#more like arthurian fanon

[fluffypotatey]

the squires of the round table: headcanons

in case you haven't heard, there's some new feral children in camelot and they are my babies and i have thoughts

so, what better way to begin my descent into madness rambling about my little squires is by sharing little characteristics these squires have.

Lucan is the self-proclaimed level headed friend of the SotRT but this is Sir Leon squire propaganda. He is, in fact, one of the top 5 unhinged squires (guess who's #1) and this is solely because he loses his shit at the most mundane of things such as Sir Leon calling Gareth "the most proficient with crossbows"

Gareth: "just admit you're jealous and move on" Lucan: "HISS!!!!"

Roland will commit war crimes. She hasn't yet because Merlin won't allow her to, but once knighted, it's all over for camelot's enemies.

Dagonet is the only one who can be on par with Nathan during duels and it pisses Nathan off to no end. Like how dare this squire walk in here, swipe his blade out of his hands in seconds and get praised by Elyan???? This means war

Feirefiz is here for the drama, he will stir the pot that is a promise and a threat. Do not take him lightly. Every story he tells the squires of his homeland? Absolutely true, but he only gives vague info out of context and they all find it very hard to believe him

Bedivere, aka Beddy, aka Baby, does not understand how to wash dishes. In fact, he hates it. It's the worst chore Sir Percy ever placed on their chore schedule, and if possible, he would fight it with his sword. Roland finds his complaints hilarious because god does he sound like a privileged noble, but his face is all scrunched up and he looks too cute.

[avelera]

So this is a bit random but:

Dream as the hero in a Greek tragedy and Hob as an Arthurian knight.

Thoughts?

(You obviously don’t have to answer if this is stupid or you don't want to)

If I may riff a bit on this, since I don't exactly have a pre-made answer (it's not a line of inquiry I've really considered), I'd say this:

Dream is absolutely a Greek tragedy protagonist. He thinks of himself that way, he's written that way. A major, indeed central, characteristic of Greek tragic heroes is that their virtues in some situations become their ultimate downfall. No one is dying in a Greek tragedy because they're inherently bad or failed people. It is the essence of that Picard line, "It's possible to do everything right and still lose. That's not failure, that's life."

Dream's dedication to his duty is an incredibly familiar virtue for a Greek tragic figure. It is also the virtue that will lead to his eventual end (in this incarnation). At least, in the comic. We'll see in the show if that's the case, and I have my suspicions based on the story's structure that we'll be seeing some deviation or, at the very least, a more optimistic spin on Dream's end.

Neil certainly wrote Dream to be a figure from a Greek Tragedy too, ironic considering he's also the "deus ex machina" in other situations, being literally a creature of godlike (or superior) power.

As for Hob as an Arthurian figure.... I'm less convinced. And I have a lot of reasons why because I think a lot about Hob's relationship, or lack thereof, with the tropes of knighthood as explored in both canon and fanon.

Let me quickly say that for fanon, sure, absolutely. I've seen incredible, complex, lovely takes on Hob as a Questing Knight or suffering the throes of textbook courtly love (more on that in a second, because I do find that part at least plausible) or otherwise being a gallant and heroic figure.

However, this is fanon. Canon Hob is certainly made more romantic, and I mean much more romantic by the show with the whole missed 1989 meeting and Ferdie's inherent and overwhelming charm. But comic Hob is... hmm, let's say he also has his charm but he's deliberately quite rough, quite crass, more than a bit dim at times, and the furthest thing from protagonist let alone romantic hero material. I think comic Hob would laugh, perhaps a bit wistfully, at the very idea of being an Arthurian figure. Certainly the Hob of "Sunday Mournings" (the Ren Faire comic issue) would be outright derisive of the notion of himself as a romantic figure or a questing knight.

Hob bought his knighthood. I think it's something that bears remembering: he bought it.

(Let me very briefly aside say, as a grubby Yankee myself, I actually find his audacity and sort of "Ha! I got away with it!" humor in that moment incredibly charming. Fuck yeah, stick it to the nobility! Fuck aristocracy, fuck nobility, and fuck aristocratic mythology like Arthuriana that reinforces those power structures. Good for Hob being a peasant who bought his knighthood, something that would be all but unthinkable in the grand sweep of Arthuriana, which for all its romanticism is still pretty definitive about everyone belonging in their social place.)

Anyway, Hob bought his knighthood with money he made getting into early English shipping and with money made from being on the right side of Henry VIII dissolving the monasteries (which were corrupt but were also one of the only forms of social services available to common people at the time, it's an incredibly complex issue) and Hob is as unbothered by the moral quandaries of this as he was the moral quandaries of being a soldier or a bandit. Hob is the furthest thing from being a Galahad. I'm not sure he could even aspire to Lancelot at his lowest on Hob's very best of days. He's just not built like that that we see.

At least, until 1989.

Now, as I've noted elsewhere, Hob's story is fundamentally altered by this ever so minor change in the show of making him still in England in 2022, still presumably waiting for Dream about a block away from the White Horse! Now, this is some courtly love shit right there! My jaw dropped when I began to map out the implications, not just of his waiting but of his becoming a history teacher.

Comic Hob never became a history teacher. Comic Hob seems all but allergic to romanticism and nostalgia. Comic Hob's highest moment of romanticism is wondering what exists in the depths of the ocean and thinking that maybe reincarnation possibly exists.

1989 changes everything. Actually, we even have evidence that in the comic timeline, Hob wasn't even in England by, what, 1992 when Dream passes away? He's in America with Gwen and they've been dating for a bit when she takes him to the Ren Faire, which is the day after Dream died. This implies that Hob doesn't usually stick around England like he does in the show timeline. If that wasn't already clear from the fact that most of his professions throughout the glimpses we see seem to involve maritime trade (sometimes of the very worst sort). The guy is constantly on the move but he stayed in England for Dream for over 30 years.

So there, at least, I think we have the first tendrils of something for fandom to grip onto that Hob does have the potential within him to go on a 30 year quest for his lost love, which is very Arthurian. I think even Hob would be perhaps shocked at himself for this, perhaps alongside becoming a history professor, finally coming to grips perhaps with the history he's seen, learning to care about it, learning that there's more to himself than he thought.

Because Hob is a weird immortal. He doesn't do the things we expect immortals to do, like learn from his mistakes and become some sort of avenging superhero, or even accumulate enough money to not need to have a day job any more, to just utterly detached from normal human life. Instead, he seems to stay grounded in a normal middle class life for whatever era he's in (barring disaster or windfall) and just happen to stick at it longer than anyone else by virtue of his immortality. It's so bizarre in the most fascinating way, it's why I'm obsessed with him, because he stays so grounded in his time period and not in any sort of special superhero way.

But 1989 really brings into sharp relief that there is an element of courtly love to how he interacts with Dream, the Beatrice to his Dante, this figure who inspires him, whom he waits for, whom he changes for (even when Dream himself perhaps doesn't believe himself capable of change?).

There I think there's something to the notion of Hob as, perhaps, a budding figure of courtly love, if not full Arthuriana knighthood.

But more intriguing and, if I may presume, what I think you're perhaps getting at with all of this is: could Hob's Questing Knight perhaps in some way disrupt Dream's Greek Tragic fate?

Well, it's not really possible in either of those genres played straight but, in the original canon, Hob didn't wait 33 years for Dream to come home to him.

So really, in the most optimistic way I'd say, anything is possible.

[agonizingdespair]

If you've been following me or reading through my blog, you might notice I've posted recently about Pastra. More specifically the Jeff The Killer rewrite they did. Now watching that got me to watch a stream they did a few months back on quinnamon's channel with some other people where they talked about the Jeff the killer fandom, and I left a comment on that video regarding an observation I've had stuck in my head for a while now about internet media in general that I feel the need to also voice here because I find it so fascinating.

With that context out of the way, here's my copy pasted (but slightly cleaned up) analysis of human mythology and memetic evolution of stories and canons as it pertains to the internet, creepypasta OCs, popular AU fanfiction, Star Wars, and The Bible:

The Jeff The Killer OC rabbithole reminds me of the Undertale AU community. The Undertale community in general has people convincing themselves that fan additions are canon, but the OC fanfic network of OCs being made to interact with other OCs is the same thing basically, except with the multiverse involved. Which, I'm told, was also the main basis of the Onceler fandom beyond the initial selfcest pairing.

But as I mentioned it also reminds me of the Undertale fandom in general and over there, there are arguments about what is fanon and what is canon to this day. Canon is a term we invented because of similar arguments regarding religion, more specifically christianity. The modern depiction of both hell and Lucifer are based on fanfiction, that being Dante's Inferno and Paradise Lost. Which goes to show that religion and mythology is just a big web of fanfiction that becomes considered canon with time and popularity. Its all a game of telephone but with people intentionally changing stuff to add OCs or headcanons. As another commenter pointed out, this is also the entire basis of Arthurian Legend. And I've also seen people make comparisons between fandom and religion plenty of times, notably, someone once said that people argue over star wars canon down to the smallest details as special editions or original edition, and they treat it the same way different denominations of Christianity treat the different versions of the Bible that exist. And I can see exactly what they mean by that and they have a point

The thing is though, is that the internet allows these things, like Creepypasta OCs, and AU versions of characters, to happen much faster and without being nearly as limited by geographical concerns. It's like a sped up, but less mainstream, version of that phenomenon. People say comics are the modern american mythology or whatever, and its kinda true, but this is how it really works, because this is entirely in the hands of the people and there is no true canon.

In conclusion, Jeffrey Woods is Sans Undertale who is also Jesus Christ, none of which actually have those last names by the way. Thanks for reading.

[limelocked]

every time i see someone mad about fanon thats gone so off the rails that you cant even recognize canon in it anymore i think about two things

1 danny phantom

2 how fanon is just the oral tradition taken to its modern extreme

the two points are actually one, haha i lied to you

i will never in my fucking live on queen and country watch danny phantom i would Rather Die

however comma

i read danny phantom fics like theres no tomorrow because the fanon is more compelling than the show. the fanon looks at the canon and goes actually that could be more fucked up and also we like that ghosts can purr and also-

this reminds me about how there is two completly different stories of dionysus' birth, how there isnt one canon of arthurian legend, how the word canon didnt exist until christianity had to say that a bunch of stories about jeezy boy and the squad was fanon as fuck because no he did not beat up a dragon

danny phantom the show is the first story told, every story with every headcanon after that is communal storytelling and the collective shape that those stories take is "fanon", the fans canon, it is the new story

just like how dionysus went from being the son of persephone to being the son of a mortal mother

[weird-tea]

The more I think about it the more BBC's Merlin feels like the bazaro mirror dimension of Arthurian lore. A good chuck of that is the struggle of adapting primarily Medieval to Victorian literature with all its themes and motifs to a TV show for a modern audience, but it's still just hilarious to me that this process just flipped the canon so hard.

Right for the start - it takes the core Arthurian plot point of Merlin removing Arthur from Uther's care so that he can be raised ignorant of his birthright and taught how to be a good leader and flips that by having Arthur raised by Uther to be an entitled brat and Merlin coming in and undoing Uther's bad parenting to reveal the good king buried underneath.

Morgana is Arthur's paternal half sister not his maternal. They are raised together meaning they share childhood trauma instead of Morgana's childhood trauma being caused by Arthur's conception and birth and him basically getting away scot-free on the childhood trauma department being the cause of their feud.

Agravain jumps two generations on the family tree going from Nephew to Uncle.

Gawaine and Percival are like best friends, they are even a popular fanon ship, when their families have a blood feud in a lot of Arthurian lore.

Merlin reciprocates the lady of the lake's affections and she's not an antagonist to him even a little bit.

None of the major female characters are mothers, unless you count Hunith & the ghost of Arthur's mum. And Igraine & Gwen are the only two explicitly married. Women in Arthurian lore are nearly always wives and mothers, even characters like Morgause and Morgana. The lady of the lake even raises Lancelot & his cousins. The complete lack of married women and mothers in the show is honestly only just hitting me and it's vastly different from the source materials treatment of female characters (I am not complaining at all about this it's actually pretty neat as an adaptation choice,).

Also while this isn't exactly a full flip since merlin is the one to put the sword in the stone in a few prominent versions it will never stop being silly to be that show Merlin did it like the scene before Arthur pulls it out and tells him this whole story about how ancient it is. Arthur pulling the sword from the stone goes from him proving to others that he is the true heir and worthy of the throne to him proving to himself that he is worthy, and I love that I do, but merlin making the whole thing up in like a day when it's such a key part of the Arthurian mythos is just wild.

[revoevokukil]

1, 13, 22, and 23 for the choose violence asks :-)

the character everyone gets wrong

Avallac'h. (You asked me.) Ciri. Not your Innocence, not your saviour, not your lesbian icon. Very likely to make you her collateral damage. Eredin. (Semi-blank slate syndrome.)

13. worst blorboficiation

Triss (TW3) & Jaskier (TWN). Honestly, I don't know. I think most romantic fan-content is inherently susceptible to do this, no matter what. But with Triss & Dandelion it's just painful.

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

The Witcher is Sapkowski's Wicca fan-letter (& a pagan Arthurian one).

23. ship you’ve unwillingly come around to

I don't think I've unwillingly come around to any ship. I don't have that many ships I would feel strongly about in TW to begin with, and I can begin to find most things interesting. As I am called upon to choose violence, though…

I used to dislike Ciri/Eredin circa 6-7 years ago. In retrospect, it had less to do with the ship & more to do with the fanon around it. The (post-TW3) fanon in question: a feisty maiden who'll eventually give into how good the D is and wish to bear the child of the desirous rapist maniac, who is nevertheless honest & upright about being a rapist maniac & is therefore a solid groom.

I guess some of it has to do with the way shipping tends to inherently tilt the narrative and characterisations. With the added conundrum that Eredin's feather-thin characterisation is mostly a composite-fantasy of Ciri's, serving that very purpose. Two classic tilts at which I eyeroll: 1) the nominal monster's miraculous transformation into a paragon of virtue & 2) the heroine's self-effacing, full co-optation into a true love narrative - after rape, black eyes, bullying, insults, etc. (Both frequent with this pair; a "not a bad guy after all" take and a "Mr Psychopath" one.) There is more wiggle-room in writing (2) - hope and self-delusion are powerful things & Ciri is vulnerable to both - but unhealthy relationships are tough to write believably regardless, and even more so when dealing with illusions of health. The more common outcome is the reduction of the heroine to a vessel of the audience's attraction toward the monster, or, even more frequently, the nominal monster's whitewashing, uwufication, and softening up into boyfriend-looking material. Speaking of: Ciri. Ciri won't be material, she's convinced of it ever since the age of 10; ship-fics kind of are the ultimate sewing factory, there's no escaping it (just hope for proficiency).

On a more object-level: military machismo leaves me dead cold, and Eredin's game characterisation - which generated the above fanons in conjunction with "rough caresses" & myrtle flower - does not fly with me. The pilfering of Avallac'h's and Auberon's traits & plot significances to thicken Eredin's meagre book-characterisation flies with me even less. Eredin frequently got built up as a reaction to Avallac'h in fanon and never really obtained "his own thing" (unless it be solely the animal magnetism of a darkly strongman in the eyes of a teenager). I also happened one too many times into the circus of Eredin & Ciri/Eredin fans going on a crusade against Avallac'h or Ciri/Avallac'h by attempting to build up a moral high ground for E over A in the Aen Elle quicksand. (Reee! Ship wars! Discourse! Somehow the opposite almost never occurred, tho.) No comment, or it'll be all comments (dm me, I guess, lol). Consequently, it almost seemed like a huge amount of energy in the writing of these two was spent on signalling why Eredin is "a real man" and the best dick around among his fellow war criminals instead of giving him an independently interesting position in the lore, in relation to his fellow elves, and in relation to Ciri. Not to mention, a discernible arc & internal conflict. Does that matter in smut? I guess not. Does it matter to me (also in smut)? Yes.

Basically, I used to find Ciri/Eredin forced everywhere but in Ciri's desirous dream sequences or in a dark-fic's ravishing plotlines (& even there I didn't find the "I must have you & you will like it" Eredin very compelling given his indifference in the book). However, I have come around to this pairing over the years because I have met some cool people with fun and unconventional takes on the elf, and I think there are a few thematically rich veins to be mined with him in relation to Ciri. So throwing games & game fanon out of the window definitely helped & is allowing me to work out Eredin's "own thing" in a way that excites me; alas what excites me in shipping and in unhealthy ships is not romantic wish fulfilment. Off with Holofernes' head, non-muff! Off. But before you do it let me investigate him; romantic lens is like an amplifier of all other interesting things that are going on inside characters - and that's what shipping is about to me in large part; uncovering those things.

[c0rpsedemon]

Same anon as bwfore - those are all valid hnoc complaints, i have a soft spot for it since it got me into arthuriana which is now a big special interest (also yk, the thing of making ur own Canon for a media piece in ur head that no one else knows abt)

Appologies for yelling in ur asks abt it, just trying to say I agree

Also sending asks so u can ramble abt ur gripes w hnoc if u wish (no pressure to)

yeah i Used to have the same perspective on it too but as time went on and i developed a stronger aversion to the mechs fandom (everyone say thanks to ts teeth hcs, dr c mischaracterization and any other piece of widely accepted fanon which ppl get weirdly overprotective of) + realized that hnoc Wasn't my actual introduction to arthuriana (shout out to dragon slayer's academy and this niche little vn which i pretended to have read for weeb clout when i was ~12 even though really i had just read the summary of it on a fandom wiki, it was called destiny/leave day or something like that?) an i'd just somehow forgotten about its predecessors + tried to fit my arthurian faves into hnoc-verse and realized that it just Didn't Work and realized just how bad it was in comparison to like. udad. which was soooo good and it just kinda. made me go a little bit insane and tanked my opinion of it. also my growing hatred of a/g/l due to med lit fandom drama (< bizzare series of words that Sure Does Exist) + modern arthuriana like in general probably fanned the flames.

anyways. i said almost everything i have to say about hnoc in the og tags (save for some parts that are less a hnoc issue and more of a discussion of th white/mzb/modern arthuriana in general or a frantic explanation of why it's ok when fate does it but when hnoc does it i'm mad and it's not hypocritical of me (< generally it boils down to 'arthurian lit is incredibly inaccessible to english speakers in 2023, imagine what it would've been like to japanese speakers in 2004, nasu did the best he could, meanwhile the mechs have demonstrated the ability to heavily research their albums and are english speakers who would've had university access (p much the only way to read anything other than le morte or sgatgk legally without breaking the bank) at the time they were working on it')) but i got cut off so i'll add a basic summary of the tags which tumblr couldn't handle bc my arthurian takes r 2 complex and well-thought out for it

basically re: "#and idk it just rings hollow to me for the adaptation which made all/most of its characters either lgbt or poc to have written out p much#all the arthurian characters who were originally poc (palomydes. priamus. ysabelle. feirefiz. isolde of ireland. etc.)" there was a second part of that sentence which also pointed out how almost all the academically/historically substantiated lgbt characters (palomydes, tristan, gawaine, galehaut, lancelot, sebile, morgan, galahad) were cut out or unrecognizable (lancelot and galahad fall under the unrecognizable category).

i also had the character assassination of gawaine as it's own point, as it's just. particularly bad and one of the main reasons why i dislike hnoc, as well as the reason why hnoc's world is so hostile to p much Every other arthurian story bc he's basically the main character of medieval arthuriana and he's now. . obligatory disclaimer that i'm not opposed to gawaine as a villain bc god knows i'm a palomydes stan above all and anyone with a passing interest in the tristan tradition will know that gawaine is a fucking asshole an a horrible person but like. he didn't have to be fucking racist. medieval gawaine is an incredibly complex and deeply deeply flawed character and hnoc boiled that all down to 'racist' which is. one of the few things medieval gawaine is not. and so now all the characters and stories that orbit him are dead in the water bc why would anyone want to read about the cartoon racist.

in general all of the hnoc characters seem like they were written to serve the plot and the co-opted into being the nearest arthurian character. not a single one resembles themself at all. the best example i can think of is galahad (who's actually my fave hnoc character) who just isn't. galahad. medieval galahad is young and has been worshipped and dehumanized all his life, the very reason he was conceived was bc a prophecy said he would be good and pure and would achieve the holy grail, and so he was raised like a holy relic for one purpose and one alone, to the point where, when he finally tries to make a friend in le morte, literal angels intervene to remind him of his purpose, and ultimately he did succeed in that purpose! and when he did he had nothing else to do but end his own life. hnoc galahad is never dehumanized nor worshipped or even liked. hnoc galahad is viewed as a crazy person but a person nonetheless, and hnoc galahad genuinely wants the grail. the two are connected by name alone and it's the same w everyone else. medieval lancelot will always return to guinnevere, and she is the source of both his loyalty and sense of self, and he will destroy anything that poses a threat to her, hnoc lancelot genuinely cares abt camelot and uhm. human life. medieval mordred wasn't actually arthur's son in most texts and kinda just tagged along w his brothers' plans (particularly agravaine's) and ultimately took over camelot bc agravaine was dead and it was the next logical step to take considering all they'd done before, if you want something really interesting mordred-wise the alliterative morte gives him genre awareness but his lamentations of his fate are centered around the uhm. fratricide. and not arthur, hnoc mordred views arthur as his whole world which his Only brother gawaine is comparatively a footnote in, and has motivations which are truly his own. medieval guinn is politically savvy and stuck in a loveless marriage unable to fulfill her one purpose as queen (to have an heir) and thus centers herself around lancelot and his devotion to her to cope, hnoc guinn is a gunslinger. idrc enough abt arthur to analyze him but ultimately it's easy to see that These Are Not The Same Ppl in the way that like. myth orpheus, ulysses, narcissus etc. and udad orpheus, ulysses, narcissus etc. are. even in like. ouat(is) where the characters are Obviously Different People from their fairy tale counterparts, they exist in a form of commentary on their other selves, and the ouat(is) approach to characters is true for the prisoner of dorian gray + frankenstein as well. hnoc has no commentary on the original arthurian characters bc it Doesn't know who they are, the characters in hnoc are meant to be the arthurian characters in a different setting like in udad and tbi (the latter i can't speak on bc i don't norse myth and don't tbi). and it gets them wrong.

tl;dr uhm. the mecha arthurian vn that lives in my head wouldn't do this to me

[cheeseanonioncrisps]

The thing I love about Arthurian mythology is that it's basically entirely made up of fanfiction, and nobody seems to grasp exactly what that means.

Look, as far as we know, the first King Arthur accounts were at least slightly meant to be historical. So either there was a guy named Arthur at around that time, who may or may not have been anything like the Arthur of legend, or some monk couldn't remember who really fought in that battle and just went "well, Arthur's a nice name. And, let's see, he killed... 900 men."

And then people started writing RPF about this guy, and Geoffrey of Monmouth's version got so popular that people started writing fanfic of that specifically, and then some of that got so popular (particularly with new OCs like Lancelot and Galahad) that they started writing fanfiction of that, and it all just spiralled from there.

And the thing nobody seems to get is that this means that there is no canon.

Like, technically you can't claim that any piece of writing about Camelot is more valid than any other, because there's no single, accepted, 'true author' and there's no original text (at least not one that contains everything everyone would like it to) and the entire thing is just a fucking mess of people enjoying themselves and writing about these characters because they like them and they can.

So like, Gawain and the Green Knight is canon, but so is BBC's Merlin. And the Vulgate cycle. And Disney's Sword in the Stone. There is genuinely no reason to claim that any one of these is less 'canon' than the others, because there is only fanon here.

Seriously, you could go away right now and write a fic in which Lancelot fucks a dragon, and if enough people like it then it will just become canon. It will just be an established fact of Arthurian mythology that Lancelot fucked a dragon (à la Donkey from Shrek) at some point.

And I really don't know why we don't take more advantage of this.

[asthmaticbee]

Ok, at the risk of being a Grumpy Millenial and an Angry Fandom Old here's an incoming rant regarding Shipping and Antis.

I follow some TodoDeku shippers on Twitter for cute fanart - as you do - and a while ago the community did a cute little thing with a specific tag to celebrate one of the main shipping moments being animated.

And antis stalked the tag and went nuts.

And I couldn't help but be thrown back into ye fandom days of old, when there were the Big Three and Shipping Wars, and fandom was a much darker place.

And here's the thing. You can wave it off as immature teenagers or "silly shipping trash", but you know what was the norm when Bleach and Naruto were in full-on war mode? Death Threats. Doxxing (before we called it that). IRL assault. Some people were so deep in this anti mentality that they beat up people for liking a different ship. For wearing a shirt of a character they didn't like. It was mental.

And let's not forget classics like "they are just friends" "stop making everything gay" "it's not canon". You know what's not canon, people? TSUKAUCHI'S QUIRK. ALL OF MODERN ARTHURIAN LORE.

NO ONE CARES.

You only care because it's convenient for you.

And at the risk of inserting "shipping drama" of a more personal flavor in this: a fanon ship being more popular than the canon variant is not shippers reading too much into "friendship" or making "everything gay", it's the author fucking up. If a fanon couple gets more on-screen chemistry and interaction than the canon couple then that is the author's fault. If you have a dissertation worth of material for a fanon couple and the equivalent of a high-five and "wazzup bro" for the canon couple you can't blame your readers for "reading too much into things".

Because I'm sorry, but if the writer portrays Isshin and Masaki in a way that panel-for-panel parallels moments between Ichigo and Rukia on top of a slew of other moments between them, when all the canon counterparts get is an outsider telling them their feelings in a spin-off novel or some one-sided crush or actual physical assault then that is on you, Kubo.

Because I'm sorry, if Shouto and Izuku get a gazillion moments together, are literally a trope, constantly save each other and are otherwise just shoved at each other while Izuku and Ochako get a fraction of that and have to have other characters tell them their feelings for them, then that is Horikoshi not knowing how to properly portray a healthy budding romance, not the fault of shippers.

It's your job as a writer to make us care for your canon relationships. If there is no reason to ship the intended couple, why should I?

You know what franchises made me ship the canon couples? Twin Star Exorcists. The Owl House. She-Ra. Because they had on-screen chemistry. They had meaningful interactions. They realized their feelings on their own and didn't need a third party to go "you really like them, huh???". THEY WERE WELL-WRITTEN. I know. Such a shocker. Those exist.

So, to end this: stick to the things you like and leave others alone to enjoy what they want. You see that nifty little block button? Click that. It's that easy. Because if you feel the need to deliberately seek out and interact with content you do not like there is something awry in your head and you should seek help. Because deliberately seeking out misery and conflict is not healthy and will not make you happy or others like your ship of choice more.

Believe me, no amount of death threats ever made me change my mind.

Signed: someone who was an anti when she was 14 and miserable and really needed therapy.

[eightpilot]

you know, I am usually a very pro-fanon person. characters throughout most of literary history haven’t had extremely fixed characteristics (look at the different depictions of many characters in Greek mythology, for example, or the Arthurian legends). but there is absolutely one fanon depiction that comes up a lot in HP fanfiction that I really can’t abide, and that’s the headcanon that Ron is at least somewhat homophobic. 

first of all, the reason I hate this is because it turns up a lot in fics where being gay is implied if not outright stated to be more accepted in the wizarding world circa 1990 than it is in the Muggle one. if that’s the case, and this is often used as a characteristic that makes Draco/Pansy/Blaise/Theo more tolerant of Harry’s sexuality, why on earth would Ron – a man raised his whole life in the wizarding world with almost zero knowledge of Muggle culture or technology – be homophobic? 

secondly, even if that weren’t the case: Ron is a very tolerant, progressive individual in the wizarding world. he can sometimes be insensitive, but he’s fundamentally anti-discrimination and has experienced a large amount of class-related prejudice himself. he stood up to Malfoy when he called Hermione a mudblood at twelve years old. at thirteen, he spent a huge amount of time researching ways to acquit Buckbeak (noting that the Ministry was proceeding in a way that “isn’t justice”) and stood up to Sirius Black when he was believed to be a Death Eater, aka magic Nazi. Ron refused to allow Percy’s literal government propaganda and Dolores Umbridge’s mutilation of children to stand in the way of his friendship with Harry. but apparently, according to a lot of fic writers, he’s totally fine being homophobically bigoted. 

Hermione cares about socially progressive causes like SPEW, and that’s a good thing! and she understands prejudice herself, and it’s totally fair to portray her as being very progressive for that decade – that’s completely in line with her character. however, that doesn’t mean Ron somehow must be portrayed as a homophobe, especially in a 1990s world where wizards have never had a cultural taboo against people being LGBT and Hermione being Muggleborn, the idea that she would automatically be more tolerant of non-cishet people really grates on me. 

[janiedean]

1/? Lol. That genderbend ask made me realise that, while I do like Reylo a lot *cough* and might start loving it out of spite when I see TROS *cough*, it would have been an instant OTP for me with switched genders... and ofc, it would have doomed me to a life of neverending and nerve-wracking discourse. XD I've been waiting for a genderbent version of "young, hot-tempered but kind heroine bonds with older, cynical, abused villain with parents issues, prompting him to redeem himself" for ages...

2/? And the closest I've ever got to it was this hopelessly fanon Problematic ship in this silly, obviously-trying-too-hard Arthurian adaptation where Morgana was written too much like a Mordred for me not too latch on to her. XDD Don't get me wrong, "young heroine lovingly tops the hell out of cynical villain" is ALSO my jam. ;) But if a character takes the wrong path due to a shitty past and has daddy/mommy issues, I'm almost guaranteed to love them and want them to be happy and loved. XD 3/? And female characters like that who also have *that* kind of canon or at least possible relationship are rarer (or at least, I can never seem to find any) and so all the more precious to me due to how unexpected and fresh they feel. But of course, the *only* reason why that fanon ship in that Arthurian adaptation never brought me any hate was because almost no one shipped it and the series was canceled after s1 anyway so it never got popular enough for people to really notice it on here... I can only imagine the "so you're saying a woman can't make her own choices and needs a man to redeem her!" screeching if it had been genderbent!Reylo. XD And how tiring it would have been to have to screech back "I just want a female character to have a compelling arc based on tropes I already love on male characters!" every time. XDD Anyway, this rant was just to say that I'll now hunt for genderbent!Reylo art and fics, so thanks for opening my eyes to what will likely be my new obsession.

HAHAHAHA IKR it’d have been... some... discourse... but that said WELCOME TO THE REYLO HELL EITHER WAY GENDERBENT OR NOT >___> that said dklsgkjsjgd ugh I’m trying to think I know of anything like that - I could tell you that you might like the dark tower canon ship tho tbf the m/m not canon one is a lot better build up but like... she’s older than him, he’s kind of a cinnamon roll with a lot of sarcasm and he helps her get over her pseudo-dark half (tho it’s more complicated than that) but like she’s not a villain she’s with the heroes from the get-go and she doesn’t have parental issues so it��s not exactly what you’d want but... there’s some I guess /o\ then hmm I was thinking if maybe there could be something like that in wild cards because they’ve had every single trope in existence but idt they went there yet sdklgjlkjdslgjk if they ever do I’ll let you know tho >__> 

[salarta]

Two Polaris Headcanons

Or maybe canon since at this point I don’t respect anything Marvel’s currently doing, so I may as well just consider fanon to be canon. Has more legitimacy.

Canon #1: The Green Knight, Marvel 1602

Back a ways, pre-2009, I actually did check out a few things from both Marvel and DC. But only, really, if they were tied to Neil Gaiman or Alan Moore. Marvel 1602 was one of those things.

I don’t remember much of it. The only thing I really remember besides its setting is that Jean pretends to be a man but is actually a woman, because gender norms and all.

Something like a couple years ago, I also posed the idea of Polaris as the Green Knight in Arthurian legend. I even sort of commissioned something of it by way of the Halloween fanart of Lorna as a knight and Wanda as a witch.

This is an example of a lost opportunity by way of Marvel’s repeated mistreatment of Lorna. If Marvel had been giving Lorna her due, then by the time Gaiman wrote Marvel 1602, he might have noticed the opportunity that he could’ve pursued in making Lorna into an allusion to the Arthurian Green Knight. He could’ve had Lorna using a “puppet” set of armor, or had her using the armor to hide the fact she’s a woman - paralleling 1602′s concept of Jean as hiding hers.

So, as far as I’m concerned, this may as well be an actual thing that simply never got shown in the comics because Marvel failed to use Lorna in any real way.

Canon #2: Lorna can affect the sun

I think I posted about this before. Cracked had an article about how a solar storm can wipe out electronic devices like GPS due to magnetism. One thing that could be pulled from her time in space is that she could utilize the sun, influence it, to wipe out such communications for a whole planet.

She was out there, after all. Why not use it?

Those are my two canons for the moment!

[limelocked]

to me danny phantom has expanded outwards enough to not be a tv show anymore, at this point its on part with arthurian legend

let me explain that i have only ever watched danny phantom in arabic on vacation when i was 12 in egypt, needless to say that while im interested in learning i do not now nor did i then know the language

i fucking love dp x dc stories, fandom danny is my little guy

i have been told that the fanon has WILDLY diverged from canon and that like the show is Not At All what fics would have you believe so i cant even binge this fucked up cartoon

pov i go to look for the canon of arthurian myth so i can learn more about the fisher king only to find out that the fucker is fanfic exclusive

[opiaismarchive]

why were you drawn to each one of your characters?

⊱asks for muns with a multimuse or more than one muse⊰ // accepting

great question !! I’ll start off with a timeline; fyi this got long lolginny weasley is actually one of my first muses ever, I probably first rped her about 10 years ago. I really liked her spunk, how she survived a very traumatic event and grew from it in a way that didn’t make her a martyr or victim of circumstances. I went back to her because I missed her, and I enjoy now discovering the more adult / mature parts of her life. I also happen to think ginny is my most compassionate muse, and it’s fun to think of when she can indeed be every cruel at times. for pelleas, I am all here for a true knight with a heart of gold who has a very dark side + I believe in characters, especially males, who can be soft and still be powerful, so that’s what drew me to him. plus arthurian legend and his devotion to the cause, plus his devotion to love is so fascinating to me. he prays to God but if he was honest to himself, he’d pray to the Goddess of Love because that’s his true religion.for zelda, I really wanted to explore a badass woman who is smart and powerful but also not your typical hero? zelda is very unique among my muses because she’s a no shit taker, but her moral compass doesn’t always point north and she is okay with that. she’s level-headed and calculative and innovative, but she’s also a kind of i don’t want to deal with this so I won’t kind of person. plus, slayer skills - always fun.for father jeremiah, I have this fascination with the catholic church ngl and the idea of rising shining star within the ranks of the church tempted by love and lust is never a boring idea. to me, jeremiah represents the modern age of the church - he is intuned socially and emotionally with his surroundings, he truly believes in God and the bible, and in making reformations to truly be a church for everyone. he is that cool new priests everyone adores and who speaks out against multiple injustices, but he’s also so very flawed and naive at times, it’s fun lol for cesare, I adore my prince ! not only do I love the borgias, but his actual history is so damn fascinating!! and fun!! like, this guy was absolutely going to rule over all of Italy - he built an empire for himself through both being loved and feared, through hard work and ambition and brilliant strategies. (honestly, dany targeryan could never) he is one of the best minds of the renaissance, Machiavelli and Da Vinci were like bffs with him. but he’s also so raw and human and he tries so hard in everything he does? I love my problematic boo, what can I say.for jemma, she came actually out of a plotline with michelle ( @toujoursfleure ) and quickly grew into one of my most dynamic characters. she is so tender and kind in the way she deals with people, but she’s also super reserved and logical in the way she handles herself. when I write for her, I feel like I’m floating in a cold lake and just allowing her to flow through me. AND that sounds like a lot of bs but she’s gone through a lot, so I really have to get myself in a place of tranquility to understand how she’s able to deal with it all and that’s what drew me to her. for andromeda, what drew me most to her is this idea of a young woman from an influential family who absolutely gave up everything because she stood true to her values, and herself. i refuse to believe she simply fell in love (in canon) and that was it. in the way I write her, andromeda was always born to fight with claws and teeth. she tries so hard to not get lost in the storm of wars and division and expectations and to truly, fully, be herself. plus, she’s also on the darker side of my muses and that’s always fun since fanon tends to think of her as this very nice and sweet girl and dismiss the fact that she is very much, still, a Black.for james, I’ve rped already james sirius and lily luna for years, so at first it was a fun idea to think of what I could bring from his family to his role but he took a true and unique form in my mind. he is the true definition of a gryffindor, but what i love most about him is that he’s really surprising to everyone - including myself. unpopular opinion, I think people idolize him and villanize him fairly quickly, and what i love about james is how very human he is, how flawed he can be but how much he is willing to learn.for amara, I think this is one of those I want a female character who people demonize and give her some humanity. mrs zabini is infamous in the wizarding world for killing seven of her husbands and being filthy rich, but no one gets there without a damn good reason. what draws me to her is this idea of a very collected and calculative person who is hurt and hurts others - but can anyone really blame her? I really think people dismissed her as a child, underestimated her as a young adult, and she absolutely used people’s assumptions of her to her advantage. 

while i haven’t played mary magdalene, what most calls me to her is the potential of a matriarch vatican city. honestly, i would still be full catholic if her ideas had reigned over the church vs peter’s. there’s also a lot of sexist issues with her portrayal within the church, which makes me think that they were really scared of her. so to place her in a historical verse where she can push people to what it truly means to follow the messiah she knew is like and spark revolutions, well that is always fun lol

and while i haven’t rped guinevere, I think it goes in the same lines to mary. guinevere is pictured in extremes in literature - she is either meek and submissive catholic fanatic who destroyed arthur’s hopes for a united kingdom, or she is a calculative and evil seductress who also destroyed arthur’s hopes for a united kingdom, almost always due to her relationship with lancelot. why can’t she be both? why can’t she be a capable and clever queen who tried her hardest to navigate her feelings and her religion? 

this got long, my bad lol

[keithsauxia]

Hello! I don't want to seem like an anti because I'm not,if Kacxa happens then I'm happy for all you Kacxa shippers.But I saw a post about how it felt "out of the blue" And to a degree it did,I mean yes they saved their lives on multiple occasions,yet it was never fully developed.Like take a bullet, glare, repeat.They never speak or explain why they saved or never killed each other. Which I wish they would, it's just like Keitor but a few more panels and lines when you come to think of it.

Hi there, I appreciate that you actually want to discuss this, get ready for an long ass badly written essay you will probably hate. First things first I have 0 opinions on keitor because i stay in my lane having 0 problems with it, and I don’t know how it’s like it at all. If there was fanon interpretations for how that ship would go down I missed out on all of it. 

I’m not the greatest on writing meta so I’m going to point out something that I’ve realized for awhile but @kylotor-and-reylura was the first one I saw to write it out when i first searched the keith/acxa tag after s5: that their meetcute in s2ep9 The Belly Of The Weblum was chivalrous and romantic from conception, but in a voltron fashion it had an updated twist to it.

Voltron, like star wars and lots of space operas, is heavily based on mythical fantasies like arthurian tales. Arthurian tales consists of stories of knights and princesses and beasts and wizards and ladies of the lake and surprise family reveals and bastards coming back 14 years later to claim the throne and holy grails that will take good knights to heaven. Paladin is literally another word for knight and there’s even an arthurian story about a knight who has to face down a red knight and a green knight. 

Anyway so let’s talk about Knights and Damsels and how voltron plays it out. The show takes stuff from classic disney movies like snow white and sleeping beauty and plays it out…really about the same. When we first meet Princess Allura she has been trapped in an eternal slumber in a coffin shaped space-bed and is awaken after falling in the arms of newly found potential knights who instantly feels devoted to her cause in true courtly love fashion~~~ -except she doesn’t react to this situation like how we see those classic disney princesses react, and we love her for it. 

Other damsels in distress situations play out as each paladin rises to become a true heroic knight, some of them seen as romantic while others seen as a duty. We see Hunk rise to the cause for Shay + the balmerians, Lance with Plaxxum and the alien merfolk, Pidge with Ryner and the Olkaarians, and Shiro gallantly leading the team while honoring Allura’s wishes. In the same season, Keith has a damsel in distress episode but unlike the above it is INCREDIBLY different.

For starters, in season 2 we have only, purposefully, seen galra as male and aggressors, and the damsels are of innocent people. Also in season 2 we learn that Keith, to his fear, is galra. The galra up to this point are seen as monstrous beasts (and male) and for Keith to learn he is galra means that he will grow to no longer fear them, but to understand them as well. It a rite of passage that will shape his growth for the rest of the series. He learns that letting go of the pain from his past will reward him and from there he will truly have his own heroes journey. 

In the next episode his galra mother to him is still an unknown, so as a projection from Keith all galra damsels are unknown, and so when we are introduced to Acxa when he pulls her from the ship all he sees is the galra symbol but we, the audience, SUSPICIOUSLY believe we have a damsel!! Keith projects his own insecurities of being a galra and negative traits that he has, lumps them together and associates with them onto Acxa throughout the episode, saying “he doesn’t talk much. he’s galra” and “you’re just like the rest of them” 

This never read as an introduction to a family figure AT ALL because of his projection. From a psychological evaluation of a character standpoint, he’s suppose to know what to EXPECT re: galra women from what he KNOWS of his own galra mother. If he were to project what his own experiences were onto Unknown Galra Damsel who then is revealed to be his mother after he does, he wouldn’t grow, or it would put him backwards from being a hero because this would be a punishment from the gods in a story standpoint. It’s why its so great in the story when he does meet his mother, we see him grow and learn from her.

Also in this same episode we have imagery of this unknown(damsel) in a glass coffin- i mean, spaceship covered in red vines-i mean, red veins who has been there long enough that anyone looking inside this glass coffin covered in vines -I MEAN, spaceship covered in veins would think surely this person would be dead. As @kylotor-and-reylura pointed out, this is very heavy Snow White imagery, complete with Keith pulling her out of the broken ship and holding her hand~~~ except Keith suddenly reacts the way we expect him to once he sees the galra symbol on her sleeve and then Acxa continues to spend the rest of the episode behaving in a way that we haven’t seen the galra do. She fights alongside him like the damsels the other paladins have met. Because of this, he cautiously behaves chivalrously towards her, shielding her in the fight, allowing her to wander freely and doing nothing while she escapes with a bag of scaultrite he procured. 

It’s chivalrous. They both are chivalrous to each other. He’s just as soft and chivalrous to her for letting her go in this episode as she is for letting him go in s3ep6 and s6ep5 and saving his life in s5ep4, which afterward they held a heated gaze. This chivalorus action is called back when we see Krolia’s flashback where Keith’s Dad™ rescues Krolia from her own glass coffin and she returns the chivalrous favor by setting out to protect their home. 

Acxa is fascinating because as we learn more about her she is both a damsel AND a galra aggressor, and I thought she was a neat character to introduce in the second half of the show the same way Lotor and Haggar, aggressors with altean heritage, were. I wish we knew more about her, I still have a thousand yard stare when i think about the other generals being written off in the show, I wish she and keith had a chance to converse but I also think that it was always suppose to be something where unlike Lotor who talked about bringing peace then acted cruel and selfishly, her actions were always suppose to speak louder then any word she said to Keith.

tl;dr check out these tropes

[avani008]

"Give me a character and I will tell you…" Draupadi, the Pandavas, Karna, and Duryodhana please? Also Krishna and Balarama. (please feel free to pick and choose from this wide selection; I apologise for my thinly disguised greed. :P)

(Don’t apologize! Greed is good–in this situation alone ;)

Behind the cut because this is LOOONG. 

Draupadi

* How I feel about this character

One-half of my top two favorite characters in the entire epic and obviously a best beloved.

* All the people I ship romantically with this character…In a likely unpopular opinion, I only ship Draupadi/her husbands, and, honestly my preferred version is very much without angst at having to marry all five. My!Draupadi also doesn’t really have a favorite, other than a mild wistful partiality for Arjun; but both of them know for her to be married to him alone would work better in theory than practice, and that neither would really be happy were it so.

* My non-romantic OTP for this characterTEAM KRISHNA(A) FOR LIFE.

* My unpopular opinion about this characterRupa Ganguly was the One True Draupadi *tries to look fierce, fails*.

* One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.B.R. Chopra brings up the tantalizing possibility of Draupadi volunteering to ride on Arjuna’s chariot when the Pandavas and Krishna are coming up with the plan to defeat Bhishma, and though they end up going with Shikandi instead….True, my headcanon-Draupadi is no warrior, but the thought of allowing her some agency in avenging herself is wonderful.

* Something about them I consider true, even though it’s only my head canon/fanon

….Not true, necessarily, but one of the more-realistic-alternatives for Draupadi’s miraculous birth I really love is that of it representing a rebirth in the form of a oath witnessed by fire that two of Drupad’s pre-existing children took to wreak revenge on the Kurus.

Pandavas

* How I feel about this character

Five arrogant, dorky, but essentially good-hearted heroes whose best quality is perhaps their devotion to each other against all odds. (Their brotherly love survived being wagered away by their big brother without losing their temper–how, I can’t imagine.)

* All the people I ship romantically with this character

Mostly Draupadi, honestly–though also Hidimbi for Bhima, and Subhadra/Ulupi/Chitrangada for Arjuna* My non-romantic OTP for this character

I don’t know if I could choose just one, though: but their relationship with Pandu as kids and Kunti much later fascinates me, just in the way they are kept together by love for their parent. * My unpopular opinion about this character

I…actually think that, while they are flawed, my favorite versions are still likeable and sympathetic protagonists as opposed to jerks who are just as bad as their cousins. * One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

…I wish the twins had gotten seperate personalities, and even the other Pandavas more characterization to get rid of the “goody-two-shoes other than the gambling thing”/ “strong but stupid” / “insufferable Designated Hero” flanderizations you so often see. * Something about them I consider true, even though it’s only my head canon/fanon

The Year of Disguise was one of the defining episodes in their lives. Prior to this, they’re so often casteist/classist/less concerned with the sufferings of others, and the forced walk in servants’ shoes must have done so much to make them better people.

Duryodhana

* How I feel about this character

Entertaining villain, often scores one of the most entertaining and talented actors out of the casts in most adaptations. * All the people I ship romantically with this character

I’m come around to Duryodhana/Bhanumati, but Duryodhana/Karna is also a Valid ‘ship. * My non-romantic OTP for this character

Duryodhana/Karna, even otherwise. Give me a version where Duryodhana is just using an sweet-ignorant-and-innocent Karna and you have a very unhappy Avani *side-eyes Starbharat, and, even more so, Suryaputra Karn** My unpopular opinion about this character

I–truthfully, I think the most unpopular opinion is irritation at how much pop culture wants to blame Duryodhana and Shakuni for everything, where Karna and other characters are…actually mostly responsible in actual canon.  The whitewashing of all other characters while Duryodhana is ridiculously evil to the extent where you wonder why no one drowned HIM at birth, is just….illogical. So that’s my grumpiest opinion. * One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I want to know so much about how he actually was as an administrator! The only indication we have Duryodhana’s dying speech about how he was an awesome King and is going to heaven, that’s….showered with flowers by the gods and not disputed by Krishna, and it just makes me wonder. * Something about them I consider true, even though it’s only my head canon/fanon

Duryodhana was a very loving and indulgent father and brother (to Dushala), albeit a hypocritical one–despite his treatment of Draupadi and others, he insisted that the women he cared for be held to a higher standard.

Karna

* How I feel about this character

Rather more irritation than most people in the fandom, I’m afraid. * All the people I ship romantically with this character

I never really–grew up with stories of Karna/His Wife, so I don’t really ship him with Vrushali/Urvi/Supriya/other variations of this character. Truthfully, it’s pretty much Karna/Duryodhana, or nothing. * My non-romantic OTP for this character

Karna & Arjuna as good, old-fashioned mutual loathing, rather than Starbharat’s near-constant ~SECRET BROTHERS~ song, is….always amusing. B. R. Chopra (I know, I know, despite its flaws, a whole bunch of its little character moments have stuck with me) has this part during Draupadi’s swayamvar where Arjuna watches Karna string the bow and just…smirks. He seems almost genuinely pleased, because well–of course his rival would be good enough to string the bow. He would expect no less of Karna.* My unpopular opinion about this character

Though Karna admittedly suffers quite a bit, and is unfortunately affected by bigotry, a) there are other characters who suffer just as much if not more and b) in no way does that justify the suffering he inflicts on other characters. It’s the Snape conundrum all over again. * One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

Look, the only fanon I reliably want from any Mahabharat adaptation is the impossible scene where Duryodhana finds out Karna’s true origins after his death and mourns. I’ve said this before, but the “you [the Pandavas] have no right to perform his last rites! Only I do! He was MY friend!” made quite the impression on baby Avani. * Something about them I consider true, even though it’s only my head canon/fanon

Like many a solar hero before him (I’m thinking Gawain/Gwalchmai from Arthurian myth in particular, but I don’t think that’s the only one), Karna’s strength waxes and wanes with the rise and fall of the sun.

Krishna

* How I feel about this character

A warning: I am admittedly biased, because Krishna is the deity dearest to my heart: but a god dedicated to doing the right thing rather than blindly obeying law and tradition, whose response to a devotee saying “I don’t understand” is not to command them to stop asking questions, but rather to explain again and again, is one that I believe in. * All the people I ship romantically with this character

Krishna/Everyone is….pretty much canon, but I have a soft spot for Krishna/Rukmini* My non-romantic OTP for this character

Krishna & Arjuna (if you don’t ship them) is certainly an option, but *points upwards* I’m Team Krishna(a) forever.* My unpopular opinion about this character

I have to hope that Krishna’s offer to Karna that Draupadi would be his is more of a bluff–or rather, a way of guilting Karna rather than a sincere prediction of what would, or even should, happen. * One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.* Something about them I consider true, even though it’s only my head canon/fanon

Krishna’s “women are unreliable, so just go ahead and kidnap my sister instead of proposing” spiel to Arjuna re:Subhadra is honestly tongue-and-cheek and largely because Subhadra begged Krishna to make Arjuna actually get a move on instead of waiting until she got married off against her will. I don’t care that it’s blatantly ignoring canon; but it’s one of the few scenes of Krishna in the Vyasa Mahabharata that don’t fit in with my understanding.  

Balarama

* How I feel about this character

I really like Balarama! I feel like he hardly ever gets any attention, and many of the interesting stories/episodes concerning him often get glossed over. * All the people I ship romantically with this character

I’ve started shipping Balarama/Revati something fierce after getting on Tumblr! But consider: she’s literally from another age entirely, and they still find each other! She’s taller and wiser and stronger than he is! They have no son, only a daughter, and he still never marries anyone else!* My non-romantic OTP for this character

Krishna & Balarama snarking at each other is always great, no matter what the adaptation. * My unpopular opinion about this character

Not unpopular, but I suppose not universally accepted: Balarama is the reincarnation of Lakshmana/Shesh Nag, because Balarama trying to enjoy getting to be the big brother in this birth while Krishna continues to be cheeky and do as he pleases is great. * One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I would have loved to hear more about Yadava politics than what we get, and definitely even more about Revati and Balarama–there’s hardly any mention of her in the Mahabharata. * Something about them I consider true, even though it’s only my head canon/fanon

Balarama and Krishna have perfected bad cop/good cop (or grumpy raging Yadava/ charming compromising Yadava) to an art. Both of them are perfectly capable of exploiting their reputations for political gain.