the believers will believe

you’re as much of a fan of your comfort show / movie / blorbo as any other fan, even if you don’t talk about said comfort show / movie / blorbo online or to anybody and just quietly take comfort from them in private.

one’s character has no impact on whether they were/are a victim or not, victim status is not something that is only afforded to the palatable.

Now, the way this goes is that I have everyone show up around 4:30pm. People show up, it's a big crowd, it's pretty warm out because the sun is still up and the mingling is great. People eat, share food, the kids run around in the trees and check out the lake, and we all just generally enjoy ourselves and catch up. Then the sun starts to go down.

People start getting under the pavilion, it starts getting a little chilly, and maybe those with really young kids start to pack up and say good-bye. This is usually when I light up the fire in the pavilion's fireplace and people will begin gathering around there. I let the grill burn down and sit down with everyone as everything gets a bit more mellow. Maybe we make s'mores or have cookies or something but this is usually were you start having more people say their good-byes and head out. That's how it goes for the next couple of hours, little dribbles of people winding up and heading on home until it's 9:30 at night and there's just a few people left in the pavilion in the woods sitting around a little fireplace quietly talking.

You know what? That's the best time at these things. Some years we'll be out there until almost midnight, just chatting quietly and staring into the coals. You learn things about people then, you hear interesting things, and you just feel closer.

So what does this have to do with fandom and moving on? Well, I see it like this. The show is still on, that's the early part of the day. Plenty of people around, lots of activity where art gets made, headcanons and meta fly fast and furious, and tons of fic gets written. Then the show ends, people are still creating but a few peel away, they have other things they have to do or just aren't interested in sticking around. Slowly but surely it goes until it's just a few people left.

That's when the interesting things really start coming out. You still have the other stuff but you start to get off the wall headcanons and wild meta, you get odd art, you get fic the person finally decided to write, and it's good. And hey, every once in a while, someone shows up late and you grab some food out of the cooler for them and warm up a burger for them over the coals while others grab a chair for them and you get them up to speed on the conversation and maybe show them some pictures from earlier in the night and they get to have some of that glow from earlier even if they missed the original.

It can also be found on Google Drive here and on Bluesky here.

They have to write us angry at our bodies because they aren't comfortable writing us as angry with abled people and abled society. They aren't comfortable being the same as a disabled person. And that, truly, is one of the main reasons I'm sick of disabled characters that hate and blame their bodies for what happened but have absolutely 0 external rage for the unfair way they're now being treated by others. It's never abled people's fault, it's always the disabled body that must be blamed, and I fucking hate it.

Also, they're more comfortable writing disabled characters who channel all their rage inward and blame their bodies because they already deep down believe the only reason someone is disabled is because they did something wrong. They don't have to contend with the scary truth that disability can just happen to anyone and there's not really anything to be done to prevent it if we all blame our bodies for this and hold no rage at all for society, and especially never suggest that society could be to blame for not just our misery but our disabilities.

Peer reviewing these because for fucking real!! Something else I was thinking was like, the abled characters around the disabled character never do anything wrong. They're always supportive and trying to help and maybe being a little overbearing, but just because they care!! And the disabled person is always wrong to lash out at them.

I enjoyed Joan of Arcadia but from what I remember the subplot about her brother coming to terms with his new disability always involves him lashing out at his abled family for trying to help and then apologizing. I don't recall his abled family ever doing anything wrong or unfair to him, he's always wrong for being angry with them, because they've had no issue adjusting at all and are perfectly accommodating and understanding and just want him to trust them, which in my experience is essentially never how this actually goes.

And Me Before You, the abled girlfriend never does anything wrong. The disabled boyfriend lashes out at her and is cruel sometimes and he's always wrong and she's always innocent and he always eventually apologizes and he always blames himself for his disability and never has any rage for the people around him for how they treat him validated. He's always wrong to lash out, always blames himself, and him killing himself is presented as a good thing so his gf can go live her life without the burden of caring for him. The disabled character is the one presenting a deeply ableist view on disability and the abled person is presented as wrong for not agreeing with his horrifically ableist view on disability. She's the one mad at him for seeing himself as a burden, and she's presented as wrong for not agreeing with him that he's a burden. Which is ridiculous and not how this basically ever goes irl.

Abled people hate disabled people who blame others for their problems they straight up always write us as in the wrong, and even write us as full on eugenicists who "rightfully" blame ourselves, see our own existence as a burden, and untilmately do the right thing and either just decide to be happy with our loved ones regardless of how they treat us and keep blaming ourselves and our bodies and no one else, or just do the even more right thing and kill ourselves so our abled loved ones can be happy without us.