Nevermore News

i'm not trying to be rude, but i feel like you're just taking small criticisms the community has voiced and blowing them out of proportion, which just makes this fandom even more of a hellhole to be in

spreading negativity is going to get you nowhere.

i feel like the anon who sent this ask simply can't take criticism at all. this isn't even your webcomic

i'm not trying to be rude, but i feel like you're just taking small criticisms the reporters (members of the community) have voiced and blowing them out of proportion, which just makes this fandom even more of a hellhole to be in

Once again, critique in the Nevermore fandom has become prominent, driven by a small but vocal subset of the community. While this is nothing new, the result is- author Kit "Red" Trace and artist Kate Flynn are ready to stop defending themselves and instead listen and learn.

"I realized that it was just as the people online have been telling me. I haven't been doing my best, and the onus is on me to change," said Red to our reporters. "These fans love Nevermore so much that they simply want it to be the best it can be. They've said themselves that anyone who listens to them has to admit they have a point- well, I'm listening."

After reading through the comments left and discussing, the pair announced how they plan to fix the comic.

"We struggled," admitted Flynn. "Really, we think it's best to redo the entire comic, but we can't figure out how to do so in the way we want. We get critique for taking time off to perfect the art, but also if we rush the art we get that critique as well. Ultimately, we decided to keep the art as it is and simply change all text to make it align with the community's vision."

Of course, going forward, both art and writing will be changed and will continue to evolve in response to any and all community feedback. Promising to no longer be "cowards," as some of their best and most loving fans have accused, the creators have committed to being mere vessels through which the readers can create the story they most want to see, rather than pushing their specific and clearly flawed creative vision.

"Doing it our way regardless of what readers want was selfish and problematic," Flynn told our reporters. "We're changing now because it's all we can do, even if we know it will take years if ever to regain the trust we lost."

As for the first critique they're starting with?

"The latest discourse seems to be about whether putting characters in pants eroticizes them," said Red. "We want to be safe, rather than sorry. No more pants. From now on, all characters will be drawn completely nude below the waist."

A new trend is rising in the Nevermore fandom as the popular webcomic becomes subject to criticism about the story being less than accurate in a manner of ways. A small but vocal minority of fans have taken care to bring to the forefront all of the ways in which Nevermore historically falls short- including, they say, in its depictions of disability, racism, and historical prejudice.

"All the disabilities we see don't actually do anything or change how the characters interact with the world," said critical fan Hex22. as he skimmed Episode 67 on a reread. Flipping idly to Episode 109, he added, "Nothing we see truly shows how dismal and grim it is to be a disabled person. The characters never actually suffer due to their disability! The fact that they can be happy at all is really spitting in the audience's face."

Turning to Episode 114 to prove a point, he gestured to Eulalie. "See? She's doing normal things that everyone does, such as adhering to strict rules and expectations for how things should go, having even those friends in her life consider her uncanny or strange, and having a meltdown where she physically lashes out at one of said close friends. She doesn't act autistic at all- she's not robotic, nonverbal, or a burden on society. She needs to have unfavorable traits and not be just quirky!"

"And don't even get me started on Lenore, Pluto, and Prospero," said Hex as he pulled up Episode 71.

Reporters were genuinely interested in Hex's critique and wanted to know if the fan's solution could involve providing Eulalie with an AAC device. But Hex was adamant- absolutely not.

"Don't be ridiculous," said Hex as he looked at Episode 66. "A cursory search shows that while AAC devices were invented in the 1950s, they didn't become popular until the 1980s. She needs to deal with it like anyone would do back then, which is to say she needs to have been diagnosed with "mental defect" and bribed to "behave" by use of token economies."

"In short," Hex said, "I want her to be TRAUMATIZED, and it's ableist that Red and Flynn refuse to show Eulalie broken, battered, and suffering at all times. In fact, I'd say by not making Lenore, Prospero, Annabel Lee, and Pluto all suffering constantly due to their disabilities, they've gone past casual ableism and into conservative hate content and disability porn slop."

A new trend of Nevermore tag posts has taken the fandom by storm... only it isn't a new trend, and it isn't catching on besides a handful of blogs. Criticizing the official Nevermore fan Discord, commonly called the Nevercord, posts have ranged from simply calling out offenses of Red and the moderation team to calling for a complete boycott of the server.

One takes that boycott a step farther than might be anticipated, claiming that all who refuse said boycott stray into a certain political viewpoint that is almost unilaterally condemned in the comic's fandom. Witnesses have sprung up from all factions with the same words on their lips: what the fuck?

"It's a gross escalation of the issue at hand," said a member of comic-critical fan server Quoth the Raven, Nevermore. "And obvious rage bait."

Across the imaginary table where this imaginary interview was conducted, an imaginary Nevercord member nodded. "Everyone's pointed out how messed up it is already, but just to be clear: it's messed up, and the poster should be ashamed."

A member of a certain private fan server sighed, then added her own two cents: "Fucked up for sure," to which the Tumblr representative hummed their own agreement.

As always, members of Spirtbound had nothing to add and stayed silent.

This brief agreement signaled an armistice between the servers, complete with celebratory cake, handshakes and hugs all around, and a few tearful apologies. Unfortunately, it only lasted a few seconds before someone- reporters are unsure who- criticized something, causing someone else to absolutely lose their shit.

Any progress made to unite the turbulent fandom has been undone and then some, but at least one step forward has been taken: everyone is fully on the same side that you should not compare a Discord server to genocidal, dangerous, evil regimes.

After the announcement of yet another week off, a local Nevermore fan is upset for one reason and one reason only- she is very quickly running out of things to do on Thursdays.

"Look," said 19-year old Cammie Bright as she twiddled her thumbs with a bored expression, "it's simple. I go home, I slide into my most gothic pajamas, make myself my preferred last meal, and eat it in bed with my cell phone while I read the latest episode of award-winning Webtoon Original Nevermore. Then, I usually die for about ten minutes before leaving a comment I hope becomes a top comment so I get that sweet engagement, then off I go to the various discord servers so I can discuss."

But without an episode, Cammie has been left adrift, forced to break routine and try some new things.

"I went to the movies once, but it wasn't the same; you can't leave comments on a movie. There's so many hobbies I've tried, but they all require a lot of brainpower. And no one even wants to discuss touching grass, I can't find a single serious Discord server for it."

Reporters, outside their usual scope, kindly suggested that perhaps what Bright was looking for was not a wonderful gothic webcomic, but perhaps something more akin to community, and suggested she try to engage the friends she's made throughout the Nevermore fandom in a different way on Thursdays.

But Bright seemed insistent. "Look, it's a good idea, but tell the truth. You're just as hungry for new content as I am. It's good of Red and Flynn to be healthy and like, get sleep or whatever, but just as much as we can agree about that, we can also all be way disappointed that it meant no new episode this week."

Breaking news: Tumblr hides very funny and sometimes hard-hitting news blog from blogger with seemingly good taste for way too long! More at eight.

Anon, thanks for your reporting, and don't worry, you're not alone- our reporters have been observing QtRN personally for quite some time. This gave us the final push to really want to share this server with the fandom as a whole and stop hoarding it all to ourselves. We really think that EVERYONE should go join that server at the link here and see EXACTLY what they're up to! If you do, please do it only for research and spread of positivity, and please be sure not to harass or harm, but of course that goes without saying!

Servers do grow and change however, and sometimes things get deleted. Just in case this happens due to the large influx of new users we expect they'll get- which would be awful suspicious, and an admission of guilt, really- we did compile the entirety of their nevermore-grievances channel into a handy document that people can find here.

We also want to post some screenshots that absolutely fascinated us right here for all to see! We'll leave those below the cut, but boy, everyone should check them out. They're snippets of some INCREDIBLY interesting discussions!

Nevermore Academy, the eponymous setting of acclaimed Webtoon Nevermore, teaches many subjects. From summoning a spectre to learning about the mysterious Land of the Dead, the students certainly have much to absorb in the hallowed halls of the fictional institution. However, there are a few things we never see in the school's course catalog, and one of those is art.

One Nevermore discord server has decided to take this into their own hands... or should we say, into their spectral tethers. Spiritbound is frequently shown on Discord discovery index Disboard as one of its most active Nevermore servers... and frequently listed as the most active non-official server, period. The 300+ member server boasts a ton of features, including group activities, voice acting, community, and working towards 24/7 active chats.

Their latest group activity, then, is obvious: the entire server has come together, bound to emulate the spirits their preferred webcomic is about. With no conversation in most channels, the place has been ghostly silent as of recent, despite no shortage of people to do the talking. On such a dedicated server, such quiet can only mean that they are either trying to imitate the wisps in an elaborate act of performance art... or that they're attempting the world record for largest and longest text-based quiet game, of which there has been no evidence.

To not interrupt the flow of their artsy machinations, and perhaps to add to the scheme's number, only the Disboard bump bot ticks on... that, and a few people who didn't get the memo speaking in lounge. Other than that, Spiritbound is as quiet as the infirmary after the Wild Hunt trampled through it, which is to say- deathly still.

My sources are: the webcomic.