#literally texting them right now

[mania-sama]

for the ask game!

☁️ ⇢ what made you choose your username?

🍬 ⇢ post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character

and

🍄 ⇢ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings

!!! so nice to see you on my tl again :) <3

SO UNIRONICALLY I SENT IN YOUR ASK AFTER I FINISHED RESPONDING TO MINE (it's been a long day; i meant to ask you earlier but. long day) AND SEEING YOUR ASK IN MY BOX IMMEDIATELY GAVE ME A HEART ATTACK

Anyway. I need to sleep because I'm rising early tomorrow but you know what fuck later me, this is better.

➼ what made you choose your username?

God. The username mania-sama is such a relic. I've had this username for so long I don't even know who I would be without it honestly.

The story behind it is kind of simple. Me and my friends (who I met on Wattpad, of all places) were cooking up some Instagram usernames for me, since I was the last to join. Well, they all had a mental disorder followed by a Japanese honorific as their usernames. Why? We were thirteen and stupid (I was also not a very Internet-safe child then, so. There's that). So obviously I decided I wanted to join in and ALSO have a mental disorder followed by a Japanese honorific. I will not be naming them because they are significantly more problematic than mine so we should probably keep it in the vault.

And well. After sifting through various mental illnesses I thought, you know, mania rolls off the tongue. Then we went through the honorifics that haven't been taken, and -sama was the "coolest" (still is pretty cool, but that is biased I suppose). Thus, Instagram user mania.sama was born. And she somehow stuck around.

My Instagram is... a relic in and of itself. The furthest back anything goes is 2021, mainly because it's been revamped like 3 times before you see what it is today. It was, in fact, originally a Bakugou stan and art account but we don't talk about that. I have obviously done a lot of growing since then, and even though I was cringe or whatever, I am still hesitant to do another revamp on it. I'm pretty sentimental. I'm not on Instagram like at all anymore for no particular reason, so my last Instagram story dates back probably around April??? 2024, maybe. I wouldn't recommend going through it just because it is. Well. Not really representative of who I am now, but if you want a window into younger me, then... It's there I suppose!

(I would also like to put it out there that I am much more well informed on mental illnesses and Japanese honorifics than I was when I created the username... just in case it was in doubt.)

➼ post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character

I'm gonna be honest, most of my opinions I think align with the popular ones. Most people have it going pretty well for characterization honestly. My most unpopular stuff comes from Andrew Minyard from All For The Game, but I already made a post about that, so I'll pick someone else.

Hunk Garrett from Voltron: Legendary Defender. And the only reason I say that this opinion is unpopular is because I simply disagree on the consensus of his character treatment in the fandom.

So a lot of people in the VLD fandom claim two things: 1. Hunk was treated poorly by the VLD show (correct). 2. Hunk is treated poorly by the fandom (not as correct). Obviously I hate VLD and it's pisspoor attempt at giving Hunk an arc, because they DIDN'T. They did give him so many good things, like a girlfriend and a genuinely good personality, and he has a really good moment with Keith at the end but I'm hesitant to compliment the show on that scene just because Keith is the one giving the speech about how brave Hunk is. Really good speech though, and an accurate reflection of Hunk's character. But they still didn't give him an actual arc. They just. Made the fat one a chef that is nervous, gives good hugs, is the armor of Voltron, and loves to eat. Yes. Fuck Voltron.

But here's the thing: VLD fucked every character up except for Pidge, and Keith, kind of, in a way. So Hunk is only special in the regard that they literally did not even attempt to give him a conclusive arc, and instead pretended they gave him one by letting their poster child (Keith) give a speech.

The fandom, for all its misgivings, was very receptive to how objectively terrible VLD was to its characters. Yes they focused on Lance, Keith, and Shiro the most, but that's to be expected because the show focused on them the most and gave them the most life.

So the fandom "consensus" seems to be that Hunk is treated just as bad in the fan space as he was in the show, but I have to disagree. I see posts with him all the time, with amazing fanart and his characterization in fanfiction is always phenomenal and given much more life than the show ever did. The other major claim is that he is not given a lot of space in fanfiction, and to that I argue that you just aren't looking for his fics. I've read plenty of Hunk-centric fics. You just ain't looking.

Yeah most of the fics are Klance. Yeah, Klance fics are gonna focus on. Yknow. Keith and Lance. Like ship fics tend to do. But even then, Hunk is almost always there in a meaningful way. He was a significant part of Lance's life and a huge part of team Voltron; the Klance fanfic authors can recognize that. The show could not.

And more on that: the most recent Voltron fic I read spent so much time on how Hunk is the kindest person on the team, and in the fic, he does something that none of the other characters can do because he is just That Guy. He's just better. And that chapter is genuinely my favorite because the author puts such a deep and heart-wrenching analysis on grief in there. Good on them.

Anyway. Hunk is cool. He deserved so much better than what the show gave him.

➼ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings

Shin Soukoku have a cat. They don't realize they have a cat. At least, not at first. They are both respectively feeding the cat, grooming, letting it roam in their personal spaces, and so and so forth, not knowing that the other is ALSO doing the same thing. After a while of this, Akutagawa finally collars it (he did it in a moment of vulnerability. He never allows himself to openly vulnerable, but I like to think it comes out in these subtle ways), and Atsushi sees it when the cat comes back to him. He's a little shocked, but then he decides to send a flower onto the collar to thank the owner for finally putting a measure of safety onto the poor kitty.

Then, well, Akutagawa sends something back. And so and so forth until Atsushi follows the cat, one day, because he thought the cat was beckoning him to go somewhere (in the way cats do, only to typically lead you nowhere). Then he ends up at Akutagawa's front door, deep in enemy territory. Akutagawa opens the door to feed the cat (who starts scratching at the door) and lo and behold, a TIGER!

cue:

(Atsushi: So.... what did you name it?

Akutagawa: Cat.

Atsushi: Um.

Akutagawa: What do you suppose I should call the feline creature?

Atsushi: ...Muffinwhiskers.)

[squid-com]

[imjustavenuxwithaboomerang]

their dynamic to a t

[millenianthemums]

parents of disabled kids will be like “we know our kid is disabled but we just won’t tell them about it. we don’t want them to think they’re less valuable than other kids. we don’t want them to feel limited by their disability, we want them to know they’re capable of anything.”

meanwhile those kids are growing up thinking “why is everything so much harder for me than it is for everyone else? there’s no reason i shouldn’t be able to just do this. i guess i’m just a failed, broken person.”

[ghostsofharrenhal]

my little frobin heart be thumpin'

[bennetsbonnet]

Another day, another major media outlet feeding into the general public's misunderstanding of Mr Darcy's character. Today it's this beaut from Sky News:

*Deep sigh* ... I'm tired.

To start with, the question posed beneath the headline is ridiculous. The short answer to wondering whether younger readers would only pick up Pride and Prejudice if it had a 'sexier rewrite' is no. The long answer is HELL NO. The longest answer, I do not currently possess the energy to construct... but, in short: so much of the enduring, cross-generation appeal of the story is the repressed emotions and those consequent moments when characters are pushed to their limits and forced to express them. The novel is not inherently lacking because Jane Austen couldn't write about such a subject; even if she could, sex really isn't a chief concern of the story, nor what makes it appealing.

Pride and Prejudice is a comedy of manners.

It is not a romance. There are romantic elements, yes, but above all, it is a deeply funny book packed with far more witty than romantic dialogue.

Anyway, back to the article. The headline is a quote taken from an interview with an author who, I assume, shoved Jane Austen into their title in order to shift a few more copies:

Nichi Hodgson - whose book The Curious History Of Dating: From Jane Austen To Tinder compares Regency romance to now - understands how the "rituals of the era" can sometimes be "a stumbling block for people that want to read the stories". "But if you do read the books it really is about the emotions and characters," she insists. "Mr Darcy… at the beginning, he's kind of a bad lad. The key tenants of the connection… wanting to kiss all night, you know, that's still appealing to people."

Bad lad. BAD LAD?! Clunky phrasing aside, who on earth are you describing?! because it certainly isn't Mr Darcy...

Mr Darcy is not 'bad,' not even at the beginning. He is rude, proud and arrogant; yes, he is thought of as the 'proudest, most disagreeable man in the world,' by those gathered at the Meryton assembly, but that is a biased description of him (which he absolutely deserves) based on the opinion of the people he has just met and immediately offended.

But he is not bad. Jane Austen would never have made such a man one of her heroes. Such men exist in her novels, of course, with Wickham as the example in Pride and Prejudice... but he is depicted as being unworthy of our heroine (and instead ends up with her most ill-mannered sister under far from proper circumstances).

In fact, a large part of Mr Darcy's appeal is that he is everything Wickham is not. He never alters in fundamentals, he is shown to have always been a thoroughly decent man, just one who—thanks to his pride—never gave a good account of himself and consequently prejudiced people against him.

How do we know that our hero is good and this kindness is what makes our heroine fall for him?

Well, perhaps the greatest turning point in Elizabeth's sentiment stowards Mr Darcy—aside from his letter—is when she hears the housekeeper's testimony of him at Pemberley in Chapter 43:

[Mrs Reynolds] dwelt with energy on [Mr Darcy's] many merits as they proceeded together up the great staircase. 'He is the best landlord, and the best master,' said she, 'that ever lived; not like the wild young men nowadays, who think of nothing but themselves. There is not one of his tenants or servants but will give him a good name. Some people call him proud; but I am sure I never saw anything of it. To my fancy, it is only because he does not rattle away like other young men.' 'In what an amiable light does this place him!' thought Elizabeth.

And, upon seeing the portrait of Mr Darcy, Mrs Reynolds's words allow Elizabeth to finally view Mr Darcy in an objective manner and she realises that she has been too hasty in judging him so harshly:

The commendation bestowed on him by Mrs. Reynolds was of no trifling nature. What praise is more valuable than the praise of an intelligent servant? As a brother, a landlord, a master, she considered how many people’s happiness were in his guardianship!—how much of pleasure or pain was it in his power to bestow!—how much of good or evil must be done by him! Every idea that had been brought forward by the housekeeper was favourable to his character, and as she stood before the canvas on which he was represented, and fixed his eyes upon herself, she thought of his regard with a deeper sentiment of gratitude than it had ever raised before; she remembered its warmth, and softened its impropriety of expression.

What a brute!! Doesn't Mr Darcy just sound like the worst man on earth?! But I guess Elizabeth liked a bad boy after all... that's why she was so repulsed by Wickham! He was clearly the morally superior character...🙄

Suffice to say, I will not be checking out that book. All this article really did—apart from irritate me immensely on a Sunday morning—was show me that there might be an interpretation of Mr Darcy that I loathe even more than 'he was just shy/anxious🥺!!'

I'll end with this quote from Elizabeth describing, to her father, the 'bad lad' she has fallen for:

'I do, I do like him,' she replied, with tears in her eyes, 'I love him. Indeed he has no improper pride. He is perfectly amiable. You do not know what he really is; then pray do not pain me by speaking of him in such terms.'

[sn0wbat]

well what family doesn't keep a secret vampire family member hidden deep in in the basement /s

EDIT: Rest of the comic is now under the cut!

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BONUS:

[poepill]

happy belated valentines day quodo upon thee! originally posted on ao3 for the quodo minifest, this was my valentines for @chacusha, who organized the event! i had a ton of fun drawing them and im definitely looking forward to next year <333

+ bonus art based on the comic by Kate Beaton, Javert is in Slash Fiction:

[vonclosen]

vent. sorry i’m honesty hangry and upset

actually i’m still annoyed. has anyone in this damn fandom heard of filtering tags. for shit. they don’t like

also like not to be ‘what about’ but seriously if your biggest problems are fucking shipping wars on tumblr dot com i envy you. truly.

[tankgotstuckinthecircusgate]

anna & carlo post xaviero's murder

[murdleandmarot]

The gang’s all here!! They’re on the case!! And there’s no ghost that they wouldn’t chase!!!!!

@mysticalcats’s Foxglove, @toki-toro’s Chaumet, @emimii’s Clownaire, and my own Bluebelle :)

[danjlayton]

JACK & DEAN: ghosts aren't red

[eeblouissant]

a dorothy timeline (some canon, mostly my hcs oops) because I am so sane about this character

[hooned]

i can’t believe i took these photos oh my god i luckily had a great view of the entire concert and wow, again, had thee absolute time of my life. ❤️‍🩹 enhypen, you will always be loved by me.

[bat-the-misfit]

sei não