#<- ships intended even if not explicitly implied

[bluuscreen]

it’s up to you to guess what they’re playing

[psychic-refugee]

Wenclair as a ship in itself I understand. It can be fun, and interpretation is up to the fan content creator. Wyler, Wenvier, Enjax, Wenclay and AroAce Wednesday I think are all equally valid interpretations. Just as any other combination.

Shipping non canon relationships is a choice made by personal preference.

I less understand the expectations of Wenclair being actually possible to become canon. I feel like it’s only possible in the sense that “anything is possible” because no one can ever truly predict the future.

However,

Tim Burton does not have a history of producing LGBTQ+ focused projects. There are barely any background characters that are prominently and explicitly queer in his long CV.

The Ottingers are outliers and background characters with a second of screentime. I have doubts we’ll ever see them again, and honestly, they are the farthest I think Burton is willing to go.

Millar also doesn’t have a history of writing main cast LGBTQ+. He and Gough only reference the relationship between Enid and Wednesday as “friendship” and “sisterhood” when confronted with the idea of Wenclair. (NME, 24 Dec 2023).

Netflix has a documented poor history of treatment of shows with prominent lesbian leads (First Kill, I Am Not OK With This, and Warrior Nun).

Given all of that, I’m also not in the writers’ room, so time will ultimately tell if my skepticism is warranted.

Nonetheless, there is overwhelming evidence that Wenclairs have detrimentally affected Jenna and Emma. I don’t see them wanting Wenclair to happen and they certainly aren’t entertaining the mere possibility of it any longer.

Jenna has not mentioned Wenclair in a positive light since that one interview in Teen Vogue, 9 Dec 2022. It’s been over a year since; a lot of stuff has happened. Plenty of reasons for Jenna to have changed her mind.  

Emma made a non-committal comment about “how anything is possible” when it comes to S2 and Wenclair. (Variety, 30 Jan 2023)  But, again, that was over a year ago and a lot of toxic behaviour has happened since then.

Just as with Jenna, Emma has a lot of motivation now to not support Wenclair becoming canon.

Emma also pushed off the possibility of Wenclair beyond S2, she gave the excuse of Wednesday needing a “season of singleness.” Id. Wednesday WAS single in S1, she never claimed anyone as an SO. It sounds more like Emma was a hostage trying to appease her kidnappers by telling them what they wanted to hear. She pushed off the idea of Wenclair to a season that’s not guaranteed to materialize. That’s called passing the buck. If S3 never happens, then she’s not responsible for adhering to an implied promise of Wenclair being possible at all.

Now, Emma has made it a point to stress that shipping is fine as long as it doesn’t cross over into real people. (NME, 27 June 2024).

Wenclairs failed to do that in a spectacular fashion.

Emma admits that Wenclair was a joke they told amongst themselves when it first became apparent it was a popular ship. Id. Wenclair is “funny” to them because they never intended for it to be a ship, but fans choose to interpret it that way.

People ran with Jenna’s comments, but I believe she was supporting it in jest in the way Emma reported in June. Jenna even framed Wenclair only happening in “a perfect world.” (9 Dec 2022) She said it would only happen in an impossible circumstance. I don’t get how people took that to mean she was trying behind the scenes to make it happen, or that it was a secret interpretation fans were meant to figure out on their own.

I think if she knew how much her “fans” would sexually harass her and Emma with the idea of Wenclair, she would not have said it at all. I think with how careful Jenna is with what she posts now, she knows better to say things off the cuff or in jest.

Wenclairs have taught her harsh lessons on how to interact with social media and interviews.

I think it says a lot that Jenna has only been photographed with her stylist in the past several years. She has had plenty of opportunities to do pictures with the cast since filming started, specifically Emma and yet…

Wenclairs have been so rabid and hostile to anyone challenging their fantasy that she only feels safe being seen with Enrique Melendez, her employee, or her family. That’s not normal.

I think there’s a reason why Wenclairs hyperfocus on Jenna making the ship happen and not Emma.

Jenna clearly doesn’t mind doing roles that involve sapphic elements (Miller’s Girl and The Fallout). The same cannot be said about Emma. Wenclairs are so quick to jump on Jenna’s CV of “kissing women” and pointing to that as proof of her queerness. By THEIR same logic, what does it mean if Emma has not done any role where she kisses women?

Jenna’s a great actress and I think could have chemistry and a rapport with a tree if the script called for it. I think she didn’t mind the idea of Wenclair at the time (regardless of how farfetched the possibility was or that it was never originally or seriously considered), but I don’t think she ever intended for people to interpret her characterization of Wednesday that way.

I think both Jenna and Emma regret implying or joking about the possibility of Wenclair as the fans started to sexually harass them on IG with comments on how they are for sure lesbians (neither have stated so) under their posts that have nothing to do with the other as well as everywhere else. Neither can celebrate their own separate accomplishments without Wenclairs mentioning the ship or obnoxiously asking “Where’s Jenna/Emma?”

Wenclairs also post explicit art of Jenna and Emma’s likeness in public forums such as Twitter/IG (and tag them or send it to them directly), and harass male coworkers Jenna has romantic scenes with (Finest Kind). Emma’s male co-star in AGGGTM has also experienced harassment.  

Jenna has outright said she quit Twitter because she was sent explicit AI art of herself right after Wednesday took off.

I 100% believe it was sent by a Wenclair account and it was sexual Wenclair art, given the timing and their appalling behaviour to date.

“I ended up deleting [Twitter] about two, three years ago because of the influx after [Wednesday] had come out, these absurd images and photos, and I already was in a confused state that I just deleted it…It was disgusting, and it made me feel bad. It made me feel uncomfortable” (Entertainment Weekly, 25 Aug 2024) (emphasis added).

I think Jenna coming out and specifically saying there would be no romance for Wednesday (Digital Spy, 8 June 2023) after the December 2022 article is another direct consequence of Wenclair harassment. She changed her tune very explicitly and Netflix has not contradicted her, nor have the showrunners, writers, or Burton ever shown committed support for Wenclair. At most it’s “we’re open to it,” and that was before the harassment got as bad as it is.

Jenna’s playfulness is completely absent in all these interviews since Wenclairs started to harass her. Whatever they were “open to,” the Wenclairs shut it violently.

I wasn’t aware until recently that the Wenclairs were so creepy, invasive, and lacking even the barest of social graces that they were also harassing Jenna’s family.

Here is Aliyah, Jenna’s sister, scoffing and clearly exasperated by the shipping. I highly doubt this frustration comes from being asked just once, she’s probably fielded this question way too many times. She no longer follows Emma on IG.

There are also reports of other IG Lives by Aliyah outright stating that the shipping was out of control and detrimental to their family. Of course Wenclairs are completely crickets about this.

It’s bad enough Wenclairs shove their personal fantasies in Jenna and Emma’s face, but they do it to their siblings? Likely when the siblings were minors or barely adults as Aliyah is only 20.

Emma in the Variety, 30 Jan 2023 article also says her sister would show her stuff, meaning her family was also getting exposed to it.

The latest Vanity Fair article states that Jenna won’t ever make any romantic relationship public. (6 August 2024). She states that her relationships are “hers” and that her fans can’t separate the real her and the celebrity they have built up in her head. Id.

She makes an effort to use gender neutral terms when it comes to a romantic partner. I respect that she doesn’t want to come out as either heterosexual, homosexual, or anywhere in between or outside of the binary. That is her choice, I think there’s a vast difference between keeping things private and being in the closet. Either way it’s also NONE OF ANYONE’S BUSINESS.

But I think it’s undeniable that even though she would get a lot of support if she were queer, Wenclairs have made it so unbearable that she won’t reveal a partner or come out at all.

Wenclairs have made it unsafe and hostile for her to acknowledge her own sexuality publicly, much less a partner.

I think it’s too late for Wenclairs to back off, it looks like they already ruined the friendship or at best drove it underground if the total lack of social media content of them together is indicative of anything.

If they are still friends, then they don’t trust Wenclairs with knowing about it and don’t want to share it with them. It looks like Jenna doesn’t want to share any friendship publicly anymore.

Unless it’s to promo movies or a brand deal, she rarely posts pictures on social media anymore. It’s very rare she posts personal pictures of herself doing non-work outings. She’s keeping her personal life extremely close to her chest.

How exactly do Wenclairs expect a friendship to survive constant, sexual harassment? How can they hang out together when everything they do together is sexualized? Why would anyone think the actresses would encourage a storyline that would invite more?

How do they expect Jenna to support Wenclair to become canon if it means her future male coworkers will be harassed? If it means any romantic partner who isn’t Emma in the future will be harassed? If it means that if she were indeed involved with Emma, that there would probably be a bigger explosion of porn that is shoved in their face?

How do they expect Jenna or Emma to support Wenclair if their families are being harassed about it?

Wenclair has been a curse upon them, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

[platonically-loving-alastor]

Aroace Alastor

Hoo boy here we go- This one might make some people mad at me, so I'll preface by saying I do not want to start a fight and as long as you respect my business, I'll respect yours. But let's get this over with-

First off, I genuinely don't understand how some people can see the Ace-In-The-Hole quote and still believe that Alastor is only intended to be asexual and not also aromantic. Yes, the term Rosie used for purpose of the pun was 'ace', but can we look at the context of that moment before jumping to conclusions?

Rosie, motioning to Charlie: "Oh, who's this you brought with you? Come now, Alastor, she's much too young for you! Oh, I'm just kidding. I know you're an ace in the hole!"

Her original statement implies nothing sexual, only that he's involved in a relationship with Charlie, and she follows it up with why she knows that couldn't be because he's an 'ace in the hole'. I don't think you have to read too far between the lines to see that.

I would also like to say that when Vivienne has spoken about his orientation before, I recall her saying that she didn't want to confirm him being aromantic so that she wouldn't 'ruin anyone's fun', which I just feel like is an odd thing to say if she wasn't already explicitly picturing him as aroace. If she thought he had romantic attraction, why wouldn't she just say that? What fun would that ruin? I also feel like keeping things like this ambiguous just to appease the shippers is a little weird, but I digress-

And to those of you who I know are saying "But aromantic people can be in relationships too!!" *deep inhale* yeah I know. I'm not gonna pretend you're not right about that, but there are also aroace people who have exactly 0 interest in romance or sex at all. This is the part of the post that really is based on how I interpret certain moments, but to me he is absolutely one of those people. I don't really know where people get any vibes of him being interested in that stuff. I have never once looked at him and thought "Yeah I could see him in a romantic relationship with *insert character here*". Even aside from attraction in general, since that's what we'd be talking about at this point anyway, he just seems like the kind of guy who'd rather work and live independently instead of relying on anyone, whether practically or emotionally (which is also probably part of the reason he never joined the Vees, but that's another topic entirely). Hell, I'm pretty sure he's in heavy denial about even developing any kind of care or friendship with the people at the hotel (ie. the episode 8 scene with him and Niffty).

The only ships I see him involved in with people he doesn't hate (so ignoring RadioApple, RadioHusk, and StaticRadio. But to be real, maybe the fact all his main ships are enemies to lovers coded says something about the whole situation, but that's just me-) are Charlastor - which I will not even try to discuss here, people aren't gonna like this post as it is - and RadioRose. Rosie and him would at least be fair, if it weren't for one thing (which is also personal opinion on my end), and I don't know exactly how to word it. I'm tempted to say she has wingwoman vibes? But she knows he's aro, so that's not the right word, but there's vibes of like, she probably did act as a wingwoman before she realized that about him or something.. There's also something about her joking around like "Oh this is the girl? You have a girlfriend and I'm only now meeting her?" is almost giving motherly behavior. Idk man they're just besties to me, I could see them in a QPR though (not that they'd probably label it that way, considering the word queerplatonic is likely just complete gibberish to Alastor lmao).

So to summarize: It feels incredibly likely, if not practically canon, that Alastor was written with aromanticism in mind, even if Vivienne refuses to explicitly state it. Subtext and not-that-subtle implications can say just as much about a character as word of God, especially when that God has explicitly told us why she won't confirm or deny this information. Do I think any of this will stop people from shipping him romantically with literally any other character? No ofc it won't, and that's okay, that's just what fandoms do. I do think there's something to say for the fact the one aroace (or even at the very least asexual) character gets constantly shipped with everyone else in the cast, but this post is long enough I think. The only point of posting this is that I wanted to get information out there in one post to say "Hey, let's look a little bit past the surface for a second before saying there's no proof of him being aromantic"

Anyway, thanks for reading, I hope you at least took something away from this

[a-bit-too-much-of-a-zelda-fan]

Guys. Why is there even a debate here. Some of the games were explicitly written to be connected, some of them weren't. Not everything has to fit into one cohesive timeline. As a matter of fact, they can't. Now, there is some more nuance to it. Read below for my explanation (infodump) plus a more nuanced chart.

Red and blue lines are canon within the games' text. Ambiguities are filled in with green. I'll get more into that later. Let's first explain the two completely separate mini timelines.

The Four Swords miniseries stands mostly alone. The Master Sword and the Triforce are present in every other game or (mostly--looking at you, Master Sword in LoZ and AoL) have a good reason not to be, but they are not present at all in these three games. Instead, we have the Four Sword and Light Force. The only wrinkle is that Ganondorf shows up in FSA... so I don't know about that one. I don't think anyone does.

As for BotW and TotK. Oh brother. What do we do with these. Skyward Sword is intended to take place seemingly millennia, or at least several centuries before Ocarina. We see the founding of Hyrule with the first monarch and her chosen knight, the cycle of recurring evil and heroism being established, and the forging of the Master Sword

Wait. What about Rauru and Sonia? I thought they were the first rulers of Hyrule. And if the Zonai were around long before Hyrule, where is any of their presence in Skyward Sword? Huh. Alright. We don't know how much time passed between the first Calamity and the second, but from the past era of TotK to its present, we can account for at least 10,105 years of history. We don't even need to get into how Zora and Rito coexist or anything smaller like that. There's just no fucking way these two games fit with any of the others. Fine, that's fine. Moving on.

There's also a little hiccup around the Oracles. Nintendo seems to go back and force on whether the Oracles feature the same Link as in ALttP and LA, but if they do, it probably makes more sense that Oracles happen before LA (the linked Oracle game ends with Link boarding sailing off on a small ship and LA starts with him on one). So like... I guess they fit there?

Either way, let's take a second to look back at where this idea of a timeline split happened. Remember that WW and TP both clearly take place after OoT. That isn't theorizing, that's in the actual text of each game. The thing is, they're mutually exclusive. TP has Ganondorf being executed, as he would have been after the Hero of Time goes back to his original era and warns Zelda that her plan to get to the Triforce first isn't going to work (which is implied to be what happens at the "The End" screen of OoT). WW has Ganondorf coming back by breaking the seal put on him, and the Hero of Time didn't appear to stop him again (as would happen if Link was sent back in time). Fans started theorizing way back in 2006 that OoT created separate timelines, with WW and TP being mutually exclusive sequels to it as the evidence.

Some fans have asserted that Nintendo just "took" the fan theory. But come on, put everything together here. The texts of OoT, WW, and TP HEAVILY imply the timeline split. The only reason we called it a theory is because the writers didn't literally say "And then the timeline split in two". The texts are pretty clear though. It's the only thing that makes sense. That isn't to say that there needs to be a cohesive timeline, and that the split is the only way to fit it together. No, OoT is connected to both WW and TP no matter what. That was the intent. It's just that the explanation for OoT to have mutually exclusive sequels actually fits neatly into the texts of the games.

And now we come to the tricky part. Put yourself back into the 90s real quick. ALttP seems to have been written as a prequel to Zelda 1, showing Hyrule before its period of decline. Alright, let's just accept that because it may as well be true. The lore at that point was so thin that it made enough sense. I kinda slapped Zelda 1 and 2 at the end there to show it, because we do have a cohesive timeline from ALttP to TFH. That's fine, all well and good.

Likewise, OoT seems to be written as a prequel to ALttP. We see conflict over the Triforce, the origin of Ganon, the seven sages, and an earlier iteration of the Master Sword. Back in 1998, we had no reason to not believe it. These are tenuous connections that are not explicit in the games' text, so I've paired them with green lines to show it.

But wait. ALttP is ALSO mutually exclusive to TP and WW. Oh brother. What do we do about this? Even after figuring out the timeline split in 2006, fans didn't know what the fuck to do with the first four games of this franchise. They could go after TP, but that's even messier than putting them right after OoT. Yuck. This doesn't feel good at all. Oh yeah, and then there's the Four Swords games that don't fit anywhere.

Now you can imagine the position the writers of Hyrule Historia found themselves in when they were tasked with creating an official timeline. Some of the games have certain explicit connections, as detailed in my first chart. But they had to cram everything into one timeline. Well. They knew they had a timeline split in OoT, because that's what the texts of OoT, WW, and TP collectively say. The lore of ALttP also mentions seven sages (or wise men, but let's call them sages), but not a legendary hero. So... if you really stretch your brain out here... it kinda makes sense that there's a timeline where the Hero of Time died fighting Ganon. Maybe. Kinda. Not really, but kinda. And then there's the Four Swords miniseries. Fuck it, throw them in randomly.

The two-way split doesn't disagree with OoT's text at all, which said that Link won. The three-way split does disagree with it by asserting that Link lost. But if we're really trying to fit everything into one timeline, that is the cleanest place to put them. Some people really hate this, but it does seem that those are the same people that demanded that there be an official timeline in the first place. ie the same people who were gonna be pissed off with anything Nintendo gave them that wasn't exactly their own theory being confirmed.

Alright, real talk. The producers of the Zelda series have said time and time again that they think of what would make a fun game then write a story that fits around it. The Wind Waker devs wanted you to sail around the ocean. Then the writers decided "oh, we could put this after Ocarina! After all, weren't they left without a hero? What if Ganon came back with no one to stop him? How would that problem resolve itself? What if the gods just flooded the world?" Then the Twilight Princess devs wanted a spiritual successor to Ocarina, with an epic adventure on horseback across the traditional Zelda kingdom setting. So the writers went "hey, in Ocarina, Link warned Zelda about Ganon, right? What if he was executed then, and then the world was never flooded?"

We have to realize that trying to put games with this design philosophy into a neat little timeline is a futile effort. It's never gonna work because it wasn't designed to. More so than any other storytelling medium, video games take so many approaches to continuity. The Halo games were all meant to be sequential and fit neatly into a strict timeline. Pokemon is all canon within itself but the ties between games are less important than the stories of each game. Mario essentially has no canon except for recurring characters and settings. Zelda is gameplay first, canon second. That's why the two most recent mainline games don't even try to fit in the canon of the previous eighteen. That's just how it works and we're gonna have to accept that.

[kismetconstellations]

I found this Reddit thread, the other day, and got a good chuckle out of this particular response:

And, while Shiro having this sort of raw, incontestable, and unmatched power makes him a True Underappreciated Icon, it also stands as the loudest, most glaring testament to the Voltron: Legendary Defender showrunners not knowing what they were doing.

Basic Writing 101 would suggest that, if you intend to kill an important character off, you don't not only open your series on them, but continue to spotlight them as completely intrinsic to, and inextricable from your still ongoing narrative.

Obi-Wan Kenobi's death impacts Luke Skywalker, but doesn't cause the entire story of the original Star Wars trilogy to fall apart.

When Gandalf appears to die in The Fellowship of the Ring, his absence is felt, and impossible to ignore, but the journey of the other main characters continues, nevertheless, and his revival in The Two Towers only aids the narrative's progression, rather than derailing it.

This is due both to Obi-Wan Kenobi and Gandalf not being the central characters of these stories, and George Lucas and J.R.R. Tolkien knowing exactly what stories they intended to tell. And, not just competently tell them, but tell them in ways that have touched and continue to inspire generations of storytellers and story-enjoyers, alike.

The crew behind Voltron: Legendary Defender, however, seemed to have no idea what story they were trying to tell, to begin with, let alone how to tell it.

On its surface, this is a mecha cartoon series about four teenagers and one adult from Earth who find themselves jetted into space to, under the guidance of an alien princess and her quirky advisor, pilot giant robot lions that combine into an even bigger humanoid robot, and fight to free the universe from the tyranny of an evil alien empire. It's packaged as an ensemble show, in the vein of Teen Titans, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Justice League, most X-Men cartoon series, and so on. Thus, it can be presumed that no one character on the team is more important than any of the others.

While an attempt is, indeed, made to give each of the seven members of Team Voltron their own internal and external conflicts and days in the sun (with the exception of poor Coran, who exists primarily for comic relief, and viewers are scarcely given insight into anything beyond his quirky anecdotes, eccentric mannerisms, and fear of losing Allura), Shiro is overwhelmingly given the most emotional pathos and narrative significance.

The series opens on his abduction and imprisonment.

His escape from Zarkon's ship and recapture by the Galaxy Garrison is the impetus that launches the plot, and brings the five pilots of Voltron together.

He's specifically singled out as the de facto leader of Voltron, and given the most significant role of Paladin of its largest lion, and decisive head.

He has personal ties to all three of the major villains of the first two seasons as a direct victim of their cruelty, and as the series continues, this remains a trait exclusive to Shiro, and Shiro alone.

Sendak is Shiro's personal tormentor, something implied as early as the pilot,

and that continues to be emphasized in Sendak's subsequent appearances.

Haggar was responsible for the experiments conducted on Shiro that lead to the amputation of his right arm and its replacement with a weapon, and feels a sense of entitlement to Shiro's body.

It was Zarkon's ship that Shiro was held prisoner on after losing his crew, Zarkon was the previous Black Paladin, and Zarkon's persisting connection to the Black Lion is a conflict that Shiro ultimately elects to resolve on his own, even if it means a hand-to-hand fight to the death.

There are several episodes (Across The Universe, Space Mall) where the younger Paladins, Allura, and Coran are engaged in comedic shenanigans while Shiro is fighting for his life in explicitly high stakes situations.

Shiro's leadership, compassion, selflessness, and heroism are illustrated over and over again for Shiro's sake, and to it drive home for the audience just how incontrovertibly vital he is in the fight to overthrow Zarkon, and restore peace and liberty to the universe.

"Why are you helping me?"

"As a fighter, and a leader, you give hope."

Instead of writing Shiro as one component of a larger story, making his removal from it possible in the right hands, he was written as the heart of that story. Which rendered excising him from it an exercise in futility, as he is integral to every poignant narrative beat. I.E., his bond with Pidge/Katie being one of the major reasons she chooses to stay with the team instead of venturing out on her own to look for her father and brother.

Shiro is, in essence, Voltron: Legendary Defender's equivalent of Leonardo from the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series--The emotionally beleaguered, self-sacrificing and scarred (as of the end of the third season and entirety of the fourth, in Leonardo's case) leader, who is by far, the most skilled and experienced fighter, and spiritually advanced member of the team.

Leonardo, too, had personal connections to several of his series's most powerful and imposing recurring villains, with two of them (Karai and the Daimyo's son) hellbent on destroying him, specifically.

There are instances (The Shredder Strikes Back Part 1, and the episodes covering the Battle Nexus Tournament) where Leonardo faces higher stakes in juxtaposition to his brothers' lighter-hearted, more comedic exploits, and he underwent the most intensive character arc; battling feelings of anger, guilt, self-loathing, and PTSD before finally achieving inner piece and returning to his family as a more mature, composed, and even greater leader than he was, before.

What the staff behind Voltron: Legendary Defender effectively did is kill their show's Leonardo and replace him with Raphael (Keith). Then, aggressively backtrack on that decision by bringing in a clone of Leonardo who much, much (roughly four seasons) later turns out to have been an infiltrator created by a character with direct relation (Karai/Haggar) to the Turtles and Splinter's greatest enemy (Shredder/Zarkon) brainwashed to attempt to kill the real Leonardo's loved ones. Only for the clone to be taken out of commission during an emotionally-charged confrontation with Raphael, after which his consciousness is overwritten as the Real Leonardo's lifeforce is magically transferred into his body... Just so the newly resurrected and sorely missed Real Leonardo can mostly stand silently around, be disrespected, and do nothing of significance for the rest of the show.

Anyone with any knowledge of the Ninja Turtles franchise, this particular iteration of it, decent storytelling, or even a lick of common sense would tell you that this move is ill-advised, at best, and a terrible idea destined to crash and burn, at worst. But, these showrunners were, evidently, oblivious to their own poor decision-making and ineptitude, and chose to rip out the stitch that held their messily woven tapestry together, causing it to irreparably unravel right in front of their and their audience's eyes.

And, blaming Shiro for that blind incompetence is exactly like blaming that deliberately torn stitch.

[marble-running]

okay hopefully this will not break your inbox this time so long as i don't send 30 images again

Yuri #1 - Anhane

very yuriful. their first (indirect) meeting is when kohane sees an performing, and wishes she could be as confident and passionate as her. this is actually what unlocks their sekai (vbs has some fate shit going on long story) and they get isekai'd into it although they don't remember that or meeting each other. kohane gets lost and ends up in an's dad's cafe some time later, and thinks an is really cool, but she runs out as soon as an starts talking to her. she comes back a week later because an's performance left such an impression on her, and they talk for a bit, then sing together, and an decides kohane is the one for her, so they become partners. i won't spoil the entire main story for you lol so i'll leave it there.

anyway over the course of the game (not in much depth) kohane starts to pick up skill very quickly. she's very naturally talented, moreso than an. once kohane starts getting mentored, an begins to worry that kohane will get too good for her, and leave her behind as a partner. kohane is unaware of all this and herself has some concerns that she's not as confident or impressive as An, though this isn't as much of a problem as an's abandonment issues. anyway they do work things out in the event the vampire yuri card is from.

for some other stuff. kohane is implied lesbian, she's very attracted to an in the second wedding event, and shows attraction to other girls too (mainly haruka). an is also implied lesbian, and her card story for the anhane/minoharu date night event suggests that she's like. legitimately dating kohane. a later card story suggests this too. haruka says that this is the first time an has ever acted like this with anyone, and the way an's parents act around kohane is almost as if she's an's girlfriend.

Yuri #2 - Minoharu

^ moment that is very important to me they're actually my favourite ship in the game. haruka is the one who inspired minori to be an idol, and she has been a huge fan of her for years. however when she meets haruka in person only to learn she quit being an idol, she decides she has to bring back the haruka she's always looked up to. haruka helps out minori with some training and advice here and there, but still doesn't go back to being an idol. it's only once minori finds out what caused haruka to quit, resolves it, and then puts on a show for her does she convince her to become an idol again. basically minori is able to remind her of why she loves performing so much, she just needed to see this person who she impacted so is so endlessless positive and full of love and passion. minori also reminds haruka of the person she looked up to and got her to be an idol but that's important later and i could go on about it for a long time but i think your askbox has a word limit.

minori is also like. very explicitly in love with haruka. not just like a celebrity crush like she's legit crushing on haruka really badly. there's just SO MUCH of it please check the tvtropes homoerotic subtext page for proseka i spent ages on the minoharu folder when i was 16. oh yeah also implied lesbian, though i tend to just assume its canon for her (and an/kohane/saki). it's implied that haruka reciprocates minori's crush to some degree but she's a bit dense sometimes.

Yuri #3 - Shizuai

first off i am still not over this card. okay so airi and shizuku first met when shizuku was new to the industry. shizuku was upset that she was a burden to the other girls in her unit due to being an amateur who didn't even intend to become an idol (some friends signed her up without her knowledge but she attended the auditions and passed). she was starting to cry, so airi gave her a towel to clean up with. this towel is shizuku's bonus item for gameplay purposes.

however, airi also harboured some jealousy at shizuku over time, since shizuku kept getting promoted and was incredibly popular and got lots of opportunities, whilst she essentially became a tv star instead of an idol. when shizuku quits because she wasn't enjoying being an idol anymore, airi lashes out at her. however this is resolved pretty quickly, and they both decide to become idols again for eah other, since they are each others' idol.

they're like. very clearly in love with each other. airi is attracted to shizuku and bought all the magazines she did photoshoots in and compares shizuku to a swan etc etc but shizuku says some REALLY gay shit sometimes like she has this whole monologue about airi's hands in airi's 3rd event and the card above is her returning a "magic spell" gesture airi did for her years ago. also i showed you the romeo and cinderella 3dmv so you get the idea.

Yuri #4 - Emunene

they are very important to me. emu is super friendly and affectionate with just about everyone. nene is her total opposite - shy and has a sharp tongue. there's multiple times early game however where rui (#1 emunene supporter) points out how nene has started acting differently around emu, she's smiling and laughing more, and is the only person she won't leave on read. in emu's first event nene wants to cheer emu up when she's sad, specifically saying that she wants to see emu's smile again. they become a lot closer over the course of the game, and nene's standoffish attitude around emu and slight annoyance at her going on outings with her completely disappear. they regularly go to each others' houses to watch movies or play video games or go shopping together now. they have an event where they enter a gaming contest together which is where this card is from. nene is also the first one to comfort emu when wxs is at risk of breaking up.

in emu's third event the vocaloids list off emu's favourite things as all being activities she does with emu, with luka going as far as to say that emu loves nene. nene gets flustered and tells them they're just regular activities for them. anyway they got "very good friends"d in the official english translation so you know they're gay. also it's loosely implied that they both like girls. they are very cute and very gay and emu clings onto nene in one area conversation to the point nene is blushing and then they share parfaits together and also got one together ON WHITE DAY.

yuri #5 - polyneed

DO NOT SEPARATE. theyre so devoted to each other it's actually sickening. okay so. they've been friends since elementary school, and then decide to form a band because ichika wanted to play some miku songs. when they're walking home one day there's a meteor shower, and decide to keep playing in the band and spending time together forever. ichika has like a baby gay realisation that she wants to be with them forever here and it's what causes their sekai to form. this yearning shit gets serious. anyway as they get older saki is moved to a faraway hospital, shiho cuts them off because she doesn't want her reputation affecting them, and honami cuts them off because she doesn't want to be bullied. when saki gets out of hospital she decides to get the band back together, and this is the plot of the main story.

anyway post main story the gay yearning shit gets serious. so shiho wants to go pro but the rest are pretty casual about the band. shiho is offered to play for a different group, but leoneed are willing to uproot their lives to stay with shiho. shiho also realises that leoneed is the only band for her. the gacha for that event is called 4=1. the event song is called one and starts as 3/4 time but switches to 4/4 time. the card above is from this set. it's all very domestic and happy leoneed life together forever. oh and then in the ichika event that just ran on en last month they reaffirm their promise under the stars. its shakespearean the star motifs here. okay so their recent world link event was insane. i need to waffle. they have this magic flying subway train in their sekai now. and it won't open. but then it opens for shiho but she won't board it until the others are there. because she only wants to go for her dreams if they're by her side. and then at the end of the event they all ride the train together. what the hell.

okay so saki's like. very implied lesbian. there's several indicators that she's into girls. tbh everyone in this game likes the same gender it's a japanese idol mobage they're all gay. fanservice or something. anyway is there a polycule implied in the funny miku taptap game.... i dunno? considering the industry, no, considering honami's self intro where she "sounds like she's confessing to them" and causes them all to blush, maybe. maybe the leoneed writers room is bad at writing friendship and thinks this is "girls hanging out" when it's actually "sapphic yearning off the scale". honami is also ship teased with another girl but i'm not going to put that in this already. ahem. very long ask.

Yuri #6 - Mizuena

okay now here's complex yuri. kanamafu is more yuri than them but alas i am not as invested in them and this ask is also a free pass for me to talk about my favourite prsk ships (minus the two yaois) and brainwash you with my agenda. okay so i've already explained the deal with mizuki and ena on that massive google doc i sent you. so despite their teasing, mizuki really does appreciate ena, and she thinks she's talented and values her art. while kanade is actually the one who saw true worth in ena and her art, mizuki still is supportive of ena.

ena->mizuki is about trust. ena sees that something is troubling mizuki. there's something on mizuki's mind and they won't spit it out. ena wants to know, she's not the most patient person alive, but she decides not to pressure mizuki and tells her she'll wait as long as she has to. but although ena puts her full trust in mizuki, they lie to her and tell her that they'll tell her eventually when they don't plan on it at all, still scared of what will happen when ena knows, and scared of losing ena (and n25), who they didn't even realise viewed them as a true friend until she said it in that moment. mizuki's second event still tears me up to this day it's definitely worth the read and i'm very excited for the anticipated mizuki comes out event in october.

oh yeah also it's implied they both like girls. you already know the deal with mizuki i used they/them here for the most part just out of clarity.

anyway those are my top 6 project sekai yuris. not in order i have all of them ranked equally except minoharu because some ships are more equal than others. if you have any other questions about project sekai shipping please ask me in my askbox or dms i need you to get invested in this game enough so i can ramble and you can comprehend it lmao

[i-heart-hxh]

Do you think togashi Will sink killugon in the future by denying the romantic reading of their relationship?

Hi anon! I strongly don't think that'll ever happen. I truly believe including the romantic subtext between them is intentional on Togashi's part, and I want to be clear I'm not saying that just as a shipper, but as someone who has spent years deeply analyzing the series as a whole, as well as Togashi's influences and interests. The deeper I look into it, the more I'm certain he includes all the things he includes with full intention.

Again, I post this because everyone deserves to see it:

Togashi wanted to create works with queer characters before HxH even existed, and he was deeply invested in this concept! It's possible pieces of HxH even came out of this original idea he had--he did say he might publish it someday in "a different form," so it's not an impossibility.

I think likely one of two things will happen with Gon and Killua's relationship in the future of the manga:

Togashi will bring them back and reunite them, and we'll (at least eventually) get some sort of ending for them that may not be 100% undeniably canonically romantic, but likely continues with the same kind of romantic subtext and ambiguity that's been present all along. (Think something like: They decide to travel together again and promise to stay together without it actually saying if they mean it in a romantic way or not, but there might be hints or wording that imply it is intended in that way, with Togashi trusting those of us who see it that way will understand.) Or maybe we hit the jackpot and he does make it explicitly canon. I don't think that's super likely, but if anyone could get away with it, it would be Togashi, for a whole list of reasons I won't get into on this post.

Sadly he won't reach that point in the manga due to his health and how much of the series remains, but he won't say either way what he intends their relationship to mean, and we're free to continue to interpret it how we want.

There are other possibilities of course, but I think those are the most likely outcomes. I do think he fully intends to reunite Gon and Killua and I've written about this in-depth (whether the series actually reaches that point or not). I don't think he intends to "sink the ship" ever because he's the one giving us an uncountable number of reasons to believe in the ship in the first place... And I do think he's doing it out of his own personal interest, not just for marketing reasons or whatever like we see in some other shounen series. It's deeply embedded in the series and the number of things pointing in this direction is just so, so many.

I don't think there's any reason to be pessimistic about Gon and Killua's future, aside from the factor of Togashi's health. However, I try to take the attitude that, in the case that it doesn't ever get finished (and assuming Togashi doesn't have some sort of back up plan, and I suspect he might), we get to choose ourselves how it ends. I deeply hope we get a canon reunion between them someday, the thought of this happening is something that keeps me going in life, but if we do have to continue to imagine it ourselves, it certainly could be worse.

[wellship]

I love youuu hope youre having a great day <33 also thoughts on sanlu as a ship?

I really like SanLu! They were not on my radar much until some friends started shipping them and that made me understand their appeal... I don't really ship them until after the timeskip (pretty much same as SanUso) but I think they're very sweet. There's something appealing about their dynamic - Sanji with his self-worth issues, and Luffy who loves everyone and all his crew members, but still loving Sanji most specially of all... Whole Cake Island makes SanLu EXTREMELY shippable haha. Sanji has only ever wanted to cook for the people he loves and he found a captain who doesn't want to eat anyone else's cooking for the rest of his life!!

Also for a chef who would rather die than waste food, there's something cute about him ending up with a guy who has an almost bottomless stomach and who will eat any disaster... Sanji can probably experiment so much more in the kitchen knowing that even if it turns out weird, Luffy will still eat it all and nothing will get wasted LOL. Zero waste chef X garbage disposal boyfriend OTP ♥

I think due to his trauma, Sanji can be a very emotionally needy person in a relationship, which might cause issues in with other people, especially if they have their own emotional hangups (like Zoro or Usopp). And obviously it's best for Sanji to address his emotional needs properly and unpack his trauma... but in the short term, it's also just very comforting and refreshing to see him with someone who has literally endless love and time and attention to give. Where Zoro might get annoyed or Usopp might get anxious because Sanji is in a "why would you even love me" spiral, Luffy would just be like UHH I LOVE YOU CUZ YOU'RE SO AMAZING!! LEMME LIST OFF MY TOP FIFTY REASONS. REASON NUMBER ONE: YOU SMELL TASTY ALL THE TIME. REASON NUMBER TWO: YOU HAVE A PRETTY SMILE. REASON NUMBER THREE: IT'S FUNNY WHEN YOU GET EMBARRASSED WHEN I SAY YOU HAVE A PRETTY SMILE. REASON NUMBER FOUR: FRENCH PASTRIES. REASON NU-

Anyway, it's a very cute ship! I kinda have to be in the mood for it, but I've made a bit of SanLu (implied) art before. My "Food As A Love Language" comic isn't explicitly intended to be read as romantic but you can certainly interpret it that way if you want and it explores an aspect of Sanji & Luffy's dynamic that I really like. Thank you for the message! I hope you're having a great day too!!

[yourlocaldisneyvillain]

i would like to be in and foster an online environment in which discussions abt controversial topics can be handled civilly without ppl ganging up and sending an influx of anon hate. i think internet in general is a space where ppl love to be outraged and i want to challenge that. that's partially why i wrote this fic. i am tired of purity culture and of fandom/online hivemind. in a fandom where a lot of ppl clearly enjoy age gap ships, i say, what makes one better and more "morally correct" than another? what makes a sugar mommy au better than a college student x teacher fic? so many fics featuring dark themes are popular in this fandom (don't wanna name any names bc i don't wanna get anyone involved), but THIS is the one ppl are upset about?

i wanna ask a question -- is it possible to write a fic where ppl are NOT morally pure but still somehow manage to live and find happiness? why is it forbidden to explore those themes in fiction? when you look at ppl in real life and how weirdly their lives shape up, and how ppl are flawed and make mistakes and live unconventionally or sometimes immorally or unhealthily, doesn't that interest you? in a sense that you would like to read about it? explore what goes on in the minds of these ppl/characters?

ppl forget exploring a theme in fiction doesn't equate to condoning it in real life. each individual has to use their own best judgement when consuming a piece of fiction. i assume everyone reading my fic is an adult (as i write fics intended for adult audiences) and can form their own opinion.

i would like it if people could use their reading comprehension and critical thinking skills when reading my fiction, without me having to put up exact and specific 1826372929392 word disclaimers, so ppl's fragile feelings wouldn't get hurt. would it really be okay if i wrote in all caps before the story WEDNESDAY IS 22? you could have read the first paragraph and figured that out. i tagged it as teacher-student bc it's playing with the concept, even if they are not a student/teacher in the timeline of the story. i use implied underage sex as a tag bc in the 2nd chapter, and repeatedly throughout the story i reference larissa and morticia's relationship, that has occurred when they were underage. i mention that they engaged in sex. it is only mentioned, and not explicitly described. do you need me to write all of that out under the title in order not to send anon hate and clutch your pearls in disgust? or can you just read the story and decide if it's for you or not?

i implore you to read all of my works as a story, without attaching a moral judgement to characters' actions. if and when you do attach a moral judgement and form an opinion, pls remember those are fictional characters, and i am an author exploring certain themes bc i can and it interests me to do so. i want to write unconventional stories, controversial stories, romantic stories, funny stories, horror stories, i want to explore everything. everybody who reads is invited to look at them as a piece of fiction they can enjoy or not enjoy, and nothing more. i hope to take you on a journey that leaves you with something to remember, good or bad, but impactful.

from now on, i will probably write longer works and venture into darker themes (next thing i'm planning is murder mystery/thriller). there will still be fluffy pieces, but i just want to push myself out of my comfort zone. i would like to associate with fandom ppl who are open-minded and can read a piece of fiction without going ballistic. if you look at things black and white, you likely won't like my fiction -- and that's okay.

however, if for any reason you want to send me hate, you will absolutely be blocked. i am a person, and i do not deserve insults and rudeness in my inbox. it's easy to feel empowered and feel like you're fighting for A Cause (TM) and attach the Bad Guy etiquette to a single person. that can feel like you're solving something. esp when ppl accuse me of promoting actual p3dophilia -- that's a cause everyone can get behind. banish the evil p3do apologist!

i am a victim of child sexual abuse, that went on all throughout my formative years, and into my adult age, simply because i thought that's how it must be. that experience has scarred me beyond belief. i don't want to share the details. it's not smth i'm sharing for pity points, nor do i need anyone's sympathy. however, it is an experience that has shaped who i am, and perhaps for that reason, combined with other things, is why i'm drawn to certain themes in fiction. i don't owe anybody an explanation as to why i choose certain topics, but since there have been idiots in my inbox who have accused me of harming victims of minor sexual abuse, i feel compelled to say something. fuck you for using a group of suffering ppl to support your own flimsy arguments born out of puritanism and inability to cope with heavy themes in fiction.

you are absolutely welcome to CIVILLY discuss your opinions about the fic with me -- off anon, exclusively. but i know nobody will, bc this isn't about the actual contents of my fic, this is about the delicious morally righteous thrill of a witch hunt.

enjoy the fic. i will post next wednesday.

[markantonys]

Idk if you saw the Josha Collider interview but he kinda hints we might get some Randlayne in s3? Which I am curious about that cause I didn't think they'd have time. Also that the Randfear relationship will continue where it left off and get even more complicated (which is very much their Shadow Rising dynamic)

i'm gobbling up these randlayne crumbs!!

but he keeps it very vague here and i don't think there's anything too surprising in what he says - the fact that the show took the time to signal randlayne in 2x08 definitely implies to me that they plan to follow up on it in SOME way in season 3, and given that daniel was already talking about having filmed some lanaeve scenes way back in june which according to the block filming schedule would probably mean those scenes are somewhere in the first block (eps 1&2), i think we can pretty safely assume that the tanchico & waste travel groups won't split up right away, and that we'll see rand and elayne interacting early in the season.

now, that doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be making out all over falme or declaring their love for each other already! "a gradual thing which needs to be organic" definitely makes me feel pretty good about my prior randlayne guess, which is that they'll be getting to know each other and building a connection early in s3 and laying that groundwork for romance, but nothing explicitly romantic will happen between them before they split up for their respective journeys. because they wouldn't have included that Moment between them in 2x08 if they didn't intend to build upon it pretty promptly at the start of season 3, so we've got to be seeing SOMETHING more on the randlayne front, but i don't think it will be anything huge. and what josha says here supports both parts of that prediction, i think! his comments on rand's headspace at the start of s3 also make me think it's unlikely rand will be jumping straight into brand-new romance during the first episode block, and since we know tanchico & the waste are both in, i don't think rand would see elayne again until the second half of s3 at the earliest and perhaps not until s4 (in person, anyway; further randlayne development through TAR chats is not outside the realm of possibility!)

and of course, avirand isn't something josha would be hinting at even a tiny bit in interviews since it's way too much of a spoiler, given that the two of them haven't even met yet, so randlayne being the s3 romance he's discussing doesn't mean avirand won't sneak in there and end up happening first! but all this being said, i am always ready for the show to surprise me and prove me totally wrong haha

and he made intriguing comments about randfear too, like you say!

in a couple of today's other interviews he said he wants randfear endgame djkjfg i'd have a shipping war with him about that, but i love how much he's loving digging into this relationship! lanfear positioning herself as ~the only one who understands him~ despite him being surrounded by his friends definitely sets up some toxic shit and i can't wait to see where that goes in s3. i love Mess!!

(..................i'm saying nothing about book!min positioning herself as ~the only one who understands him~. nothing at all!)

wait a moment. literally right here josha says rand is with his friends at the start of season 3, so that pretty much confirms we'll be starting off with the gang all still together!!!!!! (of course, he could mean just that he's with mat & egwene en route to the waste, but given daniel's confirmation of lanaeve scenes, i think at this point we can feel very very confident in seeing the whole gang still together at the start of the season)

[aroacemisha]

Thought I'd make a post explaining why I don't believe Huntl0w is canon, or was even supposed to be, and the "shippy" stuff in the show was just allowed as a treat for crew members who shipped it.

The post is a little long, so it's going under read more.

--

In the storyboards, the "Huntl0w moments" were more explicitly "shippy" than in the final show. In the final version, they tend to be toned down or even removed completely, even as late as TtT.

Take a look at these comparisons:

storyboard: Hunter changes his expression and pose, drawing attention to the blush, has stronger implications of attraction

final version: no change in pose, only slight change in expression, the blush is subtle, almost unnoticeable

storyboard: a full-face blush on Hunter (similar to how Amity sometimes blushed at Luz), Willow is looking at him while he nervously looks away, the frame is also a closeup focused on them, with Gus being in the periphery

final version: lighter blush on Hunter, who also looks flustered by the embrace in general rather than Willow specifically, all three are equally focused on in the framing

This shot was completely cut, Hunter neither blushes nor puts his hand on Willow's shoulder, and he doesn't even look at her

This particular one could have possibly been a jokey thing not meant to end up in the final version, but it was included as the final shot with the storyboards that did make it to the final version, so I'm including it here:

I'm not gonna put this last one in, since Hayley doesn't want her art reposted, but I would encourage you to look at her storyboard of the Hunter haircut scene vs. the final version. You'll notice that the final version is less "shippy" and completely removes any implied reciprocation from Willow.

And here's a couple interesting captions from Hayley's Tumblr posts:

(Seeing how I've shown that the toning down continued afterwards, even up to TtT, it seems less like "not yet", and more like "it's not supposed to happen at all")

I find it noteworthy that she referred to her "shippy stuff" with Huntl0w as "highly interpretable" even as late as TtT. (And also that she acknowledged it is interpretable, unlike a good chunk of the fandom)

If the ship was truly intended to be confirmed canon, why were the "Huntl0w" scenes still being toned down and made more ambiguous and interpretable even as late as TtT, the episode right before the supposed "confirmation"? This makes me think Huntl0w isn't meant to be canon, but the crew were allowed to have a treat for all their hard work and insert some fan service.

--

The other reason why I think it's small hints allowed as a treat for the shippers on the crew, rather than an intended storyline, is because all of the "Huntl0w" in the show is very surface-level. It's either not meant to be a romantic arc at all, or it's an extremely poorly written one. There is no written storyline between them, just blushes superficially added on top.

They barely interact on screen between ASiaS (the episode where they just met for the first time) and FtF (the episode where they supposedly "got together", or at least were "confirmed as mutually in love"), and the entire "buildup" to the "romance" is a handful of small, quick blushes from Hunter. I didn't even notice the blushes/realize they were inserted as a "shippy" thing until King's Tide, and I'm not the only one, I've seen other people say they didn't notice either, some didn't even notice the one in KT.

And Willow didn't show any interest/hints of a crush at all before FtF. No blushes, no unusual behavior around Hunter, nothing.

The only arguments claiming she did show hints of a crush are varying degrees of stretches, or even outright insults to her character if you think about it. Because, for example, they imply that she would be fine with seriously injuring a friend, or letting a friend fall to their death, if they weren't secretly her crush.

You may say, "but they stayed at the Noceda house for a couple months, they probably got closer/Willow developed a crush then!", and to that I will point out that there's no change between how Willow and Hunter interacted at the end of season 2 and how they interacted in TtT, so it seems that there wasn't much off-screen development either.

(Also! If all of the important relationship development for two major characters happens off-screen, they should not end up in a romantic relationship together, that is bad writing)

Additionally, neither were shown or implied to be trying to spend more time with specifically each other, they're mainly shown interacting in a group setting with all of the Hexsquad, and the one time it's just the two of them is incidental, Willow just happens to pass by the bathroom while Hunter is cutting his hair and happens to notice it.

Even in FtF, the episode that went harder/was more in-your-face with the "Huntl0w" moments, it remains pretty surface-level. All you'd have to do to completely cut it is remove the blushes. The story/plot or the way they talk to/interact with each other wouldn't have to change at all. There's no written romance, just superficially added blushes.

(And while Willow does finally blush in this episode, it's only after Hunter gets powers and saves her life, which makes it come off as either her feeling like she "has to" reciprocate now, or her only finding him attractive now that he has powers. I'm sure neither is intentional, but just because it's unintentional doesn't shield it from criticism)

And now, let's do a comparison to Lumity and Raeda, in both development and confirmation.

Luz and Amity's relationship was developed on screen for about 10 episodes or so from the start of their friendship to them eventually becoming a couple. They ask each other out on screen, and after that point, they are referred to as girlfriends and kiss on screen several times. They're as explicit as you can get.

Raine and Eda are implied to be exes in Raine's introduction episode, and it's confirmed later, so they have an established romantic history, and after several episodes with on-screen development of their relationship, in the finale, Eda kisses Raine several times after getting them out of Belos's corruption.

As mentioned before, Hunter and Willow barely interact on-screen between ASiaS and FtF, so there's no development to speak of. And in the supposed "confirmation" scene for Huntl0w... All Willow says is that Hunter is important to her too, as a response to the earlier scene where he said "You guys mean the world to me", referring to both her and Gus, and she holds pinkies with him.

Saying someone is important to you is pretty unspecific, and it's especially so here, since she says it in reply to him saying both she AND Gus were important to him (as if to imply they're important to each other in the same way), and hand holding isn't inherently romantic. I don't know where this idea came from, and it really needs to stop.

[Side note: I've also noticed that people who insist that Willow holding hands with Hunter can only be read as romantic don't have the same energy for when Willow holds hands with Amity. It seems that either a) certain people just take whatever position suits their current argument, and take mutually exclusive positions at different times, or b) they are just being heteronormative, or c) possibly both]

As for the epilogue, they do interact again, but there's no blushing, or kisses, or anything like that. They're just hanging out. Again, hand holding is not romantic.

The one "shippy" thing in the epilogue is a single picture hidden away in a dark corner, like an easter egg, and the blush is also once again one-sided from Hunter. Willow looks like she's teasing him.

You may say "but the ending where they're all saying goodbye!!".

And to that I will point out that while it starts with just Hunter and Willow holding each other, Willow also pulls Gus in. This is an Emerald Trio hug, not a Huntl0w hug.

Additional note: the TOH Wiki acknowledges that while the ship was hinted at, it was never confirmed. And those are people who still list Hunter and Willow as each other's love interests, despite the admitted lack of confirmation. Take it from them.

[Edit: I've been informed that apparently users of the Wiki acknowledge that the ship isn't canon, and someone has actually tried to remove the "love interest" bit from the character pages, since it isn't confirmed, but it was reverted, and when they asked about it, they were told that since it was hinted at in the show, it can stay. The insistence on still listing them as love interests, despite it only being speculation/headcanon, is more of a higher staff problem than a userbase at large problem]

As a final note, Dana has done plenty of Lumity and Raeda art, but I'm still yet to see a Huntl0w drawing from her, even though she has posted drawings that feature both of them. I've only seen Huntl0w art from other crew members, but not Dana herself, and I feel like that's worth mentioning.

(She has also explicitly encouraged "death of the author", which, for those unaware or misinformed, means ignoring what the author says outside of the work, and interpreting and analyzing said work based only on what is in the work itself)

--

TL;DR: The "Huntl0w" stuff in the show is toned down compared to the storyboards, it never got confirmed, unlike Lumity and Raeda, and is likely in the show mainly as a treat for the hard work of the crew members who ship it. What we have in the show gave just enough fan service to shippers, while keeping it ambiguous enough that you don't have to read it as romantic.

[dragonflight203]

Mass Effect 3 replay, Ex-Cerberus Scientists:

-The hide out is a turian world that’s levo. Gellix. Pretty good hiding spot – everyone forgets it exists.

-Jacob gets quite the heroic opening, putting himself in danger.

Except for the part where all the scientists die anyway. They couldn’t have let him save even one?

-Jacob and Liara greet each other like they know the other well, which is odd. They barely met in Mass Effect 2.

Jack, by comparison, commented on barely knowing Liara in the Grissom Academy mission and saved all her students.

Poor Jacob is getting the short end of the stick. As usual.

-Brynn casually mentions that she was researching technology from the Collector Base.

Shepard says nothing about this despite the fact that they destroyed the base. You’d think that would at least warrant a question on what the hell Brynn is studying.

-Cerberus killing scientists after they make a breakthrough is peak stupidity. Did they not expect the scientists to put two and two together?

Also, it’s just dumb in general. It’s not like there’s a limit on how much one scientist can accomplish. They could have had the scientists achieve more breakthroughs.

The indoctrination is starting to get to TIM.

-If you go renegade, Archer says David was all he had left.

From what? We never did get their backstory or why David was with Archer.

I think the implication is that their parents are dead, but it’d be nice to learn some details.

-I do think Archer is sincere in his regrets.

The part where if you go renegade he kills himself on the spot helps clarify it.

There’s not even an option for a paragon interrupt to save him!

-If you go paragon, you learn TIM insisted on replacing David with someone else with his abilities.

This is the problem with those “rogue cells”. They’re still doing what TIM wants. He just prefers not needing to explicitly order it.

-Archer claims he destroyed all his research so Project Overlord is over.

Were there no backups? TIM seriously lets his scientists work without requiring them to upload documents to a system he controls?

That’s terrible document management. He deserves to lose all the research he paid for.

-Brynn says there are 43 scientists.

I’d like to remind everyone that in Mass Effect 2 Cerberus was a small organization. Now there are 43 rogue scientists, some scientists have already been killed, and there’s an endless horde of troops and ships.

Cerberus in Mass Effect 3 is ridiculous. They’re less believable than the Reapers.

-I read somewhere that in Mass Effect 3 the original intention was that you would have a mission with each of your prior companions.

If so, Jacob was obviously the intended companion for this mission. The writing builds up like he’ll join you, then out of nowhere he decides he’s too injured to do so after all.

-It was sensible for the scientists to take their loved ones when they ran. Cerberus could easily have used them as hostages.

-It’s implied that the research the scientists were working on were the implants that indoctrinate Cerberus troops.

A bit ironic that the troops they’re responsible for indoctrinating are now out to kill them. You reap what you sow.

-Speaking of, someone here worked on a poison tailored to turians. I’d like to have some words with them about what they thought that would be used for.

-One scientists says they should have gone to Sanctuary.

Hmm. So even within Cerberus the truth about Sanctuary is restricted.

Logical enough – Cerberus is supposed to operate in cells. Sanctuary should be strictly need to know.

You’d think ex-Cerberus scientists would be more skeptical about a place that sounds too good to be true, though.

Apparently only Volus can recognize scams in the Mass Effect universe.

-I think the Jacob/Brynn relationship would be treated more warmly if it couldn’t result in Jacob cheating on Shepard. It’s rather sweet.

(Jacob’s known Brynn for a year. It’s been about six months since ME2. If Jacob hooked up with Shepard in ME2, he could already have been emotionally involved with Brynn. Is the exact timeline ever clarified…?)

-If you ask about his father, all Jacob says it haunts him.

Brynn deserves a reward for making this man open up. An entire game later, and Jacob still provides barely enough personal informtation to Shepard.

Meanwhile, Jack’s stabilized and adopted a bunch of children.

Figures Jack hordes the character development and Jacob gets barely any. He didn’t have a mission to force him to grow.

-Jacob says Tim became obsessed with indoctrination.

Who else was obsessed with indoctrination? Saren. He had a whole facility dedicated to researching it.

Is TIM having the same creeping doubts that he may be indoctrinated as well?

Even if he won’t admit it, that may be why he’s so focused on learning how indoctrination works.

-Jacob gets another heroic moment at that end. He even gets to save people this time.

Did the writers forget he’s biotic? All he uses is his gun.

-Jacob keeps promising drinks but never delivers.

Even on the Citadel, you just meet him in the hospital.

They animated a whole ass bar. Let Jacob buy me a drink!

Normandy

-Kaidan has better content than Ashley in ME3.

It makes me feel bad for Ashley - in ME3 she mostly just drinks and stays in Starboard Observation.

Kaidan has conversations with other characters and struggles with philosophical questions.

Ashley deserved better.

-Of course Kaidan wonders about what other good people may be trying to break away from Cerberus and what can be done for them. Paragon of paragons who wants to help everyone.

-He also asks if TIM was ever a good person and if Shepard every saw this coming.

Shepard says no, they did not.

Also, if you go paragon Shepard says he got progressively worse.

Shepard, Kaidan, have you both blanked on everything you learned in ME1? Cerberus murdered a colony. If TIM was ever good, it was long before the games started.

-The Garrus – James shit talk is excellent. You can tell the writers had fun with it.

Citadel

-Brynn wants to name the baby after Shepard. As in, Shepard’s last name – not their first.

Obvious reasons are obvious, but it is funny to see the writers poking at no one using Shepard’s first name for them.

-I never get an email for Miranda’s third meeting. I just see her name on the map and go find her.

-Why can’t Miranda tell Shepard why she needs Alliance resources?

Giving her resources without an explanation is pushing it. She was a formerly high ranking Cerberus agent and Cerberus just attempted a coup on the Citadel. It’s a lot of trust to give her anything.

Even if you trust her change of heart - what if Cerberus was blackmailing her? Oriana’s safety for Alliance resources? Which would Miranda choose?

I’m not sure she wouldn’t give the resources to Cerberus. For Oriana, there’s very little Miranda wouldn’t do.

-I dislike that the game doesn’t let you choose how to respond to Miranda wanting to install a control chip in you.

Even if you go renegade, you reassure her it’s okay.

You should be able to be angry or agree at Miranda’s hypocrisy.

It’s just another example of ME3’s railroading of Shepard.

-The timing here is also interesting. This is the start of the Rannoch arc.

In ME2, Admiral Xen wanted to regain control over the geth.

Here, Miranda speaks about how she rebelled against her father’s control over her and how she regrets attempting to control Shepard with a control chip.

Unfortunately, Xen’s whole “control the geth” agenda is dropped in ME3 so the potential parallels are lost. The comparison of controlling synthetics by rewriting them and organics via a chip could have created some compelling contrasts. Hell, throw the indoctrinated Cerberus troops in there too.

Shepard says they would rather be dead than the controlled. How do the geth feel?

They choose the Reapers over death. Then they choose to rebel against the Reapers control and fight them too – assuming they survive.

I think something interesting could have been done with all this, and it’s a shame we never got it.

[grollow]

Uh hi, hello there! Sorry to bother but you're the only person I can ask this since your username is named after the ship (that and I've seen your works around and seen you mentioned by countless artists/writers so to me, you're like a higher being in HK Community so by default, you have most answers)

So why's Grollow such a popular ship? I've seen like 10 fanarts of it passed by my dashboard every time I'm here. Can you tell me what's going on rn? Is an event going on with this ship? Was there a confirmation from Team Cherry these two had a thing? Is this HK people's way of coping while they wait for Silksong? All fanfic/arts of it is amazing, don't get me wrong but I've recently got into HK so I'm not sure if I like it yet nor even any ships at all in general besides canon plus that hc of Grimm and Radi being twins makes me confused on why Hollow would be with somebody who's sister tormented them for so long. Makes it so overwhelming, you know?

Sorry if this offends you in any way. I don't mean to do that. I just want to know what's been going on and why's it so popular is all. Again apologies for being rude if I am

Hi Anon!

Gotta admit, this is the first time someone’s ever called me a Higher Being in anything, hahaha. Especially since I’m not only not the origin of this ship (I got the username from my sweet friend @sundimus who let me have it) and I’m also relatively new to the fandom. I think I’m just very loudly outspoken. I don’t usually get into ship discourse, but this sounds like it’s coming from a place with good intentions, so I’ll reply to you with my genuine opinions!

So before I go into explaining why I like Grollow, I will preface with this answer: shipping is a highly subjective topic. In any fandom, bluntly. Sometimes people pick “I like these two because they have similar names” and sometimes people go “I like them because I think they’d be pretty together” etc. Shipping in every single fandom will always be based in large on people’s own personal headcanons and aesthetics. And for everyone who picks a ship not explicitly confirmed in canon, it’s for whatever reason they want, and for the most part I am very ‘ship and let ship’ while avoiding whatever I personally am not interested in.

(FTR, I also think this is an attitude most people should adopt. You don’t have to like what I like. I don’t have to like what you like. What you write or draw is absolutely none of my business. You like sparkle? Draw sparkle.)

Toward that end, I am not here to convince you to like Grollow, nor am I here to imply that disliking it is wrong. It is not a canon ship. There is nothing in canon to indicate that Grimm and Hollow have ever met. It’s not confirmed by Team Cherry, and I don’t think shipping is a ‘coping’ mechanism for waiting for Silksong. I think why people ship things vary anywhere from ‘they’d be cute’ to ‘I saw artwork I liked of them’ to ‘this particular fanfic’s dynamics made me love them.’ And that’s true for ANY non canon pairing! And all of them are valid reasons. Hell “I ship this because my friend does” is even valid. Shipping is such a subjective thing that people can and should do what makes them happy and stay in their own lane, really.

I’m a big fan of the old fandom term ‘YMMV’ (Your mileage may vary). There are some ships I really don’t like. There are some I straight up do not understand. And there are others, like Grollow, that I stand in the corner yelling from the rooftop about. As long as ship is tagged correctly, I am very “if you see something you don’t like but it was tagged, that’s on you. The blacklist exists for a reason.”

Sorry if this kinda sounds a little mean, I don’t intend it to. I just see a lot of people being shamed for liking pairings (And I have personally been shamed for liking Grollow – not by you, but there’s been a few anons I’ve ignored) and I don’t agree with, or support that. I want to make that clear.

So with all that out of the way, time to talk about my * favorites * ~

There are a LOT of reasons that I think Grimm and Hollow work. To start with the most superficial one: they are palette matches. Grimm’s color schemes are red and black, Hollow’s are pale blue and white. They complement each other very well. They also have similar movesets canonically. Ever seen the video from Fireb0rn of the mod where they’re fighting together in the Colosseum? Where their AI practically works together? It’s delightful. It’s undoubtedly unintentional by the developers, but it’s absolutely wonderful and gives me life.

From a lore reason, I will say that I have not, and will never, headcanoned Hollow as the type to blame Grimm for something that his sister (Bc I also subscribe to “they’re siblings your honor”) did. My personal headcanons aside for Hollow, blaming Grimm for the Radiance is something that seems wildly unfair – and since Hollow is a blorbo that is mostly a blank slate in canon, I say they’d never do that.

(I’d like to point out though – so many people ship them with moth OCs. The same argument could be made there. If they’d blame Grimm for Radi, why not her moths who are indirectly responsible for her never dying properly? The answer is because none of us want to believe Hollow is the type to hold a grudge over that against uninvolved people.)

Grimm is literally the antithesis to both the Radiance and to the Pale King in terms of what he stands for. They run from and fear death to varying degrees. Grimm embraces it. He welcomes it. From death he is reborn, and so instead of running from it, he runs towards it. He’s a Higher Being who directly involves himself with mortals instead of staying aloof. He uses a mortal vessel (just like the vessels were created to hold Radi, his own are created to hold him) but everything in canon suggests that, at the very least, this is an agreement, not forced. You CAN argue that he’s forcing Grimmchild into this ritual and that it’s bad – Brumm/the Banishment ending certainly implies that – but I’ve never subscribed to it because every other character’s dialogue disagrees with that. I’ve personally always took it to be ‘Grimmchild and Grimm 100% agree to this.’

In this regard: They are cinematic foils. Grimm, who dies to be reborn, a willing vessel for the Nightmare flame, who chooses this existence. Hollow, who cannot die despite trying, a ‘willing’ (if very heavily forced into it) vessel for the Radiance, who clearly does not want this existence and is doing it out of a sense of duty—to their father, to Hallownest, to whatever motivation you decide to chose for Hollow here.

Canon is very loosey-goosey in personalities. The beauty of environmental storytelling is that we can fill in a lot. And as the above: I’ve filled in that they are foils. That’s where my mind took it.

So how do these people who are veritable opposites meet, how can they become romantically attached?

I took one look at the Radiance and went ‘abusive.’ I have my own interpretations of her, but the easiest explanation without this becoming entirely about her is one of Grimm’s lines from my own fanfic: “Those with similar scars recognize them in others.” [1]

Abusers are people first and foremost. The Radiance, in my headcanons, is very abusive to everyone in her life. That includes Grimm. I do not see them as loving siblings, because her nature is very self-absorbed; she clearly, canonically, does not see other peoples emotions. Do I think she intended to hurt Grimm? Probably not. But I do believe that she was abusive, because someone who was willing to wipe out Hallownest to try and maintain control would not simply be that way overnight, and only at one specific enemy. People like that… they’re like that to everyone. It’s not an if they abuse you. It’s a when they do it.  

Starting to see where I’m going with this? I believe that the Radiance was cruel to Grimm – and that he’d see very similar traits to himself in Hollow.

I also believe that if you headcanon that Hollow can dream – before, after, during the imprisonment – there’s no way in hell they did not have Nightmares. The most common interpretation in fandom is after imprisonment with the belief that the seals would’ve kept Grimm out (a theory I subscribe to) but it’s clear that Hollow could dream when Radi was sealed within them. For this ship to work, most people say that they can continue to dream after. And nightmares would naturally bring them to Grimm’s realm. I personally subscribe to the belief that he would absolutely interfere to help them, because as I said: I believe he has similar scars, and he’d want to help.

A very common fandom interpretation is ‘Hollow is afraid of Grimm’ and I think that’s very valid. They probably would be at first. He’s a dream god. That’s frightening to them after what they’ve been through. For this ship to work, both of them have to be willing to work through that. Which circles to my next point of: this ship only ever works if its written with them becoming friends first. Friendship based on patience, understanding, and respect, as well as healing. Hollow straight out of the egg, in my opinion, ain’t crawlin’ into anyone’s bed. You’d be lucky if they even wanted to crawl into their own. Pretty sure they just want to sit and remain still until a new order comes. Poor traumatized thing. In every interpretation of this pairing that I’ve liked, Grimm has been working with Hollow to work through their pain, from a place of genuine understanding and empathy from what they’ve experienced. [2]

As for how this friendship becomes ship? The Author Is Demi, my friend, and I headcanon both of them to be as well. Any good romantic relationship should, in my opinion, have a very strong foundation based in friendship, in genuine fondness for one another. And it is COMPLETELY OKAY to leave their relationship here, if you’re ‘hey I support aroace’ or even just think that’s all that it needs to be. But me? I’ve always looked at Hollow as someone who loves too much, loves too deeply, pours their whole heart into something. It’s a hard heart, riddled with scars, from people who have mistreated it throughout their life, but their base nature is someone who does nothing halfway. You get everything or you get nothing.

So of course I headcanon them as a romantic, who wants someone to love and accept them unconditionally, who wants someone who sees their scars and rather than wanting to fix them, wants to complement them. Of course I headcanon them as someone who, below their façade of feeling nothing, wants to be complete, wants to belong, and wants to be good enough when all their life, they’ve been told that what they are is wrong, isn’t okay, isn’t right. And Grimm, who is old enough to understand that and may even have similar history depending on how he’s written, is perfectly suited to do all of those things. To be that person. Because, personally? I believe he wants all the same things. Someone to accept him as he is. Someone who is not afraid of death. Someone who isn’t intimidated by the Ritual. Someone who will stay.

In short: They’re cute, your honor.

At the end of the day, it’s all about what you think fits with the characters. Some people write them as never getting along. Some people write them as just friends. Some people write them as straight enemies. Since they never meet in canon, it’s an open sandbox. This is the castle I’m choosing to build. You can, and should, build whatever one you like.

Obligatory: queer platonic relationships are ALSO valid, if you wanna take that spin on it. My q key is being a jerk to me so I was avoiding that word in this massive reply dskdksgj but it's still very valid

But if my soap box has brought you onto team Grollow, or at least opened your mind to the possibility, I’d be happy to recommend some of my favorite fics. If it hasn’t, I hope I’ve at least clarified things for you, anon. Thanks for your question!

[1] White and Gray, chapter 33: The Last Laugh is Mine

[2] Yes, I know, my most popular Grollow fic doesn’t wildly play with this. Shades of Black does. Living Dead was more ‘for fun,’ less ‘I feel the need to explain this ship.’

[fullscoreshenanigans]

Love the way the anime adapted this bit of the exchange between the trio in chapter 27 and chapter 28 where Ray reveals he hasn’t experienced infantile amnesia.

You can feel the profound weight of a lifetime of suffering and loss on his face as he grapples with trying to keep his emotions out of what he’ll say next, because he never brings up how what happened in all the years prior made him feel, not even when Emma provides him with an opportunity where she prompts him with speculation about what it must have been like seeing dozens of their siblings off and being powerless to do anything about it in episode 5

(Chapter 181.1)

when she remembers how shaken up Ray was when they were younger (even going so far as to say "but…Ray is never happy" in the "NER in Bird Cages" short story in the first light novel, though in perplexity as opposed to being passive-aggressive about it) and now finally has a devastating answer as to why.

But Ray never explicitly colors his recollections with emotions when discussing them with Emma and Norman, how what was happening around him and what he and Isabella did made him feel, and only displays the full anguish of what that did to him when he's speaking with Emma on the night of January 14th. While the two knew Ray intended to kill himself to serve as a distraction for them to escape, Emma never knew how deeply he internalized his self-loathing and the belief that he deserved to die for his actions and inaction until that eventful night, otherwise she would have asked one of the other kids to go talk to him, if not just have said “fuck it” and did it herself, Isabella's watchful eye be damned. She would not have let him suffer to that degree so long on his own; it goes against every fiber of her being.

Ray keeps all of that inside though, because he doesn't want their pity. He doesn't believe he deserves any when he actively chose to become Isabella's informant and which children would be shipped out early due to his experimentation with the trackers, least of all from the two people who are firmly categorized as genuinely good and worth saving in his mind. He loves them enough to squash down his humanity and die for them.

Yet there’s also that desperate (and what he considers selfish) desire to not be alone in this anymore.

I imagine among the vast array of emotions he was experiencing on the day of Conny's shipment was a guilty sort of excitement at being able to talk with them about the truth of the house, though he would never admit to it during this time because he deems his wants as irrelevant and unworthy.

But even after so much is out in the open between them now—how he tried to poison them against Don and Gilda and the other children by implying one of them was a traitor, how he experimented on at least one other child to ascertain how the trackers functioned, how he’s been Isabella’s dog for half his life—they still care about him and believe in him, and are earnestly reaching out to connect with him.

In a raw and selfish moment—because he's been steeling away his heart for years so that his resolve doesn't crumble—Ray gives in to those wants and reaches out to meet them. (There’s the argument that he’s desperate and willing to concede almost anything to strengthen his credibility with them so he can get his plans back on track and secure his end goal, but I like to think it’s mixed with this too.)

There's more focus on Norman than Emma during this part, likely as a callback to the tense confrontation they had during episode 5 where Norman was very cool and trying to quell how hurt he was by Ray’s betrayal and deceit. Now he’s taken what Emma said to heart, and it led him to the realization that Ray was willing to suffer in silence and die for them, willing to poison his relationship with them so they would distance themselves from him and so his death would cause them less grief.

(Chapter 29)

This is also after Norman’s fully committed himself to dying for Emma and Ray (and the other Grace Field children) and lied about what he plans to do the following day, so there’s this need for as much honesty between them as they can give because he hates leaving off on such terms. Unlike the time where he instigated a confrontation between them and went in combative in the event Emma was wrong, here he’s approaching Ray with a genuine desire to understand him. He wants to give him a chance to vent, know more about the him that he kept under such rigid constraints for so long, and to try and internalize what Ray’s saying to draw strength from the next day as he walks to the gate. This also why he verbalizes Ray’s struggle of six years of collecting parts for the deactivator and the focus switches to it as a physical manifestation of Ray’s hardships and love he holds in his hands (with the anime altering the manga's order of events so Ray gives him the tracker before discussing his memories of Grace Field Headquarters to facilitate this).

The lighting leaves such an acute awareness in Norman’s eyes and such a haunted look in Ray’s while the former is more illuminated and the latter is in shadows. I love that Norman holds Ray’s gaze during this entire exchange and doesn’t look away even during the brief bit of silence, letting Ray know that no matter what he says, he won’t shy away from sharing the weight of his reality. He wants to understand him after he spent a lifetime of not being able to be honest about the things that hurt him the most. There’s layers of tragedy to that, one being that they’re both still holding back at this point, but there is some progress on the front.

Likewise, how Ray’s eyes are obscured when he reveals he’s always known, and the way Norman doesn’t suppress his reaction as the light shimmers in his and the skin around them and his brow crinkles in muted grief. He vowed to himself not to look away at Ray’s suffering, but just like he quickly realizes the implication of Isabella being at the gate and how that’s reflected on his face in episode 1

the gravity that’s implicitly woven into those three words is heartbreaking, and it strengthens his resolve that he's making the correct choice. Ray has carried this burden for so, so very long; now it's his turn to bear it (though the perceived cost is unfathomably cruel to expect of anyone, least of all an eleven-year-old).

And on Ray’s end, we have the perspective flip of this reflection:

Because he remembers the years of Norman’s love and kindness when all Norman understood about the situation was that one of his two best friends was sad.

While he won't give up all his secrets to him and Emma, in this moment where they're on the precipice of potentially losing Norman if anything should go awry, he exposes another painful layer of his past.

It's a double-edged sword though, because while it does bring them all closer together emotionally, Ray assumes that by additionally appealing to Norman's logical side with the information he can provide him about headquarters, it'll convince him that hiding out in the forest for a few months is a viable option. In actuality, Norman's already made his final decision.

[burinazar]

the tenor of some discussion spaces for my current main fandom is so antithetical to the 'analysis/reinterpretation beyond the bounds of what it is likely the author actually intended to imply is enjoyable for what that interpretation itself offers' culture of most other fandom spaces i've been in over the last twenty years. that is, i am not convinced that many people who post in like the Abyss subreddit and stuff would see the point of analysis that a fan knows is probably not what the author intended, but still thinks would be cool/poignant/thought-provoking as a lens to view the work through, regardless of (sometimes explicitly knowing there is a lack of) authorial intent.

like. for comparison, consider that most spheres of Star Trek fandom contain many people who would totally *get* what you were doing if you posted a meta reinterpreting an episode as being about a different or more specific social issue than the one that we can tell the authors intended it as a metaphor for. (i mean do i even need to say which DS9 episode can be reanalyzed thru any of a number of gender and sexuality related lenses even though it's likely it was meant for one or two in particular)

relatedly a good portion of them would *get* what you were doing if you were heavily invested in a ship with no chance of having ever been intended by the showrunners to be seen as canon. yes i do think that the brain places that lead to the best written and most intricately characterized ship fic and the best pieces of non-fic meta and analysis as described above are comparable brain places, the 'pick apart what i like about it and put it back together, in the forms most beauteously to my tastes' brain places. i know from experience the same people are often the ones reading and writing both at once.

....Trek fans are perhaps primed to respect the culture of reinterpretive fanwork because they get that Liking Spirk is so valid (tm) that it saved the show and created fan culture as we know it even if Roddenberry did not intend for us to Think That Was The Case.

anyway. this is so much the case that i think when i get more stuff onto the neocities i may have to actually put in some sort of disclaimer somewhere that's the meta version of a don't like don't read warning and/or explaining death of the author as it applies to meta and perhaps fanwork in general

[solip-cide]

RULES/INFO

_________________________________________________

; —ABOUT MUN/MUSE

Greetings and Salutations, I'm Evan! I am a 19 year old Transman who goes by He/Him pronouns. I can be pretty shy at times when it comes to people, but I'll try my best. So don't be afraid to send me a chat! :D

Though please keep in mind I am autistic and may struggle with understanding or may misread your massage and I apologize bin advance for that.

My portrayal of patrick will be heavily book based. However parts of him will be inspired from the movie, along with the faceclaim of owen teague. As well as a few personal headcanons sprinkled in there.

; — R U L E S

First things first. I will not do smut under any circumstances. Certain sexual themes MAY be IMPLIED.

DO NOT INTERACT IF YOU ARE EASILY TRIGGERED.  I may repost aesthetics that I associate with my muse that may be triggering. Patrick could be questionable in his actions and I do not want to be responsible if you are triggered by something he does or says. When reposting possible triggering aesthetics, I will make sure to put a trigger warning. IF YOU HAVE ANY SPECIFIC TAGS YOU'D LIKE ME TO PUT, DO NOT HESITATE TO MESSAGE ME!

Patrick may or may not use homophobic slurs. I will tag so this doesn't make anyone uncomfortable.

Ⅰ. Since I am a semi-selective blog. I might not always do follow you back. No offense intended, but I might simply believe that our writing styles clash or even the simplest thing. The other source materials are unknown to me. I am, however, highly receptive to crossings and ocs. Please note that I only collaborate with muns who are at least 18 years old or older.

ㅤⅠⅠ. RP manners at its most basic. avoiding god-modding My muse is not under your control; yours is. Let me respond at my leisure, I will get to you as soon as I can. Please be aware that I occasionally have a lot going on outside of tumblr and that it can take me a while to respond.

III. SHIPPING... When it comes to shipping with my muses, CHEMISTRY IS A MUST. I'm here to write, first and foremost, and if shipping arises as a result, I'd be pleased to investigate it. When we first start working together, I don't automatically think that I'm going to ship with characters that my muses have been romantically engaged with, unless it's explicitly plotted.

IV. The main focus of this blog will be horror and dark themes. I make an effort to remember to tag common triggers (blood, gore, death, etc.); however, if there is a specific item you require that I tag, please don't hesitate to ask and I will comply.