That Thin Bright Line

Charley's primary and reblog blog. French, Plastic Tree, Throbb, Haikyuu !! (Kuroken), etc.

[jackoshadows]

honestly idt show sansa is truly THAT popular but yeah she has a lot of stans for the reasons you listed. d&d even lifted from theon's reek arc to give to her! "let me die while there's still some of me left" oh i was so pissed.

Theon got massively sidelined in his own arc once they decided to replace Jeyne Poole with Sansa. In the books Jeyne Poole is a tertiary character written in for Theon's arc and characterization, Jon's arc at the wall and to keep Arya Stark involved in the North plot. Even Ramsay was a character created and written in for Theon's story.

What inspired him to create Ramsay Snow? GRRM said, and I quote, that he needed something “to bite Theon in the ass”. Ramsay was created for Theon’s storyline,  and he is first presented as a prisoner and a servant and then rises to  a high position while Theon becomes his prisoner and servant.

I think even D&D knew this, which is why they spend an entire season on just Ramsay torturing Theon - wholly unnecessary (They could have just referred to it) IMO. However, what was the point of all that when they kicked Theon out and turned it into Sansa Vs Ramsay in season 6?

I always talk about how Jon, Arya and Bran got massively sidelined for D&D's Sansa fanfiction, but yeah Theon's story arc got entirely chucked out. I am quite certain that Theon will have a big role to play in Ramsay's take down in the books, unlike in the show.

Theon’s story is harrowing and at the same time is the epitome of ‘Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?’ No one cares about poor Jeyne Poole in the story. Not the Northerners, not the Boltons, not Mance and his spearwives, not Jon Snow at the Wall. Theon knows that Jeyne is not Arya and yet risks everything to help her at the end.

And there’s a nice contrast with Theon actually managing to save Jeyne Poole and Jon Snow getting stabbed by his own men and dying and failing to rescue his ‘sister’.

And you know, the show version of Sansa even takes away from book Sansa! GRRM has given book Sansa Stark a whole arc in the Vale with her mentor Littlefinger. D&D thought Jeyne Poole's story of rape and torture would be more fitting for their favorite character because they wanted the actress, Sophie Turner, to have a more meaty role on the show. 

So many media articles were complaining about how the camera was focusing on Theon's pain instead of Sansa's ... That's because in the books the story WAS ABOUT THEON'S PAIN instead of Jeyne's. That's what happens when you replace a tertiary character with a main character. And yet Sansa fans keep stanning for this plot because it gets Sansa North and that's what they want for her.

GEORGE R. R. MARTIN: I was trying to set up Jeyne for her future role as the false Arya. The real Arya has escaped and is presumed dead. But this girl has been in Littlefinger’s control for years, and he’s been training her. She knows Winterfell, has the proper northern accent, and can pose as Arya. Who the hell knows what a little girl you met two years ago looks like? When you’re a lord visiting Winterfell, are you going to pay attention to the little kids running around? So she can pull off the impersonation. Not having Jeyne, they used Sansa for that. Is that better or worse? You can make your decision there. Oddly, I never got pushback for that in the book because nobody cared about Jeyne Poole that much. They care about Sansa.

Which is so true.

Ultimately, the show took a giant hammer to the North plot in the books and gave us a nonsensical hodgepodge of ridiculous plot lines and characterization and one can always tell which 'asoiaf expert' or bnf is a Sansa fan because they think that nonsense is what's going to happen in the books.

[marauders4evr]

So imagine you’re a gay top, right, and you’re out on a date with your partner, just having a fun time, and you’re about to head home, when you spot this kid passed out on the streets, your partner wants to help him, but you’re obviously a little worried that you could face severe repercussions if you help this random kid, then you realize that he could be a potential ally, so the two of you drag him out of the streets and into a safe space, and when he wakes up, he confesses that he’s homeless, so you and your partner go through the process of adopting him, you two take him home, you two give him a good meal, you two start to teach him some philosophies in life, he slowly grows up, you two help him through his bad dreams, you two help him through his bad memories, you two play games with him, he completely roasts you at an eating contest, he’s extremely active, you’re always on the move, you’re walking everywhere, like literally walking all the time, like so much walking, and you’re there for him and then all of a sudden, his childhood friend shows up on your doorstep and is like, “Your adopted son is really the king.” and then he falls in love with a woman in like 2.55 minutes which is definitely not something you two taught him how to do, so you’re confused, and the weather gets really weird, and you’re even more confused and in the end, all you really want to know is WHO’S THE MONKEY and by the time you’re dressing in drag and doing the hula, you’ve realized that maybe it’s better if you just don’t worry about it…

[newtgeiszler]

i love the aggressively unnecessary decision op made in announcing the fact that timon is a top in this post

[sprotteslaettberg]

Special thanks to the comment above for adding the name and making me realize that this is, in fact, about the Lion King, and not some medieval gay knights AU

[allofthehousethatstood]

Peter Liddle singing “I loved you in the best way possible” at the top of his lungs is tonight’s mood.

[otherwindow]

Can’t believe I was fooled into thinking Aerith was just another meek healer girl in Final Fantasy spin offs and Kingdom Hearts when she’s actually FERAL

[whitepeopletwitter]

[bamsara]

same shit, different fandom

[maggins]

[kendallroy-deactivated20210425]

idk who needs to hear this but when your english teacher asks you to explain why an author chose to use a specific metaphor or literary device, it’s not because you won’t be able to function in real-world society without the essential knowledge of gatsby’s green light or whatever, it’s because that process develops your abilities to parse a text for meaning and fill in gaps in information by yourself, and if you’re wondering what happens when you DON’T develop an adult level of reading comprehension, look no further than the dizzying array of examples right here on tumblr dot com

[kendallroy-deactivated20210425]

this post went from 600 to 2400 notes in the time it took me to write 3 emails. i’m already terrified for what’s going to happen in there

[kendallroy-deactivated20210425]

k but also, as an addendum, the reason we study literary analysis is because everything an author writes has meaning, whether it was intentional or not, and their biases and agendas are often reflected in their choice of language and literary devices and so forth! and that ties directly into being able to identify, for example, the racist and antisemitic dogwhistles often employed by the right wing, or the subconscious word choices that can unintentionally illustrate someone’s bias or blind spot. LANGUAGE HAS WEIGHT AND MEANING! the way we communicate is a reflection of our inner selves, and that’s true regardless of whether it’s a short story or a novel or a blog post or a tweet. instead of taking a piece of writing at face value and stopping there, assuming that there is no deeper meaning or thought behind the words on the page, ask yourself these two questions instead:

1. what is the author trying to say? 2. what does the author maybe not realize they’re saying?

because the most interesting reading of any piece of literature, imho, usually occupies the space in between those questions.

[hi-yibo]

☽

〰️〰️〰️〰️

Cutie behind the scene

CR 一片冬麥 

J36

[anthropost]

headlines about Robert Pattinson will always be one of my favorite things.

(notice they are all from just the last year)

[i-hate-chick-fil-a]

Wholesome compares to cops killing innocent people in America.

[binturita]

Splatoon cops

[awed-frog]

Oh and also -

[moomoobooboo-deactivated2020102]

Why don’t you roll up in a futon and maybe you’ll calm down?

[leonardo-nierman]

This is one of the dumbest takes I’ve ever seen about the police, people heard this and I see unironic comments saying “uwu japan so soft and sweet compared to barbarian usa.” Absolute nonsense!

Japan “boasts” of a whopping 99% conviction rate in criminal cases. This is statistically horseshit, and the only way to “achieve” such a feat is through a lot of lying and through the assumption that, because someone’s been arrested, then that person must be guilty.

The way Japanese law enforcement manages to convict someone, even for minor offences, is to hold them in cells under constant interrogation until they break down and sign a legal confession. The punishment can range from paying a fine to jail time, but the thing is that indefinite detention is a clear violation of human rights. Often they do it without citing any charges. Lawyers can’t access their clients. The police do not make their methods transparent. Why do you think Ace Attorney has you playing on the side of the defense? Because prosecutors and the police often work together to ensure a conviction as quickly as possible. The simple act of being arrested often means you’re fucked. And that’s not even getting into what that means for your social image and employment prospects. Japan also has the death penalty. 

That quirky news report about Japanese crime being so nonexistent that cops don’t have anything to do? A total myth. Police make up honeypot traps over trivialities like stolent bikes to amuse themselves while they ignore cases of domestic violence, train chikan, and theft. The police turn a blind eye to organised crime and corruption (the seedy nature of pachinko parlours is an open secret)—often they have close relations with yakuza, and a lot of people say that yakuza aren’t a problem now, but what isn’t a problem about people who make money off child prostitution, loan sharking, and the drug trade?

What about the fact that you can’t film anything if the police don’t want you to? They can totally seize footage related to a detention and destroy it if it doesn’t paint them in a good light. A man was suffocated to death by an officer in front of a police box and the camerographer who filmed the incident was immediately told to turn the footage in to the police. 

What about that Nissan exec who was jailed? Sure, no sympathy for corporate types, that’s fine, but isn’t it convenient that pretty much the only high profile arrest was of the Brazilian born French-Lebanese man? Did I mention that the police are racist and xenophobic? If you’re a Nigerian tout in Roppongi the police will absolutely keep a closer eye on you than on the middle aged salaryman groping schoolgirls on the train. 

Not convinced yet? How about the fact that leftist activity and group organisation immediately puts people under scrutiny? Does anyone who called the Japanese police “wholesome” want to talk to the Zengakuren student activists who were attacked by them?

Like, it’s good that in Japan there’s a lesser chance of dying at their hands, but I’m honestly baffled that the first reaction people had when reading about them was to fawn and coo instead of getting suspicious over such positive headlines. But the reality is that cops aren’t your friends anywhere. They exist to uphold the status quo, not to really protect people—but that’d be too much of a bummer for the commenters on this thread, apparently. Taking the time to actually read about Japanese police would go against their image of Japan as this desexualised, neutered country where absolutely nothing bad ever happens. 

(Before someone wants to call me a liar, I have sources: 

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20180929/p2a/00m/0na/002000c

https://litci.org/en/japanese-police-harass-and-assault-zengakuren-student-activists/ 

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-07-15-mn-142-story.html

https://www.jstor.org/stable/30209411?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2015/12/05/forced-to-confess

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201812230022.html

https://elibrary.law.psu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1094&context=psilr

https://www.tokyoreview.net/2017/08/myth-japans-bored-police/)

[leonardo-nierman]

Im reblogging myself in light of current events and because too many people in the notes gushing about “splatoon cops” got on my nerves. Japanese people are also protesting in support of BLM and i’ve already seen sooo many white expat weeaboos angrily screaming about “black politics infiltrating beautiful japan!!” 🤮

[kaciart]

A hurt bb being looked after by his girls

Patreon | Ko-Fi

[weak-intention]

DIR EN GREY - WOWOW SPECIAL member interview promo

[glacecakes]

I am OBSESSED with this tiktok

[cosmic-espero]

Not trying to start shit but I can’t help but think how much better internet activism would be if certain people could understand that the world isn’t the US and that different countries have different cultural and historical contexts that create different political and social issues, and that those different issues are tackled by the affected people in ways americans may not be used to. Just because you don’t understand how foreign activism/politics work it doesn’t mean that it’s “problematic”.

[makkanaito]

[amazonrhinos]

the same reason every other nonprofit org tries to maintain a surplus--in the event of an emergency. those 100s of thousands of dollars will be gone incredibly quickly if they need to replace servers, restore data, or fight a lengthy court case. the investments are so that they can be less reliant on donations in the future. but the archive is just that--an archive. they don't take free labor from anyone, they provide a platform for fanfic writers. if you want to get mad at a platform -cont-

“for profitting from your labor, you’re using one. tumblr makes money from everything you post, because they sell their memberbase as a product to advertisers. ao3 doesn’t do this, which is why they need donations in the first place. ao3 isn’t actually benefitting from anything–they are an archive. essentially an online library, except they don’t get government funding, so they need donations to survive. -done-”But tumblr’s honest about the fact that they’re a business and are here for profit. Tumblr is a garbage corporation, but also they’re not trying to make it seem like they’re the poor downtrodden either. They also don’t prevent me from hosting things on their site while trying to get compensated for my time. Also, no one is coming at me on anon on tumblr trying to claim tumblr just desperately needs to do those things to survive. No is coming at me making excuses for tumblr. They are bending over backward to defend AO3 and claim not only that I can’t value my own labor, but that I shouldn’t.

[olderthannetfic]

You should value your labor.

But you should also value mine.

And that of every other person who ever worked a 20- or a 40- or a 60-hour work week, unpaid, so that AO3 could be the amazing platform it is. And everyone who ever put in 15 minutes or 15 seconds, for that matter.

We didn’t do all that expecting future pay. We didn’t do that only because the site couldn’t afford to pay people. We worked hard to make a site that was non-commercial. That’s what we donated our labor and our cash for. That’s what we believe in.

So when you look at that and think “Hmm… how can I monetize this?” you’re like FanLib. You’re like an outsider abusing our trust and profiting off of us while destroying our culture.

If it’s not your culture, that’s fine. Your culture can go be somewhere else.

You ask for respect yet disrespect me and every other OTW volunteer and staff member past and present.

There is a serious social cost to fic-for-pay, but the bottom line is that you are coming to a space explicitly built to be not that and then getting mad about the fact.

My suspicion is that AO3 is as popular as it is because it doesn’t allow fic-for-pay. But I could be wrong! There are lots of fans on Tumblr who disrespect and don’t get the values that OTW was founded on or the kind of gift economy and social structure it is trying to protect.

By all means, get some of them together and build some other site where fic writers can post their ko-fis and their patreons. I’m not even sure the corporations will come for you. They might not.

I donated the equivalent of years of a full time job so that AO3 could be what it is, not so that you could make a quick buck and pretend you did it all yourself.

If it were really all about your labor, you could advertise your fic-for-pay on any website you happened to be on. Tumblr. Twitter. Whatever.

You want to do it on AO3 because of my labor.

Our labor.

[elfwreck]

AO3 was built to be non-commercial, to support the gift economy that inspired so many fanworks creators.

Changing that would be a betrayal of all the people who worked on the site. 

Anyone who wants a commercially linked fanfic site, can make one. Or, since that is very overwhelming for one person, can get together with a few dozen other people, find some who know code and some who know business setups and some who know law, and build themselves an archive.

That’s how AO3 did it, after all. It didn’t start with several hundred volunteers and a board of directors. It started with a handful of fans saying “fuck this shit forever; we need to make it ourselves.”

So when we say, “You could make an archive!!!” we’re not being snide. We’re not trying to say “shut up and go away.” We’re saying: “No really, if this matters so much to you, you can make a space with your own rules. It can be done. We did it, with a lot fewer resources than you have today.” (Don’t get me started on the state of filesharing in 2008.) AO3 itself is open source - you can even copy as much of its structure as you like.

What you DON’T get to do, is tell those of us who poured our souls into making the archive site of our dreams, that times have changed and it needs to make other fans happy now.

If you’re not happy with AO3, you don’t need to use it. If it offends you, block the URL and move on. 

But you don’t get to use it for a few months, even a few years, and decide that the people who built it somehow overlooked the possibility of income and they need to change it now.

No, we didn’t “forget” to allow for monetization. Money is specifically excluded from motivation to post at AO3. You not only can’t money at AO3; you can’t say “I moneyed for this somewhere else.” Money economy is NOT WELCOME at AO3, and that’s on purpose.

There are a million other websites where you can ask for money for your fanworks. You don’t even have to remove stuff from AO3 to post on those. But you can’t link them. 

Money does weird things to people’s brains, warps people’s relationships, has strange and often unpleasant effects on art. We want none of it. 

So we said: We’ll make an archive. And we will NOT have advertising, and we will NOT have please-pay-me buttons, and we will ask for donations to run it. And if we don’t get much, it will just… be small. Very tiny. It will be as big as we can afford to make it, with money made by asking “hey how would you like to see an archive of fanworks when there’s no money pressure involved?”

AO3 is working as intended. It’s not broken. It’s not missing modern features. It’s stlil in beta because it’s missing some of the features initially planned for it - including image hosting. But it’s not an oversight that there’s no commercial activity allowed or planned.

I got paid for my labor with AN ARCHIVE FULL OF FICS BY MY FAVORITE AUTHORS. No money could’ve bought that for me.

[jackironsides]

Lack of money is also a key part of what makes it legal under US copyright, so there’s that too.

[ruffboi-mags]

The idea that fanfic should ever be for profit is fucking alien to me, in large part because the only argument we have for the legal standing of transformative works like fanfic, at least in the US, is the fact that we do not make money off of it.

You want to make money off fanfic? Cool. Go risk a lawsuit and shit on decades of not-for-profit-yet-also-valued fanworks on another fucking site.

AO3 is not for you.

[seananmcguire]

I stopped proudly announcing my fanfic handle not because I am ashamed, but because of the note above that money warps things.  People were paying for my original fiction–which is wonderful and good and I want them to do that they are heroes for doing that–and then finding my fanfic and reviewing it as if they had paid for that, too.

And their reviews were, by fanfic standards, unbelievably cruel and vicious, because they wanted to know why the “Josie and the Pussycats” crossover I’d written on my lunch break at work wasn’t edited to professional standards.

Money changes how people interact with things.  Even when we want to think it doesn’t.

[charleywng]

tbh I just don’t understand why people are so freaking annoying about AO3 when you can ignore the website easily if it’s such a hassle. To me, it’s one of the best thing that happened to fandom since I’ve been around here (and I’ve been around here for more than a decade). I always regret we didn’t have it sooner for the older fandoms I was in when I think about all the fics which disappeared after the LJ purge for ex. 

Tbh, I wish we had the same thing for fanart... i’d be so over the moon. 

[redbaretta]

Dir en grey - The Insulated World [Live Footage] - REPETITION OF HATRED ↳ Toshiya Focus