don't mess with visual novel fans. we cant read.

opinions from people who definitely played the ace attorney games and definitely did not just get all their information from narumitsu fic

[saltoncity]

“i love how we as a fandom have just agreed that–” don’t include me in this. do NOT lump me in with that.

[vigilskept]

on the one hand encountering a character in fiction that reminds you of some people you have had unpleasant experiences with in real life is extremely regular. on the other hand it is vital to understand when this is colouring your takes on a character rather than actual analysis of the text before you

[liarsblade]

I would be so much more chill with all of it if more people were more directly just like "yeah there's literally nothing to support this but play in this space with me". Like writing/drawing/etc a character as transgender just because you like it/them and you think it's cute/fun/hot/etc is awesome. Love that have a blast. But if we're going to frame this as a Reading Of The Text then I'm going to hold it to v different standards. And a lot of people are framing it that way.

[wanderinsect]

🫩 no i don't think those characters are siblings i think they're friends. I don't think that's their mom I actually think she's their friend. I don't think they're related actually I think they're friends with each other.

[ourlordapollo]

Nobody asked, but I think the discrepancy between "write your blorbo acting however you want, don't worry if it's OOC" and "[they] would not fucking say that" is that as a writer, it's really fun to develop your blorbo in your head and write them acting out the end point of that journey, but as a reader, it's much more interesting and satisfying to read about that journey

Ex. Your mild-mannered Blorbo becoming a cannibalistic serial killer. Maybe you have this idea in your head of them undergoing various traumas, eating human flesh for the first time, fixating on that experience, coping by becoming addicted to it. But you just want to write the scene where Barb from Accounting snaps and kills her best friend Lisa. Meanwhile Barb and Lisa fans are reading that going "wtf, she would not fucking do or say that!!!" because the pleasure in reading is being taken on the journey that, to a hobbyist/amateur writer, might seem like a lot of redundant or unnecessary work when you only want to write the interesting part

My eternal cry as a reader of fanfiction is "please please just sell it to me!!! I want to believe you that Blorbo would do or say that! I want to believe you! Sell it to me!"

My eternal struggle as a writer of fanfiction is just wanting to hurry up and get to the fun part

Anyway, lest anyone read this and get insecure, remember the eternal rallying cry: You can do whatever you want forever. Writing fanfiction that may disappoint people is a harmless, victimless act.

[ilynpilled]

a character being a perpetrator does not negate their victimhood and neither does their victimhood negate being a perpetrator. u can accept and reckon w both dimensions in ur analysis

[ilynpilled]

there is nothing morally purifying about suffering or victimhood, it is not something that inculcates “goodness.”

one’s character has no impact on whether they were/are a victim or not, victim status is not something that is only afforded to the palatable.

it also does not = absolution.

[ilynpilled]

ppl cant handle this in cartoons made for teenagers lets not get ahead of ourselves

[thewatersofmarch]

don’t care didn’t ask + you’ve projected onto this character to the point that your characterisation is unrecognisable to the source material

[clementine-kesh]

the unfortunate side effect of developing a more critical eye for fan behaviour as a product of society™️ is that new fan takes on a piece of media become fairly predictable. oh the white guy with daddy issues is your favourite? you think the asian man is an adorable subby cinnamon roll? you think the woman in a position of authority is either mom-coded or a total bitch? say less

[clementine-kesh]

obviously there’s nothing morally wrong with the projectionist lens through which a large portion of fandom operates but it does get kind of tiring to constantly feel like. hey guys what if we stopped talking about ourselves and instead talked about the character

[clementine-kesh]

and of course a degree of projectionism can be a very useful lens in certain circumstances, such as having unique insight into a character who shares certain aspects of your own experiences. but at the end of the day you still gotta recognize that there are going to be aspects of them that diverge from yourself

[hansfallada]

ah. a nuanced story that allows for imperfect victims and portrays the confusing and contradictory nature of being human – particularly in a context that explores abuse, harassment and trauma. i wonder what people on the internet make of it... oh. oh no. oh no no no no no

[annabelle--cane]

stop. analyse that text through the lens of its author's intentions and original historical context. okay now take the author out back and kill them dead and analyse that text as though it were published by your mutual yesterday and is in direct conversation with the contemporary discourse that's most relevant to your life. okay now pick your favorite angle of interpretation and come up with the strongest possible argument against it. now imagine that the text is your best friend and that it means you well and that you naturally give it every benefit of the doubt because you're on its side and you want the best for it. now imagine that the text wants you dead and it'll eat you if you don't eat it first. now pretend that you found this text locked away in a cave with no evidence of when or where it came from and you have to divine its meaning solely through its internal coherence and nothing else. okay now address the elephant in the room aspect of the text you've been ignoring because you find it boring or confusing or uncomfortable and become the number one expert on it. now spend forty minutes assigning all the characters dnd classes with at least three sentences of reasoning each. okay now do the cha cha slide.

[ballerbozo]

Trying to find wlw ship fics on ao3 SUCKS because it’s always a background ship in a mlm centered fic. Everyone loves the wlw ship, but not as much as the mlm one, so they’re just sidelined. “Oh, but most women in media aren’t written well!” So? Fandom has completely remixed male characters for the sake of the ship. Make an AU. Change the setting. Put your own spin on the characters. I hate fandom misogyny so much.

[clementine-kesh]

call me terminally academia-brained but i do think a lot of the fun of character analysis is figuring out how to build a compelling argument for a particular reading using lines of evidence from canon as well as meta/intertextual support

[clementine-kesh]

and you could say that what i’m saying here is basically “a lot of the fun of doing character analysis is doing character analysis” but let’s be real a lot of fandom character analysis is pretty heavily vibes-based. and i think that’s where i really chafe up against the traditional thought-terminating fandom attitude of like, everyone’s opinions hold equal weight and any interrogation of that is inherently hostile. because i think it’s fascinating to dig into where others are coming from in terms of their views on characters or dynamics or whatever, especially when they differ significantly from more commonly expressed views, and part of that digging is asking people okay what parts of canon are you drawing from to support your opinion? what parts of canon are you disregarding or downplaying? how does this argument hold up in the light of how race, gender, class, ability, etc. operate both in the piece’s in-fiction and real world contexts?

[pawpunkao3]

Unhealthy ships in a fandom are a bioindicator. They're like finding caterpillars on your produce. You may not want to consume them---you may even find them disgusting---but if they aren't there at all, you know that stuff is COVERED in toxicity.

[lindleland]

[badaceattorneyfandomtakes]

These people will jump through literally any hoop to claim the ship they don't like is somehow pedophilia so they can bully all their friends into disliking it. Even when it is two adult women of the same fucking age.

Deeply insecure behavior. "I can't just dislike things!!! It has to be a moral crusade!!!"

[thewatersofmarch]

don’t care didn’t ask + you’ve projected onto this character to the point that your characterisation is unrecognisable to the source material

[wintersoldierfell]

you've heard of death of the author, now get ready for death of the audience: where instead of basing your reaction on a thousand uninformed opinions online, you actually read the text and engage with it

[wintersoldierfell]

girl help there's people on this post who can't actually read my text