#lj's on a soapbox again

[clockworkspider]

*gets on my soapbox again*

So one of the things that's been happening since fandom migrated from scattered forums and LJ communities to socmed (early 2010s) is that fandom has gotten more centralized.

This isn't a bad thing, as it means smaller fandom have an easier time finding each other, and newer fans have an easier point of entry and can find fanwork easier.

This does, however, means that big name fans gets even bigger. And once an someone reaches a certain degree of popularity on the internet, they will inevitably hit critical point of "can never do anything right ever again".

I've seen this happened to fan artists, fan translators, cosplayers... they can be the most unproblematic person and someone will be like "you once said you hate X character and I take that as a personal attack against me" or "you drew this character marginally paler/skinnier than other people and therefore you must be racist/fatphobic" or "you made an information/summary post and one part was WRONG and therefore you should delete your account and never make these summaries again".

I mean... it doesn't matter if the issue is more or less legitimate. The point is, normally, a big name fan is still, at the end of the day, just someone who's very passionate about their fandom and has dedicated a lot of hours on it. They're not doing it for profit. They're not a public figure or celebrity with a PR team. 99% of them can't even be counted as influencers. They're people and they just wanna do their thing and enjoy fandom the same way you do. And sometimes they wanna take time out of their day to provide a valuable service for the fandom, like making fan tls or running an information archive.

But if they reach a certain point of popularity, for every 10 followers they gain they will get 1 hater who's 10 times more vocal about it. And eventually it gets too draining to manage and the only viable solution is to lock their account (only available on twitter, not tumblr) or never engage with the rest of the fandom ever again. They lose their community, the fandom loses their fanwork/service. Nobody really gains anything from it. Net loss.

So like... just... be generous to your fellow fans. Let people make mistakes or have bad opinions about fiction. (You know I'm not referring to deliberate bigotry, don't derail.) Let people ship their garbage ship (subjective). They're just someone on the internet. If they've really gotten something factually wrong and you're making corrections, do so in good faith (skip the insults and the name calling) and uh... see if someone else has made the same correction already in the reblogs or QRTs.

I promise you, we don't really have anything to gain from bullying people off the fandom for innocuous things. I know it feels good to be "right" or whatever, but it's a really shitty thing to do to ruin someone's passion. It's a really shitty thing to do to take away a place where someone can belong.

Just. Be kind.

#fandom #I'm referencing enstars and tma dramas I've seen #and there's others

[hekateinhell]

Marius has always been one of my favorite characters. I loved getting enamored with him in TVL, QoTD, and parts of TVA and also loved learning about the depths of his selfishness and failures in later books

I don't think this is an unpopular opinion! But I guess it depends on who you follow. Maybe it's a confession? In which case, if you want me to help you find your people, just drop me a DM/ask off anon!

Marius is definitely a polarizing character, especially these days with social media having become what it is and the rise of purity culture. My last real benchmark for VC fandom would've been in the mid-to-late-2000s, back in the LJ and DeviantArt days. Before I get called a "fandom old" by someone older than me again, I'll point out that I entered VC young (as many of us did!). Aside from the fact it's usually meant as an insult, I take it as compliment. Even then.

In my day (I hear it now, oops), the juggernaut ships were Loustat and Marius/Armand. Then there was Devil's Minion, Armand/Louis, and Lestat/David if you felt edgy. But mostly the fan favorites were what Anne referred to as her core cast: Lestat, Louis, Armand, and Marius and their respective pairings. We more or less just vibed in our little spaces (wasn't perfect but it was a hell of a lot quieter and contained).

ANYWAY... I'll get off my soapbox for tonight.

Tl; dr: lots of people will still appreciate Marius with you! They did back then and they do now.

#lemme tell you that tumblr has been a shock to my system lmao #i adore armand's turning scene #and then the scene where he and marius reunite in tva after his suicide attempt i cry like a baby every single time #vc confessions #you ask and hekate answers

[gohoubi]

The Wilford Rant Post that Nobody Asked For

I’m drunk again and ABOUT TO GET BACK ON MY SOAPBOX!! We had several Audrey posts, now we’re talking about (🍗*drumroll*🍗) Wilford! Buckle the fuck up, because I have so much to say about this guy I had to put it under a cut.

Wilford is...an odd character. Like very odd. He's supposedly this master strategist who is semi-omniscient and is always one step ahead of our heroes...yet he makes the dumbest decisions possible:

1. Treatment of Alex,

2. Handling of the Till situation,

3. That dinner/carnival show scene.

First up we have his treatment of Alex. Oh boy. He made several large blunders here. Even though Wilford can accurately sense Alex pulling away, his reaction is to push her away even harder? He’s also jumping the gun hugely - we can see that Alex is severely conflicted about going back to Melanie, which would be the perfect time for Wilford to maybe have a conversation with her about it, like ‘hey kid, don’t forget who was with you these last seven years when your mom abandoned you!’ instead of doing that (which would be the common sense thing to do if he wants to keep her close) he actively antagonises Alex to the point that she reveals all that stuff about the culling that he did on Big Alice - like, why? She’s his lieutenant who’s spent seven years with him and has all the dirt he probably doesn’t want the Snowpiercer people to know. Even if he feels angry and vengeful that is his protégée is going back to his mortal enemy, why would he not at least try to cover his bases? Not only does Alex know all of his bad deeds, assumedly she knows everything about how Big Alice works. Isn’t that information you’re trying to keep semi-secret?

TILL! Righteous queen, we love that. What's up with this? Wilford's turned into a poser all of a sudden with the guilty First Classers. Till’s like ‘no, we can’t kill them, that’s the wrong thing to do’ and Wilford’s like ‘lmao whatever I’m still gonna kill them’ and I’m like...exactly what does that do for you? How is that meant to get Till on his side? He must deduce that having the train detective on his side is important, and Till is clearly shown to be at least a little unsure of this guy’s motives, so...why? What’s up with this? That whole scene confused me (but it was very visceral. Tick✅ of approval for Things That Flip Gohoubi’s Biscuits)

The carnival scene!!! What the fuck was the point of that!!! I don't think I need to explain that to y'all!

Antagonising Alex✅

Antagonising Bennett✅

Freaking out Ruth, Till, Winnie etc✅

Giving LJ a good show ✅

Like okay, maybe Bennett is a lost cause, but he has Till, Ruth, Alex and others who are CLEARLY conflicted about who they want to swing with, yet he just is like nah we don’t need them. Like they're all arguably very socially powerful people on the train, who would be useful to have around, but Wilford’s like nope I’m gonna drive them all away and then be surprised when they end up rebelling. Like. WHAT?

And like, I’ve heard some people talk about how Wilford is this hugely egomaniacal, arrogant guy who’s so overinflated by his ‘Engine Eternal’ image that he just does whatever and expects to be able to put everything back together the way he wants after the fact. But..he hasn’t been played as a character who is arrogant and does whatever he wants without abandon, at least not in that way. Despite his sociopathy, characters keep referring to his plans as something that he puts some thought into and how he's willing to play the long game. It’s shown in the text as well:

1. He sabotages Snowpiercer’s gills (lol) so that he can get access to the engine, and save everyone so it’s not seen as a hostile takeover;

2. He foments tension and terror in Snowpiercer with Pastor Logan and the murders so that when he shows up, he can pretend to set everything to rights;

3. He supports Melanie’s research-station-retreat so that he can leave her behind later, despite knowing that any entertainment of the climate model idea weakens his influence;

4. He at least pretends to show some goodwill even in situations that would probably disadvantage him so that he can gain the trust of the SP citizens.

Does that look like stuff that was come up with on a whim? This guy clearly thinks ahead, y’all. Basically: have the writers just been hotboxing the whole second season? Cuz if so, I want in on that. #JusticeForJoe

This doesn't even get into the queer-coded bullshit and treatment of sensitive topics by the writers related to Wilford, however I'll leave that to someone more qualified than me to talk about

#snowpiercer #snowpiercer tnt #snowpiercer netflix #joseph wilford #gohoubi talks #incoherently