#from all these gifsets you would assume i ship them romantically

[supemaeve]

It's funny, you know, of all the people here, I've known you the longest. Sometimes it just seems like you're the only person I can lean on.

[chansaw]

on red and blue symbolism in heathers: an essay

i read one of those buzzfeed listicles the other day that was like “crazy fun facts and secrets about your favorite 80s movies!” and one of the first fun facts was “did you know that in heathers, every character is associated with a color?” that’s not a fun fact. it’s not even a secret. heathers is a lot of things but one thing it’s not is subtle. heathers practically beats the viewer over the head with color symbolism but in this essay, i would particularly like to draw attention to the colors red and blue and their significance in heathers’ narrative.

a short preface: when possible, i cite stills sourced from the movie itself. some images, however, are served better by the gif format, so whenever i post a gif i will also cite the tumblr user who made it. if your gifs are used in this post and you would like me to remove them, please let me know.

okay, with that out of the way, let's start at the beginning (naturally). below is the title card. right away, the cinematographers inundate the viewer with red, informing the viewer that red (and whoever wears it) will be significant to the narrative.

red represents the social order and the natural hierarchy of predators and prey at westerburg. red is omnipresent throughout the production design of the school's campus.

by assuming the color of the school itself, heather chandler assumes control of the school. and when she drags veronica along to the remington party to help boost their reputation, the whole dorm is bathed in red light.

when we first meet veronica, she's wearing gray and black, with only occasional pops of blue (the brooch in the outfit above, her croquet mallet, etc) but as veronica's discomfort and unease begins to grow, something interesting begins to happen!

blue light slowly begins to creep into the frame, and once veronica has finally had enough of brad's bullshit, it becomes even more prominent. just as red represents control of the social hierarchy, blue symbolizes discontent and rejection of the social order.

(gif by @/fireairshadow)

meanwhile, heather chandler isn't having a great time at the party either. this scene is the only time in the film we see heather chandler completely alone, in a moment of vulnerability and self loathing, and she's surrounded by the color blue.

(gif by @/tibby ily tibby)

and then all hell breaks loose. i honestly dont think one image or gif alone can do this scene justice so im linking to tibby's (beautifully colored) gifset of the scene.

note how as veronica declares war ("lick it up, baby!"), red and blue lights flicker across her face. and as heather promises to ruin veronica in turn, the red light casts heather's face in shadow and overpowers the blue.

of course, heather never gets the chance to make good on this promise because veronica and jd kill her. and that may have been a mistake, but the color of their poison is quite deliberate.

(gif by @/nowadayz)

and right before she dies, she takes off her red scrunchie - conceding her control.

of course, heather's death doesn't mean her exit from the narrative. red lingers throughout the rest of the film. but guess what color veronica wears to the funeral?

tumblr is a little bitch and i dont have the time or energy to expound upon the rest of my argument at the moment. it's probably been examined and analyzed in greater detail by people smarter and far more eloquent than me. but i'll conclude with veronica's reclamation of the red scrunchie at the end of the film. you could choose to interpret this as veronica conceding to the hierarchy even after all she's been through, but i choose to interpret it as a bitter compromise.

(gif by @/nowadayz)

and so it ends the way it begins.

anyways all this to say vote for chansaw in the @redandbluebracket tomorrow or i'll kill you.

ETA: a note to anyone who came to my blog from this post - hi! you don’t have to like chansaw romantically/as a ship. im not expecting to proselytize and convert people en masse (although if you HAVE been converted, welcome). even without the shipping element, i believe that veronica and hc’s dynamic as character foils is the backbone of the narrative, which is why i genuinely think they deserve to win the red and blue bracket. vote here. my name is heather chansaw and i approve this message.

[matan4il]

I was the anti shipper, and yes, just to be very clear, it wasn't homophobia. Yes, I am straight, and I ship both straight and queer couples. It's chemistry. But I am always more confident in straight couples because I know if the fans react, the showrunners will too. See Green Arrow. Not to use the tired catchphrase, but if either of them were women and shared the Ryan and Oliver chemistry, I have no doubt they would have changed it. You know, even if it was supposed to be Taylor and Anna or Shannon end game. That's the part that made me so annoyed.

S2 and S3 you could not go an episode that didn't have some ship worthy content. Then, in S4 and S5, it was the fact that they grew so much more emotionally intimately that they had to pull back being physically affectionate. I often see them compared to McDanno, and to me, it's like no. The difference is McDanno never pulled back or acted weird when in a relationship. They embraced the codependent/buddy cop/bro work husband of it. If anyone currently, they are more like Tim and Lucy in The Rookie.

So yes I was mostly annoyed because I felt like they wouldn't be brave enough to shift the story. I really believe that Buddie is just an important representation. All LBGTQ content is, but theirs is yes a little different when you can explore the ways you come at it, their professions, backgrounds, potential repression, mid life gay panic. And of course their adorable son!

So thanks for understanding my point so well and not assuming I was no homo, you know!!

Lovely, you have nothing to thank me for! I thought your ask was AWESOME, I understood immediately where you were coming from, and it had the exact desired effect, it filled me with joy!

And I agree with you, I’m a hopeless romantic which means even as a kid, I shipped to my heart’s content. I was incapable of watching any show without finding a couple who I loved and cheered for. And without a doubt, even though I pick up on similar chemistry and tropes when I ship opposite sex couples who aren’t together yet as when I ship same sex ones, the former will almost ALWAYS get together (or at least be acknowledged by the show in some way... for example as a one-sided love, it’s happened maybe twice, but it’s still a recognition of what the viewers see), even if they may not be endgame, but the same cannot be said for the latter. So yeah, when I ship two guys who aren’t together canonically, I walk into that with my eyes fully open. And it is frustrating sometimes because of precisely what you point out. If Buck and Eddie were an opposite sex couple and had everything they have now (not just the chemistry, but the build up and intimacy and emotional intensity, plus tropes like the shooting arc at the end of s4), we’d all know it’s just a matter of time before they got together. It wouldn’t even be a question.

I never watched Hawaii 5-0, but I did always assume that the genre dictated that McDanno would never get together, but they would def tease (I hate using this term now since it has become such a dividing term but yeah, I assumed they were queerbaiting) to get that extra slice of viewership from McDanno shippers. So I kind of... am not surprised that they preserved the same kind of dynamic without change throughout the show’s run. Because the only REAL change that they could have provided without losing the shippers is getting them together, right? And like I said, I never thought they would do that.

I don’t watch The Rookie either (listen, there is just TOO MUCH out there, I can’t keep up with everything *sobs*), but I gather Tim and Lucy have gone canon? Semi-canon? IDK, but that’s what gifsets on my dash have led me to believe. But that says it all, if Chenford are that comparable to Buddie!

And once again, fully agreed. Buddie matter so much! In terms of being able to offer us the first REAL mlm slow burn, the fact that they work in such “masculine” professions (break that stereotype even more, 911! I will give you my kidney), their age (coming to realize who they are or how to be in a same sex r/s at a later stage in life), the fact that they’re basically co-parenting (there are not enough mlm couples CHOOSING to raise kids together on our screen), all of it could make Buddie groundbreaking.

Thank you again, it’s been a delight chatting to you! As always, here’s my ask tag. xoxox

[hurlumerlu]

I'm cheating but I actually do want to hear you ramble so for the ship ask: whichever kinnporsche side ship you hate most (I actually can't tell who's who from your gifsets alone so I can't even suggest one)

aljkhjghjghfsdfhjgh okay I'm going for a twofer because you did ask for my rambling (thank you <3). I will also provide links to pictures of them boys, because I can, and hope no one in the kinnporsche fandom shoots me dead for my bad takes

Macau/Porchay :

The scene you started to dislike them in :

They have literally no scene together. None. That wouldn't stop me from liking a pairing and I actually think they could have a really fun relationship, but I just don't get the appeal of a romantic one.

The worst scene of them :

Well I guess you can't have a bad scene if you don't have any scene together, so they win this one.

Something about them that just makes you annoyed :

Porchay's canonical romance is with the youngest son of a ridiculous mafia family, who also moonlights as a heartthrob musician and offers to give Porchay guitar lessons because he's actually investigating Porchay's brother, who is fucking his brother. Porchay being a genuinely adorable dude, heartthrob musician-mafioso (actually a loser) catches feelings, panics, sets fire to the relationship and then cries about it in a public apology song because Porchay blocked his number. Now, I personnally think the whole thing is hilarious, but I get why some people think Porchay deserves better. What I don't get is why "better" is supposedly the other youngest son of the ridiculous mafia family, whith whom he has absolutely nothing in comon apart from going to the same school and having protective older brothers. And I don't think anyone else knows either, because the few Macau/Porchay fics I read always transformed Macau into an unrecognizable soft trauma child to prove he's the better mafia younger sibling. At this point just make your OC, and let Macau be a vengeful brat : he deserves it.

Which one is the worse in the relationship :

Porchay is a frighteningly well adjusted kid with a budding sense for boundaries. Macau throws hissy-fits if you assume he's the son of a maid. One is ready for adult life and romantic relationships. The other ? is not.

If you can see any appeal to why others ship them :

They have the same age ? No, I'm joking. Porchay is a sweet, fun-loving dude who can put his foot down if needed, and I see how people could think that is a good match for the mischievous but troubled and temperamental Macau. Also they could both get so fed up with the mafia bullshit that they burn everything down, which would be nice.

If there is any scene of them that you actually think is ok :

The scene that doesn't exist where they both get so fed up with the mafia bullshit that they burn everything down.

2. Tay/any pair who isn't Time & that guy Tem who everyone likes to think has threesomes with them or at least fucked Time once :

The scene you started to dislike them in :

Well since it's more a concept of pairing than a real pairing, I can't point to a specific scene but let's go with all the scenes where Tay provides gentle love advice to one of our two romantic leads Porsche & Kinn. They're the reason Tay is constantly characterized as the gay best friend in a cast full of gays and also they're boring.

The worst scene of them :

The scene where Tay implies Time is cheating on him/he and Time are on hot waters because now everyone in this fandom wants poor sweet baby Tay to be with someone who will treat him right and therefore ship him with any possible combinations of their favorite characters and I don't know why this is such a problem for me but it is.

Something about them that just makes you annoyed :

This is the most uncharitable read and I'm being an ass but is Tay even a character or just a blank screen for you to project your issues around infidelity on

Which one is the worse in the relationship :

No one because they're all taking such good care of each other and it's the best relationship for poor broken Tay to rebuild his self-esteem and why am I so acrimonious about this

If you can see any appeal to why others ship them :

Tay's not my type but I still have eyes : he's cute. Also I think writing fics to project things onto a character is good and fun, actually. (i am nonetheless irritated)

If there is any scene of them that you actually think is ok :

The moment I read the tags of a fic and see that it's a Tay/someone/someone and I can just go "guess I'll skip that one !" and continue browsing.

Thank you for letting me indulge in this progressively unhinged rant ! it was extremely fun to write.

[tealeavesandthorns]

🦄 🔥 🖼 🛍

MY EXPERIENCE IN THE ROLEPLAYING COMMUNITY * send me a symbol and i'll tell you... - @kingofthewebxxx

🔥 my hot take about the roleplaying community

Okay, I don't think I actually have any hot takes, I have thoughts here and there.... like I wish people would be more honest about stuff. I wish some of the language was simpler because somethings are really confusing to me (probably a tism thing) - like why 'private' blogs advertise themselves in tags. If it says private I assume it means, completely closed off or like invite only or they don't accept random follows. - If it just means mutuals only I don't understand why you wouldn't use that language.

I have thoughts about shipping too - like I'm probably more sensitive to it because I'm an OC. On the one hand I wish people wouldn't assume that all OC's want to romantically ship, there's a lot of characters I'd just love connections with. I also wish I didn't feel so.... like not bad but like a certain type of way about curating shippy stuff, reblogging shippy stuff, making gifsets for ships I don't even have. - I have a lot of conflict about it because I'm trying not to put people off taking a look at my blog, trying not to make people think that the only reason I want to write with them is for a ship when that is far from the case and chemistry is the absolute most important thing to me. I think I just need to think fuck it and do shit anyway.

🦄 the best thing that's happened to me in roleplay this year

I definitely think coming back to Maria, realising how much I missed and loved her. I think being accepted again and finding new connections, reconnecting with old friends. I think those are the best things.

🖼 my favorite types of characters

I'm not going to lie, I think it depends on what I'm reading/feeling like. I love well rounded characters with depth though, or potential depth and I tend to be really attracted to side characters the most in canon.

In terms of playing characters, I adore sort of grumpy cop characters with a heart of gold, that's why in the past I've played Harvey Bullock, Lestrade, Alfred Pennyworth, a couple of OC's. I quite enjoy soft male characters too which is why I've had a couple of male OC's with a similar character type to Archie Hopper.

As far as female characters go, I tend to go for OC's rather than canon quite a lot. I couldn't tell you why because often in RP it's not about shipping them with someone, it's more about exploring characters. I like softer female characters with a strength in them and a tendancy towards kindness - that's what Maria is, it's what Briar was and Charlie. Even characters who are darker, like my vampire OC with Eva Green FC - have a great strength in them without being villainous or OTT. I've only played one or two canon female characters and one of them I had a horrible experience on (Tauriel from The Hobbit).

I LOVE a good dramatic villain, really hamming it up and making it panto. I love playing a mirror/evil version of Maria because that's exactly how I play her, as cartoonish, hack and hamming it up, but also kind of early 00's sexy.

🛍 the one thing i wish all of my followers knew about me

Oh goodness I'm not sure. Okay, maybe, how crippling awkward I feel all the time. How if I don't contact you, or I rarely IM it's not a reflection of how much I enjoy our threads. I just categorically NEVER want to be a bother to anyone. I get very in my head about how I might be misinterpreted or that I'm bothering people with my mere presence, that I'm too much. That I talk too much. So I just keep myself to myself instead. Even when there's gifs/drabbles/ideas/fun stuff I am DYING to share.

[sineala]

How would you say fandom culture has changed over the years? What are some differences you notice between older and younger fandom folks?

I’ve been thinking for a while about how to answer this, and I’m not sure I have a really good answer, but I’m going to try.

I’ve been in fandom since approximately 1995. Maybe 1994. At that point, the world wide web was a relatively new part of the internet, and the fandoms I was in had most of their activity on privately-hosted mailing lists (predating eGroups/OneList/Yahoo Groups) and on Usenet newsgroups, with fiction beginning to be available on websites as part of either fandom-specific or pairing-specific archives as well as authors’ individual pages. Fanfiction.net did not yet exist. LiveJournal did not exist. AO3 definitely did not exist. If you wanted real-time chat, there was IRC. I was coming in basically at the tail end of zine fandom; zines were no longer the only way of distributing fanfiction, as fandom started to move online. So I have a selection of zines from 90s-era Western media fandoms but even by then zines weren’t where I was doing most of my reading.

I think in terms of generally “what it was like to be in fandom,” the big-picture stuff hasn’t changed. Fandom still produces creative fanwork and likes to, y’know, get together and talk about fandom. Also, almost every fight or complaint that fandom has about something is a thing that has been going on for actual years. People complain that, say, the kudos button is ruining comment culture because back in the LJ days the only way you could comment on a story was, well, by leaving an actual comment, or sending an email on a mailing list, and this might mean that people who would have otherwise commented have left a kudos instead. But back in the LJ and mailing list days, people were complaining that commenting was going downhill since the days of zines, when in order to comment on a story you had to write a real paper letter and mail it and because you had to do that, the quality of feedback was so much better than you got nowadays because people could just dash off a quick email or comment. You get the idea. Top/bottom wars are not new either. Pairing wars are not new. If you’ve been in fandom a while, you will pretty much have seen all the fights already. I think one thing that is new, though, is the fandom awareness of things like privilege and intersectionality and various -isms, as well as things like “providing warnings might be nice” (do you know how much unwarned deathfic I have read? a lot!) and I sure won’t say we’re perfect at any of this now, but I think fandom is trying way way more about all that stuff than it used to.

There are some fights we actually don’t have anymore, as far as I can tell. I feel like it’s been years since I’ve seen the “real person fiction is wrong” battle, but also I don’t hang out in a whole lot of RPF fandoms, so it’s possible that’s still going and I just don’t see it.

There also used to be a recurring debate about whether gay relationships that were canonical were slash or not. When slash started, obviously this wasn’t a question because there weren’t canonical gay relationships in fandoms, period. But as gay characters began to appear in media, people started to wonder “does slash mean all same-sex relationships, or does slash mean only non-canonical same-sex relationships?” Now, you may be reading this and think that sounds like an incredibly weird thing to get hung up on, but that’s because what appears to have happened is that the term “ship” (originally from X-Files Mulder/Scully fandom) has, as far as I can tell, come up and eaten most of the rest of the terminology. Now people will just say, “oh, I ship that.” For any pairing, gay or not, canonical or not. Fandom seems to have decided that for the most part it no longer actually needs a term specific to same-sex relationships as a genre.

Similarly, there are a few genres of fic that we used to have also pretty much don’t exist anymore. There are also plenty of genres that are well-entrenched now that are also extremely recent -- A/B/O comes to mind. But there are some kinds of fic we don’t write a lot of now. Like, I haven’t seen smarm in years! I also haven’t seen We’re Not Gay We Just Love Each Other in a while. There was also a particular style of slash writing where you’d basically have to explain, in detail, what made you think that these particular characters could be anything other than straight. You’d have to motivate this decision. You’d have to look at their canonical heterosexual relationships and come up with a way to explain why all those had happened in order to reconcile how this one guy could have romantic feelings for another guy. When had he figured out he wasn’t straight? Who might he have been with before? How does he interact with people in ways that make you think he’s not straight? That kind of thing. You had to, essentially, show your work. And these days a lot of fanfic is just like, “Okay, Captain America is bisexual, let’s go!” It’s... different.

Fandom also used to skew older, is my sense. A lot older. I don’t know, actually, if it really was older, but I get the sense now that there are some younger people who are surprised that adults are still in fandom. I have seen people saying these days that they think they’re too old for fanfiction because they are not in middle school anymore. And I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that the barriers to access fandom are a lot lower than they used to be. You used to basically have to be an adult with disposable income (or know an adult with disposable income who was willing to help you out; but even then if you were reading explicit fiction you also had to swear you were 18+, usually by sending in an age statement to whoever you were buying the zine from or to the mods of the list you wanted to join, so a lot of fandom was very much age-gated). Internet access was not widely available. Even if you had internet access, you maybe didn’t have your own email address, so you couldn’t sign up for mailing lists; free email providers didn’t exist. If you wanted to buy zines, you had to have money to buy them. If you wanted to go to cons, you had to be able to afford the cost of the con, travel to the con, et cetera. If you wanted to have a website you had to know HTML. Social media did not exist. You want to draw art? Guess what, you’re probably drawing it on paper! You might be able to upload a picture to your website if you have a digital camera or a scanner, but both of those things are expensive, and also a lot of people don’t have the capability or the money to download pictures from the internet (some people have data caps with overage charges, and some people have text-only connections!), so they won’t get to see it. Maybe you can sell your piece at a con! You want to make a fanvid? We called them songvids, but, anyway, you know how you’re doing that? You’re going to hook two VCRs together and smash the play and record buttons very fast! If you want anyone else to watch them, you are either making them a tape personally and mailing it to them or bringing your vids to a convention. Maybe you can digitize them and upload them, but it’s going to take people hours to download them!

(Every three hours my ISP would kick me off the internet and I’d have to dial in again. If it was a busy time of day, it might take me 20 or 30 minutes to get a connection again. And that was assuming no one else in the house needed to use the phone line. Imagine if your modem went out every three hours now.)

And now, for the cost of my internet connection, I can read pretty much whatever fanfiction I want, whenever I want it. I can see all the fanart I want! I can watch vids! Podfic exists now! Fanmixes exist! Gifsets and moodboards exist! If I want to write fic I can write it with programs that are completely free, and as soon as I post it everyone in the entire world can read it. If I want to draw or make vids that may require some additional investment, but I may also be able to do it with things I already have. Do you have any idea how good we all have it?

There are a couple of kinds of fan activity that don’t seem to exist anymore, though, and I miss them. I know that roleplaying still goes on, but I feel like these days most people who do real-time text roleplay have switched to things like Discord. I know that in the LJ days, RP communities were popular. But I really miss MU*s (MUDs, MUSHes, MOOs, MUXes..), which were servers for real-time text-based RP with a bunch of... hmm... features to aid RP. There were virtual rooms with text descriptions, and objects in virtual rooms with descriptions, and your character had a description, and they could interact with the objects as well as with other characters, and you could program things to change descriptions or emit various kinds of text or take you to different rooms, and so on. Just to, y’know, enhance the atmosphere. It was fun and it was where I learned to RP and I’m sad they’re pretty much gone now.

I also don’t think I see a lot of fanfiction awards in fandoms. Wonder where they went.

Going back to the previous point, the barriers to actually consuming the canon you are fannish about are way, way, way lower now. You can pretty much take it for granted that if right now someone tells you about a shiny new fandom, there will be a way to read that book or watch that show or movie right now. Possibly for free! Of course you can watch it! Why wouldn’t you be able to?

This was absolutely, absolutely not the case before. I’m currently in Marvel Comics fandom. If there is a comic I want to read, I can read it right now on the internet. I have subscribed to Marvel Unlimited and I can read pretty much every comic that is older than three months old; the newer ones cost extra money. But I can do it all from the comfort of my own home right now. I was also, actually, in Marvel Comics fandom in the nineties. If I wanted to read a comic, I had to go to a comic book store and hope they had it in stock; if they didn’t, I had to try another store. Not a lot of comics were available in trade paperback and they definitely weren’t readable on the internet. I used to read a lot of Gambit h/c fic set after Uncanny X-Men #350. I never found a copy of UXM #350. I still haven’t! But I did eventually read it on Unlimited.

Being in TV show fandoms also had similar challenges. Was the show you were watching still on the air? No? Then you’d better hope you could find it in reruns, or know someone who had tapes of it that they could copy for you, otherwise you weren’t watching that show. It was, I think, pretty common for people to be in fandoms for shows they hadn’t seen, because they had no way to see the show, but they loved all the fanfic. The Sentinel had a whole lot of fans like that, both because I think it took a while for it to end up in reruns and because overseas distribution was probably poor. So you’d get people who read the fic and wrote fic based on the other fic they’d read, which meant that you got massive, massive amounts of fanon appearing that people just assumed was in the show because it was a weirdly specific detail that appeared in someone’s fic once. Like “Jim and Blair’s apartment has a small water heater” (not actually canonical) or “Blair is a vegetarian” (there’s an episode where his mother visits and IIRC cooks him one of his favorite meals, which is beef tongue).

Like, I was in The Professionals fandom for years. I read all the fic. I hadn’t seen the show. As far as I know, it never aired in the US, and it certainly never had any kind of US VHS or DVD release. I’d seen a couple songvids. I eventually saw a couple episodes in maybe 2003, and that was because my dad special-ordered a commercial VHS tape from the UK and paid someone to convert it from PAL to NTSC. I didn’t get to see the whole show until several years later when I got a region-free DVD player someone in fandom sent me burned copies of the UK DVD releases and then I special-ordered the commercial release of the DVDs from the UK myself. But if I were a new fan and wanted to watch Pros right now? It is on YouTube! For free!

I think also one of the things about fandom that’s not immediately evident to new fans is the way in which it is permanent and/or impermanent. There are probably people whose first fannish experience is on Tumblr or who only read fanfic on FFN and who have no idea what they would do if either site, say, just shut down. But if you’ve been in fandom a while, you’ve been through, say, Discord, Tumblr, Twitter, Pillowfort, Imzy, DW, JournalFen, LJ, GeoCities, IRC, mailing lists. And sure, if Tumblr closed, it would be inconvenient. But fandom would pack up and move somewhere else. You would find it again. It would, eventually, be okay. Similarly, if you’ve been in a lot of fandoms, if you’ve made a lot of friends, drifting through fandoms is like that. You’ll make a friend in 1998 because you were in the same fandom, and then you might go your own ways, and ten years later you might be in another fandom with them again! It happens.

But the flip side of that is that I think a lot of older fans have learned not to trust in the permanence of any particular site. If you like a story, you save it as soon as you read it. If you like a piece of art, you save it. If you like a vid, you save it. Because you don’t know when the site it’s on will be gone for good. I have, like, twenty years of lovingly-curated fanfic. And I feel like people who have only been in fandom since AO3 existed might not understand how much AO3 is a game-changer compared to what we had before. It’s a site where you can put your fic up and you don’t have to worry that the webhost is going out of business, or that the site might delete your work because they don’t allow gay fiction or explicit fiction or fiction written in second person or fiction for fandoms where the creator doesn’t like fanfiction, or whatever. Because all of those things have absolutely happened. But, I mean, I still save pretty much everything I like, even on AO3, just in case.

So, basically, yeah, fandom is a whole lot more accessible than it used to be. I think fandom is pretty much still fandom, but it’s a lot easier to get into, and that has made it way more open to people who wouldn’t have been able to be in fandom before. There is so, so much more now than there ever was before, and I think that’s great.

[hopefullystillatheatrestudent]

i'm so excited about you taking asks again ahhhh okay so. if you'd absolutely had to choose. what would be your top 5 cockles moments, and why? thank you ily <3

here’s the thing: there are so many routes i could go down with this, because cockles moments come in all shapes and sizes and formats. these include moments from their panels, their bloopers, the footage we get when they don’t even know they’re being recorded, stories being passed down from photo ops & autographs(one of my personal favorite ways to get cockles, tbh, because they’re all insane), and social media(tweets to each other, instagram posts & comments, etc.). 

SO! since many a list like this has already been made, and i want to stand out from the crowd, what i’m gonna do is definitively give the number one spot to each of these five categories.(i might even throw in honourable mentions because they’re so despicably in love that they warrant that. i really put my whole pussy into this, guys, i hope you’re happy.) 

disclaimer: these are my own personal opinions. but that also means i’m right. so. enjoy. 

number one: top cockles panel moment

so we’re starting off with a bang, because how do you even BEGIN to rank what atrocities jensen and misha commit at jibcon. every single one they’ve had is damning in it’s own right, for different reasons.

however, considering just how much unabashed fuckery they’ve given us to sift through, it’s a good thing i do have a personal favorite despite it all. it’s heartwarming, the sweetest thing i’ve ever seen, AND it’s jarringly cinematic - mainly because it has a whole ass arc to it that was years in the making. it might even be surprising to some people, but my favorite cockles panel moment, and what i consider the one that encompasses their entire gut-wrenching journey from 2008-2013 in the most sweepingly romantic gesture possible, is this one.

i want this burned into my retinas. i am not even joking. when i'm through with my explanation, let me convince you why this is thee most romantic cockles moment of all time.

first, some history: people call this the resume off, but many seem to forget the botched attempt at a resume off a year prior. and yes, you guessed it: it's during their break up. it's a juicy time period for a reason, guys. it came across as exceedingly one-sided and VERY awkward. let me refresh your memory as to just how bad it was, and just how hard jensen was trying and ultimately failing at winning misha over: the funniest part of the whole resume off in 2013??? every joke/bit had literally already been made/done. they were just going through the motions again, but the difference THIS time...is that misha reciprocated jensen's energy. it. is. fascinating. i want to get into it more detail in another post, and i'll link it here when i'm done, but the main takeaway, i think, and the main difference that showcases how much they've grown in a year, is that in jib 3, misha flat out refused to do an accent, and this time around, he indulges jensen for literal minutes. when i tell you they're crazy, they're crazy. i can't wait to actually dive into it later.

ANYWAY, the resume off culminates in this moment here. and, like, a million things happen in this gifset. actually, more like a million and one. the music starts playingneediremindyouthatthesongissingingintherain(h e l p), misha starts dancing, jensen 'perpetually fake grumpy' ackles lets misha think he's not going to join, misha sits down defeated, but no!!! that was jensen's plan all along(look at his stupid fucking smirk) and he offers his arm to his dance partner who immediately grins like a fool, jensen then leads misha into their kick step, they perfectly synchronise and let loose, and are then very clearly having the time of their lives, hanging off of each other with joy and ease. from their expressions alone i can tell that this moment is so. so. so. so! much more than what initially meets the eye. i mean-misha is fighting back the biggest smile i've ever seen. to me, it reads like jensen is offering something to misha, something that misha kind of gave up on expecting, and him offering his arm like that is like, a surprise to him in the best possible way(and it's so not platonic, let me just say that.) as soon as jensen did that, it ushered in a new era of cockles. this panel is jensen and misha's favourite for a reason, and i think this moment is the biggest clue as to why.

whew!!! ok. that took a lot out of me and that was only point one. moving on,

number two: top cockles blooper moment

cockles bloopers hold an extremely special place in my heart, because it shows just how fucking disastrous jensen and misha are. they are so goddamn infatuated with each other that they HOLD UP PRODUCTION ALL THE TIME TO FLIRT WITH EACH OTHER(???). let me repeat. let it sink in. jensen ackles; arguably one of the most professional actors on that show who puts everything he has into each scene, with mountains and mountains of notes to prove it: would rather hold up production to flirt with misha collins. this sounds fake. it's not. he does it. all. the. time. and here's the thing guys!!! i'm gonna let you in on a secret!!! misha loves it. he loveesssss it. on top of that-misha collins: overlooked because he's pranked and people assume he's unprofessional as well, but his only pranks are in retaliation/off-set, and he rarely if EVER causes problems if he can help it....lets himself get carried away when it comes to jensen making kissy faces at him!!! are you actually kidding me!!! i mean. misha. it's just a face. you've seen it a million times. i don't buy that it triggers something in you that strongly....you like it, and you like jensen's reaction. you can't fool me!!! lisa berry's face in that one gifset shows just how fed up the crew is with their gross, coupley boyfriend antics.

i could pull up so many examples. sooooooo many. but my favourite was sealed since the moment i saw it.

i actually already wrote an analysis on it but i can't find it :(((( which SUCKS because i really unpacked the whole thing. i'll try to summarise.

basically, a backstory is part of this too!!! jensen and misha both had a really really hard time with this scene(because it's explicitly romantic there i said it), they sat down for hours and poured over their scripts together, they were super super nervous going into filming, both of them, jensen especially, were super hard on themselves for their performances not being true to their characters but they both complimented the other's work(boyfriend moments fr). so, yeah. they weren't confident going into shooting. and how do they get themselves to feel better???? by cuddling each other, apparently.

a lot. a LOT. happens in this specific blooper. to the point that i saw it years before i knew about cockles and it raised all sorts of flags for me.

1) stop pulling my face towards your crotch(as a thinly veiled request that misha would, in fact, move jensen's face towards his crotch, considering it was jensen moving himself there in the first place. also, why so comfy down there guys???) 2) you're my baby daddy i know(in the most intimate voice i've ever heard please) 3) i know, i know, i love you too i didn't say i love you i know but you wanted to say it etc. misha's right, of course. that's what jensen meant.

it just reeks of comfort, familiarity and intimacy between the two, and it's a moment that is extremely sweet and silly at the same time. they're so <3

number three: top cockles found footage moment

WONDERFUL category. truly the culmination of the cockles experience. many people have said that shipping cockles doesn't work because 'they're just onstage you dummies!! they're playing it up for the audience!!!' here's the thing, love. i could not disagree with you more. once you climb your way up the cockles ladder, you soon learn that they are, in fact, playing their dynamic DOWN, not up. they really are just Like That™, and they could not care less about the paying audience, if we're being honest, considering how much time they take to giggle with each other and refuse to let the audience in on the joke. and i love them for it <3

anyway, my point is that this category is for all you naysayers out there, all you 'jensen and misha's relationship is just for show and is real life queerbaiting'(?????lordhelp???) oh yeah? ok, explain this.

he. he. he calls jensen sweetheart. literally enough said. there's nothing to really add here, except, misha and jared then immediately engage in damage control. jared's method is distraction and misha's is retconning('get out of the car, dude') this was what got me to buy into the cockles dumpster for GOOD good. you don't call your buddy sweetheart accidentally and sound so completely earnest while doing it! especially not when that buddy is jensen ackles!!! you think he would let any of his friends call him that? do you?

one more thing; if it was a slip of the tongue, little mouth thing or whatever, you think jared wouldn't have jumped on it immediately??? i can hear it now. 'did you just call him SWEETHEART???' yeah. that's what i thought. you know why he didn't? because it was too revealing.

number four: top cockles autograph moment

i mean, i think we all know what it's gonna be, and if you don't, well, do i have the piece de cockles resistance that is gonna send you over the edge.

if you haven't heard of this story by now, as a cockles, truther, i'm gonna go ahead and get you to read it, because there is no possible heterosexual explanation for any of it, and you're fooling yourself if you think otherwise.

spoiler alert: it's the story where phones weren't allowed in an auto session, jensen nuzzles himself in misha's hair, leans his full body weight onto him, holds his hand, etc. etc. i'm imploding just repeating this back, actually. also, just, the sheer amount of stories from photo ops where they tackle hug each other or slap each other's asses or sing romantic songs to each other or almost kiss is, frankly, a lot. if i could wish for anything, it would be to witness them in person.

and finally,

number five: top cockles social media moment

this one is super difficult, because there's obviously a lot to choose from. but you know what? full send, i'm going with this one:

i just. what to say about this. how often do misha and jensen watch sunsets together for it to qualify as ‘always’ ??? why are sunsets synonymous with their relationship??? that’s like??? a very romantic thing????? ‘this guy’??? the fact that it’s a CANDID??? i don’t know guys.

that could have been better but i am TIRED so. there you go rose ily

[benoitblanc]

for the ask game, peggy!

favorite thing about them: how REAL she feels. she is a secret agent in the 1940s, but she is SO contradictory and it's so lovely. she curls her hair and punches people in the face and both of these things are true. she laughs and she grieves and she chews with her mouth open. she falls in love. she pushes people away. she knows damn well she is worth something. she blames herself for everything. she is just so messy.

least favorite thing about them: nothing, but hear me out on this one: she is at her core a really fucked up character for a lot of reasons, but as i've said above, that's why i love her so much

favorite line: "you think you know me, but i have never been more than each of you has created. to you, i'm a stray kitten left on your doorstep to be protected. the secretary-turned-damsel-in-distress. the girl on the pedestal, transformed into some daft whore. you're behaving like children, and what's worse, what's far worse, is that this is just shoddy policework. you were inches away from the woman you want when you loaded me into your car. you should be looking for dottie underwood, who by now i assume has shed her alias."

brOTP: EDWIN GODDAMN JARVIS

OTP: *muffled banging on kevin feige's windows* peggysous

nOTP: ...in the sake of not starting ship wars among the mutuals, let's go with peggy/jack. i love their canon dynamic but i'm very glad the writers never went romantic. i don't think that would have worked at all

random headcanon: she and jarvis once broke into the white house. a certain russian assassin and two very alarmed ssr chiefs may or may not have also been involved. who's to say?

unpopular opinion: she is ALWAYS, without fail, MUCH more interesting when steve isn't involved. the season finale of what if felt so much more... right than the pilot, because peggy was just allowed to be peggy

song i associate with them: "dream" by priscilla ahn and unfortunately "viva la vida" by coldplay, the latter of which to the point that there may or may not be an inspired gifset in my queue right now. those are both terribly angsty and i'm sorry

favorite picture of them: this is kind of a copout because it's not just of peggy but i have been waiting for an excuse to post this screengrab from 2.08 for MONTHS:

a. that is without a doubt the best outfit of hers and b. she and daniel have had ENOUGH of jack and it's hysterical. i'm obsessed with their faces. they're SO funny

send a character!!!

[novelconcepts]

(1/4)In one of your tags from the gifsets when Jamie walks into the kitchen and Dani first saw her! I just realized how oblivious until now with that narrative “how the au pair felt when she first saw the young woman” I was even oblivious with the way they look at each other. This is a romantic set up! To be honest, at first I thought they would not get along at first, and will come to parts where they’d start a fight one way or another.

(2/4)And then the part where Jamie asks Owen if he thinks Dani is pretty, the way Owen blushes I swear I thought that Owen and Dani were gonna be a couple!! Thanks goodness Owen answers he’s only got eyes for Hannah!! I mean, I started this show with a blank page without knowing if there’s any lgbtq character (I was hoping since we got Theo from HH)

(3/4)This says so much how we often, in media, being disappointed, being called too much as we read between the chemistry of any interaction of two same sex characters! And here’s in Bly, they set us up with that romantic first not-encounter encounter and we had to step back to see if this is intentional or we’re being reading too much again!

(4/4)And then nine episodes later, we got the most heart wrenching true love story of two women! Masterchef kisses!!! Thank you show! I was starting to root for Dani x Jamie interaction after their 1:1 with Jamie tries to calm Dani. What about you, what moment from the show that got you root for them?

So, here's the thing about me: I will always, always ship the ladies together in a show. And, like you said, I’m very accustomed to being let down when showrunners decide that in order for character to be queer, it has to be saying something. Like, they have an allotment of queerness they have to dole out. And to have a story coming in on the heels of a really successful show where we did have a queer character--and a really well fleshed-out one who never felt like she was gay for gay’s sake, but still, a character in the ensemble rather than The Lead--I felt like...in most other shows, that would have qualified as the “allotment”, as it were. “We already gave you Theo, what more could you ask for?”

So Dani turns up in this show and I think, “Okay, she’s a delightful Midwestern 80s girl with some real trials on her shoulders, she clearly lost someone, let’s see where this goes.” And I honestly didn’t think she was going to be anything onscreen, in terms of romantic story. I sort of assumed that if she had lost someone, the crux of her story was going to be about coping with that loss and moving on. Even when they introduced Owen, I didn’t think, “Oh, okay, here’s the romantic co-lead of the story”; they did a really excellent job of having both parties perform that car ride with platonic care. Like, we have the potential to get along really well, we’re likely going to bond, but there were no long camera shots of one watching the other, no sense that he was going to have interest in her or vice versa. They felt like instant friends. So, I thought, “Okay, cool, she could use some friends, she’s probably still going to just have this arc of coming to terms with losing this person.”

And I didn’t know who she’d lost yet, so I did think it could have been anyone. Brother. Father. Friend. I wasn't sure it would matter, I just figured that was going to be the focus.

And then Jamie walks in. And in retrospect, you’re right: this setup for romance was instant. The introduction, the narrator’s line, the way Dani looks up, the quick glance Jamie gives her before promptly pretending not to notice, all of these are textbook filmmaking tricks to Introduce The Love Interest. And Jamie, naturally, is styled like a classic lesbian in every way, so I thought, “Huh. That’s interesting. But they already gave us Theo last time, so...”

Which is deeply unfair. It’s unfair to the creative team, it’s unfair to the story, it’s unfair to me as a viewer, to have that knee-jerk assumption on my shoulders. And I like to think that Bly surprising me as it did will help me not make that I’ve been burned assumption in the future, because...we really have come a long way. But even so, on this first watch, I thought, “That’s interesting. I could ship it. But I don’t think that's the story they’re going to tell”, because I didn’t yet trust the creative team to prioritize queer relationships on the same level as straight ones. 

Things continue, and we get all the little clues that, in retrospect, are huge: Jamie thinks Dani is “too pretty” and quite frankly can’t shut up about her. Dani physically brightens when Jamie’s in the room. Jamie reassures Dani that she’s doing well, and does so with the gentlest nudge at flirtation, and Dani swivels her whole body to follow Jamie as she leaves, making sure to catch every last glimpse she can before Jamie disappears into the house. And we’re getting these clues from other characters, too, in the way the kids exchange that look when Jamie’s first introduced, in the way Owen constantly looks to Hannah with every indication that he’s not kidding in the least when he says he only has eyes for her. But I still wasn’t...sure I could trust it. 

Which is silly. Because there is nothing, not a single thing, that is subtle about this love story. The music cues, the camera work, the angling of the actresses toward one another in every scene they share. The way Pedretti makes certain Dani looks the easiest in her body and in her smile when it’s Jamie making her laugh. It’s so intentional all the way down, like the entire team was saying, “Here. This is important. This is valuable. And we absolutely refuse to let anyone watch this show and say, oh, we didn’t feel it. It came out of nowhere. Couldn’t they just have been friends?” 

Episode 3 went a long way to hammering it home, of course. Between the conversation on the couch about love and possession, where the silence between them stretches on with a sort of comfortable heat, and the way Dani looks at her--and the camera looks at her--when Jamie is asleep on the couch, and that final moment with the hand grab, I realized they were really going for this thing. And obviously by Episode 4, you’re supposed to know what’s up. The gloves are off, the story is fully tilted in this direction, and I think it was around this point that I started to realize who the narrator probably was. Originally, I think I thought she’d be a very grown up Flora; once I realized Jamie was in fact the Romantic Lead of the piece, I went, “Oh. Ohhhh. Oh shit.”

The moral of the story here is, I trust this team now. I trust them to prioritize queer love with just as much “this is normal, guys, get over it” care as straight relationships. And, frankly, it makes me re-evaluate my opinion of the sexuality tackled in Hill House. The first few times I watched that show, I thought, “God, it’s nice that they gave us Theo. She’s flawed, she’s human, she’s funny, and her being gay is non-negotiable.” Now? Now I watch it and think all of that while also thinking, “You know what? Luke could be queer. His response to Joey all the way through really reads more like a friend who wants to help, with nervous confusion in the event that she nudges too close.” And especially after that interview where Victoria Pedretti said she always assumed Nell was queer, and that her ending up with a man didn’t negate that, it just wasn’t really relevant to parse it all out onscreen, I thought, “You know what? She’s right. There is absolutely nothing stopping that from being true.” And that’s how I’ve approached all media since I was a teenager, fair, but the difference is it feels...like these shows agree. That this is why they didn’t announce the LGBT rep ahead of time. That it’s not gonna be “gay for gay’s sake”, that it’s not going to be for drama or to cause a ruckus, but that these stories say, “Hey. This is a real thing. Love looks like this, too. Here: watch this beautiful, poignant, heartbreaking story of two women who love each other more than anything in the world. Watch it, and understand that they are so normal, and that them being gay changes nothing about how they live out their story together.” And I love that. 

[mearcatsreturns]

Im all for Abby and luka, but that clip from the season 9 ep where he’s drunk, is going through shit, and clearly overstepped and touched her when he shouldn’t , should not be in the same realm of all the other consensual stuff

Normally I’d delete this ask and move on, because I try not to answer anons that are Trying to Start Shit. But you’ve caught me in a mood, so congratulations!

I assume this is in response to me reblogging my Luby gifset that has that scene. First of all, I worked hard on that set and I’m proud of it. But you are under no obligation to engage with my content. You can block that post if it bothers you (seriously, the postblock extension on xkit is amazing), or if you realize that I’m going to create a lot of content for my OTP and reblog even more, you are welcome to unfollow me.

Now, to your point: that’s bullshit. You’re obviously free to interpret that scene in that way, but it’s a very narrow interpretation. I clearly interpret it differently. Obviously he’s an idiot in season 9 and all over the place; the narrative is clear about that and I don’t dispute it. But to say Luka touching Abby on the arm is non-consensual? Was Abby kissing him in the ambulance bay in 7.03 non-consensual? She was upset and in a bad place, she didn’t know if he was single, etc. But no, no one thinks that, because that’s absolute shit. If you follow that logic, making any sort of romantic (or even friendly affectionate) overture would be non-consensual. It’s great when people and characters ask if they can kiss another person or character! But...that hardly ever happens on TV, especially ER. 

That brings me to the next issue. ER is FULL of moments like that. Lots of characters overstep boundaries. The narrative rarely addresses that. And fandom is hella selective about it. IMO, one of the most egregious violations of boundaries is Sandy outing Kerry at work. It was both dangerous for Kerry and not Sandy’s place. But does fandom talk about that much? No. Or how about when Mark BROKE THE LAW and found Jeanie’s confidential medical records? Are you going into other people’s inboxes going off about every time someone overstepped boundaries? Probably not. Which makes me question the “I’m all for Abby and Luka” bit of your ask. 

Listen, you don’t need to like them! No one is obligated to like a thing! However, one of the things I’ve noticed as the fandom on tumblr has grown is how myopic it is. I invite everyone to ask themselves why they like the things and characters they like. If, without fail, you stan white, American characters and either ignore or hate on non-American and non-white characters, I truly urge you to examine that. I’m not going to make any assumptions about anyone based on character and trope preferences, because I know very few of you in a personal way. That said, I’ve absolutely noticed how little love the characters who aren’t white get relative to even, say, Romano (who is canonically a misogynist, racist, and homophobe). Peter gets the most love, and even then he seems to usually appear in fandom to orbit Twink John Carter. 

As a final point (for now), I question why you actually came into my inbox with this. You know I ship Luka/Abby, it’s not some big secret. I’m not going to agree with you on that, and I doubt I’ll change your mind. I might have been more amenable to a discussion if you hadn’t come on anon. But when you hide behind anon and have no skin in  the game, it’s clear you’re just fishing for trouble. As I said, I normally delete asks like that. This isn’t my first fandom rodeo, but for a long time, the ER fandom didn’t have anon asshats pulling this. I will absolutely turn off anon if I get more asks in this vein. I behave courteously in fandom (I tag well, don’t put hate in pro tags, and I don’t send anons), and I expect the same respect. So truly, if you--or anyone--want to have a discussion about consent in fandom, feel free to send me a message off anon or in DMs. But I’m a big fan of curating my fandom experience, so I will delete and block any further anons trying to start shit.

[if-music-be-the-food-of-love]

Im gonna start watching Merlin, any reccomendations before I do? or something you want to say lol

Ooooooh, THAT’S SO EXCITING!!!! ✨💕✨💕✨💕✨💕 I am so happy for you bc it’s just so much fun. I love it love it love it!! I’ve been wanting to do a rewatch since I finished it. Please drop in and tell me what you think about it!! I’d love to hear your thoughts as you go. 💕💕💕

Honestly, the biggest thing about the show for me is that it’s straight up bi panic. Everyone is beautiful, like stunning. Every character is fun and interesting. They’re all incredible--even the ones you’re not supposed to root for or are only in one episode. I love them all so much. Every. Character. I read fics first (bc one of my favorite skam writers had written several, and I read them ALL), and when I found out that a lot of the characters had only been in one episode, I was shocked. They’re that iconic. (ngl, I suppressed my sexuality as a teen, and this show woke all that up. Nimueh had me thinking, and then Morgause’s entrance left me speechless. I was like, “yup, definitely bi, haha.” BBC Merlin was my bi awakening, lol). Gwen is lovely, just so kind and yet so feisty and determined. She’s basically the moral compass for everyone. Obviously I have a big thing for Merlin. He’s an adorkable badass. Arthur is just the greatest, most lovable dumbass, who is also a badass. The knights, oh man, the knights (most don’t show up til season 3 😕). I love them individually, and then when they get together and give each other shit...perfection. Gwaine. I adore Gwaine, and his hair, and blase attitude, tho he’s so loyal. Love how the knights all pick on him.  Elyan is the best swordsman, love him. Leon the long suffering. Poetry? hahahahahaha. Then of course there’s Morgana and Morgause, who are amazing and powerful and total badasses. I haven’t listed everyone, but trust me, I love them too.

Recommendations? I dunno. It’s campy and hilarious and sweet and thoughtful. You’ll have all the big emotions. Just keep an open mind, forget all the history you’ve ever learned, forget what you’ve read/learned about the legends and stories, and just sit back and have fun. I knew the ending before I started, but I actually prefer that with tv shows (never books or movies, tho, hmmm--i think it’s the time commitment required; i wanna be sure it’s worth it or whatever), so it wasn’t a big deal for me. I don’t know if it would be better not to, tho if you’re interested in watching the show bc you’ve seen 100 gifsets that make it look AWESOME, then you probably have an inkling as to how it goes. I started watching it bc of merthur, and I’d avoided it for YEARS bc I didn’t want to get involved in a non-canon ship (and knew that I would if I watched it), BUT I finally gave in after seeing too many gifsets and edits, and I’m so glad I did. Their relationship is so fun and nuanced and interesting, and what’s fun about merthur is that they have this relationship completely separate from everyone else. So, you can still love Gwen and root for her while also shipping merthur (believe me, it’s impossible to not love Gwen). The show isn’t perfect. Sometimes the character development disappears from one episode to another, and the CGI in season 1 can be hilarious. But I don’t watch it for that. I fell in love with the characters and their journey. Cool side note: the cast also shipped merthur, especially the Morgana and Gwen actors. The episode commentary is fun, and there are a few deleted scenes (that ppl assume were cut bc they were too blatantly romantic over platonic). It’s very interesting to watch the behind the scenes stuff. 

So, much like 911, I got pulled into the show bc of a ship that ppl wouldn’t stop talking about, and ended up falling in love with every single character along the way and just loving the show in general. I’m as invested in Morgana, Gwen, and Lancelot as I am with Arthur and Merlin (tho it should come as no surprise that Merlin is my favorite). And what’s really great is that the fandom is still alive and well a decade later. Fics, fanart, everything.

I hope you enjoy the show!!!! 💖💖💖 And thank you for asking me about it. As you probably know, I’m rather verbose, so I am happy to talk your ear off about it. Please please please let me know what you think, and I really hope you like it as much as I do. Have a lovely day and enjoy!!!

[cinematicnomad]

tagged by @tylerhunklin​ to answer these buddie questions 🥰

001. what was your first ever buddie post? my first buddie post was reblogging this gifset of buck crying out for chris during the tsunami eps and eddie during eddie begins! looks like i reblogged it on june 9th around 1AM and it was my second ever 911 post on my blog 

002. who was the first buddie blog you followed 😬😬 oh i don’t know?? it looks like a lot of my early reblogs were from @daily911 and @spenserclay so probably one of those two! also technically i found out about the show and ship from @tattooedsiren who has been a mutual of mine for almost a decade now 

003. who is your favourite buddie blog? how can i pick?? 

004. what was the first fic you bookmarked? i don’t bookmark fics, sorry! i remember when i first started reading fics i went searching for tsunami fics specifically 

005. what is your favourite oneshot? i’m not sure if this counts bc it’s part of the evolution of buddie series, but @marvelingjules‘ fic bittersweet triumph is one of my top tier faves!! it’s the entry where eddie’s parents come to town and they assume buck and eddie are dating and take issue with it and things come to blow

006. what is your favourite multi-chapter fic? @bibuddie‘s fic series the things we lost in the fire!! 200k+ spread across 2 fics and over 30 chapters dealing with buck’s childhood trauma, his relationship with his parents, and his growing feelings for eddie. it is So Good and i am working myself up to a re-read sometime soon. 

007. what is your favourite ‘established’ fic? honestly, i don’t read a lot of established fics (mainly bc my favorite part in fanfic is reading about a couple Getting Together) but i absolutely love @woodchoc-magnum‘s fic series you can tell everybody this is your song!! TECHNICALLY it’s not fully established bc the first fic does cover them getting together but like ... it’s a 330k+ series and part 1 is only 18k so i am saying it counts and that is my final answer. 

008. what is your favourite ‘getting together’ fic? i absolutely adore @sevensoulmates‘ fic don’t take my sunshine away—does that count as a getting together fic? i mean they Get Together but there are definitely other things happening in the fic. whatever, that’s the answer i’m going with!! 

009. if buddie went canon, how do you think it would happen? i meeeeeean i try not to get my hopes up too much so i don’t tend to think about how it would work out in canon, but i figure if it DID one of them would start dating a girl and the other would get jealous bc suddenly the other is busy all the time and preoccupied with someone else and not understand where all that jealousy is coming from until they have their big Epiphany Moment. and then eventually they’d have a great dramatic confession and a kiss and it would be peak content but AGAIN i’ll take what i can get tbh

010. what are your top 4 headcanons for buddie? a.) buck fell in love with eddie in 3.03 when he said there was no one else he trusted with chirs more b.) eddie doesn’t have any sexual/romantic experience with guys (buck def does) but he is aware of his attraction to men. he’s just never acted on it  c.) eddie has definitely given a copy of his house key to buck d.) buck is on the list of approved guardians/adults to contact/people allowed to pick him up for chris at his school 

i’ll tag @crazyassmurdererwall, @woodchoc-magnum, @bibuddie, and anyone else who wants to do this

[konstantya]

Frankenstein’s Meme - Day 22 & 23

(Full list of questions at the bottom, under the cut.  Previous answers can be found here.)

22.  Name a character that you’d like to have for a friend.

Probably Hungary from Hetalia.  Most of the time my favorite characters are the type(s) I’d want to steer clear of IRL (because they’re fucked-up assholes and/or because I would just find their personalities unbearable), but I actually think she and I would get on pretty well!

23.  Your rarest fandoms.

I’m assuming this means my smallest, most obscure fandoms?  Without a doubt it would be This Gun For Hire, and I guess Black Angel and Catherine and the Pirate, too, as I am the sole fic writer out there for all of them.  (Though TGFH, as a result of it being well-known in the noir/classic film communities, at least has its fans and people making gifsets.  Black Angel also has its fans and a few gifsets, but it’s definitely more obscure.  And fucking no one knows about CatP, save for the few reviewers on Goodreads who read it as a kid, pfft.)

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(Originally posted by trobadora, on DW.)

1. What’s changed about your fandom life in the last 365 days? 2. Your newest fandom. 3. You’ve got your OTP, you have to throw a third into the mix (from the same fandom), creating an OT3. Who is the OTP, and in your opinion, why would they make a perfect third for them? 4. What are the origins of your penname/username? 5. What’s a fandom that you wish had a bigger following? 6. What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom? What fandom was it? Not necessarily your oldest fandom, but a fandom that you started and still continue to read/write/create content for in some way. 7. What would make you leave a fandom, or prevent you from getting into it in the first place? 8. Squicks - What are some things that squick you in fandom - not necessarily “icky”, though it can be. From anything involving blood, to bad grammar. 9. What’s the hardest thing about writing, and why are titles the Worst™? 10. Do you have a fandom that you follow - either regularly or casually - with little to no knowledge of canon? 11. Ships that you currently like a lot. (They don’t have to be OTPs because not everyone has OTPs.) Friendships, pairings, threesomes, etc. are allowed. 12. A ship you have never liked and probably never will. 13. Do you prefer art, fic, or vids? Why? Bonus: If someone was to give you a fandom gift, what format would it be? 14. A pairing – platonic, romantic or sexual – that you initially didn’t consider, but someone changed your mind. 15. What was the first thing you ever contributed to a fandom? 16. Do you remember your first OTP? Who was in it? 17. What is your favourite source text for fandom stuff (e.g., TV shows, movies, books, anime, Western animation, etc.)? 18. How many fandoms have you written for? How many have you been in, and how many are you still in? 19. Has social media caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why? 20. What fandom broke your heart? 21. Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves. (Characters you’re neutral about are fair game, as are characters you dislike or even loathe.) 22. Name a character that you’d like to have for a friend. 23. Your rarest fandoms. 24. A fandom you’ve abandoned and why. 25. Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending? 26. A trope which you are virtually certain to love in any fandom. 27. A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom. 28. How did you first get into fanfic, and what was the first fandom you wrote fic for? 29. Have you ever tried to write for a fandom or ship, and found you couldn’t? 30. Name three things you wish you saw more of in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

[zaritarazi]

002 with mixen <3

002 | send me a ship and I will tell you:

when i started shipping it: okay so i went deep into my archives and i found my first mixen gifset, here, from october 26, 2016. it is then followed by this gifset from october 28, 2016, a complete stroke of genius i’d forgotten about. and HERE is the first post i made about them while watching legends, also from october 28th, 2016. i’m assuming that the clip of her trying to kill him was released as a preview which is why the gifset predates the text post. so then in november 2016 is good it’s not really ramped up yet and then we get the chicago way and that, in a lot of ways, changed my life? for the better? unclear. am i being sarcastic? also unclear. there’s just so much about it that did me in. first the “i’m clyde that’s bonnie” because s3 of dusk had JUST ended and that was a RAW fucking nerve. just the exact shit i was looking for. the scene where mick puts his finger to his lips while looking at amaya’s mouth and you just know he’s internally like i am... going to hell. i am GOING to hell. amaya kissing him on the CHEEK? [mick’s certainty of going to hell intensifies] and the real piece de resistance was len descending from the ceiling shrieking in gay rage like. that’s what really solidified mick’s relationship with amaya to me: he was willing to defend her to literally, literally his husband. he says amaya is his ONLY friend because leonard is GONE, implying that amaya is len’s EQUAL in mick’s eyes. mick is a complex character and he’s actually very sensitive but when we had him in season 1, he came as a packaged set with len. and he grew and formed new relationships and listen we all know i can and will ship mick with anyone dominic purcell this is a threat but amaya is, in canon, not just implied by dominic’s choices for the character, the time where mick is declaring his affection for someone out loud. and i also want to reflect on like. leonard, be he real or be he a figment of mick’s mind, despite being WILDLY jealous of amaya, had one goal in that episode: to keep mick alive. like mick was so reckless in season two and with amaya he seems to finally almost want to... pull back? he tells leonard “i’ll be dead like you” which says he isn’t objecting to the idea of being dead, but that amaya is giving him something that makes life exciting, and he’d rather have that than fall into his old self-preservation instincts. you can MARK that mick starts trying to die less after the chicago way until len comes back in the world war i episode.  like i guess i started shipping mixen when they became the epitome of “god said love your enemy so i obeyed her and i loved myself” are you HAPPY? is this what you WANTED? 

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my thoughts: you accidentally had a baby with him. i am the reason he is able to feel love. we are not the same

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what makes me happy about them: as much as i’ve focused on amaya’s positive impact on mick i want to emphasize that this is a two way street because mick is someone who taught amaya to embrace herself and what makes her happy. amaya has so much pressure riding on her shoulders and mick is never deterred by it. amaya has always been brilliant beautiful incredible etc but when we first meet her in s2 she is so tightly wound and she is so in the mold of what she thinks she needs to be and what she thinks the legacy of the anansi totem requires of her and when she’s around mick she realizes she can be... amaya. just amaya. like did she say to mick “what would a criminal do” because she was being horny on main? yes. but she also did it because she was genuinely open to learning how he saw the world. like it’s truly incredible that amaya meets mick and in the span of 30 minutes is like actually, mick is the most interesting and enticing person i have ever met and  [mick’s certainty of going to hell intensifies] but actually there are just little things they do even when they don’t like each other that show a certain level of respect- mick tells amaya he’s not an idiot and amaya tells him not to call her “girlie” so amaya actually spends the rest of their relationship uplifting mick’s ideas and his accomplishments and mick POINTEDLY never gives amaya a nickname. the nickname one is especially funny bc i geniunely think she just didn’t like “girlie” and may have been fine with a different nickname but like. the fact that mick remembers to NOT give her a nickname EVER when everyone else gets one? the way he paid attention to amaya and respected what she was saying? the way they could be open with each other? like okay they weren’t canon-canon but a part of me is glad bc. this ship was originally marc’s idea and what is legends s2 if not phil and marc fighting for control of the story like the one ring? if marc had been allowed to make them romantic i fear he would’ve done his normal bullshit that he does with his couples where basically mick never changes in a positive way and keeps chipping away at parts of amaya until she feels like she is at “his level” and then he essentially takes over the rest of the parts of her life he hadn’t already taken control of and just, disgusting. like let me be clear on mick rory’s worst day he is still a better person than oliver queen on his best day i don’t care if he’s roasting people alive he is STILL a better person. but with that relationship choice being taken out of marc’s hands, we instead get a relationship where amaya offers mick the starting blocks to build himself UP, and he takes them and is able to keep building himself even without fully relying on her. when he tells her in season 3 “we’ve all done things we’re not proud of” and she just brightens so immediately, and the same thing happens in the pirate episode - and he is able to do these things for her because he let her help him, but did not make her his only lifeline. the person mick is in s3 onward is a person he feels better about being because amaya has always seen good in him and like. not to be dramatic but i am literally, literally crumbling into ash as we speak

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what makes me sad about them: FROM SEASON 4 ONWARD SHE ISN’T THERE ANYMORE AND MICK IS JUST LEFT WITH ALL THE FUCKING EMOTIONS SHE MADE HIM FEEL AND THE WAYS SHE HELPED HIM AND ALL HE CAN DO IS TRY TO KEEP HER ALIVE, IN HIS MIND AT LEAST, BY HELPING PEOPLE (CHARLIE AND MONA) THE WAY AMAYA HELPED HIM. 

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things done in fanfic that annoys me: i have no issue with mixen being in fic with OTHER ships but to my fucking detriment it always seems to be a secondary pairing in captain canary fics and like 1. hate crime 2. mick is a bisexual he can have a husband and a wife he can have them at the same time he can have them at separate times but if you’re writing capcan i’m assuming you have a heterosexual agenda and i want that kept away from ships i like at ALL times

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things I look for in fanfic: a genuine understanding of mick’s character. he can be kind of tricky to strike a balance with but you can just tell when he’s being written too aggressively or when he’s being written just as too much of a bastard or a former criminal and like, i also look for amaya not being helpless and emotional bc quite frankly mick is way more expressive emotionally than amaya and it is so vital that this is understood. also if it’s sad i like to read it and then cry myself to sleep

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who i’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: OKAY FINE nate for either. nate for both! final ot3 of nate/amaya/mick is good, pure, canon supported, and legally required. but also amaya with zari 1.0 and mick with ray or, honestly? zari 2.0. DON’T @ ME

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My happily ever after for them: they just get to like. live life together. mick takes in ese as one of his own and amaya does the same for lita and they have a 3rd child together that’s in the bible look it up but like. not giving up the time traveling life and the heroics and the adventures fully but being a family even when their kids grow up and they can be old together even if it’s them popping on and off the waverider sometimes together sometimes they do their own thing always put the kids first and sure mick has 22 wonderful years on amaya but he’s on a timeship he can wait for her to catch up so they can get old-old together. also nate is there romantically, sexually, raising the children, let’s have mick and nate make a fourth child, this is absolutely non-negotiable

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who is the big spoon/little spoon: amaya is AGGRESSIVELY the little spoon. like flinging herself into mick’s arms and like HOLD ME and mick just reflexively wrapping his arms around her bc she small. sof. smells nice. pretty

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what is their favorite non-sexual activity: amaya like why be having not-sex when you could be having sex? and mick like i don’t know. sleeping? photography? long drives? (it’s long drives & going to museums don’t @ me)

[jeonjk0504]

hello mo~ do you ever get the sense that people ‘undermine’ or under appreciate  tk’s friendship? I adore all of the boys and their relationships, but i feel like people don’t appreciate their dynamic (as friends) as much/at all (on tumblr anyway). idk maybe they are here I'm just not following enough ppl lol but I barely see posts or gifsets these days... I know i shouldn’t let it bother me, I just wish people valued their bond more. Maybe they aren’t perceived as open or loud as others, but I still think they’re endearing and genuine with each other. I guess the bottom line is I'm a little tired of them being passed off as ‘awkward’ or weird. It’s like people forget that we see just a tiny fraction of their lives... Sorry didn’t mean to rant x_x tldr; tk are endearing and I love their friendship and wish more ppl here did too 💜

Hey there!! :)

Interesting topic! This is just my personal view but i agree that there has been sort of a shift and a lot of (newer) armys either ignore TK or they talk down on their bond. I have a feeling though, a lot of it is due to their huge shipping fanbase and the fights with other fandoms. Taekook has always been huge and is sometimes like Army in comparison to other fandoms. When for example simple interactions pull huge numbers, i know that a lot of non-shipper get confused about the amount and it leaves the impression that people are overreacting because of small things.

Also well known accounts like tk-lives on youtube make a lot of people uncomfortable and associate TK shipper with them, (because they have a large following, so people assume that almost everyone supports her analysis videos or her view on Taehyungs and Jungkooks relationship.) I will use this occasion to distance myself from this youtuber explicitly. She is completely ignoring boundaries on various levels, and i don‘t think it‘s fun or something that should be supported.

So, when people talk about Taekook, they quickly get the impression it‘s about the ship, because TKer are quite big in numbers and vocal in defending and supporting them. Which is kind of sad because if we talk about VMin we could mean either the friendship or the ship and nobody cares. I also think, a lot of new Armys really need to watch original content more and not only get their infos from insta or fb from other Armys. Because mindless comments can quickly turn into false rumors just because nobody cared to check or see for themselves. (This is where this really strange perception of TK being awkward comes from.)

I do think though, that a lot of people still love and care about Taekooks friendship and bond, they will simply support them silently as to not feel associated with the ship on a romantic level. :)

I would love to hear others opinions though, because as i said this is just my personal impression and others may see different reasons or no change at all.

Thank you for ranting to me! 💜 i get new followers every day, so i will continue to believe that day by day more people feel enchanted by them! 🥰

[firelxdykatara]

Hi! I follow you mostly for your zutara content and I noticed you also ship captain swan! I'm assuming you aren't as active in the ouat fandom as you are atla, but i'm curious why you ship captain swan and what your thoughts are on anti-cs arguments since from the ones I've seen, they seem to be somewhat similar to anti-kataang arguments. thanks for the great content! :)

oh god, this ask sent me on such an emotional journey. (and thank you, by the way! i’m glad you like my content <333)

ouat ended before i lost my old blog in the purge, and i’d stopped watching after season 6 ended to begin with, but my old blog was restored (like eight months later which is why i never really went back to it) so if you want to check out my ouat tags over on @thepinkrvnger i was. very active in the ouat fandom for a very long time. (relevant tags are my captain swan tag, though you’d have to dig past gifsets and things to get to any meta, and also my anti swan queen and anti swanfire tags [there was a lot of bad blood in the ouat fandom and lordy did i have Many Opinions])

it’s been so long i can’t really. say for sure anymore, but i was definitely among the first wave of captain swan shippers. like many of us, i started shipping it almost as soon as killian was introduced in season 2, and it was that infamous episode with the beanstalk that really cemented my love for the ship--and, aside from emma herself, captain swan was one of the few things that kept me watching when the show’s writing quality took a steep nosedive.

uh. anyway. to actually answer your question, honestly? i’d need some specific examples, because i can’t think of any anti cs arguments that remotely resemble anti kataang arguments, in large part because there are no similarities between them. in fact, captain swan is much more similar to zutara--enemies-to-friends-to-lovers, complete with a season 2 betrayal following an emotional connection when they were isolated from their respective groups (actually if i really thought about it i could probably make a connection between emma’s connection with killian at the top of the beanstalk and katara’s connection with zuko in the crystal caverns beneath ba sing se; it wouldn’t line up perfectly but there are thematic similarities there which are actually pretty damn juicy now that i'm mentally putting the two scenes side-by-side), and the entire show basically setting them up with parallels and narrative symbolism, killian’s redemption arc being second to none (seriously, much as i love zuko’s, his is not the only way to have a redemption, and kiliian is an excellent example of a true villain redemption done right--interestingly, the other attempted redemption arcs in ouat were piss poor, which makes me think they used up all the good writing for killian’s, but that’s another rant altogether), and emma being the driving force in her own romantic narrative the entire way through their relationship arc.

one of the biggest anti kataang arguments, for me, has always been katara’s lack of agency in her own romantic narrative--and this absolutely does not apply to captain swan. killian falls in love with her first, but emma is the one making every choice--to save him, to trust him, to include him in her family. a lot of killian’s redemption is wrapped up in his feelings for emma, but she doesn’t change him--while it is his growing love for her that, in the beginning, makes him want to be a better man, he still makes every choice to be better on his own. he feels remorse for his bad actions and he does what he can to make amends to his victims, where possible. the show keeps bringing up new, horrible things killian did in his past, but unlike when it does this with regina, he always feels remorse, and he is always the one trying to make up for the bad he did, rather than being painted as a victim (the most egregious example of this is during the camelot arc, where regina is attacked by a man whose entire family she brutally slaughtered--not only does she not give a shit, but she’s painted as the victim throughout the entire interaction).

it does help that emma is the central character of the series. we are privy to her thoughts and emotions, and she’s never presented to killian like some sort of trophy or prize for Doing Good--there is a moment where he kisses her without her consent, but a) the situations are entirely different, and b) they don’t get together Right Away (in fact, iirc, it takes the entire rest of the season for them to actually get together, and there is a lot that happens in between), and emma’s feelings are the most prominent at every stage of their developing relationship.

i’m actually really interested in knowing which arguments exactly you mean, because i can’t think of a single argument against kataang that would apply to captain swan in even the flimsiest respect. they are entirely different relationship dynamics that come from very different places and have entirely different journeys, and, as i pointed out, if captain swan parallels any atla ship i think it’d be zutara more than any other. so if you can think of examples, please send them to me, i’m curious!