Okay. This is becoming an issue and i am not for it. I paused the comments to releive stress from this video as the comments were making me stressed the fuck out. THIS DOES NOT MEAN TO COMMENT ON MY OTHER POST'S ABOUT THIS VIDEO. That is only stressing me out more. DO NOT COMMENT ON MY OTHER POSTS CAUSE I PAUSED THIS COMMENT SECTION I WILL BE DELETING THEM.
As a member of the fandom, id have to say the most toxic thing about the WoF community is the ship wars. I’ve had people harass me (on other apps) for shipping moonbli above all ships. I’ve had people scream “WINTERWATCHER IS BETTER” at me for no reason. Or “UR OPINION IS WRONG” it’s insane. I don’t like sunnyflight? I’m about to get dozens of 11 year olds yelling at me about why im wrong. My least favorite character is Winter? Somehow I’m racist. I dont like qinter? Suddenly im a homophobic bigot. My favorite character is Qibli? I’m basic and stupid. I’m in plenty of other fandoms and its pretty common (the hate on Fitz is stupid. I dont like him either but y’all. Most people hate him because of shipping wars)
You are honestly not wrong. Shipping wars is just insane in the fandom dawg. Winter personally is one of my fav's but a character like Riptide is probably my least favorite character. It's hard to enjoy a lot of your favorite media because of people harassing you for things that don't even matter. Also people saying you are RACIST is insane. It's a book about DRAGONS!
@@Chase.C dude it’s bad. I tend to dislike characters with anger issues (not my cup of tea. I don’t really care for reading in their perspective) and people straight up attack me for it. I dont like tsunami or sundew very much and the amount of ten year olds that come after me is terrifying. I get yelled at when I say I dont like the enemies to lovers trope. I honestly don’t get it. It’s an opinion.
You mentioning Fitz made me do a double take lol I wasn’t expecting that- (Also I AGREE WITH EVERYTHING YOU SAY!! People who can’t just let people have other opinions gets on my NERVES!)
As someone who’s in both the Wings of Fire and Warrior Cats fandom, your points are valid. You’re always going to find a toxic subgroup of people, and sometimes that minority can speak louder than the majority, but that’s where we have to try and look for the smaller and more welcoming parts of those communities. Your point on OCs, is also great. It can start out as bad, but you use that and improve. It helps you grow, and you can look back at this and see how far you’ve come. :) Good luck to you and your graduation!
Yoo this was great! I agree with you on most parts of this, but I do have a few grievances. I think, at least with the vast majority of fandoms, you can’t really consider the thing as a whole to be toxic. This might be a me thing, but that whole idea has always rubbed me the wrong way. It sometimes feels like people use it as an excuse to act like someone is wrong for enjoying something that’s really harmless? I don’t really know, that’s just something to consider. With my experiences being a part of the fandom, the vibes really just depend on who you surround yourself with. The vast majority of people I interacted with were nothing but the absolute sweetest, and to be honest this community is what really gave me a passion for creating art. The fandom has got plenty of bad, but also plenty of good. By the way, I had no clue about the “cringe WoF ocs oh no bad 😨😨😨” videos and I’m glad I didn’t when I was younger. Just saw the one you linked on your community tab and all I can really say is I’m disappointed in those creators. But for every hooligan who put down other artists, I’d say there plenty others who do the exact opposite. The good generally outweighs the bad with this sort of thing. And I just hope anyone who might be reading this who is really into the WoF fandom right down doesn’t feel discouraged by all this. 💕💕💕 And Hedge, I completely respect your decision with this, and this was a great video! I enjoyed your insights on this topic you kept things nice and engaging. There were some spots where it sounded like you got a bit stuck on your script that you might want to be aware of, but those didn’t negatively affect the listening experience. If you do more video-essay-whatever-style content in the future I’ll definitely be watching. Great job man! ☺️
Thanks so much for your input Dew, and I do agree that the good can overweigh the bad by a ton! In my experience for sure it's been more negative and has not been my thing at all since but I of course never want to steer others away from something they enjoy. Thanks so much for your input and its super lovely seeing you again!
I totally agree! I've had fantastic experiences in the fandom, but that really is who you surround yourself with. And I didn't know about those kinds of videos until relatively recently (the "cringe" WoF oc ones), but they're disappointing to watch. I don't see a problem with those characters; I think people should make the dragons they want to. If I was younger and someone I looked up to made a joke video about my idea for a character, I'd be really bummed. I suppose most people don't really think about it and the effect it has, they just see those "cringe Wings of Fire ocs be like" videos being popular and feel like they should have the same opinion or make a video like it of their own. Like, there's a massive difference between a supposed "cringe" oc vs. the kind of person who's just rude and hard to be with in a roleplay on a Wings of Fire Roblox game. They shouldn't be confused, which I think is where people are getting that sometimes unfortunately 😭 And I will say the experience thing having to do with who you're around in the fandom applies to age too. I've encountered plenty of other older creators and fans, it's not all people under the age of 12-15. It just depends where you're looking, at least in my experience though.
The toxicity is indeed off the charts, but next time someone tells you that you're too old for something, please remember this quote. "When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." - C.S. Lewis
When I say I am too old and grew up it just means I lost interest as I grew older Nobody told me I was to old, I just outgrew it. I am in no way telling people that they are to old to enjoy things.
I got banned from the wings of fire subreddit for mentioning excrements. Permanently. And I can’t appeal for six months. I just asked where the prisoners on the SkyWing spires would defecate since there are only guard barracks below, and when Clay threw up, it went on the barracks. Apparently the mods thought that was too NSFW. Not going back there again 😭.
I'm an older fan, I was hardcore into the series back in 2017 and used to do oc rp on web forums and yeahhh man the making fun of cringe ocs thing has been around for a WHILE in this fandom. Sad to hear that it never improved since then. On a positive note though, this video popped up in my recommended made me happy to know that the series is still alive and kicking with popularity even now :) Nice art btw. Wish you the best, random stranger o7
I did join the fandom somewhat the same time around you and yes that is a trope that has happened since the appartenant start of it. Unfortunately the fandom even now in 2024 still can't let go of making fun of ocs or just cringe culture in general and it sucks a lot. The fandom is still very much alive and despite some bad apples it was definitely the biggest chapter in my life so far, and I dont regret being a part of it.
Getting mad at people for not completely following the lines of what a character may or may not look like is so funny to me.. (especially a species of something) Like.. in specific situations I get it. But in general? Let them people make their silly rainbow hybrid dragons with laser eyes and clashing colors. It's not bothering you personally! People learn over time what generally a fully put together character looks like... Anyway- that decision of yours is totally valid man!
@@Chase.C yeAH FR- The only time I see this becoming a problem is if this particular type of character is in something like... A RP or DND game with other people. Sure, then it becomes a problem.. but other then that? Let it be
tbh the only reason i ever found those kinds of characters funny was because i remember how i was when i was younger and making characters like this, though i've never mocked a creator for making a similar ish character
as one in the wof community, I see a lot of these points are entirely true. Though i try to avoid it, I can never fully go forever without being involved in drama. I can definitely see where you are coming from with these points now that I realize it.
I used to enjoy reading WoF back in 2014, 2015 (they were dragons and it was hard for me to find dragon stories), but I quickly grew tired of it. In later years, it was because I was studying creative writing and the more I studied, the more issues I found. But early on to why I got annoyed was because people continued to call my dragons breeds from WoF, when I had not even created a WoF OC at the time, and I was focusing on developing my own original dragon story. It’s something simple, but it annoyed me something shocking. I even ended up throwing a WoF book when I saw something I’d been using for years, but I knew fans would only think I was using it because of WoF. Another reason was the Ship-Wars. I’ve always been someone who would go by what was canon, even as a 13 year old. If it wasn’t stated in a book or series, I wouldn’t ship characters, well, I wouldn’t ship them as a romantic couple. And I’ve never seen a fandom so aggressive with who should be with who, not since Voltron: Legendary Defender anyway. Now, the only reason I read the books is so I can understand what’s happening in animations people make following the books. But otherwise, I’m pretty much out of the fandom.
Yeah, as I’ve grown older I’ve been noticing more and more issues with the story (but hey, nothings perfect. I still read the books from time to time) and I felt you when you said stuff about people calling all your characters wings of fire. That’s happened to one of my favourite artists (LampP0st) and it must be incredibly tiring and frustrating.
@@Krispykreme15 that's actually the reason I follow LampP0st, because of that experience and frustration we've had, and I love the videos and their Renewal series.
@@Allisky71 It's mainly in the Flames of Hope book as that's the one I took notes on. And people may disagree with me on some of these. I believe there were too many characters in that final novel, to the point where Sutherland had to 'get rid of them' (ie, getting characters captured), which would've been fine had they not done it in many stories of the WoF series. And Luna's character arc drove me insane at the end, especially how the depression sub-plot was swept under the rug. When she went through her depression, it was well described, but it was finalized in that last chapter or so, where Swordtail knew she had depression. It was good she was brave enough to talk about it, but having Swordtail know (when in most cases I've known the other person doesn't) felt like a quick fix. Having her come out about it earlier in the book, to give time to show us how to talk about it with others and teach others how to help someone with depression would've felt more relatable overtime. And it would've also given us time to also maybe see them fail in helping at some point, because while everyone wants to help, we sometimes fail, and that's where we as help learn from the depressed how to help them better. Sorry for the long paragraph and I hope it makes sense.
@@phantomthedragoness I'm still reading the second arc and don't know much about what happens in the third arc, but it's sad to know that Sutherland tackled depression in her work but handled it poorly. Subjects like that being ignored and "solved" in an unrealistic way in stories is really dissapointing. If it ends up without offering much about/to the people with the same issues as the character , it's better to think twice before introducing the issue in the first place. and it's ok, i was expecting a long answer.
I am starting to read WoF, I’m liking it. But, in all honesty, I’m impressed. No one has the guts to speak that kind of truth, which I respect, no doubt. This is exactly what everyone needed to hear, thank you so much for making this clear! Again, thank you, and I love your art style! ❤
As someone who is deep in the fandom, I have many OCs, and I even believe myself some of them are "cringe". Do I care? No. And the people who are close to me and care to know about them, like my OCs. I personally don't think any OC is inherently bad, sometimes "cringe" and be good and everything is really in the eye of the beholder. I know older members of the fandom but I am mostly surrounded by 15-18 YOs, who are from discord. I do kinda agree with you, I feel like the wof community in youtube has fallen apart, but if you find the right people on discord on maybe other social media platforms then it's great, like it is for me. I feel sorry that you got surrounded by negativity and that made you leave the fandom, but I hope you could still remember the good times. I wish you the best
I just want to pop in and say hey! Everything youre saying here is valid and its completely okay for you to want to distance yourself from the fandom but dont let age be a deciding factor on what you feel like you can and cant enjoy! (i mean im not sure if you still enjoy the books and youre just leaving the fandom or if you want to drop it all together, and either is valid! This is just like a little psa lol) Ive also left the fandom for a bit and for that period that i left i felt like i couldnt enjoy the books anymore. It should never be a shitty fandom that defines your enjoyment of a media, and ive found since ive left most wof circles and made things for myself that i enjoy ive been so much happier in the fandom! And im almost 18 now, been enjoying the books for nearly 10 years and i know plenty of fans that are older than me! all this just to say to not let age/shitty fandom experience taint your view on a piece of media. You can enjoy whatever you like no matter what! And if you find that you can no longer enjoy the books due to your expeirence thats valid too!
I am 27, and got into the books just a few years ago. I loved the books so far. Listened to the audiobooks during a long drive, and got hooked. Nothing wrong with that. Maturity does not mean you can't enjoy 'childish' things any more. Funnily enough, I've read most the "mature" books when I was young. Sherlock Holmes, Moby Dick, Frankenstein, and so on. Maybe that's why I never really noticed a difference between them and, say, Redwall or Bionicle. I read them all at the same time, after all. Point being, never be afraid to love what you enjoy spending your time with.
The main problem I experienced was strangely the treatment of the human characters? People would say they ALL suck and wouldn't take any other opinion (even though I was just saying I was personally fine w them). It just felt so shallow?? For a book series about acceptance it caught me off gaurd.
I wasn't even aware of that being a thing in the community at all. That's a shame that people will find an excuse to shame people's ocs, down to if they are human or not.
I think not even OC's so much, more the fact that the books themselves have human characters at all. People liked the series being solely about dragons with minimal focus on the humans in the world and as such there was a fair bit of yelling about Dragonslayer. Personally I don't care. I liked the series pre-Dragonslayer, I still like it post-Dragonslayer.
Your last point definitely hit, i was underage at the time and shouldn’t have been on yt at all alongside with other ppl i was friends with, who were considerably popular back in 2019-2020. I moderated their severs and was as such witnessed dramas that would play out on both yt and in the server even tho i was never a part of them, i was the one moderating and comforting my friend. I think it took a big mental toll on me and especially my friends who were more famous and at the centre of it. From what i know they’ve left social media and i’m happy that they did, after they left around 2020 i distanced myself from the fandom and was able to connect w ppl in healthier communities. I’ve forgotten nearly everything that’s happened in those servers and spaces. Children should not be put in positions of fame at all and i wish me and my friends just stayed off the internet til we were older, being in this community definitely impacted my mental health. I don’t interact w the fandom at all besides a few posts on tumblr now and then, i’ve started slowly getting back into wof but have no real interest to interact w the fandom or be fully apart of it Tho i’m glad that people are still creating and having fun in the fandom from what i’ve seen from an outsiders pov
I believe I also moderated that same server though I am not 100%. I also had a Wings if Fire friend who left in 2020. I remember him momentarily coming back around 2021-2022ish before leaving for good. I understand how stressed out that must have been, I'm really stressed rn with all the comments I'm receiving 😭. No child should have to endure fame
Oop- Hearing this fandom was toxic was/is a big shock for me- I've been part of it for a few years now and not once have I faced any form of toxicity- Or maybe i'm just REALLY bad at seeing the toxicity XD Either way, ty for bringing light to the situation! If you think doing video essays is what you wanna do, I say go for it! Have fun while doing so as well ^^
So RUclips just deleted my entire comment, let me try and rephrase it. I completely understand your reasoning for leaving. Personally I always keep fandom at an arms length to myself and never get my hands deep in whatever is going on in things. [Sometimes I find some good peeps and i am deep into helping out their projects but that's very rare] So I never really witness any of the "toxic" side of the fandom. Are there some immature children that dont know how rude they are being? Yes, of course this is the internet. And I have no doubt that you have been victim to some unfairly rude things because of this, that much is clear, and I sympathize with that. I definitely think the wof fandom is actually a lot tamer then some of the recent fandoms I've seen pop up from newer shows or indie games/cartoons. But it is by no means the best. Your video paints a very negative light on the fandom, and although you did mention some of the good, I would warn to make sure bias doesn't bleed through so much. Even though your experiences are valid, this video might have worked better structured as a warning on how to avoid the situations you found yourself in as apposed to implying that the fandom as a whole was toxic and bad. Especially if you plan on making more commentary art videos. [Again Im not an expert at this, I've just seen a lot of commentary art channels fall into drama cuz of mistakes like this] Again, great video! Completely valid points and good execution!
Hi! Thanks for your comment! Another commenter did point this out too, that I did seem to paint a more negative light onto it. This video was ment to share more of my own personal experiences (good and bad) and I don't intend for this video to try and tell people that "grrrr wings of fire is bad! You are a toxic person for being in it!!" But more of a sense to share my own experiences in the fandom and what I did see while being a part of the community. I appreciate all input and I am happy you gave your own personal thought into a comment for me! So sorry youtube deletes comments, I have no way of reviewing them for some reason. Everyone has different experiences in the fandom and this was more of a video focused on my experiences. I do not wish to cause any drama with anyone of course so I'll likely make a pinned comment when nessasary
@@Chase.C Ey man and completely valid! I highly suspected it was more of a "personal experience" video, but as I always say "error on the side of caution when it comes to the internet" Cuz hooo boy can things get rough here! Looking forward to if you make any more comintary videos mate!
as an older member of the WoF community I have been around for a long time and I really liked this video, you have a lot of good points and I'm happy someone is willing to bring them up. I have also been thinking about leaving the community not exactly because of the toxicity which can be avoided but mainly because I have a hard time finding people my own age, you are 100% right with a majority of the fandom being so young but I still enjoy the books and the creativity it sparks. thank you for the video I enjoyed it!
The segment about the cringe OC meme reminds me of a recent-ish similar meme in the MLP community, where a stereotypical "cringe" alicorn many-color edgy OC was contrasted with a more "normal" one. The reason I bring this up is actually for a wholesome anecdote: the community response wasn't, by and large, to agree with the meme, but instead to make fanart of both characters (primarily the "cringe" one, because he was so visually interesting), ship them with each other, and even write fanfiction about them. I don't think cringe culture can ever be fully killed, but it warms my heart that it can be countered with love and creativity like that. I wish you all the best in your further travels through life, and I'm sorry you had such toxic experiences.
I SAW THAT TREND! Honestly I genuinely get so happy when people battle cringe culture in creative ways! You are right, cringe culture can't remain fully dead but seeing people embrace it is such an amazing power move against it
Hey! I just want to thank you for the extremely overwhelming support I have gotten from you guys! removing comments comparing Cranberry to others ocs. Please don't compare her to yours or other people's ocs thank you. As my channel bio states, I will block people under the age of 13. /srs I just want to clear some things up that I have been getting in the comments. 1) this video is NOT AT ALL supposed to tell you that you are not allowed to enjoy wings of fire or be in the community. This is a video talking about my personal experiences. 2) What I ment in the video when I did say the fandom was toxic was that the fandom grew toxic for ME. A lot of people pointed out that it felt like I was trying to paint the fandom in a negative light, which is my mistake. I understand everyone has different experiences, this was just mine. 3) Also I would like to clarify that my pronouns are He/Him! People dont read my channel bio or description but please refer to me as He/Him!
Fun thing about the concept of Mary Sues: There's this thing called the "Mary Sue Litmus Test" that used to be a popular tool for people to use to check and see if their OC was a Mary Sue or not. The creator of that test has long since disavowed both the test and the term "Mary Sue" as a whole and only keeps the page with the test up for archival purposes. The term is so widely applied and unhelpful that even _the creator of the definitive Mary Sue test_ thinks so.
I don't usually interact with the fadom on some other platforms I don't feel too old for it mostly because it's my autism hyperfixation but I do agree with you I made some quote on quote cringe Ocs that I never shared because I was scared to I found a good platform thingamajig to share my art and fanfictions witch I was nervous to share but that's the whole focus of the kinda platform thing so I at least feel free to share my stuff there but I just like enjoying the books mostly
One time I got bullied in wof early access because I was a Hive-Rain hybrid. I don’t think that’s reason to be bullied- and another person in that game only started the fight because hours earlier I said I wasn’t g@y in the game. So they created a whole new oc so they could spam saying that I was rude in my hosted rp. Then she stopped, and later, in the middle of the rp, she started saying I was too op because I could use my stinger and use venom, but nothing else.(Yes, not even change color.) I then confronted her because she was the person who got mad at me for not being g@y, then finally, the chaos was over and I was forced to leave the game. I’m not sure if I was right or not to have those two powers, you guys can choose if I was right or not.
I feel this. I'm mixed race and often make my character hybrids, as that's a major way I feel like I can really relate to them, and it's strange how much shade I've gotten for it.
I agree that many parts of the wof fandom can be very toxic, especially oc making, **(i’ve heard people bash on ocs for not having the right colours, special abilities, Personalities, or even names.)** ship wars, **(i actively avoid shipping any characters because i have to want to be involved in the wars)* and art drama. **(often art style theft, pose theft, design trait theft, think of a thing you can do? Stolen now.)** There is a lot of crazy parts of the fandom. But in all honesty, the toxic side of the fandom is frankly easy to avoid. After my first year in the fandom i already was able to ignore almost anyone who started unneeded drama. That same year was actually my first year online as well. I’ve now been part of this fandom for over 5 years. I’m nearly an adult, and i know actually a LOT of other older wof artists and animators. Yes, we definitely don’t post as much WOF content as our younger counterparts. But quite a lot of us still actively participate in the WoF community. /I/ am currently working on the nightswing Multiple Animator Project. In consideration with other fandoms that have a large young fanbase, our fandom doesn’t have that much of a bad fanbase, we just have the toxic parts of the art community sprinkled in with our wings of fire artists & animators. Not really wof centric, But completely fanart centric. I really liked this essay video If you make other essays like this, I’d definitely love it! i bid you a farewell from the wof fandom. 🔥
Yea one in the WoF community, WC community, Phighting community and DnB community, I see a lot of these points are entirel true. I can never fully go forever without being involved in drama.
I'm one of the older fans of the series because I got into Wings of Fire late, so I didn’t have to wait for most of the books to come out, I don’t really interact with the fandom because I haven’t read all the books yet and don’t want to spoil myself with the events of the books (despite me having OCs of leafwings, hivewings and silkwings) but I understand if you wanted to leave the fandom because of toxic children
For me, the only negative things I have come across in this community is some of the art-based wof communities. A lot of people tend to only be positive about certain art styles, and most of the time will host unfair contests and stuff and only comment heart felt things on mostly the cutesy simple art styles. While this isn’t everyone, most of what I have experienced is very much like this. And I’m just saying, be more open and less bias to certain styles to prevent people from feeling left out I would also like to add another thing. Don’t say that young teenagers and kids can’t handle the criticism and make the community bad. The book series (in my opinion) is pretty much aimed at people that age, and just because they are young, doesn’t mean they can’t think clearly
I haven’t been on many fandom communities including Wings of Fire in a long time, and I think that’s a good thing. I was, although, unaware of the drama and other things going on in the community.
I have not actively participated in a lot of discussions. Though I've seen them on social media sites like RUclips and Twitter, and have read Reddit forms, and I agree that the community can be toxic. I've been less interested in being part of the community too. I still love the books and enjoy drawing the characters but being in online discussions about the books has become more stressful than fun, and I see arguments over some of the smallest things. And I've seen a lot of those "cringe oc" videos too, and I agree. character creation should be fun, and you should create the type of character you want.
Absolutely right. I’ve been in the community for 7 years (though I’m not really in it anymore tbh) and while every fandom has some toxicity, wings of fire is something worth talking about. You nailed it with the bit about people making cringe OC compilations - even if you might look back on the OC when you’re older and think of it as embarrassing and cringe, the point is you had fun making the character! The people making those videos probably have been in a phase where they stop themselves from having any fun because of fearing being “cringey” (I get it. I was like that too.) One thing a lot of people in the comments are pointing out is how toxic ship discourse gets - they’re right. People have been called homophobic for disliking sundew x willow 💀 and don’t get me started on winter/moon/qibli ships. That’s a whole beast to deal with Though I will say, being in this community of other dragon lovers (I didn’t know anyone else who read wof irl at the time) was a big part of my life. I always watched RUclipsrs like Biohazardia and Ebonythewinglessmudwing (eboy as of now) because they heavily drove me to improve in art and I can’t thank them enough. All my early animations when I was starting out were based on wof, as well as almost all my artworks at the time. While I still like the books I think it’s time for me to start moving on from the community Enough about me - great video essay! I’ll definitely be subbing. You have awesome art ❤
Im personally still in the fandom, but I try not to get too social, it definitely helps when I’m also a part of a lot of other fandoms. So if one gets sort of… err, bas for a while I can just hop to activity on another. Luckily though I’ve managed to mainly find nice, friendly fans who roleplay a lot (a fairly) and it’s really nice!
I think a lot of the Fandom issues are growing pains. I mean the warriors Fandom went through the same thing and they we all grew up and got over ourselves and created a more healthy Fandom (not that it's perfect). While we are discussing things that need to change in the WOF Fandom is creating problematic situations in the books when there really shouldn't be. I remember back when I was in my second year of high school there was a whole trend/ controversy going on around glorybringer, a Canon ship that was under fire due to a discrepancy in the timeline and deathbringer being a lot older than glory when you look at when deathbringer's winglet took place, and the ship was marked as predatory and a lot of hate was going to anyone who still supported the ship. This is never an issue in the main series books and they have a healthy relationship where the power dynamic is not in deathbringer's favor, nor does she ever act younger or more childish in their relationship nor is it indicated that deathbringer is grooming her in any way. This entire ordeal was blowing things out of proportion and making issues when really there are none there and it is not coded or written to be that sort of situation nor would tui ever endorse something that was. Anywho rant over, moral of the story let's be rational with our hot takes and blacklisting people guys😊
THIS! Wings of Fire and many other fandoms (like Warriors and even Animation Meme) are not perfect! I am so happy people are trying to make a change into making it healthier as we grow older. A lot of people blow things out of proportion, it happens in every single fandom but I hope that the Wings of Fire community can take this as a learning step to actually grow and learn from mistakes instead of throwing everyone out (like from what I have seen)
Though I’m neither an animator nor an artist (I actually kinda suck at art), I really agree with everything you said in this video, both the good and the bad. Ok, I’ll admit I’m a teenager also, so I try avoid these types of behaviours. I’ve never watched your channel before but you seem to have some interesting content, just saying to keep it up and don’t let other people get you down.
I got into wings of fire recently after YEARS of procrastination (watching a fandub of the comic) After those I went to look up lore and analysis vids on RUclips (cause I like watching those) to find out pretty quickly about how young fandom is and the peeps I did find my age either just left or were preparing to leave It’s really uh… makes me feel bad/awkward that I like the story / am a fan. Idk missed my chance to comfortably be in the fandom I think Inside I still really wanna watch wof content but.. It’s kinda awkward I wish there was like some kinda place for me in the fandom but ye rip Edit: grammar and spelling LOL CHEKCHE
Hey, don't let my video discourage you from enjoying wings of fire. Anyone of any age can enjoy any media they'd like. I personally think I am too old for Wings of Fire and it's not something I am hyperfixated about anymore. But you are allowed to enjoy any content you wish!
The thing is at the time of making this video I had already left the community almost 2 years ago now. The fact many more people are leaving for the same reason is heartbreaking
My least favorite character is Peril and I have people yell at me for it. “But she’s so sweet!” “How dare you not like Peril!” “How can you not like Peril, what is wrong with you??”, the list goes on and on. I don’t like her because she’s too obsessive and clingy, and I don’t enjoy characters like that. Her obsession with Clay also annoys me, to be honest. Her whole backstory is also kind of lame and unoriginal to me. The whole “abused child, horrible parent” trope is one I’ve seen a lot in many different movies, tv shows, etc(Rapunzel and Mother Gothel, Cinderella and her Stepmother, the Dursleys and Harry Potter, to name a few), and I’ve seen it so much to the point where it’s just kind of boring to read characters with that backstory. I can see why people might still be interested in it, but for me, it’s just not that interesting anymore. I’m not a fan of many of the ships in WoF, it just feels like they exist for literally no reason. I’m not a Qibli fan, he just feels a little too generic for me, and his thoughts about Moon get pretty annoying, to be honest. It feels like as soon as the fandom decides one character is good, EVERYONE has to like that character, and that’s one issue I think the fandom has.
This was a very heartfelt video for myself as I have left the fandom and community as a whole because of a lot of the same reasons. Though I started with the fandom as the books came out in my middle school years, I had began to wrap my life around it early on as Dragons were a huge thing for me. Sadly, with the growing toxicity and destructive childish agenda of a lot of the mainstream creators, I disband and attempted to create my own world and creatures. I've been meet with a lot of blasphemy and attacks from people claiming my dragons are too "WOF" like, and otherwise putting my Sona character down. My Sona was made long before the wof release, and only grew attributes of some of the dragons in the series, later changing and more refining the character and completely redesigning her a few times with a new species name change as well. Its just a childish thought for me when people think a series has the ONLY rights to elemental type creatures. Anyone can make a bug, fire, water, etc species type for anything, so long as theres a clear design and name change. But with all these hateful kids, if they see anything remotely 'plant dragon' "tHatS a LeAfwIng FroM wInGs oF fIrE!! yOuR SteAlInG!!" or any other type out there. I've deleted a mass collection of some of my art in an attempt to completely remove it from my life, and at the price of my following, but I believe it will be better for myself and possibly others in the long run. Thank you for sharing your experience and relating to so many of us that come along this same issue. Best of luck to you. keep strong and keep making amazing art!
as a member ish of the fandom, yeah. i stay away from the more public part of the community because of how arguey the community is. i check out the games sometimes, but usually people tell me stuff like "oh ur oc cant be this!" or "your oc can't be that!" when the whole point of OCs is to just.. not be.. canon?? i had an oc i loved a lot that i named Wendigo, because he was inspired by wendigos. someone told me i couldnt name him that, so i changed it. now i hate him because his name is so uninspired and bland. my other oc, Ghost, is also a victim of this sort of stuff. i feel like i can't use him at all, because he's a ghost. ..sooo i just stay away from saying my opinions and from chatting with the more public, arguing side of the community.
The windigo one I can kinda see were people are coming from. For a while on tiktok, many people were telling us not to use Windigos in fictional media as they came from First Nations culture. "The wendigo is part of the traditional belief system of a number of Algonquin-speaking peoples, including the Ojibwe, the Saulteaux, the Cree, the Naskapi, and the Innu." - Copy and Pasted from Wikipedia. However unless they are Algonquin-speaking peoples there is no way they should be speaking for a group they are not a part of.
Though I do disagree with one or two of your points, I think that you’ve made a HUGE example for why toxicity is spreading throughout the fandom. And I respect your decision and so should everyone else. No one should make anyone change and or delete their oc based off of what someone else thinks.
And I am happy to agree to disagree with any opinions people may have with me. This is not a video on why you should leave wings of fire but more of why I personally left.
i hate the “cringey ocs be like:” because my main oc is a hybrid, anims mind reader and can see the future, i made this oc when i was 7 i think so i really love her
As someone who’s been in the fandom for nearly a decade, I’m surprised that I haven’t really ever seen the toxicity a whole lot. I knew that it existed, cus some of my mutuals complained about it occasionally, but I didn’t really know how *bad* it was in some parts of the fandom. I guess I never really dove super deep into the fandom, so I never go to see or be part of any of the drama. I consider myself lucky I guess…either that or I’ve just been living under a rock lmao
Many people have diffrent experiences and it really depends on the people you surround yourself with. People might adore the community and find it really friendly, while others (such of myself) have been more exposed to the toxic part of the community. I wouldn't say you are living under a rock cause yeah, not a lot of people knew about this. It's nice hearing another perspective
@@Chase.C Hey man, it’s good to see someone brave enough to voice your concerns with the fandom, hopefully some of those toxic pools dry up the near future. (Also just wanna say that this video-essay style video was very nice and informative! Keep up the great work :] )
I’ve never really been in the fandom.I saw some of the fandom posts,and commented on wof videos,but that was about it.I’m new to the wof community,so I probably haven’t experienced its toxicity
Its unfortunate the negative experiences you had within the wof fandom, which I completly undersstand since yes there is quite a bit of beef between characters and just artist in general💀💀 but personally I stay away from that. Most communities/fandoms have its downsides anyways. Also I do agree with the whole cringe oc thing, people should be able to make whatever and make their character creative and unique to their own. As a highschooler myself, who started wings of fire a few years back which got me into reading and art, personally I only really met people older than me. I dont personally like be around younger people and dont come in contact with the younger side much, so it all depends who you hang around and out yourself in, since personally I talk to a lot of older (& my age), mature people still involved in the fandom and made great friends I still talk too. Plus i met many bigger creaters, older than i am who are very sweet (but its true there is very young immature ones) ive had more positive experience than negative, which is why I've stayed, though i completly understand where you come from. To be fair, im not as involved as i used to be, I more participate in M.A.Ps and stuff like that. Whole yes the wof community can be toxic, but i feel over the years its become less like that and become more exepting, all depends on the person though, so i agree and i dont No hate btw (just to make that clear 💀)
As some one who was apart of the wof/warriors fandom im now rethinking alot of the interactions i had like lit some one told me ur oc is kina mid and a marry sue so that oc went into the garbage i felt really stressed when making a oc because i felt it was ugly or a marry sue or just stuff like that
O.M.L I am personally still a member of this fandom and I do play and still play wof ea, but I have some problems that I find agitating. So once I had this oc who was a SeaWing (pure SeaWing) named Stargazer. Someone yelled at me because of the name, and I just used the name because it went well with his colors and personality! And I've gotten criticized for having my SkyWing OC Sunwind who was a crossover character of Dune (books and films)/Wings of Fire. So they criticized her about her bio like "oh, how did she even get to arrakis?" (Animus is reason) So I am a wof fan through and through but wof fandom STOP HATING ocs.
All fandoms are toxic, honestly. That's just how it goes. Whether young or mature audiences, the same route takes place. A lot of folk use it to build those old highschool clique style nightmares. It's a tragically common fare. It's also why I tend to avoid them, and rarely consider myself a part of them. I just enjoy the things, and that's it. I don't really agree on the character stuff. Though I don't like specific-targetted 'cringe' videos, it's not unreasonable to point out these flaws. It's part of how one grows. 'Marry sue' is a term that exists for a cause, and while mistakes like that are expected from young and new writers, they are still things creators ought strive to avoid. I'm not going to complain about the kid that makes Murderbucket the Skywing/Nightwing/Seawing animus firescales mind reading royal princess who escaped Orca's statue when they first hatched and fell into the deep chasm to be raised by sharks... But I've also got no qualms about speaking of the flaws that these types of characters end up with. Again, there's a huge difference between pointing to these flaws, generally, and targeting a specific OC, though. Unless someone's specifically asking for critique, I just find it generally rude.
Glad you brought up the oc thing! Personally, if it is a Wings of fire oc, made by a child to have fun, than they should be allowed to do whatever with that character. If it is someone who is seeking to make a comic/fanfiction about their oc and wants an opinion on their character, they can ask for criticism! My point only stands for the kids who make original characters of fun
@@Chase.C I don't mean to suggest that they shouldn't be allowed to, yeah. Ultimately, they should be able to do as they please. My stance is more that I don't think it's a bad thing to speak on qualities and flaws in OC creation, generally. Kids or not, really. I never really was sold on the idea that kids stuff is inherently lower quality, though.
true. i still find true gems in it though. those people that make the cringe content.. rather are often rude. yes they can be nice but one thing that is always across them:theyll slap cringe on what they dislike no matter what
lol I stopped reading the books because I was mad the scavengers weren’t what I had pictured them as: genuine feathered realistic velociraptors- I thought the idea was so cool that the world of civilized dragons was without humans at all. I hate the newest arc that decided we needed a human POV- annoying and unnecessary imo. 😤 way happier without the humans in the world.
Honestly I call myself in fandoms and never really have social media posts. It can be posting art still and having it be about studies, like doing animatronic wirings and not liking that people assaulted Scott Cawthon because he was stalked throughout 2020 and was forced to retire to not lose developing fetuses that became more kids for him from Twitter women hating him, or liking Genshin Impact and not engaging with anyone who has very questionable ships but you can ignore them or report them quietly and move on. I had an art piece where I got called Kim Jong Un on a video of mine and just went "Meh" and now have a great self-portrait study from time. But you need to understand one thing: There is no such thing as a fandom that does not have a toxic small portion that gets blown out of proportion. Every single fandom does the Assault Culture trend where they call everyone they hate others as "toxic" or "a creep" all from a tiny group who are horrid and shift the blame to the entire group.
I've got back to the WoF fandom a few months ago, and so far I really enjoy it I know for a fact that this is a story aimed towards childrens and teens, but it does come as a mature content that tackles important and serious topics So far, most people I've met are pretty mature, and I am having a great experience so far I can defenitly see your point, but I do feel like this is something you can avoid, for exemple, by not sticking to much with young content creators that aren't mature enough yet generally, it's a fandom were you should be fine if you're careful enough, and it's a fandom old of a few years now, so people that joined a while ago are growing older i first read WoF when I was 13/14 and liked it a lot, but know I've stumbled another time in the fandom and I'm 18, and I love it even more, some people are doing incredible stuff. there is a lot of very talented artist, from writers to animators. for me the most immature discussions and prone to go into fights are actually ships, but not because peole argue which ships are better, but because they disagree on the nature of ships themselves (someone would say "why ship characters that are already setted to be with someone" for exemple), I personally don't really mind ships, I'm just not that much into it. Anyways, I am certainly planning a lot of things regarding WoF now, hopefully I can get my objective at making all dragon tribes in 3d, and *maybe* planning some serious projects along with it :)
As a young person in the wof fandom, I sincerely apologize for all of the 9-10 harassing some great people for liking different ships. Not all of us are bad!! I personally don’t care what ships like in the fandom ( accept anything related to pedophila, etc) Cringe culture is dead (as they said) and I will support people dispute having cringe ocs, (Not a valid reason to hate someone), and or not liking the same ship as me. The main focus of the fandom is to support each other. It is ok to be a furry or be queer. (Another Not Valid Reason to hate someone) I hope My opinion is supported!!!!
I'm seems to be on the wrong side of the community, because I have never had to deal and see people deal with most of the things, or these things are not this fandom problem, and just a common thing in general
Fun fact: My main oc (Darkeeper) USED to be one of those all wing animus op laser shooter universe creator super cringe mary sue characters and I dimmed the fuck out of her and now she's boring asf and the only reason she's boring bc I didn't want my character to be "Cringe" 😭
Same thing happened with Cranberry (oc drawn in the video). She was a princess animus Rainwing/Skywing but I completely changed her because I didn't want to be "cringe". It honestly sucks to see that people feel like they have to change their ocs because others deem it "cringeworthy"
i definitely agree with the point about letting people be free with how they design their charaters! everyone is entitled to do whatever they want with their characters and shouldnt be made fun of for it. ALthough, similar to what others said, age shouldnt me a restricting factor in fandoms. Hell im nearly and adult and still interact with it (ive found plenty of people who are late teens-early adults who love the fandom, allowing me to be more myself compared to acting like a 'baby sitter' for lack of a better word) I wish you the best for future endevours as Ive never seen your content before (the wonders of the algorithm haha)
A lot of people think im trying to make age a restricting factor. All I ment was that I grew up and have found no enjoyment out of the series. Anyone can enjoy the series, I dont anymore
I want to say, I’ve seen many kind people in this community, but I see where you’re coming from. I often see drama videos or why this ship should be banned videos. Some ships are popular because of their bad reputation (glorybringer im looking at you) , I honestly don’t give a fuck about who gets shipped with who. I also se hate coming from these ships in particular: glory x deathbringer, sundew x willow etc. I do realise people make this content for subscribers and not just because they dislike/like the ship. I am honestly disappointed by the community on this. Just because someone likes sunlow it doesn’t mean they’re gay. I hope you understand.
I specifically really hate the scratch version of the wof community they are all friends and super close and just because they can draw dragons younger childeren will worship them and these people who like wings of fire on scratch are all kinda linked and they can be horribly irresponsible I once got piled on by these stupid people because some body was going through a hard time I tried to support them and their dumb friends had to "defend" them they all just simultaniously harrassed me over and over one of them was like in an emo phase because they were s p e a k i n g l i k e t h i s which a lot of their sentences I had no idea what they were saying and they were bypassing the scratch kid friendly filter and calling me names and they kept talking about their friend who I was trying to support that I was apparently harrassing and started talking about how horrible their life was just leaking their personal info to random stranger on the internet about how their "brother kept beating them up everyday and they were always bullied in school" and I said I was going through quite a time too and they tried to make me say it and tried comparing problems and I'm not just gonna go around online talking about very personal stuff not only to me but my family that I haven't even told some of my very close friends they were just assholes when I was trying to help (btw this happened like 3 years ago) since then they have deleted my comment probably because they didn't want anyone else seeing anywho sorry for the long rant but I held that in for 3 years I have had no friends to talk to for 3 years
I may not be actually part of this fandom but I have been hovering around to see what's up.. and let's say I find this fandom a mixed bag.. I don't really see anything you listed, like the "cring ocs" vids and shit.. Its like living in a city, the city is a mixed bag with a good amount of people still living in it while there are bad.. it really depends to be honest.. And I hope u doing alright now
Many others have started that it really depends who you are around in this fandom, and they are absolutely right. As for cringe oc videos, they are incredibly common in this fandom, and I even reposted one. I'm glad you haven't come across any yet I am doing alright, just getting ready for school!
I'm not saying the issues are illegitimate, but these are problems I've seen in every online fandom and its something that won't change. The wof fandom honestly seems pretty tame in terms of drama and what not. As an older wof fan, I've been in many non-wof online communities where adults are just as drama-prone so I doubt it's an age thing and more of a people thing. That being said its OK to get away from it when you need some space, just don't expect other communities to behave better.
I personally was not saying there are fandom that do not have issues themselves. This was more me talking about my personal issues with this particular fandom in general. Don't get me wrong, plenty of adults also get put into drama but the reason I mostly say children is because they are usually always immature. You are right it is not always children. Thank for your input
from everything i see the cringe oc videos all have poeple submitting ocs, its never just grab an oc from an art channel and ruin the self esteem of some 12 year old, just a point out, and yeah i left too, the fandom is mostly immature and starts drama over nothing. i can agree it has its ups and downs, but every fandom does! so enjoy the good parts while they last! and have a good day! ^^
As for the cringe oc thing, I'm specifically referring to the videos such as "Emily making a wof oc" or "cringe ocs be like" I linked an example in my community post. You also have a good day, and you are absolutely allowed to leave a fandom you no longer enjoy
Every fandom is a great experience while you're consuming the high-quality content that rises to the top and has the most exposure. It's when you exhaust all of that and start digging deeper that you uncover some REALLY shitty opinions from shitty people. Some of the best fanworks I've seen here are fanfics. The character studies there are incredible. And no, fanfiction is not just poorly-written sex scenes, please educate yourself if you think this is the case. RUclips animatics, however, tend to be nothing but shipping wars. Especially the comments. Ugh. The comments.
Hey everyone, Had to pause the comments on my new post. Im so happy you are all sharing your stories but its actually stressing me out and making me overwhelmed everytime someone comments. Ill turn them back on once the video stops getting as much attention Thank you
Unfortunately yeah. Search it up and its just a bunch of posts bullying these kids. It was especially disheartening seeing a big creator partake on this too.
I'm probably not really fit to write any comment as I'm a 7th grader but I think that this is the most stupidest thing I've ever hear (not your video but how ppl treated you) I really don't understand that much but my guess for this is that a lot of kids my age are super insecure of what ppl think or how they react. 7th and 8th graders do cause a bunch of drama (its happening in my class idk how to deal with it)
My highschool has a 7th and 8th hallway and I can definitely see where you are coming from. It is unavoidable but try to get into less of it as you can
I have technically have left the wing of fire fandom for one main reason,I was to mad of the ships,most of the time people ship siblings or relatives example: orchid x mangrove.If you don’t know they are related,this is why children should not run a fandom .Im also tired of winter x qubli,I get it.Even though they have a relation ship,but still they are friends .Plus I was tired of practically every ship,children like to me mad,like the main one I’m tired about is peril x clay and glory x darkstalker,if you don’t know peril was suppost to die,but sense the fandom loved peril so much she let peril live.I hate peril because she reminds me of the mentally insane dragon who can’t make there one chooses. But the wings of fire fandom needs someone older to run the fandom,so yea I left the fandom because I was tired of the ships and. Amount of children in it.
Okay. This is becoming an issue and i am not for it.
I paused the comments to releive stress from this video as the comments were making me stressed the fuck out.
THIS DOES NOT MEAN TO COMMENT ON MY OTHER POST'S ABOUT THIS VIDEO. That is only stressing me out more.
DO NOT COMMENT ON MY OTHER POSTS CAUSE I PAUSED THIS COMMENT SECTION I WILL BE DELETING THEM.
As a member of the fandom, id have to say the most toxic thing about the WoF community is the ship wars. I’ve had people harass me (on other apps) for shipping moonbli above all ships. I’ve had people scream “WINTERWATCHER IS BETTER” at me for no reason. Or “UR OPINION IS WRONG” it’s insane. I don’t like sunnyflight? I’m about to get dozens of 11 year olds yelling at me about why im wrong. My least favorite character is Winter? Somehow I’m racist. I dont like qinter? Suddenly im a homophobic bigot. My favorite character is Qibli? I’m basic and stupid. I’m in plenty of other fandoms and its pretty common (the hate on Fitz is stupid. I dont like him either but y’all. Most people hate him because of shipping wars)
You are honestly not wrong. Shipping wars is just insane in the fandom dawg. Winter personally is one of my fav's but a character like Riptide is probably my least favorite character. It's hard to enjoy a lot of your favorite media because of people harassing you for things that don't even matter.
Also people saying you are RACIST is insane. It's a book about DRAGONS!
Sure, people can have their opinions but damn they don't need to force theirs on you. It's not gonna change your mind to spam you!!!
@@Chase.C dude it’s bad. I tend to dislike characters with anger issues (not my cup of tea. I don’t really care for reading in their perspective) and people straight up attack me for it. I dont like tsunami or sundew very much and the amount of ten year olds that come after me is terrifying. I get yelled at when I say I dont like the enemies to lovers trope. I honestly don’t get it. It’s an opinion.
Trueee
You mentioning Fitz made me do a double take lol I wasn’t expecting that-
(Also I AGREE WITH EVERYTHING YOU SAY!! People who can’t just let people have other opinions gets on my NERVES!)
As someone who’s in both the Wings of Fire and Warrior Cats fandom, your points are valid. You’re always going to find a toxic subgroup of people, and sometimes that minority can speak louder than the majority, but that’s where we have to try and look for the smaller and more welcoming parts of those communities. Your point on OCs, is also great. It can start out as bad, but you use that and improve. It helps you grow, and you can look back at this and see how far you’ve come. :)
Good luck to you and your graduation!
indeed lol--my own old ocs were so clunky and unoriginal but i have been progressively improving on em through the years :)
Yoo this was great! I agree with you on most parts of this, but I do have a few grievances. I think, at least with the vast majority of fandoms, you can’t really consider the thing as a whole to be toxic. This might be a me thing, but that whole idea has always rubbed me the wrong way. It sometimes feels like people use it as an excuse to act like someone is wrong for enjoying something that’s really harmless? I don’t really know, that’s just something to consider. With my experiences being a part of the fandom, the vibes really just depend on who you surround yourself with. The vast majority of people I interacted with were nothing but the absolute sweetest, and to be honest this community is what really gave me a passion for creating art. The fandom has got plenty of bad, but also plenty of good. By the way, I had no clue about the “cringe WoF ocs oh no bad 😨😨😨” videos and I’m glad I didn’t when I was younger. Just saw the one you linked on your community tab and all I can really say is I’m disappointed in those creators. But for every hooligan who put down other artists, I’d say there plenty others who do the exact opposite. The good generally outweighs the bad with this sort of thing. And I just hope anyone who might be reading this who is really into the WoF fandom right down doesn’t feel discouraged by all this. 💕💕💕
And Hedge, I completely respect your decision with this, and this was a great video! I enjoyed your insights on this topic you kept things nice and engaging. There were some spots where it sounded like you got a bit stuck on your script that you might want to be aware of, but those didn’t negatively affect the listening experience. If you do more video-essay-whatever-style content in the future I’ll definitely be watching. Great job man! ☺️
Thanks so much for your input Dew, and I do agree that the good can overweigh the bad by a ton! In my experience for sure it's been more negative and has not been my thing at all since but I of course never want to steer others away from something they enjoy.
Thanks so much for your input and its super lovely seeing you again!
I totally agree! I've had fantastic experiences in the fandom, but that really is who you surround yourself with. And I didn't know about those kinds of videos until relatively recently (the "cringe" WoF oc ones), but they're disappointing to watch. I don't see a problem with those characters; I think people should make the dragons they want to. If I was younger and someone I looked up to made a joke video about my idea for a character, I'd be really bummed. I suppose most people don't really think about it and the effect it has, they just see those "cringe Wings of Fire ocs be like" videos being popular and feel like they should have the same opinion or make a video like it of their own. Like, there's a massive difference between a supposed "cringe" oc vs. the kind of person who's just rude and hard to be with in a roleplay on a Wings of Fire Roblox game. They shouldn't be confused, which I think is where people are getting that sometimes unfortunately 😭
And I will say the experience thing having to do with who you're around in the fandom applies to age too. I've encountered plenty of other older creators and fans, it's not all people under the age of 12-15. It just depends where you're looking, at least in my experience though.
The toxicity is indeed off the charts, but next time someone tells you that you're too old for something, please remember this quote.
"When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." - C.S. Lewis
When I say I am too old and grew up it just means I lost interest as I grew older
Nobody told me I was to old, I just outgrew it. I am in no way telling people that they are to old to enjoy things.
I got banned from the wings of fire subreddit for mentioning excrements. Permanently. And I can’t appeal for six months. I just asked where the prisoners on the SkyWing spires would defecate since there are only guard barracks below, and when Clay threw up, it went on the barracks. Apparently the mods thought that was too NSFW. Not going back there again 😭.
So you're the guy that got banned for that, I've heard legends about you. (They should have not banned you)
I'm an older fan, I was hardcore into the series back in 2017 and used to do oc rp on web forums and yeahhh man the making fun of cringe ocs thing has been around for a WHILE in this fandom. Sad to hear that it never improved since then. On a positive note though, this video popped up in my recommended made me happy to know that the series is still alive and kicking with popularity even now :)
Nice art btw. Wish you the best, random stranger o7
I did join the fandom somewhat the same time around you and yes that is a trope that has happened since the appartenant start of it. Unfortunately the fandom even now in 2024 still can't let go of making fun of ocs or just cringe culture in general and it sucks a lot.
The fandom is still very much alive and despite some bad apples it was definitely the biggest chapter in my life so far, and I dont regret being a part of it.
Aww well that last part is good at least :)@@Chase.C
Getting mad at people for not completely following the lines of what a character may or may not look like is so funny to me.. (especially a species of something)
Like.. in specific situations I get it. But in general? Let them people make their silly rainbow hybrid dragons with laser eyes and clashing colors.
It's not bothering you personally! People learn over time what generally a fully put together character looks like...
Anyway- that decision of yours is totally valid man!
THANK YOU! Exactly what I am saying!
LIKE DAWG LET ME HAVE AN OP DRAGON IN PEACE, IT IS NOT HURTING YOU 😭😭😭
@@Chase.C yeAH FR-
The only time I see this becoming a problem is if this particular type of character is in something like... A RP or DND game with other people.
Sure, then it becomes a problem.. but other then that? Let it be
YESS JUSTICE FOR THE SILLY RAINBOW HYBRID DRAGONS THOSE LITTLE GUYS RULE!
tbh the only reason i ever found those kinds of characters funny was because i remember how i was when i was younger and making characters like this, though i've never mocked a creator for making a similar ish character
as one in the wof community, I see a lot of these points are entirely true. Though i try to avoid it, I can never fully go forever without being involved in drama. I can definitely see where you are coming from with these points now that I realize it.
I used to enjoy reading WoF back in 2014, 2015 (they were dragons and it was hard for me to find dragon stories), but I quickly grew tired of it. In later years, it was because I was studying creative writing and the more I studied, the more issues I found. But early on to why I got annoyed was because people continued to call my dragons breeds from WoF, when I had not even created a WoF OC at the time, and I was focusing on developing my own original dragon story. It’s something simple, but it annoyed me something shocking. I even ended up throwing a WoF book when I saw something I’d been using for years, but I knew fans would only think I was using it because of WoF.
Another reason was the Ship-Wars. I’ve always been someone who would go by what was canon, even as a 13 year old. If it wasn’t stated in a book or series, I wouldn’t ship characters, well, I wouldn’t ship them as a romantic couple. And I’ve never seen a fandom so aggressive with who should be with who, not since Voltron: Legendary Defender anyway.
Now, the only reason I read the books is so I can understand what’s happening in animations people make following the books. But otherwise, I’m pretty much out of the fandom.
What are those writing issues you found? Just curious :0
Yeah, as I’ve grown older I’ve been noticing more and more issues with the story (but hey, nothings perfect. I still read the books from time to time) and I felt you when you said stuff about people calling all your characters wings of fire. That’s happened to one of my favourite artists (LampP0st) and it must be incredibly tiring and frustrating.
@@Krispykreme15 that's actually the reason I follow LampP0st, because of that experience and frustration we've had, and I love the videos and their Renewal series.
@@Allisky71 It's mainly in the Flames of Hope book as that's the one I took notes on. And people may disagree with me on some of these.
I believe there were too many characters in that final novel, to the point where Sutherland had to 'get rid of them' (ie, getting characters captured), which would've been fine had they not done it in many stories of the WoF series.
And Luna's character arc drove me insane at the end, especially how the depression sub-plot was swept under the rug. When she went through her depression, it was well described, but it was finalized in that last chapter or so, where Swordtail knew she had depression. It was good she was brave enough to talk about it, but having Swordtail know (when in most cases I've known the other person doesn't) felt like a quick fix. Having her come out about it earlier in the book, to give time to show us how to talk about it with others and teach others how to help someone with depression would've felt more relatable overtime. And it would've also given us time to also maybe see them fail in helping at some point, because while everyone wants to help, we sometimes fail, and that's where we as help learn from the depressed how to help them better.
Sorry for the long paragraph and I hope it makes sense.
@@phantomthedragoness I'm still reading the second arc and don't know much about what happens in the third arc, but it's sad to know that Sutherland tackled depression in her work but handled it poorly. Subjects like that being ignored and "solved" in an unrealistic way in stories is really dissapointing. If it ends up without offering much about/to the people with the same issues as the character , it's better to think twice before introducing the issue in the first place.
and it's ok, i was expecting a long answer.
I am starting to read WoF, I’m liking it. But, in all honesty, I’m impressed. No one has the guts to speak that kind of truth, which I respect, no doubt. This is exactly what everyone needed to hear, thank you so much for making this clear! Again, thank you, and I love your art style! ❤
As someone who is deep in the fandom, I have many OCs, and I even believe myself some of them are "cringe". Do I care? No. And the people who are close to me and care to know about them, like my OCs. I personally don't think any OC is inherently bad, sometimes "cringe" and be good and everything is really in the eye of the beholder.
I know older members of the fandom but I am mostly surrounded by 15-18 YOs, who are from discord. I do kinda agree with you, I feel like the wof community in youtube has fallen apart, but if you find the right people on discord on maybe other social media platforms then it's great, like it is for me.
I feel sorry that you got surrounded by negativity and that made you leave the fandom, but I hope you could still remember the good times.
I wish you the best
I just want to pop in and say hey! Everything youre saying here is valid and its completely okay for you to want to distance yourself from the fandom but dont let age be a deciding factor on what you feel like you can and cant enjoy! (i mean im not sure if you still enjoy the books and youre just leaving the fandom or if you want to drop it all together, and either is valid! This is just like a little psa lol) Ive also left the fandom for a bit and for that period that i left i felt like i couldnt enjoy the books anymore. It should never be a shitty fandom that defines your enjoyment of a media, and ive found since ive left most wof circles and made things for myself that i enjoy ive been so much happier in the fandom! And im almost 18 now, been enjoying the books for nearly 10 years and i know plenty of fans that are older than me!
all this just to say to not let age/shitty fandom experience taint your view on a piece of media. You can enjoy whatever you like no matter what!
And if you find that you can no longer enjoy the books due to your expeirence thats valid too!
I am 27, and got into the books just a few years ago.
I loved the books so far. Listened to the audiobooks during a long drive, and got hooked.
Nothing wrong with that. Maturity does not mean you can't enjoy 'childish' things any more.
Funnily enough, I've read most the "mature" books when I was young. Sherlock Holmes, Moby Dick, Frankenstein, and so on. Maybe that's why I never really noticed a difference between them and, say, Redwall or Bionicle. I read them all at the same time, after all. Point being, never be afraid to love what you enjoy spending your time with.
The main problem I experienced was strangely the treatment of the human characters? People would say they ALL suck and wouldn't take any other opinion (even though I was just saying I was personally fine w them). It just felt so shallow?? For a book series about acceptance it caught me off gaurd.
I wasn't even aware of that being a thing in the community at all. That's a shame that people will find an excuse to shame people's ocs, down to if they are human or not.
I think not even OC's so much, more the fact that the books themselves have human characters at all. People liked the series being solely about dragons with minimal focus on the humans in the world and as such there was a fair bit of yelling about Dragonslayer.
Personally I don't care. I liked the series pre-Dragonslayer, I still like it post-Dragonslayer.
Your last point definitely hit, i was underage at the time and shouldn’t have been on yt at all alongside with other ppl i was friends with, who were considerably popular back in 2019-2020. I moderated their severs and was as such witnessed dramas that would play out on both yt and in the server even tho i was never a part of them, i was the one moderating and comforting my friend. I think it took a big mental toll on me and especially my friends who were more famous and at the centre of it. From what i know they’ve left social media and i’m happy that they did, after they left around 2020 i distanced myself from the fandom and was able to connect w ppl in healthier communities. I’ve forgotten nearly everything that’s happened in those servers and spaces.
Children should not be put in positions of fame at all and i wish me and my friends just stayed off the internet til we were older, being in this community definitely impacted my mental health. I don’t interact w the fandom at all besides a few posts on tumblr now and then, i’ve started slowly getting back into wof but have no real interest to interact w the fandom or be fully apart of it
Tho i’m glad that people are still creating and having fun in the fandom from what i’ve seen from an outsiders pov
I believe I also moderated that same server though I am not 100%.
I also had a Wings if Fire friend who left in 2020. I remember him momentarily coming back around 2021-2022ish before leaving for good.
I understand how stressed out that must have been, I'm really stressed rn with all the comments I'm receiving 😭. No child should have to endure fame
Oop-
Hearing this fandom was toxic was/is a big shock for me-
I've been part of it for a few years now and not once have I faced any form of toxicity-
Or maybe i'm just REALLY bad at seeing the toxicity XD
Either way, ty for bringing light to the situation!
If you think doing video essays is what you wanna do, I say go for it! Have fun while doing so as well ^^
So RUclips just deleted my entire comment, let me try and rephrase it.
I completely understand your reasoning for leaving. Personally I always keep fandom at an arms length to myself and never get my hands deep in whatever is going on in things. [Sometimes I find some good peeps and i am deep into helping out their projects but that's very rare] So I never really witness any of the "toxic" side of the fandom. Are there some immature children that dont know how rude they are being? Yes, of course this is the internet. And I have no doubt that you have been victim to some unfairly rude things because of this, that much is clear, and I sympathize with that.
I definitely think the wof fandom is actually a lot tamer then some of the recent fandoms I've seen pop up from newer shows or indie games/cartoons. But it is by no means the best. Your video paints a very negative light on the fandom, and although you did mention some of the good, I would warn to make sure bias doesn't bleed through so much. Even though your experiences are valid, this video might have worked better structured as a warning on how to avoid the situations you found yourself in as apposed to implying that the fandom as a whole was toxic and bad. Especially if you plan on making more commentary art videos. [Again Im not an expert at this, I've just seen a lot of commentary art channels fall into drama cuz of mistakes like this]
Again, great video! Completely valid points and good execution!
Hi! Thanks for your comment!
Another commenter did point this out too, that I did seem to paint a more negative light onto it.
This video was ment to share more of my own personal experiences (good and bad) and I don't intend for this video to try and tell people that "grrrr wings of fire is bad! You are a toxic person for being in it!!" But more of a sense to share my own experiences in the fandom and what I did see while being a part of the community.
I appreciate all input and I am happy you gave your own personal thought into a comment for me! So sorry youtube deletes comments, I have no way of reviewing them for some reason.
Everyone has different experiences in the fandom and this was more of a video focused on my experiences. I do not wish to cause any drama with anyone of course so I'll likely make a pinned comment when nessasary
@@Chase.C Ey man and completely valid! I highly suspected it was more of a "personal experience" video, but as I always say "error on the side of caution when it comes to the internet" Cuz hooo boy can things get rough here! Looking forward to if you make any more comintary videos mate!
as an older member of the WoF community I have been around for a long time and I really liked this video, you have a lot of good points and I'm happy someone is willing to bring them up. I have also been thinking about leaving the community not exactly because of the toxicity which can be avoided but mainly because I have a hard time finding people my own age, you are 100% right with a majority of the fandom being so young but I still enjoy the books and the creativity it sparks. thank you for the video I enjoyed it!
The segment about the cringe OC meme reminds me of a recent-ish similar meme in the MLP community, where a stereotypical "cringe" alicorn many-color edgy OC was contrasted with a more "normal" one.
The reason I bring this up is actually for a wholesome anecdote: the community response wasn't, by and large, to agree with the meme, but instead to make fanart of both characters (primarily the "cringe" one, because he was so visually interesting), ship them with each other, and even write fanfiction about them.
I don't think cringe culture can ever be fully killed, but it warms my heart that it can be countered with love and creativity like that.
I wish you all the best in your further travels through life, and I'm sorry you had such toxic experiences.
I SAW THAT TREND!
Honestly I genuinely get so happy when people battle cringe culture in creative ways! You are right, cringe culture can't remain fully dead but seeing people embrace it is such an amazing power move against it
Hey! I just want to thank you for the extremely overwhelming support I have gotten from you guys!
removing comments comparing Cranberry to others ocs. Please don't compare her to yours or other people's ocs thank you.
As my channel bio states, I will block people under the age of 13. /srs
I just want to clear some things up that I have been getting in the comments.
1) this video is NOT AT ALL supposed to tell you that you are not allowed to enjoy wings of fire or be in the community. This is a video talking about my personal experiences.
2) What I ment in the video when I did say the fandom was toxic was that the fandom grew toxic for ME. A lot of people pointed out that it felt like I was trying to paint the fandom in a negative light, which is my mistake. I understand everyone has different experiences, this was just mine.
3) Also I would like to clarify that my pronouns are He/Him! People dont read my channel bio or description but please refer to me as He/Him!
Fun thing about the concept of Mary Sues: There's this thing called the "Mary Sue Litmus Test" that used to be a popular tool for people to use to check and see if their OC was a Mary Sue or not. The creator of that test has long since disavowed both the test and the term "Mary Sue" as a whole and only keeps the page with the test up for archival purposes. The term is so widely applied and unhelpful that even _the creator of the definitive Mary Sue test_ thinks so.
I don't usually interact with the fadom on some other platforms I don't feel too old for it mostly because it's my autism hyperfixation but I do agree with you I made some quote on quote cringe Ocs that I never shared because I was scared to I found a good platform thingamajig to share my art and fanfictions witch I was nervous to share but that's the whole focus of the kinda platform thing so I at least feel free to share my stuff there but I just like enjoying the books mostly
One time I got bullied in wof early access because I was a Hive-Rain hybrid. I don’t think that’s reason to be bullied- and another person in that game only started the fight because hours earlier I said I wasn’t g@y in the game. So they created a whole new oc so they could spam saying that I was rude in my hosted rp. Then she stopped, and later, in the middle of the rp, she started saying I was too op because I could use my stinger and use venom, but nothing else.(Yes, not even change color.) I then confronted her because she was the person who got mad at me for not being g@y, then finally, the chaos was over and I was forced to leave the game.
I’m not sure if I was right or not to have those two powers, you guys can choose if I was right or not.
It's your oc, you are completely in the right for making your character the way you want.
@@Chase.C Thanks for your opinion ^^
I feel this. I'm mixed race and often make my character hybrids, as that's a major way I feel like I can really relate to them, and it's strange how much shade I've gotten for it.
All I can say is this is an eye opener. Glad I found this video, Ty for making it. I like purely honest creators, even if many don’t
im still in the wof fandom, but this video is so valid and well made! lovely art too :3
I agree that many parts of the wof fandom can be very toxic, especially oc making, **(i’ve heard people bash on ocs for not having the right colours, special abilities, Personalities, or even names.)** ship wars, **(i actively avoid shipping any characters because i have to want to be involved in the wars)* and art drama. **(often art style theft, pose theft, design trait theft, think of a thing you can do? Stolen now.)**
There is a lot of crazy parts of the fandom. But in all honesty, the toxic side of the fandom is frankly easy to avoid. After my first year in the fandom i already was able to ignore almost anyone who started unneeded drama. That same year was actually my first year online as well.
I’ve now been part of this fandom for over 5 years. I’m nearly an adult, and i know actually a LOT of other older wof artists and animators. Yes, we definitely don’t post as much WOF content as our younger counterparts. But quite a lot of us still actively participate in the WoF community.
/I/ am currently working on the nightswing Multiple Animator Project.
In consideration with other fandoms that have a large young fanbase, our fandom doesn’t have that much of a bad fanbase, we just have the toxic parts of the art community sprinkled in with our wings of fire artists & animators. Not really wof centric, But completely fanart centric.
I really liked this essay video
If you make other essays like this, I’d definitely love it!
i bid you a farewell from the wof fandom. 🔥
Yea one in the WoF community, WC community, Phighting community and DnB community, I see a lot of these points are entirel true. I can never fully go forever without being involved in drama.
I'm one of the older fans of the series because I got into Wings of Fire late, so I didn’t have to wait for most of the books to come out, I don’t really interact with the fandom because I haven’t read all the books yet and don’t want to spoil myself with the events of the books (despite me having OCs of leafwings, hivewings and silkwings) but I understand if you wanted to leave the fandom because of toxic children
For me, the only negative things I have come across in this community is some of the art-based wof communities. A lot of people tend to only be positive about certain art styles, and most of the time will host unfair contests and stuff and only comment heart felt things on mostly the cutesy simple art styles. While this isn’t everyone, most of what I have experienced is very much like this. And I’m just saying, be more open and less bias to certain styles to prevent people from feeling left out
I would also like to add another thing. Don’t say that young teenagers and kids can’t handle the criticism and make the community bad. The book series (in my opinion) is pretty much aimed at people that age, and just because they are young, doesn’t mean they can’t think clearly
This was a really interesting perspective, thanks for sharing!
I haven’t been on many fandom communities including Wings of Fire in a long time, and I think that’s a good thing.
I was, although, unaware of the drama and other things going on in the community.
I have not actively participated in a lot of discussions. Though I've seen them on social media sites like RUclips and Twitter, and have read Reddit forms, and I agree that the community can be toxic. I've been less interested in being part of the community too. I still love the books and enjoy drawing the characters but being in online discussions about the books has become more stressful than fun, and I see arguments over some of the smallest things.
And I've seen a lot of those "cringe oc" videos too, and I agree. character creation should be fun, and you should create the type of character you want.
Absolutely right. I’ve been in the community for 7 years (though I’m not really in it anymore tbh) and while every fandom has some toxicity, wings of fire is something worth talking about. You nailed it with the bit about people making cringe OC compilations - even if you might look back on the OC when you’re older and think of it as embarrassing and cringe, the point is you had fun making the character! The people making those videos probably have been in a phase where they stop themselves from having any fun because of fearing being “cringey” (I get it. I was like that too.)
One thing a lot of people in the comments are pointing out is how toxic ship discourse gets - they’re right. People have been called homophobic for disliking sundew x willow 💀 and don’t get me started on winter/moon/qibli ships. That’s a whole beast to deal with
Though I will say, being in this community of other dragon lovers (I didn’t know anyone else who read wof irl at the time) was a big part of my life. I always watched RUclipsrs like Biohazardia and Ebonythewinglessmudwing (eboy as of now) because they heavily drove me to improve in art and I can’t thank them enough. All my early animations when I was starting out were based on wof, as well as almost all my artworks at the time. While I still like the books I think it’s time for me to start moving on from the community
Enough about me - great video essay! I’ll definitely be subbing. You have awesome art ❤
Im personally still in the fandom, but I try not to get too social, it definitely helps when I’m also a part of a lot of other fandoms. So if one gets sort of… err, bas for a while I can just hop to activity on another. Luckily though I’ve managed to mainly find nice, friendly fans who roleplay a lot (a fairly) and it’s really nice!
Wowie, I didn’t know there was so much drama, especially for me as I have robotic wof ocs (although I haven’t drawn them in ages)
I also never realized how harmful those ‘cringe ocs be like’ memes were. I was gonna make one myself, but now I think I really shouldn’t.
I think a lot of the Fandom issues are growing pains. I mean the warriors Fandom went through the same thing and they we all grew up and got over ourselves and created a more healthy Fandom (not that it's perfect). While we are discussing things that need to change in the WOF Fandom is creating problematic situations in the books when there really shouldn't be. I remember back when I was in my second year of high school there was a whole trend/ controversy going on around glorybringer, a Canon ship that was under fire due to a discrepancy in the timeline and deathbringer being a lot older than glory when you look at when deathbringer's winglet took place, and the ship was marked as predatory and a lot of hate was going to anyone who still supported the ship. This is never an issue in the main series books and they have a healthy relationship where the power dynamic is not in deathbringer's favor, nor does she ever act younger or more childish in their relationship nor is it indicated that deathbringer is grooming her in any way. This entire ordeal was blowing things out of proportion and making issues when really there are none there and it is not coded or written to be that sort of situation nor would tui ever endorse something that was. Anywho rant over, moral of the story let's be rational with our hot takes and blacklisting people guys😊
THIS!
Wings of Fire and many other fandoms (like Warriors and even Animation Meme) are not perfect! I am so happy people are trying to make a change into making it healthier as we grow older. A lot of people blow things out of proportion, it happens in every single fandom but I hope that the Wings of Fire community can take this as a learning step to actually grow and learn from mistakes instead of throwing everyone out (like from what I have seen)
Though I’m neither an animator nor an artist (I actually kinda suck at art), I really agree with everything you said in this video, both the good and the bad. Ok, I’ll admit I’m a teenager also, so I try avoid these types of behaviours. I’ve never watched your channel before but you seem to have some interesting content, just saying to keep it up and don’t let other people get you down.
I am apart of the wings of fire community but not very active and I fully support your answer on leaving ^^
I got into wings of fire recently after YEARS of procrastination (watching a fandub of the comic)
After those I went to look up lore and analysis vids on RUclips (cause I like watching those) to find out pretty quickly about how young fandom is and the peeps I did find my age either just left or were preparing to leave
It’s really uh… makes me feel bad/awkward that I like the story / am a fan. Idk missed my chance to comfortably be in the fandom I think
Inside I still really wanna watch wof content but..
It’s kinda awkward
I wish there was like some kinda place for me in the fandom but ye rip
Edit: grammar and spelling LOL CHEKCHE
Hey, don't let my video discourage you from enjoying wings of fire.
Anyone of any age can enjoy any media they'd like. I personally think I am too old for Wings of Fire and it's not something I am hyperfixated about anymore. But you are allowed to enjoy any content you wish!
@@Chase.C yeah I’m talking mainly about being in and/or interacting with the fandom
Its sad how more frequent these type of videos are being made. It seems the WOF community is turning into the warrior cat community.
The thing is at the time of making this video I had already left the community almost 2 years ago now. The fact many more people are leaving for the same reason is heartbreaking
My least favorite character is Peril and I have people yell at me for it. “But she’s so sweet!” “How dare you not like Peril!” “How can you not like Peril, what is wrong with you??”, the list goes on and on. I don’t like her because she’s too obsessive and clingy, and I don’t enjoy characters like that. Her obsession with Clay also annoys me, to be honest. Her whole backstory is also kind of lame and unoriginal to me. The whole “abused child, horrible parent” trope is one I’ve seen a lot in many different movies, tv shows, etc(Rapunzel and Mother Gothel, Cinderella and her Stepmother, the Dursleys and Harry Potter, to name a few), and I’ve seen it so much to the point where it’s just kind of boring to read characters with that backstory. I can see why people might still be interested in it, but for me, it’s just not that interesting anymore. I’m not a fan of many of the ships in WoF, it just feels like they exist for literally no reason. I’m not a Qibli fan, he just feels a little too generic for me, and his thoughts about Moon get pretty annoying, to be honest.
It feels like as soon as the fandom decides one character is good, EVERYONE has to like that character, and that’s one issue I think the fandom has.
This was a very heartfelt video for myself as I have left the fandom and community as a whole because of a lot of the same reasons. Though I started with the fandom as the books came out in my middle school years, I had began to wrap my life around it early on as Dragons were a huge thing for me. Sadly, with the growing toxicity and destructive childish agenda of a lot of the mainstream creators, I disband and attempted to create my own world and creatures.
I've been meet with a lot of blasphemy and attacks from people claiming my dragons are too "WOF" like, and otherwise putting my Sona character down. My Sona was made long before the wof release, and only grew attributes of some of the dragons in the series, later changing and more refining the character and completely redesigning her a few times with a new species name change as well.
Its just a childish thought for me when people think a series has the ONLY rights to elemental type creatures. Anyone can make a bug, fire, water, etc species type for anything, so long as theres a clear design and name change. But with all these hateful kids, if they see anything remotely 'plant dragon' "tHatS a LeAfwIng FroM wInGs oF fIrE!! yOuR SteAlInG!!" or any other type out there.
I've deleted a mass collection of some of my art in an attempt to completely remove it from my life, and at the price of my following, but I believe it will be better for myself and possibly others in the long run. Thank you for sharing your experience and relating to so many of us that come along this same issue. Best of luck to you. keep strong and keep making amazing art!
as a member ish of the fandom, yeah.
i stay away from the more public part of the community because of how arguey the community is. i check out the games sometimes, but usually people tell me stuff like "oh ur oc cant be this!" or "your oc can't be that!" when the whole point of OCs is to just.. not be.. canon?? i had an oc i loved a lot that i named Wendigo, because he was inspired by wendigos. someone told me i couldnt name him that, so i changed it. now i hate him because his name is so uninspired and bland. my other oc, Ghost, is also a victim of this sort of stuff. i feel like i can't use him at all, because he's a ghost.
..sooo i just stay away from saying my opinions and from chatting with the more public, arguing side of the community.
The windigo one I can kinda see were people are coming from. For a while on tiktok, many people were telling us not to use Windigos in fictional media as they came from First Nations culture.
"The wendigo is part of the traditional belief system of a number of Algonquin-speaking peoples, including the Ojibwe, the Saulteaux, the Cree, the Naskapi, and the Innu." - Copy and Pasted from Wikipedia.
However unless they are Algonquin-speaking peoples there is no way they should be speaking for a group they are not a part of.
@@Chase.C ah.
still sucks though, because i dont know what to name him and dont feel like using him because of it anyway.
also i think the dif red u used n cranberry is a really nice touch :)
Though I do disagree with one or two of your points, I think that you’ve made a HUGE example for why toxicity is spreading throughout the fandom. And I respect your decision and so should everyone else. No one should make anyone change and or delete their oc based off of what someone else thinks.
And I am happy to agree to disagree with any opinions people may have with me. This is not a video on why you should leave wings of fire but more of why I personally left.
i hate the “cringey ocs be like:” because my main oc is a hybrid, anims mind reader and can see the future, i made this oc when i was 7 i think so i really love her
As someone who’s been in the fandom for nearly a decade, I’m surprised that I haven’t really ever seen the toxicity a whole lot. I knew that it existed, cus some of my mutuals complained about it occasionally, but I didn’t really know how *bad* it was in some parts of the fandom. I guess I never really dove super deep into the fandom, so I never go to see or be part of any of the drama. I consider myself lucky I guess…either that or I’ve just been living under a rock lmao
Many people have diffrent experiences and it really depends on the people you surround yourself with. People might adore the community and find it really friendly, while others (such of myself) have been more exposed to the toxic part of the community.
I wouldn't say you are living under a rock cause yeah, not a lot of people knew about this. It's nice hearing another perspective
@@Chase.C Hey man, it’s good to see someone brave enough to voice your concerns with the fandom, hopefully some of those toxic pools dry up the near future. (Also just wanna say that this video-essay style video was very nice and informative! Keep up the great work :] )
I’ve never really been in the fandom.I saw some of the fandom posts,and commented on wof videos,but that was about it.I’m new to the wof community,so I probably haven’t experienced its toxicity
Its unfortunate the negative experiences you had within the wof fandom, which I completly undersstand since yes there is quite a bit of beef between characters and just artist in general💀💀 but personally I stay away from that. Most communities/fandoms have its downsides anyways. Also I do agree with the whole cringe oc thing, people should be able to make whatever and make their character creative and unique to their own.
As a highschooler myself, who started wings of fire a few years back which got me into reading and art, personally I only really met people older than me. I dont personally like be around younger people and dont come in contact with the younger side much, so it all depends who you hang around and out yourself in, since personally I talk to a lot of older (& my age), mature people still involved in the fandom and made great friends I still talk too. Plus i met many bigger creaters, older than i am who are very sweet (but its true there is very young immature ones) ive had more positive experience than negative, which is why I've stayed, though i completly understand where you come from.
To be fair, im not as involved as i used to be, I more participate in M.A.Ps and stuff like that. Whole yes the wof community can be toxic, but i feel over the years its become less like that and become more exepting, all depends on the person though, so i agree and i dont
No hate btw (just to make that clear 💀)
The toxicity of the community about opinions and other more welcoming and more interesting fandoms eventually influenced me to leave
As some one who was apart of the wof/warriors fandom im now rethinking alot of the interactions i had like lit some one told me ur oc is kina mid and a marry sue so that oc went into the garbage i felt really stressed when making a oc because i felt it was ugly or a marry sue or just stuff like that
O.M.L
I am personally still a member of this fandom and I do play and still play wof ea, but I have some problems that I find agitating.
So once I had this oc who was a SeaWing (pure SeaWing) named Stargazer. Someone yelled at me because of the name, and I just used the name because it went well with his colors and personality!
And I've gotten criticized for having my SkyWing OC Sunwind who was a crossover character of Dune (books and films)/Wings of Fire. So they criticized her about her bio like "oh, how did she even get to arrakis?" (Animus is reason)
So I am a wof fan through and through but wof fandom STOP HATING ocs.
This is actually a problem with MOST fandoms (specifically the hating of ocs)
All fandoms are toxic, honestly. That's just how it goes.
Whether young or mature audiences, the same route takes place.
A lot of folk use it to build those old highschool clique style nightmares.
It's a tragically common fare. It's also why I tend to avoid them, and rarely consider myself a part of them.
I just enjoy the things, and that's it.
I don't really agree on the character stuff. Though I don't like specific-targetted 'cringe' videos, it's not unreasonable to point out these flaws.
It's part of how one grows. 'Marry sue' is a term that exists for a cause, and while mistakes like that are expected from young and new writers, they are still things creators ought strive to avoid.
I'm not going to complain about the kid that makes Murderbucket the Skywing/Nightwing/Seawing animus firescales mind reading royal princess who escaped Orca's statue when they first hatched and fell into the deep chasm to be raised by sharks... But I've also got no qualms about speaking of the flaws that these types of characters end up with.
Again, there's a huge difference between pointing to these flaws, generally, and targeting a specific OC, though.
Unless someone's specifically asking for critique, I just find it generally rude.
Glad you brought up the oc thing!
Personally, if it is a Wings of fire oc, made by a child to have fun, than they should be allowed to do whatever with that character.
If it is someone who is seeking to make a comic/fanfiction about their oc and wants an opinion on their character, they can ask for criticism!
My point only stands for the kids who make original characters of fun
@@Chase.C
I don't mean to suggest that they shouldn't be allowed to, yeah. Ultimately, they should be able to do as they please.
My stance is more that I don't think it's a bad thing to speak on qualities and flaws in OC creation, generally.
Kids or not, really. I never really was sold on the idea that kids stuff is inherently lower quality, though.
true. i still find true gems in it though. those people that make the cringe content.. rather are often rude. yes they can be nice but one thing that is always across them:theyll slap cringe on what they dislike no matter what
Realest video ever made
You.
Our convo yesterday inspired this video 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
@@Chase.C OMG REALLY??
@@v3xxter 🤑🤑🤑🤑
I 100% agree. Very great points
May you have a good future
Hey, you know what I don't blame ya. I liked it because of the books and the lore, but then I got out of hand... Mad respect to the dragon fans!
lol I stopped reading the books because I was mad the scavengers weren’t what I had pictured them as: genuine feathered realistic velociraptors- I thought the idea was so cool that the world of civilized dragons was without humans at all. I hate the newest arc that decided we needed a human POV- annoying and unnecessary imo. 😤 way happier without the humans in the world.
Honestly I call myself in fandoms and never really have social media posts. It can be posting art still and having it be about studies, like doing animatronic wirings and not liking that people assaulted Scott Cawthon because he was stalked throughout 2020 and was forced to retire to not lose developing fetuses that became more kids for him from Twitter women hating him, or liking Genshin Impact and not engaging with anyone who has very questionable ships but you can ignore them or report them quietly and move on.
I had an art piece where I got called Kim Jong Un on a video of mine and just went "Meh" and now have a great self-portrait study from time.
But you need to understand one thing: There is no such thing as a fandom that does not have a toxic small portion that gets blown out of proportion. Every single fandom does the Assault Culture trend where they call everyone they hate others as "toxic" or "a creep" all from a tiny group who are horrid and shift the blame to the entire group.
Agreed, sadly
I've got back to the WoF fandom a few months ago, and so far I really enjoy it
I know for a fact that this is a story aimed towards childrens and teens, but it does come as a mature content that tackles important and serious topics
So far, most people I've met are pretty mature, and I am having a great experience so far
I can defenitly see your point, but I do feel like this is something you can avoid, for exemple, by not sticking to much with young content creators that aren't mature enough yet
generally, it's a fandom were you should be fine if you're careful enough, and it's a fandom old of a few years now, so people that joined a while ago are growing older
i first read WoF when I was 13/14 and liked it a lot, but know I've stumbled another time in the fandom and I'm 18, and I love it even more, some people are doing incredible stuff. there is a lot of very talented artist, from writers to animators.
for me the most immature discussions and prone to go into fights are actually ships, but not because peole argue which ships are better, but because they disagree on the nature of ships themselves (someone would say "why ship characters that are already setted to be with someone" for exemple), I personally don't really mind ships, I'm just not that much into it.
Anyways, I am certainly planning a lot of things regarding WoF now, hopefully I can get my objective at making all dragon tribes in 3d, and *maybe* planning some serious projects along with it :)
As a young person in the wof fandom, I sincerely apologize for all of the 9-10 harassing some great people for liking different ships. Not all of us are bad!! I personally don’t care what ships like in the fandom ( accept anything related to pedophila, etc) Cringe culture is dead (as they said) and I will support people dispute having cringe ocs, (Not a valid reason to hate someone), and or not liking the same ship as me. The main focus of the fandom is to support each other. It is ok to be a furry or be queer. (Another Not Valid Reason to hate someone) I hope My opinion is supported!!!!
I'm seems to be on the wrong side of the community, because I have never had to deal and see people deal with most of the things, or these things are not this fandom problem, and just a common thing in general
Fun fact: My main oc (Darkeeper) USED to be one of those all wing animus op laser shooter universe creator super cringe mary sue characters and I dimmed the fuck out of her and now she's boring asf and the only reason she's boring bc I didn't want my character to be "Cringe" 😭
Same thing happened with Cranberry (oc drawn in the video). She was a princess animus Rainwing/Skywing but I completely changed her because I didn't want to be "cringe". It honestly sucks to see that people feel like they have to change their ocs because others deem it "cringeworthy"
It's okay! I've been leaving it slowly already!
i definitely agree with the point about letting people be free with how they design their charaters! everyone is entitled to do whatever they want with their characters and shouldnt be made fun of for it. ALthough, similar to what others said, age shouldnt me a restricting factor in fandoms. Hell im nearly and adult and still interact with it (ive found plenty of people who are late teens-early adults who love the fandom, allowing me to be more myself compared to acting like a 'baby sitter' for lack of a better word)
I wish you the best for future endevours as Ive never seen your content before (the wonders of the algorithm haha)
A lot of people think im trying to make age a restricting factor. All I ment was that I grew up and have found no enjoyment out of the series. Anyone can enjoy the series, I dont anymore
wow! I also quit and got into TLDC (the last dragon chronicles) by Chris D'Lacey
TLDC is so good! E'rth Dragons is awesome too, and The Unicorne Files!
@@SharpScales I should try those!
@SharpScales ah! I love E'rth dragons! I have only read the first book tho
@@tinydragongaming2496 The second and third kinda go off the rails in true D'Lacey fashion, but it's so worth it!
I am going to see if my local library has these books!
True, You don't have to like someone's art but if you make fun of it you're a bad person.
I want to say, I’ve seen many kind people in this community, but I see where you’re coming from. I often see drama videos or why this ship should be banned videos. Some ships are popular because of their bad reputation (glorybringer im looking at you) , I honestly don’t give a fuck about who gets shipped with who. I also se hate coming from these ships in particular: glory x deathbringer, sundew x willow etc. I do realise people make this content for subscribers and not just because they dislike/like the ship. I am honestly disappointed by the community on this. Just because someone likes sunlow it doesn’t mean they’re gay. I hope you understand.
I specifically really hate the scratch version of the wof community they are all friends and super close and just because they can draw dragons younger childeren will worship them and these people who like wings of fire on scratch are all kinda linked and they can be horribly irresponsible I once got piled on by these stupid people because some body was going through a hard time I tried to support them and their dumb friends had to "defend" them they all just simultaniously harrassed me over and over one of them was like in an emo phase because they were s p e a k i n g l i k e t h i s which a lot of their sentences I had no idea what they were saying and they were bypassing the scratch kid friendly filter and calling me names and they kept talking about their friend who I was trying to support that I was apparently harrassing and started talking about how horrible their life was just leaking their personal info to random stranger on the internet about how their "brother kept beating them up everyday and they were always bullied in school" and I said I was going through quite a time too and they tried to make me say it and tried comparing problems and I'm not just gonna go around online talking about very personal stuff not only to me but my family that I haven't even told some of my very close friends they were just assholes when I was trying to help (btw this happened like 3 years ago) since then they have deleted my comment probably because they didn't want anyone else seeing
anywho sorry for the long rant but I held that in for 3 years I have had no friends to talk to for 3 years
i am still into wings of fire although i do not like the fandom because of home made non accurate statements are way to common
I may not be actually part of this fandom but I have been hovering around to see what's up.. and let's say I find this fandom a mixed bag..
I don't really see anything you listed, like the "cring ocs" vids and shit..
Its like living in a city, the city is a mixed bag with a good amount of people still living in it while there are bad.. it really depends to be honest..
And I hope u doing alright now
Many others have started that it really depends who you are around in this fandom, and they are absolutely right.
As for cringe oc videos, they are incredibly common in this fandom, and I even reposted one. I'm glad you haven't come across any yet
I am doing alright, just getting ready for school!
@@Chase.C cool 👍
so true bestie
I'm not saying the issues are illegitimate, but these are problems I've seen in every online fandom and its something that won't change. The wof fandom honestly seems pretty tame in terms of drama and what not.
As an older wof fan, I've been in many non-wof online communities where adults are just as drama-prone so I doubt it's an age thing and more of a people thing.
That being said its OK to get away from it when you need some space, just don't expect other communities to behave better.
I personally was not saying there are fandom that do not have issues themselves. This was more me talking about my personal issues with this particular fandom in general.
Don't get me wrong, plenty of adults also get put into drama but the reason I mostly say children is because they are usually always immature. You are right it is not always children.
Thank for your input
i really like this video
from everything i see the cringe oc videos all have poeple submitting ocs, its never just grab an oc from an art channel and ruin the self esteem of some 12 year old, just a point out,
and yeah i left too, the fandom is mostly immature and starts drama over nothing. i can agree it has its ups and downs, but every fandom does! so enjoy the good parts while they last! and have a good day! ^^
As for the cringe oc thing, I'm specifically referring to the videos such as "Emily making a wof oc" or "cringe ocs be like" I linked an example in my community post.
You also have a good day, and you are absolutely allowed to leave a fandom you no longer enjoy
Every fandom is a great experience while you're consuming the high-quality content that rises to the top and has the most exposure. It's when you exhaust all of that and start digging deeper that you uncover some REALLY shitty opinions from shitty people.
Some of the best fanworks I've seen here are fanfics. The character studies there are incredible. And no, fanfiction is not just poorly-written sex scenes, please educate yourself if you think this is the case. RUclips animatics, however, tend to be nothing but shipping wars. Especially the comments. Ugh. The comments.
Hey everyone, Had to pause the comments on my new post. Im so happy you are all sharing your stories but its actually stressing me out and making me overwhelmed everytime someone comments. Ill turn them back on once the video stops getting as much attention
Thank you
I don’t care for the ships all I like is the books and the lore
but isn't every fandom these days toxic? I've been in many and learned very quickly
Every fandom has their own toxicity. The Wings of Fire fandom has affected me the most when it came to toxicity though.
@@Chase.C join the club, that was the FNAF fandom for me lol
Wait, people are still insulting children for making "cringe" characters?? I thought that slowed down after like 2016-2018?
Unfortunately yeah. Search it up and its just a bunch of posts bullying these kids. It was especially disheartening seeing a big creator partake on this too.
Oof!you really don’t read the books and really draw the art and stuff?
I read the entire series and I own almost every single book
I'm probably not really fit to write any comment as I'm a 7th grader but I think that this is the most stupidest thing I've ever hear (not your video but how ppl treated you) I really don't understand that much but my guess for this is that a lot of kids my age are super insecure of what ppl think or how they react. 7th and 8th graders do cause a bunch of drama (its happening in my class idk how to deal with it)
My highschool has a 7th and 8th hallway and I can definitely see where you are coming from. It is unavoidable but try to get into less of it as you can
I have technically have left the wing of fire fandom for one main reason,I was to mad of the ships,most of the time people ship siblings or relatives example: orchid x mangrove.If you don’t know they are related,this is why children should not run a fandom .Im also tired of winter x qubli,I get it.Even though they have a relation ship,but still they are friends .Plus I was tired of practically every ship,children like to me mad,like the main one I’m tired about is peril x clay and glory x darkstalker,if you don’t know peril was suppost to die,but sense the fandom loved peril so much she let peril live.I hate peril because she reminds me of the mentally insane dragon who can’t make there one chooses.
But the wings of fire fandom needs someone older to run the fandom,so yea I left the fandom because I was tired of the ships and. Amount of children in it.