#Anti-WestAllen

[kyliafanfiction]

“Your sad little nerdy wet dream”

Like, who the fuck says that to someone who is at least nominally her best friend?

[kathrahender]

Please can the male character of a fantasy show/shonen anime not end with a female character for once? Stop with the heteronormativity dear God.

Give the main male character more female friends instead of giving him female love interests. Male characters deserve to have female friends. They don't have to be always romantically involved! I'm tired of people always wanting to ship a girl and a boy without any other option. They could be just friends! (and this feels very close to me because I had a best male friend in high school and people ALWAYS saw us as lovers and it WASN'T true at all! It was so irritating I swear. "You look good together" "You are a good couple" "Are you two together?" Why can't you leave us alone??? He was just my friend). Because YES, a girl and a boy can be friends without feeling romantic love for each other.

Annabeth could have been Percy Jackson's first female friend and she could have been the first girl who cared about him, just like a "female version of Grover" and just a friend- but no, they had to end up together because God forbid a main male character not being the boyfriend of a girl (and the same happens with Hiccstrid, Jlaire and Anidala, they could also just have been friends)

Naruto and Hinata could have been besties instead of lovers but no- they had to make Hinata a girl whose life was only centered in "How do I make Naruto-kun love me?" (and the same happened to Iris West. She could have been more important to the plot and Barry's best female friend- but instead she was just his love interests and her development was null. And the same happened with Allura. At first she was a good character, but then she was only there to be Lance love interest, what he should have been overcome. And btw Allura's romantic love towards Lance felt very rushed. As well as Hinny was so bad developed in the movies and Ginny's development didn't exist).

Seriously people stop with these things. Stop reducing a female character to a love interest. Don't make the main male character end up with a female character because that "it's better for the plot" "it's better for the world" "people won't accept the male character dating another male character" "people won't accept the male character not dating anyone". Not everything has to be a straight couple. Actually, not everything has to be a couple! All relationships in the book/show/movie/anime could be platonic and it wouldn't be a big deal! (Although personally I like romance, but aroace people also exist and they deserve to be represented in media).

[bookishfeylin]

Racebending vs Whitewashing 101

In this essay we’re going to be answering two questions: Why is it ok, from a race perspective, to make white characters POC but not the other way around? And why don’t you make original characters that are POC instead?

There are quite a few reasons, and I’ll be discussing them all below the cut for anyone who's genuinely curious about this and wants to educate themselves :)

⭕️ Firstly: most white characters have no plot relevant reason to be white. White people are considered the default human being, so their race or culture *usually* does not affect or contribute to the plot or story or game in any way. Like, pick your average piece of media with white characters in it and see if they actually *have* to be white for the story to work/make sense. Unless being WHITE plays some important role in the story, then in most cases, characters do not need to be white. This is especially true for non human characters depicted as white (mermaids, faeries, aliens, etc.). Unless being a *white* non human is important to the story for a specific reason and then they can be almost ANY race. For example: In Gremlins do Billy and his family have to be white for the story to still work? Does making the Skywalker family POC impact the plot in any way, shape or form in Star Wars? Is being white relevant to Iron Man's, Batman's, or Superman's stories at all? Why do the main characters of Jaws have to be white? Do Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler, and Claire Dearing and Owen Grady, from Jurassic Park and Jurassic World, respectively, need to be white in order for the movies to make sense? Does being white play an important role in Indiana Jones' character, or would the movies still work if he was another race? Does it impact the story if I were to change the Russels (Maddie, Emma, and Mark) in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, from white to black?

⭕️ Conversely, people aren’t as used to seeing POC in media, so often their existence is “justified” with some form of racism. It would not make sense to make a character facing racism (say, antiblackness) white (for example, in Disney's The Princess and the Frog, Tiana lives in a segregated Black community that is decidedly poorer than the wealthy white community Lottie lives in, and is denied the ability to buy the mill to make into a restaurant because it would’ve been too hard for a woman of her “background” to run a business)

⭕️ Another way POC are “justified” in western media is making something specifically about their culture. Unlike most white people in media, we cannot simply *exist* and, say, survive an alien invasion, or steal the Declaration of Independence, or get sucked into portal to a magical land, or survive a natural disaster, or have a very very very bad day, or solve a mystery about a haunted house, or worry about prom. No, our culture almost always has to play some SIGNIFICANT role to “explain” to the audience why that character is not white. Not that that’s a bad thing. For example, Mulan is about a Chinese woman overcoming the deeply ingrained sexism in China and becoming a soldier. The movie is all about China and Chinese culture, so it makes no sense to make her white.

⭕️ Making a POC white plays into whitewashing and colorism (the basic idea that paler skin is better/more beautiful/less “savage”). For example, in slavery lighter skinned ppl were “better,” and were allowed to serve in the house because, being lighter, they were viewed as closer to white and as being “more human.” Changing or “improving” a POC by making them white is just feeding into that nasty idea that people with darker skin tones are “less than” or aren’t real humans. Conversely, there is no relevant history of white people being considered “less-than”, or, you know, NOT HUMAN for having lighter skin, in fact lighter skin tones have been promoted as desirable for centuries. White people by and large aren't harmed psychologically from seeing a character being redesigned with darker skin/being racebent, because society has never told them that their lighter skin makes them nonhuman or undesirable, unlike I, a Black woman, who’s been told all my life that darker skin is masculine and ugly on a girl and that I would be pretty if I only had lighter skin :)

⭕️ All those reasons are important, but there is one MAIN reason why racebending works but whitewashing does not: representation. Representation is very important and very powerful, impacting our own self esteem as well as impacting how we perceive groups of people who are different than us (x, x, x, x, x). Representation can help you develop empathy for a certain group, or it can perpetuate harmful stereotypes about them. White people are represented literally everywhere in Western media--books, movies, TV shows. Even most toys. It’s not taking representation away from them if we make a white character a POC--they have tons of other characters to make up for it! Even if we NEVER had a white main character in any movie or TV show ever again, white people still have the past century's worth of media with themselves as the main characters for them to watch. Conversely, we have comparatively few prominent characters that are POC in Western media, and even fewer that aren't just side characters or walking stereotypes. Making them white takes away the limited representation POC have in the west. Racebending (either in fan art or in reboots of a series/movie) is typically done by people who lack representation and want more.

Why don’t you make original characters that are POC?

⭕️ Most of us would prefer original characters. I WANT original characters of color. But when we do make new characters that are POC, or new stories with POC leads (especially if they are dark skinned POC) they are usually ignored or overlooked by consumers in favor of white characters or white-led stories (Finn and Rose vs Kylo Ren and Hux from Star Wars; and Black Lightning being wayyyyyy less popular than white-led DC shows; Still Star Crossed being, like, forgotten?). This often happens on movies and on television shows, and usually the end result is that the new characters of color are written off or are minimized in the show/following movies because they are not profitable (once again, what happened to Finn and Rose in Star Wars) or the shows are canceled (Black Lightning, Still Star Crossed). Or the story is labeled “woke” and “political” and is boycotted by the same people who said we should make original characters in the first place.

——————————————————————

I'm not saying you have to *like* racebending white characters. I am merely EXPLAINING why one way is racist and the other way around is not. But the sad thing is, all these reasons are common sense. Most people know we have a racist history, they know it’s wrong to make Tiana or Black Panther white even if they have problems articulating *exactly* why: because the point of these characters existing in the first place is to show that we’re human too. That we can be heroes and princesses and role models too, despite centuries of being told we were nothing. We still live in a world where being white is considered the default human, and nonwhite people have to be *justified* in their existence, because most of us weren't viewed as human for centuries. If it truly bothers you that much, then support original characters of color and diverse franchises instead of white characters and predominately white franchises. That way you will send a message—we all will—that we want more original characters of color. In the meantime? I, a Black woman living in a white-centric world, am going to enjoy all the characters of color I can get.

[shrinkthisviolet]

character ask game for Iris and Caitlin? :)

Iris

Sexuality headcanon:

Bi or pan!

OTP:

Westallen 🥰 I also love Westhallen, Snowest, Snowestallen, and Barriscowest!

BROTP:

Iris & Cisco 💞 sunshine twins for the win

NOTP:

Iris/Eobard (probably others too but that one comes to mind)

First headcanon that pops into my head:

Iris is a decent singer, but she hates singing solo. She loves singing with Barry 💞

(She misses him so much when she loses him 😭 she can hardly bear to sing a single note without him there to harmonize)

Favorite line from this character:

"In this world, the bravest thing you can be is optimistic" words to live by!

One way in which I relate to this character:

I also can't cook very well 😅 working on it though

Thing that gives me second hand embarrassment about this character:

Her Three List. Also the waterfront kiss. I just...*sigh*

Cinnamon roll or problematic fave?:

Cinnamon roll!

Caitlin

Sexuality headcanon:

Bi and/or aromantic!

OTP:

Snowstorm, Snowest, and Snowestallen 🥰

BROTP:

Caitlin and Cisco! I used to really ship them, but...as time goes on, I ship them less. I don't see them as siblings necessarily, though I do see that vision, but...idk. They're cute as a ship but I mostly prefer them as a brotp lately

NOTP:

Caitlin/Eobard, Caitlin/Wells (any of them). Also Caitlin/KF (I personally love the sisters angle for them)

First headcanon that pops into my head:

Caitlin had a toy doctor set and proudly carried it around everywhere 💞 she used it most often on her dad

(This is in fact me projecting, I miss my toy doctor set)

Favorite line from this character:

"It's not a burden if we shoulder it together"

One way in which I relate to this character:

I'm also a pre-med like her who had a passion for it from a young age!

Thing that gives me second hand embarrassment about this character:

The way she treated Jax in 2x5...yikes. (And the way some people on Tumblr apparently called that "a mom encouraging her son"...double yikes)

Also her stint with Amunet...girl wtf??

Cinnamon roll or problematic fave?:

Cinnamon roll! Though…problematic fave in some seasons (like s4 💀)

character ask game!

[supermanliveson]

westallen people are soooo insecure with their ship. whenever you criticize the questionable writing of the ship they start calling you things lol

Not to mention the complete lack of chemistry, the terrible acting of the so-called leading lady, and the vastly disproportionate amount of screentime it takes up for what was supposed to be a fun superhero show. Clearly they see all those things as bonuses, not problems; that's how hypocritical and intellectually bankrupt they are.

[bitchypuppystarlight]

It’s quite freeing to come to the point in your fandom life where you don’t feel the need to argue with everyone who sees something different about your favorite show/character/ship/storyline.

It’s even better when you get to the point where you can read an opposing viewpoint and acknowledge that their views are valid and worth sharing.

It doesn’t mean they have changed your mind, only that they’re not wrong either.

Or even better still, when someone with an opposing viewpoint is able to make you see something in a way you never have before and it changes the way you consume media.

The best, however, is when you’ve finally reached the fandom age where you don’t go looking for reasons to be upset and create drama because it gives you a dopamine high.

[alphawolfice1989]

How Barry & Caitlin Could've Gotten Together

[painofhumanity]

Send me a “ 🔥 “ for an unpopular opinion.

I think they should have had Iris keep her decision to "screw the future" and not marry Barry. She loved Eddie. She chose Eddie. She made it very clear that she didn't see Barry the way he saw her. And I think it would've been so much more interesting if she had stuck with that, even after Eddie died (also still mad about that, because Eobard Thawne still lived anyway, so like??? what was even the point?).

Also. The fact that Barry was raised by her dad, and literally came out and said that he saw Joe as a father (and later calls Wally his brother) just makes them together feel super uncomfortable and incesty to me, and I really just am not here for it. They threw comic canon out the window on Arrow, and I think they should've done it on Flash, too.

[drnotreallystrange]

Why WA sucks and was written to suck

Not a bad list, talking turd anon. But, you forgot

  * Barry moves in with Viris as a kid. Barry and Viris call the same man “dad”. Joe and the show promo materials say several times that Barry is Joe’s adopted son. Wally is his “brother”. Which makes Viris his sister in all aspects except the biological one. Icky.  * Their toxic arguments, for example the one in Season 5  * Viris many times talking badly about Barry and disrespecting him and his feelings.  * Reverse Flash hyping them up and encouraging Viris to “forgive” him, because he wants to hurt Barry  * Viris being a shitty mom (early to mid Season 5)  * Zero on-screen affection shown for several seasons(!)  * Eric clearly preferring the idiotic Allegra/”Chuck” thing over them. OK, Eric is a mostly shitty writer/showrunner, but still ... etc etc One of the worst TV “main couples” I’ve ever seen.

[westidia]

Kayla Compton who plays Allegra on the flash is directing episode 11…TWO episodes before the series final. Two episodes before the show is done for good, done forever. Man you can’t make this shit up. There’s is only two people on that set that can actually act and that is Grant and Candice, I wonder why they don’t get these type of opportunities given that they are the LEADS of the show. Just goes to show if you do enough ass kissing it can get you somewhere…(but nowhere at the same time)

[promisewish]

It's very disturbing that radical snowbarry fans are harassing Candice, bullied leanne for doing an episode westallen episode to the point that she had to disable her comments section for awhile, constantly twist iris character, wish horrible fates on iris, constantly scream about snowbarry in the comments of westallen/iris heavy content and other disturbing things related to iris yet there are people that still act that the westallen fans are the problem. Not saying that all westallen fans are 100% innocent but are people that blind about what snowbarry fans have done?

[hitchell-mope]

Timeline differences in season three of the My Universe au.

For starters. Because Mon El never left. Kara’s happy at the start of the season. She does get an official warning from Cat afte they’re found in Kara’s office TogetherTM. But apart from that there’s no angst. At least. Not yet.

With regard to Imra and Brainy. They still show up to save Kara after the Christmas fight with Reign. And Imra tells them that Mon El needs to go to the future and marry her because Politics. And naturally. Both Kara and Mon El are HIGHLY opposed to it. So you see? ANGST!!!!

With Reign. Poor Samantha still believes that Lena can help her. So Lena still exploits Samantha’s nosocomephobia and still uses the synthesised kryptonite on her. Which still doesn’t fucking work. And this time. Lena is assisted by Maxwell Lord. And yes. It’s her romance plot. A match made in petty villainous hell. Don’t you think?

On a somewhat brighter side. Mon El drives Kara and Alex to Midvale after Alex and Maggie break up. Don’t worry. Kenny’s still in the flashbacks. Because in this au. None of the men get treated like shit. Except for Lex and Maxwell of course

Morgan Edge is NOT a run of the mill chauvinist in this. If you would like some more specifics then please refer to this post for details: https://www.tumblr.com/hitchell-mope/748460767729287169/morgan-edge-in-the-my-universe-au

Lucy comes back as the DEO’s official military liaison. And she reconnects with James and gives him some pointers on stealth, techniques and the like for his Guardian identity. Which brings them even closer and they start dating again. So no unholy character assassination here writers. You dumbasses.

On a more angsty note. The prospect of Mon El having to go to the future weighs heavily on the both of them. So when they cross dimensions and go to westallen’s wedding, but before the Nazi duplicates show up, so like the day before when they’re all prepping, like, just before Alex and Sarah hookup, Kara asks Barry for some advice and Mon El asks Iris for some advice. Because westallen have more experience with the spacetime continuum than most couples do.

Ruby eventually finds out about Reign. She panics and thinks it’s her fault because Brainy lets slip that Ruby being born postponed the worldkiller programming. Mon El runs damage control and tells Ruby that her being born allowed The Hyde to lay dormant until Samantha could meet supergirl and the team who could help her. Of course Ruby’s a teenager so this doesn’t work quite as well as intended. But still. Ruby greatly appreciates Mon El’s (or “Uncle Mike’s”) help.

They end up being able to save Samantha from Lena and Maxwell’s experimentation and both her and Ruby are put under the DEO’s protection. While there. Winn and Samantha strike up a connection and Ruby and Carter become friends.

When M'yrnn’s telepathy goes haywire it’s Mon El who loses it and yells at Imra and Brainy for expecting him to leave Kara, their friends and their entire life together behind in the name of so called duty. It only makes Kara love him more.

Sadly. Samantha does get briefly taken over by Reign, the brief time travel thing still happens and Kara does get cloned like in canon. Except. Brainy and Winn are able to use Legion technology, as well as M’gann’s Martian powers to quell and rejoin the two halves of Samantha’s psyche and save everyone. Good old sci-fi mumbo jumbo really. A little bit cliche. But it works 99.9% of the time. So it’s fine.

When everything’s over. Imra finally gets it that Mon El has a life of his own and with the blight vanquished and Samantha in full control of the Reign persona there’s no need to stay. So she goes back home to 30th Century alone.

Before she leaves. She asks Brainy to stay in the 21st Century and keep an eye on Samantha. Just in case. Winn also stays and asks Samantha out to dinner. To his happy surprise the accepts. Plus. Winn gives Mon El his supersuit. Same as in canon. Except this time. Winn’s included the House Of El insignia. Karamel love it.

Brainy also gives Mon El a Legion ring. In the event that he changes his mind. Mon El uses the ring to propose to Kara. And she accepts. Just in time for angst in season 4.

[supermanliveson]

She wasn't; Barry left Cisco in charge and she stole it.

rewatching s4 for harrisco feels and tell me again why was iris put in charge of the team??

[shrinkthisviolet]

22, 23, 26, and 27 for the ask game! :)

22. Popular character you hate?

Kylo Ren. His redemption was poorly done, and…yes, he should’ve lived, but not for some awful romance plotline. He should’ve lived so that he could do the hard work of atoning.

Or they should’ve gone full-fledged villain with him. Because…they were going for Vader parallels, but they did NOT stick the landing at all.

23. Unpopular character you love?

Nora West-Allen! I understand the criticisms about her, which is why I only write her around the age of 18 (since imo that’s what she should’ve been), and there are some inconsistencies in what she knows about Thawne, but aside from that…idk I found her compelling and I love the Westallen family 🥰

(I also think she’s great in s7, even if I hated the Godspeed arc and that season as a whole)

26. Most shippable character?

Probably Iris honestly, she’s shippable with a bunch of characters 😂 notably Barry, Eddie, Kendra, and Caitlin!

Cisco’s also pretty shippable: Barry, Cynthia, Kendra, Kamilla (even Lisa, if you’re so inclined)

27. Least shippable character?

There’s a few that could fall into this category (Azula, Ozai, etc), but definitely Thawne. The thing he had with Meena in s8 was sweet, but they had to turn him very OOC to make it work, and we only knew this version of Thawne for an episode or two, so it wasn’t even enough time to get attached to them.

salty ask game!

[goddessxdivine]

SYDCARMY RANTING (this is ridiculously long, im sorry, and you’ve been warned)

so this started out with thinking about a SydCarmy scene in S3Ep9 that went something along the lines of:

S: “it’s hard to keep up with you sometimes”

C: “yeah well I’ve been this a lot longer so…”

S: “…I didn’t mean on a skill level”

[some in between conversation]

C: “i don’t want it to be hard to keep up with me”

S: “… okay …. then goodnight”

i always go into some kind of spiral with them because they give so much but so little lol when I first watched that scene I always interpreted it as Carmy telling Syd that he wants to be better about his behavior so he’s not hard to keep up with & Syd not thinking that was “enough” (as in “what are you gonna do so i can see those changes”) which led to their awkward goodbye/goodnight. but, and forgive if im super late to this realization, now im seeing how maybe Syd interpreted Carmy’s words to mean that she needs to change how she executes her duties so that she can keep up with him, essentially telling her to step her game up.

either way im sure there are many interpretations of that scene and what they each meant with their words/looks. because one thing about Sydney and Carmen, is they will have full conversations with just their eyes. however, their communication is off. when it comes to really fleshing out those deep conversations that help people become closer, they often shy away from it. this is not to say that they don’t get deep with each other. but to me, there are many opportunities where they could deepen their relationship as friends and co-owners but then they stop before it can get too heavy. i think this is both a character trait for Syd & Carmy but also a choice of the creators to not include those scenes. if you’ve experienced anything similar to what happened to westallen then you may be familiar with a creator/showrunner excluding necessary conversations that provide context to a character’s decision. or tptb just straight up deleting scenes vital to the characters. so i think Syd and Carmy keep misunderstanding each other for many reasons.

back to the S3Ep9 scene. i went from thinking about it to realizing i needed to rewatch the entire scene. and in doing so i feel like im able to see certain things in a different light. so the conversation goes

C: “tonight was off”

S: “been off”

C: “im sorry”

then Syd brings up it being hard to keep up him as i mentioned about before. i think, in that moment of Carmy apologizing for his energy that contributes to “been off”, Syd starts to approach mentioning how his behavior has affected her and their work environment (by telling him “it’s hard to keep up with you”). but Carmy, who is much too focused on perfecting this dish, isn’t really paying attention to what Syd is trying to softly communicate causing him to respond badly. which then annoys Syd, making her feel like maybe it’s time to broach the much dreaded Shapiro offer. however, she stops herself. i think in classic Syd-form, she took a step back to look at the bigger picture. she and Carmy know each other well; she knows he’s stressed out causing him to obsess and he knows when she has something that’s bothering her to say.

even when he annoys her, they’ve built something greater than her just wanting to further her career and flippantly tell him that she’s considering another job offer. there are many relationships in that kitchen that they formed together. if im not mistaken, Carmy had been working at The Beef for about 2 months when Syd came in to stage. when she started Richie and Tina were still very anti. Carmy and Syd wrangled everyone to be a real restaurant with close friendships together. dare i say, Syd coming into the beef gave Carmy hope that he could actually prove what he’d always wanted to Mikey.

there are times where Syd and Carmy give those two people (romantic or platonic) who become so close so quickly and when they’re at odds with one another, mending that is difficult for them. at some point they realize that they have yet to figure out how best to communicate with each other. they’ve created a space where things that could be discussed, met with compromise, and quickly put to bed, ends up with both parties feeling unheard. which goes back to what im saying about them needing to know each other more deeply because they already know each other well. for example, Carmy’s “im right here” when Syd says “[the Shapiro thing] can wait.” they know each other well enough for her to know (outside of personal avoidance) maybe he doesn’t need to hear this right now and he knows her well enough to know that she probably really needs to talk about something.

after this, Carmy invites Syd to the Ever funeral. while i do think that he invited her because, as he said, it’d be her “last chance to eat there” and “it’s Ever”, it might have also been personal for him. i think that he knew there was a chance of angry-mean-NY chef being there and other people/situations that may make him anxious. and as we know, a fancam of Syd helps him calm down. but that wouldn’t have been enough, he needed Syd there in real time. idk I’ve just always felt like Syd empowered (for lack of a better term) Carmy.

then finally we’re back to Carmy saying “I don’t want it to be so hard to keep up with me” and Syd leaves seemingly upset which further exemplifies their miscommunication

okay done now :))

[supermanliveson]

if theres something i found funny about westallen fans is that they were celebrating when hartley was fired beacuse he is "racist" but candice also made weird tweets from the same time as hartley (early 2010s) and was literally besties with him. check his instagram. she appears there more than any other cast member. if he is so terrible than so is she

They wouldn't be WA stans if they weren't total hypocrites.