#wank fodder

[dragynkeep]

Ironwood: *Provides Yang with a prosthetic arm, Immediately releases the heroes from the arrest, lays all his cards on the table at once, trust them to keep a world-changing tool in their posession, upgrades the their weapons and gear, promotes them all to professional huntsmen*

QRWBY & JNOR: Imma pretend I didn't see that, I don't like this dude's vibes, he shady

Emerald: *Manipulates the heroes by putting up a friendly front, kills Penny, traumatizing Ruby and Pyrrha, helps orchestrate the fall of Beacon that entailed hundreds of casualties, takes part in the fall of Haven, assists Cinder in trying to kill Penny (again) and stop her from launching Amity like a day before she joins the team at the eleventh hour, doing little to nothing to regain their trust*

RWBY & JNOR a few hours later: awww she mad haha welcome to the team Em

The fact that ~Emerald, who cause the deaths of countless innocents, Penny, Pyrrha, indirectly led to Yang losing her arm, Weiss nearly dying, attacked Penny AGAIN, and was with Salem for over half of the invasion of Atlas that killed more countless people-

was welcomed far quicker than the man who literally helped RWBY every step of the way, put his upmost trust in them by giving them their licenses, new weapons, housed them, trusted them completely with the plan with no secrets, and even listened to them up until they literally went behind his back and their lying was exposed, is my villain origin story.

The fact that the heroes were shown as justified in their reactions to Ozpin, who didn't even do half the shit they did, while painting Ironwood as irrational and should be lied to when he'd done nothing to justify that beyond the American white writers getting scared that a shut down country reeling from a terrorist attack would enforce a curfew, is aggravating.

And it shows because so many people before V8 were actually on Ironwood's side, or at least pointed out that RWBY were being hypocrites and not being held accountable by the narrative! So the writers went "We'll just make him stupid evil and a genocidal general so everyone who sided with him in the previous volume was wrong to do so".

Like, can we all agree they just fucked up writing actual nuance and grey morality already? It's far easier than trying to justify their dogshit writing.

[augment-techs]

Hi (I swear this is Power Rangers related) but did you see the music video for "I Should Have Fucked Your Brother" by Olivia O'Brien? Because I'm freaking out about it and I don't know who else to tell.

Oh yes I've seen it; it came through by recommendation via @skyland2703 and...I can understand the hype. I am mostly floating through the ocean of awareness that this set of actors, like most previous Ranger teams, are going to be in each others lives probably for the rest of eternity. And since these two got to be in a music video where their type casting was put through something that will better them tremendously down the line, I am very happy for them. Not too thrilled about the music's implications and what was heavily implied throughout, but if I shove all of that out of the way, I can mostly just settle for the fact that the boys look SO PRETTY. And actually their age, which is preferable.

[olderthannetfic]

I think you've talked before about how it's wrong to assume the only people who enjoy taboo kink like race play are bigoted white people, right? Tumblr's search remains garbage. I've been trying to formulate some thoughts on it after seeing some videos on "bad books" but I don't really know enough about real world kink culture to know what's valid critique of racism or anti-kink just hiding behind it. So I remembered you'd mentioned the topic at some point and might have some thoughts?

--

Well, first, one should apply basic logic: If shittons of women kink on the ways in which society abuses women, why wouldn't at least some ethnic minorities kink on the way society abuses them?

Second, social media overflows with jackasses saying "Listen to POC" as a thought-terminating cliche, but it's good advice as long as you grasp that you do have to evaluate which people you're listening to and what basis you have for trusting that they know something about a subject.

Honestly, I don't think this topic is that complicated. There are just a lot of cowardly white people around who are too scared of ever being seen as wrong to be willing to do a little research or stand up for anything even remotely controversial. They'll parrot the first anti they run across but not bother to engage with the comments of nonwhite kinksters who are long-time community members with informed opinions.

The person I'd listen to, personally, is Mollena Williams-Haas, a kink educator and submissive. She has talked about race play here, among many other places.

Her comments boil down to it being about consent. If kinksters want to play with a concept and everyone involved is on the same page, it's not the business of outsiders to tell them it's off limits.

Playing with heavy topics in an agreed upon way is completely different from having that thing sprung on you without warning. We're used to making this distinction when people are playing with the trappings of rape but, somehow, lose our goddamn minds when the topic is racism.

Now, yes, there are plenty of gross white creeps who think nonwhite kinksters will inherently be interested in this sort of thing and should cater to them... but how is that any different from your usual pest in a bar chatting up uninterested parties and refusing to take no for an answer? The problem isn't squicky kinks that many of us don't want to hear about: The problem is jackasses treating others as a fantasy and/or kink dispenser instead of a person with feelings and needs.

Frankly, most of the arguments against this sort of kink are your usual "As a woman, you should be setting a good example!" bilge that's leveled at all submissive women but on steroids because a woman of color is extra, extra, extra responsible for living her whole life as An Example. (And I notice that it's generally submissive nonwhite women who come in for the most abuse even though plenty of other dynamics exist. Quelle surprise.) It's bullshit. People should mind their own damn business.

As for "bad books"... Are we talking bodice rippers with nonwhite heroines or what? Are we back to colonizer romance wank? Books about characters engaging in race play in a BDSM context? I think it's reasonable to critique books that don't seem to know what they're doing—e.g. not seeming aware that a rape scene is one—but stupid to worry about iddy trash that is trying to be iddy trash. People will always like socially unacceptable id fodder. Some books will always cater to that.

[eisforeidolon]

The writers were aware of fandom wank, which is why a lot of the “Dean/Cass” stuff ends up on the cutting room floor. It’s like they’d write something that seemed fine on paper, the. they realize people will read too much into it when performed and cut it out.

That was some of it. Like the infamous fake heaven scene they thought would be so hilarious to fill with pictures of Dean - where Jared had to point out some fans would take it seriously as a hint to where the story was going. So they removed it because that wasn't the intent. Like the crypt scene were Jensen pointed out Dean would not say I love you there. So Robbie changed it to what he more explicitly meant in terms of it being familial affection by his own direct admission.

Hellers want to insist all those little cut moments are PROOF of a conspiracy to ~*cheat them*~ out of an intended D/C story the writers were trying to give them, damn the meddling network and producers! However, what all the details we've actually heard about show? Is the ship being a thing in canon was so far outside of the genuine agreed intent multiple writers not only didn't think about the implications and not only used it as a punchline? But usually immediately removed those supposed hints when anyone pointed out the prospect of it being taken seriously by fans. Of course, when you have fans so desperately searching for clues they can turn literally breathing in the same room into ~*epic romance*~ it's hard to remove everything unless the characters literally never interact (and then you end up with "negative space" meta, so there's no winning).

Sure, there's a deeper question there as to whether they thought that specific pairing was ridiculous in the context of the canon (absolutely) or they generally thought m/m pairings were only fodder for jokes (not cool). Except that's a whole different discussion, because either way? What is clear is there was never some intentional secret storyline in easily cut throwaway moments leading up to making D/C canon the REAL story of the show. And not just because the idea anyone would tell a story on tv that way is fucking bonkers.

The writers definitely became more aware as time went on about fandom wank in regards to the subject? Though I think it was complicated a bit by them also having some quote unquote writers join the team towards the very end who were desperate for attention and actively wanted to bait those unhinged fans, like Bobo the Assclown and whatsherface the minion underling.

[chaifootsteps]

Been playing BG3 again (I stopped at a certain point because I disliked enough of it to shelve it) but I'm back at it to actually form a good opinion on *why* I dislike it, since the refund period was already well out the window by the time I was fed up the first time around.

Why am I coming to you about this? Because I noticed something while playing and doing some digging on the other romance routes that I will not be doing. Astarion and Stolas are incredibly alike. It's fascinating to me, Astarion literally admits to the player that he manipulated you so you wouldn't ever cross him, but only after *he* fell in love does he decide you get agency. Which sounds very similar to how a certain owl treats a certain imp.

Honestly the more I play the game and do some digging on the fandom the more BG3 feels like Helluva Boss. Both stories had initial premise (for BG3 it was the Early Access, for HB it was the pilot/season 1) but fell into just being romance or focusing on the writer's pet (for BG3 this is Astarion). Both stories handle abuse abysmally (Wyll and Gale are both victims and yet their abuse isn't treated as serious? There was even a 'patch' where the PC could pressure Gale into group sex and he still expresses being uncomfortable the entire time, Wyll's abuse is... A fucking lot to get into) and both stories are just. Flat out racist? HB has the whole... Imps and Hellhounds metaphor going on (that gets conveniently forgotten about when we need to focus on how sad Stolas is) and BG3 also has fantasy racism (playing as a Teifling apparently has NPCs call you slurs right out the gate) but also just has normal, everyday racism in the foundations of the game (Wyll is the most lacking companion in content while Astarion gets more and more content, the lack of options for POC to make a character that even looks like them). *This* was 2023's GotY?

I'm so, so tired of mediocre at best pieces of work being propped up as 'the best thing ever and if you disagree you're a bad person' by fandom at large. I wish people were more critical of the things they consumed, I wish stories about male victims of abuse were treated seriously and not just made as wank fodder or without the author constantly implying that the victim 'deserved' it.

Apologies in advance if this is heavy, I generally try to form my thoughts about these things more constructively as I believe it's important to establish *why* something is flawed, but I'm so frustrated. It's hard to be charitable and kind all the time when it feels like doing so is coming up against a dead end. It also goes without saying that if any fans of BG3 see this, I don't hate you, I don't think you're a bad person for liking this game I despise, I'm just... Tired.

(I'd also like to request that this ask, if you decide to answer, is paired with the suggestive tag due to the language I've used. It's a personal preference, thank you in advance.)

Haven't gotten around to playing BG3, but between the resemblance to Stolas and the terrible flashbacks to actual worst character Iron Bull sleeping with your Inquisitor as a means of spying on them and then "catching feelings," I'm thinking I might have to skip romancing Astarion. At least there's plenty of other fish in the Baldur's Gate 3.

[mzminola]

I don't know if I'll ever actually go through and pull panels to illustrate this, but art design and framing has a huge impact on how sexist a comic feels, and that will impact whether I bother reading it, regardless of the writing.

Costume design is part of it. Does this fit the character's personality and history, and is it practical for what they do? Original Dick Grayson Robin fighting without any leg coverage is not practical, but it fits with his backstory. Helena Bertinelli Huntress, who is also a normal human fighting the mafia but with a very different backstory, fighting with no leg coverage and often compromised torso coverage is neither practical nor in character. So I'm more likely to read Huntress comics from eras where her costume does fully cover her than when it doesn't.

Within costuming, we also have "Does real clothing work this way, or did they just color over the body sketch?" For most superhero costumes that's fine because everyone is drawn that way (boob socks aside), but if it's supposed to be civilian clothes? I'm sorry, t-shirts don't work like that, and very few people tolerate their jeans giving them constant wedgies.

Beyond that though, there's framing. What is the focal point of the page? In what way does the layout lead your eye? Does the focal point flow serve the story, general comic book spectacle (check out this roundhouse kick! look at that robot's cool design! isn't this monster weird!), or is it blatantly a pin-up?

How is the character posed, and why?

Sometimes the camera angle and character pose giving us a butt or boob shot actually does make sense. Generally you can tell by asking "If this was a guy character, and we assume the artist is not attracted to guys, would this be drawn the same way?"

Unfortunately, in a lot of older comics (but not, I'm pretty sure, the earliest ones?) it's really blatantly obviously just for wank fodder. Not as a flow of action, not to set a scene's mood, it's just to titillate.

Titillation can be fun and has its place in entertainment...but so does hard science fiction, and I'm not coming to superhero comics for that, you know? Incidentally getting some cool science facts is different from the story bending itself into a pretzel to justify why this character operates under Real World Physics while this other character is basically a Looney Tune.

From what I've seen, superhero comics are getting a lot better about this! But it can still be a problem, and for fans getting into older works, it can be a genuine hurdle.

And with a backlog of thousands of stories? I'm not gonna spend time on the ones where the art skeeves me out, not matter how good I'm told the writing is.

[iphisesque]

i think something people forget about the internet is that ANYTHING can be sexual material to someone. it is not guaranteed that what you post will make its way to the hands of people who will make it sexual but it is always a possibility with everything you post on the internet that someone might find it and bust a nut to it. and of course the more you post a certain kind of content the more its sexual enjoyers are going to gather around your presence. it is preposterous to me that people not only don't realize this but then proceed to directly put other people in the way of this unknowing sexualisation especially their own children. everybody knows who's the main demographic watching family vlogs and pageant videos and it is not lonesome spinsters cooing at the adorable kids it's child predators who are using these children as wank fodder thanks to all the footage the parents provide them with on a daily basis.

[thowawayuntilfurthernotice]

Hello, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to ask you this—as someone a crumb bit invested in what HH will be like, especially with the addition of the funds given to production (and maybe professional additional writers?) what are your thoughts right now on the show, are you holding out hope it'll be at least better than HB?

I also just want to squeeze in another ask about your thoughts on Vivziepop and by extension Spindlehorse, specifically the way production treats themselves as part of the fandom. Personally, I think this is a significant issue for a few reasons, the biggest one being: it defeats the integrity of the representation.

Imagine having a character like Valentino who is an incredibly abusive r*pist, using him to attempt to illustrate the horror of these specific abuses and trauma (which as I am sure you know either ruins people or kills them generally) but then turn around and sell merch of him being attractive, and deliberately try to add sex appeal to him and his relationship with his victim, Angel. As a creator, or someone part of the official production—you've just bastardized the entire meaning of the story in favor of wank fodder and sugarcoating abuse to twist into your 'fav ship' or something that's trying to be hot.

You see, this is the problem with the lack of boundaries within production; you want to have a portrayal of abuse but errr... the idea of the ship is just too hot and dramatic to ignore! The production wants to have its cake and eat it too, and acting as fans without disconnect makes all the other fans look at this content from OFFICIAL sources and start to, of course, normalize it.

What a tragic waste of representation for communities who need and deserve meaningful rep, because shipping, sex appeal, selling merch mean more to Vivziepop and Spindlehorse than ever conveying a compassionate exploration of true horror.

Tragic aside, what are your thoughts on these things? Thank you for reading through!

Honestly? I don't see Hazbin Hotel being all that different from Helluva Boss. In fact, I'm kinda dreading the jokes because Viv isn't going to be working with any YouTube restrictions, so I fully expect a bunch of raunchy dick and sex jokes.

A24 can hire additional writers, but it won't make a difference if Viv is still running things, as she refuses to listen to any criticism or feedback.

Maybe the writing will be a bit better if additional writers are brought in to touch up the scripts, as I personally think that a lot of the scripts for Helluva Boss feel like first or second drafts that desperately needed polishing.

As for my thoughts on Spindlehorse as a whole, it reminds me a lot of Channel Awesome. Except Viv and her inner circle are way more competent than Mike Michaud and the Walkers.

I don't have much to say regarding Valentino, as that's a topic that's been covered to death already and I have absolutely nothing new to add to it.

Though, I do find it funny how Viv doesn't seem to have an issue with the fandom shipping Valentino and Angel, but she'll totally draw the line at people who ship Andre and Stella.

She's like "I will excuse sexual assault, but I will draw the line at incest."

[mwebber]

also listen, like. i know this girlseb au stuff can get pretty heavy and i get why people are in my inbox asking for fluff or post-red bull scenarios. don't get me wrong, i'm happy to linger on it! but i don't take the au so seriously anymore... she's messed up and he's not a good person and they're awful for each other. they're tropes to the extreme by design. they don't need to be anything other than completely self indulgent wank fodder if you don't want them to be. they could be an examination of gender roles if you like, or they can be your meta critique of rpf, or they can simply be read at surface level as everything changes: the heterosexual version. if u don't think something is realistic or in character--fine by me!

but ig idk, please don't like, presume the au is some epic love story that it's not. i haven't given that much thought to this whole martian pregnancy/kids/life after red bull thing beyond "oh yeah, that'd probably happen in this fic because that's what's supposed to happen in these kinds of fics." plus in all honesty, fanfic OCs like imaginary kids make me uncomfortable in general...

so how does girlseb au martian resolve their problems to get their happily ever after? they don't, not really, but it doesn't much matter bc their actual story lies in where they're unresolved. the main point is not their resolution / the answer to their problems, but how they navigate their dynamic and complex history while mired in the pit of their self-made hell, and in doing so, demonstrate aspects of survival in complicated relationships and life situations. god forbid i ever find myself in a nasty love triangle like martianson in "wrestling in dirt pits" ! but having put it on paper, i can at least put words to some personal (if far more general) feelings of inadequacy and jealousy, or at the very least, i've gotten some practice in writing messy situationships. it's fiction. it's creative writing. nothing more, but nothing less, either :)

[calico-heart]

I'm curious about Sensation and Fantasy for any characters that have thoughts on the topics!

Thanks for the ask! :D

🩷 Sensation - Do any specific textures or temperatures affect their enjoyment, such as wax, carpet, silk, feathers? Do they usually find pain a turn on or turn off?

Nate is very sensitive to touch (thanks autism) and so being in a physically comfortable environment and position are very important to him! He actually really dislikes the feel of silk, but has a habit of collecting other kinds of sheets and blankets that suit him and turning his bed into a nest of soft things. Most gentle types of sensation play like wax and feathers are enjoyable to him. A warm bath might be fun, but a shower is too much sensory input and would be distracting, if not unpleasant. While he can be convinced to provide a spanking, pinch, or bite to a partner with enough trust established, Nate really doesn't like being on the receiving end of pain at all, and at best it's a neutral sensation.

💛 Fantasy - Are there any fantasies they enjoy daydreaming about but don't actually want to act on? This could be kinks, positions, partners, or anything else sex-related.

Tsimh sometimes has dubcon/noncon fantasies! She big on consent in practice and would absolutely not respond in a friendly or submissive way to someone trying to coerce her into sex. In practice, it would be horrifying. But she will daydream about being able to let go of control for a while and have someone Thancred absolutely ravish her in a fit of unbridled passion while she "resists." I don't think she'd ever actually ask anyone to try some kind of consensual non-consent activity, either. For her, this is just personal wank fodder.

Sinday Character Asks

[vegaseatsass]

I have been painfully busy this week but this is a driveby post to update you on my status as a late stage Singto girlie. (Or Singto old womanie..) I am watching SOTUS and Shadow concurrently. 6 episodes into each. Here are my most important feelings: - Shadow is excellent and thought-provoking and filling the DFF hole in my life, but the most exciting FOR ME development was when Dan got stoned and fucked that shadow. Like good for him. His evil Catholic school trying to indoctrinate him into treating it like a figment of his imagination and repressing it into nothingness and instead, with the help of a little mary jane, he just went ahead and fucked that shadow. I was so proud of him. - I don't want to say anything too controversial about SOTUS because I'm watching it for the History and I'm highkey aware that eight years of discourse about the series that launched Thai BL into a phenomenon is not something to wade into ill-prepared. NONETHELESS I will recklessly share that, at least in these early episodes, Kong seems like he's unconsciously searching for a dom, and just really really excited to meet someone who gives him orders and publicly humiliates him and makes him feel small and striving. As a freak sub who used to read hazing stories in teen magazines as wank fodder I feel him, but I do hope Art actually has it in him to fill that need. It already feels a bit like Art is the one who is gonna get dommed in the end, and I mean good for him but ALSO I hope Kong can get his needs met and not just take care of everyone else all the time. Thank you for coming to my uninformed Ted Talk I should have kept to myself til I finished the series.

[olderthannetfic]

Not to throw more fodder on the wank pile, but if the archive can accommodate those horribly irritating twee, tumblr-style diary free form tags in the metadata, I really don’t see the point of fussing over a hypothetical person who puts a sex scene in their summary. My scroll wheel exists, and it serves me well

--

[first-manchester-661]

If these asks aren't wank fodder what's the point

Exactly (they are)

[officialpenisenvy]

i love trauma it's like having endless new wank fodder except it also makes you miserable. which is in itself very hot. yay

[anti-katsuki-lounge]

You know, I still think about how like... Katsuki has never actually had a proper 1v1 vs a villain character ever. Like, it's always been with another person. All of his fights where he could shine... are against other heroes. And most of the fights where villains are involved, he loses pretty badly. But it's more than just that. Izuku's original design was going to basically be Japanese Anime Batman, being quirkless and using equipment and an adult. Katsuki's original design was going to be a nice person who just had no tact and was brutally honest. Apparently, that original design for Izuku was believed that it would cause him to fade into the background according to Horikoshi's editors, and Katsuki's original design was considered too freaking boring according to Horikoshi himself. And yet fast forward to the current events of the manga where... I genuinely don't even know what Izuku's personality is any more because all his idea of strategy is basically gone, it's just basically 'unleash overwhelming power', and he really has no character outside of being a vessel for the Protag Powers. And then you have Katsuki, who jobs constantly, the entire story basically feels like he was intended to be the original protagonist with how often he's shoved into everything and is just sucked off despite his jobbing as if he's more important to the plot than anyone else. Like fuck, Katsuki is literally listed as being an abusive egotist in the guidebook, and Kirishima has an entire thing in his backstory about being the victim of bullying yet he's completely okay with Katsuki, a character who is actively hostile to everyone and is abrasive AT BEST. Like I get they're high schoolers (which I genuinely don't understand with how they act considering high schoolers were more intelligent than this for me growing up) but fuck Horikoshi's writing makes fucking everyone so god damn stupid the moment Katsuki is involved. Anyway, I needed to vent after I was catching up on World Trigger and realising 'yeah I actually enjoy this arc because we have character personality conflicts and the individuals have to work them out because they're stuck together for a week. Oh and they actually talk to each other and you know, HAVE FUCKING BRAINS, and actively try and work on these flaws that are coming up', and getting incredibly mad that the entire character writing into MHA at this point is basically SMASH THIS NO STRATEGY and personally I blame the story constantly sucking off Bakugou who's supposed intelligence just feels informed and contrived because of his behaviour. Intelligent strategist but incredibly socially dumb my god. And he's so socially dumb he subtracts from everyone else's intelligence to get him to suck him off. I genuinely do not understand why the Bakusquad exists considering the personality conflicts there, especially with Kaminari outright stating his personality was raw sewage at one point early on and yet we're supposed to believe that Bakugou has grown and atoned as a person whilst still being a rabid dumbass who gets his ass kicked.

That’s an interesting point. A majority of Katsuki’s fights, the ones where he wins, are against fellow heroes in training. In terms of villains, he’s only ever fought Tomura, Nine, the canon fodder in the USJ, and the minions in the movies (with help).

I agree with what you said about Proto Katsuki in that he would’ve been far more interesting, or at least far more tolerable. I’d rather have a boring character than an outright terrible one. Like you mentioned before, everyone who interacts with Katsuki is made 100% dumber and is forced to neglect key components of their character just so that Hori can wank off his fave and push this “he has potential and is strong” narrative. I also agree that unfortunately it does feel like Izuku’s been reduced to “punch everything with a lot of force” rather than the creative fighter he was before. There was a really great analysis I just read that explains this. I blame it on Hori trying to wrap up his story as quickly as he can.

This is the analysis in question btw:

[eff-plays]

I have some thoughts on Raiden "I'm totally cool and awesome and skilled and nobody can ever criticize me because I'm the devs' specialest little wank fodder" Errantkingdom <3