#but yeah to TLDR it while reading the fic is very tiring talking about it lets me talk about stuff I like a lot so it's fine lol

[butwhatifidothis]

Ever get tired of talking about cans fic? Wanna talk about the absolute missed opportunity that was making sothis a gremlin child and not a milf or even possibly a gilf instead?

Eh, kinda yeah kinda no regarding getting tired of talking about the fic.

Like, the actual act of reading the actual fic? Genuinely ass. Like, I've actually read up to and fully written out the notes for Chapter 62. I tried reading the first sentence of Chapter 63 right afterwards, saw it was a Rhea POV chapter, and went back to reading my otome isekais. That was around late November, and I've still yet to read any more of Chapter 63. The act of reading through something this horrible requires a lot of long breaks in-between sessions of reading.

But! In doing so I also get to talk about aspects of writing, and about 3H in particular, which I love doing. I like geeking out over aspects of writing like characterization, consistency, logical throughlines, character growth, etc. and being able to do so with such a horrible example of pretty much all of that is kinda fun, ngl.

And I also get to see and tackle so, so many of the asinine, horrendous takes that have made this fandom such a volatile space, such as:

Teacher Theory

Edelgard being some poor hapless maiden waiting for her love to save her from her unfair and unjust fate of being "branded" a villain

Dimitri being so toxic and "gone" that he needs to be killed since he just can't "listen to reason" anymore (and that actually him getting killed would make him happier)

the same essentially being said about Rhea

Lonato being a just man during his rebellion, as well as Christophe being just in his attempt to kill Rhea

Nabateans as a race being to blame for all of humanity's problems and so needing to take accountability for all of humanity's wrongs

Claude not actually caring about Fodlan and just wanting to conquer it so he can do better when he goes back to Almyra

Byleth needing to be completely human and needing to reject their Nabatean heritage in order to become happy

Edelgard being the only one among the lords + Rhea to ever care for Byleth

Everyone's best self being found only on CF

the idea that anyone defending themselves against Edelgard's attempt on their life in the Holy Tomb would be the aggressor instigating war against Edelgard

Edelgard caring so much about the people and being the only lord to care about the people

Sothis wanting Byleth to choose Edelgard over everyone else

Everyone making Edelgard kill them

And so on and so forth; this fic has pretty much all of them. In a way, reading this fic and breaking it down lets me have one, concentrated area where I get to dissect exactly how and why all of these takes are either shitty, genuinely disgusting, stupid as hell, or a mix of some/all of those things. And given the fact that Cap'n and multiple people in the fandom want this fic to be taken as meta/required reading, and with this basically being an amalgamation of all of Cap'n's genuine takes on the game (+ those of other Edelstans), going over exactly why such an influential thing is so wrong feels fitting lol. It's a pain to actually have to read through, especially with the pretentious and self-pitying holier-than-thou prose making things hard to actually physically read, but the result of doing so makes it worth it imo.

Buuuut to get off of that: yes, it was an extremely huge missed opportunity that Sothis was a stupid fuckin' loli instead of her actual self. Or, I guess more accurately, that she didn't physically become her actual self after merging with Byleth, or at least become physically closer to it. Full Mommy Sothis is so beautiful from the little we see of her! And the idea of her looking more like how she used to as she gains more of her memories would've been cool to see! And, uh, also, I feel an adult body would make her garb feel less... unfortunate to look at (ngl I get Nowi vibes looking at Sothis and I Do Not Like Nowi's clothing design that much).

I feel there was a lot missed with Sothis tho, and that that's mostly the case because the game more wants the feeling of a mystery to hang around the game more than it does actually writing a mystery with a conclusion. Sothis was seen regaining bits and pieces of her former life as a god, so if she stayed around long enough she could have revealed things to the player that were meant to be hidden. Same with Rhea - she could talk about a lot of the background knowledge of Fodlan's history that could have fleshed out the world so much more. But doing that would "spoil the fun" so to speak; there wouldn't be a mystery anymore, which the writers seemed to prioritize more than actually making the mystery fulfilling to figure out.

So Sothis gets yeeted out of the story halfway through, and Rhea is either an unavailable damsel in distress or a person pushed past their breaking point and thus unable to talk to. That's why Rhea's lore dumps on SS and VW are so rushed and forced - the writers knew they had to eventually get to the end of the mystery, and so held off as long as possible. At least, that interpretation of the writing can exist, given how they've written everything lol

[tsugarubecker]

Preview of a fic I’m working on! This is gonna be a long one. Just spat this out in a bit of a writing sprint, it will undoubtedly be edited later on. But for now, check it out if you’d like. TLDR it will eventually be the story of how Mike and Will wind up talking about The Painting. Chapter one is from El’s POV. Enjoy

------

None of them have been doing much of anything useful since they got back to Hawkins.

There isn’t much to do at the moment, frankly. The Upside Down is spilling into Hawkins through massive, sickly, gas-retching gashes in the earth. Red and pulsating like lava. The spores get thicker every day. They stay in the house. All of them. The Wheelers’ house is big enough to house the whole party and all their family members, partners, and tag-alongs, thankfully.  

It’s been three weeks. Max hasn’t woken up.

Vecna also hasn’t made a move. El is grateful for that, at least. She’s recovering – physically, mentally, emotionally. She’s gained Hopper back. She’s lost her first big fight, causing her to wonder if Papa was right about her abilities.

She’s lost Max. Maybe for forever.

When she’s not putting on a mask and braving the spores outside to go out and see Max at the hospital, she’s at home. Mostly sleeping. Her body and mind are tired. She’s recovering, and she thinks – she hopes – Vecna must be doing the same. She’s grateful, at least, for the reprieve. She knows it can’t last long. Before long something is bound to shift – she just hopes she’s ready for it when it does.

When she’s not with Max or sleeping, she’s with Hopper or her brothers or Joyce. Sipping coffee, eating toast or eggos, talking quietly. Sometimes she’s with Dustin. Or Lucas, at the hospital. And every so often with Mike, although things have been awkward between them.

They haven’t exactly… Talked About It, yet.

And she knows they have to. She just can’t even begin to decipher what words to use to say what she needs to say. She can barely even tell, most days, what it is she needs to say. Let alone what she actually wants to say.

It’s easier to pretend she can’t see his eyes trying to catch hers across the hallway as she moves past, headed to the bedroom she’s sharing with Holly and Nancy for another long nap.  

But today is different. She couldn’t scoot by. He caught her off guard while she sipped coffee at noon with Hopper. She was peering over Hopper’s shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of the funnies when something moved in front of her eyes, blocking her view. Her eyes refocused. Comic books.

“Want to come read with me instead of trying to read over yer Dad’s shoulder?”

She looks up at Hopper. Catches his eye. She swears six different conversations fly between them as he raises his eyebrow at her. “...Yeah, go on, kid. I’m not gonna be done with this paper for a while.”

Trapped. She makes a subtle face at Hopper that Mike can’t see and resists the urge to roll her eyes. “Okay.” She gets up. Mike is standing there bouncing a little on his toes, looking nervous. “...Where are we going,” she asks.

“Oh! Uhh. To my bedroom, I guess. Lucas is at the hospital and Dustin is watching TV in the living room with his mom.”

Was the house cramped? Yeah. Did the people who didn’t live there sometimes venture back to their own homes? Yes. But none of them knew what would happen next. It was safer to stay together in case something happened very suddenly. It was safest to be close to El. She had a lot of complicated feelings about that, but she knew it was true. She had heard the adults discuss it, too. She knew they were right.

Her thoughts had wandered – she found herself following Mike to the bedroom he now shared with the other boys. Other than Will. Will had asked for the basement, with Jonathan.

Once upon a time she would have thought that was odd. Nowadays, she thought that Will not wanting to share Mike’s bedroom was one more mental check mark on a list she was silently keeping in her mind. What she knew of romantic feelings, she had learned from TV. When it clicked for her that she might have missed something big, a whole lot of things started to make a whole lot more sense. She had not shared these thoughts with anyone yet. But they were a big part of her avoidance of Mike and her avoidance, specifically, of any one-on-one time with him – let alone any real, honest conversations.

She came back to the present again. (She found this was happening a lot lately. But she figured she could give herself a break – a lot had happened recently. So no wonder her thoughts were all over the place.) Mike had climbed up onto his bed and propped himself up on an elbow to read. He held out a comic to her. “Come read with me?”

In spite of herself, El smiled. The idea of lying comfortably on a bed with someone, reading comic books, gave her a warm feeling of nostalgia that she couldn’t immediately place. Then she glanced down at the comic Mike was thrusting toward her.

Wonder Woman.

Oh, she realized. Oh, okay. That’s why.

Ignoring multiple signals from her body, including desires to cry, run out of the room, or smash something through a window, she forced herself to reach out and take the comic book. She climbed up onto the bed, lied down on her stomach, and started to read.

[carpisuns]

I can't speak for everyone but I don't blame you for trying to make some positivity on that post! I'm personally just glad people are finally talking about how the way people talk about their own fandom and other fans of the show can be so rude and upsets a lot of people. For YEARS I've just seen people dismiss the show and people who like it (and even the fanfiction and whatnot) when they were all int the same fandom and it was so frustrating, I'm really glad people are rightfully saying that maybe that behavior isn't ok anymore!

aw thank you so much mari!! this is really sweet of you to say. and i totally agree!

i have only been in the fandom since mid-season 3 so im not one of the Veterans™️ who has seen every bad take and annoying fandom trend through the years, but i have seen enough to know what's out there. and while i do avoid certain kinds of fan content, it bothers me when people act like good content is hard to find. it's really not! in the ML fandom i have met some of the most passionate, talented, and delightful people i've ever known! and some ML fics i've read are some of the best writing i've ever read period, published or not. and apart from that, there are lots of fics that maybe aren't the same level of writing quality but that have creative ideas and a clear love of the characters and the story, and really that is the most compelling thing about fan content for me. sure, old tropes still stick around, but the fandom has evolved a lot since season 1 and 2 and it's getting tiring for people to pretend that it hasn't. and also to ignore all the good stuff that did come from the early years. every fandom has a mix of content and ML is no different, but finding the stuff you personally like is as easy as just looking around or asking for it.

on another note, I am a 26-year-old old fan of a children's cartoon and i already feel enough shame about my "cringey" interests to the point that i hide my favorite thing from most people i know IRL. so yeah, it's extra hurtful when people within my own fandom try to act like it's cringey to enjoy both the source material and the fan content. i'm not in the miraculous ladybug fandom in spite of canon; i'm here because of canon. for me, it's not "i like the show except ABC" or "it's ok if XYZ." there is no asterisk to my enjoyment of miraculous. i just. genuinely love it. and i feel like that should not be a radical statement haha

when i make fan content, i'm not doing it to "fix" canon or change ML into something i can enjoy. i do it because i just really like thinking about and exploring the story and characters! i'm also not doing it because i absolutely have to feed myself. like i said, there is plenty of awesome content and other creators keep me very well fed! i love interacting with them and enjoying their content and sharing it with other people so they can enjoy it too.

tldr; im so done with cringe culture lol. it's time to unironically enjoy things binch!!! enjoying things is cool!! and tbh i actually get emo sometimes thinking about how lovely it is that all these fandom creators put in their time and effort and skill and talent to make stuff for their fandom simply because they enjoy it. like. that is so pure to me. what a gorgeous, human thing to do. enjoy something, and create something new as an expression of that enjoyment. wow.

anyway sorry i wrote an essay,,,i literally can never shut up lol but i appreciate this comment also you and your blog!! you have such good vibes<33

[aerltarg]

Maybe this is a stupid question, buuuuut:

I just can't imagine a world that Rhaegar comes back from the Trident, wins the war and becomes king. No, I'm not a anti Rhaegar, matter of fact I like him very much, I'm just can imagine how would Lya, little Jon, this whole affair, would settle in the capital. The norm that fics (at least those I read) tend to follow is to make Rhaegar:

1. A douche, paranoid and destiny-obessed king.

2. Completely incompetent, aloof monarch, that deep down has a heart of gold, but can't really be understood.

I mean, isn't he supposed to be a scholar since he was a kid? What's are your thoughts about it?

oh, yeah, i can totally understand this! it's is the whole point in canon actually, "the wrong man came back from the trident". you would expect a hero win against his antagonist and have a happy ending w his lady love but it doesn't happen. instead the subversion happens to them with rhaegar being killed by robert who becomes obviously a shitty king and lyanna dying after him. they were never supposed to have happy ending, they were created as tragic and doomed and dead from the beginning for the whole plot to start, jon to have his parentage mystery and dany to take the passed baton as the last dragon, prophesied savoir and the heir who has to carry entire house on her back now.

as for the realistic rhaegar wins aus that's the difficult question. tbh we just don't know enough abt their situation, plans and wishes. you see, e.g. in agot we can be right in ned's head and see his motivations, what he was thinking abt, what he was planning, what he was hoping to do. but if his story was told the way rhaegar's was i bet he would have his own crowd of haters and ~intellectuals~ jumping out every two seconds w their "hot takes" how actually all hints abt what rlly happened (ned being a good man w his own sense of honour, justice and experiences affecting him and the deal w cersei's children) doesn't matter and he was an ambitious prick, planned to grasp the power by being joffrey's regent and make his daughter sansa queen. (you can actually insert there any bullshit and still don't reach the level of stupidity of such "hot takes" this fandom loves so much lmao). also he would be blamed to the hell and beyond for being too stupid and not foreseeing the future and actions of other ppl bc ofc after everything happened it's so easy to say what was so obvious to notice. also they would say that the deaths of his men and horrible fates of his kids are 100% his fault and even straight up say he killed them lmao. i can rant abt it for hours so yeah. this is a situation w too many unknown variables bc it depends too much on actions of too many characters we don't know enough abt. the only thing it's possible to tell for sure is the fact that there couldn't be any perfect solutions since things got too complicated at this point.

such fics as you've mentioned tho are just a part of this dumb fanon where rhaegar is "too prophecy obsessed"/"incapable of love"/shrodinger's rhaegar both smart and stupid at the same time/whatever/all of this combined lmfao. the man was notably intelligent from the early age as you've absolutely rightly mentioned, his guesses abt himself being tptwp have nothing to do w egocentrism as some parts of the fandom would want us all to believe unless he wouldn't be so reasonable abt it and later on, after so many years, wouldn't have changed his mind and thought his son could be tptwp.

and literally fuck all antis that think you shouldn't consider prophecies that hold real power in this fantasy world lol. you know, aegon the conqueror was said to be motivated (or at least partly) to unify westeros by the prophecy and still got the treatment of perfect/maximum close to perfect figure of a leader everyone should look up to from the narrative and grrm. prophecy obsessed much, huh? i don't even talk abt all these parallels between him and rhaegar grrm put there not for bitches to ignore them completely! and i will never get tired of reminding that dismissing prophecies is UNWISE for targaryens of all people. the house whose story is built on the dream of young daenys and her father aenar that listened to her despite common sense (or what local "anti magic"/"anti prophecies" clowns consider to be common sense). targs would be as dead as the rest of dragonlords if not for daenys the dreamer. who else in the world has as many reasons to take prophecies seriously as them?

yet antis out there act as if rhaegar is one dimensional weirdo whose every character trait is abt mf ~prophecy obsession~. like how can they miss one of the main points so badly?? the game of thrones distracts ppl from the real danger beyond the wall, yk, the one rhaegar was aware of and meant to deal with. there wouldn't be such a problem if he became king and had as many years of head start before ice zombies apocalypse as ignorant bobby b did. rhaegar had to die just for westeros to sink in shit and our main heroes to save everyone to make this story more epic LMAO

so yeah, too many ppl portray rhaegar as this one dimensional robotic creature without any knowledge of what feelings are idk even for what reason. it seems these ppl can't read for real bc rhaegar was not only intelligent af as well as dutiful ("it seems i must be a warrior" but "he loved his harp more than his lance") but also. ugh emotional?? my boy had constant emo sessions w brooding at ruins of summerhall, sleeping out there beneath the stars all alone and writing songs that made all women cry. does it sound as someone who "isn't capable of love" lol? folks act as if he was completely heartless from the day he was born (bc he didnt play w other kids ig??) but in reality their emotional range is less than the one of a spoon in comparison to rhaegar's lol. i'm not even gonna address the horrible attitude of demonizing him for his implied depression, vile clowns never listen to themselves when they talk abt targaryens and their "madness".

tldr; these fics are mostly lame af and suck at characterization if they're making rhaegar like that lol. anyway his character isn't abt being a good or a bad king, it's abt being a would-be-king for characters in books and readers in reality to sigh over his tragic aura and pretty aesthetic abt how it could've been. however, grrm clearly doesn't write rhaegar as evil or incapable as some parts of the fandom would want to try to persuade others. realistically speaking in the scenario where he wins there couldn't be any perfect decisions but it's a territory of speculations on thin air and lit nothing more since canon doesn't provide us with enough information to rlly theorize anything instead of building biased headcanons some ppl call "analysis".

but remember what barristan said about rhaegar while practically watching him all his life, from a literal baby to the man grown:

“I know little of Rhaegar. Only the tales Viserys told, and he was a little boy when our brother died. What was he truly like?”

The old man considered a moment. “Able. That above all. Determined, deliberate, dutiful, single-minded.” (ASOS, Daenerys I)

“Prince Rhaegar’s prowess was unquestioned, but he seldom entered the lists. He never loved the song of swords the way that Robert did, or Jaime Lannister. It was something he had to do, a task the world had set him. He did it well, for he did everything well. That was his nature. But he took no joy in it. Men said that he loved his harp much better than his lance.” (ASOS, Daenerys IV)

[idk-my-aesthetic]

Ok the whole thing w/ clogging up ao3 tags is stupid for multiple reasons, like how it fucks with screen readers for one, but the MAJOR issue is that having too many tags isn’t actually a problem w/ ao3

Like seriously guys? There is a lot to criticize. And I say this as someone who heavily relied on fandom spaces to get me through some really really hard times and still loves ao3. I can say I love what it does for fandom while also acknowledging there’s some seriously fucked up shit going on both behind the scenes and with ppl who use the site. It’s literally like saying “I love tumblr but I acknowledge there are literal nazis on here and as a Jew/human with a working brain I hate them and that they’ve been here so long”

Like. I get u think ur sticking it to the man or whatever. And idk I partially agree bc. There’s so much nasty shit and some technically illegal shit that I don’t want to even mention! But ur not even wasting the moderators time or anything ur just being obnoxious and then everyone starts discoursing on tumblr and I’m legitimately tired of it. I don’t wanna see ppl defending gross stuff and I’m tired of talking about the ppl who do defend gross stuff bc I don’t wanna remember that they exist bc I have shit to do irl and not enough space in my brain for them

So. Idk ima propose at least a temporary solution before I have to hear one more argument for or against censorship bc y’all seriously don’t understand how to have a nuanced conversation

How about instead of asking AO3 to take down gross fics (which may or may not be morally correct but will 100% reopen a very over done conversation) instead we ask for some specific plausible things

1) when you use ao3 explicit and unrated fics are automatically filtered out. They do this on ff.net. Yes it may be like 2 extra clicks for ppl who wanna read explicit stuff but ppl who don’t are going to do that anyway, and it protects the people who don’t know to do that and don’t want to read graphic tags. Most importantly it requires consent to browse explicit fics. Yeah you need to give consent to read explicit stuff, but you can look through the incredibly graphic tags/summaries without consenting to anything. It’s literally the default. Which is both upsetting to ppl who don’t wanna see that and also maybe a bit of a legal loophole they should close up

2) a “suggest tags” feature. This would be moderated by authors not ao3 staff. Basically ppl can like..... idk entire a series of tags and you can choose if you want to add them or not. The person submitting them has an option to be anonymous or not. Obviously the author doesn’t have to add every random tag and it might be annoying but it would help with making sure triggers got tagged. It would be helpful if it didn’t let you suggest tags that were already suggested/on the fic but I’m not too picky. Like I said the point of this is to make sure ppl can block stuff properly, and it honestly might also help authors with visibility bc like. Obviously you know the tags you use but you don’t know what tags other ppl look for. Again maybe it may be obnoxious with ppl having a lot of tags but people already have a lot of tags

3) a dispute rating button. Now before someone bitches at me that the ao3 moderators don’t have time to go through disputes- I know I already took that into consideration. Basically the idea is when you dispute the rating the site will ask you what rating you think it should be and anonymously log it. So if someone rated something M but you think it should be an E the site will log that and send a message to the author. The author has a choice if they actually want to listen to ppl and change the rating or not. They don’t actually have to listen to the ppl disputing the rating. Unless they get a certain amount of disputes. I was thinking maybe like 50 or so?* So if 50 ppl say “hey this really needs to have a different rating” then and only then would the moderators take a look at the fic. And the moderators would then figure out what the rating should be.

(*idk if 50 is the right #. I was thinking it should maybe work on like a percentage of your hits in the fic?)

3.5) have a sexual content marker. This is marked as 3.5 bc i feel like this idea if implemented would be misused. But yeah in theory you could just have a sexual content marker that could be clicked by the OP and then automatically filtered. Again you could use the system from #3 but again I feel like ppl would missuse it.

Anyway yeah. I wanted to give some viable solutions ppl on both sides might actually agree with. Like I get not wanting to make concessions with gross ppl, but it’s a lot faster so I’m ok with doing it for now while the rest of y’all continue to debate or w/e

Final note- please for the love of g-d learn how ratings work. Ask someone else’s opinion if you have too. I have seen so many explicit fics marked as mature or teen it’s a legitimate problem. I’ll give a quick rundown of what each rating means but pls guys

General- g- basically go by what you’d see in a Disney cartoon

Teen- pg/pg 13 - there are swears there’s violence, sex may be mentioned, you might call someone sexy or smthn idc, but no one is shown having sex or or discussing/thinking about it in detail

Mature- R - injuries/gore may be described with more detail. Uhh there could be some heavy making out and the characters might talk about sex or feeling sexually attracted to someone. But actual sex is not shown!! If you have to mention or refer to someone’s genetalia in any sexual way you should probably move it up to an E. Even if ur characters are fully clothed the entire time. Also If you’re talking about kinks outside of a quick joke or reference you should probably move it up to an E.

Explicit- NC 17- sexually explicit content. (You can put non-sexual violent stuff under here but most ppl leave it under mature)

TLDR/oversimplification(for the ratings) -

General: nothing sexual

Teen: implied sex

Mature: refrenced sex

Explicit: shown sex

General tldr:

Some criticisms of Ao3 are valid and needed, and some are just stupid and infuriating (specifically talking about the tag thing stop it’s annoying and ableist). There is constant arguments and drama surrounding those criticisms, and I decided to offer some solutions that actually have a chance at getting implemented, even if I would prefer a different option.

[incarnateirony]

You didn't ship Destiel until S13!? That really took me by surprise! In that case, thank you for defending the ship even if you didn't ship it, that's really nice and your meta made it easier to deal with the antis. And welcome to the Destiel side of the force! :)

Yeah, several people -- @dotthings off the top of my head, I really don’t remember who else -- literally witnessed the screaming fall into the dumpster.

Again, I really don’t know if I still consider what I do ~shipping.~ I have no specific demands for how their relationship continues from here, I just acknowledge it within the work. The difference that hit in S13 was welcoming that content instead of guarding myself against it because we got slammed with several consecutive bookends that completed an entire romantic arc and punctuated it with a far more impacting mirror of an endgame that didn’t even have said romantic arc to begin with, in Swan Song, so like??? what am I supposed to do? Just ignore it? Act like I can’t understand what just happened in front of me?

To put some perspective, I’ve been running SPN games for... a while. My most recent one was on a discord server that’s niche, but my prior one was on a giant multifandom server. I covered for Cas to keep his power levels in check to the story balance without like, making the humans irrelevant. My Dean at the time was hardcore shipping trash. His name was Chris, he was a bisexual dude in Chile, psychologist, good dude. But like??? it deadass annoyed me? How up Cas’ ass his writing was? The shippers that came in actually kinda annoyed me with trying to matchmaker them in game??? Like. I saw it, but I guess it’s the old “That’s not what the show is about” (which unlike how fandom whips it around, doesn’t mean it can’t exist at all, it’s the obsessive tunnel visioned focus that pissed me off because it kept railroading scenes)

But despite that, during and before it, I was yeah, defending it. Just because I wasn’t an active ~shipper~ didn’t mean I was cool with people stomping on people for very reasonably seeing the stuff my last post mentioned. I just kinda kept myself from investing because I know this old media song and dance too well and didn’t expect it to break, say, S10 levels. And then 11 happened. And then 12. And then--

Because no matter what this fandom says, Castiel’s alien mystified staring at Dean, while great chemistry in old seasons, does not actually compare to things like frequent lunch dates, need and love yous, mixtapes, Eileen being Sam’s Cas in 15.09 and so on. In the actual, not-head-up-ass-about-old-rewritten-content-meta’ed-15-times-over often fused to really bad hot takes on what people call queer coding. But I could respect that, say, the ramifications of swapping Cas and Anna roles to keep Misha around while Julie was bouncing out and getting uncomfortable naturally landed Cas in the hero’s journey goddess role, ala princess Leia if you will, the distressing warrior nondamsel rebelling against the empire and whatnot. But that doesn’t start or end at star wars, that’s thousands of years of human writing.

So while yes, the show heavily stripped the actual content that would have traditionally structured it romantic, people like seeing that x their chemistry early on-- not crazy.

And I defended it for years /to my wife/ despite my server vexations. On this giant dozens-of-thousands-of-users multifandom server not connected to any core fandom spaces and hosting innumerable fandoms and walks of life, I was the oddball out -- me. As a nonshipper annoyed by the crowd, often having 20-30 people logged into my channel at a time playing everything from early Cain to Benny to TFW to Wayward to *throws dart at board* whatever, of the hundreds of names that drifted through the game in sum (including player rotations, OCs and audience that just came to watch/read like a fic), you know how many antis we had?

Three.

One was my wife. so removing her, two.

Do you know how many shippers there were? 

Yeah neither do I, just, “pretty much all of them.” a few hung in “see it, don’t care, moderately annoyed” like I did. But this idea that the GA is a bunch of het-guzzling bozos that can’t do the same basic math all of you fucking did before you got here, just because some other dead-ass irrelevant ship composed entirely on leftfield interpretations to validate niche fandom ships -- that shit’s so far fucking divorced from goddamn reality.

As for my wife, yes. She was an anti. In fact long before I wandered into fandom social media (I think I actually jumped in around S12 bc I saw Dabb taking over and Bobo getting promoted and was interested in Yockey-- Yockey was the first person I tweeted at), I was on these servers, running these games, having these ARGUMENTS with my wife to be quite honest, because like, look, I get it, Destiel fandom can be weird and needy and over the top but they’re not crazy for what they see out of it. By Carver era it was classic subtext.

But she had followed Winbros for years not realizing it’s literally run by the real world becky and her BFFs that have tasteful POVs like “Misha Collins is cancer” “Dabb is a disease” and whatever else on their personals that proxy through their posts and motivations. She attended it on Facebook, which is THE goddamn conservative magafarm asshole platform and yeah, read a lot of shitty arguments. Yes, she picked up sayings like “it ruins the show”. Yes, she hated it. No, that didn’t mean I felt anyone deserved more than mild frustration for their behaviors at the time just because they were stuck in fanfic-shipping-fiction-over-romanticised-land and not canon-divergent-show-genre-complex-interpersonal-relationships fiction. 

She, too, cracked about the same time I did. I was more receptive sure, I saw it more sure, but after a mix of addressing some personal problems, making an OC that completely changed how her perception filtered Dean and Castiel working together, whatever-- and yes, 12.19->13.5. The night of 13.5, the final shot, as the screen went dark, she stared over her phone and, with tonal distaste, said “Oh. So they’re going there.”

Yes, it’s that fucking obvious. No, she didn’t admit that’s what did her in. Not until the end of the season, when she admitted she had been bullshitting arguments since early season 13 because, literally, and I quote, “otherwise Min wins.” -- which, if that comes by way of my own wife, I can only stare into the fandom camera at other people that have turned this show into a decade long money sink and have been divorced from the actual canon path for like minimum 3 years, maybe 6, yelling about it being wrong all the time, etc. Because on the internet, people convince themselves they have ownership and power, that their opinion of what the piece should be overrides even the creators, et cetera. Yeah. There’s a lot of disingenuous horse shit.

TLDR my wife fell into the dumpster and, as the flag of the end of our weird spats, and a birthday present, I made her this, since she IDs as Dean (OLD vid, has hiccup issues newer ones don’t)

So, yup, dat me.

To this day I still don’t read fanfics or browse fanart or any of that. I’ve never cared about that face of the fandom. I’ve never cared about making up rando ships, I’ve never cared about exactly how any given relationship plays itself out, I just enjoy the ride and address it as it does indeed play out. Most shipping culture still pisses me the fuck off with its dialogue, as I’ve made very clear. But because I’m acknowledging the text instead of denying what keeps happening more centrally and critically every year on screen, I’d be called a shipper. Because I’m tired of watching people spew logic even most children could pick apart in an endless roundabout of negativity, because I have no tolerance for absolute horse shit and fandom whining so I just lay out counters to bad talking points, I’d be called a shipper.

But 13.5ish is when I finally let myself start emotionally receiving the content rather than barring it off in a distant wall of exhausted old gay that knows their media too well. Why? Because it already completed and went above and beyond every element of the original way they painted the original goddamn endgame and I guess because I won’t set unfair bars against queer relationships and set them at Extra Hard Difficulty, I’m a shipper. IDK. This fandom fucking exhausts me. Fandom culture in general exhausts me.

[flowerslut]

hello! random question but i have read a lot of jalice fics lately (love cotn and your new one btw!!) and while i love the whole 'tortured jasper he can feel everyone's thirst bc of his gift' thing, there are some things that i feel like don't really count as emotions so he shouldn't be able to feel them per se (ie: thirst tbh, being lied to, betrayal). haven't read the books for a loooong time so idk if meyer ever went further into detail. but would love to see what u (and whoever else) think!

thank you! I’m glad you like my stories!

unpopular opinion or whatever but I actually don’t like the “Jasper can feel everyone’s thirst” theory. like… at all. it doesn’t make sense. literally. thirst isn’t an emotion.

it’s a cool concept for head canons and fan fictions and all but it makes no sense in canon. I know people use that as an excuse as to why he’s bad at self-control around humans but I personally think we should just leave it at “he’s bad at it because he lived as a murder machine for the better part of a century and consumed so much human blood that humans will only ever look like oversized capri-suns to him”

like, let Jasper have his poor self-control and move on. jasper being the most vampiric of the Cullens makes him a more interesting character in my mind. the idea that he loves his family but still finds them fucking weird just warms my dumb heart.

on the topic of his ability, please strap in because I have so many thoughts about Jasper and his pathokinesis:

I really think Stephenie Meyer could have done a lot more with Jasper’s gift. Jasper could have been so fucking cool. when you think about his ability it really should have no effect on Bella bc she’s this ~crazy powerful shield~ or whatever. but it does. maybe it’s because smeyer didn’t plan Bella’s ability until after twilight (which would make sense and is likely what happened) but it leaves a pretty big hole in the whole “Bella’s mental shield is unmatched in strength!” thing they tried selling. I mean, Alice can see her future, Jasper can sense/control her emotions. impenetrable mental shield my ass? like? hello?

the only way this could make sense in-canon is if we found out that Jasper’s ability was far… scarier then we’ve all been led to believe. I once read someone’s post on here and they were like “what? does he just fiddle their fucking brains until the right neurochemicals are released?” and honestly, yeah, I think that’s kind of what happens. and I know that sounds crazy but LISTEN.

if Jasper’s power is physical, not mental, like smeyer tried explaining, then suddenly we have the scariest character in the entire series on our hands. like, just listen to the potential that that has…

we’re told that the reason Jane can’t inflict her gift on Bella is because Jane only provides you with the illusion of pain. but you still feel it, right? that’s because Jane tricks the brain into thinking it’s on fire, or whatever the experience is supposed to feel like. but again: it’s an illusion. it’s not real. Jane stops and the victim is virtually unharmed, because it’s all in their head, right? if I’m not misremembering, Edward bounces right back in New Moon, right?

the same goes for Alec. and with Aro, since Bella’s shield is mental of course he’d be blocked out. same with Edward. Eleazar can probably sense Bella’s shield because he’s probably seeing it—maybe as an aura, who knows—and I guess Alice can see Bella’s future cause she’s witnessing her physical presence in the future. these all have explanations. if the explanation for Jasper is that he can actually physically effect the brain then suddenly we have an ability that really should also be able to do what Jane and Alec’s abilities do.

I mean can we please talk about how sleepiness/being tired isn’t an emotion. and literally in twilight jasper fucking PUTS BELLA’S WHOLE ASS TO SLEEP??? like??? HELLO?????!

falling asleep isn’t something that solely happens in your brain (as far as I’m aware—anyone proficient in neuroscience is welcome to correct me). it’s a physical process as well because the states of both the brain and body change.

if he can make a human fall asleep, solely by controlling whatever process happens in the brain to, y’know, shut it down for a period, why can’t Jasper do what Alec does? and if he can make a human fall asleep, why wouldn’t he be able to do something on the other end of the spectrum? like, I don’t know, induce some sort of physical injury. something that could cause a heart attack, stroke, or aneurysm.

because if Jasper is physically manipulating people’s brains and bodies then by all means he should be able to control so much more than feelings. I mean, he already is controlling more than emotions and we’re shown that already in TWILIGHT! at the very BEGINNING of the series!!

if he can physically manipulate people, that’s TERRIFYING!! and let’s be real I am HERE for it…

just picture with me real quick a Jasper who (isn’t a dumbass) eventually realizes that, wait… I shouldn’t be able to put humans to sleep or accelerate or decrease heart rates like this because that’s…. completely unrelated to feelings and emotions and um? what???? and suddenly Jasper realizes he has the ability to induce headaches and muscle spasms and cramps not just in humans but in vampires. and suddenly this is a total game changer y’all.

and remember, it’s not a one-way street with his gift. he can sense things too. it starts off with feelings, because those are easiest to sense off of other people. but then he starts being really good at sensing intentions. and then suddenly he’s reacting to what someone’s done before they’ve done it. I could go on all day about how crazy his potential ability could develop in canon and how COOL it is but I’ll just…. stop there…. and let y’all imagine the rest (or add on, if you want to)…..

tldr: jasper’s ability has more to do with actual manipulation of the body and less to do with “controlling emotions” and I’m convinced the motherfucker has the potential to be the actual scariest vampire in the series

[littlemissagrafina]

Fics That Give Me Feels

(Angst, whump, hurt/comfort etc.) Regularly adding new fics

Please note that some of these can and will be TRIGGERING for some so please be careful.

Depression, self-harm, mental health, death, etc. Sorry if I missed anything else that might trigger anyone (I haven't read through these properly in a while) if someone spots any triggers will you please let me know?

Stay safe babes, Agrafina out.

After the Storm Passed

Sometimes, Peter felt like he wasn't quite... real. Like maybe he wasn’t really himself but a bad copy of himself. Like maybe he’d come back wrong.

Lost boy's lullaby

"Goodnight my angel, now it's time to sleep

And still so many things I want to say."

- Lullaby, Billy Joel

Peter was surely tired and exhausted.

He has been exhausted since five... years ago? Right? He has been fighting Thanos since that time and he had been beaten up pretty badly. And of course, who would have forget the time that he actually died--disintegrating second by second on an unfamiliar planet, fighting the inevitable of fading away... fading into nothingness. He has been fighting since that time and now, he just couldn't get any break, could he?

i love you 3000, peter parker. whether you believe it or not.

what if, after seeing morgan, tony gets another visitor in the soul realm?

teach me to be comfortable in my own skin

"Mr. Stark?"

Mr. Stark hummed but did not lift his eyes from his work. "Yeah, kid?"

"Does it bother you that I'm not normal?”

Will I Ever Make A Sound?

Mental illness does not discriminate. It doesn't give a damn if Peter Parker is Spider-Man. It takes and it takes and it takes.

But there is hope. There is always hope.

By @losingmymindtonight

Being Alive (is different than living)

The lines between life and death become blurred for Peter Parker and his family and friends when Thanos snaps his fingers. But living again when you were once dead? Well, that's the hardest part. Peter finds that surviving and living are two very different things. It's a cruel and unfortunate thing to discover.

does it ever get better? (a journey through self-harm)

By @imstrandedonthemoon

the courage of stars

Peter falls silent again, exhausted, and Tony takes the time to study the kid carefully. Peter is sullen in a way he’s never seen before, shoulders hunched and weighed down by some unseen force.

He’s just not… Peter.

“Come on, Pete. Talk to me,” Tony prompts. “If you want to see the stars, I can take you. I’ll take you wherever you’d like.”

or

Sometimes, Peter can't breathe. Tony does his best to help.

+

mosaic thoughts

Tony watches, face tight with concern, as Peter swallows thickly. The kid’s hands twitch irritably where they rest on his thighs, and Tony’s eyebrows fly up at the increasingly open display of anxiety.

“What’s going on in that head of yours?” Tony prompts gently.

Peter shakes his head fiercely again, face beginning to crumple as tears start to spill down his cheeks. Tony quickly gets up and kneels in front of him.

“Easy, kid. It’s okay, it’s okay. Just take some deep breaths and you can tell me what’s wrong.”

Peter makes another sound before finally choking out, “I can’t - I can’t!”

or

Anxiety steals Peter's colors, but Tony's there to bring them back.

+

to build a home

After the snap, Peter comes back, but nothing is the same. He's now faced with near-crippling anxiety, depression, and PTSD. But thankfully, he's got a Tony and amazing friends and family to help rebuild everything he'd lost. Recovery isn't easy, but it's worth it.

+

teach me how to say goodbye

Tony curls Peter into him protectively. “Don’t hurt him!” Tony warns, and the man laughs.

“Oh, I’m not going to do anything. You are,” he says, placing the gun down on the floor. “Well, technically you have a choice. Either you can kill your boy, or you,” he says, pointing at Peter, “can shoot Iron Man. I’ll leave it for you to decide. The survivor will be free to go, never to hear from me again.”

(In which Peter and Tony face the hardest decision they've ever had to make.)

By @tonystarkstan

I can't find a title for this

By @justme--emily

This hit really close to home and had me sobbing.

Tell Me You'll Be Fine

"Tony." A voice, gentle and warm, spoke from behind him. Tony frowned slightly, that sounded very familiar but..

Tony turned around to look at the boy- no, the young man. Tony balked slightly.

He was taller now, definitely taller than Tony was. He filled into his body well, his muscles thicker and shoulders broader, still lean though. His hair was a little shorter, too, but it was still the same brown curls. The same doe eyes. The same trusting smile.

"You're-" Tony tilted his head, taking a step forward and huffing in disbelief. The boy- no, man, walked up to meet him, smiling softly. "Pete?" Tony asked quietly, hesitantly.

"Hey, Mr. Stark."

You should be here

Since coming back from the snap May and Peter had been moved into the tower, easing the separation anxiety between everyone.

Aunt May had become Pepper’s personal assistant which meant she could see more of Peter.

Not long after the rest of the Avengers were pardoned and moved in as well. It was a little tense to start with but soon everyone was building their broken relationships back up, a lot of crying and apologising involved.

Peter soon found himself with an extended family that he loved very much.

Now it was his Eighteenth birthday, and he’s happy. He is…

by @marvels-blue-phoenix

Through Your Tattered Window Pane

While fighting a battle he wasn't supposed to be in, Tony loses his memory. He slowly regains it, seeming to remember everyone... except Peter.

+

Am I Just a Shadow You Drew?

Tony has been distant lately. Peter learns why. [AU: No powers]

By @emeraldmoon

broken by my own hand (put back together by yours)

"For the first time he realizes how perfectly the kid fits into his life. In his arms, against his chest, under his chin, in his entire world."

What Do I Need?

He's not coming. If I wasn't such a burden to him before maybe he would have helped me now. Maybe he would come pick me up and everything would be okay. But everything's not okay because I ruined everything. I should have lied more. I shouldn't have talked to my counselor. This. Shouldn't. Be. Happening.

By @scooter3scooter

Diamond of the Day

Peter couldn't let Mr. Stark die. He wouldn't let him die. He had lost Ben, he wouldn't stand by and not do anything.

Or

The Avengers Endgame/Merlin crossover that no one asked for and made me sad

+

Tumblr Drabble/One Shots

+

Whumptober 2019

By the stunning @itsreallylaterightnow

Resetting the Bone

"Morgan was being sweet, he knew that. She didn’t understand how Peter was sick. She had heard somewhere- how nobody could guess- that he was hurt on his left arm. She knew he had done it. Not a bad guy.

She’d come up with the idea that he needed a Band-Aid to keep on his wrist. Pride glowing on her face, she made sure he had one every morning. Peter wore it all day for her.

Morgan kept giving him Band Aids every visit. She didn’t give up. She was being sweet. She was trying to take care of him. But he really wished she would stop!"

these christmas lights keep shining on (without you here)

With Christmas right around the corner, Peter doesn’t know how he can move on without Tony. Thankfully, he has his family to help him through it.

By @marvelous-writer

Just gonna let em hate

It’s not like anything changed much.

Peter is usually great brushing off all the shit everyone gives him for being himself. It usually doesn’t matter what they think; what anyone thinks really.

So why is it getting so hard for him to do that recently?

By @starrykitty013

cracks in my glass house

Since adopting Harley, the adjustment period had been... hard.

Harley didn’t seem to think Tony cared about where he went or what he did or when he did it. He’d had to bail Harley out of jail more than once already. Harley had brought home girls and boys alike on various nights, only to send them home in the morning and never speak to them again (not that Tony could judge, but by this point he’d passed out more NDAs than he could keep track of).

But it was fine. Everything was fine. Tony loved Harley. He’d do anything for him.

Except let Peter become one of those nameless faces he spent the night with.

TLDR; Harley is a ~bad boy~ and Tony doesn’t want him to hurt Peter.

New Dream

“You ever tried to escape?”

Peter chuckled. “Yeah. Lots of times I end up back here, brink of death. Though, twice Tennison was so impressed he let me have extra dinner and no experiments the next day.”

“Wow, kiddo, living the luxurious life, huh?” it was astounding how quickly they’d fallen into a comfortable companionship.

“There was a guard who helped me once,” Peter’s smile dropped with his volume. “But he had to leave. They never found out he helped me. I was hoping…”

He trailed off and shook his head. “Well, I guess I’ll just have to hitch a ride with you when Captain America comes to bust you out, huh?”

Tony’s heart jumped. Oh, kid, if you knew just how much I wished for that. “Yeah, I guess I’ll let you come along. Only one stowaway allowed, though, you hear me? No weird mutated turtles or rats or something.”

Peter laughed again, and for a moment the cold cell felt warm.

[niceureceive]

001 - Bokuaka bc i luv u^^ ouo imma send them one by one~~~

OKAY SIT DOWN BECAUSE THIS WILL BE LONG (　-`ω-)✧ BOKUAKA APPRECIATION IS ON THE WAY. FOLLOW ME

When I started shipping it: Okay, we are talking about my ultimatefav ship here. I had my eyes on them during the 3rd gym practices, because HOWPERFECT THOSE EPISODES ARE!? If you listen closely you can here me screamingAkaaAAasshhhiii in Bokuto’s voice, across the universe. Tho, I think I onlystarted shipping them for real after that famous introduction of Bokuto’s“breakdown” during summer camp, that game against Karasuno. Yes. That one.That’s when I realised, there’s much more here.

My thoughts: First I have to make my point here by saying: thattheir relationship would stand strong even if you don’t/can’t ship them romantically.They are the perfect couple for headcanons, every-type of headcanons, and I’mreally happy with this fact, But it’s OTP post so. Not sorry. Here we go: 

According to a famous bokuaka post, while maintaining an avarage and normal human life, opps this just happens out of the blue, and on a scale of “oh god i’m a waste of air”, 5 times a day, I would just go blank and stare into the distance, wondering about how perfect are them for each other. And that the perfect word is ‘soulmates’ here, you could say. And by wondering I mean: one hand clenching fist, full with ugly tears, clenching my tshirt with other hand, melting into this intense beautiful mess of feels. Okay, good, now you know me, because that’s literally what is it. First I was like, yeah, they are cute, but they tricked me and then it just HIT ME. I’M STARING AT PERFECTION!?! Probably the fanarts didn’t help haha, why do we have so many talented artists in this fandom?? Srsly I can tell, that this relationship is so perfectly put together, even tho we still don’t know their background story, and thank god it’s not here as a question, because i would write a book (am I right? I’m so behind with the manga) I don’t even know where to start with… Okay, like… Akaashi’s “calm/cold/blank/whateveryouwnattocallit” expression but THAT ONE SMILE he only has for Bokuto, I’m sure he is a screaching fangirl inside (like all of us, because you just cannot not love Bokuto.) And let’s not even mention Bokuto’s breakdowns/moodswings/anxiety, And how Akaashi handles everything so well, because he just knows him so well, different ways like any of the other teammates. I’m sure even from a tiny little sigh, Akaashi could tell what comes next and he is so prepared for everything. He holds it together really well, he can hold Bokuto together the right way, but that’s mutual, in my opinion, you need deep trust and understanding for that. TLDR their plotline (and possibilities for hcs) just blows my mind, also… the whole Fukurodani team in general. Their chemistry may seem boring or nonexistent (are we watching the same anime?) in a way that, only Bokuto goes overexcited around Akaashi, but.. no. They have a very strong bond (relationship) between them, that’s deeper than just a loud AkkkaaAAAaaashi scream. If you pay attention, you can easily imagine what lies beneath, those soft little, but REALLY important things what makes them perfect for each other. NOW I WISH ENGLISH WAS MY FIRST LANGUAGE SO I COULD EXPRESS MYSELF BECAUSE THAT DOES NOT MAKE ANY SENSE AND THIS POST IS ALREADY AN EMOTIONAL MESS.

What makes me happy about them: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ Everything. Literally everything. Even those random moments when they just stand next to each other. Or when they play together and then Fukurodani (Akaashi) brings back THE ACE.

What makes me sad about them: Not much screentime (yet) + That we don’t have a whole day long movie about them and Fukurodani (yet.)

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: So far I’ve only read AWESOME and very well written fics, and the characters were so on point I can’t complain. Let’s admit I was pterodactylscreaching and rolling around my room. But probably it would be something like…hm… making their relationship cliché, in a way that yeah Bokuto is loud and Akaashi is just really annoyed by it and nothing more. plot done. No. Don’t even try to make it about that only.

Things I look for in fanfic: BOKUTO WITH HIS HAIR DOWN AND AKAASHI LOSING IT COMPLETELY EVERYTIME… as I mentioned…. characters on point = most important point. I can’t read something if it’s to OOC for my taste. And oh, well written nsfw content, sorry not sorry. Like, yes give me overexcitedly horny-what’s good-I know my game-type of Akaashi (instead of a blushing one), and give me heated makeouts and head-over-hills-in-love Bokuto. Yes. Thank you. AND UNIVERSITY AU. OR EVEN AFTER THAT AU.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: I literally cannot see them with anyone else, I’m convinced that they are soulmates and perfect for each other. (BUT! I’m not shaming any other OTPs, with them every otp is beautiful, spread the love ♡)

My happily ever after for them: First we have a very on fire type of passionate era during university. I see Akaashi moving in with Bokuto, as he starts university too. Not necessarily same uni, I can see some randomly-visiting-him moments. Oh and may I point out the: hands all over game, kissing here and there, hidden makeouts and hot hot sex. Also random dates at the most random places. Because they still GO ON DATEs. Oh and after graduation, while finding jobs and all the boring adulting stuff, you know, they just turn into this beautiful domestic fluffy foreverinlove couple. Forever. I’m not crying, you are crying.

Who is the big spoon/little spoon: depends on the mood I think. I’m sure Bokuto sometimes arrives home as a literal little spoon himself. When he just needs a hug, because he is so tired and university sucks and exams suck and practice was too long this time - when he allows himself to feel vulnerable and lost - but not really because Akaashi is there to hold him strong, to hug him, to kiss him on his forehead and whisper sweet nothings into his ear.

What is their favorite non-sexual activity: probably just lazing around in their tiny apartment and enjoying whatever they do on their own - but still together. Because even silence is comfortable between them. But then again, there is no real silence with Bokuto, and Akaashi totally loves it. So I guess just… being together? +++ Absolute hc: Akaashi loves photography... Akaashi with film camera I would say. They travel a lot when they have time and he takes the most hilarious pictures of Bokuto. Oh but wait… Bokuto’s smile is brighter then the sun and his eyes shine like million stars - he is the perfect model when he doesn’t pay attention and when he doesn’t force himself to make riddiculous faces. Akaashi catches all those moments. Yes, love me some candid monochrome shots of Bokuto staring at the sea. Bokuto finding a rare flower he has never seen before. Bokuto enjoying the morning coffee and cigarette (sorry, I know he is a sportman..) on the balcony. Bokuto being the Bokuto only Akaashi can see. (Oh could you tell i’m photo major?) Yet again, I’m not crying, you are crying. Also someone please write this for me or draw this, I will love you FOREVER.