#also non fandom people in the real world like all KINDS of fucked up ships idk what to tell you

[greensaplinggrace]

sorry but the funniest little splashes in this fandom to me are still the people that are like "how can you ship _!!" okay well first of all, gladly. and second of all... do you not know how shipping works.

"how can you think this ship is morally acceptable?!" i don't. "how could anyone think this relationship is ok?!!" they don't. " how could shippers condone such actions-!" we don't. "how could anyone like something so terrible??" maybe go out in the real world. idk. or join a non tiktok braindead bookclub.

#grishaverse #shadow and bone #also non fandom people in the real world like all KINDS of fucked up ships idk what to tell you #its so weird to me when antis are like 'go talk to a family member' #'go see how fucked up you are in comparison to normal people for shipping this' #girl do you know how many 'normal people' ship lannicest #do you know how many of them ship spuffy and bangel #except they do it without all the weird discourse lol #discourse #negative #darklina #sab discourse

[animentality]

I once saw a bsg fan bemoan the lack of a bsg fandom on Tumblr but I can tell you why that fandom is dead in the water.

it's because Battlestar Galactica utterly failed at creating a world you'd want to return to.

look at deep space nine, a 25 year old TV show that still has a wildly active fandom here and even on Twitter.

and why is that?

because ds9 was edgy too, but underneath that, there was a world that you could miss. there were characters who grew and changed like real people. they felt like your family, they were each other's family, and who doesn't visit their found family/friends at least occasionally?

re watching ds9 is like seeing old friends you haven't spoken to in a while, but when you hang out, it's like no time has passed. it's like returning to the house you grew up in, and smiling as you see the old photographs and the lines where your parents scratched your height into the wall.

but bsg? christ.

it's like returning to an abandoned meth lab.

it spent literally its entire run trying to SHOCK you.

instead of world building or creating any form of culture aboard the fleet, it upped the ante every week, and never gave you time to breathe.

worse than that, it would zoom through some of its more interesting ideas in favor of trying to get your blood pumping with some new shit immediately.

it never let you dwell on characters, or let them have genuine growth, because the next week, they'd want to do something even CRAZIER, and then that character would have to act a certain way, to make sure the melodrama keeps people engaged.

shows like that never last, because when you re watch them, there's like... nothing.

the world was destroyed- ok, then why don't we see the culture of the surviving humans?

everyone lives on different ships!! you could've shown us those ships developing their own cultures???

but no, we're stuck on the warship, full of officers, except we don't even get episodes dedicated to just, daily life on Battlestar.

it's just, oh baltar gets away with yet another war crime. how interesting.

it's also not remembered that well because...

mass murder and gang rape and endless torture of all the characters- oh it's so exciting... that you don't really want to go back to the stress.

you get tired of it, man. you can't throw high octane plots at people every day for five years... and then expect them to even remember half of that shit when they return to it, years later.

why would you even want to?

it's not like any of it was planned either.

it's not like, a show where it's exciting all the time, yes, but it's worth re watching to pick up on all the hints of the later story.

those kinds of shows last. you know. where the creators knew the ending and the hints were always there and you love the melodrama because you know where it's going, and it's still interesting to consider, years later. to really chew on deep and insightful characters, and think about their entire stories.

but bsg?

nothing was fucking planned.

you re watch bsg and you see just how much of it NEVER PAYS OFF.

they ram so many plots down your throat, and 90% of them get retconned out or totally re written.

And that's also why people don't remember bsg that well.

So much shit happens that they just don't know what the hell happened.

the pacing is awful, the world building is non existent, it's a melodrama so dedicated to melodrama that it totally ignores what it was doing with the characters the week before...

and that's why it's dead in the water.

the characters were the best part about it and they get so butchered by the end, they hardly matter.

#battlestar galactica #star trek #sci fi

[ecoamerica]

Watch the 2024 American Climate Leadership Awards for High School Students now: https://youtu.be/5C-bb9PoRLc

The recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by student climate leaders! Join Aishah-Nyeta Brown & Jerome Foster II and be inspired by student climate leaders as we recognize the High School Student finalists. Watch now to find out which student received the $25,000 grand prize and top recognition!

#ACLA24 #ACLA24HighSchoolStudents #youtube #youtube video #climate leaders #climate solutions #climate action #climate and environment #climate #climate change #climate and health #climate blog #climate justice #climate news #weather and climate #environmental news #environment #environmental awareness #environment and health #environmental #environmental issues #environmental education #environmental justice #environmental protection #environmental health #high school students #high school #youth #youth of america #school

[voidchillz]

My thoughts on pro shippers (Important Post)

TW: mild swearing

I thought I’d make a post on this just to clarify my opinion so people can unfollow or block to their leisure, this is not a post inviting negative people into my comments or asks. This is also not a post advocating real world abuse, illegal activity, or inappropriate behaviour.

I won’t say I’ve had perfect opinions that everyone should listen to my entire life, because that’s blatantly not true, people change. And I obviously wish people on the internet were not as vindictive and cruel. For starters, during my first years in the undertale fandom, I of course had strong opinions encouraged by others to hate frans, and fontcest, and any denomination of pro ships. But that has clearly changed over time.

I’d like to make it clear there is a line as to which I enjoy problematic ships. I do not like non-consensual, I do not like underage, I do not like incest, I do not like abusive relationships, whether that is in fiction or reality. And I refuse to skirt lines and insist ‘oh I only like the design not the character’, or ‘oh I hate the creator I just enjoy the concept’, or make up some other bullshit excuse to fail to convince people that I deserve to be alive. Because ✨miraculously✨, what fictional characters and ships you enjoy DOES NOT REFLECT WHAT KIND OF PERSON YOU ARE.

It’s in the same vein as, if Person A likes the most depraved physical painful filthy fetishes, if at the same time they are a genuinely kind Human being that helps where they can and respects others without condition, it does not fucking matter✨💕 Person B is allowed to disagree and not have the same interests as Person A, but Person B does not then get to decide whether or not Person A deserves respect. Just the same way that Person A should not try to force Person B into liking what they like.

I’m not saying that people should be ashamed of what makes them uncomfortable because they’re insulting other people. This is not a post trying to coerce others into liking proships. You have complete freedom to disagree with others and avoid certain parts of your respective fandoms, just like I am by avoiding underage, non-con, or abuse. What I’m saying is that it is childish and ignorant to be outright threatening and disrespectful to people online for liking something you don’t.

There is no excuse for being a dick.

Now of course, if these people are actually harming others in real life, for example grooming or manipulating or any other form of abuse, by all means, tear their metaphorical testicles off and do whatever you can to ban their accounts and keep people safe from them. Because that is who they are as a person, harmful and dangerous to those around them.

Regarding children/minors/under 18s on the internet

Kids are being exposed to the internet way earlier than they probably should, likely because all the people that first started being exposed to it were already teenagers when it was invented. Keep in mind it was made public in the early 90s, meaning every adult using it now since the early days is in their thirties or twenties at the youngest, others currently growing into it.

There is not a single person on this planet who hasn’t experimented or tried to find communities to help them find safe places to learn about sexuality or adult concepts before they were 18. The reason 18+ accounts ask that minors do not interact is for a multitude of reasons, one being that if they are seen interacting with someone younger than them, even if it was an innocent interaction or someone in their late teens, they are liable to a heavy accusation of grooming. Another being they could likely be uncomfortable knowing minors see their content and feel like they have to censor themselves for this. Another is that it is very frustrating to try to block every single minor they see on their platform if they are an account with a high following. The point is, the internet has very easily accessible fucked up shit, and it is your own and your own responsibility only to avoid it.

Stop dehumanising kids. Stop dehumanising people you don’t know.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

#in short #if I see ‘no proshitters’ in your account #please go away #YOU are not welcome. #let people enjoy things #you are not allowed to say there are exceptions unless the person is enjoying murder and rape on real people #because guess what #drawing fictional characters and scenarios vs real murder and rape #DO NOT GO TOGETHER

[kitnita]

Talk Hockey To Me

(tag game)

tagged by @eliooliver83 @oetter & @txstars!! mwah thank you!!!

1. The thing that got you hooked on hockey

i am a lifelong member of the 'being insane about sports' club in that i still have a poster of my baseball team's 2005 roster hanging over my bed & used to get SO pissed in middle school when boys in my class had incorrect college basketball opinions. but hockey was just? never on my radar?? due to the south texas of it all. then i went to college for broadcast in new york state & made friends with some guys majoring in sports broadcast and was like wait ....... there's a sport they talk about that i can't talk about (i loved knowing more about sports than boys so this was a serious blow) (football doesnt count i decided when i was a kid that i didn't care about football therefore its not real) & a friend of mine with whom i watched the world series was like no i've got you i can get you into hockey. i realize now she just wanted an excuse to proselytize about the new york islanders.

but anyway yeah!! i stuck with being fond of them because of her & then added the stars because as a Texan i had to root for them & also tyler seguin hooked me. i was a casual fan until there were absolutely No Sports in 2020 & i accidentally stumbled upon hockeyblr just in time to get hyper mega insane about hockey before the bubble playoffs.

2. Your first ever fandom friend

like any normal well adjusted person i feel weird calling someone my friend even if we're friendly because what if they don't actually like me (again this is normal & well adjusted behavior) that said tanya txstars was the first hashtag mutual i had in starsblr whomst i feel like i talked to via the tags!!

3. The jersey you would most like to own

wait have i ever mentioned that i own a mooterus jersey. it was like eighty dollars off depop because its a) womens cut & b) a size small which means that while it does technically fit, my tits stop it from looking like, you know, a jersey should look on the human body. so i'd love one that i can wear without feeling ridiculous!! through logan stankoven all things are possible!!! i'm generally a jersey thrifter so i do love the $16 tyler jersey i found but im sure one day ill bite the bullet and buy a non-secondhand otter jersey.

4. YOUR player (you only get ONE so choose wisely)

unfortunately goalies are inherently endearing & then on top of that he's also insane in the most confounding way possible so jake oettinger is My Guy whether he likes it or not

5. A pairing that deserves more fic

as someone who has written just over half of the robotter fic out there in the world: please put more robotter fic out there in the world. also i think robo & otter both deserve to fuck otter's goalie partner. also also it's not technically a pairing but i think we as a people need to embrace delly's clear & evident love for throuples and start sticking him in other peoples relationships. it's what he would want <3

6. Your favourite on-ice moment

jason robertson laying flat on his back on the ice after finishing his first career hat trick lives in my head rent free btw. if you even care. it just plays on a fucking loop up there. also the the dellymiro delly's first goal celly. also also that time those flames fans tried to actually curse jake midgame. like on the one hand what the fuck but on the other hand i actually admire that kind of dedication yk

THEN

link someone else's art/fic/etc that you love & think everyone should check out

i'm still foaming at the mouth over @txstars's rule 63 robotter fic!! also i think it's clear what robo ship i've dedicated myself to but everyone in the roboroope trenches is soooo impressive to me. i see the vision. @winningmachine's stats guy robo fic is a foundational text. thank you @starscelly for also giffing insane random things during games. there's so many other fun people in starsblr specifically & hockeyblr generally but see above re: being normal and well adjusted so You Know Who You Are & also I Love Your Work

AND

link something you made & are proud of & want people to see

my magnum opus ............ the robotter primer. linking anything else feels weird BUT please enjoy my unhinged labor of love. i saw someone mentioned it to that gay hockey tournament blog but didnt want to link it?? please link it places. put how unhinged i was/am about them on blast.

tagging @coffeehound91 @moregraceful @hintzy!!! & also idk who has and hasn't been tagged so if you see this & would like to do it please do & feel free to tag me as the person who tagged you because i am a certified nosy bitch & love seeing other people talk about themselves <3

#tag game #long post // #i NEVER remember to do these i feel so weirdly proud of myself. sorry for how many times i dropped the word also #were i a hockey player i giffed & transcribed 'also' would be the filler clutch that drove me insane à la 'you know' or 'i mean' #sorry this is so long also. i can't shut up

[queerregulusablack]

hi i like your takes so i wanted to ask what your opinion is on people using the word fetishisation to describe marauder’s ships

if you have an opinion that is

Not gonna lie to you Nonnie this feels like a trap, but you've caught me in a discourse-y kind of mood, so I'm going to take it at face value and actually give you an answer.

Fetishization is another word that belongs on the shelf.

There is a massive difference between queerness being actually fetishized and someone writing m/m or f/f fiction. There's a difference between queerness being reduced to a fetish and someone writing queer smut for a marauders ship.

The thing that really boggles the mind is when the people being accused of fetishizing queer people by writing these ships are queer themselves. It's nuts.

But see, at the same time, here's the thing; fetishes aren't bad. Having a fetish is not a bad thing. Case in point; most of the time when I write Regulus, he has a massive neck fetish. He's not ashamed or embarrassed of having a neck fetish - unless called on it by the person he's making out with, and then it's a cute flustered 'stop perceiving me!!!' kind of embarrassed - because why would he be? People have fetishes. They have sexual preferences. Are you saying having sexual preferences is bad or wrong?

I understand the struggle a lot of younger queer people have with things like, for example, the prevalence of BL media, and the perception that the people consuming it are widely straight teenage girls who are reducing the characters to mere sex objects. But I encourage them to chill out on this for two reasons.

One) We don't actually know who's consuming that media. Maybe some of them are straight girls doing the thing perceived to be bad. Maybe, in four years, they won't be girls at all, because they're in the infant stages of re-examining their gender identity and figuring it out through enjoyable works of fiction. Maybe they're coming to terms with their own sexuality by reading about queer experiences of love - because even if something is primarily smut, more often than not there's some feelings that sneak on in there. I know, it happens even when I try to stop it - and maybe they're just reading a compelling if spicy romance story and don't give a fuck about the fact everyone involved has a penis. You don't know.

As someone who partially came to terms with their own queerness by doing the above, and reading BL manga, and explicit queer fanfiction, and basically devouring queer media until I found my people and realised who I was; lay off, guys. All you're doing is making a community that may one day be exactly where they belong actively hostile toward them. And that sucks.

Second, and so, so importantly) They're. Fucking. Fictional.

The fetishization of fictional characters is a non-issue. There are real world problems! The earth is on fire! The woman who came up with these characters is openly and actively harming trans people, especially trans youth, and sees every penny she makes from royalties as implicit support of her transphobia! There are so many worthy causes to which you could be lending your energy!

And instead you're on the internet, making tweets and clock app videos about how writing m/m ships when you don't identify as a guy is ~fetishization~.

So that's my two cents. Not only is it, like so many other buzzwords we see tossed around in fandom, most often being used incorrectly, but it's also not even an issue if it is fetishization. No real world people are being harmed.

Have a nice day.

#old man yells at cloud #owl post #is this coherant? IDK if this is coherant #the tldr always seems to come back to 'stop yucking other peoples' yums' #if no one is being hurt why do you CARE #go outside look at three birds breathe out and unclench for the love of god I am Begging

[crystal-lillies]

alice takes a peek down the rabbit hole; or, what happens when I accidentally find a grifter-type news article on a subject I love

the ugly snort I made when I stumbled across a headline proclaiming that U.S. Comic Books are failing because of "wokeness" but Manga is thriving instead...

no joke, I felt like H.Bomberguy setting up a bit before a 4-hour long video essay as I found this article on my "new tab screen."

and I had to read it because my first thought, of course, was, "My dude," (the author is a man) "where the fuck have you been? Manga has ALWAYS been much more left and progressive than most mainstream U.S. comic books! You shot yourself in the foot right there!"

But, of course, I wanted to see if that point got addressed, and what else this article had to say, despite knowing that it was not meant for my eyes. The first mistake was that it claimed that manga was imported "non-woke" material within the first two paragraphs, while then much later acknowledging that what "might be called wokeness" exists in manga, particularly in LGBT relationships, even citing the outcry when the Sailor Moon dub censored the ships baked into the text of the story.

Yet...the issue is that U.S. comic books that have been behind in the representation department on many intersectional departments are now working to introduce more of these elements, such as Riri Williams taking over for Tony Stark as Ironheart when Iron Man is no longer around, or that Luke Fox exists in the Batfamily...with all of the other Batfamily around...or that Carol Danvers isn't as much of a fucking sexy fantasy doll than she was made out to be before.

Put a pin in that.

Another point brought up is how at "one time," comic book shops catered to a specific, niche group of people (a mostly male-dominated, juvenile-seeming group) and certain fandoms' toxic behavior soured the image in the public's eye...but NOW the stigma has LONG been GONE! ...I'd need a citation for that, my dude. (there wasn't one)

despite how many people go to Comic Cons around the world, being a comic book geek is still an oft-ridiculed and niche thing (as is the same for manga and anime, but it's a lot easier to find manga in my local Target than most superhero comics). and while some kind comic book shops do go out of their way cater to everyone, as someone who is Not Male and Not Always "Stereotypically Geek"-Presenting, I've had my fair share of judgement for my presence in those spaces.

Now coming back to the pin...making U.S. comic books and superhero stories more aligned with a wider, more diverse, "woke" audience, just like the massively successful imported (supposedly "non-woke") manga have been doing for many years...that's the real problem as to why comic sales are seemingly doing badly, according to you, sir? Not anything to do with the fact that translated manga is at a better price point for the value page-count and quality-wise, which you cited, or the fact it is more widely available to general intersectional audiences, which you ALSO cited?

The cognitive dissonance gymnastics is really something to behold. Sometimes, you really have to see it for yourself, and wonder how these writers are missing the point they're unintentionally making.

But, of course, I'm far from the intended audience that already agrees with the blind defensive ragebait.

and I do feel like H.Bomberguy now after having brought my head out of the rabbit hole.

if I wasn't so averse and terrified of putting more of myself out on the internet...I could see how easy it would be to go insane and make a 4-hour long video essay.

#flowerspeak #long post #comics #manga #really how many times I had to hold back my ugly snorts of laughter and incredulity #batman #iron man #ironheart #carol danvers #captain marvel #sailor moon #luke fox #batwing #really the problem is that luke fox exists. there's a black batman now. my dude. do you know how many people are in the batfamily. #batman is ruined because the batfamily is so large now and bruce wayne cannot do everything all the time everywhere. wow. #hey buddy did you know tim burton wanted robin to be black. did you know he wanted marlon wayons to play him. did you know. in the 80s. #also he's so mad that carol has a different fucking haircut. i wheezed. she's been desexualized! to him! that's the issue!! ghdghd DUDE WHA #get OVER yourself dude. how have you written so much garbage and gotten paid for it. this is the shit that gets cited in griftTube videos #thank you hbomberguy for being the muse behind my brief trip into this conservative media rabbit hole

[ecoamerica]

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

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[sneezemonster15]

i can totally understand why young girls would ship SS in the early-mid 2000’s. it was so easy to self-insert. take me for example, i was a young child with an unrequited crush on a popular boy and a total loser. i projected hard. she started getting on my nerves really quick tho. by the time i figured out how to watch shippuden (it was only available online in my country) i could no longer stand her. i know many people grew out of that ship as they matured themselves and realized just how bad it was, but i seriously don’t understand how so many of the og fans are still around, reveling in scraps given to them only in the form of non-canon material. it’s so embarrassing. and knowing that so many grown ass women cling to that nasty ship as if their lives depend on it makes me squirm in discomfort.

Wait I am confused. This person was a boy or a girl?

I think I understand. I know for a fact that there are many SNS fans who once were SS shippers. But they grew up and took responsibility for how they consumed media, which happens when a certain amount of self awareness sinks in..with time and experience..internally processing data received from the external world, which as a result, sharpens your intuition. Which then directly affects how you view and then process further external data. Data gathered from real life and media.

I suspect that many SS/NH shippers who are insanely delusional about their ship are simply operating on emotions. Think about the kind of arguments they give others. They know what constitutes canon, what doesn't. They know SNS is legit, it's all fucking there. They know SS is bullshit, they know Kishi mocks Sakura and SS like no one's business (like honestly, who's asking him to do it? Really what obligation is he under? This otherwise humble, quietly intelligent, kinda goofy, a bit childlike and deeply introspective at the same time, and frankly kinda mousy man, says such blatantly snarky and downright insulting shit about his own characters as if he ain't the author who is freaking writing them that way in the first place. Lol, no really, Kishi is a bundle of contradictions himself.) Lol.

But coming back, I really do struggle sometimes to find the right tone to talk about SS stans or address them. I suspect internet and anonymity gives them a free rein to exercise fulfilment of desires indiscriminately. They can behave however they want, believe whatever makes them happy and no one gets to destroy that as long as they are fulfilled. Numbers help. Stans give and receive validation from their peers. Whatever external validation they need to keep believing in SS ship, despite everything that negates it in canon, they get from others in their ship and they give validation to them in return. A sense of community builds. There's strength in numbers. And so dogmas and headcanons acquire a semblance of truth for them, through this very effective echo chamber, it fortifies their wacky theories and headcanons and they sheath themselves deliberately from reason, or anything that threatens to question their beliefs/belief systems that serve the object of their self comfort, desire, fulfilment. Their beliefs are really emotional in nature, you can't fight emotions, and internet gives them a platform to experience those emotions. Age doesn't matter if one isn't self aware. Lots of old people are shitty. Of course, I don't support enabling it but I guess I understand it a bit. Because I also get emotional here. I feel much more free to experience my raw emotions without trying to camouflage it too much. I reasoned with myself soon after joining this fandom, my first fandom, that here, I was a fan first, so I shouldn't judge myself too harshly for my opinions and understanding. A lot of which is way more emphatic compared to how much I would let it show it IRL. Media, stories and art have that effect on people.

And I feel conflicted sometimes. But well, the same reason exculpates me as well. I can be emotional and talk about them freely because this is a fandom and we are all here because of the same story that affected all of us. The only difference is we are insecure about different things. Lol.

Which is why I make it a point to not interact with them, because I know I would lose my patience with them much sooner than I with other people I don't generally agree with.

I understand why women do it. Even if I cannot relate with Sakura. So I vent on this platform while not actively engaging them.

But at the end of day, I feel everyone should expect so much more from themselves because more than anything else, Sakura's and Hinata's characters by design are so limited. Like I know it's all tied up with their self esteem, or its lack thereof, but at least don't glorify something that makes you this limited and miserable. Don't tell me it's better than everything else and is the best thing in the world because it is not. It is so small, So cheap. Such a piddling thing, so reductive and limiting and humiliating. Why project on those two? You should expect so much better from yourself. Like why can't you dream bigger at least in your imagination? Where you can have everything or anything you want, and nothing gives you a better opportunity to do that than media, but you choose the most limiting of all things and characters? Isn't it suffocating and painful? Well, in any case, just don't glorify it, turning a blind eye to facts and then gaslight me for my stuff. That's not acceptable. Even if I know where you are coming from, don't justify it. It gives the wrong impression to others, especially other women, who have enough odds stacked against them already for you to jump in on the bandwagon too, and being women yourselves no less, it's humiliating for both of us.

They use their emotions as a free ticket to say and do things indiscriminately, without thought and honesty. Cultivating emotions (and sharing them) should enrich you and help you grow, not make you regress even more.

#well that went on..... #lol #no but i have thought about it and it bothers me #i dont want to be uncharitable but credit where credit is due i guess #naruto #anti ss #anti sakura #anti hinata #ask

[danseinthefallout]

Alright here are some of my fallout hot takes:

Deacon x MacCready is weird/gross, not founded in canon, and borderline pedophilic if you think about the most likely age difference and how a lot of people headcanon Deacon as the lone wanderer.

People being into Kent the ghoul weirds me out because of how child-like he is. Same goes for Curie, she’s literally born sexy yesterday and has the basic social knowledge of a child. It’s really messed up to try to romance her and her dialogue even shows how confused and somewhat uncomfortable she is. 

People being super into Maxson feels the same to me as people being super into Vulpes. They are both pretty unattractive, openly and horrifically fascist/violent bigots/genocidal/literally pure evil, and being very into them is weird when there are so many other non-horrific options to choose from.

On that note, in anyway liking the Legion and the people in it is so fucked up like actually why.

DiMA is the literal worst and we just forgive it because he is some pretty clear queer representation. 

MacCready in fallout 4 is written VERY poorly.

Porter Gage is pretty damn evil and while I don’t begrudge people for liking him I feel like a lot of people forget that he isn’t a good or normal person.

Piper is actually a really well written and well developed character and just because one of her articles was not written well in game does not mean that she is a bad reporter. She’s a very underrated character in the fandom.

I have a bunch of other opinions that are not very popular but here are the most spicy ones. 

I’ll be responding to each one best as I can, if I agree, disagree or in the middle of it. These takes are really interesting and should be talked about more in my eyes. And I also ask what you guys think on each take. Do you agree, disagree or in the middle of it?

Personally, I haven’t seen much relating to the ship of Deacon and Mac in a romantic way. (I have seen more friendship and dynamic duo stuff) I can understand it’s a bit weird considering that Mac is (I believe) 22 in the timeline of Fallout 4. Considering we don’t know of Deacon’s real age (I believe he might be in his late 20’s early 30’s if we ignore the headcanon of him being the lone wander) we’re unsure of the real age gap between the two. So I don’t super agree that the ship in a romantic light could be considered pedophilic as they are both adults in Fallout 4 HOWEVER if we consider the headcanon of Deacon being the Lone Warner, I can understand where you’re coming from as the two met when Mac was 12 (making Deacon 19 and thus 29 in Fallout 4) But I also the ask the question, would it be a similar situation if the Sole Survive romances, Mac, as it appears that Sole is at least in their 30’s? 

I agree with this for the most part! I never really though about people being attracted to Kent like that as I he’s not a big part of my playing experiences. With Curie, I always found it weird when flirting with her for the first time as she has no idea what’s really going on as she is a literal roboto before. She seems more of child when comes to the real world. And also I find the romatic/flirting interactions with Curie kind of… cringe to say the least.

I understand this as I personally hate Maxson and how he thinks and speaks, but I can get inside of someone who loves a good villain. I’m not too familiar with Vulpes so I can’t say too much. If Maxon wasn’t a complet asshole towrads synths and ghoul and LITERALLY MAKES SOLE TO KILL DANSE CAUSE OF IT, and he was more sympathic, I think he’d be more attractive. I get that people can be attractive to villains, but… Maxon? Like I don’t care how great of a coat and beard you got bro, you’re a little shit head. I think people just ignore all of that when they simp for him.

I personally haven’t played New Vegas in so long, so I can’t say much about it.

This one, I disagree on, but can understand why this can be the case. DiMA, I believe is genuinely symathic to what he has done and actuall cares about causing peace for his people as well as everyone in Far Harbor. Personally, I am a DiMA lover so I might be bias on this front, but I do think he is a good person with a bad past and I do agree that some of the things he has done are a little shady, but overall I think he wants peace and the best for Far Harbor. Also side note, I’ll only play the main quest of Far Harbor with Nick Valintine.

I agree, and it sucks as he is a reacurring character from Fallout 3, I wish we could expand on his relation with his wife and son, maybe even meeting his son in the game after his quest line. This goes with a lot of characters in Fallout 4 and that is my biggest issue with the game. There are so much amazing things they could have done. 

I think the reason for why people like him is why some like Maxson, they like a good villain. Personally I like Gage more then Maxon as he’s fun to run away with and not as annoying then Maxon is to me.

I don’t run around much with Piper, but what I have seen feels like a real person to me. She has a lot of personality to her and her backstory seems well rounded, but I do think their is some things that I wish was expanded on with her character, and this can just me be, like her relationship with her sister. I for sure think the fandom needs to give Piper more love.

Anyways, that is my response to each hot take! Send it your and I’ll tell you my thoughts on them <3

#paladin danse #danse #brotherhood of steal #bos #elder maxon #elder maxson #fallout 4 #fo4 #fallout 3 #deacon #rj maccready #maccready #dima #nick valentine #piper wright #porter gage #curie #john hancock #maxon #brotherhood of steel #fallout new vegas #hot takes #ask #asks

[agentplutonium]

20 Questions For Fic Writers Game

I got tagged by the ever talented @mr-laveau, thank you veauifer for that! I love games like this actually

I think I'm gonna tag @maxpaulll because you hate tag games and I think it's funny, and also @dizzy-n-busy even though I know you don't have a lot on ao3 at the moment (I just like telling people you also write fics on top of doing cool artwork/lh), also anyone else who wants to do this can! (do it. you don't need my permission. this is a threat. /lh)

1 - How many works do you have on AO3?

41. I have no social life.

2 - What's your total AO3 word count?

168,758. Again, have no social life.

3 - What fandoms do you write for?

Currently, I write for Redacted Audio and NeXus. We don't talk about my past fandoms /j

4 - What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Welp. Let's get into this.

#1 is Natural Enemies an unfinished spider!deku x Rody Soul multi-chap fic.

#2 is Dances in the Morning a Matchablossom (Kojiro Nanjo (Joe) x Cherry Blossom (Kaoru Sakurayashiki) one shot.

#3 is Infinity another Matchablossom one shot.

#4 is Paranoia an emotional hurt/comfort Denki & Sero one shot.

#5 is Symphony yet another Matchablossom one shot.

I will not explain anything.

5 - Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do! I love getting comments and I usually respond as soon as I get the email (because if I don't, I will forget they are there-)

6 - What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Uhhhh one sec I have to remind myself of what I wrote. OKAY SO I think the closest contender (I don't write angsty fics) would be The Mission a Kaminari/Shinsou fic. Or possibly even Oh, Captain, Let's Make a Deal which was something i wrote for a fandom event. The only other thing I can think of is an Imp!Milo fic where he loses Sweetheart and basically becomes the same shell that Asher is, but that one is unpublished. I don't really write angst-ending fics, I'm more start with angst and end happily. OH BUT WAS I WRONG (i was looking for examples for another question) I forgot about Space Between an Imp!Freelancer/Vindemiator fic. Oh my god, it’s not my best but fuck does it hurt.

7 -What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Oooo okay so top contenders are Four Years, Not Forever a Sero/Todoroki fic, or once again Dances in the Morning or Infinity. Those last two are in my top five for a reason.

8 - Do you get hate on fics?

I. Don't think so. If I did I don't remember. I think there was one whole comment where someone fucking pulled out one word of the fic and said "it ruined the fic" for them and "they had a hard time continuing" which i won't even get into cause it was like a one-time thing. It was a rediculous comment in context anyway.

9 - Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I don't, I want to, unsure if I'll ever post it though.

10 - Do you write crossovers?

No? I definitely don't now but I think I've gotten close in the past.

11 - Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't think so.

12 - Have you ever had a fic translated?

There was one offer, but I don't think it ever went anywhere.

13 - Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Technically yes, but it fell through. Would consider co-writing with someone though, depending on who they were/what the fic was.

14 - What's your all time favorite ship?

As of right now Milo/Sweetheart, but I go through favourite ships faster than I go through fandoms so I never have a real answer for this question.

15 - What's a WIP that you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Oh god, probably Eddie... The Love of My Life, or my All I Want series, just because I'm not in those fandoms anymore. I also have plenty of fics in my fic graveyard of a gdocs.

16 - What are your writing strengths?

I'd say my strengths are dialogue/describing non-sexual intimacy. Maybe my world-building? technically? uhhh that's all I can think of actually.

17 - What are your writing weaknesses?

Longer fics/keeping up with multi chaps (again, Eddie... The Love of My Life and Like Real People Do my beloveds I'm so sorry), MY FUCKING COMMAS if you read ANY of my fics I bet you there's way to many commas in it I have a problem, ummm I'd say any descriptive violence, I really wanna work on that. That's all that's coming to mind but I bet there's more.

18 - Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I am not against it, but I have not tried it (that I can remember). I wouldn't mind though I just would be VERY meticulous about how it's written.

19 - First fandom you wrote for?

Off the record? Harry Potter or Percy Jackson (shivers in wattpad days) but if we're looking at my AO3 it would be BNHA with I'm Here (yet another unfinished multi-chap)

20 - Favorite fic you've written?

Oh god, I don't even know. All my fics are my babies. If I had to pick from my published ones I would probably go with Promise Me, Please (I Promise) which is an Imp!Milo/Sweetheart fic of mine that I wrote a year ago. But I am currently working on one that might surpass that, but only time can tell.

ANYWAY I'm supposed to be working on finals but this was fun! I have way too much free time on my hands at all times, and it shows in my writing. I'm gonna go hide in a hole now.

#plutonium_rambles #plutonium_askgames

[thepurplewombat]

Character ask meme: Lan Xichen

Allright my precious boy is up to bat!

a song that reminds me of them: Okay so I don't usually associate songs with specific characters, but usually ships. However, after giving the matter some thought, I came up with a couple: It's all coming back to me now by Celine Dion for when ghost/fierce corpse a-Yao returns to him. Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are for post-canon Lan Xichen, and I'd Lie For You And That's The Truth, also by Meat Loaf for just, like, the general vibes of him and JGY up until the last few days.

what they smell like: Something crisp yet soothing.

an otp: Xiyao always and forever

a notp: I don't really see the appeal of any ship with LXC other than XiYao. I can cope with most of them - I've even read some decent Lancest - but I have an especial dislike for xisang and xicheng, and I am not a big fan of 3zun because, idk, the vibes don't work for me? I don't know, I just can never really get my teeth into 3Zun, I find it kind of off-putting.

favorite platonic/familial relationships: Ugh big brother LXC is so chef kiss. The way he gently ribs his stuffy baby brother and just wants him to be happy always and forever aaaargh it makes me go feral. I have been known to read fics explicitly tagged Not JGY-Friendly because I was informed they have excellent Lan brothers content, and since JGY is my poorest little meow meow, that's a big deal.

a headcanon that is popular in the fandom but that i disagree with: Himbo Lan Xichen. Like, come on, he's a sect leader, he is apparently the only person in the entire gorram Sunshot Campaign that realised that they needed a fucking spy , and he's the greatest cultivator of his generation. Come on people. You can be intelligent without being an asshole, you know. Just because he's nice and he drank his Respect Meng Yao juice every day doesn't make him a himbo (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻

the position they sleep in: He goes to sleep on his back in proper Lan posture, but he wakes up cuddling his blankets and/or sprawling so as to occupy maximum real estate.

a crossover au i’d love to see them in :SVSSS would be great, because he could use a magic mushroom to make A-Yao a non-dead body, but idk I kind of want him to cross over into like, the most mundane cozy romance you've ever seen in your life? Like, I would like to read a story where literally nothing bad happens ever at all. I want a story where LXC falls in love with this beautiful boy, and the beautiful boy falls in love right back, and it should have an epilogue where they have the world's biggest golden retriever and six cats and a little house in the woods or something.

my favorite outfit they’ve ever worn: That one he stole from LWR for his little Teacher/Student roleplay session with JGY is great, but honestly he always looks fantastic.

#Wombat answers asks #cryptidafter #Lan Xichen #LXC #My favourite son-in-law #best boy lan Xichen #a deeply fucked up but unfailingly kind individual #not a himbo #he just drank his Respect Meng Yao juice #Jin Guangyao #my favourite son #meng yao #maybe he did commit some atrocities #but have you considered that I love him #headcanon

[shaftking]

antis tend to the wokest of woke intersectionalists, I’m talking made-up pronouns, demonization of “TERFS/Truscum,” supporters of queer theory, critical race theory, intersectionality, denial/censorship of Science and collect more sexual orientations than there is Pokemon but I digress, they also happen to be the biggest proponents of Cancel Culture.

What does this have to do with their hypocrisy in ignoring the glorification of violence but condemning pedophilia and incest and at every little turn? Simple, it’s yet another example of wokeism seeping in and destroying everything it touches. See violence is usually done on equal grounds, therefore it’s not “problematic,” relationships that glorify or contain even a hint of a power dynamic are however and so they threaten the Church of Marx’s perfect equality Communism agenda and must be censored and destroyed at all costs.

This is the reason they disavow incest so much, even incest shippings that would be perfectly harmless in real life such as between same-sex siblings or cousins. Because the majority of incest cases reported in the real world is based on abuse of some sorts, so even though abuse technically isn’t inherent to incest like it is pedophilia the woke crowd zero in on those statistics because they view everything in the world through the lens of an unhealthy power dynamic. Like it’s legitimately scary how much they read into every single little interaction as some sort of oppressive power dynamic “trying to keep the people down.”

Which is precisely why non American fandoms tend to be much more chill about shipping and certain types of incest in general (such as Hong Kong and Germany making gay incest legal) they have yet to be infested with this woke mentality that views every little thing in the world through the lens of a power struggle. It’s really fucking sick the way the wokesters view the world, normies don’t go around interpreting an oppressive power structure in every little thing they come across, this is incredibly unhealthy and mad behavior.

Proshippers who also tend to be woketards of their own kind like to try to use the TERF or Conservative Christian boogeyman as for the reason for antis puritanical values because they’re so fucking stupidly radicalized they can’t see that this mentality is being fostered in their own damn political party.

I can promise you that neither the TERFs or the Christian Conservatives are to blame for this one, it’s your own fucking extreme leftist party who gets triggered at any kind of perceived inequality or power imbalance of any kind, even if it’s biological. At this point Wokeism is nothing but just another religious cult, no different from traditional religious cults like Westboro Baptists and Mormons - only instead of worshipping at the Church of Jesus Christ to spread the good word about “objective human morals” you all worship at the Church of Marx and attempt to spread the good word of perfect equality and the dismantlement of hierarchy in general. Y’all will still gladly stone non-believers who aren’t Q-anon tier conspiratorial freaks and don’t “critically analyze” every human interaction they come across as a “power play” or “microaggression.”

Yeah proshippers you’ve got a Puritan problem in your backyard, but it ain’t the Puritanism of your socially conservative grandparents, it’s Marxist/woke puritanism that enforces everyone to conform to “all people and relationships must be equal in every aspect” Commie agenda or else!

It’s the exact type of the mob mentality Marx stirred up among the Peasantry back in the days of the Russian Revolution, he preyed on the people’s anger and riled up the underclass so much that they began to see oppression in every little aspect of their day to day lives which eventually lead to the toppling of entire governments and scapegoating of any one people or person who they perceived as “having more power than them” such as Jews.

Not surprising we’re seeing a direct continuation of this whole “stir up the mob by directing their focus to seeing power dynamic conspiracies designed to keep them down everywhere they look” considering wokeism is a direct rebranding/perversion of Marxism. Only substitute class inequality with power inequalities and oppression in general.

These types of scapegoating-like politics that zero-in on on inequality of any kind are always dangerous because they stir up the crowd and lead to obsessive and unhealthy conspiratorial like theories that begin dominating every aspect of the woketard/Marxist’s brain and prevents them from seeing the world from a normal, objective, clear and nuanced perspective.

It also ironically enough reminds me of the whole McCarthyism “Red Scare” of the 50’s-through 60’s where instead of power structures/imbalances Communism was branded as the boogeyman of the day and led to a lot of innocent people wrongfully being accused and ostracized from American society simply because the public had gone crazy in seeing “Red” everywhere they looked. Wokeism is like Leftist McCarthyism on steroids.

I’ll start by saying this is probably the longest ask I’ve ever received and also say that I can agree with or at least respect the perspective of most of it. However, I do have to push back on the idea that incest is harmless. It isn’t. It is abusive and toxic and in the case of heterosexual partnerships, incest results in severe developmental delays for children of it.

There was legitimate concern to be had over the topic of the red scare at the time, and looking back at it there were many legitimate communist subversives within media and academia. You can argue that the method of addressing this problem wasn’t the best way but many celebrities and other prominent figures of the day were communist. This is actually one of the reasons that there were and continue to be so many communist/socialist university professors indoctrinating uni students (though they are more Maoist than Marxist) and it is what has led to the culture shift and wokeism as we see now.

But yes, wokeism is literally just cultural Marxism and anti shipping and purity culture are symptoms of a larger issue regarding the idea of power dynamics and the overstating of the influence that media has on the state of society and individual minds.

#ask #wild ask though

[arodabi]

okay, i’m finally getting around to writing this, and uhh ill say its for aro week too. this is written as an aro person directed at alloromantic people. when i refer to writing, i’m kind of using it as a general term for creative works. Here’s me throwing my hat in on the question:

Can you ship aromantic characters?

and my answer is,,,,, actually a question. Why do you want to ship aromantic characters? 

I want alloros to realize that for a lot of aros, we do not get to see ourselves represented often. I can actually count on like one hand how many popular canon aro characters there are, and on the whole, none of their identities are respected. people constantly try to weasel their way out of actually writing aro characters, or they just ignore or deny their identity outright. fandom spaces (hell creative spaces in general) are at best not welcoming to aros, and at worst actively hostile towards us. So when the first question brought up when a character gets canonically confirmed as aro is “okay cool but can i ship them???” or “that’s nice but how can i still write about my fave ship that involves them??” i want to fucking scream. its a slap to the face and it shows that people really do not give a shit about aros. you say stuff like that and all i hear is “my fictional ship is so much more important than representing your marginalized minority identity” so instead of me just sitting here and saying “yes you can totally ship aro characters, as long as you’re respectful!!!” i’m saying “can you stop and think why you want to shove an aro character into a romantic relationship at the first chance you get?? maybe you have some arophobia you haven’t worked on?? maybe since we live in an amatonormative world, you’re letting that influence your views??” because that question being the first thing out of your mouth when you see a character you like confirmed as aro? that’s already disrespectful towards aros in my book.

So back to my question, Why do you want to ship aromantic characters? is it because you can’t write characters without them being in romantic relationships? or because you think a character without a romantic relationship is boring? Because if so, that’s a bad reason and it sounds like amatonormativity is rotting your brain. 

Is it because you just really like a ship with the aro character? Because you can write two characters with a strong relationship without writing them as a couple. A strong friendship can hold just as much power as a romantic relationship.

Is it because fuck aros, i will write what I wanna write and I don't wanna write this character with their canon identity? because then you’re just an arophobic asshole that needs to work on your shitty opinions. aro representation is just as important as any other lgbtqia+ representation.

Now if you’re reading this and thinking “well i heard aros can be in queerplatonic relationships!” I want you to think for a second. Are you writing a qpr or are you writing a romantic relationship with the serial numbers filed off? Have you talked to aro people or read stuff actually written by us? because, yes, some qprs can look a lot like a romantic relationship from the outside, but that’s just it, you’re looking at it from the outside. qprs are more than just “romantic relationship with extra steps”, and i think it’s really telling how many times i see alloromantic people saying they’re depicting an aro character in a qpr, not a romantic relationship, but then they never ever make any effort to distinguish the qpr from any other romantic relationship they write or draw. It just feels like qprs are getting used by alloros as a gatcha any time an aro person objects to how they depict (or don’t depict) aromanticism. if you want to write a character in a qpr then go for it! but you need to actually do research, talk to aros, get multiple opinions and not just take the first opinion that agrees with you and run with it.

“But what about headcanoning a character as arospec?” now i will say before i go into this, i am aro, not arospec, so if an arospec person wants to come in and correct me at any part here im happy to listen. but my problem when alloros bring up arospec identities is a very similar problem to how qprs are often depicted. I remember when Peridot Stevenuniverse got confirmed aro (she did, do not argue this with me) people were jumping over themselves to assure everyone that “a character getting confirmed as aro just means they are any arospec identity” which,, uhh,, not true? i mean if an arospec person wants to see a canon aro character as, say, aroflux, i’ve got no problem, aro and arospec people can do what they want really. but, i do have a problem with all the alloro fans who were spreading this. because, do you really see the character as demiromantic? or are you using that identity to deflect criticism from erasing aro identities? are you actually trying to write a good depiction of a demiro person? or are you just writing normal ship stuff and slapping a “uwu ive never felt romantic attraction until i met you! and now i will act exactly like any alloromantic person!” at the beginning? being in fandom spaces, i do see the occasional fic actually depicting an aspec identity (i say aspec her because aro is so rare that most of these examples i’ve seen have been acespec identities rather than arospec) but like 99% of the time, that’s written by someone who actually shares the identity. before you use our terms and identities to cover your ass when you erase us, consider not fucking doing that. consider listening to all aros and getting our thoughts and input. 

And last here is “but what about romance positive aros?” now i think most of what i’ve said previously can be applied here. the only thing i wanna add is, i think its very interesting that almost every time i see non aros depict aros, they always write them as very into romance, very open to be in romantic relationships, and very quiet about their aro identity. despite the character in canon not showing any of these traits. romance positive aros are good and important, but not every aro is romance positive. there’s quite a few of us that are romance repulsed, and alloros only depicting aros as super romance positive no matter what is suspicious to say the least. if an aro character is shown to be open to participating in romantic activities in canon then of course write them that way. but if an aro character is shown to be uninterested in, or even actively against romantic activities then respect that too.

so, to wrap up my thoughts in this ramble: please ask yourself why you want to ship aro characters so bad, because if the only reason is that amatonormativity has brainwashed you into not being able to write, or draw, or do anything with a character without them being in a romantic relationship, then you uhhh need to work on that, that’s honestly a writing/creative flaw imo. if you like the relationship dynamic between an aro character and another character, consider making them friends. friendship is not less powerful than romantic relationships. nobody is ever too old for the power of friendship trope. If you’re erasing an aro character’s identity because fuck aros, then fuck off somewhere far away from me and work on your bullshit. qprs, arospec identities, and romance positive aros are all very real, very important parts of the aro community, but please talk to other aros about them and actually make an effort to understand how these things work, dont just assume. And also don’t use these things as a way to erase aro identities and cover your ass if get called out. its disrespectful towards all aros.

The most important thing to do before writing or creating work with aro characters is to talk to aros, and not just the aros that agree with you. look up what a qpr actually is, learn how aros experience their arospec identities, talk to aros with multiple outlooks on romance. and if you can’t bring yourself to reach out, at least read through our own writings, whether that’s fiction, or informational posts, fuck, look through our memes if u wanna. Just please actually make an effort.

So, Can you ship aro characters? its complicated. look at trends in your fandom, question why you want to, and do research. Be an aro ally, listen to us. That’s really the most important thing.

#oh wow this got long #hope this helps #aromantic #aro #writing #shipping #now to tag fandoms unfortunatly #critical role #caduceus clay #steven universe #peridot #su peridot #hazbin hotel #alastor #thats honestly all the popular characters i can thing of that are canon aro #ofc this goes for nonpopular characters too but i dont wanna hunt all of those down #so im just getting the big names #hope this doesnt get blacklisted for being tagged w hazbin and su lol rip #fandom #fanfiction #fanfic #long post

[olderthannetfic]

Ah, I do see your points, anon. I'm not going to post all your asks publicly because if you really feel that unsafe, it's probably best not to have a bigass chunk of your text for people to analyze and try to guess your identity from. I think one of the best points you made is about how close to home it hits when the non-fave is not only your fave but is similar to you in some way like demographic. You're not wrong for having those emotions. I do wonder if they make it hard to see how some other people feel similarly embattled on other axes.

TBH, I think one of the big problems here is that the large aggregate patterns you're talking about are racist, but most individual fics and fans are not really the problem. It's hard to know how to talk about this or who to tell to "fix" it when we're looking at free, hobbyist art.

A lot of people's tastes are certainly formed by shitty society, but once they're formed, they don't change fast if at all. Asking someone to rewrite their libido is a big ask, yet tumblr does it all the time as though it's as simple as snapping your fingers.

This leaves me with the sense that a lot of tumblr is... like... the political lesbians of porn fic or something: desire is not real, only choosing based on logic and politics. Or maybe people are so asexual that they just don't understand the lizard brain's "YES!" at some porn things and complete indifference to others?

I don't think it's great if great swaths of people feel like bottom!Nicky is super hot and top!Nicky fundamentally isn't, but I also don't think they can necessarily just turn it off like flipping a switch.

(If someone reading this doesn't like their current tastes and wants to attempt to alter them, I do think it's possible. What you should do is line up a large slate of media that prominently features characters of the ethnicity or whatever that you don't find hot/interesting. These should be leads whose emotional development drives the plot and is supposed to be central to the audience's enjoyment of the media. Watch/read/etc. this media all the time. All. The. Time. Try out many pieces because you won't like every character or every show, and we're looking for genuine enjoyment, not the fandom equivalent of a pity fuck. Spend enough time on this, and your unconscious sense of who's hot and interesting will eventually shift somewhat. This is a project you should expect to take a few years.)

But I digress.

The one tweet thing is a very toxic pattern. If TOG fandom is doing that, guys, please try to be more conscious of holding the actors of color to a higher standard (or the women or whomever). I know this often comes from a place of paying more attention to our own and wanting to set a good standard, but the effect is that minorities can't fuck up ever while white dudes get infinite passes.

Okay, on to the fic thing... Gotta say, my instant reaction to that description is "Ooh!"--as it would be for the same scenario with the characters reversed. (Ships who start out trying to kill each other are my favorite! x1000 if they're resurrecting style immortals and they literally do.) I can see how it would feel like slamming into a brick wall if you aren't kinky in just the right way and you didn't know it was coming though.

Part of why I react so strongly to a lot of discourse that runs along these lines is that I am a naturally extremely kinky person. It's not so much about what I do (which as a deeply lazy person in a long distance relationship is essentially nothing), but it's absolutely how I'm wired.

And I can tell you that my quotidian experience in fandom is sharing something I don't even realize is a big deal only to have someone I like, respect, and trust react in horror and tell me that it's triggering and awful and should not be allowed in fandom spaces because it makes "people" unsafe. It's such an instant, kneejerk reaction they don't even realize I was sharing it because it spoke to the very core of me. Lesson learned, friend. Lesson learned.

That sounds a bit off topic, I know, but bear with me: The point of that anecdote is that it's pretty common for me to get people trying to raise my awareness of things I have already thought deeply about while denying my essential humanity and not even realizing. As a kinky person who likes to make my fave the top (and generally a conflicted sadist), this constant request to explain and justify is exhausting.

I doubt most of the top!Joe fans have this precise problem simply because people who make their fave the top are much less common in fandom than people who make their fave the bottom, but I see a similar pattern with fans who are just fundamentally wired for rape fantasies (one of the most common fantasies that exists) vs. fans who just don't get rape fantasies at all. Or substitute your BDSM/kinky/messed up fantasy trope of choice. Covertly radical feminist attitudes towards kink and power are on the rise in fandom, and as a naturally kinky person, boy do I notice it!

I know that it feels like crucial activism to share these insights about why the ratio of top!Joe is hurtful, and the pain you feel is real. But it's also the case that it's a big ask to want people to listen. (Not me. Obviously, I routinely choose to engage with discourse. I mean overall.) The reason for that is that you're only seeing a fraction of what they do or who they are, and you don't know how many previous people they've listened to how many previous times. It's a very different situation from someone whose job is making some major TV series or movie or something. That person does, in my opinion, owe you some amount of listening.

Now, I'm not saying no top Joe fan was ever a jerk. I'll bet they were. There's a tendency to be rude and to publicly air your schadenfreude when you feel like everyone has been yelling at you. What I am saying is that a lot of the problem here boils down to conflicting needs, and that means there isn't a good solution. It's a situation where people are genuinely hurt, but I don't necessarily agree that other people have harmed them.

I like that you did an actual count of the explicit fics, btw. It's good to look at the real numbers. I see too little of that in these situations. My off the cuff reaction is that 2/3 to 1/3 is not a bad ratio at all compared to many fandoms, but yeah, it definitely shows a strong trend, and that can be painful. (I have a fandom where I think there's maybe like 1 bottom so-and-so fic in the entire zine era fandom. One. It's pretty extreme.)

I guess my thinking here overall is: What is the practical solution? What are we hoping to gain? What is reasonable to ask of people?

And it can't be "Well, if they would just listen..." That's just a sneaky way of saying "If you haven't done it my way, it's because you haven't listened to me yet."

So the question I would ask of people is this:

What does a non-racist fic where Joe tops look like?

What does a non-racist sex pollen, dubcon, or even noncon fic where Joe tops look like?

And if you say the latter is impossible... well... sadists exist everywhere in the world. So do doms. So do people who prefer to top in a purely physical sense. People with rape fantasies where they're the rapist exist (people who are not actually rapists, I mean). None of this is restricted to any one group. We can't categorically say fic like that about Joe is coming from a place of racism without denying the fundamental humanity of kinky MENA people who'd want to make Joe like themselves or like their ideal partner. (Yes, I agree this won't be the majority of fic writers writing top!Joe, but this is a place to start for figuring out what the better version would look like.)

IDK, maybe you're that kinkster yourself, but your asks gave me the vibe that you don't really get the drive towards those darker kinds of fics and what might be motivating it besides stereotypes and shittiness.

If we can answer these kinds of questions, we can better critique the way people write what they write without telling them all of their taste is bad and they should just stop writing. Even if we think the latter is true, it isn't going to get us anywhere. Figuring out how to make Joe more multidimensional in the fic they already want to write or finding very specific wording that should be avoided might actually work.

Beyond that, the actions I think are productive would be running prompt fests, exchanges, or other events for bottom!Joe or for top!Joe where he's the main character and the fics are required to be from his POV. Themed collections and recs lists are great. (I've seen a bit of this going around in TOG fandom in the past, and that's an excellent approach! Keep it up!) Positive actions tend to work better here. Make more of what you want. Promote what you want to see.

I don't mean this in some fluffy magical thinking way: you aren't going to change that ratio radically just by the power of positivity. But I've seen this kind of thing play out in many, many fandoms, and going after the people who write what you don't like, even in a well-intentioned effort to educate and even in a polite, kind way doesn't do much. A few people feel guilty. A few feel defensive. A lot ignore you. The overall fic doesn't change. It's not a good use of your limited time and energy.

I'm off to look up that fic to see what I think of it in practice, but I'm going to post this before tumblr manages to eat it.

[lochnessies]

ok here’s a dissection of a post an anon sent me the link to and bc i have the worst time management possible and i completely forgot i had it lol so sorry anon here you go ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

I am constantly thinking about how Edelgard just doesn’t seem designed to appeal to cishet men.

i hate to be the one to break this news to you op but just because a character doesn’t show skin like charlotte fire emblem doesn’t mean she isn’t designed to pander to men. she’s very much designed to pander to the (majority straight male) player base with her ‘uwu i only trust you professor omg did u see that rat? pls don’t look at my painting of you uwu’.

then there’s the whole edelgard c support in japanese where byleth makes reference to having come to her room for ‘yobi’ which is

there’s also the scene where byleth can make an unsolicited comment about edelgard’s breast size. which is… uhh… gross.

edelgard also has cipher cards that go from slightly fanserviceie to full on suggestive

and also her breast armor that my sister relentlessly mocked lol

and here’s a chart from the 3h subreddit about gender/sexually in regards to edelgard and edeleth. it’s extremely straight male. op might have just overlooked this since they probably don’t go on reddit and stay on tumblr (which unlike reddit is mostly female and has a high lgbt demographic).

Like the joke is that Bleagles is the Gay House, but everything about her feels deliberately non-hetero.

i don’t like where this is going…

She’s dressed in sharp outfits covering her upper body, with proportions that don’t seem exaggerated.

so women who cover up must be lgbt because straight women are naturally more revealing? oh y i k e s

Her poise and the way she effortlessly flourishes her axe exhibits an air of coolness. While titties out =/= character of no substance, Edelgard being dressed more modestly suggests that she wasn’t designed with male-centred fanservice in mind.

“titties don’t equal no substance but here’s my post on how she has more substance because she doesn’t show titties” ok

And she still looks absolutely stunning in her more modest attire (like seriously, I haven’t felt the need to return to cosplay in years but I want to do her academy look so bad). 

yes she does. amazing design 10/10. i have a feeling this is the only part i’m going to agree with

Edelgard is intense. She does not mince her words and she is constantly evaluating you. Though she tries, she has a difficult time understanding her peers initially. Early on, she talks about how she would sacrifice herself and others in the name of some greater good. She is terrible at communicating with her peers. She has to be seen as infallible. Her heart has been hardened for years and she assumes she has to stay that way. She also assumes everyone mourns the same way she does - which is why she (kind of insensitively) insists you move on when Jeralt dies. Because to her, grief has to be channeled towards action, or else you’ll get lost in it. This attitude is demonstrated time and time again as she presses on. It can make her come off as cold and unfeeling - but look closer, and she’s anything but.

don’t really have anything to say at this part. it is pretty on the nose though i would slightly disagree with that last sentence a bit. i wouldn’t say she’s as i feeling as hubert is but all of her talks of the war boil down to how she feels and never her victims.

Her story is ultimately about her realizing that to achieve her goals, she needs to let people in and allow herself to want things like cakes and tea parties and lazy days in peace. 

????? what ????? her goals include imperialism, ethnic and religious targeting. her story is about having a set of beliefs and mowing down anybody who stands in her way. that has nothing to do with tea, friends, and lazy days. also am i supposed to be sad that she has to get up everyday and work? i do that and i didn’t start a war and only throw a pity party for myself

The game leaves the player guessing as to how involved the Flame Emperor was in each Part I event, makes you feel hurt by her betrayal, and leaves you with a choice: do you follow the orders of the woman who tried to make you a god without your consent, or a young girl with questionable morals about to throw the world into upheaval?

this isn’t an ideal situation but i think i’m going to stick with the woman who tried to make me a god since i’m not selfish and i know it’s not only my desires and life at stake here. plus the green hair slaps ngl

Choosing her of your own volition (not for completionist reasons) requires the basic ability to sympathize with a woman’s pain. It also requires the player to read beyond her unwavering will and dubious methods to get a sense of how deep that pain goes and how the theme of humanity relates to her differently in each route.

i’m not going to touch this since @nilsh13 made a post on it that i’ll link here. i agree with everything he said so to repeat it would be redundant.

The player must be able to see a young woman’s desperate resolve to change the world so it stops exploiting people and ruining lives. They must be able to accept the fact that women can make the same morally wrong and ambivalent decisions that complicated male characters get to make all the time and still be the one to root for.

literally the same reason i love rhea lol her goddess experiments are dubious at best but her reasons are the same you mentioned. i would say that i like this quality in edelgard too if her ending, while bloody, actually ended in a good outcome for fodlan.

This is not unique to LGBT+ people, but this population is likely to understand why Edelgard feels so strongly about why she has to change the system. 

i understand wanting to change a system, i really do. like edelgard, i’m an opinionated bisexual woman (who’s also physically disabled) so yeah i get it. and change can be good but it can also be terrible. even if the church was the boogeyman edelgard treats it as she still replaces it with her own shit regime. so it’s the same circus just with a new conductor.

I don’t think “Edelgard gets undue criticism because she’s a woman” captures the full picture. An important aspect of her treatment by certain parts of the fandom is that she’s a radical woman.

or maybe she does some pretty fucked up shit and it goes unacknowledged in her own route. and yeah she’s radical but in all the worst ways.

Her hatred of the Church and the Crest system resonates way harder with people who have been hurt by institutions that are deeply engrained in our society. 

and what about people who have been hurt by systems where their ‘merit’ didn’t measure up and they were left behind? what about people from nations that experienced imperialism?

Siding with her means siding against the Church - which, while different from real world religious institutions, still invokes language about “sin” and “punishment.

yeah the ‘sins’ and ‘punishments’ are used in relation to attempted murders which i think everybody can agree is a bad thing that needs to be condemned.

Choosing Edelgard will likely hit different if homophobic and transphobic Christians used that rhetoric against you.

it has literally nothing to do with ‘sins’ and ‘punishments’ in regards to being gay or trans. that’s you projecting. especially since the church has 2 canon gay characters and two coded ones.

like i can understand why having a church condemn you can be uncomfortable but i’m begging you to please look at the context of what’s happening.

I’m willing to go out on a limb and say that the reason F/F Edeleth is the more popular iteration of that ship because most people who would choose to S-support Edelgard are LGBT+ themselves. This is not a revelation. To anyone in the community, it’s fairly obvious. 

i was talking to nilish and he said

so yeah… while there is definitely sapphic femleth shippers out there, there’s still a whole lot of weird fetishizing going on from straight men about edelgard.

Crimson Flower was my first route. I went into the game knowing absolutely nothing. I played it during the last week of 2020 and hoo boy was it cathartic. 

i can tell. this wasn’t supposed to be a dig but it came out that way and i’m not taking it out.

I felt like I was living out a gay revolution power fantasy, where I could truly change systems of oppression while fighting alongside a group of troubled students I’d shaped the lives of.

so a gay revolution power fantasy (cringe) goes hand in hand with imperialism and installing a dictatorship? also the war had nothing to do with sexuality.

Through your unwavering support, Edelgard learns that she needs to be human, that she must listen to her friends, and that she’s allowed to enjoy the world she’s creating.

edelgard gets to learn how to be human all while hunting those who don’t. and she doesn’t listen fo her friends. she doesn’t even trust them. she’s willing to talk to byleth but keep the people who’s been by her side for five years in the dark about everything. and yeah she gets to enjoy her new words since she’s on top. hate to be a commoner under her rule after she burned down my village in her war.

I love this character so much.

clearly. and i honestly don’t care if somebody likes her. i do as well even if my sometimes scathing words can make it seem otherwise.

It has been six months since I first played and I am still analyzing her,

me too. please help me escape i’m losing my mind

because there’s so much depth. Yet so many people fail to see that depth and dismiss her as evil,

i mean, she does some fucked up shit that goes beyond any of the less than desirable actions of the other main characters and does an extremely poor job in trying to make herself seem innocent. i personally don’t think she’s pure evil but i completely understand where the people who say she is are coming from.

because they never had the will to understand complicated women in the first place. 

that’s big talk from somebody who implies that a gay pope is comparable to homophobic and transphobic irl religions and that leads an oppressive regime all because she uses the vague terms of sin and punishments that you have to gay power fantasy your way out of

#i finished this at 1am so sorry if i’m incoherent #mine

[incarnateirony]

the fact that patrick and his ilk (his ilk being Severe Jared-Only Stan Twitter, the ones overlapped with Wincels, that he plucked the talking point from) think they can draw a correlation between "fun person running a social media account being paid $15 an hour" and "judgments about an entire corporation's actual methods" is... really telling on the intentional simplicity they force themselves to use on any kind of advanced topic, so try to exploit the importance of that topic, and somehow will themselves into thinking other people are hypocrites for [checks notes] not hating people for simply having jobs.

And the worst thing, it's not to really *prove* anything. It's only to offset his own hero worship of a corporation and it's collective decisions and handling of affairs, when the entire professional world has known it's a joke and a good portion of the acting world have reported major disasters that have left people injured. It's not "Hah! You Support Amazon* so you lie", it's "HAH! We want to pretend we see hypocrisy, so we can actually feel better about continuing to lionize a comically cartoonishly obviously evil corporation, while pretending you don't have a leg to stand on, while we intentionally use gross oversimplification of all of these talking points!"

Like any "woke" veil on what they're saying? Isn't even to FIGHT THE MAN. It's that NOBODY SHOULD FIGHT THE MAN, and to them, THE MAN IS GOOD, ACTUALLY. After all, look at people having fun with [checks notes] a low paid employee of the man!! check MATE.

like, please, does patrick really think jeff bezos is calling in from his space ship telling some gen z intern to market gay shit for one particular tv show in a machiavellian plan, that he even TRIES to correlate this to fighting the upper brass at a company?SDFSDFSDF

Patrick and co's entire thing is being the guy in the well

(also worth noting that the accounts he's currently supporting openly identify libertarian lmfao but i'm very certain their actual focus is about egalitarian regulated labor and stuff, and not intentionally maligning the conversation like the closet conservative shit he and everyone in his radius does in mirror of the political landscape these issues integrate with.)

Like you think I'm joking, but if you were to copy paste this conversation into political twitter, replace the Product with something different, and change up to non standom usernames, Patrick is out here OPENLY arguing/liking/supporting the deadass republican political take, complete with the whole "we're the woke ones, actually." underscore. I don't know if he's secretly a republican, or just so lost in his standom world view he can't recognize this, but jesus CHRIST. He's literally out here radiating major mark pellegrino vibes at this point

hell search the post likes. Non-fandom, non standom names that have now seen it through the hundreds of thousands of impacts grapevine are there. Many are blue wave. None are maga, republican, etc. They can recognize "corporation vs individual", ethics and impacts. Now look at who he's engaging to reinforce the conversational alignment. literal libertarians and republicans. The party that can only process objection for the sake of it, as their only platform, who always tries to malign and manipulate the conversation. Just. Like. This. I'm not. kidding. Go. look.

Patrick, I hate to break it to you. But you do, in fact, live in society. You probably buy unethically sourced food, you probably do a lot of things. Media is one of the few things we can have actual real choice in (short of people like myself, who grow/raise my own stuff for the most part). People are not reliant on watching your shitty cowboy show, they didn't. The network changed owners and already has made their path pretty clear, so you support the potential for ethical change. Or you don't. That's not hypocrisy. That's. That's knowing how to use market demand. Fuck.

I think the "ethics" part is what loses him, honestly.

[drivingsideways]

Hey talk to me about your top three favourite kdrama women. What makes them special? What's a fic you would like to write about any one of them?

Mystery anon! :D What a lovely ask. 

I’m going to cheat a bit and divide my answer into characters I loved a lot, but do not want to write fic about, because I think the canon gives me what I need; and characters that I loved a lot but NEED TO BE RESCUED ZOMG.  (My fic writing impulses are 50% spite and 50% fix-it )

Caveat being that I’ve still watched only maybe a dozen kdramas, so I’m pretty limited in my knowledge!

Characters that I love a lot, but have very zero fic impulses toward:

Han Yeo-jin from Stranger/Secret Forest: What a delight! What an iconique character! Is there anyone like her? NO. LSY-nim gives us a delightfully complex character, and Bae Doona knocks it out of the park in every single scene, so I’m just happy to be along for the ride. I think what makes Yeo-jin special for me is the intrinsic place of empathy that she operates from.  I think “righteous” is a word that often comes with negative connotations (self-righteous, for eg), but I do think she’s one of the most righteous-in-the-good-way characters I’ve watched in kdrama or any drama. I’m tired of stories that portray goodness as “boring” , as unworthy of narrative breadth or depth, and I love that Han Yeo-jin comes to us like a breath of fresh air in our particular dystopian narratives hellscape. She’s good, but never naive. She’s righteous but never cruel in her moral certainties.  I think that LSY nim, in the second season especially, gave Yeo-jin the kind of arc that character deserved when she’s forced to really dig deep into herself to figure out how she’s going to live in the world in the face of a deeply cutting, deeply personal disillusionment, and I’m really hoping for an S3 to see how that plays out further. 

Goo Hae-ryung from Rookie Historian: Ok, I will admit this may be rose tinted glasses view due to this show being my gateway drug into kdrama, but c’mon! She’s a reader! and a Thinker! And loves her wine! She’s plucky! She’s cute! She’s got a wry sense of humour! She’s got principles! She’s got a solid common sense to her that somehow doesn’t get in the way of her dreaming BIG! Oh dear, doesn’t she sound like the Mary-est of Mary Sues? Good for her.gif,  I say! Anyways, Shin Se-kyung is unutterably charming in this (AS IN EVERY SHOW OMG GIRL) and I just have a huge fondness for free-spirited heroines who get to tramp through the narrative changing the world as they do! 

Lee Ji-an from My Ahjussi: I’ve never had my heart broken more OR restored by any single character. IU is *phenomenal * in this, I think she really stepped up to what the script demanded from her. Ji-an’s weariness, her fear and vulnerability, her prickliness, her anger and her bitterness, and how, despite everything, she fights : GOD. Just. Again, what I love about the writing in this show is that it’s deeply empathetic without being cloyingly sentimental. I think a less, hmm, imaginative writer/PD might have focused on the Lee Ji-an the victim, and while the show definitely tells you in no uncertain terms that she is one,  of both circumstances and a cruel society, I think it refuses to take away her agency over her own life.(Lee Ji-an when we meet her is too busy hanging onto life by tooth and claw to indulge in self-pity, but we also see the toll it takes on her not to be able to say “this is too heavy a burden for me to carry myself and it isn’t my fault”; the show I think approaches Dong-hoon from the opposite side- his emotional isolation is partly a result of his own choices, but he doesn’t see it yet, and so his journey is also about letting people in and sharing the burden, but also recovering his own agency over his life. It’s an interestingly gender-bent arc, which is one of the things I love about this show. )

Ok, can I please add one more?

Hwang Han-joo from Melo is my Nature: She just felt SO real to me. She’s someone who doesn’t have the spectacular brilliance of either Jin-joo or Eun-jung, and struggles with accepting her limitations but not allowing herself to be defeated by them? I love her struggles as a mother, as a working woman in a sexist industry, a woman who’s perhaps having to rethink and reimagine what she wants from romance. I love that she’s a little silly, a lot kind, and an optimist, and just. I just think she’s the bravest of the three, tbh, and I LOVE HER AND I WOULD WATCH A SPIN OFF ABOUT JUST HER (i shouldn’t have faves among the three i know, BUT I DO, IT’S HER, IT’S HER.)

Ok! On to the next section! And I’m going to cheat again because I can’t stop at three. SORRY. NOT SORRY. 

Characters I love and SHOULD write fic for if I weren’t such a tired and lazy bunny:  

Song Sa-hui from Rookie Historian: Oh, girl, girl, GIRL. I love how she fights to snatch her freedom from the jaws of the patriarchy. I love that she unapologetically centers herself while doing that, because she knows that nobody else will.  I love that she’s prickly and calculating. I love that she’s smart and knowledgeable. I am SO HAPPY that she got to carve out a little bit of freedom for herself, even if it also is exile to some degree. She *should * be Emperor Jin’s Prime Minister and steering the ship of state, while also carrying on a tumultous affair with Queen Min Woo-hee, while ALSO commiserating with Emperor Jin about his boyfriend Historian Min Woo-won’s regrettable tendency towards Principles (TM) and masochism-but-not-in-the-fun-way. (This takes up much of his time which is why Song Sa-hui is running the country, of course. It works out well for all concerned, well, except her dad, of course.)

Song Ga-gyeong from Search:WWW: What’s NOT to love about our brilliant, beautiful, emotionally tortured gay icon? Nothing, absolutely nothing. I loved how the show allowed her to be flawed and make bad decisions, and then allowed her to make better decisions and regain control of her life. What I do need to do, of course, is see the CANON LOVE STORY between her and Cha Hyeon through to the end. It must, of course, include at least one baseball game, a lot of tequila and messy beach kisses. 

Oh Ji-hwa from Beyond Evil: Oh boy, this year’s runaway hit cleared the extremely low bar for standard crime/ thriller shows by leaving more than one of its female characters breathing and with all limbs intact, and got called feminist for it BUT it didn’t do justice to any of them in any meaningful way and that never hurt more than in the way they sidelined Kim Shin-rok’s talent by not giving Oh Ji-hwa anything much to do. She’s a tough as nails cop, a loving sister, a devoted but unsentimental friend-and by rights SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE HEROINE OF THIS SHOW. My secret fic fantasy is to rewrite the show entirely by making her , and the two other female characters in non-antagonist roles- Yoo Jae-yi and Im Sun-nyeo- as the central characters, as they investigate a serial killer who targets women.  It’s the only acceptable version of this done-to-death (ha!) genre, I have no idea what the Baeksang jury and tumblr fandom is smoking when they hype the show so much, I want none of it. 

Jung Sun-ah from The Devil Judge: I love her rage, her spite, her passionate defense of women, her style, her sexiness, her rage, her rage, her brilliance, her tenaciousness, her smartness, her clothes, her refusal to hate herself for everything she is and chooses to be, her ambition, her comfort wielding power, her EVERYTHING. Dead, her? NOT IF I HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT. Here’s what *really * happened at the end of canon- she gets out of the building by planting that lady-like but still deadly gun against Kang Yo-han’s temple and making him lead her through his own “secret escape route” or whatever the fuck it was the show wanted us to believe. From there on out, it’s all sunshine and beaches, and scheming and waiting for the right moment to strike again-though of course, this time around, she also has to reckon with vigilant, tenacious cop Soo-hyun -another character who REALLY didn’t die for manpain reasons and had the good sense to leave her gay best friend to follow his psychopath boyfriend to Switzerland or wherever it is that star crossed lovers in kdrama land meet up on the regs these days- anyways, Soo-hyun and her are in this catch-me-if-you-can epic transnational honest and cute cop-and-beautiful sexy villain chase and yes, they WILL kiss (and more) AND IT WILL BE GLORIOUS. 

*whew *

Thanks for coming to my TEDTalk.

#kdrama #thank you for this ask OMG #[fiona apple voice] ladies ladies ladies ladies