#on reviewing

[threewaysdivided]

awwww 😭😭😭😭

Did you write a review on the legendary teen Titans series? (Aka what young Justice could have become if they weren't overly ambitious)

What's your opinion on Paul Dini as a writer?

(Follow up to these two previous asks)

Sorry nonnie! 😅

It seems that we both tripped down a rabbit hole of doughnuts.

I assume you’re talking about the Teen Titans 2003 Animated TV Series?  In that case, you might be thinking of another user – I haven’t personally written any reviews for it.  I do have a lot of fond feelings towards the show, though; it was my first real introduction to DC Comics alongside the Justice League/ JLU animated series.  My Tumblr has a Teen Titans tag where I share art, meta etc. and I do have some thoughts about specific plots or narrative elements – you might also see me make occasional reference to it as an example on some posts in the writing advice tag.

Just for the sake of expectation management, I should explain that my Tumblr isn’t really a traditional “review blog”.  And yes, I know that probably sounds a bit crazy considering the frankly unhinged amount of YJ analysis I’ve written, especially since I’ve been blogging less about other stories in the last year. Burnout, what can you do? 

Really I’m more of a writing/ story-analysis blog.  Sometimes I might write a semi-review style post where I try to break down and articulate a particular technique/ element/ execution/ implication of a narrative in order to understand what it’s doing well or why something isn’t working.  As I said in the very first Frustrations with YJ essay, I think storytelling is fundamentally about communication and understanding.  I got into fandom as a fan-reader turned fan-writer (AO3 wink wink), and before that I worked as a casual English tutor.  I want to learn from the ways different narratives succeeded or failed at communicating their stories within the restrictions of their medium(s) so that I can better find, discuss and even tell stories myself. 

Because of that, I’m also a big proponent of the Death of the Author approach to media analysis.  Let me copy the definition over from that first essay real quick:

DEATH OF THE AUTHOR This theory posits that, because commercial art is created to be consumed, not just created, the audience’s interpretations of a work should be considered as just valid as the creator’s.  The work must stand on its own and creators cannot micro-manage their audience’s response to it. 1.  A creator’s intentions and biographical facts (political stances, religion, etc) should hold no special weight in determining the validity of an interpretation. 2.  Save for re-releases/reboots or new entries, the creator cannot and should not attempt to retroactively insert information or interpretations that were not present in the original text.

I generally don’t look too deeply into or follow the specific people behind (non-fan) works.  This isn’t always the case – if I like a specific author’s style I might look up their body of work to read more; some stories are clearly rooted in their creators’ specific opinions or experiences, which makes for interesting context; and sometimes I like to learn about the behind-the-scenes methods/techniques/production woes of a bringing a specific story to life – but mostly I put the priority on what I can learn from the final product.

As I’ve said before, commercial storytelling is the result of more than just one person.  Under the right conditions I think a rank amateur or complete hack could produce something amazing and, if faced with enough production headaches, a usually-excellent creator could end up outputting utter drek although I expect that drek would at least be creatively interesting.

The questions that interest me more are: what was this narrative trying to communicate?  what techniques were used/ creative choices were made?  how well did it succeed?  could a different approach have been used? and, what restrictions/limitations/priorities could have led to the final creative decisions?  To me, information on a creator’s circumstances provide context for narrative analysis.  Since I generally don’t know them I try not to postulate their actual intent too much, only the potential intent suggested by the story.

SO WHAT THE HECK WAS I DOING WITH YJ, THEN? What happened with Young Justice is actually an outlier for me in both regards because of how baffling flawed the series ended up being.  Back in the pre-revival days I paid a lot of attention to the textual canon of Season 1 because I had started writing a fanfic based on it and wanted to do the story justice (heh).  The result was I went into the later seasons with a lot more awareness of the canonical details and storytelling techniques – and (like I said in the final Invasion case-study) I ended up being blindsided by how instinctively bored and annoyed I became just a short way into an attempted Season 2 rewatch, despite the fact that I was actively trying to study it. 

The reason I kept coming back with more and more posts is that I never felt like I had successfully grasped or articulated why I had such a strong and unexpected negative reaction.  I think it’s a similar impulse to what Dan Olson cited as making the Nostalgia Critic’s Parody of The Wall so weirdly compelling: there's a confusing contradiction between the level of work required to implement the sheer amount of stuff that Young Justice tries to include, and the absolute thoughtlessness of how sloppily that stuff was actually executed. A multi-season, multimedia story like Young Justice is a long-term project: there are too many layers of production involved for the end result to be made in a brief flash of impulse or accident. It needs some sort of sustained creative motivation to drive it… but I could never find a coherent creative intent that would satisfyingly explain the decisions on display.  Never before or since have I seen such a promising launch be followed by sequels so fatally flawed as to strip away every component of the original’s creative identity.  There’s a reason I subtitled that masterpost A Massive Failure of Narrative.

This is also why I went after lead-showrunner Greg Weisman a bit, despite not usually doing that.  The choice to exclude (or consciously excise) over 70% of the critical narrative substance and sequester it away in non-textual social-media /ask-blog retcons means that you cannot escape engaging with Weisman when trying to engage with the later seasons at any level of depth.  As a Death of the Author proponent this ticked me off just on-its-face, but it also meant that he and those seasons are inseparably intertwined.  Regardless of whether it was a conscious choice arising from his sense of creative entitlement, or simply a case of narrative incompetence self-selecting for a primary audience with a high tolerance for media-illiteracy Nigerian Prince Email Scam-style, the end-result is the same: Weisman gouged holes his narrative and left it to suffocate while he sucked up all the oxygen in the room.   Then, later, as I encountered people from other fandoms whose narratives had been similarly decimated by Weisman, it became impossible to ignore how inseparable his personal flaws are from those narrative failures.  As I alluded to in the last ask, you can separate the original seven Harry Potter texts from their author: Joanne Rowling and her politics could evaporate tomorrow and it wouldn’t change people’s ability to enjoy the story as a standalone work (in fact, the absence of her modern politics might make some of the more unpalatable flaws easier to accept as honest oversights rather than ominous foreshadowing).  Meanwhile, Young Justice is such a disaster because the later seasons stop being about the original story and increasingly become about Greg: his failures at basic storytelling, his disinterested misunderstanding of his own characters, his weird fixations, his patterns of reactionary prejudice, casual double-standards, deeply disturbing attitudes about consent and power, and a self-righteous entitlement that resents being held accountable.  Unlike Harry Potter, you can’t put Young Justice S2+ in a bubble. The problem at the root of every other problem with Young Justice is that it doesn’t have an actual narrative... and in the absence of a coherent central narrative, the text itself has become the story of Greg Weisman's terrible creative choices. His self-indulgent proclivities pervade every step of the later seasons' broken theming, bad pacing, warped characterisation, contradictory lore, intra-textual hypocrisies, over-stuffed cast and weird fanservice: baked-in at a level that cannot be ignored or rationalised away.

It makes me empathise a lot with how Hbomberguy said he felt on discovering the recent James Somerton stuff: it’s not fun to stumble down a rabbit hole of learning that a prominent figure in one of your communities is sucking up air via association with work from their less-credited colleagues, then using that air to present themselves as an ally, dominate the narrative and delegitimise valid criticism, all while spreading their own prejudiced agendas, refusing to change their behaviour and continuing to profit.  That’s why I felt the need to explicitly point out some of the clearer patterns of reactionary bigotry and hypocritical non-apologies in Weisman’s work – I wanted to make sure the evidence was at least available somewhere outside of Weisman’s carefully-filtered reputation-protecting PR statements.  People put pieces of their lives into communicating something that will hopefully be worth the pieces of life their audiences invest in return -  I find the idea of someone exploiting that trust for gain to be deeply disgusting.

Now, with that exceptionally-overlong context provided: Paul Dini. 

The disappointing but predictable answer is that I don’t really have an opinion on him as a writer.  Having looked up his credits, I recognise a lot of works that I personally enjoyed (including the cancelled-after-one-season Tower Prep).

I really like Batman: The Animated Series, both for the human element it brought to heroism and the tone it set for the following DCAU (colloquially Timm-verse) generation of animated series.  Justice League was one of my first introductions to the main DC roster, so that set a lot of my core understanding of their characters.  I find Harley Quinn, especially her early B:TAS/ DCAU story-iterations, to be compelling in a way that’s equal parts fun and tragic.  There are some parts of the DCAU that I find a bit silly (a couple of background ‘ships that make me go whaa?) but I think I was really lucky to grow up during a time when the DCAU and second-order series inspired by its tone and storytelling ethos (e.g. Teen Titans 2003) was the childhood DC experience for kids my age.

That said, I don’t know enough about the story behind the works in Dini’s credits to feel confident in speaking about him as a writer.  Just looking at his resume, he certainly seems like a passionate and prolific creator who did a lot of very influential work.  At the same time, however, I don’t know how much of that was Dini himself, how much was his frequent co-creator, Bruce Timm, and how much his works may have been adulterated by the influence of other, less-visible members of the production and editorial teams who worked alongside him.  It can be convenient to elevate one or two prominent members to Great Man status as an easy shorthand for discussing works they’ve been involved with, but that can come with the risk of crediting or platforming the wrong people through mis-attribution or just plain projection. 

I’ve learned my lesson on blind-lionisation after being thoroughly let down by all the Weisman nonsense, the same way others have learned from being let down by creators they previously idolised (Supergeekmike did a really good video covering this which also includes discussions of Death of the Author and Authorial Intent).  Without doing proper research into and comparisons of Dini’s work, I wouldn’t feel confident making an assertion about his personal skills as a creator.  I greatly enjoy many of the stories he’s been credited on, and can recognise the influence those stories had in shaping a generation of DC fans (and writers)… but while I’m happy to talk about the writing of those stories, it feels a little irresponsible of me to talk to the character or intent of a real person without knowing more about them.  I’m not making that mistake again.

In the meantime though, I do want to talk more about actual writing.  I’ve been taking it easier this year lockdown and job burnouts finally caught up to me and it suuucks, man but I'm hoping to pick back up in 2024.  I want to finally get back to working on my main fanfic so I can share the companion meta without spoiling people.  I have thoughts about some possible meta-textual metaphors in Across the Spider-verse.  I might do a case-study piece exploring why the years-long timeskip in Arcane Season 1 worked really well while others haven’t.  And there’s an ask about a canon-divergent-post-Season-1 Young Justice episode premise that’s been burning a hole in my inbox for at least 5 months now.

So yeah.  More writing breakdowns to come.  In the meantime, I previously wrote a Frustrations With analysis of how My Hero Academia’s story struggled following the Hideout Raid Arc if you’d like to check that one out.  There’s also this big compilation of links to my Young Justice and Danny Phantom meta (plus recommendations for fanfics and other stories), and you can check out the writing advice tag for general storytelling discussions.

Hopefully that makes up for the drought of Teen Titans content!

[rosefyrefyre]

hello! i have a question about that amazing ao3 etiquette post you responded to a while back that you do *not* have to respond to if you would rather not

I absolutely, 100% agree that demanding updates of any kind from the author is entitled, selfish, brattish behavior and should not be tolerated. that being said, what are your thoughts about comments along the lines of: "this is amazing, [insert reason here], can't wait for the next update!!"

or

"this fic is life changing, [insert reason here], im sure your update will be amazing!"

moreso the first because i can definitely see where the second one could come across as incredibly passive aggressive and condescending, but yeah, what are your thoughts? if you choose to answer thanks so much!! if you dont, i hope you have a great day/night 🥰 x

Hey! Sorry for taking so long to respond; life has been super busy and I was out of town for a bit in there. But I’m so glad you asked!

(For anyone who’s blanking on what this ask is in response to, the AO3 etiquette post in question is this one.)

Again, this response is written by me and @fanficallergy​: 

This is absolutely a fair question to ask.

So both of your examples could be okay depending on the author. Both can be read as pushy, but a lot of it depends on what comes before the "I can't wait for the next update" and "I'm sure your next update will be amazing." 

For FanficAllergy, the "I can't wait" implies more pushiness because there's a pressure to update quickly. For others, the "the next update will be amazing" can be considered as pressure to write an "amazing" chapter which is subjective. It also can be seen as patronizing (or, as you said, passive aggressive and condescending), which is never good. It depends on the person reading it, and getting nuance and tone can be difficult in text format. ^_^

Honestly, we'd suggest a third option of. "This update was amazing. I really loved {X thing here}. Thank you for sharing this!" and calling it good. No mentions of future updates, no mentions of impatience or pressure to do more than what the author is willing to do. Seriously. "Great Chapter!", "Thanks for sharing!", or even "<3 <3 <3 " is a good comment. 

If you want to comment on future updates, a good way to do it is to have it in the middle of the comment. This is because the first and last things said in any communication have the greatest weight, and the last thing is often seen as the "Call to action." Here's an example, "I really loved this chapter, and I can't wait to see where you go with [X plot development]. You do an amazing job of bringing the characters to life and reading your fics gives me all the feels! It's the best!" Can you see the difference? By putting the desire to read more or see another update in the middle, it softens what can be interpreted as a demand. Essentially, it's okay to say you're really looking forward to seeing more if it's not the most important part of the comment.

For RoseFyre, the use of the word “update” at all isn’t great. “I can’t wait to see where you go next!” or “I can’t wait to see where you go with [X plot development],” as FanficAllergy suggested above, is somehow less intimidating. And it’s definitely better if it’s not the only or largest part of the comment. There’s a big difference between a comment that says “I can’t wait for the next update!” and a comment that says “This is amazing. [At least one sentence or even more about exactly what you liked.] I can’t wait to see where you go with [X plotline]!”

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to read more! All fic readers do. It’s the putting pressure on the author to produce more that becomes a problem -- both for your relationship with the author and the author’s motivation to write.

[jencala]

Ok I have no clue if this person is on Tumblr, but I have to gush about “MsPadfoot” as they are known on Ao3.  

I have made no secret that I am a sucker for reviews on my fics and shamelessly beg for them, but holy fucking shitballs, this amazing and awesome person is leaving the BEST. REVIEWS. EVER.   They are reading my fic, Drawn Together, and leaving long, gushing, and detailed reviews on every chapter that are hilarious and insightful and they are literally making my day!

I know people don’t review for many reasons, but let me tell you that even a keyboard smash or a simple “I liked this” will make the author so happy.  

The reviews MsPadfoot is leaving?  They are just everything.  They make comments about things in the chapter, tell me their thoughts on it, where they think or hope it’s going, keyboard smashes, all kinds of fabulous things.  ON. EVERY. CHAPTER.  It’s killing me in the best way!  

I’ve responded to every comment, but I just had to gush about this fabulous human here because I don’t think some readers realize just how much those comments mean to us writers.  It’s such an amazing feeling to have the reader interact with you and it’s just everything.  

So thank you again for not just reading my fic, MsPadfoot, but for taking the time to leave these wonderful comments.  I just adore you!

[colubrina]

It's still constructive critique even if you only tell someone what they do well.

[christinaroseandrews]

Less of an ask, and more of a comment. After skimming some of your reviews and "how to be a better writer" posts, I was successfully able to identify why I didn't like a certain book much. Thank you for educating me! (I dislike the process of writing, so have ZERO plans to be a writer.)

Hey! That’s something!

We’re glad that our posts have helped you figure out what landed for you and what didn’t. Hopefully it will help you in the future to find books that scratch your particular itches.

Thanks for letting us know! 

*hugs*

[christinaroseandrews]

HI! I joined up for the omegaverse readalong, and I've been hooked ever since! I was wondering if you accepted F/F books for review, and if so, what the process for submission was. Either way, thank you for the commentary- I've found a new favorites thanks to your blog!

HI!

I’m glad you’re enjoying our blog!

We absolutely do read F/F books, however we don’t really have a submission process. We should probably figure that out! LOL

The biggest concern we have with authors submitting books to us, honestly, is if we read an ARC and dislike it. When we get ARCs through NetGalley, the ARCs are generally coming from publishers who understand the reviewing process and don’t mind if a reviewer/blogger writes a critical review because they understand that even bad reviews are still publicity (like some people might like things that I don’t.) However, there’s been a rise of authors attacking and siccing their readers/fans on reviewers/bloggers. Most recently with Lauren Hough doxxing two reviewers who left 4-star reviews on her book. So it’s understandably made bloggers nervous. And a lot of bloggers have stopped reviewing because of it. A few bad actors have really colored the process.

So the question is what do we do if someone submits a book and we don’t like it?

Because you follow this blog you know that we are honest and critical reviewers. We tell people why we liked a book or why we didn’t like a book. So authors who submit to us would have to understand that we could dislike their book and that our review of their book might be critical. A lot of authors don’t understand that... or they think they do but the reality is different. Do we expose ourselves to potential hurt feelings and the response to that?

It’s something we have to think about.

So the answer for now is, we don’t take submissions but we may in the future... once we figure out a process we can live with. LOL

Thanks so much for asking! It really is something we hadn’t considered. ^_^

[jencala]

There’s been so much discourse lately on reviews and I’ve put my two cents in as a writer, but I have to share this because it’s made me so happy the last few days.

It looks like someone found my Wolfstar Big Bang fic, Drawn Together, a few days ago and left lovely reviews on almost every chapter.  They are now going through and reading each one of my fics and leaving a review on each.  

I have no idea who LaViaggiatrice is, but their reviews have totally brightened my day these last couple of days.  Some have been short comments and others have been longer, thoughts about elements of the story, character remarks, and just some witty remarks.  Each one though has made me smile and just totally made my day.  

As a reader you are not obligated by any means to leave a review, to leave kudos, to interact with the writer in any way.  I write because I enjoy it, it’s cathartic in a way, and I just love these characters so much I want to create more stories about them.  

But wow does the feedback make me happy.  Even a simple “I enjoyed this!” can brighten my day.  

This reader has actually turned my mood around a few times just with their simple comments.  Their reviews have actually made me want to put out my other fics and an update to a WIP faster.  It’s motivating to see comments like these. 

I’m the first to admit I’m a vain creature who thrives on positive feedback, but I also freely admit that readers are under no obligation to review or leave kudos.  I don’t consider reviews my payment for providing free entertainment, but I do want to share how happy your comments can make a writer.  

It’s such a simple thing, but it can really brighten someone’s day.

LaViaggiatrice, if you see this, even though I’ve responded to each of your reviews, I hope you know how much joy your taking the time to comment has brought me.   💚