I Will Say This.

Hi! (Just wanted to say hi)

Hello! :D

I don't care for anyone on social media who compares their lives to others, unprompted, as some sort of 'gotcha' moment.

This is the Internet, if someone online says they are struggling, it is not for you to say otherwise. Have some courtesy.

If it were face-to-face, I guarantee your reaction would not be, "Well, I have it so much harder!" It is precisely because we are online that you can throw those opinions out there emboldened by being behind a screen.

Shame on you.

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.

I feel like the main difference in the tone of the books is how the source of conflict has veered away from

"An individual's struggles with the natural world and interpersonal issues with those around them"

to

"The individual's struggles against the supernatural, destiny, fate, and appeasing StarClan (God) within the confines of a structural society + a bit of interpersonal / self struggles on the side "

I think where people flounder is when they misread Curlfeather's last scene to be a kind of disownment from Frostpaw ala the Patchkit AU MAP, and not as an indictment from Frostpaw of Curlfeather's actions up to that point.

Frostpaw is not saying— "You're a bad mom, and I don't love you,"

She's saying— "How could you do all this, that goes against the core values and morality of our society, turning Splashtail into a murderer, faking my dreams from StarClan, taking the life of your deputy, tearing RiverClan apart— How can you do that, and not acknowledge your wrongdoing?"

I mean, literally, look,

She doesn't want Curlfeather to leave. She loves Curlfeather, but also is filled with the weight of the betrayal and of her future burden— Rebuilding the home that Splashtail and Curlfeather had destroyed through their actions.

She still loves her Mom, guys.

Here's a really unpopular opinion for you.

I think making The Manager, Nyarlathotep, was taking the easy way out for what was essentially a 17 minute exposition dump.

I think the Dark World will be great but we could've done without another Yellow (Discount Nyarlathotep = Discount John).

I know why Harlan gave Parker a Brooklyn accent— But, it was also very jarring to me as someone who always pictured Parker as a first-generation Asian American.

Welp. Egg on my face, I guess.

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.

Sandgorse is probably one of my favorite antagonist's in Warrior Cats. An antagonist doesn't always have to be like world-ending evil or whatever. Just an obstacle for the protagonist to overcome.

But, I really like how he has that, "no underachievers in our family," type of vibe.

Like, he's some sort of coach trying to get Tallpaw to live up to the family legacy of tunnelling (sports), but it's just not for him.

He's, much like Shellheart, a really great depiction of what Warriors could be if the Erin's had these types of character-focused plots more often.

I feel that Warriors characters tend to be paper-thin, and flat. More plot-device, than character. Which is why I love Sandgorse and Palebird, for example, so much.

They both have a personality.

Palebird is a Queen, but that's just her job. She has an entire rounded character arc outside of it. She isn't watered down to fit neatly into a personality archetype, she's a fully fleshed out and realized character within the confines of Warrior Cats, which I really enjoyed.

What if Tigerstar got tnr'd but the vet noticed he had a weird lump in his stomach so he ordered an mri but it turns out that lump was just a big hunk of metal or whatever and Tigerstar exploded on the spot and lost all nine of his lives at once.