#legitimately don't?? understand?? the problem with that??? they're all fandoms that i write for what's the issue here 😭

[weaselbeaselpants]

About fandom smexuality, aging-up, age gaps vs CSEM

The thing I wish people could understand is the debate over whether or not loli/shota/cub/drawn 'artwork' is inherently cp is a different debate than the fandom questions of:

" Is making a child character into an adult for *reasons* akin to irl grooming? "

" Is making a childincanon-now-adult-character date an always-was-adultincanon-character akin to irl grooming? "

" Is making absolutely everything into a sexy pinuplegalage adult good for me? "

" Can you write about these topics at all? "

" What is someone's mental age vs physical age when it comes to fantasy fiction involving shit like gods, monsters, shapeshifting talking animals having smex? "

" Is it wrong to dismiss a character's age when they otherwise don't act or look the age they're supposed to be +are treated as sexualized adult in canon? " ((kinda specific; I'm mostly thinking of Ariel and Jasmine being canonically 16 and 14 for some reason.))

All these above debates are worth talking about. And by talking about, I do mean having discourse over because it's unavoidable. No one is going to agree 100%, I think that's just the nature of sexualizing things or maybe just fiction in general. Something that may be tame to you can be triggering/traumatizing for another person -especially if that person is a survivor of any kind of ab*se. You are not responsible for their well-being, B U T, you ARE responsible for yourself and not being a dick to survivors. I also think it's such a 'your millage may vary';'depending on the situation in canon v fanon'-shit going on.

f.e. shipping the themepark young man version of the Mad Hatter with the adult woman Alice that walk around Disneyland and are their own characters apart from their animated counterparts but clearly are still meant to illicit those versions-- I can be sus and grossed out and designate it as one of my own notps all I want, same with Lydiajuice and Fluttercord. I DO find these ships genuinely 'icky' to me because I can't get over the association w the animated versions. BUT- knowing the context of what people are into it and how, I'm not going to call that shit amoral. It's not. I'm just allowed to dislike it. Cope.

Ultimately people are right that it's sus how we keep making underage characters into smexy adults to appeal to adults with sexual and/or shipping tastes. Like 'can we seriously not comprehend characters in a non sexual (or in fandom, non shiptastic) context EVER about anything?' is a genuine debate worth having.

People are also right that susbehavior can be excused with legitimate circumstances; like how coming of age stories inherently mean minors discussing sexuality because teens are sexually imbalanced and sex interested. There's a LOT of talk to be had there and shade to be delivered.

As an asexual who's dabled in, and has friends, who make and sell adult art for adults, I just don't see this problem[i.e. aging up minor characters into adults] as an inherent red flag.

Many honest nonpredatory people have adultified versions of their childhood crushes. There is a porno version of Alice in Wonderland where Alice was a sexually adventurous twenty-something getting down with other adults in furrsuits and singing. No really. Me in my new fangled respect for the og novel can be all "GAWD why do we have to make this sexy?" all I want -AND YET-- I'm also glad they made the porno version of the story for adults ABOUT adults. Good job. I'm sure lots of people looking for that thing loved it. Let cringe adults be cringe adults, damnit.

Sexuality and sexual preference (not orientation) IS messy and complicated even if you do all this by yourself and without a partner.

~End of part 1.

[itsclydebitches]

The RWBY Justice League trailer is out. AU crossover fanfiction with a budget.

I just watched it and honestly? The plot seems fine. Painfully generic, but given that I support painfully generic things whose primary draw is the niche characters/references of a particular fandom (or in this case two), it's whatever. I like AU crossover fic, so I fully understand why, for current RWBY fans, getting that on a movie budget is a dream come true. Plus a few of the scenes looks nice, like Wonder Woman going after that grimm.

On its own I'd be fully wiling to go, "Eh, it doesn't look like anything special, but I'm willing to watch it on some random, weekend night" and leave it at that, but as with all things RWBY, this film is caught up in the franchises' other problems. For example, prior to watching the trailer I assumed that this was an AU in the sense that the DC folks have always existed in the RWBY-verse. AKA, Batman grew up as a faunus. However, now I've learned that they've actually been transported here... and de-aged... and some have randomly become minorities? I don't know anything about Vixen as a character, but taking the guy whose entire fighting style is based around his insane amount of wealth--whose philosophy is embedded in enacting change that even his power as a wealthy white man can't touch--and giving him bat wings that, in this world, is a symbol of the oppressed species seems... messy.

This is just the cycle for RWBY nowadays. Fans are excited and I'm genuinely happy for them. What they're excited for seems pretty lackluster to me. Then I think about it for a hot second, specifically in the context of RWBY's history, and go, "Wait..." At this point, I actively hope that any new installments are just "fine" as opposed to "potentially offensive to a large number of viewers."

Also, this is SUCH a nitpick and a wholly own up to that, but Ruby's nonsense encouragements drive me nuts nowadays. Most RWDE folks have aired their grievances over "What's the plan, Ruby?" / "Don't let anyone else die" (or whatever the exact quotation is). Now we've got "What do we do??" / "We... fight." Like yes, right before this Ruby has another "I just might [have a plan]" line, so of course there's something resembling strategy here, but I haaaate that cheesy, 'inspiring' call to action when characters are LEGITIMATELY asking how they're going to defeat a powerful foe. As in, what's the plan, Ruby, not the hopeful outcome. It feeds into the very non-nitpick-y problem of the characters coasting by on the meta assurance that things will work out because they're Good Guys/Main Characters, and likewise flies in the face of the earlier Volumes where Ruby did come up with truly excellent plans. Remember the days of taking out the Nevermore? Team attacks against Roman's mech? Shooting Nora with a lightning bullet? The era when fans were (imo rightly) pointing out that Ruby was the team's core strategist, despite how often the dialogue insisted it was Jaune? Now we've got individual fights against the Ace Ops, blinking against the Hound + the Schnees dealing the final blow, attacking Cordovin without a thought to the consequences, risking a Kingdom's worth of lives because they'll defeat Salem ~somehow~ and it's a writing MESS, so whenever Ruby has a generic "What do we do? We fight ✊" line it hammers home that RT isn't developing combat strategies anymore. Which, you know, for a show built around its combat is a bit of a problem for me.

ANYWAY /rant over lol

[eisforeidolon]

This is in response to the person who replied to your queerbaiting post. The thing that bothers me the most about that corner of the fandom is how they position themselves as "the LGBTQ fans of SPN" as if LGBTQ fans who don't ship D/C, or even see it, don't exist. Which is especially problematic since many D/C shippers are cishet but speak over actual queer fans.

Personally, I would not have objected to Dean (or Sam for that matter) being bi as long as their romantic relationships remained limited to flings and brief plot foils. A serious - especially "endgame" - romantic partnership for either brother would have changed the show into something I, and MANY other queer fans, did not want.

It really is deeply obnoxious. Unfortunately, as media has become more concerned with adding portrayals of a wider variety of people of all types, certain individuals in fandom have seized onto representation as a bludgeon to try and force creatives to write what they want very specifically.

Whether or not they're actually part of those groups themselves. Whether or not any significant portion - let alone ALL members - of said groups would agree the agenda at hand would actually serve their interests. That it even goes so far as tossing slurs at and invalidating people in those groups for being "bad" at being who they are for not supporting a very specific agenda about a damn tv show/movie/whatever? Just shows that it's not really about concern for the interests of the group - it's about trying to force the specific piece of media to tell the story you personally want.

The problems aren't with the idea of bi!Dean or bi!Sam as a concept. The problems are refusing to understand what the underlying story of supernatural was very obviously about - it was never a romance. As well as insisting an interpretation that is not confirmed by the canon IS indisputably canon because [unfortunate stereotypes & toxic masculinity & wishing real hard] and anyone that doesn't agree is a bigot.

I admit I didn't even bother to do more than quick-skim their last reply because not only was it the same old bullshit of refusing to pay attention to what's legitimately in the show and what the reliable sources from production have said about it (and therefore what it's actually reasonable to expect), and instead taking a bunch of biased cherry-picked specious bullcrap ~*interpretations*~ and ~*parallels*~ and other various conspiracy theories strung haphazardly together by shippers as gospel truth? They couldn't even be arsed to parrot make the arguments themselves, copy-pasting the generic regurgitated glurge of some randos on reddit. Because if people can write several thousand words about a thing on social media, it MUST be true!!! Especially if other people with the same agenda copy the same daft arguments over and over again! Amara help us.

[firjii]

I feel like fanworks of any medium in any fandom can be an inherently double-edged sword and the reason why, in a way, I'm glad I haven't tried to religiously pursue it.

On the one hand, it's a beautiful example of dedication, creativity, and often otherwise undiscovered/overlooked talent. It can also be a legitimate stepping stone to bigger things or, in a few lucky cases, the start of a career that utilizes those same interests or talents.

On the other hand, much of the audience has extremely specific desires and is commonly in flux in ways that some other areas of life and society don't have an exact equivalent for. To be blunt, they're really damn fickle sometimes.

You can be dazzlingly, brilliantly skilled at your craft and have good relations with your admirers/followers/clients, but if something else captures their attention for a sustained amount of time, you either have to adapt to what they want or accept that you might've lost that connection with that particular person or persons.

Some people adapt to other fandoms just fine and continue to enjoy that dynamic. Some even ride a "wave" effect (i.e. their own personal interests coincide with fans') as a new fandom crops up or an old one surges in popularity again. I wish those people all the best because that, too, is beautiful to see.

But for lack of a better word, it's problematic for some creatives. Y'all like to say "death to capitalism," but artists (*general term meaning any people who make stuff in any medium) doing things for money are, in fact, technically participating in capitalism in some shape or form. That's just how it is.

And that's OK. It's OK to try to make a living from things you like for the simple purpose of paying bills and eating 3 times a day and not needing to sleep in an alley. That's not a vice and it sure as hell isn't grounds for canceling.

I've seen so many shitty takes on this about how fans are entitled to fully rendered OC portraits or an entire 50k novel or a whole-ass crocheted blanket or an album-length music project for free because "*nonchalant shrug* I simply don't believe in The System(TM)," with no regard for the logistics involved and no understanding that the time it takes to make stuff is time that can't be used on other things (whether that means employment, sleep, eating, or basic mental health self-care).

There are people online - and especially here - who scrape by at a subsistence level by making art/crafts or writing fics or coding IFs or writing music. Some artists (*general term meaning any people who make stuff in any medium) do it specifically because they have a disability or health problem that precludes them from other options. Some are autistic or are dealing with other things that fundamentally impact how they function as a human in the world.

Translation: some people literally can't just yo-yo into a new subject at the whim of fandom trends. It literally doesn't compute for everyone. They're faced with the choice to force themselves into other subjects just to maintain connections/a little money or to become legitimately interested in said thing "too late" when the height of fandom enthusiasm has long since peaked.

I used to think that people just meant politics or cancel culture when they said "fandom is kind of like high school," but now I get it: there's a distinct popularity contest element to it - or there easily can be one - not necessarily about the quality of the creatives' finished expressions or even fans' personal tastes of those expressions, but the level of fandom involvement and population size itself.

It's no one's fault that it happens and it's usually totally innocent and incidental. It's also not necessarily a bad thing - far be it for me to discourage people from moving on to things that are better for their mental health or move away from things that were bad for it. But it's inevitable that some are left behind in the dust from time to time, even if the other/new fandoms make every effort to be welcoming.

The basest advice you often get is "go with the flow," but some people simply can't do that. They pour their hearts into a particular medium or niche topic or inspiration source because that particular Thing(TM) clicks for them in ways that other stuff doesn't. It's not as simple as "yeah sure w/e I'll draw the little space man today instead of a salmon."

So idk I would just suggest that, as one example, when y'all want to get an OC portrait and the artist you want to make it explicitly states which fandoms they can do and yours isn't on their list, at least ask NICELY if they'd be comfortable trying something new. Don't barge in and pressure them, because we tend to already pressure ourselves more than our due.

You'd be amazed how many people don't grasp this.

[my-mt-heart]

Carylers have a legitimate right to worry. We believed what Norman and Angela were saying about Daryl, and then they shoved the story of Leah down our throats. And they didn't even try to explain why they decided to change Daryl. Angela can be a good writer and play with the audience, but she does not understand the current TWD viewers. And no one listened to all these explanations of the episodes that she gave later. That's why there are so many d*nnie fans. Because they think Daryl's best friend sees that he likes C*nnie. Because they see the accents on the views, the ASL book, the handshake… and they understand that their couple is being led to the canon. They won't read between the lines. And this is a big problem for the fandom. I'm tired of being called delusional just because writers are trying to confuse everyone. And what angers me the most is that they will do this until the end and most likely Daryl will be alone in the end

I don't like the ship baiting or Leah's arc at all, but for what it's worth, I think there's a lot in the writing that suggests Angela does understand what her audience wants and has/had every intention of delivering. I believe it was SF who compared the story she built to a game of Jenga. The more blocks that get pulled (studio notes, producer notes, production costs, covid, spinoffs, etc.) the more unstable it becomes.

There will always be fans who see things differently than we do, and theoretically it shouldn't make our experience less valid. The real problem is TWD/AMC/Gimple has created such a toxic atmosphere for everyone (for the cast and EP's too) because any engagement is good for them. There's no consideration for the live human beings on the other side of the screen who are just looking to have fun for one reason or another, not feel like they're back on the playground getting pushed around by the big kids :(

[silkylious]

I'm genuinely not trying to be rude so I hope you don't take it that way but I followed you for your writing and you don't even write that much anymore

I'm just saying make a side blog for all the edits and gifs and art because people didn't follow you for that they followed you for writing (which you don't do much of anymore)

you know you can always unfollow this blog, right

[hunxi-after-hours]

Hunxi how do BL dramas even get made? I don't believe that censors are just being tricked into letting things go. All they would have to do is type the name of the novel being used into google and it would immediately come back as "a BL novel." Why aren't the stores banned wholesale? Unsurprisingly US sources have nothing useful to say about it when I've tried to find answers.

so there's a distinction between a "BL drama" and a "drama based on a BL novel," one that we tend to collapse in English but is much more distinct in Chinese. BL novels are called 耽美 danmei, and adaptations of BL novels (e.g. 《镇魂》 Zhen Hun / Guardian，《陈情令》 Chen Qing Ling / The Untamed， 《山河令》 Shan He Ling / Word of Honor) are what would more accurately be called 耽改 dangai -- "adapted from" or "changed from danmei."

the problem isn't that the source novel is danmei; the censorship board has zero problems with the original source being gay as hell (well, not zero). what the censorship board has problems with is if the adaptation is explicitly queer.

generally speaking, the audience for a TV show is going to be many, many times that of the audience for a webnovel, so if you're a homophobic authoritarian regime, you're going to crack down on the adaptations that are getting billions of views first before making your way back to the source. Over the past few years, increasingly severe restrictions have been placed on what webnovels can explicitly write about, to the point where MDZS and SVSSS have been locked on JJWXC (i.e. you can't even buy them anymore, they're functionally banned). If you ever see someone making a comment about "nothing below the neck," that is a reference to some of the restrictions put in place by censorship (i.e. authors cannot write about any sexy things below the neck)

I think Anglophone fandom has a tendency to make light of censorship in China, which is... well, I don't think people really understand how sophisticated and all-encompassing it is. The censorship board aren't composed solely of dumb machines that need to be tricked with a quick 'no homo'--there are many more factors at play, from the Chinese history and culture of homosociality (Anglophone viewers thought CQL was undeniably queer; a great deal of Chinese viewers were completely sold on the bromance. and because CQL is dangai, not danmei, you can't say that those viewers are wrong--that is absolutely a legitimate interpretation of CQL), to state-sanctioned queerbaiting (I feel like someone out there must be writing a dissertation about about 炒CP as a marketing tool).

it's not as simple as "this is danmei, and therefore must be banned." there is gray area and room for negotiation; there is an insidious amount of nuance and intelligence involved in the particular kind of homophobic censorship enacted by the authoritarian regime (e.g. if you keep your gays, you have to bury them by the end of the show). there is an unquestionable and undeniable amount of money being exchanged in the process, both under and over the table

tl;dr Chinese censorship is not a joke, even if Anglophone fandom tries to make it out to be

[olderthannetfic]

I don't like the trend of labelling fandom doing common fandom things as racist the moment a property with characters who aren't white gets popular. I remember when Encanto came out I, even before seeing the movie, knew there would be a shit ton of incest shipping and tons of "the big mean family doesn't understand poor woobie Mirabel and might even be abusive" fic with the mysterious rat man already a fan favourite and commonly paired with her in a (mostly) platonic kindred spirit way. The shapeshifter is gonna get a lot of genderqueer headcanons too obviously.

And guess what? I was right! Of course I was fucking right. Because certain tropes and archetypes often inspire similar fandom responses. Incest is obvious, the main focus is a large blood family and their relationships. Even before the lack of named or significant characters outside the family, incest was inevitable. The Loud House, which is another family friendly cartoon focusing on a large family, is basically all incest.

Mirabel is the oddball who, while not truly neglected, is sidelined by her family on accident due to them being wonderfully flawed characters, so of course fandom exaggerates that for drama sometimes to outright abuse. Mirabel then gets to call them all out or show them up or whatever for that sweet catharsis, or it's used to focus on Mirabel bonding with The One Person (usually fellow outcast Bruno) Who Understands and Validates Her.

And I'm pretty sure the internet wanted to either fuck or hug Bruno from the moment they saw his sad face. Instant Tumblr sexyman. He can do not wrong and anyone who hurt him even accidentally is evil.

Honestly the Encanto fandom (and similar) has been relatively less those things as well compared to other (whiter) fandoms with the same general archetypes and plot-type. More restrained. Which im not complaining personally, I don't like incest, but also I think if you want media starring POC to be popular people need to suck up the fact that fandom will do as fandom does. And I don't mean the actual racist stuff, of which there is a lot but is still less yelled about compared to to the stuff I just talked about despite being obviously more important, there is a problem of people being racist even when they focus on POC characters or double-standards compared to white characters. I just mean stuff that might make people uncomfortable or not focused on the meaningful themes or even a popular fandom trend that happens to align with a shitty stereotype but is legitimately just a thing fandom likes even with white characters.

I've also noticed a lot of pedestal-placing for POC characters which annoys me because I liked those flawed characters but fuck me for enjoying nuanced writing and characters I guess. At least bashers usually label their shit when they decide to make them abusive or evil or incompetent. They're not perfect that's why I like them. STOP MAKING THEM PERFECT!!! It's boring as hell and you can tell the fans overcompensating which feels weird.

--

I haven't seen this movie, but Bruno is super hot.

[inessencedevided]

The Untamed, episode 46 - watching notes

Full disclosure: I'm not in a particularly good mood today. Have you seen that "no productivity. Only guild." Meme flying around? That's me today :|

Hopefully this will distract me (though distraction was the problem in the first place 🙈)

I apologise for any typos you'll finde in this post 😅

To recap, the last thing I learned was that apparently, Jiggy married his own sister because Jin Guangshan was a scumbag who raped more women than he could possibly remember

I was told by several people that this episode is their favourite. No pressures or anything :D

The way someone is dragging up Jiggy's secrets has a lot of poetic justice to it. Everyone is outraged and gossiping. Consensus is reached quickly. Kinda makes me feel that that someone (who probably also wrote the letter to jgy) knows exactly how to use the sect world's worst qualities as a weapon

Yao what's-his-name, resident gossip queen, at it again

Don't look at me my memory is as bad as wwx when it comes to names :D

I was about to write who is Lianfang Zum again and then I remembered that it's jiggy's honorary title. See what I mean? ^^

What does it say about me that my heart makes a leap when I simply see wwx leaning close to lwj to whisper to him? 😅 I'll probably die reading the novel, that's what that says

Oh so it was the maid who sent the letter

Come on Wei Wuxian! That was cruel

Yeah Yao what's-his-name, why would you need to know the identity of who ever is behind this? It's not like you've ever been deceived before!

What's... with that bracelet?

I love it how everyone looks positively startled when Lan Wangji says something unprompted :D

Wait ... Zwei Jun is in his hands? Shit, i don't remeber what happened there. Where did Xichen go again? 😬

I'm so confused right now 🙈 I can't watch and read the subtitles and type

Okay, watched the whole conversation again, now I'm following

I reiterate my earlier statement that whoever is pulling the strings here knows exactly what strings to pull to get the clans to act

Great, another mob 🙄

Loooool

NOW you want his help? 😂

Sure, as soon as he can serve YOU with his "evil tricks", that's okay!

You can see how much wwx changed because he does not hold their hypocrisy to their faces. He mostly seemed tired of it

And Jiang Cheng just realised that wwx might indeed not be responsible for Jiang Yanli's death, didn't he? He's almost stunned 🥺

Or is BEAUTIFUL to see Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji move in such unity! 😭

Oh ... those are the graves of his foster parents, right? :(

And Yanli ... oh God I forgot about Yanli 🥺

I'm crying again. Nothing on this show will ever hit as hard to me as the Yunmeng siblings' fate

I couldn't help myself, I legitimately just stroked my laptop screen where Yanli's plate was 🥺

So many conflicting emotions

Thanks to a friendly anon, I know that these three bows together are marriage thing! 😭😭😭

So yeah, they're married now. I dont make the rules :')

Somehow, this feels like them asking wwx's foster family's blessing

And now I'm imagining Shijie smiling back at them gently and I'm crying 🥺

And by God, I love lwj's gentle teasing :')

This whole scene, he's so soft! 😭

And it think that Wei Wuxian probably thought that he'd never get to step into Lotus Pier again. But here, he can finally say his goodbyes to his Shijie properly. He can heal! 🖤

And again, I cannot stress enough how wonderful that is! And how rare and precious in a show like this. So often character's get put through unimaginable trauma, but they either brush it off no problem or the show/movie ends immediately after the main action and you are left to imagine the number it did on the character's psyche. There are so rarely fantasy shows that really dive into the emotional fallout the plot has on their characters and then give them time to heal. Thus show does both and I'm so goddamn overjoyed my it!

Come to think of it, it reminds me of a very good hurt/comfort fic 🤷‍♀️

Jiang Cheng pleae, fir once, try not to be angry immediately when you're hurting :(

He still takes special offence that lwj is there. Makes me wonder if he still feels like wwx chooses lwj over the Jiang sect and is still hurt by it 😔 (note that at the same time, he reminds wwx that he's very much not a member of the Jiang clan anymore. God, the man has not worked through his own feelings ...)

For once, as much as I love it when lwj defends wwx (especially when it's not against any physical harm, but because he doesn't want wwx to be hurt emotionally) I think him interfering with this particular conflict does not help

Okay sorry, but no! lotus pier was not destroyed because wwx saved lwj in that cave. That was just an excuse for the Wen sect. They would have come eventually anyway

Ohhh

So there's my answer

He's still hurt because he feels wwx chooses anyone else over his family, which is to say him

And he probably can't understand because their positions are so different. The (future) sect leader and the son of a (dead) servant and a rogue cultivator who never felt quite like he belonged 😔

It's so goddamn tragic how much between these two was destroyed simply because they have such a different status in society and could never quite understand each other's perspective

And again, wwx just takes it 💔

Until, that is, lwj's honour gets besmirched

Don't fight in front of Shijie 🥺

Jiang Cheng's every action screams that he still loves his brother and that amidst all that pain for his lost family, is also deep betrayal and grieve for the brother he thought he could always count on 🥺💔

Can we appreciate for a second how much this shot tells us? From Jiang Cheng's angry desperation, to Wei Wuxian's quite acceptance of his rage (which must be so confusing to Jiang Cheng and probably hurt him even more. Because fighting is always how these two resolved their issues!) to Lan Wangji who is in full on protective mode (which I find more than heartwarming,but still think probably isn't helpful rn)

He ... what?

I still don't quite understand when exactly wwx's lack of golden core shows. Why does he have a nosebleed here?

What?

Oh!

Wen Ning 😱

I get what he wants to do!

Have we ever seen him this calm and determined before?

Abd they understand 😱😱😱

The look on all of their faces! Shiiiiit

I'm crying again

Oh wangii is crying 🥺

Wen Quing 💔💔💔 I'm crying even harder just looking at her. I've MISSED her 🥺

Lan Zhan your FACE!! 😭

The way he's looking at wwx in his arms, as if he's seeing him fir the first time

And by god, I can only imagine what he must be thinking

He must be reevaluation every single interaction they had since wwx started down the path of demonic cultivation 😭

I'm a bit in awe of Wen Ning here and how much he must have been holding in. That's the steadiest and most confident he's ever been

Oh Jiang cheng 💔

That looks like a man whose entire world has just been shaken to its core

And Lan Wangji is crying so much 🥺

God I hope he doesn't blame himself even more 🥺

Aaaaaaahhhh, so that is why he wouldn't just carry the sword for appearance sake and why he just had a nosebleed!

Jiang Cheng probably needs about a month to process all that :/

And therapy ...

Aaaaaaahhhh! The boat scene! I've seen gifs! 😍😍😍

A penny for Lan Wangji's thoughts ...

Oh I'm so so so so glad that Wen Ning gets to say thank you to the man who raised his ... cousin (?) :')

Oh god we get to see!!!!

Oh little a Yuan 😭😭😭😭😭😭

I wonder now, did Lan Qiren know who the child was that his nephew suddenly brought back to cloud recess?

I'm glad that we all learned from this that keeping secrets from the people we love, especially secrets that concern them personally, will eventually come back to bide us in the ass. Than you for delivering that important lesson, wen Ning!

Which reminds me that I hope they eventually tell wwx that they know 😬

I swear to god, one of these days I will melt from the gentleness in lan Wangji's gaze :')

Shit. He had to be awake? 😳

You can pinpoint the moment Lan Wangji's heart breaks for all the suffering wwx endured and how close he came to loosing him even then 🥺

Waking like that in you lovers arms in the middle of a lotus pond - that's the dream *sighs* (minus the passing out bit)

It's weirdly cute that wwx thinks that it's Jiang Cheng's insults that have lwj so upset 😅

Oh GOOOOD ...

I can't

The moment Yanli's themes started to play and she appeared I started to bawl 😭😭😭

And he's sharing the lotus pods with them ... oh please, lwj, please understand what he's saying. That's his pove language! His sister's food was how he received love and right now he passes it on to you! Please, please understand it! 🥺

Oh lwj, don't 🙈

Awwwwww ....

He's breaking the rules for you!!! Just to make you smile!!! 😭😭

And holy shit look at their expressions 😭

By now you should know that he's willing to break the rules for you :')

And poor third wheel Wen Ning 😂

Now there are glittering butterflies???

Do they have some kind of romantic aesthetic bingo going on in this episode???

Oh okay, messenger butterflies

Please appreciate wwx almost climbing into lan Wangji's lab in excitement :D

Thay scene transition was pretty af!

Hey! Why do they bully wen Ning? 😤

*shakes wwx by the shoulders* DO YOU GET THAT HE LOVES YOU NOW???

Huh, this episode was a roller coaster. you guys did NOT exaggerate! I loved it to pieces. I'm floored once more by all the actor's performances. Wen Ning revealed a lot about his character, Jiang Cheng broke my heart, Lan Wangji made it melt and Shijie is still able to make me bawl in an instant. But ... I'm not left with a bitter feeling. Sure, jiang Cheng and wei Wuxian havebt reconciled, but the truth is the first step to even have that possibility. Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are both healing and whatever happens in the last 4 (4!!!😭) episodes, I'm not dreading it that much right now. I feel like we're climbing upwards :)

@sweetlittlevampire @fandom-glazed @elenirlachlagos @allhailthedramallama @luckymoony @kyrrahbird @i-love-him-on-purpose thank you guys for staying with me for this crazy ride 💙🖤💙

Also one last thing: please don't tell me what happens differently in the novel in any given scene. I am still reading it (about half way through rn) and I'd like to still be surprised by stuff like first kisses and love confessions 💙🖤

I should have put something like this at the end before, but I always forgot. That's on me 😅 so don't feel bad, if you've shared something before :)

[buddha-in-disguise]

Will this ever end?

Well I woke up to a shitstorm on Twitter and the Supergirl fandom, with David Harewood.

I can't say exactly what was said to cause David to post what he did as I haven't seen posts he might have done - but his subsequent reactions have unfortunately merely seemed to have exacerbated the issue and inflamed it.

My thoughts though before I go further into this. Also remember these are my own thoughts, I don't expect everyone to agree with me. However I hope I can make some kind of sense with what I'm trying to write down here.

Supergirl this season has one character I'm finding hard to relate to. This has absolutely nothing to do with potential storylines and relationship possibilty, but everything to do with what they have tried to do with William Dey as a whole.

I get the reason he came along in regards Russell and so the Andrea connection. That story made some sense.

What hasn't made sense - William being used as a journalist, when Nia is right there! Nia has barely had any screen time, and virtually none as a journalist; you know - her actual job. I'm not sure what the minutes on screen ratio has been this season between the two, but it has felt completely slanted towards William as a viewer.

First instead of Kara and Nia investigating Leviathan after William was 'exposed' in the earlier episodes, now Nia is sidelined again, because they want Kara to team up with William to investigate Lex.

Why? Why do they need that journalistic pairing, when Nia - who as a Superhero, is better placed if danger from Lex occurs. But no, they're making it about Kara having to work with William because Lex threatened to kill him.

They have a Superhero who is also a journalist right there!

Right. There.

Personally this simply makes no sense to me. Plus if I am being honest, William as a character is bringing nothing to the table for me. He feels more like a token male character because James has left.

That brings me to Dansen. While we had some scenes before Crisis, considering at SDCC we were being told how Dansen would strengthen after those events, again we have seen seconds worth of screen time of Kelly, let alone the lack of Dansen.

We accept it isn't the Dansen show and this isn't about that, but again it feels as if it is being pushed way into the background & Kelly is being underutilised. She works for Obsidian North, yet was nowhere to be seen at the launch of the new tech. Sure, it isn't her area of expertise within the company, but you would expect senior employees to have been at such an important launch.

Plus, she is ex-military, but again nothing has been utilised about that part of her character.

The problems with both these issues is these characters are LGBTQ rep on the show. Representation that is already severely underrepresented on TV. Even allowing for the LGBTQ rep on SG (which is above average), it is still well below the ratio percentages that GLAAD show as being the main demographic of viewers.

So LGBTQ fans also look at non-canon representation as well. They have to, because LGBTQ on screen numbers simply don't reflect what the viewer numbers are. I made a post about it to try & highlight this, which I will link to.

But needless to say, LGBTQ fans also generally have difficulties that a lot of people don't have to face.

This brings me back to David and his lack of understanding that many fans were (looking through the comments), trying to explain to him. That criticism wasn't aimed at him per se (at least that I saw), or his directing or acting of that episode. If criticism was aimed at him, that was and is wrong.

The main criticism I saw was being aimed about elements that the writers and producers had done (Winn's wife being another aspect that was problematic). It was unfortunate that it has coincided with David's directorial episode.

Look, David can direct an episode wonderfully, it can have some great aspects to it, but it can also be highly problematic to some fans, & receive valid criticism for it.

For example, the latest episode of Batwoman. The Alice/Beth story was great. The acting superb. What I found worrying was the way they made Sophie feel guilty for legitimate reasons why she had led a closeted lifestyle. That lifestyle is valid, for Sophie and many LGBTQ people, and for good reason, including keeping some people safe from harm. I felt it was a clumsy attempt for Alice to get into Sophie's mind; it could've been tackled other ways, so it felt wrong they used her sexuality as a way to achieve that. Being closeted for many literally keeps them alive. So that was one hell of a poor choice in my opinion. So, great episode, valid criticism.

I personally find it sad that David hasn't seemed to understand this. Especially considering he only recently tweeted about the lack of diversity on TV for black actors. His argument there applies to what the LGBTQ audience have been trying to explain so many times, both with Supergirl and beyond that.

Except for LGBTQ it goes further, as not only are there LGBTQ, there is further intersectionality that runs through us as a group.

So for example, Kelly is LGBTQ, but Black. She is also a woman. All areas that struggle in their own sphere and marginalised in their own right. Added together, and it makes her representation even more important.

Nia Nal is Transgender. And a woman. Also two areas of intersectionality. If we don't listen to all marginalised people, especially when that intersectionality comes into play, we fail.

David is Black.

But also heterosexual, and male, and honestly, seeing his reaction I felt the heterosexual male with no understanding what the LGBTQ audience was trying to explain come through far more than I imagined I would.

Now of course, it could be David had no intention of coming across in that way. Yet the way he liked certain posts also felt as a complete dismissal of the LGBTQ community as a whole. It felt like the reactions from SDCC 2017 all over again.

Without a doubt some fans were taking it too far. I get that. I don't know how often I have written about fandoms and the way some can behave. However, if David is putting everyone in a fandom as all being problematic (as his liking of Tweets seem to suggest), then that is a very poor take indeed by him, and one I hope he considers.

By taking those steps, he has angered some fans more than was necessary in my view. Like Staz the other day, I know we are all human and sometimes react emotionally. Unlike Staz, who tried to clarify his words and apologised for any upset he might've caused, David seems to have gone the other way and doubled down against fans, blocking even respectful tweets to him that were trying to explain a point of view.

Now before anyone thinks I am hating on David, I'm not. I have supported much of his work.

I am though disappointed that for someone who is marginalised himself, has had mental health struggles, he has seemingly failed to understand that LGBTQ are just as marginalised (if not more so) than he is, & that because of the issues LGBTQ people face, mental health problems are extremely high versus the general population. That some of his wording and liking of tweets have felt like a complete slap in the face for many, who have legitimate concerns about Supergirl at the moment.

As I say, I get some fans take it too far, in all areas of the Supergirl fandom. Outright hate towards anyone is absolutely unacceptable. I also understand that we all react at times that is instinctual because we feel hurt, and that reaction is not as good as it could be.

I just hope that rather than it implode more on us, that everyone takes a step back to try and calm down.

As for the issues of queerbaiting that has risen as a result of the teaser for the next episode of SG. Supergirl in earlier episodes of the season, used parallels to show Lena and Kara alongside canon relationships on the show. To then have other people call fans delusional for seeing those scenes as romantically formulated is not okay! It really isn't. That's hateful, because like it or not, those elements are there.

When I have people who don't watch the show asking if Lena and Kara are together because of clips they might see (straight people at that), that isn't delusional.

But, that isn't an issue the cast should address or make judgement on, or fans to insist they do.

It should though be something asked of the producers and showrunners, because if they have no plans to go through with it - it has been outright queerbaiting this season. Up until this year, they've not done things with notable intent to parallel other relationships. This season they have. The shift felt deliberate.

I know ultimately that this show is about Supergirl, but it is also about those around her as family & friends. I understand there are only so many minutes in one episode. What I don't understand is why those precious minutes are going to a character, when they have one perfectly placed to do the same role. Why they have to potentially explore another relationship, when we have one canon relationship & one relationship that while isn't canon in terms of romantic, it is a big story in terms of best friends, both seemingly sidelined. Which brings me to the Kara fighting for Lena's soul aspect. Again, I am not seeing a lot of fighting for anything, except more and more fans fighting themselves and cast.

I will be honest, I had high hopes for this season. I also knew it was likely going to be pretty confusing at times since it was given as 'our Black mirror season' and 'nothing is as it seems.' I accepted that.

However, all it seems at the moment is a jumbled mess from pre and post Crisis. They just doesn't appear to be any cohesion at all, which is making it really difficult as a viewer. Add in the changes post Crisis and it feels even more of a mess.

Of course, they could bring in more cohesive elements soon, but considering that we know episode 13 is 'It's a wonderful life,' and Alex Danvers in a later episode is wearing a Super suit - I just sense this whole 'nothing is as it seems' side we appear to be getting isn't changing any time soon, & with episodes running out, with so many strings running through at the moment, it feels really discombomulated. If by seasons end, they pull it off and you can look back and see how it's played out as a whole, I will be the first to say well done for that part.

I get that as more characters are added to a show, it can make shuffling screen time for those already established characters harder to achieve that will please everyone, especially when we get invested in those characters.

I do though think right now Supergirl feels chaotic beyond expectation, and no end in sight. I feel there have been too many character additions this season (particularly Andrea & William) that is taking screen time away from Kara, Alex, Nia, Lena, Kelly et al.

That is causing confusion for fans, that is also beginning to become frustration. That frustration is spilling over. Add in the genuine and legitimate concerns over the LGBTQ issues that have arisen, and the frustration has built even more.

Again though, that is something we need to be asking of the producers and show runners, and not pulling the cast into it.

Let's all try less to score points against each other, or make generalisations, as none of that is helpful.

If you can't do that, you will get other fans calling you out.

Let's all learn to step away a bit more when it is obviously getting to the point rational discussion isn't working, to let things calm down.

We all need to try and do better.

[omegangrins]

A Treatise On the Doctor

I don't know how to start this. Because I think of Peter Capaldi's words when he said that the only thing required to be a Doctor Who fan, is kindness.

I like 13 and think Chibnall is doing his best job writing the show.

So I struggle to write this because I am engaging against that very unkindness in the Doctor Who fandom, and trying very hard not to be angry back. "Allways try to be nice but never fail to be kind." But I've begun to wonder more and more if those who speak so loudly against the show really know what the show itself is about.

Enough of talking about other people though, cause frankly they're only important as set-up for this conversation. And again, I'm working kind.

So here's what you're gonna learn from this lifelong fan (and the best Tl;dr you're gonna get):

1. The Doctor sucks. From the very beginning. People complain about character traits now that have been around as long as the show.

2. Due to the Doctor's suckage, they tend to do more harm than good. (And because of this, most of the Doctor's "friends" along the way have been, well, let's leave it at the air quotes for now cause it's a damn big list of "BOOOO!!!".)

3. All of the showrunners and writers and actors and editors and everyone else has allways knows this and has played it this way.

4. And last but not least, since this is a time travel show. If you wanna know what and why stuff is happening now, look it up. Everything that happened before is allways in play.

5. None of this is bad, and in fact, it makes the show morally grayer. It's about kindness at all costs. Even your own.

A. First things first, the hard thing. The Doctor is not grrrreat. I mean, sure they try, but they fail a lot more often. In Extremis, a majority of those fatality index counts come from people the Doctor failed to save. That's why it's worded so specifically as "cause of death". All the death's caused by the Doctor's very interaction with time and lack of saving those around them. And part of it's not their fault, but more often than not, the Doctor says I can save you, and can't, won't, or chooses not to.

And that would be alright, but it took them over 1000 years to realize they should start letting their companions lead lives outside of theirs so THEY DON'T DIE. A bit too long as someone who claims to be better.

Not to mention how many times the Doctor is dismissive of their companions and the people around them only to use them for their help and just bug off again. If they truly cared and wanted to help, they would stay and listen in between adventures. Their lifespan is near infinite anyway. What's a few extra Earth hours with some friends you made along the way. You know, maybe fix some of the psychological and emotional damage created by encountering things behind a human's original scope of reasoning. But nope, we gotta go adventure more, byyyyeee!!

So when people talk about these qualities in 13 in a negative aspect I have to laugh because I'm not sure if they understand the joke. Cause we're talking about an alien that grew up around a species calling themselves Time Lords. I try not to blame them too much for it. 1 had to learn how to be hospitable to humans and it's been a bit of a slow learning curve ever since.

B. After the Doctor survived the horrors of the Time War and happened upon a human companion they felt worth connecting to, what did they do? They took Rose to watch her planet burn in front of her eyes. Great, first date, amirite?

And that's a little bit of companion damage. Do you know that the Doctor is responsible for the almost complete genocide of the Silurian race across multiple occasions. I am legitimately surprised there are any left after all of the ones the Doctor has killed. Like before, they cause destruction either purposefully or accidentally or simply by force of being there.

Remember before how I said that the Doctor just flies away. Yeah, they leave a lot of problems behind when they do (something that I can see Chibnall is planting the seeds of). If you had a time and space machine and practically unlimited capabilities and you choose to just leave after a situation and not check up on them from time to or see if there are any other underlying crises to be solved. But oh no, "gotta follow that rule of time and keep going even though I stopped in the first place because of how interested I was.". This is why 9 has a great arc about this. He thought he killed all the Daleks. They came back. He thought he'd gotten rid of the Slitheen. They came back. He thought he saved Satellite 5 from aliens. But opsies, they came back. And look! They're Daleks. Which he "finally" got rid of.

The Doctor just bounces around all carefree and without an ounce of care for themselves, their companions or consequences unless there's consequences for themselves or their companions. Then they get indignant.

Is that really kind of the person you want flying around fixing things in time and space? Who knows. But at least they are trying. Most of the time the T.A.R.D.I.S. lands somewhere and the authority figures are the most pretentious bull-headed pigs you can find. To me, I laugh cause it seems like both sides end up getting a taste of their own medicine. Usually with the bull charging to death in a sad glory while the Doctor wiles on metaphorically about not being as good as them.

But again, as a "superior" alien with "advanced" technology and "culture" you'd think they'd just know better already. But that's all part of the character. The Doctor may be in flux, but true change is difficult. The real hero of every story is the other people BESIDES the Doctor.

Cause the title is Doctor *Who* . The Who being half of the title, despite having less letters. It's the constant question of "What and why and who is that crazy person that's trying to help?" Why do you think they keep flying back to Earth? (Besides set construction reasons.) They've grown as attached to us as we have to them. And at this point, a lot of their saving us is guilt and embarrassment at having a hand in our timeline.

This is also the same reason the Doctor dumps companions in a fluff. Baggage. Every time a companion gets too heavy to carry the memories of... off they fly.

Except for 13. She's stayed. To this end, we can see how the Doctor changes. Not on our smaller, human timelines, but on the timeline of a god with way too much power.

D. With that in mind, we go Classic. It's the Who you need to consult if you wish to make any critique on what's happening now. Because how can you know how a part operates inside of a whole without seeing the whole part?

Cause I don't know if you've watched it but it can be rough, and I don't mean in the sense of production value (which admittedly they do a fairly decent job of using what money they had. A problem the BBC plagues to Doctor Who to this day.). The 3rd Doctor shits on every one they call friends constantly and then turns around expecting help. 4 did the same. Then 5 masked that contempt with a plucky face and a cheeky word. But it was still there, bubbling out of 6 and 7 as the inability to suffer fools gladly and using their own righteousness to enact change in their companions. A trait that kept going til an entire war and regeneration was used solving the question of "Doctor Who?" Only for them to try and forget twice more by putting on their pretty grinning faces and running away from it.

And I'm only talking from a companion perspective. Each of the Doctors has enacted their own form of genocide on countless species. Sure, it's to "save humans" but at the end of the day you'd have to ask yourself if we're really worth that blood. And this is all in the Doctor's history. As much as they claim better, they're hands are still gushing red.

The Doctor left Jo because she fell in love. They drove Adric to put their life on the line in order to feel adequate. The entirety of the Silurian race has been wiped out fivefold under their watch, with one time by their hand itself. Same for several other singular and unique species you won't be able to find elsewhere in the universe. 7 used time travel to enact a personality change in Ace while simultaneously using her as a pawn in an interdimensional war. The Time War itself. Sure it got erased but the Doctor still did those things ("War" Doctor or whatever nonsense titles they feel necessary to delude themselves). The entirety of Amy's childhood was destroyed by their presence, and Rory got erased. Twice! Sarah Kingdom. We know the list. Hell, the Doctor whisked Barbara and Ian away because they wanted to teach the snobby humans some lessons.

They may have a time machine, but we have the bill of their actions. This is where 13 excels. Because they're trying to be better than themselves. They've learnt the lessons of all those years traveling and the failures they wish they could reverse but don't as a way of keeping a scoreboard of pain. It's not perfect by any means, but look at 12 needing cue cards to understand and react to human grief under duress. They've come a helluva long way. After 50 years, I'm inclined to believe better. After all, it's what the Doctor would want.

E. You know how people like the ASOIAF series because it offers up morally complex characters existing in a morally complex world where black and white are harder to define than grey? Have you ever thought of Doctor Who as the same? Strip past the fairytale and adventure and "wibbly wobbly timey wimeyness and it's just people reacting to situations. We're just harder on the Doctor because they're hard on us. You could go round and round on who's the bigger killer, but at the end of the day Time Lords and humans fight and feel about the same things. It's allways been a joke to pretend otherwise.

That's why I love the Timeless Child. Not for making the Doctor anymore special but for saying that even despite having all of their specialness ripped away and repurposed to create a lie of a society then having the memory wiped of said event, the Doctor broke out of their mold, stole a TARDIS and told the Time Lords to fuck off. That's not a Captain America/Superman hero. That's Batman in space with a society of Lex Luthor's. Gotham and Gallifrey. The Doctor saw what they were a part of and broke free, without even knowing the more horrifying truth. Cause it's the thing I see many fans missing because they're so preocuppied with the Doctor being special. The thing that made the Doctor different was their ability to know the difference and walk away to find better. Now, the Doctor has a reason to go back and find out why they never stopped running.

The Time Lords might be the greatest monsters in the universe. It is in the name. "Lords". Those who would lord over us and impose their will with a banthium fist.

And this is a children's show.

C the thing is, the people who made and make this show all collectively rail against one thing: Hate. Kindness is the way of Doctor's. Even if they're sawing off your leg, it's to do the kindness of saving your life. This is because the people who make this (United Kingdomers) have seen centuries of war and conflict and oppression enacted by their own country in the name of progress. And they want to see it no more. Look no further than any of the Doctor's adventures with UNIT. Allways advocating for peace and being ignored for the comfortable war-cry. It's why it's hard to blame the Doctor when we do very similar and often worse (though we don't have time travel.... yet). The creators of this show know better, see better, and wrote better, to know that the powers that be nipped would nip their creations and sanitize them. So they wrote their messages so strong that you can feel them from the future. They're powerfull enough that even across eras they have all collectively moved me to write this.

That's another point I have to laugh at people saying Doctor Who has never been in your face about progressive politics. The Green Death. Survival. Trial of a Timelord (Yes, all of it. Sit down and power through.) The Happiness Patrol is one of my all time favorite episodes for going there in this regard. People may poo poo but history has its' eyes on you. Doctor Who loves taking potshots at the issues of the day. As long as you don't make the aliens black of course. Make them all the colors of the rainbow but never make them black. That'd be too on the nose (That's something they used to say back in the day! Crazy how far we've come).

So bravoa to Chibnall for continuing the legacy of Doctor Who. From where I'm standing, he's not doing anything different than any other showrunner before him. Cause if you want to argue canon, you at least have to know what created it. This show owes what it is to those Classic eras. And if you think Chibnall is shitting on those years and your childhood.... well, then why did you read this whole thing?

[itsclydebitches]

Hey just wanted to say thank you for your Bakugo posts, they're so well written and do such a good job articulating the issues with the character. Also props for always staying polite despite the "why don't you like Kacchan what can Kacchan do to make you like him please like Kacchan" badgering, I don't know how you do it in fact the author and the stans wanting me to like Bakugo so badly made me hate him even more lmao.

I'm so glad you've enjoyed them, anon! 💜 I do try — even if I'm not always successful — to read messages through a good faith lens, just because I know a lot of people are legitimately curious/it can be really hard to ask such questions over text without it sounding like some kind of badgering. So everyone is deemed polite until it's definitely proven otherwise lol.

But yeah, Bakugo is a fascinating case for me because although there are plenty of popular characters that produce a, "How can you not like them??" reaction, Bakugo... is not in that category for me. Even removing the complicated subject of his redemption, he has a long, overt, and canonical list of actions that can make him very unlikable. Saying that Bakugo is a hard guy to like isn't exactly a stretch imo. Which isn't to say those characteristics and choices mean others can't like him, just that it's rather obvious to me why many fans wouldn't. He's the sort of character that should produce a, "Oh yeah. He's a hard character to like. I can see why he's not a fave of yours" reaction as the standard, not the disbelief and anger that I often see instead. If anything, the burden of proof, so to speak (which shouldn't exist for anyone, but it does anyway) should lie with his fans. It makes more sense for them to explain why they enjoy/have connected with him and then good, that's great, we're done, I'm glad you like him! Rather than insisting that "antis" explain why they don't like the... arrogant, violent bully who enjoys threatening the protagonist of this story and who took over 300 chapters to apologize? "Anti" gets quotation marks partly because I don't like the negative associations of that term (or its opposite: "simp"), but also because it begs the question, "Anti what?" Just anti-Bakugo? Because if so, then the criticism is that I dislike a character who was largely designed with traits meant to be dislikable. I'm responding to the character precisely how I'm meant to, based on how he's written. But since that's not accepted, "anti" comes to mean a whole slew of other things: anti-redemption arcs, anti-letting teenagers make mistakes, anti-nuance, anti-complex characterization, anti-forgiveness, etc. And it's like no, I'm not anti-any of that. I just dislike a character who was written to be dislikable, combined with a whole slew of other writing problems that compounded that. The problem is not my dislike, but others' unwillingness to take that dislike at face value. There's a strong belief in the fandom that anyone can't just not like Bakugo because Bakugo is amazing! So therefore they must not understand him, or they need something specific to happen, or they're just being a killjoy for the hell of it. For many, disliking a dislikable character will never be an explanation in and of itself. So they try to find the "real" reason why you haven't started praising him yet, either by persuading you of how great Bakugo actually is, or shutting down your clearly inaccurate readings. And yeah, that can get pretty frustrating.

You know the Marge Simpson meme? The "I just think he's neat!" meme? That's how Bakugo should have been received. The fans all acknowledging that he's got a ton of dislikable traits, but those who adore him going, "Lol yeah but I love my murder son anyway." Instead, we've gotten a very serious disbelief that anyone could not like him, resulting in genuine questioning at best, outright harassment at worse. Which is a situation by no means unique to Bakugo, but BNHA has a large enough and vocal enough fandom that this inability to accept that others don't like your fave can feel pretty intense.

[canichangemyblogname]

Curious anon ask: What's your favorite part of having a blog om Tumblr?

xoxo xoxo - 🍩

I definitely enjoy being able to indulge my nerdiness in a healthy way and interact with others on these topics, also in a healthy way.

I really enjoy being able to dive into characters and scenes, to discuss writing and analyze media, and to be critical of content. I really enjoy thinking and writing and researching. It has been so nice to get to share that with people. Bottling all those thoughts up in my mess of a scramble-y ADHD brain sometimes makes me feel like I'm gonna combust, which is also--technically--just a symptom of my ADHD (impulsivity, anyone?).

I just really enjoy sharing my thoughts with people who also enjoy these topics! It's not something I get to do in my every-day life as none of my friends like StarWars (and some have never even watched it). So this has been a pretty good outlet for managing my ADHD-based special interest.

I also enjoy interacting with real people. Most of the people I follow or interact with are, well, very real. They have real lives and real problems. Star Wars is just something they enjoy and their blogs are a happy hobby (or, so they wish it to be when they aren't getting anon hate, y'know?).

I like the relaxed and light interaction with "fandom" spaces rather than something legitimately obsessive.

As I came from TikTok where there were literally people obsessed and; like, stalking actors and I couldn't control whether I saw it and could only report it, it's refreshing to see people who aren't consumed by something they enjoy.

(I'm sure such stuff exists on here, it is the internet after all, but I can better control my dash than the TikTok FYP. And a lot of the problematic creators on here blocked me within weeks of me being on here [I guess they didn't like my TBB content].)

There's also still this understanding that we're all very much still strangers to each other, which is a great boundary to keep in mind. The boundary between real life and the blog is constant, and it's reinforced with these ideas of privacy. People I follow actually seem concerned about protecting things like a real name or locations and even personal details.

That, again, was not a boundary people on TikTok acknowledged or respected. And as a result, a lot of people became waaay too comfortable with creators. That maybe burned the follower, but I mostly found that it violated the boundaries of the creators I was following.

Now, I know that part of this likely has to do with my whiteness. I know that the black, brown, and indigenous creators I follow aren't extended the privilege of comfort in "fandom" spaces. They're being harassed by people constantly. Other people in the community don't respect their boundaries like they'll respect mine. So I know I cannot divorce my experience thus far from my whiteness.

Which leads to the last thing I enjoy: making a space that's inclusive. I endeavor to extend to others the same welcome I was extended and respect their boundaries as mine have been.