Asta’s Thought Spill

Astagina Sirevia Indonesian | She/Her | Main Fandom: D.Gray-man I post like i’m leaving notes on the walls of an abandoned forum. Typing here first, organizing thoughts there

[astasirevia]

ASTAGINA

Ink After Midnight

[a-vstine]

POST CONTAINS SENSITIVE TOPICS SUCH AS TOXIC WORK ENVIRONMENT, OVERWORKING, CHILD LOSS/MISCARRIAGE AND DEATH

Let me preface my thoughts by saying that I feel like a lot of people within this community doesn't respect the artists behind their favorite works.

As of recently, it's been announced that Spoon, artist behind the Forgotten Field and Who Made Me A Princess will be taking a hiatus on July 1st and then followed up by a release schedule of one episode weekly for three weeks and one week of break for them.

After this announcement, many voiced their dissatisfaction over this, saying that this is annoying and comparing to the release schedule of Under the Oak Tree which is still releasing after six years of serialization.

Now i understand certain point of views, perhaps some of these are fans of Spoon from WMMAP and underwent the long wait for them to release the side stories and now seeing that the artist is going on a hiatus, it gives them a sense of uncertainty if they will ever see more of Spoon's works in the near future.

But most, especially one who believes manhwa artists are 'privileged' for taking a hiatus, need to be reminded that artists are still humans at their core. Art takes time to create. And we have to take note that this industry is not only challenging but practically life threatening.

One of the more known cases of overworking during production has to be Juniljus, the artist behind Roxana/The Way to Protect the Female Lead's Older Brother

Juniljus was overworked by Kakao (allegedly?) to the point of suffering a miscarriage. This caused her to announce an indefinite hiatus on Roxana and she hasn't updated on any social medias since 2022

I hope Juniljus continues her journey through healing and continue putting her wellbeing above all else going forward on.

This entire situation could be read on this reddit post

OR

You could head down over to Juniljus's twitter page and read her statement regarding the situation

Another huge case within the opposite of this industry is DUBU of Solo Leveling

Now this is just speculation, take this with a grain of salt, i am only quoting what others have said and i might be wrong so i apologize in advance and willing to take anyone who's knowledgeable in this situation to give a better perspective on this

But in 2022, DUBU otherwise known as Jang Sungrak died to a long time chronic illness. Some fans and individuals within the industry speculate that this was due to poor working conditions during the serialization of Solo Leveling especially with how many long time fans would joke on how many times the artist took break from working on his manhwa.

And there could be more that remain unreported.

CONCLUSION

Though it is disheartening having to wait for a indefinite time for beloved stories to be told in a form of media accessible (trust me i've lived through waiting a long time for Under the Green Light : In Dreams to return). It has to be taken in account that artists are still humans that have limits to their own bodies.

No, they are not 'privileged' for taking hiatus, they are humans who has set their boundaries. They are humans who are risking losing their job, livelihood and months or years of work simply for prioritizing their health above all else.

No matter what, nothing takes precedence over human life.

[astasirevia]

Nowadays fandom—yes, including manga dom—need to learn patient and unlearn selfishness.

I'd rather get updates every three months (if we are lucky. There's a time we only got one a year T^T) than my favorite work got discontinue because of its creator 💀

I'm praying everyday for Hoshino-Sensei's health 🤲🏽

[damnfandomproblems]

Fandom Problem #15,292:

Random shipper: why doesn't this ship have more fan made content in this fandom?

Me: have you ever made fan art of the ship?

Shipper: no

Me: fanfic?

Shipper: no

Me: posted headcanon and or theories?

Shipper: no

Me: made any original fan content yourself?

Shipper: no

So you expect people to make content for your ship, yet you haven't made any?

Not even a small 1 sentence hc?

[damnfandomproblems]

Fandom Problem #14,578:

call out to the scum villain fandom, who see a revision of their novel where a child abuse and slavery victim gets rewritten into committing suicide in a throwaway line, and celebrate it like it's some win for the character and the fans

I really feel bad for the fans of that character. that is tough

[ragathasbuttoneye]

I hate that people use 'media literacy' to go against any criticism of the media that they like.

You do understand that having media literacy requires you to be critical of the media you consume, right?

If you just use the fact that it made you feel good and you "liked it" as an argument, then I think your take on people who criticize your faves being "media illiterate" might be the opposite.

[damnfandomproblems]

Fandom Problem #15,231:

Misogyny. Literally in any fandom.

[damnfandomproblems]

Fandom Problem #15,194:

Being a fandom veteran and having a fandom newbie try to tell you how you are wrong about everything and how they know more.

Darling, I have been writing and reading analysis of the source material years before you have even heard about it.

[pruneunfair]

The way manhwa readers went from condemning cheating to glorifying it if the female lead was the mistress in question should tell us that misogyny is a neverending cycle.

We went from "Cheating is terrible and these whores should know better than to seduce a married/engaged man."

To "Well that bitch was awful anyway, she didn't deserve him."

The main relationship could be nuclear waste and readers would still be willing to take not even the bare minimum because an attractive fictional man is the prize. There's this whole idea that the romance genre is as popular as it is because women couldn't imagine a man in the real world being so sweet to them and even that was tainted by the very misogyny they were trying to escape reality from.

And it's not even like our original situation was any better, this all just proves a point that misogyny in the media we consumed has left thousands of women with a shallow interpretation of what girlhood really means.

[damnfandomproblems]

Fandom Problem #15,166:

I wish more fan merch was designed to look like something that someone might wear in-universe. I want to look like a background extra in a Star Wars movie. I do not want to full-on cosplay Princess Leia or wear a shirt with a picture of Darth Vader on it or just the Star Wars logo.

[damnfandomproblems]

Fandom Problem #15,177:

People who advertise their fanon m/m and f/f ships as canon couples.

It's okay to have headcanons. I have mine too. But don't lie that they're canon, especially to queer people.

[fforsythiaaa]

Once when I was in undergrad, someone described something as “problematic” in class and our professor was like, “That’s cool, but ‘problematic’ doesn’t really mean anything. It means that the thing you’re describing has a problem, and in and of itself that’s not bad. Art, especially, should always have problems, or else it’s not interesting and not art, either. It sounds like you’re trying to say that this is bad, but you don’t want to say ‘bad.’ Is that right?”

So from then on whenever one of us called something problematic, he would make us talk it out until we could name the “bad” thing we were hinting at. In this particular class, 7/10 it was some type of oppression, and the remainder was like, “I’m uncomfortable because this is very new/confusing/pushing boundaries that made me feel safe.”

Once we stopped calling things “problematic” and stopping at that, class got way more interesting and... we all had to say, like, “that’s racist” or “that’s misogynistic” or “ew capitalism gross” out loud, which a lot of us had never done in a classroom before. Or we had to be like, “Uhhh... I’m not sure what’s so bad?” and confront our own beliefs and that was maybe even more useful.

Anyway. Whenever I see the word problematic, I can’t help but think of this professor being like, “Good starting point, now let’s get specific.” I think when we have to commit to saying “that’s ___” it requires a lot more careful thought about the truth and impact and complexities of whatever we’re claiming. Sometimes there really is some bullshit afoot, and also sometimes it’s art, and it should be full of problems, because that’s what art is.

[hypokeimena]

#'this is present in the text' is often a good first step #but those second and third ones (naming it; describing its function) are vital (via @elucubrare)

[damnfandomproblems]

Fandom Problem #15,027:

We get it, you think that guy and that girl are just friends/siblings, you don't need to specify it every single time you see them shipping them together

[astasirevia]

I just deep dive into current NARUTO/BORUTO Fandom...

.

.

.

THIS IP IS 25+ YEARS OLD! WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE FANDOM STILL ACT LIKE CHILDREN?!

NO. STROKE THAT. THEY'RE WORSE THEN 2000's-2010's! (Disc: This statement is based solely on memory. Possibilities are highly biased.)

[damnfandomproblems]

Fandom Problem #14,369:

I wish Americans would understand that when us non-Americans talk about how fandom is very American centric, that we are not talking about that many of the websites that we use are from the US or that many people in the fandoms are American.

What we means it that way too many Americans constantly try to push American culture, values and morals onto things that are not from the US.

It is always especially noticeable in Asian media where so many American views constantly get pushed into them and if they do not fit into that narrow world view the media in question gets deemed bad or even problematic. But also with media from all kinds of other places, where the same thing happens all the time. Way too few Americans try to consider the fact that many media has entirely different cultures and histories behind them that are completely different from the US.

Of course not all Americans are like that and many do have respect and are open to engage in different cultures. But enough Americans are this way that it has become a recurring problem that leads to endless discourse within fandoms where the source material is not from the US.

[astasirevia]

My honest reaction about that classic editor notif thing: 🖕🏾

Give me writer friendly block, then I will consider about converting

[damnfandomproblems]

Fandom Problem #14,788:

I wish ao3 had a "primary ship" and a "secondary ship" filter. I'm tired of looking through smaller ships and 90% of what pops up is the top m/m ship with a minor ship that's vaguely mentioned in the background.

And yes, I use the exclude filters. I'm just complaining because it's still annoying and that's what these submissions are for lol

[mystiicmage]

I suppose because some of my posts are beginning to ruffle a few feathers, I'll need to make a quick PSA:

Romanticizing absolutely can function as endorsement depending on the framing. A lot of romance manhwas present controlling, manipulative, or abusive dynamics as desirable and emotionally idealized rather than harmful. When both creators and fans (and even sometimes the platforms these stories are hosted on like Webtoon and Manta) consistently frame those relationships as “romantic” or aspirational, that goes beyond simple depiction. It normalizes and glamorizes toxic behavior, especially for younger or impressionable audiences.