CHAPTER 48

A/N

Bit of a longer A/N. Sorry about this. Just had something I needed to discuss. So I just got this comment on AO3 and I wanted to publicly address it…

Quick backstory, this person on ao3 asked if I would let them rewrite the story as my s5 story "requires tremendous amounts of tightening up/improving. None of these people sound like how they would sound like in the show." Fair point, fair opinion. Something that I do indeed agree with for some of the characters. However, I politely declined with the message…

"I know the story's not perfect. Far from it. But I'm really sorry but I'm not working with other people on it. That being said, I really appreciate the offer tho and would love to read a Season 5 story of yours!"

And I thought that was the end of it. I didn't receive a response for a while until today. We had a quick back and forth, and I don't know, I guess my reply at one point rubbed them the wrong way or something because this is the response I got back…

Well, you'll never get to embark on a project with anybody with those ego issues. The dialogue is very horrible, like the worst. Your stories, they're very painful to read... like it actually hurts. Those poor stories..how bad the writing is. You have made every character OOC (out of character). Nobody sounds like how they would sound like they have in the show. So no one can get invested in the characters because they're basically different people in these stories. This ain't your thing, the writing. Never was, and it never will be. You should've tag-teamed this with someone while you be the idea-man, and they write. There was an amazing writer out there who possibly had a whole plan for season 5 but they got discouraged because of your stories. Take some time to analyze what you're doing, or better yet..retire, please.

The comment is written by a fellow author on ao3 who goes by the username of MrFrankyg4. I wanted to address this comment, not because I wanted to call out the person who wrote it (the reason I'm including their username is only that I want to test to see if they see and reply to this message or if they genuinely take my advice and just stop reading a story they clearly don't enjoy), but because I want to address something…

I am the first to admit that my writing is far from perfect. There are definitely flaws to it, flaws I'm trying to improve on but it's obviously a work in progress and after all, Rome wasn't built in a day. I know that my writing isn't for everyone. Everyone has their own taste and some, including this person above obviously, clearly are not fans of my work. That's okay. Honestly, that's fine. I don't take offense to it. But I want to stress that in no way am I asking any of you to keep reading the story. If you don't enjoy it, that's okay. I understand. Feel free to leave. Don't let any hatred you have towards me or my work fester until it explodes like this guy's clearly did. I don't know why he stayed reading my stories for as long as he did (the fact that he said storieS in his comment leads me to believe he even read more than one) but clearly he let his negative feelings towards them fester and eventually erupt. I don't want that to happen to any of you guys so please if you stop enjoying the story, please just stop reading. Nobody is forcing u to continue.

Second thing I wanted to comment on was on phrases MrFrankyg4 wrote such as "This ain't your thing, the writing. Never was, and it never will be" or "or better yet..retire, please." Trust me, I can take whatever negative criticism people have on the story itself, but I see absolutely no point in comments like these ones. I'd like to stress, I do not write for a living. I'm not a professional author. I'm a recently turned 16 year old kid who does writing in his free time. I'm not aiming to be the next JK Rowling. I'm just trying to have some fun. And sure I want to learn in the process, which is why I acknowledge the comments that are actually about the story, harsh as they may be. But I genuinely don't see the point in writing stuff telling me to retire or whatever because obviously, I'm not gonna stop doing something I enjoy, that's not hurting anyone, and that's a great stress reliever, and great fun. All the comment does is waste your time, my time, and just piss us both off.

I want to remind everyone who might be thinking of writing comments like the one above on my story or other people's stories in the future. I know this is all online so it's a bit hard to keep reminding ourselves of this, but behind every computer is a human being. And I know you're probably thinking "i'm not an idiot, I know that", but please just think about that for a moment. Comments you, a real person, write while staring at a computer screen will be instantaneously received by another real person on the other end. Us authors are human beings. We have emotions. We get upset. It's easy to say "oh just don't let it get to you" but eventually, once in a while, there are the comments that get under your skin. And like I know everyone is entitled to an opinion, but why are we spreading messages such as going on Private Messaging and telling me to "go kill yourself," which is a message I've gotten at least 30 times in the past year, on fanfiction websites for Christ's sake!

What happens if one day, I do just that? Follow the comments' advice and go kill myself? It won't mean anything to you, as we don't know each other at all. I'm just a username LewisHamilton44, which is in fact not even my actual name. It's the name of my favorite racing driver, because I'm too scared of people coming after me and my family online if I use my actual name as my username. I know I sound overdramatic but when I'm getting private messages from people I don't know and have never met saying "you are lucky I dont know where you would live or id come to your house and beat ur parents to death with a motherfucking brick," or talking about sexually assaulting my mother, of course I'm going have a reaction. It's not as easy as just letting it roll off your back. I'm a human, with emotions. I'm going to get upset, angry, sometimes even a bit scared. Maybe because I'm a writer myself so I know what it feels like to be on the receiving end, but I've never really seen what makes someone want to write a comment like that. Like why do you hate me so much that you're telling me shit like that when we've never even met. What have I done to you that was so bad?

We're all on these sites from our respective homes all over the world. We all come from different backgrounds, different lives, different upbringings, but at the end of the day, we all have something in common. If you're reading my story, chances are you are a Cobra Kai fan, just like I am. There aren't that many people in the world like us, so devoted that we can't wait for a new season so much that we go to fanfiction to help tide us over, so why are we attacking each other? I understand passion towards a story, character, ship/pairing, but why does it have to be so toxic to the point where it's just not enjoyable to talk about anymore? It would be unfair to say it's just the case with Cobra Kai, as now it's become the case with everything that people get passionate about: sports teams/players, music artists, movies, and more. The toxicness has reached insane levels, and I know that there's virtually nothing I can do to stop them, but I want to be open and honest enough for those feelings like writing rude comments to know how they are perceived from a writer's POV.

Sorry, I went on for quite a while. Just wanted to let my feelings be known. And if what I've said even encourages just one person to hesitate before writing a hate comment on my or another person's story, that's a mission success in my eyes. Trying to lessen toxicity in the CK fandom is an extremely tall order based on what I've seen on fanfiction sites, instagram, tiktok, etc, but I want to try and do my part as much as I personally can. Finally, I wanted to add that if any writer on any fanfiction site is feeling pressure or overwhelmed or hurt or anything else by comments written on their stories, please feel free to reach out. I've seen a lot of hateful, spiteful comments on other stories that haven't been addressed - maybe because the author just doesn't care. If that's the case, then all the power to the author. But if it's because they're scared to, or are feeling too overwhelmed or upset, I'm only a message away. You can message me on AO3 or public story comments, and if you want it to be private, you can message me on private messaging. I will respond to any PM I get from fellow authors going through the same thing as me, as I want to do my part to help.

That's it from me. For those who don't write personal hate comments, thank you. I really appreciate it. For those who do… I genuinely don't know what else to say to you to try and convince you that it isn't the right thing to do. Have a good day everyone.