Hello. I Saw The Post You Reblogged About Toxicity In The TS Fandom. And As Someone Who Is Relatively

Hello. I saw the post you reblogged about toxicity in the TS fandom. And as someone who is relatively new (Just over 2 months, heyo!), may I ask what kind of toxic behaviour do you see in the fandom? I hope this isn't too much for me to ask, I was just a bit curious and wanted some clarification on the matter. Please feel free to ignore this if it bothers you!

Well, welcome to the fandom, first of all! I hope you’re having fun so far.

In regards to the post you’re talking about, I think @izzyfandoms said it best: “…most fandoms are okay but have a loud toxic minority, but for us the not-toxic people are often the loudest so we can come off as pure and perfect…”

Most fandoms do have an amount of toxic behavior in them, it’s very rare (I’d say impossible, actually) to find one with zero problems, but it’s also usually more noticable in other communities than in this fandom, as we have been fortunate to have the non-toxic majority also be the louder voices most of the time (most often in fandoms, toxicity is a loud minority, though there are of course exceptions to this as well).

The other thing I think is important to remember is that this fandom started out smaller than it is now. I’ve been a presence here since november 2017, and there are other who have been around even longer, and back then, the fandom was much smaller and therefore the toxic minority was even harder to notice. This led to us gaining a reputation of “purity,” which in turn made issues more complicated when they started to crop up. Every fandom is going to have issues, things that people in it disagree about, and people who try to stir up trouble. This is normal, and a fandom displaying those traits is not immediately a bad fandom. What can shift a fandom into an unhealthy one is when issues, disagreements, and drama become the focal point and people begin to treat each other poorly over these things. And I would say a majority of fanders are good at not falling into that type of thinking or acting. But it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, and it doesn’t mean that the fandom as a whole can just stick our heads in the sand and pretend everything is fine.

So, you asked me what toxic behaviors I see. I’m going to talk about some examples I’ve seen in this fandom, and before I do I’d like to state first off that it is not my intention to attack anyone specific, or to shame people for their tastes in characterizations, ships, or their triggers or squicks. This is me trying to give my open and honest opinion about this community while being as respectful and tactful as possible.

Also going forward, every time I say “the fandom” or “people” or refer to the community in some other all encompassing way, know that I do not mean every single person in it, or even a majority necessarily, just enough people to make it noticable. If you exhibit some of the behaviors I’m talking about, I’m not saying you’re a bad person or that you shouldn’t be here, far from it. But everyone has flaws, and these are just some common things that I see in this community. Maybe if you see yourself in this post, you can take a step back and consider your thoughts and actions to see how they may be harming you or others.

Regardless of everything I’ve said and am about to say, I really love this fandom and the people in it, and I’m incredibly grateful for the impact it’s had on my life. Some bumps in the road aren’t going to change that. (Also I don’t engage with the fandom much outside of tumblr, things may be different on twitter, discord, or other places, this is just my experience with this platform specifically. Okay? Okay.)

So…here’s what I see in this fandom:

It is quick to judge. Anyone been here long enough to remember the week when Roman was “cancelled” between Accepting Anxiety part 1 and part 2? I came into the community later that year, but the fandom elders can tell you, there was a rally against Roman as a character, and a slew of people calling out prinxiety shippers for shipping such a “toxic ship.” You’d think after that first time, the community would have learned to perhaps be not so quick in its judgements, but we’ve seen the same pattern over and over again.

People were quick to judge Deceit when his character was introduced, which was followed by a back and forth where people argued about what was and wasn’t “sympathetic” content, how things should be tagged, and

People were quick to judge Virgil after Embarrassing Phases

People were quck to judge Patton after SvS and Patton AND Virgil after DWIT.

People were quick to judge Remus after DWIT.

And here’s the thing, it’s fine if you have different interpretations of characters, or prefer certain versions. You see Patton’s character flaws and decide “you know what, this character isn’t for me now” or want to explore those flaws taken to their extremes? That is okay. What is not okay, and what this fandom does a lot, is insisting that YOUR interpretation and version of the character is the correct one and shaming people with different ideas. It’s fine if you don’t like Patton or take issue with his current flaws being displayed. It’s NOT fine to attack people who disagree and send anon hate to blogs who speak out in support of Patton. It’s fine if you don’t like unsympathetic sides content. It’s NOT fine to shame people who do or send anon hate to unsympathetic sides blogs. There are lots of different ways to interpret all SIX sides, and yet so often I see people go on some sort of crusade to defend their opinon and insist that it’s canon.

But that’s all just the characters, this fandom also is very quick to judge the individuals in it. Real, breathing people with lives outside the internet are often shamed or attacked for their opinions about the characters, different ships, the way they’ve chosen to portray the characters in their art or stories, I could go on. Purity culture and cancel culture are prevalant in all areas of the internet, and this fandom is not exempt from it. Demonizing people for making small mistakes, or even for just disagreeing with you, is never okay, and yet it is something I’ve seen again and again in this fandom. Which leads me to my next point…

Anon hate. God, it makes me so angry, and this is the only one that I won’t try to portray both sides of or be diplomatic about, because it is flat out unacceptable no matter the circumstance. There are so many blogs in this fandom that have horrible anon hate problems, and I am sick of seeing it. I don’t care what a person has done or what opinions they have that you may disagree with, I don’t care if they’re the worst person in the world. It’s not okay to send anon hate, and it’s not okay to tell people to kill themselves. You find a blog in this fandom that you just Do Not like, either because of their content, their opinions, hell, just their personality? Unfollow them. Block them if you want. But sending anon hate over ships, characters, opinions and statements, it’s just childish and unacceptable. And it happens enough in this fandom that there are people who are afraid of making statements about things for fear of attracting more of that energy. Love always follows the hate and drowns it out in this fandom, for which I’m grateful, but the hate shouldn’t exist in the first place. Cut that shit out.

In general, this fandom has not handled differing opinions well, be it opinions on how to tag content, disagreements over characterizations, or encountering an idea that you personally may not care for. It is ultimately up to individuals to curate their online experience, by unfollowing blogs they don’t like, blocking tags and blogs they don’t want to see, and reading summaries and content warnings before opening fics. Often in this fandom I think people get upset if something isn’t tagged the way they want it to be (and I’m not talking about not tagging triggers, I’m talking like, someone insisting a blogger tag deceit content as #ts deceit when they already tag it as #deceit sanders. In situations like that it is the responsibilty of that someone to either block the tags a blog is using or not follow blogs whose tagging system doesn’t work for them), or if someone disagrees with them and we forget that it is okay to just…unfollow people. You don’t have to follow every blog in this fandom to be a part of the community, and if a blog is making posts and content you don’t like, unfollow them, don’t attack them for it. Accept that they have as much a right to their opinions and their space in the fandom as you do, and adjust your block and follow list accordingly so that you can get the experience that YOU want out of this fandom.

I hope this was helpful, and I hope it didn’t get too long for you. I’m not putting this under a cut because I think it’s important, but I will tag it as #longpost so my mobile users don’t suffer too much. If you want to discuss this in the notes, please keep it civil, and remember that we all are fans of Thomas here, and that we probably have more in common than we do differences. I love you guys, stay awesome <3

Daminette/Maribat Fairy Tail Au Part 1

Marinette grew up in a world filled with magic

Although Marinette's own parents weren't wizards, but bakers, she inherited her Gramdfather Fu's magic, celestial magic

She was able to summon spirits to help her with the help of silver and gold gate keys

The silver gate keys are pretty common, as far as gate keys go

The gold keys were a lot more rare as there was only 12 of them

Marinette already had 3, Tikki spiritof creation, Plagg spirit of destruction and Wayzz spirit of protection

They were her Grandfather's keys and he passed them down to her when he retired.

She also had a magic yoyo gifted to her by Tikki after her Grandfather had given her Tikki's key when he started training her

So when Marinette turned 16 she decided to follow in her Grandfather's footsteps and join a boarding guild

She ended up joining the Miraculous Moth guild, a guild that had a large amount of members, but nothing like Justice League, who had almost half the amount of members, but was about 10x more powerful

Their guild stamp was a pointy looking moth

Marinette had decides to get hers on her left shoulder in red

The guild master was Gabriel Agreste

Nobody was really sure what type of magic he had, but there were always a new rumor floating around that said something different.

Some said he had transformation magic

Others said he had solid script magic

Few thought he had absolutely no magic at all

And het there was some who whispered that he was a celestial wizard

Marinette didn't give the rumors much thought

She was too busy getting to know her new guild mates

She made some great friends and even made up a team with Adrien (Gabriel's son), Alya, and Nino

They were a pretty good team

Adrien was an equip mage

He can summon different weapons and armor

Alya was a solid script mage

She can create create materials by writing words out in the air

And finally Nino was a sonic mage

He can produce and control sound waves and use it against enimies

They were called Team Adrien

Marinette joined their team a week after joining the guild

The three had already been a team before hand for a couple of years

So because of this Marinette felt like a stranger looking in sometimes

Either way they made a good team

Though they were a little destructive

Luckily for them Tikki can fix everything with her miraculous ladybug spell

They had a pretty good team for about a year than somebody new joined the guild

Her name was Lila Rossi and she was an illusionist mage

She claimed to be a great independent wizard and even was offered a spot at Justice League

She told stories about saving villages and people from evil wizards and monsters

Everybody was so amazed by her, but Marinette has her doubts

She couldn't explain it, but it was just a gut feeling, but Marinette tried to do her best to push that aside a welcome her with open arms

She even joined Team Adrien

And that's when stuff really went down hill for Marinette

Lila started to make sly remarks about Marinette and celestial wizards in general

Stuff like how she didn't really contribute to fights and instead just let her spirits do all the work

Even though Marinette fights whenever she can using her yoyo

Or how Marinette is the weakest on the team

Even though Marinette could now summon 2 spirits at once something most celestial spirits can't even dream of doing especially with golden keys

She tried to ignore it, but as time went on it hurt more and more

And when her friends started to join in she tried to change that

She started to try and cast star dress

Which would allow her to share her powers with her spirits

And gave her a cute outfit with that

Her team mates didn't seem to understand or appreciate her attempts to gain more strength

They started to leave her behind for missions

They cut her part of the rewards down claiming because she didn't do as much work as the rest if them so she doesn't deserves an equal amount of the reward

Sometimes they were just abandon her to finish a job by herself then demand their part of the reward even though Marinette did all the work

The final straw came after a very dangerous mission

They were going up against a dark wizard who was kidnapping young women and selling them them into the slave trade

They took the job because the reward money was ridiculous and a golden gate key

So the team decided to use Marinette as live bait

Because she would get such a great prize for the mission

Which she was okay with

And she was successful in luring him out and was going to fight him until she realized her yoyo was gone

She then checked her keys and they were gone too

Marinette panicked and tried to hold the dark wizard back the best she can while yelling for her teammates

They didn't show up

In a last ditch effort Marinette tried to use star dress magic

Marinette: STAR DRESS LADYBUG!

Marinette felt a rush of magic fall over her

It had work

She was now wearing a read flowie dress that fell a couple of inches above her knees with a black ribbon tied around her waist and black fingerless gloves

Her hair was now down with a red headband and black flats on her feet with a new red and black pock a dot yoyo

She used her new yoyo to tie the creep up and her team finally showed up

Marinette: WHERE WERE YOU GUYS AND WHO HAS MY KEYS?!?!

Alya: Chill girl Lila pointed out that the wizard wouldn't go after somebody with magic items on them so we just grabbed them before you left

Alya held out Marinette's keys and yoyo and Marinette snatched them out of her hands checking everything over

Marinette: THAT IS SOO STUPID!!! YOU GUYS ALMOST GOT ME KILLED OR WORST

Adrien: Calm down Marinette

Marinette: DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN!

Lila *tearing up*: Come on Marinette we weren't that far away

Marinette: I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT! I'M SO DONE WITH ALL OF YOU RIGHT NOW!

Alya: Stop being such bitch Marinette you're fine and look you finally did that stupid star dress thing you were trying to do

Nino: Yeah dudette if you're going to be like that maybe Lila should get that gate key instead of you.

Marinette just glared at the group and used Plagg to help her drag the wizard to the Grand Council gourds that were posted in the town

She dropped him off got the reward money and the gate key

It was the Key of Illusion Trixx

When her teammates asked where their shares were Marinette just glared at them again

The whole trip back was her team criticizing her about keeping the money for herself

Marinette remained silent during the whole ride back

When they got back to the guild Lila cried to anybody who would listen about how mean and selfish Marinette was for keeping the money

Marinette ignored her and walked up to Gabriel

Marinette: Sure I would like to resign from this guild

Gabriel: Are you sure Ms. Dupen-Cheng?

Marinette: Yes after today I don't feel welcomed her any more

Gabriel: Well it'll be a shame to lose a wizard with such assets. Are you sure about this?

Grabiel looked down at the keys rested on Marinette's hip before looking back at Marinette's eyes

Marinette: Yes I'm sure

Grabiel snapped his fingers and Natalie, his second in command, removes her guild mark

Marinette walked out of the guild receiving sneers and nasty remarks from her ex-guildmates

She walked out and never looked back

She went to her home town to live with her parents and help out with the backery

She needed a break from guilds and other wizards

So she and sometimes her spirits would help her parents out

Well Tikki, Wayzz and Trixx did Plagg mostly just ate all the cheese pastries

Marinette kept training though she even made it so she can do Dtar dress with Plagg and Wayzz

Her bound with Trixx wasn't strong enough to complete star dress with him yet

After a couple of months Marinette was walking through town when she bumped into 2 boys

Both boys had black hair and looked around the same age

But one had blue eyes and was paler than his partner whi had green eyes

Damian: Sorry miss but you'll have to come with use there's no time to lose

Damian grabbed Marinette's hands and continue running with his partner Jon

Marinette: What's going on?

Jon: We're wizards on a mission to stop a dark guild who's top members are currently chasing us, so we're trying to lead them away from the populated area to avoid casualties

Marinette: Okay there's a short cut to outside of town, This way!

Marinette pulled Damian down an alley with Jon following the 2

Marinette could hear the sounds of crashing at the entrance of the alley assuming it was the dark guild members

They burst out of the alley into the open field next to the town

They made it to the end of the field before they had to face the evil wizards

Marinette looked over the group of eight wizards

Each one looking tougher than the last

Damian: Get out of here miss we can take

Marinette: No way there are way to many people for the just the 2 of you

Jon: what can you do to help?

Hearing that lit a fire in Marinette

Marinette: This! Open gate of creation, Tikki!

Damian and Jon watch with surprise as Tikki appeared in front of them

Tikki: I'm here to help

Marinette: Tikki we're going against a team of dark wizards be ready for anything!

Damian: You're a cestial wizard?

Marinette: Yep and that's not all I can do. Star Dress Black Cat!

Marinette was surrounded by a bright light

When it faded she was wearing black combat boots with neon green thigh high socks

Black shorts with a neon green belt

And a black tank top with a hood attach that had cat ears on it, with the inside of the hood being neon green

Her hair was still in pigtails but now were resting in front of her shoulders

In her hands laid a bo staff

Damian in wonder and Jon a little scared: Wow

With Marinette's celestial magic, Jon's fire God-slaying magic, and Damian shadow dragon slaying magic they were able to take down the wizards with ease and soon all the dark wizards were capture

The group of teens handed over the wizards to the guards before they finally have a proper introduction

Marinette: I'm Marinette by the way, Marinette Dupen-Cheng.

Jon: Nice to meet you Marinette, I'm Jon Kent and this is my partner Damian Wayne

Damian grabbing Marinette's hand and kissing the back of it: It's a honor to meet such a powerful and kind wizard

Marinette blushing: O-oh I don't know about that, I'm not that powerful and anybody would have jumped in

Damian: I'm not so sure about that

Marinette ended up inviting the two back to the backery for a free lunch

They continue to talk just getting to know eachother

And a good amount of flirting went on between Marinette and Damian

They were laughing and joking around and Marinette felt like she gained something she lost when she left her team

They continue their conversation as they make it to the backery

Marinette introduces them to her maman and papa before taking them upstairs to make lunch for all of them

They continue to laugh and joke around and Damian insisted on helping Marinette cook

Jon: But you're an awful cook, you go around eating people's shadows before you cook.

Marinette: Eating shadows?

Damian *blushing*: Yes I'm a shadow dragon slayer, so when I get hungry I can eat shadows or darkness

Marinette: I thought all the dragon slayers were in the Justice League guild

Jon: Yeah that's our guild

Jon pulled down his shirt to show his blue guild mark which looked like a J and L put together with a star in the middle

Damian rolled up his sleeve to show his green guild mark on his left forearm

Marinette: You guys are a part of Justice League?!?! Oh no I must be holding you guys up! I'm so sorry!

Damian: Oh no, not at all! We're really not that busy! Right Jon

Damian gave Jon a pointed look as if it say not to upset the cestial mage

Jon: Right! We have plenty of time especially with the help you gave us today. We thought we would have to be here another week at least, thanks to you we can leave tomorrow

Marinette turning around to continue cooking: Well I'll be sorry to see you go

Damian grabbing Marinette and turning her around holding her by her shoulders: Then why don't you come with us? You said yourself you don't have a guild and you're way too talented just to stay here all your life

Marinette: I don't know I don't think I'm powerful enough to join Justice League

Damian: Are you crazy? You're more than powerful enough!

Jon jumping up: Yeah! And you can be apart of our team! If we stick together nothing can stand on our way!

Marinette still wasn't too sure until she felt her keys warm with encouragement from her spirits

Marinette: Okay I'll join you!

Damian and Jon smiled and Jon raised his hand for a high five, which Damian didn't reciprocate but Marinette did

Marinette turned back to continue cooking as Damian continue to pester her to help

Marinette finally relented and told him to chop the veggies

After lunch the two boys left for their hotel telling Marinette to meet them at the train station tomorrow at 11

That night Marinette told her parents her plans and they were over joyed for her

To them Marinette started to look like a cage bird staying in the bakery longing to spread her wings but start in a small cage

The next day Marinette packed up all her things and met the boys at the train station

The trip was long it felt even longer because poor Damian had motion sickness like all dragon slayers

At one point he ended up resting his head on Marinette's lap which seemed to help him a bit so Marinette's just let him stay there

As soon as the train stopped Damian perked up

They made it to the city of Gotham just in time for dinner

Jon dragged Damian and Marinette down the streets of Gotham determined to get her to join as soon as possible

Damian: Calm down Kent I want her to join just as badly as you do, but I don't think pulling her arm out of her socket will make her move any faster

Jon: I'm just so excited! Just wait until you meet everyone Marinette they'll love you! One of the guild master's mother was a celestial wizard like you, even owned Tikki before

Marinette: Guild Masters?

Damian: Yeah our guild instead of having only 1 master has 5. Because we have so many powerful members they felt it wouldn't be right for 1 person to have so much power, so instead we have 5

Marinette nodded her head in understanding

The rest of the walk to the guild was filled with Jon's babbling about Justice League and what Marinette could expect

When they made it to the front of the guild hall Marinette froze

All the bad memories from her old guild came flooding back

And with that all her worries about being accept came back with

Marinette was spiralling until she felt another hand engulf her smaller one

Marinette looked up to see Damian with a soft look on his face

Damian: Don't worry Angel you'll be great, and no matter what you'll have me and Jon right by your side

Marinette blushed at Damian's nickname for her looking over at Jon when she feels him take her other hand

Jon: He's right Mari you have us, no matter what

Marinette smiled squeezing the boys' hands before letting go of Jon's, but keeping a hold on Damian's hand

Not that he minded or planned on letting her hand go either

They opened the doors to the guild and found utter choas

There seemed to be some sort of brawl going on among the younger members

The guild hall was two stories and as Marinette looked up on the second floor she can see the older members of the guild calmly eating and chatting ignoring the antics of the younger members

Marinette stared as Damian and Jon maneuvered her around the guild pulling her down to avoid the bodies being thrown and Damian lifted her up to avoid one of the guild members who were sent skidding along the floor

They finally made it the bar area were Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, and Diana Prince stood watching the choas

Damian: Hello Father I have brought a new wizard to join the guild

Dick from across the guild: WHAT?!?!

Tim from another part of the guild: DAMIAN BROUGHT A GIRL HOME!

The members cheered and Marinette and Damian stuttered saying it wasn't like that

But it was too late Damian got pulled into the chaos by his brother loudly protesting and somehow joining in the brawl

Bruce sighed: So you wish to join Justice League Ms...

Marinette: Marinette, Marinette Dupen-Cheng

Jon talking to Clark: And she's really powerful dad, she helped us take down that dark guild we were sent to stop

Diana: And what magic do you wield little one?

Marinette: I'm a celestial wizard and I can also preform star dress with some of my spirits

Diana impressed: And what keys to you have?

Marinette: I have a few silver one, the clock and the cross, and I have 4 golden keys, Tikki, Plagg, Wayzz, and Trixx. I can do star dress with all of the gold ones except Trixx out bond isn't strong enough yet.

Diana: That's very impressive. You know my mother used to hold Tikki's key before she retired and gave it to her dear friend Fu Cheng

Marinette smiling: He's my grandfather, sadly he passed a couple of years back.

Diana: I'm sorry to here about your lost, but if Fu entrusted you with Tikki and his other spirits you must be a powerful wizard. I vote we let her join

Marinette: Thank you

Clark: If my son says she's worthy that's all I need, I say yes to

The two guild masters looked over to Bruce waiting for his answer

Bruce: I can sense a large amount of magic and magic potential in you. It's a yes from me to, and since that makes a majority we are pleased to welcome you into Justice League. As soon as Damian escapes his brothers he can help give you a guild mark

Marinette looked around scanning for Damian giggling when she finds him in a tousle with 3 other boys who she assumes are his brothers

Dick was holding Damian in a headlock as Damian clung to Tim's back pulling his hair as Tim tried to pin Jason to the floor as Jason tried to pull Dick down with him

Jon laughing with her: Yeah those are our dragon slayers. You of course know Damian. Dick is the one putting him in the headlock, he's a light dragon slayer and a great acrobat. Damian probably gets along the best with him out of all his brothers. The boy who's getting his haired pulled out by Damian is Tim he's a lighting dragon slayer, but can also do solid script magic and barely sleeps. I swear one time I saw him eat straight coffee beans. Finally the boy with white streak in his hair trying to pull Dick down with him is Jason. He's a metal dragon slayer who prefers to use his magic to make weapons. He's the only one of the brothers who isn't on a specific team. He usually just tags along with whatever team he feels like or goes on solo missions.

Damian sensing Marinette staring at him looks towards her blushing

He shakes his brothers off him trying to make his way over to Marinette only to be stop by Jason

Jason grabbing Damian's waist: wait a moment Demon Spawn we're not done with you yet!

Damian thrashing around: Release me Todd!

Tim messing with Damian's hair: Aww are we embarrassing you in front of you girlfriend?

Damian: stop it Drake!

Dick stepping in: All right guys that's enough we don't want to ruin Hatchlings (a/n: Get it because they're dragon slayers) chances with his girlfriend

Damian finally breaks away from his brothers rushing over to Marinette and Jon

Damian: Sorry about that my brothers are idiots. How did it go?

Marinette: They said I could join, Mr. Wayne said you could help me with my guild mark

Damian: Of course come with me

Damian grabbed Marinette's hand pulling her towards a side room as Jon went to go talk to his brother Connor

Marinette decided to get a pink guild mark on the top of her right hand

Marinette seemed to fit right in with the rest of the guild

There was no adjustment period like with her old guild she seemed to be able to join in right away

She learned when a brawl was about to start up and how to avoid flung guildmates

Though Damian still insisted on lifting her over skidding bodies

She and Diana formed a close bound that started with Diana telling her stories about her mother and Tikki and it evolved in a mentor/mentee relationship

Marinette also joined Damian Nd Jon's team helping keep them focus on missions and stop the few fights that broke out between them

Sometimes Damian's brothers would "kidnap" Marinette to go on missions with them which usually lead to Damian running after them and Jon following Damian

Marinette became close friends with Dick's girlfriend Kori, Barabra, and Stephanie

They would sometimes go on girl only missions together

When they return they would often find Dick, Tim, and Damian sulking that they were left behind

That's the end of part 1, I hate to do this to you guys, but I learned there is a limited to dots and it's 250. I'll do a part 2 soon because there is still more to tell. Part 2

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colorfulcandyskulls

5 years ago