Fandom and More

She/her, late 30s, blind, likes gaming, reading fic, and loves anything horror related. Please don't follow if you're under 18.

[geekysteven]

Image description A smiling Star Trek collectible plate wearing sunglasses. Text "IF YOU THINK I'LL EVER CALL STAR TREK IV ANYTHING BUT "The one with the Whales" YOU'RE DEAD WRONG"

[floof-ghostie]

"You only like this character because she's a woman!" okay and you hate her because she's a woman, knowing that she has all the traits you would enjoy in a male character.

[blueapplesiren]

I wonder how aliens will react to our communal grooming instinct? Like when you see something stuck to your homie’s clothes/skin/hair and it’s driving you nuts and you just gotta be like “hold still, lemme get that for you real quick.”

One time when I was a kid, I had a science teacher with a snake as a class pet, and said snake was almost done shedding. There was one little bit of dried skin stuck to its face and I was like, “would it hurt him if I pulled that off?” And the teacher said, “yes it actually could, it’s probably still attached to living skin if it hasn’t come off yet” and I was like “oh, sorry,” and he said, “that’s okay, you were just wanting to do the primate thing.” And damn, that’s such an accurate descriptor.

Anyways I hope aliens don’t mind me/my descendants having the urge to pluck stuff off of them. If they ask, we’ll have to tell them it’s a trait we evolved to survive ticks.

[kyraneko]

Sometimes you might feel the urge to help someone in a certain way, and sometimes they really don't want to be helped in that way, either because it would not help them (or even hurt them) or because they would rather do it themselves (for various reasons).

It's important to realize that sometimes you're going to be a primate and they're going to be a snake, and it needs to be okay if they do not want their skin pulled off at this time.

[transformativeworks]

AO3 Celebrates 18 Million Fanworks

AO3 has reached 18 million fanworks on the site! Come celebrate with us and learn about collections features. Read more at https://otw-news.org/3zd6mwss.

[redstonedust]

when boy bands sing a love song addressed to the listener does that imply all 5-10 of them are in love with you at once. that seems like a lot of pressure i don't know if i want to be the nucleus of the boyband polycule.

[ladyofnightshade]

I’m reading the ebook version of the Wandering Inn, and there’s a picture of the world map with alt text. That is so cool!

[ladyofnightshade]

I can’t wait to see this.

[hopeymchope]

PlayStation Bad

In just the past two months, Sony has:

Said the PS6 will be more than $1000 at launch

Announced the end of all physical PS game releases

While simultaneously announcing the end of two of their console game stores — ensuring multiple games will die forever

Declared that they are wholly dedicated to (A) leveraging A.I. when making games and (B) creating live-service games above all other game types

Announced that if you bought any movies through their PlayStation Store, over 550 of them will soon be deleted from all users' libraries — with no restitution offered of any kind

Gamers, it is time — to paraphrase Robert Vann — to turn Sony's picture to the wall. Any one of these insults would be bad, and taken alone? Maybe it could be swallowed. But this is an ongoing campaign of disdain towards customers, with each declaration worse than the last.

PlayStation does not deserve your patronage any longer. The PS6 must fail. Leave them behind.

[sunderwight]

Genuinely, if they're not even going to sell physical games, and their console costs a thousand bucks, what's the point of buying the console and paying for games (that they could delete off your library any time they want to anyway) rather than getting a gaming PC, pirating their shit, and never paying for a single one of their games again?

Even what passes for moral arguments against piracy are going to run aground against the obvious fact that Sony isn't a moral company. Nobody loses sleep over "robbing" the robber baron, and nobody worries about your company dying from a lack of sales when it's evil. Die faster, actually.

[killhitleragain]

PBS and NPR were never beholden to the US government.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting was created so that the US government could fund public media without public media being influenced by the government. It was a private non-profit funded by the government, not a part of the government itself. This is by design. This was a good thing. It meant that even small local TV and radio stations, could afford to create media for the public good, without government influence.

This meant TV and radio stations for poor communities. For non-english speaking communities. For rural communities. For minorities. It meant that free and accessible media could be created for everyone, even if the government didn't like it.

That's why conservatives defunded it.

Because if they couldn't control it, and if it helped the people they hated, then they would have to destroy it. Do you really think that a fascist government would defund their own propaganda machine?

Not only is the idea that PBS before being defunded was propaganda wrong, but ignores the fact that defunding it is going to have long-term negative effects on vulnerable communities.

OP of the post in the screenshot called me an idiot and blocked me for pointing this out. So I'm setting the record straight. The CPB was never our enemy.

[killhitleragain]

So, I think there are some important things I should address.

First: The show in question, PBS Origins, has been running since 2017. They have been focusing on these sorts of topics the entire time. This is not the first time the channel has discussed the US government's role in genocide and slavery. It's not the first time it has criticized the US government. It is also not the only shown on PBS to have ever done so.

Second: People have considered PBS and NPR to have a left-wing bias for a long time, even before it was defunded. That's why conservatives wanted it defunded, and why they had been trying to defund it for decades.

Third: PBS and NPR did a lot more than history and politics. Weather reports, local news, children's programming, cooking shows... Something like PBS Origins, even an episode as provocative as the one in the OP, would pass under the radar of most people, especially because it doesn't usually play on TV. (It's made primarily for YouTube)

Third: Defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was not an easy task. It took decades to finally pass a bill doing so. It was not something the government could just do at the drop of a hat if PBS did something the current government didn't like.

And, finally, and most importantly I think: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting funded the creation of radio and TV programming in underrepresented communities, such as Native American communities, rural communities, poor communities, non-English speaking communities, etc. Not only does that mean these communities were able to create programming relevant to them, but those programs were also sent to other stations which could be broadcast. And thus the political opinions and discussions of issues that affected them could be shared. So, even if the big productions were being influenced by the funding from the government, the small independent yet still funded by the CPB broadcasters made up for it (IMO) by making the opinions of underrepresented communities more visible.

[gravedwe11er]

I like you, come fight me

Or: me thinking about some potential relationship misunerstandings between a human and an astartes.

After reading a bunch of books from various legions/chapters, I've noticed there is one universal factor for every one of them- and that's sparring used as a bonding method. It's the space marine equivalent of going out for coffee. The primary way of socialising is usually beating each other up (and though many chapters have some other Thing of their own, this is universal for all of them). Also, as shown in one of the Ciaphas Cain books, it's also a way of accepting a human into their fold and a sign of respect.

Which leads me back to astartes and human relationships, either platonic or romantic.

You are a marine. You like a human. You have already gotten over whatever mental struggle that admission cost you, and now want to show your affection. You want to get closer to them. But how? Unless you're an Ultramarine or other well socialized chapter, you probably don't know how humans do that whole relationship thing. So you just... do it the astartes way.

Cue some surprised or potentially terrified person - a serf, soldier, navy officer, or even some poor civilian - staring up at a marine who is either inviting or stiltedly ordering them (depending on social skill) into the sparring ring. They might assume they pissed the guy off so bad he wants to fight it out, meanwhile the marine is like 'yay bonding time'.

If all goes well, I imagine it would be something to laugh at later on, but it would probably be quite the shock at the start.

The one exception to this would be a Sister of Battle. She'd probably get it immediately, and accept or decline accordingly. From what I've read so far, a lot of their habits are Very martial in nature, and thus not too dissimilar to space marine behavior.

[thickness-protection-program]

If you ask me I don't want "good Christians" in government to counter the "bad Christians" I just want a separation of church and state like they promised us in third grade

[geekysteven]

"Beast of burden" implies the existence of some cool as heck beasts of leisure

[unicorn-elvis]

they're called housecats and they are in fact cool as fuck

[bethanydelleman]

To get Caroline Bingley's character right, you have to understand that she is a foil for both the Bennet sisters and Mr. Darcy.

She is the more rational choice for Darcy vs. the Bennets. She has education, manners, a fortune, and clearly, relatives that he likes. So many fan fiction authors make her vulgar and/or unfashionable, but she isn't! That is why Darcy enjoys hanging out with her in the beginning; he would not have her at his house if she was embarrassing. Even when angry with Elizabeth, Caroline does not dare go further in attacking Elizabeth at Pemberley. She has self control. She understands boundaries, which Jane and Elizabeth mostly do, but the rest of the Bennet family struggles with. This is why she's a foil for them.

As for Darcy, at the beginning, Caroline is a nearly perfect mirror of his opinions and snobby attitude. She is doing this on purpose as a way of flirting, but it's probably pretty close to her real personality anyway. She's right that Darcy looks down on Elizabeth's uncle being a lower class lawyer. She's right that he finds the Bennet family intolerable to marry into. However, as Darcy falls in love with Elizabeth and then reforms, Caroline's mirror distorts. That shows his growth in the novel. She, like Elizabeth, fails to update her priors, though to be fair to Caroline, she didn't build her knowledge of Mr. Darcy on first impressions. It's harder to change her mind because she did once know him very well.

Side note: this is also why people woobyfying Darcy hurts Caroline as a rational character. They start in a very similar place and love mean girl gossiping together, then he changes. When Darcy's flaws are erased, it makes Caroline look super irrational and much crueller.

Lastly, Caroline is above all else, pragmatic and strategic. She does not hold grudges once it becomes more advantageous to drop them. She would never, ever, now that she is connected by marriage to the Bennets, mock them in public. Because that reflects on her! Caroline would be in London talking up that the Bennets are a very old gentry family with an ancient estate or something. She's going to be giving them a PR makeover to all her fancy friends because they are HERS now, for better or for worse and whether she likes any of them or not. Yes, in private she might be mean, as she is in the novel, but again, she's not vulgar and she has nothing to gain in public. She has manners, she has self-control; being a mean girl doesn't override that.

[dapucha]

In the book ending Caroline actually tried to befriend Elizabeth because she wanted to still be invited to Pemberley. If she was half as cruel as some fanfictions portray her, she wouldn't have been invited (Lady Catherine was actually mean and cruel and lost that privilege for a time until she changed).

[ashill23]

🦋Daemon prince of Nurgle🦋

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

ai will literally straight up say "I can make mistakes :)" and be accepted by millions of companies worldwide. meanwhile you'll either get fired or get your resume thrown into a trash can if you, as a human being, make one slight mistake or are not always performing perfectly

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

I see a lot of people complaining about how much romance is used in fanfics and that they want more platonic fics...but then I never see the people who complain actually start writing what they wanna read.

I get it, not everyone has the time to write, but you cant put others down for doing one of the most basic and common fandom activities.

yeah. I know I’ve said this so many times already, but fanfic is something a writer does for themself and their own enjoyment. it’s a hobby. it’s not an act of activism or any form of representation or anything.

if you (general you) want more representation of something in fanfic space, you will have to create the thing you want. for yourself.

this applies to platonic friendships, more romantic relationships between two female characters, characters with disabilities, trans characters, and any other things you want to see more of in fanfic space. since it’s a hobby and not an act of activism, if you want more of something, you will have to start creating that thing you want instead of throwing shades at other writers who create for themselves and their own enjoyment.

[rumwik]

I do not think Marvel's "what if" series asked the right questions. We could have had this