I get all kinds of reviews — the majority are on FF.net itself, but some happen other places. Some of the more thought-provoking ones were on completely different backdrops — and many of them were entertaining to read. DLP was a blast, even if they don’t know if they like or hate the work yet, because they do real analysis of it.

Other places are … less entertaining. And one of them infuriated me.

As a rule,  there are three kinds of negative review.

1. A negative review that hones in some an aspect of the work that is bad, or that they personally dislike. For example, ‘You spell like a moran’, or ‘I think this is too depressing to read’. These are perfectly valid.  Sometimes I alter how I write based on opinion, other times I try to explain my viewpoint, and often times I simply must accept that not everyone is going to be a fan of my work, which is just fine.
2. A negative review that is a flame, with or without personal attacks, such as ‘I am the Fox Familar, I pretend to be a girl and advocate that wimmz should be barefoot and preggy, and all gheyz must be killed, and ur writing sux.’ I usually laugh heartily at these while sipping wine.
3. People who complain about something in such a way that illustrates not only do they not know what the fuck they’re talking about, but use evidence to prop up their points that detracts from it. ‘Your races are so evil they could never exist and your make everything too dark and not everyone is that way because canon wasn’t like that.’

The first two are what they are. The last group of people basically infuriate me. And then, of course, I go and look at their fanfic profiles, and their own stories are strewn with unrealistic things, copy-paste right out of canon, and their idea of originality is to do crossovers. Crossovers done MUCH better by other people, BTW.

I don’t mind (or particularly care) if some people dislike grimdark. These people have a tendency to think that SI’s, harems and retelling the same exact story with different people is somehow good writing, and thus we’re not operating on the same wavelength. I like stories filled with melodrama, conspiracy, mystery, and action. Some people don’t.

What bothers me is when a fool who hasn’t even managed to grasp yet that the so-called ‘cultures’ Bioware admitted in several places were simply pastiches of common alien tropes decides to claim that said cultures — of which we have few details, all contradictory — are more realistic than my take on them.

And the logic behind this belief? The person wonders why aliens act stupidly.  And then decides to use HUMAN VIEWPOINTS AND EMOTIONAL RESPONSES to say why ALIENS would not act that way.

I typically don’t get worked up about things like this. It’s a small group of morons who think that Dark Energy is ‘repetitive and boring’, that bash Galaxy at War (despite 3000 reviews) for being ‘off message’, and think Masses to Masses is superior to Fight for the Lost.

These people are fucking crazy.  So, in the interest of education, a few points.

1 ) Society is not inherently good. People are not inherently good.  Suggesting that anything that attempts to suggest that Roddenberry’s view of a bright happy MLP universe is a product of the man’s sheltered life is not heresy. To imply that anything that is grim dark is bad writing is an opinion, one you can hold. To imply that grimdark is, however, something that NEVER happens is to stamp an idiot mark on your own forehead.

2) Aliens are NOT humans colored or shaped slightly different. They don’t have fucking human ethics or morals. A race of beings that reproduces non-penetratively and is collectivist has ZERO goddamned reason not to be promiscuous. That’s called logic. Saying it’s sinful is an appeal to authority, namely ONE human religion. GTFO.

3)  No doubt from the depths of your vast experience with anthropology, the claim that salarian instincts would prevent them from harming their own eggs is countered by the fact there are birds and other egg-laying animals on earth who will , in fact, harm their own eggs. An egg is not guaranteed to hatch, and territoriality is a different response than parental protectiveness. Read Clark and Madson, you sub-literate hacks.

4) Humans wouldn’t give up freedom for security in a world gone mad? ARE YOU COMPLETELY FUCKING BLIND? Have you not looked at the fac….Jesus, I can’t even comprehend how drunk you have to be to believe that bullshit.  ‘Freedom’ is something that people take for granted, and the minute freedom gets a million people killed when a terrorist nutjob blows up Wrigley Field during the World Series, people will ask themselves what cost freedom?

5) The most bombastic thing I read, of course, was the suggestion that anything putting aliens into a negative light was basically somehow wrong because if they don’t it’s just alien-bashing.

Aliens MUST have good motives (even if in FUCKING CANON the Asari hid their own Beacon, the turians lied about a giant fucking bomb, and salarians would rather doom everyone than spare the krogan).

This is the most intolerable shit I have ever beheld, because basically it says the person not only has no braincells, but can’t even comprehend WHY I’m writing the way I write.