#i think i maybe need a rants tag for this stuff so people can avoid the negativity if they prefer!

[wistfulwatcher]

@ahauandthesun replied to your post “vague tgotb 1x6 spoilers I was genuinely enjoying...”:

wait i need your reasoning on this because i had the same feeling but wasn’t exactly sure why. this whole episode felt off

​yeah, i have thoughts lol.

ok so first of all, i'm wondering if this episode and the last episode got restructured/rewritten? because the first thing that felt ~off to me was how grace and kimberlyn interacted. like??? grace was invited to her engagement party/wedding last episode and now it's like they barely know each other? while i enjoyed 1x5 i did think they were kind of rushing the friendship between the girls. i was rolling with it because 10 episodes in a season is so little that i figured they were just doing a whole lot of telling not showing with the emerging friendship.

but this episode felt like a full step backwards, with zero reason for it. i really wish the bus breakdown had happened earlier, since the debates were a good way to get the women to talk openly. (but maybe they were trying to use it to sell their point that debates don't change anything? i'm maybe giving this show too much credit lmao)

overall though i was enjoying the episode up until about the last 15 minutes, because wtf happened with grace and the sandwiches? i legitimately thought it was another one of sadie's fantasy sequences because that came out of absolutely nowhere. if it had made even a lick of sense i would have been all over that scene but it was just truly bizarre???

idk overall the ep felt sooooo shallow. i didn't really think this was a groundbreaking female show or anything before this, but it wasn't so bad i couldn't enjoy it until now. it just felt...blah. especially when thought about in retrospect, knowing where they're going with sadie. pregnancy is about the dumbest/most overused/boring(/insulting, because sadie doesn't have to make EVERY short-sighted choice, a career-oriented woman remembering to use protection can coexist with a semi-unethical choice in partner!!) route they could have taken. i was already barely tolerating the loafers storyline because yeah. sure. when he's a plot device to explore double standards he makes sense. i guess.

also, and this is truly the most minor issue with the pregnancy storyline but. she's 8 days late after traveling/working nonstop, trying to uncover a conspiracy/election bombshell, losing the respect of her mentor, and fighting tooth and nail to keep her dream job? you're a week late because you're fucking stressed, sadie. ugh.

overall, just disappointing!!! but oh well

[postive-rainworld-anarchy-conf]

i’ve been waiting for people to realize azriel was a terrible person since last december. he reblogged a callout post (full of false accusations about zoophillia and stuff, as per usual) and then just DUMPED this huge rant about how incest fanfiction made him think it was okay to kiss his brother when he was 14.

no i’m not joking. obviously i can’t put a link here but: tumblr dot com / azrielfiend / 737002511661187072/tws-for-a-much-of-stuff-im-reblogging-again-but

just remove the dots and spaces and it’ll take you to the post, but in case you don’t want to, a DIRECT QUOTE from it is: “proshipping influenced me SO much that i almost (romantically and unconsensually) kissed my brother on the lips before my dad stopped me. speaking of my dad, i had intrusive thoughts about him and having crushes on him too.”

it just goes to show that this guy is fr not okay. even at 14, all the incest fanfiction in the WORLD could make me EVER make me think that incest is okay?? you couldn’t waterboard that info out of me either idk why he just randomly decided to dump that shit on some post like that (probably for pity points and to get attention…)

looking at it, and btw for anyone that doesn't know, you HAVE TO make your stuff screenreader accessible, not just because someone else might need it, but because if you ever need it for whatever reason, even for a bit (like after an eye surgery) it sucks to not be able to read what you've written.

especially when in tags, it makes it worse since people who wish to avoid those things can't when you do stuff like put zeros instead of an O, or a 4 instead of an r.

this is just a massive pet peeve of mine, but I read stuff like this and wonder why they are even censoring it like that?

read it and uh.

no yeah, no. ok no what I see what you mean, holy fuck. I mean way to sacrifice yourself to make a point there but damn.

"that sentence is also ableist because it assumes everyone can just tell it apart easily and youre dumb for not being able to."

uh, eh, ah. ok, I mean like. ok???? in that case, don't read it??? what

"i cant rest easy knowing proshippers would influenced kids like how they influeneced me in the past. its haunting, if you say this isnt harmful. then youre surely mistaken. im done. do not argue me on this im just so upset people are defending moonstone."

I think this just you, honestly???

I'm sorry but what the fuck did I just read

huh. that sure was a take & the half

I don't think this was developed because you were in the proshipping community, I just think you had incestuous thoughts about your brother and father? and then tried rationalizing why you did that as being convinced to do so because of proshipping. (even though most proshippers, not all, but most will tell you to not fuck your family, and instead read stuff about it instead or something) instead of realizing that maybe you just wanted to kiss your brother and were looking for an excuse.

this is all on you probably?

like you don't just get thoughts like that from outside sources. that comes from you.

but also at the same time, I don't know the situation, so who knows.

like it's fine to have incestuous thoughts and all, alot of people do. but the problem is acting on them... especially when it's non-consensual...

you have to work through them, not work for them.

well that was interesting

[just-antithings]

I found this rant in my notes from, like June of 2021. I have no idea what it was in response to, but I thought y'all might appreciate it, so here goes:

So, the anti-shipping movement is closely entwined with--although not identical to--the anti-kink movement. (Both are subsidiaries of the radfem poison that's been creeping through society and fandom as of late, but that's a discussion for another time.) For the uninitiated, anti-kinksters oppose basically any "unconventional" sexual activities such as BDSM, DDLG, furry stuff, and all sorts of other shit consenting adults do in their bedrooms (or sex dungeons).

Now, these fuckers are just wild to me. I think anti-shipping is bonkers, but I at least get the idea behind it: Namely, that people can be bullied out of--publicly, at least--shipping certain things. Making ship fic/art is a relatively niche hobby, and fandoms are ephemeral. So if you can make it socially unacceptable to write about Ship A for, say, five years, you may have eliminated that ship altogether. You don't need to keep doing it forever because a fandom's popularity will eventually wane.

Kink does not work this way. Sexual fetishes have existed for all of human history. Many of them are, if not innate, formed in early childhood. You can't keep people from being kinky. Even if the human race started over tomorrow with no memory of anything that came before, people would immediately start trying to find newer and weirder ways to fuck, because that's just sort of what people do.

So... what the fuck do anti-kinksters want, exactly? You can't stop people from having these desires. Do they want people to stop acting on these desires with other consenting adults? What possible good could that do anyone? How would you decide what counts as kink? How could you ever enforce that? Sure, there's always shame, but a) there's already a good deal of shame associated with many kinks b) if there's one thing I've learned from true crime podcasts, it's that somebody who's shamed for their sexual interests is one head injury away from being a serial killer.

Do they just want kinksters to stop making porn? I reiterate: Fucking why? You're an adult, you can hit the back button if you see something you don't like. I do it every single day. It's easy, I promise.

Of course, antis of every variety like to whinge about "the children." It will traumatize the children or make them vulnerable to pedophiles or whatever (which, holy shit, way to blame the victim). To which I say: Why the fuck are your kids in any position to see porn of any kind, and how is this anybody else's problem? Complaining that your kid saw porn on the internet is like complaining that you gave your kid enough money for a ticket, dropped them off at the theater alone, and returned to find out they'd watched an R-rated movie. Like, no shit, Sherlock, what did you think was going to happen?

Nobody made you give your kid internet access. Nobody made you fail to supervise them. Nobody made you be too lazy to set up parental controls, or forget to teach them basic internet safety protocols, or avoid giving them the talk and just hope their school would take care of it. That shit's on you. Maybe, depending on the circumstances, the platform your kid was using is at fault for not having good filtering, or the content creators were at fault for failing to tag stuff properly. At no point in the equation is it the fault of some random dude who just happens to be into balloons or raw pizza dough or whatever.

So... this was a very long rant about anti-kinksters that may not even belong here. In conclusion, parent your fucking kids.

[foggyfanfic]

Rant about ship wars in the ATLA fandom under the cut

With the live action coming out recently, I dipped my toes back in the ATLA fandom and I just… why are the ship wars STILL so vitriolic?! It ended like fifteen years ago, why are people still getting so angry about this? I guess these days I identify as a multi shipper (even if I will always have my favorite), because it’s actually not that hard to see the different ways different characters fit together. Honestly, it’s kind of fun to explore how Toph might foil Aang vs Sokka, or so on or so forth. I don’t know, there are ships I vibe with more than others, but they all have good and bad traits to them. They all bring out different sides to the characters and that’s fun. I can understand arguing why the dynamics of your Otp fit the show’s narrative better then the dynamics of your Notp, but why has it become a question of morals? Even at my most Thirteen I never saw my ship as morally superior to another ship because…? Why would I?

I get why people get up in arms for things like incest or pedo ships, I don’t think attacking somebody for their fictional ship is ok, but at least I get the outrage. Ngl I do tend to block that sort of stuff on sight cuz I don’t want to see it, but that’s kind of the point. This doesn’t need to be a huge drama. If somebody’s ship really bothers you that much just block the tag. Ta da! Now it’s gone, yaaay.

Sorry to rant, I’m just bummed I have to wade through essays on why shipping these two characters together makes you a rape apologist or a colonizer or whatever to get to the essays on themes and symbolism. I was scrolling on Reddit and somebody asked why there are people who don’t ship Kataang, like a fool I put in my two cents (I do like them but some of the season three writing decisions call for fix it fics). Oof! People did not like that. I didn’t even go into detail because I know one person’s “Hm :/“ is another person’s “Aaaw :D”, and I try to avoid raining on parades. I made an active effort to clarify this is my opinion and I’m only giving it to answer the question but I had a whole deluge of people acting like I shot their dog and danced on its corpse. The thing is I want to discuss what I see as weak writing because I know other people will have a different perspective than I do, and they can point out things that didn’t occur to me. I don’t want to fight anyone about cartoon characters kissing, but I do want to explore the story with other people.

Ah well, maybe if I give it another 15 years people will finally settle down.

[arklayraven]

Hey Jay, I kinda wanna rant a bt the recent om fandom drama; the reaction to it (feel free to delete!)

So if you have better filters than I do, basically there was someone hc'ing (honestly looking back they were more so just making their own au lore?? At least that's what it feels like now) that Micheal SA'd Lucifer. Personally, I'm a be in charge of your internet experience, anti-censorship, block/filter kind of person so I feel like a lot of the reactions I've seen are kind of harsh? (Fiction shouldn't warrant chasing someone off the internet, if you need to be mad and get your energy out idk go watch and comment on an inabber video essay or smt. Reports on heinous shit that directly impacts irl people not stuff like this) I blocked after I saw it but I'm pretty sure they tagged everything in the text so it's not a case of people being uninformed before they read. Maybe coming from a time of reddit 50/50 and trolls spamming disturbing content made me more immune but even so, I saw someone named and shamed for replying to a discourse post saying the poster should block and move on :/

Also there's some hypocrisy bc I've seen at least one person also say Solomon did nothing wrong. Like,,,, Solomon's character is literally morally gray and will do evil things for the sake of humanity. I think he's one of the more complex characters and if you take that away from him then did you ever even really like him?? It's okay to like fictional villains/antiheros, but you can't deny that his pact formation with Asmo is the closest thing we have to SA in canon. Idk reading comprehension is always in low supply

Ranting is perfectly fine with me, so you're good.

And wow...This is a lot to take in and process...I saw a post about someone trying to make Michael out to be this pure and never did anything wrong character. Especially when it comes to understanding/respecting consent. (lol I ranted myself over that on another blog if you follow it. Raphael deserved better. That's all I'm gonna say here.)

But I didn't know it got this BAD over him.

I pretty much avoid the tag now as much as I can, unless just checking to see if anyone asks about my now gone blog. Just to inform them what happened. (but things died down so no need for that anymore I feel). So I had no idea this was going on until you brought it up...

So yeah...It's a lot to process.

And the thing about Solomon will never not annoy me. You are so right on hypocrisy at play here. Though know no matter how much we try to inform people on the facts and all about Solomon. They will flat out deny it or ignore it, just to not feel bad about loving their fave.

(You can acknowledge they are a little(or very) fucked up and still love them fyi. Literally look at me loving Sol and Ren, my two little fucked up f/os, but i still love them very much. lol)

[bbyquokka]

rant bc im so tired and demotivated from this...

imma try and get my thoughts in order. i go through my feedback and see this.

you see that? yeah, my fic got slapped with a community label.

89 notes in 1 day. normally, I'd think it's just Tumblr being Tumblr and their finicky bots however;

this got flagged within 11 hours of it being up. not even a full day and it got flagged. since then, it's reached 96 notes. once this label is slapped on a piece of work; it's there for good! i can't get rid of it, it's permanently there meaning interactions become little to none.

i don't wanna make assumptions however, whoever is fucking reporting/flagging my works; kindly leave. Normally, i'd get a notification saying my work has been flagged, however, for the two pieces posted in this post, I did not.

i don't understand how my Hyunjin and Seungmin fic managed to avoid the label. maybe i am grasping at straws, maybe this is tumblr being an absolute pain in my ass rn, however, if you are reporting my shit; kindly stop.

i tag my posts with the appropriate tags, so i don't understand why people feel the need to report mine PLUS other people's works because i know it's happening to a lot more writers.

you have no idea what it does to a writer to see that their work is being flagged. interactions go down, likes, reblogs are none existent. i was nervous posting my changlix fic, first poly fic i've done that has mxm elements and to see it do so poorly PURELY BECAUSE OF THE LABEL is demotivating and demoralising.

i have fics planned, fics that are hella smutty but it's making me anxious and question whether i CAN post because how do I know that my works won't get reported again?

pls make sure you have you settings fixed so you can all still see mine and other people's work. I know we all sound like broken records at this point, but it's so so so important to many of us.

i try and not let it get to me. i write for myself and for people that enjoy my type of stuff. however, i am human, i have emotions and it i'd be lying if i said it doesnt get to me

stop with this nonsense. you don't like smut, don't read it. in fact, wtf are you doing looking at smut tags in the first place? leave me alone.

[freedfromthegalactichivemind]

Welcome to Tumblr, Spop Fans!

Having seen a pretty decent post about the need to be welcoming to the tumblr refugees... (regarding how some of the nastier groups are always welcoming to new potential members, therefore decent people ought to knock off the “get off our lawn!” crap).... in that spirit, I’ve decided to give a little rundown of how things work on here for this specific fandom.   Okay, so She-Ra and the Princesses of Power fandom - a contentious place.  We all have our favorite characters and ships and also our NOTPS and characters we hate.   Having been here a while, well, the Spop fandom on tumblr has developed a certain etiquette to avoid drama.  It is not always followed.  Those who do not follow it suffer the consequences.   If you have a rant AGAINST a certain character or ship - you’re just talking about how much you dislike them or how much you think the creator-crew messed up their story-arc, or you hate the way their fans behave and have a “don’t trust fans of X-character!” rant or even BASIC ANALYSIS that is critical of a character or ship, the common convention is to please tag your post (tags are at the bottom of the window when you post, labeled “#tags” - you can put anything there you want), do not, I REPEAT, DO NOT put the character’s name / character names / ship name plain in there!   You need to put “anti-”  If you are critical of Catradora, for instance, or you dislike Hordak, you HAVE to label it “anti-catradora” or “anti-hordak” to avoid trouble.   You may still run into trouble because sometimes tumblr reads an anti-tag as a character-tag.  Generally, if you have an “anti-” tag in there, you have an alibi if tumblr screws up.  Usually it will not show up in the regular character-tag, but on the chance that it does, you can point to your original post or screenshot it with the tags and show people that you’ve tagged it correctly.   This is something that has developed in the fandom because people who enjoy characters and ships and want to search for something positive - fun fanart, fanfics, happy analysis - well, we like to be able to search clean and not have to deal with the negativity of people who are dunking on the things and characters we like.    THIS IS ENFORCED.  It is not necessarily enforced by tumblr, but it is enforced by the respective fandom-cliques.   Post an anti-character rant tagged with that character’s general tag? YOU WILL BE DOGPILED.   There are people here who make sport of analyzing “bad takes” and having a field day arguing with people and putting people up for ridicule and callout posts - sometimes with stalking and screenshots.   Sometimes even someone who enjoys a character making a silly joke about them will have their joke taken the wrong way and will get dogpiled and might even run the risk of getting labeled this or that “phobic” over the misunderstanding, or at least labeled as not respecting the character / ship or their fans, even if it’s furthest from the truth.  (I’ve seen it happen). So, use those anti-tags or maybe don’t tag at all if you’ve got such a rant.   Now, I don’t think this stuff goes on as much as it used to - the fandom mellowed out a great deal in the last year or so, but just in case some of you birdsite-refugees are coming in and are simply unfamiliar with the tagging-system here or some of the divides in the fandom, I’m trying to put forth tips to keep down honest misunderstandings.   Purposeful trolls, well... I’m just hoping people in my fandom will be mature enough simply to block people they don’t like (but I doubt it until some screeching has passed).  I’m not looking forward to it.  

For that matter, if anyone has anon-ask enabled on their Asks-box (I do not on any of my blogs. You have to use a signed account as I got some obnoxious asks), do not abuse the privilege.  If you actually harass someone over their fandom opinions, they will very likely take away anon asks or asks altogether. Those who don’t are probably drama llamas and I suppose they leave themselves open to what they get.   That brings to mind another thing:  New account? If you want people to send you Asks, you have to enable that in your settings.  You have the option from there to Allow Anon Asks (in which case people do not have to sign their accounts) or to disallow it.  If you disallow it, all asks to you must be signed (therefore if you get someone obnoxious, you can block them.  You cannot block anons, you can only delete them instead of answering them, but you will still get them in your inbox). YOU HAVE TO DO THIS FOR ALL YOUR BLOGS.  If you run sideblogs (such as what I do for different fandoms and different interests - freedfromthegalactichivemind is not my main), you have to work your settings specific to every blog.  If you block someone from your main account, for instance, but do not block them from your sideblog, they will be able to see and respond to your sideblog.   Anyway, I hope that this is helpful, but in general and in specific to this fandom. Please manage your Asks, use character tags and anti-tags appropriately, and be careful out there.  

[itwoodbeprefect]

Re the tag game: H50, all of them #25? Also I'm not sure if I'm allowed to ask twice but I wouldn't object to hearing more about Our Mr. Wilson!

thank you for your mercy in crossing out “all of them”, because i think i’d have to skip sleep tonight to get that done. :p but two is absolutely okay!

-

Danny Williams and the Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Neighborhood Barbecue

this is a recent addition to the WIP pile! it’s a post-canon fic in which (obviously) danny still lives with steve, when he discovers that steve barely knows his neighbors. so they throw a barbecue to get to know them better, and then (also obviously) it turns out that all their neighbors think they're a couple. everyone keeps making nice comments to danny about it (“how did you meet?” “your boyfriend is good at the grill, but your pasta salad is my favorite!” “oh, i'm glad to see you finally took the step and moved in - i used to see your car here all the time.” “you guys have adorable kids!” etc.) and danny keeps having to explain that yes, they’re partners, yes, they live together, yes, steve is basically raising his kids with him, but not like that, while every new neighbor he meets has the wrong idea all over again and steve seems oddly chill about it. cue eventual confrontation in the privacy of their kitchen, of course, where danny figures out that maybe steve is chill about it for a reason.

these are the first four paragraphs:

The worst of it is that it’s his own fault, and nobody else’s. While walking Eddie down the street, more to stretch his own legs than because the dog needs any more outdoor time considering all the people it lives with that go for daily jogs (which is two, but that’s plenty), Danny sees the neighbor from three doors down watering plants in her front yard. He stops for a friendly little chat, the way people sometimes do if they’ve been decently socialized through the virtue of having an upbringing in which none of their parents faked their death.

When he and Eddie get back home, he crosses paths with Steve in the kitchen, and when he tells Steve he just talked to Mrs. Hernandez about flowers that look pretty but don’t require too much upkeep, Steve says, “Who?”

Which is how Danny learns that Steve, a man who has lived in this very house for most of the years he’s been alive and also loves not only prying into other people’s business but having all of the facts in every possible situation, doesn’t know most of his own neighbors’ names. “How is that even possible?” Danny asks, at the end of a little rant about how stupid that is, which Steve bears alternately with patience and mildly hurt personal pride. “How have you never once thrown a big barbecue to at least know who’s supposed to be walking around on your street?”

“Huh,” Steve says, like he’s pleasantly surprised by the practicality of that suggestion. Danny is fully ready to take that the wrong way and rant a little more, when Steve cuts him off by pulling a notepad and a pen from a kitchen drawer and asking, “Can you make that macaroni salad you do, but bigger?”

-

Our Dear Mr. Wilson’s Guide To Becoming A Successful Contributing Member Of A Team Of Internationally Renowned High-Tech Do-Gooder Criminals

ooh, i’ve had a lot of fun with this one so far! but it’s also specifically early season 1 leverage redemption fic, so it’s fallen by the wayside a bit after it didn’t get finished fast enough and canon had moved past the point where this idea was immediately relevant. it’s essentially a harry POV numbered list describing what (not) to do when dealing with the leverage team - stuff like don’t anger the guy who used to be a hitman (but definitely don’t anger any of the others, because that’s worse), avoid any performance of sophie’s that’s not related to a con, don’t get between breanna and gummy bears.

here’s a chunk of “don’t try to ask which of your new partners in crime are partners with which other partners in crime”:

“So what’s the deal with Hardison and Parker?”

“What deal?”

“Nothing. Just, I get the impression that you and Parker…”

Eliot does not take the obvious invitation to fill in the gap. He just raises his eyebrows, at once vaguely threatening and threateningly vague.

Harry soldiers on. “And when Hardison was still here, it seemed like you and him were also- Also close.”

Eliot rumbles. It’s unclear if it’s in agreement. “Why? Are you trying to figure out if I’m single? I’m being hit on. Is that what’s happening here?”

Not only can Harry not figure out if Eliot is serious or not, he’s also completely unsure if that undertone of a growl is base level grump, an expression of mutual interest, or rising homicidal rage. Harry smiles. “Never mind,” he says, and beats a hasty retreat.

-

send me the title of one of my WIPs and i'll tell you something about it or post a snippet!

[mangoisms]

I don't understand how people can look at tim, see some of the most adhd traits ever to exist, and go oh yeah this dude needs coffee to survive. Tim would drink a cup of coffee and then nap for three hours dude. I also doubt he'd want something that he'd become reliant on because of self control

KDFK YEAH. EXACTLY. especially the point on being self-reliant on it!! i think he would want to be like bruce in that regard and i’m 75% sure bruce is not reliant on coffee like that or at least, overtly so. could be wrong tho. and also!!! it’s just not canon. i can think of like. one or two times where he got coffee in my reading of robin 1993 thus far. one time they were just cups of something so it’s a guess as to whether it was coffee or maybe tea. another time he did get coffee but he wasn’t even suited up, he was in civilian mode.

i can’t speak for modern stuff since i avoid it like the plague but i get the impression that it’s considerably more popular there, which makes me think that That is also half the battle, that fandom-y characteristics are now being enshrined officially which is an unsettling thought. especially since modern comics are supposed to be ‘easier’ and people grab it and run with it. the wfa webtoon is guilty of this too. off topic but i was scrolling jason’s tag and it was crazy how many fics were filed under the red hood webtoon. like. i don’t know. ough.

LONG STORY SHORT. that’s not my tim. i totally agree with you (this also got long sorry to rant under your ask anon <3)

[sun-undone]

Season 3 recap was *chef's kiss* I was so giddy throughout the entire episode! You put so much love into the podcast and it really makes it feel like talking with a friend 💜

I thought about a few stuff that I think will be fun and interesting

- Sarah and jj's friendship. I am a huge cambank fan and obsess over any crumb we get. They have really good dynamics and I totally agree, we need more of them and more friendships in general

- I wonder if we will get to see Rose and Wheezie again

- they were very focused on fathers in the first 3 seasons do you think we'll get to hear more or even see a mother?

- now that Topper really has gone to the dark side he teams up with Rafe (and maybe Barry gets a bit jealous 😏 i dont think he really will but it's fun to think about)

-and Cleo, I wish we got to know Cleo more this season. So far she's been the tough one and like you said about seeing a scene mirroring the hottub scene with jj being there for kie, seeing another side of cleo would have been nice. We got a glimpse in the last episode but we need moreee

Thank you so much for doing this! I love listening to you talk about the boat show 🧡

ahhh thank you so much!!!! i'm so glad you enjoyed listening! ☺️

i'm so glad i'm nowhere near the only person who sees the potential in cambank, like literally everyone in the fandom is either obsessed with that dynamic or is at least interested in it. give the people what they want pates!!!!! i know they have someone lurking in the tags on social media so there's no way they haven't come across the edits about JJ and Sarah being so similar in so many ways. my only fear is that they've been scared off by the theories that they're actually siblings, which i personally never want to happen in the show, and it seems like the pates feel the same way since Maddie Cline keeps bringing it up in interviews. but they can so easily avoid the sibling thing and just write more scenes with them together!!! i really thought that season 3 would've been the perfect time since they were both struggling with being back in the obx and they literally both have a tendency to run from vulnerability and hurt people they love in the process like hello????? god i will forever believe that if JJ had been at his house in episode 6 when Sarah goes there, then she wouldn't have cheated with Topper and that's exactly why the pates refused to give it to us. they literally chose stopper over cambank and i'm disappointed but not surprised! sorry this was such a long rant out of nowhere aljdhjkahd but yes, more cambank in s4, i'm starting the petition now

speaking of Topper, i'm gonna move down to that bullet point real quick and just say that i actually think there might be some more potential for comedic moments if Topper seriously starts hanging out with Rafe and Barry like COULD YOU IMAGINE???? the dude couldn't handle the pogues, i think he'd shit his pants if he was in the same room as the local drug dealer. idk i think i said in the episode that i didn't want Topper joining forces with Rafe, but if he's very much on the sidelines and is made fun of by the writing the entire time, then i will absolutely take that. although i've said this before and i'll say it again, Topper continuing to even speak to Rafe, much less still being friends with him, after knowing everything that he's done is so transparent to me. his attitude toward him in season 2 was absolutely bizarre to me, and season 3 was even weirder, like does he really hate Sarah that much that he's gonna take advice from and be swayed by the person who tried to drown her?????? i know he was in a very emotionally vulnerable spot, but the fact that he doesn't put up much of a fight against Rafe when he's starting his spiel about Sarah just shows me that Topper has some underlying respect for him which is just so gross. but whatever, if the pates are actually gonna start committing to Topper not being the good guy that they tried to convince us that he was, then it finally makes sense for him to be able to excuse Rafe's bullshit and be buddy buddy with him again. maybe Topper will actually be a consistent character for once now that he's on the dark side! let's have him sulk in the corner while Rarry does their thing 🥰🥰

as for the other points, i'm gonna save those for the next podcast episode!! thanks so much for sending them in and for listening!!! 💕

[something-about-sunflowers]

Not tagging this with any of the fandoms or characters involved because this is honestly just a me problem but. I kind of hate the prevalence of the taking of canonically queer men/masc presenting characters and either feminizing them or making them women (trans or otherwise). Like I said this is entirely a me problem but it feels the same to me as being misgendered does, even if its characters that I don’t particularly connect with?

(read more cause this is a rambly mess and probably a controversial take)

Like for example in GO, I fully get and appreciate they’re genderless despite how they present but it fucks me up to see people making ‘ineffable wives’ stuff because it feels to me like people dismissing them choosing to present as masc (most often at least, I know Crowley has presented as femme) to say ‘I’d like you better if you were how I want you to be’ and, don’t get me wrong, I know that’s not what it really is but I can’t exactly help how I feel about it. I’m not going to go tell anybody they’re wrong or to stop doing it, just avoid it where I can.

Another example being transfem Ed. That one fucks me up for a lot of reasons, mostly being down to like. He really isn’t. Feminine? In the show? I know I know, how someone presents can be different from how they identify but, I’m fairly sure the headcanon came from how people perceive Ed presenting? The wearing of the robe and the shaving of the beard in particular. Also the. Wanting nice things? Folding socks? It just feels very. Yeah. Like none of that is inherently feminine.

I. Wonder if. Maybe. People see ‘this is a show that tackles toxic masculinity’ and think. Like. ‘The solution is to remove masculinity and replace it with femininity’? Like that’s what it feels like. I suppose it goes hand in hand with a lot of the fandom’s particularly shallow read on Ed? ‘Big uwu baby man, lets make him a woman cause he’s too soft to be a man’, kinda thing?

Don’t get me wrong I know for a lot of people it does just come from seeing themselves in Ed and wanting to express that, or people going ‘I just think its neat’, but I also am so positive there’s a non zero number with. I’ll call it ‘radfem motivations’.

And this purely comes from the ‘Ed is a woman’ thing, like. Gender-fuckery Ed is perfectly fine by me, let that man be GNC AF. But ‘Ed is a woman’, to me, feels a little 1. Misogynistic and 2. Honestly? Homophobic?

The ‘radfem motivations’ are why I’m also bothered a bit by ‘but what if they were all women?’ Again, I know a lot of it is people seeing themselves in the characters and wanting to connect with them better but god does it fuck me up to have this unique show with canonically queer men who are able to and encouraged to be who they are by the narrative, and see people saying ‘it’d be better if they were women’. Like queer men don’t deserve to have this story? This is not a 1:1 comparison but it feels the same to me as ‘show has canon gay male couple > homophobes complain about it a la “men can’t just be friends anymore?”‘

I’m honestly not sure whether to be surprised or not at how little pushback the idea of transmasc Izzy gets by the fandom at large with this idea of ‘but women better’ floating around but like. I also know that at least part of that is people wanting to demonize Izzy and not caring if transmascs get hurt in the crossfire. ‘He can stay a man cause men are evil but he can’t have a dick cause that’s gross so he can be a trans man because he’s evil’, kinda thing?

Anyway this is just a bunch of shitty rambly stream of consciousness shit so try not to take any offense from this (unless you’re one of the radfems, then be as offended as your vile little heart can manage and then fuck all the way off ❤ ✌). This is just coming from a bit of frustration I’m having being vaguely transmasc and enjoying/participating in these fandoms, again, its a me problem and I’m not trying to make anybody do anything different I just needed to rant a bit about how I’m perceiving things to get the ‘feels bad’ demons out of my head about it.

[where-theres-smoak-2]

Here's the kind of stuff I come across and get me down:

" #who am i kidding #even if we get a little bit of corruption arc it will all be merzost's fault #and they will find some magical medicine to cure her #maybe by Mal's true love kiss 🙄 #the war was completely erased as well #and alina will cure racism simply by being a flashlight and changing fashion #and there is no way i hell that those writers are bringing darkling back #and i would actually be surprised if ben wanted to stick around for season three #he's finally free of this monstrosity of a project #and netflix is finally rid off the character they hated the most #and since it was a character that fans loved most #i predict that sab is dead #they just don't know it yet #also persecution is almost no exist in the show so it's not like Alina will have to watch Grisha enslavment"

I really don't see why the Darkling wouldn't come back in the sequel, since they're adapting books where he's present. I don't see why Ben Barnes would refuse either. As for that "netfliix hates the Darkling" rant? I don't understand this kind of thinking. Yes SAB is not the best series in the world with flaws, but there is a limit to exaggeration anyway.

I mean they are almost certainly bringing back Aleks in season 3, they dropped too many hints not to, the whole make sure there's nothing left of me but there still being his hand thing, the fact that we saw someone being brought back with merzost showing that is something that can happen. The bee showing up during Aleks' funeral, which King of Scars spoilers but is a hint at Elizaveta who resurrects the darkling in the books. If they wanted to only reference the character and not the resurrection plotline then they could have had that bee show up at some other time, like the coronation scene or when Zoya, Alina and Genya are in the room getting ready for the coronation, but they specifically chose Alek's funeral which to me is a very clear hint that they are bringing him back.

As for netflix hating the character I don't think that's true because they have gone to alot of effort to make Aleks a much more nuanced and developed character than he was in the books, you don't put that kind of effort into making a character that is as sympathetic and nuanced as show Aleks if you hate them. I do think that the actors and producers etc are overly careful about talking too sympathetically about Aleks, but that, I think, is because of all the loud purists who yell ab*se apologists at them if they do, not because they hate the character. Ben also hasn't given any indication that he wants to leave the show, it seems that he is very interested in his character and he clearly has a good bond with all the cast so I don't think we have anything to worry about there.

It's understandable that the negative comments are getting you down, I'll admit there have been times this week I have avoided going into the darklina and character tags because of the negativity, when going into the tags I like to see pretty gif sets, fanfics and people excited about the ship/character not negativity as of course that is going to bring your mood down. But at the same time everyone is entitled to their own opinion and have the right to express it so my best advice would be try to ignore it and not engage. If you start reading a post and it looks like its going to be negative then stop reading and just scroll past it, its what I've been doing, or if it is really bringing you down and you feel the need to, block those accounts. Also if you are feeling negatively about darklina and Aleks or Alina's characterization this season maybe consider using an anti tag or putting a warning at the top of the post to make it easier for those who want to avoid negativity. That's the best way around it I can think of anyway.

[just-antithings]

(sorry if there's mistakes i have pulled an all-nighter and haven't gotten enough sleep. Also, I'm the guy who once made an ask that ranted about antis in my talking planet fandom)

Bro antis love to just look at posts/fanfics that have the most clear, no-nonsense summary/tags, and then puke when the tags/summary was honest, and claim to be "literally tramuatized i am crying i wanna die!!!"

On Wattpad and AO3 i posted a fic.

And in that fic, the character Neptune humps an Asteroid named Guillermo.

(Neptune is insane and due to his loneliness and delusions he drew faces on asteroids and believed they were real, and named one guillermo for some not-needed context)

On the AO3 ver, i used the tags "Neptune/Guillermo", "male masturbation", "humping", and "sex with an asteroid". Those are pretty clear tags, i think. Therefore, people would ignore the fic because these were some clear tags, and ao3 people know how to curate their fandom experience, right?

Apperently, i was wrong since one guy was like "I haven't finished reading this but i don't wanna finish it but I'm still reading it".

Like, if you don't wanna read it, don't!

And later that guy was like

"I read your fic and i wanna die. Not saying it was bad, it was good, but in a bad way,"

I responded with a really long ranty comment about how insensitive they were, how they were practically saying my work is bad, how using suicidal thoughts as a lighthearted thing for daily use is terrible, and how they could just stop reading it.

(I then felt kinda guilty for that response and deleted the whole thread.)

On the wattpad version, since tags mean nothing, i used the summary to explain the whole fic, being as clear as i could possibly be.

i wrote as the summmary "Neptune jacks himself off with an asteroid by humping. Dead dove, don't eat! Grapefruit." And that is pretty fucking clear, right?

Since the AO3 version had people not curate their fandom experience, perhaps the Wattpad version would be better? Knowing their reputation i doubt it, but there's a chance tha-

Oh, wait, nevermind. I was right at the beginning.

While i was reading another fanfic that wasn't mine, i saw someone comment something along the lines of

"Read it and i wanna cry and die!!! Maybe it's because i just read a disgusting neptune x guillermo sm-t fanfic and that traumatized me :(((( Especially since i know how s-x works"

Like, WHAT???

I tagged and made a very clear summary, and the fanfic wasn't even bad by itself! There was no illegal activity in it at all! It was just a planet deciding to hump an asteroid. I didn't even put much detail. I used the word "southermost points" as a replacement for using cock or pussy(TBH i was just undecided on what i wanted neotunes genitals to look like so i went vague)

and why does that guy think they think my fic is bad because they "know how sex works"??? Bro, bro, bro...

No, you don't, your experience in sex ed was by puritains! If you know so much about sex, then why treat it like a cursed swear nastybadewwgross? What's with the censoring of the word? Sex ain't a swear, almost everyone has done or thought of doing. Your mum and dad did it! Nothing nasty 'bout that!

And how does knowing about sex even- What??? I'm confused about that guy. What was his point? Huh?

And my fanfic did not tramautize you! Fanfiction cannot tramautise ANYTHING! It can disturb people, but that's not trauma! Fanfiction may trigger people, but that can be avoided by clicking away, ignoring the fic, and blocking the user! I made it very clear what that fanfic was about. If you wouldn't like it, why read it? Huh?

(Also, i saw that guy comment something "It's worse when you yourself drew worse... As an artist, it's scary..." And i feel kinda bad for them. Why would people be ashamed of their own art? Why would people shame others but indulge in the same stuff? Why must things be a GUILTY-pleasure? Why could you not just be happy for yourself and your art?)

I am not holding these people hostage, i am not chaining them, and shoving my fanfiction in their face shouting "Read it!" I am just a guy who writes fetish smut.

It is not hard to ignore something and block someone. You are only chained by your consious. You are not chained by me.

Anyways, these people could see a building with big letters "Gun shop!", tons of big and small drawings of guns, the word "gun shop" written in every dead and alive language on earth, go inside anyways, and complain about the guns and how they expected candy.

Is it so hard for antis to just curate their internet experience and mind their own beeswax?

[kevamierequests]

Ummmm for fanfic ideas, idunno if you're a fan of angst? But maybe on their early stages of the relationship, kevin makes fun of acting, maybe he was ranting about some other teen he doesn't like (possibly stevonie 👀) and he says "they look like a nerdy theater kid, y'know?" And keeps on going

And jamie is really hurt about it. But he doesn't want kevin to think he's "not cool" and keeps it on the inside, getting more and more distant

This can grow into a argument, that can either end with kevin seeing he might have to learn to be nicer to people, or with jamie leaving, depending on how much ya like pain :D

Sorry if this isn't really creative (´°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥ω°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥｀) good luck with ur blog!

Sorry for taking so long lol

Avoidance

word count: 1,213

tags: angst, arguing, fluff, hurt/comfort,

:readmore:

“That’s confusing”

Jamie handed Nanafua the clipboard and a pen to sign for her delivery, looking up as he heard Kevin’s familiar voice. Looking around he saw him sitting at a table with Sour Cream. He was about to turn back to Nanafua when he heard Kevin say something else.

“They look like a nerdy theater dork, Y’know”

Jamie frowned, trying to ignore Kevin's comment. He knew he wasn't talking about him, but it hurt anyway. He turned back to Nanafua to see that she had signed her name.  Jamie looked back towards Kevin, as he walked towards the door, trying to avoid overhearing anything else. But he still caught parts of their conversation. 

He heard Kevin saying that he 'didn't get theatre' and that it 'sounded dumb'. 

“Then why do you like Jamie?” He heard Sour Cream ask

“I mean, he’s cute, but he’s a total dork” Kevin replied

Jamie turned away, trying not to let the words sting. He shook his head, trying to ignore the spiral of thoughts beginning to form. 

Jamie wondered why he even liked Kevin as he finished his deliveries.

He'd tried his best to distract himself with work, but the long walks to make deliveries only gave him more time to worry. The longer he spent thinking about what Kevin said, the worse he felt. He wished he didn't like Kevin, but the thought of his crush not liking him broke his heart. He'd been trying to avoid Kevin for the past week, hoping it would make his feelings go away.

It didn’t.

~

Kevin glanced at Jamie as he walked past, it was the first time he'd seen him all week. Jamie had been ignoring his texts, and they hadn't met during the week. He expected Jamie to at least acknowledge his existence, but he just brushed past him. Kevin turned to look at him in confusion, before turning back around.

Kevin wondered why Jamie was avoiding him as he made his way home, trying, and failing, to keep himself from panicking over it. He eventually resolved to ask Jamie to do something with him, sending him a text before he laid down on his bed.

Kevin woke with a start as his phone buzzed underneath him. He hurriedly picked it up. His face practically lit up before falling when he realized it wasn't Jamie. He pushed down the feeling of disappointment rising inside him. Kevin sighed and dismissed the notification.

He checked the text he’d sent Jamie, which had been left on read. He looked away from his phone, trying to decide what to do. Finally, he decided to text Sour Cream for some advice.

Kevin: hey, I need some advice

Kevin: I'm pretty sure Jamie has been avoiding me

Sour Cream: maybe he met you

Kevin: I'm serious! He hasn't answered any of my texts and he's barely glanced at me

Sour Cream: I dunno

Sour Cream: go ask Garnet she's good with relationship stuff

Kevin: uh ok

Kevin groaned and rolled over. How the hell was he going to find Garnet, he barely knew what she looked like. Kevin sighed and pulled out his phone, texting Steven.

Kevin: hey do you know Garnet

Steven: yeah, she's my mom

Steven: why

Kevin: I need to talk to her

Kevin: what's her phone number

Steven: I don't think she has a phone

Steven: also even if she did I wouldn't tell you

Kevin rolled his eyes before turning off his phone. Great. It took him nearly an hour of walking around to find her.

"Garnet!" He called out. "Hey, can I talk to you"

"Yeah, sure" she replied, looking mildly surprised "what's going on"

 "Uh... well..." Kevin started, fidgeting with his hands. "Do you know Jamie?"

Garnet raised an eyebrow, "Yeah"

"Well I kinda have a crush on him" Kevin looked away, feeling himself turn red "but lately he's been completely ignoring me"

Garnet nodded "he's probably upset about something"

Kevin scowled slightly "That doesn't really help me here"

Garnet laughed and ruffled his hair "Just talk to him, okay?"

"Uh, alright" Kevin glared at her but nodded.

~

It took Kevin nearly the whole day to find Jamie. He finally spotted Jamie walking away from a house. He ran up to him, panting slightly. Jamie turned around, surprise written across his face.

"What are you doing here?" Jamie asked, looking somewhat annoyed. Kevin winced and shifted uncomfortably under Jamie's gaze.

"We need to talk" Kevin mumbled, trying to seem more confident than he felt. Jamie's expression softened slightly 

"alright" he replied "but I have to finish my deliveries"

"Sure" Kevin agreed, jogging to catch up with Jamie. They walked in silence for a few seconds, neither knowing how to break the tension.

Finally, Jamie spoke "so, what did you want to talk about?"

Kevin hesitated before speaking "why are you avoiding me?"

Jamie looked away, his cheeks reddening slightly. He opened his mouth to speak, but then stopped and closed it again. He stared at the ground as they walked in silence, which was only broken when Kevin noticed the tears falling down Jamie's cheeks.

"Jamie?" Kevin asked in concern, reaching his hand up to wipe the tears away "what's wrong?"

Jamie stepped away from him quickly, shaking his head.

"Why are you being nice?" Jamie snapped.

Kevin flinched slightly, he watched as Jamie wiped a tear from his cheek 

"all you do is make fun of me and now you care!?" 

 

Kevin froze "what?"

Jamie glared at him. "You're such an asshole Kevin"

"Jamie, wait-" Kevin reached forward and grabbed Jamie's arm "please I'm sorry"

Jamie's expression softened slightly, but it remained cold "no you're not."

Kevin let go and took a step back "I am, really, you're like the only other person I care about in this stupid town!"

Jamie paused for a moment, trying to figure out if Kevin was lying or not. When he couldn't come up with a conclusion, he looked away and crossed his arms over his chest. Kevin reached forward slowly, trying to convince Jamie otherwise.

"Jamie... please" he murmured. Jamie looked away, wiping at his cheeks. Kevin slowly cupped Jamie's face in his hands, wiping his tears away. Jamie stepped forwards and wrapped his arms around Kevin's waist, hugging him tightly, burying his face into Kevin's neck. Kevin held onto him tightly, trying desperately not to cry.

 

"Please don't hate me," Kevin whispered, burying his face into Jamie's hair to hide his tears.

Jamie shook his head, pulling away slightly so he could look Kevin in the eyes. Kevin could feel tears run down his cheeks. Seeing the fear in Kevin's eyes hurt him more than he thought it would, especially since he was usually so confident and cocky.

Jamie cupped Kevin's face in his hands and leaned in, their lips brushing against each other. Kevin gasped softly before kissing him. He pulled away after a moment, letting his forehead rest against Jamie's.

They stood there in silence, holding onto each other. It seemed like forever before either of them said anything. Kevin looked up, smiling at Jamie, who grinned back in response.

"I still have to finish my mail route," said Jaime "wanna come with me?"

"Of course," Kevin replied, kissing him quickly before following Jamie.

[sojirosteacup]

❄️ and 🧩

Either/or

(or both...🙏)

I have a headache rn so please ignore any spelling mistakes

I'm gonna talk about hanadan in all those answers bc its the fandom i write fic for

❄️ ⇢ what’s your dream theme/plot for a fic, and who would write it best?

I have so many ideas i want to write but i never finish the first draft or never get around to writing it at all. I'm gonna say a few ones bc if i said everything we would be here the whole day and i wouldn't have any drafts left :

sometimes i have some crazy ideas that would be great on paper but i never manage to write bcs it would take me too long to finish. Like, years ago I had a plot idea that was "amnesia plot, but instead of thinking yumi is his girlfriend, Junpyo thinks jihoo is his boyfriend." I still think this would be incredibly funny to write, but it would need many chapters to finish... and i don't know how i would finish this. Bc making Junpyo/Jihoo get together is tempting, but i can't do this to Jandi, lol. Maybe i should make it a throuple but then it would take even longer to develop.

I also have many ideas with no plot tied to them, which makes things complicated bc, well, i need a plot to write the fic. Like I really want to write a animal-human hybrid Au fic for them which is just an excuse to write them as cat/dog/whateverboys but i have no excuse plot for it. My mind is just "fuck yeah, foxboy yijung!" and then no plot for that idea. I also sometimes want to write a F4 royalty!au but then i stop and remember that 1- there is already a manga chapter with that concept and i don't want it to feel like a copy 2- wtf would even be the plot?

And then there is the ships-nobody-cares-about category. I kind of have a draft for a Sakurako/Kazuya oneshot but who would even read it? 😭 Like, nobody even posts in the animanga tag for this fandom to begin with.

🧩 ⇢ what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?

I'm very picky with the fic I read, so basically anything could make me click away if I'm not in the mood. Some of the reasons are obvious stuff most people can agree with like "the entire fic is one single paragraph block with no breaks" or untagged watersports. But one thing that makes me click away and i keep running into is character or ship bashing. I don't care if the fic has my otp in it, i don't want to read your rant in the author's notes about how junpyo is a shitty person or whatever. Even worse if the character you are bashing is half of the couple in your fic, bc why are you writing about it in the first place? And when it's in the fic i can tell the difference between a character disliking the other and the author disliking the character. And while i am all for disliking whatever character you want, i just have like... *checks list* ...two characters i actively dislike in the hanadan franchise, and they are both minor characters, so whatever bashing i see is likely to be about someone i like and i'm not gonna read that.

One thing I also dislike but won't make me click away because it seems that everyone and their mother does it in this fandom is when people tag a couple that is not endgame in the fic (ex: a rui/tsukushi fic where she starts dating tsukasa, but she breaks up with him for them to get together but the writer still tags tsukasa/tsukushi anyway.) WHY ARE YOU MAKING IT HARDER FOR ME TO FIND WHAT I WANT?! OR WHAT YOU WANT?! Same thing happens with fics of adaptations. If someone is writing a fic for, say, F4 Thailand, THERE IS NO NEED TO PUT IT IN THE TAG FOR THE MANGA AND THE KDRAMA AND METEOR GARDEN AND THE JDRAMA. Even worse when they do with the manga and jdrama bc the characters have the same names, so it happened more than once for me to click on a fic thinking its about the anime or manga but, surprise! It's a jdrama fic bc they are talking about something that has not happened in the manga at all. It's exhausting and seems impossible to avoid.

[stillness-in-green]

Why Deku's ultimatum to Overhaul is bad and he should feel bad

This is a bit outside my normal character wheelhouse, but I really need to get a rant about it off my chest, so here goes:

The Deku and Overhaul scene in Chapter 316 is terrible. It is fucking terrible.

I took a whirl around Overhaul's tag up through when the leaks first started dropping, but didn't immediately see anyone talking about why it's so fucking terrible, only concerns about letting Overhaul see Eri (understandable, but baseless, I think), some empathy towards Overhaul's current state (totally warranted!), some snark about Deku being So Done with Overhaul (haha because who cares about Deku's stated goal of trying to understand villains, right?), and, worst of all, some cooing about how Deku was being so compassionate and noble by offering Overhaul that olive branch.

Deku was not being compassionate and noble there. Deku was being arrogant, small-minded, and so shockingly cruel that it leaves me speechless that anyone could think his stunted and hard-hearted "offer" reflects well on him.

Deku's entire motivation in this arc has been wrestling with the realization that he might have been able to avoid some of the desperate battles of his past if he'd understood more about the villains he fought. He thought of three very specific people--Stain, Muscular, and Overhaul--as he reflected, "Maybe it wouldn't have had to go that way if I'd understood them better." He then thought of Gentle Criminal and La Brava, people who he’d come to some understanding of, who he’d been able to soften the conclusion of his battle with by going along with Gentle's fiction downplaying what had happened between them. The whole line of thought was intended to contextualize his newfound desire to save Shigaraki.

It soon became apparent that Stain, Muscular and Overhaul were, in fact, encounters that he would be revisiting, as a chance to see how he'd grown since he faced them, and as a dry-run on reaching out to villains that would give him a chance to practice ways he might reach out to Shigaraki when the time comes.

Well, based on his performance so far, the idea that Deku might be able to reach Shigaraki is laughable.

Firstly, his tentative questions to Muscular were ill-timed, all wrong for the middle of a battle. Muscular laughed him off, and I don’t think there’s any version of that scenario in which he would have done otherwise. Muscular was a huge threat, gleefully violent, disinterested in conversation about his history. Obviously, right in the middle of a fight was no kind of time to try to figure out what made the man tick! But Deku didn’t get the luxury of choosing the circumstances of that encounter, so yes, that battle probably was unavoidable, certainly if Deku wanted to stop him from doing further damage. But the idea that because Deku couldn't reach him right then and there, it's impossible for Deku--or, indeed, for anyone--to reach him at all is fallacious. Not every person has to be able to like or understand every other person. If Deku couldn't reach Muscular, so what? That doesn't mean it's impossible that someone might. And that means an obligation to treat Muscular like a human being, to afford him human rights, to not stop trying to find a way to rehabilitate him, even as you safeguard other people against him.

Deku's battle with Muscular being unavoidable was not some great triumph, for all that the narrative used it as an opportunity to let him show off how far he’d come in mastering One For All. In the way that matters, the way that Deku himself is currently trying to better, he hasn't advanced at all. Imasuji Goto represented his first test in the lead-up to saving Shigaraki, and Deku failed it.

His next trial was Overhaul.* Here, again, was someone who Deku was explicitly trying to understand. So what was the one thing that was most key to understanding Overhaul's current motivation? What was the one thing that Overhaul was ranting about out loud, incessantly? And what did Deku conspicuously fail to ask about? Overhaul's relationship with Pops.

This was so easy. So obvious. And Deku didn’t even try. All he could think about in the moment he was faced with that broken man was the little girl that man hurt--all thoughts of trying to understand where the man himself was coming from went right out the window, flown away in an instant. Instead of asking about why Overhaul feels the way he does, he demanded that Overhaul feel the way Deku wanted. He was essentially holding the only person Overhaul cared about hostage for the remorse he wanted Overhaul to feel.

I'm not going to try to armchair diagnose Overhaul with mental conditions. I don't have the educational background, and I'm positive Horikoshi doesn't. But it seems pretty clear that asking Overhaul to feel guilt about Eri was asking for something that he might not be capable of feeling, at least not without years of therapy that he was plainly not getting in Tartarus. And if Overhaul is not capable of feeling that guilt, then what does denying Overhaul his meeting actually solve? Who does it help? It doesn’t help Eri. Doesn’t help the old man. It certainly doesn’t help Overhaul himself. The only person who gets any satisfaction out of demanding remorse from Overhaul is Deku. And even Deku didn’t look like he found it very satisfying!

Another failure. A meaninglessly cruel, petty failure. A failure that served only to hurt a man who was already a live wire of agony, to sentence an old man to a coma he might never wake from without Overhaul's expertise, and to deprive Eri of the only actual family she had left.

And look, Pops might very well not be the ideal guardian for Eri, and I'm not saying he should get to "keep" her just because of the blood connection, but it's not like he cheerfully handed her over to Overhaul and walked out the door! He turned to Overhaul because he trusted Overhaul, because he wanted someone to help Eri and thought that maybe Overhaul could. And when Overhaul's thoughts about Eri took a very dark turn, Pops first denied his request about using her to further his research and then, when Overhaul kept pushing it, chose Eri over the kid he personally took in from the streets by telling Overhaul that he needed to leave the Shie Hassaikai if he couldn't muster any more respect for human life than that.

But, you know, Eri is so cute with Aizawa and stuff. And Pops was a criminal. Probably. Maybe? I mean, he was yakuza, anyway, so he obviously must have been a criminal even if the police never actually arrested him. Apparently, this means it's okay to just leave him in a coma forever! Even though Overhaul absolutely has enough medical expertise that letting him talk to a neurologist about what he did to Pops might enable them to figure out how to wake Pops up even without Overhaul being able to use his quirk to undo the damage. Hell, Overhaul is also the person alive who has the best handle on how Eri's quirk works. He might even know what her accumulation condition is. Maybe a better thing to ransom his access to Pops with would be Overhaul telling Aizawa everything he knows about Eri's quirk so Aizawa can use the knowledge to help her get a better handle on it.

But no. Obviously undoing some small part of the concrete harm Overhaul did was less important than how Deku felt about that harm.

And there's more! Oh, is there ever. I called Deku arrogant before; let me circle back to that.

Deku said that if Chisaki would feel the way Deku wanted him to feel, then Deku would uphold the promise to let Overhaul see Pops. But where in hell did Deku get off making that claim? Deku is a student. He's not a pro. He has no authority, medical, legal, carceral or otherwise. He has no say in where Overhaul goes or who he's allowed to see.

What the fuck? What the actual fuck? What kind of strings did Deku think he could pull that he could just casually make that claim without so much as going into a huddle with Hawks and Endeavor about it first? How inflated has this kid's sense of importance gotten that he made Overhaul that promise without even stopping to think about whether it was something he was in any position to ensure? It was such a bullshit ultimatum, not only because of how needlessly obstructive it was, but because it was so formless.

"If only you would feel a wish to apologize to Eri…" Okay, so what if Overhaul goes back to prison and, three days later, calls out to say, "Okay, I thought about it and I really feel like I want to apologize, now can I see Pops already?" Who gets to make that judgment call? Deku? Is he going to drop his faux-vigilante act and come visit Overhaul in prison just so he can squint at the man really hard to see if he's lying? Is Deku going to delegate the call to someone else? All Might? Hawks? A prison warden? A psychologist? Who? Who gets to be the one to say, "Okay, I think his remorse is genuine."

Then, once that call has been made, how many people have to arrange for Overhaul to be escorted out of prison and to whatever hospital Pops is in? Will Deku get to oversee that visit? Does he think he can overturn a warden declaring, "The scum doesn't deserve a visit, and the old man probably doesn't either," or a doctor protesting, "I'm not letting that man anywhere near my patient!"

The hell of it is, I think Deku could do all of that. He's got a close personal connection to All Might, who was basically a demi-god to this society for decades; he has the ear of the current top three heroes. Everyone is apparently convinced that the power to save this society rests solely in Deku's hands; I'm sure he could ask for anything he wanted. But the fact that that is the case suggests that this society is not even slightly turning away from its dependence on heroes dictating its morality. A hero having the sole right to dictate, out of hand, based on his personal feelings, the fate of people designated "villains" while the rest of society turns away is exactly what Shigaraki is angry about.

The only thing worse than Deku perpetuating the worst problems of hero society in an arc that's supposed to be about him finding a better way is that he didn’t even stop to think about it. It never even occurred to him that that was what he was doing. He thought that what he was asking of Chisaki was just and fair, and thus, he didn’t need to ask for any second opinions or permissions; he didn’t need to think about what would actually be feasible, about what was best for the people involved. He'd made his judgment call about a villain, and that's all there was to it. The villain could fall in line or--nothing. There isn't actually another choice. Hero's way or nothing

I hate it. I hate it. I don't care about whether Overhaul "deserves" to suffer; heroes making the cold decision that they will make him suffer is antithetical to everything a carceral system intended to rehabilitate prisoners stands for. And yes, Japan does at least claim on paper that the goal of incarceration in state hands is rehabilitation.

Restorative justice is superior to retributive justice. It's better for society and it's better for individuals. It is kinder, it is more compassionate. Retributive justice poisons people. It perpetuates suffering for no reason but moral grandstanding. Individuals are allowed to forgive or not forgive anyone they want, but a society should conduct itself with an eye to the long-term welfare of all of its people. That means that even the worst kinds of criminals still have human rights. It means not inflicting pain that serves no purpose.

I've gotten off-track here. Yes, I think that if Overhaul could feel regret about Eri, that would obviously be a positive development for his character. It'd hurt like hell, but it would be a hurt that indicated he was becoming a better person, a person who wanted to do more good, less ill, with his life and efforts. But you can't mandate that someone become a better person. No ultimatum handed down from on high is going to change Overhaul's heart. Telling someone, "I'll help you, but only if you only feel the way I want you to feel. Otherwise, you can just stay there and suffer," is not reaching out to help people who are suffering in the dark, which is, again, what Deku claimed he wanted to do, what he begged for Nagant's help in doing, the way he insisted to the vestiges that OFA should be used.

Deku writing people off because they don't conform to his expectations, because they can't be "good" the way he wants them to be, nor even "bad" in ways he can understand, is him failing to live up to his own expressed ideals. "I wish you'd feel bad about hurting people," wasn't enough to reach Muscular or Overhaul, and it damn well shouldn't be enough to reach Shigaraki.

Cruelty does not beget kindness. You cannot treat people with only callousness and severity, then condemn them for not taking the opportunity to grow. You have to give them opportunities to better themselves. For Overhaul, giving him an opportunity would be letting him help the man he wronged and then moving forward from there. Telling him to feel regret about Eri or else? That's doing nothing but sweeping his pain back under the rug.

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*I have more or less exhausted my outrage over Lady Nagant in chats with friends, so I'll spare the rant on how disjointed, contradictory and ludicrous her turn was; the gist is "very, on all counts."

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P.S. Anyone who says that Overhaul "has nothing left to live for" is being a level of ableist that defies description. Prosthetics exist. Assistive devices exist. Speech-to-text software exists. Overhaul is intelligent, driven and highly educated. Even if he never got prosthetics at all, there would still be things he could contribute to the world if he were motivated to do so. The better thing to do, though, would be to get the man some damn prosthetics, hook him up with the neurologist consulting on Pops' case, and let the two of them get on with the matter of waking up the old man.

P.P.S. Overhaul spent six months in solitary confinement. The United Nations considers solitary confinement exceeding 15 days to be a form of torture. Solitary confinement creates severe mental health issues and exacerbates existing ones. It frequently leads to a deadening of empathy, something Overhaul has in little enough amounts as it is. It is absurd to ask a man who's just come out of these conditions to "feel sorry for what you did to Eri," especially if you're planning to turn around and send him right back to solitary. Tartarus is inhuman, and the only reason more of the escapees aren't total wrecks like Overhaul is because Horikoshi clearly didn't bother to do the reading on the wide array of problems that those characters should be experiencing physically, mentally and socially.