04/18/2024

something that’s been on my mind lately is a general shift in how the wider internet seems to view oc/canon content.

i’ve had a lifelong experience with it myself. all the way back in primary/grade/elementary school, i was heavily obsessed with sonic the hedgehog around the same time i used the internet more frequently. (this is a mistake i made early in life that has had the biggest butterfly effect known to man and has caused irreversible damage to me personally.)

i was one of those young fans who was head over heels for shadow the hedgehog because, in my eyes, he was so cool and edgy and mysterious! the sonic fan’s ideal byronic hero! young tweens were going crazy over that archetype, and although i (shockingly) dodged the twilight hype of yore, i did not truly escape: instead, the object of my obsession was just an anthropomorphic hedgehog that uses guns and says swear words.

being an openly nerdy and at-the-time undiagnosed autistic kid, i was shunned by most and the few “friends” i had kept me around as a figurative punching bag to mock and make fun of. i liked them, i liked hanging out with them, but i would always end up feeling sad afterwards without any idea why–so i turned to the computer to alleviate that. there, i discovered online communities where people gathered to celebrate their own “nerdy” interests. that was when i found out about deviantart, and when i discovered the concept of original characters.

my budding interest in creativity was piqued. you’re telling me people could make their OWN characters for stuff they like?! what a wild concept! further research led me to see people even draw these characters of theirs… kissing official characters! with these discoveries, i put 2 and 2 together and had an epiphany: i could make my own original character and have them date shadow the hedgehog!

motivated by this, i ended up making some social media accounts of my own, frequenting forums and posting sonic anime and comic edits made in ms paint–and sometimes hastily scribbled original art–declaring what was essentially a palette swap of another existing character with eyelashes to be my “original character”. not much thought was put into their backstory, but they were essentially an avatar through which i could have my crush on shadow the hedgehog realized, and that was more than enough for me. (you could also say that this was the birth of me being a yumejin, but that’s a different topic entirely.)

of course, posting online never existed in a vacuum, and people discovered my account and the fact that i exist. granted, people within the sonic community were very accepting of ocs and oc x canon… but the wider internet wasn’t, and the wider internet found me. i was laughed at, i had my creation called a ‘mary sue’, once again i was befriended only to have my kindness and innocence taken advantage of.

unfortunately, years later when i moved to tumblr and changed fandoms, this didn’t stop. early tumblr was hell for original content creators. there existed the concept of “fuckno” or “fno” blogs, often dedicated to reposting and mocking (usually uncredited) art and creation that they deemed bad or awful. some might put up a front of dignity and half heartedly suggest that you not attack the creators of these works, but it was just a failsafe to protect their mean-spirited acts of "criticism". my ocs and the ships i had with them, my edits, my art… i found myself on these blogs quite a few times. some of them would outright reblog posts from me, and i would have to see people insulting my art directly in my notifications. by this time, i was more conscious of the way people interacted with me and knew that what was happening to me was blatantly hurtful and negative, and to see this greatly upset me.

with all these experiences in mind, it’s clear to see that even though there was acceptance of ocs and oc x canon in fringe communities, the internet at large did not care for them. they actively hated the thought of beginner artists who dared attempt creativity or practicing their craft. to put it crudely: if your first proof of existence as a creator online isn’t shitting out michelangelo, then fuck you for daring to be artistically vulnerable!

however… things have changed. it’s hard to say what exactly caused this shift in attitude. maybe all the artists like myself who have been bullied and mocked online, vowing to never repeat this behavior, grew up and informed the current online fandom and cultural zeitgeist, but now the tables seem to have turned: the public tolerates and accepts–perhaps may even love–original characters and oc x canon. if there’s any bullying, it’s happening far away from the creative sphere most times, tucked away in similar mocking communities that have now become little more than internet circlejerks.

if i had to point to one possible inciting event, it would be the recognition and pushback against “cringe culture” that happened around 2017-2018. around this time, i would see many posts that, although worded differently, all shared the same sentiment: “cringe culture is dead! stop bullying of people who are genuine, enthusiastic and passionate about their interest!” this sentiment was widely supported and often endorsed with a wave of creative content made to support anti-cringe culture, by wholeheartedly embracing “cringe” and doing things that made themselves personally happy. though i’m not sure if it single-handedly changed how the internet perceives “cringe” content, i think it has caused a wide enough impact on online communities and made people realize that like… yeah, bullying people for being genuine about their interests is absolute irony-poisoned loser behavior.

in the wake of the cringe culture countermovement, i’ve noticed the change in how my ocs and oc x canon ships are received. now, i only ever receive an outpouring of love and support whenever i talk about them–even if how badly i have been burned by past experiences often makes me hesitant to share them sometimes. the people in my life who are dear to me are always happy to show me support whenever they can, and even those i don’t really know will have a compliment or two to give my oc’s designs. on the extremely rare occasion i meet some joyless soul who might insult my works or call them cringe, i can literally just block them and move on with my life. heck, many of my friends create oc/canon works themselves, and i’m always there to root for and support them!

to be honest, this was mostly just a thought and experience dump. i didn’t go into this post with a structure in mind, and it’s certainly not meant to be a retrospective essay or anything like that. i simply wanted to put together an observation on how, from my general perception of it, things have changed. i think that there’s a lot about the internet that is still harmful and needs fixing, which is part of why i was motivated to create my own website–but at least in this one single respect, things are a little bit better.

if i had a final message to share, it would be this: if you’re feeling any kind of shame for making ocs solely to have them date one of your favorite characters, if you’re scared to share that kind of content for fear of pushback or judgement: just know that you’re not alone, and never let whatever anyone has to say deter you from doing what makes you happy. consider me one of your biggest supporters, even if i don’t personally know you and probably never will.

the people who mind don't matter, and the people who matter don't mind.

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