yeah well here’s a cool idea: start creating and start reblogging. leave nice comments to your favorite creators. send them prompts. start interacting with others. sounds wild, right? start it today. keep these fandoms alive.
I appreciate the optismism of “build it and they will come” but i think the true frustration behind “fandoms are dying” is a multi layered problem that making more content will not fix because:
a) puritanism, bullying, purging of content, and antis are on the rise. especially of nsfw art.
“But i don’t want nsfw art” you say. “I only want pure, good art/fic thats full of happy puppies and kitties”. tough tits. you cant nurture creativity in a fandom thats constantly gatekeeping. thats how you get “dead fandoms”.
b) giant corporations are co opting fandoms in an attempt to make [even more] money. this feeds back into point a (of course disney doesn’t want queer/adult content, they’re advertisers/investors would disapprove) and therefore antis feel more empowered to bully and harrass.
c) the circle of social media platforms in which it is “safe” to post your nsfw content has basically zeroed down to twitter. even patreon will ban your art if its the wrong fictional ship [i know, it’s happened to me]. maybe there’s more leeway for writing like ao3 or tumblr, but we all know this site died after the nsfw purge and is making it even harder to get exposure after the latest round of banned hashtags and everybody from sfw artists to gif and graphic editors suffer from no audience and a lack of engagement [remember what i said about gatekeeping killing creativity?]
Now lets say you DO post your nsfw slash art on twitter. Its basically the wild west. Anybody can find you, attack you, bully/harrass you and, again, because of points b + c these harassers all think they have a right to do so.
SO. “Make more content for your fandom” is a nice sentiment except there’s nowhere to post, no one to like it, and everybody is so goddamned scared of death threats and being cancelled they either don’t make the content to begin with or people don’t reblog/share because “what if the creator is secretly a bad person and i didnt know it and now other people think im a bad person”.
Fandoms are dead because the water is toxic. Dropping more stuff into the water won’t help. You gotta clean up the water first if you want creativity to thrive.
nesta: knowing who azriel really wants “his secret to tell, never hers.”
nesta literally never acknowledged gwynriel in any romantic way, but we got her acknowledging azriels feelings, and from her point of view she even noticed their charged stare and his shadows defending elain
…yeah i hate to break it to you that girl is an elriel
My thoughts on why The War of Two Queens was a disgrace: SPOILERS TURN AWAY NOW
Kieran and Poppy throughout the series have minimal exchanges that don’t center around Casteel, their duty, or sexuality. IMO I’ve never seen domestic or emotionally intimate scenes that were exclusively just about them. Favorite color, favorite place, ANYTHING that gave them common ground without someone else being it. Had this been established prior to a poly relationship it would have been more understandable. Not only that, all that WAS intentionally invested in leading up to TWOTQ was sexual tension. By developing this plot of Poppy and Kieran having feelings for one another it smashes Kieran into a 2D character and it perpetuates 3 DAMAGING stereotypes 1) that guys and girls can’t be just friends 2) that guys and girls can’t have casual sex without catching feelings and 3) that girls (especially Poppy) will love anyone that validates them and gives them affection. It does a disservice to Kieran who up until TWOTQs was the only one not simping for Poppy, would hold her accountable, and Cas could trust. Now Kieran has no independent thought and he exists only to serve Poppy. Which also is what happened to Casteel’s character but that at least made more sense. If JLA wanted to set up a great poly relationship she should have A) invested more in Kieran and Poppy’s social relationship B) had Kieran at least be bonded to Cas still so it made sense or set it up so Kieran was her mortal heartmate and Cas was her primal heartmate C) had boundaries discussed before the joining or/and D) had the joining happen with no hints of romantic development after E) not made Cas possessive of Poppy including against Kieran — multiple times. Instead it’s a fucking nightmare and poor representation for the poly community and women in general. This is as bad as Jason Rothenberg with Bellamy and Clarke.
it seems like each character has something closely related to them/something they might consider very important (a place/collection of items) layered over them
so cait has her detective work, jinx has her childhood home (?) windows and the monkey toy, silco has the stained glass of his office, vi has the last drop, jayce has his old study, mel has the council room windows
and viktor?
he’s got JAYCE sitting in THEIR SHARED LAB (the scene from the beginning of ep 4)
“… and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything? This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child at prayer… Pathetic.
I love Arcane’s facial animations so much and Viktor’s are some of my faves. And I LOVE this moment because…because look at the extremely tender way he looks at Jayce’s hand he’s gay your honor actually no I am not crossing that out because I’m right and I should say it he’s gay your honor and he is in love with his best friend and has been yearning quietly for YEARS and I am RIGHT
im glad y'all can dunk on iphone users an all but like idk maybe care about sex workers who are constantly affected by these changes and think about how we are losing every single platform we have bcuz of companies like apple and mastercard
