#kelkat rants

[kelkat9]

Sometimes you find a fic and your only thought was that makes no sense and the author must have been tripping on something.

And sometimes you read something that they tag a pairing but it's not really the main pairing. I mean why do that??? Just say this is really about pairing ABC.

Then there's the no happy ending. Again, why would you not tag that? Everybody died, was miserable etc. is a thing so tag it.

Seriously, it makes me create a never read this author list. Eerily, most of those are imports from FF.net.

Like whoa. This is why I've avoided the Ten/Rose tag on AO3. There's just so much bashing or anti ship or just bad tagging. I have precious little reading time and don't want to waste it on something that pisses me off. I read for a mental health break. I don't mind angst but the everyone died and was miserable or character x just doesn't love the other half of the OTP and suddenly trots off with secondary or Orig Character really annoys me if I invested time in it.

Then there was an Oh God I wish I had never seen that tag. I never knew that was a kink. On one hand thank you for tagging as that is not something I want to read. On the other, I cannot unsee it.

The lesson of the day is I always read the last chapter first to make sure it's not a bait n switch fic or is worth reading. Sad I have to do that but you definitely do in the Ten/Rose tag.

[kelkat9]

Researching the history/cultural of Portugal for my trip in April and I swear, doing this always shows how skewed US early public education is.

I just started reading about the Iberian Peninsula, how Spain and Portugal became the politically defined countries we see today. And I knew about "Moors" (which to me is a slur and meant to discredit/dilute North African cultures who lived/ruled in Europe). But I find it telling that where I was educated (and due to a quirk of districting/busing maps, I was in well funded schools) not one mention was made Muslim Iberia (Al-Andalus) which existed for 700+ years. I mean what a huge impact on that geographic area, and yes, there still is evidence of the contributions from that time but a lot were destroyed. But still, omitting that from European History is such a disservice.

Anyway, having fun filling in the educational gaps. And considering I was in Spain during high school, and the teachers still didn't really touch on this and I visited Seville and the Alhambra and a lot was misrepresented...yeah filling in the gaps now.

[kelkat9]

It really sucks that it's difficult to find shows and media I really love and when I do they are hated by online communities who make it their mission to not just criticize but try and get it off the air, people fired and make sure nothing like it is made again. I cannot imagine having that much hate, or time, to erase shows that provide the slightest bit of diversity and great characterization. All because it's not like the game/book or is not centered around some dudebro.

I'd really appreciate it if people could take a chill pill and let me have some scifi/fantasy media with diversity. It's not fair everything is just for one group of people.

[kelkat9]

Stranger Things rants under cut including the Star Wars Parallel and discussions of what irks me.

First off it was overall a nice piece of horror. Kudos to writers that make you really care or identify with characters. One of things that draws me to this series is the 80s vibe and the nostalgia.

What bothers me is victimizing characters suffering from trauma. ie: Max. I understand that there is an aspect or sub genre of horror that is based on just that. But....that was not something I expected to be a major theme in this show.

To be clear, addressing the trauma as important. It needed to happen. The bullying was not fun to watch (especially for those of us that experienced that in school) and should have a trigger warning. ut I got it. It fit. I just did not enjoy watching how kids like Max were tortured. Not entertaining. Not character growth. Yes, I get Vechna tortured and manipulated people but... not my thing to watch. I could barely watch what he did to Max.

Speaking of Max and MC deaths. There's a difference between sacrifice/heroic type death and what happened to Max.

Yes, she went in willing to risk her life but I don't think she ever really thought she'd die. She trusted herself and others to protect her so was her death a trued heroic sacrifice? I don't think so That could have been done so differently.

When you look at Eddie, he was given the typical hero journey death. No, I didn't want him to die or Dustin to watch him.

But there's a difference between the two and I have to wonder if that's a touch of sexism in he dies a manly death and she dies a victim. Kind of burns me.

Onto the subtle Star Wars parallel. Papa telling Eleven she's not ready to save her friends and her feeling she has to ala Yoda and Luke.

First off eww Papa is no Yoda. I don't care how much justification they try and give that character. He's a child abuser. And it's a smidge reflective of what's going on the world today to make me angry. Is Eleven a version of Luke Skywalker? Perhaps. After all, it didn't end well.

Is Max Han Solo frozen in carbonite. I dunno. I guess we have to wait a couple years to find out. I didn't see it.

[kelkat9]

Argh. I've come across so many character death fics where the author didn't warn. Or writing the ship I wanted to read as an anti ship but not tagging it that way.

It's so rude. Especially character death. Not to mention triggery for some people.

You are not spoiling anything by warning a major character death.

End of rant.

[kelkat9]

I just want to say how hard it is to work full time 10 hours a day and establish a writing career.

Not only do you have to write the project, you have to:

1. Study and analyze the market to understand where your work fits

2. Read other books in your genre

4. Hire a good editor and cover designer

5. Edit not just your work but your media releases

6. Do your own PR

7. Be a web designer

8. Be a graphic artist to design your logo and other marketing material

9. Be a social media persona and manager

10. Spend lots of money on things like editing, books covers and all the things that go with having a social media and web presence.

11. Cry when you fail at all of the above

[kelkat9]

I"m going back through AO3 TenII/Rose fic tag. And I hit one that, as I progressed, got me pretty decent upset. No tags or warnings for this plot point. I pushed through with hope and it was decent writing. But I finished reading it on the fence of being upset even if the author tried to fix the angst she created with a very controversial thing I've seen other authors also write.

I really wish people would tag things. Please don't surprise me with character death. Sometimes your fixit isn't a fixit for everyone.

This will stick with me and bother me for a long time.

[kelkat9]

Sometimes I think social media is a writer’s worst nightmare.  One opinion sweeps into hatred of anyone who tries to write certain thing or character or dialect and suddenly if you try, you will be flayed, and burned at the stake.  How dare you try, and not write it perfectly to a standard you didn’t know existed and how dare you not know that standard exists.

Makes one not even want to try.