Ironed Orchids

And this is going to make a lot of people very angry to hear.

But a lot of y'all on this website are truly deeply genuinely never going to be capable of any kind of real narrative analysis--and I don't mean 'being right all the time' I mean 'meaningfully engaging with the text in any way'--

The match cuts were meticulously designed and put there to communicate something.

The VA's delivery of a line was being directed. Inflection and tone change the meaning of dialogue. This is intentional. There are entire teams of people shaping those choices and deciding which take to use based on what works best for the story.

Information is being revealed in a specific order, on purpose, to craft an emotional arc and guide the audience's understanding.

A character's romantic preferences are only, and SHOULD only be, their primary motivation if the genre is romance. That is why there is a genre called that. Most stories are other genres.

Creators who dislike a character generally give them LESS attention, MORE boring storylines, and LESS screentime.

Sometimes curtains are just blue. But if the shot composition or written narration takes time to HIGHLIGHT, especially more than once, that the curtains are blue, then the blueness of the curtains is by definition narratively important.

"Cite your sources" is not a witch's curse that banishes People With Different Opinions to the shadowrealm of Being Wrong. Someone making points that challenge your perceptions, while including screenshots and explicit examples, cannot be dismissed with "cite your sources" because they are literally doing that. Don't @ me on this one I've seen shit in the wars, y'all.

Failing to understand these things WILL bar you from ever really engaging with or understanding any narrative more complicated than Paw Patrol for the rest of your life.

Compassion is something you show, actions you choose.

High empathy can fuel compassion, but there are also tons of people who feel very deeply yet aren't doing much about it. There are people who feel so strongly about everything that it fuels more anger and resistance, to a point they prioritize trying to never interact with people who have done Something Bad no matter how much more good it could do—those who wouldn't pull the trolley lever no matter how many they could save, because they'd feel too bad. And there are people drowning in so much despair on behalf of all the misery in the world that it's immobilizing. High empathy can be helpful or debilitating or neutral, it isn't inherently good.

Low empathy can also lend to more callous behavior, but this is where education about these things would do wonders. You can't motivate someone by insisting they should feel something they don't, but plenty of other approaches can work, depending on the person. And people with low empathy can be incredibly resilient and patient, absolutely incredible friends to vent to without so easily dragging them down with you, to give more clear-headed and objective advice. They can often keep going in situations that people with intense empathy would struggle with a lot more. Low empathy can also be good or bad or neutral.

And anyone can choose to be kind, for any reason. Even if that reason is technically selfish. If someone donates to charity, the charity doesn't care if they "only" did it to show off. And when it comes to supporting friends, feigned empathy can be just as valid as natural empathy. Some people (like me!) actively appreciate having someone stay calm while we're upset, too.

AO3 was founded partly in response to a growing trend of fanworks being removed from websites that had previously allowed them. This pattern has been observed numerous times throughout fandom history.

Whenever there are fears about censorship on other sites, AO3 sees an increase in the waitlist for our automatic invitation queue. Regardless of their reasons for joining, we welcome any new user to our site who agrees to abide by our Terms of Service. We will not vet new users for "legitimacy", because AO3 is for everyone.

The OTW has no plans to change the content we allow on AO3, and we stand by our commitment to maximum inclusiveness of fanwork content. We will not remove works unless they violate the AO3 Terms of Service, and we don't make decisions based on how many times something is reported. Users do not need to worry that anyone's works will be taken down due to a baseless report or a mass-reporting campaign, if one were to occur.

(AO3 doesn't have an automod that will take something down automatically once a certain number of reports are sent in, so you can't brute force removal of content you dislike/weaponize false mass reports against somebody you have beef with)

Like yeah, if it's a book about high school or college I'm going to feel the difference more. But in a setting where you're basically just a child until you're an adult, and there aren't any steps in between to ease you into adult life? And in a story that's not a coming-of-age situation? I'm sorry; that 19-year-old has less life experience than I do, but she's just another adult to me. We are both in the nebulous category of Adult for our society, and she is perfectly relatable to me even though I'm 33

I took a breath to protest but was distracted by being able to take a breath. I took a few more, without a coughing fit.

"You healed me?"

"Pff. Why would I do that? I stole your cough for my hoard."