TrishFish Fandom Stuff

this is where i will reblog all fandom stuff, and post about side stuff i'm working on they/them

[trishfishfandoms]

My Fandom Sideblog!

progess: minimal

hello! I am @trishfishseven! Many of my reblogs are about more serious topics, and since I am bad and not consistent in tagging it is hard to search through my blog. this blog is Just for fandom stuff, and I will try my best to tag everything!

to make sure I use the right tags, all them are listed below the read more (when I get the time (and the posts) I will inline link them to search this blog for that tag)

MEDIA TYPES:

#webcomic

#anime

#book(s) and the movie adaptation(s)

#video clip

#drive link

GENERAL FANDOM POSTS:

#fandom culture

#fandom meme

SPECIFIC FANDOMS:

#neon genesis evangelion

#camp camp

ME (NOT FANDOM):

SPECIFIC CHARACTERS OR PEOPLE:

#yahiamice

#jack manifold

[sunshinelivesforever]

au where bob never dies and he and joyce get married and she becomes joyce newby instead of joyce byers and hopper dies in season 3 and mike and el break up at the beginning of season 5 because they realize they're better off as friends and that their relationship wasn't healthy and mike figures out that he's gay and comes out to el and lucas and they both accept him and help him accept himself and the upside down slowly merges with hawkins and almost everyone leaves after season 4 until hawkins is like a ghost town and the military never get involved and it's up to the kids to defeat vecna by themselves while constantly having to deal with the vines and demogorgons and demodogs and mike wheeler has an epic crashout and he screams and cries and his internalized homophobia is addressed and so is will's and the truth about the painting is revealed and will realizes that mike has been giving him all the signals robin told him to look out for and will comes out to just his mom his brother and the party and mike and will get together and ted wheeler dies and nancy and jonathan never break up they have a huge fight but later on reconcile because they realize that their bond is much stronger than their shared trauma and they truly love each other and steve dies and robin and vickie get to go on their date at enzo's and vickie and mike have a heart-to-heart just like robin and will did and dustin's other friends are there for him, not just steve, and they notice when he gets beaten up and don't believe him when he lies about it and worry about him and help him recover from the trauma of losing eddie and it's made clear that the party are his best friends too alongside steve and that you can have more than one best friend (as a callback to the dustin and mike scene in season 1) and max gets out of camazotz with the help of the love and care and support of all of her friends, not just lucas, and max and el have a heartwarming emotional reunion and they talk about how much they mean to each other and max becomes blind and has to use a wheelchair after she wakes up and lucas is given importance outside of his relationship with max and will's powers and his connection to vecna are given more importance and patty newby is mentioned and the will and henry parallels are explored and vecna attacks all of the party members using their deepest darkest fears against them and defeating the mind flayer isn't easy at all and most of them get badly injured at some point during the fight and will and el are the ones who kill vecna and el doesn't die but she does lose her powers and she has to learn who she is without her superhero-like abilities and she starts going by jane because that's her real name and she figures out her true identity and she gets adopted by joyce and bob and years later she and dustin get together and they're a much healthier couple than jane and mike ever were and she finds kali and her crew all alive and well and they become sisters and she lives a free life with no one controlling her and they all live non-conforming lives because it turns out forced conformity was killing the kids. oh, and murray lives and becomes the low-key crazy zesty uncle who visits the byers sometimes and brings vodka with him

[spaceoddity6]

“you can’t ship henderhop and also want jane to have an independence arc!”

WRONG bro I am fully confident I wouldn’t hate mileven as much as I do if they had properly fleshed out jane’s character but they DIDNT

I ship henderhop in a “she shouldn’t have been even remotely romantically involved with anyone until at least season 4” kind of way

in a “dustin still should’ve dated suzie” kind of way

in a “if jane is alive in iceland I hope she reconnects with dustin while he’s working for nasa” kind of way

also I heavily heavily ship lumax, henderhop, and byler but in an “every single arc should have been written different from season one” kind of way

[doopydew]

Why Henderhop (Dustin x Eleven) is Better Than Mileven

By Dewart Doop (me)

in my opinion it should’ve started off as a lil love triangle. like instead of dustin-max-lucas and will-mike-eleven it should’ve been dustin-eleven-mike with season 3 ending in a win for dustin. here is 3 big reasons why…

1. The first simple reason is because I like their personalities together more. They’re both smart, kind, and brave in their own ways, and I think Dustin’s charm/warmth would balance well with Jane’s intensity and vulnerability. Part of the reason why Mike and El don’t work is because the way Mike is written makes him seem like he’s not attracted to El. Mike is queer coded, Dustin is not. His attraction to Jane would seem more genuine. Dustin is also pretty egoistical, meaning he’s not codependent the same way Mike is. He would be infatuated by Jane’s powers, yes, but from a scientific standpoint. He views them as equals, like a brains & brawn type deal, and doesn’t need to be needed. To put it more simply: Mike sees himself as Lois Lane, Dustin sees himself as Batman.

2. It would’ve added more depth to Dustin, Mike, and Jane’s characters. With Jane not being so worried about Mike, she could learn to be more independent. As of right now, it doesn’t look so good for either Byler or Mileven endgame. Using a woman to prop up a relationship between two men?? BAD! Queerbaiting with Byler?? BAD!! This way, Byler buildup doesn’t cause as much problems. Instead of starting season 3 with Mileven being together, it would’ve started with Dustin and Mike both pining for Jane. Dustin having genuine romantic feelings for Jane, and Mike having comphet (ik it’s controversial to use that term for men I just couldn’t think of a better term. I’m a lesbian, don’t start..). Dustin could touch up more on his insecurities he mentions to Steve, so part of his plot line in s3 being winning a girl would be kinda awesome. Not to mention how cool it would’ve been to have a physically disabled love interest in a mainstream TV show??

3. Relationship development. I mean, Wheeler sibling content? Score. Madwheeler? Score. Wheelclair? Score. Mike and the older teens???? SCORE! Not to mention finally getting to develop Will and Dustin’s relationship? I mean, the whole dart thing, he was the last person to talk to him before he went missing, they both like DnD an abnormal amount? The concept of Will opening up to Dustin about the way Mike and Lucas treated him over the summer and maybe coming out to him is just ugh so good. ALSO, Eddie is arguably pretty queer coded, so having an openly gay or bi dude Mike would confide in would’ve been so cool! Mike, according to Finn, is trying to be as normal as possible, so I think his relationship with the town freak should’ve been explored more. Yk who else was the town freak? Erm, Mr. William Byers. I think a chat with Eddie would’ve woken him up a lil.. ALSO the Lumax and Byler parallels? Both Mike and Max are pulling away while Lucas and Will are reaching in. COME ONNNNNN.

TL;DR: HENDERHOP SOLOS!

[autotheophagic]

El only straightens her hair bc she has absolutely no clue how to manage curly hair - Hopper is obviously no help whatsoever + Joyce has only ever cut her boys' very much straight hair. she's sad about it bc she feels so pretty with her curls.

enter Dustin, who sees her with her natural hair and is SO insane about it. he asks her why she straightens it, and she quietly admits that she doesn't know what to do with it otherwise.

he's like ok well that won't do (he wants to see this all the time) and jumps right into teaching her.

[spam-by-me]

Henderhop would be disastrous for the show because El is 90% of the brawn and Dustin is 90% of the brains and if they were hanging out all the time they would not only figure out but solve all the problems within minutes and there would be no plot.

[permetutotheworld]

okay but like. Picture the scene:

El moved to iceland after s5 and started afresh

She settles in a small village and when the people living there see a teenage girl alone with an air of melancholy? Immediately she is taken in as the village child to look after

someone sees her using her powers by accident and the whole village silently agrees “we tell no one. She is ours to protect now” and they go about their daily lives

years pass, el grows into an adult and takes over the village bakery after the elderly owner passes away

sometimes she checks in on The Party, using her powers, she watches mike and will fall in love, lucas and max blossom, and she is so very happy for them

and then she sees dustin. Dustin does not fall in love, she doesnt understand why because dustin always talked about suzie when they were dating, el figured dustin really valued romance

after a long while of living—when shes about 25-27—she is taking her daily walk through the forests and waterfalls (the one time a day she lets herself truly think about what she left behind) and she comes across a small child. No older than five or six, and so *so* small, shivering, terrified. El looks at her and sees herself that night in the woods when hopper found her

she remembers what hopper said the last time they saw eachother “give her the life you never had”

so she does

a year later dustin—a fully fledged nasa engineer—moves to work in iceland to study the geothermal vents and renewable energy possibilities. Hes posted in a small village.

the day after he arrives he walks into the village bakery to see el—jane—laughing with a customer behind the counter, flour on her cheek, her hair long, so long (she never cuts it, not after the lab) and smiling. Really truly smiling.

he’s about to call out to her, sweep her into a crushing hug, cry, shout, *something*, a young girl comes running behind the counter waving a sheet of scribbled on paper shouting “mama look what i made!”

and dustin comes to the conclusion that Jane has well and truly moved on from everything. From hawkins. From everyone.

he leaves the bakery without buying anything

and now has to try and get through his year long post without running into Jane, or her daughter

(obviously they meet again and fall in love and its wonderful yay)

[karust]

these Henderhop tweets!!

[the-yappstronaut]

Mike Wheeler's Mental Health

Hey gang! This is a pretty thorough analysis of Mike's mental health, or, in other words, a deep dive into what mental disorders he could (key word: could) have. I'll be touching on four: PDD, MDD, BPD, ASD, and ADHD. This is probably the longest post I've ever made, so props if you choose to read it lol.

Before we start, it is important to note that the fact that this is a sci-fi TV show with a ton of stuff going on makes it difficult to match full criterions. Some symptoms could be there, but we simply don't see them on screen. (For instance, all of these disorders involve insomnia, and Mike is never shown on screen having difficulty sleeping.) This is why it's necessary to look less into specific symptoms and more into the big picture of his behavior and actions.

But that's enough yapping. Grab a snack, cause this is gonna be a long one!

*cw for discussion of poor mental health and suicide*

These first two are likely the most obvious on the list: MDD (major depressive disorder) and PDD (persistent depressive disorder / chronic depression / dysthymia).

Here are some symptoms of MDD that I have reason to believe apply to Mike:

Low Mood - While observing his behavior, it is obvious that he is gloomy and uninterested, especially in seasons 2 and 4. He doesn’t get as energetic and enthusiastic as he seems in season 1. He constantly just looks sad. That makes sense considering his situation but also could point to a deeper internal issue.

Decreased Interest in Hobbies - From Lucas's book, “Lucas on the Line,” we know that at least for the period just after El and Will moved, Mike pulled away from the group and “locked himself in his basement with his Nintendo.” That is textbook depressed behavior. If I remember correctly, the book even stated that he wasn't having much fun in DnD, which is unusual, and points towards his mood disorder.

Poor Appetite - This is a stretch, but we often see him choosing not to eat. He doesn't eat at the table with his family except for breakfast at the beginning of episode 1, and he doesn't eat when at the Byers' house in s4. For instance, in this scene (and the one after it), he doesn't seem to be eating.

Suicidal Tendencies - The only proof we have of any suicidal tendencies thus far is the whole cliff fiasco from season 1, but considering his willingness to throw himself off, it's not exactly absurd to suggest that he's had suicidal thoughts at other times. He’s very self-sacrificial and steps in front of anyone in danger, even if he’s entirely unmatched (i.e. the candlestick moment).

The biggest thing that discerns PDD from MDD is the length—typically, PDD persists for at least 2 years where just MDD is more short term. Many people consider PDD to be just a "milder" version of MDD, but it is actually common to have persistent major depression or even intermittent major depression, the second being where MDD symptoms come and go. Seeing as Mike's symptoms stretch over the entire course of the show, it is likely that his depression could be categorized as persistent.

BPD, or Borderline Personality Disorder, is categorized as a “pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self image, and affects, and marked impulsivity." Right off the bat, that description sounds a lot like Mike. But let's dig further.

Here are the symptoms that relate to Mike.

Frantic Efforts to Avoid Abandonment - This is pretty much every decision Mike makes. His immediate turn to apologize to Will after their fight, his efforts to resolve his fight with El (however feeble they may be), and even his s4 confession fall under this category. He is terrified of being left alone, and even says as much to Will, stating something along the lines of "I’m scared she’ll realize she won’t need me anymore." He has some pretty clear attachment issues, which likely are contributed to by Will going missing.

Unstable and Intense Relationships - Not only in relation to his problematic relationship with El, but in more detail, this criterion describes phases of "over idealization" and "devaluation," both of which Mike has. People with BPD often fixate on one or two people at a time and devote all of their time and attention to them (over idealization) and can lose interest extremely quickly (devaluation). We don't see as much of the devaluation besides his apparent disinterest in Will in season 3 (though that can be explained for many other reasons) and his disdain for Lucas in season 4. But he very much idealizes people: El, Will, and Eddie specifically.

Identity Disturbance - Described as a shifting sense of self, this can manifest in many ways, including confusion about sexual identity, values, and aspirations. It's not unlikely that Mike deals with a lot of confusion surrounding his sexuality. 

Impulsivity - Mike is extremely impulsive. I don’t even really have to give specific examples for this, because everything he does is impulsive. This criterion specifically includes behavior so impulsive it can lead to harm, and, again, that is very obvious with him. Cough cough, the cliff, cough cough.

Suicidal Behavior - I talked about this earlier, so I won’t go deep into it, but it is a very large symptom of BPD.

Inappropriate, Intense Anger - Mike gets angry easily. All of his fights in season 1, his outburst towards Max in season 2, his several outburst in season 3, etcetera. It's one of the main problems the GA has with his character and one of the biggest reasons that he clearly has some mental issues.

Additionally: people with BPD experience severe feelings of emptiness, which doesn’t seem out of place for Mike. They often have a lot of guilt for the people they’ve hurt, which we see when Mike immediately goes to apologize to Will. They have low self-esteem. They also use extreme sarcasm and have a high amount of empathy for others due to their intense emotions, both of which are two of his most prominent traits.

Moving on, ASD, or Autism Spectrum Disorder, is a neurological condition that is split into two criterions. Criterion A, which is defined as "persistent impairment in reciprocal social communication and social interaction" and Criterion B, which is "restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities."

Here are some symptoms that I think Mike exhibits.

Criterion A:

Deficits in Communication - Mike often has difficulty with social cues and understanding what he’s doing wrong. Even in one of the first episodes, Dustin tells him that he is "oblivious" in relation to other people. Most of his season 3 and 4 arcs were struggling to understand his relationships and screwing up interpersonal communication due to his lack of understanding.

Deficits in Sharing Emotions - Mike is very well known for not being open with his emotions. I think the only time we see him truly vulnerable is the moment in season 1 just after Will dies. When comparing him to characters like Lucas, Steve, and Dustin, who are all very upfront with the ways they are feeling, it’s clear that he isn’t used to sharing his emotions.

Masking, or Acting Differently with Different People - Mike is very different around everyone. This is something that happens with all people, but it's so extreme with him that it seems purposeful. Around his family, he is argumentative and passive. Around his friends, he's assertive and sarcastic. It seems that the only people he doesn't have a personality mask around, or at least less of one, are Will and El, with whom he is a lot more subdued and calm. He still exhibits the same qualities, but in a way that don't overmine his true character, which is kind and dependable.

Irritability - As I said before, Mike gets angry very easily, especially when things don't go his way, and directs his anger towards other people. Often this leads to “outbursts,” which is very common among individuals with ASD.

Abnormalities in Eye Contact - This might just be me, but he seems to always be either looking away or looking so deep into the eyes of the person he's talking to that it makes me feel uncomfortable to watch. (But that could just be because eye contact makes me uncomfortable in general, so it’s not a very legitimate reason.)

Criterion B:

Insistence on Sameness - While he’s not specifically “organized,” it is made obvious again and again that Mike is averse to change. He doesn't want Max to join the group. He doesn’t want to get rid of his childhood toys. He is also structured, and calls El at the same time every single day for like 300 or whatever days. 

Restricted, Fixated Interests - Mike, of course, has his intense fixation on DnD and science, but also has his dedication to writing, which we don't see much of in the show but we know exists from one of the books. I also noticed just in passing that he might really like dinosaurs; he shows El his favorite toy dinosaur, he has a dinosaur or two on his shelf, and let’s be real, he’s the type of kid to be obsessed with dinosaurs (I’m projecting).

Hyper/Hyporeactivity to Sensory Input - Throughout the show, he is seen a few times putting his hands over his ears and/or closing his eyes in environments that could be considered overstimulating, i.e. the scene in s1 with the blinking lights, or the scene in s2 when they sedate Will. Nobody else has these reactions. 

Inflexible Behavior - Mike is considered by many to be "stubborn", which in this case means that he doesn't like diverging from his own very specific plans and ideas for how things should go. This is one of the top contributors to his irritability.

All of this together connects Mike with low-support-needs ASD.

Many of these traits can, of course, be attributed to other things. But considering the audience of the show and the fact that even R*dditors have caught on to Mike’s autistic tendencies, it seems likely that this was at least a tiny bit on purpose.

I’m going to go through this last one a lot faster because it’s more surface level in this case. The next is ADHD, which is a "persistent pattern of innattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that interferes with function or development."

Some symptoms that Mike exhibits:

Talking Excessively

Blurting

Difficulty Waiting

Impulsivity

Irritability

Hyperfocus on Interests

Sensory Input Issues

Obliviousness

Being Late/Losing Track of Time

I think it's pretty reasonable that Mike could have the prominently hyperactivity-impulsivity subtype of ADHD. I don't think we see much of the inattentiveness, but I also wrote this whole thing off of my memory, so correct me if you can think of any moments.

How do I think these could apply to his s5 arc? Well, for one, I think that the show will delve a little bit into his self-sacrificial (suicidal) tendencies, likely calling back to the season 1 cliff moment. I also think that we will see more of his push/pull idealization/devaluation. Other than that, who knows?

Additionally, it's important to point out that Mike (as well as pretty much all of the characters) definitely has some form of PTSD, but because the show focuses primarily on Will's CPTSD it doesn't give enough thorough, concrete reasons (i.e. nightmares, flashbacks, etc.) pointing towards Mike's, and therefore I left it out of this analysis.

Well, this took me hours. I hope you found this interesting and insightful!

sources: the DSM-5, personal experience, and R*ddit threads from people who have these disorders

[kidovna]

happy 7/7 byler day!

[vampirementality]

yes El needs to be single and independent for a while. yes henderhop is peak. the solution? epilogue henderhop.

[y2kanineee]

Mientras uno este vivo, uno debe amar lo más que pueda <3

[tryingonametaphor]

because i can be delusional one last time, here are all the inconsistencies i’ve gathered so far that makes me believe that either the finale didn’t happen or was a vision or it was a tragic ending:

mike ending up like ted. even the same hairstyle.

robin suddenly dressing in frills and has long hair

rovickie break up out of nowhere when last we saw robin was promising to take her on a date

el saying goodbye to mike in her mind when the sirens were blaring and she shouldn’t have been able to do that

the voltage dial turning from grey to red

the coming out scene dialogue inconsistencies

mike being unable to tell el i love you even though that was his plot for the entirety of st4

el saying mike understands her better than anyone else when el says the opposite in st4 and her love for max is what makes her more powerful than she’s ever been

the mind flayer and vecna defeat being very underwhelming

max at the dnd game crashing out about how the campaign doesn’t make sense the way we’re crashing out.

all the wsqk clues not adding up

duffers said we’ll know who opened the byers door bolt in ep1. the show still hasn’t told us

why was will framed as the exotic matter in the bridge episode drawing with an x over his heart?

why was the painting not addressed when it was wills entire st4 plot?

mike and wills eternal sunshine outfit inspirations when it led to absolutely nothing

max graduating with the boys when she’s missed a year of school

WHAT was vecna’s plan exactly? what would merging worlds do? what would it look like?

where were the demos both in the upside down and the abyss?

what about birthdaygate? why do henry and will share birthdays?

why do joyce and hopper never mention knowing henry?

what was the point of the “snowballs to avalanche” conversation?

why did will go from hopeful to giving mike up in a day?

why do the military let them go? and why is there a memorial with eddie’s name on it (as seen in BTS)?

why wouldn’t mike touch will even before the coming out? and more so after?

is mike grieving el the emotional weight of the finale? because it didn’t move me. in fact it pissed me off that he couldn’t say he loved her even then.

the duffers equating el to her powers in an interview saying she had to die. when millie herself said el’s st5 arc was realising she’s more human and less superhero.

if i’m missing something, feel free to reply and i’ll add it in edits

edit (more):

creelby parallels with byler going unmentioned

“can love defeat fear?” theme in tfs, but the finale was “can weapons defeat the mind flayer?”

where is henry’s backstory? and patty?

does will still have powers?

we never saw Will's Vecna Vision

mwtfdydg

do the kids have powers now?

is the mindflayer even dead?

the lies and contradictions in Interviews

the tape in promo

will standing like henry in shock jock and that not leading up to anything

where’s the turnbow family?

how did steve become a teacher without going to college?

what happened to owens?

what happens to the pregnant women in the lab?

how did killing the mind flayer and beheading vecna not hurt will?

everyone in the epilogue sitting with their hands like henry:

the whatzit board game in hop’s cabin in the epilogue (and in mike’s basement in the epilogue)

hop moving on from el’s death faster than mike, when all of st5 was spent showing us that mike barely mentions el and hop was ready to die to keep her safe.

why does the epilogue parallel the campaign at the end of season 1: 10 hours long, full of plot holes.

why do nancy and karen, mike and ted have the same hairstyles - which is also coincidentally henry’s hairstyle

AI generated images in the credit rolls or at least drawn to look like AI art.

will is a magic user (illusionist) in the credits. he’s never been that in the show.

the graduation robes in the epilogue being orange when in the ronance book, nancy’s graduation robes are green

the blank yellow poster in the graduation scene

mike’s hand weirdly twitching all the time

volume two suddenly splitting byler and elmax when we know that mike and max have always been two of the most important people to will and el respectively.

even more inconsistencies:

karen’s scar disappears in the final scene where she opens the basement door and calls the party up

the handle on the door in the basement behind the party is on the right (when it’s originally on the left)

the duffers intentionally sounding stupid in interviews (saying the demos aren’t in the final battle because they didn’t anticipate it. when vecna saw through the memories of both el and hop that episode AND can spy through will)

why 12 kids? the duffers said they didn’t really think about it an they like clock imagery, but robin in the narrative specifically asks “why 12 kids?”

will’s vecna vision is basically the ending mike wheeler got

“and me” “and me” / “i believe” “i believe” sounding like cult chants (this is just an observation)

floors, outfits resembling chessboards.

no mention of suzie at all

where’s the 3rd waterfall in mike’s version of el escaping? if it’s his fantasy, why isn’t it right?

dustin says “chaotic good and chaotic bad” but it’s “chaotic good and chaotic evil” (they even put the alignment in the credits) also there are three classes of chaos - chaotic neutral too.

expanding on a point before but melvalds doesn’t sell milkshakes like will said it does

will can’t enjoy getting lost in the woods

they said barb’s body will return. we didn’t see it. they also said no scenes were cut in st5.

five chimes as the abyss starts to descend. last season we were told that each chime represents one victim

why are the “popular kids” suddenly chummy with the party? what led up to that?

why does mike hold el so awkwardly in his last conversation with her?

scene of party playing dnd and will is in his will the wise costume in the finale - not a scene that happened in the show.

credit erasing will behind mileven in the rink o mania scene

[sihain]

Having a queer character believe he won't find love and proving him right is not good writing.

Having a character grow up in solitary confinement and then ripping her away from the only family she's ever known to live a life of solitude once again is not good writing.

Having a character be in love with his best friend and then just compare it to a high school crush is not good writing.

Having Eleven say that Mike has always been the person who truly understood her after showing us in the previous seasons that he only sees her as a superhero IS NOT GOOD WRITING.

Having two girls be abused by a man with power for the majority of their lives only to leave them dead and alone as a direct consequence of the trauma they suffered IS VILE WRITING

[doopydew]

Let’s see those pearls!!

[notholaenas]

they both have a thing about hands

[mcyt-researcher]

Research: Understanding MCYT Boundaries

SURVEY LINK

During my time in mcyt fandom, I've watched as the fandom's perception of creator boundaries has grown and shifted into a cornerstone of our fandom, and yet we don't actually have any good data on how the fandom as a whole perceives them outside of discourse posts.

The goal of this unofficial study NOT to make a value judgement on whether creator boundaries should be respected - it is to understand how the fandom currently perceives and interacts with them.* Is respecting creator boundaries important to you? Has your favorite creator made a boundary list or spoken about it on stream? Do you find some boundaries acceptable and others not? Have you ever been the target of hate for engaging with boundary-breaking content? Whether you think boundaries should always be respected or you think they're being used as tools of censorship, I want to hear from you. What are boundaries, and why do they matter so much to us?

—

This survey is a mix of multiple choice and optional long-response questions. It should take about 15 minutes if you’re only doing the required questions, and much longer if you choose to answer the optional questions.**

If you are able, please reblog and share this survey link around. Feel free to post it on any platform, as I am currently only on Tumblr, which is not representative of the fandom as a whole. In fact, I’d love it if it reached Twitter. The more responses, the more accurate the results will be for the whole of mcyt.*** Anyone in mcyt spaces, including creators, are welcome to take the survey to share their thoughts. However, I ask that for the comfort of content creators and the spirit of good fandom etiquete, please do not directly share the survey with any creator or post the link in any creators’ official communities. Thoughtful discussion is always valued over reactionary comments.

The survey is set to close at 11:59pm EST on August 1, 2026 - I may extend this date if there is still a high volume of responses coming in, or if there aren’t enough responses yet for meaningful data. I will aim to publish the results within a month of the survey’s close, and keep you updated on the timeline if that’s not feasible for any reason.

A huge thank you to everyone who helped beta this survey- you all gave such wonderful suggestions! I wish I could’ve kept every question, but in the end a lot needed to be cut to make this manageable. Please know that I appreciate every one of you, as this survey would not exist today without you.

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* Why I think this data is important to collect: The idea for this survey came to me almost a year ago, and I started developing it around February of this year. I’ve spoken with dozens of people about this topic with diverse opinions, read and catalogued hundreds of tumblr posts, rewatched streams and videos by creators and fans, and watched as opinions have shifted across fandoms in real time. I feel extremely confident in saying that every person on every side cares deeply about respecting others and creating safe, welcoming communities in all mcyt spaces. Where they differ is on how to show that respect, which kinds of expectations they think are reasonable in different spaces, and beliefs on how those in power should be using their influence. I don’t expect this survey’s results to fundamentally change anything - this debate has been going on longer than mcyt has existed. But I think it’s still important to analyze the actual arguments people are making and how they affect our communities, instead of focusing on expected behavior from others based on our own values, so we can see the varying expressions of humanity in each other and work towards a better future for our fandom. I don’t think we’re as different as the discourse may have us believe.

** This survey is designed to encourage all participants to think critically about their position and the effects it has. I am aware that I have my own personal biases, so I have taken steps to ensure that the survey is as bipartisan as possible and also gives participants the opportunity to explain their answers for every question if they feel the need. Because of this, there may be questions that make some participants uncomfortable. While I would appreciate knowing why a question has made someone uncomfortable, participants are always free to skip such long-response questions.

*** I’m well aware that any recent discourse on this topic may skew results if arguments on one side are more successful than another in convincing fans of a particular position. I still think the data will be valuable even with a potential skew.