#i have too many problematic characters i would die for

[jolynesmom]

aging yourself up or down in your dr (+ dating)

I actually refrained from talking on this topic on my tiktok since I knew I was going to get chased off the app and didn’t see a point in talking about it on tumblr since everybody here seems to be more open minded and mind their own business, until I saw multiple posts a few days ago here, where the op were shaming people for changing their age or changing the ages of people in their dr

those people definitely came from tiktok and I honestly hope this post reaches them as I didn’t want to directly interact with them

I think one of the posts was about how adults age ‘minors’ in their dr to date them is problematic, which made me laugh, because how is it problematic if they’re both the same age in their dr?

and the sad thing about that post is that the op said that they’re aware how shifting works and all that, but still finds it problematic and hopes people that do that never shift which is just… girly I hope YOU never shift because you don’t deserve it for shaming people trying to live their lives

I’m not going to go into details about the og posts, but they still have the outdated idea that if you shift for a character that is much younger than you here it’s ‘problematic’. once again: how is it problematic if you’re the same age in your dr?

and then they hit you with another outdated take ‘it’s problematic because you find them attractive here’ which is ridiculous because of so many reasons

1.many characters (especially anime characters) don’t act or look their age. if your perceived a character as an adult initially then found out they’re a minor, I simply don’t care. ages in fiction never matter, if your mind perceived x as a certain age then they’re that age idc; 99.99% people are attracted to a character for who they are, not their age

2.many people had crushes on characters when they were younger or the same age with that character and still like them. let’s boo them that their crush on the character didn’t die and their fav character didn’t age, acting like you’re not going to be in their place in a few years

‘not true I’ll stop liking my favorite character when I’m of age 😡’

okay sweetie keep telling yourself that, because I keep seeing people on tiktok that had this mentality: they liked an underage character when they were minors and wanted to shift for them, now they’re adults, haven’t shifted yet but STILL like that character and regret having said they’re gonna stop liking that character when they’re adults because it didn’t happen lol

3.people don’t always script that an underage person here will be their s/o, it just might happen. I’m actually going to use myself as an example for this: so here I’m an adult and I’m also aroace which I dislike because I always dreamed of a fantasy novel like romantic relationship, so I’m straight or bi in most of my drs so I can date. in my jujutsu kaisen dr, all the people in jujutsu tech are adults because I don’t like teens or kids and don’t wanna hangout with them. in my 30+ drs I only have 3 scripted s/os which are all adults here. I didn’t script an s/o for my jjk dr, because I want to focus more on friendships and training there (but secretly hoped choso would pick me, a girl can dream ok); a few weeks ago I channeled multiple people from my dr (yuuji, megumi, nobara, gojo, nanami and geto) and I received normal messages from all of them. I expected all of their answers, except yuuji’s answers which had romantic aspects to them. that made me realize that he might have a crush on me and maybe we’ll even date in my dr or something? who knows, I didn’t think too much about it so idk

so now if a character that’s underage here likes me in my dr, am I supposed to refuse them or shift out? lmao you’re delusional if you think I’m doing that

4.people that have never experienced adolescence love here. a lot of people dreamed of having that sweet experience of teenage romance that disney and an insane amount of shows and movies love to push, but instead their teen years were filled with abuse and hate. why shouldn’t they shift to experience what was taken from them here?

ALSO let’s switch this around: why is okay for minors to date adults in their dr, but not the other way around?

‘it’s not as bad 🤓☝🏻’

imma be the devil’s advocate and say it’s just as bad

do you genuinely think it’s okay to be a minor here and date an adult in your dr? like do you really think your s/o would feel comfortable being sexualized by a minor and dating a person that’s a minor in another reality? you lowkey forced your partner to become a pedo if you think about it 🙁 /jk

and also if you shift to a reality where you’re a minor and become of age there, you’re officially an adult and shouldn’t date minors anymore, even in your ‘original reality’ where you’re still a minor. please keep the same standards for yourself

[pippin-katz]

Alright before anyone asks me:

yes I’m aware Taylor used an AI app/filter thing

no I don’t like that he used it

yes it’s a little problematic that he used it

no he did not violate the strike by using it

yes I have seen the tiktok of those two white bitches demanding queer roles only be played by queer characters

yes they are completely fucking stupid and hypocritical

The SAG strike is fighting against the use of AI to write scripts, create footage, recreate their likeness and voice to steal their identity, and all that fantastic bullshit.

The AI app Taylor used has nothing to do with that.

If the app’s algorithm was trained by photos and artwork that the developers had permission and consent to use, it would be completely fine.

However, 99.9% of them do not have permission. That is also an important AI issue, but it is not the same as what the SAG strike is about. It’s not great that he used it, but he did not do anything wrong regarding the strike.

Also, I’d like to point out that most people are unaware of the theft that goes on behind the scenes. It may seem obvious to people like me, an artist, or people who spend a lot of time on the internet looking at art, but most ordinary people who hop on something like TikTok and use an AI filter are not aware of the thievery that is taking place.

It is not impossible that he isn’t familiar with this issue either, especially given how much he seems to travel, and his attention being on sustainability, specifically in the fashion/clothing industry. He’s busy doing stuff in real life. He’s also a bit of a bookworm, so he’s probably not on the internet nearly as much as people like us.

Is it still bad that he used it? Yes, but it is not something to freak out over. Inform him of the problem and move on.

As for the bitches, I would probably punch the one with braces in the face if I was put in a room with them. They had the gall to complain about Love, Simon being “too happy”, citing how miserable queer people are and how we’re scared to come out of the closet, right after demanding all queer characters be played by queer actors.

Please let this idea DIE. It does far more harm than the good people have in mind.

The idea is that it would get more queer actors hired and more representation overall and whatnot, but if you actually stop to fucking think about it, it is completely stupid.

1. Sexuality is an invisible trait. Anyone can identify as anything simply by saying it.

2. Any queer actor would have to out themselves just to play a queer character on a screen.

3. Actors do not owe the public details about their personal life and identity.

4. Stop assuming everyone is straight until said otherwise. It’s heteronormative and harmful.

One of the best lines in the entirety of Red, White & Royal Blue is this one from Alex’s speech:

“The forced conformity of the closet cannot be answered with forced conformity in coming out of it.”

There are far too many queer people who are failing to understand this. By pressuring people to come out, you are harming them. There are a bunch of different reasons for why they haven’t, with the most important one being that they simply don’t want to. It is their decision, and your opinion is unwanted and irrelevant.

Alright there, I addressed the stuff. Moving on!

[whinlatter]

Cho Chang for the random character ask: 4, 9, 12, 27, 43

cho! this was actually so fun to think about. cho is an underrated character and a boss bitch and i for one have relished the opportunity to think more deeply about her, so cheers for that anon! (i'm merging the other ask i got about cho with this one for a bumper cho post)

1. Canon I outright reject

i do not tend to outright reject canon because i am a boring yawn canon compliant girlie but i will say i find it weird to think that cho would be randomly checking/carrying her DA coin on the night that harry just happens to arrive back at hogwarts in DH. it’s not even for plot it’s just for the ensemble vibes. pointless cameo sorry! the whole point of failed high school romances is to never resolve them and just memory block them out for all eternity until you bump into them in the veg section at the big supermarket when you go home for christmas and make awkward small talk then see them again at the checkouts and want to die

2. A canon or headcanon hill I will die on

part of the reason cho was so (understandably) distraught after cedric's death was because of a dynamic in their relationship of cho revering/idolising cedric that only deepened after his death as he became somewhat canonised in popular memory. when they got together, cedric was a seventh year and cho was a fifth year. often when you're 15/16 you definitely look at 17-18 year olds like they're the coolest people on the planet and you're lucky to be in their orbit basking in their great worldly wise glory (lol). and while i’m not doing up age-gap-is-problematic-discourse i am saying that if you're in the last year of school and your mate starts going out with someone two years below who is doing their GCSEs or whatever you do a) obviously take the piss out of them but more importantly b) tend to see a pretty big gap in maturity and life experience that often adds a weird power differential in the relationship. that's not to say that cho didn't really miss cedric's company, but also that the grief was made worse by the fact that she likely saw him as a saint-like figure she was in awe of, a view that only received mass endorsement after dumbledore's eulogy of cedric, so she's not even really able to mourn a real person, but just the idea of someone purely heroic and good who she will never be able to replicate again

4. Favorite line

“He asked me out, you know,” she said in a quiet voice. “A couple of weeks ago. Roger. I turned him down, though.”

in this house we stan 👏 petty 👏 queens 👏

or...

“What about your parents?” asked Harry. “Well, they’ve forbidden me to get on the wrong side of Umbridge too,” said Cho, drawing herself up proudly. “But if they think I’m not going to fight You-Know-Who after what happened to Cedric —”

actually huge props for cho for joining a resistance fight club with no parental support for anti-ministry action. because in canon you have the weasleys whose parents are so politically involved, and whose sense of political right and wrong is (bar percy) so instinctual because it's how they were raised, it can be easy to overlook how significant it is when other characters who don't come from that family background/political lineage get involved in risky acts of open rebellion. like yes her defence of marietta is misguided, but cho is a boss bitch who lets her grief be fuel for a good fightback and i for one applaud it

8. Unpopular opinion about them

ok this is going to sound like me doing up pure ginny defender but for all ginny gets slated for having many a jealous moment (including with cho in DH) i do think it is Interesting that people overlook how insanely jealous cho is of hermione lol. i do like that element of cho's character - or rather, think it lets her be well-rounded and interesting, giving an insight into how the trio are perceived by other members of the student body, but also allows cho have this messy petty teenage side to her (people often tend to write her in fic as this very worldly mature grieving widow figure, instead of like, a girl going thru it and wildly acting out emotionally and developing a whole host of insecure abandonment issues that are mostly to do with her grief). but i love how she like sees red and goes full how many girls are you meeting after me!!! alexa play bust your windows!!! i am going to storm out and YOU are going to pay for these coffees!!! so yeah, my unpopular opinion is cho is petty and messy and obviously harry fucks up more but she does kind of act up and you know what, that's fine! she's still worthy of the world! (you know all i do is ride on my let girls giggle and be messy crusade)

9. Scene that first made me love (or hate) the character

i stan the temper tantrum cho has when she loses the quidditch final. go girl have your strop! she’s just like me fr

12. Crack headcanon

cho's gang of girlies wore potter stinks badges in the dormitory after that horrendous date to cheer her up. and she was like yeah you know what! he does!

23. If they were a scented candle, what would they smell like?

ohhh man i am going to have to pass on this because i literally cannot name any smells. she's too prestige and gorgeous to not smell lovely though!

28. How they feel about insert character of your choice from the same fandom

i am kind of obsessed with a cho vs ginny bitter rivalry that doesn't actually have all that much to do with harry lol. cho is two school years older than ginny (given ginny is an end-of-august birthday baby, cho fully could be three years older than her, given hermione is two calendar years older than ginny and is only in the year above). so ginny is a little pipsqueak irrelevance to cho, whereas i expect cho lives in ginny's head rent-free while she's still in the throes of her deep unrequited crush on harry. then ginny goes out with michael, cho's teammate, and is in the DA, so probably is around a lot more, maybe they're semi-friendly, all going fine - until ginny pops up for the quiddich final in ootp and publicly demolishes cho on the quidditch pitch. can you imagine being a (almost or actual) seventeen year old getting the snitch snatched from under your nose by gryffindor's fourteen year old second-rate substitute seeker (especially after a year of playing badly?) i'd be fuming. no wonder cho cries and chucks her broom on the ground. so then ginny chucks michael for being a 'sore loser' (i think this must have also been a bit connected to cho, if all ravenclaw are having a great big public sulk lol), and then michael immediately gets with cho (canon implies that evening lmao). even if ginny didn't care about michael all that much, there is something pretty galling about your ex moving on to your sporting rival an hour after you break up lmao, and something very messy from cho to try and get back at the girl who just beat you by immediately hooking up with her ex lol. you can just imagine michael and cho bitterly slagging off ginny in between snogs at that post-match commiseration party. and then the following year, when ginny beats cho again, in a match cho 100% viewed as a re-match and a chance to finally best the person who humiliated her... i'm just saying, those two hate each other (at least as teenagers) and it doesn't even really involve harry lol. and i for one love it!

43. 3 favorite foods and 3 they despise

i am also bad at questions like these i'm so sorry 🫣 literally have no world/character-building capabilities to imagine people's favourite anythings. i do like the idea of cho being thoroughly unimpressed by the quality of the hogwarts cooking though! do i back a fleet of house elves living out their days in a castle in the scottish highlands to know their way around any kind of asian cuisine? no i do not. cho would have every right to fume

[woundlingus]

Gabriel moments that make me ragingly feral (2)

We get like the tiniest little hit of vulnerability from Gabriel after he’s just been done sitting in the car being yelled at by Dean about family and duty and love, and sure he’s Dean Winchester but you know Gabriel looks at them and sees his brothers, so you could imagine it a little more like Michael snapping at Gabriel that he’s hiding instead of fighting for the family and the people he loves.

Lucifer is coming, he is going to kill everyone you care about whether it’s now or if Gabriel chooses to sack up and do something about it.

There’s something special to me about the relationship between Dean and Gabriel because he addresses the elephant in the room almost immediately. They’re the same, in a great many ways, and that does give Dean the edge to play the moral superiority card here because at this point Dean isn’t talking out of his ass at Gabriel about “doing the right thing” he instead meets him where he is. Family. Your family is inside that building, and they’re going to die.

It is scary, and we’re left on a very despondent scene of Gabriel sitting alone in silence. I’d argue it’s a top contender for saddest Gabriel scenes ever, beat out only by him crying when Lucifer stabs him- but that’s a disgenuine scene in hindsight whereas this scene in the car is all genuine where for the first time we actually get to see Gabriel without an audience. Dean turns his back to leave, and Gabriel reaches out for him. Too coward to say anything the moment passes and he’s forced to sit in silence without the mask on and confront what’s actually happening for the first time.

Maybe he really can’t save Michael and Lucifer. But he can save “Michael” and “Lucifer” (and I don’t mean Sam 👀). He’s not as helpless as he’s let himself believe, actually, he can do a lot just not the one thing he wants most so he previously decided he won’t do anything at all then. Here, he’s forced to confront that, and change something even if it’s profoundly terrifying because of what Gabriel does stand for is love to the detriment of his character then he can also decide to make a change for the exact same motives.

But for a moment, he’s not Loki he’s Gabriel, and the man in front of him flickers between being some asshole mortal and the holy visage of his brother, and he doesn’t want him to go.

Surprise, it’s also (3)

Why am I doing two in one? Well they’re part of the same episode and I think it’s a fun little draw together of the two scenes! Because we’ve already had “Michael” turning up for Gabriel in the car scene with Dean where he’s chided and given a more tough love approach to the situation at hand, and here we have Kali just before that scene with Dean.

To refresh your memory, here in this scene Kali is telling Gabriel that if anyone gets the end the world it’s her personally. Now I don’t know enough about her religion to get into that, but I am going to play into the narrative within Supernatural and it’s Kind Of Problematic but because that’s what the show does, I’m gonna point it out. The show centers around Christianity, obviously. Who else is a world ender? Lucifer.

We have Gabriel and “Lucifer” here. Sweet love, there’s an almost childlike way Gabriel has handled the situation with Kali where he loves her and he believes that she loves him and that’s enough to make a difference here and she won’t hurt him because in a simple world it would! Except she’s not that kind of person, and neither is Lucifer, but Gabriel still doesn’t get that- or doesn’t want to believe in it. Gabriel’s being sweetened, doted on with affection that’s rather patronising. He’s being talked down to here, and he still watches her adoringly. In the end, he’s stabbed with every intention of delivering a killing blow, love is not a factor in this equation because Gabriel is not on Kali’s side.

Gabriel is not on Lucifer’s side, and he can believe in loving his brothers all he likes and in the end it isn’t going to save him. Lucifer is going to strike him with every intention of killing him dead.

Uncoincidentally, Gabriel wriggles his way out of both situations in exactly the same manner. So when RSJ talks about that phone call immediately post hammer of the gods to tell him he’s not dead, this was it! He’s already shown us how he’s going to do it!

Conclusion?

Though I’m not implying any of this on a shipping level, personally for me it’s too shallow of an interpretation to take on such a complex and deep rooted issue on loss, grief and abandonment, you can have fun with this in whatever ways you see fit if you wanna give that guy psychosexual intimacy issues. I personally see it more as Gabriel being unable to grieve, I would argue he’s not even consciously aware of the choices he’s making here because that guy really wants to believe he hates his brothers. But it’s that bitter hatred that keeps him from seeing the truth of his reality, and it keeps him from grieving, keeps him chasing that same dynamic and playing it again the exact same way subconsciously to cling to the deep loss he’s suffered and refuses to acknowledge- to the extent of erasing his own entire selfhood in the hopes of erasing his family along with him. It’s that same naïveté from my last post that’s got him playing out ANOTHER scenario over and over again hoping that if he does just love enough maybe it’ll be different. It’s not. It never will be. He can’t face that.

I don’t think it’s an accident that the people Gabriel draws in the most in his personal life are reflections of the family he misses deeply, and Sam is not a true reflection of Lucifer in any sort of capacity outside of birthright so I simply don’t factor him in here. A guy can claim he’s a runaway and wants nothing to do with his scumbag older brothers, but from where I sit it looks like he misses them an awful lot more than he’d be willing to admit to himself. Here is also where I conclude any Michael=Dean parallels in regards to Gabriel because I don’t think late seasons Dean when we see him again with Gabriel is even remotely the same man and his quest with Gabriel is solely of a selfish nature, there’s nothing Michael or brotherly about him to draw on in those conversations whereas everything Dean says to Gabriel, however cruel, do reflect the larger plot and Gabriel’s internal struggles and ultimate helps him define and better himself under that guidance. But it was cute while it lasted <3

[princessofmerchants]

My prediction about the next four books SJM will publish

I wanted to get this down somewhere, in part to process my angst about the possibility of what may come last in this next cluster of book releases 😫 but also to record the plot and character threads I am seeing as important heading into the next stretch of books SJM will release.

This includes HOFAS, ACOTAR, and TOG spoilers so it's after the break.

DISCLAIMER: These are just my guesses based on various interviews SJM has given both before and after the HOFAS release — THE ONLY SERIES BOOK THAT'S CONFIRMED IN THIS LIST IS ACOTAR5 BEING NEXT, and with that one, the main characters and plot threads I'll mention have also not yet been confirmed (beyond an avalanche of textual evidence 👀)

So, here are my predictions, circa 1.5 weeks after HOFAS was released:

➡️NEXT: ACOTAR5 - Az/Gwyn + Nesta and the Valkyries (which should also include Mor, ideally in a shared storyline with Emerie), Illyria / Ramiel / the Prison (and maybe a return of the pegasuses to Prythian), Gwydion and Truth Teller (not to mention the other two Made blades Nesta forged in ACOSF - also will Narben make an appearance? 👀), and I also think the first part of the Autumn Court drama may be told in this book - the truth about what happened between Mor and Eris, Beron's ongoing treachery, and Beron may die in this book making Eris High Lord (though some of these items may also be in ACOTAR6 instead - I do think the Mor and Eris story needs to come out in ACOTAR5 though, for Az to make peace with his 500 years of pining for her)

➡️FOLLOWED BY: A Throne of Glass crossover book - Shifter Fae + humans, more history and context about when the ancient Erilea Fae world-jumped to Midgard and served the Asteri, a story that creates threads and connections (of some kind, no idea how, and not sure which ToG characters it would entail) to Lidia (deer shifter with fire magic a la Aelin), Tharion (and the Mer as a people - ToG stans, remind me, were there mer in the ToG series at all? I'm pretty sure Rigelus says they hailed from the same world as the wolves and other Midgard shifters - I've read ToG in full but not as closely as ACOTAR and CC), and Ithan (wolf shifter with ice magic a la Dorian)

➡️THEN I AM THINKING: CC4: House of Many Waters - This would be the continuation of the story threads SJM did not resolve or finish by the end of HOFAS: Lidia's "service" to the Ocean Queen (and more RuhnLidia story with Brann and Ace 😍), Tharion/Sathia with Flynn and their earth magic / Avallen and the pegasuses, Ithan as the new Prime of the Wolves (and something with Perry - why did the antidote fade for her so fast?), Firstlight Zero, widespread distribution of the antidote, Ariadne (where did she go??!), and maybe more portal hopping to Prythian for Bryce, Hunt, Ember, and Randall (OH and maybe Ruhn here too, to get him in the same room as Rhys 👀) to further develop the cross-world friendships we saw forming in HOFAS

➡️WHICH MEANS FOURTH IN SJM'S AIRPLANE TAXI LINE WOULD BE (SOBS): ACOTAR6 - Elain/Lucien, Band of Exiles, Firebird retelling, Koschei, the mortal queens, and the conclusion of the big magical conflict that began with the finding of the Dread Trove in ACOSF, not to mention the Archeron sisters finally acknowledging and healing all of their familial baggage that was born from their collective and generational hardships from their time as humans (so Elain also coming to terms with her Seer powers and being Fae / no longer human - also answering the question: What happened when Elain went into the Cauldron?), I also think some of the Autumn Court drama would play out in this story Helion/Lady Autumn and Lucien's heritage (Day Court heir?), as well as more information about Papa Archeron from the time period of ACOWAR when Lucien traveled with him (LOTS of processing complex and problematic parents in this one!)

Again, these are JUST MY IDEAS - the ToG book guess is based on SJM saying after ACOTAR5 she's excited about the world her next book will be in which she implied was not the CC or ACOTAR world, and which will be emotional for her because of "who may pop up" - if that doesn't scream a return to her to the ToG universe then I don't know what would.

Then the 3rd and 4th predictions follow from that 2nd one being ToG and what I think she may focus on in it to add layers to her crossover - which seems like something she would want to do after how much work she's put into it so far.

I think there's a stronger and deeper fanbase for ACOTAR6 than there will be for CC4, so I think that could impact a decision to write and release CC4 first (since us ACOTAR stans would wait decades for the conclusion of that story and still buy a bazillion copies of it).

WHICH MEANS (SOBS), if these books are released one every 1.5 years on average... It may be quite a few years until we get our Elucien book 😭 ACOMAF came out in 2016. It would be PAST 2026 when ACOTAR6 gets released, over 10 years, until we get to see what actually comes of Elain's and Lucien's mating bond, if the above winds up bring true.

I swear, Eluciens are going to get the trophy for longest wait to see these two in their endgame, bless our patient souls 🏆

(There is always a chance the last two in the list will be in reverse order, with ACOTAR6 followed by CC4, but even if that winds up being the case, it would still be three books from now for ACOTAR6.)

[maoam]

Hello, I hope you're doing well. You're one of my favourite blogs and i hope you never leave tumblr.

Genuine question, what is it about Naruto the series that make people get on so absurd and obnoxious? I'm not even referring to ss or nh fans, in every fandom of Naruto. Naruto fans and Sasuke fans (outside of the sns ship), Itachi fans, Sakura fans, Hinata fans, fans of some problematic ships, sasunaru/narusasu fans. The manga will say something like "The sky is blue". And those fan's logic will interpret is as "The sky is red.... also it's not the sky but the ground." Basically Interpreting the context and text as everything BUT how the author meant it to be understood. How can the text and context of the manga mean anything else then what it's meant to mean?

I know other fandoms can be obnoxious but it doesn't beat the level of absurdity in the Naruto fandom. What is it about Naruto that makes people behave in this way?

I do think there are other series fandoms that reach the level of absurdity that Naruto fandom has. Even snk and jjk fandom has bizarre behaviour. Harassing the staff, harassing other fans, saying the author deserves to die or suffer, stanning the characters in the most obnoxious way possible, having terrible misinterpretations of the source material... they have it all.

Look at Yuji, he's a sweet boy, yet even he has some terrible stans out there. Some shippers who like him as bottom will harass everyone who doesn't agree on twitter and in general hate on other characters, especially Megumi. And it's all just because they relate to Yuji or whatever. So they misinterpret him and act like everything needs to be about him. And some dudebros do the same, just in a different way. They think Megumi should die, some of them think Yuta is a bum who should die and so on. Because everything needs to be about THEIR fave. Some Gojo stans harass people who like Sukuna and attack them if they even dare to write analysis on Sukuna's character. Plenty of snk fans are disgusting too, like the way some people talk about Historia or Mikasa is gross. The way people misinterpret the characters to death is rampant in that fandom as well.

Itachi stans (the specific ones) can be so damn corny I don't even bother talking about them. Like they're the type who would put Senya as bg music on a video with Kafka quotes or some shit and act like they're deep. What's truly bizarre are the Sakura stans and Hinata stans, because neither of those two are impressive or likeable, so it's baffling why they have such a dedicated fanbase. Kishimoto intentionally made them unlikeable. Sakura is supposed to represent a shallow and self centered person who acts like they're a big deal and bites more than they can chew while getting her ass handed out to her constantly. She's supposed to be a laughing stock. Hinata is supposed to be a wallflower who has nothing else in her head except a boy who doesn't pay much attention to her. And yet. Their stans act like these are the most admirable characters in fiction... lol.

Shonen series tend to be "relatable" to a degree so it attracts people who need to make everything about themselves and interpret things to suit their own preferred view. Fans also tend to get angry at the author if the series doesn't follow the typical found family/mc triumphs all the time/other cliche formulas. Because those are what the readers find relatable. They're not that inclined to give chance to a different type of experience. Hence why Kage arc was so hated by many when it came out, and why Pain arc was so loved.

[twig-tea]

BL/QL Ask game : The Ugly, the Bad and the Worst

Thank you for the game, @clara-maybe-ontheroad! And thanks for tagging me @clara-maybe-ontheroad and @lurkingshan! I started out by saying to myself that I'm going to do my best to ignore my urges and just answer the first thing that comes to me rather than treating this like a quiz. And then I went into a fugue and worked on this for >5 hours. WHOOPS.

Original version here for anyone else who wants to play!

Also quick warning, this is asking about the worsts, so TW for mentions of horrific plot points below.

Worst soundtrack / weirdest song choice in a BL

Ohhhhh man, ok so the first thought that came to mind was Never Let Me Go, which mostly had fantastic background music, and that's maybe why when it didn't hit it stood out so badly (sorry to my man Pond, not all BL actors should be singers! And having his OST play over their kiss in Part 7 4/4 was just mean). For the record I love this show (actually maybe it should go in one of the below categories because so many tumblr folks dislike it) but this was rough.

Most cringe-inducing line (cute)

These don't tend to stick with me...there are so many, and I am allergic to sincerity so everything earnest is various levels of cringe to me. So with that in mind, basically everything Gavreel ever said in Gameboys counts.

Most cringe-inducing line (actually bad)

Anytime someone said "Once I start I won't be able to stop" or some variation.

Most stupid decision made by a character

Jun Ho deciding to die rather than bite Min Hyun in Kissable Lips. Min Hyun was offering. it would have made Jun Ho human. He could have had his friends around to make sure he didn't go too far and kill him. Instead he decides to fade away in his arms like a dick. WHY.

Special mention to NuengDiao going back to his hotel where his murderous uncle is waiting with no plan other than to walk in wearing a suit and a cocky expression in Never Let Me Go.

[@bengiyo and @wen-kexing-apologist are correct about Teh giving up his spot to Oh Aew in I Told Sunset About You as the actual correct answer, btw]

Worst plot line

Every penultimate episode crises resulting in the leads splitting up so that they can reunite in the finale that are not earned and significantly detract from my enjoyment of a series [this list is not comprehensive]: 2Gether, Minato's Laundromat S2, Enchanté, Love Class, Plus & Minus.

The most problematic show you've watched

I've seen literally all of them so this feels like an unfair question lol there are layers of problematic; like, is it even worth considering all of the problems with A Round Trip to Love, or The Shortest Distance is Round, or What the Duck s2? I wrote out summaries for these and then decided no thanks. If anyone wants to know they can DM me.

In terms of series that are problematic but not often considered problematic, I'm calling out Love Area the series. It hits two of my pet peeves: shitty treatment of a poor character by an oblivious rich love interest that directly affects their sources of income, and an ableist subplot. I think it also has an unearned separation in the penultimate episode but honestly I remember thinking they should stay split up so maybe it was earned.

A show people love but you find bad

Vice Versa. Sorry to all who love that show. I wanted to like it; the colouring and cinematography are beautiful and the alternate universe was neat worldbuilding. But the plot makes me so, so angry.

Ditto Cutie Pie the series. I just can't enjoy it.

A show people find bad but you will defend

Honestly there are several, but the one that is most disliked that I will ride hardest for is probably Secret Crush On You (which I argued ended with one of the most healthy relationships in a BL here LMAO). I get why people find this show hard to watch, the cringe is real. But the gender expression! The found family! The "he's a weirdo and that's why I love him" dynamic! The mutual lusting! The body dysphoria! The fact that both start by playing into BL tropes and it's only by throwing those out that they can actually have a meaningful relationship! The way both characters have real growth! And like yes Toh is a fanboy stalker but that is problematized in the show! It gave us the growth from fanboy to faen that Be Mine Superstar didn't. I have a lot of emotions about this show.

ALSO because I cannot stop, I will forever to my dying breath defend Color Rush. I don't care what you say about dead fish kisses I can't hear you over the incredibly powerful metaphor about the queer experience!

A show that is just objectively bad but you enjoyed it

Bahahhaha. Um. So many, my friends. OH I'm going to take this chance to shout out the lesser-known webseries Discipline Z: Vampire (Korean, YouTube, 2020). It's ostensibly a sequel to Discipline, but the only thing they share is a single character so you don't need to watch it to understand what's happening in Discipline Z (they are entirely different shows in every way; Discipline is more youth slice of life with a queer story as part of the ensemble). Listen, I'm talking about this show in this category for a reason; it's about a vampire who falls for a street dancer, whose motley crew of hacker friends help rescue the vampire from an evil corporation that wants to experiment on him to understand his immortality. It is BAD.

But. BUT! I love it. Everyone is so pretty. There is a cute hacker girlie. There is scifi nonsense to explain immortality. There is a good kiss. There are characters willing to sacrifice to do the right thing. I am a simple woman. [Fair warning to my happy ending only pals: this ending is ambiguous at best; there was supposed to be a follow-up epilogue for the couple, but it never got filmed.]

Bonus, En of Love was absolutely trash and it has a very special place in my heart. It's not good (like, at all), but it's great.

A bad show that you kept watching because you were intrigued/fascinated

Let's go with Physical Therapy the series. At some point I just kept watching like a car wreck to see how bad it could get. Also shout-out to Dinosaur Love, which was...similarly bewildering.

A bad show that you kept watching because you were horny

@lurkingshan already stole my first answer for this, but oh man I stay a Why R U apologist for the Fighter/Tutor chemistry. I actually think somewhere in there is a really interesting show, if the pandemic hadn't made it impossible for them to film the ending that they wanted to, but based on the Korean version and the parts that we were told had to be cut, maybe it would have actually made it worse. But just to get on my soapbox for half a sec, Tutor was in debt, working himself to exhaustion, and Fighter (after he got over himself) protected him at his one job, joined him to help him meet his sales targets at another, hired him for a third, paid off his debt collector to take the pressure off, and then took him on vacation to help him relax--twice. I have issues with depictions of poverty in BL but at least my man secured the bag while also pursuing love or whatever. Also he whispers "get inside me" while they're making out, sorry, Tutor will forever be a fave of mine.

Since that's taken, I'm going to use this as an excuse to shout out the hotness of My Day the Series. It was predominantly not great but the heat moments....

A bad show that you kept watching because of that one character

I'm giving this to Noey Watplu from I Will Knock You. I was obsessed with him. I want his confidence so badly. I love how he's essentially a dork in cosplay but gets away with it because of his rizz. Truly iconic. This man decided he was being seduced and said "bet". I really enjoyed this show because of him and him alone.

A bad show that you would still recommend

I'm going to put Ghost Host Ghost House here. It's "bad" in the sense that it had low production values (like, really bad, so bad the time of day changes at random because they lost the light while filming). But the romance was cute, the story around the romance was interesting, the worldbuilding around the merit credits was fascinating, the side mystery was so heartbreaking, the various characters actually had a lot of difficult emotions to portray, and overall I think this show is underrated.

I also already have and will again recommend YYY as a fun and fascinating watch to anyone who asks about it, @waitmyturtles is correct on that call.

The character that ruined a show the most

There are several annoying sides in BL, but I'm giving this to the side hets in My Oxygen. A fujoshi who records people without their consent for online clout is bad. A doctor using his role as a doctor to get closer to his patient is really bad. Pretending to be interested in his friend because the girl he likes is a fujoshi is worse; then using her brother as his friend's stand-in when his friend won't put up with it anymore is the WORST.

Most awful character that you hated

I mean, Lhong in TharnType takes it for not only arranging the gang rape of Tar, but being forgiven for it in the series. Neung in Tonhon Chonlatee comes a close second for attempting to rape Chonlatee and then claiming the moral high ground against his homophobic "friend". Tony in History 5: Love in the Future doesn't get enough hate for trying to murder someone just because he was his love rival. Namning in La Cuisine had her love rival bullied, beaten and who knows what she was going to do with that gun. Also shoutout to @wen-kexing-apologist's answer of Korn, in KinnPorsche, he was so insidiously evil, it was so well done.

Most awful character that you loved

I'm going with "awful" as not necessarily (just) morally bad but that people didn't like: Jaime from Win Jaime's Heart. Objectively he's a fuckboi of the worst calibre. He agrees to go on a webshow in which he dates Heart so that he can seduce the creator of the show Winston. And Jaime is so charming that I don't care about his bi wrongs (partially, to be fair, because the premise is ridiculous so it's hard to take too seriously).

Special mention (because it's not a series) to Wine in Red Wine in the Dark Night. I love a murder twink (speaking of, things are looking really good for me to stay in love with Ai Di from Kiseki if it keeps on this track).

If we're interpreting "awful" as characters that other people don't like, it'll probably go to Toh from Secret Crush on You or Gus in Diary of Tootsies. They're flawed, they're femme, they're fantastic.

A character that wasn't awful but that you just don't like

Can in Love By Chance and the sequels. Tinn is an asshole and knows it; Can is an asshole but is also self-righteous, but in all honesty his biggest flaw for me is that he's not competent and I have little patience for that.

A hero that should have been a villain

Tempted to give this to Ko from Love Poison for essentially trying to love spell date rape his love interest--this is only not that bad because magic isn't real so of course it doesn't do anything.

Possibly Athit (Boun's character) from Even Sun? I put a question mark there because this was so convoluted and hard to follow I'm not even 100% sure I remember it right, but from what I remember, this was not a romantic story at all.

Taking a totally different approach to the question, Joke from Hidden Agenda should have been a secret villain (in the sense that he should have been scheming and sociopathic but hiding it, ineffectually, from Zo) in order to make the series make sense, but apparently I can't have nice things.

And finally, special mention to Phu in The Promise for being the villain for so many of us already.

A morally bad character you're into

Zhu Zi Shu, canon war criminal and child murderer from Word of Honor. He thought he was doing bad things for good reasons (protecting the people he loves), realized he was just doing bad things and the people he loves were all dead anyway, and crafted a convoluted plot to get out of the secret society rules that he created to prevent anyone from leaving. And then he wanders aimless until he meets Wen Ke Xing and becomes as loyal to this equally morally dubious man as he was to his secret society. I love him (and them) so much.

Same type of deal, different scale of crime: Akk from The Eclipse. I have a soft spot for this trope.

A morally bad character you're not into and you wish people would stop being into

Xue Yang from The Untamed. Also a mass murderer, but doing it just for the vibes/to avenge his finger, so he gets zero love from me. People woobify him just because he's sassy it's...rough.

The show that disappointed you the most

From hype to execution? So Much in Love / Ni Yam Ruk. I slogged through such awful subs TWICE (because they claimed they redid them, but they are still terrible) to try to give this show a chance, because the premise sounded right up my alley. I still think there's a show in there that I would have liked, but it is literally unwatchable.

Most disappointed from what the show seemed like it was doing at the start to what it delivered in full is a tie between The Shipper and Step By Step.

The Worst Show of Them All Because of Your Own Reasons

That's My Candy. I've only ever dropped/not finished I think 3 or so shows? And this was the most painful and the one I am least likely to ever finish. The pairing was overplayed, the comedy was heavy handed, and the plot was absolutely cringe inducing. It was literally torture trying to watch this.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading!

Tagging @visualtaehyun @nothingsbetterthancoffee @lurkingteapot @snidgetwrites @formayhem @slayerkitty @respectthepetty @ginnymoonbeam no pressure as always! And if you play and I didn't tag you but you're reading this, tag me anyway! I love reading everyone's answers.

[damnfandomproblems]

Replying to this: https://www.tumblr.com/damnfandomproblems/731988552343339008/replying-to?source=share

I was the one who wrote that ask that the linked ask replied to, and I just wanted to say that I agree with you on told here. HP was my childhood (although I read other things too) and despite what's wrong in the books I still can enjoy them while I acknowlege them. They aren't perfect, nothing is ever perfect. If you can do this even with other "problematic" media (marvel, WoW etc.) you can do this with HP too. Or just move along. Letting go the hate and move on.

What I would like to add to this that I just find it funny that back then how many kids related to the characters and tried to read the books despite all the hysteria their christian parents caused. Now these haters do basically the same these christians did. They say these books/films are eeeevil and if you just look at them or spoke about them you're not damned, but you are a transphobe who should die. And a lot of them consider themselves as queers.

All these people are now happy that their parents didn't let them to read these eViL books because now "they're on the moral high ground". I've even read on some post someone's tags where they told us that back then their family was watching a HP film with their ultra conservative christian grandmother, who said that "there's something evil about this, she can feel it" and the they ended their tale with that "she was soo right all along, I should have listen to her back then" I'm sure if their younger self would hear what they say now, they would think their parents speak to them.

Posting since this is a response to this ask.

[orionsangel86]

Are there anythings that you would have changed about The Sandman?

The show or the comic?

Plenty of things I'd change about the comic. As great as the story is, it is a product of its time and there are some underlying messages whether intentional or not that are inappropriate and fucked up and don't really belong such as:

The racism towards black women implied to be cursed to die violently when linked to Morpheus in some way following the Nada situation.

In fact the whole Nada story is pretty gross. When she thinks that by cutting her hymen she'll remove her virginity to put Dream off her, but then its stated that healing her hyman doesnt restore her lost virginity... like first of all. No. Second of all - shoving a rock up your vag does NOT remove your virginity lets not spread the message that it does.

The way Dream comes across a bit rapey in the Nada story overall and its not made clear how much influence Desire has in that.

The inherent misogyny which is typical of 80s/90s comics but in particular the violence towards women and overt sexualisation of women. Whether for shock value or not, its just not necessary.

The implied message that depressed and suicidal people should just kill themselves and everything will be better once they are gone.

The idea that a person who is depressed can be replaced by a better good version of themselves and even their family and friends will just treat that person as the new them. The implication that the depressed person isnt valued and must instead conform to the responsibilities and burdens of the system they are trapped in - rather than changing the system.

The concept that the moon is inherently transphobic and that witchcraft is transphobic just irks me as a pagan person- like yeah there are huuuuge problems in the community and the whole divine feminine and fucking womb magic bullshit is all over it but I really really hate how Sandman perpetuates that myth and indicates its the goddess that encourages that view and not asshole closed minded people. The moon isnt fucking transphobic FFS.

Everything about Gwen and Hobs relationship in Sunday Mourning. Its problematic AF and I hope I don't need to explain why.

Not a fan of the portrayal of Loki and Sigyn. Its too black and white for such a complex myth.

That fucking awful reaping joke in Collectors which I loathe with every fibre of my being.

Even with all these points I want to caveat this by saying that I love these comics. I KNOW that a lot of this is subjective and open to interpretation. These things have many shades of grey to them. I adore the comics in so many ways but that doesn't mean they dont have their issues. I know people are emotionally connected to these comics and this criticism isnt meant as an attack on them.

For the show, well tbh I think its practically perfect, but a couple of niggles:

That fucking awful reaping joke in Collectors - can't BELIEVE they kept that in. I mute my TV at that moment so I don't have to hear it every time.

Hob's slave trade ties - They needed clarity here and should have kept the regret in 1889 more obvious. I understand why they changed it but I think that topic should have been thought through better.

There were complaints I read about how black characters and black men in particular seem to disproportionately suffer violent deaths. I know this was unintentional and a simple matter of open casting for extras and minor characters which is a GOOD thing, but sometimes casting should be less blind, and more considered where minorities are concerned.

Some of the dialogue in Johanna Constantine's episode is clunky - but that only bothers me because I've watched it 284929294787 times and have it memorised.

Despair was handled poorly. It wasnt great rep for fat bodies (like me) and she comes across so weak and submissive to Desire. Which she just isn't at all in the comic. Thankfully it looks like they really did take that criticism to heart and made positive changes in Dead Boy Detectives. She was fabulous in her cameo in that.

Not enough gay sex. The 1 star homophobic reviews really overexaggerated on that and left me disappointed. There should have been at least 1 gay or lesbian sex scene in every episode. Do better season 2. Do better. (For legal reasons this one is a joke - Sandman is a goldmine of queer rep and should be on every queer fans watch list 100 times over)

There you go. No piece of media is perfect. There can always be changes and improvements, but the Sandman is a story that really does fit the description of masterpiece. I think my ideas of things that need to change are generally matters of framing. I dont think the comic story should be drastically changed in the show, I don't think it should be given a different ending. Its a tragedy after all, but tragedy can come in many forms and perhaps the story can be adjusted so the tragedy isnt so harsh. But anyway. This is all just my opinion and as with all things i'm sure there will be plenty of people who disagree with me.

[kokonutcat]

Hi!! I hope you’re having a good day :D You’ve said that you considered Minato as a problematic fav of yours, and I’d be glad to hear you thoughts about him if you want to! I personally don’t have many strong feelings toward him, so I’m curious about your own vision of Minato’s character…

Hello!

What I think about his character is rather complex. He’s not just the perfect malewife husband shinobi people think he is and he seems kinda deranged to me. He often gets woobified even by Kishimoto himself to the point that the fandom forget that he’s also a criminal.

I often think about the number of other ninjas he killed in cold blood and the number of characters who got traumatised because of him. Speaking of trauma, people always blame Madara of Obito’s trauma and there’s me who blames Minato more. I can’t get over how unserious he was when he left his students in the middle of a war, that was so fucked up. And he had no excuse to be so absent when he was "the yellow flash". He’s the main reason why Obito "died" and Rin too after (as if that wasn’t enough of a lesson) and then he also put Kakashi in the anbu turning him into a killing machine when he just desperately needed therapy at this time. That’s sadism to me, there’s no other word.

Another very funny thing it was at Naruto’s birth when Kushina wanted to sacrifice herself so Kyubi would die too and Minato could raise Naruto in peace but instead he was like "but what about the bijuu balance?"

I support Naruto for punching him as soon as they met, and Obito was onto something when he said "I’m glad my teacher was hokage, it made me easier to give up on my dream of becoming one".

Also that’s a headcanon but I love thinking that Naruto would be a villain if Minato ever had the chance to raise him.

So even if here I pointed out his flaws, I don’t dislike him, and more than that it’s actually why I find him fun. Maybe you’ll find that weird but I love the duality of this man.

[liaa--qb]

why sudden hate on darklinas if team green stans rha*nicent, rhaegon ? Atleast Darklina was meant to be canon

Oh God🤦🏻‍♀️ !!!!!! Who is hating darklinas... moreover just bcz I mentioned them once😭 ( btw it was hated enough by it's author herself🤣 I can very much say that after wasting my time grisha books. sorry not sorry 🤷🏻‍♀️)

Before commenting anything some of u really need to read with open eyes n brain instead of ass.

I never hated darklinas or Darkling. I ship them too. Atleast book or whole story should be good enough to even hate or like any character first of all which it never had😑. Darklina is like very much any problematic random Ya bad guy and good girl silly ships u see on daily basis. Nothing more bad than any other Ya ships.

( LB n SJM are not even good writer. I don't like their work at all. Just over hyped to me. Honestly I still think how snb was not cancelled just after S1. If u have problem wf one of my post which wasn't even about them🤷🏻‍♀️ it's ur delulu headache buddy. I don't even involve with them much someone just asked me including Darkling's name that's y I replied... Btw I knew this would happen, bc If someone points one bad thing, all of them will cry their ass out.)

the point was something else n ur question is also wrong. Problematic has nothing to do with canon or non canon for ur info. Majority of YA canon ships are problematic but you can like whatever the f u want.

I never said that Rhaenicent is any healthy ship. Rhaenicent, Daemyra, alysmond , helaegon n majority of ships in hotd are problematic. It's just their Stans fighting is like one idiot jumping on another idiot.That's what I am always mentioning. That's just funny and extremely stupid to like one problematic ship or character n attacking on Stans of other problematic ships n characters.

Some of them shamelessly fight as if their life depends on it. It's really dumb honestly 😂. No one is stopping them btw they can do the heck they want to but also they should not even have problem if someone is pointing out their silliness that's it🤷🏻‍♀️. It's a free fandom ! Just bcz I mentioned some of TB Stans hyporcrisy once , idiots thought I am team green when I am srsly far away from this nursery kid color fight

Same way many of green stans also developed this stupid habit of making their characters as pure Angels just because of the changes done by the show itself which is rubbish instead of that they should really go for better storyline for every character. " Them saying no one should support TB after BnC is....😑" Like y ? Not saying that it was bad but bad things were done from both sides. Aemond n Daeron would have done way worse with Jace n strong boys if all their parents were dead honestly.

just like Alicent's anger on Aemond losing an eye was absolutely correct that same way Rhaenyra's anger was also justified, so would Helaena's anger as she and her children were having no fault in all of this

You can like the villian and their reasons for becoming the villain but I would not say they didn't deserve their death or punishment n I would not give any apology reasons ' like no he wasn't the bad guy or he wasn't a villian'. That's what I am always pointing but logic and GOT/FNB die hard Stans are never at same place 🤡

And regarding ur take one darkling or Darklina, I don't hate Darkling but ye he's not among my fav villians or any good written at all. Not only him, I don't like any single character from that book.

If I love Homelander, Klaus, soldier boy, Tom riddle, Rafe, Billy, Jerome, Roose bolton, Euron Greyjoy.., do you really think I would be anti Darkling or care fr him enough 😂 like these r just some tv screen villains I like but if I started talking about my actual favourite bad guys from Grim dark fantasy novels like Jorg ancrath n many more, Darkling would look like little twink infront of them😭

so pls think.. using your brain is not a big deal 🙏🏻

[yanoharuhito]

syscourse thoughts ... i promise im not a fucking syscourser but i have a thought

i think too much of the conversation surrounding "endogenics" is focused on whether or not they're real, and like ... i definitely do not think they qualify as systems in the same sense that those with DID/OSDD do but there's probably SOMETHING going on

like if whatever endos are experiencing isnt 'real' then endos would not be as widespread as they are. i think the biggest problem with them is the way they claim the label of 'system' from those with DID/OSDD. a good chunk of endos, i believe, are probably experiencing a whole other thing removed from systems entirely.

that being said, there are people who call themselves endos that likely DO have trauma substantial enough to have formed a system and are simply in denial about it ... those who understand the existence of their system but may not [want to] remember what formed them. i can sympathize with this approach (i still don't like the usage of the endo label, though.)

i think, wholeheartedly, that a lot of those who call themselves 'endos' suffer from delusions or psychosis, much in the same way people with DAs/IRLs do. this may be a reason why so many endogenic """systems""" tend to have a large amount of fictional characters within them, not dissimilar to fictives

honestly, the best thing to do is to completely separate the supposed endo experience from DID/OSDD spaces altogether. the best first thing to do would be to come up with a label for this group of people that does NOT rely on existing terms coined for systems. like, a whole new vocab needs to be created. i think the continued use of the label 'endo' would be problematic given its ties to syscourse and like. -genic implies that there are other ways to be part of a system diverging from trauma. and there is just no evidence for that right now.

additionally i would love for these people to be studied GENUINELY i don't mean that as a joke i dont mean it to be patronizing i seriously want to see a medical study geared at 'endos.' i want to know what the overlapping demographics are, things like that. because if these ppl can find their own place outside of the realm of systems and establish a community grounded by evidence i truly believe SO much of the discourse would go away. or at least die down a bit.

at this point, i think most anti-endos JUST want their space. pros and antis have such such such differing stances and experiences that i truly think it would just be better for endos to migrate away from system spaces entirely. because like... i dont think whats going on with them has anything to do with DID/OSDD, or any way a person can be a system.

[lovefrombegonia]

My complicated feelings towards a post I once read: "Painter of the Night is more problematic than Killing Stalking"

[THESE ARE ALL MY PERSONAL OPINIONS]

You know I have been thinking about this one post I saw either in Tumblr or Twitter or maybe even Somerton dude said that on his POTN video. In short, I don't remember where...but the thought kinda keeps popping up. The post said that POTN is actually more problematic than Killing Stalking because POTN romanticizes abuse and rape by making the characters actually fall in love while KS didn't do that. In the latter both the leads die but in the former, they fall in love and live happily ever after.

Now, my initial thoughts were...anger. LOL I hated this take because...well, I LOVE painter of the night. I have read it so many times. I can't comment on KS because I never finished it. I hated Sangwoo from the beginning. And Yoon Bum was just annoying tf outta me. But now that I let the post marinate in my brain juices....I actually...kinda agree (???) with this post....I think?? When you really think about it, even though I haven't finished KS, I do KNOW the characters die. Like, objectively that's a way less problematic message. Yeah, if you fall for a serial killer, you die. But also...I don't think POTN can be one-to-one compared to KS. They fall under the same umbrella term. I get why one would compare. The characters have similar structural design (although I never thought of comparing), both the MLs were violent and sexually abusive to the MCs, and the MCs were basically kidnapped and held captive by the MLs. But the way the story progressed in very different imo. KS leans more into criminal, serial killer aspect, more psychological while POTN is more...idk I would say personal drama, classism, forbidden love. They are very different stories and so, to me, one should expect very different endings to them. KS is more realistic and despairing while POTN is more dark fairy tale-ish, more romantic, more character driven rather than plot driven. A way darker version of beauty and the beast kind of storyline.

Regardless, I guess, you can still say POTN is more problematic than KS in the pov of how the story could influence its readers. I...I still grapple with the idea tho. I don't think I agree...but I get it. My own bias contributes greatly to it, no doubt. I still think it's an interesting idea. But still....as I said, I haven't read KS completely (no plans to do so too), so, I can't say much on how SW and YB relationship is. I know enough about KS to see why the og poster would think the way they do.

[alexissara]

Why Obsession Hits Different When It's Gay

In Media an obsessed character who is in love with the main character is extremally common. I find it annoying and boring when it's straight but tantalizing and potentially endearing when it's gay. This is not me moralizing queer obsession, it can be just as "problematic" as straight obsession but explain the appeal and the ways it feels different.

Historic Context

While the straights love a forbidden romance, the true forbidden romance throughout most of the white world's history [which is where we see most stories take place] have been gay. While there was many a secret love affair there were even more secret pinning that were never expressed, never written, words couldn't be made for their very utterance may be enough to ruin you.

So longing and pinning became strong elements of queerness, the longing for someone who you believe will never return your affections, taking in the small things, the little moments, the friendship that may never surpass what you dream of but none the less can be treasured. Having to lie about your attractions, your loves, marrying someone for your family and not for your heart. Hoping you can remain close.

Outside of the yogurt society we saw these loves torn apart on a systemic level where once they were praised and normal they slowly became demonized. Much like we see now an attempt to shift public views on queerness we had a radical queer genocide across the America's thanks to the Catholic and protestant churches shared interest in Ingenious genocide. Tearing through the culture, forced religious conversions, mass murder took loves, histories, stories that were once treasured and set them ablaze. They could never take away their hearts though, not really and this love, this feeling even if they were forced apart would live forever inside them.

The Narrative History

The lesbian best friend trope is often far less spoken about then the Gay Best Friend because the Lesbian best friend is a much cruller flavor and is still found in some media to this day. The lesbian best friend breaks down between the endearing but a little creepy weirdo to the dangerous homo in your area. Both traffic in explicit obsession.

The kinder but still mean bumbling obsessive Lesbian finds herself snapping photos of her bestie while she is asleep, keeping a lock of her hair, always telling her that the man isn't good enough for her but none the less dutifully supporting her heterosexual lifestyle when she engages a relationship. The bumbling lesbian best friend will probably die alone wishing she was with this girl but she understands her place, she isn't like the Friend Zone incel man, no she is happy with her place as a friend she might just sniff her hair a little too long. The Psycho Lesbian on the other hand is deadly, her obsession is building and eventually it's going to burst. Her best friends happy heterosexual life will be met with a knife ending her boys life and maybe hers next. The Psycho Lesbian is a threat to society and in the end she will die. The Psycho Lesbian gets no joy in her life, she has a bad life and then does some bad actions and then dies a bad death.

These tropes and the history build a empathy in queer people in particular queer women with the queer obsessed girl. An understanding and well, a desire to cheer on the girl's romantic dreams. So many love stories never happened because fear of expression or the heteronormative world stopped it. So it's natural when someone who is clearly in love wants to be with someone that many people will cheer them on.

The Straight Danger

Now a major reason it hits different is because well, it's not straight. Like people often try and site data about domestic abuse with queer women going like "look it's super high" but any further look into the data shows that the Lesbians and Bisexual women who are abused are normally abused by men they were in a relationship with, likely after coming out. The reality is for queer women dating men can be fairly dangerous and this goes double for Trans Women who we see time after time can end up lethal. The straight obsession can often mirror these abusers behaviors. Anything that brings up these kind of scars can for sure just be unappealing and most people probably know someone who has dealt with a shitty partner who even if they weren't abusive for sure were far to obsessed with owning their partner.

Ownership is baked into the model of monogamous straight marriage so the obsession also rarely feels special. Your supposed to be obsessed as a hetero. This is who your supposed to be with your whole life. Your both supposed to demand each others eternal affection and kinda hate each other. The man and the woman are from different plants they say but their magnetly brought together by the need to breed. Obviously this is bullshit and plenty of straight relationships can be actually healthy and great and fantastic and they also don't need to involve sex at all. However, the predominance of this model makes it where this obsessive affection far less tasty.

The Nice Guy's prominent existence in media, the idea that women just want bad boys and the nice guy friend who is obsessed with them deserves them is pretty prominent. This has built into a Incel cult of men in the real world feeling entitled to women's bodies. In the media these men tend to get with the women, in the end the nice guy wins. This normalization of what has ultimately lead to a very toxic environment for women also makes straight obsession feel that much worse. The idea that the men you are friends with are only your friend because they wanna fuck you and that their weird online about you in their private reddits or some shit.

The Chemistry Of Queer Obessession

All of this builds into the wider context of why both straight obsession just kinda feels bad in media and why Queer Obsession feels different then that. While, I believe these factors are core reasons why it feels different I think another factor is just that being queer is not the same as being straight, Allo, etc.

Many queer people deal with a lot of hate, Maybe not by their day to day crowed but we can look online and just see how many people want us dead. We have to look both ways when we hold hands with our partners. It's hard to date when you need to either find the right spaces or be on apps and go through people who want different things then you. So the idea of someone utterly in love with you can be super appealing.

The hard work is done of trying to find someone you work with and here is someone who loves you unconditionally, who is gonna uplift you and cheer on your dreams, do whatever they can do help. The queer obsession become a form of wish fullfillment. There being this great deep love right there beside you.

It also works the other way around, being able to be with someone you always wished would be with you, the dream of falling in love with someone and them actually wanting those advances. In particular when the obsession goes both ways it can be feel really sweet and like even if the world wants to stop them, this love is so great it barely phases you.

Everything I said put together really ties in why at least for me queer obsession really just is not the same as straight obsession in romantic media. I think queer obsession just feels special and maybe one day it will feel as creepy, I hope it does, but for now it just doesn't.

If your obsessed with my posts you could give me money on Patreon or Ko-fi, I won't stop you.

[ninapi]

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┊┊┊✧ ⁺ ⁺╚══ Tengu clan path ╝

Premise: Staying by your bird friend's side was the most comforting path to follow. Will this one lead to a happy ending? Was this the right choice? Love can weigh you down sometimes, but it's wonderful, nonetheless.

Word Count: 5782

Note: The characters are aged up, post-time skip ages!

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

Deciding what to do with your future was not as easy.

Of course you wanted to get well, get to live to an old age, share wonderful memories with your beloved friends old and new, but finding a cure seemed like a problematic route to solving this problem.

You just got here, the heights were still getting to you, their food was different, their living arrangements were too.

It wasn’t particularly uncomfortable; it was just different.

Your friend’s parents lived here, he had a family, a house; taking that away from him this quickly seemed cruel to you.

But you knew staying here would be the harshest way of living. It was granted you wouldn’t die yet as long as you didn’t leave the forest, but the disease would keep hunting you, you would never be the same, you body would remain frail for as long as it lasts, it would most definitely bring problems to others in the future, and you didn’t like that.

But your friend was first.

“(Y/N), are you sure you want to stay here? We can go visit the owls as soon as we both feel a little better, try to get them to look for a cure…” Suga was torn between the options, he wanted to stay with you, but no matter what your decision was at the end, he would support you.

“Let’s just focus on getting better, Kou. We can think about that later. How about we go look for your parents? Sawamura-san gave me a little map to their cottage.” it was pretty out of the way, you still didn’t know your away around town, let alone how to go from tree to tree, you still needed a lot of life lessons before being able to think this through.

“Ok, let’s do that tomorrow morning. Now just rest. Hinata-kun said he put in a request for a nearby cottage, whether you want to share it with me or want it for yourself. I can always stay with my parents if you find this awkward.”

It was still a pretty confusing situation. Just yesterday this handsome man in front of you was a full sized crow that couldn’t even say good morning to you. So many things have happened in the last 24 hours and your head was still throbbing in pain from the blood loss, you really needed to rest.

“For now let’s go see your parents, see what they have to say. I don’t mind sharing the cottage with you, I actually would love that, but I would also understand if you wanted to rekindle your relationship with your parents. I’ve been around you all your life, it would be selfish of me to not be whiling to share.” the soft smile on your face tugged at Suga’s heartstrings. He always knew who he was, that he had a humanoid form, that he could talk to you, hold you, take care of you, but never had the chance to let you know, until now. He was having an internal battle between reason and what he actually wanted.

He wanted you to be safe, healthy, happy, but he also wanted to be with you, always. Those things weren’t all possible and he felt like he had to choose, when in reality it was your decision the only one that mattered.

“Ok, if that makes you feel better let’s do that then. I want to meet them of course, I can barely remember my mother’s face. But like you said, I’ve lived with you all my life, my home is by your side even if they gave birth to me.” he leaned in closer to you, giving your head a soft kiss while making sure your blanket was covering all of you, it was funny how he kept doing everything he did as a bird now in the form of a human. It gave you a sense of safety, you weren’t alone in this world of fantasy, you were with the only one you could trust, your dear friend, your only family, and if this is what he wanted, so did you.

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

Understanding the layout of the village was a task.

Each treetop had multiple houses sharing the space, some were even two or tree stories tall, but that wasn’t all that was to see. There were shops of all kinds, clothing stores, toy shops, restaurants, bars, a bakery, sweet confectionery shops, a big town hall. There were benches all over the place decorated with the most beautiful flowers you’ve ever seen.

You could only go from one tree to the other using a network of woven bridges that connected different parts of the village, sidewalks were also woven connecting near by houses with common areas. It was pretty much a city in the sky beautifully decorated by all sorts of plants. There were only a couple of ladders that could take you down the tall trees strategically placed for nobody to find them, it was the perfect hidden little paradise.

You were so close to the sky, it was even more beautiful at night, not to mention sunrise and sundown. Never did you think you would be able to witness such a sight, specially not from your bedroom window.

Hinata, the son of the clan leader was very kind. You got to learn the leader was in fact a woman who lost her husband to a human threat. At first you thought you would be excluded due to your nature, but that was far from the truth. They welcomed you both into their household and they’ve been nothing but lovely with you during your stay.

This village was very different from your own. All there was left in yours was death, grief, a stark opposite to the Tengu village. They were all good neighbors, they all knew each other, shared their goods among families, helped each other out. It was such a peaceful place to live in, it was very difficult to believe it was cursed.

Visiting the Sugawaras was more taxing that you were expecting.

His parents were happy to see their son back and alive, but they weren’t thrilled to see you there. They’ve been planning his wedding ever since they heard he was back the night before. They had a very high status among the Tengu community, marrying their son to the Shimizu family would bring even more wealth and prestige to their own.

Suga was forced to keep the visit short, he could see how uncomfortable you were and he was very much disappointed on the way his parents were treating you. You were more than just the person who saved his life, you were his only friend, his best friend, the only one who truly knows him, who loves him for what he truly is even after all you’ve discovered. You were the most important person to him, and he wouldn’t allow them to talk to you that way.

So after some snacks and hugs, you both went back to the side of the village that actually wanted you there.

“So Hinata-kun told me our cottage will be ready tomorrow. It’s a little bit on the old side so they needed to patch up the roof.” you knew he was trying to change the subject, to pull you away from the mistreatment you just received, to make you feel loved.

“Oh, that’s great. Never thought it would be this fast. Are you sure that’s what you want, Kou? Seemed like your parents had your life all figured out, what if they know best? I could go with one of the other clans so you don’t have to worry about me anymore.” even if he knew you were thinking of his best interests it pissed him off, not only his parents wanted him to marry someone he doesn’t even know, but treated you like some sort of street rat. He didn’t want to have anything to do with people who didn’t value what he loved most, he met them once and was already sick of the entire thing, there was nothing he wanted more than to go back to his daily routine with you by his side.

“All I want is to be with you, (Y/N). I don’t want to marry someone just because that would make my parents rich. If I ever marry someone would be because I’m in love, not because someone wants me to. Now if you want to go with the other clans, I can go with you like I said last night. Or is it me the problem? Do you not like me in this form? Did you prefer me as a bird?” his mind was a little hazy, he didn’t even know what he was talking about. Truth was, he saw how Azumane was looking at you, he looked interested, not to mention the way you looked at the one that went by the name of Kageyama, he could literally see your eyes sparkle in awe. He didn’t know he was this insecure, never thought he would have to defend his place as the only Tengu in your life, what if you didn’t like the way he looked? He hasn’t even been able to see his own face in this form what if he was ugly? What if you didn’t want him in your life any longer?

“What are you saying, Kou.” you stopped walking, cupping his face with both of your hands gently. “You’re as beautiful as a bird as you are in this form. In fact, you are even more beautiful than I am.” your own words made you giggle, the adoration in your eyes calming the storm raging inside of him.

“Nobody is more beautiful than you are.” he held one of your hands in his, pulling you along to continue your journey back to your temporary lodge, a smile plastered delicately on his face.

He had more options in life, he could go back to his rich family, marry into a good house, possibly bring cute little children to the Tengu world, but that wasn’t what he wanted.

You had other options as well, get better, live a life back in the human world, travel around, but that wasn’t what you wanted either.

You realized you already had all you wanted, and so did Suga.

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

The cottage they gave you was very cozy, it was in fact old, but it had its charm.

The roof had been repaired and was as good as new, the only problem now being…”So it only has one bedroom, but I’m sure you guys are fine with that, right?” Hinata was beaming up at the two of you, happily swaying from side to side satisfied with himself. “This was the only cottage near us, I’m so happy I was able to find one, I was about to kick out Kageyama and his family so you could stay there!” his loud laughter made you smile, you were truly grateful, everyone was doing their best to make you feel welcomed.

“We are used to sharing the same room, we’ll be fine Hinata-kun. Daichi told me something about jobs, do you know anything about it?” your face was bright red, choosing to hide behind him just a bit to cover yourself in embarrassment, it was true, you’ve shared your bed for a while now, but he was a bird, not a man, this would be the first time since he changed to officially share a room.

“OH! I know! We all have a job around here; we all help each other. Sawamura-san said he could use your help, he’s the one that keeps us safe. There are a lot of children that have been getting into accidents, they still can’t fly properly and don’t know the village as well, so we were thinking of imitating humans and the thing they call ‘school’ or something like that, basically keep the kids busy while their parents’ work. You look like someone who would be good with small children, what do you think?”

“Oh well, I’ve never taken care of children before, but it sounds fun! How about (Y/N), maybe she can help me?"

“Well for her we got quite the list of requests…” Hinata was sheepishly rubbing the back of his head, looking at you through his lashes, “So, I’m the first option. I have a lot of paperwork I have to go through since my mother made me her slave, I would love some help with that. Also, Azumane-san wanted some help with his shop, he’s been getting a lot of orders in lately and he can’t make the clothing and entertain the customers at the same time.” you were nodding, immersed in your options, the three of them sounded alright, the shop caught your eye, you were good at mending clothes, maybe you would be of better use there. “And lastly, our only bakery in town, I’m saving this one for last because they don’t really need help, Kageyama just wanted (Y/N) working with him-“

“OK GOT IT. Thank you, Hinata-kun. I honestly appreciate all your help; I think if you want me to take care of several children at once it would be better for me to have some assistance. (Y/N) and I make a good team, I would rather have her with me if you don’t mind.” Suga was almost desperate, of course every dangerous man around would throw in their coins.

“Let her decide, is what she’ll be doing for the rest of her stay here. Have you decided already if you want to go look for the owl clan? I contacted my bakeneko friend, his name is Kenma, he said he would visit us soon so you can discuss this a bit more, he might have more information about your condition.”

“Thank you, that sounds wonderful. I have decided to stay here, I really enjoy living in this village and I have Kou here, we even have a house now! Even if I don’t get to regain my health completely, I would like to spend the rest of my days here, if you’d let me.” Suga was moved beyond words, its not like you were throwing away your life, but this was a big sacrifice you were making.

“Fantastic! I’m sure Kenma will bring good news. As for your job, just choose the one you feel you’d like best. Don’t let Sugawara-san to cloud your judgement.” he wiggled his eyebrows playfully at you, he’s cute.

“Hmmm…working with Kou would be fun. But I’m not the best with children, I am good with clothes though, maybe the one at the shop is the best for me.” Suga heaved a sigh of relief, he knows the way Azumane was looking at you was in no way just friendly, but anything was better than Kageyama and your wild attraction to pretty faces, he would have to be in high alert now that he seemed interested in you as well.

“Lovely, Azumane-san is a very gentle generous person, I’m sure you guys will get along very well! I will let him know! You could always come and work for me if it doesn’t work~” he winked at you, making you chuckle.

You were finally left alone to get settled in your new home, thankfully. It had all you possibly needed already. The kitchen was fully equipped for your needs, a small table was neatly placed in the common space along with a couple of cushions to sit on and your room had a very big, comfy looking hammock.

So, it wasn’t only just one room, it was just one bed as well. You had some hopes left that there would be one more hammock somewhere, but the only other door left led you to a bathroom. In a good note the bathtub was huge, made out of wood, next to a big window with a sight to behold. This was your home now and you loved it, even if this conditions would make you share your bed with him this quickly.

Suga didn’t even say anything, he changed into his sleeping jinbei and hopped on the hammock, patiently waiting for you to come. He was really living his best life and you could see it on his face, his sheepish grin and the glint in his eyes were telltale signs of his undying happiness.

“Hurry (Y/N) I’m so tired.” he yawned, stretching his hands out at you while you let your hair down, now sporting your newly acquired sleeping gown.

Heading over to your new ‘bed’ your head was flooding with thoughts of the unknown, should you really be doing this? He’s a man now. Do you like him even more now that he’s a man? Does this mean you were in love with a bird? Wow you needed to calm down.

Once you were in close proximity, Suga tugged on your wrist, making you fall into his arms, he was as comfy as one can be, even with the big gash on his back still throbbing in pain. He missed your warmth and softness, he’s used to sleeping over your stomach, used to keep you warm. The last couple of days that he had to sleep on his own where hell, he couldn’t sleep at all, the air was too cold, the bed not soft enough, nothing can compare to sleeping on your softness.

“Hmmm…how do we do this? I can’t possibly sleep on your stomach now, I’m too big for that…How would you like to sleep (Y/N)? On my chest? Or do you want me to sleep on yours? I guess we could take turns…” he was really going at it, huh. It was still a mystery to you how he was adjusting to this so well, you shouldn’t be the only one affected by this change, he had to be a little lost too.

“Yeah, let’s take turns. You can sleep on me first, your back is still in pretty bad shape.” he nodded, quickly curling on your side, resting his head right above the softness of your belly. He really liked it there, it felt like home, like nothing had changed one beat.

Your hands came to thread down his locks, contemplating him from above, “Kou, are you hanging there alright? Is the change not a bit overwhelming for you? You’ve been a bird since birth, I bet this isn’t as easy as you make it seem.” he tended to do that, even when he was just a chick. He didn’t like troubling others, he liked to help more than to be helped.

“Hm…well it is different. But I like it more than I dislike it. I like being able to talk to the woman I love, to snuggle up on her, kiss her tummy…instead of hurting her with my beak.” he nuzzled his face on your stomach, pressing a light kiss over your bellybutton. His words caught you off guard. “Did you just say…love-?”

He hummed in thought, scooting impossibly closer to you, “Yup, the woman I love, the one who’s been always by my side, the only one to ever cherish me for who I am without questioning.” your hand was now still, your eyes filling up with tears.

“Since when-“ your voice was nothing but a whisper, his heart was racing against your side, you could feel it, it matched yours, almost like they were both beating at the same rhythm.

“Always?” he laughed, pink dusting his cheeks at his declaration, “I’ve never really seen you as just a friend if it makes sense. You’ve always been my family, you’re all I’ve always thought about, always cared for. It always bothered me not being able to talk to you, to look after you in a better way, to do something for you, knowing my true form could help me do all those things. I always dreamed of this day, the day I could be with you like this, to hold you like this. Sorry if that freaks you out, must be weird knowing a bird was in love with you all this time.” he was getting shy, your lack of words was alarming, he was terrified that he had done something terribly wrong just now.

Your hand resumed its caresses as your mind finds its resolution, “It isn’t. It’s reassuring actually. I can’t say I was in love with you, you were very much a bird. But I did feel basically everything you just said. To me you’re more than a friend, you’re my family, the only one I can trust in, the only one I’ve ever cared for. I also wished you were a person before, that we could have a normal family dynamic, that we didn’t have to hide you away from all those awful people. I might be a little weird now that I think about it.” your shy laugh brought his senses ablaze, he thought he’d gross you out, that you wouldn’t let him sleep with you after coming out clean.

“I get it, it would be really weird if you were to say out of nowhere you were in love with a crow you found in the wilderness.” he laughed, getting up a bit to change positions, he wanted to hold you now, the amount of love in his heart at this very moment was taking the best of him.

“Hey, I’m not weird!” pouting, you hid your face on his chest, your eyes heavily fighting to stay open.

“You are, but that’s just one of the reasons why I like you to begin with. I might be ahead of you in the game, but let’s start from zero. Well, no, zero is too drastic, I wouldn’t want to be that low in ranks if you are going to be working with a handsome male…how about you start seeing me differently from now on? Not just as the old friend Koushi, but as a potential candidate for courtship?” he was blabbing nonsense now, not even noticing you were drifting straight up to dreamland.

“Nah…I love you already…let’s…sleep…Kou…” your little tugs on his top were causing an explosion of emotions within him, he wanted to shower you with love, with kisses, but also wanted to let you sleep, you still needed to recover, he had to as well, but you were so adorable...

“Good night my love.” suppressing his every need, he kissed the top of your head, closing his eyes to dream of a new future, hopefully a bright one ahead.

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

Working with Asahi was great. He was a great boss, gave you all the freedom you wanted to work in your own projects, even encouraged you when you weren’t as sure of something.

He needed someone to look after the shop, that’s why he hired you, but he never expected you to be this good at your job. You could keep up with his professional speed, also understand his ideas and designs, even shared ideas on how to solve problems that had been hunting him for months.

He ended up hiring a younger female Tengu named Yachi to help with the customers while you were in the back with him working until sundown.

It was fun, he felt like the friend you always wished to have. He understood your vision, your needs, he supported your creative side and pushed you out of your comfort zone. Picking him was a good idea.

“So you and Sugawara….are you like…you know…a thing?” Asahi was currently fitting a new kimono using you as mannequin while you chatted to pass the time.

“Hm…I think so. We do live together, there’s feelings in between too. So you could say we are.” he nodded in thought, a little disappointed but happy for you at the same time.

“How have you been feeling by the way? I’ve noticed you’ve gone paler; it worries me.” you were feeling fine until a few days ago. Your cough was back, a light fever would creep up at night. Suga was great at taking care of you, he would brew some hot tea for you, always keep you warm, but the symptoms were imminent now.

“I’ve been better, but I guess I gotta get used to this right? It’s not like there’s a cure…” Asahi could hear the sadness lacing your words, he wished he could do more to help you, but he really didn’t know how.

“I heard the bakenekos said they had a lead; are you not going to take the chance and go with them?” you shook your head, heaving a deep sigh.

“Nah, I would rather spend whatever time I have left with Kou than going with them and have it be in vain. I could die while we follow said lead, and I could never see you guys again. It’s too risky.” he gets it, he didn’t want to you to go either, he finally found a friend that understands him, someone he’s truly comfortable with, it would be a shame if you did leave, but he didn’t want to be selfish, it was a matter of life or death after all.

“Let me know if there’s anything I can do to make it easier on you. I know it must be hard to open up with Suga, you probably don’t want him to worry.” you were honestly grateful with everyone around, not just Asahi.

Hinata went to great lengths to make sure you two were comfortable, found you both a fantastic job that fit your skills to perfection, even gave you your cottage without asking for anything in return.

Yamaguchi and Tsukishima stay to themselves most of the times, but they do drop some fruits every now and then by your cottage and stay for a chat when there’s time, Yamaguchi more than Tsukishima, but you loved to see them around and support you in their own way as well.

Kageyama, even if he swears he doesn’t care, he always puts extra bread in your bag whenever you go get something from his bakery. You’ve found a bit of everything really, from bread, to sweets to even full-sized bottles of almond milk. Whenever you say something, he just shrugs it away and says it was going to go bad anyways, so you were basically his personal trashcan. The others say he’s rude, but he’s nothing but adorable to you, Suga’s daily nightmare, that’s what he is.

You knew this was the best option of the three, the most comfortable one, the one closest to home, there wasn’t much to talk about in honesty, to you it was a no-brainer.

“Asahi can I ask you something?” he hummed in acknowledgment, pinning the sleeves down to the garment.

“Why is the village cursed?” Is something that’s been bothering you since your arrival, they’re all such a nice community it wasn’t easy to see why that could have ever happened.

“Well, it’s been like that for a while now. It happened a couple of centuries back, we used to live in a different area of the forest, more protected. The village was ruled by a tyrant back then. He hated humans and he sent our armed forces to hunt them down. The head of the bird clans, the eagles from the east, casted our clan away to the nearest place to humans as a punishment for his bad behavior, not only would we have to live closer to them but we would never be able to go out of the forest again in our true form.” so that’s why not everyone sees eye to eye with you, humans were once pray just like they are now to humans in your world.

“Don’t let the others know I told you about this though, they’re a little sensitive with the subject, specially Daichi since it was one of his ancestors.” You still had one more question though, one that you were terrified to ask about for some reason.

“Asahi, if the curse was imposed by your own kind, why is it that it is forbidden to talk about the foxes?” the screech that left his throat startled you, you never even imagined the ever so kind Asahi would react that way to a simple question.

“We don’t talk about the foxes (Y/N)! Don’t ever forget that, if the wrong person hears you, poison will be served to you by the elders.” what could be even worse than a curse. This was only making you even more curious about them.

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

It’s been a little over a year since you arrived at the Tengu village, your sickly state sadly never left. It wasn’t too terrible though, just like having an eternal flue. Ok, yes, it was bad, but it was better than being dead, that’s for sure.

Your relationship with Suga had evolved to say the least. You have been officially together as a couple for a good while now. He even wanted you to conceive his children, though the doctor of the village recommended against it due to how sick you were, being pregnant could tip you over the edge and take away your last flame of life remaining.

It was another regular day in your household, Suga was making some toys out of woodblocks for his students while you were cooking dinner, when someone knocked on the door, a beautiful girl with long black hair and glasses going right in, as if she was being chased right now. “Please tell me this is the home of Sugawara Koushi.” she panted beside you, holding onto her knees for support.

“Kou! Someone’s looking for you!” you dried your hands on a kitchen towel, motioning for the woman to sit around your table.

“Who is it, baby? I’m almost done with the toys.” he came out of your shared bedroom, a look of disinterest over his features in the presence of the stranger.

“My name is Shimizu Kiyoko. Look, before you say something. I know you two are together and I respect that. I don’t want to marry you either, I actually have a boyfriend and we wanted to elope, but your parents keep on harassing me, they were chasing me until just now. Hope they don’t know where you live or they will-“ the door to your house burst opened, both of his parents popping out behind it instantly.

“There you are! Why didn’t you say you just wanted to meet your fiancé? We would have taken you with us in a not so aggressive way…” his mother was patting sweat off her delicate face with a small towel, glancing around the cottage. She didn’t know you were still together, this fact making her snarl. “She’s still here, I see…”

“By 'she' you mean my girlfriend or wait no more like my wife? Of course she’s here, is her house, where else would she be. Oh, and hello to you too mother.” Suga came over to you, one of his hands coming to rest on your waist, a frown of disapproval painting his otherwise handsome face.

“Your wife is Kiyoko-san, not this…thing…Now don’t be ridiculous, we need you two to get married as soon as possible, there’s a possibility of both of our businesses to join and become something that would shake the entire Tengu community!” his mother kept on rambling about the future and how important they were for this. It was annoying, but it was mostly hurtful, they would never approve your relationship, it was your fault he was being pushed away by his parents.

“Mother, with all due respect, I already have a wonderful woman by my side. I’m sure Shimizu-san is also great, but did you know she has a boyfriend? Did you even bother asking her if she wanted to marry me? We both have our own relationships, our own chosen future, please don’t play with us like if we were on some sort of chess board, you didn’t even look for me after I fell, if it wasn’t for (Y/N) I would have died that day.” This made both of his parents to stop talking, they did look for him, just not down in the human realm, they never expected him to fall out of their reach.

“Is that true, Kiyoko-san?” his dad seemed more relaxed, more immersed in the conversation, maybe not all was lost.

“It is, sir. We’ve been forced to run away from our families just to be together. I understand the importance of our marriage for the sake of the village, but I would really appreciate if you could reconsider this based on not only my wishes but those of your own blood.” she was now on her knees pleading.

Her relationship took so long to come to fruition, she didn’t even like Ryu for most of the time they’ve known each other, but he never gave up, he always put her needs first, always did his best to please her, to make her happy. She was beautiful, that much was known, but because of that, that’s all people would see. Ryu was the only one who went as far as to try to understand her as the woman she is, the one who stole her heart after years of trial and error. She would do her part now to defend their love.

“We need to talk with your father then. Hopefully he will let us go through the business proposal without requiring the sealed marriage. I will need your help child; your father is the toughest business man I’ve ever met.” they both left with Kiyoko right behind them, it was a lovely display of love from your boyfriend, but it was also a revelation.

How long will you last with your condition? There was nobody that could answer that question for you.

“Is dinner ready, love? I kind of want to cuddle you all night, starting right now.” he kissed the top of your head, dragging you over to your room after checking the stove.

He didn’t want you to have useless thoughts, he was yours, it was all that mattered. No one could tear him away from your side.

“Kou, are you sure this is the best? Wouldn’t it be better for you to marry into the Shimizu family? Your lifespan is way larger than mine, I will die off anytime we don’t even know how long I will be here. I could always go to the owl clan, Tobio-kun said he could take me if I wanted to go…” the gasp that left Suga’s lips was the loudest you’ve ever heard coming from him.

“That sneaky little bastard!! I knew it, I just knew it! Nobody gives out free stuff just like that!” his outburst made you chuckle.

“He just said that because he’s worried about my health, it is getting worse Kou, you know that. That’s why I wouldn’t want you to waste your future away for someone who will leave you sooner rather than later.” he tackled you down on your hammock, placing soft kisses on your belly.

“I would rather spend one more day with you my love, than an eternity with someone I just met. You are my everything, always been, since the day we met you’ve been all I need.” you could hear the shakiness in his voice, he was way more affected by the situation than he’d admit.

“Same goes for me, but I want you to be happy. To live a long happy life, I don’t think I can give you that…”

“I’ll stay by your side until the end, baby girl. I promise. Nothing you or anyone says will change that. Alright?”

Your future was uncertain.

You didn’t know how long you had left.

But you didn’t regret your choice, you met wonderful people, built wonderful friendships. Got time to live with the one you love for a stretch of time.

It was worth it, it was all worth it.

But you couldn’t avoid wonder what would have happened if you had taken Kenma-san’s lead or if you’d gone up north with Tobio. Would things be any different?

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[akumatizedpuns]

Courtney Defense Post

This is a post made to clear up misinfo and hopefully provide people with a better/comprehensive understanding of Courtney's character. Courtney receives excessive hate from many Total Drama fans that has only in recent years begun to dissipate. Let's get right into the post.

The Love Triangle

This post will be frequently mentioning the love debacle between Gwen, Duncan, and Courtney. If you ship any of these, especially Gwuncan, this might not be an easy read. Just letting you know in advance.

The Network

Since it will be brought up a lot in this post, lets start with talking about the cast/crew of the network. I'll keep it short.

During its active run, Total Drama ran on two channels, Teletoon and Cartoon Network.

The creator shipped Duncney and Gwent. The network coerced the writers/creator of the show into breaking up Duncan and Courtney for the sake of 'drama' and 'realism.' It's a little bit important to note that they didn't have to break up Gwent, but they did have to create a love triangle out of the scenario somehow and weren't really left with a choice.

Duncan's VA, who also ships Duncney essentially stated that Duncan didn't actually love Gwen more than he did the idea of her and them being together because Duncan liked the fact that they had so much in common more than anything else.

Of course, he's a VA so it's safe to take his words with a grain of salt, but it's likely he asked the writing team and ended up recieving this as an answer.

Gwen

Let's start with Gwen. I feel like no one focuses enough on her betrayal/actions toward Courtney. I very much believe in the 'don't blame the 'sidechick' ideology, but that doesn't rid her of accountability. The fact that the show ALSO framed her as somehow being the victim of Courtney's actions is sickening and problematic.

Even more so when you consider the way the show wrote other BIPOC besides Courtney in the show during the earlier seasons. But I'll go more into that later.

So Gwen was basically your goth, laidback, not like the other girls archetype with depths beyond her appearance. Cliche, albeit, not extremely so, so she was very likable. Personally, she was once my favorite character and one of my first fictional crushes.

What a lot of Gwen fans and people who watch/watched the show, in general, fail to acknowledge is her snakey behavior towards Courtney.

From going out of her way to assure Courtney that absolutely NOTHING was going on between herself and Duncan only to date/flirt with him hardly a season later to admitting to kissing Duncan whilst knowing he was in a relationship with her closest friend only to take it back and claim that she did nothing wrong because 'the boy was free' (which, is a plot hole, as I mentioned earlier, but still was inexcusable for Gwen to declare nonetheless).

Pretty much, she gaslighted Courtney, which is absolutely NOT okay. And when Courtney decided to place her trust in her, she played with that, too.

Gwen is wishy-washy in general. One example is when she got pissed at Trent for leaving her buried (mind you, Trent was dealing with his own fear/trauma). Then in the next episode, they'd made up. Then episodes later, she decides she's still pissed at him for leaving her buried.

This behavior was also shown through her relationship with Duncan. I'm not mad at Gwen for being moody. She's a teenager. But the fact that this is never called out by the same fans who say they wish Courtney would die jars me.

It's also crazy how people call Duncney toxic, but don't consider Gwen's moodiness and then her refusal to communicate it not toxic as well? There are episodes wherein she straight up ignores Duncan or acts passively-aggressively toward him. Meanwhile, Duncan has no clue what's even going on.

On a psychological level, it's been proven that even if you have to scream at your partner whilst you're communicating with them, it's a lot better than being passive-aggressive and ignoring them. This also happened with Trent. Except, Gwen actually appeared to eventually get past this and learned to communicate better thanks to him. Of course, with the forced writing, they ended up devolving Gwen's character back to the way it was once Gwuncan came around.

Being Betrayed

What kills me is the way fans criticize Courtney for the way she treated Gwen and Duncan. AFTER they had both betrayed her. This is no justification, but Courtney was a person who was acting out of pain, betrayal, and broken trust. Lots of fans believe she just got over it in no time when in reality she was just processing and then conveying her pain in a more crass manner.

There's also the argument used that Courtney mistreated or abused Duncan.

There is no denying that she nagged and yelled at him. But she NEVER abused him. And in multiple instances, Duncan is shown to actually enjoy the fact that Courtney's on his ass all the time. Duncan has an inclination toward feistier girls and toward the end of their relationship it was shown that he didn't like (neither did he deserve) Gwen's more laidback way of confronting issues and going about things, for better or worse because he's a slightly more high-strung person and thrives off of motivation from someone more or at least equally as high-strung as he is (this isn't to say Duncan is high-strung, he just is in comparison to Gwen).

People often bring up that list she gave him of things he needed to change to maintain their relationship. I agree that this was extreme. But she literally acknowledges this and starts to realize she likes his imperfections less than a few episodes later.

Courtney was a teenage girl navigating what was very likely her first relationship. I could understand a lot more if she hadn't been shown to learn from her actions, but she did.

Gwen versus Courtney/Subconcious Biases

Let's backtrack a bit again into the inner-workings of the show.

Total Drama was a show that ran from the late 2000s to the mid-2010s (at least this applies to most of the seasons that involved the original cast). This was a period where internalized misogyny and microaggressive forms of racism among other things were rampant in all sorts of media but wasn't really acknowledged by those who consumed said entertainment.

It's important to note that before I say this, Courtney is mistaken by some fans to be of Latinx descent.

Anyway, Gwen fits similar archetypes as the following characters in fiction: Jade West, Sam Manson, and Mal Bertha. All of them fit the 'not like the other girls' archetype I mentioned earlier. Only the first regularly faces consequences for her actions and without the narrative regularly or semi-regularly framing her as being in the right. But all of them to this day are adored by fans. The latter two also have rivalries with WOC (Women of Color). With all said women of color often being villainized in some way, shape, or form (Descendants luckily broke this trope in their final movie).

The writers usually make the women of color 'popular' or 'feisty/strong' or somehow give them the upper-hand in the story/situation in an attempt to empower them. But it ends up framing the non-woc in the situation as someone who is being victimized or someone who is saintly or morally superior. Even if they were actually wrong or the one being antagonistic in the beginning, they'll find some way to make the WOC do something to show the audience that 'Omg, (non-woc) was right after all!' This is highly apparent in total drama when Courtney's plan to eliminate Gwen ends up being exposed.

Lots of fans tend to lean toward Gwen because of her aesthetic and as a result of subconscious racism without even being aware that this is the mindset that they are perpetuating and is what they're doing.

I'm not trying to say 'Courtney's black, feel bad for her' or even trying to make this about race when I point this out. I'm just acknowledging the racist subtleties. I highly recommend watching the second episode of Danny Phantom to gain a better idea of what I'm talking about in this section of the post.

Anyway, unless someone comes with a valid reason as to why they loathe Courtney but love Gwen I'm gonna be side-eyeing them from now on. Just because Gwen is a more subtle kind of terrible, that doesn't mean she's any better than Courtney. She's actually worse if that's the case. That said, I'm not accusing anyone who does have this stance of being a racist. Just saying that they should most definitely mull it over. If you can excuse Gwen's terrible behavior but can continuously bash Courtney, then please think twice.