Musings on Wank, LOLZ, and PWNAGE

[phoenixastraea]

So, as the previous entry mentioned, I've been appalled, amazed, and baffled by the recent strain of wank that's hit the House fandom.  Of course, this bit of wank led to the reading of records of other epic wanks (like the julia_bohemian fiasco) and so on and so forth until one has sore sides from laughing and a sore neck and eyeballs from shaking your head and rolling your eyes at the idiocy and hijinx of some people.  On the plus side, in the midst of all the asshattery, much good can be found.  Crap like this usually finds a way to unite the members of the fandom, knitting them together a little tighter as they rush to defend each other and the fandom from wankers.  Fascinating and scintillating arguments, counter-arguments, flames, and beatdowns are part and parcel of the wank and well, what can I say: I love watching some ignorant, indignant, supercilious moron get verbally eviscerated by a stunning combination of logic, common sense, and potent evidence.  

And then, there's the forgiveness.  Whether you think that it's right or not to offer forgiveness or grace to a plagiarist , someone who by all appearances, seems to be a compulsive liar/attention whore/etc., I have to admit that I am both amazed and impressed by those invididuals who can and do so.  Now, if it were my work that had been stolen and reposted in such a blatent fashion, would I be able to forgive that person and hope that they could get their act together? I don't know.  I'd like to think that I would, but I don't know.  I know how absurdly angry I would be about it; with this in mind, would I be able to tell this person that she should stay in the LJ community after such a horrible violation of trust? Should she even stay? Should the mods kick her out?

I suppose I wonder what the best solution would be. This girl took 17 fics and a very well-known webcomic and reposted it on her Myspace as her own.  She then befriends said authors from whom she stole...but doesn't remove their art from her blog even after she has come to know them as "friends".  I cannot comprehend this.  It is inexcusable; she knew what she was doing was wrong, no matter how many times she evokes her unstable and depressed state.  You can't use these as excuses.  I'm sorry, but you just can't.  As savemoonyput it best in her LJ, we're all depressed, we're all on meds, we're all a bit loopy.  You don't see any of us committing a literary crime of this magnitude (so bad that it makes fandom_wank).   What's worse, she didn't take the fics down from the blog once she finally had an "in" with the community and had gained their respect as "an ace RPer".  Why on earth didn't she fix what she had done before the wank broke?  Certainly she can never be trusted again as a fic writer...but can she be forgiven?

Thoughts, oh ye wise flist (and especially, ye wise writers)?

Well, enough of that, I suppose.  Onward...because you can never have too many 

 

And finally, we come to teh PWNAGE!!1

So, my superawesome 13-year old cousin came over last night to hang for a bit.  She's starting to get into anime, which is pretty cool and she has good taste.  Naturally, as a relative who is more like an older sister, I have to convert her to the glories of FF, starting with Advent Children (since she's not a gamer).  So, I give her the backstory and we sit and enjoy the hell out of it.  In giving the backstory, one must touch upon Cloud's near impenetrable umm, cloud of emotasticness (yes, that was horrible.  Spank me with a 10 foot sword! ;^).  So, I do and we laugh about him being about as emo as they come in anime.  Now, for the benefit of those who have not seen Advent Children, the story of FFVII is recapped for the audience before the movie officially starts.  She introduces Sephiroth as such: "Of all SOLDIER, he was the greatest.  When he found out about all the experimentation on him as a child, he began to hate Shinra.  Eventually, he began to hate the world."

Without missing a beat, she turns to me with this look and says, "Wait, and you're saying that CLOUD'S emo?!"

*facepalm* LOLZOMGPWNT!!

(Needless to say, I'm rather proud of her. We'll prob finish watching it tonight. *beams* )

Comments

[arctic-silence.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHA NINJAS. Awesome.

Annnnnnnnnnnnd yes your 13-year-old cousin is awesome and you should continue to corrupt instruct her in the ways of nerdity. ^_^ I'm not a gamer either so AC was my gateway drug. I need a fuckin' PS2 or something. No, that'd be bad, because I'd probably gain all 60 pounds back from sitting there playing Final Fantasy. Lawl.

Cloud is still more emo than Sephiroth because y'know what? Sephiroth was MADE AS AN EXPERIMENT and never even KNEW love (as far as we know). Cloud at least had chicks all mackin' on him (Tifa & Aerith and Zack) and he's just emo by choice because he wasn't able to save them and he can't forgive himself.

I think Vincent wins over everyone in the "Right To Be Emo" department though.

[phoenixastraea.livejournal.com]

STOP GIVING ME MOAR EYEKAHNS TO HUMP!! I'VE GONE THROUGH HALF YOUR USERPICS BY NOW!!!

=^)

And yes, laughed for 10 straight minutes over "Ninjas". BRILLIANT!! *Guinness clink*

You're so right about Sephy having more right to do so. If I found out what he did, I probably would have snapped too. Who is your real mom? Who is responsible for you being who you are? Why would she let someone do this to you? Why would you maintain your allegiance to a group/company/dictatorship who supports experimentation on unborn fetuses!!? Yeah, I'd probably want to go Armageddon on the place too.

And you are SO right about our Vincent. I just finished reading the script of Dirge of Cerberus. MAN, poor guy. It's not just a demon inside him; it's friggen CHAOS!! What on earth does this mean, that Vincent will stay alive until the end of days because he's host to the Harbinger of Armageddon? WTF? And why would Lucrecia do that to him if she loved him? Was she trying to save his life? Was she a hosebeast who didn't care that her psycho-husband was altering their son too?! GAH!!

[arctic-silence.livejournal.com]

I've not read the Dirge of Cerberus script, but I did watch all the FMVs on YouTube and somewhere else where I downloaded the ones that weren't on YouTube. I feel like a retard being so ghey over characters whose games I've not even played. There are chunks of the story I don't know and that are not on teh intarwebz, so of course I don't know what I haven't read/played. *sob* Yes, she was trying to save his life, and it resulted in Chaos being inside him. He remains physically 27 but he's like...60 I think in real age. I don't know what the fuck her logic was in choosing Hojo other than she indeed WAS a hosebeast who was so blinded by her pursuit of some scientific goal that she couldn't see what it would do to Vincent and eventually to her.

But I don't see anyone cosplay as Lucretia....and people even cosplay as fuckin' HOJO, so that says a lot. GOD I hate Lucretia!

FF drama is so much better than IRL drama. x_x

[lastwordslinger.livejournal.com]

LOL NINJAS! <3 What a swanky place to hide, too...

Fandom Wank is the best site ever. I can't go to it though. If only because I will waste my entire life reading and following links about wankdom.

Plagiarism in fandom is a really, touchy subject. First off, I've had work stolen before. It was a photo manip I did for my Star Wars couple. Someone took it and replaced the female with another character. I asked for the picture to be taken down, and it was handled. Turns out the chick that did it was from another country, new to fandom, and didn't understand what she'd done. Forgive and forget...

And honestly, from what I read, it looks like this chick is genuinely sorry and ashamed. She realizes that she did something pretty terrible for attention and to try and get friends. But she's not making excuses. She's admitted that she was wrong. You can't ask for much more than that, and hopefully she's learned her lesson.

The bottom line for me is... stealing something that an author or artist had created is stealing from them the time they spent on it, the much-deserved positive feedback they received for a job well-done, and the individuality and creativity they exercised to make their vision a reality. But calling it "plagiarism" might not be the term to use. Because isn't it already plagiarism? Did any of those fan author's create House or Wilson or work on the show in any capacity? If not, then they have no right to "claim" those things as their own. By all means, get angry that someone took credit for your fine efforts and received praise that should have been directed at you. But like I said, "plagiarism" is a strong word that could be thrown back at the rest of us by our favorite fandom's creators, too.

[acebaretta.livejournal.com]

I'm not into fan fiction at all. However, inmy discussions with people who are....I take up the "plagarism" side all the time. Good to see that someone else out there sees where I'm coming from.

[lastwordslinger.livejournal.com]

I am a fan fiction author myself, and I still wince when someone cites plagiarism when their work is used without their permission. Mainly because I know my place. I know if any of the creators or writers or even actors I adore saw that stuff, they'd be more perplexed or offended than honored. If original characters were involved that the fan writer had created, maybe I could see why they'd feel plagiarism was the word to use...

And I definitely understand the frustration of putting a lot of work into something only for someone else to take credit. I just wish "plagiarism" wasn't bandied about quite so much. Because we're all stealing from the things we love. Graphics, stories, roleplay, all that stuff we hold so dear... It's why so many authors don't allow fans to write about their work. So yeah, I definitely know where you're coming from regarding that argument. ;)