of course

[nanslice]

Wow, Dream Daddy fandom has already sent a fanartist into hiding by sending her death threats, all because she drew the daddies genderbent. The DD twitter account commented on it.

Why is fandom like this now? :\

Comments

[yuuago]

I have no idea, but it sucks so bad. The game is so cute, why the hell are there such batshit assholes in its fandom?!

[nanslice]

The game is SO CUTE (although apparently it does have some ~problematic themes~) but yes, the game is so, so cute, which is why it has such a shit fandom. :\

[inkstone]

If by problematic themes, they're referring to hallmarks of the VN genre, which have some really fucked up content. Like you expect some of the routes to be messed up! Come on, fandom.

[nanslice]

And the funny thing is, what I've read about this particular route (which I don't think is accessible in the normal game), it's no where near what you'd find in like, Dramatical Murder or Togainu no Chi.

From what I can understand, because this game is portrayed as so wholesome and sweet and inclusive, including the darker elements of VN games feels like a slap in the face because queer people. Which is literally a thing I read on twitter. :\

[inkstone]

I have a feeling that like other VNs, you have to unlock that route. It has a kind of explanatory thing going on (i.e. why all the dads are single) so I bet you have to do something like get All Good Endings for the other dads. I played a VN like that once -- you had to get all four good endings to unlock the true path with the real love interest.

And yeah, I've seen that take and it makes me roll my eyes. Come on. If every other ending is sweet and wholesome, this one fucked up thing is fine. I don't know. I just come from the POV that it's a VN. There are going to be fucked up things. I mean, damn, even the pigeon boyfriend game had fucked up things in it!!

[nanslice]

I want to play the dark route; it sounds like something right up my alley, haha, but I like kinda of dark things. That's how Dramatical Murder was, you had to get all the good endings to get that true ending. I never got it because I romanced my fave, that was true ending enough for me lmao.

I know, it's such a ridiculous argument. I love fluff and I'm going in this looking for fluff, but there being a hidden away dark route is awesome, particularly since it's completely optional.

[allekha]

What is with fandom these days @.@ There's always been arguments, sometimes awful ones, but I don't remember it being this bad 5+ years ago, or at least I never heard about fanartists getting so much hate and even getting bullied into suicide attempts until the past couple of years.

(And who decided genderbends were transphobic? I never got that memo.)

[nanslice]

Purity culture is such garbage, if you like anything that anyone has any kind of problem with, they can mount up an attack against you instead of just, idk, ignoring what they don't like.

One of the daddies is trans, so genderbending him is problematic, even though the artist said that that just meant he was, in the genderbent version, a trans woman.

[allekha]

This is the kind of stuff that has me waffling on de-anoning a particular dirtybadwrong fic I wrote a few weeks ago. Ugh. I hope the artist is doing okay; nobody deserves to get dogpiled over their fanart.

...I don't know even how to follow that logic. (I wonder how many of the objectors are trans - though I'm sure there must be at least a few - versus cis people trying to earn SJ points by attacking the artist on behalf of trans people.)

[collartheory]

This is the kind of stuff that has me waffling on de-anoning a particular dirtybadwrong fic

Yeah, exactly this. I stopped sharing anything fannish on Tumblr because I go in for a lot of, uh. Stuff. Stuff that, in the circles I run in, is pretty thoroughly verboten. Didn't feel like provoking the torches-and-pitchforks treatment that seemed to be getting more and more prevalent there at the time.

[collartheory]

(Sorry, accidentally hit Enter one sentence in.)

Yes, it's problematic, but so are death threats?

Like, I absolutely get that "de-queering" (so to speak) a canonically LGBT+ character is quite shitty, but it's not like the artist specifically set out to genderbend a trans character. They genderbent everyone.

IDK. This kind of thing is why I left Tumblr. If a well-meaning person does something fannish that rubs you the wrong way, you leave them be. There's a lot of elbow room on the internet. You don't rally the troops and make death threats. That's the kind of shit that Anita Sarkeesian has to deal with every day from alt-right children.

(I am not saying that Anita Sarkeesian rubs me the wrong way. Thought I should point that out. I am comparing these riled-up folks to, well, alt-right children.)

[nanslice]

Yes, it's problematic, but so are death threats?

I wasn't saying I think it's problematic? I was just explaining what the argument was. I generally don't care what people draw lmao.

People jump at the chance to have the moral high ground, lmao, every chance they get.

[nimueth]

Ugh, crap like this is why I don't participate in fandom on a larger scale anymore. I've never been targeted with such vitriol, but watching it happen to others has taught me to keep a low profile, which is sad, 'cause I probably miss out on a lot of fun stuff.

Fandom can get really scary.

[nanslice]

I shipped the wrong ship in Teen Wolf fanom and received some vitriol (mostly of the "you should kill yourself" variety), which didn't bother me too much, but it's ridiculous that it happened in the first place.

Fandom has turned into such garbage. I'm sure it used to be garbage in different ways, but the main difference between then and now is that tumblr is such an open platform, there's no closed communities and mods to cull bad behavior so it just festers. :\

[kalloway]

I caught a little bit of this on FFA, but wow those comments to the official twitter... *__*

I wish I knew what happened to the old mindset of 'come across something not your cuppa, back button/scroll on by and ignore'.

And all this over a genderswap piece, which is pretty much a fanart hallmark.

*shakes head*

[nanslice]

Yeah, a lot of them had been deleted by the time I read them but I can imagine a lot of "death threats are bad but" which really becomes a pretty dang meaningless statement.

It's all just ridiculous. :\

[hokuton_punch]

Goddamnit, fandom, NO. NO. *facepalm*

[nanslice]

Exactly. It's so dumb. This is why we can't have nice things!

[itsamellama]

x_x I've been having to research a ton of cyberbullying cases and oh god not another one because fandom. Death threats are still death threats!!!

[nanslice]

That sounds like both a fascinating and horrible research topic! But yep, another fandom related incident. :\

[tropicsbear]

*pretends to be shocked*

[nanslice]

[tropicsbear]

Tangent, but is it wrong if I actually WANT Joseph's cult ending to be playable lmao. I keep hearing that he's some sort of shady ass and I want them to just go on and go full white devil with him.

[nanslice]

UHM no, I crave that ending with the strength of a thousand suns, I want him to be a successful cult leader who indoctrinates dadsona into his evil cult, give me this fucked up ending I want it so bad. *____*

Like, not a true ending or anything like that but definitely an optional thing.

[tropicsbear]

Someone on the internet: This is problematic!
Me: LET ME EAT DIRT.

In all seriousness, I find ""problematic"" stuff interesting because it's problematic.

[nanslice]

Haha, yes! I don't like all problematic stuff, obviously, and there's definitely some stuff where I'm like wow okay no thanks, but purity culture in fandom is so frustrating. In this case in particular, I really like the wholesomeness and sweetness of the canon but I do like the idea of there being an alternative where things aren't what they appear to be. But that's just me, haha.

[thenicochan]

Fandom can be terrible. People can be terrible

Just. Ugh.

[nanslice]

Yes, pretending to have moral superiority is never a good thing.

But hey, nice Chris icon! I've never noticed it before. ♥

[shamanicshaymin]

Oh, oh, but that fanartist deserves to be bullied because genderbending is ~*~transphobic~*~! She should accept the death threats as a "learning experience" and do better next time! :DDD

To which a sane twitter user replied, "how little empathy do you have to have to respond to "this person's getting death threats" with "well okay but maybe that'll teach em"