mirrors shatter as i'm passing

4-5 trusted generals

a kind of useless emperor to be nominally loyal to

obsessively devoted relationship with an advisor

at least one strategically useful territory you repeatedly lose and recapture and at this point it just feels like a personal vendetta and everyone is begging you to cut your losses and move on but how could you move on from something you’ve pumped so much of your own blood into?

At the very least, it means asking permission before embedding fan art or linking directly to fan fiction in coverage. It means thinking twice before asking actors or artists to react to ships or explicit fan creations. It means considering whether a fan reasonably expected their work to stay within the community it was made for. Most importantly, it means treating fandom spaces like real places inhabited by real people, many of whom seek out these spaces precisely because they offer a sense of belonging they may not find elsewhere.

Fandom does not need to remain in the margins to deserve respect. But if journalists are going to cover this subject, and we should, we have to be willing to approach these spaces with the same care, ethics, and nuance we would bring to any other community. Because behind every fic or piece of fan art is someone saying, 'This mattered to me.' Did it matter to you too?"