#and am i reducing them to a ship or tropes'

[torchickentacos]

current skill I'm working on is called 'stop it' where, once I start overthinking about my hobbies to the point of them not being fun, I stop them for a bit. it's not going great so far but we're working on it

[arklay]

once upon a time i liked a ship for what it was and then i saw how the fandom treated it and now i have visceral hatred towards it (harsh but not far off)

[end-otw-racism]

End OTW Racism Link Round-Up: Week 1!

We are now in week two of our action demanding that OTW live up to its commitments to address racist harassment & abuse, which ends May 31st! There was a lot of great discussion during the first week, so we wanted to post a round-up of some of the longer-form discussion/analysis that people have been sharing (we're going with posts on Tumblr, Dreamwidth, and other sites, as well as Twitter threads that are longer than three tweets). These are posts that we think would be helpful to consider as fandom engages in the necessary conversations about these issues.

If we've missed something you've written, we'll be doing another round-up of week two, so it's not too late! You can either submit it on tumblr, tweet at us, or email us at endotwracism [at] gmail [dot] com. We do reserve the right to only share posts that are in line with the intent of the campaign and that we believe are adding to the conversation.

Tumblr

beatrice-otter: Why AO3 needs to be accountable for reducing fandom racism in its internal culture and the archive [link]

pretty-weird-ideas: End OTW Racism and the “Fed” Accusations [link]

aretethegreattelleroftales: You don’t understand what EndOTWRacism is asking for here, and because you clearly do not understand it, you should have known better than to speak on it. [link]

vex-verlain: In response to the reactions I’ve seen to #EndOTWRacism [link]

unrealromance: I don’t really understand how people don’t know the difference between ‘whoops I’ve fallen into a racist trope’ and 'I am literally writing hate speech that is unveiled, mask off’. [link]

pretty-weird-ideas: Codification of a Living Document as a solution to Harassment on OTW [link]

indifferentvincent: RE: End OTW Racism Derailment [link]

elumish: In light of some of the backlash to the End OTW Racism protest, and particularly the concern that an anti-harassment policy would lead to abuse of reporting mechanisms or censorship of unpopular authors/ships… [link]

seepunkrun: How to Find and Attend OTW Board Meetings [link]

indifferentvincent: The people who use the excuse of saying ao3 is an ‘archive’ and so 'must preserve’ the most vile, intentionally racist fics just sound like the most privileged motherfuckers on the planet to me. [link]

spacebeyonce & pretty-weird-ideas: wow this is such a normal and rational thing to say about having a diversity consultant to help ao3 fix their bullshit. [link]

indifferentvincent: I have to assume this is in regards to my promotion of the end-otw-racism call to action, because I don’t know what else it could be referencing. [link]

princeescaluswords: Writing Doesn’t Happen in a Void [link]

mousieta: There is a place, a magic place, a giant, ever growing park filled with sandboxes of every color and shape imaginable. [link]

Twitter

spacebeyonceart: alright so I want to talk about this post I made two years ago now that the #EndOTWRacism ball is finally rolling. [link]

generalfrings: This shit makes me so goddamn angry, yall. [link]

eruthosish: One of the calls of #EndOTWRacism is to improve the AO3's Terms of Service and how the AO3 deals with fanworks that are part of an offsite harassment campaign, so I wanted to share a story about the only time I have ever reported offsite harassment and had Abuse agree with me. [link]

buttonthemdown: They've proven they can move quickly *when they want to*, but the fact the OTW hasn't made an official statement acknowledging their lack of action and pledging to do better sends a signal they don't care about their POC fans. [link] 

Clonehub7567 Seeing the reactionary dismissals of #EndOTWRacism from white fans who pretend to care about racism is reminding me of the backlash i/we got for #UnwhitewashTBB. [link]

hydrochaeris3: ppl who are worried that not participating in the call to action will get them labeled racist..... first of all once again yall are showing that you care more about what others might label you than putting forth tangible effort into caring for a community [link]

m_sketchyart: If you think that #EndOTWRacism is censoring your escapism, here’s a thought to chew on: why is being anti-racist a threat to your escapism? Is true escapism not also leaving racism, antiBlackness, fatphobia, abeism, misogyny, etc out of your escapism? /rh  [link]

lunedraws: Have you wanted to walk the walk and not just talk the talk, re: racism, in one or more of your fandom spaces? This is a concise and timely line of actions we can take. [link]

aliasmarionette: One thing I see a lot in #EndOTWRacism comments which are in favour of the status quo is assumptions about who we mean by fandom, and about the user base of the Archive. [link]

SapphicScholar: New profile photo while participating in the important fan-led campaign to demand that OTW make good on the promises it has already made to address issues it has already acknowledged as problems in the archive—that is, instances of extreme racist harassment and abuse [link]

Fansplaining: Since the endotwracism campaign has begun, we wanted to highlight the timeline they've put together about the OTW's communications re: hiring a diversity consultant since their initial statement of commitment in the summer of 2020. [link]

gwenpendrcgon: ive seen so much backlash over #EndOTWRacism which shouldnt surprise me (also majority of this comes from tumblr is also to be expected) but most if not all backlash received by this event is done is such bad faith and complete wilful ignorance [link]

fiercynonym: so op of the #EndOTWRacism post on reddit dm-ed me and the situation is even more fucked up than i originally knew???  [link]

kitschlet: seeing a lot of people confused about what the OTW can do to address racism [link]

generalfrings: poor AO3 maintaining a 'absurdly heavy site'. all that text! [link]

RukminiPande: Fan scholars should be paying attn to #EndOTWracism. [link]

Saathi1013: The thing to notice about all the assertions that people know who's behind EOTWR is like... Okay, there are a few things, actually [link]

buttonthemdown: If you think that victims of racism need to "develop a thicker skin" you're a fucking racist [link]

mousieta: if i could have people understand one thing abt #endotwracism right now is that This issue matters not because racism makes you feel bad, or uncomfy, or squicky but because racism is actively harming Real Living Breathing Fans right now. [link]

fiercynonym: okay so…you know how OTW has been saying, when asked at meetings, that they have a budget surplus of about USD $1 million? well…manogirl & i did some digging, and it might actually be more than TWO AND A HALF MILLION USD. [link]

runpunkrun: Speaking of OTW Board meetings, if you're interested in attending, here's what you need to know [link] 

Dreamwidth

satsuma: A Chronic Habit of Avoiding Responsibility? #EndOTWRacism [link]

bcgphoenix: I have a lot of feelings about OTW and End OTW Racism as a book conservator/general preservation person, most of which verge into tl;dr territory. [link]

killabeez: Looking at past archive policies [link]

nyctanthes: End OTW Racism (Fannish Fifty #47) [link]

chestnut_pod: Be more democratic, be more autocratic, OTW [link]

Other sites

Lady’s Weblog: End Racism in the OTW [link]

The Rec Center: #384 Final Thoughts [link]

Stitch’s Media Mix: I’m Supporting #EndOTWRacism [link]

[eri-pl]

Silm reread 11: Men! And the Noldor again!

AKA the part where Fefe dies and Angrod is made by the narrative to look like a fool and Turgon needs a manual

So we apparently switch to another source or at least another editor, because it starts with "the Valar made the sun and stopped caring (except Ulmo) and the only thing protecting the land from Morgoth's rule was the courage of the Noldor". Which may be factual but doesn't sound like something we would get in the narration in one of the previous parts. Huh.

Ulmo tries to teach Men, Men are too dumb. :)

In the First Age Men and Elves do not differ in height or physical strength. Elves are more skilled and beautiful, and the Eldar are (taller? more powerful in another sense? translation unclear :( )

Elves do not die of diseases, but it seems like they may get sick, maybe. They do look like Men, but this will change as their spirits remodel their bodies. But Men are weaker (less buff?), die more easily (also from wounds etc), and heal less easily.

Earendil, Elwing and Elrond mentioned as having full effective-Elvenship, which confirms that all other half-elves (Dior, Nimloth, Dior's twins, also any hypothetical half-elves) do not. But unclear what this means.

Return of the Gnomes Noldor

Wait, does Fefe land his ships on the Morgoth-screamed-like-a-kid-because-spider Land? :D

Second Battle (First one was the Sindar), the Noldor are OP and awesome, light of Aman and what not. An army that has been besieging Cirdan is called back to attack them and Celegorm intercepts it and defeats it.

In ten days, Morgoth's army is reduced to almost zero.

Feanáro expects too see Morgoth just round the corner and chases the orcs laughing and congratulating himself on his courage and disregard of the Valar (it is in the text) and is very brave and strong, but mortally wounded anyway, by Gothmog himself.

Also: Balrogs > Ungoliant and SoF > Balrogs, which is pretty cool for the sons of Feanor. Ungoliant had fire vulnerability, but still, it does look cool.

Fefe dies looking at Thrangorodrim, because revenge > anything else, apparently. Realizes it is impossible for the Noldor to conquer it. And regardless he tells his sons to re-swear the Oath and to avange him. (Also, he curses Morgoth again, three times)

Sindar and Noldor have a language difference, and I've mentioned it with the Dwarves already, but Sindarin seems easy to learn.

The initial assumption (of the Sindar and Dark Elves) is that the Noldor came ordered by the Valar to help them.

Just as Fefe dies, an emissary comes to invite his sons to a parlay. Maedhros convinces his brothers to pretend to want to parlay. I totally forgot that part!!! It is his idea! And as we all know, both sides betray the agreement, but Morgoth side does it with more success. He ordered to capture Maedhros alive (I'm not sure what is the main reason for that).

The other 6 fortify and do not want further "negotiations", this sounds like it's all happening very fast, but then the timelines suggest it took years. Morgoth demands the Noldor get out, they do not because they know he won't let Mae go anyway. After it's clear the talking is over, Mae is hung at the cliff. Which suggests to me he hung there for most of his capture.

There's tension, Fingolfin thinks that all 8 burned the ships together, his host is numerous and angry. Doom of the Noldor starts acting and instead of cooperation, there are tensions. And the SoF are too ashamed of their treason to go talk with the newcomers openly. :(

Fingon and Maedhros are… it reads as they had more or less officially unfriended each other at some point in Valinor, because of all the stuff between their fathers. Fingolfin doesn't know Maedhros opposed the ship-burning. He thinks Maedhros sees him as an enemy or at elast a jerk. Still, he goes to save him. I love this.

The song-rescue!!!

Oh, the song-rescue. I am so insane about this trope. It's just so— I don't know how to even call it. Not only this one scene (or the other two), but this scheme in general, I do have a thing about it. Very much. But tbh it's one of the things where my love for it is in big part "non-canon, very niche connections I make about it". Same as with…. most things I like in the Silm, probably. Hmm.

Also, let's have a moment for Mae, seriously. The rescue scene is so … poor Mae. And it is not even the worst part of "fate awaited him with fell purpose" :(

Yea, Manwe still cares about the exiled Noldor no matter what Namo's intern said. :D (yes this is a hc, because I do not imagine Namo saying something that isn't literally true)

Mae survives only because he's supercharged after having spent a long time in Valinor. (I'll need a better mental model of how it works, but I'm pretty sure it's the same thing that made Luthien die faster on the Silmaril and makes mortals allegedly die faster in Valinor, it's just different for Elves. But I wouldn't be surprised if later the Eldar faded faster than the Dark Elves)

Meadhros apologizes for ship-burning and gives the crown to Fingolfin (I for some reason misremembered it as Fingon. Huh.)

Thingol is not entirely happy about guys wanting to establish their own kingdoms, does not open his borders to them (for this reason, I think) and does not open the Girdle (because Morgoth). This is probably still when he assumes that the Noldor were sent to Beleriand by the Valar. So, it is … not terrible, but probably not a fully nice behavior either. Especially including his friendship with Finwë. On the other hand, maybe Melian already does have a hunch that something shady is going on with the Noldor.

He invites Finarfin-s family, because their mom (Earwen) was Olwë's daughter??? I forgot that part. Oh. this must have been awkward.

Angrod talks with thingol and does not mention the kinslaying, Oath and all the jazz, because "he thought it was ok now"? Excuse me, narrative, what? I need this in English, I'm not sure what even it's saying exactly.

Fortunately, much text of the Silm is Googleable.

he spoke long with the King, telling him of the deeds of the Noldor in the north, and of their numbers, and of the ordering of their force; but being true, and wisehearted, and thinking all griefs now forgiven, he spoke no word concerning the kinslaying, nor of the manner of the exile of the Noldor and the oath of Fëanor.

It does not help. He thinks the grieves are forgiven by whom? The Valar? The Teleri? Iluvatar? (who was mentioned in the Oath, it turns out, just the Polish translation misses this).

Like, ok, Professor, I get that you want Angrod to not be a liar (because he's son of Finarfin and they're the good ones) but also Thingol to not know about the shady parts, but I don't think it works. It just makes Angrod look really stupid at best.

Thingol lats the Noldor settle in the free parts of the land, to protect the settlements of his subjects. Makes sense to me. Also reminds them that he's the king of Beleriand, which sounds rather too proud, but again, nothing more than being a bit of a jerk. The Feanorians are upset.

Maedhros calls him a fake king (affectionate) and Caranthir (who we are told is a jerk in general) gets angry and disses the Arafinweans. Maedhros puts him in his place (which is important to note, because it makes me assume he generally puts his brother in place, eg Celegorm after Luthien probably even if it's not said in the text)

Maedhros is cool, he is friends with cousins… ut he is oath-bound as we are ominously reminded.

Oh, so here it is about Caranthir and money. He disses Dwarves but as they both hate Morgoth, they decide to fight against him by… making Caranthir the sole sales representative of the Dwarves.

The feast of peace! We have M&M (no other brothers, maybe because they are less diplomatic), some Sindar, Cirdan&friends, less important Elves Green Elves, and from Doriath we get Mablung and Dearon.

So yes, Maglor and Daeron get to meet each other.

The Noldor are great at crafts and lore, but Maglor is the greatest minstrel among them. The Sindar wre great at music, but Daeron is the greatest scholar among them. Oh, the cultural exchange when they two get drunk and argue about what tuning is better invent modern music theory and what not. I don't care for the alliances and stuff, but give me a fic of those two just talking music theory and similar things.

Also, many oaths of firendship and alliance were made — I guess the idea of swearing oaths is not traumatic yet. Makes sense. We are early in the timeline, before lost battles and most mass murders.

Here we get the difference in language-learning between Noldor and Sindar.

Turgon and Finrod get visions from Ulmo, each one assumes he's the only one to get it. I like Silm more than LotR, and Silm characters more than LotR characters on average, but at least iirc Boromir and Faramir talked to each other. :D

Finrod visits Thingol, makes Nargothrond, the Dwarves help and in the published vevrsion there is no conflict at any point between them. Finrod gives them a lot of gems, the Dwarves give him Nauglamir, it's pretty and one-size-fits-all, and magically light.

Meanwhile, Galadriel gets married and becomes Melian's student.

Turgon is less effective at hidden-city-making than Finrod and Ulmo has to tell him what exactly to do. It's not really stupid or anything, but kind of funny and I will laugh at Turgon for needing a how-to. :)

Another won battle (third one). fingolfin says Morgoth will never be able to break the siege. Ironic how it is him to say that. Both because what happens later and because he's called "Wise Finwë".

Also, Morgoth does have some intel because he regularly captures some Eldar alive and asks them questions. So he isn't completely dumb yet. Years pass, we get baby Glaurung. It's like 400 years from coming of the Noldor? And still nobody told Thingol (and probably any other non-Elda) about the problematic parts. This is weird.

Here we get the comparision of Noldor and Sindar skills and preferences. Also, they do merge in some settlements into effectively one nation, speaking Sindarin.

Also, a note about the ban (which will come later): Sindarin was the common language at this point anyway, becase the Noldor learned it easily and the Sindar learned quanya with difficulty. So, Thingol's ban was more of a formality than a practical issue.

It was as if Thingol put a "I hate the kinslayers" decoration on his Facebook picture. This kind of gesture. At least that's how it seems to me from what I've already reread.

[speakingwords]

Marauders Fandom, a huge nightmare.

WARNING: this post is long!!

Hello, everyone. Today I conducted a thorough analysis of the Marauders Fandom, searching across multiple social media platforms, and discovered that this fandom is the most disturbing thing I have ever seen. I have been reading CANON Harry Potter since I was a kid, and I know almost everything there is to know about the series; however, people appear to be incorporating fanon into the canon, which I find strange and unacceptable.

It is acceptable to dislike the author, but changing and twisting the entire story until it is unrecognizable and laughable is strange. Like, the Marauders fanbase should read this post and consider seeing a therapist! IMMEDIANTLY!

For example, let us start with something I find strange: everyone is gay. It is fine to be gay; I am gay myself, but making every character gay and claiming it is their entire personality is laughable. I have read canon and looked at the wizarding world's perspective, and I am going to say this: they probably do not even accept gay people, and purebloods probably do not even know what a gay person is, and probably despise anyone who is. Gay people were not always as accepted as they are now, and the wizarding world lags behind in some ways, so they may have bad ideals, which they do. If you could stop making every character gay, because they most likely aren't, and probably just have close friendships and are a canon STRAIGHT, do not make a character gay just to be likeable or for your own pleasure; everyone should be comfortable with a character's sexuality and should not have to change it. It is disgusting, and you look really weird doing it. You are fetishizing gay relationships and gay people by doing it that way. I honestly throw up when I see how you people treat these characters; why not create your own or something? These are not your little dolls that you just throw around.

“Fetishizing a character or making being gay their entire personality can be harmful and offensive to members of the LGBTQ+ community. Making a character's personality all about their sexuality can imply that it is the only thing that defines them as a person, and can reduce them to a stereotype. Additionally, making a character gay solely for the purpose of shipping them with someone of the same gender can also be problematic, as it can perpetuate stereotypes and objectify gay relationships.

It is important to create well-developed, complex characters who just happen to be gay, and to show that they are more than just their sexuality. This can create representation that is not based on harmful stereotypes and that shows the diversity of the LGBTQ+ community. When creating characters, it's important to focus on their personalities, goals, and motivations, rather than solely on their sexuality. It's also important to avoid perpetuating harmful stereotypes and objectifying gay relationships.

It is important to be aware of and sensitive to issues related to representation in media, and to ensure that characters are portrayed in a way that is respectful and inclusive, rather than perpetuating harmful tropes or stereotypes.”

Please make sure you aren’t doing this because its actually extremely offensive to do so. It also does not help justify or improve a character's appearance, nor does it make them more attractive or less disgusting than they were previously!

Making characters transgender is something else that I find strange and disgusting. I believe it is okay to be trans; that is who you are; however, changing a character's canon gender to your liking is disgusting, regardless of the reason; unless it is your character that you created, do not do it. I have seen so many Marauders fans change the genders of characters or headcanon them as trans people, which is not true, and you guys make it their entire personality and something they have to have to be attractive, so go take a shower. If you are doing these things, stop. Instead of trying to change someone else's character because you want them to be a certain way, create your own character.

“Changing a character's gender, making them trans, or headcanoning them as trans can be acceptable if it is done with respect and sensitivity. It's important to remember that trans representation is still relatively new to popular media, so it is important to be mindful of how it is portrayed.

However, making being trans a character's entire personality and making them unattractive unless they are trans can be problematic and could be seen as fetishizing trans identity. It's important to be mindful of how these characters are portrayed and to avoid perpetuating stereotypes or objectifying trans folks. It's also important to recognize that trans identity is just one aspect of a person's identity and should not be the only defining characteristic of a character.

When it comes to a character created by someone else, it is important to be respectful of their choices and not change their character without their permission. However, if you're creating your own character, then it's up to you to decide how you want to portray them. As long as you are respectful and mindful of the way you portray trans identities, it can create meaningful representation for a community that is often underrepresented in the media."

Another thing is changing characters' entire personalities; I understand it is what you want to do, but the way you go about it disgusts me. But you guys change a person's entire personality to make them what you want and attractive in your eyes, or what you want from a character. To be honest, you should just start creating your own characters. Can you please stop changing an author's characters so much that I can not tell who they are and fetishizing them? It is okay to do whatever you want, but it is getting out of hand. Also, it makes a lot of people uncomfortable, and I have heard several people say they are no longer fans because of you.

“It's generally not a good idea to change a character's identity, personality, and characteristics to the point of being unrecognizable. This can be problematic and can come across as disrespectful and disrespectful to the original creator of the character and to the fans who love and appreciate the character as they are.

Changing a character to the point of being unrecognizable and having them solely defined by a specific trait could potentially be seen as fetishizing, especially if the trait is related to a historically marginalized or underrepresented group such as a certain race, sexuality, or gender.

In general, it's important to be respectful of the original creator's intentions and not change their characters too much. However, if you want to create your own original character and make them completely different from the original, that is more acceptable and allows for more creativity and artistic freedom.”

Last but not least, they are changing their race, ethnicity, and nationality. When did we decide that such behavior was acceptable? I find it strange and disguising, especially changing a white character to different races and things to make them more appealing and pleasant to your taste; I find this to be extremely problematic in general, as seen in the Marauders fandom! Especially if the character was originally of a different race, ethnicity, and nationality but is now white and something else. I know the author isn’t good, but this kind of behavior is unacceptable.

“Changing a character's race, ethnicity, or nationality to make them "better" or more attractive is not acceptable, as it can perpetuate harmful stereotypes and may be seen as disrespectful and insensitive to the original creator of the character and to members of that community. The same is true for making a character's race, ethnicity, or nationality the primary focus of their personality, as it can be seen as fetishizing and objectifying.

When it comes to a character created by someone else, it's important to be respectful of the original creator's choices and not change their character without their permission. It's important to remember that representation matters and that changing a character's race, ethnicity, or nationality can be disrespectful and harmful to the members of the community that the character represents.

It's also important to be aware that changing a character's race, ethnicity, or nationality can have broader implications on society and culture, especially if the character is a popular cultural figure. It could perpetuate harmful stereotypes and may be seen as exclusionary or racist.

In short, it's important to be mindful of the implications of changing a character's identity and to refrain from doing so. Instead, it's better to create an entirely new character that aligns with one's vision and values.” 

Also, forget about the Marauders vs. Snape rivalry; it is just straight up bullying. The Marauders fandom enjoys making excuses for their characters, but there should be no excuses for these characters, and I will link something below that explains why this is bullying, and I would like to quickly address the Marauders fandom.

Could you please, Marauders Fandom, stop changing characters and fetishizing them? I should not have to ask you to do this; it is common sense. Why do this is my question; you guys are so disgusting that you resort to such strange behavior.

[epickiya722]

A lot of times the problem with these het ships is just, that there is an incredible lack of balance in it that almost feels toxic.

And i don't mean dark fiction or anything, i mean fiction that wants you to see them as a good couple.

Like in bnha, again. Iz///ocha has an inbalance over the fact that for it to go forward, it is completely reliant on Ochako, and whatever she decides to do with her feelings.

Which makes her the only one that ever puts the effort into her crush, even if it ends up not actually moving forward, she still the one who's ever confronted with them.

And Izuku never does anything to respond or even indicate that he feels the same. Frankly, if he was to suddendly show that he loves her, that would just make him look like an intruder. Or maybe even imply "now that everything's over, here's your prize, hero!"

I agree!!

While IzuOcha is a popular ship, it's also not compared to BakuDeku and even TogaOcha got some growth over it.

It's not because "het is ew" because I have crossed other shippers who are okay with IzuOcha and/or have other M/F ships they like (I myself like KiriMina).

It's because it is underdeveloped and one-sided.

Izuku reacts to Ochako the same way he has with every other girl. Any time there's crush talk, it's only from Ochako's side. Nothing from Izuku, at all. He compliments her, but it came off more like a bestie hyping you up after you say something self-deprecating than actual "Hey, I like you, let's go out".

To be honest, I don't even think Horikoshi intended for IzuOcha to be seen a ship for people to root for. I don't think he actually ever cares for it because if he really wanted to, he could have made it more balanced. I say this because look at M/F pairings like KiriMina and KamiJiro.

They're more minor than IzuOcha are and yet for both pairings there's a lot more balance between them. Even by design!

I talk more in depth about this here and here.

I totally agree with you on that last bit.

If Izuku suddenly goes "Hey, I love you" or even after winning there's suddenly them hooking up, it will come off as Ochako being some prize because, again, Izuku hadn't shown romantic interest in her like that.

It's funny to me that some people will "BakuDeku are like brothers" but then turn around and want to apply the same tropes and scenarios that BkDk have been through to their ship romantically.

Example, there were people who actually want AFO!Shigaraki to attack Ochako next just so Izuku could save her. This was during the time when everyone was brought in through those portals into the same area.

When I was so agitated about that because one, you really want someone to potentially get killed just for a "shippy" moment? I DIDN'T LIKE SHIGARAKI ATTACKING BAKUGOU LIKE THAT!! Two, so Ochako couldn't be dealing with her situation without any inference? Like she really need to be put in a damsel situation and not be a hero? Because that's how it came off to me.

Look, I myself have ships, but at the end of the day when it comes to the main goal of a lot of these characters?

The last thing any of them really want is romance. If no ship becomes canon I am so okay with that.

A lot of these characters, especially characters like Izuku, Ochako, and Katsuki want to be the best heroes they can be. They want to save people, make them smile, be the best. That was their goal when they chose (and got to) attend UA.

I don't recall Ochako saying "I'm attending UA to get a boyfriend!"

So why reduce her to that? She did not look at Izuku on their first meeting and decided "I'm going to UA to be his wife". I thought she wanted to be a hero so she can make people smile and provide for her parents. Am I wrong? Did I miss something? Did I watch and read a different version of BNHA?

[longing-for-rain]

I know you said no bait asks, and I promise this isn't, I'm genuinely curious to hear an opinion from a Zutara shipper who seems pretty rational. (I am not a kataang fan either by the way so I'm not trying to argue that or anything.). Do you believe that Zutara is a feminist relationship in comparison to Kataang? And what are your reasons for being so strongly invested in Zutara?

Hi, thanks for the ask. I’ll do my best to explain my feelings on this, but to summarize, I think there are two questions here that aren’t inherently related: a) is Zutara feminist and b) why do I like it so much. I know this might surprise you, but even though Zutara is my OTP, I don’t consider it inherently feminist. Let me explain though because that doesn’t mean it’s a bad ship at all.

Obviously, I really like the characters together. However, I won’t go ahead and say it’s the “feminist” choice over kataang, because personally I think that discussing whether a female character has a feminist narrative should not center around which man she ends up with. The primary focus should be on her narrative independently. And if she doesn’t have an independent narrative, well…that’s not feminist at all.

But I’ll answer in more detail below because I think this is an interesting distinction.

a) Is Zutara feminist over Kataang?

Like I said above…no, not inherently. I think what this question is getting at is which relationship gives Katara as a character a feminist narrative, which is a tricky question. Only one of these ships is canon, so we only know how one relationship would have played out in the eyes of the creators. Everything else is up to the interpretation of fans.

First things first, I absolutely do not think kataang, as portrayed in canon, adds to Katara’s independent narrative as a character, and certainly doesn’t contribute to any potential feminist narrative of her character. There are many instances of Katara being damseled and/or generally reduced in complexity whenever she’s placed in a “romantic” situation involving Aang. Despite Katara also being a main character, the “crush” is portrayed entirely through Aang’s POV. And post canon, Katara ends up being relegated to the role of a healer who stays home at the South Pole (this is why I could never get invested in LoK). Which, if you paid attention to her character at all, was something she explicitly stated she didn’t want to be and fought to escape. Ending her story that way reversed any “feminist” narrative set up in ATLA. So no, this is not a narrative that centers Katara and her ambitions at all.

Now onto fanon content.

The beauty of fanon is that it’s completely up to interpretation. Fans can give the characters whichever narratives they want. This goes for both Zutara and kataang. Just because your ship is canon doesn’t mean you have to adhere to canon; many canon shippers write “fix it” type content or otherwise make changes to the canon relationship to make it more appealing to them. I’m sure there are kataang shippers who rewrite their canon relationship to give Katara a feminist narrative, but to be honest the ship just doesn’t appeal to me at all so I haven’t seen those, but I’m not saying they don’t exist.

Now, Zutara. Even though there are definitely some hints in the series, there was nothing explicitly romantic between these characters in canon. So, fans are free to interpret how a relationship between Zuko and Katara would play out, and therefore Katara’s narrative within that relationship. Some people do make a strong effort to give Katara a feminist story, and in my experience, this is often a direct response to canon. But on the other side of the coin, some people absolutely…do not. It’s a big ship with lots of content. Some of it gives Katara’s character a feminist narrative, some of it…does the exact opposite of that. I think anyone familiar with the ship is probably well aware of some of the unsavory tropes associated with it so I won’t get into that.

But anyways, for any ship, there is a variety of content featuring Katara. Sometimes she’s a great warrior, sometimes she plays an important political role, and sometimes she’s just treated like a slave. Sometimes she has her own wants and ambitions and sometimes her story revolves entirely around whichever male character the author is thirsty for. Sometimes she’s treated as a complex human being and sometimes she just exists to be a fetish. Which again, goes for literally any ship and character you can think of.

So when asking yourself if Katara is given a feminist narrative, asking which man she’s paired with is asking the wrong question. Instead the focus should be on Katara herself and what the message of the story says about her.

b) Why do you like Zutara?

Although you can probably tell from the above, I do consider myself a feminist and enjoy analyzing media from that perspective. But honestly, that has little to do with why I like this relationship so much.

Sorry if this answer is boring, but I just…like them. Everyone has different tastes. For me, I was immediately drawn to them watching the show as a kid, because I’m a sucker for that sort of hurt/comfort dynamic they had going on in books 2-3. Growing up and taking a closer look, I also found that I see Zuko and Katara as having a lot of similar values and personality traits that I feel would make them compatible in a relationship. Also, there’s the fact that I just really like Katara and Zuko as individual characters so I like the fact that Zutara allows me to explore both characters by themselves, as well as how they interact together.

But if I’m being real, the final Agni Kai scene is what sold me. The emotional intensity of that scene just had me hooked for life. It’s really not much deeper than that, but yes, I’m extremely obsessed and emotionally invested in this ship.

And yes, I do write a lot of Zutara fic and do my best to give Katara independent goals and ambitions and agency as a character. I do my best to write her in a way that portrays a feminist narrative because I personally find that important. But that’s something I could apply to any ship. I don’t think it’s inherently feminist to ship Zutara, because like I said earlier, it completely depends on the individual fans and how they interpret it. I like interpreting it in a way that gives Katara individual power and goals, but that’s just me. Not everyone writes Zutara the same way.

Hope that answers your question ❄️

[blueskittlesart]

I got into anime because of ohshc, go insane

you have no idea the floodgate you've just opened. i am crazy <3 <3 <3

ouran is fascinating to me. genuinely. because for a lot of western fans (including myself) it was a starter anime. something we watched when we had very little knowledge of the industry or the genres which populated it. and like. with almost any other show that would be fine, but ouran is fundamentally a satire of shoujo romance, a specific anime genre which notably has very little presence in the western market currently, and had almost NO PRESENCE WHATSOEVER when ouran was in its peak popularity. I believe its popularity as a starter anime is mostly due to the fact that it simply happened to be one of the more easily accessible shows for western fans back in the day (it was part of the first wave of anime to be added to netflix iirc and was also almost immediately ripped and uploaded to youtube.) But like, looking back on it, the fact that many people watched ouran with little to no knowledge of anime in general AND the fact that the market was largely oversaturated with shounen while shoujo was relatively inaccessible at the time made it so that many western watchers were essentially missing 90% of the context with which it was meant to be viewed, and i think that DEFINITELY contributed to the way it has sort of fallen out of favor in recent years.

there was a shift around maybe. 2015-16ish or so. when those of us whose introduction to anime was that first wave of netflix translations got old enough to find our old interests cringe. and we started looking for ways to critique them so we could hate them for real reasons instead of just because we hated our middle school selves. and this did lead to a lot of valid and well-deserved critique of the anime that was popular at the time, which i don't necessarily want to diminish, but i think it led to criticism of ouran specifically which stemmed from lack of context and ignored critical portions of the show, which ultimately shifted the widespread perception of it among western fans from "funny comedy romance anime" to "homophobic twincest anime." (yes i am talking about the twincest. sorry but i am going to make you think about this because i never stop thinking about it)

before anyone goes insane i am in no way saying that twincest is not Bad. but what i AM saying is that OURAN WAS ALSO NOT SAYING THAT. this is where the lack of cultural context comes into play I think, because, as mentioned, ouran is satire of a specific genre of romance manga that is very well-known among japanese readers but took much longer to make its way west than shounen did, so a lot of the tropes and jokes that ouran is making fun of read to the untrained western eye as just sort of weird and off-beat. hikaru and kaoru's relationship is one of those things. there is a very real trend among female shoujo fans of fetishizing "forbidden" relationships, whether that be mlm or familial or whatever. because of this, you'd get series that were written about those kinds of relationships catering specifically to people who fetishized them. it's fucking weird. the point that ouran is trying to make with hikaru and kaoru is that IT IS FUCKING WEIRD. hikaru and kaoru are written deliberately as a critique of this trend of fetishization. They canonically play into their peers' fantasies because they enjoy the attention, while underneath it all they have almost no sense of self due to their peers' inability to view them as anything but two parts of a whole. the hitachiins as characters are a deliberate commentary on the way in which fetishization and shipping culture dehumanizes and strips these characters of their identities, reducing them down to entertainment for the girls they cater to. (as a note, i think it's interesting that a lot of the western 'yaoi fangirls' of the first-wave netflix anime era were obsessed with these two. like. girl maybe look at your source material a little bit longer LMAO.) I think suggesting that ouran's handling of hikaru and kaoru is an endorsement of twincest is an insane misunderstanding of the Entire Point Of The Show and it's really unfortunate because i KNOW it puts a lot of people off from watching it in the first place. People fr make it sound like the twincest is fucking pervasive when it literally is not and the whole point is that it sucks and they shouldn't be doing it.

to a lesser extent this weird inability to distinguish satire and endorsement is present in western fans' reactions to other aspects of the show as well. the most notable example i can think of off the top of my head is the way lobelia academy was handled. I vividly remember 2020 tiktok discourse about tamaki's "adam and eve" line as if that wasn't soooo obviously a JOKE AT HIS EXPENSE. lobelia is, again, satire of a specific shojou trope: the evil lesbian. again, a relatively common shojou trope in which a vindictive, man-hating girl tries to get in the way of the main m/f couple because she is in love with the female lead, often by physically harming or incapacitating the male lead. in the context of ohshc, ouran is the high school for the male and female leads and lobelia is the high school for the evil lesbians. there are definitely still some valid critiques of the way that the lobelia girls are written, but the amount of people who are just like. absolutely convinced that bisco hatori must be a huge lesbophobe for writing a blatantly obvious satirical critique of a lesbophobic trope is insane to me. also tamaki's adam and eve line was funny as fuck sorry i <3 homophobes

[beanghostprincess]

No offense to anyone but genuinly the Babby Shuggy moments not only made me ship it but also make me not understand people who feel like their dynamic in canon isn’t „all that interesting“ after they split. „They haven’t seen each other in years. They are different people now. They aren’t thinking and regretting their splitting 24/7!“ okay, but also like…. You don’t want them to have more screentime after the flashback that can just really flesh out how they changed? You don’t think Buggy fucking up upwards coupled with Shanks actual epicness while still being the type of guy to be chill with Buggy and congratulate him for fucking up upwards would be fun? You don’t even want them to have that cool anime shonen type thing where they work together for a while and get into a fight and get a full page panel of them ready to kick ass while standing back to back? (The „What? You’re fighting too?“ scene from Kingdom Hearts may be overused but it comes to my mind immediatly because sometimes things are overused for a REASON and it fits them in a weird way) Like…. Okay. Your loss. But even beyond shipping I am still a bit flabbergasted at some people being like „Yeah but there’s nothing THERE.“ like, COME ON THERE COULD BE SO MUCH.

Okay, anon, sometimes you need to understand that people have no taste and sometimes we are more intelligent than others and we have to carry the burden of liking and understanding an amazing ship that a lot of people find boring in canon because they don't know how to read the characters. (I'm half joking here, by the way)

Like!!! I started shipping them from the first second they mentioned they were together when they were young. The first flashback of them has the biggest most beautiful "young, teenage best friends to lovers angsty with a lot of pining and not actually unrequited love" I've ever seen. And not only that, even their fucking past is a slow burn. They make you wait to know about the resentment and what happened between them (I've only watched that flashback in wano, if more things are shown in the arc or the manga I don't know about them so don't spoil me in the comments pleaseplease) and it's so so so beautiful. Like- They make me want to lay on the floor all day and cry WHAT'S NOT INTERESTING ABOUT THEIR DYNAMIC????

You know what happens, anon? A lot of people don't like the childhood best friends to lovers trope because they find it boring (for some reason I still don't understand because it's literally my favorite trope) and so they decide to focus on the rivalry and angst that comes later but, y'know, that's when the fanon thing comes up and they focus more on that than on their actual canon past where they're best friends.

And tbh the fact that they reduce their characters only to their relationship instead of to their actual personalities and goals is a shame because Buggy and Shanks have to be two of the most charismatic and interesting anime characters I've ever seen. They're fun and extremely cool to watch even when they aren't thinking about each other 24/7. People, please stop only thinking about ships for a moment?? And if you do, please at least think about how cool it's going to be once they get together again after so much time being apart.

This reminds me a lot of Soukoku and Satosugu ngl. The whole BFFs until there was this big betrayal thing and also the fact that people only like them because of their relationship and are always mad their characters aren't only about the ship.

Honestly, I'm so excited to see more of them and every time they talk/show up on screen I immediately start sobbing. How could people not find them interesting in canon? Buggy is literally one of the best characters wdym?? Also he'd be extremely angry at people reducing him to his relationship with Shanks, dude already is tired of that man let him rest!! Imagine people always talking about you to talk about the ex you still love like damn please he's an awesome character too. And Shanks, too, but like the dude is a simp and he would love this whole thing so-

[lullaebies]

What the differences between aegon&helaena in the book compare to what we got in the show, and why do you think that their show!portrayal isn't good? (Didn't read the books)

Let me start this ask by saying that I am a biased blog to ask this and while I try to be objective, I highly rec reading the book and forming your own opinion on the matter. I will list here what I think didn't work in the show, but this is only my opinion from my point of view. This will be a very long ask - apologies. warning as well for spoilers.

Let's start with Helaena because she's a lot easier to go over. The issues with Helaena imo is not that she's better written in the books, she isn't - she has little lines and moments there too, but the problems are as such: she is described as an entirely different person in the books, and while the show is supposed to elaborate on the characters they adapt because the books describes historical figure and hence doesn't have much characterization, the additions to Helaena's character are very shallow and aren't fleshed out at all.

Helaena is not a dreamer in the book, nor does she have some evident hyperfixation on bugs or any neurodivergent traits that we know of. Now these additions would be lovely in the right hands! They even are lovely now, but the neurodivergent rep is tropey (autism comes with superpower trope), and not well done because don't give her much personality beside it. The dreamer plot is nice but overtakes her entire character because practically 95% of her lines are prophecies. We do not see her reacting to any pivotal event in a way that remotely expresses an opinion except "I feel uncomfortable" or "I feel happy."

In the books, we are told she's an active mother, we are told she has had a seat on Aegon's war councils to advocate for peace, we are told she is liked by the smallfolk to some capacity and had a happy personality overall. We are also told she is a bit plumper which is worth mentioning in this section - because everything I just wrote are things that practically erased from the show. So, people are rightfully upset - the Helaena we were described, despite being ingrained in traditional feminine roles, was an active person with her own thoughts and life, and her relatable/more admirable characteristics were erased in favor the show!personality that isn't in accordance to the text and isn't fleshed out enough in order to have her matter to the wide audience. I went on rants before about how she has been made solely a victim and nothing more but I will not get into this here.

As for Aegon, the issue lies with framing, entirely reduced screentime and lack of exploration of young!Aegon in a sympathetic way, the way they actively did not write scenes for him that are positive and have seemingly taken out the cores of his arc and made them not matter.

Aegon II is not a good person in the books, either, do not mistake it. He is not any better of a husband or a person and for his part as a father we don't really know how he was with the kids. That being said, the show has decided to make his absolute worst caricature of him, while taking away any positive quality he could have had or any relatable point to him.

Sunfyre, his dragon, is a big thing for Aegon - he loves the dragon. His sigil is made after Sunfyre. We may not know how involved Aegon was in his children's lives, but we know he raged enough at their demise he wanted to burn Dragonstone to the ground. We also know that Aegon took up the crown in order to defend his family, which is something the show neglected to say. Sunfyre and Aegon's children are two things that in Ep9 appparently Aegon is willing to leave behind to go away on a ship to Essos. It's egregious how butchered he is.

In the books as a child, he didn't get along with the Strong boys - he certainly didn't bully Aemond even if there was rivalry there. In the books, he didn't start the fight at the last supper by sexually harrassing Baela, and in fact, he was the one who got into a fistfight with Jace over the dance with Helaena. This is not about a ship moment here - but the fact the choice was made to make him seem as the instigator in every turn is not only crazy but also extremely unempathetic to him. He has reasons to be angry, you can glean them off of the text - even if it's jealousy, that makes sense - but no, in the show he's just a cunt who is the manifestation of all evil. The fact that we consistently see him naked (as a child, too!!) to portray him as a deviant is unsubtle and has no decorum about it.

He is consistently shown to be the devil in his family despite also being very much a victim in his own circumstances and the hypocrisy does not jive with me. I will not comment on the choice to make him a full on rapist because frankly that is not beyond his character in the books, but for a show that wants people to be conflicted, it was a damn bad choice, especially as other horrible actions to the smallfolk are not nearly as demonized when other characters make them.

Basically, all empathy escaped the writers when they decided to write him, it seems. Most his empathetic lines seem to come from improv by Tom Glynn Carney. They simply chose the worst possible way to go with him, took away the parts of him that made him sort of likable (using this word generously) and left him with self-depreciation that makes him so passive that he has to have his ass dragged to the throne instead of Cole or Aemond convincing him. It's just very clear the writers do not like him, basically. He has his downfalls but he is still human - he still could've had a decent arc and understandable reasons to most of what he does in better hands.

So basically, these are my thoughts. Sorry for the length again, but you did get me on a day where I needed to vent LMAO. Thank you for the ask.

[no-shxme]

Hi I saw you have TalEz on your won'ts for your commissions. Just curious can you explain why?

hi anon yEAH i can explain but like, to preface this, if you happen to like talez you're totally valid and dont feel like you have to dislike it or anything bc im gonna be a lil hater. people like what they like (and dislike what they dislike) and thats totally okay. this is just my own personal opinion. i wish i liked talez more bc its probably the most popular talon ship and im often starving, but i just dont and there's a couple reasons why.

i dont like the way its usually portrayed

im not the biggest ezreal fan.

imo there's better fits for both of them.

ugh this is going to be long so ill put it under the cut.

tbf, you dont NEED some complex reason to dislike a ship/character. like reason 2 is already enough for me to open and shut smth, but i do have complex thoughts about talez. and i am totally going to do a little hating below.

i think talez is so fucking anime that it lacks so much complexity. i dont really like anime. (i know thats a broad, loaded statement i just hate 99% of the tropes that pop up. not saying ive never enjoyed a shitty/tropy anime, but just--no) i think talez is broadly boiled down and portrayed by most fan-creators as 'edgy dark cloud + ball of sunshine' and i think thats so boring and lame for both of them. imo it reduces them to a really basic ship trope and there's nothing inherently WRONG with it, i just think its so boring. i look at popular fanworks and personally find it super reductive for both of them. it feels like talez happened bc at it's inception league needed an anime character ship. to be fair, you can reduce ANY ship to smth basic. talsett is just 'tall x short' but in comparison i think talsett has so much more complexity in theming. same with like, rhaayn for example. to me there's a lot more depth. i think the most depth you can get out of talez is related to ez's loss of family and talon's too + themes of belonging, but god. its not good enough.

talez is also usually portrayed romantically and i'm turbo aromantic and mostly romance repulsed and also hc talon as the same, so this already cuts out so much talez fanwork for me. :')

ALSO while we're at it, talon is such a bottom to me. even when he tops. and i hate him being portrayed as this like, idk, grim edgy SUPER TALL??? domineering top when he's like, as tall as katarina in the comic and was prolly malnourished bc he lived on the streets for years. tbh i would automatically like talez more if they were BOTH shortasses and switches as god intended. but noooo. i think if i literally just saw/read more ez topping talon then i'd be automatically more on board. but id also need an aromantic angle so its literally never happening.

i think when ezreal gets paired with talon both of their personalities get so fucked. his ass is not cuddling. ezreal is not some weak damsel or master of seduction either. i think a problem that not just talez creators but like, creators in general suffer from is erasing bad traits that characters have, unless they're 'cute.' talon has some cute bad traits, but he also has some seriously bad traits that loving or being loved wont fix. and ezreal is just reduced SO bad. so talez feels inherently ooc to me. fandom has done a number on him. there's nothin left in the pot. i think being with talon (in canon) is such an uphill battle and most of the time i dont see ezreal equipped to handle it in comparison to other people.

i dont really like ezreal. i think i've already made that clear before. he's fun to play and i like him on a surface level and ive got friends that really like him and thats totally fine but idk he's just not my blorbo. the only time i really like him is when he's with aphelios, where somehow my dislike of both characters cancel out. maybe i dont have room for him because i like talon too much, who knows. either way, often times when talez fanworks are created the focus is actually just on ezreal, and that annoys me as an ezreal disliker. (fanwork creators can create whatever the fuck they want ofc, godspeed do what makes you happy)

and my third point: there's better fits for both of them. i like ezphel and ezkayn more than talez. i think in canon there's a good chance talon might genuinely kill him. or ezreal might really overwhelm him and drive him away with his outward facing personality. and frankly there's a good chance ezreal also goes away bc talon is bad news and also doesn't have the charisma to keep him there. and ofc for talon i think talsett is the ultimate fit, or even talshan is right there.

THAT BEING SAID. i don't mind talez AS much if there's a third, though we still run into some of the same issues as above. like ive written talezsett before. thats nice! talezlux is okay too even if,, completely unfeasible... (i have strong opinions im sorry. as a crack ship its fun i think)

blah blah. i think i could like talez but i would have to write it myself. thats what it boils down to. there are ideas/concepts i like about them. ive juggled the idea of putting a talez fic on my to do list but i just dont think i'll write it in any way that actual talez fans would like, which means there's no point in writing it at all. i've plotted several, long and short, but i think everyone would hate it. talez isn't a strict 'won't write.' iirc it specifically says like: 'unless the idea goes hard' but no ones tried me pfppf, and im fine with it i guess.

there's more i can say but like, i dont want this to be too long.

the important thing to remember is that if you like talez... GOOD. im happy for you!! keep loving it, godspeed. these are just my personal reasons it doesnt click with me.

[logically-asexual]

im terribly bored and not doing well so im scraping the bottom of the barrel for entertainment which means i am watching the incorrect quotes video.

trying to be objective i think they’re fine, i think i don’t find them as funny mostly because ive seen them many times so i know the punchlines, which isn’t their fault. with the ones i do not know the punchline i do smile a bit. and for like half of those i do think “oh yeah this is something they would say”

anyways that’s a lukewarm take not worthy of writing a whole post about, im actually here to complain because ive been listening to the magnus archives (literally just finished the third episode of season 5 before watching this) and that quote about the cows i just :/

i don’t know if the problem lies in thomas’ execution or in the concept of incorrect quotes or in the choice of the quote by the fan or anywhere else but i’m upset.

i do like incorrect quotes, they can be funny and they’re not always the destroyer of literary comprehension some people make them out to be. like anything from fandom, it’s not great if you only see the characters through that lens and people will reduce characters to overused tropes and will project stuff that isn’t even close to canon on them but the fault of that is, i think, mostly on the people doing it and not in the concept of incorrect quotes or shipping or headcanons or whatever. incorrect quotes can be fun and can suck just like anything else. i mean they’re not the same a shipping because at least with that the purpose sometimes is to enrich the story or the understanding of the characters while quotes are just there to be fun. but i think it’s fine to have something that’s just for fun.

the problem is that to do them smartly you have to be careful, because taking something from one work to the other might not be as easy. many times the joke relies on pre-established stuff like character traits or relationships or world building which you didn’t really notice when seeing/listening to it in its original source until you picture it with new characters. it has happened to me that i think i can make something into an incorrect quote and then realize that it just doesn’t work. and some people do not notice this or think that it’s fine cause they assume the person reading the quote will know the original source and will be able to make the relevant associations.

and then add the layer of translating a quote from media like tv or film or audio into writing, (which often causes some quotes to be bad because the original relied on visual context or the delivery, the timing, the sound effects, etc), and then on top of it all we have thomas only seeing the quote written down and interpreting it back into acting.

he did a good job i think in the first incorrect quotes video because his performance added to the quote. it was funnier with his voice and acting than written down. i assume he doesn’t go watch/listen to the source of the quote before interpreting it, and im not sure that’s really a necessary thing, but that disconnect can definitely make the final result even messy sometimes. when it’s quotes from like brooklyn 99 and parks and rec and such it’s mostly fine because they’re short dialogues made to be comedic by themselves and that’s what this type of show is absolutely full of. but with other things, especially works from other genres you gotta be careful.

anyway that’s all to say that “obviously i’ll tell you if i see any good cows” means so much to me and carries this… emotional weight due to its context.. and you just can’t slap any random character names on it and call it a day. at least that’s what i think.

it’s not just about the cute idea of “seeing good cows”, its the love in that quote that is so. subtle and rare and unlikely within the terrible circumstances the characters are in. the domesticity and fondness is a soft sliver of comfort after the previous episode and before that big ending of season 4. it’s lovely and sweet and domestic while enveloped by previous, present and future loss and pain.

it’s NOT a character who is being treated as some kind of himbo telling another character (with huge arm gestures) “yes OBVIOUSLY i’ll tell you if i SEE any Good Cows 🙄🙄🙄 pssht”

it’s not about the cows 😭 does that make sense? 😭

[charlieconwayy]

Just curious what you don't like about Cory/Topanga if you feel like talking about it!

hey, i don't mind!

first off i think boy meets world in the context of just a purely heterosexual show makes it age pretty poorly, and that all stems from cory and topanga. i know one of the writers said a while back that the writers room was torn between shory and corpanga, and tbh, rewatching as an adult, that's extremely evident. i'm not gonna make this post all about shory bc that's reductive but i am first and formost a shory girl and a firm believer that cory matthews is a gay man

so let's get into it.

i really really love s1/2 corpanga. idk if it's just bc ben/danielle felt more natural back then or if it's bc they actually allowed cory to be wrong and topanga to be right, but it's just so sweet. one of my all time fav ship moments from the show is the frickin sock basketball scene where they touch hands and he giggles. so adorable! but i think what really makes them suffer after s1 (and kind of s2) is just that they clearly made topanga a normal, kelly kapowski girl-next-door type to make her more "desirable" for the male audience. that could be an entire separate post, but it's so fucking obvious that that's what the change was and it sucks because topanga was great the way she was.

they're not like hatable in season 3 exactly, but the "old married couple haha look how old gross and boring they are" trope when they were legitimately sophomores was just weird? and this is a retrospect thing but i hate how the show just kept retconning shit and pretended they never broke up in season 3, as if a HUGE storyline and one of the most iconic episodes (the happiest place on earth) wasn't about them getting back together? and for me just the concept of the ~universe wanting them to be together~ over and over again is just so fucking lame when they were so toxic. (great video on this here)

they really don't do anything wrong in season 4 either, but a long walk to pittsburgh is honestly so beyond ridiculous LMAO. i know everyone talks about how romantic it is, but i hate it because topanga literally runs away and moves back to philly just for cory. i know they claim it's to finish at john adams too, but i would find that much more believable if they had developed topanga AT ALL outside of cory. we know almost nothing about her home life and they wrote trini out so we never even see any friends of hers! the trend of them fighting and talking down to amy about their love is so fucking stupid too. like you are sixteen. it is fine to love someone and want to be with someone, but amy is right that it's not healthy for them to be as obsessed with each other as they are. like cory literally doesn't know who he is outside of topanga and that's NOT healthy.

oh lordy. s5. i'm not going to get into how much i hate that shawngela (a MUCH happier, more interesting relationship) was reduced to "wanting to be corpanga" in both their intro episode and then fucking gmw, but even the "old married couple" stuff in "chasing angela" at the restaurant is so annoying. "last tango in philly" is one of my fav episodes, but it's the perfect example of how cory can never accept he's wrong. shawn tries to tell him they should stop, and he just tells shawn he knows nothing about relationships and keeps being a dick about topanga and her (obviously gay) friend. but obviously, you're here to hear about how i feel about the cheating. yes, cory cheated and he genuinely liked lauren. for the show to act like he didn't is just gaslighting their audience. and tbh? i think ben and linda cardellini had excellent chemistry (certainly more than he and danielle did at that point . . .) and i think it's completely healthy to date more than one person! it was nice seeing cory be able to open up and bond with someone else, and yes, what he did was cheating. just bc he changed his mind and decided he "couldn't live without topanga" (bless u probably queer writer for what u did w that line :') ) doesn't mean that it didn't happen. topanga had EVERY right to break up with him. it does piss me off that we barely saw topanga's reaction to the breakup when there was a whole ep dedicated to shawn's reaction (and i say that as the #1 shawn stan), but that show hated women lbfr. AND WHY TF WAS IT BAD FOR HER TO KISS JONATHAN JACKSON WHEN SHE AND CORY WERE BROKEN UP????? bc cory can't accept things not going his way and not having control. the "we are a masterpiece" scene makes me so fucking angry omg i cannot

and i mean, bro, the yale shit has been talked about to death, but topanga lawrence going to the same college as straight d-student shawn hunter has got to be the dumbest, most woman-hating shit the show ever did. love can survive long distance if you put the effort in, trust me. (yes i am aware that the show prob didn't want to separate their main couple, but s6 was almost entirely about shawn anyway so????)

then in seasons 6 and 7 we get into the "cory yelling at and publicly humiliating topanga" trend. "undapants" is iconic so i'm not gonna go into that episode (fuck you "take her back to your tornado infested trailer park" line!), but i can name at least seven occasions where cory pressures her into sex. and rider strong is right. it was extremely holier than thou how they constantly made it seemed like corpanga was better than shawngela for not fucking before marriage. like isn't there a line where they call shawngela sluts in s7? the whole honesty bit in "the truth about honesty" (admittedly one of my fav eps) is also just ridiculous bc both of them always get pissed off at the other one for being honest, even in the past. i've seen people get mad at topanga for throwing yale in cory's face but lbr, who didn't see that coming? i guess maybe it's a little weird bc she'd never been resentful about it before, but that's a HUGE thing in their relationship. and yes, it is weird that she's using his razor without his permission but again just the pressuring her to show him her ass is also fucking weird (it's also weird imo that they've been together "their whole lives" but they've only ever kissed, but again, holier than thou bullshit)

one thing i can say about how weak and uninteresting their relationship actually is is that their ENTIRE wedding episode is about shory, bc they are the much more compelling dynamic in cory's life. weirdly enough, i do actually really like cory's vows though?? on a shawn hunter stan note, oblig "that best man speech was bullshit" comment. it's completely normal and healthy to have a best friend outside of your partner? especially when you can't be honest with your partner. god i fucking hate that bullshit. just like how i hate in "seven the hard way/the war" how they portray cory abandoning his best friend/true life partner for topanga AND THEN IN FUCKING GMW THE BAD FUTURE FOR EVERYONE LITERALLY CAME TRUE!!!!!!! omg i will go insane if i think about that for longer than a few seconds.

end of post, but leaving this here

[a-slut-for-smut]

IntegraxAlucard solidarity!! Hellsing was some of the first manga I read as a teen and it definitely shaped who I am and the way I like to read fanfic and write it. Something about the way these two interact just hits right!

HELL YES, im right there with you homie. Alutegra def one of my oldest ships and arguably the most compelling as far as dynamics go!

Personally i like to bucket them under enemies to lovers trope, not literally but spiritually. i mean think about it: he is a legendary super powerful vampire/eldritch creature, she hails from a family of vampire hunters and moreover the direct descendant of the dude who defeated and enslaved Alucard to his bloodline and by extension her.

Alucard has EVERY right to hate/loathe her and she has every reason to despise him (especially since she relies on him heavily to continue her family's mission) but they don't, in fact, quite the opposite. While they have the master/servant dynamic going on its much more than that; he absolutely revers her and she does not reduce him to a soulless monster- there is a formality yet familiarity between them that you dont see in many ships and adds another layer of complexity, i mcfreakin LOVE it

i also adore how Alucard is basically a sl*utty temptress, trying to goad and tease Integra every chance he gets while Integra aka "the Iron Maiden" is meant to be a stonewall knight chained to her duty, with the added layer of how she must retain her virginity as a failsafe from turning into a ghoul- i mean, talk endless sexual tension amirite? but also, THIS SCENE:

anyway i could go on and on but i will simply end this with a kudos to your good taste in ships 😁

*credit to artists, i lazy just did google search

[inkedroplets]

20 Questions More

A deeper and more detailed version of the 20 questions for AO3 fanfic writers. Thanks @eqt-95 for the tag

1) How do you keep getting ideas for your ship/fandom?

I always have too many ideas and not enough time to actually write.

2) Which authors inspire you in your fandom, and why are they so freakishly good?

There are way too many authors to list that I feel like would deserve a mention. I would love to give a huge thank you to all the gifmakers still in the fandom-sphere. I can probably thank gifsets for a lot of my ideas (even if I still haven't actually written them down).

3) Aside from the characters of your main ship, who are the characters you love to write?

Within the Supercorp-sphere, I love writing for Sam. I think because I would have loved to see her stick around longer in the show itself.

4) Are there pairings or tropes you know for sure you'd never write about? Which ones?

I don't want to say any trope is technically off the table but I don't think I'd ever write a true enemies to lovers fic. I slow burn enough as it is, if I tried to write that, I'd never finish it.

5) What is your writing process and why is it cursed?

My editing process is akin to pulling weeds. I like to reduce my word count by maybe 10% on the first edit. Add back maybe 5% more and repeat the process until I'm finally happy with it. Spoiler alert: I'm never happy

6) What is your favorite part of your writing process?

I'm much more a gardener when it comes to writing so I never know where the story will go exactly. So just writing the first draft is always the most fun for me. I sometimes think the characters will act a certain way and they kind of take a life of their own and I'm just along for the ride.

7) What’s the weirdest thing you’ve had to research for a fic?

I remember having to research art forgery for essentially a throwaway line but it really was interesting. E

8) Is there a particular writing rule you struggle with (grammar, spelling, tense, reality in general)?

None in particular, but that's not to say I don't make many many mistakes. I do tend to make tiny changes as I go which means that I've doubled up on some sentences in the past and I am always mortified when I find them after I've already posted the chapter.

9) What was your hardest scene to write so far and why?

Scenes with urgency give me trouble. You want the scene to breathe but you need to be aware that time is short so what the characters can say, what they want to say and what they actually get to say are so different. There was a scene like that in A Rich Girl With Issues that I kind of agonized over. How much should I let Kara and Lena speak to one another, what's important, what should be left unsaid?

10) Have your characters ever done something you didn’t expect, changing your plot completely?

All. The. Time. I never have a plan. I sometimes have scenes I want to write and hope the story veers in that direction so I can write it but it always turns out so different.

11) If you could converse with any of the characters, who would it be and why?

Probably Lena because she's the loml (Apologies to the actual loml)

12) What are some of the tropes or themes that you find yourself returning to in your writing?

I am addicted to pining. Not just pining, angsty pining. I love writing something that's so obvious to everyone else when the characters are so in love or so full of self-loathing that they can't let themselves even begin to imagine their feelings being returned.

13) What's your most important resource as a writer?

Reading. I read voraciously. I'm normally surrounded by books. Some that I pick up to just read anywhere. It's helped me find my voice and it's helped me grow as a writer (at least I think it has)

14) Can you share some of your strategies for editing and revising your work?

I do small edits as I go but nothing major. If a line sticks out that I really don't like then I usually tinker with it before I move on. I think that's not good advice in general but it bothers me too much to ignore. But if you do edit as you go, there's a lot less to polish in the final editing stages.

15) Which is worse: making the summary, picking the tags, or the anxiety when you post your fic?

I hate making the summary. I don't even know what the fic is about, how the hell am I supposed to tell other people?

16) How do you define success for your fanfic - hits? Kudos? Comments? Bookmarks? Or just if you like it?

I feel like my writing is very selfish in a way. They are stories that I want to read and I get enjoyment out of writing them. So every kind comment I get, there's always a sense of wonder because it's so strange that someone else is interested. I truly do cherish every comment and there are many I like to revisit when I'm not feeling so confident in my writing.

17) Do you have a playlist for your favorite character/ship?

I usually make a playlist for each multi-chapter fic. Some fic ideas get their start as a playlist. Please someone ask me about them, I have so many.

18) If fan art was going to be made from your work, which fic would you pick and which fan artist would you like to create it?

I have been very blessed that people have made fan art of my work and I'm still in awe. I could never even begin to describe how touched and honored I am that anybody did that. One of the pieces has been my computer background for ages. It's not an exaggeration that I cherish every single piece. I honestly don't think I could ever adequately describe how much it means to me.

19) How many WIPs do you currently have?

For Supercorp I have 15+ I do plan on actually posting them in the new year.

20) What's your advice to new fanfic writers?

I would say to write for yourself first and foremost. Sharing your art or your writing or even your head canons or ideas takes a lot of courage. It's scary to put something out there that means so much to you. I'd also advise not to get too hung up on hits/kudos/comments etc. I can't say don't look at them because I'd be a hypocrite but I would say to focus on the journey rather than the destination.

- - - - -

tagging (respectfully and without pressure) @fazedlight @autisticlenaluthor @rustingcat

[ineadhyn]

Fic writer asks

Source

Tagged by @vixstarria - Thank you so much! These are really fun questions

4. a story idea you haven’t written yet

I have a whole list but what keeps nagging me most rn is some Korrilla backstory. I also have not been normal about Kagha for a while and I eventually will have to write her being reduced to a whining mess :D And there's this Raphlep modern AU brewing.

12. a trope you’re really into right now

hmmm ... I don't know if anything qualifies.

18. if you keep them, share a deleted sentence or paragraph from a published fic

I do keep cut scenes to eventually reuse, so let me open my doc. Ahhh, that one XD some cut dialoge of the teens making Raphael use pronouns.

“Fuck, you’re right, Vi, that’s the guy who fried my phone.” “The devil. And his weird companions.” “And who exactly are you then?” Haarlep stepped in between them, their arms crossed. Raphael saw the incubus seizing all three members of the group. “Huey, Dewey, and Louie?” Raphael, who had spent more of his evenings after work watching the cartoon channel than he’d willingly admit, saw Haarlep’s point. The three of them, teenagers, but most likely in the late stages of teendom, had an intricate set of looks that he hadn’t paid attention to when he had been mid battle and then dying. The first one was the tallest and with blonde braids and an affinity for knitwear. “Saf. She, her.” The second was smaller with brown wavy hair that featured a blue streak and oversized clothes. “Blue. He, him. And I am Rose, any pronouns.” SThe last one was of a muscular build with a pink pixie cut. Raphael raised a brow. “Are these your real names?” “Who cares? Wouldn’t it be polite to introduce yourselves after burning my phone and following us like creeps?” “Following you -?” “Haarlep, they, but he and she also works.” “Is this your real name?”

“Who cares?” Raphael interrupted the blossoming fraternization, but he still could hear Haarlep answer “In all the ways that matter.” The three kids stared at him until he resigned. “Fine, if you like that, I am Raphael and I go by he/him and that’s Korilla who went by she/her when I last asked. And I am certainly not following you.”

19. the most interesting topic you’ve researched for a fic

Not for a fic but my og work I researched about private bunkers, if a headshot with a flintlock pistol could make a head explode and how much a chest full of treasure would actually weigh (too much to move it without magic). For fic I only researched some dnd lore and how much private islands cost. Also, yes, threesome positions - I am with you there, vix.

22. do you ever worry about public reaction to what you’re writing? how do you get past that?

I was really worried with Circus of the dead, because it features a such a controversial ship. I dealt with it by not promoting it much, just putting it on ao3 quietly. To this point nobody cancelled me ...

Just feel tagged. Really I'd love to read all your answers, I just never know who to tag :D Questions I'd like to see answered are: 3,8,10,18,26,29