autumnleavescoffeedreams

[autumnleavescoffeedreams]

Being tagged in this temporarily brought me out of me out of my indefinite Tumblr hiatus, ahaha.

It’s been ages since I’ve even looked at Fairy Tail, mostly because after being exposed to so many more films and anime in the past few years (aspiring filmmaker here), I found that Fairy Tail simply was not a well-written series. The first few arcs were good, but after Edolas it just seemed to go downhill and I also found myself becoming more and more bitter due to the poor writing and decision-making by Mashima.

OP and I would comment on each other’s posts in the past, but they are correct; we were not friends on or outside of Tumblr. They did not know the details of my life; they were simply expressing sympathy for me at the time (which I greatly appreciated). So OP, I’m sorry if you were harassed because of that.

I feel like I just need to elaborate (in case anyone wants to refer to this in the nearby future). I couldn’t find my original post where I talked about what OP mentioned but yes, I dated a man who reminded me a lot of Juvia. He did not assault me, but he did stalk me for over a year, and he was borderline narcissistic. He would often leave me “presents” and would try to manipulate other people in my life so I could “take him back” after the break-up. Like Juvia with Gray, he felt “entitled” to my love. He even tried to literally buy my affections more than once. When he tried to win me back trying to make me jealous, he slept with another girl... and she got pregnant. Once his daughter was born, common sense finally hit him, and he left me one last letter as sort of a “goodbye”. Unfortunately, it took a few years for my nightmares to finally go away (I used to dream he was chasing me lol). The situation has long passed, but it had such an impact on me I struggle with dating 10 years later. I am still single simply because I am too afraid to date.

It didn’t help that in 2018, a male relative of mine began making inappropriate advances toward me. This led to me being kicked out of my home (I was living with these relatives at the time) because when I brought it forward, they didn’t believe me (aka. they did believe me but didn’t want to acknowledge it).

The point is, I do hate Juvia and Gruvia and I never will change that opinion. It sounds harsh, but it only has negative connotations for me. The fact that so many people seemed to sympathize with Juvia also made me uncomfortable. It’s not a good pairing, and it sure isn’t a healthy one. Juvia, who could’ve actually been a great character, is incredibly manipulative. While my ex-boyfriend may not have gone to the exact extremes Juvia went to for Gray, there were still similarities.

With that being said, I have no problem if fans do like Juvia or the pairing. My issue lies with the fact that years ago, I honestly expressed why I don’t like Juvia/Gruvia and as a result, I got a lot of crap for it. Being told my experiences weren’t valid (which is ironic coming from Tumblr) was discouraging.

Now that I’m older, I see that many of her defenders were young teenage girls who felt that Juvia “getting” Gray gave them the encouragement to treat their own crushes the same way. Either that or they were men who would have loved if a girl like Juvia gave them that much attention.

I agree with OP that I don’t think it was Mashima’s intent to promote that kind of predatory behavior, but he did subconsciously add fuel to the fire.

Believe it or not, I do actually make jokes about my stalking; it is a weird coping mechanism for me. I’m sure there are many other people out there who do too, but there are some who CAN’T cope with it through humor and that’s OKAY.

It’s just extremely uncomfortable when humor like that is used so flippantly, especially in the setting of Gray and Juvia.

Anyway, I hope all of you are doing well. Sorry for the long post, but I feel like this is my closure for everything that happened. I am a lot happier since I’ve gotten off of Tumblr, and I wish everyone the best.

one of the more disgusting defences I've seen pros use to excuse juvia's behaviour is when victims of assault speak out against the ship, they claim that victims need to stop 'projecting' onto juvia and that because mashima's intent with juvia's actions is meant to be for comedy it should be treated as such and nothing serious

A Piece About Stalking Victims and gr//via

Now that is just really sad, that people would go and try to invalidate actual victims of stalking and assault just so they can not feel bad for liking a ship that literally glorifies those very things.

So what if some manga author decided to take something that literally traumatizes people and ruins their real lives, and then used it in his manga for a comedy bit, and made all the characters praise the perpetrator and bash the victim, and then made the perpetrator and the victim end up in an exceedingly toxic relationship where the selfish, criminal perp finally gets what she wants?

Does it matter that the author's intent was that the actions were supposed to be seen as funny?

No! Because what he did was wrong, to try to normalize and promote such toxic, unhealthy, downright wicked behavior, to desensitize people to the point where they don't even see that her behavior is wrong and to the point where they laugh at it and to the point where they demonize the people who speak out against it.

Now, I will say this, carefully though-- it's a difficult subject to articulate. I think it's ok for these people to use the "it's just comedy" reasoning to explain to themselves why it's ok to laugh if they know that the thing being portrayed as comedy would be very wrong in real life, because yes, in the end, I doubt that most supporters of juvia and her ship look at stalking and think it's just dandy (though some actually do), and I doubt Mashima really meant to make juvia's behavior in his manga as a statement piece expounding on the virtues of stalking and abusive behavior. (That doesn't change the fact that he ends up doing so, which is undeniably wrong, but my point is that it's understandable if people see it and acknowledge it as wrong, and yet overlook it thanks to the "cute, comedic, and fluffy" setting of the manga and its art style and a "cute" girl doing it so they can enjoy it as a whole. I don't excuse the people who just don't see what juvia does is wrong though; they warrant criticism).

However.

Where they cross the line is when they try to use that honestly pretty faulty reasoning as an argument and weaponize it against victims who are triggered by juvia's disgusting behavior, which is basically worse than victim blaming because they are literally saying yes, you were a victim, and yet no, your experience doesn't matter. These are the people who don't acknowledge juvia's behavior as disgusting and evil.

I've sort of touched on this before, but I am chill with letting people like juvia and gr///via. I'm not out here on a quest to eradicate all Pro gr///vians and juvia fans, which is impossible anyway. They have the right to their opinion, and I have the right to mine. I don't understand them and could never agree with them, but for the most part, they're minding their own business, and I'm minding mine. That's why I block the gr///via and juvia tags and avoid their posts and tag mine correctly. I may hate gr///via and juvia and the content made in support of it, but I don't hate the Pros; it's just a ship after all, and in the grand scheme of things, it's not the best hill to die on. I especially am fine with those Pros who acknowledge that juvia is far from perfect, and that the ship is too, and yet they just ignore certain things to enjoy it, and that's only fair. The only people I have a problem with are the ones who are vocally putting Antis down by bashing us for merely existing or tearing down victims of abuse just so they can keep themselves in forced ignorance that juvia is perfect and anyone who opposes her sucks, people like the ones you mentioned, Anon.

(The rest of this is related but not exactly on topic.)

Personally, thankfully, I haven't seen that defense used yet. I have no doubt people have though since you've seen it yourself, Anon. I'll mention a defense that's sort of similar though that's been directed against me.

There was a Pro in my comment section of this post for some reason (fun fact: I just went back to check what they said, and guess what? Every comment of theirs is deleted~ Wonder why~) who commented for hours, (that post had over 200 notes before they deleted all their comments, I am pretty sure) and accused me of "speaking for all stalking victims", when in that post and in no post before or after it did I ever claim to be doing that, nor did I ever claim that I knew a stalking victim before they even spoke.

(Tbh maybe they thought me reblogging a post by @autumnleavescoffeedreams, where they mention that they had a boyfriend who was the male version of juvia and how that terrible experience of him stalking them made them dislike gr///via, and me saying I loved that post and agreed with it completely was proving that I had a friend who was stalked?? Though I'm not friends with this person, I only reblogged their post. Idk anymore.)

Anyway, they basically said "How dare you try to speak for all stalking victims! You know nothing about it so shut up! I am a stalking victim though, and I say that juvia and gr///via doesn't bother me so there! That proves that juvia's behavior has no effects on stalking victims." The absolute hypocrisy and general idiocy of that statement still sticks with me this day. This was my response in the comments, and I stand by them:

"I never said I spoke for all victims of stalking. And don’t you dare invalidate my friend’s experience w stalking. And since when did you have to personally be stalked to be able to call it like you see it? Oh this person got r*ped in an anime, but nooo I can’t make a post calling it out or saying it’s bad because I haven’t been raped myself??? That’s completely baloney, and an argument I’ve seen used to no avail many a time."

"I respectfully don’t believe that your experience invalidates mine or any stalker victim’s experience. Just because your stalker didn’t seem so bad to you doesn’t mean that juvia’s behavior has not triggered others. Way to invalidate others just because you’ve been stalked, as if that makes you the end-all expert on the subject. I also DO have an idea of how horrible stalking is because I have a brain, a heart, and a moral compass. It’s obviously a terrible ordeal and stalkers—"

"—should be jailed, and juvia is no exception."

(I mentioned 'my friend' in my responses, not because I had in fact mentioned them before-- I even checked all my posts to find what they were talking about and couldn't find it-- but because I do have a Tumblr friend/acquaintance that's been stalked and traumatized. I assumed falsely at the time that this random person knew about them somehow, but in reality, they had no way of knowing that.)

Yes, I sound quite heated, but I was quite angry at these awful accusations and ridiculous arguments. I would never invalidate this person's experience as a stalking victim, but the fact that they tried to use it as a weapon to put me down for speaking against stalking is just insanity and mean-spirited.

Anyway, that was related to the thing you brought up because instead of people who haven't been stalked invalidating stalking victims, this person used their own victim status to invalidate other stalking victims, which might be even worse. All in all, I want victims of abuses no matter what kind to have a voice and be able to speak about how certain things in media like juvia and her tendencies affect them and to be listened to and affirmed, but to do so without making blanket statements like "I was stalked, and I feel fine, so every other victim should just suck it up".

Closing Notes:

This was probably too long, but I sort of wanted to get some things out there and off my chest. Sorry for taking a while; I wanted to have at least a sort of articulate post in response. Thank you for the ask, Anon, and I hope you don't have to see any more bad Pro gr///vian arguments!

[autumnleavescoffeedreams]

Anyone ever join the Ouran Host Club Amino?

I just recently remembered my time on there and holy crap, those leaders were TOXIC. Don’t know if there are new leaders in there now but it was literally the worst experience I had on Amino haha

[autumnleavescoffeedreams]

So I’m playing Hakuoki for the first time and I gotta say

Kyoto Winds be like...

Edo Blossoms be like...

[autumnleavescoffeedreams]

The new manga of FT 100 years is showing the pairing of the main couples of the series and I see that the people who shipea Graylu complains about this, Gray at this moment only thinks about Juvia and Lucy the same with Natsu, it's been a while since Graylu died in the series I say it with all the respect.

Ah, okay...? I’m not sure what prompted this or what this was in response to, anon. The last time I actually made a full-on Graylu post was, like, a year ago haha. I mentioned them recently but nothing hardcore. I haven’t watched/read Fairy Tail in at least two years and have always been critical of it as well as Mashima himself.

I’m not sure how to reply to this post as there wasn’t really a question but here are my thoughts:

I honestly don’t care if Graylu ended up being canon or not, I just liked the ship. Still do, but I don’t care about Fairy Tail anymore. I knew a few arcs into the show that Graylu wasn’t endgame but that didn’t stop me from liking them at the time.

I never thought Nalu and Gruvia were good/healthy ships, but that’s just an opinion. I would never harass the guy over it. At the end of the day it’s Mashima’s story and he has the right to do what he wants, just like fans have the right to like or dislike what happens in the story. If Graylu fans don’t like the main pairings, there’s nothing wrong with that.

Take care, anon.

[autumnleavescoffeedreams]

To be honest, the only reason I started watching Fairy Tail was because of a Gray/Lucy clip I saw on YouTube, the one where they think Gray is Lucy’s stalker and he says it was because he was looking out for her.

Imagine my surprise when the how turned into a big mess of fanservice and ship teasing (*cough* NaLu *cough*)

The only ship I ended up remotely liking was Jerza.

So I've finally decided to watch Fairy tail and my dumbass really thought Gray and Lucy were going to be a thing.... I-

Time to break my shipper heart.. once again..

Why must I love crackships...

To be fair, they really made it seem like Gray liked her so like it's not that crack!

[autumnleavescoffeedreams]

ちゃちゃ real smooth

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Top 10 Favorite Female Characters: Anime Edition

No one tagged me, but I thought I’d do this anyway! Choose one from each fandom. Since I have a lot of favorite female characters, I did one for anime specifically, though feel free to add non-anime characters.

1. Sophie Hatter from Howl’s Moving Castle

2. Lucy Heartfilia from Fairy Tail

3. Sasha Braus from Attack on Titan / Shingeki no Kyojin

4. Hitoka Yachi from Haikyuu!!

5. Emma from The Promised Neverland

6. Nanami Momozono from Kamisama Kiss

7. Airi Katagiri from Erased

8. Megumi Tadokoro from Food Wars / Shokugeki no Soma

9. Nao Tomori from Charlotte

10. Akane Tsunemori from Psycho-Pass

(I tag anyone who wants to do this but hasn’t been tagged yet!)

[autumnleavescoffeedreams]

Sasha: What are we doing?

Jean: Wasting our lives.

Sasha: ... I meant for lunch.

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@roxasfanfics​ This was honestly was one of the sweetest/most encouraging response I’ve ever received for writing. Thank you for reminding me that there are readers out there who will appreciate what I write.

I’m reblogging this because it’s dang good advice that all of us writers could use :)

I want to write/post a Lio x Reader story but I’m afraid of getting hate from some of the more… avid GaloLio shippers.

Do I just suck it up, do it, and just risk the flames (pun intended)?

[autumnleavescoffeedreams]

I want to write/post a Lio x Reader story but I’m afraid of getting hate from some of the more... avid GaloLio shippers.

Do I just suck it up, do it, and just risk the flames (pun intended)?

[autumnleavescoffeedreams]

I’ve noticed a pattern

Tumblr users (mostly female) saying that people should support female characters more, then turn around and hate female characters simply because they’re a “threat” to their BoyxBoy ship.

#Equality, I guess?

Note: Because there are those who will probably comment all the other reasons why they don’t like one of the female characters, let me save you the hassle: I’m not interested. I don’t need to know why you do or don’t like someone. I just think it’s childish to hate a FICTIONAL character because she may or may not “ruin” your ship.

[autumnleavescoffeedreams]

If you’re a casual shipper, we’re cool.

If you’re a toxic shipper, we’re gonna have some problems...

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I need to vent about “Food Wars”, y’all...

The animators have done me dirty...

*spoilers ahead for those who don’t read the manga*

We were supposed to get Takumi and Isshiki looking at Megumi in concern when she loses to Momo, right?

And we were supposed to get Takumi explaining her importance on the team, which was a brief yet meaningful interaction (see my post here), right???

INSTEAD WE GET A QUICK GLANCE FROM ISSHIKI AND THIS SPLIT SECOND OF TAKUMI “CONSOLING” HER

The animators have really dropped the ball on nearly every Takumi/Megumi moment bUT THIS TAKES THE FREAKIN CAKE

[autumnleavescoffeedreams]

TPN in a nutshell

Ray: EMMA NO

Emma: EMMA YES

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Me the second Galo, Aina, and Lio were all in the same scene:

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When you go into the Gray Fullbuster x Lucy Heartfilia relationship tag on AO3 and only half are actually GrayLu stories???

The rest are NaLu stories.

[autumnleavescoffeedreams]

@alavanka

I literally say that in my post lmao

Do you ever notice just how much Gray and Lucy casually stand next to each other?

Whether you ship GrayLu or not, whether you feel they’re just friends or not, you can’t deny what an awesome bond these guys have.

I have a headcanon that Lucy and Gray are the only stable people they have in each other’s lives. If you think about it, Natsu is so wild unpredictable and Juvia is… well, Juvia. They can both be a lot to handle. I think Gray and Lucy are just so comfortable with each other that they have a natural tendency to come together when stuff goes down. There’s no pretending with them, no obsession, and no BS.

Gray is not afraid to show physical affection with her (like hugging her or putting his hand on her shoulder) when he typically feels embarrassed/awkward touching other women. Lucy is sometimes taken by surprise with his stripping habit but she never ogles or drools over him like me.

When Lucy has something salty to say, the first person she usually talks to is Gray (them talking about Blue Pegasus is the perfect example). When Lucy is having one of her writer’s fantasies, the person to bring her back to reality is Gray.

You can see it as platonic or romantic (I see it as both, hehe). Either way, these guys have an amazing relationship