#I feel like I'm increasingly in my no-fucks-left-to-give posting era

[animebw]

Something I’ve noticed about RWDE and the asshole side of RWBY criticism is just how bad they are at reading anything into the things they don’t like beyond their initial dislike of them. They never say “I think X was done poorly, the writers were probably trying to accomplish Y but they fell short because Z and it hurts the show because ABC.” It’s always “X SUCKS AND THE WRITERS ARE AWFUL PEOPLE WHO HATE WRITING.”

Like, perfect example: I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about the pacing in the most recent RWBY episode, and I agree with a lot of their complaints. We weren’t given any time to see WBY’s reactions to Ruby’s choice in episode 8, how it affected them and what they thought about it before finding her at the tree. Hell, the way the start of the episode is written it basically feels like everyone forgets they exist so they can deal with Jaune’s trauma; nobody even really acts like Ruby just, you know, Did That. I get that WBY knows by now ascension isn’t death and Ruby’s probably not gone for good, but it’s still a hell of a sight to witness. And there needed to be, like, two more minutes dealing with that fallout before connecting it to Jaune’s catharsis and their mutual understanding that the people they care for aren’t gone forever. I know RWBY doesn’t have unlimited money to throw around, but it really feels like a critical scene was just cut out wholesome.

But there is a stark difference between how regular fans and RWDE voice these complaints. On one side, you’ve got normal people saying “Yeah, that was rushed, it needed a scene of WBY processing what just happened and it feels kind of callous for them to seemingly get over it so fast.” And on the other side, you’ve got the usual asshats going “OMG YANG HATES HER SISTER AND MILES AND KERRY ARE JERKING OFF JAUNE CAUSE HE’S MILES’ SELF-INSERT AND THEY HATE RUBY AND THEY HATE WOMEN ARGLABARLG.” No, you insufferable nimrods, it’s a very simple writing error, nothing more, nothing less. And you really don’t have to expend much brainpower to take that failure in context and move on. It doesn’t ruin the episode, it doesn’t take away from Yang’s scene with Ruby’s tree form, and unless you’re either stupid or deliberately arguing in bad faith, it’s not hard to take it on its own terms without blowing it out of proportion.

Despite what RWDE would have you believe, RWBY fans are fine with criticism. The reasonable, measured complaints I’ve seen from fans about this episode are proof of that. We have no problem discussing the issues with this show. But the bad-faith, poorly-researched, bias-driven, self-serving drivel that spills from these so-called critics’ mouths has no business sharing the same space as actual analysis. And we’re not going to insult our own intelligence pretending otherwise.

In short: RWBY fans have no problem with reasonable critiques. Maybe all these “critics” should try actually, you know, making some one of these days.

[saintsenara]

Hey, I've been enjoying going through your takes on various hp ships, and I haven't seen this one. Did I miss it? What do you think of Ginny/Luna??

thank you very much for the ask, anons!

i've hinted at my views on linny in various places, but they don't yet have a dedicated post. so let's rectify that...

while i have a lot of time for the idea of both ginny and luna as queer, i'm sorry to say that linny is a victim of my general view when it comes to luna-centric pairings: that fics in which it's presented as something which works depend on the presence of fanon!luna, who is a beautiful clairvoyant ray-of-sunshine, rather than canon!luna, who is a stubborn conspiracist with the vibes of a golden retriever which can speak.

i don't doubt that ginny is incredibly fond of luna - nor that luna's positive characteristics [like her resilience, loyalty, kindness, and courage] must have been an enormous comfort to her while they're stuck at hogwarts with snape and the carrows - but her fondness always reads as the same sort of fondness you might have for a friend's precocious toddler. it's nice eye-rolling, but it's eye-rolling nonetheless.

which i think adds a slightly condescending element to their relationship which often gets left out of its portrayals in fanfiction, in both the platonic and the romantic sense. ginny and luna become closer just as ginny approaches her hot girl era [and, may i say, the implication of canon is that they're barely acquaintances prior to order of the phoenix, rather than childhood friends], and ginny's interest in keeping her around is evidently rooted in the fact that she views luna as unthreatening - her making luna take harry to ravenclaw tower in deathly hallows instead of cho always sends me, because she basically says "luna, you're unfuckable" and luna jumps up like "right you are!" - to her during her teenage peak. it's not exactly giving "christ, i think you're gorgeous"...

except, of course, that this doesn't matter in the slightest because this is fanfiction - the entire point is for two characters to be shoved together and made to realise they think the other is beautiful! i am perfectly amenable to the idea that linny can be written in which ginny and luna like and respect and are fucking obsessed with each other and which also feels coherent to both of their canon characterisations - and i love that for anyone who's a fan of the ship.

i just don't entirely think i am...

[there's also the... slightly discourse-y point, which is that linny often feels thrown into fics as a secondary ship as a way to enable a harry-centric slash pairing in a way which doesn't require the author to think about unravelling harry and ginny's canonical relationship.]

[i don't think there's anything wrong with this, per se - i break hinny up all the time, authors should be free to do whatever the fuck they want with their stories, not all fics need to do a completely canon-coherent wrangling with the canon couples they're breaking up in order to have their blorbos kiss, and i am increasingly uncomfortable with how some of the discussion i've seen recently pushing back, rightfully, on the misogynistic treatment of female characters in slash subfandoms is starting to sound a lot like "our canon het is pure and good and their non-canon slash is incomprehensible and wrong".]

[but i do nonetheless think it's worth being aware of a fandom tendency to make femslash relationships a throwaway line in order to enable m/m slash ones - and to think about how just smashing two female characters together without exploring how the relationship would align with their canon personalities doesn't necessarily help...]