#(technically not explicitly shippy but its shippy to me)

[gavinom123]

I FEEL INSANE??? NO SPOILERS PLEASE IM STILL EARLY IN EPISODE 3 THEY HITTHE FUCKING TOWERS

[mokutone]

hi what do you think abt t4t kakayama (it's canon to me tbh)

:) hi ty for the question. i will do two sweet pictures of them being intimate and then under the cut there's going to be a longer very unsweet and more technical response

so i'm usually not a very shippy person! but that said i am also on the record as an occasional kakayama + kakayamagai enjoyer

i do hc them both as trans and in different ways w/ different experiences of transition and identity! i have no interest in proving my view as canon, but i do regard my reading of the text (text here including the anime) as a valid interpretation of yamato's experience of identity

yamato, for example, imo, doesnt have any real lived experience of being raised as a child of any gender. he was an experimental subject, and then he was Danzō's weapon/vessel for the mokuton, and then he was in anbu.

in a fun little word game which should not be taken seriously: it'd almost be more fitting to describe him as "adgender" rather than "transgender" since the prefix "trans" implies moving across where the prefix "cis" means to stand still, but the prefix "ad" means "to move towards" and i headcanon him as somebody who was degendered as a child, not in a cool nonbinary way, but instead in a dehumanizing, objectifying way, so his experience of creating his identity and his gender along with it is one of moving toward the concept of gender this word doesn't and wont exist, but bc of the way english works it would probably be simplified to be spelled precisely the same as "agender" in the same way that "aggression" came from latin "aggredi" which came from "ad" (meaning to/toward) and and latin "gradus" (meaning step) (essentially the combination means "to step to" [in a threatening manner]) the only diferences is where agender (meaning no gender) is pronounced ay-gender, the agender that comes from adgender would be prounounced more like "uhgender" in the same way that agressive isnt pronounced like "ay-gressive" but instead like "uhgressive"

and then...as for kakashi? i just decided on vibes. i didn't think hard about it.

i guess i should also say that, while i draw kakayama very infrequently, when i do draw it i usually try to be very apparent about the transness in the artwork if i can? especially if i'm drawing anything more intimate than a peck on the cheek. it's no secret that shipping is often times the most energized part of fandom, and i kind of don't want to produce romantic or sexual artwork which will be enjoyed by people who don't think trans people can be attractive? or who find that trans headcanons make a character uninteresting to them? or worse, "ruin" a depiction of a character to them?

often i think about in terms of. IF there are people that follow me that love my work (usually) and think that kakashi or yamato are hot (usually) and love kakayama (usually) but get frustrated or even uncomfortable out when i draw them as explicitly trans? then i'm drawing all intimate artwork of them as explicitly trans.

it's a little like...nobody gets to love my work if transgender characters are a turnoff for them. that's the bar for entry, is the way i think of it, but really its more like putting onions in a dish. if you want to eat the dish you have to eat the onions. if you don't want to eat the onions, don't eat the dish. all the meals i make contain onions. i'll never compromise on my intention to put onions in every dish i make. that's my ninja way, as the kids say.

especially in the climate we're in right now.

i don't know. i have a lot of feelings about how most fandoms tend to view trans men, especially in terms of romantic and sexual relationships. I'm doing a bad job of expressing the depth of how much seeing how fandom treats trans male identity and transmasculine bodies impacts the way that i draw + write kakayama, but genuinely it's something i think about every single time i create content about them.

[1-of-those-things]

I posted 1,394 times in 2021

20 posts created (1%)

1374 posts reblogged (99%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 68.7 posts.

I added 209 tags in 2021

#tenth doctor - 35 posts

#donna noble - 30 posts

#doctor who fanart - 27 posts

#doctor who fanfic - 22 posts

#adorbs - 20 posts

#doctor x donna - 19 posts

#oh no my heart - 18 posts

#ten x donna - 14 posts

#fritz favs - 12 posts

#tenth doctor/donna noble - 12 posts

Longest Tag: 133 characters

#this reminds me that when i was juuust starting to get into dt i read something that described him as the uk version of nicholas cage

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Doctor Who (2005) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Tenth Doctor & Donna Noble Characters: Donna Noble, Tenth Doctor Additional Tags: Angst and Feels, Canon Era, Not Really Character Death, Lot of death talk though so consider that a CW, Character Study, Donna Noble Deserved Better, Donna Noble Fix-It, 5 Times, moody, Hopeful Ending, One Shot Series: Part 3 of Bittersweet Summary:

Most humans (most things, really) only die once. But most humans don’t travel with the Doctor.  Five times Donna Noble died, in escalating degrees of severity. 

21 notes • Posted 2021-08-20 11:31:12 GMT

#4

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Doctor Who (2005) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Donna Noble Characters: Tenth Doctor, Donna Noble Additional Tags: Fluff and Humor, Cotton Candy Fluff, 5+1 Things, One Shot, Friendship/Love, Surprise Kissing, Accidental Kissing, Dubcon Kissing, (technically) - Freeform, Communication Difficulties, Boundary Issues, Accidental Relationship, Accidental Plot, Author is Back on Their Shippy Bullshit, Arguing Summary:

The Doctor isn’t particularly easy to train. Donna still makes her best attempt, one argument at a time. 

24 notes • Posted 2021-07-26 11:40:46 GMT

#3

(Doctor Who) Fanfiction Master List

OneOfThoseThings on AO3

(Updated 11/12/21)

Color Key:

Fic Categories in Pink

Doctor/Donna Pairing Tag in Purple

Other Pairing Tags (Including Poly) in Blue

Platonic / Gen / Open to Interpretation (Doctor x Donna) in Green

Ratings in Yellow

Some of the stories in the series are more or less crucial to the ‘plot,’ so the optional ones are handily marked (Optional) in Orange

Newest Fics tagged [New] in Red

Note: The Doctor is always the Tenth Doctor unless otherwise specified (in this list, but also in life)

Standalone Fics

The Best of Times (Amnesiac Remix)

A mind-wiped Donna runs into Martha and gets some good old fashioned human help realizing her potential all over again. Word has gotten out through the twenty-seven planets she saved though, so there are a few more aliens following her around… including one very specific alien who really shouldn’t be there.

Doctor x Donna

Also Featuring: Martha and Jack

Rated M for the (Optional) last chapter

The Noble Neverwere

A timey-wimey fantasy fic in which the TARDIS finds a way to keep Donna Noble, but has a little trouble with the details like anchoring her in time and space.

Canon-compliant in the sense that it's never been explicitly stated that there isn't a time-fluid echo of a certain ginger companion haunting the TARDIS.

Ten x Donna with light background Twelve x Missy

Also Featuring: Cameos by Ryan, Mickey, and Rory

Rated M for (vaguely) implied sexual content and descriptions of conceptual horror (Rating rounded up for safety)

The Volatile Nature of Binary Stars

A dark(er) AU in which the Master happens upon a mind-wiped Donna and gives her a little boost the rest of the way to full Time Lord status. Then they both return to the TARDIS and an unsuspecting Doctor.

Spoiler: Unlike most fix-its, in this one Donna is Not pleased that she was abandoned and does Not magically just get over that.

Ten x Simm!Master AND Ten x Donna

Rated M for generally dark themes. No sex, just dark. (Rating rounded up for safety)

Universal Lost and Found

A fix-it in which Martha runs across a mind-wiped Donna and helps her (re)claim what the Universe owes her.

Donna x Martha

Note: Doctor x Donna and Doctor x Martha are implied, but this one is a Donna x Martha fic

Rated M for vague sexual content (Rating rounded up for safety)

Polymorphism

The TARDIS pulls her Bad Wolf through to a parallel world where she’s still traveling with the Doctor. And Martha. And Donna. And things are a bit friendlier this time around. (The companion polycule fic you’ve all been waiting for.)

Rose x Martha x Donna x Doctor

Note: This is really Rose x Martha x Donna with the arguably canonically Ace Doctor not left out in the cold. It’s not even a little bit a harem fic.

Rated T with implied sexual content

(Fluff and Humor) One Shots

Interspecies Communication

The Doctor fails to read the room and Donna has to deal with it.

Originally written as part of Interspecies Compatibility, but it actually makes more sense as a cracky standalone.

Open to Interpretation (platonic, shippy, whatever)

Rated T with implied sexual content

Just Act Natural

Donna gets the Doctor to Martha’s wedding. Shenanigans ensue.

There’s an optional sequel, “Compatible Lunacy” that is just straight up shippy.

Open to interpretation (platonic, shippy, whatever)

Rated T

Compatible Lunacy

Optional sequel to “Just Act Natural.”

Split into two parts because “Just Act Natural” could be read as platonic but “Compatible Lunacy” makes the whole thing more shippy

Doctor x Donna

Rated M for implied sexual content (Rating rounded up for safety)

Tension in D Minor

Donna tries to get some alone time with someone with matching human urges. The Doctor takes it a bit personally.

Doctor x Donna

Rated M for implied sexual content (Rating rounded up for safety)

Bathtime in B Sharp

Donna and the Doctor have to take a medicinal bath. Pointless fluff.

Open to Interpretation (platonic, shippy, whatever)

Rated T

Cuddles in C Major

A shag-or-die setup in which the aliens severely overestimate the Doctor’s mating drive and an indignant Donna gets a thorough cuddle.

Open to Interpretation (platonic, shippy, whatever)

Rated T

Arguments That Did Not Go As Planned

Donna tries to train the Doctor, one argument at a time.

Sort of Accidental Doctor x Donna

Rated T

A Bit Close [New 11/11]

In an (only slightly) alternate universe, the Fam has to get used to having Jack on board.

Thirteenth Doctor x Jack

Rated T

(Moody) One Shots

The Beat Between Measures

A missing scene from Revolution of the Daleks, in which the Doctor and Jack get a proper reunion

Thirteenth Doctor x Jack

Rated E because it's basically PWP with Feelings

(It Breaks You Down) A Little Bit More Each Time

Five times Donna Noble died, in escalating degrees of severity. (Not actual death, but y’know.)

Open to Interpretation (platonic, shippy, whatever)

Rated T

Series

Interspecies Compatibility

A series of semi-standalone, loosely-strung-together stories about the Doctor and Donna working through some of the many differences between humans and Time Lords.

This series tries not to actively contradict major canonical events. But a lot of liberties are taken around that.

Biological Specificity

A detailed lesson in Time Lord biology

Can be read as platonic, but only if one doesn’t keep reading this series

Not really shippy (on its own)

Rated T with vague discussions of mating practices (Could be G, but I'm not tagging my fics G FFS)

Acclimatization

Hard to call this one entirely platonic, but could be if one ignored alien cultural implications

Not really shippy (on its own)

Rated T with the alien equivalent of vaguely implied sexual content (that doesn't line up with the human version at all)

Ecological Fitting

Probably not platonic unless you’re using an interesting definition of platonic

Doctor x Donna

Rated T with vaguely implied sexual content

Symbiosis

Pretty solidly outside the boundaries of platonic here

Doctor x Donna

Rated M for implied sexual content

Contact High (Optional)

A fun day out

Not really shippy (on its own)

Rated T

Spandrel (Optional)

A casual day in

Doctor x Donna

Rated M for implied sexual content

Synesthesia

This is where this goofy series starts to take a real turn toward shippy

Doctor x Donna

Rated M for implied sexual content

Atavism

This is where the ratings should probably tick up

Doctor x Donna

Rated M for vague sexual content

Exaptation (Optional)

An optional morning after

Doctor x Donna

Rated M for vague sexual content

Coevolution

The obligatory Midnight fic

Doctor x Donna

Rated M for implied sexual content and dark themes

Survival Without Recovery

The fix and official end

Not really shippy (on its own)

Rated T

Lazarus Taxon (Optional)

An optional epilogue with a slightly less happy-go-lucky tone

Also Featuring: Cameos by Eleven, Twelve and finally Thirteen

Not really shippy (on its own)

Rated T

Nice Things; Good Things

A blatant canon divergence from Journey’s End where Donna just lets the metacrisis Doctor and Rose right back onto the TARDIS and then they all just go back to traveling together. Pretty soon after that, Jack gets added in and then it’s just the whole team enjoying themselves for once instead of having just endless tragedy for the sake of character building.

As the series goes on, it gets more and more polyamorous, but it’s set up so that each fic can be an acceptable stopping point so that anyone who isn’t on board can just hop off whenever they like and not have to deal with a bunch of unresolved cliffhangers.

Individual fics are carefully tagged (which makes for a hilariously long list of tags for the series, in case anyone is wondering.)

It Has Been 0 Days Since the Last Incident

The most standalone of all the fics in this series. Just Ten, Tentoo, Donna and Rose traveling in the TARDIS.

Doctor x Donna and background Tentoo x Rose

Rated T with implied sexual content

Morning Cuddles (Optional Ficlet)

Originally part of “Nice Things; Good Things” but it can also be read as a little standalone cuddle ficlet.

Doctor x Donna

Rated T with implied sexual situations

A New Path (Optional backstory for Jack getting added)

Jack officially joins the dream team

Doctor x Donna

Background Tentoo x Rose (leading to Tentoo x Rose x Jack)

Rated T with vaguely referenced sexual content

A Series of Perfectly Reasonable Misunderstandings

Confusing times with two Doctors in the mix now. (Starting down the poly path.)

Doctor x Donna

Tentoo x Rose x Jack

Rated M for frisky times, with chapters marked appropriately

Indisputably Well-Laid Plans

The Doctor and Donna court the other three. It goes great.

Doctor x Donna x Jack

Background Tentoo x Rose x Jack

A little light Tencest (as a treat)

Hints at pretty much every combination of these 5

Rated E for the second half of the fic, with chapters marked appropriately

Proper Communication

Rose and Donna get to know each other better without any distractions.

Donna x Rose

Rated E with chapters marked appropriately

All Together Now

With all the individual connections on board, all that's left is for the Doctor to ask Rose. Then it's a full-blown polycule.

Ten x Tentoo x Donna x Rose x Jack

Too many subsets of that to bother writing out— just call it shamelessly poly

Rated E with chapters marked appropriately

Modern Arts (and Crafts) (Optional PWP)

Just a full stop poly PWP

Ten x Tentoo x Donna x Rose x Jack

Rated E and it deserves it

Standard Courtship Rituals

10 ficlet-style dates

All 10 pairing subsets of Ten x Tentoo x Donna x Rose x Jack

Rated M for implied sexual content

Tied Game (Optional PWP)

Donna and Rose have a plan. Jack is involved.

Donna x Rose x Jack (with Ten x Tentoo x Donna x Rose x Jack in the background)

Rated E

Sweet Talk, Sweethearts (Optional PWP) [New 10/29]

The Doctor tries asking Donna for a little encouragement, like she gives the other humans. The metacrisis Doctor makes the request more convincingly (for both of them).

Ten x Donna x Tentoo

Rated E

Things That Catch

A Doctor/Donna series exploring the consequences (good, bad, and bizarre) of getting too close.

That Which Lingers Just Beneath

The Doctor gets a fever.

Doctor x Donna (not shippy on its own but heading that way)

Rated T

The Distance Between Could and Should

Having grown suspicious of relying on the TARDIS for translating, Donna asks for Gallifreyan lessons. The Doctor is not hard to convince.

Doctor x Donna (not aggressively shippy but getting there)

Rated T

A Clarity Found Only in Madness

The Doctor has nightmares. Donna tries to help.

Doctor x Donna

Rated T

For Which There Are No Words (Optional Kinktober Fun)

The Doctor and Donna have a proper relationship. Well. A relationship.

Doctor x Donna

Rated E (for safety)

To Fracture Like None Other

Donna gets a bit too casual with the Gallifreyan and is mistaken for the Doctor. Perhaps unsurprisingly, being mistaken for the last Time Lord in existence does not make for a fun day out.

Doctor x Donna

Rated T

A Dream Unfinished

Donna is unmade and left to her own devices. But her experiences may have already changed her more than anyone could have anticipated.

A/N: This is the point where this series turns into a lowkey rewrite.

Doctor x Donna (implied)

Rated T

An Uneven Stitch for An Uneven Scar

Donna returns to the TARDIS, but everything is different. After the metacrisis, she’s something new. Something strange. And all she knows for sure is that the Doctor can’t be trusted.

Doctor x Donna (but not in a cute way)

Rated M (for implied sexual content)

The Rift Immeasurable [New 10/16]

The Doctor makes an open offer for whatever might help. Donna takes him up on it in a way that he never expected.

Alternatively: Donna takes a gamble. The Doctor is not consulted on this gamble.

Doctor x Donna

Also Featuring: Guest Appearance by The Master

Rated M (with implied sexual content)

Collaborations

Aurous and Auriferous (For the DW HopeZine prompt “Plastered in Gold”)

A collaboration with the insanely talented @denzikken and @fritzmetzger

Aurous is a Journey’s End fix-it in which the metacrisis Doctor has to save the Time Lord from himself (Not explicitly shippy, Rated T)

Auriferous is an optional (significantly less “Gen”) sequel for people who think Gen Fixits are all well and good, but want a little Tencest to round it out. (Rated M for implied sexual content)

Ten x Tentoo (mildly implied in Aurous, actively happening in Auriferous) Also some light background Donna x Rose (for flavor)

The Wizard (For the DW HopeZine Big Bang)

A Very Official Collaboration with the mad geniuses @denzikken and @fritzmetzger (Featuring So Much Amazing Art!)

Donna gets an alien pet. The Doctor does not approve. (The Doctor also does not get a vote.)

Open to Interpretation (platonic, shippy, whatever)

Rated T

Promise You Won't Do It Again

A super unofficial collaboration with @theoreticalabsurdity, @echo84, @krebkrebkreb and @picnokinesis because the Jack x Thirteen crew is just Good at peer pressure

A series of (mostly fake) proposals

Thirteen x Jack

Rated T

Special thanks to anyone who’s read, given kudos, and/or commented on anything I’ve put together! Lots of love to the whole fandom!

50 notes • Posted 2021-08-31 11:45:38 GMT

#2

Queens of Hearts

68 notes • Posted 2021-02-04 12:36:36 GMT

#1

How Jack Got His Room Back

107 notes • Posted 2021-01-06 12:40:32 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[midground]

I had some loose change jangling in my pocket, so here’s 2 cents from a Beaujester shipper (who’s been on board with this ship since the pirate arc) about why I don’t share the sentiment that the cast “forgot about” Beaujester. This got long, so I’m putting it behind a cut.

I don’t think it’s weird that Beau isn’t talking about/acknowledging her feelings for Jester. I don’t think it’s weird Beau has pivoted in her outward displays of attraction towards Yasha. I don’t think it’s a sign that the cast had a big discussion over the hiatus where they made some showrunning decisions about which relationships would become canon. Though to be clear, I am in full support of every D&D group having open, honest, out of character conversations about what sort of content they want to see in their games, especially romantic content. So if that is what happened, good. That’s healthy consent-based communication babes.

Since her confession in episode 85, the vibe I’ve gotten from Beau is that of someone who is struggling to bury her feelings for her unattainable friend. Someone who is so convinced that she doesn’t have a chance that she decides the best course of action is to ignore the feelings until they go away and quietly move on without ever telling her crush and risking jeopardizing the friendship. 

This is Relatable Content to me! I’ve been there, I’ve been there several times over, for several different reasons. Sometimes that reason was the person I was crushing on was straight. Sometimes the reason was I assumed the person I was crushing on was straight. But I’ve been there.

I think Beau’s (subtextual, not explicitly stated) decision to try to move on from Jester was amplified by returning to her hometown so soon after her confession, and her subsequent crisis of self-worth. Think about the moments we got while Beau was spinning out, letting some feelings slip at the Stones, but only when she was drunk. Putting herself down. Making fun of Jester’s old name. Think about pre-Kamordah, in Rexxentrum, Beau trying to get her own room when she thought she had an excuse to get some distance from Jester (and caving immediately when Jester turned those big, sad eyes on her).

I’ve seen a few posts going around from other Beaujester shippers who are hurt and confused by what seems like a huge tonal shift between episodes before and after the hiatus. But I really, really do think that if you go back and watch from episode 85 on, you’ll see that Beau started pulling away from her feelings almost immediately after her confession. Hell, she tried downplaying her feelings DURING her confession. Telling Veth made it real, made it scary, made Beau want to try to put some distance between her and Jester so that the inevitable let-down was under her control (a CONSTANT self-destructive pattern we’ve seen with Beau!)

Similarly, Beau’s outward displays of attraction/affection to Yasha ALSO started resurfacing pre-hiatus! Think about the fish-market conversation at the live show. This seemed like evidence to me that Beau was trying to redirect her energy towards someone attainable. And let me just say, I am ALSO a Beauyasha shipper, and this is not being said to disrespect the ship or say that Beau’s feelings towards Yasha are somehow lesser.

But I have ALSO been in the position before of trying to get over an old crush with a new (or at least different) crush. Beau has always been very frank about her attraction to Yasha, and finally, with Ashley back for good, Yasha was in a position to flirt back. 

Beau was looking for a “safe” way to get over her feelings for Jester, went to lean back on her old habits of flirting with Yasha (the “safer” move, something she’s done literally since the two of them met) and, to her great surprise, Yasha has been responding in earnest. There’s a separate post I could make about how many episodes Ashley has been back for, how long it takes her to get comfortable at the table (about 8-10 episodes), where Beau and Yasha’s heads been at for the past 20 episodes, and why we’re seeing a ton of Beauyasha interactions now. But from my perspective, Beauyasha coming to the forefront now makes perfect sense.

So with Yasha to focus on, someone who is openly queer and responding to her flirtations, and with no sign from Jester that she’s interested in Beau (at least from BEAU’S perspective, I do think there is a valid reading of the text where Jester is struggling with her sexuality) I don’t think Beau will confess to Jester as things currently stand. I think Marisha put the ball in Jester’s (Laura’s) court. And I think, unless something MAJOR happens, that Jester will need to be the one to make a move.

But I’m not done yet. Let’s talk about how the cast negotiates the spotlight when it comes to individual arcs. Because I think that’s another piece to this puzzle. When a character has an individual arc come up, the cast works to center that character to a larger degree within the narrative. Looking to them to make big decisions, taking cues from them when it comes to how they want to approach a situation/what content they want to deal with, making space for them to have big character-defining moments.

Travelercon is Jester’s arc. It is Laura’s time to decide what struggles Jester will be dealing with and what Jester-related subplots she wants to bring to the foreground. And I think, if we’re all being honest, we expected Travelcon to be Jester’s moment to make some decisions about what she wants romantically. Early Jester was very romance-focused, and I think many of us assumed that Travelercon would be her time to allow Jester’s romance subplot to shine. 

But instead, what we’ve been getting so far is about a crisis of faith and the struggle to articulate and center your own needs within your friendships. With a little bit of “learning that you can let yourself be upset around people who care about you” for flavor. (And these are all very good themes, I’m totally digging the current arc!)

But the bottom line is, if you take my reading of Beau’s motivations and actions as even somewhat accurate, Marisha put the ball firmly in Laura’s court. Laura has chosen not to address it. Yet. And I do mean “yet”! Travelercon isn’t over. Technically, it hasn’t even begun. We don’t know what else Laura wants to do with Jester’s time in the spotlight. I’ve always theorized that Laura would wait for a Jester arc to make any big romance moves, and that may still be coming. The cast is taking their cues from Laura right now. Laura has chosen not to explore Jester’s romantic options (yet). A lot of the cast very obviously ship Beauyasha, so they’re happy to celebrate when the two of them have shippy moments together.

None of those things say to me that Beaujester is done, just that we’re focused on other things right now. I don’t know where the story is going, but I seriously doubt they’re just never going to address Beau’s feelings for Jester again. Maybe it’s because I ship both Beauyasha and Beaujester, but I’m happy to just sit back and let the story run its course for a bit. 

[p34rl34rring]

um no nuance november: atla edition?

this was all over tiktok and ive seen some people do it here so...here we go...some of these are probably hot takes, you have been warned.

most of the fandom seems to forget that katara is a young girl with deep-seated trauma that she never truly dealt with. cut the racism and misogyny. shes not the “token straight,” shes not annoying, shes not technically the “mom friend,” she deserves a better life (and life partner) than she was given in canon.

katara’s comment to sokka during the southern raiders was harsh don’t get me wrong, but it was justified 

most of my issues with characters fall on their writing...not the characters themselves if that makes any sense

bakoda should have been canon

why didn’t katara, toph and zuko reunite in korra (they’re literally my three faves i was robbed, plus they all just seem sad...)

mako is hot

if we are talking combat, earth is the strongest element...toph can genuinely just drop a rock on someone and its over

republic city is absolutely unnecessary and frankly, stupid. capitalist propaganda :) why would you american-ize this series? im baffled

i just hope that azula got therapy and some love...her actions were outrageous but as far as we know she was conditioned by ozai to just be a pawn

katoph = best duo (friendship and fighting) in the whole show

katara is not a sister to zuko...that role is for toph

(as much as i love firelord zuko) zuko should have waited at least a few years to actually assume the position but even then i truly think he would hate it and institute a democracy

the humor did not land in for me in lok (list of tried and failed for me is meelo, bumi, bolin, varrick, eska...)

i truly did not feel any strong emotional attachment to any lok character (causing me to be pretty indifferent to most of the entirely new editions to the show)

(i think the large cast did not allow for much development for really anyone, save for korra tenzin and maybe lin?, leaving them all to be pretty two dimensional.)

more rambling under the cut (its more shippy you have been warned...)

the fanon portrayal of aang is a glorified version of the canon (you can criticize your faves!)

aang being a “bad” father in canon fits his (poorly written) character 

TAANG IS GENIUS (it makes me like aang more :)

i dont think maiko is healthy...at all (same for bolin and eska and zhu li and varrick) - bottom line: bryke cant write relationships

building on that it felt weird for zuko to change throughout book 3 for him only to revert back to his old life in the finale by staying with mai

sokka and suki are the only valid canon couple

also why is everyone so quick to be “oh suki is bi!!” but so much of this fandom feels the need to say “no, katara is the token straight she can’t be bi...” it seems so silly to say but katara hatred is so normalized in this fandom and it makes me so upset. literally everyone would be fucking dead if it werent for her i love my queen fuck y’all

kanna would not have gone back to pakku

MAILEE BITCHES

why are most zukka shippers women...food for thought

peace by taylor swift is a zutara song...zukkas dont even try to claim that

zutara works...it just seems like antis forget that these two characters (even if it is not explicitly romantic in atla) have such a strong bond. they listen, care, and look out for one another...and bottom line they see each other as equals. (also watch the second half of tsr again...they play off each other and work so well together)

this fandom demonizes zutara shippers for absolutely no reason while completely disregarding actual problematic issues that occur throughout the rest of the fandom

suki in the comics is practically a katara stand in

makorra felt like an attempt to appease the zutara shippers (it failed immensely)

should we love kuvira as much as we do? should we be shipping her with korra...?

in canon it does make sense that sokka could have been suyin’s father, but where did suki go? were they hinting that zuko and suki had izumi, meaning that sokka and suki broke up? but WHY? they were literally perfect with absolutely no complication in canon...tldr: post-atla is so ridiculous

i think this feels salty...and i went on for too long...i needed to get that out...um...

[ariana-paris]

Silicon Valley, s06e01

Growing pains, strained friendships and parallels

I gave myself a couple of days and viewings to think about it, so here are some spoilerful and shippy notes about the first episode of season 6.

I was initially underwhelmed; I think Zach Woods is a fantastic actor who has been given a great role, but I'll not that invested in Jared and the focus appeared to be on him. But actually, the episode drew a lot of parallels between its main plot elements and it's grown on me on second viewing.

The main plot is Colin keeping the recordings of his users' conversations, captured without their explicit consent, and then analysing them to improve his game. This is technically plausible: voice recognition typically requires more storage and processing power than an end user device can handle, so like Alexa, Samsung Smart TVs and the Seppen fridge, Galloo streams the audio to the network for processing. The hinky bit is that audio being kept on PiperNet for further analysis (not good) and the audio being captured when the user thinks Galloo is no longer listening (very not good, the game either doesn't turn off the mic when the user explicitly requests it to during game play, or implies that it will stop listening and then doesn't, or even worse, leaves a background process running after the game is closed).

The first noticeable parallel is that when Richard freaks out about this and tells Gilfoyle, Gilfoyle basically says “I've built a system that collects and analyses all PiperNet's user traffic to learn about human behaviour so I can build a better chatbot.” To which Richard's reaction is “yay, let's target Colin's data among all the data you've collected and use it to blackmail him”. Uh, hello? How is what Gilfoyle is doing any better than what Colin is doing: he is clearly collecting personal identifiable information about their users too, even if his goal isn’t commercial.

The most visible character part of the plot, for want of another way to put it, is Richard distancing himself from Jared. It’s clear this has been a longer term trend; Jared wasn’t involved in booking the flight to Washington, he's now being moved to another wing to be with his underlings but away from Richard, and Richard barely even gives him the time of day, though mainly through his own obliviousness. But at least Richard expresses a desire to be with Jared when they go to confront Colin.

In the other part of the character plot, Dinesh is not so lucky. He's being actively ignored by Gilfoyle, except in that case, Dinesh is the oblivious one while Gilfoyle is very deliberately avoiding him. While Dinesh is happily telling people around him that he and Gilfoyle are friends, Gilfoyle has built an AI bot to avoid interacting with Dinesh, and mutters "don't come over" repeatedly under his breath when Dinesh calls out to him. As if that wasn't clear enough, we have a parallel with Dinesh's reaction to Gabe, who is far more needy than he is but elicits the same reaction from Dinesh that he does from Gilfoyle. Things are not rosy in Dinfoyle-land.

But on the other hand, this is the first episode of the season. The only way is up for Dinesh and Jared!

[beca-mitchell]

Pitch Perfect 3: Beca Mitchell is in love with Chloe Beale

...and there’s nothing Universal wanted to do more than to remind us that we’ll never get canon confirmation of this fact.

Hey, it’s me, your extra AF academic giving you an analysis on the three Pitch Perfect movies (see 1 here and 2 here) and which one provided the best shippy Bechloe content. Thus far, I ranked them from highest to lowest as: 1, 2, 3, though I do flip between 1 and 2.

In a departure from the first two movies, PP3 falls short in bringing super obvious and shippy Bechloe content, but reminds us why we stuck around since 2012...and why we’ll likely continue to do so. It is in no way a terrible movie and has its funny moments, great musical numbers, and fine performances from this talented group of actresses.

It allowed fans to grovel on the ground for the scraps of little things thrown in here and there by way of the director and the actresses feeding us outside of the frame of the movie. The reason this is painful is because of the departure from what was verging on plain, old text right back into the sub-basement of subtext.

Aside: I’m interested in what’s confined to the boundaries of this movie because as we know, there’s a lot to be said about how this movie was promoted/marketed. None of that matters because the team already made these exec decisions about how the movie was going to come out 1) while they were filming and; 2) before the marketing really took off.

As a reminder, anon asked me how I’d rank the three movies in terms of shippy content/value for Bechloe shippers. I rank this last, but not because it’s so terrible, but because it’s angsty as fuck and you really walk away from it feeling kind of sad about the whole thing. 

While PP 1 and 2 are hopeful, there’s something about the shippy moments in 3 that seem contrived so much so that they’re not odes to the fans, but rather a final nail in the coffin and that’s why I’m sad about it overall.

There are two points that I want to make here: 

Beca does essentially everything in this movie because of Chloe.

Beca harbours some deep feelings for Chloe.

Something I will not address because addressing it would be as pointless as its inclusion in the PP3 story (but feel free to ask me about that separately):

the Chicago storyline (which is the unfortunate reason why this movie ranks below 1 & 2 for me)

Let’s go!

**all gifs in this post made by me

1. Beca completes her major plot points/does essentially everything in this movie because of Chloe.

To Preface: Chloe and Beca (and Fat Amy) chose to live together in New York. I’m sad that we’ll never get extended group dynamics here, but the fact is, they do and they live together pretty closely as far as we’re aware (the close confines of the apartment, the shared bed, etc.).

Chloe saying “because it reminds me I was special once” in response to Beca asking why she’s wearing her Bellas’ uniform is a lot more emotional than the scene initially leads you to believe. I found this pretty important because I consider it a huge starting point for the movie’s events, particularly in the way Beca goes about doing things.

Beca shuts up pretty quickly after that. Beca agrees to go to the reunion pretty quickly after that, citing that she needs a “distraction”.

Also, Chloe’s genuine concern for Beca is really cute.

Beca agrees to go on the USO tour, but only after she sees Chloe agreeing to go.

I found this interesting because it does seem like Beca’s partially interested. It’s not to say that she doesn’t kind of want to go for herself since we see her genuinely enjoying herself throughout the movie when she’s performing again,  but she really commits to going once she notices Chloe agreeing to go; when she sees Chloe’s renewed enthusiasm.

There’s some great technical stuff throughout the movie, like these cut-aways and isolated shots.

The movie leaves a lot of gaps to fill in here, which struck me as interesting at first, then I was just grateful. There are so many headcanons available to shippers at this point. How close are Beca and Chloe at this point? How much do they share with each other? Their fears, their dreams, their goals?

And Chloe?

Chloe looks so grateful that Beca agrees to go that it makes me want to die.

There’s a genuine relationship between Beca and Chloe that is never fully addressed, but the movie kind of says that it’s there...but as scraps.

Beca is thinking about ‘Freedom’ (the song) throughout the movie...then sings it straight to Chloe at the end.

The one good thing that she’s got.

Beca mixes and layers the intro to her “Freedom” performance in the hotel suite, which means it’s the first thing that kinda popped into her mind. How long has she been thinking about this song over the course of the movie? Beyond the boundaries of the movie? What does this song mean to Beca? You get some implicit answers here and there, obviously. It’s not hard to glean the meaning of the song. 

Then this happens:

And finally, just when you think it’s enough that Chloe’s gaze is the first one she seeks out, when she’s done and high off the adrenaline of performing solo for the first time...

She runs straight into Chloe’s arms. She spins on her heel, without a doubt, and knows who she’s looking for before her eyes even land on her.

There are moments in between that made me think of Bechloe too.

...Like how Beca has the Bellas at heart and wants to cling on to her family because she’s kinda afraid to take that final step into the spotlight as an individual artist. It almost directly parallels Chloe’s dilemma in the second movie, unable to let go completely.

The shipper part of me that wants to believe that it’s entirely due to Beca and Chloe clinging on to each other despite it all. I don’t think it’s too much of a reach, all things considered. It’s not too much of a reach to think that Beca and Chloe are holding on to each other all these years because they’ve grown so attached to each other. Beca cares about Chloe’s interests, just like Chloe displayed the same care for Beca’s interests all those years ago.

2. Beca harbours some Deep Feelings for/Attraction to Chloe, but she doesn’t address it explicitly and we will never see her address it. 

As I mentioned above, this movie kicks off with Beca taking into account how Chloe feels. Chloe is kinda down about vet school and perhaps feeling directionless. Beca is going through something similar, but hers is more on the creative side and what she wants to do with her future as a musician/independent artist.

Beyond the points I mention above re: Beca doing things for Chloe and because of Chloe, Beca exhibits some attraction to Chloe. They’re all moments worth nothing.

Chloe talking passionately and enthusiastically (much like her old self) about the riff-off makes Beca smile.

That’s it, that’s the point. There’s almost nothing more to be said here because Beca’s smile says it all.

This scene - a significant cut-away - makes me so mushy because of how smitten Beca is here.

It’s an homage to the first two movies where we see Beca easing her way into the Bellas with hesitation, but we understand Chloe to be enthusiastic and passionate about almost everything she does. The way she tackles her problems, well, it’s something that Beca seems to love or at least feels very strongly about, likely after so many years being by Chloe’s side.

Beca looking to Chloe for affirmation/validation.

Again, with the side conversations and general validation that Beca looks for in Chloe. That “special bond” as Trish Sie calls it. There’s a degree of ‘friendship’ here that exceeds Beca’s friendship with Fat Amy. There’s an unspoken closeness between them that really makes you want to know about their history. The years we didn’t get to see.

The two times (of many) she looks to Chloe for support.

And the one time she looks to Chloe to offer support.

Beca allows the boob-grabbing to happen with detached interest.

She’s gay.

“Dude. What is...What is this about?”

And once again, we’re left on the edge of something more, but yet, not quite. Beca, in a departure from her awkward shower encounter with Chloe, isn’t fazed anymore. In fact, the curiosity in her voice is there. It’s the curiosity that Chloe employs in the second movie - the same that Beca ignores and pushes away.

Good question, Beca. What is this about? Is it about the unspoken tension? Is it about the attraction? Who’s to say?

We will never know because Aubrey interrupts them.

It’s “nothing”, in the grand scheme of things, which is absurdly painful. More painful than I thought possible for a movie about a cappella.

Bonus: Beca Mitchell is not a heterosexual.

Her general disdain for Theo can be seen from space. Not that she thinks he’s a terrible person (she says so), but that she is 100% not attracted to him on any level.

What I love more, however, is when we’re introduced to Chicago and Zeke. All the ladies - except two - are basically swooning over them. The two that aren’t? Cynthia Rose (for obvious reasons) and Beca.

Beca is just...riding this wave of not being attracted to men at all in this movie and I’m here for it.

She looks so unimpressed...and that is the Mood for this movie, folks.

Also, if this scene doesn’t remind you of PP2...you’re watching this wrong.

And that’s it! I can’t believe I made it. In total, over the three posts, I clocked in at around 4.3k words. What the fuck??

Thanks for reading!

If you want, reply, reblog w/ comments, or like this post! I’m interested in what people have to say. Tell me what you thought! Tell me what you’re still thinking about!