I think there is something commendable about experiencing art in solitude. It's just you and the artist's piece of their self and there's a real connection that isn't tainted by a desire to be a part of a community. no one can stand in the way between you and that artist's work, whatever it might be.
Arguably the most enjoyable gaming experience of my life was the two or so weeks I spent doing nothing but playing Xenoblade 3 after that came out. Just totally losing myself in the game to the point that I even started to have dreams about travelling with its characters. It's absolutely a time I will never forget, and I'll count myself very lucky if I ever experience something like that again.
I stopped participating in fandoms with the reception of Attack on Titan finale, because it wasn't worth debating or even talking about. But that's also how I found your channel, was you're wrong about Eren Yeager video, great stuff!
2:08 I don't think Isayama's messaging is unclear at all. In fact, I think AOT has the subtlety of Dora the Explorer, for the most part. So, it's fascinating to see so many people-- without irony, or awareness-- argue and act in the exact ways that are described and criticized by the narrative, for the exact reasons described in the narrative. The manga becomes a kind of mirror in that regard, I'd say. (Though, I suppose part of that also comes down to not registering entire character arcs-- like Gabi's-- or obvious story details like the contradiction in Eren claiming to want to save the island and his friends while committing treason, jeopardizing his friends' lives and getting Sasha no-scoped. But still.)
It is quite a situation. In theory, yes, it should be blindingly obviously what the story is going for, however so many people find themselves fixated on its more nihilistic elements. This is a topic I may find myself returning to, in some way or form.
What you said about attack on titan really hit home. I used to adore the series, to the point where I almost wrote my undergraduate senior honors thesis on it. I had the time of my life watching and analyzing the series. When it came to talking about it online, though (especially in 2021)…it turned into a fucking nightmare. I distanced myself from it until very recently. I started writing Eruri fanfic (so don’t be embarrassed about reading it, lol) and felt really alone, like I was just publishing into a void. I love to write in general, and found fanfic to be a great way to get the creative juices flowing, to silence my inner critic. So I reconnected with that corner of the AoT fandom, and it’s been…pretty nice? I mean, I’m a LOT more strict about who I engage with online. I block anyone who annoys me, because I don’t have time for that shit. I log on, share my writing, hype up other people’s art and writing, log off. If I want to engage with the series critically, I’ll only speak with my IRL friends. Honestly, it feels kind of nice to reclaim the series in a way, to be like “you know, attack on titan is problematic, and complicated, and the fandom can fucking suck, but I really like this one ship, and it inspires me, so fuck it. That’s what it means, to me.” Anyways, great vid. I’m glad you’ve been able to have positive fandom experiences, despite it all.
Peak video, summed up the whole AOT problem pretty well! Overall I’ve found myself really trying to dissociate more and more from internet communities, mostly because a lot of my friends aren’t even active in them, and the people who are active are really annoying or downright dangerous people to interact with (doxxing and the like). Also on the subject of AOT: the fact that there are people who identify with or see themselves in floch is insanely goofy to me. He’s not a comically evil villain, especially considering he’s somehow killed less people than any of the protagonists, but he somehow ends up being like, the most infuriating character to watch in the entire show (not to say he’s poorly written, because he’s written to be an infuriating person).
When he got shot by Gabi, my friend immediately signed, lent back and went, "Thank god." I didn't have the heart to tell them that that wasn't where he died.
I have very very recently (last few months) stumbled upon a little alcove of sorts in an very very large fanbase. Surely not as large as AOT, but almost certainly larger then XBC, this little alcove was spawned by a content creator's experience with the work. We all met and then made a branch off community to stay in contact, about 100 people, though not all of them are active. These have been some of the best memories I've had in fandom in quite some time. I often found myself on the outskirts of fandom, offline on Twitter, scrounging around the posts of fan artists for series I like, occasionally hearing about drama but whatever. I only entered fandom "properly" a few years back, and only then I did so for about 2 months starting and ending with a single game that acted as the sequel to one of my favorite games at the time, unfortunately the sequel failed to live up to my expectations. But back to that alcove, admittedly it isn't fully tied together by the work that we found one another through. We often diverge on discussions of our daily lives or about a new series or work we're clamoring around, Ace Attorney and Metaphor being the current hot topics, but we did find one another through that one work, and we hold that work and it's series in high regard. Fandom sucks, drama is everywhere, communities are constantly infighting, and there are just fandoms that are just generally toxic as shit. Yet I do hold firm in believing there's people who enjoy and appreciate a work in ways that CAN make you feel welcome and finding those people is always a blessing. I don't blame you for distancing yourself from fandom, hell I'd argue my relationship is more distant half the time, but I do hope you can find people who enjoy a work critically, people who make you feel invested in your enjoyment of certain works. Cause it's great! Hopefully I didn't misconstrue your points, but yeah. Idk that's my take or experience!
great video (as always) -- well paced, ultimately really uplifting even if that feeling of bitterness can be real sometimes. i'm never gonna stop trying to find my people, but it's good to hear others have that struggle, y'know? it's an odd sort of resonance, but that bit you went through about "so what did you like about this" "yeah, it's good" is more or less constantly how i feel about the stuff i make for fandom, and i _am_ a fanfiction writer. like, i do genuinely want to talk about my writing as being a conversation with source material and various other inspiration sources, i'm doing this because i want to analyze these characters and flesh them out and write interesting multi-layered stuff and... i like "it's good"! that's nice! sometimes (a lot of the time) i wish there was more willingness to discuss and analyze stuff. i like being pretentious for fun when i can do that with other people who take things as seriously as me... but that feels vanishingly rare. it's not hopeless, and there's still many bright sides! but i will admit that i am a little weary in being the change i want to see in fanfiction. more people should write fanfiction taken as an art that is deeply and inextricably linked to the source material, in direct conversation with its themes, drawing in influences from other places like any other artform would. (and also if it could maybe be a little less amatonormative that'd be nice... but i'm asking for community, not a miracle)
Excellent video. I echo basically everything you've said. The solution iv come to is to engage with a fandom when it's not that large. And disengage when it grows too big. And then years down the line, if the fandom is still alive, i return to it. There may be times where i want to engage when the fandom is large, when that happens i tend to make the post myself on reddit. And generally only certain types engage with analytical posts so i get to stay clear from the brainrot. I do think learning to coexist (not engage persay but to not be affected by it so much) with fandom behaviour I don't like is the lesson but im not there yet.
good video :P In all seriousness, I appreciate hearing your experience on fandoms. I myself have mixed feelings about them. I have never been one to keep up with weekly releases of anything and tend to play games long after they are new. Because of this, I tend to engage with fandoms long after they are rife with activity. Fandoms like this are super prone to rehashing the same garbage over and over again; it really takes someone special to present a well thought out take that hasn't been said already when something is so old. I think that's why for the most part my main way of engaging with these fandoms is watching video essays on their properties. To write and produce a video essay is a big commitment; someone doing it in good faith will only do it if they have something worthwhile to contribute about the topic. On the flipside, on websites like reddit and twitter, there is no expectation that you do research about the opinion you're raising before you post about it, leading to these platforms becoming a sludge of opinions that people have read a thousand times over when there is nothing new to talk about. I love fandom, I've gone to my fair share of anime conventions and geeked out. I do think that the common places that people engage with discussion of properties do not make for an enjoyable experience most of the time though. I don't think this point really applies to other fanworks like art, fanfiction, music, videos, mostly to discussion. But I hate seeing the discussion so much that it drives me away from all of it.
8:37 I really enjoyed your perspective on the difference between consuming a medium and truly appreciating it. I’m subscribing to see what other insights you’re hiding under that afro!
8:28 I just want to point out, that without the context of the argument being made your correction to avoid misconception is a distinctly different argument, one being that the person's statement somehow proves they are saying they like the music Kanye makes simply to have an opinion on the matter while the other is that the person feins ignorance to refuse change
my safe fandom is the Hobbit and LOTR, mostly on tumblr (im not talking about people on reddit or twitter crying that Aragorn was black on a card or complaining about diversity in Rings of Power which i havent seen), people are very kind most of the time and accepting
Thoughts: Two fandoms I’m in that I want to highlight, because the first can get a bad rep, and the second is currently in the media cycle: The JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure fandom is one that I had to dive head first, chest out into. There are nearly forty years of stories and an adaptation that spawned too many memes. There’s the fact Netflix prison caught the Part 6 adaptation. There’s the Toonami anime English dub debut which brought new fans into the story, but in many cases it’s not the best way to experience the work. There is nuance and minute detail and pop culture references decades old. Reading JJBA is a task of catching everything, and even then there are still theories and unresolved plot lines. If you’re in it, discourse can be tiring. Don’t get me started on bigoted JJBA fans, who see both the campiness and fashion sense at the heart of the work as “necessary flaws”. But JJBA also allowed me to find a friend group that’s now over two years old. People I trust from countries I’ve never visited. People I talk with basically every week. We played a TTRPG based on the franchise, and it’s the first campaign of anything I’ve ever finished. Aside from that, I’ve been inspired by the franchise to write more and work towards publishing my own works because of how the creator Hirohiko Araki structures story and character. It’s not unique, but it’s spelled out plainly in a way that anyone can understand. Some of my favorite fictional characters of all time are in JJBA, with my personal opinion being Johnny Joestar is one of the greatest protagonists in all of fiction. It, along with many other properties, allowed myself to see powerful characters who are canonically bisexual like myself. I owe so much to the work. My second experience in fandom is in the appreciation of Tyler, the Creator. If JJBA was perchance a brush with self-expression, Tyler is the type of artist all modern artists should strive to be. Unabashed, reflective, celebratory, and covering the whole spectrum of emotion. Tyler fans are what many would call the new Kanye fans. Glazers who hold up his whole discography as unassailable perfection, which is impossible. Other fans balk at his early work. Others try to be contrarian, electing to say certain songs of Tyler’s are bad. All of that doesn’t matter because we are in an era akin to the 90s of hip-hop where every other artist is having a generational run of albums, and Tyler is somehow standing out. No other artist besides maybe peak Kanye could do what Tyler has achieved. Just the album run of Flower Boy, IGOR, CMIYGL, and Chromakopia will be talked about for decades. That’s not even to discuss the reevaluation of his earlier work which, though not as refined, led to this current era. It allows me to be more aware of my music tastes when I see songs like “Tomorrow” be labeled as not as good as the rest of Chromakopia by Internet reviewers, and I’m here actively defending it because it is speaking to me. It’s a song that I am experiencing right now. My mother is getting older. I’m seeing the bald spot, and it makes me realize I too will age. But I am also surviving for today, so I will worry about tomorrow when it comes. Heck, I’ll even say “Balloon”, considered now the worst song in the entire discography, is good. That feels like an essay and a half to write in order to defend. Aside from that, I’m taking risks musically and journaling down thoughts as lyrics and poems. Tyler, the Creator isn’t necessarily the only artist who affects this. Dozens of rappers and musicians have shown me the ways of expression, but Tyler has made so much that I see in my own experience, it’s inspiring to my own craft.
Real shame to experience "the hell of other people" whose reading so heavily conflicts with your own on a work. Glad tho in finding some sense of community even if here or there when you actually do click well Just kind of the ups and downs of culture mapping onto identity and personal values, tho I'm more optimistic in at least going to irl Conventions leads to friendly face-to-faces if only because public society demands at least a modicum of courtesy over offline. Still the nature of fan culture is as energizing as it is chaotic and alienating and here's to just hoping youve found a place to hang your hat, if only before heading on to the next
One thing that's been on my mind on the topic of fandom, especially in recent years and in the Xenoblade and zelda fandoms in particular was dealing with the larger cultural trend of not simply liking what you like, but obsessing over what you hate. I think the Xenoblade community has mellowed out over the years, and I find its a lot easier to avoid the inter-fandom back and forth that used to be so omnipresent. But it really feels like in most cases the thing that makes fandoms so toxic is just the sense that it's more important to talk about what you hate, instead if what you like. And I think it really stems from the way online culture has no sense of spectrum. Everything is either the greatest thing ever made or the worst thing ever made. For me personally, one of the reasons my first playthroughs of games like Xenoblade 1 or Ocarina of Time were so unpleasant, was because those games reputations have gotten so hyperbolic, that they just cannot live up to their hype. flaws feel way more overbearing when the people around you refuse to acknowledge them and harass you when you point them out. It was much easier to like those games on repeat playthroughs when I felt like I was playing them on my terms rather than the fandom's terms. And it became easier to enjoy them, when the things I didn't like about them stoped being the only things I payed attention to. I still have my issues with them, but now I think it's better to concern myself with what I like about them, rather than what I don't. I think that's fandom's biggest issue conceptually. People just need to be willing to put more stock in what they like, and stop spending every waking moment hating what they don't. And if you can't find enough good to get over the bad, It's better just to not engage with it. It's still important to be critical and acknowledge flaws and not be unwilling to listen to or acknowledge them, but there's a big difference between healthy critical thinking, and hate spiralling. (It was a bit funny to see Beyond the Sky pop up, because I was able to turn around and see that very book on my Xeno-collection shelf, and be like, "hehe, I have that one")
The good thing is that internet makes it easier to find other people into the same niche things as you The bad thing is that internet makes it easier to find other people into the same niche things as you I think this is why finding people close to you to share things with is great. Also writing and Fanfiction is one of my favorite things. There’s a ton of good works and interpretations out there!
Oh absolutely. I don't often read fanfiction, but I did play up my embarrassment a little for the camera. I've read many over the years that are really great explorations of their parent series; never a bad thing when I find a good one.
I don't understand how the internet has a way of revealing the most depraved of the world, especially when there is complexity in opinion or topic. I don't blame you for disassociating with the fan base of popular media
ngl I don't really see this at all, I've been a part of so many fandoms both big and small on many social media platforms and I really don't see anything particularly bad, especially not to the point in which I want to leave the fandom as a whole. Like yes there will always be people who want to argue over dumb shit or spread their own weirdness into the fandom but I find that in most fandoms that's usually only a loud but small minority that you can easily ignore. Also the point about people not wanting to further engage themselves in what they like about the artist and why it makes them feel a certain way seems a bit redundant when thinking about the average ages of people in these fandoms, especially large shonen animes or popular music artists like the ones expressed here. Like personally, I'm not exactly expecting 14 yo boys to critically analyse the ins and outs of where they find enjoyment in the media they consume. Although, as you urself have proven, theres always a niche of people interested in doing just that. Not trying to come at you or anything ofc ur entitled to ur own opinion from ur own experiences I'm just giving mine
I agree with disliking AOT's fandom due the literal nazist memes but Breaking Bad's fandom just posts harmless silly jokes, I don't really see many people trying to justify Walter anymore as I used to see 10 years ago, I think they're cool as a fanbase now honestly. Anyway, kid named finger
![Kodak Black - Catch Fire [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/A4ch-olIuZo/mqdefault.jpg)
Listen to the soundtrack, "ethos", here: album.link/ethos
I think there is something commendable about experiencing art in solitude. It's just you and the artist's piece of their self and there's a real connection that isn't tainted by a desire to be a part of a community. no one can stand in the way between you and that artist's work, whatever it might be.
Arguably the most enjoyable gaming experience of my life was the two or so weeks I spent doing nothing but playing Xenoblade 3 after that came out. Just totally losing myself in the game to the point that I even started to have dreams about travelling with its characters. It's absolutely a time I will never forget, and I'll count myself very lucky if I ever experience something like that again.
I stopped participating in fandoms with the reception of Attack on Titan finale, because it wasn't worth debating or even talking about. But that's also how I found your channel, was you're wrong about Eren Yeager video, great stuff!
Glad you enjoyed it 🙏🏼
2:08 I don't think Isayama's messaging is unclear at all. In fact, I think AOT has the subtlety of Dora the Explorer, for the most part. So, it's fascinating to see so many people-- without irony, or awareness-- argue and act in the exact ways that are described and criticized by the narrative, for the exact reasons described in the narrative. The manga becomes a kind of mirror in that regard, I'd say.
(Though, I suppose part of that also comes down to not registering entire character arcs-- like Gabi's-- or obvious story details like the contradiction in Eren claiming to want to save the island and his friends while committing treason, jeopardizing his friends' lives and getting Sasha no-scoped. But still.)
It is quite a situation. In theory, yes, it should be blindingly obviously what the story is going for, however so many people find themselves fixated on its more nihilistic elements. This is a topic I may find myself returning to, in some way or form.
What you said about attack on titan really hit home. I used to adore the series, to the point where I almost wrote my undergraduate senior honors thesis on it. I had the time of my life watching and analyzing the series. When it came to talking about it online, though (especially in 2021)…it turned into a fucking nightmare.
I distanced myself from it until very recently. I started writing Eruri fanfic (so don’t be embarrassed about reading it, lol) and felt really alone, like I was just publishing into a void. I love to write in general, and found fanfic to be a great way to get the creative juices flowing, to silence my inner critic. So I reconnected with that corner of the AoT fandom, and it’s been…pretty nice?
I mean, I’m a LOT more strict about who I engage with online. I block anyone who annoys me, because I don’t have time for that shit. I log on, share my writing, hype up other people’s art and writing, log off. If I want to engage with the series critically, I’ll only speak with my IRL friends. Honestly, it feels kind of nice to reclaim the series in a way, to be like “you know, attack on titan is problematic, and complicated, and the fandom can fucking suck, but I really like this one ship, and it inspires me, so fuck it. That’s what it means, to me.”
Anyways, great vid. I’m glad you’ve been able to have positive fandom experiences, despite it all.
That's a nice way of puttin it - reclaiming.
Peak video, summed up the whole AOT problem pretty well!
Overall I’ve found myself really trying to dissociate more and more from internet communities, mostly because a lot of my friends aren’t even active in them, and the people who are active are really annoying or downright dangerous people to interact with (doxxing and the like).
Also on the subject of AOT: the fact that there are people who identify with or see themselves in floch is insanely goofy to me. He’s not a comically evil villain, especially considering he’s somehow killed less people than any of the protagonists, but he somehow ends up being like, the most infuriating character to watch in the entire show (not to say he’s poorly written, because he’s written to be an infuriating person).
When he got shot by Gabi, my friend immediately signed, lent back and went, "Thank god."
I didn't have the heart to tell them that that wasn't where he died.
I have very very recently (last few months) stumbled upon a little alcove of sorts in an very very large fanbase.
Surely not as large as AOT, but almost certainly larger then XBC, this little alcove was spawned by a content creator's experience with the work. We all met and then made a branch off community to stay in contact, about 100 people, though not all of them are active.
These have been some of the best memories I've had in fandom in quite some time.
I often found myself on the outskirts of fandom, offline on Twitter, scrounging around the posts of fan artists for series I like, occasionally hearing about drama but whatever.
I only entered fandom "properly" a few years back, and only then I did so for about 2 months starting and ending with a single game that acted as the sequel to one of my favorite games at the time, unfortunately the sequel failed to live up to my expectations.
But back to that alcove, admittedly it isn't fully tied together by the work that we found one another through. We often diverge on discussions of our daily lives or about a new series or work we're clamoring around, Ace Attorney and Metaphor being the current hot topics, but we did find one another through that one work, and we hold that work and it's series in high regard.
Fandom sucks, drama is everywhere, communities are constantly infighting, and there are just fandoms that are just generally toxic as shit. Yet I do hold firm in believing there's people who enjoy and appreciate a work in ways that CAN make you feel welcome and finding those people is always a blessing.
I don't blame you for distancing yourself from fandom, hell I'd argue my relationship is more distant half the time, but I do hope you can find people who enjoy a work critically, people who make you feel invested in your enjoyment of certain works. Cause it's great!
Hopefully I didn't misconstrue your points, but yeah. Idk that's my take or experience!
great video (as always) -- well paced, ultimately really uplifting even if that feeling of bitterness can be real sometimes. i'm never gonna stop trying to find my people, but it's good to hear others have that struggle, y'know?
it's an odd sort of resonance, but that bit you went through about "so what did you like about this" "yeah, it's good" is more or less constantly how i feel about the stuff i make for fandom, and i _am_ a fanfiction writer. like, i do genuinely want to talk about my writing as being a conversation with source material and various other inspiration sources, i'm doing this because i want to analyze these characters and flesh them out and write interesting multi-layered stuff and... i like "it's good"! that's nice! sometimes (a lot of the time) i wish there was more willingness to discuss and analyze stuff. i like being pretentious for fun when i can do that with other people who take things as seriously as me... but that feels vanishingly rare.
it's not hopeless, and there's still many bright sides! but i will admit that i am a little weary in being the change i want to see in fanfiction. more people should write fanfiction taken as an art that is deeply and inextricably linked to the source material, in direct conversation with its themes, drawing in influences from other places like any other artform would.
(and also if it could maybe be a little less amatonormative that'd be nice... but i'm asking for community, not a miracle)
I hope your writing goes well, and that people who will appriciate it see it
Excellent video. I echo basically everything you've said. The solution iv come to is to engage with a fandom when it's not that large. And disengage when it grows too big. And then years down the line, if the fandom is still alive, i return to it. There may be times where i want to engage when the fandom is large, when that happens i tend to make the post myself on reddit. And generally only certain types engage with analytical posts so i get to stay clear from the brainrot. I do think learning to coexist (not engage persay but to not be affected by it so much) with fandom behaviour I don't like is the lesson but im not there yet.
All I see in front of me are peak shows. I know I’m in for a good video…
Hope you enjoy 👍🏽
good video :P
In all seriousness, I appreciate hearing your experience on fandoms. I myself have mixed feelings about them. I have never been one to keep up with weekly releases of anything and tend to play games long after they are new. Because of this, I tend to engage with fandoms long after they are rife with activity. Fandoms like this are super prone to rehashing the same garbage over and over again; it really takes someone special to present a well thought out take that hasn't been said already when something is so old. I think that's why for the most part my main way of engaging with these fandoms is watching video essays on their properties. To write and produce a video essay is a big commitment; someone doing it in good faith will only do it if they have something worthwhile to contribute about the topic. On the flipside, on websites like reddit and twitter, there is no expectation that you do research about the opinion you're raising before you post about it, leading to these platforms becoming a sludge of opinions that people have read a thousand times over when there is nothing new to talk about.
I love fandom, I've gone to my fair share of anime conventions and geeked out. I do think that the common places that people engage with discussion of properties do not make for an enjoyable experience most of the time though. I don't think this point really applies to other fanworks like art, fanfiction, music, videos, mostly to discussion. But I hate seeing the discussion so much that it drives me away from all of it.
Thank you for the video
Thank you for the comment 🙏🏽
8:37 I really enjoyed your perspective on the difference between consuming a medium and truly appreciating it. I’m subscribing to see what other insights you’re hiding under that afro!
8:28 I just want to point out, that without the context of the argument being made your correction to avoid misconception is a distinctly different argument, one being that the person's statement somehow proves they are saying they like the music Kanye makes simply to have an opinion on the matter while the other is that the person feins ignorance to refuse change
my safe fandom is the Hobbit and LOTR, mostly on tumblr (im not talking about people on reddit or twitter crying that Aragorn was black on a card or complaining about diversity in Rings of Power which i havent seen), people are very kind most of the time and accepting
I've been trying to get more into tumblr lately. The experience has generally been positive.
Thoughts:
Two fandoms I’m in that I want to highlight, because the first can get a bad rep, and the second is currently in the media cycle:
The JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure fandom is one that I had to dive head first, chest out into. There are nearly forty years of stories and an adaptation that spawned too many memes. There’s the fact Netflix prison caught the Part 6 adaptation. There’s the Toonami anime English dub debut which brought new fans into the story, but in many cases it’s not the best way to experience the work. There is nuance and minute detail and pop culture references decades old. Reading JJBA is a task of catching everything, and even then there are still theories and unresolved plot lines. If you’re in it, discourse can be tiring. Don’t get me started on bigoted JJBA fans, who see both the campiness and fashion sense at the heart of the work as “necessary flaws”.
But JJBA also allowed me to find a friend group that’s now over two years old. People I trust from countries I’ve never visited. People I talk with basically every week. We played a TTRPG based on the franchise, and it’s the first campaign of anything I’ve ever finished.
Aside from that, I’ve been inspired by the franchise to write more and work towards publishing my own works because of how the creator Hirohiko Araki structures story and character. It’s not unique, but it’s spelled out plainly in a way that anyone can understand. Some of my favorite fictional characters of all time are in JJBA, with my personal opinion being Johnny Joestar is one of the greatest protagonists in all of fiction. It, along with many other properties, allowed myself to see powerful characters who are canonically bisexual like myself. I owe so much to the work.
My second experience in fandom is in the appreciation of Tyler, the Creator. If JJBA was perchance a brush with self-expression, Tyler is the type of artist all modern artists should strive to be. Unabashed, reflective, celebratory, and covering the whole spectrum of emotion. Tyler fans are what many would call the new Kanye fans. Glazers who hold up his whole discography as unassailable perfection, which is impossible. Other fans balk at his early work. Others try to be contrarian, electing to say certain songs of Tyler’s are bad.
All of that doesn’t matter because we are in an era akin to the 90s of hip-hop where every other artist is having a generational run of albums, and Tyler is somehow standing out. No other artist besides maybe peak Kanye could do what Tyler has achieved. Just the album run of Flower Boy, IGOR, CMIYGL, and Chromakopia will be talked about for decades. That’s not even to discuss the reevaluation of his earlier work which, though not as refined, led to this current era.
It allows me to be more aware of my music tastes when I see songs like “Tomorrow” be labeled as not as good as the rest of Chromakopia by Internet reviewers, and I’m here actively defending it because it is speaking to me. It’s a song that I am experiencing right now. My mother is getting older. I’m seeing the bald spot, and it makes me realize I too will age. But I am also surviving for today, so I will worry about tomorrow when it comes. Heck, I’ll even say “Balloon”, considered now the worst song in the entire discography, is good. That feels like an essay and a half to write in order to defend.
Aside from that, I’m taking risks musically and journaling down thoughts as lyrics and poems. Tyler, the Creator isn’t necessarily the only artist who affects this. Dozens of rappers and musicians have shown me the ways of expression, but Tyler has made so much that I see in my own experience, it’s inspiring to my own craft.
It's not fandom, it's tribalism but at the same time its a community and i appreciate being apart of that. (As long as its reasonable)
Real shame to experience "the hell of other people" whose reading so heavily conflicts with your own on a work.
Glad tho in finding some sense of community even if here or there when you actually do click well
Just kind of the ups and downs of culture mapping onto identity and personal values, tho I'm more optimistic in at least going to irl Conventions leads to friendly face-to-faces if only because public society demands at least a modicum of courtesy over offline.
Still the nature of fan culture is as energizing as it is chaotic and alienating and here's to just hoping youve found a place to hang your hat, if only before heading on to the next
I really should try and go to more IRL things, like cons and whatnot. I'm pretty bad at those types of things, but I think it would be helpful.
Great video! Now the lads wait for the Kagurabachi takes
My fro is always trailing behind yours
Fro fandom
What can I say? I'm a grower.
One thing that's been on my mind on the topic of fandom, especially in recent years and in the Xenoblade and zelda fandoms in particular was dealing with the larger cultural trend of not simply liking what you like, but obsessing over what you hate. I think the Xenoblade community has mellowed out over the years, and I find its a lot easier to avoid the inter-fandom back and forth that used to be so omnipresent. But it really feels like in most cases the thing that makes fandoms so toxic is just the sense that it's more important to talk about what you hate, instead if what you like. And I think it really stems from the way online culture has no sense of spectrum. Everything is either the greatest thing ever made or the worst thing ever made. For me personally, one of the reasons my first playthroughs of games like Xenoblade 1 or Ocarina of Time were so unpleasant, was because those games reputations have gotten so hyperbolic, that they just cannot live up to their hype. flaws feel way more overbearing when the people around you refuse to acknowledge them and harass you when you point them out. It was much easier to like those games on repeat playthroughs when I felt like I was playing them on my terms rather than the fandom's terms. And it became easier to enjoy them, when the things I didn't like about them stoped being the only things I payed attention to. I still have my issues with them, but now I think it's better to concern myself with what I like about them, rather than what I don't. I think that's fandom's biggest issue conceptually. People just need to be willing to put more stock in what they like, and stop spending every waking moment hating what they don't. And if you can't find enough good to get over the bad, It's better just to not engage with it. It's still important to be critical and acknowledge flaws and not be unwilling to listen to or acknowledge them, but there's a big difference between healthy critical thinking, and hate spiralling.
(It was a bit funny to see Beyond the Sky pop up, because I was able to turn around and see that very book on my Xeno-collection shelf, and be like, "hehe, I have that one")
The good thing is that internet makes it easier to find other people into the same niche things as you
The bad thing is that internet makes it easier to find other people into the same niche things as you
I think this is why finding people close to you to share things with is great. Also writing and Fanfiction is one of my favorite things. There’s a ton of good works and interpretations out there!
Oh absolutely. I don't often read fanfiction, but I did play up my embarrassment a little for the camera. I've read many over the years that are really great explorations of their parent series; never a bad thing when I find a good one.
theyre just like me for real
:sad cowboy:
I don't understand how the internet has a way of revealing the most depraved of the world, especially when there is complexity in opinion or topic. I don't blame you for disassociating with the fan base of popular media
ngl I don't really see this at all, I've been a part of so many fandoms both big and small on many social media platforms and I really don't see anything particularly bad, especially not to the point in which I want to leave the fandom as a whole. Like yes there will always be people who want to argue over dumb shit or spread their own weirdness into the fandom but I find that in most fandoms that's usually only a loud but small minority that you can easily ignore.
Also the point about people not wanting to further engage themselves in what they like about the artist and why it makes them feel a certain way seems a bit redundant when thinking about the average ages of people in these fandoms, especially large shonen animes or popular music artists like the ones expressed here. Like personally, I'm not exactly expecting 14 yo boys to critically analyse the ins and outs of where they find enjoyment in the media they consume. Although, as you urself have proven, theres always a niche of people interested in doing just that. Not trying to come at you or anything ofc ur entitled to ur own opinion from ur own experiences I'm just giving mine
No worries at all - I'm just glad you've had a generally positive experience.
Awesome stuff man, God bless ya and Jesus loves ya!
🤍🙏🏼
I agree with disliking AOT's fandom due the literal nazist memes but Breaking Bad's fandom just posts harmless silly jokes, I don't really see many people trying to justify Walter anymore as I used to see 10 years ago, I think they're cool as a fanbase now honestly. Anyway, kid named finger