#which also makes the way they are presented in canon so hilarious bc I'm basically writing it down to

[scaly-freaks]

I would love to hear what you think of a au vers where amara is rhaenyras daughter and gets married to aegon in a way to mend the relationship between both sides, just for it to be for nothing bc of blood and cheese and aegon being crowned king. Aegon lacks good fanfics besides both of yours

Word of Warning: This is not going to be a happy AU

I'm so attached to her Dornish identity (bc that means she looks like me) that I'm going to make her Criston's daughter in this one...sorry Jace, I'm snatching away the rumoured paternity for my girl. In fact, I'm removing Jace altogether because Amara is basically doing his job as the eldest child now.

But I think she wouldn't be the Amara people have come to love that's for sure. She'd be spoiled, has her father's wicked temper, doesn't care that her brother Luke took Aemond's eye because personally she would have done worse if he hadn't been about to whack her with a rock. She'd scorn Aegon, and have a righteous belief in Luke's position as heir to the iron throne, and she'd be a wonderful liar. Everyone knows she and her brothers aren't legitimate, but she gaslights them with Margaery Tyrell-esque charm and wit and makes them question themselves.

She'd go toe-to-toe with Alicent, but not in the way the OCs do on Tiktok where they parrot her insults back at her. More in the sense that Amara becomes like Aegon when she thinks someone is too strait-laced to live and she wants to pester them. The way Aegon picks and teases at Jace, is how Amara would pick and tease at Alicent and Aemond because to her they're both hilarious. She'd love Helaena, but who wouldn't.

Also this Amara wouldn't like Aegon the way my others ones do, and that's because her love map is starkly different. Her mother loves her and isn't neglectful, and her father (...Laenor) is also present as much as he can be and is the fun!dad archetype. She's never had an empty stomach. She knows her own worth, and Aegon doesn't match up.

She would cry with rage on her wedding night as he raped her (I'm calling it rape because she doesn't want to be there, and he gets a particular satisfaction out of having a public bedding ceremony to deflower his sister's eldest kid). There's no affection there. He gets the job done, and she punches him in the face after, which turns into one of Mushroom's "funny tales" to tell at court later. Thankfully, she falls pregnant immediately, and maybe, just maybe, starts to soften to Aegon when it's clear that outside of his perverse nastiness (I'm keeping him as a canon rapist this one too, sorry lads....which btw he is a rapist in TGOWARL but it's not delved into because princes and nobility don't count it as rape when it comes to wives and commoners) he is actually kind to their children. She doesn't care that he isn't attached to Jaehaera the same, because that means Jaehaera is hers alone (that one quote in Marie Antoinette about the son belonging to France and the daughter belonging to her mother alone).

Aegon would 100% never fail to torture her wherever possible. She's the eldest child of the sister he hates, and once Blood & Cheese happens, with his one-sided view of his children as being his his his I can definitely see him using it against her. Amara loses her faith in her mother after B&C because yes, even if it was Daemon's fault, Rhaenyra married him and was blind to the fact that he's a loose cannon and now her own grandchild is dead. She'd probably sink into the Helaena-style depression, and what with Aegon treating her like absolute shit and the rest of the court also suspecting her every movement because now she's Rhaenyra's Daughter once more, I can't imagine it'd be a very happy time for her. In the small pockets of time she does bite back, she refuses to be a victim again and let him rape her, and forces herself to put on the mindset of I'm fucking him, he's not fucking me. This develops into an Alicole-type compulsion towards sex, where even though they're married and it should be normal, it feels like an ugly ritual they're partaking in that both pleases and horrifies. She probably will fall pregnant again eventually.

ALSO - just realised she'd have to co-exist next to Aemond, her brother's killer? Because I'm assuming that's what ruined the short-lived peace and then triggered the rest of the chain reactions. God, this is a horrible AU for her to be in because deep down, my girl hates being caged, and now I've just forced her into the most suffocating family possible KJDHKJFHKJFH

p.s. About keeping Aegon canon, I wrote Burning Jasmine and completely erased that part because for me it's a very touchy topic and I just wasn't ready to explore a character that I liked who was also a rapist. I tend not to even be in fandoms, so I wasn't used to discussing characters that way. But I realised it makes him a more interesting mess of contradictions and nuance (if explored deeper than the show did) and I think writing is the safest place to navigate such issues, esp in terms of one's own history with abuse.

[dynamightdean]

Alright so the j2 fallout theory idk if you already got the answer, and also I wasn't here for this at the time, but from what I got from reading about it:

The idea is basically Jared and Jensen had a falling out some time prior to spn ending, over whether Dean deserved to die in the finale among some other things (creative differences? not taking spn seriously enough? who knows, not us). Basically, Jensen disagreed and a week after filming the finale (September 2020), he immediately decided to make a production company for the purposes of doing Dean's story justice but didn't tell anyone. People theorized he didn't like the finale but fans didn't have any confirmation bc Jensen went radio silent after the show ended other than a couple comments about Cas's goodbye scene. But overall he kept quiet or neutral about the finale ("sexy silence").

Then June 2021 was when spnwin was announced which resulted in messy Twitter drama from Jared (the "et tu brute" and "I'm gutted" comments) bc Jensen didn't tell him about it beforehand. They supposedly made up afterwards but the theory is that there is still tension which is why Jensen looks pissed in so many cons when he's with Jared, allegedly.

Some fans still thought that Jensen was happy with the finale for a long time afterwards until uhhh I don't remember which con but he was specifically like "I didn't want Dean to go out that way, I think that's been documented" and it's been pretty clear since then though I guess some fans still aren't seeing it?

Thennnn all this stuff with spnwin recently about supposedly asking everyone but Jared to be in the show and we're at present day, more or less. There might be more but I'm not sure.

There's some connection to destiel bc the only comments that Jensen made or liked had to do with 15x18 but that is very unclear and I think it's just speculation tbh (though I personally 100% believe that a decision has been made about how to address it, but based on 18 YEARS of spn history, I have some serious reservations about whether it will be canon, but I'm also way more hopeful than pre jib11 in February - I did some meta about this you could find it on my tumblr). So the jackles long con is the (conspiracy) theory that all of the above is an intentional but low key effort to make destiel canon.

Personally I think all of this is still just a theory but it's objectively HILARIOUS how all of this played out publicly because of how messy and petty all of this is. 💁🏻‍♀️

Thank you so much, I think I vaguely knew a lot of bits and pieces but that def puts it all together. The jackles long con I did know about, I love it so much lol. And also I am very hopeful as well, but trying to be cautiously hopeful!!

[avi17]

Choose violence: 7, 12, and 24

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them? For some reason I'm having a hard time thinking of these, though I know there have to be some. There's definitely characters fandom has made me dislike MORE, or ones where I don't hate them in canon but am over the fandom portrayal (usually due to woobification.) But I'm blanking on examples for some reason. (Also is a whole piece of media an option here because I literally hate Star Wars because of the fans not the movies >.>)

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them Hmm. The answer might at one point have been Boromir, but thankfully he seems to have had a reappraisal in recent years so it's only more casual fans who say stuff that makes me want to fight them XD

Actually you know what? My answer is going to be fucking Beautiful Suzuki from YYH. Is he absolutely ridiculous? Fuck yeah. Is Genkai wrecking his shit hilarious? Also yes. But Team Urameshi literally would have lost the tournament without his help- like indisputably, Kuwabara would have lost his match and Kurama (despite losing on a technicality either way) would have almost certainly been killed. He's actually smart and an incredibly skilled inventor trying to do his shit in a realm that seems to only value brute fighting skill (I love fandom portrayals of him as a bit of a mad scientist), and his little speech to them about wanting to help them prove that underdogs can win- even though they kicked his ass- always has me genuinely cheering. And he fights in the Dark Tournament because he's a famewhore, but he comes back to Kurama in s4 out of genuine loyalty and seems to have genuinely put the ego (mostly) in check. Also whatever he and Shishi have going on in s4 is cute XD

He is just a big gay diva who shoots rainbows out of his hands and I support him dammit Also NRS can still meet me in the pit over their treatment of Kung Lao but I'm not sure that counts either XD 24. topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

"Is Billy Hargrove racist?" which honestly shouldn't really be discourse because the answer is literally yes. Any discourse about if Seladon is evil or not- yes she mega fucks up, I would definitely agree for a little too long after being presented with the evidence (I don't actually lose my patience with her until she's in prison after that encounter with the Skeksis and still blames Brea, everything before that I basically understand where she's coming from even if she's wrong). But I've heard people say that she's WORSE than the Skeksis, and that she deserves her own genocide, in ways that always reek of misogyny, which. Wow fuck off. Also the champion personally is still "is LiuLao incest," because a) no, b) honestly don't even care at this point if it is, and c) fuck off forever. Any discourse about the Feanorians is always a mess but I kinda feel like that is appropriate because they are a mess and so are my feelings about them. Same with anything about Rhaenyra Targaryen/the rest of Fire and Blood/House of the Dragon. Any and all fandom purity culture horseshit. Also I have Very Strong opinions about which Fire Emblems are good and why but I just don't get into that anymore bc why bother

[cinaja]

okay but miryam & jurian actually being the most similar is SO GOOD. let them both be ruthless!! ik miryam doesn't canonically have the plagues but the crossing some moral lines + then dying + (eventually) being resurrected thing is a great parallel & also the best fuck you to canon trying to paint miryam as the good fae-acceptable human & jurian as the mean radical one. honestly she deserves to go off & destroy some shit, cause she didn't even get to do ANYTHING in canon, let alone destroy a mountain range or curse the black land.

Ahhh ty! And yes!! I also really love the parallels between Miryam and Jurian and them being so similar. Canon sets up some of the things there already (with them both being human leaders during the war who died at its end and (eventually) got resurrected), but as usual, it takes the worst possible route with everything, and I really enjoyed fixing it.

For making Miryam ruthless (& a lot like Jurian), I think it was a mixture of the whole set-up/story just DEMANDING she be at least a little bit ruthless and it being the only way to fix the mess that were the canon messages the entire thing conveys.

I just. Absolutely hated how she was written to have been the "model" human (specifically because she is presented as more forgiving of the Fae? SOMEHOW? Even though SHE was the one out of the two of them who had been a slave and therefore made the worst experiences with Fae?) and Jurian as the bad guy for... not liking the people who enslave his kind. It's just such a MESS. Tbh, Miryam breaking up with Jurian (a human) and instead marrying Drakon (a Fae noble) was already pretty bad and had a message I could not get behind at all, but with that entire "Miryam as the one who is forgiving towards Fae" thing on top of that, and the fact that Jurian was tortured and died as "punishment" for what he did while Miryam got resurrected and had a happy ever after with her Fae husband just made it completely terrible. It basically has the message that oppressed people should just forgive their oppressors and, idk, assimilate with them, but if they dare fight back, it will have a bad end for them or smth. And basically the only way out of that I saw was to let Miryam do something that is objectively far worse/more morally questionable than what Jurian did to Clythia and also generally be abundantly clear that she is no more forgiving towards the Fae than Jurian is even if she ends up married to one (which wasn't hard because why would she forgive them??? How could she NOT want some sort of revenge? Even if I choose to write her as someone who generally doesn't like violence and prefers to be kind whenever possible, how could that ever logically extend to the people who enslaved her?)

And, well, apart from Miryam's entire backstory and the entire "promised to free her people from the most powerful country of her time and actually succeeding after 7+ years of work" thing implying that she's at least a BIT ruthless, the whole Exodus retelling thing also demanded it since it was clear from the beginning that Miryam would need to be the one doing the plagues for it to work out. Canon doesn't include the plagues at all, but that makes the entire story fall apart (seriously, explain to me how Miryam and Drakon would manage to free all the humans WITHOUT first defeating the Black Land militarily), so I definitely needed them and I also definitely needed Miryam to do them because she is the Moses character in this and if it's already not her parting the sea, it HAS to be her with the plagues. (Also, once again, fuck canon for basically sidelining her in her own backstory. Everything we hear about the war just continuously implies that shr was important, but do we ever hear what she DID? Noooo, we instead hear ten million details about her romantic relationships, because that's apparently what matters. We couldn't spare a sentence to go "she was a diplomat" or "she was leader of the Alliance" or SOMETHING to explai what she actually DID during the war and why Mor thinks simply namedropping her will get her what she wants even 500 years after the war, but I'm so glad we got pages upon pages on her relationship drama ig.)

[vermillioncrown]

I saw a post about asexual!Wangxian headcanons and I adore it?? Like I’ve never needed to be validated about my asexuality but it’s nice that people in the fandom (which has explicit sexual scenes in the novel) have these kinda thoughts about the main characters. I guess I don’t need to be validated but it feels great when I am. Like the thought that Wei Wuxian isn’t sexually attracted to anyone (including Lan Wangji) but still enjoys the sex with his husband and has romantic attraction? I love it. Lan Wangji being graysexual? I can totally see it and love that too. It’s nice being able to see parts of yourself in beloved characters I guess. Also the whole “everyday means everyday” not being JUST about sex, but about loving your partner everyday for the rest of your life? I’d like to sincerely thank people making those headcanons.

i'm happy those headcanons make you feel like so, but you're prob telling me this bc 1) i make it no secret that i'm demi and this is in solidarity and 2) soliciting my opinion

so here's my opinion (after giving this a long, hard think) bc something about this was itching at me in the wrong way.

i've answered an ace/demi jc ask before, and that's basically how i feel about any 'resonant' headcanon on sexuality.

after a decent length's journey through fandom, life, and my own sexuality (that is still ongoing because i'm not dead yet), my current conclusion is that "I don't need fandom to validate my asexuality, and i am ambivalent to others doing it for me". if there's a well-written, non-hateful, compelling work that sells it one way, great! if there's one that goes the complete opposite way, sure! that is the true litmus test, bc otherwise it just feels like a bunch of caricatures/stereotypes being cobbled together.

(i agree there is a bunch of SEX in the fandom. it is a bit refreshing to read something different, along the same personal wavelength)

(a fave is this... uh, incomplete ABO fic where both wwx and lwj are betas that have to wrangle all the hormone-addled disciples around them. it's hilarious, it's amazing, it somehow works)

(i'm not digging to link it, too lazy)

the thing i'm not overly fond of is the assignation of labels to these characters, esp to characters in the context of the canon setting (with its historical/cultural whatevers words words i'm tired) these labels mean nothing. esp w a fandom that has such a big culture clash between fans of different origins, any headcanon is just... idk it begs careful assessment that it's not an inappropriate imposition of a viewpoint that disregards the origin of the work. and that's not getting into how complicated sexuality and its expression can be, how it can be expressed in its given environment dictating what observers would label it as, and the fact that it's a novel.

idk characters i love don't have to be for me nor represent me. bc if i get annoyed enough that's when i write my own way.

and us being on the ace spectrum doesn't preclude us from homophobia, you know? sometimes people are loud and proud and have tons of sex and want all of that, and that's perfectly ok too. <- a lot of my thoughts on this growing up had to be detangled from "is this learned, unconscious homophobia, or am i rightfully being bothered?"

y'know, like the forever struggle of "is this internalized misogyny or is this woman actually terrible?"

anyways, i rambled on and on, lost the plot

tldr: i don't engage in other people's headcanons unless presented in fanfic format, fictional people written by hobbyists aren't a stand-in for validating any part of my identity, sexuality is not permanent and ever-changing and is a personal thing that cannot be assigned by others.

[onceuponamirror]

hi! A while ago you mentioned how you subscribe to the belief that your personal experience should be priorized above than objective "truth". I just find that super interesting (esp. when it comes to shipping and our engagement with the media we consume) and I wonder if you could expand on that, bc I'm currently taking a class that touches very heavily on the subject =)

i’d be happy to! but i should clarify that it’s incredibly subjective and really, really depends on circumstance. feel like it would go without saying, but i was referring to storytelling and narrative. just want to emphasize that, because objective truth vs experience is more complicated in the real world, especially vis-a-vis racial/gender prejudice/bias. and that’s a whole other conversation.

(occasionally it also can work in terms of actual interpersonal relationships and communication, but, i digress)

anyway. in high school i read a book called “the things we carried” by tim o’brien, which is a war/anti-war collection of short stories. in the chapters, he would take you through a war experience, presented as a memory, and at the end of the chapter, he would sometimes reveal if it was actually a “true” recollection. at first i was annoyed, but then i realized what he was saying was:

fiction can be relative. the experience you personally had interpreting something isn’t. because you felt it, you made it real, for yourself. that’s the skinny. it’s what i feel the entire point of storytelling is—what matters is whether you’re moved by the content, whether you experience things alongside the characters, and sometimes no matter the cost, even if it’s a lie to your reader. 

it’s sort of a parallel of death of the author, which is the theory that the creator’s intentions and motivations are moot once they’re received by an audience; that each person’s personal history informs the way they absorb/react to text. this happens in either circumstance.

the difference is that sometimes a content creator is upset by different interpretations by the audience, whereas someone like o’brien did it deliberately to best tell his story; sometimes something was better explained by a dream-like metaphor that didn’t actually happen smack dab in the middle of a “nonfiction” book. so in the case of it being deliberate, it’s in the service of the story; it’s the unreliable narrator. 

(ironically, i guess the main difference is the definition of death of the author itself lmao—does it matter what was intentional? philosof etc) 

as it applies to fandom—and here’s where the two theories kind of blend up a lot—i feel like it shows up most in arguments of “canon” and shipping wars. does it matter if x ship never comes to fruition, was never planned, never even in the writing, but two actors had some chemistry or there was a moment in the direction, etc? the whole notion of fandom is that the content has a hand off to the fans, which somehow leads to a lot of elitism and false hierarchies over who then “gets” the most content. 

but those who are unrepresented or uninspired by the canon often seek to create their own out those tiny moments, and that’s what makes their experience outweigh the “truth” of the story. it changes shape and form by those who want to relate to something else, and what those people experience/feel is absolutely no less than what is felt by those getting “canon” content. 

it’s funny tho because—and this is just like, my personal brand of nerdy, i’m going off topic slightly—historically, stories have been changing hands and taking new forms and branching off one another for…forever, basically. i mentioned this in a recent post, but cinderella, for example, has roots in both ancient greece and 9th century china. things like the silk road and the roman empire traded a lot of stories around, and in many ways, the content gets owned by whoever is told it. each person brings their own personal experiences and culture to the story they share, which informs the next, and the next, etc. 

the concept of death of the author has existed for centuries (PLEASE read this historian explain how there were legit king arthur fanfics in the 1500s—the traveling bard was a thing because each storyteller had their own version, and came to town with a new but familiar fan fave. that’s why shakespeare as an “original” bard is hilarious)—but it’s only in modern times that the stigma appeared.

(i would guess partially because the ability to directly engage back with the author/actor/etc has changed and blurred the lines. we all have role models who have had impacts on our lives through the work they put out but what a person means to someone doesn’t entitle them to “content,” because a real person’s life isn’t…..content. it’s their life. i think you prob know what i’m referring to.)

(i’m also NOT talking about plagiarism, which is something totally different and is straight up theft of direct text, etc. “you know it when you see it”) 

tl;dr, 

so in terms of storytelling, “objective truth” loses to “personal experience” because truth is a narrative relative. in a story, regardless of what, say, i-the-author am expressing for myself, what you-the-reader feel makes it real for you. 

then an audience inherits whatever story they’ve been told. how the individual interprets it and retell it is the birth of another. 

fandom/fanfic are new phenomena only in the sense of their accessibility of scale, but that they’re basically, basically iterations of the oral tradition that have existed as long as language has. the nature of storytelling is that it changes hands and becomes someone else’s story that they expand upon and modify. and again, and on, and forever. 

anyway. that was rambly and possibly not very clear. hope it answered your question! i’d love to hear what you’re discussing in your class!