Dirty Unicorn

Hi all! The Disney Kink Meme over on Dreamwidth has been without an admin since the old one stepped down, so I thought I’d see if anyone else here was possibly interested in taking it over.

Anytime, guys! I like to give credit where credit is due, and you definitely deserve it! Keep up the good work. @CloverReef Yeah, when it comes to a majority of other forums out there (writing ones or not), a friend of mine’s was saying, “You end up needing escapism to get away from your escapism.”

Can I just say it's really nice to have a forum and a writing forum especially where the atmosphere is generally pretty comfortable as well as actually helpful? Like I feel perfectly fine asking staff or other posters a question or for advice, because I’d actually get legit answers with no drama attached. I've been on plenty of forums before, and this is one of the very few that I feel like I'm going to be sticking with. For some reason I've noticed that people who are open about writing adult material come off as much less high-strung then people who don't (or who loudly proclaim to be against it). TL;DR: Just wanted to show my appreciation to AFF’s forums for being a non-toxic place (if it is, then it’s very well-hidden, lol). I don’t see that very often.

Wait, that happens to you too? But… I always thought it was my niece taking them – OMG. He lives. Seriously thanks, I needed that laugh. XD Sonic fans appear to have this weird tendency to carry on like these characters actually exist.I remember an acquaintance who got an IC “review” from “Sonic” himself slamming a one-shot she’d written.

If I’d realized this thread was here, I would’ve saved the flame I got at Fanfiction.net before deleting it. My apologies. But yeah, it was a flame on my Sonic The Hedgehog fic (he also trashed my other fic which was the precursor to this story) from an anonymous individual calling themselves “AntoineHero.” Now, I have no issue with negative reviews or harsh criticism. One reader pointed out an issue with my two leads, which I appreciated, someone else told me that the French I had one of them using in the same story was incorrect, and there have been times where I’ve found mistakes in my stories and felt disappointed that no one apparently wanted to alert me to them. But this “review” crossed the line into malicious territory I feel, hence why it was deleted. While some flames are funny due to being so silly or whatnot, I couldn't laugh at this one. Not just that, but a lot of their points were just plain incorrect/absurd. - AntoineHero saying that canon (the Archie Sonic comic) handled the bad blood between two canon protagonists deal so much better than my story does. That’s your opinion. I went with an AU setting in the first place because I dislike the Archie comics and how they handled characterization in general, especially that of the aforementioned two characters. My author’s note in the first fic bluntly pointed out it was going to be an AU. I’m not going to start liking some comic book just because you called me names. - AntoineHero hated my OC, who he complained “scolded Sonic like he was his mother.” Uh, if someone is constantly shitting on a friend of mine’s then yes, me and that person are going to have issues. I think most adults would. And yes, the OC is a young adult while the canons are all teens. If you think the OC’s sticking up for his friend is the equivalent of his acting like a bossy mom, then we’re just gonna have to agree to disagree there. - To continue on with that, according to this person, I am a nerd who wrote a Gary Stu power fantasy partly because the MC gets superpowers. Okay one: he was literally drained of those powers towards the end. Two, they altered his behavior and made him act like a douchebag who fought with my OC. It was all part of a story arc the MC (a person who felt like he wasn’t special) went through to understand what it was like to have power and use it wisely. Oh, and the MC’s super-hearing? Is a very passive ability that was mentioned as something he’d always had and which caused him a ton of problems. Maybe you would’ve known all this if you had actually read the story ( @KerantliDreamer, I feel you on fans who skim your work and then complaining about something they’ve taken out of context or misunderstood). And a MC getting beaten up at two points in the story and having to work his ass off and learning self-worth is a Gary Stu? That term applies to at least a few canon characters in your precious comic far more. But I guess them being overpowered and constantly getting their way by making frowny faces or whatever is fine because they’re popular characters. AntoineHero also told me the MC would be ashamed of me for writing this fic. LOL wut? The MC is a fictional sentient animal boy, dude. Unless you think you’re actually seeing him, in which case I suggest you visit a doctor immediately. Sorry, but your poor reading comprehension and fixation with canon isn’t my problem. And why should I listen to someone who didn’t even have the courage to sign in so we could have a real back and forth?

Killing off characters has always been a huge problem for me because I do end up getting really attached. I really haven't had any stories (original or otherwise) where I’ve actually done the deed yet, though I know that in certain ones there should realistically be a body count. When I do finally decide to off someone (very reluctantly), I really want there to be a solid reason for it, instead of just doing it for shock value/attention, or because a character is or becomes “boring”, etc. These are reasons I’ve seen characters be bumped off in shows/books/etc, and it’s pretty transparent.

What’s so bad is about all this that he just goes around posting the same rambles everywhere. Reviews that aren't actually reviews bug me. He’d be better off just getting a blog and posting his deep thoughts on superheroes and comics there. I’m not even sure what this devolved into towards the end there…

Is it cool to share WTF reviews left on other peoples’ fics? I like reading reviews just to see what’s being said about the story, and oh man have I seen some stuff. For example, there’s this guy who goes around reviewing Marvel/DC superhero fic, and this is his handiwork: This is real, and it’s not the only one he’s posted. There's more, but they’re also very long (and rambling), hence why I just linked to them.

@Desiderius Price Thanks! Yeah, I prefer realism too, to an extent. IE: In a medieval fantasy I'll look the other way if the princess smells like flowers as opposed to b.o. because she hasn’t bathed in days, versus a story where a parent visits a school where his child’s being bullied, finds the kids in question, and threatens them. I certainly understand wanting to smack the bullies, but that is in no way plausible, more so in this case because the parent is an important political figure. I guess I look for realism in how people react to things around them and how the world responds to their behavior. So the whole “the world bends over backwards to accommodate my precious cinnamon roll” stuff annoys me greatly. I admit to be willing to ignore spelling mistakes if the story’s engaging enough and the author’s aware of the problem (“I know about the spelling errors, but I don’t have a beta and I’m trying my best to catch them” – I can sympathize. It can be hard to find a beta, especially if you don’t write in a popular fandom). But if there’s enough of them I will max out. Just haven't run into any that have made me do that.The ones that have a ton of spelling errors also tend to have other problems too, so I don’t really get too far with those. Yes, yes, yes. I see that quite a bit too, and it drives me loco. Joe looked angry. “I am mad, Max.” Then he went home. His dog Bart looked at him and said “Woof.” Joe sat down. Suddenly Mom walked in. “Joe, let’s go to the movies.” That’s not much of an exaggeration of the fics I've seen that are like this. Can I get some more story in my story, please?

It was short and it hurt the point that he wanted to get across, I agree completely. “Hey, don’t do this because it’s bad. Kthnxbye!” Okay?...

The gentleman who wrote that article made some pretty broad generalizations. I wouldn't draw the conclusion that a writer is lazy or simplistic just because they had an angry character slam a door or whatever, especially if the rest of the story itself is just fine. If I was reading a book where some characters were having a heated argument, then generally I would expect someone to have a physical display of anger of some sort (and sometimes you just don’t want to stick around after a fight). I actually don’t see anything wrong with cliches because you can always put your own twist on them.

Oh, okay. I never put my personal business in any of my online profiles, so yeah. I feel more comfortable about things now. Thanks guys!

So, so true. What about the reverse of this? One time this other writer approached me to beta her fic with the promise of fan art for me. I accepted because hey, fan art, plus the plot was centered around a character I love. But then the more it progressed the more I began to dislike it due in part to how she approached the cast. I wasn’t sure if that was enough for me to critique, because it seemed to be a case of differing interpretations. She winds up not even finishing it and leaves for another site altogether without a word. I only discovered that she set up shop elsewhere when I happened to stumble across her account on the second site. Haven’t heard anything from her since. Anyways, I agree with a lot of things a bunch if people have said here already , but I have some of my own to add: Character bashing. I refuse to support stories that do this. What’s so bad is that the term character bashing itself is so misused now that people don’t even understand what it actually refers to. There are people who literally think if you do anything to a character that isn’t making life daises and sunshine for them, you must be bashing them. The character gets sick? You’re bashing them. Another character dislikes another character for perfectly valid reasons? That’s perfectly normal, happens all the time in real life. Nope! You’re a character basher. I remember this one girl who was trying to defend bashing Twilight characters by saying that critics bash characters all the time when they give negative film/book/etc reviews. That’s… no. I don’t even like Twilight and it’s clear to me you don’t understand what you’re talking about. Badly-written romance. And the funny thing is, when I once stated how awful many shipfics are (I’ll call them shipfics to differentiate them from a good romance story), this one person now thinks I hate romance. No, I hate stories where we get stuff like this: Mature grownups suddenly start behaving like dumb kids in middle school or characters in a CW show when it comes to love. People who write about children (when I say “children”, this character can only be 8-11 years old) having sex with adults and teens and having the older party be so impressed by their maturity/or physical attributes. Yeah, that’s realistic. Unhealthy relationships being treated like they’re normal. At least have the self-awareness to point out that one or both characters are bad for one another. There are romances that have made me tear up or feel joy that the couple’s finally gotten together. The crap I just described made me tear up, but not from happiness. Also it’s just annoying to see the exact same ships be written about the same basic way over and over again. Can we mix it up please? Writers who can’t make characters act like real people. This is a big issue with several canons I like. It’s not just OOCness, it straight-up feels like the cast exists purely to be the writer’s mouthpieces/tools. If it’s a character(s) the writer likes, then they’re always depicted as Good, Honest, and Noble, even though more though more often than not they act like complete turds instead. Any character who challenges the author’s pets (especially if they’ve clashed with them in the source material) exists to be an obstacle that must be demonized and humiliated at every turn. Whether it’s a villain or a good-aligned character who committed the crime of simply disagreeing with the pet character in the original material, under the fanboy/girl’s pen they’re transformed into vile monsters that do everything from abusing animals to committing rape. Look, I don’t care about what characters you wanna project yourself onto or date. I just want to read a normal story.

I have antivirus software myself (Avira -- used to be AVG, but it fell down on the job). Do you think my computer would be safe if I went ahead and logged in?

I looked around to see if anyone else was having this same issue. Not finding anything, I decided to go and do this. Right before I log into my archive account, a message appears saying “Connection is not secure. Login could be compromised.” So I type https before the site URL in the address bar and then log in, since that’s worked for me before on other sites where I've received that same warning. Here though it doesn't work, only taking me to a page which states the “connection is (still) insecure” instead. (If you’re curious, I’m using Firefox.)