#I don't know how else to explain that fandoms are formed around the EXISTING thing!

[katyspersonal]

One of the coolest things my friend Kris said, "A good headcanon differs from the canon knowingly, not out of wilfull ignorance".

Like, there is a big difference between being corrected (not always for an indisputable reason, but the intention matters) and being creatively policed! When someone shares a headcanon and you know the canon bit that contradicts it, just say it! Either they could reconsider their idea with the new information or say "yeah cool but I prefer to write my own thing, not to be 100% accurate to the canon" which are both valid. Because, the latter one knowingly differs from the canon!

But like, apparently in the eyes of some people, being informed on what was missed equals baiting hostility, policing creativity or whatnot? Like, yet again, if someone gets straight up angry and vindictive at being reminded that they are in the fandom, for something with pre-existing information, then it loops back to the question of why they are in a fandom and not doing their own original project to begin with! I can't find any other reasoning for admitting you do not want to even know canon and only here to take basic surface bits to make your own thing besides the fact that pre-existing fanbase just will engage more willingly even with canon divergent portrayals, stories and just AUs!

But like... you can't be in a fandom while expecting to never have any discussion with other fans about this story and characters! Being told that you are wrong and being told that you are wrong for BEING wrong are two whole different things, and mentality of fans not being allowed to say anything besides agreement, when it is about pre-existing media, is straight up lame and not what fandoms are about. Not everyone who points what is missing a petty redditor that hates headcanons; most of the "well actualies" come from the place of love for both canon and headcanons! This is the case of "before you break the rules you need to know them", but people that tell what rules are are anything but wrong, hostile or immature. People that say "you come into my house and maliciously ruin my fun" when they hear about those rules, however?

Again: a good headcanon differs from the canon knowingly, not out of wilfull ignorance.

[supernaturallyedsheeran]

Bar Babe

SYNOPSIS: Fresh out of a breakup you're at a bar nursing your emotions, when from the other side of the room, a new face comes to nurse your wounds

WORD COUNT: 536

PAIRING: Reader x Dean

INCLUDES: fluff x drinking

CHARACTERS: Dean x female reader

FANDOM: Supernatural

You sit alone at the corner of the bar, nursing a whiskey that burns just right as it slides down your throat. The breakup is still fresh; you saw it coming since you and your boyfriend hadn't been on the same page for weeks now.

The dim lights and the soft murmur of voices around you provide a comforting blanket; a shield from the outside world where you don't have to explain the tear tracks on your cheeks or the ache in your chest.

Across the room, you catch the eye of a man. He's tall and ruggedly handsome, with a confident stride that suggests he knows exactly what he wants. As he approaches, his green eyes lock onto yours, and you feel a spark of curiosity mixed with apprehension. He slides onto the stool beside you, a half-smile playing on his lips.

"Hey there," he says, his voice low and smooth, sending a shiver down your spine. "Mind if I join you?"

You hesitate for a moment, eyebrows raised. "Sure."

He sips his drink; his gaze unwavering. "Rough night?"

You nod, feeling a lump form in your throat. "Yeah. You could say that."

He nods understandingly. "Breakup?"

You're taken aback by his perceptiveness but nod again, not trusting yourself to speak.

He studies you for a moment, then offers a small smile. "Well, how about I buy you a drink? Might help take the edge off."

You consider his offer, the warmth in his eyes strangely comforting. "Okay, thanks."

The conversation flows effortlessly from there. He introduces himself as Dean, sharing snippets of his own life with a casual ease that makes you forget, just for a moment, about your own troubles. He's funny, charming, and unexpectedly empathetic, and you find yourself relaxing in his presence.

As the night wears on, Dean keeps you laughing with his witty remarks and playful banter. He's a welcome distraction from the pain of your fresh breakup. The more you talk, the more you realize how easy it is to be around him, how he effortlessly lifts your spirits without even trying.

"You know," Dean says suddenly, leaning closer, his voice low and intimate, "I've got a theory about whiskey."

You raise an eyebrow, intrigued despite yourself. "Oh yeah? What's that?"

He grins mischievously. "It's even better when shared."

Before you can respond, he leans in and kisses you—a gentle, lingering kiss that sends a rush of warmth through your entire body. For a moment, everything else fades away—the heartache, the uncertainty—and all that exists is the taste of whiskey on his lips and the feeling of his hand on your thigh.

When you finally pull away, breathless and slightly dizzy, Dean smiles at you, his eyes soft with understanding. "Come on," he says quietly, standing up and offering you his hand. "Let's get out of here."

You hesitate for just a moment, then nod, letting him lead you out of the bar and into the cool night air. As you walk together, the weight on your shoulders feels a little lighter, the future a little less daunting. And for the first time since the breakup, you allow yourself to hope that maybe, just maybe, things will be okay.

[thiefking]

i need to draw/speak more of my narutos. "my narutos" meaning specifically the versions of every character that exist in my head, of course. i wanna draw hinata and gaara (besties of all time) especially. because other than the fact that they have the most fully realized design changes in my head, they are perhaps the defining aspect of My narutos, as opposed to everyone else's. their friendship to me is like "ok i'm going out...! (wearing some extremely Please Don't Look At Me outfit)" "not dressed like that you're not." "better? (she is now gothed the fuck out with an invader zim handbag)" "yas bitch slay." this is how they work. to me

i want to draw Literally Exactly That what i just described there as a meme but i do also kind of want to write or draw sometjing more substantial because i am The Hinata And Gaara Understander. as individual characters and as a pair of besties. amd i need to explain to others why it makes perfect sense because i just Know that i am one of extremely few to look at these two, of all characters, and deduce that the character arc hinata SHOULD have had is one that would be so obvious to gaara & something he would encourage. or maybe the only one, but the fandom is/was so big that it feels statistically unlikely... if we're talking CURRENT fandom i may actually be uniquely insane about this. i don't know for sure i haven't really interacted with the fandom i've been fucking around in my own skull this whole time that's how i even arrived at "hinagaara bffs" in the first place

but like... listen. hinata's thing is basically (in an inconsistent, half-baked, and never fully realized form): "i can change to improve myself and finally meet everyone else's standards and prove them wrong...!" as she is trying to emulate naruto. ... "prove them wrong", but she is not subverting anything if she meets an expectation that was explicitly set. hinata is not naruto. naruto's expectations were that he is worthless and nothing and not worth having any expectations for in the first place, and basically all of konoha thought this way. if naruto accomplishes basically anything at all he proves someone wrong, even if just a little. hinata had expectations set on her, specifically by her family, that she is not meeting. even though what hinata WANTS to do is prove them wrong, what she is fundamentally DOING is trying to please them by doing exactly what they want her to do. yes, when they think she won't even meet their lowest expectation and she does meet it, she is TECHNICALLY proving them wrong... but she isn't really achieving meaningful personal growth by doing this, is she? all she has done is meet their standards and essentially fall into their evil ghoul trap and accept EVEN MORE PRESSURE as a "reward" because now that she finally met this one single goal, they can move the goalpost. she will only ever be the failure who occasionally surprises them, she will always be lagging behind the others, and every single time she fails she gets sent back to square 1 in their eyes. meeting all their expectations or even surpassing them entirely is always going to feel hollow and fragile, because in the back of her mind, if she slips even once she has to do it all over again. she deserves better than constant paranoia

gaara (and pretty specifically gaara) can rightfully point out the problem with hinata's current mindset because hinata's hardships are way closer to GAARA'S than naruto's, to be honest. it's not lacking a family; it's having a family that doesn't feel like a family, and that family isolating one child and encouraging the others to treat them like shit so that one child never has anyone on their own level when they're at home and they are constantly forced to be aware they lack some ambiguous something that seemingly everyone else has that would make them "worthy" of being loved by their own family

hold on let me put yhe rest under a readmore this post is long as fuck

the hyuugas treat hinata like shit and call her weak, and because her parents gladly and openly call her weak and because she's supposed to be heiress to the clan, her sister and neji (the only family who were close enough in age and rank to not intimidate) were made to hate her, think she is weak, be jealous of and resent her for being heiress despite her weakness, and treat her like shit like the other hyuugas do, thus completely isolating her within her family. and rasa treated gaara like shit and had given up on him LONG before he snapped (let's be fucking real here if gaara had to learn that "love" makes emotional pain feel better at age SIX... and not to mention the entire yashamaru """plan""" was utterly and blatantly fucking NONSENSE on all levels like nice going rasa you just turned your kid almost irreversibly insane... seemingly on purpose...? i can only assume it was on purpose and you just wanted to be a spiteful bitch to the kid who killed your wife because literally what else did you think was going to happen with that but that's a rant for another time.), he tacitly encouraged temari and kankuro to not even bother with gaara and to be afraid of him like everyone else is because RASA was also OBVIOUSLY SCARED and not only that he was constantly literally trying to murder gaara so temari and kankuro also had reason to believe from a very young age that associating with him might make rasa treat THEM like that too, essentially forced gaara to straight up kill his uncle who was the ONLY family member he had who talks to him like he isn't a monster (and inexplicably decided that he should also tell gaara outright that he is not and was never loved by anyone), etc etc etc; gaara was also isolated within his own family and made to be the odd one out, over and over again. naruto knows what it's like not having a family at all, but he never experienced having family— non-metaphorical, blood relation, "entire reason you were born" family— who hates you. naruto knows how it feels to be neglected and feared by an entire village, that's how he relates to gaara. hinata was hated by her own family, the people she depended on for life itself, but she was never hated by the village at large, even if she perceives herself to be. naruto can empathize with this and put himself in her shoes, but like... gaara KNOWS, firsthand, what hinata is experiencing. that is why gaara is fairly uniquely capable of pointing out the problem Very Directly because he would see it way faster than anyone else

naruto could see it too, and he could say all the same things, but he wouldn't do it how gaara would. and i think hinata needs to hear someone speak to her, bluntly and authoritatively, and say "you deserve better than this." because normally whenever she hears someone (her own family) speak to her bluntly in an authoritative tone they're telling her she's weak and pathetic and subpar and needs to improve, and every time she is spoken to like that she believes them and marks that weakness off as something to fix. hearing incredibly matter-of-fact validation and encouragement spoken the exact same way primes her to believe that encouragement, and now her compulsive need to please people who speak to her that way is going to force her, even fleetingly, to take it seriously. especially because gaara would tell her something she is doing wrong, which will feel familiar, but he actually has HER best interests in mind. there is no benefit or advantage for him if she succeeds. he is unaffiliated, not even from konoha, he gains nothing from it. gaara doesn't tell her to try harder nor to give up and accept mediocrity. gaara tells her it's okay to give up and try something else, and sometimes it's the people around you who are the ones who need to change, not you.

gaara looks at "i will change myself to prove myself to others", and he says instead: "you need to stop caring what other people think about you and stop morphing yourself to their perception. just because YOU aren't doing that in a 'if you all want to call me a monster then fine, i'll be a monster' kind of way, like i did, that doesn't mean that isn't still an unhealthy way to think. you should figure out who YOU are and live as who YOU are, unapologetically, until they get the point that they can either accept you as you are and realize they were wrong, or they can fuck off. this is a situation where it is Not Your Fucking Problem that other people are disappointed with you especially because of how hard you've already been working to try and meet their arbitrary standards. this isn't about talent or hard work. this is about whether you even Want to be doing what everyone else wants you to do. and it is difficult and terrifying and lonely to be the only person who knows who you really are. it is hard work to figure it out and it is hard work to convince others, and at times it will feel hopeless. so i won't let you be the alone. i won't let you have to try and fail all alone, like i did. i will be your first victory, i will give you listening ears, i will be your silent dressing room mirror while you try on different hats before you figure out which one fits, i will be here and i will not judge you or decide on your behalf who you are, and i will be your family if no one else will. literally. if they cast you out you can come home to me. temari and kankuro have already accepted me as i am, i'm sure they'll accept you as you are too"

and then with time and gentle coaxing hinata decides to stop trying to be what her family wanted her to be and starts being a goth weirdgirl and pursues her interests in mycology and psychology and entomology and starts fucking THRIVING

i could go on forever. i should stop now or i never will. some of the parallels between them or the reasons that gaara would specifically want to support her in the specific ways i envision came about entirely from headcanon (coughs. even more headcanon than... the rest of this... coughs) and i FORGET that it's headcanon. for example "gaara created his good reputation in sunagakure through brute force good deeds. like people were so scared of him that they wouldn't let him CASUALLY prove that he was trying to be better, so he basically had to scare them even more just to prove that he was no longer scary. things like using his sand to hold people in place... so that he can physically put money into their hands and say 'this is yours and you will take it and use it to pay rent and buy your child that toy he wants. i do not want anytjing in return and i will be leaving you alone now.' because otherwise people would run away before he even gets the chance to be nice. literally just has to hold them still and pointedly do something nice for them and then let them go without hurting them while they tremble in misplaced terror like he;s a wildlife vet wrangling an injured seagull". this is part of why he would say "be unapologetically you and they can accept that and realize they were wrong about you to begin with, or they can fuck off". NONE OF THAT is explicitly canon... but there is so much & it makes perfect sense to me. aauuugaghh hinata my hinata my hinagaara besties my hinata. i could go on and on and on and on. goddammit I WILL GIVE HER THE CHARACTER ARC SHE NEEDS & DESERVES... GIVE HER TO ME KISHIMOTO.... WHAT IF THE FACT THAT HINATA HAS 3 PERSONALITY TRAITS IN CANON ACTUALLY MEANT SOMETHING AND WASN'T JUST BECAUSE YOU, MASASHI KISHIMOTO, SELF-ADMITTEDLY DO NOT KNOW HOW TO WRITE WOMEN? WOULDN'T THAT BE SO MUCH LESS EMBARRASSING FOR YOU? I CAN MAKE IT REAL! I CAN MAKE IT MEANINGFUL!!!! I CAN MAKE IT ABOUT REPRESSION!!!! I CAN MAKE IT ABOUT WORKING HARD TO BE WHO YOU WANT TO BE, AND SAYING "SCREW YOU" TO PEOPLE WHO TRY AND DECIDE WHO YOU ARE ON YOUR BEHALF, AND THE REJECTION OF THE STATUS QUO, AND EMBRACING THE THINGS THAT MAKE YOU DIFFERENT AND MAKING USE WHAT UNIQUE STRENGTHS YOU HAVE INSTEAD OF TRYING TO MATCH WHAT EVERYONE ELSE IS DOING, AND HOW HUMAN LIVES ARE INHERENTLY VALUABLE EVEN IF EVERYONE AROUND YOU SAYS YOURS IS WORTH NOTHING!!! JUST LIKE WHAT NARUTO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!! I CAN EVEN SPICE IT UP A BIT AND USE MY MAGICAL WOMAN-UNDERSTANDING POWERS TO MAKE IT ABOUT HOW WOMEN ARE ACTUALLY JUST REGULAR PEOPLE WHO ARE AS VARIED AS MEN AND HOW THE SOCIETAL CONCEPTS OF WOMANHOOD AND PROPER WOMANLY BEHAVIOUR ARE RESTRICTIVE AND OPPRESSIVE, AND THE MANY WAYS THAT SOCIETY WILL FORCE TOTAL CONFORMITY AND PUNISH EVERYONE WHO STEPS OUTSIDE OF THAT FRAME (AND EVEN THOSE WHO REMAIN WITHIN)!!! I CAN MAKE IT ABOUT COMPULSORY HETEROSEXUALITY!!!! I KNOW YOU'RE AFRAID OF GIRLS MR KISHIMOTO WILL IT MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER IF I ALSO MAKE IT ABOUT NEJI WATCHING HINATA COMPLETELY REJECT HER CAGE AND DISCOVER HERSELF AND HOW HE FEELS ABOUT IT AND MAYBE JUST COVER YOUR EARS WHEN I START TALKING ABOUT EGGS!!!!!! MR KISHIMOTOOOOOO PLEEEEEEEASE

[beautifulpersonpeach]

Hello BPP,

I've been a BTS addict for more than a year now, and I'm trying to find the reason why me (a happily married and a mother of a wonderful teenage boy) became so obsessed with a boy group. Before my encounter with these young korean lads, I only bought albums from 5 artists: Enya (all of her albums, I 💖 her since 1995), Michael Jackson (some), Backstreet boys (sue me those were my teenage years), ABBA & QUEEN greatest hits. That's not much isn'it? But since 2023, I try to buy at least one BTS album every 6 months, and that in itself is HUGE for me. Why do I do that ? What do they do, more than others, to make me want to spend money on them?

I've never been interested in fan voting before and now, I try to vote everytime I can. Even I find myself insane, but I can't help it. I want to support them all the way... 🤯

At first my husband thought my obsession was temporary, but after a year, despite of making fun of me, he's trying to find BTS albums or else for me (what a sweetheart 🥰). He supports me but doesn't understand it either.

So a simple question : what make BTS so addictive?

Their stage presence, charisma, uniqueness, talent ?

For a few weeks I tried to come up with a clear answer but I can't formulate it... daeng...

According to you, what distinguesh them from others groups or artists ?

Bisous et heureuse de vous lire!

***

You have no idea how happy it made me to read you love Enya as well. That woman is a timeless treasure. And yeah she's one of the few artists aside from BTS whose music I've invested time and money into collecting.

Part of what you're asking is: what makes us spend money, time, resources, emotional labour, and more, on seven men halfway (maybe?) across the ocean from us?

"Even I find myself insane, but I can't help it. I want to support them all the way..."

Maybe we are insane. What's so wrong with that? Maybe we're kinda nuts to be so taken by these seven guys. So what?

Or maybe we're just suckers for good marketing. I know I am. Of course, other things matter as well but good marketing is something that BTS has down pat. It's kinda easy for them too because the guys are as authentic as they come around these parts. They're solid. There's no other group that could withstand the kind of scrutiny they're under without bucking. Not one. And incidentally BTS' musical talent is peerless.

So, yeah, the marketing. :)

Or maybe it's the fandom... That's the thing about fandoms - the reason fandoms exist is not for the idol, but for other fans. 90% of what people do here is discuss what other fans are doing. Not the music, not the performance, not even the idol themselves, but other fans doing fuck all. I'm not saying this to indict you. My point is that there is constant covert persuasion within the fandom to act like the rest of the group a.k.a. ARMYs. I keep saying fandom is a pressure cooker environment, and one way that shows up is covertly forming behaviours in people within the shared space/group, and if you haven't experienced being in big fandoms before it will be overwhelming. If you constantly see people who express their love for BTS by buying albums routinely, then it's easy to see how you might want to try it for yourself.

Because you do love BTS. At the end of the day, that's what it comes down to. I don't care to try to explain why. At least not for me. It might be their "stage presence, charisma, uniqueness, talent" as you said, or maybe they're just worth the love by being themselves and giving us the music and experiences they have so far.

I still get fever dreams remembering Agust D on tour last year, you know. I still remember what it felt like to hear his music live and see him perform. He was a beast. Buying his music sounds like a no brainer lol. And he's just one of seven similarly talented men together in one group. Their music is worthy of every award it ever gets. And their performances...

(There isn't a single group active today that has surpassed this video)

I've said before I followed BTS for years before calling myself an ARMY. Sometimes when I think about it, I'd been buying their albums regularly since 2015 - three years before I started calling myself a fan of BTS. Their music was just so good I couldn't ignore it. And this is when for most groups I'm so picky with buying albums.

I have to commend you for critically assessing (sort of) your desire to spend on BTS though. If we're indeed insane as we said above, it's better to be self-aware of the fact. So again, kudos for attempting to dissect what's really happening here. But, not to be preachy, I think it's important to also just let yourself enjoy things. If spending on BTS is coming ahead of meeting your basic needs and responsibilities, then listen to your gut and pull back. Go cold turkey if you need to and spend on nothing at all. But if that's not your experience, (and I don't think it is), then just let yourself enjoy loving them. In that case, it's enough to know BTS are phenomenal artists and good people who make us happy, and some of us have the desire, means and time to support them, and that's okay.

Isn't it enough that you enjoy BTS for whatever reason and want to sustain this thing you enjoy by investing into it? So long as you're prudent and resourceful? Or maybe... not? Nobody else's opinion matters anyway. It's your money and your time and you know best how to use it.

[sapphire-weapon]

I don't know how to say this kindly, but each and every Aeon take I see is from somebody with utterly zero literacy skills. It's shocking. Their opinions and analysis can only be explained by either A) they're 13 or B) they don't consume anything at all outside of cheesy videogames. It's the same shit with a whole lot of Leon stans too.

Note: I'm really not trying to be a bitch, but for the love of god, do not take your analysis opinions from TIKTOK. Do not do that. Form your own perception from canon material first. Then take every online review with a grain of salt and compare it to what you've found and what significant people within the making of said material have to say. God, I genuinely don't want to be mean, I just don't know how else to say it.

You said it before and I somewhat agree, anyone who cares about Ada as a character doesn't ship Aeon. I'm gonna add on to that by saying anybody with any level of capability to understand who she is, her arc, personality and holds a minor interest in any future appearances, does not ship it. OG Ada was... nothing. Just a couple of easy tropes tied up into a vessel. No arc. No known motivation. The fact they've decided to take her on again and WRITE HER for arguably the first time (lol) should be celebrated.

I'm gonna tack on a boiling hot take here, but both OG and Remake are so incompatible that it's impossible for Ada to exist with any worthy script while skipping around and fluttering her eyelashes at him. It's nonsensical. Leon is also completely robbed of any meaningful cathartic arc while just... ignoring her crimes because she shared one trauma with him and has nice legs. No we won't elaborate. That's what OG gave us.

Why are these people so LOUD in fandom spaces? I can name three shows this year that ended and pulled the worst takes imaginable, that I still have a hard time believing came from grown adults who watched them.

they're all people who get a superiority complex about being "right" -- so if they ship the canon ship, that makes them Objectively Right and no one really has any room to tell them that they're wrong. it really has nothing to do with the ship itself and everything to do with being on the "winning" team. it's mass tribalism and a desire to lord status over others. in an alternate universe where cleon won out as endgame, all those people would be cleon stans. i promise.

but there's one thing that you can use that objectively proves that OG and remake are two different timelines. i've never seen an aeon person (or anyone) refute this in a way that matters; pretty much every time i pull this out, whoever i'm talking to has to take the L.

operation javier.

krauser, much more than ada, is proof that OG and remake are incompatible as stories. unless someone really wants to try to say that OG krauser trained OG leon, in which case you go "bitch when" and point out the fact that krauser and leon did not know each other in OG until operation javier, and krauser faked his death immediately after.

[america-is-my-muse]

America's Family Explained [Countryhumans]

Fitting that I start off what I hope will be a little series with headcanons about my favorite countryhuman. As biased as I may be, I also just know the most about US history, so it seemed like the place to start. I've tried to combine actual history with sensical storytelling, because the most by-the-book interpretation doesn't always line up with what makes sense for a character backstory and I've taken some liberties in those cases. I will also be explaining the reason behind my headcanons in case people want to know how I got from A to B, not just dropping them and running

Also, disclaimer that this is MY PERSONAL headcanon/AU. You are free to agree with it or not, but don't leave hate telling me why I'm wrong, just move on because there's no established cannon in this fandom and we can all do whatever we want provided it's not wildly offensive.

Part I: Birthday

Establishing America's birthday seems like a silly thing to do, both because most people are going to immediately assume it's July 4th, 1776 and because it seems such a trivial thing to headcanon unless you're specifically setting out to write a fic celebrating his birthday.

Establishing his birthday, however, is actually really important to everything else I'm going to talk about. First of all, 1776 can't be America's birth year because that would mean that a) he just popped into existence fully formed b) he would miss all of the influential American Revolution events that took place before that and c) it doesn't make sense with the allegory of teenage America rebelling against his overbearing father Britain that I like so much. Instead, I picked the year 1607, because it is the year Jamestown, the first permanent British colony in the Americas, was established. Technically, his birthday should be May 13th, but I like having it on July 4th better, so his birthday is July 4th, 1607.

Part II: Parents

America's parents are Kingdom of France and Britain (The modern UK). This is a debated topic within the fandom from what I've seen, because the common idea that America's parents are France and Britain just doesn't really make historical sense, and frankly I agree.

As for France, modern France is technically the fifth Republic, which didn't come into existence until 1981, but even if you wanted to group all the iterations of French democracy together into a single personification (I don't, but theoretically), that still puts her 18th birthday in 1791 (countries turn 18 when they become independent), meaning it's really unlikely she would have been around and of any reasonable age to bear children in 1607 without any good reason to, therefor I have made Kingdom of France (her grandmother) the mother of America and his full siblings.

The reason this doesn't apply to Britain is because I'm considering the 1535 union of England and Whales as the beginning of British rule rather than the 1707 union of England and Scotland, which is when the name Great Britain formally began to be used. This means he is around to father America in 1607.

Obviously, France and Britain were at odds during this period, but they had entered into an arranged marriage when they were younger and were obligated to have children out of it, thus America and his sibs exist without breaking the universe and having this version of France and Britain actually like each other.

Obviously, there are a couple other candidates for America's parents that I could have used. Technically, Spain makes a lot of sense, but the Spanish Empire is male and married to Kingdom of Portugal in my AU, and Britain as the father is non-negotiable to me, so this isn't an option. I know some people headcanon Native America as his mother, but I feel like combining the entire scope of native culture/language/etc. into a single personification doesn't really make much sense and Kingdom of France works better story/wise (though for what it's worth the different Native American tribes/nations/confederations do have personifications).

Part III: Family

America has a lot of half-siblings between all the British and French colonies, so I'll only be focusing on his full siblings. Canada and Australia are the other two full sovereign nations in this group, Canada for obvious reasons, and Australia because Dutch Empire (the other European candidate for his parent) is also male in my AU, so they needed a mom and Kingdom of France makes the most sense due to being Britain's wife, even though there's no real French colonial history there. I don't have an aboriginal tribe as their mom for the same reason I don't have Native America as America's mom. New Zealand was also raised alongside the four of them, though her mom is actually Maori.

Besides that, America also has two twins--Confederate and Virginia (who was born Jamestown Colony)-- and the other 12 original colonies + the states they would eventually split into are his younger siblings.

The states are obviously America's children, but they're a mix of biological and adopted, and a couple more are at least partial siblings (Louisiana and Washington, for example) by blood, but they all view him as a father figure so I'm going to avoid the minutia in this post.

Ending thoughts

I think I'm going to work my way through the British/French family next for this little headcanon series, but I'll probably keep going until I stop having fun or don't have anything else to say. I'll eventually probably talk about character arcs & histories, but I'm trying to ease into this and not promise too much because I have a bad track record for putting a lot of pressure on myself over a fandom project and then quitting it entirely.

With that being said, feel free to drop and ask if you want to know my HCs about a specific country or some more elaboration on something I mentioned here. I have a pretty developed AU in my head/in google docs so there's a good chance I'll have something to say. No promises if you ask about something I don't really know anything about. I'm absolutely in favor of talking about niche subjects and less popular countries within this fandom, but that does mean I would have to do the research, and I can't promise to have the time or energy for that.

[tie--up--loose--ends]

To that person I had so high opinion of before all that:

Thank you for dumping me last January, silently after all I offered was support.

I never felt so bad for doing something for someone else.

Now I can't even finish your fic.

And your fic WAS MY ONLY FAVOURITE FAN FIC about that character. The ONLY one.

BUT WHY WOULD YOU CARE....AS EVERYONE ELSE IS ALWAYS AROUND YOU COMMENTING SHOWING YOU LOVE.....why would you care that I won't read.

Yeah why would you?

Or why would everyone else

"Thank you" so much.

I wish I have never told you how much I like your fic.

At least I will finish it and now I can't because it became a trigger. Only see how that link got deleted in the blink of an eye, and me not even being asked what's going on.

I was in the middle of severe depression and was having non stop panic and anxiety attacks meanwhile deleting my blogs and my whole fic.

But no one cared to ask what's going on.

And dumping me for what?

Because Little Miss Anastasia Steele COMPLAINED WITH HER BIG MOUTH because that person can NOT use my DELETED GIFS for their fic.

And they complain why? Because they got this?

Excuse me but there is nothing to complain about.

Why haven't she read my fic instead of ONLY using my gifs for every piece of fiction about that character she was writing?

Hmm?

But she is a "wh**re "for your fic.- that's a quote. She said "I'll be a w***re for your fic...." And she gets recommendations.

Of course.

But so good that at least someone has "friends".

Not me though.

News for you both-

This was MY WORK and I DELETED it and didn't wanted it USED.

I don't need to explain why and you don;t need to be mad about it.

First - Because it was my work. And I don't want my DELETED WORK USED after no one would show a basic for of mutual respect towards the hard work that goes into it.

Second- because NO ONE READ my fic after I begged for 1 comment for half a year, and everyone was playing deaf.

------

WHILE YOU BOTH AND EVERYONE WERE RECOMENDING EACH OTHERS. And that one friend of yours won't shut up how good you are.

Then Little Miss Steele person had 400 notes per chapter.

So they deserve recommending?

Why? So they can become MORE POPULAR?

While OTHERS STAY UNSEEN?

God knows why that person is popular at all.

But my invisible fic with 10 likes didn't deserve recommendation?

Despite the fact that it was good.

At least so people who would like it to know that it exists....

But no....

No recommendation for me by no one.

Why?

Because I'm not popular?

I don't think so.

So thanks for showing where your loyalties are......

And everyone else keeping quiet because they COULDN'T CARE LESS.

I should have never involved myself with you.

I got PTSD as side effect of all that happened the "betrayal" included.

That mean I needed to have counseling for half a year after that nice experience.

While people write prequels....and what not.

Probably it's good to go from "ONLY 20 NOTES and a writer block" to FANDOM FAN-FICTION SUPERSTAR .

didn't HAPPEN TO ME. I had 10 f* likes so I deleted all I posted and enjoyed a year long DEPRESSION.

So - I wasted 4 months of my life for a person that dropped me with no second thought because I asked ANOTHER PERSON my things not to be used....

Wooow.

Also FOR TEH RECORD- I DON'T DO HATE/ OFFENSE.

I always follow the common courtesy rules!

However I have NO control over what someone would perceive as "offense".

So thanks for dumping me. For nothing.

And thank you for doing it silently. Deleting my name from your tag list and that link to my fan blog I did for your fic.

You think that's not enough and means nothing?

Do you know how many people did whatever for me or my fic?

NONE.

So yeah....To each their own. 4 months form my time no on e will give me back. But now that you are a big name.....and you have it all why would you care for those who are not.

I bet it's better in the populars club having friendly talks with other writers.....about writing.

--

I wish I knew I don't mean anything, before I believed I was friend of yours.

I was some number it seems. And one that meant nothing to you it seems.

Because the friends get their fic read and commented and recomended...as that one fic about We could be heroes.....

And for the record- I didn't need anything.

But sure a kind word would feel good.....like "You wirte too...Coool. Welcome new author. "

Well I got nothining of it.

I was dumped. Because I'm not popular.

And little Miss Steele has 2000 followers....so ...I'm sure their support means more.... lol

Anyways.

Rude.

[familyagrestefanblog]

I don't know how much I wanna speculate with the trailers of "Kuro Neko" and "Penalteam" here on Tumblr before they air and tbh I really wished we could just go into these blind at this point.

People are all really desperate in seeing the least amout of problems in the few seconds we get of these episodes completely out of context and try to convince everyone that the obviously problematic things don't matter and "how dare anyone not excuse everything as okay" when the narrative has been pretty straight forward with the Ladynoir conflict all season. This was never treated as a secret by the show and the Ladynoir conflict and the fallout has been built up, structured and forshadowed in the way it'll escalate pretty openly by the narrative so I just really wished people would stop making all of that out to be irrelevant or straight up non-existent. This is not going to get us anywhere in the long game as a Fandom because the show is not going to suddenly stop with the story it has always been very open with for years now just because Fandom cannot handle the thought that every character in the show has acted wrong because of their own limited perspective and lives situation that always get deliberately interwoven in each episode to make certain aspects worse and worse.

Every character will have to own up to their shit to resolve this entire mess in season 5. Nobody is guiltless and the overarching narrative has never pretended otherwise.

I'm especially bothered by people just straight up denying any kind of solid reason for a continuing conflict because "Ephemeral" has done so much to make it clear that shit is about to go down now. Seriously, all of this couldn't be make ANY clearer but it seems hardly anyone is willing to actually accept the flaws of our characters and where the overall situation is very obviously heading.

There is this one, little meta detail in "Ephemeral" I just absolutely fell in love with because it tells us just how important the next 4 episodes are:

"Ephemeral" was episode 100 and as many people have pointed out already that number has been mentioned quite alot in it. But how many have picked up on the fact that 1:05 is an episode number too? And you know which episode? Episode 5x01!

Everything that happenes til 5x01 is crucially important in how this story will end. Whatever is brought up, dealt with, escalates and develops in this time frame will make the difference between happy ending and absolute DOOM. And yes, the relationship between our two main characters is part of that too. That shouldn't be a surprise.

In "Ephemeral" Marinette has done the 5 minutes time frame while partnering up with two different people: Luka and Chat Noir.

The first time lead to Marinette and Adrien revealing and being happy, in love and their relationship problems get automatically solved without them having to actually work on themselves. Well, until these circumstances directly lead to ShadowMoth WINNING and starting to grand his wish that would have destroyed the universe as it is right now for him to form it into something else, which was only undone by Sass throwing time into chaos with his powers. I hope I don't have to explain that the narrative is saying that this isn't GOOD, no matter how happy they were.

So afterwards Ladybug does the time frame partner up with Chat Noir, since he is her actual comic counterpart but this 5 minutes time frame ends in a situation that very clearly shows that this time around the Ladynoir dynamic will go the complete other direction

Marinette/Ladybug and Adrien/Chat Noir were happy and saved their escalating relationship in the time-line that directly lead to everyone ultimate doom. Now the new 1:00 - 1:05 ends with a very clear indicator that for this story to have a happy ending their relationship will have to suffer all the consequences of the secret identities without getting the luxury of getting spared being held accountable or unfairly treated with a reveal. This goes for EVERYBODY. NOBODY is getting spared from this. The situation they are in is inherently jinxed and unfair, everybody will have to suffer unfair accountability, fight and forgive things they normally shouldn't have to but now in their absolutely awful situation that is LITERALLY layed out against them in it's core they will simply have to. Their fight is bigger than every single one of these characters and the narrative is very straightforward with what's happening now.

Can we please just accept and get over this please? The show has never portrayed a different overarching narrative all the way from season 1 to now the end of season 4, Miraculous just unfortunately has to be written in a way that each episode can still stand on its own which is definitely doing the narrative a huge disservice. And let's not even mention airing the episode so ridiculously out of order. Still it doesn't change the fact that the Ladynoir fallout story has been there for years now and don't say it wasn't I've been watching the show like this ever since 2017. It was just a question of HOW this is being executed by the narrative and honestly in my opinion the show is doing an absolutely phenomenal job at this (they go WAY HARDER than I actually thought they would dare to go) but this well executed story is met with such an almost irrational denial by the Fandom that its souring so much of the experience. Every time I go through the Miraculous tags and read other posts I have the feeling everyone is legit trying to gaslight everyone else at this point that the mere thought of anybody in the show having done something wrong is a crime and aren't people ashamed bringing up points of very obviously set up conflict?

I don't know how to wrap this post up, but I just wanted to voice my ongoing frustration with the Fandoms denial of the absolutely plain obvious story narrative that has always been there in the show because I just know that every upcoming episode, everything that happenes in it will not be properly treated narratively wise the way they should. The most crucial aspects and developments will be excused or dismissed as not important/irrelevant, completely justified or called OOC/ Bad writing. And at this point that's just frustrating to witness.

[chaosandstardust]

the thing that really sucks about Yashahime is that it probably destroyed any hope we have for a reboot or a continuation that I'd actually be interested in. It really sucks. because i love inuyasha, it was my favorite show as a kid, and it's such a comfort for me. i love the characters, i love the world. i know that it's extremely out of date, but i still love it. and yashahime is going to hang over everything from now on for an eternity.

I told myself I wouldn't answer anymore Yashahime asks but I've seen this idea floating around a lot so:

I highly doubt that yashahime has destroyed any potential for a reboot/remake/more Inuyasha. one thing I've learned in my time in fandom is that as long as there is a sizable enough fanbase, there is a chance for more, in some form or another. look at the Star Wars fandom: they've been burned how many times now, and yet they're still coming back for more. As long as Inuyasha's fandom is active, the people in charge of Inuyasha's IP will come up with ways to get money from them. 

You’re right that it’s going to hang over the Inuyasha fandom now. The question writers are going to have to grapple with going forward is whether or not they see Yashahime as canon. The Star Wars prequels are known for being bad, but they're still generally accepted as "canon" among both the fandom and the writers. Yashahime is extremely divisive for a lot of very valid reasons, and a lot of people outright do not accept it as canon. But in the future, the people holding the Inuyasha IP may feel they have to take Yashahime into consideration when making new works, the same way that anything that Star Wars gets is going to consider the existence of the prequels.

But I highly doubt that Yashahime is going to be the last we see of Inuyasha. The brand is way too popular for it to just sit there. Yashahime trended several times over the course of it’s run, the producers no doubt took note of that. That’s not nothing. 

I know what you're going through anon. I don't support Harry Potter anymore, at least not financially, thanks to JK Rowling's...ahem...behaviour (transphobia). But it was a huge part of my childhood growing up, and seeing it get dragged through the mud in the pursuit of cash has been...an experience. I wish that we could've just left it alone, but Warner Brothers & Rowling were not about to do that with their cash cow. We’re in a time where IPs are going to be milked to death as long as there are people around to pay for them, because we’re not allowed to let things die gracefully anymore. This is just the world we live in now, and I hate it. I miss endings. I miss the beauty of a good ending. I miss not having every single piece of lore explained to me because a company needed to make another movie to explain it. I miss films that didn’t depend on me having to watch 15 more beforehand. 

So, yeah, I doubt that Yashahime has buried Inuyasha. The fact that they’re still selling merch and making a manga is a testament to that. Give it 5-10 years, maybe 15, but probably way less. They’ll come out with something else. 

[jojo-chan09]

I honestly think that Johnny Joestar doesn't get much love from the fandom but I myself love him to bits, so here is a little fan fic about this pretty loverboy <3

Tw: mention of self harm

Reader is gn <3

You sat on the sofa, your mind spinning and you couldn't control it, you had just relapsed and hated yourself for it, "Why did I do it..?" Was the only question in your mind, as now you looked at the cuts on your body, some of them still bleeding.

You took a deep breath as you grabbed your phone and texted to the only person you wanted to help you in that situation, Johnny Joestar. He was your one and only, the one you loved endless, the one that always loved and helped you whitout judging you at all and always comforted you, no one ever treated you or made you feel like Johnny, the love he gave you had no equals and that was why you loved it and craved it so much, his love was the only thing that could heal the cuts in your heart, and that was why you were texting him.

You stood there, waiting for him to answer, luckily he didn't take long, immediately asking you what you did, but you only told him to come at your place and that you'll explain him there.

Not even 20 minutes later you heard a knock on your door, so you opened it and saw Johnny, holding on his lap your favourite snacks and drink "I thought these could help, but now, what have you done this time?" The gesture made you smile as you closed the door behind him and guided him to your living room. As you both sat on the sofa, you took a deep breath and started talking, "I self harmed, again.." His eyes were wide open as he looked at you, "I swear whoever made you do it won't make it to tomorrow" you smiled a bit, he had always been protective of you, anyone who hurt you had a good word with Johnny, and it made you feel protected and reminded you that he cared.

He asked "So, what brought you to that?" You took a hold of his hand as you slowly explained him the motivation, while you spoke his eyes never got off of you and his hand started to old yours. After telling him, you felt relieved, opening up to someone made you feel better, and you felt even more better because it was Johnny who you opened up to. He looked at you, and stroked your face with his hand "You know right that you're strong? You fell this time and it happens, the important isn't the fall, it's how you react to it." His words made you smile, maybe you could really do better, as you relaxed in his touch, he put one of the snack bags on your lap and said "Now, you know we can't change the past, but the future is in our hands, why don't we make it better?" You smiled again, his gesture and words giving you a sense of hope, "Sure, Johnny" you said, as he turned on the TV and put on your favourite TV show.

As you watched the show while eating, you felt something in the bag of your snack, so you brought your gaze on it and saw a little note, you took it out and started reading it "Dear Y/N, I know I could have told you in a better way, but I've loved you ever since I met you, you always brought light in my dark life and made me feel like I was enough for you, I love you so much and nothing I could ever do would be enough to repay you for how much you did for me, thank you for exciting, Y/N" tears started forming in the corners of your eyes as you turned around to poke Johnny's arm, who was still watching the show, "Are you alright, Y/N?" He asked, as he turned around he noticed the note in your hand and blushed, you smiled and brought your face close to his, slowly, both your faces got closer, and your connected in one.

The kiss was sweet and delicate, and while you kissed your hands held eachother, and you felt like nothing other than Johnny existed, you were safe with him, and nothing else counted.

[fonulyn]

So my partner is amazing and let's me ramble about RE to them whenever I want to, and even sat down to watch Vendetta with me when I bought it, so the other day I was like explaining Leon and Chris' characters (bc my partner knows how much I love them both lmao so of course that's what I was talking about), and we have both come to the conclusion that Leon is a bisexual disaster, and Chris is a homosexual. The running joke is that Leon is also just generally a whore, out there living his best life, and Chris is the kind of gay guy who no one expects to be gay bc of stereotypes and his habit of never really talking about himself, but he also was never really in the closet about it, so he's surprised whenever people are surprised to learn that he's gay lolol but in all seriousness Leon is not only bisexual, but he's the type to fall in love easily despite all of his background and trauma related to betrayal, so his heart is almost continually broken, either bc he's betrayed or he loses whoever it is he's found himself in love with (and sometimes both i.e. Krauser, and Ada at the end of RE2), either through death or just leaving bc he knows he can't stay/can't be with whomever. As for Chris, maybe I'm reading into it wrong, but despite all of the like, romantic connotations they try to put into some of his games (which I don't. Really see? Like there was some in the first game with Jill but I just cannot see them together like that, neither seem interested in one another like that. And of course, Jessica, who I can't stand, and who Chris is supposedly totally oblivious to? Like she thinks he didn't notice her flirting in RE revelations, and Parker is like "is it that, or is he maybe interested in someone else?" And the assumption there is that he means Jill, but again, I don't see it? Even in that game! But that line of Parker's always makes me think "yeah, he's more than just interested in someone else, he's playing for a whole nother team entirely!" lmao. And I haven't seen much for 5 but I'm sure it's there between Chris and Sheva, and then for 6 from what I understand there really is hardly any talk of Chris in regards to any women at all? 8 has nothing, as well, and the DLC for 7 is just another "Chris loses his entire team in horrific fashion yet again" side plot, so nothing there either), he never seems interested. He's always focused on the task at hand, not letting emotions get in his way, and like, some could argue that that's why he doesn't show interest or why Capcom doesn't create more romantic lore around him, but if they really wanted to Make Sure he was straight and Make Sure everyone playing these games knew that, I imagine there would be some one line little hints in the games of him talking about how he can't let himself get distracted, or in his line of work there are no happy endings or what have you, but. There's none of that. Bc he isn't forcing himself not to be interested, he isn't purposefully focusing on saving the day so he doesn't have to get hurt knowing he can never have whichever high potential for a dope ass protag female character who's constantly sacrificing herself to save him bc what better purpose could they serve, right Capcom?, he's just. There, doing his job and trying to save whoever he can, not getting distracted in anyway whatsoever by any of the women in his life, romantically at least. He still cares way too much, but it never comes off as romantic to me in pretty much any way. Also the note he leaves in his STARS locker in RE2remake, Claire being like "this doesn't sound like Chris at all!" Is funny to me bc like, I don't really remember so correct me if I'm wrong, but she doesn't elaborate on WHY that note doesn't sound like Chris lmao is it bc he's respectful to women at all times and doesn't ever objectify them, probably hates when other people do? Or is it bc he would never be interested in women in this way ANYWAYS, the man is so gay, he must have left this note so that Claire would know something is Up, bc her brother is Such a homosexual.

Anyways sorry, I just wanted to ramble/get your opinion on this. Over-analysing RE is actually really fun lmao

haha not gonna lie, I opened your ask in the car on the grocery store parking lot and tried to read it on my phone, and gave up squinting at the small screen halfway through :'D now that I'm back at my laptop though, lol, all good :'D

first of all I'm happy you have someone to ramble to even though they aren't into the thing themselves! :D I regularly rant about RE fandom things to my brother haha and he listens patiently although he isn't in the fandom at all, he's only played the games and that's it. but he still listens to my shippy rambles lol.

as for your thoughts? makes sense to me tbh. I definitely headcanon Leon as a bisexual disaster most of the time, because it does seem fitting. maybe it's partly because I think he's absolutely breathtakingly stunning and it'd be a shame to deny anyone that, so, naturally he wouldn't care about such trivial things as gender, pfth, love is love.

also Leon falling in love easily? absolutely. too damn easily. c'mon this is a man who gets attached to anyone who shows him even the tiniest amount of basic kindness in the matter of minutes. he canonically forms attachments with Claire, Ada, Krauser, Helena, Buddy and JD (JD 😭)... whoever else am I forgetting? but this is the guy who meets someone and would die for them five seconds later. so. it tracks.

and you know what, I can 100% see Chris being only into men. because like. I don't see the romance there either when he's interacting with the women in his life? okay, sure, I could imagine something there between him and Jill if pressed seeing the way he so single-mindedly wants to save her and then holds her in the scene after they get that thing off her chest. maybe. but even there it doesn't really feel super romantic to me, personally.

in the first game with Jill there's not... a lot of romance I don't think? sure she falls asleep against his shoulder in the evac helicopter but i mean, i've fallen asleep against a friend like that? not an indication of romance? they're clearly important to each other! i am not trying to diminish their importance to one another at all! they'd die for each other and they'd do anything it takes to protect each other and i do think their relationship is compelling but... i don't really see anything inherently romantic in it.

and Jessica, yeah, Chris is 100% oblivious to her advances. it is implied in the game that he's into Jill instead but other than that there's again zero actual romantic interaction between Chris and Jill. I was actually talking about this with my brother, who said the same, like there were so many chances in Revelations to put something romantic in there between Chris and Jill but there just. isn't? anything? except for Parker's comment. which is why it felt so damn out of place? (and like my brother would've wanted to ship Chris and Jill, he was kinda bummed about this i feel :'D) so interpreting it to mean he's not interested in women at all would actually make more sense lmao.

as for RE5, I've played it twice (with my brother lmao do we see a theme here) and honestly I don't remember anything in the game that would've insinuated anything more than solid partnership between Chris and Sheva?? if someone who's more familiar with the game wants to correct me on this, then please! but at least off the bat I can not remember anything so I think they actually didn't try to even hint at romance for them?

and in RE6 Chris is way too focused on killing "Ada" to have any thoughts about anything else :'D so no. no mentions in there regarding him and any women. at all. not even hints of Jill which is so incredibly weird (and stupid tbh) bc she was made to be so important to him in RE5 and then doesn't even get a mention in RE6? (/shakes fist damn you capcom! the characters exist outside the games they're in!)

I think that's pretty much the main difference between Chris and Leon tbh. Chris sees the job at hand, and he knows it'll help, he knows it'll save people and it'll make the world safer and he's so single-mindedly focused on the job that he sees nothing else. while Leon sees people, for the better or for worse, and he is willing to take detours if it helps even one person in the meantime. like in RE6, Leon willingly ignores the task at hand to go help just about anyone. Chris doesn't want to pause even when pressed bc he has an end goal in mind.

and bear in mind, I am not trying to say this somehow makes Leon better or Chris better or anything. they're both doing this to help. they both have their heart in the right place. they both care. but they're just so different! their personalities, and their way of dealing with things is different! I feel Chris is really target oriented and wants to get the job done. while Leon's easily distracted from it, because of all the damn feelings :'D

but yeah. i love them both, and i think it's really damn fascinating how they're both the good guys, the heroes of the franchise, but they both take to things so differently.

i don't know if any of this makes sense, I think i rambled too :'D but hey-o, it was fun lmao.

and hey no need to apologize at all!! always feel free to shoot me a message if you wanna chat!

[bigskydreaming]

Continuing on that observation because I forgot to add this part, as a gen z I'm glad you understand that we or young people don't invent new ways to be evil, but it's not completely true. You aren't seeing new forms of online abuse in every platform, I doubt second hand information is going into details as well. Also the fact that you are a white man, there are things being said and done to poc in various online communities that I don't expect you to be privy to. Harassing fans of color and poc media has become a lot more common and normalized which parts of the fandom at large will never see. I don't know if anon did all of the thinking before saying "gen z bad" but they're not completely wrong looking at the kind of mass bullying behavior literal kids are exhibiting. They are learning from or being encouraged by older people but that shouldn't take the focus away from them to blame only the older people.

And my ask regarding Barbara, you assumed I hadn't thought about if my disdain for the character could have come from ableism. I had tho, granted you couldn't have known that and it was surely a possibility, so I'm not saying I'm mad about it, I was at that time a little bit. But you could perhaps give your anons a little more credit sometimes. Sometimes people know what they're talking about, you don't need to explain other possibilities to them each time.

Once again, sorry if this came off as very rude I just needed to share that observation and among many other instances these two were really highlights and kept bothering me. My issue with Barbara goes in a different direction than anything to do with her appearance and I've personally faced online abuse from people younger than me in ways that technologically, even politically, wasn't possible or as easy a few years ago, so you can maybe see why...

Please keep in mind that whatever context you have for yourself or your ask when you come into my inbox on anon......I have none of that. You have an awareness of yourself relative to whatever you asked me. I literally only know an anon by the words they put into my inbox and nothing else.

Also please keep in mind that every anon I answer, I do so in the larger context of my own interactions with tumblr overall. I have a lot of precedent with things I say being taken out of context, misrepresented or even just me not conveying myself as well as I like.

So the combination of those two things is that a) I literally just don't KNOW what any anon does or doesn't know and b) If I'm going to answer an anon, I tend to want to answer as fully and clearly as possible.

I can understand it coming across as being talked down to, so I'll work on that, but I would ask people to remember the above and keep that in context too when weighing my responses.....am I actually being condescending in every case, or does it simply feel that way because I'm including stuff you already know in my response? And if its the latter, is THAT something I COULD know about you without knowing who you are or you as a person and not just a paragraph sent in anonymously?

I'd rather be safe than sorry, and so from my POV since there's no harm in somebody seeing someone cover information they already know as PART of their overall answer or response, like, there's no reason for me not to include whatever I think is relevant and just expect readers to decide for themselves what about my response, if anything, is helpful, and like....just ignore the rest, y'know?

Also, just for the record, I am ADHD and I save my medication for when I'm working or writing or have stuff I absolutely need to get done, which doesn't include my usual blogging. So I'm usually posting while not on my ADHD meds at all, hence the rambling tendencies and the length. Another aspect of ADHD that doesn't get talked about much ime is we tend to over-explain, part out of just excitement/interest in whatever it is that has our attention, and also in part because we're used to people not necessarily following the leaps our minds take when jumping around rather than proceeding in an orderly thought pattern.....so, part of why I break things down so incrementally is I literally just don't know where my way of looking at things diverges from the way neurotypical thinking views things, so I want to draw as detailed a map as possible in order to ensure the most people possible can follow my thought process, just in case.

(And again see, this is something you might already know, and hell, you could have ADHD yourself, I just literally have no way of knowing that so rather than just mention it and be like "oh and also I have ADHD and so that's something to keep in mind" I'd rather explain WHY I feel that's particularly relevant to your question, since I'm kinda like, why not answer as fully as I have the spoons for? People can stop reading at any time if I go on too long. Its fine).

As for the specific asks you're referencing - my response to the gen z anon was not meant to convey that the sort of things you're describing don't occur among gen z, so sorry for giving that impression. Its actually the opposite of my point, which was simply that I don't think its a generational thing, or that anything is gained by treating it as a generational thing. This kind of behavior exists in gen z, yes, but it also existed before gen z. Its not gen z SPECIFIC, or limited to just that generation. That's all.

And the other ask, the one you made about Barbara - to be honest, I don't have anyway of knowing for sure which one you meant, and there are a couple it could have been, but if its the one I THINK you're referencing, I believe you asked how to stop people from assuming you dislike Barbara for reasons rooted in ableism when its because of other things? If that's the one, then I mean, the thing is....I DID answer your question, in as much as anyone could. I addressed the perceptions other people might have of your stance there, but basically - there IS no way to ever ensure people take you at your word or any kind of guarantee you can present your POV in a way that won't be misrepresented or misunderstood. So ultimately, I just had no real useful advice for that?

And so I expanded into the only thing I think anyone CAN control, aka their own thoughts and words, and suggested that you just double check to be sure of your own possible biases that others might read into your words without you being aware you were putting them in there. That wasn't meant as an insult or to suggest you hadn't already examined yourself for possible ableism - it was simply saying it never hurts to check again, y'know? We don't always catch everything every time we do a self-review, and internal biases are inherently tricky to pick up on ourselves. And it just loops back into the fact that I really had no way to know what you had and hadn't already considered, you're essentially a blank cipher to me....and in my experience, a lot of people are a lot more ableist than they realize.

And this isn't an insult either! It applies to me and I'M physically disabled! I'm constantly to this day unpacking new realizations about how I still have more ableist views and opinions than even I realize, even after about five years of living with chronic pain, vertigo, nerve issues and associated problems stemming from only half a working mouth lol. I'm not trying to insult people by asking them to just do what I do every day and just like....make sure I'm not the problem when other people have a problem with me. Because sometimes, even after reflecting as fully and genuinely as I can, I think they're still wrong! I don't have to agree with their conclusions! But that doesn't mean that they're never right.

And for the record, I do think its still worth examining on your end, because I don't love that you said your issues with Barbara have nothing to do with her appearance, when we're talking about ableism specifically. It very well could be just a poor word choice on your part and not a reflection of your actual views, but it could also be a suggestion that you tend to think of physical disability as something that's limited to there being a visual sign of, and there's a lot of invisible symptoms and changes to the ways a disabled person interacts with society and society with them that don't alter a disabled person's appearance in anyway...and many of these things are the exact stuff a lot of unacknowledged ableism revolves around.

So I'd like to give you and other anons more credit and the benefit of the doubt and assume you know what you're talking about and don't need things broken down as much as I tend to break them down to - but keep in mind I don't OWE you that, and its a lot to ask someone to take you on faith when you've already made the conscious choice to present yourself to them anonymously, and deliberately limit how much a person even CAN know about you before answering, when you have an equal opportunity to present yourself by name, allowing someone the full context afforded by your blog, that they can use to familiarize themselves with you and what you likely do or don't know before answering. I don't think its entirely reasonable to anonymize YOURSELF and then expect people to still give you the benefit of the doubt.

Especially when not giving you the benefit of the doubt only really results in me over-explaining something you don't think you need explained in certain ways or in as much depth. Its not hurting anyone, and you're not going to be the only one reading this response and maybe that over-explanation ISN'T something other people know and it could still be of use to someone else, y'know?

But lastly, please keep in mind that you came to me, and I just answered in the way that made the most sense to me. If that didn't work for you or wasn't what you're looking for, that's fine, but like. You knew way more about me going into this interaction than I could possibly know about you, and assuming good faith of you and your interest in my response and giving you as much of a response as I did in the first place, let alone now, IS giving you the benefit of the doubt in the sense that I'm assuming you can find some way in which these responses are of use to you.

And if not, like....just don't send me more asks? LOL. I kinda feel like you just didn't expect the answer you got, and that's sitting weirdly with you. Which I get, to be honest, but I don't particularly think that's a me problem, because that has nothing to do with anything I can control.

I can only give the answer that occurs to me when I read and think about an ask. I can't guarantee it'll ever be the answer the asker actually WANTS.

[incarnateirony]

I love the meta. The meta on here is what keeps me watching (that and the promise of beautiful codas on Ao3.) But I also think a lot about Misha's comment how "(if we knew) how little thought went into this stuff.." and his repeating of on set "don't pull the thread" anecdotes. Not to mention Bob Singer's involvement in general. And Eugenie's. And Jensen's insistence that what a lot of viewers see "doesn't exist" (often as if it is a personal affront to him and his view of the show and Dean.)

This is a really weird comment as it seems divorced from 99% of following my blog so let’s straighten some talking points:

“Doesn’t exist” is literally fucking ancient. It was the very start of Andrew Dabb’s tenure. The fact that antis have nothing more recent than this, before the new showrunner’s storytelling really set in, should be telling in and of itself. They hadn’t filmed 12.12 yet even much less 12.19 or anything following. Jensen was also pinned and pressured by what was later an anti bragging for setting him off like that. They intentionally boxed him in, several years ago and a whole showrunner period ago, to get that.

Since that we literally got “Destiel is real” from him and people can paddleboat pathetic excuses around it all they want, but if circumstances and situations are to be ignored in “Doesn’t exist” then the same applies to that.

This is an entirely different era. My blog literally focuses on releasing old bad anti talking points and ancient interpretations so please, don’t come at me with what people think/claim Jensen says doesn’t exist from literally a showrunner ago. Things change. Look at Becky. Don’t be stuck in Old Becky. Be New Becky. 

Misha’s habitual humor bears zero relevance in what is actually going on. I really don’t care about this fandom’s hero worship of actors. Now, if you really, absolutely think there’s zero thought going on from the authors while they build elaborate meta structure twining into their story which can also be literally mapped out via algorithm and basic alchemical process, accurately, to predict upcoming events -- if you really think that this is all completely random, and that Misha’s dark humor ranks out over all of that, I’m pretty sure you wandered into the wrong blog, or you’ve been drinking bad fandom talking point koolaid way too long.

Is my answer blunt? Yes. Because this is the season to be blunt. The *show* is openly slapping at fandom, and certain portions of fandom are now like cockroaches scattering when the light turns on and trying to weave their little ocean of malice around into the corners and blame the spotty poo on the floor on somebody else.

Singer is Singer. Singer’s been here since the show started. I’m really not sure what anyone thinks that has to do with anything right now. It’s not Singer alone. Is there some network BS and general nepotism that keeps us having to deal with Leming’s writing, sure, but that isn’t the whole substance of the show.

I’m baffled people keep trying to send actor quotes to me after my very pointed explanation of how pointless and silly that is. So just in case I’ve been unclear, beyond giggling at fun jokes, I have literally always found chasing actor commentary that doesn’t come sourced directly from authorial/showrunner commentary (eg when Jensen clarified that Carver told him that Amara wasn’t Dean’s romance but kryptonite, or when Misha mentioned Carver told him to play feeling like a jilted lover), it’s fucking pointless. They process emotions out of order, generally get small batches of scripts, if they do know an ending they can’t tell you, and often genuinely have ironically raw understanding of their product because they don’t watch it with the same completion as fans do and they know it in entirely different forms than the final product.

Acting is an interpretative art. It gives us great elements of the characters that the actors own, but the actors are still interpreting the author text, and what they’re given to feel or think is subject to whatever changes the authors employ. Using actor statements, be them serious or Misha’s very obvious joking, to speculate futures of characters -- when the guys themselves have voiced many times being surprised or confused by where it went -- you’re setting yourself up for problems, because they’re just interpreting the same as you are, so keep it to the actual creative sources or just don’t even enter it to conversation. At least not in my inbox. Cuz I get tired of explaining this.

[myheroacademiaheadcanons-blog]

A Todoroki Rant

I see a lot of posts and read a lot of fanfics that portray Todoroki as literally having no idea of what popular culture is. Like for the last 15 years, he's been living in a bubble with no access to books, movies, the internet etc.

Now, I know these kind of people do exist. I know some of them personally. For their entire lives, they did not have computers, televisions, smartphones, magazines, newspapers, or most popular books in their homes or schools. Ask them if they know what Harry Potter is- they have no idea. Star Wars? Never heard of it. That's called a sheltered life and I don't think Todoroki has that. Now, let me explain why.

Example 1.

As shown in the manga, he had access to a TV during his childhood and he even watched it! Now maybe he didn't watch it all the time, but I'm sure he's seen some things. And even if he himself wasn't watching at the moment, I'm sure he's passed by his siblings watching things. And for those who say that "his father probably didn't allow him to watch TV," first off, clearly not given this panel. And second, even if he did, which I should add is possible, need I remind you though that Endeavor at the time was the #2 hero which means he must have been a busy person and not home often. That means that he wasn't always there to supervise Todoroki, giving him the oppurtunity to do things other than training. And who knows, maybe Endeavor did give him time away from training. It never said he didn't.

Example 2.

He reads manga! That's not like reading books which you can justify as being educational. Manga are comic books, plain and simple, for entertainment purposes. Manga is a form of popular culture, especially in Japan, so why do people portray Todoroki as someone who knows nothing about it? I've also seen him portrayed as someone unwilling to "waste time" doing things other than training. Well, reading manga isn't training and he clearly does it!

So, to sum this all up- Todoroki had access to TV, computers, phones (he has one!), internet, books, manga etc. his whole life. I find it real hard to believe that he hasn't indulged in any of it and even if Endeavor did prohibit it, he couldn't have always been around to supervise Todoroki.

I will mention, though, that Todoroki doesn't seem like the type to like most of these things. I can see him not being into social media, memes, fandoms, some popular tv shows/books etc. Honestly, I'm not into most things myself, but that doesn't mean I haven't heard of them or I don't know what they are. I don't have Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat yet I know what they are, what they do and vaguely how they work. I've never read Harry Potter (I tried, but it really wasn't my cup of tea) but I know the basic storyline and the main characters. So even if you want to believe Todoroki isn't interested in most of these things, he still probably heard of most of them and is not as ignorant as many people make him out to be. I think people confuse his social awkwardness with pop culture ignorance (which I plan on making a post about another time). I believe he's socially awkward and doesn't get all the social cues, but that doesn't mean he can't get entertainment from watching movies or listening to music.

That was a bit longer than I expected but seeing as Todoroki is my favorite character, I really don't like when he's portrayed this way. Does anyone else agree? You can disagree too because at the end of the day, this is fiction and more of a personal opinion and interpretation of his character. That being said, if you do disagree don't hate on me because this is my personal opinion and please respect that.

The end. Thanks for reading this long post!

[astarlightmonbebe]

i'm literally about to spam your inbox and i am so sorry i just have a lot to say and no one else to talk about dramas with lol i tried to cut it down as much as possible but it's still a lot please don't hate me

dude, i could never hate you!! i was really excited to see my inbox so full lol. let’s see if i can get them all into one answer haha.

omg you admire my dedication……. an angel thank you so much!! when i get into a show that i like i make sure to watch at least one episode a day, i don’t know why it’s just how my brain works and i thought it was dumb but apparently i’m just dedicated :D if you really want to, why not watch it a second time around!! you might catch some stuff you didn't the first time!! it might be smart to wait to rewatch until we're closer to season two so everything is fresh in your mind!! (1/9)

that’s actually a really solid way to go about things, and i’m glad it works out like that for you. i already told you i’m a hare brain when it comes to this stuff - i’ll rewatch shows i haven’t even finished lol, and i rewatch shows i’ve finished in sporadic bits because they’re comforting (i did that a lot during quarantine). i want to rewatch, but i want to time it right, you know? like during a time i can afford to get immersed in it, maybe after i’ve finished some shows that i should finish (i need to make a list for the summer...). also, i heard the release date for season 2 got pushed back to 2022 instead of 2021 because of covid...i don’t know if that’s confirmed though.

!!spoilers for the arthdal chronicles incoming!! my feelings for the characters in arthdal have literally changed so much. in one moment i’ll admire a character and then absolutely hate them the next and it’s a lot of fun LOL despite that my feelings have never changed for eunseom! i’ve always admired him and i have a lot of faith in him and he’s just such a good person! (2/9)

i know, it’s like a normal kdrama but it really feels like you’ve watched 3 kdramas in one, because of length and how much happens. eunseom is everyone’s no 1 boy, honestly. he never did anything wrong *insert that meme, or whatever*. 

that being said, i’m still a little scared of him being inaishingi and basically ruling the entirety of the ago tribe because as we’ve learned from the show, being in a position of power corrupts you, no matter what your intentions are so i’m a lil nervous but then i also remember that eunseom is eunseom so i’m worried for nothing lol (3/9)

(side note but i’ll be talking about this from memory and it’s been like 10 months SO) but even though he’s like a god, he’s not actually a god, not yet. and eunseom at his core is good - that being said, i know what you mean; honestly haven’t thought about that. i’m more scared that he won’t know how to lead, or that he’s not exactly equipped to lead a rebellion - more like i’m worried he might act in his own self interest instead of for all of ago, if you know what i mean? because he’s leading this whole group he’s not actually a part of.

i also like dalsae, xabara, tanya, chaeuun and the neanthals!!! i have so much to say about the neanthals omg i really wish we saw more of them but i also understand why we don’t. they’ve almost been completely wiped out of existence so they don’t really get involved with anything which i completely understand, i just wish!!!! that when rottip met eunseom that he would’ve said or done something. i waited all season for that moment, waiting for it to maybe happen and rottip just walked away (4/9

i understand why but :/ ipsaeng is kind of a bastard but i still like him a lil bit. i also really like mubaek and yangcha even though they’re like. bad guys and members of the daekan forces (5/9)

one moment, i have to go remind myself who dalsae is...and oh, right, i do like him a lot! ipsaeng is pretty funny himself. and yes!!! the females in this show were awesome, especially xabara and chaeun and nunbyeol (tanya and taelha get their own category). yes!! when rottip and eunseom met, i really thought he would matter more to them, but i kind of understand why it went down like that...i think the other (hot) neanthal reminded rottip that they couldn’t really connect? ah, it was something like that. i had complicated feelings about it as well, but i hope that they’ll meet again in season 2 (and i hope nunbyeol wrecks arth with her sword, i remember when we first saw her fight with a sword in neanthal form; i was s c r e a m i n g).

mubaek is good, but also annoying. he knows this, but he’s complicit in all the evil actions going on. like, man, if you know that much,  you should use it to do something. knowledge is power! but he preferred to be sidelined and not do anything. yangcha is so hot...seriously, but i think he’s so interesting. the fandom needs to know why he has a mask on, there’s so many theories. i love how tanya could read his thoughts, but we still didn’t get many of them, but i think it shows how he’ll be more of a main character (hopefully) in season 2.

i know you asked for characters i like but i can’t help but mention the one character that i absolutely DESPISE. like saying i despise him doesn’t even truly explain my feelings for him (6/9)

I CANNOT STAND MUNGTAE he’s literal scum i hate him so much…. the fact that he betrayed eunseom and dalsae when they were literally coming to rescue him!! OH MY GOD and then everything that happened with teodae and eunseom having to see it and being traumatized by it………. i hate mungtae and i wish i wish he would face the actions of his consequences but there is no justice in arthdal so he will most likely get away scot free (7/9)

MUNGTAE CAN PERISH. he needed to have died in episode 1 seriously. it’s fine if you’re a coward, but not a snitch...everyone’s afraid, but at least they have a concept of loyalty. omg...teodae, the fact that eunseom got so traumatized by that made me want to sob. imagine you have a friend who you want to help save, but such friend loves their mind because of the situation they’re in and begins to believe the lies about you, tries to kill you, and then kills themselves in front of you...every episode of this show should have been titled: eunseom is wrecked and traumatized. again. part xx.

honestly, my hope is that tanya or eunseom straight up murders him. or dalsae. he can’t survive season 2, not on my watch.

a lot of people were complaining about the ending being vague or just not good in general, but i thought it was the perfect ending! the ending was relatively lackluster in the sense that nothing too crazy took place and what’s gonna happen next season was laid out relatively clear? i mean tagon wants to conquer the east and made a point to mention the ago tribe so i think we’re going see like eunseom’s return (?) as in he’s gonna actively become a problem for those in power in arth again (8/9)

i didn’t actually know people were saying that, because i thought the ending was so good. in my opinion, the whole finale of it serves to do two things which are a) tie up loose ends for season one and b) establish the continuation needed for season 2. arth was always going to continue, but it also builds suspense for season 2: there’s going to be a war, but tanya and eunseom are on different sides. saya knows he has a twin. AND there’s that awful women spy...she can perish as well. us clowns watching the show for the first time really thought we were going to get an eunseom and tanya reunion...we were played.

i’ve mainly watched like movies or variety shows for idols that i like but for some reason i never really got into kdramas until like right now. i’ve only seen 4 in total LOL but i’ve liked all of the shows that i’ve watched so i can’t complain. i’ve seen hello monster, arthdal, prison playbook and chocolate! (9/9)

oh, seriously? that’s amazing! i’ve watched 3/4, and right now i’m actually skimming through chocolate - i’m not really a fan of all the melo nonsense they have going on, so i’m mostly watching it for the sibling scenes and jun’s scenes haha...

and i’ve got this all in one ask, yes.

[roxannepolice]

You know, talking in general and not just SW, I think that sometimes the audience surrogate can be a double bladed sword done the wrong way. But there is also this percent of the fandom that thinks that if you don't love the audience surrogate or the other Relatable Character™ you are X thing. (1/2)

It has happened to me with the DW fandom and some people asking me why I like the Eleventh Doctor more than the Acceptable™ Twelfth Doctor. Because you you, the former is a more darker, possessive and selfish character and the later is kinder and all. And I am like... Not my fault if I found one more fascinating than the other because he is a bastard (2/2)

You know, this really carries me back in time to when Philosopher’s Stone was first released on dvd and among extras there was a sorting hat test/minigame and I went positively hysterical when upon first time spontaneous answers I got sorted into Slytherin. It took quite a long time for me to embrace my Slytherclaw self and if the hat had a problem between these two houses I would totally ask for classy underwater mess of a common room now. And I mention that as an introduction to how today grown up, intelligent people are worriedly sideyeing me when I say I'd fancy a Slytherin scarf.

It appears to me that the not-exactly-ostracism-at-least-outside-tumblr towards identifying with villains or even simply not completely cinnamon rolly characters has a couple of deeper rationales. One is that overtly morally unclear characters that are also intentionally identifiable with are a relatively new phenomenon in popculture. Villains could have been sympathetic but not really anything else until quite recently. They could have a point but wallow in how evilly they act on this point. They could even be likeable or awe-inspiring. But there always had to be a clear wall between them and audience, as well as the hero. RotJ Vader is in fact a great example of a villain who is sympathetic but not identifiable with, he exists in a simple paradigm of well he's Luke's dad and he believes there's good in him and he sounds miserable sometimes but otherwise yeah he offers to rule the galaxy because that's what villains do. He's also coded as the parent generation rather than the one the target audience would identify with. And of course, full body armour and mask complete the picture of unapproachability. OT Vader doesn't have motivation, past, psyche or really anything else other than he's Luke's dad, it took 20 years to change that. And now? Now we get good organisations being controlled by baddies, heroes having different opinions on their own ethical status, villains mirroring their motivations... On the one hand it's an interesting breath of fresh air in texts which were slowly becoming their own parodies, on the other there needs to be a balance between these problematic(TM) notions and unproblematic(TM) resolutions and frankly not all creators find this balance as I sometimes worry will be the case with the sequels. And mass audience straight doesn't know how to handle this in discourse, not because they're too dumb only because a tacit understanding even only theoretically present in discussions of more high-brow culture simply hasn't formed there yet. It's a widely accepted fact that some of the most discussed, desirable and given to best actors Shakespeare roles are the likes of Richard III, Lady Macbeth or Iago and there's no need explaining that fascination with them doesn't stem from condoning murder only confronting us with the darker but oh so human aspects of our nature. MCU, SW and BBC discussions have yet to get this memo.

And then there’s the matter of lifestyle commodification, which I think finds its echo even in something as trivial as popularity of online which character are you tests. There is something of a phenomenon of subjecting many elements of our lives to some one hobby or life choice, which sounds obvious until we look at shops trying to sell special coffee only for physically active people - because it’s speculated that it really all boils down to profit being bigger from selling a full lifestyle set (clothes, food, furniture) of some archetypal physically active person (or bookworm, fan or even activist) than y’know, just good shoes and some gear. So the point is that we are tought to think in full lifestyle sort of way rather than dissecting things and taking out only what we want. Ergo, you can’t like, let alone identify with, some aspects of a character and not everything about them - so if the character is morally gray/villainous you need to make it clear you don’t condone murder.

Then there is an old matter which gained new power lately - the moral panic over the influence of media. There’s no denying there exists a relationship between the culture we take in and our psyche, but pratically no serious researcher still believes in the “sponge” model where audience just sucks in whatever the text pours at them (fanfiction is in fact frequently pointed at as an example of actively recreative audience). Can exposition to lots of trivialized violence in tv make us numb to real world violence? Yes, research shows it can. But there’s a difference between sitting all day in front of tv mindlessly watching hours of sex, drugs and violence and engaging in problematic(TM) characters. As it’s frequently repeated, if you go on a killing spree inspired by a video game, there’s probably something wrong with you and not the game played by thousands of other people. Then again, we musn’t forget that part of history when committing a suicide while cosplaying Werther was all the rage among young european men.

And I think this also ties with how everything in contemporary popculture needs to mean something, or even in fact be some aspect of social reality. This is hardly the freshest phenomenon (Roland Barthes claimed already back in the 60s that popularity of aliens, martians more specifically, was due to mental association of red planet with Soviet Union during the cold war), but now it’s become a popular knowledge and, as abstract ideas tend to in mass interpretation, it got simplified to the level where FO aren’t simply visually inspired by pretty much every totalitatian system ever only are neo-nazis. As such it becomes one’s moral duty to waste emotional energy on righteously hating fictional characters in a kids’ movie or else you support nazism. Hence also all the school shooter, creepy stalker, spoiled brat etc. readings of Kylo Ben and all the mess going on around 11 (which really makes me think that new Who audience badly needs to learn what sh*t classic Doctors would pull).

In general I’d say there’s a slightly disturbing blurring of lines between reality and fiction going on before our eyes. It’s almost as if we couldn’t just chill out and let ourselves be transported to Oz without questioning the influence of ruby slippers on munchkin economy anymore. Or return to Kansas without demanding a yellow brick road.