for the past several weeks, i've been sitting and stewing in paranoia after one of my good friends was essentially bullied into a hiatus for writing a dark fic involving boothill, and the way she was treated publicly deeply concerns me. as an artist in the boothill community, and a friend of the creator, i cannot remain silent about how harmful it is to normalize this type of behavior. especially in fandom.

it is not my intention to stir up further drama in making this post, but rather to disclose my stances on the overarching issues in hopes that those who disagree will politely excuse themselves from my blog(s). i also do not mean to come off as condescending by any means as everyone is entitled to their own opinions. i just felt this all needed to be said as i do not feel very comfortable contributing to or engaging with this community until i've made my personal perspectives clear.

this is purely my attempt at keeping my blog a safe space, free of unwarranted judgment and harassment. so please bear with me.

on censorship in fandom

censorship does not belong in fandom spaces. it has long been established that a huge part of fandom etiquette is silently acknowledging when something causes you discomfort; the solution is always to block the creator, and scroll away. tags and content warnings are common practices for this very reason. the unfortunate truth of the nature of the internet is that you will inevitably encounter content you do not like, but none of us have the right to tell someone else what they can and can't create.

censorship is a tool of fascism. fascist regimes throughout history have always targeted and banned books that discuss topics that they deem to be "unacceptable" or "inappropriate". but who truly has the right to dictate what should and shouldn't be discussed or written about? there is value in alternative perspectives and we should be holding space for those perspectives to exist, even if we don't personally agree with them.

sanitizing media will lead to an absence of challenging content, which will diminish the need for critical thought. if we are never met with opposition, then we will never be able to effectively form and communicate our own beliefs.

if you censor someone else, then you are only doing yourself a great disservice. placing unrealistic standards onto strangers and expecting perfection from them will inevitably come back to you. when you deprive someone of their right to express themselves, to make mistakes, and to be human, you also hinder your own capacity to express your humanity. none of us are perfect, nor are we the same, so we should be endeavoring to understand each other rather than jumping to conclusions and making public attacks against them.

on vague posting

vague posting about others in a shared community is extremely immature and discredits any of the arguments made within it. if your concerns are genuine, then the best course of action is to privately reach out and start an honest conversation; do not let assumptions about a person's character lead you make false claims about them publicly.

vague posting will not result in positive change. if real and visible change is your goal, then you will inevitably be disappointed by the fleeting sense of justice that was attained through half-baked smear campaigns. real change is achieved through meaningful dialogue.

as adults, we should not be encouraging this behavior in any capacity as it is simply unproductive and deeply damaging to the overall longevity and morale of a sub-community.

if you vague post, you willingly forfeit your right to the decency and respect that you failed to give to others. especially if you intentionally meant to stir up drama behind the guise of social justice; you are actively trivializing the issues you claim to care about in doing so, and i'd encourage you to reevaluate your approach.

it seems that many of us are forgetting that there are real, living, breathing people behind the usernames on this site. it is easy to pass judgment on someone you do not view as the multifaceted and nuanced human that they undoubtedly are, and that is a very dangerous mindset to hold for anybody.

on boothill, the slasher fic and darkfic in general

the specific fic that i will be referring to is "Chickadee Caught in a Cage" by @/averycutesalamander. i will link this relevant post she made about the issue for some added context. i’d also like to preface this by saying that, as a woman of color (mixed kanaka maoli/japanese, if it matters) and victim of sexual assault and racism, i feel that i also hold valuable insights into why darkfics of this nature should be allowed to exist.

first, it is important that we acknowledge the fact that boothill is a fictional character who is only heavily implied to be native american. there is no outright confirmation nor explicit mention of his exact race, and thus it remains as an implication rather than a fact. some may argue that the cn translation for aeragan-epharshel is “algonquin-apache,” which is what i personally choose to believe, but it is unfortunately lost in translation for everyone else outside of the cn community. we must recognize that it is not a widely known bit of information among the vast majority of the fandom, so we should not hate them for assuming boothill is a white man, especially if their enjoyment of him is mostly surface level (i do, however, take issue when they approach me just to spew bigotry and blatantly racist remarks for how i choose to depict him, but that is not relevant for this discussion). after all, his complexion is paper white and most cowboys in popular culture are white men. it is silly to expect everyone in this massive fandom to adopt a specific interpretation of one of the many characters in hsr.

regardless of what sal believes about boothill's race, it is never explicitly mentioned in the only available chapter of the fic. any contention with its subject matter is based purely on personal projections, and the claims were not substantiated by any evidence. i am not at all trying to invalidate the real concerns of the native american individual who was asked for their input, their views should absolutely be taken into consideration. and i also think that the way in which that voice was presented was inadequate. if the argument is that the fic should be discontinued because a singular native individual finds it to be in poor taste, then what happens when there is a different native individual who sees absolutely no issue in its continuation? should we completely disregard the perspective of the individual whose beliefs do not align with our own biases? how do we choose which voices should be valued and acted upon? the answer is unfortunately not as simple as picking the one we personally agree with the most. it requires a much more civil and nuanced discussion away from the public eye.

additionally, sal was set up to fail from the very moment she posted the first chapter on this site. i think it is extremely unfair to expect a calm and collected response from her when there were already multiple inflammatory vague posts made about the fic before the anonymous ask was even sent. it shows a level of hypocrisy when we only expect decency and respect from the person on the receiving end of the attacks. and while i agree that sal could have easily shut down the anon by responding in a way that showed an openness for communication, i think it is clear that this "anon" had already made up their mind and it is quite ridiculous to hold sal to such an unforgiving standard when she is just as human as the rest of us. how many of us can actually say that we've never once given in to our emotions in the heat of the moment? it's just unrealistic. there is no pr team behind her, no media training to inform her decisions, it is only natural for mistakes to be made.

it is a known fact that fanfic writers and fanartists will always put their favorite characters into situations and aus that they personally enjoy. in this case, it happened to be a horror/slasher au, which nobody seemed to take issue with when sal first teased the idea many months ago. and as an artist, i have drawn boothill as deeply problematic characters before, such as pyramid head from silent hill and shinpei from firefly wedding, and yet i've received zero backlash for either depictions. ironically enough, these pieces actually received praise from a few of the individuals involved in this online drama, so it raises the question: why is only sal being targeted? why are we not taking up arms against authors who write boothill as a yandere? why are we not scolding artists for drawing boothill enacting violence on others? do they not also count as harmful depictions that perpetuate negative racial stereotypes? i think we all know the answers to these questions, and it all ties back to my point about fandom etiquette. it is simply a matter of personal preferences because by this logic, boothill should only ever be depicted as an upstanding citizen who has never once committed a crime when that is simply not the case. he is not a perfect victim and we should not be holding him to that standard by watering down his character for the sake of making him more palatable.

fanfics ≠ canon. fanworks are derivative by nature and will not always align with canon, especially when it comes to alternate universes. the whole point of an au is to completely change the context of the world in which the character exists. for example, if boothill is put into a high school/college au, it would make sense for him to lack the trauma caused by the ipc and to completely omit that from his history in the context of the au. this, of course, fundamentally changes how he moves through the world as he would no longer seek revenge on his oppressors because they would not exist in the same way that they do in canon. it is no different with the slasher au. canon boothill would have absolutely shot his slasher self dead in the streets, and nobody is arguing that he wouldn't, but in the context of this specific au his actions and character are not at all incomprehensible. every fanwork ever created is a departure from canon and is often influenced by our own personal headcanons. you may think that your interpretation of a character is correct, and that’s fine, but do not forget that everyone will engage with and interpret any given character differently. often times, our interpretations are informed by our personal experiences and beliefs, so we are bound to disagree with someone else's analysis. what matters is that we do not publicly harass them because of these inevitable discrepancies.

the assumption that readers of darkfic are incapable of differentiating fiction from reality is an insult to their intelligence. nobody who reads this fic is going to take what they've read into the real world as it is a work of fiction made purely for entertainment and pleasure, not as a reliable source to inform their perception of real, living people. i also believe that none of the readers even made a deliberate connection between boothill's implied race and the heinous acts he has yet to commit.

as a victim of sexual assault, i personally enjoy dark content involving my favorite characters because it gives me a controlled environment in which i can process my trauma. it makes me feel less alone in my experience of being mistreated and helps me to make sense of what happened to me. not everyone will share these feelings and coping mechanisms, and that’s normal, but i’d like to ask that everyone be empathetic toward survivors, their experiences, and how they choose to cope. i also do not believe that an individual needs to have experienced any given trauma in order to write about or read about it because representation is important. someone's willingness to engage with and learn about the experiences of others is what matters at the end of the day. to strip anyone of their right to the freedom of self expression is nothing short of cruel and it makes people more closed-minded and unempathetic toward those who are different from them, and that is ultimately what i fear the most in this fandom. it is a truly awful precedent to set for people who are new to this space and is unacceptable behavior in any social setting. you cannot preach kindness while actively making defamatory statements about someone for the whole community to see.

all this to say that i do not endorse harassment of any kind, even if there is a valid point to be made. it only makes it more difficult to have productive conversations about real issues and creates a very hostile environment for everyone. i'd prefer that those in my circle refrain from participating in such activities because i will not stand for it and will likely choose to block you for my own emotional wellbeing. simply put, i am not comfortable with surrounding myself with those who are quick to cast judgement and feed into drama by publicly attacking others.

🍯 | HUNIE

Ended up with a team simply because none of them would leave her alone. Partner: Clodsire ➜ Mudsdale was still a Mudbray when Hunie found it while searching for Hayden’s missing weathervane. Assuming it belonged to him. ➜ Feebas and Whimsicott appeared later that same year.

🍓 | EILAND

Collected his Pokemon little by little throughout his life. Partner: Alcremie ➜ Klefki has been with Eiland the longest, originally belonging to his parents before they left it in his care. ➜ Runerigus was once a Yamask that followed Eiland back from one of his earliest expeditions out of town. ➜ Sigilyph is the newest member of his team; a strange figure Eiland spent years spotting high above the trees at night west of the Narrows long before the earthquake revealed the Western Ruins.