#viktor discourse

[chaztalk]

I’ve just seen a Romione shipper say Hermione is mid in attractiveness/looks (which just goes to show how they want to make her average-looking so it’s easier to self-insert themselves as her imo). To be honest, I personally wouldn’t find Hermione attractive in the HP universe. Canon says otherwise. It’s first apparent that Neville showed in interest in her, Viktor Krum showed an interest in her, Cormac McLaggen showed an interest in her, Harry described her as a “pretty girl” at the Yule Ball, Draco couldn’t find an insult to give her when he saw her at the Yule Ball (teeny tiny part that says a lot), and then there’s the drunk who hit on her in DH.

And most of this interest was gained after her teeth got resized to normal. And I think it’s more telling how specific these are compared to Ginny suddenly becoming the hottest girl at Hogwarts. And it’s a lot more realistic to think that a handful of people think someone is attractive instead of an entire school, especially in a world with a limited number of people, cuz of a difference in opinion/tastes in what one finds attractive of course.

In conclusion, Hermione is attractive, and canon does nothing to refute otherwise.

[cecebeanie]

Sadly, I entered this fandom quite late, I lost so much of the joy of it. But, this anime truly changed my life, it made me see my life and my experiences under a new light, made me fall in love once more with ice skating, taught me so much about love and life.

I got to know some amazing people thank to this fandom, people who truly impacted me. Not only friends or people I talked to, but every artist of any kind who created something that made me feel anything, every soul that intertwined with mine in this fandom has touched me deeply, and has taught me something new.

The fact that the movie has been cancelled isn't a surprise to me, nor it really saddens me. I've learned to be wary if sequels, they've mostly disappointed me in the past, and this story was too impactful to me to risk being disappointed by it. I'm not happy, naturally, but I don't really feel sad about it: I'm relieved I finally got closure, after all this time, and that we all know we can stop waiting.

I believe this isn't the end of this fandom. Sure, some people might leave, but that's not scary.

The next level, in my opinion, has been us all along: the story lives through us, through out love and passion, through the friendships we made along the way, through the marvelous fanfictions that keep the magic alive. Every author, every artist, every fan of this anime is keeping it alive, is building their own "next level" day by day.

So yeah, I know this is unpopular but I don't care we won't have a movie. We have each other, I know we'll keep the characters alive.

[sissytobitch10seconds]

Number Five is such a weird choice to make asexual and aromantic, when you really look at his character.

Ignoring the Fivela stuff from the last season, since so many people hate it and it would distract from my point, we see Five instigating a lot of sexual advances towards people. In the comics he was the classic old man that was hitting on much younger girls, played as a joke because he's visibly childlike. In the show, we see Five hitting on Delores and making references to their sexual exploits ("You remember that wine cellar? Where we... yeah, [laughter]). He's also very much in love and very much involved with Delores, she's his wife in the romantic sense and he loves her. He made her up in his mind and if he had just wanted a companion, he would have made her such instead of making her into his wife. He also goes to kiss her when Jayme creates the illusion of her in his mind instead of just hugging her.

Viktor, on the other hand, is a very good choice to make aroace.

As an aroace person myself, I believed that I had to have romantic and sexual attraction for a long while because it was all society let me to believe that life was about. I tricked myself into thinking that because I was romantically involved with someone or thought that they were pretty, I had to be sexually attracted to them as well. I also believed that I was romantically interested in people after they had shown that attraction to me or when someone else gave me the suggestion.

Viktor is much the same way. In season one, he's absolutely starved for affection and that's why he falls into Leanord/Harold's hold so easily. He isn't attracted to him, we don't get any blushing or looking him up and down. He seems pretty put off and uncomfortable by Harold when they first meet, but slowly he gets wrapped up in his web because Harold is giving him the approval and praise that he's longed for his entire life and he's associating going off his meds with being around this new person he's just met. Sissy is a harder argument, but they're raising a child together and she's the only person being consistently nice to him (and ends up coming on to him later which never helps when you're struggling with figuring out if you're aroace). It's possible that Viktor is having another deep connection with someone and mistaking it for romantic or sexual attraction. My biggest point to him being aroace is the fact that he has incredible failures with all of his relationships in the gap between the end of s3 and beginning of s4. Especially with him being called childish, that could just be him not knowing how to navigate romantic relationships because he doesn't feel that kind of love.

[machineheraldbabe]

sometimes i feel the need to make it so clear that i adore every piece of arcane. no matter how i go on and on about my silly viktor nation, the entire story totally captured me and continues to capture me.

i can't even remember if viktor was my favorite character when i finished the show the first time in december '21, let alone if i even had a favorite at that time! like everybody else, the entire experience left me totally speechless, and it was only after 2 rewatches (one where i forced my sister along with me, the other my roommate at the time) that i solidified the show as my all-time favorite and, by extension, viktor.

all that to say, though i'm counting down the seconds till viktor finally comes back, there're soooo many moments i'm dying for, as well. i never want to seem like i'm discounting the rest of arcane bc no one piece can sustain the show - its brilliance lies in its coherence!

[flayedsheep]

let's be honest, a lot of people only hate on viktor because he has autistic traits. he's one of the most autistic coded characters in media yet tons of people hate him because "he's annoying".

[vhvrs]

im genuinely confused, why refer to a character you 'made' trans with she/her pronouns?

i say 'made' because they seem like OCs that use league lore?

im asking out of genuine curiosity, sorry if this is mean

its a fair question, no worries!

its... kinda hard to explain and i haven't prior bc while i use she/her (and they/them) for my vik, i generally dont care nor want to tell anyone what to refer to them as bc the original point of my viktor was that they do not clarify their pronouns or gender bc they dont care. i just... kindve went off on my own thing a bit lol.

so that's one reason ig?

my academy viktor is also intended to be this really tricky period where they know they arent cis but arent willing nor in a space to explore it further than through jayce. she/her has a level of safety when coming fully out is scary and, again, dont really want to think abt it too hard. on top of her only real means of exploring being trans being through jayce alone in their dorm n hes already seeing them as transmasc despite presentation and pronouns so a need to explore further isnt really a priority.

another reason that trying to deconstruct the gender behind certain things like pronouns can just feel really good. she/her can be feminine or it can be masculine or it can be neither! viktor and jayce have that understanding n i mean me as the guy behind it does too lol. (n my mh using it is just extending that safety n gendervoid further now that they have a body they feel more comfortable in and can wear that she/her w a sort of pride? something thats now hers to do with whatever and bc by then most ppl default to he/they so she/her becomes something no longer normative and able to become unattached to their afab. she can weaponize she/her now in a way they only got to test out as pre-herald?)

another, another reason is tldr i was a really awkward she/they transmasc when i first came out n it feels good to explore what that felt like through viktor, you know? (that was my original intention for her at all actually...) n get more comfortable in still being a kindve gnc they/he through a character who took their afab scenerio to the furtherest it can go and let it remain a valid agender thing. that kindve tints a lot of why i do that i guess + being in very... genderfuckery free for all spaces where this stuffs just very normal.

i usually tend to go out here to a certain extent with characters i relate to or like ie making them nonbinary, changing pronouns, and presentations (making them into ocs rip not denying the oc with league paintover allegations) this is just an extra step for me personally to have a safe, contained space to explore gender stuff myself... its a nice feeling to have created a scenerio where she/her doesnt void being transmasc/agender or can... idk enhance it even?? idk im not trying to reflect the nauces of reality rn im just trying to have fun.

this is v long winded bc im tired n felt this needed a proper explanation so. thank you if you understand this and i appreciate you asking bc id rather ppl just ask vs possibly get more confused not knowing my intentions n mindset. take care ♡

[fayt30l0v3]

Ok I’ve been working on the stupidest project known to man, a kinda longish fic based off my good freind @nullb1rdbones going, ok imagine a highschool musical au of the arcane with jayvik as the main focus. This spurned a whole 26 page google doc. It is equivalently as shittily written as the concept sounds.

[slavitya]

mappa really got clout off yoi then said 'enough activism, we're doing these [redacted] blockbuster shounens now lol we don't care about the gays' full hate to mappa idc at this point. they really ditched yoi to have the final season of the season finale of the final season part 1, 2, and three of the final final season part 1 and 2 (the final season) of the final final season finale of the finale final part 1, 2, 3, and 4 of fucking snk. u can't make this shit up.

sorry i ever doubted u kubo, u did your best and your team fought tooth and nail to have it be as explicitly queer as possible only for the company to blow up because of your resilience and then promptly ditch your story lel

[hellosweetie99]

Here’s a list of my fav fic tags I’ve seen…Enjoy

Chekov’s sex bag

SWORD IN ASS SATURDAY

Homoerotic fossil collection

Passive aggressive nakedness

Blatant misuse of watermelon

The mortifying ordeal of getting your head stuck in a peanut butter jar

This is set in America…sorry

Possessed squirrel

The trio suffers

The grapes are their own character

Dark Ratatouille

Whiny boyfriend doms the undead

Pranks are meant to be silly…like mpreg

New year new kink

Hahaha ouchie

Cock cage (romantic)

Being a lawyer is kinda gay like wdym your job is getting guys off??

Starfire strap color discourse

Science fiction written by a liberal arts major

Doing cute stuff with a decapitated head

HEY MONSTERFUCKERS PSPSPS FOOD FOR YOU

Jealousy as lube

Basically I took one good look at canon and went 'no'

he gets laid in FUCKING JORTS

Kink is just LARP that makes you cum

I wasn't even planning that but the bisexual gods spoke to me

Barry Allen is a human vibrator

Traveler, that Kavehussy got me acting unwise

Evil cuddling

CBT; As In Cock And Ball Torture In Case You Think I Mean Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Women topping the fuck out of men

Pussy can't heal a broken man but pegging can make him rethink what he's done.

I'm about to slap him on his he/him pussy

Angelic Grace as Lube

Not a cinnamon roll or a war criminal but a secret third thing

Don’t YOU go adventuring with your pussy out?

Weird freaky cannibal sex

Fellas is it gay to receive a dick pic from your archenemies

scott pilgrim vs the 97 lost dr who episodes

10K WORDS OF FOREPLAY AND A BJ

Sorry, it’s for the vibes

Blood sacrifice? More like their wedding

This is true 2009 faggotry

DO NOT USE PAINT AS LUBE

He’s so stupid I need to fuck him

Vampirism or sodomy?

Viktor’s unfortunate foot thing

This is zero percent furry sorry

The ugly duckling but in a really freak way

The Doctor - - -> nest parasite

Accidental pet acquisition (dragon)

Stimming with a deadly weapon

Oh my god it’s fish porn

Clit reveal!

Petition to name it Lesbian Who

Eating a meal with the man you want to study under a microscope

Spydoc are pegging eachother in my Google docs

Psychosexually torturing an old man as quality time

Lan Wangji is a loser trapped in a hot man’s body

Is Xie Lian brat taming? He just might be

They don’t fuck. They do however get a bit bloody

[mangoshorthand]

On the "Five is morally grey" discourse.

A take I've seen a more than once on S4 Five's homewrecking antics is that he's morally grey and it's therefore idealising or misunderstanding him to say that he would never cuck his brother.

Now, here is my respectful rebuttal: I think what this take misses is that morally grey characters who are morally grey in every regard end up being directionless, lacking in verisimilitude, and not compelling to watch. They need some moral anchoring to make them interesting.

Five is morally grey, but up until S4, Five was morally grey in a consistent way. He was only an interesting character because the moral code he did have revolved around ensuring his family's survival and welfare. It caused him to do the best and worst he is capable of.

I loved that about Five. His hypocrisy bordering on fascism at times as he performed amazing feats of mental gymnastics to persuade Viktor that killing Harlan was a-okay when he himself moved heaven and earth to save those he loved.

Without this anchoring him, Five would have been a shit character throughout. For him to cuck his brother without even a qualm is simply inconsistent characterisation that leaves behind everything that made Five unique and made his actual moral greyness so compelling.

[sissytobitch10seconds]

That moment when you make a post talking about how you wished people were talking about things other than the ship they didn't like being canon and then they hijack your post to talk about the ship they didn't like being canon

[spraypaintstainonawhitewall]

Viktor's deadname

I've seen a lot of discourse about this so decided to add my thoughts.

a lot of people argue that Viktor technically needn't have changed his name upon transitioning, since his deadname was also a male name in Russia. First of all, he chose to change it as it was a feminine presenting name. You hear it and your first thought is, "oh, a girl's name." Second of all (and this is coming from my point of view, someone whose name is also androgynous), he was named by Grace with the intent of it being a girl's name. Her thoughts were that she was naming a girl, even though Viktor was never a girl, and he shed that the first opportunity he got. Third of all, it's the opposite of what happened to Five- he was named by Grace, upon his father's instruction, and he wanted to reclaim his identity and rename himself. He's finally who he's always been on the inside, and his name now reflects that.

[jewishvitya]

Looking at the trivia part on YOI wiki just for a bit of fun. Ignore me, I’m not doing well in summer, the heat is killing me.

Kenjirou was planned as Yuri's Planned Design.

Help, Minami is what Yurio was supposed to look like. Yurio was supposed to be an angry chicken nugget.

Georgi is known in Japan as the "pigeon".

DFJGLJGHJLHKL WHY??

Seung-gil has an extreme aversion (a strong dislike or disinclination) to women and vegetables while he likes meat and dogs

Dislikes women and vegetables. That’s the same category. I hate cabbage and also half of humanity. Where’s that meme. “You’re gay because you love men. I’m gay because I hate women. We’re not the same.”

Seung-gil doesn't look good in anything, but he wears sportswear when he dresses himself as he basically has no interest in fashion since he's so devoted to his sport

SDKGHJLSHFGLKFHSLDH “DOESN’T LOOK GOOD IN ANYTHING” WHY SO MEAN TO HIM. He didn’t do anything, he just wanted to skate as a rainbow parrot.

He also has many mischievous friends.

This is about Otabek. What does it meannnnn. I wish I could read the source.

According to SNS, Phichit is one of the Three Most Adorable Men's Figure Skaters in Asia.

The others are Minami and Guang Hong. I love that this is a thing.

The caption on his Instagram post during the credits reads "Reunited with bae".

This is about Chris. Captioning a post with his cat. I want to know if that’s the cat’s name or if he’s just being ridiculous. Probably just being ridiculous.

Chris is near-sighted. He uses contacts when skating.

See, Yuuri, you don’t have to skate practically blind.

Emil does extreme sports during the off season, which makes his coach nervous.

dhfghdjhghjkfg I did not know this. I love. “I swear to god if you come back with a broken leg--”

It is likely that Celestino has a low alcohol tolerance.

The way this is phrased compared to the image of him passed out on the table with Phichit taking pictures

Toshiya does not know much about figure skating as he is more of a soccer fan.

That’s not an excuse, Toshiya, your son started doing it when he was a child.

On the official site, she is described as "the woman of Yuuri's dreams"

About Yuuko. I’m. What fgjhghjlfhkjg Even with my interpretation of Yuuri being bi, this is a lot.

According to Mitsurou Kubo, while the staff did their best to portray the appeal of the skaters, they didn't try very hard with Takeshi. 

GSLJHSLKDGKHJLDH SO MEAN

Mila is seen during the Sochi GPF banquet taking pictures of Yuuri Katsuki pole dancing.

And I want to see her pictures too. We got pictures by others, give me hers too.

Sara's Instagram is sala-crispino

And I find this now, years after we had the naming discourse.

Michele is ironically described as a virgin.

The “Ironically” is the part that kills me here.

A portion of Michele's free program is skated by Yuuri Katsuki in the opening credits

Does he deserve the honor? And he was so rude to Yuuri too ( ᓂ︿⁾⁾⁾)

Actually this made me think about Viktor deciding to get back at Mickey for disrespecting Yuuri, and encouraging Yuuri to skate his program just because he’ll do it better. I think Viktor is that kind of petty.

Some part of one of Michele's skate program "Serenade for Two" have been a part of Yuri Plisetsky's skate for the opening of anime.

Definitely Viktor’s idea. And Yuri was in on it.

[flayedsheep]

you have no idea how much it annoys me that every time i try to look into viktor's hashtag on here all the posts are "omg trans character omfg he is trans!!!! tiny king!!!" y'all are so weird to trans people especially transmasc characters. yall seriously can't speak about a trans character without making his trans identity his entire personality. and don't even get me started on the infantilization.

[bringthekaos]

BigBadBear, a league of legends leaks and news account, apparently confirmed Viktor is the vgu 👀

He has been pretty spot on in the past sooo

I have a love/hate relationship with this news. Do I think his League look is a little outdated and could use an update? Yes. But do I want his look to disappear entirely? Definitely not. I like how dweeby he looks. I like the armor, and the cosplayer in me likes that it is relatively simple/easy to build (by easy I just mean that those individual armor pieces are easy to make, not that building a full MH would be remotely easy). And like a lot of players (even though I’m not one of them) I like his BDE strut. That walk is everything. It’s made for the catwalk. Walk, walk, fashion baby. So I don’t want his walk to change either. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—it would be nice if his current look is kept as an option, like a legacy skin. Cuz there is already an unnecessary contention between League Viktor enjoyers and Arcane Viktor enjoyers, and we don’t need one more reason for discourse in the fandoms.

Cons aside, I am immensely excited to see what the VGU is gunna look like. It’s pretty much a given that it’s gunna align with his Arcane look, and just from that glimpse of his arm in Bridging the Rift, I feel like it’s gunna be kick ass. Exposed wiring, see-through limbs, gears that you can see moving within him??? Hnagdndahafa that would be incredible. Also, maybe an update to his voice lines?? More lines with/about Jayce??? So many possibilities!!!!

Just keep his whore walk plz Riot.

[rockinlibrarian]

Post-Umbrella Academy S4 Reaction Part One: Reacting More to the Fandom than the Show (only vaguely spoilery)

I would like to state for the record that I enjoyed The Umbrella Academy Season Four. I had plenty of issues— things that weren’t to my taste, abandoned or neglected plot or character threads, plot contrivances and wasted opportunities— and I wasn’t satisfied with the ending AT ALL (it COULD have worked if done…completely differently?)—but I enjoyed myself, minus the downer at the very end (and I mean VERY end, I was hoping for more post-credit redemption than we got, and that could’ve fixed it for me). It’s like that post I reblogged this morning goes— there’s enjoyment, there’s in-universe sense, and there’s art-of-storytelling sense, and they can all stand separately.

I’d love to chew over the stupid bits and gush over the brilliant bits, but it’s kind of hard right now, because so much of the reactions online are not, well, objectively balanced discussions? People’s issues erased any of the enjoyment, and now the whole thing is trash and I think we all agree this never happened.

I’m not writing this post to call anyone out for that. All our reactions are valid. It just feels like the angry voices drown out the other voices, and it’s made me uncomfortable, and that is ALSO a valid reaction to have, so I just want to put my voice out there, too.

The weird thing about me and The Umbrella Academy is that this is the first fandom where I’ve ever been more invested in fanworks of it than in the original show (and in the comics, not at all. Though I still want to see Viktor and Diego start a punk band). So I think that’s why I’m not Ragey. I wouldn’t say I COMPLETELY didn’t care what happened in the show, but I know that there’s a thousand other AUs of it out there ALREADY. So I honestly went into it almost as if reading a fic of it. In fics there are inevitably interpretations I don’t agree with, ships I don’t care for, things I would have done differently, but the writer loves the same characters as me so let’s see where they go.

And then I leave a comment about all the positives. “Oh, I love what you’ve done with Viktor!” (I won’t MENTION that I think you should have let him get back into music and spend a LOT more time with Five, because it’s not my story, and hey, you have done some LOVELY, thoughtful things with one of the characters that is dearest to me so let me tell you that in this comment!) “I’m REALLY enjoying your Allison-and-Klaus partnership, we don’t see enough of that but it’s so obvious in retrospect that they should be friends. They probably bonded over fashion as children when Viktor was like ‘Sorry Allison you know I REALLY DO want to be friends with you but I JUST DON’T GET IT’.” (I am thinking about how you never really resolved the huge emotional thread between Allison and Viktor in your last chapter, but that’s not what we’re talking about here). “This is admittedly not my ship, but you’ve successfully captured my own beliefs about HOW this character would behave in this situation” (shouting out to @stephsageek for that one, who did it, and did it well, before canon even thought to attempt to. ;) ) I could write lots more in my theoretical Comment on “Season Four of the Umbrella Academy” on AO3, but I don’t want to be too spoilery in this post and I’m just being metaphorical.

Honestly, I’m more upset now after a day of discourse than I was about the ending, and I think it’s because I’m afraid of people rage-abandoning the fandom. Because Legion, the show that started me on Seriously Writing Fanfic, was a mess after season 1. I personally didn’t enjoy MOST of season 2, but I DID enjoy season 3 even though so much of it made no sense, and I can rant about it (Legion did a variation on the same terrible ending as TUA, actually! I have to say that the emotional beats were handled better, but the plot itself was way way stupider). But I didn’t start writing fic until after the dreaded (but not without redeeming qualities) season 2, when quite a lot of people had given up on the show. I’ve written fix-its, mostly ones that embellish on the canon of the later seasons, fixing it without actually throwing it away. I’ve been playing in the whole sandbox for six years now, and “Magic Man of Oz” uses like every grain of sand in it, and it’s my favorite fic I’ve ever written, and I am genuinely sad about all the people who rage-quit that show so will never read it. I am mostly sad that the person who got me on AO3 to begin with abandoned the Legion fandom the moment they finished their epic How Season Two Should Have Ended fic (or before— pretty sure the last few chapters were written with gritted teeth determination to just be Done with the whole thing) and so THEY never read “Magic Man of Oz.” And they were my biggest cheerleader when I started posting fanfic! Honestly, is this whole paragraph just me freaking out about TUA fandom just because not enough people read a fic of mine from a different fandom that was fairly cult to begin with? It might be. Sorry. I apparently have issues?

(That first sentence is really the thesis statement of this post now. The moment I wrote it, I reread it and said, "Oh. THAT'S what's happening with me, isn't it?" My 11th grade research writing teacher is yelling at me in my head to move the dang thesis statement to earlier in this essay, but too bad, this is Tumblr).

I can’t help comparing Legion and TUA, not least because the latter only got bumped up my watch list by someone describing it as “Legion-Lite”— and it really is, in so many ways! But they’re also my top two most-written-for fandoms, and I’ve been toying with a crossover or two— which I feel even more compelled to write now, because it’s post-canon for both shows (even though both shows claim there IS no post-canon— I have found the way!) And it honestly helped ME emotionally to accept the end of TUA when I could immediately say, “OH, well actually, that flows right INTO how I was already going to start working-title A Legion of Umbrellas!” I originally started this paragraph in parenthesis because it seemed like an aside, but it’s really not, because all I’m saying is fanfic flows eternal! and so forth.

So, hi, out there. Just letting out my feelings and hoping someone out there feels the same way (maybe not about Legion— I keep TRYING, but can’t find any takers), and I may still write a more detailed and spoilery reaction post to the show ITSELF, but I had to get this off my chest first.