To Make My Stance Clear.

I tried to recreate the sound of a 2010-ish UTAUloid! 🥰

Did I succeed? (I think so!)

reblogging my own post to tack on this "additional" commentary.

whenever questions of the worst wc character come up, i can't really understand the fact that darkstripe has genuine vitriolic haters that think he's one of the worst characters in the series. like obviously morality holds some stake in character preference, and i can also understand why people hate on him in a jokey way because canon keeps putting him in a position where he's easy to point and laugh at and he's given very little on-page sympathy or reasoning unlike other antagonists, but, like. darkstripe? he serves his narrative role well, he's got room for intrigue and headcanons, he can be at least funny or endearingly pathetic if you don't want to do that, and he's still not nearly the most morally reprehensible character in the series even though he tries to poison a child/potentially his little sister depending on how much parentage retcons you buy into, so like idk what you people even want from him

If it seems illogical it's because it's a plot device. It is meant to further the story.

Crowfeather being mean to Breezepaw is foreshadowing. He does that so Lionpaw can go, "Wow, glad he's not my dad,"

But— Surprise, he is.

Sometimes when you say,

"Why does x thing have to happen, that I disagree with, when y thing could've happened instead?"

Because then there'd be no plot. x thing happens so z thing can happen later on.

It's not the authors rubbing their hands together and going,

"Yes! Yes! Bad parenting! I support it!"

Come on, guys, use your brains.

The way some people talk about characters in this fandom is crazy.

"Mapleshade shouldn't have tried to cross the river when the bridge was right there!!"

Ok? And? If she had made the right choice then the story wouldn't have ended like that. There would've been no plot.

"There's no reason for Crowfeather to use his love for Feathertail as justification for his actions!"

Actually, there is. She was significant to his character, and the writers wrote him like that. He is like that because someone made the choice that he would feel that way. She is his motivation.

"Onestar shouldn't have abandoned his son!"

But, he did. His whole thing is that by shirking his responsibility to Smoke, he created Darktail. His actions were the motivation for Darktail being a villain.

By the way, fanfiction isn't the place for reviews or criticism.

When you're a published author, it's like you're preparing a meal in a food competition. You expect a rating and to be told what worked and what didn't to improve your craft and embark on your career.

When you're a fanfiction author, it's like taking some of your free time to enjoy the process of baking cookies and then offering them to someone to be kind.

If you take a cookie from the plate, you don't spit it out and tell them it sucked.

Unless the writer asks for your opinion, you can keep it to yourself.

Adding this to clarify, and you don't have to agree with this by any means, I cannot force you to, but the reason Ao3 and Fanfiction isn't the space for criticism and ratings...is that it is a fan space created by fans for fans.

It isn't school.

It is a space where people with the same interests can congregate and enjoy the same fandom.

When you think about commenting on an fanfic authors fics, don't think if it as fishing around in your pocket to give them a compliment.

Compliments are nice. Most everyone likes compliments.

"I like your character development."

"You paint wonderful imagry."

Those are comments that are compliments. Speaking for myself as a fanfic writer they're nice, but they're not what my fan heart craves.

I want engagement with my readers.

The best comments I get aren't talking about my skill as a writer, but what just happened in the story because you and I (the reader) are already fans of the world created.

Comments like:

"NOOOOOOOO!"

"Did she actually just do that?"

"EXCUSE me?!?!"

None of these comments are compliments and none are critical. They are emotionally aligned with the story. They are engaged and with this engagement we create a little community in this tiny little space we get to call ours.

I cannot stop people from saying cruel things, but I can inform those people of the "dangers" so to speak when people treat fandom spaces like Ao3 as if it's Goodreads.

Writers, who write for themselves and offer it to you out of kindness, can decide that if people are just going to spit out their cookies they don't need to post about them anymore and that is how fandom spaces die.

If you don't like the flavor of cookie they made, or you're allergic to one of its ingredients...don't eat the cookie. Put it back for someone else to enjoy and then go find the flavor you do like.

If you view Warrior Cats as being human-like that's fine.

—But, I also disagree.

And I think you lose a lot of the value of reading a book series about cats by moralizing their society against human standards instead of enjoying the world building for what it is.

Guysss look what I did! 🥳 I made the Animal Crossing voice in UTAU!

I don't know what the fandom consensus is on popular Jayfeather and Lionblaze ships, but I really do like Jay x Cinder, and Lion x Pebble. (I don't really ship Hollyleaf with anyone.)

Bara furry UTAUloids are so iconic. Why does every single one have such a banger VB. It's literally crazy. I have never seen a bara furry UTAUloid with a bad voicebank. They are all so high quality.

I feel like Harlan Guthrie is the opposite of a queer baiter.

John and Arthur are being pushed as being almost aggressively straight and platonic in the last few episodes so that no one can ship them anymore.

He's two steps away from declaring that John and Arthur share a brother bond or are like father and son, lol.