#i do try my best to not share discourse stuff or any negative stuff really

[radinclus-not-radqueer]

Hello, I hope this isn't intrusive. I have been in multiple bad communities such as proshipping and radqueer spaces. If it's okay to ask how do you cope with the knowledge that you ended up in a cult? And that some of your alters hold onto those beliefs. I'm sorry if this is an inappropriate question, feel free to not answer if that is the case.

Thank you for spreading awareness.

I'll try to answer this the best I can from personal experience, but keep in mind that I'm not a medical professional. It's always best if you go to a professional (like a therapist) for things like this, because they're often much more experienced and knowledgeable than people on the internet.

In my experience, it's best to take a while to process things and read up on what cults are and read stories from survivors. It helps a lot if you take a break away from discourse and such, since that can retraumatize you or negatively impact your recovery if you're just starting to figure things out. Getting in touch with professionals or other survivors and sharing your experiences with them, and asking them about their own recovery, can also help you to come to terms with everything and heal.

Always keep in mind that ending up in a cult is not your fault. Cults are designed to prey on and trap vulnerable people who just want help or support, so it's not your fault that you fell for it. Being a victim of abuse is not the victim's fault.

It can be hard to accept that what happened was real or "bad enough". There's no such thing as "not being bad enough", whatever trauma you went through is always enough to deserve help and support. It's really easy to get so caught up in other survivors' stories and start thinking "wow, my experience wasn't really that bad", but keep in mind that people who have never been a part of a cult have never experienced any of that. As someone once said: "the normal amount of pain is zero".

With recovering from radqueers specifically, it's helpful to have a lot of "transitional" periods where you're slowly phasing out the terms and identities you used to support. It's best if you take it slowly and carefully instead of trying to tackle everything all at once, because if you try to do that it's easy to get overwhelmed and go back to being radqueer because of how much simpler and easier it feels.

If you're still in radqueer servers or still have radqueer friends, slowly start distancing yourself from them and interacting with communities that are completely detached from radqueer discourse. It's best if you don't immediately jump into anti-radqueer communities full force, because you need to unlearn all of the "if you exclude anything ever you're a bad person" stuff that radqueers taught before you feel okay with not supporting harmful identities.

Always keep in mind that the "anti-radqueer to radical exclusionist/transmed/radfem/etc pipeline" isn't real, and you are not going to become an exclusionist, transmed, radfem, etc. That doesn't happen because being anti-radqueer is about fighting against transphobia, ableism, racism, and bigotry, so obviously if you're fighting against that and are educated on how that's all harmful, you're not going to become any of that.

As for having alters who are still radqueer, I suggest trying to educate them. Send them informational posts on how radqueers are wrong, and explain to them how bad the community is. If any of them are pro-"consang", I have a long post on my blog explaining why it's harmful. Just keep in mind that you used to be in the same position, and trying to fight fire with fire is never going to work. You have to use the same compassion and care towards them that you use towards yourself, or else they'll just see you as another evil anti-radqueer trying to oppress them.

I hope all this helps! I'm glad I'm able to help spread awareness on all this. Learning how awful the radqueer community is is a difficult journey to do alone, and it takes a lot of time and energy, which is why I decided to help other former radqueers out as best as I can.

#from the inbox #anti radqueer #former radqueer #anti transid #anti transage #anti transx #anti transautistic #anti trace #ex radqueer #anti transabled #recovering radqueer

[macfrog]

hi max!

i’m back with another “gentle reminders” ask. it goes in line with one of my personal goals this year of trying to work on my kindness and how i show that kindness to others.

the beginning of a new year is always a bit tough for many people, for many reasons but at the scale of the fandom, i have noticed some negativity starting to spread. maybe it’s bound to happen on any social media but i always considered tumblr to be different, to be over the kind of discourse you could find on other apps. this place has been a true haven for many of us and i would like to keep it that way, so i thought, as a way to counterbalance this negativity, i could compensate with a nice message for one of the driving forces in the fandom: our dear writers.

i would like to begin by saying thank you.  thank you for dedicating your time, your energy, your love and sharing pieces of yourself with us. the fandom wouldn’t be what it is without you: just like a body needs a brain or a heart to function properly, fandoms need writers like they need others contributing. thank you for offering diversity, engaging with different tropes and characters to reach as many readers as possible. i will admit, some things proposed are not my cup of tea but i know they can be enjoyed by others, the same way some of my favorite fics wouldn’t necessarily attract others. so thank you for giving a chance to everyone to find what they enjoy, to discover, to learn, to cry, to laugh, to love and to be able to do so in an open, safe space. thank you for interacting with us as well. thank you for responding to our questions, sharing snippets when we get impatient, teasing us with your new ideas and making life a little more fun and exciting every day. and of course, thank you for doing all of this for free. for expecting so little in return when you give us so much.

now a few things i want you to remember: 

although we’re all thankful for having access to your art, your first fan should be yourself. write what you enjoy, write that self-indulgent fic, write your favorite trope, an improbable duo or crossover because you’ve always wanted to. do it for yourself. in the same way, have fun with it. writing is a hobby, it’s not your job, it’s not supposed to be a chore. so do what makes you happy. don’t worry about updating fics, about being slow, about posting too much or too little. some things might take time, some might need an hour to be posted but in the end, they all matter just the same. they’re worth being read and cherished and we will appreciate them. whether you have thousands of notes or barely a few hundreds, you have your place here. you’re still an amazing writer, you’re still an artist regardless of the stats. 

whether i've had time to binge-read your stories or just discovered you. thank you. i love you. i’m grateful for you. i see and appreciate your work. your efforts. you.  i’m sorry if you’ve ever been received with negativity but i hope this can make up for some of it.  you deserve nothing but kindness and appreciation and i hope you know how much you matter here.

sending you all my love,

anna 💗

hi, anna!! oh my goodness i have read and reread this probably fifty times since you sent it, i feel all warm and mushy over it

first of all, i love that goal. the world could do with a lot more kindness, and you're so sweet for putting your energy into this. so so glad that you're here and you're spreading light 🤍

this little corner of the internet really has a lot of love to give despite the dumb stuff sometimes. i have met and fallen in love with some of the best people, right here. i'm so grateful to know such a welcoming, safe community, and i'm honored to be a little part of it.

thank you a million times over for this beautiful message. hope you're good, my friend! sending so much love straight back to you 🩷

#chats w max #joelsgreenflannel

[scottxlogan]

I think that moving from live journal to tumblr was very damaging for fandom as a community. Tumblr is a very easy place to share images, meta, etc. but it’s not a good place to have discussions or try to form connections. Forum sites like Reddit can be better for certain fandoms, but you have to curate your experience. I’m sorry you’re seeing a lot of negativity. The best thing I can advise is to not be afraid to block people liberally. If someone is constantly posting negative discourse or going after people for different interpretations I don’t see it because I block them. As for leaving feedback on fics, there’s always going to be a percentage of any fandom that’s not going to for whatever reason. I try to be good about it if I like the story, but again it’s not like livejournal where the author is someone I know from discussion posts or participation in another fandom, etc. Their fics on ao3 are separate from their other fandom presence and that can be both good and bad. I really do miss fandom communities, tags on tumblr are just not the same thing.

I'll answer this under the cut for those who might not want to have to scroll through my response.

Thanks for the insight anon. I think you make some very valid points. I joined fandom after the end of live journal but was fortunate enough to find it along the way and meet some of the fandom community over there. It felt like there was a sense of connect and community over there and I regret that most of the height of that was before my time. Tumblr has been good in some ways and I see that Discord is attempting to bring back the notion of community being able to have real time conversations, but still it feels a lot of discord communities are a bit cliquish especially with new people coming on into an established community where as when LJ was still dying and barely hanging on and I was the too late outsider I met some really awesome people from fandom that to this day are my friends even though we've all kind of veered in different directions. Thanks for the blocking advice. I do block those who reach out to me on Tumblr here in being nasty. If something doesn't make me comfortable I will take the time to ensure I don't have to deal with that. With VPNs it proves to be difficult, but most of the trolling comes over on AO3 where I've also taken to moderating comments on specific fics that draw in trolling. It's just sad to see that people are so set on spreading negativity or not engaging at all. I know that it's always a small percent of the fandom that do engage and I'm appreciative of those who do. It's just sometimes when you see something you've worked on gets a few hundred views and there's not a like and/or comment on it you question things like did the readers just decide to nope out on it because they didn't like it? Was it a waste of time all around or is it something that people aren't really interested in delving deeper into. Being an artist whether traditional, digital or writing always breeds a sense of uncertainty and with that I guess we have that little insecure voice at times (at least I do) that asks those types of questions. I can understand your feeling of disconnect between here and AO3 and various places and not really knowing the author like you would've in the LJ community. I try to keep the same name everywhere if I can to keep a connect between my stuff, but I know most people don't and it's hard to get caught up in things where you know someone based on their posts, but you don't really know them. I've had people tell me we've been mutuals on Tumblr for a while and I don't think we reach out often or at all in some cases like people would've on LJ. The world is changing for sure and it's kind of sad. I have no doubts that you're great in engaging those you know since you took the time to reach out to me here, which I truly do thank you for. It's nice to hear other's opinions on the subject every now and then. Thank you for being so kind and insightful and I hope that the fandom experience is treating you right where you are! Thanks again!

#anon #ask #fandom #fandom etiquette #the changing ways of fandom

[rollercoasterwords]

hi, i hope you're doing well! i loved your fandom post as a noob and it served as an opportunity for me to understand any pre-conceived notions of fandom i may have as someone who's just dipping her toes in the playground.

this might be weird to ask (feel free to ignore) but i'm someone who tends to get into a fit of analyzing + focusing on various parts of a story, the characters, their characterization (non negotiable for me), relationships and so forth. however i also see fandom as a playground where you're exploring and experimenting with canonical happenings with whatever degree of accuracy or play. is it bad if that's my frame point regarding fandom and fics?

do you have any tips for navigating ao3 or making the best of it in terms of extensions? i don't have any fandom friends and as i mentioned before, i like reading fics and noting what works and doesn't work for me. however, i don't think there's any kind of option on ao3 for me to organize or leave comments for myself so i remember?

ooo and final thing (not sure if you addressed it), how the hell do you navigate fandom discourse when some takes are just so loud and wrong lol?

sorry for the ramble,,, thank you for your posts 💗💗

hi ty i'm glad you enjoy my posts! one thing i wanna reiterate tho--i am not an expert by any means on like fandom lmao my thoughts are just my thoughts like. i myself have only been involved in the marauders fandom for a single year and there are people who have a lot more time and experience interacting with these spaces.

as far as what you're talking about with like analyzing fics...i'm not entirely sure i understand the question? like, i don't think it's a bad thing to spend time thinking about characterizations and stuff as long as you're acknowledging that this is a space where people are allowed to experiment and play around with stuff however they want, and there's no like Single Truth about the way any story needs to be written.

as far as navigating ao3 and having a way to leave comments for yourself--you can bookmark fics and write notes in the bookmarks and leave tags and stuff! one thing to keep in mind though is that writers can see the stuff you put down in bookmarks, so if you have any negative commentary (even if it's just personal stuff you like or dislike that you want to keep track of for yourself) i'd say it's best to keep that bit private or just make like a separate spreadsheet or something. or if you really want to keep track of it all on ao3 then think up a rating or tagging system for yourself that won't clue a writer in if you didn't like their fic. like instead of putting down like...3/5 stars or whatever be like "pink is stuff i love, orange is stuff i like, purple is stuff i dislike" and then you can just tag pink orange and purple and a writer seeing it isn't gonna know what that means and get their feelings unnecessarily hurt, y'know?

and navigating fandom discourse....honestly i feel like i just avoid it lmao like i post my thoughts and shit on my blog but this is my own little corner of the internet, y'know? like honestly i'm not trying to insert myself into any fandom discourse or drama because it's just not worth it to me because this is literally just a hobby. like...it's fanfiction. if i see shit that really bothers me because it's so loud and so wrong i rant about it to my sister mostly or like to friends. or i write about it on here where i'm pretty isolated and just sharing thoughts with like The Circle Of Mutuals. but there are always going to be people being loud and wrong about things on the internet and sometimes you just have to accept it and move on for your own peace of mind lol

[willowser]

࣪ ˖∗̥⁺ ༄✧﹡⋆. ｗ ｉ ｌ ｌ ｏ ｗ ₊˚.✧₊˚.༄｡﹡

˙₊ ꒰ ᵗʷᵉⁿᵗʸ⁻ˢᵉᵛᵉⁿ ⁺ ᵃⁿʸ ᵖʳᵒⁿᵒᵘⁿˢ ⁺ ʷʳⁱᵗⁱⁿᵍ ᵐᵘˡᵗⁱ⁻ᶠᵃⁿᵈᵒᵐ ˣ ʳᵉᵃᵈᵉʳ ⁺ ᵐᵈⁿⁱ ⁺ ᵗʰⁱˢ ᵇˡᵒᵍ ˢʰᵃʳᵉˢ / ⁱⁿᵗᵉʳᵃᶜᵗˢ ʷⁱᵗʰ ⁿˢᶠʷ ᶜᵒⁿᵗᵉⁿᵗ ꒱ . ⁺

⚘ ᵐ. ˡⁱˢᵗ ⚘ ʳᵉᶜˢ ⚘ ᶜᵒᵐᵐⁱˢˢⁱᵒⁿˢ ⚘ ⚘ ᵃᵒ³ ⚘ ᵗʷⁱᵗᵗᵉʳ ⚘ ᵏᵒᶠⁱ ⚘ ᵍᵃᵐⁱⁿᵍ ˢⁱᵈᵉᵇˡᵒᵍ ⚘

˗ˏˋ new ´ˎ˗ ! gentle reminder that i do not take requests, thank you 🩷 !

･ﾟ→˚₊┊about.

๑ HELLO ! i am willow ! i am ( 27 ) years old, i don’t have any preferred pronouns, and i write x reader for multiple fandoms !

๑ if you have sent me an ask or left a comment on something — please, please know that i have seen it, that i am so thankful for any kind words, and that i am trying to find the right way to express how much it means to me 🌿🦋💖 i’m sorry that it takes me longer than i’d like, but i want to reply with the amount of effort that you deserve for taking the time to leave a message !

๑ writing is my favorite thing to practice in my free time and i’m very fortunate that we share this little corner of the internet where i get to do just that ! my intention with this blog was to have fun and to talk about the things i love, and i’m so thankful that you all have come to join me and to share in things that you enjoy also !

with that being said, i am really not interested in allowing negativity to come and taint that, so i please ask that drama or discourse of any kind be left at the door. i will not engage in it, and anything left in my inbox with unkind intentions will be deleted outright. i just — don’t want that for this little bubble of ours, so i thank you for respecting that !

･ﾟ→˚₊ ┊ faq.

๑ unfortunately i do not take requests ! ( Ĭ ^ Ĭ ) if i can, i do my best to write a little somethin'-somethin' for ideas/concepts in my ask box but ! it would be impossible for me to do it too frequently. if there is really something you'd love to chat with me about, i do take commissions !

๑ unfortunately i do not keep tag lists ! ( Ĭ ^ Ĭ ) i’m a little slow at it at times, but i try to keep my masterlist updated so everything is easy to find !

๑ drabbles and things will always be posted on tumblr only. smaller fics that are under 10k will be formatted and posted here, too, but anything over 10k will be on ao3 only!

๑ all characters in my writing have been aged up to at least 24 unless specifically stated otherwise.

･ﾟ→˚₊ ┊ other links.

self ship stuff !

@whoops-notwillow is my (dead) main blog, so you will see me interacting from there !

@serwill is my gaming side blog !

#✿ navigation

[tittyblade]

tumblr etiquette 101

a list that is nowhere near exhaustive, from yours truly.

First off, welcome! Whether you’re a twitter veteran looking for anything but whatever twitter is, or a new user just done signing up, glad to see you in our ranks beloveds! Welcome home. Refer to this quick tour to make sure your fandom experience (or tumblr experience in general) is a positive one!

Disclaimer: I know it’s long, but please try to read or skim through til the end if you’re new here! This is by no means meant to be a rule book (for the most part lol), only a guide to help you get settled easier!

1) Your blog

This is where people will see and interact with you, so put some effort into it!

Try to choose a name (url) that’s simple. You can see it as your brand, it’s how people will perceive you and remember you. If you’d like to interact with other users here (and not use the site just for the content) it’s better to have something short and sweet, preferably without spaces. (Of course, these are only suggestions.) Rest assured, you can change it literally any time you want.

Have a theme. Utilize the tool that lets you edit your blog’s color or the font of your bio! You can make it match your profile picture, or your blog if it has a theme of its own. Make it feel homey :]

Fill in your bio. People will be checking out your profile probably more often than you think. Don’t leave it empty! Put in any information you’re comfortable with sharing and isn’t too personal (like your age if you’re a minor, or other TMI that can be found on other people’s carrds). It’s always better to add a name/nickname people can use to refer to you by, but feel free to use your blog description to shitpost still.

You can have an intro post. More often than not, you’ll see a blog have a pinned post, a post permanently appearing at the top of a blog until you pin another post or unpin it. You can make one of those, if you’d like to introduce yourself in more length, link any other socials or a carrd, and show others visiting your blog how you tag things so it’ll be easy for them to navigate. Not an obligation.

Keep your anonymity and your safety. It should go without saying, but there’s no harm in repeating it just in case. Your comfort, privacy and safety has the utmost importance. Don’t share any information you don’t want to. Don’t share your age if you’re a minor, or any other incredibly personal info. I’d encourage you to go by a nickname that’s not your real name, (blog name, your brand, remember?) since there’s safety in anonymity, and that’s lowkey one of the big deals of tumblr, but that’s up to you still.

Choose what you want to be visible. Your liked posts and who you follow are all things you can set to keep to yourself and hide from the publics eye, how handy! You should go through all the setting while you’re at it, set it to your comfort.

Side blogs are a thing. You can have multiple blogs that you can use for different things (see: different fandoms, art blog, etc) to keep them organized or away from your followers. Just remember that the replies and off-anon asks you send will be from your main blog, as well as where you follow other blogs from.

2) Interacting with others

You’ve set up your account, now comes the fun part!

Follow to your heart’s desire. If you care about others seeing who you follow, fear not! In tumblr, usually only two types of blogs keep their following visible to others: newbies, and big blogs using it to point people on other good blogs’ direction. Just turn it off, and go ham following people.

Customize your dashboard. Gonna mention just two things here: this is another reason why it’s really important that you follow blogs without sparing, your dash will collect dust otherwise; and you should turn off “best stuff first” in your dashboard settings, to have a better community here and all.

Follow tags. You can set it in your settings that posts with your followed tags appear on your dashboard.

You can check the og post for edits and context. When you see a reblogged post you don’t understand the context of (or don’t recognize the character in case of fanarts), click on the profile so it will take you to the original post. From there you can check the original poster’s tags to get the context, or see if there have been any edits made to the post, since when you edit a post it doesn’t update any past reblogs.

Send people asks... This is how you make mutuals, people! Do it off-anon if you’d like them to know your blog, or anon if you’d rather not! (You can still end your messages with a signature to show you’re the same person, -[name] is one example.) Send them nice messages, ask their opinion on something, discuss things, or just straight up shitpost lol. Go wild. The sky’s your limit and it’s definitely more than 280 characters.

...and let them ask you! You can set your preference in the settings, do it on desktop tumblr to access more settings tho! What you can customize on mobile is limited (like letting people ask you things anonymously, that’s only on desktop settings). In my personal opinion, it’s always better to tag their username (or a nickname you give them, if they’re a friend) on that post, since you wouldn’t want your interactions with your friends to get buried in your blog forever.

Comment on posts. If you have something to say but don’t want the post to appear on your blog you can add a comment. The owner of the post will get a notif for it, but for anyone else you need to tag them.

For the love of god, reblog. People will only see your liked posts if you have it visible to public and they specifically go on your blog to look at them. You like something? You reblog. It’s already hard for posts to circulate properly, if you don’t reblog them literally no one will see them. If not for anything do it for the artists. Just hold and drag on mobile to fast rb.

3) Your Posts

Finally here! Don’t be a lurker, post and engage!

Make use of “read more”. If your post is long, add it. That’s what you clicked on earlier to expand this post. On desktop leave an empty line and you’ll see three dots appear, and on mobile type :readmore: on that empty line.

Draft a post to come back to it later. Pretty self explanatory.

Queue your post. Whether it’s your own post or you’re reblogging, make use of the queue feature to a) not spam reblog and fill up the dashboard of people following you and b) keep your blog active while you’re gone. Mess around in the settings, it’s fairly easy to set up.

Schedule your post. Same as queueing, the only difference is you get to choose the exact time your post will go up. Handy if you want to schedule a post for certain dates like april fools, or 5 years in the future for some reason. 

Format your texts. You can do all kinds of fancy stuff here (that’s a link, try pressing on it). Twitter doesn’t have this, make use of it. Changes depending on whether you’re on mobile or desktop. (Desktop has less features.)

Check your stats. If you’re trying to understand the algorithm better or want to look at some pretty graphs you can get your data on that on desktop tumblr.

@ people in comments. You’ll get all the notifs when people comment on your posts but they won’t see your reply unless you tag them in your message.

4) Tags, and tagging a post

This is where my earlier statement “this isn’t a rule book” stops being applicable. It’s not a war crime to go against these, I won’t come chasing you (don’t take my word for this) but you’ll work up a bad rep. Just saying lol.

Do NOT crosstag posts. It’s really tempting to add unrelated tags to increase your posts’ interaction, I know, but that’s not what tumblr is about. Don’t be a dick and make other communities’ experience worse for them.

Always tag your posts with “crit/critical/discourse/etc” if it calls for it. There’s no exceptions to it. This is the reason you see people migrating to tumblr. Let people enjoy things.

Don’t main tag a critical/negative post. If your crit post is about “Thing”, you add the “Thing critical” tag, but not the “Thing” tag. People block crit tags if they don’t want to see it, don’t shove it in their faces by main tagging it. 

If you don’t want to see something, just block it. Another reason why people are able to survive on tumblr. You don’t start discourse, you don’t make call-outs, you block. You can find something for every community you can think of if you go looking for it. The worst of the worst probably won’t ever appear on your dash, but if you’re worried or feel the need for it, you know where the block button is.

Feel free to shitpost or ramble. More often than not you’ll see people rb a post with a comment, and their elaboration will be in the tags. The tags are only visible on your profile and the notifications of the owner of the og blog. Just a thing people do.

Reblog artists’ posts with nice comments in the tags! Commenting on a drawing is usually done through the tags (Not an obligation, again, just a thing people do. Feel free to add your comment on the rb itself if you’d want other people to see it tho!) and leave nice messages for the artists! It’s a win-win for everyone involved. 

If you have more than a single follower, always use the common tw warning tags. You don’t need to tw everything, but tw’ing some common things is the bare minimum human decency. Keep it safe for others. 

Tag a post “long post” if it’s really long. Pretty self explanatory. Don’t make people scroll through all that please lol. 

You can use them to organize your blog. This is more of a pro tip, if you’d like to not miss a post in your blog, cause they will start pilin’ up soon enough.

#Liveblogging is pretty fun. If you’d like to talk to people during streams, don’t forget to add the relevant tags still! Again, you won’t show up on people’s dash otherwise.

Whew! That got out of hand. Hopefully I didn’t bore you too much. Check out blogs like @heritageposts and @hellsite-hall-of-fame to honor our past o7. @mcytblr-hall-of-fame too maybe :eyes:. Anyways, don’t forget the most important rule of them all:

Enjoy your stay! You’re meant to have fun on here while also making friends (if that’s your thing). Just be kind and respectful of others, you’ll get the hang of the rest! <3

#mcyttwt #mcytblr #dream team #dream smp #mcyt #dsmp #tumblr #how to tumblr #gonna tag ppl now so more users will see it lol #dreamwasteken #georgenotfound #karl jacobs #technoblade #sbi #twitter #twitter discourse #sbitwt #sleepytwt #sleepy bois inc #HOLY shit this took so long omg my back literally hurts rn #the fuckin lengths i go to make sure tumblr doesnt get tainted w twt LMAO #anyways if youre seeing this you should follow me look at how sexy i am i spent the last 2+ hours typing this goddamn list out #also: ignore how i literally sound like its 2014 at some parts here lol i tried my best #also ignore how wack the paragraph breaks are tumblrs formatting hates me and its 4 am im too tired for this #third also: some bits here are supposed to be ironic keep that in mind pls #rolan.txt #long post #save #yes im tagging my own post as save what about it

[croy-on-a-working-vacation]

As someone who went on the Starcruiser and was very disappointed that more people were not in love with these characters, I am very thankful that this blog exists. However, I was hoping you would know where the Galactic Starcruiser fandom is more active? Most of what I'm finding on Tumblr is just negativity, with your posts sprinkled through, and I would really love to find more people like you who love these characters.

Thank you!!! I’m really glad you’re enjoying the blog!

You were a passenger on the Halcyon?! That’s awesome. Must have been an incredibly fun experience! I can understand coming back from your trip, eager to talk about the characters… and then finding crickets on the Internet. Ugh.

I’ve only been watching the vlogs so far, but I really love these new characters. I didn’t see anyone geeking out about them so that’s why I made this blog.

I’m not a fan of the negativity, so I try to avoid sharing those posts (unless they’re funny and quite harmless). Like with any form of entertainment, I’m sure there are flaws and everyone’s going to have a different experience. It’s an innovative concept so there will be bumps along the way. It’s also a very expensive trip, and yeah, I get the anger over that, but it’s also expensive to have built in the first place and keep up (so the “worth the money” discourse seems like a giant hamster wheel to me. Are we getting anywhere with it? Nah. Either guests had a good time or they didn’t).

So here’s the lay of the land as far as I’m aware:

Discord: there’s a Galaxy’s Edge discord where anything you need to know about GE on both coasts is covered. Very impressive. There’s a Starcruiser section, with a spoiler channel that you can request access to. Do they talk about the characters? Not really. Maybe sometimes. Depends on what the current topic is but I haven’t seen much of that going on.

Reddit: this Reddit group is specific to the Starcruiser which is nice. Do they talk about the characters? Sometimes??? It’s not a priority topic but you can find some posts if you dig.

Facebook: there are a lot of Starcruiser groups on Facebook but the best one (in my humble opinion) is SPOILERS - Galactic Starcruiser. As the group name implies, members can talk freely without worrying about spoiling the cruise. Do they talk about the characters? So far, this seems to be the best place to chat about characters/plot. It’s not a big focus and you do need to search to pull up old posts on those subjects, but it’s pretty good. Only flaw is that I don’t see much fandom stuff there.

Twitter: I’ve only seen (1) parody account and that’s for our favorite guy, Croy. Whoever’s running it sort of fell off the face of the Earth, but an attempt was made!

Instagram: two fan accounts went up for Croy and Gaya. Very fun concept! But again, whoever runs those faded out as well.

If anyone knows of anywhere else where Cruiser conversations may be happening, please feel free to share! But that’s all I’ve got on my end.

#star wars #galactic starcruiser #halcyon #halcyon starcruiser #disney parks #star wars galactic starcruiser #first order #disney world #lt harman croy #first order officer #Star Wars #galactic superstar gaya

[phoenixyfriend]

Re; Ahsoka and Quinlan being the same age, now I'm picturing Ahsoka, Quinlan, and Rex eventually ending up in a weird sorta thruple where Quinlan comes in and out of the relationship but the door is kinda always open for him? And Rex spends a lot of mornings eyeing the tangle of orange and brown skin on the other side of the bed like he has no idea how he ended up here but he's (mostly) okay with that tbh

Context: Commander Buir in chronological order

YES okay so this is wild to me that people are invested in this but like half the time-travel fics with Ahsoka in the same age-group as Quinlan have me wondering if I should ship them. Let me just. Ho shit.

So, okay, I've explored a lot of possible dynamics but there's something really engaging about how Quinlan, trained as a Shadow before the Sith came back, could react to a War Padawan. Ahsoka isn't really infiltration material yet, she's very much a frontline fighter, but she's got a lot more experience with a kind of consistent dark atmosphere that most Jedi don't. They get exposed to plenty of dark stuff, sure, but not the kind of all-encompassing "this is my life for the last two years" thing that is usually reserved for the long-term field agents like Shadows and Watchmen.

The War Padawans, for all that they were supposed to be just normal Jedi Padawans, were living in the kind of consistently negative environment that's normally experienced by those Knighted Sentinels.

So Ahsoka, while still generally pretty young in these AUs, is a very odd kind of person to be around, because she's spunky and vivacious and snippy and affectionate and snarky and knows how to break every bone in your body from harrowing experience as the only thing standing between death and thousands of brothers.

And Quinlan, I imagine, really likes that about her. She gets it, and she's still an energetic and loving and trying to do her best to be a good person despite everything. He gravitates towards her and she... well, she's not blind. She can tell he's interested. And she's not upset about that.

ANYWAY, ONTO REX

So, Rex is... technically twelve. He hasn't exactly got a whole lot of experience with romance. He is also, up until the point of time-travel, legal property of the Senate and the Jedi Order, which means that Ahsoka, or at least her community, owns him. He was indoctrinated to serve her and that community. She also outranks him, for all that she usually lets him take the lead in the field due to experience. He's older than her physically and maturity-wise, but she's also had a grow-up-faster-than-you-should adolescence, and she has superpowers.

What I'm saying is, the power dynamic is fucked up.

(Unironically I spent hours last night realizing that it balances out a lot more than C*dywan does, which I'm censoring because by god do I not want discourse on this post. I like both ships, and don't want to argue about what's the most problematic. It's Star Wars. The only unproblematic ships are Bail/Breha and Owen/Beru.)

Here's the thing, though, because the main thing people seem to argue here is the age/maturity difference as a problem area:

The age difference in actual time is four years, which is smaller than the two main ships of the franchise (Han/Leia and Padme/Anakin, to be clear). The age difference in maturity is ??? We'll say that the clones started aging normally after they hit twenty, so the age difference in maturity is six years... which is still normal for SW ships.

(This is why I don't have any issues with the ship in a post-O66 context, once they've had a few years to move past the traumas and whatnot. The age stuff all evens out with time, they're a good team, and neither was grooming the other. It's not objectively any more problematic than most SW ships at that point, and I'm okay with that. They deserve to be happy if they want.)

But they get yanked away from all that structure of who owns what, who reports where, who has which rank, who's legally a person in the eyes of the Republic when they end up on Dagobah. Once they've registered when they are, the only remaining complications are:

He grew up in a cultlike environment and was indoctrinated to serve her (but has been replacing that indoctrination with genuine respect and affection for her as a person because they've worked together for two years).

She has superpowers (contextually not a big problem: we see several Force-Sensitive/Non-Sensitive ships that don't consider those powers a complicating element)

He's several years younger than her (canonically less of an issue than it could be: Cut got married and has kids) and has next to no experience with what a normal romance looks like except for hanging out on the edges of whatever the fuck his General has going on with the Senator

She's several years less mature than he is (...something of an issue)

So a lot of this is mostly okay. She feels weird about the fact that she's got more knowledge of romance and all that it entails. He feels weird about the fact that, despite her being older, he looks at her and sees someone that's still a little young, not quite a shiny. Except she is older than him, and he's seen her behead four people in a single move, and they've saved each other's lives more times than either of them can count anymore. He respects her, and the fact that she's babyfaced doesn't change the fact that, in terms of who they are as people and warriors, they're on a level playing field.

She still looks at him and mourns his lost childhood, and he still looks at her and takes a moment to see past the too-big eyes and adolescent proportions.

But they really, really care about each other, and maybe part of them is starting to recognize that there's a bit of a crush before they time-travel, but neither one wants to make a move. There's a lot of baggage on both sides, a lot of "but they're a child" and "but they're (literally vs functionally) below me in the chain of command, I can't take advantage of that" and all that fun stuff. It's the kind of situation where two people circle each other for ages without making a move, because actually making that move is terrifying on account of not knowing whether the other party knows they can say no, on top of the usual "what if it ruins our friendship?" thing.

What happens on Dagobah, though... is very tropey. They're sort of stranded until Ahsoka can fix the ship, and that takes time. The area is also very heavy with the Force, dense and heady with the energy it carries, and it's... actually really not great for Ahsoka. She keeps feeling like she's back on Mortis, and has nightmares from the trigger there, but also keeps hallucinating because she wasn't ready for the thickness of the energy (like Yoda) or still new enough to the Force that she couldn't feel how dense it all was (like Luke). She can't work on the engines as constantly as she'd like to get them out of there, and while Rex is a competent mechanic, he's not as skilled with it as the girl who jumped headfirst into lessons with Anakin.

Rex spends a lot of time holding Ahsoka and wiping her brow with a wet cloth while she's feverish and out of it. Yes we're going full Florence Nightingale romance here, let me have my fun.

They get the communications relay working earlier than the engine, find out the year is wrong, panic a bit. All is well. (It's not, but they're holding it together for now.)

Ahsoka keeps working on the engine when she's lucid. Rex keeps hunting up game and edible plants for them while she does. They cuddle at night, because it's not cold but it is empty of the people they care about, and they kind of want that reassurance of someone they trust and love at their back.

(Morai visits.)

(Daughter shows up in the nightmares, tells Ahsoka that age will not come for her beloved until the time is natural for it. The phrasing is dumb but she does manage to convey that the accelerated aging is no longer an issue, if it even was after they hit adulthood. Ahsoka is relieved.)

And, you know, emotions happen. She takes his hand while they're leaning up against each other. He kisses her forehead while she's having a bad spell. They cook together and tell jokes to keep sane and spar. They hug each other through nightmares and panic attacks. There is much blushing. There is much cuddling.

Once, they kiss.

They break apart, flushing and stammering and being very awkward about the whole thing, and make excuses to leave and panic about the fact that they!! Kissed!!!!!

A couple hours later they find each other again, and have a long and complicated discussion about why they like each other (war makes bedfellows, there's trust and affection and all that fun stuff) and why they're hesitant (age stuff, maturity stuff, prior indoctrination), and make the decision to take it slow. They cuddle, and kiss, and blush a lot because both of them are basically just dumb teens having their first real relationship.

They eventually leave the planet, make it to Coruscant, etc. It takes a bit for anyone except Obi-Wan to realize that something's changed between them. Most people didn't know them before, and Anakin's observation skills are currently at a very low ebb. But they sit together and hold hands, and flirt when they spar, and once or twice people find them kissing (both standard and Keldabe) in a corner while holding hands and then just smiling at each other like loons.

They end up rooming together because nobody has the heart to separate them after hearing about all the war stuff. Like yes attachment's bad, but these two do seem to understand loss of loved ones and recognize that they could lose each other at any time and death is natural and they won't lose their entire shit about it, and if even General Kenobi is anxious as hell about being separated from the people he fought side-by-side with for two years, then maybe it's just... really normal for those two to want each other's company, and everyone can just turn a blind eye to the romance happening.

They share a bed, but they only ever sleep in it. Like, there's some goodnight kisses and cuddles, but everything is very G-rated until they've had time to settle into being true equals instead of just the "well, I guess the power dynamics balance out? Maybe?" of before.

And just... yeah. Rex does not believe that he's in this good of a position whenever he has the time to think about it. He's got a girlfriend! A really pretty, smart, strong, skilled one! Who thinks he's a cool dude! How the fuck did a clone like him manage that? He wasn't even legally a person a year ago, how did he end up in bed with one of the most amazing people he's ever met? He spends multiple nights just staring at her while he tries to fall asleep, asking himself how he got here and just like... marveling at her. She's worth marveling at. He's in love and she's amazing and he has no idea how to handle it at all.

...yeah no I have a lot of feelings now.

#Rexsoka #Ahsoka Tano #Captain Rex #Quinlan Vos #time travel #Commander Buir #Phoenix Posts

[minisoysquares]

As fun as the events and ideas you posted about 19days would be, wouldn’t it also just bring in more negative stuff - like fandom in general has become a field of land mines and I fear that something that’s supposed to fun will turn into some sort of battle. Like how some people get extremely heated over any other ships outside of their fave ship and they cannot possibly have other ships except theirs, etc. The last thing anyone wants is for content creators to be targeted simply for making something they thought would be fun

(This ask and answer is about this post.)

First of all thank you so much for addressing such a big and valid concern. I agree that that has indeed happened in certain fandoms - I can say I've been in the thick of it and witnessed quite the warfare - but in others it has also brought fans and readers and content creators together even closer and tighter in a wonderful thriving community.

I have the feeling this'll get quite long so please proceed under the cut with that in mind.

I believe all things are potential harbingers of both discord and harmony. There will always be people who feel entitled and who want - even demand! the audacity! - authors and artists to create for their ships and their ships alone. And there will also always be people who can appreciate the writing and the art without judgemental treatment regarding the pairings/characters depicted, no matter their preferences.

All of that happens and will continue to happen, whether we go forward with these events or not. And yet authors will still write what they want to write, artists will still draw what they want to draw, graphic designers will still make the edits they want to make as well. What we could do, in this small and close knit fandom, is take in our hands this powerful rich opportunity and try our best to make a model of positivity out of it.

In these events, there would be no bashing or shaming allowed. The content created would be to be enjoyed by those who are attracted to it, and those who do not have a taste for that fanwork in particular would be asked to remain respectful. (As it should always be.) There would be no ship wars in these spaces. Discourse, hate-speech or anti-behaviour would not be tolerated by the moderators of the event.

Creators who indulged in it would be immediately disqualified. Any unnecessary commentary or complaints from the audience would be deleted and reported as spam. Anyone instigating conflict would be only painting a target on their back, really. Because most of us - I dare say - are only here to appreciate the brilliant artwork and fanfiction woven and crafted by the talented people who share it with us.

If it came to it and it escalated, this hellsite has several tools that can be put to use to that regard. Accounts could be blocked and/or even reported. They wouldn't be able to interact with the blogs created to run these events from then on. We would be able to create a black list and post it publicly so everyone else who wished to could simply block those unruly pesky accounts and remain at peace and free to enjoy themselves to their utmost.

Let us not forget that this is all fiction and it's all for fun. Everyone's allowed to have their own opinion, likes and dislikes. There simply is no need to step on anyone else and their interests to elevate them.

Let's exemplify, for the sake of clarity:

Do I personally ship A with B? Imagine I do not. I do not search for it. If I come across it? I scroll past it. Once or twice, I may even like - and even reblog - if it happens to catch my attention and it's well written/drawn! (I have tags along the lines of 'I don't ship it but' and 'look at this beautiful art' or 'drown in the power of these words.')

It's so easy to interact amongst ourselves without coming with pitchforks at one another. Know what actually needs effort? Being a meanie and a party popper! Who in their right mind wastes their time on things they don't care for? Dum dums, that's who! Of course, we're all dummies at times... and that's okay! Let's just not harass people or crash their fun while we're at it!

If nothing else: you wouldn't like if others did this or that to you, therefore don't do it to others. It's a simple concept to grasp.

Very important: in these events, every single piece would be explicitly and properly tagged and warned for right at the very top of each post, so there would be absolutely no excuses for anyone being nasty.

We would just have to be open to the experience. Enjoy our ships and let other enjoy theirs. We do not have to all like the same thing. That would be just boring. But we can cohabitate devoid of trouble in fandom. Each one of us just has to be respectful. No need to even be nice. No one has to compliment something they don't like. They also don't have to step on what others do.

Don't like a ship/character/theme? Don't read stories focused on it. Don't put down authors who write it or readers who enjoy it. Same for art. No need to shout about how awful it is just for the simple reason that it does not fit into your personal shipping preferences. It can still be still be a tasty and wonderfully baked cake, it's just that you're not fond of vanilla or strawberries. It's okay. There are all kinds of cake for everyone's tastes!

Further examples: If a ship happens to be a NOTP for me or I don't care for the character(s)? I filter the tags. All of them. Any and every tag I can think of. It's very easy to protect ourselves on Tumblr from content we do not wish to see. (My own list is huge and just as effective.) Filtering is incredibly important.

So go ahead and filter out the ships you can do without! Filter out porte-manteaux like Tianshan, Zhanyi, Qiucheng, Tianxi, Tianyi, Lishan, Litian, Liyi, Shantou, Polydays, (...) Filter out any ship tag that doesn't strike your fancy like Q x MGS, HC x JY's mom, (...) Filter out characters that aren't your cuppa tea like HT, HT's dad, SL, JY's mom, XH, (...)

Make it safe for yourself and for others. That way you won't rage at the sight of your NOTP, won't feel the compulsive need to trash the people who ship it, no one is hurt and everyone is happy!

There are many steps we could follow to prevent rotten eggs in our coop. And many more actions we could take to throw them out if need be. I firmly believe, however, that if we're all of the same mind everything would go well and with very few bumps along the way.

If we only ever feared the possible negative consequences of our actions, never taking the risk for the possible positive ones, we'd never get anything done. I say let's not let our beloved fandom stagnate or dry out. Let's incentivate and motivate and inspire! Let's share! Let's have fun!

Think of it in these terms: it wouldn't be a competition at all but rather a charity event. Performers and spectators coming together for a common good, raising content and spreading joy! There would be no winners or losers or prizes. What would matter would be good old-fashioned participation, both by providing content and/or consuming it.

It could also a good way to get people to express themselves more. Many content consumers tend to lurk or keep to themselves even if they like the content posts. (I used to be one myself and only a couple months ago started to come out of my shell.) I myself advocate for reblogging instead of liking - if you have to choose one or the other, I mean, why not do both? - and leaving a word on every single post I like and/or reblog. Sometimes I go nuts commenting, sometimes I leave a small note in the tags.

It doesn't matter how. Even if you're shy or introverted (*raises hand*) or don't know what to say I guarantee a single emoticon or a string of disordered letters symbolising incoherence will make the creator's day all the same. Getting feedback is so important and motivational for creators and also a great way for fandom members to keep in touch and support each other.

Additionally, if a person would like more of a certain type of content here are some healthy actions they could take: a) commission a creator and pay for it if they can; b) politely make a suggestion to a creator with an open ask box; c) post a prompt publicly for possible interested creators to use; d) do it yourself and share it with others!

This turned out into more of a "behavioural guidelines" thing than I'd have liked. I am not in any way whatsoever telling anyone what to do. This is what I do, and it works wonders for me. I stay completely out of toxic arguments and in on all the goodies. I'm able to fully enjoy my fandoms. And isn't that what we all want?

Thank you again for sharing your thoughts with me. And I apologise for the long rant!

Of course, this is only my personal stance on the issue. I did go for a survey first exactly for this end, to get their opinions on the subject and see if it would be worth a shot. I shall hope many other people will think as I do, but I will wholly respect those who don't.

#answered asks #19 tian #19天 #19 days #old先 #old xian #zhanyi #qiucheng #tianshan #jian yi #zhan zheng xi #he cheng #qiu #brother qiu #he tian #mo guan shan #she li #cun tou #xiao hui

[iamanartichoke]

I haven't watched any of the Loki episodes yet (I'm procrastinating) but I keep seeing vague stuff about some big chasm between how Tom sees Loki and how apparently a lot of fans see Loki. Could you give me some specifics? Other than Loki mentioning his interest in sexes other than female I've heard nothing that could cause this kind of discourse.

I don't know if I'm the best person to ask, as I know others have articulated it much better than I can, and who may feel more strongly than I do that their Loki and Tom's Loki don't align so much anymore. Not tagging anyone bc of reasons (but feel free to comment/reblog if you wish to talk about it).

But, I do know a decent amount, so I'll proceed to write five thousand words try.

My understanding overall, is that Tom has always spoken very eloquently about Loki as a complex, fractured character who was functioning from a place of deep pain as opposed to any real villainy or evil.

(cut for length)

He was never saying any of it as an excuse for Loki's actions but as an explanation of where Loki was coming from and how he ended up in that place to start with. This mostly refers to the 2011-2013 era Loki, before the "reboot." Because so many fans viewed Loki the same way - as complex, as broken, as coming from a place of pain - there was validation, I suppose, in knowing that the actor who played the character (and whose performance was largely responsible for the character being so enigmatic and appealing in the first place) shared this view.

After the reboot with TR, Tom seemed to lean more heavily on the "god of mischief" aspect of Loki - he'd often say that his job was to have fun bc Loki was always mischievously having fun. While Loki had always been funny in a snarky, sardonic kind of way, and the "mischief" he'd get into was always just for fun and relatively harmless, after TR he was more silly-funny or slapstick funny ("funny") and his mischief was framed as a little more malicious (such as using magic to trick and then stab Thor when they were children).

So it seemed like a big departure from the previous Loki that Tom always spoke so eloquently about, and I think it's notable that when promoting TR, Tom didn't really delve into the psychology of Loki much at all when he'd talk about the character - just the "fun." So there was that. At the time, people figured it was bc he had very little control or say in what the director chose to do with his character.

Now, though, Tom has a lot more creative control (although I don't think he actually has all that much, certainly not as much as some people think he does, tbh), but while he's once again talking about Loki's psychology and identity issues and trauma and whatnot as context and backstory, he also still seems to be leaning into the "god of mischief" parts and the silly-funny parts. The show furthermore has yet to address what Loki experienced with Thanos in between Thor 2011 and Avengers, has failed to address his identity crisis after discovering he is Jotun (a throwaway 'I was adopted' line doesn't really count), etc.

So there's a lot that Tom has spoken about in Loki's story that is very much not being included in the series. Furthermore, while Tom discusses Loki's complexity when doing press, he has also said things that imply he has an idea of humiliation being a core aspect of Loki, or that Loki is someone who constantly needs to be knocked down a few pegs, or that he thinks he's profound but actually isn't, etc. I know in the past he's also made comments about Loki's mental health and how Loki might go about recovering from it, but his perspective on that whole area didn't ring true to a lot of Loki fans who also suffer from mental health issues.

So all of these things together, to some fans, makes it seem like Tom's current idea of Loki - whether it's bc he wants to do something new, or has changed as an actor, or whatever the case may be - is still a departure from the 2011-2013 era Loki and, thus, does not align with their own interpretation of Loki. Hence, a chasm appears.

^^ All of this is for context, which I tried to give as objectively as possible. Now, as far as discourse about it goes, I can't speak to that very much. Nobody that I know is angry at Tom or "betrayed" by Tom or feeling anything negative toward Tom as a person. They are, however, feeling that they may need to re-evaluate how much of Tom's interpretation they put stock into as they engage with the character, and kinda where to go from here. But I can't emphasize enough that no one acts like this is Tom's responsibility or that Tom somehow did them dirty. I also can't emphasize enough that there's nothing wrong with Tom's version and he genuinely seems to be enjoying what they've created here, and that's fabulous. There's no wank about that, at least not that I've seen from my fandom corner.

So that's the situation from the tumblr side. However, because Tom has been the "face" of the Loki series all this time, and because he's been hyped up as having so much say and influence and ideas to contribute, a lot of people got the idea that the Loki of the series would be exactly the Loki that Tom wanted to play. And when, inevitably, the show went in directions that people didn't like (my understanding is that this is mostly coming down to shipping nonsense, which I'm not even going to touch), Tom was blamed. And that's where this "discourse" is coming from, as far as I know. I don't have any real first hand facts, but people are saying that Tom's been getting death threats on social media from fans who are outraged about the Sylvie thing, or outraged about how the bisexual component is being handled, or whatever. Since this is pretty much par for the course in fandoms, I believe it.

But it seems like the shipping nonsense has gotten all tangled up in the dissatisfaction in the aspects of Loki's story that aren't being told, and in the difference in Tom's comments about Loki now vs back then, and it just ends up being a recipe for discourse, wank, and drama. So to answer your question, the chasm between Tom's Loki and some fans' Loki is the result of ... *gestures at massive wall of text* this.

#thank you for the ask! #sorry it's so long #asks #charlotte replies #tom hiddleston is my favorite unicorn #tom hiddleston has the best loki meta #not using critical tags bc i feel like this is pretty ojective #objective* #re tom. his opinions. and pre-post ragnarok. but i mean #take it as you will

[bukojuiice]

ABOUT ME ｡⋆ʚ♡⃛ɞ

🌼 —  hi there! i'm a inter-dimensional space princess undercover in an eighteen year old girl's body who goes by the name julie. i've adapted to her lifestyle of playing video games, watching anime and sending memes to loved ones. she also apparently writes fanfictions during her spare time.

🌼 — my full name is julianne (hence why my tags are under that name) but i prefer if you would call me julie! c: i go by she/her pronouns! i was born on july 4 which means yes, i am a cancer. i am an infp and my hogwarts house is hufflepuff!!

🌼— feel free to drop by and send me an ask or submit stuff to me! c: i’m very very nice and i love interacting with people! replying to my fics is welcome too! í try my best to be a very friendly person so please don’t shy away from being chaotic with me bc i’m really nice! (∩˃o˂∩)♡

BYF ! ｡⋆ʚ♡⃛ɞ

🌼  — DNI if you are racist, xenophobic, homophobic, sexist, or here to spread negativity. i want to make this a safe space for everyone who wants to read my fics. please do not ruin that. 

🌼  —  i’m not one to write or share dark content so anything with gore, underage sexual activities, yandere, etc. are off my list entirely.

🌼  — anything mildly sensitive or triggering will always be posted with a tw always. if ever i may make mistakes in my writing, please do send me a message or an ask so that i may rectify that mistake immediately. 

🌼  — i both write and reblog stuff on tumblr. i am very very multifandom and i have a literal pile of characters, shows, books, anime and video games i am very much into so i hope you’ll both enjoy my fics whilst also seeing a multifandom discourse on this blog !!

TAGS ! ｡⋆ʚ♡⃛ɞ

🌼 —  #juliannewrites - all of the fics i’ve written will be under this tag! i haven’t updated this in a while (so it won’t show any of my most recent works) but will do once i have the time.

🌼 —  #julianneasks - all the asks sent to me is under this tag! 

🌼 —  #juliannemanifests - just me rambling and contemplating about dumb things. 

🌼 —  #julianne’s loves - tags i add for my moots, friends and my fave people on this site! ♡⃛

#about me #juliannemanifests

[mrmallard]

I had a look at the kataang tag for the first time in years thanks to the ATLA revival, and while I'm seeing a lot more harmonious memey content than I remember seeing in the past, I still saw some of the old discourse. As someone who shipped Kataang back in the day, the "kataang is pedophilia" argument is familiar to me - but "zutara is pro-imperialism" is a new one. Back in my fandom days, the discourse in my circles was "zutara is abusive".

I want to dip back into the fandom drama one more time, because to this day I fucking abhor the drama I saw back then and I don't want to see it repeating. For reference - I was a kid when the show first aired, around Aang's age, and I took part in the early fandom. I've been around the block with both ATLA and other fanbases/ships. I first saw the Tumblr discourse in 2013, 5 years after the show ended, and people who were my age and older were harassing younger fans who weren't familiar with the discourse and making mountains out of molehills. This issue is near and dear to my heart, and I want to make a statement for old times sake - to maybe help people avoid the fandom pitfalls I fell into.

This fanbase means so much to me because it's the first fanbase I ever wrote fanfiction for, and I want it to be a positive experience for everyone - not a shit-flinging contest where people are cancelling ships and harassing people based on their personal taste. I had enough of that when I was 12-14, and I had enough of it when I was 18. We've all seen how toxic fandom can get with Sherlock and Voltron - let's try and avoid that.

So here are some personal opinions on shipping:

Your ships are important to you, but they shouldn't outweigh basic civility when interacting with other fans. Not everyone knows the show/fanbase/ship/discourse like you do, not everyone views the show or fandom through the same lens that you do, and some people approach ships critically as an extension of their enjoyment of the show. And that's okay. You shouldn't take it as a personal attack if someone is questioning aspects of your ship, because not everyone shares your viewpoint on it as you do and they're trying to get a better understanding of it.

That doesn't mean "let people be dickheads about something you like" - it just means "civil discourse isn't an attack on you or your interests". If people are just being rude shitheads, then excommunicate them and cultivate your fandom space for your needs. Just understand that other expressions of fandom, including critical discourse - actual thought-out criticism, not barely veiled shit-flinging - aren't trying to attack you or make you feel bad. There are people who will try to attack something and make people feel bad, and the best thing to do in that situation is to mark them down as an agitator, block them and move on.

Violence begets more violence. Calling a Kataang shipper a pedo because Aang is 12 and Katara is 14 only embitters Kataang shippers towards your ship/s, and it will most likely result in those shippers taking issue with what you ship in retaliation. This is not exclusive to Kataang shippers - Zutara shippers will fire back if you call their ship imperialistic or abusive, or any other shippers will defend their ships against negativity. Basically, don't be rude and tear down someone's interests because you don't share them, and then turn around and cry foul when they take issue with what you like. If someone else does this to something you like, rather than striking back and creating a flame war, do your best to omit that person and their rhetoric from your fandom experience - the only thing that happens when fans go on the offense is that a lot of people get worked up and angry, a lot of harsh words are thrown around and everyone gets hurt and burnt out.

If at all possible, look at the fandom as a bigger picture and try to understand why people like the things they do, even if you don't like them. Understanding other people's interests, whether you like them or not, goes a long way towards having a nuanced, harmonious fandom experience. Hardcore Kataang and Zutara shippers don't have to be at each other's fuckin throats all the goddamn time - respect that you both like what you like, and leave each other alone. If one ship isn't your thing, that's okay. Try and understand why your thing might not appeal to someone else. If everyone could try and have a little empathy for each other's ships and headcanons, fandom would be a nicer place for everybody.

Don't be afraid to ship multiple things for different reasons. Back in the day - when I was 12-14 - I shipped Kataang and Taang. Your viewpoint doesn't have to narrow down to one ship. If you do have an OTP that's cool too, but don't let hardcore shippers ruin the whole idea of shipping for you because for them it's their way or the highway. Your interest in fictional pairings isn't like a monogamous relationship - you can express your interest in any aspect of the show in any way you like.

There's no objective way to participate in ATLA fandom. It doesn't fuckin matter if Kataang is canon - if you like Zutara, you like Zutara. That's okay. Want to make bender OCs and write fanfiction? Do it! Don't be afraid of AUs, one of my fondest childhood fanfics was a modern day high school AU - it was the only high school AU I ever liked. No one person or their will defines what the ATLA fanbase can or should do.

If you really dislike something that's big in the fanbase, the onus is on you to cultivate a fandom space that caters to your wants and needs. Again, don't put up with shit-stirrers and assholes trying to make you feel like garbage, but if the thought of a specific, widespread fandom thing like a ship or a headcanon makes you see red or like totally disgusts you, that's something that you need to work out. When you find out what you don't like about something, it's okay to express that - just understand that there will be people who don't share the same viewpoint.

Last, but not least - look out for trolls, creeps and TERFs, and keep them the fuck out. Every large fanbase attracts actual scum. People will use ships to prey on people, i.e. older people looking to creep on younger people through mutual ships, or spread hateful rhetoric to destabilise people they don't like - and as a community you need to put the shipping war bullshit aside and work for the betterment of the fandom as a whole. Like if a teenager is preyed upon by someone in the fanbase, and an adult takes joy in that because they shipped something the adult disagreed with, then that adult is a fucking monster. Understand that the fandom is bigger than just you, and work to make it a safe and enjoyable space for everyone.

My feelings on fandom can be summed up as such: fandom is meant to be a positive environment to build yourself up and enjoy something even more than just enjoying the canon stuff. Fandom as a whole, and shipping in particular, should not make you feel attacked or miserable - and no-one should feel driven to attack other people over something so petty as a personal opinion on a fictional pairing. Shipping should be an expression of positive feelings, not a means to harass and hurt other people.

Instead of building up reasons to attack other people and lord yourselves over them as the objectively correct choice, cultivate a space where you can explore fandom within your own parameters. And over time, actually take a second to think about why other people like things that you hate, and see if you can understand their opinion and respect it without necessarily having to like it yourself. We're all in this together, even people who like things that you don't, and if you can find a way to respect that... well, fandom will be a better place to be for everyone, including you.

Don't let negativity take hold and ruin the whole thing, for you or for others. Fandom can be whatever you want it to be, but it's also a community for everyone to enjoy. The sooner you can operate within that bigger picture, the better it'll be for yourself and everyone else.

#kataang #zutara #avatar the last Airbender #atla

[firelord-frowny]

obligatory disclaimer that this post is ENTIRELY based on my own perceptions of my own experiences, and may or may not be true to a broader degree. 

anyway, Weight Stuff under the cut. also LMFAO this post is long as SHIT lmfaoooo and it doesn’t even end with the topic i meant for it to be about. 

Sooooo, i’ve always very loudly been on Team Mind-Your-Business-About-Other-People’s-Bodies, and i still am, and i am ALWAYS down to (usually gently) call out someone who’s overstepping their boundaries as far as other people’s bodies and lifestyles go, blah blah, and i am KEEEENLY aware of the damage people cause with fatphobia, and that rhetoric surrounding ~diet and exercise~ is almost ALWAYS malicious in terms of hyperfocusing on “ugly fat” and shaming people into feeling horrible enough about theirselves that they pay out the ass for Quick Fixes, and there’s almost 0 focus on The Actual Health Benefits of a healthy lifestyle other than just Maybe Being Slimmer. 

But alsoooooooooooooooooooooo???

i’ve always felt like, because of all that shit, it’s so difficult for me to feel comfortable talking about my own body and my own habits and my own shortcomings and my own goals. like, i DO feel bothered by the weight I’ve gained recently. NOT because it makes me feel ugly - i don’t feel ugly at all. i literally almost always feel beautiful lmao. NOT because i’m worried about how other people see me - i don’t have relationships with people who would give someone a hard time about their weight in the first place, and beyond that, i’m generally unconcerned with what people think of my appearance. 

the thing that bothers me is that i KNOW my weight gain has been the result of unhealthy lifestyle choices. i’ve always eaten more junkfood than anyone i know, and i’ve always tended to eat VERY few healthy things. so like... that’s bad enough for my health. but i ALSO don’t get much physical activity. and then covid hits and my job is snatched out from under me and i spend most of every day in the same 100 square feet. so like... OF COURSE i gained weight. lots of people did! people gain weight all the time for lots of reasons and nobody should feel bad or guilty about it. 

but for me, even though i don’t see my weight gain as cause to lament about my appearance, i DO see it as an indicator that i’m not taking very good care of myself. i mean, if i’m thinner with a shitty diet, then my thinness kind of allows me to ignore my bad choices because there’s no ~visual~ reminder. i know that’s prolly fucked up, but that’s what’s happening in my head. when i’m thinner, i don’t have to acknowledge that there are going to be consequences for my choices. 

but to SEE my body change as a direct result of crappy diet and no exericse??? it’s really made me see how urgent it is that i start treating myself better RIGHT the fuck now. i mean, i am Young, but i won’t be young forever, and the longer i keep eating garbage and sitting around all day, the sooner i can expect to start having real health issues. and like, heart problems run in my family (as they do in MANY black families). i already have pcos, and that puts me at a higher risk for stuff like that. 

so, it’s been scary to have to face the reality that i’m setting myself up for disaster. 

and i figured that CLEARLY i’ve been unable to get myself on track For Free, so i finally caved and signed up for noom, and i’m down almost 10 pounds already.

and i get on the scale and weigh myself and i feel proud! i feel happy! i feel capable! i feel like i’ve proven to myself that i CAN make better choices. i’m NOT weak-willed. i’m NOT incapable of taking care of myself. 

But then I feel like i shouldn’t say that out loud, or i shouldn’t tell people how glad i am to see the natural result of my healthier choices. 

i’m not glad because i look different - i’m glad because my different look is a sign that i’m succeeding in taking control of my lifestyle. my different look is visual evidence that i’m eating more fruit and whole grains and drinking more water and i’m eating less sugary foods and less meats, and i’m eating healthier portions, and i’m not snacking all day. i can SEE the proof that i’m making choices that are going to give me a better chance at staying healthy throughout my life. 

i’m KINDA exaggerating in that i don’t actually think i LOOK different just yet lmao i feel like i look more or less the same. but i definitely do FEEL some subltle differences. i mean maybe it’s a placebo effect, but i think my forearms are slightly narrower and my bewbs are a bit less... cumbersome lmao. (i SWEAR like half of the weight i’ve gained has been in my boobs alone omfg). 

but idk, i guess what i’m trying to express is that i just... don’t feel comfortable sharing how glad i am about my progress bc most of my social circles are comprised of people who are rightly critical of the way people talk and think about weight loss. i knooooow that most reasonable folks, if i give the Full Explanation about how my gladness is due to the fact that i can see that my lifestyle is changing for the better, would understand and would be happy for me. 

but uhhhh lmao some people Aren’t Reasonable and are committed to having a negative reaction to any statement that seems to exalt thinness in any context at all whatsoever. 

and i KNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW that a person’s weight is not an automatic indicator of their health, and you can’t assume that a person has Become Healthier just because they’ve lost weight, and you can’t assume that a person has become unhealthier just because they’ve gained it. there are all kinds of reasons for people being whatever size they are, and we can’t make those kinds of judgments about people’s size bc obviously we don’t know their life! we don’t know if they eat veggies and go jogging! we don’t know if a thin person has a cinnabon for breakfast every day or if a fat person is a professional dancer. so like. it’s stoopit to assume anything at all about a person’s health/lifestyle just based on their size. 

BUUUUUUUUUUT!!!! an individual person can make those judgements about their own size and their own health. like, people know why they’re the size that they are, whether it’s genetics or lifestyle or health related. one person who’s super thin knows it’s because they have a fast metabolism. another person who’s thin knows it’s because they starve theirself. another person who’s thin knows it’s because they intentionally make choices that would result in their size. and the same goes for big people! they know if they eat too much junk food, or if they’re just genetically ~meant~ to be their size, blah blah blah. 

so when a person talks about their own weight and how it relates to their own health and their own lifestyle, i feel like it’s Inappropriate to lecture them about how ~it’s okay to be fat, you don’t need to lose weight~ blah blah. bc like... DUH, it’s okay to be fat. whether it’s because of lifestyle or genes, it’s still okay. it’s allowed. and people should be free to feel beautiful and see theirselves as UNCONDITIONALLY valuable and intrinsically worthy of the space they occupy in the universe. If a person actually disparages theirself because of their weight, then sure, you’re probably welcome to tell that person that their size, no matter the reason for it, has no bearing on their worth and that they have the right to feel good about who they are and how they look. 

but if someone says, “you know, it’s really time that i finally started eating right and exercising so i can be healthier and lose weight,” thennnn... i feel like the only appropriate response is to cheer them on and tell them to go for it! if someone knows that their weight is the result of unhealthy habits, and they express a desire to change that, there’s no need to try to tell them that they don’t need to try to change it omfg. 

like... literally everyone needs to eat well and exercise in order to give theirself their best chance at staying in good health. thin people need to eat well and exercise. fat people need to eat well and exercise. they only people who DON’T need to eat well and exercise would be people who are actually physically incapable of rigorous movement or people who are, idk, allergic to most ~healthy~ foods. 

So if someone who’s been eating junk and sitting around tells you that they want to start eating well and exercising... that’s a GOOD THING. 100% of the time. it’s ridiculous to respond to that with a lecture about ~all sizes are beautiful~ and ~you can do whatever you want, you don’t have to Fit The Mold~ like omfg THAT’S NOT THE POOOOOIIIINNNTTTT!!! 

basically, i feel like in the midst of rightly defending fat people’s right to exist as they are, some of the Discourse has inadvertently careened into the absurd territory of actually DISCOURAGING people from making HEALTHY lifestyle changes that would result in weight loss. 

as i’m typing this, it also occurs to me that there seems to be an assumption that anyone who intends to lose weight is planning to do it via extreme but temporary methods like restrictive diets and unsustainably vigorous exercise. 

i feel like some people need to acknowledge that there’s a difference between “i’m only going to eat one meal a day and exercise for 4 hours a day so i can lose 30 pounds before my wedding day,” and “i’m going to lose my excess weight by transitioning to a healthier lifestyle.” the former describes an unhealthy and unsustainable attempt to starve and overwork yourself to lose x amount of pounds that you’re inevitably gonna regain after you go back to your normal habits, and it’s exclusively focused on appearance. like, it CAN’T be about health, because those methods are unhealthy! you don’t get healthy by doing unhealthy things! 

the latter describes a legitimately healthy way of life that can and SHOULD be sustained for a person’s whole life if ptll ossible. there’s no need to try to force your body into a different shape in a short amount of time when you could instead just allow your size to adjust slowly to a permanent and positive lifestyle change. 

but it seems like there’s a knee-jerk reaction to condemn weight loss in any context altogether. 

i under staaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand why people might have that attitude and i’m not mad about it. i GET why some people might be hypervigilant about condemning any belief that suggests that being fat is something that a person should be unhappy about, and i don’t want people to stop doing that. 

but i doooooooooooooooooo think that perhaps it’s time that people begin learning to trust other people’s analyses of their own bodies and their own choices and their own goals, and learn to tell when a person’s weight loss is motivated by genuine health reasons, or by social pressure/shame/embarrassment. not everyone who wants to lose weight hates their body. not everyone who wants to lose weight has low self esteem. people can feel fabulous and gorgeous in their current body, and still want to make choices to change it via improving their health.

and like! some people genuinely just don’t WANT to lose weight that they know they’ve gained from unhealthy habits. some people are totally fine with living their life the way they like to live it, and prioritizing their enjoyment of their lifestyle over efferts to prevent future health issues. and that’s their right! and nobody should say shit about it! mind ya business! 

i kinda compare it to like... cave divers, or daredevils, or mountaineers. those are all HELLA dangerous activities that kill or seriously injure a LOT of people. and the people who engage in those activities KNOW this. they KNOW that they’re at a significantly higher risk of premature death compared to people who DON’T do those things, and they know that they could increase the odds of living a log time by Not Doing Those Things. 

but they do it anyway! because they want to! because they think it’s fun! because the enjoyment of the activity is, for them, worth the risk of harm. they’re living a lifestyle that could kill them, but nobody says shit about it. nobody shames them for it. they just accept that people have the right to be cray cray if that’s what they want to do. people might think daredevils are stupid, but they’re not trying to bully them into quitting. 

so if somebody wants to eat a diet comprised of nothing but eating cinnabons 3 times a day every day their whole life, that’s their right! mind ya damn business! if somebody hates exercise enough that they’re okay with the possibility of health problems down the line, then fine! it would be fair to worry about that person and to wish that they’d make differen choices, in the same way that it would be fine for someone to worry about their dearedevil friend and wish that they weren’t a daredevil. but it’s still not grounds to be a dickhead to them. 

[antiterf]

I took a logic and critical reasoning class for basic credits and I paid $20 for a book that my professor literally wrote but didn’t offer a free pdf or anything. 

Anyway I found a part that might be helpful to general discourse on tumblr with rhetorical tactics. It’ll also allow you to point out good and bad tactics from the other side. I’ll be leaving out one’s singularly to being physically there. I’m gonna share it now under the cut, since it’s a lot. 

Good Ones:

Show confidence and don’t let your emotions get the best of you. If you do it can make people think your argument is weak. 

Repeat the other sides arguments back to them in their own words before responding to them to show that you’ve been listening (this also helps with dealing with someone in emotional distress as I honestly learned this tactic while in 7 hr a day outpatient)

Don’t resort to intimidation, don’t do anything to physically or emotionally intimidate the other side. 

If you’re not like me and are actually trying to convince them, focus on more on why you’re right than why they’re wrong. It’s less likely to make the other side defensive. 

Depersonalize your remarks, say something like (blank ideology) instead of “your view) as it makes the person feels less attacked. 

Find a common ground to start from and work it up from there, even if it seems very minor. 

Repeat your most important points for emphasis, but not too much and not in the same wording. 

If there is a weakness in your position, point it out yourself and don’t wait until the other person points it out. Makes you seem like you were hiding something.

Don’t use words and terminology that the other person or group won’t understand. Don’t try to intimidate them with it. 

Stay on point, don’t go on a tangent, adding irrelevant discussion just makes your argument harder to follow. 

Don’t exaggerate or over state your point, don’t call it the “stupidest” or stuff like that. It makes you seem incautious.

Admit when you’re wrong, don’t gloat when you’re right. It shows that you’re more interested in finding the truth.

 Pick your battles. Don’t fight over every single minor detail as some people will try to nit pick your argument. 

Let some points sink in by themselves. For instance a terf once said that I accidentally face the oppression that gay men face and after I got that, it’s better to let it sink in that they recognized that I get treated like a man anyway and leave it at that. 

Honestly I came across this one and honestly in a place like tumblr don’t take it but when your opponent is ranting and it’s obvious to everyone that they’re spewing nonsense, don’t stop the fight, let them keep getting more ridiculous.

If you dug a hole for yourself and made a bad argument, don’t try to get yourself out, just admit that it’s bad and start over. 

Take a moment to think if you need to

When the other side has said something that you can take in multiple ways, assume the most logical  interpretation to show that you’re giving the benefit of the doubt. Opposite of purposefully straw manning. 

Bad Ones, this time I’ll use more of the logic definitions since people sometimes use them the wrong way:

Red Herring: intentionally trying to distract people from the real issue

Straw man: intentionally misrepresenting what other have said and attacking the misrepresentation 

Ad hominem: Attacking a person when you should be attacking their argument

Treating a small error as if it’s a fatal one

Appealing to pity and playing on sympathy when it should be a reasoned argument

Dismissing what someone has said as absurd or stupid without actually explaining why it is, in a case where it wouldn’t be obvious to a reasonable person why. 

Rattling off many points in rapid succession, or asking rapid fire questions just to make it look as if the other party is overwhelmed

Demanding that your opponent to do something or other to convince you of their view, and when they manage to do it, changing the requirement to something else. 

Refusing to tell your opponent what it would take to convince you, even when you know what it will take.

Setting the bar unrealistically high strict standard of proof

Cherry picking the facts: Focusing on what only supports your view and purposefully ignoring any that don’t. 

Using without explaining lots of shit that you know the other party won’t understand, just to intimidate the person into silence. 

Being deliberately vague in describing your view or your argument, just so no one can pin down what you’re trying to say. Keeping yourself from specific criticisms.

Merely repeating some popular slogan (“women means adult human female,” etc) over and over instead of making an actual argument. 

Taking up a view on which nobody really knows anything just in order to avoid admitting you have no good arguments left and you know you can’t keep this consistently (stuff like “we don’t really know if anti depressants help” and not like “We can’t be sure that aliens can’t exist).

Not holding yourself to the same standards of proof and good argument to which you hold your argument

Refusing to entertain or take seriously any arguments against your view. 

Baseless question: Asked merely for the purpose of embarrassing someone or creating a negative association with this person in the mind of the audience.

Asking a tendentious or leading question or asking a question in a way that favors the response you want to get. 

Dodging the question or finding some way to avoid answering it, because you don’t have a good answer or the truthful one is embarrassing. 

I admit I do the bad one’s when I’m being sarcastic and not serious because I honestly don’t give a damn on convincing through satire. But also see it all the time in actual arguments so it’d be good to point out in yourself and others. 

#notaterftip #not sarcasm #discourse #tumblr discourse

[true-intha-blu]

I propose this simple Question

First:  why I ask this. Since the infancy of the KH fandom all the way back from KH1, I noticed this simple trend one that picked up tremulously after kh2. No this has nothing to do with shipping. Also to note; I have genuine curiosity if anyone else notices this and this is from my perspective and experience with dealing with the Kingdom hearts fandom. Others may have very different accounts but others (that I have asked) have indeed noticed this as well in my own view. I am not aiming to stir up hate or discourse. I aim for peaceful fandoms. However, this subject is something I see no one ever addresses and well... maybe breaking a status quo or ‘unspoken rule’. I hope this can be a reasonable discussion where I can learn another perspective or some people may notice it and just go... “Oh yeah. That is a thing.” To which the question at hand. “Why does R*ku always have to be cool?”

(Disclaimer I do not hate this character. This question is not hateful. It is not anti or whatever. I mean exactly what I say. I will not be tagging this in the R*ku tab to prevent any misunderstandings. I ask others do the same. Anyone who reblogs this with hate is in no way associated with me.)

I will state the positive traits about R*ku. He has had the greatest character arc out of all the Kingdom Hearts Characters. A great redemption arc from his lowest to blooming into practically a whole new person in his own struggle against his KH1 self. He’s loyal to his friends. Smart. Gets along with Mickey and Yen Sid. Mellow. Saved Kairi and Sora. Knows what he has done. He’s honest and shares his concerns with others. Since KH2 he has always been trying to help Sora in the best of his ability. In acknowledgment of his misdeeds in CoM and Days is very good and we see a character who has genuinely f’d-up and his trying his best to move past that by helping his friends despite the limited resources offered to him. ^These are very good traits for a character to have. Any character. Besides his one time self in KH1, what else is there to him? What can be addressed as a flaw or criticism of him? (I approach characters as even though a character goes through a development arc, does not mean they are void of flaws. No one works like that. Not characters or actual people.) I say this. I love Sora and Vanitas in the Kingdom Hearts fandom. However, I am not afraid to draw them doing stupid or silly things and point out they have various of unfavorable flaws. Sora is utterly dense and I hate the fact how he was portrayed in DDD but I accept it and I will drag him along pointing out that fact. It is part of his character. He’s a dork (and not always in a good way). He impulsive and is kinda a mess of a human being. He's stubborn in the worse ways and volatile. Vanitas appears to be on the surface a straight up evil villain. As far as the games go, he is just utterly vile in his contempt for the characters and his actions have brought suffering and misery to various of characters. (though there may be other traits that could set for his own arc) (I still love them both) But note how none of these flaws listed above are ‘endearing’ or even remotely positive. They are problems, that hinder the characters and those around them. These are persistent traits even though both Sora and Vanitas have mellowed. Sora far more than Vanitas. I just do not see this done with R*ku. I rarely (they do exist but in comparison to the likes of Sora, Org XIII, even foretellers, or Roxas [who could be compared to be as “badass” as R*ku], its rarely ever there) I don’t see anyone talking about Riku doing dumb stuff. Being silly or being the butt of a joke or just not, not being good. Example of the latter:  When there was talk about Sora cooking in KH3, rarely did I see that, ‘oh, Sora learns how to cook and becomes very good at it’ and most I see ‘R*ku is already a fabulous cook’.... what about Kairi? What about even Lea? Aqua? There is no mention of these other characters being good at cooking. R*ku is usually A.) always the cooler looking one, or must be made to look cooler and B.) always be the better or best at something. I know that is kinda the thing in KH, that R*ku is talented and gifted as a person. As for the coolness factor, Nomura does this as well. Sora gets a keyblade, R*ku gets an edgier cooler keyblade with more details. Riku gets the powers of both light and darkness. R*ku gets the Keyblade Master title. R*ku gets actual growth in his body. He gets the more competent companion (Mickey). I am not saying these things are detractions or upsetting, they are just there and be defacto, cooler than other characters. He becoming edgier and emo was a good play on Normura because back in early 2005′s people thought that was cool and hot. Silver hair is automatically an attractive trait and western audiences love a person with a muscled body like R*ku’s. I don’t blame fans for being appealed to his character. But I suppose I am getting off-topic. Why do fans keep feeling compelled to make R*ku perfect? When people make fanart of him like say a monster form or pirate outfit, they always make it more detailed, edgier or just cooler than anyone else who would be drawn that way. He always looks more impressive than an original canonical design when other characters are drawn or written in ways that are not as impressive or equally the same to a canonical design/form/power. Has the cool wolf animal companion or the cooler weapon, the more detailed designs etc etc Even Axel who is a badass assassin can be silly or dumb-looking. Heck, they even did that in games. They made Axel failed and acknowledge it.  I see Aqua who is awesome in design and badass moments, be criticized for her flaws that persist and others who wish to see her have more moments of weakness even with what we have seen in 0.2 Xion who has had a great arc in Days (Character arcs don’t always have to be a positive development) doesn’t get the coolness factor. Roxas who is probably the second most popular character still is known as a goofy boy who thought he could fight heartless off with a stick. That’s hilarious. The most notable thing about R*ku recently that wasn’t cool or badass or edgy was his infamous “WHAT?” response to Mickey in Kh3. And that was one thing. Only really that. But how Mickey worded it, anyone would have done the same. And I noticed that people use what Mickey said “Aqua is like Sora’ is a way to poke fun at Sora by implying that Aqua is like a dense 15 year old. (Again these are just observations I have made over a decade worth watching the Kh fandom). In talks with other people who are Sora stans or other stans, there is nothing but a lot of talk about R*ku being really good about things. Being superior to Sora, or Kairi, or Aqua and Terra. Over Roxas.  Giving Axel two keyblades is never done, but people have given two to R*ku.  I get it, people who love characters like to do so much with them. I do the same. I just... never seem to regard the characters I love as perfect as others see R*ku. Also... I just don't see anyone criticizing him (I mean criticism in actual acknowledgment of his character and not hating on said character). Or taking about traits or flaws that are not endearing “He cares too much about his friends” is not really that bad of a flaw in consideration. A lot of people would prefer to have that over say... anger issues. What about the fact he falls back into following the orders of others or doesn’t often decide things for himself?...  What about Minor flaws? I just never see them in regards to these characters. Alright, so these are my observations I have made over... 14+ years of watching this fandom. And I want to ask, why do fans see him as such? Besides the only reason being for them is “I like him.” Has it just become such a normal thing to make R*ku better? Is he really that good of a character than he is so universally loved? Or is the backlash of actually criticizing R*ku and seeing that maybe, making him too perfect is... not doing favors for him? An arc is just that, an arc. Doesn’t mean a character is perfect or done with. Doesn’t mean those flaws that persisted in him, are gone.   Make your favorite character silly, or doing something very dumb (that does not even have to do with shipping), or put forth of what you would like to see improve in this character or express more about their flaws and their struggles. I love pointing out the negative traits in all my characters because I like seeing their struggle and how that makes them interact with new nuances in other characters. Maybe it's a running joke that R*ku is ‘Mr Perfect’ in the Kh fandom and I am just not seeing it. But it's daunting and just kinda rubs me the wrong way that all these characters in Kingdom Hearts have so many nuances to them and the one who has the best character arc so far in KH is regarded as... ‘Perfect’ I would like to know your opinion and if anyone else who is not a R*ku stan notice this, or is it just me and my own personal bias? (anything said above is in no way should ever be used to promote hate against R*ku or even bash him. In no way, I want to make others hate R*ku. I do not blame people who love this character to portray him in a superior way over everyone else. My address is that I just see this all the time. And I was wondering... why is it so widespread? Not even Axel who has a great redemption arc gets this.) (also another things is the whole sexgod R*ku that is also about however that may go into shipping and that I will not poke a stick at)

#kingdom hearts #character development #just a question #i wish to hear opinions #no bashing #no character hate #fuck antis #fuck character bashing #be mature people #positive and supportive enviroment

[realisaonum]

Spread the love; be generous with your authors

Several people have asked me what happened to my fics, and for a while, I wasn't sure I even wanted to post a public explanation of what happened, since I have a feeling my reasoning might start Discourse or some crap. However, considering as it’s Thanksgiving and I have already received two asks today over this issue I felt like it might be time to break the silence, because the irony of that was just too much honestly.....[continue reading below the cut]

Before I get into it, I want to say: I am not interested in anyone’s explanations or reasoning for not commenting. Nor do I want their opinion on my decision to take either of my a/k fics down. There is a reason I didn’t make an announcement they would be deleted. Nor is it a cry for attention. It’s not meant to start a discussion. This is not a decision that can be shifted by one or two folks suddenly pretending to give a shit about my feelings now that they have been negatively effected. We’ve all made our choices. It is what it is. I will not be reposting either story. Having said that…..

I’ve spent three years of my life working on these two stories. Over that time, I have gathered a small, dedicated following. I’ve received thoughtful engagement with a lot of my updates of BRM and AK and that’s kept me going in the face of increasing hatred of the source text.

Until part iv.

Of all my adamk fic, this update undoubtedly had the poorest response and it’s not just because it was too long for people to read. I know people read it. They told me. And then….just chose not to elaborate on that.

It might sound a bit bitchy to tally up the number of comments I get and compare their content, but I want to see people engage with my story—and let’s be real there was a lot of part iv to engage with. So when a majority of responses—not just comments on ao3 but other places with people I consider good friends—consisted of basically two sentences telling me they loved it and that it was great or they finished it in one sitting; I was surprised. This is not real engagement. Frankly, only four people gave me a substantive response to part iv of AK.

I had so many people come tell me they had finished it and that it was great and...nothing else. No elaboration about their favorite interaction, not what scene resonated most with them, not even what they didn’t like….Of course, I knew it was a very long section of story to read. It was a lot to process and, like my taking so long to write the story in the first place, I figured if I wanted a thoughtful engagement with what I wrote I would need to be patient.

Only—aside from one very wonderful comment that came a few weeks after I published—that hoped for thoughtful engagement never came.

For several weeks, I had been trying not to look at my feelings about this lack of response head on, because I knew I would only feel let down and frustrated to put it euphemistically. I ask for comments every time I post, but frankly there are only so many ways to ask readers to comment without it becoming debasing. Why should I have to beg for something readers on any fanfiction site should be doing anyway? Complaining about a lack of response or threatening readers to take it down like some kind of mercurial child is embarrassing. Besides, comments written under that kind of duress hardly mean the same as when a reader writes to the author under their own volition.

But I spent a long time working on part iv. I really struggled with sections of it. It was a lot of work and I am very proud of it. I know it has some of my best writing in it and some of the most moving scenes for the characters as well. There was no way this part, where there were so many subplots, so many highs and lows for the characters, so much promise of what was to come, didn’t have something there to resonate with readers. So then they just couldn’t be bothered to tell me their thoughts—which is unacceptable. It was 111k; that’s novel length. It was a novel for free! I spent a year and a half trying to get this right and they can’t spend ten more minutes to write a few sentences about what struck them? Excuse me for expecting too much apparently.

Until a month and a half ago, I never understood why a fic author would delete their work, even if they weren’t gonna finished the piece. But staring down the barrel of two more years of writing (optimistically) to get the last three parts of AK done, only to get a similar—and in my opinion very un-giving—response to something I have dedicated so much of my life and soul to was untenable. Despite all the work I had already put into writing upcoming scenes for AK and BRM and loving them both dearly, I could not in good conscience do that.

This kind of hit and run reading behavior is something I associate with published fiction, not fandom. Knowing people sped read through it and then didn’t take a fraction of that time to communicate their feelings about what they had just read made me feel really gross. Considering how much time I dedicate to writing, when my primary feelings towards my work are of being taken advantage of by my readers, that is not a good place to dwell. It is an especially not good place to dwell when I hate the source text with the passion of twenty-billion burning suns. Clearly, how betrayed I feel about this is not particularly healthy and obviously I need to step away from fandom culture for a bit. So that is what I am doing. I am trying not to be bitter and give myself the space to grieve my two stories because I won’t be finishing them in their original glory.

Now all these people are coming out of the woodwork to demand where my stories went, when they sure as fuck didn’t have anything to say to me when they were still on ao3. I find this to be monumentally disrespectful. I spent a year and a half working very hard on something none of you felt the need to share (with me) that you engaged with in any real sense; you all should know why I took it down. That un-engagement was a clear demonstration to me that you did not care about the effort it took for me to write my fics and that I should be doing something else with my time. 

Do you see how ridiculous it is to come talk to me over the stories being deleted when you had nothing real to say when they were up? That's a pretty shitty kind of irony.

Look, I know I’m a good writer. That kind of validation was never what I was asking for. What I wanted to know is what specifically in my writing affected you. I am really not interested in the excuse 'you loved it, but didn’t know what else to say.’ As if I myself didn’t struggle with writing some of my story? Of course I did, but I made an effort and I found a way through it. There are more than enough guides on the internet to help improve a person’s commenting. If you gave a shit, you’d have found a way to communicate how you really felt. Since all these folks know where to find me on tumblr they should be able to find them even easier since I reblog a lot of conversation about this! In case you missed it, here is my tag for supporting authors:  https://realisaonum.tumblr.com/tagged/spread-the-love%3B-be-generous-with-your-authors Oh my! I know we say it a lot but fandom artists and fic authors do their work for free—for the love of it, usually. Ideally, that kind of passion—especially with the preoccupation of monetizing EVERYTHING—should be met with a similar enthusiasm. Unbridled geeking is kind of the definition of fandom in the first place. I don’t understand why people have been moving away from that. 

Spread the love; be generous with your authors.

Now I am not singling anyone out, obviously. By ‘you’ I mean the general you. It is not the actions or inactions of any one person, but an issue with the collective fandom. For whatever reason, it has become alright to just not comment on fic—including fic you all apparently really fucking enjoy????????? Well, hey, you could have fooled me. Like I said, it is what it is. You all wanted to know why I deleted, so I am here to tell you that kind of behavior affects writers negatively. Shocker.

tl;dr - Folks who don’t comment on a 111k chapter should already know why it was deleted. 

Everyone who has the gall to come at me now that my stuff’s gone when they had nothing real to say when it was posted might want to take a hard look at their life choices because that shit, it ain’t cool.

#*hamilton voice: now what i'm about to say may sound indelicate* #the narrator .... was writing #oh look a rant! #it's too bad tumblr won't let you pin posts; maybe i should post this on ao3