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prismatic-bell · 1 year

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So @hejeksbs saw that post about fandom olds freaking out about IWTV stuff being posted on the AO3, and said they’re new to fandom and fandom culture and don’t understand. So congrats, Hejek, you’re one of today’s lucky 10,000. This is going to be a basic primer, but I encourage others to chime in with details. (Also, thanks for reminding me I need an Interview exhibit in the museum. I had that written down somewhere.)

So if you go back to the 1990s and early 2000s—the pre-AO3 digital years—you’re going to see an official disclaimer on just about every fic. These basically said “I don’t own anything here, please don’t sue me.” Some were quoted elaborate.

These started because of Anne Rice.

See, Anne Rice was, how can I say this nicely…an asshole? The day she died there were literally people posting crab rave and “Ding Dong, The Witch Is Dead” from The Wizard of Oz on Tumblr. Because before Harry Potter fanfiction was pretty frowned upon and you might get a C&D if you didn’t keep your head down properly, but Anne Rice.

ANNE RICE.

Anne Rice literally recruited her “loyal fans” to harass people who made fanworks. At least one person was doxxed to her workplace by rabid Ricers, and at the time fanfiction was taboo enough you could absolutely get fired for that. I was eleven and friends with someone who was 13 who’d just read Interview and drew this wonky I-am-a-kid-who-can’t-really-draw-yet-but-I-loved-this-SO-MUCH piece of fanart of Louis and Lestat, and she literally dipped off the internet because she got an extremely nasty “I’m suing you” threat from Rice. (Are you out there, Mercury000? It’s me, sailorsharon0722.)

Anne Rice did everything in her power to ensure there was no IWTV fandom at all. I’ve heard from people older than me that she used to host a “vampire’s ball” every year in New Orleans for her “loyal fans” but if you showed up and she felt your costume outshone her own, she’d make you leave. People didn’t dare so much as put “Lestat” and “fanfiction” in the same sentence.

And then, irony of ironies, when her reputation got so bad she was struggling to sell books, she…became a Christian and started writing Bible fanfiction to sell.

Yeah.

Over the years there were claims she’d changed her mind about fanfiction, but nobody ever had evidence to back this up. I even saw a dude on Quora claiming to be a close friend of hers saying we were all lying, and he got absolutely ratioed by fans going “I still have my C&D letter, you wanna fucking try again?”

Incidentally, I would like to point out that her attitude wasn’t uniform. It’s easy to say “that’s just how it was,” but Neil Gaiman has been around since the 1980s and has always appreciated fanfiction. Stephen King’s approach is “please tell me, to my face, that me explicitly writing about Cthulhu isn’t fanfiction” and otherwise pretty lassez-faire (he has no interest in knowing you’re writing fanfiction of his stuff, he just genuinely doesn’t care), and his first book was published in the early 1970s. Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, actually accepted submissions of fanfiction scripts DURING THE SHOW’S ORIGINAL RUN, at least according to popular lore. (@dduane, can you check me on this?) Mercedes Lackey—who’s 1980s-and-1990s fantasy royalty—has been asked on Quora about why she “changed her mind about fanfiction” and her response was “I never changed my mind, I just had to talk my publisher into accepting it. I’ve always been okay with it but I had to say no because of my contract.” Sure, Diana Galbaldon was out there comparing fanfiction to rape(????), but even among those who disapproved of fanfiction, Rice’s attitude and actions were extreme. And they persisted into the 2000s, too, with her egging on fans who harassed and sent death threats to a YouTube reviewer who didn’t like one of her books.

AO3 changed ALL of that.

AO3 said “here is our well-researched legal claim that fanfiction is legal, and if someone gives you shit about works you have posted on our website, our lawyers will represent you. You can post safely here. It’s okay. We got your back.”

Even so, the fear about Anne Rice continued. And can you blame people? This woman’s name held the same power in fannish conversations as “Voldemort.” (A moniker by which I’ve actually heard her called.) She all but destroyed the old guard, on purpose.

….and then a new generation of fans happened. A new generation that didn’t remember life before AO3, had never known anyone who literally had to move house to get away from Rice’s minions’ threats and harassment. I know we use “nature is healing” as a joke on this website, but really truly, that’s what happened here. She left charred tree trunks and bushes that were old-school fans and from their ashes tiny little 2010s-fans seedlings began to grow.

The thousand-odd fics you saw in those screenshots (which I feel I should clarify are from before the new show came out—a show that must have her turning in her grave, because she was absolutely adamant that all her vampires were STRAIGHT and if you thought otherwise you were DISGUSTING, and I hope she spins so hard her corpse combusts) are absolutely shocking to us older fans because it’s like staggering out of a nuclear wasteland and spotting a little garden with signs saying “free nuclear-illness medical services” and realizing it’s real. What the fuck, what the fuck, but also, holy shit y’all we’re so proud of you. YES. Keep going. Don’t let the witch get you down.

EDIT: I’ve been informed by someone in the notes that IT ACTUALLY GETS WORSE:

I’m not going to transcribe the whole thing because I’m on mobile and most of it is just bog-standard post notes, but what’s relevant is @theoriginalvelocipastor saying “OP forgot the part where she [Anne Rice] would take ideas from fanfiction.”

Like holy motherFUCKER this woman’s hypocrisy.

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factual-fantasy · 8 months

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@octonauts16 (Post in question) TLDR at the bottom!😅

Yeah, that was Wally <XD I doodled that on the screen while kind'a forgetting all the stuff I've talked about Welcome Home recently. How I don't wanna join the fandom and such..

But to be honest I've been kind'a torn on Welcome home over the past few days. I recently developed 3 big main reasons why I don't want to join the fandom and draw the characters. But those reasons are quickly starting to dissolve-

Reason #1. Now I don't know if I just saw the wrong side of the fandom, but it felt like everywhere I went there was shipping content. Cannon or not, it was everywhere. And of course I'm known for not liking ships or really drawing any lovey dovey content.. I was worried enough about people tagging all of my Welcome Home art as shipping, that I figured I'd save myself the trouble and just.. not post any art of it all together.

But then I thought about it.. I mean, Undertale was a huge shipping fandom too. And I was able to weasel my way around all of that and come out unscathed. Surly the Welcome Home shipping fandom wouldn't be much harder to navigate.. right?

Reason #2. I wasn't really sure.. what to draw exactly. Everyone seems to have their own interpretation for the story of Welcome Home. Wally's the Bad guy, no House is the bad guy and he's controlling Wally, no no Wally and House are both the bad guys together. Their world is real- no actually its all make believe and Wally is the only one who knows its fake- aaaa so many stories!

I felt like it would take a lot of work and research to make my own version/interpretation of the story and the characters. So I just dropped it and didn't want to bother. I'm still so busy...

...But then its like 4 AM and I have ideas for redesigns of every character, a story is being constructed, angsty situations are being plotted, lore is growing- I hardly know much about Welcome Home truly, yet I already have a whole world built that I wanna start drawing-

But! Its reason #3 that's kept me from drawing anything. Clown, the series creator.

Looking around the fandom.. It seems that Clown is like me. They have certain boundaries when it comes to their characters and what they do and do not approve of others drawing about it. I know about the copywrite issues they're dealing with.. people selling merch of their characters and profiting.. its really sad. But there's more to it.

I saw some artwork for Welcome home and went to the comments. Everyone was like "I'm so glad to finally find an artist that respects Clowns boundaries!" And I'm like uh oh- are people drawing things that make Clown uncomfortable? Has Clown been dealing with that? What are those boundaries? Is anything I would like to draw something that would cross said boundaries?

So out of laziness to not dig deeper to find these boundaries, but also wanting to RESPECT said boundaries.. I just cut off any artwork from being made all together.

But my interest in this series is definitely getting stronger. And maybe sometime after these projects are finally off my chest, I'll look into Clown and see if any of my artwork would cross a line..

For now I'm too lazy, and too busy to make any artwork for Welcome Home <XDDD Maybe someday though!

TLDR; The #1 reason why I haven't drawn Welcome Home fanart is because I think Clown has certain boundaries when it comes to fanart. And I don't know what they are, I am also too lazy to look into it. So I just decided to not draw anything at all until further notice <XDD

#my response #welcome home #welcome home clown #do I tag that? Maybe-

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steddielations · 2 years

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Based on this fanart!

Eddie gets into Steve’s interests too.

Steve doesn’t have many hobbies apart from babysitting and sports, but over the years, he’s come to love being outside. That’s how he found skull rock, wandering in the woods for hours. It clears his mind, getting away from everything. He likes to run too and get his heart pumping, work out his stress.

Eddie was never one for the outdoors, he prefers to be holed up in his room playing guitar, planning campaigns, reading, watching movies and stuff. But he decides to give the “outside thing” a chance because Steve has always been so great about trying Eddie’s interests, so Eddie wants to do the same for him, and agrees to go on a hike together.

“I can’t believe this is your idea of romance,” Eddie groans, slapping a mosquito off his arm.

“Hey, I never said it was romantic,” Steve shrugs, he looks so put together with his sunglasses and fancy running shoes, while Eddie’s a mess after only a couple hours of hiking. God, if Eddie didn’t love him so much, he’d hate him.

“It was implied when you asked me on a date to the woods with you,” Eddie tucks the stray hairs back into his bun, going for casual despite his tired arms feeling like jelly, “You know, if you wanted to see me all hot and sweaty, there’s other, easier, much more pleasurable ways to do it.”

Steve snorts, “This was your idea. You wanted to come.”

“Because I’m a good boyfriend who wants to do the stuff you like with you.”

“What do you mean?” Steve asks, automatically reaching for Eddie’s hands to help him step over a large rock because he’s just so perfect like that, “I do like all the stuff we normally do together.”

“Yeah but it’s always my stuff, and you don’t make fun of it and you like it cause you’re just so damn perfect, and I wanted to do the same for you.”

Except he’s failing miserably, trying to hide how badly he wants it to be over, trying to be as perfect for Steve as Steve is for him.

“Oh.” Steve looks stunned, like he didn’t realize he’s worth such a gesture and it makes Eddie want to shower him with affection until he knows how much he means to him, “Well that’s… sweet of you.”

“Yeah yeah, it’s gonna lose all sentiment if I pass out trying to impress you. How much further? Jesus, how are you not tired at all!”

“Some of us actually participated in gym instead of selling weed under the bleachers,” Steve smirks and Eddie’s heart skips not just from exertion, “We probably should’ve taken a shorter hike for your first time. Maybe we should go back.”

“What? No, y’know the nature thing isn’t so bad once you get passed the bug bites and the sunburn and the muscle aches,” Eddie tries to keep going but Steve comes to a stop in front of him, brows furrowed in concern behind his sunglasses, “I mean, my legs are totally supposed to feel like noodles, right? I’m doing great.”

Steve reaches out, gently brushing Eddie’s sweaty hair off his forehead, “I think you’ve pushed yourself hard enough, baby, your face is beet red, you’re shaking. We’re going back now. Here hop on, I’m carrying you to the car.”

He doesn’t offer any room for argument, kneeling down so Eddie can climb onto his back. As humiliating as it is, Eddie relents because he’s honestly exhausted. He locks his sore arms and legs around Steve, clinging to him, quiet for most of the way, feeling like he ruined the whole thing.

Steve must sense it, because he jokes, “Gotta say, I’m really feeling the romance now.”

Eddie smiles against the warm skin of Steve’s neck, “Shut up, I hate you.”

“No you love me,” he can hear the soft smile in Steve’s words, “You did this for me.”

He shouldn’t sound so amazed by that. As if there’s anything Eddie wouldn’t do for this damn boy.

“And I’ll do it again,” Eddie accentuates his point with a kiss to Steve’s cheek, “And again,” another, “And again until I get better at it.”

Steve chuckles, squeezing Eddie’s thighs teasingly, “You don’t have to, not if you don’t want to.”

“I wanna do everything with you, sweetheart,” Eddie says, means it, “Love you.”

And they do go hiking again, they go on lots more, shorter hikes on cooler days. Steve always brings a backpack with extra water, and snacks and bug spray and sunscreen and whatever else Eddie might need to stay comfortable.

Which, Eddie insists that Steve needs those things too. It sort of pangs his chest every time Steve only seems to remember his own needs as an afterthought, but it’s okay, they take care of each other.

Eddie finds that he doesn’t mind “the outside” so much when he’s with Steve. On every hike, he’ll pick up a cool rock or a shiny chunk of minerals and give it to Steve, who always says “oh nice, thanks, babe” and shoves it in his pocket.

Sometimes they see animals and name them after rockstars or Steve’s favorite basketball players. Sometimes they talk a lot, other times they’re more quiet, just holding hands as they tread through the leaves together.

Eddie’s favorite hikes are the ones right at dusk. They have a spot high up in the woods that no one else would ever be able to find, with the best view of the sunset over Lover’s Lake. They always sit and watch the colors melt into the water, Steve’s head resting on Eddie’s shoulder, smiling softly with Eddie’s arm around him.

It’s their spot, it’s their place to be alone together, it’s another one of their things and Eddie loves it, he loves everything with Steve.

#eddie and steve’s respective ~things~ becoming ~their things~ is everything to me #steddie #eddie munson headcanons #steve harrington headcanons #steddie ficlet #rueswriting #mp #my fic #steddie fic #fluff #steddie drabble #eddie x steve #eddie munson #steve harrington #steveddie #stranger things #my fics

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sexhaver · 1 year

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While it’s stupid that people are arguing that AI art has no “soul”, it’s troubling that you made no mention at all of the concern many have about feeding AI with stolen art when you were clowning that ask. Just because that person was an idiot about that one part of the ask doesn’t mean they were an idiot about the other part.

firstable, the art isn't stolen. it is still on the artist's hard drive/website/portfolio. complaining about digital files being "stolen" makes you sound like the RIAA.

secondly, before you start arguing semantics about how "well obviously i didn't mean they were LITERALLY stolen, just used without permission," that's not even true either. the current legal theory they're operating on (until it gets challenged in court) is that the AI's output qualifies as a "transformative work", meaning it doesn't violate the original artist's copyright. your kneejerk reaction to this might be to expand copyright law to make this kind of use illegal, but that would also necessarily outlaw a LOT of art forms/techniques, like fanart, fanfiction, collaging, sampling, etc.

at a base level, these AIs aren't doing anything humans weren't already doing - human artists have been taking inspiration from other artists since the first cave painting. anyone telling you the AI is "just mashing together parts of existing art" or whatever has 1. no idea how AIs work because that aint it and 2. no idea how copyright works since "collaging parts of existing art" (which, again, is not what they're doing) is already explicitly protected as transformative work. we don't know enough about how humans OR AIs think to conclusively say that the way one makes art is quantitavely different than the other, and trying to make ethical or God forbid LEGAL judgements based on this imaginary, unmeasurable difference is a losing proposition from the start. there are reasons to be wary of AI art, but "the way an AI views my art and uses it to generate output is fundamentally different than how a human would do it, and that difference means that i am being wronged somehow" rings a bit hollow to me.

to be clear, there are definitely valid reasons to be wary of/dislike AI art. the main one that inevitably comes up is the impact it will create with artists who work on commissions. why would someone pay $50 and wait a week to get a picture of their fursona/concept art for their video game world when they could just punch a few sentences into an AI and have dozens of pics for cheap basically instantly? setting aside the obvious answer of "because most AIs actually suck at drawing really specific things", i feel like this is akin to complaining that the invention of the camera/daguerreotype put professional portrait painters almost entirely out of business. yeah, it did, and that sucked for them, but nobody would ever suggest boycotting the camera for those painters' benefit because that's the nature of technological advancement baybee!

also not to be a communist on main but i NEED to point out the possibly insultingly obvious fact that this is an issue with capitalism, not the "integrity of art" or whatever. the main negative impact the technology has on artists is potential loss of income due to competition, which would stop being an issue if your ability to stay alive was decoupled from your ability to work/sell your labor.

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reanimatedheart · 1 month

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Hello! Welcome to the official Reanimated Heart Tumblr.

(This Pinned is Under Construction. Still figuring out the tags...)

Reanimated Heart is a character-driven horror romance visual novel about finding love in a mysterious small town. There are three love interests with their own unique personalities and storylines. Play the demo on Itch now!

Content Warning: Reanimated Heart is an 18+ game! It contains dark subject matter such as violence and sexual content. Player discretion is advised.

This blog is ran by Jack, the creator.

Itch | Link Tree | Patreon | Twitter

Guidelines

My policy for fanwork is that anything goes in fiction, but respect my authority and copyright outside it. This means normal fan activity like taking screencaps, posting playthroughs, and making fanart/fanfiction is completely allowed, but selling this game or its assets isn't allowed (selling fanwork of it is fine, though).

Do not use Reanimated Heart for illegal or hateful content.

Also, I expect everyone to respect the Content Warnings on the page. I'm old and do not tolerate fandom wank.

F.A.Q.

Who are the main Love Interests?

Read their character profiles here!!

Who's the team?

Jack (creator, writer, artist), mostly. I closely work with Exodus (main programmer) and Claira (music composer). My husband edits the drafts, and my friend Bonny makes art assets. I've also gotten help from outsiders like Sleepy (prologue music + vfx) and my friend Gumjamin (main menu heart animation).

For VOs, Alex Ross voices Crux, Devin McLaughlin voices Vincenzo, Christian Cruz voices Black, Maganda Marie voices Grete, and Zoe D. Lee voices Missy.

Basically, it's mostly just me & outsourcing stuff to my friends and professionals.

How can I support Reanimated Heart?

You can pay for the game, or join our monthly Patreon! If you don't have any money, just giving it a nice rating and recommending it to a friend is already good enough. :)

Where do the funds go to?

100% gets poured back into the game. More voice acting, more music, more trailers, more art, etc. I also like to give my programmer a monthly tip for helping me.

This game is really my insane passion project, and I want to make it better with community support.

I live in the Philippines and the purchasing power of php is not high, especially since many of the people I outsource to prefer USD. (One time I spent P10k of my own money in one month just to get things.) I'll probably still do that, even if no money comes in, until I'm in danger of getting kicked out the street… but maybe even then? (jk)

What platforms will it be released in?

Itch and then Steam when it's fully finished. Still looking into other options, as I hear both are getting bad.

Will the game be free?

Chapter 1 will be free. The rest will be updated on Patreon exclusively until full release.

Are you doing a mobile version?

Yeah. Just Android for now, but it's in the works.

Where can I listen to the OST?

It is currently up on YouTube, Spotify, and Bandcamp!

Why didn't you answer my ask?

A number of things! Two big ones that keep coming up are Spoilers (as in, you asked something that will be put in an update) or it's already been asked. If you're really dying to know, check the character tags or the meta commentary. You might find what you're looking for there. :)

Tag List for Navigation

Just click the tags to get to where you wanna go!

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todomemolesta18 · 3 months

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Angel Dust SA it wasn't glorified or romanticize or used torture porn but vivziepop how she handle this topic is not great. Vivziepop track record is questionable. Before hazbin hotel becoming full show the spin off helluva boss. We see how SA is used as comedy or something that should'n be taking seriously this happen to moxxie and blitzo. For moxxie he get abused is always butt of the joke and for blitzo he SA are seen as tragic romance. We also see how she just casually put that without consider what effect she could have toward the audience. The merch both helluva boss and hazbin hotel the character who seen uncomfortable getting saed, while merch is something anyone can do they should also aware what merch are they selling. Let return to hazbin hotel while the sa is not graphic it could have been notify more earlier we gotta see the depiction of sa. Valentino while we are supposed to hate him but we aren't allowed to do this with stolas. Angel dust making sex joke is not the issue is more so with how the trauma portrayal of him and he's personality that is quirky who love making sex joke. It would been better that angel dust making sex joke as coping mechanism then with he's love interest, husk he's not supportive. The reaction he have toward angel dust is just screaming to me self righteous older people who have it rough. Angel dust reaction who know he was being drugged it just odd, if angel dust don't know how to react or maybe he see that as normal then yeah sure i can found it to believable. Everyone reaction to him getting assaulted is just not good i hated charlie is not even angry or atleast put an attempt stopping valentino. Whether valentino is gotta get killed or not atleast put an effort to stop that abuser. This really frustrated me because we need more reaction where they cared for the people who suffer from this

The fanart of hazbin hotel caring for angel dust did much more better job than the creator who are coming from rich family. Addict do much more better job cherri bomb comforted him and charlie she reaching out to angel. Hazbin hotel charlie too childish and caricature of disney princess

ALL OF THIS. What else I can say?

Is just so messed up. In Hazbin hotel, they pretend to care about SA victims... then in the next ep, we have a joke were Sir Pentious gets assaulted!!!

Same with Moxxie in Helluva boss!

ALSO, the person who storyboarded the Poison scene? Is someone who has a r*pe fetiche. GREAT, VIV.

#ask #tw sa mention #anti hazbin hotel #anti helluva boss #anti vivziepop

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lucrezianoin · 6 months

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ive never ppl who hc astarion as ace be weird about people who dont but ive sure as shit seen a lot of people get mad fucking weird about ace astarion. lmao it genuinely is so annoying, theyll try and find excuse after excuse for why its wrong and bad Actually to hc him as ace. it dont matter. theres nothing saying he is or isnt in canon so why do people get so weird and annoying about it???

i mean i know why...

Yeah, I think there is a lot of weird debate around "sexualization" of Astarion, and somehow ace people or ace headcanons are always dragged into it. There is a lot of defensiveness, I noticed.

Because there is a subsection of fans who are extremely quick to harrass, mainly. On twitter, in particular, there is a group of fans that usually goes around retweeting fanarts of artists to insult them, if the fanart is not "chaste" enough.

This is an example:

It is a type of fandom policing that goes against any kind of fandom etiquette. But also... I like to call it the Frollo from Notre Dame Effect. Because that particular piece of art does not sexualize anything, the character is naked, but the art focuses on how he is treated in game (treated as one of Cazador's treasures and objects to be stored away). It is almost haunting, as fanarts go. But somehow, this group of fans saw it and felt something (apparently they felt it was sexy), and instead of realizing it was their reaction, the uncomfortability of it made them lash out against the art itself.

I am just saying this to explain that sometimes I feel that the backlash against ace headcanons is set in this context. At least the one I got was set in this context, where this user decided that me trying to talk about canon events in the game = me trying to accuse them of being horrible people for sexualizing Astarion.

So in my case, the person immediately used my headcanon as "proof" that I was one of those people who did not want to sexualize Astarion.

The thing is that it kinda sucks (at least for me) that you cannot have an ace headcanon without somehow being labelled as someone who wants full on purity in fandoms.

This is what I think, in particular, regarding the sexualization of Astarion:

I am glad that in game he is not shown in full sex scenes. A part from ascended astarion (and for a reason), we never really see any sex scene with him. His spawn one is one of the least explicit in the whole game, and even his initial one is pretty much mainly focused on the seduction act (compare them with the Minthara one, or Halsin, or Gale or Karlach in act 3!).

Ascended Astarion having the more explicit sex scene is not by chance, given that choosing to let him ascend while in romance is directly connected with the vampire-fantasy the game wants to sell, and passionate sex is part of it.

On the other hand, I really don't care what people do in fandom with characters. That is outside the narrative, and does not change or influence the narrative of the game at all.

#sorry for the long rant

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obey-moi · 3 months

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I wanna imagine that the cards are a real thing in-universe. Like, the brothers, royals, Solomon and Thirteen all get put into a trading card game just because they’re all very popular individuals with their own fanbases Everyone’s card art is a little different from their actuall looks bc the actual people aren’t involved in the art production, so everone gets washboard abs and clear skin. It’d also be considered defamation of any of them are portrayed with a single blemish lol.

Of course Asmo collects ONLY his own cards and MC’s cards, even if some of them look off. “This one’s hair is too brunette but I love the SHINE they put in my lipgloss!” Or something silly like that. They go into a photo album binder where he gets other pieces of fanart.

Leviathan collects SO many card and knows the rules and decimates everyone at the games, but he absolutely refuses to collect his own cards. “Can you imagine if I played my own card as if I were actually cool? Like I had those powers, or l-looked as dashing a-as they portray me?? None of my cards would actually be good?? I’m JuSt An OtAkU??” Never plays the holographics of MC. Those get framed but never displayed. (MC finds them and they do the same to him since they both avoid their own cards. In fact they do a daily dropoff where if there’s an envelope under their door they can usually expect it to be the others’ cards.) He’s also a master of making different decks, like he has a deck for every sin, every person, etc. The Royals+Angels deck and the Envy deck are his favourite ones.

Mammon thrives on the Devildom TCG market. Rare cards go for a ton of Grimm! And also you wanna know why he keeps trying to sell pics of Lucifer, right? He knows one of the official card artists. “This was the outfit this card was based on, yeah? Here’s the followup of him rolling his sleeves and loosening his tie! And I bet you’re gonna love THIS one! Nobody can ever seem to get his angry smile just right until they see it in person, but this picture comes pretty close. Doesn’t it give you shivers? I can start at 1500 grimm. Also, could you tell whoever is making THESE cards to stop whitewashing the GREAT Mammon? Plzkthx :)”

Satan’s not much for card games unless a friend challenges him to a different, more classic game, like rummy or liar. But he does keep the trading cards he likes the most. Art is art, what can he say? They’re also perfect bookmarks. His fave is probably one of MC that captures them perfectly in his vision.

Lucifer thinks the whole TCG is just silly and doesn’t really participate in any of it........... But Priddy Boy’s gotta be ✨Perfect In Everything✨. The man has canonically been stated to be good a video games for the simple need to be good at everything, you think he wouldn’t study strategy and play like it’s chess or smth? That and in his Dad Wallet where he keeps pictures of his brothers (and MC), he keeps his favourite cards of them behind each respectful photo.

Beel doesn’t really collect or know how to play, but Beel has autographed many a card after fangol games, so he can at least understand it’s a collectible item. He tried learning from Leviathan how to play this one time, and it made sense to him for the most part. Card has Life Points, Attack Points, and Special Skills. Beat up opponents' cards and win. Not too different from most other card games. But there are complicated rules to it that he forgets or mixes up. He’d much rather use the cards like dolls and make them “talk” to each other.

Belphie also doesn’t play or collect, but he does enjoy getting his hands on the holographic cards. One day Levi was sent to look for Belphie to tell him it was dinner time. He found the youngest in the attic cutting up the cards into shapes and gluing them back-to-back, hanging them up like a mobile. Levi fainted backward down the stairs and refused to look at Belphie for two months straight.

Solomon really likes these cards! Like Satan he uses them as bookmarks, but specific Sin Colours and People get paired with certain books. Green Satan cards are used on cursed tomes or books about curses, blue Satan cards are used in art history books. Pink Asmo cards are left in Seduction Spell books, while yellow Asmo cards are for books about venoms from creatures. Etc. Makes categorization much easier!

Barbatos doesn’t collect, but he does know how to play. He referees for the Young Lord sometimes whenever Diavolo gets a chance to have fun.

Y’all know ya homeboy DIAVOLO is one of the biggest collectors! He and Levi are both DAUNTING on the “battlefield”, though Dia doesn’t take things so seriously like Levi does sometimes. He’s even commissioned actual paintings of himself and everyone so that those portraits can be made into cards. They’re the rarest ones, there only being one of each person out in the world. As much as Dia would have loved to keep those cards, he likes to watch the chaos of others scrambling desperately try to obtain an Ultra Rare Royal Painted Holographic. Besides, he still has the original paintings! (Also he likes to collect the DevilWendy’s kids meal toy versions of those “cards”, which are actually those plastic “gold” plated cards inside of “”””pokéballs””””. Adorable!)

Some Thirteen cards have special abilities based on real traps of hers. Some of Thirteen’s traps are based on some of the cards. She likes to tape some cards up like stickers to some of said traps as decorations. Or as part of the trap. She once tried to entice Solomon with a card, but Levi fell for it instead and nearly got impaled in a tiger trap she called “Super Duper Rare Double Dare #106”.

Mephistopheles says he doesn’t care about such childish playthings. But once the Diavolo released those Ultra Rare Royal Painted Holographic, and ‘Phisto got highest bidder on the Diavolo card, SUDDENLY he’s become Maximillion Pegasus and his signature deck is the Diavolo deck.

Luke isn’t really one to play, but he does like the art of some of them! He’ll put some in a scrapbook! It’s also another bookmark technique, where certain people’s cards get bookmarked on their favourite recipes. He got the idea from Solomon’s method of bookmarking.

Simeon also doesn’t play but mainly collects. Got a little hooked on it before Raphael moved in and the room was being used for Levi’s spare collection stuff. He was even given many of the Common ones for free (what Simeon did with common cards, Levi didn’t nearly care as much, and trusted him more with cards than he could trust Belphie with holo’s...). He’s collected all the Seven Lords themed ones. It’s a nice, low-key hobby, like stamp collecting. He donates the ones he doesn’t need to MC or Levi.

Raphael neither plays, collects, or knows anything about them really. But he does still have an annoying familiarity with them, thanks to Michael wanting him to buy several packs, nay, BOXES of packs. Michael needs to be the number one Lucifer Card collector. Bro misses his bro... ;(

#obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me!#obey me! shall we date?#obey me nightbringer #nightbringer #om #imagines #obey me imagines

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abnerkrill · 4 months

Note

Nik! Did you watch Rebel Moon? How was it?

Yes hello this is my 4 star review of rebel moon on letterboxd.

But first: a professional, somewhat critical review of rebel moon that engages with the film well, especially regarding anti-colonial themes, and isn't just knee-jerk regurgitated Snyder haterism:

And now more of my thoughts: [edit: Oh No, He Went And Talked For 3 Hours About It, Thanks For Coming To My TedTalk:)

No one has a better knack at putting together a cast list SO ATTRACTIVE TO THE BISEXUALS. read it and weep, boys. (Jena Malone is there too but really just for 1 set piece)

...Jena Malone's one (1) scene set piece features her as an alien spider woman with legitimate grievances against the Empire who now wants to kill kids because all her kids were killed. Like, so valid, girl. Also, did I say Jena Malone as an alien spider-woman? And this is just one scene.

Look, if that pitch doesn't hook you, this film may not be for you, and that's okay, but by GOD my people are the people who hear "Jena Malone alien spider woman" and perk up. I love you, freaks.

The cinematography is ace and always will be under Snyder's direction. music by Tom Holkenborg SLAPS. Costuming and design overall is super super strong. (People on this hellsite are always complaining about inadequate, boring as hell sci-fi design and you get RM and you don't appreciate it for what it is. WAKE UP.)

Costume showcase! Second from the right in this photo showing off those sweet sweet sci-fi costume designs is my beloved non-binary they/them revolutionary Milius. CANONICALLY non-binary, let me add. Imagine SW doing that lmaoooooooooooo D*ve Filoni would fuckin keel over and die

Kora! Our tragic female protagonist of color who's over 40, with a dark edgy sexy background. [KIDNAPPED AS A CHILD!! DEAD FAMILY!!! DEAD LOVER!!!!!!! SHE FAILED TO PROTECT HER WARD FROM ASSASSINATION!!!!! SHE IS THE MOST WANTED WOMAN IN THE UNIVERSE!!]

Bitches on tumblr LOVE taking failmen with sad backstories from media and blorbifying them, but the second it's a woman? please. If this was a man people would be writing the filthiest x reader smut you've seen since Mandalorian S1 came out. If this was a man you'd already have seen 20,000 fan drawings of her with her muscles and tits OUT. God where's my Kora fanart.

I personally have no problems with the plot of this movie (part 1 of 2) being "we must collect warriors to fight the evil empire." That's kinda fantasy story 101 and I still love new, varied interpretations of that plot.

If there's not much interconnecting plot because Kora's just gathering fighters, it's kinda like... that's the point, babes, they'll actually get to it in part 2. We're just at the "forming the team" stage. I revel in that part of a fantasy film and I always want it to be longer, so this film is like catnip to me.

Uh, yeah, this is getting long. More under the cut.

Entertainment professional nitpick time! I've seen someone say RM would be better as a TV show to introduce a new character each episode. And I truly don't think that fixes any of the problems this person has with the film, while introducing way more problems. (Who the fuck would go in on an original concept TV show where each episode introduces a new hero. You could not sell that pitch to a studio, ever, and viewers would instantly check out if they didn't like the introduced character of the week, and the same complaints would be made: it’s just a new character intro blah blah blah. This wouldn’t fix anything! It would very much make it worse!)

Me, like every day, through gritted teeth: that's... not... how... tv... works...

Like be realistic for a hot second with me. Television is not "long movie"—it is a different medium with different rules. Yes, the past decade has blurred many lines between TV and film, but they're still different mediums, and when people blur them ("it's a 10-hour movie!") the results often suck ass, because you either lack episodic structure or you lack feature structure. Snyder is a feature filmmaker who has never worked in TV. Whenever features people jump into TV, it's a whole other learning curve! They're usually terrible at it! You want Snyder to have to learn a new medium? You want him to learn 5/6-act TV structure from scratch? You want him to (horrified gasp) lead a writers room? Those are not his strengths, baby. Let him play in his space opera sandbox.

And I'm not done! You want the casting team to have to deal with the headache of getting feature film actors to star in a TV show? (Pay cuts! Longer commitments! TV production timelines!) You want to do that to me, personally, and fuck up the TV landscape some more by going, "Oh, we can basically just make a Longer Feature Film in TV"? Fuck off with that. TV has different production realities and different basic story structures. A [long] film [with two parts] is still a film, in structure and production practicalities.

Truly, Tumblr media studies brains (derogatory) at it again.

To each their own, but again, I think RM's structure is fun because it gives me more of the goodies (badass, varied character intros) for the price of one (2-hour film.) Like... that's the good stuff, that's often the most exhilarating part of a film for me. And contrary to popular belief, it's not intro to intro without rising tension or stakes. It builds tension as it goes because new facets of resistance against the Motherworld are explored in each character's intro scene. New ways they fight back, new worlds on which they fight back. And a ticking time bomb of the King's Gaze (king's gays lol) catching up.

Here, have a trailer bc Tumblr's mad at me for too much text in one block.

youtube

...I like the RM characters. I want to spend time with them and see what other zany shenanigans Snyder will have them do. (Alien bar fights! Taming a space gryphon! Lightsaber battle!) I like the side-quest-y, exploratory, space opera sandbox playground nature. It's fun, and like, again, if you don't perk up at the concept of collecting cool characters like action figures, this film may just not be for you.

To me it's a polycule. Like, the most messed up polycule in the whole galaxy, but it's a polycule.

Speaking of: THE CHARACTERS ROCK. Yeah, we're missing some significant character development because Netflix truncated Snyder's 4-hr, R-rated film into a 2-hr PG-13 version (likely to be able to release the 4-hr cut later, drum up new press, and get more eyeballs on the movie in total in a few months.) That's... not really Snyder's fault [even though he claims he's in on the plan... some part of me thinks it was Netflix's idea and not his. Stinks of studio meddling.] And it's not indicative of the quality of the actual film, which I currently see as more of an abridged version of the R-rated film that's gonna come out and fill up some of these story holes.

If people are judging the film for not being the 4-hour version, and then decide not to see the 4-hour version, that's their call, but it's kinda shitty to act like the 2-hr version is all there is. Like it probably wasn't Snyder's call to do a 2-hr cut! He's said that the 4-hr one is a whole different movie. I betcha the common criticisms (not enough character development, just jumps from character intro to character intro without interconnection, lack of structure) will be helped, if not outright solved, by the longer cut.

I think people are also happy to take a Part 1 of a movie if it's, say, Dune, and the source material has another part, so Part 1 is allowed to be fucking boring, whereas people don't give that kind of allowance to original sci-fi movies, WHICH IS A REASON WE DON'T GET ORIGINAL SCI-FI. If you're painting with as huge and cosmic a palette as space opera Rebel Moon, the 4-8 hours total across the 2 four-hour parts is kinda bare minimum for an epic. So... patience is a virtue? Let part 1 have elements of IT'S KIND OF A PROLOGUE?

What's that saying? If you want the rewards of space opera worldbuilding with an ensemble cast, you must submit to the mortifying ordeal of 2 hours of setup. Geez. Enjoy the wacky exposition or get out of the space opera genre.

Yeah, that leads me to the point of people who don't enjoy space opera are getting mad at RM for fulfilling the promises of the genre. You might truly be happier elsewhere. The whole thing is over-the-top, huge-scale MELODRAMA and I thrive on melodrama. If it's too cheesy for you, don't come to space operas!!!!!!!

On that note, people have said RM is too tropey and too Star Wars-y. But like I said. If you don't love the tropes get out of the genre!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you aren't here for bloodier/hornier Star Wars get out of RM!!!!

Another big idea I would be remiss to skip over. RM is an explicitly, deliberately anti-colonial, anti-imperial text—far, far more so than any other mainstream sci-fi currently being released. Well-intentioned liberals love to tout Star Trek/Star Wars as progressive media but they really hedge and defang all their political commentary, especially in their 21st century franchise form—think the SW sequels/shows straight up woobifying K*lo Ren in realtime and the Trek shows that (while fun!) are really often just nostalgia bait.

RM is pretty fucking radical. Its theme basically is Kill Nazis—or in expanded form, something along the lines of "The empire will eat up everything of value in the universe unless it is met with unified armed resistance built on solidarity."

And just look at RM's casting. We're not colorblind here; we're very color-conscious. (That's a rant for another day, but I've really started to despise colorblind casting for its extremely well-intentioned-liberal "we're all the same" mentality. It just winds up erasing.) Anyway: RM features the explicitly American-English-Afrikaans empire vs. the Algerian Amazigh protagonist, Black freedom fighters, Japanese revolutionary... and like. Snyder's always gonna be into Vikings so obviously we have Space Vikings too, whatever. Look at me, I can criticize Snyder too! The Poor Sad Space Vikings are not the strongest part of the film!

...Anyway of course the empire vs. revolution is absolutely kind of Star Wars-y since RM is highkey Snyder's Star Wars, but it goes so much further than SW dreamed (or, perhaps, nightmared). SW's rebels/resistance continually get defanged because they're kind of foundationally space magic/singular hero's quest deals, and modern SW with the exception of Rogue One/Andor is just politically, socially stupid. In contrast, RM is about forming a coalition, without something like the Force to help you out. I could write an essay on the ways RM starts in the same place Star Wars starts but takes its politics so much more seriously, so much further.

While I'd argue "good politics" and "artistic quality" rarely correlate, RM is explicitly and doggedly a text about the colonial empire that exploits, enslaves, abuses, and seeks to utterly control marginalized people groups in its quest for domination—and god, I would LOVE to see a resurgence in very fanged, very angry political sci-fi.

One more aside. Snyder has been rightfully criticized for his earlier works basking in fascist-adjacent, hypermasculine aesthetics; 300 is notably super duper racist in how it depicts savage/monstrous Persians vs. Beautifully Good White Spartans Defending Their Culture. (more on "300 Bad" stored up in my brain if anyone wants THAT rant.) To Snyder's credit, none of his films since 300 have really done that—parts of Batman v Superman and his cut of Justice League purposefully poke fun at it. The hypermasculinity is kinda still there, but it's subsumed in the service of melodrama and mythic-flavored cinema, and it's kinda a staple of the action genre anyway, and if you're gonna criticize Snyder without criticizing EVERY ACTION MOVIE EVER, that's just more regurgitated Snyder haterism.

No one is doing mythic action like Snyder these days. No one has the balls and the command of melodrama & operatic visuals. And it comes clearly from Snyder's background in art & art history because all his shots are jam-packed with symbolism and meaning and allusion. So criticize the film for its weaknesses if you like but geez, if I see another post railing about the lack of CRAFT in RM, I will start biting. ALMOST NO BLOCKBUSTER HAS THIS LEVEL OF CRAFT. It's okay that you don't understand visual storytelling, babygirl, but please don't accuse Snyder of lacking craft.

Sorry, you've triggered Cinema Defense Mechanisms in me, I'm gonna have to sit down for a while after this.

I have more takes. Takes hot enough to fuel the King's Gaze (king's gays lol.) But I'll end with a funny observation: I transed my gender (cheers, shouts, hoorays) just about the time I was getting ready to watch Rebel Moon, and in one shocking, epiphanic moment I turned to my partner and went "Of COURSE I'm a man. I like Zack Snyder." So........... do with that what you will.

#rebel moon #dragoninthelibrary #rebel moon spoilers #long post

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positivelybeastly · 3 months

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Does the x-office hate beast?

Cynically: yes.

Less cynically: it's complicated?

Like, here's the thing, right - Beast fans are . . . kinda rare. Sure, there's tons of people who saw the 90s cartoon and really liked him, there are tons of people who saw X-Men 3 and liked him there, there's a whole (almost separate) community of people who are still writing X-Men: First Class fanfic about that version of Hank.

But I'm talking about, will go out and write fanfiction about the character; will draw fanart of him; will actively go out of their way to talk about him on social media. I feel like that's been on the decline for the last . . . fuck, 30 years, probably? Ever since he went from this

to this.

Like, the difference is jarring and immediate, right?

And that lack of a dedicated fanbase made him an easy character to contort to fit stories that certain writers wanted to tell. The X-office doesn't have a ton of people gagging to write Beast, he doesn't headline his own series, he doesn't have a rabid Twitter populace who will fight and scream and shout like Emma Frost or Cyclops.

What do most people think when they see Beast? Like, normal people who don't read comics, who just consume maybe a Marvel movie twice a year, or saw a cartoon when they were a kid.

"Oh, he's cool. SO ANYWAY, MORE OF THAT WOLVERINE."

Beast is not a character with a strong base.

So he's just.

Disposable.

Who cares, throw Beast to Bendis or Ben Percy, I don't care, is what it feels like.

As for WHY he doesn't have that dedicated fanbase, well, I have theories.

A lot of Hank stories are just, sad. They're just so fucking sad and tragic and dark and about finding light where you can.

I often find them very cathartic, like, Hank leads such a troubled and harsh life, and he savours the pleasures where he can get them, and I really love that aspect of his character, that unyielding spirit, but that does not make for a popular character.

His feline era, from 2000 to 2012, is honestly my favourite for him because he is so nuanced and his themes of learning to love your body and control yourself, and his thoughtful, measured, deeply moralistic stories resonate with me and provide me with comfort, the idea that people can be tempted to do bad in the service of good but turn away is beautiful to me.

But that's not really an easily sell? People don't usually want to be sad when they read comic books. They want to be thrilled or horrified or made to laugh. Sad is . . . harder to sell.

Honestly, I also think there's a degree of assuming that he's a snobby asshole because he talks fancy. Like, I legit think that plays into it, and you sometimes see writers fall for the same preconception, they assume that Hank is a snob, and he really isn't, he's a lower-middle class kid from Illinois who grew up on a farm and whose dad was involved in a horrific radiation accident because of poor safety conditions, this is not a person who would be snobby.

It's so funny to me because the guy is from a fictional place in Illinois? It's never specified, which means, if anything, he probably sounds like he's from Chicago! Now, there's probably a degree to which he does speak more formally and has changed his voice, because Hank is extremely protective and conscious of the image he projects, always has been, but snobby? Pfft, nooooo. So yeah, absolutely, you see people assuming that he's a snob because he's smart. Snobby only plays well if you're Emma Frost.

I also have to say, I think there's a degree to which there's an anti-intellectual bias going on. If you look at pretty much all of the major genius characters, they are pretty much ALL unpopular because they are nerds and they are not usually portrayed as being great fighters or tacticians, which is an easy way for a character to become popular - that's why Cyclops is so popular, because he's right all the time and he's a badass, and that's an easy pop. Science solutions are inherently less visceral, harder to write and thus rarer, and do not stick in people's minds.

Moreover, what do you think of when you think of genius superhero? The reputation is of privilege and the image is of boring white guys, they assume it's just - boring. It's only interesting if it's cloaked in sarcastic wit, like House or Sherlock (during The Dark Times), or used in a martial sense, which is why Black Panther is the exception to the 'all the nerds are boring.' Bruce Banner also escapes this trap because he's had his own solo comics for 60 years and he's had a million people write absolutely amazing stories for him.

I also think that his almost complete absence from the Claremont era stories hurts his fandom reputation, because if you're an X-Men fan, you read Claremont, and Hank is not in those stories almost at all. He pops up during the Mesmero arc, during Dark Phoenix, here and there, but he spends 1974 to 1991 in the Avengers, the Defenders, X-Factor, he is so very rarely being written by who most people would consider the definitive X-Men scribe. There's also an element of the stupid X-Men vs. Avengers tribalism working against him thanks to that.

I think Claremont writes a pretty decent Hank when he does turn up, but there's a reason he picked Jean and Scott, and it's interesting that he chose to feature Hank more often than Warren and Bobby, and even then, Warren more than Bobby. I don't know if Hank was really heavily in demand so he just couldn't get him, or if he didn't know what stories to tell with him, but I actually kinda think it was the former, just because Hank always makes an appearance in his post-'91 work, especially his alternate timelines, and he was clearly interested in writing for him in X-Treme X-Men given he set up the Betsy romantic angle early, but then Morrison snatched him up.

Hank also got pushed into the role of the naysayer during the Fraction and Bendis era, which is an instant rock around the neck for your popularity. A lot of the arguments that Hank makes about why he doesn't like what Scott does and how he runs the X-Men and Utopia are not necessarily wrong?

Like, X-Force is just plain morally bad. It is.

You can make the argument that it's necessary, but these two things can exist at the exact same time, which appears to be a concept that people do not grasp! And especially, like . . . the X-Men are not an army. They are a voluntary paramilitary group that is, ostensibly, dedicated to mutant rescue, outreach, and general superheroics.

You are not obliged to stay.

Hank was suffering from legitimate PTSD flashbacks, he was wracked with guilt over the Skrull bioweapon (which, notably, sticks to Hank but does NOT stick to Scott), he was very obviously depressed, recovering from torture - and when he reached out to Bobby to try and explain how he was feeling, draw some comfort, Bobby basically just told him to deal with it!

But this made him SO FUCKING UNPOPULAR. You can go to comics sites that have comments under this issue, under the issue where Hank is having PTSD flashbacks, and they'll be like, THIS IS WHERE IT ALL BEGAN, and I'm like???????? The fuck are you saying to me?????? WHY ARE YOU BOOING HIM HE'S RIGHT.

There's also a degree to which I think that, whether the writers have realised it or not, they do not usually put in the work to establish that the X-Men are doing their due diligence to make sure that Hank is okay. They rely a LOT on off-screen things happening to fill in the blanks. A short list of things that we have never seen!

The reaction from the O5 when Hank first turned furry.

The reaction from the Mansion X-Men when Hank turned into a cat.

Anyone going to visit Hank in the infirmary when he was recovering from his fur and claws falling out due to torture.

Anyone expressing concern over the fact that during the whole time travel debacle, Hank was dying and did not tell anyone.

You don't see these moments, and these are fucking important! These make you sympathetic to the character! These are the moments where people look at Beast in pain, suffering because of what's happened to him, going through his emotional arcs, showing strength as he perseveres, THAT is what builds a fanbase and keeps a fanbase engaged with a character - but they just stop happening for Hank. You don't see them. He loses his characterisation moments, they just happen off-panel.

But what do you see? You see a lot of people walk into Hank's lab, they receive words of wisdom and comfort, or a scientific solution for their problems, and then they walk out.

Like, Hank from Avengers vs. X-Men onwards reads as just - psychologically unstable. He does things on impulse, he reacts without talking to people, he does not have strong relationships with anyone, he appears to have broken up with his long time girlfriend (for no specified reason, we still don't know why 9 YEARS LATER), he often appears adrift and lost and unhappy.

And we are TOLD during his intervention that people have talked to him about what's going on, and they were ignored, but, like, I'm sorry, FUCK OFF, SHOW YOUR GODDAMN WORK.

If you want your emotional moments to have any bite, then you need to ESTABLISH things!!! When Ororo says, oh, you're just ignoring everyone, I'm like, FUCKIN' SHOW ME WHEN YOU TALKED TO HIM. Because do you know what I DID see?

I saw Hank being the most comforting and lovely and soft individual in Storm's solo series, being there for her after Logan's death, BASICALLY BECOMING HER SECRETARY BECAUSE SHE WANTS TO FUCK OFF AND BE A THIEF, and then BOOM, suddenly, she's like, you're a fucking loose cannon.

This was, like, a few months apart. Editors? Hello? Does Ororo fucking hate Hank or not? Because Bendis seems to be of the opinion that she does, but Greg Pak does not appear to have gotten the memo! HELLO? EDITORS? There's a big fucking GAP here where a story arc is meant to go???

There's so much of Hank's 2012-onward story that we just AREN'T shown. Like, he and Scott just - patch up their differences over the revolutionary thing OFF-PANEL during Hickman's Avengers. You don't even see the conversation. He agrees to try and work on the M-Pox cure, MOVES TO ATTILAN TO HELP THEM, all because Storm (WHOM, LAST WE SAW, WAS THREATENING TO PUT HIM IN PRISON FOR CRIMES AGAINST NATURE) convinced him to . . . and WE DO NOT SEE THIS CONVERSATION.

Every time someone pulls out the 'oh, this has been an expertly played baton pass of writers depicting Hank's moral downfall,' I just want to fucking pick up shit and fling it in their face, because they could not be more wrong.

Do you know who's read more Beast comics than these fuckers?

Me. It's me.

Believe me, if there was an actual DEPICTION of ANY of these MASSIVE emotional moments in Hank's life, I would LOVE to talk about them and agree. But they do not exist. It's a character being used as a narrative prop to justify writing decisions that otherwise wouldn't make sense (Inhumans vs. X-Men, All-New X-Men), and no-one cares because he was never that popular to begin with.

And it just - frustrates me, because, like, did you know that Hank formed a political advocacy group for mutant rights?

Did you know he was present during sessions of Congress, giving his support to pro-mutant legislation and becoming long time friends with multiple politicians?

But because it's in New Defenders, because it's in Secret Avengers, and no-one READ those issues, they don't care! It doesn't matter to them! Hank has, by and large, within the narrative, done SO MUCH for mutant rights, he has ACTIVELY worked for them within the system SO HARD, but because it isn't done with an optic blast or a big punchy fist in an X-Men book, it doesn't count.

And like, I just . . . the last few appearances before he starts being focused on in X-Force, before the heel turn, he is NOT acting like an asshole!

Laura literally calls him the nerd she can trust and he takes pictures of her and Gabby being cute during a party!

He's helping Banshee recover from his Apocalypse corruption and teaching at Harvard, trying to actively retire from superhero work because he's exhausted!

He's telling Captain Marvel, hey, you're wrong about your precognition bullshit in Civil War II, and he's helping Spider-Man with science problems, and he SAVES THE INHUMAN CIVILISATION SINGLEHANDEDLY!

So many writers are trying to steer him back onto course. Not just Avengers books, either, X-Men books! There's, like, TWO, THREE writers who want to push evil, asshole Beast, and everyone else is just like, uhhh, nooo? But because the X-office do not care, they keep getting their chance. They don't care about protecting Beast's reputation, or his stories, or his legacy. He's just a character to be thrown wherever he'll fit.

So you get the narrative that he was always evil. He was decaying all along.

No, it's bullshit. It's literally the Scarlet Witch story again, where it just HAPPENS in fits and starts to kick off events and stories, regardless of whether or not it makes sense for past characterisation or continuity.

So, yeah. It's a combination of the X-office not really caring about protecting the image of the character, and certain writers just doing shoddy, shitty jobs of writing emotional checks that their asses weren't willing to cash.

#vinial453 #outofmuffins

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eternalglitch · 1 year

Note

I need you to know that what broke me, while reading LFLS, as someone who saw a ridiculous amount of fanart beforehand, wasn't Leo being put through hell and back. It wasn't him refusing to think of himself as Leo because in his head Leo had died in the Battle Nexus, it wasn't Mikey putting up the missing posters and dropping them when he saw Leo on the TV, it wasn't Splinter getting Leo's favorite Chinese order after he went missing and it going untouched for ages because everyone refused to accept he wasn't coming back, it wasn't Raph holding so much guilt for putting his phone on silent, it wasn't Splinter going back to the Battle Nexus to look for Leo despite all the trauma he went through because of it and Big Mama and just missing him, it wasn't the Hamato's looking in all the right places for Leo and being just that much too late or too early to catch him, no. No, it was the realization as to why I had seen fanart of Leo fighting his family with seemingly no remorse. It was realizing it was because Draxum had ordered him to, and Leo obeyed because he had been conditioned to out of fear. It was knowing that Leo, in another timeline, had sacrificed himself just to keep his family safe. It was knowing that if his family had rescued him just a little bit sooner, he would've gladly let himself be shocked to protect them. It was knowing that Leo was so broken that he feared being shocked again more than he wanted to protect his family because of how long he'd been suffering alone. That. That is what broke me, and I applaud you for it. You are a brilliant writer, Glitch, truly. No fic or piece of media has ever broken me like LFLS has, none. In all my years of being alive and consuming stories of all kinds, I have never before encountered anything that has managed to break me so gently yet so ruthlessly like your fic has. Thank you for sharing this amazing fic with the world, I and many others will never be the same.

Reluctant villain as a trope is always hard to sell because it's the most interesting when it's a character that truly would do anything for their friends and family. Figuring out how to change that was the main focus in the character exploration of the first half of lfls.

Because you're right. If the Battle Nexus arc hadn't happened, if the shock collar wasn't involved, if they had come a week sooner, if even one variable had shifted, Leo would have remained willing to do whatever it took to keep his family safe. As it was, he still was ready to do that right up until he realized he almost killed one of his brothers out of sheer instinct. And that broke him.

I really like the "so gently yet so ruthlessly" phrase you used because yeah! I think that describes my writing pretty well. I do love just cracking the character open to see what makes them tick and then putting them back together, but also I see that there's something kind about it, too? A promise that they can literally get through anything and come out of it with their head held high, even if that takes a while to get back to.

Thanks for reading and the very kind comment ^^

#glitch answers #lfls

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brookiidookiii · 5 months

Text

assortment of headcanons about what they're doing on social media

anne maria uses twitter where she just posts about her day to day life and gets into celebrity drama on there. like shes caught liking hate posts about other people and it becomes a thing but most people like her so she has a fanbase rallying behind her. she retweets her fans thirst edits

jo is an instagram user where she just makes workout videos and shares advice. shes tried to move on from TD but she keeps getting tagged in fanart and just blocks them

brick stays off social media because now the whole world knows his embarrassing secrets and doesnt like getting reminded of them. but i think hed use pinterest for fashion inspiration and things like that.

lightning uses instagram and twitter. he probably watches edits of himself smh.

sam is a twitch streamer. his fanbase is pretty chill and hes pretty popular. he interacts with chats and makes a living off of sponsors and superchats. his streams r fun, he plays videogames. sometimes dakota makes a cameo appearance.

yeah dawn doesnt rlly use social media :( she sells stuff on craigslist but thats the most she'll do. maybe she collabs with charity organizations but only on their accounts. she doesnt have her own. i think she'd be anti social media

zoey has a tumblr blog.... just posting indie aesthetic stuff. people send her asks about the show and she happily answers. she likes interacting with people. she has a few fandom sideblogs too lol

now when zoey is older and a 30 year old millennial she has a tiktok and SHES SO CRINGEY AND WEIRD AND EMBARRASSING (i mean that in the most affectionate loving way possible). shes the worst millennial imaginable. shes the 30 year old pick me. i hate her (affectionate). shes like that woman who made the "and my mom thank you to my mom 😝" sound. i love her for that

mike isnt much of a social media guy. the most he do is mental health awareness stuff and interviews about his life with DID

i really dont know about cameron honestly???? i think in the future he gets rlly buff so when the cast reunites his voice hasnt dropped at all and his head is still the same size but hes 9 feet tall and giant and rlly buff. its scary. maybe he does workout progress stuff.

actually cam and zoey r mutuals on tumblr. idk why he has a blog

B works in IT and computer stuff. maybe he doxes people on twitter. he probably uses reddit

#total drama #total drama revenge of the island #these probably arent too accurate but theyve been on my mind

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the-owl-tree · 3 months

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i HATE how the ai art moral panic made fandom people more supportive of harsher copyright restrictions like. do you not know why ao3 exists??? or why anne rice is so hated in the fanfic community??

i was talking to someone about this a while ago because they were cheering on that chatgpt lawsuit where several famous authors were suing openai. and i said "yeah ai can be used for bad stuff but i don't want it to be legally restricted because people are retaliating via copyright and that will affect fanworks sooner or later" and brought up the littledragon studios v harpercollins thing from last year as an example and they went "well if the ip holder took legal action then that means they deserve it, shouldn't have been violating their copyright lololololol"

then went on to post about the manga panel redraw they were doing as if that wasn't copyright infringement too

i know that person may have been legitimately too young to know or too uninterested to look into it but that attitude from other fans still shocks me every time i see it

Fanart has always kind of danced in that gray area but otherwise....it really is fine? Like, the steamboat willy example. You could always draw him with a gun but now you can sell shit legally with willy steamboat with a gun. In the end, it's about profit...which is why it's bothered me so much that people seem to think copyright protects artists at all. The fact that the conversation has only centered around independent, commission-based artists is a huge disservice to the ACTUAL abuse and theft that has been happening for DECADES.

A majority of artists that work for wider corporations DO NOT OWN THEIR OWN ART. People will kick up such a fuss that they don't understand that a majority of art theft is done legally, that artist's creations can make billions of dollars and they won't see a cent of the money because copyright law ONLY benefits corporations.

So what exactly is the end goal then? For mass swathes of images to be bought by corporations and used to train AI? Who does that benefit, because you've got to be a fucking moron if you think in any way that helps artists. People will claim to love all art yet they can't even be bothered to look into the history of any of it, this paranoia has people wanting the art industry to resemble the fucking music industry.

I've so little patience for any artist who claims to support artists and then rallies around copyright law. Beyond frustrating to me, apologies for the rant but I just feel very passionate about it.

#sometimes i think about how bill mant////lo almost couldnt pay his medical bills #while r//cket racco/n made billions #it makes me so angry #people claim to want to protect artists yet theyre only interested in emboldening corporation's chokehold on the creative industry

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captainmera · 9 months

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Woe, 💕 be upon ye

I’ve been following ur Golden Brother fic for about… half the time it’s been up? I was already baffled by how u posted such long chapters of such GOOD SHIT, but recently I was like “oh yeah better check out their Tumblr!!” and… Who did you sell your soul to write that much, often post multiple drawings a day, AND have a webcomic (I still need to read it tbh) going??? LMAO

Whenever I open a new chapter and remember how long they tend to be, I go insane (affectionate, in awe, thankful).

That being said, if you overwork yourself with fanfic, fanart, or asks I will smack you with a large tree branch. So don’t u dare feel obligated to make a reply for this HHFJSBSNS

About the fic tho,,, your writing is so good. I came for the arc between Hunter and Vee (which I ADORE btw), but everyone’s characterization is just top tier imo. You even think through canonical strengths so well that you find new ways to turn them into FLAWS and I like it a very not normal amount.

Like… Luz genuinely fucking up a bit? Without being tricked like she was with Philip? You created such neat depth around her coping mechanism of distracting herself by helping others heheheee!!

Willow and how she got so set on being “the reliable one” that others find it hard to open up to her since the vulnerability feels one-sided is really interesting cuz it makes sense! It’s counterproductive, but I can see why she does it.

“The true mom-friend was Gus” is BASED, I’m absolutely here for it!!! He’s one of my favs, so I sometimes think he’s overlooked as far as character depth, but I love how you write himmm!!

Amity having to re-recognize that her and Hunter do indeed have a lot in common, but becoming very relaxed and understanding towards him once she does? Yissss always appreciate the (platonic) rosegold hostility->solidarity pipeline!

Hunter’s lingering child soldier mentality stuff is mmmmmmmmm!! And seeing him start to overcome it as he trusts others more IS SO!!!! AAAA!!!!! Plus his skill in understanding others and being a mediator from having a leadership role in the coven is super cool and fitting!! Also the grimwalker shenanigans are a blast ofc. Hhhnnggggg you’re really fueling my brainrot here >:[ /POS

Salty Vee fuels me. After being so mistreated for most of her life, she deserves to be a lil angry. As a treat. Directing it at Hunter may have been misplaced, but it’s understandable enough that Hunter himself recognized what she needed and encouraged her do her thing (when he does it out of guilt, I wanna hit him upside the head with therapy, but it’s still nice of him). And then her sudden, genuine “I forgive you” makes me wanna SOB, it’s so gooodddd!!

Even Jacob is super neat???? I never thought of Masha being like family sorta with him (and ngl I was actually :/ about the idea for a hot sec) but you worked it SO WELL!! I’m interested in his arc now lmaoooo

I can probably go on, but EEEE can’t wait to see more!!!!!

Anyways, THANK YOU FOR CONTENT!!!!! I wish you motivation, energy, health, happiness, and breaks if u need them XD

Thank you so much for this letter, its been so lovely to re-read it and it's been very encouraging. 💝💝💝🙇

Idk where to start. Just thank you very much for saying all that. 😭🙇💙💙💙

#ask #asks #the golden brother #tgb ask #art reply #Haha youre funny! I haven't sold my soul to anyone haha I'm just trying to make myself feel better by having fun #y'know when you're finally in a somewhat okay place and then everything catches up with you? hahaha it's like that #I am doing okay tho - I'm an adult - I hope I don't annoy anybody with all my fan-content... I just need this atm #I just have *a lot* of time on my hands and I just *really* like writing stories #I promise I am very uninteresting and average in every possible way - I'm pretty boring so there's no secret to my productivity #it's a little aaaa that people like my stuff so much. I didn't think people would? So it's very humbling. thank you!

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