#because I’m just not a fan of any of Sam’s canon character ships

[booksandabeer]

Ramblings on Fandom: Peggy Carter, Steve Rogers, Delusional Shippers, and Alleged Misogyny

So with the release of Season 2 of What If…? emotions are once again running high, the outrage is outraging, and people are up in arms about the whole Captain Carter situation. While I do think that some reactions are a little overblown, even needlessly aggressive in tone to the unfortunate detriment of their otherwise convincing arguments, I share the confusion and frustration about the sudden centering of a long-dead & never excessively popular character, the sidelining of the Steve-Bucky friendship, and the as-inexplicable-as-it-is-total exclusion of Sam Wilson as Captain America. However, I’m not here to talk about the show because (1) I haven’t watched this season and have no plans to (why waste time torturing myself with something I know I’ll hate?) and (2) other people have already written dozens of metas about it, so what could I possibly add at this point.

What I do want need to talk about (lest I explode) is something that has irritated me for a long time and that is now happening again: Every time someone even mildly criticizes Peggy Carter, expresses doubts about her suitability as a heroine, or even just questions her disproportionate importance to the franchise post-EG, inevitably a certain section of fans will come out of the woodwork to immediately throw around accusations of misogyny and yell about how we’re all just a bunch of delusional Stuckies who are mad that she got "in the way" of our ship. Sigh.

This is gonna be a long one, so I’ll put it under a cut. Rant incoming. You've been warned. If you don't want to read, simply keep scrolling.

First of all, let me state very clearly that I’m not debating the existence of misogyny and sexism in fandom spaces—or in the media from which these fandoms originate. At all. It exists, it’s a thing, I’m not denying that. Which is exactly why it frustrates me endlessly to see these accusations thrown around as a gotcha! argument to shut down any and all critical debate around a female character. All it does in the end is escalate rhetoric and radicalize attitudes.  

In the case of Peggy Carter, specifically her treatment by Stucky shippers, I’ve always found 'misogyny as a motive' to be a largely unsubstantiated accusation.¹ Now, I neither presume nor do I want to speak for the entirety of Stuckynation, so I will not claim that there aren't corners of the fandom where people discuss her in ways that I find off-putting and deeply unserious, but I will say this: If you genuinely believe that disliking one (1) fictional female character equals “hating all women” and wanting to suppress and marginalize their presence in fiction and real life alike—then I think we need to take that word away from you until you’ve learned its true meaning.

You might also want to ask yourself how exactly reducing a female character to a mute trophy wife or a heroine who has to act out her love interest’s recycled storylines helps your feminist fight.

As for the “getting in the way of your ship” part of the argument. Very simply put: No character can get in the way of something if there never ever was “a way” to that something to begin with. “Being mad” implies that there was a reasonable expectation that wasn’t met, a substantive hope that was crushed. Now, I’ve said this before and I’ll gladly say it again a million more times: No Stucky shipper in their right mind ever truly thought that there was even the slightest chance that Marvel Studios owned by the Walt Disney Company would allow Steve “Captain America” Rogers and Bucky “Winter Soldier” Barnes to be canonized as an explicitly romantic pairing in their billion dollar franchise. Be serious. That was never in the cards. I wish we all lived in a world where it was, but we don’t, and it wasn’t. The best we could ever hope for was for Steve and Bucky to get a good, satisfying, in-character ending. And if, in Steve’s case, that would’ve included hints (or more) about a possible rekindling of his, uh, aborted romance with Sharon—then so be it. But we never got any of that. The characters never got any of that. Instead they sent Steve into 1950s suburban hell, literally trapped him behind a white picket fence, and condemned him to a life of passivity and lies, all so he could be married to a woman he barely knew a long time ago in a completely different world; who built and ran a top-to-bottom Hydra-infested organization, but apparently never noticed that there was anything wrong with her life's work. For decades. Great. As for Bucky—well, we’ve all seen the devastatingly grim-faced, utterly lonely, and deeply sad version of him that was presented to us in TFATWS. Happy endings all around, I guess.

So. Am I mad that Steve didn’t get to ride into the rainbow-colored sunset with Bucky at the end of EG? No. Because that was never going to happen anyway. Would I have been mad had he ended up with Sharon or another female character in the 21st century? Also no. Granted, I wouldn’t have been ecstatic about it, but mad? No. But am I mad that Steve ended up with this specific female character under these specific circumstances as presented in canon? Fuck yeah, I am.

The thing is: I personally believe Steve and Peggy to be fundamentally incompatible when it comes to the way they view the world and their respective places in it; their morals and values; their capacity for compassion and empathy; their ability and willingness to compartmentalize, compromise, and collaborate with people and institutions whose ethics and/or politics do not align with their own. I have a real hard time believing that a relationship between these two (or worse, a hasty marriage) could be either happy or long-lasting.

I don’t believe Peggy to be inherently evil, I don’t hate her, I simply think she operates within a different moral framework than Steve (and even genuinely believes it to be a righteous one).² Your mileage may vary, but I personally happen to find that framework reprehensible, even indecent, and ultimately dangerous. After all, over the course of the 20th century, we have seen exactly where that kind of “the ends justify the means” brand of pragmatism leads—over and over again. Not to mention that the people who use this line of argument to defend characters like Peggy (or real-life politicians for that matter) never seem to want to look too closely at who gets to define what "the ends" are in the first place and who decides when they've finally been met.

(Never. The answer is never.)

And to be clear, there is absolutely nothing wrong with depicting, and even centering a narrative around a morally (dark)gray character—oftentimes it’s actually the more interesting option—but you cannot at the same time claim that they are purely good and should be only admired as such when their actions literally tell an entirely different story.

So, no. I will not accept Peggy Carter as the shining aspirational heroine that the MCU so badly wants to sell her to me as—while simultaneously continuing to reveal things that paint an increasingly darker picture of her character. And I will certainly not celebrate seeing one of my favorite characters of all time—whose defining trait was that he couldn't ignore "a situation pointed south"; who used to fight for the little guy and against the establishment; who once said about the very organization that Peggy Carter helped build that it was so corrupt, it all needed to go—rendered morally inert for some hollow happy ending that may as well be a conservative’s wet dream full of false nostalgia for an America that never really existed. I cannot find it in me to be anything less but mad about that.

But that does not make me a misogynist. It does not make me a delusional shipper. It makes me someone who looks at what the MCU has been telling me about Peggy Carter for years now—over and over again—and takes it at its own word.

--------

¹ If you’ve actually read a a fair number of Stucky(!) fanfics you will have noticed that the reverence afforded to and "page time" devoted to her character and her relationship with Steve is somewhat disproportionate to anything that's backed up by canon—well, up until EG, where she was suddenly reanimated as The Great Love of Steve’s Life—and in my experience, it's highly unusual for any fandom to put so much (mostly) positive attention on another character, let alone a potential love interest that is not part of the endgame ship.

² I also want to emphasize that if you love Peggy and she's your fave: good for you! I genuinely have no beef with you. People can agree to disagree. All I ask for is that we maybe stop willfully ignoring the less savory aspects of her character. You don't need to pretend she's perfect to justify your affection for her. I LOVE Steve, and yet I have no problem conceding that he is FAR from perfect.

[musclesandhammering]

Spn Opinions That’ll Have Me Burned at the Stake Pt. 2: Electric Boogaloo

I’m back and bitchier than ever. For reference, here’s part 1.

• Season 5 wasn’t that great.

• D*stiel isn’t real, it’s a sucky ship, and that confession scene was just the writers pandering to the rabid deancas fans cause they knew they were the only ones still watching the show lol. And they left it ambiguous enough that they could still say it was meant platonically if they needed to.

• I hate how they watered down both angels and demons post-season 5ish.

• I liked Ruby 1.0 better than Ruby 2.0.

• I hate Honey!Cas. They just did that cause they didn’t know where to take his story from there, needed him out of the way, and thought it would be funny. It was insulting.

• Jack should’ve been played by an actual child so everyone’s abuse of him would resonate with the audience for what it was (casual fans are brain dead and need to be spoon fed).

• Victor Henrikson deserved more time on the show.

• I said it in the last post, but Alex is way more interesting than Claire and should’ve been given the lead role in the wayward sisters storyline instead.

• Dean is canonically straight and for Christ sake if you guys wanted bi rep, there’s about a thousand other characters that are strongly coded or implied to be bisexual (including Sam!) but y’all didn’t focus on them because it wasn’t actually about representation, it was about making it more plausible for your dumb fetishised gay ship to actually happen (spoiler: it didn’t).

• Season 3 and Season 6 were some of the best ones, you guys just don’t have any taste.

• Claire is not Castiel’s daughter and saying she is erases Jimmy and insults her, and even Cas himself acknowledged that on the show.

• Castiel is canonically NOT gay and Misha constantly saying he is is annoying and airheaded. He’s been attracted to women IN THE SHOW and he’s not even really male, so calling him a Gay Man is reductive and just plain wrong. Also, it’s veeery sus that- given how bi/pan folks are even more underrepresented than gay people- that one of the rare times where the bi/pan label actually fits a character BETTER in CANON……. the allies and monosexuals adamantly reject it. Hm.

• “Curing” vampires or werewolves or demons shouldn’t have been a thing.

• The Winchesters cause most of the bad shit that happens and then they just force supernatural beings to fix it for them- tell me again how they’re Super Special Heroes.

• It shouldn’t be possible to make angels human by removing their grace, because (unlike demons, werewolves, etc) they were never human to start with. If you drained me of all my blood, I wouldn’t magically transform into another species, I’d fucking die.

• Making Billie go crazy was dumb.

• Rowena was one of the most interesting and charismatic characters on the whole show- they just didn’t know what to do with her character.

• The archangels, Lilith, and Azazel should’ve been the biggest threats on the show. No other knights of hell, no god and his sister, no Cain, nothing like that. Having every villain just get progressively more overpowered made the show unbelievable and repetitive and annoying.

• The kernel sanders king of hell guy was hot.

• Dean is misogynistic as HELL, homophobic, likes racist porn, is a narcissist, pervs on teen girls, & thinks all non-human people should be exterminated… and that is all CANON.

• Most of John Winchester’s abuse is fanon.

• Fans portraying Cas as a smol bby who colours in colouring books and has a bee plushie is so fucking annoying.

• Instead of having so many gigantic cosmic storylines with god and his sister and alternate dimensions and even the angel and demon tablets, they should’ve just scrapped those and made the stein family and the bmol and the alpha vampire storylines way bigger than they were. Less cosmic stuff, more earth-based stuff.

• They ruined Lucifer’s character post-season 5. Before that, he was more sympathetic and reasonable than Michael. After, he was a spoiled child hurting people for fun.

• Everything from season 7 on is garbage. All of it. There’s bits of goodness here and there but overall seasons 7-15 are trash.

• How the fuck are there actual people who are deangirls and hate Sam?? The space where your brain should be is empty, I swear to god.

• If there was gonna be any lgbt rep in the Wayward Sisters group, it should’ve been Jody and Donna instead of Claire and Kaia. Those two were boring as hell and had zero chemistry or build-up, but Jody/Donna had plenty of chemistry and was very believable.

• Meg has the best and most realistic redemption arc of anyone on the show.

• Chuck was not likeable or charismatic enough to carry off as big of a villain arc as they gave him. Also that whole thing was stupid and WAY too Out There.

• All the angels should’ve been aroace. All the demons should’ve been pan.

• I stanned Cole so hard up until he changed his mind about hating Dean. That was disappointing.

• Sam went through the same shitty childhood Dean did (plus Bonus Abuse on top of it) and he didn’t turn out Like That.

• I cannot think of a single person that was asking for a spin-off about the Winchester family, like that has to be the most boring thing.

[eisforeidolon]

Alrighty- Whaddya think of this?

I’ve been rewatching the show and am now at season 8. I shake my head at all the known moments in the show that hellers claim are canon ship bs, because you’d have to be stretch Armstrong to reach that far..

But something did nag me. There were times that Cas WAS the emotional support for Dean where I really thought it should have been Sam conversing with him. For the majority of the series we saw Dean be the caretaker, emotional support etc for Sam, and it never really came from anyone else- lest he was being manipulated by some evil person. However there were many times where that wasn’t reciprocated on screen. Cas would almost stand in for Sam when Dean needed someone, showed Dean a lot of compassion. (Please believe I’m being objective and not a stan in hiding). I think THAT dynamic confused people. Why didn’t they have Sam having those convos with Dean more? I mean, narratively I understand the need for Cas to move the plot forward with his specific role, but so many times it was an angsty Dean who I think NEEDED his BROTHER more than a convo with Cas. Now there are people who just wanted to sexualize Jensen/Dean and couldn’t possibly be linked the wincest as their puritan sensibilities just wouldn’t allow them. But OTHER fans seemed to have latched on to the dynamic of Dean and Cas because they saw Dean have emotional moments with him.

Now during my rewatch it pissed me off, because I realized that the writers were making some conscious choices to have Sam NOT fill that role for Dean. Like it seemed like they went out of their way at times to make Sam seem more indifferent to Dean. This is why- wildly unpopular opinion here- I didn’t like Sera Gamble! I think she isolated Sam away from Dean and had Cas fill in for Sam. That codependent brother thing I LIVE FOR, was kinda washed out during her seasons (in my opinion), but more so from one side. I think she didn’t really like Dean, period, but whereas I know Sam fans LOVE Gamble, I think she mischaracterized Sam a lot.

In my mind, Sam is just as in love with Dean as Dean is with him (whether that be wincest or brotherly is up to your interpretation). You remember when Rowena started really having a relationship with Sam? And then Jack, too? That was really the first time we’ve seen Sam have that type of side character interaction depth. It’s why Sam fans love those two characters because they related to Sam! Well, isn’t that why Dean fans loved Cas, too?

I dunno I’m ranting and probably make no sense, but I was definitely annoyed with the writers in quite a bit if my rewatch during seasons 4-7 because it seemed such a purposeful choice to NOT show Sam being for Dean what they chose to show Cas being. I think knot blurred the lines and did such a disservice to Sam. Ironically, I think Carver rectified this a lot! Even with the angst and separation, Carver’s seasons demonstrably showed the codependency and intense brotherly love. I prefer seasons 1-3 and then all of Carver’s seasons!

I couldn't remember any instances of Dean leaning on Castiel when there wasn't some obvious reason it wasn't a conversation with Sam. So I went through season by season, and ultimately, I think you have to look at what the plot arc between the brothers is. As I've said before, the one thing that I actually like about Dabb as a showrunner is finally dropping the constant circling back to brother conflict drama that, to me at least, felt more and more artificial. Even if we're talking about seasons 4-7, we have to start at the beginning, because I think the first three seasons are pointedly bringing the brothers back together closer than ever in preparation for all the apocalypse shenanigans to attempt to tear them apart.

In terms of Dean opening up, specifically, consider what happens in those seasons between them from Dean's perspective.

In season four, he comes back from hell traumatized only to realize Sam has been lying to him about using his powers and working with Ruby. When he asks Sam to explain because he's scared of the powers, Sam refuses to talk about it and says he wouldn't understand (4x04). So how can it be a surprise that when he wants to talk in the next episode, it's Jamie the bartender he chooses instead? Is it really strange he basically mirrors what Sam said about Dean not being able to understand when Sam confronts him about what Uriel said regarding him remembering hell (4x08)? Castiel (4x07) and Anna (4x10) conversing with Dean are more about their own fears and insecurities more than Dean's. When Dean does finally open up and is ready to actually talk about what happened in hell, it is to Sam (4x11). Except, it's pretty soon after that (4x14) where Sam throws it back in his face under the influence of the siren, calling him a weak, whiny burden who is just holding Sam back. Can it really be a surprise then that, again, next time Dean opens up it's to Tessa (4x15)? And then, when the doubts are basically exactly what Sam said, i.e. that the apocalypse really is too big for him to deal with and he is scared, he says it to Castiel instead (4x16)? Which I think is only validated to Dean when Sam says the same kind of thing all over again without the siren's influence when they fight in 4x21. They're in conflict and being torn in opposite directions, which is kind of the point. Actually communicating – if they both weren't too stubborn to do it – would basically halt season 4's entire plot in its tracks.

Without making this post five miles long, those kinds of things happen again and again in 5-7, too. Sam is literally not there to talk to when he leaves at the beginning of the season, and they don't get back together because they've actually sorted out all the shit between them from the previous events, but because Sam has realized he can't get out and Dean doesn't trust that Sam will continue to say no to Lucifer if they're apart. So when Dean opens up, it's to his hallucination of a therapist instead of Sam. Blow after blow follows thereafter. What they see of Sam's heaven being an entire absence of Dean. Everyone leaving Dean to grieve at Lisa's for a year knowing Sam is back(ish) the whole time. Soulless!Sam's actions, which (as unfair as it might be) Dean clearly had trouble separating out from regular Sam's. Sam's sanity hanging on by a wall, then being plagued by Hallucifer. Similar big conflicts and obstacles to frank conversation continue on into seasons 8 and 9, too.

I think you can fairly go fifty layers deep into what's going on in both of their heads in any of those instances and see where they're coming from, but Dean isn't going to be doing that as the one living it. From his perspective? There are a lot of reasons to not open up to Sam because of what's going on in their lives and how they each feel about it. So sometimes he does open up to others – which includes Castiel.

I definitely remember way back when I was a multishipper that a lot of D/C shippers said they started shipping the ship because Castiel didn't have that fraught history with Dean that Sam does with all the conflicts and misunderstandings. That's fine (although IMO it hardly held true for very long). However, to me it seems like Dean is just as likely to turn to a stranger (or the hallucination of one) as he is to turn to Castiel instead of Sam, so I don't really see it as some huge thing in the canon that really justifies thinking the ship is anything but certain fans over-investing in what they particularly like. I also think that Sam was just less and less likely to open up to anyone at all as the series went on – but when he does, it was also often with Castiel or Jody or Charlie or Rowena instead of Dean. Because the season conflict didn't rely on them being unable to communicate effectively with those other characters and the judgement of those other characters couldn't do as much damage if it was negative.

None of that even gets into the whole other issue of the underlying dynamics carried over from their childhood which also plays into things. Where Dean still sees his primary purpose as protecting Sam as his little brother rather than always seeing him as a true partner. Where he has self-worth and abandonment issues that make him unable to understand why Sam would value him and not be able to just get over his death. Where Sam is not only all too aware that Dean doesn't value himself and gets frustrated with that? But has spent so long fighting against what everyone else wants from him that he still sometimes treats Dean as a substitute for authority instead of a partner and pushes back at any disagreement with his (not always as) brilliant (as he thinks) plans as “bossing him around”? Where he also gets very agitated whenever Dean is not okay because he needs Dean to be okay to the point he insistently tries to fix it by making Dean talk when Dean isn't ready to. In short, they both have huge underlying issues that skew how they see each other and they're both stubborn as hell.

Then when you add on top of that how the writers had such a tendency to revolve the action arcs around Sam and the emotional ones around Dean as the viewpoint character that Sam's emotions and thoughts often seem like a mysterious locked box through large parts of the series? I do get why some fans can read that as Sam being indifferent to Dean, but I don't think that's the underlying intention or the case. Because of that focus choice, to a large extent we only see how badly Sam needs Dean when there's a threat of Dean not being there or Dean is taken away – but I would argue that we do really see it then. From not caring about Marshall Hall to wanting to try Doc Benton's solution to trying to suicide by demon to initially allowing himself to be manipulated by Ruby to taking on his Cage memories to the Rowena and Oskar debacle to how his montage life was entirely blurry except for his son and his grief over Dean.

[quietwingsinthesky]

destiel and wincest for the ship ask game :))

destiel

you know, what could have been an interesting ship has been so thoroughly destroyed by bland fanon and overrunning the website with it that my only reaction is Shut The Fuck Up. you know how people have taken saying “read any other book” to harry potter fans? Discuss Any Other Ship. the only people who should be allowed to still talk about destiel are the people who are properly freaks about it.

i pray every day that a supernatural revival brings castiel back played by a woman and that’s the only way reciprocal destiel happens. i think that would be hilarious. i would love to watch a bunch of people who are so proud of themselves for shipping this Revolutionary Queer Ship™️ stumble and fall on their faces if it worked out like that. i guarantee you no one would care that Cas has always been technically canonically genderless the whole time. how do i put it. people could hallucinate a whole finale they were denied for that gay angel when he was shaped like the man they were attracted to. they wouldn’t bother to put any amount of effort into embracing it as still being a queer narrative if cas took the body of a woman, nevermind that if that did happen, it would be arguably even more queer then before. can’t hit a character with the transfem beam just to make the ship “straight” without making everything else a lot more funky around it! but it is very obvious to me, given the disconnect between what’s in the show and what people claim about destiel, that the majority of investment has very little to do with the characters themselves and a lot more to do with the attractiveness of their male actors.

wincest

so anyway, you know how everything im annoyed with about destiel is about how there’s not much investment in the show itself or its themes or the characters beyond how they serve to further a ship? so like. having been in both circles. wincest isn’t like that. there’s people who annoy the fuck out of me in wincest circles, who i think have awful takes or are just assholes, because that’s how being a fandom is. but like. at least they do the reading, you know? the thing about supernatural, and if you’re someone who has followed me only since i started doccy whoing and only knows about spn through tumblr/destiel osmosis, i’m either sorry to inform you and/or delighted to tell you, the thing about supernatural is that it’s about incest. i’m not trying to do a shipping gotcha, i’m not being competitive about who is more canon here. incest is in the text. eric kripke did not fight the network to have mary winchester kiss her father on the mouth to sell sam’s soul to the demon who would later infect his blood with a curse he could never scrub out for people to pretend like this show isn’t about incest. they reference it in the show by name multiple times when talking about the in-universe fandom of the winchester brothers. this is what the show is about. (which. the fact that this isn’t just common knowledge and people unfamiliar with the fandom know more about destiel is so funny to me. no one goes up to game of thrones and tries to say it isn’t kicked into motion because of jaime and cersei fucking and is instead about the love story of bronn and jaime.)

it’s one thing not to engage with it out of discomfort, i understand that, one of my friends doesn’t because that themes genuinely makes him nauseous. but like. that’s what the show is about. it’s about sam and dean’s codependence and how it destroys them and every relationship they have with the people around them. its about how there’s still a core of love so powerful it can beat the devil even surrounded by all that sickness and abuse. the show never stops being about sam and dean. the center was always meant to be “family is hell.”

so what i’m saying is. i vibe with wincest a hell of a lot. this is a theme that i love. i’m a little freak who likes when gothic horror is about two siblings holding on too tight when the house crumbles down on top of them. i love that the show goes hard on placing sam and dean as brothers being on the same level or above their romantic entanglements. and like. also incest kink. but mostly, i find engaging with the text of the show from a wincest lines fascinating, because it isn’t about fighting the show as it is to get the narrative you want. it’s about interpreting what was laid out for you, on purpose.

like. the way i see the great fandom war between these two ships is: you can either look at Sex and Violence and say ‘oh this is proof dean is into dudes and also cas because the siren sort of looks like cas’ or you can say ‘the siren literally word for word says that he lured dean in by playing along as the little brother that dean needs right now as he feels sam slipping away from him and choosing ruby instead.’

wincest wins. it’s in the name.

[put any ship in my ask box and i’ll give my brutally honest opinion]

[dotthings]

This silly drama with the hate blogs got me thinking and since it’s not just one lane there’s a few more things I want to say.

* I’ve been watching spn since the pilot aired

* I’ve always been a Team Free Will fan since before the trio got named by Dean. I shipped Dean and Cas immediately but also hoped for Sam and Cas to have a friendship and the three of them working together.

*Dean is my favorite. I’ve never hidden that. He is the character I fell for first and hardest and I tend to see spn through the lens of Dean first. And it’s very much about Dean’s heart and relationships—he’s at the heart center of the family theme. That doesn’t mean I care only for Dean or exclusively see it through Dean’s pov or I think Dean is the only great character or that Dean is perfect and Sam and Cas are terrible

* I’ve always loved both Sam and Dean and when Cas joined the show, and we got to know the character, I loved Cas too

* I’ve had Sam stans on my back for supposedly being a “Sam hater”

* I’ve had Dean stans on my back for being too sympathetic with Sam pov and then Dean stans on my back for being too sympathetic with Cas pov. By “too sympathetic” I mean that I had any empathy or compassion or understanding for Sam or Cas pov whatsoever

* I’ve had Dean stans on my back telling me I’m a fake Dean fan

* I’ve had Cas stans on my back for being too sympathetic to Dean’s pov and for protecting Dean’s rights to his feelings and why and how he can be hurt by Cas and accused of just using Cas

* I’ve had Dean stans and Sam stans on my back for “watching only for a ship” just because I ship Destiel and Dean stans on my back for supposedly using Dean

* I’ve had stans of Sam or Dean or Cas up in my face trying to convince me I’m the problem for not caring about only one true favorite. While I treat Sam and Dean and Cas as multidimensional characters and complicated flawed heroes because that is what they are and what canon depicted. They are flawed and are criticizable. They are good and do not deserve the hatred they get flung at them along with the lack of empathy or ability to imagine into the pov of anyone but the one true fave

and tbh I’m not mad about this any more but I still low key resent it, I resent that people tried to sell the idea that I’m the problem and I’m the one watching the show wrong. I resent how I got treated for loving Sam AND Dean AND Cas. I realize I shouldn’t give people who do that the time of day and I gave up trying to get them to understand and I go with the fans who will understand my perspective.

[foralleternityidiot]

SHIPPER TAG GAME

tagged by @negrowhat

1. What ship were you completely obsessed with when you were a teenager, but now you don't care anymore?

Hmmmm. I wasn’t the biggest shipper as a teenager and all the ships I did obsess over still own my fucking soul. I ship for life.

2. Which ship would you consider your first one?

That’s a toss up between Monica x Chandler (Friends), Mulder x Scully (The X Files), Cory x Topanga (Boy Meets World), and Rick x Evie (The Mummy) I can’t remember which came first because they all were pretty simultaneous.

3. Your first fanfic belonged to which couple?

Romione. Although I remember dabbling in writing fan fiction in a spiral bound notebook at the age of 14, it was always sort of self-insert non-romantic LOTR character building. My first actual fanfiction (reading and/or writing) was Ron x Hermione when I was 19.

4. Do you remember the first couple you saw a fanart over?

100% LOTR… but I don’t remember which pairing. Probably like Frodo x Sam or Legolas x Gimli, but I didn’t get into MM shipping until I was a full blown adult about to finish college.

5. Did you ever get into ship discourse?

Somewhat when I was in the Glee fandom but that fandom was a clusterfuck of ship discourse. I pretty much lived on the corner of fuck off and leave me alone.

6. Did you used to have any no-otp or have it currently?

Maybe? But I didn’t really care too much about looking at anything outside my own ship OR I was a multi-shipper. So I don’t really remember a specific notp. I’m sure there were some though. There was so much trash in the glee fandom, I’m sure I hated something.

7. Who were the couple in the last fanfic you read?

I haven’t touched a fan fic in over 10 years so (I should get a chip!) the last one I read was likely Klaine. Holy shit wtf time has flown.

8. Currently, do you have any OTPs?

Approximately 1.9 billion. Oh you want names? Well Hualian (TGCF), Wangxian (MDZS) and most recently Ranning (2ha) are the top three out of the 1.9 billion. Remember, I collect ships and keep them in my heart for all eternity.

9. Is there any couple that, to this day, you are extremely mad about not getting together?

Sam x Jack (Stargate SG1). It’s somewhat implied but my god I still yearn.

10. Is there any ship you used to dislike but now you think they are kind of interesting?

I didn’t dislike Cory x Shawn but I didn’t really get it back in the Girl Meets World hay day and it wasn’t even on my radar at all during Boy Meets World. (Remember, I’m old and the internet was not what it is now during my youth so I didn’t even know about the Cory x Shawn ship for literally decades). Sometime after GMW ended and tiktok became popular there was a resurgence of BMW popularity and a lot of CxS analysis that opened my eyes. I enjoy the ship now but I’m still Cory x Topanga 4eva.

11. Do you have any ship that, in the past, was considered normal but now you would be cancelled over?

Tbh not really. I used to be pretty boring. I definitely have some in the present that would though. 🤐

12. What was your favorite crack ship?

There were so many in the Glee fandom but I gotta go with Sebastian x Cooper just because it brought two of my friends together in a RP group and they ended up actually getting married. Ah… memories. I’m gonna tag @believesinponds in this post for the nostalgia.

13. Who is the couple you read more fanfics of?

None. But if I did it would absolutely be wangxian or hualian. Don’t fucking tempt me.

14. What most of your ships usually have in common?

In the past: Canonical.

Now: Canonical and Queer.

15. What do you absolutely hate in a ship?

Im gonna keep was Eboni wrote because it’s spot on: “Miscommunication and the noble idiocy trope.”

I'll tag @believesinponds @linameka @ommited-miscellaneously @ipromisedthesunset @kennyomegasweave @youdontnohme

[lesbiansforboromir]

Whats up with shippey and hosstetter? I know i didn’t spell that right, sorry :( I’m extrapolating from your posts that shippey is a racist but Ive never encountered his academic works so I’m like, who is he and why was he associated with trop? And isnt hosstetter one of the guys who put together NOME? the other two incidences of eowyn scholarship you described are ludicrously awful btw. Thinking I need to do some more tolkien scholarship reading simply so that I’m in the loop on the terrible academic takes

Tom Shippey is one of the most well known 'Tolkien Academics' there are. He was incredibly present for the Jackson films and featured on the BTS footage for the extended editions quite a bit. He is also one of the guys who SO insists on comparing Sam and Frodo to 'officer and batman' rather than allowing any queer interpretation. In this paper I just read, Melissa cited Tom Shippey's pushing for the rohirrim to be viewed as a barbaric culture. His academia is as bland and traditionalist as you can find, he works tirelessly to reinforce the most narrow minded catholic-nationalistic ways of reading Tolkien and really the reason he is known so well and cited so widely is because he does indeed have an academic background and can write fairly cogent arguments (not that that's saying much, and memorably he stated that Denethor killed himself because he saw the corsair ships coming up the river, when Beregond says they've been aware of the corsairs for days). Tom Shippey insists on propping up this culture of Tolkien idealism and is a major part of the problem with Tolkien academia.

He's associated with RoP because he was originally a part of the project but left after a while. There is a rumour he was fired, which had the whole goddamn anti-rop mob frothing at the mouth, but Tom Shippey himself stated his leaving was unrelated to the project itself or it's runners and that he'd not been fired. Secretly I still hope they fired him though.

Carl Hostetter is indeed the author and compiler of Nature of Middle Earth. And after that book's publication he went onto reddit and facebook and wrote reams in disgust at 'The Left having to make everything about sex' when some fans were excitedly interpreting the melotorni/meletheldi (love brothers and love sisters) new notes that were in NoME as canonising queer relationships between elves. Carl Hostetter was also involved with RoP, in particular the translations and linguistics of the show, so hopefully not the plot itself. But hell will freeze over before a show set in middle earth gives us a canonically queer character so I doubt he had much impact on that front. In general he is also one of the traditionalists who idolise Tolkien and hold academia back from any interesting directions.

If you want to be more involved with tolkien academia I recommend actually starting with the tolkien society seminars on youtube, specifically the 2021 diversity seminar found HERE. It's both an easier way to get into tolkien academia than just trawling through all the disparate platforms of tolkien academic work in search of something worth reading, whilst also giving you an excellent snapshot of, essentially THE UPPER LIMITS of Tolkien academic progressiveness. I am not kidding when I say the works within are the furthest into feminist/queerfriendly/antiracist/disability-minded academia the tolkien community has ever gotten. So it's good to set your expectations, it's all downhill from here. Dimitra Fimi's work is still considered and often cited as THE best published work to do with Tolkien and racism and she STILL in that work has to devote pages to reassuring people Tolkien himself wasn't racist.

'Dwarves are not heroes: Antisemitism and the Dwarves in Tolkien's Writing' is an excellent piece (the only goddamn mythlore paper that's readable) and really does dig down into the clear issues, but the author, again, has to devote time to reassuring people that Tolkien himself was not anti-semetic. The culture of treating Tolkien like an un-impeachable religious figure is hardwired into the community.

[tiggymalvern]

I was talking with my spouse about tastes in porn the other night (as you do), and I mentioned that I’m currently writing a threesome fic. “Oh, which three?” he asked. “The original three,” I said. “Michael, Fiona and Sam. Almost all the Burn Notice poly fics are those three.” And my spouse, who has never sat down to watch an episode of Burn Notice, but has been absorbing more than he probably ever wanted to know through months of chronic exposure, said, “Huh. Well, I’m glad they let Sam in, I thought it would have been Jesse.” And then we got into a half hour long discussion about ageism in fandom and racism in fandom, and who the fangirls consider conventionally attractive enough to be fuckable, and all the ways the writing can influence that. (It gets harder to dismiss Sam as too old to have a sex life when he’s canonically shagging his way through half the Miami country club set. And there’s the history with those three, going back years before the show even started, which creates a dynamic that can’t be replicated with Jesse.) But it got me reflecting again, and I’ve always been puzzled by the ageism thing, even back before I got to be middle aged myself. Around the year 2000 when The West Wing was the latest big fandom, I found a fantastic slash fic with Leo McGarry and Lord John Marbury. It was so funny and snarky, and totally in character and yes, it was hot. So I was reccing this fic and getting the reaction, ‘Ewww! Old people sex! I don’t want to read that, I don’t need those images in my head!’ And I was all 0_0 But the fic! It’s so well written! Why will nobody love it? (A couple of people did read it and come around, so kudos to the writer for achieving that XD) It varies so much with the fandom too. Any fandom that skews older tends to have less ageism (no surprise there). There was never a shortage of sex for middle aged, bald Picard in TNG fics, a show that came with a lot of women who’d been fans of the 60s Trek. In the Hannibal fandom, up until a couple of years ago I would have said that there was no ageism there at all, given the preponderance of opinion that circa 50-year-old Mads Mikkelsen is a definitive DILF. But apparently the Hannibal fans over on twitter found some idiots who were willing to overlook the gaslighting, manipulation and stabbing in that relationship, but thought a ten year age gap was beyond the pale. Honestly? The whole show is about this utterly obsessive, screwed up relationship between these two men – if you find the basic concept of it repellant, why are you even here?? And then there’s the racism issue, which I’ll admit I spent many years in fandom living in complete ignorance of. Part of that is because a lot of the early fandoms I wrote for were So Very White (Due South had one Black minor character) or anime fandoms, where characters might have been nominally Japanese, but looked about as Japanese as I do. The place I really ran into the racism hard was in Hannibal. The number of people who would happily ship Hannibal and Will, despite the above-mentioned gaslighting, manipulation and stabbing, but who thought Jack Crawford was practically Satan because he talked Will into doing an unpleasant job and got angry and yelled sometimes – that was quite an eye-opener. The justifications they would come up with for it were fun too – ‘It’s workplace abuse! Jack’s in a position of power!’ Hmmm, but Hannibal's in a position of power and committing medical malpractice, and having a frustrated boss shouting at you is hardly worse than the drugging and the stabbing, really, is it? And honestly, I don’t have anywhere I’m really going with all of this, other than just to vomit out what I’ve been pondering over, and to say that we fans can be strange, and shallow. And blind, sometimes. So very blind.

[daughter-of-melpomene]

For the if they were canon ask game: 🎬 + Bailey Taylor, please??

@dancingsunflowers-ocs ✨💛✨

Thanks so much for this ask, Alexandra!! <3 (Also gonna tag @luucypevensie and @carmens-garden since they’re also part of the Glee OC gang!)

HOW THEY'D BE INTRODUCED:

Bailey first shows up in the first episode of season two, so I can imagine her being introduced in a scene where Tina enters her English class, maybe talking to Artie or Mike before one of them has to go to another class, before Bailey enters the classroom and asks if she can sit beside Tina. Thus begins their first conversation where Bailey compliments Tina’s aesthetic and falls in love with her <3.

WHO THE FANDOM SHIPS THEM WITH:

For sure the main ship for her would be Tina! But I can also see some people shipping her with Mercedes or Brittany, and probably even a few people would put her in a poly ship with Brittany and Santana.

WHY THE FANDOM LOVES THEM:

Not only is she a really good performer whose songs are usually a hit with the fandom, but she’s also a really cheerful, friendly, confident person who gives some of the jocks and meaner Cheerios some iconic tongue-lashings that the fandom would love to quote. I also think a lot of people would adore her relationship with Tina and her being sweet besties with Sam.

WHY THE FANDOM HATES THEM:

I think a lot of people might get annoyed with her whole Southern belle schtick after a while, and any fans who don’t like country music probably wouldn’t like her at all because that’s pretty much all she sings. A lot of people also might not like her for getting in the way of Tina and Mike or Tina and Artie, and who might accuse her of getting in the way of Brittany and Santana since she flirts back and forth with Brittany pretty regularly, even though they don’t actually like each other like that.

WHAT THE CAST RELATIONSHIP WOULD BE LIKE:

I think it would be amazing! Meg Donnelly is an absolute sweetheart, and I can definitely see her getting along amazingly with the rest of the cast, and probably even being real-life besties with Chord Overstreet.

WHAT THEIR AUDITION SCENE WOULD BE:

I imagine it would either be her first conversation with Tina in English class, or when she auditions for the New Directions with Dolly Parton’s “Dumb Blonde”. It might even be a combination of both, really, because they would need to test her singing abilities as well as her chemistry with her character’s love interest.

DEPENDING ON THE FANDOM, WHO THEY’D BE AT PRESS TOURS/COMIC CON WITH:

I’m pretty sure the Glee cast never went to any conventions, but during regular press and interviews I think Meg Donnelly would probably be with Jenna Ushkowitz, since they play love interests, or Chord Overstreet since their characters are besties! I think either combination would result in really cute interviews and lots of jokes and giggling.

IF THEY SPOIL THINGS:

I’m pretty sure Meg Donnelly never actually has, but I can still see her spoiling one or two things during interviews, like when Bailey and Tina finally get together or what song would be coming up for Bailey and Sam’s next duet.

IF THE SHOW/MOVIE HAS ENDED, IF THEY’RE HAPPY WITH THEIR CHARACTER’S ENDING AND THE ENDING AT LARGE:

I think Meg Donnelly would be happy with both. After all, Bailey ends the show having just signed a recording contract with a big country label and engaged to the lady she loves; I doubt any actor wouldn’t be happy with an ending like that.

send me 🎬 + an oc!!

[a-sterling-rose]

My Valentine’s Day Danny Phantom Ship Rating - I was gonna rate every single ship, but there's too many 🤣

Happy Valentine’s everybody! For this special holiday, I thought it would be fun to rank every ship that is prevalent in the Phandom. To add a personal twist, I’m going to add the rankings for how the couples are by canon and fanon. Do keep in mind that this is my personal opinions and I’m going off of what I’ve seen from these ships. If you have a differing opinion and have fanfictions/fanart that could sway my opinion on a ship, I encourage you to share them with me. This is gonna be a long one, and I’m only going to cover official characters from the show(No crossovers or fan created characters- this includes Wes). Let’s begin!

Amethyst Ocean, Fakeout Makeout, Violet Haze(Danny and Sam)

Canon: 3/10

Fanon: 5.5/10

I’m just gonna rip off this bandage right off. Even as a kid, I didn’t particularly care for this ship. In the show, it just felt like they got together just because they were the main guy and girl characters(sorry Tucker!). From how I saw them, their dynamic is supposed to be Sam is the brain while Danny is the heart: the two being together is what makes each of them complete. However, the show didn’t really capitalize on this, Danny never really challenging Sam whenever she instigated unnecessary conflicts or was just being judgmental. Sam was always right no matter the situation, this being the main reason so many people have conflicting opinions of her(she suffers the most from the show's writing flaws). 

Danny isn’t a saint himself, he has abandoned her and Tucker with ease whenever it gave him the chance for social validation. Canon Danny can be quite sexist actually. He even took advantage of every girl at school when he was the judge for the beauty pageant(Season 2, Episode 14).

They both know they like each other, but neither wants to potentially ruin their friendship. Some say it adds to the drama, I say it adds to my migraine. My AroAce ass can’t put up with this annoyance! Overall, I truly felt nothing when the two got together in the final episode. Beyond everyone around them telling them they like each other and them blushing around each other, do these two have actual chemistry? 

The fanon makes this couple much more tolerable, especially because we actually add nuance to Sam beyond her ‘Goth Vegan Nag’ status. There are some really cute art of the two together that I have saved. However, I think the canon ship has just ruined it for me. I can see why people find them adorable together, but it just isn’t more me.

Brains Over Brawn, Popular Psychology, Strong Smarts(Dash/Jazz)

Canon: 1/10

Fanon: 2/10

In the show, Dash is shown to have a crush on Jazz, something she capitalizes on for Danny to potentially get more social approval(season 1, episode 4). I believe this is the only time Dash’s crush is ever addressed towards Jazz, and I’m glad for it. Jazz is smart enough not to put up with Dash’s bullshit. I’m surprised she didn’t confront Dash more throughout the show about his treatment towards Danny, but Dash is too easy of an antagonist to not use. What would the two even talk about if they did go on a date? Jazz would be so bored being with Dash, he either talking about football or awkwardly trying to reenact a scene in a romance show he totally doesn’t watch. I don’t see it.

For fanon, it’s a bit better since Dash is more nuanced, but the same issue is still present. Dash is just so hostile towards Danny for easy conflict. A well written Jazz would never tolerate that and make it known to the blond. He either changes his attitude, or he can piss off back to Singles Town. From what I’ve seen, people mainly ship them because of how they like the two look together- not compatibility. I feel nothing when I see art of the two together. I haven’t found any fiction that has made me root for them to get together. It just isn’t for me.

Pink Astronaut, Shallow Sapphire, Ghostly Prep(Danny/Paulina)

Canon: 1/10

Fanon: 8/10

Canon Paulina is obsessed with Danny Phantom. Danny Fenton is nothing to her. Paulina has only ever shown Danny interest whenever it suits her and will throw him away once she is done. Canon Paulina is shallow, and there’s nothing else to her. Danny is only attracted to Paulina’s looks, he doesn't care how she acts and how she treats his friends. If these two got together, it would be purely transactional. Funnily enough, it would be Danny to end their relationship once he realizes how obsessive Paulina is towards his ghost half. That or he sees what she really looks like without makeup. Remember, Canon Danny is quite shallow himself. Danny used his judge status to score a date with Paulina(Season 2, Episode 14). He wasn't as much of a simp towards Paulina in season 3, so at least canon knows he wouldn’t tolerate her bratty attitude after everything he’s been through.

When it comes to fanon, now we have something we can work with! The nuances people have added to Paulina in the phandom has made her one of my favorite characters. Some have added so much to Paulina that she is a completely new character. Other’s have addressed her shallowness and gave her a redemption arc. There’s a fanfic that has made me see how these two could work together. Some have her retain a dragon form after the dance event(Season 1, Episode 2). Even when it’s just stories of the two becoming friends, they’re just so cute together. 

Gray Ghost(Danny/Valerie)

Canon: 6/10

Fanon: 9/10

Now this is a drama I can become invested in. Valerie may have been a brat, but she didn’t deserve to have her entire life ripped from underneath her just because of a ghost incident. Seriously, was there really no reason why Danny couldn’t have helped to set things right(like scaring Damon’s Boss, thus making him believe in ghosts)? Nevertheless, the two went on an actual date together(Season 2, Episode 12) and had a good chemistry. The fact Valerie didn’t continue a relationship with Danny for his own safety is beautiful irony at its best. Valerie got an actual character arc and has a hero persona as well. Valerie hates Danny Phantom, but cares for Danny Fenton. A simple conversation could possibly clear things up, but where’s the fun in that? The only thing that keeps me from raising my vote higher is how much Valerie does hate Danny Phantom. The two kinda find a middle ground(Season 1, Episode 18), but of course season 3 makes her forget this and makes her a basic antagonist. They don’t even let her have a conversation with Danny when his identity is revealed in the finale. 

The fanon plays on what the show has given us, but doesn’t fail Valerie like season three did. The fact that fanon just expands on this dynamic instead of having to create things to make these two work shows how beautifully crafted this ship is. 

Dark Gray(Dan/Valerie)

Canon: 0/10

Fanon:1/10

Dan committed mass genocide against humanity and is trying to complete the job. Valerie is doing her best to save what’s left of humanity. There’s nothing here but hate.

Fanon tries to redeem Dan, but it just doesn’t work for me. Genocide is genocide. That shit ain’t cute. The only thing that gives fanon an actual point is that I read a fanfic where Dan sacrifices his very existence to restore his timeline back to normal.

Hunter Silly(Tucker/Valerie)

Canon: 3/10

Fanon: 5/10

Tucker is the one who informed Valerie that the Dog and Kid that destroyed her Dad’s work were ghosts, hence causing her to become a Ghost Hunter. He was shown to have a crush on her before the Cujo incident(Season 1, Episode 11), but Tucker had a crush on anyone who was a girl his age. Anytime Valerie has shown interest in Tucker was to get something out of him: She letting him take her to the dance when Kwan dumped her(Season 1, Episode 2), when Tucker told her about Danny’s parents being ghost hunters(Season 1, Episode 11). It seemed the show tried to set them both together just because they were both black, which I’m glad they stopped once Danny and Valerie were set up as a possible ship. Despite her constant usage of him, Tucker does see the good side of her, hence why he said he wouldn’t give up on her(which was just kinda dropped).

I personally haven’t seen much of the phandom ship these two together that much. I’ve seen some cute art work of the two, but not much fan fiction. I know it’s out there, but I’m not that drawn to the ship that I actively seek it out. Overall just kinda ‘meh’.

Techno Smarts(Tucker/Jazz)

Canon: 3/10

Fanon: 3/10

This is an instance where the Canon and Fanon are tied with this possible ship. Any interest Tucker shows in Jazz in the show is just because she’s a girl. And the Fanon fiction works I’ve seen of the two only have the two together as a means to keep the Phantom Team close together. I don’t feel inclined to seek out works of the ship, but I’m not offended by it either. 

Veggie Burger, Ghost’s Absence(Sam/Tucker)

Canon: 6/10

Fanon: 8/10

This is an instance where the subtext of the canon shows how Tucker may have a crush on Sam. I link you all to this post by @dreamwraith that expands on this more as it made me remember how I shipped these two when I originally watched the show(hence explain why I’m probably not a fan of Danny/Sam even more). They remind me so much of an old married couple already. 

https://at.tumblr.com/a-sam-manson-screencap-a-day/hear-me-out-as-its-something-the-show-worked/axwylxwmv1id

I rank this ship a six simply because of how toxic canon Tucker is, but Sam can be just as toxic back in canon- this is why they work so well together!

Beyond fanart, I personally haven’t read any fanfics for the two, but the art I’ve seen is cute enough to boost the rating up one. 

Jock Goth, Gothic Sports(Kwan/Sam)

Canon: 3/10

Fanon: 4/10

Now this is a ship I personally never made the connection on in canon. Kwan was one of the nice jocks, only really acting up when socially pressured to, but nice when he’s alone. It was out of pity, but Sam hanging out with Kwan was nice of her to do(Season 1, Episode 16), but quickly wanted to get rid of him once he ruined her standing in the goth community. Kwan was having fun with her, but quickly took the chance to be with Star since it meant he could regain some of his popularity status. So in canon, they weren’t the best couple- but not the worst.

I specifically remember reading a fanfic that I really liked about how Kwan realized he developed a crush on Sam, but was too much of a coward to really follow up on his feelings. Sam ended up with Danny in the story, hence making Kwan wallow in his own self-pity for valuing social acceptance more than her. I also remember a fic where Kwan wanted to become legit friends with Sam and the story follows how the two make their friendship work. Not the most popular ship in the Phandom, but one I personally like for friendship. But we aren’t here for friendship, are we?

Twinkle Techno(Tucker/Star)

Canon: 3/10

Fanon: 3/10

Yet another instance of Tucker liking a girl because she is a girl. Star went out with Tucker when ‘Paulina’ was focusing all her attention on Danny(Season 1, Episode 16). She treated Tucker like an errand boy/servant, a fact that he hated enough to be relieved about when Star left him for Kwan. Despite knowing this, Tucker still has a crush on her enough to have dreams about her(Season 3, Episode 9). They would get sick of each other quickly in canon, Star possibly only staying if Tucker had enough money. This relationship would be purely transactional if taken seriously.

I haven’t really seen any fanart or fanfic of this ship, so I’m just going to give it the same ranking as canon.

Sports Satellite(Kwan/Star)

Canon: 7/10

Fanon: 9/10

Once they ditch Sam and Tucker for each other(Season 1, Episode 16), the two remain together for the rest of the show from what I remember. From what we’ve seen, Star is very demanding, wanting basically a man servant as a boyfriend, and I guess Kwan is into it.

I read fanfics adding nuance to their relationship, realizing how toxic their friend group is and just finding solace in each other. Truly they are a cute couple. Shame I haven’t seen any fanart of the two.

Makeup Honor(Dash/Paulina)

Canon: 5/10

Fanon: 6/10

Dash and Paulina seem to only date out of obligation, he being the quarterback while she is cheer captain. They’re with their arms around each other when Danny resets reality(Season 2, Episode 19), but they aren’t really lovey-dovey as you’d expect. They honestly seem more like friends.

Fanon seems to agree with the friendship view like me with their nuance takes on the characters. Whenever they are together, it’s when they are used as antagonists in fanfics. I don’t see this romantic relationship lasting past high school, but they’re fine enough as friends.

Moronic Genius, Brain Cookies, Blue and Orange(Jack/Maddie)

Canon: 9/10

Fanon: 9/10

What is there to say about the Fenton’s? They’re happily married in canon. Maddie has shown she does the occasional romantic gesture, wanting Jack to at least remember their wedding anniversary(Season 1, Episode 8). Despite this mishap, the two seem perfectly happy together. From what I’ve gathered from the subtext, Jack is the one who comes up with the ideas for the inventions while Maddie is who makes them possible. Jack is creative while Maddie is practical. Despite being clueless, the two make a deadly combination.

I honestly believe Fanon overestimates Maddie intelligence. Maddie’s just as oblivious as Jack, she’s just not as loud about it compared to him. You’d think she would have noticed they put the on and off button inside the portal while they were building it. She only read over the prototype portal formulas just as they were about to activate it(Season 2, Episode 16). The Fenton’s are adorable dipshits. That’s what makes them so good together. 

Spurned Affection(Vlad/Maddie)

Canon: 2/10

Fanon: 1/10

Gotta love how canon shows that Vlad would have been awful even if he didn’t get in the portal accident(Season 2, Episode 16). Despite him being against her ghost hunting, Maddie does so in her own secret lab(how did she build it underneath Vlad’s secret lab?). Vlad is very controlling and just uses his accident as an excuse why he’s such an awful person. No, Vlad is an awful person because he chooses to be an awful person.

This is another case of where canon has ruined me ever really liking any rendition of this ship. There are some fics that I read that try to counteract Vlad’s personality by making Jack abusive. Like that’s supposed to make things better somehow? I’m sure there are some works out there that make this ship work, but I have no interest in looking for them myself. 

Family Breakfast, College Triangle(Vlad/Jack/Maddie)

Canon: 4/10

Fanon: 9/10

If canon had the balls to make this a possibility. Well, at least Jack would totally be into the idea. Perhaps Maddie was more upset with Vlad about the log cabin incident(Season 1, Episode 17) because he wanted her to drop Jack, not necessarily because he liked her. The only one holding this ship back is canon Vlad. He’s just too awful.

Fanon has made this ship possible, and it’s the cutest thing imaginable- mainly the bromance of Vlad and Jack. 

Phantom Satellite, Star Gazers(Danny/Star)

Canon: 2/10

Fanon: 5/10

Another shallow canon couple. The two were only really seen romantically together, Star was trying to win favor with Danny for the beauty pageant(Season 2, Episode 14). Any other time Star is seen interacting with Danny is when she’s being mean to him, so there isn’t much else to say about canon.

Another instance of fanon adding nuance to a character, thus making them actually interesting dynamic. The only reason I don’t rank it higher is because Phandom doesn’t seem as interested in this ship, thus being less works to compare to each other unlike Pink Astronaut(Danny/Paulina). I’m not that drawn to it myself to be honest, but what I’ve seen is pretty good.

[dykesynthezoid]

ooo 3, 13, and 14 👀

let’s gooooo

I tried to edit this down but it’s still extremely long. I’m not sorry

3. Screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

Oh but there’s so many. So, so many. Truly an unending amount.

A somewhat funny but overwhelmingly bizarre take I’ve seen is that when fandom has a female character they don’t like, they just decide to claim she’s homophobic??? Lmao?? Like they’re both so invested in all their gay ships and also hate her so much for not being 100% accommodating to everyone else at all times that their solution is to claim that. She must be the token straight who’s also a homophobe.

It’s always the same type of female character too btw. “Katara is homophobic” “Nancy Wheeler is homophobic” “Sam is homophobic” literally people hate women SO MUCH and the shit they have to come up with to justify it can be honestly fascinating. People will see a girl who has been even slightly bossy or headstrong or complicated once in their fucking lives and decide she’s the most evil bitch to ever exist. Like get over yoursellllffff!!! It’s SO embarassing for them

13. Worst blorbofication

Any blorbofication that 1. completely sandpapers any interesting flaws or nuance, 2. entirely invents positive or sympathetic traits that the character does not actually possess; these treats are frequently stolen from other characters within the same media, but who are in some way marginalized and therefore fans ~just can’t put their finger on it, but they don’t like them as much as their blorbo for some reason… But here’s all the character traits they stole from them and gave to their blorbo to make the blorbo seem cooler, of course

(Bro people will literally see a female character or a character of color with an interesting trait and go “YOINK!” and just slap it onto their boring white guy blorbo)

I would say an example of the first type, though, is Terry Silver. I don’t think it’s strange at all to feel affection for his character or be fascinated by him. I mean, look at him. There’s some wacky shit going on there, how can you not be fascinated? I do think it’s strange to build up a thing in your head where he’s always the victim, nothing is really his fault, he can’t be blamed, poor poor Terry he’s so sad and lonely, etc. Like idk maybe he wouldn’t be so lonely if he weren’t Terrible To Be Around because he actively enjoys hurting people. And I like that about him! I like that he’s so campily evil!!!

Anyway just let him be a fucked up little weirdo!! It’s what makes him interesting!! He’s literally a psycho biddy mixed with a byronic hero in the shape of the campiest gay villains imaginable, love and cherish him as he is.

19. That one thing you see in fics all the time

Hmm. Okay. So. I have a couple of these; one I truly dislike and another I just tend to note and go “hmm, interesting.” Let’s start with the more controversial one.

So. There’s such a thing in TKK and CK as canon-typical racism, right? It’s a reality that exists in both. And I think it would be wrong to expect any author, regardless of race, to just wholly ignore that, because again, it’s a reality of the story (and of the real world).

However. Would it be nice if people could let you know when the story is going to be full of slurs? Yeah, I think it would.

I understand why and how those are things that end up needing to be touched on. I don’t think authors should have to censor themselves in that aspect. But also; there’s such a flippancy, in how sooo many ck and tkk authors approach using those things in their stories. And I think it’s really fucking easy to be flippant, right, if it doesn’t affect you, if you’re not a part of the race that’s being targeted, and especially if you’re white. Of course it doesn’t seem like a big deal.

I also think people seem to genuinely somehow forget that someone could read what they’ve written and be triggered by it. Like. As if; in particular; Asian people don’t exist or wouldn’t be reading their stories??? It’s very strange. And it’s so easy to put in a little warning! It’s so easy! And why wouldn’t people be sensitive about something like that, when fandom racism can be so rampant on a broader scale?

And you could say oh, well people should expect that content because it’s in the source material. But like… we all regularly tag and warn for things as milquetoast as say, underage drinking. Which is also in the source material. So I’m really not getting how popping a quick content warning for canon-typical racism is so difficult.

(I also think some people genuinely seem to forget; or don’t care; about the history and trauma that comes attached to certain derogatory terms and slurs. “J*p” should not be something you are just throwing into your fic for fun. You need to have really thought about why you’re putting it there, the purpose it’s serving, what you’re saying about the character who says it).

On a slightly lighter note! Something I see all the time in Lawrusso fics (and sometimes other M/M fics with Daniel as well) is people just sort of struggling to figure out what to do with Amanda. And I’m not trying to condemn that, at least not altogether.

And I certainly prefer the current trend of her being supportive and finding any developments hilarious to the earlier portrayals of her just being the villain for no reason. But also, just leaving her in the wingwoman position and not bothering to add any dimension there can leave her very flat, and it’s a position female characters get put in often in regards to M/M ships.

One solution is of course in going the poly route, because it usually necessitates at least a little bit of rumination on Amanda’s perspective. But even then there’s no guarantee people add any dimension to her.

And of course; we’re speaking in trends here. This isn’t an issue of individual preference, or a pursuit in lambasting anyone on their personal work; it’s a discussion of something much larger.

I don’t think Amanda should somehow have to be an extremely nuanced focal point in every M/M Daniel fic (that’s just not possible, for one, lmao). But when people do choose to include her in a major way, I think it’s good to stop and consider how you can add a little depth or nuance. I mean, I’ve had to struggle with that myself, and I’m never really sure if I’ve succeeded or not. But I thought about it, and I kept it in mind, and I think even that can make a difference.

I myself often go the divorce route in writing her; although it. Usually doesn’t even have anything to do with what Daniel and Johnny are doing? It’s just that I think Amanda deserves to be with someone who’s not obsessed with karate. And I like Damanda, and I love Daniel, but like. Idk man! It’s a whole lot! And I think anyone could get tired of it. She quite literally did not sign up for that. And if you think her being Daniel’s wife puts her under some kind of obligation to always be understanding and always take his side and never question him; well. Ew, frankly. Just because Daniel also deserves support doesn’t mean she has to be on the same page as him or she’s a bad wife.

She’s literally her own person!! Let her be her own person!!!

(Literally I wish I could pay for her and Carmen to just go on a long fucking vacation. Let them have a fucking break and have mind-blowing gay sex away from all the karate nonsense and their identities as partners and mothers. What if they were just two hot perimenopausal women with complex inner lives and complicated pasts experiencing life together on a beach in Cabo. Y’know. And they could have a time together that’s about them, they’re the point, they haven’t somehow been relegated to a background pairing. And also there’s the gay sex).

(I think I got off track. What was I talking about? Oh, right.)

I think how quickly my mind will shove Daniel and Johnny out of way the moment Amanda and Carmen appear IS #feminism tbh. Like they might as well not exist to me when Amanda and Carmen are onscreen together, or when a story’s supposed to be about them. Daniel who? I’ve never heard of him. Also I think people should write long, beautiful Carmanda fics and then tag Lawrusso just bc they appear in the background for five seconds. I think it would be hilarious.

[rewatching-sam-and-dean]

Welcome!

(Edited to update (#2))

On this blog, I plan to (try) stay positive and focus on the things I like. This doesn’t mean I will never be critical, or give my opinion if I’m not a fan of something. Characters and ships are definitely not off-limits from my wrath. If we can’t vent on our own blog online, where can we vent?

This blog will mostly be about the TV show, Supernatural, SPN Conventions, and various things relating to the leads (J and J), but I’ll likely throw some other things in from time to time, too.

Regarding SPN: Sam and Dean are my favorites, and there isn’t even a close second (they are basically a package deal, though depending on the season, I have my preferences). I like other characters, even love some, but the brothers are the show. I’m not really a shipper for this (but I’m not against it) because I don’t see the point with canon soulmate brothers. I don’t ship Wincest either, but I see why people do. I have Destiel blocked.

One thing I’d like to do on this blog is track my thoughts as I rewatch the series, from Seasons 1 to 15 (ugh). I know this is hardly original, but if anyone finds me here on this site and wants to chime in, I’d be happy to hear their input on episodes. This is sort of a plan for me to help get the show out of my system. We shall see if that works. (EDIT: plan not going well 🙄.) (EDIT 2: maybe I’ll just rewatch random episodes and give my thoughts? I stalled out on Wendigo, y'all! 🤦‍♀️.)

Asks, comments and reblogd are very welcome, but I’m not looking for fights here, and any hate thrown my way will get you blocked.

[little-cereal-draws]

Imma be completely honest, I’m literally only here as a Marvel Fan because of MK and WWBN, the writing of everything else is atrocious.

This is my fifth year being an mcu fan so i definitely have not been following it since the beginning but those two definitely are the best of phase 4.

I know this isnt' what u asked for but i'm bored here are my ratings for phase 4:

Moon Knight. I'm not going to write all the reasons i love it bc that would turn into an entire essay lol but this show is phenomenal and has captured my heart and soul

Werewolf by Night. again, just like moon knight, it's creative and cinematic and perfect in every way

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. It's funny, got good action, emotional parts, and i live for shang and katy's relationship. they're so funny and i'm eternally glad they didn't force them into a weird romance

Ms. Marvel. the kids were written like kids and kamala is so dorky and cute. i know a lot of ppl didn't like her for some reason but she also lives in my heart

Hawkeye. This is just bc im one of those comic book nerds and have read every single hawkeye book and have merch and stuff lol I'm a diehard fan and loved pointing out all the little details even if it deviated from the comics

Black Widow. I think people are right that Yelena did steal the show a little bit but i love it anyway. It always makes me cry. every time.

Thor: Love and Thunder. I liked this movie! I saw it in theaters multiple times and enjoyed it. I can see the reasons behind people's critiques and do agree that the first half felt a bit weirdly paced but the second half really saved it for me

WandaVision. I'm just a sucker for Wanda and Vision lol They were my first mcu ship and i'm glad they finally got a spotlight. ppl complain abt the ending but i thought it was pretty good

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I loved seeing all the different dynamics that came up in this show and the real world problems it addressed. It also made me cry. I loved Sam and Bucky but Karli really stole the show for me and I was on her side the whole time lol

What If...? I actually really liked the reimagining of the characters and the odd pair ups. It was fun to see all the new interactions we would never get in canon. I think the watcher was weird and didn't need to fight ultron but the rest of it was good. Also the animation was beautiful. I was on the edge of my seat trying to get a better look at it the whole time lol

Spider-Man: No Way Home. It was a really good movie but I haven't seen all the og spider man movies so i didn't know who a lot of the villains were. and peter could have thought his little stunt at the end through a bit more but oh well. Still funny though

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. It was really exciting to see America (i'm also a fan of her comics) but really I was rooting for wanda the whole time lol Ofc I knew that america would live bc they need her for the young avengers but it was really fun seeing wanda be in her villain era. they did her dirty at the end tho and basically had her learn the lesson she just learned in wandavision... which was also the lesson she learned in civil war. when will they give my girl a new arc? also i'm in denial, I refuse to believe she's dead :) (and also dr strage was in it too ig)

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. This was fun, I had a good time. It was really funny and finally confirmed that peter and mantis were siblings but i don't think i'll watch it any time other than christmas (unlike werewolf by night which is a year round event lol)

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. ok this one got a lot of hate but i don't see why? i didn't think it was bad, i just wasn't gripped by the story. i only watched up to episode three so i can't judge the whole thing but it was a bit too slice of life-y for me to be engaged w the story but as far as i can tell, that's jen's thing. The parts that i did see weren't poorly written and it's not the shows fault the animation was so bad (cough marvelwon'tlettheiranimatorsunionize cough)

Eternals. Same problem as she hulk. it wasn't bad, it just wasn't interesting. I only made it through half the movie before i left but i was really confused by who was who. i kept getting them mixed up

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The only reason this is so low is because I haven't seen it yet. I've heard nothing but glowing reviews so i'm sure it'll go up to the top of the list but i can't judge it until i see it

Loki. I hate this show, i hate it so much. I am so fucking mad abt this bc it had so much potential! I've also read the loki comics and i think those set my bar too high. yes, the show acknowledges loki is bi but they make him fall in love with another version of himself instead of doing anything w that. yes, they acknowledge he's genderfluid but we never see it, not even in flashbacks. he's trying to redefine who he is and stuff but i was so distracted by the horrible self-cest romance, that i was actively rooting against, to notice character development. If you want a good story about a bisexual, genderfluid loki redefining themself in the most beautiful way, read the Loki: Agent of Asgard comic run

[quietwingsinthesky]

Thanks for running this poll, the results are interesting! It would be interesting if someone made a survey so we could know what type of blogger voted for what option (does a person's ships/the seasons they watched have an influence, etc)

Angel ships: incest?

76% = no, not incest/it's complicated/other

19,1% = yes

4,4%= don't know or just want to see results

Archangel/archangel: incest?

64,8% = not incest/it's complicated/other

30,7 = yes

4,4% = don't know or just want to see results

I wonder what the logic is because archangels are older and more powerful but not fundamentally different from angels at any level right? If one is incest then so is the other

(PS: that person's tags saying the people voting "not incest" did it for " moral superiority" reasons smh... Personally I think angel/angel is not incest, except when it's hotter that way lmao)

A survey would be interesting, but it would probably fall into the unfortunate pit of people deciding against taking it because it looks too long/takes them off the site/etc. might still be worth making, I’ll think about it, never really put a survey together before. (Id particularly be interested in the shipping question. Are angel/angel shippers more likely to think it’s incest? Season would be fascinating too. I don’t think it’s controversial to say that late seasons & early seasons handled angel relationships v differently.)

AND THE ARCHANGEL FACTOR! It is so fascinating to me how people will pick the archangels to be more incestuous than angel/angel because canonically This Is The Same Species. They Are The Same Creature. Archangels just have more juice and more character parallels with Sam & Dean. A few of the tags mentioning they selected archangel only talked about how they seemed to act more like siblings than regular angels with each other. Which. I can see? Sometimes. But then I think it also depends heavily on which angels we’re talking about interacting with each other (like. To me? Uriel & Cas do act like brothers. even their fight is like their re-enacting the Michael/Lucifer debate on their own, though with Cas cast as Michael and losing which! Posts for another time!)

but yeah, how fanon interacts with what canon gave us is always gonna interest me, good and bad. (How characters get flanderized/who gets to be fan favorites/what becomes common headcanon and all kinds of related stuff is! I wish I could study it but alas I am just an idiot with a tumblr blog.)

(I don’t think I saw those tags! Which is weird because I’ve been v studiously watching this post to see people’s opinions. Very funny though, considering the context that I’m also very much on the side of ‘it’s not incest (for complicated Wavelength Reasons) UNLESS I think it is sexy for them to call each other brother while they’re sucking and fucking.’)

[unfortunate-arrow]

Random West Wing Headcanons (Post-Series)

The Santos White House is a lot less intense than the Bartlet White House. Matt tries to instill a time limit and for the most part he sticks to it. If there’s nothing major or intense happening, Matt insists that all of his staff leaves the West Wing no later than eight.

Josh actually manages to learn how to delegate things.

CJ and Danny had a city hall wedding and a party was thrown for them with just a tad of passive aggression about not including any one.

Josh and Donna get married at Bartlet farm in Manchester because it still has the secret service stuff and it’s an easy way to gather everyone together. Josh’s mom and Donna’s parents along with a few others are flown to farm.

CJ and Danny have one biological child who’s born in January 2009. About a year later, they adopt a set of siblings named Abigail Charlotte “Abby” and Dominic Simon Carter after their parents were killed in a wildfire.

Josh and Donna have three sons, Noah in September 2009 and a set of identical twins, Leo and Isaac in early November 2012. They also have a daughter, Rebecca, in January 2011.

Sam and his fiancée (a lawyer named Natalie) have two children, a daughter in May 2009 and a son in March 2011.

Charlie and Zoey get married and have three children, a son in April 2010, a daughter in August 2013 and another daughter in July 2015.

Will and Kate reconnect after the Bartlet presidential library and eventually have two daughters that they hadn’t planned on having, but were happy accidents.

Toby and Andy end up striking a good balance in their relationship. They never truly live together again. They’ll spend some nights at one or the other’s home, but it’s mostly for Huck and Molly or the holidays. Although, it does continue after the twins start college and eventually move out.

Sam has a one term presidency and he either has Charlie or Donna as his VP. And Sam knew who his VP was going to be even before announcing that he was running.

Josh and CJ are his chiefs of staff (neither is really the deputy because they both have different strengths and weaknesses).

Toby is the communications director (and there’s a lot of questions about if he's a liability.)

Sam says something like “Toby made a choice all those years ago. It was both the right one and the wrong one. I don’t believe that he’ll do it again.” when asked about it.

Andy Wyatt ends up being a part of the First Lady’s staff.

After Sam’s presidency, his VP becomes the president. If Charlie’s president, Donna’s his VP and vice versa. No matter which one, though, Josh is Donna’s chief of staff because I can’t see him being near the White House and not being involved.

[blackgirlsuperherorants]

Stuckys, we need to talk. Like, seriously.

I understand you're upset that Stucky is not canon in the MCU, but you have got to stop yourselves from using that fact to shit all over Black characters just because of their newfound proximity to Bucky Barnes. Seriously. No, seriously. I'm going to call a bunch of you out, now, but I hope you listen and take heed.

1) This isn't about queer representation for you. It's about Chris and Sebastian being hot white men and you wanting to see them make out on screen. And that's literally fine, who doesn't want to see that? But you need to start admitting that's what it is. Because if it wasn't about that, and it was really about queer representation, so many of you wouldn't be calling Sam Wilson "sloppy seconds", and y'all wouldn't treat both Sam and Anthony like an afterthought. Even with a lot of y'all becoming Sambucky shippers, you're doing it under the guise of Sam being some sort of consolation prize because Bucky can't have Steve. Sam has no agency, and also is treated like he isn't as good. Literally, I saw a TikTok with some girl pretending to be Bucky and Sam, and having Bucky literally tell Sam he's sloppy seconds because he can't have Steve. Literally yikes, guys.

Also, it's always girl fans who do this. I'm not saying there aren't any, but I never see gay men who are MCU fans shipping in this toxic way. And I definitely have seen gay men ship Stucky, but I swear to God there seems to be a clear difference in the way they ship vs the white girls who clearly just want to watch Chris and Sebastian make out. Literally every toxic Stucky I've ever seen who does stuff like this is a white girl. I'm not going to say no gay men are toxic fans, because there probably are some, but the amount of fans I see shitting on Sam who are white girls far outweighs any toxic Stucky gay man. Like I always say on here, Stucky is an obvious ship and I understand why people ship it, but it never had to be canon and treating it like it's the end all be all, and especially shitting on other ships like Sambucky, is really weird and, again, makes it obvious that it's not really about queer representation for you.

2) Bucky is allowed to flirt with Sarah Wilson. The same girl I saw saying Sam was "sloppy seconds" also said Bucky was only flirting with Sarah because she's an "extension of Sam", and because Kevin Feige won't let Sambucky happen so Sarah is the stand in. How insulting and sexist to insinuate that a woman is simply an extension of her male family member. No matter how you meant it, that's a really sexist notion. I've seen people make funnier jokes, like Bucky can't decide which Wilson sibling he likes, or he's going to become a Wilson one way or another. Neither of those jokes takes autonomy and humanity away from Sarah. ALSO, Sarah is a dark skinned Black woman being portrayed as desirable to the white boy fave on a major TV show that is part of the biggest film franchise in the world. I'm not sure if y'all know how much colorism effects Black women, especially dark skinned Black women. Hollywood almost never casts dark skinned Black women as desirable love interests. Especially one that isn't super modelesque with basically European features and bone straight hair. This is a positive thing for representation of dark skinned Black women, and I KNOW you've seen how happy Black girls were just seeing that 2 second interaction. How dare you reduce it to being there because Marvel stole your Stucky, and especially not because she's simply "an extension of Sam." At this point, there's no clear indication that Sarah and Bucky will literally happen, but goddamn, you can't let Black girls be a love interest for just one second? Even if you like "queer Bucky", bisexual men exist, damn. Sticking Bucky with Sharon for no reason, like they did with Steve, would have been weird and bad and you would have been more valid for questioning Marvel's motives for doing it, but letting Bucky be himself and flirt with a cute girl on a boat for 2 seconds isn't a bad thing. And if Sarah does actually become his girlfriend, it's an absolute win, and you need to let Black girls have this.

Like, I get Stucky, and I also understand wishing Marvel would just finally let any main character be actually queer. I seriously understand. But can you complain about that without shitting on the Black characters and the fans who are happy about them, right now?

I never was a fan of Stucky, because I don't think you have to have romantic feelings for someone to care about them that deeply, so I don't understand the Stucky shipper assertion that Marvel somehow stole something owed to them... but I also do understand why you ship it, and it's honestly not a bad ship. You guys just take it too far and make things uncomfortable for everyone else. And, as I've been saying for years, sometimes you make it lowkey racist. People have been shipping Stevesam since CA:TWS and you guys have downplayed it the entire time, and even used Sam as Steve's stand-in for Bucky in your fics and all of that. I remember reading fics tagged Stevesam where Steve would be having sex with Sam and then reminiscing about how it was with Bucky and wishing he were still with him, and y'all literally never saw how gross that was. Using Sam like a consolation prize. Now Steve is gone and you're still treating him like that.

And Sam and Bucky have never once treated each other like a stand-in for Steve. They treat each other like individuals with autonomy, and they even care for each other on the level that the other person needs it. It's actually really fucking good, the canon version of their relationship that's unfolded with the show. If y'all could let go of Steve for a second, literally, you would see how great Sambucky's dynamic is and that neither of them would ever see the other as "sloppy seconds" or some kind of consolation prize. It's gross.

Also, I hope Sarah gets that super soldier dick just to piss y'all off.

I'm done.