🪽Saints & Sinners🔥 (Siv 🌱Nantosvelta)

and while i'm aware that some of these are jokes, some of them very much are not. i've been in discussions where it seemed like the writers present had to somehow apologize for the smut they were working on by first disclaiming about the meaning/themes/character significance relevant. or where people sat and patted each other on the back about how they wrote 'good' smut specifically because theirs had literary value while other pwp did not.

it's a weird fandom double standard that artists can draw the characters as simply two nude people committing a sex act, but writers need to postulate and create 'value' in smut somehow. simply having the people involved be in character is not enough- there must be a Point™ to it all beyond the pornographic aspect.

(and then, fairly often, when people comment they comment around the smut- only the literary aspects really get acknowledged, as though we can't admit why we really clicked on in the first place)

as someone who almost exclusively creates explicit works it leaves me in a bind sometimes- i want to create about a specific act, but i worry that i must stress about the theme and the reasoning and the meaning about it. if the fingers in his mouth aren't significant and hold deep meaning, is that okay? will anyone still interact with and enjoy the work if those fingers are 'just because'? is it not enough that i wanted to mash my fictional barbies together because it would be hot, and not because i needed to make a deep statement on the character's self image?

i think if the entire point is just to titillate there's value in that. there is value in creating something about pleasure, with the intention of the audience feeling pleasure about it. i think it's okay not to be sorry about that, and it worries me that in this current climate of prudishness i might be an odd one out.

Sephiroth is not a leader. At all. Quite the contrary. His actual personality is rather docile. He thrives when being given directives. And he always defers to close friends whenever he's trying to figure out how to deal with certain conflicts. He was SUPPOSED to be Team Glenn's leader...only to defer to them after making himself vulnerable to them. He keeps their mission on track for a time, but then does nothing to stop Glenn from enacting treason to save Rosen. Sephiroth's failure to lead his group is entirely why Angeal is put in charge for the Robio mission. And then when Sephiroth DOES step in to lead the group himself, there's negative consequences because he's being too moon-eyed over Alissa to listen to reason. After that? He's pretty subdued around Angeal and Genesis. Never talks over them. Lets them have their say. Never challenges them when he's being antagonized. Very, very passive. Around Zack? He directs the flow of the mission, yeah. But he also lets Zack challenge him, even snap at him. He never asserts his authority. Or seems to particularly enjoy it.

Which is why I never really understood the logic of Sephiroth being this charismatic leader in fandom. He grew up in a tiny cell and wasn't allowed to go outside. There is no part of his brain that hasn't been systematically conditioned to be submissive and obey orders. Sephiroth's only autonomy comes from his personal feelings about his loved ones. Which is a fragile, hidden part of him that he has a hard time expressing. His friends motivate him to act. And concern for his men motivates him to take charge, as he does when he saves the troopers. But he isn't a leader. Like...at all. He's a natural follower.

But what about Post Nibelheim?? After all, Sephiroth takes on a more dominant persona around that time. You know, after he's gone completely insane. Well, sorry. Still not a leader. Not a follower anymore. But not a leader. If anything, he's really a rogue solitary figure who no longer connects with anyone. He doesn't give a shit about his Black Robes and mostly just uses and abuses them when it's convenient. He only really cares about Jenova and Cloud. And those relationships, while somewhat symbiotic in Jenova's case, are solely to meet HIS needs. But it's not like he's this divine cult leader. Sephiroth has severed himself from humanity and, as such, operates alone.

Hell, Sephiroth can't even get along with OTHER Final Fantasy villains in Dissidia. By the time Opera Omnia rolls around, everyone is absolutely done with his shit. Weiss immediately wanted to murder him the second Sephiroth showed up with his Mommy Issues Squad proposing a temporary alliance. And then Sephiroth got clowned for the billionth time by Cloud.

So yeah. More holes in the Daddy Dom fandom facade. Sephiroth is sad. Everything about him is sad and kind of pathetic. Not a leader. No longer a follower. Just sorta...alone.

This is war by MarineCosplay

Genesis and Sephiroth hadn't spoken in two months.

Two months in which they met constantly: in the barracks of an old stronghold, during long war-meetings in MIdgar and even for the whole 2-week siege of western Da-chao. It seemed the Goddess had a way to punish two lovers for their stubbornness.

"People think you're so different… fire and ice. They ask me in interviews: 'Tell me, Angeal, how is it to work with two individuals who are so different? Sephiroth, a cold and imposing General known for being shy and withdrawn, and Genesis Rhapsodos, a fiery, outspoken, heart-of-the-party type.'" Angeal let out a heavy breath. "You know what I want to answer?"

"No… but I'm sure you'll tell me anyway," Genesis replied, feigning disinterest.

"That you're not so different at all. You're both stubborn idiots. In fact, you're so alike sometimes it's like I'm the only adult watching two whiny kids."

Art by @96min69

I think about this kind of thing a lot, anon, and I think my generation (Gen X/xillennial) kind of did folks dirty a bit.

In our defense, we didn't know we were.

I'm an educator by profession, as well as on this hobby blog, and so I spend a lot of time thinking about how people learn things. A lot of learning is social, and a lot of it happens when parents teach their children.

When I was growing up, pre-internet, my parents taught me how to talk to other adults in our community, how to play with other children, how to order food in a restaurant, how to call a business and ask a question. They literally walked me through how to do all of that stuff and more because those were daily skills in the world at that time.

We've spent the last 20+ years talking about how kids today are "digital natives" - but have we spent enough time teaching kids how to keep a conversation going when you're not in the same room as the other person? How to leave a comment on a post by a person you don't know? How to show your appreciation to a content creator? What a content creator even is and how that differs from a fan creator?

I know there are a lot of jokes out there about different things that would kill a Victorian child, but I think what would actually be difficult for them would be the lack of rules and instructions that kids today receive from the adults in their lives.

I don't have kids myself, so maybe this is all just bullshit and I'm talking directly out of my ass. But a LOT of the time when I notice someone doing something 'wrong' it's because no one ever told them how to do it right.

I kind of suspect that might be part of what's happening in fandom these days. Combine the above with the fact that fandom got inundated with new members in 2020 during quarantine and lock downs, and it's not surprising to me that a large percentage of the people in fandom today don't approach things the way that we used to before.

i don't fault them for it. When fandom was smaller and the internet was new, we used to take the time to bring people in. But now, it feels like 'everyone knows XYZ' so why does it need to be taught? And with how fast things move, it's more rare for newcomers to lurk for a while before they dive into everything.

This is a very long answer to a problem that probably just needed a listening ear, but I hope what you take away from this is an understanding that you're not the only one who feels the difference. I see this same experience shared in the notes on my posts all the time.

There is no easy fix for the situation and it certainly won't be fast to change, but maybe if we mentor a bit more when we have the spoons to, we can shift the culture a bit? One fan at a time?

If you managed to get all the way to the end of this, do yourself a favour and leave a comment on a fic or reblog a post with some chatty tags. DM somemeone or tag them or send them an ask just to let them know you see them and you think they're cool.

And my oldest child has entered online fandom.

Thankfully, my child and I don’t share fandoms (we both prefer it that way), but we did sit down to discuss how to maintain privacy and safety while also being friendly in online interactions. I taught my child about fandom red flags and green flags, from my experiences, and my child has since asked for my advice in terms of my child’s own fandom experiences and how to handle issues and concerns.

All that being said, I was surprised and confused when my child informed me that my child had not been leaving kudos or comments on AO3. Keep in mind, this child would read longfics for days, tell me how great the author’s writing captured the characters, etc.

“Why didn’t you kudos or comment if the fic was so good?” I asked.

While my child explained lack of ability to comment due to fic restrictions (my child has expressed not yet feeling ready to have an AO3 account even though my child is old enough and my husband and I would be fine with it), my child said kudos didn’t matter: “Who cares about one kudos?”

“The author cares. And, if the author for some reason doesn’t care, I know you care about doing the right thing. I think expressing appreciation for other people’s fanwork is the right thing to do. What do you think?”

My child went back and kudosed all stories read to that point.

when i was a tween who first found fandom in the late 90s/early 2000s, people didn't explicitly teach me how to interact with fandom. i lurked for a solid year before i signed up for my own account on the forum i'd found. (i can still remember how the adrenaline coursed through me as i signed up for my own account--i felt tingy and more than a little ill!)

by that time, i had a very good sense of social norms there. i still made a few mistakes, and the more established members smacked me down in a matter-of-fact but not unkind way. but i'd learned by watching. hell, by the time i started actively participating, i knew all the inside jokes!

as op mentioned, i don't think that people lurk anymore, and my theory is that the rise of social media/web 2.0 created a different approach to web communities.

today, every site is presumed to be for every person. the entire point of the really big social media sites is that everyone is on them. (this is one of the things i hate about them btw because it results in context collapse. i do not want to talk to my third-grade teacher, my favorite cousin, complete strangers, and my fandom friends in the same voice, but that's another issue).

whereas in web 1.0, the internet was riddled with niche sites/communities. you had to go out and find your place (and sometimes it took a while!). once you found it, you were invested in becoming a part of that specific community, so you did the research (lurking) to find out how people interacted, what all the unspoken norms were. by the time you picked your handle and made your account, you just knew stuff.

i'm sure this was not true of everyone, but it was true of far more people at the time. people looked before they leapt.

there are many, many reasons that i think that fandom has suffered from the web 2.0 environment. the fact that creators/writers/actors and fans are all on the same sites using the same tags for general publicity and for fannish nonsense is a huge problem. the way that sites are so big that people feel that their contributions (as with kudos above) don't matter is a direct result of the way social media undermines community and makes everything a performance of whatever your late-capitalist brand is. the fast pace of those sites makes people think that interacting with older posts is a bad idea. the lack of filters of the kind that we had on livejournal where you could determine who saw what or even just the way that forums often made you join before you could see content created walls within which communities could grow (think frost and walls making good neighbors).

i know we can't go back to the assumptions that operated before social media. we have to explore other options. i love when people make psas here telling people about fandom norms and history! i think it's the best thing! and maybe at this point that is the only way to handle it.

tumblr and ao3 are very weird sites in that they straddle the web 1.0 and web 2.0 kinds of internet.

from web 1.0 they get the lack of algorithms, the way you have to make choices about what you see, chronological arrangements, and (on ao3) lack of ads, etc. tumblr has a slightly slower pace than most social media; ao3 has a much slower one.

from web 2.0, though, you get scale, centralization (which is both ao3's greatest strength and greatest weakness), and the fact that it takes little effort to locate these sites--anyone, no matter their level of investment in fandom, can just stumble on them.

so you end up having a lot of people who are not actually fannishly inclined (aren't invested in a gift economy, don't really understand that fandom is supposed to be fun, don't really get the creative urge etc.) interacting with people who are fannishly inclined, and it causes some really problems. especially with younger people whose experience of the internet is as a venue to signify and perform certain kinds of morality/coolness/trendiness that are at odds with what fandom has always been about. basically: you have a bunch of normies clashing with a bunch of nerds. (obviously the normie/nerd divide is a spectrum and not a binary, so i'm overstating, but still.)

when you have people who are coming to fandom from different angles--some people who are coming to it as a provider of content just like all other media in their lives, especially elsewhere online; some people who are coming to it as a participatory hobby wherein we build community around shared affection for [thing]--there's going to be lots of clashes and weirdness.

i kind of think that fans need to go back to create set-apart spaces for fandom to happen. note that i am NOT talking about gatekeeping. everyone who treats others with respect would be welcome. but just having fenced-off areas that are explicitly for certain kinds of fandom interactions. where we can basically have our party away from the normies, but other nerds who are younger or just getting in touch with their nerdiness can find us.

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you can check out the other comics here.

x

Older Genesis is battle-worn, long-haired, calmer in the face, with a degradation scar disappearing beneath his collar, and an unkempt red coat his younger self does not recognize.

He’s quieter too, in a way his younger self cannot match.

Younger Genesis’ hair is glossy, immaculately styled (more for appearances than for himself), red coat polished to perfection, still carrying traces of leather oil, expensive cologne, and that confidence still unfaltering and unrotten as would become the fruits of his labor. And, of course, talking incessantly.

Younger Genesis: “Goddess, your hair is long. I’ve considered growing mine out, but I simply refuse to suffer the inevitable Sephiroth comparisons.”

Older Genesis stays quiet, because he knows there is no Sephiroth to compare himself to anymore.

Younger Genesis: “And that scar on your neck—my goddess, your entire look. My mother would have an opinion about all of this. Several opinions, actually.”

Older Genesis stays quiet, because he no longer has a mother to lie to him, nor to keep him ignorant in the name of maintaining appearances.

Younger Genesis: “Anyway—Angeal and Sephiroth. You’re still insufferably attached, I assume? Still a trio? How are they?”

Older Genesis stays quiet. The old wound on his shoulder starts to sting.

Younger Genesis: “...Alright, don’t answer that then. And what’s with this whole… wandering swordsman aesthetic? Don’t tell me I become subtle with age. It’s not my style to walk this world unaccompanied, you know. Why are you alone?”

Older Genesis stays quiet. His eyes start to sting.

Younger Genesis: “What is it? Have I said too much? I’ve been told I talk too m—hey!”

✨ Worst hangover ever ✨

Creators do not owe anyone content. Do not ask writers when they will update.

If an author did not ask for [negative] criticism , do not give criticism.

Read the tags carefully before reading a fanfic.

If you ignored the tags and were upset, that is your responsibility, not the creator’s.

Disliking a ship does NOT give you the right to attack people who enjoy it.

Do not tell authors or shippers that their ship is “disgusting,” “wrong,” or “shouldn’t exist.” Shipping fictional characters is not a moral failing.

No one is obligated to justify why they ship two fictional characters.

Headcanons are PERSONAL interpretations, not universal truth.

Dark themes in fiction do not equal real life beliefs or intentions.

Leaving kudos or short positive comments genuinely matters.

Not every fanwork is made for you, and that is okay.

Scrolling past content you dislike is better than engaging negatively

Enjoying a fandom later than others does not make someone less of a fan.