#at this point i'm just applying any kind of concept to my ships and thought 'hmm how do i make this Make Sense'

[fictionadventurer]

Reverse unpopular opinion on Moffat Who?

Oh, gosh. I've been undergoing an internal Moffat Who renaissance lately--I haven't watched any, but it's been coming to mind so often, and it's really driving home just how formative those stories were to me--so I'm not sure I'll be able to arrange my thoughts coherently, but I'll try for a few bullet points.

There is so much writing skill on display in his episodes. The plots are so tight--set-up and payoff on a detailed level that you rarely see in television. The word-smithing is wonderful--he has a gift for a turn of phrase that sticks in your head, can make something poetic or pithy or just plain hilarious. The way he can grapple with big ideas and themes and still make a small, concrete story with characters you care about is just wonderful.

The style! His stuff has such a specific voice to it--certain rhythms to the dialogue, certain themes he returns to, certain things he thinks are funny. It's most obvious in the RTD era--when you hit a Moffat episode, everyone suddenly talks twice as fast. Some people might see such a distinctive style as a detriment, but in an entertainment landscape where everything can get sanded down into bland homogeny, it's refreshing to see work that is so personal and specific.

I love how his era understand that Doctor Who is a fairy tale. The fantastical entering into the ordinary. But the fantastical isn't there to save us from the boring drudgery of everyday life, but to make us appreciate just how wonderful the world--especially ordinary life--can be.

That fairy tale focus also makes his era the most explicitly Catholic of any era of Who. It understands a sacramental worldview where the ordinary and the extraordinary intertwine.

I've got major problems with how he can handle romance and sexual stuff, but when it comes to marriage, there is no one in the entertainment industry who does it better. The wedding isn't the end of the adventure, but the beginning of it. Fidelity is a grand adventure; love can get you through anything. It is beautiful.

He understands that the Doctor is a legendary heroic figure, something out of myth whose actions have saved the universe countless times--but he's also an idiot who makes colossal mistakes and wears stupid clothes. Neither side of that characterization undercuts the other one. It neither deifies nor deconstructs the Doctor.

I love how so many stories in his era build off of ideas from earlier eras. Sort of like a second draft or a remake. Digging deep into concepts that were only shallowly glanced at before. It's the fandom instinct toward meta applied to episodes that actually got on-screen.

As a showrunner, I like how he gives other writers a bit more leeway to write the episodes with their style. And I loved the arcs in Series 5 and 6 especially--a significant thread that weaves through multiple episodes, but also doesn't take away from the standalone nature of the individual stories.

He gave the Doctor a family! The Eleven-Amy-Rory-River family is about as good as it gets for companion groups, to my mind. Rory especially is one of the greatest characters in the show--showing the heroism of the ordinary, faithful man and how that can be even better than the showy heroism of the Doctor. And River is the rare companion that I can actually ship with the Doctor, because her life is as strange and time-twisted as his is.

I love that his era focuses on time travel as more than a way to get to the setting of the episode. We get to dive deep into time travel mechanics, twisting back and forth across time in a single episode, delving into time loops and cause-and-effect and out-of-order relationships, and the very human effects all this timey-wimey nonsense can have on people.

It's funny! There is so much humor while never devolving into parody. So quick-witted and clever.

It's a show run by the best kind of fan--one who likes diving in to all those nerdy details, but understands at the end of the day that it's just a show and we can have fun with it. One of my favorite Moffat moments comes in the commentary track for the Series 5 Weeping Angels two-parter. There's a point where he's just riffing mercilessly on how silly the Weeping Angels when you think about it. They can't move when they're seen--makes them kind of weak, doesn't it? Like, he imagines a group of them running into trouble: "Why didn't you invade that planet?" "Oh, sorry, we couldn't. There was an insect." This is one of his greatest creations, basically the only New Who monster (as opposed to friendly alien) deemed worthy of repeat appearances, yet instead of being arrogant over it, he's willing to poke fun at it like any other element of the show. It's just so fun.

Even if the rest of his era had been garbage, I would have loved this era for The Day of the Doctor alone. What a triumph of an anniversary special. Beautifully, intricately plotted along several timelines. Set-up and payoff in layers upon layers. Plot resolutions hidden in jokes. A way to bring back Rose that wasn't just inane fan-service but was central to the entire story. Bringing in all the Doctors in a way that didn't clutter up the episode. But best of all, it healed the wound that the Time War had wrought upon the show. The Time War had served its purpose in restarting New Who and giving new depths to the character; the episode didn't erase that. But it challenged the idea that the Doctor had to end Gallifrey for the greater good. For such an idealistic show, it had always been odd for it to argue that the ends justified the means. This episode, at last, destroyed that argument. The Doctor doesn't have to justify the way he ended the war because it can't be justified! It was horrible! So he shouldn't do it! He can be clever and kind and find a better way to save everyone! It's so wonderfully Tolkien-esque and means so, so much to me.

#answered asks #reverse unpopular opinions #doctor who #steven moffat #incomingalbatross

[penname-artist]

Hi!

Ive been sorting through planes content and was wondering if you had any thoughts on the ships dustslinger and cropranger? (dustyxripslinger and dustyxbladeranger respectively)

They're kind of my 'I know it's not really healthy and it's pretty self indulgent' ship in a way😅 plus there's not a lot of content for them sadly so I'm always curious what others think of them

Certainly!

I think for myself, I'm split 50/50 on opinions for both; while I do and have written content around both ships (Dusty/Blade signifigantly more than Dusty/Ripslinger) I think I view both more in the same lines you do: they may not be the healthiest or most plausible realistically speaking, but they are still fun. There's a great variety in shipping characters that might not be ordinarily seen as shippable (and side-note, this is talking about very mild forms of this; problematic ships are a whole other can of worms) and taking that idea to mold into your own concepts and ideas, as well as how that mold will change depending on who's creating it.

Especially in the way of Dusty and Ripslinger, there are two primary approaches to writing anything involving them romantically: either in a legitimate and "full" way, giving both characters time and settings to go through their emotions and process their feelings while also finding redemption with Ripslinger to even reach that point in the first place, or the more "fun and self indulgent only" side of things where the story can vary across stockholm-syndrome type themes or even just a flat out smutfic for the sake of smutfic. The nature of variety is what makes the ship appeal to so many tastes.

The same can be applied for Blade, though in a slightly more watered down way since he doesn't exactly have a redemption bridge road to need to take (unless a writer decided to give him one, which I'd be very curious to see). In essence their ship varies around the sea of "what if"s - what if it works, what if it doesn't. This is why the ship, while I don't apply it religiously into my own headcanon, still appeals so strongly for me, because it is a theme that I find myself very drawn to. The idea that the chances are very slim, but there is still a chance. And despite the quite possibly very open and known challenges and slimness of chance, that chance can still be taken.

There are definitely a lot of ways that both ships can be handled, but in the grand scheme of things I think they're pretty good pairups when the writers and content creators put that effort in to make them good. I really only take particular interest in ships that take that time and energy to make themselves stand out, in whatever way that entails (be it carefully planned out forbidden love tales or jarring and exciting smutfics) but both have had really good wide-ranged approaches from all ends of the fandom. And, even in my own light of the depictions of the ships, they've got plenty of things going for them when they're beaded together right.

That probably was way longer and more compicated than it needed to be lol, but I never said I wasn't a rambler! Allinol though (eh eh you see what I did there) I like both, though Blade/Dusty definitely rings louder for me in the ways of personal preference lol

#disney planes #disneyplanes #planes fire and rescue #disney planes 2 #dusty crophopper #ripslinger #blade ranger

[sxturdaysun]

✍️ 🛌 🎞️ 💌 for whichever s/i you want to talk about

aaa thank you!! i'm gonna do these for my (main) genshin insert since i've finally gotten her a little bit figured out <3

✍️: overall, how does the fandom trait you? are you a beloved character, or hated? are you popular, or a minor side character? anything in between?

i think, overall, my insert would be thought of generally positively, if not more neutrally than other characters. she's not in the mainline story very much after a point pretty early on, and combining that with just how many characters are in the roster, she tends to get overlooked fairly easily — not to mention that she's one of exceptionally many pyro users, which... doesn't do her any favors lol.

but she definitely has her stans that go to bat for her! 😤 and even beyond that, i feel like her story would be considered pretty interesting and compelling, since it plays on the concept of freedom, and specifically freedom in mondstadt, pretty heavily.

🛌: what tropes show up in fics involving your ship?

oh ALL of the ones tied to characters getting in fights. lots and lots of fics of my insert bandaging childe up after a fight, with most of them including the scolding them for getting hurt because they were worried trope. i also imagine there would be tons that involve his family — either in the sense of me meeting them and them sort of adopting me as their new sibling, or in the sense of teucer doing the whole "so when are you gonna marry my brother? :D" thing which i've actually written my own fic about lmao

🎞️: what ‘canon’ scenes would the fandom point to as evidence for the validity of your ship?

basically any scene post-liyue (and, honestly, even some during the liyue archon quest) that childe is seen or mentioned in. because she starts traveling with him after all the liyue stuff is resolved, she's never very far behind him when he happens to make an appearance in both the story and events — and when paimon and aether reference or talk about him, i imagine that one of them (usually the former) would say something to the effect of, "i wonder if koda is still traveling with him... really, what does she see in a guy like that!"

this is only aided by the fact that, after a certain point, starts referring to my insert as "his (cute) wife" when introducing her.

💌: how would your dynamic be portrayed? what might people focus on most? any misconceptions?

BATTLE COUPLE 100%

that would definitely be the main way we're portrayed — both because getting into fights is kind of both our thing, plus it plays in perfectly to tropes people would often apply to us. also just because it'd be interesting to write how both of us — people who, prior to becoming a pair, used to only ever fight alone — would work together in a battle. plus, the romance of it all, or something. outside of fighting, we'd be portrayed super domestically because, i mean, look at us — we're practically married as it is, and he's dying to be my househusband.

#♡ — asks #sorry this took a little bit to answer ;w; #but thank you for the ask!! <3 #☆ — 𝐰𝐚𝐫 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬. [ gi ] #🖤 for you; the world #♡ scylla tag!

[ectogeo-rebubbles]

I’m going to be nice after that though and also send you Garashir, Kiradax and Quodo <3

Thanks for all the asks, this has been fun getting to rant about my ships! XD

(for this ask game)

Ship It - garashir, my beloved OTP <3

What made you ship it?

I mean when I watched Past Prologue for the first time, my friend and I were like yelling at the screen "haha NOW MAKE OUT!!!" whenever garashir would stand way too close together, and it was always clear to me that Garak was into Julian. But then when Julian gave Garak Delavian chocolates at the airlock in Improbable Cause I was like "oh... this is for real... they are in love for real..." and then it was all over for me hahhaha

2. What are your favorite things about the ship?

They genuinely enjoy spending time with each other and they love the things about each other that are off-putting to everyone else! They are the same and yet different and yet The Same, in SUCH interesting ways! They are uniquely suited to making each other better! Their gay little book club over lunch makes me feral! The Wire is a fairy tale romance where Julian's unconditional love for Garak literally saves him! They are just so unhinged about each other in such a beautiful way!!!! Ahhhhhh I love them <3 <3 <3

3. Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

It's def baffling to me that there's a significant number of people who apparently think Garashir is inherently unhealthy as depicted in canon, and tbh I am not sure we watched the same show lol. Also, this is unrelated to previous sentence but I do think Julian KNOWS by The Wire at the latest that Garak is dtf (but, you know, keep writing stories where Julian's oblivious to Garak's attraction to him for longer than that, bc sometimes he's gotta be in order for the concept of the fic to make sense and that's fine lol! it's just not my reading of canon).

Ship It - quodo

What made you ship it?

The Ascent! The way they said "you know when I said I hated you? <3" "yeah <3" "well, i meant it <3" "so did i <3" or whatever just makes me sooooo crazy ^_^

2. What are your favorite things about the ship?

The chemistry they have is INSANE. Everything about their dynamic is insane tbh! Odo desperately wants to arrest Quark, but it's clearly just a sex thing for the two of them. Quark wants Odo gone so he can do his crimes more easily but whenever Odo leaves the station Quark says goodbye and interprets Odo's harrumphs and pointed indifference as love confessions. They begrudgingly respect each other, they want each other to suffer dearly, they can't stop thinking about each other for a single second, they hate each other more than anyone else, they can't live without each other. <3 Also! Quark made Odo blow on the dice! Odo drops by the bar every day to make sure Quark knows he's thinking about him!! Quark bounces his ass on any object he thinks might be Odo, unless he is instead licking it to see if it's Odo!!!! Ahhhh, I love everything about it!

3. Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Quodo is quintessential kismesissitude, to me. (Meaning, they are each other's most important person - or one of each other's most important people anyway - AND they are also bitter rivals who are obsessed with each other to a wild degree AND also they def fuck nasty.) Unpopular only because it is cringe to have read homestuck and it is especially cringe to then apply the shipping mechanics therein to other fandoms, lol. But I'm right, though, and it needs to be said <3

Don't Ship It - kiradax

Why don't you ship it?

First of all, this is a very ambivalent don't ship it. I truly don't hate it, it's just a little bit nebulous to me.

(the rest of my kiradax thoughts under the cut)

Like, I used to think I actively shipped it, but then I had to write kiradax for an exchange and it was soooo hard bc I just couldn't figure out their dynamic and there's not a lot to go on in the show (not enough for ME to go on, anyway... I am the kind of person who writes fanfic so that she doesn't need to come up with her own characters/settings/etc lol). It was harder for me to connect with it after that, like, the shippy feelings just aren't readily accessible.

2. What would have made you like it?

More canon interactions? Like, give me an entire Kiradax holosuite episode, not just a scene haha. Also maybe more focus in the fandom on the vast cultural differences between them, perhaps? Like, they had such different lives and I think they could learn a lot from each other. I feel like that could be a good source of chemistry and tension and healing and interesting relationship struggles to work through, but it isn't super explored in most of the fics I've read (I def have not read most kiradax fics though, am open to recs). Actually, thinking about my other ship responses, what I'd truly need in order to make them shipworthy for me is for them to just be absolutely obsessed with each other in a way that is kinda unhinged XD

3. Despite not shipping it, do you have anything positive to say about it?

Y'all def draw some amazing art that makes me want to ship it and makes me wish these characters got to hang out more in canon so I could wrap my mind around them! Because there is def the potential, like it's soooo close to being a ship I care about, I just lack the imagination to make it work in a way that's interesting to me. Anyway, I do absolutely love the canon kiradax holosuite dates (both the Hoobishan baths scene, and the medieval one that's only alluded to, in which Kira punched a hologram for trying to kiss her lol). Also, when they drink out of each other's glass in Dramatis Personae I do get all hot and bothered, so there's that

#ship asks #ask game #long post

[breithenua]

An epiphany I had reading the Naruto and Sasuke vs Jigen fight:

I'm gonna make this short since I'm feeling under the weather, but something I thought of (and an obvious one I know, but there's something else after my initial point so stick around) while watching the Naruto and Sasuke fight vs Jigen in Boruto was how much Naruto's Kurama avatar transformation and Sasuke's Susano'o were completely pointless against Jigen. He was too agile, his ability to make himself small made him too hard to hit, and their defensive ability really didn't help them much against him either. Naruto manifesting Kurama's physical form, and Sasuke manifesting his Susano'o were exactly the wrong tactic, is my point. But it made me think of something *kind of* fanfiction-y in terms of how those abilities could have evolved in order to compensate for those flaws (not in the story itself as that ship has long sailed, but just theoretically). So my thought was this: Why not take the power of those techniques and compress them to fit around Naruto and Sasuke's forms more closely? Yeah yeah I know, this is really fanfiction-y but I mean, theoretically it is possible. The Rasengan itself is a tightly packed and concentrated ball of rotating chakra, afterall. And Boruto literally compressed his Rasengan even further to maximize it's destructive potential too. The precedent is there. Why could the same concept not be applied to Naruto's Kurama Mode and Sasuke's full-body Susano'o (the compression and containment part, not the rotation)? If instead of spreading out all that chakra in such a wide area, they contained it within a few inches of themselves without lowering the intensity of the power output? Naruto straight up having closely-held Kurama-shaped chakra armor, complete with claws and fangs? Sasuke straight up having the Susano'o armor condensed into more or less his current size?

The pros would be as such: 1. The power is increased, as it's more tightly packed together and concentrated. 2. The slowness of the normal Kurama mode and Susano'o is either mostly or completely circumvented. 3. The defensive potential would be much, much higher since the chakra output is the same, just incredibly compressed. The cons on the other hand could possibly be some or all of these, or any combination thereof: 1. Much more concentration would be needed to maintain the forms themselves, in order to not have them balloon out to their normal size and just having the same weaknesses as before. 1.5. Alternatively or at the same time if this concentration is lost, perhaps there would be a "jutsu recoil" as it were that moderately or seriously harms the user. 2. Because so much more concentration is needed to maintain said forms, it would be harder to react to changing situations as quickly without losing the forms. 3. Due to the combination of both using the same chakra output as the larger forms as well as the much greater level of concentration needed, there would likely be much greater fatigue in using these condensed forms, or at least much more mental fatigue. But physical stamina is also affected to a degree, as mental and physical strength are much more closely linked than one might realize. 4. There could possibly be a condition of immense pain or pressure felt by the user's body as a result of keeping such highly concentrated and dense chakra that close to the body at all times. Possibly easily seen physical damage to their bodies.

#boruto #naruto uzumaki #uchiha sasuke #jigen #kurama mode #susano'o

[deecotan]

the lonely prince 

#zosan #one piece #sanji #stealth black #roronoa zoro #this is inspired from girl by daoko #or samishii kamisama #particularly the mv #that part where the girl made that shocked face #iconic #at this point i'm just applying any kind of concept to my ships and thought 'hmm how do i make this Make Sense' #deeco art

[write-baby-write]

The Unnecessary Sex Scene

(I won't dare to call this a writing advice. This is merely an opinion of a reader/writer with a few suggestions for fellow writers)

I love smut. I always loved reading it, I love planning it, I love researching about it and, sometimes, I even like writing it 😅. But as I began to research and improve myself as writer, I became more judgemental and selective when it comes to reading, especially if it includes smut.

There was a phase when I only read smut and, fortunately, I was surrounded by great fanfic authors, which means I rarely was disappointed. Then it came the  year I dedicated most of my fanworks to smut. As time passed and my writing attracted diverse audiences, blogs and people with different perspectives on sex scenes, I began developed what in the fandom realm is known as squick. In case you don't what it means, squick is like a turn-off, something you read that makes you embarrassed or you find cringy. Everybody has their own and that's fine. What is appealing to me may not be appealing to some of my friends and vice versa.

If I have to point out my biggest squick is the unnecessary sex scene. When I say unnecessary sex scene, I'm not saying erotica is less important in the story. If you created an allosexual character, eventually they will think of sex or have sex in your story (even if you only choose to mention it). But to write a great sex scene, you need more than an idea, the characters and a list of sexy verbs, nouns and synonyms for private bits. Unluckily, not all writers understand that concept. So, allow me to show you some sex scenes I find unnecessary:

1. The no chemistry ships

Have you ever read a story that you know the characters are supposed to be in love, but you just don't feel it? If it's fanfiction, the author relies on the fact that the ship exists in canon and just assumes the audience is going to vibe with them. They often doesn't even write another potential LI for MC to ensure the readers know “they belong together". Even if you try to keep on reading in hopes it'll get better, you still don't see them together. Now, imagine when the author decides to write their "perfect ship" a sex scene. If you grimaced at the thought of it, you know what I mean.

The squick in this situation might be the ship per se, which is fine. Fanfic writers write for fun and it's not their job to convince anyone those characters they don't own belong together. But what if it's their own creation? What if the reader actually likes that ship but still doesn't the smut scenes they find online?

If the characters lack chemistry, the author probably isn't working so much on the how the characters express their emotions. Regardless if they're writing characters who talks openly about what's on their minds or not, a bunch of "I love you", "I want you" or "I need you" mean squat if the readers can’t see passion in actions. As a reader, I need to see stealing glances, hearts racing, dry mouth, pupils dilating, eagerness to be close of the object of their affection... Without the proper body language during interactions, the romance story is weak.

But as you can see, this isn't hard to fix. Work on the characters' body language. You can literally Google "signs of attraction" and click on those relationship advice articles. You'll find tons of ideas to apply to any romantic scene. Another cool idea is to switch to LI's perspective. When the story switches to other character's point of view, the reader can understand their feelings, personal opinions, things they think but don't share with anyone (by the way, it works with any kind of narrator's voice). This is an amazing trick to use, specially if you're writing a LI who doesn't wear their heart on their sleeve.

2. Casual sex

Just like in real life, not all characters have sex because they're madly in love with each other. Some just want to have fun or release the tension, others are lonely and need some sort of intimacy, affection or validation. Even in the author uses the love at first sight trick, most likely the scene will be unrealistic because: a) love at first sight isn't real, and b) characters who fall in love at first sight are too romantic to move things to the bedroom right after they just met. When you eliminate love of the equation, it gets harder to write a good sex scene, but it's not impossible.

But this is when I often find sex scenes that make me cringe. Sure, instant attraction is real, but it doesn't happen just because the author said so. Stories lacking of good initial dialogues, physical signs of attraction and with rushed sex scenes won't convince the readers those characters are attracted to each other, no matter how many times they mention "hard-ons" or "heat pooling between someone’s legs".

It's important to establish a connection between the characters involved in the scene, even if they're strangers. Yes, it's casual and some people/characters don't even ask each other's names before banging. But giving the characters a good conversation (specially if it's their first one) and some flirting will make the physical attraction more real and captivating. But, most of all, work on signs of physical attraction. Body language and good dialogues are exactly what an author needs to write a compelling casual sex scene.

If it's enemies to booty call lovers, these details are essential to make the sex scenes believable. I personally dislike that writing trope. I lost count on how many times I closed the tab/book when the characters are yelling or in the middle of a physical fight, and then they just glare at each other and kiss. Sex scenes between characters who dislike each other need signs of sexual tension and even some flirting, depending on how they interact. Adding details to make physical attraction evident is the key ingredient to write a "this is wrong, but it feels so good" sex scene between enemies.

3. You missed your shot, writer.

Picture this: you found a great story, the ship is great, the writing is awesome, but the characters never move past a kiss. And no, it's not a period piece. For a moment, you wonder that maybe one of them is demisexual or asexual, but it's never mentioned. Then it hits you that the writer might not even know what it means, so you know they'll never explore it. What a shame... But okay. The story is still good. Then the story is a succession of almost kisses and too tame scenes for a ship that everyone knows is dating. The author keeps dragging this incredibly slow burn for who knows how many chapters until the story is only ashes, but you never saw anyone burning. The ship eventually made it to the bedroom, but since you nearly died of boredom, you didn't even care when it happened.

Now picture a story where everything goes too fast. The kiss is fast, making out is too fast. Sex happens, but you never saw any hints except the cliché arousal sentences and hands grabbing a few places that you don't even know if those are actually the characters' sensitive spots because the writing barely mentions sexual responses, eve though they, somehow, climax every time. There are no talks about sex, not a single moment of non-sexual intimacy. Foreplay? They don't know her.

Here's one last mental image: They get somewhere less crowded and, before you know, they're banging. Wait, are they still wearing clothes? What position is this? Why aren't they kissing? Where do hands, legs, arms go? Are they really getting aroused just with this? You don't know. You blinked again and the scene is over. You even re-read it. And yeah, it happened. Except it only happened inside the author's head.

These three completely different stories have one thing in common: wrong timing and pace. Some ships will have sex pretty fast, some will take their time. It depends a lot on each character's views on sex and relationship first times. But no matter what tropes and plots the writer uses, where the story is going and if it's centered around romance or not, knowing how to build up the interaction between characters until they take it to the "next level" is precisely what will make your readers eager to read the sex scene.

In the first case, I often see writers who write slow burn saying they don't like to write smut. And it's fine, they don't have to. Not everyone is comfortable writing those scenes because, let's be honest, they're not easy to write. But the author can use slow burn in their favor without boring readers. Here are a few suggestions:

Talk about sex: It can be something simple. No need mention anything in  details. They can talk about their first times. If it's going to be the first time for one of them, they can talk about their expectations for it, joke a little. Make it fun, light-hearted, romantic;

Intimacy isn't just sex: intimate moments happen all the time in relationships. A hand caressing the other character's hair/head, a slow dance, cuddling on the couch, falling asleep over one another, a first night sleeping together where nothing more than a kiss happens... None of these scenes include sex, but they add something really important in a relationship that builds up slowly: trust. When the characters trust each other and feel completely comfortable with each other, soon they'll be ready for more than kissing and holding hands;

Heat things up a little: anyone who read writing advice posts about "how to write a kiss" knows people don't kiss just with their lips. People hug, hands tug on shirts, on hair, wander up and down their partner(s) body/ies, slip inside clothes. Characters are exactly the same. Heated kisses are perfect to create more sexual tension. And in their pace, they can move on to making out with less clothes, trying new things until they're ready for sex;

Explicit sex isn't mandatory: I do like a good explicit sex scene. But more than that, I like well written stories. I don't think anyone will mind if the writer doesn't use curse words and make the scene a little less detailed. Writing the scene in a way the readers know what's happening without exaggerating on euphemisms and metaphors will keep readers happy;

Still can't write a sex scene? Write a "fade to black" scene. The scene can be finished insinuating the characters removing clothes, closing the blinds, dimming the lights, lying down and restart right after it, when they're catching their breath. It'll work just as well as if the scene completely written and no one will struggle to write something they’re not comfortable with.

This is a bit ironic, but if you think about it, you'll see that these flawed scenes of dragged out slow burn and instant gratification actually have the same issue, except the author's motivation's behind it is slight different. While he slow burn writer (who doesn't like or know how to write smut) never hints there's any sexual tension and they write it super fast to "get this over with", the instant gratification writer wants to write sex, but they might end up hitting the fast forward button on everything. Sexual tension, foreplay and even the sex scene are rushed. To the reader, a scene with the wrong pace is hard to read and they might find it underwhelming. 

The way to fix it is almost the same, but not quite. The author who usually writes instant gratification sex scenes is eager to get to the good stuff, but they need to slow down a bit and respect the pacing. Don't be scared to prolong the foreplay. Remember that sex isn't just penetration and for penetration to happen in a pleasant way for all parties involved, there must be signs of arousal, fluids, hands, arms and legs in motion. I'm not getting into many details about it. For more information on writing smut, read this post or look for the hashtag #how to write smut in the search of this blog.

One last recommendation to both kinds of authors: read erotica. Julia Quinn and Vee Keeland can be good references for those who don't like writing smut and Sparrow Beckett for those who like it.

4. The story doesn't really need a sex scene

I left this one for last because I'm going to talk from personal experience. I've made this mistake more than once. I leave those stories there because they aren’t that bad. But, truth be told, I’m not proud of them.

About two years ago, I used to receive lots of specific requests from one single person. They sent me a random sentence starter and I wrote smut from there. I could start by pointing out my issue with one sentence and dialogue prompts, but I’ll leave it for another opportunity. Anyway, one thing I rarely do is to write porn without plot because I like writing everything with a purpose. And it includes smut. To answer those requests, I ended up creating a plot and developing a story to justify the sex scene. But, sometimes, I came up with a plot I found so cool that I only added a sex scene because the story was written for someone else.

I often go back to re-reading my stories and when I find room for improvement, I edit it (I write fanfiction and I write by myself, so who's going to stop me changing a thing or two in my stories?). But every time I read those stories, I think I should simply delete the sex scene. Those aren't bad scenes and I know I always do my best to connect everything to the main plot. But I also know that if I ever decide to cut out those scenes, it won't matter that much because the essence of the stories will remain the same.

Maybe this is all an exaggeration of mine. I'm the kind of author who likes to keep things simple so the scenes have the right pace and I can give my stories a nice flow. So I tend to cut out sentences, paragraphs and, sometimes, entire scenes when I feel like there’s no relevance in the story. But as I said before, sex is always relevant if you're writing allosexual characters. This is more of a personal squick and I don't really have an advice to fix it. The goal of the post to show fellow writers that sex scenes are awesome, but they can easily ruin a story that didn’t need sex. Sometimes, your story is good enough on its own and you don’t have to make it hotter to please other people.

#writing advice #fanfiction #how to write smut #or not lol #fanfiction 101 #lorircreates #long post

[fansplaining]

Hello! I'm curious to know your opinion. I've been working on this long fic for months. Ever since I started writing there has been a bunch of anon's under different names telling me how to write each chapter. Saying things like "make (A) do this", "(b) needs to do that." "I expect this to happen to (C)" Etc. On one hand I'm grateful for the feedback, after all what writer isn't, but of 10 comments, 9 are like this. I'm starting to feel my writing isn't good enough for my readers.

Hello anon! Elizabeth here. Hooooo boy let me tell you, as I was reading this I went on a **journey**. When I reached “9 out of 10,” I went, “WHAT.” I have a few thoughts, and without knowing the full context (what your story is like, what fandom it’s in, etc etc) some of this might apply and some might not. But I think it’s all generally useful for fic writers and readers to think about.

This actually got pretty long, so I’ll put my thoughts under a cut.

 1) The story vs reader expectations

This is something I think about—and talk about—a lot. Here’s a bit of what I said while discussing what “OOC” actually means a few episodes back: 

Humans act irrationally, and I think that you can write a character acting irrationally well. But to me, that’s not a character acting out of character. That’s a character acting against character, irrationally... I think when we say “out of character” about characters we’re actually saying something different, which is: “Have you done the work to show why the character would respond to this situation X way or Y way?” And if he responds Z way, and you haven’t done any of the work to show why he might do that or any of the consequences if it is truly out of character the way we would say a real human acts out of character—then very often it is bad writing. It is people taking plot ideas and then imposing them over their characters without earning it.

These conversations are a huge part of our discussions about media in recent years—whether writing choices are good, whether they are earned, whether they are “in character,” whether they conform to what we expected. But the last one is where things get really murky—because there are *a lot* of readers and viewers these days who are kind of doing what I’m accusing bad writers of doing in that quote—imposing their expectations over the story without really grasping what’s been set up by the writer(s).

There are a lot of parts to this. We often pinpoint Lost as the place where the modern audience’s inclination to “solve” a show was born, and this has spread throughout viewing/reading cultures over the past two decades. The rise of “spoiler culture” is a huge factor here, too—as if knowing plot points is the only thing of value when viewing or reading a piece of entertainment. My least favorite thing in all of this is TV Tropes and the kind of rewiring of peoples’ brains to *only* look for those concepts (which are often weirdly narrow and reductive, unlike, say, the more categorical tropes of fic or the romance genre). 

Here’s an example: in 2017, Gav and I made our love of Black Sails the centerpiece of our fandom newsletter, The Rec Center, and in the process got a lot of people to watch it. And because we were the ones that inspired them, I had a fair number of people in my mentions/messaging me to give their real-time reactions as they went through the episodes.

While not every single writing choice on Black Sails is flawless, much of it is meticulously done, and so many of the plot points are carefully well-earned. But the things people were guessing would happen next in my mentions...were bonkers. Not everyone! But it was enough people (guessing different things) that I was kind of floored. I would think, If that’s what you think is going to happen next, I feel like you aren’t paying attention to the show? I should clarify that this happened with *a lot* of people, not trying to call anyone in particular out. But so many of the guesses felt like they came from expectations imposed by other media, especially stuff that’s signficantly more formulaic and tropey. 

This instinct—to predict, to vocally desire outcomes, to try and get ahead of the writers, to impose the structures of other media over the thing you’re watching—is *deep* in a lot of viewers’ and readers’ minds these days, and it comes out regardless of the quality of the writing. I think it’s not a great turn of events, to be honest—and it leads writers to make some really foolish choices in an attempt to “trick” viewers with something they never could’ve guessed. Which...generally makes for bad writing overall. 

2) Expectations within your fic

So this is the part where I falter a bit without context. Because some fic writers make it clear that they are posting as they write, and that they’re open to suggestions for plot choices. I assume you haven’t done this, or you wouldn’t be unhappy that people are trying to dictate what comes next. 

I’m curious if you are signalling that you’re...OK? with these kinds of comments by, say, writing nice replies that don’t make it clear that you know where you’re going with the story and you’ve already made choices about what happens next. There’s definitely a way to strike that balance, like a very polite evasion, something like, “Haha, thanks for the comment! I have the whole fic plotted out, so you’ll just have to wait and see!” If you start to signal that you’re in control of the plot, not the commenters, perhaps they’ll chill out a bit—because I gotta be honest, the fact that this is 90% of the comments...is wild to me. And I’m wondering if people are doing it because they see other people doing it. 

Again, total speculation without any actual context. I think that this sort of thing is likely more common in certain fandoms and with certain age groups. Even on AO3, fandom is not a monolith—I wonder if you’ve noticed this with other longfics in your fandom. It might be worth checking out how other writers have handled it, if they’re getting flooded with comments like these. 

I posted a longish fic recently, 75K over the course of three months, and let me tell you, no offense to any of my commenters, but a few of them reminded me of those Black Sails folks: What story are you actually reading?? I politely pushed back with one who asserted a whole bunch of stuff that was not in the story at all and tried to predict what would happen based on what was frankly bad reading comprehension. With others who expressed expectations about where things would go, I went the, “Haha you’ll have to wait and see!” route.

Talking to other people who’ve posted chapter-by-chapter longfics, I know that some of the bad predictions are par for the course: being absolutely certain the trouble in a section won’t be resolved, being convinced that any hint that the ship may not stay together will come to pass, even when, what, 95% of all shippy fic has the characters staying together? There’s a sort of performativity of immediate reactions in fic commenting, “OH NO, OH NO, ARE THEY BREAKING UP?” Like, duh, not forever. But commenting as real-time reaction is clearly the way a lot of readers engage with fic. Which is fine! That’s different from dictating the plot to you. 

3) The commenters vs your story

OK, so conceptually swinging back to the first bit, while my immediate response to, “I'm starting to feel my writing isn't good enough for my readers,” is NO NO NO JUST BECAUSE AN AUDIENCE IS SAYING SOMETHING DOESN’T MEAN YOU ARE BAD AND THEY ARE CORRECT. But! I think it might be worth spending a liiiitttle bit of time with them to see what they are saying, and how you think that connects back to what you’ve written. 

When folks came at me with, “I think X will happen next in Black Sails,” I, as a person who’s watched it several times and also professionally deconstructs texts as a critic, can go through and be like, “Here’s why I think that’s a misreading of what you’ve seen so far” (though mostly I would just say things like, “Why try to predict the plot! Just enjoy it!” because I’m trying not to be a dick). Rewatching the show, I can see all the things the writers carefully laid out, and how they pay off eventually. Can I imagine alternate choices for the characters? Sure! But I can see why, with the specific context and stakes in which characters made decisions, the writers had them do what they did. If they made other choices, I’d want that similar sort of work-showing. 

Similarly, when I got the occasional comment like this on the aforementioned fic, I would take it seriously for a moment. Why are they predicting this? Is it possible I haven’t shown my work enough? As I was writing, I thought very carefully about the characters and their motivations and the way certain events shaped their choices, and how changing events would change those choices. Generally, those comments felt, well, unearned: they were more about the reader than about the actual story. 

It helped having a beta who is both smart and scary, and wouldn’t hesitate to tell me if something wasn’t working. A big issue with the “no feedback in fanfic” convo is decontextualized “feedback” from random readers is not really useful! You have people coming from all sorts of backgrounds, all levels of reading comprehension, all sorts of contexts. Everyone can give you their *reaction* to your work, of course, but without that context of critique—the thing you have with a beta/editor, or if you’re in a writing workshop or group—it’s rare that some rando can give you truly useful feedback. 

But! That brings me back to 9 out of 10. I think, with that many people weighing in, it’s worth doing a little bit of serious consideration. Just read back over the story. If you can see ways that you zigged when you were signalling that you were going to zag, then your commenters might have a point. If they’re guessing character X might do Y next, and you’ve planned to have him do Z but actually haven’t done the legwork to make Z seem like a sensible next step, then that might be a fair read. Especially when they say, “I expect X will do Y,” try to figure out to the root of that expectation. Is this about the story, or is it about them? 

Because no audience is some neutral set of readers, and fandom even less so. People might tell you to do something because they hate one character and love another. People might hate your ship and for some reason are choosing to read it anyway. People have a million different contexts they bring to reading a work and not infrequently, they are reading through sets of expectations formed by other pieces of media that have very little to do with your own. 

4) tl;dr

The ~wisdom~ of the crowd is not inherently greater than the wisdom of the writer. Many people in fandom are very thoughtful readers—probably some of the most thoughtful readers out there! But plenty...are not. And that’s fine! They’re obviously still free to comment. I’d love to say, “ignore them, write for yourself, you’re writing the story you wanna write,” but I know how frustrating this must be for you. So give them a little consideration, but not too much. And most importantly, if you have a beta, ask them their opinion of these comments—and if you don’t have a beta, get one! Because a reader you know and whose opinions you trust is so much more valuable than random anon comments, no matter the circumstances. 

#fanfiction #feedback #writing #asks

[messinwitheddie]

Do irkens have any equivalent to earthen occult beliefs?

That's a tricky question. I suppose it depends on your definition of the occult. To be honest, my knowledge on the subject is limited. I know basic facts about western occult beliefs/ practices. I'm even less educated on Eastern occult beliefs/ practices.

From my limited human perspective the answer is a shaky yes, they do, but if you ask any modern Irken they will tell you the answer is no. There is no taboo hidden subculture of Irkens practicing alien magic in space Hogwarts or anything. Are there symbols and rituals embedded so deep in Irken culture for EONS it's part of their genetic subconscious? Most definately.

Irkens know what they know and they know more than most species if you hear them tell it. They have faith in themselves. They trust in their superiors. They submit to the collective. They take comfort knowing they will live on as their data is recycled. Beyond that, spirituality and anything remotely relating to it is completely lost on them. The concept of an occult did not develop in their culture like it has ours.

Irkens use food, herbs and nutrition as a form of medicine. They personify objects like their ships and their SIIR units, if you count either of those as occult practices. Control Brain/ PAK technology could easily be compared to some kind of dark occult ritual (The melding of consciousness across an entire species, the harnessing and reincarnating of souls (life data)...

Beyond that there are few day to day rituals you could classify as occult practices in Irken culture. Irkens just have their duties and personal routines.

Irkens DID at one point have a clear concept of mind over matter and the connection of consciousnesses through mental discipline and meditation.

They partially communicate through a language of pheromones and certain Irkens demonstrate a super-Irken ability to persuade others with little more than eye contact. Some can even manipulate matter.

There are no written or oral teachings that Irkens use to recognize these abilities or develope them. There are no books to read, mantras to recite or anything. You kind of have to just figure it out on your own.

In the first era, Irkens who possessed particularly strong mental capabilities often went mad and strayed from the safety of their underground hive societies to wonder Irk's surface and hone in on their thoughts.

They would eat toxic plants, inhale fumes from the fault lines and stare at the sun until clear visions of the future came to them. These sometimes violent and horrifying visions compelled them to self-mutilate (rip out their tongues or antenna, gauge out their eyes, break their teeth, ect.

The "oracles" were disliked, but begrudgingly tolerated by their peers. Their predictions were considered useful. Some were frighteningly reliable.

Tallest would sometimes seek out oracles to inquire about the outcome of battles or the secrets hidden to them by other tallests.

Oracles have not existed in the Irken Empire since the control brain revolution. The last one to wander Irk's surface briefly mentored young tallest Soxx when he was only a cadet separated from his troop. The oracle saw a terrible future in Soxx that would corrupt the entire planet. He feared the young cadet and cast him out, lacking the heart to end young Soxx's life himself.

Soxx was confused and heartbroken as the oracle sent him to wander NoDrone's land alone once again. Later, as an adult engineer, he applied the knowledge of consciousness he learned from the oracle to the experiments that developed his control brains.

#invader zim #irken occult #isn't a thing #but is at the same time #backstory #tallest soxx

[bi-lullaby]

I loved your last rankings so much that I'm sending you another fun (?!) challenge! How would you rate all these male GA characters from your favorite to least favorite, no ties allowed? :) Alex, Derek, Richard, Mark, Owen, Jackson, Burke, George, Andrew, Linc and Ben? Good luck, and as always, feel free to include your reasons why because I love your answers!

Ohhh boy you give me life with those asks! Here we go:

1 - As no surprise to anyone: Alex. My baby had the best character development I’ve ever seen, really, brcaus ewhile it was huge, it was also paced and believable and stabilished and non-linear. He was a huge asshole with a concealed heart of gold in season one. In season 15, he’s a golden boy with a concealed asshole side, and the growth/diminishment of those sides weren’t always inversely proportionate, but adjusted to what each characteristic was brought out more by his surroundings/worked more on by himself. Also, he’s the person that has stuck with mer for the longest and through the most, which would put him in a high place in this list even if he wasn’t my favorite on his own. I also adore how, thematically, he’s so moved by the women in his life (bot just the romantic i terests while we are at it) for the betterment of himself and hsi ways. It’s not like Owen’s “I’ll need her to take care of me emptionally and shape herself to my desires so I can be in a good place, it’s recognizing those positive influences in his life and trying to emulate them/work with them/learn from them. Also about his theme, itms less the worn-out “guy is validated in being an asshole bc he had a tough life” and more “guy learns that his tough life doesn’t mean he gotta act like an asshole”. I love this character so much, ugh.

2 - Ben. A freaking Disney prince would be a sleeazy douche in comparison. I was so weirded out when Shobda decided to give so much focus to this random-ass character, then I was really turned off by his storyline with the cutting people open and all that (not necessarily because I thought he was wrong, I just felt the storyline was handled awkwardly and made him sound pelutant and irresponsible instead of a promissing, if stubborn, future surgeon. I’ve yet to watch Station 19, but this angel with a scalpel and a fire hose for wings deserves his own goddamn spin-off, for sure.

3 - My baby Andrew. Yeah, he is not that developed, has been inconsistent, his change from “freaking out over Maggie being his boss” to “marvellung at Meredith’s every movie even though she’s kinda even more his boss because she owns the hospital” was... A B R U P T. But I really enjoy this new Andrew - as a side note: I could not care less for him during the whole Sam storyline, he seemed like a toned down Jonhy Bravo - He’s smart and sweet and funny and worships Mer like the Wonder Woman she is. His relationships with Arizona, Amelia, Jo, Carina and now Alex need more screentime because they’re great (or have the potential to be so). He’s competent and brilliant and selfless (dropping the charges on Alex even if he was completely in the right, taking the blame for mer now) and so tender (his absolute gentleness in peds, taking care of Amy after the operation, being a moody, emotive boy because he lost his love instead of a macho men...). The future holds great things for him, and I’m excited to watch them unfold!

4 - Not on your list but I love: Tom. Boy is he nice. As I was figuring out this order, I realized he reminds me a lot of my favorite character (Dean Winchester) - or at least what I think Dean would be if he was older, richer and lived without the Supernatural World and so many traumas. His talk to April was so moving and I felt it really helped. He doesn’t stand on a moral high horse: He does what he thinks is right and damned be judgment. He’s empathetic, he’s romantic, he treats Teddy RIGHT. He deserves to have his own storyline and be more developed and show us kore of his awesomeness.

5 - Jackson. As I said in my ships rating answer, I’ve only started to care for him recently, but I really do care. He’s not a character I’d, like, write fic about, or long rants and meta, but I love his sibling-esque relationship with Mer and his relationship with Maggie and the way he connects with his mom and how this spoiled, immature transfer with something to prove became a respected, innovative surgeon and father who’s secure of himself and ready to explore different paths and ways and worldviews. I just wish him, and the Grey’s fandom, would be less defensive about the callout of his privileged life. Like. I’ve seen people write paragraphs upon paragraphs about how Maggie was a bitch for calling him privileged. And he is (for his hoards upon hoards of money growing up). That’s not too hard a concept to grasp. Plus, it’d be nice if he could treat Maggie as less of a consolation prize/second chance. Just because faith (or lack thereof) was a source of tension in his previous marriage, and he feels like changing that would have made everything better, doesn’t mean the same applies to his current relationship, or that Maggie is the one who should change -he learned, learned, and is back in square one seeing only his side of it - I really hope this season treats him more kindly and gives him happiness and peace!

6 - Richard. I love him for his parental-and-ish relationships, specially to Maggie, Mer and Jackson, but to Bailey and Callie too. That’s my favorite aspect of him, watching those gives me a nice, warm feeling in my tummy and puts a smile on my face. There’s some aspects of him I find either boring or unpleasant, and I think it’s kinda annoying how him retiring has been a theme/conflict since, like, season one, and fast-foward ten years and he’s basically an entity at the hospital. Like? What? Was the point? You’ve waisted my time? For nothing? But he’s a solid, reliable character you can’t really hate and who brings more good than bad to the show by far. As a side note: one day I will yell at him for his treatment of Maggie after she talked about HER OWN HISTORY and he basically called her a mistake (although he apologized pretty soon and she forgave him so so will I).

7 - Mark. He was great and all that, but never sparked that love some characters did. I was sad when he died, I loved his scenes and relationships, I just am not invested in him. Plus the immaturity in his relationship with Lexie pisses me off a bit, as does his “man whore” personality.

8 - Link. Genuinely love him, he’s been nothing but sweet and kind and fun and helpful this entire time! I cheered for Merlink sooooo much imat first, and I really wish their friendship will be developed! Him and Jo are everything I never knew I needed. He has no arguable flaws besides being so sculped it freaks me out a little bit, but he isn’t higher up in my rank because there isn’t much material for that yet, but expect a climb as he becomes more and more regular.

9 - Burke. He was kinda sweet and did a good thing for Cristina (the hospital). He was also manipulative and arrogant and voundary-crossing in their relationship. I might like him better if it was bot for Burktina, but we will never know.

10 - Owen. Toxic as fuck, annoying, controlling, disgusting. Those are all things that very much apply to Owen in a lot of situations. Screaming at Cristina for “murdering their baby”? YIKES. Big no no. He was not suited for romantic relationships at all and I wish the show would realize that and allow him that space and breathing time without being stuck in a complicated relationship with loads of baggage or a love triangle. Because that’s my whole thing about him: I believe he has room for growth. His relationship with April is pretty amazing, he was always so considerate and gentle with her, all the time, and I want to see more of that bond. He loves kids and can be really good with them, he has a lot of things to work out with the traumas of his father’s death + war + his sister’s story. Why not focus on that? Why not show him growing and processing and bettering himself and living up to the potential he has? I feel like they gave the all the wrong romantic storylines to the character who’s otherwise really good and that’s such a shame because I really enjoyed him at first. Lets see what happens from now on, and if he gets a dose of tv’s “heterosexual love and a nuclear biological family solve everything!” medicine or if this is a turning point for him.

11 - Derek. He never really had any appeal to me. Not his face, not his personality, not his storylines or plot points pr the actor. That’s reason enough for him to rank low, but I also think he had some really bad traits. He was arrogant and condescending and had a God complex and was sexist and pushy and just not great for the people around him. Exploiting Amy’s addiction being outed to steal surgeries? Refusing to give Mer credit on their clinic trial? Putting ultimatums on his girlfriend that she either has to be ready for a full, committed relationship or end things, then call her a slut when she sleeps with other guys after they broke up? Cheating on Addison after deciding to work things out? Stringing mer and addie along? Not saying he was married in the first place? Pushing Mer’s boundaries after she was clearly uncomfortable with having slept with her boss? Refusing to have an inch of empathy for Mer’s action regarding the trial despite her complicated history with the people she was trying to help (who were her friends, actually?)? Telling his depressed girlfriend that she should be concerned the happiest part of his day was flirting with another girl from the bar? Ratting out on Richard to the board because he wanted the spot? Not acknowledging Mer’s trauma after the shooting? Kissing nurse Rose while building the dream house? Kissing his student while being married in NY? Pushing his wife to move and saying his career was more important than his after he had compromised on letting her shine? All things that, isolated, can even be understood on context and “everyone makes mistakes”, but that when put together, make it pretty clear it’s a pattern of someone with very little regard to the people around him. Was he a good surgeon? Yeah. Great father as well. He also had some interesting relationships and iconic scenes, truly, I can recognize that. I hurt for the people he loved and left behind (and I genuinely think he loved them and meant well), but he himself I don’t miss at all.

12 - I think George is the clearest contrast between how old greys handled matters of sexism and gender and sexuality and how it does now. He was such a sleazy nice guy at times, it is unbearable to me. And he ranks lower than Derek because A) His relationships also bored me while Derek’s could pique my interest at times, B) There’s no talk about his mistakes. Remember when he (in his own words) took advantage of Meredith being on a terrible, delicate, vulnerable place (still hiding her mother’s Alzheimer’s and seeing a person be blown to pieces and being dumped by who she thought was the one and being rejected by her father for the second time after seeing him for the first time in tweenty years) and, knowing that she was not interested in him, pursued her, then after she started crying because of the literal pile of shit she was having to carry around (and still trying to preserve his feelings), got mad at her and everyone sided with him? It baffled younger me to bits that what Mer had “done” was so terrible, it has not stoped bafflinn me in the years that have passed since. Can you imagine any of the girls crying during sex because they’re so overwhelmed and feel like that’s a mistake, and the guy freaks out on them and they’re instantly ostracized by the narrative and characters? That’s essentially criticizing her for the right of saying no, of stopping when she doesn’t want to continue, of not giving away her time and feels just because a goofy guy who is her friend feels entitled to them. That’s the word: entitled. He literally says he “saw her first”. How’s that not Nice Guy 101? I would understand his ego being bruised, but the guilt tripping and the bitching and the fact none of that is treated as a fucking creepy thing? Yikes. Also how he treated Callie, who deserved so, so much better. And even Olivia who was perfectly lovely and did nothing wrong besides having sex with more than one guy without breaking either of their trusts because she wasn’t in a relationship with any of them. Did he do some good things? Sure did! Joey’s surgery costs being cut, helping Bailey give birth, some of his interactions with patients were really sweet, and he died giving his life for someone else. It’s just that consequence-less sexism and entitlement that never gets adressed and gets treated as not only valid, but right, that makes him go rom unappealing to downright hated for me. Better left in the past where people can misplacedly idolize him!

Thank you so much for asking, I love those thought-inspiring asks! <3

#thank you so much #theofficestan #greys anatomy #greys #grey’s anatomy #me #answered #asks #rank

[driftingglass]

I'm so glad that you also ship BakuDeku! Can you give us an insight as to why you love/ship them? I love reading why people love them! 💖

Oh, my God. 

First off, ah. I just. *Incoherent stuttering.* I’m very, very particular and choosy with ships. I either ship one specific couple per fandom or no one at all. So far I have only two OTPs and I adore both for entirely different reasons: KilluGon from Hunter X Hunter and BakuDeku from Boku No Hero Academia.

I’m. So. Excited. To. Talk. About. This.

This is gonna be long, Anon. I hope you’re ready for it. 

Alright. 

Why do I love BakuDeku? 

Or, why do I love the Katsuki/Izuku dynamic in general? 

Such a loaded question for quite a lot of reasons… 

I’ll do my best to articulate my scrambled thoughts and put them all down here and make sense with them. To start off with, when it comes to ships, I usually have to be drawn to both characters individually. I don’t really like the concept of one character feeling “incomplete” without the other, necessarily. 

In this case, I related to Izuku Midoriya almost instantly, and then, surprisingly, found very similar traits in Katsuki Bakugou that I couldn’t ignore or even want to ignore. I respect both characters individually and absolutely adore their dynamic; the creative potential in portraying them both together and apart is so vast and endless that it just spurs the creative mind with no limits.

To explain this better, I tend to theorize and analyze potential relationships in anime/movies/books/television shows based on their clear connection through flaws, personality compatibility, ambitions, strengths and weaknesses. 

I understand that this factor is applicable to every ship in existence, pretty much, but I firmly believe that, since each mind is unique with its own preference, that the actual conclusion one can come to when applying these principles to their chosen ships can yield multiple different results.

So, back to BakuDeku with this. 

Katsuki Bakugou and Izuku Midoriya are foils of each other. 

To clear some questions regarding the usage of the word “foil” here, I’m speaking of the traditional literary term. 

A foil in literature is a character that exhibits qualities that highlight and contrast with another character as means of highlighting the traits of that particular character through their personality, actions, etc. 

Usually this is the case with the rival of the protagonist, and so forth. 

Think Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter, for example. They are a very typical example of character foils. 

Alright, so. With this in mind…

I value the complexities in character dynamics and the more introspective basis of relationships above everything else when deciding whether or not I ship two characters. So, the contrast between Izuku and Katsuki’s personalities and ambitions are fascinating to me, and as a result, I fell in love with their dynamic as characters outside of the realm of romantic potential.

I’ll get more into the “romantic potential” part later. But, honestly, that part of the context is only the footnote to what I love about these two.

Katsuki and Izuku, despite their differences, are essentially quite similar in what they wish to achieve as characters in their universe. 

I’ll go through both characters individually with their bullet point contrasts that I can think of at the moment.

Katsuki Bakugou is…

He is egotistical, yet insecure. 

He is reckless, yet he is methodical. 

He’s aggressive, yet he’s meticulous. 

He appears like a typical delinquent, but he’s undoubtedly very intelligent. 

He’s straightforward and brash, yet standoffish and focused. 

He is entitled, yet an extremely hard worker. 

He’s presumptuous and self-indulgent, and believes his skills and himself are all he needs.

He is, essentially, the most insecure when it comes to Izuku due to their connection and history. His pride is, ultimately, his downfall.

Now, by contrast, we have Izuku.

Izuku Midoriya is…

He is selfless, yet insecure. 

He is analytical, yet he, too, can be reckless. 

He lacks self-preservation, but sees it as a necessary strength, rather than a roadblock. 

He is emotional, yet also quite meticulous. 

He is an extremely hard worker, yet doesn’t believe he deserves anything worthy of praise. 

He believes his achievements are based on luck rather than skill, and that he can only achieve his dreams based on what others have done for him.

He is too damaging to his own self-confidence for his own good and far too willing to appraise the ego of characters like Katsuki to allow himself room to appreciate his own accomplishments.

Ah. There are many, many more to choose from than just these. I could go on about that particular listing for hours. But, I won’t.

With this all being said, Izuku is constantly chasing after Katsuki in the beginning. He yearns for his approval, for his attention, because of his intense admiration and fondness of his friend. Katsuki, however, could not care less and bullies Izuku on top of saying honestly the most horrible things.

There is one thing I want to make clear about this particular ship. I understand the concerns with the abusive context and I’m never going to defend Katsuki’s actions towards Izuku because they are, most definitely, extreme. 

It’s tragic, actually, how Izuku is willing to be patient with Katsuki and still consider him to be a valuable person in his life and even a close friend. Which, at this moment, they are not. 

That being said… I find it tragic, but all the more admirable of a character like Izuku to ultimately admit that what Katsuki has said and done is truly horrible (taken in context from both the manga and anime) and that he is willing to acknowledge Katsuki as a “jerk,” but also as someone who is, despite all of that, very talented and driven.

Izuku is, himself, driven and ambitious. His reasonings for becoming a hero and Katsuki wishing to become a hero are on polar opposite ends, yet their drives, their passion, their vigor are so incredibly similar in length that I can hardly see that matched in any way by other character dynamics in this series.

And that’s what I love the most about them in general, romantic context aside.

Now, still, the extremely damaged history is also what makes this ship so incredibly complicated. And I love that about it. 

What I want in this ship is to see growth, forgiveness, change, reluctant acceptance, and understanding between two characters who have always been on the same spectrum, but have never acquired the true level of insight to reach that same wavelength.

Katsuki and Izuku could never have a successful relationship at their current age, under their current circumstances, and without any forgiveness or acceptance taking place. 

The road to trusting and respecting one another is long, torturous, and riddled with pain and learning. It takes time, it takes energy, and by applying the romantic context to these two characters outside of their already marvelous and fascinating (albeit saddening) dynamic, it allows a new perspective to take place.

This, my friend, is a perspective that requires no easy path. 

I love that Izuku has such incredible faith in Katsuki and will always want to protect him or defend him at the drop of a hat. I love that we’re slowly seeing Katsuki’s growing respect and acceptance of Izuku as a person in the series, and the incredibly slow and (dare I say, explosive) build to their potential friendship. I love that we’re able to see the unfolding complexities and hurt and anger and passion that have driven them apart with blinded perspectives on both sides. 

I could go on for hours about this, Anon, but I think I kind of summed up most of what I can in one sitting without this going on for too long. 

I hope this satisfies you for now, Anon! Thank you so much for the ask. :)

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