#This could be about literally any wlw ship

[b0bs0ndugnutt]

Because the “shrodinger’s queerbait” nonsense will never go away, indulge me an analogy (and a long post).

wlw ships are the “made from scratch” cake in a world where we only ever expect cake mix from the box.

Say you have a show where, in the first interaction between a male and female character, there is a red box. It could be a Betty Crocker box of cake mix. Because all it takes is just one smile — one wink — one raised eyebrow— and the fans don’t question it. We’re clearly making a cake here. The box is red.

Meanwhile, you have two female characters building their own relationship that have elements that could build to romance. There are eggs in the fridge. A few more episodes, there’s flour in the pantry. Sugar. Baking powder. Queer fans start whispering…we could be making a cake here. Other fans scoff “you will read into anything. They’re just eggs! Everyone has eggs in their fridge!” Maybe so, maybe not. They are written off as discrete ingredients, nothing to see here.

That red box is still sitting in the pantry. Obviously we’re going with that one, and it’s definitely cake mix. That guy and girl stood next to each other again.

The wlw relationship is now full-on batter. It was a cake recipe all along, but it’s not baked yet. The crowd that wrote off every ingredient is now saying the writers are just going to “squander” that box that could be ready-made cake mix or that they’re being “forced” to bake a cake with the very ingredients the writers deliberately bought and put in their pantry.

Now it’s in the oven, the cake is baking. That crowd will still insist it’s forced, or maybe its actually something else, or it’s rushed, or it’s pandering. Whether the writers painstakingly built a pantry to make the cake they truly wanted or they were cultivating good ingredients and realized they had the fixings for a more decadent cake and went there, it doesn’t matter. It’s still a recipe. One that fans who always have to piece together ingredients had hoped for or saw from the get-go, despite being scoffed at and disparaged. Just because that crowd didn’t see (or refused to see) those ingredients as part of a whole, doesn’t make it any less of a recipe.

And wlw fans shouldn’t have to keep writing essays to demonstrate that the wlw “cake” has all the ingredients every cake mix does, or keep pointing out that fans were ready to believe a cake was being baked when they saw a nondescript box, but that they’ll do anything to discredit or doubt the cake from scratch that’s now cooling off on the counter.

It is partly a function of heteronormativity from the audience in immediately seeing romance in any whisper of interaction between m/f characters and passing off all charged interactions between female characters are sisterly or platonic. And it also comes from writers, who are either being cautious so as not to spook corporate overlords or audiences, or who are preserving plausible deniability.

To take the analogy further, box cake mix is fine! It works! It is, practically speaking, what a lot of folks know by default. I thought I was a Duncan Hines girl once myself. Vanilla cake mix has the ingredients measured out, it’s a safe bet, it tastes like cake.

But it doesn’t mean every red box is cake mix. And it doesn’t make the cake that had to be pieced together from scratch due to censorship, caution, time, narrative build-up, what-have-you, any less of a cake.

#Also this is a pillsbury cake mix hate blog so it doesnt count. The good ones have red boxes. #are we discoursing on this fine evening? Why not. #This could be about literally any wlw ship #but as someone who binged 8 volumes of rwby before 9 and missed all the drama but sees the vestiges of it years later somehow #its wild to me. Because as someone who saw the narrative in one gulp #it is very obvious they have put a lot of love and attention into Bumbleby #anyway this applies to #Bumbleby #korrasami #clexa #bubbline #harlivy #i could keep going #Having to defend a wlw ship like it’s a dissertation EVERY TIME is exhausting #And the fact that wlw fans have been burned before shouldn’t be wielded as a sword and a shield every time a wlw ship is viable

[eosofspades]

Question for you, on the subject of SPOP ships: would you have been okay with Glitradora (essentially the poly trio) being a thing, had Nate Stevenson decided he wanted to go that direction? I'm just curious as someone who loved how the Catradora arc was done in the show.

(And for the record, I understand your indifference towards both Korrasami and CaitVi--the latter will need some more seasons in the oven to really flourish, while the former is severely hampered by the constant executive interference Nickelodeon pulled on LOK during its original run.)

if glitradora were made canon i would have eaten my own face (/pos) my god the CONCEPT,,, the DRAMA,,, the DYNAMICS,,,,, that would have been my roman empire actually

also agree w everything you say here indifference is a great word for it. caitvi i actually see the potential in them i don't dislike the pairing it just rlly isn't compelling to me. i actually felt a little,,, weird about it? it felt like it came out of nowhere to me?? which i know isn't true but something about it just strikes me as Rushed idk (vi is still one of my favorite characters though)

as for korrasami i lowkey feel bad hating on it bc i KNOW how much the network screwed over the writers about it, but like,,, man i don't even see the potential in this one ahgakjsdas. i will admit though a big part of this is just the general writing of tlok i felt wasn't great so the character dynamics seem sorta weak to me. i AM glad for what they did for representation in kids' cartoons though and i'm glad ppl are having a good time shipping them. the fanart is gorgeous also

#i will also say though. part of what i dislike about korrasami is that i simply do not find asami compelling. korra was truly the only #character in that show that i REALLY liked everyone else was either just kinda There or i actively didn't like #i think what it comes down to for me is that i feel bad for not liking these mainstream wlw ships (i forgot to mention this before but #chaggie via hazbin hotel is ALSO on this list) is bc like. i am AWARE of how important these relationships are in terms of #representation of wlw ESPECIALLY korrasami and that there's nothing WRONG with the ships but #so often im like.... this is unseasoned plain chicken to me. they could literally just be besties and i think i would enjoy that MORE #and then i spiral im like. oh god wait this is the societally ingrained minimizing/softening/erasure of sapphic relationships and #watering down to 'girl best friends' #am *I* the problem? is this internalized lesbophobic rhetoric?? #which. i highly DOUBT. bc i DO like wlw ships. as stated any combination of catra/glimmer/adora i ADORE #but it. bothers me #especially bc these ships are soooo popular and idk if we've just gotten used to only getting the unseasoned chicken or if #i AM. in fact. the problem #RORY HAS A GAY LITTLE CRISIS IN THE TAGS OF THIS POST SORRY I KNOW YOU DIDNT ASK FOR THIS FHSKDJFHJS #ask #mine

[raayllum]

me checking the raydia tag to see if there’s going to be deeper consideration given to their interrelated trauma, their subsequently amplified hatred towards each other, notions of the path it would realistically take for them to be on good terms, and their foil relationship: no just more ‘uwu’ lesbian content yet again :/

#raydia #pre s1 was full of antis and like. a refusal to engage with what's actually interesting about them from the text #and not much has changed #LIKE THEY'RE SO INTERESTING #but all anyone writes for them is unfinished AUs that Erase all their messy history by making claudia ooc early on in the series #or just modern AUs where they're lesbians (which why not bi first of all rayla at the very least is canonically attracted to men) #and just 'cute uwu' dates/confessions that could be given to literally Any wlw ship #it's so Boring #LIKE WHERE'S THE ANGST. WHERE'S THE IDEOLOGICAL CLASHES #this isn't salt bc i do not actually ship them nor care enough in general but #god i wish there'd be more Interesting shit for their dynamic in general

[chireikiden]

Might be a pretty basic take by the standards of more seasoned yuri fans, but it's my perspective as someone who's mostly read yuri in a Touhou context (though a lot of it), and exclusively manga from the Japanese fans as opposed to i.e. written fics.

Touhou yuri (using it very broadly here to describe any kind of wlw shipping present) is, across the board, in a pool of fan literature going back twenty years, remarkably good at taking the lesbian part for granted. Not counting outright het content or works that simply don't bring it up, I have only very vague memories of a character's lesbian orientation being either denied or even brought to question (even in the cliche "But we're both girls!" manner, which even as a somewhat dead horse trope you might still expect to see, given plenty of doujin writing isn't exactly highbrow). You might be able to read "Does she like girls?" between the lines in the usual question of "Does she like me?" if you really want to, but the way it's still basically treated as default is fun to me. There's a reason Touhou basically has honorary yuri status on e.g. Dynasty Reader, even the stories with effectively zero shipping in them. You might not notice if you haven't browsed the site, but it's literally nothing but yuri + Touhou. We even got upload rights just so we could post more Touhou.

(Of course, Touhou being yuri city is part of the reason any hint of straight romance gets a really strong kneejerk reaction from people, including me. But that's also because the lack of usable male characters makes that shipping inherently hamfisted, up to and including literally making up cardboard villager OCs. Basically the only positive example I can remember off the top of my head is Hisona's An Old Poem for the Cuckoo Bird depicting Youki with a 1000-year-old mostly joking crush on Nue, which after some chin-scratching I decided I liked alright. And Hisona of course has plenty of yuri cred to cover for it.)

But although taken for granted, most Touhou yuri is one or more of: a.) On a "blushing maidens thinking about holding hands" level in its approach to romance, b.) Only depicting the starting moments of a relationship, at best - usually just pining, c.) Only off-handedly teasing, basically to acknowledge the ship is there, d.) Showing a very close and loving relationship but leaving the romance part subtextual, even if thinly veiled.

While those are all fine - some of my favorite artists like e.g. Ashiyama undeniably fall under d.) - it means that artists who depict more established couples, and couples that get depicted as more established, stand out. I love when a story is very blunt about two characters, whether the focus is actually on them or not, already being an item. Be it due to a difference in target demographic or what, many of these works seem to have a slight lean towards being more raunchy/horny even when not outright R-18, but I don't actually mind that too much when it does happen - as long as they're fun and raunchy, as opposed to only raunchy or, god forbid, unfun in raunchy ways.

I like how Moyazou depicts Mokou and Keine as basically-married. I like how Atoki depicts YuuParu or SakiYachi after drawing like twenty books of them (each). I like when Kawayabug depicts Tojiko as Miko's beleaguered wife. But the example of the day is obviously risui (of Ladies of Scarlet Devil Mansion), who you might have guessed inspired this ramble. Funnily enough, in LoSDM she seems to have walked back Meiling and Sakuya's relationship coincidentally at the same time she toned down the content to fit SCoOW's guidelines, compared to her usual works that have MeiSaku at a much more established and mutual stage.

But the point stands that it's really fun to see LoSDM almost rub it in your face from the very start - from Meiling's dream to every other conversation she has - that everyone in it is unapologetically and openly lesbian, assumes everyone else to be a lesbian, and doesn't hesitate to talk about it like a (romcom idiot) adult.

Also, risui draw lady very good

#would be really funny if I started using the tag 'ladies disc.' #losdm disc.

[silviawordsworth]

A comprehensive reason as to why I, as a teenage girl, think the marauders fandom is heaven on earth. (+ a few faults)

In simple terms, its a pit of representation. The characters, even the ones mentioned more than just a name drop, have very little known information about them. Like yes, we know remus lupin marries tonks and we know james marries lily, but besides that? They were teenagers at hogwarts, its fun to play around with the dynamics of them.

And its also a passion project. The marauders is by no means an actual thing. Sure, theyre side characters in hp. But the marauders fandom is created solely on headcanons and fanon info. Its almost like if i were to pull finnick and annie from thg and develop them with such depth that it contextualises things that couldve been explained better in the actual books.

And not only that, but it shows creativity. Its like weve all taken these characters, aged them down to make them more relatable, and projected our own teenage experiences onto them in a way that jk could never as she wrote them as an adult and likely has never experienced the struggles of the lgbtq teens nowadays

The lgbtq is also a good point to bring up. Nowhere anywhere else on the internet will you find a fandom so full of lgbtq characters solely bc 'it doesnt sell'. The marauders is a prime example of how marketing realistic teenagers to teenagers is not unprofitable.

Mental health is also a big thing that needs to be explored more in media. And not as the main plot, but as something that just exists. Its done well in the marauders fandom.

Usually when watching a show or reading a book, you think these characters arent that realistic. In their world, sure. But its hard to relate to characters who link nothing to you. The marauders, though wizards, are teenagers in school. They are relatable.

Also the ability to create everything out of nothing. I adore pandora rosier and regulus black but in canon they are never even shown in the movies besides reg.

The poc inclusivity, the non skinny inclusivity, etc etc.

However! There are issues.

The marauders fandom is primarily girls, yet this fandom is an excellent example of the preference that male characters get. Like, i love regulus. But pray tell why jegulus gets more hype than pretty much any wlw ships combined? And why do i see so much of lily being a surrogate or her dying and james and reg getting harry? If youre gonna cut lily out of james life for him to be w reg, atleast find another way for them to have a kid. Lily is more than her uterus and a plot device for a kid.

And theres also sm arguments over headcanons. Like, if i were to say i hc james potter as straight, i would get attacked in todays fandom. It just gets a bit strange sometimes when people disregard canon at all. I get the seperation of canon from fanon is definitely inevitable in this fandom, but i dislike when people push their hcs as canon when its literally contradicted by canon.

I love the marauders fandom i do, and i love the way the characters are developed enough to be interesting to everyone, and not just babied down enough to be advertised to kids. Theres so much you can do when you dont have to worry about pr.

Anyways, thanks for listening to my rant. Please feel free to reblog w any questions or comments, il respond to everyone x

#marauders #marauders era #marauders fanfiction #regulus black #pandora rosier #sirius black #lily evans #pandalily #jegulus #remus lupin #dorlene #james potter #regulus and sirius

[the-moons-ace-card]

So I have a new OC in the works for Hotel Transylvania of all things, but I don't really have many people to rant to about him, so I'm just gonna info dump about him here

It all started when I heard a rumor that Griffin was originally gonna be queer coded, but the creators ended up being cowards and that's how he ended up with Crystal at the end of the second movie. Don't get me wrong, Crystal's a queen, but Griff being gay just makes so much sense to me. He literally called Drac "irresistible" and was the only one without a gf in the first movie

IDC what anyone says, in my mind, he and Crystal only "zinged" for benefits and they're mlm and wlw solidarity. They're only "dating" until they find their true zings.

Anyway, I heard that and went "Dang, that's TWICE now my boy got robbed!" so I'm gonna give him the bf he deserves (maybe I'll make a gf for Crystal, too, who knows)

I haven't drawn him YET (he's in progress) but his name is Cyrus and he's a phoenix. He looks mostly human, but he also has red and gold wings, and markings on his face and shoulders. He can regenerate from ashes when he dies, his tears can heal any injury, and he's a firebender. He can also shapeshift and take the form of a giant red and gold bird. He's pretty quiet, reserved, and doesn't trust easy.

Like other monsters, Cyrus was feared by humans. But unlike other monsters, humans hunted him down for a different reason - his tears. Since his tears are like the ultimate ointment, people wanted to get their hands on them for either themselves, or to make money off of them. Cyrus had been caught many times, either straight up, or lulled into a false sense of security and got backstabbed. Each time, he went through intense levels of agony, anything that would get him to spill tears. But he always managed to escape.

It didn't take long for him to become distrusting of everyone he meets.

When Cyrus heard that humans and monsters got along again, he wanted nothing to do with it. Sure, humans may no longer be afraid of him, but what could be done to change that he was still wanted for selfish reasons?

When he first came into the hotel looking for a break from it all, Griffin zinged first since he spotted him from afar.

When Cyrus first interacted with Griffin, he was taken aback by the personality brighter than his flames. He knew Griffin was basically just an invisible human, but he knew off the bat that something about him was different. In that moment, the zing became mutual, but Cyrus didn't know it yet.

Griffin knew, though, and he immediately ran to tell Crystal the first chance he got. She was super excited for him.

From there, the romance blossomed in the form of a slow burn. Cyrus cautiously took his time to build up the trust and courage to feel completely safe and relaxed around Griffin and Griffin was super patient with him. When Cyrus finally did feel comfortable, he also embraced his loving feelings and then the ship set sail

And that's all I have to share for now. Any feedback or ideas would be appreciated!!

#hotel transylvania #hotel transylvania oc #original character #griffin #hotel transylvania griffin #hotel transylvania invisible man #invisible man #invisible man hotel transylvania #griffin hotel transylvania #crystal #hotel transylvania crystal #oc x canon #gay #i love them already

[booksandpaperss]

Aight another long post but it’s important that everyone on this tag gets this:

People who say byler isn’t a ground breaking queer ship if its gonna be canon just… don’t get it.

“There’s other shows with queer rep not just ST!” yes thank you I am well aware that Mike and Will aren’t the only two gay people in existence. Sure there’s other queer media, but like, most of the good ones are shows that were explicitly confirmed to be abt the queer experience, and I love those, but it’s just different when a show with a plot unrelated to being gay *has* multiple main characters as queer. Like that’s so much better bc it reminds ppl that queer ppl are actually real people and we exist outside of TV shows abt being queer, ya feel me?

-“Just bc stranger things is a bigger show doesn’t make a queer ship on it more groundbreaking”- umm yes it fucking does?? I really don’t think some of you understand: thousands of ppl who are either homophobic or just ignorant and aren’t used to seeing gay ppl on screen are going to SEE with their own eyes two teen boys in the 80s being in love on one of their favorite shows. Tons of queer kids who don’t have access to queer media or simply don’t KNOW that they’re queer are going to get to see two teen boys being in love. Putting that on a show like stranger things puts that representation across a much larger and diverse audience, *that* is what’s groundbreaking.

-“Stop acting like byler is any more of a big deal than Robin and Vickie! There’s already a queer ship onscreen another one isn’t any more groundbreaking.”- Yes. Yes it is. And do you know why? Because Mike and Will are both *crucial main characters*. There’s another longpostTM on my blog where I talk abt this in more detail, but the fact that Will’s romance is with mike, a relationship with another mc that’s been built up since season 1 and is critical to the plot, instead of some side character dude inserted in a later season just for Will to have a love interest, makes a difference! It’s not a side pairing that’s there just for the sake of being lgbtq, it’s a genuine well developed romance between two childhood best friends. How often do queer people get romances like that onscreen? Much less in a major hit TV show??

And before anyone thinks I’m just “not taking wlw ships seriously”: I am literally a lesbian and I nearly cried when I saw Robin and Vickie getting to be gay onscreen. I could go on and on abt how annoying it is that wlw ships are ignored in favor of mlm ships (cough cough steddie) but that’s not why *byler* is a bigger deal, why do you think byler is getting more backlash by cishets than literally any other queer ship that I’ve seen in media?

If you still think I’m being “over dramatic” after reading this, I literally don’t care. There’s bigger lgbtq issues to worry about than online discourse, and I think I’ve made myself quite clear already. I rest my case.

#byler #if I see one more post abt how byler isn’t that groundbreaking and we’re being over dramatic I’m gonna lose it #byler endgame #mike and will #byler better be canon #elli talks byler

[starlenemckinnon]

okay real quick i just find it crazy that people in the marauders fandom are now getting angry about a feminine sirius??? and comparing wolfstar to a straight ship, and THEN jumping to say that this is making the marauders fandom less inclusive. i feel like it shouldnt have to be said but 1. there is definitely enough lgbtq+ rep in the marauders fandom (literally all the most popular ships are mlm/wlw), and 2. making a character genderfluid (bc i barely see any transfemme sirius) is kind of inherently more representative and diverse than another mlm ship. need i even mention that wolfstar is not canon! if people wanted a straight ship, they could ship remus with tonks or sirius with mary! i honesty dont understand it at all lol.

#sorry for this little rant #i normally dont think about discourse like this too much but it all over my tiktok rn #marauders #wolfstar #sirius black #remus lupin

[leighlew3]

For some reason I couldn’t send the link of this post but I could download the picture and send it (hopefully)

This is what I was references in that ask to you lol

Ah. And... yeah. A painful and unnecessary creative choice.

Look, overall I'm loving Picard, despite quite a few issues with some creative choices and contradictions, because this nostalgia is incredible and so appreciated and being able to witness these characters in action again has been WONDERFUL.

That being said... well, I'm about to launch into a ramble.

Buckle up, and keep reading if you'd like...

Picard had an ICONIC legacy female character in an interracial wlw relationship with a dynamic new Black female character -- both women over the age of 50 no less, an amazing thing to explore on screen -- and it worked. And so many fans loved it and felt represented and thrilled to kingdom come. And it fit with the Star Trek brand of inclusion and acceptance in a modern society. It also made Voyager fans of 25 years feel vindicated and seen, having Seven not only confirmed as sapphic, but actually exploring it on screen and finding love, even if a "happy ending" for Seven was never in the cards for many reasons, they could have explored why instead of just sweeping it under the rug off screen and reducing it to one awkward glance between them, a joke from Worf, and that was it. Seven and Raffi deserved better. Queer fans deserved better.

Alas, they tossed it in the trash for no valid reason at all, and at the worst possible time in our current social and political landscape of an outdated and frighteningly dangerous resurgence of homophobia, transphobia, etc. Life imitates art, and art imitates life. And thus, now we see conservative-run media companies catering again to the vocal, hateful little groups and extremist far right fear mongers. There is a very obvious bias of late again against LGBTQ content (especially wlw due to the frightening rise in misogyny yet again lately) across nearly every channel and streamer and studio.

For that matter, even beyond LGBTQ stories, there's also a significant reduction in the exploration of ANY sexuality on screen across the board lately, even for cishet couples. We somehow went from Hollywood being absurdly and unfairly exploitive towards women and putting actors in uncomfortable and unnecessary situations, to some sort of bizarre, puritanical, utterly sexless exploration of romance on screen. And even a reduction of romance entirely in many cases, for that matter. We went from one extreme to the other, and it's absolutely nuts.

Anyway, back on the topic of Picard, the two actresses who previously were captains of the ship and ALL about the pairing have since seemingly now had to backtrack, make excuses for this bizarre decision, or just not speak on it at all. And that's beyond sad.

And again, it makes me concerned that if Seven does get her own spin-off or is a part of a new spin-off again, they'd likely not include Raffi nor explore Seven being with women further. Which would just be LITERALLY going backwards in time to the days of Voyager where many (not all) straight male fans tried to claim her as theirs and theirs alone while reducing her to just "the hot Borg in a cat suit" even though everyone else knew she was three dimensional as hell, one of the best written and acted characters in franchise history, and inherently representative of the LGBTQ community.

Anyway, I really really hope they prove me wrong and Saffi get a satisfying ending in this show, and if nothing else, even if they don't have a future together in other series, any other shows at least continue to embrace Seven's pansexuality. It's important.

Alas right now my trust in creatives in the TV space who are under the pressures of conservative-run media conglomerates... is limited. Even once seeming allies are showing sides to themselves lately that are... concerning, to say the least. People who previously would tell incels to F' off, and weren't afraid to stand up to and block phobes on Twitter are now blocking queer fans for just asking "WTF?" about queer favorites being sidelined or ships being tossed in the trash. People who previously seemed to truly see and value queer fans are now bordering on just using them for clicks and stringing them along on likely hopeless efforts regarding show survival. And people who actually do mean well and usually stand up loud and strong for LGBTQ audiences are suddenly growing very, very quiet if not even in some cases TURNING on their queer fans entirely as TPTB remove more and more wlw content from airwaves and streamer services.

It's all very disheartening. As a writer who has had this conversation so often with producers and executives, I GET IT. The fight is NOT an easy one. And most the time inclusion efforts are flat out shot down. But it feels like so few people are walking the talk anymore. People who capitalized heavily on LGBTQ characters and ships and fans for a few years when it was hot are now turning their backs when the going has gotten rough. And that's frustrating for us all.

But, the good news: these things are often cyclical. So if everybody can hang in there, stay strong, and fight the good fight online and IRL, rock the VOTE, etc and drown out the hateful voices that want the LGBTQ community silenced or worse, then I believe we can set (or force, in many cases) the misguided, fearful, extremist-rightwing-catering media companies back to the proper side of history.

#picard #star trek picard #seven x raffi #saffi #seven of nine #star trek #lgbtq #representation matters

[entropy-sea-system]

I think the reason I see a little less potential for any mh gen 3 ships w the guy characters is bc they're just.. not given much screen time?? like. Clankie (neither of them are guys and both characters get enough screen time on their own) is probably the ship that makes most sense in canon even if other ships also do?? Like. that tends to be why the ships I think have more build up happen to be nblw or wlw???

I think Like. Gil had literally hardly any screentime without Lagoona even if they both seem into each other and communicate with each other. And I haven't even shipped any mlm ships yet bc .. the guy characters hardly interact w each other as much as they do w the nonbinary and girl characters.

Clawd had more screentime than him, but I think he and Draculaura haven't had much interaction outside of like two episodes, and I feel the show focuses mostly on him being from Beheme and being Clawdeen's brother most of the time. I've heard other ppl say in concepts he was supposed to be an inventor and I feel that his canon characterisation isn't as fully fledged as it could have been.

I do still ship Dracugoona but. tbh I don't think they had as many moments after witch hitch to be honest. But I do ship it.

Clankie feels like the ship with the most moments. They seem consistently interested in each other and even if recent episodes don't have many moments the finale is literally mainly about Clankie so. It feels like I don't have to detail this one because everyone knows how canon has hinted at it basically.

I like Lagoona x Gil, and their interactions are cute but I think maybe we could use more screen time for Gil to actually like, know something about him other than a couple of hobbies he has. I don't think a ship has to be slow burn to make sense because romance just works differently for different ppl even irl!! Its not unrealistic for ppl irl to date without knowing each other for like months or years lol... so Idk why thats unrealistic in a fictional show anyway. I think similarly about Clawdulaura but the episode with the dancing and the one where the talismans go missing did make me ship them.

For most of the characters I don't really like easily ship them if theres no hints in canon but yeah. Like Im not in a rush to ship every character with someone, and Im arospec allosexual, and hc some of them as arospec and/or maybe just not wanting to date at the moment. I should also probably add that Im friendship repulsed and familial repulsed (atertiary also) so I'm not very invested in the friendships and family in the show. I think I mainly prefer to analyse the events and characters on their own and sometimes ships.

In the movies, after the second movie, I kind of ship Toralei and Clawdeen and feel they had a bit more chemistry at the end than whatever was going on with Clawdeuce.

I don't really care for claiming characters "are better as friends" or shipping them platonically or queerplatonically bc that repulses me and Im already just p much ignoring the stuff in the show that repulses me lol. (Also I know I could just.. not watch the show then, but its extremely hard to find media without friendship as a plato-repulsed aplatonic, and I like cartoons.) I'm more in the fandom for the world building and the events of the show, and characters, and a bit for shipping but the shipping wasn't really there until I saw the potential of Clankie tbh.

#aplatonic #shipping #mh gen 3 #clankie #dracugoona #lagoona x gil #monster high gen 3 #clawdulaura #plato repulsion #monster high #mh gen 3 ships

[rollercoasterwords]

ok sorry thought i was done but just. like the places where i see discussion to be had abt misogyny re:wlw ships/fics getting less attention/hype/whatever in the marauders fandom is like

1. the fact that the source material is sexist in its portrayals of women and the sexism underlying how pretty much the only characters w any canon to build off in the marauders era are men

which like. this is a valid thing to point out, sure, and it's a valid thing to be aware of, but it isn't any individual fic writer's moral responsibility to rehabilitate the text by giving female characters development that was not afforded to them originally, y’know? fanfiction isn't activism, it's a hobby. and because it exists outside a profit economy, nobody really has any right as a consumer to demand certain standards of representation. so it's like. there is a conversation to be had there, but it's not a conversation that everyone is obligated to take part in, and it's not a matter of pointing fingers and going "you're sexist if you only write fic about boys!!" like that just isn't the way you act if ur trying to build community. sure, i think it's good to be aware of how the original biases in a text impact our engagement with it, but at the end of the day i'm not going to frown upon someone for looking at a handful of characters and picking the ones that were more well-developed in canon, yknow?

2. The Rosekiller Conundrum

see this is where i feel like a lot of this discourse hinges because when point 1 is broken down i often see people go: yeah but it's not just about which characters are well-developed bc evan rosier literally has no canon personality either and neither does barty and tbh neither does regulus so why are they so popular!!

and it's like. first of all, is rosekiller actually as popular as u are making it out to be? one quick search on ao3 brought up 4000 works tagged dorlene and 778 tagged evan/barty. so. i am curious about how this popularity is being measured (of course, timeframe plays into it too--if most of those 778 fics have been written in the past year, that probably is a lot more growth than most wlw ships see). but honestly i wonder how much of the seeming popularity of rosekiller is just internet echo chambers, yknow?

but also. people going "why/how did this get popular if not flat-out sexism??" like. it seems pretty simple to me. pandemic -> tiktok explosion -> atyd virality on tiktok -> marauderstok -> jegulus surge. a few fic writers somewhat randomly decided to write evan and barty as regulus's friends, their fics happened to go viral through no fault of their own, and bc of the way tiktok interacts w fanfic where everyone talks abt the same few popular fanfics bc that's what will get their videos views (which makes those fics more popular, which makes more people talk abt them for views, etc etc) evan and barty just happened to become new beloved characters. tbh i think it could just as easily have been any other two death eater/slytherin boys if someone had happened to choose them to be regulus's friends and then their fic went viral.

so like....to me rosekiller has less to do with sexism and more to do with the way that tiktok engages with fanfic through this framework of consumer economy. and so continuing to interact w it through the framework of a consumer economy is just gonna perpetuate the issues u are ostensibly trying to critique.

and like, yes, there is of course room for a conversation of like. what role misogyny plays in the seeming boom of rosekiller popularity, and whether this is indicative of a wider trend in which people get attached to male characters much more quickly and easily than they do female characters. but that is not the only factor at play here, and it is not necessarily the most important one, or a factor that's even going to be at play for every single person, and certainly not for every single person the same way. so like--sure, let's have those conversations! i've shared my thoughts on this blog before abt how i think misogyny might impact our abilities to relate to female characters. but nobody is obligated to take part in those discussions because, once again, this is a hobby that exists outside a consumer economy, and it is neither practical nor productive to act like everyone should be constantly and militantly policing each other for any behavior that could potentially be influenced by misogyny. this is supposed to be a community. if u want to have a conversation with someone, you don't start it by pointing a finger in their face and yelling about how you're morally superior.

#added a cut bc this got long! #of course! #who is surprised! #anyway tldr is like yes let's talk about misogyny but not as a form of pointless virtue signaling #ranting and raving #txt

[fanstuffrantings]

About you getting hate for liking the Freezerburn ship and then getting even more hate for politely asking to be left alone:

idk what the fndm's been drinking lately to get like this but it's kind of everywhere nowadays, which is one reason I no longer participate in things like the freezerburn ship week or stuff like that. It's become so popular to cyberbully people in this fandom, especially if they hold any opinion outside the extremely limited and strictly enforced one-way-only 'acceptable' opinion, and for some inexplicable reason, Freezerburn has been declared Unacceptable and Wrong and Bad, and that goes double for the shippers.

I once saw someone say that shipping Freezerburn was "homophobic."

A ship... between two female main characters... is "homophobic..."

The reason given as to why it was "homophobic" to ship those two characters was because the person making the declaration irrationally declared that every single Freezerburn shipper is also a BlackSun shipper and furthermore declared that the "only reason" anyone could ever possibly claim to like Freezerburn was if they were "pairing Yang off with a random girl so they could force Blake to belong to a man without being accused of homophobia"

I also once saw someone say that shipping Freezerburn was "disrespectful" and "egotistical" and "ungrateful" and - again - "homophobic" because Yang kisses Blake in canon and apparently that means that every viewer is legally obligated to praise the ship and make it the center of all their fics and fanart, because anything less is you "choosing to hate bumblby because you're a homophobe" and "failing to show the proper gratitude and reverence to the writers" and "stuck up and conceited and arrogant enough to think you could come up with better ideas than the writers" and "disrespecting all their hard work"

Aaaaand I've also seen people post lists of "rules" that every fic-writer or fan-artist is apparently required to follow, and if they don't then they get written off as "part of the HTDM" and they become a socially-acceptable target for cyberbullying and harassment, on the grounds that "the HTDM refuses to respect rwby, so why should we respect them?" And what'd'ya know, one of the many rules every fan is now expected to follow is literally "you must ship bumblby and you must make Blake and Yang get together, and you cannot pair either character with anyone else in the series."

I'll tell you what; the show claims to be about artistic expression, freedom of speech, and trusting love - but the biggest fans never got the memo.

No one is allowed to make art unless it is Canon-Compliant

No one is allowed to express an opinion unless it is a Glowing 5-Star 10/10 Two Thumbs Up monetizable recommendation

And no one will choose kindness if you break either of those two rules. Differences and Dissent are the enemies in this fndm, and if you get pronounced guilty of them, you become an acceptable target.

Because you ship two female main-characters with each other

Just not the ones that became canon

And the fndm seems unwilling to confront the fact that "doesn't ship bumblby" isn't included in the definition of Homophobia - but "attacking people and inciting hate against them through smearing their reputation and getting them branded as a toxic monster for no other reason than they posted content about a wlw ship on their tumblr" kind of is

Anyway Freezerburn is awesome

Ah. Yeah I've been out of the fandom for a minute, fell out around volume 4 and came back in with a recent rewatch so I was around when Shipping freezerburn was less controversial I guess. That and one of the only people in this fandom I've been following for the past decade is a multishipper who only posts postive content.

But this all does track. I did at one point ship Blacksun but it's been years since that happened and I find a lot of enjoyment in Blake and Sun's sibling/friend dynamic more than anything.

Even funnier since my post that started this mentioned that I support Yang having two girlfriends, but I have seen how serious rwby fans get about people criticizing the show even before I left. I remember when there were wars about posting in the rwde tag and fans who would start fights with bloggers for posting in it because they didn't think people were being nice enough in the rwde tag despite it being labeled that way for a reason.

I appreciate you taking the time to explain fandom history I missed out on to me.

Been a freezerburn shipper since volume 2, and surprisingly, that hasn't changed even after 6 years of being gone. If there's one thing I'll always support, it's Yang and her many suitors.

#rwde #rwby critical #just in case #anon #ask #i used to really not like bumblebee because of the fans but Im fine with it now that ive severed myself enough from the fans #freezerburn and renora were my only og ships that survived my fandom gap

[juanitasupreme]

What irks me the most with atla/tlok fandom ispeople saying korrasami were too unexpected & they had no chemistry…its giving any man & woman hang out & there will be dating rumors already, but 2 women could eat each other out on camera & ppl still will be like awww they besties. Now people are hoping to see mako & korra’s kids in the new gen avatar…its been 10 years let it go…

They need to let the mouse go... Not only Korrasami is superior (duh) but it's canon so why still be annoying after all this years ? Also people love to forget the context of the time it came out because weren't networks literally fighting against any type of lgbt representation ? We were in the trench to get it so don't forget Herstory. Also you have a good point about all the straight ships or the male gay ships (you know the ones with a character who got 2 lines) stanned by straight people are always more respected than any kind of wlw representations. Even when it's canon...

#anon #korrasami #tlok

[sexynetra]

Okay, I have been so busy this week but I am finally getting around to the posts I was tagged in <33333 thanks for the tag my beloved @thecollectionsof (and anyone else who tagged me in this that I might have missed during my brain vacation)

💖 A WLW ship that’s your go to for when you need to read some shameless smut

Y’all already know it’s goodecox <333 @aqpippin is the GODDESS of writing lesbian porn

❤️ Tropes in WLW fics/media that give you life

Call me problematic but I love coming out stories and stories dealing with homophobia 🤭 mutual pining ofc, drunken shenanigans. Uhhhhhh the other problematic fav of angst no comfort and someone dying because I love to be in pain

🧡 A song that heals your feels about that angsty WLW ship of yours

Uhhhhh I mean I have my whole rawnsyf playlist it’s hard to pick one 😂 recently I’ve been listening to 19 by madisenxoxo so much though

💛 A WLW writer who deserves their time in the sun (author spotlight)

I’ll be real I have not read any fic in a hot minute 😭 but you know my go to ride or dies are @thecollectionsof and @aqpippin ! Also @goodemethyd and @themetaluna write such cool stuff all the time I am in awe :)

💚 A picture of one of your fave WLW ships in nature, or in their natural habitat

(If you mention my battery percentage you’re homophobic)

🩵 Recommend a WLW fic that you think more people should read

Once again I am directing you all to bodyguard au!!!! It’s literally what made me start writing fic!!! Whoever wrote it I pray at your altar you changed my life and also I could only dream of writing something that good if I could print and bind this fic to keep on my bookshelf I would

🩵 Three colors that remind you of your OTP

💜 Thoughts on soulmates in fiction

Love :)

#I’m assuming everyone has already been tagged but feel free to do it if you haven’t :) #anyways this was fun!!! #still have mixed Marcia feelings but I’ve written too much anarcia to give up on them fully :) #tag game #tags #also hi gi I love you dearly #also everyone who put my fics on this for your posts I am kissing you with tongue!!!! #I will write more tonight so I have something to post for wip Wednesday tomorrow :) #fanfic asks #fanfic game

[slutnali]

femslash february

tagged by besties @momsthetic & @themetaluna 💜✨

💖WLW ship for shameless smut: prime rosenali era, that smut was always chefs kiss

❤️tropes in wlw media that give you life: flirt that's a tease and a menace x annoyed lesbian, femme tops, useless sapphics, pining, devotion, merging souls, almost any trope. listen if its wlw i dont really care, im seated.

🧡song that heals your feels about angst wlw ship: does it have to be by a wlw?? bc i dont think i have one then </3 if not i'd probably put some song to shake ass to feel better

💛wlw author that deserves time in the sun: @sweetlikesunflowersandhoney always, i could write an essay on my love for her writing and how fucking special it is. her attention to detail and ambiance in fics is insane, you will be transported to whatever world her story is set in and feel like you're watching it happen/play out. i could write an essay about it - and i have in her dm's and in the comments i've left behind on her fics.

💚pic of one of ur fave wlw ships in nature:

🩵recommend a wlw fic you think more people should read: You call my name, what a strange magic by @sweetlikesunflowersandhoney and it's not because she's my bestie and gifted it to me!!!!!!!11 it is quite literally so ethereal, soft and magical

💙3 colours that remind you of your wlw OTP: baby blue, white and pink... omg trans [neither of them are trans tho what a bummer </3]

💜thoughts on soulmates in fic: yes. absolutely. i'm always seated when i find out the ship i love has a soulmate au.

no pressure tags: @puppywritesthings , @annies-life , @so-art-decooo , @fuckyeah-dragrace

#tag games

[mechina]

Sending this ask because I feel like you're the one person who won't immediately think I'm splitting up chaggie because I ship charlastor, but with the introduction of Emily I feel like that's who should have been vaggie's partner.

We know vaggie has a white knight complex and doesn't seem to actually view Charlie as someone who can make her own decisions, or can be trusted to handle herself in certain situations. On top of that, I noticed something I thought was odd. Now I don't know the reasons behind it but if you closely watch, vaggie never refers to herself as Charlie's gf, nor does she refer to Charlie as her gf, or partner, or anything. Maybe it's a Pearl/rose quartz dynamic, but if that's the case then vaggie and Charlie shouldn't be together because they amplify each others worst behaviors. And to be fair to vaggie, she'll often give Charlie good advice and Charlie just kinda of ignored it? But then they never really have a conversation about this stuff, so neither can grow as characters.

So if they wanted to have a wlw ship where vaggie could be a protective girl without needing to help her partner grow as a person, Emily is right there. I especially feel like em would take offense at vaggie being punished for showing mercy and want to bring her back to heaven. Idk, I'm just spitballing but seeing welcome to heaven made me mad that this relationship feels so imbalanced but it'll probably be handwaved away when Charlie by all rights should feel super betrayed that this person who she's spent years with never told her a thing about this, leaving her blindsided in front of a court of other heaven dwellers. But I'm just rambling, I would love to hear someone's objective thoughts

As much as I WANT to like chaggie, I haven’t been able to. That’s not to say I think they should split, but the tropes with those two are INSANE. Sunshine x grumpy, overprotective x naive, gullible idiot x savior, etc. It’s just a LACK of story. What should’ve happened (in my own opinion), they legit should NOT have been together from the start. Their relationship should have taken time to develop and maybe even go into girlfriends if that’s what Viv wanted, but it was for a bonus star. Stories change all the time, though I just wish it developed better. Of course they were in a rush (the time constraint is crazy to me) so relationships haven’t had time. The songs literally fix everything??

Your words go back to my trope issue. savior complex with the girl who is naive about the world. It’s been clear that Vaggie is just stupidly protective of Charlie because Charlie doesn’t have it in her heart to be mean. Brings back the gullible idiot trope who needs to constantly be saved. Charlie lives in a box and Vaggie just HAS to be the one to save her from her own dumb decisions. They don’t talk and that’s another issue.

It magically gets fixed lol. In Vaggie’s song, she said “I’ll spend my life being your partner.” But we didn’t even get any “she’s my gf” until literally episode 5. Then she has this secret, which will again, be magically waved away if the trailer gave any indication. Their duet will be their grace I’m sure.

As far as Emily goes, that’s actually not bad tbh?? Vaggie gets cast out, Emily (the one who is ACTUALLY the embodiment of how an angel in Heaven should act) does not like this. It can resolve the power balance. Charlie does NOT need saving but because of her naivety, Vaggie has to save her.

Vaggie and Emily? They’d save each other.

And while Chaggie is canon and I’m not bothered that my ship never will be (Charlastor), I’ll never judge anyone for their opinions on certain ships until they start harassing people. Just because you like a dynamic doesn’t mean you want the w|w representation to go away.

We want the representation to be better. Sorry for the rambling and I’m not even sure I answered what you asked, but thanks for the ask. I’ve never had these before, lol.

#ask