but like I've said many times before, I don't see myself as having any significant influence over their careers and choices. Whatever they choose to do with HYBE or whatever is their business, I simply keep supporting them for as long as I like them and the music they make.

This mess with HYBE is peculiar (and different from the 50-50 case) because NewJeans and ADOR are saying they don't want to leave HYBE (yet), while HYBE is punishing them as though they are asking the courts to let them leave HYBE. It's created a situation such that even if NewJeans stays or leaves, they are in a sense doomed, to be blunt. And you need to make your peace with that.

Some ideas to help:

A cold turkey break is very needed. The way you're talking about this group doesn't seem healthy. It wouldn't seem healthy if you were talking about BTS either. It might be a good idea to block anything related to k-pop for the next two weeks. Things will only get messier because the stakes are high, and HYBE has shown they have no problem going low. For your sanity, I really think you should stay away cold turkey and tightly curate your online spaces when you return.

Consider stepping away from Twitter and Reddit. I'm less familiar with Reddit but for Twitter, you have the option of making your account private, blocking the ARMYs harassing you, finding more sensible Bunnies to commiserate with, using lists to keep up with topics and accounts, etc.

Consider spending more time on Phoning. After taking some time to cool off, use NewJeans' app to connect more directly with the girls to show them love and support.

Try to focus on the music. NewJeans will have comebacks on May 24th and June 21st. The best way to support those girls now, is to focus on their music and support that. Personally, I've already ordered full sets of their albums since this might be the last ones we see with Min Heejin's creative direction. (Also, they might become collectable lol). Of course I hope that's not the case, but supporting their music is the most direct way to support the girls right now, in my opinion.

I'm sorry you're in this state, I'm even more sorry that the girls are in this state, but you need to detach and remember they have their own lives, are making their own choices, and that has nothing to do with you.

Good luck.

[eff-plays]

Wyll really is just so ignored, I'm playing for the first time and just got to act three and jesus, first time seeing his dad in forever at gortash's ceremony thing and theres like no reaction from Wyll?? unless my game bugged which it's been doing more than a fair amount since patch 7.. Like a lot. I saw someone say that Wyll gets treated like Karlachs backpack and like yeah... that scene is about gortash and karlach mostly, Wyll and his dad are just kinda there?? Mean while astarions plotline about vampires doesnt really seem relevant to the story literally at all but theres so much content focusing on that.

HEY sorry for coming back here to yell. If you know all of this or don't care for my flabbergasted yelling then please don't mind me, apologies if this is nonsensical, I am bewildered and my mind has been servery boggled. I just fully took a second to notice that wyll has 1 (ONE) greeting if you've romanced him, I was a lil baffled so I spent a minute spamming everyone in camp and saying hi and ahahahahah, everyone but lae'zel and the side npcs has at least two for the approval I have with them, karlach has 4. So I went to the wiki and, lae'zel has 4 possible romantic greetings and everyone else have above 10 APART FROM WYLL, WHO HAS 1, some of those greetings are if you've broken up but Wyll apparently has 0 (ZERO) if you've broken up BECAUSE Wyll has 7 possible greetings TOTAL TOTAL!! lae'zel has the same amount of platonic greetings as Wyll does total, asstarion has 27, shadowheart has 36 , Karlach has 38. what the actual shit, I'm not sure if the wiki is outdated and they added more for patch 7 but like?????? I also just had that cutscene with mizora, we had just doomed either Wyll or his dad, his dad in my case (even though what Mizora was offering was his location and protection from all but us, doesn't mean that he's dead for sure but everyones acting like Wyll just sacrificed his dad for his freedom, EXCEPT for Karlack whos acting like I took the deal, they really refuse to fix any bugs that involve Wyll huh), and we just get one of those "talk to me" interactions in camp, you don't even get to talk to him about it after that, he just goes right back to "I'm here for you, always" and all the default dialogue options, like bro you dad apparently just had his death cemented and THATS ALL WE GET? thats all he gets? No extra lil bit of dialogue to reassure him seeing as we may have just killed his dad?? idk it feels very significant to his character seeing as he often talks about how much he adores his dad but no? I really regret romancing Wyll first, I'm just getting mad at the game and his treatment like damn. I'm so disappointed, usually fandom ignoring any and all poc in games is just their racism and I've no doubt thats still happening here but I really can't blame people for not latching onto Wyll, he's great and I love him but even when romancing him and no one else, every other companion seems to have so much more going on, cause they literally do, they have so much more content. I knew he had less, I've seen that reddit post about the amount of hours each companion gets but the greeting thing really just whacked me in the face. small and minor correction, i misread the 10 as a16 I believe, so astarion has 21 not 27 as i think i said before! STILL OVER DOUBLE WHAT WYLL HAS AHAHA

(I assumed these were the same person so I bundled them in one big ask)

Oh but remember, Larian ENSURES all their devs work on EXACTLY what they want to work on!!! :))))

This is also why I think Durgewyll is the big brain romance of the game. Because it's the only way to experience even slightly more Wyll content. Like?? ONE romance greeting that was BUGGED for until a much later patch? Like!!!!! GENUINELY THE FUCKING AUDACITY. They should be legit fr fr ashamed lmao. Also Neil Newbon glazing Larian for being soooooo inclusive and making such groundbreaking representation while their only Black character is in the fucking toilet.

Ugh. It sucks so bad lmao. It's frustrating too cuz there's nothing one can do. Clearly speaking up about it has done fuck-all. Even if they drop the world's biggest Wyll patch, it'll still be like oh ok so all that racism was just a funny joke I guess? "Haha tricked you all into thinking we were racist?" To be clear I do want a massive Wyll patch, but I'm still never getting a Larian game again even if they drop it. I'll mayhap pirate one but even so. They've shown their priorities and preferences. They're SOOOOOO keen on speaking to their fans and addressing every little piss-ass useless gripe as soon as possible, except when you ask about Wyll. Then it's radio silence. Because even acknowledging it, apologizing for it, would be inconvenient. It would make it a Big Deal that people would Talk About, and it would tarnish Larian's current status as the gamer audience darling. So better to pretend it's not happening. After all, the only people upset are just some Twitter randos, and nobody listens to those guys.

Whatever man. Theo Solomon saying peanits.

[eldritchreveries]

regarding your recent post (sorry to see you leave the fandom, but I totally understand your reasons and wish you all the best in what you do next) - your statement about the fandom having a lot of big names who are known predators worried me a bit, I’ve only heard about the ex/jr person and thought that was it, and now I’m wondering if I’ve unknowingly supported anyone similar. i guess I’m asking if there are any other known creators here that we should also steer clear of?

Heya, for the nature of this answer, i'll be censoring it. I'll just go through the gyst of it

To anyone seeing this post dont open it if you're sensitive to these topics

most of the drama unfolded on the twitter side of the fandom. If you didnt know already, ReyGGTV has been a known problematic creator in recent years, theres a whole list of things he's done that you can find online if you're curious. Though these days a lot of newer fans dont know what he's done or the drama has since died down since it unfolded a few years ago, but he's still someone to be cautious of imo. I didnt personally witness his drama, but have a lot of info from people who did.

Tristan Zepeda, a fairly prolific fanartist and writer was recently outted a few weeks ago as being a predator, sending nsfw content to a minor and having roleplay s3x with the Hilda chatbot on hildacord, as he confessed to it all on twitter before shortly deleting his account. Apparently he's currently trying to rebrand and return to the community under a new username "atom"

And Hildaboo (very known fanartist) was going around trying to tell everyone to stay quiet about the predator situation in attempt to "save the fandom". They would rather everyone sweep the predator issue under the rug and let them run rampent and hurt other young fans than "create drama and kill the fandom". I believe Hildaboo has since made a statement regarding it, but this was only after i had to have a whole conversation with them on why telling everyone to be quiet and ignore the predators to keep the fandom alive is in fact, a terrible thing to do. I really don't think i should have had to have this conversation with a grown adult.

And of course, the whole ExJr incident. He was a good friend of mine, and it devestated me when i found out what he'd done. Which, long story short, he sent nsfw content to and had sexual roleplays with a 12 year old, when he was in his 20s. He also copied and stole mine and another friend's character designs without crediting us.

There have also been smaller fanartists around twitter that just flat out draw cp of the main Hilda trio and also ship adults and children together (example; there is a lot of Kaisa x David shipping) and tbh i was sick of seeing it, considering a good chunk of the people around them thought this was completely okay. I was also chased away from the reddit community for a while due to lgbtq+ art and dm'd threats and slurs.

For the sake of legality, everything mentioned here is alleged.

[madlori]

21 &24 for the asks please?

21. How was your day today?

On balance, fine. I got into a stupid argument on Reddit and I should know better (in fact I DO know better) but I am satisfied that my answers got more upvotes than the other person, who was downvoted (yes it was a Tevan argument and the pro-Tevan side got more upvotes thanks whoo). But then I had a bourbon and some really excellent wings at a bar with one of my best friends who is very tolerant of me babbling about fandom bullshit and we also talked about hockey and concerts and trips we wanna go on and the wings really were top notch, so a win overall. My work day was just fine.

24. When was the last time you cried?

I'm having trouble remembering. I'm not much of a crier, in general. Um...occasionally I get hit with some nostalgia about my grandmother, who passed a few years ago, or thoughts about losing my parents. I think the last time that happened was a few months ago.

[chefkids]

I left the Twitter and TikTok Sydcarmy fandoms when they all started dragging you for no reason and I only follow you now because I followed a lot of them on their private accounts and the way they ALL talk about Rosalia and Molly made me sick. I don’t know anything about them at all but the villification seems so unfair. They don’t like those girls one bit and one of them even was saying both of them should kill themselves because it’s what Ayo wants and no one called it out. I used to love it but this is the most misogynistic hateful fandom I’ve ever been in and that’s saying a lot because I used to be a BTS stan and a Superwholock lover. Thank you for being a safe place because you’re the only one of them I’ve seen defend those two girls who really did nothing to Sydcarmy fans other than know JAW. A lot of us are so grateful for it because they stay making us all look bad

I'm sorry you felt you had to leave. I wasn't part of any fandom space before, so this has been very ummm eye opening experience. I started posting mostly meta and twitter memes on here cause there were like 5 people here at the time regularly posting things beyond just gif sets and reddit only cares to talk about Richie. Then I just posted the twitter memes I would post here on there plus updating on all the filming stuff cause not everyone is on tumblr, and people were just reposting the stuff I posted on here in twitter anyways. A lot of those people are also quite a bit younger, so idk maybe they just need to grow up and out of trying to start one sided twitter wars because they want more likes or followers or whatever. I think most people are actually quite normal about Molly/Ayo/Rosalia etc, but then again I avoid most private accounts and group chats. I try to stay out of their actual personal lives and stick to just the show and their other projects, aside from occasionally joking about JAW being in love with Ayo cause that's clearly the energy everyone even outside the shippers gathers from him lol But I obviously don't think anything is actually going on nor do I actually root for the demise of any of their relationships. I don't think people who go around celebrating their divorces and cheating rumors even in private really have any business pretending like they are so protective of him when they're talking shit about actual people that they care about, just cause they run a fan page about them.

[utilitycaster]

The thing about the "official" CR Reddit is that it was founded by the same person who founded the Fandom Critical Role wiki. At the time of founding in late 2015 he was 18, and in my experiences with him through the Fandom wiki I found his management and personnel skills to be...shall we say, understandably lacking, given that he's a programmer in his early 20s. He also stopped keeping up with the show with the end of the Vox Machina campaign if not before; and I think was just generally entirely unprepared for Critical Role becoming more than what it was in late 2015 in terms of actually having large fandoms in need of serious moderation in spaces like Reddit. He also equated being a frequent contributor to the Fandom wiki (cannot personally speak to the Reddit) as being a worthy moderator to the point of asking someone whom a more competent admin had once admonished for outright plagiarism if they were interested in being an admin. This persisted, despite, at the time of his leaving, him and one of the other moderators of the Fandom wiki having held those positions while being almost entirely absent from editing for years.

So anyway I say all this because as result of those communities being created by someone young, inexperienced, and lacking in the awareness to realize these limitations, these issues have propagated. Moderators in a lot of fan-run Critical Role spaces have been selected not on the basis of any merit or community consensus but rather by sheer volume or by ingratiating themselves to the previous mods. From personal experience on the Fandom wiki and from reliable hearsay about the Reddit it seems that they tend to embrace their privileges as mods while eschewing their responsibilities. I also find that there's an ongoing hangover in both these spaces of not really knowing how to deal with the fact that Critical Role is still rolling nearly six years after the end of the Vox Machina campaign, because a lot of these people were ultimately fans only of Vox Machina and more generally Critical Role as it was during that era. They're still acting as though the cast is very directly involved with the fandom and are the final word on various decisions, as they were in the very early days, even though that's long since ended. This in turn is I think behind the knee-jerk resistance to change - moving away from the old chapter system on the Fandom wiki and even implementing basic infrastructural changes to accomodate the fact that there are now multiple campaigns, for example, was met with pretty significant pushback. They still really struggle to cover anything that's not Exandria canon because, well, in late 2015 no one could have predicted Candela Obscura. And on the Reddit side, I think that's why changes that are purely production-related and should not affect your enjoyment of the show as a work of fiction (pre-taping, merch, having other people GM one-shots sometimes, taking longer breaks) are similarly treated as harbingers of doom.

And, that in turn is why I suspect the other CR-related subreddits that have since sprung up have such a reputation for being all negativity - it's people who got understandably fed up with the ridiculous rules and culture of the first Reddit, so their roots are in venting, which is valid. But it can be very difficult for a community built on venting to stop being only that, especially under Reddit's structure, and they're also still largely influenced by that Reddit and share and propagate those biases towards what the show was in 2015-2017.

[carpisuns]

Hey sorry reddit refugee with a quick question, I dont really identify with the super-fandom side of tumblr. A lot of my feeds get a lot of random like (character)x(character) fanfics and I'm wondering if there are a few common tags i could block to minimize seeing them?

Hey there, welcome to tumblr! Sorry if I tell you something you already know but I think this info is really important for curating your experience here.

While tumblr does have an option for a feed based on an algorithm, I’d say like 90% of users don’t use it. We use the “following” option, which shows only posts from people you follow, in the chronological order they were posted—with no additional posts chosen by an algorithm. If you’re on mobile it looks like this.

I just wanted to make sure you knew about this because if you are not interested in seeing certain kinds of content, I’d say the best way to not see it is to not follow people who post it a lot. Fill your dashboard with content you enjoy by following people who post the kinds of things you like.

That being said, of course no one is gonna share your taste 100% and the people you follow will likely post about things you don’t care about. Blacklisting tags will definitely help with that. People usually tag fandom posts with the fandom name or an abbreviation for it. so for example if you don’t want to see posts about the owl house you could block the tags #the owl house and #toh. (Also, if that’s the case, you should probably unfollow me, since I post about that a lot lol.)

Most shippers use a specific ship name, usually a combo of the two characters’ names, so figure out what it is and block it if you don’t want to see that ship. So for example, #zelink for zelda x link. I think that’s a much more common way of tagging ships here than character x character or character/character.

When you come across a post you don’t like, it might be helpful to check how the reblogged or the op tagged it and then block those specific tags.

If you don’t know how to block tags on mobile:

Tap the person icon on the bottom right of the screen. Then tap the gear icon on the top right. Go to general settings > filtering and add each individual tag you want to block. (On desktop I recommend downloading XKit—it has a lot of helpful customization options.)

There really isn’t a way to guarantee you don’t see any shipping fanfic posts on your dashboard in general, but again, if you don’t want to see that, don’t follow people who post it a lot. And don’t feel bad about unfollowing if you need to. I feel like the culture here is a bit different from something like twitter or Insta because our follower counts are private so they’re less of a focus. I wouldn’t worry too much about someone being offended that you unfollowed. Most people understand that we’re all trying to curate our experience.

Hope this helps! Have fun :)

[cornus27florida]

General Thoughts on Ship Wars (discord)

Before, I wanna to tell that : I am a very passionate shipper but I don't wish for any hurt to anyone especially to the ones that shipping characters that not my taste or my NOTP. I will simply avoiding those NOTP ships in any way of fanworks, because if I am stumbled upon those NOTP fanworks - I am afraid that I might unleash beast inside me that could hurt even by words - or for myself getting hurt to see character that I feel a nice, romantic couple to be with other character else. I've learned that fanworks world (fanfic: ff, ao3, etc)(fanart: twitter, devianart,etc)(shipping analysis: tumblr, reddit) should be a safe world for anyone to be happy - shipping characters of the series they'll like while letting others in part of the fandom to know the reasons to liking a ship. In short, I am respecting anyone to ships any characters to other BUT please don't push that ship especially by bashing other character by learning how the characters doing and how the relationships progress in the story.

Well, in the fanworks you could do anything you want like making character c looking bad especially highlighting the things they're did in certain aspect of the story, which to make character a and character b (or more if this a polyamory relationship) to be together. But honestly, could that cliché be avoided? For creative thinking that filled with honesty - kindness - and the forgiveness, so even the character c won't be together with either of character a or b - everyone involved are happy. Being happy doesn't always means for union of characters. being listened-understood-respected it's also part of happy spectrum too even if by making that happen means to letting go someone they love. That's not only limits to characters let go the one they'll love (because the love status is uncertain as it's platonically? becomes familiar love? etc) BUT also when the characters they're love are gone - be it for moving on to another part or phase of life, or for going to the afterlife. Because love could turns ugly like obsession if the 'letting go' part not been used healhtly. Cue to inserting this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H1-33qQ554

So, people in discord said a really good paragraph exclaim :

It's (refers to the ship wars) definitely not limited to coai (conan/ai), it happened in almost every fandom. But I think it basically boil down to a perfect storm of popular characters with a semi-canon ship status. Shinran (shinichi/ran) fans doesn't need to argue their ship into canon bcs they're already canon. Slash pairing (e.g. kaito/shinichi, heiji/shinichi) also doesn't tend to argue their ship bcs they know it won't happen. Meanwhile coai is very much a possibility (even if it is one-sided) so the fans gets loud in their support in hopes that Gosho (or other party related like Mai kuraki the singer for most of Detective Conan songs) will change the status-quo if coai (a pairing that have lots of ship teases - or the characters are so interesting together with their personalization) becomes more "popular".

I hate it when readers try to force their ideas on the author/creator - let them do their ideas and experiment and see if it works or not (which should be on fanworks world). Although in Gosho's case, I don't think there is reason to fear that but many webtoon creators are young and new to this all and inexperienced so they may bow to the immense pressure of the fans. -> there's many examples in the webtoons already as many unsatisfied readers have the webtoon ending with the ship that 'majority' didn't want like My Deepest Secret, Nice To Meet You!, Edith et cetera

Those webtoons also the example of the ones that didn't have any author note episode at the ending, in fear possibly if explaining why the character a not means to be with c, or technically there's no pairing become canon

Gosho is experienced indeed, BUT in the manga world making - editor is holding the key as basically try to make popular series going as long as possible ~ and if doing so fuelling ship wars by adding teases scenes especially towards triangle love, so be it. It sucks for both the author and readers actually, but it happens anyway. For the creator or author to can't write what they're actually want. For the reader of the intended pairing shipper as they are seeing the characters they're ships getting 'flirty' with other character that likely their NOTP. Or for the reader of the unintended ship as they're been fed by false hopes that their ships are means to be 'as canon'. I am also talking about constant ship wars at Oshi no Ko with Kana vs Akane btw, I love Kana more so I am mad if she's getting mocked espc by the Akane/Aqua shipper - but I also know that Akane - Aqua relationship is special in their own way even thou not that healthly.

I stopped reading Marionetta because the ship war too (the Sahed fans attacked the Tonny fans really hard) -> this the result of ship wars, this make fans to decides to stop enjoying the series for entirety which is very sad.. It's technically not the author's fault but as the fandom becomes toxic. Of how toxic and poisonous a fandom could be it's another nother to talk about and I won't talk it here.

The (ship, be it intended as well unintended) teasings happen in a lot of things: media, series, books, manga…to fuel the readers to become interested longer (thought only for the ship). It is a common thing nowadays and I don't like it at all.

-> A good story should telling what their own story properly, and shippings should be the spices not the main ingredients. So, a story should be a story based not ships based.

I disliking the ship wars as the pain, hurt, tiringness which could resulting to the fandom become toxic in intense war as pointing out why 'their ship is superior, and other ship is doomed'. This totally unhealthly, both for other part of the fandom espc your NOTP shippers AND YOURSELF as being constantly on edge to proving your ship. Why not taking steps back, letting out a long breath - and enjoys the ship that you like without hurting others happily? You, as the reader (or if the medium of series isn't visual, then watcher or anything else), is always part of the fandom that making up popularity of a certain series. If you are gone as getting tired or getting swept up by the toxicity of ship wars, didn't it hurt to the creator of your favorite series - or your friends at the fandom that you used to be like before ~ as realizing too late that you're gone?

P.S if curious:

As a shipper on multifandom, here characters that I ship on different series - which are heterosexual pairings, and well personally no hate towards LGBTQ+ just if them making NOTP I am simply disliking and avoiding the following pairings. No amount of others' arguments telling me about 'reasons your ship sucks' will ever change my opinions regarding my OTP, and I hope it's understable without seen as too hard headed - I won't bashing any characters that become part of my NOTP. I always respect anyone opinion, but I also hope that respect is a dual-interaction too so it'll become "I respect you, and please respect me too".

OTP stands for 'one true pairing' while NOTP stands for 'not one true pairing' which usually if the character a and character b that making up a pair (or more if polyamory) is paired up with other character else. So I am only limiting a pairing on each work series, but doesn't mean I didn't have more characters that I like to ship. The list of my OTP are the following with consist on various media indeed :

Jodie Starling (Saintemillion) and Shuuichi Akai | Okiya Subaru [Detective Conan | Case Closed]

Princess Gwendolyn of the Pastel Kingdom, and Prince Frederick of the Plaid Kingdom [Cursed Princess Club - webtoon]

Kaneki Ken | Haise Sasaki and Touka Kirishima [Tokyo Ghoul]

Severus Snape and Lily nee Evans [Harry Potter series]

Jellal Fernandez | Siegrain Hart and Erza Scarlet [Fairy Tail]

Nagisa Shiota and Kayano Kaede [Assasination Classroom]

Gojo Wakana and Marin Kitagawa [My Dress Up Darling!!!]

Kana Arima and Aqua(marine) Hoshino [Oshi no Ko]

Remi and Blyke [UnOrdinary - webtoon]

Adashino Benio and Rokuro Enmadou [Twin Star Exorcist]

Kinomoto Sakura (or Princess Sakura) and Syaoran (Li) [Cardcaptor Sakura : Clear Card Arc + Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]

Suchan Jang and Huijin Park [Jungle Juice - Webtoon]

Chrome and Ruri [Dr. Stone]

Mai and Prince Zuko [Avatar the Last Airbender]

Sena Kobayakawa and Suzuna Taki [Eyeshield 21]

Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata Hyuuga [NARUTO]

Saguru Hakuba and Akako Koizumi [Magic Kaito]

[jackoshadows]

Why do you think there is so much animosity between Sansa fans and Dany fans? I can understand how conflict comes up between Sansa fans and Arya fans given the conflict between the characters but I can’t figure out what the issue is with Dany fans vs Sansa fans. It can’t JUST be because of shipping, right? I’m a big fan of Dany, Arya, and Jon, but I still do like (canon) Sansa as a character and honestly see a lot of similarities between her and Dany. Their stories have definite parallels and anti parallels and I don’t really know why I don’t see anyone else talk about it. Every time I try to talk to a Sansa blog or a fellow Dany blog about it, I never hear back. What gives??

I don't like the both siding in this ask. Sansa fans keep spewing hateful nonsense, farcical theories and made up headcanons in the form of 'intellectual' discourse in the Dany/Arya/Jon tags and then when book fans of those characters respond, the so called 'neutral' bnfs pretend both sides are to blame.

All this explained very clearly here.

And while I personally feel that Dany and Sansa have very little in common as characters, there's a lot of fandom metas/essays/gifsets and fanarts paralleling these two as fandom faves. You should be able to find them on many of the character blogs if you are interested in that sort of thing.

IMO, Daenerys is clearly written as a tier I main character. She drives her story more than any other character in the series as the sole representative of her house and considering how isolated she is from every other POV character. The story in her POV is about her.

If we are looking at parallels, then it's Daenerys and Arya who have a lot of commonality in their way of thinking, their concern for the little guy, in their ideas of justice and dispensing that justice, right and wrong, their toughing it out on their way to the top, their proactive nature in getting things done, to be in charge, their love of nature etc.

With respect to the increase in toxicity from the Sansa fandom post show, then yes, that's because of shipping and Jonsa. A lot of the hate that the character of Daenerys gets is from Sansa fans - especially on Tumblr - because of her foreshadowed future relationship with Jon Snow and they want fanon, self-insert Sansa to have Dany's plot importance and story in the books. It's different on asoiaf sites like Reddit and Westeros.org - the majority of Dany hate on there is from Stannis/Jon Snow fans who are not big fans of a female character being the prophesied chosen one/top dog of the series.

And I point to shipping being the big reason because of my personal fandom experience on this site. This is me going down memory lane but I remember around 2015/16, I wrote these angry, frustrated posts calling out the TV show for taking Jon's book plot and writing that for show Sansa and Sansa's actions in the Battle of the Bastards in season 6. At that time a lot of Dany fans were also big Sansa fans and attacked me for being a 'misogynistic dudebro'. I am not naming names - shit's in the past - but I used to get blocked and get hateful inbox messages for criticizing show Sansa's actions.

During season 6 there were so many posts about Jon Snow being an useless idiot who deserved to die, Sansa was right to not tell him because he's a moron, Sansa's the politician/general who knows best, she deserved to be queen, Jon's the worst for stealing Sansa's birthright else Sansa and Dany would have ruled as best queens of westeros etc. - all from Daenerys fans!!

This was some kind of superficial notion of girl power with Sansa and Dany girlbossing around Westeros, bow down before these Queens sort of thing and fuck the actual book story. Arya was never included in these conversations because she did not wear dresses and Maisie Williams was not conventionally beautiful like Emilia Clarke and Sophie Turner and therefore did not fit into these Girlboss headcanons.

And then before season 7 was when we got the leaked spoilers of Jonerys meeting at Dragonstone. And this was when the full toxicity of the Jonsa shippers was unleashed. This was when we got 'Political!Jon' and all sorts of vile hate for Daenerys and more and more Dany fans started to react to that hate from the Sansa fandom.

Fandom always, always influences our likes and dislikes of characters (This is why I stay away from some fandoms - I don't want to end up hating characters) And this is what happened here. The Sansa/Jonsa fandom was so vile that a lot of Dany fans on tumblr stopped stanning for Sansa.

Fast forward to 2019 and the same Dany stans - again, not naming names but the very same Dany stans - who attacked me for being a sexist, male dude for critiquing show Sansa in season 6, started critiquing show Sansa when Dany got the same treatment that Jon, Arya and Bran got before her with the show tearing down these characters to prop up Sansa. Suddenly it was no longer misogynistic to call out how these characters were being torn down in order to prop up Sansa when they share scenes with her 😂😂😂.

That’s why I don’t hold much stock in words like ‘misogyny’ and ‘sexist’ randomly thrown around without context by the stans of female characters to attack people for critiquing said female character. I have been at the receiving end of this for years from the Jonsa fandom because I call out their utter nonsense.

The sexism and misogyny occurs when a female character is criticized for doing the same thing a male character is praised for - for ex. Daenerys gets a lot of this because she has parallel arcs with Jon Snow and very often she gets attacked for doing the same things that Jon is praised for. Even the show did this - Dany getting unfair flack for executing traitors when Jon Snow and the North do it all the time. The sexism is in how Arya gets attacked as being ‘male-coded’ because she’s not the right kind of girl. The sexism is in the slut shaming and commentary about how Daenerys is not the right kind of rape victim. The sexism is in the popular theories like political!Jon - wherein Jon Snow turns into LF 2.0 and sexually manipulates and seduces a rape victim.

Sexism is not simply liking a male character or critiquing a female character - there needs to be context. One does not simply throw around these heavy words simply to attack other bloggers to win fandom points. The word then loses it’s meaning.

So yeah, I ended up going on a tangent about my fandom experiences when the show was running. I do think a lot of the beef and toxicity in this fandom comes from shipping and Sansa fans wanting her to be something she is not. They want her to be a tier I main character with the story revolving around her love life as she Disney princess rules the North with sewing and dancing. And this leads to them diminishing the actual main characters and taking away from main characters to give to her. Naturally fans of the main character are going to push back against this.

And Sansa is a classist, sexist character and so her fans espouse classist, sexist viewpoints to justify her actions. Their love for all things 'traditional' and sticking to the status quo - 'Jon being KITN would be boring, he should stay a bastard, Arya being lady of WF is not right as she does not want to wear dresses, Dany will be mad like her father she can't escape her genes, Tyrion is doomed' etc. is based on Sansa being a traditional, pro-status quo character. Hence why there is so much clashing of ideas and discourse happening in the fandom.

So yeah. Honestly, I am just tired of seeing all these posts bothsiding fandom drama and making it seem like all the stans are equally responsible when the majority of fandom toxicity is started by stans of one character - Sansa - with the result being fans of other characters pushing back against their nonsense.

[itsclydebitches]

With all the talk about Blake's bisexuality lately, I wanted to revisit the stream where this is "confirmed." I think it's really important not only that Blake's sexuality hasn't been confirmed in canon yet -- a fact which RWDE fans have explained ad nauseum and I won't rehash here -- but that our external "confirmation" is so tentative that it still leaves room for doubt. And that right there is the problem.

That video includes:

Arryn initially ignoring Blake's sexuality as a similarity between them because she "wasn't sure she was allowed to say that." If this were a 100% confirmed, established, 'We planned it from the beginning' bit of characterization, there wouldn't be any hesitation about what they're "allowed" to discuss in a stream. I'd understand the hesitation a little better if Blake/Yang were getting confirmed in the upcoming Volume and the crew was avoiding spoilers... but that wasn't the case.

"I think it's pretty obvious." You're either confirming a fact or you're not. Why the emphasis on what the audience should "obviously" be taking away? And as established, after the Golden Age of Queerbaiting there is no "obvious" reading when homophobic writers and executives can dodge a confirmation at any time.

"I confirm nor deny canonically, but in my headcanon? Oh, that's a whole other story!" This is LITERALLY dodging a confirmation. We are told outright that the crew cannot confirm that Blake is canonically bisexual, but they do support it in their own, RWBY imaginings. That's great! That's also, as explicitly stated, not canon.

The video link I could most easily find is attached to a RWBY Reddit thread titled "Arryn has basically confirmed once and for all that Blake is bisexual." There should be no "basically" in that sentence.

This is why so many fans are wary: because these kinds of "obvious" implications without an explicit confirmation is the definition of queerbaiting. That's what you do if you want your audience to stick around without actually producing a queer relationship. You put a blush here, a forehead touch there, a nudge-nudge-wink-wink from a VA, a comment about bisexual bobs, a ship-inspired song, a "Wait and see ;)" and, and, and ... and then you end the show with nothing ever coming of it. Or, it's a last moment addition so the writers never have to actually write the relationship. This is why Supernatural was (and in many ways still is) the most overt example of queerbaiting. It's not because fans saw the potential for a relationship between Cas and Dean, but the writers never capitalized on it; it's because the writers LOADED the story with "obvious" references and innuendos, spent YEARS having Misha, Jensen, and other cast members talk about the "obvious" love between them... and then just continued on their merry way for fourteen years, doing nothing with it, before throwing out a one-sided confession + death in the final hour. Fans were taught precisely how "obvious" a queer character can be without actually existing.

As a bisexual woman watching RWBY, I want confirmation of this relationship and, furthermore, I have more hope for one than I would have a decade ago. I'd be more willing to put my money on these "obvious" references amounting to something in 2023 than I would have back in 2005. But those of us who are old enough to have been active in fandom during that time know that just because many shows have gotten better about their queer rep doesn't mean that every show is going to follow in their footsteps. I do wonder how many fans who take a "basically" as undeniable confirmation are on the younger side, with "younger" meaning... under 25? Because I can't imagine anyone who was immersed in popular media back then coming in with such confident takes built on so very little, or having such faith in a company with RT's reputation. We've been blessed with the likes of She-Ra, Owl House, Steven Universe, The Last of Us, and a wealth of other stories that have fought for and/or introduced queer rep, and I wonder if those raised on that bounty literally can't picture a show that would tease a popular ship so extensively and not bring it to fruition. The unexpected downside of getting more canonical rep is that there's a generation of viewers who are ignorant -- or at least appear ignorant -- of the history that gave us shows like Supernatural, Sherlock, Teen Wolf, Buffy. And if you're older still, you're familiar with the age of television when a canonically queer character wasn't even a possibility, but that didn't stop writers from both building the show around fans' desire for representation. Sometimes that was done kindly with coding that, legitimately, was the most they could hope to air and showcased the writers' own desire to diversify television... and sometimes it was cruel.

I've said a hundred times that I hope Blake/Yang shippers aren't hurt in the way so many older fans have been, either due to deliberate queerbaiting, or RWBY getting cancelled before a relationship can truly develop. We all deserve to have such prominent confidence in writers treating their queer characters well. But we can't allow hope or personal certainty to blind us to reality, not when that's resulting in a completely unnecessary antagonism within the fandom. And the reality is that no, Blake hasn't been confirmed in the show and her "confirmation" outside of it does not meet many fans' standards -- for very understandable reasons. I can say categorically that I have never seen anyone erase Blake's bi identity because that identity doesn't truly exist yet. The ambiguity of her attraction to Yang is precisely why queerbaiting is a problem and why RWDE folks call so loudly for a 100% canonical relationship: it's too easy to shrug off such moments as a "sisterly" thing, to use the unfortunate words of Arrowfell. And if you scoff and go, "What? Sister don't act like that!" then you don't understand queerbaiting. You don't understand the history of shows writing THE most "obvious" coding you've ever laid your queer little eyes on and then going nowhere with it. That's the point. That's the point! The entire point is to make the relationship as "obvious" as possible so that fans will stick around, praise the show, celebrate rep early, push everyone else to watch it...

...and then fall apart when the relationship never happens.

I hope to god that's not RWBY's future, but after three years of just a single hint each (hand-holding, blush, Blake's fury over Yang's "death") and the lack of hints in the Volume 9 trailer, please don't go after fans who don't have unwavering confidence in the girls' queerness being canonical. Posts that acknowledge Blake's attraction to men, ambiguous attraction to Yang, or point out the comparative wealth of straight confirmation compared to the queer coding aren't attacking queer fans. Those posts are written by queer fans who know precisely how quickly the "obvious" ship can get tossed aside. Or worse, the queer character never really confirmed as queer in the end.

RWBY can ditch Blake/Yang. They can shrug and say that a bi Blake was just Arryn's headcanon -- weren't you listening when we said it wasn't canon? They can make sweet apologies and explain that they never intended the animators to make that so romance coded. You know, just like they never meant for Clover to wink at Qrow. Real talk: I personally can't imagine having this much faith in the show after that fiasco. We got the EXACT same kind of coding (wink + bashful look + "obvious" romance tropes like their opposite semblances) and the ending was Clover dying a bloody death, Qrow hating him, and the writers backpedaling from the idea of an attraction like nobody's business. That set off SIREN alarms in every RWBY fan I know who understands queerbaiting history, but so many others appear ignorant to the warning signs. I'm not saying examples like this means we won't get queer rep in the title team, I'm saying it explains others' hesitation. RT has made no promises, is not beholden to their fanbase, and does not have a good history with its queer rep or its queer employees. If you're a queer fan who has confidence in bi Blake in the face of all that, fantastic, more power to you, but those who are wary aren't your enemy. They're also queer fans, just those who have been burned enough in the past and have learned not to put their whole heart into what they might not get. What we're likely to get? Probably, but you know what they say about counting chickens...

I just wish fandom was better about learning from these past experiences -- listening to older fans and acknowledging that history with an open mind -- rather than learning through another awful, first-hand experience. Though I'm crossing all my fingers and toes that this never happens, I wonder how many RWBY fans might be fruitlessly warning others someday if their queer rep crashes and burns.

[princess-of-the-corner]

So I just learned something interesting that's shocking still happening. apparently, the reddit side of the fandom is shaming/bashing Nino for "unnecessarily" revealing Alya was still active back during strikeback..... while ignoring the fact that had he kept his mouth shut and done nothing, Alya could have gotten seriously injured or even killed

Honestly like.

I'd understand if they were talking about Rocketear, where he really didn't need to tell Adrien(who as far as he knows is a total civilian who never used a Miraculous) about their identities. Like buddy boy was in Breakdown Mode™ so I don't hold it against him too much but still it's a fair thing to side eye.

But yeah in /Strikeback/? it was about saving her, not something done frivolously.

THAT FUCKING SAID

Considering the only person Ladybug ever benched was Chloé despite several identity reveals? No one should be shocked that Rena is still active like???? Did everyone /genuinely/ think that Rena was benched just because they hadn't seen her in a few weeks despite literally every fucking Hero only coming out on occasion?