#But I know how fandoms can be regarding ships

[sukibenders]

Me, waking up and remembering how Condal and Hess made Laena into the disposable black girlfriend (wife in this case, not that they even bother to mention it more than once) and had her die more horrifically than in the books (possibly to boost the yte characters), had Daemon and Rhaenyra sleep together during her funeral, have her two daughters be ignored by their father for his second wife's kids, had all three of them become shells of their book counterparts and given less grace by the fandom than in similar regards to the majority yte characters, only for those who called out these actions to be deemed simply "anti Rhaenyra" or just be told they lack media literacy:

[the-cactae]

Smily Adventures!

Party🎉

//for enhanced experience, put on Forever by The Little Dippers ☺️

Hey PPT fandom, let’s not cry for once! 🥰🥰

How I promised, I want to make more comics located in the cozy, heartwarming world of Smiling Critters’ cartoon. And I shall do more!

Except, I need to write a major thing in here, which is the shipping of the characters. As I know it’s a bit controversial, I wanted to clear things up regarding that matter.

So, I can shamelessly say I do and I will ship the characters. But only, and ONLY their cartoony versions. The in-game ones are done. They need some rest.

And still the cartoon characters’ shipping will be ONLY platonic. Nothing overly romantic, definitely nothing s⭐️xual. Just pure, sweet and kind.

I did tag this one as a ship and I shall tag them as ships, but that doesn’t change what I said above ☺️

That being said, I hope you enjoyed!!🩷

[dedalvs]

Today is my 44th birthday. I was brought to my mother’s arms as Ronald Reagan was being sworn in and then went to the airport to welcome the Iranian hostages home—a meeting we now know was pre-arranged, as Reagan’s team negotiated to keep the hostages in captivity a little bit longer just so it could be Reagan, as opposed to Carter, who got the credit for releasing them.

Every four years my birthday falls on a US presidential inauguration. Some of those days are good; some are bad; some are terrible. Today is certainly one of the worst.

My birthday also sometimes falls on the day the US honors Martin Luther King, Jr.—or, when it doesn’t, always on a day very close to it. I always spend some time on my birthday thinking of him, too. Like all of us, he wasn’t perfect, but more and more what I think about regarding his legacy is how some of the things he said have been cherry-picked and stored like prize possessions in jeweled boxes for admiring every so often while the rest has been buried. MLK was an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War, of income inequality, and of capitalism. Of all things I remember the first time I heard anything by him about that was in college when I happened into a record store in San Francisco and heard one of his speeches (not the “I have a dream” speech) remixed in a song.

Often you will hear that you should focus on what you can control. This is true, when it comes to your own personal well being—your state of mind. I feel like there should be a balance, though. Sometimes your well being is well enough that you can spare the anguish that comes with worrying about the state of the world—the many injustices you can’t fix, either by yourself or right away. We need that to push us to actually fix these things, either in small individual ways or collectively, through both direct and indirect action.

Each of us at different times in or lives—or on a micro level, at different times of the week or year—goes in and out of phases where we must focus on self-care and phases where we can look outward. Today I hope we can treat ourselves and each other with a little kindness when it comes to recognizing where it is we need to be in a given moment. Looking around on social media, it may seem that some are always on—always fighting, always pushing for change—and some are always off—cat memes, shipping, fandom. But that’s nothing but a small window into a person. First, that’s simply how that person interacts with one social media platform; it’s not their entire life. Second, it may be that this is the place they come to unwind—or, alternatively, this is the only place in their life where they can share the rage inside of them. Whoever they are, however they are, let them be, and offer them kindness. It’s going to take all of us to fight back.

[noperopesaredope]

I already wrote a similar posts on how fics of this nature annoy me, but I would like to push it further by saying that while I am fine reading it, I feel kind of weird about fics where the clones like Cody are constantly taking care of and basically babysitting their Jedi General or acting as a major emotional pillar for them.

I think the reason it makes me so uncomfortable is that not only are the clones already going through their own extremely horrific shit, but the Jedi are their superior officers and have a lot more systemic power over them. I will never stop saying that the clones are slaves, and while I don't see the Jedi as being their enslavers, I do think that they are essentially in a "master" position of power whether they like it or not. So it feels weird when the Jedi are more dependent on the clones and the clones need to basically take care of them and are always needing to look after them.

I'm a half-black American who is very passionate about African American history and anti-black systemic issues. And I can't help but be reminded of the tropes involving black characters whose are constantly forced into what is basically a caretaker role for white characters. Think of the Mammy, or the Black Best Friend, or the Magical Negro. The clones are already oppressed, already marginalized, and already forced to constantly back up and support the Jedi in charge of them. And then they are forced to be their Jedi's babysitter on top of all that.

Helping their Jedi out and generally caring about their wellbeing on places like the battlefield? Yes, that can be very sweet and often involves a lot of emotional care and trust.

Needing to force their Jedi to take care of themselves even off the battlefield and having a whole system/thing about how the Jedi "never take care of themselves and simply need the clones in order to do basic self care and not overwork themselves all the time while being oh so self-sacrificial"? Slightly weird and honestly seems to be the other way around based on both canon scenes and their respective circumstances.

I feel like perhaps part of this is just a general desire for angst and classic whump tropes, and sometimes it seems to be used as a way to showcase, "see! The Jedi do care about their troopers!" It seems like an example of the Jedi taking on the caretaker position and being the ones to protect the clones. But it almost always ends up resulting in the clones being forced into a support/caretaker role even when it seems like the Jedi is playing the role of caretaker.

Now, I don't think fics that follow this overall concept are super problematic or whatever. I also think some dynamics like this can work, such as with the Padawans and the clones (though that is for very specific reasons). I really don't want to spread too much negativity or say that anyone who writes this stuff is automatically racist or whatever. It's more of a personal discomfort/distaste than anything and people can write whatever they want, especially since I know the intent behind these tropes are often sweet in nature.

But I do think it's good for us to reflect on the parallels the clones have to real life issues and the way certain harmful tropes and mindsets can be perpetuated through metaphorical allegories (whether intentional or unintentional), and discuss the way we as a fandom treat the power dynamics between the clones and Jedi, especially in regards to things like shipping.

I don't know if I'm making any sense, but please tell me what you think, especially since I think it would be a good thing to talk about.

[chosentragedy]

I came here to say that I absolutely hate being targeted just for simple drawing of Emmabruce. People are very biphobic on Twitter and they come up with the worst excuse and their own biases to hate on them even knowing the ship JUST CAME OUT. I cannot stress this enough but my art is personal to me. I draw for me and me first. Ships are supposed to be enjoyed and mess with so I don't get why people cannot just block or ignore the ships they don't like.

I also gotten a lot of "criticisms" in regard of my portrayal of them.

" " Because these shit are literally made up or fueled by their own biases.

If I make Bruce protect Emma is me making her a damsel in distress. If I make Emma protect Bruce is me making her a mother figure. If I make her mean then she's a mean girl. If I make her kind then she is OOC.

If I make Bruce a softy then I woobified him. If I make him sassy then he doesn't deserve Emma.

I can't win with these people and tbh I do not care.

Also the sentiment that Rivals artists cannot enjoy and draw their favs unless they read the 200 comics first is such a killjoy cause first of all. MR itself is not even comic accurate. Bruce is all joy and whimsical in compared to his comic counterparts and don't even get me started on Namor.

Some MR artists only make contents for Rivals and that's ok! After all the game has its own lore and universes.

I argue that many, including myself have started getting into comics because of MR. But OFC y'all should know how time consuming comics are and not everyone can sit through so much in so little time so just keep in mind and let us have the time to go soak everything in.

Also if you could just tell them nicely. I will tell you that most times PPL are very eager to listen. I have my own Hulk/Bruce experts friends who can help me with my art. If I need a fact check, I can just ask them for help.

At the end of the day. Fandom should be fun. Unless someone is doing something hurtful, I don't see why you should harass them like oh my God, grow up.

Thank you for reading my little rant!

[lifegoesonevenifeverybodyisgone]

Regulus Has More Depth than it Seems

Ever since I started playing Reverse 1999, Regulus has been portrayed as Vertin's energetic friend, pirate rocker, maybe with ADHD, and overall fun gal. I didn't pay attention to her much, but after watching her anecdote, I realized that there were many things that I glossed over about her.

During Regulus' anecdote, I saw this line. That means Regulus was old enough to remember her mother's demeanor towards her or what her mother was like.

Regulus is a street kid who was practically raised by Mr. APPle. Broadcasting music illegally in her pirate ship, she has gotten trouble in the side of the law several times.

Although she never went to school, she is very bright (knowing mechanical know-hows in Laplace and doing Math in Apeiron).

It pains me that Regulus can sometimes be reduced to a comedy gag by the fandom. She might be seriously funny and memetic but she is also profoundly devoted to Vertin and a sweetheart. She was the first one Vertin saved in the suitcase after all!

This was brought to my attention when I saw a line during her anecdote. The mayor of Gold Dust (who was part of the Order of Enlightenment) wanted to invite Regulus to a worship for the Sufferer (Arcana) and Regulus expressed contempt for that:

This line means that Regulus knows about Vertin's past! This means that Vertin must have been comfortable enough to open up to her regarding the Breakaway incident that happened during Chapter 3.

She was also first to hug Vertin when she came back and cried bitterly from being separated from her.

When Regulus joined Vertin for the first time, Vertin was worried that she might feel burdened or restricted going with her. Then Regulus says this:

She was sweet in the beginning and she had been a loyal partner to Vertin ever since. I know that for sure since she went to prison multiple times already for her. She never gave up on Vertin and never stopped trying when the Foundation kept her unconcious.

[drinksglue]

Running back into the room with "AND ANOTHER THING"

In regards to the "not anti, not proship, but a third thing":

Many neutrals will openly interact with antis who are aggressive against pro-shippers, all in the name of "well, I don't care about the discourse, so I don't care that they're antis"

I need you to understand that the flaw with this is that it frames the anti mindset as an acceptable viewpoint to have. It isn't.

Imagine if I said "I don't care about the arguments between librarians and Moms For Liberty, and I think they just need to calm down. I support neither! Just stop fighting!" and then exchanged friendly emails with M4L members. This would be utterly ridiculous, wouldn't it? It would mean that I find their beliefs to be valid opinions to hold, and not dangerous rhetoric that, taken to its logical conclusion, would result in mass censorship.

This is even worse in the case of people who "used to be" pro-ship/pro-fiction, presumably knowing how bad this can get and how it affects people IN REAL LIFE, who still chose to go "neutral" and start interacting with antis. You know what they do, you know how they doxx and stalk and threaten people, and you know how they've caused a lot of mentally vulnerable people to take their own lives, and you're going to give them ANY kind of voice in fandom?

To be "neutral" tells me you don't give a single shit about the people who are being targeted over stupid fandom bullshit that was practically never an issue pre-2015. And the few times that it was... well, that's actually why AO3 exists now.

You want the discourse to stop? The only way that's going to happen at this point is if you snuff out as much interaction with fancops as possible. Avoid interacting with them directly as much as possible, do not reblog their posts or their art no matter how innocuous it is, do not allow them into your fandom spaces. Exclude them from fandom entirely, methodically ostracize them. Block, block, block, and block some more. Doing this will mean we only have to deal with the most extreme of cases that involve mass-brigading and block evading.

That's still a tall order of course, but I can guarantee you fandom spaces will improve in quality if you refuse to make a space for fancops at the table.

Sorry. I'm tired of pretending "neutrals" are anything other than Fancop-Lite.

[alvivaarts]

AO3 is Removing 'All Media Types' without Public Input or Announcement. What Can We Do?

What's Happening?

For those who don't yet know: AO3 and the Tag Wranglers have begun to slowly remove the 'All Media Types' tag for older fandoms. Aka, removing the 'umbrella' tag for many franchises, and forcing franchises to be split by media, or to be shoved under one umbrella that does not accurately reflect the types of fics or source medias they come from. This has been slowly occurring with no official announcement, under the pretense that things will be 'easier' to manage, or that some users claimed that the 'All Media Types' tag was confusing. This has begun in secrecy, without genuine input from the userbase, and without any public announcement. (As of 9/5/2024 9:30 AM PST) Many of us are pretty confident in AO3 staff's decisions, but the fact that this decision is not only incredibly impactful, but made without public input, has deeply violated the condition of the site as an archive... an archive of OUR own.

Current seen issues and active risks:

Removal of 'All Media Types' automatically makes fics from different sources in the same franchise a 'crossover', forcing users to consider non-crossover fics 'crossovers'. So, any fanfic that spans or implements elements from multiple pieces of media in a franchise are now considered a 'crossover', despite being from the same franchise and not a crossover.

Removal of 'All Media Types' forces users to manually search for the fics and ships they want one by one through each fandom tag in a related franchise. (Imagine looking through all the separate DC or MARVEL movies one by one).

The 'include crossovers' and 'exclude crossovers' filters are now useless, and removing genuine crossovers (crossovers between franchises) must be done manually through the filter system, which can take upwards of half an hour, if not longer, with the amount of one-off genuine crossovers that exist.

Slightly smaller franchises are being shoved under the umbrella of a single, super popular fandom. (See, Sherlock Holmes. All Sherlock Holmes media has been relegated to the tag 'Sherlock TV', which confuses users, as the tag now includes not only BBC Sherlock, which is the umbrella tag, but any works based off of Arthur Conan Doyle's original works, the 2009 Sherlock Holmes films, and the 16+ Sherlock Holmes adaptations and international TV shows... none of which are BBC Sherlock.)

Anime and manga fandoms (especially smaller ones) are being automatically split by media type, without regard to the fact that many anime and manga adaptations are very similar, and/or authors tend to often implement elements from both anime and manga.

As far as we are aware, no one is going to be correcting any improper sorting resulting from this.

Accounts that are no longer active/accessible, memorial accounts, and orphaned fics and no longer be corrected by their original authors and are at risk of being misplaced into incorrect fandom tags. Unfortunately, no one can fix this but the tag wranglers, who were supposedly removing 'All Media Types' in the first place to prevent MORE work. Counter intuitive, isn't it?

Already, fandoms are being improperly split, others being improperly merged, and still more being far more confusingly sorted. This deeply damages AO3's integrity as an ARCHIVE.

What Can I Do?

As soon as it's back up again, make sure to stop by the Contact Support page! There, you're able to let them know exactly how you feel about this, and what fandoms your fear will be impacted by these changes. Many already have been.

In the meantime, make sure to contact AO3 on Twitter (or X): ao3org (AO3's general twitter page), ao3_wranglers (AO3's tag wrangler page), and OTW_news (the parent host of AO3).

There is also tumblr: ao3org (AO3's tumblr page) and transformativeworks (OTW's tumblr page).

And finally, the Organization for Transformative Works contact page.

If you are aware of any additional medias, please add them below to ensure that AO3 thoroughly understands the negative impact of this decision, especially the violation of trust resulting from making such a massive choice without impact. Be sure to share this information elsewhere, repost, share the links, and make a stink. Furthermore, if you are able, letting AO3 know that you are no longer comfortable financially supporting them in the future.

Be sure to also repost and list any fandoms you have personally noticed have been impacted by this change!

Already Impacted Fandoms:

MARVEL, MCU, Marvel Comics, Avengers, and related tags

Any Sherlock Holmes based Media

A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon)

World of Warcraft

Assassin's Creed

Monogatari

BanG Dream!

Jujutsu Kaisen

Disney (all media, now: Disney Theatrical Animated Universe)

DC and DC Comics

AND MANY, MANY MORE!

[0-therw-0-rldly]

I’ll preface this by saying I’m not really a shipper. I just enjoy canon couples on TV Series/films.

Terms I’d like B*ddies to remove from their vocabulary because they don’t know how to use them correctly:

Media literacy: For a group that uses this term a lot you sure do misinterpret everything in this show.

Queerbaiting: Going to expand on this one. A show that’s already been pre established for having queer characters simply cannot queerbait.

Ship baiting: While sometimes you can argue that they could be doing that, that’s only if you look at the show in a very biased manner. You might think this is the case but the general audience doesn’t think the way you do.

Ship war: This isn’t a one tree hill situation where there was Team Brooke Vs. Team Peyton where the middle guy (Lucas Scott) had canonically been with both women. This is people not understanding fanon vs. canon and not being able to just watch the show. It’s like playing quarterback on Madden and thinking you could be better than Patrick Mahomes.

Plot device: everything’s a plot device. Move tf on.

Predator: You sound like crazy MAGA supporters calling everything regarding the LGBTQIA+ community as predatory. Sit down.

Co-parenting: I know this is a big one and discourse was brought up during the hiatus. Oliver and Ryan have loosely mentioned this years ago but it was never to be taken this seriously. Do y’all even know what co-parenting is or are you that big of a donut? Buck is someone who loves his best friend deeply and by extension, his kid too. Him taking care of him frequently does not make him a co-parent. Maybe he is a parental or uncle figure, but he isn’t a co-parent. Also, I swear y’all need to learn how a will works. He is a GODPARENT, not a GUARDIAN. Stfu.

Hag: This especially applies to women, but to say that someone 25-30+ is a hag for still being in fandoms or enjoying tv shows/films is inherently misogynistic. Men are never held to this much criticism for enjoying fictional media, but women aren’t allowed to?

Queer Coding: people of the same sex “looking at each other”, hugging, or having intimate moments all together doesn’t make them queer coded. It could mean that they just love each other that deeply platonically. While representation is amazing and just because you interpret a character as queer coded (just like my ship baiting comment) doesn’t mean others interpret it that way as well. In addition, network TV has stipulations, and also actors are allowed to decline storylines. Ryan has mentioned his character is heterosexual an abundance of times which means (at least for now) that he isn’t willing to go for this storyline.

Dead naming: Y’all construing the fact that Buck wants people like coworkers and some of his former love interests, to saying Evan is his dead name is inherently transphobic because do you even understand what a dead name is? Evan Buckley is shown as being fine with being called Evan by both Tommy and his sister. I’m pretty sure some of his love interests have called him Evan as well.

Fetishizing: You guys saw two hot guys who “looked at each other” and for 6 seasons have wanted nothing but to see those two make out with each other. Those of us who enjoy Tevan saw Buck giddy at the thought of Tommy and have wanted domestic fluff for them since.

Anything to do with racism, homophobia, and misogyny: I’ve seen the way you guys have conveniently weaponized Henren and by extension Aisha/Tracie when you didn’t get the Ryan/Oliver interview, don’t try to act like you’re morally superior. Not to mention wanting a canonically gay man to die in a show and not even holding those who use your ship name to write CSA fics accountable because you’re petty and want to throw hissy fits. Anyone looking at your comments as an outsider would think you’re homophobes and yes queer people can be homophobic.

I do hope you can expand your vocabulary. 🤍

[sir-myst-cake]

First post on here and it's a rant!! If you want more cool takes you should totally follow me as I'll be posting here more often and have totally cool art to share‼️‼️

I'm not completely sure how to tag this? I'm talking about the ships in a positive light so I think it's okay, and besides, I want lots of peeps to see it, I'm aware I probably won't change many people's minds at all, but it's okay lol, I just want Anti's to see they genuinely have a nothing burger and need to leave people alone.

This is a mostly TikTok only problem regarding Beast x Ancient's (thank god) but I've seen my fair share elsewhere like on here. So lemme counter every argument I've seen so far cause you got a lot of time on your hands to be telling people to off themselves over Cookie ships 😭 put that hate into people who actually deserve it.

BILLFORD COMPARISON

Regarding ShadowVanilla specifically, people have compared the ship a lot from both sides, but what really got me is what I've seen here:

"Shadow Milk Cookie is way worse than Bill! He drove Pure Vanilla to insanity! He tortured him!"- This is in regards to how people bring up the fact Anti's are fine with one thing but not the other when it's basically the same thing they're against. Psychological, physical, mental, and emotional torture. I'll be honest I haven't watched Gravity Falls whatsoever, but my friend has, and from what she says, yeah Bill is the definition of a cruel and unusual punishment. He's done some crazy things, absolutely heinous, might even be a little worse than Shadow Milk or on the same level, either way though-

You can't like one thing and then not the other, it's different flavors of the same thing, it's hypocritical. Either you hate them both or you hate neither.

"Those are 2 different fandoms!"- Doesn't matter, it's the same thing, just different media, it's not different whatsoever aside from the universe, there's much torture involved on both ends.

ABUSER X VICTIM

This one I've seen A LOT and I'm just ??

"If you ship Beast x Ancient's you support Abuser x victim btw"- That's a STRETCH. You are reaching FAR. Nobody is romanticizing the abuse, nobody is normalizing it, it's stuff that happened in canon and we acknowledge it but nobody is doing any of that other stuff. I'm not condoning anyone in real life to do that shit lol. It's called exploring, they have an interesting dynamic, romantic or platonic, two sides of the same coin. You can say the same thing about horror movies, they put a lot of disturbing stuff in there. Do the movie producers CONDONE any of that stuff? Obviously not. Goes for Devsisters too, they don't condone body mutilation yet they still made Burning Spice rip off Cheese's wings.

But even so, for the people who DO like it for the angst, I won't say fiction doesn't affect reality because it does in many cases, but this isn't one of them. Not every relationship is going to be peachy and perfect, just like in real life. I can give an example on this one too actually.

GoldenLily, they aren't condoning what Lily (technically) did to Golden Cheese's kingdom, but they like it for all the potential, complicated feelings and emotions that come along with it.

Also, that's basically the same thing with Beasts x Ancients, just turn it around to enemies to lovers.

"This isn't Villain x hero, this is abuser x victim"- Are you saying MOST of media is abuser x victim then? This is in fact a typical hero x Villain trope, it's nothing new. Respectfully, you guys freak out when a Villain does villain stuff, I'd be surprised if there was a villain who DIDN'T cause any trauma for the opposing party. But according to this logic, media is just dead, no more fanfiction, no more what ifs, no more content since it's all apparently problematic and not canon. Even if somebody switches stuff up in an AU, and makes things completely fluffy, that's apparently still not enough.

"oh you had to make an AU to ship them because you know it's toxic"- No, it's just playing around with scenarios. Learn to separate fanon from canon. This specifically goes for the redeemed AU's I see of the Beasts, people still complain, they act as if people can't change. One of the biggest examples I have of that is FlutterCord, Discord did plenty of messed up things, but in the end, he still managed to change. You'll still get burned at the stake for it though.

"You must be an abuser yourself to condone this!!"- Extremely disrespectful and a WILDDD take. Need I say more??

"I ship Beast x Beast rather than Beast x Ancient's"- According to your logic, the Beasts are abusers right? And if we followed the same story, they are not mentally well whatsoever. You'd rather ship 2 dangerously mentally unstable characters together who'd just make each other worse? Destroy each other? Fuck each other up beyond belief? It doesn't make sense does it, nor is it fair for y'all to praise these ships but hate on the others. You like watching the cookies crumble huh 😭

CANON

"The ship isn't canon!"- We know that, everyone should know that. With what I said earlier, please learn to separate fanon from canon. That's what a fandom is, we do non-canon stuff, it's very fun, you should try it.

"It's a Proship/Dark ship!"- Going the canon route, Beasts are Eons old, Ancients are thousands of years old. Big gap yes, but nonetheless all of them are old as fuck. Older than bloodlines. Treating the Ancients as if they aren't grown adults. You're intentionally trying to make it weird. Stop calling ships you don't like proships please.

Also a little off topic but please don't listen to everyone you interact with on TikTok?? I remember one time I was scrolling through a comment section and saw somebody say "Doesn't Mystic Flour Cookie hate Burning Spice Cookie?" On a MysticSpice vid, looked in the replies, somebody asked for proof/where it was implied, and they didn't answer 💀 just blatantly spreading misinformation. Sources around you are way more reliable than people who don't back up their claims.

CONCLUSION

Even despite all this, you still have the right to feel how you wanna feel. Just please stop harassing people for simple stuff like this, in all honesty, I feel like it's more about seeing one of your favorite characters shipped with somebody who hurt them in canon that makes peeps upset. Which I can totally understand because I used to be exactly like that, I LIVEEEE for Dark Cacao Cookie, when Mystic Flour's update came out, I wanted her dead. Quite literally blocked someone because I couldn't stand seeing their MysticCao art. Hated what she did to my baby boy fr.

But then It started growing on me, over time, I just realized it was never that serious.

Even so, notice how I still didn't go out of my way to harass said person about it because I specifically didn't like it? It really is that easy. Block and go about your day.

I also suspect this because of stuff like this 💀

Love that person who replied, but it's not that hard y'all. We all can in fact, get along.

ANYWAYSSSS thanks to those who took the time read, I love you my pookies hope you have a good day or night💕💕

[nqueso-lies]

Hey,

You can call me Queso

I'm in the 9-1-1 fandom (I know, I know... but please don't judge me right away) I do not, will not, and have never shipped Buddie. However, I do believe in ship and let ship and multishippers are always welcome. This blog leans into the Bucktommy (Tevan) ship, adores Lou Ferrigno jr/Tommy Kinard, and I am a lover of the show above all else. All I ask is for you to respect these things, and if you can't, perhaps you should just avoid stopping by.

I am a voice actor. Thus, I do know some things about the industry, but I am in no way an expert. I will answer asks as long as they're somewhat respectful. Though sometimes, a bitch loves a bit of mess. That being said, I get a lot of asks, messages, and notifications daily, so if I don't answer your ask/message/comment or acknowledge a post you mention me in, please don't take offense.

If I post screenshots of other people being awful, that is not an invitation to go to their account and attack them. Let them be awful in their own bubble and block/report them. I guarantee you nothing you say will ever change the way they behave anyway.

Things to know before you begin your descent into this blog:

I am nonbinary. She/he/they are acceptable. I am afro-latino.

BoBs (Buddie or Bust) or Besties are how I, and most on this blog, refer to the hardcore Eddie Buddie fans

I use #bestie boos tweet in case people don't want to see twt screenshots.

I use #nquesu wanna block in case you don't want to see my posts.

!!! I ask that you don't send me asks regarding cancer, pls. It can be a trigger for me !!!

I use #nquesu want receipts for all discourse.

I'm human. I make mistakes. I let words get to me. Sometimes, I will step away because I'm hurt or mad over a topic of discourse or an ask that is particularly hateful, and that's OK. Sometimes, I'll even just go off into Tumblr land and reblog random shit because I need to refocus my attention towards things that bring me joy in that moment. ❤️

[bakuhatsufallinlove]

I’ve seen people saying 431 wasn’t written by Horikoshi but by his assistants; is there any truth to that? (Sorry if this isn’t the type of question you like to answer, you’re honestly the most reputable source I know for MHA)

The only reason people are saying this is because they hate the content and want an excuse to dismiss it.

We have no reason to believe this chapter was written or drawn by anyone other than Horikoshi, who has a team of assistants as all manga artists do.

The only middle-men here would be WSJ editors and executives, who have regular input on the story's direction and execution. One could theorize about how much pressure and of what kind there might have been on Horikoshi, as the creator of a hugely popular and lucrative shounen series, to hint towards the possibility of a heterosexual relationship at the end, especially considering WSJ's relationship to the "settle down and have kids" politics of modern Japan. But that's all it would be: theorizing.

Regarding editorial overreach, Horikoshi has said that he will tell the story he wants to tell. I'm not positive, but I think he went through several editors trying to find a good fit, someone who would respect his vision instead of dominate it. It would be insulting to insist he is some helpless victim with no agency whatsoever. Or, for that matter, that he would ever allow someone else to draw his manga for him, slap his name on the title page, and call it a day.

I have no special information in this regard, but my guess is that Horikoshi arranged to end the serialization of the series where he wanted to, then had meetings with his publishing team to discuss what kind of material he could create to fill the final tankōban, which needed extra material to meet publishing standards. 431 is the result of that.

At 38 pages, it could have been two serialized chapters. But it wasn't.

The thought I keep coming back to is that 431's pages are after Horikoshi's afterward in the volume. I've heard that people are trying to say that 430 and 431 are BOTH "up for interpretation" or "just future possibilities," but consider this: only one of those was included in regular serialization and can be read back-to-back with all the other chapters in the usual way.

That chapter directly parallels the first chapter in a number of extremely meaningful ways, both visually and thematically. That's 430.

The other chapter, for whatever reason, comes after Horikoshi's comments on the story's conclusion. It is literally separated from the rest. Maybe this isn't that significant, but I don't know any other final ending chapter like that. Demon Slayer's volume-exclusive epilogue comes immediately after the serialized chapters, with the only break being a two-page extra explaining character genealogy. Gotouge's comments come after the brand new epilogue.

All of that, plus the content itself, contributes to me personally feeling like 431 is just extra. It's undeniably Horikoshi's work, but it doesn't draw any strong parallels to the established themes of MHA. It isn't necessary to the conclusion of the story we've followed.

But for what it's worth, I haven't seen anyone in the jpn fandom bring up whether 431 is canon or not, because they don't care. Japanese fandom is very flexible and self-indulgent. Fanworks and headcanons regularly contradict canon and no one cares even a little. It doesn't matter if the chapter is "canon" or not, they'll do what they like either way.

I have seen a huge range of responses from jpn fans. Some see it as confirmation of a het ship, others see it as open-ended. Some find the outcome sad, some felt it was hopeful. Many people had mixed reactions of happiness and sorrow.

I saw at least one person interpret the "put down the camera" note as providing the fans the opportunity to "freely imagine what happens in the future." Another person questioned how they were supposed to interpret that phrase in conjunction with Shouto's monologue about "inevitability."

I'm gonna go Plus Ultra here and reach far beyond the framework of your question, so let me just say this: No one has to care about the creator's intentions. No one needs permission to ignore canon.

For one thing, we are only ever guessing what the creator's intentions are. We can only surmise and make arguments based on our interpretations of their work.

To act as though there should be one sole authority that dictates what the audience is allowed to think about art is ridiculous, and that includes the creator.

Because art is completed by the audience. Art is communication. In language, the speaker knows only what they intended, while the listener knows only what they interpreted. We may discuss our perspectives in different ways to try to understand each other better, but in storytelling, the audience doesn't interact that way with the creator. They interact with the art itself.

Art means something new the moment it touches another human heart.

Who I am, what I value, my experiences in life, all of these influence how I see Horikoshi's story. And that's a good thing. To remove myself from that—to insist that who I am as a person has nothing to do with what art means to me—is to diminish the meaning of art itself.

I don't need Horikoshi to agree with me. I don't need him to see things the same way I do or tell me I'm right. He wrote a story about the complex, profound love between two boys. Whether he thinks that love means they'd wanna kiss each other is completely fucking irrelevant to me.

The love is on the page, where I found it.

Other people may think it means something different or fail to see it entirely, and that's fine. That's their relationship to the story. That has nothing to do with me.

I'm glad Horikoshi got to write the story he wanted. I wished I liked his extra chapter more, but them's the breaks.

[olderthannetfic]

OTNF, do you have an example of a show or other work that actually legitimately queerbaits the audience?

Because I know what queerbaiting is, and I know that all the examples I seen thrown around are acutally examples of queer coding, queer subtext, or of a popular fandom ship simply being a ship instead of being canon, but I can't actually think of anything that actually is queerbaiting.

And I know a commenter is about to chime in with the BBC Sherlock show. So I'll preempt it by saying that that one is a fandom ship and the show itself has less queer subtext or coding than most adaptations, even if it has more dumb gay jokes.

--

In my opinion, the number of shows that did this in canon is functionally zero.

The closest real example is that Teen Wolf promotion where they joked about Sterek as though they'd make it canon if people voted for the show (in the Teen Choice Awards? something of the sort).

The entire concept is deeply flawed because it is heavily predicated on the idea that this part of the audience is huge and actively courted by mainstream media makers in the US and places like that. In reality, normie Hollywood types are usually dense as hell about the level of hoyay in their media. When it's brought to their attention, they're bemused or amused or dismissive or think it's nice if fans can see what they want in a canon. (Sometimes, this is because they're terminally straight. Sometimes, it's because they genuinely and eternally see buddy cops as Just Bros and a boring story about pursuing someone whom you will never regard as an equal or bestie as Romance, and this is often true of queer people making mainstream media.) In a few cases, they tried to make something gay, but the producer/studio/network head/Chinese government/etc. stopped them, which is still not queerbaiting. What they aren't is excited about the economic opportunities provided by pulling a bait and switch on that part of the audience.

The vast, vast, vast, vast majority of media either does not give two shits about our kind of audience or is aimed specifically at us and not others. The idea of gaining meaningful ratings or money with this kind of move is just... not how most industries work.

Related concepts are real (as you say), and people keep trying to redefine queerbaiting to cover some of them so they can pretend the term has any actual utility instead of just using the older terms for these specific other concepts. The narrow form of queerbaiting is a self-important delusion that fandom made up to torture ourselves with.

I wish all those dumbass undergrad papers I see blathering on about the subject would start their exploration by at least trying to figure out whether the practice is real in the first place and why and how the idea of it spread instead of taking it as a given.

[paracosmicka]

i've contemplated sending u an ask here for like 2 days regarding ur sonadow art and oufhgh i have to say it is so,, so gentle like the intimacy and softness of it all/pos i hardly see artists that explore the intimate cuddly drawings without the sexual coding so finding your art is so nice?? like refreshing nice as an aroace person bc in my perfect world, many little guys are just cat coded and it's so so cool to me to have found ur art out in the wild also for the mpreg stuff youre literally one of the most normal ppl i've seen draw/bring it up lol, i'm aware so many ppl like to meme on it or make it a fetish which tbh is pretty transphobic, so i'm just really glad you steered it away from that direction and displayed it as something normal and gentle given the context of the au/lh

first off thank you this is such a nice message and i love that people also feel the vibes of soft and intimate from my sonadow art that’s my only ever goal whenever i drew them 😭😭

second off FELLOW AROACE PERSON ACQUIRED 🫵‼️like omg you get it i love thinking about ships in a cat coding way if that makes sense but especially sonadow bc they’re animals so i just love thinking about them as little guys i can put in my pocket just like my cat

like idk if this is an aroace thing bc i don’t hear it described in a way that i relate to exactly so this might just be me but basically: i’ve always loved romance and ships in fiction but as i got older i slowly realized that i don’t think i can feel it for myself. which kinda made me sad at first because the idea of having a partner always seemed so nice, that was the main reason i didn’t think i was aroace at first because i thought i had always wanted to be in a relationship. i did some research and looked into different identities on the aroace spectrum, and thought that cupioromantic was probably the most accurate to what i was feeling, but later didn’t feel like it applied to me because i think the “enjoys the idea of being in a relationship” doesn’t fit right? ig?? idk how to describe it other than i like the idea of relationships, but it took me awhile to realize that i didn’t really want to apply myself in one if that makes sense.

most likely there’s a thing or word out there that already exists to describe that and i just haven’t been looking up the right terms, but basically this is just a very very long way of saying that i feel like whenever i get into a ship it sorta..…attaches?? to my very identity or something?? like i know people can be like “this is my OTP i love them forever and think about them literally all the time” and it’s like YES that’s me but also feels like an understatement, like all of my past hyperfixations on ships are literally ingrained into my soul even i’m not that into them anymore. and i know people compare hyperfixations to relationships and tbh that’s probably the most accurate description but again, that feels like an understatement.

okay honestly idk where i’m going with this i think what i’m TRYING to say is that i feel like because i can’t feel romance for myself my appreciation for ships feels so much more…emphasized, and sonadow is like the longest consistent hyperfixation i’ve ever had on a ship and at that point usually when something has been a “hyperfixation” for 2+ plus years i put it on the special interest display case in my brain except that display case has only ever had like hobbies and fandoms themselves, never an actual fictional relationship that i’m obsessed with but here we are. it might be the development of brain has synched up with this specific hyperfixation but sonadow is the first ship that makes me feel genuinely happy to this degree. it doesn’t make me sad to think about them and also go “aw i’m sad because i’ve never felt that way about another person and probably won’t experience that ever” in the exact same way you would go “aw i’m going to be dead someday” when you think about the fact that you’re alive right now and conscious and exist and have a mini existential crisis of the week. like sonadow doesn’t do that to me, i really just love those stupid fucking gay hedgehogs so much they’ve actually changed the entire layout of my brain and all the neurons and shit they��re everything to me.

ANYWAY JESUS CHRIST sorry for the ramble uhhhh lemme know if you or any other aroace people know what the fuck i was trying to say there hope you’re doing well and also happy new year!!!

[rubberduckyrye]

Okay in all seriousness. There's something that I REALLY want to talk about as an open discussion with the fandom, but. This is not going to be a very nice thing to hear/talk about.

It's about how Gonta is treated by the fandom.

As a fan of all the V3 characters now, and as someone who has always been a fan of Gonta, and as someone who has many mental disabilities and two diagnosed neurodivergancies... I'm tired of playing nice about it.

You all need to stop being ableist towards Gonta.

I've mentioned in the past that I don't like shitting on personal interpretations. I don't like saying something is or is not canon because narration is just a big web of text that you try to decipher with your own personal biases, experiences, and thoughts. That's why two literary analysts analyzing the same text with the same literary criticism rules can come to wildly different conclusions--why people develop different headcanons from the same canonical information.

But one of the things that challenged my integrity is just how many people view Gonta as this innocent, naive, ignorant, baby boy who can do no harm/never has a complicated/dirty/violent/sexual thought in his life ever.

This incredibly ableist interpretation of the character bothered me for, well, obvious reasons (See: It's fucking ableist, need I say more?) but I never challenged it as harshly as I am now because to be frank, it's not my place to tell people how to HC a character. It still isn't. But I've pretty much given up on my integrity on the subject and have decided to go all in on discussing why this interpretation of Gonta is just. Really bad.

First of all, not to promote my own analyses here or anything, but I think this analysis I did of Gonta explains a LOT in regards to the ableism the cast gives him in canon. I also think that this subtle ableism is why the fandom is so bad with Gonta's characterization in headcanons and fanfic--because they've seen how the cast treats him, and they think it's normal. They don't see the microaggressions, they don't see the subtle ableism in the cast--they just see this big giant idiot who speaks like Tarzan in the English version (which... I don't actually know why people assume Tarzan (Thinking of Disney's version) is stupid. Like as a boy he had to reinvent the spear with no one to guide him on how to do it. He was able to strategize and outsmart "civilized" men in the final showdown. Still I digress) and don't see the literal genius behind his social awkwardness.

There is also another very important point I'm going to make in addition to this, and it's going to be very uncomfortable to Gonta fans who insist he's nothing but a sweet baby who only has pure thoughts. Especially to the fans who insist he "can't be sexual" or think it's weird to ship him with his peers.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but... Gonta blatantly has sexual desire and gets horny right in canon.

This is further clarified here:

It wasn't a matter of Gonta didn't want to touch her because touching someone in their underwear was inappropriate, or being flustered because she was in her underwear which is inappropriate...

It was literally a "weird feeling" that made him unable to approach her or touch her. A "weird feeling" that Miu makes pretty obvious as to what it was--sexual arousal.

He literally was sexually attracted to and felt sexual arousal from looking at Miu in her underwear. He had sexual feelings and thoughts about Miu. Why?

Because Gonta is a young man.

Gonta is a brilliant, talented young man who has normal human thoughts for someone his age--sexual desires, upsetting thoughts, complicated thoughts, ectect. He is not a child, he is not mentally stunted (I've been informed that people have literally said this on Ao3 for the NSFW Gonta fics, please for the love of god stop that)

I think the reason why Gonta fans typically want to keep him as a "pure baby child who can do no wrong" is because treating him like the young adult that he is makes it harder for them to justify Chapter 4. Every time I've seen a Gonta fan that hates Kokichi, it's always followed by the sentiment of "Kokichi manipulated and abused Gonta into killing Miu, so it's all Kokichi's fault." They're afraid of nuance and liking a character with the grey morality of genuinely thinking Mercy Killing the cast is a viable option, because it challenges their own morals about the character they adore.

To those people who read this and are upset: You can and should like Gonta! Gonta is a magnificent character who showcases the subtle way microaggressions can manifest and hurt people, he's a good-hearted person and a literal genius, he cares deeply for his friends and loves everyone with upmost sincerity.

But.

You need to re-evaluate your stance on Gonta if you think he's a stupid, naive fool who Kokichi manipulated. You need to re-evaluate why you think those thoughts, why you think Gonta being shipped with anyone is "Kinda weird" or "has weird consent problems" or "give you the ick." You have to challenge yourself and ask yourself uncomfortable questions in regards to why you treat Gonta like a child when canon has proven otherwise, why you think he cannot have violent or sexual thoughts, why he can't think mercy killing his class is the only way to save them.

This isn't an attack on you--but understand that these specific takes on Gonta? They are ableist in nature. They belittle and dismiss him, they treat him like a child, an idiot who can't think for himself--and you have to come to terms with the fact that Gonta is a far more complex character with complicated thoughts and feelings who is a young adult. Not a child. A young adult.

So again, ask yourself this: Why are you treating this young adult like he's a toddler?

[craziertogether]

season 5 is going to change everything.

i don’t think we as a society are actually ready for the impact that stranger things 5 will have on every aspect regarding media. a multi-billion dollar show keeping netflix afloat, with a decade worth of development, originally meant to be cut after season 1. not only did the show cater to and build itself on being for people who weren’t accepted by society but their message lasted through out the first dump term and to start the second, it will carry out its message standing up for people like US. additionally healthy relationships for people who didn’t feel worthy of one before, (jancy, lumax, jopper, and elmike (showing that platonic friendships can exist and they are EQUALLY as important)) and a MAIN queer couple? byler is everything the show stands for and more. i think we really need to put into perspective how insane it will be to have the GA feel for and grow to adapt to and appreciate byler, not because it gratifies everything we’ve been saying but because it will show everyone that queer people CAN have a happy ending (esp on netflix), that they exist and always have, and that these relationships can be equally as deep as if not more than a heterosexual one. i think people always tend to think it’s straight girls praying for their gay ship, which we know isn’t true based on how much of the fandom is queer this show ending with byler + all other endgame ships will be a huge f u to homophobes/bigots and an even bigger appreciation huh for those outcasts of all ages.

p.s. if i am delusional, at least i am free. but yeah, this alone should cure your byler doubt. all we need to have is, netflix doubt and how much pressure they’ll be putting on the duffers to please the GA. but let’s be honest, we have all analyzed everything to death and shouldn’t be worried that the duffers would go against their own intended message plus the show is ending so why would they be worried about this contract anyways they’re so much more successful than Netflix.