I'll be in my blanket fort....

It makes me mad that such little stupid things ruin the series for me... like you can have a perfectly well adapted mystery (ABC Murders, Hickory Dickory Dock, or above mentioned Murder in Mesopotamia), which gets unnecessarily tainted by these poor attempts at comedy or whatever it was that they were thinking they were doing... it's not funny that nobody wants to listen to Hastings's story of his adventures in the South American jungle, it's not funny that he lost his ranch and his restaurant failed and his wife wants a 'break' (who is he, fucking Ross from Friends???), it's not funny that Poirot invites Japp to stay with him in his flat but seemingly doesn't understand that Japp prefers English food and insist on serving him dishes that, frankly, are rather offputting and it's not funny that Japp doesn't know what a bidet is. Neither it is funny that Poirot himself gets made a fool out of by Vera Rosakoff. I don't mind them bringing her back (after all, she appears in the Big Four and is the closest thing to Poirot's love interest) but why like this? They could have just casually mention from time to time that she and Poirot correspond regularly with each other. (Admittedly for some reason I never could warm up to their romance, but I am trying to!)

Writers, why do you think we like to see our beloved characters being dumbos?

Some of it is down to Agatha Christie herself as she wrote Hastings that way, but that doesn't mean the show's writers had to double down on it, especially as they made him more of a regular than he was in books. They could have stopped after his marriage, at least! Hastings could periodically return to England and assist Poirot with the cases, or they could have had him move back for a different reason (maybe there was a farm somewhere in Devon, Agatha's home county, that he and Isabel wanted to buy).

The "break" in their marriage only makes sense to me if we assume Hastings really is gay and his wife was done with pretending, but that's headcanon sneaking its way in there LOL

this and also the only difference between fanfic writers and writers who sell their own original works as careers is that fanfics aren’t monetized. that’s all.

being a “professional” writer doesn’t mean your works are inherently better than fanfics. I’ve read so many fics that are more professionally written than some published books.

It makes me mad that such little stupid things ruin the series for me... like you can have a perfectly well adapted mystery (ABC Murders, Hickory Dickory Dock, or above mentioned Murder in Mesopotamia), which gets unnecessarily tainted by these poor attempts at comedy or whatever it was that they were thinking they were doing... it's not funny that nobody wants to listen to Hastings's story of his adventures in the South American jungle, it's not funny that he lost his ranch and his restaurant failed and his wife wants a 'break' (who is he, fucking Ross from Friends???), it's not funny that Poirot invites Japp to stay with him in his flat but seemingly doesn't understand that Japp prefers English food and insist on serving him dishes that, frankly, are rather offputting and it's not funny that Japp doesn't know what a bidet is. Neither it is funny that Poirot himself gets made a fool out of by Vera Rosakoff. I don't mind them bringing her back (after all, she appears in the Big Four and is the closest thing to Poirot's love interest) but why like this? They could have just casually mention from time to time that she and Poirot correspond regularly with each other. (Admittedly for some reason I never could warm up to their romance, but I am trying to!)

Writers, why do you think we like to see our beloved characters being dumbos?

Like, I very much appreciate people trying to be mindful of their consumption and trying to be sustainable. But I need y'all to understand that it literally does not matter. The top 10% are doing more damage than all of us together could ever prevent.

you know, until we remember what to do with rich bastards.

welcome! here are what you need to know about ao3 and how it’s the complete opposite of wattpad

trigger warning for the mention of contents that are allowed on ao3 that can be triggering to some.

ao3 is a non-profit organization. it’s run by fans (people like you and me), for fans.

fans donate to the site on their own free will to keep the site up and running smoothly.

ao3 is not a social media. it is an archive.

ao3 doesn’t have ads. it doesn’t have algorithms. it doesn’t have “going viral.”

everything is endlessly free on ao3. there is no “ao3 premium.” you will never see a single ad on ao3, and you can download as many fics as you want to read offline for free.

ao3 doesn’t have an app. and ao3 doesn’t need an app. any “ao3 apps” you see are third-party apps and are not affiliated with ao3, so be careful giving these shady apps your login infos or other personal information.

ao3 was built with the main purpose to 1.) be completely against censorship and 2.) host fics that are banned on other platforms like wattpad.

the reason ao3 doesn’t have an app is because for it to have its own app, appstore and google play store will have to approve it first. and due to the contents ao3 allow, chances are that it won’t get approved. which is actually a good thing. it doesn’t need an app. it works more than fine without an app.

on ao3, every single thing is allowed as long as it is fanfic or fan work (original works, fan art and video edits count as fan works, but if you want to post a video edits on ao3, you will have to post it elsewhere and then link it back to ao3 — ao3 cannot host video edits on its platform due to copyright issues)

by every single thing that is fanfic, I mean every single thing:

the filthiest smut without plot that is written purely for sexual pleasure is allowed. it has its own canonical tag called “plot what plot, porn without plot.”

fics that focus on non-consensual sexual intercourse are allowed, doesn’t matter if the fics glorify or romanticize the act, doesn’t matter if they’re written as kinks. they have their own canonical tag called “rape/non-con.”

fics about characters who are minors are allowed, even if they’re portrayed in a sexual manner, even if they’re non-consensual sexual intercourse. even if the minor characters are romantically and/or sexually involved with characters who are adults. even if they fics are written in ways that glorify and/or romanticize the thing. they have their own canonical tag called “underage sex.”

fics about incest are allowed. doesn’t matter if they glorify or romanticize the relationship. they have their own canonically tag called “incest.” fun fact: the first ever fic that was posted on ao3 was a fic about an incest ship from supernatural.

fics about self-harm and suicide are allowed. doesn’t matter if they glorify or romanticize the act. they have their own canonical tags called “self-harm” and “suicide” also “suicidal ideation”, “suicide attempt”, “implied/referenced suicide”, etc.

fics about violence and gore are allowed, even if they were written for the sake of shock value. they have their own canonical tag called “violence”, “blood and gore”, “blood and injuries”, etc.

rpf is also allowed. doesn’t matter if the content of the fics are dark and taboo. they’re treated the same way as any other fics.

every single dark and taboo fic you can think of is allowed. and it has its own canonical tag. because it is the main reason why ao3 was created in the first place.

“but what do I do if I don’t wanna see fics about xyz?” you can filter out any specific tag, character and/or pairing you want.

“what do I do if I wanna find fics about xyz?” you can search for any specific tag, character and/or pairing you want.

a lot of ao3 users rely on tags to search for specific tags, pairings, characters they want. they also rely on tags to filter out and exclude specific tags, pairings, and characters that they don’t want to see.

ao3’s tagging system is by far the most efficient one I’ve ever seen.

on ao3, our main principles are “don’t like don’t read” — which means YOU have a responsibility to curate your own internet experience. yes, ao3 allows all kind of messed up fics, but they also allow you the ability to NOT see anything you don’t want to see, by filtering out specific fics, pairings and/or characters.

no. you cannot harass authors who write about things that disgust you. you can and will be reported for harassment, and ao3 takes harassment very seriously. they will not take your side. because fucked up fics are allowed on ao3—fucked up fics are the main reason ao3 was created—whereas harassment is a direct violation of their terms of service.

ao3 is a house of the freaks and the perverts (affectionate). you ARE in the house of the freaks and the perverts. so don’t think about harassing or being rude to the freaks and the perverts who built this anti-censorship house and are kind enough to let you in.

ao3 is proship, profic, and anti-censorship.

any writer can write whatever they want, however they want. the only etiquette is that you tag your stuff properly and accurately

mistagging for visibility is heavily frowned upon here, and it won’t get your works more views. people will either block or report you if you deliberately mistag things with the purpose of getting your fic more views. as I’ve said before, ao3 is an archive. it’s not a social media. it doesn’t have algorithms or going viral.

if you come across a fic that has the tag “creator chose not to use archive warnings” it means the fic may or may not contain topics that can be triggering, but the author won’t tell you what these topics are, or if there are any at all. so proceed at your own risk.

that said, because ao3 is a non-profit site that hosts millions of works about others’ copyrighted characters, you CANNOT link a monetization platform anywhere on ao3, you CANNOT mention any donation, commission—or anything that involves money—anywhere on ao3. no, you cannot imply donation, commission, or anything that involves money either. that is against their terms of service.

and because ao3 is a place for fanworks, the “work section” of your post has to actually be fanwork (fanfic, original work, fan art, link to a video edit count as fanwork). anything that isn’t fanwork is not allowed.

you cannot post something on ao3 that is not fanwork. so no political statement, no call-out post, no “I’m looking for fics about xyz”.

ao3 is anti censorship as long as what your post is actually fanwork and as long as you don’t violate their terms of service that I’ve mentioned above.

ao3 has their own team of lawyers to protect them, their users, and every fanwork that is posted on their platform.

last but not least, don’t write directly onto ao3. write and store your works elsewhere before copy and paste them onto ao3 once they’re ready to post!! because ao3 does NOT autosave drafts for you, you risk losing everything you’ve typed if there’s a glitch, if the site crashes or if your device unexpectedly shuts down for whatever reason.

United Front: Breasts Without the Airbrush

The shocking thing about Laura Dodsworth’s pictures of 100 women’s breasts isn’t the flesh on show, or the many shapes and sizes, but the realisation that images of unairbrushed, non-uniform breasts seem to be so rare. “We see images of breasts everywhere,” says the 41-year-old photographer, “but they’re unreal. They create an unflattering comparison but also an unobtainable ideal. I wanted to rehumanise women through honest photography.”