Defending Fanfiction as a Medium

 

Every time fanfiction is used to derogatorily describe something subpar for official media, I just wanted to throw something. 

The Stranger Things final season is an example. Stranger Things' problems have been evident since the second season, and the final season just exemplified everything that had been discussed before, making the problems ten times worse. 

To say that it's fanfiction as a result of all that is just nonsense. 

Fanfiction is a medium that uses official media to explore things that have yet to be explored in official media and runs wild with that. Fanfiction is transformative; it doesn't always have to conform to canon, but transform it. 

For example, there are villain-centric fics that give villains a chance to grow healthily and essentially give them a happy ending. That is transformative from works that obviously and resolutely won't reward the villains for their villainous behavior and deserve to be punished. 

Or how about this: Crossing over with another franchise for funsies or you really want a serious take on their universes meeting. Taking the Yuri on Ice universe and just send them in the real homophobic world is a thing fans have always done before and it’s not surprising with their crossovers too. That is transformative. 

Yes, canon is not the end-all-be-all. There are fics that take canon in consideration and analyze them. It’s about analyzing canon. Fandom in fanfiction culture may have taken to ignoring canon to an enormous degree that it’s actually hurting analysis in fanfiction but that does not mean bullying to conform to canon. Sometimes canon can be so bad that it does need fixing, be it atrociously bad writing to better fulfill its potential or saving a character. Seriously, people were surprised to see Eddie Munson lives fics, you definitely aren’t there for anything because that is so easy. 

That's the point of fanfiction: taking official media and transforming it. Be it either ignoring canon or using canon as a base to develop, because that's the point of fanfiction at the end of the day. Not a machine to pump out things quickly for consumption ala TikTok, but a gift-based community involved in the love of the source material. 

To shout and demand more with entitlement and then put them down simply because they aren't good writers or have the care or knowledge of fandom etiquette. To them, it's a consumer with a short attention span and a refusal to understand anything. 

At the end of the day, HR fandom's toxicity is more toxic than others, but nothing new. It's just mashed up with current fandom problems in which HR is the gateway fandom for people who previously avoided fandom like a plague. 

I roll my eyes when I see people denigrate fanfiction for not giving them what they deserve and for fanfiction as nothing more than simply a source of consumption meant for profit and entitlement. 

Heated Rivalry won't be the first and the last of this type of behavior either. It's just easier now to see the fandom as the scapegoat and the scene of the crime. Heated Rivalry will die down and become another fandom like Red, White, and Blue, but for now, we have to deal with the ugliness and the bad of the fandom that is at the forefront, simply because they are the loudest. 

On an aside note, I can't believe we are even saying this: Heated Rivalry and their source material are their own thing. Yes, it's not gonna awards, but if one meets where it is, it's enjoyable. Sure, there will be better books, but isn't that the point of literature. People's writing differed from the other but no less valid. 

We can't exactly say each piece of art is the same because each person writes and tackles their themes differently. It’s apples and oranges, more cake to be had. Hype definitely plays into this too because people often try to be contrarian or do provide civil constructive critique but does so in such a negative way it would deter rather than provide. Because like most things that get too popular, the hype backlash is real. 

Sure, sure, fanfiction has its own fair share of just plain bad. Not even so bad it's good, like just plain bad, but at least they are written by someone who has a love for the series they are writing for. 

Mentioning the good of fanfiction, where you can find the best of the best, the cream of the crop, if you know enough of the fanbase to know their respective bases. I don't need to step on the grounds of EndHawks to know there will be good fanfiction, but for my own sanity, I wouldn't read them because I hate the ship and would rather not have my brain break. 

In a time where the fanfiction to official media, as in name changes and even slight characterization changes just so that they are unrecognizable from the characters they were beforehand, even now those are advertised to draw the original readers in to some extent as well as using all the tropes. 

Again, fanfic has so many tropes, but that’s all they are. Sure, people can be fans of certain tropes (as I can say, I’m very much into magical girls au) but that's all it is. How does people use these tropes and execute them? In the realm of fanfiction, you expect middling results. 

It's a fucking medium. It just used official media and it's just as applicable for any means of art and creativity. 

Unfortunately, seeing something 'fanfiction' in official media is worthy of derogatory offense as if it just means to satisfy those types of fans. 

When fanfiction is written by people who take time out of their lives to write free stuff and gift it to the fandom. It's not a transactional relationship where one pays and consumes like buying tote bags. 

It's not consuming or asking for immediate food in an eating establishment. This is the immediate abandonment of a fandom once it's quiet, when the point of fandom is make food. Why else have Suzalulu survived this long, had it not been for the fans? The point of abandoning a fanbase just because it isn't airing anymore is just stupid when the point of fandom is the love and to continue in the community. 

Seriously, I seen this happen with the Chainsaw Man in regards to the anime at least. Fuck, the OPM fanbase continued well beyond the anime with the manga 

Seriously, rare pairs have to survive with whatever they can have. Seriously, rare pairs and overall small fandoms have to survive through the tenacity of their fans to keep it alive. They might not be as big as they want to be but at least they are happy with just what they have. 

Fandom isn't transactional. Sure, there are zines that are usually out of budget for most people. Fuck, I'm just happy with my zines. But those are optional. 

People are willing to wait for the zine's fics to be free on some platform one way or another 

Just give your flowers to the authors in the comments and it's all good. Even private DMs are good too. Just shower them with support. 

Every time I see something like 'is this fandom dead?', I roll my eyes. Fans are supposed to keep the fandom running, not the damn media. Fuck, Ace Attorney hasn't had a new game in years, and you still fucking see fics and fanart, new ones! 

Even if you stop playing the game and only live through walkthroughs, it's still enough to call yourself a fan because it's still a way to experience them. One shouldn't have to play to be a fan. 

Fandom is gift-based and free but newbies don't seem to care about etiquette at all. For them, it's just like TikTok, something easily consumable and quick to digest, not caring for the time and care these fans write in their free time. Even something they demand like faster updates, an algorithm, and censorship is just beyond stupid. Clearly, it shows they have no care for fandom history and why AO3 is the last bastion of creativity and why it's hard for AO3 to regulate AI-generated text on their website. 

If they censor it, that's bad. If they don't censor it, that's also bad, so really, AO3 is in a hard spot to do with AI in the fanfiction space. 

Please, I'm just begging fans of today that just because a show is either ending or has not produced any media in literal years, the fandom itself does not deserve to be languished in silence. A fandom is kept alive by fans and maintained by love and passion. YOU love this thing, right? Just shower it with love and keep it alive with that love. Talk meta or whatever because that keeps it alive. Even stupid ship wars keep it alive. 

Fanfiction has a bad reputation for being fanfiction. Apparently, official media isn't fanfiction in any means. I mean, who cares about the many adaptations out there of famous works? I mean, we wouldn't get Herlock Sholmes, wouldn't we? In any capacity? I mean, who cares that Maurice LeBlanc wanted his OC to meet ACD's OC, right? It's not as if it didn't create an interesting dynamic or anything of worth? Heck, Capcom turning to Herlock Sholmes just so they won't have to deal with the Doyle estate is just brilliant in itself. 

What is deemed fanfiction in official media? Something that feels official media couldn't have, for example? Something that feels like it couldn't be real? Because it's fanfiction and not traditional media? That traditional media hadn't done it before? 

Fuck, I know the fics I read readily belong in fanfiction territory as it outright explores things that wouldn't even happen. It's about the exploration, the fun, the love of the series. It might mean fixing the source material when it does wrong, as I seen fix-it fics everywhere I go. 

Though having seen FF7 Rebirth and how it questions, but not putting down the fix-its, it just shows that death is there and will always be there and has impacted the medium that even with fix-its, they still died and the ghosts of them still haunt the narrative. It says about what it means to remake a story and why the original 

It's definitely one of the better analyses of the meta writing I seen yet for that particular aspect. And you know me, if I sniff out good meta writing, I will recommend it highly. 

Still, don't put down fanfiction or any fan-made material. Yes, they are infringing on copyright. Sure, people can appreciate art, but with AI, it's clear that people do not respect the process and the hard work that goes into it. They just want instant results of what they imagined, and that's it, even if it is directly stolen from artists. 

Just like how in fanfiction, AI-generated content is somehow picked up by some. 

And how AI hunters aren't doing much better, as accusing everything under the sun of being AI is not good. Yes, it's bad that we can't even trust an image to see if it's actually real and not computerized, but that's not good behavior, much less still running through AI detectors, because that is still AI consuming data. 

It's really annoying to see accusations of AI even in something I know took time. It's horrible to see distrust in something we can't believe isn't real anymore and made by human hands. 

But we're getting off-topic. Fanfiction is itself a medium. Just like any other medium, it has its own trash and gems that you have to sift through. Unless you're in a small fandom, you've got to make your own food. At this point, I really am debating just throwing all pretense and making my own food regarding KyoAi, Capioro, Akimina, and ShirLulu. Actually, thinking of making that a threesome with Suzaku too because Suzalulu is definitely a huge part of my shipping too. 

Sure, the Asoryuu, in terms of new ships, is already grateful for the food even though they aren’t updating daily like NaruMitsu/Wrightworth. At least they have food in comparison to the truly rare pairs of those mentioned above. 

Fanfiction is never official, but it's still a good way to learn how to write. It's a medium using official media to draw upon and written generally with love. 

Heck, as much as I don't prefer the fanfiction to just going at it in traditional media with name changes, Heated Rivalry is definitely one of the better ones in comparison to the Harry Styles fanfiction pipeline anyhow mainly because Heated Rivalry is definitely better written than the Harry Styles fanfiction turned film pipeline so far. 

Even though Heated Rivalry, I don't think I have to use the Stucky advertisement to draw in old readers or AO3 readers but it's still a known fact regardless but it's a fact not as advertised as many other pipeline fanfics turned traditional media used. 

I mean fanfiction is all about the freedom afforded that traditonal media would not let us have. We can explore not just the topics we wanted but also the relationships. Heck, it might be better that fans can handle the better written stuff than this. Again, Stranger Things have problems since forever. It's just the final season just encapsulate all the problems in an easy bow and doing nothing but revel in their backfired nostalgia that not even the actors can save it with their acting because at least in season 4, we got Joseph Quinn who acts the shit out of his role. 

Heck, it might be better to just let the fans have this or that. While fandoms have run amok of purity culture and poor etiquette for a long time, fandoms also have their own problems of racism and so forth. I mean Steddie, a white boy with white boy pairing over Argyle x Jonathon, an interracial couple featuring a person of color... yeah, and that's just one example. 

I will defend fanfiction till the end of times. The way people used fanfiction to deragoily describe something is just awful. 

Because fanfiction is a medium. All these AUs and divergences are all the fun of fanfiction where we can imagine fucking Captain America meeting Phoenix Wright. 

Fanfiction is about discovering all the ways a couple can be together again and again. I can watch my beloved ships get together and it's never boring. It's never boring to explore things never explored expansively in canon because that's what fanfiction is for. 

Fanfiction is many things. It's free and written by people of adults and it's an easy way to gain experience writing. It shows that talent is a skill, grown over time. It's a great way of exploring canon as well as oneself when writing. It's a medium. 

It's not a shitty way to divert attention from official means. Traditional media has their own blockways when fanfiction has no such thing, written with love and passion for what they are loving and giving it freely. It's not supposed to be fully edited or better paced when it's all depends on one's time and love for the source material. The source material is just that. 

To demean fanfiction is to demean the official pastiches and actual fanfiction. Seriously, the Cinderella movies? Those aren't new. There are fairytale-based fics. You are just as likely to find Cinderella AUs as you are to find Beauty and the Beast AUs. 

Fanfiction is a medium and shouldn't be demeaned simply because it's fanfiction and that it isn't official.

Overconsumerism and Microtrends

 

There is nothing wrong with a collection. Something as simple as a curated collection is enough to keep one going and bring constant joy. 

Advice that collectors always give is to focus on something. A niche or a set or whatever it is. 

It can be something as simple as a crayon color or as niche as sleeping Pokémon cards or Trainer cards. 

It's just that trends by themselves are simply trends. Some might be good food or a small trinket that brings happiness. 

The point of overconsumerism is just how wasteful it is. It might look aesthetically pleasing, but when it's not personalized and little thought is put into it beyond generic items, it strays very far into the unnecessary. Sure, it looks good, but does it do anything other than the basics? Even coloring seems to gain more consumerism just based on how the product can be done, instead of just the necessary pens, pencils, and crayons. Even the best coloring can be done with minimal shades. 

These are hobbies that are meant to be enjoyed and gifts with thought and care for the person receiving it. Curation of a collection and gifting matters a lot more than the aesthetics of them all. 

For example, my only Flins is PSS topper for Intertwined Fates that I can surround with ghost and fairy Pokémon of my choice. It's the closest thing I would do to actually make a Pokémon team or Pokémon where he lives and keeps company in pin form rather than just imagination. 

I'm not even a Pikachu collector. If there were a Pikachu, they would have to be so cute and bring me some immeasurable kind of joy. My Pikachu collection is very much smaller but very curated because Pikachu is the mascot. Similar to Charizard, Gengar, and the Eeveelutions, I tend not to be picky...well, except for the Eevee Fusions, which I'm unmoved on collecting everything but the shinies, which is a bonus only. 

That's curation. That's the intention for a collection. 

Heck, let's look at another collection, my general Rapunzel. While half of them are Tangled, I still want to make it clear that I include original art and other series that adapted the fairy tale into the mix. I'm still looking for a good Barbie Rapunzel pin. Any pins that invoke the iconography of the fairytale, such as the tower, the flower, and the long hair, as long as they are in the fairytale. I also include the Tangled event from TWST because, other than the underwhelming story, it could've been so much better, it's Tangled adjacent, and I mean Riddle and Punzie with the mothers. I at least have to get Riddle with his getup, else I wouldn't be satisfied. I'm still so happy with my choice for Eugene/Flynn pop that it would be hard to top any future Eugene/Flynn pin, even though I still plan to get Silvy's version in the future. 

That's the intention. 

Heck, my Genshin and HSR collection is slightly more varied. Hilariously, one of my fave pins is Witchxing Furina, which is still so beautiful I want to give it a good picture one day. Ahh, I was so happy that other Furina just pale in comparison, and if I were, I would dedicate a single board to them. I just don't know I would. Sure, my Full Body Dan Heng IL will be the centerpiece of the Dan Heng collection as it expands to all forms. 

The thing is about intention. If you really like them all, then get them all. I know some completionists who collect whole original art. Heck, I collected Califlair's Angel and Friend pin collection. 

I feel so bad for completionists of the Pokemallows, though. With Mamo’s great ideas and adding effects, the Pokemallows are taking up a lot. I even stopped and only collected those of interest to me. 

I'm only a completionist when it comes to certain stuff in my collection. My Mamo Eevee Fusions collection only has the shiny as a bonus. My KPDH collection will have the girls plus Jinu if it's a series I like. For example, the Huntrix Senshi and Jinu Tuxedo Mask from Silvy Celestial Vanguard series, while I'm not a fan of the KPDH series from PinHut, wherein Elsa is mashed up with Rumi. If you know me, you know why I was a fan of one series and not a fan of the other. 

I think about these microtrends, and the way it lends itself to overconsumerism is the very fact of Fear of Missing Out, something that is so prevalent. 

For Godoka's sake, each new trend seems to be piling up every time to appeal to instant gratification in that moment, which is definitely an effect of short-form media appealing to that instant gratification. 

At least my pins give me gratification and satisfaction in the long term because they are so pretty displayed. Thinking of how pretty they would be when I finally get them up makes me happy. Pin mail just gives serotonin and all the thoughts to have them displayed. 

Trinkets can bring instant joy, much needed after awful, restless days. Curating that requires more than mindless FOMO. FOMO is not your friend in any hobby. 

Do you need that complete collection of so on and so forth? You certainly don't need to have a complete selection of all that is trending right now. If one thing from the current trend makes you happy, sparse the feeling whether you need more or not. 

Are you one of those people who is just going to donate these trinkets to a local charity/thrift store? Or you are going to give it as an inheritance to future generations for them to sell it? I'm pretty sure what looks like junk to others can cost a pretty penny in getting money at least in the sphere of the hobby? 

I have definite grails that others would like to have. Fuck for one person, I have about three of their impossible-to-find pins. Of course, one of them I'm going to put up for trade only and it would be so hard to move. I feel so sorry for those who wanted it, but it's going to be so hard to move. 

In the pin community itself, there are trends. Mamo's Pokemallows exploded the popularity of dyed metal pins, even though other popular makers who outright specialized in them have always existed, but Mamo has a huge reach. Think of any popular media, and you will see pin art. I'm not even surprised to see Frankenstein pin art ready after the blitz of KPDH, and that has died down already. 

Honestly, either be ready to start a new collection or not if you are in any collecting hobby that is already expensive as shit. I’m pretty sure the deluge of KPDH fan merch in all sorts of collecting hobbies is all sorts of crying wallet. 

Trends are a thing in order to be relevant, unless an artist has built enough of a base for their original art that people are willing to buy them in droves. Nuwa does have an original art tier for her Patreon, but I don't think she ever has public original art pins for sale outside the Patreon shop at when I joined but there were some original stuff she sold such as handmade necklaces but that's only one time. Califlair has original art, too, in both the public and the pin club shop. 

Hitting a niche is always the way to go since I’m aware of artists getting a fanbase. 

Hence why there are people who don’t care if an ‘artist’ is using AI even subterfuge to be seen as an actual artist because they fill a need, never mind other artists with similar interests have done those before. For them, it’s all their gratification. 

Buddy, people, artists had done NSFW art before Asamiart even existed. Her way of suggesting the person has seen her character is not even new. Asamiart garnered a parasocial base, which is why she stayed so long after the dossier. I don’t know how else to even decide what the Google Doc even called but dossier seems perfect. 

Still, artists, if they establish enough to be reliable for commissions and/or small business, should be able to at least make something. Not every artist can be Mamo, who can withstand the tariffs with open preorders. Sure, some artists can make a living, but it's so rare that, of course, not everyone can do it no matter how talented or hardworking they are. 

And even commission work must be completed on time and not be ghosted, as usual. Please don't ghost because the point of commissions is to build trust and you want to get money, right? 

Just don't ghost in general when it comes to your small business if you are building one. Why the fuck have an online shop if you aren't gonna ship anything and will be more active at conventions? Just advertise your shit and only sell at conventions. Looking at you, Shinnoyume, because that's what he did and unrepentant, no matter how much customers hounded him. 

This is a capitalistic society where a socialist society is deemed more and more appealing. For these small businesses, they have to keep up with trends. Yet if they are going to scam or not even bother with their part in even components of a business. Treating a business like a hobby should not be a thing. Once you have a customer's money in your hands, it should go towards production, not essentially defrauding your own customers. 

Hobbies are expensive enough, and whatever trends there are that normies get caught up in are just little trendy trinkets. Whether they actually keep it in a collection it's their issue. My cousin still kept her Labubu in her purse. 

There are nerds at my workplace. One has a Pochacco collection, and another has a Lucario acrylic keychain on their backpack; I'm pretty sure he also collects Pokémon cards, as another coworker commented about it. I overheard them playing online games pretty often, though I mentally cringed that one is playing Hogwarts Legacy. Another is a lover of K-Drama and will recommend stuff. 

Censorship, Fandom Puritanism, and Anti-Shipping

 

With the fiasco with the CaitVi Kinktober and the very fact of the censorship mess everywhere else in threads from YouTube to the dismay of the citizens of the UK, censorship and puritanism are so concerning. 

There is no joy to be had in fiction and discussion thereof; anything remotely gray had to be deleted because we have to take care of the Puritan's feelings. 

The growing conservatism and puritanism in fandom is really bad. It’s been mostly concentrated on the ships side, but notably the popular fandoms. I don't have much say on what's going on with smaller fandoms who are just happy with the little fanworks they do get. 

I have seen trickles of it in the YOI side of things with Otabek and Yurio, which is stupid. I thought it was stupid then and stupid now. 

I did not give a shit about the Sheith thing at all. It's not my thing, and I don't care about it. At least I don't have to give an opinion on it when the ship wars with new paint occurred, but this time it's a definite precursor to the proshipping and antishipping mess, which again, as I said, ship wars with new paint. 

That was not fun. None of this is ever fun. 

Again, these guys, whether it is from a lack of knowledge of fandom etiquette or simply believing they are pure and moral above these, or coming from a so-called content and consumer route, want to believe they are good people who just want fluffy stuff. 

There is nothing wrong with fluffy stuff, as well as wanting the most fucked up sex. It's when these guys try to police others' experiences that they really show their ass about the conservative spread against anything related to porn and anything they deem not normal. Why else are queer media targeted in censorship so much?

From defenders and antis saying that their opponents have rape kink when that’s the thing? Kinks are supposed to be just that. They aren’t condoning the actual thing and doing actual child porn. 

Oh sure, Deku is having underage sex with one of his classmates, of any choice you decide, and because they are underage, it’s child porn. They are fictional, fake, which does not even scratch the impact of actual child porn. 

Let’s make this easier: Did Game of Thrones or Song of Ice and Fire normalized rape and incest? Did the cavalcade of booktok tropes normalized anything of note? Does measly fanfiction normalized anything? Of course not when fiction is meant to create discomfort and explore ideas. To demand that you can’t explore or use fiction as a medium is a disservice to fiction itself. That fictional underage relationships can’t even be depicted. Even something as stupid as a teacher’s crush that is a trope and obviously will go nowhere in this story is somehow bad and should never be depicted; keep in mind it’s a crush and the way the story was taking nothing else would happen when the guy in question have zero clue he’s crushing. That’s how bad it is. 

Like you know the idea of child rape existed long before fiction came to be. It’s hardly an original thought when the shit been normalized by the people in power and have major influence in getting their way and not by people actually writing and exploring something that existed long before. Instead all fiction depicting can now suddenly influence people. Even if fanfiction is growing mainstream, no way in hell is it normalizing shit when it’s still denigrated. That’s what keeps getting me. AO3 is the easiest target. . Keep in mind normies have zero idea of fandom etiquette. 

If we allow one fandom a pass, then it will spread, and that cannot happen. 

Most younger fans are often not inundated with fandom etiquette, and out of a desire to be good and moral, they wind up spreading conservative speech espoused from decades before, which ultimately fights against them. 

Apparently, the Kinktober runners were in their late twenties, and it wasn’t their first fandom either, but gotten stubborn about purity because fictional characters have more rights than actual women and children.

Seriously, the purity culture that has spread in ship culture has spread to stories and characters. Characters can’t be flawed or have character development. It’s in the NATLA for Godoka’s sake. How else do we explain other than the lack of literacy against the text of the original show of any flaws being removed? 

I really do loathe the term ‘goon’ as it’s used now. Instead of referring to henchmen/lackeys or the actual sexual term, it’s now referred to as all things remotely sexual. Embrace that sexuality and whatever you feel like for a certain character or person or whatever. It’s perfectly fine and healthy as long as you know it’s not going to hurt anyone. There’s nothing wrong with that. Using ‘goon’ to refer to anything sexual is a bad thing regarding the anti-sex rhetoric and censorship, when it’s fine to feel something arousing about something. So what if you get off of this character or that? Sex is not something to be ashamed of. It’s okay to feel and have sexual interest and relations as long as they are consenting adults or teens. There’s nothing to be ashamed of for wanting sex and reading smut. 

I already loathe seeing words like 'unalive'. When intrinsic subjects of humanity, such as death, are not even discussed, I feel my soul going out of my body upon hearing my own brother and cousin use it unironically in real life. I flat-out said death to them, and they didn't even react. Come the fuck on, there are better words than unalive. 

Seriously, what people are spewing is what conservatives used against the queer and anyone they deem abnormal in the past, and is still ongoing. Purity won’t help anyone be morally superior; they knew to avoid a person. Would that get it through their heads that they are spewing shit conservatives used all the time against anyone they hate? 

I don’t think so. They have seen so much backlash on toxic pairs in the media when the point of fiction is to explore. 

Please, my baby first fandom was Pokémon, with Pokeshipping being the top one. It's a friends-to-lovers relationship, but it still has some vitriol that I prefer. It’s definitely not the ship that kick-started shipping for me. I love Pokeshipping and Contestshipping, but it didn’t exactly make me ship in passion afterwards. That’s Seishirou x Subaru. I remember after finishing Tokyo Babylon, it fully became an OTP the way a shipper would go about. 

There is a lack of engagement with even a story's politics. Maybe I'm more used to circles where manga and anime are discussed in the context of politics and the like. Still, it's outright disappointing to see content creators unwilling to discuss the politics in connection with real life. 

I've seen fans point out and heck, even fanfiction point out just how political animanga can be. I'm not even surprised that Conner and Joey don't even see the politics, even if they are willfully being ignorant for the sake of not losing their revenue. Considering how much the Try Guys are doing after starting streams for Gaza fundraising, they are doing just fine. Trash Taste, as I often disagree with them, because I feel they aren't engaging with the fiction and what they are saying truly. You know it's bad when OPLA spells out the racism, and people just don't get it. 

With Trump's America's doings with anything medical, the Drum arc in live action will be hard-hitting to see the evils of privatized and monopolized medicine. For fuck’s sake, the mecha genre is built on anti-war. To say Gundam is apolitical is to disparage the anti-war messages common in mecha and especially Gundam itself. Just want to focus on the badass moments rather than engaging with the story and characters meaningfully is only so far that a media illiterate person would do. I can shut off my brain when I want something mindless and not think for a single watch but I will always analyze. 

When Indonesia, Nepal, pro-Palestine, Philippines, France, and Italy were protestors and calling for freedom from their own Celestial Dragons, then fans who aren't saying shit about the politics of One Piece will be forced to contend that it's ain't isolated incidents but people actively taking the anti-establishment from the original source itself. Oda may not say a word, but it's gotta be inspiring for him that a story he wrote from his heart resonated with so many people around the world to the point of revolution. 

To them, these are works of fiction that are escapism. There is nothing wrong with escapism, but crimes against humanity or even just volatile topics in fiction do not exist in a vacuum. Do these guys denying that One Piece is political not know that there are basis in reality? Do they think Oda pulls these things out of his ass because he took real inspiration from real-life atrocities and topics? 

Like I said before antishipping and proshipping mess are just ship wars with a new coat of paint, and it’s just as exhausting, but this time it goes for the most moralistic shit imaginable. 

Please, when Seishirou and Subaru are the couple that kickstarted my Mxm love, and Pokeshipping is partly why I prefer belligeren because that’s a definite friend-to-lovers, while contestshipping fits the rivals to lovers. Isn’t it a wonder why I prefer my own space and don't have to deal with hate? 

I hate the fandom police that came in as a result of normies not even considering fandom etiquette, and so soaked up by algorithms and instant gratification that something as basic as fanfiction being written from the heart and in free time is not even thought of. All they can think is that to be pure of heart is to consume everything pure. 

There is etiquette. There is such a thing as waiting, and that fandom is about sharing, not entitlement and demanding immediate food. For fucks' sake, there is a series I'm waiting on while the writer themselves is a medical professional because why else, outside of some liberties, there is accurate medical attention. 

Puritanism coming in and policing during the rise of fascism is concerning. When AO3 is literally the last bastion of creativity in fandom spaces where nothing is monetized and written from love, Puritanism does not and will not deserve a place where fans can write for any reason. 

Why should any fan justify to another fan that they are this and that to even qualify to write the thing they wanted? Nobody should need to justify, nor should they be policed. 

For what it looks like, what one consumes means what they are as a person, apparently. Zero nuance and critical thinking. 

I mean, the Taylor Swift Life of a Showgirl was even more divisive than anyone would've thought. Personally speaking, while I'm not a diehard fan of her work, I thought it would be at least bombastic Moulin Rouge musical theater-esque, as the imagery implied. However, it's just a whole lot of meh and some irking stuff that is alarmingly stupid, given her current status. 

Swifties tied so much of their identities to it that they feel like it's an insult. Never mind what you spend money on, you shouldn't tie your identity to something; it feels like an insult that people don't like it. From my ARMY experience, ARMY does not tie that much of their own identity to BTS; heck, they are willing to let negative opinions of BTS' music as long as people actually listen instead of passing it off as some stupid thing, as some critics have done, like that guy regarding BE. 

Really tying your identity that much to a certain thing you like much less fictional, and you can't differentiate fiction from reality, which would make a dent more. 

Did Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire normalize incest? Did the fanworks on them ever normalize incest? Of course not. 

There are nuanced discussions to be had about morally reprehensible things in fiction, but targeting smaller targets such as fanworks isn't going to help anyone actually solve the crisis that these antis reigned with their puritanical need to be moralistic. The weird obsession with moral purity is outright degrading critical thinking and poisoning the ability to empathize with other people. 

Saying that proshippers are actually defending incest, rape, et, by making art that makes people uncomfortable is narrow-minded. No, nobody is defending that. Art is and can be uncomfortable. Not every piece of art would deal with a subject matter that will be dealt with delicately or tackle the many implications they’re writing about. Instead of actually discussing it civilly, it felt more cruel to deny art and attack. 

Fascism targets anything small and foreign against their rigid traditional desires, which only means control and power. Of course, foreign media are being targeted because globalization will not do in Trump's America. What would it take for people to understand that this is fascism, and the concerning rise of puritanical moralistic shit would only mean that things will be banned or at least much harder to come by?

Come on, the UK people are already dealing with so much censorship and surveillance. This stuff is encroaching on fandom spaces, and all we can do is fight against it. 

Censorship and 'The Children!' Excuse

Censorship has always been bad. Its targets have always been anything that isn't normal normal things, such as porn. 

Surveillance has always been the intention behind these rules, as they aim to prevent people from viewing something they deem abnormal. 

The internet is not here to babysit your child. The parent or guardian is the one who should be supervising, not everyone else. 

To even be asked to give their identification through a credit card, driver's license, or whatever does not grant you privacy and freedom whatsoever. 

Apparently, anyone who isn't 'normal' whose art is designated as something to protect the children when it's anything but. 

Queer and disabled people have art and words they want to share with the world, and to block them out is a case of censorship. Sex workers have to deal with this, too. 

What Visa and Mastercard are doing to the adult games made for an adult audience, and where children can't even enter the space because they are moderated by people there. 

Everyone has to deal with this horror because why would anyone want to have a breach of privacy and censorship of what people deem either not grown-up enough or 'not normal'. 

No matter how seemingly powerful a company is, a leak of personal information will occur. I do not want to have my face or any of my identification other than my age on my bio. 

Seriously, even when people point out that even if the Tea App has poor security, leaks from major companies have happened and continue to do so. This won't deter because power is more important than the safety of their citizens. 

When people can't log into basic things and even things such as basic dictionaries and encyclopedias at the risk of being censored, fucking dictionaries and encyclopedias, then it’s time to question what the hell they are doing! 

I also want to legit point out that not even the most vanilla of sex is safe because it's still sex at the end of the day. With the major anti-sex attitude and not just because of refusal to discuss it in any meaningful way, it's just anti-sex that for some reason these people also wants to know your genitals and bathroom. 

Children have always been expendable to the right-wing conservatives. Given how many criminals there are in the Trump administration, and colluding treasonously, it's pretty obvious that they don't give a shit and use children as a shield literally. 

Seriously, the way the Trump administration said Tylenol instead of the actual ingredient said so much about how they are willing to hurt children and women. Anyone who even believes them is stupid. It's pretty clear they cherry-picked it for a self-imposed deadline when all they reveal is utter stupidity in their cruelty. 

Seriously, children have been used as meat shields. Roblox used feeble attempts to protect their money. Which is sad too because there are no kid-dedicated spaces on the internet. Difference between kids-friendly and kids-dedicated spaces. Godoka, I remember the kids dedicated spaces on the internet, like all those games. 

Nowadays, kid either have YouTube or whatever their parents have access to. I think the only kids thing I can recall is the PBS Kids website, and it's not something like Club Penguin or the like. 

There are things that are kid-friendly but not kid-dedicated, and kids need kid-dedicated spaces on the internet where they cannot be taken advantage of and things are monitored. Y'know where adult games for adults are restricted for adults but now can't even be bought by adults due to censorship. 

Censorship is bad for everyone and everything. 

There are so many cases for anti-censorship. The Hays Code needed to die, and their creatives knew that. Sure, they found a way to walk around it, but it wasn't easy, nor is it actually good. 

For fuck's sake, do we need to bring up fandom history as an obvious reason for people crying out for censoring out AO3's fictional depictions of whatever they are against? When every other social media site refusing to 

The very fact that I have to see 'unalive' or whatever terms there are for what censored word that the US does not want in their social media even though death and much better words for it have been used. The mortal coil, anyone? 

We could talk all day about how they don't give a shit regarding gun control at all, especially when children have to live in fear of shootings. Oh yeah, the right to guns and all, but for the safety of everyone, limitations should be instituted and be restrictive. I mean, it's gotten to the point that other countries know full well the US' trigger-happy status. 

When gatekeeping and cringe culture are pervasive because people can't bear being sincere, sincerity is much better than trying to maintain some kind of pride that you aren't cringy. 

One of the reasons why K-pop Demon Hunters even garnered the response that it did was its sincerity. Regardless of its flaws, it's more sincere than something that tried to be hip and failed miserably and hated it. 

Seriously, where is your fun and whimsy? There is decorum for such things, but when it comes to things that hurt nobody, why not express that joy and whimsy instead of shouting down anything that makes you look like a 'cringy' idiot?

I sincerely hate the word 'gooning'. It's anti-sex censorship and an insult in the worst way. Goons belong to bad guys' henchmen, not lusting after a fucking fictional character, get that out of my face. I'm an oldie in the fandom space, and the censorship makes me scream in my hands with all the moralistic shit going on. 

I hate the censorship. I feel a part of me died when I heard my brother, out loud, say the word 'unalive'. It's that bad for me when I prefer to use the word death or any other idiom. 

I can read NSFW fanfiction with a stone face. I don't want to see any more NSFW stuff being censored when I have met that censorship on every social media platform I'm in, including Tumblr. Can people just express those without tickling some moralistic people? Why should everyone else care about those guys when curation of fandom experience is a thing? Blocking is a thing? 

Parents are the ones who should be supervising what their children are doing. So, if my young niece and nephew were to browse the internet, I, the supervising adult, wouldn't let them touch my phone or iPad, specifically for my reading tabs that are always on. They really shouldn't have their eyes on NSFW art. My nephew should be happy with his love of cars and Pikachu while my niece should be happy to indulge in dressing up and playing with the Labubu she does have. My cousin stated she paid some 70 bucks for one, which Labubu better be worth it. I paid more for pins and since I curate my collections, what my cousins paid for is nothing in comparison I've been in far too many expensive hobbies and only settled with pins because it's flat space and unlike others, I'm pretty sure I can display them in time. For now, they are in box jail and only taken out for pintography. I have to see if we still have microphones so I could take photos of my Kpop Demon Hunters collection. 

The internet is not your oyster. It's your responsibility to curate your experience. Honestly, seeing the drama in the pin community is enough to make me sigh. At least, during my twenty years of fandom, I encountered these flames and wars, but I do not want to touch them. I'm way too old for that, and it's stupid. 

Using children as an excuse to do horrible things isn't the way when there are ways to provide children with safety and comfort. Attacking everyone and trying to portray as if they are the arbiter of all things good and objective is wrong. 

How the Pin Community Functions

 

The pin community is a totally different beast from any other fandom I've ever experienced. 

I'm used to ignoring flame wars and not even stepping into grounds that I know annoy me. Curating your fandom experience is better than nothing. 

At the time of writing, there is a lot of shit going on. Fan merch makers are always treading on a wire regarding IPs. 

Hoyoverse is a-okay with fan merch, but that's not the case for everyone. Disney and Nintendo are the hard hitters of this one. Heck, even stuff like Steven Universe and Avatar: The Last Airbender have been known to be hits. 

Even in Disney fantasy pinmaking space, there is always a chance that one of them could be struck down, no matter how big or small. 

Nuwa kept the Disney pins behind a paywall, so if you want her Free to Dream series or any Disney designs like the Landscapes, which are available through other means via the secondhand market, you can buy from her through her pin club personally. Or if you are going to a convention, she'll have them there too. 

Fanmerch space is very trend-heavy. The art that was churned out for Kpop Demon Hunters and Arcane are just one of the many examples to be made in so many fan merchandise. Stickers and art prints are the easiest so if any artists have conventions, you will see them and can buy them then. Pins take months in production. Who knows what will come in once this post is up? 

That means any rare pair, less popular, or dormant fandoms will not be the focus. From a pin collector once said, Shounen is the stock market in the pin community. 

This is still a business, and fan merchandise has to go with the trends because that's what it is. 

There are pinmakers who create original art. For example, Nuwa has a line dedicated to original art. They are at least not harmed by the waves of the trends because they created a fanbase for their original art. 

Consistent fanmerch that always sells are Disney and anime like Sailor Moon and Pokemon. Heck, I don't think there is much drama in the Pokemon pin space except for Shinnoyume who has horrid customer service and I don't recommend buying from because buy with caution. He won't even ship out and refuse to entertain concern from customers. He won't update any preorders and for the pin club as well so I won't recommend him. Buy from him only at conventions only. 

I wish I could avoid just how personal the drama is. The money is personal because it's their hard-earned money, and they haven't shown shit. 

Scamming is apparently easy to spot now. But it's not always clear that they would be a scammer. I did miss a spot for a pin I wanted from a maker who would wind up being a scammer, which is disappointing. I really did like the Saturn pin, and people got theirs. 

Most of what I read about scammers used to be big makers, but one way or another, they mismanaged funds or refused to take responsibility and ran away with the money. 

I know that for some, it's a hobby or a side hustle, but they still have to treat it like a business. Being able to make it a full-time business like Mamobot and Mualcaina isn't the case, nor is it easy for everyone else who prefers their full-time jobs. 

However, even if some businesses have questionable policies, they still need to show themselves to be trustworthy. Honestly, it's better for anyone's sanity that you actually show manu updates. 

Mintyxpins, for example, has awful updates. Even when she eventually delivers on the products, she still has pretty terrible updates. I still think her pre-orders every month are way too much, even with LE. Heck, I didn't bother getting the Shugo Chara specifically of Ikuto because of this. 

There are businesses that do pre-orders every month, but they really have to limit themselves because they can't overreach and bite off more than they can chew. This is a business with lots of money involved. 

Sometimes I'm just wary of Minty doing preorders every week of the month. At least I can trust HFP and Liu because their turnaround is relatively short and timely, never exceeding three months. Minty takes a long time and still 

There’s so much drama that I feel I’m in the crossfire of flames. At least I feel I don’t need to have an opinion on those things. I understand the gripes and the ickiness of wrong actions and what was said. I simply don’t have to buy them or those particular items. 

Honestly, there is always drama, but I've seen more than I have in my more than twenty years as a fandom lurker. 

It's saying something when artists, pinmakers, and customers are fighting, I feel more at peace in my other fandoms I'm in. Again, I usually side-step anything volatile or anything that makes me take psychic damage because I curate my fandom experience. It's much more difficult, so the best I could do aside from reading up on scammers and troublesome businesses, I try to avoid pin community drama as much as I can. 

It’s a necessity to at least have a pin collection for at least a few posts. If you really want to involve yourself in some of the practices, at least have some pin posts of some parts of your collection or in your stories. It's much easier for pinmakers and other collectors to semi-relax around you. 

It’s actually easy to get pins and build a collection. Etsy and artists have storefronts on Shopify, Big Cartel, and other platforms. Put collections together on a board or try photography and plaster them on your Instagram, posts, reels, and stories, and they should grant you at least that much leeway. 

Certain artists might swing your side. Crowd pleasers like Mamobot's video game designs are always great and have lines everywhere he goes. I experienced such a line at AX. 

Considering the tariffs, if you are in the US, best shop US pinmakers for the time being, who have the deal with the burden of tariffs themselves. 

The supposed point of the tariffs was to shop American-made things. Considering how America is still unwilling to go into manufacturing and that this stupid administration is doing everything in its power to punish the American people while stealing from the poor, that's not going to happen. Businesses are still going to rely on other countries to better make them rather than being isolationist to the point of destroying allies' relationships that will take decades to recover. They're destroying everything in their path to keep their power, regarding everything that opposes them as terrorism to their 'values'. 

There is nothing wrong with relying on other countries for things America cannot do. It's okay that manufacturing is something difficult for America to even do because the infrastructure is not there. Largely, if you look at my Notion, you see mostly American-based pinmakers, but that was a thing even before the tariffs. 

Tariffs and getting rid of the de minimis are just heartbreaking as it's been the flow of so much relief for everyone. Of course, Trump had to get it of it for lining his own pockets and he's a guilty coward who loathes laws and will do everything in his power to be king. 

Anyhow, building a collection and showing some of it must be done. I have monthly pin mail that I usually show off at the end of the month. That's a great way to provide some level of semi-trust in a fellow collector. It's not much. I mean, you don't even have to be that active in your Instagram account as long as you have pins on your account to be at least semi-trusted. 

It's gatekeeping in a way, but when the small businesses have to protect themselves from losing their businesses from bad eggs reporting to the large IPs, it has to be done, unfortunately. Even Mamobot has to deal with this because he ain't making ATLA and SU pins anymore after that experience. Nuwa was able to escape, as all she puts up fanart and explains they are preorders in the post itself and as I said before, puts her Disney pins behind a paywall. 

It's an unfortunate situation for anyone unused to such things to even want to be part of a commitment group just to buy that one pin, so the best approach is to feature pins in posts or stories. It's only that much. 

There's not much that one can do besides show pins. Collectors leave every day just as pinmakers come in. This is a hobby that can be easily exploited by scammers more so than others, as frauds can utilize good artwork and open preorders, requiring no self-funding on themselves. That's a red flag and making no effort to show updates is also another. I know people are pressuring Minty to showcase more updates in the clubs I'm in for her. 

Unless they are already in the community and can be trusted, as I know is the case with one, they must self-fund. There's this one new guy who's making pins now who only opens preorders because people wanted it, and since he wanted to do good, he took a lot of advice from those in the community. He consistently updates his clients and always ensures that he showcases trustworthiness in handling business finances. 

There are lots of scammers in this, so really be careful to place your hard-earned money in the right hands. There are smaller makers out there doing their best while scammers are using art to scam people and ran off. I wasn't able to get into the Facebook group that called out pinmakers, but I've been in enough Discord servers to avoid pinmakers. 

The State of Kid's Entertainment

 

Sadly, nowadays, the kids' entertainment space is in dire straits. Never mind that the whole entertainment space is dire, with glimmers of hope, but we're talking kids' entertainment, and that one is terrible. 

Remakes of classics, dumbing down, and refusal to engage kids at their level or at least treat them with respect so that they could gain knowledge of what is coming are just growing at an increasing pace. 

It's gotten to the point that the only family films that come out are just the remakes. Yes, I'm including the HTTYD remake too since American regard of animation is designated for children and no one else and not as a medium. 

Remakes are literally everywhere. It's even infected the Japanese video game space, where FFVII and the Persona games, at least 3 and 4, are getting remakes. Hey, at least P4's spinoffs aren't getting remakes, and I can't believe that's the silver lining. 

Kids' movie media is not in a good spot. Sure, for all the animation hybrid and stylization, Disney is no longer the frontrunner of ingenuity and heart. 

Elio was just okay. Nothing about it offers much to adult audiences. It's just downright tragic what Pete Doctor says that Pixar will do to appeal. Like the rest of the Disney empire, they are just in either a slump era or plateauing altogether, only saved by sequels and remakes, and even that's short-term. 

On a sidenote, why the hell are people supporting the movie? Don't hate-watch it. Just pirate it if you want to watch it. If you buy a ticket other than someone being an internet online critic who makes money from their reviews, you are still supporting the shit. Look at Snow White. Do that and just pirate the shit out of it. 

Anyhow, I think there’s more than just stupidity behind the decision to make the live-action Lilo and Stitch get a sequel. The marketing is once again fearsome alongside serious nostalgia. 

I don't count Kpop Demon Hunters as that's aimed at a teen audience. At least teens have a choice of media. Kids don't have that, never mind what parents are taking them due to nostalgia, one way or another. My cousins have their own Disney+ account for the whole family. 

Aside from the 'animation is for kids' bs, the usual suspects are the ones handling the family media more than ever. However, I feel that Pixar is appealing less to adults now and more to kids. Elio was just okay, but there isn't much about it that I can recall that speaks to a more adult audience. For Pixar wanting to appeal to everyone, it just feels generic and bland, not enough bite to it. If the Disney movies of the present are toothless, then Pixar is just plateauing. At least Elemental found an audience. 

I only remember the first fifteen minutes of Brave and the Merida speaking scene to the rest of the kingdoms, and even that one is just vague. And at least it has something for adults. Inside Out 2 might be the very last one with adult maturity content in Pixar's current library until Pixar gives a voice again instead of doing this generic human thing, because I have no other words to describe it. 

It's gotten to the point that American kids' media is just not in a good place, and elsewhere can be found. Bluey is Australian for Godoka's sake. If that's the case, kids have to seek foreign media in a time where MAGA is in power and destroying anything they see as unfit in their regime, and the progressives have to take the win and continue to fight 

Honestly, waking up to the continuous nightmare that is our current administration is just numbing. The very fact that they see anything virtuous as something awful, and can be bought by an organization, as they did. 

While kids' media have their ups and downs, this feels like the lowest. 

Kids only have what they can take, that isn't talking down to them. For all the advancement in Sony's direction of animation and how they are going for a wider audience in different movies they are planning, the same could not be said for animation television and movies handled by big leagues that are flooded by conservative families and investors. 

Anything even has death or something 'adult' would scare the shit out of these people of the current day. 

Not knowing that Disney has had deaths in the past, and they are still regarded as some of the best. Avatar: The Last Airbender's live-action show has purity culture written all over it, plus actual sexism. That show is not going to get any better. 

I mean, when we are living in fascist America, there needs to be conservative values within a corrupt and cruel administration that is willing to protect the evil of their world and deny anything to those who put them there or not. 

Children do deserve better, especially when they are getting better stuff. Power Rangers degrading to pure elementary school kids' stuff without any of the teeth of the good ones is just one of the many examples. 

Children deserve better than what is being pumped out by the big studios and what adults say that children can't comprehend now; they misunderstand their intelligence. 

With the media of today not even wanting to touch the adult subjects, even written well-written or executed perfectly, it does not matter to them. 

To them, it's just something that should've never existed because kids should never learn any of this. 

With PBS and so many others losing their public funding to fund their cruel initiatives, it’s more important than ever to support them. 

Media literacy is at a low, American education is on the line, and AI is used as a shortcut. 

Kids of this generation deserve better than to have an oligarchy that cares for itself and no one else. 

FOMO or Fear of Missing Out

I'm decidedly not a gacha person. I don't trust myself with them, and my childhood just had bad luck when it comes to luck. The only gacha I'm gambling is with Mamo pokemallows once he gets the blind bags going; I kept my Jirachi from the last one, so I could see what I could trade with it in the future. 

But even then, this FOMO is not good with the hype. One really should step back and decide which ones would make you happy, and for the sake of your wallet. 

Witchxing is really destroying my wallet. It was December 2024 when I last preordered from her, and now I've ordered the two Ariels in April, and now I'm going for the GWS Jasmine in June. I know I will be getting GWS Meg to make up for not getting BGC Meg. If there's a CCS Sakura or a Saturn in the future, I have to get them because it's practically a given that I must have them for my collection. I already promised to collect every single Genshin and Honkai design they ever made. Furina is absolutely beautiful. 

Given the tariffs, I have to give Liu and Hunterflower only specific pins such as Aventurine, Sunday (second outfit), Neuvillette, and any I collect earnestly. 

Silvy is destroying the wallet for two more Disney designs, with a confirmed Cinderella and Meg in the future. Of course I already broke the rule of only one pop for KPDH so now I will three or four more pops. If there’s a line I really like, I need Huntrix together.  If Silvy is doing a Jinu Tuxedo Mask mashup, I wouldn’t pass that up and likely be the only Tuxedo Mask pin I’ll ever have. 

Mamobot is obviously the winner of my wallet destroyers. I buy sets from him often, or create enough to get a freebie pin he promotes. 

The merch makers and everyone else whose products are made in China are having a difficult time changing their business models just so they don't go bankrupt. They have to keep up with news of the tariffs just so they at least keep their business accounting numbers in line. 

The FOMO and the hype that caused it created a lot of hype where it’s more trendy than what it actually meant to the people. Geeky things might be widely accepted now and even seem cool, but make no mistake that trendy does not equal genuine happiness. I know that I would be feeling genuine joy finally getting Noddi Saturn after waiting for it for who knows how long, and will get their own story because that wait so deserved it. 

I know Labubus is so popular now that it's even trickling into other communities. I harbor no interest in them, nor do I feel any need to get any. I don't get into hype that often. Even now, while I understand the hype for Sinners, I do not understand the hype for the live-action Lilo and Stitch. 

The thing is that I fear that for those who have genuine passion and love, there are those who buy into it due to its trendiness or scalpers who resell them at insane prices. Maybe those who bought into the trendiness like some of what they bought, but again, the keyword is trendy. 

It's distressing to hear that people are willing to break into people's cars just to get rare Labubus. At least when I have sought after pins, I keep them and treasure them. I don’t think anyone outside of the hobby knows what it really is, because I do see scalpers raise obnoxious prices for sought-after designs. 

Unless scalpers know which is which for what market, they must go deep. For small businesses, they don't make the money that should've gone to them when people resold their merchandise at high costs and not because of the value it was estimated at. 

The thing about collecting is love, passion, and intentionality.

It's great to see adults openly professing their love for these instead of supposedly aging out of them. Animation in the US is still widely denigrated for kids rather than the medium it actually is. 

We don't want to see adults age out into this beige nothingness. My parents might not be thrilled I'm buying pretty shinies, but between my pins or drugs, which would they prefer? Whimsy and what brings you happiness make it better. Buying stuff that brings you joy is better than not having anything that brings you happiness, than not having anything to show, except out of financial concerns where you can't afford it, where I understand. 

At least that's a good thing that came out. Having pins is a great pick-me-up for me because the beauty of the art is translated so well into the pin. 

There are forms of gambling with gacha games and blind bags. 

People have been collecting forever, and overconsumption has been a thing since forever. They think it would make a quick profit or an investment in the short run or the long run. Given that these items have specific purposes, it's rare to see that investment pay off. 

Scalpers and resellers are the ones ruining the hobby for everyone, buying up everything to the point of committing crimes and starting fights for them. All over something silly as a toy or a piece of cardboard, that brings happiness to others, but not the scalper who is buying it up for easy money. Ever since I heard of these incidents, I'm just wondering why these people are even doing this?? 

Why push aside kids and other grown adults just for some easy money or because you have that thing even though there is zero need to do any of these things? 

It’s the scalpers who pick fights and are generally hostile because they see it as money rather than actual passion and love. I’m very sad that the fans are dealing with this. 

Sure, there are jokes about stealing other people's collections in these collecting hobbies, but one of the things people say is not to compare collections that you feel less of somehow for not having this rare item. 

I don't know why these people don't know that tenet of collecting. I made my peace that I'm not going to get some particularly rare pins from makers who made especially limited editions that aren't open for preorder. At least I know I can get Abigeyedowl and Witchxing's LE pins because they determined LE by their open preorder. 

For long-time lovers of said items, it's disheartening to see people just going with trends and insanity ongoing instead of just doing something good for themselves. 

It's gotten to the point where even Chiikawa and his friends are being eyed for stealing. Just why??? I was only introduced to them through Jaiden Animations and Emirichu and know they have been growing in popularity everywhere else, but for people to see it as dollar signs??? Just why???

These little trinkets and shinies are supposed to bring happiness. They're a pick-me-up and a hobby, not a way to make money, nor was it meant to. Though, given the way with Beanie Babies, it had always been that way for money-hungry people to see it as such. 

I don't know it's gotten this bad that it escalated to horrid fights rather than just pushing people out of the way harshly. It's downright embarrassing to see grown adults fighting what they see as a money opportunity instead of adult collectors collecting what they love. 

At least those collectors in the family who choose to only have a couple of Labubus are happy with what they have. One of my cousins wanted one based on a picture, but was extremely happy and incredibly attached to the one she pulled to the point she was happy to put on the Lakers wear on him because it's Kobe Bryant's birthday. 

I think while they do like the thrill of a blind box, they love dressing up their Labubus more. 

FOMO is a real thing. Heck, I experienced things while in the pin community. I have to separate feelings of whether I truly want it or not. 

I grew up with Disney, yes, but I harbor zero feelings toward collecting Disney merch. Never mind that I'm pirating the shit out of their movies already, my pin collection leans more eclectic when it comes to Disney, and it's all fantasy because I refuse to funnel money into them....because my cousins are with their Disney+ accounts and I'd rather not. With modern Disney the way it is, there is no way I want my money to go back to them. 

I'm open to everything, but the movies I don't care for, such as obviously Frozen and Brave. I'm very strict when it comes to Disney designs, and I know when to cut my losses more easily than I do my other collections. With the Punzie I got, Pascal was part of the design, and with the Jasmine I'm getting, Rajah is also part of the design. My Cinderella collection will have more adaptations, considering one of my favorite books is Ella Enchanted and one of my comfort movies is Ever After. Godoka, how I love the Cinderella fairytale enough that I read every single variation I could get my hands on. I still haven't found the Brandy Cindy pin yet. 

Hype is really easy, too, especially in niche interests. 

For example, HSR is still immensely popular, with each update praised. ORV is getting popular by the moment at the time of writing. 

For example, dyed soft enamel pins have been extremely popular since Mamobot's Pokemallows made them. Even if you aren't collecting them, the interest in them has grown that other previous businesses have gotten some interest. To be fair, those are popular before the mallows but kept in their own original series rather than a popular IP like Pokémon. 

Stained glass pins are also popular. Cateye effect has some level of popularity at the time of writing. 

Tried and true effects like pearl and sandblast will always be popular. The issue is that people kept throwing the effects to see which works, and testing it out is just a circle. 

Still, when competitive drops for popular things get this much, it's enough to see people feeling the FOMO and those who really do collect and love the thing. 

I've been differentiating a lot of feelings, so I know of which thing I prioritize. Mamo's Pokemallows for instance, I've been prioritizing what I feel I need more than I want which is helpful when I'm collecting the normal versions of the Eevee Fusions with the Shinies being the bonus only while the Gardevoir Fashions rely on my fashion taste with the Shinies depending if I really like the coloring. I mean I finally got a Patreon exclusive after some months after the Shiny Jirachi, so there's that. I'm hardly that big of a fan, except if there's a Ditto Dragonair, then maybe I'll get it. It's still a Ditto just as a Dragonair. 

I have to set hard rules for myself. Compared to most people, what I spend is considerably less. Even though parents do judge, what I spend is less. Even in my worst months, it’s still not even touching the piles I've seen people spend on. 

There is no way to meet supply and demand, especially for a small business. I have to make hard decisions and focus on what I need. 

There are very few pin businesses that can be made a day job. Mamobot is definitely successful enough to have accessible pre-orders and to buy in large quantities. Nuwa certainly had not changed any of their practices either. From what I heard, Sugarbones is on this level. Witchxing and Abigeyedowl had not changed their practices either. 

For multiple reasons (full-time job, family, unable to expand without losing core aspects, mental health, time, etc), pin businesses have to do what is best with them. Small businesses that are utterly time-consuming, like pottery, have to do what is needed for the sake of the artist. 

I mean, I haven't bought anything from Nuwa aside from getting two pin club spots and a Disney Landscape that is entirely Patreon exclusive, I've just been supporting her every month with just three bucks. 

My brother supported some people through Patreon as well. For me, I have to be reasonable with whom I can support. Sure, I could be joining three or four clubs within a month to get a reward or to get access to a design. I just can’t join Mamo’s Twitch subscription for various reasons, be it time or simply that I can’t join a long-term subscription outside of the Patreon I’m already giving to him. I need to allow myself to support more than one creator in their clubs. Never mind that I can’t join Mamo's Pokemallow club, which was undergoing a test run. I know he's trying to move away from Patreon and has to make the difficult decision to discontinue a tier one day because of the tariffs. He's successful enough to still make bulk orders of pre-order, but he's still hit enough to cut down the pre-order deadline to a few days instead of a week. Nuwa is still doing a weeklong preorder because I have seen no change, no discussion with Patrons. I've been a longtime Patron since 2023 and only took a few physical reward slots. I mean, I was fortunate to have the Patreon tab still there for me to nab a Goddess Tier for the US Patrons before the entire tier sold out in a few weeks, I think. I was quick enough to nab Queen tier again for KPDH reward pins. 

I have to make important decisions regarding my budget. Regarding the Kpop Demon Hunter collection, I just reduced it. My other collections deserve more attention than something I'm happy with, just a few pins. It's teeny tiny, as I have stated before. I'd rather find that money for Meg x Herc Heart, which I don't think is even finished, considering she's been focusing a lot on new ship art like Captain Swan and Rujinu. She's very slow producing, never mind that what she puts out there creatively is very nice and immaculate. 

I have to be careful with PSS, too. I have to make the decision to not collect Anaxa outside of Minty. Only Aven and sometimes Sunday get the honor of having other collectors. I still need Kakavasha in my Aven collection. Kaveh gets that distinction more as I collect him more than even Childe, and I'm still waiting for the Childe Scrapbook. Usually, the yellow Pantone colors aren't my favorite colors, which is a funny thing because a majority of my collection are blondes with Aven, Kaveh, Rapunzel, and Cinderella and Kaveh has some greens too, another color I’m strict on. Then again, it's the same thing with green and Kaveh has a lot of greens. I saw Astral Gala Jupiter, and she looks so good with the peacock gown, and I almost want to put it on my impossible ISO list. Some black hair characters have Hotaru Tomoe and the ORV main characters, the majority of the time. Due to issues, it's just sad that I can't collect all the P4Ps out there. At least I got the P4P I wanted. 

I have to force myself into a mindset that I’m okay missing out on these because of budget reasons. If I want them, I have to delay getting them at presale. 

Unless it’s design(s) I’m utterly in love with and really cannot part with, I have to ponder if I really want it or not. 

Honestly, it’s easier to convince myself that I don't need to buy it because I don’t need it. It’s also easier to simply delete the tab if I'm not buying from that maker. 

I know my method isn't for everyone. 

Sometimes, a collection can be too much for people, and they are just buying their favorites. Anything that has a large cast or a monster selection will have this. For example, Mamo's Pokemallows are getting too much for me and certain people, hence favorites. Collecting every Sailor Scout is not plausible unless you are the person who has the money.  

It all depends on needs versus wants. Little trinkets bring little happiness. Heck, my AX haul still brings me happiness after the terrible week that happens after that. 

My pins are bringing me happiness. It's a luxury as much as any hobby is now. 

Even little trinkets that bring happiness are just a little luxury that not everyone can afford in this economy. I have to skip and make the decision not to buy other characters that I'm already collecting to some extent. It's better for my wallet and sanity that I just buy something that is within my collection. Even for most Disney now, it's a no-go with my budget and in general, and only going for those I truly want. 

It's better to cut back and be picky for budget's sake. 

FOMO shouldn't be the thing. Anything that is popular shouldn't peer-pressure anyone into collecting. 

It's okay to go with trends, but for the love of Godoka, please pull back and examine yourself. 

Scalpers cannot be convinced of their own bad behavior, disrupting collecting habits and trying to make money off it. However, if the businesses produce more, scalpers have less reason to sell off at a high price, which is generally undesirable for anyone. 

I really do like some cards and figures I have seen, but it's better for my sanity that I stick with pins for now. There are designs I've been wanting, so that's a priority. I choose designs that I know make me happy. 

AI ‘Art'

 

AI ‘art' isn't real art. There is no humanity in it, no slight imperfection or emotion, just robots stealing from artists everywhere. 

Art is something to be learned with patience. Why use AI when you can use your fucking imagination to make the cinema in your brain work even if you can't make it to the paper or tablet? 

I always have fun imagining scenes in my head as I read. I also have fun 

AI bro logic is insane. How is putting in the work and developing your art through learning is being ‘lazy’ and not being ‘real workers’ when mashing a myriad of art from a prompt that spits out in seconds makes them ‘artists’? There is so much projection there, it’s sad. 

So what if your first attempt is bad? It’s not perfect, but it’s yours. 

There is no such thing as imagination, apparently. People using AI want immediate results rather than working hard for the creative process. It’s really bad to use it for basic fandom things. Come on, use your mind as a theater once more than expecting immediate results from a computer. 

These AI guys are the ones trying to prove something to actual artists that they are artists who could ‘produce’ art within seconds. It’s never more embarrassing to see these guys try to act like they are artists. 

The rise of anti-intellectualism, lack of media literacy, isolation, hyper individualism to the point of lacking community, are just many of the things the far right conservatives wielded as a weapon in their utter ignorance and incompetence to walk back centuries of progress and move forward to the future. Every day, it feels like we are going back to the era of kings and peasants thrown into so many wars. 

What AI is being fed and spitting out information. All the AI 'artists' want is so their 'art' to be drawn from the pool of actual artists. 

They think they are actual artists when one of the analogies was that they are basically ordering from a list of available add-ons to a burger. Sure, they can add extra pickles or leave out the mayo, but you're not actually cooking it. 

You are not suddenly a five-star chef just because you order from a fast food joint. 

Shadiversity is so embarrassing for insisting that he's a great artist when professional artists don't even do that. 

For fuck's sake, seriously, even though I knew my drawing is shit as I come to prefer traditonal art over digital art at least in my domain, when I sketch out my Rapunzel fairytale canvas board on a piece of paper, that's me and no one's else. 

God, it was easy enough to draft it with the basics. I know I would eventually paint it on canvas for my pinboard. Honestly, the most challenging is the rampions and especially the Sundrop rampion because I do need some Tangled motifs in there, as the general Rapunzel board is supposed to be. Still unsure how I'm going to add a forest or even if I want to add lanterns and turn it into a night scene. I still want to add the Corona insignia but also the sun, so... I think I’ll stick with sunny skies because if I were to get the lanterns, it’s either part of the pin or a filler I like. I mean, I could make a single flying lantern, but again, a night sky. Have no idea how to implement Barbie Rapunzel ideas on there but I'm considering a silver paintbrush. 

There is a thought process because I want to honor the Rapunzel retellings, but at the moment, I am unsure how big I want the canvas and how many pins I'm gonna pin on it since I didn't intend to collect Rapunzel pins, but here I am. I, however, am restricting myself to open pre-orders and LE pre-orders going to Silvy.

The issue is that I know what I’m doing with my Rapunzel pins. When I tried to sketch out Cinderella, it was simply not satisfying, so I have no clue what I'm going to do with my Cinderella pins. 

I still am unsure how to display my Aven and Kaveh pins as well. Starting an unwitting Rapunzel collection and knowing how to display it first is just bad. I'm slowing down on Pokemallows and focusing on the Fashion Gardes and Eevee Fusions. Again, I don't know how to display those. 

I have even more of an idea how to display my fucking Kpop Demon Hunter pins than I do my favorite character pins. At least I have an idea about ORV with book pages as an idea. 

I'm not write down a fucking prompt and allowing of what my imagination comes to. 

Like most people, my art was not that good when I was a child. It has gotten to the point of taking any passion out of it, outside of writing. Sure, I'm still a suffering writer suffering from an eternal writer's block, but at least it's my imagination writing scenes and playing house with my ships as dolls. 

Art is incredibly accessible. The thing is that art is an ever-developing journey. There will be places where there is doubt. However, the thing is to learn and grow. Art is not this lucky thing granted to a few. What looks like talent to others is something they love and continue to love and learn. 

The artists I buy from practiced really hard to make it where they are. Fuck, it's fun to see how their art evolves through consecutive collections. I mean Mamo's wave 1 of Pokemallows compared to whatever wave that had been released. Look at Nuwa from when she started out to now. She worked damn hard to get the landscapes to eventually the puzzle pieces she's working on as a new series. It's gratifying to watch. 

I loved seeing the gratification of hard work and learning to create more art that speaks to them and to so many of their fans. I fucking loved Mamo and Nuwa at Artist Alley last summer. I cannot wait to meet them again next year. Maybe this time I’ll gather up courage to actually talk to Witchxing’s artist this time. 

Don't any of the AI bros want that? The hard work and the creation of developing something over a long period? 

To see their art style of whatever they are thinking of comes to life through practice and discipline developed over the years...

Obviously not when we're here now with these AI bros insisting they're artists, refusing to do the dirty work of actually practicing and discipling themselves over a period. 

AI is apparently the shortcut towards everything, including education. But when I have to fear future doctors and lawyers' knowledge on practical and critical matters when they knowingly use AI? 

It's all about the instant results, not the work to get to it. 

These guys calling themselves artists aren't artists. They are scammers who think they can actually make it in the art world, who let them in and display their 'masterpieces' to the public when their pieces aren't even good or passionate. It's downright embarrassing to see art galleries defend AI 'art'. To them, even welcoming, it's money. 

Seriously, a French AI 'artist's 'art' about New York is just unfailingly awful because they don't even get New York's popular foods, actual popular foods. Tiger and Bunny get that right more because Kotetsu's favorite foods includes pizza and hot dogs! We see the duo and their friends actually going out to get hot dogs! 

Even when I'm not following AI 'art' accounts, AI 'art' still pops up in my feed on Instagram, which isn't my following account. It's pretty bad that I can't block it as easily as I do on Tumblr or Ko-Fi, where I can just follow accounts and not expect to see AI 'art' anywhere. Heck, I easily block out the tag of ai art. 

I scream internally just seeing misinformation just on Tiger and Bunny AI overview. Yes, Kotetsu loves hot dogs, pizza, and fried rice but Barnaby’s sponsor definitely didn’t include or exclusively Pepsi Nex! You would think Blue Rose seen with only sole sponsors and Barnaby having fucking Bandai on his armor chest that AI would’ve guessed from photos. 

Of course, it’s not all doom and gloom. Like the federal judges that stopped Trump’s unconstitutional efforts, laws, and huge corporations with massively popular IPs are taking aim at AI that dared to use their IP. 

Listen, Disney is a monster in so many ways, in just how much they consume and destroy, and how much they create with their art. Their LGBT rep is slim to none and getting closer to none by the passing second due to the extremely conservative environment, but again, I'd rather side with people who want my money rather than people who want me dead. 

Disney is in another dork era with failed movies under their belt that they are doing everything in their power for short term profit. 

AI needs to be regulated as it has so many concerns, and it is just bad for creativity and critical thinking. No shortcuts. 

Suppose people in the past have to suffer writing an essay at a shitty hour and using Wiki references at the far bottom of the page of the wiki. In that case, these people who wish to graduate should have the decency to realize that future work demands more than relying on AI. 

Seriously, I see AI ads for something that should have been done with a quick wiki search, or just seeing patterns in their loved one's behavior, or something as simple as what shop you went to. It's bad and just distressing to see how AI is advertised as something quick and easy when again Google search without the AI shit is still useful. Misinfo aside, AI should not be a shortcut for basics. 

It's not even useful that day when something as basic as getting the brain going for something as basic as the last shop or the last thing you did, or even something that could've been achieved with Google search. Though with Google search, please ignore the AI up top please, because they'll spread misinfo and just get the wrong info. 

It's always the tech corps and the tech bros spreading that AI is the dawn of a new era. Their marketing was enough to make those susceptible believe that it would be great, never mind the consequences. Godoka, there were stories in the Mamo Discord of many pin collectors' workplaces singing the praises of AI, heck, even their loved ones. 

It's bad enough in the group chat I have with my cousins, who have one cousin AI faces onto stuff, making things uncanny with another following. It clearly wasn't photoshopped, and it was just uncomfortable to sit through. At least it was just that conversation, and they didn't do it again. 

Can we just go back to photoshopping faces onto other stuff? Can we go back to Photoshop rather than relying on AI to do everything basic editing? 

I get why people are stressed about not getting a job after college, but for the love of Godoka, does that mean to sacrifice critical thinking and learning in general just because you couldn't score a job after college? No, media literacy is at a low time, and having that for necessary knowledge and practicals for future lawyers and doctors is just a no, thank you. We do not need more people who think they can skate by with AI. AI bros and their insistence that they are true artists is just one of the many examples. The fucking administration is using AI for everything even when it's clear AI fucked up everything with their incompetent hands. The tariff percentage is a result of AI, never mind that the administration does not take care to learn because they are anti-intellectual and anti-science. Republicans really pride themselves in their ignorance and conspiracy theories. 

Having an imcompetent yet cruel Trump adminsitration who obviously promised shit if you know common sense that Trump is nothing more than an amoral raving lunatic out only for himself and winning in the moment rather than thinking of the others. Unlike Disney, who at least wants my money and only leans hard onto anything that will make them money because even the slimmest of rep will get them money, Elon Musk has no such presumptions about presenting himself as one of the hateful human beings alive because Trump is up there, alright. Trump is going down in history as one of the worst, if not the most awful, POTUS ever due to his dictatorial behavior and doing every unconstitutional act ever. Our Founding Fathers would've hung him and would not have taken it lying down to have another king running them again in any capacity. 

Honestly, anybody then would’ve hung the entire administration. 

Going back to the topic of AI, I do want to point out a flaw in Answer in Progress' video. 

What Jess is doing is not the norm. What she is doing is ethical and uses the previous generation as a reference. 

It's disingenuous to not portray generative AI as something that isn't easily abused or stolen. Because, for the most part, it really is that when AI is used as a shortcut for everything from education to the joy of the creative process, even if that means blood, sweat, and tears but you are creating something of your own nonetheless. 

AI can have its purposes, but the issue remained that the artists of all sorts are getting dismissed and devalued over money because that's what AI has essentially determined these art forms as. 

The way society sees creative works and creativity in general is something that should be noticed, not when every artist is being tossed aside for money. 

Women in Fandom

There have always been women in fandom. In fact, I think they are often an indicator of taste. 

They are the first to know that the Beatles and Star Trek are good. Zines are created from them after all, as well as the Premise. 

However, no matter what women do, men come in and take the credit as if it’s them that made it credible. 

It’s obvious that creators like Steven Moffat are often disappointed by their female fans and do whatever it takes to be credible to their male peers. They don’t care that they are alienating female fans by playing with their hearts and crushing them. 

I have no clue why women are being hammered against now openly in anime spaces. Female fans have been a thing forever. 

Again, why the decrying now when women have always been shipping and creating fanfics and fanart in their own free time? 

Fuck, housewives are the reason why Star Trek gotten as big as it did even before the boys came in and took it as their boys' club. 

The backbone of so many fandoms is built on the backs of paying female fans with disposable income. 

So what if we squeal that was mistaken for hysteria? 

Hating everything that women like seems completely justified from the world's perspective. Anything girly has been justified, as seen with the case of Princess Tutu. 

Princess Tutu, an underrated series, is praised for all its storytelling, but all the praise seems to ignore that it's girly with the romances and pink. 

There is nothing wrong with a series intended for girls and consumed by women. 

There's a reason why people begged to give shoujo and josei a chance outside of shounen and seinen if they even know about it. Just because Shounen Jump is the biggest name out there doesn't mean that other names shouldn't be given a chance. 

Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice from her female lens. Mr Darcy is admired not because he's a man who was tall, dark, and handsome, he did the right thing for the sake of doing the right thing, not to win Liz's heart. 

Women are allowed to do what is usually done in fandom before this. To say that women are ruining porno just because they are open with their fantasy porn likes is just stupid. 

I'll shield them than against someone who say they are ruining things just because of liking fantasy porn. 

I don't particularly care for the romantasy as it's called, but I will make this clear: I'd rather have these women have their fun. Just like many things, there is so much trash to go through to get to the gems. There are so many trash animanga that came out that when something becomes popular, it's usually for good reason or not. Sometimes the trash is so bad it's so good. 

TikTok is a messy place. There is some truth in badly written romances with all the tropes, but considering it's moreover a woman's hobby that has more backlash. 

There is so much generalization of what women like that, therefore, anything they like equals nothing good. 

Oh, wow, if this itches men, then about the smut in fanfiction spaces? I read fanfiction porn a lot with a stone face. if me reading porn with a stone face isn't enough, just the fact that women are getting off of fantasy porn is enough for them to say that they are ruining fantasy, never mind that these tropes have been a thing since forever and women are not ruining anything. 

Women are allowed to wear things that any character would wear as cosplay. This also puts into the thing that 'women should dress conservatively because wearing sexy means that men are allowed to sexually harass and assault them just for existing' when women wearing perfectly normal clothes have and will continue to have such horrific things to happen to them. 

These characters are written by a man or a team of men, so why blame women for wanting to cosplay these characters when they want to cosplay their faves? The obvious answer is misogyny. 

Misogyny means not acknowledging or learning fandom history and the place women have in general from all walks of life, of colors, and sexualities. 

Because, of course, fandom is a boys' space, never mind that women are the majority of it. 

Fuck, in the pin community I am in right now, there are more women than there are men. Though there are famous male pin collectors in the community, as I can tell from you. One always makes pintography for his pins. 

It's obvious that for these men, women shouldn't be involved in fandom because they aren't as conservative as they would like it even though fandom is ultimately a hobby space where people share in their love and joy in something they like. 

That's what fandom is all about in the end: sharing in the love of something and having the right to all these things. 

No gatekeeping shit. 

Avoid what you don't like and don't police others, especially women, LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and all the intersectionality there. 

Fandom has never been perfect. 

I am fully aware that the most popular ships are usually the white characters. Steddie, as much as I love them, gained more of a following than Jonathon and Argyle. Reylo is more popular than Finn x Poe. 

And that's just one example of the racism and misogyny in fandoms. 

We do not need all this BS. 

Fandoms are gaining momentum in the public eye, and being geeky about something isn't something to be bullied about anymore. You can be collecting TCG cards openly, and nobody is batting an eye. 

To deny fandom history and how it has now led to all this is just dismaying to witness. 

It's really a collision of the conservative values being more openly accepted and forced upon them when so many fought for their rights. They deserve to have a chance even when fascism looms over and destroys everything in their path, in their utter lack of creativity and joy, reveling in their hatred.