February 2012
January 2012
I hope they fix it, it’s weird and I like seeing who I got questions from in my email.
They’ll definitely fix it sooner or later. But given the general lack of competency Tumblr has exhibited it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s later rather than sooner.
same thing is happening to me with the submissions. i was pretty confused at first.
Perhaps it’s a systemic glitch?
Jesus. Fucking. Christ. Okay, why can't everyone arguing with you just shut the fuck up? I follow you because I enjoy your opinion, they obviously don't. They're arguing with you about topics that you have a very firm stance on and it's obviously not fucking doing anything, so why can't they just go away and stop having my dash clogged up? And yes, I blame all of you douchebags because I can't expect Vex not to answer attacks to his character. Ughhh, can we go back to theories and shit?
Posted without comment
Well, one comment actually. All I’ve got left is one submission and a silly question I intend to seriousface on.
Also for some reason my Tumblr glitched and now every message is qualified as a submission in so far as my email alerts are concerned.
See, I specifically said not to stoop to things like ugly! Come on, you are supposed to be good at insults! And the ask in which I pointed out that you're contradicting yourself. You have now said that A) You can never have trans headcanons they don't work, and B) Trans headcanons work but are stupid and unnecessary. And then when I argued against that, you reverted to A. You have to pick one. Which is it? Also, why must a headcanon be "necessary" information?
Pay closer attention.
Also shut up ugly.
What is Belldam going to do trace the anon's IP address and head over to where they live so she can rant into their faces?
Get your filthy logic out of my illogical attempts to mock people!
doridachi replied to your post: Dude, you could tell me that 2 plus 2 is 4 and I would start to question it.
you have the power to make people question things that blatantly shouldn’t be questioned, vex. how the hell did you get such power???
Well it all started when the Devil challenged me to a fiddle contest…
Do you even go on skype much? I am in need of someone to mourn Vriska with and disagree with people who like her death with.
Skype is set to start with my computer. If I’m not online I’m either not at home or I’m not awake.
Or extremely rarely I don’t want to be bothered.
Have you read Bustlestuck?
No. Or not yet at least.
don't you ever leave me u.u
I was going to put a picture here of Justin Beiber and caption it “Baby I’d never leave you.”
But then I realized that’d be too douchebaggy even for me.
So instead I will just say “I can’t promise that if I don’t know who you are. 0u0”
stupid nigger you cant even write a decent anything. critique yourself before together you special oh so special nerd
Oh man. You are gonna get so much belligerent hatemail from Edoro and Belldam and all of those people.
You know since they’re not hypocritical assholes who are only interested in bothering me and use whatever excuse they can find for that purpose.
You are so fucking stupid. I feel sorry for whoever conceived you.
Okay.
Hey, you've definitely managed to express your opinion (albeit in an overly combative and somewhat belligerent way). In fact, you've made your position quite clear. Now, I must politely ask that you stop spamming up other people's blogs with your needless bile? Thanks.
I feel at least partially insulted.
But whatever it’s not like I planned to continue this ridiculous discussion with Neo.
Then again your argument for two plus two equaling four would be some convoluted, privileged spew about occam's razor and other non-scientific theories that aren't related to the subject at hand, and would probably be worded about as eloquently as one of the ridiculous rants of the fictional character Karkat Vantas.
This really just beautifully sums up everything I hate about the people I have to argue with.
“lololol you’re dumb and everything you say is privileged so it’s obviously wrong. And also I’ll mention Occam’s Razor because obviously that’s relevant even though I have no idea what it is. Also your stuff is stupid and it’s really not sensible or rational or anything because I say so and oh yeah you’re a ridiculous jerk and I feel sorry for you lololololololololol /douchebag”
Dude, you could tell me that 2 plus 2 is 4 and I would start to question it.
I’m going to accuse you of having the sexual orientation you currently identify with.
Have fun questioning that.
yo vex it's kind of funny how you're calling out neo for being "unprofessional" for running the blog the way he wants, when you used the exact same "i do what i want" defense to respond to belldam&co.
…And? Do you have a point somewhere?
This is my personal blog, how I run it is entirely left up to me. Furthermore my blog has never been stated or implied to be anything else. From the very beginning it’s been an unprofessional mess.
none of that is true of the Unpopular Homestuck Opinions blog. It’s not Neo’s personal blog. And until recently there’s been an established implied etiquette of strong professionalism. terminallyFapricous ran it beautifully. You barely knew he was there and he never expressed any sort of personal opinion on the blog itself. Which is what the design of the blog demanded, it’s a blog that accrues unpopular opinions so the blog itself including the management should appear to have no opinions.
Comparing my treatment of my blog and Neo’s treatment of the unpopular Homestuck opinions blog is sort of like comparing two people who show up to work without pants. Except one of them works at home and the other person works at a daycare.
The standards are a little different is what I’m saying.
Look at you not jumping on all the "I don't believe Dirk is gay" opinions like you do all the "I don't believe John is straight" opinions. Prioritiiies
Eh, I’ll wait until the puppet ass is smoking a bit more furiously before jumping on this bandwagon. I mean I have John literally telling someone he’s not gay then immediately turning around and getting his mack on with a ladyperson and I still have to argue so hard my head pops off.
So yeah right now my only proof is Roxy lamenting the fact that he’s gay and the Autoresponder’s extremely unsubtle hints on the matter. This is more than enough to convince any rational person.
Unfortunately I’m dealing with shippers.
How does one decide when a given trait is a “bad” headcanon? If Vriska playing electric guitar is “good,” but Jake being bisexual is “bad”—even though they would cause just as much change to the narrative—where’s the line? Is speculating on favorite foods “bad”? How about fetishes or favorite sex positions? Height, muscle mass, body fat percentage? Shoe size? Medical history? How can anyone rationally draw an absolute line between “quirky detail” and “superfluous, pandering, sloppy, and wrong”?
Well obviously whatever I say is good is good and whatever I say is stupid and badwrong is terrible. That’s how it works don’tcha know? My opinion is law!
BWAHAHAHAHA
Alright seriously.
To answer your first question, “How do you differentiate between good and bad headcanon?”
Well it’s simply a question of sensibleness. The concept of headcanon is to supplement canon but never subvert canon. Which means that when done well a headcanon should never raise any new questions simply by the necessity of it’s existence.
Let’s take a recent example and pretend that someone headcanons Dirk as being bisexual rather than gay.
This immediately raises the question of why Roxy would lament at Dirk’s gayness and at his therefore inability to ironically ride her hard and long and make babies with her.
It makes canon less sensible.
A “Good” headcanon will supplement canon but not raise any new questions. But nor should it provide any speculation as to future events that may reasonably come to pass.
“Lord English is Dave Strider” may not contradict canon, but it’s still not a headcanon as it’s making a statement that we can reasonably assume will come to be proven true or false. It’s a theory.
Headcanon occupies the middle of the road here, it gives nothing to the future plot and it requires nothing from the past. All it does is add new and interesting ideas to the character, which fit their character.
As for “How do you tell if an idea is pandering or not?”, well that’s slightly less simple. It’s actually very difficult to imagine any simple rule of thumb to go by.
It’s really just an understanding of the sensibleness of a given development, particularly given it’s presentation
If you’re reading a Rose/Kanaya fanfiction where they’re knitting sweaters and a throwaway line mentions that John/Karkat is a thing. Well that’s pandering. It’s an superfluous, inexplicable detail which serves no greater purpose than to masturbate the author and/or readers.
The decision to make John/Karkat gay for each other when it’s so lacking in relevance and sensibility can only rationally be explained by the author’s desire to pander to themselves and to their readership.
And I’ve found that Pandering really only operates on two different levels, at least in fanfiction. Either it’s a superfluous detail that serves no importance to the story whatsoever, or it’s a central tenant of the plot. There is really no middle ground between the two.
Really I’d say it’s if a detail lacks sensibleness and whose inclusion within the story is purely explained by “ZOMG SQUEE!” or “I WANT CHARACTERS THAT LOOK LIKE ME!” or anything else of a similarly base, shallow level. Then it’s pandering.
reactiveTaxonomist Asked
(This ask came in six parts so I’m just going to stitch it all together.)
reactiveTaxonomist Asked:
there’s two things that bug me about a lot of what you say and i’d like to ask you about them. the first is your frequent statements that”so-and-so character being trans*/bi/etc. is not important to canon because they’re not in a same-sex relationship/canonically trans*/whatever and therefore is an extraneous detail and shouldn’t be included in headcanon/fanon/what have you” which…what? stories are MADE of extraneous details. (to be continued, this is loooooooong as hell whoops)
(2/god knows) good narratives include details and sometimes details have no plot relevance but they do make things interesting, and lots of times they make characters more relatable. if someone has a trans* headcanon that does not directly contradict canon (and if you try to argue that we have any canon evidence for the vast majority of characters’ cis-ness i will laugh at you) but does help them relate to the character, it’s a good headcanon. you can choose to disagree with it, but (cont.)
(3/?) that does not make it stupid or bad or whatever else. and my second point, related somewhat to the above and also to your frequent statements that (i’m using jake as an example here because he’s relevant to this discussion at the moment but he’s not the only one) jake possibly being bi is irrelevant if he’s not in a same-sex relationship and therefore shouldn’t be included, and he should be assumed heterosexual. i don’t know if you realize how offensive and obnoxious that sounds, but um.
(4/hopefully 5) just because someone isn’t actively in a same-sex relationship doesn’t mean they aren’t/can’t be gay/bi/pansexual/the list goes on. i’m a lesbian, and i’m a lesbian when i’m dating a girl but i’m also a lesbian when i’m doing the dishes or writing an essay or reading homestuck. it’s not always 100% relevant to my life but at the same time it’s not like it magically STOPS being a trait of mine when i’m not making out with a girl.
(5/ looks like 6)jake could be bisexual and date a girl, or not date anyone, or date someone we haven’t even met yet. his possible bisexuality doesn’t have anything to do with whether or not he’s interested in dirk specifically (or gamzee?? where are you even getting that from). sexuality can’t be assumed based on how someone acts or who you see them attracted to, and we won’t know how jake identifies until/unless he TELLS us how he identifies, and so far he has done no such thing.
(6/6) as you yourself mentioned earlier, one of the kinds of fanfiction/fandom that exist is “what if” scenarios, and i don’t see how jake being bisexual is a less-plausible what if than any other. i’d apologize for how long this has gotten but i don’t actually feel bad about it.
[casually removes tumblr user vexarian’s entire response to these asks!]
i am just reblogging this to say: dear tumblr user reactivetaxonomist, i would like to give you a big old kiss on the face, if you are into that.
I like how your go-to response is to call me a privileged dick.
I also like how fucking stupid your tags are.
“angry privilege-denying unicorn”, “my favorite part about his response is how tight he clings to the notion that only certain people can be queer”, “it’s like the idea that anyone could be queer is viscerally terrifying to him”
*eyeroll*
Yeah you just keep believing that.
