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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

Rare Pairs, Crack Ships, and the Joys of Small Fandoms

Honestly, this has none of the shipping rants I've done before. It has nothing to do with throwing a brick at stubborn people who are fundamentalist and conservative, whether they realize it or not. Because these young people literally don't know better than to try to prove themselves worthy of purity through purity culture, that is toxic to them and everyone. 

I mean, it's slightly up to a point. Antishippers would likely still not understand crack ships, and rare ships aren't ever on their radar. They are up on their asses about purity culture, failing to see they are spewing out rot that Christian conservatives spoke all the time about porn, especially LGBT, and sex. 

They don’t do shit about rare pairs because they live in the fridges of the fandom. Crack ships vary in popularity depending on the ship. 

Antishippers want everything to be pure without drama and pain to show they are good people. Crack ships are not just crossover ships but ships that again don’t have any bearing on each other. The characters could’ve died in separate times, and having never ever met, and still be called crack ships. The characters could’ve never met each other in their lives, and still viable because it’s fun. 

Shipping can be as easy as looking hot together, to wanting to scratch an itch on what was known about them, to develop the ship to pure character analysis through romance. All shippers do was watch their OTP fall in love again and again. I sigh with all the small gestures and care from every meaningful love they share, and falling in love. 

Ah, rare pairs, the ones that, of course, get the rare fanfics and fanart that barely last a page, two at best on AO3. 

The videos up there don't exactly display in some form my rare pairs: Akihiko x Minato from P3, Shirlulu from Code Geass, and Kyoraku x Aizen from Bleach. 

All of these convinced me from fanfiction, no less. Yes, fanfics on AO3 that barely took up two pages alone in their tags. 

It's hilarious since reading the fic that got me into Kyoraku x Aizen, the theory of the father-son just doesn't make sense. It makes sense at a surface level that doesn't require too much brain power. It's a theory that doesn't and does make sense, but considering Bleach has ended, I'm happy to have any theories with Aizen's Bankai than any of this. Fuck, Kyoraku is a better match for Aizen than anyone could expect. That is something Aizen's personal enemies like Urahara, Yoruichi, Visords, and Yhwach didn't see coming: that there is a romantic match for Aizen out there in the world that he would happily go into the institution of marriage just so he can finally have him officially as his husband. 

Kyoraku is laidback, but he hides his competence behind an effective facade. Aizen likewise has a facade of calmness and affability, but make no mistake that underneath it all hides someone who distanced himself from his own humanity to the point that he achieved his goal of immortality. His true personality is a fiery and passionate control freak who has issues three times the size of the afterlife with his emotions, including his pride and bonds in general, due to his sheer independence and feeling he should do things alone, and zero troubles with committing atrocities for his outcome. 

Shinji and Kisuke, as much as Aizen admits Kisuke's wit and smarts are equal to his, have too much baggage (normally, I like baggage in ships, but I never shipped Aizen with these guys, even when I was watching and reading Bleach; something about these guys didn't call to me. Notably, UraAi also counts as a rare pair, considering it's 128 fics on AO3, but we still have more than the 31 for KyoAi. I believe the most popular Aizen pairings are either with Ichigo or with Gin, which is more power to those shippers.) and clashing personalities. Aizen needs someone laidback and calming, whereas Kyoraku needs someone fiery and unpredictable. Kyōraku and Aizen felt more plausible. 

Again, this is fanfiction. We can get any pairing we want as long as we write it right. Aizen is a difficult character to write. I simply want Aizen to drop his mask and involve himself more on an emotional level that he couldn’t comprehend. 

Like I said, I do have my preferences, but I don’t ship all of them. If I could find THE Seishiro x Subaru pin for my OTP board, I’m gonna be so happy. It’s the ship that got everything going, so I have to find a pin for that. If a ship calls to me, it comes to me. I wouldn’t be a Dabihawks shipper had it not been for the warehouse meeting after the Nomu fight. 

Getting convinced on a ship through fanworks is no easy task. Like most things, you have to get through the trash to get the gems. Believe it or not, not everyone will be swayed. 

Even today, people stubbornly hold onto popular fanon beliefs that clash or negate the canon. Canon is not the end-all, but for the love of Arceus, there should be a balance, as well as the knowledge that canon has its place and basis in the fandom. 

Sometimes, fanon simply isn't enough or is so pervasive that it damages the actual intent. Fanon Tim Drake doesn't come close to the crazy canon Tim Drake is capable of. Heck, even adaptations don’t even come close to the insanity YJ98 is capable of. Give me my teens with no adult supervision. Even Red Tornado went along with it. 

Rare pairs are exactly that. They have so few crumbs in fanworks that people do it themselves. I’m pretty sure that in one fandom, can’t remember what it was, there was one writer who basically wrote all the fanfics for the rare pair and it’s amazing dedication for such few people but awesome for the love poured into it. 

Heck, there was one Dabihawks writer who was outright surprised by the reception of her Dbhks fics when she wrote for rare pairs before writing for a popular ship. 

I’m not even sure that Kyoraku x Aizen counts as crack shipping when the father-son theory isn't even that pervasive enough to be fanon. I saw YouTube Shorts (I did not actually watch them, but the theory is spelled out by the title), but it's certainly not enough to be a popular theory. Seriously, I've seen more theories that became so pervasive that it became fanon, such as what happened with so many things I'm not a fan of. Even Dabihawks was once a crackship for no other reason than they look hot together as nobody at the time would think of Hawks meeting Dabi as his contact for infiltration or that Hawks would be a spy at all. 

KyoAi counts as a rare ship primarily because of the TYBW arc, where we see them interact at a certain level. Those are crumbs that a shipper can extrapolate and build upon. I mean that aforementioned theory is well known, but that has been called into question, not helped that we know nothing of Aizen’s mysterious past. They have chemistry there that is tantalizing now that I see it. 

Unfortunately, it’s rare. At least ShirLulu has close to 90, but I’m also adding where the ship is included in some capacity. It is not at the crush level, but Lelouch actually sees Shirley as a love interest and pursues her. As for KyoAi, even with the fanfic series I’m into (it would definitely have multiple arcs which include the relationship landmarks for KyoAi, including their daughter's first birthday and their wedding, possibly) wouldn’t even scratch 50. We haven’t reached the canon arcs yet, so until we reach the drama of the canon arcs, the fic will remain in Marked For Later till further reading; honestly, I do look forward to the Zanpakuto Spirit filler arc because that's the most salivating considering Aizen's character development and relationships with others. Akimina is so close to 200, but it's still a rare pair that isn't getting any names on par with SatoSugu or at the very least MiyuSawa. 

The popular ships will always get regular updates on their tags, food everywhere for everyone, sharing in the love of the ship. I know this so well. 

The rare ships, on the other hand, have crumbs, if even that. I also know this. 

Crack ships have zero crumbs, and they go off based on imagination. At least that's a fun place to be. I think the crack ship I am fond of is Jim Hawkins x Melody, the crossover ship from two Disney films, Treasure Planet and TLM2. 

Unfortunately, the one that people would remember the most is Jelsa. I'm decidedly not a Jelsa fan, never mind the fact that I'm not a Frozen fan. I believe the popular one now at the time of writing is Cinderella x Sukuna??? I mean power to them. I don’t particularly care for Disney ships that much or JJK outside of some in that series but more power to the shippers, go and ship to your heart’s content. Outside of confusion upon seeing their sudden art, I just shrugged and moved on with my tasks. I see no reason why I should have an opinion on a measly ship, nor would anyone else, except apparently antishippers who cannot see reason. Even non-seasoned shippers shouldn’t be expected to give opinions on every damn ship in a fandom. I don’t have the time to give a blog post the time and dedication to every ship in a fandom. I don’t think I can make a tier on that level. I care so little about that, I’d rather focus on better stuff than that. Unless a ship caught my interest, I usually don’t care much. I’ve been focusing more on story potential than shipping, which is just a bonus if I love the ship. 

And I still don’t think anyone outside of those who understand fandom gets it. If they cannot understand even a basic ship like Sterek, they are not surviving. 

By AO3 fics from lowest to highest, it's KyoAi, Shirlulu, and Akimina in that order in terms of my rare pairs. 

I should note the caveat that it depends on the size of the fandom, too. Akimina is definitely a rare pair in an extremely popular fandom. Bleach, too, is extremely popular, and we can definitely say KyoAi is a rare pair, never mind that the fics aren’t approaching 40 fics anytime soon. 

It’s just that the rare pair, as it often does, make us feel like Charlie with his Pepe Silvia rant. I'm picking at the crumbs like a bird and trying my best with the fics and fanart I do have. All rare pairs shippers have to deal with that. While they do have the benefit of having fun, the fact is that it's not popular enough. 

Even in rare pair fandoms, there'll be famous fics and authors that are only known to the fandom. Some are the result of one being there to write them, and couldn't draw them. I admire the dedication of rare pair writers, where they are truly the ones baking the bread to the hungry small base or no base at all, considering some I've seen are on a canoe or a paddle boat alone in a lake. 

Non-seasoned shippers or worse normies wouldn’t understand the difference between a popular ship to an actual crack ship. Seriously, the answers of Sterek, Zutara, and Wincest show that these normies wouldn’t survive mild weather in summer fandom. Seriously, here I am knowing the popular ships, and they see it as crack ships. By Arceus, at worst, they don’t see shipping as fun but as some sort of lab experiment for research from the outside. 

Ships certainly aren’t the be-all end-all of fandom. Again, shipping can happen for various reasons, but seeking validation from the creators isn’t the way to go. Shipping is fun. 

To devolve a piece of entertainment to shipping is pretty sad. Given how focused I am on stories, it's a given that I would love them and their themes. 

Fandom is about a community brought together by a piece of media one loves and shares. Shipping is just one part, but it shouldn’t take over as much as one seeks validation for their headcanons that somehow in their mind overtook canon. Seriously, I see people decry canon just because their headcanon isn’t canon, instead of either ignoring it or accepting it and evolving their headcanon, they decide that it doesn't make sense with their fanon. 

It’s not substituting with interesting ideas, but rather forcing in where it shouldn’t with no balance or effort to understand to be transformative. 

I hardly ship anything nowadays unless it’s within my purview, does it shoot up, such as Joongdok. Look at me watching Bleach and you hardly see me ship anymore than Death Strawberry and KyoAi. I certainly don’t need canon validation. You can just write the damn thing. 

I feel off recommending rare pair fics since all writers from rare pairs are trying their best to feed their small, hungry base, but at the same time, they are so small and deserve all the support they need. If I could convince you to ship them through these fics that did to me, then here's to hoping that you can enjoy them. I think I'll be better off recommending the fics that got me shipping them and the fic I'm currently reading. For KyoAi, it's an ongoing series. 

Besides, getting into rare pairs or small fandoms will humble people who had spent time in popular fandoms. There is nothing more humbling than just having a small group discussing and making fanart and fics for the series with all the passion and love, without all the drama of a huge fandom that you feel people visibly spend time on. Yeah, all fandoms have their disagreements, but since it’s small, they have to acquiesce. 

The Galavant and Schmiga-(doon/go) series is this for me. Nothing is more than sharing in the love of the musical comedy series that is cut too soon. Not even Crazy Ex-Girlfriend could've saved them even though I love CEG too. However, it doesn't help that people barely know that those series existed in the first place. I knew that it existed from YT ads. I mean, even Blue Flag is unlikely to get an anime adaptation because of its LGBT roots, but it's still a small fanbase. The fics in total at AO3 are 70. Galavant on AO3 has 321 fics. 

Even with Daiya no Ace and KHR, both reasonably sized fandoms, are considered medium-sized by comparison to truly larger fanbases. MiyuSawa is without a doubt a very popular ship, but by comparison to even the most popular influential ships or ships that people at least heard of, Daiya no Ace ships aren't that widespread by comparison. 

On a side note, since I'm not gonna find pins on the smaller fandoms I'm in (I already accepting I won't find any pins from them the moment I was putting down a list of potential collections and they were an immediate no), I am forced to find separate pins for KyoAi if I want them to be on my OTP board. But for now, Seishirou x Subaru is the foremost one primarily because I can put that collection in the backburner and that would be hardest to find, so I guess I could find others, but definitely not my rare pairs at the moment because I don't have money for two pins. I paused my Cinderella collection until I got Abigeyedowl Ever After Heart first before getting original/adaptations. I would love Abigeyedowl's Cinderella 2015 if they ever consider making it because I need something to represent that. 

What shines doesn’t always need to be seen by Nai_asobrab:

Reborn from the Shadows: Aizen's true motivation was absolute control. Having power was not enough; it was essential to shape beings, manipulate lives, to create something that was entirely a product of his own will.

Yet, as his cold eyes observed her, a shadow of disappointment clouded his thoughts. She was not perfect.

"No... not perfect," he thought, a silent whisper laced with subtle bitterness. Hinamori had indeed been shaped, but not from the beginning. Her mind and heart had already been touched before he intervened, formed by other hands. She was an incomplete vessel, a useful tool, but limited.

Perfection... True perfection would be something he had crafted from birth, something pure and malleable, like clay in the hands of a sculptor. A life that he could shape in every detail, free from external influences, without prior marks. A life that existed solely to serve his design, breathing only to fulfill his will.

A child.

Twilight of Truths: Aizen Sousuke sat on the engawa of the Eighth Division’s traditional house, watching the garden bathed in pale afternoon light. Nearby, Sayuri played on a mat, laughing as Shunsui entertained her with clumsy but charming fan tricks. To anyone looking, the scene was idyllic—the picture of a harmonious family. Yet, within Aizen’s mind lingered a restless void.

He had always had plans, intricate schemes that bent situations and people to his will. Even in chaos, he thrived on direction, on the clarity of his goals. Now, for the first time, he found himself adrift and unanchored.

Now, he lived on autopilot: caring for Sayuri, addressing trivial matters with Shunsui, and occasionally advising his companions. But beneath it all, he felt like an actor reciting lines he hadn’t written.

"Is this what normal people do?" he murmured, gazing at the sun’s reflection in the calm garden pond. "Do they simply... exist? No plans, no goals, just moving moment to moment?" 

Mini-Review: I'll probably put this in another fic recs alongside my other OTPs, but considering this is focused on long-time OTPs, this rare pair fic recs still count as the same, even if they are only one fic out of everything. Given the small base, I believe anyone can jump in and consume the limited food we even got in the first place. 

It's still ongoing and very long, considering it will tackle arcs way later in the series. Also, whatever theories I said are on a previous post I made, so I won't do it here. I barely said what I liked about the fic. 

If you know my preferences, you know why this fic made Shunsui Kyoraku and Aizen a compelling ship. I'm hardly a friends-to-lovers type, hence why I'm not all over those types, even though some ships could be called friends-to-lovers that I do ship, even though there are several factors I don't count them. 

Technically, this could be called a work military romance, with both of them as captains, one of them more technically high-ranking due to him being the choice of the new head of the whole military. Heck, Aizen didn't even choose him because he was the next Commander, or because he could use that inner circle to his advantage. He realized it afterward, but I do think by then, he had fallen hard for Shunsui. 

Shunsui might not be as crazy intelligent as he, Urahara, and Mayuri, but he's intelligent and perceptive enough to impress with their verbal sparring, giving him a challenge. He recognized that Shunsui hides behind such an effective mask that it starts to affect him. Their chemistry is really good as a result of Shunsui giving Aizen both the challenge and the love he longed for. Shunsui could get under his skin that Urahara cannot do in those terms of closeness. 

Urahara is always adaptive to these plans because his chess game with Aizen is complicated now, particularly since Aizen became Shunsui's husband. Even if he is essentially demoted to Vice Captain, he still has major influence as the future Commander's husband. Ironically, it's better and easier to convince Shunsui of anything lax than his husband, who is learning to relax and take things slow. 

A major part of it was a character-centric approach based around his relationships with others and his character development with major therapy and friendship. 

And it's not just Aizen. It's Momo, Shuhei, and anyone who has a chance of getting character development. 

It’s like Icarus’ Dilemma, where characters get character development and their paths change as a result of a character getting what they needed. 

Yes, it’s Mpreg, but that only sets the stage where Aizen gets the love, friendship, and therapy he needs. Sayuri is her own character, growing throughout the story since her conception. 

Given the expansion of the whole series including some fillers, I'm considering to build a progress review of it. 

New Game+ by EmpyrealFantasy: Given a chance to start all over again, will Minato be able to make a difference in his future?

[When you start a New Game+, you retain your levels, your inventory, and the items that you get from maxed Social Links. This stands to reason that the memory would remain for the MC as well. What if gameplay wasn't linear…? An exploration of what a New Game+ could really mean.]

Review: This is the fic that got me into the ship. I read the FF.Net first version before the AO3 edition added new stuff. 

Our protagonist and Akihiko had been distant. Friends as we can say hang out together with the rest of the group but never quite alone. Reload fixed that but obviously not enough to get the ship out of rare pair. Shinjiro x Kotone is still far more popular. 

I don’t quite put down my finger why exactly I love it and why it started my love for the ship, but the chemistry of the two, as well as what Akihiko does, was so amazing. The path in which we see the characters change from canon allowed for such good. 

I think that it has well-written changes as well as the development of the main pair vibed with me so well, it remained a favorite. 

Characters Reactions to Canon Fics and Fic Recs

 

I don't have much fondness for these types of fics. These characters reacting to canon fics are often repetitive instead of doing something. Often these characters are trapped in a dark room or somewhere with the canonical media for them to watch and read. Very rarely they are allowed out of that so it's often a good thing that these characters are actively trying to change amidst watching/reading/playing the canon events they have access to. 

I'm big on stories, particularly if a story is so well-written about the meta of the story they are writing hence why Princess Tutu is in my top three favorite magical girls series and why ORV became one of my favorite stories ever. It’s to the point that when it comes to my favorite stories in the world, I’m more so focused on grabbing the books or getting things that better tell the story in pin form. 

Particularly if they know enough about the main characters to realize the guy they are following has loads of potential. 

I wholly recommend Advanced Release wherein Sephiroth received the original FFVII in his mail and began playing it with his besties Genesis and Angeal only to discover that it's not an inside job but rather a scarily accurate game that foretold the future. Little did they know whatever insanity and stupidity they deem is actually true to what Future Cloud who gave them the games can testify. 

They aren't the only ones to receive a game, however. Reeve received Dirge of Cerberus, the Turks are hilariously playing Before Crisis on their flip-phones, Zack got Crisis Core, Tifa got the light novels, and who knows got the movies? The author has noted that one person would not be the only one to receive a game or novel as seen with the Turks so it’s likely the main cast will get the scoop. Future Cloud is maximizing the people who can save the world and it’s only a matter of time young Cloud learns about this. 

All the while tiny young Cadet Cloud Strife found himself with interest from everyone who played the games. The Turks think of him as an interesting NPC who definitely made an impression on them while not knowing the reason why he made an impression in the first place was because he's the main character, Sephiroth and soon enough Angeal and Genesis begin to see the potential in him. Zack outright declared that he would be stronger than all of them combined. Considering they haven't seen the ending of the game where Cloud killed Sephiroth and in the movie where Cloud killed him again, all they see now is potential. Genesis probably will see Cloud having the potential to be the strongest magic caster that is not a Cetra. Tiny Cadet Cloud has no idea what is going on where his idol is offering him mentorship, Turks offering him a spot, why Angeal is treating him so kindly, and Zack wants to be besties with a random cadet. Confounded but ecstatic.  

I guess that's what Cloud gets as the Planet's chosen Champion because tiny Cloud has no idea that's his destiny. He's the main character so he's basically chosen to have so much potential to be the strongest man in Gaia with his sword and magic skills. 

Cloud doesn’t have main character syndrome obviously as he’s the main character who just happened to be chosen even if it might not look that way. He’s stubborn and self-loathing yet his wishes were granted in the most awful way possible. 

I just wonder how much young Cloud is going to get heckled moving forward now that a lot of people are growing more aware that he’s extremely important. 

Given that only Sephiroth met Future Cloud, I wonder how Tiny Cloud would react to Future Cloud, someone with so much power and capable of killing Sephiroth twice. 

I wonder if anyone from Nibelheim should survive this and learn about this including learning Cloud became Sephiroth's protege for no other reason than Seph seeing potential in him that Seph could see that Cloud even beat them and indeed Cloud can defeat him when Angeal and Genesis cannot. 

I wonder how the fan clubs would take this because this is Sephiroth after all taking on a random cadet for no reason other than Seph saying he saw potential in him. Seph can't exactly say that other than potential, he knows what Cloud would become just by meeting his future self because again Seph can be defeated if only because Cloud is capable of such a thing. How would fans take Seph's eventual dethroning of the strongest man by Cloud, his protege who is both impressive in his swordsmanship as well as magic? 

Honestly, anyone who didn't think Cloud would make it would see that with the right guidance, Cloud could become the Planet's Champion he was always destined to be. 

To be fair, Sephiroth, Angeal, Genesis, and Zack are training him up to be stronger than they could ever be, and not least they got evidence of just how powerful Cloud could be by his future self and the canonical events they saw. 

There’s still so much story left. We haven’t even gotten to Cloud’s actual mentorship yet, nor has he even told Zack about the light novels. We haven’t seen what Hojo plans to do to Cloud. Genesis has yet to know about Deepground. 

Heck, the Turks got their game in one go so they have to know things now and further investigate the Vincent case. In a comment, the author comments they will once they get to a certain scene with Vincent. 

Everyone who has gotten a game or a piece of media relating to FFVII should know by name that Cloud is the main character at this point and side-eye him basically as young Cloud just thriving under Seph's tutelage with added help from Angeal, Genesis, and Zack in their effort to make him the most powerful man that the Planet has literally chosen as their champion. 

Honestly, what about characters not in the know about the games but still knowing confidential details like Kunsel? Kunsel could potentially play a larger role than in canon wherein he acts as the tutorial guide. Kunsel has been portrayed as a Turk-like SOLDIER but how would he react to these events after the mission he had with Seph? Kunsel would want to leave Shinra after all after learning the dreaded secrets. However, he would never see Cloud coming after the mission. 

And what about the process where Cloud is just thriving under the tutelage of Sephiroth, Angeal, Genesis, and Zack? From what seems like a mediocre infantryman's fast learning turning him quickly to potentially the most powerful magic caster and swordsman who might have the chance of defeating the Silver General and indeed he can and will lest they stay and watch his spars against his mentor? What about Cloud just vibrating as he creates the fusion sword and uses that against Seph in the future? The Omnislash and its eventual versions until Cloud creates his ultimate sword? 

There’s confirmation and honestly, it’s a fact that Cloud will find out about FFVII. He already has an inkling with Tifa but he has no idea why he is suddenly the biggest target among the higher-ups at Shinra. 

And that's one of the top examples of characters watching/playing/reading the series that do something beyond knowing the future. It's dull and repetitive just from watching reactions. Sure, it's fine from isolation but when you're not doing something like Peggy Sue their timeline, then what are you doing?

Take another Final Fantasy example, this time entry number 15. 

The Basis of Reality has Ignis be taken to another world entirely where his world is but an entry of a popular series much like how Future Cloud grabs the consoles and games from our world to give to those trusted in another. 

Ignis found out several truths as well as the game forcing and glitching to make way for a new ending or in the same track depending on the change set. 

Now they haven't played the game since the beginning. If anything, they only watch some cutscenes and learn secondhand information from the gamer herself. They play some portion and learn some game mechanics so they can become savvy enough to write their golden ending. 

At least they knew the future and reacted to canon appropriately by actually changing things instead of just reacting. 

Not least they can see the visible changes in their extended absences and the visible glitches. 

At least these guys know they are living in a video game world so Noctis and Prompto used their video game know-how to level against the rails and ease towards a golden ending. 

Now, these two fics are essentially fix-fics when fics that contain the trope of characters watching canon have not been done to fix their future. 

The closest I see in this kind of trope even happening was a series summary of a Twisted Wonderland fic series where the Overblot villains became a strange group of friends after what they had watched and even then, in the main body, the TWST characters are still mainly locked in a black room with the game in front of them. 

Very rare I've seen these characters keep secrets of these canon franchise material and try to fix it. 

Heck, I doubt I would see a fanfic of the MHA cast, UA specifically, try to matchmake Hawks with Dabi after seeing their sizzling sexual tension at that meeting because to them, they are heroes who shouldn't get into illicit relationships with villains and this is well before character development. Because in the eye of the law, heroes getting together with villains is very bad. 

Though the idea would be planted and they don’t know every time they read and watch the interactions before the betrayal, the sexual tension is striking. 

Anyhow, can’t we get more creative works with the characters interacting with canon and changing it at the same time?

The two Final Fantasy fics above had them interact with all bases of the franchise, some more then others regarding how far along they are in their designated media. 

They are even changing it even when they haven’t finished it. Cloud is Sephiroth’s protege! The chocobros saved Ravus’ life! 

Just do something if these characters are gonna know the future! 

It’s repetitive if it’s just the reactions. There isn’t any creativity. 

I mean it wasn't much to the TWST fic series either. The summary events happened after they watched the events so I have no clue other than working together to get Yuu home and Grim his goal, I don't know how else other than maybe changing the events that went on like the Ghost Bride and everything else. 

But we still have to get through the watching first. Sure there are intervals of taking breaks albeit not much since they can’t leave. 

Probably expecting too much as fanfiction is a medium, most times there aren’t good writing and you have to sift through the piles of uninteresting to get to the interesting. 

You can find your typical tropes in fanfiction. In fanfiction, it’s the fun of imagining these characters in these scenarios. 

The non-fandom people who try to entice random people through tropes not realizing they are literally tropes and what makes fanfiction. The Harry Styles fanfiction to original literature pipeline is so stupid. Why the hell would it attract these girls into reading these when these guys just advertise fanfiction-like tropes? 

I love complicated pairings with tension and making their divorce everyone’s problem. I love pairings that are definitely foils and therefore compatible. The intensity in OTPs is my bread and butter. Like, Joongdok hit everything and surpassed even my intense OTPs through sheer weird intensity. Do you know you gotta be deranged to surpass Wangxian, right?! 

Do you see me falling for every ship that has this trope? I love complicated pairings the most hence why Honkai ships rapidly go up the ranks of OTP levels that only a few Genshin ships ever had. Even though I like Zhongchi and still read them, it's still not too close to the OTP levels that Haikavetham rapidly reached the endpoint and became an OTP. Joongdok shot up the ranks so quickly that it rivaled Dabihawks on its pace which Dabihawks got me in at their flashback meeting after the Endeavor battle with the Nomu. 

While ships have always been subjective, you do not see me falling for every ship that has that trope. 

It's a trope that in fanfiction is used as an imagination playground for characters they love. 

Fanfiction is its own medium that is unlike original literature. 

If that was the case, I would've been a Reylo fan, right? Nope, I am so not and not the least that these characters are so badly done with one of the characters is a white boy Neo-Nazi who shouldn’t been the focus at all or even be written into existence at all. It’s not even one of my hated ships EndHawks or simply uncomfortable for me like NaruHina. Reylo is designated as an annoying ship, pesky enough as a fly when I’m forced to deal with them in troves in the pin community. At least I sufficiently filtered out any EndHawks on Instagram for my peace of mind. Reylo I can deal with because I don't bother getting it into the way I did MHA hence why Endhawks ended up the way it had whereas my refusal of interacting with any SW Sequel Trilogy led me to see Reylo as a pesky fly. In the pin community, NaruHina and Reylo are extremely popular so I just gotta deal less so if I’m forced to deal with EndHawks which I quickly filter in all social media. It was sheer dumb luck that I saw the hashtag but not the picture in an account because I knew I saw an NSFW EndHawks pin from another pin maker which gave me psychic damage so I quickly figured out how to filter out anything regarding EndHawks. If I was on Twitter/X, then I’m gonna be in trouble unless I follow someone’s advice to get them out of my Dabihawks feed but I don’t have one because I refuse to be on that platform. 

I’m the ship and let ship, having been in the fandom for nearly two decades. I don’t bash ships as I already explained in previous posts about my feelings about certain ships. Interacting with ships that give me lots of annoyance would not do me good in actually curating my fandom experience. I refused to step on the grounds of ships I don’t like or care for for the sake of my sanity. I already suffered an Endhawks share on an instastory once and my brain broke so again for the sake of my sanity, it's better for me to even unfollow someone who would show Endhawks on their feed than have to see more of it. 

There are also ORV and Alien Stage fics that do have enemies or higher beings in power watching the series too so I don’t know what will change. All I know is that Secretive Plotter won’t be able to snatch up Dokja ASAP until maybe they leave the scenario. But even that's debatable considering the case of when Dokja will realize his feelings for his Joonghyuk over his obliviousness. Again, he'll learn who the fuck is Secretive Plotter in the first place anyways. 

From what I have seen of the ORV fic, there is an intention to show everyone this. If you know, you know. I don’t know how the fuck are going to change things because the reveal shows that it’s supposed to change things.  

I don’t know what will change when they finally leave the liminal space but at least we know there are changes. 

The ORV fic is Dramatis Personae and the ALST one is spectating our future. 

However, I do not know much of the latter fic to say that it will diverge outside of why letting the oppressors in on the future too? Let's hope and see something done because even in canon, I have yet to see how humans can reclaim their world from the aliens. 

For what it's worth about canon character watching canon, I have yet to see much that isn't just mediocrity.

Pin Collecting and Collecting as a Hobby

I keep getting myself into expensive hobbies. Gunpla, figure collecting, manga, books… Thankfully, they aren’t the first edition. 

Since I’m a veteran collector, I have seen complaints raised against pin makers that aren’t about money fulfillment of orders or updates about anything. It’s about quality and quantity. 

I know my limits. Heck, the Thanatos figure was a grail for a long time that it relied upon they rereleased it for the anniversary. 

I know that at this point in time, I don’t have enough speed to get anything that doesn’t have PayPal/Shop Pay. 

I know by now I cannot hesitate when it comes to drops. Mamobot trained me well with that lesson when I got cart swiped and paid more for it when preorders went up after it sold out. 

I know that I’m better at limited-time preorders than LE preorders. I cut my losses pretty naturally. I mean I can try to attempt but if it's like a pickup for a convention, it's a tossup if they can get it before sellout. Heck, I made my peace I didn't get one. 

No amount of guilt-tripping should have a pinmaker send personal copies to these guys. Listen I get you want the item but you are no more special than anyone who trying to buy the pin you wanted in question. 

If that was the case, they probably should've known how the pin community worked by now or arrived at a drop late. 

Not to mention drop buddies are a maybe, not a demand for satisfaction. I haven't drop buddy for anybody since I'm wary of my own money and that needs to go to necessary orders I want to keep. Still so happy with the pins I got in. 

Heck, I wasn’t expecting to get my beloved Pokemallow Dragonair at all. I was just one of the many who wanted the AX exclusives and I was lucky enough to get mine. She’s forever homed, my fave of all faves. 

I did not ask my pickup buddy for more than asked for and was willing to compensate if they had managed to snag that one. They didn't and it's fine. I didn't think I was deserving of it more than anyone else who was there. Heck, I managed to get it later even if it hasn't shipped at all at the time of writing. 

With scouring around reliable pin makers and their grading systems alongside people's experiences with the said grading system, I know reliable preorders that I will get the pin and the grades that aren't flawless because they're handmade. 

I know that pin makers have varied standards. There were lower grades that looked like it doesn’t have a flaw and there were those that people couldn’t believe it’s that bad. 

I can trust PSS’ B-grades for instance given the praise from people who bought from her hence I can buy off her that way without guilt. With her BOGO, she tried to match it with the pin you bought. I know somebody in the pin server I’m in got a Zelda freebie with the Xiao pop she got so I got an idea. Given I’m pretty much buying Genshin and HSR off her, yeah. 

If they can understand that pin makers have varying eyes for standards, then they should be able to make peace that it wouldn’t be perfect. 

I perfectly understand if a pin doesn’t have an art proof at ready by presale or you want to see a sample, hell if it weren’t for the fact that I needed to snatch a spot, then I wouldn’t be preordering as much. Sometimes preorders might be the only chance to get it. 

If people are unable to get past they won't be getting flawless pins completely and utterly, pin collecting isn't the hobby you should be in. All pinmakers including the bad ones outright said that they're handmade and thus prone to errors during the process. 

It has gotten to the point that I have seen a reliable pinmaker and popular one too forced to add mixed grade mention to any big three more pins, a size that should get more flaws with the more details it gets, or a pin set that will be prone to human error like hand mixing pearl or painted by hand.  

If they are forced to add that much detail albeit brief or even showing examples of what counts as each successive grade in their book, then maybe these complainers shouldn’t be in this hobby if they all want perfection. 

I won’t collect C-grades unless it’s my own chance for the pin or if I can trust people’s experiences. 

Even a detailed grading system is needed considering another maker had to try to set up a new one. 

No pin is ever flawless. The maker will try to quality check for the best ones to send out for preorders and won't ever send out their worst grades to those who preordered, those who waited for months. The worst grades are typically at a discount or explicitly said; if they are willing or don't care about it as long as they have it, they can have it. 

I don't know why these people are this mad about flaws even regarding standard or A-grades in general. I only collect lower grades if I can trust others to deliver or if it's the only chance I can get it. I got my Moulin Rouge pins at a B-grade. At the point in time, I really don't care as long as I have it. 

Now this is about the quantity. Depending on their lives, they can have open preorders or not. More often or not, they are often LE with the occasional reruns. 

Mamo and Nuwa leave their preorders open for a week with some going on for a few days. There are people who run on the higher ends that have extended preorder limits in the same way as they do such as Witchxing and Abigeyedowl. 

Not every pinmaker can make every pins they have open preorders. Maybe within a limited timeframe sure but limited nonetheless. 

LE is simply easier on what these pin makers can do. They might increase the numbers with more interest than they thought. 

Participate more if you want the numbers raised. If you want the number raised, comment. 

If you want the LE, go practice with the website, just don't press buy at the moment. Just click the buttons as fast as you can without buying the practice product. 

Practice makes things easier for you. It's how I managed to secure some of my snags for LE pins and gacha that sells out within a minute or two. 

After getting cart swiped which is not a great feeling, I know I have to have no hesitation. Actually, it was amazing that I wasn't cart-swiped with the Neuvi and Meg preorders I got probably because of the Shop Pay. 

Again, know your limits and if you want it, practice your speed with the preferred method of payment. 

Nobody is entitled to enamel pins, a hunk of metal. You can ask how to purchase but at the end of the day, ISO is there and given the right help, the pin might come to you. My Espeon Pokemallow was this. 

Now, I pay for keeps. I don’t preorder as often as I have seen others do in a month. I'm pretty sure people spend at least a thousand a month. I barely cracked 500 on my worst spending months. I already warned my wallet in July 2024 that it would experience pain. 

Sometimes there are preorders that came up that threw me off course from my intended budget for the month. I know this feeling all too well. Either it's pins that have been on my list forever, surprise art reveals, or characters I never intended to collect but will make an exception for this one. 

I wasn't intending to make a Disney collection by any means. I saw Nuwa Evil Queen and I fell down the rabbit hole. It does help that the Evil Queen was threefer (love the classic Disney Princesses as I watch it all the time as a kid so it's a great symbolism for that era, my love for villains, and it's a beauty). I saw Nuwa Mali and wasn't that interested but I'm awaiting her Lady Tremaine. 

I always planned to start an HSR pin collection but it kept pushing back until May. ORV is still pushed back due to budget reasons. If it weren't for the fact that Penacony finally pushed me into buying it, who knows how long it would take to get that into gear. My misgivings about the final execution of the entire Penacony in its totality aside, it's still the final straw for me to finally collect it with Aven being the main drive. 

I didn't intend to get a Jing Yuan in any case but the Midnightmoon Purple Chrome variant did the job for me and I made an exception for getting him. I do not plan to get the Minty Jing Yuan anyhow. 

If Sunday is indeed a makeover with black clothes, oh I'm so tempted to get him that way. That's an if. There’s one Sunday but I don’t know. Again, my primary focus is on Aven, Ratio, Acheron, and misc characters at this point. 

I'm honestly waiting for Abigeyedowl to release the Ever After pin set because, unlike others, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna get hers and put it on my Cinderella board. If she does indeed make the other Cinderella such as Ella and Kit, then I'm a goner. Again, the only exception for a Disney Princess I will collect will be Cinderella. Witchxing is on the radar for that alone for her Girl with Sword series which I made the exception of getting Punzie. 

All in all, a hobby should make you happy. Pin collecting is just one of the many expensive hobbies I partake in. Concentrating on a hobby makes you money rather than making you happy wouldn't make anybody happy.

Singularly focusing on a pin and nothing else isn't really good for the psyche and maybe they should take a step back from the hobby if they are that happy for not getting a pin. 

Because of my previous expensive hobbies, it's no harm done if I don't get the pin immediately. Fuck, I still haven't gotten to the Real Grade Gunpla my brother bought for me for my birthday because I don't feel that I'm not at that level yet. 

It’s simply for the peace of mind that I get the pin at preorder. 

Heck, I easily let pins I won't be able to get pass through me once I see I have no chance and maybe one I might possibly get it. 

What I won't let pass me are Mamo's preorders because from what I heard from him, the second wave of the Eevee Fusions have in-hands but for some of them, there won't be in-hands at all. Thank Arceus, I snagged them all. 

I understand if a maker won’t make extras or can’t. I have a bunch of miscellaneous men from Genshin and Honkai that I can sufficiently make an ita bag day for it if I feel like it. If I’m feeling Pokemon Chandelure one day then hot Hoyo guys next then Cinderellas next, who knows. Though with abigeyedowl I’m refusing to let that out of a shadowbox if the Cinderellas would ever be released for presales. 

My Yugioh collection is tiny. KHR, GX, Digimon, and even CCS suffered from being on the back burner. Been trying to get in the groove with my fave animanga CCS by getting a pin at last for it after so many Sailor Moons. 

It's also fine if art doesn't jive with you. I passed on a few artists because they simply aren't for me. Some styles just don't do it for me and it's okay. Honestly, given how many hours passed since then, I was able to live with that and didn't suffer any FOMO. 

I passed on several that won't ever have restocks again or have limited extras that I know will sell out quickly. Though some had been pushed to buying need once I saw the full art. God, I got a Kaveh at last to balance out the Aven now in time for Kaveh’s birthday too. 

If Pris.pins is doing her half of the HSR pins which includes the Ratio Chibi I needed, I will cry. I've been waiting for that Chibi to be in my possession one way or another. Putting Aven and Ratio next to each other is so nice. 

Again, I think my main problem was the temptation. So once the temptation solidified after months wait, yeah, it's going on the list. There had been solidified choices that made my wallet cry in terror. 

There are common themes to my collecting: As of note, I don't have traders usually. I would offer the pins I don't like that I either have to buy to get. I was able to offload one now even if I got it in presale. I have yet to sell the Link I have as I decided not to collect LOZ. 

I’m pickier than most people but my budget will balloon if something I had been eying have a surprise drop and I somehow snagged it. I knew July was gonna be a big spending month but it ballooned my budget through surprise drop and designs. Ugh, I’m pretty sure what my ballooned budget doesn’t even touch others and even my cousin’s combined budget for both gacha and her love for board games whether through kickstarters or bargain. She has two petting Sprigatito dolls. 

• Fave characters from a series that I have major love for in the past 10+ years 
• Fave characters from recent series that have my heart or still feel love even after not getting into since then only through the peripheral grasp of other means 
• Purple - depending on the design, I have to get it. If it’s one of the two variants, so far I picked those two already. I didn’t intend to collect Jing Yuan but have a purple variant nor do I intend to collect Punzie but have Witchxing Girl with Swords purple variant. I don't collect all characters who have the motifs of purple in them such as Raiden Ei or Punzie. I much prefer Sailor Saturn or Kafka. At least I’m collecting the purple characters I like. 
• Pretty art that is up my alley. See Witchxing Girl with Swords Punzie purple variant and so much more. I do not collect Apothecary Diaries yet have one. I’ll likely get PSS Sunday but Aven will remain a priority with Acheron and Ratio due to being buff as he is going to be in the limited ones like Haitham. Maybe get Minty Sunday but since I wasn’t a fan of the Minty Kafka design, I’ll stick with PSS topper for the preference that the Pop didn’t entice enough with the purple. I'll just gift these Sundays to my cousin after a while of displaying and keeping them for a bit for the art alone. 
• Encapsulation or telling a story - I'm a sucker for stories so it's a given if it's an encapsulation of say foils or relationships to an extent, I'm more driven to get it. Hence the only MHA and AD pins I will ever own. Nuwa's recent series The Landscapes is up my alley in these terms but I'm not feeling a need, only temptation.

From what is above, do not compare your collection to others. You do not need artists and pinmakers' pins that are out of your reach if it's out of your budget or another. 

For example, I'm still wary of spending 100 on a pin and that's without shipping. I can spend if it's just a little over 100 only if the shipping goes over that. I can spend over 100 and even some 200 on a set and that's because it's a set. 

I struggle to think of spending over a hundred for a pin so that's why I prefer to buy presales from Witchxing than in-hands or aftermarket for her to keep it down. 

Just know the limits of your budget and yourself and decide what matters most to you in your collection. You know your collection and comparison aren't good for your mental health, be it jealousy, cockiness, or another negative emotion. 

Staying in pin clubs especially when I previously missed out on exclusive drops for said pin club is what I know I want to do. I refuse to step out of Mamo and Nuwa's pin clubs because what if I missed an exclusive drop that is for Patrons only?? 

I’m attempting one and hope to Godoka and Arceus I snag it. I need the Neuvi for my board and I’m so happy I snagged it. The beauty would go great on that board. The colors would do well even if I put my Childe on there or heck my Suicunes. 

I followed Reylo shipper pinmakers. The ship itself is more of a pesky fly than something I prefer not to see in my feed hence me unfollowing any maker even making a mention about EndHawks. Sorry, that ship gives me psychic damage whereas Reylo is an annoying fly. Honestly, lucky them because I would’ve avoided the hell out of more great artists if Reylo became the level of avoidance for peace of mind that only one ship had. NaruHina a popular ship in the pin-making community just make me sigh and move on while I try to out that movie out of my mind, and worst case feeling uncomfortable. I don’t want to unfollow these artists. 

I dedicated a chunk of my budget to Witchxing Girl with Sword Punzie which I know is a need. Nuwa, as the one who careened me into collecting Disney with her beautiful Evil Queen, is tempting me with the Kiss the Girl Landscape in particular but if she had done Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, I would've bought it. Again I only collect Disney if they are villainous, Cinderella, or if it's misc, then it has to be something that I really love for my collection. As someone who loves Sleeping Beauty art, I would love that. Again, Nuwa only with misc hoping to Abigeyedowl and Witchxing. Maybe Mamo would have continued the Fashion Disney because I would've purchased the Yzma. I joined Nuwa's patreon mainly for her FTD though I did get her Sakura once a spot opened up for her but with FTD expanding to others than just Disney, I'm happy enough to hope one day to get an FTD of the others she's drawing that is not Disney if the design drives a need. 

For budget reasons, I have to pick and choose. For example, in August, since between a series I like and a character I love, it’s the one design of a character I will love forever that gets me. I had to choose. It’s for the sake of my wallet, I’ll go with my collection than something I promised myself I can’t collect. 

I collect Disney very casually for peace of mind. If anything, my wallet is mainly screaming in pain due to the magical girls, Genshin, and HSR purchases. Hence, I reserve my Disney purchases to Nuwa mostly with special occasions going to Witchxing and Abigeyedowl. 

I've been trying to look for Sailor Saturn filler pins so I've been on the lookout for LavenderxSilvy Outer Senshi filler pins and Cutematter's Kickstarter which I know will feature Saturn. I know that with any upcoming Saturns I will get, filler pins are the way to go at this point should I get the board that satisfies my favorite scout. 

I know I'm switching between an ita bag or a board or both for my Kaveh collection. Aven has the same amount too. 

Saturn exceeds the number but nowhere near others’ collections. Even my Pokemon collection which far exceeds Saturn in number has different Pokemon with the only Dragonair getting 3 and Mimikyu 4, Psyduck at 2. By number, Pokemon is my largest with magical girls coming in second with my Sailor Moon purchases inching it closer. By individual characters, Saturn won by a long shot with Kaveh and Aven coming close behind at 4 each. Serenity, Sakura Kinomoto, Cass Cain, and so many more sat at 2 or 1. In the case of Zhongli, Chiori, Acheron… it’s nothing even though I want to collect them. Ironically, despite not wanting to collect SatoSugu as an exclusive OTP, I got 5, technically 4 since it's a variant so about the same length as my fave sailor senshi... I'm stubbornly going to put together an OTP board so SatoSugu is not getting a board of their own I refuse. 

Compared to my cousin's spending on her hobbies, I'm more restrained even when I spend close to 3000 in the course of a year, it's nothing compared to her addiction to her gacha games and her board games addictions. She spent more in a year than I did in a single year of my pin-collecting hobby. 

Just putting down what I want in future presales barring any surprises just makes my soul go up in smokes. I got my credit card but a slight decrease in paycheck might hinder if I plan everything right barring a few surprises. I’m still considering any Mamo Moon Prism Project Serenity and that’s it since I collect Blonde Serenity (white haired Serenity isn’t my thing or at worst a shade of gray that isn’t in the original art so forgive me I want the blonde ones more) only as well as eying a variant about FTD Neo-Queen Serenity. Again, I turned into a Serenity collector by an artist and it was so slippery that I utterly refused to do that again with other characters of any media I love. Fuck, I am stopping myself at 4 Sundays, literally zero chibis. Luckily, I found almost nothing regarding PGSM pins so I have to wait to see Dark Mercury again from Mamo. At least unlike Serenity, there is almost zero Darkury I can choose from. 

At least with Disney, I allow myself to have all except Frozen, Pocahontas, Wish, Raya, and Brave. I'm open to everything but those. Because it's still under the Disney umbrella, I can collect pins from Nuwa. 

I do not have enough props at home to make pin pictures. Just showing it in bags and shadowboxes is enough for me to decorate. I still have to make my shrines and boards because that's far more of a priority than having a pin pic with a background I barely use. Giving shrines to my fave characters and fave designs is enough to push me through the pin box purgatory. My pins are stuck in boxes and I really love to decorate them. I have so many ideas for my beloved Saturn, Kaveh, and Aventurine boards or at least interchangeable swapping from board to ita with Kaveh in particular. I do not have it in me to have that many pins to flex more or less. Even my one of my insta highlights became a pin mail but it's not all of them. I was too lazy to take pics of then pin mail and only used the pics I had in my photos at that time sent to people who knew my hobby. Some individual pins will get their own special singular board. I have some ideas for some already but I have to spice up the board a bit. 

I can do work-in-progress photos of pinboards and ita bags that I will just end up putting on the walls or bookshelves whereas pin mail would just be photos that I had sent to others that I later used for stories. 

Journey into Pin Collecting

 

I never expected to fall down this rabbit hole. 

After experiencing things that are normal to pin collectors in the community, I'm still learning. This glossary here is useful. If I never need help regarding designing pins, I refer to this to achieve the best I want.

While I spent over a thousand at this point, I considered myself still pretty decent. I think I gave up a lot of potential pins because I could live without them or put them off till later. 

Honestly, with the pin collecting, I’m getting to know myself as to what themes I subconsciously lean-to. 

I love Nuwa’s art but I wasn’t intending to get any Disney fantasy pins at all until I laid my eyes on the Evil Queen. It's too lovely not to have and now I’m building up a Disney Villain board with Nuwa Yzma being my first FTD preorder. I mean who wouldn’t get Yzma? 

I still like glittery diamonds enough. I still like light designs of my favorite designs in a particular series. 

However, I noticed I tend to pick the goth and dark designs even with the cute and girly designs is a theme even with the theme of characters representing darkness death, and destruction. 

My first Patreon reward was Nuwa Sakura for November. My second and third were Mamobot Dragonair and Califlair's new theme series that will be delivered in February. I refuse to leave those three pin clubs particularly not letting go of Califlair's pin rewards after seeing the two so far. My third was Califlair’s Angel & February reward. 

FTD Yzma is my first ever FTD preorder whereas my first ever Patreon discount was the three Fashion Gardevoirs I've wanted. I haven't exactly had a true Patreon early access preorder from Mamobot just yet. Moon Prism Project Saturn is my first Patreon exclusive preorder as all I seen from the series it’s all in the pin club shop. I don’t think it was ever in the public shop. 

Neuvi Tarot is my first PSS pin whereas the Childe PoP I refuse to give up is my second PSS pin, both preorders. 

My first-ever group presale is the Silvy Moonie Saturn and I need to buy it the moment it releases. I do not know how many spots are there but it’s probably 40-ish given the previous full presale; surprisingly only two so far managed to get full: Riftan and Saturn. I scored a spot as soon as I got the confirmation of the group formation and now awaiting the date. 

I have seen the Mercury presale and already taken off after the first day and probably all of the group members paid already. I have seen early access members paying by other means than this. 

As much as I will be in pin jail for that, as long as I don't spend way more than I'm expecting, I'm okay. Honestly, as long as Mamobot doesn't fail me now by releasing the Eeveelution Crossbreeds Wave 1 in February, then I'm fine. 

Thank god I mostly stick with Saturn and Moon, but the only sometimes is because there is so much that I would buy at one point. 

Getting access to pin clubs is like getting crack to be honest. Nuwa's FTD series and Mamobot releasing early access Patreon open preorders are so bad to me but I know when to pick and choose. I feel like I'm being forced to pick and choose the Eeveelution Crossbreeds but I have to get the ones I know I need as February will be the hardest obstacle to get over. 

Because I'm actually spending not that much by comparison to others, in fact, I think what I'm spending in February alone is comparable to one of my cousins spending on a Kickstarter bundle that included add-ons of specials, I'm only focusing on designs I wanted. Sure I follow over a hundred artists on Instagram, but I'm only focusing on what I can do right now. Heck, I haven't spent anything on Mamobot in January other than getting the monthly reward. 

I'm investing in Califlair as I plan to stay all year. I'm staying in Mamobot and Nuwa's Patreon for obvious reasons. I don't plan to join any Kickstarters even for any ita bag once I manage to scrouge enough to buy an ita bag for my liking. I only joined a DC Kickstarter once and I've fallen down the rabbit down to not join a Kickstarter at the moment. 

Even if the creators are now limiting the LE so as not to create any dead stock, creators are still upping their game all over the place. I have seen pin designs that are just so good and there are some I know I can't pass up comes the preorder date like Silvy Moonie Saturn that I refuse to let go. 

Sure there are some stray pins I'm eying like from PSS and if a design I really love pops up in Discord Instagram or Patreon, it's all up in the air. The only designs that I know I want are up on Mamobot 

And I was right. Mamobot threw my intended budget out the window with the release of Eeveelution Fusions Wave 1 and Moon Prism Project Saturn. I was just lucky I only spent 109 previously including the pin clubs I stayed in but Mamobot revealed the Jirachi one and I really like this reward.  

In February alone, I will wound up preordering two Saturns, one from Mamo and the other from Silvy. They are going to look great in my Saturn shrine anyway so no regrets. No regret buying Wave 1 either. 

I already have two boxes at this point with the Wave 1 plus Saturn and the other was six of Wave 2 Fashion Gardevoirs. I'm pretty sure my 212 order that comes with a freebie pin and a free Mamocard essentially brought up the total to 15 items in total all of which are two inches with one 2.85 with the card being a card so it has to be a Mamobox. 

The start of February and the tail end of January already have been one bad financial decision after another. But those are designs I don’t regret. I cannot regret the upcoming Childe PoP that I have been waiting a long time for. At this point, after February, I’m gonna stick with planned purchases. 

Though with Mamobot’s sets I’m eying, some surprises that would set me off to get the earliest and cheapest pricing I can get. The Saturns could be counted as impulse purchases but they are also planned ones as I told myself that I only want Moon Prism Project Saturn and that PoP. I told myself Saturn and maybe Moon and haven’t stepped out since. 

I prefer to get them at the early bird price rather than later. I’m still spending badly but less. 

Since my budget is way off now, I will see if the Dabihawks zine leftovers and Dark Miku will be released in February to budget for the reward and the other Saturn. Honestly, I also need to see Nuwa's March reward and her FTD release to be sure too. At least I'm gonna score the Childe PoP. 

Mamo and Nuwa usually do open preorders for an entire week with an early bird discount is what I will try to get even after work. PSS always did a 48-hour preorder period only extending if not getting preorders to justify production; she only recently did the IF series as a week-long to have more than one character per month. I hope to see Itto and Kazuha even Tomo. 

I also have to take into account future waves of the Eevee Fusions because I need to buy them as well as Wave 3 of Fashion Gardevoir. I already completed Moon Prism Project Saturn, I just need to focus on Pokemon for Mamobot. I can’t afford another Moon Prism Project when the Eevee Fusions are calling me; I promised myself Saturn and that's it on the Moon Prism maybe with the possibility of Moon/Serenity. 

Again, other than Mamobot and Nuwa, I’m looking at PSS and hopefully, Zupins, the latter of which I hope to open an OP for a design I really want. 

There might be stray designs that would come up that are going to be hard to pass up on my budget. Silvy Moonie Saturn ended up being that and Nuwa Yzma. 

I know PSS will be plenty hard on my budget and no less following over a hundred Instagram accounts when it pops up a design or an in-hand sale I've been wanting for a while. 

To save as much money as I can, I have to see what Mamobot aka the Dark Miku and Nuwa aka the FTD and the monthly reward have to offer as well as any news on the Dabihawks zine leftovers to get certain designs such as PSS' Zhongli while still retaining one paycheck for a design I joined a group for. Mamobot already threw me off budget. Though after the eyeliner weirdness on the finished IF one, I’m wary and now aimed for a Zupins OP. 

I want the Zhongli but have to give up the Jirachi and if Mamobot releases the Dark Miku in February, I would likely have to give up the Zhongli for the time being or even look forward to the in-hand release of it or find another Zhongli. Again, it all depends on so many factors at this rate that the only thing I know I can spend on is the Silvy Moonie Saturn and IF Childe PoP. I refuse to give up the Dabihawks pin and now a Wriolette pin. Those will do great on my OTP board. 

I can give up that Zhongli for Midnightmoon Zhonglis. If there is a Zhongli open preorder for Zupins, you bet I’m gonna buy it. I mean there's a new series supposedly with Kaeya open preorder in January, I don't know what is coming next now that I finally followed her at last. 

Push comes the shove, I have to sell some pins. I'm considering the freebies I don't like and impulse purchases. I'm only going to sell some of my personal collection if I'm gonna make something from it. I'm likely going to sell the Nuwa Cinderella and focus entirely on villains for Nuwa. 

I can just sell the Nuwa Link and Nuwa Cinderella next month or this month for some quick cash. Unfortunately, I have to sell them but it’s for funds and I can part with it. 

I didn't want to sell the Nuwa Link after seeing the sample but if I have to. 

I am cautious about Silvy now, especially after seeing the Sakura, Syaoran, Venus, and maybe Riftan. Pluto did turn out great as does previous turnouts like Luna and Serenity. The skin for Sakura and Syaoran turns out too dark and the coloring is off from the original art so it didn't translate the shadowing and bright lights as it should've done. As for Venus, the hair splays to the side whereas the flowers on the left are on two levels. 

I know pins are artistic interpretations of the original art and aren't one-to-one but at least try matching. The worst I saw was somehow just changing the colors outright and UV printing exclusively to the exclusion of everything that could be done to make look good. I have no idea what happened to that pin in particular because it's so changed and so disappointing that it didn't try to match. 

Mamobot is great with Pantone and his pastels always turn out great. 

All I know about Sakura is that when presale buyers in the group noticed the darker skin, it was too late to ask her to change it because she already put it into mass production at that point. What I can say in the end, the pins are pretty but overbaked or have slight inconsistencies that might detract if noticed just enough. 

They are still pretty pins but I just hope that she doesn't stray too far from the original art to match it in some way in her later pins. I have not seen a production sample of Mars yet.  

Her style of shadows and bright lights can work but not always so I hope Saturn turns out great. I know that she always uses effects to raise the price extremely that she and her business partner exclusively sell expensive pins. 

At least her other series are doing fine. 

Pin mails have been a pick-me-up treat. Finally receiving the first pin mail of February certainly makes me happy. I’m waiting for the Dragonair and Fashion Gardevoirs to arrive especially putting the Dragonairs side by side. In March, it’s the Nuwa Link and Califlair again. Unless the largest Mamobot preorder comes in late March, I’m happy. In April, there would be a lot of packages. 

Again, preorders and pin rewards. 

I don’t know about in hands yet but I hope I get the Dark Miku and Dabihawks pin. Those are priorities at the moment as in hands. Maybe the Wriolette pin but that’s not a priority. 

Future preorders would be Eevee Fusions Wave 2 and 3 complete sets (since there are 9 in total, there’s gonna be three waves about 185 at early bird pricing so two more to go) and Fashion Gardevoir Wave 3 some pins (I must get Mew and Florges). It’s very rare for me to want to have the whole set and the Eevee Fusions put me over the edge because every design is too good not to have. 

I knew one of these days I would be spending close to 200 or just a little 200 on Mamobot as I will use the discount codes when I can if only to save money. 

I really like freebie stickers. It's either of the designs I didn't like enough to get as pins like the two Fashion Gardevoir stickers I have of the original and the Butterfree design. I actually like the Butterfree sticker well enough but does it ignite a feeling of FOMO? Just a little but not enough especially in the month I'm prioritizing certain pins. I've seen the pins I didn't buy in better lighting and it looks good but not enough for me to buy it and keep it for life. To be honest, I'd rather get the Sylveon Fusion with Beautifly rather than the Butterfree Gardevoir. At least that would fit in nicely with the Goth Pokemon board I'm basically designing. I tend to be drawn to the relatively dark designs of Mamo's art because it's for my inner Goth lolita soul hence the Dark type Miku. With some exceptions, I'd prefer some Shiny designs over the original. 

Even if the Dark Miku isn’t going to be released in February, I still have to go and basically practice for its eventual drop so I can grab and go but without buying the practice item. 

Pokemon will always be my biggest collection by far. Again, Mamobot is piling that up. 

I haven’t collected CCS and other magical girls in a while. I’m considering MonocacyBottomPins’ upcoming Syaoran or Tomoyo whereas I bought two Saturns in one month. However, there’s Meg I’m looking forward to. I am keeping my Disney collection as small as I can with Nuwa, Mamobot, and maybe some extras. I’m hoping that Nuwa doesn’t release an FTD I want in February because for Mamobot, I am focusing exclusively on the Dark Miku for in-hand drop whereas focusing on preordering for the ones I wanted even if again it would set me back 185. I haven’t heard anything about the Dabihawks leftovers as the last round of shipping batches has yet to be announced nor have the leftover sales been announced; all I know is they were shorted an item. In fact, I have no idea which item was shorted and there is still no news of delivery batches sent of the remaining packages. 

My Digimon and shounen collection is so tiny. Disney is only inching just as much as Sailor Moon through Saturns and whatever comes up. I'm keeping an eye out for any interesting Saturn/Hotaru Tomoe designs that might come up from reliable pin makers. I love Saturn's OG costume though so I kept an eye out for that too. 

My love for magical girls is mighty but I haven't decided on any CCS lately, only Saturns. Pokemon is my priority more so than anything interesting that might be up for Nuwa's FTD series. If it’s like Jasmine a design I can live without, I can skip. If not, we shall see. If it’s Alice, I’m in trouble because she can do youthful characters. I preordered Yzma so quick as it’s the quickest I did for Nuwa notwithstanding the drops for Mamobot because I will be fighting. I can’t be cart swiped for the Dark Miku. 

Like I collect and love Moulin Rouge, but I don’t collect all Disney crossover with it. I prefer to see Satine and Christian than having characters in those roles.

Thankfully I'm not trying to collect that much Disney, only the designs that interest me though I would love a Yzma from Mamobot. 

Honestly, it helps that I'm already picky so I usually just pick up designs I actually want to keep forever. I aim for preorders from very reliable pin makers who fulfill orders and preorders in an orderly manner. Honestly, Mamo and Nuwa are like machines more Mamo as his customers get preorders earlier, and if something is late, he’ll let us know as it took nearly two months for me to get the Dragonair. Even then, getting the rewards is still timely as we can get it the month of or within one to two months. 

Califlair is also reliable because her pins are tiny and single-layer unless they are on the bigger side. Unless something comes up, she gives news in the newsletter. 

The drama with Different Distractions with Jessica admitting to it was just awful, especially with the rumors against reliable pin makers or those who make so many orders in a month but barely show the manufacturing process. 

In fact, one creator I’m following had a lot of uploads on pins that people haven’t seen yet on the updates. The only thing missing is the Mars pin. 

I don’t follow scammers or those that take years. Unlike Hederahelix who has artisan pins made, they are always on time and never ever take as much time as Man on the Moon or Nyxxi. I would like a HederaHelix pin one day but I feel justifying one hundred for a pin is too much for me. Still, if I somehow scored a preorder because I can trust them, others I feel I can’t lest it falls through as one case I saw where it took a year to refund. Hederahelix can take up to two years for their most complicated pins but will give updates. 

My rule of thumb is to affordable as long as I'm willing and able to be selective for creators. At the moment, I'm a dedicated customer of Mamobot foremost with Nuwa closely behind. I cannot afford Califlair unless I spend a bulk on her once a year so it's best for my budget that I stay in her pin club. 

Most designs I do want are concentrated on Mamobot with some stray designs that are often out there.

I prefer to stay in Mamobot and Nuwa's pin clubs for the foreseeable future as they are often the most affordable and accessible. The open preorders they do are like heaven for a newbie like me. 

Honestly, thank god I'm not a massive Sailor Moon and Disney collector. I never bought from Different Distractions and thank my lucky star I did not when I have been eying others within my budget. I didn’t have any thought of buying from Silvy and Lavender until I saw Saturn. 

Seriously, again Saturn especially if it's a design or a line that I would've like such as Mamobot's Moon Prism Project that is Patreon pin club exclusive then I have to get it. I have zero clues about Mamobot if he's going to release the second wave of the Eevee fusions next month because late March at the very least will be the preorders sent out for Wave 1. 

I know that Sailor Moon, Disney, and Pokemon are enough to create a whole category for pin/sticker clubs. Silvy has a whole Moonie Club while Poroful has Pokemon Food tier club as examples. Noddiart has SM and Disney categories as well as Ghibli is another example of a dedicated fandom club. 

If you really like the artist and you really like the characters of a particular fandom in their style, then go for it. 

Though considering some pin club tiers sometimes have limited spots so there will be spots to essentially fight for. 

Of the creators I'm currently buying, Mamobot and Nuwa are basically crack for a newbie. Again, relatively affordable if you can be selective. I can't afford to stay out of planned purchases now. Nuwa creates great designs so I would like to set aside money for them but it depends on the design. Yzma won over my heart less so her Jasmine Red. I love Yzma so I have to get her never mind that Nuwa drew her absolutely gorgeous. Her art on Alice is nice but no dice in keeping it forever. I can see myself keeping the Evil Queen, Vanessa, and Yzma forever. Yzma has the honor of being my fastest FTD and in general pin preorder yet. To be fair, getting the Moulin Rouge pins was fairly fast too as I want to keep those forever. 

As for ita bags, I’m even more pickier. It was only recently I wanted an ita bag and it was a Mehrak ita bag too. My Genshin pins which are still in the production phase are limited to three. I love Kaveh and it should be appropriate that I should get another Kaveh pin. My first Genshin preorder was Kaveh amusingly so it’s fitting my first ita bag is Kaveh-themed even if it’s gonna be a Genshin bag in the end due to my pickiness even with my OTP pins. Getting Velkia pins is a must and obviously go great with the bag. Now the pins turn three to five with the Velkia pins that I have to get both of. My second Kaveh and first Al-Haitham. I haven’t gotten a Zhongli yet! I don’t know if that’s comical or just haven’t found the right one. 

I still haven’t done up my goth Pokemon board mostly because I don’t have the centerpieces and lots of others. They are Mamobot-only designs. For example, my much-needed Dark Miku and the darker colored Eevee Fusions (Sylveon fusion with Beautifly for example is such a need especially would look great on the goth Pokemon board). I can't build a board just yet without those and their specs. 

The Disney board is what I'm trying to keep relatively small. I have no clue why I had a Disney Villain board even when the Evil Queen started out that Disney collection. Still have no clue how to go about that especially when I don't know if Nuwa is gonna release more designs I like. Yzma was the last FTD I liked so I hope to see more. Again, I'm not planning too big a Disney collection. It was Nuwa who kicked it off. 

As always, there are artists commissioned or otherwise who won’t do certain fandom stuff. David J Brunson, an exclusive artist for the Pin Hut and Pinchantress, refused to do anime after only doing 2 Demon Slayer designs for the former, as he considered the medium perverted; what to note was his outburst to someone asking about them was unwarranted and really shouldn't be said to make anyone feel unsafe in the community so Pin Hut and Brunson apologized in a post acknowledging he knows nothing about anime with the latter taking down the story itself. He took time off after that to reevaluate himself and from what I saw, he doesn't have many stories other than previews of his art. Penguchan refused to do any Hazbin Hotel designs as she dislikes the show. 

Just because they are well-respected artists in the pin community does not mean they will get on every trend or like everything. There are other fish in the sea. 

However, as anime is very popular as well as any current hot topic fandom that arises from anything popular, there are other fish in the sea. If you want detailed hot waifus and husbandos, you can look elsewhere. Heck, some shops have NSFW artwork for pins. 

Just a heads up and really a sensible thing though these artists have to say that. Anyhow, Mr Brunson is the permanent artist for two people so his commissions are coming in great for his profits as he’s primarily a Disney fantasy pin seller. 

I still have no clue why I got myself into an expensive hobby. Combined with ita bag/display case/shadowbox, my spending on pins is considerably less than others. I would know considering the pin discord server I’m in prominently, it doesn’t even scratch the surface. My big money spenders usually goes to four people now: Mamobot, Nuwa, PSS, and MintyxPins now that I joined her HSR club. 

There are designs I simply cannot leave thus it had planned even before my bank account is treading closer below the needed amount that I would have to pay a waiver. 

Sure, there are pin makers I follow so I can get varied art of characters. Been eying a couple Genshin pins from Putorblue. If anything, those threw me off. 

Like Genshin, I’m trying to narrow down characters I like. For Genshin, it’s Kaveh, Childe, Neuvilette, Zhongli, and a little bit of Alhaitham and misc characters. Yeah, female characters in Genshin have potential but it’s really hard to when I’ve been burned too many times by it even when these ladies can be well-written at times. After Signora, I'm just waiting for Arlecchino to get me the bad crazy villain with potential that can be fulfilled. After Raiden Shogun, I felt too burned to get future Archons including Furina and Nahida which didn't convince me enough to collect them. Genshin, can I get my evil villains or morally ambiguous women like Ruan Mei or Sparkle, I'm begging? I don't want waifus, just my villains. 

For Honkai, it’s Aventurine, Dan Heng, Dan Feng, Blade/Yingxing, and a bit of Dr. Ratio and maybe Firefly and Acheron. Again, the ladies can be well-written but it’s just hard after being burned by Genshin’s writing of women and unwillingness to take potential. 

Hunk designs I’m not drawn to since hunks aren’t my preferred type. Any Haitham and Ratio pins are under that many hoops for me to consider. I think what got me was Ratio’s weirdo and fan service combo whereas Alhaitham as a foil got me. 

Choosing to collect ORV after getting the Dabihawks pin is for my sanity. ORV became one of my favorite pieces of literature ever. It’s just best for my sanity and wallet I get it after I get my only MHA pin. 

I'm already planning to collect lots of Honkai pins after all. I'm not collecting Boothill in the same way as I will not be collecting Itto. Genshin has a whole lot of likable characters but I'm going to specifically aim to collect only characters I know I'll keep forever. I'm just hoping to see more Ratio and 

Getting pins of one of my fave books of all time is a thing I need to have because I don't know if ORV is going to get the MXTX treatment with the books translated. The webtoon is made into comic books that you can buy and translate so I would take what I can get.