#but saying you also like canon gay pairings and stating the one (and only) gay pairing that is never explored in canon is... a choice

[cubeapples]

my chronically annoyed ass comes across one of those "canon characters react to fanon ships" and one of them was tomarry and in the post, harry's like, "UM EW WTF.. blah blah" and i just got So pissed, like, just because the ship that you like is canon doesn't make you morally superior! obviously canon harry wouldn't want to get fucked by voldemort! but you do realise that talented people who make this pairing plausible with their amazing writing skills and headcanons exist, right?

and another post that was like, "i can't believe millenials get these amazing ships like jily, remadora, hinny, (continues stating het canon pairings) but gen z decided these were trash because they were fxm... and decided drarry, tomarry.. (continues stating gay pairings) etc. were better," and, like,

NO???? you just stated the most bland, boring pairings in the whole series?? it's not our fault your reading comprehension is so abysmal that you think jily, a white heterosexual couple that got married straight out of highschool is more interesting than the hot mess that is drarry/tomarry???

like, i'm not bashing you for liking canon pairings, but it is factually untrue that fanon pairings are automatically less interesting than canon pairings! that's a you problem! your statement reads like you think heterosexual pairings are better than homosexual pairings and i hope you realise that just sounds homophobic.

and also! grindeldore doesn't count! there is no canon evidence for it. jkr did say it was canon, but it... it literally wasn't in the books.

#Not grindeldore bashing i love grindeldore #but saying you also like canon gay pairings and stating the one (and only) gay pairing that is never explored in canon is... a choice #do i have to tag anti canon ships? i don't hate most of them i just got annoyed sorry #THIS EXCLUDES FANON WOLFSTAR AND JEGULUS #tomarry #harrymort #tomarrymort #drarry #anti jily #anti hinny #anti remadora #fandom critical #fandom criticism

[svsss-fanon-exposed]

Exposing SVSSS Fanon: 22/∞

LUO BINGHE AND SHEN QINGQIU WERE MEANT TO END UP TOGETHER IN THE ORIGINAL DRAFT OF PIDW

Rating: FANON - CONFLICTING

There is a somewhat common interpretation in fandom that in Airplane's original outline for PIDW, Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu were meant to be together in the end. While this could be an entertaining concept, and there is a potential argument to support it, I believe that this interpretation conflicts with canon due to the fact that a contradictory intention for the original draft was directly stated.

The original idea most likely comes from the following quote:

Shang Qinghua raised his arms high. “Cucumber-bro,” he said, impassioned, “if the System hadn’t selected you, a loyal and die-hard reader, I’m afraid the plot would never have been distorted to this extent, right back to the outline I discarded..." (7 Seas, Ch. 21)

While it is certainly one possible interpretation to read this as "the plot of SVSSS is what Airplane would have written," and on first glance it does appear to be this way, I think that this has much more to do with the type of characters and the filling of plot holes, as earlier in the conversation, he says this:

"...Compared to writing the kind of stallion guy who’s everywhere on Zhongdian, it’s better to portray a male lead like the current Bing-ge, whose life is full of mishaps, whose personality is a bit more complex and full of contradictions and conflicts—that kind of weirdo. That’s more in line with my writing philosophy.” (7 Seas, Ch. 21)

Shen Qingqiu is the one who first remarks on sexuality, and Airplane defends gay protagonists, but the "original outline" seems to be more likely referencing this quote.

There is also the interesting fact of this thought:

Why did that make it sound like the System and this world were the creation of Shang Qinghua’s regrets, as an author who’d had to scrap his outline in favor of popular opinion? (7 Seas, Ch. 21)

Though this is just a side thought from Shen Qingqiu, it is an interesting thing to note nonetheless, especially if one also considers the system's original requirements:

【 One, change the nonsensical plot and raise the average IQ of the villains and supporting characters. Two, avoid landmines that break suspension of disbelief. Three, ensure the main character’s satisfaction points. Four, discover and finish hidden plot events. 】 (7 Seas, Ch. 1)

If we follow the thread of "the system as a creation of Shang Qinghua's regrets," we can pair that with the list of requirements above. Of course, that implies that there is anything specifically to read from that earlier comment of Shen Qingqiu's, which may or may not be the case.

Considering the requirements, though, the only one that specifically relates to BingQiu getting together would be "ensure the main character's satisfaction points," but it does not specify romance between those two characters as the only way to do so.

While the first passage is the one mainly used to argue for this theory, one could also use the matter of Shen Qingqiu's red thread linking to Luo Binghe to support it-- that is, if one ascribes the cut thread to either Shen Yuan's former life, or to some other party, and the current thread belonging to the identity of Shen Qingqiu (not specifically Shen Yuan, therefore meaning that it was still present with Shen Jiu). This is a fairly weak argument, but one I will still address for clarity's sake. The text specifically says the following regarding the red threads:

“Sir, about the red thread from your past—my skill is insufficient, so I can’t…see it clearly. At first glance, it seemed like you were alone, but if I look carefully, I can catch a faint glimpse of another thread.” She concluded regretfully, “This thread has been cut… Such a pity.” Shen Jiu had once had a fiancée, but Shen Yuan was a single dog! Their two threads were tangled together, so it was no surprise that the madam couldn’t see it all clearly. (7 Seas, Ch. 23)

Shen Yuan assumes the cut thread belongs to Shen Jiu-- and this makes sense, since it is only a faint glimpse. The remnant of Shen Jiu's red thread remaining attached to Shen Qingqiu's body falls in line with the way that Shen Jiu's memories also remained to some degree-- even though it is Shen Yuan's soul which now occupies the body, there are still traces of its former inhabitant. As to who Shen Jiu's cut thread belongs to, that is a topic for another post-- nonetheless, it is safe to believe that neither of these threads of the past point to Luo Binghe. Notably, there is not one single red thread that stretches from the past to the future. The options in the past are either "alone" or "severed thread," regardless of whose is whose.

Of course, despite these arguments having strengths and weaknesses, nothing thus far has proven one way or another whether Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe were intended to be together-- for that, we must go to Shang Qinghua's own thoughts and the following passage:

【 Basic completion of Proud Immortal Demon Way’s original outline achieved (slight deviation in romance plotline); objective complete. Retrieving function to return to original world; download complete. Activate Return Home sequence? 】 Basic completion of the original outline? That he agreed with. All the holes that needed to be filled had been filled. But this “slight deviation of romance plot” wasn’t quite right. Bing-ge was now fully gay; how could you say that was a “slight deviation”? Ah, fine, fine, in fact, in his original outline, Bing-ge hadn’t even had a romance plotline; he had been doomed to fade away, alone and unaging forever. If you insisted on adding a romance plotline, all right, that was whatever, so putting aside all the System’s rambling…this meant he could return to his original world?! (7 Seas, Ch. 26)

This passage makes it perfectly clear that the BingQiu romance was not part of the original outline, both in the system's note of "slight deviation in romance plotline," as well as in Shang Qinghua's own words-- that the original Bing-ge wasn't intended to have a romance at all.

If it were not for this section, I would rate the theory as unsupported or perhaps as neutral, but because there is direct clarification in the above passage, it can only be said that Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu were not canonically meant to end up together in the original draft of PIDW, and that this assertion is fanon which contradicts canon.

#fanon exposed #svsss #conflicting #luo binghe #shen qingqiu

[tamelee]

Hello! What do you think of SNS shippers who make it very clear they only ship either Sasunaru or Narusasu? I’ve mostly seen Sasunaru shippers putting stuff in their bio like "Sasunaru 🔄❌" or "Sasunaru only, Narusasu DNI" and I find it pretty sad. If the only thing you like/ think about in Sasuke and Naruto’s relationship is the sexual aspect of their relationship… Then I don’t think you even like the pairing.

It just feels like the pairing is a way for them to self insert into a character, because they make an obsession of this top/bottom stuff… it’s just ridiculous to me. And sometimes it honestly sound… fetishizing of gay people.

Like, how does one favorite sexual’s position change the way they act with others? How does it could impact the way they are?

Hi! 💕

Ah, I understand what you mean, but I would approach this a little bit differently though. The issues that you bring up are included in that excruciatingly exhausting t/b-discourse and addressing these requires a lot of patience that I don’t even have, nor the energy. And then there’s this whole thing about what SNS even means when differentiated through an order in names in such a picky way, and why. Which, in the context of canon/headcanon, the story/fanwork, won’t even bring the same answer nor do people even agree in the first place. I’ve seen the most insane takes about it where pretty much an equal amount agrees and disagrees. (Hence the length of the discourse I guess.) Using SN/NS (in tags for example) done by very large groups of different people, isn’t always to indicate the same things as a (strict) t/b-preference (and I’m using the word ‘preference’ very lightly here) or a character dynamic- (for which there are endless different types, isn’t always mutual in literature and isn’t determined by just this one thing but relies on context)- aren’t the same.

So anyway, it really isn’t worth it :’)  

In conclusion about the approach though, your conjecture didn’t really specify why you think there is a positive correlation between ‘SN/NS’ and the sexual aspect/’t/b’, but this basically has your ask state that ‘because A is true, B is also true (and therefore C, D, etc- as well)’ "so now, what do you think of it?". That makes it very hard to answer without unloading it in the first place, dykwim?

So, I’m left to assume that you either really think that is the case (which it isn’t always), or you may mean the obsessive behavior that you’re referring to specifically, that then results in the other things. The ‘anti-ing’ of ‘the other’, creating unnecessary oppositions, harassing and dogpiling creators, policing tags, etc- It’s a different approach because one says the cause is simply a ‘preference’ one may have on its own and the other faults the behavior first that possibly can come with such a preference. I’m pointing it out only because I think it’s an important distinction to make as that (the latter) is a (relatively) small number of people in the end, but frankly, aside from tag-policing (even on my sfw art)- they are none of my business ┐(´ー｀)┌

#asktamelee #fandom talk #the 'dni' in bio's though lol #'we like the same characters :D but don't you dare speak to me with your inferior hc!!' #that's kinda funny ngl #xD

[cygninae]

Hi! Do you have any lgbt+ hcs for the unfortunate gen? :) 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️[I’ve read a few of your Dunklaus fics so I know there’s at least them :)]

Hi Ven ! I've thought about this somewhat, so I have an answer for you.

I think Klaus is bisexual, my reasoning being I like him both with Duncan and Fiona. He has the opportunity for such interesting dynamics with both, though as you and anyone who follows me knows, Dunklaus is my favourite.

Duncan I would headcanon as gay - no, I don't think he had any romantic feelings towards Violet. I think she perhaps liked him, but he probably didn't even notice. Duncan can be a bit clueless in the romance department, I think. Which is why the thought of him and Klaus stumbling around trying to admit their feelings is pretty hilarious to me.

For Violet, I'm really not sure at all. I would say she's maybe bisexual or something? But I've never really been sold on a headcanon for her sexuality and can only say I really, really love her with Quigley, but also love the idea of her with Isadora or Fiona. Violet, I think, would fall for someone without any notice of their gender.

On that note, Quigley is my favourite unfortunate gen character and I have so many headcanons about them. Firstly, I really, really like the headcanon that they are non-binary, which I wish was more popular. I could make a whole separate post at some point on this headcanon (which I might?) so I'll leave that there. Anyway, Quigley's sexuality.... I would say they are just attracted to women, but I totally respect the bisexual Quigley headcanon I see quite a bit. Since we don't see them show an interest in anyone besides Violet in canon, it's pretty hard to say?

Moving on to Isadora, I headcanon her resolutely as lesbian. Honestly, I'm usually very flexible and not bothered about headcanons, but to me this is, like, canon. I mean, come on, Sunny calling her Sappho during their first meeting? AM I MEANT TO READ NOTHING INTO THAT, DANIEL HANDLER??? I love her femslash pairings. Her with Violet, or Fiona? Absolutely iconic and should be worshipped by everyone because to me she IS a lesbian. Loves women . Her and Quigley bond over it.

Oh, and I know the popular headcanon that Isadora is transgender - male to female - and I've made a short post about that before. Love it ! Totally see this being canon and would love to read about it more in fanfiction. Though I may not explicitly state it, it can be happily assumed that Isadora is transgender in any fanfiction I write for ASOUE!

Lastly(?), Fiona ! Not 100% sure here, I don't really have one - but perhaps like Violet, gender isn't something that really comes into account for her when she starts dating. I could see her definitely having a crush on Violet and love when I get the ship on my feed. (Thanks to whichever mutual is reblogging them, I can't remember who you are.)

#asks #asoue #headcanons #lgbt #klaus baudelaire #quigley quagmire #duncan quagmire #isadora quagmire #violet baudelaire #fiona widdershins

[heathersproship]

If you ship Chansaw, you ship toxicity. :)

If you ship Jdronica, you ship toxicity. :)

If you ship Mcduke, you ship toxicity. :)

If you ship Chanduke, you ship abuse. :)

If you ship Dukesaw, you ship toxicity. :)

If you ship Kurt/Ram, you missed the point. :)

I don’t make the rules. I didn’t make the ships. I’m just stating facts.

There’s not a single pair up there that passes the pure wholesome healthy relationship challenge. Yet, people (antis) still ship them, and ship them very aggressively. Funny that. If what you ship reflects your morals, then why are you poisoning your blessed soul by consuming such filth? What are you trying to say about yourselves?

If you feel the need to justify why it’s okay to ship [X] beyond “because I like it,” you need to take a hard look at your relationship with the concept of shame.

As someone who understands fiction is not the same as reality, I can ship any one of these ships without worrying about compromising on my morals. Because I don’t attach morality to shipping. Scandalous, I know! Liking is not the same as being. My liking a het ship as a queer person does not make me any less queer. It doesn’t straighten me out, if you will. And shipping “healthy” ships does not a good upstanding moral person make, especially if you’re just doing it to appear better than those who ship “unhealthy” bad problematic ships. Who are you sticking it to? Because it’s not the people who ship badwrong, they’re not the ones looking for brownie points. I promise, they don’t care. That’s the same as doing good deeds with the express purpose of getting into Heaven, and not because it makes you feel good to just be nice to people. Ulterior motives show your true intent. And in case you have’t noticed, none of the ships in Heathers are healthy. At all. With the possible exception of one. But it barely counts because it features an extremely minor character.

There shouldn’t be any antis or anti-leaning people (or minors, but overlap) in the Heathers fandom as a whole because Heathers has always been about problematic things with problematic people, which WILL spill over into their ships.

If two individually fucked up people get into a relationship, you can’t expect them to never showcase unhealthy behavior toward each other. Not only is that highly unrealistic, but that’s toxic in and of itself. Even healthy couples fight sometimes, that’s just how it is.

Veronica only sees the Heathers as a means to an end. Chandler sees Veronica as a disobedient doll, and Duke a nuisance. J.D. thinks the answer to Westerburg’s bully problem is murder, and tricks Veronica into taking part twice; he even intended to kill her if he couldn’t win her back. Duke turned on McNamara the first chance she got (in the movie she was ecstatic about it). McNamara explicitly set Veronica up for date rape in the musical (it doesn’t matter she was too dumb to realize it, she still did it), and both she and Duke took part in slut-shaming Veronica after (Off-Broadway only; in West End it’s all Duke now). Veronica left McNamara, who we saw clearly trying to fight off an explicitly drunk Ram, alone to get slushies with her boyfriend in the movie. Worse: she left her with TWO drunk and horny high school guys. Also in the movie, Veronica slapped Duke and then tried to slap her again the very next day. Kurt and Ram are assholes to everyone and the JOKE was that they were gay. Even Fleming, the one adult who looked like she wanted to help, was really just in it for herself.

“But I don’t ship the canon dynamics of the characters, I’m just here for the AUs!”

That’s valid and all, but listen. Just because you toss the characters in an AU where nothing is toxic and everyone is happy and no one dies does not mean the original portrayals of the characters and their unhealthy dynamics in canon suddenly cease to exist. You had to take those characters from somewhere in order to change them to suit your sanitized happy fluffy funtime world. Consider the Ship of Theseus thought experiment: if you change enough about the character, is it even the same character anymore? Ascribing a certain sexuality to the characters (Veronica is bi, Chandler is lesbian, Kurt and Ram are gay) doesn’t make it true if they don’t explicitly say so in the source material. Conversely, that doesn’t make it not true either, but what looks gay to you could be bi to me, or pan to someone else. Individual interpretations are not universal.

We can watch the movie over and over looking for the smallest of details to support our headcanons or spark new theories as to what’s really going on, and we can continue to put on the musical all over the globe with changes as needed for the times, but those fun little headcanons AUs we love are just that: alternate universes. Fanon. Canon only in your Head, not canon to what we got in the movie or the recordings of the musical or to anyone else if they choose not to accept it. Hell, we can still ignore the word of the actors playing the characters if we choose to. We got what we got and we won’t be getting anything new. We tried getting something new and look how well the TV show went over. (Btw that shit was fun. Stupid, trippy, and absolutely insane, but fun once you turn your brain off lol.)

I love Jdronica both in spite of and because of their toxicity. I love how he encourages her to be bad and she encourages him to be better. I love how clever they both are, how in spite of their individual intelligence their love made them stupid and reckless. I love how they’re two lonely people who made it work for a while because they were willing to try for each other, and how absolutely futile it is because she realized she deserved better and so does he, but he just couldn’t let go because he’s finally found something to believe in, something good and solid and real and she’s taking away his purpose. I love how he started off with the fierce desire to protect her from the monsters, and in the end he realized he had to protect her from him. It’s fucked up, but it’s also fucking beautiful.

#Heathers #Veronica Sawyer #Jdronica #Chansaw #proship #Jason Dean #Heather McNamara #Heather Duke #Heather Chandler #Ram Sweeney #Kurt Kelly #chanduke #mcduke #dukesaw #mcnamawyer #heathers the movie #heathers the musical #antis dni #proshippers please interact #antis don’t interact #proshipper safe #anti anti #anti harassment

[echoeternally]

echo echo echo!

i know you def ship bowsario and you have turned me into a very hard shipper of that, but who do you think luigi would end up with if not daisy?

Ohohoho! Proud that I helped bring you aboard the Bowsario ship!

Hmm. With Luigi, his relationships have a good variety. This is probably gonna be a long post...

Daisy is the best of the ladies, but I like either Waluigi or King Boo for the men...or, uh, ghosts? Waluigi is fun because they'd both have mutual pity parties they could help one another with. Waluigi overall has a lot of probably sad and underrated potential, in and out of story context. (Never gonna star in a main game, smh...)

King Boo is like Bowser being obsessed with Mario, just with Luigi, which is all the more entertaining since most villains go ham for Mario, while King Boo would sit there like, "No! Luigi is WAY more appealing...I MEAN A THREAT, I MUST DESTROY HIM!" Not that I've considered that or anything...

For other ladies, I've considered Peach and Rosalina in the past. Though they have more limited chemistry with him than Mario, it's still there. Peach and Daisy feel like they could be paired with the opposite brothers, and I've wondered if they were mismatched in the past. Daisy is bolder and might pair well with Mario's adventurous side, while Peach is softer and sweeter like Luigi. Then again, maybe they balance out one another respectively, hence why Mario/Peach and Luigi/Daisy make more universal sense.

Rosalina, meanwhile, kind of feels like she could be ok with Luigi, but I feel like that's mostly brought about by the one-off treatment they gave her regarding him in Mario Galaxy. After that, it's not really noteworthy between the two. But, they have personalities that mesh together regardless.

Then there are characters from the other games with I guess dubious states of canon. Like, I'd personally love Luigi with Prince Peasley, but he only appears in the story of Superstar Saga and relations. But gooooood, Peasley would be such a fun alternate character to work with, and I'd love to see other royals past Bowser and Peach for mainline, or even past Daisy for spin-offs. (Even if he wasn't a romantic interest for Luigi, he would still be so much fun and so very flamboyant, so that would be a treasure!)

I also would've like to mention Princess Eclair, but like, she went off with the Chestnut King in those stories from Paper Mario, so...nope!

Finally, because of my fanfic, I developed a personal investment in Yoshi as a potential partner for Luigi, which...I admit, has very little support overall. Still, the idea of them seems cute to me! Yoshi tends to be treated as a pet to Mario or Luigi, but I don't think that's the correct way to characterize him, canon or fanon? So, putting him on equal footing as them and then boosting their friendship could be good and from that, well, the potential is there. (Says the leading Bowser/Mario shipper, I know, I know...)

But anyhow, those are my usual suspects to Luigi shipping. It's been like a decade of dealing with it, but I still don't fully get the dynamic of Bowser/Luigi. Lots of people like it because they fit gay male archetypes fairly well, and Luigi fits for those that like him as a substitute for Peach as well. But, I've never considered them over Mario with Bowser instead, and the drama that comes from those two feels more powerful to me.

Others aren't really on the map.

Pauline is worth a mention, maybe, but I don't think they focus on her having a love interest past her history with Mario, which, GOOD. She stands on her own and I'm proud that she came roaring out of the past and forward to the present! (Dream come true for me...now I just need Wart to do the same and I'll feel accomplished somehow!)

E Gadd would probably gross most people out, but that buzzed through my head briefly, so there's a mention. Otherwise, I don't think there's anything much to go for that.

Toad...eh, most people don't even realize he's an adult. Hopefully the movie helped with that? But, I haven't put much stock into that for potential. Limited, but I think doable in a similar vein to Yoshi? Toadette would likely end up in the same place, naturally.

Wario and Donkey Kong don't really interact with Luigi in any special manner like they do for Mario, so I wouldn't really consider either of those. (Though I feel like either would hit the same archetype fulfillment that Bowser does too, so that's at least worth mentioning.)

Hopefully I'm not missing any major names, lol. But yeah, that seems about a longer analysis of Luigi options than I think you were asking for, haha!

Personally, I think that the best options (aka my preferred options) are the earlier mentioned ones, so like, past Daisy: Waluigi, King Boo, or even Peach. Peasley if I can count him on their level.

Whereas the greater conflict and overall drama that surrounds Mario and Bowser for their relationship is what makes their potential dynamic exciting and engaging, Luigi's relationships prime a more introspective look to himself and his partner.

The core is Luigi managing his potential insecurities, and pairing him with someone that likely also has such similar issues, as well as one that would recognize him past everything. Considering the villains getting overshadowed by others (Waluigi gets it from Wario and Bowser, King Boo has the same but mostly from Bowser), they make a lot of sense. After all, they see something in Luigi that no one else will, so, who better than either of them?

Peach herself is nice due to wanting more autonomy from Bowser and Mario, because it feels like her life is too entwined with them. Luigi allows an escape and a chance to help someone who could really use her too, and given that she's a healer type of character, that has a real underrated potential. Peasley could adopt mindsets from both of those, seeing something that no one else does, and could find a welcome respite from his usual lifestyle with someone that he can really retreat away with.

So, yeah! Luigi shipping!

#luigi #shipping

[killian-whump]

Do you headcanon any of Colin’s characters as queer?

I sho' do! *pause* I think. I mean, it depends on your definition of "headcanon" and "canon" and "queer" and how much I'm thinking about it on a given day.

I mean, I headcanon Peter Sheerin as gay, but I personally think there's enough "hints" in the canon content that it doesn't really count as headcanon. But then again, it's definitely not stated and the hints are subtle, so it's also not canon, so... 🫠

WHAT IS CANON ANYWAY, OKAY?!

I think Gerry's ace, but I feel like maybe ALL the leprechauns are biologically asexual and reproduce magically by popping out of clover patches fully formed or something. I mean, look at that adorable little beansprout! He's never had sex in his life, and he'll never have to. BLESS.

Also, I think Wish Hook post-Gothel (which includes Old Hook) is asexual, but not necessarily by choice/nature, but due to trauma. However, Detective Rogers IS asexual by nature, because his persona was formed from Wish Hook's - so he's got the aversion to sex, but without the trauma that caused it, so he'd read as just plain ace.

But... Do those two (three? four?) count as queer? Depends on how you define "queer" and whether you consider these cases "true asexuality" (whatever the hell that means) or something else - and even whether you feel asexuality belongs under the LGBTQ+ umbrella or not (I personally feel it shouldn't, but accept that it usually does).

As for the others... Generally, I tend to assume any/every character could be bi unless canon gives ample evidence to the contrary. I mean, a 20 minute short or even a feature length film gives you so little information about a character's life that it's impossible to really rule anything out. Sure, Brennan's crazy about Nora... but who's to say twenty minutes after the film ends, he doesn't meet an amazing bloke in the audience and fall head over heels for him? And it would be an international crime to deprive the men of the world the beautiful fantasy that is the nameless lumberjack in The Words. Basically, I don't rule anything out unless canon rules it out, and then I'm a stickler for it.

Like with Killian Jones. This is where I differ from a lot of Hook fans. I know pirates tended to be gay or at least bi historically speaking, and I know people love to pair him with male characters (as do I, but only in whumpy ways)... but I just don't see it. Canon gives us non-stop evidence of his attraction to women - flirting with literally every one of them he meets, sizzling smolders, innuendoes galore, climbing towers and banging random strangers, etc... with ZERO of the same in regards to men. We never even got something on the same level as David's "Emma, I'm a married man!" So I just don't see it. At all. He's not the kind of guy to hide his attraction to... well, anyone. And given the historical gayness of pirates, there's no societal reason for him to hide any queerness he might have. I think he's just not into men.

I'm also a stickler for Gordo Cooper being straight. AFAIK, the real guy was straight, and when it comes to actual people, I don't think it's "okay" to headcanon them as anything other than what they present themselves as, even if they're presented in semi-fictional media and played by a super cute guy named Colin.

So... yeah. I mean, I think one dude IS queer, a couple more might be queer depending on how you define the term, a couple are straight... and the rest like girls, but might also like boys. I don't know, man. I only work here 🫠

[practically-an-x-man]

1, 4, 6, 10 for Heart in Your Hands and/or Catch and Release?

Ooh thank you!!!

Answers under the cut for space :D

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

HIYH: We're really just getting started so that's hard to answer at the moment... I guess I wanted to play with perspectives a little more, contrasting Lars' modern and scientific worldview with Jimmy's more historic but curious perspective. And I wanted to take a few tropes, like the "true love's kiss" trope, and revamp them in a way that I found more appealing.

C&R: Hm... I think my main goal in this one was themes of grief and family, which I think I accomplished, but I also wanted to play around with this grief-stricken, somewhat guarded antihero character since that was a perspective I hadn't touched quite as much with my other characters. And I had just seen No Way Home three times in theaters and I wanted desperately to try and fit my own character into that world to the point that people would start to forget she wasn't really there in the movie.

4: What’s your favorite line of dialogue?

HIYH: Again, not much of a pool to pick from yet, but... this interaction was one of the first that popped into my head, and I just think it's so funny:

“You’re… shockingly normal.” Lars blurted, unable to help himself.  “You’re shockingly British.” the spirit responded, baring him another of those little half-smiles, “Where’ve you taken me, stranger?”

C&R: Oooh, there are a lot of lines to pick from here, I really love Olly's sharp wit. I could write a whole essay on her entrance into the battle with Charybdis, but instead I'm gonna go with this line from the fight on Lady Liberty:

“You like hip-hop? Or is jazz more your style?” Max taunted, lifting his hands. Argonaut kept her eyes on his palms, waiting for a spark. Even as she did, her mouth was running. “I prefer tango.” she said calmly, the only warning before her actuators came flying out at him. One claw slammed him mercilessly into the scaffolding, the resulting screech of metal on metal almost enough to make her wince. With two claws still anchoring her, the fourth and final spiraled outwards, reaching for the reactor glued to his chest. Argonaut grinned. “You had it coming.”

It's the combination of her mouth running on its own, automatically firing off these sharp quips about fighting-as-dancing and all that, while inwardly she's distracted by Peter's good-luck kiss and promise to take her to a Broadway show when everything's over (the "you had it coming" is a reference to the Cell Block Tango from Chicago)

6: What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?

HIYH: It's got a lighter overall tone than my other fics, and it's going to stay there. The darkest this one will get is the canon events in Frozen Empire, and even that's brief. Currently Heartstrings is a little fluffier than this one overall, but Heartstrings is gonna have some killer angst once we get to it.

C&R: It's the closest I get to a crossover fic. Usually I stick to one canon or universe, and I am still sticking to the general world of Spider-Man in this one, but we get surprise appearances from Hobie, references to Spiderverse's LYLA, and of course all the multiverse-jumping in No Way Home itself. I have to say, it's a BEAST to keep track of, but I think it's paid off.

10: Why did you choose this pairing for this particular story?

HIYH: I knew I wanted to write for Lars since he seemed like a really neat character (and he's kinda cute ngl), and while his sexuality isn't ever stated or even hinted at in the movie as far as I could tell, I think his character works well as a gay man and I really wanted to explore the dynamic between his modern view on queerness compared to Jimmy's hidden-in-life/brave-in-death approach.

C&R: I've been a longtime fan of Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker, and I wanted to look at this, like... "two ships passing in the night" sort of romance as brought on by the multiverse. And he's super super bi, so I wanted to give him a partner who is equally bi and have them both be open about those past relationships.

In general, I tend to build my OCs to complement the canon characters, so I can explore some really neat character dynamics and relationships. That's also why I like writing OC x Canon rather than fully canon-character or fully OC ships most of the time, it allows me to build one character as a tool to explore whatever dynamic I want to capture with the other, like an extended character study. It's the challenge of keeping the canon character(s) reasonably accurate to their source material, while putting them into situations where they're interacting with someone completely new.

#my friends!!! #answered asks #my writing #heart in your hands fic #catch and release fic #ask game

[timemachineyeah]

Huh…that’s a good rlly point! Each group really has something for everyone,and Hasunosora really is for the people who straight up wanted a more blatant Love Live yuri cndjdj I’ve seen those cards / scenes spread around some and it’s a little surprising how they seem to be GOING for it more than usual (also like I said it still wouldn’t be surprising if they just have two of the girls kiss or say that they’re dating at this point bc CMON)

Oh yeah, they’re making marketing decisions every time, but I think the results have largely worked (with maybe Liella being the closest to an exception- I get the feeling they’d really love for it to break into a younger more Disney channel type audience and it’s doing fine with core fans but not breaking into new audiences as much as they hoped. This is PURE speculation on my part. Just a vibe I get.)

I would be surprised if characters actually kissed or admitted to dating, but pleasantly so.

I feel like Hasunosora is tapping into that very uniquely Japanese history of yuri rep that is like…

It’s like how no one ever says it directly in a Victorian romance? Like there’s all kinds of mannered society stuff at play so everything needs to be allusion only. I mentioned from the very first whiff of Hasunosora that it gave me Maria-sama ga Miteru vibes just based on the pairing of upperclassmen with younger students and taking place in a girls boarding school

But now they’ve confirmed that Hasunosora also has a long-standing mentor/mentee tradition (though far less codified than in MariMite, it seems) and I’m absolutely certain that this is one of their big influences. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if that was basically the prompt they gave the writer (who is a writer of yuri light novels), “Do a Love Live story that’s been passed through a filter of MariMite.”

(I mean the series was hugely influential to yuri for years, a huge evolution point for the genre, so it makes sense).

But while it feels wrong to say the relationships in MariMite were only ever implied, because the romance between girls is the whole story, it is also true that the tradition and codification and “purity” and other themes served to keep them from ever using the words. This feels less like queerbaiting in the modern sense and more like… a genre choice? With its own rules and appeal? Especially given the era.

Like they weren’t hinting characters are gay without canonizing it. They were saying, “these characters are gay even if they never say so and you’re not imagining it (here let us put more lilies everywhere, the Japanese manga equivalent of flying a lesbian flag in the background every time the characters talk).”

On the surface for the era it just provides plausible deniability to the audience who want to be able to be seen in public reading it - no one looking over your shoulder is ever going to be scandalized no matter how homophobic they are. Queer coding that is so explicit that it’s not so much code as plain representation, but still just subtle enough that you wouldn’t be sure at a glance.

But like I said, I also feel like it plays into really classic old school romance. Romance that is 100% about romantic tension and not so much sexual tension. Lots of het romances also aren’t explicitly stated, but we still accept that they are romances, because what else would it be for these two people to be like this around each other? It’s not like het characters have to stand up and say “I am heterosexual! And this is my boyfriend! Let us kiss on screen!” before we accept the veracity of their relationships.

And yuri has a strong history of taking that kind of storyline and the strictures of gender or aristocratic social mores and replacing them with similar quiet rules that keep our characters talking around the subject and engaging in unlabeled intimacy. Religiosity, tradition, etc.

That being said if you wanna have a discussion about about the difference between making that choice in an original manga in the late 1990s versus making that choice as a massive money printing franchise in the 2020s - I think pointing out the difference in circumstances is warranted. Is it homage or is it a cop out? Is it queerbaiting or leaving things open ended?

After all, what Love Live! sells, above all else, what it has always sold, is the characters. They are supposed to belong to you. They’re dolls for your brain to play with. You have always been meant to get attached, to have the option but not the obligation to insert yourself. Relationships are left open ended because that’s up to you. They only want to give you a prompt, not a script. Love Live on its premise sets up a series of cozy compelling ideas and leaves them a little unfinished. The fun is very much designed to be in filling in those blanks yourself.

And you are supposed to love them. After all, it’s only a parasocial relationship if the person on the other end is real. Otherwise that’s an imaginary friend or a brain toy. Love Live! have made a very well oiled Singing Blorbo factory.

This isn’t a criticism by the way, it’s impressive as hell. Like yes capitalism bad etc etc but boy do they have a system and know what they’re doing.

But because of that I don’t expect the Hasunosora girls are gonna officially date. A kiss of some kind is slightly more likely imo, but I wouldn’t hold my breath for that either. I do fully expect art that looks like they’re just about to.

I do hope they get an anime in either case though because I love the character designs and art style

And the Hasunosora music is my favorite to come from the franchise in a while

#timemachine wuz here #love live #link like love live #hasunosora

[broiamjustalilguy]

i hate the sdv default m/f pairings so much. it's so silly to me to have this town full of young singles, who are interested in dating you no matter which gender you choose, but they simultaneously have another bachelor(ette) that that they get paired with, with the flower dance and in some cases dialogue that imply crushes etc. and they're all het. (and have no chemistry imo) would it have been so hard for some of them to be more blatantly lgbt? currently the only example i can think of is the gender of Leah's past partner is the same as yours, so if you play as a woman she has canonically dated one in the past. in some cases i get it, like it's a sweet moment when you play as a man and Sebastian confesses to have never felt this way with a guy before, but his implied crush on Abigail feels so forced to me, like oh of course emo guy is gonna have a crush on his one friend that is a girl and also happens to be alt. idk it just feels icky that in the romantic confessions your gender only comes up when the bachelor(ette) is telling you you're the first person they've been gay for, except for Leah as previously stated or when Elliot says he was unsure if you'd want to date a man. it's sweet when it happens, but why is that the only situation in which they comment on it before marriage? don't get me wrong i love the game, and it's nice to be able to be gay AT ALL in a game like that, but it's tiring to see that of the six men you can romance, the three that mention you being in a gay relationship in the 10 heart event consist of "i've never felt this way with a man", (Seb) "i was drawn to you since we met, but i suppressed it" (Alex) and "i was unsure if you would date a man". (Elliot) and of the six women, one was in a past relationship with a woman and only if you play as one, (Leah) and one says "you're the first girl i've felt this way about". (Abi) would it have been so hard to include more than literally one singular character that was openly lgbt before meeting the farmer?

#not putting this under the main tags cause people loooove fighting about the rep in this game #but yeah #i'm number one seb x abigail hater btw

[phatburd]

violence!: 4, 14, 22

4. what was the last straw that made you finally block that annoying person?

If we’re talking about my most recent block, it was on Reddit where the dude tried to argue gender essentialism at me. Basically, he asserted that my call to write women like people was bullshit and that women should be written like women (weak and helpless). Yeah, I did not and do not have the emotional bandwidth to deal with that shit.

Even better though, when other people in the thread brought up Ellen Ripley as an example of where a role was originally written for a man but Sigourney Weaver was cast instead. The dude then stated he had never watched any of the Alien movies, but he read the Wikipedia article on Ripley and assumed she must be a boring and poorly written character because she was a woman.

Yeah, dude … delete your fucking account. All of your accounts, everywhere.

Tumblr blocks? Yeah, it was the Nth blog that posted the TOG van speech verbatim and declared JoeNicky to be the most perfect thing ever. Went into the blog, found their AO3, blocked that, then blocked their Tumblr. Because clearly this person and I have nothing to say to each other, and I’m tired and I get petty when I’m tired.

14. that one thing you see in fics all the time

Making the bottom in an m/m ship extremely feminized, sometimes straight up infantilized. This isn’t to say there aren’t feminine gay dudes in RL, because there are. I’m talking about fan works.

I don’t know if it’s out of ignorance, sexism, misogyny, or just boring-ass heteronormativity, this idea that someone has to be the “girl” in a same-sex pairing. And every time I see it, I’m reminded of this little cartoon:

I don’t really get top/bottom discourse and especially the need to assign specific personality traits to the top or the bottom. It was something I set out to not do in my m/m Bessimu fics. I wanted to write them as equals, and I think I succeeded.

(FWIW, I see Bessimu as both being switches, because that’s more fun. I also find it hot to write Bessières as a power bottom dom and Murat as the submissive service top, and it’s not what one would expect when judging them by their public personas.)

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

From The Old Guard? Those three and a half thousand years that Andy spent alone as the only immortal on the planet (as far as anyone knows).

I’ve been wanting to explore that period and, yes, it’s fucking intimidating. Historical documentation is more miss than hit once you start going back to certain points in human history.

Three and a half thousand years is a really fucking long time. What did Andy do, where did she go? What did she see? There’s a lot of potential to mine there, and maybe I’ll do it someday.

For the Napoleonics? Joseph Fouché is a fucking amoral bastard, but I think people forget he tried to save Marshal Ney. Ney, being Ney, was either politically naive, stubborn, and/or he just wanted to fucking die already when he refused Fouché’s offer of fake papers and an passport to sneak out of France in the aftermath of Napoleon’s second abdication.

(I’ve also read that Laurent de Gouvion St. Cyr was the one who offered the passport and papers, so take the above with the proverbial grain of salt. St. Cyr did vote for exile in the final trial, which lends weight to that too.)

I also have a shitload of question marks around Bessières’ final years and the way it gets treated by academics, but that may be better off in a post of its own.

For Star Trek ... no one ever really talks about what kind of influence Sisko might have had on the Bajorans other than just being the Emissary/Space Jesus. Like, did baseball become a national sport and baseball leagues spring up all over the planet? Is there ticky-tacky Emissary merchandise one can purchase, like humans have in real life of the Pope?

(Sisko did show up on a pack of Bajoran tarot cards in Lower Decks, and I squealed over that, ngl.)

Thanks for asking! 😘

#asks

[condomatsu]

this isn’t to attack you or anything but i think that hussie has been pretty explicit with kanaya being a lesbian in numerous bouts of commentary. the formspring response definitely could’ve been worded better, but hussie’s response to the question “is kanaya a lesbian” being “i thought that was obvious” followed by an overt over justification on how to conceptualize a troll being gay in a society with zero concept of monosexuality is far from what i’d consider a “horrific statement” that people are just “following blindly” lmfao. id honestly recommend rereading the formspring response and also. idk. talking to lesbians who’ve been latching onto kanaya for well over decade. i digress on people needing to lighten up with rose somewhat, but you should understand that lesbian readings for rose have tons of precedent and are FAR from invalid. hussie themselves called rose a lesbian in the book commentary for “[S] Seer: Descend” which i don’t necessarily think speaks for intent but like. it isn’t like the writing isn’t there. even in canon itself, act 6 especially (which whether people like it or not, is still half of the comic)

i think in general it just reads really weird to imply that people reading two very lesbian coded characters as lesbians is the problem with the current fandom reception for rose and kanaya as opposed to fandoms just being very male orientated and people generally being incapable of investing themselves in the inner lives of female characters. like shipping them with men would suddenly whoosh this problem away lmfao. i honestly think you’re getting mad at the wrong people, fandom is always ship-centric, you as a proshipper should be especially aware of this. and at least with rose i think this is very much a non-issue, in regards to people making plenty of content for her that isn’t just rosemary. idk, i probably didn’t word this as well as i could, but i think in general you should think more about how you talk about lesbians in fandom and lesbian readings, because it verges close to uncomfortably lesbophobic when you try to talk about it like it’s some plague ruining female characters

I think you misinterpreted my ramblings? Or didn't read it all, or I just explained myself very badly.

If Hussie stated they're lesbians and not other sexualities, my apologies, I must have missed it. But that wasn't even the point, so I guess I'll clarify it now.

1. I didn't said that Kanaya being lesbian is 'horrorific', the WORDS Hussie used to describe her sexuality are. I can't believe I have to say this, but homosexuality is NOT a fetish for your same gender, and Hussie used those words to describe Kanaya's homosexuality.

2. I NEVER said that character being lesbian/LGBT+ in general are the problem, nor headcanoning them as such is. WHAT I SAID is that reducing a character to one single characteristic is bad, rosemary was a pretest to talk about this because - as I hope you've read after that - I talk about other female characters and the problem of seeing them as black and white and nothing else.

3. I don't want to accuse you, really, but you give me the serious impression you've read the first paragraphs and not the rest. Like, I've talked about Vrirezi (more or less in the same way I did with rosemary), Nepeta and Feferi too, yet you're focusing only on one part I've clearly used as an incipit and fandom complain. But maybe I'm in the bad mood idk, you can skip this point, I'm sorry for accusing you.

4. I NEVER said that 'pairing Rose/Kanaya with boys will fix them' or whatever bullshit you're saying. I really don't know where it comes from honestly. What I said is that everyone is entitled of their headcanon and that people should chill out if somebody shipped Rose or Kanaya with boys, BUT I've also said that you're entitled to feel uncomfortable about it and not wanting those shippers to interact with you. AND I specified that them being always paired together, posting/reblogging/drawing/etc about them only as a couple and not individual characters is NOT the problem - as I do it myself with a mlm ship I love, it would be hypocrite of me to say something like that.

5. I didn't specify it (my bad), but this is something that affects mlm ships/male characters too. I didn't write it because I don't think it's a problem, why? Because male characters are more viewed as their own person and with more complexity than female characters, both in fandom spaces and, unfortunately, in medias too.

6. Finally, THE problem I was trying to get across is the "black and white" mentality that kills characterization, reducing a character only to one specific thing about them - such as making rosemary "the lesbians" and nothing else, or Feferi "the good progressist troll" or the "bitch who used Eridan", etc (I made other examples but whatever). This IS BAD FOR MALE CHARACTERS TOO, but in a place where female characters struggle to be more than a little point in media, with less characterization then a vacuum cleaner, and are hated on in fandom places simply because they exist and being sexualized/objectified and nothing else, I think we should treat those few female characters that are well written with the same respect we do with male characters. This means seeing them as a whole and not limiting ourself to one part of them.

7. I also said you can not do that! Do whatever the fuck you want lol. BUT don't genuinely reduce them to their (romantic) relationship with others, wether they're girls or boys.

Hope that cleared up! I'm at school rn so I can't do much to respond :") but I'm obviously not homophobic nor against headcanons/canons of whatever type, I'm not stupid :/

EDIT: I'm at home now :D I can say other stuff I wanted before but didn't have time:

8. "Fandom always was about shipping" uuh nope? Fandom is about EVERYTHING fan interact with, create, etc. It's about memes, it's about fanarts, it's about analysis, it's about cosplays, AND shipping (etc). Shipping is a big portion, sure, but let's not pretend it is the whole thing, alright? But if you engage and want to engage only with that part, that's great! I do that too for the most part. Just recognize that's not the only thing present in fandoms and there are many many people who are not interested in it.

9. I can see why people might consider pre-act6 rosemary interaction as romantic, but that's not necessarily that. Many (in the past) never even considered the two to be "potential partners" and there's a reason. And yeah, I wanted to see their interactions more and see their bond deeping before going straight to the WOOP, MARRIED! But that's a canon complain, not really a fandom complain.

10. Yes, there are people incapable to invest themselves in female characters' stories etc, but I feel that's one of the consequences of the huge lack of well written female characters in media and such (but I'm not an expert and I didn't dig in it too much, feel free to correct me if you know more).

11. I'm sorry but "this is not an attack" but then you said I stated lesbophobic opinions, so are you mad?? Sorry??

#homestuck

[grandekofi]

I kind of think the writers might be intentionally misleading everyone about Nancy’s supposedly renewed feeling for Steve (to what end, I don’t know). If you think about, there’s no scene implying that she does. Sure, she clearly finds him physically attractive, but every scene that is about her apparent romantic feelings is from another person’s perspective, most of whom are established as not knowing her well.

The library scene, where Robin thinks she’s jealous, comes right after a scene where Robin says she doesn’t have a “strong grasp of social cue”, and is after Nancy just lost a friend to the Upside Down (again) and is working with someone new. The scene of Eddie telling Steve that she didn’t hesitate is him speaking from his own “cynical” point of view, is literally in the same scene as him stating that he runs from danger, and comes after he is shocked by Nancy’s guns, meanwhile Nancy has had numerous scene of her risking her life for others in similar fashion to her diving in after Steve. The RV scene is after she just saw visions of an apocalyptic future, her family dying and Steve mentions California (where Jonathan is). During the scene of Steve’s confession, she looks guilty for breaking his heart, supportive of him growing up and moving on, but is downright uncomfortable when he mentions her being in his dream (and relieved when Robin interrupts). The only scene that actually has Nancy’s feelings voiced is when she acknowledges that Steve has “grown up quite a bit” (which he has), but it’s Jonathan’s look of worry and slight jealousy that inform the scene’s context. Every other scene is just light flirting (which was established as their dynamic in S1) and sexual tension (whilst is a high stress environment), but there still written more like exes being forced to interact and get along again than a budding romantic reunion.

just wanna say thank you for sending this message! it’s really well put and has been a theory i’ve been lightly sitting on for a bit. i think *some* of my discomfort around steve’s actions is that it does feel very one sided most of the time.

as you mentioned, i think it’s clear nancy is attracted to steve physically. i think some of her sexual yearning comes from the fact she’s been separated from jonathan for a while and they haven’t even been speaking really. tensions were high and steve was there and half naked lmao

and to elaborate on your points further, whilst robin obviously isn’t romantically interested in steve at all, we’ve seen that she immediately had a complex about being compared to nancy wheeler. in her mind all the popular people are infathomable to her - like in her mind nancy is just some priss. during that library conversation robin admittedly doesn’t know nancy or her motivations very well. pair that w her clearly being autistic and obviously not heterosexual i do think it’s mostly conjecture on robin’s part. especially in contrast with her not being able to navigate her stuff with vickie very well - self admittedly unable to determine if she’s into girls or not.

now forgive me this is where my gay eddie tinhat comes into play but i swear i have points!!!! my interpretation of eddie throwing his vest at steve during the fond!stancy eye contact moment is that he was… dare i say jealous. actually i think the parallel between eddie and robin’s interpretations of nancy is super interesting. eddie also has his mind made up that nancy is a priss - which is why the guns take him so off guard. paired with the fact that as you said he feels inferior to nancy’s bravery after he learns she’s not. now pair that with what i think is a kind of obvious crush on steve but also serious self esteem issues (one can argue he feels inferior to both of them) you have his interpretation. he wishes he could dive after people he loves like that so therefore she loves steve. by that same token though robin jumped in right after nancy so either we’re meant to believe ronance is canon (which… please sir can i have some more) orrr it’s clearly a platonic act of love.

now all that makes me doubt the intent of the RV scene is the way the script details it. nancy is supposed to be reciprocally into it. but what’s interesting is that’s not the way natalia played it. like the scene had a visceral awkwardness to it. she was uncomfortable. as she should be. what i’m wondering is if she’s the one who retconned it or if the writers changed how they wanted the scene played. because every time natalia is asked about the love triangle she also looks uncomfortable. i don’t think she likes nancy being reduced to a love interest either. plus she’s a big ronance shipper. but it could ultimately be leading up to the long game of her letting steve down gently as decided for her by the writers idk.

apologies for the essay but i had things to say!!!!!!

edit: i’ve been kindly informed by an anon that the scripts were confirmed fake! so that probably means it was never meant to look reciprocated! so consider that point redacted xx

#anti stancy #steddie #ronance #jancy #steve harrington #robin buckley #nancy wheeler #eddie munson #jonathan byers #stranger things #anon

[yurtletheturtlehenderson]

i just wanna talk to someone abt this because i trust u and ppl on tumblr actually freak me out and scare me so…hear me out. im not at all opposed to byler and im not homophobic bc i dont particularly ship it as much as others. yes i do ship it some amount, but the only thing that worries me is homophobes. being a queer person in a homophobic family is reallt hard and u have to learn to grow with a fear of them hating u. im just afraid of how ppl will take it if byler is canon. again i am not against the ship. that being said i am a girl who simps over will byers and i adore the y/n x will dynamic they have. just wanted to tell someone bc a lot of ppl on this sight would call me homophobic and stuff over this

Aw honey... of course it's okay. And I'm sorry things have been like this. I totally get it. What's not okay is a fandom getting so protective over their ships they make people of afraid of not shipping something enough. (Long but necessary rant ahead. Sorry, but its worth it)

I'm gonna lose a lot of people here, and likely cause they don't want to read to the end to hear all I have to say, but here goes: I don't particularly ship Byler either. When most people hear this statement they immediately equate it with the statement "I don't think Will is gay and neither is Mike" (I feel like this is true for most queer ships, or just shipping culture in general?).... this could not be more wrong. For one, nobody ever immediately knows why someone ships something (and a lot of times, the person themselves don't understand/realize why they subconsciously pick to a specific pairing and cling to it so tightly) and while it's completely understandable to have become defensive, say, because you feel as though your own identity is under attack, it's so easy—natural even—for people to snap into survival mode and try to defend themselves. But as we've seen, this can, in the right circumstances, also feed the pre-existing cycle of offense and defense that is far too long and philosophical a discussion to dive into here and now.

No, for now I wanna just reiterate that just because someone admits to not being particularly hyper-enthused by a specific ship—yes, like Byler—doesn't mean they automatically hate it. I don't particularly campaign for Mileven either! I've been persuaded by both in the past, but I've never found myself at point where I'm making fan accounts surrounding the ship, pumping out content 24/7, and I certainly haven't felt compelled to bash anyone who ships the other. But ya know what? I will say, and I bet im not alone here, the more I encounter Mileven content/space OR Byler content/space, the more I'm driven away. Why? The fucking shipping wars.

Byler and Mileven shippers, hard-core super-shippers specifically speaking, are some of the most toxic fans I've ever encountered. Is it every one? No!! But most. Most. The most extreme ive heard/seen is horrific. I'm talking death threats, suicide baiting, doxing, constant harassment and just overall borderline cyberterrorism. It's fucking unacceptable. And the underlying theme here and why there's so much fear spreading throughout fandom spaces. Why someone felt the need to limit contact and come to someone they claimed to trust to anonymously admit they aren't frothing at the mouth for one of these aforementioned ships. (Thank u btw for feeling u could trust me) This is not okay!!! People have to see how wrong this is!!! Right?? Right?!

I have no idea how much people will respect all this considering the source: a 21 year old reader insert writer who dedicates most of her time to writing teenagers into the plot of stranger things with Will Byers as their love interest (yes, specifically fem presenting/ she/her pronoun users). So no, I wouldn't blame anyone for hearing me say the words "I'm not a big byler shipper" and assume it has anything to do with that. But I'd hope that anyone who knows me, or is at least willing to hear me out, will understand that I have stated many times (and likely will again cause im a ✨️repetitive bitch✨️) that when I was a teenager, I was going through the absolute worst years of my life. Like, it warmed me up the for 2020s, that's how bad it was for me. And the only thing that got me through (likely without falling into what I believe would have become some incredibly dangerous habits) was falling into a world I could completely disappear into and forget my own shitty world existed.

I found this series called The Maze Runner, fell absolutely in love with the books and the world and bought every copy I could get my hands on. And when that wasn't enough, I looked for every blogspace I could get my hands on. Enter tumblr. Not even five minutes into my new account and searching the maze runner tag do I find a short little story called an "x reader". I literally cried. I was so fucking alone cause, and I'll tell yall, in the span of 15 months, I put down my dog of 11 years, lost my great-grandmother, then my grandpa, then my great grandfather, and then my grandmother. I had reason to believe I would suddenly lose my best friend to depression, and then to top it off my parents got divorced. Granted things have definitely gotten brighter, but little 14 year old me was no where near a healthy state of mind, or body and stumbling across something that not only let me disappear from my collapsing world, but surrounded me in love and encouragement, no matter how corny or silly, by the characters I had fallen in love with was an indescribable experience. This. This is precisely why i write. If theres even a chance i can provide that for you, and God, in the 2020s of all time to be a teenager, than i want to. I want to pay it forward.

That being said, I'd also hope one would understand while things were on the mend, I wasn't fully recovered by the time stranger things came out and i decided to write for it. The grief and trauma was one thing but, another thing you guys might know about me if you've been following me for a while is in the past, I've struggled severely—and still do a great deal—with compulsory heterosexuality. And honestly, a little internalized homophobia I think. It's stuff I work on daily, and it's stuff, I'd be willing to bet, a lot more people deal with than you'd expect. It's for this reason, that I suspect hilariously enough, me a deeply closeted lesbian while planning an x (at the time fem!)reader rewrite for younger kids to escape into, was faced with the choice of a love interest and subconsciously chose one of the only semi-canonically gay male characters available. Yes, essentially, in my own comphet riddled brain, I subconsciously gave both the (fem)reader and Will Byers my own comphet.

But guess what? Characters evolve as the story evolves and that rings true for COSMIC. I wish I had stories back then that casually explored sexuality outside the confines of cisgender heterosexuality in a safe, fun, encouraging way. I also wish I had stories that led you down one story with one character only and suck you in only to change and evolve if needed to say, an opposite sex or nonbinary character as the new love interest and being able to do so cause the love interest was never THE PLOT in the first place. It certainly would have helped speed things along I think, and even if I wasn't its healthy to try things out/consider before saying, ya know I think this still feels right, I'm good! And that's okay!

I deeply deeply appreciate anyone who read this far. I completely understand how much i tend to blather and granted i didnt plan on going into the specifics of my childhood trauma but i felt it necessary info as to why on earth im preaching gay Will while i currently have a Will x fem!reader on my page (Again, dont worry. Im not about to disrespect/erase anything likely to come in s4, nor have is this is a sudden thing in COSMIC) and seemingly shitting on ships. Again, it's the over intense shippers, not the ships themselves and overall lack of byler content that failed to get my attention.

In conclusion, yes, I don't particularly ship Byler much like you dear nonnie, but anyone who automatically thinks that statement makes us homophobic really needs to take a step back and perhaps consider taking a break from public fandom space. If you as a byler OR mileven shipper feel confronted at every corner to a point you're jumping down others throats, you need to take a break from the internet. Draw your ship, write some fanfic if you still want to engage in fandom activities offline but take a break from the internet and prowling for any throat to jump down.

Blech. Rant over. I kinda accidentally combined it with the pre season 4 premiere disclaimer for Cosmic and how and why I have a will x reader with a fem reader copy and how that's going to be affected by s4 so that's prob why it's so long but I don't regret it. The point is, this is and always will be a safe space for fandom enjoyment and just hanging out and the last thing I want here is someone to be feel afraid or threatened in any way. I love you all so much and wish nothing but amazing things for you all. And thank you again, dear nonnie, for trusting me. It means a lot.

💕💕💕 - Yurtle

#yurtle answers #yurtle rambles #i need to start calling it yurtle monologues #yurtle monologues #lovely anon #byler #mileven #sick of shipping wars

[thegirlwhowrites642]

I’m going to keep this post Anon because of the amount of hate I got previously. I use to write fanfics but because I didn’t pair the following: Wolfstar, Drarry, Linny, Jegulus, Scorbus, and Snarry I’m apparently homophonic. Even though none of those ships are canon and I stated I like canon pairings on my page. I stopped writing for almost over a year and a half now because when I defended myself I got more and more hate and negative comments. I did have representation of LGBQT in my stories but because I’m not pairing the above I’m labeled as a homophobe. If I made a gay character straight for example Dumbledore, yes they could call me a homophobe, but I didn’t. This one reviewer said it was ok to turn straight people gay and but it wasn’t ok to turn gay people straight (which I never did in my stories), and I should have at least 40-50% of LGBQT representation in my story. I just got frustrated because there was no winning with these guys so I deleted all my stories for good. Honestly, fandom and TikTok has ruined HP for me.

I'm so sorry this happened to you. This is absolutely awful and honestly, the way the people who claim to care about the issues of the LGBTQ+ community in this fandom just carelessly throw around such accusations is disgusting and detrimental to the cause they preach to defend.

Writing straight characters as straight definitely doesn't make you a homophobe.

It's also interesting that, apparently, it's so important for these people to write no-sense against canon pairings just because they are homosexual that it's better than writing about healthy relationships. And let's remember how a great part of these pairings comes with the bashing of female characters. But as usual, misogyny is the last thing people care about.

I personally headcanon Albus as gay because I think it's hilarious that the only child of Harry and Ginny that is named after a Slytherin and a gay man is the one everybody decided is in Slytherin and gay. But I don't ship him with Scorpius. And you are not obliged to write Albus as a Slytherin or gay.

The only thing you need to worry about is if the character who is offering the point of view for the story knows about the sexualities of an enough large number of characters that it would be unrealistic to not have a certain percentage of characters who belong to the LGBTQ+ community (which is definitely not the 40%). Honestly, even in the original series, the only characters Harry had any business knowing the sexuality of are himself, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. It's not unrealistic for four characters to be straight. There certainly wasn't an agenda on the author's part about having that kind of representation in her story (and the social and historical context in which the books were published should be taken into consideration here) but there's nothing unrealistic about the lack of openly gay characters (I do still think she could've hinted at the Dumbledore/Grindelwald business in DH).

And mind you, I say this as someone who once wrote a book where the main character was the only straight person in her family.

Personally, I am a firm believer in buying, reading and discussing books that have actual representation instead of trying to change already well-established characters, because you are always going to mess up. Case in point: Tonks is a surrogate for Remus and Sirius, because apparently, Teddy Lupin needs to exist, even without his mother.

The majority of the books I read don't have romance, they are mostly obscure pieces of Scandinavian crime literature, but in the series Red Queen my favourite character is bisexual and my favourite ship is an f|f one (and the bisexual character is not part of the ship just to clarify). And all that stuff is canon. Because I've actually read other things besides Harry Potter in my life.

I'm really sorry about what happened to you. I hope you keep writing, because it's a beautiful, even if at times frustrating, art. Regardless of if that writing is original or fanfiction. Regardless of if you'll go back to publishing it or you'll keep it to yourself. That book I was talking to you about? It took me six years to write it, I'm the only one who has ever read it but I had the best time writing it and it was a beloved companion throughout most of my teenagehood.

[matan4il]

OK I hope this makes sense because I feel like some of my thoughts have been a little crystallized and I'm hoping for your opinion since your actually queer and very insightful.

So I know some fans pine for the days of the early promotion of Buddie when Stark and Guzman did goofy things together and even attended award shows. I get it and I missed it a little too. But I always felt like when the show settled on this was a true love scenario they scaled back on it for reasons of not making it silly or meme worthy.

Then all the interviews for My Policeman came out and Dawson and Styles addressing their approach to love scenes and their friendship and how they handle it now. They speak of it rather beautifully and they want you to see it that way. But also address their roles as actors friends, the promise to always smile and hug forever.

And that brought me back to Brokeback Mountain and Jake and Heath were protective of their roles. Even Jake later coming out and saying that Heath refused to be and Oscar skit because he didn't want it to be a "gay joke". He just wanted people to see the love.

So again it brought back to why in my head the change in the promotion changed and this really was what I was thinking. If they make Buddie Canon I don't think they ever want it to be funny or like a meme you know. I'm not implying either are deep in the closet characters but they are definitely different then say TK and Carlos. Especially TK who's main struggles aren't his sexuality, it's his internal trauma. Or that they are even the same as Henren.

Especially coupled with the fact that both Oliver and Ryan are very masculine men you know. They are friends. I feel like they want it to be respected.

Also off topic Didn't you also post some lovely gifs of was it Russian WW2 military queer movie? I never watched the show but I remember looking them up after you posted them. What was it called?

I probably sound a little caffeine induced but hopefully some of my point made sense.

Hi wonderful Nonnie!

Thank you so much for this lovely ask! And if it’s okay, I’ll start by addressing Firebird, the Russian queer film for which I posted the gifset you mentioned here. I am SO happy you liked the set (the original post has a link to the movie’s homepage, BTW), and you should def watch the film! It’s visually stunning, the love story is very moving IMO and the thing that got to me the most is that it’s a real story. It’s not WWII, but the 1970′s, the height of the communist regime. As someone whose family suffered under the communists after the end of the Nazis and Fascists’ era, I have to admit that speaks to me. My great uncle wrote a book about what it was like for my family, being Jews under the communists, when the individual was considered the property of the state, so it could do with him or her as it wishes, and when anyone could report you to the party with real or made up accusations that were always taken at face value. Add antisemitism, homophobia or any other type of bigotry to that type of society, and you can understand why a gay love story during that time is especially poignant. One of the two men whose romance is depicted was involved in the making of the film, because he wanted their story known. Here’s just the first gif from that set:

As for promotion, I have no doubt that Ryan and Oliver would not want Buddie taken as a joke. Both of these men are, like the other actors you mentioned, very protective of their characters and clearly understand them in depth. They’ve also both spoken up in favor of Buddie, so should our ship go canon, undoubtedly they’d want it to be treated with respect. IDK if that’s the only reason why the promotion has been shaped as it has been. There’s also been drama that I think in general made Ryan for a long while there wanna do PR a lot less. But I have no doubt that if and when Buddie go canon, they will talk about it, and will do so with the utmost love for this pairing and their family unit. I think they all know what Buddie would mean to queer viewers, like when you look at that supportive vid JLH sent for a same sex couple who are Buddie fans. Hell, even Gavin, who plays Chris, has been asked about Buddifer becoming a family, and he said he would love that. We have never seen them treating the idea of Buddie with anything other than respect and positivity, and if that’s the case before our boys have even gone canon...

I hope I managed to answer the question! I’m so grateful for your kind words and for your interest in my perspective. Have a beautiful day, lovely! xoxox

(and as always, if anyone’s looking for it, here is my ask tag! xoxox)

#buddie #911meta #buddie meta #911 meta #9-1-1 #evan buckley #eddie diaz #edmundo diaz #evan buck buckley #christopher diaz #firebird #pride #mm #ask #anon ask #fandom love #911onabc #911 on abc #911abc #911 abc