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valya-dudycz-lupescu · 1 year

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A Little Goncharov for Thanksgiving

I learned about Goncharov the way I learn about most memes and pop culture, from my teenagers. In the days leading up to Thanksgiving, we had a group chat spring up on Discord that included two family friends who were going to be joining us for the holiday from out of town. One of the topics of conversation turned to Goncharov, the imaginary film around which an active Tumblr fan community had sprung up, as if it had been a real, little-known cult classic from 1973 made by Martin Scorsese.

It became a fun creative exercise—in the middle of the day, one of the kids would send a question about Goncharov: “What do you think about the relationship between Katya and Sofia?” or “What did you make of the clock tower imagery?” or “Goncharov… iphone or android guy?” To which someone else would playfully answer.

This same kind of thing was happening on a massive scale on Tumblr, where artists created movie posters and promotional materials, composers posted songs and soundtracks, people posted deleted scenes and script fragments. There are reviews and academic papers, fictitious Wikipedia and IMDb listings, and A LOT of fan art.

Lynda Carter posted a photo on her Tumblr with Henry Winkler that she captioned, “Me and ‘The Fonz’ at the premiere of Goncharov (1973) at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.”

Discussions popped up about the characters and who would play them in the reboot. Posts were shared hundreds, then thousands of times. A Goncharov (1973) Lore Google Doc and Discord server were created to help keep the content organized.

Our family’s fan-favorite character was Ice-Pick Joe, so I wrote “Musings on Ice-Pick Joe” in between chopping veggies for stuffing and waiting for the sweet potatoes to roast, complete with some AI-generated art. That was four days ago, and the post has been liked and shared more than I anticipated, and I keep thinking about why that is.

Conversations around Goncharov have continued, and I find myself wondering what it is about this moment in time and this type of activity that continues to capture so many people’s imagination and engagement?

Tumblr is a hub for public fandom culture and community in a way that the other social media platforms are not. It’s where you can find discourse and fanfiction/fanart for almost anything.

Still, this is a little different and on a much larger scale. At a time when people are looking for Twitter alternatives, with the stress and joy of holidays approaching, what is drawing so many people in?

We talked about this over Thanksgiving: the way Goncharov allowed people low-stakes permission to create, to play to their particular strengths, to connect with other people, to escape reality for a moment, to build a new community. We talked about the shortcomings and challenges we saw: power dynamics, issues of race, etc.

It’s an evolving experiment, and as such, it has been shaped by the many variables involved and course-corrected each time someone notices a gap or opportunity: What would a musical look like? What if some of the actors had gone on Sesame Street or the Muppet Show? What if Gonzo played Goncharov and Miss Piggy played Katya? What would the remake look like set in 1980s NYC? What recipes might be created for the Goncharov cookbook? (I remember how much fun we had making the Forking Good cookbook.) There really is no end to what people can come up with. I’m waiting to see if Goncharov gets a Tom Gauld comic or a mention on Saturday Night Live.

It seems relevant that role-playing games, both online and tabletop, have recently increased in popularity. Dungeons and Dragons was the cornerstone of Stranger Things, and 50,000 people attended Gen Con (tabletop game convention) in 2022. It’s not my world, although I’ve watched the joy my kids take in it. My energy goes into writing, but I can absolutely appreciate the fun of playing together.

As a writer, I walk around with worlds in my head, but I don’t get to share them until they get published. Something like Goncharov, which was not an intellectual property “owned” by anyone, gives people permission to imagine and play.

I think it speaks to a need we have an human beings to experience connection, joy, wonder, and hope. We've always had those needs. People have been gathering around fires or tables, telling stories, for thousands of years.

Today, the hearth may be a computer or a phone, but the desire is not that different. My November began with the publication of Mother Christmas, my graphic novel, the secret origin of the Santa Claus story which is rooted in the ancient Muses, whose gifts inspire humanity. One of the questions my story attempts to answer is: Where does inspiration come from?

If we look at Goncharov we can see that inspiration comes from so many places. So much is possible when people given themselves permission to play, to shrug off the inner critics and outer trolls, and to imagine for a moment a different world that they have a part in creating. That is such a powerful and compelling idea.

Stories remind us that we are not alone, that we share struggles, and that we can overcome obstacles. There are so many challenges in the world right now.

Maybe Goncharov is a lens through which people are seeing themselves and each other, reminding us how much fun it is to make-believe and how powerful it can be to have a shared image of the world.

The first step in creation is imagining. Exercising that muscle, allowing ourselves to play and tell stories and make art is a worthwhile one, and I think it's one that we need to survive. The Goncharov phenomenon gives me hope, because if we can have this many people put their energy into creating a whole world around Goncharov, just imagine what else is possible?

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thisweekingundamwing · 3 years

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This Week in Gundam Wing (August 22-28, 2021)

Hey Gundam Wing fandom! Here’s your weekly roll-up. Show your fellow fans some love.

--Mod LAM

EDIT (August 29): have removed tags for richardarmititty per their request (and for evan-wins for good measure). Please do not submit posts by either party going forward. I will also be BLOCKING both accounts to avoid future inadvertent inclusion (again, per their request to not be associated with the content captured in this roll-up).

Fanfiction

The Life of the Immortal Jellyfish (CH.14/35) by @lemontrash

Pairings: Duo x Wufei

Characters: 5 pilots + Relena, Hilde, Noin, Une

Rating: MATURE

Tags / Warnings: post-canon, post-Endless Waltz, UST, roommates, Preventers, slow burn, insomnia, friendship

Summary: Is it chance that lands Duo and Wufei in the same university dorm room? They're not stupid enough to believe that but too tired to fight it. Duo's dragged himself back from the brink of going too far and remains teetering on the edge while Wufei's doggedly trying to prove himself to the 'good guys' in the aftermath of the Eve Wars. Sleep and normalcy eludes them both. As they become increasingly aware how damaged they are, they start to edge towards friendship, or something more, but all too soon the peace seems jeopardised by a new and manipulative threat.

Thrash (welcome to the gutter) by @gemstonecircles for @noirangetrois

Pairings: Duo x Relena, implied Heero x Trowa

Characters: Heero, Duo, Trowa, Relena, Hilde

Rating: EXPLICIT

Tags / Warnings: safehouses, friends to lovers, unresolved (and eventually resolved) sexual tension, graphic sexual situations,

Summary: “Not that it’s not a pretty bitchin’ look,” Duo said, his words slightly distorted by the key-pin hanging from his mouth, both his hands engaged with the grocery bags from the pick-up location in the city outside, “And OverKill is an excellent choice, but don’t you have your own clothes?”Relena and Duo are pent up in a safehouse and something’s gotta give. Eventually.

Lucerne by katopiyo

Pairings: Duo x Quatre

Characters: Duo, Quatre

Rating: General

Tags / Warnings: canon insert, dancing

Summary: Duo and Quatre catch up in the Peacemillion's break room.

The Empresses’ Third by @tziganecaffiends and @zaganthi

Pairings: Wufei x Treize x Meilan

Characters: Wufei, Treize, Melian

Rating: EXPLICIT

Tags / Warnings: threesome, alternate universe - everyone lives, fix-it, happy ending, love, prisoner of war, coercion, Light Dom/sub, pegging, Porn with Feelings, families of choice, implied/referenced child abuse and suicide

Summary: Out of a war, she had secured the safety of her husband, obtained a third, and had a daughter. They had managed to fix their colony, and they now had viable economic gains that were steady and sufficient to support their people because she had felt greedy, angry, horny, and petty, yes. Because her husband had been fascinated by the man who was now showing Mei-Xing the parts of a rose bloom, and stumbling for a moment as Wufei gave him the right words in Mandarin.

Warmth by @noirangetrois for Purdys aka Diane

Pairings: Heero x Relena

Characters: Heero, Relena

Rating: MATURE

Tags / Warnings: huddle for warmth, only one blanket, resolved sexual tension, sexual situations, Heero’s an idiot

Summary: The front door opened and Relena heard the sound of rain pelting down outside. Heero entered and shut the door behind him, dripping water everywhere.“You didn’t wear a jacket!” She had been asleep when he’d left to scout the perimeter and hadn’t realized. “It wasn’t raining when I left,” he replied.

Stand Without Flinching (CH.46/?) by @angelselene

Pairings: Heero x Duo, Trowa x Quatre, Wufei x Sally, Steve x Tony, Wanda x Vision

Characters: GW and MCU cast

Rating: MATURE

Tags / Warnings: GW-MCU crossover, alternate universe, canon divergent, fix-it, romance, Preventers, PTSD, moral ambiguity, family reunification, slow burn, found family

Summary: Wufei wasn’t sure what to expect when Maxwell came back in by himself.

With Open Arms by @bryony-rebb

Pairings: Zechs x Noin

Characters: Zechs, Noin

Rating: EXPLICIT

Tags / Warnings: post-canon, post-Endless Waltz, reconciliation, emotional hurt/comfort, semi-public sex, porn with feelings

Summary: In the immediate aftermath of Endless Waltz, Zechs and Noin (ahem) reunite.When he looked back at her, there was a slight furrow between Noin's brows, a downward twist to her lips; her eyes seemingly stuck on the slim leather fold of his wallet. "The dead man carries cash," she quietly observed.

The Art of Making a Machine by @the-reanimated-bhg

Pairings: N/A

Characters: Dr. J, Professor G

Rating: General

Tags / Warnings: two brilliant minds bickering incessantly, failed NaNoWriMoFic, humor

Summary: A Story of Love, Friendship and Fisticuffs

Fanart

Heero Smoking by @bettertasting

No Sleep (Heero x Duo) by @bettertasting

Heero and Relena by @alphaikaros

Heero and Relena Halloween by @alphaikaros

Halloween Relena by @noromax

Wufei by @farshootingstar

Quatre by @darksharinganz

Other Fanwork

Cosplay and Gunpla

(RG) XXXG-01W Wing Gundam review by @reversemoon255

Custom EW Heavyarms 1/100 HG by @the-reanimated-bhg

Heavyarms by @christianmswanson

Sandrock and Deathscythe by @christianmswanson

Shenlong by @christianmswanson

Discussion and Headcanons

@kittykatz took and online survey and found 8w7 is Une’s enneatype according to PDB. Try it yourself over here!

Gundam Fuel Source by @meggie-stardust

@kittykatz is sharing some scans of GoL and their thoughts on the scenes

Wufei and Treize’s fight and the immediate aftermath

Miscommunication at its finest

The Lightning Count

Singapore base + more Treize and Zechs

Heading to outer space

Heero’s freak out

Duo and Hilde

Other Fun Stuff

@incorrectgundamwingquotes is still making us laugh

It’s Always Sunny in Gundam Wing by @incorrectgundamwingquotes

Skeletons by @the-reanimated-bhg

Make it happen by @the-reanimated-bhg

Helmet-ception by @the-reanimated-bhg

Too hot to handle by @vegalume and @janaverse

Calendar Events

@gwcocktailfriday is back with this week’s prompt! Be sure to post your responses on Friday (September 3) between 3-5PM EST!

@/ficwip (Twitter) is hosting a "Rise of the Dead Fandoms" event. Contributor sign-ups end on Monday (August 30), so be sure to register soon! Creation period runs September-October; posting will be in November. More info at their FAQ.

September is National Prostate Awareness Month and @expewrites and @boxofhatebrains are hosting a GW Prostate Health Event at @prostatehealth-gundamwing beginning September 1. More info is available on the Event AO3 Page but in brief, options are to (1) create something or (2) donate to your prostate health organization of choice.

@gundamzine has opened up the mailing list, so be sure to register to get your FREE PDF on October 1! In the mean time, be sure to follow the account so that you can learn about the stellar 2021 Zine Crew members. Also consider donating to the team’s chosen charity, World Literacy Foundation (donations are optional, but encouraged).

The @weedgrandpacookbook is a go! The project will be an homage to the fanon of Howard as the Gundam Wing’s chillest Weed Grandpa. Yes, this includes content that promotes/celebrates/normalizes the consumption of marijuana and adjacent substances recreationally. The FREE digital zine would be presented like a cookbook, with room for meta, fic, general advice, art, graphics, crafts (Gundam-themed pipes anyone?), and of course, dank recipes. More info to come this month, with sign-ups planned for October.

NOTE: Due to the nature of the theme, this zine will be considered 18+ NSFW. Be mindful of your local laws regarding creating and engaging with content of this nature.

Spooky prompt idea generation for the GW Hallows Event will kick off mid-September, and posting period will happen in October. Stay tuned to @thisweekingundamevents!

Keep an eye on @gwoc-october while you’re at it for news on the GW Original Character (OC) October Event. You can expect a prompt calendar to go live in September with posting in October...but you can also just use the month to showcase works with your original GW characters!

Also, @thisweekingundamevents will be opening sign-ups for the 2021 Holiday Gift Exchange in September! Participants will get their assignments in October, followed by the creation period November-December and finally posting in early January 2022.

Got an event you want us to showcase? Let us know!

#gundam wing

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obsidian-aurora · 3 years

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As I’m about to dive into the events of 227 in my fanfic, I thought now is a good moment to take some time to reflect on the past year.

Words: 1,086,764

Chapters: 131/?

Comments: 2206

Kudos: 4065

Bookmarks: 350

If you can believe it, I started writing this fic almost a year ago now. I’ve written the equivalent of a novel a month this whole year! Nuts. I watched The Untamed for the first time over a year ago. My soul was captured by the light that I saw in Xiao Zhan’s and Yibo’s eyes when they looked at each other. And I haven’t stopped believing in the power of love since then.

Sounds corny? Yeah, kind of is.

It’s hard to imagine that when I started writing this fic, the Special Edition hadn’t come out yet. There was only the official BTS on the Tencent channel to watch - as well as a pile of interviews and fanmeetings. There were no secret Discord groups, I didn’t even have a Twitter account. I had this old blog of mine on Tumblr and an old AO3 account that I dusted off to start writing some fanfiction again.

Did you know I’m a self-published author? Oh yeah, for years I wrote nothing but my own novels. You can check them out here at lillybirdsong.com

I thought to myself, I’ll just write a short fanfic over the course of December. I’ll publish it in January and rid my system of this bug I’ve got and then move on. Now, a year later and I still can’t stop writing about these boys. What is it? It’s all about love. It’s about the belief that against all odds, whether it’s living in a society that doesn’t support LGBT individuals, whether it’s struggling with management companies that don’t support you in your own careers, against all odds Love Wins™.

Or does it?

I’m about to embark on writing the 227 part of the fanfiction and I thought it was really important for me to remind everyone that what I’m writing here is not a bible, it’s not a biography, it’s a piece of fiction that’s my own personal interpretation of what might have happened. I’m saying this because it’s soul-crushing to imagine what might have taken place behind closed doors, the conversations that would have happened, the thoughts that would have spun out of control.

I mean, I just remember my own journey. Some of which is documented right here on Tumblr. I wrote one of my first artist blogs when I hit 50 chapters on Yizhan in early Feb. I wrote a post when Xiao Zhan fans first started calling out AO3 for hosting inflammatory material. I wrote a post when I considered whether this fic should be abandoned. I wrote a post when Coronavirus brought me back home on a plane way earlier than expected. I wrote a post in April when I completed 80 chapters, and at the end of May when I completed 100 chapters.

I’ve gone a bit dark on Tumblr since I moved to Twitter where there’s a lot more BJYX interaction going on, but Twitter is not a good place for a long post so I’m once again spilling my thoughts here on Tumblr.

Writing about 227

As I start to write about this, I’m going to pick and choose which rumours I will write into the story and which I’ll discard. Because let’s get real - there are a lot of rumours out there, and no one except those people intimately involved will know the truth of the matter. I do choose to believe some of the malicious rumours. And so I will include some of them.

Don’t start a war in my comments section. I beg you. I’ll just have to end up moderating my comments which I never wanted to do.

Disagreements within the fandom

I’ve noticed more and more “extreme” behaviour within the BJYX fandom. I feel like ever since the “secret” BTS (which are mostly the same as what we saw in the official BTS just longer cuts) have whipped turtles up into a frenzy! And when someone has a different opinion or when someone likes to spout theories about what their small interactions might mean in the context of the bigger picture, that can cause harm.

So I’m saying right now - everyone’s entitled to their own points of view. No one knows the truth but the ones involved.

Don’t bring your disagreements to my fic.

Respect in public spaces

I have also stated this on Twitter but I want to put my 2 cents here as well. I’ve also been uncomfortable lately with the amount of public discourse about body parts, about sex positions, really really intimate things. If you want to write fanfics or draw fanart to explore these interpretations, I say go for it! That’s appropriate because it’s within the realm of fantasy. But when it comes down to really speculating about what’s going on in the private lives of these two men we love so much, I personally would rather those conversations be relegated to private spaces - Discord, WhatsApp. Not Twitter and Tumblr. So you’ll notice that I’ve unfollowed and even blocked some accounts recently that cross a line I’m not comfortable with.

When I do that, it’s not about you, it’s not a personal attack. That��s just me not being comfortable with the content that’s being created in the space it’s being distributed. If you want to chat with me about it, I’m very open to having that discussion in DM. I’ve been called a hypocrite for my views given that my story is an explicit one, but in my mind there’s a clear distinction between me publishing a story on AO3 and people discussing their real private lives in public spaces like Twitter. That’s just my point of view and I mean no offence to those that feel the opposite.

As usual, I always have my finger on the trigger to take Yizhan down the moment it causes harm to the boys in question.

Other interesting things I’ve done lately:

I’ve been publishing some Fanart. (See the pic at the end of this post as an example). Follow me on Twitter @ObsidianAurora to get the latest as I usually post things first there. I’ll try to remember to post things here as well.

I started a YouTube Channel. It’s called Queer Stories and it’s my space to talk about all things queer - video games, TV shows, and yeah sometimes even how harmful it can be to assume you know someone’s gender identity, whether they’re feminine or masculine, and that this has nothing to do with a person’s sexuality. This video I made in the context of BJYX/LSFY/ZSWW and Yizhan.

I opened a Patreon account since some people wanted to know how to support me. I have been jobless since our visual effects studio closed down in May and I’m starting up a new job again next week (finally!) but if you want to contribute for the work I’m doing this would be the way.

Be Kind.

I’ve rambled on for quite a bit now so let me end it here. Let me just say please be kind. Be kind to each other. Be kind to those who disagree with you. When you’re tempted to lash out, consider the other person’s point of view first.

Remember that what started this was love. Not hate. Don’t give in to the temptation to participate in fanwars. Remember the love.

Thanks for listening to my Ted Talk.

~Obsidian Aurora~

#yizhan #yizhan fanfic #yizhan fanfiction #bozhan #bozhan fanfic #LSFY #bjyx #bjyx fic #bjyxszd #zsww #wangxiao #wangxiao fanfic

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fanfictioninc · 3 years

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About

Our goal is to allow both readers and authors to have their favourite author’s work highlighted and shared within the fanfiction community. Therefore, we ask that members of the fanfiction community (this can be Kpop, Cpop, dramas, etc.) send in works for one of the themes of the staff’s choosing that will be put out monthly.

A board of readers will then discuss these works within the network. We ask those who have been chosen to vote (this ability is given to both members of the network and the public who can request to be voters) via the criteria set out by the admin team.

We accept fanfiction and art from various platforms including but not limited to: Tumblr, ao3, Wattpad, and Twitter.

How will these voters/readers work?

Readers will be selected via a monthly rotation system. This way, new opinions can be valid, and we avoid favouritism. This also allows us to use people available during that period.

We will divide the voters into categories depending on what they are comfortable reading. We allow various types of fanfiction (which will be discussed in a moment or two) and wish to enable our readers to be pleased. We do not require that every reader read every fanfiction. It will be divided via the staff’s discretion.

Our selection and rating are based on what the admin team has set forth:

Reader Immersion

Flow

Dialogue

Character Chemistry

And any other notations from our readers

Readers will not score their work if they are an author and their work happens to be selected.

DISCLAIMER: rankings are based on the opinions of the board given the existing procedures of the net and in no way means that one fic is better or worse than other(s).

CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM CLAUSE: We desire to lift and build the fanfiction community. The members of our admin team are authors themselves and believe that feedback is critical. Therefore, we ask our readers that any and all input be uplifting and encouraging to praise the authors. We do not accept negativity, nor do we wish to discourage authors from writing.

Do you accept fanart?

Yes! Fanart is welcomed. Although we do not score fanart in the same way that we score fanfiction, we do accept fanart recommendations and/or fanart from members of the network. We want to be able to show appreciation to all the amazing artists out there! This includes (but is not limited to) gifs, gfx, etc.!

#kpop #k pop #jpop #kdrama #k drama #bts #kpop network #jpop network #cpop network #drama network #network #fanficinc #filing cabinet #file: prospectus

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thejudgingtrash · 4 years

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Why are you always that angry in your opinions and posts??? Like is it ever that serious mannn. Like why criticize everythingggg

Well. I’ve taken my time answering this. In all honesty, mostly because I’m lazy with asks where I know the answers are going to be extremely long and because I have a suspicion in who you are because of similar asks in the past. But regardless of this. Let’s continue, shall we?

My question is the following: what do you see in my blog?

What do I mostly do?

I have to admit, I’m not a full-time pjo blog because I’d go insane seeing the same fandom things over again and I have more interests than just that and am too lazy to keep several blogs up to separate my interests from one another (the reason why my queue is pumping out all kinds of stuff, sorry guys!). Also my URL is like four to six years old and despite me hoarding a ton of PJO stuff, I actually like mine, because it reflects perfectly what you’re about to see on my blog (the judging trash).

Back to the posts in regard of Percy Jackson. Of course, when there’s discussion in the fandom, more critical posts get pushed out because of the collective reminder. The collective moaning. But in fairly calm times.

What do you see?

What I see whenever I scroll through my blog is

Reblogs/creations of aesthetics, moodboards, edits, etc.

Reblogs/creations of fanart and fanfiction

Reblogs/creations of theory and non-critical discourse

Reblogging stuff from friends and mutuals in the fandom

Me making nonsensical posts, jokes and fun about characters

And yes: me being annoyed at the bootlicking/lack of critical thinking/reading skills in the fandom (e.g. PJO Hot Takes)

This is what I see when I scroll through my blog. Either I’m heavily mistaken or you need to point out what exactly I’m apparently criticizing everything. There are so many other things on it??? This is what you focus on? Okay girlie. I see you.

Also.

DO NOT mistake my passion for PJO with ANGER.

DO NOT do that! That in itself is nothing more but fucking ignorant and makes me angry and upset. I’m a part of the PJO fandom and have been for nearly a decade because I (SURPRISE) actually enjoy the series. Don’t toss this away because you think I’m angry. Horrible, just horrible, anon. Thank you for that.

Am I more direct and vulgar in some cases? Yes. Is that off-putting to some people? Definitely. Do I force you to be here and consume everything? No, I don’t. People don’t seem to get that they don’t have to put up with EVERYTHING that gets posted. If you like a blog/creator/etc. and they have a post that you dislike… scroll past it. It’s really that easy.

No one is forcing you to engage with everything. Not every action needs a reaction.

Me criticizing something isn’t an attack nor is it an offense. Especially not to you, because you are never meant unless I address you directly. (The only person that has the right to truthfully come for my neck is author Rick Riordan (Rick Riordan the public figure, Rick Riordan the IG baddie, Rick Riordan the Twitter Lord)). Criticizing something is me showing interest, me being disappointed at something in its current state and me offering my opinion, my reasoning towards improving something. Me pointing out to things that could be worked on. Me contributing to the ever going ways of discourse, discussions, talks, shits and giggles, creative works, etc.

Discussions, discourse and talks are things that are vital to fandoms and keep it alive. Fanart and fanfics are equally important but don’t make everything. Also:

Criticism =/= Hate.

CRITICISM DOES NOT EQUAL HATE.

I absolutely don’t understand this mindset and where it’s coming from. This is something a lot of people regardless of age, gender, heritage, etc. don’t seem to get. If I would hate PJO, the thing I’ve enjoyed for nearly a decade, I wouldn’t be in this fandom. I would not participate in it, I would not be an active part of the PJO Tumblr community nor would I be in several PJO discord group chats.

Silence and only sunshine and rainbow is complicit in keeping the old narrative and status quo, the many old and toxic ways up and alive. You don’t have to take part in discourse/discussions. But don’t tell me that I don’t have the right to do so. And that I don’t have the right to express myself in the way that I want to.

If you see something where I’m really offensive, off-putting or am simply in the wrong, etc. contact me! Tell me! I’m open to that. Let’s have that discussion.

But if not...

Let me express myself however I want.

#mel answers #pjo #rick riordan #rr crit #Percy Jackson #heroes of olympus #hoo #criticism #pjo fandom #fandom #toa #trials of apollo

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crestfallercanyon · 3 years

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(For the original discussion I posted in Reddit, click here. Also, there's a lot of debate in the comments about different perspectives on this that's really interesting! I recommend giving it a read if you're interested in other perspectives).

This post is about copyright. A little bit about what it is, what it means to the fanfiction writer, and also, why sometimes fanart gets special treatment in being able to monetize their art as compared to fanfiction.

There's been a lot going around lately about fanfic writers wanting to profit off of their fanfics, and this is a bit of a "fyi" on why you really really shouldn't try.

Just to get the ball rolling: you should not make money off of fanfiction. At least not off of anything you've written that is not currently public domain. It is illegal.

[This is not a statement of whether it will eventually be right or wrong to make money off of fanfiction, or whether in theory it should or shouldn't be allowed. It is, however, stating that as of right now, do not try to make money out of fanfiction, both for your safety, and the safety of the fanfiction community as a whole].

There are reasons for this, and I think it's worth explaining for those who don't know (or at least providing one articulated reason). For those who do, well, maybe you have differing opinions. Some of this isn't based on opinion, though, just for reference. Some of this is the fact of how things work (particularly in United States law).

Fanfiction, in its plainest description, is writing in someone else's idea. Someone else's idea that is copyrighted the moment it is written in a fixed (tangible) medium. That means the moment something is written on a napkin, it can be put under copyright. The moment it is recorded in a voice memo, it's under copyright. It just has to be out of your head in some way.

Now, of course, napkins and little voice memos may be disputed. For the most part though, if the medium has fanfiction about it, the medium is large enough that the source of the idea can be pinpointed without dispute.

Copyright protects the originator of the idea's idea from being stolen by other people. It ensures that the owner of the idea is the one who reaps the benefits of their creation. It is akin to a patent for ideas. That is why there is also a point where copyright disappears and the idea becomes public domain. That's another deal for another time.

[for clarity: parodies, critiques, and educational purposes are not treated as a breach of copyright for a variety of reasons. That is why the New York Times can make money on book reviews, for example, or why you can see things like Vampires Suck or SNL mocking Twilight].

Also for clarity, unlike trademark, there is no "use it or lose it" requirement. There is, however, a "protect it or lose it" requirement. Some creators are more dedicated in this protecting of copyright than others.

Fanfiction used to be far more contested than it was now. Decades ago, archiveofourown wasn't possible. The fact of the matter is, fanfiction is a privilege that was hard won. Which means that every time there is someone who attempts to make money off of fanfiction, that privilege is put at risk of being taken away. Don't believe me? There are authors who have made a hard stipulation against fanfiction, and -- you may correct me if I'm mistaken -- Fanfiction.net doesn't allow you to post those fanfiction using those author's books.

Which also, this isn't me bashing on those authors. They have every right to protect their idea.

The concerns authors have with fanfiction is, for the most part, twofold.

One: they will have profits lost due to other people in the world of their original works, even though it was their idea in the first place. There isn't just market competition in their genre that they have to fight against, it's competition in their own idea.

To explain, it's similar to the fact that you can have a new pizza restaurant to add to the market, but you can't call it Dominoes and steal their recipe and claim it as your own because it has little additions and flourishes. At that point, you are not only benefitting from the fact that Dominoes is an established name people may confuse your pizza with, but you are stealing profits that would be going to Dominoes pizza. Copyright protects not only the owner of the idea, but also the consumers who are trying to find the originator of the idea.

Two: if enough people begin to make money off of their own idea, their claim over their own idea starts to diminish. This not only lowers the amount of profit they can make on this idea, but also diminishes their control over their own idea.

The concept that I think of that's comparable to this is adverse possession of property (squatter's rights, for example). If enough people sit on another's property for extended periods of time and do nothing about it, eventually that property isn't theirs anymore. They lost control over it, they can't make money off of it, the value of their own property goes down because that space is gone.

So that's copyright. That's why fanfic writers cannot make money off of fanfiction. It's literally stealing, and is unfair to the original creator.

Now, many people ask, why don't fan artists get the same flak? Why can they make money off of making art based on an idea that wasn't their own?

And the answer may not be satisfying, but it's the truth: fan art is never going to be as policed as fanfiction because it works much more like free promotion for people's original ideas.

(There's an argument that fanfiction is also free promotion, but it's not nearly as effective as fan art -- same logic that goes into why advertisements for products are more visual than wordy.)

Think about it. Original creators love fan art. Video game creators post it on their websites, streamers make it stickers for their twitch services, authors pin it to boards and put it on tumblr and twitter and instagram.

Art takes seconds to process. A picture being worth a thousand words is debatable, but the processing time of a picture over a thousand words makes a picture that much more effective if you want quick access. People see it and go "ooh, what is that?" and then try to find what the artist is referencing. Then they stumble upon original creator's idea and are like "oh, now I'm interested!". They go to the original creator's idea and consume the original creator's works.

Yes, fanfic readers do read fandom blind sometimes, and sometimes fanfiction can spur people to go to the original creator's work, but it's less likely. At least for me, personally, I read a fanfic of someone and I'm inclined to go to that fanfic author's page -- not the original creator's things (now, the original creator's idea is why I'm in that fandom often in the first place, but, you get my drift).

(side note, someone made a very good comment on the reddit post -- they love fan art until they don't. Look to all the artists who initially made baby yoda merch on etsy only to have Disney go after them -- again because the individual artists at that point are taking profits away from the company).

Furthermore, unlike fanfiction, fan art doesn't (usually) give the impression that there's an attempted improvement upon the original creator's idea. (Not to say that every piece of fanfiction is stating that there's a flaw with the original work, but) a lot of fanfiction does stem from corrections, wish fulfillment, etc. Fanfiction is often the act of taking what people wish they could see in an original creation's idea and bringing it to life.

Fan art doesn't necessarily do that. They may just be painting a scene that occurred in the original work. They may just be drawing up their idea of what a character looks like. They're creating alternative visuals to the original work, but they're (generally) not adding plot bunnies or changing the story into something that people may end up enjoying more.

Now, there are artists who make aus and things like that, but again, it's the fact that people look at a picture and then move on. People don't stare at a picture as long as it takes for them to read a fanfic. The time taken away from the original creator's idea is not nearly as long from art alone. And time is money.

In short, fan art is free advertising that often doesn't divert consumer interest away from the original idea. Fanfiction doesn't operate as free advertising and often does divert consumer interest away from the original idea. That's why fan art is not going to get the stink eye from original creators, where fanficiton often does.

And again, original creators have the right to protect their idea as they see fit within the bounds of copyright.

Remember, the original creators of the works that we all love to write fanfiction about put a lot of heart and soul into making their ideas. Many creators who have fanfiction followings are not the big conglomerates with oodles of money to spare. They are just diehard lovers of creating, just like everyone here. Which is why the protection of their ideas is important and absolutely valid. I love writing fanfiction, but fanfiction needs to be honoring the original material, not screwing it over.

Thus, the main lesson from this? Fanfiction and fan art are not the same, and do not operate similarly. Thus, though fan art can make money off of their creations without getting policed, fanfiction writers I implore you: Do not attempt to make money off of fanfiction. You put the entire community of fanfiction writers at risk of having their past time taken away from them every time you do.

(I am saying this including kofi and patreon. Do not try to make money on fanfic through kofi and patreon. There may be a legal loophole there, but you don't want to find out by getting a cease and desist letter that your legal loophole via patreon and kofi didn't work --- furthermore, you put kofi, patreon, and potentially archiveofourown/ff.net at risk, then, too).

For now, fanfiction is a labor of love that can only receive a profit of love. Please do not try to get paid for your fanfiction. Protect the fanfiction community.

Thanks for reading!

#fanfiction writer of tumblr #fanfiction faqs #fanfiction discussion #copyright #questions #potential answers #protect the fanfic writing community #it's okay to be butthurt about not being able to make money #but please don't try to make money #at least not until the legally gray area of fanfiction gets resolved #hopefully in fanfics favor #fan art compared to fanfiction

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renlimotroll · 4 years

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BinTRoLL guidelines!!

Today, I tried to translate (with the help of some friends) the Bintroll guidelines. I've always been meaning to do it but I always forget. 😅 Please read below!

-ABOUT-

■ What is BinTRoLL?

It's a laid-back Let's Play group launched by Siruko.

We won't do anything else but to have fun playing.

We said we won't so we won't.

-GUIDELINES-

■ A Request From BinTRoLL

Please refrain from using BinTRoLL's copyrighted works (videos, images, etc.) beyond the scope of private use.

Let's keep good manners and have fun interacting and creating.

■ About voice actor Hanae Natsuki and Hanae Natsuki channel videos

It is not under the category of the BinTRoLL guidelines.

Please follow the rules of the person himself or of Across Entertainment to which he belongs to.

-Q&A-

These are the questions and answers that have been given so far.

Please take note that we may post the questions from everyone as they are.

Q: What is the extent of private use, distribution and sales?

A: There are no strict rules as to what private use may entail,

You can make it yourself and enjoy it privately, give it to your family and friends as a present, publish the pictures (images) on your personal SNS such as Twitter, and so on.

Regarding distribution, it refers to the unspecified number of third parties that has been licensed.

Regarding sales, it refers to the act of making profit such as money.

Q: I want to create derivative works using the characters of BinTRoLL.

A: There are basically no restrictions. We look forward to your masterpiece.

Q: I want to distribute and sell doujin works.

A: There are basically no restrictions on doujinshi and doujin goods,

Please refrain from distributing or selling official works or works that can be mistaken as official ones.

Q: I want to create works that partially uses official works such as tracing, printing, and clipping of videos.

A: There is no problem as long as it is for private use without distribution or selling.

Q: Are BL and Ero-Guro safe?

A: BinTRoLL members stated that they don't particularly mind being the subjects (of such works).

However, some viewers may be underage or uncomfortable with it, so,

It would be helpful if you refrain from including R18 elements in public as much as possible.

Q: Why the sudden guidelines?

A: Because we didn't establish our policies, it caused our viewers to have some conflict of opinions.

BinTRoLL doesn't want viewers to feel uncomfortable.

We have created guidelines so that you can have as much fun as possible without worrying about anything.

Click this for the original post!

Author’s Notes:

*Definition of some terms:

Derivative works- anything (like fanarts or fanfiction stories) that has copyrightable elements

Doujin works- you may have heard of doujinshi! 同人 (doujin) literally means 'people of shared interests', so doujinshi means a self-published magazine that caters to a specific group of people. Bintroll used the term 同人作品 (doujin sakuhin).

Ero-Guro- エログロ (eroguro) is a Japanese term based on the english words 'erotic' and 'grotesque'. It mainly refers to works that has elements of horror/gore and sexy/erotic scenes.

*Some additional information: (these are my own words based on previous statements from BinTRoLL)

× Please refrain from DM-ing Siruko-san, as he has said that important messages get pushed down.

× Depending on the streamer's rules, it causes some conflict when you mention BinTRoLL names in other streams. For example, Mintosu-san has strict rules about mentioning other streamers, but Limone-sensei doesn't mind. However, some fans may feel uncomfortable if other streamers are mentioned in the stream they are watching (ex: "Siruko-san started streaming now!", "Siruko-san did this and that!") It's a difficult area to navigate, so for me I'd rather not mention BinTRoLL in other streams as a general courtesy. If the streamer brings it up, it's all good. Still, it depends on the streamer themselves.

× Try not to ask too personal questions. Out of all of them, Siruko-san is the most likely to answer personal questions, but other members? Not so much. Try not to ask Siruko-san for other member's personal information too. A good rule of thumb is to let the members bring up the information then follow up on it rather than outright asking them (do not DM for the love of gods!)

× Believe it or not, people do actually ship BinTRoLL members (like me! teehee!) Some post FAs and fanfiction (believe me, I’ve seen both Japanese and Korean ones) Bintroll shipping is termed "nmmn" in japanese; it’s kinda like they're not just 2D charas and they're real, so shipping is hidden and found only by fujoshi fans. Of course we know it’s just our imaginations, and we know the limitations and boundaries. There’s a thin line of shipping real people, and we know better than to cross the line. That’s why I started this tumblr, after all, because I can never comment on YT or tweet so much about shipping, especially that public. All my shipping posts will be tagged as such and will have warnings, so you can steer clear of that. But just so you know, BinTRoLL said it’s fine to make BL, so if anyone comes to me criticizing my shipping posts, I’ll slap the BinTRoLL guidelines in their face. 😆

× Please, and I cannot stress this enough, do not pressure the members to appear. Remember, they do streaming for fun; they do have lives and work outside of this. I get what you feel, you have a favorite member and you want to see that member all the time, or you want to see them in complete attendance, but don't be greedy. I've been a fan long enough to always see questions like, "Where is this member?" or "This member hasn't appeared in a long time." and some push it to the extreme and DM BinTRoLL (yikes!!) Let the members appear when they want to and be content with it.

Let me tell you my observations. Mintosu-san is not the type to talk about himself, so you might notice he only appears to play games. He has his own MCup with his fans every Saturday too. Then, there was a time when Ichihachi-san was busy with his real life (I call it The Great 18san Drought), and during that hiatus many fans always asked where he was. Even Hakotaro-san gets these questions, and he is the type to prefer working behind-the-scenes.

Now, let me tell you why it's better to let them be from my past experiences. Whenever Mintosu-san appears in the videos, the feeling of great joy from the surprise is amazing. It's like, "Hallelujah! YATTA!!" When Ichihachi-san came back, everyone had a field day and kept rejoicing. It was a party! When you, out-of-nowhere, hear Hakotaro-san's greeting during a livestream, you'll just suddenly go "AAAAAH!!!" and it's the best feeling ever. The feeling of being pleasantly surprised is nice, because you don't expect anything so you were never disappointed. It's better this way, trust me. After all, everyone performs better if they're not pressured, and BinTRoLL are people too like us, so it's better to let them do their own thing and enjoy whatever content we get.

× Siruko-san has mentioned that it's okay to comment or chat in English (or any language), which is great for us international fans! He said that he's not that good in English (although I believe he's good enough) that he may not always understand it though. However, and these are my own opinions, please remember this before chatting and commenting in English.

Use simple english that's easy enough to understand.

Do not use sarcasm. It does not translate well.

Always, always be polite. Choose your words carefully.

Why do I say this? Sometimes I see English spams and I cringe. The difference between cultures can be great sometimes, and Japanese is known for the politest way of speaking, and they are often straightforward with their words. It's better to be careful than accidentally offending someone, right?

× Regarding distribution and sales of official works, this may be a gray area and it's difficult to explain. For example, you can use BinTRoLL character images which are the intellectual property of the creator Hakotaro-san and by extension of Bintroll, to tweet or even to screenshot and DM it to other people to discuss. You can also clip video highlights and share them on your sns. I think that the moment you profit from it, for example, selling keychains and mugs with official Bintroll art, or re-uploading whole Bintroll videos on youtube or other video-sharing websites, is where you violate the rules. As long as your use is for community-base and personal use, you're safe, but when you gain something official from it (like money or subscribers), that's not allowed.

BinTRoLL members are one of the kindest people ever. Siruko-san always hearts and reads comments on their Youtube, and he also used to like or RT every fanart and even follow back his followers (but he can't do it right now as Twitter almost froze his account). They even read the names of superchat donators at the end of each stream even if they don't really have to (and sometimes it takes hours!) That’s why I hope people won’t abuse their kindness. I hope people follow the guidelines (seriously, it's not that hard) and do not cross the fan line so that we can all get along with each other! In everything you do or say, remember to have manners and be kind, and surely you'll enjoy even more. ^^ 🥰

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me! I may not know everything about Bintroll, but I'll do my best! Let's all follow the rules and guidelines so that we can enjoy all the videos and live streams to the best we can. Have fun watching and interacting! Have a nice day~ 🌻 Think before you click!

#bintroll #bintrollinfo #bintrollguidelines

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cutegirlmayra · 4 years

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Hello, I love your way of writing your fanfics in the matter of Amy and Sonic. Lately I have seen a video about denying what was something of Sonic's fandom, and seeing a comment and its chains I have seen so much negativity on the ship. How: "Missing and belies the SonAmy" And then continued: "SonAmy doesn't exist in games or comics." "Just by playing the games that shit is already denied." What do you think about this, miss Mayra?

Thank you! :D

There will always be negativity. Everyone has so many opinions, but I love that the world can still form friendships even with different tastes and preferences!

I have not seen any of that but according to my research the main officials, company, games, and most -owned- media do reflect that there was meant and always was a bond of somekind between the two.

Officially speaking, Amy always chases Sonic but he’s too young and uninterested in anything to do with romantic intent. However, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the potential to, it just means he’s 15 and heads to the next adventure more so than the ‘domestic’ storytelling or storyline.

Here are some links about this very topic!

(x) Evidence of Advertisement.

(x) Moments within Games and-

(x) The differences in Japanese and English Sonamy portrayals.

(x) Cultural interpretations of Sonamy.

(x) The Star Rule (Still have yet to find where I read this… sadly T-T)

(x) Script: (x) Characterizations and ideas for creating Amy Rose by her creator.

(x) More research with facts and my interpretations and explanations of them.

(x) (x) Just more I found, there’s too many, okay!?

Okay, there were a lot of links so I hope I got the best ones!

There’s a lot I’ve done lol, please be satisfied with this list for now! You can search my blog for more if you’d like :)b

Now I’m not perfect but these are things to help separate the fact from the fiction. I know SEGA is growing and shifting to make themselves new and competitive, so I only hope the future is bright! But as long as we fans hold ourselves respectfully and not go crazy or anything, we should be able to show them it’s a good marketable direction for the series. (If done well and within character–we want the growth to be natural, not forced–then it should be okay :)b) Just always strive to be sensible! lol If we have a good image, it won’t be looked down upon so much.

If I must give some advice, which I’m a pretty peaceful person, is that you shouldn’t fight hate with fire. These people usually want a fight and have prepared things to counter you. If you ignore them, they get bored and go to a fandom they think is more combative. Some people get a high out of making others upset, so don’t fall for those baits.

The best way to help Sonamy is to professionally introduce your passions in positive ways. Support by commenting good and wholesome things, like content with Amy in it, buy Amy merchandise, and add your unique talents in non-confrontational or hostile ways. Be smart in how you talk about things, and discuss rather than argue. Marketing ploys–eh, more like their strategy– consists of seeing what’s selling well or getting the most attention. If that attention is negative but high popularity results, it’s noted as bad publicity. If you have attention that is positive and high in popularity, they then start to find ways to build that momentum and get higher ratings or in this case, marketable profit from it.

Shipping is already free advertising, but it has a bad name for itself. The Sonic fandom is actually full of wonderful and creative people. I’ve made many friends through it! If we present ourselves in ways that influence marketing in subtle and cute ways (Such as with Twitter’s Sonic Takeover where Sonamy Questions were answered in light-hearted but cute hinting moments) then our reputation will start to increase as ‘not psychotic’ or ‘childish’ but actually as something that can be beneficial to the brand.

I won’t go into detail about this, because I’m honestly someone who is cautious with what I say online (I used to not be, but I’ve had character development since then lolol) so in my humble opinion, be smart as you love and advertise your joy in something. Every little bit of changing the atmosphere or reputation counts, but so does the opposing side. So make sure you don’t fight, but keep posting wonderful fanart or fanfiction or whatever else you like to do but make sure it’s in a positive light.

I love you all so much! Let’s root for a better perceptive on romance in video game media that is appropriate for its characters and audiences! (I like the idea that Sonic doesn’t know his feelings cause he hasn’t explored them but there is a soft side for Amy. Likewise, him reacting positively to Amy or being impressed/touched by her strength and loyalty at times would be helpful too. Amy could be more universally ‘cute’ in a sense so that both Japanese and American audiences are satisfied without changing her character too much or drastically. There are so many ways to take this discussion and where the characters could end up but it’s honestly a choice we don’t get to make, only help influence in our positive approaches to the fandom ship :)b)

#cutegirlmayra #cutegirlmayra ask #ask cutegirlmayra #sonamy #sonamy ask #ask sonamy #sonicxamy #sonic and amy #sonic the hedgehog #amy rose #sonic #sonamy evidence #sonamy proof #amy rose creator #sonic japanese #amy rose japanese

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cyborgrhodey · 3 years

Text

another day, another "fanfiction isn't Real Literature" take on twitter

when fanfic defenders point out that a lot of the "fanfic isn't legitimate art" takes comes from a place of misogyny AND queerphobia, it's not that we are saying that fanfic is uniformly so revolutionary, and *any* criticism of it is rooted in bigotry like that. it's genre fiction, and there's great fanfic and good fanfic and bad fanfic. there's probably more bad fanfic available than bad published books because it doesn't have gatekeepers the way publishing does--anyone can just put out their fic to the world, no matter how unrefined or whatever. and there's definitely a lot of problems within the fanfic community of racism and harrasment and morality that have to be discussed.

but compared to derivative/ transformative hobbies that are more dominated by cishet men--like video game modding or ROM hacking or fandom info curation or even visual fanart -- fanfic gets a lot more flack from the mainstream.

the hilarious thing is when they're like, oh it's a symptom of ~capitalism~ killing public imagination and causing anti-intellectualism or whatever, when (a) communal storytelling is old as shit, and (b) surely people through the ages have been dreaming up and writing fanfic of all kinds, just that we had no way to easily share and access it before, and (c) if your measure of the legitimacy of art is whether someone can make money from it, then who is truly captive by capitalism here? I doubt these people are hanging out on the internet looking for indie writers the way people do with indie filmmakers or musicians

in the end, very few fic writers aspire to become "legitimate" authors with published original fiction. fanfiction is just home cooking. derivative, sure--fic writers play in established worlds like home cooks follow recipes. some amazing home cooks will eventually go on to join the industry, and their time as home cooks definitely built skills that got them partway there. but most people just cook whatever on the weekends, and share it with their neighbors, and it's still a perfectly legitimate use of their time.

#somebody shut me up #fanart is a funny one because it *does* get similar flack-- when it's queer #or reimagining white characters as a different race or cis characters as trans etc #but like 'vanilla' fanart in 'acceptable' art styles? few complaints. maybe from art snobs. but not the mainstream #* not from the mainstream #people happily consume fanart if it looks close enough to Legitimate art #and yet if we fic readers say oh theres this one fic i love actually thats as dense and well written as any original fiction out there--#the response definitely wont be the same #long post

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writeangstime · 4 years

Text

Problem of fanfiction writers – aka the whole bucket of reasons why writing for fans is not always easy

So idea to write this was in my head for almost a week and latest post on my dash only encouraged me to sit down to it and write everything. It is quite important because people don’t speak about it and I think it is important thing to do. If any of you would like to reblog it because you agree with it, feel free. If you disagree and want to add something, please, made it cultural in discussion. So without further delay, let me start.

PART 1 – THE GENERAL PROBLEM

So the general thesis I feel we need to tell is this: Fanart is more ahead than fanfiction in view of fans.

I don’t want to point “artists have better than writers” thesis to start some great war in fandoms, but I think this is very often the case. We want it or not, we live in world that is demanding things to be aesthetically pleasing in our eyes – starting from everyday clothes and ending on the design of websites. So we quickly can decide what we like, what is funny, what is sad, what is pretty. Fanart is easier in terms of deciding if we like it or not. Not only that, many websites also like to promote themselves using specific fanarts, either by promoting them in things like “fanart of the day/week/month” or organizing contests for drawing something in the theme. This websites usually use a huge fanbase that can be drawn by this – after all, one would feel nothing but pride when the website posts their favourite Harry Potter art that they drew for hours.

The other issue is that the most famous applications and websites are either more established for visual media (Instagram, Twitter, etc.) or, if they feature general art, they usually focus on something that isn’t written (Deviantart and their Daily deviations). If writers use any websites, they are either of mixed purpose – Tumblr for example – or some that aren’t used by general public that is not connected to any fandom (AO3). That makes it more difficult to “normalize” writing fiction.

PART 2 – THE SPECIFIC PROBLEMS OF FANFIC

Of course it is not like everything is “blame” of that gap between the fanbase, because fanfiction writers also come up with some issues that are specific for just writing itself. Those I will list below could be probably expanded, but I think those are the most important when we first thing about writing.

1. There is no money from writing

This probably could be told about pretty much anyone who will made something for fandom, but it needs to be said at every opportunity – majority of the fanfiction writers never had occupation connected to writing. Still they have to earn their livings and that means less time for getting down to write, which in turn means less time to develop your skills. There is also a problem with commissions – barley any writer puts them up and if they do, the prices are extremely low, too low to make any decent money. This also makes problem with setting any kind of Ko-Fi, Patreon or basically anything that would be a side-profit. Devoting time fully to run the pages and write stories is simply not adding up in the moment where you could just push yourself to do something else.

2. Writing in foreign language

As it might came to you, there are many people in fandom that basically aren’t English native. It might not seem a problem – after all almost everyone now speaks this language – but if you want to have a broader fanbase, you have to write in completely different language than you were taught. So there are always harsh beginnings where you struggle with gramma and even then, when you are fluent enough to live without any problem in another country, you still will get some struggles. People are not the best to understand that – I saw mean comments that were established on fact how said person can’t use the language well. This can be huge strike for someone that tries and struggles to get through the things that could be problematic and just can turn you away from even trying to get better.

3. Bad fame

In the current fandom fanfictions are very often viewed and portrayed as the fantasy of teenagers that find in that substitute for relationship or for fantasy made true. It is definitely not helpful that the fiction that was turned into books and movies is completely unhealthy in any terms – the stalking issues, the control issues, all the relationship being promoted there are really unhealthy and it is hard to see it as positive at all. No wonder that fanfiction is still viewed as low-quality literature, therefore is not taken much seriously and there is probably hard time getting “profession” by writing fiction like that. Also even the word “fanfic” carries a bit of the negative meaning in some groups.

PART 3 – HOW CAN I HELP?

1. Reblog/comment as much as you can

Any kind of reaction is pure and warms the heart of writer, but also what we lack is the feedback. Without that we can’t really get the story going better, because we don’t know what part you liked or not. Of course it is nothing obligatory and no one is forcing you to do so, but you know that even writing simple and cheesy “I like it” in tags can make a whole day better.

2. If you have some funds you are willing to spend on the writer – do so

Now I don’t say that you need to pour all your money on those fanfiction people out there, but if you ever want to order some story from person that you kind of admire, just ask them – the worst answer would be refusal, in the best you would get a good story. Some of the writers would be even kind enough to write it for you without publishing it, so no one beside you would read that.

#writing #fanfic #small rant i guess

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silverquillsideas · 5 years

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Salmon and others were openly discussing rape and talking about drawing rape and there were people in the replies talking about how seeing a “rape drawing” changed the way they consumed content and shipped things (they meant that they liked the rape btw). If she hasn’t gone back to private, you can probably find those for yourself since they’re pretty recent. I thought you seemed nice but I’m really disappointed in you. Will be unfollowing and blocking.

Hello! I was debating on how (if at all) to answer this, since you seem to have already made up your mind to not hear anything further about this issue altogether.

But I do have a few things to say, regardless, because I found specific phrases you used, to be sketchy/unclear at best.

Warning tho : this is going to delve into a discussion of "rape and sexuality" from a real life perspective, since the fandom seems so bent upon drawing parallels to reality and compare fiction and irl examples. If you find that uncomfortable, block the tag "tw:rape" and scroll past.

_____

So, my first point of discussion : "Salmon and others were openly discussing rape and talking about drawing rape"

Putting aside the issue of the subject matter of the threads for a second, I'll focus on the other part : about *posting publicly*. I talked to three separate followers of the twt artist, who also happen to be my tumblr mutuals, and they basically confirmed the same thing : there was no "open discussion", in the sense, that, they did so either on Privatter (assuming you know how it works) or they did in the comment threads on their *personal twitter account*, and only those who were willing to engage in such a discussion, went ahead and joined. They did not encroach on anyone's space and invite them in forcefully.

I'm putting the screenshots of conversation I've had with one of my friends regarding this, and as you can see, none of it was *open for public viewing*

Also, here's the artist's own message that's pinned to their account :

Let me put this in perspective : suppose you're not into kpop (I picked a random example, btw) and find it weird and flamboyant, and you generally avoid it altogether. While scrolling through tumblr, you stumble upon a hardcore kpop blog, you're totally put off by the contents and you complain to your mutuals about how ABC person indulges in kpop and you found it weird and unappealing.

But my point is, there was nothing public about the said blog or account, because, by nature, every blog or account is a person's private space for expression of ideas. Yes, tumblr, twitter and other social media platforms are all *public* in the sense that they are hosted on public domains and anyone with an access to the Internet can stumble upon any website or blog listed therein. But, you, being a responsible, well discerning person, willingly stepped onto a personal blog or acc on which the owner was likely to present their own views, and started complaining about what you found there. Your statement implies, that you willingly browsed through the comment threads until the point you spotted these uncomfortable discussions and you voluntarily exposed yourself to the same.

My second point : "there were people in the replies talking about how seeing a "rape drawing" changed the way they consumed content and shipped things (they meant that they liked rape btw)"

I find it highly confusing how you generalised something as sensitive and complex as psychological behaviour on behalf of a bunch of strangers you never actually interacted with (or confirmed their views on the said matter) and proceeded to label them as "people who liked rape".

What does the statement "liking rape" mean anyway? And, does anyone who talk about or discusses rape, in the context of fanarts and fanfiction, and that too, "rape fantasy" in this case, (but I'll get to it in a moment) automatically becomes someone who likes the act? Or condones it happening in real life, to real people or situations? I'm curious as to which aspect of rape they talked about 'liking' (since your statement implies they explicitly stated so) : was it the pain, the trauma, the physical and psychological stress, or the violence and the sense of dominance over a helpless, real life person?

If you do have an answer supported by evidence, let me know, I'll modify my response gladly.

It brings me to my third point : these artists or the people who commented, were discussing, not about real life rape, but a fantasy situation in which they put two fictional characters together and made a fanart of them (the composition of the art in question is described in the conversation above).

Deriving pleasure from the actual act of rape or sexual violence is a pathological condition and needs medical or psychiatric treatment.

Deriving pleasure or indulging in paraphilic sexual fantasies, however, is not uncommon. I'll redirect you to @iamtrashforash 's post here that describes this issue more coherently. I'll also point you to articles written on PsychologyToday, based on research done on this specific topic of "Rape Fantasy" that I found, and I think everyone should have a look at them :

Article 1

Article 2

If I remember correctly, the actual comment I saw in the screenshot circulating around, regarding the controversy, went something along the lines of "I love seeing Ash's pained face in this situation", and that's what made people lose their minds. There was outrage over "How could you do that with Ash, a CSA survivor? It sends a bad message to them, it's triggering, it's disrespectful, you are disgusting, etc etc."

But, my own conversations with three people who are in real life CSA survivors, two of them who reached out to me in my DMs over the last two days, have given me a very different idea about what these people actually think regarding the art. Here's the hot take : they did not find it disturbing or offensive to themselves personally.

In fact, they pointed out, that they saw it as a fictional scenario, were well aware of the differences between the artist's intent and their potential real life behaviour (FYI, none of them drew the conclusion that either the artist or the people discussing it, "liked rape").

The fact that the comment threads were openly talking about indulging in such a fantasy is what seemed to baffle the more outspoken and outraged people, who proceeded to harass and send hate messages to the creators. But here's the fact : these fetishes have existed for as long as humanity has, and will continue to do so, regardless of whether you crucify a handful of people in a small corner of a fandom or not.

If you're familiar with the yaoi manga genre, or any adult erotica games (I can't cite any examples bc I don't have enough details, but I do know they exist), you'll find a plethora of works where all sorts of fantasy situations are presented : rape is fetishised, there's shape-shifters (vampires or otherwise), A/B/O dynamics, even bestiality. In other words, a major prevalence of themes like dominant, aggressive behaviour contrasted with helpless, passive behaviour as far as sexual situations go. And they are thriving. They have a huge pool of audience out in the world.

Whether these fetishes are "morally right or wrong" to indulge in, is not a question I have any authority to debate, because I'm not a clinical psychologist, or a behavioural scientist.

Personally speaking, I happen to be a demisexual person. Any discussion of sexual situations or scenarios outside of my own very narrow comfort zone or mental compatibility scares the shit out of me. And I find all of the above scenarios I described, as plainly unappealing and downright weird or scary. I will never, as long as I have my faculties in control, go out seeking any of them voluntarily, in either fanarts or fiction.

My point is, this is a complicated issue, I fully acknowledge that beforehand. We, as a fandom, got attached to Ash as a character, for so many different reasons. We all love him, respect him for standing up against all odds, and fighting against his fate all his life. That's the reason why the back-lash against these depictions got so violent, I think. People are more willing to see him heal, to see him make peace with his scars and move on. The general consensus with this line of thought was so ingrained in our minds, that people lashed out as soon as something "against the norms" and "potentially harmful" came to their notice.

But, the thing is, both these outcomes, are fictional. The fandom's biggest purpose is this : we weave fiction out of fiction itself. That's why we have fanarts and AUs and headcanons and a hundred other things. And different people will find different aspects of said fictional scenarios appealing. It's why we have so many ships on one hand and unfortunately, *ridiculous* ship-wars and toxic discourses on the other. But, it's okay to accept that there'll always be differences in such a wide space where everyone is coming together. It's okay to find content you don't agree with, and simply, move on.

But, I'll repeat myself : I'm not going to persecute people, who have carefully tagged, classified, and filtered their content, being mindful of the others in the fandom, and barge on their doors demanding "why they liked what they liked" and "how could they like such a thing??". Especially because it is fiction, involving fictional characters, separated from reality.

Had it been a real life discourse, involving actual people, I'd have definitely spoken out against it.

Also, to anon, if you find my views or ideas unpleasant, or find my completely sfw multifandom blog a safety hazard, then you're more than welcome to unfollow and block me. Your mental peace is all that I ask for. :)

#banana fish #analysis #discourse #bananafish #tw:rape #asks #anon #textposts #personal

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reistellae · 5 years

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A really really long reflection 2/3

The second part in my long, reflective essay. If you haven’t read part 1 (it’s a snooze admittedly), lemme summarize: racism within American society is long and runs deep, it will not be erased overnight; in pop culture and entertainment, Asians/Asian-Americans have never been taken seriously in post-WWII America; the rise in popularity of anime and jpop and the Internet eventually leading to the globalization of kpop. We are currently at 2016.

We last left off in 2016, where BTS was gaining some major traction worldwide. During this time, other kpop groups were making their moves in the States. GOT7 had their FLY Tour shows in the United States July 1-11th 2016 and were doing tons of press interviews to promote the concert. The kpop convention + concert (KCON) had steadily been growing in popularity since its first con in 2012 with a 2016 lineup that featured Seventeen, BTOB, Ailee, Crush, Dynamic Duo, BTS, Day6, Mamamoo, and Eric Nam at the New York convention and Amber, SHINee, Block B, Dean, GFriend, IOI, Girls Generation TTS, BTS, Eric Nam, Twice, Monsta X, and Astro in at the LA convention. EXO had their EXO’lu’Xion Concerts in the States from February 10-21st, 2016.

All in all, it became very clear that kpop had an audience in the United States and it wasn’t listened to by just Asian-Americans anymore. The audience became diverse, with people of all ages finding groups that appealed most to them. 2016 saw the year of the announcement of One Direction’s indefinite hiatus, which meant there were teenagers and young adults who were looking for new things to listen to, causing a small shift in fandom culture. I say small because kpop fans and Directioners famously had a lot of conflict, particularly on Twitter, and many Directioners would be xenophobic and racist towards kpop fans and their favorite groups with comments such as “You listen to ching chong music,” “You can’t even understand what they’re saying,” and so on, so I think the overlap between Directioners and kpop fans was very minimal. 5 Seconds of Summer, another popular band in the West, had announced a hiatus around 2016/17 and I believe this was where a lot of new fans came from. 5SOS had an audience of relatively “emo” and “edgy” teens who look for something different and tend to be more open minded, against the “mainstream” groups like One Direction. A lot of 5SOS fans shifted into kpop during the band’s hiatus, from what I’ve seen on Twitter.

However, racism is not just an American problem, it’s global. And within kpop and South Korean culture, racism and colorism run almost just as deep. This was no secret to many Asian-American/non-Korean Asian fans or to black fans. Many groups have incidents of blackface, saying colorist comments, allegations of cultural appropriation, and saying n*gga. A common defense fans would come up with when confronted with the scandal would say “they didn’t know any better,” “they don’t have black people in Korea,” “get over it, it isn’t hurting you,” and many more excuses. As a result, this tends to cause a divide between black kpop fans and non black kpop fans. The discussions of racism within kpop tend to go one-sided, with black kpop fans feeling as though they are silenced and ignored by other fans, idols, and companies. Pop culture in America often takes things from African American culture and acts like they are “new” and “fresh” and “trendy” which leads to kpop idols adopting these things as well to seem cooler.

Back on BTS, they were no strangers to racist scandals. Leader RM debuted with a fro-hawk-like style, did a rather poor imitation of Stevie Wonder while wearing dreads and sunglasses, and said that he was surprised with how dark fellow members were when he first met them. No formal apology directly stating what he had done was ever issued, so it can be assumed that Bighit Entertainment, the company in charge of BTS, brushed it off. Despite this, the fandom would continue to grow on their main platform of Twitter.

Twitter is the most immediate way to find people who have common interests as you and to keep up with your favorite celebrities and BTS established early on that they were good at keeping up. Posting little videos of day to day life, interacting with fans often, and posting selcas almost daily, ARMYs were able to feel close to BTS through these interactions. ARMYs would also find other ARMYs and they built a community full of fandom jokes, fanart, fanfiction, and so on. The momentum continued into 2017 with the release of WINGS and its repackage You Never Walk Alone. The MVs for Blood, Sweat, and Tears and Not Today broke Youtube records at the time and they were to go on to another world tour for WINGS.

2017 is also when some major issues within the fandom began being discussed. Stan culture within itself wasn’t new and while it provided positives such as giving people a community online, it was unforgiving to those who were not within the fandom. ARMYs had a history of fanwars against the other biggest fandom, EXO-Ls and both have done terrible things to each other. In late 2017, African-American rapper CupcakKe had tweeted stating that she would like to have sex with member Jungkook. Subsequently, ARMYs harassed her and said everything in regards to her size, to her being black, and slutshaming her. The abuse was so bad that she deleted her Twitter for some time.* RM and African-American rapper Wale collaborated on a track and some ARMYs accused Wale of just using RM/BTS for clout. Around the same time, however, BTS themselves were making progress within the United States. They had been invited to the Billboard Music Awards to accept an award for Top Social Artist and that same year performed DNA at the American Music Awards, both firsts for a South Korean group.

*I’m ending this part here because as I was checking the dates for the CupcakKe incident, I watched a video which talked about when CupcakKe returned to Twitter to call out the double standards of how fans can tweet things like “I want Taehyung to cum on my face for 365 days” without a blink but when she says “I want to jungkook to fuck me,” she gets harassed. I made the crackhead choice of checking the comments and I was honestly disgusted. Here’s some screencaps of what I read:

Now I obviously am trying to remain completely unbiased in this history rundown and will hopefully give my full opinion in the final reflection, but this shit is what disgusts me. CupcakKe is a grown ass woman and uses her social media however she damn well pleases. Literally her whole brand is about a big, beautiful black woman being openly sexual and clearly these commenters and those who upvoted don’t understand that. They do not understand the actual trauma black people have to deal with when they are called dehumanizing things, especially as a public figure on social media. “Oh she’s just looking for attention,” “Ignore this and vote for Mama!” It literally has my blood boiling as I’m typing this. THIS is why black women feel unsafe talking about their experiences with racism, slut shamed, double standards, etc. Because NO MATTER WHAT, people will try to silence them. And yes, I know it’s a small fraction of the fandom but the fact that there’s even HUNDREDS of people who think similarly really is telling. And I looked at the replies too and not many people were actually defending her AT ALL and those who were weren’t getting much love.

Anyway, part three will be coming probably tomorrow. I’m drained.

Part Three

#opinion #kpop #personal #thoughts #canvasbyleo long post

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tvpgroupg · 4 years

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Fandom makes a Chinese actor, breaks the fandom community in China afterwards.

Archive of Our Own (AO3), one of the world’s biggest fanfiction sites, appeared to be blocked in China on Saturday as regulators further tightened internet controls, with some users furiously blaming fans of a popular actor for the government’s action. “Unfortunately, the Archive of Our Own is currently inaccessible in China,” the Organization for Transformative Works, a US non-profit group that operates AO3, said on its Twitter account. “We've investigated, and it is not due to anything on our end.” The organisation said it did not know “if it’s a temporary shutdown caused by server operators or a long-term restriction to access”. Established in 2008, AO3 is an open-source platform for fanfiction, fanart and other fanworks contributed by users. It hosts 5.7 million fanworks in over 36,000 fandoms for 2.4 million users. Last year the site won a Hugo award, a literary award for science fiction and fantasy works, in the category of Best Related Work. It’s hard for stars to find their footing in the entertainment industry when people are always on the lookout for something new. For stars with short-lived fame like Internet celebrities, their livelihood relies almost entirely on the net and their fans. Take 28-year-old actor Xiao Zhan for instance, who rose to mega-stardom after last year’s hugely popular Chinese television series The Untamed (available on Netflix), but has suddenly ceased work as of late February. His temporary disappearance from the public eye is due to an event now described as ‘The 227 Incident’. On February 27, a type of homoerotic fan fiction commonly referred to as BL (boys love) was discovered online that pertained to Xiao Zhan. The fan fiction in question featured a character – coincidentally named Xiao Zhan – who suffered from ‘gender identity disorder’ (a controversial term that was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 2013). While there were some Xiao Zhan fans who had little issue with the story, others weren’t so pleased about what they read, and reported the novel to government authorities, who also don’t take too kindly to certain kinds of content. This led to the shutdown of the entire website where the BL story was published. Many users pointed the finger at fans of Chinese actor Xiao Zhan for reporting the site to Chinese authorities. Last Thursday, fans of the actor, who rose to stardom after starring in web series The Untamed – itself adapted from a queer romance novel – initiated a campaign against a fanfiction creator who portrayed their idol as a sex worker with gender dysphoria in a fanfiction series with queer themes. Unhappy about the story that they said “tainted Xiao’s image”, the fans reported the creator and the fanfiction series, which was distributed on AO3 and a Chinese social platform called Lofter, to the CAC for “prostitution and pornographic content”. They also shared tutorials about how to report the story to authorities via website, telephone and email. As of a check on Monday, the tutorial posts have been deleted but screenshots of them are still circulating on social media. The fan-written story was later taken down from the Lofter app, while AO3, which is still hosting it, has been inaccessible in China on Saturday. Enraged by the loss of a safe space where a variety of subculture groups had been creating content for years, millions of the site’s users began an online campaign to tarnish Xiao Zhan’s name, from giving low ratings to everything Xiao appears in to boycotting every product and brand that Xiao endorses. Just like the website, Xiao himself went missing from the public eye while brands quickly removed his pictures from their ad campaigns for fear of further backlash. Xiao Zhan’s management released an announcement on Weibo, apologising only for ‘taking up social and public resources’, which further polarised the discussion on how idols should behave in these situations. China’s fandom and anime culture has a growing community. With an estimated 70 million readers, the country’s online comics market has become one of the latest areas where internet companies are competing against each other to drive user growth with a universe of content including anime, video games and streaming. For the moment, his most devoted fans are still loading their shopping trolleys with products endorsed by Xiao – they figure the most constructive way to save their idol is to keep the cash flowing. The war is still going on now, I hope Xiaozhan and his fans would apologize.

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macdennisofficial · 7 years

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it's a little suspicious to me that you claim to be queer yet you hate slash shippers so much? why aren't you bitching about chardee shippers? why only johnlock and macdennis? hmm you never explain how you're queer either - gay man? lesbian woman? bi nonbinary?? interesting . . . if you can't see how dennis double life and the final problem are the same then methinks you're proly straight

I don’t hate “slash shippers” I hate a certain section of johnlock shippers and not because they ship johnlock, but because they do stuff like send this ask and feel entitled to promises that were never made, and throw around serious terms like “queerbaiting” and “homophobia” about ships not happening while reducing characters to nothing more than their ships (including their sexualities, which seem to be nothing more than plot devices to make their ship work to them) while treating the lives of actual people (and actual queer people) as secondary to a fictional ship. If you were involved with Sherlock fandom and know what tjlc is, there is absolutely no reason for you to act as if you don’t know which behaviour I’m specifically referring to and unless you partake in that specific behaviour, there is no reason for you to become upset.There is nothing wrong with being upset with how a show goes, and discussing it maturely on twitter with the people involved with the show. We know they read their tweets and listen to their audience, but even if they didn’t that’s no excuse to harass them (note: this is a different concept than politely discussing one’s opinion and emotions about the ep) and hell, nothing wrong with wanting a ship to happen and being upset that it hasn’t (yet, or ever)! But lord almighty, there is something wrong with certain actions y’all are participating in! And when I see chardee shippers filling the tags with hate, harassment, and going into people’s asks and harassing people on twitter and tumblr, reducing their characters to nothing more than their ship, and only caring about their sexualities and characterizations as far the ship goes, then I’ll bitch about that too. It’s just that I didn’t see this happening en masse until johnlock shippers came into teh fandom - and trust me, there were intense macdennis shippers long before you arrived, with meta, fanfiction, and fanart too. Be upset! Write discussions and meta about how macdennis is totally endgame! I totally have and totally will continue to do so! But Dennis’ Double Life wasn’t queerbait, and Mac’s gayness is not only important for macdennis, okay? Always Sunny is not, and never will be, Sherlock.

You do not get to reduce my sexuality as nothing more than a mouthpiece for your opinions, and then deny my sexuality simply because I don’t agree with your behaviour. Ship macdennis! Hell, ship johnlock! Do it loudly and proudly! Mention it to the writers politely! Discuss in public why you do and why it’s upsetting it didn’t happen but man, you gotta stop the harassment and the reduction.(And let me reiterate, I am only mad at a specific set of behaviour coming from that section, okay? If you’re not doing this, then don’t think I’m talking to you.)

#queer #answered asks

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queenlokibeth · 4 years

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so wait do you not read any fanfics at all? not on ao3 or anything?

About fictional characters, yes, and about real people I also do, sometimes, but not frequently E or NC-17, and if I do, i definitely don't share them. See, this is also about the platform. Most "public figures" aren't aware of ao3, so it's not the same to write/find an E fic on ao3 than for someone to write it as a twitter thread or on instagram where said public figure hangs out. It does make me feel a bit weird to read E fics about real people, it's a lot less weird at least when it's a very AU-ish situation and you almost feel like you're reading a novel with characters and not about these real people. If I met these people I would never bring up the fanfics, explicit or otherwise.

There are funny headcanons, some steer into dirtier territory and you can make a joke about that, but again, don't bring it into their territory. It also really depends on like... whether what you're talking about is outlandish or sort of really, really plausible.

As an example, it's not the same to go out on a limb and detail exactly what specific sexual positions Louis and Harry might like (which is... kinda really invasive and a bit of a weird conversation), and to go "yeah so we can all agree about what happened when Harry and Louis arrived late to the interview, sweating, adjusting their crotches, while Louis had a brand new hickey and Harry announced that he lost his trousers 👀" because everything in thay sentence is an objective event that literally happened in public in front of a camera on live TV.

If you start making out with seomeone in front of your friends/others or show up to class with a massive hickey, you've pretty much a guarantee that they're gonna tease you about it later, it's not the same as quietly sitting down for lunch and having a random colleague approach and ask you if you pulled last night and prompting specific details.

It's a thing about boundaries. It doesn't help at all to pretend that we can erase shipping culture and pretend that this is going to stop happening. It's not. The world isn't perfect and it's been happening since the dawn of fanfiction. Which is why, in this realm of existance you have to be respectful about it. Just put yourself in that situation. If it would be uncomfortable for you if you were in their place, then don't do it.

Also, something that isn't mentioned much, is how the worst part of IRL shipping isn't even what fans do, but how the media exploits it, and this goes for fictional stuff too. The best example is that no one asked Graham Norton to go on tumblr, find fanart of Loki poledancing and show it to Tom Hiddleston on live TV to embarrass him and the fans. The media fetishizes fan pairings/ships for their own gain, obviously without any of the respect or sensitivity that some fans would have. As fans we shouldn't make it easy for them to twist our words/thoughts/fanart/fanfiction into some weird perverted fantasy either.

TL; DR: I sometimes do read fics about real pairings, not often E or NC-17 unless they're VERY AU-ish and i can essentially forget that it's even referencing real people, and I would never share any fics outside of ao3, barely here on tumblr, much less on a mainstream platform like Twitter, and I would never faccilitate them to the subjects in question or anyone close to them. I also do not feel comfortable at all discussing sexually explicit "headcannons" about these people, shipping or no shipping, hence why i frequently shun Henries who treat Harry like a piece of meat and people like that one anon I received fantasizing about, ehem, pegging Louis, which what the fuck stop.

#ask #anon #mine

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