#i think his reasoning was that oh queer person? lot of queer people are mentally ill/aren't neutrotypical

[bookwyrminspiration]

the trend of people being really open with information one should probably be more hesitant to share is also present in real life, which is terrifying. I met a kid the other day, 13, who started casually talking about various mental disorders and diagnoses he'd received after knowing me for less than an hour. with no prior mention or discussion to indicate my thoughts, because we'd been talking about other things. because we'd just met. I mean them no harm, but like, he is putting a lot of faith in me without further verifying my intentions. so please not only be careful with what you share online but what you share in person as well because you don't know who is safe

[ghostflowerhotpotch]

How do you think the spider gang would react to Gwen coming out as trans? I think they'd all be supportive, but I'm curious if you have details

I am going to be honest with you anon, I had been looking at this question for weeks, thinking about it, and...I am not coming up with much.

I am trans, I don't have that much experience with people reacting to that- and I am not making any more comments about that.

Going back to the original question- I think all of them would be supportive; regardless of background or history, I feel doing anything else would be a disservice to the characters, and also, a type of story I really don't have interest entertaining, (Would Noir, being from 40s, be reasonable to have his apprehensions and need to overcome it? Yes, I am interested in seeing something like that? Personally, fuck no.)

Now, it doesn't mean there cannot be hiccups- all well intending, of course.

(Specific characters under the cut because, as always with me, it got long.)

Peter B I see going over the top; talking how brave Gwen is, and that he supports her no matter what, he also reads a book on trans people and tell hims about the people in his universe who are trans. Gwen appreciates it, but it can be uncomfortable at times.

Noir, regardless of time period, would be supportive, but mixes up terminology. The poor guy already struggles with the pop culture lingo, so throwing queer lingo into the mix can make things awkward; specially since, as a spider-man, he has defended the marginalized people of his dimension and is aware of the community, but- that community had its own terminology that may not be appreciated to day. Is a growing curve.

In my opinion, Ham is a much of a man as Bugs Bunny, meaning gender isn't as important as commitment to the bit; so I can see him busting a dress all of the sudden and saying "I get you sis." Accordingly, if asked about his own gender, he is pretty much "normally a guy, but in general whatever fits better with the scene."

Peni I headcanon as nonbinary, so I think she would be happy to meet another person who isn't cis. Definitely would have lots of talk about presentation, tricks for clothes a make up, the works.

Margo is cool about it, there isn't much to say there; she just tells Gwen that it doesn't change anything between them, and she is still invited to come for the slumber parties (Margo has thrown a bunch in the Spider-Society, because anything to spend as little time mentally at home as possible.)

Pavitr: "Oh so you are like a hijra? That's so cool!" (This is a term from a place I am not from, so I can't talk in length about it, feel free to look it up because it is indeed, very cool.) While not the same, he ends up telling more about how people in his dimension see transgender people, Gwen finds it overall really interesting.

Hobie is, of course, cool about it. He is a punk, noncomformist, and "hates labels," he could probably tell Gwen a stupid amount of things about queer history, intersectionally, so far and so forth. Despite using he/him pronouns, I believe with all my heart Hobie would not give a shit about gender roles and dress how he likes, and be okay with any pronouns. This has nothing to do with your question, but I headcanon that Hobie has been the queer awakening of many other teens of the Spider-Society as he strolls down in whatever outfit he feels like it.

Now Miles, is obviously supportive. I think he may be oblivious to many things (I headcanon him as bi for a long awhile, but I am not sure if that's something he knows already or has yet to discover,) so he asks questions, but is always respectful and has no trouble answering. Overall, Gwen thinks is cute how much Miles dotes on her, and reminding her that she will always be the prettiest girl alive to him.

Huh, I guess I had more to say that I expected, this was fun! Thanks for the question and sorry for the delay.

[irenespring]

House MD Characters and Their Mentors

Oh look it's more of this very niche character analysis. This time I'm looking at which of @lorata's District Two Victors would be good mentors for House characters. House fans reading this: you would really like Lorata's writing. Only limited Hunger Games knowledge required (basically you need to know the premise); lots of messed up people making the best of things, found family shenanigans, emotional angst, and queerness.

Anyway, time for mentors!

James Wilson: Devon. The essence of a Devon tribute. Really wants to make the world better. Fairly messed up and depressed, but does genuinely care about the district, and even the kid he volunteers for. The one bit of really key information we are provided about Devon's tributes is that Devon's dreamers burn bright, but flame out as the reality of the Games shatters their world view. This reminds me a lot of how House says that "Wilson thinks that if he cares enough he'll never have to die" contrasted with Wilson's feelings of betrayal and devastation that he, a oncologist who gave his life to treating cancer, is dying of cancer. He served the Capitol, believed everything the Center told him, and the truth of the Games ---the pain and the guilt and the injustice of it all--- is a sudden betrayal that completely unbalances him. The only way he wins is through temporary Arena madness, the kind of desperation that caused him to double his dose of chemo in a last ditch effort to survive and make the world make sense again during canon. Devon's main challenge post-Arena is helping him rebuild his shattered sense of self: Wilson thought he was a good person, but you can only win the Hunger Games by being vicious. Devon, as someone who had a similar break, is the best choice to help him form a cohesive identity. Devon can see him for who he actually is, all of it, and still say he cares. Devon can cite his own struggles with accepting care without "enough work" in return to get Victor!Wilson to step back from compulsively ignoring his needs to "earn" affection. Devon can pull him out of spirals about how his mental state is worse than his brother's now and show him how there is a way forward. The Victory Tour almost kills him, all those people hate him even though he only ever did what was asked of him and what he thought was right. Along with Devon, there is probably only one other person who could help him embrace that he does not need to be perfect or liked by everyone, which brings us to...

Gregory House: Adessa. I went through multiple avenues with this one. First I thought Callista, because viciousness and unapologetic attitude. Then I thought Lyme, because abusive childhood, resentment of the rules, and attachment issues. So we had option A and option B...and we somehow landed around option L. I dismissed Callista because of the reasons I thought Lyme. I moved away from Lyme because she works best with tributes who want to open up but can't until after they win. Claudius wants a family, Misha wants affection, etc. House wouldn't want to open up--- he would want respect, validation, and someone to make everything make sense. The reasons Adessa wasn't a good fit for Nero would make her a great fit for Victor!House. Nero wanted to be told Adessa loves him, but House wouldn't trust any obvious display of affection---instead perceiving his mentor's care for him through nonverbal actions she takes: exactly what Adessa expected to be true of Nero. Adessa can make recovery and all the chaotic, swirling feelings fit within a reasonable framework. She can answer his questions and treat him like someone with a rational mind. She knows that if he opens up, he probably doesn't want to be touched. She understands why he doesn't want the cuddly relationship that Victor!Wilson would have with Devon. She wouldn't pressure him to talk about feelings before he was ready and would give him space when he was ready. She understands his intellectual curiosity. She's probably the only one who could get him to invest in therapy. He wouldn't go based on "I've been there" talks or "I care about you" talks, he would go because "after a significant trauma the logical course of action is to seek medical care, so that one can be assigned medications to regulate neurotransmitters, and to remove unwanted chaos so one can better focus on more important matters." Oh, and also if John House every showed up to take credit for shaping his son into a Victor, Adessa has a briefcase full of knives and decades of fantasizing about taking revenge on behalf of her Victors. They would find his body in pieces...probably. If Adessa was feeling nice and wanted Blythe to have closure.

Devon is terrified when Adessa requests a meeting with him. Misha asks him what he did like fifty times and he doesn't know. He almost calls his mentor, but doesn't because he's a mentor too now, dammit and Adessa totally shouldn't scare him anymore. When he shows up she opens with: "Our Victors appear to have significant romantic attraction to each other. Shall we hasten their union via jointly planned manipulation, culminating in an arranged one-on-one meal over candlelight, perhaps involving the exchange of flowers?"

Lisa Cuddy: Nero. This one is hard. Cuddy is a lot more difficult to analyze than House and Wilson even though I actually prefer her over House (Wilson is my favorite, he just has so many problems, weird habits, and hidden depression). She has a lot of contradictions. She's manipulative, but empathetic. She genuinely advocates for the rules, but allows for crazy ass things to take place. She seems to argue for the rules because she has to, but is inherently drawn to the more chaotic, vigilante tendencies of House. She puts on a show of obeying regulations set by those above her, but seeks power so that she can facilitate what she thinks is right (she repeatedly says she's the only one who would employ House). This is reflective of a Nero tribute. She doesn't know why she is drawn to violence and competition of the Centre, but she is. She completes her kill tests with the highest scores in her year, but she mainly only feels guilty for not feeling guilty. She doesn't have a rationalization for why she is like this the way someone with House's history has. She should want to join the Peacekeepers or be a medic. But the more time passes in the Centre, the more she wants to win the Hunger Games. She goes into the Games a year early, the youngest District Two volunteer in history, and even though she knows the killing is wrong she still wants to win because why shouldn't it be her? She's better at this than the others. However, the inner conflict causes problems post-Games, as the criticisms from other districts actually hurt her, because she agrees. She knows there's something wrong, she fears she might secretly be evil. Nero, with a lifetime of dealing with conflicted, crazy tributes, knows how to reassure her that even if that something is actually wrong, she still has people who love her.

Bonus! Ducklings:

Foreman: Brutus. He's just here to do his job. He knows he's better than his Centre rivals, so his job is the Games. Trying to make it right or wrong will only drive you crazy.

Chase: Lyme. Daddy issues, alcoholism in the family history, wants the authority to like him. Lots of weird hidden triggers.

Cameron: Emory. Wants to be a decent person, just kept going in the Centre because she figured no one would pick her and she owed it to her district to keep trying. She had a baby Victor crush on House and Adessa had to take Emory aside and be like "the baby is making my Victor uncomfortable, tell her to calm down."

Thirteen: Misha. Rules are for suckers, enjoy your life while you have it, desperately try to find meaning in the world while pretending you don't give a shit.

Kutner: Lyme. Wants to find a place to belong, shoves his emotional issues down because he thinks nobody cares. Thinks outside the box, but still responds well around authority he respects.

Taub: I have no fucking idea. Seriously, the more I try to think about this the more I have no thoughts, head empty. Maybe Odin? Odin has a "do what you're supposed to do no matter what, no matter the cost" ideology that would cause a mentor mismatch like Adessa and Nero but at least that mismatch is something.

Anyway if one (1) person requests a Victors!House/Wilson I will write scenes so you have been warned.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

Hi sex witch, i realise that this is not an actual sex ed related question and I hope this isn't overstepping any bounds.

I'm sort of in a weird spot right now a la my sexuality and am trying to figure out if I actually want a relationship and if what I feel is romantic attraction or Friendship levelled up. I've known for a long time that I'm Demisexual or Ace, and I thought I knew that I still felt romantic attraction but now I'm less sure.

How did you come to realise that you were aromantic? In that discovery did you ever wonder if it was a sort of 'mental block' or something similar that would be better off working through? (I ask because I'm sort of stuck in that state of mind right now, and I'm just curious to see if it's a common experience or not)

I realise that this is a fairly sensitive topic, and I really don't mean offense by asking.

I also realise that no two people's experiences will be the same but I was interested in hearing about it from another person's perspective.

I hope you have a great day whether or not you give this ask the time of day.

I've asked you other things in the past and it's always been brilliantly helpful. Thanks a lot for everything you do.

hi anon,

no worries about overstepping boundaries :) this is a pretty reasonable thing to ask of someone, and I'm happy to talk about it!

there's a funny story that I tell about the moment I probably should have known, but didn't yet have the language. in sixth grade my class had an assignment that involved making a collage timeline of the rest of our lives (a proto-vision board of sorts) and I think I was the only kid in the class who didn't put getting married on my timeline. everyone else did, as far as I can remember, and most of them also included having kids. being a pedantic little fuck I pointed out to several of my friends that it was really unreasonable to assume they would find someone they liked enough to marry who liked them back, to which everyone told me (paraphrasing) to shut the fuck up and stop being a little bastard.

but it still seemed very strange to me, because even when I was very young - back when I barely had the language to conceptualize being gay, let alone aromantic - I never imagined my life with a romantic partner. romantic pairings were interesting in stories, sure, I ate that shit up from a very young age! the star-crossed lovers shit going on in American Dragon: Jake Long did a number on my developing brain, and my Barbies and Littlest Pet Shops got up to INSANE relationship drama, but for myself it never really felt, like, relevant? not unpleasant, just uninteresting.

but I still had crushes on people as I grew up, and more importantly I had crushes on people of various genders, so during my teen years I was WAY more preoccupied with repressing my burgeoning bisexuality than drawing any conclusions about my romantic orientation

spoilers: the bisexuality won.

in college I had a friend who identified as asexual at the time, who spent maybe a year trying to convince me that I was aromantic. and I didn't want to hear it! I don't know why, honestly; maybe some part of me, despite loving the community I had found coming into my queerness, was still subconsciously afraid of being too different and grappling with the consequences.

so instead I did this uuuuh real dirtbag thing where instead of just acknowledging to myself that I was pretty fundamentally uninterested in romantic relationships and that that's fine, I spent the first half of college leaning hard on self-deprecation to explain my single status. oh, me? why aren't I dating? well, I'd probably be a really bad partner. yeah, I suck. I mean, I'm so busy all the time! and I'm weird.

(at the time I know I definitely had friends who assumed I was Like That because my parents were divorced, which is hilarious old-fashioned and also categorically untrue. I was Like This way before my parents got divorced!)

it actually took a relationship ending pretty badly to make peace with the idea that maybe I didn't want a relationship at all. I won't get into the details on that, because it involves another person and we were both very young and accidentally hurt each other a lot in ways we didn't mean and I don't think anyone was the villain, but I don't want it to come across like I had one bad breakup and then swore off romance, a thing I'd previously been interested in, forever. it was more like I found myself in a really heightened situation - they really desperately needed a good and attentive romantic partner after getting out of a bad relationship, I wanted our friendship to stay exactly the same but with a sexual component - that made very, very obvious what I was actually looking for in non-platonic relationships. which was, I guess, actually pretty platonic relationships, but with genitals involved.

haha just kidding, I actually didn't get that part through my skull until I spent an entire summer crying constantly, dissociating frequently, and spending way too much time on BAD dates having even worse sex that made me feel gross! but we got there eventually.

that part probably isn't super relatable to you if you're somewhere in the ace realm, sorry about that.

anyway, once the dust settled and I felt halfway human again I was feeling vulnerable and open to change - finally willing to see myself in a new way and reckon with parts of myself that I hadn't been before. I remembered what my buddy had always said about me seeming Really Aromantic, and I let it settle on me. how would I feel, if I actually was aromantic? how would it change my life, how I thought about myself?

and if I can use a cliche with you? it felt like a weight rolling off my shoulders. I suddenly had a whole sturdy base to build a better understanding of myself on, an easy way to justify the way I lived that didn't require throwing myself under a bus.

thinking of myself through the lens of aromanticism felt like a huge, HUGE relief, and frankly I think that, more than anything, is the best way for anyone to decide if they should be applying any identity label to themselves. which brings us back to you! I actually don't believe in the model of sexuality and gender that posits a secret innate Right Answer buried in each person that they'll discover if the just find the right terminology. all of the words we use are the result of our time and place, right? people like us existed all through history with different words for themselves, and they'll exist way after us calling themselves things we can't imagine.

so basically: I came to realize I was aromantic because calling myself aromantic felt like loving myself, and if that's the case for you than I strongly recommend you do it, too.

happy pride xoxo

[thecoolerliauditore]

i don't get all the fuss about CCs reading fanfic. if you didn't want people to see it then why would you put it publicly online. like aren't you taught that if you don't want something to be seen you shouldn't put it on the internet?

i don't understand the people mad at tommyinnit for reading fanfic. like you have this space where you talk about this real person but *he's* not allowed to read it? wtf

anon this is so angrily worded are you okay lmao

i'm not really huge on fic writing myself (dabbled in it here and there but i have friends who are writers) and i care negative percent about the dee ess em pee side of things so I'm not really The Person to ask but I'll try my best to explain 👍

CCs reading fanfic is fine. They're allowed to lurk as much as everyone else is.

CCs reading fanfic in videos is exposing fic writers to their wider audience and mcyt fans have a history of harassing fandom creators into online nonexistence for any reason under the sun while simultaneously the CC themselves actively makes money off of the fic writer's work.

I ramble a bit more and it got kinda long but that's the main point. (more stuff under the cut)

Fics are "about" the cc, yes but they are often not made for the cc but rather for the writer and maybe a close group of friends. That means they're often a combination of the writer's love for the source material and a sprinkling of their own interests/experiences. This can go anywhere from smashing two interests together in crossover AUs to deeply personal stuff like using gay ships to explore their own experience as a queer person.

Straight CCs are Not Going To Understand the latter in the way that writer and their gay friends are going to enjoy it. They can read it but they're never gonna be able to look at it the way their fans will.

That's one of the more forward examples but this applies to everything. You will never have that degree of separation from the source material to be able to enjoy fic the way fans do, you're simply not the target audience.

What's more is (not talking about the thomas innit guy or whatever i genuinely don't know who he is lol) these reading fanfic videos tend to have more of an unfortunate.. point and laugh aspect to them? A lot of the time it's presented in this LOOK AT HOW WEIRD THIS THING IS! way that can be humiliating for the author and incite even more harassment because the audience gets introduced to the author not as a person but as entertainment. You can see how this is a bad combination when you consider the previous point about a lot of fanfic being personal, I hope. It all can feel just a bit exploitative.

It does Not take a lot for a CC to open the floodgates on harassment. Just earlier this year another youtuber followed one of his fan artists and that eventually lead to that artist being full-on doxxed. Regardless of anyone's opinions on that situation, whether the youtuber is to blame, etc. etc. it's a pretty blatant example of how CCs even just interacting with fan creators on social media can lead to people being unhinged if they don't like their work. Now imagine making a Whole Video.

and don't say "oh just don't write weird stuff you don't want them seeing" because:

a space where writers are afraid to share their more intimate experiences with taboo subjects like mental health, queerness, abuse, and so on is Not Healthy artistically. Less communication about these topics = less people finding others who are like them = more people feeling alone in the world. I don't want that just in a fandom because a youtuber (who is not forced to look at fic) doesn't want their cubito to kiss certain people.

people. will. find. things. weird. anyway. i've seen twitter call the most mundane, wholesome, coffee shop au fics PROBLEMATIC for daring to ship two characters who have a four or five year age gap. I've seen literally almost every ship you can think of get called incestuous at some point or another because Someone On Twitter said they have "sibling energy" and all of a sudden it's incest and the writer should Die I guess.

"weird stuff" is really hard to define in the first place.

CCs are not authority and we don't have to listen to or cater to them. Fic is never going to directly affect them.

this isn't even getting into character/cc divide and how it's different for everyone and a lot people don't like "writing about real people" so on so forth.

This is only tangentially related but there's this.. odd thing i've noticed where fic writers aren't "respected" in the way artists are in fandoms? I've noticed people are often "scared" to talk to artists and react to things like animatics with more awe than anything else ("this has no right to be as good as it is!") whereas with fanfics it's more like. WE'RE READING FANFIC?!?! 😳😳 (I GET MARRIED TO WHO?!?!?)

There's something to be said about how a skill gap in visual art is more immediately noticeable to your average person than in writing but anyway. anyway.

[grimweathers]

grimweathers please elaborate on the magicians: it is not good it is not bad but a secret third thing and i would like to know more.

i believe there is someone named quentin in it, who may not be the guy with the silly sidepart shoulderlength hair and i assume it is about magicians and feelings (this i picked up from the gifs you reblog from time to time)

is it about magicians? why do you like it? why do you think it's good? why do you think it's bad?

OH BOY. where do i even begin. cracks knuckles. this is going to be so, so long and not even cover everything. i could truly write like a million words about this and not get to everything probably.

there were 5 seasons of the show, and i loved it up until the s4 finale, where they Ruined Everything. SUPER long story short: bury your gays trope, very triggering suicide at the end of s4 after building up a theme of hope despite pain.

i did not watch s5 but i know it does not do anything to redeem the show lol.

the main character is quentin coldwater—he's a clinically depressed bi dude who has always and continues to struggle with suicide ideation. (the show literally opens with him in an institution). he discovers he has magic, he starts going to this magic grad school, and the show branches out from there. it gets pretty dark. (but it is also very, very funny).

in the beginning of s1, when quentin starts going to this school, another character tells him: "magic comes from pain." the whole show (up until the s4 finale) essentially works on subverting that statement—there is SO much pain, internally and externally; there are monstrous people and things in the world, but it's about finding hope despite that pain.

to me, as a queer person who has also struggled with suicide ideation for a long long time, this was a really really meaningful show! i love portal fantasy shows (they eventually leave this school and go to a magical world). i really saw myself in quentin for a variety of reasons even beyond the depression and the queerness. and so this show just had a lot of things that resonated with me AND it had this message of hope. (also—it was just a lot of fun too).

and then in the s4 finale, quentin commits suicide (framed as a "heroic sacrifice," but there is a whole scene in the afterlife where he questions whether he actually made the sacrifice because he's been wanting to die and maybe it was a good excuse to do so). and his death is permanent. (other characters had died and come back to life at this point, but it was made clear this death was Final final).

it came out of left field. before the episode aired, i did think he might die, but i certainly did not think it would be permanent. it was genuinely very triggering. this post says it better: https://grimweathers.tumblr.com/post/689090800065429504

there was just sooo much behind-the-scenes messiness and weirdness that happened afterwards, but the main thing that still stands out to me is the showrunners' reaction to the backlash. people were really devastated and hurt and confused but the showrunners were extremely callous about it. they had, up until that point, talked about how meaningful it was that so many fans related to quentin's mental health journey and that they felt seen. but with the backlash, suddenly they were acting like we were just silly fragile snowflakes who just couldn't handle an edgy show. they were very transparently annoyed that people weren't falling over themselves to praise them for killing quentin off this way. (before the finale aired, one of the showrunners had literally said that people were going to write ACADEMIC essays about what a great finale it was because of the ~complexity~ or whatever lmfao. he was especially butthurt about it all i think)

they weirdly somehow tried to frame killing quentin off as a Edgy But Woke move because, hey, they killed off the main white guy!! whoa!!! weird that you guys care so much about the white guy and not the female characters!! (who, by the way, the writers eventually completely maligned). but, like—for one thing, the writers are the ones who made this entire show revolve around him. there is a great cast, but so much of the overall theme of the show hinges on quentin's journey. of course fans are going to care about him? (and yet! they opened s5 with a VERY pointed scene about with a chauvinistic literal pig man whining "but i need a MAN to be the HERO!! only a MAN can SOLVE THIS QUEST" to a female character).

when people pointed out like, hey, yes he was a white guy, but he was also queer? he's not like. a generic straight white dude with no problems who's suddenly the chosen one. the writers tried to backpedal and say he was straight, actually; he just was experimenting (despite the explicitly romantic plot line where, in an alternate-but-not timeline, he falls in love with his male best friend AND HAS A FAMILY WITH HIM AND GROWS OLD WITH HIM???? many of the gifsets you see from me are from this storyline! you can VISIBLY SEE that they framed it very romantically even without the kissing! it is not just fan projection!) (there's also the fact that they had already trotted out hale appleman, the actor who plays said love interest, and is actually queer himself, to do an interview about how meaningful it was to have this explicitly queer storyline in this show) (he eventually did an interview where he says he felt his queerness was just used for pr).

there is so much. SOOOO much and i am not the best writer and it's been a long time since i watched the show (it really hurt me so bad that i have not been able to watch any of the show again since it aired) but i think that is the best overview i can do at the moment lol. i would recommend the second link (the one about the behind the scenes messiness) if you want more info but. yeah.

if you made it to the end, i applaud you lol!!

[talistheintrovert]

OKAY. let's clarify some stuff for people who are confused:

the entire episode is not a dream sequence. aside from that just being lazy, it's also not what the editing is communicating. this show is very good at editing in a dreamlike, slightly disjointed way; it's part of what contributes to it feeling so intimate and personal, and nothing about that editing really changed in episode 6 except for when it got dramatic RIGHT at the end, but i'm gonna address that particular tone change under the cut for those who want spoilers

the show intercuts flashbacks throughout, even dispersing flashbacks of what appears to be the same scene (therapy) through multiple episodes, and intercutting current dialogue with flashbacks (jaewon's brother flashbacks with his father's voice). the last five minutes MIGHT be a flash forward, which means that a lot of the coupley stuff left from the trailer could be coming up in episode 7 either as a lead-up to the inevitable or afterwards in flashback form, but again, i'm leaving my personal thoughts on that for under the cut

ALSO, he definitely says "boyfriend". he says "남자 친구" which literally translates to "namja - man, chingu - friend" and used together like that is the colloquially understood term for "boyfriend" in korean; it is sometimes shorted to "남친" (namchin) but BLs haven't reached that point yet. REGARDLESS, even though that technically translates to "male friend" SO DOES FUCKING BOYFRIEND. the only other word is "애인" (aein) which you may have heard, but it's gender neutral.

the context of that interaction is important. he says friend, the attendant clearly notices the implication and says "oh a girlfriend?" and he responds with "no, a boyfriend" and then the cashier gives him romantic fireworks. it was not an accident or a mistranslation. just because jaewon is closed off and masks does not mean he's like that about everything all of the time. like he says to jihyun, its easier to talk to him because he doesn't know his baggage. and as somebody who is very similar to jaewon I find it so easy to say things to strangers that I struggle to articulate to my friends. I come out to people as soon as I meet them but coming out to my friends was hard. it just be like that sometimes.

the last thing is a spoiler of what's actually happening in that last scene in relation to the movie version of this show that came out, so if you don't want to see those, simply do not look under the cut:

jihyun is not dead, nor is he a figment of jaewon's imagination. it is not a dream sequence or a fakeout - jihyun does almost drown and it does utterly fuck jaewon up.

that is literally the only spoiler i know from the movie because i saw it by accident and then noped out of the comments section of MDL and banned myself from going in there because i hate being spoiled, but it's actively starting to worry me just how many people are convincing themselves that it's all a dream or a fakeout who are going to be really distressed next week when it turns out not to be.

i'm all for collective fandom delusion (i was in The 100 fandom for years) but this seems like the kind of thing that, as somebody who is also a mentally ill queer person who gets WAY too attached to media, could be really damaging to everybody the longer this week goes on without answers and the collective fandom delusion spirals out of control.

(and hey, maybe this spoiler is a lie, or maybe the show is being edited differently to the film, but i still think it's HIGHLY unlikely all of that was just to trick us for no reason. that doesn't really align with the story they're telling)

take a breath like jihyun can't and remember there are FOUR WHOLE EPISODES LEFT. maybe the show will end tragically or bittersweet but i don't believe they'll do that in a way that is designed to actively hurt us. this is a show made by queer people, for queer people, and they foreshadowed from the start that this was going to happen. it's not a dropped plot point or a fakeout or an accident of editing - everything is VERY intentional.

[darlin-djarin]

As an autistic queer person, that’s kinda how I hc Luke. I think he’s sort of infantilised at times? Bc of the mile a minute talking and “huh? Oh! The uniform” thing. Where I see it as bad brain to mouth wiring etc. He’s obviously incredibly capable, and it’s weird seeing a queer relationship be turned heteronormative, it gives a lot of “Who’s the man and who’s the woman in the gay relationship.”

Idk he’s infantilised but also over-sexualised? He’s been smol-beanified for some reason and it doesn’t suit him - also being described as teeny tiny, so petit that a breath of wind could blow him away. When he’s 5’9 and buff?? My guy has a great set of arms in ESB, he’d have a mean punch

Idk I’m sick rn brain went for lunch and hasn’t come back

yes see your headcanon is perfectly fine, and i love that a lot. i headcanon him as adhd yk, because you’re right he does whine and he does talk fast etc etc. and yes he’s obviously very capable and strong. he’s built physically and mentally and he’s mature as well. he has a youthfulness that’s fun to explore but people forget that he’s a jedi and is in control of his emotions. he’s very mentally healthy, and he would NOT stutter after every word and act all stereotypically feminine. dinluke turned into a very heteronormative ship and it’s sad to see. and yes he’s very over-sexualized as well for reasons we all damn well know (cishet white women just wanna see a baby cinnamon roll twink get railed) and it’s frustrating.

and the problem is i LIKE feminine luke. i like it when he’s put in dresses and gets to wear nail polish and get’s to express his femininity and masculinity healthily. the way the dinluke fandom stereotypes him just as a femme gay man is really… yikes. luke in canon exhibits no forms of toxic masculinity and i LIKE that, it’s just the way the fandom handles it is upsetting.

[elfdragon12]

What I enjoyed in More Than Meets the Eye/Lost Light:

The illustration if Swerve's loneliness (it's quite visceral for me, to watch him be sociable, for Ultra Magnus to assume he has all these friends, only to be all alone)

The Scavengers (they hit that sweet spot of "loveable jerks" whose hearts aren't quite gold but work things out their own way)

The arc between Cyclonus and Tailgate* (The development is well paced, with good emotional beats*, I want to see them together by the end)

The arc between Cyclonus and Whirl (Another relationship that's paced well and the conclusion feels earned)

The moon vacation (It's nice to see these characters who've been hurt so much get a chance to be away from people who make them worse and a story involving Prowl that acknowledges how traumatized and damaged he's been and he gets to hear an apology from someone who manipulated his body without consent)

Cerebros (such a wonderful and wholesome boy that just tries to help people and it's a crime he's largely ignored by this fandom)

The rivalry between Overlord and Tarn (I could have a whole comic book full of nothing but Overlord roasting Tarn and I would love every page)

Misfire and Swerve's insta-friendship (being audibly goofy on main provides echolocation for the like-minded, I love it)

Skids and Nautica's friendship** (the dancing and everything really made such a good connection)

What I actively do not enjoy:

The pacing of the full story (jumps way too much, overuses starting in media res and then backtracking to explain, spends a lot of time forming problems but little or sometimes no time for resolution. I think this may be in part JRo's history in prose and fanfic where he gets all the time in the world to set up problems and make characters go through all sorts of bad times and take his time with resolution. This is not the case when writing comics for a franchise)

Chromedome (I know he's really popular and some folks put CDRW on a pedestal as the first canon queer ship, but he's a legitimately awful person and partner. The way he treated the alternate Rewind is right out of yandere fanfic, his use of mnemosurgery played a huge part in the original Rewind's death, and he was Trepan's apprentice, willingly becoming a mnemosurgeon even after learning what they do. An offscreen discussion with Rewind suddenly having a change of heart and being lovey-dovey doesn't make me feel better. Rewind wasn't a perfect partner either, but Yikes™️. I hate him)

Megatron's redemption arc (really, he's just running away from the consequences of his actions to have a second chance at leading a rebellion and being happy. Why don't we ask the millions of people the blue flowers represented what they think about that--oh wait, they're dead. Because of him)

Related, how everyone who doesn't like Megatron is villainized (I'll say it: the mutiny was justified. It really was. Optimus was stupid to put Megatron in a leadership position on that ship when no one there had any reason to not hate him. Tarn was right when chastising him, as much as I hate to say it)

The general handling of mental health (Trailcutter is forced into sobriety by body modification and then immediately killed off, Chromedome's mass of issues and "we talked about it", Red Alert and Fort Max are "fixed" offscreen and then written off the ship, and both Rewind's traumas are largely ignored in favor for being Chromedome's cute little boyfriend, for examples)

How often the audience is informed of details instead of shown or how things are solved offscreen (a good example being Skids and Swerve being best friends--how often do we actually see them hang out? Almost never. This is largely because of the vast number of major characters, so there's poor balancing)

How character death rarely has any impact (Mirage's death is a "blink and miss it", Ten's death isn't brought up again, Nightbeat is only brought up by Rung--this is also one of the dumbest deaths I've ever read, Swerve doesn't mourn Skids and Nautica gets her grief erased**, Trailcutter's death only matters when Rodimus is faced with past Trailcutter, and so on--they were largely there to up the stakes rather than to have actual consequence to the story)

Mederi (it was... Just a mess. The whole of the narrative was to bring us here?)

The double endings (the narrative flow got confusing here and, honestly, I didn't find either satisfactory)

*The multiple times characters are brought back from the dead, especially Tailgate (a quantum leap, remaking them with science-magic, and "a wizard did it"! The Tailgate one was especially frustrating as a reader because it felt super cheap to be taken back by his death and go through Cyclonus's grief, getting a touching yet bittersweet reunion, and then a weirdly omnipotent 8 ball just.... Brought a new Tailgate from a different reality. Is the Magnificence actually a Dragon Ball?)

**The way Nautica's grief is handled (very "have your cake and eat it too". You can't have it be a problem that she wants to have her grief manually erased, have that erased, do the whole "friendship matters!", and then brush off the friendship between her and Skids as if it meant nothing)

Ultimately, there are things I liked, but it's so hyped up that, in the end, I felt misled by the fandom. I was frustrated by many of the events. Perhaps JRo is really good at prose (you can't make me read Eugenesis. From what I've heard of it, it is not the kind of story I would enjoy), but I don't think writing comics is really his wheelhouse. He set things up and resolved them poorly. At least some of it is due to the nature of the American comics industry. I also felt like he could have spent more time researching how to write therapy effectively.

[the-owl-house-takes]

A lot of the people criticizing TOH are using recycled arguments from the SU crits and for that reason alone I know they're not good arguments. Something can be serialized AND episodic. This mixed model is present in many shows, INCLUDING ATLA. Something can have horror and romance and comedy, look at WTNV! "The Collector had more characterization than Gus" that is patently false. I am a Collector fan and Gus definitely got more focus. He had multiple episodes fleshing out his relationships with other characters, outside the main cast, we know his weaknesses, in that he can be blind to other people using him (a parallel with the Collector) AND he can only really do illusions. We know about his insecurities, we know his strengths, we know his interests and hobbies. People are complaining to complain. It's not lost on me that this intense nit-picking of problems that barely exist is the exact same thing that happened to SU. AND DON'T EVER LET IT BE LOST ON *YOU* THAT THIS MOSTLY HAPPENS TO SHOWS WITH QUEER REP, A DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS, SHALLOW OBSERVATIONS OF PROBLEMS THAT DON'T REALLY EXIST ***AND THEN!!!*** CALLING THE CREATOR A BAD PERSON OR A RACIST OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT, AS IF THE SHOW SPRUNG FULLY FORMED FROM THEIR HEAD. (mod can you not post any asks in the future that call Dana or anyone else on the team a racist or anything like that?) "Oh the ending was rushed! It's bad writing, I don't care that they had a runtime equivalent to six episodes to conclude what they originally planned and paced for TWENTY!" Okay then pal, if you're so fucking smart and talented, then why don't *YOU* make a script that wraps up everything perfectly but the catch is YOU NEED TO ACCOUNT FOR THE RUN TIME (this is an argument about what we have being rushed so you cannot change the conclusions, because the "it was rushed" argument implies that "it would work if it wasn't paced poorly"). Yeah. Develop the Collector more and show us their change of heart in more depth? At the expense of what? Rewrite Huntlow so it isn't abrupt and is further away from both of their mental breakdowns? At the expense of WHAT? Include the hexsquad in the final Fight since everyone wants the deeply traumatized child to watch his abuser die (this is not something every abused person wants or needs btw)? I'd like to see you juggling (Luz, King, Eda, Hunter, Amity, Willow, Gus, Camila, The Collector, Belos, Raine) ELEVEN CHARACTERS. Not to mention so many of these complaints REEK of media illiteracy. "The ending should have been more like amphibia's" That wouldn't have worked with the Themes of the show. Not to mention the ones I pointed out at the top of this rant. It really feels like people have walked into a subway and are complaining at the lack of chicken nuggets. "I'm allowed to say my complaints about the show I like!" I think if you call the creator of this show a racist or insult anyone on the team because you wished this cartoon for children didn't end the way you wanted it to, then maybe you shouldn't be allowed to criticize anything, ever. Critique NEVER should include insults at the creator. Would you look at the work of a painter and say "Wow what horrible skill, what a lack of talent, this artist must be a real loser" and it turns out you're mad about the art being abstract when you prefer romanticism, or post modernist when you want neo-classical.

There's things that could have been improved about the show, there's criticisms to be had, but Critique IS NOT insulting the creator. And your criticism can be criticized too, especially when it is over-inflated or based on objective flaws in reasoning (like people wanting the ending to be like amphibia's, which, despite all similarities, WAS TELLING A DIFFERENT STORY THEMATICALLY).

-

[lutawolf]

Hi Luta!

Happy Holidays and I hope you get some time off to spend with your family!

I discovered your blog around KP era (I think?) and I just want to say you are amazing and I am so grateful for the deep dives you go into.

I have a question about MAME because I watched a few of her creations and people always mention that they hate her but I’ve never heard the whole story of why. Personally, most of the adaptations I’ve seen really resonate with me as there’s usually a traumatized character who I can see myself in. Latest example is PrapaiSky from LITA (I don’t have the trauma Sky does but I’m as severely traumatized just in a different way) and seeing how Prapai cared for him was super healing (or at the very least comforting in a projecting-myself-onto-characters kind of way). Is that the reason so many people hate her? Or does it have to do with consent? I think PrapaiSky were perfect with that but I’ve heard other stories have issues.

Sorry for my rambling and thank you! -MA

Hey MA!!!

Sorry that I didn't answer this last night. I stayed up writing and then was like, I can't answer this tonight if I wanna answer it properly.

I am off for the next several days, woot! I hope you and your family have an amazing holiday as well. 💜💜💜

Oh. You've been with me for a while then. Thank you!!! I appreciate it!!!

There are several reasons that people give for not liking MAMA.

They talk about the consent because they are completely unfamiliar with and respecting of the fact that not everyone likes vanilla sex. There are different ways of giving consent, but they are stuck in a black and white mentality. They are unwilling to learn about different people and their sexuality because, in their opinion, we are wrong. And that's that.

Too much sex. Which is unrealistic. Life is full of those that have a lot of sex, those who are just sexual, and asexuals. There is a full spectrum, and they should be represented. Take UWMA, Dean can barely get a kiss from Pharm while Win is banging it out with Team on a regular. This is realistic. So for people to be so prudish as to put down those of us who like intimacy. Regardless of what reason they give. It's essentially failing to recognize that people are different, and we should all be represented.

They think Queer media should be held to a higher standard than straight media. Because what if straight people use this to say, blah, blah, blah. That is an injustice to Queers. It's being ignorant of how equality is actually gained. Catering to the ones that have issues with you is not how you gain respect. Besides, it becomes problematic to only show nothing but perfection. Art is meant to make you feel and think. There is a movie called Pleasantville that I feel captures this concept really well.

They think that all things problematic should be canceled rather than seen as art and a discussion point. Cancel culture is the removal of allowing people to think for themselves. Acknowledging that people are culturally and fundamentally different, and we should be trying to find out why others think the way they do, versus canceling them. It's that black and white mindset again. Which anyone with an actual understanding of Psychology will tell you is a very dangerous way of thinking. When we cancel things and remove things that we deem "inappropriate" We remove the ability for critical thinking. And if we don't think for ourselves, who will?

This turned out to be a lot. 🤣🤣🤣 Hopefully you find it helpful.

[justanotherhh]

suuuuper curious to know where you're suspecting the story will take striker, blitz will definitely want him decimated once he comprehends the damage dealt to stolas, but there's also the matter of there definitely-almost-certainly-i-am-not-deluded being a goetia we still haven't met who striker wants decimated for whatever the fuck was done to him and his in the past ( unless he's already killed them and then just.... kept on plowing with his unquenchable quest for vengeance ) + obvs his backstory needs to be revealed and that thing will have to address both his classism and his identity as a hybrid + there's def more villains left he could team up with + twice now there's been the lingering threats towards octavia and oh no where could that possibly go now that he's off stella's chain + i am so curious where his beef with eminem will go now that they've had a rematch

hello hello!

THIS IS AAAAAAAAALL PULLED OUTTA MORE OR LESS NOTHIN' BE PREPARED:

Yes, absolutely there is some Backstory that's been somewhat hinted at that I think will explain some of his ire and further develop him as a foil to blitzø, who, after all, early in s1 could for a second there have believably joined him due to feeling objectified and used by stolas after a lifetime of his talents (which in the episode and generally all episodes are shown to be substantial) going to waste, due to, yes, his own Trauma, but also due to Class specifically. but of course, what striker doesn't get is that blitzø actually likes loves stolas and also stolas loves blitzø and wants to do better by him RIP

(sidenote, I think if striker found out that the reason blitzø acts Like That around stolas is to keep himself emotionally safe/at a distance, because he doesn't feel good enough for stolas, he'd flip a table, not because he cares about blitzø's mental health, but because This Is What He's Been Trying To Make Points About The Whole Time Dammit These Blue Bloods Take Our Best And Turn Them Into Whining Toys Desperate For Their Approval!!!!)

but yes, something that will potentially make blitzø see/understand where striker is coming from, and why he's unhappy with the way things are (in ways moreso than everyone else is unhappy about the way things are), and even maybe why striker was hoping to find some commonality with him? because they... do have a lot of common ground....?

sidenote here, I don't think this can be entirely divorced from stolas' and fizzarolli's arcs, the former I think could potentially eventually abandon the expectations forced upon him and become blitzø's employee/partner, and the latter... more unsure. still need some data, but it'll definitely pertain to his relationship with asmodeus being out in the open now. my dream is poly life, but hey, i'm never expecting it, even in queer shows. not everything can be sense8 after all --

but stolas and fizz represent two sides of the status quo that are going to dismantle it in their own way. stolas by not subjecting himself and therefore others to what he's been taught he Has to do and be, and fizz through his relationship with ozzie. they're already so much more effective than anything striker has managed to achieve, despite his beliefs

but also that striker is blitzø's shadow. blitzø feels hopeless and alone, but he's got a lot of people (especially as of halfway through s2) who would go out to bat for him, who want him in their lives, who really really care... the person blitzø doesn't want to be is... striker. striker is a match for blitzø in every way (share first place at the harvest moon festival), has many similar opinions (oh great, now the supremacist is agreeing with me), and is similarly jaded... and has nobody at all

the point is that striker's goal is to dismantle the status quo... sort of... it's to destroy something in any case, to get vengeance as some kind of vague Concept (which does make me think he got his vengeance and is just post-vengeance lashing out) but it doesn't seem like he's thought that far ahead, and now it's become personal, it's all centred around blitzø (and fizz, but blitzø moreso) "betraying" their kind, and stolas and potentially fizz, now after oops are symbolic of everything that's Wrong, but also... it would hurt blitzø specifically..... both western energy and oops showed blitzø reacting emotionally to someone getting hurt because of striker. differently, because his relationship with stolas and his relationship with fizz are two distinct kinds of fucked up, but in the end, because of blitzø's place in the story and the Thing that striker is trying to destroy (powerful demons and the class traitors that allow themselves to become their pets) it aaaall centers back around to him and striker becoming more and more unhinged about, specifically, him, and also maybe wanting to drag blitzø to his level and finally finally agree with his point of view...

at least... that's what i want it to

so I want it to get more personal from here on out. striker seemed to really lose it at the end of oops, there is no cool left AND THEN BLITZØ BLEW HIM UP. MY GUY! IT'S PERSONAL NOW IF IT WASN'T BEFORE! (and it was getting personal before, but I'm gonna break you like a horse really cinched it -- and that was before his manic attempts at murdering fizz in front of blitzø)

I don't necessarily think blitzø would want to "decimate" him, not because striker isn't really dangerous and hasn't actively tried to kill two people blitzø loves (and moxxie and millie by proximity), but because to blitzø this isn't as personal... yet. kill, maybe, but I don't think he's currently out looking for a fight, and I think once it does get that personal, the dynamic will be too complicated to measure in simple terms of destruction, i think it'll be a cauldron of things...

I need to go back and rewatch western energy to remind myself of how exactly he taunts stolas that blitzø isn't coming for him, just to convince myself that there's something in there that's more than just glee about stolas being hurt, but also that he's happy that blitzø hasn't been completely lost to this relationship (fizz is way more of a lost cause according to striker), and maybe he can cut that thread for him, who knows. put him back on the right path. it's a gift, really, killing stolas

and i want blitzø to pity striker. i think that would drive him right over whatever edge he hasn't toppled off already, if blitzø understood and saw him and still told him that he was wrong, but now he felt sorry for him

as for via, great potential for a stolas and blitzø co-dads team-up? i don't imagine she'd get seriously hurt in the way other characters have been, but then that's my own limitations, simply because she's been safe from harm so far... but yeah, co-dads team-up. feels like a later down the line thing (well, most of this does)

i do want striker to land some kind of truly painful hit on blitzø. something he can't walk away from without actually getting help. whether that's hurting people he loves, or hurting him in a way so that he needs to be saved (listen, i want the latter... big fan of emotional whump blitzø, but the show has us covered on that front, it's time for him to need saving after getting stabbed and beaten and what have you, stolas can't have all the fun!)

In Conclusion: do I have real Theories? not as such. I just have Feelings.

a. I want blitzø to understand striker because of striker's past, and for that understanding to make things worse between them b. I want striker to take whatever messed up emotions he has and fine-tune them in blitzø's direction and everything he cares about (hell, maybe barbie could get involved in this somehow, so far she's been very far off to the left) c. I want striker to really really hurt blitzø. I want blitzø to at one point be genuinely, deeply afraid and in pain for a prolonged amount of time (so not just the brief parts in oops, I'm talking full episode angst) because of striker -- I think especially because striker has lost a few bouts against I.M.P. it's time for him to get a real win. and for blitzø to get hurt. sorry, that's what you get for being the narrative's specialist little boy d. I want striker to accidentally bring stolas and blitzø closer together, perhaps by kidnapping/threatening via e. I want striker to function as blitzø's narrative/symbolic shadow for the rest of the show f. do I want striker to survive the show? idk. maybe. I like a villain whose motives you get, but who never gets redeemed, and whether that can happen and him surviving, who knows g. I want there to be more horse-based innuendos, I think that's their shared language h. (I also want him to start crying because he's so damned tired of everyone making his esteemed rivalries and attempts at decent threatening behaviours and murder into a sex thing. can't a guy be a mass-murdering hitman in peace these days?)

as for villains: striker and mammon? striker and paimon? the hypocrisy of striker working with people like stella being writ even larger, simply because his whole set of ideals have been upended by how much he wants to destroy/dominate/win over one fucking guy that lives in his head rent free (blitzø has that gift)

In Real Conclusion: in the journey to try and get at blitzø, striker destroys the last parts of himself that he could hold onto. something like that. that would be cool. also. want him to make blitzø cry at one point. just cos.

[prettyboybillyhargrove]

"please block me if you read books with death in them. i don’t care your “reason” - it’s clear you have a death fetish, are pro-necrophilia, and think killing is okay. i don’t care if someone you know died recently or if you have a terminal illness. it is not okay to consume fiction with death in it to cope. and that’s that on that, you freaks. pro-death crowd dni."

This how antis sound like tbh

Oh exactly that. Because they lack critical thinking. But also empathy. You can't put an abused character in a series and expect them to be acting normal. Every person has a different reaction of abuse but they have a reaction. Billy in this case both abused and also has a missing parent in his life. Of course he couldn't be a normal teenager. Of course he's gonna act angry or scared or any emotion really.

The worst part about them hating him is Billy is the most emotional character in this show. He has the most human reactions. He definitely have mental health issues too. And is queer coded. So he actually must be the character most people empathize with. I can't relate to a rich boy, rich girl with boy issues. But I can relate to Billy. And most of the queer people too. So them hating on Billy is so fucked up.

Them saying things like he should be dead always triggers me because I can fucking relate to him. I as an abused queer had a shit life and I CAN understand his anger. He has every right to be. If people try even a little bit to understand him they can see it. They can see him struggling a lot. They can see how he's actually tired of all this. They just don't want to see it. They can't understand because they're lack of empathy and personality lol.

[natasha-in-space]

Hey matsuda lover anon here!

so I was thinking about something. So I looovee yoosung very much and for a long while in this fandom being a yoosung fan was quite a tough job because of how people wrote him off as annoying immature incestuos etc.

But as the years went by and we enter the 2020s I have seen things getting quite alot better for us yoosung fans. Of course i am not going to lie there are times i see people mischaracterising him hating him for being 'immature' and even when things have gotten better I still have quite a tendency to be very guarded in the fandom because it hurts me personally to see him getting hate.

But I will still admit that from somewhere around 2021 opinions on him started to get more positive and people have started to love him as the kindhearted loving person he is and actually see that he is not incestuos but a depressed guy who is genuinely working hard to be better and being resilient and optimistic in his struggles.

I partly believe it is because of how from the 2020s there is this movement of embracing feminity in contrast to the whole "disliking anything feminine" shtick we had back in 2010s. And yeah while yoosung is a man, alot of the hate he had gotten is like had misogynistic undertones like many people disliked him for being emotional (and hating someone for being emotional has roots in misogyny because being emotional has been mostly associated with women and the whole "women being emotional" has been used as a reason to downplay and suppress them).

Besides, a very large portion of yoosung fans are sapphic queer people and i had asked my lesbian yoosunger friends and they said that they love him because he is feminine (ofc they dont represent all the sapphic queer yoosungers but my lesbian friends made me THINK).

Oh and I see this similar pattern regarding matsuda in the death note fandom. Now I am quite recent in the Death Note fandom but knowing how Shonen fandoms usually despise emotional characters wayyy more than shoujo or women-targeted medias like mysme (because shonen fandoms have more men who are less tolerant beings and shame their own kind when vulnerable) so I was actually expecting matsuda being disliked by the Death Note fandom. And no surprise he seemed quite underrated and not well liked for being emotional immature and most importantly a hindrance to the Kira task force because of his positive opinions on Kira because of his own "black and white" mentality and "sense of justice". But again even for matsuda, he seems to get quite popular recently and some people even say that he is "overrated"(which is not true i want more matsuda love).

I will also say I see the same for Misa Amane as well, though unlike yoosung and matsuda her rise in popularity as an appreciatable character is more directly related to the surge in embracing feminity because she is a woman.

Hmm, this is a very interesting perspective to consider! Neither Yoosung nor Matsuda are my favorites (though I never disliked either of them tbh), so I cannot speak on their fandom perception as thoroughly as I could with, let's say, Choi twins or Rika. However, I do agree that Yoosung had to suffer a ton of very gross mischaracterization over the years. Granted, this case can be made for pretty much every mm character, especially when the fandom was at its most popular (which is why I honestly hate to think back on that time, and I adore the smaller but more mindful space we all share with each other now).

Reading through your ask made me think and look back on a lot of this fandom discourse I've seen over the years, and I can't help but agree. I never thought of looking at Yoosung's particular case of mishandling his themes and traits in the fandom from a misogynistic perspective. There is definitely some merit to that thought, though. Yoosung is someone who shows off his emotions the most openly out of anyone in the RFA, and he's subsequently a very sweet and romantic kind of guy. He also expresses some very compelling inner struggles with his masculinity in game on multiple occasions, which is also something worth to consider. I've seen and talked to plenty of queer folks in mm fandom over the years who personally headcanon him as trans! So, in a way, Yoosung always had some queer energy about him. Which is lovely! It's great to see folks loving and appreciating him from such a personal place of love.

As for Matsuda, I actually was in a Death Note fandom a while back and, yeah, misogyny was very much a big issue. I have no idea what is it like today, but back then both Matsuda and Misa were... definitely not fan favorites to say the least. I can't speak on Matsuda's behalf much, but, as a Misa fan, it was tough.

While I have tons of modern issues with fandom spaces currently, some things are definitely way better now. It's great to see female characters being perceived with more depth, and it's definitely refreshing to see feminine men be loved and appreciated for who they are, instead of being mocked and ridiculed like they were before. Not that these issues have disappeared completely. But, it's a pleasant turn in the fandom spaces for sure!

Thanks for this insightful message, it was a very compelling read, Matsuda lover anon!

[jamiesugah]

Shipper Tag Game

I was tagged by @heyholmesletsgo.

1. What ship were you completely obsessed with when you were a teenager, but now you don't care about anymore? Ooh, easy one. Danny and Michelle from Guiding Light. Danny was in the mafia. Michelle killed his brother (when he assaulted her). Danny married her to keep her safe from the rest of his family. They were *chef's kiss*. Probably my first introduction to fandom. There were shipper vids, fics, fan edits. And I mean this was, like, 1998, so it's not like the internet was huge back then. And it's not so much that I don't care in that I haven't thought about them in years. I wonder if there are fics for them on AO3.

2. Which ship would you consider your first one? I'd say Han and Leia.

3. Your first fanfic was about which couple? Trip and T'Pol from Star Trek Enterprise. I do not acknowledge that final episode.

4. Do you remember the first couple you saw fanart of? That depends on how we're defining "fanart". Danny/Michelle had a lot of manips and screencap edits, but the first, like, original art I remember seeing was probably for Ron/Hermione.

5. Have you ever gotten into ship discourse? Dude, I ship Sterek AND Sheith, ship discourse just finds you. But actually the worst for me was when I was in the CSI: NY fandom. People legit hated me there. I got doxxed on LJ. That's one of the main reasons I'm a fairly passive consumer of fandom nowadays. I don't have the energy to deal with that shit.

6. Did you use to have any NOTP or have one currently? Oh I have SO MANY NOTPs. I have a lot of filtered tags on Tumblr. Some of them are ships that squick me out, some of them have annoying or abusive fandoms and that turned me off the ship, and some of them are just I don't like them and don't want to see them.

7. Who were the couple in the last fanfic you read? I was simultaneously reading a SeanWhite (Not Me) and a WangXian (The Untamed) fic.

8. Currently, do you have any OTPs? I mean... Yes?? Have you seen my blog?? SeanWhite and WangXian are the big ones right now but I have so many.

9. Is there any couple that, to this day, you are extremely mad about not getting together? Sterek (Stiles/Derek, Teen Wolf) and Sheith (Shiro/Keith, Voltron Legendary Defender). Those fuckers were married, I don't care what garbage "canon" says.

10. Is there any ship you used to dislike but now you think they are kind of interesting? Not a specific one, but I used to dislike slash on principle because slash shippers treated me like shit when I was in CSI: NY fandom, so I sort of thought they were all like that, and now all of my ships are queer so there you go.

11. Do you have any ship that, in the past, would've been considered normal but now you would be cancelled over? I mean, I think if Sterek and Sheith had been 20 years ago, no one would give a shit, but now the purity patrol polices everything. People are still calling us abusers for those, and those shows ended 6+ years ago.

12. What is your favorite crack ship? I don't really have one, honestly. I have a limited amount of mental energy to spend, so I'd rather focus on my OTPs.

13. What is the couple you read the most fanfics about? Total, ever? I think Merthur, followed by Sterek.

14. What do most of your ships usually have in common? Grumpy is in love with sunshine, sunshine & sunshine protector, usually some variation of that dynamic.

15. What you absolutely hate in a ship? Understanding that this is personal preference and I am not casting judgment on what anyone else ships: ships when there is, like, absolutely no evidence that the two people involved have any romantic feelings for each other. I railed against Leonard and Penny on TBBT for so many years because I'm pretty sure they got them together because they "made the most sense" but in actual canon they were horrible for each other. I have no idea WHY I was supposed to want them together.

I'm not going to tag anyone so if you want to do this, go nuts!

[calamitydaze]

Ro Ramdin video out ! At the halfway mark and it's. Pretty okay.

alright, i finally watched it! goddamn you guys weren’t lying that was a heavy hitter. tldr below the cut since it was an Hour of pretty dense commentary so even the summary is long, but i very much recommend watching it in full

i liked it a lot! i’ve never watched her content before before but ro is funny as hell and it was a very well put together and engaging video. i really appreciated the balance she struck between being firm and empathetic, and that she took care to separate criticism of dream from criticism of his fanbase. i took some issues with the first half, mainly in the misinformation department (not super important, but quite a few little things that i felt were incorrect/lacking in detail/misrepresented), and i think it was a flaw to so heavily lean on data taken from a survey you had to dm her to get. i don’t blame her for that though, inaccuracies are to be expected when talking about a community she’s not part of and given how quickly she made this video i can understand relying on secondhand accounts instead of really diving in herself

the second half is where it really cuts deep and i found it SO refreshing for someone to actually look into why and how dream’s fandom came to be the way that it is instead of just endless criticism and talking down to them. i especially enjoyed the section where she talked about how insular and reactionary and hard to reach dream stans are, not because they hate everyone else but because everyone hates them. it’s something i’ve thought for over a year and when i saw her put it so eloquently i was like YES!!!! i said before i watched it that i’m pretty self-aware about my parasociality and why i feel the way i do, and i still like to think i’m not super guilty of her main critiques, but even then it honestly left me with a lot to think about and reassess. particularly the point about how stans seek reassurance from each other to get the moral green light to keep being in the community— it both hit me like “oh shit. i do that” and felt a little close to home in some of the asks i’ve been answering. i’m more than happy to continue comforting people and fostering a less hostile (and hopefully more balanced) discussion, but i hope people don’t see me as some sort of moral compass that tells you it’s okay to still watch dream. i’ve tried to be clear that it’s just a discussion and you should come to a personal conclusion that feels moral and comfortable to you AND THIS FEELS VERY SELF-IMPORTANT IM SORRY but i wanted to say it

so yeah! good video, it was sad to see how nervous ro was to upload it but from what i know the response has been positive so i hope she’s doing well. definitely worth a watch, i’d love to have a conversation with her tbh

tldr:

- even though the twitlonger was an off-the-cuff response, the repeated focus on how the allegations are “harmful to real victims” feels insincere and misdirecting

- the “gorgeous as fuck” snapchat is enough for her to deem the situation inappropriate and heavily question whether he’s handling his fanbase in a responsible manner

- survey takers were overwhelmingly neurodivergent and queer (and about 1/2 and 1/4 trans and poc respectively) and that might be a reason why people stay even if the community becomes toxic, because it’s still a safe space in that regard that’s hard to find elsewhere

- she talked about how self-isolated dream fans are in comparison to most fandoms as a result of continuous harassment and ridicule, and how this creates an “us against the world” mentality that makes it even harder to see when potential misdeeds occur

- the thing she most takes issue with about the fandom is the seeming lack of personal values that people hold above all else, aside from basic leftist stances on things like race and war

- when levied against other fans, accusations of racism and sexual harassment are an insta-block but creators get a grace period, because the space they take up in our lives is larger— but the more you sacrifice your personal values to get permission to continue enjoying a thing the easier it gets to keep doing it