#I don't even know if this ship has a tag or an audience but we're rolling with it I think they're Silly :]

[nilesmoon]

I cannot believe that En works at kurotama bath with Yumoto now like congrats to them on the marriage

[the-cat-and-the-birdie]

You don't need to worry about the ATSV fandom dying. As someone whose been in the Marvel fandom over ten years - I can assure you this is natural.

The ATSV Fandom Isn't Dead: A brief look into the science of fandoms.

[me standing beside Hobie beaming my thoughts of love and adoration into his head like I'm professor x]

A lot of people are afraid of the ATSV dying - and I don't blame them.

In the era of shows releasing all in one day, or movies coming to streaming almost immediately - it's not hard to say we're in an era were content is consumed at ridiculously rapid rates.

I mean, this time last year Wednesday was breaking records on Netflix. Where's the hype now?

I know you see it too, there's less posts everyday in the Hobie tag, less screenshot breakdowns, etc etc etc.

But I'm here to tell you - The ATSV fandom is doing just fine. Better than fine. All of this is meant to happen.

Let me put it into perspective.

ATSV released on June 2nd - it's November.

ATSV released a little over six months ago.

For reference: The Avengers (2012) was released on May 4th.

The Avengers DVD wasn't available for purchase until SEPTEMBER 25th - almost SIX months later.

The time that the Hobie fandom has formed and existed - is the same amount of time people had to wait just to see The Avengers again.

Large periods of time where tags only get three posts a day TOPS was nothing to fear. xReaders and fanfics held the fandom over until the next trailer, the next sneak peek or leak.

Prior to the release of streaming, only a little more than ten years ago - it was NATURAL for a fandom to wait six months before even seeing the movie for a second time.

And mind you - streaming didn't exist. If you wanted to see The Avengers again, you had to go out and BUY it. $26.99.

If you wanted to order it online - you'd have to get it shipped to you. Before Disney plus, we watched on BlueRay Discs.

And the fandom was fine and healthy.

If a fandom that doesn't even have a DVD release can keep up content for six months, I think we'll be fine.

But I'll admit - there's still the question:

If the ATSV fandom is 'doing fine' then where is everyone going? Why are the tags getting slower?

The answer is simple:

FANDOM BIOLOGY

I LOVE social sciences and the systems people create and how they work - even unintentionally.

And I have a theory - one about the natural evolution and regeneration of fandom. Hear me out -

When it comes to ATSV:

We are leaving the Analysation Phase, the phase in which content creation is centered around deciphering and breaking down the most recent installment in the fandom.

During this phase usually see art of newer characters, new ships, meta breakdowns, easter egg point-outs.

We were in that phase.

Once the Analysation Phase dies down, usually main content creators may remain. The intermediate or liminal period.

The intermediate is usually when you'll see more x-reader art pop-up, the levels of fanart evening out as artists return to their favorite characters - usually incorporating any new ones they gained from the last installment.

Shitposts usually also become popular around this time, as the shock and weight of the story wear off, and we're more able to joke about the storyline a lot more light-heartedly.

That's why the intermediate point is often see as the passion 'dying out'.

When in fact, it is the fandom getting comfortable. Resting for the next phase.

And after a few months, the next phase comes:

The Speculation Phase:

The Speculation Phase cannot come until the Analysation Phase is over.

During the Analysation Phase the fandom begins to breakdown and digest the writers intentions. They integrate the new character into the story, and the fandom.

As the audience and fandom talk amongst each other, we get more solid ideas of who the characters are, what their motivations might be, and most important of all-

What they might do.

In the Speculation Phase we turn from the last installment - and start looking towards the future.

Let's take Hobie for example.

Looking at the timeline of the Hobie fandom, we can see a progression.

Originally taken as a punk-rockstar and little more, throughout the months the fandom began posting things about punk culture, the 70's, Hobie's motivation in the comics, and how that all correlates to him.

As the fandom analyzed, the collective zeitgeist and understanding of Hobie grew into something a lot more sound, and telling.

We looked at the parellels he provides in the story, and what kind of person he is.

And because if that we have seen a marked improvement in people's contextual understanding of Hobie - as a punk and a hero.

And now that we can understand him - we can predict him.

The same goes for Miguel - over the months, a lot of us have began to question if we know him as well as we think we do , if we really know the kinda person he is -

And if we really know what he's doing to do.

That's where the Speculation Phase comes in.

The Speculation Phase in fandom is when we see some of the most passion - and instead of tapering off overtime, it builds. More and more until the next release.

The Speculation Phase is when the fandom takes the analysis' and from there, they begin to theorize.

Now that we understand, we can begin to predict.

And this is arguably one of the most interesting parts in a fandoms natural ecosystem.

During the Speculation Phase, we can see a number of diverse opinions appear.

As more and more creators begin to gather their understanding, tips from the writers, new released news, and past comic book arcs, we start to see dozens of triguing paths the writers can take us on.

As more news releases, the more hype people get. I mean - imagine how you'll feel when they release the first new poster of Hobie, or Miles? Or when we get to see Miles.G in the trailer?

And with each new poster, or trailer, we're given clues. The theorizes develop more. And the plot thickens.

It's all natural.

So I can understand the fear. Only getting one or two new posts when you visit the Hobie tag can be a bummer. But it's natural and it's GOOD.

Y'all, we need to conserve our energy. We are in the liminal phase. And they never last long.

With the news of the voice actors back in the studio, and a cliff-hanger like we have - I can assure you, it's only a matter of time before we begin to see the theories, the trailer breakdowns, the people guessing what Miguel might do, or exactly how much tech Hobie is hiding.

And when that time comes we need to be READY. I can already feel it on the horizon.

I really wonder what they'll do with all that left over Hobie concept art.

Plus with explosion of Hobie approval, I wonder if they'll add him in even more. Hobie fan-service anyone?

Hmmm...

But chill y'all, we're on the right track -

-------------------------------------

If you read this far, as always THANK YOU SO MUCH!! And as a token of my appreciation, I hand you this Hobie. Hold him gently please

Bye 💗

[antimony-medusa]

Gonna be honest with you though if someone outright says “don’t ship my character with other people” or something to that extent regarding smut or whatever I don’t think there should be any ambiguity

I get your point about the nature of fanfic being inherently encroaching upon people’s images so that levity should be extended to otherwise uncommon avenues but I really believe hardline boundaries should be respected, end of, no discussion. If I see people violating creators’ boundaries for their characters Or themselves (and these can be intertwined, it’s not up to the audience to pick apart their boundaries, cuz I’ve seen people try to do that) I’m not going to judge them fairly and I feel like neither should you.

Lines can be crossed and intimacy (not even necessarily romantic!) is a very different monster than the other avenues of storytelling because of how it involves real life relationships seeping into character relationships. Its’s uncommon for people to be like “I wrote A’s character being tortured because I feel like A is tortured in real life” but they Can and Often do that with ship work. So I don’t know, I feel like you’re not affording this the right nuance.

Alright, so, this is another post I'm gonna slap with a discourse and long post warning right away, buckle in.

Yeah, I hear what you're saying, and this is not an uncommon opinion to have! It's still the opinion of twitter/x so far as I know, and I think it's probably the opinion of the bulk of dsmp fans here, as well. I know my posts get notes once they start circulating in hermitblr, but I don't kid myself that I have the majority view. I am posting to explain my views expressly because I know a lot of people don't agree with me!

And in this case we do have a difference of opinion. There's two sort of points as I see it in your posts— we have hardline boundaries about shipping/nsfw from some people, and everyone in the fandom should be abiding by those no exceptions or be thrown out of the fandom; and we have shipping boundaries but not boundaries for other things because shipping is uniquely boundary-crossing and terrible and invasive, in contrast to anything else we can do in fandom.

Taking the second part first, I just don't think that's true. Let's not forget, boundaries discourse started with SMPLive and SMPronpa, and it was not the shipping that caused the discussion, it was the death games. The first real fandom reckoning we had with the notion of boundaries as mcyt fandom was over gore and murder and portraying people in violent ways. Shipping was barely a blip on the radar. The way the discourse has developed now, shipping is framed as the absolute worst thing anyone could ever do with your public image, and everything else is fine, but that is not the case for everyone. Recently the Pirates SMP creators were asked repeatedly for their boundaries (bothered on twitter, really) until they gave them and thus we saw people being fine with shipping but not wanting family dynamic, or being against both shipping and gore, or being fine with shipping but not wanting to be gender bent or trans headcanoned, etc. Not everyone feels the same way about the same things, despite the us-american cultural viewpoint that romance and sexualization is uniquely bad but gore and torture is fine, that everything else is fine.

Like, if we're looking at DSMP, I think there are a lot of creators who would feel just as strongly if not stronger about fics in which their character died of a terminal illness than they would about a fic in which they kiss someone, for understandable reasons. But I see those tropes in the tags regularly!

I think if we are honest with ourselves, if we are going to hardline boundaries about things that are uniquely invasive or bad to do to a creator's character with the view that we are putting all of this up for the creator's approval, we need to accept that this excludes us from writing anything where a character is abusive or is tortured or dies of a terminal illness or is psychologically broken or is age regressed or is neurodivergent or is queer if the cc is straight or trans if the cc is cis or cis if the cc is trans or straight if they're gay— the list of things that would be weird to do in the face of the real guy is really long. And it has most of our favourite tropes on it!

I love writing autistic philza. It would be really fuckin' weird to go up to Philza and tell him about how I write his character as whumped and autistic. Come on now. (But that's within boundaries, so that's— fine? I really don't think it's fine!)

Which is why my stance is that we should be thinking critically about these things, and keeping the fandom seperate from the creators. Some of these things are just not for the creators. They're fine but they shouldn't go on twitter. Y'know?

The idea that shipping draws uniquely on the real person and leads to invasive behaviour but nothing else does— that nobody does "I wrote A being tortured because I think A is tortured in real life"— Look. I have been in the fandom a long time. I remember how all the abused tommy narratives fed right into people assuming his family in real life were abusive— and talking about this on twitter! Where he and his family could see! People did this with WIlbur and Techno too!

I remember people reading about trans tommy and then truthing that the creator either was transmasc or was going to come out as transfemme any day now, publically, on twitter and in his chat. I have seen people she/her tubbo to his face on twitter, with fancams. I have been in chat when people who have clearly assigned Phil "dad" start asking WILDLY invasive things in TTS. If you think that shipping is the only fandom behaviour that can lead to people drawing directly from the streamers for their work and treating the creators weirdly about it, you simply have not been paying attention.

The way the fandom insists on treating benchtrio as children despite the fact that they're almost twenty and viciously attacking their friends for treating them as adults and chiding tommy and tubbo and ranboo for inappropriate behaviour. The list goes ON.

So. The recieved DSMP wisdom is that we should TTS the streamers to check if it's okay if we write a fic in which they die of cancer. We should DM them on instagram to ask if it's okay if we write them as a gender or sexual identity they don't share. We should show up in their twitter mentions to ask if it's okay if we write them as a physically abusive parent.

No????????

My view on that is that it is frankly bizzare it is that we have decided that "asking creators for detailed instructions regarding porn or gore" (especially in TTS! When they're fucking at WORK and can't step away! Stop doing this to the hermits!) is normal and fine and responsible but "post your shit in appropriate places and leave the creators out of it" will make you a monster.

Once again, the experience of someone coming up and saying "i think of you as age regressed" and someone saying "i found this fic where you're age regressed" and someone saying "can I write a fic where you're age regressed" is not that different. In all cases you know that the person has been thinking about it and putting it out there, and in all cases you didnt seek out this information, it was brought to you. In all cases it's weird. Just do not bring this information up to them!

If you just think about it for a while, you see that there is an entire host of things that would be weird to force into the view of a creator, especially when you consider that half the time we got these clips from TTS information when we have no idea if the person answering knew the context of what they were being asked, if they were specifically aware of the creator/cc divide that the fandom works with, or if they felt pressured into it. Oh yeah, let's take a TTS clip from Tubbo when it was 2 in the morning for him and he was deep in a minecraft mod when someone asked him about alters and delusions and he was like "oh you mean like— when they can't help it? I guess that's fine." That definately counts as freely given, reversible, informed, enthusiastic and specific consent to show him anything we want at all times forever. That's never going to make him uncomfortable.

Think a little here.

So I think there's a lot of the fandom that we should not be putting up for the approval of the creators, and if we don't have a firm answer on if they would like potential edge cases, we should probably be thinking about it and keeping it away from them (and I would err on the side of caution), we should NOT be showing up in the TTS to ask them about narratives in which they're institutionalized, or making them a GOP conservative in fiction, or if Wilbur was canon about seeing them as a bottom, or whatever bizzare thing someone is cooking up now. Honestly if you think to yourself "I don't know if the creator would like seeing this", I would be much more comfortable if the two choices we were picking between there were "simply don't write it" or "write it but keep it away from them", and "harass the creator for an answer on this subject and only write it if they say yes" never entered the equation at all.

And to return to your first point, if we already have a class of fiction that we are keeping away from the creators because basic intellectual curiosity would show that it would be weird to show someone, I don't think it's the end of the world to go "okay, creator doesn't like NSFW, so we also keep the NSFW away from them, keep this shit off twitter, block them if you create it, don't show it to them" and then we archive lock it and continue on our little weirdo on the internet ways.

Now, I don't expect to convince you of this, the phrasing of your post does not indicate that you're open to discussion on this topic. That's fine. Nobody has to agree with me. But I grew up conservative christian, and I have already had people try and get me to throw people out of the community for their perceived sins where I was like "well, I really don't think this is that bad", and I'm really resistant to being forced to do that again. I don't think it's a healthy way to run a fandom, to be shunning people for what they're doing in fiction. Harassing creators in chat? Sure, I will block them from my events as untrustworthy. That's hurting someone in the real world. Writing something that I don't vibe with privately on the archive for an audience of 50 people? That is not doing harm to real people. As long as they're not showing it to the creators, I don't count that as offensive.

How's that for nuance.

[sokkastyles]

I have a question, I know we know that shipping does not equal morality. And I get that, and I really like that. However, on my other blog, that should have been my main blog (yes I am that dumb). I have talked about Aang's non-consensual and criticized how Kataang is written, however, if you ship Kataang I won't come for your throat because that's not my style. I know the few misogynists/antis on here and on Twitter, and I don't want to let a few bad apples be my impression of a fandom, that's not fair, So now I'm side-eyeing myself over my past remarks. Likewise, I know shipping is not equal to morality, but I also want to criticize Kataang because of how flawed it is and how wrong that kiss was (and other things). I have no idea what I'm saying because at this point I'm rambling. What do you think?

Well, there is a difference between criticizing a ship and criticizing canon. I don't honestly care what people ship. I use the antikataang tag because I don't want to argue with people who do ship it, but that doesn't mean I won't be critical of what is in the show. I think expecting people not to engage critically with media is absolute nonsense. But there is a difference between engaging critically with the actual media and criticizing people's fanon or headcanons, which is where you get away from critically engaging with canon and move into the area of criticizing other people's opinions, which is how arguments start.

Like, there isn't really any actual concrete argument you can make to criticize zutara, because zutara does not exist in canon. It's all fanon and headcanons and speculation. And criticizing other people's opinions just makes you look like a dick.

You also have to take into account the intention behind something. The thing about the way Katara's relationship with Aang is presented is that we're supposed to root for Aang to get Katara, and every obstacle towards that end is just there to create dramatic tension for the male point of audience identification. That's the real problem with the noncon kiss, and people who are critical of it are right to point it out.

In contrast, when I say shipping isn't morality, I'm talking about people who write, let's say, dubcon zutara fics. Fanfiction as a genre is largely female-centered fantasy. Yes, even those lurid fics you're thinking of. People write and read these fics for completely different reasons and have completely different expectations than when watching a series like ATLA. Trying to say that someone can't criticize the way the show presents Aang kissing Katara after she said she was confused as a mistake to be glossed over (that is forgotten as soon as it happens) because they also happen to like reading darkfic is nonsense. There's also a long history of women's interests being policed that informs my views here, vs the fact that consent has only fairly recently become a conversation in mainstream media. You have only to look at the way the show itself portrays Katara having interests (especially in boys) outside of Aang as dark and dangerous to see this happening in ATLA itself. Or the way the creators got away with saying that zutara shippers are doomed to end up in abusive relationships while painting Aang as a typical Nice Guy stereotype who expects Katara to magically become his girlfriend (and gets angry when she doesn't) and seeing nothing wrong with it.

The thing is that zutara, if we look at the way it's written in canon as a metaphor for a romantic relationship, follows the same tradition of how fanfiction has historically existed as an exploration of romantic and sexual dynamics. Those conversations about consent are actually happening and being explored in fanfiction, even the dark stuff, whereas relationships that are presented as "wholesome" often push us to NOT have those conversations. So when I say shipping isn't morality, what I actually mean is that noncanon shipping and darkfic actually has more of a moral leg to stand on than uncritically engaging with relationships on the grounds that Aang is the hero so his goodness and worthiness to get the girl should just be assumed. Zuko has to work for his right to be in a relationship with Katara because he didn't start out from a place of goodness, and that, on its own, is very female centered because instead of starting out from the perspective of the male hero deserving a relationship by virtue of being the hero, we see the idea that a man has to work to gain a woman's respect and affection.

So it's not so much that I hate KA, but I hate the idea that we should engage in it uncritically. And that would be true even if it really was the most wholesome relationship in the world. The same thing cannot be true of zutara because even the darkest of darkfic are about women centering themselves in the narrative and engaging with power dynamics in ways that are subverting patriarchal norms about relationships by definition.

[aveteranofathousandpsychicwars]

Since (Tiktok is being banned and) we're all gonna die anyway, I have one more secret I'd (like to jump into tumblr with) share with you (in the hopes that I find like-minded individuals)

I don't understand people who think Buddie is ever going canon.

I understand why people ship them. I understand why people thought there was a chance. I acknowledge they could work as a really epic slow burn romance.

They're not going canon.

It's not even because of Tommy and Tevan. I'll be happy to argue with anyone about Tevan.

Buddie is still not going canon.

Are they the majority of the shippers in the online fandom? Absolutely. Most popular ship, hands down. Over thirty thousand fanworks on AO3 alone, something like a hundred thousand followers in the tag on Tumblr, they're a shipping juggernaut. But what people fail to understand is that online fandom is always, ALWAYS a minority of the audience. The average viewer is not making tumblr posts and writing fics and drawing art of their favorite TV show. It doesn't matter how much of a majority of the fandom Buddie has, it's a minority of the audience. We saw this EXACT. SAME. EFFECT. in the recent election. Democrats created a giant echo chamber that made a lot of us very, very confident, but we did not have the majority of the audience.

A hundred thousand followers of the Buddie tag on Tumblr. However many hundred thousand tweets on Twitter (I refuse to call it X and I refuse to get on it). Thirty thousand works on AO3.

6-8 MILLION people regularly tune into 911. I guarantee you, most of them do not know what shipping is, and even if they do, Buddie has not been presented as a potential romance for either Buck or Eddie. Every moment, every look, every action...joke all you want, there IS a heterosexual explanation. "You two have a beautiful son!" Oh my God, meant to be!

The majority of the audience was laughing at the joke of two dudes being assumed a couple and Buck's discombobulation.

The shooting (honestly, the only part where I think they MIGHT have done it). A gorgeous romantic scene where they finally realized how much they stood to lose. Most of the audience was sympathizing with Buck having to watch his best friend go down in the street. Military people were probably having band of brothers thoughts.

Because, Evan. THE definitive Buddie moment. At best, most of the audience was thinking how beautiful it was that Eddie considers Buck family.

Buddie is not going canon, and it's weird that you get so vicious over it to other fans instead of yelling at the show to stop ship baiting for views. Cause that's what they're doing. Marketing, media, social posts, interviews. It all reads the exact same as it ALWAYS does when a show wants the engagement and the clicks but doesn't want to piss off the general audience. You saw it with Destiel, you saw it with Sterek, you saw it with McDanno.

ABC cares about diversity and storytelling only insofar as it will make them money and I guaran-damn-tee you Disney is not going to let them give Eddie a coming out arc along with Buck. It was a HUGE risk for them to do it with Buck (speaking strictly from a business perspective...obviously I think there should be more queer characters on TV) and it only worked because Buck was always at least a little queer-coded.

I am not shitting on gay!Eddie headcanons or the ship itself. But the NASTINESS that has perpetuated itself in regards to Buddie is gross and tiresome. It's not going canon and honestly in the political climate that's about to engulf the US even further I'd be surprised if they ever let Buck seriously date a man again, let alone Eddie.

There was a really lovely mlm ship with a main character and people shit on it so hard that it has a real chance of making them think twice about ever giving Buck a male love interest again.

So congrats, I guess? Still never going canon.

[triflesandparsnips]

Lot of takes going around the internets about certain "deaths" in the ofmd season finale, so, uh-- guess it's time for me to try and lose some followers on tumblr dot com with

Some Thoughts on Why I Am Not Particularly Bothered or Concerned about Izzy's Apparent "Death"

Laying the groundwork first...

1. Narratively speaking, Izzy's been a dead man walking since the start of the season. Babe shot himself and got a rebirth-- but he still definitely intended to die. Every minute he was still around was borrowed time.

Did he have to die? Maybe not. I know I could've written a version of the show where he didn't. But then that would be my show-- not theirs. I can't know exactly what themes, bugbears, bête noires, catharsis, or artistic Vibes are driving that writers' room, and until the credits run on the finale of the third season, none of the rest of us can either.

2. Izzy spent the season being in a liminal state-- and there's nothing in the story saying that he can't continue doing that. Izzy spent the season having one foot in one space, one hoof in the other, and himself halfway through the door, a chimera of mirrored things right up to his "death": pirate and ship, hard and soft, old ways and new, etc etc. But "the gravy basket" is a weird little liminal space between life and death, a place that both Ed and Buttons have found (and returned from) before. We don't know where Izzy "is" right now-- he could be there.

(tbh, I wonder how much poor feeling we'd be having about all this if we'd gotten a final tag of a blue-washed Izzy staring down at a bowl of soup while helplessly saying "but this isn't gravy, what the fu--")

3. I think there is an unfortunate belief that "it's not real unless you see the body" is a universal -- or perhaps inarguable -- "fact" of storytelling. But it's not. It's just a bit of narrative shorthand that got popular, and now we're too ready to fall into the trap of believing the inverse is true too-- that if there is a body, then there must therefore have been a "real" death.

This season has spent quite a lot of narrative time and effort telling us that its story is using a different model, with different shorthands; specifically, that magic is real, that there is at least some kind of existence after death, and that the dead can be resurrected.

And that brings me to the meat of why I'm not particularly bothered or concerned about what, at this stage of the story, could still very well be just a minor setback--

4. This whole show, and particularly this season, is a fairy tale. It's a story that works with fairy tale logic and tropes, and it's in conversation with other fairy tales too, ones that the OFMD audience is likely to know well enough to spot their narrative beats in action. So "Pinocchio" gets mentioned a lot? Cool-- the audience applies what is commonly known of that story to this one ("a real boy", the mirror-opposite being a puppet with no nose, etc), and finds some Cool Shit. Then they're primed to keep looking for fairy tales, even unnamed ones, in case there's another little nugget of reward-dopamine for finding a connection.

So the fact that we saw a mermaid? Suddenly, I personally am noticing "Little Mermaid" motifs all over the place. That Ed was in a "sleep like death" -- after fucking around with a spinning wheel -- until his prince came to wake him? Well fuck, man, that's Blackbeard playing "Sleeping Beauty" for us all.

And bringing it all back to a "dead" Izzy Hands... when I add up a "dead" body surrounded by a bunch of laborers mourning the person who nominally kept their living space nice AND who was wanted dead by an authority figure for the crime of being the "better" version of what that figure wanted to be...

...well fuck, idk about the rest of you, but to me that all adds up to Izzy's story being Snow fucking White. Waiting for someone to come pull the bullet poisoned apple from his body so he can live again.

5. This is a second season. Of three. And Izzy Hands is the writer's favorite chewtoy, so there is lots of time, space, and incentive to bring him back. If there's a third season, we have a pile of ways he could be brought back over the course of hours of literal viewing time and possibly months of in-narrative time. That's ages.

And the solutions don't have to be difficult! For instance, we still have canonical hallucinations from Stede-- that's one route. Or fuck it, we could have Izzy's (very solid-looking) ghost be the embodiment of their being haunted by the Sea, that would work too.

And even barring all that-- his grave is right there with our heroes. The ship is out there hunting down his murderer. Even if you're happy he's dead... bad news, friend. He's all over the third season landscape. (uh oh, it's GNU Izzy Hands)

But those are just a few options that leave his body rotting but his character still alive. I happen to think we could all dream a little bigger, darlings. For instance:

A. You cannot tell me that these writers, on this show, with these actors, would not absolutely go all in on a zombie-esque hand thrusting out of the dirt mere hours after burial. Look me in the eyes and tell me Con O'Neill wouldn't pull off an entire digging-out scene only to end with himself panting beside the hole, looking around, hearing Ed and Stede being weird in their haunted hut, and wearily say, "Are you fucking kidding me."

B. Don't like zombies? Want to stay closer to the Snow White vibe AND introduce a love interest for him? One hyphenated word: body-snatcher. Gotta dig those bodies up fresh for the Definitely Historically Accurate anatomists of the time! But oh, says this New Guy, this corpse is-- wow, it's weird that they buried him with a rose and really amazing makeup and a truly extraordinary number of whittled whales, plus what's with that horsey leg grave marker, this guy must've been fucking fascinating, man, I wish I could've met him-- --at which point Izzy's hand shoots out and chokes the guy half to death and the lads come tumbling out of the house and ta da, mission accomplished, Izzy resurrected in 5 minutes or less with his horsey leg conveniently beside him and an entire season for himself and everyone else to Deal With It, amazing, fantastic, no notes from me.

C. Come to think of it, there is genuinely a non-zero chance that the crew just. Fucked up the burial. I mean... even though I was just arguing why we shouldn't see it as Law, we didn't actually see the body. We saw a grave. What did they bury him in? Was it a box? Was it some canvas? Did they definitely pick up the right one when it was time to bury him? Or did they maybe carefully make him an ahistorical safety coffin just in case a cat demon came to bother him and his corpse wanted to make a fuss about it, y'know, very common, could happen to anyone, and Frenchie just so happens to have Blackbeard's old collar bell right here--

6. Here's the bottom line, imo: The only thing that would keep Izzy really actually dead and completely removed from the story is a lack of narrative time and space-- and we have plenty of both. Stories are like Lego. If you've got enough time and you're willing to play with pieces from a whole lotta different sets, it's not hard to put the same elements together in different ways to get new, exciting configurations. It's why I'm actually rubbish at predicting exact details of stuff-- there are a lot of ways something could go, there are infinite doors out of problems the narrative seems to throw at us, and no two people will come up with the same thing because we're all different.

That, to me, is one of the big ways I personally enjoy and engage with stories. And it's why I genuinely can't be fussed about Izzy's death, not when we're only two-thirds through the story as a whole; observing someone setup and then try and execute a complicated narrative trick is my jam.

But my way of engaging with all this is by no means the best or only way. How we all interact with art, and what speaks to us, is extremely personal. If how this season and Izzy's death went just didn't work for you, that's okay. I'm sorry it wasn't the story you wanted it to be. That blows.

I just know I can't say yet that it didn't work for me. I won't know until I can take in the entire picture, just as I can't judge a finished Lego set by the one piece I step on midway through construction. I can see different ways Izzy's death/rebirth could absolutely work, but will the writer manage it? I dunno.

But I'm willing to wait and see if the stupid puppet can pull it off.

[lizard-queen-izzy]

OK! WE'RE DOING THIS!

Everyone shut up and sit down. I'm talking about TMA. I am listening through for the first time, I'm through S1 and halfway through S2, and I already have many Thoughts. Today, we will be focusing on my evil ship thoughts, because I missed my chance when this was coming out so now I will subject you all.

I know Jon and Martin get together at some point, and yknow, that's all fine and good.

BUT I WANNA TALK ABOUT JON AND TIM, OK?

There is so much potential for something there, and they would be so incredibly messy after the S1 finale.

[I've lightly scrolled through the jontim tag, and I truly don't think there's enough of you talking about how tragic they are. Platonic or romantic, they're so so sad.]

They both worked in the research department before Jon was made Head Archivist, and even though they definitely weren't close, they were definitely friendly. My Firm Belief is that Jon was the only one who took Tim seriously despite his more lax attitude, he saw his strong work ethic and his dedication and treated him accordingly. And Tim was the only one who listened to Jon, the only one who thought he had anything to add and took his suggestions.

I believe they were hired around the same time, and once they met there was a silent understanding that they were there for eachother. It was nice to just have someone in their corner in this new environment.

When Jon got promoted to Head Archivist, he was adamant about Tim being on his team, because he knew Tim would help get the results needed. [I have a whole, how everyone got assigned to the team timeline thought out but that's not why we're here]

Tim is the only member of his team who Jon doesn't think would have written Antonio Blake's statement as a joke to scare him. Which means he trusts him the most out of all of them. Which wouldn't be as important if he showed distaste for them equally, but he regards both Tim and Sasha highly, and only really seems to have an issue with Martin at this point. So why would he trust Tim to not have written it but not Sasha? Unless he's known him the longest and has reason to put that faith in him.

AND THEIR CONVERSATION AT THE BEGINNING OF MAG 33?? You're gonna listen to that, the first time we as the audience meet Tim, and tell me you don't hear how much these two care for eachother? Even when Jon starts getting upset/loud, he calms quickly for Tim, and doesn't let himself fully yell at him. He also leaves it up to Tim to fix the mistakes, an example of him trusting Tim's judgement and work. And Tim is so calm with him! The man keeps getting worked up and starting to get loud, but Tim stays calm and let's him self correct and say what he needs to before proceeding himself. He knows Jon is stressed and has a lot on his plate. He knows these mistakes needed to be discussed with him and corrected somehow, but he's still not going to force Jon to re-record the statements if he really doesn't want to, he's willing to find another solution. And then he leaves to go work on it so Jon can get back to recording the statement.

And Tim telling Jon he doesn't understand the filing system and Jon explaining it calmly to him, admitting he doesn't really get it either but that's how it is.

You also have to see my vision for how the S1 finale effects them. A traumatic experience where they were both scarred mentally and physically in the same ways. Something that should have brought them even closer, maybe finally made them feel comfortable being proper friends outside of work. But they both react to it SO differently. And that is the beginning of their downfall. That is the beginning of the end.

Because Jon spirals. He stops trusting everyone. He pushes them all away and starts crossing boundaries. HE SPIES ON TIMS HOUSE. And he can't even calm down long enough to see why this bothers his coworkers. Why this hurts Tim.

The beginning of S2 from Tim's perspective is awful. Your first friend in this workplace is overworking himself, throwing himself back into work the second he's cleared physically well enough to go back. But he clearly hasn't moved past it, and you can't blame him for that. Everyone copes differently, but then he turns on you. He stops trusting you, starts pushing you away, starts spying on you. Can you imagine how much that hurts? To have the first person in this terrifying new job who ever put their trust in you, who ever believed in you, to turn on you just when you need them the most.

THEY ARE SO FUCKING MESSY. GOD.

Anyway. I very well may be back with more JonTim thoughts as I continue to listen. But this is what I have for you today.

[quill-and-paper-cranes]

(My answer to this got rather long, @pepsiiwho , and felt like something that might start some interesting thinkjuice in the tag, so I'm making it its separate post.)

Hrmm. How to encompass all that we've been talking about for like a month now, about why Basilio/Will is compelling.....

To set the stage a little- there's a Metaphor Re Fantazio post I've seen making the rounds that says, to paraphrase: 'the universe of MRF is excellent for fanworks specifically because it is so vague.' I'm inclined to agree even though this is also a double edged sword; we are given little 'meat' on a lot of functions and lore of the overall setting, mere drips and drops of backstories and history, passing one-line mentions of otherwise fascinating topics never broached again..... we're shown just enough to hook us in and make us care, make us wonder, make us want to expand upon what little is given, and no more. It is frustrating, to be sure, but on the other hand, it allows for a LOT of wiggle room for fan creators to sort of just take the slack in the reins and run with it.

For me- and most others, I'd imagine- one appeal of shipping comes broadly from taking something not in canon (usually not even implied) and bringing it into existence. This is typically done by interpreting source material in alternative ways- certain lines can be thought of as more rosy than they are, some canon scenes that end early with a cut-to-black might in the imagination be extended and deepened, the way characters are animated to interact with each other might seem just so.... we know all that, I don't need to explain how we go about fueling the brainworms for pairings in general. What I WOULD like to submit to the class is that Basilio/Will in particular feels, to me, like something that is ripe with narrative opportunity, which makes it FUN both as a creator and a consumer.

Let me see if I can explain what I mean by 'narrative opportunity' and why it appeals to me (and probably others) from a fanwork creator's perspective. Humor me for a minute here.

Let's say you have characters A and B, set in a universe, and lalala the plot happens. A and B are not canon but are the perfect shipbait, are both very fleshed out, they each have defined personality traits and goals and nuances. The universe is also very well established and described. And finally, the PLOT is very well established. These three things are critical. It's a tight story all around: there's few to no loopholes in the timeline or pacing, the characters feel deep and deliberate, the events of [thing] happen in a very specific way/order the whole time. This is a good thing! This is how good stories are often told. When an audience is confused and frustrated and fed bullshit half-answers about a vague world and characters that are shallow or contradict themselves, it typically makes them care less about a subject because there's no cohesion, no common threads to follow. Excessive handwaving is annoying as fuck.

Typically.

I say typically, because sometimes.... sometimes, you end up with what MRF managed to pull off.

MRF has an overall plot which on its face it SEEMS cohesive- such and such happens, the cast goes here then here then here, they do this, the day is saved. It APPEARS to be a tidy story, if all you look at is on the surface. But if you dig into this IP, even a little, it falls the fuck apart. The timeline is a mess. Decisions/plans made are a mess. Some of the beloved characters are one dimensional or are a mess (using tropes or singular traits or hints of intriguing nuance that are never again touched on.) The worldbuilding is a mess. And as a writer, I HAVE to dig into these things. My entire craft is based upon my understanding of the source material, and in the case of MRF, the source material is just. Fucking. All over the place, holy shit.

That said.

It is... a fun mess. This is the most important part: it is a fun mess regardless. For all that MRF falls short in many ways, it is STILL charming and nuanced enough to overcome its abject sloppiness or total lack of concrete lore. It has "good bones", as our friend group jokes.

So back to the narrative opportunity thing.

I typed all that shit up there to contrast a theoretical 'tightly woven' linear storydriven IP to whatever the fuck MRF is, through the comparative lens of creating fanworks off of either piece.

For the tight IP, where everything is laid out and makes sense and things are more 'set in stone', I as a writer have less wiggle room to change things- I have less narrative opportunity. Sure sure, as a writer I can do "anything" as long as I'm good, but realistically.... if the original work did not leave me a shitload of loopholes to exploit, or vagueness of characters/history/lore/whatever, if I want these things tweaked to suit the point of my story, I have to do a lot of fucking legwork. It might not even be feasible. Again, this is not inherently bad- it's good, I'd argue. It means the story doesn't suck, it means thought and effort was put into worldbuilding by the creators.

However- with Metaphor Re Fantazio, there are plot holes in that motherfucker so big I can drive a gauntlet runner through them. This is my delicious narrative opportunity.

Because canon in MRF is already so handwaved and vague, if not outright contradictory- as a writer, I have a LOT of freedom to change or fix or completely negate things without it feeling nearly as 'disruptive' to an audience. Let me give a quick one: electricity. You can't recall if MRF uses electricity, can you? I'll save you the hassle- there is ONE undeniable instance of electricity being used. (Sea monster attack, a lightbulb above the table very explicitly shorts out and dies.)

This opens up so many more questions than it answers. Did Neuras alone discover electricty? Is it just not commonly adopted yet? Was it a fluke by the Atlus studio?

Therein is my narrative opportunity.

And that's just one small example. MRF is full of this open ended shit, ranging from the society, to the physical worldmap, to the food, to the clothes, to the tribes, to the history and religion and 'animals' and magla and prince and- you get the idea. The characters, notably, are not exempt either.

Circling back to the original question 800 tangents later, "what is the best part of the Magnus Brothers/BasWill":  I personally like writing and reading Basilio/Will because of this narrative opportunity.

Basilio is incredibly fleshed out. He is, imo, an excellent character on all fronts. His visual design, VA, animations, backstory, interpersonal relationships..... it's genuinely a goldmine. For every one character trait or tidbit a main cast member has, he's got three.

By contrast, Will.... I'm gonna level with y'all here, I think Will sucks LMAO. The game does NOT give that guy more than the barest minimum nothingburger personality imaginable. Will doesn’t say more than a full sentence or single word answers for like half the damn game, and the utter wasteland of a personality for someone who SHOULD have a lot on the line, is... offputting, to me. However, there are still some facts to be gleaned from what little we're given: Will is calm, quiet, to the point, determined, and kind. Generally. Vaguely.

Once we recognize that Basilio as a character is more 'locked in' to believably behaving a certain way given his canon-established facts, whereas Will is NOT- that's where my narrative opportunity comes in. That's where my fun is.

Authors can, within reason, write Will SO MANY DIFFERENT WAYS because of this. He's very close to a blank slate, while still showing enough personality that sssssooome things you could still point at and go "uh yeah that feels pretty ooc" but it's much looser. As an author, this means I can bend him into a little pretzel to behave certain ways that suit the narrative of the story I'm telling at that time, and it won't be egregiously difficult to do so nor conflict with canon. As a reader, it means I get to experience other people's Wills and see what THEY wanted to get out of him! And it (probably) also will not feel OOC, even if it's very different from mine! And that is so, so fun.

That is my technical answer.

My personal answer, if we're angling more for a quick bulleted "what do you like about THEM though, Quill," list (keeping in mind this is all personal preference or things that at least captivate ME on some level): size/strength difference, lived experience difference, experiment trauma background, Basilio's accent and personality is fun, his depth of character both in tandem with and apart from his brother Fidelio, his sense of humor and group banter, he's got unique non-human features (humans bore me so much omg), and he's just... a good person. Him and Will are straight up just good people, and that checks a box for me. Boring or simple, perhaps, but I (personally) don't read fanfic to make myself sad and miserable with sad and miserable characters, so Basilio/Will having such massive narrative opportunity to be nice people is pleasing to me and the genres I tend to favor.

That same narrative opportunity in the hands of a good writer can easily extend, though, to making them petty, or reserved, or despondent, or angry, or any number of completely different takes. And again: therein lies much of the fun, because MRF makes it so so easy to twist canon with what it does not give us. It's all in the nuance babeeeeeey.

This is already long so I won't crowd it further with an analysis on the Magnus Brothers- and that would be best under a spoiler tag anyway. But suffice to say, in all regards, it is the depth of character that Basilio has and Will, contradictingly, does NOT have, that makes them fun to write, read, and ship.

[god-i-hope-so]

The BoBs really think Ryan confirmed their ship is happening because he said "whatever happens happens" and he didn't outright say it wouldn't happen. Uhm he did say that in his "Eddie is a heterosexual man, Buck's straight friend that he came out to, and it's so nice that a straight man and a bi man can be friends" interview and y'all didn't believe him. Not to mention JLH telling them it wasn't going to happen, and then backtracking when the BoBs went crazy.

But we're the deluded ones for shipping bucktommy after just three episodes and Tommy being a plot device (apparently).

Hey, anon!

Well. People are free to think what they want, obviously. I don't even see much of what the BoBs are saying, only what is shared in the buck/tommy tags because I value my peace way too much to go look into the chaos.

"Whatever happens happens" means "you don't get to decide". Also how do they know that it's not Ryan who said no eventually?

They're angry because they now realize their fantasy won't become canon and like a bunch of toddlers who realize they won't have the toy they thought they would get, they throw a temper tantrum. And I can understand the disappointment. But not the reaction. Not the violence in their posts. There's no love for the show there, for the creative minds, for the effort of representation, for the people who work hard to make it happen. They're not fans. They just saw two cute men and projected their fantasies on them, whatever the story or the character development.

Yes, some choices don't make much sense in canon, I even myself would have enjoyed to see Eddie and Buck together at the beginning. It would have been cute, with Christopher loving them both so much too. But that's not what happened and they definitely wrote them in a way that doesn't leave any doubt if you don't try to read so hard between lines that don't even exist. People need to accept a story for what it is, and if they don't like it, they can live in complete denial of it. There's no shame in that but do it with respect. Your fantasy is yours.

The hate against Tommy is also their problem. They can hate him all they want but they twist everything about him to fit their hateful narrative. Queer characters deserve respect. Well, most of them, a queer pos is still a pos. But Tommy has been brought back into the show and written with respect for the character, for the story and for his purpose: being Buck's new romance. Not only he already existed in the show but also has history with the 118 and has a significant shared story with Hen and Chim. He's already a characters in itself, he just came back.

Having a character like Tommy is also more than just a interesting character. It's a necessary character. He fits the cishet macho mold so perfectly: veteran, pilot, firefighter, buff, confident, professional, brave. But he's GAY AF. And everything he does is respectful and kind. And haters have to rely on lying to show him in a bad light because so far, there's nothing. Imagine what this kind of character looks like for the average audience? It's great representation for us queer.

In the end, BoBs can hate all they want, Buck and Tommy together is canon, Tommy has only shown positive traits so far, he's shown sane boundaries and respect for other's. When haters have to rely on details, and still twist them, to justify their hate, you know they know they're wrong. They know, but they can't give up now that they've reach this level of hate.

All I would ask of them would be to stop the hate against real life people and stop pulling them into the drama (the live with JLH was NO THAT. Shame on them). Let the fandom be at war between ships if you need that to feel something but leave real people out of that, especially actors and Lou in particular. They're paid to play and this is not a service. You're not a client they have to satisfy because you paid for a specific performance. The bullying and entitlement need to stop.

[ravenlexis]

Hellloooo I just wanted to say THANK GOODNESS there’s someone else out there that doesn’t like the damsel in distress depictions done of Dr. Ratio/Aventurine. I honestly started looking into fan content a bit later on when people had already settled on the 3 ship names but I don’t understand why nobody ever just chose “ratirine” or something else to signify an equal relationship or a neutral ship tag. It seems like all the ship tags act as a neutral ship (by that I mean, just general content of the two, romantic, platonic, either topping, etc) tag but ratiorine is the most common these days.

I think they both experience periods of vulnerability but they’re also both dealing with a lot of emotional blockage due to what they’ve experienced in their respective lives. And the entire point of their relationship is that they’re both two extremely smart, independent capable men. To have one top over the other requires a clear communication of trust and being truly vulnerable, opening yourself up to the only other person in the world that won’t judge you. And to reduce that dynamic to just one or the other all the time seems wrong to me. Like I think they can switch off, although there will be times where one prefers a certain dynamic over the other.

I think the blend of ship names is used especially on here to reach the widest possible audience for a fan’s created work, which I understand, but sometimes it’s like no matter the tag these are just completely different characters lol.

Sorry for the ramble, I just appreciate someone else pointing out this fanonization and work organization trend!

hi anon! you've made a lot of good points!

i'll put my (longer than expected!) response under the cut. (this might be a trend, i keep rambling about things)

as you said, they're both capable, independent men. avent went through so much since he was a kid and he got to where he is not just by his goddess-given luck, but also his wit and cunning. depicting him as a damsel in distress is a bit hard considering what he experienced, what he's capable of, and his luck.

ratio, on the other hand, was a genius since he was a kid. nous' gaze or not, he's knowledgeable and has a good heart. he was revered as the next member of genius society since he was a teenager (at least), he walked among scholars twice his age, kept up with his studies on topics most people much older than him struggle with, and grew up much too fast. 8 PhDs and who knows how many other degrees he has. depicting him as a damsel in distress is also a difficult thing to do.

neutral ship names for many ships (not just ratio/avent) definitely exist. golden ratio is a nice alternative when there's no particular dynamic. although, tagging both ratiorine and aventio on a neutral dynamic for them probably lessens engagements?

gonna have to use another ship as an example here. zhongchi/tartali shippers have been around for quite a while. for me, personally, i like zhongchi more. i've seen several other zhongchi shippers complained about the double tags (as in, tagging both zhongchi and chili/tartali) ruined their experience in finding content. this is bcs they block the chili/tartali tags, bcs they have a set characterisations for both zhongli and childe that doesn't align with tartali.

back to ship names, a possible solution is to use a third tag for ambiguous or even no particular dynamics between characters. but if your art or fic have a particular dynamic, use the proper tag! the neutral tag probably shouldn't be used for switch dynamics tho, since that could pollute the sfw works with nsfw ones.

anyway, don't apologise for rambling! i think these discussions can be fun when everyone involved does so calmly. after all, at the end of the day, they're all fictional and we're all here to have fun imagining them being silly and in love.

if someone doesn't like something bcs it's problematic, then they absolutely should call bullshit and have a discussion about it. but if it's just a matter of who tops and who bottoms, don't like don't read should be applied liberally! let people enjoy things they like and let yourself enjoy things you like!

be like the zhongchi shippers that block tartali tags. it's not a crime, they're not hurting anyone, and they don't leave negative comments. just curating their timelines to better their experience in the fandom!

idk if anon will read this, but to the ppl who did reach this point, thank you for reading this mess lmaoo

have a great time, whether it's early in the morning or late at night or anything in between wherever you are!

[theheirofthesharingan]

"Boruto seems to be more about SS than Boruto himself. There's just too much content on SS (or is it just my Twitter feed being stuffed with it? Idk)" Sorry I know this isn't a Sasuke blog but this is an SSer/S*kura fan issue. Idk what about her triggers this obsession but if you google image search "Naruto", you mainly get naruto or like the show's characters, but if you google "Sasuke" it's mostly SS art or the same 3 moments of the anime where they're in the same frame. Even more annoying for me personally is that you cant go on a tag for any Uchiha character without seeing ship art for them with Sakura (Itachi I think suffers from this the most because not only does he not even acknowledge she exists in canon outside of knowing she's a member of team 7, they fundamentally have nothing in common and arent compatible in even the loosest interpretations of their characters). It's baffling to me, and honestly extremely annoying.

I don't really go to Google for Naruto content, because I know it's going to piss me off one way or the other, so I keep my interaction with the fandom to the absolute minimum, that too on Tumblr and a little bit on Twitter. People on Twitter also said the same that it's her they find the most whenever they look for Sasuke related posts on Twitter and Twitter algorithm seems to recommend her posts to them. I noticed the same on my own feed. And I'd rather have Sasuke, Itachi, Kakashi, Naurto, Akatsuki on my Twitter feed, not her and her happy little family.

The issue with her ships is that she's shallow and the people she's shipped with have depth in them, so the connection never seems genuine. Not with Sasuke, not with Itachi, not with Sasori, or with anyone else. Her pairing with Itachi infuriates me as much as SS does. She would literally have to be a different person for me to remotely like her with any Uchiha or with the Akatsuki members. She isn't a shippable character with her canon personality.

A lot of her fans keep complaining about us loving Itachi over her without realizing we're not loving him because of his morality or because we think of him as an angel, but because he contributes so much to the story without eating up the space someone else deserved. You remove him from the story and majority of the story falls flat. On top of that, he's well-written. Audience will be inclined towards characters like that naturally. He has a likeable personality and his mystery makes you want to know more of him. Why would we not love him?

Half of her fans hate him and the other half ships him with her or sees him as a cheerleader for SS even though - like you said - he never acknowledged she existed other than being a part of Team 7. Maybe it's just self-inserts living their fantasies, because how can you look at her and go "Itachi needs to be shipped with her."

Makes no sense to me.

[dochkarauta]

jealousy jealousy

— my first little work in another language (i try :,) )

ships: carlando; loscar

tags: little drama, jealousy, happy end

read:

"i have new gossip)"

LN

"Oscar said they would break up with Logan because Logan is jealous of me lmao)"

LN

"god, you’re so lucky that you got me, Carlos."

LN

"you're great at eliminating the hardships of choice in my life, darling"

LN

"does Oscar give rise to jealousy?"

CS

"and I hope we're not talking about that McLaren video right now?"

CS

"exactly))) think about it: what kind of insecure idiot to be jealous of such a thing?"

LN

"although... yes, maybe Sargent has something to worry about)"

LN

"and what should he be worried about?"

CS

"you know, Oscar and I spend time together… all the time."

LN

"sometimes it seems to me that even more than them"

LN

"do Logan and Oscar live together, they’re not?"

CS

"outside of race weekends"

CS

"what makes you think that? I've never heard of it. Isn't Logan living in America now?"

LN

"he and Oscar have been living in the UK for the second year. before that, both lived somewhere else, maybe in America."

CS

"i’m afraid to ask, and how did you know that?"

LN

"I talked to Oscar recently in the paddock. and I read a couple of clippings from his interview."

CS

"and you spend so much time with him that you don't even know if he lives with Logan?"

CS

"it's strange that Oscar told you about their breakup, but didn't tell you about living together."

CS

"he said. in other words"

LN

"and I see his emotions, his irritation during the conversation. so something is definitely wrong."

LN

"well…"

CS

"and what did Oscar actually say?"

CS

"I'm telling you, Logan didn't like his answer to the question about the best teammate. Well, obviously, Oscar would have called me, why this stupid american drama?"

LN

"he would have named you because there are cameramen and people from McLaren sitting next to you, cabrón, make no mistake"

CS

"it doesn't affect the fact that I'm a cool friend and teammate in any way"

LN

"you should watch a few interviews with your teammate. he never calls you a friend when he talks with people unrelated to McLaren. I saw a clip from the show where Oscar lists close friends in the paddock, and there are at least two people in front of you, buddy."

CS

"you're kind of tense."

LN

"you're being disgusting, Lando."

CS

"you are deliberately provoking Oscar, thereby trying to hurt Logan and somehow interfere in their relationship. and this is not the first time. So with Alex and Russell, isn't that right?"

CS

"who am I provoking, darling? I don't care any of the listed ones at all. and Oscar could easily name his greatest american boy if he wanted to. I just asked a question that will be interesting to the audience. It's a damn show, who's offended by the show?"

LN

"we've known each other for so many years, and you've just started to get stressed out by my behavior. before that, what? oh, right, you could easily get distracted by a pretty face and close your eyes to everything"

LN

"but now there's a other pretty face, isn't there?"

LN

"what are you talking about?"

CS

"don't turn this on me, Lando. you literally feel proud and enjoy when you find out from somewhere or you can figure out that everything is bad between these two. Is that what friends do?"

CS

"you're also trying to get me emotional with your stories about how often you and Oscar are together. do you lack attention so much that you are ready to forcibly demand it from others and extract it from me in such a barbaric way?"

CS

"of course, as always, I am the most terrible. bravo, Carlos, what else could a loving and caring guy say"

LN

"I told you the truth. I want you to stop acting like a total bitch and leave them."

CS

"one more word in that tone, and you don't have to write to me anymore, okay?"

LN

"since I'm acting like a total bitch, you can go to anyone you don't think is like that. to Oscar, Logan, or at least to your perfect Leclerc, dude. idfc”

LN

"what does Charles have to do with it?"

CS

"I don't even know. google it, man»

LN

"maybe I really miss your attention so much, since I'm looking for it in others? It's worth thinking about, Carlos. I hope you will have time for this while you spend days and nights with your wonderful teammate."

LN

"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought I was dating an adult who can: a) to distinguish between working and personal relationships; b) to entertain himself while I am doing work and all this nonsense with contracts. It turned out I was wrong."

CS

"then you definitely need someone like Oscar. to sit in different rooms, remember each other once a day and admire another person. and what am I, I'm just a kid who wants attention from his boyfriend. of course, it's just terrible, Carlos!"

LN

"why are you so aggressive about our friendship with Charles? are you really that jealous? how can you, it's just a show, Lando))”

CS

"fuck you"

LN

"you say that adults should not demand attention by "barbaric" ways. but can adults afford deprive their partner so easily? You've been ignoring my messages for days. Didn't you have a single second in three days to say, "I'm fine, baby, don't worry," like it used to be? You don't notice me in the paddock anymore. damn, it really seems to me that you communicate with the same Oscar more often than with me. am I no longer worthy of this attention? Do I need to curry favor and beg?"

LN

"although it's unlikely to help. you never forget to tell me about Charles. you have fucking time to discuss your "divorce" with the whole press, Carlos. and how much time do you spend with him? you are together in the paddock, at shows, in clubs after the race. oh yes, Logan can sleep well, Oscar and I will never get to that level!"

LN

"I literally can't be with someone for as long like I would to be with you. God, I think about how cool it was with you at every show. it will never compare to Piastri. I was happy then because I didn't have to draw out praise, compliments, or any other attention. like now"

LN

"and I've already developed a real paranoia. when I received a message from you, I began to be afraid to enter our fucking chat. because I constantly think that I will see from you "we need to break up" or "I'm better off with Charles." fuck, I'm already dreaming about this story. and you would have known if you had picked up the phone when I called you. but you were at the club, judging by the stories of Charles' friends."

LN

"sometimes I'm so afraid of your betrayal that I'm ready to leave you, because it wouldn't hurt so much."

LN

"Lando, this is such a stupid thing."

CS

"I've never thought in my life that I want to cheat on you or break up"

CS

"including when we started communicating with Charles"

CS

"if that doesn't calm you down, then I'll remind you that he has a relationship. he hardly needs me."

CS

"I had no idea he was dating anyone, mate."

LN

"come on, Lando. you spend so much time with Max, didn't he tell you?"

CS

«…»

LN

"and that's not the main thing you should have heard."

CS

"I said I don't want to break up with you, baby."

CS

"that week, my phone fell out from the second floor and died. I asked Oscar to give you this, by the way, since you had a meeting in the near future. so all the questions are for him."

CS

"and I'm not ignoring you in the paddock. We're just talking as a group. I'm talking to everyone."

CS

"baby, are you here?"

CS

"yes."

LN

"what are you thinking about?"

CS

"about you calling me a bitch"

LN

"it's not the first time."

CS

"this is the first time you've said it seriously and aggressively, not as a flirtation or a joke."

LN

"I'm sorry about that."

CS

"I was wrong, Lando. I love you. It won't happen again, baby"

CS

"I'm sorry for being so persistent. and with Oscar, this situation... you're right, sometimes I'm terrible because I feel lonely. but I love you too."

LN

"I'm sorry that lately I haven't been able to spend as much time together as we both would like. but that doesn't mean I've forgotten about you or stopped loving you. I just want to wait for the summer break and take you to Spain, to my parents."

CS

"I know. I want it too"

LN

"and one more thing... I also think about you during the ferrari show. In your case, I really wanted to finish all this as soon as possible so that I could take you to a hotel room... but let's leave that out."

CS

"why don't you come now? I don't think anyone from the team will mind one former pilot in their lair."

LN

"will you give me 20 minutes?"

CS

"I'll give you more if you don't stay late."

LN

"el pequeño diablo"

CS

[zorosroronoas]

You seem to be the only one willing to complain openly about some of the less talked about aspects of the devil judge so which are the opinions you have that are not shared by many people in this fandom?

man, oh man! what a question!

well, there's the already stated dislike for gaon & the gahan ship, but going further into it, i don't believe in the narrative that gaon was some sort of savior for yohan (& elijah by extention). i think he's frankly a destructive force in their family & that this is honestly supported by canon (& i mean the drama canon, i'm not fucking around with whatever the original script has going on).

i mentioned this in the tags of my other tdj posts, but ppl will complain about how yohan was too mean to gaon & didn't trust him enough, but to be fair to him, was gaon actually trustworthy? i'll elaborate on this in a bit, but gaon was constantly going hot & cold on yohan, purely based on whatever ppl told him about him on that particular day. he went from 'poor yohan & elijah' to 'yohan is evil & killed his brother' & accused yohan of all kinds of stuff purely on hearsay.

now, i know that part of the reason ppl don't seem to make a big case of this is that the audience themselves are lead on a similar path as gaon, in which we get told A LOT about yohan that paints him as a suspicious figure, but after the drama is over it's fairly obvious that in hindsight, it's all talk & hearsay. that we actually see very little of it. like one of the scenes that i saw completely differently after the show ended was the case of the bus driver that almost run the children over. it truly illustrates how childish & naive gaon actually is: he condemns yohan for almost shooting the driver but saving the children, & his logic of killing one to save many, & we're supposed to nod along & see yohan as too ruthless, but honestly? what was the alternative? gaon's entire plan was to die along with the children lmao. yohan effectively saved them & even if it had cost the driver's life, would that not be a fair exchange for the lives of innocent children? the driver CHOSE to try to run those ppl over, no matter how sad his backstory was.

either way, i'm digressing, i apologize, but back on gaon being a destructive & unhealthy presence in yohan & elijah's life, i see a lot of ppl being sad that gaon didn't go with them to switzerland, but again, i think this is all just ppl only seeing things through shipping goggles, bc it is frankly what makes the most sense for both parties. yohan & elijah NEEDED to let the ghost of isaac between them GO, & gaon is a constant reminder of him. if anything gaon's presence was important in their family solely to help them reach this conclusion. like i genuinely feel like ppl don't get just how much of their attachment to gaon came from him looking like isaac & how UNHEALTHY that is. they looked to him as a replacement to not only isaac, but eachother. & by the end of the drama they finally realize that they only ever needed eachother & honestly that means so much to me, bc i love yohan & elijah's relationship so much.

i also feel like gaon NEEDS to be alone & be responsible for his own actions. now i'll elaborate a little on my feelings for gaon. see, i don't even necessarily dislike him as a character, i understand his purpose, i simply dislike what the fandom has turned him into. to be frankly honest, i'll start with the fact that i sincerely don't think gaon should be a judge. he's a terrible one. he's so incredibly susceptible to manipulation, it's insane. my dude changes opinions quicker that he changes underwear, all based on the crap ppl tell him. but it's fine! i feel like that's the purpose of his character. he comes in as a disruptive force in yohan's life & plans, not as a savior! like i'm not going into my theory of gaon being the judas to yohan's jesus, which we were literally told on one of the very 1st scenes of the drama! but! he is not yohan's savior! pls stop! yohan saved himself! his love for his brother & elijah saved him!

i'd also like to mention that gaon's extreme gullibleness coupled with his propensity for violence is EXTREMELY dangerous! & hypocritical, but that's a matter for another day. he literally almost killed 2 ppl, yohan being one of them! but sure, tell me all about how he saved yohan lmao.

this is already getting too long so i'll try to be brief, but i've also mentioned the fact that both the fandom & the drama itself are incredibly misogynist & i'll try not to elaborate much on that, but in the case of the drama it's fairly obvious, soohyun being the most blatant example. she existed solely for gaon, she had no personality whatsoever beyond her love for him. she died for his story, she existed for his story. it's an absolute crime what they did with a woman what was supposed to be a main lead! & the fandom then still has the gall to hate on her! incredible.

on the fandom's part tho, beyond hating on soohyun & sunah (my most beloved!!!), there's the complete overlooking of oh jinjoo, which i find absolutely criminal bc, & i've said this a million times on other platforms, she's everything the fandom makes gaon to be! fandom!gaon is literally just jinjoo & it drives me insane! she's the midterm between yohan & gaon. she's the superior judge. she should have been yohan's successor, NOT gaon! but fandom doesn't give 2 fucks about her bc she's not a dude, so who cares!

lastly, it is my unpopular opinion that they should have released a physical copy of the drama's ost instead of that fucking old script. if they were to release the script, they should have released the final one, like every other fucking drama does. i frankly don't give 2 shit about what their original ideas were, i'm sorry, & most ppl only care bc it fuels their shipping agenda.

either way, i'm sorry for the long rant, but thank you for the message & the question. i hope this was not too tedious.

[my-mt-heart]

Here we go again...

I'm going to echo what I said on Twitter about "The Big Three" post on my blog since this is where I feel safe speaking up. I'm very sorry I had to direct it at Valhalla who have been Melissa/Carol/Caryl fans' biggest ally on social media up to this point, even using #TheBookofCarol tag to let us know they see her as the main protagonist that she is. I'm also very sorry that as of today, we've reached the two-year mark since the news of the original spinoff's cancelation and this fandom still has to fight for the respect that they and Melissa herself have more than earned. Again, this is why we need a new showrunner with the intuition and authority to change the messaging on the show and on SM, so that Caryl fans not only feel safe, but also eager to watch, pay for, and engage with new material.

I saw that Valhalla acknowledged Carylers' complaints on their post. I wasn't expecting that. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think any other official account has ever put the needs of the fans over their own need to save face, so I respect and appreciate that. The comments were filling up with voices from other parts of the fandom trying to give Valhalla an out, but it's easy for them to ignore or in some instances mock the issue because their favorite character is represented and they get the satisfaction of a character they hate being left out and her fans being upset about it. It's easy and probably fun for them to accuse us of throwing tantrums, invalidating a very real source of pain for many of us.

There is a long history of fandom bullying and ageism directed at Melissa/Carol/Caryl and their fans to the point of many people, including Melissa herself, having to leave SM. The other factions claim we're a minority, but in reality we're just less active in public spaces because we're made to feel like we don't belong. Caryl fans are very much like the characters in that way and unfortunately other fans and other official accounts take advantage of that.

What happened exactly two years ago has broken our trust and our spirits even more. A lot of us are teetering on the edge of leaving because we're tired of being gaslit and strung along. We're vulnerable and we have triggers. In order to keep engaging with TWD content, we have to feel like its worth it, which means we need to know that the show and everyone affiliated are meeting our needs: that Melissa and Carol are acknowledged for the HUGE impact they've had in the story since S1, not how much they are marketed, and that Caryl is treated like a valid ship.

We need strong leadership for that. Valhalla is a female-led account, so they have the authority to tackle the issues that the actresses and their female fanbases face. A female showrunner would help with that as well. TBOC is fast-approaching. The promotion should focus on hyping the core audience of that show, not alienating them further. We deserve so much better. Melissa deserves so much better. Caryl deserver so much better.

[fandom-trash-xl]

EPISODE 7: COLLAR

#NotMyGoku

A SINGLE SHOT CHANGED IN THE OPENING. They replaced the minotaur with a bunch of King Kidan's royal entourage.

We tune back in with Team 2- turns out the ship failed because one of its systems required a Demon Realm exclusive element. Luckily, just that very second, Hybis comes by to pick them up. We get a cute little second of Vegebul where Vegeta steps in front of his wife, but, otherwise, they pretty much trust Hybis instantly.

And Bulma's coming along! Don't know what made up her mind this time. Maybe she was kinda curious anyway, but Kibito not coming along gave her space in the ship to tag in. Maybe she wants to pursue that new element for science reasons. Maybe her husband has abandonment issues.

Back in the Demon Realm, Goku discovers magical multimeal rations and we, the audience, discover the writers' barely disguised fetish right as the Gendarmerie pulls them over. Turns out Panzy's collar isn't letting them fly under the radar.

Panzy's also got a sharp eye, at least for spotting the fuzz.

After pulling off some Instant Transmission (which seems to be working just fine) shenanigans to keep Goku out of sight, the demon cops finally decide that Panzy's suspicious after the failed smoke bomb raid- they don't seem to care or even acknowledge that she's the princess.

We get a brief little fight- Shin can actually hold his own, Glorio shows off his lightning techniques with a tactical precision strike (I then proceed to dissolve, help me), and Goku gives the last plane a Team Rocket blast off with a... regular ki blast. No Kamehameha yet?

Unfortunately, broken glass is enough to stop our heroes, so they have to steal one of the Gendarmerie planes. Panzy disables the communicators on the unconscious grunts, but there's still the concern of her collar.

She can't break it, it's made of Katchintite! It's indestructible! Never heard that one before! /s

Proving my point, Shin has some magic that can break it!

Speaking of Shin, turns out he has a true Demon Realm name- Nahare. Still doesn't seem to match up with his siblings' names, unless there's some sort of wordplay I'm not picking up on.

Once they're on the road (in the sky?) again, Panzy gets in touch with her hacker friend (he's giving Kikono vibes, but also frog vibes) to give them a new Warp-Sama passcode. And I sure hope those are headphones he's got on, because if we're breaking the Demon Realm pointy-ear rule already, I swear...

Maybe there are a few round ear folks in the Demon Realm, just more of outcasts.

Goku's too itchy about fighting the Tamagami to hold off and wait for Vegeta and the rest of the gang, so he tells them to just catch up to them just as Hybis is giving his demands for payment in worm pizza. (And he's single, you say?)

Not that we're at the Tamagami site, now's the time to point out that the Dragon Ball Super rot has returned.

Fuel for the ill-informed "Bad Dad Goku" fire: "How did you raise a kid?" "Oh, I wasn't really involved!"

OH SHUT UP RIGHT NOW

On top of that, Goku's backpedaling in his recovery in Fight-holics Anonymous. "Gee, I wonder how strong the Tamagami is! I can't wait to fight the Tamagami! The strong villain couldn't beat them that makes me want to fight them more!" What happened to the goal of, you know, getting the wish to help Dende?

Anyway, let's breathe and go over the next episode preview:

Goku fights the Tamagami as Piccolo, Vegeta, and Bulma get up to some Demon Realm shenanigans, and Glorio continues his shady dealings.

EPISODES WITHOUT KNOWING HANVI'S WHEREABOUTS: 7

The counter seems even sillier now that we're fully in the Demon Realm, but it's about the bit!

[someverygaymoth]

*°•MASTER POST•°*

Welcome to The Moth Den; Asks are open!

This blog is home to KD!AU, DFT!AU, The Retriver Institute, The Horrors in the Wilde, CFK!AU, The living castle, Bugged!Cross(Bug), and plenty of other AUs. Also check out @mofts-evil-reblogs for my evil reblogs!

(check out my AU details list here)

✨We're Proship✨ Well, what does that mean? No one deserves harassment over writing/drawing taboo topics in a completely fictional fandom with completely fictional characters!

✨ We're comship✨ Well what does that mean? We ship some ⚠️CW⚠️ worthy ships! All are fictional and tagged appropriately. Instructions on how to use the keyword blocker are in this YouTube link! (More about what I draw/discuss below the cut so you can block disliked tags)

Two quick rules!

We're a SFW blog here, I will say we've got some suggestive themes, so I'd say please keep our asks appropriate for a 15+ audience, alright?

I'm being so serious when I tell you do NOT come on my page with anti rhetoric, I use the block button as the Tumblr devs intended,

Links↓↓ and about me↓↓

And a quick note, I do not currently take drawing or writing requests, but I do take suggestions. If you would like to suggest something to draw, I do not guarantee that even if I respond I will do said suggestion or finish it if I do start it.

Please feel free to ask questions about my AUs and the characters within them!

Also my DMs are always open to new writers and new friends! I am literally never bothered by messages, please ask me questions, please write new things, and please have fun! I'm not as awesome as some of you think I am, I'm just another silly person, and I love meeting other silly people.

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Here's the link to our SFW Discord, make sure to be kind and pay attention to the rules!

You can find me on AO3 at Some_Very_GayMoth, although not everything on there is SFW, so navigate with care!

And on Twitter, where I never post, @TgayMoth

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As I mentioned before It's important to note that I do write ✨Comship/dead dove✨ content, and as a psych enthusiast, I believe exploring darkness through fiction can be a positive and safe experience! So, hopefully there's no confusion there. There's a list of what I am comfortable writing about vs not below. (That is why I focus heavily on tagging all of my works adequately, and all of my posts! So that you can block keywords you don't want popping up on your timeline, and you —hopefully— never have to run into anything you don't want to see on my page!)

Please make sure to take care of yourself and pay attention to tags on any of my writing, or any writing in general. If you see something you do not want to see, don't click on it. Tumblr does indeed have a keyword filter, and I will always do my best to use keywords in my posts, so if you do not know how to set up your keyword filter with the things you don't want to see on your timeline, I would highly recommend you check out this link on YouTube that will show you exactly how to do that!

Now that I've mentioned keyword filters— here's what I write/talk about frequently so you can block the tags you don't want to hear about! As well as what tags I have blocked because I don't enjoy them personally, because everybody has boundaries and it's okay to have yours. (Just remember you're responsible for enforcing your boundaries by blocking people and tags you don't agree with/enjoy)

I write angst, violence, hurt/comfort, gore, all that good stuff.

I've written twincest(shout-out to Dreammare)

I've written stuff about anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, disability, all sorts of trauma, lots of that.

I've written Major character death, violence, and some mild gore too! A lot of that is for The Horrors in the Wilde, so keep that in mind, lmao.

Also, cannibalism because vampires! Thanks for that one Moon, Snow, and Stars.

You can block all of those, or block #Comship content to get rid of any mentions of that on my page!

Honestly I think that's all I have, which is kinda L, maybe I need to step up my dark fiction game if this is all I've got. (It can get so much worse and istg I will write worse stuff to spite anyone who's tossing around hate like it's confetti. And I'll tag it properly so they don't have to see it if it makes them uncomfortable. I'm just cool like that.)

Oh btw if you're not tagging your stuff properly or make a fuss about tagging things when someone tells you that you didn't tag something properly, you and me aren't cool. Nothing about that is okay. I will never fuss about someone asking me to add a tag, if I EVER miss something please tell me, I will happily add tags for you and keep them in mind for next time.

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As for my good normal tags, I'd recommend checking out the following on my page:

#bad sans poly

#moft asks

#moft reblogs (stuff important enough to make it onto the main or rambles!)

#moft mootland (my silly rambles with moots)

#moft updates (for series updates and stuff about the blog)

#the retriever institute

#dft!au

#the horrors in the wilde

#kd!au

#cfk!au

#fgp!au

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About me↓↓

I have been writing for about five years now for the fandom, and I've been here since about the very beginning. Like when we were still figuring out that undertale had a genocide route, lmao. I actually got into UMTV through CPAU and never managed to make it out, lmao. I started posting my writing back in early 2020. It's been so wonderful to see this fandom grow and change, blossoming with many fun aus and beautiful ideas, and I hope I can contribute to many more beautiful ideas on my little corner of the internet.

I have some physical health problems that may make it difficult for me to post more regularly, but I will do my best!

Disclaimer; we are a OSDD system, I've known since about 2022, but it's not something we particularly enjoy discussing online unless it's relevant to a topic at hand. But, to my fellow systems, you're always welcome here. If you have questions, we're comfortable answering them, so feel free to ask.