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monstersinthecosmos · 2 years

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Anne Rice's books are filled with morally dubious concepts and toxic relationships, I thought everyone that is fan would be so because of that. But scrolling through the tag I find people claiming to be fans but only of the wholesome parts, which are almost nothing?? Anne Rice is not wholesome in the slightest. I don't know, it feels lonely. And also I see the TV show isn't willing to engage with the horror and complexity of these books neither, which, makes me see the vampire chronicles isn't really meant to be brought to this medium. I don't know why I am dumping this on you but I feel like you would understand somehow. Please ignore if not, I don't want to offend you.

Lmao I’m not offended, hello! I am, however, about to talk way too much bc I haven't changed in the years since I've haunted tunglr dot com so I apologize for that

TLDR: Be a freak, don't let anyone make you feel bad, I hope the show isn't too wholesome.

I’ve been in and out of this fandom for like, literally twenty years 👵🏻 so being completely honest I have always seen a wide range of fans on the spectrum of HAPPILY ENJOYING IN BLISS to ONLY INTERESTED IN CRITICISM and like that’s such a personal, subjective choice of whatever everyone finds fun in their free time. I’ve also, in twenty years, been on both ends of the spectrum, and I even fully swore AR off for a few years at one point bc I was so mad at her lol, but IM BACK BAYBEE and to me idk it’s not fun to take things so seriously all the time. That’s just me though!

I do think there’s been a huge shift in fandom culture (particularly on Tumblr) in the last 10 years or so that prioritizes moral critiques of canon; it’s not just VC, I see this in a lot of fandoms, and I think it’s been more amplified since the Adult Content Ban bc, surprise!, a lot of adults left the site lol. I think we’re living in a culture right now that’s very focused on respectability politics and there’s obviously a huge push in the mainstream to censor and control transgressive media (especially queer fiction), and it doesn’t surprise me that this has influenced younger fans because it’s a culture we are steeped in at all times, even when they try to identify as progressive. But don’t think that the broader wave of censorship right now isn’t connected to the way conservatives are beginning to skew the conversations in fandom spaces, too. Fandom is a microcosm of what’s happening outside! And there are all types of ideas and stigmas that we get inundated with in the world, without our consent, because it’s the space we all occupy.

Having said all that LOL. All these types of fans exist and sometimes you have to just read the room and find your people. Some people’s enjoyment of the books is conditional, ie: cherrypicking what we liked about them and celebrating just those parts. Especially because I think so many of us read the books young and didn’t think too hard about it; we can agree that Anne’s writing was seductive and we were all probably baby queer weirdos who felt seen or w/e. And I think it’s normal that a lot of us have grown up and looked back at some of the stuff in the books like “oh yikes lol”

But everyone has different ways to navigate those feelings. I personally don’t have a problem compartmentalizing and just enjoying myself. I don’t take fiction morals very seriously and I enjoy the thought exercise of putting myself in imaginary dark places. Not everyone can flip that on and off and separate fiction from reality so easily, so ur milage may vary. I’m also someone who supports the idea of using fiction as a staging area for sexuality, and using fiction imo is a great way to play. Not everybody feels that way and for some people, the fun of playing in fandom is to play with the canon in a transformative way to see how to “fix” it or to rearrange it in a way that is less nauseating. I think there’s a culture in spaces like Tumblr to feel you need to repent for your fiction sins, and not everyone can sit with the guilt of accidentally enjoying amorality in fiction. And like I’m sure there are fans who read IWTV at 13 and Loustat is just so deeply embedded in them that they simply cannot exit the train at this point, and they're doing what they can with the scraps to ease that discomfort.

And I mean, good for them, if it helps them enjoy their time on this fucking germy ass planet!!!!!! That’s very fun, happy 4 u guys lol.

There is also 1000000% Nothing Wrong with blissfully enjoying all the evil and trash. It is perfectly safe and extremely normal. You just need to find your people, and sometimes it is hard and it does feel lonely. I'm with you, though. I'm here to enjoy the evil bullshit and revel in it LOL. There's literally nothing in the series that is wholesome except for Mojo.

To be honest, I’m not into Loustat at all. And not in a morally superior way—they don’t really do it for me but also Lestat reminds me waaaaaaaay too much of my abuser and Louis reminds me way too much of myself when I was stuck in that relationship. It isn’t fun for me to engage with Loustat content because I tend to only see the manipulation and gaslighting when I look at it, and for me personally it’s juuuuuuust a bit too close to the reality I lived through. I would argue that my OTP Armand/Daniel is the most toxic ship in VC but I was never kidnapped by a vampire or stalked across the globe while being literally addicted to his body fluid so yknow, that don’t bother me. =P But it’s 100% normal to look at canon toxic ships and play in the sandbox to either “fix” them or to like, take control of the narrative and allow yourself some catharsis by digging into it in a safe imaginary space. When I have the chance I like to mAkE thEM WORSE

So it’s been occurring to me when I see the enthusiasm of these fans for the show that perhaps they don’t particularly like canon to begin with? So changing it this drastically isn’t an issue to them? I’m sure everyone has their own reasons and I don’t want to generalize. On the issue of Claudia, for example: I think she is an intrinsic part of the plot and drives very profound feminist messages in the book, and I think her being a small child is absolutely essential to that story. I recognize that there are morally reprehensible moments in text regarding her and to me I’m like GOOD, IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE GROSS. It’s supposed to be gross!!!! It’s a horror novel!!!!!! And Anne Rice was a writer who wanted to always talk about the full spectrum of human emotion, including sexual emotion, so having sexual themes intertwined with the horror was completely on purpose!

Then you see some people who ONLY see that it’s gross and can’t connect with the full scope of her story because it’s too uncomfortable. And like, you do you bestie! Curate that experience for yourself! Have boundaries and love yourself enough to stay safe!!! But I do think it’s wild the amount of complaints I’ve seen about Claudia, for example, which strike me as particularly ironic because it’s almost meta in the way they’ve embodied the entire reason her character is tragic. People infantilizing Claudia as a character, unable to engage with the topic of her at all, is exactly the reason she’s a tragedy in canon, because she can be as old as she wants and people will always see her as a child. D:

As far as the TV show goes lol.

Being fair, I don’t think we know enough yet to know how evil & problematic they’re going to be. LMAO. I hope it’s like unhinged gaslighting abusive romance bc like, WHAT ARE YOU WASTING OUR TIME FOR IF NOT? But I always have found it funny when you see people who seem to otherwise hate everything problematic in VC somehow cape for Loustat as if it’s any different from the other ships. 😂

My concerns at this moment are that the way they changed Claudia is a huge red flag to me about whether or not they will engage in the problematic elements, and I’m not thrilled that RJ says the rest of the books give you a better picture of Lestat than just IWTV, because I disagree. Like, hearing from his own voice definitely allows us to know his sense of humor and we can see he’s a bi disaster, but he’s already CHARMING in IWTV. Louis falls for his shit because he’s charming. So I don’t think we need to know that he considers himself faultless for him to have a fuller portrayal on the show.

Like, I hope the show portrays them as being an abusive ship and shows all the nuance that it deserves, but RJ’s comments reminded me of the binary we see over and over in VC fandom about trying to get to the bottom about WHICH ONE OF THEM WAS LYING. (And it was Lestat, imo LOL he’s told on himself many many times.) So claiming IWTV is an incomplete portrayal of him makes me wonder if RJ comprehended that Lestat is a charming manipulator who abuses everyone in his life LOL. And ESPECIALLY with the time shift + age difference I think this puts them in a very different context. A Lestat who is turned in his 30s with a fully baked prefrontal cortex is going to have a very different temperament from canon Lestat, and even moreso when we understand he’s not a traumatized, freshly-bereaved fledgling anymore but like OVER A CENTURY OLD LMAO so like, he’s had time to calm down and gain some wisdom and that would have to make such a huge difference on the level of coercion. (That’s another red flag for me too is that RJ goes “no no we just changed a couple little things !” and the things he changed are like HUGE??????? So him saying that makes me skeptical again about the nuance of the abuse here.)

I also have some concerns bc some of the show’s team has worked on other titles that were about toxic male antiheros and there are definitely moments in those shows where you can’t tell if the writers are aware of themselves. IE: Tony Soprano is a racist bad guy who kills people and cheats on his wife, and yet there are still occasional narratives on The Sopranos that show the creators also had some of those same biases, and you must wonder if some of Tony’s actions or behavior weren’t intended to be catalogued in the ways he’s very evil.

So looking at the way they’re speaking about Lestat’s characterization, that they’re referring to it as a romance, and some of the patterns in their other work I do have concerns about how the abuse will be portrayed. I also worry about how the abuse will play on screen now that there is an added racial element, and if it will be too cruel or edge into messages that feel too real and hurtful to the audience. And, to circle back lmao, I’m not uncomfortable with objectionable morals in my fiction, but, some nuance would be good.

Don’t get me wrong like I hope the ship on the TV show is like ABUSIVE and SEXY and I hope Louis is like HORNY and TRAPPED because he knows he should leave but he CANNOT! And I want there to be some steamy frustrated hatesex! And huge fights and makeup sex! LOL. But yeah I mean, pretending that Loustat is wholesome is a complete joke, and I really really hope that the show doesn’t misunderstand Loustat to a point where they aren’t aware of what they’re really portraying. LET THE STORY BE ABUSIVE BUT PLEASE BE AWARE OF YOURSELF!

(Anne could have used this advice too in the second half of the series LMAO whoops but I think having that nuance would ultimately make these stories even richer. HERE I AM COMPLAINING ABOUT CANON NONCOMPLIANCE EXCEPT MAKING AN EXTREMELY UNAWARE PORTRAYAL OF ABUSE IS COMPLETELY CANON, my bad.)

And basically like. If it’s not going to be those things I’m just back to wondering why they wanted to adapt this book? So far the only thing in common with canon is like… New Orleans???? An interview of some type will take place? They have the same names?

So it’s hard to hear the team talk about how respectful they are of the book when…. They’re not keeping anything from the book? LOL. What exactly did you see in this story that you wanted to express? I don’t get it. 😂 And I would hate for a book about morally dubious characters and abusive romances to be like, a campy vampire romance without any of those questions and themes.

I’m not saying any of this to nitpick or be needlessly negative; I’m saying it to say it’s some of the things I’ve been wondering and some of the clues I’ve been looking for during the past year to see what exactly is going on with this show LOL. Again, I don’t think the trailer told us enough to know. I’ve been critical and looking for these things and genuinely don’t have a solid opinion yet because I haven’t gotten enough information. Lestat is certainly being extremely predatory and he looks unhinged as fuck so that’s a good sign LMAO. Louis even refers to it in the voiceover as being “hunted”, so it’s nice to know that he feels that way with 100 years of perspective. But we’ll have to wait and see!

I think at this point I’m really hoping for like HANNIBAL LEVEL fuckery and like that type of unhinged gaslighting and manipulation LOL and I think Hannibal was about as far from canon as VCTV looks so far. I’m just doing my best to compartmentalize and be fair about the show while also acknowledging my extremely deep disappointment that we waited 5 years for WOLFKILLER STUFF AND NICKI only to be given an AU fanfic lol. And like, I give Hannibal a bit of a pass because by the time that show came out there had already been like 5 movies made of that franchise and they were mostly faithful so like at that point the idea had already been explored and it was time to remix. I don’t feel VC has ever gotten that shot yet so it’s sad that they went straight for a remix :(

anyway sorry, I disappeared off tumblr for years but I apparently still answer anons with exceedingly meandering essays, I have no idea if this answered what you were asking but LOL YOLO ✌️

#having slept on this #i also want to add that in case this wasn't clear:#TLDR there is room for everyone #be kind and find your people #fandom is not a finite space #it's like Clifford #it wlil get bigger and bigger if you keep loving it!!!!! LOL #make stuff!!!!

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everypigeondeserveslove · 9 months

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Bemoaning the woobification of a character in one fandom while being a succession fan is a new level of delusion

#and I say this as someone who likes enjoys the succession fandom #this is in no way a slight to the succession fandom #I love the way that Succession was consumed and would love to see it replicated in other fandoms #but a post discussing the tragedy of Relvin Temults life does not mean that the poster is incapable of showing empathy for his daughter #all it means is some of y'all are actively refusing to engage with cannon #People can hold empathy for mutliple characters at once #empathy is not a finite #it just seems like it's finite because some of y'all act like it is when interacting with others within the fandom #and fandom spaces would be so much better if y'all just accepted this (and stopped being so darn annoying)

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akookminsupporter · 4 months

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I've always heard that armys are known within the kpop sphere for being particularly uninterested in other groups, but I'm not even sure if that's true. I don't think I've ever heard of an army that will go out of their way to specifically not listen to other kpop groups like 'oh god I would NEVER watch a mv that's not bts.' Having said that, there may be a chunk of army that don't like kpop as a genre and only like bts as a subsection of it. Even so, I'm pretty sure most armys have some baseline familiarity with other groups' most popular songs just from existing in this space. But, while I can appreciate a song from another group, why would I buy it? If NMD hadn't charted at #1 in the U.S., it wouldn't have been another kpop group's song that did, it would have been a western artist's. It seems like they're operating from the perspective that there's a finite number of people willing to listen to kpop out there and bts are somehow monopolizing it, which is so weird bc (1) Kpop's target audience can always grow, and bts grew it, and (2) neither army nor bts owe kpop as a genre anything. Personally, I like kpop, and I think having more korean artists recognized for making good music on the world stage would be great, but that doesn't mean I'm going to buy their music.

Is Kpop a genre or an industry? Or is it both?

All I can say is that we have seen end-of-the-year award shows where many other groups perform, presenting the best they have had that year. For many of us, that has been enough. In my case, I've heard parts of songs on TikTok that I liked, but when I decide to look up and listen to the whole song, I'm disappointed. I'm not saying the group is bad; it's just that their music doesn't appeal to me. It's as simple as that, but some Kpoppies don't want to understand that. Another thing they don't want to understand—and I feel they don't, partly because they don't experience the same with their favs—is the connection with the members. It goes a bit beyond the music; some would call it parasocial relationships, but it's not as exciting as that. BTS is different in many ways from their peers, and it's something that no one has been able to replicate, copy, or repeat. Not even HYBE or BigHit.

The success or failure of other groups is not BTS's fault, and certainly not its fandom. That responsibility lies entirely with each group and their fans. Just as BTS's success is thanks to them and their fandom.

Fans control the charts (I know they can be manipulated, but fundamentally, they are controlled by the fans), so it is the responsibility of the fans to ensure their favourite groups reach the top positions. It is also the group's responsibility to attract a large number of people who want to become their fans and, therefore, are willing to invest time and money in them. It's a fairly straightforward operation, and there is no room for anything else in it.

If BTS's fandom is large and, therefore, has more resources to achieve things, it means the group fulfilled its part of the deal well, and the fandom, as a result, is fulfilling theirs. It's really simple.

It seems like they're operating from the perspective that there's a finite number of people willing to listen to kpop out there and bts are somehow monopolizing it, which is so weird bc (1) Kpop's target audience can always grow, and bts grew it, and (2) neither army nor bts owe kpop as a genre anything.

Totally and I don't understand that mentality.

#bts #kpoppies

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thedrarrylibrarian · 10 months

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Several people have been kind enough to let me publish their thoughts on fandom, community, and queerness to celebrate Pride in the Library. Today's piece is a conversation between @academicdisasterfic and his boyfriend, @saintgarbanzo. If you missed it, @saintgarbanzo organized a fundraiser to help support @academicdisasterfic with funds for top-surgery. This fundraiser has met its goal, and is referenced to throughout their conversation.

In this conversation, @saintgarbanzo is chickpea in bold, and @academicdisasterfic is rooney, in regular text.

chickpea: ok baby. let's talk about the gift economy in fandom. it’s something that's part of our politics but many of us struggle with feeling like our worth is tied to our production, even in fandom. has your fundraising experience changed your understanding of those concepts for you?

rooney: Short answer: yes.

Long answer: I think part of what drew me to fanfiction in the first place was a complete divide from capitalism. It’s such a relief in this world of productivity culture. I started writing purely because I loved it and I never thought anyone would read my fics. But then people did, and that meant everything to me. After this fundraiser, I truly understand why the gift economy is so imperative to fandom. People are doing me a favour by donating to my surgery, reading my fics, or writing fics that I love to read. It still feels overwhelming to have as much support as I did. I haven’t processed it at all, I can’t actually fathom it, and I initially had this dread about how I was never going to be able to repay the fandom for what it did for me - it’s not true for all trans men, but for me, this surgery will save my life. But fic saved me too, and I know the same applies to many. When I thought about it like that, I realised that I would do the same thing for anyone here, and it would make me happy to do it. I’d never think they had to pay off that debt. The difference between capitalism and the gift economy is that one is about power and competition, and the other is about the cyclical nature of community. Debts don’t exist, because we don’t give from a finite pool of resources. We give to each other from an endless pool of infinite possibilities.

chickpea: i had that same realization. initially the only way we felt comfortable asking for help was by offering an exchange, but then the exchange wasn't really necessary. everyone just offered up their resources–money but also their time and talent and attention. i go back and forth between feeling guilty/indebted and trying to remind myself that this is how communities are supposed to function and i can feel grateful without feeling guilty.

you talked about fandom's resistance to capitalism being an initial draw. what about its queerness? my first fandom interactions were very much based in fandom being a safe place to explore queerness. i want to hear about the relationship between your gender realizations and this community.

rooney: You know, I didn’t even think about it in that way - it was more, “I need a queer space, I want it to be a creative space”. It was so apparent to me, even before I knew I was trans, that whatever community I invested in had to have queerness at its core. Back in 2010 when I was figuring out my sexuality, fandom and shipping on Tumblr became really important to me, so I already knew it was there and when I started to explore it, that’s when a lot of gender stuff happened.

I think so many trans people have a more nuanced relationship with their body than is portrayed as the mainstream trans narrative of just being born in the wrong body. I worked very hard before learning I was trans to love and respect my body, and I’d never call it wrong. But reading about queer men fall in love was truly a lightning bolt moment. I’d always felt like an outsider in sapphic spaces - I’m bi/pan/whatever so I do really love women and femmes, that was never the issue - but I realised that I wanted my partners to be perceiving me differently, that I wanted to be treated as a queer man. I think the transgression and fight against purity culture in fandom was so crucial to it - the feelings of displacement and disconnection aren’t articulated the same way in published literature. One of my first fandom friends was @softlystarstruck who writes amazing trans characters with a variety of bodies and sexualities and genders. That sort of representation, of bodies coming together in all those different ways, specifically in sex, made me feel like there was hope - that transness and pleasure aren’t incongruent but born of the same instinct. We have to desire the things that will bring us joy.

chickpea: i love you

rooney: i love you too baby

chickpea: i love that you talked about displacement within queer communities. we've all seen and experienced queerphobia and racism, the demands for productivity, toxicity, discourse that's both helpful and harmful etc. you're someone in fandom who i really admire for the way you acknowledge and navigate the problematic parts of fandom while still focusing on building community in a healthy and joyful way.

can you talk a little bit about being a trans man who consciously decides to stay in hp fandom?

i’ve definitely struggled with my participation here and your fundraiser has brought up those arguments for me again, because we've harnessed this really material and transformative help for you as a trans person, that was carried pretty much entirely by this community.

rooney: Ooft, the big question.

First off I have to make it clear that I completely understand trans people who don’t want to engage with the HP fandom, because it’s a fucking hard moral and ethical quandary to navigate. But also, I don’t think anyone, including other trans people, should judge those of us who find the inherent transgression of fandom empowering and freeing. That’s my go to answer.

I understand the ethical problems of HP and its fandom. The series is just flagrantly racist. It’s heteronormative, homophobic, and all around “ethically mean spirited”, as Ursula Le Guin so eloquently put it. But it’s still something that I loved, and more importantly, the fandom is so strong not in spite of the series' flaws, but because of them. The more broken it is, the more there is to fix - and we’ve put in Desi Harry and Black Hermione, we’ve written whole essays on why Wolfstar is canon, we’ve taken terrible things like “house elves love to be enslaved” and written complex, thoughtful interpretations of the relationship between oppressor and oppressed. We’ve fucked with it all. Some hasn’t gone far enough, particularly in regards to the way we think about and portray people of colour. But overall, we’ve improved upon something without a single cent from that work going to J.K. Rowling. I find people in this fandom have had a much deeper understanding of the problems in the series for the longest, because we examine it so critically and closely.

No one’s perfect, but we’re all trying - at least, most of us are - and we’re doing things that make the lives of trans people and other marginalised people better. And I’m a trans person who can attest to that, and I know you are too. Universal maxims like “any engagement with HP is transphobic!” don’t even begin to understand what fandom is, what it does, and why it exists. (Those universal maxims also tend to be hugely influenced by Western morality and the legacy of Christianity)

And yes - my fundraiser, and how this community came together to support a trans person in need, really shows all of it in a tangible way. The people here are here to support and uplift those who need it.

chickpea; i often fall into the trap of feeling like if my resistance doesn't transform my oppressors then it doesn't count. i’ve written posts about racism in fandom and a lot of times i still approach it from the position of like, how do i make this palatable, if i just say it with the perfect tone then it will be more approachable and i'll like, convert the racists. i write it with the idea that i have to reach the unreachable. but over and over what i see is that those posts strengthen the people already on my side. and i think it's the same when we're talking about the effects on queer people of engaging with hp. like, a lot of times the argument is that our silly little stories don't translate into real resistance, because people think of "real" resistance as legislative changes and boycotts, as efforts that transform and educate or punish oppressors. and our trans fanfic isn't convincing any terfs that they're miserable pieces of shit. but it bolsters other trans people. it supports us as individuals in this community. i think that the emphasis on whether or not hp fandom engagement translates to "real world" resistance focuses too much on that idea of reaching the unreachable people. we're here and we're doing it for each other, and i *know* it's effective because every queer person i've met in this community has a story of being strengthened by a fic, or a post, or an illustration.

i want to bring it back to joyfulness in fandom. how has it encouraged you to cultivate more joy for yourself and others?

rooney: Honestly, I think that idea about remembering who we’re actually doing this for is so important. And also I believe we can plant seeds for change through joy. Because here’s the thing - change doesn’t originate from someone signing a piece of paper enacting legislation. That’s an important part, but that person enacts legislation because they represent their communities. Communities who believe joy is possible are stronger, because they have something to fight for. Joy is essential to resistance. I want to reach my community with my words and make them strong. And perhaps then those sentiments will reach further, because we will feel supported by each other and capable in our own lives of challenging bigotry and violence, knowing we are not alone. I am convinced that is how change happens.

But I don’t just want to be happy so I can fight better. I want to cultivate joy because I deserve it, because I’m a person. Transphobic rhetoric dehumanises trans people, and that disconnect from our humanity can be internalised; perhaps we don’t feel worthy of indulgence, frivolity, the whimsical and beautiful and luxurious parts of life. Fuck that. Every human deserves access to joy. Treating myself cruelly will not change anything about me - depriving myself of joy when I fuck up doesn’t make me fuck up less the next time, and it doesn’t help the people affected by said fuck up. But treating myself well, indulging my creativity and dreaming and desires, actually does change me. It makes me better to the people around me, and better to myself, which means I have more energy for others and myself, which means I give more - it’s the gift economy, it’s cyclical.

So fandom just makes me happy because it does. I love watching these dumb boys in love. And rather than try and analyse that or judge it, I let myself accept it, and go with it, purely because it’s joyful and life affirming and connects me with the world in a new and beautiful way. It’s really just the power of storytelling, I think - it calls to something primal in us. Maybe it reminds us that we’re humans in this world that wants us to be more like machines.

Fandom makes me joyful because it reminds me of my humanity, I think. With every fic I read or gorgeous artwork it’s like I’m accessing this part of my humanness that I have to keep segmented and separate from my work life, my life where I have to so much of the time be productive and disciplined. Here, I feel all of my flaws acutely and deeply, and all of my wonders, and it’s soul deep. How wonderful to be a human and to feel so keenly - how preferable to a life of trying to stay in the boring, lonely middle.

chickpea: your soulful intellectual rigor is very attractive

rooney: i think that’s my favorite thing you’ve ever said to me.

chickpea: a lot of times i have to frame my self-care and creative work in terms of resistance because that's the only way i can allow myself to have it. but you are so fundamentally right. cultivating joy isn't only for the collective, it's for me. i need to think about pleasure and joy less as a fuck you to the people trying to crush me, and more as a gift. giving yourself that gift of joy really does give that gift to others, and that's such a beautiful, community building action.

thank you for the reminder that being in community is about engaging with our humanity. it's a perfect conclusion to our whole discussion. humanity is gorgeous and gross and so is fandom and stories are reflections of that, and those reflections are so special to so many of us.

thank you for letting me trick you into processing your feelings.

rooney: for the record i encourage all of your attempts to trick me into processing my feelings.

Thank you both for joining me in the Library. I loved what you both had to say about fandom being a gift of joy to ourselves and community being a gift we give to each other. Thank you so much for the privilege of reading your conversation as a way to celebrate Pride in the Library.

If you want more @academicdisasterfic, be sure to check out his work on AO3! I particularly love his fic like the sun came out, because it so accurately portrays the way people who truly love each other treat each other - with gentleness and kindness and patience.

If you want more @saintgarbanzo, be sure to check out his work on AO3 as well! I love Sweeten to Taste because I'm always a sucker for a beautiful food description, and also because I love the thoughtful and nuanced discussions Harry and Draco have in this fic about justice and forgiveness and what we all deserve even when we've been wronged and when we have wronged others.

🏳️‍🌈 Lots of Love and Happy Pride! 🏳️‍🌈

#pride 2023 #pride in the library #pride in the library 2023 #lots of love and happy pride #friends of the library #fandom community #academicdisasterfic #saintgarbanzo

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tosahobi-if · 15 days

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your poll got me thinking but do you think that an if can actually be a self-insert? every mc feels like an actual character to me so i don't understand people who play as self-inserts.

that’s an interesting way of looking at it! i agree to some extent that if we’re going by a purely literal definition of self-insert, i think that it’s impossible to embody every single person out there with a finite amount of choices. buuut in that same sense i think it’s possible to have self-insert for anything! maybe it’s because i’ve been in the fandom space for so long kdjdjf but i think it’s really beautiful when people see themselves within media. not everything has to be a direct reflection of a person to immerse yourself into something (≧∀≦) the power of imagination is a really cool thing!

#anon #i can’t play as self insert myself #bc i lock up in full body cringe at the thought of making decisions JSJDJJFJFJ #anyways i’ve been enjoying the tags on the poll #humans are so fascinating hehe #someone said something similar in the comments!#i think it was more along the lines that every mc is a version of the og?#i may be misremembering

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fouroddapples · 8 months

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I've had some thoughts, and with tumblr not having a character limit, I wanted to throw them out into the void.

I think we could all stand to think of HCs more as sandcastles.

Fandom is an infinitely huge playground, with more than enough space for everyone to build their own the way they want to. That person having one does not affect your having one. What theirs looks like does not affect what yours looks like. Yours can be objectively better in every way and that still does not mean you're right to kick theirs down, because that still makes you an asshole. The very action of kicking down a sandcastle is inherently an asshole thing to do, regardless of what it looked like.

That person's incredibly stupid, incredibly ugly sandcastle that makes zero sense and should not bother the world with its existence has 1 positive effect on the world (that person is happy) and 0 negative effects. And if you feel negatively affected by an opinion you scroll past that you disagree with, that's the equivalent of saying "that sandcastle was SO ugly it offended my eyes, and therefore I HAD to kick it down to protect myself!"

And listen, I too am autistic and spend every waking moment thinking about these characters, I get you. I get how annoying it can be for others to interpret our favourite characters in a way that we feel is wrong. (I am not talking about "media literacy" because I absolutely hate the weaponisation of this term and how it's become nothing but a thinly veiled "this person is simply too stupid to understand MY media correctly", but I digress.)

Point being, it doesn't matter how strong your negative feelings are at the ugliness and absolute stupidity of that person's sandcastle. It's still an asshole thing to do to kick it down when it would cost you nothing to simply avert your eyes and go back to playing with your own much cooler one, and let that person have their fun.

Enjoy your sandcastles, let other people enjoy theirs, and if you have nothing nice to say, you don't have to say anything at all. It doesn't affect you. This kind of thing can drive people completely out of fandoms for things that they love just as much as you love it.

Fandom's whole entire purpose is to have fun, and I think we could all stand to remember that fun is not a finite resource, and someone else having theirs does not impact yours. Good old live and let live. 💕

#fandom #fandom etiquette #headcanons #arcane #good omens #this goes for all fandoms tbh and I gotta emphasise that GO so far is THE chillest fandom I've ever been in #y'all are amazing for the absolute most part #but even here I think people sometimes forget this #I also love my little corner of arcane folks but the wider fandom can get a little crazy #this is the closest I'll ever get to talking about drama in any way lol

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avaantares · 7 months

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📓

Oooh, so now comes the hard part: Deciding which story to share!

The truth is, I have a huge folder of story ideas and WIPs, some of which are just a document with a line or two of notes reminding me of the story's premise. A finite amount of writing time guarantees that most of these stories -- while fully developed in my head -- will never see the light of day. This means I have at least a dozen fics that could fall into the category of "haven't written but you've daydreamed about."

(Of course, this also means that if multiple people send me 📓, at least I won't run out of material... 😅)

Okay -- I've picked one on the basis of @iamtheshriekingguineapig bringing it up AGAIN a day or two ago. (That will teach me to tell her I have story ideas for fandoms she likes, LOL. Maybe if I post the treatment, she'll be happy with that?)

The fandom is Devil May Cry, and this is one of those stories that has the potential to be so big and sprawling that I haven't even bothered making notes for it, because unless we get hit with another pandemic (please no), I will never, ever have time to write it. (See also: Children of the Future Age, my 330K behemoth that was only, like, 60 or 80K until I was stuck in lockdown for a year and a half.) But despite the lack of written outline, this is one of those things that just lived in the back of my head long enough that I mentally scripted entire scenes and blocks of dialogue for it while doing the dishes or whatever.

Here goes:

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Lucia (who makes an appearance because I got SO MANY COMMENTS on CotFA asking me why she wasn't in the story >.<) gathers the DMC team and informs them that a new -- or possibly ancient, but recently awakened -- evil threatens the safety of the human realm. Lucia remains in the human realm to coordinate teams of devil hunters and deal with the rogue demons who have grown agitated due to the rising malice. Nico stays behind with her, outfitting the hunter teams and engineering defensive systems and weapons to protect human cities from the encroaching demons. The rest of Team DMC (a.k.a. our main cast, inclusive of Vergil) head for the underworld to deal with the malevolent energy at its source.

During their search, the hunters discover a massive star-shaped array stretching across miles of the underworld. The array is generating an impenetrable shield around something at its center, which is likely the source of the demonic energy. In order to gain access, they need to disable the seals at each corner of the array, which are the shield's anchor points. Only when all five are disabled will the shield fall, allowing them to confront the evil creature staging a comeback.

The team splits up for efficiency (and because I mentally structured this story in true video game format, with each area a "level" that characters proceed through, culminating in a boss fight). Dante, Vergil, Nero, Trish, and Lady each head for a different seal. Dante suggests making it a contest to see who can disable their seal the fastest. Never one to let a challenge go unescalated, Vergil makes a parting crack about finishing the final fight himself before the others have even returned to the center of the array.

Combat and stuff happens (I'm condensing for space!) as they make their way through their respective regions. Ultimately, as each hunter finishes off the area boss, they discover that at the center of each seal is another layer of shielding containing a power source. The objects generating the power for the greater array are arcane artifacts. Weapons. Amulets. Old, but not necessarily ancient, though they have clearly seen extensive use. And... oddly familiar, for some of the hunters.

Nero is the only one who doesn't find an artifact at the core of his seal. Instead, when he breaks through the inner shield, he finds an old man imprisoned in the array -- a human, possibly a former hunter by the looks of him. Like Dante and Vergil, his hair is white, though Nero isn't sure if that's because of his age or because he shares their unique heritage. The man's athletic build hints at his former strength, but he's been weakened and aged by the constant power drain. His memory, too, seems to have suffered -- that, or he's being deliberately cagey with his answers. It's hard to say. At any rate, he doesn't give Nero a name by which to call him. He thinks he's been trapped in the array for several years, but time moves strangely in the underworld, and he had no real frame of reference for its passage. What he wants now is to find his way back to the human realm, though he's not sure where the access points linking the two worlds have migrated to in the time he's been imprisoned.

Nero knows there's a major battle ahead and doesn't want to be slowed down, but his conscience won't allow him to leave a weak, helpless old man to fend for himself in the underworld, so he helps him stand and offers to escort him to some place that, if not entirely safe, is at least moderately deserted and well away from the energy-draining apparatus. His plan is to stash the old man somewhere and then pick him up on the way out of the underworld after they take out the Big Bad at the center.

The stranger keeps up with Nero fairly well for someone in his condition, and the longer he's out of the array, the healthier he looks. Nero decides the man is not quite as old as he originally guessed, though he doesn't stop calling him things like "gramps" in place of his missing name. For his part, the man seems very interested in Nero himself, asking questions about the devil hunting business, and then about Fortuna and Red Grave City when he learns Nero is familiar with both. Nero is cautious with his answers, but he can't fault the other man for feeling him out -- or for wanting to speak to another person after being imprisoned for so long -- so he makes polite conversation. It's not like there's anything else to do while they're slogging through the underworld.

Upon learning that Red Grave was nearly destroyed, the stranger falls silent for a while. It's not until they meet up with Lady, returning from her own seal-breaking mission, that he rouses. Lady has retrieved a Devil Arm from her seal, a pair of gauntlets that, while undeniably powerful, is of little use to herself (a dex-based ranger human) or Nero (who already has his own devil power-augmented arm). The stranger asks if he might use them, since he currently has no weapons. This confirms to Nero that the man isn't entirely human -- Devil Arms won't allow just anyone to utilize them -- but he can't think of any reason not to let the guy have some means of protecting himself. At minimum, it will make him feel less guilty about ditching the man while the rest of them go off to fight the Evil Thing.

The stranger expresses the same kind of polite curiosity about Lady that he did with Nero, though he seems more particularly interested in her heritage than her present circumstances. Lady gets a little tetchy when he prods her about her lineage one too many times. In an effort to keep the peace, Nero interrupts to suggest they pick up the pace, or Vergil really will take on the final boss before they've caught up.

The stranger definitely reacts to that name. When he recovers, he feigns polite curiosity and asks who this Vergil is. "My old man," Nero replies, with a hint of vinegar because their relationship is still (understandably) fraught. "He's a hunter, too. He and his brother are down here with us."

The stranger controls his outward reaction to this statement a little better, but he's obviously very interested. Before he can ask more, Lady, still agitated from the probing about her parents, adds a sarcastic remark about Vergil only being a hunter when it suits him -- in between laying waste to entire cities.

The man stops dead and asks her to explain that, which she does: "Vergil's the one who destroyed Red Grave City. Again. Though to be fair, Dante and I managed to stop him, the first time around. He only wiped out one borough back then. But let me tell you, the wholesale district was never the same after Temen-ni-gru punched a hole in Market Square." She sobers. "But even that was nothing compared to what the Qliphoth did. He killed thousands of innocent people when he released that thing."

The man's reaction to this information is difficult to read, but decidedly not happy. He insists that they take him to meet Vergil. Nero balks and suggests that it would be better for him to wait someplace out of harm's way; there will be time for him to meet everyone after they've dealt with the main event. The man says no, he will see Vergil now, and for the first time Nero gets the sense that he may have really, really underestimated this "helpless old man." Because this is clearly somebody who is used to being obeyed, and he does not like repeating himself -- and probably has more than enough power to back it up, when he hasn't been used as a human (or not) battery for who knows how many years.

Lady clearly gets the same vibe, and Nero sees her shift into a defensive stance. But before things can escalate further, they're hailed by Trish, who has finished her own seal mission and detoured to join them when she saw the group coming across the demonic wasteland.

The stranger sees Trish.

And that's when things get... interesting.

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So, yeah, that's my fic about where Sparda has been for all these years and why there's been no trace of him, and the whole setup is just a petri dish for more angst (Sparda learning of Eva's death and having to deal with Trish's presence, which is probably even more jarring to him than it would have been to Dante; Vergil having to face his father after he Done Messed Up Big Time), comedy (Nero having a cognitive meltdown after realizing he's been calling the OG Savior "gramps," and then having another one when he realizes the OG Savior actually is his grandfather), and family feels (Sparda finding out he has a grandson! Who is the goodest boi! Even if he is the son of Elder Son Who Done Messed Up Big Time). Which is why it promises to be another CotFA if I let it, and why I really, really, really don't have time to write it. 😅

(I am also fully aware that with the right treatment, this could potentially work as a sequel to CotFA, which I fielded a question about last week... but it all comes back to time and energy. Sigh.)

#devil may cry #dmc #fanfiction #writing #my writing #children of the future age & friends #ask game

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hetafluidtexan · 1 year

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How Many Ships & Trios exist within Hetalia?

Howdy everyone!

As we all know as Hetalians, shipping is a key part of fandom space, with many of the most famed writers and artists in the fandom being known for their ships!

And as we know, there are many many ships, sometimes it seems like an endless number of them! However, there are a very finite amount of characters in Hetalia, and only so many ways you can arrange any set of characters in a duo or trio.

This of course naturally raises the question, how many ships can possibly exist within the fandom? 50? 100? 250?

That there, my guys gals and enby pals is what this post hopes to answer!

The key to answering this equation without manually listing every possible ship is a little known thing called the Combination Equation. What is the Combination Equation?

It is this beauty! Now, for those of yall who aren't familiar with Combinations and Permutations, this may seem like some complex abomination. But in reality, it is a very simple equation!

To explain it, imagine you have 6 fruits - an apple, orange, pear, grapes, kiwi, and banana - in total but can only fit 2 into you lunch bag. How many Combinations of fruit can you have? Rather than manually calculating it by counting every single combination, you can just use the equation!

You have 4 fruits, so you put n = 6, as n is just how many of whatever you have, be that fruits or Hetalia Nendoroids. Next, because you only have enough room for 2 fruits, you put r = 2, as r just means the size of your combination groups, be it space for fruits or how many Nendoroid stands you have. Then you just put it in a calculator and hurrah! You have 15 possible combinations of fruit! It is also very important to note that the difference between Combinations and Permutations is if order is important; Combinations view ABC, ACB, and BCA as all the same, while Permutations view all three as seprate.

Now we understand the basic math, we can move onto the core question: How can we use this to find how many possible Hetalia ships are there?

Well to begin with, we need to figure out our n value, which in this case is just how many characters are in all of Hetalia! Well, almost. In Hetalia, if we include only canonical characters and only those that are 1pHetalia ones, we have a total of 71 Characters. However, 8 of those character, meaning we really end up with 63 characters! So our n = 63!

Now for the r value, to start, we will just say r = 2 to represent ever 1x1 ship!

But before we can put it all in, we need to add one thing: - s. Why? Well, because at the moment we have one issue, that being this equation has ALL possible ships, which also means it includes less savory ones. However, we don't want to remove one character and their dozens of ships over just a single unsavory one, so we can set s to equal however many ships we wish to disregard. In this case, I will set it to s = 6, meaning 6 will be removed from the final total.

So what number do we get from this?

DRUM ROLL PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEE

ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND EIGHTY FIVE!

Meaning, if we set ourselves to 1pHeta and 1x1 ships, there are 1,885 ships! That's a lot You have to admit, but l can't help feel that's a bit small, and that's largely because we put on very strict restrictions; So how about we try some more generous ones?

To start with, how about we double our n value so instead n = 62, we set it to n = 124! Afterall, Nyotalia or 2ptalia are very common in the fandom, so how about we account for them in our ships as well? Doing so, and setting s = 12 to account for the doubling, we wind up with this equation

And from this we get...

7,614! Now that's a hell of a jump I'd say! Certainly, our 1x1 shippers out there will have no shortage of ships for a long long time!

But what about our polyamorous and trio loving friends? Fear not, you have not been forgotten, as by changing r from r = 2 to r = 3, even with just the original n = 62, while leaving s = 12 just to be safe, this will undoubtably make a difference as our equation now looks like such

And how many lovely polyamorous loves and bff trios are we rewarded with?

Even more than before at 37,808 trios! It really goes to show there will never be any shortage of ships or trios for a long long time, and that if you pick any three characters at random, chances are you'll have a trio no one has ever made before, that's crazy!

Now, how about we break this?

If we multiply 62 by four, we get n = 248, accounting for every single 1pHetalia, 1pNyotalia, 2pHetalia, and 2pNyoCharacter based off canon ones that exist, a truly massive number. To show some mercy, let is return to r = 2 and double s to s = 24, which seems like a very harsh restriction and gives us the equation of

So what do we get from this equation?

...well that wasn't supposed to happen, lets see if we can figure out what went wrong

248 - 2 = 246, and since its a factorial, lets plug it into another site to see what we get from this

Ah, well them... Perhaps Scientific Notation will be able to clarify this?

Well no wonder Desmos broke, at *10^482, that's a number bigger than the amount of atoms in the universe - quite literally, as its estimated there are 10^80 atoms in the universe, not even a fifth as big as the number we got as the total number of atoms in the universe vs 246! is 16.598%, or in otherwords, if ever atom in the universe was a number from 1 to 246!, you would only get 16.598% of the way there before you ran out of atoms.

Its crazy to think our little fandom can literally create something bigger than the number of atoms in the universe! And, if you want to toy around with possibly universe breaking numbers, or something more mundane just like how many lesbian ships exist in Hetalia or how many European squads there are, I present to you: The Hetalia Fandom Ship Calculator

Entirely free for anyone to use, just follow all the attached note info, and use it as you please to learn as much as your heart desires!

But for now my lovely guys and gals and enby pals, I must go, I promise to return soon, and until then, drink some water, get some food and rest, and have a most lovely of days!

#hetalia #hetalia axis powers #hetalia world stars #hws #aph #axis powers hetalia #world stars hetalia #hetalia ship #hetalia theory #hetalia headcanons #hetalia hc #hetalia hcs #hetafluidtexan

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wthelvetica21 · 8 months

Text

Tombsona : Lifeform Codex

Multiverse [[fandom]]: The Living Tombstone

Prime [[Canon]] Examples: zero_one, Rust, Armstrong, Tesla, Doc, Geist

Outer dimensional entities transcend time and space and attach themselves to host lifeforms by fate. They are considered rare in and of themselves to every given universe they had first manifested and can span past multiple universes with varying methods of bonding to a host. Some actively profile their hosts while others happen to bond with their hosts in the right set of circumstances. A constant general profile they all share is a skull mask on their faces.

The body of the hosts are infused with mysterious substance called soulite that have a wide range of colors and tones. Some even have been said to master void and infinity but only within certain contexts.

They are not conventionally ‘alive’ and it’s still unclear their actual origins save for legends mentioning a ‘Progenitor’. This has become a double-edged sword because of those who seek their power and/or see tombsonas as an existential threat. Some have gone so far as to create synthetic ones such as Geist in the prime universe. It's unclear if they can find a host or if their existence is finite, at least the hostless ones.

- Full disclosure, there are indeed exceptions to whats layed out in this lifeform codex and it’s also more Fanon/headcanon and is subject to change once more canon information is to come out via TLT’s lore channel (or maybe even here) by Sam Haft himself.

Key

● Common

■ Uncommon

▲ Rare

♦ Ultra Rare