#i just have a genuine and deep love for the CANON characters good evil complex and flawed

[handledwithgloves]

don’t think you’ve ever been asked this (or maybe you had and I just don’t remember) but what made you start liking Drarry? Have you always liked it during the books release? Was it a well-written fic or artwork that brought it to your attention? Or did it just get a hold on you when you decided one day to randomly re-read the series and you noticed all the queer subtext (regardless if it was intentional).

hi anon! 🥰 thanks for asking!! ur gonna probs hate me for this lol but i got into drarry through a tiktok edit. i was never a hp girl (hunger games was where it was at for preteen/teen me --- we hate gale in this house) but i was ALWAYS a draco girlie.

i was strolling thru tiktok one day and for some reason there was a sudden resurgence of hp on my fyp, i got a bunch of draco tiktok and was like 'omg yeah i remember really liking him!' bc i love spoiled brat characters i was like wow these edits are soo good lemme check out more BOOM! drarry everywhere. like where have i been? under a rock? to my normie brain romione was the main take away ship from the movies, i cheered when they got together (i have never seen DH 1 or 2) so i was never in the hp scene bc i thought it was lame and i hate jkr. idk why i've never noticed it before but drarry is peak and goated i love the rivals to lovers the different sides of the same coin trope destiny wands everything leads back to you etc

to this day i've never read all the books and i've never seen all the movies. and that's how i got into drarry!! 🫶💕

[ripaxed]

Sugar and Heather for the character ask?

Evil women <3

Sugar!

Sexuality Headcanon: Lesbian! Nothing too deep about it

Gender Headcanon: I don’t really have one? I generally default to thinking of her as a cis ally but I vibe with her being trans too.

A ship I have with said character: Skygar <3. Their team up went hard idc. Also I don’t really think about it much but her and Leonard is cute

A BROTP I have with said character: Not really a friendship but I think the alliance she offered to Shawn would’ve been interesting if he agreed. Her laughing at Max is funny also.

A NOTP I have with said character: Sometimes people would talk about her and Owen and it’s so. side eye

A random headcanon: With her making it far in Pahkitew, Sugar was offered more role in tv and commercials. Which let her eventually go to veterinary school, like how she wanted if she won the million.

General Opinion over said character: Sugar suffers from Pahkitew’s weaker writing a lot of the time, but I still really enjoy her. Her huge personality makes her a standout even in the season of zany characters. Plus I find her rather interesting, with her history in exploitive child beauty pageants resulting in her underhanded and competitive attitude and her lack of trust in others around. If Pahkitew theoretically somehow had a second season, she’d be the number one character I’d have wanted to see expanded on.

Heather!

Sexuality Headcanon: Unlabeled! I think Heather struggled to accept she was queer for a long time, in part because no label felt “like her”. Finding out she didn’t have to fit into any particular box made it easier for her to understand herself.

Gender Headcanon: Transmasc. I have. many thoughts about this hc that I should save for it’s own post. But I first thought of it when I started to read the line “I’m the good guy?” as equating to gender euphoria and Heather being tied to being labeled a villain as she is to being labeled a girl.

A ship I have with said character: Ah Sceather, the crackship made as an inside joke that I turned unironic and I am obsessed with. Outside of that, Aleheather is so good. Genuinely just a fantastic canon ship and the backbone of World Tour. I also really really like Gweather and H-bombs.

A BROTP I have with said character: Her and Harold again! They work super well together both platonically and romantically to me.

A NOTP I have with said character: Uhh, I guess I’m not a fan of her and Courtney? Not in the sense I hate it I am just incredibly indifferent to it. Shearing sheeps pops off tho

A random headcanon: I hc they work as a union negotiator in adulthood! Based on that scene in action about her knowing union rules and wanting to organize against Chris

General Opinion over said character: Heather <3. A favorite character easily and forever. I’m obsessed with her. I think she’s under appreciated in Island. She’s not very complex but she brings such an energy that almost all of her scenes are entertaining. Also season one would be impossibly dull without her srry </3. She’s so good in the Island special where her confidence is totally shattered. In Action not only do we see her at her most pathetic /pos but also at some of her funniest. I love you bald Heather <3. In World Tour, well, what can I even say that someone else hasn’t. She’s at her peak, she’s funny, she’s completely hated but manages to scrap her way to finale, and she’s the best winner of any gen 1 season by a mile. Her history of unpopularity and horrible parents and being rejected by everyone around her it just- I love her. Heather sweep.

[mistress-of-vos]

Timber / timsteph? (I personally hate them, with good reason, of course! but I'd like to know ur opinion on them.)

I'm gonna do these two together! But this time I won't tag the ships as I don't want 🐜 interacting plus I don't really think it would be nice to put my hate on their tag lmao 🤣

TimBer:

Hate it. Loathe it. Rather than not ship it I'd say I want to destroy it.

1. Why don't you ship it?

It's terribly written. It's an ooc Tim with a self insert of the author and not even the most bland straight ship writing of DC is at this level of awful. It has done nothing but make Tim a terrible character and ruin him; currently Tim is a no one at DC and I blame this ship 100%. Amazing that what Slade's comics did so easily with Jericho was something impossible for Batman editorial.

2. What would have made you like it?

It would have to be written by another author. Someone who understood Tim completely, someone who wasn't afraid of real queer experience, someone who wasn't sexist as hell, and someone who didn't destroy years of a character's legacy.

B would have to be the old, original version. And his messiness should be kept, because that's literally the only interesting thing he had going on.

3. Do you have anything positive to say about it?

Sadly no. B current character sucks, which is a shame because his old version was kinda funny and definetely had the vibes of "mean, rude boyfriend". This B is nothing but a self insert and is closer to a woman than to an actual queer man, which also sucks. Tim has been made something he isn't, and it's horrible.

The fandom is disgusting. It's full of sexism, racism, and most people have zero media literacy which means they spend their time harassing people who create content for other Tim ships.

I really hope DC buries this ship down on the grave.

TimSteph:

Huh, 50/50?

1. This is a complex ship for me. I think my problem is that I was very satisfied with their situation at the end of New Earth: I see them dating, caring for each other deeply, and eventually going their own ways but still being friends. Not even as bitter exes, no, I genuinely enjoyed Tim & Steph still trusting the other and being friends. I do enjoy them as two teenagers who feel attraction to the other and try it out. Now, this is usual verse. As you know, I play with Tim's gender quite often, and when I write Timothea/Thea, I really enjoy TimSteph more and feel like it's a sad but real romance.

Perhaps my feelings are too complicated for a single post. I see Tim as a queer person who loves strongly and not always in conventional ways. I think he loves Steph and Tam and Pru in different yet similar ways, and with the first two there was an attraction. It's just that it wasn't meant to be. That being said, I would really prefer Tim to be dating Steph or Tam in current canon (as long as it didn't do the girls any disservice) rather than his current love interest, but if it were up to me, Tim wouldn't have a canon love interest and Steph and Tim would be friends (not to be confused with family).

Plus I think a deep part of me was really confident Steph was gonna come out as bi or lesbian before Tim did because her story resonates a lot with wlw people who stay in the closet for different reasons (such as her past pregnancy) so... 😅

Idk! I don't want them to get married or anything like that but I think them dating is and can always be part of their story and something they look at with a smile. No need to ruin their friendship or push any of them as "evil".

2. If Tim were Timothea in canon I would be definitely obsessed with TimSteph. Something something make them the DC version of the manga NANA and have them reject heteronormativity.

3. Steph is a character unfairly hated most of the time and I think it goes hand on hand with people's own sexism and DC's awful writing for her. It makes me mad that we have so few moments where Steph actually shines and is allowed to be a more complex character. This is why I say I really would prefer if she and Tim had been allowed to stay single and as friends, because both of them deserve better than current DC.

[electric-friend]

the fandom makes me sad a lot these days tbh. most of the time i’m like wow that doesn’t make sense or it’s not that deep or maybe it is that deep or i wish i was being listened to…

and as far as i can tell, nobody who was actually IN the stream was upset by the way con started it? if i’m wrong lmk but while everyone’s out there complaining about boundaries, why are outlines inherently sexual? it’s no more than you see at the beach or the pool or in some onscreen outfits for plenty of actors all the time. it’s not really inherently sexual, even? and it may not even have been on purpose but even if it was, while admittedly it’s a bit odd, it doesn’t seem harmful? unless it escalates to something genuinely inappropriate, but there’s nothing to suggest it would.

and all the time i’m having to hear about how canyonites are all evil as if we’re a monolith? people latch onto the actions of the few they dislike the most and decide that represents everyone in a group they’re a part of. it’s like when there are people who don’t care about consent who have a kink and some idiots think that makes the kink itself bad and lack consent as if it wasn’t just the flawed actions of a few individuals who would have been wrong regardless of what kink was involved, you know?

yeah like… i’ve had some bad experiences in canyon spaces. there are some shitty discord servers where people don’t accept headcanons that involve izzy doing something bad or making a mistake, or refuse to accept he ever did anything canonically wrong. which is annoying and upsetting and i removed myself from those toxic spaces. but outside the canyon people do the same with ed instead and it’s just exhausting. why can’t characters be complex and have made mistakes and done bad things, and also be loved??

and it doesn’t mean that everyone in the canyon or everyone who loves izzy is fucking bad, ok?

but sometimes just when i feel like i’ve carved out a space for myself that i actually like, my dash gets filled with people talking about how horrible the whole canyon is and how liking izzy is wrong just because there are people who like izzy who have also done bad things. wait until you guys realise there are people who hate izzy who have done dumb or mean or awful things too lmao???

the whole idea of sides of the fandom is stupid because neither side is a monolith and there are bad eggs everywhere no matter where you look. no community is purely the good guys and the loss of nuance and the focus on taking sides, my side vs your side, good side vs bad side, without considering people as simply individuals who all have differing thoughts and values and integrity, makes me feel like i’m swimming through masses of brainwashed zombies sometimes.

touch some fucking grass.

[tokuvivor]

Looks like I’m up! Thanks for the tag!

1. Favorite Character

Fenton. I see a lot of myself in him. I’m at about the same point in life as he is, and I admire his determination, helpfulness, and really the fact that he embodies what it means to be a superhero.

2. Favorite Triplet

Huey. He’s smart, resourceful, and again, I relate to him quite a bit (more on that later).

3. Favorite Villain

Magica de Spell. I love how they took a fairly comedic villain from the original 1987 series and made her genuinely menacing. Catherine Tate did a fantastic job of portraying her.

4. Favorite Non-Canon Ship

Weblena. I know other people have said it, but come on, they’re just such a good match for each other!

5. Favorite Canon Ship

Fendra. I love how they play off of each other, and how supportive of they are of one another.

6. Favorite Episode

I’d say it’s a pretty close call between Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchucks! and Astro B.O.Y.D.!. They have two core things in common: Huey plays a big role in them, and they hit really close to home for me. With the former, I understand Huey’s struggles with being outshined, as well as his fear of failure. With the latter, I mean…yeah, it’s definitely an allegory for autism, and it was super fun to see how naturally he and Boyd connected. I also loved the deep dive the episode took into Gyro’s past, and factors like why he’s so concerned about his inventions turning evil.

7. A character you came to like the more you knew them

Lena. She’s a very complex character, and her arc really goes through the entire range of emotions. I think the writers made her backstory just the right amount of dark.

8. A theory that hadn’t been canonized, but you believe it as canon

The reason why Huey, Dewey, and Louie have the names they do, and not Jet, Turbo, and Rebel, like Della wanted, is because due to the way that Donald speaks, he would have had a really difficult time pronouncing those names.

9. The one question you never stop to ask about

What the hell happened to Negaduck after the events of The Duck Knight Returns!?

10. What would you have liked to see in the (cancelled) fourth season?

May and June adjusting to their new lives, all the kids hanging out, and Gandra figuring out what’s next for her after F.O.W.L., among others.

Tagging @alex31624, @thehuggingisajustfortodaything36, @kaitosduckmania, @pennykinz, and whoever else wants to do it.

DUCKTALES '17 TAG

'Sup party people!

It's been a while since I started a tag, but I want to try again. I'll tag @not-some-background-noise @miniaturecollectionwitchofsun @godfrey-the-chaos-duck @lettheladylead, but it's free for anyone...

1) Favorite character

Webby. I love how they managed to make her a lover of adventures and mysteries without sacrificing her femininity... she is also an eternal optimist and the heart of the family, and I love how she manages to help everyone around her in unique ways

2)Favorite triplet

Huey. I love his characterization and his arc (although every triplet is well written and I love them all)

3)Favorite villain

Magica De Spell: she isn't just voiced by the most important woman in the whole wide universe (I'm a whovian who started the series because of DT, imagine how happy I was when I discovered there was also Catherine Tate), but she is also a great villainess who is genuinely good at being bad in a way that everyone is always worried she is behind everything... I also have a soft spot for Mark Beaks because he is realistic in both a funny and a scary way

4)Favorite non canon ship

Weblena: I love the way Lena got saved from Webby and at the same time she had to do some work to save herself, while Webby was always there to support her... they have a beautiful dynamic together and even if they're not officially canon, they still are (Sam King said that)

5)Favorite canon ship

Fendra... I liked them in 'The Dangerous Chemistry of Gandra Dee' and I couldn't wait to see how their relationship could evolve only to find in 'Beaks in the Shell!' the cutest and most supportive lovestory ever! We need more male sunshine/female grumpy relationship in media and they were absolutely adorable (they deserved WAY more time together, but their canon interactions kinda make up for this due to their cuteness)

6)Favorite episode

'Nightmare on Killmotor Hill', I think. It's so visually creative with all the kids' dreams and it hits you right in the feels with Lena's arc... the finale is so powerful.

7)A character you came to like the more you knew them

Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera. I didn't know Lin Manuel Miranda back when season 1 aired, but by learning more about him I came to appreciate his character more, and by the end of the series he is probably one of my favorites

8)A theory that hadn't been canonized but you believe it as canon

Scrooge was actively searching for Donald although everybody believed he was on the cruise but he didn't want to warn both the kids and his twin sister (I wrote a whole meta about it back in the day if you're curious)

9)The one question you never stop to ask about

How Selene, THE GODDESS OF THE MOON, didn't know Della, (her possible former girlfriend?), was stuck on the Moon? She has powers over it, so why did she ignore it? Was her father fault? ANGONES, DT WRITERS, EXPLAIN TO ME PLEASE, IT'S BEEN 5 YEARS I KEEP TRYING TO FIGURE IT OUT!

10)What would you have liked to see in the (cancelled) fourth season?

MAGICSTONE CANON, an eventual Magica's redemption without Lena forgiveness, THE TRIPLETS DAD (I know they didn't want to explore the character in order to highlight how Donald was basically their true dad, BUT... it would have been an interesting plot), Goldie's backstory, Hortense and Quackmore, more moments between Donald and Scrooge, Daisy bonding with the family, June and May finding their own place in it, more Fendra, more domestic Scroldie, BRIGITTA (I know the writers would have handled her well just as they did with Daisy), Scrooge and Webby adjusting their dynamic as father and daughter, more lore about Fenton's dad, the kids interacting all together...

And that's it. Feel free to participate!

[mt-words]

Can we get some dream smp fandom positivity posts? As someone who posts mostly analysis and has never once had someone say anything rude in response, I think we perceive the fanbase as more toxic than it is because of a few outspoken individuals. Y'all are pretty chill and I like you.

In no particular order-

I love that Eret’s fans come up with such cool theories, I swear she could give you two sentences of lore and I could see three five page essays on what it could mean about their character within an hour and each of them is unique, intricate, and makes logical sense.

I love the compilations Foolish fans make of him doing ridiculous things on stream, he’s a fun guy that never fails to make me laugh and everything I see from them embodies that energy to me.

I love how creative Hannah’s fans are, you take the awesome ideas she has and turn them into the most amazing designs and concepts.

I love that Techno’s fans might write a ten page essay about his character or just say they enjoy watching him do crime, and you never know which it will be because both come from the same people.

I love how Philza’s fans embrace everything he does with so much enthusiasm. His chat is a flock of crows? Excellent, they can work with that, you will see fifty incredible pieces of art and a hundred theories in the first hour and they’re just getting started.

I love that Niki’s fans are so careful to pay attention and not miss any details. It has been ages and I still see occasional mentions and theories about the “Dear Friend” letter.

I love that Fundy’s fans are very empathetic, they love to find and elaborate on the connections between characters and that’s pretty cool!

I love Tommy’s fans for their energy. They seem passionate about making things right and hopeful that no matter what your situation is things can get better. I’ve seen so many breathtakingly emotional art pieces from this side of the fandom.

I love that George’s fans unapologetically simp for him but then catch me off guard by making deep insights about his character.

I love how Bad’s fans are as genuinely sweet as he is, they’re willing to really look at everything that makes up a character and see the tragedy of it and have compassion about things. And some just want to see an egg rule the server, c'mon, it would be funny.

I love the running gag with Skeppy fans of making Skeppy critical posts, y’all are hilarious.

I love how Purpled fans play up his lack of lore as him being an incredibly powerful cryptid, and they’re right. He totally carried the wither fight on Nov 16th.

I love the balance Quackity fans have between a love of humor, justice, and darker topics. I think like Quackity they are often underestimated and thought of as the jokester side of the fandom to an extent, and then I start reading things they write and it’s well thought out and insightful.

I love that Tubbo’s fans love chaos, cute things, or both to an unhealthy extent. Seeing anything from them reminds me of princess unikitty in all the best ways, and then they turn around and throw a super in depth meaningful analysis at me in the next breath.

I love everything about Sapnap’s fans. Y'all are perfect. The writing and art from the born in fire line? Gold.

I love how Jschlatt fans are generally chill and just enjoy whatever they want to. Their favorite Manburg president was the one who publicly executed his right hand man and gave Dream a resurrection book for firepower, and he looked good doing it.

I love that Callahan has fans. You people are dedicated and I respect it. The fact that Callahan was one of the first names to pop up when everyone was trying to figure out who Harpocrates was even though he rarely involves himself with plot? Your influence knows no bounds.

I love that Alyssa’s fans are simply too powerful. She hasn’t played on the smp since way before I started watching and there are still people defending her barn and drawing pictures of her.

I love that Antfrost’s fans have taken so many ideas and just ran with them and made them awesome. Like him practicing magic? Perfect, he now carries potions and gets a wizard hat.

I love that Dream fans look at a character who has been portrayed as pure evil from many points of view and understand that Everyone has motives based on their situation, even if it isn’t handed to us in an easily understood way.

I love how Jack’s fans are so ready to support any action he takes. Crawling out of hell? Incredible. Killing a child? Good for him! Go team Rocket. Grieving the same child? Learning healthy coping, he’s the coolest.

I love that Connor eats Pants fans are the most reasonable people in this fandom. This is terrifying. Thank you for your service, you always make me smile.

I love that Punz fans unapologetically just love their capitalist mercenary. As they should, his presence always tips the scales and everything he does brings more depth to the characters and plots he interacts with.

I love how much Ranboo fans love complexity. Most of them aren’t afraid to admit that their favorite characters are flawed, because aren’t those flaws what make them interesting and relatable?

I love the variety of Hbomb fans. Half of them may be embracing the cat maid bit while the other half goes on about how impactful and cool L’cast is, but they’re all super chill.

I appreciate that Puffy fans take the time to understand so many perspectives. So many posts I see involving her tie in lore from other characters and find interesting ways to connect them and build them together, kind of like Puffy herself.

I love that Wilbur fans seem to approach the story like they’re solving a puzzle, carefully piecing together details from months apart to figure out how and why everything goes down.

I love how hard Ponk fans work to spread awareness of how awesome he is. Ponk says and does wonderful things and is very fun to watch. I never would have tried his content without them.

I love that Karl fans saw him wanting to be involved and started coming up with such cool ideas around his character that they actually made them canon. Correct me if I’m wrong, wasn’t the time traveler thing a fan theory at first?

I love the creativity Sam fans have with his design and their willingness to discuss complex moral issues. Sam is involved in some heavy lore stuff but he and his fans keep things entertaining and calm.

I’m sure I missed some things, please feel free to add on!

[radiosandrecordings]

Something I really like in the interpersonal dynamics of TMA is the portrayal of ex’s. There are a few mentions scattered throughout the statements but I wanna talk specifically about Jon and Georgie, and Tim and Sasha.

Jon and Georgie. Oh boy, where do I even start here. I have so many feelings about their relationship in general so it’s kind of difficult to untangle how I feel about them as a whole and the role they serve within the whole show’s examination of dynamics from their actual former romantic relationship. But, along with TimSasha, I think the thing I like about it is how little it’s brought up? I think it’s possibly only mentioned once, in 106, with Melanie telling Basira about it. At that stage we’d known Georgie for 26 episodes, and had Jon living with her, and they never mention it. I mean, we only get glimpses of their conversation on tape, maybe they did, but we don’t know for certain. The important thing is our experience as an audience and how they’re portrayed to us. 

They have this extremely fraught and complicated dynamic and it’s my favourite in the whole show, because each believes themselves to be right in the actions they’re taking, because they each are very stubborn and have these deep-seated mindsets, plus Georgie is working with imperfect information about what exactly is happening in Jon’s life. And it would be so easy, expected even for a lesser show, to have this culminate in a conflict where one of them yells “This is exactly why we broke up!” or “This is just like you, you’ve always been like this” or “This is just like (x y z time)!”. 

But that never happens! I don’t think we ever get any references to what they were like as a couple. We just have to take their dynamic as it is, because whatever they were like in the past is something they’ve put behind them. It ended on bad terms, but for regular Young Adult Break-Up reasons. They’re adults now, they have new problems like Being Framed For Murder, and The Apocalypse. And it’s just really refreshing to see them deal with new problems and not stale ones from the past that they’ve buried. 

This extends to how Martin interacts with Georgie as well. When they first meet, Georgie is aware that Jon is in love with him, and Martin clearly knows they were staying together, if not that they used to be together from him calling her “Jon’s Georgie”. And yet they conflict for how the other treats Jon, not because of any dating based tension, especially surprising considering Martin has a whole list of people he’s been jealous of in regards to Jon. Which means it’s allowed to become a trait which, while not good, never leads to any actual conflict. I really like that because that would just feel out of place in the narrative, to have all this massive complicated web of dynamics and grievances going on and then have “You dated the guy I like 10ish years ago, and that’s why I hate you” as one of them. It would feel a little immature in a story about people closing in on 30 if it was allowed to grow beyond something brought up in minor scenes as flavour text and become a  whole dynamic definer, especially in a show where each dynamic is supposed to be a specific type of exploration of relationships.  

The same could be said of Jon and Melanie. The two famously don’t get on, finding any reason really to go for each other’s throats a lot of the time, even when it can be taken more literally as ‘scalpel to the shoulder’. I’ve made jokes about this scenario’s hilarity before, but in actual fact I’m glad that there’s never anything made of “The girl who hates me stole my girlfriend”. Because Georgie doesn’t belong to either of them, she’s not a pawn in any of their fights. She’s a woman who can make her own decisions and form opinions independent from who she’s dating. 

And then there’s Tim and Sasha. Something they were so chill about, we, the audience, didn’t know about it for 162 episodes. It’s a lovely little scene really, it tells us so little but also so much. They have an “Ill-advised hook-up” and Tim is convinced something more will come of it. Sasha laughs and tells him that she doesn’t agree. And then the conversation continues on. He doesn’t push her on it, doesn’t even ask her why, just lets it go. From Sasha referencing that she’s “pretty sure we already established it’s a ‘wont they” it might hint that this is a conversation they’d had before, but honestly from the light tone I want to give Tim the benefit of the doubt and say Sasha is just referencing the general fallout of their fling that made it, to Tim’s own description, ‘ill-advised’. And unlike Jongeorgie, after this breakup, Tim and Sasha remain close friends and co-workers. Tim continues to care about Sasha even when it’s clear she doesn’t have any romantic interest in him and no longer any sexual interest, because he genuinely cares about her as his friend. He jokes around with her and curses out both Jon and Elias and they’re just good to each other. They platonically care so much that Sasha is literally willing to risk her life to save Tim when he doesn’t notice Prentiss in episode 39. 

And again, jealousy never comes into play. When the Not!Sasha starts going out with ‘Tom’ - Literally one letter away from his own name! - It would be so easy to have some of Tim’s anger in season two manifest in jealousy about that. About wondering what this guy has that he clearly doesn’t when Sasha has moved on to someone else. But that never happens, at least as it’s presented to the audience, because Tim is genuinely a nice guy and respects her decisions (Aside from the fact that isn’t Sasha but y’know. He thinks it is). 

Overall it’s just very, very good to see a show where characters are allowed to have (had) romantic/sexual relationships but these not define their dynamics or for this to extend to how other character’s perceive them. A lot of media will often introduce the ‘evil ex’ because for some reason I feel like people tend to forget sometimes that whatever happens later, we date people because in the first place there was something there that we liked? And not every breakup has to ruin our ability to see that. It’s also maybe a little reflective of the fact that every relationship I analysed there involved at least one queer person? (Well, every person I mentioned is queer except canon Sasha. Sorry love) Because just from my experience and my friend groups that’s how it can often be. It’s just another way in which TMA has my favourite character dynamic writing and really knows how to give it’s characters complex connections without letting them fall into stereotypes. 

[kirinda-ondo]

You know him, you either love or hate him (or are moderately confused by my sudden dive into this hyperfixation); we're talking about Orko because I have a lot of feelings.

As a disclaimer, I am not gonna claim to be some kind of superfan. I am not aware of every single iteration of the lore and all of its secrets. I don't know anything about the DC comics. I'm only halfway through the 2002 series as of me writing this. I am not someone you want to have discussions on the wider Masters of the Universe.... universe with. However, after watching Revelation, the entire Filmation He-Man (and some of She-Ra, cause he was there too), and going on a deep dive of storybooks, annuals, and minicomics courtesy of He-Man.org and the lovely people who submitted their scans there, I do feel pretty qualified to at least talk about Orko.

So, with all that being said, I'd like to get into a little bit of backstory, if only for my followers who came to this blog for completely different things and are wondering where the hell my love for this funky little wizard dude came from all of a sudden. Truth is, Orko is actually one of my earliest faves! Mind you, I only had limited access to Masters of the Universe as a kid, only seeing a couple of rented VHS tapes and later getting my hands on a small pile of the Golden Books from Goodwill, but apparently it was enough for Orko to  imprint himself into my brain. However, also due to my limited exposure, he kind of got shifted to the back of my head as I got deeper into other things. I still knew for a fact I liked Orko a lot though, even if I couldn't quite remember why anymore.

And then Masters of the Universe: Revelation dropped on Netflix. I'm not gonna get into my opinions of that show lest I open a flood of irrelevant discourse (for those uninitiated, it is a bit... divisive, to say the least). However my feelings on the matter did encourage me to go and watch the original and well, holy shit I love Orko more now than I could have ever comprehended as a kid. He is THE quintessential underappreciated comic relief character I tend to gravitate towards, and then some.

But before I get into that, let me back up a bit and explain. Orko is a Trollan, a race of magical little dudes that are basically floating sweaters with hats and covered up faces. Out of these Trollans, Orko is an incredibly fucking OP archmage. Like, they straight up call him Orko the Great, he's so powerful. But then, he gets caught in a freak storm that whisks him away from his home dimension and into Eternia. Immediately, he runs into a young Prince Adam, who is trapped in a swamp/tar pit and needs rescuing. Orko, being the upstanding lad that he is, uses his magic to save him but in the process loses the item that allows him to focus his magic to the swamp (in the 80s version, it's a medallion, but in the 2002 series, it's a wand). Worse yet, the magic (and dare I say the very laws of physics) in Eternia works pretty much the opposite as it does in Trolla, so he's been incredibly nerfed.

So basically, Orko is trapped in a topsy-turvy world away from friends and family, a world with magic he is fundamentally incompatible with. Ouch. He's not completely screwed, however, as he is rewarded by the king and queen for his heroism and appointed... the court jester. Double ouch. He surprisingly doesn't seem to mind though. He genuinely does enjoy entertaining people, even when his tricks only ever work like half the time because he's basically a Mac program trying to run on a Windows computer.

It's not all horrible though, as he does quite literally get adopted by the royal family  and thus sort of become the entire palace's weird son/little brother (despite being older than many of them. He's very, very child-coded largely for the purposes of being a stand-in and example lesson to the actual children watching). But also, more importantly, he becomes one of the very select few to know that Adam and He-Man are one and the same.

But outside of secret-keeping, he is actually a pretty valuable ally to have against Skeletor and his dudes because even though his magic is kind of screwed up, when it does work, he's still one of the most powerful mages on Eternia. In various materials, he's created floods, a second winter, and hell, he can literally explode himself and still be perfectly fine. He's also really clever and can weasel his way out of a number of situations. In one episode, for instance, he manages to convince someone that he's He-Man and Adam is his "assistant" in order to free him from captivity so the day has a better chance of actually being saved.  He's also got the ability to just be really frustrating and incomprehensible to the point that villains who capture him sometimes either don't want him or don't know what to do with him anymore, which is honestly really funny. In an episode of She-Ra, the villains tried to scan his brain but because the inner machinations of his mind are that much of an enigma, he got diagnosed a weirdo and broke the entire machine. Absolutely delightful.

However, there's a lot more to Orko than just comedy and bungled magic. He's actually surprisingly complex!

See, going into this, I expected Orko's whole situation be played entirely for laughs while the sadder implications of his existence go entirely unaddressed. Coming off the heels of characters like Cobalt and others I enjoy, I'm used to this sort of treatment by writers. But they actually don't do that. The depressing subtext is for once, actually TEXT, which was INCREDIBLY surprising to me. We actually get to see another side of him, a side that hates that he can't be taken seriously no matter what he does, a side that is well aware of all the trouble he causes and feels like a burden to those around him. He actually runs away on multiple occasions, fully believing that he's unloved and everyone would be better off without him, even if that couldn't be further from the truth (a point which the Sorceress hammers home with multiple straight up magical video presentations, and in the 2002 series, a literary adaptation, of why he is loved and important).

Underneath all the hyping himself up that he does, there's a lot of insecurity. He's someone who desperately wants to be loved and respected and feels that without funny magic tricks to entertain people, he has no inherent value (which is incredibly relatable if you are also known by people as The Funny One). At one point he agrees with the notion that he doesn't feel like much more than a pet, which is absolutely heartbreaking. Even when he gets the ability to go back and forth between Eternia and Trolla, his feelings of inadequacy now extend toward his family, worrying that his own uncle, the one who taught him everything he knows and greatly contributed to him being Orko the Great back home in the first place, wouldn't be proud of him. Being on Eternia highkey wrecked his shit, man.

However, even when given the opportunity to go back home for good, he always chooses to stay because he's loyal as hell. Even if he needs some reminders, he does know he's needed not just in the fight against evil, but just because his friends and newfound family genuinely love him. It's heartbreaking, but also incredibly wholesome. I did not even remotely expect a comic relief character like this to get this much depth and respect from the writers, especially not from the incredibly campy and cheaply animated 80s series. I am genuinely so unused to this.

But I think that's also what separates him a bit from his fellow Silly Kid Appeal Characters That Kids Fucking Hate ala Snarf Thundercats or Scrappy Doo. He not only makes a concerted effort to be an actually useful ally, but he's also in fact very self-aware of his status as one of these characters. He knows he screws up a lot but he actually tries to accept responsibility and fix it. It makes me wanna root for the lil dude. Now I understand if someone isn't a fan of the brand of humor he brings to the table, or feel like he's simply a distraction from the Cool Buff Dudes Fighting Each Other, but I hope you can see why he might also be a really appealing character to other people, both kids and adults alike. I mean, he was popular enough to be embedded into the canon despite originating from the cartoon and not the toyline for a reason, after all.

Orko is a fun, entertaining, but also complex, heartwarming, and relatable character. I know there is a faction of people that would disagree with me, but I don't think you need to change him all that much or make him a super serious character to be more appealing. He's already got a lot going on that a writer could easily work with. It all just depends on where you decide to focus. Take a lesson from the show and accept that he's fine just the way he is.

[sapphic-sasuke]

Hello, how are you doing these days? I'm back with another ask. Since we see the term 'potential' being applied to characters a lot now, do you think Itachi had any 'potential' to be an interesting character? It is a bit later that he became a mess of theme- and plot-related mistakes, but do you think in there's any basis in canon for him to have been a decent character? One that, if not complex, at least made sense? Thank you and have a great day!

OMGG HIII FAV MUTUAL i been okay these days so busy w my new job but good. howre u? 

I think Itachi had the potential to be an interesting character. Itachi’s character could have been extrapolated in so many different ways that seeing him shoved into a corner just ARGGH. there’s not much depth to him despite popular belief.

It’s crazy to me because part 1 Itachi HAD SO MUCH POTENTIAL ARGGH. It’s like.. man the fear? The way all of the jounins and konoha just couldn’t match him at all! That build up was so nice. His confrontation with Sasuke where he chokes him. It’s so good!!!

I think the reason Itachi’s character fails so spectacularly is because of how the narrative wanted to warp him into someone who “wasn’t that bad” or “had good intentions to save the village but his method of action was flawed” (i see this argument a lot honestly) this argument is reiterated by obito and later naruto and kakashi. because itachi committed genocide to save konoha, he’s seen as morally grey despite the fact that the village he’s saving is highkey fascist and fucks over so many smaller, weaker villages (case in point, NAGATO!) konoha is LITERALLY a military dictatorship. there’s absolutely nothing good about that awful village and itachi killed his family for it

okay now back to my initial point, itachi killing the uchihas for konoha is fundamental to his character, it shapes him... but my god he would have been sooo much better as only an antagonist instead of someone in the middle. I understand that he was manipulated by the elders but Itachi as an antagonist would have still worked even after the plot twist of killing for konoha. He fails because his character sort of stretches out to shadow over everyone else. he’s painted out to be unbelievably strong and infallible even in death to the point it’s just laughable and it isn’t done well either because there’s no purpose to it. it does not forward the plot, it just feels like fanservice. he doesn’t fit into the story with the characters at all. it feels so forced, grating and awkward. suddenly these characters established to be the best of the best are tripping over their feet over a sick shinobi with eyes that are almost blind

His character isn’t that developed; his persona of being strong, deadly and calm is never questioned or challenged. He’s either this loving brother full of guilt or a perfect shinobi. It’s boring! Sasuke loves him when he finds out the truth, the hokages call him a hero and... that would have been a really good point to show how corrupt and horrific the shinobi system is but Itachi’s actions are never questioned! there’s nothing in the narrative in shippuden to make you believe that Itachi was wrong other than his regret (this is mainly because of how the Uchihas are viewed by everyone) And his regret is targeted more at making sasuke suffer than the killing of his clan.

Making Itachi a compelling character could have been done in so many ways so long as there wasn’t this suffocating attempt to justify him in the manga.

And I guess properly flesh out his motives. He kills his clan for konoha for Sasuke. Okay. He joins the Akatsuki to spy on them for Konoha. How would that have worked? If we’re going along with him being a spy, maybe we can be shown how he gradually loses all his morals, finds killing easier. Maybe there’s a moment where he’s surprised at how easy he finds it to fit in with Akatsuki. It would explain his torture of Sasuke more if his default reaction to anything that isn’t entirely numbing is violence. Maybe instead of everything being some greater manipulative bullshit, moments where he harms Sasuke are genuine lapses in control. He’s so obsessed with Sasuke he can’t even rationalise his actions.

(I’m still of the belief that him joining the Akatsuki as a spy was an awful plot point. It would have been better if he only joined the Akatsuki to amplify his villainous persona so Sasuke feels even more inclined to kill when he’s going around terrorising people. I feel like Itachi after killing the clan no longer caring much for Konoha, only Sasuke and a weird obsession for peace because that’s what he also did all of this for, would have been a far more interesting twist. He’s a very selfish character that gets interpreted as selfless for the “sacrifices” he makes because the shinobi think he’s right.)

We need to be shown just how horrific Itachi’s actions are the same way we were shown in part 1 Naruto. And other than the physical consequences, the mental ones too.

I guess what would make Itachi more interesting as a character if we went along with his canon actions would be to see his thought process more. This guy killed his entire clan—show us how twisted his mind can be. Show us how the guilt/self hatred/anger/apathy destroys himself until he’s quite literally begging Sasuke to kill him in his mind.

Rather than having his machinations work out, what if he fails? What if it goes wrong? We need more moments where he’s failing. Not beating legendary characters like Orochimaru. There’s no satisfactory release to Itachi, even in his death. It’s very bland.

I don’t think the plot twist of Itachi killing for konoha in itself was bad, it’s more the execution that was bad. Because we’re already shown in part 1 that Konoha is corrupt. The plot messes come from 1) the urge to make Itachi out to be infallible and righteous but deeply troubled and 2) the narrative trying its hardest to paint the uchihas out to be inherently evil and 3) the lack of accountability placed on individuals and more on “the cycle of hatred” ignoring that it’s these Kages in power who were perpetuating that system.

Okay so I will forever be salty at the direction Itachi’s character took. They took a mysterious older brother and turned him into a plot convulted mess with the worst fake deep quotes and annoying op attacks pulled out of his ass. almost damn well ruined Sasuke’s character too smh. So yeah bestie Itachi had sooo much potential. He could have properly been used as an instrument to show shinobi like the protagonists that Sasuke’s anger is valid and that the village they fight for is evil and not worth it or to properly allow the Uchiha to receive justice but nooooooo guys he felt bad :( and he loves sasuke :( and he was a spy for the village all the protagonists are from fighting terrorism in the shadows :( and the uchihas deserved it for rising up against the village that was discriminating against them :( clearly state sponsored genocide isn’t that bad :( yeah he tortured his brother and his spying did nothing to stop akatsuki but he tried :(

[morethanonepage]

what would you say are the dynamics and themes that interest you most? Also frankly I'm surprised you read any star wars fic still, I agree on just wanting to read some good finnpoe but that has gotten increasingly futile.

i mean the thing i potentially like so much about finnpoe is that they BOTH have very specific, in some ways very different traumas (finn being a child soldier and growing up in such a highly regulated way where he had basically no bodily autonomy VS poe being mind-raped AND seeing his inability to stop it as having betrayed his own people AND seeing so many of his friends & comrades die in quick succession AND still recovering from the loss of his mother as a child and Muran when he was commanding Rapier Squadron) but they both have a tendency to compartmentalize that and continue to function on their own while being loyal (Finn’s devotion to Rey, which gets a lot of flack in fandom but like -- that’s one of the first people he’s been able to form a connection with!! AND I think he lowkey feels that it’s his fault Rey got dragged into -- everything, so he feels a great deal of responsibility for protecting her) and passionate about a cause (Poe basically killing himself to keep the Ideals Of The Republic Alive, be it through trying to hunt down the FO before he’s even part of the Resistance, to doing everything he can to keep the Resistance afloat once he is). 

like they have those similarities -- a real sense of duty and responsibility toward their friends and those they’re fighting with -- but they have fundamental differences in approach that the movies did a shitty job of extrapolating on when it could’ve been such an interesting conflict: Poe is the idealist and thinks of duty to a higher ideal first and foremost (like Leia and his mother, tbh) whereas Finn is more of a pessimist and a cynic and believes protecting your friends and loved ones from the substantial evil is hard enough without setting up to FIGHT ALL OF THE BAD IN THE UNIVERSE like Poe wants/believes he has to do. and both of these things are based so much on their upbringings! Poe grew up with those ideals and freedoms and parents who fought, successfully, to protect them, and believes he owes it to them to live up to their example and protect them as well; Finn has SEEN the evil of the FO firsthand and seen everyone around him subsumed by it, believes it to be omnipotent bc for him and his squad mates it literally was. escaping all of that was an act of powerful resistance on its own!

idk i just think a lot of the fandom’s take on this is, if you focus on finn ~running away~ in canon or not wanting to join up with the Resistance just ‘cause it’s ~the right thing to do~ you’re feeding into this idea of black men being cowards and/or selfish when it’s like no! that’s the consequence of his trauma: he’s running away from an abuser who controlled every aspect of his life, who’s set up to hunt him down and destroy planets and take over the universe in a way that’ll mean he’s NEVER safe, and he knows every single person he grew up with and had some affection for are a part of it too, which on the one hand he might be reluctant to fight them, but on the other they 100% won’t be reluctant to fight him AND they know him well enough to know his weaknesses. 

all of this is A LOT and it’s heavy and dark stuff, which i GET can be hard to work into like, light fluffy fic about finn finally being happy or learning what sex is or w/e, and not everything about fanfic has to be a ~deep exploration~ of character’s inner turmoil but like -- idk. there’s ways of dealing with these elements of finn’s backstory without making the whole thing drudging tragedy porn (which is ANOTHER fanfic trend i can’t stand -- neither Finn nor Poe are characters entirely without hope and fics that treat either of their tragedies [lbr it’s mostly poe’s that get dealt with] as the focus or main characteristic of either also bum me out) and I just really wish fandom had more interest in it. 

Another factor that KILLS ME is how Poe has (justifiably) developed OBVIOUS distrust for the force and force users, and would have such a fundamentally hard time dealing with the fact that Finn is one. Canon didn’t even let Finn be explicitly force sensitive, and fandom is like YAY FINN IS FORCE SENSITIVE, NOW HE CAN USE THE FORCE TO BONE (POE), and any fic that does touch on it makes Poe out to be ~unreasonable for not trusting Finn, or having his distrust be a consequence of his PTSD alone, and a sign he has to deal with his shit VS a very real issue that Poe might genuinely not be able to get over: the force CAN be creepy and is too easy to abuse, and a lot of what Poe’s seen it used for WAS bad. 

the other dimension of all this is, accidentally or not, these dynamics take on all sorts of real-world implications given both actor’s identities -- the explicit parallels between Finn’s upbringing and chattel slavery (taken from his family at an early age, losing all connection with his birthplace and culture, seen as useful but dispensable by an oppressive, mostly-white empire)  & its legacy for Black Americans (that lack of connection with a historical homeland and the loss of a cultural connection that came from it) VS the first generation latinx immigrant narrative that Poe and his family embody (the sacrifice for and long separation from a child in the service of giving them a better life, the burden that child takes upon themselves to make that sacrifice worth it by excelling in certain spheres, the drive to be the VERY BEST representative of their new culture, the embrace of that culture’s ideals bc they don’t want to think their parents sacrificed everything for a lie [with the creeping knowledge and experience to know many of those ideals are flawed and not always lived up to]). 

and the canon ignores that bc addressing it would require world building that couldn’t center/come back to the Skywalkers in some way (and the only family dynamics it’s interested in is DADDY ISSUES, fucking Free Fall), and fandom doesn’t care about it bc it’s mostly white girls who, AT BEST, decide to focus on the potential ~sexuality conflicts (coming out, family rejection, etc) when writing real world AUS, without dealing with the intersectionality of a black and a brown man, their respective cultural context, and the resultant conflicts those would create beyond, idk, “POCs are always homophobic so finn and/or poe’s parents kicked them out or w/e”.  and like I really don’t WANT these people trying to grapple with the complexity of a queer, interracial relationship where neither participant is white (i’ve seen enough just watching them grapple with either character’s sexuality tbh). 

but idk, that’s what’s interesting to me: finn and poe’s backgrounds and how those set up fundamental conflict points for both of them, both in canon (Poe’s devotion to the cause of liberty and democracy for the whole galaxy VS Finn’s duty to the people he loves over anything else) and in a real world au (Black people have a fundamentally different relationship to the American Ideal than Latinx immigrants do, for very good reasons). And I want those things to be significant elements of the characterization for both, but not the ONLY elements of characterization for both: stories should, in even some small way, be about what characters WANT (even if it is just “to fuck,” as it often is when I write [ok it’s usually “to love but be able to show it without saying it, hence the fucking”]) and so few fics, these days, give me any sense of what finn and poe want besides, vaguely “each other” (”because the author feels like they have to write them bc the actors are hot/for woke points”) and that is just -- boring to me. 

also god i would just love to read some dialogue that isn’t just twitter/tumblr memes and/or mcu level mean quips. like, just in general. 

[alienheartattack]

Hello. Who’s ur comfort character? (Snk) what r ur notps for snk? And, last one, how do you write Levi and Mikasa so perfectly? Like their personalities and what they say- how do you even get good at that? I love all ur works

Hello! Thank you for reading and for taking the time to send a message!

I don't really have any comfort characters from SNK. I guess Levi? He's the only one who doesn't make me depressed about the series when I look at him lmao. Right now my comfort characters are my OCs, considering how much I enjoy brainstorming for them. (Both male leads I've written so far are masculine men with strong personalities who are also soft and kind. Now that I think about it, I tend to write Levi in a similar way in a modern AU where he's allowed to indulge his softness.)

In terms of notps, I think I've made my feelings on EM pretty clear. I'm not a fan of Levihan (love it platonically though, and I even follow some Levihan blogs) or Rivahisu either. However, I just filter everything I don't like so I barely even remember it exists.

I've been accused of writing Levi and Mikasa OOC before, so it's wonderful to hear that someone thinks I do it perfectly! I pay a lot of attention to how people talk IRL and sometimes I'll even say my dialogue out loud to make sure it flows. It's always been a big pet peeve of mine that authors who write "snappy" dialogue rarely write how people actually talk, instead they go all big and pretentious with it. I think Levi and Mikasa are relatively uncomplicated people (despite all the trauma), so their dialogue should be more straightforward. A lot of what I do is think, “How would a person who watched their parents die in front of them/was raised in a dangerous slum/is the only person they know who’s as strong as they are/etc. act in this situation?”

ETA: I rambled a lot about writing here, so I'm just gonna toss it below a read more.

In terms of Levi and Mikasa's personalities, I tend to focus on things we know canonically about the characters and then fill in the blanks from there. They're both relatively reserved people but they have a wicked sense of humor, and usually it relates to things that are scatological or taboo. I tend to focus on them being people who are stoic on the outside but very emotional on the inside, because that way I give myself an opportunity to explore their inner life, which usually involves some kind of domesticity (based upon Mikasa's desire for a family and Levi's potential career as a tea merchant).

I also like to drop in random canon or fanon facts, like Levi only sleeping a few hours a night or high school AU Mikasa being a goth, and then use those as jumping off points for further characterization. For example, writing a scene with cranky Levi doesn't hit as hard as writing a scene with cranky Levi when you know he's tired from a bad night of sleep and he's running on caffeine and fumes. It's easier to characterize him and add details to your writing by drawing on your own experiences of being tired: he probably feels like shit, he's exhausted, his eyes are puffy, he's yawning, he's not paying as close attention as he normally would be.

Another thing I do that helps keep me in tune with the characters is to decide what kind of Rivamika I want to write before I start writing. I decide how they feel about each other during the story and whether I want that to change. If I write a story where they're already friends, their personalities are going to show a lot differently in a story where they openly dislike each other, although I usually write them bickering in some way to reflect their interpersonal conflicts in canon.

The way I'm able to achieve all this complexity in my writing is that I tend to write pretty mechanically: I decide what goal I want to achieve with a story, then work backwards and figure out how to get there. For example, with the assassin AU, I knew it was going to center around a scene that was violent but also very caring and maybe even loving, so I made very sure to write Levi and Mikasa as people who argue a lot and say some really terrible things to each other, but who show deep respect through their actions. If they truly hated each other, Mikasa would never agree to sleep with him in any situation, so I had to make sure to add details that infer that maybe they don't actually hate each other that much. I really fixate on making my characters' motivations believable, so I was literally sitting there thinking, "If I were in Mikasa's shoes, in what scenario would I be okay having sex with a weird coworker?" Or I'll try to imagine a similar situation in my life where I thought I disliked someone but actually realized I would be upset if I didn't see them around. Especially with fanfiction, it's all about showing how the characters feel about each other, and what events and actions can make those feelings change.

I've already written enough here, but I wanted to emphasize one of the things I stand by as a writer that I think makes for better characterization: nothing is ever black or white. People are frequently conflicted or torn by competing desires, even when it comes to relatively easy decisions. (Especially when it comes to things like food and sex.) Even if someone falls strongly on one side of an issue, they can usually see the merits of both sides. No one is ever 100% good or evil, and oftentimes bad people genuinely believe they're doing the right thing. I try to make it so that every character in a story genuinely believes that they are doing their best, so when they come into conflict it's because they have deeper issues than just a simple misunderstanding or miscommunication. For example, in Inexorable, I wanted everyone to be sympathetic to a degree, even Eren, because I think it's too simple and unrealistic for him to be a straight up villain. Plus it makes the reader really feel for Mikasa, because both she and the reader can see that even though Eren was a dick, he's also trying to make things right. It makes her final decision that much more anxiety-inducing and ultimately satisfying because she has a good reason for being with Levi and a less good but still valid reason for being with Eren, and (hopefully) you don't know which one she'll pick. These problems often take a lot of thinking and brainstorming to resolve, but I find that they make for much more satisfying characterization and plot.

I could blab on about writing forever (obviously) so I'm always down to answer asks!

[furubabes]

Okay. Somebody Asked. @shoujobell and @cryptidaicat, y’all encouraged this. I’m gonna tag this #long post if you wanna filter.

So here. I got the urge to write and so I ranked the Fruits Basket couples from my favorite to least favorite. These aren’t my complete thoughts because I could honestly do multiple full meta posts on each pairing, but I tried to justify and explain all my choices. Standard disclaimer, this is subjective and we can agree to disagree.

Part 1: Just the reasonably popular ones

1. Kyoru: Someone’s gonna call me unoriginal for this but it’s fine. Kyoru is the main romance of Fruits Basket! They bring out the best in each other and build each other up as characters. Kyoru is basically my gold standard take on Sunshine Girl x Grouchy Dude, and I’m not even usually into that trope otherwise. Their romance is one of the few that feels so genuinely necessary to the story. They love each other and like each other. Kyo understands Tohru in a way no one else in the narrative does, and vice versa. They’re in love like soulmates and also like awkward teenagers. Kyoru invented romance. If it’s boring to like healthy romances with realistic development, I’ll be boring.

2. Tohrin: If Tohru didn’t end up with Kyo I would only want her to be with Rin. I guess they have some of the same appeal as Kyoru for me - Rin reads Tohru in a way a lot of people don’t. I also like how honest and raw they are with each other. They yell! They fight! Rin is down to just straight up knock Tohru over to keep her from rushing off. Also, they’re both absolute fashion icons. Goth x Prep rights. I firmly believe Tohru Honda is bisexual.

3. Yukeru: This is my favorite Yuki pairing. I followed @yunsoh way back when the reboot first started and her blog has got me absolutely hooked on Yukeru. I think Yuki’s arc would have just made a ridiculous amount of sense if he was gay. It screams comphet. Kakeru is an excellent complement to Yuki, and their bond feels incredibly natural. Honestly I feel like it’s the most organic romantic development outside of Kyoru. I think realistically they wouldn’t have gotten together until post-canon and frankly Yuki shines in his friendships much more than romances, so I’m not absolutely dying for them to be together, but if Yuki’s going to date anyone Kakeru is my pick.

4. Arisaki: Man... I just like them. They strike me as less of an epic love and more of a comfortable partnership. I also read them both as lesbians anyway lol. Honestly I think they both had feelings for Tohru at one point and bonded over it. The way I picture them happening is honestly just Arisa at 25 frantically googling “is it gay to hold hands with my girl roommate who I spend all my time with and also we never date men“ because Saki bought them rings that look like wedding bands but they could just be super close friendship rings and oh god she’s in too deep. They’re dating for four years before they notice.

5. AyaMine: But Jessie! You literally never post about this pairing! Yeah, you’re right. I never think about them actively. But when ranking the canon ships I realized that I like the two of them together because they’re chill and understated. They’re huge loud personalities on their own but as a couple, they just feel like two people who are happy together and like spending time with one another. No drama, no mess, very understated. No plot contrivances driving their relationship. Good for them.

6. YukiKyo: Okay, so I can be convinced to put on my YukiKyo goggles more often than not. It feels iffy because there’s debate about how closely related all the Sohmas are and these two are called “cousins” a lot in school, but since half of the Sohmas are dating each other anyway, I err on the side of them being more of a clan than a proper blood family. Anyway, YukiKyo is my designated angst fuel. I think it would realistically be pretty one-sided from Yuki’s side, since we see him wanting Kyo’s approval from a very young age, but I like exploring the what-ifs of their lives if they’d been friends instead of rivals. In canon, I like to think that after high school they’re not best friends in the traditional sense, but either one could show up with a dead body and the other would help them bury it, no questions asked.

7. Yuchi: Really? Yuki’s wife is my third favorite pairing for him? Look, I adore Machi, and I still like Yuchi. But as I’ve been watching the reboot and reading others’ metas, I think I agree that their relationship could have been very powerful as a platonic one, sort of running parallel to Yuki and Tohru. I like them together but I think there wasn’t quite time for a complete character arc for Machi and her growth sort of begins and ends with Yuki. I don’t object to them being a couple in canon and I think they’re genuinely very sweet, but once again, I think Yuki stands out in his friendships more than anything. I would have liked to see Machi strike out on her own a little more.

8. Haru x Yuki: I don’t have any particular feelings towards them but I love their dynamic already and I think as a couple they’d both be really easygoing and comfortable with each other. I think a childhood crush turned close friendship is honestly the narrative that works best for them so I have no need for the two to date canonically, but every time they interact in the anime it gets a laugh out of me. They’re cool. They’d make a very pretty pair.

9. Mayutori: I’m Mayutori-neutral. I think they suffer from Fruits Basket’s pair the spare syndrome, but out of the side pairings that don’t have too much impact, they’re one I enjoy. Mayu’s fun as a character, and painfully relatable, and I like that Hatori’s eventual romance isn’t with someone who reminds him of Kana or something like that. I also want good things for Hatori. Mayutori has serious heterosexual energy though. I’m not saying this as a pro or con, they’re just very straight.

10. Hatsuzu: Okay, Haru and Rin aren’t this far down because I hate them. I’m perfectly fine with them being together in canon. But I think their romance almost... functions better as individual motivation for their character arcs than it does as an actual relationship, if that makes sense? Rin’s backstory episode is heartbreaking and her motivation to protect Haru is compelling and sympathetic, but their actual scenes together just don’t move me that much. Their romance is the least interesting part of either character for me.

11. Hiro x Kisa: Yeah I never got into it that much. It’s cute, it’s a sweet depiction of childhood crushes, but I’m not a fan of the idea of them ending up together. Kisa’s a cutie and Hiro is entertaining but the two of them together don’t actually do much for me. The dynamic between them is almost like if someone did Kyoru with none of the nuance. Ultimately though, they’re kids. I don’t expect them to have a deep and complex romance.

12. Yukiru: I think it would be a disservice to their characters if they were a couple. People far more eloquent than me have already written plenty of meta on why Yuki and Tohru aren’t what the other needs romantically, so I won’t get into it, but basically I just think their canon friendship is so beautiful and meaningful that I wouldn’t want to change it. Yuki and Tohru support my thesis that not all soulmates are romantic.

13. Tohru x Momiji: Welcome to the subjective dislike corner! This pairing is reasonably popular among people theorizing who Tohru would be with if not Kyo, but for some reason it just sits poorly with me. I can’t rank it any lower because there’s nothing evil or morally wrong about it! I just really don’t like it. I’ve quit a few fics because this pairing came up and I just can’t enjoy it.

14. Kakeru x Komaki: Idk, I just think Kakeru latching onto the one girl who was nice to him and put up with his bullshit and then being with her forever isn’t compelling. Komaki’s also probably his beard. She’s likable as an individual though.

15. Akigure: There’s plenty to say about the age gap, Shigure being in love with Akito since she was a fetus because of The Dream, the implications of a 15-18 year old knowing he’d one day want to be with a then-10-year-old... yeah, you get it. But even if I was able to put all that aside because Soulmate Destiny Logic, I still don’t think I’d like Akigure. I think they’re interesting as bitter, codependent exes, but I don’t like the idea of Akito ending up with anyone who she abused or who abused her. I think she has so much growing to do as a character and staying in a relationship within the Sohma family to do it can’t be healthy for her. I can’t see them living happily ever after, nor do I really want to.

16. Kurisa: I think what frustrates me the most here is that I want to like Kureno and everything about this romance is written to dull his most interesting traits. First of all, the age gap. Yeah, it’s gross, I don’t like it. But even past that, the love at first sight, instant fixation with each other, and lack of actual chemistry just kills me. Arisa’s stated reason to like Kureno is that he reminds her of Tohru, basically piggybacking off the chemistry she and Tohru already have, and his total lack of agency means the plot just sort of carries him along. It frustrates me that Takaya could have done something pretty cool by making them simply friends who have a chance encounter and then build a friendship from there that parallels Kureno’s abusive dynamic with Akito. It would be neat if a stranger’s kindness was the push Kureno needed to get himself out of the Sohmas’ grasp, without all the nonsensical drama about them being in love. It would also be less of a disservice to Arisa, who basically just spends the whole series pining for Kureno after they meet and I hate it. I could write a whole post about this. Maybe I will sometime.

17. Kyoko x Katsuya: I don’t think their story is romantic. I think it’s tragic for Kyoko, and if it were framed that way within the narrative, I wouldn’t object so much to its existence. But... Takaya just really likes age gaps with a younger woman and an older man, so the narrative romanticizes this man marrying his student. Katsuya can be depicted as well-meaning as you want, but he’s still got a ridiculous amount of power over Kyoko. She was also still pretty young when she had Tohru, which doesn’t make things any better because it’s clear that the relationship turned physical when Kyoko was a teen, thus dashing the idea of Katsuya legally marrying her to save her but not actually doing anything creepy. I wish Fruits Basket framed this as a story of Kyoko escaping one dangerous situation by entering a relationship with a huge power imbalance, because that happens to girls all the time and it’s tragic and compelling. The events of the story could stay the exact same and if the framing changed I would be fine with it. But this is not that. This is just a really romanticized teacher/student age gap. I’m not into it.

Part 2: Rarepairs, weird shit, and others (oh my!)

1. Yuki x Kakeru x Kimi: OT3. I’m enamored with the idea of this hot mess polycule.

2. Momiji x Kimi: Chaos meets chaos. This couple would say uwu without any irony and also steal your car keys. They’re both perceptive and smart hidden under a layer of cute and I’d wanna watch them play 4D chess with each other.

3. Kazuma x Kunimitsu: Idk how old Kunimitsu is so if he’s like 20, strike this one from the record. But I saw one post once that was like Kyo slowly realizing Kazuma and Kunimitsu were gay and had been dating for years and it was funny as hell.

4. AyaTori: It’s cute. Opposites attract, black and white hair, and Aya only listens to Hatori anyway. It’s just fun to think about.

5. Megumi x Hiro: They don’t interact in canon I just think Goth x Punk-Ass Bitch is a great concept.

6. Motoko x Nao: They’re both loud as hell and Nao having a gf that towers over him is funny. Maybe Yuki would finally get some peace.

7. Machi x Kimi: I don’t see them actually being compatible in canon but I think they could have a really homoerotic college friendship.

8. Hajime x Mutsuki: This is just YukiKyo, the non angst version.

9. Akito x Hanajima: I’m so wary of shipping Akito with anyone but this is kind of fun. The two are friends in canon and Hana isn’t remotely afraid of Akito. Plus Akito never abused Hana. I can sort of see it.

10. Hiroshi x Yusuke: Makes no sense, wouldn’t be relevant, but if those two just never spent any time apart and continued being a pair for life it would be a really good bit.

11. Akitohru: I don’t think it’s healthy to date anyone who’s previously stabbed you.

12. Kazuma x Hanajima: Stop. Go to jail. Hana’s one-sided crush is funny though.

[uthseikoashx-inflamedme]

(sorry for the mistakes (and I'm not sure about several expressions). and it's only my opinion!)

A choice they might have to do in the future with Gellert Grindelwald

There's a gap between canon!Gellert and fanon!Gellert: fanon!Gellert is often way more human, struggled, suffering, sensible than he seems in FBtCoG. Basically, he is more layered.

In my opinion, producers, Yates and JKR will have to do a choice in the next movies between two Grindelwald.

the first one, the one we already know:

he hates Muggles, is always manipulative, highly insensible and detached from others. The Statute is an excuse to his own coup d'état, the revolution justifies his power lust. He definitely manipulated Albus since the beginning, is certainly not anymore in love with him - if he ever has been (I know Yates said they were both in love, so it is official, but still not canon). Maybe he is still obsessed, but his former love became contempt, disgust, etc). A true villain, a awful, detestable man with a Dark, not-able-of-empathy heart. It's the man who kills without a second glance, who actually rather enjoy doing it. The man who is delighted to see the aristocracy of the Wizarding world at his feet - well, the whole word at his feet. The one who had been able to move on after 1899 (at least, far more than Albus had been able to). The one who throws Antiono, who beat Credence and never thought about Credence's psychological state except to push him as far as he can to break him and finally, offering his help.

the other one, the one deeply developed through fan works:

he thinks the domination of Muggles in unfair and genuinely thinks Wizards are supposed to rule the world, so the abolition of the Statute is one of if aim - one of the three most important one. The second aim is to gather the Hallows, the third one is to be sure to be the one in charge (he's still longing for power). He's willingly affected by his visions, is tortured and constantly surrounded by doom and death. When he met Albus, he finally met a true equal - and whether or not his initial aim was to be sure of keeping Albus, a future likely threat, enable to move against him, he fell in love too (but didn't entirely acknowledge how deep his feels were before the end of the summer and later through the years). Years after, he didn't move on, and the Quest and the Revolution are painful to lead alone. Nevertheless, he is still sure he did the right choice: despite his regrets and - repressed, a bit denied - feelings, he knows Wizards and particularly him (he? idk) have both the right and the duty to take the power - it's his destiny, the role he's supposed to play and the goal to achieve. The one who wears the Blood Pact above his heart, the one who's still yearning and yet afraid of Albus. The one who's going to lose the battle because he will not be able to kill Albus when he's going to have the occasion to. The bitter, resentful, in pain, insecure and still manipulative and power hungry Gellert Grindelwald.

The huge problem here is: either we have a bit grotesque-ish Gellert who's basically a manipulative, hateful and deeply evil monster and we are extremely happy when Dumbledore finally defeat the bad guy; or we have a more layered and complex character, with more background, torn between his feelings and will of power - and chose power - a person who thinks he's doing the good although he leads a genocide, an eventually understandable character but who is a murderer, who is still evil, who manipulated and beat Credence, etc.

And a character like fanon!Gellert might sent the wrong message: we could hear "this man, who did awful things, is finally human and complex" instead of "even if he was able to love and thought doing good, he wasn't someone good at all, should not be appreciated and is entirely responsible of his actions, which are unpardonable".

That’s why I think we are going to have a 100% bad Grindelwald: it's way to dangerous and complicated to develop him - plus, when? The next films also have to develop Newt and his friends, Credence and Nagini - and last but lot least Albus bloody Dumbledore, and I didn't mention development about the universe, the politics and the plot. They might not have time and space to do it.

And an almost-100% bad Grindelwald buuuut with just a bit of emotional attachment, just enough to acknowledge he's human but not enough to justify any of his actions may be something really complex to do - idk if it's possible and something we would like. In a way, I believe (imo!) Gellert can't be a main character and consequently, have to stay as simplified as possible, not too layered, etc.

But we will see what JKR and Yates will do with him in the future?

(Again, it is how I see it, my opinion and point of view about it, maybe I'm more biased than I think, etc. And I heard that Yates said the plot of FB will eventually be "two men in love who have to fight" (give or take) so, why not? Idk)

[iceglade]

i made a thread on twitter about this but i've been thinking about vanilla vs royal i cant handle how happy i am that royal has made ppl like akechi more, not just for "hes hot" reasons bc ppl love that but winning over reddit* folks who dislike many fanon takes for being too wooby,

not that i particularly care for Wooby bc ive been in fandom for ages and i like seeing ppl happy - i know theres a certain degree of allowance when it comes to twisting canon characterization for content, because you're the content creator, its in your hands and cmon- 

but especially with royal i think akechi's serious edge "won over a lot of people" who can now respect him for how he approached refusing the dream world, i think thats something they can understand and appreciate - ESPECIALLY when a lot of ppl's beef with vanilla akechi was "daddy doesnt love me boo hoo" which is a GROSS misunderstanding/simplification of his EXTREMELY complex character, which was barely covered or etc bc of vanilla's horrid writing -- over all! its not JUST him - BUT, royal provided such a good opportunity to show off akechi's character, through giving him more screentime and VERY IMPORTANTLY: Plot Relevance like how, say mementos mission shows off joker's need to be helpful bc hes a deep-feeling person, or scramble showing off haru and makoto and the other thieves by drawing them against the new characters to compare and contrast and give them Time to BE, - royal gave akechi time to recover from the frankly AWFUL vanilla narrative decision to shoot and shove him off like chopped liver and never mention him again, so that many ppl's impression of akechi goro was of an incomprehensible, annoying character who blew up and then acted like he dont knowww know bodaay haghnaghnahgna   

i joke but SERIOUSLY a bad first AND last impression, REALLY... 

ahh. im just surprised !! every time someone says they like him or that they disliked him earlier but dont post-royal or etc etc it always takes me by surprise even after all this time !! it makes me very happy -though even as i focus on how happy i am that people like his character, even streamers talking about his ass (what ass... ... cindy thats bone) or etc-  i shouldnt, but i still count it as a sort of win because my standards are so low ;-;.. i dont like sexualizing characters (of any gender or sexuality, dont worry ^-^'') but the point of it all is that the amount of stannery is .. stunning i think, from all ends of the fandom, when i think about how nervous vanilla felt to me. if im wording this all right.

-- that being said. obviously there are ppl who still dont like him, VEHEMENTLY, and everyone gets so passionate about him and everything that tension and fights erupt very very quickly - it makes me wonder what about royal didnt hit with them, but hit with other people, in a Genuinely Curious kind of way. not that im not suuper passionate about goroboying, because, i am !! royal makes me very happy and i stay out of fights as best as i can because i know, ACUTELY, how PAINFUL it is to have a hyperfixation broken. nauseous furious shaking heart aching - its heartbreak !! i'd rather die before i inflicted a pain like that on someone. + id rather remember something for the love i felt for it than the harm.

(though while i'm here, people who were in the "# p5r spoilers" tag remember what happened a little while ago shortly after royal jpn came out , though that's for a whole other post about the fascinating history/sociology of that particular event, 👁✨)

- its not about me having to choose between a lesser of two evils. thats not my point

no matter how intensely my heart is in it, i want to be able to say that you can feel how you feel about characters, though any misinformation sits badly with me in hyperfixation hell. funnily enough, while back on the topic of Agency, which goro is in some dire need of - which may be the root of why so many femme-presenting folk or lesbians are fond of him, + respecting women + sex workers + etc GORO AKECHI CAN BE SOMEONE SO PERSONAL ACTUALLY-

* - oh, backreading my own post - i didnt mean to specify redditors as if they're the only ppl i'm talking about, but it was the first to come to mind ; i'm just thinking a lot about how it seems like people really like the light royal was able to display him in, both as a delightfully entertaining UNHINGED EDGELORD and a very focused, goal-oriented, respectable ally, to the point that people are MUCH more open about how much they love him nowadays, which does bring me no end of joy - its no surprise that the new appreciation, as well as atlus ... highlighting ..... aspects ...... of blask ...... and the new content, of course the fandom treats him like this, - thats fandom. this is how people do i suppose. from a witness' viewpoint. hdngngm

i see all i know all 👁 i will keep all of my opinions right here and then one day i will die. but. i'll be honest. despite everything. im actually really happy.

[flowitch]

supernatural and lgbtqia+ characters

DISCLAIMER: i love these characters, which is why i watch the show. i do also have many issues with the show and the writers. this isn’t a hate post for the story or the characters, just the way the characters have been treated. do not read this if you are not caught up and do not want spoilers. this is also kinda a mess but i got very passionate about this and wrote it during classes

Dean Winchester

i’m gonna start with my boy dean!! dean is mine along with many other people’s favorite characters because of how complex he is. and one of the things that adds depth to his character is his “journey” with his sexuality.

there are many examples of dean very clearly not being straight, and he is officially headcanoned (and i guess canon now) as bisexual. you don’t even need to include dean and cas scenes for examples of his bisexuality. here is a video showing examples without any cas scenes:

https://youtu.be/rQSPmmuLJB0

now that we’ve established he is bisexual, let’s talk about the contradiction between the writing of his sexuality and character. the one i’m itching to talk about first is the confession scene in 10x16.

https://youtu.be/IqBHkwi13ic

in this scene, dean says, and i quote, if you don’t want to watch the video and don’t remember, “There's things, there's...people...feelings that I- I want to experience differently. Maybe even for the first time.” there honestly is no other way to interpret this. i’ve tried to put myself in the mind of the writers and the homophobes but i genuinely cannot interpret this another way. this is very clearly about his sexuality, being that there were no love interests at the time that this would apply to (not that this would even apply to a straight couple anyway). and not only does this confession scene occur, but sam even comments on how he was in there for a long time and he could always talk to him if he needs to!!!! they could have easily not had sam say anything about how long he spent in there, being that we as the viewers have no clue as to how long he was in there. they wrote that specifically to show that what he said in there had meaning and importance.

the writers and the crew of the show play into dean’s sexuality consistently with scenes, song of the days from the crew, etc., but then deny that destiel or dean’s bisexuality is real. i think a lot of this has to do with the fact that dean has always been considered as a “macho man” who shows very little emotion and has trouble with vulnerability. and that’s true! he absolutely is. but this show had 15 years to allow him to slowly work through his feelings and his issues with his own sexuality and self. the confession is a great example of the writers being almost there and then never speaking about it again.

even if you aren’t bisexual, you can see how much biphobia there is in the world. and as a bisexual woman i can say that bisexuality in men is so looked down upon it’s disturbing. men coming to terms with their bisexuality, especially if they are considered straight and “manly”, always makes me so happy since it’s not as accepted as female bisexuality. and this is another reason why supernatural exploring dean’s bisexuality would have been so incredible. seeing a man on television who has a lot of internal issues come to terms with something so complex and life changing would have been monumental to so many people. the writers had an infinite amount of ways to go about this because of things that THEY wrote, and instead chose to ignore his sexuality and have him not respond to castiel’s confession in 15x18. it’s very clear he was in shock in that episode so i’m not mad, but it is also clear that they wrote it that way to not fully make deancas canon.

dean winchester is bisexual, and the writers wrote him that way. nobody pulled this out of their ass, destiel didn’t become popular randomly and for no reason, they wrote him this way. this is their own writing that they have chosen to ignore and contradict for 15 seasons and it’s disappointing.

Castiel

this entire post is being written on november 6, 2020. one day after 15x18 aired. castiel is now canonically queer, and was already sent to someplace worse than hell. because he was happy. which directly connected to his love for dean. i honestly don’t even have to write cas’ section because that is enough, but i’ll write about his mistreatment anyway.

we knew the only thing that would make cas truly happy would be something with dean. well we assumed the writers would make up some other bullshit, but we hoped that it had something to do with dean. and sure enough, it was his love confession. and what i loved about this was cas starts it off by saying two beautiful things. one, that he knows he can never have what he really wants (dean), but he’s just as happy telling dean he loves him. he doesn’t need to have him to be happy with where they end their story, as long as dean knows. and the other thing he starts off by saying is that he knows how dean sees himself. he lists off all of these extremely kind things about dean and how dean is what made cas care about the world. he is the reason castiel went from an emotionless soldier to a fallen angel that feels deep love for people.

this confession scene although tainted by the fact that he died right after, which we’ll talk about, and the fact that it took this damn long, really means a lot to me. it was so incredible seeing cas be unapologetically open, honest, in love, and himself. he was for the first time since we’ve known him, completely and totally content. he told the man he loves how incredible he thinks he is and how he loves him, and knew he was saving him from billie by doing it. we’ve never seen him that happy. and it’s heartbreaking. 

misha summed it up perfectly i think: “Tonight, watching Cas talk to Dean, I got lost in the story and forgot for a moment that I’m the one who plays that angel and I thought, “He’s how I want to be. He’s openhearted and he’s selfless and he’s true.”

this was the first time we saw cas living his whole truth, and he immediately died. in terms of just bad taste, sending someone who just came out to angel hell is very disturbing, but it’s just further proof of the writers not caring about their lgbtqia+ characters. it’s like they gave us what we wanted, but there just had to be a catch, right? these writers very clearly do not care about their queer characters or fans, and what they did to cas here shows that plain as day.

obviously i really do want dean to save cas from the empty to parallel cas saving him from hell, but do i think it’ll happen in these last two episodes? no. first off i just don’t think misha filmed for the last two episodes, but also, the writers have made it clear that they do not care about cas in general, nevermind their now love story. it just does not sit right with me that he got sent to the empty for eternity because he was finally his whole self and happy.

Charlie Bradbury (our world + au)

we have seen charlie bradbury die twice, both times for no reason at all. the first time we saw her die, it was by the hands of a NAZI, and her body was THROWN INTO A BATHTUB. like i said before with cas, that was explanation enough i mean come ON. the second time we witnessed charlie die was in 15x18, (along with the whole world i know bare with me), which we did NOT need to see. 

let’s start with the fact that for all of these characters, supernatural creates and writes them wonderfully for the most part. we fall in love with these characters because of the way they were written, acted, and the dynamic with other characters. unfortunately in supernatural, if you are queer or a woman or god forbid both, that dynamic with other characters will be the death of you. 

i’m gonna talk about each other her deaths individually. so her first death. the only reason for her death was to further sam and dean’s (mostly dean’s) man pain. although i eat up the reactions of other characters when another dies, this just felt completely unnecessary to me. the writers wrote a fan-favorite character, and decided that the best course of action was to brutally murder her to further dean’s mark of cain storyline. and i loved that storyline! i loved the scene of dean getting revenge for charlie! but it did not need to happen. the only thing the fans wanted was for her to be alive and well, get more screentime and possibly have a girlfriend. 

when directly asked why they thought killing charlie was a good idea, jeremy carver said: 

“That’s an excellent question, and it, it’s tough just because...any time you have a favorite character on a show...People die on the show. And, and, and...and, unfortunately...So...there’s so many ways to answer that. And I feel, I, I...it’s tough for me to answer. She’s an absolutely beloved character, beloved on the show...And when we’re in the writer’s room...we have to go where the story takes us. And we try and do it without, um...(insert fans booing and the cast laughing at him)...this is the world day of my life. And I’d like to thank everyone up here for the support.” (they were not helping).

not only did he not have a clue on how to answer a question that should have an understandable answer, but then the best thing that he could come up with is “we have to go where the story takes us.” but why would that possibly be where the story takes you? if supernatural had more diversity than straight white males and possibly one woman that dies or is evil, then fine kill off whoever you want even if i don’t like it. but it becomes a gender and sexuality issue when she is not only the only recurring female character at the time, but also the only recurring lgbtqia+ character at the time (minus cas). 

now the second time she’s died. mind you this isn’t our world’s charlie. they brought her back for the fans and for the cast/crew that love her and felicia. we’ve established that she’s here living her life someplace. we haven’t heard anything about her for a hot minute, and then they decide to bring her back for 15x18. i was thrilled! i could not wait to see her, and was even more excited when she showed up on my television. and then, even better, we found out she has a girlfriend who she lives with and is clearly happy/comfortable with. and then what happens, may you ask? her girlfriend, stevie, a queer woman of color, vanishes. boom another unnecessary lgbtqia+ and woman death that could have been avoided if they just wrote in sam and dean calling her for help. 

later on in the episode, everyone on earth excluding dean, sam, and jack are gone- completely vanished where they stood. charlie of course is among those people. bare with me here, i know everyone vanished and it’s not the same as the first one. but here’s my issue with it: she did not have to come back. i would have rather had donna say “jodie, the girls, charlie, they’re ready to go when you need them”, and then they all vanish off screen. but instead they went through the trouble of bringing her back, showing her happy, having her experience a painful loss, and then disappear anyway. what was the point in having her in the episode?

like i mentioned earlier with dean being representation for bisexual men, charlie was just that for lesbians!! the amount of posts i’ve seen on multiple platforms talking about how much they resonated with charlie or how heartbroken they were no longer having representation on their favorite show is awful. there was a kickass nerdy, kind, strong, loving lesbian on your show not once but twice (au charlie), and you blew it. 

Claire + Kaia (Dreamhunter)

this part isn’t going to be long because there are some exceptions: wayward sisters failed spinoff (i’m still heartbroken i want it so bad), kathryn newton’s new status and inability to be in the show, etc.. so i guess this will just be a short thing about wayward sisters and what that could mean for claire and kaia. 

they had already established in supernatural that kaia was claire’s first love. we had gotten some really cute scenes with them, and then wayward sisters was finally a possibility. if the show had gone through, which i’m not sure why it didn’t, claire and kaia’s relationship could have been a goldmine. young girls could see themselves represented by characters already adored by supernatural fans. it would’ve shown a beautiful wlw relationship between two young girls who are also kickass and can keep up with their elders/male counterparts. 

i can’t pin this on the writers sadly (lmao), but i am still upset that we didn’t get wayward sisters. it would’ve meant a lot to women and to the lgbtqia+ community. 

My thoughts

like i said in the disclaimer, i love these characters and the story of supernatural. i always will. but i can’t lie about how frustrating it is seeing women, lgbts and people of color get constantly disregarded and mistreated. the writers had 15 years to get with the times, and the growth of society. stuff that i saw in season one and wasn’t surprised by should not still be happening in season 15. having writers that are all straight white males/women is not enough anymore. it never was. there has to be something for everyone in a show as big as this. it’s not about meeting diversity requirements, it’s about actually having diversity because it’s real. there are no diversity requirements for people in society. these are just people of different races, ethnicities, sexualities, genders, etc. who want to see someone like them represented on the things that they watch. it’s a lonely feeling not being validated by a show that you love.  

i might make another post specifically for the women mistreatment and queerbaiting on this show but that’s all for my essay on why supernatural sucks at not mistreating their queer characters :)

[lachryphage]

my bnha ships are decidedly Wholesome™ so I’ve found it refreshing to join the Gorillaz fandom and explore 2doc, an inherently “problematic” ship. but this contrast highlights the issues I have with the concept of “wholesomeness” and the reduction of characters and ships to the extremes of Pure~ uwu Unproblematic Fluff or Worst Vile Abuse If You Like This You Should Be Executed.

while I don’t believe that fiction and reality have a direct cause-and-effect relationship, I see similar attitudes increasingly applied to real life situations and I find this deeply concerning. healthy relationships are not devoid of conflict, unhealthy relationships aren’t always abusive, and even the best of people often carry heavy baggage that can negatively impact their interpersonal relationships.

in bnha I primarily ship erasermight (and secondarily, erasermic, or the rare, coveted, allerasermic). although this ship is not devoid of drama, it’s generally accepted that it’s an Unproblematic ship by all but the most zealous of Purity Police. but the pro-ship community surrounding erasermight approaches it in a fundamentally different way than antis would.

while there is plenty of fluff, I would say that the vast majority of the content we produce for erasermight is an exploration of the unhealthy aspects of the characters. both Aizawa and Yagi have been through absolute hell, and their experiences have marred them with flaws fundamental to their characters. these flaws have the potential to fuck up any relationship between the two, and often the way we depict them directly explores this. it’s a wholesome ship because it is two genuinely good people -- who genuinely care for one another -- trying to understand their mutual love. but we do not shy away from delving into what antis consider “abusive” behavior. (anyone up for some impulsive, impromptu, non-negotiated bdsm that goes too far?)

personally, I prefer the realism brought through acknowledging characters’ gray areas but I do of course believe you can like pure, sugar-sweet, tooth-rotting fluff without necessarily being an anti. I’ve just found that in the extremity of this rising issue, it’s that content and only that content that’s considered acceptable.

and thus, we find ourselves now at 2doc.

the Gorillaz fandom is predominantly zealous antis; it’s a radically different climate than the type of fandom I’ve grown accustomed to in my happy little corner of bnha. the most popular ship is the subject of much of this controversy because of the undeniable abuse that Murdoc enacts upon 2D. generally, fans either wholly condemn 2doc, or insist that it’s only acceptable if Murdoc undergoes some kind of therapy during which he learns to become a Good Person capable of a Healthy Loving Relationship with 2D.

whether you want their relationship to (eventually) be “wholesome” or not, I strongly believe that this is a disservice to the complexity of both characters.

whether or not Murdoc is a Good person is highly debatable, and a discussion of that particular topic necessitates a deep exploration of ethics and what it means to be a good person. and as much as we might want such a thing to be simple -- for our own understanding of ourselves and the world at large -- it isn’t simple. but that’s a discussion for a different time. whatever you believe, “canon” (also a highly debatable subject in the context of Gorillaz) depicts Murdoc as both decidedly vile and unexpectedly, genuinely caring. 

I’d like to clarify that I’m not against “out of character” depictions -- I take issue with there being only a few “acceptable” ways to depict a character. and in Murdoc’s case, he must either be condemned as irredeemably evil, or reformable into a fully Good person. this results in the complete reduction of his character and everything that makes him compelling.

both the Unproblematic depictions of 2doc and the complete condemnation of 2doc similarly reduce 2D -- he becomes the Good to Murdoc’s Evil.

2D is considerably nicer than Murdoc. he’s pretty(?) and charming and doesn’t seem to do anything with malice or even bad intentions. Murdoc takes advantage of his trusting, clueless nature. but 2D is still very much a complex character with decidedly shitty behaviors with the potential to contribute unhealthy dynamics to 2doc. 

outside the predominant attitudes of the Gorillaz fandom, people enjoy unhealthy, often depraved depictions of 2doc, pushing the abuses between them to the extremes. in these depictions I have found more acknowledgement of these characters’ complexities, so I do prefer them to the Unproblematic brand, but ultimately they also fail to satisfy my personal preference for realism (I know, I’m really quite boring, don’t @ me!!!).

it is with this context that I’d like to return to the concept of wholesomeness and how I categorized erasermight as a “wholesome” ship:

“it is two genuinely good people -- who genuinely care for one another -- trying to understand they’re mutual love.”

in my opinion, 2doc can’t be defined as wholesome, at least not entirely. I think there is real potential for moments of wholesomeness to occur between them, and to me that’s where the ship becomes the most rewarding. 

I have never seen someone claim 2D is a bad person, and while I wouldn’t say Murdoc is a Good person, he has undeniable potential for good. and so the first “criteria” of wholesomeness is neither fulfilled nor denied -- it’s a gray area, something you could push one way or another depending on your inclination. do they genuinely care for each other? of course, you can interpret characters how ever you please, but I think there is plenty of canon evidence that they do genuinely care for one another. so finally… do they have mutual love? perhaps that is the ultimate ambiguity: love, yet another human concept that necessitates deep interrogation to answer -- if it is answerable at all. but that’s a discussion for another time.

if you haven’t noticed yet, the deeper we go, the more questions we find, the more complex things get, the wider these gray areas become… the more obvious it is that 2doc is neither entirely devoid of “wholesomeness” nor unsalvageably abusive. that’s what makes it interesting. that’s what makes it real. that’s what makes it worth exploring, that’s what allows us to investigate potential real-life relationship dynamics, what allows us to recontextualize and better understand our own experiences. it’s what makes it -- in my humble opinion -- beautiful. 

I strongly believe in the power of fiction to help us understand our world and the people who populate it. of course fiction doesn’t have a congruent cause-and-effect relationship with reality, actually, I’d argue it goes the other way. fiction is a mirror in which we can see the current state of our society -- its ideals, fears, hopes… and similarly we can see our own personal lives.

my fear is that the growing push for purity in fiction is the symptom of people desperate to reduce their own realities into extremes. that perhaps, in their own lives, these people categorize everyone as either an Abuser or a Victim, that all actions are Right or Wrong, that hurting people is a preventable, evil action rather than an inevitability of being alive… but, of course, that is a different discussion for a different time.