#this is a consistent problem in fandom and life in general

[blood-orange-juice]

I realised I have a problem with the "Childe has cPTSD" idea that has been getting popularity in fandom, but it's probably more because of my gripe as a psych professional with the concept of cPTSD in general.

It's an understudied disorder and it's not yet in the DSM-V. Therapists use the term because it's better than nothing (they have to treat people regardless of whether we have a comprehensive theory of how humans function) but as it is now it simply clumps together too many things.

It started with a very reasonable thought that prolonged exposure to moderately stressful events can be just as harmful as One Huge Trauma, and also that the effects or prolonged exposure to stress will differ from only experiencing something once.

Sadly, the most common scenario in which a Western person (the type that has access to therapy and gets to talk about it online) can get cPTSD is child abuse. This means in the cases that are studied and discussed cPTSD response to prolonged stress is mixed with developmental trauma (all kinds of insufficient parenting and a child's needs not being met), attachment trauma (not having a stable relationship with a caretaker at a very early age when attachment strategies are formed), relational trauma (any trauma gotten in relationships at any age) and just general reaction to abuse (and all the damage to agency and self-worth that comes from it).

cPTSD of a person who came back from a war will differ a lot from cPTSD of a person who was raised by an abusive parent. There are similarities, sure, and it's important to recognise that a bad family situation can be just as damaging as being in an active war zone (in that sense the term has done more good than harm), but these two people won't have the same self-concepts and coping strategies.

The concept of cPTSD can be very useful if you are trying to understand what is happening to you personally or to explain it to your therapist (or to find a trauma-informed therapist), it isn't bad. But you can't say "this character has cPTSD" and derive meaningful predictions about his behaviour or self-image from it. It's too much of an umbrella term.

So, back to our boy. Bad things only started to happen to him at 14 and it's different from someone being consistently traumatised from an early age.

Does he have hypervigilance, bizarre strategies of self-regulation, at least some amount of dissociation, occasional attention problems and intolerance to helplessness? Yeah, probably, his lifestyle would do that to pretty much anyone. Prolonged stress just does that, doesn't matter how badass someone is. Some negative beliefs about himself are also likely. Difficulty with connecting with others is a given (everyone else lives in a different reality, how would he even begin to connect).

Does he have relational trauma? Also yes, we all do. Some justified guilt and anger over how things went? Not necessary but very possible. Some irrational guilt for things he couldn't control? Again, not necessary but I could roll with that (it's a common response to helplessness. guilt is easier to stomach than the loss of control).

Would he behave like a child abuse victim, thinking himself completely worthless and constantly doubting and pitying himself? I don't think so. He looks like a person who has never been abused in his life. It's very fun to write and I understand the appeal of it (I'm probably occasionally guilty of that too) but it's simply not how he's portrayed in canon.

He wouldn't think of himself like a child of narcissistic parents would either (having to be the best to prove his right to exist). He was long past the age when he could have gotten that type of trauma when Abyss and the Fatui happened to him. Also his resilience comes from somewhere and I think it's from having a loving family. Sure, it wasn't a perfect family (I have a lot of questions for them) and now it's irreparably messed up even more but he does look like a person who was loved as a kid.

[edelgarfield]

i love shadowgast, i think their journey together learning how to be better people & healing is beautiful.

but nothing annoys me more than when Caleb gets all the credit for Essek's redemption arc, or when Essek's relationship with Caleb is automatically placed on a pedestal above his friendship with the rest of the Mighty Nein.

because it is straight up untrue. it wasn't even Caleb that did most of the legwork reaching out to Essek, it was Jester. Yes, their magic lessons, and Caleb's understanding went a long way towards showing Essek that he could change, but Jester was the one who consistently and repeatedly reached out to him. I am of the firm belief that without Jester, the Mighty Nein would never have gotten past Essek's initial standoffishness.

And furthermore, Caleb was Essek's friend first. I don't think it's ever been confirmed, but IMO most of Essek's initial attraction to Caleb was 1) academic 2) performative, and any genuine physical or romantic attraction didn't start developing until post-reveal. I'm not even convinced Essek was romantically interested in Caleb, or at least able to identify it as such, by the END of the campaign. Essek values Caleb primarily as a friend and any romance on top of that is a bonus.

Essek's relationship with Caleb is not inherently more important than his friendship with the rest of the Mighty Nein just because they're dating. He loves all of them, and expresses that multiple times at the end of CR2. It was their friendship that changed him, not his interest in Caleb. Caleb values the Mighty Nein's friendship more than whatever budding romance he had with Essek. Essek's entire life doesn't, nor should it revolve around Caleb! Caleb is an important part, yes, but he values and needs the love he receives from the rest of the Mighty Nein just as much.

As someone who's aro/ace-spectrum and has little to no interest in romance, every time I see Essek's relationship to the Mighty Nein reduced to his relationship with Caleb, it feels like a slap in the face. It validates my deepest fear that I'm just an accessory in my friends' lives, and that no matter how much I love them or what I do for them, I'm inevitably going to be discarded when someone they want to date comes along.

People will watch 500+ hours of a show that emphasizes over and over the importance of friendship and platonic love then turn around and reduce it to romance alone.

[calware]

oo ooo i saw your posts on june and vriska in rapid succession so i wanted to ask: what makes vriska a trans character? if you can’t articulate it yourself, can you lead me to someone who can?

sorry it took me so long to respond to this; it's just that there's truly so much to say. WARNING this post is so so long

vriska being a trans woman has been incorporated in official homestuck works like pesterquest and homestuck 2, which i could start with, but i think it's better to start with how it was conceived of by fans. i've only been around the fandom since mid-2019, so i can't give a very detailed overview of anything before that year, but i can tell you that for years, fans have picked up on themes from her character that resemble and represent the experiences of trans women and transfemininity overall. because of this, i'm going to be linking quite a few posts from others, both because i would otherwise just be repeating something someone else has said but also because it's these readings that have influenced my own reading of the text. this is a topic that is, at times, very subjective, and because of that, i think it's important to recognize that everyone has a slightly different reading—even if it all adds up to the same conclusion—and i want to be able to show the ideas that my reading stems from

before i get into the transfem reading of her, we have to first be on the same page on what her character is telling us within the story. in general, vriska is an incredibly complex and nuanced character, so there is a lot to jump into right off the bat. the fairly surface-level understanding we can get from vriska is that from birth, she was intentionally and deliberately molded into a weapon by the people around her. this leads to a lot of problems, obviously, but focusing on how this affects her is the important part here. she faces daily expectations on how to behave and feel; she's supposed to kill for survival, and she's supposed to like it, to the point where she's desensitized to it. this leads to her not growing healthily; she desperately wants to be more mature than she really is, she struggles to maintain friendships, etc.

Everything about what's happening here is wildly overcompensatory, meant to repair damage she's done without really having to face what it is she actually did. Aradia's extremely passive nature as a ghost makes her an easy target for this kind of overbearing attention. Because what Vriska seems to want most is acknowledgement, and more importantly, to foster strong reactions. Good or bad, love or hatred, this seems to be what she demands from everyone. So for that reason, Aradia's impassivity seems to add fuel to Vriska's sycophantic need to make amends. Not caring much one way or another about what Vriska does is guaranteed to drive Vriska crazy. Neutrality is insufferable to her because it makes her feel irrelevant. Being irrelevant is her biggest fear and ultimate enemy. She struggles to keep herself in the spotlight, and when the narrative is finally done with her and tosses her into the gutter, she fights her way back into relevance. Fighting against the forces of narrative marginalization completely define her entire batshit arc, from her introduction here all the way to the end of Homestuck. – Author Commentary

more notably, on friendships, she lashes out (as she has only been taught to do), which drives others away from her. then, when she doesn't know how to cope with the loss, she lashes out further, creating a vicious cycle

she also looks at the hardships she (along with everyone else) endures and has accepted them as "normal life"

she enforces that on others (tavros, most blatantly) as 1) the only way she knows how to "help" and 2) out of anger for others finding peace when she is unable to. with all of this together, she is consistently regarded in bad faith by others (both in and out of the story), becoming more and more isolated

it's only when terezi (through john) gives her a second chance that she's able to break the initial cycle

now, if you've never thought about it before, you might be wondering, "what does this have to do with her gender" and to that i will remind you that most aspects of alternian society are heavily gendered. for example, lord english/doc scratch's oppressive influence on the planet is a pretty strong symbol for the patriarchy, and practically every instance of oppression on alternia goes hand-in-hand with misogyny in some way. another one of these aspects is the castes themselves; highbloods specifically are referred to as male-dominated castes, putting vriska in a masculine context, something she strongly pushes back against. she leans into femininity with desperation (i.e., asking kanaya to sew a dress for her mindfang/summoner roleplay). and, to that point, she idolizes her ancestor in both her ruthlessness AND femininity. going even further, she does this to the point where she forces herself into a specific conventional feminine ideal—not because it's what she wants to be, but because it's what she thinks a woman should be. she struggles hard with her role not just in the cerulean caste, but also as a woman. as she does with her caste, she consistently fails to live up to gender expectations, unable to be a woman "correctly" in the eyes of society. it's a bootstrap paradox. again, these things go hand-in-hand. now, that's a pretty broad overview of everything, but this post is already pretty long, so we're going to move on

now we can look at it through a transfeminine lens, asking "what would a transfem reading of the character add to what already exists?" there probably isn't anything i could say that hasn't already been said by victoria (doomsdaydicecascader) so i'll link her thoughts here

another analyst i feel is crucial to include is valerie (stabvariation), who has a collection of posts on their own transfem vriska reading. make sure to click through all of them and come back here (this is an older blog of theirs btw, their listed pronouns are outdated, they go by they/them). the reason i bring up valerie in particular is that during the 2019 toblerone hunt, someone found one of the toblerones and, in continuation of the june reveal, saw an opportunity to pitch transfem vriska to the current team (they mention an essay, but i'm not sure if it was ever completed as i was never able to find it). that last post by valerie is the pitch; we can assume that it worked because 7 days later, vriska's pesterquest route was released with some pretty direct indications to her being a trans woman. this is where we leave the Fandom zone and enter the Official zone. we are no longer being subjective and are now being objective

(which to me means that their posts hold some significant weight, in my mind. and, even if it was by coincidence, and this had been written into the story in advance, i think they make good points and that they're worth including)

outside of pesterquest, vriska's now-official transfemininity has been given some nods in HSBC with the hell-tier rungs:

now, nods are nice, but the meat/significance/message/etc of this implication is once again on the reader to extract from the text (back to the subjective zone). for example, ado (gendertrickster) posted a reading on how vriska's recent developments as a character intersect with her being trans, which to me makes me think about the demonization of transfemininity throughout our society and the stigma that surrounds trans women... especially in the context of caring for children due to stereotypes of being predatory, & the fact that she's done the work to improve herself and break the cycle adds another layer to her development as the new kids' pseudo-guardian. vriska being a trans woman changes the context of this development significantly, making it 100 times more meaningful to her arc overall. and i'm sure that there are other things to add to this as well, but hopefully by now you get the point

something i want to mention before i wrap this post up is that i place emphasis on subjectivity/objectivity and what originates from the fans vs. official content not because i see subjective/fan readings as necessarily lesser than what's officially stated or what's word of god. i'd argue that they both have their own unique strengths. i think that there's a lot of power in being able to form your own perception of a work of fiction, or where readers build off of each other's ideas. what does it mean to YOU? granted, most of the time, fandom takes just kind of suck. but i think that this is one of those special cases where people came together to make a really meaningful reading of an already significant and impactful character. the stength of something being official (or even "canon") is that it's an undeniable representation of a marginalized community, something else that holds power on its own. but i want to recognize that it doesn't mean much without you being able to look at the text, read between the lines, and decide what you think it MEANS (let alone deciding if those official works are actually "good"..... frankly i think vriska's pq route could have been better). anyway i just wanted to elaborate on my thought process with the way i wrote this post & view these sorts of discussions in general)

did anyone actually read this extremely long post? (and yes, the linked posts do count). if you made it all the way down here i'm giving you an award

[spiralghoul]

Batfamily fans don’t mischaracterize arrow characters to prop up bats when you’ve very clearly never touched an arrow family comic in your life challenge IMPOSSIBLE EDITION!!!!!!

Like I so desperately don't want to come off as one of those asshole comic fans cause like I so genuinely want people to know these characters and this wonderful story telling device. This industry which has a lot of problems but is so fascinating and has such a rich history, like I really do want more people to get into comics. I literally keep a beginners list of comics that's digestible stories that aren't like a list of random issues which can be kinda intimidating to new fans. I try to keep it updated for characters and if I don"t have the character their looking for I'll go find a few ppl that do and like do a quick vet to see if they seem to know what they're talking abt and give that to them and if anyone is interested in that pls hit me up let me know I genuinely love introducing ppl to this world!!

Its just so frustrating watching your favorite characters get constantly mischaracterized to such an extreme extent by other people in the fandom and then have that be the general consistence of what they're like when its so far from how they act in the actual comics that are about them!! and then get told that I'm wrong even tho i can literally back up what I'm saying with panel proof from multiple runs! Its not even contained to the fandom IT HAPPENS IN BAT BOOKS TOO!! Bat book writers constantly change arrow characters to fit their story lines and make the bats look good and I get it that's how it works these are paper dolls that have been used for over 80 years and have had hundreds of people use them. They're meant to be molded to fit the current story the writer wants to tell but its frustrating cause then people will ignore all of the books that center them and just take batbooks as being word of god for all characters.

[lenodrysalad]

"Eddie said he's straight! Buck said Eddie was straight! Buck said he's not in love with his best friend! They shut down Buddie in the show it isn't happening ya'll are delusional! Queerbait! Queerbait! Blah blah blah"

I feel like I'm going insane. I'm sure we're all tired of people shouting "media literacy" every five seconds, but like... Yeah, develop some media literacy, please.

I'm saying this as someone who doesn't usually like romance, despite being subjected to it in basically every piece of media. As someone who doesn't generally look for love stories. As someone who loved Buddie but didn't consider any serious possibility of it becoming canon before season 7/8, who refused to believe Buddie was truly happening until I couldn't deny it anymore: this episode is loud.

Please understand how narrative arcs work. How character arcs work. How character development works. How serial broadcast television works. Understand how writing works. Consider context; take the whole episode, the whole season, and the whole series into account instead of treating things like they exist in isolation.

I'm too tired to go through the step-by-step details of the episode to prove why these, "they said it on screen, therefore..." takes are shortsighted and ignorant; plenty of people have done that already.

But that episode, even if we do take it in isolation, is textbook. Do people really take everything characters say at face value? Do people not watch other character's reactions? Listen to what else is being said? Watch what is being shown? Consider the implications? Themes? Narrative devices?

Consider that maybe, just maybe, characters can be unreliable narrators, or believe something to be true only for that belief to change later. These things don't happen in one episode. There's such a thing as set-up, foreshadowing, the starting point of a plot. 911 is a serial drama, therefore it is going to have A) long-form story and character arcs, and B) drama.

Characters are not going to move in straight lines, or talk in therapy speak, or solve every problem in an hour. They are not always going to be right, or self-aware, or truthful, or rational. Direct dialogue does not equate to honest dialogue.

Also, saying, "well in real life, people do this, I do that, their feelings would be this, yadda yadda yadda" means nothing. Your experiences are not universal, and more importantly, this is a work of fiction. Realism is whatever the story says it is; it's going to do whatever creates the most dramatic, interesting, developmentally beneficial, or emotionally satisfying story. Whether you like that story or not is irrelevant to the fact that stories are not going to cater to all your expectations or real-world experiences.

To people pointing to Tim or the actor's interviews as "proof" they're shutting down Buddie: again, please understand how broadcast television works. They are not going to tell us everything that's going to happen before it happens. They are going to play the neutral zone, the "wait and see," the "will they/won't they." They are going to lie. That is television production 101. You can compare what they've said in the past with canon and list all the contradictions, misdirection, and twists you didn't see coming because they didn't spoil it for you. Watch the show. That is the canon.

They're also not catering to fandom--people they already know are devoted to the show, familiar with Buddie, and consistently tuning in. They're introducing the idea of Buddie to the general audience, people who likely haven't considered the possibility before. The GA has to see that Buddie is an option, so the show needs to manifest it as if it's a brand new concept. This episode pulled the pin on that grenade in a very obvious way; the idea that Buck could be in love with Eddie and that Eddie could not be straight has been planted. The next seed will be Eddie's feelings. Now the show needs to water it and let it grow.

One last thing. Been seeing a fair amount of hand-wringing and condescension over people interpreting this episode differently. As if this is some sort of "gotcha" for bad writing, baiting, or people being stupid. Listen, genuine complaints about this show's writing aside, different interpretations or inferences are completely normal. This isn't unique. That is how people interact with stories, through personal biases, experiences, emotions, and expectations. That isn't inherently a bad thing. It's totally fine to have your own views; media is all about interpretation.

However, it is also true that just because you have an interpretation, that doesn't make it true. Not all interpretations are equal in their validity, evidence, or warrants. The show has an intention, it has a story in mind. If you don't see it, sure, that could be a failure of the writing, but it could also very well be a failure of your analysis, especially when the show hasn't finished telling the story. Looking at one thing in isolation and forming your whole conclusion based around that makes for poor critique.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see who's right.

[musicalmoritz]

The common misconception that Akane has no personality outside of Aoi is a sign of immaturity among many fans, in my opinion. This isn’t really their fault, seeing as the majority of the tbhk fandom is on the younger side, but it’s still something that should be noted

When people say this, they are talking about his hobbies. It’s true that every hobby Akane has is something he started to impress Aoi. I’m of the firm belief that he stayed on the Student Council because he enjoys it but that’s slightly up to interpretation (it could also be a way for Teru to keep an eye on him). However, in general, Akane doesn’t seem to have much going on outside of Aoi. His favorite food is something he imagines her baking for him, he joins clubs based on what type of guys she shows interest in, the books he reads all have a character that shares her name, and when she asks him what he enjoys, his response is “I like you, Aoi.” He’s even shown to zone out of conversations when Aoi isn’t mentioned. This is clearly unhealthy, though he does eventually learn to give her some distance which is beneficial to the both of them. But he still doesn’t seem to actively engage in hobbies that have nothing to do with Aoi

This is a consistent character flaw, but it does not mean Akane has no personality or character outside of Aoi. This is where the immaturity bit comes in, kids want to describe themselves entirely based on their interests. With the rise of fan culture and the internet, many adults do the same. It’s not just a young people problem, it’s an issue of how we identify ourselves. We like to put people into categories, understanding them based on their hobbies and careers. These are very important elements of identity, but they aren’t everything. A person with no job and no hobbies is still a person. They might struggle due to having no outlet for their creativity, but they are a person nonetheless

Fandoms notoriously love to understand characters based on their niche interests. Aoi is a gardener, Hanako loves the moon, Nene plays idol games, Teru has a very sad life. These are absolutely elements of their characters, but there’s more to them than their hobbies. They have personalities too, goals and passions outside of what they do in their free time

Akane puts his all into helping others, he takes his Student Council duties very seriously and keeps his hands full during every school event. He is a very empathetic character, able to understand characters like Aoi, Teru, and Nene without them having to tell him what they need. He’s competitive, as seen in his friendship with Teru. He’s romantic, as is the driving force of his character (and romance is a perfectly acceptable goal, marriage is one of the most common things for a person to strive towards in life). He’s violent and overprotective, striking down any man who makes Aoi uncomfortable. He’s emotional, prone to fits of joy, anger, and tears. He’s easily annoyed and carries a chip on his shoulder, but that doesn’t stop him from wanting to help people. He hates supernaturals because of how they hurt others, and despite his stance as a School Mystery, he is so painstakingly human. He can be aggressive, especially when someone he loves is trying to do something self-destructive. He cares so deeply for people, wearing his heart on his sleeve. He’d stay up all night playing video games if it made the girl he loves happy, but he won’t attack Teru for having genuine feelings for her. He’s incredibly loyal. He’s also casually bisexual so there’s that

Idk there’s just so much more to Akane’s character than people give him credit for, I didn’t even cover everything. Remember when you’re analyzing a character, it’s important to look deeper than “they enjoy this” or “this is their job.” Akane may devote so much of his life to Aoi, but he is still his own person, whether he realizes that or not

I am begging ya’ll to stop throwing the “no character outside of Aoi” allegations at this man

[milkywaydrinker]

I've been rotating this thought in my mind for a while: People in fandom have a very weird fixation on age gaps.

There's a tendency to instantly assume an age gap is always bad or problematic but it's not the case at all, especially in fiction and doubly so for a human/non-human ship.

The most recent example would be Kit and Jentry (from Jentry Chau vs The Underworld).

Let's start from the general topic: When is the age an issue?

Most rational people acknowledge age gaps are pretty common in real life. Between adults, an age gap isn't as much of a problem because we're dealing with people on the same stage of life, a 24yo shouldn't have any issues dating a 30yo just by the virtue of one party being older. They're both years into adulthood there's no moral or legal argument to make there.

A 30yo dating an 18yo raises eyebrows because we recognize the difference between their lives experiences, it's still not immoral or illegal but many would find it suspect due to a potential power imbalance compounding with financial dependence or adult life experience. It still doesn't necessarily mean the relationship is exploitative or abusive just because of the age gap but the probability of it is way higher.

The age gaps between minors can be similarly suspect just as in a case of a minor and a freshly minted adult. Things like that need to be carefully evaluated on a case by case basis.

Now, to the point: fictional characters dating non-human/long lived/immortal characters when is it problematic and when it doesn't matter at all?

The fictional narratives often play around with what age means for an immortal character, how they perceive the passage of time, how they grow and change with time, if at all?

In case of Kit, the narrative positions him in a similar spot to Michael who's a regular highschooler. He behaves in ways consistent with a teenager too, socially clumsy, not very developed emotionally and impulsive just like Jentry. The only mark of his age we can see is the compounded trauma he carries with him.

He has no social advantage over other characters, no financial advantage, no maturity advantage as his lived experience in society is so different and fragmented he cannot reliably pull from it to have an upper hand in any way.

That's why it personally drives me a bit crazy when people pull the age gap card as if it matters when it's the least relevant part of why he should never be together with Jentry. With so many other, serious red flags about him, throwing an absurd "pedophile" label diminishes the angles of possible character interpretation. It makes people miss out on all of the things that are actually wrong with him that should be talked about more and are leagues more interesting.

[cantmakeyouloveme]

Random rant about fandoms that nobody asked me for but I feel like writing about: I think some people should just use YouTube and Pinterest.

I think at this point we've all heard the phrase "let's go back to when fandoms were for freaks" and while I miss that too, I think I like the phrase "let's go back to when people in fandoms knew what being in a fandom consisted" better because I can't think of any fandom on any social media that isn't plagued with people who are in fandoms but hate everything involved by them.

This has been going on for years now and it was progressive, but I sometimes find it unbearable to constantly read things like "it's not that deep", "why do people argue about this, we should just make/watch gifs and that's it", etc. Like obviously there are things I find "ridiculous" to discuss, but I find those things ridiculous outside of fandoms too not just in them (ex: most things related to physical appearance).

Fandoms are community, they are spaces created by and for people who share the same interest to interact, share and discuss ideas about that piece of media they have in common. Like any human community, there are going to be people who agree with an idea and people who don't, but that's true of any social interaction. It's not something that can be avoided, even in the fandoms of the "simplest" media you can think of.

The basis of fandoms is the interpretation and dissemination of ideas. If all you want to do is watch the series/film/interview/etc and look at gifs/fan art/edits/etc, you should consider just lurking on YouTube and Pinterest, because if what bothers you most about fandoms is interaction and discussion, then I don't think they're for you.

There's nothing wrong with fandoms not being for you, they are recreational spaces after all. A lot of people (like me) enjoy that interaction as a way to escape from everyday life for a while, even if that interaction involves discussion, but some people don't and that's fine! You're not less of a fan, or a worse fan of something/someone for not wanting to interact with their fandom. At the end of the day, we all want to escape our problems for a while, and if that discussion affects you or creates anxiety, your priority should be you and your peace, therefore you should consider stop interacting with them. I know it's hard sometimes because of emotional attachment, but if you suffer more than you enjoy a fandom, that's a problem. It's supposed to make you happy and clear your head, not create discomfort.

That annoyance that your fandom generates in you is reflected in your interactions. They show that you're genuinely not enjoying it, and that often causes other people to stop doing it. On social media there are many ways to filter, mute and block content, you don't like something? Ignore it, not difficult. You don't have to be interested in or have an opinion on every topic in fandom, it's not a requirement of them. You can choose which discussions to participate in and which not to.

Of course I roll my eyes too when I see Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande fans fighting over who has more stage presence on Twitter, but I don't need to get involved and let everyone know how idiotic I find that conversation. I don't pay attention to it, if they want to fight let them fight. Just because I say "hey, don't argue" isn't going to change anything. That's why we have to know when to pass by and ignore. If the conversation matters to me because of X or Y, I give my opinion, but if it really "doesn't interest me", why do I give it? The only thing I generate is bad feeling for myself, because my one opinion doesn't have the power to change everything. If you enjoy giving your opinion on anything and it doesn't cause you stress, do it! But if you are aware that it does, what's the point?

The media is there to analyse it, discuss it, re-interpret it, create more media based on it, etc. I don't accept that anti-intellectual bullshit "it's not that deep, the producer of this film/writer of this book didn't do X thing intentionally". If you don't want to read interpretations, don't voluntarily look for interpretations. Nothing and no one forces you to participate in a fandom. You can be forced to participate in many other social interactions, but not this one. If you don't like them, it's as simple as leaving.

"This fandom is extremely toxic" is it really that toxic on the level you're talking about, or do you just think that when everyone is discussing and exchanging ideas, everyone is fighting and suffering and this creates stress for you, even though they can be totally fine? Besides, I speak not only from my own experience but also from the experience of many friends, you can argue and seem to be negatively affected and in reality it is indifferent to you, not a problem. So even if the argument seems to "super affect" those who make it, it's not so in many cases. You who see it interpret that because that's what they communicate, but what they communicate is not necessarily what they feel.

The fandoms are drama because all media is dramatic. You're supposed to be here to scream about problems and situations that don't exist in your job/family/studies/etc. Every conversation is a "non-serious issue". You don't have to talk about "real issues" all the time, learn to have fun. If every time you see someone arguing about anything, you automatically just think that person is miserable and suffering because of fandoms, you are the one who is actually miserable and suffering because of fandoms, because if your first interpretation of any interaction is with such a negative outlook, you have the negative outlook.

No matter what your fandom is about, you are here to create your own world, your own adventure. Engage with fan art of that headcanon ship, read/write that rpf story, post your personal interpretation of that song you like that is probably not the original reason the artist wrote it, put together characters from various fandoms, do whatever you want. You have so many rules already in your day to day life, why do you want to put rules on your fun? What the fuck do you care how the others finds a way to not suffer so much from this horrible system we live in?

When I say "fuck the police" I mean the fun police too. Be gay, do crime <3

[boundless11]

Yes! The entire apology scene made Sam’s actions seem more harmful than Tory’s. And that’s the problem!

I completely agree with this and absolutely hated that apology scene. It unfairly painted Sam as the aggressor while making Tory look like the victim, despite Tory being the one who had done all the instigating from the start. Tory had already made up her mind about Sam when Aisha invited her to the country club and when they met, Tory said, ‘Oh, the Sam,’ with obvious disdain. Then, when Tory boasted about stealing the liquor, Sam calmly warned her that she could get into big trouble—just being a decent person. But instead of taking the advice, Tory rudely snapped back with, ‘What are you, a nun?’ Sam didn’t escalate and let it go.

Later, I get why Sam accused Tory of stealing Amanda’s purse—Tory practically bragged about being able to steal anything. If Tory hadn’t run her mouth, Sam wouldn’t have suspected her in the first place. Sure, Sam grabbing for Tory’s bag might have been too much, but Tory shoved Sam into the food table, escalating the situation again.

At the roller rink, Sam was actually polite. When she realised Tory worked there and Tory made a snide comment, Sam even apologised, saying, ‘I’m sorry, I just want to order drinks.’ But Tory instigated once more. when she saw Sam talking to Miguel and later deliberately tripping her. When Sam retaliated, both she and Robby were kicked out and the smug look on Tory’s face said it all. She clearly enjoyed causing trouble.

At Moon’s party, Tory started things again, goading Sam with a snide remark like, ‘Oh, I bet drinking isn’t your thing—more like tea parties, princess.’ Sam finally took the bait, but when Tory lost the drinking game, she couldn’t handle it. She fell off the stool, humiliated, and stormed off. Then she started a massive fight at school over Sam kissing Miguel, even though Miguel kissed Sam back. Tory’s behaviour shows she was looking for any excuse to target Sam. She even told Miguel to date other girls to make Sam jealous, proving her relationship with him was more about antagonising Sam than anything else.

How does that make Tory the victim? I don’t care about her home life or her sick mother—those circumstances don’t excuse her actions. If her home life was so overwhelming, how did she even have time to get involved in all this karate drama? Tory cut Sam’s arm, attacked her multiple time and showed no remorse, yet Sam is the one being forced to apologise? The only physical harm Sam ever caused Tory was kicking her ass when Tory deserved it.

Tory has consistently been the instigator and it’s frustrating to see her actions downplayed. The narrative unfairly favours her while making Sam seem like the bad guy, which makes absolutely no sense. Tory has never been the victim here—she’s always been the one looking for a fight.

Tory fans—and Sam haters in general—always seem to forget these facts. They cherry-pick moments to make Tory look like a victim while ignoring her repeated, harmful actions. It’s frustrating because the narrative and fandom bias against Sam is completely unwarranted. Tory has never been the victim here—she’s always been the one instigating the fights.

[paragonrobits]

There’s a phrase I like to use when people question why, in fantasy series, people don’t just take the most efficient and ruthless option. I say, “This isn’t Game of Thrones.” Bluntly put, apart from having a very unsatisfying ending to its character arcs due to a realistic but very abrupt swing from the character arcs it had been building up (and in one notable case, a character arc that WAS built up the whole time, but not in a way people anticipated), Game of Thrones is most notorious for a very realpolitick approach to how the characters make their decisions.

Efficiency, immediate needs and ruthlessness regardless of personal qualms comes up a lot in what people seem to have taken from that show’s success, and you see a LOT of people thinking that pragmatic ruthlessness is the most basic and standard solution to any story’s problems, regardless of whether or not its consistent with a story’s given themes and morals.

The Avatar setting is NOT one of those. In this setting, spirituality is vitally important; the reason WHY things are done, as well as HOW they done, are just as important as the actual end result, if not more.

So, one thing I see a LOT in fandom circles (usually in bad takes floating around and being mocked by the circles I am adjacent to, or ideas popular among Big Name Fans who are kind of sheltered from the actual themes of the show itself and have distanced themselves from what the show is actually like in favor of what is functionally a completely original series that appeals to their own preferences) comes down to discussions arguing that AtLA would be better if Aang just took down every one he fought and killed them all without hesitation; there is a popular implication among these ideas that Aang is considered weak to them BECAUSE he doesn't want to kill. Because killing is anathema to his people, because the deliberate taking of life is a HUGE deal to both the Air Nomads and the real life religions that they are based on.

These takes conclude that none of that matters; that his morals and compunctions should just be immediately tossed aside in order to achieve his goals. There's usually something like 'who cares about spirituality when the world is so bad' or the ends justifying the means. And the thing is that we DO see characters in AtLA saying that, quite often. Characters who don't care about the spiritual consequences of their actions, who do whatever it takes to accomplish their goals.

They're the villains.

In AtLA, ruthlessness, pragmatism and 'whatever it takes to get what I want' is SPECIFICALLY and EXCLUSIVELY associated with the antagonists. General Fong; Azula, Ozai, the entirety of the Fire Nation... one thing they all have in common, besides opposing Aang, is that they're not just willing to be ruthless, they have no interest in achieving their goals or really doing anything at all without being ruthless and amoral about it. There's a common point in the narrative here, and I think the episode the Avatar State neatly sums it up through its story, as we are presented with Fong, who is seemingly an ally, demanding that they ignore the spiritual demands in favor of just weaponizing a force of nature no one involved really understands.

His emphasis on the people dying in the meantime does make for a potent image, but he is ultimately and frequently established as a ruthless jackass who cares more about trying to weaponize the Avatar State (and mere mortals do not get to have a say in its decisions or what the World Spirit, in its fullest power, wants to do). Apart from this indicating a more or less full departure from a strict moral binary within the series, there's also an emphasis on Katara growing increasingly uncomfortable with the non-spiritual plan they're taking, to the point that she won't have anything to do with it, and she is very much the show's heart. If she disapproves of something with plot relevance, its usually a bad sign.

So this whole THING you have with people going 'everything would be better if Aang killed everyone immediately except for the secret Good Guys even though he has absolutely no way of knowing them out of context'... its genuinely really bewildering and I think its kind of proof of people not engaging with the show's themes or ethics, but assuming that ruthlessness and efficiency are the default way of handling everything. AtLA is not subtle about this and if you think that the show at any point suggests that this is a likely outcome, I don't think you're really engaging with it, or you're misunderstanding the context (such as the Ocean Spirit rampaging being framed as a last second moment of hope; I think people conflate its destruction as generally a Cool Thing, rather than the world itself protecting a dying culture from near certain destruction as the moon itself is... well, dead.)

(There's also a protagonist-centered morality in that they seem to want their characters to BE rather amoral, being all about love and acceptance and tolerance but also brutally and remorselessly kill everyone in their way without hesitation, and the people making these statements don't see any kind of logical flaw. I dunno but that's WEIRD to me.)

[starryjkoo]

Oh we gotta talk about how the narrative changed again on Wooga. Remember how they kept claiming JK was the new wooga member and how it proves how close JK is to them and that they too know about TK blah blah and how Jk was the only member around them. While completely ignoring Hobi invited Wooga to his party and Hobi was one of the members who were actually hanging out with Wooga without Tae and went shopping with them and he was the member Wooga and Tae talked to, in Friendcation. Then they ignored Wooga talking about Jimin on a podcast or how now Tae's Wooga Bestie is showing up and now hanging out with Jin. And suddenly them cultist are awfully quiet, since Jin's episode. They can't run with the narrative anymore JK is the only member around them, when that is proven not true. And the grandaddy of them all, them fighting for the life ignoring Jennie hanging out with Wooga and her even posting them on her IG, posing for pics with them and her bestie dating one of them. They really tried to pull that exclusive shit and got shut down numerous times. Nothing special anymore, unless this means Tae is dating Hobi, Jennie, JK and Jimin and now Jin. I love when Karma comes knocking them down.

It does annoy me tho how when Jimin or JK are around each other's friends its a problem, but with Wooga, suddenly its accepted by everyone. Typical hypocrite fandom as always.

(sorry for the late reply to this, normally if I wait too long for anons I just leave them because it’s awkward but I already had this mostly drafted so 😭)

Yeah, they are very selective.

It’s funny how they ignore vhope’s entire relationship in general when they’re actually very close. Remember the private vacation in Hawaii with their families? Wasn’t TH one of the only members at JH’s sister’s wedding, TH being singled out as one of the members who supported JH the most during his solo promotions, JH still having TH’s flamingo plushie from Malta in his studio, etc. There’s genuinely a lot of vhope stuff and there’s consistency with it too. But acknowledging a lot of that would make specific tkk things not ‘exclusive’ anymore so they pretend they don’t exist.

And yeah I’m not really keeping up with their social circles these days but if you pay attention there’s a ton of overlap with Jennie/TH’s friends. And she has so many pictures/interactions with WS members just in general. Even JK seemed to get along with or clearly at least knows Jennie.

One of the things about TH & friendship though is that it feels like he literally knows EVERYBODY lol. I think he even went golfing with his dentist and other random actor friends at one point 😭 TH is super social, has friends everywhere, clearly likes to network, has no problem connecting his various acquaintances, is one of the members who seems to enjoy the celebrity lifestyle thing the most.

It’s cute that JK tagged along a bunch in CH2 and it seems like he became genuinely friendly with WS. I get why tkkrs (or ARMYs) would enjoy and hype that, but just knowing TH and his personality it doesn’t seem particularly unique or special as far as being something “exclusive” goes. And it’s also not surprising that things related to TH, his friends and social life have a lot more visibility than the members who are way more private about those things, eg Jimin who is the polar opposite.

The thing with WS though is that they’re clearly THs friends, JK doesn’t seem particularly close with them (even though he obviously seems very friendly with them, if that makes sense). Ofc I could be totally wrong, but the fact that they all ditched JK at that snowboarding place is kind of funny lol. I don’t personally think they’d do that if they were super close with him or he was a major part of the group (not that it’s a big deal or super serious, but compare that with JM indulging JKs every whim on AYS & clearly planning activities that JK would enjoy even if they weren’t his thing, including snowboarding).

Also in Jeju, TH went off to hangout with WS several times but afaik JK never met up with them? I could be wrong and maybe a picture will appear randomly, but from what I remember, it seemed like JK didn’t even go to say hello lol. TH didn’t even mention to JK that he was going golfing with them that morning either. So I think JK is decently close with WS and very friendly but they’re still very much THs friend group and it’s not like he seems genuinely integrated into it, at least from the outside. There was a point where he entirely stopped hanging out with them (at least publicly or going to their events) when he was busy again, but he still had plenty of time for his 97 liner friends, or his trips with Jimin (and I think TH went camping with WS when jkk were in Japan).

Also the thing about double standards is that JK has been hanging out with JMs friends for years? So again even by their own logic, that would make Jikook real then 😭? That one fashion guy who is friends with Jihope was even at JKs surprise 2019 birthday party iirc? I thought there was even some evidence he might have hosted based on some pics of his apt? (correct me if I’m wrong tho, like I’ve said on here before, I’m not one of those smart jkkrs with encyclopedic knowledge lol). JK was also with Jimin’s friends on White Day. So it’s not even just random recreational hangouts, he seems fairly acquainted with a few of them.

I think trying to understand JMs friendships is particularly difficult because he’s so private, but the fact that JK has hung out with several of JMs different friend groups throughout the years (Sungwoon, the London friends, Jihope fashion friend, and I think it was JMs actor friend with them on WD?) probably shows that JK is decently integrated into JMs personal life. Especially when those friends are generally not big public figures, are not trying to network or gain clout from JK attending their events or businesses, do not publicize these connections either. The fact that we even know about the few hangouts we do is really surprising considering Jimin has been spotted out so rarely these past few years and almost never mentions his friends publicly.

Jimin also seems to be decently close with at least one of JKs good friends, Eunwoo. He also mentioned on AYS that he went snowboarding with JKs friends (without JK lol) way back. So knowing each other’s friends seems somewhat mutual. Also there’s how close JM is with JKs family in general. But apparently all that doesn’t count according to tkkrs. Or you know, it’s scripted content and cosplayers.

I think it’s really sweet and cute that JK tagged along with WS a lot, not trying to downplay that. Tkk had a lot of fun hanging out in CH2 and JK clearly got along well with them. The element I really like w/ tkk sometimes is that TH really is JKs hyung and that’s a rare dynamic to witness from TH considering JK is his only dongsang in the group (& in WS). Having JK tag along with his friends, the ‘hyung is going first’ post before enlistment, introducing JK to people he might be interested in meeting (Park Hyoshin who JK is a fan of, potentially Bada Lee or random chefs lol?) is also nice.

I think TH looks out for JK in his own way and is very enthusiastic about their friendship lately. He’s clearly happy to be able to share things with JK and to share that part of his life with someone in the group (& that clearly extends outside of just JK, like you said the recent Run Jin episode, or WS going to JHs party. I don’t think all the members are always free or interested in some of those WS events). But I do think that TH enjoys having a lot of commonality with JK in recent years (especially after their drift) and they just get along really well in certain settings.

But yeah tkkrs trying to spin that as something exclusive for their ship doesn’t really work. And the vibe of the hangouts — gaming, bowling, snowboarding where JK was ditched lol — reads more like little brother or bros than a couple doing something with a close friend group. Same as JK leaving that one after party alone and in a weird mood. But then again, nothing about tkk reads as romantic, so you know.

As far as the fandom all I can say is that tbf a lot of the time we find out about those jkk hangouts/connections through sketchy pics like the white day situation, and the fandom tries not to acknowledge or circulate that stuff to respect their privacy. Jimin is also a lot more private about his friends compared to TH, especially in recent years. I bet a bunch of people don’t even know who that fashion guy is or Jimin’s one actor friend he’s been really close with in recent years.

A lot of the recent-ish tkk hangouts were also found out through sketchy pics though and were still instantly circulated through ARMY spaces, so yeah. The fandom is majority tkkrs (including non delulu ones, it’s still the most popular fictional ship, duo) so it’s not surprising that they’re always going to hype up those moments and push those narratives the most.

The amount of likes that tkk stuff gets is honestly crazy (I forgot how much the shoe in the sand pic was but it was some crazy high number) so I feel like the average ARMY is more likely to hear about tkk stuff whereas a lot of that stuff w/ jkk only jkkrs really know and talk about. The heart arch pics for example are pretty heavily circulated atp in jkk spaces but most ARMYs don’t even know they exist. But I saw those pics of tkks shoes from the ski resort alllllll over my ARMY non-shipping account right when they dropped lol.

I think the fandom in recent years has just gotten worse about invading their privacy though (& tkkrs have always been the worst about that) and that’s when a bulk of the tkk hangouts happened and that probably correlates. There are a lot of CH2 tkkrs and you can see how joining when they did really skewed their perception of tkk. (also not trying to claim that the majority of ARMYs don’t love jkk or anything like that, but there’s so many antis even if they are a minority it’s still a massive amount of people and has an impact)

This ask ran way from me lol. But yeah, tkkrs are very hypocritical and clearly do not pay attention to their relationships with the other members, including now WS and their relationship with the other members lol.

[tossawary]

Looking at various queer media analysis video essays is reminding me of so many giant fandoms that were big when I first got into online fandom, but which I never really fell into personally for a variety of reasons. Like BBC's infamous "Merlin".

I tried to watch it and generally found it cheesy and charming, especially the actors, though the secondhand embarrassment of the antics (I'm not great with many live action shows on this front, honestly) and the shallow worldbuilding (it was often very cool, it just wasn't very consistent) was often too much for my tastes. I didn't need the show to be more "historically faithful" exactly, I kind of like how silly it is, but it often felt kind of... ungrounded and arbitrary. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll ever be able to get into it.

The main problem (which is SO subjective) was that I wanted Uther Pendragon dead SO BADLY that any attempt by Merlin to save the king's life was intolerable to me. I couldn't hang around long enough to actually see Uther's death happen. The ethics of that show were ALL over the place, which is not necessarily unsuited to Arthurian Romance and the figure of Merlin specifically and can create really interesting conflicts, but I kept wishing that Merlin had met Nimueh and became her villainous apprentice in the first episode instead of imprinting on Gaius.

[angelshizuka]

Okay maybe it’s because I’ve been getting more and more YT videos in my recommended feed about how much people dislike this show, but I’ve been trying to figure out why people hate Helluva Boss to such a vitriolic degree?

At first I thought it was homophobia, but a large majority of people who have either turned against the show or never liked it in the first place ARE queer themselves, some even saying the show’s values are very conservative citing how the show condemns hypersexuality and pushes monogamy and family life as the ideal life (I don’t personally think it does but I’m not queer so I don’t think I should speak definitively on that).

And then I thought maybe it is an issue with the writing. And if I can extend an olive branch: the writing in Helluva Boss is a very mixed bag. It’s very rough in the beginning mainly with how it struggles with tonal consistency, plot structure, and it having trouble prioritizing its characters.

Okay those are all very valid criticisms of the show. Here’s the thing. I have watched other shows that ALSO had these problems mainly in the beginning. Some shows outgrew these flaws (The Owl House), some didn’t (Amphibia), and some doubled down on their problems and created even more problems (Miraculous Ladybug).

But unless a show actually gets outrageously bad, I have NEVER seen a show get lambasted the way I have seen with Helluva Boss for either normal writing flaws that are a result of a creator’s first show ever AND the nature of indie projects lacking a certain degree of structure, or because people have jumped to the absolute WORST faith conclusions about the story, its characters, and its themes.

The writing of Helluva Boss isn’t perfect, but it is very heartfelt which is something I feel has been lacking in a lot of shows lately, and that’s why I’m still invested in its story and characters.

So I gotta wonder…is it JUST because of Vivienne Medrano? Is it JUST because she has had a controversial and albeit problematic presence online?

Is it also because it’s an indie project and you’re a lot less likely to get blacklisted from the industry for going after an indie project than you are for a project backed by a major corporation?

Because I can’t help but feel like this show would not be getting this degree of hatred if Vivienne Medrano were someone who didn’t have a significant or any online presence.

At least from what I've seen a lot of the hate comes down to purity culture that has been a problem in fandoms in general the past decade, so HB and HH aren't "clean" to these people.

Honestly, I'm just gonna say it. Even if these "critics" are queer themselves, a lot of their arguments are still rooted in (internalized) queerphobia, because THEY act like queer people, including queer rep in media, needs to be "pure" in order to be valid. Instead of seeing queer people like the imperfect and flawed humans we are (not to mention queer people can also be bad people).

I've talked before about how HB and HH feel like the (pre-purity culture) fandom of a show being the actual show itself, so it makes sense so much of the hate is similiar to how "the wrong kind" of fandoms are hated by people who can't even tell the difference between fiction and reality, because they genuinely believe the "morality" of a fictional character perfectly alligns with the writers and fans' real life morality.

I definitely agree HB and HH aren't perfect and it would be interesting to discuss their flaws if the "critical" crowd hadn't ruined it. Though, I do go a bit easier on them because they're Viv's first indie shows (HH technically isn't indie anymore, but you get what I mean), but even if I were to hold them up to corperate show standards, even then I'd still consider them better than most corperate shows I've suffered through in recent years.

And the hatred for Viv as a person in general definitely plays a big part in it, too, because I've seen so many "critics" bend over backwards in any way possible to find ways to try and blame her for literally everything, even though she's far from the only person working on these shows and it's literally impossible for her to keep track of everything that's going on.

[antyoneelse]

(Screaming about Beetlejuice Beetlejuice into the void):

Even if Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has a lot of problems with it, I can’t say I disliked it. I mean, I saw it five times— maybe my fixation goggles are on too tight, but I enjoyed it for what it was even if the original movie (and cartoon!!) are leagues above it. Here are my thoughts (mostly about the characters and their stories).

I was very dissapointed with Delores’ story, as a lot of people are. I wasn’t super interested in her from the start, and that makes me seriously dislike her overall… but if she were actually given more screentime, more plot relevance, and a bigger part of the climax, I am sure she would have been amazing.

I thought Astrid was a brat, and I do love her, but fleshing out her motivations better would’ve been, y’know, a Helluva lot better for the story. This goes in line with Richard— we don’t see him until halfway through the movie (unless you count the few seconds of him in pictures), and maybe I’m dense but that really disconnected me from him as a character and plot point. His only use is to create and then fix the drama between Astrid and Lydia. His character design is really awesome though.

Jeremy Frasier, I don’t really know what to say about him. I liked his introduction but I feel like his plot with Astrid was the most normal in the whole movie, and took away the original Beetlejuice vibe so thoroughly, it was disappointing. Really disconnected from everything else, and just kind of solved through Beetlejuice in a useless, albeit funny, way. I don’t know, he drives the plot forward by making Lyds interact with Beej and keep the family in Winter River, but I don’t especially like him.

I actually liked what Rory added to the story, though I feel like it messed up Lydia’s characterization a lot. I guess since most of the exposition for Lydia’s life since the events of Beetlejuice 1988 were told verbally, we missed out on a lot of what makes adult Lydia who she is… who is very different from the generally strong, moody, but troubled kid she is in the original. Now that I’m thinking about it, it really felt like I was just looking at Winona Ryder in goth clothing. I love her, but it didn’t feel the same. Rory was a dumb jerk, but I love hating dumb jerk characters.

Beetlejuice himself was probably my favorite part of the movie, though he was less strange and unusual than he was in the original. Fun visual gags with him, he’s still witty, Keaton is in his 70’s and still playing him and that itself I think deserves some praise.

Also, Delia was flawless, I don’t know whatever else to say about her. I love Delia no matter what lmao, only one who made me consistently laugh throughout the movie. Catherine O’Hara rocks.

I think the biggest issue I have with the movie is how reliant it is on verbal exposition, since we’ve missed years of the characters’ lives. It makes some things not make sense on the first watch-through, and frustrating on consequent ones, and messes up character believability to a really sad extent.

All this being said, I still really love the movie. Maybe when my fixation wanes I’ll have more mixed feelings, but I still appreciate it for being the catalyst that got me involved in the fandom, and I still think it’s really fun to watch.

If you read this far, thanks! I am very mentally focused on Beetlejuice right now, and would love to be friends if you are, as well. Having conversations about the plot (be it movie, both movies, musical, cartoon, or hypothetical plots) would be really awesome.

P.S. I do NOT fw the Beetlejuice baby I am throwing that thing in a meat locker and leaving it there. I hate it.

[monetmightexist]

Been thinking about the ao3 scrape. Looked into it, and I feel its important to acknowledge, first, the fact that every website that was scraped has had their datasets either disabled (temporarily, though it's highly unlikely that nyuuzyou will win any of their cases) or deleted. AI programs on HuggingFace cannot be trained on any of the data that was scraped. This specific iteration of the problem is, from what I can tell, solved.

But it's still incredibly concerning.

Someone could just... do that. Steal millions of works, both writing and art, and then have the audacity to fight against the DMCAs they've recieved.

Now, as idiotic as it sounds, I don't plan on restricting my fics. I've had a good number of guests leave kudos and comments, and I respect their decision to do so anonymously.

As much as I'd hate to have my words reused in a generator, I have to remember that I have faults.

If my fics were fed into a robot, it wouldn't stop talking about the character's eyes and eyebrows. It would have those random typos I keep making in Fish in a Birdcage. If left unflitered, it would curse randomly and rather excessively. Would it know what to do with page breaks? Would it be able to learn my exact usage of italics, or would it just guess randomly, if at all? If it were trying to replicate my QSMP fics with other languages scattered throughout them, would it be able to recognize that and just start throwing in random spanish or french without reason? Or would it start making shit up, not having a translator built in because the laziest person alive didn't consider that because the fic was labeled as English?

There are a large number of chatfics on ao3. If every single piece of fanfiction was thrown into a robot, I wouldn't be surprised for a piece of narration to be randomly interrupted by a youtube comment esque diologue. And maybe the shorthand typing would end up in the normal narration, too. Even if a person filtered out tags to reduce faults, there are still so many untagged fics. Not to mention, AI fics being fed into an AI generator will fuck up so much shit.

Authors make formatting mistakes. Authors forget punctuation. Authors may learn some CCS code to throw into a fic that would be incredibly hard to interperet. Authors throw headcanons onto characters that may change their gender, appearance, etc. The best thing about fandom is that each person experiences it differently. Trying to mix all of these into one will, with enough work I suppose, create a product that some people find to be acceptable. But it will be so harrowingly inconsistent and confusing that no one could ever fully enjoy it.

Ao3 is, quite possibly, one of the most diverse websites out there. Which makes it also a horrible training ground for AI, which has the sole capability of being able to follow directions consistently.

Yes, your works have been stolen. Yes, my works will probably continue to get stolen. Yes, it will suck ass, and some lonely bitch will manage to make a few cheap bucks off of it.

But all that matters to me right now is that AI never has the life, the ideas, the experiences, nor the expression that a human does.

[swashbucklerred]

Speaking of Kenny, it feels like he has the opposite problem in some fans' eyes? (I'm not going to pretend he isn't flawed himself, he is. But I feel like depending on how you see his perverted-ness, plays a lot on how you see him as a person. Especially in terms of morals, when it really shouldn't.)

(at this point i think i should clarify that i havent actually watched the newest episodes and am a bit behind, so if im missing anything major thats 100% on me, but i think if there was a massive 180 twist on anyones character i would have heard about it by now)

first off, lets get it out of the way: every single character in south park is flawed. i am never denying that. even wendy, who is generally the voice of reason (kyle is also the voice of reason but hes way more hot headed, while wendy tends to keep her cool a lo better) originally started off fucking insane. she flew a lesbian into the sun because the boy she liked had a crush on her! (a bit tangential, this links back to what i mentioned before about "character development vs retconning", where i think wendy being the (mostly) level headed liberal mouthpiece now is actually supposed to be retconning her earlier characterisation, especially since they were briefly using bebe as the voice of reason (bebes boobs destroy society) before switching their roles because m+t will die of 18th century diseases if forced to write a three dimensional woman)

that said, the fandom definitely has a problem where they exaggerate kennys perversion to the point hes a borderline sex criminal who should never be allowed near women (or smaller, weaker men, since people also do this when they want him to be the strong, dominant seme to his soft, submissive uke (usually butters)), when that is just not true at all

throughout the show, kenny actually treats women with respect. in tweek vs craig, he wants to be in home ec with the girls because its safer, and he never says anything to make him uncomfortable; they actually like him around, and hes only forced to stop taking home ec because the teacher thinks girls should only do girl things and boys should only do boy things. when he wants to trick or treat with the girls in the scoots, its not because he wants to hit on them, hes just lonely and wants to be friends with them. even during the ring, when he DOES want his girlfriend to have sex with him, he prioritises her comfort and happiness and agrees to the promise ring because its what she wants, and he NEVER pressured her into doing anything she didnt want to do! and in fbw, if you play as a girl, mysterion doesnt say anything pervy, he says he has the urge to protect you

the idea that kennys some sort of uncontrollable sex pest comes down to how he has an inappropriate interest in sex (he hit puberty early and his father leaves porn around the house where he can easily find it (exposing a minor to pornography is a sex crime btw just so were clear here, and if youre able to laugh it off with kenny bc hes the comic relief (and people rarely take the sexual abuse of boys seriously) then can you at least think about karen)) and he is 9 years old so he thinks grossout humour and words like "boobies" are funny, which his friends also think is funny, but kyle doesnt get saddled with the "perverted misogynist sex pest" label by the fandom

but generally, kenny is a much harder character to analyse than butters because what kenny represents is much less clear. hes not used as consistently or clearly as butters, and the writers intent is less in-your-face obvious, so we cant cross-reference how his actions relate to his archetype or what real life group hes supposed to be satirising because... he isnt really satirising a real life group. most of what we get from him was an unintentional side effect from 30 years of them using kenny for whatever and his character stacking up overtime, even when they care about him much less than they do stan and kyle (or even, like... clyde 😭)

so at the end of the day... not many interpretations of kenny are wrong, perse. but i think so many suffer by boiling him down to the "comic relief pervert" trope, with only vague references to mysterion or karen in context of "he might be a perv, but he has a good heart deep down!" as if its what justifies him not being put on a list. theres SO MUCH more to kenny if you actually dig your teeth in! you can get a LOT out of the little bits of characterisation they sprinkled in throughout the decades. he is NOT just an uncontrollable pervert, and if you want to treat him like one then no one can stop you but its so obvious where youre coming from when you make kenny some ultra macho sex pest so you can pair him with your sweet and innocent, never did anything wrong, a gust of wind could knock him over Leopold "Butters" Stotch