#i love it when people enjoy it bc it means my extremely specific niche also appeals to other people!!!

[brainrotdotorg]

giggling and kicking my feet like a dumbass while reading the Inventory series !! good n silly

— Manwhoring 🐮 (should be asleep)

tee hee interned reaction gotten!!!!

[quidfree]

Your katsuki, shouto and todobaku pet peeves respectively (If you like reading them too)? And my sincere thanks for providing such precious gems called your fics 💖

honestly i don't read much bnha fic or even that much fic in general bc i'm usually too busy writing it. and when i do read fic it's for weird very niche/dead fandoms or pairings i feel like lol.

but my pet peeves are always just any measure of OOC, with differing levels of tolerance for certain choices. let me see what's some questionable stuff i've come across uhhh

katsuki:

aggro sexy dom daddy vibe... especially when it involves any kind of pet names. no this guy would not be calling anyone 'baby girl'. he is not a tiktok mafia au trend.

on the other end of the spectrum, complete soft baby blushy tsundere. he told midoriya to jump off a roof bc he had no future in middle school okay he is... not that.

either way too dramatically brooding/'emo' or completely lacking self awareness. bonjour nuance

also just get his friendships right please. you should be able to make him part of a solid friend group without it feeling like a completely different person. like i think he'd be a very good friend down the line but that doesn't mean i can see him being #goofy besties with everyone.

shouto:

well similar to above either making him too cutesy soft and fragile (todoroki shouto? certified bad motherfucker todoroki shouto? backtalks cops and throws people out of arenas via icebergs? nah) or making him just like. extremely bland stoic. he has a personality y'all.

trying too hard to make him like.. #relatable or sassy is also always a bit too obvious. like if it sounds like a joke someone on tiktok would made realistically shouto would not be making it yk. 'it's the trauma for meeee' i don't think so....

gotta strike the right balance for the family drama. it's bad for him but he's also really emotionally resilient.

todobaku:

when they're not funny/don't banter. have you met these mfs their every interaction is comedy gold.

like just OOC in general!!!!!! relationship content tends to warp either or both characters to fit a trope instead of bending a trope to fit the characters, which is just a waste. if it's not fundamentally a relationship of equals instead of one strong/one needy chara i'm not interested and that's that.

them having very... 'basic' relationship dynamics where they're netflix romcom vibes and have like normal dating progression. first of all adapt romance to the people involved, but also i just do not believe that like. todoroki would be out there texting anyone 'baby ily sm <3333' yk what i mean.

either party being angst central dramatics for the other person to sentimentally ~fix~ as if they don't share the vast bulk of their trauma / have similarly stoic ways of dealing with angst. i'm all for h/c but not melodrama. especially don't enjoy when people add random shit to canon to justify drama like sexual abuse. just not for me

this isn't even about todobaku specifically but i've never seen a good ABO fic in my life. and i do say 'see' because i admittedly tend to not get past the descriptions.

ok that's all i can think of off the top of my head. but please feel free to tell me about the worst ones you've encountered i love to hear people's horror stories.

[firelxdykatara]

I’m just really confused as to where this idea that Zuko is gaycoded came from. Like people are allowed to have that headcanon but I don’t understand where people are coming from when they try and claim that he was undisputedly gaycoded and trying to deny it is homophobic when he’s only ever shown romantic interest in women.

I made a pretty long post on the topic a while back, but the ultimate gist of it is this: there are a lot of elements of Zuko's status as an abuse victim and trauma survivor that resonate with queer folks. This is understandable and completely fine! However, there are some parts of the fandom who have taken that to the other extreme and will now insist that those elements are uniquely queer, and that they can only be read as some sort of veiled gay/coming out narrative, even though that doesn't make much sense since there is no part of Zuko's narrative which is unique to any sort of queer experience.

I think the problem really does stem from two things being conflated--Zuko's history of abuse and trauma, and trauma&abuse being something a lot of queer people have experienced. I suspect it goes something like 'I see a lot of myself in Zuko, and I was abused for being gay, therefore Zuko must be gay too in order to have had similar experiences.' This can then lead to feeling dismissed or invalidated when other people point out that those experiences are not unique to being queer--but on the flip side, abuse victims and trauma survivors whose abuse&trauma do not stem from queerness (even if they are queer themselves) can feel invalidated and dismissed by the implication that their trauma must be connected to their queerness or it isn't valid.

This is also where the 'people don't actually know what gay coded means' part comes in, and I realize now that I didn't actually get into what gay coding (and queer coding in general) actually means, since I was so hung up on pointing out how Zuko doesn't really fit the mold. (And the few elements that exist which could be said to count are because of the 'villains historically get queer coded bc Hays Code era' thing and mostly occur in Book 1, not because of how he acts as an abuse&trauma survivor.)

Under a cut because I kind of go on a tangent about gay/queer coding, but I swear I get back to the point eventually.

Queer coding (and it is notable that, with respect to Zuko, it is almost always framed as 'he couldn't possibly be attracted to girls', rather than 'he could be attracted to boys as well as girls' in these discussions, for... no real discernible reason, but I'll get into that in a bit) is the practice of giving characters 'stereotypically queer' traits and characteristics to 'slide them under the radar' in an era where having explicitly queer characters on screen was not allowed, unless they were evil or otherwise narratively punished for their queerness. (See: the extant history of villains being queer-coded, because if they were Evil then it was ok to make them 'look gay', since the story wasn't going to be rewarding their queerness and making audiences think it was in any way OK.) This is thanks to the Motion Picture Production Code (colloquially and more popularly known as the Hays Code), which was a set of guidelines which movies coming out of any major studio had to adhere to in order to be slated for public release and lasted from the early 1930s until it was finally abandoned in the late 60s.

The Hays Code essentially existed to ensure that the content of major motion pictures would not 'lower the moral standards' of the viewing public. It didn't just have to do with queerness--cursing was heavily monitored, sex outside of marriage was not allowed to be seen as desirable or tittilating, miscegenation was not allowed (most specifically interracial relationships between black and white people), criminals had to be punished lest the audience think that it was ok to be gay and do crime, etc. Since same-sex relations fell under 'sexual perversion', they could not be shown unless the 'perversion' were punished in some way. (This is also the origin of the Bury Your Gays trope, another term that is widely misunderstood and misapplied today.) To get around this, queer coding became the practice by which movies and television could depict queer people but not really, and it also became customary to give villains this coding even more overtly, since they would get punished by the end of the film or series anyway and there was nothing to lose by making them flamboyant and racy/overly sexual/promiscuous.

Over time, this practice of making villains flamboyant, sexually aggressive, &etc became somewhat separated from its origins in queer coding, by which I mean that these traits and tropes became the go-to for villains even when the creator had no real intention of making them seem queer. This is how you generally get unintentional queer-coding--because these traits that have been given to villains for decades have roots in coding, but people tend to go right to them when it comes to creating their villains without considering where they came from.

Even after the Hays Code was abandoned, the sentiments and practices remained. Having queer characters who weren't punished by the narrative for being queer was exceptionally rare, and it really isn't until the last fifteen or so years that we've seen any pushback against that. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is famous for being one of the first shows on primetime television to feature an explicitly gay relationship on-screen, and that relationship ended in one of the most painful instances of Bury Your Gays that I have ever personally witnessed. (Something that, fourteen years later, The 100 would visually and textually reference with Lexa's death. Getting hit by a bullet intended for someone else after a night of finally getting to be happy and have sex with her s/o? It wasn't remotely subtle. I don't even like Clexa, but that was incredibly rough to witness.)

However, bringing this back to Zuko, he really doesn't fit the criteria for queer coding for a number of reasons. First of all, no one behind the scenes (mostly a bunch of cishet men) was at all intending to include queer rep in the show. This wasn't a case where they were like 'well, we really wanted to make Zuko gay, but we couldn't get that past the censors, so here are a few winks and a nudge', because it just wasn't on their radar at all. Which makes sense--it wasn't on most radars in that era of children's programming. This isn't really an indictment, it's just a fact of the time--in the mid/late 00s, no one was really thinking about putting queer characters in children's cartoons. People were barely beginning to include them in more teen- and adult-oriented television and movies. It just wasn't something that a couple of straight men, who were creating a fantasy series aimed at young kids, were going to think about.

What few instances you can point to from the series where Zuko might be considered to exhibit coding largely happen in Book 1, when he was a villain, because the writers were drawing from typically villainous traits that had historically come from queer coding villains and had since passed into common usage as villainous traits. But they weren't done with any intention of making it seem like Zuko might be attracted to boys.

And, again, what people actually point to as 'evidence' of Zuko being queer-coded--his awkwardness on his date with Jin and his confrontation with Ozai being the big ones I can think of off the top of my head--are actually just... traits that come from his history of trauma and abuse.

As I said in that old post:

making [zuko’s confrontation of ozai] about zuko being gay and rejecting ozai’s homophobia, rather than zuko learning fundamental truths about the world and about his home and about how there was something deeply wrong with his nation that needed to be fixed in order for the world to heal (and, no, ‘homophobia’ is not the answer to ‘what is wrong with the fire nation’, i’m still fucking pissed at bryke about that), misses the entire point of his character arc. this is the culmination of zuko realizing that he should never have had to earn his father’s love, because that should have been unconditional from the start. this is zuko realizing that he was not at fault for his father’s abuse--that speaking out of turn in a war meeting in no way justified fighting a duel with a child.

is that first realization (that a parent’s love should be unconditional, and if it isn’t, then that is the parent’s fault and not the child’s) something that queer kids in homophobic households/families can relate to? of course it is. but it’s also something that every other abused kid, straight kids and even queer kids who were abused for other reasons before they even knew they were anything other than cishet, can relate to as well. in that respect, it is not a uniquely queer experience, nor is it a uniquely queer story, and zuko not being attracted to girls (which is what a lot of it seems to boil down to, at the end of the day--cutting down zuko’s potential ships so that only zukka and a few far more niche ships are left standing) is not necessary to his character arc. nor does it particularly make sense.

And, regarding his date with Jin:

(and before anyone brings up his date with jin--a) he enjoyed it when she kissed him, and b) he was a traumatized, abused child going out on a first date. of course he was fucking awkward. have you ever met a teenage boy????)

Zuko is socially awkward and maladjusted because he was abused by his father as a child and has trouble relating to people as a result. He was heavily traumatized and brutally physically injured as a teenager, and it took him years to begin to truly recover from the scars that left on his psyche (and it's highly likely, despite the strides he made in canon, that he has a long way to go, post series; it's such a pity that we never got any continuation comics >.>). He was not abused for being gay or queer--he was abused because his father believed he was weak, and part of Zuko's journey was realizing that his father's perception of strength was flawed at its core. That his entire nation had rotted from the inside out, and the regime needed to be changed in order for the world--including his people--to begin to heal.

That could be commingled with a coming out narrative, which is completely fine for headcanons (although I personally prefer not to, because, again, we have more than enough queer trauma already), but it simply doesn't exist in canon. Zuko was not abused or traumatized for being queer, and his confrontation with Ozai was not about him coming out or realizing any fundamental truth about himself--it was about realizing something fundamental about his father and his nation, and making the choice to leave them behind so that he could help the Avatar grow stronger and force things to change when he got back.

TL;DR: at the end of the day, none of the traits, scenes, or behavior Zuko exhibits which shippers tend to use to claim he was gay-coded are actually evidence of coding--they aren't uniquely queer experiences, as they stem from abuse that was not related in any way to his sexuality, and they are experiences that any kid who suffered similar abuse or trauma could recognize and resonate with. (Including straight kids, and queer kids who were abused for any reason other than their identity.) And, finally, Zuko can be queer without erasing or invalidating his canon attraction to girls, and it's endlessly frustrating that the 'Zuko is gay-coded' crowd refuses to acknowledge that.

[isabellehemlock]

🏆

Thanks Bee for sending me a reader ask 😍

🏆 "What do you wish more authors in your fandom would write about?"

This is such a loaded question that could go multiple ways lol . . . But I think the reader asks are looking for subject matter, so let's head there 😅

Though before I do, allow me to say, that though there are some tropes that I enjoy, or fics I'll blog about because I really resonated with something, I don't think my personal opinion should really sway any author in any way. It's one thing to share resource posts about a subject matter, and another to inadvertently imply my personal opinion is like the standard to aim for.

Also, this got way longer, and heavier than I ever thought it would so quick cw warning for themes of religious LGBT+ character representation and (non descriptive references to) spiritual abuse mentioned below.

Okay all that being said . . . Honestly? I, and many other faithful people (of any religion, not just Christians) are on a spectrum that is not heteronormative. It can feel like a fairly niche group to toe the line between two very specific identities and some of my greatest joys have been to write and read about characters like me (I know, I know, self projection to the extreme). If you ever wanted to read a post that spoke to me on a core level about how exhausting it can feel to navigate those two things (though it ends on a hopeful note), please check out this one that I keep on my phone.

I've been truly blessed to have had opportunities of discussions with other people of faiths in this fandom about LGBT+ issues, but some of us would love to see more representation for both religious and LGBT+ affirming, because it can feel so miniscule. But we exist, and even the smallest possibility to see that in fandom spaces and across platforms - where it can echo our real life experiences - just yeah, it really does mean something to see it.

You weren't there last November, Bee, but @mostlyimmortal commissioned the header in my blog for me for my birthday - it's Joe and Nicky in the helicopter scene, praying together and holding prayer beads of their respective faiths. I literally started crying when I saw it and recorded a video I shared bc my hands were too shaky to type it all out. I was a blubbering mess trying to express my thanks because I was seeing something so deeply personal that spoke to a younger version of myself. It felt both healing and like a relief. I love that picture.

Of course the other half of all of this is the very real and hard truth that religious trauma exists - in fact I've personally experienced spiritual abuse in relation to my sexuality as well - and the last thing I would ever want someone to do is to read something that involves a religious LGBT+ character and have a triggering response - it's why I over tag my fics. And I definitly don't mean to come across as suggesting anyone should make themselves push through a discomfort and write something that would bring pain (writing should bring joy, or healing, but never pain). Same goes for reading, I would never want anyone to pressure themselves to read my fics and experience anything but either joy, or healing, or both.

And really, the fact is within this fandom, we have no concrete evidence that any of the characters are religious (maybe Nicky with the script leak and some visual comic references but again maybe) and gosh, my brain is tired, I forgot about Nile and her cross and her "not my God" line (thanks Bee). So frankly a fic where they are not religious, or used to be but now hate all things religious is no less valid of a take. Just want to be super clear about that.

So long it's tagged accordingly so each reader can make an informed decision about whether to read it or not, I'll admit I'd love to see more of the TOG characters as religious LGBT+, and I know I'm not the only one 😊

[halflingkima]

Thots on the current state of popular TV?

uhh trashcan dumbpster fire.

To expound, we first have to define what we mean by “popular” tv. Do we simply mean most widely watched? Or do we mean most widely loved, appreciated, enjoyed? And therefore do we mean award-winning? Or like “popular” music, do we mean a specific style or genre? For my purposes, I’d go with “most widely watched” regardless of opinion, but I’d also rather focus on the industry, bc it’s not like consumers rly have any modicum of control over what’s produced.

Some claim we’re still in a second “golden age of television” but as with the trajectory of any “age,” I think we’ve past the tipping point.

I believe the said “golden age” peaked after s*perwh*l*ck (yes it’s problematic as a fandom, but the level of investment and devotion was extremely telling of tv culture) and during the emergence of the first n*tflix originals, when h*lu wasn’t d*sney and still had a free option. imo, the tipping point was when new services emerged and n*tflix focused on increasing subscriptions rather than keeping the ones they had. Also fits that niche right before every novel and movie and miniseries was a reboot or sequel. When the focus was simply on telling a good story, rather than wriging new money out of old fans.

(I have to address my nostalgia as an effect on my judgement. My perspective is influenced, if not entirely based upon, my greater enjoyment of television in that era. I’ve struggled to enjoy anything for the last few years, whereas during that period, I felt as though certain shows were a part of me in a way.)

I suppose my point is that the introduction of streaming was the peak of the age, and thus brings about its end. We’ve passed the point where streaming is novel and innovative and reached the point where it’s standard and intensively commodified – not that it wasn’t commodified initially, but now its sole purpose is to make money, whereas initially it had also been a revolutionary new platform for new creators and new audiences.

I also think the introduction of the binge-model cheapens the medium as a whole. I don’t inherently disagree with binge-model stories, but i dislike the culture it’s created. New shows that aren’t “bingeable” or “nonstop” are akin to relics of the past, and spoilers pop up mere hours after shows “drop” – like they’re albums lmao. Just because a narrative isn’t one big monolith doesn’t mean it doesn’t have value. I think binge-model shows deserve a place, but I hate the culture that’s built around them.

Another example of the “golden age” disintegrating is the direct line of communication between creators and fans (and I feel this most viscerally thru CR, though that’s not a television show). Young people gaining an awareness and social media presence just now aren’t aware we’ve begun the fall of this golden age. They think this communication is an inherent right. Others think this communication is a sign the golden age is still on the rise – to them, crowd-sourced stories are a symbol of the future, a digital communication age.

When in reality all this does is muddy the original intention of these stories. That’s not to say we can’t critique or call out tv shows and their creators – racism, misogyny, ableism are all important things to unlearn. I’m talking about the petitions to relaunch shows (b99, spn, every show that’s gone on too long), the demands for certain ships to be endgame. 

I’m sorry, I think I’ve slipped into my lament about the decline fandom culture.

tl;dr: I believe the current state of popular television indicates that we’re in the decline of the second golden age of television. That’s not to say that all current pop tv is bad, or that the medium hasn’t made significant positive growth, specifically wrt representation and genre (leads of color, queer/disabled mcs, wider respect for animation, child actors playing their age – all significant). However, as is the usual course of events, capitalism has ruined it.

[kashimos-hajime]

Hi! So I have a question, I’m a new writer to some fandoms and I was wondering if you had any advice on how to become a more well known writer / achieve more notes on works as a new writer in fandoms. I love writing and I really don’t put my stuff out solely for notes but, when I put effort into fics I just wish more people would reblog or comment, and I just wish I knew a better way to make my blog “bigger” or more well known :/

hi!!! welcome to writing for fandoms. it ain’t much but it’s fun. here’s some advice i can give to you below the cut :) this is all my opinion/my experience so keep that in your mind when you read.

1. tags are your best friend: exploit every tag relating to your content as possible. only the first 20 show up in the tags when people search them up so use those wisely. after you post, it’s also a good idea to just check that it showed up in the tags. most of the time, they do but it’s just good to double check.

2. links kill your posts: unless you’re certain that your stuff will show up, more often than not, links to other posts/websites will cause your post not to show up. it’s stupid but it’s how tumblr works now which is really annoying.

3. participate in writing challenges: a good way to get your name spread is by participating in a lot of writing challenges and to keep track of which ones youve entered. besides being an incredibly nice way to get feedback, more people see it. it’s also really fun to write with a specific prompt or song in mind.

4. interact with your community: if you have time, read some fics and reblog them, follow some other writing blogs. i have mutuals that i don’t talk to but i greatly enjoy seeing their blog on my dash and i tag them in things im tagged in for games. i try to respond to most of the reblogs/comments i get and all the asks i receive. if you think you can handle doing requests, inform your followers that they’re open and have them send stuff in or reblog prompt lists. don’t be afraid to be who you are on your blog bc most of the time, people follow you for the writing but there are a few who follow you for who you are as a blog owner as well. it’s about the personality too. sometimes, you can remind them at the end of the fic to leave a reblog/comment just to remind them after they’re done reading :)

5. keep an updated masterlist or a place where someone can find all your stuff easily: this is including drabbles, headcanons, etc. someone is more likely to follow if they know they can find your masterlist post that could be linked in your bio or a certain tag they can search up to find all of your stuff. it’s just easier to navigate. make it easily accessible!

6. timezone reblogs: SUPER helpful because when you post, only a certain amount of people will see it due to timezones. i normally reblog every 4 hours and schedule them onto my blog to be posted while i sleep as well. this is super helpful for keeping your work rotating through different tumblr user’s blogs and reach more people who might not have seen it otherwise bc they were busy, asleep, etc. also helps keep your work in the tags bc it boosts your notes. (i have examples of how i do timezone reblogs. you can search it up)

7. it’s your blog: write for whoever you feel like, in whatever genre, and do whatever you want. don’t be afraid to be multifandom and don’t think you have to write for a certain character or under a certain word limit for it to be successful. although there are certain popular characters that people are more likely to read and readers often like shorter fics full of fluff and smut and such, you can write whatever you want. i write angst A LOT even though my fluffier fics have done better. and that’s what i think is my trademark: super long fics and a lot of angst. it’s up to you to do what you want which leads to my next point.

7.5. remember that you can curate your own style and niche for your blog. if readers know you write for these characters, know your interests, they’ll be more likely to follow you. for example, i’ve gained more harry potter-related blogs as followers even though i have never posted hp writing on here that was like a one-shot or anything. i’ve just started reblogging hp content recently. some of my followers reblog the witcher posts that i reblog as well. some followers dont even follow me for my writing.

8. on a more aesthetic note/relating to 5: keep your posts tidy. make sure they’re fomatted correctly bc pasting from your writing app to tumblr is sometimes hell, and just make sure you always doublecheck your work. no one wants to read a big chunk of text or paragraphs that are single-spaced. there’s the trend where writers often add gifs/pictures to their posts which catches a reader’s eye and helps with the visual.

9. it takes time: don’t keep your expectations too high. sometimes, the thing you work for months on won’t do well and other things you worked on for like 20 mins will do extremely well. that’s just how life works sometimes. lately, tumblr has sucked at keeping likes/reblog ratio even at all and mostly, you’ll get more likes than reblogs/comments. it’ll suck, but at the end of the day, they’re the consumers. they respond to your fic how they see fit. but you’ll grow. sometimes you’ll have bursts of followers, sometimes they trickle in. mostly, once you get rolling, you sometimes get those bursts after you post a fic and people begin t o see it. lately, i’ve been getting a few followers a day and it slowly builds up. seriously, don’t worry about the “followers” number even though sometimes it’s all you can think about. one day, you’ll check and be pleasantly surprised by how many people follow you.

10. it’s mostly how much you write sometimes: i’m sure if i posted more i’d gain more followers but as it is, i write like one fic a month bc they’re normally on the longer side and burn me out pretty easily since i work on other writing projects beside the stuff i post on here and i am a senior in high school who is just tryna graduate at this point. potential followers like a blog that puts out work. however, this doesn’t mean force yourself to write. if you wanna get big, you also wanna present quality work that you’re proud of.

11. i’d say lastly, though this is not so important and therefore the last but not least platitude falls flat here, is that keep your blog active. i do this by keeping a queue running from 2am to 12pm aka from night to day. it’s just nice to be a presence on your followers dashes which keeps you present in their minds.

this is all i could think of but i hope this helps!! if you have any more questions, need any clarification, or anything of the sort, please don’t hesitate to send another ask or pm me.

[in-exo-stable]

I remember you mentioning a while ago that one of the reasons you love going to concerts is seeing the different crowds and fan interactions different bands tend to draw. I was wondering what kinds of stages you think your holy trinity creates and what kind of fans they draw?

DISCLAIMER!! BEFORE SOMEONE SPAMS ME W HATE BELOW ARE JUST MY OPINIONS YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED pls don’t hate me I’m just a fan trying to appreciate the Art that my faves put out

hmmm…. from what I’ve noticed, kpop bands tend to succeed bc they occupy a certain niche within the community, and thus bands who have been around for a long time tend to have different sounds and styles that are very distinct

take my “holy trinity” as you call it: VIXX, EXO, and BTS:

VIXX is known within the kpop community for their concepts and how EVERYTHING about their comeback is tailored for their specific concept – from choreography, to MV, to makeup, to outfits, to how they present themselves. This plentitude of concepts thus make VIXX some of the most musically diverse band (along with BAP imo but we aren’t talking about them rip), and thus don’t really have a “sound” as other bands do. Renowned for being “concept kings” their stages are almost always mesmerizing – like you are watching a story come to life through the dance, vocals, and their stage setting. VIXX first became notable from their zombie/vampire concept from On and On - their startling eye makeup and zombie dance during the chorus was very eye-catching. Hyde was similarly striking when the dance literally illustrated the struggle between the “good” side vs “bad” side of the human conscious, or “Jekyll and Hyde”. I could go on with how Voodoo Doll and Chained Up and 2016 VIXX Conception very visually represent their concept, but you get the point. As such, due to such a story-like stirring representation of what they are trying to convey, VIXX stages tend to be very enthralling; capturing its audience with very precise, multipart choreography, alluring in its complexity and nuanced representation. VIXX audiences, thus, tend to be very transfixed on the stage, trying to take in the visual overload of 6 tall, longlimbed, handsome men serenading dirty promises of concepts literally coming alive.

EXO first came into fame over Growl and their “one shot” multi angle choreography. For me, Growl set a precedence of sound for EXO, as later releases of Love Me Right, Lucky One, and Call Me Baby all emulate the bright pop-y sound of Growl, with moving choreography that utilize the sheer number of members within the band, strong baselines that drives the music, and distinct vocals. Most of their titles songs have relatively slow BPMs but are all fast-beat and fun so the audience almost doesn’t notice the slower bass, allowing EXO more control over how to present their song. Almost all of EXO lives, from the legendary El Dorado to Miracles of December have a key moment that is “simple” but memorable – the “killing part” as you may call it. Especially after their world tours, EXO members have started to grow and find their own space within the stages; their stages tend to be balanced, with everyone bringing something onto the table. So, unlike VIXX, EXO stages feature members and their synchronization as a whole group more than their concept. As a result, audiences have no choice to but to move along with the beat, shouting along to hooks and enjoying how well EXO works as a whole consistent group. @sm let us know when exo comeback bc I’m dying from exo thirst

BTS (beyond the scene lmao that rebranding) have music that tends to be very epic/complex in sound and in scale. I really only paid attention to BTS during their I Need U era, but even before I knew that BTS have been consistent in their concept – Youth. They have been extremely successful in representing people “in their 10s and 20s”, full of nuance and beauty. Their styles have changed a lot over the years, but their “sound” is still very distinct – something not many bands have had the pleasure of boasting. Not to mention, the deep meaning BTS music tends to write about – full of symbols, references, and commentary – are all contemporary and poignant. Their complex and visibly difficult choreo, artistically and strategically placed ad libs, and beautiful balance between rap and singing are what, to me, packages their message in an aesthetically pleasing stage. With their overpowering stage presence, the audience has no choice but to fully immerse themselves in this world that BTS creates on stage, their lyrics and heartache fully appreciated and felt by their fans. Unlike VIXX, who uses concepts to fill the stage, and EXO, who uses their teamwork, BTS instead uses their messages to move their audience. 

This is also the reason why I don’t understand it when some fans claim their group is ~the ultimate group~ since for me, almost of the kpop bands fill a niche within music that no one but them can fill – even the numerous bands not included within this mini analysis.

[non-sequitura]

I have some sort of dumb essay idea.

Let me bullet it out and see if I feel like fleshing it out later: 

-Trouble with research is you need to get specific, not broad 

-Most ppl go into fields because they like them broadly. Like, I enjoy a few specific things in bio (stem cell research, plant anatomy (if that's even a thing)), but that’s basically it. After taking a chem class to see if premed was smart I NOPED out of there. Because why suffer through a bunch of content you hate to get to one specific dream eventually? 

-SO with psychology. Much more fun because I like nearly all of it. However, as with most subjects I enjoy (as opposed to those I like a few bits and pieces of, like math or bio or maybe even english), there isn't really one part that stands out to me as MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE. 

-Similarly with piano — it took me like 12 years to realize that my favorite part was the collaboration. Chamber music, accompaniment, covering requests, the like. When it comes to general solo repertoire, music theory, composing, w/e, I’m like “give it to me! I like all of it.” And without parents/teachers giving me things to focus on, I probably would have happily bumbled about in music without specific goals and not have the level of playing I have today. 

-But with research, the best way to stand out is to pick a niche and become an expert in it. So your knowledge becomes marketable bc you're pushing human knowledge and not just prettily rehashing mostly known things. (Maybe this applies to other jobs, too? Specificity can be key, at least in super white-collar things. You don't need to be THE BEST at plumbing a particular type of tube to be a groundbreaking plumber, for instance, but if you market yourself as a techy archeologist or a bilingual activist, the specificity will probably open doors rather than close them.) 

-The issue is, I think few people actually enjoy being jack of few trades, master of one. People stress over being "jacks of all trades" because they worry their lack of SUPER WORLD CLASS SKILLS in one thing will lead to not standing out in the workforce or others not respecting their abilities as much, etc. But I think very few people (except those with somewhat obsessive personalities) actually set out to be THE BEST at one thing. 

-It's lonely at the top. If you truly know more/are better than everyone else at one thing, who are you gonna talk about it with? Being a master is an act of altruism, more than anything. Others may respect you, but you'll only be able to truly connect your field with others who are extremely knowledgeable about it. 

-That’s why so many people ask about hobbies rather than the ins and outs of one’s career. I also think it’s why so many academics (and maybe other professions) become disillusioned midway through their careers: “Yeah, I’m successful, but for what?” They feel trapped. And academics when they write books don’t tend to do one more thing on topology or whatever, they try to pin down the whole MEANING OF THE UNIVERSE (look at Stephen Hawking, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Jordan Peterson, David Foster Wallaces’s books. They tend to be about global, nay, galactic perspectives.) Because people aren’t satisfied knowing that they’re smart in their one niche topic that maybe a few thousand other people understand; they feel smart when they know ALL THE ANSWERS. 

-Which I think is a holdover from being one of the “smart kids” in childhood and finding almost everything easy. (Partly why some “spiky” prodigies actually did quite badly in school, because other things didn’t hold their attention as much and they were discouraged. I have a family member who qualified for the USAMO but did “eh” at a ton of random other classes in school that didn’t hold their interest.) 

-Basically, I want to live a rich, varied life. I want to conduct therapy. There’s one thing I wouldn’t mind being the best at, because it would let me help the most people. Then again, I’d think it’d be kind of a waste, because the more great therapists there are, the more people can be helped. So I’d want to mentor others to learn therapy. And I’d want to run/be on the board of a nonprofit that focuses on some issue I care about a lot today (probably youth negligence or parenting or being trapped in the banality of life, who can say.) 

-And I’d want to teach. And to live in a foreign country in my youth, before I settle down and it becomes impractical to move. And maybe even conduct research, or at least stay up-to-date on the latest academic journals. And I’d want to have a family and friends and sometimes go on ridiculous trips with people I love, and keep up all the hobbies that destress me like reading, writing, cooking, drawing, music, voiceover, generally philosophizing. And by the time I’m old I’ll probably have picked up some old person hobbies like gardening or whatever. 

-So that would be my ideal, successful life. The trouble is, I listed… 17 things. And I’ll probably only have time to keep up 5 or so. I keep an organizer by all the subjects/hobbies I’m working on at one “section” of life (the current section being winter quarter). There’s currently 7 activities - 3 classes, 1 job, 2 for the arts (piano/theatre), and 1 for various applications I’m filling out which feel simultaneously terrifyingly relevant to my future and also super far off and a distraction from my current activities. Anyway, 7 is… a lot. Probably too many. I’m barely managing at the moment, but I always stretch and I always do manage. 17 would be impossible.

-I want a rich, varied life where I’m a jack of all trades, but I’m barely managing an ace right now (haha! card puns.) I wish success wasn’t so… based in obsession, I guess. Is that an unreasonable thesis? I suppose I’ll only know after I read this when I’m less sleep-deprived. I’ve disagreed with nearly all my english theses so far a year after writing them, so I wouldn’t be surprised if king of all trades Sequitura looks back on this junior year and goes, “Oh you poor child. I have everything figured out now.”
 But at least it was fun to write. 

(This is messy af.)

-1/11/21

[quidfree]

just screamed over your fem todobaku it was endlessly entertaining and I’m sure to be rereading it every two weeks from now on... the way katsuki pieces things together and the absurd setting is everything I wanted and more TT!!! For prompts.. tdbk’s relationship in the eyes of their classmates? That moment in a prev fic where momo is like yeah I’m with jirou now 🤗n then tdrk goes oh me too but w bkg is forever embedded into my brain lmfaooo like what does everyone make of this insane pair

pftttttt glad it fulfilled your expectations anon i love writing half-serious todobaku pieces where they are still 50/50 strategic geniuses and emotional morons as per canon but the setting is increasingly absurd. i don't know what the context was for giant deku in that sketch but the visual was too good. date-crasher deku at it again.

as for ur prompt i do love the concept bc i live for third party pov content but i would find it v hard to get done in the prompt format bc 1) honestly a lot of the 1A students (etc) don’t have very defined personalities lol and 2) when it comes to those who do i have too much to say to do this in an hour. however i can give you some bulletpoint summaries of the BNOCs (and if you have any specific niche classmates whose take you want do let me know). with that being said...

kirishima: forever and always a supportive bestie and thus leader of the todobaku fanclub. i mean just read my fic yknow. 1000% called it on bakugous side first (and/or bakugou told him) and has been enthusiastically supportive ever since. hes a big ol romantic really and also unironically thinks todobaku is the manliest of pairings (and totally made for each other, bro!!) so hes beyond stoked when they do get together. hes one of their most comfy third wheels bc he and bakugou r very close and he and todoroki r also good friends so no one is like on uncomfortable/uneven footing and hes unfazed by the ups and downs of their relationship bc hes used to both of their antics. the secret-keeper.

i don’t have enough separate intel on the rest of the bakusquad but they’re 1) completely thrown by the revelation that after years of wheedling and trying to set bakugou up into surprise dates he is not in fact ‘work-sexual’, and to top this off is actually into todoroki of all people 2) obnoxiously supportive, as you would expect. secretly they’re all kind of defensive of bakugou’s fragile heart (citation needed) and so nervous about how the whole thing is gonna work out but when it becomes apparent todoroki does not have better sense they relax and just become excessively nosy. like to complain that bakugou and todoroki weren’t content dominating their year academically and professionally they also had to steal out 2 of the country’s most eligible bachelors, the selfish bastards.

camie: second leader of the todobaku fanclub, idc. clocks it ahead of literally anyone else in their friend group bc she just, like, got that vibe, you know? theres a multitude of equally blunt and inappropriate ways in which she addresses this vibe (calling them out in person when theyre years away from it, trying to not especially artfully orchestrate a get-together, etc) and they are all very unsuccessful. shes ‘lowkey mad bakugou stole her potential man’ but ‘finders keepers’ so once they’re past that she’s all for it since she correctly thinks they r freaks best suited to e/o and also honestly probably thinks bl is cute or something. todoroki and bakugou both endure her encouragement very long-sufferingly. big double dater energy.

yaoyorozu: not at all in the first to clock gang, bc honestly the idea she has of todoroki is still a lil idealized/inaccurate and certainly does not involve dating bakugou; the initial reveal is inevitably delivered very casually to her as she scrambles for a polite reaction. she’s kind of wary of the whole thing at face value but close scrutiny leads her to conclude they’re actually not-terrible together. upon reaching this conclusion she begins making earnest overtures towards a very confused bakugou bc she figures she may as well make the effort to get to know him better. i always hc her as having had a crush of some variety on todoroki at some point so theres probs a bit of wistfulness involved and also a far larger ‘nvm dodged that bullet’ energy bc todobaku r romantically a mess and a half. to her despair she is extremely weak to camie’s todobaku gossip.

uraraka: to everyone’s vague bewilderment, a secret todobaku stan from the get-go. you could say this is bc it leaves deku solidly open but honestly she just has similarly odd friendships with todoroki and bakugou and it’s like a persistent guilty thought of hers that they’re kind of well-suited somehow. she often tells todoroki he can do better just to wind bakugou up but would be the first to take bakugou’s side if he actually did. she really enjoys them together bc she finds somehow they’re easier to tease- it humanizes them both further to be weak to dumb emotions. she plays counsellor sometimes but like subtly bc she knows better than to give outright advice.

iida: completely blindsided by the information, also spends several months in the grips of insomnia convinced that both their friend group and japan are doomed given the inevitable dramatic breakup. then he spends a singular day hanging around them at work or something and realises that his imagined version of them as a couple was in fact completely off-base bc they’re just overly intense workaholics who are too single-focused to ever bother splitting up. also top 1 most likely friend to launch into a completely sincere defense of them and their relationship in response to like the laziest off-color paparazzi bait comment.

midoriya: where to begin honestly. he def gets weird vibes from them throughout the whole usual melodrama but 200% does not come to the right conclusions. when he finally gets the news broken to him (never gently) his brain breaks a little. it’s mainly the bakugou element bc kacchan is.. kacchan and like.. not necessarily fundamentally someone midoriya has ever imagined harboring human interest in another living person. also todoroki in a parallel way has always struck him as resoundingly disinterested in relationships mainly bc hes kind of above them. of course once he sets to theorising he can connect some dots to bakugous various jealousies over the years and also todorokis pretty open staring and wow he is not very good at connecting dots actually. anyways once he recovers from the shock i think theres a variety of ways in which he takes it bc honestly it is very weird that his best friend and his .. closest friend (?) who have always primarily interacted through or due to him now have this competing private relationship. regardless obv he is intensely supportive in like, the typical kind of overbearing midoriya way. i sometimes make it so its just one of those things that everyones cool with but also the details will always be something midoriya and bakugou do not want midoriya to know bc Awkward, vs other times i make him super cool w it to the extent that hes just overenthusiastic and todorokis all oh. sure. thanks :) while bakugou loses his shit. he does genuinely think they’re a really good fit upon reflexion, and since he’s best suited to knowing why he’s p much always correct in his assessments. its one of those things where each duo in the trio has the capacity of playing up the subject matter to the third party’s detriment, tho when todoroki is the third party he’s less embarrassed by bakudeku’s todobaku discourse and more enduring their various bizarre friendship rituals + the serious physical damage they usually precede.

also aizawa clocks them first and is like oh god please no this is going to take at least 5 years to implode and will age me 10 years in the process