#Its related to Sera btw

[anonymouscheeses]

So like in "you didn't know" when Sera says "I thought since I'm older it's my load to shoulder." Or sometjn like that. That basically confirms that Sera and Emily are sisters right?

Like ofc there's some family thing going on there, they look like they are related 100%...... so how tf does that work??

Like I would think that God made them but I don't think God exists in this world(?) since the angels were the one who made earth and etc etc so.... I'm kiinda stumped. And it's made clear that Emily is the YOUNGER sister. So she couldnt be made around the same time as Sera. (Or the same age. Would fhat mean Sera is like infinity years old? Would that make Lucifer infinity years old too?? Iuno...)

So I started thinking.... ykno... like what u do in the middle of the night mhm mhm.... jst going with the theory that God doesn't exist in this world and the Seraphim are the creators..... so, did like, Sera make Emily? Like she made Emily specifically just to be her sister?

Like. Ppl get confused when other people say that they like Sera or that Sera is their favorite. And it's genuinely because she's such an interesting character that most peopple jst see surface levl. "She's pure evil 😡😡" she's doing what she thinks is right for heaven. Is it wrong? Yea but that makes her a FLAWED character. Not evil... i swear, people cant be flawed anymore and then yall like Adam..(i love adam btw im jst sayinf its not bad to like flawed characters). And uh, yiu may be asking, "whay does this have 2 du with Emily being xreated by sera?" Annd mu answer. Sera was lonely asf before Emily ☹️

She's already a more black cat type of character and Emilt is the golden retriever of their sistership. So ifs not a stretch to think that before she made Emily that she was lonely and didn't have much people outside of her title as seraphim. So since she couldn't have someone to get her out of her social shell, she created a bubbly confident social angel to be her sister.

It would probably be like early on in the creatuon days so people in heaveb would probably never have remembered or never knew that Emily was created and not infinite age like the seraphim. Probably would be a bit confused as to how Emily is YOUNGER than Sera but wojld enver ask idk.

Yah I'm not syre what I went with this. I just like Sera as a character and I think she deserves a redemption arc.... or evil arc. Idc either way I love her. She is so stressed and depressed and I know it. I NEED her to have more screen time so bad. dw Enily gets her shine in another post today I got u Emily fans girly 😝💜

[jonesy-squish]

I cannot seem to find Hellsing related tickle stuff which is sad but whatever,take some Hellsing tickle headcanons.Also this is like my 1st time doing tickle headcanons btw :D

-Integra,shes a lee.I cant see it any other way.She wouldn't ask for it,I don't think,at least most of the time,cause she has more important things to attend to.Her most ticklish spots would be in her armpits,the area inbetween your thighs and your hip,and it would tickle her if you'd whisper in her ear.

-Walter is a lee,I cant explain why but he is.He would likely rarely or never ask for it.Though if he were to ask,it would be Seras,he'd ask it very politly.Alucard would definitely tease him,and whatnot. Addtionally,even though Walter is a lee he tickled Integra as a child (they have a father daughter relationship to me).I think he'd be most ticklist at his sides,hips,should blades,underarms,and feet.

-Seras,is a ler leaning switch for sure.She'd definitely tease Integra,Walter not so much,though she would occasionally with him.(not entirely sure about alucard though).Walter would indulge her when she's in a lee mood,Alucard likely would too.Her most ticklish spots would be her underarms,her hips,and her thighs

-Alucard(Vladcard and Girlycard are gonna be listed differently as I think they'd be different for some reason).He's a switch,not particularly leaning in ler or lee.He'd be most ticklish on his sides,the back of his knees,the weenis(THAT IS THE NAME OF THE SKIN ON THE BACK OF ELBOWS),his shoulder blades,his ankles(stole the idea for someone to be ticklish on their ankles from one of my mutuals),and feet(even though the bottom of human feet weird me the fuck out).He'd definatly tease Seras,mainly with "I thought you said you werent that ticklish,Police Girl".He'd also tease Walter a fuck ton,idk how but he would.I dont think he would with Integra tbh

-Vladcard,he's a lee. He has the same spots as Alucard,he'd also be ticklish in his ear and neck area,espcially when you whisper in his ear.I dont really have alot to say about him,i dont think about him that often,so you dont get alot for him

-Girlycard girly card is a ler leaning switch,its very rare for them to be in a lee mood.They'd have the same most ticklish spots as Alucard and Vladcard cause they're the same person,but with the addtion of their underarms.They'd tease the shit out of Walter,like constantly.I dont have alot to say about them either

-Alexander Anderson is a ler.Though he'd let Enrico and Yumie tickle him.He's not the most ticklish though,only being ticklish on his feet,underarms,and neck.He definatly tickled Enrico (and hienkl and yumie when they were kids depending if they met Anderson when they were kids) He'd probably tease Enrico,

-Enrico is ler(but when he was a kid he was definetly a lee),sadistically so.Though he is pretty ticklish himself,especially on his sides,underarms,and the inner parts of his arms.Once again i have not much to say about him even though i love him.

[andresylupin]

Btw do you have headcanons for what kind of poetry Lupin would enjoy? I know there’s that one poem about the willow tree he recited in the Confessions of Arsene Lupin, but I’m curious about other people’s thoughts :D (I also failed to track down the author who wrote that poem?) Do you think he’d read William IX or Marie de France? I’m a literature major myself and I got take a little peek at medieval French poetry in my courses

Interesting question! I am unfortunately not much of a poetry person, so I'm probably not the best to ask what Lupin's taste in that area would be ^^'

Although that doesn't mean I have nothing to say on the matter hehe. First of, the willow tree poem is an excerpt from Lucie, élégie by Alfred de Musset. The whole poem is quite long, and it begins and ends with the stanza about the willow tree.

"Mes chers amis, quand je mourrai,

Plantez un saule au cimetière.

J’aime son feuillage éploré ;

La pâleur m’en est douce et chère,

Et son ombre sera légère

À la terre où je dormirai."

"Friends beloved, when I die,

Plant a willow over me,

Through its leaves the night will sigh,

Kindly will its shadow be,

And its drooping boughs shall weep,

O'er the earth wherein I sleep."

(not quite accurate as far as translation go I'd say, but that's the first official translation I found online, and translating poetry is SO HARD anyway, so I'm leaving it as is)

Secondly, there are literary references, quotes, nods, etc, everywhere within Lupin stories, whether from Lupin himself or from the narration (found this really neat article about intertextuality by Leblanc in Lupin, which lists most of what we can find and goes into a bit more details than I did here→) Looking at it from a watsonian perspective, this is simply Maurice Leblanc's way to reconcile more "classic" literature with the more "common" style of Lupin: by making his character quote Musset, Shakespeare, Chateaubriand, Milton or Pline, Leblanc elevates Lupin to a learned scholar, and signals that he, as an author, is also a reader of that kind of literature. From a Sherlockian perspective, it just makes sense that Lupin be well learned in everything: he is a man of culture, that's precisely what sets him apart from regular thieves. Going by what we can find in the text, he seems to favour XIXe authors and old classics, which is not very surprising, since, remember, this is mostly a reflection of Leblanc's own library. So I fear french medieval poetry might a bit out there in that context, but as far as headcanons go, I really see no reason why he wouldn't have something by Marie de France on his shelves! The man's eclectic 😌

Somewhat related, there's also Gérard Baupré the unfortunate aspiring poet from 813, who Lupin treats rather condescendingly, disparagingly even. Now of course Baupré is nothing remarkable, and Lupin is only using him as a pawn, which explains this attitude (+ Baupré dares fall in love with the same woman as Lupin, and even *gasp* pursue her!). But it's interesting with how Lupin adresses him, always calling him "poet", making a mockery of it: further proof imo that Lupin is very much presented to us as a literary connaisseur, and in this case specifically poetry, thus making him able to judge whatever Baupré's scribbling, and evidently he doesn't think much of it.

And there you go, hope this was somewhat what you were looking for :D honestly I think headcanoning Lupin as a reader of pretty much anything really, is fair game. I like how french/European his references are (because, again, so are Leblanc's), but I'd be interested in him reading outside of European literary canon as well!

[uno-writing]

Ability/Biology HC

Welcome back to UnO Science with Berri!!!! Keep in mind this is canon adjacent so if things dont line up perfectly thats why :D!!! I inputted a lot of my own personal hc so ig this is more of an AU theory fdsagfasfgas

BTW I’m just going off of what info is in the comic bc thats what I consider as canon :D Personally I dont view Q & A answers as canon since they’re not directly in the comic, but you all are obviously welcome to view it as canon if you’d like :D :D 

Also I might do a post with pics and other visuals later on but I didn’t have time to make them today edsafgdsgaf

The Aura Channels, spread through out the entire body. These channels similarly follow the nervous system. This originates in the Aura Gland. This gland is located near the cerebellum and the brain stem. It looks similar to a balloon depending on the mastery.

The gland glows when activated. While it’s not proven why this happens, researchers theorize that its due to an evolutionary advancement to warn away predators (like the poison dart frog’s bright colors). The larger the gland, the brighter it glows. Because of this, high tiers always have a faint glow to them due to their passives, a further warning for others to stay away. 

The aura system is developed enough to use by the start of puberty. This gland is already at the maximum size it will ever be at puberty and does not continue to grow along with the brain. The max size is determined at birth through genetics (check out my genetics hc if you haven’t <3). Also known as potential, this is the largest amount of aura that can be produced at one time. 

While someone’s exact max cant be predicted easily, doctors are able to speculate what tier a child will be in once they start puberty based on the size of the aura gland. For example, Sera’s gland is massive compared to Evie’s. 

Nulls have the aura system but lack the activation gene. “Late Bloomers” have delayed aura system development. For example, John’s aura gland was very small through out middle school and then developed fully when he hit high school where as William’s is still small. 

There’s two main types of abilities: physical and mental. These also have their own subgenres. 

Physical: Stat Increase, Medical, Constructs, and Quantum

Mental: Mind, Emotional, and Meta

Aura Channels activate in relation to the type of ability. For example, John’s ability starts with only being activated in his head and then spreads based on what abilities he copies. Blyke’s ability was only activated in his hands when he was elite tier, but now that he’s high tier its active in his entire torso. 

All children are also born with grey eyes. Once their aura gland activates, the color floods into their eyes. This color is a direct reflection of their aura. Certain people with a meta ability can copy others auras. Like John would have grey eyes, but when he copies abilities his eyes change to that person’s aura. 

There’s plenty of different procedures revolving around abilities as well. 

Ability amplification is an illegal process in which an ability is amplified by some method. The most common methods involve increasing the size of the aura gland in order to cause more aura production to occur. All methods of ability amplification are dangerous and addictive.

Ability transference is a relatively new practice that involves taking aura from a host and putting it into the patient in order to change abilities. Aura production is stopped and then the new aura is cycled through. The host is needed to be alive due to the constant treatments necessary. This is a painful and highly addictive procedure with terrible withdrawals.

Deamplification is the opposite process. In some way the aura gland shrinks and therefore can’t produce as much aura. 

Nullification is a semi-permanent procedure. SPECTRE uses a serum in order to completely shut off the aura system. While this can be reversed, its unstable and requires lots of treatments. 

*FROM THIS POINT FORWARDS IS NO LONGER CANON STUFF! THIS IS STUFF RELATING TO THE BERRIVERSE! ITS AN INTERESTING IDEA AND ITS NOT TOO IN DEPTH WITH MY OC STUFF IF YOU DO WANNA READ /NF*

TW!!!!! GORE, UNSAFE MEDICAL PRACTICES, MENTIONS OF LOBOTOMY TYPE PROCEDURE AND PARALYSIS, NON CONSENSUAL MEDICAL PROCEDURES! PROCEED WITH CAUTION MY FRIENDS!!!!!

A more barbaric way is to make an incision at the base of the head and heavily damage or even remove the aura gland. This practice was mainly used in early medicine on criminals and threats to society. 

This practice has since been outlawed and has mainly died out due to the inhumane aspect of it and the danger surrounding it. Since the aura gland is located near the brain stem, the risk of paralysis and other side effects are incredibly high. While its outlawed, its still used as a threat towards children and delinquents. It is also still used in some circles as an extreme measure, however its very rare.

If the aura gland is healed from this procedure quick enough then there is a possibility of recovery, however its not guaranteed. In some cases abilities return, but stay stunted through out the person’s life.

[saintobio]

what’s Sachiro’s astrological sign?

also great job on the new chapter, i’d be typing a dictionary to describe how much i love it but to keep it short - i honestly can’t wait to see what you do with the series. hope you have a good day, stay healthy and hydrated! love you <3

aries !! and thank u sm mwa <33

Anonymous said

completely u related to say but saint you should watch My Name on netflix it just came out. It reminds me so much of Underground Fight Club! here’s there summary

“Following her father's murder, a revenge-driven woman puts her trust in a powerful crime boss -- and enters the force under his direction.”

Also the mc is literally Han So Hee 😭😭

i’m actually planning to watch that :0 it looks so exciting and i love han sohee so much aaaAaAAAa

Anonymous said

lovely chapter saint. i admire your hardwork and dedication. btw, is there a possibility we would get a suguru x reader in the future (doesnt have to be a series cus i know how taxing it can be even tho im not a writer lol) outside of snverse? also i hope you’re taking good care of yourself. dont forget to drink plenty of water love <3

- 🪐 anon

thank youuuu and i’m not sure yet baby, but it’s possible :’) it’s just that i rly only have the motivation to write for gojo rn

@shintin said

from the moment i read the new chapter i become sad, poor satoru, don't tell me that he lost the memory of past 3 years 😭😭😭 my heart was heavy from reading Y/N's situation...please don't this story with sad ending, it will reallu effect me 😭😭😭 i want to bite their son's cheeks when he said dada has a boo boo 😍😍😍 he is so cuuuute 😍😍😍 i love you Saint 😍😍😍 but please think about happy ending 🥲🥲🥲

hahahahah u can handle it 😭 i promise

Anonymous said

geto taking satoru's side is understandable since theyre best friends but he made me mad when he was talking to the mc in sy. him and shoko were both kind of enablers. especially during that one trip they should never have allowed sera to come along. they were also somewhat at fault. probably not compl, but still they were wrong

damn, straight fax tho ieiri did show that she doesn’t tolerate it and so did getou later in the series

Anonymous said

Hey Saint! Are there any other fics you're working on besides Sincerely Yours or is it your last one? Btw I just wanted to tell you your writing is amazing and the first chapter is so good ❤️❤️❤️

i lost my wips but i rly wanna finish aab and aos !! they’re on my navi you see 😭 hopefully i get to post someday. and thank u very much !!!

Anonymous said

So when can I hope for some sera x sukuna, saaiinntttt??? I hope we get some of them because since reading their side story I got sooo excited for more. Their story was so interesting and refreshing!! Also because I’m not really feeling MC anymore. Hope you’re staying healthy! Love❤️❤️

maybe soon, we’ll see :D they’re just a side story so don’t expect many scenes

Anonymous said

“My wife.” He had all of you at a loss for words while his eyes only searched for the woman he believed he still loved. “Let’s go home.”

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN PLS. he believed he still loved. so he doesn't anymore ???? why u do this to me 😔😔😔 ajshwkwjrshwiei pls this is gonna hurt so bad i just know. so the fluff that's gonna hurt is when they are spending their time together as a family but satoru doesn't remember anything soooo

gahahah secret :p

Anonymous said

Sn1 really made me cry and i'm a sucker for angst. I really love this sotry and can't wait for Sn2. Also how people see the perspective of the characters is amazing. There both in a wrong no matter how you see it. Even people saying that yn hid the baby is the first selfish thing she has done, but still its not right tho. Also i can see why see runaway from her wedding w/ toji tho, girl have some major trust issues (even tho he will definitely not cheat on her). I love how the ending is kinda open no one knows who will end up w/ who(except sain tho) and it kinda gives the thrill and makes me excited. Btw you officially have become one of my fave author and the first one i have read is the iwaizumi fanfic.

A bit shameless to ask, but if ever toji and yn didn't end up together i kinda hope you make fanfic about them. I just love your writing style and how the story goes.

if yn ever ends up with someone or no one at all, i don’t rly plan to create alternate endings bc that lessens the impact of the finale iykwim 🥺 also omg ufc was the first fic you’ve read from me? or is it the college one

Anonymous said

Omg love idk what author's note the rest are talking about I can't find it anywhere on your new post 😭 I'll miss you so damn much, your writing and your answers to asks are two things I always look forward to. These days only genshin, anime, SN and SN2 keep me going. I truly wish you the best in your future endeavors, you've made a place in our hearts and we're always going to wish you well

Love you soooooo much 💖

love u too and i’m not leaving dw 😆 just might take breaks here and there <33 ty for ur kind words baby

Anonymous said

will gen feel any remorse at all? i find it hard to believe that she ever will, but i really want her to feel at least some sort of guilt. didn’t she guide her sister in the direction of hiding the baby?

she’s not heartless, so maybe. and she’s not protective of yn for no reason. at the end of the day she just wants her sister to get out of that toxicity, especially after knowing how much she suffered from her marriage.

Anonymous said

Ahhhhh, Saiiiint. Welcome back ❤️

Definitely see some things being set up right now, so won't comment on stuff. Can't wait to see everything unfold.

Tojiiiiiiiii. TOOOJIIII 🥺😭

Also, GETO. IEIRI. FIANCÉ. HELP. That made my day HAHHHA.

Oh, and to help (and perpetuate) the Gojo brain rot:

https://kakyoinsbunny.tumblr.com/post/667527721218424832/sigh-takes-off-pants-credit-to-levischailatte

I have to say, while Nanamin and Toji are my faves, this made me spit my water and drop to my knees.

— 🦈 Anon

shark anon i. am. crying !! that link 😵‍💫 sdjsbsja

Anonymous said

totally unrelated to your writing but whenever i see someone with similar hair to yours on tiktok, i’m always like “oh my god, saint is that you” lmfao

i love you and your fics so much, you’re the queen on fanfiction

omgggg that’s so cute 🥺🥺🥺 and thank u baby !! i’m def not hahahh

[incarnateirony]

i think there’s a distinction that needs to be made. i think those with power over dabb & co are the ones who are exuding more habits of queerbaiting, while dabb and co aren’t. and because those execs are more or less invisible, the blame/fault is put on dabb as he’s the perceived figurehead of everything in the show when he’s not. anything he may want to put in the show can be easily vetoed by a higher exec so

Okay so I said I wouldn’t touch related issues facing wanky-side, but while this runs the line this is such a genuine, and valid thought process it feels worth addressing.

So in short: Yes. But no. But yes. But no. But we’ll see.

What do I mean by that? I’m going to put this behind a cut. But first of all I want to thank this Nonnie for at least trying to critically think about where the problems lead to. This is FAR BETTER CRITICAL THINKING than I see in this discussion most of the time and this. More like this. Nuance, discussion, idea trade, history. Let’s do it.

Okay, so.

How can it be yes no yes no maybe eenie meenie miney mo?

Because it really depends on what part of this 15 year legacy show we’re talking about.

What I’m about to say isn’t going to be popular, but I’ve said it before, I just can’t find the ancient ass post discussing it.

We’re going to rewind. Like, a fucking lot. A lot, a lot. This is going to be a history ride, and you’re probably going to wonder how it connects to the conversation at first, but bear with me.

Ignoring any personal frustrations I have with the casting of season 4 – frankly a chapter of this FUCKING show that haunts me somewhere in the ballpark of, “If my friend wasn’t dismissed as not white enough and got the role, would we have Misha, Destiel, any of this, would the show be on, would she have been chased off as the other actresses?” – and frankly these are the things people don’t even fucking *think* about.

TLDR a bajillion years ago CW made a casting call and we got this super cute character named Anna that Dean was slated to bend over in two seconds flat, as old canon used to be before modernly growing. The actress expressed discomfort, and frankly went over with the audience about as well as wet cardboard. And like, while I agree that a lot of women were hated for misogynistic reasons in this show, she really was about as interesting as a plank of plywood to me once she got past her first performance or two.

At the same time, this handsome bastard named Misha Collins auditioned for a bit role originally intended for 3 episodes and quickly extended to 6. But, identified as lightning in a bottle and with on-fire chemistry, while Anna waffled for *several* reasons, summarily, their story ends swapped. That’s… not like *exactly* what happened but it’s *basically* what happened. Anna became the herald and contagonist instead of Cas, and Cas quite frankly took on the role of the goddess.

With Lisa already entered before Anna, there’s no evidence whatsoever she was intended as endgame. Story flip. Thank you for everything last night on earth fall by angel banishing almost like this was foreshadowed woohoo! But… don’t lend towards a relationship. No point. Given, they made a few jokes on set at that point, but it wasn’t really an idea *they thought anyone took seriously*. 

Coming from a phase where most of the leads were introduced to “slash fandom” by Wincest, which they literally used to torture and prank each other, the idea of this being anything serious really wasn’t on their radar. The one I remember most was Misha choosing to sit on Dean’s side of the bed as Cas in the famous “What were you dreaming about?” and Sgriccia being like “that’s kinda gay” “nah keep it”

I mean, is that… queerbait at that point? I don’t think it’s fair to really call it that. They respectfully tried to scrub out the leading romantic edges from what would have been Anna’s story, but ultimately, the human psyche kind of recognizes 8000 years of storytelling history subconsciously when using the Hero’s Journey narrative, so it was resonant. Nobody was crazy for seeing it. That didn’t mean it was right, that didn’t mean it’s what they were consciously leading anyone for.

Hell, Jensen didn’t even know what the fuck Destiel WAS until season 7 (”Deathstiel?”) due to the way cons, circuits, and fansites kept the conversation force-muted at that point. Anything they had floated somewhere in the area of “hah that is kinda gay I guess”, and even that there’s no evidence of being frequent.

Kripke left, the show petered, social media was new, and summarily, Sera Gamble was a dumbass and listened to the wrong crowd that seemed super big back when big accounts were a whole 10K followers and you had 50 asshats screaming as a coordinated group about Ruining The Show™. Ratings tanked, somewhere between Misha being fired and the show turning into a parody of itself with dick jokes that made it seem like Gamble was trying to target 11 year old boys for her audience, and like, that’s it, that was the season. 

Until that nosedive spiral essentially turned into a shorthand apology reversal, a panicked and roughly written script that was *SO GAY* that *EVEN MISHA FUCKING COLLINS* couldn’t seriously choke out the dialogue. It was cheap, it was out of character, and as Jensen put it, the dialogue might as well have had him petting and sobbing into Castiel’s coat while essentially being like I SLEEP WITH YOUR COAT EVERY NIGHT TO REMEMBER YOUR SCENT UWU and shit that just LITERALLY vaulted from alien fascinated staring into desperate teenage gay drama in the body of a 30 year old man.

So yeah. Did I consider it reasonable to change that? Fuck yes I did. 

Was what Sera Gamble did queerbait? Yes, actually. And she did it again in the Magicians. You see, Gamble had fucked over an audience, and then tried to exploit that audience in reverse when she realized she fucked over the *wrong* audience, but had zero intent of fulfillment.

And then magically, Sera Gamble didn’t fucking work there anymore after a whole like, year and a half as showrunner.

Now, at the same time, Dawn Ostroff was leaving the CW. Jensen’s had some pretty fierce words about Dawn Ostroff not understanding the show and how to manage it, but whatever. Bye, Dawn. Hello… MARK FUCKING PEDOWITZ. But at the same time, WELCOME BACK CARVER and most of all HOWDY DO NETFLIX, so nice to make a guaranteed deal with you (that ended as of this year due to a CBS merchandising meltdown).

When Carver came back, he said a lot of things. He… very tactfully called Gamble’s era trash by phasing it like “:) Watching the show :) since I left :) I realized :) a lot of our mythology :) has been difficult to follow :) so I went :) back to basics :) please help”, and others, like mentioning he had a three year plan on his desk. So 3. Season 8, 9, 10. He had notes for his S10 finale in mind and everything! Great stuff.

Now the fandom, at this point, generally didn’t pay attention to the network or production. In fact, the actor worship around here is some other kind of wild and I don’t know how after 15 years people haven’t figured out that it isn’t how to go about paying attention. Either way – plot switches, showrunner switches, author switches, and NETWORK LEADERSHIP SWITCHES. 

Now, this little part here is speculation – but I am 99% sure that when Carver was pulling SPN out of the cancellation toilet, he had bigger things to inform the new execs about than “btw I might make it gay.” Like “Hey, since CW just got its netflix deal, if you give us another year we can import fresh demographic while bringing back Collins’ old fanbase by setting him back as a regular.” SURE, SOUND GREAT, MAKE MONEY, THX.

Cool. Cool. Make sense so far, you still with me?

Because at this point, S8 into early S9, fandom had gotten itself into all kinds of a stir. It was about to go canon, rite nao, said a bunch of bloggers, who at that point WERE pretty much chasing wallpapers and Tshirts and making the most bizarre uncorroborated parallel interpretations like “IF U PARALLEL IT TO MOBY DICK-” WHAT WHY WHERE– ??? BUT cAS = fISH

Okay, my fucking annoyance at what counted as lit crit in those days aside, we’ll get back on track. Everybody started vibrating for this shit because, you know what, S8 did resonate pretty strong, almost like authors were toying with ideas. I’m not gonna get into stuff about Robbie, I THINK fandom knows the statements he’s made and I don’t just mean the whole Destiel being canon tweet both antis and bitters descended on him to eviscerate him about. About what? Calling it queerbait!

So here we go, the great advent. About a year after a dramatic network shift, a CW exec was like :))))))))) I’D LIKE TO LEARN ABOUT THIS FANDOM THAT IS SUDDENLY MAKING ME MONEY!! WHAT SHOULD I DO??? TO TWITTER! HASHTAG TALK TO THEM!

[logs in]

Beep boop. “Destiel?”  “Destiel?” “Destiel?” “Destiel?” “Destiel?” “Destiel?” “Destiel?” “Destiel?” “Destiel?” “Destiel?” “Destiel?” “Destiel?” “Destiel?” “Destiel?” “Destiel?” the FUCK is a Destiel? Wait what no I don’t know what you’re talking about representation isn’t our intention with these characters. “QUEERBAIT”  “QUEERBAIT” “QUEERBAIT” “QUEERBAIT” “QUEERBAIT” “QUEERBAIT” “QUEERBAIT” “QUEERBAIT” “QUEERBAIT” “QUEERBAIT” “QUEERBAIT”

And then the network exec got so slammed he deleted twitter entirely and everybody popped confetti and felt accomplished and did NOT realize how fucking BAD that was. And frankly, anyone that did kinda didn’t want to admit it, because taking responsibility for that tire fire was… not… attractive. In fact, several folks are still around to this day, bitter blogging or making weirdass meta or accusing other people of wallpapers and Tshirts because that’s what they did so *YAY, PROJECTION!*

My own frustrated bitterness aside, I’m going to place some questions down, and not so much answer them as, now that the reader has really taken history in, let them decide:

At this point… is this queerbait?

Because this is when the queerbait yelling began. It’s when every fan with even a moderate platform or site blasted it out there. 

It’s when the fandom made DeanCas a big problem.

And it’s also literally the same time Carver left his very first recorded, known direction with a romantic tilt, “The note I got from Jeremy Carver was to play it like a jilted lover, so that’s what we played there,” on LGBT author Bobo berens’ very first episode. Everyone runs circles around that modernly, or goes “SEE??? QUEERBAIT!” without realizing what the FUCK just happened here.

So, SPN went from cancel rating line to their most successful show between 7 and 9. Suddenly corporate sees their successful product *ON FUCKING FIRE* so do you know what happens?

Fuck it this IS one line I’ll break: Corporate panicked. They changed their press packets. If you noticed a bunch of media-adjacent people and their friends suddenly get bitter as FUCK in season 10 after still surviving the S9 mess, here’s fucking why. Because now that everybody spent the last YEAR trying to burn down the product yelling about shit that corporate had been literally blindsided by, they added temporarily a new section to the packet that included sexuality. They were, at that moment, suddenly listed collectively as heterosexual men. SEE, WE AREN’T QUEERBAITING IF WE TELL YOU THEY’RE STRAIGHT *will smith pose*

Congrats fandom, you have now officially made Destiel A Huge Problem™ to the corporate behemoth behind the shiny pictures. The iron curtain dropped. This is what you could call “Protect the Product Mode” if you will. 

Now again, at this point: Is it queerbait?

Because at this point, S9-10 was rolling out. We all know it, Cain, Collette, *gestures off into infinity* But let’s fall back to Carver’s statement. 3 years. 8, 9, 10. You know what else happened season 10?

A bunch of shit, including shit Carver *wrote himself for the season 10 finale* got filmed, then cut. Coincidentally, it was all very gay shit. Things that pulled forward the Crowley/Abaddon Cas/Colette Sam/Abel parallels, arguing over who was who’s boyfriend, Rowena mentioning about them both being shattered at the Altar of Winchester (15.3 is calling), the secret admirer dream, I could go on. I mean, this shit literally would have shifted the entire storytelling arc to full-frontal taking that  parallel and addressing it right up in your face. First you’ll kill your mistress but you’ll get it done, and then you’ll kill your wife. He’s your boyfriend no he’s YOUR boyfriend. You’ve BOTH been shattered at the Altar of Winchester. Really, this is what you dream about? Your secret admirer Cas?

K? K. K?

Is it queerbait for Carver to have entered with a plan? Is it queerbait for Carver to have been interrupted on that plan despite attempting to pursue it? And is it queerbait for the network to still lock down on that plan so close after the event?

You see why this conversation gets increasingly complex.

S11 rolled around, Carver was half in half out, Dabb was stepping in, big gay heart songs, take what you will out of that entire mess, and by S12 Dabb entirely took over and we started entering the era we are in today.

So let’s address where we’re at today. 

Now :) I can’t say anything for sure :) because anybody that’s been to or worked on marketing stuff definitely has an NDA :) but let’s play for a minute. Let’s say with the stone wall up, a set of creators still wanted to actually *go somewhere* with this story. 

“But!” remembered the network, “Remember the tire fire?! And all the people that hated the gay?! What about our profit?!”

“No,” a creator might say, “Tides have changed.”

“We’ll see,” a network might say, “Take it to market testing.” At which point, one would enter a few years of polling how the general audience reacts to this.

Now, if they were seeing promising numbers, they might be given a bit of rope. Why, let’s … just pretend. Totally. Totally pretending. That Dabb pitched this idea to take up Carver’s mantle. Let’s say that started S12ish when he took over. Let’s say they ran through hiatus. And then… authors might be given a little bit of a line. “Looks good, but we’re not sure,” said a network quite fond of its split conservative/liberal demographic, “Try it out a bit and see how it goes.”

And so an author room that would be full of LGBT creators fed out good faith groundwork. They might even be like YALL ITS NEVER TOO LAAAAAATE TO START ALL OVER AGAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN and just throw their whole boy howdy cowboy into that shit and get great ratings.

What if even if the results came back positive leaning, the network ho’ed and hummed and stayed noncommital? Might the creators scale it back while still writing it lowkey just in case they got flashed a greenlight? I know I sure would, woudn’t you?! Or I guess would you prefer we drop the whole thing cold and stop writing anything vaguely in the direction?

Difficult question, in reality, isn’t it?

So in this TOTALLY HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION, this leaves the authors holding the bag, waiting for a sign, and being held with limitations. And just in case anybody thinks “BUT AUTHORS CAN DO WHATEVER THEY WANT!! AND!! OTHER SHOWS!!!”

K have we come down to reality yet? So, sure kids, try the gay, we’re interested, but you can’t like, go Full Gay Frontal with it. You gotta imply the gay. Wouldn’t want to offend conservative america! Besides! We’re totally exploiting marketing making this LGBT content for you over here! *jingles a carrot on a stick* LOOK AT HOW MUCH WE’RE FLEECING ADVERTISING PROMOTING ALL THIS GAY STUFF FOR YOU AREN’T THE RAINBOWS GREAT?

Some creator of limited LGBT content: How’s the marketing looking?

Some network: EH! We’ll see!

Some creator of limited LGBT content: K guys we’ll scale it back to not upset them but don’t drop it.maybe we can have them hold hands at the end or if we’re lucky maybe they’ll say we can do the whole thing

Some LGBT creators: K

Making sense still? STILL WITH ME?

So at this point… is this queerbait, or is this business?

Put aside the emotional reaction. Realize this really only hit scale in S9, hit front line S10, and hit potential corporate discussion in this TOTALLY theoretic universe around S11-12. We’re talking 3-4 years. Not 10. And we’re talking only a few of it really being tested.

So again I ask, history minded: Is this queerbait, or is this business?

That’s where the nuance and complication comes in, and let it be said I am in no way defending the CW. I fucking hate the network. They have literally personally screwed over real friends of mine and I hope they choke on a whole bag of dicks with their bullshit, but honestly, the shit I have seen and heard would make people stick their heads in the sand like scared and ashamed ostriches for every time they trumpet “BUT OTHER SHOWS” – you don’t know what’s going on in those shows. You don’t know how they’re getting hardballed on budget decisions, you don’t know what that show’s marketed demographic is about, you don’t know what they demand cast how, you literally don’t have a fucking idea unless you’re up in that disaster zone.

And even IF you’re in that disaster zone, unless you’re truly in the upper echelon, you only know so much.

Now let’s pretend, again, totally metaphorically, and absolutely not inspired by a real person at all, that someone worked with the crew for a while and, because they saw support inside creeping upward siiiiince mmmm gosh we’ll say season 12 since that’s our advent and totally not when anybody specific started working there and telling fandom ladder fans what they thought they saw going on, only to get sad and bitter and angry and eventually leave, and all those friends, still abiding old bitterness from S9~, now get angrier because of somebody else’s burnout on their ITK level and perspective, even if that was *probably* aggravated by other work stress conditions as well, but hey! WHO KNOWS!?!?! :)))) What a weird hypothetical though and I’m getting weirdly super specific on it aren’t I so LET’S MOVE ON.

We’re in S12-13 discussion category now.

So my question is, from this perspective… when do you call queerbait? When not swept up in misguided hysteria… at what point do you say “Yeah, you know what, yup, that’s all queerbait”?

So we’re gonna take a bit of a break here for a second and really process all of that hypothetical world, where a creator pitched going for it, and got it put into market testing, and was given enough rope to hang themselves on if the network changed its mind.

After only a few years of conscious thought on it… do you even think the network is truly consciously misguiding specifically those fans, or do they see it as giving the fans something they want while testing the idea of possibly truly giving it to them?

Because here’s what fandom misses – the corporate perspective. And again, I’m utterly not fucking justifying the CW as a whole, but people look at this from the angle of fans, and then argue what they think is representative dialogue from the angle of fans, often while missing all of this history. All that history up till S9? That’s all very real.  But looking at history in perspective… who are you going to blame for that? Is it fair to hold S4-9 to that five year stretch of queerbait when that was… pretty much fandom manufactured from blissful ignorance to begin with? I mean if you want to go yell at Sera Gamble Specifically okay (please don’t) but beyond that like– that shit? Is that anybody’s fault? Do you blame a company for actually shutting DOWN the talk of it on a press angle? Can we call that and S10 queerbait then? Was Carver’s attempt at writing through it queerbait? Was trying to continue the story in S11 after theoretic shutdown queerbait? These are all genuine questions that are not asked enough. Most people don’t even realize they need to be asked.

So back to Totally Theoretic Land, where S12ish market testing would have been going on to see if people really thought it was Gay N Shit. Like a lot of people in an overwhelming majority after the amount of apprehension the straight old dude running the network has ever since the goddamn tornado of horse shit that happened like a year after he took over. Probably not the fondest fucking memory for him either. Probably also why he dismissively called most of that demographic “casual fans”, because in Smug White Guy Brain, “tru” fans would have all known, I guess, exactly the shit I’m telling you in history backtrack so, look at the silly girls wanting the gay shit :) Ahhhh girlllllls

Okay so, my impression of douchebags aside, let’s give it 12-13 hiatus to give the first test rope lead and 13-14 hiatus for the next, only to have at best noncommital and uncertain numbers and authors, theoretically, cautiously pulling back while writing it as generally established and implicit, as if it might, I don’t know, go from BIG GAY DRAMA to DEADASS DOMESTIC all of a sudden despite ITS NEVER TOO LATE TO START ALL OVER AGAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN cuz get it, they started over, after he came in his room and played him. *elbows* You all get it right?

K. So maybe numbers changed. Maybe they don’t. Maybe I’m not comfortable talking in this hypothetical, maybe I don’t have access to this hypothetical AU’s current marketing data as of this year, I just don’t know! We don’t know where those cards fell.

But if, at this point, after 2-3 years of market testing, and leading authors on, and giving them enough rope to hang themselves with to get themselves accused of queerbait just for trying to lay good faith groundwork for a cohesive narrative, because fans don’t care that 2 open closet LGBT authors are on deck or that there’s totally theoretically probably and in no way fingering anyone at least one closeted author on deck, or at least publicly so, their coworkers would probably know. But I mean. That’s just. :) statistics. Right?

K whatever moving on. If at this point they’ve been boggley bounced around… you know, I gotta say. At this point… I might actually call queerbait if the network stonewalls it. At this point, they’ve had a few years to really get their shit together, and if they’ve just used it to play yo yo with LGBT creators trying to make content then yeah, go suck a whole bag of dicks.

The problem being with the lack of nuance in this conversation, you’re right, Dabb and co would catch it rather than the guilty party, which is why I HATE faux activism culture. If you’re going to be an activist pay the fuck attention to what you’re being an activist in, don’t bite the hand that’s feeding you just because it was a PBJ and not filet mignon, go after the bastard 1%’er that’s eating all the goddamn filet mignon. But nobody will. It never works like that. And then everybody wonders why this continues – be it in this show, or on other networks.

But hey. Maybe this theoretic network got enough material to change their mind. Maybe another executive got promoted that might help one of the other creators argue it to corporate with their new shiny title. Maybe they can convince someone. Convince them of what and to what level, who knows. Maybe just continue telling the established story, give them a divorce, mention marriage, divorce, dead wives, breakups every 0.2 seconds while they go through a classically framed dark point in the romance everybody with brains and eyes understands because, again, historic storytelling we literally all recognize, but pretend we don’t when stomping about personal representation lines? Or hey! Maybe it’ll go further. (Don’t hold your breath.) Throw in some other shit that even a straight guy would look at and be like “two dicks one chick that shit’s gay bro” because WE LITERALLY ALL FUCKING KNOW WHAT IT MEANS EVEN IF IT’S IMPLIED BECAUSE THE NETWORK IS A BUNCH OF PUSSIES.

…*stops, breathes*

If you can’t tell this is a very long term topic of frustration to me, because nobody, absolutely nobody, wants to introspect and think, you know, maybe it wasn’t queerbait back then, maybe we SHOULDN’T have set a corporate exec on fire about it, that might have been fucking bad.

There are other ways to be an activist than to scream queerbait into the void at whoever is unfortunate enough to cross your paths. One of the best examples I can remember is Exorcising Emily collecting demographics on fandom, and testimonials from LGBT fans about resonating with the content – no fanfic, no fanart, no attacks – and sent copies of this to several powerful creative names.

Now… if with this history… if, from season 9 to 12… one of those names became a creator. If, by some FLUKE of imagination… he still had that book around… and even gave it to his freshly joined new employees like 2 weeks after they started working there–

oh wait and i oop

The mentions would be much as you expect, antis screaming and demanding her job (QUICK, somebody tell Andrew Dabb that she’s READING ANDREW DABB’S OWN BOOKS THAT HE CHOSE TO KEEP AROUND FOR THREE YEARS).

Has Dabb’s era seemed… more plugged in? More resonant? Better and stronger in its storytelling? More hooked into fandom? 

See, that’s what well thought activism can do. Well thought activism can structure an entire movement. Poorly thought rioting thinking itself as activism can cause the literal opposite effect of what it wanted. That is how these things contrast each other. And that is something fandom needs to DEEPLY consider. 

…but is it queerbait for him to try to continue the story? Even if, say, we drop the marketing talk, because TOTALLY nobody can ACTUALLY know because AGAIN anyone that DOES would have an NDA so we DEFINITELY can’t say anybody knows anything for sure, because anyone that said jack shit would probably get sued so hard their descendents down in whatever homo superior evolution 1000 years into the future would feel it, so you know. We’ll put aside this totes theoretical shit and ask

…If he just was told no– would you prefer to just drop the storyline entirely at this point?

Again. Genuine question. And difficult. And something poorly thought queerbait screaming can actually cause, too. 

So here we are in the land of the final season. Whether you consider it network queerbait or not – again, they can choke on the whole bag of dicks at a network level for all I care for ANY number of reasons, even well beyond the domain of Supernatural, and may all their bacon burn from here into the next life – it’s a lot more complicated than fandom has ever let it on to be, because letting it on to be what it really is, in full perspective, also demands a lot of introspection and acceptance, and we all know nobody in this fandom can ever make a mistake ever and they’re all fucking perfect darlings.

It’s a complicated answer to a simple idea… and unfortunately I don’t think this fandom will ever really sit here. They’ll yell “VICTIM BLAMING” because it’s buzzy, they’ll yell “HIDING YOUR GAYS” which I mean, yeah, but let’s talk about what led us here. They’ll yell a lot of things. But they will rarely quietly think, and study, and hone down to what’s going on in the world out there beyond what they have, at this point, become obsessively hotlocked on. 

Supernatural, as of 15.7, has already taken several steps further than it ever is before. No, that’s not a signal of me saying [Your Personal Goalpost] is going to happen. But it’s a sign that if they have a line, they’re testing it with every strength they have.

Going back onto the Fateful Advent: Cain. The mentor– who was never going to stop; I can’t stop samuel; he was never going to stop; I will never stop; Rowena, the mentor, never going to stop, shattered, at the altar of Winchester. Long ago, when Cas was human, Dean sealed him away, and now, he’s doing the same to him. So Shirt Of Bad Decisions Deanmon basically karaokes with his friend like the Crowley days, REPEATING the Crowley dialogue but infinitely harder to dodge, as if some sort of calculated method of cat’s cradle of How To Write The Gay was discussed. Man, whoever wrote that kind of shit would probably even publicly thank whatever big gay mastermind helped them map out THAT level of stuff. Wouldn’t it be funny if most of that shit had been written by a gay dude that’s still around and it’s still popping back up in the show louder and harder to dodge than before? That’d be fuckin’ wild, man. Oh, fucking WAIT.

And this is why I hate the way shipping culture thinks it’s doing activism. Most of the time it’s cosplaying as an activist and at this point it’s become more of a furry convention than it has any kind of organized rights movement. Nobody’s out here fighting for the rights of these LGBT authors this year, nobody’s helping them get a voice, and in fact, often scream at them or bury what voice they’ve had as not enough.

And I want to fix it.

Desperately.

And frankly, I don’t know how anymore.

But what we’re not talking about is some 3-5 year show that came in early and started intentionally fucking at you. We’re looking at happy coincidences, so let’s check with our gay king, the father of Wayward that everybody coincidentally accepted as canon with far less because of a (meaningful) third party line DeanCas had elsewhere but hey it didn’t have antis so suddenly it counts; let’s check with him about that.

That’s my king. That’s my king that wrote the first recorded episode to be intentionally directed as jilted lovers. My king that gav eus Colette. My king that gave us the mixtape. My king that gave us the PR framed breakup. My king that gave us Cas leaving Dean. That’s my King. That’s my gay king who has been fighting his ass off, only to be hung out to dry by a fandom that doesn’t even care to look where or how to scream, or maybe consider that perhaps screaming isn’t the option.

Is he yours yet? Have I broken through to a single soul on this?

That’s my king who wrote about the necessary evils in 2003, before the youngest in this fandom were born and while many were still in diapers or kindergarten; about the unfortunate necessary evils that he loathes and acknowledges about moderate queer content gaining exponential amounts of platform compared to whatever is considered hardline aggressive at the time, about how that incrementalization is what helped our media landscape evolve to this day.

And he isn’t wrong.

And he’s getting roasted for doing just that.

And I really wish I could just psychically make everyone fucking stop.

But I will say one thing.

“It’s network queerbait!” I mean

Yeah

That

Because… realistically? like 99% of modern queer content is queerbait, even stuff with canon queer content.

ESPECIALLY on the CW.

If you’ve noticed CW panicking the last year and trying to slap rainbows and DARE TO DEFY on everything, it’s because their entire fucking ecosystem just got fucked over by CBS wanting 100% merchandising profit like it already took 100% digital profit and Netflix was basically like “miss us with your bullshit” and broke the CW contract which was *HOW PEDOWITZ BANKROLLED MOST OF HIS NETWORK*. Now? Now CW has to carve a niche. So LOOK AT ALL THE FUCKING PRIDE COLORS ON– OUR– STRAIGHT–CHARACTERS??? BUT WE HAVE GAY ONES LIKE LEGENDS OF TOMORROW AND *flips notes* THAT SIDE CHARACTER LESBIAN ON SPN. 

*gets a whisper* What they killed her? Shit. Maybe bring her back. AND THERE’S THIS PERSON OVER ON JANE THE VIRGIN oh that just got cancelled uhhh VAMPIRE DI-wait fuck. Well we’ll just make one of the chicks in this shitty charmed reboot CBS just forced down our throat and killed Wayward over, that’ll fix it *jazz hands*

TV is a business. Businesses make money. The entire LGBT battle is basically us industriously proving we can make money. It’s about rights and visibility on our end, but on their end it is *always* about money and I really don’t think anybody really groks what that really means. 

So “it’s the network! Queerbait!” 

…yeahhhhh.

…welcome to working in television. Now you just have to sit and think about how many other times this has completely missed your radar.

The network will never get a shit about you, they give a shit about your money, and that’s just the reality of capitalist america whether we like it or not. When it’s 2143 and bernie sanders’ floating head in a jar is president and andrew yang’s base income shit is in effect and we’re all a socialist country and the world has figured out how to run high cost businesses like TV on the power of unicorn farts, they might actually give a shit. But they don’t. There may be a few advocates WITHIN the company that do, but as a whole body, the network will never give a shit. They don’t care if you’re black, white, straight, gay, disabled, male, female, beyond what, explicitly, that totals to in dollar signs depending how they feed you, when and where. 

So it’s not like... *just* a queer rights issue, it’s an “Anything Trump’s America may consider offensive on their television” issue. It’s businesses weighing who they think pays their bills while making it and beyond that who they think is the safest investment to make the most money.

As a side note: Personally, I’d consider it dumb as fuck to not do it. SPN will taper within a few years down to just trekkie-esque addicts unless they find a way to get a new burst of viewership and boy howdie do I hope so, but how much Pedowitz overvalues the conservative US demographic, or certain international markets, I don’t know. I’m not in his head and I don’t have this year’s marketing numbers beyond basic live, +3 and +7 ratings, and digital calls. And just general nielsen released demo. But how he’s added that all up? Can’t say. And I sure ain’t gonna bank on him not being a dumbass, when he’s famous for it, so don’t go get your hopes up either.

[kaitlez]

hey a tag thing ??

tagged by @prefectpotato (i swear everytime i get tagged in something i always forget???)  Rules: Answer the questions in a new post and tag 20 blogs you would like to get to know better.

i swear i do this with every one of these but if u wanna do it, go ahead. (i tag everybody now.... just do the thing......)

Nicknames: kait??? Starsign: pisces Height: 5'5"

Last thing I googled: uhh... how to spell the singular of dice (its die btw)

Fave music artist: maybe hayley kiyoko? vitamin string quartet? Song stuck in my head: mercy by shawn mendes bc this one kid in my strings class is playing it in the spring concert and i just????? on repeat Last movie I watched: The Martian (best book and movie like ever it perfect) Last TV show I watched: brooklyn 99 (its great) When did you create your blog: september 27, 2014 ;) What kind of stuff do you post: different shows and games, memes???? Do I have any other blogs: no tho i should bc this one is cluttered as fuck Do I get asks regularly: i dont??? like ever lol Why did I choose my url: an old nickname of sorts (plus its available on almost everything. MINE!) Gender: female??? Hogwarts house: the fuck if i know Pokemon team: mystic!! Favorite color: red, purple, pink- Average hours of sleep: uh... 6? maybe Lucky number: idk i like the number 2? Favorite characters: i rlly like dorian and sera from dragon age inquisition. (theyre gay and relatable????? beautiful) How many blankets do you sleep with: bc its winter like 4 Dream job: something to do with music or science. Following: wha