#general fandom thoughts

[nightofyami]

I love romance. Truly. But when did it become the benchmark for whether a character is valid or interesting?

Romance should be an addition, not the definition. The character should stand on their own. Love can give us a new way to see them—not be the only way we do.

I get fandom ships. I enjoy them too. But lately, I’ve been wondering—when did shipping start to outweigh actual character development, direction, and identity?

Why is it that when we name a character, someone else’s name immediately follows?

This isn’t about any ship in particular—it’s just something I’ve noticed more and more across fandom spaces. I don’t mean this in a preachy way and I’m truly sorry if it does come off like that.

It’s just I really love character conversations. And lately, it feels like love is the only one people want to have.

Like it’s the only conversation worth having.

Its been really making me wonder, if we only like a character when they’re in love…

Do we even like them at all?

[eric-cartman-my-beloved]

I know that's probably considered an unpopular opinion today, but I actually like the idea of constructive criticism in fandom. Particularly in fics.

There are so many people that get mad about the idea of someone leaving a potentially helpful tip or two in the comments of a fic, and I don't really understand why.

"BuT tHe cREator DiDn't aSK FoR It!! Fandom is supposed to be a safe space!!1!"

First off, by no means is the internet a safe space, but I digress.

Let's say that you have one of those relatively common cases of young writers who are just now beginning to write fanfiction and they tend to clog an overly long text in a single paragraph. It's in no way harmful for someone to leave a comment saying, for example: "I like how you did X and Y but please consider separating paragraphs more often".

When you take up a hobby, isn't the goal to progress with it, eventually? Of course the main goal is always to have fun, but if you're given a chance to evolve your skills related to it, why not take it up?

Let's take a random hobby - knitting, for example. If someone else, more experienced, who does knitting for a longer time than you do comes and tells you: "I think that's a very nice effort! I really like how you did this and that but maybe you could work on your technique with Z a bit", why wouldn't you see this as a chance to think certain things through and not get angry as if they were purposefully trying to personally offend you?

And I get that there might be some things that people don't like to hear. But you know what? I think that sometimes, in certain cases, people should listen to things they don't like. In fact, I would say it's helpful. (Even more so because at times it feels like a lot of people have trapped themselves in their own personal bubble and refuse to listen to things that could make them even slightly unhappy.)

So, yes, I do think that constructive criticism - when it is actually constructive and not just hate, of course - should be brought back. (I do believe it was somewhat prevalent in the older days of fandom.)

[pride-moth]

Nah but what is it about haunted evil men? Why are they so sexy? Like yes, king, commit all the war crimes and also other crimes you want, as long as you're sad. Not even about that. You can be sad for unrelated reasons.

[blackleatherjesster]

I love the hero’s journey. Facing the shadow self???? Insane when they did that

[darkfannibal]

People who think adults don’t belong in fandoms remind me of those boring adults who say ‘oh I listened to metal in my youth, and then I grew up’. I feel deeply sorry for all of you, thinking you’re not allowed to enjoy things as you get older.

You can still enjoy metal when you’re 60 and older, just as you can still enjoy fandom and fanworks as an adult. You’re not weird or a creep for doing so. You’re allowing yourself to enjoy things and I think it’s neat.

I hope every minor who believes this changes their mind because they will end up deeply unhappy with themselves.

[ineedsomeplacetoshoutfantheories]

Does anyone else visualize different versions of characters (Alpha Rose vs Rose, Hal vs Dirk, etc) with significantly different headcanons? Like, they have different hairstyles, skin colors, heights, everything. 

[ineedsomeplacetoshoutfantheories]

I will adamantly defend the coolness of any character who thinks they are cool. Coolness isn’t about having a lack of geeky hobbies or being perfectly emotionless or some dumb thing like that, it’s about having confidence in whatever it is you do. 

[ineedsomeplacetoshoutfantheories]

It’s really interesting, how your brain holds all the universes it has consumed. Every story you remember bangs its way around your head and your mind tries to make sense of it all in some of the most interesting ways. 

Canonization’s the main way. It’s not as simple as transformative versus curative, there’s layers of fictionality. Some people take the author’s word as god, with a nice hierarchy to keep things straight. I think those people get into more arguments over less defined canons, but it means they get to have facts to memorize and learn about the worlds they love. Some people treat canon lightly, transforming it into whatever canon they like best. If a story has a bad ending they rewrite it themself. They’re the god of all the worlds in their heads, making each perfect as they see fit. Even they still have one defined canon for each story. Some people consider characters canon but not stories, and read and write AUs where anything goes so long as the characters stay the same. Some people consider fanfiction to be canon as it’s own story, or have each layer of AU be one removed from reality. I tend to just take everything as canon, universes copied and altered slightly but each as real as the next. It makes things like fanfiction with different characterizations not feel wrong, just two different characters who happen to have the same name.

Plus there’s how you connect stories, which ones you put in the same universes or not. Are they all separate? Can you ship people from different stories? Do all the stories by the same author interconnect, do all the coffeeshop AUs exist in the same world? What organizes how people relate the stories to each other?

I dunno, I just love hearing how stories align in people’s heads, how they interact with them. Plus it’s a really useful thing to know about people you talk to about fandom.