#such disrespect for the writers and actors who want to explore canon relationships

[kinardscoffee]

One of the craziest things about that half of the fandom is that they get so MAD when you point out the obvious.

It seems to me that the biggest issue they have in common is playing the victim card. I sent one ask on my "burner account" (my main) as they so lovingly call it, and suddenly, I'm the example they used to claim they constantly get hate. Like, ok, gurl. You answered my ask within 2.4 minutes like a firey inferno.

I definitely know you aren't getting them on the regular.

And stop saying it's because they're normally anons. You've had anons off for at least a year.

Just... make it make sense.

And if anyone is interested what my vile, mean, horribly bitchy ask was... here ya go (with their response, minus their name cause I'm not that evil):

•••

And, for full disclosure, cause I'd hate to be that bitch, it was in regards to this post with these tags:

[sunnytastic]

Hi Isa! I was wondering how you got into watching Mythic Quest? Who's your favourite character so far? Fav episode? Have you seen Dark Quiet Death yet?

About your Ian/Poppy question: NOT a spoiler dw! The MQ showrunners Rob, Megan and David have stated in multiple interviews and podcasts since S1 that Ian and Poppy will never be romantic. They wanted to write an intimate platonic m/f mentor/mentee working relationship/friendship(?) b/w two people with different skills who need each other to achieve their goals. Rob's also said that he thinks the age difference and power dynamic would make it very inappropriate and not what they wanted to explore at all.

Since they've been saying this openly since the beginning, it's not spoiling anything to lyk rn not to expect that type of development in future seasons (ofc non-canon shipping is totally valid, not judging!)

Btw, there's definitely aspects of Rob in Ian and Megan in Poppy, but it's not straight-up self-inserting. Megan gets frustrated when people insinuate that in podcasts/interviews. Poppy's experience working under a difficult arrogant male boss (who still helps her career and whose opinions she respects even as he disrespects her) has influence from Meg's time working for Dan Harmon, but I'm sure lots of other writers in the MQ room have had those experiences too, esp women, and the characters are developed by all the MQ writers, so we shouldn't discredit them just because we only know Rob, Megan and David.

Sorry this is so long, idk if you'll even read this haha, but anyway the first two seasons of MQ are surprisingly good and I hope you like it!

hi thank you for the ask!

im about 2/3 of the way done with season 1 and I really like it so far! it's a lot different than what I was expecting but that's definitely a good thing

my favorite character is easily brad. he is just so goddamn funny and i think i have a thing for the asshole™ character. and danny pudi is just a fantastic actor

so far, my favorite episode is in fact, dark quiet death. it is so fucking good and I was not expecting it at all. i mean that episode itself should have been nominated for an emmy. im sure there is a reason they included it in the season and I am excited to see how it ties in.

as for ian and poppy, i took back my shipping statement after watching a few more episodes. they are very cute, but in a big brother/little sister kind of way.

i can see how poppy might be influenced by Megan but I agree, it's definitely not a self-insert. I saw a video on here a few days ago where david said that a lot of brad's lines were inspired by megan which I TOTALLY see. megan is so funny in a cutthroat way.

overall, i pretty excited to keep watching. hopefully I can finish it today or tomorrow.

[aion-rsa]

MCU Phase 4 and 5: What the Multiverse Means for the Future of Marvel Movies and TV

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains Loki spoilers and potential spoilers for the wider MCU.

The ending of the Loki season finale made one pretty substantial change to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The introduction of a full multiverse, caused by Sylvie killing He Who Remains, is an enormous shift in the cosmogony of the MCU. And it opens up some fascinating story possibilities for Marvel’s film heroes. So what does the introduction of a full, unlimited multiverse mean for the future of the MCU?

Hopefully, everything. Literally.

There are obvious near-term implications to Loki’s finale. It answered questions that Spider-Man: No Way Home (with its purported multiversal Sinister Six) and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness asked back when Loki first premiered. Specifically: “What do you mean there’s only one universe?” 

The beauty of time travel is that now, there is and has always been a full multiverse in the context of the MCU. Because whatever Kang War happened far in Loki’s subjective past (because the timelines were left to run wild when Sophie killed He Who Remains), the entire history of the MCU is now potentially subject to retcons as necessary. So the strong implication from Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse that that movie and all its various spider-people existed on Earths parallel to Tom Holland’s MCU can now be considered accurate, even though the movie came out years before Loki was even a twinkle in Kevin Feige’s master MCU spreadsheet. 

Time travel is a trip, man. It’s also beautiful. Literally anything is possible now. 

What Does the MCU Multiverse Mean for Marvel TV?

This sort of thing happens all the time in comics. The slang is “retcon,” comics-speak for retroactive continuity, where creators reach into their characters’ pasts to change something that impacts their present. 

Loki’s infinite multiverse sets up the entirety of Marvel history for any number of retcons that the folks in charge might deem necessary. It allows current MCU casts and crews to cherry pick what they liked from old MCU projects and fold them into this new normal. All those times Agents of SHIELD didn’t quite line up with what the movies were doing? The show was on an alternate Earth! Want Ghost Rider back without the TV baggage? Blame it on a Kang!

And grabbing the stuff that worked from old projects means porting in the good actors, too. That means people like J.K. Simmons, the Platonic ideal of J. Jonah Jameson, can continue playing the role across from three different Spider-Men, or Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio can show up as Daredevil and Kingpin in Spider-Man: No Way Home while Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings nukes Netflix’s Iron Fist continuity from orbit.   Wondering how Ms. Marvel could potentially deal with concepts from the Inhumans without ever mentioning that disastrous TV show? Now we know. 

Could the MCU Multiverse Retcon Marvel Movies?

This same ability to pick and choose the continuity most appropriate for the story applies to decisions the movies made, too. A full multiverse lets future filmmakers bring back Chris Evans as Captain America or Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow (OK…maybe not ScarJo) without burdening the MCU with yet another time paradox. As far as we’re concerned, pre-Marvel Studios curiosities like all those crazy old live action Marvel TV shows or Howard the Duck or Dolph Lundgren’s take on The Punisher are now officially canon somewhere within the multiverse.  

Phil Coulson could show up in Phase 6 leading a Squadron Supreme (just like in the comics), out for vengeance against the Avengers because they let his Earth 20085 brother die. Hell, if they really wanted to get dirty, Nick Fury could hire Deadpool to kill Coulson in retaliation, like in the comics. Wait, that was Secret Empire,wasn’t it? Never mind, don’t do that. 

Anyway, you get the idea.

The possibilities are as infinite as the imaginations of the writers, limited only by Kevin Feige’s patience/sense of humor. Don’t expect anything too crazy: the time travel solution in Avengers: Endgame was wild, but before Loki, that was far and away the most ridiculous comic book science the MCU had trafficked in. Typical MCU adaptations include much more modest nods to comics’ wackier elements – Eternals pending – like secret societies that had taken over SHIELD or Kurt Russell being Chris Pratt’s dad. So that ultra-maxi series that starts out a movie, moves into a TV show, has a comic tie in that directly crosses over with the show, and wraps up in Avengers 6 that we’re all hoping will come to pass is probably not on the horizon.

The Crisis on Infinite Earths Problem

An infinite multiverse doesn’t just mean possibility. It has a trap built in, too. The biggest multiverse story of all time, probably the one that set the template for future interactions with the concept, was DC Comics’ Crisis on Infinite Earths. That book set the standard for multiversal destruction, collapsing DC’s infinite comics timelines down to one single Earth and one single timeline. Gone were the separate Earths for the modern Justice League and the World War II Justice Society, replaced by one, unified timeline. And while the comic itself was a masterpiece, miraculously balanced by Marv Wolfman and beautifully drawn by George Perez; what it wrought on the DCU was 30 years of explainers why the Green Lantern of World War II still looked 35, or why Batman has only been operating for five years but went through six Robins in that time.  

The cautionary tale here is one of inward looking stories versus expansionary choices. Post-Crisis DC retcons were about fixing problems the writers and editors perceived with the new timeline, and not about telling the best story they could with the characters and continuity they had. This is an easy trap for a new, expanded (but not all the way expanded) MCU to fall into. There are key pieces of the comics that haven’t been ported to the films yet. 

The Fantastic Four

The temptation is likely huge to use this new, beautiful, infinite multiverse to introduce the Fantastic Four and the X-Men to the MCU. That’s probably half of a good idea.

The cosmogony of the multiverse is ingrained in who the Fantastic Four are. Their story begins as explorers of the unknown – Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Ben Grimm, and Johnny Storm are bombarded with cosmic radiation after an unauthorized space launch. That origin is very of the time when they were created, and would probably hit different now when the only unauthorized space launches are led by giant assholes. So why not take a page from the end of Secret Wars and have them get their powers exploring the new multiverse? It makes so much sense to do it that way that one is almost suspicious of this entire retcon. But that doesn’t make it any less cool.

The X-Men in the MCU

While introducing the Fantastic Four to the MCU by saying they’ve been off exploring the multiverse would make a certain elegant sense, if Marvel tried to introduce the X-Men that way, it would be hugely problematic. 

The core concept of the X-Men is the mutant metaphor, the idea that mutants are hated and feared because of who they are. On a completely superficial level, this is nonsense: what’s the difference between Cyclops’ eye blasts and Captain Marvel zapping Kree ships with fist beams? Why are mutants singled out for scorn and bigotry when someone like Doctor Strange has MUCH more terrifying abilities?

The difference is the idea that mutants are humanity’s destiny. There’s no concern that the majority baseline human population is going to someday be replaced by handsome super-soldiers or radioactive Catholic lawyers. But that genetic distinction – the idea that Magneto and Apocalypse and Pixie and Skids all share a distinct identity, while Captain America and Daredevil and Dr. Druid and Tigra do not – creates tension that allows real world out groups to superimpose their struggles onto X-Men comics and makes them infinitely relatable.

As superficially attractive as the idea of plopping the mutants on their own parallel Earth might be (and trust me, this definitely seems like the simplest justification for keeping Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and Ryan Reynolds’s Deadpool in the MCU while jettisoning anything else that is less appealing for audiences or studio execs), putting the mutants on their own separate Earth strips that struggle from the story and makes them just another cape crew.

Worse, using the multiverse as justification that suddenly mutants are here because they came from a parallel timeline disrespects the marginalized people who identify with the X-Men who, like left-handed people, have been here the whole time. Whether society noticed or not.

The Sony Spider-Man Problem

What keeps me up at night about the new Marvel multiverse is the Spider-Man family. The Marvel/Sony relationship has always been…complicated. 

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

While the new multiverse provides creators with endless storytelling opportunities that could expand the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it also sets up an easy out for the studios to separate the Spider-Man movies from the rest of the MCU. Cleaving off the Spider-family movies wouldn’t be great – I don’t need to be reminded of complicated business deals while I’m at the movies. Dedicating all of a future Spidey movie to explaining why Pete isn’t in the master MCU and can’t talk about Iron Man anymore would almost certainly be a nightmare.

But these inward-looking continuity fixes are the types of stories that Marvel, on page and on screen, has generally avoided (before you jump in the comments to shout “CLONE SAGA” please take into account how much work “generally” is doing in this sentence) with its big multiverse stories. Hopefully they’ll keep making those wise decisions going forward.

The post MCU Phase 4 and 5: What the Multiverse Means for the Future of Marvel Movies and TV appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2Vqw7iX

[themiscyra1983]

The Elephant In The Room

Let me preface all this by saying I do not have time for assholes. If you come at me with insults and contempt, I will block you.

The other day on Twitter I said the Harry Potter books aren’t good. I said this to a friend but I guess some people just keep an eye out for whatever Harry Potter shit pops up on Twitter and/or the algorithm just likes to spit in people’s eyes because hoooo boy people saw and lost their minds. I blocked two people over it because they decided to be assholes, and had a somewhat terse conversation with someone who was more politely insistent before going, finally, “I’m glad you find joy in something I no longer care for” and putting an end to the conversation.

It’s no particular secret that I’m in the fandom, and prior to J.K. Rowling going full, ‘no plausible deniability here’ transphobe, I’d bought my share of official merch. Frankly I should have stopped that sooner, but it took getting figuratively slapped in the face multiple times before I finally admitted Rowling’s ignorance carried a distinct air of willfulness and malice. Anyway I still HAVE the stuff I bought before, the Ravenclaw crap, the wands I was collecting (no more of that, I fear, though I’d hoped to pick up Tonks and Ginny’s wands at least before I brought an end to it), the Ravenclaw goblet I was gifted from a friend who bought it before JKR passed the plausibly just clueless horizon. There is still much in the world that I love, but much of that love comes now from the creations of others, and I cannot in good conscience spend money in ways that directly benefit Rowling’s financial empire.

And the Harry Potter books are not, in my view, good books. I’ve felt that for a while now. I’ll go a step further: I think they’re dangerous stories to tell children; I think I would be uncomfortable reading them to any children I might have. They are not stories that should be viewed without a critical eye. I loved them as a teenager. I’ve grown more uncomfortable with them - and, as with Twilight, far more comfortable with how critically thinking fans have transformed the work - as time has passed.

This actually has very little to do with the fact that, well...Rowling is not the best writer. Listen. I’m a Power Rangers fan. I’ve watched every incarnation of Star Trek, and every single movie. I have no problem with trashy fiction. You will find me rooting around in the garbage with the finest raccoons. But that is part of it, yes; there are flaws in the craft of it, and I don’t feel that, inherently, we needn’t judge children’s fiction by adult standards. I would argue that the very BEST children’s fiction is also excellent by adult standards. But this is the least of my concerns.

Here are my actual concerns.

Rowling wants credit for declaring Dumbledore gay after the fact, for saying Hogwarts is a safe space for all students in ways not reinforced (and in fact actively contradicted) by the text, for cheering the fan-created same-sex marriage of Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnegan, but she doesn’t want to take the creative risks that go along with that. When she had the opportunity, with the Fantastic Beasts movies, to make that subtext text, she and her cronies outright declined it. At every opportunity she has shied away from actually putting her high-minded ideas to the page. This is a cowardly choice at best.

Further, Dumbledore’s only canonical love interest (and it is not clear whether the love was requited) was a pretty fascist with whom he fell in, politically, for a time. I get it, we’ve all had crushes on terrible people. But this is literally his one and only love, requited or not, and after he defeats Grindelwald he is left to pine away for the remainder of his days. The one gay love story in the books - if you tilt your head, and squint, and accept Rowling’s word for it - is a tragic one that leaves one man in prison and another celibate and alone and, increasingly, a manipulative bastard who upholds the status quo.

There’s nothing wrong with a tragic love story. I’ve enjoyed quite a few. But when this - THIS - is what you hold up as a triumph of representation, in the absence of ANYTHING else...no. No cookies for you.

Let’s also talk about how I don’t feel Rowling wrote Dumbledore or approaches him with a critical eye. There is NO excuse for leaving a child in an abusive home. No, fuck your blood wards. You’re telling me that Albus Dumbledore - ALBUS DUMBLEDORE - could not devise protections better than leaving Harry with abusive relatives who despised him and everything he stood for? Then, too, when Dumbledore did intervene in Harry’s life, he did so with full knowledge that he was setting Harry up to be a sacrificial lamb, AND WITH THIS SPECIFIC END IN MIND. None of this is acceptable. Dumbledore is a fucking manipulative, abusive bastard who uses people and throws them away, and the fact that it WORKED OUT for Harry does not absolve him of his crimes.

Moving on, and bear in mind I’m still getting my steam up on this whole rant: Seamus Finnegan. Seamus Finnegan is the one canonically, obviously Irish character in the books, named quite stereotypically, but more importantly, in the books and movies, is shown to be interested in (a) liquor and (b) making things explode. He’s REALLY GOOD at making things explode. Do I need to explain why it’s problematic for the one Irish character to blow things up all the time? He also does this in defense of UK wizardry’s status quo, so, you know, even if you were all IRISH FREEDOM FIGHTER YEAH, I assure you he is not that guy.

There is an entire species of sapient magical creatures who exist solely to serve witches and wizards. Hogwarts is run on slave labor and most of the finest wizard families hold slaves. But it’s all right! Only one of them has ever, in the context of the books, wished to be emancipated, and everyone else views Dobby as a weirdo for wishing to be free, and paid for his labor. Dobby, incidentally, later lays down his life for the wizarding savior who tricked his master into freeing him. The only other emancipated house elf we see in the books, Winky, spends her time in a state of drunken depression, rendering her useless and scarcely capable even of caring for herself. She wished to remain enslaved, do you see, and was helpless without the benevolent guidance of her master.

There’s fan work that has tried to address this by exploring a mystically symbiotic relationship between house elves and wizards and witches, and yes, yes, J.K. Rowling is drawing on European folklore here, but let’s not give her credit, okay?

Goblins. Goblins! Goblins have a long history of being antisemitic stereotypes to begin with (hence why I have seen multiple Jews on Tumblr push back HARD on ‘goblincore’), but J.K. Rowling just...right. They’re short, ugly, have hooked noses, generally look like antisemitic cartoon figures. They are locked out of power but control all the wizarding world’s banking, and do so in very usurious ways, for example charging wizards to hold their money, etc. Now this might be an interesting commentary on how Jews have historically been oppressed and forced into fields that goyim felt themselves too ‘pure’ to work in, were it not for the fact that Rowling’s fantasy Jews LITERALLY AREN’T HUMAN, and more, ARE ACTUALLY GREEDY, CONNIVING, AND WILLING TO BETRAY YOU AGAINST THEIR OWN SELF-INTEREST FOR PERSONAL GAIN. FUCKING GOBLINS, MAN.

Then there’s the travesty of Magic in North America, which disrespected the intelligence of Native Americans (none of them figured out you could point a stick at something to make the magic go until white people showed up to help, apparently, but don’t worry, they’re really CLOSE TO NATURE and GOOD AT NATURAL MAGIC), disrespected the beliefs of specific peoples (no, skinwalkers aren’t just misunderstood shapechanging wizards and witches smeared by the greedy and ignorant, you’re whitesplaining actual mythology to the people who hold it sacred), made the ONE wizarding school in America white with an appropriated Native veneer, and generally just...Did Not Get America. As bad as the UK Wizarding World is, Rowling demonstrated complete IGNORANCE regarding the long history of what we now call North America, ignorance of even modern American culture (there’s a reason why American fans particularly tend to ignore the idea that wizardry is locked down tight behind a wall of secrecy here), ignorance and disrespect toward Native populations, and an unwillingness to do the research necessary to do this shit right.

There’s more. There’s blood purity, and gender politics, and Severus Snape’s portrayal, and all kinds of shit that grates, and I’m just tired.

Writers make mistakes. it happens. But Rowling does not recognize her mistakes. She does not seek to make amends. She just barrels on with her shitty opinions, regardless of who she hurts.

it is at the point where I am no longer even willing to thank her for graciously allowing us to play in her sandbox. We don’t need her blessing; the OTW has done far more for fanfic than she has. And it is, indeed, beginning to grate on me that people constantly try to apply Harry Potter metaphors to real life and real politics. As my friend Doc often says, find another book.

I love butterbeer (or at least the knockoffs available outside the Universal parks), I still read fanfic sometimes, I still like to play with ideas like the Harry Potter movies as performed by Muppets, with Dan Radcliffe as Snape and Tom Felton as Lucius. I’m glad the movies brought us a generation of actors, mentored by performers like Alan Rickman and Maggie Smith and so many others, who have gone on to bigger and better things. Much of my merch is packed away, but I still hold on to some of it because it has new meaning for me in light of fanwork, or because (in the case of my Ravenclaw hat and scarf) it’s warm, winters here are cold, I don’t want to buy new shit, leave me alone.

I am accustomed to seeing fans turn trash into treasure. I’ve tried to do it myself. But I feel, quite strongly, that the original text in this case is trash. it is radioactive, stinky trash. You won’t persuade me otherwise, and I’m done apologizing for it. If Rowling wants me to respect her and her work again, she’ll have to earn it, but I’m very trans and she low-key hates my kind, so even if I weren’t a random reader I wouldn’t be holding my breath.

And I really, really need to emphasize to you all that it is okay if people don’t like a given work of fiction. It is okay if people HATE that piece of fiction. You don’t need to change the minds of everyone around you. You absolutely will not succeed in doing so. Please, I’m begging you, make peace with that - and please, I’m begging you, even if you like something, try to consider it critically.

[waughandcoldwater]

Straight people will never understand what it feels like to grow up and not have any representation of what your love looks like. Just having a canon bisexual character isn’t enough. This isn’t about Qualice. I feel like most fans even shipped Qualice at the beginning of the show. Quentin and Alice understand each other in a deep way, and they have the capacity to bring out the best in each other. I would rather see them be friends, but I am okay with seeing them in a relationship. However, I hate the way they get together in 4x12. It seems out of the blue, especially for Quentin, who couldn’t even look at Alice last episode. Additionally, it just isn’t romantic at all. What’s romantic about someone saying they want you back right as they are telling you that they’ve given up on fairy tales and destiny? Alice doesn’t deserve that. Alice is a wonderful character and she deserves a plotline outside of Quentin. His approval shouldn’t be the end of her redemption arc. Outside of that, explain to me how Quentin and Alice spent a few weeks together, and we got two seasons of his pining for her but yet Quentin and Eliot share a life together and it gets glossed over in nearly every way except for in subtext? It looks like the writers threw the Queliot content in for views and for praise about their representation. And sure, it worked. They got praise from fans and critics and probably grew their viewer base. But they disrespected Queliot, which had the potential to be a beautiful and meaningful romance. If they didn’t want to explore the relationship, they shouldn’t have thrown in the 4x05 storyline. Barring some sort of god tier plotline to be written into 4x13 to tie up plot holes, the writers have lost a lot of my respect. This doesn’t mean I am no longer a fan of the show, I am hurt but I will still be watching the show out of support for the actors and my love of the universe.

[shaolinbynature]

i think it's really sad how you guys can't let a ship prosper without tearing it down the moment it begins. we have to fight for representation all the time and when we finally get healthy black love on tv, people want to tear the black girl down in favor of a white girl. you guys do this in every fandom where a black woman begins developing a love interest and it's really transparent. just say you want black women to be alone and go

Lmao I hope you don’t think I’m a Caucasian™ because I can assure you, love, my brown skin says that I am not. But let me tell you one thing, you are preaching to one of your own because I have been in those exact fandoms you’re most likely implying. I know how the game is. From cancelled shows like Sleepy Hollow to thriving shows like The Walking Dead, I know all about how fans will willfully ignore the connection between a black female character and their love interest (who usually is white) just because it doesn’t fit their “ideal pairing”. Especially being in the Richonne fandom, I’ve thrown haymakers at those who try to say Michonne isn’t fit for Rick, they should only be platonic, it’s forced and so on. But there is a huge difference between a pairing like Michonne one like J*ggie. And I’m gonna split this nice and quick so neither of our time is wasted.

Note: I am putting an asterisk in J*ggie’s name not to be disrespectful but so this won’t show up in the J*ggie tag and make shippers upset.

Point one: Chemistry

In Sleepy Hollow, Abbie and Ichabod had wild chemistry together. In TWD, Richonne have unreal chemistry together, to the point their movements are literally in-sync with one another. Because of this, fans naturally gravitate to their pairing and want their relationship to be explored. Maggie has been on the show since season 10 which means her and Jackson heave been in the same hospital for almost five years. And in those five years, J*ggie have barely spoke to each other. But now, all of a sudden, they can’t stop thinking about each other. People say Richonne being canon came out of “left field” but J*ggie REALLY came out of left field. Jackson and Maggie have very little chemistry and can barely captivate a scene together. That’s why fans say they don’t like the ship. Not because they don’t want a black woman like Maggie to find love.

Point two: Fan Reception

Despite people in Sleepy Hollow acting as if Katrina has more chemistry with Ichabod than Abbie and Jessie having more chemistry with Rick than Michonne, two white women in favor over the black women, there were more people for Ichabbie and Michonne than the former. People could scream how the couples don’t fit but there was an even larger fanbase that says this pairing is perfect! Abbie and Ichabod make sense! Rick and Michonne make sense! Unfortunately, a very little percent say Jackson and Maggie make sense. If it were just Japril stans saying this, you can make the argument that they’re being bitter. But when you have the entire fanbase saying this pairing doesn’t work, then it might be a deeper issue. I mean, whether you like them or not, Japril’s pairing caused just one of their scenes to have 33 MILLION views on Youtube. Most music videos from your favs don’t even have that many views. That’s what positive reception looks like. J*ggie’s reception is often met with WTFs. That’s why fans say they don’t like the ship. Not because they don’t want a black woman like Maggie to find love

Point three: Actor’s Support

Using them again, Richonne’s actors, Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira were Richonne’s biggest supporters before they went canon. Andrew often pushed for their pairing even when the writers weren’t promoting the idea. Even his mother is a huge stan of the ship. Whether or not the show was going to do it, they constantly dropped how much they would like to see it happen. With J*ggie’s actors, Jessie and Kelly, there isn’t that same kind of excitement. Especially when you compare how dedicated Jessie was promoting Japril. Even with J*ggie becoming canon, he still likes tweets and takes pictures of fans wanting Japril instead. If that’s not the biggest reason things aren’t working, idk what its! That’s why fans say they don’t like the ship. Not because they don’t want a black woman like Maggie to find love.

I did not expect to write this much I felt it was necessary to elaborate why your theory isn’t plausible in this particular situation. So, in closing, if you want to root for J*ggie’s #BlackLove just because they are two black characters getting together, sis, that’s more than fine. But! You cannot get mad and throw the race card when people are not on the same team as you because they see it as a complete travesty of a pairing.

[agentharrisonofshield-a]

🔥🔥

Send me a “ 🔥 “ for an unpopular opinion.@dominionovershadows

I think the only people who should be writing stories about queer women that end in tragedy should be queer women.  Period.  No exceptions.  I just finished a book the other day by a queer female author who has, over her last four books, given me a happily-ever-after queer ending, an ambiguous-but-realistic queer ending, and a love triangle resolved into a queer poly ship.  Her latest book, again heavily featuring queer ladies, ended on a much much darker note.  But it didn’t hurt me the way Tara getting shot hurt me when I was a teenager, or learning about Lexa getting shot on a show I didn’t even watch, or the countless, countless other examples of ‘queer women end in tragedy’ in media written almost entirely by straight writers.  There is nuance in belonging to a marginalized group, and so the end of A Line In The Dark (fantastic book, 110% recommend it, find it your YA section, Malinda Lo is an amazing author) carried a certain weight to it that would have been absent had it been written by anyone other than a queer woman.  If you want unhappy or tragic endings to queer female relationships?  Find a queer woman to write them to give them nuance beyond “we don’t know how to write happy queer women together” or “hey shock value” or “look we gave you a dozen episodes of kissing that’s enough right?”.

—————————————————————–

I’m not a big fan of the whole thing where people post faceclaims tagged as ‘wanted opposites’.  In fact, I downright hate it and I think it’s insulting to people who use those faceclaims.  There are plenty of people I want in Vivian’s life.  Some are canon characters I’d love to explore her relationship with.  Some are just roles I’d like filled, like ‘casual fuckbuddy’ and ‘fellow SHIELD agent’ and ‘regular at a bar/club Vivian likes to frequent’.  

But saying “I just want [insert popular actor or actress here] in my muse’s life” like wow.  So you don’t care who the muse is.  You don’t care who writes them or how they write them.  You don’t care what the muse is like.  You just want that faceclaim.

That is easily one of the most disrespectful things I have ever seen in the RPC.  When I want another muse in Vivian’s life, I want the muse.  I want the effort the mun has put into building and writing them.  I want the collection of wants and dislikes and fears and history that makes them who they are.  Even when I want to interact with a canon character; I’m not going to get along with every portrayal out there.  Devaluing a muse to their faceclaim is insulting as fuck.

[koriginaladdict]

How now that I had a good preview of TW fandom i confirm what i already said, too many “cas fans” completely failed their “fave” for a ship

I’ve been in spn fandom, and now i went back to teen wolf

I’m a castiel and derek hale fan, and while i looked for fics about them i noticed a glaring difference between how the fans support them

most cas fics are dest/el, but you could find like 5% other than that if you dig enough

almost 99% of derek fics are sterek

BUT

most cas fics written by dest/el shippers (most not all) tear down the angels, write them as uncaring, horrible to cas while in canon most were shown to care deeply for cas and want what’s best for him, and defended him against how badly the winchesters treat him all to show how “the brothers are HIS REAL family”

most derek fics written by stereks actually explore his backstories more than the show ever cared to do, his family was fleshed out, given flashbacks, laura hale is pretty recurring in those fics, also a lot give his pack (erica, boyd, isaac) a 2nd chance, explore an actual pack dynamic (instead of acting like derek is the worst thing ever when he never had a chance to make it up) they create such amazing stories even a non shipper like me, find myself completely hooked in most of the fics, the relationship is there,but no one is ever brought down to prop it up

what i love most about derek stans is that, they viciously defend him no matter what, scott blatantly said that “maybe his whole family did something to deserve burning alive” something like that and no one acts like scott loves derek or scott is a better friend to derek than anyone else, scott uses derek’s body to give gerard the bite, tricking him into thinking he has accepted being part of his pack and then gloated in his face, the fandom doesn’t act like every one else treats derek horribly and scott is the only one worthy of being with him

well over the dest/el fandom the standards are so fucking low it’s pathetic, while i mentioned two big examples paralleling them with scott/derek  well, let’s just say what dean put cas through would take me hours to list just check cas deserves better tag, and yet people (again not all, but too many) act like dean loves cas and his verbal abuse is a sign that it’s a “cute married couple” and is secretly in love

ok someone might say “you’re biased, derek was pretty agressive back on s1 and you don’t defend stiles”

again i’m not a shipper, but it doesn’t matter unlike dean, derek is always held accountable for anything he does or blamed for things he didn’t, but here’s the thing HE EVOLVED!! he got better, he didn’t spend 6 seasons mistreating anyone (he was mostly the receiving end) there was development and i can accept that, cause no one is perfect

(and stfu about “but john” bitch derek is the living breathing example of how having a shitty life isn’t an excuse to be a shitty person to others no need to make excuses blaming anyone but your fave, he needs to get over himself and be better)

dean rarely changes, while there’s slightly less horrible abuse by s10 but that’s mainly because cas isn’t around as much as he used to, the track record is horrifying, 8 years of endangering cas, rarely saving him, can you believe after all the sacrifices cas made and all the suffering he went through it took the winchesters 8 whole seasons before doing anything that could be considered remotely decent by not leaving him to die in 12x12, while yeah it’s good it shows how horrible the situation was

and the shippers, when dean does something horrible like ? bully a mentally ill cas and yell “nobody cares that you’re broken” or kick him out to starve and freeze while he was human. what would the fans do ? yeah they’ll jump to defend dean against any valid criticism using the old “it’s john’s fault” “he didn’t tell him bedtime stories and trained him to surive being hunted by demons so everything he’ll do as an adult is his fault” “dean probably heard john say that to him”

ok but how about sam, they had the same father? while yes it was dean who suffered most of it i admit but still, sam never ever treated cas the way dean does (with 2 exceptions and one of them was souless) so are you implying that dean is so weak he has no ability to be better?

I almost forgot to mention, while the abuse is always overlooked at best, glorified at worst, there’s another aspect i don’t like : “REDUCING EVERY SINGLE HEROIC THING CASTIEL DOES ABOUT DEAN” cas wants to save sam? it’s not because he’s that good or because sam is his friend, it’s for dean, cas saves the world? it’s all thanks to dean who taught him, cas rebels, nah it’s not about the world ending it’s all for dean

also, i wrote a rant about how the showrunners disrespect the actor playing castiel misha collins, what was some of the shippers’ reaction? to completely dismiss it, saying the show’s mantra that they’re family and love each other and it was his idea when there’s no proof of that, they’d rather defend anyone but the person they act like supporting, we even lost like 15 followers because of it, if i reblog some posts defending castiel losing some followers is guaranteed and it’s just, idk cas deserves better than his “fans” completely ignoring his pain cause acknowledging it would severly harm their ship

my point is, when i joined yet another fandom it’s more and more obvious how spn fandom is pretty messed up, and failed their so called fave just for a ship, a toxic ship that is a huge reason why he’s left with so many mental issues, why with the constant abuse and bringing down he completely stopped believing in himself (also the writers sabotaging him plays a role but nvm)

[constantbrainlag]

TLDR (Too Late; Don't Read)

Note: Not fanning the flames. I’ve always just been the type to wait for the dust to settle before reacting to something so I can react logically instead of being fueled by emotions.

I knew from the beginning Lena and Kara would never happen - but that doesn’t stop me from appreciating the fact that I see a beautiful relationship between them. Because they do have such a beautiful friendship. Yes, I do see them in a more romantic light but I really don’t care if the show doesn’t go there (though I do feel that they are missing out) - I have fanfics and the SuperCorp fandom to explore that.

This whole #SongGate ordeal wasn't really about shutting down SuperCorp for me. I wasn't even really offended at first. But I just found it really disrespectful and rude of them to insult what I appreciate in the show and ridicule it as if my support to this dying show meant nothing to them.

To me, it wasn’t so much as making fans feel that the idea of two strong independent woman going into a romantic relationship was a joke, but it was more of a display (yet another one) that they did not give a shit over what fans appreciated on the show.

Judging from the cast’s reactions every time a SuperCorp question was brought up, we can safely assume that they are well aware of the popularity of this fanon ship amongst their audience. Despite this and knowing that it is something that a lot of fans love about the show, they displayed their lack of respect to their fanbase by being so insensitive to a good portion of us by going as far as to ridicule the idea of even its possibility of ever happening.

And that, I am taking personally.

I am aware that some fans are saying that SuperCorp shippers have brought this mockery upon themselves but I would just like to call them out on that.  So let’s get a few things straight.

If I had beef with the Mon-El storyline, it wasn’t because of SuperCorp, it was simply because of how they wrote Mon-El that I simply could not stand. And that beef, I took to the writers, the producers - the people who are actually responsible for the story. Yes, I call them out regularly on how they’re writing Mon-El so horribly (because they fucking are) but I don’t tell them to make SuperCorp canon - I don’t give a shit if they do. I just wanted the show that I loved in its first season back - where we had strong role models to look up to.

And sure, this is their show. They have every right to call the shots. This is their interpretation. They’re supposed to infuse their own spin to the Supergirl lore and give her a new narrative to bring her to life on the screen.

But Supergirl is more than that. She's more than just some character on a TV show. She's not a blank canvas for them to shit all their ideas on. She's a comic book superhero for God's sake. She has a pre-existing symbolism. She's a superhero who's meant to symbolize something—good, justice, strong female character and etc.

So when they go and throw her character into a narrative that betrays the very core of what she stands for by pairing her up with the very definition of a toxic boyfriend and selling it to us as the romance of the century, they’re not doing a very good and respectful job of bringing this character to life. And it's such a shame because they have done so well in the beginning. Supergirl during it's first season run was fresh and inspiring. Kara Danvers was sunshine and unicorns but she had such steely spirit underneath that skin. So that’s what I’m pissed off about. I never was pissed off about Kara being with Mon-El because that meant Kara was not with Lena. I was pissed off about Kara being with Mon-El because it betrays the very idea of what she stands for.

I have been nothing but respectful to the cast over this whole SuperCorp thing and I know a good (quite large actually) portion of SuperCorp shippers who are the same - who are just simply vocal about our discontent over pairing someone who could’ve been an amazing role model to young girls to a character like Mon-El.

So despite all the respect I’ve given the actors and the civil critique I’ve given the writers and the producers, are you saying I, and the rest of the fanbase who had been nothing but reasonable and respectful, deserve to be insulted that way as a fan just for appreciating a ship just because the cast and crew decided to lump us with a few dumbasses who are a misrepresentation of the SuperCorp fanbase?

Nah, man. Nah. I ain’t taking any of that shit.

If they don’t respect me, I’ll respect myself.

[nyxelestia]

You're basically saying that TW stole a bunch of tropes commonly used by Stereks in their romantic Sterek fics, and in the next breath blaming Sterek fans for leaving when it became evident tptb had no intention of exploring their relationship. Viewers have no obligation to continue watching a show they feel no attachment to, and contrary to Posey's statement, I don't think there is any right or wrong reason to watch a show. You also say that the baiting/encouragement by actors, tptb etc 1/-

was benign and innocuous, as they were only doing their job. You say that Stydia and Scallison was hyped as well. Sterek was multitudinously bigger, which was reflected by the hyping of it and the many articles written about it in mainstream media. You then blame Sterek fans for buying into it, which OK, I guess we were all supposed to be savvy enough to realize it was all for funsies. I disagree with the notion that it’s the job of the cast and crew to tease a queer ship that they have no 2/-

make canon, just because fans enjoy it. The honest thing would have been to say something along the line of “we see you dig Sterek, that’s great! It’s not going canon but we support your creativity”. You see basis for Scerek in canon, which awesome. Write all the fics about them. Don’t however discredit the vast number of people who did see canon basis for Sterek. Not everyone has been fooled by corrupted gifsets. As for the clusterfuck that is the bi-baiting of Stiles. That’s just ugly. ¾

They baited and baited his bisexuality, whilst being adamant of not ever explicitly stating it. I think the fact that the writers felt compelled to get Stiles a gf, is the main warning sign of their incompetence. “Erica’s going to be girlfriend material. Gage leaves. Oh shit, we have to bring in another girl. YES, an as of yet completely forgotten Hale girl! Adelaide leaves. Desperation grows. AH, dub-con sex between two mentally ill teens in an institution!”. Sterek fans are not at fault here.

Ever seen that gifset about “when Stiles was being protective of Derek” when Chris was threatening him and Jackson in the last episode of Season 1? Derek was never mentioned in that scene, and Stiles was talking about Scott and Kate. // Just a friendly reminder that Derek was in fact mentioned in that scene. STILES: “Would you prefer I locked him in the basement and burned the whole house down around him?” … “Oh right, Derek said you guys had a code. Guess no one ever breaks it.” -Transcript

Posey has always referred to TW as “his own show” - ex: the cast interview with Cody C. and Dylan Sprayerry in which Posey states that shipping non canon pairing doesn’t make any sense and it’s incredibly offensive and disrespectful towards the writer, the producers and everyone involved in “his show” - and he also became a producer, so… Why did Posey never address what HIS show have done to Arden/Kira? He simply said that “Scott doesn’t need a love interest in order to be interesting” instead

You are picking and choosing from interviews to supplement your agenda.

TPTB aren’t a monolith, either - they are a group of writers, producers, and actors who all have to answer to someone else (MTV), even Jeff Davis. Collectively, have their own agenda, their own plans for the story as a work of narration, and the show as a production. They have to react and take into account the fanbase - but that does not mean that fans get to dictate the show, either. They also regularly disagree with each other, have no idea what the central narrative will be, or sometimes just aren’t in constant communication with each other.

Queerbaiting, generally speaking, is a shitty thing to do. Especially on a show that also, already, has queer characters. On that, we agree. And I don’t know how you got “benign and innocuous” out of “they were doing their jobs”. You are, again, trying to put words into my metaphorical mouth to make a strawman argument.

And you’re right, we are going to disagree on most of the rest.

Such as reasons for watching a show. There is a right reason and a wrong reason for watching a show. It’s not about characters or ships or plot - it’s about watching the show to enjoy the show, vs watching it because you keep waiting for something to enjoy (and then getting mad when something that was never supposed to be there, isn’t there).

There is a world of difference between watching the show for inspiration for Sterek, and watching the show expecting Sterek to happen. There is a world of difference between watching the show because you like a side character, and waiting for that side character to supplant the main character as the star of the show. There is a world of difference between hoping for a ship and expecting a ship.

There is also a world of difference between “listening to fandom” and “bowing down to fandom”. By and large, the producers and actors of the show were listening. They were not obeying, they never had to, and they never should have had to.

As for the actors, there is also a world of difference between “I’d be down to play this” and “this is probably going to happen”. There is a world of difference between “I have some ideas for this dynamic” and “I want these two characters to hook up/end up together”. There is a world of difference between “this could happen (as could many other things)” vs “this probably will happen (as opposed to many other things)”.

It’s that element of picking and choosing again. Take Hoechlin’s idea for how the Darach confrontation in Derek’s loft could’ve gone - his idea was for a platonic interaction between two characters who he refers to as friends and partners in crime. Fandom took it as a shipping scene. This is probably the force that also leads to people seeing so many “Sterek questions” in interviews and panels that they forget - or never see in the first place - things like questions about Stydia, or other ships, or other character arcs unrelated to shipping at all.

I don’t pretend to have seen all the Teen Wolf interviews and such ever, but what I have seen is that along with Sterek, the cast have a lot to say about a lot of ships, hypothetical and otherwise. Of course, if you’re only ever looking for what they say about your own ship - and you only ship one thing - you’ll never see them.

(Which is probably why Posey got accused of being a homophobe. If you only pay attention to what he says about Sterek, then it’s easy to make that accusation, because you’ve never seen or paid attention to him talking about being open to Scott having a boyfriend, and being down to play Sciles or Scisaac.)

Yes, they were pandering to Sterek shippers. They were also pandering to Stydia shippers. They were pandering to Scallison shippers even while building an Allisaac relationship. They were pandering to Sterek and Stydia shippers while also pandering to the former Sterica base with Stora, and then with Stalia.

And I hate to break it to you, but Stiles’ “would you prefer I locked him in a basement?” line was still about Scott, not Derek. The conversation was about Kate, and Stiles didn’t particularly care about Derek in that scene, or in that season as a whole. Mentioning a piece of information provided by Derek was still about Kate.

I also really hate to break this to you, but Posey’s promotion doesn’t actually give him much sway over the decisions made about the show, just how those decisions are carried out. Equating the star of a show referring to said show as “theirs” and equating it with production power is a strawman argument - you are ascribing power and influence that Posey does not have to him, then blaming him for not using it, and for not putting his career on the line to speak more openly about the problems of the show.

It would ultimately achieve nothing and fix nothing - remember, racism isn’t just about individual shows, but also about the broader industry, and bias against WOC is rampant in Hollywood, MTV and otherwise. Look at fucking Hawaii 5-0 - if Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park could not get parity on a show whose ensemble they have been a part of since the very beginning of the show, what was Posey going to accomplish for himself or for Cho?

Especially given that he’s facing some tremendous cuts, himself - as a lot of people have pointed out, Scott practically became a side character on his own show in Season 6 to make room for Stydia, and this is with Posey having a production component in the show that was not there in the earlier seasons.

tl;dr - The show did its job of trying to pander to every ship. Sterek fandom took it personally when their ship wasn’t given even more preferential treatment than it was already getting, just because it also happened to be so big.

I’ve said before that fandom often blames Scott for failing to be omniscient. What you are doing is blaming Posey for failing to be omnnipotent.