#They're a severely underrated ship imo

[irenic-raccoon]

Small doodle based on the pic on the right (I forgot who made it lmk so I can credit them)

[daz4i]

I have two for you! How about top 5 tropes/AUs you like to see in fandom and top 5 BSD ships? ^^

ehehehe thank you my dear 🥺🖤

top 5 tropes/aus:

1. i gotta put it first bc it's severely underrated (to the point of not even having an ao3 tag the last time i checked smh) and deserves appreciation. fwbs to lovers my beloved. there's so much you can do with it to keep it interesting and it's naturally super spicy and fun. every fic i read with it was flowing and lighthearted and this is what i like uwu

2. fake dating!!!!!!!!!!!!!! no need to elaborate on that one it speaks for itself i think

3. idk what it's called but um ig when the characters play a game? i think it's a good way to explore who each one of them is (think the dnd episode in she-ra) and it's generally a really interesting setting imo. also really cool when the game is affected by real life somehow, or highlights character dynamics through it (like for example all the skk fics where they shred everyone at charades bc they're just so in sync). just the use of in-universe games for narrative

4. lotus machine aka what every character's ideal life would be (<- maruki kinnie) + its inversion, aka what their biggest nightmare is. again i think it speaks for itself (tho idk if it's exactly what you meant when you said in fandom i apologize. but. it's cool to see in fics too! just more rare)

5. soulmate au 👉👈 it's less about the idea of soulmates to me and more how versatile it is. anything could be a soulmate au. there's so much to do with it and many ways to play even with the basic, most common premises of it. and it slaps every time

top 5 bsd ships:

1. i already mentioned them so it's only natural to start with them. soukoku ofc uwu they're like everything at once i swear. they're partners they're exes they know each other better than anyone they haven't talked in years they're in perfect sync they're divorced they fell in love at first sight but neither of them got it until years later they're gonna kill each other they live for each other they're enemies they have 3 kids together. etc. average gay couple in yokohama

2. ranpoe!!!!!! they just make me so soft and so happy, i never tire of them i swear. they're such a delight

3. nikolai x me. best ship actually. coincidentally also the only canon one. who'd have thought

4. fyozai! not in a romantic way, but in a character-foils-who-destroy-each-other-but-it's-sexy way :) I'm a sucker for chess metaphors unfortunately (and also for someone who is so much like you that you have to kill them. and the only person who can get under your skin because they're the only one who gets you. and-)

5. shin soukoku! yet another pair of foils except it's very prominent with them even with their designs. i am currently showing my friends the bsd anime and have to restrain myself from making comments abt them being gay bc to my friends they're very much just trying to kill each other at this point. i do love me reluctant-partners-to-lovers like any other guy. also sacrificing yourself for your rival is gay as hell. why is it so important to you that he lives? so you can (come back as a vampire and) fuck him?

[yaraaflor]

12 + 21 for the ask game? (or just pick one of them if you’d rather)

omg so sorry just saw this!! thank u!! you didnt specify a fandom but i'm assuming you're asking about comics/dc (even tho i've been in major stranger things + asoiaf mode lately)

also put in page break bc my answer for 12 accidentally got too long sorry lol

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

i mean. my girl. helena bertinelli. she's not unpopular in the sense that she's like widely disliked but she does just get forgotten about a lot, esp by batfam stans. and it sucks!! bc she's a majorly compelling character!! and has been around a lot longer than other characters in the batfam!! she's complicated and morally gray sometimes but also sympathetic and genuine and majorly badass. she deserves so much more cred than she gets, esp on tumblr.

i've seen other people (helena stans) make this point before but the thing about helena is she really is the character that fanon jason stans think he is. like... she's a child of gotham who suffered from major trauma and has seen firsthand the danger of organized crime. she's taught herself to fight so she can both protect people and take revenge on those who harmed her and her loved ones. she has a temper and a capacity for extreme violence, and she's not afraid to hold back, but she can control herself and doesn't hurt innocent people. she's willing to kill, but not indiscriminately, in fact she's often held herself in check bc she knows she shouldn't play executioner for everyone. she will do permanent damage if she needs to but she's not like meaninglessly vicious (no bags full of severed heads from her). and she is super protective of the people of gotham (no man's land), women and children in particular.

and it also feels like she gets shunted aside from the batfam bc she's not truly "one of them" in fandom's eyes, but that is bullshit imo. yeah, she's had major disagreements with them, esp bruce, but they're also perfectly capable of working together and have respect for each others' skills. she has a complicated relationship but she's been an important part of the gotham vigilante community since the early 90s. and i feel like helena gets excluded for reasons that don't seem to apply to jason, or stephanie! she has a lot of common with stephanie. like... outsider vigilante working on their own at first. complicated relationship with bruce in particular. neither of them would ever call bruce their dad, bc he's not, but he does play a certain mentor/father-esque figure in their lives that they can project their daddy/authority issues on (which, i mean he does make it easy for them by being a huge asshole lol). her talents are sometimes dismissed by bruce the same ways steph's have been. steph basically browbeat damian into having an younger-sibling type relationship with her; tim did the same to helena, except he was the younger sibling lol. i've said it before and i've said it again, her relationship with tim is HIGHLY underrated. and like steph and tim, helena has had a romantic relationship with a batkid- dick- that has been complicated at best, but there's still mutual respect there. (tbh i think dickhelena is way more interesting than a lot of other ships, including dickb*bs, but that's a story for another post).

and yea this basically turned into a long thesis as to why helena deserves to be a bigger batfam member lol. but it's true!! she's so fascinating and cool and has been given the shaft way too much (esp in n52, when they randomly made her a spy...) plus one of my fave things about her is her love for teaching. most gotham vigilantes don't have day jobs bc, who has the time, but helena really loves being a teacher and cares about the kids she teaches a lot. she is directly a part of the gotham city community that way and i think it's a very important aspect of keeping her grounded and happy. it makes her unique. we've gotten a little bit more helena content in the past year or two but i always want more!! i want to see her interact with other batfam members more too, like damian, duke, kate, cass... dc give her more respect!!!!

21. part of canon you think is overhyped

just accidentally ranted so gonna keep this short lol. i hate the court/parliament of owls storylines literally sooooo much and i esp hate the fascination with talon dick. i literally will not consume any content related to that. i'm sure i've posted my reasons before (like years ago) but i think it's a stupid and somewhat offensive concept.

[woggle-bugger-me]

Uncle Henry and Aunt Em in Oz

(Content warnings for mentions of racism) So... March Laumer. Truly one of the writers of all time.

Laumer's a bit infamous in some circles for writing Oz books that're aimed at adults. They're not that dark for modern, post-Wicked Years standards (none of the ones I read had any explicit sex or swearing) they're more like if you got a normal Oz book and added a sprinkle of what-the-hell stuff to it. Someone online once described them as like Baum's Oz, but without the innocence, which I think is pretty accurate (although Baum's books had their dark moments). That being said, Laumer wrote a lot of his books throughout the 80s, so it makes sense that they'd be controversial at the time.

Anyway, here's my review of "Uncle Henry and Aunt Em in Oz" by March Laumer. I'm not going to give an in-depth plot summary of it cos I assume most people that're gonna read this either 1) have already read it or 2) don't actually care about the plot and just want to read about the weird stuff, but basically it's about Aunt Em getting possessed by the spirit of the Witch of the East, and Uncle Henry teaming up with a kid called Zippiochoggolak (or 'Zip') to save the day.

The writing

I actually like how Laumer handled some characters, mainly Aunt Em and Uncle Henry themselves. Em and Henry are underrated characters imo, so it's nice to have a book that focuses on them.

Some of the characters are handled weirdly, though. One of the reasons why some people dislike Laumer is because his versions of Oz characters are usually OOC. He doesn't give them whole new personalities like some writers do, but the characters are usually a bit "off". For example, characters will talk to each other about politics and other serious topics, which obviously didn't happen a huge amount in Baum's books, unless you count a scene in The Road to Oz where the Tin woodman bonds with the Shaggy Man over their shared hatred of money. Some characters have a slightly meaner or sarcastic edge to them.

The child characters are portrayed as being less sympathetic in this book, and I get the impression that Laumer didn't really like kids much. There's a sharp contrast between Baum, who was good at writing child characters, and Laumer, who wasn't. It makes me wonder why Laumer didn't just focus on the adult characters seeing as he clearly found them easier to relate to?

The plot itself is unfortunately really boring around the middle. I found myself skim-reading several chapters. Laumer's books are all pretty short, but reading this felt like it took years (that might be because I was tired, but still).That being said, Laumer sneaks little bits of dark comedy into it, and there were a few funny moments.

Also, I didn't care about Zippiochoggolak. I admit I'm biased since when people make OCs for Oz stories, I often find it hard to connect with them, but I didn't find Zip interesting at all. It doesn't help that he's shipped with Dorothy, which I just found weird.

Anyway, onto the weird parts of the book!

The weird stuff

Laumer establishes early on that Aunt Em and Uncle Henry are siblings-in-law. I'm not sure if this counts as incest or not since they're only related through marriage, but it's still a bit uncomfortable to read about. That being said, they were living in an isolated rural area during the Victorian period, so it's not that strange from a historical perspective.

Later on, Dorothy discusses her family with Zip, and talks about how she'd "like to see more tolerance in Oz". They then talk about how Christians try and convert people because they want everyone to be like them (Laumer's words, not mine).

Dorothy then says that Ozites are also racist, and that no one would want anyone who isn't a white Christian to come to Oz?? I assume this is meant to be a response to some of the later (mostly Thompson) Oz books, which have some really horrible racist moments. Dorothy and Zip obviously agree that this is bad, but then Dorothy comes out with this:

“Of course,” the Princess hastened to amend, “we would probably want to exclude deviants and unmarried mothers. I guess we wouldn’t want just everybody to think they could come here—no matter how harmless they might be.”

Just in case anyone gets the wrong end of the stick, I think this is just Laumer's dark sense of humour.

The book's ending is pretty dark. A character from Baum's books is accidentally killed and the other characters have survivors guilt. They where only a minor character in Baum's books, but still.

Final thoughts

Who is this book actually for? Oz purists won't enjoy it because it's too adult and people who want a dark Oz parody won't enjoy it because there's not enough adult stuff to keep them entertained. I don't want to put people off reading it, but at the same time I can't recommend it.

That being said, I am going to read at least one other March Laumer book, mostly so I can compare them. Maybe I'll write another review?

[trophywifejimgordon]

all ships with winston are criminally underrated by definition, but the true final frontier of ghostbusters-shipping has gotta be winston/egon. the untapped potential! the opposites attract! the limitless possibilities! .......the romance of it all!

[startrekfandomh8speopleofcolor]

I’m a Star Trek TOS fan and I ship the Sulu/Uhura rare pairing in the TOS universe. Sulu and Uhura are massively underrated both as characters and as a ship due to fandom racism/misogynoir while (imo) Sp1rk is an overrated ship.

And like its so frustrating that there's this big fandom tradition that focuses on Sp*rk and like ok you've all several movies 3 seasons and decades of fanfic ppl! Give some energy to the underrated characters!

But yeah its frustrating that Trekkies are so stuck thinking that sp*rk is so progressive. like I do love that both characters are played by jewish men but they're still conditionally white you know? the vast majority of fandom still treats them as white and christian.

at the very least I wish that if people insisted on shipping Sp*rk that they'd make them more jewish in their fics. because there's so much antisemitism in liberals and progressives.

and like this is why I sideeye anyone who ships sp*rk in AOS because the misogynoir is EXTRA STRONG.

mod laina

[dragynkeep]

Can I get y’alls opinion on Black Velvet? imo that’s a severely underrated ship but I haven’t heard anyone talk about it so I might be wrong ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ also I haven’t read those dumb as fuck books cause I ain’t spending money on this shit series from a shit company. There might be nothing there to judge…

Tho I think the ship is used for porn a lot 😭

Wait did they turn Blake into beacon era Velvet??!? I-

i really like black velvet!! i definitely think it was a missed opportunity that these two have nothing together despite the vast options between them to have some really fun interactions, both centred around their faunus heritage & not. i don't think there's been anything for them in the books, but i'm also not about to reread them just in case lmao.

honestly, there are a lot of similarities between how diminutive & submissive blake has become in recent volumes to beacon era velvet which is just such a useless regression considering all that blake has supposedly gone through to "free" herself from her demons; & velvet herself isn't half as shy as she was in beacon in the books, she very much holds her friends & others accountable if they're racist to her.

[pocketgalaxies]

Jo as a character and Jolex as a ship are so underrated! I'd love to hear what you love about Jo and Jolex. What do you see as the main similarities and differences between Alex and Jo? (They're actually similar in a lot of ways imo, impulsive and with trust issues but loyal and loving and fierce, though Alex is more introverted and Jo is more communicative.) I'd also love to hear any Domestic Jolex head canons :)

i abSOLUTELY agree with you. it’s bc jo was an asshole for a hot second as an intern and everybody decided she deserved to be villainized for the rest of the show and that’s the tea on that but anyway. i’m terrible at answering questions like this, esp for jolex for some reason so bear w me

it’s an obvious answer but i think their biggest similarities and largely the foundation for their relationship comes from the struggles they had growing up. not to say that all of their personality traits are solely a product of a shitty childhood, but they both became scrappy kids who find loopholes in the system and take risks and have relatively little regard for what others think of them. they’re sassy and bold and clever and self-assured and rebellious and know how to find fun in most scenarios, and they’re also very good at comforting each other bc of it. they also tend to jump to conclusions sometimes which pushes ppl away lmfao

but, like you said, i think the show has shown us on several occasions that jo is generally more dedicated to open communication than alex is. alex really tends to withdraw into himself when there’s something bothering him and then he lashes out at everybody without explaining why. it’s a big part of why he’s really only been able to become close with mer, arizona, and jo, since they’re the only ones who “speak his language” or whatever. on the other hand, i personally think that jo’s consistent impulse to air out concerns and figure out why ppl are acting the way they are (she does this most notably w steph and deluca in addition to alex) is v largely a product of her relationship with paul and the paranoia that history will repeat itself, but it could also just be her personality. but anyway i feel like she is often the one to say “this fighting is stupid we need to sit down and talk about this”

but anyway i think they work v well together. alex has shown himself to be extremely loyal to a handful of ppl which works really well with jo who often doubts other people’s love for her (another product of her relationship with paul). meanwhile every time alex runs away from stuff and yells at ppl when he’s having a shitty time, jo often quite literally drags him out of it and forces him to talk about his feelings and it works really well for both of them. they trust each other a lot lot lot

here’s one (1) good post i made abt domestic jolex enjoy