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storm-and-starlight · 4 months

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Rodimus and ADHD

I'm gonna start this out by saying that Rodimus having ADHD is something that's been pretty fundamental to my understanding of the character since I first read MTMTE/Lost Light (seriously, I can point you to the exact panel when I went "oh okay this is Canon to me now") but also that I've almost never seen a portrayal that really vibes with how I interpret it? A lot of the fics and fanon I've come across tend to take a fairly... typical view on and portrayal of ADHD where the things that are focused on are hyperactivity and task/responsibility/boredom avoidance, and to me that's not... it's not the, like, the fundamentals of how I read Rodimus and ADHD? It's not the main issues that affect who he is and how he interacts with the world -- those would instead be the impulsivity and the... idk how to phrase it, the "ADHD trauma"? It's really distinct and I'll get to it later.

The impulsivity is fairly easy to get to, and fairly obvious -- the best representation of how it manifests in Rodimus specifically is in the initial description of the Rodpod, where someone (I can't quite tell who from the panel) says "you know what he's like: he obsesses over something, then gets bored" and then it's revealed that Rodimus presumably commissioned an entire ship built in the shape of his own head. That's really what I see as the main ADHD symptom -- the mix of obsession and impulsivity. We see it when he gets everyone to go on the quest, we see it when he tries to chop off his own arm because he thinks it might stop the future from happening, we see it in his plan to stop the sparkeater -- it's basically how he responds to every problem he's presented with, and often significantly more than that, and that kind of impulsivity is very much a noted feature of ADHD. (Being briefly but intensely obsessed with something before losing interest and dropping it is also a really big ADHD thing -- just look at the cycle of hyperfixations that's so common in fandom).

(Also, when combined with his ego, recklessness, and carelessness, you get basically the entire negative side of his personality out of this, which is why I consider it so fundamental to his character -- significantly more so than, say, task avoidance.) (though recklessness, and carelessness are also fairly common with ADHD -- it's related to impulsivity in general.)

The "ADHD trauma" thing is a little trickier to explain: it's basically how I describe the constant awareness that you have screwed the hell up in the past when it's important and you are going to screw the hell up in the future when it's important and hating the fact that it happens and yet also being completely and fundamentally aware that it's something you can never, ever change about yourself no matter how hard you try (because you have tried, in the past, and it has never worked even a little bit). Like, hello, that basically describes my entire childhood and also the lives of most of my friends who also have ADHD. The panel that convinced me that he does have ADHD is the one that basically explicitly describes this, in Lost Light where he and Drift are talking after they return from the Functionist Universe and Rodimus says "Oh, I know what I'm like. That's the trouble. I know exactly what I'm like -- I just can't stop myself," because, like. that's it. that's the experience in a nutshell.

And like, I'm not saying that this is super severe -- he definitely has more self-confidence than is often warranted, but he also does have a lot of self-esteem issues, and I think this is really the root of them: failing, over and over, until you reach the point where you start thinking that it's bound to happen someday and that everyone will hate you for it forever. That's a super common experience with the kind of disability that ADHD is, especially if you don't know you have it in the first place, and that combined with all the smaller traits (the impulsivity, the hyperfixation, and yes even the task/responsibility/boredom avoidance) is what really convinced me that he is an ADHD character.

#transformers #transformers meta #maccadam #rodimus #rodimus prime #rodimus and ADHD #obligatory internet disclaimer that this is my own personal interpretation of canon and you are allowed to disagree with it etc. etc.

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unpretty · 1 year

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i think what's so annoying about au-ification in fic is that it feels like a fundamental disconnect in how people define a character and Who They Are, and in some fandoms it's more normal to strip away everything that has ever happened to the character, particularly their traumas. i don't even Go Here wrt to spn, (and when i do, it's for wincest lol), but even i know that the whole Thing is that castiel gripped dean tight and raised him from perdition - the power dynamic and the salvation are THE WHOLE THING

yeah i'm getting a lot of notes on that post from people who have clearly never had the experience of reading an au fic an it's just. that's a different person. he seems nice but i have no idea who this man is. there is no conversation with the canon happening here. this is not a "galaxy quest is about star trek" situation. this is a "you are trying to tell me that 50 first dates is about lord of the rings" situation. this is a "if you hadn't told me in the tags i would have no idea this had any relation to the original work at all whatsoever and i'm still not convinced" situation.

i mean i am fanfic positive (obviously) and au positive (obviously) but i think if you see a character and you think to yourself, "wow, i love this guy! he's awful! he's like if someone made a gijinka of the concept of toxic masculinity and that's fascinating! i want to read fic about this guy!" and then you go to ao3 and you sort by kudos and the most popular fic is a 100 chapter beast that's like "what if he had no toxic masculinity at all and handled his trauma by being a perfect victim" that kind of sucks. it's not just that the author could have just changed his name and made it an original work. it's also that the reader has been sold a false bill of goods. "getting people to read fanfic is easier" is actually rude as fuck if what you're writing is fundamentally a different work about an original character. i appreciate authors who recognize this and publish original works with suspicious similarities to popular ships, good for them and also for the rest of us.

#original #ficblogging #also galaxy quest is a great example of how a work can be made better by having just the right amount of distance from the thing it's about #we all know galaxy quest is about star trek but spock's not in it so no one has to get mad about them fucking up spock #you know what i mean?

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youdontneedhenry · 2 months

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It's been a whirlwind day for fans of this show, and it's clearly been a better day for some more than others. I do want to acknowledge that I see and hear and understand the disappointment fans are experiencing.

I would like to speak to my own feelings, which are ones of excitement and cautious optimism because the parts of the show I enjoy the most are still intact for Season 5. I am really excited to see where this show goes. I'll put the rest below the fold so as to be respectful to the variety of emotions.

I enjoyed the episodes that didn't feature the Duke for a variety of reasons. He often talked down to Eliza, or tried to knock bring her down in a variety of ways, and so he seemed to be fundamentally incompatible for her. By the end of season 3, I started to wonder how they could course correct to make William/Eliza believable and work for me. I just couldn't see it because I didn't like how the core issue with Eliza's ambition. That's not something I could get behind.

My favorite parts of the show were always Eliza working with partners who respected her- partners like Nash and Moses. I really missed Moses in Season 4, and one thing I hope we see more of is the diversity of Victorian London that we got to see in earlier seasons.

Look, I am obviously a hardcore #ScarNash shipper. I have loved the character of Patrick Nash since his introduction in season 2. The romantic possibility was there in season 2, and then by episode 3 of season 3 (Hotel St Marc), the chemistry was rather distracting! I liked how he respected her talents and enjoyed having her take the lead.

By the end of Season 4, it was clear to me that Patrick Nash and Eliza Scarlet made the most sense. They were equals, and he recognized her talent from the beginning. Eliza's character seemed to have more growth through her interactions with Nash while her relationship with William had grown stale. The flashback episode really solidified that for me- they hadn't changed in personality in a decade, why would they ever? I forgot to mention the constant mirroring of WIlliam/Eliza romance with Patrick/Eliza's relationship. Talking about wanting to receive a present in a bow with a box to William and then having Nash give her exactly that in an area she wanted- a boost to her career. The way Nash always wanted her to work for him when William only reluctantly hired her. The way Nash acted in the entire Jewel of the North episode, including being there for Eliza when her office was trashed. And that's not even Season 4 where Eliza flat out says he's the only person who's ever had any faith in her!

I know what the writers have said about platonic relationships. And a Season 5 renewal with no Duke doesn't mean we automatically get ScarNash. But a girl can dream. They writers are SO lucky to have these actors with this amount of chemistry and a relationship that has developed over THREE seasons. There's been a satisfying arc with Patrick and Eliza. Rivals to friends to lovers would be satisfying. We've watched them grow individually and together. It would make sense.

My wishlist for season 5 certainly includes: a female friend for Eliza that isn't Ivy, for Moses to come back (I know this is not happening lol) and for ScarNash to be canon. I think it would be incredible, and I hope others can come around.

As a side note, it's been absolutely delightful to share this news with ScarNash fans and to find NEW people who have quietly shipped ScarNash. I sometimes felt like there were only a few of us, but truly there's so many people that love the idea of them. So while I think it's not at all guaranteed that it'll be canon, I certainly continue to hope this has opened the door to it. We'll wait and see! I'm looking forward to the new season with more excitement than I've had for any piece of media in awhile.

#miss scarlet pbs #miss scarlet and the duke #scarnash #patrick nash #eliza scarlet #that's progress real progress

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khruschevshoe · 3 months

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You know I'm starting to realize that my basis for my favorite Doctor Who pairings is people who change/affect each other on a fundamental level, character arcs entwined with each other's in some rather impossible (and often in both hopeful and tragic ways) and that's why although I like TenRose well enough, I ADORE NineRose (and NineRoseJack, under the same parameters). I will ship some version of TenMartha forever. TwelveMissy is my beloved. Even ElevenAmyRory functions somewhat under that same umbrella.

The trick is just that the change has to go both ways, so ElevenRiver and Thasmin (though both have their merits) just never vibed for me PERSONALLY.* River and Yaz were both changed on a fundamental level by their Doctors, but their Doctors didn't always seem to be changed fundamentally in return. Like, clearly, canonically, Eleven and Thirteen both loved River and Yaz respectively, but their character arcs and growth and/or devolution at characters were not inextricably linked by other's influence on their life.

*This is an extremely subjective opinion. Not trying to start any flame wars. Just my take on things.

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kitkatopinions · 8 months

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Quick note, I don't know the person who made these tweets or what the "THIS is what they do" is referencing, I'm only using this as a jumping off point to talk about what seems to be a pretty regular repeated opinion among people who hate rwby criticism and rwde posters.

First things first, it needs to be clarified that the "don't call it a rewrite or a fix-it fic, only call it a fan AU" is in my opinion very ridiculous and also fundamentally misunderstands the differences between AUs, rewrites, and fix-it fics.

Fix-it fic: These fics are made in an attempt to fix something the writer did not like in the original project. They write things in a way they think is better than the original, or they write a thing that they didn't do in the original but the fic writer thinks is better than what was in the official content. There are pretty high expectations on fix-it fics for good reason, as the writer obviously is setting out to fix things. So for instance if somebody makes a rwby fix-it fic, I kind of expect them to do things like improve queer rep in rwby or improve world building in rwby and so on.

Rewrite: The writer is fundamentally changing things from the original, but a rewrite is not automatically a fix-it fic because people aren't always trying to fix anything. A fix-it is always a rewrite, but a rewrite isn't always a fix-it. Because in a rewrite, the writer could just be doing things that they think are interesting concepts, for fun, and not out of a desire to improve the official content. There are still expectations on rewrites to follow at least some element of story with format and all that, but there's less pressure to *be better than the original* because that's not automatically a part of writing a rewrite.

AU: A term for 'alternate universe,' this just means that the fic is not going to follow canon, there might be alterations as big as all the characters going to a regular high school in our world in modern times, to an AU where Pyrrha lives instead of Jaune. All fix-its and rewrites are technically 'alternate universes,' but AUs are even more relaxed and for fun than rewrites. So they're even less bound by any sort of expectations. There doesn't have to be any sort of formatting or anything for just an AU. If someone writes a romance based AU where Yang gets partnered up with Pyrrha and the two of them start a relationship, there doesn't need to be any fall of beacon, quest for the Relics, Salem doesn't even need to ever come up...

Not properly tagging a fix-it fic as a fix-it fic because some RWBY fans get angry whenever someone they don't know dares to think they can improve on the story of a bunch of other people they don't know... Doesn't actually do anything helpful. The fact that people have this 'you have to show only the upmost respect to the RWBY writers!' Why? Especially when Miles Luna specifically has a history of misogyny, biphobia, and said the n word as a twenty six year old. Why should I or anyone else be required to 'respect' a man who slutshamed the character of Tifa Lockhart by derogatorily calling her a prostitute because of what she was wearing and then lied about it when he got called out? It's a ridiculous expectation that really reads as massive insecurity on the side of anti-rwde posters.

So before even getting into the pieces of advice in the messages here, I just want to say that most of them do not matter in a rewrite or an AU. "This is my AU where Roman lived after the Fall of Beacon" is not immoral or wrong in any way. "This is my RWBY rewrite where I explore the ships I like rather than only the canon ships" like bro, who the hell does that hurt? So on and so forth. AUs and rewrites are just fans exploring fun ideas they like, it doesn't mean they actually wish the thing they're writing actually happened. For instance, I have plans for a fix-it RWBY fic where I try to mostly stick to the choices made in the original content and just do it in a better way (because I don't feel obligated to consider Miles "video games for your girlfriend" Luna better than me and stay in my demure place where I couldn't possibly improve upon a hot mess of a thrown together show.) But I also wrote a long fun non-published AU fic with my sister where we did this whole redeeming Torchwick, Mercury, Emerald, and Neo thing. AUs and rewrites should not be held to strict rules everyone needs to follow about who they are and aren't allowed to like or redeem. That's just killing creativity in fandom spaces.

But, now to get into these rules in practice of writing an actual fix-it fic (which again should actually be called a fix-it fic,) because a lot of these suggestions are actually good ideas... But A. Not all of them are, and B. I would bet good money that even the ones that are phrased well are used to baselessly attack people who aren't even doing the thing, and C. The actual original content of RWBY itself goes against these rules, but the same people that would pick apart a fanfic actively get angry when people dare criticize rwby.

So let's get into it.

Try to focus on the female protagonists

This is great advice for fix-it fics, and something that often puts me off of fix-it fics I've seen when they don't do this. 'Fix-it fics' that make men the protagonists or spend a lot more time focused on the men in RWBY than the women in rwby, it carries the implication that the person writing the fix-it fics thinks the there should be less focus on the women in rwby. However, this will also result in some anti-rwde posters who will see fix-it fics that do put a lot of focus on the female protagonists and have them be the protagonists and expand on their character and role but then also do things like have a chapter focused on fleshing out the character of Oscar and the anti-rwde poster will flip their lid about it. Also, this

Do not have a straight white male shame them for their actions

I'm assuming this part is focused on characters like Ironwood (arguably not white considering he was based in appearance of his Asian voice actor,) Ozpin (because despite the fact that most of the Oz reincarnations aren't white, Ozpin was,) Qrow (granted, very white, but is also one of the most coded as queer main characters,) and probably Adam. However, this ignores a couple of things, which is that if people are keeping to canon characters, Qrow, Ozpin, and Ironwood have all at times been mentors in canon - and also Ooblek and Port. It is generally a good idea to be careful when you DO write the main RWBY characters to mess up and get scolded especially if they're being scolded by white men, but the idea that you can't make the canonical mentors ever tell the RWBY girls they might be wrong is a strange one. Also it's worth noting that if you try to make RWBY more diverse by making some of these 'straight white males' into queer men or people of color, people are probably just gonna be more angry at you and still forbid you from ever having them say anything against the main girls. Also it's worth noting that RWBY canonically specifically had a scene where the white old man Peter Port who sexualized Yang got to tell off Weiss for being spoiled and entitled. So like... Maybe that should be criticized.

Do not make a cis white male have more of a role than them.

This is basically the exact same thing as the first point, which we'll see again. This list of suggestions has a couple different repeats.

No straightwashing

Another actually good suggestion, for the exact same reason as point one. Yang and Blake should stay queer, it's a very good idea to keep Jaune's sisters in mind (and maybe increase their role,) and May Marigold should of course stay a trans woman (and maybe get her role increased too!) However, it's worth noting that a lot of people consider it 'straightwashing' to have the bisexual Blake or the 'has expressed attraction towards men in like episode three' Yang ever be in relationships with men, and that's not straightwashing. It's biphobia to call a wlm bi ship straightwashing.

And NO fanservice

Now, look, "fanservice" to me has certain connotations of objectifying women, so I one hundred percent get this suggestion and think people should be very careful to make very sure they're not drifting into objectifying in their fix-it fics. However, I know how this fandom can get in regards to even young women so much as writing the now currently nineteen year olds to make out, so just to clarify. Even if it might feel like it sometimes, not everything romantic or sexual regarding the rwby main protagonists is inherently objectifying. Again btw, I want to clarify I'm not defending any specific current fix-it fic, just reflecting.

Don't make evil men "morally gray"

And we've come to the 'this is definitely about Ironwood and Adam and possibly Ozpin" thing. Here's the thing: There are problems with how the RWBY writers handled all three of these characters, and it's not immoral for anyone to make a 'fix-it fic' where they explore any of these characters as not evil especially considering that RWBY is meant to be a hopeful story, so making less characters plain straight evil is a perfectly reasonable thing. It's also worth noting that the actual show of RWBY made Hazel get redeemed as if he wasn't evil and treated him as at least partially in the right, while not having him truly apologize for the heinous actions he's done.

Also keep bumbleby canon

For fix it fics, this is a good recommendation because you can fix any problems you have with bumbleby. But also it's fine to not think bumbleby specifically should've been canon (though it's something I think could've actually been done well,) and going with something else. So long as you do include good other queer representation in your fix-it, not going with bumbleby shouldn't be viewed as an automatically horrible thing. You can make a fix-it fic where you put Yang with Weiss and Blake with Ilia or something. It's very silly to act like Blake and Yang being together should be a necessity. Again, there should one hundred percent be other queer main characters in your fix-it fic if you decide not to go with bumbleby.

Don't have Jaune or Adam date anyone in Team RWBY

...This is also something I think is a generally good idea tbh, and I don't have much else to say about it. In fact, adding a romance element to Adam and Blake's relationship actively hurt the show imo. Having Jaune date a member of Team RWBY can be done, but generally speaking I do feel like people should just avoid that, especially if the character is Weiss. But again I should point out that in the actual show of RWBY, they've made Weiss openly attracted to Jaune in season 9 while they had aged Jaune up a good twenty years, so... Yeah.

Ruby is to be idealistic, and it shouldn't be a character flaw

This is an interesting one, because I mostly believe in this. Ruby's being idealistic is something about her character I actually enjoy, and I also think that in a good show her beliefs would be challenged, and she would come out of it stronger, still with her hopefulness and her ideals but also willing to be smarter and more careful. And in a good show, there would be good characters who might have a different outlook that isn't villainized. So while I don't think that Ruby's idealism should be treated like a flaw, I do think her beliefs should be challenged and not treated as the only good and moral thing (and something tells me the people that complain about fix-it fics might consider that the same thing as 'treating it like a flaw.')

Yang is not a party girl, not an alcoholic, and not a slacker

So, the alcoholic thing is so specific that it makes me think this was specifically directed at one fix-it fic. But as for the other two. On the note of 'Yang is not a slacker' I would argue that in the early episodes, she wasn't actually shown to care about her studies much, but that the early episodes kind of rush through 'team RWBY finding their footing,' so in rewrites giving Yang an early character flaw of being a slacker... What's the issue with that? I'm genuinely confused with that one. Is it not in her early character of being an energized, fun loving girl? I don't get it. Now for the party girl thing... I'm also confused about that, because - and correct me if I'm wrong - didn't Monty Oum make 'party girl' like part of Yang's early characterization? When he was concepting her? And there was a whole thing in volume 2 where Yang and Weiss are planning a party and she's like bringing in loudspeakers and wants a fog machine, should we not think that means that she likes to party? Her whole first appearance in the Yellow trailer was specifically set in a club to get across the vibes they wanted for Yang. Yang goes to a club in volume 7 and is specifically talking about dancing at the club and the loud music at the club. Also my sister found this for me from the back of a V1 DVD.

They literally call Yang a party girl themselves! Do people just think there's something immoral about clubs and party girls and therefore don't want Yang to be one? Because that doesn't sound good, it sounds judgmental.

Jaune is a side character

This is advice that is very much not in line with canon. Jaune is at the very least a deuteragonist in canon and is often very much so treated as a main character, sometimes out stripping some of the main girls in terms of lines or screentime in a volume. I do think that fix-it fics ought to either reduce his role or increase the roles of the main characters, again to give more focus to the title characters in Team RWBY. However, it's just ridiculous to me to complain about Jaune's prominence in RWBY fix-it fics because I'm just like... Look at the main show! Complain about how much importance is put on Jaune in the show!

Adam Taurus is irredeemably evil So is Torchwick

I am certain that this is about one specific fix-it fic that some anti-rwdes make it part of their core rwby beliefs to hate, because most people only actually put Torchwick in the same category as characters like Adam and Ironwood in the 'you're not allowed to like and/or redeem them' category when they're talking about one specific fix-it fic. XD But just because other people do not like these two doesn't mean it's ILLEGAL to like and/or redeem them! In my opinion, there is no such thing as a person who is completely irredeemable! And in a hopeful show, wanting to redeem villains - especially villains who have been horrifically branded in racist acts - is not a bad thing??? This is your reminder that these are not real people who actually did bad things in real life, they're fictional characters, they're tools to be used to tell stories. This is basically just the "don't make evil men 'morally gray'" thing again but like, extra specific. Yes, Adam and Torchwick in the canon of RWBY are horrible evil people. But they're fictional people, you shouldn't villainize people for wanting them to be better and writing them to be better in a fix-it fic of a show that's meant to be fundamentally about hope. There's nothing hopeful about 'some people are irredeemable,' but 'even bad people can change and get better' is a really hopeful sentiment.

Once again, none of these expectations should exist for just 'rewrites and AUs' and are only applicable to actual fix-it fics, and some of them are just so pointless. It's literally just enforced fandom rules, and fandom rules kill creativity imo, there shouldn't be characters that people are forbidden from redeeming or just shouldn't ever make morally gray, or ships that are absolutely required that must be done. Even in fix-it fics! One person shouldn't expect everyone else in the fandom to fit with what they or what the writers want. Yes, there are things that I think should generally be done in fix-it fics like focusing on the main girls and keeping to the general outline of what happens in the canon series, but some people act like fix-it fics should really just unquestioningly copy paste the original work and call it good, and that's ridiculous.

Two more things to note:

Sometimes when people are trying to make a fix-it project, it can snowball into more of a rewrite. If they decide to start inserting characters just because they like it, or branch off into random tangents just because they find it interesting, or so on. So even in fix-it fics I think there should be allowances made and people need to understand that not every single thing in even a fix-it fic is something that the writers sincerely think should've happened in the actual canon of RWBY. I can't tell you the amount of times my sister and I have sat down to make a fanfic (we never publish btw) that was supposed to be 'a fix it for volume six onwards' or 'a fix it of volume seven' or something and wound up completely spiraling into a separate thing, and then we wind up being like 'okay but we really should write an actual fix-it sometime.' If you're publishing while you write, or posting your fix-it online as you go, you can't just be like 'guess this sorta became more of a rewrite than a fix it lol' if your fic is already titled as a fix-it. So I'm just saying, it's worth it to expand a little understanding that sometimes people making fan projects for their own enjoyment aren't always going to be hypervigilant to not let a little bit of personal bias and personal enjoyment leak into their choices.

Next thing to note: We should be holding RWBY to a much higher standard than any fan project. RWBY is a product that people are trying to sell us that's making an actual company money, it's the actual product itself, with a team of writers and their job is quite literally to make the story of RWBY good. Fics and fan projects are things people do as a hobby, that they're not getting paid for and therefore aren't selling to anyone. It's wild to me that some people will let RWBY the actual show get away with anything and actively try to stop people from criticizing it and then go around reading fanfictions nobody made them read so they can insult the people that make them over every little perceived injustice. If you're going to get angry at a fanfiction writer for including a little too much Uncle Qrow in their fix-it fic, please ask yourself why Jaune is such a prominent character in RWBY the actual show and why it doesn't bother you then. If you're going to get angry that a fix-it fic writer has Ozpin criticize the main girl protagonists, please go back and rewatch Jaune as a forty-something year old scream in Ruby's face that she's responsible for all bad things while she's crying, and get just as angry at the show writers as you would get at a fan if they did the same thing in their fic.

Anyway, this post was super duper long, but.... I'm done with it now.

#rwde #On fix-its and rewrites and AUs #like guys seriously please leave fanfic writers alone #they're just trying to have some fun most of the time #I paused my baffy watching to write this post #for like several hours

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rey-jake-therapist · 3 months

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Elementary fandom vs other fandoms

A while ago I posted about Elementary after I watched a couple of episodes to say I didn't like it. I was just fresh out of watching the four seasons of the BBC Sherlock and it just didn't feel right, I didn't like it at all.

Finally, because I was too lazy to look for another show to watch, I kept watching and now, I'm at season 7 😅 Did my mind fundamentally change? Honestly, no. BBC Sherlock will always be superior to me, I don't care it's trendy to hate it now. I do like Elementary now, though. Sherlock and Joan (well especially Joan) have grown on me. I still think Elementary lacks originality, I find the structure of the episodes too rigid, there are way too many episodes, things in the global story I really don't like. The copaganda for example, urgh... There's a lot of screen time dedicated to the cops and how good and honest and united they are. There are some bad apples but we're really supposed to believe that they're *rare*.... And I love Marcus Bell and Captain Gregson but they're so smart you even wonder why they need Sherlock in the first place 😂 But there are things I really love too: Joan being more than a sidekick to Sherlock is one of them. She has agency, he trains her, respects her.... I must say, it's pleasant to see. Also I love seeing Sherlock being a mentor. That's what he should be, really...

Another thing this show did for me was to convince me to read the ACD canon books. I read a couple of them when I was a teen but I was more a Hector Poirot girlie - EDIT: damn autocorrect! his name's Hercule of course). I know for a fact that Elementary Sherlock is closer to the book that BBC Sherlock, and the show makes multiple references to the ACD canon but I'm unable to identify most of them, which probably influences my reaction to the show. I need to read the books and watch the show again :)

So, it's a fine detective show, a feel good show as well because the morals is always good, characters given a second chance when they mess up, bad guys punished as they should.... Johnny Lee Miller does a fine job at showing the character's complex personality, and his partnership with Lucy Liu is flawless :) They're just adorable together. They totally remind me of Mulder and Scully, but without the unbearable sexual tension, which is why I spent 6 seasons 1/2 being fine with the fact that they wouldn't end up together as a couple.

I wish I had known the fandom when the show was broadcasting, because I haven't heard of any fit of rage when Joan and Sherlock didn't become canon?? And yet lmao, at least 70% of their interactions is romance-coded. Like, if JohnLock shippers think they were baited, Sherlock and Joan shippers were baited much, much more. Seriously, there's even a declaration of LOVE. When Sherlock has to run away to London, Joan follows him there!! They're completely co-dependant, all their attempt to have romantic relationships with other people fail... At some point Joan needs to go her own way and Sherlock respect that.

They take care of each other, all the time. If one is in danger, the other becomes feral. Sherlock especially would do everything to protect Joan from getting harm, and surely so would she. There are so many moments that could be confused with jealousy/possessiveness, so many sweet speeches that probably made the shippers think, "no way this is platonic!" .

Not me, though, because I believe in platonic love, always did, and that's what Sherlock's story was always about: a strong, unbreakable bond between two people who love each other but don't need to have sex to feel or express it. I say they remind me of Mulder and Scully because in both cases, it didn't have to become a romance. I shipped Mulder and Scully, yes, but for years I was quite certain that they woud never become romantic and I was fine with that. What they had was already beautiful.

And frankly, Joan and Sherlock's friendship higlights everything that's wrong with Sherlock and John's in the BBC show. It's a balanced relationship! they didn't have to become a romance because they're a perfect friendship, but if they did it would be ok, because it would not be toxic. Joan never beat Sherlock up, for a start. She never slaps him, they never insult each other. Sherlock is sometimes a prick to her but he always comes around because he respects her a lot. There's nothing in their interactions that makes me think, "wow, if they were a couple that would be so fucked up!", while, sorry but I had this thought about John and Sherlock a dozen of times, especially during season 4 but even before that.

So if I'm not wrong and shippers were cool with the ending, well... kudos guys.

@tickldpnk8

#cbs elementary #johnny lee miller #lucy liu #sherlock vs elementary #mulder and scully

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j-ellyfish · 9 months

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I don't know if it's just me, but in World Stars also the ship content is limited compared to previous years, even Ludwig and Feliciano are not appearing together in the same chapter in a long time *sad noises*

And there are many other ships that haven't gotten their moments in a long time too, maybe one of the few exceptions is FrUk, you know Francis getting very worried for Arthur who is about to leave EU

Oh yeah you're right D: Gerita was still doing good in early World Stars but not anymore :( Maybe this is also why 'newer' fans seem generally less concerned about Gerita and how it is slowly slipping into "uncommon ship" state despite its absolute dominance in the early Hetalia scene, but like, not even just early, I feel like it was still pretty popular up until maybe 2014/2015-ish. It doesn't seem to me that UsUk and FrUk are encountering the same fate, at least not to the same extent. Sure they got less shippers than they did at Hetalia Fandom's peak, I guess, but the Gerita case is the most interesting one.

Especially because it's like Gerita is now living up to a sort of ghost legacy. If you ask most people, they'd say "oh yeah Gerita is so popular, so annoying I want to ship other stuff because Gerita is saturated with fans and content". But ... This is not true. Not in the 2020s. It's no longer true. And this, what I like to call the 'Gerita effect' (because I guess it's a phenomenon that can happen in any community and not just with ships), causes the perception of something to no longer match the real, current state of that something. We're used to say Gerita is popular and coddled, because that's definitely what it used to be, but if we take a moment to observe the reality around us today, without bias coming from a relatively distant past, we'll realize that it is no longer the case. Not in the fandom and, as you pointed out, not even in canon material. I think this is the reason why, surprisingly, Gerita Week didn't get a lot of attention last year (I think it was last year?). I joined it for some days but, I won't lie, my brain kept feeling in a safe net mindset that went "well it's not like they need me, Gerita Week definitely will get a lot of content regardless since it's Gerita, so I shouldn't sweat it like this". But no, in the end I realized I was falling for my own veteran perception, which is flawed and biased towards the past, how the ships scenario used to be like in this fandom.

Besides this, I think the (relative) downfall of Gerita's popularity was also caused by other factors. First of all, Feliciano became a controversial character. While Romano was always a popular character, in the early fandom most of the focus on him came from Spamano as a ship, or his relationship with Feliciano. As more and more people started to deem Spamano problematic, Romano needed a new place in the fandom's heart. This, I believe, was what marked Romerica's rise. And Romano's arc at Alfred's is often used as an argument to put the two Italian brothers against each other and fundamentally deem Feliciano as "the evil, preferred, spoiled brother" (obviously I'm not implying the opposite is true, both Italies are cool, traumatized and deserve love) to enhance Romano's worth and rights as a character of his own, away from Feliciano's orbit because it was Feliciano's orbit, in the early fandom, what was kind of overshadowing Romano (Spamano was often a clutch-ship in Gerita fics and art).

Let's admit it, humans generally likes what challenges the status quo. So, this new (not implying no one in early fandom might've had similar thoughts but it wasn't a fandom trend) interpretation of canon scratched the right itch in many fans who've never been head over heels for Feliciano and/or for Gerita to begin with, and possibly enjoyed less popular ships on average.

Meanwhile, in the late 2010s something else changed fandom spaces: Yaoi/BL experienced a growth in popularity and broke out of the "loud Internet niche" enclosure. This came with a huge luggage of controversies and debates over the nature of the seme/uke classification and an undeniable growth in popularity of ships with no rigid roles (seke/switches) and the assumptions of sexual role based on personality and physical appearance losing terrain. This had, as a result, a certain degree of demonization of ships that happened to fit perfectly in the "typical yaoi couple narrative".

Guess which ship fit perfectly there? Gerita, obviously. So, I believe many people ended up perceiving "traditional Gerita" as sort of weird, rooted in "old schemes" and not as alluring as it could've been for the average teen in early 2010s. Of course, this also caused Itager and less fluffy interpretations of Gerita (which have always been there but not fandom-wide trends) to rise in order to spice the old ship up.

So, as years went by, these trends continued, they piled up but eventually made Gerita lose a lot of terrain to other ships, ships that fit the "new image of the fandom" better. Perhaps the fact that Gerita was associated so strictly with the early fandom (and Germany being the focus on one of an7is' tone deaf takes on the series) also contributed to its current state, due to the internalized "sense of guilt" we as a fandom tend to have due to some bad apples that populated and populate our fandom like any other.

Huhhh okay I'm not sure how this ended up being a dissection on Gerita's popularity but I hope you don't mind. Also I didn't want to bring up any drama involving fans because I think a single fan cannot do as much harm to a ship as trends and natural human behavior does to a fandom as a whole, as every fandom is fundamentally a bite-sized society like a town or a Country.

Speaking of FrUk, I was really happy to see France's more chaotic side slipping out a little in the Brexit arc, although it made me miss old Hetalia even more </3

#hetalia #ask #gerita #ary spoke

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veilchenjaeger · 2 years

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considering each of the mxtx main pairings, which do you think would be most fun as a f/f ship, and please also talk about why (and what, if anything, changes about the dynamics)

Excellent question that I'm not yet fully qualified to answer bc I still haven't read the entirety of TGCF - but I'm pretty sure that my opinion on this won't change even once I have. I just think that the objectively correct answer here is Bingqiu.

I mean, from what I've gathered from the first 2.5 volumes of TGCF, F/F Hualian is like... partly canon anyways, due to the general gender stuff TGCF gods seem to have going on. And Wangxian would be interesting mostly due to the fact that the MDZS universe seems to be the most sexist one out of MXTX's universes, but I'm personally a little tired of Narratives About Historical Sexism. I'm absolutely deeply in love with fem!Xie Lian and Lan Wangji and I would let both fem!Hua Cheng and the Yiling Matriarch step on me, but the thing is.

Bingqiu.

BINGQIU. F/F Bingqiu fucks so hard! LIKE. OKAY. The thing about Scum Villain is that this story happens on approximately five different layers. You have the actual "reality" of what is happening in Scum Villain, including the emotions and experiences of the characters, but this "reality" is also shaped by the fact that it's a novel, and a particular genre of novel (a stallion novel at first and a danmei novel later on). There is a meta level built into the story. On top of that, you have the additional layer of the original PIDW plot, which again is driven by the conventions of its genre. These are all layers Shen Qingqiu is aware of! But there's ALSO the world Shen Yuan and Airplane are from, and their experiences in that world, including the tropes they know of and the internet they interact with, direct their actions in the world of PIDW as well as the way PIDW itself was written. And then there's obviously the actual meta level, the one that we and MXTX are on, where MXTX writes trope subversions and commentary on webnovel genres and internet culture that we as readers can pick up on. I love Scum Villain.

Anyways, all that means that if you change something as fundamental to the narrative as the gender of its main characters (bc gender dynamics are pretty damn important for a story that is in part about male power fantasies), you have to adjust every single one of those layers. Which I think is dope.

Luo Binghe has a lot of character traits, but on the first meta level, Luo Binghe is primarily the protagonist! So if Luo Binghe is a woman, PIDW can't be a stallion novel. What, then, is PIDW? I think there are a bunch of different options, and every single one creates a slightly different dynamic! Additionally, every single one creates a very slightly different Shen Yuan, AND - and this is vitally important to me - every single one creates different commentary on the second meta level. Subversion and commentary are such a huge part of what Scum Villain is (and what Bingqiu are) that I, at least, want that layer to stay intact in this AU.

I've talked about this before, I think, but I want to talk about it more. Scum Villain is in part about the effects male power fantasies have on men! If PIDW were a reverse harem novel targeted at straight women, for example, Scum Villain might be about the effects female power fantasies have on women! You'd have Luo Binghe, who can have everything she wants bc she's the protagonist, but whose life has to be centred around romances with various men. I'd love to read a deconstruction of the reverse harem genre, bc it's such an alienating type of story for me as a lesbian - like, this type of female power fantasy hinges on the protagonist being attractive and attracted to men; it's unimaginable to have a classic female power fantasy without a romance with a man! On the other hand, PIDW as an erotic novel targeted at men would create so much fun commentary on sapphic sexuality. That's probably my favourite version of F/F Bingqiu, so I'm picking that dynamic to talk about in-depth:

Shen Yuan, in this, hate-reads a bad porn novel where the badass female protagonist - her favourite - is objectified and over-sexualised on every second page and exists to be masturbation material for the primarily straight male audience. I imagine that she writes a lot of rants in the comment section about how sexist PIDW is and how Luo Binghe would be an exceptional female character if she weren't the protagonist of a porn novel.

Luo Binghe, protagonist of a porn novel, after the Abyss starts to utilise her looks and her sexuality to make her way to the top. In the Scum Villain setting, of course, she's however deeply in love with Shen Qingqiu, who unfortunately is the only person her seduction techniques don't work on – because Shen Qingqiu is horribly attracted to Luo Binghe, but can’t detach her perception of Luo Binghe as attractive from the objectifying descriptions she read in the original novel. She already brainwashed herself into believing that she was never affected by Luo Binghe in writing, just disgusted by the fanservice, and now she brainwashes herself even harder bc Luo Binghe is a real person she knows now and not a sex symbol to get off to. (Plus, she’s into the submissive pouty housewife act! That’s even worse! She’s not even close to admitting she’s into women at all, she has to brainwash her way out of that!)

Meanwhile, everyone wants Luo Binghe except for the one person Luo Binghe wants to want her! I imagine that would mess with her head, especially after Shen Qingqiu’s death. Her relationship with her own sexuality is also pretty messed up, because her experience with it is focused on making herself desirable to other people, not on her actual desires. Luo Binghe, who only knows how to perform for the male gaze and gets no satisfaction from that vs. Shen Qingqiu, who can’t deal with the fact that she feels sexual attraction to a woman written for the male gaze. I think that sounds suitably disastrous for Bingqiu, and I feel like these are also extremely common wlw experiences. Layers! I want them to kiss, and I want them to kiss on the meta level! (And I want Luo Binghe to become comfortable with being seductive for the person she actually desires, and Shen Qingqiu to admit that she wants Luo Binghe.)

Finally, I think that there's one aspect of Scum Villain that would work better if Bingqiu were women, and that's Airplane. Like, PIDW is bad because Airplane had to abandon every notion of writing a serious, good story in order to make enough money to eat. In the end, the changes Shen Qingqiu makes to the novel are much closer to the original outline and Shang Qinghua is pretty satisfied with them. But like, danmei is a popular genre. Internationally popular, by now! You can make money with danmei! I think that particular message would be a bit more poignant if PIDW ended up as a baihe - the kind of story you wouldn't tell if you wanted to make money.

#/thanks for enabling my lesbian bingqiu obsession #/it was really fucking difficult not to write an entire novel here #/tl;dr: the answer is BINGQIU A MILLION TIMES #[epistulae ad atticum]#girls night girls night girls night #genderbend #svsss

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shitpostingkats · 1 year

Note

QUICK TELL ME IN EXTREME DETAIL EVERYTHING YOU LIKE ABOUT EVERY YUGIOH PROTAGONIST

PROTAGS WHOSE SHOWS I HAVE SEEN:

Yugi: SHORT KING. He is very smol and he weighs ninety pounds soaking wet and he will KICK YOUR ASS like the worlds most high school aged chihuahua. Always the friend who offers to dm when everyone talks about starting a dnd campaign. Despite what canon has gone on to say, I choose to believe he maintained his King Of Games title while using his cutesy deck we see in the Yami v. Yugi fight. Doesn't wear heels to events (that was Yami's thing) and always takes time to talk to fans, even if they run up to him on the street.

Jaden: Altered my brain chemistry on a fundamental level. Depressed and queer and a failure, proving you don't have to be innocent to deserve innocence. Does not pay his taxes. The character for anyone who's ever felt monstrous, alien, foreign in their own skin, then breaking down that none of those things make you less human, less deserving of love. Reads comic books and will enthusiastically lend you 300 issues if you even casually mention you've been thinking of doing the same.

Yusei: My son. My boi. I can say so much on him that I haven't even touched on in my numerous essays rambling about this funky little mechanic. If the ygo shows tend to focus on forms of love that aren't romantic, then 5Ds is about familial love. Yusei is passionate and caring and a bleeding heart. The only shonen protag to ever get told by his mom "You're grounded." and say "Okay." and NOT go fight space gods until his mother gives him the go ahead. He's a revolutionary. He knows the trash collector by name. He's a planet. He's a star with gravitational pull strong enough to change the world. He's Just A Guy.

PROTAGS WHOSE SHOWS I HAVE NOT SEEN

Yuma: Bisexual colored hair. Continuing the proud yugioh tradition to be adhd af. I know he sleeps in a hammock so I'm gonna go ahead and call that he's the kid always rocking in place. Leg bouncer. Dyslexic and doesn't know it, just knows that words are easier to read when looking through the blue tinted screen of his weird visor thing. Possibly kills satan? Good for him. Watches telenovellas and gets overly invested in the plotlines. Would probably eat the popsicle stick because he thinks it's part of the experience. He is NOT stupid he is just a dumbass.

Yuya: Tomato head. Looks somehow exactly like three different people I worked with when I did theatre, right down to the googles perched on the forehead with mismatched lenses. I've seen arc-v's opening and idk why but I really like the animation of him slinging his jacket over his shoulder. Really wonderful gender. One of those kids that didn't know about heterosexuality until he was at least ten, then proceeded to be very upset and confused by the concept. The guy leading the rowdy table at waffle house at 10pm that will at some point burst into song and disturb every patron's night but their own.

Yusaku: The kid at the same waffle house just trying to order a coffee. Draws in the margins of his notebook. Skateboards. He does not like to talk about either of these things, but then one day you show him a video with like a million views of some guy inking a giant masterpiece, or doing a backside tailslide off a shipping container and he'll just casually go "Oh hey that's me." Desperately in need of a stim toy and a hug.

Yuga: Had a phase where he was obsessed with firefighters. Also likes to light things on fire. Is shocked everytime when the result of lighting a thing on fire is Thing: *Is On Fire*. I don't think he uses hair gel I think he just scrunches up his eyebrows and concentrates really hard and his hair just Does That. Really wants a dog. Shockingly good at math, favorite number is 25. All of his pencils have bite marks and the erasers are completely chewed off.

Yudias: Looks like a glaceon. It's really heartwarming to see yugioh continually get autistic representation right; a lot of stories don't include the fact that we carry swords and can fire lasers from our eyeballs. Every time I see him I want to hand him a wrapped sandwich, a babybel cheese, and a clementine. Would probably enjoy keeping plants on the windowsill. Every picture I see of him, he is either wondrously excited, or completely baffled, to find himself in the situation he is currently in.

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alastairstom · 1 month

Text

promised myself i was going to do this high for humor value and to be edgy. and now that i am high, i will be doing it. thank you to @thevagabondexpress and @imabitchforjemcarstairs for telling me to go for it.

WHAT I THINK OF EACH BETTER IN BLACK COUPLE, IN THE ORDER THEY APPEARED ON THE ROSTER.

Wessa -> EXCITEMENT LEVEL 9/10. i always want to see more of these two and am curious about what they may do in paris. i'm picky with wessa content and very finicky with it, but i am currently cautiously optimistic about liking the story. if i do i think i will be a bit more satisfied with wessa's canon storyline/content as i want to see them in an established relationship. i'm so interested in what the little crystal ball/snowglobe on the cover means and kinda hope they get into some magical mayhem.

Clace -> EXCITEMENT LEVEL 7.5/10. I like Clace and they give me nostalgic feelings, so it will be fun to catch up with them. They're not, like, an all-time favorite ship, but I like them together and am curious what theyre like as an adult couple.

Arianna -> EXCITEMENT LEVEL 9/10. I'll admit that this ship is one i have some complicated feelings about, but i like them a lot anyway. they're one of the most interesting/compelling dynamics in the TSC canon to me even if i don't think they're thomastairherondaisy-like soulmates. i think that this story is a good choice because their story feels unfinished, and to properly conclude their storyline we need to see them have some conversations and make some compromises. i'm really rooting for them and am excited to see how their relationship works/changes.

Herondaisy -> EXCITEMENT LEVEL 1000/10. i mean, it's herondaisy. Did you really expect anything less? i'm pumped because i want to see them domestically after they acknowledge that they're married and in love. there's going to be a 2nd wedding rune scene, which is awesome and im hyped, but i also think we're probably gonna get some honeymoon adventure content of both of them and i am even MORE excited for that. i like how cordelia is running and james is reachng after her on the cover like "i love my wife she's so adventurous but come baaack. wait for meee." and YES??? good god. this one is going to be so good. and im so curious what the pomegranates are??? yeah??? i think something about being invincible because of persian myth. maybe it's because they're soulmates. an unstoppable duo. i'm gushing lol @angeldaisies @hanelizabeth. i need to stop but this will definitely happen again when i get to the thomastair story.

Sebastian and SQ -> EXCITEMENT LEVEL 8.5/10. okay i KNOW this one's controversial, and i get why one might be upset if their favourite ship did not make the cut. but like. okay. i am SO excited for this story. this is going to be DARK. this is going to be TWISTY. this is going to be the dark horse of the bunch, fundamentally fucked up and horrifying. doomed by the narrative. i'm so excited that this story is there because it's going to be so tonally unique. i think cassie wanted to write something truly fucked up, i think she has the talent to pull it off perfectly, and i am fucking pumped.

Jemma -> EXCITEMENT LEVEL 2/10 for the setting. it'll be cool seeing another institute while they're on their travel year. but otherwise i'm not vibing. i expected it fully though so it's fine, this is the only one in the set i'm considering a throwaway for me that i will for sure dislike. But that's okay! because next up is...

Thomastair -> EXCITEMENT LEVEL 1000/10. guys. look. these are the people whose love i am myself in love with. these are the people that make me believe in hope, and healing, and the power of getting better together and doing better. and we havent seen them in a lot of established relationship, so im glad to do so here. AND IN A ROMCOM. YES. and we're definitely getting content of them playing with zachary. which is like, a dream come true for me since a) i adore that kind of story, and b) zachary is such an important part of alastairs arc. i also think they're going to babysit him and everything that can go wrong will. he's lost! he's rolling away! ahhh! oh it's going to be great. like the herondaisy story this is definitely going to be beloved by me. there's no way to make me not like it. this is going to be one of my comfort stories for the rest of my life, i can tell. like nbs or cls or eet or the herondaisy story or the matthew novella. the thomastair story goes into this special and exclusive category. but yea im gushing again because they're soulmates and i love them <333

Kierarktina -> EXCITEMENT LEVEL 6/10. Yes, i am not really a kierarktina fan, but hear me out. I find their relationship interesting, and they have a lot of things that really don't work. but I think a story where they begin to unpack these differences would be astounding. Also sue me i'm interested in the horse on the cover, much like Ken in the barbie movie.

Sizzy -> EXCITEMENT LEVEL 7.5/10. another ship that while not an all-time favourite is nostalgic and beloved by me. and we've barely seen them at all since TMI, so it will be great to know what they're up to.

Lukelyn -> EXCITEMENT LEVEL 6.5/10. do i care about this couple? no. i don't dislike them, but i'm meh on them. BUT i LOVE the circle, and it said that it took place in the past. we might get another circle story! But also... i want to see Ragnor and think he might appear here??

THANK YOU!

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badgerhuan · 4 months

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throwing you mitsurugi and itonokogiri

*slams hands on desk* HELL YEAH LET'S GOOOOOO

Mitsurugi Reiji

Sexuality Headcanon: he is the single most aroace character i have ever seen in my entire life. and he is both touch-averse and sex-repulsed you can't change my mind.

Gender Headcanon: cis man

A ship I have with said character: mitsunoko my BELOVED. also very fond of qpr narumitsunoko with Naruhodou being the one coming into the relationship late.

A BROTP I have with said character: Mitsurugi's relationship with Mei is. so good. they're the most siblings ever. I also quite enjoy his relationship with Mikumo and with Mayoi!!

A NOTP I have with said character: non-qpr naru/mitsu......i'm sorry but. they would never.

A random headcanon: i'd say he's autistic but that's like. pseudo-canon anyway. so, i do think that he genuinely believes that Itonokogiri just really really likes soumen and doesn't quiet get the implications of the detective having soumen for every meal.

General Opinion over said character: i've been meaning to get into gyaketen saiban for like YEARS and i always was curious about MItsurugi's character, but damn i never expected to love him this much. he's had one of the best character developments/arcs in any franchise that i can think of and it makes me emotional how far he's come. i love him.

Itonokogiri Keisuke

Sexuality Headcanon: asexual but doesn't know it. messed around with sex when he was young, didn't understand what the big deal about it was, and never thought about it ever again.

Gender Headcanon: LISTEN i haven't given it much thought but.......i have the vague ideas of a trans man Itonokogiri in my brain..............

A ship I have with said character: same as above!!! and i also really really love the idea of narunoko at first starting to look out for each other for Mitsurugi's sake, but then growing closer and having genuine affection and concern for each other down the line.

A BROTP I have with said character: i adore his relationship with Mikumo, and honestly i think the mutual affection and respect between him and Mako is really sweet. i want them to be friends forever. 🥺

A NOTP I have with said character: i've seen people ship him with Mei and that was an instant Nope hahaha. i wish those shippers the best tho.

A random headcanon: he 100% has undiagnosed ADHD.

General Opinion over said character: hands down my favorite character in the franchise. the Itonokogiri i know and love from consuming the japanese version of the games is. so fundamentally different from the Gumshoe most of the english-speaking fans know from the localization. i respect and support their Gumshoe but he's like. an alternate universe version of Itonokogiri. i don't think i can forgive the localization for stripping so much of what made me fall in love with him. his acceptance that everyone never gets his name right (except for Mitsurugi). his -ssu speech quirk. his use of "jibun" as a first person pronoun. him canonically being good at shogi!!! HIS NAME BEING A DELIBERATE PARALLEL TO MITSURUGI'S MADE BY TAKUMI SHU. i love him so much and i mourn that a huge portion of the fandom will never get to know him.

#roch answers #gyakuten saiban #mitsurugi reiji #itonokogiri keisuke #mitsunoko #twotwinks #mt #i love them so much.

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kiwiana-writes · 4 months

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▵ For With so much of my heart (that none is left to protest).

Love your work, thank you for all you do.🥰🫂

GOSH that's lovely, thank you!

▵ pick a fic and I’ll tell you my favorite line for With so much of my heart (that none is left to protest)?

ONE favourite line??? IN 65,000 words?????? No way, you're getting a few. One outside the cut, the rest under it!

“Out of curiosity, do you talk to all your clients like you’re a film noir detective and I’m the leggy blonde asking for your services? Or is that just for me?” The very first line I wrote, sent to @ships-to-sail in DM at 3am because we'd just started talking about the idea for this fic and I was in bed and hadn't created a Google doc yet. I went and found it, because I'm not kidding about the time OR how little it changed between this and publishing:

He mulls over that one for a minute, wondering what it would be like—to be bi in a time when Google wasn’t at your fingertips to help you figure it out; to have people speculating on your sexuality four centuries later. It feels… weird. Invasive. Something. BECAUSE YOU ARE ALSO BISEXUAL, MY LOVE.

“I am not seething,” Alex seethes. Speaks for itself, honestly. One of my absolute favourite literary devices to use.

Another message, right underneath the picture: do you think when i tell you while you’re in disguise ‘i am sure he is in the fleet: i would he had boarded me’ i’m lowkey talking about wanting you to rail me? because i could play it that way Henry places the phone down gently on the mattress, picks up a pillow from the other side of the bed, puts it over his face, and screams into it. This joke went through so many iterations, both of the line from the play Alex was referencing as well as originally it was "Betrius is lowkey wanting Benedick to" and making it more personal really ramped up the torture towards Henry hahaha.

“So Betrius isn’t saying ‘if only I were a man’, because he is. He’s saying ‘if only y’all saw me as a man, gave me the respect of a man, but you don’t, because I’m not out picking up chicks on whatever the sixteenth-century equivalent of Tinder is’. Right?” This entire conversation, actually, but this line in particular. As much as I had to skim over some of the practicalities of flipping Beatrice's gender in Much Ado, it was important to me that doing so was more than a one-and-done plot device to enable Alex and Henry to play these roles.

He thinks maybe he’s always going to be a little different now that he knows what it’s like to be touched like this, by someone like Henry, who cares just as much about the putting back together as he does about the taking apart. One thing I think CMQ does an amazing job of in the novel is just how fucking clear it is that Alex is ALL IN in love well before he's realised it, and I was trying to capture a little bit of that with this.

“I think maybe I’ve done it again? Pushed myself into a space so small, and cramped, and hidden away, I don’t know how to find my way back out.” This isn't a version of Henry with his canonical reasons for staying closeted, but nor did I want him to be someone with a lot of self-loathing around being gay, because the lack of that in canonical Henry is such a breath of fresh air. I wasn't sure about how well I'd gotten that across with this line (and the whole bit that preceded it) but I had a few people reach out to tell me just how true this rang for them, which, ❤️

“There is nothing,” Alex says quietly, “on this planet that could make me stop loving you. I swear to god, H, you’ve… fundamentally fucking changed me. If you tell me to go again, I’ll go. We’ll pine at each other in the wings for the next six weeks and then I’ll fuck off back to America and we’ll both be miserable forever, probably doing some maudlin shit like only taking roles in the tragedies so we can channel our pain or whatever, but I’ll still be in love with you. You’ll be the one that got away for the rest of my life, you obtuse fucking asshole—” Reworking/retreading canon without just copying and pasting huge swaths of the book is such a difficult line to walk and I was particularly proud of this part of doing that.

It is, in the end, the easiest decision he’s ever made. :) :) :) :) :)

[fic ask game]

#fic ask game #ad-astra13 #series: under the state lights

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microraptorreactor · 13 days

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parrying the fandom ask game back at you. 3 and 15 to you too, with a side of 22 for v2

wow we bounce eachothers attacks around just like ultrakill.....

3. Notp?

I have a couple, which are mostly just ships I don't see the dynamic for and think are kinda overrated. Red Velvet x Pastry from Cookie Run: Kingdom is my least favorite for sure. I love the characters separately but there's no way I could see them kissing. Something about Pastry fundamentally hating Red Velvet for being part cake and not really questioning that hatred makes me go bleh.

15. Have you noticed your style change over time?

ohmygod yes. I've been doing digital art since 2018 and uh. I sure have gotten better. Here's the earliest digital art I still have:

My word. Who let me touch an art tablet. I couldn't even color inside the lines T-T The airbrush, the misused gaussian blur, the god-awful cell shading, this is the embodiment of a beginner artist on DeviantArt.

Ironically all the techniques I used with that are ones I still use. cell-shaded characters with 'painted' backgrounds is still how I draw, I'm just considerably better at it. Here's some recent-ish art that uses the same methods! (+layer masks and filters. I didn't know what a clipping layer was in 2018 lmao) I definitely haven't posted before no sir.

and for writing? Gah. I don't even want to open my early fanfics they are SO BAD. I'll find a snippet of one of my early warframe works, but I apologize in advance for spelling/grammar I was a twelve year old with dyslexia. Here's two very similar scenes (an unconscious, dying character who isn't really aware of where they are being comforted), one is from a 2018 warframe fanfiction and the other I wrote recently. It's uh. A little bit of a difference. (other then that Solar lives and V2 doesn't)

22. Give us a headcanon for (V2)

Another? Alright then! Even in the canon events of Ultrakill I don't really think V2 is that aggressive. Look they run away crying with their head in their hands. They bow politely. That robot wants to curl up with a blanket but unfortunately hell says its time to kill 98420934 people.

I also think V2 has better hygiene then V1. Just in general. I think they try to keep themselves mostly clean and smelling nice. It didn't like greed because the sand got stuck in its armor and started getting caught in pistons and such, and there wasn't anywhere to wash it off. Plus a couple layers of blood and the poor thang just feels nasty.

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singlecrow · 7 months

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I'm going to treat myself and do that thing where you write about your five favourite stories of your own (of the moment). why the hell not.

everything we do is sewn with this colour [DS9] A late-seasons DS9 Julian/Garak story with a very simple premise: Garak teaches Julian to sew. It takes time for Julian to learn, and during that time, the two of them go from being awkward and unhappy friends with benefits to being in a functional romantic partnership. The idea, of course, is that Garak can sew - he's a tailor, he runs a tailoring business, people get married in the dresses he makes - and in a way, this is the only way Julian can be sure Garak isn't lying to him. If Garak teaches him to sew, then it's because Garak really knows how to teach him. It's my only real Julian/Garak, and honestly I don't think I need any more: this is how I see it going. It's also got Miles, Keiko and Kira as a functional triad in the background, because I know what I like. My one grief about this story is that I don't think Phoebe, purplefringe, my beloved Julian Bashir superfan, ever read it.

some things you just can't speak about (wherever they come from, they'll never run out) [DS9/MASH] This is the most fun I've ever had writing anything, ever. Like, somehow I'd never done a MASH Star Trek AU (I have Star Trek AUs for nearly every non-SFF fandom I've ever done, including Sports Night and Master and Commander), but it didn't click until I realised it was a story about the Dominion War, and then suddenly it's a DS9 AU and it's my two favourite things mashed (lol) together. So this! Hawkeye, though not the protagonist, is very much the main character: they're a nonbinary half-Betazoid, still bipolar, still brilliant, still a walking fuck-you to authority. I made no changes at all to the canon version to make them nonbinary, or an actually-psychic empath. (The screaming! I think some ppl thought I had made up the scene where Hawkeye screams in their sleep enough to wake up everyone in the habitat. Nope, the tv one does that, and he isn't psychic.) The only real change to this Hawkeye is that they're ship's CMO - so they do, sometimes, have to give orders. They don't like it, but they do, and in so doing have to betray their competence (love ppl being competent). And also, they wear the Starfleet uniform dresses, because I could not with how cute that would be. I never said in the story that they were afab, but I assume they were just so they'd be shorter than Margaret.

The other thing here is, the tension between Hawk and Margaret in the show is gender. Margaret would thrive, if she could do what Hawkeye can do - if she could be a soft-edged man who gets respect from nearly everyone for his ability and competence, who sleeps around nd never has it damage his reputation. But he can do that, and she, a woman in the 1950s, can't. Instead, she gets harassed and socially punished every time she steps out of line, though fundamentally she's nothing different from him. But Star Trek doesn't have that gender tension, so instead we have Margaret as Bajoran, who doesn't have Hawkeye's privileges as a Federation citizen. And it's the one rift in their otherwise extremely loving best-friends-with-benefits relationship. (my fave! their canon relationship, my favourite in fiction, probably).

BJ, bless him, is exactly unchanged: his role in the story is to observe the others. Even Potter, a female half-Vulcan who tolerates no crap who I enjoyed enormously. Anyway this story is 40k! longer than any other fanfic of mine and probably always will be because I can't imagine anything else being as fun.

a girl wild and unwished for [MASH] Ah. So, it's 1957 and it's not fun. Hawkeye is in his mid-thirties, and he's fine, except one night he's not: following an intense depression, he tries to commit suicide and is stopped barely in time.

Which is a hell of a beginning to a story, and honestly I feel a bit conflicted about it; I've been unhappy for years about how (some bits of) fandom went from to "you should content-note this content" to "you shouldn't make this content". When this sort of thing is so often my subject matter, it often does feel like fandom doesn't want my fiction and it legit was part of the reason I shifted towards pro. But that's by the bye, and I'm trying to write what I want to again. So in this story, Sidney is so worried about Hawkeye's mental state that he persuades him to try psychoactive medication for the first time. And the story becomes, in its way, a retelling of The Bell Jar with Hawkeye in place of Esther Greenwood: so about life and friendship, about New York in summer, about Hawkeye's work and place in the world, all muted and sharpened and modulated by the effect of the drug. Of course it's about Hawkeye's manic depression, but it's also about who he is; about what he can concede of his mind and personality, and what he can't. I was really pleased with this one. Despite the description, it does have jokes in it.

who were captured, who would not yield [Good Omens] A Good Omens story written just after s1, in the summer of 2019. That feral Good Omens summer! That summer where everything was still perfect and beautiful! I remember writing this by hand on the train to Cardiff to Vidukon, to P's endless amusement. The story isn't a romance - Aziraphale and Crowley have sex in it, for purely pragmatic reasons - but a story about what they do now they're not on opposite sides or on sides at all. Like in all my GO stories, they go to Waitrose, as follows:

Everything is fine. Crowley is definitely not having a breakdown in Waitrose.

“Crowley,” Aziraphale says, by the self-service checkouts. “You were supposed to get an avocado pear.”

“Damn your avocado, angel,” Crowley says, trying not be actively diabolical in all directions. The next customer is buying strawberries, whipped cream and WD-40 – it’s a Friday night – and Crowley can make out the scent of unhappy dairy. Everything’s fine. He’s definitely not having a breakdown. Much more of this and there’s going to be an unexpected fire in the bagging area.

in the chillest land on the sea [the Magnus Archives] Until recently this was my longest story on the AO3, because it was co-written with dearthoughthenightisgone (imperfectcircle on the AO3 because of their godawful brand management). It's a very complex Magnus Archives story, where the basic premise is that all the while Jon is accumulating the statements belonging to the fears to go into the Archive, there is one additional power that we don't see: hope, at the bottom of Pandora's box. So every so often he gets a hopeful, happy statement, and eventually - the day in the Scottish cabin where it all goes wrong - the assistance of the hope power makes things go a little differently. I love this story. We had to write the statements! There are five of them and each one is a little standalone work of original fiction. And the two of us are pretty good at jamming together our disparate styles and themes and doing something good with them, but this one was hard - they wanted a happy ending, I wanted a bleak ending, we had to thread that needle. But I think we did it well, because this is the story where I get the most consistently overwhelming and sweet comments, people who read the story while a beloved family member was ill, or when locked down with covid, and took a little comfort from it. There was fanart! It was something special.

meditations ex post facto [Guardian] This is allegedly a Guardian AU. (Guardian is a fantasy cdrama about a guy called Zhao Yunlan who runs a paranormal investigatory agency, and his lovely boyfriend, who is both a local academic and, uh, a mysterious ancient ghost king.) What this is actually is a romantic comedy with lawyers. It's all I want in life. I wrote the entire first half of it in the Apple store in Covent Garden waiting for my updates to install. This is the best bit in it.

Zhao Yunlan can’t actually blame her, because he’s never been any good at hiding his feelings and he’s kind of composing an email to Shen Wei in another window. Deaaaaar Professsssor Sssshen, he writes. The spilled latte from the other day has made itself at home in his keyboard. Zhao Yunlan painstakingly scrolls back and deletes all the extra letters. I reaaaaally want to see you again pleaaaaaaassse come to dinner with me.

Not at all weird.

Shen Wei, I was planning to go for noodles tonight. Perhaps you’d like to accompany me.

Weirdly formal, but better. He presses send before he realises that “planning” still has two extra As and a stray Z.

#mash #deep space nine #good omens #guardian #the magnus archives

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