#especially a big one and/or a popular ship

[transfaguette]

Remember when that staff callout went around when they got accused of being a TERF, nazi and creep for having HP ship art, for liking one of the most popular animes worldwide and for sharing completely SFW aged-up art of the two Spy x Family kids blushing at each other and then Tumblr users acted like they’d just discovered watergate?

I think about it all the time.

Especially cuz the blog that was trying to “call them out” or w/e got banned and people lost their mind when like .

well i would hope frankly if I worked for a social media company and a user with a following started trying to incite harassment toward my account, that they would do something about it! especially considering they did break TOS, lol. Like I get the frustration with moderation prioritizing tumblr staff, but what kind of work environment would it be if they didn’t.

I remember reading the google doc that went around about it and it was literally like, “making the presentation the night before” level of quality. 0 substance. It literally just said “they like attack on titan, one of the most normie animes of all time, uhh you connect the dots.” it just cemented how much i can’t stand the funnyguy cult of personality type bloggers on here. they will tell someone to kill themselves and get banned and be like “WOAH WOAH WHATS THE BIG IDEA”

#making this not rebloggable cuz its old drama but yes i do think abt it frequently #asks #and this ISNT to say aot doesn’t deserve criticism #but i think we can also say those elements went over peoples heads and liking it is not indicative of their political beliefs lol

[raksh-writes]

Finally finished editing that months-old post-canon VP fic, omgg 😩 Hopefully I can write my rambling notes tomorrow and post it too! That'd be nice.

And now gotta go and try to get some sleep, wish me luck 😪

#Raksh posts #oof this thing was hard to edit #lots of rewriting has been done #but at the same time I was in a MoodTM while writing it so I could only edit so far #anyway Im glad i Finally managed #and can hopefully post smth again! feels like its been years 😩 #Im So excited #but its also nerve wracking posting for a new fandom #especially a big one and/or a popular ship #Ive only ever posted for small fandoms or rare pairs so Im kinda nervouuus 🙈 #anyway now I gotta go try to get some sleep #will my insomnia problems continue? probably #but I wanna get back to actually sleeping in my own bed goddammit 😩 #theres an emergency plan involving getting my pillow and duvet into the quest/previously my bro's room #and trying to sleep there in case #but ugh I kinda dont wanna #so hopefully my brain fucks off finally together with my anxiety and they let me sleep in my own damn bed 😬 #😤* #well anyway Im rambling and doing too many typos #off to bed #post the fic tomorrow #and then maybe write more for the sequel or finally get into chap 2 of the sugar daddy AU hmm #its Pete's pov and I feel like I have a much worse grasp on him so he might’ve been fighting me a lil #but Ive also been feeling real sick the last couple of weeks so oh well who knows #ooookay #off to sleep -- good night/day/evening everyone 💗

[ink-the-artist]

I know this is like... unsolicited advice but have you considered moving from Redbubble? Aren't their royalties/artist margins on things waaaaay lower than other print on demand services?

this is my first time hearing that🤔 I looked at society6's margins a while ago and I think I remember it being about the same as redbubbles, but i haven't checked out much else so i don't know. if anyone has recommendations for other places to sell I could just sell on more than one lol

#i make p good money on redbubble especially for not having to really do any work for it #i mean the art itself obv takes work but I'm not making art specifically for redbubble id make art anyway without it #but i dont have to print or ship anything myself just upload the designs #also a p big benefit of redbubble over other print on demand services is #redbubble is super popular theres a ton of people on that website so there's more people to discover your art there #it’s also the only one I’ve actually ordered something from before so #I have an idea of the quality of their products

[dearlystars]

i do think it's interesting to think about how a lot of the time when people analyze queer couples in fandom that even when talking about like. f/f couples and the way that fandoms treat them but then kind of just... don't look at a lot of very popular f/f ships just because they're not in super mainstream (or even just like. popular with the tumblr/twitter/tiktok crowds) media. like when analyzing fan reaction and gathering around f/f why have i never once seen people discuss things like madohomu or rarijack or utenanthy or [INSERT BASICALLY ANY SHIP FROM AN ANIMUSIC FANDOM HERE.] there are substantial fanbases built around these ships and they're practically unavoidable if you interface with these properties and while i do think there's a lot to analyze in the fact that nearly all of them come from specifically media where a majority if not just the entirety of the cast are women there's also just like? so much going on wrt the fan culture that these ships have that it's just like crazy to me to see these like never getting mentioned in video essays

#property of ruf #i do think a big part of it is how there's a lot of video essayists that seem to kind of just ignore animation when like... #that's where a LOT of sapphic ships thrive for many reasons #even outside of the fact that there's just generally more canon and plot important f/f ships in animation than m/m ones #(especially in popular animation) #i get that it's not super relevant to like fandom at large due to how niche a lot of these fandoms are (in the west at least) but like #idk i still think it's still valuable to look at in these wider discussions surrounding fan reception #need a video essayist to get their hands on shoujo kageki revue starlight so fucking bad this shit goes crazy #anyway if you read all these tags watch shoujo kageki revue starlight

[always-a-slut-4-ghouls]

I think someone put the brain of a mouse or maybe a squirrel inside my head at some point because all winter I was like “I crave nuts and seeds” and now that it’s getting warmer and brighter out my brain keeps going “it’s fruit time”

Like, modern transportation has made it possible to move many fruits all over the world (in theory) all the time! But the primal early plesiadapiform part of my brain is like “you must eat what is available this season”

#I was going to go with euarchonta or plesiadapiform brain but I think the early members of both of those groups were from a tropical #ecosystem. if I’m wrong though and either are from more seasonal environments I could change what I used #actually. wait. plesiadapis is from the late Paleocene. yes. but tropical plants have reproductive cycles too #do they generally vary by season or are they just doing it all at their own pace by species #I am from a very cold seasonal climate that gets hot af in summer but is pretty cold for a good five-ish months #not all equally cold #it’s bad for our environment if it doesn’t get cold as balls for a bit every winter #and we didn’t really get that this winter. but that’s not my point! #I mean to say I can’t remember how it works in tropical environments #if the plants just time their reproduction whenever in the year or if there are seasons for most plants at the same time #does that make sense? I’m using the primate-like-mammal. if it’s wrong then whatever #fuck it we ball #maybe I should have gone with a group further back in time but I couldn’t find climate info easily about things that far back and fuzzier #i am not the most familiar with primate evolution. especially early evolution of the group. I’m open to learning more #i just tend to fixate on certain other things like early mammals and horse and cat evolution #paleontology #emma posts #I like juice all year though #one day I want to try many varieties of fruits that I cannot access easily where I live because they can’t be shipped here #or they just aren’t as popular a variety on an industrial scale #maybe one day i will have a big greenhouse and i will be able to grow the banana varieties I want to try #I can see why some plant varieties aren’t grown on a large scale. some of these bitches are SUPPOSED to be able to grow in zone four but #they refuse to work with me! blueberries make sense. the soil here is nowhere near acidic enough and they would need to be in a pot or #whatever. ya know? but some plants just won’t! or I get them and then the weather here which would NORMALLY work is different that season

[skrunksthatwunk]

kazumaji fans where do we think they fall on this graph im conflicted

bc like. sometimes it's actually agonizing how blatant they are while still never being allowed to be together (i.e majima everywhere system. oh m.y fucking god dude) but sometimes it's more subtle though still Really Gay i.e. yakuza 3 and the fucking. movie. do we feel it's insulting or peak or smth else

#rgg #kazumaji #i'd also love to see this with other rgg ships tbh they're just a) the most popular and b) the one i've seen Actual Queerbaiting for #like. other characters have vibes but these are BLATANT vibes y'know #thinking about how golden age berserk is in the perfect zone. that shit drives me actually cuckoo bonkers i turn into a starved animal #every time i think a little too hard about how insanely homoerotic that shit is. but it's not to the insulting point. mwah #personally i Really Fucking Like kazumaji so i feel it's close to peak but maybe a little towards insulting for the studio's genuinely #wild choices like saying they're bound by destiny and hinging key plot elements on their bonds in games where they're not allowed #to speak to each other. and then that happens several times in a row (though 6/7 didnt have the plot element) #like. clearly their friendship is a big deal whether you think it's romantic or not. it seems weird to just write it out #especially in 4/5 where majima's still pretty important to what's going on or directly called on. 6 i understand more but those two? nah

[yioh]

genshin player’s switch up on sumeru characters will haunt me forever honestly i’ve never seen such a large amnt of people act so utterly fake in such a small period of time😭

#everyone really pretended they cared abt the colourism and racism HNDBDJXBXXJ #sumeru as a whole still makes me feel so uncomfy to this day with the weird ass storyline and colourism and whitening of several characters #but now everyone is just fawning over how sexy al haitham and kaveh are or how cute nahida is like #😭 idk man i can’t stand it #it annoys me soooooooooooo much #even worse how sumeru characters are plastered all over my social media everywhere #the switch up of how big of a deal everyone made the sumeru design reveal to be at the start only for their banners and character popularity #to be some of the highest ones #like . likeeeeee ………….. #feels so gross #anyways rant over i’m gonna stay in my lil mondstadt liyue bubble forever lol #not that those nations are perfect either but at least it isn’t tinged with the feeling of disgust towards fans 😭 #also the amount of racism and colourism i saw people blatantly show with the release of sumeru was so crazy it makes my skin crawl #anyways i rly hate like 99% of sumeru ships and i don’t get how everyone can just brainlessly enjoy this region’s characters at all #esp when they are all SO white it bugs me to no end in hate it i hateeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee #still so disappointed with kaveh’s design especially i think he was my last straw #i was hoping so bad he wouldn’t be some basic white bitch but he came out looking like btec howl PLEASE 🤨 #and the way everyone loves him just makes me hate him more lmfaooo #the most basic and boring design in the whole world it makes me feel Nothing at all

[arolesbianism]

(off anon so that it notifies me if you respond) you are so so so so so so so so real with your prsk/bandori ship preferences. unspeakably real

It's my aromantic swag 👍

#rat rambles #I am soooo picky with ships especially when it comes to popular ones as fanon does no ship any favors #and especially a lot of ppl just dont get that romance doesnt automatically make a dynamic better or more deep #in fact in fandom spaces it usually does quite the opposite #but I do have ships I like it just usually takes me a while for them to grow on me #unless its yukimoca for some reason. they were the first bandori ship I started liking and it was within the first month I think #honestly tho bandori is definitely the media where I enjoy the most ships and thats because well. its a yuri media lol #that does not stop me from having aro hcs ofc aro yuri is the best yuri #and sekai is just a whole load of couples I like well enough but am not proper invested in and a bunch of popular ships I low key hate #like its so hard being a kanamafu hater that doesnt think theyre inherently abusive I just think its boring as hell to make them date #tbc Im not a big fan of any 25ji ships but the popular bitches are annoying enough for me to bitch abt them lol

[astranauticus]

not to beat a dead horse but im watching todd in the shadows' debunking james somerton video and for some reason the one that really got to me was him disproving the 'detective chinatown 3's box office numbers were faked' claim with just .... no? it was just a really popular movie?

#asto speaks #like honestly i laughed like i think i watched that video with that claim in it before i watched the detective chinatown movies but like #its SUPER plausible for that movie to do absurdly well like a. the detective chinatown series is INCREDIBLY famous and popular in china #like the first two movies were MASSIVE smash hits #b. the lead actors are all super famous? like liu haoran is one of the big rising movie stars in chinese cinema #and this is the franchise that more or less made liu haoran #and wang baoqiang is also a *super* famous movie actor #also as far as i can tell dc3 being the japan one and therefore tsumabuki satoshi was gna be it also probably helped #oh thats another funny detail bc a LOT of people were there for the gay ship of liu haoran and tsumabuki satoshis characters #like dc2 set up their r/s but hiroshi noda (tsumabuki's character) wasnt that big in it but he was supposed to be a much bigger role in dc3 #like yknow. ironic in context #also 'holiday weekend' doesnt quite capture the impact that is 'released on lunar new year weekend' #like that is THE blockbuster time slot of the YEAR #especially since detective chinatown is such a. idk whats the word. patriotic sort of series #i mean its called detective chinatown. its about two chinese dudes going around the word solving crimes #also dc3 is riding the high of dc2 which was 70% shitting on america by volume #(also the movie that ruined welcome to new york by taylor swift for me wonder how much they paid for the rights to that) #i mean i dont *like* dc2 but i have to acknowledge that it was probably the most popular detective chinatown movie #like the detective chinatown movies are perfect lunar new year movies like day after the family gathering dinner and you got like #all these people and nothing to do like ok lets go watch a movie thats 30% cool people doing cool things 70% bullshit slapstick comedy #so yknow. this is really obviously a movie that was primed to do super well in every possible way of course its numbers are gonna be good

[g-kat423]

.

#so this is just petty but I know one of the biggest reasons apart from it’s dark themes why my fic isn’t getting much attention #and let’s be clear I’m grateful for the attention I’ve gotten and I don’t expect everything I post to become a fan favorite #however I think a big factor is that it’s not a x reader fic which is the most popular ship for this niche fandom #and my fic is tagged alcina/original female character #when everyone is probably sorting by alcina/reader #but I’m not going to mistag it as /reader just to get more clicks #because the current romance is very much her own character and not a self insert #but yeah like not gonna tag it as an x reader because I know if I were looking for an x reader when it’s actually x oc it would make me not #want to read the fic anymore just out of spite even though I’m 100% open to oc’s #especially within this context since there’s no one in canon apart from maybe Miranda I’d pair alcina with #oh and not to mention the fandom is significantly quieter than it was 2 years ago when I started writing #like the quietest it’s ever been so I know the demand for alcina fics in general had died down whether x reader or oc #but I’m having fun writing whether people want to read or not #but like obvi every writer who publishes works wants people to read them of course

[5ummit]

AO3 Ship Stats: Year In Bad Data

You may have seen this AO3 Year In Review.

It hasn’t crossed my tumblr dash but it sure is circulating on twitter with 3.5M views, 10K likes, 17K retweets and counting. Normally this would be great! I love data and charts and comparisons!

Except this data is GARBAGE and belongs in the TRASH.

I first noticed something fishy when I realized that Steve/Bucky – the 5th largest ship on AO3 by total fic count – wasn’t on this Top 100 list anywhere. I know Marvel’s popularity has fallen in recent years, but not that much. Especially considering some of the other ships that made it on the list. You mean to tell me a femslash HP ship (Mary MacDonald/Lily Potter) in which one half of the pairing was so minor I had to look up her name because she was only mentioned once in a single flashback scene beat fandom juggernaut Stucky? I call bullshit.

Now obviously jumping to conclusions based on gut instinct alone is horrible practice... but it is a good place to start. So let’s look at the actual numbers and discover why this entire dataset sits on a throne of lies.

Here are the results of filtering the Steve/Bucky tag for all works created between Jan 1, 2023 and Dec 31, 2023:

Not only would that place Steve/Bucky at #23 on this list, if the other counts are correct (hint: they're not), it’s also well above the 1520-new-work cutoff of the #100 spot. So how the fuck is it not on the list? Let’s check out the author’s FAQ to see if there’s some important factor we’re missing.

The first thing you’ll probably notice in the FAQ is that the data is being scraped from publicly available works. That means anything privated and only accessible to logged-in users isn’t counted. This is Sin #1. Already the data is inaccurate because we’re not actually counting all of the published fics, but the bots needed to do data collection on this scale can't easily scrape privated fics so I kinda get it. We’ll roll with this for now and see if it at least makes the numbers make more sense:

Nope. Logging out only reduced the total by a couple hundred. Even if one were to choose the most restrictive possible definition of "new works" and filter out all crossovers and incomplete fics, Steve/Bucky would still have a yearly total of 2,305. Yet the list claims their total is somewhere below 1,500? What the fuck is going on here?

Let’s look at another ship for comparison. This time one that’s very recent and popular enough to make it on the list so we have an actual reference value for comparison: Nick/Charlie (Heartstopper). According to the list, this ship sits at #34 this year with a total of 2630 new works. But what’s AO3 say?

Off by a hundred or so but the values are much closer at least!

If we dig further into the FAQ though we discover Sin #2 (and the most egregious): the counting method. The yearly fic counts are NOT determined by filtering for a certain time period, they’re determined by simply taking a snapshot of the total number of fics in a ship tag at the end of the year and subtracting the previous end-of-year total. For example, if you check a ship tag on Jan 1, 2023 and it has 10,000 fics and check it again on Jan 1, 2024 and it now has 12,000 fics, the difference (2,000) would be the number of "new works" on this chart.

At first glance this subtraction method might seem like a perfectly valid way to count fics, and it’s certainly the easiest way, but it can and did have major consequences to the point of making the entire dataset functionally meaningless. Why? If any older works are deleted or privated, every single one of those will be subtracted from the current year fic count. And to make the problem even worse, beginning at the end of last year there was a big scare about AI scraping fics from AO3, which caused hundreds, if not thousands, of users to lock down their fics or delete them.

The magnitude of this fuck up may not be immediately obvious so let’s look at an example to see how this works in practice.

Say we have two ships. Ship A is more than a decade old with a large fanbase. Ship B is only a couple years old but gaining traction. On Jan 1, 2023, Ship A had a catalog of 50,000 fics and ship B had 5,000. Both ships have 3,000 new works published in 2023. However, 4% of the older works in each fandom were either privated or deleted during that same time (this percentage is was just chosen to make the math easy but it’s close to reality).

Ship A: 50,000 x 4% = 2,000 removed works Ship B: 5,000 x 4% = 200 removed works

Ship A: 3,000 - 2,000 = 1,000 "new" works Ship B: 3,000 - 200 = 2,800 "new" works

This gives Ship A a net gain of 1,000 and Ship B a net gain of 2,800 despite both fandoms producing the exact same number of new works that year. And neither one of these reported counts are the actual new works count (3,000). THIS explains the drastic difference in ranking between a ship like Steve/Bucky and Nick/Charlie.

How is this a useful measure of anything? You can't draw any conclusions about the current size and popularity of a fandom based on this data.

With this system, not only is the reported "new works" count incorrect, the older, larger fandom will always be punished and it’s count disproportionately reduced simply for the sin of being an older, larger fandom. This example doesn’t even take into account that people are going to be way more likely to delete an old fic they're no longer proud of in a fandom they no longer care about than a fic that was just written, so the deletion percentage for the older fandom should theoretically be even larger in comparison.

And if that wasn't bad enough, the author of this "study" KNEW the data was tainted and chose to present it as meaningful anyway. You will only find this if you click through to the FAQ and read about the author’s methodology, something 99.99% of people will NOT do (and even those who do may not understand the true significance of this problem):

The author may try to argue their post states that the tags "which had the greatest gain in total public fanworks” are shown on the chart, which makes it not a lie, but a error on the viewer’s part in not interpreting their data correctly. This is bullshit. Their chart CLEARLY titles the fic count column “New Works” which it explicitly is NOT, by their own admission! It should be titled “Net Gain in Works” or something similar.

Even if it were correctly titled though, the general public would not understand the difference, would interpret the numbers as new works anyway (because net gain is functionally meaningless as we've just discovered), and would base conclusions on their incorrect assumptions. There’s no getting around that… other than doing the counts correctly in the first place. This would be a much larger task but I strongly believe you shouldn’t take on a project like this if you can’t do it right.

To sum up, just because someone put a lot of work into gathering data and making a nice color-coded chart, doesn’t mean the data is GOOD or VALUABLE.

#ao3 #ao3 stats #psa #my words #fandom #I doubt anyone is even going to read this but I needed to get it out of my system and at least try to stop this from spreading #if you know me #you know I get Big Mad about misinformation #don't take anything at face value #do your own research

[s1m0nth3swag]

Francis Mosses Headcannons <3

AUTHORS NOTE; Your honor I love him. Just some silly Headcannons because the brainrot is too real (also my last post about him did really well and I was shocked about it oops)

WARNINGS/ CONTENT INFO; SFW and NSFW Headcannons, no shipping headcannons, some relationship headcannons but mostly just general things about Francis (NSFW is really big on relationship headcannons tho), MY headcannons for him, not particularly fitting into the time of That's not my neighbor but I couldn't be bothered

SFW;

Ever since starting his job as Milkman, he has started to somewhat dislike milk. Rarely ever has any at home unless he needs it to cook or bake something.

REALLY good at cooking/ baking, he lives alone so obviously he has to take care of it himself and he dislikes ordering food since he'll have to talk to someone so he just taught himself to cook/ bake.

I feel like he has some hobbies but rarely ever has the time to work on them, I feel like he's into miniature or something like that. Definitely likes hobbies that include being calm and concentrated over others.

Almost never lets anyone into his home, only if it's his partner or a very close friend (or family).

Contrary to popular belief, Francis has quite a few friends - mostly because they share his hobbies (I feel like he's the type to yap about his hobbies if someone is interested in them).

He doesn't particularly like his job, but also doesn't hate it. I think he liked it at the beginning, but now it's just tiring and boring (like honestly, being a milkman doesn't sound really thrilling, can't blame him for being tired of it).

Francis most definetly has at some point bought a plushie with the thought of gifting it to someone but ended up liking it so much that he kept it (when having someone over he definitely hides it in a corner of his bedroom to not get embarrassed).

He's the type to rarely listen to music, because when he comes home from work he's too tired and probably just passes out on his bed and on his free days he likes to just do his things in silence since it's more calming to him than listening to music while doing them.

When he does listen to music, he prefers calmer tones, maybe even music without any lyrics (or soft spoken ones).

He definetly falls asleep on the couch while watching TV. The type to pass out the second he put on some random show. Try waking him up, you won't be able to. Give him his two hour power nap.

NSFW;

BIIIIG Whiner and whimperer. Even when jerking off or the likes, he's super vocal about it. I think he's not the type to jerk off often, when he does it's because he has too much pressure built up. He's 100% loud about it though. Full on groaning and moaning if his partner were to jerk or suck him off.

He's big on praising. Always tells you you're doing good and that you're so wonderful etc.

I think he doesn't have a particularly high sex drive, but when he does get frisky (by himself or with his partner) I think he can go for multiple rounds with little to no rest. He makes up for the lack of sex drive with the amount of rounds he can go 100%.

Isn't really shy in bed unless it's a more dom/sub relationship with him being sub. I think if you told him he came too fast or that he wasn't being good for you he'd be so so embarrassed and apologise for HOURS unless you shut him up.

Loves marking. Give him hickeys, bitemarks, anything, he'll love it. Especially if you get that little spot on his neck that is just barely hid by his work uniform.

All for now because I need to keep some for the next posts :)

#francis mosses #francis mosses x you #headcanon #thats not my neighbor #thats not my neighbor headcanons #francis mosses headcanons #milkman that's not my neighbor

[jubileemon]

Explaining Huskerdust slowburn

Huskerdust is one of the most popular ships within the Hazbin Hotel fandom, which started with their first interaction in the pilot.

From the outset, Angel Dust shows a clear attraction towards Husk, which is evident from his immediate flirtatious behavior upon Husk's arrival as the hotel's bartender. This attraction is not subtle as Angel Dust is overt in his advances, often pushing boundaries. On the other hand, Husk was initially dismissive and annoyed by Angel's flirtations, responding with expletives and a general attitude of disinterest. Yet, this sets the stage for a relationship that promises to evolve slowly over time.

Although they started off bad, with Husk often finding great irritation in Angel's continued advances, their relationship would begin to deepen as the series progresses.

In the beginning, Husk made it no secret that he was forced to stay at the hotel because of his ties to Alastor and would gladly get as far away as he could if able to. He's addicted to gambling, much the same way Angel is addicted to drugs and sex. He used to be an Overlord but gambled away his bound souls until he got desperate enough to sell his own soul to Alastor.

While his words were poorly timed, pushing Angel's buttons after he'd just suffered a night of abuse from Valentino in "Masquerade", it's hard to deny that Husk is right to be frustrated with Angel's sexual harassment. He's cuttingly accurate when he points out how Angel's lewd and carefree behavior is all a self-destructive act that he hides behind to avoid his problems, and that nobody in the Hotel is particularly impressed with or taken by the front he puts up.

In the episode "Masquerade", a pivotal moment occurs when Husk rescues Angel from a potentially dangerous situation at a club that shows a protective side under his gruff exterior. Afterwards, Husk continues to remind Angel that he can stop his act. However, Angel, shedding tears and expressing his sadness, lashes out at Husk as they argue, explaining he needs to be who he is in order to break himself, both to wash away his misery and escape Valentino.

Saddened by this, Husk helps Angel recognize the parallel misery, which led to them both admitting their regrets and Husk revealing his past as an Overlord to Angel.

Husk getting through to Angel Dust in the manner he does makes a considerable amount of sense when it's taken into account that the first step to overcoming drug addiction is usually getting the addict to acknowledge they even have a problem. Angel hasn't been able to get better despite having some genuine interest because he's been utterly refusing to admit he has a problem to fix, the moment he does his mood drastically improves as does his motivation.

The song 'Loser, Baby' became an uplifting melody for Husk and Angel Dust's relationship. It encapsulates the message that while they may see themselves as losers, they aren't alone in their struggles.

The whole song is just "Stop thinking you're special". Some people may see that as a bad message (at first) considering what Angel goes through, but like him, staying in that mindset of "No one knows what I'm going through, no one else knows what it's like to be me, etc." would not be good for him at all as it would create a barrier of isolation. To be clear, the point is that Husk calls Angel a loser because people, especially very hurt people, need to break their cycle of self-loathing somehow. And sometimes, sometimes, people need to hear that they are, in fact, a loser. But that's okay because a lot of other people are too. This is even reflected in the song, with Angel initially assuming Husk is mocking him, but eventually picking up what he's actually saying. The message isn't "You're not special lmao," it's actually "You're not alone in this, and embracing that is a big step in getting out of it."

A small detail many fans have noticed is that whilst Valentino is very forceful with Angel Dust both emotionally and physically, during the song “Loser, Baby,” Husk is never seen grabbing Angel Dust at all during the song, only ever offering his hand out for him to accept. It's apparent that Husk is expressing more interest in Angel Dust, after seeing that he isn't as shallow as he comes off to be. Since then, Angel and Husk have formed a special bond through being vulnerable and honest with each other. But this scene also shows Husk's concern for Angel's well-being, especially when it comes to drugs and a potential relapse.

In the episode "Welcome to Heaven", Cherri invites Angel and Husk along with Niffty and Sir Pentious to a bar. During this scene, Cherri tries to motivate Angel to take drugs as a way to relieve stress. Husk reminded Angel it would destroy his progress. Husk then admits that Angel succumbing to drugs would really disappoint him. Angel declines the offer, making Husk smile, but later starts heavily drinking, something Husk disapproves of.

This concern is reciprocated when Angel Dust takes care of a drunk Niffty, suggesting a shift from his earlier, more self-centered behavior. The confrontation with Valentino, where Husk is ready to defend Angel Dust, further cements their bond.

Angel was very attracted to Husk and didn't hide it, with his constant boundary pushing flirtation. After being called out for this behavior, Angel not only begins a genuine bond with the cat demon but also stops the annoying, aggressive flirtation.

As they were preparing to fight the exorcists, Husk unconsciously makes a sex comment saying that "Angels won't stop coming", and Angel laughs at this remark. Husk realizes the double meaning of it, and laughs admitting his mistake.

During the bar scene in "The Show Must Go On" an instrumental of "Loser, Baby" plays in the background during Angel and Husks' conversation, which further underscores the hidden depths of their bond. Angel takes Charlie's words to heart about living however you want that night since it may be your last. How does he choose to do it? By simply having a drink with Husk and Cherri Bomb. Husk even notes that he's changed quite a lot since he came to the hotel.

Also, the way he looks at Husk and the little piano reprise of "Loser, Baby" playing in the background. Angel's feelings for him may run deeper than they seem... 😍

#huskerdust #huskdust #angel dust #angelhusk #hazbin hotel #hazbin husk #hazbin angel dust #hazbin analysis #tumblr milestone #vivziepop #hazbin hotel vivziepop #angel dust hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel husk #angel dust x husk #hazbin #hazbin hotel angel dust #hazbin hotel spoilers

[nono-bunny]

Losing my mind because it somehow took me literally until right now to realize that a Zuko and Katara encounter is a part of every season finale of ATLA, like, literally, what the fuck? And all of those are strong jumping off points for fics to boot, like???

"You rise with the moon, I rise with the sun" is like. Such a big deal in the fandom, and while it tends to feature in all kinds of fics, it perfectly encapsulates the enemies phase in the enemies (to friends) to lovers of these two. An unreasonably sexually charged line too, wtf were they on about with that scene if not ship bait?

Fics diverging from the crystal catacombs are like. Such an obvious and natural evolution of that scene- it's the "something awful happens there, but what if it didn't?", I think. It was, in fact, the first fic I went out looking for- was rewatching the show and once again felt the accute disappointment of what could've been, and I wanted to read what could happen if it had. Ultimately I think the show made the right choice there, because Zuko getting what he always wanted and realizing it's all wrong is important, but it did rob us of him being a part of the gaang for longer, and that makes me sad.

Then there's the final agni kai.... Literally how can you watch that one without expecting them to kiss after? Genuinely don't get it, impossible. Peak Zutara. Possibly the single best fight of the show, and undoubtedly the best finale scene. A perfect resolution to the bond between those two- that gets completely thrown away to give Aang his woman shaped prize. Of course it's also a popular jumping off point for plot divergent fics!

Genuinely wild that they have THREE romantic coded finals, and yet they don't even end up together. Kataang and Maiko are barely even a factor in the first two season finals, too! Mai literally doesn't exist in the first, and in the second is very obviously representative of Zuko making a mistake. Literally cannot think of a Kataang scene in the first season finale (but I might just be forgetting? I obviously do not care for that one, lmk if there is one and I'll add it, but me being unable to think of one feels a bit telling given how much I hate those scenes), and the big thing for them in the second one is literally recreating a pose evoking a mother and son relationship, which is a big fat F on the shipping factor if I ever saw one.

"Kataang is baked into the show's DNA"- shut the fuck up, Bryke, and maybe have a look at what you ACTUALLY did with it. This isn't the kind of thing that you can just brush off... Especially because those are all scenes people associate with big emotional plot points of your show, and guess who's doing the heavy lifting there? It's definitely not Aang, that's for sure.

#avatar the last airbender #atla #anti kataang #anti aang #anti bryke #zutara

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/746553097204203521/the-fandom-hates-women-response-to-lack-of-ff

The "fandom hates women" part of it comes from the fact that fandom as an entity just doesn't watch the kind of media that draws femslash, even if it ticks all of the boxes of things those very same people say they like. There are so many times I've watched a show that I've seen mega-popular Tumblr posts wishing existed, and then the fandom is so, so small comparatively and often in general. There have been superheroes, vampire/supernatural shows, fantasy shows, movies, books, the list goes on, that feel like they were generated out of Tumblr's desires for ideal fandom media, and everyone knows they're never going to attract anywhere near the same attention for fandom and fanworks because the common denominator just tends to be that if there isn't a full ensemble of attractive men to ship either with each other or with the women, fandom's not interested.

So it's not about prioritizing women in that sense, it's about people witnessing hypocrisy over and over again the second a show doesn't have a mostly-male ensemble. The people who are in these fandoms are frustrated that good faith attempts to get people interested are met with every excuse in the book that all eventually boils down to "I don't like watching stuff with women in it as much as I like watching stuff with men in it." And if that's how people feel about it... sometimes the conclusions are going to turn into the more uncharitable take of "fandom hates women."

--

Maybe, but whenever I see a "fandom hates women" reblog of my stuff, one or two reblogs further down the chain I get an overt TERF. I just had to go block several people today, in fact.

The first person to reblog with a comment like that is usually subtle, but their friends and friends of friends are not. The rhetoric that very quickly starts is the fandom equivalent of that "All the butches are becoming trans men! We're losing lesbians!" stuff.

Here's the thing: I've been in ten billion fandoms that were so awesome and fit fandom's supposed tastes to a T and yet no amount of promoting them could get anyone to try the canon. This goes for canons that are all men or all white men or all majority ethnicity men or whatever else.

The default state of media is to not engender a big fic fandom.

I agree that the rare outliers mostly follow certain patterns, but we extrapolate too far when we say that a lack of those patterns is why a fandom is small.

A fandom is small because that's the near-universal default.

--

Yes, a small slice of fandom consists of guilt-ridden queer fujoshi who say they want more f/f but don't make much of a move to make that happen. I tend to run into that a lot because of my own tastes and having friends who share those tastes.

Far more of fandom is people talking generally about how representation matters without saying they would personally join these fandoms if they existed.

Neither group is large enough to be the real reason some woman-heavy canon fails to take off to HP levels.

The real reason is not hypocrisy but the fact that most things don't take off like that. Most things without massive, massive audiences especially don't take off like that. And the very few things that do are flukes and don't actually predict that another similar thing will take off in the future.

--

Go to AO3's tag search. Search for all canonical fandom tags. Sort by uses and descending order.

Right now, I get 64,390 tags.

The first page, 50 tags, goes from HP with 497,845 works to the Thor movies with 59,266 works. By page 6, we're below 10 thousand works.

By the end of page 10, we're down to Labyrinth with 3,906.

Somewhere in the top 500 AO3 fandom tags (many of which are just franchise metatags for each other), we go all the way from megafandoms to medium size and down to relatively modest ones.

That's not a lot of room for a big f/f-heavy fandom given the trends in mainstream media and that mainstream media is where most really big fandoms come from.

--

I also notice that you're conflating a lack of desire to watch something that's primarily about women with a lack of desire to watch something that includes women.

There are tons of fans who want something more like The Mummy with a leading man and leading woman they love.

Granted, that's not me and that's not a lot of my fujoshi/slasher audience, but it's extraordinarily common. I know plenty of people who don't like canons that are only dudes, but since they also don't like canons that are only ladies and they don't ship f/f, this gets spun into "fandom hates women".

--

Let me be clear:

Conflating "lesbians" and "women" is a radfem position.

[thebibliosphere]

I saw your post about ingram, and out of curiosity, is there some advantage to going through the whole self-publishing thing with retailers when you're just starting out? like I mean the way that fandom zines work is that they don't even bother going through ingram or amazon or whatever. they just set up a social media site (usually twitter) to gain followers, open preorders (usually 1-2 months in length) to generate the costs of printing upfront, and then sell anywhere from a few dozen to several hundred copies of their books (usually artbooks, but anthologies exist too). I've seen some zines generate over a thousand orders. they're kind of like pop-up shops, except for books. maybe the sales numbers aren't so impressive to a real author, but the profit generated is typically waaaay more than the $75+ apparently needed for Ingram Spark, so I still feel like new authors could benefit from this method too, especially if they just need some start-up cash to eventually move to ingram if they want to for subsequent runs of their book. I think authors would also have to set aside some of the pre-order money to buy an ISBN number to have printed on their book, and I'm not really sure what other differences there are, but I just wanted to ask about it in case there's some huge disadvantage I'm missing!

So, popup zines work well for some people, and I know some authors who kickstart their work successfully. But for a lot, it's just not feasible as a long-term stratedy. Or even as a means to get off the ground.

Fanzines succeed primarily because an existing fanbase is willing and ready to throw money at something they love. They’ve got a favorite writer or artist they want to support. Supporting all the others is just a happy by-product. They also take a HUGE amount of short-term but intense planning that just doesn’t always jive with how some of us work.

I, for one, would never offer to organize a fanzine. I’ll take part in them as a creator, but I’d rather throw myself off a cliff than subject myself to wrangling that many people and dealing with the legal logistics.

When it comes to authors doing anthologies, it'svery much the same. The success of the funding often hinges on having other big-name authors involved whose existing fans will prop up the project. Or having a huge marketing budget.

Most self-pub authors have zero marketing budget. I’m one of them, and I’m under no illusions that my work would not be as popular and self-sustaining as it is if I didn’t have a large Tumblr blog.

When I thank Tumblr in my forewards, I am utterly sincere. Tumblr brought fandom levels of enthusiasm to an unknown work and broke the Amazon algorithm so hard, that Amazon thought I was bot sniping my way to multiple #1 spots and froze my sales rankings.

That’s not the norm. And while I could probably kickstart my own work as an indie creator, that’s because I’ve put literal decades into building up a readership. I’ve been doing this since I was 16 and realized people thought I was funny. I didn’t know what to do with it or if I’d ever actually write anything, but it meant the groundwork was already there (thank you, past-me). I basically fell upward into my success by virtue of never being able to shut the fuck up and wanting to make people laugh. Clown instincts too strong.

New or first-time authors trying to sell their work without that will find it infinitely harder.

All of that aside, even if an unknown author somehow gets lucky and manages to fund their work, there’s still the question of shipping and distribution logistics. Are you shipping everything yourself? Better hope you’re able-bodied and have the time for it. (for reference, it took me months to ship out 300 patreon hardbacks because of my disabilites. It damaged my back and hands. I couldn’t type for several weeks after I was done.)

Are you going to sell primarily at conventions? Better hope you’re able-bodied, have the time and don’t have cripling anxiety about being in large groups...

Also, will selling a dozen to a few thousand copies in one burst be sustainable in the long run as a career? Not for me. Doing things via Ingram and Amazon means I earn a steady trickle of sales for the rest of my life provided the platforms remain and so long as I keep working and can generate interest in the series, not just when I have funds to pay for physical copies to sell. The one-time (in theory) cost of $75 to distribute through Ingram gets paid off pretty quick that way. And it doesn't require the same logistics as doing the popup/crowdfund.

Ultimately, it comes down to what you are capable of but also the type of work you’re doing. If you’ve got an extended network of fellow creatives who will back you or you’ve got a large following elsewhere, doing it like a popup might work for you.

If you’re an exhausted burnout who can’t fathom the short but intense amount of organization that sort of thing requires, not to mention doing it over and over and over... Ehhhhh. No thank you.