#those fanart– the historical impact that they have–

[sleepless-crows]

thats enough fanart for today i have succeeded at procrastinating yet again

#and i have to eat #i still have not recovered #those fanart– the historical impact that they have–

[blueratgrmln]

🌟OPEN DISCUSSION about the 2020's era of shipping culture, Sonadow in the Sonic Fandom, and how well-intended activism can circle back to the language and violence of oppressors 🌟 (Broken down into PARTS for the sake of readability and my own attention span lol. >>>FULL ESSAY HERE<<<) (>>>PREVIOUS PART HERE<<<)

PART 5

LANGUAGE AND VIOLENCE OF OPPRESSORS

Now is where I will delve into the connection between Sonadow shipping (and overall shipping) debates and how well-intentioned activism loops back into mimicking oppressors. Thinking about how Sonadow is historically important to the Sonic Franchise, the Sonic Fandom, LGBTQ+ Sonic Fans, and maybe even video game history as a whole, I feel major discomfort and even dread when I see so many people (particularly those that are young) throwing around very serious accusations at (fellow) Sonic Fans and (fellow) Sonic shippers. Accusations supporting pedophilia or pedophilia itself is one of the most egregious. I've seen it thrown at Sonadow shippers, Vector x Espio shippers because Vector is 20 and Espio is 16 (despite it being another extremely popular LGBTQ+ headcanon-ed ship due to lack of representation), and even Knuckles x Rouge because Rouge is 18 and Knuckles is 16. It strikes me as counterintuitive and unnecessary at least, and actively dangerous at most/worst, seeing fellow Queer people utilizing the morality-policing, fear tactics, surveillance methods, censorship mindset, and rhetoric/language of our oppressors and using those things against the people in their own communities. Realizing that long-time Sonadow fans who felt inspired to come out and be unapologetically Queer because of that specific ship have been facing harassment and slander from fellow Queer people (who are likely younger than them), getting called "pedos" or "dangerous" or "suspicious" or "unethical" over the mere act of creating representation and Queer Joy with fictional characters and seeking some sense of comfort while surviving homophobic environments...bluntly, my stomach is churned and my blood is boiled. The last thing we need in this rapidly backwards-turning world is more in-fighting within the broader LGBTQ+ community that distracts our thoughts, emotions, time, energy, organizing, education, community-building, and activism away from the oppressors who are causing us real-world tangible harm, suffering, and death.

A random teenager on the internet drawing fanart of Sonic and Shadow holding hands, or even random adults on the internet drawing suggestive art or outright porn of these characters, is NOT going to be the catalyst that rapidly or gradually normalizes pedophilia or inspires worldwide support for unethical relationships. And yes, this includes content about the "weirdo/unethical/dark" ships that are found in the shadowy fringes of the internet and Fandom spaces. I am uncomfortable with a lot of it myself. But those ships and the people that engage with them ALSO can't have the same level of impact and reach (key words: Same Level) that real life oppressive systems have to cause widespread suffering. The key difference that makes widespread abuse possible is that the real life oppressive systems are disguised as wholesome safe environments that develop trust and closeness with community members. Those oppressive systems and the harmful people that support them are usually NOT on the freaky/dark/weird fringes of society, they don't outwardly appear that way, and they demonize the "degenerates", not associate with any such label. The Catholic church institution is a big example, the institution covering up uncountable cases of their clergy members abusing minors while those clergy members are positioned as a pure, trusted facet of society that people actively look to for guidance, safety, and belonging.

At NO point am I ever going to say that everyone online is perfectly pure and that we should ignore everyone's behavior online. When we do encounter legitimate creeps causing harm to real people (not watered-down definitions of what being a creep means) we absolutely need to call them out and keep each other safe. HOWEVER, by pitting fellow Sonic Fans, fellow Queer people, fellow shippers against each other with this blanket "us vs them" mentality that overshadows the real life patterns and signs of how widespread oppression and real world harm happens, we end up accomplishing a lot of what our oppressors want anyway: divisions, distractions, and outright mimicking the violent language and behaviors that they display toward us at ourselves. This is the point where well-intentioned activism goes wrong and circles back around to oppression without meaning to.

Many people are super-duper-sure that they have dismantled all of their -isms and -phobias and now identify with labels and movements that are on the right side of history. But all of us STILL need to be aware of the fact that our thought patterns, behaviors, logic, and emotional responses can be tied to previously held beliefs and mindsets, and they can sometimes carry over and linger in our minds even after significant "character development". This is true even if we don't immediately realize it and think that we are a "safe person" within our own marginalized communities and for other marginalized communities. It can be really hard to identify if/when that is happening sometimes, but it is pertinent that we are actively checking in with ourselves, listening to constructive criticism, and cross-analyzing whether we are unintentionally mimicking the language, behaviors, and violence of our oppressors, and what effects that can have on the people in our shared communities and the people we care about.

PART 6 HERE

#sth #sonic #sonic the hedgehog #shadow the hedgehog #sonadow #sonic fandom #fandom culture #shipping #shipping wars #shipping culture #LGBTQ+ #LGBTQ+ community #LGBTQ+ ships #activism #representation #open discussion #debate #proshipper #antishipper #queer

[cosmileech]

a (now suspended) user on Twitter recently called out that “puritans” contributed to Kansas City’s new crack down on LGBTQ+ media and censorship of the internet

the bill requires that anyone under 14 will have their socmed account deleted and access banned, while also making rules that allow parents to report things they consider as “harmful” to minors (if said minor stumbles on that or if they can prove it causes harm). That means any gay fanart or fic would be considered as “harmful” even if the media is entirely wholesome

nowhere in the post was OP talking about fandoms and nowhere were they saying that “puritans” passed those legislations. They were criticizing the fact that these people carry water to fascists because they use the same fascist rhetoric uncritically.

Legislators pass laws based on what the general public thinks, and if this generation thinks that “harmful content” is queer media (that isn’t super wholesome and unproblematic) they will of course be met with support from people who are more than happy to ban this “degeneracy”

And only few people understood that minors repeating fascist rhetoric is actually dangerous and worrying because they grow up eventually, they’ll start voting for those censorship happy legislators or become one of them. They grow up with their beliefs unchanged and unchallenged, yet the qrts played it down or accused them of “making this about proshippers again” (despite the word “proship” also not being mentioned even once)

(I speak English relatively well but my reading comprehension is not the best, so if any of this was misinterpreted, my apologies.)

That's a really good point. I think a lot of people don't understand that although proship is a term that does mean above all that you are against harassment and censorship, it is also inherently fandom-based.

There's definitely something to say about how being proship and antiship can impact your political views. I'm not saying all antishippers are going to become homophobic trump worshippers, and I think people that water it down to that don't understand the antiship community that much.

An an ex-anti I can confirm that a lot of my friends who were also anti were queer and considered themselves leftists, they simply also followed views that are much more conformist to the American culture, such as purity and protection of children or whatever.

The issue is that they don't challenge these beliefs nor take into account other opinions and it leads very quickly into becoming radicalist. Yes, many of them are still queer, and their beliefs of course don't cancel that out, but that doesn't mean they cant be oppressors aswell.

All in all I am shocked people can't seem to agree that that bill sounds terrifying. A lot of bills I've seen about censorship claim to be to protect children and yet a lot of people don't realize what many people mean by that -- Of course It's going to impact fandom spaces, but it's also going to impact queer communities, sex education, racial education, historical records, and so much more.

I find it very disheartening when people seem to agree that all of the above shouldn't be censored except for fandom spaces because proshippers " go too far " and therefore, the bill is fine.

#proship #proshipping #pro fiction #ship discourse #anti anti #proship discourse #anti ship #politics #usa politics #fuck kansas though. And to all of the folks reading this who live in states or countries that are oppressive with censorship #you are seen and loved and we promise that you have a lot of supporters

[lilflowerpot]

I just wanna say I just read little blade and on chapter 4 I could 100% imagine the look Lotor had on his face when he called Keith magnificent! You described it so absolutely amazingly that I swr I could see the fanart before it was made!! I also wanna ask a question that came from that chapter as well. Looking at the way you describe galra history, I'm very curious on your thought process🤔 you describe it as if you did research on a real culture and I wanted to know how much of it was actually made up and if you were inspired by anything? Once more I love little blade and the side series of the characters reacting to the two! Please do keep up the good work 😁

🥰🥰🥰 ahhhh thank you my darling!!

As for my process behind developing the galra history & culture, the majority of my initial ideas and concepts (though especially those I introduce in LB's earliest chapters) are largely plucked from my own imagination as a result of me sitting down with myself and playing around with what canon gave us for the purposes of further expanding upon it. Broadly speaking, I suppose was inspired by the Roman Empire because vld's creators clearly were (something I've spoken about in great detail previously) so I couldn't have ignored that overt core influence even if I'd wanted to; if I were to trace my thought processes back, however, I'd have to say that a great deal of them have in some distant way stemmed from my phenotype theory, as the diverse physiology of the galra indicated a historic diversity of environment, which in turn impacted how the cultures of their various ancestors should logically have developed (environment dictates weather, resources, potential threats, etc.) because a nomandic desert culture is obviously going to stand distinctly apart from a stationary jungle one.

So,,,, I suppose a lot of it was just logical progression regarding which behaviours/beliefs/traditions made sense in the context?

Most of my heavy research came later and was prompted by questions I received on here, as people would—and still do!—ask after such interesting particulars that I find myself continually challenged to consider all manner of niche topics in significant depth. If a concept is directly inspired by something from the real world, I tend to link it in the relevant post, but there are some things I've created that are almost entirely pulled out of my own head (my post on religion is a prime example of this) so it varies greatly!

#but yes give me p much any of my worldbuilding posts and odds are I can trace it back to the phenotype theory in one way or another #people drive culture and the galra are no exception to this #Ao3 Little Blade #sa screams back #the author speaks

[croziers-compass]

🤗, 🤯, 🥰, 💌, and 🧠 for the fic writer asks

🤗 What advice would you give to new fanfic writers that are just getting started? - Just write. Don't worry about how you think it sounds. Do not worry about how "good or bad" it is. Do not. Just write. Get all of that out of the way. Insecurity will be your greatest adversary. Improve and think about how you could re-do or write better in the future after you've written! You will never be able to improve or be better at writing if you do not first start writing! It is also okay to take ideas and styles that you see other writers use and implement them! That is how you grow and learn! If you enjoy a particular aesthetic of writing then try it out for yourself! See how it feels! But most importantly simply write regardless of that voice in your head. You can do it. Even if it's "bad" or you do not like what you've made later, do it anyway! Worry about improvements after you have something to improve upon! 🤯 What's a genre you struggle with as a writer (ex. romance, action, etc.)? - Hetero Romance because I feel like the straights are not okay 99% of the time. I do not struggle in writing conflict in romance at all! But with hetero people it simply feels unfit and poorly constructed like a sad facade I cannot replicate. 🥰 How do you feel about reader interaction? Are you open to receiving questions about your fics? - I adore reader interactions! This not only is beneficial for me as a writer but it also builds a bond between me and the communities that I adore being a part of! It's critical to me as a writer, myself, to experience this. I do not need to share every little bit of fanfic that I write. And I do not. There are vast amounts of fics I do not share or have withheld. But the substance that I do share I share because I wish for it to become part of the community I love, adore, and support. It is, in its own way, my method of building bridges. I create. Some people draw and create fanart. Others write. That is my contribution to community. My creations and my writing is how I build those connections and so engagements with and through others wishing to connect with me about my writing is incredibly valuable and deeply, deeply cherished.

💌 How do you feel about comments and feedback? - I am always open for comments and feedback. I have a personal policy that follows something that Neil Gaiman posted once where it is considered in poor taste to offer feedback unless someone asks for it. I, however, do not mind it myself for myself if someone wishes to offer it. I feel I have a good healthy grasp in sifting through what I am able to use and apply for feedback and what feedback is not particularly useful for me. I am comfortable and confident in my writing and always looking to gain improvements. But those improvements can only be applicable if it helps push me in the direction I would like to see my writing go. I also always love comments! To see and hear how my work impacts other people is incredibly important to me! Even if it's not something writing related. To see how any of my words might help someone else grow, think, or evaluate themself is so incredibly important to me. There's a quote by Chuck Palahniuk that goes: "Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I've ever known" I like to think of how my work and my words impact others as having this same effect. And visa versa. I am made up of all of those I engage with and interact with. And you all, are made up of parts of me in a way. 🧠 Pick a character, and I'll tell you my favorite headcanon for them. - There was no character selected for me to run off with! so I will give you my own personal headcanon for two of my favourite characters of all time. One, Francis Crozier (both not just as a character but a figure so I suppose Historical Headcanon) - It's a small one, but he has a little charm/emblem of St. Brendan that probably is hung or stays next to his berth aboard his ship. And Raskolnikov is Narcoleptic. Hands down that man is narcoleptic.

#These were incredibly long answers for I have many deep thoughts! #However I hope you enjoyed! #By all means I am here for all budding writers of any sorts! I fully support everyone in their writing efforts! #I hope this satisfied and I must thank you so very dearly and kindly for the ask! #It was a great pleasure to write this for you!

[curetsun]

Hello! Can you do a fanart of Captain Shalala as Cure Majesty? All the fanarts of Majesty I've seen so far are based on Elle-chan's design.

ah thank you, I'm quite flattered you'd ask something like that of me

sadly I'm not quite an artist, even if I had a drawing tablet at the moment, I have never been good at creating original designs by myself so I don't think it could do it justice 😔😓 anyway I searched around and couldn't find any either as expected so sorry I couldn't help much

however I'll take the chance of this ask to talk about this myself I had been waiting for the episode titles to be revealed to talk about Cure Majesty but might as well do it here now

under cut cause possibly spoilers? and to make the post shorter

anyway cure majesty has been "leaked" for quite a while from voice lines from some toys and those in the know say it clearly sounds like koga aoi, who voices ellee, so I think it's pretty set in stone, although I have not heard it myself

I had discussed this some time ago with my friend, about the identity of majesty, if it obviously wasn't ellee and the only candidates are ofc shalala and beryberie we surmised that it couldn't be shalala since she's an adult and it'd quite reduce the impact of the historical moment of ageha being the first adult cure as for beryberie she just doesn't have the royal vibes like ellee or shalala, she's just a goon

I've also seen theories about cure majesty could, if not ellee or shalala, be the queen of skyland OR a complete ruse put together by toei to fool people who "hack" toys to find and leak this kinda of stuff like they did in the past, I don't think either of those are the case

to conclude my personal theory for shalala is that she'll come back as part of the baddies (mind control/brain wash sorta thing) and she'll be this huge wall for sora to overcome over the course of multiple encounters giving way to some possible character growth for her but we'll have to wait to see if I'm right or not

anyway if you read this far, again, I'm sorry I couldn't do what you asked, I'd love to be able to do so but I don't have the means or even confidence in my current abilities to attempted to do something like that 😓

#sorry I couldn't help :( #cureasks #hirogaru sky spoilers #even tho they might not be

[mysticdragon3md3]

my reactions to Summer Game Fest 2023 day 1

12:04 PM 6/8/2023 Prince of Persia The Lost Crown. Geoff wasn't kidding about "unexpected". Was not expecting a Prince of Persia game already. And it being about other characters going to rescue the Prince. Wait until they find out he has the Sands of Time. Nice historical reference, with the Immortal Corps. Going the Bayonetta Origins route, I see. Ubisoft Forward streaming on Monday? As part of Summer Game Fest? How many days is Summer Game Fest?

12:07 PM 6/8/2023 Hearing "Mortal Kombat is rebooting the first game" instinctively made me sad, like throwing away all those years of story from teh other games. But this trailer reminded me that the last game MK11 rebooted the timeline. It was good to see God of Fire Liu Kang. But why is Raiden called a neophyte? I thought he kept his memories in the rebooted timeline? And is Mileena the ruler of her world??? Not Kitana???? Man, this looks pretty. Jean Claude van Damme is Johnny Cage???? Did Ed Boone just say the original concept for MK was a Jean Claude van Damme game?????????

12:17 PM 6/8/2023 Did Ryu get brainwashed with a cybernetic device???? Cyborg Ryu? Is this that Street Fighter cyborg character? Upgraded to more mimic Ryu??????? Bikitoa Island? What? AI? Dinosaurs? Oh, this is that Exoprimal! What is this crossover? lol

12:19 PM 6/8/2023 Dead by Daylight is going ot have Nicholas Cage??????????????????????? Everyone laughing has to take it back now, with Nicholas Cage suddenly appearing on screen. But it's kind of sad that you can still hear some of them laughing while he walks on stage.

12:25 PM 6/8/2023 Why is Henry Cavil introducing the Netflix The Witcher season 3? I thought he left the series??????????

12:28 PM 6/8/2023 So is this a Witcher game now? "The Witch Hunt" Or is this one of those supernatural cowboy games that have been happening lately? Witchfire

12:29 PM 6/8/2023 What kind of game in this day and age uses live action clips for their videogame trailer????????? Is this a videogame or movie? Maybe it's for a VR headset? Crossfire Sierra Squad.

12:30 PM 6/8/2023 "The Root will destroy everything for all time." Did I hear that right? "The Root"? I like the creature design and the environmental design. A little sparse, but I like tentacles, really inhuman, uncanny design, and glowing veins "infecting" an environment. Remnant II.

12:33 PM 6/8/2023 Ok. What are you up to, Sonic? ^^ Retro gameplay but with prettier modern graphics. Looks good. ^^ Sonic Superstars.

12:34 PM 6/8/2023 Honkai Star Rail. I don't know much about Honkai or Genshin Impact. Are they in the same universe? I heard they have different gameplay. So is Honkai also a gacha game? Honkai is a turned based combat game, right? I really don't know what I'm looking at. lol Password: Playstation 5 What's that for?

12:37 PM 6/8/2023 Yesterday, I saw someone find some new eltridge body horror fanart for Winnie the Pooh, now that it's in public domain. When they wondered if body horror might be what happens to all public domain IPs, I immediately thought of Garfield, because of all the body horror eldritch art. But Garfield isn't public domain. Were they talking about Pinnochio? Lies of P

12:39 PM 6/8/2023 Game based on a classic manga? Is it Akira Toriyama? A desert? Trigun????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????? …Yeah, Akira Toriyama. I'm going to confess something here. I grew up loving DBZ and I realize Toriyama is genius in the functionality of his character design, and he set a lot of Shonen Manga standards… But I actually dislike his art style. ;o; Sorry! SandLand

12:41 PM 6/8/2023 Double Fine is doing a presentation after the Summer Game Fest live show???????? o !

12:41 PM 6/8/2023 Isn't this music from The Nutcracker? Ah. AnnaPurna montage. They really are the A24 of gaming, as someone once said. Nice art and variety. ^_^

12:44 PM 6/8/2023 Throne and Liberty

12:45 PM 6/8/2023 War Haven The other day, I saw a movie trailer also doing a "needle drop", and it kind of killed my excitement. Maybe it took me out of the world's emmersion. Am I getting tired of vocal song covers in trailers?

12:47 PM 6/8/2023 Party Animals I liked their last trailer with the comedic explanatory tone. Not sure how I feel about the montage of clips of streamers reacting to the game. But it was fast.

12:49 PM 6/8/2023 Crash Team Rumble. I don't know much about Crash.

12:49 PM 6/8/2023 "Descend into madness"? Alan Wake II Oh, ok. IT'S BEEN 13 YEARS SINCE THE LAST ALAN WAKE?????? Will there be references to Control? I heard Control had some references to Alan Wake. During the last trailer, I was intrigued by playing more character POVs besides Alan, and that the FBI agent discovers Alan's writing is creating the situations she's in. That was interesting. This whole interview on stage was not interesting. Sorry. Maybe Remedy wasn't sure if they would have enough footage for this presentation until the last second, and they were planning for at least the stage interview as a substitute? Did Alan have a gun in the first game, or just a flashlight? I wonder if they idea of playing the FBI agent, was to allow for some gunplay. "Tatooed heart"?????????? Wait, do they think Alan Wake is the killer?

12:57 PM 6/8/2023 The only thing I know about Warhammer are joke warning about other people getting you into the series, and it's a story setting where destroying everything without regarding the valid sentient life of the enemy. lol "For the emperor!"? What? The player fights for an empire?

12:59 PM 6/8/2023 This is some pretty 2D art. "Brave at Night" studio. I thought this was an adventure game, but is it also a side scrolling action? Yes Your Grace: Snowfall

1:01 PM 6/8/2023 Interesting when the "rookie" being chewed out also sill has the "badass" character design. lol Refreshing she's also a woman. And that another female character is issuing commands. John Carpenter's Toxic Commando What? This was based on a movie? Is that why the creature designs look interesting, though plausibly could be done with foam rubber suits?

1:03 PM 6/8/2023 Baldur's Gate III Interesting to watch the voice actors in the booth. I don't know this actor playing Gordash though.

1:04 PM 6/8/2023 "Marvel Games"? u "Insomniac"????? ^U^!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Spiderman 2! ;U;!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! More on-stage interviews, but I love looking at the art projected onto the back of the stage, and I'm too excited for this game. Y'know what would be crazy? If the Symbiote took over Kraven. lol Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn? Oh? I heard some speculation that Miles's game took place in Harlem, even though he canonically is based in Brooklyn, maybe because Harlem was already in the first Spiderman game and reusing it save time/effort. So if Spiderman 2 is expanding to include Brooklyn, will they be moving Miles back there? October 20, 2023

1:09 PM 6/8/2023 Palworld So, Pokemon clone? I like that they're "pals". ^.^ Cute. They REALLY look like Pokemon creature designs!

1:11 PM 6/8/2023 Land of the Morning Light. Black Desert. "Land of the Morning Light" is an interesting way to say "Land of the Rising Sun". Explains all the Japanese mythic creatures.

1:11 PM 6/8/2023 Dwarf perspective? Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria.

1:12 PM 6/8/2023 "Exciting mobile game from a legendary franchise"? FF7! o! Yeeeeee! Let me hear Toshiyuki Morikawa's Sephiroth! ;u; Aw, he's trying to call Genesis! ;o;!!! I must say what I always say, when I see Genesis: "Genesis, you're a bad friend! ;o;!" Do better, Genesis! Why are Tifa and Aerith dressed in red battle gear? Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis "Speaking of Final Fantasy…" Geoff shut down all those gasps so fast! LOL I like that he recovereed by saying "gotcha". lol

1:15 PM 6/8/2023 Banishers? This is from the Life Is Strange studio, right? Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden

1:16 PM 6/8/2023 Modern day? I thought the historial era Yakuza was the new one being promoted? They're making a new Yakuza already? Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name

1:18 PM 6/8/2023 Parallel Studio Spot Light Is this going to be a horror game? I'm sorry, but claustrophobic darkness…Maybe giving me Soma flashbacks. SEAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3 Under the Waves. World Ocean Day is today? I think Ocean Conservation Namibia was doing some kind of livestream for World Ocean Day. Go watch them. They save the seals from plastic. A very good channel.

1:20 PM 6/8/2023 Call of Duty? I'm not even paying attention. Good time to listen back to SuperButterBuns' reaction stream.

1:21 PM 6/8/2023 Porsche? Is this Gran Turismo? I stopped paying attention when I heard "car" stuff. That is a big rainbow colored XBOX! I didn't know Porsche is known for rainbows. o.O

1:22 PM 6/8/2023 Faefarm. Geoff said "cozy games". ^u^ Is that an official genre name now? I've heard people calling Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, and Harvestella that. Can we call that the subgenre's official name now? ^u^

1:24 PM 6/8/2023 Marvel Snap. Wow. This dev is super excited. O.o Yay! ProZD! ^o^ ProZD parodying card games! ^u^

1:27 PM 6/8/2023 Ok. I like a dragon that's not a villain. Is this a King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table game? King Arthur: Legends Rise.

1:28 PM 6/8/2023 Wayfinders? Is this World of Warcraft? I do like a story about defeated heroes having to get up again. Wayfinder.

1:29 PM 6/8/2023 Unreal Editor for Fortnite? I thought people stopped focusing on building in Fortnite and focused on battle royale shooting instead.

1:30 PM 6/8/2023 Stellarus Nexus

1:30 PM 6/8/2023 Cute avatar for this scavenger game. Space Trash Scavenger.

1:30 PM 6/8/2023 Star Trek game. Yeek. Borg. i think they used to freak me out when I was little, but now I just imagine Boimler's sim from Lower Decks, and it's funny now. Star Trek Infinite

1:31 PM 6/8/2023 Will Arnet is voicing Sweet Tooth???????? Wait. Why is this a live action clip??? Is that Anthony Mackie?????????????????? This is totally overshadowing Twisted Metal being back. …Did they not trust people to be excited over a classic game returning? IT'S A TV SERIES ON PEACOCK????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

1:33 PM 6/8/2023 Ooh. Nice art style. "I'm here again." "That's another me." Sooooo….Rogue-like or Demon Souls-like? The ghosts are your army? Lysfanga: Teh Time Shift Warrior

1:35 PM 6/8/2023 Immortal of Aveum. "Kind of like Doom with magic." Has Geoff been listening to SuperButterBuns' reaction stream to that last Playstation Showcase? lol Nice to get an explaination for who the Immortals are and the worldbuilding lore.

1:43 PM 6/8/2023 Woah. Geoff's getting serious. Is this about Kojima? From Software? FF7!!!!!!!!!!! Wait. Why is Avalanch being taken away by search and rescue? I thought the last game ended with them on the road? 5 years. The world really is nice and green. She can appear as a monster…or those you love… "Did you know I killed her? So, who is she?" ARE THEY SAYING TIFA IS AN IMPOSTER? Then again, Sephiroth has a record of saying very untrue things with full conviction, so we'll see what's true when the game releases. But maybe it has something to do with Tifa's earlier dialogue, asking why Sephiroth returned now after 5 years?

1:48 PM 6/8/2023 Oh, that was the end? Has it been 2 hours already? Time to check my favorite streamers' reactions. SuperButterBuns ProfessorThorgi I wonder if Black Nerd Comedy is doing a reaction livestream?

1:51 PM 6/8/2023 Ooh! Tim Shaffer! Live event festival and digital showcase? Day of the Devs. Wishes Unlimited. Oh, this whole presentation is cute. Devs outdoors, hanging out in a room, playing games, posing for the camera, etc. Beastieball.

1:54 PM 6/8/2023 Hyper Light Breaker. So is this like Hyper Light Drifter? Wait. Is this a procedurely generated open world? Did they crack what No Man's Sky initially couldn't? "Fully ful visual storytelling". No cutscenes then? Ooh. Environmental storytelling. But through proceedurely generated environments? Isn't that hard to control what story is told? Interesting…

1:57 PM 6/8/2023 Devs: Stone Skip. "Chill and vibey"? Simpler Times. Devs hanigng out on the floor of a living room, listening to a record? This whole Day of the Devs has a really beautiful and cute presentation. I dare say, much better than a stage presentation.

2:01 PM 6/8/2023 Viewfinder. "The photos you take, become worlds to explore."

2:01 PM 6/8/2023 I'm sorry. I have to tap out. My legs hurt SO MUCH from sitting at my laptop in bed.

#reactions #SummerGameFest #summer game fest 2023 #livestreams #videogames #announcements #trailers #special events

[benevolentbirdgal]

Hello, recently the new Legend of Zelda game came out and it made me think about the main villain Ganondorf again. I’ve always kind of though he tends to fall into some harmful antisemitic traits such as the red hair, green skin, large nose (his race of people are portrayed with large noses, he is from a desert race of people but I thought it was important to mention), his goal is to take over Hyrule and has the Triforce of Power, and his early depictions re of a large pig-like creature. I am not sure if this was done purposely to make him a harmful stereotype or not, but with how many people are talking about him I thought it would be important to ask.

Hi Anon!

Honestly, this is not an element of discourse that is familiar to me personally. After looking at some images and whatnot (it's been a long time since my NintendoDS has seen the light of day), I can see where people are coming from.

I think it's unfortunate - especially with how aggressively white and western and not remotely Jewish or Jew-coded the protags are - but I don't (personally) think it's intentional nor am I terribly bothered by it. I get why it gives people the ick (esp the pig one), but Ganandorf also hits a lot of general folklore/adventure/fantasy tropes writ large (which TBF, often have antisemitic roots in contexts where Jews have been persecuted). There's legitimately a read that maybe the uber-white-and-western-good-rulers vs the thief who has a big nose has some bad coding TM, but I don't think it's the only read. I also honestly hadn't thought about the visuals that hard, because I've encountered pixel art versions of Zelda stuff on pretty small screens previously and well, those have limited visuals.

If you're asking about this (fanart I believe by an unrelated artist that people had Opinions About on reddit) then yeah that particular drawing was Big Yikes and IMO, intentional or not (artist did release a pretty detailed apology postfact), did emphasize the most problematic/antisemitic/caricature bits of the character.

Re: intention in the original character: given that Zelda originally came out in' 80s (and Ganandorf was introduced in the '90s?) and was produced by a Japanese company (i.e. with designers not from a culture that has historically had interaction with or oppressed Jews pre-WW2), I'm inclined to believe it was more a case of "cool western fantasy elements" without necessarily interrogating their origin or coding or possible harmful impacts. If I had to hazard a guess, I don't think that Japanese designers in the '80s and '90s had any considerations for Jews (so.much.kabbalah.appropriated.in.anime.but.discuss.another.time), much less intentions to create antisemitic caricatures or necessarily even awareness that it could be read as such.

As is increasingly (and delightfully) the case with my asks, this is very much my personal opinion territory, and I'd love to hear what other Jews have to say

#jumblr #other jews who are more gamer-y than me I'd love to hear from y'all

[kendrixtermina]

Edelgard and “meritocracy” - an essay

In this essay I wish to adress the common argument that “meritocracy bad, therefore edelgard bad” & the logical leaps therein.

Before we begin, I’d like to stress that she doesn’t even use the word “meritocracy” & they’re not even looking at it’s modern definition but reacting to the way it has been used as a fighting word to denigrate the poor specificically in the post reagan modern USA & then assuming Edelgard means the exact same thing by that without bothering to examine what she actually says & in what context.

Modern capitalism & the way it uses rhetoric of merit as an excuse is bad & with its reduction of human value to their moneymaking ability, definitely inherently ableist, I agree totally.

But 3H does NOT take place in the modern world. Progress is always relative to what came before. It*s progress away from entrenched problems.

It’s a total failure to even imagine a world different from the sucky one we live in - that’s exactly what tolkien meant  by that saying that if we’re prisoners we have a duty to escape.

Edelgard doesn’t live in a capitalist society nor is she bringing about capitalism (if anything Claude’s the one talking of free trade & giving the merchants what they want, though he is almost certainly playing them much like the church)

And the main component of capitalism - factory owners, rich elites who owns large swathes of companies or real estate - is nowhere to be found.

In our world that cropped up because industrialization made owning factories, offices, trade etc. more lucrative that just owning the land, so factory owners replaced landed lords, essentially promising the peasants freedom if they helped them overthrow the kings but granting them only in a limited manner - the flawed inequal democracies that resulted were a compromise between peasants and factory owners.

But by and large the nobles are very much in the same niche as the factory owners today - they own the land and get special trade privileges (the means of production), they often abuse the populace with impunity, the peasants are very poor.

Edelgard cracks down on corruption & special trade privileges even during the timeskip.

And like the rich of our world, they have a self-mythology propaganda justification based on merit. Yes, there is the “by the grace of god” argument, too, but crests give you extra fighting power, and if you look at the Ferdinand support for example you do see that Fodlan’s nobles - especially the adrestian ones - see themselves as a honed elite that is trained from birth & therefore better at ruling.

Not quite the same argument a modern billionaire uses - who is very invested in convincing you that they didn’t get their power and wealth by their birth - but a myth nonetheless.

Edelgard’s not bringing “meritocracy” as in brutal competition opposed to caring social safety nets, but as opposed to unearned privilege.

If you wanted to compare that to any kind of sociohistorical context, you might look at Napoleon’s peasant liberation or the implementation of civil service examinations in ancient China.

That wasn’t an all good thing - In the same way that Europe is very impacted by the legacy of rome both good & bad (there are persisting bad attitudes toward war, authority and agriculture for example), east asia still has a lot of education obsession causing pressure & unhealthy work habits to this day.

But if you compared ancient china before the reforms to ancient China after it definitely got better, by ancient china standards.

We couldn’t expect the people back then to come up with all advances up to our exact modern values at once (not can we be sure how much of our values will stand the test of time)

Considering that Fodlan’s ideal of merit is basically what Lorenz, Ingrid and Ferdinand are embodying for their respective countries, and that she stocks her inner circle with very different leaders, it is no stretch to say that she wants to shake up the social ideas of what even counts as merit, to make ppl value other things that crest power or elite upbringing, the same way we might say today that hey, cleaners are valuable actually.

Edelgard is basically doing her world’s equivalent of taxing the billionaires - reducing the power of what the overprivilieged class happens to be, & it’s obvious from her talk of how she despises inequality that she would hardly be for rule of factory owners.

When Edelgard says that she wants to make Fodlan more merit-based, that has to be taken in the context that she lives in a world where your birth determines everything, incompetent nobles can be as lazy as they want, and no one cares how competent you are if you lack a crest, title or both.

If she looked at our world, she would quickly see through the propaganda that it is supposedly “merit based” and object to how wealth and national origin obviously dictate wealth & opportunity while talented people go to waste in sweatshops.

Now of course there have been arguments even against “perfect” meritocracy - one is the devaluation of working class jobs.

To this one could answer that this is more a flaw in how merit is conceived. Historically there have been societies that exahlted blue collar work, artisans or farming.

The second argument, however, is not so easy to get rid of: That is devalues people who can’t just go & produce like machines, especially the unemployed, the sick, the mentally ill, the disabled…

But at this point we’ve got to lean back & get our definitions straight, & make it clear what we even mean by “meritocracy” -

Because if we’re just talking about the basic idea that competency should be rewarded, I don’t think too many people disagree with that. We might see a problem with valueing the competency of a doctor or lawyers dispropottionally over the competency of a cleaner or a bricklayer, but we all, by and large, want the people who prepare our goods and services to be competent. Maybe we wouldn’t exalt it over all over qualities, but most of us admire skill.

Of course the problem with the political rhetoric of “meritocracy” is that it goes beyond just rewarding skill, first with the afore mentioned rewarding of only some skills, but mostly with the reversion or overemphasis of the above: Saying that skill is the only thing that matters (to the exclusion of any inheent human value) & that those who don’t have it are worthless.

First I want to throw out the thought that this is a product of the production/profit orientation of capitalism, but one could of course imagine, as many sci fi authors have done, a non-capitalistic society that is still obsessed with merit at the exclusion of those who are not oriented towards productivity & care more about fun & relationships than producing, or those who can’t produce because they are sick or disabled.

So now we must ask ourselves the question: Which of those views does Edelgard actually hold?

Cause I want you to notice that they’re not the same. “Skill should be rewarded & jobs should be done by competent people”  is not the same position as “Skill is the ONLY thing that matters and if you don’t have it you are worthless”

In one position, skill is a good quality, in the other, it's a prerequisite to worth.

Most of us here probably agree that skill is admirable (we like and reblog pretty fanarts), but not that the unskilled are worthless.

Looking at her superficially I could perhaps see how someone might suspect her of the latter -  She gravitates to & surrounds herself with skilled intelligent people and she’s obscenely superpowered.

It’s an misunderstanding that Dimitri makes in-universe, he accuses her of “only benefitting the strong”

But note that her answer to that is that she wants to empower the weak to no longer be weak & decide their own lives, instead of accepting charity. (Contrast with how Dimitri romanticizes abyss, for example, even as Claude points out that locking the poor underground is hardly help.)

Of course she can say many things, as rulers often give florid speeches.

But let’s have a look at what she actually thinks. How does edelgard actually act towards people who struggle or aren’t productivity oriented?

This is one of her lecture questions from part I:

“When one professor lectures many students, some will inevitably have trouble keeping up, while others will get too far ahead in their studies. I wonder how this problem might be solved…”

Her favorite answer is “lectures should be optional”.

Which part of that sounds like a bell curve type eugenicist “only skill & intelligence counts” kind of person? She wants the struggling students to be taken proper care of, not just the good ones.

Look at the speeches she gives to Petra & Lysithea about not giving up on themselves & wanting them to move forward from an empowered mindset. Look at how she tells Lysithea to take it easy & not overtax her body. (Not "don't whine & keep working")

Look at Bernadetta - very much an ‘unproductive’ individual with great struggles & limitation. Does Edelgard dismiss her as a weakling? Not at all. Not even in the C support. She makes sure to stress her good qualities when introducing  her, makes an effort to be more patient so as not to scare her, & they become good friends.

Look at the Linhardt support - at first she mistakes his behavior for youthful lazyness (He’s 16 after all) & wants to get him to apply himself, but when she realizes that he just has different priorities, she respects that, & works to get him the exact sort of position that he wants. No “suck it up!” or dismissing such a different lifestyle. Nor does she chide him for hating fighting at any point.

Edelgard does everything in her power to accomodate people so they can do their best. She sees the value even in strange unsocial people that society would dismiss. She found a job for someone like Jeritza & helped him, she doesn’t hesitate to make Dorothea a general or Manuela the prime minister no matter what people say or if they don’t act like typical politicians.

Also, when she talks about choosing her sucessor, she wants them to be brilliant/competent yes, but also kind and 'an outsider' (ie, impartial) - hardly a PoV of "if you are skilled you can do whatever you want and if you aren't no other quality matters". She's prizing kindness & objectivity just as highly, something which is absolutely reflected throughout all her actions & behaviors towards others.

She doesn't devalue living quietly & low key without making waves - in fact, that is her dream life, which she deems superior to achievement and ambition, which are to her just tools to archieve good aims.

She couldn’t be further from having a narrow definition of what a “valuable” person is, she is all ABOUT empowering people to take control of their own lives, no pity-driven charity, no paternalism, none of that. This is one of my favorite traits about her, so I can’t help but get mad when people accuse her of being the exact opposite.

But maybe the biggest argument is abyss. This is where the genuine underclass lives, poor, struggling, traumatized, refugees etc.

Edelgard isn’t as vocal during Cindered Shadows as Claude - she can’t blow her cover & just isn’t as expressive personality wise. But she’s the one who makes everybody swear to take care of Abyss no matter who wins.

And her route is the one where, instead of telling you that they lost people, Hapi tells you that they’ve all been pretty much fine over the timeskip.

If you want to help the struggling & the poor and those who don't have "conventional" skills, you should back edelgard.

#edelgard #edelgard von hresvelg #three houses #fire emblem: three houses #fire emblem three houses #fe3h

[iturbide]

Oh! That is a fun ask list. Can I ask 19, 20, and 27 please?

Guess who forgot about their inbox for a while it was me whoops

19. You get to make one more DLC for Awakening. What do you make?

I mean, me personally? Knowing how big I am on Grima backstory and also political intrigue? I'd...kind of want to see a DLC where Ylisse and the new Plegian government are actually working on establishing good, fair terms and becoming friendly, to the point that Ylisse has been invited into Plegia to get a better understanding of their history and culture -- something that we never got to see in the main game, and therefore something we desperately need to humanize these people more. Missions could be focused on addressing any Risen holdouts as they make their way through several important Plegian historical sites, and various spots on those maps could be interacted with to learn more about the nation, its origins, and its roots, going back through time from most recent in the first battle to most ancient in the last.

If it sticks to a three-chapter structure like Future Past, it could always start with a memorial to those lost in the crusade waged by Chrom's father, then move to the history of Grima's fall, and finally to Grima's earliest origins at Thabes Labyrinth (making it a subtle nod to Echoes, as well), thereby painting a more nuanced picture of both Plegia and Grima, showing the Fell Dragon as a protector who was mistreated and lost to despair before they lost their life (and that's just going with the Heroes read, imagine if the conspiracy theory snuck in) and the nation they fostered as a place struggling to survive in the face of harsh natural conditions and hatred from beyond its borders.

20. What do you feel is underappreciated about Awakening?

I don't know if this counts or not, but I feel like Robin being Plegian isn't appreciated enough. Beyond the fact that most of the Plegians we encounter are bizarrely pale (exceptions being Validar and Aversa, who are coded as evil and we don't have time to unpack how shitty that is), I've seen a significant amount of fanart that puts Robin in more Ylissean-style clothes, effectively erasing their heritage (and implicitly vilifying that part of themselves, given how they're removing any visible trace of it). I just feel like people don't appreciate that Robin is not a good person despite being Plegian: they're just a good person, and their Plegian heritage doesn't impact that in any way because a person's ancestry is not a mark of character.

27. A big change you'd make to Awakening:

Where do I start. If I had to pick anything to start with...I'd probably have to go with Gangrel. I've talked before about how weak his canon backstory feels to me, and I really think that a re-write of that part of his character -- and moreover an adjustment to bring aspects of it to the forefront in ways that force the Ylissean characters to confront that history in ways the game doesn't presently address -- would be a great benefit to the story, showing that the first conflict in the game is one firmly rooted in the unaddressed horrors of the past, and that by trying to leave them there without doing the work to put them to rest Emmeryn has effectively caused the present unrest. She meant well, it's true -- but her inaction is what gave Gangrel the foothold he needed to start a new conflict.

Awakening Ask Game

#answered #alerawolf #ask game #fire emblem: awakening #i've been doing a lot with the 'emmeryn made mistakes' thing #but i really do think it needs to be addressed #she is absolutely a wonderful and radiant exalt don't get me wrong #i love her with all my heart #but boy did she fuck up with plegia #and yes my grima bias is showing through again #also no offense to anyone that likes to draw robin in ylissean clothes #i just personally find it uncomfortable #i would love to see more of chrom in plegian clothes #but that's something i never get to see from fandom #gotta do everything myself #too bad i haven't felt like drawing much lately

[lunaescribe]

The split of media reception

So, I made some Media Reception commentary awhile back, here which took off, and I've been thinking a lot since then like how these differing receptions of media amongst the internet crowd of recent years seems to create these intense fractures and in-fighting.

It's something I started to notice distinctly in the kind fics or fanart that tends to blow up and seem to be looked on with a general 'respectability' vs general sense of what many refer to as 'cringe'.

Now this is more a spectrum than a binary, but fan reception, especially in fandom spaces seem to fall along two categories:

Thematic Reception or Personal Reception.

'Thematic Reception' seems to lend itself to the kind of academic-like analysis I mentioned in my last media post. People who make fanart, fanfics, head-canons, etc, based on the themes of the text. Their work seems to draw on elements they found within the story itself-maybe it's a one-liner a character made they expand on-or themes that mirror real world events like an on-going war, or type of event they can't show beyond censors. Maybe it's from research of the story's setting, historical events, or the author's meta commentary. Essentially, it comments on something all the audience of the media could reasonably pick up on-and expands on it-sometimes in more surreal or realistic, or tonally matching ways or another. These are the kind of fan-creations and discourse which seem to pick up steam most likely because they're universally relatable.

'Personal Reception' seems to lend itself to the audience finding themselves in the work, and their creations are often based on shifting the work through a lens of their personal experiences. Granted-even in a Thematic reception, there will be an element of one's personal experience based on what stands out to us the most-however I would argue a personal reception often times is willing to make more wide leaps in interpretations or-ignore canon entirely to apply their personal vision. You see this often times with people adding their own sexualities, personalities, mental struggles, etc onto characters-even if the text itself doesn't provide much foundation or subtext to suggest it's likely hood. Now not always-but of the two categories, these kind of works are the ones that seem to become memes online like this and put bad tastes in peoples' mind regarding fandom. While not always the case-it seems to be when a person's personal reception of a work and/or character causes them to overlook the original themes of the work in ways so contradictory to the original impact-it looses meaning to anyone else except the fan posing the theory/fanwork.

I had a great professor in college who said all good work has to be a combination of universal and personal. It's really hard how a lot of fandom spaces have become when every interpretation of media-even when it's coming from a place of "Personal Reception" is held up like it's supposed to be taken just as validly as something responding thematically to a work. When something is coming through shifting it through your own lens of identity or relatability, it is inevitably going to potentially loose some of its original themes-themes that the original audience gravitated to. I think that's where a lot of fandom/media receptions fracture-when those interested in thematic reception clash with those enjoying personal reception-and those with personal reception fail to see their vision is no longer part of universal themes-but now something very intimate and personal to them.

That isn't to say personal receptions are automatically inferior to thematic ones. I studied Shakespeare, sometimes the most intriguing interpretations of shows came when plays were set in setting ABSOLUTELY nothing like the original, or characters were cast in ways clearly having nothing to do with Shakespeare original intention. I.E. The Merchant of Venice set in a Las Vegas Casino. Granted, there is still some thematic reception involved in that choice-in SOME degree which is probably what still made it so appealing to an audience.

All this to say-even though Tolkein never fathomed there would be a novela out there of his elves running a coffee shop-doesn't mean it's a worthless endeavor. Another thing I was told in college is 'know who your art is going to be for'.

If you're aiming for a very small niche who shares your identity, or comforts, or so on-they'll probably really vibe with and appreciate your very personal take on a work! If you're looking to make a fandom/wide audience splash, inevitably you're going to have to align with the original themes of the work in strong ways to cast a wide net. And at the end of the day your HCs, art, writing, etc...can be just for you too. Maybe no one else will understand it in your lens but that's okay. Sometimes we get so lost in having our own reception of works validated we forget the author's intent was usually for us as individuals to have a personal relationship to their work-not be forced to have a collective response.

All this said-if we could learn we shouldn't expect a wide audience to accept or widely share our very personal receptions, I think a lot of people would have a far better time in fandom spaces. Or play nice and let people have fun in their own corner if their reception is very personal and just for them-and if others happen to enjoy it-good for them!

But the next time you enter a space to discuss or share media-ask yourself which experience you're looking for may lead to a lot less in-fighting and help you find others looking for a similar discussion as yourself. There's a joy to analyzing the context of art in the world and its meaning to us. And there is a joy to dissecting art and making it ours. We just need to know the difference-and not try to force one to come to the other-and know if we're doing something for ourselves personally, then the only people we should expect-and really need validation from-is ourselves.

#art #fandom #literary analysis #my thoughts #my writing #tumblr #fanfic #fanart

[rivetingribbons]

✒️Writing Tips✒️

Here are some quick writing tips for you :>

Get a notebook, then write as many ideas as possible for your story in said notebook. It doesn t have to be neat, and once your done it never has to see the light of day again

Now get a stuffed animal, this will be your plot plushie. The plot plushie will sit next to you while your writing, and when you get stuck on a certain part of the story, you can stop to explain it to the plushie. Once you finally piece together the obvious answer, feel free to take your rage out on the plushie.

when writing don t listen to music with words, listen to lo fi or white noise. I normally listen to ambient mixer (its a website) or just some spooky lo fi.

Practice

You can save up that really big project you want to do once you get more skill, no ones shaming you for that.

Fanfics are a great way to practice, whether they re one shots or not. Its also a quick way to get an audience from that genre, though most will only what to see your fanart.

its okay to be inspired by a show you like. Make sure you aren t so inspired that you make a rip off of said show though.

If your going to write, you might as well read books to get inspiration for your writing.

Take. Good. And. Useful. Criticism. Only. You need to develop that skill if your going to do anything in this field.

Fanfics are also considered fiction too, your just as much as a writer if you write marvel fanfics compared to someone who writes high stakes romance novels.

Take. Breaks. When. You. Need. To. Take. Breaks.

Drink water when your writing. No inherient reason, just drink some water.

Grammarly is free. (Well, you need to pay a fee to get the lil bonus features, buuuut for general mistakes grammarly is free)

Speaking of apps, speechify is free. It reads your text to you. Or instead you can use google translate or any other text to speech app.

If your starting to think your writings predictable your wrong. Because you ve been reading it for the past five hours of course its predictable to you. If you seriously think you have this problem let someone else review your work and get their opinion on it.

Take some stretch breaks. Often.

Don t let mean comments hurt you. In fact don t even read the comments if your so sensitive to those things. Unless they re telling you to kill yourself or being racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic/extremely extremely bigotted (don t use that term so loosely, because fatphobia don t really exist. Yes there are healthy fat people, but theres a limit. When your so fat you can t sit in a armchair without being squashed thats a you problem.) then the report button is right there sweetie. And its free.

Don t use all of your research when your writing fictional stuff. For example, if your writing about a character with DID (dissociative identity disorder) then try to explain it in non-scientific terms, like how a normal person would try to describe it to another normal person, especially through dialouge.

On the flip side ACTUALLY RESEARCH THE TOPICS YOUR WRITING ABOUT. Especially if it involves mental health, diseases, any actual real life things, races, historical time periods (if your story takes place in a different time period, or they time travel) or anything else i m forgetting. Research is EXTREMELY important. If your writing about going to a japanese school and your in america, those school systems are VERY different. For example the infamous sailor uniform in japanese schools is mostly used for middle schoolers, and the school lunch in japan is cooked by the students and looks so much better than american school lunches. And i think 99% of the time they re free (don t quote me on that, i forgot exactly if they are or not.)

Instead of avoiding stereotypes, add your own twist to them. For example, instead of the pretty dumb popular girl, it can be an ugly nerd girl whos popular because she thinks she the smartest person in school. Or if we re writing a thriller or mystery novel instead of the quiet kid being the killer PICK LITERALLY ANYONE ELSE.

You don t have to make the reader LIKE the villians actions, just make them somewhat understandable.

Wanna make that death scene more impactful? Make a toddler (about 4-8) try to wake up the dead persons corpse (see full metal alchemists matt huges death scene, where he s getting buried. NOT BROTHERHOOD.) You can make the kid say things like "[name here], your leaking?!" or "WAKE UP PLEASE?! YOU PROMISED MOMMY YOU D COME BACK?!" Or anything to make the toughest readers cry like babies.

No more basic white dudes with no personality for main characters please? Make the main character at least a little likeable.

See those big boobie anime characters? No more of that shit unless your gonna make their ass complain about back pain.

When writing about deja vu write that crap twice but slightly different. Like slightly different wording or something

Be unique!

Don t worry about numbers.

have fun!

#writing #writing advice #writing tips #writing tricks #tips

[tossawary]

(LMY anon) Ahh I just saw your character notes for LMY. Thank you, that's very helpful! You're right that it feels insulting to LQQ to make LMY too emotionally intelligent, esp considering we have canonical evidence that she's also a weirdo. Even if it's a non-transmigrator AU, I feel like the only way I can even begin to understand her character is through the lens of a fangirl. The concept of writing RPF for a teacher+an ex-classmate who actually tried to end the world is a new level for me

I don’t even understand or like RPF on the normal level, personally. I mean, RPF fans, you do you! I vaguely comprehend the concept of treating celebrities presented/public personalities as characters, but I’m not personally comfortable with it. So that was one of my biggest obstacles when writing Liu Mingyan, like... this woman is in-a-different-universe-to-me-brained. 

This was more or less my thought process, like, how I personally worked out better understanding Liu Mingyan’s situation: 

(TL;DR: It’s easier to think of Liu Mingyan as a bard.) 

So that was one of my biggest obstacles when writing Liu Mingyan, like... this woman is in-a-different-universe-to-me-brained.

But, at the same time, I don’t get the same squick with fiction surrounding historical figures. I mean, I do sometimes, but the distance of time makes it easier. I’m also fine (most of the time) with stories inspired by a true story. A lot of fiction is based on real events! Authors draw from real life! I don’t really watch Hollywood movies based on modern events and human interest stories which go viral, but they’re definitely a thing and they’re basically RPF. People like Real Person Fiction and Real Person Non-Fiction. 

And, like, okay, this world doesn’t have the same overwhelming variety of content that our modern world has. Unclear on whether or not there’s widespread literacy or printing presses, but it sounds like most stories are going to come from storytellers and singers and other performers. Many of these performances are going to draw on historical and recent events, especially because it’s unclear how news might be otherwise spread. Look at what a huge industry just plain gossip is in our modern world! People need to be entertained and singing for your supper is an okay gig. 

I need to stop thinking in terms of Modern RPF as I know it on AO3 and start thinking more in terms of bards.* Liu Mingyan is perhaps more like an artist meeting a journalist (or a publicist or a historian) than a modern fanfiction writer. Or like any playwright writing an embellished history for a ruler (except she did it on her own). Is a bard or storyteller hired to write something putting history in a specific light not essentially a historical paid publicist? 

Except Liu Mingyan is doing it for her own benefit. And I would still personally call it fanfiction even if in this case it’s a for-profit adaptation. 

*(I should probably better research Chinese historical forms of performance and spreading news, but SVSSS allows me to be lazy and hand-wavey about it. Thanks, Airplane.) 

So, for me, I’m picturing Liu Mingyan and her friends are just a step to the left of historical reenactment meeting gossip meeting music/poetry/songwriting practice that got really out of hand. Friends can be terrible enablers sometimes, right? Then, bam! Real Person Fiction that people found compelling and spread like wildfire. All of the people involves are celebrities / political figures whose movements matter to the common people, and they don’t have news sites or social media sites for Keepin’ Up with the Cultivators. 

I mean, it’s funny to think about it in terms of RPF and fanfiction as we know it, so I absolutely do. I think she’s a bit of a fangirl, yes! I relate to that! (But am I reducing her to “just a Modern BL fangirl” because she’s a woman writing romance and I’m looking at it from a modern fanfic author’s lens and not taking the situational context into account? She’s a BL fangirl with potentially significant societal impact. She’s not out of place in the world she lives in.) 

Adaptation is pervasive throughout society and goes beyond fanfiction and fanart as we know it in what we call “Fandom”. Journalism is arguably non-fiction adaptation! Historians adapt the world around them to record it for future generations. Music can be an adaptation of people’s life’s experiences! People put on plays about other people’s stories they’ve witnessed. There are places in the world (our world) were the line between fiction and non-fiction blurs. And truly being objective is impossible when people’s creations are filtered through the lens of their own perspective, whether they’re writing a news article or a novel. So, like, there are types of adaptational fiction that society is willing to slap a “official” label on and this is one of those cases. 

I mean, it’s still weird behavior in my eyes! It’s invasive! Liu Mingyan didn’t do this as journalist or a historian; she did this for her own entertainment and maybe for any potential money, and I would still totally call it fanfiction. Shen Yuan is reasonably mortified that someone has made something of his life! And misinformation can be extremely damaging to someone’s personal life and dangerous politically and I don’t know if she took that into account!  

But, yeah. Liu Mingyan = on a similar boat to Jaskier from The Witcher. (Who is, I say affectionately, also a weirdo and could be called a fanboy.) Except she’s also a bit more repressed like Liu Qingge. It’s easier for me personally to understand the RPF angle if I attempt to understand the potential for RPF as it exists in her world, not as it exists in mine. 

#tossawary svsss #ask tossawary #liu mingyan #svsss

[seoafin]

BYE I WAS IMMERSED WITH GENSHIN’s STORY PLOT (AND THE FANARTS ON MY TL) WHICH WAS ALSO DROPPED EARLIER THIS MORNING AND FORGOT ABT JJK FOR A SPLIT SEVONDSJJSJEJ

but anyways ,, jjk 145// the more i write abt it, the more i’ll sound incoherent, this is ur last warning to ignore this 🧍‍♂️(1)

the one who is based on avalokitesvara (i’ll start calling it them as kannon from now) that i mentioned was actually brain (out of ppl) 😭😭

kenjaku (羂索) is shorten from "不空羂索観音 (fukukenjakukannon)" ,, they existed b4 the heian period... older then sukuna ?? suggested that brain is at least 1k years old... hsjsjjsjs

fukukenjakukannon, a manifestation of the buddhist god of mercy and compassion,, perhaps of some interest is that the fukukenjaku shares some kanji with gojou's infinite void followed by kanjis for trap & rope, with kannon directly referring to an all-knowing/overseeing divine existence. it rly does seem that kenjaku, tengen, and gojou's fates have all been strongly interwined throughout history,, kannon has been perceived as both male and female depending on the portrayal and the region, not unlike jjk's kenjaku switching bodies and genders over the course of time (kamo vs kaori vs getou)

some associations with kannon may be relevant to jjk. namely, as yuki mentions, salvation ,, kannon is a deity to serve his subjects, and resolve their suffering by eliminating its source,,, in which case, i think kenjaku's goal may possibly not be too far off from geto’s ,,,,, he may think that he is saving a group that is enduring greater suffering than any other. whether that is shamans, cursed spirits, or sth else entirely is up for debate. given his persistence over the millenia, and the likelihood of spreading suffering worldwide through a universal tengen merger, it's more than likely that he has a very personal motive. note that under his plan it is specifically the evil of a human that would spread and destroy all of humankind connected through tengen

this is an interesting contrast to sukuna, who is much more whimsical and far less calculated. i think the clash between these 2 in the past will have strong relevance for the future,,, on the other hand, since kannon has historically manifested in response to the suffering of various beings, it may be that the feelings of cursed spirits as a whole have led to kenjaku's existence. he could very well be a curse born from curses, instead of from humans.

okay now what i'm really excited abt: the relationship between kenjaku and the 6 eyes. 1 of the functions of kannon is to protect the 6 realms of rebirth/the 6 paths. u may already be familiar with this buddhist concept as it has been referenced in a variety of animanga (notably it is a major plot point of naruto, it's mukuro's ability in KHR, etc.). there's strong reason to believe this concept also has connections to the gojou 6 eyes ability. i think if we get to learn more abt the 6 eyes, i may be able to speak more on this point.

(as a side note here, i’ll mention that there’s an association between kannon and the protection of aborted children, perhaps relating to og kamo and the death paintings)

at the very least, we know that kenjaku and the 6 eyes are in opposition, and i'm speculating that the gojou bloodline is the true manifestation of a protective deity, at least for the humans, and kenjaku's goals are antithetical to that,,, perhaps, as yuki kind of suggested, taking the name kenjaku is a joke of sorts. if sukuna is malevolence incarnate, kenjaku is mercilesness,,

i think some of the core concepts being explored by the tengen storyline are that of form and existence. gojou satoru, tengen, kenjaku, and eventually the star plasma vessels are existences that transcend the norm,,, toji on the other hand, is the only example of the opposite. an existence that shouldn't have ever existed, in a sense. kenjaku seemed to have used that to his advantage in his manipulation of the events in hidden inventory,,, but it also leads me to believe that only a similar anomaly could undo the new destiny he's setting up for himself.

geto was the perfect piece to set kenjaku up for success in conducting a merger and putting this culling game into motion. geto's path has led to this outcome,,, in which case, an apt parallel as we have known all along is that gojou's path should lead to the counter-outcome: megumi, yuuta, and especially yuuji— these 3 will be the key to unravelling kenjaku's plan.

also tengen said that kenjaku’s objective is to send all the ppl in jpn to higan or turning all non shamans into one but he doesnt have enough cursed energy to do that,,, i did say that yuuji’s birthday took place in the 4th solar term where a part of a week long celebration haru no higan (higan 彼岸→other shore, buddhist pārāmitā), when ppl would honour the dead and sweep ancestral tombs took place,,,

so theres this buddhist mantra, called the “heart sutra” and the last verse of the sutra is,,

there are many sutras in buddhism, but the most well-known among them is probably the Heart Sutra,, altho it depends on the sect (of buddhism), the heart sutra is often read at funerals and memorial services, so even if,, and for some reason the sutra is often associated to kannon even in the utube thumbnail 👁👁 if u search up prajnaparamita sutra,,

heart sutra has the meaning of "an important teaching to reach the state of enlightenment by the power to see through the truth and essence." which is based on the idea of ​​"void" as this important teaching,, the sutra tells us what we shld do to be free from the suffering of this world and live in peace,, in the heart sutra, the idea of ​​"void" is especially important.

buddhism can be broadly divided into theravada and mahayana buddhism,,,,

theravada is a teaching that only some ppl (those who practice buddhism with strict lifestyle like the monks) reach the state of enlightenment, while mahayana is a teaching that all ppl (some who practice Buddhism) can reach enlightment even if u dont practice anything related to the religion,,, the idea of ​​the void has the idea of ​​not being caught up in individual things and not being obsessed with it, and the idea of ​​heart sutra belongs to the category of mahayana buddhism

"void" does not mean "empty" but "no substance (no fixed shape)". the sutra also states that "everything keeps changing" and "although it keeps changing, the essence (core) of things remains the same."

for eg, the idea is, "i am me, no matter how old i am,, my appearance and various abilities deteriorate, how I am evaluated by others, whether i feel good or bad."

in other words,,, it’s a teaching to be aware of the essence without being caught up in the phenomenon of change.

"void" means "no substance (no fixed shape)", which means that u don't have to be obsessed with things or get caught up in one value.

eg, the reason why diamonds are beautiful is that diamonds arent beautiful from the beginning, but that humans decide that they’re beautiful,,, and that each person has a fixed evaluation of the movement of their hearts that they feel is beautiful. but thats not always the case right?

the last verse goes like this :

“Therefore, Prajna Paramita is known as the most divine mantra,

the great enlightening mantra,

the utmost mantra,

the incomparable mantra,

destroyer of all suffering!

Since what is true is not in vain, listen to the mantra of the Prajna Paramita– it goes like this:

GATE GATE PARA GATE PARASAM GATE BODHI SVAHA!”

the translation of the last line is: “going, going, going on beyond, always going on beyond, always becoming buddha.”

quoted from a web here : “it suggests movement toward awakening. It expresses the enlightenment of a buddha as an unfolding process, rather than a steady state. It puts us in the hopeful position of one who may not have arrived, but who may be on the way. The destination may not be an end, but the journey itself.

As appealing as this translation is, it is by no means the only one. When you do an Internet search for the terms “Heart Sutra” or “Prajna Paramita” you get numerous references. At these various pages you will find several different translations of the mantra. These include:

* Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond. Oh what an awakening! All hail!

* Gone, gone, gone beyond altogether beyond, Awakening, fulfilled!

* Gone, gone, gone to the Other Shore, attained the Other Shore having never left.

* Gone, gone, totally gone, totally completely gone, enlightened, so be it.

* “Oh, you have done! You have done! You have completely crossed the margin. This is Enlightenment! Congratulations!” “

the irony though of toji dying thinking that he should've stuck his principles but actually having ridiculous impact on the world,, this also puts a new spin on the "look upon the flesh of one who is free" (afaik it was left untranslated on his cover page when he invade dagon’s domain) and the implication is imo,,, the more cursed energy, the more restrictions and so in a way humanity goes into a devolution the more cursed energy there is because they will be bound even more tightly to the cycle than before,, which is the irony of the kenjaku & bodhisattva linkage

toji had a heavenly restriction and has zero cursed energy, which is an anomaly that is his own, which makes me wonder what he would've been like if he had an expressed technique,,, but it's the zero cursed energy part, that uniqueness, that makes him powerful in canon

im rly curious how having cursed power automatically seems to lock u into a binding,,, which is seemingly fate. the shaman world rly operates entirely on rules,, where this is because of tengen's barriers or the origin of techniques being more commonplace im not sure

i used to think CTs came abt when individual sorcerers made pacts with supernatural beings etc but now im not sure,, despite leaning hard on shinto and buddhist frameworks there isnt much overt indication over what is and is not a real power in canon,,, like we have mahoraga but are bodhisattvas assumed to be real and exist? or as figures of belief, are they and other figures of shinto mythology, all just cursed spirits in the end?

but that tengen is linked with the proliferation of 6 eyes and star plasma vessel, makes me start wondering how and why tengen started this whole barrier thing,, like yes jpn has a ton of cursed spirits but was it before or after the barrier i can't remember now

maybe Kenjaku was messing around too much back then,, i like how sukuna also maybe had very lil to do with this and is possibly going to interfere as a wild card once more. is the idea to use him as a hail mary so u convey more ppl to the other side all at once? unless kenjaku thinks sukuna is the person who got closest to the next evolution of humankind and is actually a fan 🥴

but yeah if sukuna and megumi can remake the world together can they just hit the reset button so tengen isn't somehow this massive jungian collective unconscious? is sukuna going to accidentally save the world lol,,, i didn't care for fate themes before since it felt like akutami hadn't wholly committed to it as a theme,,, but fate and collective responsibility/influence on the individual just became a much bigger theme

also the mind/body/soul thing with tengen,,, when is that idea coming back

so tengen and sukuna are so far the only ppl who have said to have evolved into curses, whereas kenjaku still seems to be a shaman, as well as angel. what catalyzes that??

also how tf are the cursed weapons made i have questions,, just putting it out here but i actually thought that if toji, presumably, didnt rebel and defected from the clan,,, what are the chances of zenin thinking of turning him into a cursed weapon lol

,,, does being a cursed spirit mean u are bound even more tightly to fate? or do u escape because u are no longer a human bound by ur technique and u are instead just energy that keeps cycling over and over.....cursed energy rly just karma with strength mechanics???

why did gojou get rid of the black rope only for yuuta go to find more??? seems contradictory,, like...did he exorcise sth in that couple years gap?? or were there other reasons? or is HE the one scared since he also hid the inverted spear of heaven,,, makes me wonder how common knowledge all these mechanics actually are

trying to wrap my head around potential megumi learned helplessness or not being able to work through his own problems, or if it's this weird backward wishing that he didn't HAVE to deal with problems if he didn't HAVE to do these things and there were simple solutions,,, like i don't think he's exactly lazy bc he seems to do a lot of work behind the scenes, but there's a certain stasis to him, a wishing not to know. i wonder if he was ever given the "u are a child and I'm the adult" speech nanami gave yuuji

nanami, qifrey and maybe reigen are the adult/ mentor figures i wish was/ is in my life orz

i think it's kind of funny how 145 is like suddenly christianity! this manga is just abt the many ways people seek freedom and want to be delivered,,,

but im not going to talk abt it 😔 — i only have lil to no knowledge abt it other than the lil trivias my friends dropped time to time whenever we’re having a discourse abt religion suddenly lmao and im not a big fan of talking abt things idk abt bc i’ll just look stupid otherwise LMAO

its interesting to note that christian have this uh for a lack of better way to describe it, higher power which can grant u eternal salvation or damnation while buddhism is just fending for urself in pursuit of enlightment ,,, while buddhism also have beings like devas/ deities it just means that 1) if ur born as one, u must have done a good deed sometime in one of ur previous lives,, 2) u just have a ridiculous long life span but yes u’ll eventually die again and rebirth as sth depending on ur actions,,, that goes for living in gods, demi-gods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts or hells realms

this is completely unrelated but,, my mother used to blast the heart sutra frequently in my house back then and the only thing i catch is the “gate gate parasamgate bodhi svaha” which i used ,, whenever i see sth..that is supposed to be unseen

theres this time i stayed behind in cram school for an exam,, i purposely took a another path from my usual one to clear my head (but im still familiar) and i saw this guy standing on the side road and the only thing that went thru my mind back them was “why is he not moving? is he waiting for someone? is he lost or sth,, the main road is just 6 foot away tho lol”

it was until i keep looking at each house that i finally notice that the spot he stood on is not even a ground lvl asphalt,, it’s a fucking sewer which means that he’s actually floating 😭😭 i just jogged and say sth along the line “wow today, ma is cooking hotpot for dinner (i actually have no idea what she plans to cook everyday) i dont want to eat it cold,, so i better hurry up” out loud while chanting the verse in my head

theres also this time me and a friend were sitting on my motorcycle after getting our late night food run until a particular smell and when we stay silent, a woman is singing on the branch right above us that we dipped right away and i almost catch a ticket for speeding all the while thinking abt that verse💀

i dont mind seeing one of “them” but i do have a problem with them following me back home and end up haunting my house for some period of time,, that one or sth ghost who slam things around and giggle in the middle of the night is enough for me to deal with 😀

now im off crying abt genshin (again) now and i’ll go back to sleep afterwards,,, ALSO I LOVE WITCH HATE ATALIERJSJEJEJ- 🐱 (2)

you literally brought up THE SAME EXACT QUESTIONS I HAVE!!! like why would gojo send yuuta to find more of the rope if he destroyed it in the first place?? unless he destroyed it in the heat of the battle with miguel during the prequel but it didn’t look like that. also i saw on twitter kenjaku might not even be a male?? apparently when referring to kenjaku, tengen didn’t use gendered pronouns. im also super curious as to how the six eyes, star plasma vessel (riko...), tengen, and kenjaku are all entwined because kenjaku’s plan was a long time coming, even though he was foiled two times already.

this reminds me of the heavenly restrictions because im still so confused about what exactly it is!! is it something a person is born with or is it something that is placed on a baby by another person??

you brought up fate too and i think that’s such an interesting concept like with akutami making more and more references to the heian era and the “golden age of sorcery” in the end I feel like everything led up to this moment. the existence of cursed energy too just feels like this “endless cycle of fate” which makes sense considering this theme also kinda aligns with yuuji’s birth which was pre planned. idk...this whole thing is suddenly feeling so much more insidious than we may have originally thought.

the sudden christianity mention is a pretty odd choice on akutami’s part but a lot of ppl (including me) are speculating that hana is going to be a harbinger of doom or something. once again is she even japanese?? the western concept of angels have never been particularly altruistic either.

unfortunately gojo has always been treating megumi like an adult so i don’t think he was ever given the “you are a child” talk from gojo. we can see it in their first meeting too. when their conversation takes a turn to serious, it becomes a conversation is from one adult to another. gojo also seems like the type to pile even more responsibility onto megumi because gojo isn’t responsible, so megumi had to pick up that slack.

i agree with you. i think sukuna is literally a wild card LMAO he does what he wants when he wants and that’s in. i don’t even think you can have a contingency plan for sukuna because he’s just that unpredictable!!!

nanami, qifrey and MAYBE reigen LSDNFKJFKN....reigen beats gojo by far though so i’ll give reigen that (that's not saying much tho tbh 😭) reigen's still sexy as hell tho 😁

also you mentioned khr!! khr is one of my favorite mangas of all time....although amano akira cannot write women despite being one khr still holds a very special place in my heart. i had no idea mukuro was influenced by kannon (to be fair i was like 14) but then again...mukuro’s eyes....i can’t believe our tastes in animanga are the same....bestie our taste>>>

HELLO???? YOU’RE RUNNING INTO SUPERNATURAL CREATURES LIKE THAT??? also motorcycles!! now im like 80% sure you're in SEA somewhere, bc as someone who lived in a SEA country for 3 years and went to school in a haunted building I feel you LMAO

#as always....you truly never miss!!!! #and witch hat atelier is sooo good #i love qifrey....white haired anime man of my heart!!! #🐱 anon #all ur analyses are MWAH

[writers-stand-united]

Okay, so I found a dude who was trash talking fanfiction on r/tumblr.

Being a fanfic author myself, I could not take this stuff lying down (the comment has got two more downvotes since then, of posting), and so I told the clown:

As a fanfic author, I would like to inform you that it is difficult to write fanfic - more difficult than you think. Fanfic can be used to analyze the psychological impact of canon events on a character, give backstory to characters who don't have one (and that sometimes includes worldbuilding and a lot of research, depending on the backstory headcanon or even canon), etc. Historically accurate fanfiction takes months of research, if not more, to write, and I've seen a fanfic about as long as the entire 7-book Harry Potter series, and it's only one part of four installments. And don't even get started on original characters… I swear there are fanfics that are more well-written than some books that are published. Fanfiction is real fiction, and if you disagree, try getting into a fandom and reading some for yourself. There are endless possibilities to what a fanfic can be.

Also, some currently published books started out as fanfiction for another book - the Fifty Shades trilogy being one of them… and let us be honest here, wouldn't all those paintings and sculptures of religious figures, especially in Christianity, be just fanart? And The Divine Comedy would just also be Bible fanfiction starring a self-insert! As a matter of fact, on a technicality, all fiction books are just AUs and fanfics of Real Life!

And of course, someone downvoted my comment and that trash talker replied:

And then me again:

Sometimes the author is wrong. Sometimes, the fandom just wants to explore the possibilities of what a character can be, and some people project themselves on their favourite characters because they find them relatable. Are you trying to invalidate their experiences in a fandom just because you think fanfiction isn't valid?

Also, many fanfic writers are unable to publish their own works because their being a “minority” causes them to be discriminated against. And fanfiction is also a good starter point for budding writers to hone their skills and practise before they go out into the “real” world of writing. Are you really so narrow-minded so as to tell these writers, many of whom spend hours and hours writing and researching, that they are invalid? This is the reason why fanfiction is dying - they get so much negativity that they decide that pursuing their hobbies isn't worth it anymore, and not enough feedback to encourage content creators to keep up their work.

I'm quite sure that I could answer better, but for the love of God… part of me wants to rage, but I mostly just want to get on with the rest of my day without more extra drama.

And if you got to the end of this post… if you are following me and agree with the person whose comments I used screencap to record down, smash the unfollow button and block me as well. This is a pro-fanfiction blog and I do not take attacks on fandomkind from outsiders lying down.

I am not saying that all fanfiction is good. In fact, many of them are badly written. But would I be so much of a narrow-minded, conscienceless worm to hate on people for writing fanfiction? No.

Fanfic writers are valid. Prove me wrong.

#tw fanfiction hate #my post #me irl #10 july 2020 #writing #writers on tumblr #writeblr #fanfiction #writeblr community #fandoms #fandom #fanfic #fanfics #fanfiction writing #tw rant #writing rant #rant post #rant #source: reddit

[scifrey]

WORDS FOR WRITERS: The Value of Fanfiction

There’s been a lot of chatter on social media these last few weeks, recycling that trashy, self-aggrandizing, tired old “hot take” that reading and writing fanfiction is somehow bad for you as a writer.

Before we go any further, let me give a clear and definitive answer to this take:

No, reading and writing fanfiction will not make you and does not make you a bad reader or writer.

 Period.

 Why? Here’s the TL;DR version:

1)      Reading and Writing, any kind of reading and writing, will make you a better reader and writer. And it’s enjoyable, to boot.

2)      Fanfiction has been around as long as Original Fiction, so we’d know if there was any negative impact by now (spoiler alert: there isn’t.)

3)      Practice is Practice, so matter what medium you get that practice in.

4)      Comprehending and writing fanfiction is harder than writing original fiction because you have to hold the Source Media Text in your head at the same time as you’re reading/writing a different story. It improves your understanding of storytelling.

5)      No hobby, no matter what it is, so long as it doesn’t harm anyone else or yourself, is bad. And that goes double for if you decide to keep it a hobby. Not every fanfic writer wants to write original fiction, and that’s just fine. Not every hobby has to be monetized.

 Okay. But what do they mean by “fanfiction”?

 “Fanfiction is fictional writing written by fans, commonly of an existing work of fiction. The author uses copyrighted characters, settings, or other intellectual properties from the original creator as a basis for their writing.”-- Wikipedia

 Basically – it’s when you take elements (setting, characters, major themes or ideas) of a Media Text (a novel, a movie, a podcast, a comic, etc.) and create a different story with those elements. You can write a missing scene, or an extended episode, or a whole new adventure for the characters of the Media Text. You can even crossover or fuse multiple Media Texts, or specific elements, to create a whole new understanding of the characters or their worlds.

 Similar to fanfic, you can also create fanart, fancomics, or fansongs (“filk”), fancostumes (“cosplay”), and fanfilms. These are called Fanworks or Fancrafts.

 Fanfiction is usually posted to online forums, journals, blogs, or story archives and shared for free among the public. Before the advent of the internet, fanfiction was often printed or typed, and hand-copied using photocopiers or ditto machines, and distributed for free (or for a small administration fee to cover materials) among fans at conventions, or through mail-order booklets (“zines”).

 Fanfiction has existed pretty much since the beginning of storytelling (A Thousand and One Nights, Robin Hood, and King Arthur all have different elements attributed to them by different authors retelling, twisting, adding to, or changing the stories; there’s no single-origin author of those tales.)

 There are billions on billions of fanfics out there in the world—and while a majority of them are romance stories, there are also adventures, comedies, dramas, thrillers, stories based on case files, stories about the emotional connection between characters when one is hurt and the other must care for them, historical retellings, etc. There are also stories for every age range and taste, though be sure to take heed of the tags, trigger warnings, and age range warnings as your browse the archives and digital libraries.

 As a reader, it’s your responsibility to curate your experience online.

 So why are people so afraid or derisive of fanfic?

 People who are hard on fanfic say that…

 ·       It sucks.

o   Well of course it sucks! As it’s a low-stakes and easy way to try out creative writing for the first time, the majority of fanfiction is overwhelmingly written by new and young writers. Everything you do when you first try it sucks a little bit. 

I’m sure no figure skater was able to immediately land perfect triple axels ten minutes after they strap on the skates for the first time in their lives. No knitter has ever made a flawlessly perfect jumper on their first try. No mathematician has ever broken the code to send a rocket into space after having just been taught elementary-school multiplication. So why on earth do people think that new writers don’t need to practice? I can promise you that Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first rap was probably pretty shaky.

·       It’s lazy or it’s cheating.

o   Listen, anyone who tells you that writing anything is lazy clearly has not sat down and tried to write anything. Writing is tedious. It is boring. It takes hours, and hours, and hours to get anything on the page, and then once it’s on the page you have to go back and edit it. UGH. There is nothing about being a writer—even a fanfic writer—that is lazy.

o   And anyone who tells you that trying to tell a fresh, new story within the limits and confines of a pre-existing world and have it make sense is cheating, then they have no freaking clue how hard it is to be creative with that kind of limitation placed on you. It’s harder when you have a set of rules you need to follow. What you do come up with is often extremely interesting and creative because of those limitations, not in spite of them.

o   The argument that using pre-made characters, settings, tropes, and worlds to make up a new story is cheating is also complete bunk. Do those same people also expect hockey players to whittle and plane themselves a whole new hockey stick from scratch before each game? No, of course not. And yeah, a baker can grow all their own wheat, grind the flour, raise the chickens and cows so they can get eggs and milk, distill the vanilla, etc. Or a baker can buy a box mix. Either way, you get a cake at the end of the process. Whether you write fanfic or original fiction, you still get a story at the end of the process.

·       It makes you a worse writer.

o   * annoying buzzer noise * Practicing anything does not make you worse at it. And reading stories that are not edited, expertly crafted, or “high art” will also not indoctrinate you into being a bad writer. If anything, figuring out why you don’t like a specific story, trope, or writing style is actually a great way to learn what kind of writer you want to be, and to learn different methods of constructing sentences, creating images, and telling tales. Or you know, just how much spelling and grammar matter.

·       It’s not highbrow or thoughtful enough.

o   Sometimes stories are allowed to be just comfort food. Not every book or story you read has to be haute cuisine or boringly nutritious. You are allowed to read stories because they’re exciting, or swoony, or funny, or just because you like them. Anyone who says differently is a snob and worth ignoring. (Besides, fun silly stories can also be packed with meaning and lessons—I mean, hello, Terry Pratchett, anyone?)

·       It makes you waste all your time on writing that can’t be monetized.

o   No time is wasted if you spend it doing something that brings you joy. Not every hobby needs to be a money-maker and not everyone wants to be a professional writer. You are allowed to write, and read, fanfic just for the fun of it.

·       It’s theft.

o   According to Fair Use Law, it’s not. As long as the fanfic writer (or artist, cosplayer, etc.) is not making money on their creation that directly impacts or cuts into the original creator’s profit, or is not repackaging/plagiarizing the original Media Text and profiting off it’s resale, then Fan Works are completely legal. So there.

 How, exactly, does fanfic make you a better writer?

 Fanfiction…

 ·       teaches you to finish what you start.

o   The joy of being able to share your fic, either as you’re writing it, or afterward, is a big motivating factor for a lot of people. They finish because they get immediate feedback on it from their readers and followers. Lots of people have ideas for books, but how many of them do you know have actually sat down and written the whole thing?

o   Fanfic is also low-stakes; there’s nothing riding on whether you finish something or not, so you have to inspire yourself to get there without the outside (potentially negative) motivation of deadline or a failing grade if you don’t get the story finished. You end up learning how to motivate yourself.

o   Fanfic has no rules, so you write as much or as little as you want, stop wherever you think is a good place to end the story, write it out of order, or go back and write as many sequels or prequels as you like. Again, it’s totally low-stakes and is meant to be for fun, so you can noodle around with what it means to write a “whole” story and “complete” it, which teaches you how you like to write, and how you like to find your way to the finish line.

·       teaches you story structure.

o   Before you can sit down and write a story based on one of your favorite Media Texts, you’re likely to spend a lot of time consuming that text passively, or studying it actively. Either way, you’re absorbing how and why Media Text structures the stories it tells, and are learning how to structure your own from that.

o   Once you’re comfortable with the story structure the Media Text you’re working in is told, you’ll probably start experimenting with different ways stories can be told, and find the versions you like to work with best.

·       teaches you how to write characters consistently.

o   Fanfic is really hard because not only do you have to write your fave characters in a way that moves the story along, but they have to be recognizable as those fave characters.

o   This means you have to figure out their body language, verbal and physical tics, their motivations and they way the handle a crisis (fight, flight, or fawn?), and then make up the details you may need for your story that you may never see on screen/the page, like how they take their eggs or what their fave shampoo is, based on what you already know about them. That takes some top-notch detective work and character understanding to pull off.

o   Once you know how to do that, just making up a whole person yourself for original fiction is a breeze.

·       Teaches you how to hear and mimic a character/narrator voice.

o   You have to pay close attention to how an actor speaks, or how a character’s speech patterns, dialect, work choice, etc. is reflected on the page in order to be consistent in your story.

o   And all of this, in turn, teaches you how to build one for yourself.

o   I have a whole series of articles here about building a narrative voice, if you want to read more on constructing an original voice for your narrator.

·       Teaches you how to create or recreate a setting.

o   Again, like achieving character consistency, or mimicking a character or narrative voice, it takes work and paying attention in order to re-create a setting, time period, or geographical region in a fanfic—and if you’re taking your characters somewhere new, your readers will expect that setting to be equally rich as the one the Media Text is based in.

o   Which, again, teaches you how to then go and build an original one for yourself.

·       teaches how to take critique.

o   Professional writing is not a solitary pursuit. In fact, most writing is not entirely the work of an author alone. Like professional authors work with editors, critique partners, and proofreaders, some fanfiction writers will sometimes work with beta-readers or editors as well. This are friends or fanfic colleagues who offer to read your fanfic and point out plot, character, consistency, or story structure errors, or who offer to correct spelling and grammar errors. This is a great way to practice working with editors if you decide to pursue a professional career, and also a great way to make friends and strengthen your community and skill set if you don’t.

o   Many fanfic sites offer readers the opportunity to leave a comment on a fic, rather like a reviewer can leave a review on GoodReads or Amazon, or any other online store or blog, for a novel they’ve read. Sometimes these comments/reviews are 5 star and enthusiastic! Sometimes they are… not. The exact opposite in fact. As you get comments on your fanfic, and learn to ignore the ones that are just mean rather than usefully critical, you gain the Very Important Skill of learning to resist firing back at bad comments or reviews, while enjoying the good ones.  It also teaches you how to ignore drama or haters.

·       Teaches you how to exist within a like-minded community.

o   While the actual writing part of writing is solitary and sometimes tedious, nothing is ever published into a vacuum, whether it be fanfiction or original. Besides your editing/critique/beta reader group, you will also likely develop friendships, a support network, and mutuals. It’s always great to uplift, support, cheer on, and celebrate one another’s accomplishments and victories, whether the writing is fanfic or original.

·       Teaches you that it’s okay to write about things important to you, or your own identity.

o   You can change a characters ethnicity, cultural background, sexuality, religion, or disabilities to match yours, and talk about your lived life through the megaphone of that character. Or, you can insert original characters based on you, your desires, and experiences.

o   Once you’re comfortable writing in your #ownvoice in fanfic, you can approach it in original fiction, if you like.

o   See my article titled Your Voice Is Valid for more on this.

 What if I want to be a professional writer?

 Notice how I didn’t say “real writer”. Any writer who writes any kind of story is a ‘real’ writer. I mean, pinch yourself—you’re real, right? The difference is actually between being an “amateur” writer (a hobbyist who does not write for pay), and a “professional” (who is paid for their writing). Just because you only play shinny on the street with your friends, or in a house league on the weekends, it’s doesn’t mean  you’re not still as much of a hockey player as someone who plays in the NHL.

 Writing fanfiction before or at the same time as writing original fiction that you intend to sell is a great way to learn, or practice, everything I’ve mentioned above. If you read it widely, it will also expose you to different story telling styles, voices, and tropes than your reading of published fiction.

 ·       Can I sell my fanfic?

o   No. For fanfiction to remain under the umbrella of Fair Use Law, you cannot profit off your fanfiction. There’s some grey-area wiggle room around things like charging a small amount for a ‘zine or a PDF to cover administrative costs, but zero wiggleability around, say, selfpublishing your fanfic and charging heaps for it.

·       Can I “file off the serial numbers”?

o   “Filing of the series numbers” is when you take a fanfic you’ve written and essentially pull it apart, remove everything that’s clearly someone else’s Media Text, and reassembling the story so that it’s pretty much a completely original piece of creative writing.

o   Yes, you can sell these, provided your filing is rigorous enough that you aren’t likely to be dinged for plagiarism. It’s widely known that Cassandra Claire’s Shadowhunters was once Harry Potter fanfic, and that Fifty Shades of Gray was once Twilight fanfic. But did you know that my Triptych started life as an idea for a Stargate Atlantis fic? There’s lots of stories out there that were once full fics, or the idea for the novel was originally conceived for a fandom, but written as original instead.

o   So long as you’re careful to really rework the text so that it’s not just a find-name-replace-name rewrite, you should be fine.

o   Be aware, though, that the agents and editors you might pitch this novel to know how to Google. They may discover that this is a filed-off story, and depending on their backgrounds and biases, might be concerned about it. There’s no need to inform them of the novel’s origin straight off in your pitch/query letter, but you may want to have a frank discussion with them about it after it’s been signed so they can help you make sure that any lingering copywrited concepts or characters are thoroughly changed before publication.

o   Should you take down the original fic-version of the novel while you’re querying/shopping it? Well, that’s up to you, and whether you’re comfortable with an editor/agent potentially finding it.

·       Should I be ashamed of my fic, or take it down, or pretend I never wrote fic?

o   What? Why? No! I mean, I have hidden some of my most immature work, but I’ve left pretty much my whole catalogue of fanfic online and I don’t deny that I was/am a ficcer. Why? Because it’s a great repository of free stories that people can read before they buy one of my books, so they can get a taste of how and what I write. Also, you will be in good company. Lots and lots of writers who are published now-a-days started in fandom, including:

Steven Moffat

Seanan McGuire

Rainbow Rowell

Claudia Gray

Cory Doctorow

Marissa Meyer

Meg Cabot.

Naomi Novik

Neil Gaiman

Lev Grossman

S.E. Hinton

John Scalzi

The Bronte Sisters

Andy Weir

Sarah Rees Brennan

Marjorie M. Liu

Anna Todd

...and me, J.M. Frey

 How fanfic can harm.

 Like with anything else, there are ways that reading and writing fanfiction can actually harm you, or others, but it has nothing to do with the reading or writing of fanfiction in and of itself.

 ·       Some creators may prefer that you don’t (and may or may not follow up with legal action).

o   Anne Rice famously went after fanficcers in the 90s who wrote fanfic of her work, handing out Cease & Desist notices like confetti.

o   99% of creators don’t care. Those who do will generally have a notice on their websites or social media politely asking fancreators to refrain. Mostly this is due to their general discomfort over the idea of anyone else getting to play in their worlds. The best thing to do is respect that request, and find a different fandom to write in.

·       Flamewars and fandom fights leading to bullying and doxing.

o   Regrettably, just like any other community filled with people who have different favorites, opinions, and preferences, there will inevitably be clashes. It’s up to you to decide how to react to negative interactions, and how to model positive ones.

o   Don’t forget, you curate your online experience, so don’t be afraid of that block button.

o   Also, don’t be the jerk who goes after people for liking different aspects of the fandom. Everyone is entitled to interact and like a Media Text their own way. “Don’t yuck my yum,” as they say.

·       Trying to make money on other people’s IP/Media Text (law suits, etc.)

o   It doesn’t belong to you, so don’t try to make money on it.

o   There’s a grey area here in terms of selling prints/plushies/jewelry/etc. and there’s no hard line about where one copyright owner will draw the line, and another won’t. Warner Bros. owns the film rights for both Harry Potter and Hunger Games, but I’ve seen Harry Potter-themed bars spring up while fans wanting to make Hunger Game fanfilms have been shut down. A friend of mine sells hand-made fandom-inspired items at cons—there is no rhyme or reason to what she gets told to stop making and what she’s left alone on.

o   Best thing to do if you’re told to stop is just so stop, move on, and find a different fandom to be active in.

·       Writing Real Person Fanfic (“RPF”) can be considered a violation of consent.

o   This article sums it up pretty well, but basically… if you decide to write RPF, be aware that they person you are writing about is a real person, with real thoughts, and emotions, and they may feel violated by RPF. If you decide to write it, never send it to the people it’s about, and always clearly tag it so other can choose to engage with it, or avoid it.

o   Also be aware that it could ruin their love for what they do. For example: the friendships between the members of 1Direciton became strained and the band eventually disintegrated because people wouldn’t stop sending band members smutty stories or art of them having sex with one another, and it made them too uncomfortable to continue in the band.

·       Showing/sharing fanfic & fanart outside of its intended context. Fanworks are for fans, and there are definitely issues if…

o   It’s shown to celebrities/actors/creators.

  Shoving your fantasies onto the people who create or portray your fave characters is rude, and wrong, and also kinda gross. If they seek it out themselves, that’s one thing, but the same way you wouldn’t throw it at a complete stranger, don’t throw it at them. You may love the characters these people play, but they are not their characters, and they are not your friends.

  It may also really weird them out and ruin their love for what they do.

o   it’s shown to writers working on the series.

  There was a famous case where a fanficcer sent a story to a novelist, and the novelist was accused of plagiarism by the ficcer when their next novel in the series resembled the plot of that fanfic. There was a whole court case and everything.

  Because of this, writers of TV shows, books, etc. don’t want to (and often times, legally can’t) read your fanfic. They don’t want to get accidentally inspired by what you’ve written, or worse, have to throw out something because it resembles your fic too closely. Just let them write their stories the way they want, and if they choose to seek out fic, they will.

o   it’s mocked by celebrities.

  I’m not letting Alan Carr and Graham Norton off the hook. If it’s super rude and gross to shove fanworks at actors/writers/creators when you’re a creator, then it’s doubly rude for anyone to take a story or art made for a specific audience (the fans), by a specific community (the fans), lift it out of it’s context, and invite the public to mock it while also shoving it at the actor/celebrity in a place where they are literally cornered and can’t leave (i.e. the chat-show sofa). Man, it really steams me up when they do that. It’s rude and it’s tone-deaf, and it’s not fair.

  And most of the time they do it, they don’t even ask the artist or writer for permission, first, which is just…. Uuuuugggghhhh. It may be fanfic, but it was still created by someone, and you should always ask permission before publicly sharing something created by someone else.

  Grrrrrrr.

 In Conclusion

 If someone tells you that reading or writing fanfic is bad for you as a creator, tell them to get bent.

Famous Fanfic

·       Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda

·       Wicked by Gregory Maguire

·       Wicked: the Musical by Stephen Schwartz

·       The Phantom of Manhattan by Fredrick Forsyth

·       A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman

·       Sherlock by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat

·       The Dracula Tape, by Fred Saberhaugen

·       Paradise Lost, John Milton

·       Inferno, by Dante

·       The Aeneid, by Virgil

·       Ulysses, by James Joyce

·       Romeo & Juliet, by William Shakespeare

·       The Once and Future King by T.H. White

·       A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, by Mark Twain

·       The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas

·       Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, by Seth Grahame-Smith

·       Phantom, a novel of his life by Susan Kaye

·       …and so many more.

#words for writers #fanfiction #fan fiction #fan fiction is good for you #writing #am writing #writing community #writing fanfiction #writing fanfic