My main Guardian FMVs, gifs, and picspams. ND and photosensitive fam, please know that you can watch everything I make safely! I never use triggering visual effects. Watch in peace, my friends.
it's wild that popular discourse around migraines is that there are too many people who claim to have migraines but "just have bad headaches". this is the exact opposite of my experience? i'm still trying to convince several of my friends that their "bad tension headaches" that are unilateral, throbbing, cause light sensitivity, nausea, etc, are migraines lmao. migraine is underdiagnosed and undertreated by every metric i can think of.
this narrative is not harmless! it prevents people from getting treatment that could really benefit them. so i would like it to die. thank you.
As a guy who went to see a neurologist only to "rule out migraines" because I thought I had "tension headaches at worst and also it's not that bad really" only to realize by tracking my headache days that I have very bad chronic migraines just with no aura (most people with migraines don't have them), I co-sign this 100%.
Just starting abortive medications already improved my quality of life so much and now that my doctor started me on preventatives, I might actually be able to have more than a handful of headache-free days each month.
Migraine is frequently misdiagnosed as chronic sinusitis or tension headaches according to research. Mostly because people have a very rigid (inaccurate) idea of what it actually is.
But even if it's not migraine, you still deserve treatment for your headaches. Just because someone else has them worse than you doesn't mean you don't deserve relief.
Learning about the different types of migraine and headache disorders can help you better understand your symptoms and discuss them with you
yeah i found out awhile back that the 'pressure headaches' that i get that 'aren't that bad' (but still leave me feeling sick and dysfunctional all day) were migraines. i now take a low dose of a preventative medication and the number of shitty rain days i have per month has dropped from like ten to two. it's great.
In my experience anyone who has chronic pain of any kind ALWAYS under diagnoses it in part cause people who DON'T have chronic pain always tell them how it's Not That Bad Just Get Over It and it takes a lot of fighting to get anyone (including doctors) to do anything about it. Fucked if I know why. Everyone seems to think we're making it up. I've never met anyone who is making it up.
Yes to all this, and also there is a type of migraine called Vestibular Migraine where the vertigo and nausea symptoms are equal to or stronger than the pain symptoms. Since the symptoms, triggers, and treatment are different from regular migraines, tons of people go a really long time without realizing they're getting migraines and not just horrible mysterious episodes of vertigo with wicked nausea and a side of spiky head pain. It wasn't until I ended up in the hospital for dehydration and starvation after a couple weeks of a constant VM that wouldn't let me keep down more than a couple sips of water and the occasional saltine that I realized I'd been getting VMs for years. If this sounds like you, please look into vestibular migraine, it could literally save your life. "If it was a migraine you would know" is an outright lie, don't listen to it.
Players:
*show up consistently every week for three and a half years and counting*
*laugh many times during game*
*say things like "OMG I love this so much" during game*
*all joined my next campaign after our first ended*
Me: "Are they actually having a good time tho"
(I've never claimed production meta for @guardianbingo before, but after the amount of time and research I put in on this, I feel like I've earned the "Zhao Yunlan's Gun or Whip" square, haha)
SO. GUYS.
Maybe this is something fandom as a whole figured out back in 2018, but I, who didn't hear of Guardian until 2020, did not realize until now and I need to share the knowledge because when I finally noticed, I made an unholy sound.
I've tracked down where Zhao Yunlan's gun came from -- or at least, what it most likely started as. Not the in-universe dark-energy-maybe-uses-bullets-maybe-doesn't-device-that's-best-not-thought-about-too-long, but rather the actual fake-steampunk-revolver-that-is-best-not-looked-at-too-long-because-it's-awful prop.
Y'know, this disaster:
I was actually working on a different Guardian Bingo fill and needed to look something up for continuity, so I'd flipped through a couple of episodes at super high speed trying to find a scene. As luck would have it, one of my skips forward happened to land on the scene I screencapped above, when ZYL confronts Zhang Shi.
Normally we don't get this clear (or this stationary) a shot of the godawful gun prop. I'd assumed all along they had just taken a plastic gun, glued some extra bits and bobs on it to make it look fancy, and hit it with some dry brushing (fun fact: you can watch the paint flake throughout the series; check out the top of the barrel and the side of the cylinder in the above screenshot!) to make it look #steampunk like the abandoned aesthetic of 25% of the show (as I've said before, I have theories about what happened in preproduction, but that's another post). This sort of thing is exactly what I've done for cheap cosplay weapons or background props for film work that aren't going to be seen at HD detail range.
Anyway, since the detail showed up better here than in other shots, I paused the video to look at the random screws and hex bolts (why??) they'd glued on it, since I recalled that I had the aforementioned gun/whip bingo square to fill.
That's when I noticed a detail that had eluded me before: An inverted V shape at the bottom of the grip.
Only looking more closely, that's not an inverted V. It's a symbol that I've seen a whole series of variations of over the past 15+ years... every time there's a new installment of the Assassin's Creed video game series:
So I started hunting. The principal weapons in each game turned up no matches, but eventually I found a gun that looks almost exactly like ZYL's:
It's not a perfect replica, but the details are certainly all there: The stylized logo; the leaves and swirls on the grip; the feathers up the back; even the Victorian scrollwork beneath the barrel.
Now, what's really interesting is that this gun isn't actually from the AC game series. It's part of an elaborate fan project by artist David Paget that started as a class assignment back in 2014. Even though it gathered a bit of steam in the AC fandom and generated a couple of forum role-play groups, OCs and the like, nothing about this artwork was ever connected to a real Assassin's Creed title. So why would there be a physical version of a gun that was only someone's fanart?
This is where the smoking gun (*rimshot*) goes missing, because I can't prove any of this, and it's been long enough that digging through the archives of the internet to find answers is going to take way more time than I can afford to spend on a project I'm not getting paid for. But there are two likely possibilities:
Scenario A: Some employee in a toy factory somewhere in China got told, "This Assassin's Creed franchise is really big, so we need to be producing replicas from those games to sell. Work up some designs." So the employee Googles "assassin's creed gun," finds David Paget's very professional-looking art, and whips up a replica to mass-injection-mold without realizing it's not actually from a game. Later, someone on the cash-strapped Guardian production team needs a gun to mod, and finds a cheap toy revolver on clearance after several years of sitting in storage because there was little demand for a replica of a gun that was never in a game. They buy several, glue hex bolts on the cylinder for reasons unknown, and poof! Instant pseudo-steampunk!
Scenario B: Other fans were involved in the design. Someone did build a 3D model of David Paget's design that's still available on Sketchfab (screenshot below), and it's not unreasonable to assume that other fans could have thought it looked cool and built 3D printable models. Later, someone on the cash-strapped Guardian production team needs a gun to mod, and acquires the 3D print file of one of those models from the interwebs. They mod the file a bit, print some, glue hex bolts on the cylinder for reasons unknown, and poof! Instant pseudo-steampunk!
Personally, I find Scenario A far more likely than Scenario B, for two reasons: First, the hero prop looks more injection molded than 3D printed, especially given the technical state of 3D printing back in 2017-8. And second... Budget-challenged dramas do have a history of picking up bulk video game replicas and using them as cheap props. I made a post back in 2019 about the WoW Horde shields we spotted in a different drama...
Anyway, no firm answers about the source of the hero prop -- the world may never know! -- but we have now confirmed that in some alternate universe (possibly one of the first eighty?), Zhao Yunlan and/or Zhao Xinci is an Assassin.
Wait, wait, wait... *recalls mechanics of how the whole Assassin's Creed frame story is supposed to work* Uh... so... who wants to write a genetic memory explanation for the whole Kunlun -> [lots of lifetimes] -> Zhao Yunlan thing?
.
(I did actually check the catalogue of a friend of mine who makes replicas of props from various media franchises to see if he'd done a commission of the David Paget design, since a surprising number of his custom pieces actually do end up on film and television, but while he has a gorgeous replica of a revolver that actually appears in an AC game, it appears he has not done the Zhao Yunlan gun. I didn't really think it likely, since he's in the U.S., but you never know.)
HEARTBREAKING: friends who i should be going to the movies and playing dnd and watching anime and cosplaying and going to the mall and having sleepovers and exploring the woods with live one hundred trillion miles away
The Annual Interdimensional Haixing-Dixing 520 Day Reverse Exchange is coming back for 2026!
520 sounds like "I love you" in Mandarin, so May 20th is a bit like Valentine's Day. To celebrate, we're back with the eighth annual 520 Day Reverse Exchange. As the name says, this is a reverse exchange: instead of making your request and that request being assigned to a writer/artist/fanwork creator, here:
You sign up with the kinds of things you enjoy creating.
You choose three writers/artists/fanwork creators based on anonymised ads.
You make a request of each of them based on what they enjoy creating.
You are assigned one request to create for, based on your offer.
You receive a gift from one of the creators you chose.
(An updated rules/info post will go up before sign-ups open, but here is last year's for reference.)
This year's schedule
Sign-ups part 1 - offers: Sunday 15 March - Friday 27 March
Sign-ups part 2 - requests: Saturday 28 March - Friday 3 April
Assignments out: Wednesday 8 April at the latest
Deadline: Wednesday 13 May
Work reveals: Wednesday 20 May (there is no anon period)
This exchange is run on Dreamwidth and AO3, but you don’t need a Dreamwidth account to participate. We’d love it if you filled out or anon-commented on the interest poll on Dreamwidth, but that’s also not required. :-)
In 2025, we responded to the infuriating influx of AI-generated slop in creative spaces with the following policy: Our Stance on GenAI. Given the significant developments in GenAI since last spring, we thought it was important to issue an updated statement and remind you where we stand. The TL;DR is that we’re more anti-GenAI than ever; please see below for our expanded policy for FTH 2026 and onward.
To start, let us firmly reiterate:
Generative AI has no place in FTH. It is not welcome here, under any circumstance.
Non-exhaustive list of unwelcome slop generators:
image generators like Imagen, Midjourney, and similar
video generators like Sora, Runway, and similar
LLMs like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and similar
vibecode generators like Copilot, Roo, Replit, and similar
audio generators like ElevenLabs, MusicLM, and similar
text editors like Grammarly that are known to be powered by LLMs
Starting this year, the following policies apply to all creators (including those in ROFL) and bidders, respectively:
For Creators
Participants found to have used generative AI to produce a fanwork, in part or in whole, for their bidder(s) will be permanently banned from participating in future iterations of Fandom Trumps Hate. This includes fan labor of all kinds.
We strongly advise (in FTH, but also more generally) that creators of all mediums keep some kind of work history, insofar as possible (we understand this may be more difficult for fan labor). You likely already do, intentionally or otherwise! Documenting your fanwork progress is one of the easiest ways to prove that your work is truly yours, should the need ever arise. To be clear, we don't require that you provide your bidder with intermediate stages of your fanwork—that is entirely up to you.
For Bidders
Participants who deliberately introduce any AI-generated materials into the fanwork creation process (see below for concrete examples) will forfeit any unfinished portion of the won fanwork and will be permanently banned from participating in future iterations of Fandom Trumps Hate.
This includes (but is not limited to):
giving a creator an AI-generated prompt (of any medium) (e.g. requesting a fanfic based on an AI-generated image, generating a fanwork prompt using ChatGPT, etc.)
requesting fan labor be performed on AI-generated material (e.g. beta-reading a slopfic, getting help with a vibecoded workskin, etc.)
requesting a fanwork (of any medium) that is intended to accompany AI-generated material (e.g. cover art for a slopfic, photo manips of AI-generated images, podfics of slopfics, etc.)
feeding creators' fanwork(s) into a generative AI model
We are keenly aware that since last year, existing beloved tools and workflows have had unasked-for generative AI features forced into them, with varying degrees of transparency about whether or not they can be shut off or excluded. Our ask is that all participants make an effort to avoid using features known to rely on generative AI in anything even peripherally auction-related. Familiarize yourself with the tools you work with and use your best judgement; if a new feature would make your fanwork trivially easy for someone without your skill set to create, it may rely on generative AI.
A Reminder:
The more generative AI intrudes into creative spaces, the harder it becomes to distinguish between slop and human-made work, even to a trained eye/ear. We absolutely encourage everyone to educate themselves on how to get better at spotting it. That said, it can be very tempting to over-correct and default to the assumption that anything you come across with certain characteristics is AI-generated. We ask that everyone strive to assume that your fellow FTH participants are operating in good faith. Not every piece of text containing em dashes* was generated with ChatGPT; not every video with a cool, improbable-looking effect was generated with Sora; not every piece of audio with a noticeable skip or glitch was generated with ElevenLabs.
Please be kind to each other. If you suspect your fanwork or prompt contains AI-generated material, please reach out to the mods via email so we can address situations on a case-by-case basis.
We recognize this policy may seem unusually rigid in comparison to our others; most aspects of FTH operate on an honor system, and in general we try to be as flexible as we can in our policies to allow for the best experience possible for all FTH participants. This, however, is something we are not willing to be flexible on. We ask that you trust we have given this serious consideration and respect that while we are always willing to answer clarifying questions, we are not open to debate on this topic.
Why do we care about this?
We understand that there can (still, somehow) be contentious debate around the use of generative AI, we know individual people have their own reasons for being in favor of it, and we recognize that many people may simply be unaware that generative AI comes with any negative impacts at all. Regardless, we are firm in our stance on this for the following (non-exhaustive) list of key reasons in no particular order:
Over the years, we’ve supported multiple environmental organizations doing important work to combat climate change, preserve wildlife, and advocate for renewable and sustainable energy policy changes. The increasingly massive computational demands of generative AI models are causing a spike in greenhouse gas emmissions, polluting the soil around data centers with hazardous e-waste, and gobbling up our already limited supply of fresh water (which we hear is critical to the survival of organic life or something). Using generative AI to produce a fanwork flies in the face of the work of every environmental organization we have supported to date.
negative, unregulated societal impact
Paramilitary-wannabes, among others, are leveraging AI to enable mass surveillance and commit unforgivable acts of domestic terror, primarily against already underprivileged groups. Using generative AI to produce a fanwork contradicts the efforts of all immigrant-justice related organizations we’ve supported to date.
Actual creative work is being increasingly devalued, leaving writers, artists, computer programmers and many others unemployed at a time when inflation is high and housing costs are out of control.
Use of generative AI is enabling students to avoid learning, and even reducing brain activity in people who use it in lieu of doing their own research using standard search engines (a valuable skill to develop in its own right). Having a less-educated populace with lower critical thinking skills paves the way for political manipulation used by fascists everywhere.
The companies responsible for forcing generative AI into all aspects of our lives are helmed by increasingly right-wing tech bros who lack the capacity to care about who or what they may be destroying in the name of alleged technological “progress,” and who leverage their over-inflated wealth and influence to effect major policy decisions (either via lobbying or by being directly hired to do so).
plagiarism and lack of artistic integrity
Most if not all generative AI models are trained on some amount of stolen work (across various mediums). They operate by taking massive amounts of data (much of which they do not have sufficient consent to use, in our opinion) and averaging it down into a uniform sludge. As a result, any output generated by these models is at worst plagiarized and at best extremely derivative and unoriginal. In our opinion, using generative AI to produce a fanwork demonstrates a lack of care for the craft, a lack of respect for the work of creators, and a lack of respect for your bidder and your commitment to them.
undermining our community-building impact
The pervasiveness and sheer volume of generated AI slop is skewing the perception of what kind of creative work is considered “polished” or “professional”, exacerbating existing harmful implicit and explicit biases along the way and leading to an increasingly narrow (and boring) scope of what constitutes valuable creative work. This is bad news for creatives and consumers of creative works alike.
One of the best things to come out of the auction every year—we can’t even call it a side benefit, because it’s so central to us—is that bidders and creators form collaborative relationships which sometimes even turn into friendship. Using generative AI undermines that trust and collaboration.
undermining the value of participating in FTH
Creators: bidders participate in Fandom Trumps Hate for the opportunity to prompt YOU to create a fanwork for them, in YOUR style with YOUR specific skill set. Any potential bidder is perfectly capable of dropping a prompt into a generative AI model on their own time, if they want something generic and soulless.
Bidders: creators participate in Fandom Trumps Hate to channel their creative energy into a force for good, enriching the available content in their fandom while supporting causes they care about. They are offering their time and talent to create something to YOUR specifications that YOU will love and appreciate. Any creator is perfectly capable of generating themselves an uninspired, milquetoast AI prompt to work from, if they wish.
Ideally, all who participate in FTH aim to play a role more significant than “unnecessary middleman.” We appreciate your taking the time to read this, and we hope some or all of our reasoning here resonates with you too.
Do you create fanart, fanfic, podfics, videos, or any other kind of digital fanwork? Do you have services you can offer your fellow creators such as betaing, typesetting, research, or sensitivity reading? Do you want to use any of this to raise money for progressive causes?
If so, welcome to the 10th annual Fandom Trumps Hate auction!
Some light reading before you go straight to the signup form - even if you've participated before, please check these out!
FTH FAQ
What to expect on the signup form
Which fandoms are on this year’s list (but of course you can write in any fandoms you like)
FTH 2026 Calendar
List of Supported Nonprofits
One change to note: If you would like to offer your fanwork in "Any fandom," the options have changed. We have summarized those changes here.
If you've read all that and are ready to proceed, the 2026 signup form is here!
The main auction is only for digital fanworks - do you create physical fan crafts that you'd like to raise money with? Check out our Fan Crafts Bazaar!
Not offering an auction but still want to participate in FTH? Join ROFL!
One of our favorite side projects at FTH is the Regiment of Fan Laborers, or ROFL: a group of beta readers, sensitivity readers, expertise pickers, translators and other fan laborers who are on hand to offer FTH creators assistance with their auction fanworks.
We love this project because (like the auction itself) it helps build connections and community between fans. It’s also a great way for creators to find out how amazingly helpful fan labor support can be!
And? You can sign up even if you don’t offer a fanwork in the auction!
You can sign up directly to the ROFL roster to offer fan labor support to our FTH creators. Whether you want to join for the year or just until you’ve helped one person, we’d love to have you! (If you said “yes” to joining ROFL during auction signups, no need to do it again! We’ve got you.)
If fan labor isn’t your thing, but you’re a dab hand at crafts, you can still sign up to participate in FTH via our Craft Bazaar!
Do you create fanart, fanfic, podfics, videos, or any other kind of digital fanwork? Do you have services you can offer your fellow creators such as betaing, typesetting, research, or sensitivity reading? Do you want to use any of this to raise money for progressive causes?
If so, welcome to the 10th annual Fandom Trumps Hate auction!
Some light reading before you go straight to the signup form - even if you've participated before, please check these out!
FTH FAQ
What to expect on the signup form
Which fandoms are on this year’s list (but of course you can write in any fandoms you like)
FTH 2026 Calendar
List of Supported Nonprofits
One change to note: If you would like to offer your fanwork in "Any fandom," the options have changed. We have summarized those changes here.
If you've read all that and are ready to proceed, the 2026 signup form is here!
The main auction is only for digital fanworks - do you create physical fan crafts that you'd like to raise money with? Check out our Fan Crafts Bazaar!
