#This specifically pertains to popular ships

[lvnesart]

so i have a few questions;

one, is there a ship you don't like? or one you don't understand? (i'm saying this cause, to me at least, you ship a lot of rare pairs.

two, do you have a favorite/least favorite ship or character?

three, your art is awesome, it got me into genshin and makes me reconsider some ships or like some others i haven't before

i hope you never stop cause it means a lot to others, even if it's just me <3

Answering these from the top of my head for quick answers!

1. Ship i don't like? Thomato

2. One i don't understand? Chiscara

3. I dont actively ship everything I draw, but im glad yall were able to discover some ships along the way!

[guess-that-ship]

Guess That Ship Tournament Season 12: Submissions CLOSED!

The Concept: You describe your ship* to me, I pick out the submissions which I find most compelling and pit them against each other without revealing who they are, people vote on them, and their identities gets revealed once they’re eliminated.

Submission Guidelines

*For the purpose of this tournament, relationships do not have to be romantic in nature. (I’m sometimes going to use “ship” as a shorthand, just know I mean “relationships” in general.)

Relationship can be between any number of characters.

Real people are accepted if they’ve been dead for more than 100 years.

Roleplay characters are accepted as long as the description only pertains to the characters and not the players.

Crossover ships are only allowed if the crossover is official.

OCs are accepted. (However, OC x Canon is not accepted. Please do not submit other people's OCs without their permission.)

No overtly NSFW submissions. (Mentioning they have sex or are a sex worker is fine, but try to avoid anything more than that.)

Two submission per person. (Do not submit the same ship twice. I cannot enforce this on Google Forms without forcing you to log in. So just be champs and respect this rule.)

Failure to follow these guidelines may result in all of your submissions being disqualified for this season.

Summary Guidelines

Selection Process: I will read through the list of descriptions submitted without reading their names and pick the most compelling submissions. Then, I will check the name to make sure there's no repeats.

Keep it concise, but also bring something unique to the table. Make sure to describe their relationship, not just summarize the events of the story.

Previous submissions for reference. The ideal submission should be 2-3 paragraphs, but you can make it as short or long as you want. Please keep in mind the longer your submission, the less likely it is to get in.

Tips on what to avoid while writing a summary can be found here.

Descriptions should be based on canon, not headcanon. (e.g. You can say “they love each other” instead of “they’re lovers” if their romantic nature is debatable.)

Avoid author commentary. (e.g. "They're canonically x," "I love them," "Play/watch/read this," etc.)

Use canonical pronouns.

Avoid identifying information or setting specific giveaways. (i.e. Ninja village, space necromancers.)

When submitting OCs, please make sure to at least put a name somewhere. (e.g. "John and Bob by anonymous" or "OCs by Joey.")

The more popular your ship is the more vague the description should be.

Exclusions

Ships that were accepted in Season 7 onwards and ships that at least reached the semifinals in Season 1-6 are not allowed. For a complete list, please look here. (No need to look through the whole list, just Ctrl+F to find the ship you want.)

Any submissions from Harry Potter will also not be included.

Notes

I will not vet the ships/pairings for problematic content.

If you participate in this tournament, know that you run the risk of unintentionally voting for your nOTP. The mod does not take any responsibility for any distress that may cause you.

There will be a limit of one ship per media in the bracket. You may submit two ships from the same media, but keep in mind only one ship will be able to get in. (A series or franchise will generally count as one media, but they will be evaluated on a case by case basis.)

Submit your ships here! Submissions will be open until Monday, August 5th at 10 PM EDT.

Please reblog this post to spread the word! The more submissions, the better!

[soy-ginger]

So I’ve been thinking about the popular dcxdp ship known as Deadserious (Damian Wayne x Danny Fenton), personally I think it pertains to their hero selves rather than their actual selves

So I propose a new ship name for Damian and Danny

Starrynight 

Like the painting because Danny loves the stars and more specifically space and Damian love’s painting

So what do you think

[bestworstcase]

Have you ever heard the old theory that Yang and Adam were half-siblings, usually through Raven, but I've seen an argument that Adam was Tai's once.

I'm just curious if you have any thoughts.

i think—& this is not limited to just the rwby fandom—there's a degree to which fandom's transformative interest in source texts and ship-centric, blorbo-oriented culture makes it difficult for fandoms to parse narrative devices like foils. a foil character is a tool for creating contrast and guiding audience attention by juxtaposition or comparison between a main character and the foil. the narrative connections and confluences between the main character and the foil are thematically motivated, there to enhance or deepen or ask some sort of question about the main character.

what tends to happen in fandoms is people will pick up on the narrative lines being drawn between the main character and the foil and assume that these connections are relevant to the plot, which almost always leads to either:

wildly popular fanon ship between the main character and foil, or

"these characters are secretly biological relatives."

i generally have a lot more respect for people in the first camp because... shipping character foils is fun, if for no other reason than the depth of thematic connection kind of innately provides a lot of raw material to work with, and in my experience people who like to ship character foils tend to have at least a basic understanding of what a foil is and what foiling is for narratively.

um, as it pertains to rwby specifically, the story makes uses a lot of character foiling and narrative foiling (main plot + foil subplot) to construct its thematic narrative, and i think that's a major contributing factor to the preponderance of theories like "jaune is descended from salem" (jaune is foiling salem) and "qrow is ruby's dad" (qrow is foiling ruby's idealism) and "raven is ruby's other parent" (summer and raven are character foils and the old guard all see ruby as a proxy for summer) and... so on. being charitable, it's an attempt to make sense of clear thematic and symbolic connections between characters by interpreting them literally as foreshadowing for... some reveal of a significant relationship between the characters, and the obvious answer from there is usually a blood relationship.

as a... general statement, i don't think any characters in rwby are secretly biological relatives, unless we're counting "silver-eyed people are all descended from ozma Somehow" on the grounds that the characters overlooked that in the lost fable. even that i am not sure it actually matters to the narrative except insofar as it suggests silver-eyes as another set of proxy-children ozma uses as pawns in his war against salem.

[rdmaaron]

I think the major problem when engaging with shippy stuff, especially as it pertains to Suletta and Miorine specifically, at least from my perspective as a veteran of multiple fandom shipping wars, is that shipping to me always carries the idea of wish fulfilment for when two characters have a great romantic chemistry or potential with each other but are not necessarily together in the text of the show/book/film/etc. or at the very least it isn't an intended focus.

So it is a bit of a problem when folks will put out shipping popularity polls and such and SuleMio will be featured in it while almost every other pairing is of the wish fulfilment variety, and like

Do they not just defacto win automatically? They are not a ship so much as they are a Canonically Married In The Text of Their Show Couple. In a Who is the Best Theoretical Couple Competition, I would imagine they'd have a pretty huge advantage in not being Theoretical. Is my view on what a ship even is wrong?

Like, maybe put them in a bracket featuring Haruka and Michiru and the Yuri on Ice guys and you might be on to something then.

[monstersinthecosmos]

please make longform sheith posts on tumblr 😭😭😭 (if you so wish ofc)

hjaklgd I hung onto this ask because I was waiting for the right time to talk about Sheith and I got such an insightful comment on my fic Tonight the Stars Revolt! that I decided I wanted to talk a little meta about the thought process that goes into this fic and so here you are and it's time to utilize this invitation !!!!!!!!!!!!

The comment from DocYo5 as follows:

It feels like reality, the feelings and thoughts Keith has, fitting for someone who had to grow up without close relationships, with Shiro being closest to a family member before he left for Kerberos. Understandable that he's able to open up to him, because he trusts him and somehow understandable that they can have sex together without hard feelings... At least from Keith's point of view. We can only guess how Shiro feels about this, probably more than he lets out. For me it's surprising to have sex with someone repeatedly without considering to love him, to announce it as weird to like him when I think it's much more weird to fuck someone often without love, only to get release. In this fic I think it's possible that it stays that way. So I am curious what you will make of it. The way you put it it would make sense.

So!!!! This is exactly the dynamic that this fic is ABOUT, okay? And while some of this pertains to my fic specifically and the places their relationship goes behind the scenes of canon, I did build it off of canon, so a lot of this speaks to the way I’m reading them on the show.

Since the fic is Keith’s POV we’re spending more time with his interiority, naturally, but I’m going to get to Shiro in a second lol. But I think Keith is someone who really compartmentalizes his feelings. I think he, more than the others on the show, sort of has an ON and OFF switch in which he’s either a grumpy little shit or he’s simply dealing in facts. It’s SO rare to see him smile; I think he laughs, like, once? Even in the shitshow of S8 he can’t enjoy himself on their day off at the carnival.

Compartmentalizing can be a useful tool, especially given that the characters are at war, but it can be so harmful, as well. And Keith, unlike the others, tends to have sort of violent outburst from time to time and does lose his temper. I know the creators one time ascribed this to his being half Galra, which I think really opens a fucking can of worms when we talk about Keith’s emotional intelligence as well as being neurodivergent; it’s a popular fanon read that Keith is autistic, and there’s a lot of clues!, but I also have to ask like, how much of his Galra half is driving in his brain? And if his brain is only half human, that literally means he’s neurodivergent from a typical human.

I strayed from my point a little but I’m trying to say that Keith perhaps relies on anger a little too much, whether it’s genetic or not, and sometimes I think compartmentalizing looks like him being angry all the time because he won’t interact with any of his other feelings.

THE EXCEPTION TO THIS of course, is with Shiro! There are so many moments of him and Shiro where he’s vulnerable and soft in a way he doesn’t show to other characters! And I think it’s easy to overlook this when we watch with shipping goggles—of course we ARE SEEING IT because we’re shipping it lmao but it’s easy to forget that he doesn’t show this to anybody else.

So anyway I’ve been very intentional in this fic to try to write Keith as obsessively compartmentalizing and trying to keep a hold on all of his emotions and have control over the way other people perceive him. I’ve ranted & raved about this before but I read Keith as a person who makes himself deliberately unpleasant so that he can control when people come & go from his life, rather than ever trusting anyone or relying on them or having his feelings hurt when he inevitably gets abandoned again.

I often struggle in this fic with the line between showing and not telling because I am very aware that a lot of the text IS telling, but this is intentional! Keith obsesses over every feeling, every interaction with Shiro, he questions everything he says and does and worries about it for days! This is part of his anxiety around the whole situation and not knowing if he’s behaving correctly! He doesn’t want to compromise his relationship with Shiro, because it’s the ONLY meaningful relationship in his life AND Shiro is the ONLY person he has the stomach to trust, but on top of that he simply does not understand how he’s supposed to act. So every interaction between them is this huge puzzle for him to figure out and he’s stressed out as fuck!

And this fic is about him trying to compartmentalize all these human emotions and needs, like, his need to have sex, his need for companionship, maybe even his need for love? And he has the drive to want these things. (Does his growing and uncontrollable horniness have anything to do with same non-human half that dictates his temper? We shall see. 😏)  But how does he navigate “I am horny and want to get off” vs “I need the companionship of my best friend” alongside “having sex with someone is actually very intimate” and in the end "sexual intimacy makes me uncomfortable because in some ways this thing with Shiro is everything that I want, but if I admit that and lose it I will be destroyed” ?? How can these things coalesce for him???

The idea for this fic was me trying to subvert some tropes I was seeing all the time in Sheith fic and the main one is like, we have a habit of making them such soulmates and making it so seamless! WHICH IS FINE AND GOOD, I LOVE THOSE FICS TOO LOL, but I wanted to ask like, what if it was messy, what if they were just fucking? And I think part of me wanted to keep the illusion going for longer, when I was first planning the fic, and it wound up like growing a life of its own and taking me to a lot of places I didn’t intend to go. And I say that because, where we are right now in the story, I don’t think either of them are denial about their feelings, or withholding on purpose. I think Keith is compartmentalizing, and I tried to get at this a little bit when he has the conversation with Pidge about what love means. He loves Shiro, he already loved Shiro. He will love Shiro regardless, as a friend. And he’s also fucking Shiro. And he’s keeping these two things separate. And I don’t write it as if he’s pining and WANTS more (just yet) as much as he’s just found himself in a tricky emotional space and doesn’t know where his boundaries are.

The complication of the perhaps-alien-half dictating his libido trying to co-pilot with his very human half that is demisexual is a problem, too. Like he asks Pidge in Chapter 8: . “If you love someone as a friend, but you’re fucking them. When does it become, like. I don’t know. Romantic?”

He doesn’t know! We don’t know! Let’s keep going and see what happens lol.

SHIRO ON THE OTHER HAND.

What makes him such a great character (for me lol) is that like, he could so easily be such a 2D character and just, the fearless leader who is always chill and nice to everybody, and we DO get that to an extent, but they were generous in making him so multifaceted. He has PTSD. He struggles with his disability. He even loses his temper sometimes! When he gets back (as Kuron) he has a lil depression cave sesh in his bedroom in his PJs. Like he’s a very well rounded character and it makes him extremely realistic and human to me!

I don’t think it’s as fair to say that he compartmentalizes the way that Keith does, except what we can glean from his canon timeline. Meaning: He fights for the Kerberos mission despite his disability, he makes it up there only to be abducted, he survives the arena, he escapes to lead Voltron. And ALSO him being canonically queer; I think this starts getting into headcanon territory because I don’t think we get any clues in canon that they’re navigating homophobia in their universe, but we absolutely still see ableism and sexism. (Put a pin in the racism conversation as well when it comes to like, alien species and systems of oppression because there’s a lot to unpack and I’m trying to focus LOL.) So like, we do know that their world isn’t perfect, and Shiro is someone who had to work his ass off and fight for his rank and for his career. He’s someone who can put his feelings aside and focus on the task at hand, and we know this because he’s NOT perfect, he does occasionally lose his temper, and he has PTSD!

Basically, I think we have to assume he compartmentalizes to function, because he comes out of a year of INTENSE trauma to immediately lead a team, and lead them with kindness and patience, and the writing tells us that it’s not a matter of him being Perfect Cartoon Man, because he’s not a perfect person and he’s traumatized as fuck.

Because the fic is Keith’s POV I’ve tried to communicate this by Keith noticing that Shiro wears “masks”, or uses different voices. Sometimes it’s even about his clothes, like as they become more intimate and Keith starts seeing more of Shiro’s scars, and how Shiro is self-conscious about them. But it’s also moments like in Chapter 7 when Shiro is crying.

I feel that Keith and Shiro have some like sort of equal-opposite relationships to trauma and grief that balance each other in the end. Like, Keith lost his dad at a young age and had a horrific childhood, but that’s been his reality for most of his life and he’s learned how to carry it day-to-day.  Even though he’s a messier and more immature person, he’s used to shouldering it and it’s sort of baked into his personality at this point. But Shiro’s trauma is SO new. Shiro’s is a ton of shit ALL AT ONCE, vs. Keith’s 10+ years of grief and disappointment, and it’s so recent!  Even though Shiro is, on paper, a more mature and emotionally intelligent person, this is very new to him!

So Shiro in this fic also has some feelings he’s juggling, like, “I am touch starved and have physical needs” and “my mentee grew up kinda hot” and “I have to be very careful with him and his feelings”. He sees Keith for the mess that he is, and he’s patient, and he can wait for Keith, and take Keith’s lead.

I don’t feel that Shiro is pining necessarily, either—I think he’s a lot more grounded and realistic, and their encounters aren’t causing him the same level of anxiety because he can read Keith so clearly, even when Keith can’t read him back. But I think, he is pining a LITTLE lol. I think because he’s smart enough to know where this is heading, and he’s being patient, but he’d speed it along if it were up to him. They’re both so sensitive in different ways and I think they’re both so vulnerable to hurting each other’s feelings!!!! And Shiro is trying so so hard not to crush Keith like a little egg!!!!!!!!!!!

😊

Anyway !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for coming to my lecture! I don’t say this often about my fics because it makes me squeamish but I LOVE this fic, it really is where I put all my Sheith love, and all the thoughtwork I do about them is FOR THIS FIC lol it’s my lovenote to them, I’m putting my whole Sheithussy into it ahskjgdlasd

[hp-rarepair-requests]

✨ Blog Info ✨

Hello! My main account is @ace-aussie-asshole and I decided to make this account to give some attention to rarepairs of the Harry Potter Fandom. You can submit a request and I will get around to it as quickly as I can.

Basic Rules:

When making a request, give me the shipname, the characters involved, any headcanons you want to be included and a prompt (cuddling, mermaid au, coming out, first date etc.).

No hating on characters or ships in the comments.

The ship can be of any generation or subfandom, just let me know what age you want the characters to be in the fanart/fanfic.

I will be accepting light ships, grey ships and dark ships, and they will be tagged as such. So if you don’t want to see anything, block the tag.

If you do not provide me with specific headcanons pertaining to race, sexuality, gender identity, religion, appearance or disabilities, I will go with what we know in canon, or in the case of non-canon queer ships, a randomly selected sexuality.

Be specific when making requests.

This blog is specifically for rarepairs, and I will include most of the popular ships from unpopular subfandoms such as Legacy, Fantastic Beasts, Mystery and The Next Gen since very few people are a part of these fandoms compared to the Marauders and Golden Fandoms.

I will accept canon ships if they’re rarely discussed, but I will not accept canon ships that get a lot of attention.

If you would like to include character bashing in the prompt, such as an abusive scenario, I will use the anti tag for the character and an abusive tag for the ship.

If you request a Marauders or Golden ship I have not heard of, I will go through the tag and decide for myself whether it’s rare. This will be based on how few accounts make content, how many incorrect ships come up under the tag, how many fanfics it has on AO3 where it is the main focus and similar details.

If you request a popular ship or commonpair, your ask will simply be deleted and I will not respond to it, this blog is for rarepairs only.

I will NOT be writing/drawing smut.

Those are the ground rules. If you continually ignore these rules (repeatedly comment hate, keep requesting commonpairs etc.) you will be blocked. This blog is for ships that get very little attention, or no attention at all. Thank you.

[henrysglock]

“i was asking if anons were embarrassed about having harassed me for making one (1) mildly corrective post in the byler tag…only to have me be right. that should be embarrassing. that’s embarrassing behavior.“

Don’t act like your entire schtick isn’t entering the byler tag to hate on byler to talk about how much cooler henryism is. this wasn’t a one time thing. People have been annoyed with you.

And Bylers are starving and desperate for crumbs so of course we’re gonna latch onto everything. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Being wrong is part of the process. we are chasing hope like people chase rainbows

“Harassed” - that’s such an extreme word. Bylers don’t take too kindly to your behavior. We know what you are your friends are about.

you shouldn’t be surprised when people push back. you knew exactly what would happen

Wrow…Someone’s self-obsessed. What I talk about on my blog and what I tag as byIer are very different things. I censor byIer as byier with a capital i to avoid coming up in searches when I’m bitching about the fandom. This means if you’re seeing it you either follow me, someone you follow agrees with me and reblogged it, or you’re camping on my blog. None of that is my fault.

I tag things as byIer when they’re related to byIer or the byIer fandom, which, yes, does extend to the ways byIerblr staunchly refuses to engage with the rest of the plot. It’s not my fault they refuse to comprehend Henry in any meaningful way. The tag isn’t a closed community either. It’s a cataloguing system. If it’s about byIer or the byIer fandom, it gets tagged. As I said before, I do not tag my bitching posts.

“People have been annoyed with you” You think that’s news to me? People have been annoyed with me since 2022, back when I was still mainly a byIer blog. People were annoyed with me for pushing back on popular but incorrect takes about byIer. This is nothing new.

“ByIers are starving” That’s not my fault, and it’s no reason to go around misinterpreting leaks because they want content. They’re setting themselves up for disappointment. Having hopes is fine. Have fun. But don’t go around with ship blinders and then get mad at me going “hey…you might not be right” as a warning and a correction.

And yes, you all did harass me. You all spammed my inbox with insults and ableist takes after that one specific post. You guys called me a zealot, ffs. I don’t typically get spammed that way, so yes. It was about that one (1) specific post. If it was just about me as a blog, I’d be getting them every day.

“We know what you and your friends are about” You make it sound like we have such nefarious goals…no wonder you guys can’t get a good read on Henry.

What I’m “about” is accuracy in information. When that information pertains to byIer or the byIer fandom, it gets tagged byIer. Simple as that.

[indigosfindings]

I watched your "Egyptian Koopa" video and found it interesting, even if I disagreed on some of the conclusions to be drawn that you appeared to hint at. I was wondering if I could ask a few questions so that I could understand your position more thoroughly:

Would you say that you agree with the assertion that it would be generally beneficial if an fictional character has a singular, definitive name?

If so, can you think of any way to determine the definitive name of a character other than by canonicity (as is often done in wiki projects) or popularity (as is done in the example of "shipping names")?

If not, do you believe that either of these techniques to determine the name of a fictional character is inherently "better" than the other?

If the answer to these three questions are "yes," "no," and "no," then you seem, upon further contemplation, to have rejected your own conclusions. If you have any other answers, I would be genuinely interested in hearing your thought process.

no? i'm in favour of being specific when you need to be specific. plenty of circumstances make the benefits of "definitive" names murky ([peter parker/spider-man/miles morales] is a particularly low-hanging one--consider also romanized names [shouko/shoko], localized names [rockman/mega man], convoluted alter-ego situations [clark kent/superman/kal-el/kal-l], etc). this doesn't just pertain to fiction either--you have to either assume that context will differentiate anne hathaway (the actress) from anne hathaway (shakespeare's wife) or clarify it yourself

i've already rejected the premise of "definitive names," so there's nothing i can say to this.

again, i've already rejected the premise, but i'll weigh in anyway. i don't think any method is "inherently" anything because they're oceans away from being prediscursive. in terms of practical reality, though, popularity is the only worthwhile metric. it doesn't matter that disney says "grogu" if everyone else says "baby yoda." as i said in the video, i don't think intellectual property rights have any place as our discursive yardstick

searching for "definitive" names is a losing battle. the only thing that matters is that everyone in the discussion knows what you're talking about.

also i'm obsessed with that last paragraph. "i know that you believe [your avowed opinion] but have you considered that if you believe [things that contradict your avowed opinion] then that means you don't actually believe it?"

[notbrokenjustfake]

Head Canons:

-Not so much HC, more so actual canon. He is a construct built from stolen Kheanri'ahan's knowledge. He doesn't need to eat, sleep, or drink. He can, but it isn't necessary for survival. For me, he is male with male anatomy.

-He is a divine puppet! He will never be human. This isn't fucking Pinocchio, and you will not love him in to becoming a real boy.

-That time is spent in research pertaining to Nahida's missions and his desires. He also pokes around in the Abyss, which currently is probably the only place he feels whole.

-Not a player per se, but I wouldn’t put it past him to manipulate randoms into bed, use them for what they are worth, and ghost them… If the mood ever struck him. It would not be pretty or nice in the least.

-There is just nothing soft about this man. He is toxic, selfish, vengeful, hateful and power-hungry. Until he decides to give a fuck about something other than himself and vengeance killing this will remain the case.

-Weaknesses will be exploited. He is not a good person.

-If he’s nice it is because he wants something, or he simply is bored and wishes to toy with someone because he can. We have seen this behavior in the meteor event where he played the good guy to get close and attempt to kill the Traveler and again in Irminsul. It is a mask and a role; he can slide right into it for any reason he chooses.

-On offering his memories back, Nahida specifically states that he will revert to his previous incarnation (The Balladeer). During this cut scene, he specifically says, “All worthless dross will be purged that’s why this won’t be the end.” While he is less antagonistic towards them and he does take responsibility for his actions, he does not regret them. He assists them because he feels like he owes them both and it's better than being worthless.

-He is also an injustice collector. The “betrayals”, outside of Dottore, could be explained to any reasonable being. However, he clings to them like a blanket. It’s not only HIS INJUSTICES he collects. It’s everyone’s, every misstep of every human he has ever met is a mark against humanity. After 400 years of watching humanity doing the awful shit they do, he has simply determined they are inferior.

-He doesn’t stay in Sumeru. He is in contact with researchers due to assisting Nahida. He is not “the popular asshole college/high school guy.” Nahida wants badly for him to see the good in humanity, so I would not put it past her to leak out his birthday and encourage interaction.

-He doesn’t even consider his “birth” day to be anything then another day… and I don't see Nahida being good for him. You don't help a person get better by forcing them to do something they hate; this is only going to breed more hate.

-Wanderer’s clean slate isn’t to fit into humanity, it is to learn to accept himself and to be himself, and going along with that he'd want to be accepted for who he is by the people who claim to care. Which is the dual meaning behind the finches. Rebirth and find your true north. This is your path, stay on it.

-He still hates humanity and still believes that they are inferior. All of this is made clear in his voice lines on his playable character, and all of this combined with his story so far indicates that he's not changed all that much. Sometimes, broken things are just too broken.

-He's been tortured by Dottore twice.

-He’s tried to kill the Traveler on 3 occasions. This ship is not something I am going to write. Is cool if you are into it, it's just a lot for me to get past to even feel anything.

-With that being said he considers the Traver to be a dull naive waste of time. A mewing kitten with a hero complex accompanied by an equally moronic screeching garbage disposal. His somewhat tolerable attitude toward them being nothing more than a shred of respect and repayment.

-Due to spending a lot of time in the Abyss, he's met the Abyss twin, and this would be a preferred interaction.

-On EI. This is easy to write off as abandonment issues and it may have even started off that way. However, over time it's become more anger about being denied his birth right.

[neonscandal]

Just see this in twitter by someone : "I'm starting to think maybe people should read actual BL manga. perhaps considering manga written with actual gay characters in it in addition to shipping m x m from whatever battle shounen you're into."

Like because of those subtext, there can be fanfics and fanarts, right? And then I decided to come here, your blog is really one of my comfort place....

Comfort place!? This makes me want to carve out time to post infinitely more. 🥹 Even though it feels a bit aimless, I’m glad I could cultivate that for you and hope I can continue to do so.

RE: twitter, without context, it's hard to tell whether this person is earnestly recommending people to expand their interests into BL or if they're dumping on people who tend to support and identify queer shipping across other genres.

On the one hand, heavy agree that if you appreciate queer pairings of any kind to absolutely find media and stories that shows healthy (and authentic, if possible!) representation of whatever you're into. I feel like sometimes in BL, specifically, there’s a lot of toxicity or violence passed off as romance which is why I recommend being discerning. Here are some green flag recommendations and I kind of touch on the importance of identity through engaging with queer content by way of BL's featuring fudanshi's there. Isn't always the case, but it's a storyline I appreciate.

If the poster was side eyeing queer ships in "mainstream" or shonen stories... they should grow up. I've been in and out of fandom for like.. 20 years. There have always been people who recognize and popularize queer ships. Back in the day? Characters didn't even have to share the same show, universe or genre to end up in a crossover slash fic on Fanfiction.Net.

Don't get me wrong, I've definitely needlessly explored several crack theories or made off-base assumptions about a story for the sake of trying to guess at where it’s going. But I sometimes question people's competency for reading/watching comprehension when a particularly shitty hottake is making its rounds on social media. Like are we not watching the same thing?

Subtext does exist. I don't know that all authors are as elegant or intentional in its execution but if you're not bothering to consider the possibility, you're potentially missing out on critical pieces of a story you're choosing to invest hours/years of your life into! This isn't simply as it pertains to shipping but also picking up on critical exposition (Attack. On. Titan.) or even questioning whether the information we're getting as the reader or viewer is conveyed with any sort of narrator bias. Yes, this is absolutely a My Hero Academia call out. ✨

Queer coding does exist. Tons of reasons why queer characters aren't always explicitly identified as such. More often than not, there's some form of censorship. Whether at the editing level during manga production or when it comes time for manga/shows to be approved for international distribution (re: information that's lost in translation vs outright decisions to alter the flow of the story). Most glaring example of this that comes to mind is Haruka Tenou or "Sailor Uranus"/Michiru Kaiou or "Sailor Neptune. In addition to gratuitous name changes when Sailor Moon was pushed abroad, several countries would rather portray the two as unusually close relatives despite the clear romantic undertones exhibited whenever they were on screen together. Also, IDK why, but pretty sure I'd seen somewhere that, initially the creator of Naruto did want to canonize Sasuke/Naruto but, truth be told, I've never watched the series and that could have been a fanon theory I'd seen.

Overarching messages exist. Similar to the first point, a story is seldom just a story. More often than not, you're looking at some sort of social critique or opinion that's being expressed or explored through the story. To not bother thinking critically about what you choose to spend time in enjoying is a pretty bland way to miss the point of it.

When all else fails, it's not our fault that the only relationships most shonen mangaka focus on developing is the one between "rivals". That's it. If there were more dynamic characters or literally any consideration toward the depth of intimacy between the main character and whatever tritagonist female lead the male lead inexplicably ends up with (aside from the simple rationale that "she is the girl 🎀"), then maybe fans won't have to hone in on how the only agency, equality and intimacy is between the only two characters of substance. That was a mouthful but so are the overly poetic soliloquies shonen rivals inevitably share about one another.. ✨

I'm guessing this question might be related to the last anon ask about fanfics? I agree regarding the fact that subtext allows for a richer selection of fan art and fics. I think, depending on content, the motivation for reading fics will subsequently differ. For instance, I'm less likely to read fanfics for a romance series even if I sometimes write for them because the source material generally satisfies what I wanted from them. But fix it fics, angst and romance fics for shonen/seinen series'?? I'll definitely pick them up because, 1) there are usually unexplored relationship dynamics in the source material, 2) there are alternative domestic/fluff storylines you'd never see because the genre doesn't allow for it, 3) the canon plot is usually so devastating *cough, JJK, cough* that I need a respite, and/or, 4) the developing plot tends to have a lot of holes that writers can explore to craft uniquely compelling AU's and alternative plotlines that I wouldn't imagine.

Man, it's been a while since I nerded out and really took the time to bang out a rant. I've had so many thoughts bouncing around but just zero time. Thank you for your ask and the reminder that there's someone else out there in the shipping trenches. Stay safe out there, anon!

[guess-that-ship]

Guess That Ship Tournament Season 11: Submissions CLOSED!

The Concept: You describe your ship* to me, I pick out the submissions which I find most compelling and pit them against each other without revealing who they are, people vote on them, and their identities gets revealed once they’re eliminated.

Submission Guidelines

*For the purpose of this tournament, relationships do not have to be romantic in nature. I’m sometimes going to use “ship” as a shorthand, just know I mean “relationships” in general.

Relationship can be between any number of characters.

Real people are accepted if they’ve been dead for more than 100 years.

Roleplay characters are accepted as long as the description only pertains to the characters and not the players.

OCs are accepted.

No overtly NSFW submissions. (Mentioning they have sex or are a sex worker is fine, but try to avoid anything more than that.)

Two submission per person. (Do not submit the same ship twice. I cannot enforce this on Google Forms without forcing you to log in. So just be champs and respect this rule.)

Failure to follow these guidelines may result in all of your submissions being disqualified for this season.

Summary Guidelines

Selection Process: I will read through the list of descriptions submitted without reading their names and pick the most compelling submissions. Then, I will check the name to make sure there's no repeats.

Keep it concise, but also bring something unique to the table. Make sure to describe their relationship, not just summarize the events of the story.

Previous submissions for reference. The ideal submission should be 2-3 paragraphs, but you can make it as short or long as you want. Please keep in mind the longer your submission, the less likely it is to get in.

Tips on what to avoid while writing a summary can be found here.

Descriptions should be based on canon, not headcanon. (e.g. You can say “they love each other” instead of “they’re lovers” if their romantic nature is debatable.)

Avoid author commentary. (e.g. "They're canonically x," "I love them," "Play/watch/read this," etc.)

Use canonical pronouns.

Avoid identifying information or setting specific giveaways. (i.e. Ninja village, space necromancers.)

When submitting OCs, please make sure to at least put a name somewhere. (e.g. "John and Bob by anonymous" or "OCs by Joey.")

The more popular your ship is the more vague the description should be.

Exclusions

Ships that were accepted in Season 7 onwards and ships that at least reached the semifinals in Season 1-6 are not allowed. For a complete list, please look here. (No need to look through the whole list, just Ctrl+F to find the ship you want.)

Any submissions from Harry Potter will also not be included.

Notes

I will not vet the ships/pairings for problematic content.

If you participate in this tournament, know that you run the risk of unintentionally voting for your nOTP. The mod does not take any responsibility for any distress that may cause you.

Submit your ships here! Submissions will be open until Sunday, May 5th at 9 PM EDT.

Please reblog this post to spread the word! The more submissions, the better!

[kingsroad]

Anyyyway I'm back, I'm the one who said you inspired them to create some ocs. I've kinda worked some aspects of them, missing the names (how can we in universe have something like Rhaenys and then Jon, no shade to my boy tbh) and some backstory details.

So I kinda wanted to ask if you have any advice for well built characters/have some resources to suggest, whatever you want, if you can of course!!

(Alyse in the last chapter broke me btw🤧)

oh my gosh, hi!! i'm so happy to hear from you & hope you've been well! i'm proud of you for continuing to work on your oc. not letting yourself give up is such a huge beginning step. as for names, i have a few resources for you! this site has a list of all male & female names used in the series, since there's typically some crossover. there's always fantasynamegenerators, too, which also has an extensive asoiaf section!

aside from naming resources, i do have a fair bit of advice about creating characters, mostly things i've learned through experience!

try not to get too in your head about having the most unique oc or doing something specifically because it's popular. this pertains to character traits, their appearance, their background, their ship. don't sweat small similarities between your ocs and other ocs. it's important that you do what drives you and what inspires you. take it easy on yourself.

balance is the most important thing. shadows are darker beneath brighter light, after all. having a character's story be entirely devoid of happiness or of strain leads to them coming off as very one note. beat them up a bit. give them a win. humble them. inflate their pride. make sure your character is a mixed bag. i've found that it makes them a lot more relatable.

speaking of giving them a win — give your character something (or someone) that they're passionate about. history? art? warfare? a sibling? a childhood friend? a parent? give them something they're good at. even something they're unmatched at. it makes them human.

i try to pin down as much as i can about a character physically and make a note of it. i know where all of alyse's scars are. i know she has a beauty mark on her ankle. i know she's 6'4 with hair so dark it's nearly black and stretch marks on her stomach and hips and breasts. referencing little things like this about them just makes the character feel corporeal. give them flaws. give them something that is strikingly beautiful about them. make them the same thing, even.

let people hate them. let people love them. i've seen a lot of people who talk big about not having your oc be well-loved by characters, to not have multiple people be attracted to your character. but there's genuinely no harm in it, as long as it doesn't feel super forced.

ultimately, this is for you! think long and hard about what you want out of your oc and fucking GO for that. write what your heart wants to write. ship with the character you want to ship with. nothing else matters at the end of the day.

this is about you finding a creative outlet. that's it! chase your bliss, my friend, no matter what it entails!

[just-antithings]

Re: https://at.tumblr.com/just-antithings/703586499641425920/msabdiupoegl

Ah yeah, anon's Stranger Things knowledge is a little off. Eddie and Chrissy are nice to each other and he's vaguely flirty in the one scene in which they have an actual conversation, but she's only in one episode and has a boyfriend up until her death at its end. Fandom tends to headcanon that she was unhappy with him since he's a dick later in the season but we don't actually ever see that the show- the scary visions she has that are formed from negative things in her life only pertain to her abusive mother. Honestly, I think people calling her and Eddie canon for that one scene is an indication of how low the bar is for male/female ships to be considered "canon" by the average straight viewer compared with queer ships, which is a bit frustrating. Like, "these characters had chemistry for five minutes, imagine what could have been if things had happened differently!" is literally the premise of the concept of fanfiction, but because it's a guy and a girl, that's enough to make them canon.

But yeah, there's some dumb ship warring between the Eddie/Chrissy and Eddie/Steve shippers, with all you would expect that to entail- homophobia and "our ship is canon therefore you are wrong and invalid" from the eddissy people, and "our ship is more popular therefore you are wrong and invalid" shit from the steddie people (along with the few people being dicks to the actors, which is awful but most of the fandom does not participate in or support.) And just people on both sides being jerks to each other. However, there are also people, some of whom don't even ship steddie, who consider eddissy to be "grooming" or "pedophilic" because Eddie is 20 and still in high school due to being repeatedly held back, and Chrissy's age is ambiguous, so she could be under 18 (though I'm pretty sure it's canon that she's a senior so probably not younger than 17). Therefore he is "a predatory adult selling drugs to minors." So I assume this is why the actress is being specifically accused of being "proship"?? Super ridiculous.

I just solve this problem by polyshipping all three of them 😆

the best way to do it

[mytheoristavenue]

Just wondering; how have you been able to gain so much support on your work and writing style? I already know some tricks with tags and stuff, but do you have any other tricks to share?

Hmmm... That's a very interesting question with a not-so-easy answer! Here's my advice:

One thing to remember is that it doesn't matter how much love you get on your work if it's work from your heart! You may have a love for an obscure character that doesn't really trend much, but you have ideas that you just have to share. Try not to feel too defeated if this is the case and you only get a few notes!

You'll see the most growth of your blog when you follow trends. Is there a new season of a popular show coming out soon? Has something old recently become popular again on TikTok? If it's in your interest set, run with the trend! When things trend, people tend to search related tags more, thus (assuming you've tagged your work correctly) they'll be more likely to be exposed to your work! The same goes for fandoms that stay in the limelight such as MHA or One Piece!

Speaking of correct tagging, in my experience, there seems to be a sort of etiquette to it! Remember to use as many tags as possible that pertain to the content of your post! This could mean listing all the characters you mention, all the ships you mention (including 'x reader/(y/n)/you tags with every character that the reader is shipped with!), acronyms of the series title, and the title spelled out. That being said, try not to use tags that don't pertain to your content. It may be tempting to use tags of a very popular search that doesn't exactly line up with your work, and doing it once or twice won't hurt, but try to avoid it! When you do this, it clogs the incorrect tag, which can be frustrating to not only people searching for that tag but also to people who are rightfully using that tag! It pushes their posts down while raising yours. It also is not likely to benefit you much, as people searching for that tag will blow by your post as it's not what they're looking for!

While you should always put what you want to post first, try to read the room. In some fandoms, NSFW content is unspokenly frowned upon. In some fandoms, it is considered alright or encouraged to put younger characters in sexual or dangerous situations, like MHA. Take things like this into consideration before posting, and if you're thinking of putting an underaged character into an adult situation, take a look around to what others post and what the community deems is okay. To explain, I am not giving you permission to make NSFW content of children, I am just saying that it is considered alright in some spaces, especially when the characters are 16-17yo. Just remember to take note of how the community you're catering to might feel about that post. If it's something considered 'taboo' in that space, don't expect it to go viral.

In my experience, OC/self-ship content doesn't go as far as reader insert/(y/n) content. But don't be discouraged! Share your OCs, ships, and shifting stuff! Someone will like it, and if nobody does, you do, and that's all that matters!

Remember to like and reblog when you're viewing other's content. If you don't boost others, you can't expect to be boosted by them! Like, comment, sharing, copy link, reblog, add more tags, follow that blog, and interact with them. Support others!

Make masterlists and pin posts! A master list is an organization compilation of all your works that fall under a certain category! I have a 'Prime' masterlist that is my pinned post. It is filled with links to other, more specific masterlist, sorted by fandom. This means, that when peoplefind a post that they like of mine and go to check out my blog, the first thing they see is that list! Then, if I have more work related to that thing, they can find it all easily! Make sure you pin these lists or any other important/ new posts! (Note: you can only have 1 pinned post at one time!)

Try joining other communities for your interests like Discord! These are gathering places for fans and most times have space for fanworks that offer constructive criticism, advice, and support! Just remember to practice safety online!

Remember that the algorithm does weird things! Sometimes things get censored for no good reason and that's nothing you can help! Sometimes, people get shadow-banned if they get too much growth at once!

Remember to post consistently! The best blogs post either on a schedule, or often enough to be considered relevent! The more often you post, the more frequently your blog will be featured in top or new posts to your tags! Some searchers engage in their interest daily, so they will always be on the lookout for new content, so make sure they see your name a lot!

Hiatuss are okay! But remember, when you're not posting, someone else is, so when you're offline, it's someone else's turn to have all the attention! It may take some time/effort to regain popularity after a break, and that's perfectly fine!

(If anyone has anything to add, please feel free!)

[tal-vez-o-quizas]

I like all characters but honestly, i think Mike is the only character who literally has nothing going for him at this point in the show (in the text i mean). It feels like he is usually defined by El and other times his friendship drama with Will. Like I really cannot count anything Mike has individually or personally storywise for his character. Even Dustin is given individual and personal arcs of his own (and I am saying 'even' because Dustin's usually seen as the funny comedic guy kind of character). He's given relationship dynamics with Steve, Robin and Erica. He's got his own relationship exploration with Eddie for all S4 and literally Eddie died to specifically further Dustin's character. Lets not lie that Eddie will have anything to do with Mike in the next season. It was basically all about building Dustin's grief for him for S5 and furthering Dustin's role in clearing up Eddie's name and helping his uncle. Lucas got his own basketball plotline and wanting to stop his bullying by playing up his popularity and struggling with being a nerd versus jock. I don't even have to talk about Max and El. Will's got his own gay sexuality storyline and his supernatural plotlines. Nancy got journalism and gets to fight and be in action. Jonathan even if he's sidelined has personal storylines aka his parentification, daddy issues/Lonnie and his fear of becoming like his father and college/family struggle, etc.

Of course I ship byler because i want it to happen in the narrative for good writing reasons but i also think it would really help Mike's character to be fixed because his character right now can be described as El's sidepiece and it is annoying as fuck. Sorry but I'd even prefer Will and Jonathan being sidelined any day than spending any more time on Mike talking/thinking about El.

ALL FACTS ANON!

And people need to realize we feel like this because of how the character have been written.

I do think Mike has had some personal struggles unrelated to El though, like how he stood up to the bullies in Season 1, twice (which was something he decided to do for himself, even without the subtext), how he's part of Hellfire in Season 4 and how he's able to take accountability for his own actions.

Is a fact that all characters have something going on for them related to other characters, but Mike seems to be the one whose arc is heavily intertwined with El (and Will). We've analyzed how Mike's plot is always heavily related to Will and El since the first episode, which I have no issues about and I'm pretty indiferent to it, but it would add a richness to his character if we could see him struggle with something related to his own persona.

Hopefully we see Mike with something pertaining to him that makes people realize he's not just El's boyfriend. I mean, look at how people (not us, lol) hated Max in S3 or didn't care about her, but Season 4 showed us how she was struggling with her survivor's guilt and people felt for Max and rooted for her.

Still, we can come up with our own conclusions after S5 premieres but Anon... you were spitting!