#is also a trend that i've noticed

[evening-rose-309]

to not spoil it, they quietly killed off the ncr for absolutely no reason and made the BOS victors for some reason.

house is not dead, but for majority fucked over at the battle of the hoover dam. how it is not stated yet.

but you’re pretty much correct everything else, so real “let’s wipe the slate clean bullshit”.

Of course he lost the dam.

The NCR was the main force behind Hoover Dam's acquisition in the first place, wrenching it out from under Caesar at the last second when Hanlon and the Rangers pulled their hail mary.

Without the Bear of the West, the Three Families probably defected into Caesar or fell to the Legion or just straight up deserted House once they realized a couple hundred tanks on tricycles would never be able to stand up to the Several Thousand Trained Berserkers that make up Caesar's Legion by year 2277.

I'm just curious as to what the Tin Can Buffoons will do to him when they find him. Or if he's made contact with Boston yet as his own last stand hail mary, though that part's purely wishful thinking.

#honest comrade i'm sittin' here coming up with all the ways i can improve on my own aus and crossovers #simply by observing this highway pileup #and being all like 'huh well if they can do that–' #of course most fan-creationists aren't trying to impose new cannons on everybody else #and regardless of whether or not it's entertaining that doesn't make it right #to basically make it a precedent to say: #“YO NERDS! SEE THIS THING THAT YOU LIKE? #“WE FUCK YOU WE'RE GONNA TURN INTO A PISSASS SHAMBLER OF WHAT YOU LOVED ABOUT IT #“BECAUSE WE LIKE MONEY AND MAKING PEOPLE FIGHT EACH OTHER ON THE INTERNET” #“AND YOU'RE NEVER GOING TO SEE THIS THING THAT YOU LOVE EVER BE HONORED BY US EVER AGAIN HAHA FUCKING LOSERS—” #i mean what does that say about media and the industry around it as a whole? #that it doesn't care about its consumers so long as it's progressing? #anyway this is getting rambly #to the people who like the show: good for you there's something nice for you to tune into on your one day off #but me well i go to an art-film school #i get to see how this warped perception of how the audience will receive our art #(—a perception fostered by bigwigs with marketing degrees—) #effects the mindsets of the people responsible for my education and and also my peers #if the consumer consensus looks like 'oh these graphics look really good the game must be awesome!' #and the market research shows those games sell without any other facet of them being affected #then the industry is going to keep making beautiful but hollow games #sequels that don't care about their predecessor's lore to either continue or transform and improve upon it #sequels that get made into streaming serials of the same mindset #the idea that you can just throw away your previous audience because there will be new and “correct” people who will enjoy you stuff #is also a trend that i've noticed #for better or worse #and it truly is #a bit of a tragedy #fallout tv show spoilers

[burr-ell]

I'll preface this by saying that I don't by any means begrudge anyone their own personal headcanons or interpretations, but I kinda have to get it off my chest that I'm personally not very comfortable with significant deviations from canon character design on CR, and I really tend to side-eye people who have declared their fanart to be "better".

And sure, some of that is because i'm a cranky old bastard. But some of that is that I also have an animation degree and have studied character design. Creators generally give artists a fair amount of input as to how they want their designs to connote the characters' personalities—not just in terms of clothing or hairstyle, but in the overall shape of the silhouettes and body structures. And in the case of CR in particular, that's coming from a place of much closer familiarity with the characters because the creator is actually going to be embodying them for a fairly long period of time, so when the fan response is heavy deviation from that, I think it can feed into some unhealthy fanon perceptions and projections.

Like, for example, it's not so much that I think fanartists are "disrespecting the creators" or whatever when they keep giving Imogen a sweet little round face and big hips/breasts and cute circular glasses, but I've also studied shape language in art. You're communicating something when you design her this way; if a character's silhouette has a lot of circles, visually that connotes being friendly, sweet, and cute. The person who first suggested drawing her with glasses explicitly said they thought it would look cute—and no shade to them! They can like whatever they want!

But canonically, Imogen is a woman in her 20s who's been dealing with unanswered questions, abandonment, loneliness, and sheer exhaustion from trying to hold back and control powers that she never asked for—and who simultaneously uses those powers even when it isn't necessary if she thinks it'll help her achieve a goal or prove a point. She isn't unfriendly, and she wants to do the right thing, but she's also someone who's consciously chosen to keep to herself for most of her life, and yet simultaneously she's quite adept at persuading and deceiving people. I think we're meant to pick up that sense of world-weariness and cynicism from her angular facial features and thin frame. That's...kind of just how character design works.

I think the trend of disregarding the official art and giving her softer features has had an impact on the perception of Imogen as a character. I see a lot of views of her that really remove a lot of her agency, treating her like she's only ever been a victim of circumstance who's never put a foot wrong. Some fans got pushback for pointing out that it really wasn't cool for Imogen to openly contemplate whether or not the Ruby Vanguard might be right in front of three people who were killed by Otohan, insisting that imogen was just dealing with a lot right then. And yes, she was, but that doesn't mean that the way she was dealing with it doesn't say something about her as a character. I don't know if I'd call it coddling, necessarily (even though perhaps there are some very coddling takes I just haven't seen), but there seems to be some resistance, in some circles, to the idea that Imogen isn't a put-upon martyr. And in those same circles, round friendly-looking glasses-wearing Imogen abounds, to the point of editing the official art itself to "fix it".

Truth be told I'd be willing to bet that the rounder cuter Imogen actually came about because of the initial impression of her, given how much fanon at the start of c3 revolved around poor baby Imogen with her scary nightmares needing the wiser, worldlier Laudna to comfort her and kiss it better, but those visuals also proliferated rather quickly and well beyond past the point where that fanon was feasible anymore, and I think both aspects of that fanon ended up informing each other. It's not lost on me that the rounder and cuter-looking Imogen performs the literal function of sanding down her harder edges.

And like I said, I'm not here to be needlessly negative toward what other people want to do. If you want to draw the characters differently to their official art, I don't think either the cast or the artist are especially offended by it. But I personally dislike it, in part because I think some of these trends are a way for fans to claim a certain amount of ownership over the characters, whether they intend it or not. And the ultimate outcome of that is that when creators inevitably assert their ownership over a deeply personal story in a way that fans don't like, the backlash is much stronger than it reasonably should be, which is something I think the CR fandom has seen often enough not to continue doing as often as it does.

#cr meta #critical role #cr discourse #cr wank #i think chubby jester vs skinny jester also falls into this #and don't get me wrong i 100% support representation of body types and the cast does too #but there's a certain amount of overlap between chubby jester and weird fanwanky c2 stans #it's. usually the folks who cling to fanon art interpretations who get the most angry at the cast when things don't go their way #like i don't have StatsTM or whatever to prove it but i've noticed some trends #also it's always the female characters and particularly laura bailey's characters who get hit with this attitude the most #like! just say you don't like a call laura made! i promise you no one's gonna call 911!

[total-drama-brainrot]

i love how basically every future! au i've seen has noah divorced from emma.

it's just so funny that, instead of having the two break up amicably after dating for a while and realising they're just not compatible/meant to be, most creators go out of their way to make noah this sad divorced man who fumbled his successful lawyer wife and ended up with the short end of the stick. yes! make this man pathetic and depressed! he's the saddest wet cat in existence!

#not aimed at anyone btw i've just noticed this trend in the future aus i've read. not a complaint either. keep up the good work! 👍 #anyway i think nemma would both realise they're incompatible after the honeymoon stage wears off #becuase emma's got impossibly high standards and control issues and relationship trauma that noah wouldn't know how to help with #and noah's... noah. not exactly prime husband material for someone with standards/expectations of any kind. #plus she'd probably get bored of his lazy ass once he gets too comfortable with being a trophy house-husband #they break up under a mutual agreement and emma goes to therapy for her attachment issues 🥰 #(and then meets courtney in their shared practice and they become a power couple who help each other heal) #(also nowen husbands real) #total drama #td noah #rr emma #nemma #thoughtless posting

[kingdomoftyto]

....... WAIT. IS THAT LORD MONOCHROMICORN???

#HOW DID I MISS THIS THE FIRST TIME #ignore me #CONTINUING MY REWATCH OBVIOUSLY lol #also. unrelated to this screencap but. this time through I've been noticing a weird trend of possible hints toward #Finn and Huntress Wizard being.... lowkey together? question mark?? #aside from him mentioning her like five times in ep 2 I can't help but notice that one of Farmworld!Finn's kids has red hair #and Fionnaworld's human!Hunter also had red hair. plus there was that random green shawl Farmworld!Finn took into battle #idk maybe I'm looking too hard into it but still 🤔🤔🤔 #[EDIT: Vampireworld human!Huntress has red hair too! I'm convinced. she's the dead Farmworld wife and they're probably together in Ooo too] #EVEN MORE UNRELATED: just found out that Scarab is voiced by a trans woman! hella!! #Fionna and Cake spoilers #(hgudshfuh feel like I need to tag for spoilers but I'm not trying to clutter up the search with my random crap sorry guys)

[svtskneecaps]

oh also also, baghera getting increasingly french at the end of the timer was so fucking funny and i love her so much, like when her and phil fought and phil killed her and her accent thickened until she abandoned words and made french noises CHEF'S KISS reminds me of when she played outlast w cellbit slime and jaiden and got progressively more french as the night wore on, genuinely had a blast hearing her progressively dropping more and more swears in french

also reminds me of something i THINK i remember, think it was her who said during brazil she kept accidentally speaking french to people because of how close she felt to them

#qsmp #baghera jones #debated on making this post bc i wasn't sure if people would think i was making fun? i'm not trying to; to be clear #it's something i've noticed w baghera in particular and really really love #(personally i trend to a southern drawl; i am not from the american south) #i genuinely really like it #idk if your first language is french and you think this is disrespectful i'll delete it just say the word #mine is english so idk how shitty we can be :( i know we can be awful #((tbh i usually kick Myself if i can't understand an accent bc i'm the damn native speaker i should be good at this language)) #((like this is My Fault for not parsing i'm the one who knows what these words MEAN; COME ON)) #these went on a tangent but in my defense it's technically 4 am here (daylight savings) #also i was watching team red. the entire event. and then until this very moment. #this speaks for itself i think #shut up vic #block game brainrot

[eff-plays]

I love how so much Astarion fic is like "She loved him not because he was beautiful ... She loved him for him. For his ... um. Sense of humor. And his. Skills. And how he um. Picks a lock. And uuuuuh. Shoots a bow. And also his um. Uuuuh. For just being him, you know. For how very him he is. He's just so very Astarion haha. Definitely not becuse he's hot though. He's more than that. He's. Um. funny. In a gallows humor way. Haha. Yes she loves his dark humor. They had sooo much in common. Anyway haha here's more smut describing his body in perfect detail btw."

Girl ya whole ass is out!!!

#bg3 #this isn't a dig at anyone in particular just a trend i've noticed #though it's not just fic lbr a lot of contemporary romance is this #so i get it but also it's extra funny and noticable here #when you get like ... every other sentence mentioning how hot he is #and then there's an obligatory 2 paragraphs describing just how deep their connection is and how much she loves his personality #his personality being um ... sassy. #cool

[eldrai]

"Which one is the bottom?" "But who tops?"

do you remember when derek ran into an active bombing site because hotch was down there and needed help. do you remember when hotch told derek he had and always would trust him with his life. do you remember hotch coming with derek in restorations. leaving the door open in profiler, profiled. derek being the one to hold him after foyet. what about "no thanks, I like my job" "you like him more". how hotch's hallucinated fears culminated in derek dying right in front of him, close enough to feel the blood. or derek saying call hotch--not 911, hotch--when they kidnapped him. or the casual touches. every time they share space they have no real reason to other than because the other is there. remember when derek took on some of the paperwork because he knew what it was like to have a single parent, so hotch wouldn't stress? or when hotch heard derek say he'd lied about a body, he'd needed help, and was instantly ready to go? how over and over they always gravitate back to each other? remember when derek said hotch could sometimes be kind of a drill sergeant, softening it with the qualifiers? when hotch tells derek about haley leaving? when derek says to rossi he's going to do whatever hotch needs him to do because he's lost enough? every single time derek is the one to seriously worry about hotch when he's hurt? do you remember all of that?

to answer the question, i don't know. i don't see why it matters, because i think any of the above tells you infinitely more about them.

#criminal minds #criminal minds fandom #hotchgan #aaron hotchner #derek morgan #this is a general trend I've noticed over months not any one specific thing #also preferences are fine it's just when bottom and top seem to become synonymous for certain personality traits that isn't great #I'm pretty sure it ties into the whole alpha male thing #because if you go off stereotypes they'd both be imagined as tops #and therefore you HAVE to know who bottoms to know how the relationship works l #forcing them into boxes and ignoring their actual dynamic #also it's always hotchgan getting asked this. always. there is so much more to this ship than how they fuck #cm thoughts

[jtownraindancer]

local tumblr user might not always feel attraction but they will latch onto one (1) funky looking middle-aged man and make it everyone's problem

#doing some self-evaluation tonight #i will not apologise #tumblr #ofc this is about burn but I've also noticed a trend among my fellow aces #burn gorman #and now back to asleep guten nacht

[willowser]

what's to come...

multi-chap stuff will be updated on a two week schedule ! 🤗 the rest will be posted depending on where they rank in the poll ! 🦋

pleased to meet you, dabi x f!reader ! (roughly) five chapters remaining.

southern charm, cowboy!bakugou x f!reader ! two chapters remaining.

my heart's aflame, my body's changed (but, god, i like it), werewolf!bakugou x f!reader ! modern au — no quirks, angst-heavy, explicit.

i fought them all off just to hold you close and tight, vampire!dabi x f!reader ! post-apocalyptic au, a bit bloody, explicit.

loving me is all you need, dabi x f!reader ! this is the 'if he's a serial killer...' smut chapter, gore/body horror, explicit.

hell was the journey, but it brought me heaven, ex-husband!bakugou x f!reader ! dad bakugou, mom reader, explicit.

remember me, love, when i'm reborn, dragon!bakugou x f!reader ! cross-species courting, accidental marriage ???, explicit.

*reminder that nothing is being posted yet !! this is for in the future only, when my hiatus has ended !!

#for full transparency sake: none of these are ready to be posted at this point in time #they're more holding together with glue and duct tape and love #but !! i'm jumping back and forth between them all and if i line them up and focus on them one by one #i will have them done in a decent amount of time i think !!! #the answer is to get out of my own way and let myself write however bad LOL and then edit later LOL #i'm also working on lil story pages for each that i will post once i'm happy with !! #and you are more than welcome to ask a bit about each of these if you'd like !!! #reminder that anything over 10k gets posted to ao3 only so...that will probably be most if not all of these LOL #but notices will be posted here too ofc !! #dragon bkg may be two parts haven't decided yet #one thing about me i'm gonna write an au #i've been on a monster f*cker trend lately idk what to tell you LMAOOOO exposing myself #✿ news

[ifmagicexists]

there's something that bothers me so much whenever i read or see magic reveal concepts that involve "i'm more mad you lied to me than i am about the magic how could you keep such a big secret from me" and i finally realized its because it feels so. dismissive of merlin's struggle? him having to watch people with magic be arrested or executed or burned day after day after day, to listen to the people closest to him so casually refer to it as evil, as though that were an unquestionable fact, having to live every single day less and less sure he could ever be accepted after hiding so long and seeing so much.

like in general but esp as a queer person, seeing these takes that make a magic reveal just about "why didn't you tell me don't you trust me" when actually the characters did not really give merlin much reason to trust they would be accepting (and in fact often in their very reactions demonstrate exactly why he was hesitant), and even if they had he lives!!! in a place where it is literally illegal!!!! like it is so frustrating to constantly see these perspectives where arthur or the knights angrily question why merlin couldn't tell them and merlin just being silent in response, when its so beyond clear how difficult a position merlin was in.

merlin is almost never the main character in his own magic reveal scenarios beyond just worrying about the other person liking him again, and while i get why that is, since its the other person's perspective shifting usually, its still frustrating because its meant to be a culmination of his life's struggle and finally a full realization and acceptance of himself, and i wish we could see more of that: more of merlin's own messy emotions towards having to hide for so long, over fearing his own friends, over suppressing who he is, over getting used to being open about it for the first time in his entire life.

#bbc merlin #merlin #arthur pendragon #knights #this post is not aimed at anyone or anything in particular #and i hope i'm not coming off aggressively or anything #but its just a very common trend i've noticed and have been kind of frustrated over #also i mentioned arthur and the knights in the post cause they're usually the ones i see this with #weirdly gwen often just unquestioningly accepts merlins magic despite the fact that her father literally being executed for it combined wit #-morgana's betrayal would probably leave her with some complicated feelings about magic as a whole #gee i wonder why it is that her reaction is just skimmed over as easy 🤔 #anyway that's a Whole Other post the point here is #i want more of everyone realizing how hard it was for merlin #and more of merlin realizing how hard it was on himself #instead of reveal fics that almost always involve merlin comforting arthur/the other person #like there's a place for those but it just rubs me the wrong way given the whole setup #and how analogous magic is to queerness #res rambles

[13eyond13]

Hi I noticed you have been in the deathnote fandom for a long time. Do you know some changes the fandom/ships went through? I already know that the misogyny towards misa used to be terrible

Thanks 🙏

Hi! Yes, I've been here a long time lmao So from what I can recall things have actually stayed pretty remarkably the same when it comes to the popularity of the ships and dynamics in this series. Lawlight has always been the most popular ship, followed closely by M2 (Matt x Mello). However back in the mid/late 2000s it was different in terms of certain things, like the way the ships were referred to. For example, there was no such thing as a nickname for a ship as a whole back then - you didn't call it "Lawlight," you called it either "L/Light" or "Light/L." You had to specify which of the two you liked as the top by putting their name at the start of the pairing. They were treated almost like they were two entirely different ships, and people would definitely get upset if you weren't terribly careful about specifying this when posting shippy fics and things. This changed sometime between 2009-2012, maybe? Possibly around when "Brangelina" and celebrity couple nicknames like that became a thing in pop culture, lol. I am personally glad things are no longer this fussy about labeling and defining the ships, because I find it dumb and possibly a bit offensive towards gay folks to be that obsessive about their bedroom dynamics above all else. But I definitely still see people get very particular about their preferences for this stuff when it comes to their discussions of the ships these days too, so I might be the odd one out here. Overall I'd say tolerance towards diversity of the pairings and appreciation of the more minor characters has increased? Stuff like pairing L with Matsuda or having het ships like B x Naomi wasn't terribly common back then, from what I remember. People won't hate on you and fight with you as much for daring to enjoy depicting the characters with somebody other than their fave in a story or a piece of art nowadays, either (like "how dare you pair L with somebody other than Light!" - this was a very common thing to hear back in the early fandom days, and people would often act like you were "cheating" on a character by shipping them with somebody other than the character they decided they belonged with.) And fans have also started showing more appreciation for the female characters and attempting to be more inclusive toward them than they used to be. There is a bit less hatred of characters like Near and more shipping of him now as well. Many people were extremely dismissive of him back in the day, and he has definitely grown in popularity over time.

In general I think the fandom has chilled out and diversified and become more tolerant and deeper and more accurate with the characterization in its discussion of the series overall, but I still often will see the exact same takes and trends and tastes and arguments going on now as I used to see back in 2008. Especially when I step outside of the Tumblr bubble and back into a broader/more casual group of fans talking about the series and their faves.

#also i feel it must depend a lot on what site you use / what group of fans youre interacting with #because sometimes i'll get surprised when i like end up in a pocket of oldfans on twitter who still act very similar #to how they acted in 2008... who seem to in fact want to preserve #the aspects of the older fandom days that i find particularly dumb. so when i try to talk about a broader scope or things changing #im basing my views mostly on the vibes i've noticed here on tumblr and like trends ive seen with younger/newer fans #for the most part though the biggest changes have probably just been in fandom culture as a whole #and in the series becoming an older/nostalgic one instead of an exciting new one #also i have no idea what's going on in like death note tiktok land or anything so I cannot answer you about that #ask #anon #p

[honorbright]

i don't really consider myself part of the "old guard" of terror fandom (i got here may/june 2021), but that doesn't make it any less tiring when newcomers like...pretend that we don't exist, or worse assume that we haven't been analyzing the show "correctly" or "deeply enough"

i promise you, people have been and still are talking about the themes you want to talk about! there's a whole ass conference for the fandom that's been going on for three years!

just...please, if you want to talk about themes, especially those relating to imperialism or queerness or racism or what have you, just say you want to talk about them. stop acting like you're the first person to do so, and even if you really are, stop being condescending to the rest of us. you're making other people who do want to talk about it and/or have in the past defensive, and shaming people even if they haven't won't encourage them to start.

i cherish my time in this fandom because it's such a well-made show and because we want to talk about it in one way or another. and i want to be glad that more people are getting interested, because it's such a well-made show! but it's really fucking hard when those newcomers act like they're enlightened and have to educate the unwashed masses who have already been here for several years

#berry posts #this is ok to reblog (i would encourage it honestly) but if people start being assholes i'm taking away reblog privileges #also not really about any post in particular. just an unfortunate trend i've been noticing

[prhvlbop]

watching people slowly minimize karin to a one-dimensional 'angry woman' trope so they can make her tsundere and bitchy for shipping and falling to my knees and crying because she's actually good and interesting in ways outside of this that i'm seeing brought up less and less. like i'm no longer getting the vibe that people collectively think of her as a standalone character as often as they focus on her in supporting or romantic roles to other characters

#laying despairing on my throne because i love her i want everyone else to also love her and not just because they want to pair her up #it's less that she's Angry and Vindictive and Cruel as core personality traits and more that she's Paranoid #and every aspect of her personality (being angry or vindictive or bitchy) are things that come from her being Paranoid. #because she was kidnapped as a child. and lied to. she isn't like this for no reason #shes like this because she was lied to her entire life by everyone and is now a valkyrie on a mission to protect others from her same fate #like. shes driven by an incessant need to discover people who endured the same complete denial of existence she endured and witnessing them #she's not just a bitch because she's mean because she has a crush. even if i do romance her with other characters. shes Deeper than that... #this isn't a critique of anyone in specific it's just a general fandom trend i've noticed as more people got into the games :( #idkkk #termina #karin

[linoguy]

-.-

#i shouldn't make a post on this but as someone who's into a group that is also compared to nct i feel a sort of interesting defensiveness #after hearing shinee's latest single and knowing that its being compared to nct becase of mutuals n all #like ana wantbytaemin said like.. if you think that sounds like nct you just legit don't listen to anything except kpop #the part that they're probably comparing to nct is this trend of a somewhat isolation of vocals in the chorus where the chorus is more #spoken than it is sung + with like one layer of instrumentals in the back #i've noticed this among other hit kpop songs so it seems like it's really just a thing right now. im not a fan of it either but what's #happening in shinee's hard song is /not/ the same as that #what's happening in hard is legit just a hip hop thing. if you're finding an out right repulsion to it you should probably question #your prejudices. anyways KJSDH #again i dont really have much jurisdiction to be making this post but its kinda baffling to me that people would make that connection

[hyaciiintho]

🌸｡*ﾟ+. Me, working on my carrd... realizing that like 80% of my muses are on the Ace spectrum--

#MUN SPEAKING 🌸 ᴬ ʷᵉᵃᵛᵉʳ ᵒᶠ ᵗᵃˡᵉˢ; ᴾᵃⁱⁿᵗᵉʳ ᵒᶠ ˢᵗᵃʳˢ #Once again... I am noticing... The Trend™️ LMAO aside from it also being the “IRL Puppy Dog” type of muse #The amount of times I've typed “Demisexual/romantic” and “Asexual” or “Aromantic” in a combination of ways is. Startling LMAO #Damn the QUALITY of this muse list is Valedictorian material; Because they're all ACE-- //SHOT #Don't mind me I'm slowly losing my mind at transferring bios and thinking how I'm gonna put together other pages LOL #Creative brain is overheating with how much thinking I'm doing I need me a Purification Ampoule--

[rollercoasterwords]

ok! i'm actually gonna be grumpy for a second

this is gonna be me talking about the circular online discourse of "omg it SUCKS that mlm fics are so much more popular than wlw fics" specifically in the marauders fandom i do not know if it will be productive or insightful or if it will just be me being grumpy so. scroll if u want lol

anyway. i'm just! getting kinda frustrated at this point with the amount of people i see saying something like "guys...isn't it crazy how mlm fics are sooooo much more popular!! it's because of misyogyny!!" and then everyone just agreeing with them and like. that's it. internet echo chamber.

and it's like no okay i get it we need to have a conversation like it's important to start this conversation but we just. keep starting it. and starting it. and starting it. and it feels like it's not even a conversation at this point.

ok hang on i'm gonna try to organize my thoughts because i feel like there are...perhaps two main things that annoy me

there is no bad guy in this situation

one thing that frustrates me is this sort of weirdly....moralizing? ig? underlying tone to a lot of these posts. like, it sometimes feels like people are searching for someone to blame or get upset with, or some group of people to blame or get upset with. it's not just "oh misogyny is a reason behind this," it's "making a post about this issue and the way you respond to posts about this issue is an indicator of your personal moral fiber and also i now win good person points for saying this thing that many people have already said." maybe i'm being too harsh here because i DO think people deserve the benefit of the doubt and i'm sure that most of the people pointing out this issue have good intentions, i just...idk. sometimes it feels like virtue signaling more than anything.

and i think the reason it sometimes feels like virtue signaling to me is that there is no bad guy in this situation! there isn't anyone to "catch out" for the misogyny underlying this whole popularity disparity. if someone exclusively reads/writes mlm fic, that does not make them a bad person. is there perhaps some self-reflection to be done about why that is the only form of media content they consume? sure! but that's a call-in, not a call-out. y'know? idk maybe this is a whole other discussion but i already made a post about the reason i think mlm is so much more popular than wlw so i'm not gonna say it all again lol

2. the solution is actually right there. it's RIGHT there. this is a solvable thing

okay this is the thing that i think bothers me more and that contributes to those posts feeling like virtue-signaling more than anything. and that's that, at the end of the day, just saying "omg mlm fics are way more popular ugh misogyny" isn't!! that!! productive!!

like guys. this is fanfiction. this is literally fanfiction. if you truly view this as a really big issue, there are actually things you can do to fix it!! you can write wlw fics! you can read wlw fics! you can comment and kudos and recommend and send nice messages to people who write wlw fics! like this is actually a situation where you as an individual can actively do shit ??? and any of those things will be more productive than just saying over and over again that there's an issue.

like. imagine with me for a moment. picture me this. "oh man," internet user x says, "it really sucks that mlm fics are so much more popular than wlw fics! i want to see more wlw fics in this fandom space." internet user x wants to see wlw fics getting more attention, so internet user x goes and finds some wlw fics. internet user x reads them. internet user x recommends them to some friends. wow! internet user x has identified something they are unhappy with and has taken steps to change it! yay!

ok i know i'm getting sarcastic at this point i KNOW i told u guys i was gonna be grumpy. but like. the point stands (i think?). like first of all -- this is not a life or death issue; it's something that i would love to see actual conversations about, but at the end of the day this is all fanfiction and it's not that serious. but if it IS something that bothers you, actually reading and recommending wlw fics is just going to do so much more than making another post about how crazy it is that mlm fics get more attention. like. we get it. we have established that. let's either have an actual conversation about it or move on please.

"oh i would but i can't find any good wlw fics" dm me. i'll give u some. ok??? i have a whole post of recommendations. go look at that. jfc. if i could find them u can too!! it might take a little more work but again, if this is something you care so deeply about then like...work to find them. just!!! yeah. ok. i'm done now i think if i just keep going i'm gonna get mean which isn't fair bc like i said i think the people making these posts are well-intentioned. i am just! grumpy :)

#grumpy!!! #grumpy posting #posting on tumblr and being grumpy about it #idk sometimes u just need to rant on ur silly little tumblr blog #also this is not about any specific person this is just a trend i've noticed #like i said there's no bad guy nobody is in the wrong here #sometimes i just get annoyed at things on the internet and it's not because there's some big moral issue #it's just because i'm a hater at heart <3 #txt #ranting and raving