(no subject)

[shadowkat]

1. Livejournal, Facebook and now Tumblr have lost subscribers to DW, because of their assinine practices. This is hilarious.

The latest?

Apparently Tumblr decided Adult Content Will No Longer Be Permitted -- I'm guessing they got tired of the pornography?

Only one small problem, 98% of fanfic is rather explicit. I mean people like to write explicit sex scenes in fanfic, along with graphic violence, and foul language.

Watch the fandom flee in droves to Dreamwidth and PillowFort.

Facebook is getting in trouble for other reasons. My love/hate relationship with the forum continues.

2. I rather liked selenak's review of the latest Doctor Who episode, and agree with it.

3. Ah...my favorite character is being resurrected in the X-men starting in January.

Which isn't necessarily good news...because this means, I'll have to waste more money on X-men comics.

And yes, I know, I'm the only person on my flist or DW that appears to like him. That's okay.
I don't mind. Had the same problem with Battle Star Galatica. I've a history of liking characters others don't.

Doctor Who? River Song
BattleStar Galatica S1 and S2 - Apollo (everyone else loved Starbuck, I loved Apollo. I know weird).
X-men: Cyclops. (Everyone else loves Wolverine, Gambit, Magneto and Xavier...)
Buffy: Willow, Spike, Anya and Giles (actually I found a lot of people who liked those characters...so hello, fandom!)
The Monkeeys: Davy Jones (Everyone I know now, liked Mickey for some reason.)
Battle of the Planets: Mark
Lord of the Rings: Frodo
Farscape: Crichton
Angel the Series: Lilah, Wesley, Illyria, Drusilla, Darla, Spike
Harry Potter: Luna Lovegood, Hermonie, Snape, and Harry
Vampire Diaries: Damon, Alaric, Bonnie
DC Legends of Tomorrow: Constantine -- I may watch this for him. I like the actor, he's perfect.
The Avengers: Iron man and Doctor Strange
Star Trek: Kirk, Picard, Tom (Voyager), and Kira
DC Universe: Batman
Wyonna Earp: Doc Holliday -- I'm really only watching for him. Although I do like Wyonna.
Breaking Bad? Weirdly, Walt's brother-in-law -- who I kept rooting for.
Supernatural: Dean

4. Pointed Essay Comparing the Russia Investigation to Fandom Wars

We, the readers and viewers of 2018, are consuming the Russia investigation news like we’re part of the biggest internet fandom there’s ever been. We’re in the throes of fan theories, fictions, wars, and everything else, alert to and at the mercy of the next development, whatever produces that feeling where your eyes feel like they’re both jumping out of your head and melting.

There’s a missing professor, a Moscow deal, a porn star, a Russian spy, a Russian billionaire, his son, his son’s music promoter, highly lucrative overseas political consulting, secret memos, secret recordings of calls, secret payoffs, surveillance warrants, the existence of Carter Page, the vagueness of that Trump Tower meeting, the dossier, the overheard lunches, the texts between the FBI agents, the love affair between George and Simona, the emergence of Michael Avenatti, the latter-day resurrection of Rudy Giuliani and Lanny Davis, and on and on and on and on — an ever-expanding formation of surreal plots and mundane process details.

It’s the best TV show Donald Trump will ever create. And you’re either really into the Russia investigation or not much at all, and the people who get really into the Russia investigation can end up in weird places.

Reminds me of William Gibson's Pattern Recognition. Also how people in the Buffy fandom attempted to dissect the show by claiming that clues were hidden in the costumes and set design as to where the series would end up. Or in the episode Restless.

The human mind can be a scary place, and even scarier when combined with a bunch of bored like-minded obsessed souls.

Maybe we should all take a guided trip on LSD. Maybe we already have...and this is a hallucination?
Hey, I can dream.

Comments

[dar_vidder]

Apollo was my fave, too! It was hard for me to appreciate BSG in the later seasons - for many reasons - one of which was that I felt like the writers lost interest in Lee along the way, and that bummed me out because he was the character I was most interested in. And your HP and Buffy faves are my faves as well.

It's funny with HP how you can viscerally feel how JK Rowling feels about each of her characters. Her regard (or lack thereof) for them colors everything they say/do...like, there's palpable love for Hermione and Harry and to a lesser degree, Luna. But she hated Snape with a vengeance, and I think in some ways that backfired for me and made me more willing as a reader to give him the benefit of the doubt.

[jesuswasbatman]

From what I'm reading the people who are really suffering from this are the fanartists and original artists, as apparently there is no other site that really offers the functionality that Tumblr does for them (AO3 doesn't host fanart itself but requires you to link to it on other sites, Dreamwidth doesn't have that great image functionality).

[shadowkat]

I'd agree. You can't do fanart or even pictures well on DW. It has almost 0 functionality for images. I gave up finally. LJ was actually easier, and Tumblr was perfect, except for the reposting bit which irritated me from a copyright perspective.

We still have Instagram...but it's not a good place for fanart either, other art maybe, but not fandom.

[spikewriter]

You are not the only one who likes Cyclops. I like him, too -- though there's a few writers I'd like to hunt down for character assassination.

Have you listed to the podcast Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men (Because it's about time someone did)? Jay Edlin is a big Cyclops fan.

[shadowkat]

I like him, too -- though there's a few writers I'd like to hunt down for character assassination.

Didn't know you liked him. For some reason I thought you were mainly a Magneto fan? (or maybe I'm confusing you with Shapinglight?)

But, I get wanting to hunt down a few of the writers for character assassination. I got very annoyed with their attempt to turn the character into an anti-hero and Wolverine into his conscience.. Schism made no sense. They basically flipped the characters of Wolverine and Cyclops, which didn't work at all. Wolverine and Cyclops, as a result, were out of character for a very long time.

The one's who have taken over the X-verse recently, apparently do like Cyclops and did not like the junior versions of the X-men. They appear to be dismantling all the stuff Brian Bendes and his team put in place. We have the Inhumans' failure last year and Disney's buy-out of Fox's movie properties, to thank for a return to form plus the less-than-stellar ratings for MoA.

Have you listed to the podcast Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men (Because it's about time someone did)? Jay Edlin is a big Cyclops fan.

No, I'm not sure if I have or not. I've watched a lot of Youtube on the X-men though and particularly on Cyke.

• I have however, discovered that around August, there were more people online who liked the character than previously and who felt that the writers failed the character horribly. They wanted him back. But that didn't happen until this summer. Previously, everyone hated him. *

*It was odd because the writers had made me despise Wolverine (and he's one of my favorite characters) in their attempt to make him the good guy vs. Cyclops anti-hero. Also it was a combination of over-exposure and self-righteous hypocrisy (which is sort of out of character for Wolverine). *

[spikewriter]

No, it must have been ShapingLight. I love early Claremont era Mags, but when I was first reading X-Men, which was in its reprint stage, I found myself more reflected in Cyclops than “the girl.” It’s like Scott was the oldest child and never allowed to forget he had to be the responsible one. Oh, I knew nothing about that at all. :: rolls eyes ::

I have enjoyed the junior X-Men because I think he reminded people why they liked Cyclops in the first place — before the writers decided to use him as a convenient puching bag. It really started in ‘86 with X-Factor and Scott abandoning his wife and child and returning to the team. This was not the character I’d been reading for a good 15 years at that point. (We won’t even go into what they did to Madelyne Pryor, whom I have a certain soft spot for because of reasons.)

So there’s that stupidity, followed by more, then he finally marries Jean — and ends up cheating on her with Emma Frost. And all that before Schism. There are reasons I have thrown up my hands and walked away from time to time.

So with you on the over-exposure and self-righteous hypocrisy for Wolverine. Even when he was dead, we all knew they wouldn’t be able to resist brining him back. My favorite version of the character is as he was in issue #2 of the Claremont/Miller mini-series. That take has been gone a long, long time.

But I do recomend X-Plain the X-Men. Pro-Cyclops, not thrilled with Wolverine’s over-exposure, absolutely anti-Deadpool and firm believers that Professor X is a jerk.

[shadowkat]

Ah. Yeah, I like Mags well enough -- but much like Wolverine, I think the character has suffered from over-exposure and one too many retcons. First he's Jewish, then he's a Gypsey, first he's a villain, then he's just misunderstood...my favorite Magneto arc is Fatal Attractions.

I found myself more reflected in Cyclops than “the girl.” It’s like Scott was the oldest child and never allowed to forget he had to be the responsible one. Oh, I knew nothing about that at all. :: rolls eyes ::

Yeah, me too. I think you pretty much nailed why I loved Cyclops. I never really identified with any of the female characters, with the possible exception of Kitty Pryde..

It really started in ‘86 with X-Factor and Scott abandoning his wife and child and returning to the team. This was not the character I’d been reading for a good 15 years at that point. (We won’t even go into what they did to Madelyne Pryor, whom I have a certain soft spot for because of reasons.)

Then he goes insane with guilt (which I did like, because apparently that's a story kink of mine, LOL!). But otherwise, yeah, I agree. They retconned Maddie and Scott, in order to bring back Jean Grey and the original four.
Although -- I did enjoy aspects of that story. Some of it worked, some didn't.

So there’s that stupidity, followed by more, then he finally marries Jean — and ends up cheating on her with Emma Frost.

I have to admit that I walked away from the verse around that time -- because I got fed up finally. Cyke comes back after finally exorcising Apocalypse, and then finds himself getting manipulated by Emma into a psychic affair? I can't imagine him trusting her enough to let her into his head after what happened with Apocalypse. I re-read them, and thought, okay this is an interesting take -- but the writer made it about sex and Jean, when he could have examined a lot more interesting stuff. Whedon in Astonishing, when I briefly returned to the verse, at least did examine those things.

So with you on the over-exposure and self-righteous hypocrisy for Wolverine. Even when he was dead, we all knew they wouldn’t be able to resist bringing him back. My favorite version of the character is as he was in issue #2 of the Claremont/Miller mini-series. That take has been gone a long, long time.

Yes. I loved Claremont's take on the character. My favorite versions are the original Wolverine mini-series, the Kitty/Wolverine miniseries, and the bit where he has to fight off the Reavers in Australia (which by the way they borrowed heavily from for the "Logan" film).

Since then ugh. They went too far. Not only did he have his own series, he was in everyone else's including the Defenders. And to make things even worse -- they kept ret-conning his origin story. It got to the point in which you needed a chart to keep track of all of the threads. Good way to ruin a great character.

But I do recomend X-Plain the X-Men. Pro-Cyclops, not thrilled with Wolverine’s over-exposure, absolutely anti-Deadpool and firm believers that Professor X is a jerk.

I think I've listened to it. Because I remember that. But I may check it out again. I'm reassured that the new show-runner for Uncanny is a huge Cyclops fan and saw him as heroic.

I did read New X-men -- but Jean Grey is really annoying in that series. I kept wanting to smack her.

[shadowkat]

PS: I missed you, glad to see you around again.

[shadowkat]

Okay, I haven't listened to their podcasts before. I am now, and LMAO! They keep making fun of the Avengers for recruiting Quicksilver and Scarlett Witch, who were villains and did horrible things, and now for some reason are heroes.

[yourlibrarian]

Only one small problem, 98% of fanfic is rather explicit. I mean people like to write explicit sex scenes in fanfic, along with graphic violence, and foul language.

I would disagree there, definitely with the percentage. I'd say maybe half is. I know this not just from my own reading but also because FFN banned explicit fic some time ago and has had recurring purges of content and yet it still hosts enormous amounts of non-explicit content.

Also, I've had a Tumblr account for 5 years now and, of course, the majority of content I see is visual. Yet it is unusual for me to see anything more explicit than hugs or kisses in the fan art. I know that plenty of it exists but even though I make no effort to block for explicit content I very rarely see any -- especially anything that could be equated with porn.

That said there are undoubtedly going to be many people affected by the new policy (even if its automated tools were working properly, which they're not). Even if it's a minority of people, numbers wise there are quite a few accounts focusing on explicit content or people who like to follow and reblog that content.

[shadowkat]

I guess it depends on what you define as explicit. And I've admittedly read far less fanfic than most have -- so I'll go with your assessment.

And...I was admittedly searching out the more adult content when I was reading it -- also it more prevalent back then. This was before FFN banned explicit content.

[anoyo]

I, too, loved Apollo most on BSG. JUST SO YOU KNOW.

[shadowkat]

Hee. Hii, haven't seen you in a while. Hope all is well.

[anoyo]

Grad applications and the associated INSANE STRESS are done, so I'll probably be around more. Probably. *flails*

[shadowkat]

Oh, good luck! I hate applying to things, school, jobs, apartments, anything really. It's beyond stressful.

Fingers crossed that things work out for you.

[anoyo]

Thanks! I also hate applications like the plague, so it feels really nice to have them done. After I submitted them Friday, I sort of just sat down, took an anxiety med to stop the hyperventilating, and stared at the television. It was great.