fandom as a whole is migrating away from a mutual appreciation of a story and towards an endless cycle of nitpicking and discourse and frankly that’s just Exhausting
Its just an endless stream of “you’re doing it wrong”. You’re reading this wrong, you’re appreciating this character wrong, you’re appreciating this character too much, you’re not appreciating this character enough, its not enough that I don’t like this pairing but it’s wrong to like it, you’re enjoying this wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.
And honestly it’s just tiring.
Tag: fandom
fandom is so weird you never know how old anyone is but you just kinda assume most of them are around your age until proven otherwise and then one day someone is talking about their 9 year old kid on your dash and another person is saying they just finished 10th grade. wild.
reblog and tag with your age, so your mutuals know
“There’s no evidence these characters who display no romantic or sexual preferences in canon are gay/bi/pan/ace!”
Ok, but…there’s no evidence they’re straight either…and why does it matter if people’s fanfiction doesn’t accurately reflect canon anyway…?
Like, I 100% get being a stickler for canon, I’m that way about media I’m passionate about, but fan works aren’t meant to strictly adhere to ANYTHING. They’re creative outlets for lovers of certain media, using that media not as a rigid, pre-made template, but merely as inspiration to draw from.
Make Harry Potter an alien from Mars. Rewrite Tangled as a J-drama. Do The Little Mermaid but gay.
Fan works are about having fun and doing the things that speak to you with the media you love, so whatever wild idea you have in your head right now, GO FOR IT!
who is old enough to be part of the fanfic.net era where we literally talked to our characters? like, had conversations with them?
cause I do. as a lonely child of 12 who had no friends, it was a favorite pasttime of mine to boot up the dial-up internet and type out imaginary conversations with ouran high school host club characters in the beginning notes before even starting the damn chapter (which was inevitably 500 words long and absolutely awful)
Modern Author’s Note on Ao3: might discuss some possible triggers, thank readers for comments, apologize for a delay in update, etc–talking to reader, essentially.
Author’s Note on FFN back in 2010:
Author: Y’all are gonna love this cahpter!!!! [Character] not sooooo much
Character:…wh–what’s gonna happen?
Author: Don’t worry about it! ^.^
Character: WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME??
Author: 😉
Character: D:
those were dark, dark days, man. Today’s Fandom Freshman are sure lucky they missed this.
This when right alongside the detailed disclaimers to avoid lawsuits.
Don’t forget that the author was broken into at least five separate voices, ‘Inside Out’ style.
or where you would have ask blogs for your ocs except it was just in a ff.net story. basically an entire classic authors note except people would ask questions. that was my childhood.
Y’all forgot that sometimes we also appeared in the middle of the text with notes like “(author: noooo 😡 character is such a b*tch!!!! character: I’M NOT!!!!)” And it was the crimgiest shit ever but we had fun doing it lmao
who is old enough to be part of the fanfic.net era where we literally talked to our characters? like, had conversations with them?
cause I do. as a lonely child of 12 who had no friends, it was a favorite pasttime of mine to boot up the dial-up internet and type out imaginary conversations with ouran high school host club characters in the beginning notes before even starting the damn chapter (which was inevitably 500 words long and absolutely awful)
Modern Author’s Note on Ao3: might discuss some possible triggers, thank readers for comments, apologize for a delay in update, etc–talking to reader, essentially.
Author’s Note on FFN back in 2010:
Author: Y’all are gonna love this cahpter!!!! [Character] not sooooo much
Character:…wh–what’s gonna happen?
Author: Don’t worry about it! ^.^
Character: WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME??
Author: 😉
Character: D:
those were dark, dark days, man. Today’s Fandom Freshman are sure lucky they missed this.
This when right alongside the detailed disclaimers to avoid lawsuits.
Don’t forget that the author was broken into at least five separate voices, ‘Inside Out’ style.
or where you would have ask blogs for your ocs except it was just in a ff.net story. basically an entire classic authors note except people would ask questions. that was my childhood.
Y’all forgot that sometimes we also appeared in the middle of the text with notes like “(author: noooo 😡 character is such a b*tch!!!! character: I’M NOT!!!!)” And it was the crimgiest shit ever but we had fun doing it lmao
A reminder to fandoms:
Things that are okay: Having a headcanon about a character’s age/sexuality/gender/ethnicity.
Things that are not okay: Imposing your headcanon on others and harassing them if they don’t agree.
Things that are even less okay: Accusing someone of serious things such as homophobia/pedophilia/transphobia for something as stupid as not sharing the same headcanon as you.
A reminder to fandoms:
Things that are okay: Having a headcanon about a character’s age/sexuality/gender/ethnicity.
Things that are not okay: Imposing your headcanon on others and harassing them if they don’t agree.
Things that are even less okay: Accusing someone of serious things such as homophobia/pedophilia/transphobia for something as stupid as not sharing the same headcanon as you.
Rule one of fandom: there are some things that only exist for us.
Don’t send actors fics
Don’t give them explicit art ever
Don’t tag them in rpf questions or theories
Don’t try to bring them into fandom drama of any kind
Don’t hold them responsible for what the producers and writers decide
They’re still people. They have private lives, which do not include fandom.
Esp when you don’t even OWN the fics or arts you sent them
There are exceptions – there are actors who have embraced fandom and love to see fannish depictions of themselves. There are celebrities who love to see new twists on their work.
…but nobody needs their introduction to fandom to be “here’s a 25,000 word fic showing you in an ABO sex pollen orgy.” And they really, really don’t need to see the accompanying artwork.
Between the various ComicCons and talk shows, if they’re potentially interested in fandom, they’ll discover it – someone who knows them personally will mention, oh hey, did you know this exists? And if their response is “yeah, I know that stuff exists; I don’t care for it,” don’t pester them about it. Those who think it’s great, will say so. Let THEM come to US, not the other way around.
I feel like this used just be a known unknown rule in Fandom but in recent years people have lost all sense of fucking boundaries. It’s very weird and unsettling
ifesbob 