sheepfilms
taylor price
roma★
Kiana Khansmith
macklin celebrini has autism
I'd rather be in outer space 🛸
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Sweet Seals For You, Always
Sade Olutola
ojovivo
Not today Justin
Jules of Nature
noise dept.
Show & Tell
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d e v o n
pixel skylines
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hello vonnie
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
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seen from Peru
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seen from South Africa
seen from Slovenia
seen from United States
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@a-special-unicorn
Since the big GW Server is sunsetting soon, I'll be releasing a bundle of my Discord Emojis (that I use to pester the Art Server Peeps with haha >:D). They are free to use for the fans making their own servers now.
Thanks to @lifeaftermeteor, @lemontrash and hark! a heero king for all the hard work over the years! :,)
I posted a zip into the #preventers hq channel of the GW Server.
And just in case, you can get them here too:
#gundam wing #emojis #discord
So many anti friend groups are just straight up cults and it’s genuinely terrifying to see and be part of.
If you’re scared of your friends for whatever reason, it you’re scared of liking being in a specific fandom or liking a specific ship because you think you’ll lose all your friends over it, if your friend group is essentially built on the idea that you’re all good and everyone else is bad, if your friends use social ostracization and online stalking and harassment campaigns as threats and weapons, if your friends use fear and moral panic to keep people in line… . .
Please get out of there. This isn’t even about shipping or fandom or whatever, it’s about staying safe and not getting sucked into a literal cult. Cut them off, block them on all your social media, remake accounts if you need to, and make new friends who don’t leave you feeling like you’re walking on eggshells around them. Just stay safe.
Having to reblog the right call outs, memes, and discourse at the right time, or come under suspicion or attack yourself? Getting scolded or called out for delay in responding to messages, even if you were away from your computer? New friends must be vetted by powerful members of the group? Private discussions may be screenshotted and shared at any time? Behavior control.
Extensive block lists with social consequences if your friends find you still follow any of those people? Mainstream books or news sources with conflicting opinions dismissed as “problematic” or out of touch? Information control.
Being expected to adopt the newest language, positions and targets without explanation even if they rapidly change? Any concerns or objections dismissed as evidence of incurable stupidity at best, unforgivable moral corruption at worst? Lumping wide varieties of info and theory together in simple good and evil categories? Thought control.
Effusive praise for complying with group demands, including and especially behavior that may make you uncomfortable, like bullying others? Seeing your friends send dissenters death threats? “Hot and cold” treatment, favoritism, competition for attention by powerful or BNF members of the group? Guilt trips about spending time and attention elsewhere? Emotion control.
Remember…. BITE!
This is an amazing breakdown, thank you so much.
If you don’t recognize all of these things but recognize some of them, still take it seriously. Not every abusive relationship will look the same. Start with the question “Am I afraid to express that I disagree with this person or people in anyway?” and if the answer is ‘yes’, something is wrong and it’s worth examining that further.
HALF-BAKED PROMPTS
For folks who missed the zine sign ups, you can participate through the HALF-BAKED prompts! To participate, all you have to do is:
make a Gundam Wing fanwork (fic, art, meta, crafts, edits, recipes, etc) inspired by the prompts.
works do NOT have to be Howard-centric, though it is encouraged!
share your works on medium of choice (late submissions are OK, but please do not post early!)
tag @weedgrandpacookbook and/or #weedgrandpacookbook so we can reblog/share your works. Feel free to DM or chat them to us as well!
ABOUT THE PROMPTS
The prompts are categorized into four themes:
Quotes
Typical weed experiences
Hijinks
Weed in the world
A text version of the prompts below the cut:
Keep reading
Soon!
completed @fandomtrumpshate project for @a-special-unicorn based on a script she wrote! thank you for trusting me with this ASU!
Thank you so much @2pcb for this amazing comic!! The little details, the expressions, the outfits. I love it!!!
SIGN UPS OPEN
Sign ups for the Weed Grandpa Cookbook are now open until the end of October!
posting your fic on AO3 like
"You can't consume problematic media!"
Maybe YOU can't. I, on the other hand, have critical thinking skills and a lot of spite
I am also incredibly sexy
This concludes the answers so far for the first set of AskGWFan Questions. If you have anything you wanna ask the group, use the ask function on tumblr or send me a dm!
What’s a character/ship you’ve learned to appreciate? What made you change your mind?
Relena x Dorothy. Both as characters and as a ship. Part of this is that I hadn’t seen all of the series at the time I first did fandom, but I had seen Endless Waltz, and that was the extent to which I had known Dorothy. She doesn’t even interact with Relena in EW!! I had no impression of her (besides whomst??), and I honestly don’t even remember if Relena ever appeared in fics I read since a lot of them were AUs anyway. However, after seeing the series and MISS RELENA and all of Dorothy’s… Dorothy, I think she’s got some great cult appeal!! And my mind really changed on both when I saw the whole series properly. I’m not sure I would have been on board with them at the time since I was less discerning about how female characters often get developed poorly, but I don’t regret that I experienced Relena and Dorothy fully at a time where I could appreciate them.
I eventually started to appreciate Relena more, she grows up a lot by the end, even if she definitely should not be handling the responsibility she has…
Honestly breaking outside of the typical ships by reading more fics broadened my horizons. Writers I loved ventured into non-typical and I found myself enjoying the exploration. I think over time it had less to do with the ship and more to do with the characters as the fandom aged.
I’ve been reading a lot more yaoi since interacting with the larger fandom. I’ve always loved non-traditional gender roles in romance stories, and I don’t know why it took me so long to try yaoi? I’ve read some yuri but never in Gundam Wing. Interacting with the yaoi community has opened up a lot more characterization of the pilots for me, which have always played the role of “tough, emotionless boys” in my headcanons.
Howard. He’s amazing and hilarious and as I get older I’m more and more like, is this the only sane character? I used to just be like “who is this weird guy?” and now I’m like “why isn’t there more Howard?”
What characters/ships do you think got some negative flack? How has the GW fandom’s attitudes towards those characters/ships changed?
The scientists hahahahahaahah. I think for the most part unless you are in a niche group, the scientists are generally seen as child abusers to varying degrees. Tsubarov? Everyone still hates him but acknowledge he has a flair for the dramatique. Camp villain appreciation I guess. Relena was definitely shat on, being at the unfortunate intersection of romantic rival and ‘annoying’ female lead. Again, as someone whose canon experience was informed by Endless Waltz more than the anime, I don’t remember if I had any opinions on her at all. However, I think people have admitted where they were wrong (whether owning up to bashing, or speaking up about fandom broadly).
Well besides the obvious Relena, one character that got so much hate and bashing in 1xR circles was Sylvia. I remember one of the first things I checked when I got back into fandom was Sylvia’s role in the show and was surprised to see how little she actually does?? She’s literally in one episode but was constantly dragged into 1xR stories to be a romantic rival for Relena. Pretty much the same role Relena took on in a lot of 1x2 stories. I guess we just got away with it because she was a minor character. It was just interesting to me that 1xR fans gave some girl the same treatment that 1x2 fans did to Relena. I think that realization helped me put aside the Relena bashing and move on from it. If I don’t see Sylvia as an evil character anymore, why would Relena bashers? And I was really happy to find that I was right. As the fandom moved away from romance-centric plots to look at self growth and politics, less characters became target for fandom hate/bashing, and we moved on.
Well, back in the olden days Relena and Wufei were probably the ones who got it worst. Dorothy. Hilde. Zechs. Treize. Heck, even reasonably popular characters like Duo and Quatre had their own “defense” societies against some of the fanon surrounding them. But fans have grown up over the years and portrayals of the characters and various ships have too. (2x5 for instance has gone from a total rare pair to one of the top GW ships on AO3 which I find a fascinating trajectory.) Have we evolved into a perfect utopia? No, and there will probably always be complaints about how a given character or ship is popularly portrayed. I certainly have my bugbears, just like anyone else might. But it’s a long time since I’ve opened up a fic and seen character bashing of the sort that was common c. 2001. People might not be shy about sharing their opinions on their own blogs, but picking fights on other people’s content? Flame wars? Not so much these days. The GW fandom might be smaller, but we’re also closer-knit. Fandom is about having fun; finding the pockets that bring you enjoyment and finding ways to filter out the rest, and I think we mostly get that (or we’re just too old and tired to have much fight left in in us lol).
Well, very early Relena and Duo battles made me nervous of the fandom back in the day, but I think those mainly came from places within ourselves that we can see now don’t need to be at odds. I love them both and I am glad to see the fandom embrace them both on their own merits. I think it’s easy to be anti- when you are younger and appreciative when you are older (and I totally understand how people could be anti! No judgements. I just love everyone and want everyone to be happy. Except Zechs. He has some SERIOUS explaining to do.)
Oh, Relena *definitely* had a lot of negative flack. I’m glad most of us seem to have mellowed out about the poor girl. It’s hard to hate a kid when one is in their 30’s, lol
Relena of course, but also 3x4 was seen as the “lesser” ship back in my day and there wasn’t much depth or enthusiasm by many other fans.
Oh my goodness the responses!!
Thanks everyone for taking the time to add your perspective. For everyone reading, feel free to reblog with your own answers to any of these questions, or send in some questions of your own.
Without further ado, lets do an easy warm up post this week. The answers are in no particular order, let me know if I should be keeping answers from a single responder together
Did you take a break from GW fandom? If so, what made you come back?
I took a ~10 year break for school and work. The pandemic got me looking back on my old hobbies and I went looking fanfic that I used to love. It was supposed to be just a quick tip toe into nostalgia but that was back in November and here we are.
There have been periods when I’ve been less active (especially if you look at my publishing history), and I haven’t always hung out in the most popular fandom bases, but even during my quieter periods if I’d been asked “are you still part of this fandom” my answer would have been definitively yes. I think one of the great things about fandom is that it’s for us to participate in on our own terms and what it means to be “in” a fandom is a huge net.
A friend of mine wanted to read my old fics but I wasn’t on AO3, so I made an account.
More like I just drifted away. I’d peek back every now and then. But now my new good friends are all in the gw Fandom so I’m much more involved than before
Yes - I organically lost interest in fandom after I first got into GW (2000s) due to RL, came back because I finally had time to sit down and (re)watch the series during COVID.
Which characters/ships are you most interested in? What do you appreciate most about them?
Oh, gosh. I love a well-written rare pair or a seemingly crack ship that, when you read it, suddenly doesn’t seem so far-fetched anymore. And likewise, the characters that you don’t see being written so often. GW has such a rich ensemble cast to draw from, I like seeing fresh faces get a turn in the spotlight and treated with the same depth as the usual favorites.
I am definitely a 1xR fan first and foremost, but I also love all the GW ladies. Relena was always a favorite because she was probably the first female character I had ever really seen that stood her own with the male characters. She was just super interesting - a feminine, peaceful character that becomes a world leader? And not through magic? Sign me up! Coming back into fandom I started going over the ladies’ personalities. I find Dorothy to be absolutely fascinating as a character with her shit-disturbing ways. Hilde, Catherine, Noin, Une. I love that they’re given individual strengths and flaws, and each have their own roles that aren’t necessarily just supporting the male characters. Even today it can be rare to find a female character that has a personality, history and role all to her own.
Quatre and I don’t have enough space to even go into this, haha. I ship him mostly with Trowa and Duo.
I generally will try most non 3x4 Trowa ships. I lean most towards 1x3 and 3x5, though somehow I got into 3x6 at the end of my first run in fandom, probably because the one writer who got me into it was so funny. I think for whatever reason, I just ended up in Trowa-centric mailing lists for 1x3, 2x3, and 5x3, and Trowa-centric, and the 1x3 and 5x3 lists were the more active ones. I do remember feelings those stories were really unique. The one 5x3 that I remember from my first run was actually super edge-lordy and ended with murder/suicide (it was a very messed up story!!!!). What stuck in my mind was how that writer managed to treat the pilots somewhat opposite of how most others wrote them - arguably straight up OOC for the sake of exploring a darker story, but it also was the first time I think that Wufei was the nice guy/hero and not just a side character wingman. This is similar to why I got into 6x3 - a specific writer was just a fucking hoot about the way they wrote both Trowa and Zechs, and whether it’s OOC or not, it was probably the first time I had read anything that funny in fanfiction (especially in stories with sex/smut). So I guess the TLDR is that the stories that happened to really change my mind on characters and/or fic as a medium strongly influenced why I like certain ships. They were also probably arguably very OOC which also influences how I approach fanworks.
Duo will always be my favorite, cause I relate to him the most
Welcome to National Prostate Awareness Month in our little corner of fandom!
We have a charity challenge that we’re issuing, but first…what IS a prostate, what does it do, and why does it matter?
The word prostate comes from Ancient Greek προστάτης, prostátēs, meaning “one who stands before”, “protector”, “guardian”. The prostate is a small, soft organ. On average, it is roughly the size of a walnut or a ping-pong ball.
The prostate has various functions. The most important is producing seminal fluid, a fluid that is a component of semen. It also plays a role in hormone production and helps regulate urine flow.
All men are at risk for prostate cancer, but African-American men are more likely to get prostate cancer than other men. The most common risk factor is age. The older a man is, the greater the chance of getting prostate cancer.
Green, leafy vegetables are a good first step toward a healthy prostate. These vegetables are full of important vitamins and antioxidants. Too little sun exposure can actually increase your risk of getting prostate cancer. And you should consider getting screened for prostate cancer starting at age 40.
THE CHALLENGES
Keep reading
The first questionnaire is live! If you’ve submitted your email to anonymously submit your answers, you should have received the google doc in the mail.
Hoping to have enough in the next week to publish next week. Hopefully we’ll publish something ever ~2 weeks until we ramp up some engagement :)
Thanks so much everyone!
Things that are a fanfic writer’s responsibility:
The category for relationships (Gen, F/F, M/F, M/M, a combination, something else)
The right category for ratings (is it for General Audiences, Teenagers, Mature, Explicit, R-Rated, Nc-17?)
The relevant warnings (violence, rape, underage sex, anything else you deem relevant)
The relevant tags on it (what relationships are covered in the fic? What characters? Is it light and fluffy fic? Funny? Sad? Dark? Does it have sex, and if so, what kind? Is there violence? Tags are used by readers to find fic and to avoid fic)
A summary that informs the reader of what kind of fic they’re gonna read.
Author’s notes for everything else. You can use the summary or author notes to explain certain tags, or add caveats, or thank your beta’s.
Things that are not a fanfic writer’s responsibility:
Kids stumbling across your fic and reading your fic and assuming that whatever is written about in the fic is 100% cool and normal.
The mental health of people who don’t like the subject matter of your fic.
I got 99 problems and being responsible for your competent use of the internet ain’t one.
Or, if you feel that’s more suited for the experience: user CHOSE NOT TO USE ARCHIVE WARNINGS. In which case, even more strongly than normal, READER BEWARE.
i agree with most of this but “creator chose not to use content warnings” is a bullshit tag that shouldn’t exist. it isn’t an actual warning, it doesn’t mean anything except maybe “this author wants to be ~edgy~,” and there’s no good reason for its presence on ao3.
seriously, i cannot think of a single situation in which “creator chose not to use archive warnings” is appropriate to use except maybe, maybe if your piece has content that could be a common trigger but isn’t available as an archive warning (e.g. incest), but even then it still feels like a cop-out and you absolutely have to make sure that content is still tagged for in your main tags
CNTUAW is perfectly fine, since it says: “I’m opting out of the warning system and you’ll have to decide for yourself if you’re willing to read my fic and whatever might be in there”. That is a valid choice for an author, and it’s just as valid for a reader to say: “What? Nope, not gonna read this.” Nobody forces anybody to read a fic that has a CNTUAW tag. The only reason I can think of why people think this warning is invalid is because they assume that they somehow are entitled to every story they see, that somehow the authors owe them their fics. Which is ridiculous nonsense. People like the above are why I by now refuse to use Archive Warnings and exclusively tagg ALL my fics “Author chose not to use Archive Warnings”. It’s so that people who feel entitled to my fic will not want to read it :) (I still get enough engagement on my fics. Boo fucking hoo ;)
Idk how to answer someone’s question when they block me but… well.
They don’t seem to understand that “I’m opting out of the warning system” is a PART OF THE WARNING SYSTEM on Ao3 and even the DEFAULT Archive Warning according to their TOS FAQ.
To suggest I don’t post to Ao3 because I like using their default warning is…more than a little bizarre xD Again, it all boils down to “ONLY THE WAY I DO FANDOM IS RIGHT!” - while Ao3 instead explicitly offers authors several different ways of doing fandom/posting their fics, which aren’t inferior to each other. JUST DIFFERENT.
But then, far too many people don’t understand that “different” doesn’t mean “bad”, and even when the site specifically tells its users “We offer you different ways of doing this”, apparently some people think that those who actually take advantage of that offer should…leave? *lol* Also, I threw a fit after people told me how authors were “exclusionary” and “dicks” etc. etc. for using CNTUAW as if they were owed to be able to read every fucking fic. Which they are not. (Yet another fact this person doesn’t get.)
In short:
Every time I see wank about the “Choose Not to Warn” option on AO3 I remember how controversial the idea of MANDATORY WARNINGS was when the archive was created. This was 2008-9! No one in the wider world had heard of trigger warnings! They WEREN’T A THING!!! No where! Fandom was the place where the concept of trigger warnings caught on and a big part of that was because of AO3′s inclusion of tags and warnings.
So there was so much debate over WHAT kind of content requires MANDATORY warnings? And why? This wasn’t how fic worked before AO3. Yeah, many authors would warn for things like non-con or graphic violence but it was still very voluntary and up to each individual.
Many authors at the time HATED the idea of including warnings or being forced to warn because they felt that putting a warning for things or a tag at all would ruin the suspense and surprise reveal of their plot. And this wasn’t a fringe concern!
That’s why there’s an opt-out option! Because a community is about compromise and balancing the needs of authors and readers and people with very different feelings about how fiction should work. So having mandatory requirements to warn for certain things AND an option that lets people opt-out of this requirement while still warning readers that these are DANGEROUS AND UNCHARTED WATERS is a fucking compromise.
I know a lot of younger people seem to have never heard of compromise because they’ve been raised by the extremes of online discourse and Fox News but when you’re literally building community infrastructure it’s the name of the game.
It kills me that kids somehow think AO3 was made without considering these issues, that previous fandom generations haven’t already hashed out these fights. That the extreme growth and popularity of AO3 isn’t inherent proof that the system that was put in place after MUCH discussion and consideration WORKS.
This doesn’t feel like compromise to me though because the people who say “Fics don’t need to be tagged” get 100% of what they want for their stories, and people who say “All fic needs to be tagged” don’t get what they want at all. It’s the illusion of compromise.
Basically, if the people who don’t want to do something come out of the argument able to behave exactly as they wanted before the argument began, you have not actually created a compromise, you have given them the win
I’m 41 by the way, started reading fanfic back when it was primarily personal archives
The disconnect I think you’re having is that you are thinking of AO3 as a service for the readers instead of for the authors. It is an archive created by and FOR fanwriters and it takes a multitude of differing fanwriter perspectives into account by giving the CREATORS control over their own stories. And it provides warnings to readers who only want to read tagged works. But it doesn’t allow readers to dictate how writers present their work, because it’s not a reader-customer-focused business, but a nonprofit to preserve fanwork. The compromise is that instead of imposing one way of doing things on every user (i.e. every writer) each writer gets to choose for themselves.
The customers of AO3 are the writers, not the readers. That millions of readers do enjoy it, is basically a bonus. (That costs the organization money instead of makes it because it’s ad-free.)
Bringing back this post because yes, precisely.
People who analyze AO3 from a reader-centric perspective are actively toxic to what AO3 is trying to do. Fic is a hobby where we are all peers and anyone can be a writer. These writers are who AO3 is designed for.
The reader-customer view is part and parcel of turning fanfic fandom into some commercial bullshit.
22 Essential Literary Devices and How to Use Them In Your Writing
hello, happy Monday. Hope you’re all having a wonderful day!
I will skip the pre-info and dive right into it.
What Is a Literary Device?
is a tool used by writers to hint at larger themes, ideas, and meaning in a story or piece of writing
The List of Literary Devices:
Allegory. Allegory is a literary device used to express large, complex ideas in an approachable manner. Allegory allows writers to create some distance between themselves and the issues they are discussing, especially when those issues are strong critiques of political or societal realities.
Allusion. An allusion is a popular literary device used to develop characters, frame storylines, and help create associations to well-known works. Allusions can reference anything from Victorian fairy tales and popular culture to the Bible and the Bard. Take the popular expression “Bah humbug”—an allusion that references Charles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol. The phrase, which is often used to express dissatisfaction, is associated with the tale’s curmudgeonly character, Ebenezer Scrooge.
Anachronism. Imagine reading a story about a caveman who microwaves his dinner, or watching a film adaptation of a Jane Austen novel in which the characters text each other instead of writing letters. These circumstances are examples of anachronisms, or an error in chronology—the kind that makes audiences raise their eyebrows or do a double-take. Sometimes anachronisms are true blunders; other times, they’re used intentionally to add humor or to comment on a specific time period in history.
Cliffhanger. It’s a familiar feeling: You’re on minute 59 of an hour-long television episode, and the protagonist is about to face the villain—and then episode cuts to black. Known as a cliffhanger, this plot device marks the end of a section of a narrative with the express purpose of keeping audiences engaged in the story.
Dramatic Irony. Remember the first time you read or watched Romeo and Juliet? The tragic ending of this iconic story exemplifies dramatic irony: The audience knows that the lovers are each alive, but neither of the lovers knows that the other is still alive. Each drinks their poison without knowing what the audience knows. Dramatic irony is used to great effect in literature, film, and television.
Extended Metaphor. Extended metaphors build evocative images into a piece of writing and make prose more emotionally resonant. Examples of extended metaphor can be found across all forms of poetry and prose. Learning to use extended metaphors in your own work will help you engage your readers and improve your writing.
Foreshadowing. At its core, storytelling has one ambition: to capture and sustain your reader’s attention and keep them reading your story. Foreshadowing, or slyly indicating a future event, is one technique a writer can use to create and build suspense.
Humor. Humor brings people together and has the power to transform how we think about the world. Of course, not everyone is adept at being funny—particularly in their writing. Making people laugh takes some skill and finesse, and, because so much relies on instinct, is harder to teach than other techniques. However, all writers can benefit from learning more about how humor functions in writing.
Imagery. If you’ve practiced or studied creative writing, chances are you’ve encountered the expression “paint a picture with words.” In poetry and literature, this is known as imagery: the use of figurative language to evoke a sensory experience in the reader. When a poet uses descriptive language well, they play to the reader’s senses, providing them with sights, tastes, smells, sounds, internal and external feelings, and even deep emotion. The sensory details in imagery bring works to life.
Irony. Irony is an oft-misunderstood literary device that hinges on opposites: what things are on the surface, and what they end up actually being. Many learn about dramatic irony through works of theater like Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet or Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex. When deployed with skill, irony is a powerful tool that adds depth and substance to a piece of writing.
Metaphor, Simile, and Analogy. Metaphors, similes, and analogies are three techniques used in speech and writing to make comparisons. Each is used in a different way, and differentiating between the three can get a little tricky: For example, a simile is actually a subcategory of metaphor, which means all similes are metaphors, but not all metaphors are similes. Knowing the similarities and differences between metaphor, simile, and analogy can help you identify which is best to use in any scenario and help make your writing stronger.
Motif. A motif is a repeated element that has symbolic significance to a story. Sometimes a motif is a recurring image. Sometimes it’s a repeated word or phrase or topic. A motif can be a recurrent situation or action. It can be a sound or a smell or a temperature or a color. The defining aspect is that a motif repeats, and through this repetition, a motif helps to illuminate the central ideas, themes, and deeper meaning of the story in which it appears.
Motif vs. Symbol. Both motifs and symbols are used across artistic mediums: Painters, sculptors, playwrights, and musicians all use motifs and symbols in their respective art forms. And while they are similar literary terms, “motif” and “symbol” are not synonyms.
Oxymoron. An oxymoron is a figure of speech: a creative approach to language that plays with meaning and the use of words in a non-literal sense. This literary device combines words with contradictory definitions to coin a new word or phrase (think of the idiom “act naturally”—how can you be your natural self if you’re acting?). The incongruity of the resulting statement allows writers to play with language and meaning.
Paradox. “This sentence is a lie.” This self-referential statement is an example of a paradox—a contradiction that questions logic. In literature, paradoxes can elicit humor, illustrate themes, and provoke readers to think critically.
Personification. In writing, figurative language—using words to convey a different meaning outside the literal one—helps writers express themselves in more creative ways. One popular type of figurative language is personification: assigning human attributes to a non-human entity or inanimate object in an effort to express a point or idea in a more colorful, imaginative way.
Satire. Satire is so prevalent in pop culture that most of us are already very familiar with it, even if we don’t always realize it. Satire is an often-humorous way of poking fun at the powers that be. Sometimes, it is created with the goal to drive social change. Satire can be part of any work of culture, art, or entertainment—it has a long history, and it is as relevant today as it was in ancient Rome.
Situational Irony. Irony: it’s clear as mud. Theorists quibble about the margins of what constitutes irony, but situational irony is all around us—from humorous news headlines to the shock twists in a book or TV show. This type of irony is all about the gap between our expectations and reality, and it can make a memorable and powerful impression when we encounter it.
Suspense. No matter what type of story you’re telling, suspense is a valuable tool for keeping a reader’s attention and interest. Building suspense involves withholding information and raising key questions that pique readers’ curiosity. Character development plays a big role in generating suspense; for example, if a character’s desire is not fulfilled by the end of the book, the story will not feel complete for the reader.
Symbolism. An object, concept, or word does not have to be limited to a single meaning. When you see red roses growing in a garden, what comes to mind? Perhaps you think literally about the rose—about its petals, stem, and thorns, or even about its stamen and pistil as a botanist might. But perhaps your mind goes elsewhere and starts thinking about topics like romance, courtship, and Valentine’s Day. Why would you do this? The reason, of course, is that over the course of many generations, a rose’s symbolic meaning has evolved to include amorous concepts.
Verisimilitude. Verisimilitude (pronounced ve-ri-si-mi-li-tude) is a theoretical concept that determines the semblance of truth in an assertion or hypothesis. It is also an essential tenet of fiction writing. Verisimilitude helps to encourage a reader’s willing suspension of disbelief. When using verisimilitude in writing, the goal is to be credible and convincing.
Vignette. A writer’s job is to engage readers through words. Vignettes—poetic slices-of-life—are a literary device that brings us deeper into a story. Vignettes step away from the action momentarily to zoom in for a closer examination of a particular character, concept, or place. Writers use vignettes to shed light on something that wouldn’t be visible in the story’s main plot.
I’ll make a post going into each of them individually in more detail later on!
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The Gundam Wing fandom is small and dedicated, but also old with a lot of fandom history. This blog is dedicated to connecting old and new fans over topics that have come up over and over again.
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As a 1xR shipper in a new world
I was talking to a friend recently and she told me that for a while she didn’t even know that 1xR fans were harassed by Relena-bashers. It made me evaluate the way 1xR fans can be so protective of Relena and how freaking weird that must be in the current fandom climate. I totally understand it because I was part of the side of fandom that would click into a fanfic and see the early 2000s roleplay of Relena being trashed and called names, and my favorite fics would occasionally be raided by Relena bashers looking for amusement. It certainly caused a schism between the “het” and “slash” sides of fandom, and I was incredibly hesitant to interact with the slash side for a while.
I left for over a decade, actually, coming back 8 or 9 months ago, coming back to the old hobbies I did as a teenager in a small town to cope with the pandemic. To my delight GW fandom was still alive, and I found my way into a 1xR discord. Even then I was still a little hesitant to look for the larger fandom. What if Relena bashing was still alive and widely accepted? I’d met multiple people who watched Gundam Wing and never participated in fandom, but still hated Relena. I was in fandom to talk a little about an old interest, not to be ranted at with all the reasons why one of my favourite characters was “annoying”.
What I found was that fandom had adopted a “ship and let ship” attitude, for the most part, and Relena had actually enjoyed quite a popular period while I was away. I’ve since made a lot of friends that ship 1xR, 1x2, DxR and more. Multishipping is kind of the norm now, which I find so much more to my pace.
The best part is finding a group of people who lived through the ship wars, were previous character bashers and remember huge parts of fandom history that I skipped. I’ve learned about the bashing within the slash community of the pilots and commiserated about the Sylvia bashing that happened in the 1xR community. We were all teenagers who placed certain characters on pedestals and made excuses to shit on others; and we’re older now.
I fully admit there are definitely people who still carry their old grievances, but that is not the norm and not encouraged. For the most part, and for most characters, you have an array of fans who can see the good and the bad and accept them together. There are people who still dislike certain characters, but generally not to the point of bashing them in fics or making the butt end of literally every joke.
But one of the things that helped me get over the idea of being the victim in the situation was also hearing from the slash side and the struggles they had to endure. Censorship from FFN.net, losing their fics to reports, not being allowed to use the PG rating even though they’re just holding hands. I have crappy fics from when I was 13 still up on FFN.net on an account I don’t think I can access any more. It’s a part of me, as much as I will never release my old username to another soul. To say someone deserves to lose their work because it’s a little different… that sucks.
I guess what I mean to say is, we’ve all been through the wringer at this point. Ideally we would be a group of people who understand that and support each other. There is no reason to make someone feel bad about their headcanon or preferences as long as they tag it or are clear that this is a personal take. Even better is if we help them find others who also like the same thing, and let them vibe.
But I have had the conversations that help me understand that, and there are definitely still people out there who haven’t. It makes me wonder if we could all benefit from a Q&A GW fandom thread? Just ask the questions that you’ve always wondered, and see the responses from a variety of different people. For prosperity, on this crazy site where these threads can come back years and years later to lead a new flock down the rabbit hole. Would people be interested in that?
