Harp the Wigglytuff @wigglytuffitout@computerfairi.es

@InspectorCaracal please don't tempt me it'd be a full 15-part series about Dasje scuttling around this castle like Jeeves if Jeeves got sent off to ninja school that one time and Bertie Wooster has had all his english charm replaced entirely with murder so it's just him doing exactly what his employer was about to tell him to do before even being asked while his wife makes really good mushroom curry two floors away in the kitchen

@aradinfinity EXACTLY! it's the same reason everyone i've ever met who has watched ATLA is ready to throw fucking down in Zuko's defense at any moment

letting people know redemption is possible, even if you fuck up, and that doing better is always something you can and should do - that's compelling!!!

i mean fuck it's basically what drives the story for the Yakuza game franchise.

sometimes where there's smoke, there's fire, and the fire is a real good concept.

i mean, then i go on weird tangents about how my favourite OCs i've ever made are darth vader's valet and cook, who are surprisingly chill folks. don't get me wrong they're avid fans of their employer so kind of terrifying in their own ways, but i also fucking love them and they're some of the best characters i've ever come up with go team Dasje and Mirou sorry i only got to write you in for like five chapters and a spinoff oneshot

@aradinfinity and so in my case, it means 70k words (and i'm barely 1/4 through) of darth vader being a shitty person, because good to bad like a binary switch is kind of boring, but the parts where he's struggling, trying his damndest, not quite making it, then realizing he's fucked up and starting again - that's interesting! having everyone around him in the Rebellion resent him hardcore for taking up their oxygen - that's INTERESTING!

it's just not what usually gets written with the idea.

@aradinfinity but people like it for a reason. people go back to it for a reason.

so yeah, i wear the comments i've gotten in my hat with pride about how someone says "i never though i'd like a fic with this idea as much as i do this one. you're actually following through on so much of what everyone else doing the concept is skipping."

for me it's interesting BECAUSE of what gets skipped. ofc people aren't going to like stories where you take the interesting out. so keep the interesting in.

@aradinfinity honestly i think a lot of the concepts are good ones. if an idea seems done to death, sometimes where there's smoke there's fire, you know? there's SOMETHING about it that is interesting or compelling.

what people are tired of is bad execution. they just don't know it yet.

like... my fucking pet fic. on its face? it's another fucking "redeemed darth vader au". you can find these in fucking spades. fuck, there's even a couple of official comics that are same premise. >

@aradinfinity i mean i know i write plenty of dumbass obscure shit, but that's because i often end up writing a fic that can be summarized as "this is a concept other people have done before really horribly but somehow works this time"

because i like that challenge! i like surprising people like that!

but uhhh it does mean that i'm sure there are people out there mocking it for trying too hard to work with a shitty idea so

*ANXIOUS GRIMACING.*

i know it's all meant in good fun, but "come to my stream where i read bad fanfiction" has absolutely given me a new worry to think about at 4am when i'm trying to sleep

just, uh

just wondering if i've made an appearance there yet

@eightbitsamurai@elekk.xyz don't worry, given the level of star wars minutiae in my brain, i certainly have no cause to throw any stones

my shoulder: hey it feels like this muscle might not go into a horrid cramp immediately

me: oh i can actually get you to relax you say??? let's try some trigger point self-massage!

my shoulder:

i should probably stop mother hen-ing at people so hard but in my defense:

@eightbitsamurai@elekk.xyz i mean i've been watching a pleasant gentleman review terrible things on youtube so it's not like i can throw stones

sometimes you watch shit not to get involved in it, but because you know it's the equivalent of a can of pringles

@Sapphicgiraffic@snouts.online i've also heard a very convincing hypothesis that you can line up the myths of changeling babies quite well with the developmental differences that arise with autism and are in some cases first spotted

it makes one see how "my beautiful baby has been stolen, and left a strange fae in its place" at least stuck around a fair bit (if not developed)

However That's A Bit Depressing

i suppose the additional takeaway here is that one of the hardest parts of moderating is not taking people pointing out a problem as a personal attack. it may feel like one, but it is not. if people are trusting you to keep them self, you have to be ready to swallow your pride and listen to concerns.

which is a pretty evergreen reminder, honestly, since this is a dynamic reflected and similar to many other situations that someone will encounter.

saying you're against cancel culture is all fine and good, really, but if you try to cancel somebody for "screenshot dunking" in order to get people not paying attention to your own failure of moderating, then, uh

problem's not been solved all that much.

i say, sitting here subtooting, but i figure at this point this is like a morality play for my white ass to observe so i can figure out how to check myself and not wreck myself LOL

so, ironically, these declarations that it cannot become twitter culture - have been the ultimate expression of twitter culture.

a PoC tries to defend themselves from an attack, and warn others.

a white person gets very upset about this.

the PoC's actions are made into the worst most toxic thing and no attention is paid to the actual harm being done.

i mean, this is first chapter of The Jeffree Star Playbook For Influencers, lol

an admin who is constantly focusing on the feelings of white people above the safety of PoC - their own feelings included emphatically here - while not wanting to take much responsibility for doing so is going to be... really tiring for PoC to co-admin with.

it's not about the twitter cancel culture - it's about the racism. especially as it comes out said user had been more and more off the rails with no admin action.

i mean there's only so many times one can say "i fucked up, BUT..." before it begins to ring hollow, by virtue of trying to be an immediate justification.

the enormous void still remains there that it wasn't the screenshot dunk one side desperately wants it to be. it was a timely warning, and quite frankly, i don't think anything less than a screenshot would have been acceptable evidence 'cos it was just that fuckin strange.

i commend the new mods and wish them the best of luck on witches.lives but i also fully expect that within 3 months or so they will get burned out, given that there's still steadfast resistance to admit that it was not "screenshot dunking" but instead "warning of obvious extreme racism" and constant redirection into "but I'M the REAL victim here actually".