#I don't think it was meant to be shippy. but it ended up looking that way

[fnafhs-aesthetics]

Fox and Felix as Tim Drake and Conner Kent aesthetic for anon. I hope this is fine? I know nothing about comics or either of these characters rip.

-Mod Golden.

[bezierballad]

The real reason why we should filter our tags

Imma get straight to the point here; it's not just because "ew I don't wanna see icky Sebaciel stuff". It's also something else.

See, I've been noticing a few of my Tumblr buddies (not saying any names ofc) accidentally reblog stuff that was tagged as Sebaciel content, even though they themselves are strongly against the Sebaciel ship. (Hell, many of them are proud Dadbastian enjoyers.)

This is what happens if you don't filter the "Sebaciel" tag.

For comparisons, imagine a typical game of "Telephone." Y'know, that game where you whisper a phrase in another person's ear, and that person whispers in the next person's ear, and the motion repeats until it becomes something else entirely?

Basically, the further something is passed down, the more it strays from what it originally was.

Apply that to Tumblr's reblogging system; let's say some user posts art of Sebastian and Ciel and tags it "Sebaciel" (said art wouldn't even look shippy upon first glance but it would be tagged as "Sebaciel" nonetheless). Then somewhere in those chains of reblogs, someone reblogs the post but decides, for whatever reason, to omit the Sebaciel tag completely.

(Side note I've seen people straight up go "#I know this was meant to be shippy but I'm gonna pretend it's not 😊" like, no. No, don't touch that. If the artist intended it for it to be proship content, even going it as far as to tag it as such, chances are, it is proship content.)

This means whoever reblogs it from that person won't know that they're reblogging what was meant to be proship content unless they have the tag filtered.

If you do filter the tag, Tumblr will give you a "This post contains filtered tags etc." If you don't, then... well, you don't.

Filtering tags gives you a heads up if a reblogged post was originally tagged something you're trying to avoid. That way you're less likely to engage in the material without being aware of such.

...I can't think of a way to end off this post so here's some Sebastian

[waitmyturtles]

Hot Take: Be On Cloud and Sammon out GMMTV-ed GMMTV with that lame-ass 4 Minutes finale

(TW: Ummm, this ended up being a rant, so don't read this if you enjoyed that finale.)

WOW.

This is not the central thesis of this post at all, but I need to get this off my chest, FIRST OF AWL: GET AN ORIGINAL OST. WOW.

LIKE, ACTUALLY, I want to not get into this, but I actually need to talk about this for a second. ICONIC OSTs like, SAY, "Why Don't You Stay" or "Just Friend" (OR THE DARK BLUE KISS THEME SONG, THE BEST ONE) are meant to invoke THE SHOW FROM WHICH THAT SONG HAILS, AND THE FEELINGS THAT THAT PARTICULAR SHOW MADE ONE FEEL. WHAT THE FUCK WAS 4 MINUTES THINKING?! THIS SHOW WAS NOT KINNPORSCHE. NOT AT ALL. I FELT NO KP FROM 4 MINUTES. I hope Jeff Satur sues BOC for copyright infringement. ANYWAY.

I mean, this is gonna be messy, but in yet another case of shippy roooooomance, a kind of rooooomance that's supposed to leave us feeling like the central couple is worth redeeming against both the obstacles that the story gives them, AND/OR a weak script as well (I wrote about this recently during a rewatch of The Eclipse), I mean, BOC and Sammon just threw an otherwise really amazing storyline to the dogs.

We were supposed to get a lot of moral and ethical loops closed here. I would have been okay with a Ton Kla redemption! I would have been okay with Korn living the rest of his life in pain and suffering for neglecting Ton Kla! Instead, they're both "redeemed" by their own deaths?! I get Win being upset, but Win, you knew who you were sleeping with! Come awn!

AND. I'm supposed to believe that Great is worth redemption because he threw a corrupt government minister under the bus and prevented his parents from coming back to Thailand, while we see him walking away from a woman having a heart attack???? Like, THAT'S NOT GOOD!!!! He's had a messy life, but he's not necessarily a good person, folks!!! HELLO!!! "He's a good person?!" TYME?? Like, Great's hot, BUT LIKE, DON'T BE LIKE THAT, TYME, GURL, ACTUALLY LOOK THRU AT WHO YOU'RE DATING.

ALSO, TYME, HIPPOCRATIC OATH, DUDE. I KNOW YOU WANT THAT GUY DEAD, AND HE DESERVES BAD THINGS, BUT YOU CAN'T MAIM HIM PURPOSELY, HOMEY, YOU'RE ABOUT TO BECOME A PROFESSOR.

And LIKE, WHAT THE FUCK, putting a whole new story point about Warit's kidnapping from some dude named Wanchai who we don't even know, and finding out that Warit is a general?!?! It was JUST CONFUSING.

Also, Den dating a patient. I know medical ethics are probably different in Thailand, but they cannot be THAT DIFFERENT, friends, they can't (right? right?).

And. Finally. TYME GOT SHOT MULTIPLE TIMES IN THE CHEST AREA. He survived after two months of recovery?! HE SURVIVED POINT-BLANK SHOOTING?!?!?!??!?!?! AND GREAT SURVIVED HIS POINT-BLANK SHOOTING, TOO?!?!?!?!

LISTEN. LISTEN. I get that BOC wants GreatTyme together. JesBible are a good pair. It's fine Great and Tyme are together. It's nice.

But there was an ACTUAL storyline, told WONDERFULLY for seven episodes, that had these characters in moral and ethical chokeholds that could have received different and very much more appropriate endings. This is fiction, of course, but the moral and ethical prisons these characters were in were very real-to-life by way of what humans value, and how you balance those values against the real-time decisions that humans need to make for themselves and their families.

Instead, BOC took the wild GMMTV playbook of late (The Eclipse, 23.5, Only Friends, Wandee Goodday, even Last Twilight and My Precious) and just railroaded ethical explorations for, my GAWD, guitars and boats. GUITARS AND BOATS! If either Great or Tyme had died, how would the story have expressed regret, uncommunicated feelings, unsolved mysteries?

The ending sucked the mystery out of this series, and frankly, made light of the fact that we were not in a Series Y for seven-eighths of a runtime, only to truly suck us back into Y territory -- real, sugary, cheesy Y territory, GUITARS, THE KP OST OMG -- that just clashed with the tonality of what was shaping up to be a great queer crime murder mystery show. GMMTV already does this. BOC did not need to go there.

Funny that some of us are watching Kidnap now, and commenting (I'm stealing @shortpplfedup's words here) that Kidnap is not a crime BL, but a crime BL. Kidnap knows what it is: it is shaping up to be a fun, unserious Y series that's centered around two himbos not really understanding the consequences of their decisions, and being googly while doing it. It seems to be taking its unseriousness seriously. Good on GMMTV for taking initiative there.

4 Minutes? 4 Minutes needs moral closure, not sappy romance. I could have used a hint that we were gonna get punked earlier. I wouldn't have taken this show as seriously as I did if I had known otherwise.

[fereldanwench]

I didn't want to completely sit out a year-in-review, but for reasons I'll explain at the end of this post and under a cut, doing the traditional pick-one-pic-from-each-month approach just wasn't going to work for me. So instead, here are 20 of my favorite shots (in no particular order) of Valerie from 2023!

(I'll share solo Goro shots and shippy/story shots in two other posts before the year ends.)

Some thoughts about this year (cw for anxiety and depression mentions):

So yeah. I actually hadn't planned on joining in on the virtual photography year-in-review fun in part because... Well, frankly, I wasn't sure if it would actually be fun for me.

Although I do have pictures for every month, the first third, maybe even half, of the year was a struggle on almost every conceivable level. A lot of it was shit that carried over from the end of 2022, which was also an incredibly difficult year for me. I don't really want to delve too deeply into why--Some of it was personal, some of it was professional, some of it was fandom, and if you know, you know.

The main obstacle I had here is that looking at a lot of the shots I took from about January to May (give or take a few weeks on either end) honestly reminded me of Bad Times™️. I've worked really hard to pull myself out of that depression/anxiety cycle and return to a healthier approach to fandom and online socialization in general, but I just didn't want to spend a lot of time in that mental space. There are a few shots from those months that made it to my favorites, and I hope one day I can look back on that stuff and just feel the good from it again. Alas, that day is still not here.

But I am happy to report that the other reason I wanted to approach the review differently is a lot more positive! It's also two-fold: 1) I spent the earlier part of this year exploring more of a technical side of virtual photography and 2) I was really prolific the last third or so of this year so trying to narrow faves from about August until now was just not possible.

One of the few good things about the end of 2022 was being able to upgrade my graphics card, which meant I then had a rig that could support ray-tracing and hot sampling. As a result, I started putting a lot more focus on lighting and getting acquainted with new tools. I also was trying to work with the new AMM posing system, which is very convenient in some ways (100s of poses without reloading the game!) and a complete pain in the ass in others (can't move characters without their poses breaking!). Custom photomode poses + Nibbles Replacer has been the game changer I've been waiting for.

Or to put it more succinctly, December 2022 through about April 2023 felt like a relearning/return to basics kind of creative period, which is essential, but also means I just don't really like a lot of what I did, lmao.

Then, shockingly (I'm not shocked at all), starting treatment for my anxiety and depression in the second half of this year suddenly made creating a lot easier and fun again! Crazy how that works.

Even bumping this little review up to 20 shots instead of 12, there are still pictures from the past few months that I had to cut as favorites. There was just no way I could condense the amount of fave shots I took from August to now in just 5 options.

I also owe quite a bit of this revival to modders for asking me if I wanted to take shots for them--Exploring more of a fashion photography approach to my shots I think did a lot to build on what I had learned earlier in the year and encouraged me to try something new. I don't want to tag anyone in this long-ass glorified diary entry, but if you invited me to take mod shots for you, just know that it really meant a lot. ♡

And that's where my head has been with a yearly review! Is filling out a little template with 12 pictures this serious? No, it definitely is not, lmao. But hey, overthinking shit is still something I'm working on. ✌️

[b0njourbeach]

Interesting Malleus takes.

I like Malleus enough, but he's always been on my lower tier in terms of favorites. Like, within the Top 22 out of the main 22. I just like all the NRC characters, but I've never jumped for joy when I saw him show up like I do for other characters. I like him enough in a little, canon bubble. Gargoyle lover, horrible at social interactions but thinks everyone else is just weird, great interactions within the DiaFam, badly warped perception of time and overpowered to the point of destruction. Fun enough traits that always get overshadowed, but not silly enough to put him in my favorites.

But YES, it's nice for everyone to have fun but it's always bugged me how blatantly mischaracterized he is in the greater fanbase (and almost always for shipping purposes). Like people will be screaming about some shippy thing, then I'll look at what they are talking about from the source (the actual game) and be like "wait, that didn't happen? are we looking at the same thing? where did you get that impression from?" Like this man can breathe and it's taken as him being absolutely smitten for Yuu. Everyone keeps saying "lol Malleus forgot this isn't an otome game", bro only has eyes for the gargoyles, I'm sorry! Fanon Malleus just ends up leaving a bad taste in my mouth that kind of bleeds into my gaming experience. I actually get scared when people say a super shippy thing happened, and I get relieved when I find out it was just blown out of proportion. Like, simp as much as you want but don't lie to me. I wouldn't be having fun in this game if this boy was actually breathing down Yuu's neck, I'm stuck following Yuu around, I can't be subjected to that! I want to see discussions about Malleus rooted in what is actually in front of our eyes, but that's not something we really get around here. And then it gets worse when people create love triangles-

I appreciate your perspective, nice to see someone say something so controversial yet so brave

You made me remember my biggest take on Malleus but I'll add that at the end. Holy shit, it was my literal favorite part of my whole unfiltered rant, damn it.

All in all: Thank you! Finally someone who's seeing things my way, it's such a fresh breath for once ffs. I totes get the first part, I'm similar with some characters, so yeah. They're there and you don't particularly hate em but they're not the big favs either, kinda just vibing

Fanon Malleus is honestly one of the biggest reasons why I mainly don't put myself up with the lizard or lizard likers cuz if I see mischaracterization, it's on sight. Like Malleus isn't horribly mischaracterized like some but there's definitely some shit that's cooked out of the Devils butthole and, like you said, mainly for shipping reasons. Why not make ships based on the Truth?

Like, I know it's not about them but they're the best example, Treykei. I could have the bubble lifestyle of Trey having a Harem of Caters (which would be hilarious and possible) but that ain't gonna happen in no damn lifetime because the canon Cater wouldn't commit to shit (at least not rn), so unless he's trying to mess with Trey for funsies.

Back to my point: You can STILL cook up Malleyuu - It doesn't have to be that obsessive nonsense. Use the canon as a lead and let your heart guide to the end. I can think of a multitude of choices on how to make a successful Malleyuu story with the canon.

And I mean, it's not that big a deal for me if it's controversial or nah - I know that I'd be in bad blood with Malleus likers if they'd find me but I meant every single word I said: I can't stand Malleus but that doesn't mean his character as a written being is shit yk? So all the stuff I write online is something I'm standing behind and I don't care if anyone tries to give me shit for it. No one can hate me more than I do it myself anyway lmao

Anyways, to my hot take!

If we take the "ominous Malleus standing in front of Ramshakle at night" and objectively look at it - In other words "Observing someone without them noticing until they notice the stares". Does it not remind you of someone, namely a certain blonde hunter, previously located in Savanaclaw, now in Pomefiore?

The only difference is that Malleus is "hot" or whatever they call him and Rook isn't exactly the prettiest on society's judgment (Saying Society because beauty is something that's unique to everyone). Even their motives might be similar if you think about it.

[lizadale]

Finally got around to reading Pilot Light and I loved it!!! Your KB is always a treat, and I would love to hear more about the story or lore if there’s anything about it you’d like to share!

thank you!!

uhhh i'm not really sure what to say about that mess. it ended up a little disjointed toward the ending because the first 80% was written in 2013 and the last 3,000 or so words were written in 2023-24 🙃 obviously i was not in the same mood or state of mind lmao. it's REALLY hard to pick a story back up after 10 years and try to parse where the heck it was going, so it's not my best work, but i still really liked the idea too much to scrap it all.

there's not much different lore-wise in it from all the other lore i've posted, i don't think? but there's a couple nuances i can touch on

*it was written BEFORE dimigi au got started. you can sort of tell that since Dimentio was barely in it, as i did NOT like his character enough to develop him more

*it was halfway inspired by a sasanomaly song called "synesthesia ghost"

*there were more memories originally, but i cut most of them because the vibes either didn't fit or they were too violent.

*originally i think it was supposed to be Luigi/King Boo? back when it started. it still looks that way if you squint, but i veered away just when it was getting shippy

*the dreamsphere Luigi is trapped in is meant to resemble Negative Zone

*here is a VERY OLD sketch from the time

*i mentioned this before, but KB is named after a guy i used to play mario kart wii with online

[orchestraytedkhaos]

Rexsoka. Yeah, it's my ship. Still.

I mainly just lurk here, reading fanfic and enjoying the memes. But the angst of the last few has given me the courage to dive in and say a few words.

First, let me clear the air: Rebels was when I started shipping Rexsoka. Prior to their reunion on that show, it had never ever occurred to me to ship them. Despite having read the novels.

So, yeah, look, I totally get the opposition to shipping early Clone Wars Rex and Ahsoka. She's a child. He's a child too, arguably, although his accelerated maturation makes everything super messy. The military structure and fact that Rex is basically a slave means its got power issues galore. Then for those in the US, there is the whole 18 year old age of consent thing (noting, for good or ill, it's 16 most other places). I get why this squicks people. It's the SanSan of Star Wars.

But people grow up. Even on TV.

Season 7 Ahsoka is 17 going on 18, and effectively an adult. She's commanded armies, and just spent a year living and working independently. She is also obviously mature and, frankly, animated that way. Rex is a long term friend, they love and care for each other, and by the end of the season, she basically risks everything for him, and he for her. The episodes are also written in a very obviously shippy way, with the gazing, the chats, the meaningful converstions, the hand holding and the tears. Not to mention that sad, moonlit reunion in Tales of the Jedi.

And although I dont think it matters much, by this time, even taking Rex at double chronological age, the gap is pretty mild by fantasy standards. 17-18 and about 26, roughly the same as Buffy and age-corrected Angel, and way less than Han and Leia.

Fast forward to Rebels, and we have two mature adults with a shared history and goals, who love, trust and admire each other, share common interests, and are amongst the most important people in each other's lives. It's a believable and natural thing for that to progress to something more. The challenges to their relationship are things like, for Ahsoka, the lingering memory of the Jedi code and Anakin and Padme's destructive passion, and Rex's rapid aging, status and limited life experiences. It is those kinds of emotional and external barriers and their shared trauma that make the romance so interesting.

Season 7 + and Rebels Rexsoka is classic friends to lovers, and one of the nicest, softest and most realistic relationships in Star Wars. The opposition to it, and moraliatic shaming of those who like is, is something I simply don't get. It's bizarre. There are heaps of ships that are far, far more problematic (including Anakin/Padme) that don't get this hate.

Like, anti dudes, what exactly *is* the problem here? I suspect the it's that some people just want to get their hate on.

The recent flashbacks? Yeah, that one on Mandalore complicates thing, but I doubt they had stomping on shippers in mind when they cast Ariana, as I have seen suggested elsewhere. The more likely scenario is that - at about 14 yo when this was filmed - Ariana was totally perfect for the first flashback, and is perfect for playing young Ahsoka going forward. Even setting aside that she is an amazing actress, she's insanely athletic and can duel weild light sabres while knee walking though a twist. She's also already tied to Disney. She wasn't quite right for the part, and, I agree, that does make watching it in light of the fanfic a bit uncomfortable. But, it's not just a shipper issue. Putting an Ahsoka that looks and sounds like that in the episodes with the Martez sisters and Bo Katan is weird af too, and doesn't work. I doubt it is meant to.

Story-wise, the best and only real take is that the flashbacks aren't live action replays. The Mandalore scene doesnt even chronologically match what happened (Ahsoka is so fighting Saxon in that scene, which never happened). They are visions about Ahsoka and Anakin and their relationship, not live action replays. Both remember her as a child caught up in a war. Smoke, the fog of war, flashing lights and dying, faceless clones.

And Anakin and Rex.

What I take from these is that in Ahsoka's mind, and Anakin's too for that matter, Rex is always there for her. Standing in the chaos, calm and confident in himself and in her, and looking badass as heck. With an older Ahsoka it would have absolutely been smoking scene from her pov, and no way was it written otherwise. As an older Ahsoka remembering, it's hot. As younger Ahsoka, he's there as her protector and friend.

Do I do ever think this ship will play out on screen? Not, no explicitly. And, yeah, it probably is harder now because of that vision (although if they ever do film a younger Ahsoka series, they will undoubtedly be casting a young actor for Rex, and Ariana will, by then, be 18). But I don't think that was intentional, and I don't think that much has changed. It was always intended to be an "open for interpretation" relationship, written with the possibility not excluded. And I am good with that. Perhaps I even prefer it. Star Wars has a truly dreadful record with romance and, besides, too often cementing subtle or ust-based ships kill them. I just hope this hasn't, because it's still my ship and I love it.

[bunny-lovers]

In A Dream, Sweet Talk, and Lonely Hearts Club! - @bunnys-lil-hideout

Thank you for the ask! 😊 @mahitosoulmate @deregirls @cruising-thru-the-starz @self-shippy @mavuikas-beloved @canonfatbisexualenby

Coffee (Radio Edit) - are you more of a night owl or an early bird? does your sleep schedule match S/I's, or is it wildly different? if they're different, do you often try to stay awake just to spend more time with S/I?

"I'm more of an early bird like Rebecca is. Yes, my sleep schedule does match hers."

American Beauty/American Psycho - do you tend to fall in love quickly and spontaneously, or is it more of a slow burn for you? how long did it take for you to realize that you were in love with S/I?

"I tend to fall in love quickly. It took me about an hour and a half to fall in love with her."

Kiss From a Rose - do you like cold/snowy weather? how about S/I? have you ever done anything in the snow with S/I like building a snowman or making snow angels or anything else you thought would be fun? how did it end up going?

"No, we both don't like the snow. Yes, we both have made snow angels. We also had a snowball fights. We had fun!"

The Run and Go - how do you comfort S/I when they're feeling upset? and how would you say they comfort you?

"I comfort her by holding her in my arms while telling how much I love her and how important I am to her. She comforts me by holding me in her arms, uses her sweet words and brings me one of my comfort foods."

Stupid For You - did you have a 'crushing' phase with S/I before you got together? if you did, were there ever moments where you did or said things around them without thinking?

"Yes, I did and it was when she and I were at the coffee café when we met in person. No, I didn't."

Air Catcher - did you have any sort of issues being vulnerable with S/I at first, or did you feel completely safe with them the moment you met them?

"I felt completely safe with her the moment I met her."

Lonely Hearts Club - were you nervous at all when you realized your feelings for S/I? did you feel like they wouldn't like you back, or were you confident that they felt the same?

"No, I wasn't nervous at all and I was confident that she felt the same."

Little Talks - did you and S/I meet when you were younger? if so, how would you say that the two of you have changed since then? if not, have you ever told each other about how you were when you were younger?

"No, but we did talked about how when we were younger."

The Overpass - do you keep any of S/I's shirts/sweaters/etc. around for when they're not with you? and, do you let S/I keep any of your clothes?

"Yes and yes!"

Sweet Talk - have you ever completely misinterpreted something that S/I said to you? what was it that they were actually trying to say, and what did you think they meant?

"No, she didn't."

Bad Enough For You - do you act differently around S/I compared to everyone else? how so?

"Yes, I get soft when I'm with her."

Buddy Holly - which of you tends to be more protective - you or S/I? how do you feel about that fact?

"I'm the one who is more protective and I don't mind it at all since I'm very strong."

Buttercup - what are your favorite pet names/nicknames for S/I? and do you like the pet names/nicknames that S/I uses for you?

"My favorite pet names for her would be bunny, sweetie and babe. Yes, I love the pet names that she uses for me."

In a Dream - do you ever have dreams about S/I? if you can remember any, describe one!

"Yes, we were hiking on a hot day. We were wearing sleeveless shirts, carrying our water bottles and she had her hand on my biceps as we were walking. We both looked at each other, she gave me a kiss on my temple."

Wine Red - if you had to pick a color or two to describe S/I, which would you pick and why?

"Yellow, because of how bright she is."

[lilblucat]

Quick question!! So with the recent episode of MD out (I'm not sure if you've seen it yet, but if you have you could answer this if ya like) are you worried for how the show is gonna handle the love triangle between Uzi, N, and V? Because ship wars are still going on at least over on Twitter and Envy shippers are going crazy and insane, plus it doesn't help that some of them are toxic (not saying that Nuzi shippers aren't toxic too, because they are) but, I'm worried that these shipping wars are gonna get worse and heck, it even concerns me that shipping could end up ruining the show..just look at shows like Miraculous Ladybug + Star Vs, but Star Vs is a huge example because that show was pretty much ruined by shipping and it also ended up making Starco feel rushed at the end..I've seen people point out that the love triangle is common in Liam's work so maybe I'm missing something. But, are you worried for how this love triangle will be handled in the end and do you think it could ruin and mess up the show?? Also, which couple would you say you're rooting for (When it comes to Envy and Nuzi, at least) and who do you think works better as a couple? I don't wanna cause any shipping drama, but I was wanting to ask this question because it's been on my mind, it also gave me some concerns..because don't be wrong, I'm someone who enjoys and adores shipping and has fun with it, but there is something that I never wanna see is to have a ship take over the story entirely, you know what I'm saying?

Anon, this is not a quick question lol.

Idk I don't think the love triangle is gonna be all that important going forward. It felt like there was going to be some love dynamic between Uzi, N, V, and Thad but as of episode 5 I think that's all mostly scrapped now. Thad is completely irrelevant and it seems like episode 5 cleaned up the romantic plot threads between N and V.

Episode 5 is... weird to talk about regarding the romance threads in the series. Like yeah, it does offer some Envy moments, but then once they remember everything they go back to their dynamic up to this point. V immediately wants to hurt Uzi while N is much more excited to see Uzi again than react to V's quick embarrassed blushy moment. The events of this episode and the lack of any shipping merch for N and V kind of seal the deal for me that Envy isn't happening. Episode 3 went all in on the shippy vibes between N and Uzi on the marketing, so episode 5 not getting any for Envy just feels like proof to me, honestly.

However, most of the marketing was about N and Uzi, and while they are the main 2 characters, it feels like this episode was meant more to progress their dynamic along than N and V's. N had been saving Uzi from something every episode up to now, and this was finally Uzi's turn to repay the favor and boy do I have things to talk about regarding that. Uzi having so much ability to really mess with N, but Uzi ultimately not doing any of that because she wants what's best for him. Which, you'll notice is what V also wants, but the difference is Uzi actually communicates with him while V seems stuck on what her own idea of that is. Like, Uzi clearly has a crush on the guy, but even though she's seeing his past with V and how close they were she doesn't take any action to make him stop remembering things. She actually encourages him to uncover as much as he can, which he thanks her for at the end. I don't know how to put it, it's just such a risk she took even though she knew it was the right thing to do and I just really like that aspect of her character this episode.

Anyway, that wall of text is to explain my reasoning behind what I have to say on the state of shipping after this episode. I think the endgame ship is going to be Nuzi because I see no meta reason to ship otherwise. That's literally the only ship with merch behind it and it's the ship Glitch and staff seems to like the most art of. I feel that going forward, the show will end up going that route with these characters and people will either have to accept that or drop the show if shipping is really that important to them. And tbh, Liam's works aren't that focused on shipping anyway. There's probably going to be romance, but it won't be a tumor on the show. I haven't read any of his stuff yet where it felt like the romance threads were hurting the story tbh. That's another point for Nuzi tbh in that pretty much all of his main 2 duos have the most ship tease in his writing. I would not compare his writing to those other shows because Liam's writing is so distinct and has its quirks. Also, Murder Drones is written by a single person compared to these network shows which are written by many people, which is how you get these convoluted romance plots in the first place.

People are gonna be toxic, that's just a given and especially so because the main two ships in this fandom are at odds with each other. Once the show commits to one, I think things will chill down. I will say though, all the stupid discourse I see about Disassembler/Worker ships is pretty bad and misinformation keeps this a hot topic in the fandom. It's not a problem, yet people keep making it one and I cannot understand how this happens lol.

And yeah it's probably obvious but yeah I'm Team Nuzi. I've just always felt like Liam was aiming for it anyway plus I have a feeling that if the genders were swapped, Envy would be no where near as popular as it is. I get the appeal of Worker Envy, but Disassembler Envy is a whole different beast where V's treatment of N is still completely unaddressed. That's not to dis V exactly, but I think people forget that she remembered much more than N prior to episode 5 and cared enough about him to try to keep him safe from the Solver shenanigans. Her methods for doing that, however, definitely need to be addressed at some point. Like again, people forget that she didn't do all that because she didn't remember, she did that because she was traumatized and ended up hurting N because of her actions. Regardless of why she did it, she's still very harsh with him and hasn't made any steps to fix this. Also again, not to dis her as a character, she's obviously made these choices out of trauma and I think that's pretty realistic.

N also has baggage that V's presence gets in the way of, but since he's been with Uzi for a while he's been getting through it. When separated from V, N learns to grow a spine and respect himself. I think V can learn and grow too, but only if she takes a leave from N to get her away from the living reminder of her traumatic past. That's why I'm personally not into Envy in the current time, they cannot reconnect in the same way anymore, they are simply too different from how they were back in the past. Reconnection means a whole new dynamic, and at this point I don't think romance is in the cards for this new dynamic.

[aroacemisha]

Thought I'd make a post explaining why I don't believe Huntl0w is canon, or was even supposed to be, and the "shippy" stuff in the show was just allowed as a treat for crew members who shipped it.

The post is a little long, so it's going under read more.

--

In the storyboards, the "Huntl0w moments" were more explicitly "shippy" than in the final show. In the final version, they tend to be toned down or even removed completely, even as late as TtT.

Take a look at these comparisons:

storyboard: Hunter changes his expression and pose, drawing attention to the blush, has stronger implications of attraction

final version: no change in pose, only slight change in expression, the blush is subtle, almost unnoticeable

storyboard: a full-face blush on Hunter (similar to how Amity sometimes blushed at Luz), Willow is looking at him while he nervously looks away, the frame is also a closeup focused on them, with Gus being in the periphery

final version: lighter blush on Hunter, who also looks flustered by the embrace in general rather than Willow specifically, all three are equally focused on in the framing

This shot was completely cut, Hunter neither blushes nor puts his hand on Willow's shoulder, and he doesn't even look at her

This particular one could have possibly been a jokey thing not meant to end up in the final version, but it was included as the final shot with the storyboards that did make it to the final version, so I'm including it here:

I'm not gonna put this last one in, since Hayley doesn't want her art reposted, but I would encourage you to look at her storyboard of the Hunter haircut scene vs. the final version. You'll notice that the final version is less "shippy" and completely removes any implied reciprocation from Willow.

And here's a couple interesting captions from Hayley's Tumblr posts:

(Seeing how I've shown that the toning down continued afterwards, even up to TtT, it seems less like "not yet", and more like "it's not supposed to happen at all")

I find it noteworthy that she referred to her "shippy stuff" with Huntl0w as "highly interpretable" even as late as TtT. (And also that she acknowledged it is interpretable, unlike a good chunk of the fandom)

If the ship was truly intended to be confirmed canon, why were the "Huntl0w" scenes still being toned down and made more ambiguous and interpretable even as late as TtT, the episode right before the supposed "confirmation"? This makes me think Huntl0w isn't meant to be canon, but the crew were allowed to have a treat for all their hard work and insert some fan service.

--

The other reason why I think it's small hints allowed as a treat for the shippers on the crew, rather than an intended storyline, is because all of the "Huntl0w" in the show is very surface-level. It's either not meant to be a romantic arc at all, or it's an extremely poorly written one. There is no written storyline between them, just blushes superficially added on top.

They barely interact on screen between ASiaS (the episode where they just met for the first time) and FtF (the episode where they supposedly "got together", or at least were "confirmed as mutually in love"), and the entire "buildup" to the "romance" is a handful of small, quick blushes from Hunter. I didn't even notice the blushes/realize they were inserted as a "shippy" thing until King's Tide, and I'm not the only one, I've seen other people say they didn't notice either, some didn't even notice the one in KT.

And Willow didn't show any interest/hints of a crush at all before FtF. No blushes, no unusual behavior around Hunter, nothing.

The only arguments claiming she did show hints of a crush are varying degrees of stretches, or even outright insults to her character if you think about it. Because, for example, they imply that she would be fine with seriously injuring a friend, or letting a friend fall to their death, if they weren't secretly her crush.

You may say, "but they stayed at the Noceda house for a couple months, they probably got closer/Willow developed a crush then!", and to that I will point out that there's no change between how Willow and Hunter interacted at the end of season 2 and how they interacted in TtT, so it seems that there wasn't much off-screen development either.

(Also! If all of the important relationship development for two major characters happens off-screen, they should not end up in a romantic relationship together, that is bad writing)

Additionally, neither were shown or implied to be trying to spend more time with specifically each other, they're mainly shown interacting in a group setting with all of the Hexsquad, and the one time it's just the two of them is incidental, Willow just happens to pass by the bathroom while Hunter is cutting his hair and happens to notice it.

Even in FtF, the episode that went harder/was more in-your-face with the "Huntl0w" moments, it remains pretty surface-level. All you'd have to do to completely cut it is remove the blushes. The story/plot or the way they talk to/interact with each other wouldn't have to change at all. There's no written romance, just superficially added blushes.

(And while Willow does finally blush in this episode, it's only after Hunter gets powers and saves her life, which makes it come off as either her feeling like she "has to" reciprocate now, or her only finding him attractive now that he has powers. I'm sure neither is intentional, but just because it's unintentional doesn't shield it from criticism)

And now, let's do a comparison to Lumity and Raeda, in both development and confirmation.

Luz and Amity's relationship was developed on screen for about 10 episodes or so from the start of their friendship to them eventually becoming a couple. They ask each other out on screen, and after that point, they are referred to as girlfriends and kiss on screen several times. They're as explicit as you can get.

Raine and Eda are implied to be exes in Raine's introduction episode, and it's confirmed later, so they have an established romantic history, and after several episodes with on-screen development of their relationship, in the finale, Eda kisses Raine several times after getting them out of Belos's corruption.

As mentioned before, Hunter and Willow barely interact on-screen between ASiaS and FtF, so there's no development to speak of. And in the supposed "confirmation" scene for Huntl0w... All Willow says is that Hunter is important to her too, as a response to the earlier scene where he said "You guys mean the world to me", referring to both her and Gus, and she holds pinkies with him.

Saying someone is important to you is pretty unspecific, and it's especially so here, since she says it in reply to him saying both she AND Gus were important to him (as if to imply they're important to each other in the same way), and hand holding isn't inherently romantic. I don't know where this idea came from, and it really needs to stop.

[Side note: I've also noticed that people who insist that Willow holding hands with Hunter can only be read as romantic don't have the same energy for when Willow holds hands with Amity. It seems that either a) certain people just take whatever position suits their current argument, and take mutually exclusive positions at different times, or b) they are just being heteronormative, or c) possibly both]

As for the epilogue, they do interact again, but there's no blushing, or kisses, or anything like that. They're just hanging out. Again, hand holding is not romantic.

The one "shippy" thing in the epilogue is a single picture hidden away in a dark corner, like an easter egg, and the blush is also once again one-sided from Hunter. Willow looks like she's teasing him.

You may say "but the ending where they're all saying goodbye!!".

And to that I will point out that while it starts with just Hunter and Willow holding each other, Willow also pulls Gus in. This is an Emerald Trio hug, not a Huntl0w hug.

Additional note: the TOH Wiki acknowledges that while the ship was hinted at, it was never confirmed. And those are people who still list Hunter and Willow as each other's love interests, despite the admitted lack of confirmation. Take it from them.

[Edit: I've been informed that apparently users of the Wiki acknowledge that the ship isn't canon, and someone has actually tried to remove the "love interest" bit from the character pages, since it isn't confirmed, but it was reverted, and when they asked about it, they were told that since it was hinted at in the show, it can stay. The insistence on still listing them as love interests, despite it only being speculation/headcanon, is more of a higher staff problem than a userbase at large problem]

As a final note, Dana has done plenty of Lumity and Raeda art, but I'm still yet to see a Huntl0w drawing from her, even though she has posted drawings that feature both of them. I've only seen Huntl0w art from other crew members, but not Dana herself, and I feel like that's worth mentioning.

(She has also explicitly encouraged "death of the author", which, for those unaware or misinformed, means ignoring what the author says outside of the work, and interpreting and analyzing said work based only on what is in the work itself)

--

TL;DR: The "Huntl0w" stuff in the show is toned down compared to the storyboards, it never got confirmed, unlike Lumity and Raeda, and is likely in the show mainly as a treat for the hard work of the crew members who ship it. What we have in the show gave just enough fan service to shippers, while keeping it ambiguous enough that you don't have to read it as romantic.

[dannystheone]

hi!! it’s lee kenny anon again, tysm for your sweet reply to my message!! you’re so kind 😭💗 i thought i’ll leave a request for when requests open back up again, if that’s okay!!  sorry if this is too much 😭

maybe kenny is trying to cheer up butters, and they end up breaking out into a tickle fight! they sound like they would be so cute together!! can be shippy or non shippy, whichever you prefer! i personally love bunny but i’m fine either way <33

tysm for reading, please feel free to take all the time you need! or feel free to change any part of this or just reject this, no worries!! thank you!! 💗💗

Sorry this is late guys, I've been a little busy! I hope you like this :0

WARNINGS: None! Just tickles :) they are 9 years old in this!!

He Loves My Heart-Shaped Sunglasses (Lee Butters/Ler Kenny)

Butters is having second thoughts about his appearance and how he feels about dressing up as Marjorine. Kenny cheers him up a little :)

````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

"Hey Butterms!" Kenny McCormick stepped through Butters's bedroom door without knocking. They had grown close enough to where they could step into each other's homes and share each other's privacy. According to Cartman, they were best friends after all.

Kenny walked in on Butters at a bad time, however. Butters sat on his bed hugging a stuffed animal while wiping at his face. Kenny cocked his head in curiosity. The curtains were shuttered closed and his room was a bit untidy. It seemed Butters didn't hear Kenny walking into his room.

"Butterms? Youm omkay?" Kenny called out. Butters head whipped to the right as he cleaned his face up immediately. He sniffled as he put on a friendly smile, despite his pink narrowed eyes.

"O-Oh! Hiya Ken! I uh- I-I'm just listening to Taylor Swift again! You know she always gets me." Butters held up his phone, but no song seemed to be playing. Kenny didn't respond as he simply watched Butters fidget with his hands.

"Ahem- So! What do you wanna do? We can color, we-we can play trucks!" Butters suggested. Kenny walked up to the bed and put a supportive hand on Butters knee.

"Youm omkay Butterms? Youm can tell me anything." Kenny said. Butters turned his gaze down, his happy facade fading. He started to fidget with his hands.

"W-Well...I don't quite know how to say this..." Kenny waited patiently while Butters mustered up his courage. Butters knew he could share anything with Kenny, but how much was anything?

"Um, r-remember when I dressed up as Marjorine that one time? To go to the girl's sleepover?" Butters asked. Kenny nodded thoughtfully. Butters fidgeting seemed to get worse.

"Well, I-I've been thinking...um...I've been having thoughts about putting the Marjorine clothes on, just for myself, you know? When I was at the sleepover...it was the first time I felt confident in myself." Butters looked down at his hands, refusing to look at Kenny. Kenny moved his hand from Butters knee and placed it on his shoulder.

"Wellm, whym don't youm wearm them?" Kenny asked innocently. Butters' eyes turned to Kenny filled with fear.

"No! I-I couldn't! M-My Dad would find out right away and ground the heck out of me! I can't have that Kenny!" Kenny slid his hand up and down Butters back to calm him down. Butters took a breath and held his neck to ground himself.

"It's omkay Butters, tamke it eamsy." Kenny encouraged. Butters looked to Kenny, searching his eyes for any form of judgment. When he couldn't find anything, he cast his gaze back down.

"I just...oh hamburgers. I know I shouldn't have these thoughts about girl's clothes, I mean, I'm a boy! But...I keep thinking about how I felt when I had them on and...and I felt something I've never felt before. I feel like I was meant to wear them, but-but I know it's wrong!" Butters exclaimed. Kenny felt his heart tug. Butters should be able to wear whatever he wanted if it made him happy.

"Butterms, youm shoumld be amble to wearm whatemver youm wamnt. It's yourm hamppiness. If it mamkes youm hamppy, youm shoulmd be allowed to wearm it." Kenny explained behind his hood. Butters interlaced his fingers tightly as he looked up to Kenny.

"But Kenny I can't. They're girls' clothes! What if it changes me into a different person? And my parents will find out! Oh, Jesus-" Butters held his face in his hands. Kenny didn't know what to do. Butters seemed distraught, he could use a pick-me-up. A lightbulb dimmed above Kenny's head.

"Wellm, I donm't thimnk you'll turn imnto a differement permson, Butterms. No mamtter what youm demcide to wearm, you'll stillm be the same permson. Youm'll stillm be kind, and friendmly-" Butters wasn't looking at Kenny, like he wasn't believing him at all. Kenny took his hands and started scritching Butters' side gently. Butters side bent inward as he started giggling softly.

"And youm'll stillm be timcklish!~ No mamtter what clomthes youm hamve on, youm'll stillm be sooomm timcklish~" Kenny's hands traveled up and into Butters ribs as Butters started retreating into his pillows. Butters eyes narrowed as he lightly giggled.

"K-Kehehenny! Thahahat tihihihickles!" Kenny smiled behind his hood as Butters snickered and lightly pushed at his hands.

"M'yeah Butterms, thamt's the poinmt. Youm thimnk no mamtter what clomthes youm wearm, youm're gomnna run away from beimng this timcklish?" Kenny scribbled over Butters' tummy, which made Butters squeak and curl into a ball. Butters' knees kicked up into his chest, with Kenny's hands still folded into his tummy.

"I-hehehehee! I dohohon't knohohow! Ohohoho Christmahahas!" Kenny took the opportunity to scribble his fingers over Butters' upturned side. Butters laughed gleefully as he turned fully onto the attacked side to try and hide it, but Kenny took his other hand to scribble the opposite upturned side.

"And you'rme vermy funnmy, and smart, and remliable! You'rme a goomd frienmd, and emveryone likes youm! Thamt's not gonnma chamnge." Kenny explained to a giggling Butters. Butters hair fell into his eyes as he tried using his elbows to cover his sides. Kenny lightly dug into both Butters' sides simultaneously. Butters' eyes crinkled as he belted out heavier laughter. Kenny was trying to keep it light, but Butters was super sensitive.

"Teehehehehee! Kehehehen!" Kenny heard pleading in Butters voice. His fingers stilled for a moment, giving Butters a moment to breathe. Giggles petered from Butters lips as he came down from the tickles. "Hehe- hehehe- K-Kenny don't-" Butters felt Kenny's fingers on his sides still. He twitched to the left. "-stohop!"

Kenny grinned evilly as he raised his fingers above Butters' face and started wiggling them slowly. Butters started squirming and covering himself while Kenny started lowering his hands.

"Domn't stomp? Is thamt whamt youm saimd, Butterms?~ I didnm't knowm youm limked it som much~" Butters had a panicked smile as he tried scooting everywhere that Kenny's hands weren't, but Kenny was quick to track him.

"Nohoho Kennehehey! Nohoho no no! Dohohon't dohoho ihihit!" Butters laughed as he could already feel Kenny's fingers wiggling in his sides as they wriggled above his eyes. Kenny teased Butters by dropping his hands suddenly on Butters tummy without actually tickling. Butters jolted as Kenny quickly brought his hands back up. It made Butters laugh out earnestly.

"Gehehe-HEHE! Kenny- Kehehen STOHOP! Oh hahamburgers-" Kenny faked out Butters a few more times before his hands really did go in for the kill and started scribbling all over his tummy. The anticipation made Butters whole body tingle, which in turn made him more sensitive to Kenny's touch.

"Youm beliemve me yet Butterms? I'll keep it ump umntil youm dom..." Butters nodded immediately at Kenny's question, small tears of mirth in the corners of his eyes. Kenny slowly let up on his tickles and let Kenny recover.

Butters sat up slowly, the giggles petering out of his system. "Ahehee...oh jeez. I guess I had that coming, huh? Serves me right for being such a sourpuss." Butters held his hands together when Kenny reached forward and held Butters hands. Butters looked up into Kenny's eyes.

"Butterms...wearm what makes youm hamppy. Youm demserve to wearm what youm feel comfortable in. No mamtter what clomthing it is." Kenny reassured. Butters still didn't look convinced.

"But what if my parents find out, Ken? I can't go to school dressed as Marjorine consistently, they'll find out for sure!" By 'they' he meant his parents of course. Kenny wished they would leave the poor kid alone.

"Mmm, what if youm worme the clomthes in yourm room? So they wonm't finmd out and youm'll feelm goomd?" Butters had a questioning face on as he thought about it sincerely. It slowly dawned on him. Kenny watched as Butters face grew brighter and brighter as he realized.

"Oh- Oh Kenny you genius! I can wear the Marjorine clothes in my bedroom and-and they'll never find out! Oh, golly! I'll go try them on now!" Butters raced for his closet and slid the door closed behind him. Kenny waited on the bed silently, swinging his feet while singing a tune in his head.

After a few moments, Butters called out. "Okay Ken! You ready to see?" Kenny looked up from his legs and made an affirmative sound.

Marjorine came out of her closet, smoothing out her dress and brushing her hair out of her face. She applied light makeup and brushed her wig, with two braids on either side of her face and bows pleating the braids. Her eyes were light with complimenting blue eyeshadow and blushing cheeks. Her dress was a light blue with a poofy skirt and trailing ribbons. The dim room seemed to brighten with her presence.

"Well? Wh-what do you think?" Marjorine asked, her hands fidgeting as she waited for an answer. Kenny took her whole image in, and felt his whole face burn up.

Kenny jumped off the bed and removed his hood, to reveal his blushing face and star-lit eyes to her.

"You look gorgeous, Marjorine."

[numericalbridge]

001 for Dariraine or 002 for Lilith.

Hi! Thank you for the ask!

Dariraine

when I started shipping it if I did: i can't remember, but probably when the 'Oh, Titan' aired and there was more art of them.

my thoughts: i don't actually actively ship it (even in my dariraine au the focus is not exactly on romance), mostly because i don't usually ship anything in the specific fandom way; but the dynamic of the two rebel leaders who started at the wrong footing via misunderstandings and then became closer is really interesting to me, both platonically and romantically. Plus i usually enjoy good romantic side plots between secondary characters. And as a platonic dynamic, their scene in Oh, Titan was such an unexpected but pleasant surprise. They were so fun! But, as i've mentioned before, the way ER was written and the way their friendship was there just for 1,5 scenes still leaves their canon dynamic in a very weird place for me, so i only see it as a ship in an AU/as somewhat removed from canon.

What makes me happy about them: i like that they had seemingly overcome their differences and reached a certain level of trust between ER and Oh, Titan. Yet at the same time they can and will annoy each other with stupid little things. Like, they sounded very fond of each other when they were explaining things to Luz, then it was immediately followed by Darius teasing Raine over their acting, and Raine tormenting Darius with the team name, only to then switch to the scene where they are holding that scroll together at the rebel table? A+ moments.

What makes me sad about them: in-universe it's that they have lost so much time they could have spend working together, all because of the mistrust/miscommunication/whatever ended their schooltime friendship. And on meta level it's that Darius wanted to protect Raine, as they have said themselves + whether intentionally or not it was implied that he agreed to not involve Eda (even when it would mean going with more dangerous plans), so it seems like he indulged Raine a lot, but we never got a moment of Raine doing the same for him.

things done in fanfic that annoy me: i don't think i've read any fic with them as a ship (sorry if i am forgetting anything) because usually shippy dariraine fics are either smut or they are a side pair in a long story that i am not interested in. But when it's platonic their friendship is often just there for them to give each other relationship advice rather than exploring their own dynamic. Also the way their personalities flip-flop depending on the fic type, when it's clear it is just meant to serve other dynamics rather than an actual attempt at characterization (for example, if it's a Hollow Mind fic and it's dad*rius then Raine would be soo over the top ruthless, but if it is a raed*a fic then it's the opposite and Darius just doesn't care about 'some teenagers')

things I look for in fanfic: at this point just a fic about their own dynamic whether platonic or shippy😭

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Eda or Camila for Raine (no one understands ramila like i do😐), and Camila or Perry for Darius

My happily ever after for them: they participate in the rebuilding and reforming of the Boiling Isles while annoying each other and at the same time being ready to kill for each other.

who is the big spoon/little spoon: they switch

what is their favorite non-sexual activity: just working on something together like the scene at the end of Oh, Titan. Or scheming.

Lilith

How I feel about this character: i really liked season 1 Lilith as an antagonist and the flashbacks of her dynamic with Eda when they were younger. I never doubted that she would be redeemed, but i don't like how her arc was handled in season 2, especially season 2b, especially Oh Titan.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: no one, obviously

My favourite platonic relationships: her friendships with Hooty and Steve were very cute. Her relationship with Eda was mostly really interesting, and her relationship with their mother - even if not positive - was interesting too.

My unpopular opinion about this character: i think both her and Luz's arcs would have benefitted if their s2 relationship was more complicated; and i don't like how Lilith - especially considering how she behaved in King's episode in s2a - was presented as this good historian who will uncover the truth, while a brown woman was apparently the bad corrupt historian.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: Short answer - i wish her arc and character development were finalized in a serious manner in Oh, Titan episode, and earlier episodes had more focus on the initial awkwardness between her and Luz until it would have been resolved in the time travel episode.

Long answer: I wish her treating Luz as if Luz was a teacher in s2e2 was presented as something Lilith did because she was feeling awkward after what happened between them in s1, with Luz acting awkward in return. Then the tension between them would have been a plot point in the time travel episode, and it would've been resolved by the end of it. As a follow up, in ASiAS instead of the Azura sub-plot, Luz and Amity would have gone to do research with Lilith - resolving Amity and Lilith's mentorship offscreen and freeing time for Willow, Gus and Darius. And in Oh, Titan, Lilith's arc would've ended on a serious note via her travelling with King and Steve and reacting to common people and helping them during the montage, and then a serious conversation regarding King and her worldview.

a headcanon fact: I think she and King would develop a great relationship during the time skip.

for this ask game

[teaveetamer]

I am curious, I've been watching the discourse going on for a bit without getting involved and at this point I feel like I have to ask.

What is the desired result here? Why are you engaging in the discourse at all? Clearly this is not a discussion, so what do you gain from interacting at all?

(I will send this to several people, just out of curiosity)

Alright anon allow me to explain what's been going on with me on my end.

The year is 2019 (yes, we're doing this). FE3H has just come out. I play it and rather enjoy it actually. I've got a couple of ships that I'm into, some fanfic I want to write, etc.

I go onto Reddit to chat with people about the game. Now I don't really like Edelgard, but I'm chill, I'm open to discussing the game and getting alternate viewpoints. Initially it's more or less fine.

Then some posts start coming up. People start getting really aggressive about this. I'm trying to have a conversation, but it feels like their goal is just to shout me down. I get in arguments, I get in fights, I get misgendered, I get called a bigot, I get frustrated, I get ablest rhetoric spewed at me, and I waste my life.

Stop. Take a look at myself. I'm literally sitting here arguing about Edelgard von fucking Hresvelg for hours of my day. I'm annoyed, I'm irritated, I'm always in a bad mood. Ugh.

Now it's 2020, early times I think. I resolve to stop looking at Reddit so much with regard to this game. It's not worth the hassle and the frustration. I should be, like, out doing things and having fun not wasting my time arguing with a bunch of weirdos on the internet. I want to have fun again, not be angry. I delete the Reddit app from my phone and install a blocker on my web browsers, even.

Start using Tumblr for more than just shippy stuff, and find people who agree with me, who are saying the things I've been saying. I stop feeling crazy for liking the game the way I like it. I make a few posts on my main blog but you know what, I don't really want my main blog embroiled in this shit, though I want to add my voice to the conversation. So I make this side blog.

Make some posts. I get flooded with asks from other people about the game, saying they agree with me and they're thankful that they aren't the only ones who think the way I do. I think within like a month of existing this blog had double the posts of my main blog (which has existed since 2016, so for four years at that point), most of them from asks.

The blog was initially for me to vent and throw in my two cents here and there, but I figure I'll keep it around in regular use because people seem to be benefiting from it.

Early on I tried to establish a rule for myself that 1) I wasn't going to go looking in any main tags (e.g. the Edelgard or Edelgard Positive tags) for stuff to reblog or talk about, and 2) I wasn't going to go into any Edelgard specific spaces looking for stuff to talk about (e.g. r/Edelgard or even Dimitri-critical tags). However, anything maintagged that was looking for a fight (e.g. a Dimitri-critical post in the main Dimitri tag) was fair game.

I'm not perfect, but I did try to stick to that rule. I talked about things that happened on the main FE Sub or FEH sub. I did my best to encourage my anons to not go seeking out stuff to bring back to me from Edelgard spaces. After all, this blog was meant for venting and having my own personal space where I could talk about my views without getting accosted. I thought it would be petty for me to go bring back stuff from other places.

Moving into 2021, I was kind of done with 3H. I was still getting like dozens of asks a day about 3H discourse. I'd answer one and five more would pop up in their place. By now we're like, well beyond 3x or 4x the amount of posts I have on my main blog. I'm getting kind of tired of it. It's a lot of the same points over and over and over. We're in pandemic times, so I can't even walk away from it and do something else IRL for a while before coming back to it. I feel like I'm wasting my life again. I feel like I've said anything and everything I could have possibly said about the subject. I ask people to stop talking to me about Edelgard. Eventually, everyone mostly obliges.

I still chat about it here and there, but I'm chatting about other stuff too. This blog is still about venting just about venting about more than 3H. A lot more petty fandom shit in general.

Now we're in, like, 2022. I don't remember exactly, Pandemic Time makes some of this a bit of a blur. I notice a new kid on the block, doing basically what I'd noticed happening on Reddit. Going into the wrong tags. Picking fights. Posting things in the wrong tags. Picking fights.

I'm over it, I'm done, I don't want to deal with this shit anymore. I block the dude. Most people I know block the dude or ignore him. We figure he's new here, he just hasn't learned the etiquette.

He gets increasingly hostile. I'm not really paying that much attention, just getting info about it from the fringes. Again, we figure eventually he'll just go away if we ignore him.

Then Nilsh gets harassed off the platform.

My mutuals are getting increasingly hostile anons and combative reblogs.

At this point I'm relatively unaffected. I guess because I don't tag anything, so he didn't find it.

And you know what? I'm still like "he'll get bored. He'll leave eventually." We were all like "just ignore him, he'll leave eventually."

People try to explain tags to him. Try to help him curate his experience so he quits arguing with people who don't want to talk to him all the time.

Then Moonlitboar gets harassed off of the platform. They take the URL. He's bragging about having done it. He's spreading this vitriol to other platforms and convincing others to join in on the harassment.

And I'm like. Okay. This dude isn't leaving. This is what he wants. His goal isn't to talk about this game—his goal is to hurt us.

I unblock him and respond. We go back and forth. He stops... for a time.

Here's the thing. I didn't re-block him after that, and I didn't do that for a couple of reasons. First, because at this point I'm still hopeful that he's just unaware of what he's doing, and that he'll acknowledge how messed up it was and apologize. I'm all for second chances. The second, because he's dangerous and I'm worried that if I don't keep tabs on him, he's going to try to hurt me.

It's not long until he's doing the same shit again. He tries harassing BWIIDT, he tries harassing FantasyInvader, he tries harassing Ezra, he tries harassing RandomNameless, he tries harassing Emblemxeno, he tries harassing Gascon, he tries harassing people I've literally never even heard of. I keep calling him out, and he tries harassing me. He calls me hysterical, accuses me of acting like a victim. Tries to make me feel stupid and small by saying I don't have anything worth his attention to respond to.

(By the way dude, my point about that was that you were being misogynistic but treating discourse like it was only worth responding to if it came from a man. See, I noticed that you only liked to attack people you thought were cishet white men like yourself, even if we were saying basically the same things at times. The fact that you continue not "debunking" any of my posts doesn't upset me; it proves my point)

He blocks me. I can't say for certain why, but my bet is that he realized people were actually listening to what I had to say, and having a queer woman question the actions he purported to be for the benefit of queer women wasn't a great look for him.

He's still trying to harass me. He's taking screenshots, he's using my name, he's @ ing me. He's casually lying about me. He's using sexist rhetoric implying that I shouldn't be listened to because I'm just too ~in my feelings~ and he's the true victim of my hysterical victimized martyr complex (geez, you sure a a feminist ally for that one, aren't you?)

You know, I did actual research when one of my anons accused him of being a trump supporter and tried to lie about him? I burned an entire evening on that, because I didn't want to be spreading lies about people. Meanwhile he lets his anons casually and repeatedly misgender me without so much as a passing correction, and he hangs out with people who spread lies and slander accusing others of heinous crimes.

And you know what? If I knew it was going to be like this? I'd still waste that evening and correct that anon. It's not about getting a petty win or convincing people he's a bad person for me. It's about being respected.

So to get back to your question. Why am I doing this? Because I have to. Because I know that if I don't he's going to hurt someone else, just like how he hurt Nilsh and Moonlitboar. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, after all. We ignored him and he didn't leave, so now we have to say something.

What's the desired result? I want to be respected, like I've tried to respect them for almost the entirety of this blog's existence. I want my boundaries acknowledged. I want him to stop hurting people for no other reason than to hurt them, because they don't agree with him.

When will I stop? When he stops.

[sojirosteacup]

I translate the excerpt that supposedly started the Moriharu rumor

Part 2 of my post about the origins of the Mori/Haruhi rumor.

After taking a look at the english excerpt and translating it from spanish and portuguese, we barely looked at the original japanese text. I translated one word and left it at that. But why not translate the whole thing and see what is really in there?

Let's do it after the cut! ↓

Disclaimer: I'm not a native speaker and only took 3 years of japanese classes. I took two days to translate this and reviewed all the grammar I could to do it right, but there might be mistakes here.

But the translations we have aren't much better so, shrugs

First of all, let's take a look at the japanese text again:

My first thought was "that's a long ass sentence at the beginning, fml!".

Because of the differences between japanese and english grammar (and japanese being able to cut some things from the sentences) the text can be worded differently depending on how you interpret it or structure it. No wonder this excerpt has so many different translations, it can be taken in different ways depending on the translator.

Here is my own attempt to translate it (with comments below):

"If he is left alone - a 'doesn't talk, serious face guy' as always - the story tends to end up progressing¹. A person that can nonchalantly torment Hatori² over and over. But my love for him is big³ (laughs) For Hatori, Mori and Haruhi may be⁴ a target⁵ dark horse⁶ couple, or not."

¹I feel that it could also be read as "the story tends end up plot twisting". Yes, the same kanji means both "plot twist" and "development, progression". But I think she meant that the story goes on without him doing anything. Yes, this sentence was hard to translate. Another possible way to translate it could be "if left alone, the 'doesn't talk, serious face guy' story tends to end up progressing/twisting." But then why would she worry about it? lol

²could also be read as "casually worries Hatori over and over". I can't figure out the exact verb because they both use the same kanji and very similar conjugations. But the meaning doesn't change much. And torment sounds funnier with the next sentence lol

³Unsure if it's her love or his love since it doesn't use a name. I'm going to guess it's about her, since she just talked about how much he worries/torments her.

⁴she uses とか, that is a quoting structure used for something uncertain, unconfirmed or a rumor.

⁵This kanji confused me because I'm used to see it in the context of turning words into adjectives. But it doesn't seem to be the case here since it's missing the な used with it. 的's meaning alone is "target" or "subject". I'm going to go with target since it's the only one that makes sense, but it might be some kind of slang I don't know. Maybe it's used to mean something like 'endgame'? DON'T TAKE THIS AS TRUTH, I'M GUESSING HERE. But if that's the case, then I can see how it could confuse people.

⁶in japanese, she uses a term that means an unlikely win in horse racing, I tried to use the closest thing in english. I go more in depth about the term on my last post.

One thing that surprised me is that every single translation we looked at on my last post skipped something from the excerpt. The english one cut the "story develops/plot twists" part entirely. Same for the spanish version. The brazilian portuguese one kept closer to the original text (using "plot twist" instead of "developing"), but the translation error at the end kinda ruined it.

So what conclusion can we take from this? It definitely does not confirm them as a couple. The "or not" at the end of the text makes it obvious that she was joking with this. It's something similar to the shippy illustrations of the Hosts with Haruhi at the end of the manga volumes, just another of Hatori's attempts to confuse the readers and keep all Haruhi couples as possibilities.

But looking at the text (and it's many different translations) we can see where people took some parts of the rumor from:

The "they were supposed to be canon!" could have come from people missing the "or not" at the end of the excerpt, along with the uncertain tone of the sentence being lost in translation. It could have also been the many translations calling them Hatori's favorite couple, or maybe even the "my love (for him) is big" part being translated as "his love is big".

The "she changed it" probably comes from the "plot twist/development" part being translated differently depending on the language.

The "Tamaki became the male lead because he was more popular" part is not here are at all, but, like I said on my last post, I have a theory that it got taken from a rumor from another fandom.

Does that mean this excerpt was the origin of the rumor? Who knows! It could have come from something else. But since this is mentioned in every discussion about it, I felt like it wouldn't hurt to translate the original.

(if anyone else speaks japanese and wants to add something to this translation, fell free to reblog or reply with your suggestion/correction. I could be wrong or maybe you can see something I missed, who knows.)

[dontpetmeibite]

A big foundational part of being proship means respecting boundaries. End of discussion. If you can't respect boundaries then everything that's happening because of that is not an anti issue but a creep issue, and the creep isn't them.

A boundary is when you decide what you will do if you are faced with behaviour you don't want to deal with.

"If someone I consider gross reblogs my posts, I will block them, so they can't do it again" is an actual boundary. If that person had done that, there would be no argument.

"Other people should take down their reblogs when I tell them that they are gross and I don't want to be associated with them" is not a boundary. It's an expectation that 'other people' did not agree to or sign up for. I said no.

I don't do things when people ask me to do them because they think I'm gross. (That's one of my boundaries.)

I told them I thought the picture was shippy and a little weird if it was meant to be platonic, because she's not a non-sapient pet.

She is literally a sapient robot woman in a cat shaped body, whose entire arc is about not wanting to be treated like an animal, and who is notorious for clawing people who touch and handle her like she is a pet. It's totally OOC for SW to touch her like that if they're not involved. He has never disrespected her by treating her like a pet.

Then I told them the names of all the RP blogs that I have that reblog this stuff so they COULD block them, which would have been the normal thing to do.

Replying with a no and an explanation to an unsolicited request is not harassment.

After discovering they were blocked from this blog, they sent an incredibly insulting message to me on another one. (I could have posted that but I don't post other people's private DMs.)

After that, they started stalking my personal blogs looking for posts that might be about them, and responded to two--neither of which gave identifying details of the situation and one of which was actually about a whole bunch of situations involving reblogging, unless that person is also sending me messages about reblogging people they don't like.

You know, nobody would have even known what that was about if they hadn't identified themselves and posted the whole exchange.

And now they're harassing my friends.

And you think I'm the creep? I said no to them and vagued on my own blogs that they don't have to read. I'm not the one throwing shit in the fan here.

ETA: Also, you're wrong. The only requirement of being pro-ship is that you believe people have the right to ship or not ship what they want without being harassed.

[theszarrpalace]

Is it just me or is Pinterest a cesspool for raging and sometimes truly incomprehensible anti-shipping behavior (in the BG3 fandom in this case) in the comment sections? 'Cuz...

A little vent under the cut.

Usually, I try to not let this get the better of me but today I'm kinda riled up so here we go. As one does, I was mindlessly browsing Pinterest, looking at pretty fan art in search of some creative inspiration myself as I came across one drawing depicting Orin and Minthara, the latter one giving Orin a peck on the back of her hand. (For anybody interested, here's the fan art.) I was like: "Oh, I like that art style, let me take a closer look at it!" and so I did just to stumble into the mess that is this comment section.

Let's not ship the abuser with the abused.

Genuine question regarding that: "Why not? It's fiction."

In addition, regarding that particular piece of fan work itself, I personally don't see the bright red neon sign that points towards that anything here is getting shipped. I, personally, don't think it is unrealistic for this exact scene to have happened in both character's history. To my eyes, there's nothing inherently "shippy" depicted, so why boo an artist for putting their time, focus and creativity into something that could be very much canon-compliant? It's mind-boggling.

I am open to the possibility that it's just my lack of understanding or sensitivity because I originate from a little friend group of high schoolers who spent their lunch break writing Thorki fanfic back in the days when non of us even knew the terms of pro- or anti-shipping.

Next up is a Cazador drawing I came across. Just the character, nothing else to be seen there (again, link here). Yet again, I clicked on it because I liked the art style and yet again I found myself looking at comments which are borderline shaming the artist for drawing Cazador. And please, I meant this in the most genuine and earnest way: "Why?"

Those are very aesthetically pleasing lines and colors on a (digital) piece of paper and I can't find it in me to see a problem with that.

Lastly, it is perfectly fine to not like something but what is so hard about being civil about it and just scrolling on? I don't get why some people think they have a moral high ground over someone else's opinion which is, at the end of the day, about pixels on a screen depicting something fictional.