#I just saw someone on Reddit say they found out their friend

[rweoutofthewoods]

Do u guys ever think about how at least some people have probably met their favorite fanfic authors without even knowing. Like for all I know, I could have served someone at work who’s read my fics. And that’s what I think makes fic so special. Your fave author could be your cashier, your teacher, some random person you cut off in traffic, someone at the doctor’s office or someone you pass in the airport. It’s nice we’re all just normal people outside of fandom but those normal people have put out some of my favorite pieces of literature for fun.

[slayingfiction]

How I push through writing when I don't feel like writing.

Here are some of the techniques that I use to help me write more often or more consistantly when my laziness/depression/anxiety starts to take over.

I watch TV. I don't do it with the purpose of zoning out though. I watch something popular and well-liked such as the LOR or Harry Potter to get new ideas on how I can develop my story and apply their in-depth world-building ideas to help develop mine. Without plagarizing of course!!!!

Zoning out and daydreaming. As I have mentionned before, daydreaming is a huge part of my story outlining and world-building process. I'll stand in the shower, or take a walk and think about how my charcaters would act/react/behave in situations, mundane or not. Doing this gives me a better sense of my characters, and sometimes gives me ideas for scenes I use later on.

Work on writing related projects. These work well at keeping me distracted while still being productive on my writing goals. Example, I have one story I am working now, I made a new language (alphabet and numbers included) to include as a cool and fun component for the book. So, at times when I don't wan't to write, I continue creating the dictionary (very fun, 8/10 would recommend). Also, for the same book, my characters don't work off the Georigian calendar and 24 hour clock, so I've been working at creating a new calendar (harder than it seems, 2.5/10 dont recommend). These are side projects that help my story, without having to write.

Reading. You saw this one coming, I know. Reading is great, especially when you're editing, your writing style will unconsciously change to be more similar the author you were just reading. Also, most importantly, I'll be reading and think, "this story is really good, but you know what story I like even better? Mine." then change to writing.

This one is my biggest life saver!! I learnt about a year ago that sometimes I'll get bored of writing a story, and have difficulty keeping on track. That's why I finished my first book in 2016 and just started editing the first draft last week. The solution for me was to work on multiple projects at once, because it was much harder to be bored of multiple stories. I stick to 2, but will sometimes add a third. This is easy for me, because I have a list of over a dozen series I want to write. Don't abandon one project for another, use them as a distraction/ motivation for each other, so you're always furthering at least one project. I've never heard someone say, "oh no, i accidentally worked on this other writing project for three months instead of the other writing project I was doing. Dammit." No, we're just happy we have written something. Be sure to have well outlined story lines before starting, don't just start writing randomly or you'll reach a point where you don't know where to go from there.

Author/ writer projects. Maybe this is building a following, or community to share your projects and engage with. Tumblr, Insta, Reddit, whatever it is. My hope this year is to start up my website to offer publishing services (editing, graphic design, short writing courses) and build a following as a writer. (See what I did there? Never a bad time to self-promote ;) ) Having your own projects like this will help you in the future when you're going to try to publish and sell your books!

Talk with friends and a writing community. Never underestimate the passion that will burn inside you when talking about your story, or when others are talking about theirs. Surrounding yourself with a positive writing community can be the best thing for you as a writer.

Write or read (your story) every day. I'm not going to be one of those people that say you need to write 1000 words a day, that's a lot. But maybe try for 100? That could maybe only take 5 minutes, and at the end of the year that's still over 36 thousand words of a novel. Or just read your story, and I've always found it helped me get in the creative mood.

Make a playlist of songs that remind you of your characters, your story, or just puts you in the mood to write. Then play it ONLY when you're having trouble writing. Playing it while writing will not help, you'll get annoyed with the songs.

Just really can't do it today? That's okay, take a break. You deserve it. There's always tomorrow.

Does anyone else have ways they push themselves to keep writing? Let us know in the comments!

Happy Writing!

[inkskinned]

am i gonna put you in the book acknowledgements am i gonna be able to say your name without flinching am i ever gonna get a word in edgewise am i ever gonna recover the time i spent with you. computer virus kid; i arrived in your life already begging to be let in. somehow insecure i could even be your friend. like you had a line outside the door and we were all shifting our weight, begging.

you're so fucking good at that - at making people feel like they need to earn you, like you're a commodity none of us can afford. no kindness or careful communication could work on you - you were so good at just going-ghost, about deciding someone just wasn't cool-enough. something about that is super ironic. even the parts of it that weren't romantic felt like a romance book. i wanted you to like me so badly i scrubbed myself clean just so you'd spare me - what. your favor? a look?

okay okay okay. it's just a friendship - if it was even true that we were friends, if you even saw me as someone you trusted. on reddit someone would tell me girl literally just cut her out of your life, it's not that difficult. even i was aware of how fucked up the whole situation was. like, why the fuck do i even care about your approval? you're like, not even that fun to be around. you are often a little bit cruel.

but for almost four years of my life, i thought i had found someone like me. somebody who liked the same things i do. someone who liked to read and who liked making jokes with esoteric references and who spent maybe too much time on the internet and who was absolutely a little bit pretentious. i don't know, something about that was powerful and addictive.

i keep thinking about our last conversation. about how i said - okay, enough is enough. you pushed me too far, you really hurt my feelings.

and how you laughed and said - you think you're the victim?

[slutforpringles]

Hey Jaimie, I just wanted to come on here and say thank you for all your contributions to the DR3 fandom. Whether it’s fighting for Daniel’s rights on Reddit or posting all the latest news, you’ve become somewhat of a lifeline for me. Your highlighted articles are my favourite to read, because it keeps me up to date with everything that’s happening. I truly hope you know how appreciated you are here, and I hope that the community that you’ve built here stays around for a long time, despite the recent news. Thank you for your dedication and positivity. Take care!

Hey, I know you sent this earlier today and I'm sorry it's taken me a while to reply, but I wanted to sit down and write a proper response. Getting this message was genuinely so lovely and I can't tell you how much it meant to me to hear that my tumblr has been able to be a positive place for someone 💞

I know I've very rarely been super personal on here, but this sport and this fandom has come to mean a lot to me, so I wanted to use this moment to express my gratitude to the dirlies (gn) and this community.

I was first introduced to F1 through friends while I was living in Europe in 2019 through DtS. I knew from the first moment I saw Daniel he was my favourite. I was immediately enamoured by his vivaciousness and that unabashed joy for life that exudes from every fibre of his being. But I was busy studying overseas and just didn't have the time to be fully bitten by the F1 bug.

I came home at the beginning of 2020 and between the pandemic, lockdowns and my personal life going toooootally to shit I was in a pretty bad place. And it was after a few months of struggle and wallowing that somehow my youtube algorithm landed me on a video of Daniel. I was hooked and very quickly worked my way through highlights, interviews, social media clips, all the funny videos, then each race highlight video as it came out in 2020, which led into every single WTF1 podcast (🙃😂) from 2020. The amount of google searches I did trying to learn all these racing and engineering terms and technical phrases I hadn't come across before (I distinctly remember googling what "box, box" meant because I had no effing clue what it meant 😂). I read every article I could about the upcoming season and the insane hype of Daniel going to McLaren (🙃🙃🙃) and can remember that first FP1 session in Bahrain I ever watched live.

I kind of stumbled onto tumblr via reddit. As I'd been learning about and becoming obsessed with F1 and Daniel I'd made my way onto the F1 sub, and for a long time I could be found on there first learning, and then discussing (and then later arguing for and defending Daniel lol). And I think it was as reddit started becoming more and more anti-Daniel that I started spending more time on tumblr.

For a long time before I joined tumblr I lurked, reading so many of all of your wonderful posts and opinions and seeing all the beautiful and creative fics and art. The mclaren hate blogging era was some of the best (and worst) times and some of the masterpieces on here in defence of Daniel and his career are so iconic and I have referenced their points/stats/quotes so many times in defence of Daniel.

I was a bit scared to fully join tumblr and start posting but I felt really quickly welcomed into this community on here. None of my friends IRL are remotely interested in F1, and so getting to talk about it here with all of you has been such a blessing (and I think my family are probably incredibly grateful that they don't have to listen to me talk about F1/Daniel quite as much as before 😅).

I just wanted to say how incredibly grateful I am to have gotten to experience the last few years with all of you on here. It hasn't always been easy and it's been a rollercoaster - that's for fucking sure - but the highs have been SO incredible. Daniel brought so much happiness and joy and laughter into my life at a time when I really, really needed it and seeing the outpouring of love for him on here the last few days has been beautiful, despite the heartbreaking circumstances.

I don't know what the next few months will look like without Daniel in F1, but I'll be sticking around for sure. I know I'm not always the best at replying to messages or inboxes (I blame my ADHD) but I'm always here for a chat and my messages are always open💞

[olderthannetfic]

You know what? I'm really fucking tired.

I'm really fucking tired that, when it comes to producing medias, women are held at higher morality standards than men, and so are their female consumers.

I'm really fucking tired that we can't just enjoy shit without someone piping up with the MoRaL qUeStIoNs of what we're consuming and/or producing.

The Barbie movie comes out? It wasn't feminist nor intersectional enough. Its feminist message was 10 years out of date. Saying that Barbie is everything while Ken is just Ken mysandrist.

A dark romance book with a taboo couple is published? We didn't consider the implications of their relationship dynamic. We are supporting pedophilia/abuse/rape/whatever else.

Fanfiction as a whole? Supports bad morals. Moronic. Homophobic in its very nature, and mysandrist too because we have headcanons that emasculate men. Something to make fun of.

Why do men get to have their Walter White's, turn them into their personal superheroes and their "omg, he's just like me" but god forbid women say "What Amy Dunne did was wrong, but I get what brought her there"?

Why do men get to have their stupid, mindless fun, while we're here in the fucking trenches even for hobbies?

They get to have their Terrifier saga and their Barbarian* and their Mia Goth shooting a porn movie and then running from a serial killer without her top on**, but god forbid we don't overanalyze the structure and content of whatever dumb YA saga is currently trendy so that people know we enjoy it only ironically because we can't enjoy something dumb simply because it's dumb and entertaining.

Just let us enjoy our bullshit without constantly overpicking it. Not everything has to have morals, sometimes we can just enjoy stupid shit.

(This rant might've been inspired by a post I saw on Reddit of a girl who broke up with her boyfriend because she found out that he had a whole ass groupchat with his friends dedicated to sharing the link of her fanfics so they could make fun of her and would send her fucking hate comments too.)

*Barbarian was clearly inspired by the Josef Frizl case. You know, the one about the monster who trapped his own daughter in the basement and raped her for 27 years, forcing her to go through 7 births. In the movie, the result of these incestuous acts is a monster-like creature with superhuman strength and the brain of a peanut that has to be murdered so that the main character can go on with her life, because what's scarier than victims of rape?

**"Oh, but I enjoyed X!" Good, but that's not my point! I can assure you that, when the concept for the movie was pitched, in the section dedicated to "What audience does this product target?" the word "woman" was not mentioned once. It's a product made by men for men that women have taken a liking to.

--

[queergaygaygaygay]

Don’t know if this has blown up on Tumblr but, in the new Spiderverse film (spoilers), we see Gwen’s room which features a trans pride flag above her door. We also see a smaller flag sowed into her father’s police jacket.

They have been some theories sparked off by this with people speculating if Gwen is trans or just an ally. I find the argument about allyship to not quite hold up given where the flag is located. Someone’s bedroom is a very personal space and Gwen has only had one friend before Miles so it seems like the flag isn’t a social indicator for allyship but something more personal.

It’s perfectly possible that Gwen feels such close allyship that she keeps a pride flag in her room but I can’t really think of a justification for this. This level of passion for allyship would probably come out of a personal connection to a trans person but Gwen has very few people she feels close to (especially at the start of the film), namely: Peter Parker and her dad. These are the only people that could’ve inspired her allyship and it is possible for these characters to be trans, and one or both of these characters being trans would explain the trans flag on her dad’s police uniform since Peter was close with her dad, however I cannot find any further evidence of these character’s transness though it is possible.

It is semi-plausible to say Gwen saw trans people struggling online, and her father was convinced by this to wear a pride flag on his uniform to show allyship, though I personally don’t know any allies who have pride flags in their room.

This also seems like a strange detail for a film that is so purposeful in its visual nuances so I would imagine the reasoning behind this is less convulated than the allyship theories.

Another clue to her possible transness could be in her universe’s animation style which uses blues, purples, whites and pinks- the colours of the trans pride flag.

When I was watching the film, I spotted the trans flag and thought it was interesting. I hadn’t heard the rumours or even watched the full trailer. As the plot unfolded, I made some comparisons between Gwen Stacy’s expierience in the film and my own trans experience; the alienation from society, the anger at the world, the search for a community, the disconnect with family and the eventual acceptance of family. This made me feel a rather intimate connection with the character and her story and I think it’s actually encouraging me to come out to my mother but I haven’t yet (I asked if I could go to pride with friends and she said yes so hopefully that gives me the confidence).

This subtle but poignant dropping of the trans flag into the film, the film’s nature of making every detail significant and the clear comparison between her character arc and the general trans experience gives me the impression that the team behind the film intended for Gwen to be allegorically, or even canonically, trans and, if so, I hope they do more with this since I was genuinely brought to tears.

Whilst we can not prove Gwen is trans, we can’t prove she isn’t trans and, as explained, it isn’t impossible. I read through the reddit post and found a lot of people, unsurprisingly, saying that this is just Twitter making everyone think everyone is trans and she is conclusively not trans but I don’t use Twitter (as a loyal Tumblr girl) or had heard anything about Gwen’s story arc so my experience was as organic as anyone’s experience who came out of the cinema thinking she was cis. This stubborness to not believe Gwen could be trans is ignorant, from my perspective, because there’s no reason to say she isn’t trans. It’s more logical to assume characters are cis because most people are cis statistically but, here, we have evidence for possible transness so it feels more like a Shrödinger’s transgender- where a character could be trans, due to non-conclusive evidence, or could be cis, depending on what the writers (in regards to cannon) and fans (in regards to headcannon and fan works) choose.

Thanks for reading. I love the film regardless of this detail and would happily nerd out with any fans. If you want any citations, I’ll hand you them through dms. I would add them here but I don’t know if that would be unusual.

[fandomgurujuniper]

Okay hi um I'm sane enough to do my rant because holy shit this FANDOM /neu

WARNING there will be a LOT of spoilers for Jujutsu Kaisen under the cut. ESPECIALLY the new release and chapters past 200 and manga only (not anime released) content

I feel like a lot of people in this fandom forget how young the protags are. Yuji and Megumi are around 15 years old. Why is this relevant? I'll get to that.

For once I was early to a chapter leaks release. Chapter 265. I was waiting for each translation and since they took minutes at a time, I found myself scrolling through the comments.

The amount of people that I have seen in the goddamn Twitter comments saying "Yuji's such a yapper" and "Yuji stop yapping and fight'" and "look at Sukuna he doesn't give a shit" I saw was just.. I don't know.

Especially to the people going "Yuji stop yapping and fight" I just found myself getting so fucking upset.

First up, hasn't he fought enough??? Haven't we gone CHAPTERS straight of Yuji fighting Sukuna? I know the action is cool and all but give him a break! Like I mentioned, he's only 15.

He's 15 and already had to deal with so much. Imagine losing your grandpa, your friend who had potential to join your side, both your mentors, your other friend who was practically your closest sibling (sorry headcanon moment), his half brother, and watch your friend get possessed and lose his will to live. Yuji has had to fight, fight, watch his loved ones die, and just dealt with so much shit of the jujutsu world when he practically would only be in his first years of high school.

He's already exhausted and he probably has not had any time to tell people. He's always busy caring about other people it's hard to think about himself. Despite talking to his most hated rival, he probably hasn't had any time to talk to someone about his past life. He's using the time to try to get Sukuna to understand, even if it doesn't work, and just cherishing the small things.

We see flashbacks of the pictures of all of the people who died. He's definitely thinking about them during his speech.

Stop it. Just stop. There was already all of that bumgumi shit from reddit. I don't need people trying to stop Yuji from "yapping" or whatever. He's not just yapping.

We get it. You're here for the fights. But deal with it. People don't fight every second of the day. Sometimes they need to let stuff out.

Let Yuji do what he needs to. Please. After all, it might be helping him

Hes already dealt with so much trauma. Please don't push him further to fight.

(Directed towards twitter) I hope you're happy. He's about to fight Sukuna again. I'm so happy for you you don't have to deal with any more yaps. So so happy. (Heavily sarcastic)

[artistic-lj]

Okay so I “made” a new gender apathetic/apagender flag because the one I found/we have was just kinda lacking for me?? Like it’s okay and I don’t dislike it, but I thought it needed something

So the current one, according to gender fandom wiki or whatever (https://gender.fandom.com/wiki/Gender_Apathetic), is by @pridearchive (idk why I can’t tag them but I also just don’t understand tumblr so oh well)

But anyway, I’m not a huge fan of the fact that a lot of the definition relies upon the usage of the word “lazy” a lot, because like, while it’s true that laziness and apathy are similar, they are not the same. I was confused for MONTHS as to why everyone around me cared so much about their gender, both cis and trans people, and I just didn’t. Like, I thought my dad might understand cause we talk about queer stuff all the time and he was like “???… but I am a man, that’s just a fact… are you saying there’s people who don’t care??” And that confused me more cause I was like “wait even cis people care that much about their gender expression??” Because for me, I thought that trans people really cared about their gender identity and expression because of the dysphoria they dealt with from being born as the opposite sex. So, to hear that cis people also have a strong sense of gender and really care about the way they present and are perceived threw me for a loop.

So I went down this rabbit hole for, as stated previously, MONTHS, just trying to figure out if anyone felt the way I did because I felt fucking crazy. No one else spoke about not caring about their gender identity, not caring if someone called them a guy or a girl or something in between. I found labels like Aporagender (“a gender identity that is neither masculine, feminine or inbetween the two but nonetheless involves a strong sense of gender; a term similar to maverique.” - https://en.pronouns.page/dictionary/terminology#aporagender) and genderfluid (“a gender that varies, or changes over time.” - https://gender.fandom.com/wiki/Genderfluid) and bigender (“a gender identity which can be literally translated as 'two genders' or 'double gender'.” - https://gender.fandom.com/wiki/Bigender) but none of them felt right, even if I liked their flags.

But then, out of frustration, I decided to google “what is it called when you don’t care about your gender” and gender apathetic popped up. And I read the description and I felt so… understood. I felt like, no matter how small the group was, I had finally found people who understood me and felt the way I did. And then, because I’m annoying and visual, I saw the flag… and I was just… feeling very… ehhh…

Like, the brown, purple/lavender/light blue, white, and gray on their own aren’t inherently bad, but something about it just felt bland and… nothing like the sense of relief I felt when discovering I wasn’t alone.

And then I clicked through onto the post about the meanings of each color and began to like it even less

But, I pushed forward, ignoring my dislike of the color arrangement and meanings behind them and sharing my newfound label/identity and flag with my friends. I finally felt like I had something I understood.

That is, until one night when I got bored. And I started searching for flag makers to see what was out there. I came across a Reddit post about a custom flag builder (https://www.reddit.com/r/lgbt/comments/ooz3tb/custom_pride_flag_builder/) which lead me to Team Ultima’s custom pride flag maker: https://www.teamultima.org/flag/

Needless to say, as an artist and someone who’s nitpicky about colors and designs, I was stoked to find something that allowed so much creative control! After messing around with it for a bit, I made this:

Now, I know it’s not really that different from the current flag. But, to me, this feels a lot more balanced and cohesive. With the one by pridearchive, the “light blue,” which we all know is just lavender tbh, was the only color that had a bright saturation besides the white. Our eyes are naturally drawn to it and this does not allow our eyes to flow along the flag and take it all in. We kinda see the purple and get stuck there. Not only that, because we expect white to be in the middle of pride flags (as well as Im sure a lot of other color theory reasons that I’m not knowledgeable enough to know of or explain), the flag felt top heavy and uneven, with no equivalent saturated color along the bottom. The flag was lacking horizontal symmetry and I think/hope I did a good job of bringing it to this flag without it feeling like it’s too much or too little.

With all that being said here are my/the new and improved color meanings:

Brown - The natural human desire to find a sense of belonging and community, even if said community is formed around having a label for not caring about labels. It can also represent the warmth and security felt by having a label that represents how you truly feel.

Light Blue - A feeling of tranquility and peace towards one’s gender identity and expression

White - The limitless void of possibilities in which one can express themselves

Lavender - The mixture of all genders, feminine, masculine, neither, and everything in between

Gray - Lack of gender stagnation, not caring if one’s gender presentation is not as simple as black or white

Anyway, I’ve never posted anything like this before so… lemme know if I’m totally doing it wrong and all my color meanings are terrible and way off base or whatever. I’m gonna make a separate post of just the flag and the color meanings and whatever so that people don’t have to read all my dumb backstory to get to the actual “redesign” 💅💅

[lightofraye]

An Open Letter

Hello Danneel,

I suppose it had to happen, right? A “letter” to you. After all, I’ve written two to your husband. I had been pondering this for some time. I imagine your “stans” believe that I dislike you because you’re in a position that I wish to be in—the woman married to Jensen Ackles.

Perhaps.

Perhaps not.

See… when my life became chaotic and I lost track of a number of my favorite celebrities’ work and career, I became unaware that Jensen moved onto different shows, eventually settling in Supernatural for fifteen years.

By the time my life arranged itself in a way that I could begin to track down information—some easy to find, some next to impossible—I learned of the tail end of Supernatural. However, my provider was being ornery and refused to carry CW. So I just let it go.

My family, my life, was my primary focus for a time. Then I found a good internet provider, dropped my satellite provider, and began adding streamers. That’s when I came across The Boys. Then Big Sky. Then Supernatural on Netflix.

I became a new-old fan. I remembered Jensen on Days of Our Lives, after all. I remembered talking about him with one of my best friends. I remember talking about his unusual name—Jensen. And I remember talking about his acting.

Then I saw you. Longtime married, three kids. All the news articles kept raving about how great you two were. I saw the older videos of you two together, that livestream with Misha in the Impala….

I felt the sting, just a bit, of what I assumed was jealousy. I sighed, set it aside. I would follow Jensen’s work, I told myself. Jared’s too. Others that I admired. Just added to the list.

Something kept bothering me. I kept going back to it. I couldn’t quite pinpoint the problem. Mere jealousy couldn’t be it. I’ve had that sting before, grew past it. (Henry Cavill, anyone?) So why couldn’t I get past this?

It was pure happenstance, me coming to Tumblr. I was feeling very dissatisfied with Facebook, didn’t like Twitter. Reddit was not my thing. There were other, smaller, options, but damn if I didn’t keep coming back to Tumblr, largely because of the hilarious memes I’d see snipped and shared.

Why not? I told myself.

Let’s see how it goes. Signed up, picked a few areas of interest and I was off.

Boy, was I off.

Discovering the subsections of the fandom left me reeling. Destiel? Where the hell did they come up with that? Wincest? Yikes. And then—

Tinhat?!

COCKLES?!

Needless to say, it was… phew. I found a few I liked and focused on them. Then someone mentioned YOU. I rolled my eyes; you hadn’t been active in acting other than a few teeny-tiny but parts. What could they possibly say about YOU?

Then I read the post. And another. And another. I would spent a good few weeks carefully devouring everything I read. There’s so much, I may never cover it all. But I saw enough.

I would fact-check as best I could. Some were completely lost. The Wayback Machine could only do so much. Not everyone saved the sources. 

But I saw enough.

Then I sat back and it CLICKED. It wasn’t jealousy that waved hello to me. It was the personality traits, the behavior, the way you spoke to him, that all matched what I knew and learned in my several decades of life.

You are insecure.

You lack confidence.

You lack any outside interests.

You are unsupportive.

You care for nothing and no one outside of money. Oh, you have your children—you just don’t care about them. You have your husband—all you see are dollar signs.

There is no love. There is nothing genuinely GOOD in how you view Jensen. You don’t want him home; you push him out. All you want is the constant stream of income.

I see what you’ve done. All the acting in the world wouldn’t change the rest—you’ve an empty heart, a black soul.

Let him go, Danneel.

That’s my best advice to you. Let him go. Get some therapy and grow as a person.

Maybe then you could actually like the person you see the mirror.

In discordant tunes, Raye

[anais-shiv]

How serious are we allowed to take this ship?

Hello! Anais here!

This post is going to be pure word vomit, inconsistent thought chains, and a giant rollercoaster of emotions. 

Before I make many of my points, I will add a caveat or disclaimer that seems redundant but is actually completely necessary for readers to get the whole picture. (See, I’m doing it now.) 

It’s very difficult for me to complete a thought without setting it up with another. 

Anyways…

You ever heard the question “What’s that one fanfiction that altered your brain chemistry?”

For me, there’s no particular fic, but there is a specific fandom/ship that has rewired my neurons as a whole. And that fandom is none other than Dramione. 

(Note: this post will not be a critique of the fandom or any of its works in any way. This post is about me and how I’m slowly descending into madness in the most fragile of ways. [Did you catch that? Eh? Ehh? winks] And it’s about time I spoke my truth.) 

I was introduced to fanfiction at the tender age of 13, in the height of the Harry Potter and Twilight movies. And I was a Twilight girl through and through. (Team Jacob till I die!) 

I only read fanfiction for one purpose and one purpose only, to read about Jacob being with characters other than Bella or her daughter Raincoat. If it weren’t for those early days on Wattpad, I would’ve never discovered that I had a kink for pain, and that I would always choose warm brown skin over a pale cold alternative. 

Then some things happened in my life, I got older, stared dating and hanging out and I simply forgot about it. 

Then, the trailer for Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows dropped. And in order to prepare, I consumed all seven books of the series in a week. (Oh to still have the young and focused mind that could consume a book in mere hours.) 

To say I loved it was an understatement, so much so that I refused to read any Harry Potter fanfiction I saw pop up on my Wattpad screen. (The old Wattpad that had a brown banner, and a similar font to Times New Roman, and that allowed people to upload entire real life books so long as they purposely added grammar mistakes to not get caught for plagiarism, not saying that’s right but Lordt, what a time.) 

Most of the fics I saw weren’t even about specific ships, they were just about life after the epilogue, with many writers opting to create entirely new characters, usually being children of the originals. Regardless, I ignored them all. Harry Potter was perfect, it didn’t need expanding or alternate universes. 

Fast forward some more, more life happened, and I sort of stopped reading books and fanfiction all together. 

I’m 27 now. 

I found Dramione only last year, through TikTok like many others. And my first fic, like many others, was Manacled. 

It was life changing, riveting, mind altering, and absolutely heartbreaking. 

I needed more. 

So I read and read and read. Joined the Reddit, joined a discord (I love you DADA!) and even started trying to write my own fics. 

Then, all of a sudden my hyper fixation began to wear off, and I started to get bored with the whole thing altogether.

I was kind of disappointed, as it was very difficult for me to start and keep hobbies and even more difficult to make friends. It was nice having something to relate to other people with, even something as specific as liking an HP ship. As someone as socially awkward and shy as I am, I was worried I wouldn’t find another focal point to relate to other people with, and I would go back to wallowing in my own bloody slutty and pathetic despair. (Did you at least catch that one?)

Then I found a new WIP that made me feel like a brand new fan all over again. 

Our lovely Gryffindor and sulky Slytherin had sunk their claws back into me, bone deep this time, (Did you fucking catch that one?!) and I was right back where I started.

So of course, in between replaying smut scenes in my head over and over and over and over again while simultaneously wallowing in my self inflicted isolation, (COME ON PEOPLE IM THROWING EM AT YOU!) I started to ponder: Why in the fuck do I like this ship so much?? 

The romantic relationship between Hermione and Draco is based off a trope as old as the London bridge. Our wonderful beautiful cliché: enemies to lovers. 

We love the idea of someone seeing you when you’re not at all trying to impress them, be friendly or mindful or considerate or empathetic or even cordial, and still falling in love with you anyways. 

Just the raw authenticity behind such a love is so entrancing, that we’ll read the same story over and over again in different fonts. 

At first, I resisted my curiosity regarding Dramione, as I thought Hermione was the walking embodiment of girls get it done, and Draco was nothing but sniveling spoiled bigoted coward and bully. (Not to mention I never noticed how hot Tom Felton actually was in the later movies. Why didn’t anyone tell meeee???)

His feud with Harry added to my dislike of him, but that could somewhat be dismissed as boys being boys. It was intolerance and ignorance towards Hermione that made me hate him. As well as his quick use of threats in his fathers name any time someone so much as disagreed with him. Needless to say, Draco Malfoy was a punk bitch. Through and through. Not my words, take it up with JKR. 

So why on Earth would I ever enjoy reading about him, of all people, falling in love with and being chosen by the Hermione Granger, one of the greatest representations of nerdy awkward beautiful bad ass girls to ever exist, after he regarded her so horribly? And over Ron at that? 

It was a hard adjustment. 

Because to me, their story wasn’t simply enemies to lovers. To me it was a story of a member of an oppressive group, experiencing the mortifying ordeal of being in love with a member of the oppressed. (If you didn’t catch this one just log off.) 

"Anais, it’s not that deep."

I know. I know. But this thought process can’t be helped. 

To put it simply, Dramione reminded me of that one movie with the black girl falling in love with the Nazi soldier. Or another better written version of the book about the Latina girl who fell in love with the klan leader's son. Or even on a less extreme note, about the Asian girl falling in love with the racist boy who actually turned out to be not so racist, seeing he only used the slurs because it’s what his dad taught him and peer pressure made him and he was going through such a hard time back then but he knows better now, and honestly they were only kids, and you can’t help the environment you were raised in and-

Ok, so I made that last one up, but you get the point. 

Manacled being my first fic didn’t really help diminish this connection my mind was making while trying to enjoy this fandom. And that wasn't the only fic that influenced the analysis, because the main premise to many other fics was acknowledging ones ability to grow and change for the better. And the only way to do that, was to acknowledge the ugly shit of their past. 

And no other example made such a direct reference to Draco's past and sometimes present ideologies (depending on the fic you read) as the use of the word mudblood. 

Ah, mudblood. 

Such a dirty, disgusting, abhorrent and absolute slimy fucking use of the English language. 

So obvious in its implication, no different than Shacklebolt or Cho Chang (you really popped off with those didn’t you JK?) that the lack of subtlety almost made the slur hit harder. 

Mudblood. It was simple in it's meaning. Dirty. Inferior. And worthless.

Reading about Draco calling Hermione the ugly name for the first time in CoS made me cringe, but experiencing similar real life altercations made me loathe it’s existence entirely.

"Anais, it’s really not a that deep."

I know! Just, hold on. 

It was such a fucked up word, I hated it. 

So imagine my surprise when I read and heard the word being used so freely and casually in fics, cosplay TikToks, edits and other forms of fandom media. 

And no matter how much I reminded myself that the word wasn’t real, these characters weren’t real, and that the word had no real history because the world it came from didn’t even exist, I could not for the life of me, stop hearing another word as an afterthought every time I read it and heard it. 

Can you guess which word that is? 

Here’s an example of what my mind does whenever the word is used: 

“If you're wondering what the smell is, Mother, a mudblood (n*****) just walked in.”

“Haven’t I told you? Killing mudbloods (n******, he means n******) doesn’t matter to me anymore.” 

“I don’t need help from filthy little mudbloods (n******) like her!”

Do you understand what I go through?! 

Needless to say I prefer fics where the word isn’t used at all. 

Oh to be able to enjoy harmless free fiction without constantly comparing the plight of the imaginary world’s minorities to the very real systemic racism experienced by black and poc people every where. sigh

Yeah, I’m that girl at the party (not really, mostly I’m quiet. Because if I talk, I'll be that girl at the party.) 

It can’t be helped. 

So here’s me, experiencing this fandom for the first time, enjoying enemies to lovers that’s really not enemies to lovers but more like racist learns that racism is bad through falling in love with the very kind of person he was raised to be racist towards and what better way to unlearn bigoted indoctrination than through spending time with said person who just so happens to be extraordinary and not like the others from said group (because if Muggleborns aren't extraordinary are they really worth loving?) and also insanely beautiful and also clever and extremely desirable and the unlearning had nothing to do with that attraction right? He became better purely from his own desire to evolve....right?????? 

(Obviously my interpretation of the ship is extremely biased and a gross generalization. There is no right way to do Dramione. Of course Draco had the capacity to better himself without Hermione. That much is canon. And even though the wizarding world has extreme prejudices within it's society, it was probably nothing compared to how any of them would be treated if the statute of secrecy was broken. There’s levels. Don’t worry. I get it. There's layers.) 

But do you see the implications as it pertains to these two as individuals? Especially regarding their backgrounds?

After my adjustment period, I realized that these implications meant that Draco’s growth was actually extremely complicated. It wasn't just enemies to lovers, it was a complex narrative that called attention to how difficult unlearning toxic and harmful ideologies could be. And while I have no idea if writers and creators ever intended to highlight the parallels between his and Hermione's story and that of very real people who fell in love even when it was dangerous and against all odds, they were impossible not to notice. Thus making his character, one of the realest and most realistic characters of the entire fandom.

And that is precisely why I fell in love. 

(No but seriously, reading about Draco from a such an intimate standpoint from either his or Hermione’s POV had me rethinking my entire dating history, taste in men, and marriage goals. And I’m not just talking about the smut!) 

Listen you know you’ve got a problem when you sit and consume fanfiction for two days straight with barely any breaks for food or sleep.  

I consumed several fics in a short span of a couple of weeks, most of them being smutty one shots. I came to develop, as we all have, a specific preference for certain characterizations. I commented, liked and shared. And I even attempted to write my own (to be announced) Dramione stories. 

I discovered new kinks, was inspired by my oh so talented friends and other writers, and I even considered (still am) dying my hair brown. 

(What? Obsessed. Psh. No. Of course not.)

Now, I’ve entered a phase of careful curation. After having deleted all of my Ao3 tabs by mistake, (fuck the iphone) I’ve been finding fics through very specific filtering rather than recommendations. And when I have the time, reading for hours and hours on end. As well as joining the occasional writing sprint. 

Eventually I’d like to start creating fan art and posting full fledged Dramione stories. This fandom is one of the most beautiful, sexy and entertaining fandoms I’ve ever come across. And when I'm not thinking and about the political and economic state of the wizarding world and how deeply that plays into our favorite ship, I'm actually just fangirling. 

Anyways, that’s all for now folks! 

Anais: out! 

[weaponizedhorse]

Very curious to see that write-up, having only seen illuminautii's own video on the matter from her perspective

Dude I completely forgot to reply to Nunya about this also so thank you so so much for sending this ask!

@beardedmrbean

And oh shit if all you saw was iiluminaughtiis video I am here to inform you that basically everything she said was a lie. Strap in it's gonna get CRAZY

basically iilluminaughtii brought this entire situation on herself by trying to "call out" legal eagles editors on Twitter for "stealing/ copying" her style? And the style was a highlight effect? And a ripped paper effect? Which legal eagle has been using for like literal years. Like this is literally the examples she gave on Twitter

And Illuminaughtii legit just flew too close to the sun cause a TON of crazy shit has come out about her since she made that tweet

But it turns out Illuminati used to be in a group channel called sad milk with a bunch of other YouTubers One of them was the click and one of them was wonderstruck TV and after all this shit went down with the group channel she paid people to dig through The Clicks old videos from 10 to 14 years ago where he was saying no no words because he was 17 and learning English (he's swedish) she posted in this discord about the click saying retarded 10 years ago and when someone said "it was 10 years ago irrelevant" she went on to say how "disgusted" she was with this person for "excusing" 10 fucking year old videos?? Blair said "that word was never okay to use and was never in my vocabulary" good for you?? And apparently Blair says retard/ed in private anyway

Then she made an alt Twitter and alt Reddit account and on the Reddit account she made up conspiracy theories about why sad milk broke up then replied with her iiluminaughtii reddit account debunking her own post?? and then on Twitter she tweeted to the click, to anybody he's coworkers, with like that he shares a podcast with anyone, who is even been on the podcast anyone who has any sort of affiliation with Click saying "oh do you know your friend said the n word Did you know your friend sent the f slur etc" And I mean it was non-stop the click said in his video that he remembers this account and thought it was some random troll but it was Blair the whole time.

Illuminati deleted the doobie Smurfs Reddit account after this was found out but the Twitter is still up so you can actually go through the doobie shmirtz Twitter and see all the unhinged fucking shit she did.

In her video about Click she said that he basically allowed a pedo to stay in his discord for months knowingly. And it turns out as soon as this guy said he was a pedo the mods kick him out while Click was asleep cause time zones. Illuminaughtii in discord messages said she was proud of Click for how he handled the situation

That's not even counting what she did to wonderstruck TV The worst of which is in her quote unquote response video about everything that happened on Twitter she put out his would-be suicide note. For what fucking reason I have no idea and then she revealed that she called the cops on him even though he said he had already calmed down and talked to his therapist? It's it's fucking insane

I very much encourage watching clicks video

[demonsfate]

i've never seen a fandom hate and spite their own mc more than the tekken fandom. i was browsing r/Tekken one day for tips on how to beat lili and unsurprisingly i found a post where people kept disrespecting him on his OWN BIRTHDAY. seriously, as someone who is a diehard stan of kazuya mishima and sasuke uchiha (i loved both of them since i was a kid) even those two get more respect than jin - the naruto fandom on reddit never straight up disrespected sasuke on his birthday.

worst part of it all is that jin got basically the same treatment as luke from star wars and captain america in marvel comics - he was just ooc as fuck in tekken 6 and his characterization in that game completely contradicts tekken 3-5 jin. it can easily be fixed too by just saying he got brainwashed by azazel (like how nina got brainwashed by ogre). jin fans get called whiny for trying to retcon or fix their own favorite, but side character fans (ex. paul, law, etc) get a fix their own fav and be called "the best writers in all of fiction". i think i also remember seeing someone say they hope jin's va gets terminal c*ncer and dies so the writers could have miguel kill him off and then replace him with kazuya or lars as the new mc while xiaoyu fucks hwoarang or something (i checked to see if it was still there, but they probably deleted their twitter account).

why can't the tekken fandom just do what voltron stans do and ignore canon while making their own?...yes, everyone and their grandma knows tekken story has gone down the shitter since post tekken 5. so then instead of saying "Tekken story sucks and no one cares about lore in fighting games" for the 100th time how about fucking make your own au's and fanfic.

honestly it's hard to look thru any jin content without a joke about tk6, or straight up bitter haters. i'm not saying every jin post has a comment with that content, but there's a lot that does. reddit is probs the worst place for jin hate too as i see it there the most. heck, i get hate for being a jin main. usually when they don't agree with one of my takes, they point out me being a jin main and how we're all retarded or some shit. (alisa & jun are now more of my mains, but that was back then when i still listed jin as my main lmao) so whilst you're still gonna come across jin hate on places like twitter or even here, it's best to steer away from reddit 'cos it's most egregious there.

yeah. most normal fandoms do just ignore canon, or if they can't ignore canon 'cos it's canon, they acknowledge it's trash and purpose ways it could've been handled better. but the tekken fandom isn't like that. they're insistent on jin being a fucker head because it happened in one game. and yeah, i have seen ppl say jin fans are either whiny or losers for wanting to say he was brainwashed and not hold him responsible for his actions. and it's like, yeah, i approve of holding characters responsible for their actions. but the problem with jin is that his character should've never been written to commit those actions to begin with - i'm not gonna care to hold a character responsible when they were out of character. i'm just gonna criticize the writing.

also maybe you saw that on a message i already answered? there was another anon that also told me something similar that their sister or friend was praying for that in a church lol. i dunno if you're the same anon or not (as you both have similar takes regarding the treatment of jin's character)

i think the reason why tekken fans have a harder time ignoring the Bad Parts of canon compared to fandoms like marvel, star wars, or certain animation is because of the "stories in fighting games don't matter" saying that's popular. it gives people the mentality that they shouldn't care about the story as much... yet ironically caring about it as they're mad at jin for being the Hope of Mankind lmao.

[popculturebuffet]

Seeing your posts on how you've despised the way season 6 handled the Mordecai/CJ/Margaret love triangle, did you read about writer Matt Price's posts on a Reddit AMA regarding why Mordecai didn't end up with Margaret or CJ in the end?

He said "We felt like the Margaret/CJ story was complete, and they were both on their own path already. We also felt like Mordecai had moved on in his life. He finally left the park to pursue art, and we thought it'd be cool if he met someone while doing that. But we love Margaret and C.J., and we're sure that they're happy without Mordecai! He was too wishy-washy with them!!"

To make things worse, Matt said that Rigby's Graduation Day Special planned to have CJ react to the Park crew going to outer space with an annoyed look implying ""Whatever, I'm glad that guy is in space."" Really feels he was trying to push the "CJ hates Mordecai and Margaret after their breakup" thing way too hard (glad it didn't make it to the final cut).

He also said that CJ apparently cut off all contact with Mordecai, Margaret, Rigby, and Eileen, which is a contrast to him confirming Margaret still keeps in touch with and remains friends with Mordecai, Rigby, and Eileen. Would you say this is kinda sad knowing CJ never got to even reconcile with Mordecai as friends like Margaret did in season 7? Plus making Eileen's sadness on not being able to hang out with both CJ and Margaret in I See Turtles even sadder with the implications of CJ cutting off contact with her in the end (likely just because she associates with Margaret) too.

Nope. I don't really keep up with regular show news. I still like the show and I loved close enough (RIP), but I just don't. But since CJ is near and dear to my heart as a character this does intrest me so let's get into it.

On not having Mordecai get with either of them: It was the right call. I didn't really mind when I saw the finale and time, maturity and what have you have only made me like the decision more. Part of it is where the series was at: The "Mordecai nukes his happy relationship arc" was a mess i've still only barely watched and plan to cover someday, but so far haven't gotten to. It was easily the worst thing the show's done and made me stop watching it for a season.

It was absolutely the right call to instead have him conciously take a break from dating, work on himself. He didn't do much of that before they got shot up into space, but it was a good effort. He burned that bridge with CJ the second he kissed Margret and them getting back together was a huge mistake: Mordecai never really found the right way to apologize and CJ clearly never got over the betrayal or her paranoia he'd do it again. Instead having the major arcs be "setup for next season" and "Rigby tries to better himself by going back to school' were a better choice, as was just.. putting the final season in space.

With those arcs it also meant there really wasn't room to speedrun a new relationship fans woudln't want. It makes more sense that after finally deciding to focus on his art, he grew up, had some time to mature and THEN met the love of his life. Margret had moved on with her life, Mordecai moved on with his. I do think the show fucked up with the love triangle, but this is the only move they could really make and I support that. It may blow a little Mordecai and Margret seemingly ends with a whimper.. but it's what the show and the character sneeded. Sometimes... life and cartoon shows dont' work out. People drift apart.

On the deleted scene: Seconded bud. Seconded. I do think the show REALLY fucked up with how it treated CJ during season 6, and really underestimated how attached fans had gotten.. which itself is baffling. She was part of the main cast. She took Margret's spot. She was in a decent chunk of episodes. Fans liked her and took her side in the breakup, and while she was super paranoid with mordecai, it's really hard not to blame her. Less easy to forgive the attempted murder but what can you do. So having her just go "Whatever I dont' care" feels wrong. Her not carring MOrdecai got shot up into space? In character, she dosen't have to care about her ex anymore. he fucked the relationship up beyond any hope and she made a mistake taking him back as she clearly coudln't forgive him. But her not having the slightest horror at Rigby or Eileen getting shot up , her friend and her best friend, feels so wrong it hurts. Eileen was the only thing that got her to actually be around margret and not fly into a jealous rage. What the fuck.

On the cut off thing: that just feels sad.. but i've come to accept it more. I DO think her cutting off Eileen is dickish and like to think she at least parted as amicably as she could.. but I also get it. Eileen is with Rigby, marries rigby, has his kids. The two are in a fantastic supportive relationship that shows how far he's come as a person and how far out of her shell she's come. It's adorable.. but it also means being around Eileen runs the risk of seeing Mordecai. Being Eileens friend means a pretty solid chance of running into her ex any time Eileen has a party, at the wedding, at the birth of her kids etc.

Being petty about Eileen being friends with Margret is one thing. margret fucked up.. but geninely tried to back off after making a heat of a moment mistake she clearly regretted deeply, and only told the boyfriend lie to save herself from a helicopter crash, an entirely fair reaction. Being shoved on a double date with her ex and his justifably jealous girlfriend who not so justifably tried to unalive her was not her idea. The two could manuver around each other, maybe awkwardly say high, I See Turtles proved they could at least be civil for Eileens sake.

But seeing her ex every time her best friend had a huge life event... that's a lot to ask. Eileen would be heartbroken.. but would understand why CJ had to break off their friendship and while I See Turtles was a good ep.. it WAS a lot to ask CJ to be around Margret right after what happened. Personally even if it's not how the creators see it I see the two reconnecting with time. CJ's moved on with her life, maybe gone pro with dodgeball, Eileen's a professor with a loving stay at home husband.. thier in a place they can be friends again and CJ, while not necesarily ever forgiving mordecai, can stand being around him. I could see her holding that grudge for a while, understandably so and people CAN hold onto grudges forever if they want.. but it just dosen't fit here. CJ grew up, and while she dosen't really keep in touch with her ex.. I like to think she got her friend back. Maybe her and Margret even become friends

Hell honestly I just had the idea margret and CJ eventually hook up: Margret genuinely apologizes for everything, CJ does the thing, one thing leads to another. I mean they do kinda fit: CJ's mordecai with his shit together, Margret is kind and empathetic, and I did really like it the last time an asshole's exes had better chemistry with each other instead of him.

SO TLDR: there honestly isn't anything that obnoxious in this. I don't like the idea of CJ cutting eileen off.. but most of it fits and the one part that didn't was cut out as they realized it didn't. For how badly the crew fucked up that love triangle.. they recovered fine.

[maleyanderecafe]

A Gentle Sea Monster and a Lonely Girl (Oneshot)

Created by: とりがら

Genre: Smut/Horror

This one I saw on the r/maleyandere reddit page and it reminds me a lot of @reinaqian's rendition of sea creature Kylar, since it encompasses that kind of horror. It's both sweet and dark at the same time and it has two more extra pages that are yet to be translated. The design for the yandere monster is pretty good as well.

The story starts out with Kataya reciting a saying from their village, stating that if you see a sea monster, you should run away and kill it. Kataya walks into a cave to be greeted by her sea monster friend, Lasuku to deliver fish cakes to give to him. Lasuku trades her with fish, thanking her for saving him when they first met. Lasuku kisses Kataya and has sex with her (she seems pretty terrified considering his mouth tongues) and afterwards gifts her with pearls that he found. We find the story of how Kataya found Lasuku in the cave and treated him, giving him gifts. He asked why she wasn't afraid of her and while she was terrified, she responded that she simply couldn't leave someone like him to die. While going home, Kataya gets beat up by the fisherman in her town, after they found out that she's been keeping in contact with the monster. She laments what has happened and decides that it's better to just run away with Lasuku, but when she comes back, he believes that the villagers have asked her to come kill him. He states that he was nice to her because he wanted to court her the way humans do, but decides instead to rape and impregnate her instead so that she will always be his. Despite this, Lasuku apologizes afterwards and Kataya accepts him, stating that she'd rather run away with him than be with the village. Lasuku is overjoyed and the last scene is the two embracing, as we see the bodies of soldiers and other villagers floating in the water below.

Like I said, the horror in this oneshot is very good and I think the smut (rape?) was incorporated in a fashion that makes sense. The two of them are bonded over the idea of loneliness and Kataya (and the reader) are under the impression that he is harmless despite the many warnings that the villagers issue. It's a good way of foreshadowing the ending where we see all of the bodies floating below the water. I think it was pretty cute that they would exchange gifts and that Lasuku was trying his best to court Kataya in the way a human would, and when she believed that he was about to kill her, attempted to "make her his." Because he's a monster and doesn't understand human romance, it makes sense that the sex happens in that way (I mean, it's not great since it's still rape, but I can at least see why he does it). Plus, I think his monster design is pretty good. he gives off the look of a jellyfish mixed with possibly a shark and again, cool monster designs are cool.

Since it's pretty short, I would highly recommend reading it if you are into horror, or liked that oneshot about the monster kylar.

[captainsteveamericarogers]

Why are you so quiet? Everyone has gone insane and making up new facts every five minutes, you're usually the first one to lose your patience and lay it down. You're obviously on Chris' side yet you're letting people talk shit about him. You need to say something!!

I don't know whether to be flattered or insulted. You talk as if I'm some matriarch of the fandom when in fact I'm just a mediocre fanfic writer who is exhausted with this whole debacle and it's barely been two weeks. Nobody listens to me!

Today I saw a magnificent example of both Chinese whispers and alternative facts in this fandom. The person who alleged that CE was at her work for medical imaging, who I suspect was also the author of the now-deleted Reddit post, only tweeted that she had found out he was at her work. I appreciate that many people deleted the screenshots of the tweet as it was a gross invasion of his privacy and a HIPAA violation that, if true, would have very serious consequences for both the tweeter and her employer, and that a lot of people didn't see it. But suddenly people were talking about an actual x-ray or MRI image that had been posted and deleted. There was never an image. That didn't stop a few people from saying they knew someone who had seen it, which adds credence to the rumour despite being a lie due to there never being an image.

A lie can run around the world before the truth has got its boots on - The Truth by Terry Pratchett

We are seeing this in action every single day since the People article. I've seen people make the most outlandish claims. Suddenly, everyone has a friend who knows his flight details or what he ate for dinner. It's utterly demented. It's beyond crazy.

Let's go through all of the utter horse shit I can recall from the past fortnight. Shall we have more bullet points?

It's all PR

They have a contract for two years (how could anyone possibly know this?)

Chris obviously cannot stand Alba anywhere near him

The girl in the park who was forced to delete her Twitter was in on it and planted there to record

Chris has been personally seeking out Tumblrinas to block on Twitter

Narrative PR wrote the deranged fan letters to make the fandom "look crazy" (lol) and garner sympathy for Chris

Literally anyone who sticks up for Chris or Alba is, in fact, Chris or Alba or their moms

Alba wore a halter to WDW to show off her tattoo and be recognised (Really? Who on earth is going to recognise her?)

She only flew into FL to record the video and then left immediately (y'all really don't like them spending time together, huh?)

They are reading every single post every single gossip blog writes and using the comments to make their fake PR relationship more convincing

There's more but this is so exhausting. If you take one thing from this post, let it be this. Take EVERYTHING with a pinch of salt, no matter who posts it and how sure they seem. Sometimes people are right and sometimes they are wrong. This fandom has a nasty habit of voicing their opinions as facts, then others take that and run with it, like today with the medical imaging business.

The fact is, nobody cares whether or not you believe it. But you are devoting hours of your life, every single day, dissecting everything and going around and around in circles and it is not healthy. It is not healthy at all. Take some time off or at least talk about something else.

Someone asked what I personally think is happening with Chris and Alba, so I'll leave you with my thoughts. It's serious. They are in love. I think they'll probably get married sooner rather than later. The laser focused comment was an FYI, telling the fandom that he's going to be taking his foot off the gas and concentrating on his private life for the foreseeable future. Take it with a pinch of salt. 🤷🏽‍♀️

[theomnicode]

im curious- do you think saitama has romantic love on the mind at all? is romantic love a high priority for him(after all, he's only human) or do you think that personal connections is all he needs to create fulfillment and meaning in his life? i personally dont know if he could even be in a relationship, he's so depressed. i think his deep relationship with genos(whether platonic or romantic) is what makes him want to move forward and live and grow... i dont think that their relationship being platonic would make it any less deep tbh.

anyway i ask this because a lot of people, especially reddit, is so focused on who saitama wants to date when im not really sure if thats in the cards for him. i also dont think the only alternative to the silly psychic sisters/saitama ships is saigenos, as much as i enjoy it. what do you think as someone who is a lot more involved in this fandom? i think your analysis is always very interesting to read and would love to hear your thoughts, sorry for rambling so much lol x

Oh do I think Saitama has romance in mind?

Yes, yes I do in fact, I have made bunch of meta centered around Saitama and romance and it has been asked of me in the past and I cannot even recall every single one, you'd probably have a to dig a lot. But most notable hints are ofc the media Saitama consumes, which center strictly around both romance and battle shounen and shoujo specifically. One doesn't really consume media on their free time if it holds no interest to them.

Saitama being romantic at heart

Love is in the air

Saitama's journey in self-confidence

And literally pertaining this:

Me when people say Saitama doesn't seem like the romantic type

But it's not just limited to that, but also the amount of shoujo elements and romantic elements in seinen, like sunsets, sparkles, late night dinners, cozy slice of life, romantic outros (ending anime songs), references, you name it.

Reason why it's so appealing to the female demographic in japan I bet when most of OPM fans are ladies instead of guys in there, or so I've heard haha.

Also, Saitama is depressed yes, but he's finding a lot of help to his depression from the people around him, the lack of connections being one of the biggest reasons for his depression after all as he says in the King chapter. Not having relatability with others causes him to feel Othered by the society itself and not know how to live in it.

Tbh, I'd personally want him to find more happiness in life like he wants in the audiobooks. :)

I'd be kinda sad if he didn't find that kind of fullfillment eventually. That and it would definitely break my heart if Genos found nothing but platonic response from Saitama, after all and everything he has done so far. But such is life sometimes. It doesn't make their relationship less deeper even if they did nothing, but still. :/

(Tbh Genos hasn't been very platonic in a long while lol, he even borrowed Saitama's underwear in hotpot as Murata-sensei said. It's hard to not notice and I think Saitama has.)

I just think Sai is very subtle lol. But we'll see if he actually gets physically affectionate with Genos, then you know for sure hah.

Genos already armless glomped him, we need a glomp back to get even.

But yea, if I saw a good dynamic for Saitama specifically, I might also check out that avenue in terms of shipping. I just don't personally think romantic SaiBuki or SaiTats are my thing. Some people ship SaiKing which is wholesome but again, I tend to personally think them as great friends. SaiAmai would be...interesting. I'd like to see more of Amai-mask in general, their chemistry and how their character dynamic evolves. One fling man? Genos would disagree.

One of my friends ships Sonsai (zombieman x saitama) which I think is a fun dynamic because they're both quite funny characters. But again, I need to see more of their chemistry to get into it myself.

I have something else in mind though, but I kinda wanna see more of this character first. No it's not Suiko or anybody you'd be able to guess.

I'll give that person a cookie if they can guess who I am refering to without outside assistance lol.