halogenwarrior

[halogenwarrior]

minor fandom gripe: when people make headcanons that say, “I headcanon this character as XYZ! I don’t know why, it just feels right.”

That always kind of gets my hackles up a little because. Why does it Just Feel Right. If you can’t articulate why it just feels right it makes me wonder what stereotypes make it just feel right.

Using queer headcanons as an example because I see them a lot:

“I headcanon this character as trans because he wears many layers and puffy vests, is unpopular and bullied at school for no evident reason, is conflicted and insecure about his masculinity, and his themes of hiding his true self from his parents because he’s afraid they won’t accept him resonate strongly with the trans experience” I’m totally there with you. “I headcanon this character as aromantic because she never has a love interest over the course of the series” makes sense and I support this! “I headcanon this character as asexual because he’s my favorite and I want him to be asexual” hell yeah. “I headcanon this character as nonbinary because I relate strongly to them in other ways and I am nonbinary” nice. “I headcanon this character as bisexual because he has a canon female love interest, but I want to ship him with his male friend instead” classic. All of these are common and normal reasons for such a headcanon.

“I headcanon him as asexual because it just feels right” hm. interesting. why. what about him Just Feels Right. Is it because he is quiet and introverted? Because he puts his work above any attempt to seek out a love interest? Because he’s disabled? Because he has a purple color scheme? Because he’s evil and you can’t imagine shipping him with anyone?

“I headcanon this character as trans! It just feels right!” Why? Because he’s smaller and skinnier than the other men in the cast? Because he’a sweet and friendly? Because he has a complicated relationship with masculinity in the story? Because he’s enthusiastically masculine in the story? Do you ship him as the bottom in a M/M ship? Is he paler and more emotional than the other man you ship him with?

Separating out why you have this headcanon, why does it just feel right, is it based on the specificities of the character, your own preferences, or just stereotypes, is good practice rather than saying you can’t explain something but it “just feels right!” Because I’ve seen several instances where I can’t tell if there’s anything beyond stereotypes beneath it.

[halogenwarrior]

Sorry I posted that on the wrong blog lol...

People on Tumblr love to subvert something that is already subverted and wind up with the normal thing again.

[halogenwarrior]

I think there is a place for "subverting the subversion", because tropes and ideas can be cyclical and sometimes something can go from one unnuanced thing being common to the opposite unnuanced thing being common (something something Hegel thesis/antithesis), and a certain trope shouldn't be the only game in town forever just because it started out as a subversion. However if you do so you should have awareness of whether the original thing fell out of favor just because people were sick of it being common or because it was genuinely bigoted and harmful and it's for the best that it doesn't come back. And also have awareness of whether it's really fallen out of favor at all or just seems that within your little internet bubble but it's actually still the most common narrative.

(Note: this isn't to say you can't work within your bubble to make things more nuanced rather than doing this argument a lot of people here do where you aren't allowed to criticize any opinion common on Tumblr because it's uncommon everywhere else so it needs to be that way for "balance", it's perfectly fine to criticize people here for being biased in one direction and people elsewhere for being biased in a different direction as long as you remain aware of how common these biases actually are relative to each other! You should seek a better understanding of the world and morality for its own sake and not just to be as different as possible from the most common opinions.)

Edit: Sorry I posted this twice, I thought my original reblog didn't go through.

People on Tumblr love to subvert something that is already subverted and wind up with the normal thing again.

[halogenwarrior]

@k4saneterritory what was it called you are interesting me?!

me

[halogenwarrior]

And when they are very capable of being kind and noble and wanting to do things for the better of the world but in the situation they are in they have no happy ending if they do that they end up dead or worse...

save me characters doing fucked up things out of self-preservation…..characters doing fucked up things out of self-preservation save me………..

[halogenwarrior]

Ok reflagging this on both polls: Now that both TobiasxRachel and BristlefrostxRootspring are in this poll, I would say that while I haven't read TBC from hearing about it a lot in the fandom I get the sense that Animorphs did the "couple with male insecure misfit warrior and female fierce dutiful warrior who does her own morally questionable things she feels guilt about and dies at the very end taking out the enemy, and also she has a cousin who parallels her in being destroyed by duty and sacrifice even though he survives" better than WC did...

Propaganda under the cut!

Bristleroot:

"They are Warrior Cats' best written couple after RavenBarley, which isn't saying much but I love them. I remember having to put the book down and do something else because Bristlefrost's death was that upsetting. SHE DOESN'T EVEN GET AN AFTERLIFE WITH HIM! And the clans still treat her and Rootspring with suspicion afterwards for being a Half-Clan relationship, as if she didn't literally sacrifice everything for them. Also "Only warmth. Only love." fucking murdered me the first time I read it, I was sobbing."

Rintaro and Kurisu:

"Will you please remember me?"

[halogenwarrior]

Ok now that both TobiasxRachel and BristlefrostxRootspring are in this poll, I would say that while I haven't read TBC from hearing about it a lot in the fandom I get the sense that Animorphs did the "couple with male insecure misfit warrior and female fierce dutiful warrior who does her own morally questionable things she feels guilt about and dies at the very end taking out the enemy, and also she has a cousin who parallels her in being destroyed by duty and sacrifice even though he survives" better than WC did...

Tragic Ships Tournament, Loser's Edition: Round 1

Propaganda under the cut!

Lawtsuda:

"AUGHHH theyre so cutes … their potential dynamic is so interesting to me . they both have issues accepting affection to me and having someone love them so easily would kill both of them i think . and matsuda having that suddenly torn away from him would kill him a second time . they mean so much to me and they interact a handful of times."

Rachel and Tobias:

"they make several attempts at “normal” dates over the course of the series, severely hampered by Tobias being limited by two hours at a time morphing human

quite adorably are referred to as ‘the two of you and the two of me’ after Rachel gets temporarily split into her good/bad side in one book

they’re very tactile with each other even in human/hawk form, to the bemusement of their teammates."

[halogenwarrior]

the purest form of serotonin is when a cat looks at u and u go like “what?” and it meows at u

[halogenwarrior]

The Character will literally have you saying shit like "shes literally my special princess. she can do 9/11 as many times as she wants"

[halogenwarrior]

my cover for @harriertail's AWESOME zine! every artist who contributed is stunning at what they do. I put a lot of heart into this.

[halogenwarrior]

Yeah when Alderheart says a StarClan omen says you need to do this counterintuitive apparently deadly thing to save a cat's life and Tigerheart is skeptical Tigerheart is the bad guy but when Tigerheart "learns from his mistakes" and trusts Shadowsight in the same situation wrt Bramblestar he is being "biased towards his children", just unlucky enough to always make the wrong choice even if he is making morally the opposite choice in the two separate scenarios.

people were for real so mad that tigerheart didn't trust alderheart doing the equivalent of he needs mouse bites to live to his dying medicine cat

[halogenwarrior]

A related one (which Harry Potter coincidentally also does) is "the protagonist can break free of the mind control power through sheer willpower, even though the power is strong enough to be useful and used by villains, guess everyone else was just too weak-willed and maybe wanted to be a victim deep down because they didn't try hard enough..."

i really hate 'power of love' stories not because i'm a jaded cynic or whatever but because i always find something deeply offputting and misanthropic in how they are almost always set up in a way that implies that the protagonist is the only person in the world capable of love

[halogenwarrior]

Ok this is just in response to the "characters who want to die but get to live" and "character whose plans are an elaborate suicide" but regarding the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers reblogs those always get, I really don't get why Grovyle has the reputation on this site as the suicidal one and Celebi as the one who is very mentally healthy and willing to essentially die for noble non-suicidal reasons when it's really closer to the other way around. Grovyle has his whole motivation speech which makes it clear that he does think life is valuable and doesn't want to die but, knowing that devoting oneself to escaping death only works in the short run he'd rather focus on something even more valuable than that which has a deeper and more lasting meaning. Of course such motivation could be interpreted as hiding suicidality, any type of self-sacrificial mentality could, but he is literally saying something quite different. Meanwhile Celebi is the one with the line about how if they succeed they will be spared the agony of the future, which with the later context of what will happen if they succeed is very explicitly suicidal. But it feels like the fandom ignores their explicitly stated motivations in favor of focusing on their outward demeanors (Grovyle acts serious so he must be deeply miserable about life, Celebi acts more playful so she must be happy and mentally healthy and not putting up a front at all).

Also I just plain think it makes Grovyle and Dusknoir's dynamic more interesting if they mirror each other, where Dusknoir wants to bond with and help the Pokémon of the past and save their world but ultimately prioritizes his life, and Grovyle wants to live no matter how horrible the world is but ultimately prioritizes creating a more hopeful world, rather than just making it so Grovyle is lying to himself and is really just looking for an excuse to be erased from time.

[halogenwarrior]

There's a weird 3 star movie out there ready to change your life forever

[halogenwarrior]

Not to be a bitch but sometimes people engage with fiction in the most boring way possible, and nowhere is this clearer than in videogames. Like what you mean you hate a character just because they were kind of abrasive when speaking to the player character? "They were mean to me" and it didn't occur to you to wonder why? Like, what might their attitude toward you reveal about the world? About the social dynamics within it? About their own perspectives and backgrounds and personalities? Does it even occur you to ask? Would you only have liked them if they bowed to your presence and talked about how great you are? Like I'm sorry but you're so boring. How boring fiction would be if it cathered to you

[halogenwarrior]

if you’re a white creator and your brown/black characters are always sassy, reckless, aggressive or cold and your white characters are always soft, demure, shy and introverted you should think about maybe why you did that