ladyyatexel replied to your post “A lot of people in the B5 fandom came over from the DS9 one (me…”
I am really glad I am not seeing any of this ‘ugly’ stuff, but I feel like I’m not seeing anything period. Though I hope you’re not seeing any of my ‘ugh i ship this’ as having an ugly problem. It’s a lifelong shame anxiety about enjoying things :C
The ugly stuff comes up every once in a while for me, like the one time I had someone send me an ask on my unflatteringcaps sideblog saying something along the lines of “finding a flattering cap of Londo would be a challenge”
Feeling like you’re not seeing anything is a problem I had, too. There are occasionally new Londo/G’Kar fics every couple of months or so, but the fandom is still pretty small. I’m pretty sure that during 2010-2013, a lot of the old prominent fic writers left for different fandoms/left fandoms altogether, which is where the “missed everything” feeling comes from. There does seem to actually be quite a few new people joining the fandom right now, though, so maybe we’ll be seeing some new stuff soon? Also, a lot of people aren’t writers, so even if they do ship it, they don’t contribute to the fic count. There are some more shippy ones listed under gen, though.
And no, the post wasn’t about you. It was more about someone else’s posts, and some stuff I’ve seen in general. I definitely understand that anxiety about enjoying things.
Oh, I saw that post when scrolling through the blog. Fuck that noise, I can’t stop smiling looking through that because he’s kind of adorable and infectious? I don’t understand this kind of ‘too ugly to enjoy’ mindset. I’ve seen some of it on dA too of people like, ‘ugh, I don’t want to see people shipping that because Londo is not good looking’ and I’m just kind of ‘Wow, fuck off? What a shitbag thing to say.’
That blog has actually been super useful for me to grab reference from, incidentally, because they’re all super candid images rather than posed for promotional stuff, so they’re more expressive.
Here I was worried there was some kind of freaky epidemic or something. I don’t typically track the tags of the things I love because I end up seeing hate and it sets off the shame and anxiety things, so I thought maybe this was all going down in the proper tags for all this nonsense and it was something I was missing for not having tag adventures.
Because then it was like, ‘Okay, if there are enough people to whine about (and be wrong about) it, surely something is GOING ON SOMEWHERE? WHERE IS IT HAPPENING, SHOW ME THE THINGS.’
I’ve had several followers volunteer to follow me into this particular swamp of fandom misery after they all watched my liveblog into oblivion, so I may have a trail of other enthusiastic people coming in behind me soon~ But yeah, everything you’re saying is pretty much exactly what I’ve been seeing - all kind of in 2010-ish stuff happening anywhere and sort of blips here and there, but not a large constant stream of activity.
Anyway, that’s a relief that you didn’t think I was contributing in some sort of negative way, that would have been upsetting. My terror with liking things is a lifelong adventure, unfortunately, and these two don’t get to be an exception. I’ll get braver the more I do it, so I’m mostly doing some weird combo of forcing and indulging myself now, haha. Eventually it’ll be something that looks emphatically shippy but that generally requires more comfort with myself and just getting used to drawing the shapes of the people involved. Garak and Bashir was the same way, and I eventually got comfortable, but seeing some hate early on in my Shipping Adventures with them nearly made me shut down entirely and just stop doing anything, which I definitely don’t want to risk that happening again.
Most people seem to realize that unflatteringcaps is an appreciation blog, and the url is only what it is because I thought that it had a good ring to it. It doesn’t matter what expression he makes, it’s all cute. I genuinely can’t even understand people who say he’s ugly, because he’s just not to me. And yeah, any complaining about Londo/G’Kar or Londo in general always seem to boil down to “ew he’s ugly”
I love how expressive he is. The official promo stuff always has him doing his defiant pout face, which is lovely, but doesn’t really capture his emotional range. He’s extremely infectious and it’s really, really hard to be upset when I’m looking at pictures of him.
I don’t usually venture into tags either, for the same reasons you do. But I’ve seen exactly two tagged hate posts in the year I’ve been in the fandom, and they were so, well, ridiculous that they didn’t really bother me. There are legitimate reasons to dislike Londo, but he’s such a good character that the only thing anyone ever seems to come up with is, again, “ew ugly” even if they disguise it with a couple layers of bullshit.
Being honest, the first thing I thought when I saw your liveblogging posts was “oh man I hope she brings a bunch of these people down into Londo hell with her” so, fingers crossed here.
I’m similar, but I’ve been in this fandom long enough that I can brush people off now. Before I joined this fandom, I literally did not make any posts or talk to anyone at all. My blog was completely reblogs. I’ve changed a lot this past year. For the first few months, I didn’t voice very many opinions or put any posts in the tags because I was really, really afraid of being shouted down, but now the Londo tag is basically 50% my ridiculous posts. But really, I don’t think you’re going to see or get any hate. I’ve gotten exactly one piece of anon hate on my blog, and it was from someone complaining that I make too many text posts about Londo, and it was clogging their dashboard. I’m not sure what they expected, what with my url and everything.
The comments I saw were like, ‘Wow, I’m glad this cute drawing is chibi-style, I’d hate to see the actual characters being cute or kissing or whatever together, because well, Londo is “distinquished” (and by that I mean old and frumpy haha *sparkly emote*),’ and it was just … what. So you enjoy these characters, but only if they look like airbrushed anime people. Okay.
I was kind of like that once, but I was like, 13.
IS there a tag for Londo and G'Kar as a ship, speaking of braving the tags, or is it just the individual character tags I should venture through?
Hahaha, I think my job in fandom is to drag people down with me with my fannish shrapnel, so we should see something soon. (THIS IS YOUR CUE TO WATCH THINGS, FOLLOWERS. I KNOW SOME OF YOU HAVE STARTED, BECAUSE I FACILITATED IT. LET’S GO. PLEASE JOIN US IN HELL, THANKS.) Experience tells me that enthusiasm is what gets people the most, so hopefully the fanart has inspired some curiosity.
This is all reassuring on the 'not much hate’ front! (Though I’m curious about the ship wars your anon mentioned, wow.) Many fandoms have a kind of pre-established 'Boys Club’ culture, and you never know if it’s a place where you can freely ship the fuck out of things or if you have to hide a bit because dudes are going to be assholes until it’s kind of too late. I see this happening less and less with fandom things now compared to how they were ten years ago, which is such a relief, but it’s like I’m still skittish from all those places that were just full of vitriol for people enjoying things.