#And yeah I've been in the fandom since the 90s like I'm very aware that the eldest games had some particular Christian imagery

[onesunofagun]

This is probably a wildly unpopular thing to say, but I see chatter and takes concerning Hyrule and the Hylians and Hylia where the fandom dissects them as white European, or more often British coded. I've seen it be argued that this is because of surface level European (like Greco-Roman and Celtic) aesthetics are commonly used for them, though these are pretty shallow wrapping paper at best in game. Not that similarities can't be drawn! I'm saying this with all my Irish distaste for Britain! But it seems to be more of a symptom of ignorance or unfamiliarity with Japanese culture and history, and its own tilt at Imperialism.

Which I get! The average Western Fan's closest touchstone to Imperialism is likely Britain.

But Hyrule represents Japan. It's narrative is deeply rooted in Japanese Shinto beliefs regarding the relationship between man, nature and spirits-- including spiritual purity and impurity-- as derived from Buddhist concepts. Hylians are a fantasy race of elves who are Japanese coded, their Royal Family and Imperial structure and attitudes reflect a Japanese Nationalism that is deeply tied to Shinto. Hylia reflects aspects of the Goddess Amaterasu and her role as a progenitor of Emperors in Japanese myth.

I fully understand that many criticisms that apply also pertain to British Imperialism and their own Divine Hegemony, which is valid. But I think it's also falling short to critique and dissect the meta and intention behind this franchise without bothering to have the context of Japanese beliefs and history, and without bothering to really seek it out.

JP Imperialism formed as a response to the Western encroach and their subsequent focus on forced unification of the east in order to defend against it is deeply reflected in how Hyrule operates. The localisation of games like SkSw and TotK have wildly missed their mark in the impression that they give of certain concepts to especially the North American audience, and entire concepts and references to cultural beliefs and history (and what they might imply within game) are simply invisible to many who do not have that context to connect back to.

And I'm not trying to say that what anybody takes from the story they personally received isn't a valid impression based on their own experience with the games and media around them. There are many interpretations and themes that you can take away and play with.

But I don't think that saying Hylians are just white people coded or following Christianised themes or 'basically Britain' and calling it a day is quite good enough if you want to meaningfully and accurately discuss and dissect the narrative and intent of the Zelda franchise. Being able to critically read it with both external and Japanese context is really important in having the full conversation about what it reflects on real world history, religiosity and nuance.

[necrotic-nephilim]

for the recent ask game, i’m really curious about your take on 7 + 8 :P

for the choose violence ask game!

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how the fandom acts about them?

i'll be so honest: Jason Todd. i know there's a lot of argument of "who has the worst fans" and i think that question is flawed and impossible to answer, but i will say Jason fans irked me so deeply. because i read mostly 90s era Batfam, i admittedly didn't have a lot of exposure to Jason for a while, expect for his New-52 runs i'd read years ago. and since i never liked him based on those runs, i could not understand *what* his fans liked about him, or where they got some of their headcanons/ideas from. i've never been more baffled. it ranges from "oh i don't agree but you do you, i guess?" to "what character are you talking about i am BAFFLED". and it soured me on Jason for so long that i actually hate read *most* of his pre-Flashpoint appearances just to understand what on earth people liked about him. and now i can say, i love him dearly, but i can also say, i still don't know what character his fans are talking about sometimes. and i hate the fanon version of Jason who feels almost, Deadpool-ified? with this self-aware slapstick humor but a sad soft interior but also sassy and will kill a man it's just. it feels very hollow to me and it has made me almost tempted to block his character tag more than once over the years bc sometimes certain takes make it difficult to even like him. i just have to tune it out or yell about it for hours.

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

i'm going to get particularly saucy with this one: that Dick Grayson has Eldest Daughter Syndrome. or more generally, that he was parentified. not a single ounce of Dick's backstory indicates him as being parentified. to be parentified you have to be a child taking care of other children either emotionally or physically because your parents are not fulfilling that role. and Dick was *never* a child at the time that another child was under Bruce's care. he has been an adult for the entirety he has known every other Batkid. and even then, the *only* one he was something you could akin to being a parent figure to was Damian, and Dick *chose* that. Dick was a grown-ass man in his late 20s who had the facilities and capacity to make the decision to be Damian's primary caretaker. he's never been parental toward any of the other Batkids, nor has Bruce ever forced upon him the role of having to raise them. did Bruce do a sort of questionable job with Dick? yeah. but i would argue Bruce did the best job with Dick of all the Batkids, and even if he was shitty with Dick, he couldn't parentify Dick bc there was no one for Dick to be parenting. and Dick wasn't parenting Bruce either. they just had a normal relationship of loving and caring for each other.

as for Eldest Daughter Syndrome i just.. i Do Not Like calling any male character "female coded" or "female rage coded" or "eldest daughter coded" because they're *not*. especially not in *this* medium. these are male characters, created by men, written by men 90% of the time, and written to be *male power fantasies*. nothing about Dick or Jason or any Batboy is female-coded bc they exist to be badass men. just because they show emotion and have complex relationships with Bruce doesn't make them suddenly women. Dick shows his anger in a very destructive, stereotypically "masculine" way. even if we strip it of gender, Dick doesn't exhibit most traits of Eldest Daughter Syndrome. he easily makes relationships with people his age, he has no issues telling Bruce no, he did not have caretaking responsibilities forced onto him by Bruce, he's not even really hyperindependent. Dick has a support system outside of the Bats, the fandom just ignores it. does Dick force caretaking responsibilities onto himself sometimes? can he be an overachiever? absolutely. but these are internal complexes that just come with making a character a superhero, it's a complex they all have. if i have to hear one more fan call him Eldest Daughter Syndrome-core or say he's a victim of parentification, i think I'll explode a little bit.

[blubushie]

90% of your sniperposting posts are of the ship speeding bullet, or Sniper x Scout. Any thoughts on that you would like to share to the public, sir? (Sorry if youre not accepting asks rn :p)

Yeah gimme that microphone. Bet you didn't expect "Blu analyses shipping" when you sent this ask in, didja? ;]

I, Blubushie, hereby declare:

Tbh I just reblog all the Sniper art I see what tickles my brain. Most of that happens to be Speeding Bullet art, which makes sense since Speeding Bullet is a very very popular ship and art isn't often done of Sniper by himself. He's usually on somebody's arm, whether it's Scout or Spy or Demo. I'm there for Sniper, not for the shipping.

Awkward moment to mention that I don't really ship anyone in canon except for Soldier and Zhanna, who are canonically engaged. And that's more of a "Whelp, they're engaged, so reckon that's legit then." There's no one that I go feral over, but I've never really been involved in shipping in fandoms even as a teen when I was much more into fandoms. It's never caught my attention.

For me shipping usually verges into headcanon territory and I try to stay as true to canon as possible because of my love for source material. I'm a lore bloke. I like scanning for shit in the media to see where people get these ideas from, especially crackships for the shits and gigs, but at the end of the day I'm still a lore bloke, and also an author, and there's something a mite uncomfortable to me about what happens once stories leave your own mind and enter into the minds of others. In a "if this was the creator's intention they would've shown it more clearly" kind of way. I know most people are aware their ships will likely never be legitimised in media--that's a good thing, that awareness--but the reason why people cram two canon characters together and decide they're A Thing in their own minds is largely a mystery to me, because I've never really done it.

I think Scout and Sniper would make a good pair, with Scout keeping Sniper busy enough that he's satisfied and also doing much of the talking for him so that he won't have to, but Scout also doesn't know when to shut the fuck up and some quiet is necessary for sniping. You can't have outside distractions and Scout, largely, is one massive distraction. They're great as a friendship, I can see them as a romantic pairing, but they'd be absolutely terrible for working together unless Scout learns to shut up sometimes when people need him to.

Anyway, I'm more inclined to enjoy Sniper/Scout than I am Sniper/Spy or even Sniper/Medic or Sniper/Demo, and these are the largest Sniper ships in the fandom. But shipping has never really been my thing. Even with my fic, the focus isn't necessarily on Jesse and Mundy's romantic relationship (though that defo plays a massive part), but rather it's about Mundy's own quest for redemption and forgiveness in his own eyes after he's already been redeemed in the eyes of the person he's wronged. She's forgiven him, but he hasn't forgiven himself.

Ain't that hell, ay?

Anyway, that got off on a massive tangent. All this is to say that no, I don't really have any thoughts to share on why I reblog so much Speeding Bullet. I'm there for Sniper. It just happens that the best art I see and the level of skill that usually tickles my brain and makes me want to reblog is art of that particular ship.

[pipermca]

I am accepting @altraviolet's challenge (from the post here) for the fic writer questionnaire. This looks like fun! *cracks knuckles*

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

90

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

1,133,042 (holy shit)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I mostly write for Transformers these days. I do have a little short story cooking for Centaurworld; maybe I'll get that jotted down some day.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I can definitely see how writing for a popular ship will skew your stats on your fics, and smut gives bonus points. 😅

Frag the Police. Jazz/Prowl, NSFW

Claim Rejected. MegOP, SFW

Peer Review. Starscream/Wheeljack, NSFW

Anamnesis. Jazz/Prowl, SFWish (has plug-n-play interfacing)

Public Indecency. Jazz/Prowl, NSFW

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes! I love comments and I want to pass on that appreciation. 💗

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hmm. Even my darker stories usually have a bit of light in the end, since I am a sucker for happy (if possibly bittersweet) endings. But the story Atrocity (please mind the tags on that one) leaves Bluestreak in a bad place at the end, and nothing is really resolved.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I have lots of fics with really happy endings! But in terms of having no hanging ends, I think The Renegade and the Hound might be the happiest. 🤗 The last chapter of that fic is all warm fuzzies for the characters.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not yet. 😄 I've gotten some vaguely critical comments sometimes but I wouldn't call that hate.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Ooooh yeah. I write it all. I'll even write the weird stuff there's no terms for. Give me that weird-ass smut.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I tend to write fusions rather than traditional crossovers, but the weirdest one was very recent: The Spark and the Lightning, which is the War for Cybertron game crossed/fused with Dune.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I am aware of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! The fic Becoming has been translated into Russian.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Sort of? A friend and I tossed little bits of a story back and forth several years ago, each of us building on what the other had just written. I have the bits all collected, but I'm not sure if it'll ever see the light of day.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Bluestreak/Hound. 💗

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

It's in the Alt Modes and Alchemy AU. Basically it's the events of the climax of The Renegade and the Hound and a period immedately afterwards, but from Perceptor's POV. It's written as a half diary/half academic paper. The title is:

On the Restoration of Cybertron: An Analysis and Personal Account, or A Treatise on the Effects of the Destruction of the Matrix of Leadership on Cybertron and its Inhabitants from an Alchemical Perspective, and a Personal Account of said Event as Recalled by Perceptor of Iacon, Head Alchemist of Optimus Prime.

It's hella fun, and I'd love to finish it, but it keeps moving out of my "currently working on" stack into the "shelved" stack. :/

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I'm good at worldbuilding and writing those juicy emotional scenes.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Finishing stuff. 😅 But seriously, I have a tendency to go back and rework stuff I've written (but not yet posted) instead of working forward on getting more words down. I love editing too much I think. >.<

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

It's fine? It should be clear to the reader what the dialogue says without them having to Google Translate it. Anything that stops a reader and takes them out of the flow of the story is a Bad Thing imo.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Hahaha! I think the first actual fanfic I wrote was in the Time Quintet series (specifically after reading A Swiftly Tilting Planet) by Madeleine L'Engle. I think I was about 8 or 9.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Hmm. My favourite long fic is Mind, Body, and Soul (which was long and self-indulgent and I said everything I wanted to say about the Big Themes of the story). My favourite short fic is probably Datastream, mostly because I dipped into Cybertronian brains and weird sci-fi elements, mixed with formatting to help tell the story. :)

That was fun! Consider yourself tagged if you want to play along.

[rjalker]

(Don't worry, this is perfectly fine. I have my settings set so that people can only reply to my posts if I am following them or if they've been following me for 2 weeks, ever since I realized that 90% of the bigots on this site are too cowardly to actually post their bigoted comments where their friends can see them by reblogging.

So if you set your replies so that only people you follow and people following you for 2 weeks can comment on your posts, you will cut down the number of bigoted interactions on your post by literally 90%.)

For the record this post is being made with speech to text on my phone because I haven't been able to turn my laptop on yet. So some words will probably be spelled wrong and it probably will not capitalize murderbot.

And yeah, you are right it is definitely because they refuse to understand the difference between actual degenering and why it's bad and respecting nonbinary people's identities.

It is misgendering and degenering to refer to a binary person who does not use it/its pronouns as an it, but these people absolutely refuse to understand that it is doing the bare minimum of respect to use it/its for people who do use these pronouns.

They only care about their own personal experiences and refuse to listen to anyone else, including the experts on the situation at hand, like the real people who use it/its pronouns and are nonbinary.

These people understand that using they them pronouns for a binary person who does not use those pronouns is misgendering and degenering, but then they absolutely refuse to admit that it is also misgendering and degendering when you do that to a nonbinary person who does not use those pronouns.

This problem wouldn't exist if binary people would just listen to nonbinary people and trust us to know what is and is not harmful to ourselves.

Martha Wells as far as I'm aware is not nonbinary. She didn't choose it it's pronouns for murderbot and the rest of the robots in the series because she wanted to represent herself, I'm not even sure if she's aware that real people who use these pronouns exist.

But Martha Wells and her intentions don't matter, because the characters exist, Murderbot uses it it's pronouns, just real people in real life.

People in this fandom, both binary and non-binary, who don't use it it's pronouns need to sit down and shut up and actually listen to what non-binary people who use it it's pronouns have to say about the series. Because there are a lot of things about this series in regards to its treatment of non-binary people and arrow ace people that does need to be criticized and discussed.

But none of that rightful criticism involves in any way misgendering the characters in the series who cannotically use neo pronouns including it it's pronouns. None of that criticism of Martha Wells is really blatant extra sexism and biological essentialism requires misgendering the canon ical non-binary characters.

And it absolutely does not need binary people speaking over and erasing the existence of non-binary people. I've made so many posts criticizing Martha wells's biological essentialism and the ways that it inevitably leads to bigotry like in this case extra sexism and ableism, but people are too busy simultaneously pretending that the series is absolutely perfect in every way and doesn't need to be changed, while they also go out of their way to misgender murder bot and every other non-binary character in the series.

They don't want to actually talk about any of the actual bigotry towards non-binary people in the series (and oh, it is there), but they do want to create even more bigotry against us by misgendering the characters and pretending like we don't actually exist in real life so they're not hurting anyone with all of their blatant bigotry.

It is understandable for a binary person to have a knee jerk oh no that's mean reaction the very first time they are introduced to the concept of people using it it's pronouns. But this series has seven books now. It's been years. I am not the only person in this fandom who uses it it's pronouns or who at least respects us who has spoken up to criticize the bigotry in this fandom. People have had years to learn and get over themselves to stop being bigots.

And sometimes people do genuinely correct themselves the very first time they are informed what murderbots pronouns are. Some people are willing to listen and learn and correct themselves.

But too many other people, mostly binary but also some non-binary people just absolutely refuse to respect it it's pronouns users. There's a very specific subset of people who use they them pronouns who think that any other pronoun for non-binary people is wrong and evil and that using they them pronouns for someone can never be misgendering.

A lot of people like to pull out the excuse that using it it's pronouns for someone makes them uncomfortable so therefore they shouldn't have to use our pronouns. As though that's not exactly the same thing that cis bigots say about binary trans people, or about people who use they them pronouns.

Everybody understands that you're familiarity or a comfort with using someone's correct pronouns is literally just bigotry when it's happening to someone who uses they them or he him or she her, but then they turn around to insist that their bigotry in this exact manner is justifiable when they are doing it to someone else.

Using murder bots pronouns is not difficult. And if you've read past the second book, you have no excuse for not knowing that murder bots pronouns are it its. I can understand people coming away from all systems red being hesitant, because Martha Wells like I said is in fact extra sexist and it is in fact her responsibility to clearly communicate murderbots pronouns, which she has yet to do, but that excuse doesn't fly when you have read all of the seven books published so far.

At that point people are just doing it on purpose, and purposefully being misogynistic by insisting that it must be male in particular, because they very blatantly think that only male characters can be sarcastic and funny and mean because they're just also blatant misogynists on top of being extra sexist.

All people in this fandom have to do is listen to the real people that murder bot represents. We actually exist in real life. There are real people who use it it's pronouns. There are real people who are arrow ace and everything repulsed who don't want any kind of relationship of any kind. There are real people who are solitaremit touch repulsed and do not enjoy or seek out or crave touch.

All the murderbot diaries phantom has to do is actually listen to the people that murder bought represents.

We exist. We make posts. We deserve to see ourselves represented in fiction and just like every other minority, we do not deserve to see that representation absolutely erased and destroyed at every turn in fandom.

All of these people would know that it was blatant bigotry if someone else did to one of their Canon queer and disabled characters what they do to murder bot. But because murderbot is arrow ace and non-binary and touch repulsed and uses it it's pronouns, They think it's it's somehow justifiable now and not really bigotry.

Because they insist that " gifting " murderbot quote acceptably gendered quote pronouns is a compliment, and cover their ears and refuse to read when non-binary people like me who use it it's pronouns Tell them over and over and over again that it's not.

things I realize while tying a ribbon to a shovel: Oh, the reason so many people misgender Murderbot and assign it a binary gender (almost always male, with he/him pronouns, because they're blatant and unapologetic misogynists ontop of the exorsexism), is because binary people view being nonbinary as a punishment.

Binary people view not being one of the binary genders as degrading.

They think that being one of the binary genders is a reward you get for being a person. They think it's something Murderbot should graduate to to overcome being treated like a mindless automaton.

That's why so many people insist that Murderbot is actually a man, or a woman.

Because they think being a "he" or a "she" is the only way to have any value as a person. Their entire worldview is constructed so that men and women, boys and girls, hes and shes, are the only ones with any value.

So when you ask them to respect someone who is an it, someone who is nonbinary, someone who is genderless, they have no fucking framework available to do that without it being an insult. Because they see our existence as an existential insult.

Binary people hate nonbinary people so much that they view our entire existence as a punishment. As a hate crime. As degrading.`

They think they're doing Murderbot, and the real people it represents, a favor by "rewarding" it with a binary gender because in their worldview, that is the only way to have any value.

To these people, if you aren't one of the binary genders, then you're worth less than dirt.

Binary people insist Murderbot is actually a man or actually a woman because they think anything else is the world insult you can come up with.

They insist they're doing it/its users in specific, and nonbinary people in general a favor by misgendering this explicitly nonbinary character, by insisting that they're giving it back its autonomy and "de-dehumanizing" it.

Even though by insisting that to be nonbinary is to be worthless and insulting, they're literally the ones doing the dehumanizing. They are literally the ones degrading this character, and the real people it represents, by insisting that our literal existence is a hate crime against ourselves.

It's disgusting. If you're reading this post and you do this crap, this is your sign to stop. And learn how to respect nonbinary people. And learn how to respect people even if you don't understand or relate to their experiences.

Murderbot is not a man. It is not a woman. Its pronouns are not he/him or she/her or even they/them.

Murderbot is nonbinary, and genderless, and its pronouns are it/its.

If you can't bring yourself to correctly and respectfully gender the nonbinary, it/its using protagonist of a series whose theme is "respect people even when they're different from you" then there is something deeply broken about your morals and you need to fix that ASAP.

[awaysantiana]

Help, aroace Izzy has broken my heart and brain. It's too powerful, it really shouldn't happen. The resentment of the power of love, the reliance on structures that recognise the value of your non romantic relationships, the experience of sexuality through kink. If not aroace spec, why relatable? It's like the forbidden snack of Izzy readings.

YEAH i feel like i'm breaking into a container of cake at 3 am when i think about aro and/or ace izzy. like literally any combo on any part of the spectrum is just so good to me, i'll take any and all of it and stare at it all day. i'm certain that izzy wasn't deliberately written as aspec, but subtext can be unintentional. i've seen a few other people hc him as aro or ace so at least i'm not the only one in the fandom, so i think there's fertile ground for a subculture within the izzy enjoyer society.

it's especially compelling to me since 90% of aro/ace hcs tend to revolve around funny sidekick types instead of main characters (much less angsty ones), and while that's all well and good and i indulge in it myself, i LOVE villains and quixotic characters. the whole abandonment + resentment angle that izzy has taps into a narrative that we don't really get to see explored since aro/ace characters are usually written more lighthearted/don't have a story arc of their own. but the struggle against loneliness in a world that doesn't take it seriously is, arguably, more essential to the aromantic experience than rolling your eyes at gooey couples (though it is very funny and izzy's Moments with lucius and ed/stede swordfighting never fail to send me).

The Power Of Love is absolutely a part of the muppet mechanics that's tripping him up so badly-- people keep doing weird things chasing pleasures and objectives he doesn't understand and it should have gotten them killed a dozen times over, but somehow it's normal and everything works out fine and he's the odd one out. which is literally what middle school felt like to a 12 year old me, once all my peers were starting to have Realizations and i was not. and for a while i hated them, the way izzy hates the crew, because the rug has been pulled out from under you but you're the only one who tripped on it and you feel like you've gone crazy because you thought the rug was a carpet nailed solidly down to the floor.

and thank you for bringing up kink!! god there's so much to say about asexuality/aromanticism and kink, but i'm not going to go into it because it seems like you're already aware (but again, if anyone Does want to know, my inbox is open since i know kink/BDSM isn't really discussed much in aspec circles here). but yeah, if izzy has any sort of sexual feelings towards edward, they're definitely stemming from his devotion to him and their long friendship more than any traditional sense of attraction, if that's present. which really lends itself to D/s stuff and fandom picks up on that (which i love). and like a lot of aspecs, izzy's definitely not the Confident And Free type, because in my experience, being ace or aro means that you're coming into relationships with an extra vulnerability, and even people that you'd assume would be more fine with casual flings (ie alloaros) tend to be quite selective and cautious. most people need a lot of trust in someone before they're willing to bone them, and for allo people, romantic attraction and dating is the conduit to build that trust. for aro people, that isn't really an avenue they can explore, so they have to build rapport other ways, like exploring the kink community, which is very good about respecting boundaries, building trust, and not catching feelings. oh, and being asexual tends to mean you have less instinct for what's Inherently Sexy and what's not, so the wires for things like, say, choking (or getting your toe cut off...) can definitely get crossed with the sexy wires. and when that stuff is further crossed with the impossibly deep feelings an aro person can have for a friend? insane. it's so similar to romance in so many ways and can sometimes be indistinguishable from an outsider's perspective, but it's like a bi man and woman, or a trans couple dating each other-- it's just so different on the inside.

and as (deliciously) tragic as it is to view him as aroace while he's still the villain, it'll feel so good if they redeem him. because it's well-acknowledged at this point in queer circles that coding villains as gay or trans in order to make the audience dislike them more is fucked up, but there isn't as much dialogue on that for ones that don't love at all. usually those are considered the Worst ones, the ones that can't be redeemed at all because Their Brains Are Broken And They Are Incapable Of Experiencing Love, The Meaning Of Life, which is unfair to aspecs and to people with some personality disorders. could you imagine how juicy it would be to finally have that trope acknowledged and then stomped firmly into the ground? like i'm just dreaming of an ending where they say "yes, your feelings for edward do matter, he loves you too, and your world and muppet world can exist together without you hurting each other because there's nothing inherently competitive between romance and friendship." obviously i'm not saying that's the only ending i'll be happy with, just that that's what i'd love to see if they went the "sympathetic aspec izzy" route.