#this is the first thing i've written that is explicitly focused on a romantic relationship

[stardust-falling]

DESPITE THE FROST

From the first moment that Song Lan laid eyes on Xiao Xingchen, his life as he knew it had been changed forever. Of course, he didn’t know that in the beginning. In the beginning, there was hesitation. There was awkwardness. There was naivety and difficult communication. Later, there was trust. There was friendship. There were long nights talking more than Song Lan had ever spoken at once before. And then… there was something more.

–

I. DUSK

A chance meeting while cloud-wandering leads to the beginning of a friendship between Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen.

–

Relationships: Song Lan/Xiao Xingchen Chapter: 1/3 Chapter Words: 10,303 Work Rating: T Chapter Rating: T

[sodasa-was-taken]

I'd like to address some misconceptions I've seen floating around recently.

If a ship is canon people write less fanfics about it

Let's start with the idea that a ship's status as canon has any effect on how much fanfiction it gets. First of all, while the top 100 ships of all time contain a lot of non-canon ships those ships have in more recent years either plummeted down the yearly ship stats list or left it all together as seen in the AO3 ship stats 2023:

Meanwhile newer ships have taken their place several of which are canon. People don't abstain from writing canon pairings because they're canon but for other reasons like not being too interested in their dynamite. There's often next to no canon-complacent fics about the characters in question getting together because that story already exists in the source material. That doesn't mean there's no au's of them getting together as many fic writers find it to be a great exercise as they need to figure out how to keep the elements that attract the characters to each other in differing circumstances. Furthermore, characters getting together are far from the only stories fic writers want to tell.

Secondly, the amount of fics that's tagged with a ship is not the same as the amount that focuses on that ship. A great example of this would be a ship like Lumity where a good amount of the fics they're tagged in don't focus on their relationship. These fics often take place after they get together and make references to them being a couple so people use their ship tag. This means that unlike back when the show had first started airing the fics that doesn't revolve around their relationship still adds to the fics their relationship are tagged in.

Lumity is also a funny case of becoming more popular after it became canon as the fandom for The Owl House itself increased a great amount during the second season. Because of how often their relationship was a secondary element in several fics the amount of fics their relationship was tagged in increased along with the amount of all Owl House fics not just the ones that focused on them.

M/M is often the most used relationship tag in general

This is just nonsense. Every fandom whose source material heavily features the development of a romantic relationship is as good as guaranteed that whatever relationship tag the main couple are tagged is the most prominent. They also often make up around sixty percent of fics within their fandom. In the case of f/f specifically here's a shot list of fandoms on AO3 where f/f is the relationship tag that's used most frequently: Supergirl, The Owl House, She-ra and the princesses of power, Avatar: Legend of Korra, Arcane: League of Legends, RWBY, Wednesday, Amphibia, Steven Universe, and of course Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury.

The amount of fics on AO3 are indicative of the size of a fandom

The actual thing that has an effect on how many fic a ship has on AO3 are a combination of how many people within a fandom writes fanfics about them on AO3, how many fics each writer has written and how long they've been people posting fic about them on AO3. The amount of fics writing within a year is all that's shown on the yearly stats which doesn't say anything about how many people are writing fics or how long they are. When the total amount is all someone has to go by there's nothing that explicitly confirms that all the fics weren't written by a hundred people who each wrote a thousand dabbles.

A way to calculate the total amount of fics for a ship and easily see increases and decreases in amount of fics per year throughout the years would be with a script that would look something like this:

This is for Sulemio as there isn't a lot of data I'd have to find and add since people have only been writing fanfics for them for about two years. Since AO3 either doesn't allow someone to search for fics published within a given timeframe or I just don't know how to do that the numbers are fics updated from August 2022-August 2023 and from August 2023-now. This does mean that there are two fics that got counted twice. Oh, well.

If g-witch is so popular shouldn't it have more fics on AO3?

While the number of fics doesn't say anything about the minimum amount of fanfic authors it does say something about the maximum amount. Even if there was one fic per author that would still be a maximum of about a thousand authors. So what gives?

Well, there appears to be two main reasons for this. One is that the Gundam fandom in general is more a discussion and art orientated fandom. We just don't have that many people whose main thing is writing fics.

Another thing to note is that most of the fics on AO3 are in English and the English speaking part of AO3 skews towards a North American and European demographic.

Unlike some other fandoms the Gundam fandom is anything but centralized in the west so it's only maybe a third of the fandom that would even use AO3. The Chinese part of the fandom sure doesn't as the website has been blocked since before g-witch started airing.

You can get a good idea of how popular Sulemio is by only looking at the fan works that are in English

This is a big one. Like I pointed out before only about a third of the fandom makes fan works in English. We're also in a situation where we have two versions of the same ship name. One is writing in the latin alphabet, the other スレミオ is writing in katakana and is also the more commonly used.

Thousands of Sulemio fan art on twitter is tagged exclusively with the one writing in katakana and therefore wouldn't show up if someone used the one writing in the latin alphabet. Likewise, on the Chinese website Bilibili there are videos about Sulemio that have views in the thousands and ten thousands and let's just say that site is a bit of a challenge to navigate if you know little to no Chinese. Even using a translator will sometimes give you such gems as "Too many barrages" and only leave you more confused.

In conclusion the Gundam fandom is huge and the number of fics on AO3 is an unfair way to determine its size.

Also a quick aside to that one person who tried to be dismissive of the amount of fics Supernatural has on AO3 by saying a lot of it was Omega verse. G-witch has 44 fics tagged as Alpha/Beta/Omega dynamics and Supernatural has 8105. That might seem like a big difference but percentage wise it's about the same amount. Let's make sure we don't live in a glass house before we start throwing stones, please.

[sarucane]

OFMD Spiral Parallels 4: Stede's Letters

Intro: What I love most about how season 2 builds on season 1 of OFMD is the spiral narrative structure. Ground is repeatedly and explicitly re-trod from season 1 to season 2, but in season 2 everything goes deeper than season 1. Meanings are shuffled, emotions are stronger and truer, and transformation is showcased above everything. The first season plucks certain notes, then the second season plucks the same ones--but louder, and then it weaves them together to create a symphony.

---

Now, to this meta: An unexpected letter, from one partner to another.

Season 1 Episode 4

"Dearest Mary,

You deserve happiness, as do I. My hope is that the vast wealth and property I've left behind for you and the children will suffice...You're quite right: we only have this one life.

Fond Regards, Stede"

This letter is an ending. It's shallow, and it's selfish. It's not malicious, but it is careless--as if money could replace a husband and father. There's not a connection here: this letter is about Stede distancing himself from what he's left behind. The letter is essentially a formality, a final obligation to give some sort of explanation for his absence. And as Mary asks in his hallucination, "Did you really think a letter was enough?" Even he knows this was a cheat.

But underneath all that is a something genuine. There's Stede's desire for happiness, knowing he won't find it on his father's land. His acceptance of what Mary's said about having only one life, but a refusal to embrace the same fatalism she was suggesting. It's clumsy and a bit dumb, but it expresses a desire for transition, and it's Stede actually seeking a way to be true to himself for the first time in his life.

Season 2 Episode 8

"Dear Ed,

I long for you. Every day we spend apart feels like an eternity. I know you don't wanna hear from me, but I write these letters daily, hoping one will reach you. Hope that's okay. I know we're not through. I can feel it in my soul. A love like ours can't disappear in an instant: we're joined to one another, intertwined. We wrote our names on each other, in permanent ink."

Stede's first letter is about his relationship to Mary; this letter is about his relationship with Ed. This goes right down to the pronouns: "I" and "you" appear most in the first letter, but "we" is threaded all through the second letter. And that "we" isn't just an artifact of the writing: the audio makes that we-ness real by intertwining Stede's and Ed's voices as the letter continues, using sound to create connection.

Mary reads the first letter sitting on her and Stede's bed--an extremely intimate location, but the letter is stilted and formal. It conveys distance, not closeness. In contrast, the second letter is written from and about distance, but it improbably manages to create intimacy.

The first letter was written out of obligation to the recipient, but this letter is written in hope of connection. The first letter is about Stede's hope for happiness, the second is about his certainty that happiness exists. And the first letter starts with "you" and ends with "I," but the second letter starts with "I": Stede knows what he wants now. He's not just running from something, he's running towards something.

And the largest spiraled parallel is this: Mary's letter was an ending, but Ed's letter is a continuation. The first letter focused on practicalities and closed a door. The second is focused on romantic fantasy--but not the kind of fantasies that drove Stede to write things like "we only have this one life" in the first letter. The kind of fantasies that bind tightly to reality, make life worth living, and keeps doors from closing.

And so, where the first letter created pain in its recipient, pushed its reader down into a dark place, the second is a gift of hope, and it lifts its reader up out of the darkness.

[will80sbyers]

Honestly it feels like people take most of the things out of context when it comes to Mike's character especially his relationship with El. I've seen many people talk about how Mike is 'disgusted' by El and doesnt like girls making a move on him, but the scenes they show to prove that are taken out of context because when you go back and watch those scenes you realize he enjoys it...? It's obvious Mike had a crush on El and liked her at some point and that's intentionally written that way by the writers. A puppy crush you'd say, it's something also said by the Duffers regarding El/Mike's romance i think.

I totally agree, I think in the end it's a matter of perspective, some people genuinely think that he doesn't like her at all, but I read their scenes to be pretty explicitly written as romantic...

even in s3 when people say he's removing her hands from his face because he's disgusted by her kissing him I think it's not enough to say that to be honest, especially because it happens once and all the other times he's kissing her normally and seems pretty annoyed when Hopper interrupts them... plus it's right before the actor was supposed to stop the kissing by starting to sing and have what, in my opinion, was meant to be a cute moment between them joking around

I think the intention was to show how codependent Mike and El became in those months after jumping in a relationship immediately... and how they kept constantly kissing mainly instead of talking, and this makes Jim uncomfortable and makes him say to Mike to stop seeing her -> Mike lies to El -> El seeks advice from Max starting her journey to independence -> El breaks free from the relationship and puts herself first and starts having a friend that is a girl -> Mike tries to get El back but is shown not having the same deep feelings that he believes he has... etc etc

in my opinion it was all to show that they are not compatible/not endgame

I have read all the "proof that Mike doesn't like girls" and it was not enough to convince me

what is convincing is Mike liking also boys because of how the camera focuses on the hand touch with Will for example and how the parallels are repeated for byler too etc etc

I also see the parallels between Mike x El and Mike x Will as couples, indicative of the fact that the writers wanted to put the relationships in the same category, both being actual romantic possibilities for Mike.... but with one clear difference of Mike & Will being the true love pairing!

other things that are supposedly proof but that to me is out of context is Mike not liking Max, that doesn't take in consideration the fact that he was still fixated on El, he was grieving her and feeling like this new girl was going to replace her in the group and that's what makes him dislike her and not trust her

him saying "you don't even know her" about Max to me proves that he acted very different with El exactly because he had a crush...

and that's also what Lucas implies in s1 that Mike is blinded because he likes El more than in a friend way so he trust her word more than his childhood friends because of that

the crush is what makes him act irrational and want El to be in the party and want to believe her when he can (of course when he sees the actual corpse of Will he can't believe her in that moment, but he usually does believe her or want to)

Also like... not even straight people have crushes for all the girls they see lmao why would bi people have them???

there are also many other things that people take as proof that to me are not really convincing but again, who knows, I may be wrong and he may be gay in the end, even if I don't really see it in the narrative for now I'll keep this option in mind!

[woodswolf]

4, 11, 18, 21, 35, 49. Feel free to answer as many or few as you so desire

writing ask game

4. Have you ever been published, or do you want to be published?

i have not been, but i maybe would like to be someday. i have some original ideas floating around (most of which have been for years), but it's like. i have a 9-5, i have games to play, i have other hobbies i like to do. if i DO happen to find an original idea that's just so wild that i HAVE to write it that's one thing, but im not gonna go out of my way to write something just to get published.

11. Books and/or authors who influenced you the most

there's only one thing that specifically comes to mind for this question and it's a fanfic that i first read when i was 16. but that's not necessarily an influence in terms of writing style, more like it literally rewired my brain and my analysis of it strongly influences my personal philosophy to this day: "hope is in everything but it is most present in places where it feels absent".

it's easier to break things down by individual works. for instance, my current wip is explicitly a "response" to two other fics i read last year that pulled off the same concept in different ways, with nods to other stories i've read and liked. (i also just realized as i was answering this that it's probably also a subconscious response to another fic i read a few years ago? it had really good disability rep but then kinda undercut itself via stapling on a romantic subplot — it blurred the very sharply-focused themes of disability rights and empowerment by mixing that with "oh but your new boyfriend is evil so :/". it's still a really good fic but this specifically irked me.) and by virtue of being a story about hope and its absence it kinda is indirectly a tribute to that first fic lol

18. If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be, and what would you write about?

ooooh kinda hot take but i actually Don't like collabs all that much. i've only done a few, but none of them were great experiences. it's probably due to the fact that basically all of them were group-events-with-random-partners kinda things and someone always has to get matched up with the 13y/o, but i've never been able to look on the end results as something i was proud to participate in — they've always ended up pretty mediocre and left me with the feeling of "if i just wrote all of this myself it would suck way less".

a one-on-one more focused collab with co-plotting and more coordination and so on would probably be more fun, but i don't really have any writer Friends (at least not that i talk to on the regular) so it's kinda a moot point. me and my partner have talked about doing a combo collab at some point, though — they have a lot of very interesting ideas for a splatoon au that would play nicely into both of our strengths (writing/art) and i think that could really go somewhere interesting.

21. Who is/are your favourite character(s) to write?

i've really been enjoying the hocotate ship. kinda kooky, kinda smarmy, kinda sarcastic, just a really interesting bag of traits that i haven't previously written all that often.

in general, though, i would have to say olimar, and yes this is accounting for all of the years and years of julien ninjago. olimar is that same kind of "very introspective character who has a strained relationship with their family due to external forces", but unlike julien, who i've always written as being very anxious about keeping up appearances, olimar isn't really anxious at all (at least more than would be normal for someone who ends up in the situations he does on the regular). his problem is that he has a martyr complex taller than the empire state building and zero awareness that Actually That's Kind Of A Bad Thing.

35. What scene/story are you least looking forward to writing?

a few weeks ago i would've said DLDP2, which is the (mainline) sequel to my current wip, but i did a bit of thinking about how to plot things out there and it's a bit better now. it probably still is DLDP2, because there's a lot of other shit i still have to figure out there, but at this point it might be a case of "the devil you know" since DLDP3 and DLDP4 are almost certainly in vaguer states than DLDP2 is. but those two are also years off from being written probably while DLDP2 is Less. but who knows if i'll ever get around to it anyway, the only story i will be MAD if i don't get to wrte it is the DLD's spinoff sequel since that's where a lot more of the disability stuff is going to come into play.

49. Which character would you most want to be friends with, if they were real?

man i have no idea. definitely NOT olimar though at least if he was still 1 inch tall like that. i am afraid of him i would need to kill him to put him out of his misery. what cruel God has condemned them to such forms (and surely it must be a cruel God)?

[alliterative-albatross]

So, I sent you (@disgruntledspacedad) a pretty long ask a while ago (back when you had anon on) and I'm decently sure Tumblr ate it (or maybe you ignored it, in which case, feel free to ignore this one as well). But then I saw one of those "writers appreciate feedback no matter how long" posts, so I'm back here. Here is my mediocre attempt to rewrite my original review of your work. Bear in mind that English is not my first language, so if at any point my phrasing sounds weird to you, you know why. Mandatory disclaimer/apology: this might get a little too long 😅

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

I remember being SO mad at myself for not finding this sooner. I binge read it one afternoon with no thoughts for any real life responsibilities I might have had (and no regrets). Javiears is one hell of an unconventional relationship in the beginning, and I really love what you did with them. The whole premise of your story is quite refreshing, and you somehow manage to convey the trust and mutual respect there two feel for one another without explicitly showing us the beginning of their "entanglement".

Also, fuck you for what you did to poor Emilio, that man was a saint and he deserved better! I honestly can't believe that I got so attached to a character that appeared so little in the story, but it happened, and his death kind of broke my heart.

But the Javiears reunion + mild confession was lovely, and felt completely deserved. And of course the sex scene. I won't lie, I expected a bit better from Javi there, but I did like how utterly /human/ it was. Capturing that humanity, the imperfections in each character is something you're really good at (more on that later).

AFTERSHOCKS

Ah, my emotionally constipated babies who really need to work out their communication issues. I do love them, though. And this short series did a really good job of delving a bit deeper into Ears's and Javi's psyche. Kudos to you for dealing with the medical "aftershocks" of living through an explosion AND using that experience to move your emotional plot forward. These two need to grow a lot before they can get to a stable point in their relationship, and you really manage to convey their insecurity and fear of commitment/intimacy while making it clear that they're in it for the long run and that theirs is a relationship that WILL work out so help them God.

IF I FALL

Ouch. Punch me in the gut while you're at it, why don't you?

But seriously, "If I Fall" is SO FUCKING GOOD. Don't get me wrong, it's angstier than an image of Jesus on the cross (don't judge me, it's Holy Week and I just got home from accompanying my grandma to church), but it somehow works beautifully. You, my dear, play heartstrings like they're a fucking guitar and I AM HERE FOR IT.

You're doing an amazing job at making me feel everything these characters are feeling, which is both awful (bc pain) and impressive.

Also, if anything happens to Ana I will cry, because she is adorable and wonderful and has suffered way too much already and really deserves a break and some cookies.

Also also, if anything happens to Ears I will cry, because she is badass and wonderful and has suffered way too much already and really deserves a break and some cookies.

Also also also, if anything happens to Javi I will cry, because he is loving and wonderful and has suffered way too much already and really deserves a break and some cookies.

Basically, I am really invested in the well-being of these characters and can't wait until they're happy and safe again (please tell me they will be, my heart can't handle much more pain).

A quick note on the angst complaints: yes, this story is way angstier than most other fics out there and it can be a bit too much at times, especially considering how many chapters of pain it's been. BUT it's obvious that "If I Fall" NEEDS this amount of angst to get where it's going, to send the message it wants to and to properly develop its characters. The pain is as important to this story as flour is to bread. You may not like eating flour on its own (I don't think anyone does), but you love bread (because bread is amazing) and you must recognize that bread NEEDS flour to work. It wouldn't be bread otherwise. And eating the flour as part of the bread even makes you like the flour because the bread is just DELICIOUS.

I fully understand and sympathize with the people who have elected to table "If I Fall" until it's completed so they can binge read it knowing there's a happy ending in sight, but in case you're feeling a bit self conscious about all the angst, please know that your story is beautiful not in spite of the pain, but rather /because of it/.

PS: No, I'm not high/drunk, I just really like bread

AUTHOR'S NOTES

Silly thing to comment on, I know, but I do feel like it's important that you know how useful your ANs have been. There are many details in the story that I simply wouldn't fully get without reading your comments at the end of each chapter, and I appreciate your writing a hell of a lot more knowing how deeply you understand and care for each one of your characters. Plus, it is obvious how much work you've put into researching a country and a time period that are (from what I gather) unfamiliar to you, and I really do believe you've done an amazing job of it.

JAVIER PEÑA

My boy. I love your characterization of this complicated character, and I have eagerly read each and every one of your headcanons about him. I can't really say if your version is fully faithful to the source material because it's been a while since I saw Narcos, but your Javi most definitely reads like a real person. He's fairly consistent as a character, and I feel like everything he does is perfectly natural for him to do as a character. He makes for an unconventional yet deeply interesting romantic lead, and so far I have thoroughly enjoyed all his POV chapters/scenes.

OCs

I know you've gotten some flack for making her into an OC halfway into the story, and while I get why the sudden change may have felt like a disappointment for some, I don't share that sentiment. I firmly believe that this fandom is unfairly harsh towards Original Characters and their creators, and I don't really understand why. Listen, I love Reader fics, and consume many Reader fics. I have read dozens, maybe even hundreds, and I can safely say that I've only ever "inserted" myself in approximately 10% of those stories. Reader characters are not as blank as their writers may want them to be. They can't be. They're characters, and character have personalities and moral values and senses of humor and a bunch of other things. Reader characters may not have a backstory or a physical description attached (and even that's not guaranteed), but they're still characters.

And on a more personal note, pretending they're actual blank slates is naive at best and insensitive at worst. Reader characters are American coded 99% of the time, and white coded 95% of the time. Not every readers is white nor American, even if that's the predominant demographic on Tumblr. When I read a JavixReader fic about a woman who speaks exactly zero Spanish, I know she's not me. The story may be beautifully written and have an amazing plot and character development, but the Reader *isn't me*. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, and some of my favorite xReader stories feature a "reader" who couldn't be more different from me, but it's something that enemies of OC fics should take into account. Particularly if they are white and/or American. But I digress.

HANNAH AARONS

Your character is amazing. She's strong, smart, confident, independent and an all-around badass. She gets kidnapped while pregnant and still focuses on problem solving and survival. But she's also overly guarded and mistrustful, and really needs to work on her communication skills. There are times when I absolutely love her and even admire her, and other times when I want to whack her with a slipper. She's no Mary Sue, but remains interesting and likeable throughout the story. She feels wholly human and real, and that's no easy task. I like her, I am invested in her, and I can't wait to see what's next for her. She's a compelling and three dimensional protagonist in a complex story who never fails to draw me in. I love her. She's your baby, and you should be proud of her.

Also, quick question about personality types: I know you've typed Javi as ESFP and Ears as ENTP (100% agree on both, btw), but have you given any thought to their enneagram types? I personally have always seen Ears as being somewhere on the thinking triad, maybe a 7 or even a 6w7, but I'm not too sure about Javi. 9w8 maybe? He could also be a 6w5 🤔

PARTING THOUGHTS

Basically, I love your story, your characters and your writing in general. You are a fantastic storyteller and wordsmith. You get into the heads of incredibly different characters personality-wise (Ears, Javi, Berna...) and manage to capture all of their complexities and quirks every single time. And it doesn't feel like it's something innate for you either. To me, it seems that you have put a lot of work and effort into understanding each and every one of your characters, who they are, why they do what they do and what they want. And let me tell you, all that effort has been more than worth it. "Better Love" is a fanfic, but it wouldn't be out of place in a regular bookstore, if I'm honest. I don't know what you do for a living or if you've ever considered writing professionally, but you clearly have the skills and the drive to create some masterpieces.

You are amazing and your writing is a gift. Thank you for sharing it with us, and have a nice day! ~ 🍪

~

My friend, I apologize for hoarding your first ask. I’ve been sitting on it because I’m not gonna lie, I enjoy going back and rereading it. It gave me a lot of comfort when I was in a pretty dark place, both personally and in regards to my writing, and I was reluctant to send it out into the the abyss of Tumblr where I might never see it again. 

That’s not fair, though. You put just as much effort into sending me that review as I put into my writing, and I apologize for never responding to you.

Okay, anyway, so twice now, you’ve made me cry. In a good way, I promise! 

I absolutely love your bread/flour metaphor. It made perfect sense. I want the emotional release of Javi and Hannah’s reunion to be earned, and in order to do that, the angst has to come first (there are also a few plot “ingredients” that have yet to make their appearances). Thank you very much for understanding that, and for voicing it so eloquently.

I appreciate your comments on my research and characterization. You’re correct that I’ve put a lot of time and effort into crafting a universe. In a lot of ways, I’m doing my best to stay true to the source material (regarding culture and timelines in particular), and in others, I’m branching into my own territory. 

On that note, I’ve never once regretted fully embracing Hannah Aarons’ identity as an OC. She’s stayed consistent in my mind from the beginning, and it was a relief to finally share my vision of her with the audience. And for the record, I totally agree with you regarding “reader” characters. Every reader insert echoes the perspective of their author, no matter how vague the physical description. I can only imagine how grating that must be from the perspective of a non-white, non-american reader. Thank you so much for sharing your insight! I will certainly keep it in mind the next time I write a “reader insert” fic.

Okay, enneagrams! I am much less familiar with enneagram than I am MBTI, but I agree 110% that Javi is a 9 with a strong 8 wing. I waffled back and forth on Ears a little, but eventually landed on 8w7 for her. It came down to the eight’s deepest fear, which is being controlled. That’s Ears all over, and the fact that she and Javi share that eight willfulness means that they might butt heads a little, which also seems very appropriate for them. Big thanks to @remusstark for her insight into the eight frame of mind - our conversations helped solidify my decision on this. :)

Anyway, I’m just rambling now. The big take-away point that I want you to get is that I am so, so grateful to you, both for your insightful feedback and your dedication in making sure that I actually saw it. You are an absolute gem and a deep thinker, Cookie-Anon, and if you ever feel like sliding into my DM’s, I’d welcome the opportunity to get to know you better.

Mad love and soft hugs, 

~ Jay

[thedeadflag]

so this is something I've been mulling over for a while now - do you reckon it'd be possible to make a version of a/b/o that isn't fundamentally transphobic, or would it reach the point of "this is so different that you might as well not call it a/b/o" before that? off the top of my head you'd have to take out all elements of g!p, mpreg, and biological essentialism, and it'd probably be possible to write a version of a/b/o with that framework, but I don't know if I'm missing anything.

a/b/o is a reactionary trope that relies on cissexism-derived biological essentialism to function. Like, that’s the engine that powers the bdsm/power dynamics, cisheteronormative breeding/family building, “dub/non-con”, etc. elements that draw people to it, and led people to create it in the first place. 

Like, my best attempt at describing a non-transphobic, non-shitty typical a/b/o adjacent fic would include:

Werewolves (let’s face it, werewolves can be really cool if written well, and there’s a lot of really good ways to write them, a lot of ways to subvert tired subtropes within the trope)

Found Family-focused family/pack building (because wolves often adopt wolves from other packs into their own, blood lineage isn’t really a thing; much like vampires being created, newly turned werewolves of any age can be considered their sire’s child; if it needs to have a pregnancy arc between two men or two women, there’s IVF/IUI, or magically/spiritually-induced pregnancies, and of course writing a fully fledged complex trans character with their own non-pregnancy arc and virtues/flaws/goals/etc. and getting relevant trans beta writers who aren't your friends to keep it on track if you’re a cis writer)

A flexible, non-binary gendered society (rather than the rigidly structured biology-is-destiny a/b/o society) that’s trans inclusive either explicitly, or implicitly if it’s a new social universe with different rules. 

If mating seasons have to exist, they’re cultural more than biological, and no biological processes that could impede or trouble a person’s ability to properly consent. 

No inherent, glorified or reified power dynamics, certainly none rooted in or fostered through biology. 

That doesn’t seem very much at all like a/b/o to me. It’s a werewolf AU, which is the reason why a/b/o was created in the first place. It wasn’t enough. It needed something more than just a supernatural bent

I’ll continue on below for a bit on some simplified functions of a/b/o, but it’s mostly just some ramblings.

-

Like, to quote the originators of the genre/trope:

I'd like to see Alpha male Jared, and Bitch male Jensen. Jensen is a snotty prude (think Lady from lady and the tramp) he may be a bitch male but he's not just going to let anybody take a go at his sweet little ass...until he meets Jared...then prudey little Jensen turns cock slut for Jared. Bonus points for J2 being OTP, Jensen was a virgin before Jared, and now that they met each other, it's for life.

...

There are three types of men, alpha males, beta males, and omega males. Alpha males are like any ordinary guy with the exception of their cocks, they work just like canines (the knot, tons of cum, strong breeders, etc) The beta male, is an ordinary guy without the special cock. Omega males are capable of child bearing and often called bitch males.

Like, I want you to look at that real close and see what’s going on in there.

This was created to be a trope where there’s a world where women, as we explicitly know them, don’t exist, but where a subgroup of men take up the functional role of the woman in the heteronormative social structure of the world. It’s also not surprising that (assumedly cis) women created and initiated the spread of this trope.

Look at the language used. This is heavily, explicitly gendered for a reason. If you’ve read much of anything about how the male gaze impacts female sexuality, you’ll know a common response is for women to position themselves out of the proverbial frame entirely, so that no part of them can explicitly exist as an object, where they can take on the role of a subject. There’s no women whose experiences will directly link to her own and her own perceptions, comfort/discomfort/etc.

However, many of these women also have been heavily affected by the male gaze and heteronormativity, and that combined with not knowing what a real gay male relationship is like, what it looks like, what experiences might be unique to it...they fill in the blanks with their own conditioning. 

And maybe seeing a lot of that toxic masculinity in media content was unsettling because of how women get treated in that content, and how they in turn might feel in those shoes. But if a MAN, even if it’s a heavily female-coded man, were to undergo that...well, it’d be easier to appreciate those tropes and dynamics they’ve been force-fed to believe were arousing, hot, desirable. Especially if they can have two hot men in it. They can enjoy that self-created taboo, bypass their own discomfort and insecurity, and project it onto a type of person different enough to suspend their disbelief and maintain that difference, even if they’re pumping that guy full of all the typical misogynistic tropes and experiences they’re not comfortable having directed towards them and other women.

In short, it’s a way to get off on heteronormative norms/tropes, using another as a vehicle in order to keep up their cognitive dissonance.

Of course, this eventually spilled out into the Het fandom (makes perfect sense, since many of the a/b/o originators and proponents were het women), and then worked its way into Femslash fandom by piggybacking on g!p in order to meet the necessary criteria for PiV sex. 

Just, in this case, you necessarily shift some of the puzzle pieces around. Trans women take the place of the “alpha”, acting as an acceptable vehicle for a toxic masculine cis man, since lesbians aren’t into men. Even if the trans woman is generally written, in nearly every way aside from part of her body, as a toxic cis man. The original a/b/o’s “Bitch Male”/Omega Male is swapped out for the  Omega Female, usually a spunkier, more in your face version outside of romantic/sexual contexts in the media content, but let’s be real here, she’s still by and large submissive when it comes down to it. 

In a world where more wlw grew up feeling predatory for their attraction to other women, for feeling sinful, for being rejected from female intimacy het women enjoyed with each other after coming out, etc., it’s pretty common for a lot of lesbians to lack initiative, not be able to read or communicate romantic/sexual cues between each other...to essentially be “useless lesbians’ as the joke goes,and to feel isolated and undesirable. 

So writing a F/F fic where some hot woman modeled in the image of some hot cis woman pursues you? Takes the initiative sexually/romantically? Doesn’t beat around the bush, but is blatant? Who can’t control her lust around you? Who can give you the perfect nuclear family you’ve been conditioned to want in order to feel value in our heteronormative world, but were told you weren’t worthy of or could never feasibly attain? Who gives you a sexual encounter you have some education in and some emotional stake in due to common conditioning of PiV sex > all else? Who can give you plausible deniability for a number of contexts due to a lack of ability to explicitly consent? etc. etc.

Like, yeah, that’s going to feel comfortable for a lot out there. That’s going to seem pretty hot/arousing. It’s a way to get off on the norms and expectations thrown on women in society, but in a way that lets them distance themselves ever so slightly from men by shifting it from text to subtext, explicit to implicit.

Don’t just take my word for it, though. Here’s a few snippets from one of the most popular g!p/omegaverse femslash writers (if not the most popular) that help illustrate how/why this trope has found an audience

Why Do I Write G!P?The elephant in the room. It arouses me, but it’s also a form of self-comfort. I grew up in a very fundamentalist home. Women being with women was at first unspoken, and then derided, both by my church and at home. I felt insanely guilty for my attractions, so I developed ‘cheat codes’ to deal with it.

It was okay if the woman I had sex with in my dreams had a penis, for example. It was okay if she forced me to have sex with her. It was okay if we basically simulated heterosexual sex.

Because of my childhood (which included conversion therapy), I found myself falling into heterosexual roleplay patterns, at least sexually. It was a lingering thing from my childhood.

It’s still there, and I know I’ll never be rid of it.

...

I associate penetration with power. You know, being steeped in sexism from an early age turned some problematic thoughts into kinky lemonade. And since I’m a femme sub, taking power away from the top by ‘penetrating’ them can ruin the mood for me. I mean, I can write power bottom scenes with the best of them, and I enjoy them, but… *shrug* if I’m going to write omegaverse or g!p, someone’s getting fucked, and it’s not the top.

There are rules to a/b/o. There are specific reasons it’s sought out, read, and created, and that’s why it’s hard to imagine a version of it without those harmful elements, because the trope requires them for the audience to be satisfied.

It’s why all gay male a/b/o fits a pretty specific pattern. it’s why femslash a/b/o fits a very specific pattern. There’s nearly no deviation as a rule, because there are so many parts that have to be in play and functioning in a specific way in order to get the desired result. 

I could go on for hours about this, and the above is all a pretty damn simplified take of what’s going on in a/b/o for it to exist in the way it does and meet the needs of the audience, and I’ve already written a lot about this in the past, so I’ll try to cut it short here.

[gascon-en-exil]

While I've certainly found the gay relationships in older FE (i.e. the one's relegated to subtext) much better than modern, subtext is not an equivalent substitution for the kind of confirmation S supports give. I'm really tired of having to rely on subtext for any kind of meaningful representation since it's so easily shrugged off by the broad cishet part of the fandom. And I think shrugging off people's disappointment with "there may be more in subtext" is a little insensitive. (1/2)

That being said I don't see S supports as end all be alls either. I think the system is limiting and I would really just prefer to see S supports and the avatar leave in favor of romances and relationships that can develop more naturally during the plot and save culmination to the epilogues or if appropriate than at some point in the story. (2/2)

You are right in that there is something distinctly artificial about the presence of Avatars and S supports in FE, although like it or not those features are popular enough to where we’ll probably keep seeing them in all non-remakes* going forward. S supports themselves were introduced in Awakening as an update of Genealogy’s purely numerical love growth system, in order to replicate that game’s breeding mechanics. This was a necessary addition in light of how the C-A support system had been employed in the GBA games and Tellius, to develop relationships ranging from the explicitly romantic to the subtextually romantic to the familial and usually not romantic to the completely platonic - and all of these categories either with or without paired endings. FE13 stamps out all that ambiguity to allow the player to make specific, clearly marked choices that lead to eugenics babies, and for all that game’s obnoxious bouts of homoerotic denial it works as both a breeding metagame and an Avatar dating sim. Fates shook things up a bit with two same-sex S supports, but then those are as criticized for being gameplay detriments as much as they are for characterization issues. 

Now we’ve come to the third iteration of S supports, for the first time in a game without breeding. My belief is that the only reason they exist in Three Houses is for that secondary function introduced in Awakening, that of self-insert wish fulfillment. It therefore makes perfect sense that Byleth is the only character with S supports, and while I have never bought into FE’s self-inserts and as such care remarkably little about them I understand what they’re meant to represent. It does however highlight the artificiality of the whole mechanic, as it would be unreasonable to assume that the other characters don’t have romantic entanglements of their own outside of Byleth that will be expressed in their C-A supports. Byleth can S rank because they’re meant to be the player, and that’s it. To borrow an observation from @agoddamn, it’s as superficial a conceit as the decision to make Byleth - the amnesiac child of a mercenary with no prior experience - a teacher, which gives them authority to command the game’s armies without needing to be royalty (Corrin), super secret BFFs with royalty (Kris), or BFFs with laughably naïve royalty (Robin).

But is it insensitive to ask people to look to subtext for representation when the game’s S rank options are not to one’s liking? I don’t think so. I’m old enough to remember when subtext was pretty much all you were ever going to get for same-sex relationships in popular media, which for gaming in particular wasn’t even that long ago. Looking specifically at Fire Emblem, there have been all of two inarguably gay characters in the series’s nearly 30-year history, but far more than that who’ve raised enough eyebrows to have people pointing at them as more or less positive depictions of same-sex relationships...and pushback from members of the fandom who don’t care to read them that way. The debates on Ike’s sexuality have raged on for over a decade now, reignited by the existence of Priam, and there are still people out there who maintain that the guy having paired endings with two male characters (and only them) is inconclusive. So yeah, I get the frustration - but does it really matter what other people in the fandom think? For a good bit of the 2000s and (so I hear - not old enough) earlier online fandoms in general were hostile to the idea of slash/same-sex fanwork and kept it walled out of many major fansites, and yet it continued to exist in spite of opposition. Ignore those elements in the fandom, find community elsewhere, and move on.

Besides, this is overlooking the point that reading into subtext can be genuinely fun. Take for example Shadows of Valentia, which produced the series’s second canonically gay character in Leon. Despite this however in the weeks and months following FE15′s release neither I nor my acquaintances in the Tumblr FE fandom spent much time talking about him; rather, most of observation on the game’s queer content focused on the Deliverance, that hotbed of sublimated desires and unusually frank contemplations of non-straight sexuality. In the tumult of everyone in the organization wanting Clive’s heterosexual dick we got Fernand being a frustrated childhood friend turned antagonist and potential rapist(!) via some weird triangulation of desire, Lukas yearning for something he can’t name with his superior officer and Python being the one to coax out the man’s lack of physical desire (for women or for anyone), and Forsyth and Python being massively gay in general but also comically dysfunctional. That’s all far more interesting to parse out than Leon the aging twink pining for daddy dick he’s probably not going to get. Both are entertaining in their own ways, but the Deliverance situation had a lot more analytical longevity. That’s the kind of stuff I’m really looking forward to in Three Houses, from Dimitri’s circle, from Caspar and Linhardt, and from anyone else who presents the material. There’s a lot fewer limitations when you don’t rely on the game to tell you who can and cannot have sex.

*Even though a Blazing Sword remake could hypothetically see Mark the tactician expanded into a full-blown Avatar role, belatedly vindicating the torrent of badly-written Lyn/Tactician fics that flooded the fandom back in 2003.

[timeless-season-four]

I want to read this amazing fan made s3, but I want to know, 1) are you guys keeping it in character as you can, or are you adding fanon relationships and such, and 2) how much research goes into each episode? (Sorry if this seems rude, but I've read some other tvs fanfics but they seem to break up every canon couple to be couples they wanted in the first "episode" and I really loved this show and the way the writers wrote it, no offense to u guys of course.)

Sure. We’re happy to answer.

As has been said/stated before, this is not a ship-focused project. That is to say, we’re writing all characters and all relationships, from an honest standpoint as to where they left off in season 2. We’re working through and developing that for everyone, but if you want a quick fix-it fic for your favorite ship, whatever that may be, this is not the right project for that. Romance has been a bit on the back burner for the whole team in the first half of the season, as they confront individual challenges, face the threat of an increasingly dangerous Rittenhouse, and try to unravel the mystery of Rufus’ return to life. Ships are certainly written in this context, since they’re part of the show, but nobody has been the main “focus,” and nobody is currently really together in a romantic sense (not even Rufus and Jiya, who are facing personal challenges, and this hurts us). We’re writing this as honestly to the real show as we can, which is to say, certain combinations of characters or dynamics might be focused on in one episode, but not another, and we’re developing all of those connections. If you are focused on one ship or character to the exclusion of everyone else, again -- that’s fine! We all have our favorites. But it won’t be the right project for you. Fans love ships, and that’s also great, we are all fangirls (or fanboys). But a whole TV show focuses on ensemble dynamics, different combinations, plot, etc, and not just the ship (and focusing TOO much on ships leads to tribalism and fan wars, and.... eeeeh). So yes, if you want something shippy and explicitly focused on one pairing, it’s best to head over to AO3, they have us well covered.

As for fanon, well, since we aren’t the official writers or creators of Timeless, everything we write is fanon anyway by its nature. We’re developing relationships that might have been not focused on before or less focused on in season 2, such as Flynn and Jiya, Wyatt and Rufus, etc, as well as the combinations that usually get shipped romantically on the show: Wyatt/Lucy, Flynn/Lucy, Rufus/Jiya, etc. Whether you read their scenes as overtly romantic probably depends on your personal preference, as with watching most TV, but again, we’re working hard to give those moments and developments to everyone, and there are angst and rough patches for all, especially over a 13-episode season where we’re building arcs throughout. We can say that 3x07, our midseason finale, has plenty of feels for Lyatt, Garcy, and Riya shippers alike (as well as for the few, the proud, the #Flogan) and that reflects the journeys that these characters have been on throughout the first half, and where they’ll keep going in the second half. But again, we are not writing this from a shipper perspective, but from a more general one that loves everyone and wants to be honest about their development and is not going to leave anyone out in the cold forever. We like to think we’re doing a pretty good job so far, but we have five episodes out, so you can judge.

As for research: our showrunner and chief writer @qqueenofhades is a professional historian, and we take the education aspect very seriously. All episodes are thoroughly researched and based on the same historical ethos as the show: that is, highlighting the stories of women, people of color, LGBT folks, and other possibly less-known figures, as well as those that have relevance to our current political climate. We include a one-page Historical Handout with every episode, which has links to learn more about the people and events featured and points out things like the real-life dialogue or facts we have included. We have a lot of volunteers who have worked hard to do that for us, and it’s definitely highlighted.

So in short: yes, we’re being as honest as we can to everyone, but we’re writing it as a general TV season, not as a shipper fic, and that means by its nature, not every episode focuses on a particular pairing or set of characters. Everyone also gets development and attention, both individually and in terms of their relationships (we love the whole Time Team and all their connections and intend to work on all of those, in all their complexity and challenges). If that sounds like your bag, we’re happy to have you along. But we’ve always made clear that that’s the case, so yes.

[mrm64]

hello! i know it's a bad idea to engage in any shipping discourse but for the sake of constructive criticism, i asked an sns shipper if she thinks there's atleast potential in ss if ever sakura had that capacity to stand up to sasuke and if she wasn't as much fixated on him during shipuuden and the war arc. i even brought up the wasted opportunity of sasuke vs sakura that was shown in the game. the sns shipper gave a very structured and well-versed answer and i do agree with some of her points. i'm not even anti-sns and i understand the support this ship gets. but this person really hates sakura. so her answer to my question if ss has potential is straight up NO. hate is an understatement. she explicitly said she DETESTS sakura and ss xD. granted, her hatred is valid since sakura's writing is very flawed and inconsistent. what i didn't like was when she said why am i trying to change sakura's personality (her standing up to sasuke whether physically or verbally) when "she's constantly on heat when he's around". gosh, i really wanted to retaliate here and say it's called freakin character development. i mean, that's what she's mainly hated for right? the fact that she's obsessed and a pushover when it comes to sasuke. having that change especially during the war arc doesn't mean she's out of character, it means development. but gah, sakura haters are really hard to argue with so i just stayed silent.

to briefly summarize, her main point of argumentation is that sakura was toxic to both naruto and sasuke. sasuke's relationship with naruto is more defined than whatever he had with sakura. she brought up ss's pt.1 moments and said that sasuke would do the same to naruto, if not even better. as for naruto's case, sakura was a mean bitch and was so unfair to him throughout the series. simply put, even if sns has questionable elements, they are more organic and healthy than sasusaku.

this got me thinking. between sasunarusasu and sasusaku, despite both having toxic elements, i think the reason why there are relatively more sns shippers is because there's balance. compared to sakura, sasuke has shown more consideration towards naruto and we all know naruto cares for sasuke just as much and he isn't afraid to stand up to this guy.

idk what i'm even trying to ask here. i guess i'm just ranting lol. i've always seen your comments in youtube vids defending sakura and ss and i know you have an extensive knowledge of the naruto manga in general. you could only imagine how shocked i am when i found out you're a male. it's really rare to find someone like you. :)

anyways, i just feel so disappointed and pressed lmao. ss shippers couldn't catch a break from haters. like yea, some of us know it has shit writing in the canon and explanations regarding their relationship in the series is very limited. i already accepted the fact that they are underdeveloped and was borderline toxic. but then, between kishimoto's pitiful inability to write female characters properly and SP's biased treatment towards sasusaku plus the manga's main narrative focusing on naruto and sasuke, i just feel like it's kinda unfair for antis to shit on ss shippers when in reality, most of us just hold onto it because of nostalgia. most sasusaku shippers came to be when they were very young. i even found comments saying they started shipping them when they were 6 or 7. in my case, i was 12 lol.

it's kinda unfair since sns has the upperhand bcoz the series is mainly about them. naruhina has retcons and SP and what does ss have? small pt.1 moments, headcanons, fanons and to top it off SP's biased ass shitting on it. the ss fandom isn't perfect and has its fair share of immature stans as well, but i'm still glad that didn't stop authors and artists from making content. ss has got some of the best fanfictions, fanarts and doujinshis. i just wished antis won't attack them as much.

anyways, i'm not even asking a specific question. i just ranted. i just needed to get this out of my system. sorry for that 😅

Hey! It's been a long while since I got asks like this lol! Once tumblr went all anti-nsfw a few years ago, we all kinda migrated to Twitter for our SS/Anime cravings tbh but I'm glad and flattered you decided to ask me on my thoughts! :)

I won't write long as again, tbh, I'm kinda retired from debating/arguing with antis on things of SS/Naruto/Etc (unless I'm simply too triggered to let it go lol. You've already probably seen my long Sakura video so I won't go too much into details of what I already covered with Sakura's character. But to answer you, I'll keep it to the point.

It's ok of course to say Kishi's writing is flawed, I mean he is human and we know Naruto has holes. Every manga/story does of course. When it comes to SS, I personally bring it to this: Sasuke and Naruto's relationship is NOT Sasuke and Sakura's relationship. And that's (imo) ok. Sasuke and Naruto obviously have a bond only they have. Both lonely and orphaned, rivals with each other, haters to brother, you know it all. But Sakura is different. She's simply a normal, head-strong and caring girl. Kishi wanted to write a normal girl, and he did a darn well good job, because just like normal girls (or people in general), they're imperfect. That's why she first appealed to me.

Anyway, to the point, SS is pretty easy to follow. Sakura likes Sasuke....what's the problem? Where's the toxicity, lol. Sure she fangirls over him as a 12 year old girl, but again, Sakura is normal. Most girls I knew that age did the same thing. Most BOYS I knew were super...*cough* ready to be with girls (*cough cough*, puberty, everyone, *cough*). Sasuke is cool and confident. Sakura lacked confidence, so naturally she was drawn to Sasuke. Sasuke at first found her annoying (as he did with Naruto too) but as the became a team, she bonded. SS' bond is NOT NSN's bond. SS's bond is built upon a simply caring basis. Sakura always cared for Sasuke, and Sasuke always was protective of Sakura. Forest of Death, Sand Invasion, etc...add in the angst of Shippuden (nobody can tell me one was better than the other during Shippuden, Sasuke was 'bout to axe everyone while in darkness lol), blank period bonding, and then Boruto. There it is in SIMPLE terms.

As far as "standing up" to Sasuke...not sure where this person is coming from....again, NSN is NOT SS....Sakura has stood up to Sasuke at times. In the FOD where she indirectly called him a coward, when she pleaded with him to not fight in the Prelims and threatened to tell the proctors of the curse mark, trying to stop him from leaving Konoha., etc. If she was a "doormat", she would have said "Ok Sauske, you do whatever you want, it's all ok my love!" That was chapter 3 Sakura. A LOT of haters can't move beyond that chapter tbh...moving on. The main thing is, she wasn't STRONG enough to stop him by FORCE. She wasn't written to. Sure I woulda liked some angsty moments of them fighting, TRUST ME, you already know. But Kishi wanted the fighting to mostly be between Naruto and Sasuke, as most battle Shonen go. It's Goku and Vegeta, Deku and Bakugou, you name it. She was written to LOVE him unconditionally. And despite Kishi's misses here and here, it's clear as day to many people that they do indeed, love each other. Sarada is a product of years of redemption, forgiveness, and understanding between SS (which is....literally some of the themes of Naruto....Zabuza...Haku...Gaara...Pein...Obito....list goes on...).

And of course Naruto and Sasuke's relationship got more spotlight. They're essentially the Shonen "duo" like I explained before with Goku and Vegeta. It's a common tope which can be a bit annoying imo since other characters get shafted, but they're gonna be seen more by the public. At the end of the day, Kishi modeled NSN after his relationship with his BROTHER....that was one of Naruto's main story plots. AGAIN, OF COURSE it's gonna be pushed and seem like it's more "balanced"...it's a battle Shonen, not a love story lol. The love stuff is sprinkled in. This isn't a Shojo. If it was, SS would be the main focus (or...I guess NSN if Kishi WANTED to go that route).

So to finish off, you're right with the SP thing. But it can't be helped. If people wanna say NSN has more "development", let them. At the end of the day, they're shown more to the viewers because they're the Goku and Vegeta of Naruto. They push the narrative, not a romance. They're Kishi's go-to boys. They're the essential main character and rival. It's nothing new. But you know what else? They're. NOT. A. COUPLE. SasuSaku is, and again, romance is SPRINKLED in. It's N O T a Shojo and not the main focus. Honestly...the arguments that NSN shipper used are a bit weak knowing full well that SNS represent Kishi's brother and himself.

I mean...tldr, I could just say "Kishi and his bro are Naruto and Sasuke. SO nah bro, NSN has no romantic development. I wasn't meant to lol."

Typed longer than I thought, but I hope this helped! At the end of the day, ship SS in peace. We have an amazing fandom for the most part with wonderful content and we ain't stopping anytime soon :)