Today I'm kinda feelin' like a ghost...

[rogueslayer452]

++ I apologize for being absent for a little while here, I've just been dealing with a combination of real life stuff along with having a kind of writers block in terms of what I want to write and post. I'm trying to get my mojo back.

++ I know I'm a little late in celebrating this, but there was an announcement trailer for The Last Of Us: Part 2 which gave us the official release date, February 21st of next year. So soon, yet so far away! I know based on this trailer and other things that many are speculating on the story and what's going to happen, and while I have my own theories I'm purposefully avoiding anything outside of these trailers.

++ There was an article posted recently about the attacks against Archive Of Our Own by morality crusaders every single time the site does their fundraiser. It does go more in-depth with the issue that has been rising in recent years of the dangerous rhetoric "purity culture" has been spreading throughout fandom and in outside fannish spaces. Aside from a few places, I haven't really seen much discussion about this particular topic and I think that it's a matter that is worth dissecting. On one hand, we can ignore it since most of it seems performative anyway, but I believe this whole thing is way more nuanced than we realize and we need to get down to why this has occurred and how we can educate people on fandom history and why censorship is not okay in any form.

++ I have been watching Talks Machina episodes that I never watched. Talks Machina is an online talk show created by those from Critical Role that basically just answers questions from fans about any episode that they previously had of their game. So there are spoilers, but they don't just talk about the most recent episode they happened, they oftentimes just shoot the shit, talk about whatever, serious and silly alike, go on tangents a lot of the time, and just having fun. It's great. I actually never saw the ones from the first campaign because they were only available on Twitch, so I didn't know that they were uploaded as unlisted onto YouTube, until someone basically compiled them all from the beginning to the most recent in the current running campaign. It also includes their After Dark segment that was an Alpha exclusive, until they cut ties with Geek & Sundry and Alpha essentially became defunct after that. So I'm thankfully that it's been saved.

This is also to say that I haven't really been caught up with Critical Role's second campaign for a while now, and probably won't be in the near future. So instead I'm just going back and reliving/rewatching the first campaign, especially episodes and segments I hadn't seen before.

++ Anyway, it's October and I've been consuming a lot of horror/Halloween-type media. Even though I watch horror anyway, it's basically tradition that every October I revisit many of my favorites and even get to watch some newer horror that I've been wanting to see.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/]

I'm glad you're back.

AO3 is such an important website. I wish young fans would be satisfied with the archive's warning system instead of asking for censorship.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :)

I think a lot of younger fans don't know fandom history. Which is understandable to an extent, but when it comes to those who subscribe to moral crusading it doesn't matter if you explain fandom history and provide links/facts, they'll be dismissive anyway and think that their way of thinking is the only way (i.e. the lack of critical thinking). It's kind of sad seeing so many young people being introduced to fandom this way, thinking that they have to act morally superior so they don't get harassed or whatever. And it's even more upsetting seeing older fandom peeps fall into this trap, as well. Like, what are you doing? Stop it, you know better.

[noybusiness.livejournal.com]

Not to mention the options to filter out certain tags from searches.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/]

That too. I didn't think of it because I don't use it myself.

[noybusiness.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking of this user who was "calling out" a writer for putting a fic in the Jonerys tag that was also Dany/Daario as well where Jon was okay with helping Dany raise her and Daario's lovechild; they were saying it wasn't "real Jonerys" as if they're the arbiter of such things. Fortunately most of us Jonerys fans on Tumblr argued against their harassment of this writer and told them to just exclude Dany/Daario when searching the Jonerys tag if they don't want to see it.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

*Hugs* I hope the real life stuff is sorted sooner rather than later.

++ There was an article posted recently about the attacks against Archive Of Our Own by morality crusaders every single time the site does their fundraiser. It does go more in-depth with the issue that has been rising in recent years of the dangerous rhetoric "purity culture" has been spreading throughout fandom and in outside fannish spaces.

Yiiikes. :/ That sucks. I'm not familiar enough with purity culture, etc. to comment much. But in general, if you don't like something, don't participate.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Thank you. *hugs back* It's been kind of rough for the last several months, on and off, but I'm hoping to get some resolve soon.

Yiiikes. :/ That sucks. I'm not familiar enough with purity culture, etc. to comment much. But in general, if you don't like something, don't participate.

I tend to ignore it for the most part, but sometimes it is hard to do that when you have misinformed people attacking and trying to get an incredibly helpful non-profit site shut down over their ignorance from being fed this particular "protect the innocent children" rhetoric that purity culture spews out. These people don't understand the concept of minding their own business.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

On the one hand, the AO3 discourse just makes me yearn for the days of moderated LJ comms and everyone could just hang in their own little bubbles. On the other hand, fandom has evolved and works are far more public than they used to be and I think folks should be celebrated for the work they put out there and AO3 has been great in that way.

Exactly, I absolutely agree with this.

There are times when I miss the moderated spaces within fandom, but then again times were much different then. When I first entered the online fandom it was still quite underground, there was this unspoken golden rule that you never talked about fandom/fanfiction outside of fandom spaces, it was still "uncool" to mention it in fear of being mocked, etc. Over time it slowly started becoming more public that now fandom has reached a peak of being more widespread in knowledge across the board. Younger fans need to learn fandom history to understand how it got to this point, because it is very important to know where things were before and how things have evolved since then. AO3/OTW is a goddamn blessing in comparison to what we had previously.

If the work isn't actively hurting someone (like, someone writing RPF isn't putting the actual public phone number of said actor and violating someone's confidentiality in that way), then I very much subscribe to the "don't like, don't read" mentality.

Precisely. It's just so strange that the fandom climate now, at least in certain spaces, are so against this notion of "don't like, don't read" and minding your own business. I always felt like that was one of the unspoken Golden Rules of fandom. But I guess as time goes on and as the Internet as grown and become more open, especially now with social media being one of the main things most are exposed to now as their online experiences, so has the fandom community and while it's fine to adapt as things change online, that doesn't mean these particular rules need to disappear or for people to dismiss.

As someone who has been involved with fandom for so long, it's become so exhausting seeing all of this play out. Because honestly? I've seen it before. It's the same shit just dressed differently. I try to ignore it most of the time but, man, sometimes it can really ruin the enjoyment of fandom, specific fandoms or just in general.

Anyways, in happier news, yay for October and Halloween media! Best time :D

Yay! This is the time of the year that I absolutely love. All the Halloween/spooky aesthetic, watching all the media centered around it (horror and Halloween-themed alike), it's great. :D

[noybusiness.livejournal.com]

I can't even with this Cloak & Dagger cancellation news. And even the first season isn't on Blu-Ray yet.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Well, dammit. :( I had hoped that it would be renewed, but the longer we waited the more it didn't seem likely. But I wanted to hope anyway. Apparently this is perhaps due to new leadership changes with Marvel, which makes it even more depressing. Cloak & Dagger was such a strong show and deserved so much more.

I want to hope that, with their appearance on the third season of Runaways, it might make them either a permanent part of their team or get the show saved by Hulu.

Regardless, the fact that it's not available on DVD/Bluray at all is a damn travesty.

[haebin.livejournal.com]

... even get to watch some newer horror that I've been wanting to see.
Which movies are you planning to watch? :)

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I'm probably going to watch Midsommar, because I heard it was good and based on what I've seen it looks fantastic visually. I contemplated on watching the first part of the new IT adaptation, though I'm questioning whether I should wait until the second part is released so I can do them back-to-back. And I'm finally going to be watching Tragedy Girls.

[haebin.livejournal.com]

Please tell me your thoughts when you've watched Midsommar. :)

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

**CRIES** They just announced that Last of Us 2 will be delayed until May :(((((((

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

NO WHY!? D: I mean, it'll be released regardless, but still.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

Because they want to make sure they ship a finished product and are not slaves to a predetermined release date **makes eyes at Ubisoft and their Assassin's Creed debacles**

https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/10/24/the-last-of-us-part-2-release-date-delayed

I can respect that. Especially with a game like this where glitches could really pull you out of the story.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that makes sense. I'm glad that they're taking time before releasing since many games have come out before they were ready. So waiting a few more months isn't so bad.

[giallarhorn.livejournal.com]

I mean, the only thing I think any of us can be sure about TLOU2 is that Ellie is gonna fuck some people up. Probably a lot of people.

The attacks on AO3 aren't anything new, I feel like? It's kinda like the strikethrough and huge thing they had on FF.net- same thing, different arena, only now magnified by social media. I think the biggest lesson to be learned is that AO3 assumes you're the adult, and therefore can make choices on your own rather than having choices made for you.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Along with there being so many emotional moments, because that's what TLOU does. Either way, I'm so excited for whatever it'll bring us.

Moral panic has always been a thing since forever, especially for fandom, it's all the same just dressed differently each time. It just comes in waves. This current one mostly seems to be a culmination of shipping wars, social justice, and call-out/outrage/cancel culture, and the only difference is how online culture has evolved especially with social media and how a lot of it now is coming from within certain faction so fandom itself rather than external sources, and is spreading this kind of purity rhetoric to a lot of young impressionable minds who don't know any better. Also many younger people are born into this particular age of technology where they believe the Internet is catered to them instead of understanding that it's not a "safe space" and it is mostly adult-centric. So that adds a generational difference as well to this equation.

I think the biggest lesson to be learned is that AO3 assumes you're the adult, and therefore can make choices on your own rather than having choices made for you.

Exactly. Same can be said for anywhere online.

And AO3 is very transparent about their rules, if you don't abide by them or even bother reading them at all then that's your own fault.