fandom is a sandbox

He/Him or Ze/Hir. lover of angst, rarepairs,darkfics,crackfics,funky aus, and everything in between

[make-characters-suffer]

He/Him.

Not a "fandom old", but a fandom hipster.

This will likely be mostly batfic, homestuck, and stranger things, but anything goes here.

Also a lot of whump,both fandom and original fiction.

Occasionally [when I remember to + tumblr isn't acting up] on Fridays I'll do recs of fics I've been thinking about, tagged as #five fics friday.

Feel free to ask about my living weapon/lab whump OCs:

Delta-24, our living weapon, formerly ██████ Targen;

Delta's handler/sister, "Tango-24"/ Samantha Targen;

or Dr. Foxx, their overseer, just another brick in the wall at Mercury Solutions.

[griefhole]

victim on victim violence

[cyphertronix]

What you have to understand about me is that I’m a sucker for the bit. Which is unfortunate as a storyteller bc if you ask me for my reasoning behind a plot or character choice 90% of the time it’s gonna be “ngl I just thought it was funny” and then bc I’m a masochist apparently, I have to work backward from said decision to figure out Why The Fuck would that actually logically happen in universe

[ace-trainer-alice]

it's important when brainwashing one of the hero's party members to think that it's someone else for some scheme or another that you make sure the new identity is a full and complete personality with its own loves, interests, and ambitions just because it makes the ethics of clean up really, really funny to watch.

[curiositysavesthecat]

From the submitter:

❝ One thing I notice nowadays is how fast people in general move on from fandom. And I’m not sure if that’s actually the case or if it’s just me. What I’m talking about is:

1. New media gets released. New popular show. Everybody’s talking about it. Every fanfic and fanart of that fandom gets loads of kudos and comments.

2. Time goes by. Not that long. Maybe a month. Maybe a couple of months. People stop talking about the show. Fanfic and fanart of that show get less kudos and comments. And if it’s been, say, a year—which is still not that long—fanfic and fanart about that show barely get any kudos and comments anymore. It’s like almost everybody has moved on to newer fandoms. And the circle continues. ❞

Do you think people move on too fast from fandom? / Do you agree with the submitter?

Yes, I think people move on too fast from fandom / I agree with the submitter

No, I don’t think people move on too fast / I don’t agree with the submitter

I’m not in any fandom / Poll does not apply to me

Voting ended onAug 12

This poll was submitted to us and we simply posted it so people could vote and discuss their opinions on the matter. If you’d like for us to ask the internet a question for you, feel free to drop the poll of your choice in our inbox and we’ll post them anonymously (for more info, please check our pinned post).

[the-bar-sinister]

The big reason that fandoms disappear so fast is that the source material disappears so fast.

What sustains fandom isn't just the engagement of fans, it's also the existence of an ongoing source material.

The biggest fandoms, the ones that gain the most momentum, are the ones that go on for years and years.

The ones that drip-fed fans one episode per week for season after season.

Nobody does that any more.

Which means that what should be big fandoms just disappear, because fandom "uses up" the energy of the source material all at once after the story ends.

[cyphertronix]

What you have to understand about me is that I’m a sucker for the bit. Which is unfortunate as a storyteller bc if you ask me for my reasoning behind a plot or character choice 90% of the time it’s gonna be “ngl I just thought it was funny” and then bc I’m a masochist apparently, I have to work backward from said decision to figure out Why The Fuck would that actually logically happen in universe

[byjove]

I love helping everyone rediscover the fact that the opening passage of My Immortal is a parody of the opening passage of The Vampire Lestat and not just a generic exaggeration of the typical fanfic Mary Sue introduction. One of the many delightful goth kid Easter eggs the author planted for the audience.

[byjove]

let the audience decide…

it was a deliberate nod to the opening passage of The Vampire Lestat (1985)

it was accidental

Voting ended onJun 24

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

I'm convinced My Immortal is a big joke, not a legitimate amateur teenage fanfic

[saxophonechihuahua]

my 100% proof of this is how she always spells sirius black's name as "serious". at one point, sirius says something in a grave manner, written in the story as: "serious said siriusly". its my favorite bit

[clementine-kesh]

the problem of fandom reducing characters who are women and/or people of colour to sexist/racist stereotypes is definitely aggravated by the fact that a lot of fans simply do not pay very much attention to these characters in the first place then subconsciously paper over the gaps in their perception with things they’ve been culturally conditioned to believe are true about people in the same category as said character

[clementine-kesh]

many cases where you’ll see someone say something about a character and it’s like hmm i don’t think that idea is supported anywhere in canon but i can tell exactly which stereotype you got it from

[beatrice-otter]

Heck, this can happen even when you do in fact pay a lot of attention to that character.

This was brought home to me while writing "Self-Fulfilling Prophecy," a fic about Sisko after he joins the Prophets. I love Benjamin Sisko. I've loved him for thirty years. DS9 is my favorite Star Trek partly because I love Sisko. There are scenes of his that live rent-free in my head.

But the thing is, while I go and re-watch episodes as the mood strikes me, I hadn't done a serious "let's watch episodes while specifically focusing on this character and what makes him tick" for a while. And I didn't feel I needed to, because I've been a fan of the character for thirty years.

For "Self-Fulfilling Prophecy," I needed to get a quote from the episode "Sacrifice of Angels," where Benjamin convinces the prophets to stop the Dominion fleet from coming through the wormhole. So I went to Chakoteya for the transcript. I read through that scene--it's such a good scene!--and I could hear Avery Brooks' voice in my head. I copied the line I needed into my fic.

But then I went to Youtube and found that scene and watched it, and ... the delivery in my head, the "Avery Brooks" that I conjured from my memory, was very different from the performance the actual Avery Brooks gave. Notably, the real performance was a lot quieter and less angry than the one I remembered.

Moral of the story, things can change in your memory ... and there's a decent chance they change to make them more stereotypical. If you don't want to write the stereotype, you have got to keep going back to the source and paying close attention, instead of just assuming you know already ... or that you can wing it and it doesn't matter.

[make-characters-suffer]

Changing your Whumpee's personality or memory or very identity permanently my beloved. Whumpees living with not just their bodies altered but their entire sense of self.

Rescued Whumpee + their friends and family coping with how they'll never be the same again, and not just in the way of typical trauma response.

Whumpees still in the process of alteration- maybe it's "mundane" manipulation and conditioning, maybe mind control that's always going to linger, maybe fantasy where someone is literally tinkering around with their soul.

Whumpee horrifically aware of how they're being changed. Whumpee who's changed so slowly they don't notice until it's much too late.

Whumpee who changes semi-willingly, so desperate to be wanted they'll fully let themselves be molded to another's whim.

[nicolodigenovas]

Come back, I have to tell you the plot of a fic I’ll never write and get you excited about it so we can all be disappointed with me later

[stardust948]

Do you ever look at fic ideas and think, "I got to make this a oneshot or I'm not going to finish it"

[kat-witha-k]

timeloop that has lasted years or decades where the protagonist has come to terms with it and learned to live a half-life within it and one day they randomly stumble into the way to break it and suddenly realize they don't remember what living was like

[grimdarkdeaddovefantasy]

red string of fate but it's a noose being tied around whumpees neck

[make-characters-suffer]

time loop but your body ages in the time loop

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

There are lots of reasons why fandom is "quieter" now than it used to be. Some theories are more compelling to me than others, and they all have a different scale of impact. We'll never know for sure, of course, but I like to think about it. Thus, this poll.

Of the list below, which reason do you find most compelling or do you think had the biggest impact?

New entrants to fandom don't know the old ways

fandom olds didn't teach the newcomers how to fandom

covid/surge in fandom due to quarantine and lockdowns

"antis" and other harassment campaigns against creators

creators posting complaints about comments (people worry about commenting wrong)

rise of discord popularity - fandom is walled off from each other

tumblr porn ban and other reasons people left the site

capitalism turning fandom into a passive "view and move on" commodity

rules from social media impacting fan culture (eg. don't comment on old posts)

general state of the world / burnout

social anxieties in an increasingly complex online culture

"surveillance state" worries and not wanting to be perceived

Voting ended onJun 17

This is an incomplete list, so if your most compelling reason isn't listed, feel free to add it in the notes.

[shredsandpatches]

I think the "social anxieties" one encompasses virtually all of the other ones (cringe culture and the fear of earnestness has a lot to do with it, I would argue, because fandom runs on earnestness). But I would also add that a lot of people seem to have channeled a lot of the fandom energy into political topics instead.

[grayintogreen]

Sometimes it feels like nobody wants The Character to get hit so hard they cough up blood anymore.

[whump-bunny]

Y'know everytime I see "living weapon" whumpees, they're always the winter soldier. I want more variety in my living weapons.

Give me living bioweapons, whose very blood is toxic, whose drained on the daily to keep up supply and demand.

Give me magical or super powered whumpee who would never hurt people of their own free will, but Whumper is controlling them. Perhaps with simple mind control, or perhaps with drugs that show Whumpee their greatest fears, that make them lash out to defend themself, only to inadvertently hurt whoever's Whumper points them at.

Give me Whumpee who is doing Whumper's bidding only to save someone they care about. Whumpee who walks freely and has what looks like a normal life, but drops everything when they get one call, one name, one target.

Give me Whumpee who doesn't know they're a weapon. Who doesn't know what their doing or who they're hurting. Whumpee with gaps in their memory, who thinks that Whumper is their friend, when they're anything but.