#if you don't like a decision the showrunners made then that's an opinion

[starrywangxian]

i am staying so far away from the discourse and izcourse, i have my own thoughts and opinions on it but i just want to see gay pirates and seawitch seagulls please, not people yelling at each other and certainly not people shouting at the cast and crew!!

if you want someone to shout at, shout at hbo max for cutting the show and not paying their actors and writers and the crew !! the creators need our support more than ever because of the strikes, if you haven't forgotten !! stop yelling at them and start yelling at the greedy companies!!

[riding-with-caryl]

I wasn't sure I was going to make this post because I know others have made posts around this topic before. But after sitting with it and giving it some thought, I do feel that I want to go ahead and make it so I can add a perspective that I believe is worth sharing.

This is not about telling others how to feel or trying to control the fandom. I have zero interest in doing that. Feel what you feel, be that positive or negative. Your feelings are valid. It is about asking people to consider not projecting those feelings onto Melissa, painting your feelings as hers, victimising her, and declaring what is best for Melissa.

Melissa is a grown, middle-aged professional, business-savvy woman. She is not some shy, ineffectual, unable to make herself heard or have her voice listened to wallflower.

Melissa herself has clearly expressed and made clear on multiple occasions this year how happy she is. How excited she is about this spinoff, both season 2 and their plans going into season 3. She has talked about the way she and Zabel have worked together from very early on regarding Carol's story, and it is crystal clear from what she said that Mel has played a significant role in her story. She and Norman have played a significant role in their shared stories and the direction of this spinoff. That will include whether canon happens or not. Watch Mel, listen to her. She seems extremely comfortable and relaxed with David Zabel. You don't need to be a body language expert to pick that up because she makes it clear and obvious.

Now, some fans may not like David Zabel. That's your prerogative. Some fans may not like the decisions made when the spinoff airs and the direction it takes. Again, that is a personal thing that only we can decide for ourselves on an individual basis. Our opinions on those things, however different they may be, are all valid. But I believe it's really, really important that we express those feelings as being our own and not project them onto Melissa.

What I've seen a lot from fans these past few years is an expression of wanting Mel to be listened to, to have a voice & be able to express that voice. To not have others speaking for her. We all love Mel and care about her. I know I do, and I believe everyone who is so vocal about those things love and care about her, too. Why else would they try and fight so hard for her?

But here's the thing. (And this is why I feel so strongly about it and feel the need to make this post.) By projecting our own feelings onto Mel, by speaking for her, by saying what needs to happen for things to be best for her, to say the type of showrunner they need to hire to be the right showrunner for Mel, to even presume to know what Mel wants for Carol and Caryl and express that assumption as being her wishes is doing the exact same thing we claim to hate/be against. Namely, taking away Mel's agency by not listening to Mel's voice when she tells us how happy and excited she is about this spinoff, Carol's story, Caryl's story and the general direction it's headed. Not hearing the pure joy whenever she talks, including regarding Zabel. Dismissing & invalidating what she says by claiming she has to say that for whatever reason, claiming that she doesn't really feel that way and then presenting something that Mel didn't say or imply and stating that is what she *really* feels.

Now, I wasn't in TWD fandom in the early seasons. As is normal for me, much to my son's annoyance, I was very late to TWD party. But I have been in the Twitter fandom for several years at this point. My point I'm getting to with this is that I didn't witness in real time Melissa's happiness & demeanor in those early seasons. So I can only speak to the later seasons. But I haven't EVER seen Melissa as happy and excited and just so full of joy as she seems to be now from everything we've seen of her since she came back. I've not seen her appear to be as outwardly comfortable with a showrunner as she seems to be with Zabel, comparing like for like in the public arena of panels and interviews. Obviously, I didn't get to see how she was with Frank Darabont, although I am aware of her pre-TWD working relationship with him on The Mist.

I'm going to end here, but I just want to repeat that this is not in any way me trying to tell people what to think and feel or saying people shouldn't express their concerns and worries. There needs to be space for everyone to be able to do that if they want to. It's simply me expressing and explaining why I think we should be mindful of not projecting our feelings and concerns onto Mel and hopefully giving some food for thought about it. I know I can't force people to stop doing it, that I can only share my opinion, make my case for not doing it, and ask people to consider it, and that is what I am doing with this post.

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

"if Buck or Eddie is going to be revealed as queer, it means Buddie will be happening." I actually completely agree with this but can I ask you why you think this? I also want to say that I don't think Eddie needs this kind of experiment arc or self discovery arc Buck is going to get. Eddie is just going to simply be in love with his best friend, and that will be it. Buck will be the experienced one.

I think that if they're giving Buck a self-discovery/experimentation arc they won't give one to Eddie because that would be redundant.

I wondered in season five if Eddie would come out - it was very heavily coded that way in my opinion - which would've meant that Buck then wouldn't get a self-discovery/experimentation arc. Again in my opinion. It would just be redundant to have both of them do that.

So yes, I agree with you, I think Eddie is just simply going to be in love with his best friend. Which I think suits him best. I personally don't think Eddie would bother to label himself or care about that kind of thing and would say "well I'm not straight" if asked and leave it at that.

The reason I think that if one or both of them is coming out as queer it means Buddie will be happening is that if the writers are cognizant enough to realize the audience sees queerness in one or both of them, they are also cognizant enough of the fact that making one or both of them queer and not getting them together is a) ridiculous and b) unkindly teasing the audience.

Looking at the situation as a writer, the simplest, easiest, obvious solution is to have Buck and Eddie date each other. If I'm going to make them queer, why would I reinvent the wheel by introducing a love interest the audience may not like, that I'll have to do extra work to get the audience to like, when I can just get them with each other?

Additionally, if I have noticed "hey we kinda made 'em queer and people have noticed," then I have also noticed the audience wants them together. To make Buck queer and give him a coming out episode/arc but then not get him with Eddie is rather like Lucy yanking the football away from Charlie Brown. While it's fun to bait and switch your audience in some ways (like who will have their life in danger in an episode, etc), you don't want to alienate your audience or make them feel played or cheated.

To make Buck queer and then not get him with Eddie would be like a middle-finger consolation prize. "Here FINE Buck's into men are you HAPPY?" And while there are definitely showrunners and writers out there who are that level of petty, most are not. Most care about their characters, story, and audience, and frankly most don't want to risk alienating their audience that much.

I think by now, showrunners and other head creatives are aware that "well we won't get the two together but we'll make one of them bi" isn't going to be treated as the well-intentioned consolation prize they think it is.

Additionally while I have a lot I'd like to yell at Tim about, he did say forever ago (back in season three I believe) that he never wants to make writing decisions based on pettiness or spite, and I choose to believe he stands by that.

Of course nothing is set in stone and if they do make Buck queer they might not make Buddie canon. But to me it simply makes the most sense. It's the easiest route and the most likely explanation for why Buck is coming out, and to not do it would be yanking the rug out from under your audience a bit, and I don't think any sensible writing team or showrunner would do that.

[nomadicism]

I was watching a YouTube video where OP did a "Voltron Rewrite". I agree and disagree with certain aspects of it. (Which isn't a bad thing. We all have our ways of fixing that trainwreck. They have theirs, and I have mine.) But it brought up another question for me, why wasn't Pidge non-binary?

In the show, Pidge disguised herself as a boy to break into the military base that her brother and father worked at in order to find them. But that doesn't make any sense! This is the military. Wouldn't they find that out instantly when they require to do blood work or a psychical on her?

That explanation reminds me a lot of those "female Yuu has to disguise herself as a boy to attend Night Raven for no reason" fics in the Twisted Wonderland fandom in a bad way. Because, just like those fics, it's mimicking Ouran High School Host Club and Mulan without understanding why those stories work. In Mulan, she disguised herself as a boy to take her father's place, because she wouldn't be able to fight otherwise. Plus, she was able to do that since it took place thousands of years ago before the advent modern teach that would detect that instantly, and she was also caught after she was injured. Haruhi just simply didn't care about what gender people identified them as. Here, the story takes place hundreds of years in the future, so those issues are highlighted even more and make the plotline fall flat.

Having Pidge be non-binary right out of the starting gate would nix that issue. Pidge could be another person there, who wants to go up into space to find their missing family. They would be more male presenting, because that's just how they want to present themselves. No long-winded explanation needed. As a bonus, Pidge's voice actor is non-binary IRL, so it would add up in that sense as well.

One baffling choice in that series in hindsight amongst dozens of others. Though, I feel like if that show was made now instead of almost 10 years ago that would be one change the showrunners would make to the story.

Hi there, thank you for the Ask!

Those are good questions, and my own question is "why would the military have a barracks full of teens in the first place?"

The very flimsy reason for Pidge to join as a teen boy might have been fear about being recognized by anyone who knew her brother, or might have seen her in a dress one time. However, Pidge presenting as male would make her look more like her brother, so she'd be more recognizable in my opinion.

Within the VLD setting, there are no logical reasons for Pidge to present as male when joining the military, other than gender identity. It makes more sense for Pidge to be a trans man, or non-binary person, or transmasc person, or genderfluid person, etc.

One thing that I consider (and I don't mean this as a counter-argument), is how cis women still get pushed into a highly feminine presentation box, even though there are plenty of cis women who do not perceive or express their gender in traditional ways. Whether they are tomboys, butches, or women who simply have no interest in cosmetics and clothing that carries strong gender identifiers.

It's like, why are non-fitted cargo pants and comfortable shoes often assumed to be masculine (or for middle-aged women who are not portrayed as sexually available)? Because at some level, men are assumed to get things done, and women are assumed to have things done for them. That means that there is a space for representing cis women who do not represent their femininity in ways that are traditionally seen as feminine. Thankfully, those attitudes aren't as strong as they used to be, but on some level they are still there.

Within that context, Pidge as tomboy works, but Pidge as tomboy using masculine pronouns to present as male seems a bit odd. Like, it almost feels like a marketing decision so that boys in the target demographic could watch the first episode and not be like "ewww why is there a girl in my robot show" (princess-rescue doesn't count). I don't know that boys actually care about that anymore, but once upon a time that was a Thing they were socialized to react against.

[go-to-two]

I’m going to say something controversial and something that cant be proven but that I strongly believe to be true. If the situation was reversed and Tracy/Hailey left the show first, I think there would have been a happy ending for upstead. I truly believe Jesse would have fought for a happy ending for them (if the situation was the same and both characters left alive).

Interesting. I'd love to hear more of your reasoning but based on what we know now, I'm not sure I quite agree- only because I think that if Jesse's opinion held as much weight as this insinuates, I don't think his exit would have gone the way it did at all.

It think this is something fans do with each character, to an extent. I know it's done with Paddy and Marina and occasionally LaRoyce. Fans like to think the actors are the driving force behind decisions made for their characters when really, they're all (except arguably Jason) beholden to the EPs, showrunner, and writers room. We also don't know how much Tracy did or didn't advocate for her/their ending. Could have been a lot.

All to say, I'd love to hear more if you have it, but I've kind of settled on that their characters fell victim to a showrunner that either held a grudge or didn't want them together no matter what, and dug her heels in.

[sleepless-crows]

Why The "Kaz Beating Up The Dregs" Scene In The Show Is Wrong

There is so much I disagreed with in the show and adding this scene from CK is one of the ones that get me angriest. This post is clearly going to criticize decisions the showrunners made and if you don't want to read that, you can skip this post and scroll ahead. And this post is just my opinion, we can differ in opinions, that's alright.

First of all, in the books, this was a chapter in Inej's POV. In the show, Inej wasn't even present. Why is this relevant?

This scene took place right after the bathroom scene. It showed how even if Kaz told her specifically not to follow him, she still did. It's such an important moment in the books when we find out that Kaz knew the entire time that she was there. It shows how he senses her presence (although some may argue that he sensed Inej's absence in the show when he was facing of Pekka Rollins in Episode 4). And it shows their dynamic as partners, they don't leave each other, much less let the other walk to their death, and referencing the show, she watches over him. But this is also affected by the fact that this scene was given less meaning and was less dangerous in the show, which I will touch on later.

This was also a big moment for Kaz and Inej's relationship. At first, Inej says that she would respect Kaz's wishes that she not be seen because they would be looking for any signs of weakness. But when she sees Kaz getting beaten up so badly, her chapter goes:

"She couldn't just watch him die, she wouldn't. They had him down now, heavy boots kicking and stomping at his body. Her knives were in her hands. She'd kill them all. She'd pile the bodies to the rafters for the stadwatch to find... She wanted to scream. To hell with your pride, with the Dregs, with this whole wretched city."

We also got moments like Kaz stealing Inej's line and Kaz and Inej reclaiming their home. But since Inej wasn't there, those details are nonexistent in the show.

My next point has to do with Per Haskell's addition. It doesn't even make sense to add him in. He was supposed to represent the lazy and greedy people in the Barrel who take advantage of people like Kaz. In the books, Haskell betrayed Kaz and turned his gang against him. Haskell who Kaz has done nothing but make him richer. But in the show, Haskell was just an indifferent gang leader, any gang leader wouldn't want to cross Pekka Rollins. But Kaz forces Haskell to give up his gang because he just knew Haskell's gang wasn't successful or strong like how Kaz could make them be. Haskell didn't owe Kaz anything, Kaz just felt like a plain bully in the show. We don't even know if Haskell did anything wrong in the show to deserve that treatment from Kaz, but I guess Kaz in the show doesn't really care about that.

And here is my last point and what I think is the biggest and most awful change that the showrunners chose. And it has to do with Kaz's character.

In the books, this scene was much more dangerous. In the books, Kaz was willing to do whatever it took to save his friends from this mess he put them in (which highly contradicts whatever he was doing in the show). Kaz says:

"But they'd landed in a trap, and if he had to chew his paw off to get them out of it, then that was what he would do."

-> In the show, it seemes as if they took away a huge characterization scene just to show Kaz beating up some men. In the books, Kaz could literally have walked to his death if it was his last effort to rescuing his friends from the trap he led them in. A huge part of Kaz's character is that he is loyal to the people he cares about and he would do everything in his ability to protect them, no matter the cost to him. But that wasn't at all the context in the show.

Something that really first stood out to me was the absence of the younger Dregs like Anika, Roeder, Keeg, and Pim. And of course they wouldn't be in there, the whole Crow Club and The Dregs thing the show has going on messed up everything. But specifically when Kaz says his speech in the books that was adapted to the show:

"'I didn't come looking for friends. And I'm not here for the washed-up cadgers and cowards, or the losers who think the Barrel owes them something for managing to stay alive. I came for the killers. The hard ones. The hungry ones. The people like me. This is my gang... and I'm done taking orders.'"

-> he was talking about the younger Dregs. Not at all the random men he needed for a job in The Dregs Gang in the show. In the books, Inej says they're Kaz's best support, and that is because the younger Dregs like Anika and Pim are a testament to Kaz and how he built the Dregs and their reputation, how he spent his own money to fix up the Slat to make it livable, how he takes in these kids from the street and offers them protection, the one he didn't have and had to make himself. Inej says:

"Behind them, Inej glimpsed a few Dregs who didn't seem to share the excitement—Anika with her crop of yellow hair, wiry Roeder who Per Haskell had suggested Kaz use as his spider, the biggest bruisers Keeg and Pim. They hung back against the wall, exchanging unhappy looks as the others whooped and postured. They're Kaz's best hope for support, she thought. The youngest members of the Dregs, the kids Kaz had brought in and organized, the ones who worked the hardest and took the worst jobs because they were the newest."

->They are the real Dregs. They were even the first ones to defend Kaz. Pim tells Varian to quit it when he was going after Kaz again. And Anika blocks the exit when Haskell tells the Dregs to pull the alarm and alert Pekka that Kaz was there. When Bastian told Kaz he had no friends there, Pim shook his head and crossed his arms and the other younger Dregs bristled. And all because Kaz had done so much for them. They never liked Per Haskell, they knew Kaz was who to thank for, who protected them. And that was such a beautiful moment in the books that shows these kids that Kaz offered protection for were the first to protect and defend him as well. Those are the true Dregs. That is Kaz's gang. And it's really saddening that none of that was shown in the show.

[yocalio]

Hii! First of all, I'm an old follower of yours and I always loved your gifs. Recently I started watching Shōgun thanks to you. I didn't read the books (are they good?), but I'm really enjoying it. The only thing that bothers me is that they keep bringing up how John and Mariko are close to each other, while it's been a few episodes now since we saw them being intimate (I don't mean the sex scene in particular, but them being alone, deep conversations or little things, anything). It's like everybody understood the thing between them, but they're not doing much. If they wanted to keep the focus on their relationship, why didn't they show us more of them? I'm all in for the yearning, it's not like I want them as a couple right from the start, but this all talking about them but at the same time leaving them to the sides feels weird. What do you think about it? Sorry, this ask is too long (:

First of all, thanks for being a long-time follower! And I'm glad you started watching Shogun. I did read the book late last year after I found out about the new FX adaptation and it was amazing. I really recommend it. It's only one book but it's very long. 1,300 pages approximately.

As far as what's going on with John and Mariko. You're not the first person to notice this and I guess I should've seen this coming after going back recently and reading some of the earlier reviews of the show. Some journalist made a point to say that the core romance between them "fails to ignite" in a Hollywood Reporter article and in others that the romance from the book/original miniseries had been purposefully minimized. I don't necessarily think it's failed. It's igniting alright, it's just not living up to its full potential and is leaving us all a bit confused and frustrated after getting invested, especially those of us that have read the book.

(IN MY OPINION) I think this was a creative decision by the showrunners to make a more culturally sensitive and historically accurate show set in feudal Japan. This also explains why they haven't missed a beat on Buntaro's jealousy subplot while they've left out a lot of what Mariko and John go through together. I may not like it because I believe it really hamstrings John and Mariko's personalities and alters their motivations moving forward and even possibly the ending, but I really think that's why we haven't seen them interact after episode four other than some yearning glances and frosty conversations.

Never fear though, I still think we'll get some great moments between them coming up soon and probably in this next episode as Shinnosuke Abe's (who plays Buntaro) latest Instagram post hints "As Buntaro, I don't wanna watch this episode" coupled with the trailer for episode eight. Sounds like Mariko may have had enough of his crap and gives in to her feelings for the Anjin? Finally? Please?! We shall see. I don't want to get anyone's hopes up, I'm just going by what I know to be true in the book but can't say for sure because adaptations have a way of telling a different story than their source material.

Anyway, this was long. Hope it helps though, lol.

[bbygirl-aemond]

HOTD fandom is genuinely the worst fandom I've been in, not even GOT/ASOIAF was so mean and toxic to people for no reason. People can't just enjoy things, they have a need to drag others every second, and someone always wants to start a fight and insult others over opinions. People also treat the book and the show too seriously like it's a history book/documentary about their family and they are the only ones who know what actually happened, then get mad when someone doesn't agree with them. It's just crazy.

This actually brings me to a point I've been wanting to make for a while, because I've done a lot of thinking about why the HotD fandom has so much heated conflict and disagreement. I think it's largely a consequence of how the show's been marketed. This ended up so much longer than I anticipated, so I'll put my commentary under the cut. I encourage everyone to read this even if they disagree with me on certain points within the fandom, because it's completely neutral on characters and teams and makes no moral commentary on any of them.

Humans love the idea of pack mentality. Think of how in America so many people identify so strongly with one of the two main political parties, and will straight up ignore logic and reasoning to blindly agree with members of "their" party and attack members of the "other" party. They'll understand that a politician is contradicting themselves or doing something they don't actually agree with, but they'll ignore it and support them anyways because of their party membership. They'll even extend this into adopting that questionable position themselves, just to defend their party against criticism from the other party. We love feeling like part of a group, and we tend to make it into a sense of identity that makes things intensely personal and emotional.

Making people "pick a team" leads to massive engagement, and it's an amazing marketing strategy. Think of Captain America: Civil War, and the team mentality that was fostered by the showrunners. It meant tons of people became really engaged in the franchise, because it allowed them to made their team their sense of identity. That's another fandom where people from different "teams" get really heated at each other.

But team mentality also means that any perceived attack on the group feels like a personal attack. I think this is why I sometimes get accused of attacking characters I haven't even mentioned, like when people thought I was attacking Rhaenyra for criticizing Viserys's parenting. It shows that those people view Rhaenyra and Viserys as part of Team Black, and that any attack on any member of Team Black is treated like a personal attack to them. They can't comprehend that you might disagree with part but not all of the members of one team.

This then translates into people being unable to accept criticism of any of the characters. Just like how people assume you hate their entire Team if you criticize a single member, they'll assume you hate an entire character or dynamic if you criticize some part of it, no matter how empathetically you try to do so. I've criticized Rhaenyra's decision to have bastards from a political standpoint, while acknowledging that she had non-political reasons (youth, feeling abandoned, wanting the opposite of Daemon, trust, affection) for doing what she did. And some people have had a really hard time understanding that I can criticize her while having empathy for her, and while supporting her claim to the throne.

I think this is why, like you pointed out, people act as if these characters are their family members. It's because psychologically they feel like they are. They identify with them. And because they see these characters as an extension of themselves, they feel like they alone know them better than anyone else, just like how they know themselves better than anyone else.

So this means people have a very strong emotional reaction to their favorite characters being criticized, because it feels like a personal criticism of them. It means they're more likely to seek out and attack criticisms that weren't even directed towards them. But this black-and-white mentality of with-me-or-against-me means that they will attack anyone who supports the team or character they don't identify with, because that support is taken as an indirect attack on their team. Criticizing certain characters is seen as an attack, but so is praising other characters.

This is also why we see people blatantly disagreeing with the literal creators of this content. I've seen people try to argue with GRRM, the showrunners, and pretty much every single actor/actress involved about their understanding of their own characters. There's so much hate directed towards Emma D'Arcy and Olivia Cooke in particular just because people can't accept having a difference of opinion with them. Like it baffles me, because these are the people who should have the most authority about their respective characters. They have all the insider info from all of the possible sources, info that you very much do not have access to. How can you say you know better than them? But people see the characters as an extension of themselves, and therefore think of themselves as the ultimate authority on them, beyond reason.

This is, unfortunately, true for both Team Black and Team Green in this fandom, so it's just this escalating spiral of people yelling at each other for not having the same opinions. I also think this is why so much of the fan-created content for HotD involves either explicit or implicit self-insert characters being shipped with actual characters. The marketing of the show kind of relied on the assumption that all engagement is good engagement, which is true for getting good view counts but not great for creating a healthy fandom capable of thoughtful and civil discussions.

[greenerteacups]

Hello! I wanted to let you know how amazing your fic is, it seems my life now revolves around Friday mornings. I think it may be one of my favorite series ever, not just fics, your stuff is better than most published works I have read. I really could go on and on. Suffice to say, thank you x1 million for just putting this out there for us.

I had a couple curiosities! Is it ever hard to restrain yourself and just post 1 time per week? Or is that necessary for your creative process?

Also, your fic is rapidly growing in popularity, do you ever get worried about how that might change your audience?

Thank you again for the amazing thing you've written, I feel super lucky to be reading it in real time because I know this is going to be one of those legendary classics.

Thank you so much! You're wonderfully kind, I really appreciate it, and I hope I can live up to your expectations!

Weekly posting: Posting once a week is actually something I started for my own sanity — posting it regularly/serially is better for audience response, so there's a natural incentive to do it, but it also gives me more time to write ahead. And having all of a book prewritten in advance is really important for me creatively, not only so as to avoid the possibility of cliffhangers, but also to feel immune from the pressure to change the story based on what audiences want.

Growing audiences: Oof, it's been wild. I've been sort of boggled by the response to my little fic; it was entirely unexpected and the most I can do is work hard to deserve it. For the most part, an increasing audience has been a wonderful, wonderful thing, and I've been so grateful for everyone who's been offering support and praise. I'm seriously insanely lucky. My only point of frustration is that, in general, as a fic grows, readers seem to perceive increasing distance between themselves and the author. For instance, people in my comments have increasingly started to address each other instead of me, or have left comments seemingly without the expectation that I'll read them. But when someone comments on the fic, they're still sending that message directly to the author, and I think that some people might... well, they either don't know that, or they don't care. Like, the audience/author distance might be greater than it is for a fic with only 300 hits, but it's not like I'm a showrunner, or some other media production bigwig who'll probably never see 99% of the feedback generated by fans; it's still my pet project that I read basically every scrap of feedback for.

And sometimes (rarely — most of my comments are just so wonderful, and I don't want to sound ungrateful, but) people do say weird or unnecessary things. One comment for the last chapter read, "if krum dies im gonna drop this fic ngl," and that just irritated the hell out of me. Like, if that's your opinion, cool. Your reading habits are none of my business, and I sincerely encourage everyone who needs to take a break from Lionheart — or, hell, even loses interest — to go find something that sparks joy instead. Reading fic should bring you pleasure. No hard feelings, swear to God.

But my frustration with that comment, in particular, was: you do realize that you've sent that message directly to my inbox, right? You realize that was the first thing I read when I opened my comments section after a long afternoon of writing? Someone directly informing me, the author, that a narrative decision (which, either way, I already made about 4-5 months ago) will lose me a reader? And how does this person expect me to react? "Oh, no! I have to go back and rewrite 90,000 words of the story — God forbid I lose you, Single AO3 User Who Left No Other Comments! How can I live with myself if you're not here??"

It's just a bit frustrating. And, to the point — I say this politely, with respect — but if you seriously can't handle seeing characters die, then maybe don't read the fanfiction that's rewriting a series where very many characters die. Just a thought.

[scoupsahoy]

people keep asking why people are mad at buddie shippers but did they miss the one/ones who spammed ao3 with fic where tommy sexually abused kids or was violently murdered by eddie? or the entire blog dedicated to wanting him to be murdered or subjected to prison rape? or the queer men in this fandom being called predators or slurs for relating to a canon gay character? the tweet with more than 1.2k likes that uses a homophobic slur to describe eddie in the context of buddie, written by a cis lesbian? people saying there would be no point in gay eddie or there is no point in bi buck if they don't get together? the buddie shippers spamming the official accounts and the cast and crew with hate comments on instagram? like damn i love buddie and bucktommy but i wouldn't admit that i like buddie at this point.

yeah i mean there are points that i agree with you here and also points where i disagree with you BUT i'm really not here for that reason at all. like. i'm afraid the discussion is becoming "and well this side is also doing bad shit" and i'm like

i have less than 200 followers. i have probably less than 25 followers who even know what this is about. i don't get asks like EVER and no one is going to be checking my account for follow ups because i truly do not matter in this fandom. and the reason i don't even try is BECAUSE there is a lack of meaningful discourse that i actually care about. a lot of the discourse is a competition to see who is the most evil side of the fandom

my entire point is that it is a catch 22. if you ship buddie you are homophobic and you harass the cast and crew. if you ship bucktommy you are racist and harass the showrunners. there is no room for multishipping there is no room for any kind of meaningful discussion as to whether or not tommy kinard has even made a single decision in the entire show. there is no room for people to explore his character in any meaningful way

i appreciate this ask and i appreciate your perspective but everything you're saying in this ask is exactly what i'm talking about. there are people who like this tv show or who like a certain ship who are doing some heinous shit and it is effecting not only people's opinions on the ships, but if it effecting people's opinions on the people who ship it.

you do not need to justify disliking something by proving that it is problematic!! you do not need to justify liking something by proving that it is morally upright!! i'm serious!! release yourself from that shit!! whether or not YOU are a good or bad person actually has nothing to do with your interests!! you seem like a perfectly fine good person who is hurt by this shit just as much as i am and that SUCKS

my post wasn't aimed at buddie fans because i think they are all evil horrible people, or even most of them. i was complaining because of general fandom attitudes that i KNOW no one wants to be a part of are being upheld anyway and it is discouraging meaningful discourse of any kind. and honestly this was mainly aimed at like 5 pretentious condescending big name fans on tiktok who feel the need to morally justify never shutting the fuck up about tommy kinard when no one who watches their videos even fucking likes him anyway

[kitkatt0430]

Unpopular/Popular Opinion: Cisco and Kamilla should have stayed on the Flash and Kamilla should have been given more screentime

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree

So real world, I think Carlos made the best choice for himself leaving the show. The writing was starting to go pretty strongly downhill in large part due to a showrunner who favors his OCs over the existing cast and would make promises about upcoming story arcs that were only true if you kind of tilted your head and squinted. He's done pretty well for himself since, having been in Gaslit and Up Here and getting to stretch his acting chops with characters different from Cisco. It doesn't look like Victoria's gotten quite as much acting work since leaving the Flash, but hopefully she landed on her feet after leaving the Flash too. I'd certainly love to see her in something again sometime.

But setting the real world aside, for the show losing Cisco and Kamilla was definitely a bad choice. Cisco was the heart of Team Flash. He was the one who, repeatedly, held the team together when things got hard. He connected the most easily with everyone else on the team and he had a history with Barry, Iris, Caitlin, and Frost that can't be replaced. Kamilla, in turn, was the first real friend Iris had been allowed by the writers since Linda Park. Iris is friends with Cisco, yes, but he's Barry's friend first and foremost. And the show has repeatedly squandered Iris & Caitlin and Iris & Frost. Despite calling itself out on that very problem. Kamilla was Iris' friend and equal and it was nice watching them both hang out and work together.

Without Cisco, Barry's isolated from the rest of Team Flash (except Caitlin, but they were never as close as he was with Cisco and, whoops, now she's dead) because he's their boss. And Iris is isolated from Khione, Cecile, and Allegra because her relationships with those three never really get any real development.

Having more focus time on Kamilla would have been great. To see her friendship with Iris develop further - the struggle with being best friends while also boss and employee would have been an interesting point to focus on. Contrast that with Cisco and Barry's relationship. I could see Kamilla talking to Cisco about it and trying to figure out how to balance it all.

But also showing more development of Kamilla and Caitlin's friendship and that leading to Iris and Caitlin finally spending more time together and getting to know each other better. (Let Iris have lady friends, please let her have lady friends.)

Cisco mentoring Chester would have been interesting to see more of (or any of) too. S1 had Cisco as the prodigious student, S2 and S3 saw Cisco coming into his own and growing beyond needing a mentor, and S4 and S5 placed Cisco as having gained the confidence to consider himself an expert in his fields of science and an experienced hero in his own right - not a sidekick. So developing on that, having him pass on what he's learned and take pride in being a mentor - working through lingering issues about Eobard in the process, perhaps - would have been an interesting arc to take for both him and Chester.

Unfortunately I don't know that the show runners really knew what to do with Cisco as his powers developed. Comics Vibe was incredibly powerful and nerfing Cisco on the show was definitely a mistake, the lead up to which made it seem like Cisco was being written out then in S5 and certainly made Carlos' eventual decision to leave two seasons later unsurprising. So I think we lost out on a lot of interesting story arcs for Cisco and for Kamilla because of the decision to take away Cisco's powers.

[ladymorghul]

Idk if you are on Reddit, but I used to be often and I actually liked the green sub (well, mostly) because it was great to have an opportunity to freely express pro green opinions without being downvoted into oblivion or insulted. When the show was more actual, the main sub was mostly a hellish experience for pro green fans, so it was nice to have our own safe space. However, my experience has started to change recently. There are too many divisions among the green fandom which isn't great, but that wouldn't be such a big problem if some fans were more tolerant toward other greens who don't completely agree with them in every single detail.

I've noticed (and this is not only on Reddit, but also on Tumblr, Twitter etc. ) that there is a certain narrative that apparently every green has to accept and follow or else will be accused of being a secret black, false green, show pleb (lol)...God forbid if you are not a book purist (because F&B is such a masterpiece lmao), or if you are pro Helaemond or anti Al*smond. Our hot milf witch rules (god, I hate the big titty girlfriend and milf hunter jokes), Helaemonds are primarily self inserts because Helaena is a blank canvas and Helaemonds don't actually like her as she is (according to one of the most recent threads) ... Also, you mustn't criticize Aegon at all. There are literally people who are trying to convince others that he was so great in the book and he would never force himself on a servant. Now, I agree that groping maids is not the same as being a clueless rapist like in the show and the showrunners did unfairly take things too far with him. I understand the frustration, but still, they had some basis for the rape decision (even if I dislike the way they executed it) in the same book these purists worship. They also claim he was as good warrior as the Conqueror himself and if you try to say that he was quite brave but that he was actually severely injured at the beginning of the war and had only one more fight at the end you will certainly be booed. Oh, and Daeron is one of the best Targaryens ever and Alicent's favourite (again, we obviously didn't read the same book) and the evil Sapochnik wanted to erase him only to prop up Aemond to whom he gave Daeron's best traits (again, complete bullshit). Furthermore, book!Alicent is an amazing and apparently more likeable?? character while in the show they totally ruined her. I agree only partially, I preferred her show version because in the book I didn't like her at all while in the show she is one of my favourites, however, her characterization in episodes 8 and 9 seriously annoyed me because of inconsistencies and Rhae fangirling. Still, they heavily exaggerate while criticising her show version. These are only some of the sacred rules apparently every green has to follow or else will be accused of not being the true green. Like, who gets to decide this? Idk, it really disappoints me because I thought that the sub doesn't need to be an eco chamber nor the green fans have to be monolithic hiveminds like black stans they like to criticize, even if they are on the same team. It's been a while since I commented or participated at all there because of these things and will probably do the same on other SM. I think I really need a break of this fandom.

Anyway, sorry for the rant, yours is one of the rare blogs I still like and follow and it seemed like a good place to vent😅. I know you've had some interesting experiences on SM so I believe you know at least partially what I'm talking about.

i get it.

and when i say i get it, i mean the part about there being made up rules of what a 'green' is and how if you're not following them, you will be accused of some bs stuff.

i guess it's partly why i call my self a greens enjoyer and not a green. i've seen plenty of opinions from 'greens' that i didn't like, from straight up unnecessary misogynistic comments (some of them by men who think that this fandom just gives them the pass to say anything) to really weird hypocritical opinions over ships. it's been... exhausting.

for anyone who's reading this going "but what about team black?": everyone knows my takes on tb stans. we're talking about greens right now because this is where we mostly hang out and it sucks that there's many people who fully believe they dictate who gets to enjoy the greens and how.

with me it started with anti targaryen sentiment. when i first started the show, i thought the story was gonna be rhaenyra fighting against her uncle for the throne. i didnt know anything about the dance of the dragons. of course, i started reading on the story very soon and watching the show and seeing the dynamic between rhaenyra and alicent, i easily attached myself to alicent because it seemed like genuinely no one was in her corner, even the people who were supposed to be.

but i still watched the show because of the idea that i'm watching targaryens fight each other and be unhinged and have dragons.

so you can imagine my surprise when i realized that maybe half the people who call themselves greens are staunchly anti targaryen. they don't like targaryens and they don't like dragons. it was a bit of a head scratcher for me. i knew why that was the case, because many of them were coming from game of thrones with an anti dany mindset and saw rhaenyra's side as the more targaryen side (even though in the beginning they were arguing with tb stans over it) and alicent's side is cooler because she and otto are hightowers and not targaryens.

that wasn't the case for me? i mean sure was i critical of dany many times? yes. but i still loved watching daenerys as a character. and i loved the idea of watching a new show that focuses on house targaryen and their dragons.

and then the whole targtower kids debate.... when the argument needed it, greenies were like "yes they're also targaryens" but then they'd hate on their targaryen side and then suddenly they legit started saying yes they're only hightowers because they're better than the other targaryens. to me it's such clownery.... i wanted to knock their heads together w the tb stans who were saying the targtowers kids are not targaryens.

then there's the greens, or more specifically, the aemond stans who babify aemond to such a degree that they speak about how alicent parentified him. those are usually super welcome in green spaces, even though their interest lies almost solely in aemond and whether or not he gets to meet al*s and how aemond is more special than the rest and he'll have his misunderstood storyline together w the only person who gets him al*s. weird that these people are far more welcome in green spaces than helaemonds. but i won't comment further.

and then the helaemond stuff happened. people dk this but i clocked helaemond immediately. i did not come after the show ended and were like omg wow this ship that i didn't notice. no. i immediately picked up on it. i didn't want to tweet about it because i knew it would start a fuss but others were shyly posting and i saw green moots call them all the possible names because of it. and then something weird happened... the same green moots who had been horrible to other people over helaemond started talking about helaeg*n. helaeg*n was interesting to me so i thought hey maybe they losened up a bit? no. no way, they were rabidly against any form of helaemond. i ended up losing 80% of my green moots. i was basically just in my own sphere doing my own thing because these people couldn't get over a difference of ship preference. they were shipping helaeg*n and aeg*nd and alysm*nd, all of them problematic in their own ways, but helaemond was somehow the devil. and i know people who have had the same experience. they were mostly leaning green, but when they started to ship helaemond, other greens jumped them.

about character opinions... i don't get it. i mean, i get it and i don't. i get team green's utter frustration with the writers because i feel that frustration myself and certain sections of the fandom do a lot to mock and poke at that frustration which causes even more frustration. that being said i believe it's impossible for there to be identical opinions on one side or the other, and this includes both tb and tg. imo if you're tg you should be mainly interested in the green characters and mainly invested in their story. i'm not saying you can't like other characters outside of them, but just that they're your main focus.

there's plenty of opinions, popular an unpopular, in green spaces that i disagree with. section of fandoms aren't, or at least they usually aren't, hiveminds. i mean i could be disagreeing even with you but that doesn't mean you're not also a fellow green enjoyer.

i don't really spend my time on that subreddit, but i've heard some stuff about it. i think sections of fandoms should be more tolerant of each other, especially on reddit that has a forum format.

and one last thing: i hate the secretly team black allegations. i've seen plenty of those, some addressed to me as well. it's funny because i've said it before but my blog changed some people's minds on alicent and did a lot to foster symopathetic alicent discussion when the fandom was going completely nuts. so it feels a bit moronic to watch someone raging bc of a ships accuse me of being secretly team black.

my only advice is.... take it all with a grain of salt. fandoms with sides like this one tend to be very cannibalistic and i have a feeling that the greens subreddit isn't the best place to post your opinions unless you're ready for aggressive replies. if you feel like you have opinions that you want to share in a safer space where everything isn't a battle, you could try making a house of the dragon sideblog. that wat, you can post your thoughts and even if you get nasty anons, you have the power to publish them or not, or to even turn off anons completely.

i would avoid twitter as well. it's chaotic and aggressive and when the fandom gets going, it can fry your brain.

[wafflesetc]

To be honest from the beginning I had my doubts that Gwen would do a good job and finally I was so right. When I saw her first I was surprised that they gave so much power to this young women to write a script like this. Let's not get on the wrong foot but if you ask me the person they would have needed to write a good script would have been an older person with life experiences.

I think being cautious and hesitant about a new showrunner is always a normal reaction, especially for a long standing procedural. I don't know much about Gwen's portfolio before she worked for WolfEnt, so I don't really have much of an opinion there. During her time in the OC world, she had written some solid episodes... So I did have a small bit of hope once she stepped up as a "show runner." Sadly, she has really left a bad taste in my mouth with the creative choices she has made over the year. I will also say to this - while she's the show runner - I do believe that the writer's room usually have to pitch the season's timeline or a general outline to the network before the start of the series. As always, she probably is pleasing some of the big guys upstairs herself.... I don't fully know if that is the reasoning for certain decisions, but she definitely could have made better choices.

[apocketfullofstones]

The Mandalorian s3 e1 & 2 Review

Just some articulated thoughts about chapters 17 and 18 because I have opinions.

Spoiler Alert!!!

The first two episodes of The Mandalorian season 3 have both been a flop so far. First off, episode one just carried on from where Boba Fett's show left off with absolutely no explanation as to why or how Grogu is back with Din for the viewers who maybe didn't watch TBoBF, which is fucking annoying because it forces people to watch something they might not have been interested in in the first place.

Secondly, they should have of built up to Din going to Mandalore and getting some character development where he realizes that there is more to his life than just blindly following his covert's beliefs. And that life-altering epiphany along with his reunion with Grogu, learning how to properly wield the dark saber, and reaching the planet that was razed to the ground (depending on his decision on whether or not to rejoin the covert) should've been the overarching storyline. Instead we get to start off episode two with Din arriving at the desolate planet with Grogu in tow.

And don't even get me started on the sudden inclusion of Bo-Katan as Din's trusty sidekick. You know, the woman who joined an extremist group that was pretty open about their plan to assassinate the ruler of Mandalor -which was her sister at the time- just because they didn't like that she was a pacifist. The very same woman who wants the dark saber, not because she's selflessly trying to rebuild her people, their home, and their culture, but because she's selfishly after power. The woman who would happily slit Din's throat in a heartbeat if it meant that she could have the dark saber. That Bo-Katan? Yeah, okay. Needless to say, I'm finding the "new best friend" Bo-Katan storyline a hard pill to swallow.

Also can we acknowledge that Din falling like he did while bathing in the living waters was fucking dumb. I tried to rationalize it, giving him the benefit of the doubt by writing it off as him just being woozy from blood loss and not noticing the drop off. But even then, that doesn't explain why he plummeted so far, so ridiculously fast. It's because his armor is heavy!!! I can hear you typing furiously. But, you're wrong. We've seen in the previous season that the armor that Din wears is not actually that heavy. Like on the ship in s2e3 "The Heiress" he dives into the water and then is able to swim to the surface, treading water and holding onto the bars. The point is, he didn't sink. And he should have immediately went straight to the bottom of the hold after diving into the water if we were to believe that the beskar is really that heavy. Basically what I'm trying to say is that they are already retconning shit they've established just to hit these lame story beats instead of just writing the scene in a way that is loyal to the rules they've set in previous seasons and it's only the third season.

I fear that it can only get worse from here.

Oh! And I recently watched a short on YouTube that put some things into perspective about the choices that were made regarding the entire show. Apparently seasons 1 and 2 were filmed pretty much back-to-back, so while s1 was just airing, they were already well into shooting s2. So that means that the showrunners had no idea how big Grogu was going to get, which is why he was always handed off to someone else or left on the ship/in the pram and had very limited screentime in both season 1 and 2. It also explains the horribly rushed reunion because it is my belief that it was the writers original intention to write Grogu off the show at the end of season 2 by sending him away with Luke (and they would only bring him back as a cameo or something along those lines).

But with "Baby Yoda's" sudden internet popularity, they had to basically abandon their initial goal in order to keep their tiny, adorable cash cow (affectionate). If this theory of mine were true, it would also explain why Grogu's inclusion in s3 so far has been a bit awkward, like the writers aren't quite sure what to do with him and they just wrote him into scenes simply for him to be there. Because to me it felt like Bo-Katan was supposed to have accompanied Din to Mandalore from the jump, but then they had to change the script so that Grogu could do something other than just sit in his pram and look cute the entire time (like going to fetch Bo-Katan when Din is put out of commission). That would also make the pacing issues of episode 2 make sense cause it definitely took a while for Grogu to fly to Bo-Katan's castle (I doubt that she was less then an hour away) and the villain just so happened to wait to start up the machine to drain Din of blood until Grogu made the trip there and back? Yeah, no.

Also, I refuse to believe that Grogu couldn't help Din escape with his "force powers" at this point (take for example his feats in TBoBF), so him not even really trying was just a poorly disguised plot device to get Bo-Katan involved. And the minute that the audience notices that the plot is driving the characters, and not the other way around, the cracks start to become visible, breaking the immersion and making the show unenjoyable to watch because then fans (like me) are just gonna start picking apart everything that's wrong with the story.

[what-do-1000-swords-look-like]

I really loved this finale. It felt like excellent story telling that really connected back to the pilot and came full circle in a beautiful way.

Not gonna lie, I wish Max had stayed but the way it played out really did make sense for his story. And I was beyond happy that he was making Luna a priority while not giving up who he is (like he was practically forced to do in London). I was so relieved with Iggy and Martin, I felt like they were purposely putting me through torture with that one. I think before Wildwin, Iggy x Martin was definitely my OTP of the show, so it was nice to see their story come to a wonderful close. I was so glad that Lauren reunited with her sister, that Floyd got the family he wanted, and that if Wilder had to stay behind, that she got to take over for Max with New Amsterdam. It was an amazing end for a lovely show and I couldn't be more grateful, especially with the Luna twist (my God, talk about spectacular writing, they really did close every layer up minus the one they planned to leave open). I've been watching since day 1 and that to me was definitely a finale worth celebrating.

I know maybe some might not care for the open Wildwin ending, but personally, I loved it. I think Max made his decision back a couple of episodes ago and I think that was really powerful. Despite Max's leaving, what happened between these two and how they left things just felt right to me and open with possibility like the showrunner says here.

You know, when Sharpwin started being hinted at in the show, I despised it. Not because Max and Helen didn't have chemistry, not because Ryan and Freema weren't enjoyable to watch on screen together, but because it felt as if the show quickly killed Georgia off to do fanservice. (and if you've been following me here for a while, you know by now how much I hate that LOL) But I tried my best to give it a shot when it went canon. Despite loathing Helen's response with "I should have never let you in" while Max was happy and glowing, completely in love with her and wanting to show her. But regardless, I slowly came to appreciate it, especially after Helen's speech on the bridge. They had finally showed to the audience, in my opinion, just how real it was for both of them, why it could actually work, and just why Max was making this move. So I was on board. I rooted for the little family they were creating. Then I really couldn't stand it when it became obvious that Max was basically forced into giving up everything in order to make Helen happy by following her to London, though you could tell her heart wasn't fully in it. (I had no idea what was going on bts with Freema's decision to leave the show btw)

For me, not to sound harsh in regards to Max, the moment she jilted him wasn't what had me angry at the pairing again. (that's not to diminish what happened or what he went through) It was the fact that she allowed Luna to call her 'Mummy', allowed Max to keep telling Luna that she was indeed her mom and that they were going to be a family, and then did what she did. Here's the thing: cold feet, I get it. And Iggy was right, Helen was going through A LOT. But doing that to Luna and basically abandoning her...that's unforgivable in my book. Luna had already lost one mom that she never knew and Helen knew that. Tbf to her, she had been hesitant about the mom thing at first when Max went full throttle, but she eventually went with it and formed a full bond with Luna as her mom. And then she just disappears (again, I get it, Freema left the show) from the kid's life, not even making sure she's okay, regardless of where she left things with her dad. Unforgivable.

So for me, Wildwin when it first started being hinted at was such a nice contrast. Don't get me wrong, I love the friends-to-lovers trope, the slow burns, and the whole healing process from a broken heart & falling in love with "what's good for you" but Ryan and Sandra definitely had chemistry, Wilder was there for Max, and I was so glad when the writers went with it. And I was thrilled when Max chose Wilder over Helen, his future vs his past like they say in this article. (and that shot of Luna with Wilder was adorable btw!)

But saying all of that, I'm more than okay with where they left things with Wildwin. I would have been massively disappointed if Max left to find Helen again, taking Luna with him, breaking it off with Wilder in the process. I'm okay with staying open-ended on this one because it leaves things open for possibilities. And while we got closure on the other characters' stories, if you think about it, we really got the theme of "open possibility" with all of them as well. Iggy and Martin have started a new beginning; Lauren and her sister are starting a new beginning together; Floyd is starting a new beginning with his relationship along with his family embracing his dad being around again. And of course, Luna was given her own new beginning as well, which was all tied beautifully to the moments these people chose to become doctors.

I just wanted to gush a little over it. I just really appreciated that they finished out this story right and didn't fall short on anything while attempting to bring it full circle while also bringing it to a close. I will miss these characters but damn if there won't be a rewatch in my future at some point lol.

What a fantastic show!

[lemonhemlock]

To portray Rhaenyra of all people as a feminist fighting against the patriarchy when she refused to give rights to other women is just.... Hysterical. But i think they will change that from the book

a lot of rhaenyra stans haven't even opened the books so they were unfamiliar with that aspect. when it was pointed out to them, they just stood their ground, instead of admitting they were wrong and nuancing their opinions

the show is there for everyone and you don't have to be a book reader to enjoy it. but acting like the authority on the matter when you have no context for this character is very strange

as for the showrunners (whichever of them made this decision), they were probably banking on this exact phenomenon - giving the public a supposedly anti-patriarchal character they could stan, thus popularizing the story, thus ensuring large viewing numbers. the fact that we're out here fighting about it means more engagement for their show

i think they were scared no one would watch it if they made rhaenyra a tyrant from the get-go, bc the public wouldn't have anyone to sympathize with. it would be nice if people appreciated a show where every character is nuanced and truly (not just rhetorically) on a scale of moral greyness. but they probably don't trust the audience enough for that. and, after seeing how media illiterate a lot of fans are, i'm not sure i'd disagree with that, necessarily