#have you read this yaoi poll

[borrelia]

Sonic Old Man Yaoi/Old Woman Yuri Knockout

TWO pairings with the LEAST votes will be eliminated

Intros to each pairing below

Gerald Robotnik was Eggman's grandfather, introduced in Sonic Adventure 2. He made a false deal with Black Doom to create Shadow the Hedgehog in exchange for the Chaos Emeralds, making them both Shadow's dads. They definitely banged and had some kind of toxic mess of a relationship.

Grimer Wormtongue is a nasty little assistant to Ivo Robotnik in Fleetway Sonic the Comic. He is extremely devoted to his cruel master, which is for sure a sexual thing.

Ebony the Mystic Mog and Pyjamas the Psychic are two characters from Sonic the Comic who appear briefly in a Knuckles story, then become minor recurring characters that take in Super Sonic from the streets. They appear as old friends in their introduction and are implied to live together. If these two aren't married, it's only because Mobius is homophobic.

Blockhead Bill is Mighty's dad in Sonic the Comic. He is a very confused old man who convinces his posh "business associate" Society Max to assist him in taking down his nemesis the Crimson Cobra. This involves Max eating a magic mandrake root and becoming a giant dinosaur, which Bill rides around to cause destruction. idk about you but I'd only let someone do that to me if they were my funny little lover.

Mephiles the Dark and Iblis are two halves of the sun/time god Solaris, introduced in Sonic '06. Iblis is kind of just a big fire monster I think but Mephiles orchestrates this whole plot through the course of the game to re-merge with Iblis and form Solaris. Which sounds like some pretty twisted villainous gay devotion to me.

Ixis Naugus and Ian St. John are characters from the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comics. Naugus is some kind of evil wizard who enlists the help of Geoffrey St. John, Ian's son, with plot things. I can't decipher Archie plots sorry. When Naugus first contacts Geoffrey, he expects him to be his father Ian. From @mischeva: "why are you wanting to talk to geoffrey’s dad? hm naugus? kinda….kinda interesting." Image also provided by mischeva, ty :)

Starline and Eggman were allowed in by popular vote, mostly by Eggman's qualifying age. Dr. Starline is a character from the IDW Sonic the Hedgehog comic. He is a fanboy and devotee of Eggman, restoring Eggman's lost memories and assisting him in his Metal Virus plot. Starline eventually plots to betray Eggman, as he believes himself smarter and more genre-savvy than his idol. He is of course wrong and Eggman beats the shit out of him and kills him to death. Starline is sort of like gen z's Grimer, kind of the tumblr sexyman dark academia Grimer, in that he's younger and prettier than Grimer, but he probably still wants to fuck that old man so bad.

[spockoholic]

So I finally read the MDZS novels, and mhmmmmm, the reason that WangXian slaps especially hard for me, personally, is that it’s just Kirk/Spock with a different salad dressing.

The ship dynamic is essentially the same, you have a class clown and Flirt that is also The Best at Everything and Knows It (WWX & Kirk) and an ascetic angsty mommas boy with Big Feelings that he can’t deal with so is instead simply A Stone Cold Bitch (LWJ/Spock).

when i was reading the novels I was just like… this feels like a convoluted K/S AU, it was like deja vu. Anyways, I get why the girlies like it lol

[littencloud9]

.

[shoebillstork]

Mutual 1: (An extremely extensive post detailing their trauma on their secret blog)

Mutual 1: (A picture of the soup they finished making) Eeatting penis soup grab a bowl

Mutual 2: (Cropped batman yaoi) This scene was so compelling in the comics qnd established so much for Bruce Waynes character as a bottom

Mutual 3: Just updated my comic (it is one of the most compelling pieces of narrative youve ever read. Its based off of a bad game)

Mutual 4: Ngl this omegaverse gacha life youtube video is more compelling than most shows i watch

Mutual 5: Finally cocking out i swear if one more thing happens today i will snap

Mutual 6: PENIS TYPO

Mutual 7: PENIS TYPO

Mutual 8: PENIS TYPO

Mutual 9: This yak tranquilizer weak af

Mutual 10: Come make my sinister potion (posts how to make a pipebomb)

Mutual 11: Do i get plastic surgery and change my name and move to a different country y/n (poll is in favor of yes by a huge margin)

Mutual 12: Mutual 13 is a lying fucking piece of trash and i think they should drop dead. They live at 308 Negra Aroya Lane, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87104 and im going to record me beating the shit out of them

Mutual 13: Aww my bestie is coming to visit me soon :]

(Mutual 12 and 13 are dating)

Mutual 14: who tf does she think she is (posts a sc of mutual 8 from three url changes ago. It is mutual 8 saying theyre going to the park)

Mutual 15: So in my latest session in dnd we rolled 1d12 for dick size and i rolled a nat 20 and idk what to do with this reponsibility now

Mutual 16: he looks so good im going to scream (a screenshot where said character is so far in the background he doesnt even have a face)

Mutual 17: eho up thinking about the moral dillemma presented in pokemon go

Mutual 18: take a look at my ocs :D (mona lisa if dhe was gay)

Mutual 19: i hadba really good day today i got to spend some time bonding with my entire family and we got to celebrate something we havent had the time for in 37 years

Mutual 20: (reblogging mutual 19) L + Don't care + 632146K~P PRC, dl.2146K~P, 5K > 2146K~P, 5K > JF 2146K~P, 2H, WS ([4]6H->P), 623H

Mutual 21: (Blurry photo of them running from police) they're after me for my stash kf yaoi cocaine

Mutual 22: (Miles long RP chain they started 2 months ago. You have post notification on for them because its awesome)

Mutual 23: Discussing the morality of liking bananas over mangoes

Mutuals 24 ans 25: having a dramatic wedding where theyre acting as a crack ship. They're on the verge of divorce

Mutual 26: She winding onbmy waker (is in the middle of intense controversy)

Mutual 27: (Callout for mutual 26)

Mutual 28: If Mutual 17 asked i would give them a sloppy toppy

Mutual 29: Anon get out of my inbox before j block you his ass is NOT flat. (His ass is fucking concave)

Mutual 30: Shes just like me fr (a picture kf a shopping cart)

[gayelderstourney]

OLD MAN YAOI/OLD WOMAN YURI TOURNAMENT

Do you love old man yaoi? Old woman yuri? Do you want to see your favorite old man yaoi and old woman yuri couples fight each other? to the death? Well here we are now.

(Btw we only do real gay elders here we are NOT calling dudes in their 30s old man yaoi. more info is in the form and under the read more)

This is my third time running a tournament; I also did @worstcharacterpoll and @youngersiblingstournament & both times i have gained more insight on how to run these properly LOL

well anyway ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS NOW vvv

submissions will close Jul 19 at 8:00 pm CST/Jul 20 at 1:00 UTC

Guidelines and stuff is below, but it's copy pasted in the submission form. Also please submit yuri

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES (Please read):

No real people even if it's really funny

No characters based on real people

Couples must be gay; if one of them is canonically nonbinary though, they will be allowed

No incest or abusive ships

I'll be vetting source material on a case-by-case basis, but just so we're clear I'm not putting Harry Potter or OFMD in the poll

There will be a maximum of one ship per source material in the poll. You can submit multiple ships from the same material, but only one will be allowed if it gets in

AGE GUIDELINES SECTION (because I keep seeing people use the term "old man yaoi" for couples in their 30s or even 20s):

THESE GO FOR BOTH PARTIES IN THE RELATIONSHIP

Human characters with a canon age must be at least 50. This also goes for characters that aren't human but age at the same rate as humans. Please double-check your characters' ages before you submit to save me some headache

If they don't have a canon age, they must look elderly.

No characters that have been de-aged (ex. Purah from Zelda).

For nonhuman characters that age at a different rate than humans: they must be old for their species (ex. Ravenpaw and Barley from Warrior Cats; Ravenpaw is the younger one, and is around the same age as Graystripe, who becomes old enough to retire as an elder).

For immortals/characters with very very long lifespans, they must look old (ex. Gandalf from Lord of the Rings would count; Hythlodaeus from Final Fantasy XIV would not).

Couples that will already be in the poll, so you don't need to submit them:

Fiddleford McGucket/Stanford Pines (Gravity Falls)

Hanayo Nishida/Yoshiko Dojima (Hanamonogatari)

Ravenpaw/Barley (Warriors)

Eda Clawthorne/Raine Whispers (The Owl House)

Couples already under consideration, but will depend on the other submissions if they get in the poll or not; you may submit your support for them if you want to see them:

Walter White/Mike Ehrmantraut (Breaking Bad) (keep in mind this one is mostly a joke)

Ms. Bitters/Countess von Verminstrassen (Invader Zim) (minor characters but I invented this one and I'm partial to it)

The Once-ler/The Lorax (Lorax 2012)

[badass-queer-couples-battle]

Propaganda:

For Orufrey: "They're tragic wlw who have devoted their lives to each other since they were kids. They live together, they cook together, they're raising four girls together and they're doing the best they can. Olruggio would do anything for Qifrey if Qifrey would just Let Him 😭 but Qifrey is dead-set on protecting Olruggio and keeping him safe and in the dark no matter what it costs... i cant 😭..."

"Man I don't know they just have the vibes. They have toxic yuri energy but they are two grown men. They've known each other since their apprentice days and have stuck together ever since. Qifrey's main magic type was something he took up because Olruggio proposed that he learned to control the water he feared. They live together away from most of society with Qifrey's four apprentices, living the sapphic cottagecore (ateliercore???) dream. Qifrey, due to the fact that his eyesight is very much failing, something which is very problematic when it comes to witches, who need their eyesight more than most, is getting very desperate to get all he lost to the Brimhats, the witches who took one of his eyes and his memories, and Olruggio ends up noticing this pursuit and is implied to have done this more than once. Qifrey does not want Olruggio to know about both his failing eyesight and his goals, so he ends up completely wiping Olruggio's memory of those things, and laments that Olruggio is a kind person, and one who would most likely forgive him again, but also one who would try to save him, even when he didn't want to be saved. He also apologized right up until the moment Olruggio's memories of his secret were gone. In general I think chapter 40 is the somewhat toxic guy yuri chapter ever. I'm very tired so I do not know how to explain any of this, I just thought "wow Orufrey reminds me of this one poll I saw on Tumblr" and then spent three days straight hunting for your blog before completely forgetting my reasoning for Orufrey being yuri right before I submitted this."

For Joongdok: "Well first of all Yoo Joonghyuk has a whole arc that is transfem coded as hell (has a power/technique that can technically only be used by women but somehow he can also use it, for a time he even turns into a woman to wield it and it's. Actually just let me get the quote "The ines of the face had changed but it was clearly Yoo Joonghyuk. No, it was even more than before.") that just kinda happens,, and doesn't get brought up again but anyway. Second of all just look at them. You see the vision. Also a bonus observation is that these two often get shipped in a poly ship with Han Sooyoung and whenever I see people make a "regular couple, yaoi couple, yuri couple, I see no difference love is love" meme with them the combination of which pair among these three is which of the categories is always different"

Note: This submission also mentions Han Sooyoung, but I decided to count this polyship submission as guy yuri as well.

"They love each other, they pretend they don't care for each other but all their actions prove they care too much, if you remove someone from the trio then the resulting duo is extremely dysfunctional, as evidenced by more than a million words of canon. Is it technically guy yuri? Well, Han Sooyoung is a woman, but in a way she's one of the guys. Kim Dokja and Yoo Joonghyuk are men, but the text heavily hints that Yoo Joonghyuk is a trans woman who's just too busy and stressed out to transition yet, and Kim Dokja has just never thought about his own gender a single day in his life. They made the world for each other, they went back in time countless times and waged countless wars for each other, they wrote and read and lived a story, their story, for each other and that's what saved them all. The way Han Sooyoung writes Yoo Joonghyuk's story to save Kim Dokja and loses herself in the process, the way Yoo Joonghyuk voluntarily lives the story to the point of losing himself too and even forgetting why he originally decided to do it, the way Kim Dokja read Han Sooyoung's story which was Yoo Joonghyuk's life and that's how he found himself, they all took so much from each other and gave so much of themselves to each other, this is all very yuri."

"they're so yuri you have no idea. they have every staple of a yuri ship. unwavering devotion. waiting dozens or thousands of years for each other. dooming themselves and the world for each other. so much yearning. i also see them genderbent a lot (including inn canon in the case of yjh) and they're right both of these people are women. i genuinely can't even see them strictly as men at this point they're just yjh and kdj and they are yuri do you understand."

"they're so yuri. the abscense of yuri is the presence of yuri etc etc. these two guys are all ABOUT abscenses. also one of them is a part time woman. the other guy is a guy but like in the same way a square is a rectangle. anyway they're so guyyuri to me. bonus points also because they have a mutual girlfriend and when she's present they're girlyaoi but that's not relevant to this specifically"

[mlmshipbracket]

ROUND 1: POLL #51

ROUND 1 POLLS [HERE]

PROPAGANDA BELOW

Craig Cuttlefish/Octavio Takowasa:

they are literally the most divorced old man yaoi to have ever divorced old man yaoi-ed (emphasis on old, they are both over 100).

Sean/White:

Two bisexual anarchists. One of them is pretending to be his twin brother who is in a coma and the other is very confused why the asshole leader of their anarchist biker gang is suddenly acting very different and he's now very attracted to him. They're literally dismantling corrupt capitalist systems while finding time to make out in between. be gay do crimes anti-establishment version.

[luztoyeweek]

Luztoye Week 2024 - Final Curtain Call!

Resources:

What to do before the week begins

How to add to an Ao3 collection

Further questions

IMPORTANT: Read through this post to find all information on:

Grace Periods

Fanfiction

Edits, Art, Fanvideos, and More

Official Luztoyeweek Releases

GRACE PERIOD: Monday, July 15 to Sunday, July 28

I mentioned this in the official Luztoye Week 2024 post, but it was easy to miss!!

If there are any fics/edits/works that you wanted to add to Luztoye Week 2024 officially, you still have time to and have it be reblogged and added to the fic collection and edits rec list before our official recap on Sunday, July 29th <3.

Although all day-by-day prompts were to follow a traditional appreciation week, I know that life gets in the way of war yaoi sometimes (tragic, I know), and creating this week, I wanted it to be open to everyone that it possibly could be from the start <3.

To participate, just keep tagging all participations with #luztoyeweek2024!

FANFICTION

I'll (@blood-mocha-latte) be working steadily through all fics posted to the Ao3 collections tag and tagged with #luztoyeweek2024 and leaving comments on each one -- you all deserve it! Once I finish that, I'll compile fic recs sorted by day.

Since this will take longer, all works from both the week and grace period will be recced together.

EDITS, ART, FANVIDEOS, AND MORE

All non-fic creators (edits, art, fanvideos, etc.) will receive in-depth comments as well, no creator left behind! At the end of the official week, all work artists will be tagged and their work linked in thanks, go and give them appreciation!

This will be two separate posts: one for works posted during the actual week, and one during the grace period.

OFFICIAL LUZTOYEWEEK RELEASES

Soon after July 14, I'll release the official Luztoye Week 2024 playlist -- which will be all songs suggested to the week form.

On July 17, a poll of mysterious nature will be submitted, and I heartily suggest that everyone vote in it, as it's very important in nature ;).

[yugiohz]

I love Bakugou, easily in my top 5 anime characters, but ever since he came back from the "dead" I have been getting annoyed by him.

I understand that he's conlisinsantly at #1 in the popularity polls, but that's no excuse to constantly bend backwards to ensure he gets portrayed in a positive light and the final arc was full of that.

Its not his fault ofc he's just a fictional character, but everytime I think about how much panel-time was unnecessarlyy wasted on him and how it could have went to other characters that needed it more or plot-lines that could have saved the ending of the manga I just...........like sometimes catering to fans who only care about one character/one ship isn't a good idea.

all offense but this is a bit silly and all offense AGAIN but whenever you guys complain about bakugo "taking away" other characters' space, i am genuinely wondering which characters you guys are thinking of, like sorry but we don't need more of mirio or kota or eri or mina or invisible girl and such, bakugo is the deuteragonist of bnha so idk why y'all think he's taking up too much space ("wasting...) when this is his coming of age story!! deku's growth is linked to bakugo's they are a duo, so please spare meeeeeeeee

i think a lot of readers turn on important and good characters because y'all like to root for underdogs or sth

and i can say a lot about horikoshi, but one thing about him, he does notttt cater to the shippers (y'all haven't seen real yaoi bait i fear), if you read bnha in one go , you can tell that he had a very specifics story to tell about his duo and he stuck to it. i don't think it's his fault that they got so popular, and the fact that bakugo happens to be very popular (a menace i know) does not negate the fact that he's one of bnha's strongest narrative tools, so tbh this kind of hate always feels forced to me

stories are not talent shows where everyone should get a chance to shine; bakugo is a protagonist, so obviously horikoshi is gonna devote more attention to him i really don't understand the issue tbh

[danmei-in-polls]

Submissions Open masterpost

blue for tournaments that haven't been updated in a while, and it's unclear when or if they will be ran

Characters:

Autism swag summit (new!)

Autistic headcanon bracket

Best regressor tournament

Bisexual swag competition (new!)

Character most screwed by writers

Characters who need to be put in the incinerator suggested: old palace master (svsss)

Characters with numbers in their names suggested: shen jiu, yue qingyuan, six balls (svsss), jing beiyuan (qi ye)

Cringefail biromantic poll

Disabled Characters Showdown confirmed: wen kexing (tian ya ke, shan he ling), zhou zishu (shan he ling) suggested: hua cheng (tgcf), zhou zishu (tian ya ke), cui buqu (wushuang), xiao xingchen (mdzs), xue xian (tqks)

Favorite disabled webnovel character suggested: see the list for "Disabled Characters Showdown" above

Favorite webnovel men

Feral MILFs

Fuckable faves

Guy followed around by a Voice

Guys you'd call mommy suggested: shen qingqiu (svsss)

Hidden webnovel character tournament (wn character tournament with voting based solely on ganda)

Hot moms in media

I'd call her sir (horny)

Lied on their resume tournament

Modern webnovel character

Most attractive fucked-up character

Most feral webnovel character (new!)

Most Meaningless Character Death

Pure Beef Bean (as opposed to smol bean)

Queer-coded characters

Revived revenge (characters who were murdered, came back to life, and took revenge)

Smartest webnovel character

Trans webnovel character

Transmigration destination protagonists' showdown confirmed: luo binghe (svsss), baili qingmiao (dvawtk)

Ultimate bottom

Ultimate top

Women with big dicks / BDE suggested: su xiyan (svsss)

Couples / ships:

Fucked-up ships

Toxic Old Men Yaoi

Webnovel rarepair

Groups:

Other:

Anything from any webnovel

Best book to movie adaptation (TV shows included)

Best gothic horror/gothic romance

Leverage teams tournament

Misogynistic Media Tournament

Queer shows and movies (i asked, censored bl goes!)

Webnovel monster (non-humanoid)

Not tournaments:

Are they queer? (similar to 'could x have saved them' blogs)

Are they queerplatonic?

Can they lift Thor's hammer? Could they wield Mjolnir? (different blog with same/similar theme)

Could aromanticism save them?

Could fatness have saved them?

Could lesbianism save them?

Could polyamory have saved them?

Could they assemble IKEA furniture?

Could transition have saved her? (for potential transfems)

Could transition have saved them?

Could transition save him?

Could being trans save them? Did transitioning save them? (different blog with same/similar theme) Are they trans? (different blog with same/similar theme)

Do you know this ADHD character?

Do you know this autistic character?

Do you know this baby?

Do you know this disabled LGBTQ+ character?

Do you know this stuttering character?

Do you ship this queer ship?

Have you read this webnovel?

Is your blorbo neurodivergent?

Is this character aroacespec?

Should they be emancipated? (freed from their parents)

Should they divorce?

The Babygirl Polls

Throuple or love triangle?

Webnovel tournaments suggestions

Would gay sex fix them? (temporarily closed)

Would being different gender affect their popularity?

Would it fix them?

Would you date this character?

Would you punt them into the sun?

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 2

Propaganda under the cut

Lois Lane

She's Superman's girlfriend/wife (depending on the continuity you're reading) and while she's generally well loved, some fans, for the sake of shipping Supes with Batman, will either a) completely ignore her existence or b) perform character assassination on her for the sake of their ship by making her shrill, unlikable, and downright abusive.

pretty self explanatory, you've probably heard of her! generally hated on because she gets 'in the way' of popular superman ships, like superbat, supercorp, etc etc

She’s one of the first female characters to be introduced in comics ever and she’s been ignored for years by fandom because of Superbat fans.

Relena Peacecraft

She made the mistake of having a crush on the serial killer/child soldier lead character, and also wearing pink. Like, she's one of the OG characters to have a "-bashing" tag on FFN and then AO3. The other half of the yaoi pair was a boy with a butt-length braid, a fake American name, and a priest outfit. Poor Ms Peacecraft never stood a chance.

Relena is a very competent and accomplished character with her own plot lines and goals in a series full of complicated political and military upheavals. The main characters are 5 teenage boys who pilot Gundams, and each boy has at least one potential female love interest counterpart (all of whom are interesting characters in their own right). Relena is the counterpart to the main pilot, Heero. Her importance to Heero and the story is substantial enough that yaoi shippers often feel the need to kill her off specifically, while other female characters get to play the roll of supportive fujoshi friend to the yaoi ships instead. The hate for Relena was truly vitriolic in the height of the yaoi fandom in the mid 90s/early 00s, so much so that the memories of her tortures live on in my memory to this day…

she suffers the indignity of being an implied LI in the most fujobait season of gundam ever and for that she had to die (in fanfiction) just look at any 1x2x1 fic on any platform, be it ffn or private website or anywhere, she gets vilainized to hell and back, if relena does not win this fuckign poll i'm goign to jump off a bridge she was villainised SO FUCKING HARD have you ever tried looking for any 1x2 fic that doesn't have relena bashing. it's impossible. she deserves a hefty victim's compensation from Big Yaoi is all i'm saying.

[runningheadless]

Hi Internet stranger! I am late and just found out about the sulemio beating destiel poll post, but can't find the post. Would you happen to have the link?

Ngl I really want to read the meltdown people have on destiel losing because 1) Yuri beating yaoi and 3 seeing how many claims it's because g witch was recent not knowing it started before American TV even had lengthy stories to tell on TV. Thank you for the time whatever the response is.

Sure thing! This is the post by OP and if you like I have a list of my personal favorite additions. Don't worry btw, you're not late! There's plenty of time for the finale to end, I think it has about 4 days left. Keeping up on the notes like listening to sports commentators has helped to remind my partner and me to touch grass lol.

white? and... male

stonks and trauma

broke containment

new meme format cw illustrated blood

number comparisons

There's plenty more and I hope you have a great time scrolling through the many notes! When the poll is over we should all hold a funeral for the end of the reign of terror.

[klanced]

mx katie klanced are we voting voltron straight through in the worst fandom poll or genshin. your troops await

i am so sad i missed this poll. i am now going to hold you all hostage and force you to read my outrage. i know this ship sailed literally two weeks ago but LISTEN TO ME!!!!!

anyway i cannot BELIEVE that voltron lost to south park. the category was "most annoying fandom." this is distinctly different than "most annoying show" or "worst show," and it is NOT synonymous with "most unhinged fans." okay? for this poll, what matters is the group character and cultural staying power of the fandom that organized around the show.

an annoying fandom must be:

incredibly vocal and prominent, to the point that even the most reluctant and detached layperson still has some vague idea of the fandom's biggest discourse/fights, usually entirely against their will; and

annoying, in the sense that the fandom's presence (or even a mere reference to their presence) is enough to actively disrupt or impede one's ability to enjoy online internet spaces; and

the fandom is annoying BECAUSE of the source material in question.

point 1 is fairly subjective, as it's all based on one's own experience or perception of a show's cultural diffusion across the broader public consciousness. so i weigh it less heavily when ranking how annoying a show is.

for point 2 i would argue that south park is annoying, and south park fans are annoying, but the south park fandom itself is NOT as annoying (i.e., the fandom is the least annoying aspect of south park). this is because i firmly believe you can differentiate between south park fans versus the south park fandom.

[[actually if i can be frank -- does south park actually have an organized fandom? obviously they have fans, i have seen them in the twitter wilds (usually in the context of out-of-context incredibly well-developed yaoi art/content of? 10 year olds ?????????). but is there actually a cohesive fandom that routinely interacts and develops concepts together? is there a collective identity ??????? my gut reaction is no, but this is very much an online space i don't enter, so what do i know? i also have no idea what that fandom can even talk about, other than the yaoi (although you could easily say this to the voltron fandom as well). whatever, for this argument i will presuppose that there IS a organized south park fandom with a fairly coherent and cohesive identity.]]

anyway, what i wanted to highlight is that there are certainly incredibly annoying individual south park fans who are outrageous, vulgar, and vile. so you would think that, if you put all these annoying individuals into a single collective, that single group would have skyrocketing amounts of annoyingness. but that doesn't seem to happen. i cannot recall any specific complaints about the south park fandom; personal stories involving individual south park fans, sure, but what does the fandom actually do on a broad scale?? if there is any sort of discourse or mobilization, it seems to be fairly contained and localized.

so how can a collective fandom somehow be less annoying than its individual parts? this brings me to point three: an annoying fandom MUST be annoying BECAUSE of its source material. and this does not apply in the south park fandom's case.

to qualify as an annoying fandom, it is not enough to be a group of annoying fans loosely connected by a shared interest; rather, the source material ITSELF must be the inciting incident that galvanizes the group to organize and THEN become annoying.

is the south park fandom annoying? to some extent yes, of course. but i would argue that the south park fandom is annoying, not specifically because of the show in question, but rather because the fandom is comprised of persons who were already predisposed to being annoying, regardless of whether or not they had ever watched south park. this is a subtle but incredibly important distinction.

south park's vulgar and vile humor certainly enables its most annoying fans, but the continued annoying activities of said fans are NOT dependent on the show's existence. a shithead south park fan was always going to be a shithead, now they just have cartman to idolize.

i have spent a lot of time talking about south park. let us now move on to voltron and the voltron fandom.

in contrast to south park, the voltron fandom qualifies as an annoying fandom because its annoying activities were entirely dependent on the existence of voltron the show. would individual voltron fans still have been annoying even if they had never stumbled upon voltron? of course. but the voltron fandom was an organized collective of people that specifically came together to BE ANNOYING ABOUT VOLTRON. and then they made it everyone else's problem.

the voltron fandom was like an ouroboros devouring its own tail; a symbol of infinity, referencing the literally never-ending fighting; and it survived entirely by maiming and cannibalizing itself. the voltron fandom actively ruined every online space it entered. i saw the greatest minds of my generation destroyed by voltron.

honestly, i would argue that the voltron fandom's impact has completely altered the way online fandom functions to this day. the voltron fandom capitalized on the momentum started by the steven universe fandom and other early 2010s online fandoms, and spawned an entire new flavor of fandom discourse that was obsessed with morality and virtue. truthfully, it feels disingenuous to frame what happened as something innocuous as "fandom discourse"; it almost feels like a disservice to the levels of personal faith, passion, and vitriol people poured into voltron. the terms "pro-shipping" and "anti-shipping" have been around for ages, but the voltron fandom turned "pro" and "anti" into genuine identity markers.

this post is already way too insane so i need to quit while i'm ahead. but i would just like to conclude by reiterating that south park has annoying fans but not necessarily an annoying fandom, whereas the voltron fandom was annoying specifically BECAUSE it was the voltron fandom. i think the south park fandom could dissolve tomorrow and assimilate into other similar fandoms without a problem. whereas the voltron fandom was like lightning in a bottle; the activities of the voltron fandom are quintessentially wrapped up in the specific details, characteristics, and attributes of voltron. if voltron's characters or story was even slightly different -- if, say, every character was a college-student for example -- then the nature and activities of the fandom would have been irrevocably different.

and that is why voltron is the more annoying fandom and SHOULD HAVE SWEPT SOUTH PARK IN THE POLL.

[lesbocs]

ROUND 3 POLL 2

VINCENT "VINCE" GREAVES (she/him/it) (@wrathfish) & DONNIE (she/her) (@corvusossifragus)

"Vince is a genderfucked butch lesbian vampire from a fictional vampire tv show. She starts off as a villain with an overly homoerotic rival/enemy to the protagonist (who she's a little obsessed with). I like to call their whole deal toxic butch lesbian yaoi. Over the course of the show, she gets a redemption arc and eventually just becomes the protag's stray cat wifeguy." you can learn more about it here!

"Well firstly she's tall and really strong and hot and gnc af also. She is her setting's equivalent of a vampire, that might sway someone to vote for her. Her two biggest hobbies are hunting and fishing, she's an adept fighter with and without her knife, and though she can't read well she's fluent in two languages and can carry basic conversation in two more. She has a violent streak, is very impulsive, and is often rude and inconsiderate towards others, but she is very family-oriented and when she deems someone family she will do anything to keep them safe and fed. She is very confident in herself, but she doesn't buy into the "chosen one" type story being fed to her. She ignores every step of the hero's journey and returns to an unchanged home, instead having spent the story changing those around her (usually for the better, but, well…)" you can learn more about her here!

🧡💛🤍💗💖

REAH (she/her) (@sev-wildfang)

"Not only does Reah beat up homophobes and transphobes for a living, she also literally astral projected out of her body to protect her femme once. It cost her an arm but not her charm. She ran away from a Church orphanage at age 12, she's Lucifer's personal chosen, she's 7ft tall (not counting the horns), she radiates warmth, and speaks with the drawl of a corn-fed southern gentlebutch. Let her into your heart or she might cry."

you can learn more about her here!

[myfaveisfuckable]

Rants!

Dante/Raiden: This ship comes from the 2006 Playstation Magazine (PSM) issue 110 endpage drawn by comic artist Adam Warren (most known for his comic Empowered) depicting the hypothetical timeline where the PSM swimsuit special is replaced with a 600 page erotic “Dante/Raiden slash fanfiction.” In this panel Dante’s DMC2 design is shown above Raiden’s MGS2 design (notably the most hated versions of these characters at the time, though considering Warren’s feelings towards Dante and Raiden, this pairing was most likely shown to baffle the reader with a well beloved charactered and a much hated character doing something “humiliating” aka. participating in homosexuality). Dante says “Why can’t I quit yew,” a reference to brokeback mountain, and Raiden says “Please be gentle… like snake”

Obviously this panel is meant to be a joke at the expense of both women who write fanfiction, and gay people, made more clear by the second appearance of “Raidante” in Warren’s work, in which Dante is reading yaoi fanfic and remarks “As if I’d settle for someone as lame as Raiden if I was gay!” However, likely because he has never played Metal Gear, Warren fails to consider the thematic implications of this pairing, considering the narratives of each character.

Dante is a demi-human, ashamed of his demon heritage but forced to reconcile with it. To cope with this, he adopts the persona of a “badass devil hunter with a devil may care attitude” as a form of escapism. Because he cannot accept his nature, nor can he come to terms with his past trauma of demons killing his close ones, he remains in stasis and cannot form deep connections with others.

Raiden is human by nature, but was robbed of his flesh by the patriots. Raised a child soldier, he is emotionally stunted and has very little personality to call his own, resorting to grasping at the persona of “Solid Snake” and tacking on his mannerisms to fill what gaps are left in his development. Even after starting a new after the big shell incident, he relapses again into the ego-less being he was at the age of 10, proclaiming himself a weapon and throwing himself at danger and death in the belief that it’s his purpose.

Both of these people are fundamentally unable to connect with others, breaking all of their connections and distancing themselves both out of fear of getting hurt and genuine inability to retain relationships. They use violence and self sacrifice as substitute for meaning in their life, and degrade themselves to that of a sword. Then, when meeting someone who they recognize all their behaviors in, what would happen? Do their own tactics of isolation work on themselves? Do they cancel out, or override each other?

Adam Warren is too much of a coward to explore this concept in a 600 page fanfic, so I will.

Atsushi/Yanagida: I know this is wild since they are both like nothing background characters but they’re so important to me. The essence of crackship/rarepair. I hc them as having dated because they’re both lgbt but they had a really bad break up so they hate each other’s guts now. Where am I getting this? From my brain. They’re basically like my OCs to me. I want to go on about it but I realize I’d have to explain a lot to you since I don’t think you know the source… So sorry…

[tabby-shieldmaiden]

Reading through the propaganda on the victims of yaoi and the canon misogyny polls is harrowing in the sense that like. Firstly, the fact that we have this many characters spread out throughout multiple pieces of media to have the polls in the first place is bad enough (and I know that this isn't even all of it, or even possibly the worst of these phenomenons). But even besides that, when you read the propaganda I am struck by how similar all of it sounds after a while.

"This character was viciously hated on by the fanbase for being an emotional teenage girl." "This girl was set up as someone cool and promptly got ignored by the writers/fandom in order for them to focus on the development of male characters." "This woman chronically gets sexually assaulted for a joke." "This woman of colour was thrown under the bus in favour of a white m/m ship." "This girl's only purpose is to prop up the male characters at the expense of her own development." "This woman's contributions to the story were all for naught and she ultimately was there to play damsel or die developing someone else." "Here's an awful racially charged portrayal." "Here's a blatantly transmisogynistic writing decision." "Here's a story where all women except for some special girl who is different from the others are all either cruel, idiots, or cruel idiots." "Here's a girl who just... kind of exists I guess? What did they even do with her?"

So much of it is all like that. Bad enough that when people talk about 'media and fandoms treating female characters poorly', it seems like almost every one has some sort of story to tell. But when you really look at it from a big picture perspective, so much of it is so banal. It would be bad too if it was all "interesting", don't get me wrong. But perhaps it does say something about the nature of oppressive systems if so much of it ends up looking so nauseatingly cookie cutter.