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were I to create an original piece of media I would create bait so queer in order to create a fanfic environment I like. I find you guys do your best work under duress.

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Why do m/f ships are often regarded as boring and plain in comparison to m/m and f/f ships?

I think it's a combination of things:

1) Over-saturation. M/F romances have been the bread and butter of mainstream media for literally thousands of years. (Although the world's first known work of literature was pretty gay, so there's that lol!) Anyway, because of this, it's easy for M/F stories to repeat old plots, or for audiences to feel as if "there are no new stories to tell." After consuming M/F romance media for a while, people can start to feel like "I've seen this before." When the market is saturated, it becomes harder to find new twists on old tropes, fresh voices, etc., and there's no longer as much sensation of mystery or the unexpected--if you see a hot main female character and a hot main male character in a movie, chances are they're guaranteed to get together. When things become "given" in media, the stakes vanish, and it's much harder to generate interest from readers or viewers. ("This ship is going to be endgame anyway, so why bother worrying about whether they'll get together?")

Conversely, when the romance is M/M or F/F, it still has an element of "newness." Perhaps we haven't seen this particular romantic comedy plot with a queer couple before. Maybe adding the extra element of societal response to being gay changes up how an old trope will play out. Because queer romances haven't been grafted on to seemingly every possible trope and scenario in media (yet), there's still chances for surprises and intrigue. Basically, M/M and F/F have the benefit of newness.

I think it's worth pointing out, though, that this will likely not last. An inevitable side effect of queer romances becoming normalized in mainstream media is that, over time, all those tropes and cliched plots will get played out with both M/M and F/F ships, and we'll one day reach over-saturation on queer romances as well, making many of them feel just as bland as the stock of M/F romances in media too.

2) A lot of M/F writing is just really bad. I've discussed at length many reasons why M/F romances tend to be more poorly written in a lot of mainstream media, and the many reasons are too varied to go over again (misogyny, inexperienced male writers, sexual fixation on the other gender resulting in objectification, etc. etc.), but I think it's key to remember that a lot of stories which contain romantic plots weren't actually intended to be romances at all. They just have a romance because society treats romance as obligatory. Writing a horror story? Wait, you mean the hot male protagonist and the hot female protagonist aren't going to bond over their life-threatening situations and end up together? Writing a movie about the horrific tragedy of the sinking of the Titanic? What do you mean it won't center around a forbidden romance between people of different economic classes? Your high fantasy epic doesn't have a princess for your knight to save?! Huh?

The problem is that a lot of people who can write well in one genre cannot write well in other genres. You can have the best horror writer in history... and that person may be completely incapable of writing a romantic plotline to save their life. You can have the most accurate historical political intrigue researcher ever--and then that person has zero experience trying to build effective romantic tension. Unlike other genres which don't have to cross over with each other--your crime drama doesn't have to become a historical drama; your YA fantasy novel doesn't have to become a comedy--writers of practically every genre are expected to be able to throw romance plots into their works and sell them.

When romance is so ubiquitous, it's inevitable that a lot of it is going to be written by people who aren't skilled at writing it, and thus a whole lot of it is going to just be kind of poorly written.

Conversely, we're still at a moment in time when queer romances are regarded as somewhat controversial in mainstream media. It's growing less so over time, but we're still at the point where, if there's a queer romance in a piece of mainstream media, it's because the authors really wanted to put it there. It's not there because of a sense of obligation or viewer expectations, but because someone producing that work really wanted to tell a queer romance story. When you're adding a romance plotline because you really want to write a romance, that plot is (usually) better simply because that plot is more important to the writers.

Furthermore, because queer romance plots are still scrutinized much, much more than M/F romances by editing boards, shareholders, etc., it is likely that these stories are held to a higher writing standard that M/F romances currently. They will be subject to greater editing and require greater "justification" in order to sell decision-makers on the necessity of including the pair. Therefore, across the board, queer romances in mainstream media are likely to receive more of the writers' time and effort than M/F romances.

Once again though, this is a product of media's current situation and not something that will last. Give it a few more years in an LGBT+ friendly administration and M/M and F/F romance plots in shows, books, etc. will become normalized to the point that including one won't be remotely controversial. The level of scrutiny and focus on such ships will fall, and eventually they'll become just about as obligatory as M/F ships, complete with the matching drop in quality. 😂

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Someone should do some kind of research, but I have a theory that--because 1) fandom and anime/video games/tabletop RPGs have become such normalized hobbies that people can no longer reliably be bullied for liking them, and 2) bullying itself has become less socially acceptable through anti-school bullying and anti-cyberbullying campaigns--the current state of fandom is actually a result of the people for whom bullying is inherent behavior being forced to coexist with those they want to bully.

Instead of it being socially acceptable to ostracize and torment specific groups for having niche hobbies, the "niche hobbies" have become so popular that bullies have to resort to creating subsets within the hobby (ooh, those nasty proshippers!), reproducing the "us versus them" mindset that is central to standard bullying. This process of separating themselves as the "superior class" then allows them to build cliques/loyal supporters, farm for clout to advance their own social standing, and mentally justify their actions in the same way that bullying has worked for decades (well that person is weird, so they deserve it).

It's literally just the same decades-old bullying, dressed up in moral standards to legitimize it and now reduced to "in-fighting" because the nerds' hobbies have replaced the normies' hobbies as the pop culture mainstream.

I think it would be fascinating to research the patterns of behavior in classical bullying and how they map to today's fandom discourse.

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Not to only ever talk about work (even though that's the only thing I have time for in my life currently), but Jesus Christ.

I'm so sick of reading AI-generated essays and trying to give detailed feedback on assignments I know no student actually wrote.

Hours and hours and hours of my life being wasted painstakingly commenting on the work of machines...

In moments of despair like these, I wish I could honestly just tell the students "If you want detailed feedback, YOU do the work of proving to me that you wrote your own essay. Time lapse video of your writing process or all you get is the rubric grade."

>:[

I'm so tired. So tired. So tired.

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I'm deep in the middle of reading essays currently, and one thing that I find fascinating is how rapidly young people internalize changing language patterns from the internet.

This never would have happened even two years ago, but now in half the essays for my literature classes, the authors of stories are suddenly all they/them pronouns. 😂

Even when the students are introduced to the authors and correct gendered pronouns are clear from the lesson material (William Faulkner is not a she/her, we can safely assume), a majority of today's students are defaulting to "they" when referring to the author.

This, to me, indicates a fascinating shift, where "they" is the normalized default for all people with whom one isn't directly familiar (or perhaps just when one hasn't paid enough attention to fully remember the author lol).

Times are a'changin' indeed.

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Mods sharing chat screenshots that were intended to be private DMs is absolutely vile and I hope that no one in that server is still placing their trust in those mods to protect their privacy. 😬

I'm sorry you got caught up in what sounds like a bad high school clique who don't know how to engage with people outside their own bubble. Sometimes servers should really not be open to the public if they're not willing to accept the public, who all interact with media in different ways and have different goals for being in fandom.

Take a deep breath and a bigggg step away from that cesspit. Absolutely no reason to let toxic fandom get to you. Move onto the next thing that you enjoy and come back to Hazbin when the fans have had some time to mature.

Okay. Long story short, I found out that a large server was actively running a hate campaign against me. Among other things, a server mod and very popular fic author who said that she understood what I was getting at and largely agreed with me posted private conversations in a massive callout document, shared it in the server, falsely accused me of posting anon hate, and tried to use her influence to get me blacklisted. This happened, at the end of the day, because I follow a "don't like don't read" policy, draw boundaries, and don't accept insulting comments disgused as concrit from strangers. And, most importantly, because she disliked me personally.

I don't have any fucking words for how bad of an effect this has had on me. I have a history of being cyberstalked in a way that was actively dangerous. You cannot fathom how horrible it was to know that some group is targeting you but not knowing who or why after that. So. Here's what we're doing.

I love the stories I was working on and still have a lot of muse for Hazbin, but I can't touch this fucking fandom anymore outside of very private bubbles. So.

Anonymous asks have been turned off.

All of my fics are being moved onto anonymous. If I continue any of them, they will remain anonymous. Anyone who wants to find my stuff can hunt for it.

All future fics will be posted anonymously. Even if I continue writing, Museflight as a presence is gone.

Chainsaw Man fics are also going anon for the sake of being thorough. If there's a CSM fic of mine that you want to be able to easily access, this is your warning to bookmark.

Congratulations to the fucking First Man Collective. You won.

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Honestly, I feel like I unlocked some kind of special adulting code over the last few months. My mental health is some of the worst its ever been, but boy howdy is my house CLEAN.

Like, no dishes to do, all laundry done, folded, and put away, sheets changed, house dusted and vacuumed from top to bottom at least once a week...

Somehow, I improved my coping mechanisms without managing to improve my coping.

Typical Echo behavior.

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so ummm welcome to my jar:) lemme show you around! theres some holes poked in the top so i can breathe, theres some leaves to munch on, and ive even got a twig! #mytwig

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The Promises I’m Making (2025)

After the absolute garbage fire that was my life in 2024, I'm kind of just sitting here like... "What do?" What do I even try to focus on for 2025? Will the promises I make right now even be relevant in two months' time, given how many plot twists my life has become prone to?

There's also definitely a correlation between not having money and struggling to come up with resolutions. Why does everything in life cost so much?

Please 2025... let me live in uninteresting times...

2025 Promises

1) Ensure the plumbing repairs in the Utah house are completely finished and the ceiling/floors are restored.

2) Pay back as much of the loan I had to take out as quickly as possible to reduce the monthly payments.

3) Have the AC unit in the Texas house replaced and paint the ceiling where there are water spots from the leaks.

4) Clean up the kitchen area of my Texas house; there is a bunch of kitsch accumulating on the far edge of the counters that I just don't need in a kitchen.

5) Get all the bookshelves/books organized in my Texas house.

6) Clean off my back patio/car port area in the Texas house so I can park my car there again.

7) Call a handyman and have the Texas house bathroom faucets replaced.

8) Clean out the Texas house closets and figure out what to do with all the old boxes like my old computer boxes that I've been cramming in there.

9) Put up a shelf in my room for my figures so that they're not completing clogging up the top of the dresser.

10) Fix the damaged spot on the backyard fence of the Texas house.

11) Clean out all the drawers in my desk/side tables/etc. What is even in there???

12) Take better care of the Texas house lawn, like fighting weeds and trimming the hedge more often.

13) Assemble my new display case and actually successfully organize/display all my plushies. I have... too many plushies...

14) Change the burned-out lightbulbs in the recessed lighting in the Texas house ceiling. It’s like twelve feet high and the lightbulb changer stick I bought didn’t work, so I’m going to have to find someone with a ladder. Save me, handyman. Save me.

15) Help my brother reorganize his furniture in the room he's staying currently; dude has never heard of the concept of maximizing space and it shows.

16) Help my parents tear out the carpet in my old childhood bedroom.

17) Actually use the yoga mat I bought forever and a day ago. This year... for sure...

18) Walk the dog more. Even if the dog herself doesn't like walking when it's hot out lol.

19) Lose at least twenty pounds.

20) Do a complete re-read of Noragami and post some of my closing thoughts on the series.

21) This is super nerdy, but my bro got me the FFXIV cookbook and made me promise to actually use it, so I guess I’d better at least try to make something from it. (Years later, I'm still... trying... lol)

22) Take at least one decent picture of a wild sea turtle.

23) Reach the new level cap with all jobs in FFXIV. I'm late, whoops.

24) Spend less on gacha games and Starbucks. Gotta save money…

25) Close out my old credit union account and call to check in on closing any old credit cards I might still have.

26) Fully deep clean and vacuum/detail my own car at home. No more of the “It doesn’t make sense to clean it out now; the dog is just going to go back in it.” The dog is always going to go back in it. Clean it, Echo.

27) Complete my follow up medical appointments and handle all medical situations in a timely manner.

28) See at least three new species of birds. Doesn’t matter where, just three new ones!

29) Get a new battery in my watch so I can go back to wearing it.

30) Waste less food; I buy things all the time and then don't get to them before they go bad. It's the worst.

31) Make use of the Sam's Club membership my parents bought me for Christmas.

32) Repair the lovely one-of-kind ceramic plate that my dog broke with kintsugi. I want to try it at least once!

33) Block more people. I know this sounds odd but I have a terrible habit of getting into debates when I see bad takes on social media and honestly there's no point in wasting so much time. I gotta block and move on a lot more lol.

34) Put all the small prints, postcards, and stickers I have collected in my new mini-print books. I can even use up washi tape to decorate too. (Finally, a purpose for the washi tape…)

35) Get the situation with the IT systems at work resolved so that all data can be correctly submitted.

36) Apply for online adjunct positions to help make extra money on the side.

37) Make sure my classes are ready to go before each semester, including properly scheduling the announcements and everything.

38) Buy birthday cards in advance for everyone so I have them available to send when birthdays come around.

39) Draw more this year. Maybe I won't have time to fully line and color artworks digitally, but I should at least not let my tiny amount of art ability wither into nothingness...

40) Write and post something... Anything at this rate, please.

41) Build the pretty koi paper lantern my brother got me, or the Korean temple model my coworker gave me after his trip to Korea.

42) Visit the beach more often... Need relaxation...

43) Take better care of my kitty. It's not like I don't take decent care of her, but I definitely put more effort into doing things with the dog than the cat and I think she is big jealous.

44) Go see at least one play. Live theater is good for the soul.

45) See about removing the PMI from at least one of my house loans to try to save money. I’ve been paying on these loans long enough I shouldn’t need PMI anymore.

46) Take a day trip to Santa Cruz Island with Kacchan.

47) Read the book that has been on my "To read" list for the longest time. I don't know which one that is off the top of my head, but I will finally finish one that has been on the list!

48) Try to go to bed earlier more consistently than last year; I really punished myself with terrible sleep over the last few months and its not helping the health situation.

49) Go through my bookshelves to find books to donate, then donate the books to people's little free libraries.

50) I will keep my promises! 

Good luck, 2025’s me!

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The Promises I Made (2024)

...Okay, so. Last year, I was like "Oh man, 2023 was even more awful than 2022! I hope things improve in 2024!" Yeah... It turns out I just did not actually know the meaning of "awful" until I met 2024.

I mentioned some of the drama at my work in earlier posts this year (we literally don't even know who is going to be leading us starting in January because the vice president quit two weeks before the end of the semester with zero notice... ha... ha... and then the day Fall 2024 grades were due all of our IT systems collapsed on themselves, so students can't even register; all of our classes are currently extremely under-enrolled and some people might not even meet their contract requirements so there might be layoffs)--and I posted a bit ago about someone hitting my car during the one period of my life where I had an expired driver's license...

But I've also been dealing with some other stuff I didn't share earlier, because I was just feeling really down about it all:

In August, my doctors found an unidentified mass in the soft tissue near my hip; further ultrasounds and MRIs have determined I have both a mass in the tissue and, below that, a tumor in the bone marrow of my pelvis. It's still unknown whether the masses are cancerous or not; I have a specialist appointment in January for further action. Just like back in 2021, I'm now being hit with over $1000 in medical bills with more to follow as they continue to monitor the problems.

My 91-year-old grandmother entered hospice in late November and is living out her final days; my family are all fighting over what to do about her situation because she does not have enough insurance or savings to cover the costs of a longer-term stay in in-patient hospice care.

The air conditioning unit in the home I live in in Texas leaked through the ceiling and nearly caused a cave-in. It needs to be entirely replaced before it can be used again ($3500, homeowner's insurance will not cover the unit, only the water spots on the ceiling... thanks...).

And finally, the home I own in Utah experienced a complete pipe failure under the concrete slab foundation of the house, which will require massive portions of the beautiful laminate flooring I installed just a few years ago to be torn out, the entire foundation slab to be jackhammered into pieces, and will cost upwards of $10,000 to repair, also with the homeowner's insurance refusing to pay a penny.

Trump got re-elected.

So like, 2024 was probably the second worst year of my life (next to 2021, the year I got long COVID and spent three and a half months going in and out of the hospital while a tree fell through my house, the dog I had for twelve years died, and the storms in Texas shorted out the circuits in my house, causing the house to rack up thousands of dollars in power bills while I was in the hospital and couldn't fix the problem, la la la...)

Anyway, this wasn't meant to be a pity party, just a preface to explain: I failed so, so, so many promises because I just couldn't accomplish a single thing this year without a disaster occurring. I tried... Really I did...

Here's how it went:

2024 Promises

1) Step down from my administrative position and return to being a full-time faculty member. I literally cannot take the clown show that is admin at my work anymore. It is actually killing me.

Status: Broken. BUT I TRIED. I submitted my resignation letter and everything and my boss just said no??? I wasn't aware that "We don't accept your resignation" was an actual thing that could happen, but it happened to me. (Apparently, an employer can't stop you from quitting but they can stop you from stepping down from an elected position when you're on contract for that position... RIP.)

2) Related to this, redecorate my new office as soon as they decide where they are going to move me.

Status: Broken. I wasn't allowed to leave my office, so I didn't have a different office to decorate either. 🥲

3) Apply for new jobs!! APPLY FOR NEW JOBS!!!

Status: Kept. I actually did this, and even did an interview or two. However, I didn't like the places I interviewed and also did the math and realized a lot of them would pay less than I'm currently making... It's a bad sign when your job is this shitty and other schools still give you the vibe that they'd be worse!!

4) Train my replacement in the chair position well so they are super prepared to take over in fall.

Status: Somewhat kept. While I technically did not have a replacement, my new assistant is much, much more involved than my prior assistant, so he got a lot of training and I think he will be ready to take over when my contract expires.

5) Put a new sink/vanity in the downstairs bathroom of the Utah house.

Status: Broken. It's hard to do this when the piping decides to explode so you have to pay $10,000 to refloor the basement instead. YUP.

6) Get both bedroom floors sanded in the Utah house upstairs.

Status: Kept. I didn't get them sanded; I ended up doing it myself though. They're not perfect but they're usable for now.

7) Finally get rid of the dirt pile in front of the Utah house.

Status: Broken. I just... did not have the mental or physical capability to do this.

8) Take down the remains of the wooden fence posts at the Utah house.

Status: Broken. Okay so I said this wouldn't be a pity party, but the reason so many of the Utah house promises specifically were broken this year is that the people who were staying in the house moved out with zero notice in July and literally left the house an absolute disaster. Like, hundreds of dollars in damage to the house. THERE WERE ROTTEN POTATOES GROWING ROOTS INTO THE PANTRY WALLS, GUYS. THERE WAS BIRD SHIT ON THE CEILINGSSSS. So literally every ounce of energy I had planned to use for DYI projects was instead spent deep cleaning up that nightmare.

9) Fully clean out and prepare the Utah house to be rented out to new renters. Hopefully the next people won’t sneak in a parrot that poops all over the floor… RIP…

Status: Kept. But, as above mentioned--it was a fucking nightmare. I bought a brand new stove last summer and when I opened it, it was completely BLACK inside. Literally the entire inner surface of the stove was CAKED in black grease as if they had just cooked meat straight on the oven rack without even a pan. I almost committed murder on the spot; y'all were about to see me on the 10 o'clock Utah news, not even gonna lie.

10) Clean off my back patio/car port area so I can park my car there again.

Status: Broken. I just... did not do this.

11) Call the plumber and replace the faucets. Even if I end up having to do it myself.

Status: Broken. I had no money to do this.

12) Get the dead tree removed from the Texas house yard and call the internet company to see about the cable around the tree root.

Status: Kept. I cut the tree down myself with a mini chainsaw. It was pretty sick. Also, the cable is old and dead so we chopped it up.

13) Plant roses where the old ones died in front of the Texas house. 

Status: Broken. I'm actually not sure what I was even thinking of with this one; I leave Texas in the summers so there's no point in planting plants that will just die in the summer heat when they don't get watered...

14) Replace my CPU fan; the bearings are going out and it’s making an annoying noise.

Status: Technically kept? In that I just bought a whole brand-new computer so, hey, I don't have to hear the old fan anymore lol. Love it for me that I bought a $1100 computer a month before getting diagnosed with tumors and racking up thousands in medical bills, then having my AC unit fail, then having the plumbing explode in my house. LOVE IT FOR ME.

15) Organize my documents (especially student papers)—my desktop and documents folders give me nightmares just looking at them. 

Status: Technically kept, in that, again, I got a new computer so there's like... nothing on it. I'll be better at organizing the documents this coming year... maybe...?

16) Related to that, lose at least 20 pounds. 2020-2023 was not kind to me and the stress eating was real.

Status: LOL. Broken. If I thought the stress eating was bad last year, you can guess what it was like this year. I feel like I should also clarify that one of the potential causes of the tumors near and in my pelvis is that last year I fell and fractured said pelvis so I couldn't actually do any meaningful exercise for months and the increasing pain from that lingering injury is what drove me to doctor to check the area in the first place, which is how I found out I have said tumors. ...Yay.

17) Do at least one artwork to actually use that paint program I bought. 

Status: Broken. I... yeah... I didn't do this.

18) Pay my credit debt down by at least $2000. I’m still paying off the hell year, but I hope I can make progress on this.

Status: HA. "I'm still paying off the hell year." OH YOU SWEET SUMMER CHILD. You had no idea what was coming...

19) Buy all the Noragami volumes I am missing and do a complete re-read of Noragami now that the series is finishing up.

Status: Somewhat kept. I did get the final volume at last so I should have them all now, but I still need to do the re-read. Mood's been pretty low so "Abuse: The Manga" was not at the top of my reading list this last year. 😂

20) This is super nerdy, but my bro got me the FFXIV cookbook and made me promise to actually use it, so I guess I’d better at least try to make something from it.

Status: Broken. I forgot I made this promise. Next year for sure. T_T

21) Finish at least five books this year.

Status: Broken, maybe? I actually can't remember how many books I read this year because the year is such a nightmarish blur to me. I think it was close but since I can't confirm, I'm just gonna say I didn't make it.

22) Update HaaH at least once. Please, Echo???

Status: Broken. I sure would have loved to have a single bit of mental capacity left to write anything this year, but I didn't. At all.

23) Reach the new level cap with all jobs in FFXIV!

Status: Broken. I feel like this is the most shocking broken promise on the list actually, but I kinda... stopped playing FF throughout this year...

24) Go to the graduation ceremony for my family friend.

Status: Broken. I feel really bad about this, but the timing did not work out--I wasn't able to take enough time off work to go. I did watch the livestream though!

25) Catch up with hanging up all the charms/pins I’ve gotten recently on my corkboards; these are just sitting in boxes/bags around the house. D;

Status: Actually kept. I'm impressed with myself.

26) Fully deep clean and vacuum/detail my own car at home. No more of the “It doesn’t make sense to clean it out now; the dog is just going to go back in it.” The dog is always going to go back in it. Clean it, Echo.

Status: "But I'm going to travel again in just a few weeks. I'll do it after I get back." - Echo, who very much did not detail her car.

27) Help my parents tear out the carpet in my old childhood bedroom.

Status: Broken. It's kind of hard to pull out carpet when there's no place to move the room's furniture to, lol. 2025 though! That'll be the year!

28) See at least three new species of birds. Doesn’t matter where, just three new ones!

Status: Kept and exceeded--I saw eight new species this year, including my first species of cuckoo!

29) Reach 3500 followers. Can I do it? You should follow me if you’re not already; I’m pretty cool. Just sayin’!

Status: Kept. Thanks for following me, guys! I hope that 2025 will give me less trouble so I can go back to posting a bit more reguarly.

30) Cancel all the subscriptions I don’t need. There’s literally no reason to sit around letting companies passively profit off me when I don’t even really use the services/the services keep getting worse while the costs keep going up.

Status: Kept. Fuck you, Netflix. Fuck you, Spotify. Fuck you, Amazon Prime. I'm free!!

31) Go out on at least a day trip to take pictures with my friend. We haven’t done this in quite some time. I need to touch grass.

Status: Kept. We went out to an arboretum and had a lovely day. Here are a few of the photos I took:

32) Repair the lovely one-of-kind ceramic plate that my dog broke with kintsugi. I want to try it at least once!

Status: Broken. I keep asking for one of those "food safe" kintsugi kits for Christmas but I think my family can't spell the word well enough to even search it up online lol.

33) Really look hard for my passport in my house. It’s been missing for like a year and a half now, and I don’t want to have to pay for a new one.

Status: Kept. I did honestly look pretty hard for it, I just never found it. I was also informed by the good old DMV that the passport is now super expired anyway, so I guess there is no point to keep looking.

34) Put all the small prints, postcards, and stickers I have collected in my new mini-print books. I can even use up washi tape to decorate too. (Finally, a purpose for the washi tape…)

Status: Broken. I did not do this. I did buy the small books and collected all the small prints to put in the books, but I did not actually put them in, let alone use the washi tape to do so lol. A project for next year, I guess.

35) Shred the million pieces of old mail I have lying around the house. I finally got the shredder so it just makes sense to use it.

Status: Somewhat kept. I made progress!! I did not shred ALL the things, but I did shred some of the things. That's something...

36) Have more follow-through with chores. It’s not enough to wash the clothes or do the dishes if I then procrastinate on folding the clean laundry and putting the dried dishes back in the cabinets…

Status: Actually, somehow of all things, this was kept. I think because my life was sooo bad in ways outside my control this year that I ended up compensating by overdoing it on things I could control. I definitely had a cleaner house in 2024 than before.

37) Put reminders for birthdays and major events in my phone as well as set a monthly reminder to check these promises. Maybe I’ll be able to keep more promises if I look at the list more often throughout the year!

Status: Kept. I did put the reminders in my phone. I wasn't that great at actually following through and buying cards/hosting parties (nor at keeping the promises) but I did set the reminders lol.

38) Since I can’t afford to go to the salon, spa, etc. too much this year, I should at least do some self-care days at home. Will this be the year I finally manage to use all the fancy scrubs and face masks and bath salts I keep getting from people?

Status: Somewhat kept. Honestly, I feel like I should count this as kept just for the fact that I did finally, FINALLY use the sugar scrub I bought like five years ago, which is the specific item that prompted this promise in the first place. IT'S GONE. I USED IT. I also used like... one of the masks people bought. But it was not as nice of an experience as I thought it would be. I don't know why I didn't anticipate that it would be a cold and slimy feeling lolol.

39) Use up one whole notebook. It doesn’t matter what goes in the notebook, but I gotta use the whole thing from cover to cover. I have so many pretty notebooks that never get used just because they’re pretty.

Status: Broken. I really don't write by hand that much... I just type... And that's when I'm even writing at all... Oof.

40) Change the burned-out lightbulbs in the recessed lighting in the Texas house ceiling. It’s like twelve feet high and the lightbulb changer stick I bought didn’t work, so I’m going to have to find someone with a ladder. Save me, handyman. Save me.

Status: Broken. I have executive dysfunction specifically for the act of calling people to ask them to come fix things. There are probably so many handymen available in my town and yet. The lightbulbs are not changed.

41) Build the pretty koi paper lantern my brother got me, or the Korean temple model my coworker gave me after his trip to Korea.

Status: Broken. I hid under my covers instead of doing anything productive or artistically creative this year.

42) Actually use the yoga mat I bought forever ago. At least a few times, please???

Status: Broken. I feel like I at least have a slight excuse for this one; after my fall last year, I had massive pain from my fractured pelvis that actually grew in intensity over time, so doing certain stretches or heavy exercise was pretty much right out. Turns out that still feeling pain from a fall that took place a year ago is not normal; those are tumors, Echo. I'm hoping that dealing with that situation this year will help relieve some of the pain and make it easier to exercise again.

43) Finish watching the Fruits Basket remake with Kacchan. I think we stopped in the second season, RIP.

Status: I'm going to count this as kept because we have just four more episodes left and we will definitely be able to finish them within the first week of 2025. IT'S CLOSE ENOUGH, OKAY.

44) Spend more time with coworkers—go out to lunch more often.

Status: Kept. I don't think that I really managed to go out to lunch with people that much more often, but I did overall spend more time with coworkers I think; we started getting group tickets to the community theater and saw several plays together this year.

45) See about removing the PMI from at least one of my house loans to try to save money. I’ve been paying on these loans long enough I shouldn’t need PMI anymore.

Status: Broken. I really needed to do this honestly but I didn't.

46) Practice my German skills (or I guess other language skills?) by translating something at least once a month.

Status: Broken. I just... did not do this.

47) Get a new bookshelf. The current ones in both my office and foyer are already overflowing. @_@

Status: Kept! But... I promptly filled the entire new bookshelf, so... I need another new bookshelf already lmaooo.

48) Make more time to call people and talk on the phone. Texting is not the same. D;

Status: Kept! I talked to my lovely friend Kacchan on the phone soooo much more this year!

49) Get the new COVID vaccine to stay healthy.

Status: Kept. I did not get sick for Christmas this year; one bright spot!

50) I will keep my promises! 

Status: Ehhhhhh... A little here, a little there, as always. I guess it could have been worse!

Kept promises: 19

Somewhat kept/broken: 5

Broken: 26

See yah tomorrow for 2025's new promises!

[echodrops]

I just wanted to say that I think your points have been well-articulated, honest, and very fair. I have appreciated reading your commentary and perspective. Thank you for posting!

Aw. Thanks, I appreciate it! Glad you enjoyed reading the posts!

[echodrops]

congrats on making it to TikTok (Latin story is blowing up over there)

Damn they're late. That was like... years ago.

[echodrops]

If the "straight women are much more likely to write a spicy and well-written m|m romance with complex male characters because they're naturally attracted to men" claim is correct, then why do straight male authors have acquired the stereotype of writing one-dimensional female characters and lame romances if they're naturally attracted to the opposite gender? Why do they prefer to focus so extensively on the male characters and their bromances then?

First, I think we need to clarify: Absolutely nowhere did I say the spicy mlm fanfics were uniformly "well-written." 😂 There are beautiful gems among fanfiction that have moved me to tears like nobody's business, but there's also just a whole lot of... not very... philosophically deep works out there. I don't want to sound mean, but just being brutally honest, I'd wager if we considered all fanfiction across all fanfic sites, a pretty solid majority of it wouldn't meet most people's definitions of truly "well-written." (Which is completely fine! Fanfic writers aren't getting paid! They're usually amateur authors who are writing for fun and often include younger writers just learning the ropes of grammar and character building for the first time! A fic doesn't have to be perfect to be enjoyable for readers!)

On top of that, let's also just be real--a lot of the explicit-content-for-explicit-content's-sake fics out there aren't really trying to write the most realistic and three dimensional male characters ever. They're trying to write sexy fics; realistically depicting men with life-accurate emotional depth and nuance is often... not the goal. 😂

Of course there are standout fanfics and incredible fanfiction authors. But, if we're being 100% transparent, I think a solid majority of fanfic authors don't actually write male characters that well. A lot of them have limited development, unrealistic or unclear motivations, out-of-character behavior, or a lack of interiority to their thoughts and feelings. A lot of times male characters in mlm fics are even reduced to caricatures of what women want men to do and feel. (I'm not judging here though--if a woman author is writing for women and her women readers want to see men who meet women's expectations, then hey, give the audience what they crave!) Just like Disney princes, a lot of men in fanfiction would seem very unrealistic and flat if you compared them to actual men from the real world!

I think we fanfic readers are just a bit biased, you know. If you're an average fanfic reader, I'm sure you've had the experience many times of being willing to give fic writers the benefit of the doubt even if their works aren't perfect--far more than you would give an actual published author or TV showrunner.

We don't scrutinize fanworks to the same extent that we scrutinize published media. Most people aren't grabbing someone else's fic and writing a ten page essay on how their male love interest wasn't properly fleshed out. Fanfic is full of poorly written men too, we're just not looking for the writing flaws when we read fanfics, at least not to the extent that meta analysts notice flaws in published media.

Side note that I also think is worth thinking about here: Because most fanfiction readers are female (and statistics suggest that a majority are even cisgender women), I think we're already at a slight disadvantage. Do female readers really have the most accurate perspectives on what realistic and three dimensional men would feel or act like? People are people, of course, but my perspective as a cisgender woman is never going to be as "100% genuine" as the perspective of someone who actually identifies as a man.

Second, and sorry, I know this is already long, but I think it's actually a mistake to buy into the stereotype that a majority of male authors can't write believable and interesting female characters. I think this illusion comes because fanfic fandoms congregate around very specific types of media, and often (though of course not always) that media is geared toward younger audiences. The bulk of the fandom claims that "male authors suck at writing women" come out of the shounen anime and young adult genres which are so prevalent in fandom spaces.

The target audiences for both these types of media are teenagers, who (I'm going to be completely honest) are usually not that picky about the development of the characters in the stories they read. I don't mean that no teenagers care about well-written stories (obviously there are many who do!), but that the typical standard for philosophical depth and nuance to which media for young adults is held is, for better or worse, lower than the standard we hold media for adults to.

We don't expect Twilight to be as deep as Moby-Dick. We don't expect My Hero Academia to be Maus.

This isn't an insult to young adult media; we have different genres of content for different reasons, and I definitely would not have wanted every single manga I read as a teenager to be as mentally or spiritually challenging as Moby-Dick. Content for teenagers should be designed to resonate with teenagers, both intellectually and emotionally. Many works for teens can have excellent writing and punch above their target audience demographic too. But the bulk majority of teenage readers are not (yet) going to be experts in literary criticism and sociocultural theories, capable of pounding out advanced meta analyses of the gender dynamics of characters in their favorite stories. Some will, but most won't.

Stories for young adults just don't have to hold up to that level of scrutiny, at least among their target audience.

At its core, however, the issue with the lower standards for depth of character building in young adult media is that it corresponds with lower standards for becoming popular as an author in fields such as YA lit and shounen manga. You don't have to be Leo Tolstoy or Emily Brontë to gain recognition among younger audiences. Sometimes, you don't even have to be good. Twilight was a roaring success, even while people lambasted it for being poorly written.

You don't have to be a literary giant whose books will be short-listed for addition to the canon of classical literature to develop a massive online fandom; Voltron was insanely popular despite being terribly written. 😂 You don't have to be god's gift to storytellers to become a popular shounen mangaka; Naruto is still one of the most popular manga in history and I hope no one genuinely thinks its characters were masterfully developed.

I'm not saying it doesn't take talent! It absolutely does! What I believe is that there's just not a guaranteed correspondence between "this author is popular and has a huge fandom" and "this author is actually good," especially in genres where the target audience is younger and therefore a little less likely to deeply critique the media they consume. Even if your characters--male or female--aren't that well-written, you can still get very, very popular in internet fandoms, especially with younger and more forgiving audiences, where only the rare few in the fandom will dedicate hours of their lives to performing meta analysis of your work, picking apart the writing quality and development of your characters.

So, long story longer: It's not that male writers overall are incapable of writing women. It's that a lot of fandoms spring up around kind-of-poorly written stories in the first place, and male authors who are not great at writing in general are equally unlikely to be great at writing women.

In fact, I'd suggest that male writers who are poor at writing women are probably also not great at writing men. Like, come on, don't tell me you think Bakugou and Midoriya's writing was good by the end of My Hero Academia.

Many popular authors with big fandoms are just being given more of a pass when it comes to writing poor male characters than they are with their female characters, and I'd argue that's likely because of the same reason I highlighted before: Their fandoms are dominated by women who like men and are willing to do more work to flesh out/fix the male characters they're interested in.

(It also helps that, with an overwhelming number of fic writers being female, they have less insight into truly depicting the male experience in authentic ways in the first place; if you are a woman, you're more likely to recognize a poorly written female character on the spot, while having at least slightly less ability to identify the unrealistic or inaccurate elements of male characters.)

Essentially, it's confirmation bias in action: We think men don't understand women, so we scrutinize male writers' depictions of women very closely, all while giving a pass to the fact that a lot of these writers just kind of suck at writing men too.

The "lame romances" in stories written by men aren't exclusively lame because of flat female characters--if the female character is flat, half the time the male character is flat too, and the romance is lame because the writer overall is... kind of lame... 😂

But why all the bromances? I wrote about this in my big long essay before, and I think there's plenty of very complicated reasons that men write so many male-male friendships and relationships into their story (re: coming from genuinely misogynist cultures, deliberately baiting fans with hints of BL, an actual internalized desire for greater emotional connection with fellow men due to perceived male loneliness, self-projection into their own characters, having been told they aren't good at writing women so they've given up, etc. etc.), but I honestly think one of the simplest reasons is genre. The majority of these "bromances" are coming from shounen manga, and shounen manga has some very common recurring tropes, chief among them being the whole "me and my ~RIVAL~" dynamic.

A lot of mainstream shounen stories have had such enormous success with this "young male protagonist and his best bro/rival/arch-enemy" dynamic that, frankly, I think many modern manga are just piggy-backing on the trope. "Dudes who beat each other up and become besties" has worked for so many series now that it's just become a staple of the entire genre.

I also think the market for Japanese manga in particular is very unique, with male manga artists recognizing--and capitalizing--on the power of the "fujoshi" reader early on. It's easy for shounen manga artists to see the benefits of over-stocking their stories with male characters and queerbait, because hinting at mlm ships they have no intention of ever paying out on 1) rarely reduces their male readership and 2) actually broadens their readership dramatically by deliberately bringing in female readers.

Basically, so long as the endgame is a het ship (or at least no ship), male readers will still read a story even if it has mlm shiptease, while more women will be drawn to the story for the mlm shiptease when they otherwise might not be that interested. There's no way to lose.

In essence, on the topic of queerbait, the shounen manga artists were just really savvy and realized faster that "having your cake and eating it too" is possible by incorporating a higher number of male-male relationships in their stories in order to broaden their readership and sales. Comparatively, western media was just much slower to cotton on to this technique, and I'd say it wasn't until relatively recently that western series have begun hyper-emphasizing male-male relationships specifically to appeal to women readers and viewers (see Supernatural, Good Omens, probably Teen Wolf [I don't actually go there so I can't confirm but I feel like this is true lol], etc.).

And, one final sidenote: I think it's difficult to compare published media to fanfic in terms of "featuring what you're sexually attracted to" because in published media, people are at least supposed to pretend their own sexual preferences aren't entirely warping the story, especially in young adult series (which have the biggest fanfic fandoms). Like... Compare: If you're a shounen manga artist you can get away with some panty shots but you can't be a flat out gooner--conversely, if you're a fanfic writer, you can write hardcore porn without hesitation. If we want to make an actual comparison in how much sex appeal sways character gender ratios in fanfic versus published media, I'd say the only comparable match would be comparing the ratio of female characters in harem anime and straight up hentai to the ratio of men in fanfics. We can't be out here comparing like... the original story content of Harry Potter (made for children, cannot be overly sexual) to its AO3 content (where nearly 40% of all HP fics are labeled explicit/mature). You gotta compare 18+ apples to apples.😂

Phew, sorry, that was a lot.

tl;dr: Tons of factors--yes, including misogyny--affect how men write women, but the issue of male writers being bad at writing women is likely being exaggerated in fandom spaces because 1) Fandoms are overwhelmingly female and women are better able to identify and critique poorly written female characters than anyone else, 2) Most of the biggest fandoms on the internet center around stories for younger audiences who haven't had enough time to develop strong media literacy and literary criticism skills, allowing writers to become popular without necessarily needing to be of highest quality, 3) Female fans are more willing to forgive poorly written male characters because they're more likely to be interested in and attracted to those male characters, and 3) A lot of writers just suck in general; it's not localized to just being shitty at writing women.

[echodrops]

I had no idea that it was going to be so controversial to say that straight women write about men in sexual situations more often than they write about women in sexual situations because they're attracted to men and not women, but apparently it is, so... Let's get some research here!

First, I am getting very tired of people suggesting that stating one fact ("men are prioritized in fandom partly because an overwhelming majority of fandom writers are straight women, and straight women are sexually attracted to men") means that I must believe this is the only fact ever in existence--saying straight women write more mlm than wlw because they like men does not imply that I believe "liking men" is the only factor ever affecting shipping dynamics in fandom.

Obviously, I believe that shipping, particularly mlm ship popularity, is an extremely complex topic. I'm the person who wrote a literal 10,000 word essay about it.

There are tons of reasons people ship things! People are complicated in general!

But this supposed idea that sexual attraction is not a major factor in shipping preference is just absolute nonsense. Is it the only factor? Of course not! But is it a major factor?

Basic statistical research (and honestly, pure common sense!) tells you that it is.

Let's start with some facts:

1. An overwhelming number of fanfiction writers are female. Specific numbers are obviously impossible to acquire, but in a majority of polls, the percentage of fanfiction writers indicating their gender as female is extremely high, with some polls indicating between 70% and 90%. Most polls typically indicate 10% or fewer of fanfic authors identifying as male. Self-report surveys are always subjective, but the basic takeaway is that fanfiction is overwhelmingly written by women.

2. Statistically, this means that fanfic writers are also majority straight, because no matter how much tumblr might lead us to believe otherwise, being gay is still a statistical minority. Generous estimates of self-report polls among young people across the globe indicate more LBGT+ tolerant nations may have up to 20-30% of their younger generations identifying as LGBT+, with a vast majority of those identifying as bisexual and relatively few (less than 10%) identifying as specifically gay or lesbian. I personally think that fandoms are more accepting places than the general internet and are likely to appeal to LGBT+ people more, so percentages may be higher among fanfic writers, but again, the takeaway is that, even in fandom spaces, being gay is still a minority by sheer numbers alone.

These two facts together confirm: a majority of fanfiction is being written by straight women. This also means that, again by sheer numbers alone (given ship metrics on fanfic websites), straight women are the foremost contributors to mlm ships and write mlm content at significantly greater rates than they contribute to straight ships or wlw ships. This is just basic math--many, likely even a majority, of the mlm fics on mainstream fanfic sites are coming from straight women.

This even tracks with the actual mlm literary publication industry, by the way, which has been in recent years inundated by gay fiction written by straight women.

When women are asked why they read romance stories in general, a majority indicate that they do so because they find them sexually appealing. When asked about their habits when reading fanfiction, a vast majority of fanfic readers who respond to polls indicate that they read fanfiction for explicit content.

People write--and read--sexy fics because they find those concepts sexy.

Are there many, many reasons for this disproportionate popularity of mlm ships among straight women? There sure are! Again, I wrote a 10,000 word essay on just a few of these other reasons.

But claiming that sexual preference is not a major factor in why straight women ship so many mlm ships so fervently is not only dismissive of basic science that humans dedicate significantly more attention to things they're sexually attracted to, but also dismissive of basic common sense. It's just obvious that many women who are attracted to men (and conversely not attracted to women) would choose to write more sexual content involving men than they would choose to write sexual content involving women. Fanfic writers aren't getting paid. They write about what interests them most. They write about what they love. If you're not in love with women, it is logical that you might not choose to write about women as much.

Will all straight women ignore wlw ships? No, absolutely not! It should be blatantly obvious that anyone can care about a ship or care about a character without needing to be sexually attracted to them. A good ship is compelling no matter its orientation! Especially if a lesbian ship is strongly implied (or better yet made canon) in a media source, you can bet a majority of fans of the series will ship it, regardless of whether they are straight, lesbian, gay, whatever!

But we're not talking about the (you must admit) rare "straight woman who writes mostly wlw ships" nor the "has canonical or heavily implied lesbian content" outlier media here. We're talking about overall statistics across fandom broadly. And the statistics don't lie: Straight women just write about wlw ships a lot less than they write about mlm ships, and straight women are writing explicit mlm fics with the specific goal of producing sexually stimulating content.

"Straight women's sexy fics are primarily about men" should really not be a shocker to... anyone...

But again, before anyone "What about"s me here--of course, there are many other reasons for women to prefer writing about men beyond just sexual appeal (a lack of female characters in media overall, poorer writing for female characters, internalized misogyny, etc. The list goes on!)--but sexual preference is an obvious and significant factor. If you're going to accept every other possible motivation for women to write mlm fics instead of wlw fics, up to and including internalized misogyny, you have to accept the most obvious reason too: straight women just like men. One of the most common reasons for them to write about men is because they just like them. (This is a perfectly normal thing; why do we even need to debate this???)

Frankly, I believe this entire pushback stems from two different issues: 1) The moral panic over straight women "fetishizing" gay men, and 2) The even worse moral panic over women just being sexually attracted to anything.

Nobody wants to talk about sexual preference being a factor in women writing mlm fanfiction because they've become so desperately entrenched in the idea that if straight women are writing about gay men because of sexual attraction, that's fetishizing and it's a no-good-very-bad thing that no woman should ever do. But like... do we reserve this same energy for every single dude who thinks "girl on girl action" is hot? Do we expect straight men to systemically deny their attraction to lesbian sexual activities in the same way we expect straight women to bend over backward to prove they don't find "guy on guy action" hot?

If we define "fetishizing" broadly as "fostering a significant sexual attraction toward something specific," then I think a lot of women do fetishize gay relationships, both in "wholesome" romantic terms and purely sexually. Straight women do get turned on by the gay smut fics they read. (This isn't a controversial statement to make either; it's just basic fact. People aren't reading explicitly labelled "porn without plot" mlm for the riveting philosophical discourse.)

My question is: If we socially accept that men are going to have fetishes... Why are straight women expected to be fetish free?

Don't get me wrong, there's a line. When fetishizing behavior crosses over into harming real people by popularizing unhealthy stereotypes or making real people uncomfortable, obviously it is a bad thing! But I'd argue this is true of any fetish--I wouldn't want to see people sucking others' toes in public because that would make me, a real person, uncomfortable. I don't think it's outrageous to say that most people are completely fine with fetishes so long as they stay in private spaces and only enter public spaces when they've been invited, such as leather kink at Pride.

Can straight women writing about gay men for their own sexual enjoyment lead to issues? You bet! But so can writing for your own sexual pleasure about anyone--gay, lesbian, straight, nonbinary, etc.

To me, I think saying sexual preference doesn't play a key role in what women write about is actually dismissive to women, because I care more about the real women writers behind their keyboards than I care about fictional female characters.

Dismissing the idea that women's sexuality is a central aspect of their shipping preferences implies that female sexuality is not important to discussions of women's preferences--in fandom and even beyond--and that straight women's sexual interests and attractions should only limited to (quote-unquote) vanilla "me and my husband" heterosexual dynamics. It implies that women are not allowed to be kinky, not allowed to be fixated on their sexual attractions the same way society perceives men to be, and it just flat out denies an entire industry of women writing mlm content specifically to titillate and appeal to the sexuality of other women.

Straight women writers who are into mlm are, for the most part, writing for an audience of other women. (Do men read mlm fics too? Sure, but fiction written by gay men for men is vastly different from what a majority of fanfiction authors are producing.)

Frankly, I think it's pretty freakin' great that we live in a day and age where women writers feel comfortable enough to write about previously "unacceptable" sexual interests, and that there are now entire genres of content other than heterosexual romance novels that cater first and foremost to women readers.

Fanfiction writing fandoms are the most female-dominated social spaces that the modern world has ever had. A majority of fanfic writers are women writing for women. Are we all still swayed by systemic and internalized misogyny? Sure. But is the most female-dominated space in the world really going to be the foremost hotbed of misogyny? Do you really believe that, out of the 70-90% of fanfiction writers who are female, a majority of those women are writing their fics from a place of self-hatred?

You say yourself that men are prioritized in fandom spaces. Misogyny and a lack of female characters does, of course, impact that. Naturally! But denying that sexual preference plays a direct part as well feels like a reductive read on female sexuality that divorces women's sexual interests from their hobbies in a way that men would never be expected to do.

Again, sexual preference is one factor among many that dictates shipping dynamics.

But it is a big factor. It's not "beside the point" in the slightest.

Ships

Love is in the air (in hell).

Billford Bill Cipher & Stanford Pines, Gravity Falls

Farcille Falin Touden & Marcille Donato, Dungeon Meshi

Poolverine Wade Wilson & Logan Howlett, the Marvel universe

Ineffable Husbands -3 Aziraphale & Crowley, Good Omens

Destiel -2 Dean Winchester & Castiel, Supernatural

Radioapple Lucifer Morningstar & Alastor, Hazbin Hotel

Buddie +3 Evan Buckley & Edmundo Diaz, 9-1-1

Phan Daniel Howell & Phil Lester, YouTubers

Polin Penelope Featherington & Colin Bridgerton, Bridgerton

Satosugu +16 Gojo Satoru & Geto Suguru, Jujutsu Kaisen

Percabeth +76 Percy Jackson & Annabeth Chase, the Percy Jackson universe

Bucktommy Evan Buckley & Tommy Kinard, 9-1-1

Hannigram -4 Hannibal Lecter & Will Graham, Hannibal

Labru Laios Touden & Kabru, Dungeon Meshi

Zosan +18 Roronoa Zoro & Vinsmoke Sanji, One Piece

Narilamb Narinder & the Lamb, Cult of the Lamb

Huskerdust Husk & Angel Dust, Hazbin Hotel

Steddie -16 Steve Harrington & Eddie Munson, Stranger Things

Sonadow +27 Sonic & Shadow, Sonic the Hedgehog

Ghostsoap -6 Simon “Ghost” Riley & John “Soap” MacTavish, the Call of Duty franchise

Jegulus -3 James Potter & Regulus Black, the Harry Potter universe

Fiddauthor Fiddleford McGucket & Stanford Pines, Gravity Falls

Byler -19 Will Byers & Mike Wheeler, Stranger Things

Wolfstar -8 Remus Lupin & Sirius Black, the Harry Potter universe

Soukoku -3 Nakahara Chuuya & Dazai Osamu, Bungou Stray Dogs

Bakudeku -6 Bakugou Katsuki & Midoriya Izuku, Boku no Hero Academia

Loustat +5 Louis de Pointe du Lac & Lestat de Lioncourt, Interview with the Vampire

Hualian +30 Hua Cheng & Xie Lian, Tian Guan Ci Fu

Chaggie Charlie Morningstar & Vaggie, Hazbin Hotel

Lestappen +37 Charles Leclerc & Max Verstappen, Formula 1 drivers

Hilson James Wilson & Gregory House, House

Narumitsu +13 Phoenix Wright & Miles Edgeworth, Ace Attorney

Spirk +15 Spock & James T. Kirk, Star Trek

Stolitz Stolas & Blitzo, Helluva Boss

Lokius +43 Loki Laufeyson & Mobius M. Mobius, Loki

Merthur -19 Merlin & Arthur Pendragon, Merlin

Payneland Edwin Payne & Charles Rowland, Dead Boy Detectives

Chilshi Chilchuck Tims & Senshi, Dungeon Meshi

Rhaenicent +61 Rhaenyra Targaryen & Alicent Hightower, House of the Dragon

Astarion x Tav +48 Astarion & Tav, Baldur's Gate 3

Armandaniel Armand & Daniel Molloy, Interview with the Vampire

Griddlehark -2 Gideon Nav & Harrowhark Nonagesimus, The Locked Tomb series

Superbat +12 Superman & Batman, the DC universe

Zolu Roronoa Zoro & Monkey D. Luffy, One Piece

Zelink -33 Zelda & Link, The Legend of Zelda

Jonmartin +5 Jonathan Sims & Martin Blackwood, The Magnus Archives

Vashwood -36 Vash the Stampede & Nicholas D. Wolfwood, Trigun

Zukka +20 Zuko & Sokka, Avatar: The Last Airbender

Staticradio Alastor & Vox, Hazbin Hotel

Ratiorine Dr. Ratio & Aventurine, Honkai: Star Rail

Blackbonnet -36 Edward "Blackbeard" Teach & Stede Bonnet, Our Flag Means Death

Hanamusa -9 Jessie & Delia Ketchum, the Pokémon franchise

Wangxian -28 Lan Wangji & Wei Wuxian, Mo Dao Zu Shi

Pearlina Pearl Houzuki & Marina Ida, Splatoon

Firstprince -32 Alex Claremont-Diaz & Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor, Red, White & Royal Blue

Shuake Kurusu Akira & Goro Akechi, Persona 5

Drarry +6 Draco Malfoy & Harry Potter, the Harry Potter universe

Landoscar Lando Norris & Oscar Piastri, Formula 1 drivers

Bingqiu Luo Binghe & Shen Qingqiu, The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System

Shadowpeach +2 Sun Wukong & the Six-Eared Macaque, Lego Monkie Kid

Zutara Zuko & Katara, Avatar: The Last Airbender

Itafushi Itadori Yuji & Fushiguro Megumi, Jujustu Kaisen

Loumand Louis de Pointe du Lac & Armand, Interview with the Vampire

Timkon +25 Tim Drake & Conner Kent, Young Justice

Klance +18 Keith & Lance, Voltron: Legendary Defender

Nuzi N & Uzi Doorman, Murder Drones

Durgetash The Dark Urge & Enver Gortash, Baldur's Gate 3

Cherik Charles Xavier & Erik Lehnsherr, the Marvel universe

Kathony Kate Sharma & Anthony Bridgerton, Bridgerton

Staticmoth Vox & Valentino, Hazbin Hotel

Shin Soukoku Akutagawa Ryunnosuke & Nakajima Atsushi, Bungou Stray Dogs

Huntlow -65 Hunter & Willow Park, The Owl House

Haikaveh Kaveh & Alhaitham, Genshin Impact

Chainshipping Lawrence Gordon & Adam Stanheight, Saw

ButtonBlossom Ragatha & Pomni, The Amazing Digital Circus

Agathario Agatha Harkness & Rio Vidal, the Marvel universe

Broppy Branch & Poppy, the Trolls franchise

Lumity -65 Luz Noceda & Amity Blight, The Owl House

Radiorose Alastor & Rosie, Hazbin Hotel

Imodna -53 Imogen Temult & Laudna, Critical Role

Rosekiller Barty Crouch Jr. & Evan Rosier, the Harry Potter universe

Everlark Katniss Everdeen & Peeta Mellark, The Hunger Games

Wenclair -78 Wednesday Addams & Enid Sinclair, Wednesday

Kataang Katara & Aang, Avatar: The Last Airbender

Caitvi -5 Caitlyn Kiramman & Vi, Arcane

Adrienette -50 Adrien Agreste & Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir

Davekat +3 Dave Strider & Karkat Vantas, Homestuck

Adamsapple Adam & Lucifer Morningstar, Hazbin Hotel

Twiyor -58 Loid Forger & Yor Forger, SPY x FAMILY

Shuggy Shanks & Buggy, One Piece

Scollace Scott Pilgrim & Wallace Wells, the Scott Pilgrim franchise

Madohomu Kaname Madoka & Homura Akemi, Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Solangelo -23 Will Solace & Nico di Angelo, the Percy Jackson universe

Kimharry Kim Kitsuragi & Harry Du Bois, Disco Elysium

Klapollo -2 Apollo Justice & Klavier Gavin, Ace Attorney

Maxley Max Goof & Bradley Uppercrust III, An Extremely Goofy Movie

Megop Megatron & Optimus Prime, Transformers

Wilmon -34 Prince Wilhelm & Simon Eriksson, Young Royals

Johnshi Johnny Cage & Kenshi Takahashi, Mortal Kombat

Korrasami -5 Korra & Asami Sato, The Legend of Korra

The number in italics indicates how many spots a ship moved up or down from the previous year. Bolded ships weren’t on the list last year.

Love love? Create a Community for your OTP today, and enjoy yelling about it with others in the comfort of your own dedicated online yelling space.

[echodrops]

I’m being sincere when I ask this—why is there this blame placed on straight women for the lack of lesbian content and for the popularity of gay male ships? If straight women were truly the cause of this, wouldn’t we see more popular straight ships or Y/N straight ships than gay male ships? Blaming straight women for the lack of lesbian content doesn’t make sense and is, in my opinion, one of the most unfair accusations.

No one is "blaming" anyone for anything. I'm drawing a basic, very logical conclusion. If you're reading "blame" into my post, that may be you being defensive about the topic and bringing personal baggage to this discussion.

It's just a basic fact that people write romantic/shipping fics about things that they're romantically and sexually attracted to. Straight women are attracted to men. They like to write about men. They like to write about men sleeping with other men because dude on dude is hot to straight women the same way girl on girl is hot to straight dudes. I'm not judging; it is what it is! People are allowed to find things sexy!

There are many factors why straight ships are less prevalent than mlm ships (not the least of which is no motivation for female writers to do the work of fleshing out poorly written female characters because they have no sexual fascinations with those women), but I assure you, "I want to see even more men in the fics I read" is a massive factor driving the popularity of mlm ships above straight ships. As a female reader, you have no competition for sexual access to the men if there are no relevant women in the fic! (Obviously, the topic of shipping dynamics is quite complex, but I already wrote a literal academic essay on it; I won't repeat myself.)

I'd argue that there are, in fact, tons of straight YN/reader insert fic writers, but they're written on very diffused platforms, less frequently considered complete and "published" works, and often use unique or personalized tags, and so are generally never included in "ship of the year" calculations like the original post.

None of this is "blame." It's just a statement of fact. If you're a straight female writer, you're going to be significantly less inclined to write a wlw ship because you're just not romantically or sexually attracted to other women. That's not rocket science, nor am I even implying it's a bad thing that straight fanfic writers should be ashamed of. There's just fewer popular lesbian ships in fanfics because the bulk of fics are written by straight women, and straight women simply aren't sexually attracted to other women. There's way more mlm fics because straight women are definitely attracted to men. That's it.

Literally, my original post ended by noting that the solution to the problem is for more original creators to create stories or canon ships that invite lesbians into their fandoms, not demanding straight writers somehow change their interests and start writing only wlw fics...

But somehow, now we have straight people being victims? 😂

[echodrops]

Seen a lot of people reblogging this, being annoyed by why there aren't more wlw ships, and while I completely agree and think we should have a lot more popular lesbian ships, I'm confused on how so many people in fandom currently seem to be missing the very obvious fact that, statistically speaking, a majority of fanfiction writers are straight women, who are (as a general consequence of being straight) attracted to men.

There's a shit ton of mlm ships because straight women are writing the fics, and straight women are attracted to men. It's a direct correlation. 😂

Add that to the fact that a large number of the straight women who are attracted to men but not interested in seeing two men together are writing YN/reader insert fics instead of traditional straight ships, and the lack of mainstream popularity for both wlw ships and straight ships becomes perfectly easy to explain.

The obvious solution to this is that creators need to recruit more lesbians to their fandoms.

Ships

Love is in the air (in hell).

Billford Bill Cipher & Stanford Pines, Gravity Falls

Farcille Falin Touden & Marcille Donato, Dungeon Meshi

Poolverine Wade Wilson & Logan Howlett, the Marvel universe

Ineffable Husbands -3 Aziraphale & Crowley, Good Omens

Destiel -2 Dean Winchester & Castiel, Supernatural

Radioapple Lucifer Morningstar & Alastor, Hazbin Hotel

Buddie +3 Evan Buckley & Edmundo Diaz, 9-1-1

Phan Daniel Howell & Phil Lester, YouTubers

Polin Penelope Featherington & Colin Bridgerton, Bridgerton

Satosugu +16 Gojo Satoru & Geto Suguru, Jujutsu Kaisen

Percabeth +76 Percy Jackson & Annabeth Chase, the Percy Jackson universe

Bucktommy Evan Buckley & Tommy Kinard, 9-1-1

Hannigram -4 Hannibal Lecter & Will Graham, Hannibal

Labru Laios Touden & Kabru, Dungeon Meshi

Zosan +18 Roronoa Zoro & Vinsmoke Sanji, One Piece

Narilamb Narinder & the Lamb, Cult of the Lamb

Huskerdust Husk & Angel Dust, Hazbin Hotel

Steddie -16 Steve Harrington & Eddie Munson, Stranger Things

Sonadow +27 Sonic & Shadow, Sonic the Hedgehog

Ghostsoap -6 Simon “Ghost” Riley & John “Soap” MacTavish, the Call of Duty franchise

Jegulus -3 James Potter & Regulus Black, the Harry Potter universe

Fiddauthor Fiddleford McGucket & Stanford Pines, Gravity Falls

Byler -19 Will Byers & Mike Wheeler, Stranger Things

Wolfstar -8 Remus Lupin & Sirius Black, the Harry Potter universe

Soukoku -3 Nakahara Chuuya & Dazai Osamu, Bungou Stray Dogs

Bakudeku -6 Bakugou Katsuki & Midoriya Izuku, Boku no Hero Academia

Loustat +5 Louis de Pointe du Lac & Lestat de Lioncourt, Interview with the Vampire

Hualian +30 Hua Cheng & Xie Lian, Tian Guan Ci Fu

Chaggie Charlie Morningstar & Vaggie, Hazbin Hotel

Lestappen +37 Charles Leclerc & Max Verstappen, Formula 1 drivers

Hilson James Wilson & Gregory House, House

Narumitsu +13 Phoenix Wright & Miles Edgeworth, Ace Attorney

Spirk +15 Spock & James T. Kirk, Star Trek

Stolitz Stolas & Blitzo, Helluva Boss

Lokius +43 Loki Laufeyson & Mobius M. Mobius, Loki

Merthur -19 Merlin & Arthur Pendragon, Merlin

Payneland Edwin Payne & Charles Rowland, Dead Boy Detectives

Chilshi Chilchuck Tims & Senshi, Dungeon Meshi

Rhaenicent +61 Rhaenyra Targaryen & Alicent Hightower, House of the Dragon

Astarion x Tav +48 Astarion & Tav, Baldur's Gate 3

Armandaniel Armand & Daniel Molloy, Interview with the Vampire

Griddlehark -2 Gideon Nav & Harrowhark Nonagesimus, The Locked Tomb series

Superbat +12 Superman & Batman, the DC universe

Zolu Roronoa Zoro & Monkey D. Luffy, One Piece

Zelink -33 Zelda & Link, The Legend of Zelda

Jonmartin +5 Jonathan Sims & Martin Blackwood, The Magnus Archives

Vashwood -36 Vash the Stampede & Nicholas D. Wolfwood, Trigun

Zukka +20 Zuko & Sokka, Avatar: The Last Airbender

Staticradio Alastor & Vox, Hazbin Hotel

Ratiorine Dr. Ratio & Aventurine, Honkai: Star Rail

Blackbonnet -36 Edward "Blackbeard" Teach & Stede Bonnet, Our Flag Means Death

Hanamusa -9 Jessie & Delia Ketchum, the Pokémon franchise

Wangxian -28 Lan Wangji & Wei Wuxian, Mo Dao Zu Shi

Pearlina Pearl Houzuki & Marina Ida, Splatoon

Firstprince -32 Alex Claremont-Diaz & Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor, Red, White & Royal Blue

Shuake Kurusu Akira & Goro Akechi, Persona 5

Drarry +6 Draco Malfoy & Harry Potter, the Harry Potter universe

Landoscar Lando Norris & Oscar Piastri, Formula 1 drivers

Bingqiu Luo Binghe & Shen Qingqiu, The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System

Shadowpeach +2 Sun Wukong & the Six-Eared Macaque, Lego Monkie Kid

Zutara Zuko & Katara, Avatar: The Last Airbender

Itafushi Itadori Yuji & Fushiguro Megumi, Jujustu Kaisen

Loumand Louis de Pointe du Lac & Armand, Interview with the Vampire

Timkon +25 Tim Drake & Conner Kent, Young Justice

Klance +18 Keith & Lance, Voltron: Legendary Defender

Nuzi N & Uzi Doorman, Murder Drones

Durgetash The Dark Urge & Enver Gortash, Baldur's Gate 3

Cherik Charles Xavier & Erik Lehnsherr, the Marvel universe

Kathony Kate Sharma & Anthony Bridgerton, Bridgerton

Staticmoth Vox & Valentino, Hazbin Hotel

Shin Soukoku Akutagawa Ryunnosuke & Nakajima Atsushi, Bungou Stray Dogs

Huntlow -65 Hunter & Willow Park, The Owl House

Haikaveh Kaveh & Alhaitham, Genshin Impact

Chainshipping Lawrence Gordon & Adam Stanheight, Saw

ButtonBlossom Ragatha & Pomni, The Amazing Digital Circus

Agathario Agatha Harkness & Rio Vidal, the Marvel universe

Broppy Branch & Poppy, the Trolls franchise

Lumity -65 Luz Noceda & Amity Blight, The Owl House

Radiorose Alastor & Rosie, Hazbin Hotel

Imodna -53 Imogen Temult & Laudna, Critical Role

Rosekiller Barty Crouch Jr. & Evan Rosier, the Harry Potter universe

Everlark Katniss Everdeen & Peeta Mellark, The Hunger Games

Wenclair -78 Wednesday Addams & Enid Sinclair, Wednesday

Kataang Katara & Aang, Avatar: The Last Airbender

Caitvi -5 Caitlyn Kiramman & Vi, Arcane

Adrienette -50 Adrien Agreste & Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir

Davekat +3 Dave Strider & Karkat Vantas, Homestuck

Adamsapple Adam & Lucifer Morningstar, Hazbin Hotel

Twiyor -58 Loid Forger & Yor Forger, SPY x FAMILY

Shuggy Shanks & Buggy, One Piece

Scollace Scott Pilgrim & Wallace Wells, the Scott Pilgrim franchise

Madohomu Kaname Madoka & Homura Akemi, Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Solangelo -23 Will Solace & Nico di Angelo, the Percy Jackson universe

Kimharry Kim Kitsuragi & Harry Du Bois, Disco Elysium

Klapollo -2 Apollo Justice & Klavier Gavin, Ace Attorney

Maxley Max Goof & Bradley Uppercrust III, An Extremely Goofy Movie

Megop Megatron & Optimus Prime, Transformers

Wilmon -34 Prince Wilhelm & Simon Eriksson, Young Royals

Johnshi Johnny Cage & Kenshi Takahashi, Mortal Kombat

Korrasami -5 Korra & Asami Sato, The Legend of Korra

The number in italics indicates how many spots a ship moved up or down from the previous year. Bolded ships weren’t on the list last year.

Love love? Create a Community for your OTP today, and enjoy yelling about it with others in the comfort of your own dedicated online yelling space.

[echodrops]

Sometimes the events of my life are truly so comedic that I have to assume some supernatural being(s) are watching me like their favorite evening sitcom and just dying with laughter.

Peep this Shakespearean level comedy of errors:

Go out with coworkers for a celebration because our project trip to Puerto Rico was approved.

Coworker brings up travel requirements to Puerto Rico. Only a driver's license is required, but you need the "Real I.D." symbol.

Pull out my driver's license to check, only to discover that my driver's license is expiring in FIVE DAYS. Thanks for even the slightest notification, Department of Public Safety???

Try to renew online, can't. No explanation for why is provided. Go to the DPS Office. "Oh, you used your passport to renew last time, and now your passport is expired. You can get a new passport though and then renew."

"Ma'am... do you know how long getting a passport takes?"

"I think it only takes a couple months now?" ... "And what is the expiration date of my license???"

"We can use a birth certificate instead. You can get it at the court house and come right back. We should be able to finish the renewal today."

"Ma'am... I was born in LA..." Lady tells me the next available DPS appointment isn't even until October 17th, eight days after driver's license expiration. Make the appointment.

Go to the California birth certificate website. Have to pay $60 for them to print and ship the birth certificate to me. Only after paying do they reveal there is a back-order on birth certificates and it may take up to 35 days for my birthday certificate to arrive.

Cancel the October 17th DPS appointment in abject disappointment.

Driving on an expired license because what else can I do? I can't bum rides off coworkers for 35 DAYS.

ONE DAY after my license officially expires, a college kid texting and driving veers into my lane and hits my car. (Thankfully no injuries, just a lot of cosmetic damage.)

The other driver doesn't have insurance. I DON'T HAVE A VALID LICENSE so I can't even go through MY insurance.

We agree to get estimates from body shops and for her to pay for the damage out of pocket. I get one official estimate--$1000 in dent hammering and repainting.

She texts me later that her mom "knows someone who repairs cars." Is this guy licensed? "Oh yeah definitely."

"Okay, give me the address and I'll take the car to their shop for an estimate."

"Ummm, maybe you could just bring the car to my mom's house and she can take it to the mechanic?"

"With all due respect dear, are you out of your mind?"

She finally gives me the address of the mechanic. It's one block from Mexico. It's a house. There are six dogs running loose in the front yard. There's something that might have ONCE UPON A TIME been a body shop next door to the house but now is a pile of barely standing timbers.

"Mechanic" comes out. I ask to see his license. He shows me a piece of paper that looks two steps above "I printed this direct from a Google images search."

I have a moment of despair, and then I realize: My car is 11 years old and has 100,000 miles on it.

If my car ends up chopped up for parts or sold across the border to Mexico, I can report it as stolen.

THIS IS HOW ECHO GETS A NEW CAR.

I am zen. All is well. I hope the worst case scenario comes true. I agree to bring the car to the "mechanic" on Monday.

Get back in the car, head home for the day.

Get a call from boss.

Puerto Rico project trip cancelled.

You can't make this shit up.