#I know that some fandoms have a bunch of cis dudes in them

[howdidthisevenhappenanyway]

non binary people don’t get no bitches apparently

I just had a discussion with my friend about fanfiction and how we tend to assume that women are the writers without any actual proof. Then I said, hey, I know fanfiction written by gay and trans dudes. But then I remembered, wait, I think I know one writer who just must be cis het based on his work. Anyway, all writers, be honest, who are you?

Please reblog if you're interested in the results.

[tumblingxelian]

How do some even think that RWBY has male characters “hijack the narrative?” It’s like they project what their grievances with past stories on what looks like the same but not really.

Like Jaundice in Volume 1 flies right by marathoning the season. No bigger than a single episode of TV at 20+ minutes.

So the answer to that questions ranges from what you said to several things like:

Not watching un years & misremembering what was watched, being misinformed & not having watched at all, lying and such. But, I think I hit on another major reason for this problem and its kind of hilariously twisted so please hear me out.

Every arc I've noticed that a certain strain of "Fans" get very attached to one or two male characters and start projecting the idea that they are the real MCs & then get offended when it turns out they aren't.

In V1 to 3, it was Jaune & Adam. Then in volumes 3 to 6 it was Qrow & then Ozpin, Followed by Ironwood in volumes 4 & 7.

All these guys are introduced either in a typical shounen hero or antagonist or mentor and ally role.

Then have the layers people back to show what exists beneath the archetype and what they either have to overcome to remain on the actual main characters side. IE, Jaune, Qrow & Ozpin.

Or what it is that they long since failed or will fail to overcome and grow from that makes them into villains, IE, Adam and Ironwood.

The reason this keeps happening is because that particular strain of "fan" has such a "Men as default" head-space that they cannot, genuinely cannot grasp that they are watching a story about women. Thus they keep expected ay given guy who shows up to be the "real" main character.

Aside:

You may also notice Ren, Oscar & Marrow never gets on the above list. The closest they get is being someone else's cheerleader or not mentioned at all. Meanwhile the white (Or perceived as white in Qrow's case) cis and overtly straight men do get said treatment. I wonder why that could be? Such a mystery :/

But I digress, this is important because it reflects a deep subconscious bias in those "fans" & I think said bias also exists in the people making claims like this.

IE, because they treat men as the default & the protagonists in a given scene, while subconsciously placing women below them and more as accessories, their focus on any given scene is always on the men.

Kind of like those tumblr posts that are explicitly about women & have a bunch of people with piss poor reading comprehension tagging it with dudes or even going so far as to say "Just say gay men". & rather similar to that observation that a lot of fandom treats men, any man from a piece of media, as an inherently deep and complicated character with so much to analyze or so much freedom to expand on. Meanwhile dismissing women out of hand as awful & or boring.

Thus, when they see a group conversation scene, they instinctively assume that the one leading the conversation, with the most to gain from the conversation, with the most narrative weight in the conversation is a man.

Even if he barely said anything and all the lot relevant, interesting character stuff and such was being done by women.

This head-space persists consistently and inflames any given scene, story beat or exchange.

But, here's the twist, these "critics" know o a conscious level that RWBY is about women and that, that is a selling point. But then they look back over their memories, subconsciously blurring out the women and think, "Wow, the girls didn't do anything, it was all about the guys!" Even though its actually just cos they refused to pay any attention to a character that wasn't a man.

Then they get mad because "Clearly the writers are doing this wrong" and ten they get madder when these men fail, or are villains or have to learn lessons, because in their eyes, those guys are the righteous protagonists, and super complicated, "Can't these blank slate girls realize that? Can't the writers!?" But again, its just because they weren't paying attention, rather tan it being a problem in the writing.

Its very similar to that trend of, "There was no queer foreshadowing, they were both obviously straight!" & then their evidence is like, she looked at a man once, & so therefore every interaction with women she has is platonic by default and therefore does not contain foreshadowing.

Damn, could have just led with that, its male bias, rather than straight bias, but the end result is the same. They don't perceive the women on the screen, they don't see the queer signals.

Then, when the story develops around those women, when queer characters & events set up across years happens it slaps them across the face & they insist it must have come out of nowhere.

Sadly, nothing you can say is liable to change their minds, because in a way, they really are watching an entirely different show.

It'd be like if I went into Naruto thinking Rock Lee was the main character & then never adjusted from that perspective.

Not an identical situation, but one that conveys my point regarding why they claim so much nonsense with such confidence.

[redheadlesbianfreak]

I know that I'm a little late to the James Somerton thing but I wanted to make my own post about this. I started watching James when I was 20 during the pandemic. It made me feel comforted to watch someone talk about queer theory in film, especially because I found out so many films I never heard about. His stuff did make me very passionate about queer history as well, and led me to start seeking more of it. I took a queer literature class in University (one of my fav classes) and I started watching more queer creators.

I grew up in Texas and Mississippi (the Deep South) in a pretty conservative environment. I started to break free of that in middle school and high school, though I was still very ignorant. I think I knew I was queer for a long time, but it took me a while to come out. I felt that I was around queer people who were somewhat hostile and wouldn't believe me. This is because I identified as ace for a little while. People were either actively hostile about that or they acted like it was a dumb identity that didn't matter. I also don't know if I'm cis or not, all I know is that I really relate to the experiences of the trans community.

I kept watching James' stuff over the years. I fell for the hole "academic queer" vibe. He talked so much about queer erasure that I thought he cared deeply about it. I felt connected to the queer community when I watched his content. He talked about trans and sapphic experiences so I thought he cared about that--turns out he stole all of that. All my favorite videos of his were stolen, word for word, from queer writers. All of the passion, all of the great writing, that was stolen. I thought I was watching someone who cared about queer history, but he was actively erasing it and harming other creators.

There were some things that I noticed. He mentioned the indie movie studio and I thought that was weird. I thought his Attack on Titan video was extremely weird and made a lot of non-points. I also remember disagreeing with a lot of it because he just said a bunch of nothing. I thought that it was weird he mainly talked about mainstream culture (Disney, MCU, etc.) rather than less well known pieces of queer media. And there were quite a few videos I didn't watch because there were so many of them (not sure how I didn't suspect that he was a content mill). Some of his videos were incredibly intriguing (because he stole good writing) while others were boring, so there was a lot of inconsistency.

I'm incredibly pissed at this man, and it's hard not to be pissed at myself. I didn't watch every single video by this dude, but I did watch enough. I think that I have a lot to examine about myself when it comes to picking up racism/misogyny/transphobia. Especially when he dressed up all his points to be "progressive" and "academic." I didn't pick up on things like "bad vibes" from this man. I'm not really sure what bad vibes even look like? I also didn't pick up on the fact that his writing style constantly changed. Even with all the strange shit, I still gave him the benefit of the doubt because he was queer and that was way too trusting and that's something I need to work on.

As for the misogyny thing, especially when it comes to queer women and trans/AFAB people. He said a lot of blatantly lesbophobic, biphobic, and transphobic things while downplaying the experiences of everyone who wasn't a cis gay. What James was saying about women in his videos is how a lot of people talk about queer women in the queer community. Especially in fandom spaces. Misogyny is so rampant on the Internet that it can be hard for me to pick up on it as a queer woman. So many people talk about how lesbians want every female character to be gay or how bisexual women are "fujoshis" constantly trying to fetishize gay men.

I hope this makes sense, but it feels like I'm being gaslit when it comes to misogyny because of how often I see it. It's hard for me to tell if I'm being oversensitive or if someone is actually being misogynistic to me. So many progressive men that I trusted have been misogynistic to me and that can be a lot. James was someone I trusted and defended. I even recommended him to people. It's something I'm still disappointed in myself for doing, but I'd like to think I've grown as a queer person since watching his channel. There are so many great queer creators out there and I definitely need to make a recommendation list in the near future.

[boinin]

Flairs on /r/BlueLock

A meta commentary/shitpost. I'm not sure which.

For Tumblr-onlys: Reddit allows users to add a flair beside their usernames, much like Tumblr allows badges. Flair are unique to individual subreddit, and only appear when that user comments or posts in that subreddit. The Blue Lock subreddit allows users to set custom text flairs, which may include a selection of emojis or character thumbnails.

This post contains adult humour/explicit references.

I posit that there's three categories of user flairs on Reddit.

The first category is what I refer to as normie flairs.

These include much of what you'd expect, if you maintain the false assumption that enjoyers of football shounen are straight, well-adjusted young men. Many users take this opportunity to represent their appreciation for a particular character (i.e. "Isagi Yoichi"). Admirable, but ultimately boring.

Much like Tumblr has its microcosms and meta humour, so does /r/BlueLock. In flairs, users make reference to fandom in-jokes (e.g. "Red Keys #1 fan", or "#1 Paralympic Footballer" next to a thumbnail of Yukimiya Kenyu). Other flairs reference quotes from the manga that inspire them (e.g. "Shut the fuck up Ness", "There is a monster inside me"). Although edgy in tone, these flairs are still reasonably explicable, should their parents check their browsing activity.

A recurring theme among this user group is a desire to distance themselves from homosexuality. Although excessive gayness is canon in Blue Lock, some users are defiant in their assertion that the series is about ball handling and nothing else. Hence, the existence of flairs such as "Miss Me With That Gay Shit" and "I'm just here to talk football dude".

For these users, the most relatable character in the series is Adam Blake: Mr. "I have no interest in male bodies" himself.

True martyrs. We salute them.

On to the second category.

Again, this is a loose category in terms of content and theme. You may question why I've chosen to differentiate these from the normie flairs. However, while all of these users are expressing admiration for the characters, the way they do so is hornier than a bunch of imprisoned football virgins. They are more worked up than Shidou, when he scores a goal.

I introduce this grouping as… the down bad flairs. There's a lot to unpack. Take your time.

We cannot infer that all the flairs in this group are the result of users biting their lips and moaning whenever a certain character appears. There may be a innocent explanation for why someone would designate themselves "King Barou's Chair" or "Muscle Mommy Kunigami's Squat Bar Pad".

Perhaps they simply kin as furniture.

Users among this group embrace the fruity nature of the series. Although it's untrue to say all Redditors are male basement dwellers and thus, in gay denial. There's evidence that women also frequent the subreddit to thirst over pretty manga boys, using the broadband their parents paid for. At least, this is what flairs such as "Kenyuu's beloved waifu" and "Impregnate me, Shidou!" suggest. There's even straight men present, if "Drinking Anri Mommy Milkies" and "Bachira's Mom's boyfriend" are anything to go by. Forgive them their sins, they know not how to play along.

But cis-heteronormativity is a scourge, something Blue Lock fans understand better than most. After all, no particular gender is required to become "Noel Noa's sugar baby" or "Isagi's personal toe sucker".

In terms of distribution, no one is safe from the thirstiness of /r/BlueLock users. Nearly every character has a thirst flair to their name. The ones that seem to inspire the most unhinged flairs are Shidou "dress sluttily, I can fight" Ryusei, Michael Kaiser ("Reincarned as Kaiser's Wet Underwear") and Bachira Meguru ("Bachira's leaking rosebud").

As the protagonist, Isagi naturally attracts a lot of favour. Some flairs highlight his prowess (e.g. "I love it when isagi shoots from behind", or the more possessive "isagi meatrider get out kaiser"). These users are, unfortunately, deluded. I regret to inform them that there is no universe in which Isagi is a top. He'd be devouring your dick, not the other way around.

To the conclusion. If you are a /r/BlueLock veteran (my condolences), you will have noticed a conspicuous absence among the second flair group. You may be thinking, is this chick blinder than Yukimiya? Can they even read?? They missed the worse ones.

To this I say: Do not cite the deep flairs to me bitch. I was there when they were written.

One image lies below the cut. Unlike the other two, the third category of user flairs has an obvious theme.

However, there is no returning beyond this point. Once you have borne witness to this forbidden knowledge, you will be irrevocably changed. It may ruin your life... or awaken something in you. Either way, a price must be paid.

Consider this my final warning. You may yet walk away from this post unscathed. Even with the words "Devouring Aiku's Hairy Ass" branded on your psyche.

But if you are determined—if you have steeled your mind (and your eyes), open this video in another tab and read on.

Anyone who guessed horny Chigiri flairs, take 1,000 Jeopardy points and a shot of something strong.

I'm not going to invent pseudo-intellectual commentary for this. Y'all came this far, see for yourself. I can't justify some of these, nor begin to explain them—and I write Blue Lock fanfiction. These users are in another dimension of Chigiri worship, one I can never bridge.

Source and references: this

[lighthousegod]

Hello and welcome to my rant from my time on Stranger Things Steddie and Friends Twitter for the past few months.

K I'm really pissed but its fine I wrote this all before the poll thing. Now I just. Can't get rid of it. (Me at tumblr headquarters right fucking now)

Anyway. Sorry for the interruption.

The fact that I've seen several ST fans claim most people who like steddie are fetishizing them is already shitty, but what makes it even more shitty is that they focus on them being two white cis guys fetishized by "white girls".

To reference the two white cis guys first, yeah, you got me there. That really is all those two are in the show. And if you wanna talk representation, well shit! Let's do it! Out of the main cast, we have 3 people of color: Lucas, Erica, and Argyle. Lucas is much too young to be in a relationship with either of them and already has one of his own, and Erica is ten years old. Now, I love Argyle, but he was written to be a comic relief character that had no arc and never met either of them. I think that's a wasted opportunity, Eduardo is great and would've done well as a fully fleshed out character, and there is a conversation to be had about whether that character would've been received the same way Eddie was being a white guy. But the thing is, he was never even CAST as a character who could be compared with Eddie- again, his whole character was "funny stoner." THAT is fucked, and people have definitely decided to ignore that fanon. In fact, Jargyle has become a pretty well known ship! Weirdly enough, the content I've seen of them has majorly been from people who also ship steddie! It isn't as popular as Steddie, though, and I don't think that's ONLY bc of half of the ship has less lore than eddie. There definitely is at least some internal bias us white queer folks should take into account when considering what ships we focus on in media.

However, I don't think that's why it's being brought up. I don't think I read tweets from lesbians with she/her in their bios condemning all us steddie ppl who just ship it because "they're two white guys we can fetishize for being in an mlm relationship" bc they're trying to be good allies. That COMPLETELY disregards that transmasc and nonbinary people (ESPECIALLY transmasc people of color) make a BIG chunk of the steddie fandom. Crazy, it's almost like Eddie was written to represent an outcast and literally GOT TARGETED BY CHRISTIANS and a bunch of people in marginalized communities related to his struggles! Except oh, yeah, that'd exactly what happened. And yeah, okay, he's a white guy and it IS pretty shitty that they cast a white dude to represent outcasts in general, but the people talking shit are watching the SAME DAMN SHOW that has a huge fucking cast and still has minimal representation. Fuck, man, Caleb McLaughlin has faced SO MUCH hate from assholes "fans" as the only black main character. Why the hell are people using that very real issue to back their shitty arguments against a gay ship on twitter?

Again, I wanna preface that 90% of these kinds of comments come from lesbians and bisexual people with she/her or she/they in the bio. I thought yall were COOL with the gay and trans people. Yall ARE queer people. Some of them were even big Ronance or Rovickie fans! YALL. WHY IS FRIENDLY FIRE ON??

A lot of this argument is backed by claims that steddie fans ignore canon queer rep, too, and I just don't understand that.

I know. Robin is representation. I am SO HAPPY to have her, and I'm so happy that Maya pushed for it, and as a transmasc person who was not out at the time and likes girls, I felt very seen when watching her coming out scene with Steve. However, I know I don't fully understand the lesbian experience as someone who likes guys too. I know Robin means a lot to wlw fans, especially lesbians. There have been instances where steddies have co-opted that scene to make it about steddie, and that is not okay. (I've never SEEN this happen, but I've seen people talk about it. All the steddie guys on Twitter that I follow were making it pretty clear that that was not cool and pretty fuckin lesbiphobic. I agree, whoever did that, fuck them. Wlw and specifically lesbian wlw relationships have very little rep and Netflix canceled all their shows and it's super fucked.) But besides this, I actually see a LOT of steddie fans who very much love Robin's character. Most of the steddie artists and fic writers I know are also ronance, rovickie, and/or Buckingham creators. A lot of them are wlw themselves!

//I should also note that Will is canonically gay now and I'm super excited, but truly, I just don't see as much appeal in byler because they're so much younger than me now. I totally love Will as a character, and I was around the kids' ages when the first season came out, but I'm in college now. I relate a lot more to the older kids! I'm real happy to have will as mlm rep and I hope he gets his moment in s5. I just didn't latch onto him and Mike the way I did Steve and Eddie! We all got preferences and that's fine.//

All this to say, I'm just so tired of Twitter, man. I just saw a post about how many cis women who claiming its "ableism" to say they have to be around anyone who identifies as masculine, including queer men, queer mascs, cis men of color, butch lesbians, etc. And I've seen a lot of that lately too. It's just so weird to see someone who identifies as a queer woman talk shit abt a steddie fan with a hellcheer shipper.

(man I can't even get into that rn. Chrissy and Eddie shippers in ST fandom are a whole other bout of drama. I've seen steddies be pretty nasty on the issue toward bi women who ship that bc of age difference, which I never really understood because eddie has no confirmed age?? Like idk how he can be a super senior AND 17 on his missing poster but whatever, I'm not stressing abt that as long as you dont make them have a weird age gap on purpose. Hell, I even thought they were love interests at first, too. But DAMN I've seen some hellcheer people that hate steddie. None of this justification type shit either, they just say "it doesn't make sense" and "I'm scared of steddie" and "they ruined the fandom and eddies character" like bro that's literally homophobia. like oogily boogily gay people jumpscare homophobia. So I just don't talk to those guys usually.)

Whatever abt the straight ppl tho they're never gonna get my weird gay stuff. But what SUCKS is when it's other gay people saying this stuff. Like what about mlm wlw solidarity man? Why do I gotta see a rovickie stan and a hellcheer girl talking abt how steddie shippers are all misogynistic and hate women?? Esp when so many are transmasc?? It's getting weird and TERF-y and I just. I wish we were cool again. ST is abt outcasts at the end of the day, it's why we root for them and relate to them. There aren't even a lot of queer people from the 80s around because of the kinda hatred people like us face. Not to mention racism, ableism, misogyny, all of it. For centuries. The people up top all hate us. We gotta have each other's backs and twitter is making us INSANE instead. God.

Anyway I'm gonna go watch the mandalorian now later losers.

[heartshapedcreaturefromcriptoon]

No but like, the idea of two blocked people and a bunch of gray faces having “discourse” about my “worsening reputation” in the Hazbin Hotel fandom is so funny to me, because like: 

Everything I know about Blair White and sh0eonhead I’ve had to learn against my will, because of this fandom.

Everything I know about  Scott Cawthon I’ve had to learn against my will, because of this fandom.

Everything I know about Brandon ‘drops the R slur every video’ Rogers I’ve had to learn against my will, because of this fandom.

Because of this fandom, I’ve had to be subjected to “Rolling Robbie”.

And if you guys think I’d buy any official Helluva Boss merch after tolerating this shit along with the R-Slur that I don’t think would have been in the pilot  if Roger’s hadn’t been hired, I don’t know what to tell you.

I still have my questions about Roger’s calibrating with Greg whatever his last name, is... Who’s actual channel name is so taboo to talk about I think it’s getting censored because it keeps disappearing every time I try to type it here? 

Vivziepop channel’s merch commercials making fun of wheelchair users again in their promos (check the last ones for Summer).  

The Amber Heard parody that Brandon did was in extremely poor taste, too. And I only bring it up because of:

Brock Baker 

Stamper

The knowledge of the staff that work on Hazbin and Helluva still eat at Chick Fil A, they’re sorry if you’re gay. They know that they’re Bad Gays TM for doing that but The Sandwiches Are So Good! TM 🥺 

The fact that I would have happily donated to the hunnicast if I wasn’t forced to just be tolerant of not only the Chick Fil A apologists, but also another ableist arsehole that isn’t Brandon LOUDLY SCREECHING “REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!” directly into my ears at the start of nearly every episode and every five minutes after.

The fact that I know some you guy’s favorite YouTubers are pewdiepie and Logan Paul.

Speaking of YouTubers: 

Anyway, case in point: I know that the Hunnicast had to remain “apolitical” because of funding reasons, but there’s absolutely no reason for the fandom itself to adopt this mentality and it’s probably half of the reason people hate the majority of you! So I don’t know why the irony of even speaking about “worsening reputations” in this fandom of all fandoms is so hopelessly lost on people but I’m just gonna leave you with this actual, real life video of Brandon Rogers appropriating my culture in order finally let it sink in just how much. A. I’m on no ones side but my own. B. I hate all of you.  C. I don’t owe abled-bodied autistics ether civility nor do I give even the slightest shit about my ‘worsening reputation’ in this fandom because I’m “rude”,  “unlikable”, and actually have enough boundaries to BLOCK PEOPLE! D. I don’t owe shit to an abled-bodied, uppity cis-woman-fandom-mom-political centrist just because she claims she’s black, especially since she basically implied how she thought I was retarded and then said “I didn’t know that nor do I care” ( because she doesn’t have enough comprehension skills to notice references to my disability in both my url and profile and I’m surprised that she didn’t try to call me racist for having “crip” in my url, too). This fandom really literally is full bigoted political centrists and I refuse to make myself palatable to them.

Me: *Making a ‘Yo Daddy’ joke about Leeanne’s parents being two caricatures from a cartoon that she’s claims isn’t racist, since she wants to act like a cartoon caricature of angry black nerd*

Leeanne, throwing her bisexuality into it even though that joke about two racist cop cartoon characters created by a white dude that she just defended wasn’t racist being her parents had absolutely nothing to do with bi sexuality: ...  Wow. This has to be the most bi-phobic, racist thing I’ve ever read in my entire life, you dug your own grave and I’m also going to type out your entire URL here even though the two shorter names you want people to call you are right there on your page but I’m not gonna use them because in my eyes you’re mentally disabled and I don’t see you as human and I don’t care if you call me ableist for disrespecting your disability ether! You dug your own grave, retard. Now lie in it!

Me, like, three years ago, the first time I saw this shitty, r-slur slinging youtuber crip-up to pretend to be one of my people and exploit us for the sake of “comedy” and money because, unfortunately, Viv gets herself into shenanigans sometimes and I just wanna know how badly this dudes shenanigans are gonna reflect on her new show now that I also have to tolerate her being involved with THIS specific kind of loser: .... Okay so working with someone who produces this shit is admittedly a new low for Viv and I hope to God that she keep you on a short creative leash and if your ableist, Elevated Andy Dick sounding arse gets recast for pulling some Problematic YouTuber TM bullshit I do not care especially since I see you’ve worked with Greg! You’ve just dug your own grave for me. Brandon Rogers, lie in it!  

You guys, if I ever posted my grievances and exact feelings regarding Brandon in the tags before now: I am so sorry but are you okay you angry little invalid? I’m legit asking because it’s a bit much. I think you need to learn to take a joke and I think you’re taking this a bit too far almost like an anti would... Do you not care about the fandoms good reputation? 

Me, before I block you: Honey listen, we’re in Hell, there is no “good reputation” or redemption, fuck off .

Abled-Bodied Mentally Ill People block evading me to call me rude and condescending and mean and harass an Actual Invalid in a world where “Rolling Robbie”  is still on Viv Medrano’s pay roll: HOW DARE YOU CALL ME HO-

*oops they’re blocked again*

[olderthannetfic]

TY for your post on m/m ships, as it really gave me perspective I didn’t know I needed. I assumed or thought that the criticism of women writing (“fetishizing”) m/m came from the queer community itself. The equivalent of a bunch of girls going to a gay bar for a bachelorette party. I didn’t see the exclusionist propaganda behind that train of thought until reading your post. Thanks.

--

You are most welcome!

My experience has been that the vast, vast majority of cis gay men have no clue about m/m fanfic (which is produced overwhelmingly by women and even more overwhelmingly by AFABs, who contain a lot more than just women).

When cis gay dudes are told about it in a "girls write this stuff" kind of way, they usually respond that women deserve porn too, and isn't that nice. You do you, largely irrelevant person.

Cis gay men are the dominant force in queer media that's not self-published romance novels, indie games, and so on. While I'd never say they have a fair deal as compared to straight men, if you look at queer presses and film festival films such, it's the cis gay men who get the lion's share of the attention, content, and money. I think that's why some rando making even more niche queer content just doesn't bug them much. (On average. Obviously, no group is a monolith.)

To the extent that I've seen complaints, it's generally a few dudes whining in amazon reviews that some romance novel had men crying and not having enough casual sex. Real Men Don't Cry™ yadda yadda.

Only in places like tumblr do I see a ton of pushback from queer men... and it should surprise exactly no one that the queer men in question are often trans, very young, and are getting misgendered pretty badly in their offline lives.

I see the same kind of "I am the queerest one! Only I have a special license to ship!" behavior from nbs and bi women and gnc straight women and basically anyone else who's doing some combo of having a traumatized reaction to their offline life and pulling a Not Like The Other Girls Others. There's a dash of white knighting in the pattern and a dash of people not quite getting that they've found their people. They're not the only one anymore!

(I really cannot emphasize enough how much of this I think is a trauma response where people need to be The Only Valid Man or The Queerest or something because m/m fanfic is their thing that proves their often-contested identity, and they're still carving out a place for themselves in the world. Except then they end up trying to take that space away from others like themselves, and that's not cool.)

The older trans guys I know facepalm over this stuff and are like "Buddy, no."

I mean, there's variety in any demographic. Groups are not a monolith, yadda yadda. But fanfic "fetishizing" discourse does tend to track with being young and having your main queer community contact be online and/or with having a strong strain of radfem in your ideas about queerness and art.

--

People liken fandom (and BL/danmei pro media) to the bachelorette party thing--through cluelessness or disingenuousness--but the more relevant comparison is probably drag queens.

I really liked David Halperin's academic doorstop How to be Gay where he talks about queens "appropriating" from women (he uses the term more neutrally than we usually do) and how drag can be empowering and meaningful to gay men in its intended context yet still feel sexist, offensive, and alienating to a woman stumbling across it.

He spends a lot of time talking about literal representation vs. art that speaks to your insides instead of your outsides and why a lot of cis gay men still love things like The Golden Girls and various female icons or camp and allegorical media more than art that depicts men like themselves. Interesting stuff.

For free and online stuff, an oft-cited example is this dude, Jamie Fessenden's blog post about women writing "m/m romance" (i.e. indie selfpub romance novels like you see on Amazon, which are the US and a lot of the West's answer to BL/danmei). It's interesting to see this guy's perspective as an older cis gay man. (Well, I assume. Plenty of authors turn out to be liars, but he passes a sniff test, IMO.) I have a couple of points where I disagree with him, but I think he has some solid ideas overall, and he's putting his desire for more media of type X into practice by making said media himself.

--

Anyway, I do think the criticism often comes from "our own community" (with its many, many meanings). It's just laced with lack of historical perspective at best and ulterior motives at worst.

[the-dragongirl]

Hello tumblr. I have returned from a long period of inactivity, because I must bring the good word to the corner of the Star Wars fandom that used to be my main fannish home: there is a new era of Star Wars canon that was made just for our taste. It is called the High Republic.

WHAT IS THE HIGH REPUBLIC?

The High Republic is an giant multi-media project being carried out by the Lucasfilm story group to create a brand new era of Star Wars canon. It is set a few hundred years before the prequel era (so, a long time after the Old Republic era), in a period of peace and stability within the Republic. It currently includes several English language adult novels, a YA novel, two serialized comics, a manga, some short stories, and some short video blurbs published on facebook and youtube. A TV show for Disney+ has also been announced, but is a few years off. This project is unique in Star Wars, in that all of the different parts are being written together by one writing team, and are coordinated to tell a cohesive story. Also, what has been announced is just the beginning – they have stated that there will be three different sections of the High Republic, and everything we have had announced so far is just part one. As a note: this is an era for which there was NO pre-existing canon in Legends, so it is totally new territory.

OKAY, THAT’S NICE, BUT WHY SHOULD I BOTHER TO CHECK IT OUT?

There are SO many reasons why the High Republic is worth your time to explore. I will try to outline some of them here below the cut (without any significant spoilers).

IT IS A LOVE LETTER TO THE JEDI

This is the era for everyone who loves the Jedi and wants to understand how they got to the point they did in the prequel era. It shows Jedi at their best: saving people, working together, being completely in tune with the Force (in so many beautiful and original ways), demonstrating creativity and flexibility and being rewarded for it, actually thinking through the ethics of things like the mind trick, and DEALING with their emotions rather than repressing them. It shows us how the rigid Jedi culture was saw in the prequels was a corruption of something that was originally healthy and uplifting. Jedi in this era are allowed to be flawed, and to grow, and have a community that supports them in doing so. This is the Jedi culture so many of us created as fix it fic for the prequel era, but made canon.

IT IS AN ERA OF HOPE

There are some serious problems in the High Republic Era. Without spoilers, the era opens with a terrible humanitarian crisis, laid over the Republic equivalent of the New Deal from US history.  We see a lot of examples of people doing their best to be good to each other, and working for a more just and kind galaxy. They acknowledge that things are not perfect, but people from many different backgrounds (Jedi, politicians, farmers, pilots, business people) work together to try and make things better. I don’t know about you all, but with the darkness we see in the world today, I NEED some of that optimism in my escapist media. The High Republic provides that.

IT WILL GIVE YOU FEELINGS

The existing material so far is structured to really let you emotionally invest in the characters and their struggles. Unlike with many eras of Star Wars canon, characterization is not sacrificed for the sake of plot (though never fear, there is PLENTY of plot). That means there is huge scope for empathy. I’m not going to lie; I cried within the first three chapters of Light of the Jedi, as did several other people I know. It is POIGNANT in a way that feels truly genuine.

IT IS FUN

The writing team understands that, in the end, Star Wars is space fantasy. If your space fantasy is nothing but serious, gritty grimdark, it becomes pretentious and unbearable. So, for all that there is some heavy content in the High Republic (VERY heavy content – the Nihil should really have their own content warning), it has many moments of levity that keep it from taking itself too seriously. For example, the High Republic made Jedi bodice rippers canon. Also, characters like Geode exist (yes, that rock there is a CHARACTER). The result is something which honors the spirit of Star Wars, and keeps you engaged without being tedious or ridiculously depressing.

THE WRITING TEAM HAS DIVERSE PERSPECTIVES

The main writing team consists of five people: Justina Ireland, Claudia Gray, Charles Soule, Daniel José Older, and Cavan Scott. You will note that includes two people of color, two women, and one out Queer person (in fact, one of the writers is all three of those things). This is a far cry from the white-cis-straight-man-dominated writing teams we have seen in the past. And when they bring in other people to the project, they make a point of looking for perspectives that aren’t represented on their team – for example, the manga is being co-written between Justina Ireland and Japanese writer Shima Shinya, and Ireland has stated in interviews that Shinya is taking the lead on the writing.

IT VALUES MEANINGFUL REPRESENTATION

That diverse writing team means a cast that looks WAY more like the real world than any other era of Star Wars we’ve seen, in terms of representation. There are multiple characters of color, who are both heroes and central to the story. There are at least five canonical queer characters to date (a MLM couple, an Ace character, and two NB character).  [EDIT: Thank you @legok9​ for letting me know about the NB characters]. Among binary gendered characters, there is a very even balance of men and women. The writing team has also stated that they will be incorporating more representation of disability in the works to come. And the story is so much better for it – representation is included here BECAUSE it makes for more creative, believable, and original storytelling.

IT IS ACCESSIBLE

Because of the multiple formats, and the fact that it doesn’t rely on you knowing any prior lore, the High Republic offers many avenues to engage for people with all kinds of needs. Know nothing about Star Wars canon and feel intimidated about catching up? The canon is all new in this era anyway, so you’re fine. Can’t handle flashing lights? No problem – the little bit of video content that exists is totally free from the strobing effects that caused seizure and sensory issues. Need purely audio content? You can still have a full experience of the High Republic with the gorgeously sound-scaped audiobooks. Don’t have the attention span for books or long movies? Then the comics are your friend.

THERE IS SOMETHING FOR ALL

Between the books aimed towards adults and teens (and their respective audiobooks), the kids books, the comics, the manga, the short stories, AND the eventual TV show on Disney+, there is going to be content in the High Republic that suits most audiences. And that is just what has been announced so far – there is still more to come for phases II and III. This isn’t Star Wars written towards one group or demographic – it is Star Wars for everyone.

DID I MENTION THE FANCY JEDI UNIFORMS?

Because cosplayers and fanartists? This is the era for you. We are getting Jedi in silks with elaborate gold embroidery. Jedi with jewelry other decorative elements. Even the practical field uniforms have tooled and embossed leather. If you want to draw or make Jedi that have some of that that sweet LoTR-esque high fantasy aesthetic, the High Republic has your back. (Not going to lie – I am ALREADY imagining the time travel AUs. Put Obi-Wan in fancy clothes!)

OKAY, YOU’VE SOLD ME. WHERE SHOULD I START?

I strongly recommend everyone looking to get into the High Republic (who is old enough to be on Tumblr) start with Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule. I alternated between the physical book and the audio book, and found it delightful in both formats. After that, you have a lot of options. You can read or listen to the audio book of the YA novel A Test of Courage by Justina Ireland. You can check out the currently running Star Wars: The High Republic comic from Marvel, or the Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures comic from IDW. Or you can skip straight to Into the Dark by Claudia Gray. Honestly, there is no wrong order to try out most of the High Republic.

IN CONLUSION

The High Republic is Star Wars written for people who DON’T want Star Wars to be a good ‘ol boys club for salty white dudes who don’t want to see anything but more of Luke Skywalker. It offers broad representation, and optimistic narrative, and whole bunch of awesome Jedi content. If you are someone who fell in love with Jedi in the prequel era, the High Republic will give you more of what you loved. And if you are totally new to Star Wars? The High Republic is here for you too.

So, go check it. And then go write fic for it (please, there are only, like, 14 fics on AO3, I am dying).

[illwynd]

I’m lost. Who’s Jasan Aaron and what did he do?

Oh boy oh boy. Well OK, not sure if you read comics or how much background you need on this, but Jason Aaron wrote the Thor comics at Marvel for several years, up until just recently (when the helm passed to Donny Cates, of Venom fame among others). And Mr. Aaron’s early arc or two of the Thor comics were great! Much beloved by many people! 

Which was why what happened next was really fuckin weird and baffling. Because later arcs... were bad. Not just stupid bad (which is plenty common in comics and nothing to really get in a huff about) but offensive bad. Plenty of people still loved them (don’t ask me why), but many others were left severely confused over how these arcs could have even been written by the same person. Many Thor fans I know stopped reading in disgust. I kept hate-reading for a long time---not really out of optimism that it would improve but more because if I’m going to criticize something, I want to be sure I know what the fuck I’m talking about, ya know? 

The reasons I personally found it offensive-bad were mainly of the flavor of... like, y’know when you see/watch/read something that’s written by a cis dude who seems to think he’s god’s gift to feminism, with heavy-handed rah-rah grrl power stuff on the surface, but you scratch the surface even a little bit and you find it’s full of some very unfeminist bullshit? And if you dare point out that fact, he will fall back on how very feminist his work is so if you have a problem with it, you must be anti-feminist? 

Yeah. It was like that. He even strawmanned the criticisms in the damn comic itself, having Jane!Thor beat up a knuckle-dragging neckbeard villain who was there exclusively to be the mouthpiece for the most strawman of strawman versions of very legitimate critiques that Mr. Aaron never bothered to address otherwise. I feel like it’s one thing to disagree about the quality or entertainment value of a story (totally subjective!) or to disagree about its interpretation (subjective within reason), and quite another thing to try to silence criticism by claiming that everyone who dislikes it must be a terrible person who is opposed to all that’s good and right in the world. And add to that using his sizable platform as a popular comics writer to use that sort of bad-faith tactic, leading others in comics fandom to treat his arguments as Absolute Truth From On High... just really leaves a bad taste in my mouth about the guy.

Combined with a bunch of nonsensical drivel used to prop up holey plots, characterization that devolved to appallingly awful as time went on, and various other facepalm-worthy aspects? and yeah he’s probably my least favorite comics Thor writer.

(For the record, I did not actually heckle him at the panel. I asked one slightly curt question---whether his explanation for how Thor became unworthy, when it was finally revealed, would actually be a good explanation---and his answer was that I’d have to find out for myself. I did. It wasn’t. Oh boy, it really, really wasn’t. If I get started ranting about that particular offensive narrative choice, we’ll be here all night. Gorr was right my ass. Fuck the hell off, Mr. Aaron.)

[itsadifferenthope]

Ok, I really thought about posting or not this..thing. I don't even know what this is, but I just had to let it out. I mean, I have like 3 folks who read what I write, so 🤷🏻‍♀️

I just wanna say I'm Italian, I'm not Muslim but I'm Christian.

And I tried. I really tried to give a shot to the last season of skam italia. But, cmon. Some of the things they did are so so so so.. so wrong.

And I'm saying it cause I really think that if they tried a little more, it would've been a really good job (even better than some other remakes *cough*)

Of course first thing first, they should've cast a poc actress. I didn't even like Beatrice's acting skill in season 1, but here she genuinely seems to have improved her skill. But, cmon, it never was believeble. And no, you can't tell me that actors job is to act some role, cause one of the really cool thing about skam og was that they choose to cast real teenagers and not actor, so they could portrait teenagers really without filters. So skam italia can't make the excuse that they didn't find any good Muslim poc actress.

But ok, they found Beatrice and they fall in love with her, I accept that.. But dear God, it was so hard to just make her an Italian white Muslim? A converted or the daughter of converted. How cool could that be? So much better than make her pretend to be a poc.

Ok, let's talk about the Muslim adults representation. Sana has a father who seems more like her grandpa, and also super cringy (that scene where he smoke on the balcony?). Than we have the parents of one of sana's friend who kicked their daughter out just because she was seeing a not Muslim dude, than we have Luai's parents who send their son to have an exorcism just because he's gay... And than we have sana's mother (with a really nice actress, I have to admit) who, when her daughter asks her a question about Islam, answer only with 'that's what's written, so you have to accept it'. Really???????

Now let's talk about one of the biggest disappointment of this remake: Italian Chris. I never liked her, but they actually made her a bully? REALLY? Why? How? Chris would never do something like that, seriously.

I don't want to talk to much about the hijab mess, cause I'm not Muslim and apparently there are Muslim girls who didn't felt offended by that, but 1 first time we see Italian Jamilla and no one is wearing hijab, it was to much to have two hijabi in one scene? 2 she took off her hijab cause she was in front of two gays.. That make them less man? I find it insulting. 3 che fregna! Really? You're actually calling her beautiful for the first time exactly when she's without her hijab?

I found some nice things too, don't get me wrong. The mosque scene was a first on the skamverse, I liked balloon squad, I liked the soundtrack and I really (unexpectedly) liked Italian Elias (Rami). But, sana può partire se ci sto io a fa la guardia. What? Last scene of the season, and still Sana can go to vacation with her friends just because there's gonna be her brother to be her guard? I'm speachless.

And don't let me talk about the Fandom who say this is the best season four ever, when they clearly don't care about Sana or sana's story (I actually went a bunch of time in the tag, and out of 20 post, only 5 were about Sana, and out of 55 posts, I saw Malik's face once, ONCE)

This got longer than I thought, I'm so sorry, but all I want to say is: there was actually a potential there, and I appreciate that they tried cause this is the first time ever that Italy has a Muslim girl on screen, and God knows how much we need this. But not like this. It's like they tried to destroy every stereotypes for nine episodes just to confirm every single one of them at the end. And it's a shame. And I'm glad that there are people who felt represented, but I'm so so sorry for all those people who didn't.

[wak-after-dark]

Still not able to come up with an argument about the Epilogue treating Gamzee (the murderous corpse molester) better than Jade (sat around for 3 years with depression only to have a dog dick and then be abandoned by her friends) huh? Guess you're just an idiot and willingly sucking Hussie's dick for a job at Whatpumpkin down the line. Maybe write some incest porn like IPDG and you'll get hired.

Wow get a load of this guy.

Okay I should probably just delete your comments and not give you the time of day, but you’ve been periodically sending me this kind of ask, and I really have to ask, do you really, really believe you’re someone with some sort of Moral High Ground right now? Like I’m not even defending the Epilogues as masterpieces or trying to shove them down people’s throats. I am literally just enjoying the content the WP Team put out and talking about it, and you come to my Inbox, to spew this accusatory nonsense and flinging insults. If you can’t read the Epilogues in a positive manner, and think they’re dogshit, sure, go ahead, but you’re like, trying to act like I’m some sort of brainwashed sheep and you’re trying to make me see the light. Also “Still not able to come up with an argument“ very passive-aggressive there, I have talked about the Epilogues, my opinions and takes on them, and how I feel about the way they deal with characters at LARGE here, if you haven’t bothered to look for the info, and the several responses to some of your asks, then don’t blame me for it. But sure. Let me talk about every single point you JUST mentioned here like some sort of big Masterpost, and when you don’t agree with my point either way, stop fucking harassing me on Anon, seriously you alone have been making me consider turning anon off entirely, which all things considered may just be the healthiest option I could consider, but here I am!

Still not able to come up with an argument about the Epilogue treating Gamzee (the murderous corpse molester) better than Jade (sat around for 3 years with depression only to have a dog dick and then be abandoned by her friends) huh?

Okay let’s begin with Homestuck proper. Gamzee is a Villain. He’s framed as such, people have constantly shown backlash against his character because he’s got fans that would like to see him redeemed, since a good chunk of his story happens with him brainwashed or mind-altered in some sort, but every time he’s shown to go back to doing awful things and killing people. He abuses Terezi, kills Karkat, and gets killed by Kanaya in return in one Timeline, and in another he gets locked up in a fridge, ends up in Caliborn’s planet, and trying to serve his Lord just gets beaten up, shot, left half-dead, until his final appearance in which he gets cut in half and absorbed into Lord English. Then, the Epilogues happen, and he becomes the butt of a joke about undeserved redemption arcs. His very existence in Candy is a joke that he’s not worth redeeming, actually, but tries to force himself to ‘seem’ like he has, despite ruining Dirk’s funeral, making Jake and Tavros’ lives miserable, supporting a Fascist ruler, taking advantage of a potential minor, and it all ends up with him being choked, killed, and his corpse being used as a Weekend at Bernie’s joke. Like... Is that really what you consider ‘good treatment of a character’? He gets away with a lot of bullshit, but he’s like. Constantly, and consistently, shown to be unpleasant, gross and awful. Like. He’s an awful person, and a comic relief, that does fucked up shit for most of his appearance, and I am not sure how any of this can be read in any sort of positive light. I’ve seen Gamzee fans MAD at how much he gets shat on.

Meanwhile, let’s take Jade. A huge theme of her character, sadly, is loneliness and isolation. I dislike that, like many Jade fans. She’s forced into depressingly helpless situations where she lacks agency or control over her own body, or the situation she’s in, and it’s shown affecting her greatly. I want my girl to be happy as well. So when the Epilogues came, and had her getting Callie-possessed, that was bad, it was like, AGAIN she gets the shaft. I want her to be happy and do what she wants to do and be badass with her powers! But- Oh wait, none of that is what you’re complaining about!!! You keep insisting on the Dog Dick instead of any of the genuinely heartbreaking things that happen to her. Jade has a dog dick. It is mentioned once in the entire Epilogues. It mildly affects her desire to have a child with Dave, but she doesn’t even shown herself that broken up about it, and had been looking about potential alternatives, even having Rose as a surrogate. There’s not a single joke made in the Epilogues about her HAVING a dog dick, nor any sort of isolation that happens as a product of her genitalia. Is it a weird choice to canonize that headcanon? Yeah! It kind of is! But this is also a reality where Obama and Dirk make out. And if someone is uncomfortable about Jade having a dog dick, or doesn’t like her being more openly sexual, then that’s fine!!! If they have a transphobic read on Jade, that’s fine!!! You can dislike it, and Homestuck, and the Epilogues, and the writers! But I, as a trans woman myself, and one who’s horny on main a lot of the time, liked the freedom Jade expressed to just do whatever she wanted with new partners on Earth C, and her seeming acceptance and lack of conflict at just, having junk. She does fuck up with Dave and Karkat, because she pushes them a bit too hard, specially Karkat, trying to use the Quadrant System to insert herself in a Black relationship. In Candy, this culminates with political tensions breaking Karkat away from the triad, which is bad for everyone involved. But in Meat, Jade states that they can tell her to just stop and she will, because she genuinely likes both Karkat and Dave, but their feelings are too deeply bottled and complex to just come to light. Does this put some tension in her relationship with them? Yeah! Does this ISOLATE her from her friends? No! Karkat and Dave DO still wanna hang out with her even if she’s a bit too much. John and Jade apparently chat online a bunch, and Jake seemed to have a good relationship with Jade before the whole Jane thing. She is close enough with Rose and Kanaya that Rose considered the surrogate mother thing. She has friends and ties! The major things that happen to isolate her is, Karkat leaving- Caused by Jane’s rise to power- Dave dying- Caused by Ultimate Self Timeline Shenanigans- And being possessed by Callie- All things outside of her control. I want her to get her agency back, but beyond that, her, as a person on Earth C, was not abandoned by her friends, and your obsession over her dog dick as a root of her issues and the bad stuff that happens to her says more about you than about the Epilogues in my opinion.

Guess you're just an idiot and willingly sucking Hussie's dick for a job at Whatpumpkin down the line. Maybe write some incest porn like IPDG and you'll get hired.

You know what? Yeah I would love to have a role at WhatPumpkin. Because I’ve seen the people working at it do other things, and I’ve seen their passion for Homestuck. The people currently doing Homestuck love Homestuck, and this is not up for fucking debate. As for the incest porn thing? Fuck you. Fuck you, fuck you, and a thousand fucking times fuck you. Once again, trying to get some stupid moral high ground mentioning incest. “Oh look at me, I am criticizing someone for something they wrote years ago”, is how you actually sound, and that’s only on the surface. V from Homestuck was never confirmed to be ipgd. V got harassed, and ‘doxxed’ by dubious sources and, I believe, Kiwifarms shit was going on at that time, so that was extremely shady and shitty. And the result of them being equated ended with ipgd being told to kill themself because of old fic they’d written, which, GUESS WHAT, was actually a critic to the way Incest was extremely popular in Fanfic back then, written by ipgd themself, a god damn survivor of that same bullshit they wrote about!!! Congratulations! THAT is the kind of bullshit people like you pull. You just cling to some idea of what’s right and wrong, and end up hurting real people that’ve gone through real shit, instead of considering nuance to your actions and thinking that, HMM, PERHAPS I SHOULD NOT HARASS SOMEONE ON THE INTERNET BECAUSE THEY DID SOMETHING I DON’T LIKE OR HAVE AN OPINION I DON’T AGREE WITH! But nah, let’s go send death threats to people we don’t like, riiiiiiight????

My fandom wish for homestuck 2 is the characters are treated with respect but since every single one of the new authors hate women and only want dirk and jake as well as Dave and Karkat to fuck on screen while Vriska gets comphet child raped by gamzee why bother lol.

Like, I don’t even know what to say. Have you seen like... The rest of the work the WP Team is doing with Homestuck stuff? Addressing actual issues? Doing right by the characters? Acknowledging their fucked up stuff while also showing them in positive lights? A good chunk of the Team, too, is queer? Like if they were all cis straight dudes I could see your complaint but they just. Aren’t??? At all???? Even Taz, who’s probably the biggest Dirk-Jake fan around, absolutely wants the best for other characters, yes, Jade and Rose included, you are just too jaded and blinded by your perception of the Epilogues. Vriska and Gamzee... Yeah that’s iffy. I am not going to defend that, whether it was a mistake with the ages or it was just Gamzee being more awful, that was extremely nasty. There’s also like, suicide and abuse and dictatorship in the Epilogues though. All of this shit that happens is awful, but also it’s not PROMOTING it or saying it’s a good thing? It’s... Fucked up. Comphet though, I dooooooooo want to elaborate on that, because, while I do like the reading of Vriska as being more into women, she does show a near-consistent fascination for Nic Cage and, then, ARquius as someone with a similar aesthetic? Like don’t get me wrong, Vris-Rezi is absolutely the way to go and the healthy thing for Vriska, but also I am not 100% sure if you can gloss over every single one of her relationships with guys as Comphet? (Compbi? Since it’s Trolls) Not to say it justifies anything with Gamzee, that was just nasty. But I feel there’s nuance to talk about Vriska’s sexuality.

Hussie doesn't like his fans or care about Homestuck, how you can read the Epilogue and say the opposite it honestly insane and a complete bold faced lie. Any author that cares about their work would read someone demanding a character be given a dog dick and say no. Any author who cares about their work and their fans wouldn't have released such a purposely bad and painful epilogue and then demand payment for a resolution. Just give up. That's the moral of Homestuck. Give up. It's pointless.

Nah man, you’re just jaded and hurt and projecting. Hussie and the WP Team love Homestuck. It would’ve been so fucking easy to just stop doing Homestuck and move onto something, not even release an Epilogue. It’s like when Homestuck ended. People accused Hussie of a rushed ending with Act 7 back in the day, of disliking Homestuck and the Fans, of having just wrapped it up quickly, but like... If you want to wrap Homestuck up quickly... There were a million fan theories and endings out around that would’ve been so much simpler, easier and basic than what we got. The fact we got Act 7 and all it entailed, the shit the characters go through the Epilogues, of course a lot of awful shit happens, but like... Precisely? If you’re tired of doing something, you just wrap things up. You don’t set up new plot points and mess with the characters and push a new narrative outlook on something. This is the work of an experimental team that still do love the content and characters. Again, you return to the fucking Dog Cock like it’s the biggest sin the Epilogues commit. You haven’t even mentioned Jane’s fascism a single time, but you’ve mentioned Jade’s Dog Fucking Cock like fucking twenty times. Who the fuck cares about what sort of junk Jade has, the Epilogues themselves barely even care, it’s mentioned in the passing and it hardly affects a THING at all. You ask me how I can ‘read the Epilogues and see the opposite of what they say’, and I ask you the exact same thing, because despite all the awful things that happen, Rose and Kanaya keep fighting against tyranny in Candy. Kanaya realizes she’s been brainwashed and chases after Rose because she’s NOT giving up on her wife. Roxy explores their gender identity and finds new things about themself. Karkat gets to live his rebel leader dreams in one Timeline, although with a bitter split from Dave, but ends up together in a proper relationship in Meat. John’s arc in Candy about feeling isolated from a world that seems fake, before realizing his nihilism has hurt the people he cares about and wanting to fix it. Jake’s morale of ‘better late than never’, working up the courage to take Tavros away from Jane- And in HS^2, working as a double-agent trying to sabotage Jane from within? Jane’s been shown at her worst in candy, but in Meat she’s shown to still be redeemable, and that’s exactly what the team’s aiming to do, too.

Like... I can see all the bad stuff that happens. And I find the reactions of the characters to these awful situations are interesting, and the political conflict among friends and the pushing forward in such a dark situation, resonates with me, personally, and some of my own experiences? Not to say, the Epilogues are a Game Over scenario? They are a low point. HS^2 sets up to be the high point. Like... When Game Over happened, a lot of people were like “Welp, Hussie just killed everyone, lol, guess he just got tired of Homestuck”, despite the Retcon Powers being there as the obvious solution. Epilogues, lots of shit happen, and similarly there’s still like a hundred ways to build up from there to a satisfactory resolution? Storytelling can have low points you know. It hurts when it’s characters you care about, duh, specially when it plays into the weaknesses they already acknowledged but fell into again despite themselves. I see why so many people would dislike them and take a more negative vibe from them than they actually convey. But I am still baffled as to why people like you feel entitled to shit on the WP Team and send harassment and insults to people who do enjoy them. You’re not helping anything. You’re not doing anything good. You’re just being a dick.

As for the “demand a payment for a resolution”, they didn’t demand anything? I will be the first one to say that I don’t like the Extra Bonus for 5 bucks, and think it would be better if the Bonus got released like, a month or two after it has for Patrons, an ‘early access’ scenario like I do with my Patreon. And I hope they change this. But aside from that??? The Patreon is optional to support the creators because, it’s not just Hussie, it’s a big team, and they’re also using the Patreon to help them with other projects like Pesterquest and Hiveswap, because we live in a capitalistic hell world and need money to be able to pursue passion projects. The main updates every month- And twice a month starting February- Are completely free for people to read, still, the paywalled content still circulates around the community despite being paywalled, and other paid projects like, Pesterchum, for their scope and the amount of fun they’ve given me, they’re super cheap and worth it.

You ask me how I can ‘see the opposite the Epilogues say’, you tell me that I am an ‘idiot sucking Hussie’s dick for a job at WP’, you act like I am scum and brainwashed and there’s literally no reason why I should ever like something you don’t.

You know what I am though? I am happy and excited about the things I’ve been given! I am happy with the representation I’ve seen the Team push lately. I’m happy with the way the characters have been treated in Pesterquest and have high hopes for HS^2. And I am interested in the events of the Epilogues, while acknowledging that of course a lot of fucked up shit happened in them.

Back when the Epilogues happening and I was reading them, I was reading Candy at like 4 AM and was LOVING the fucked up-ness of the Timeline and wondering what may happen in Meat. I got a PM from a friend asking me to make a channel in a server I’m in, to quarantine Epilogues Discourse, and was genuinely confused as to why there was Discourse going on. I went through the rest of Candy and Meat with some dread waiting for some ball to drop and something to turn really controversial, and I finished them still enjoying them? Obviously there was a lot of awful shit. Obviously there was a lot of things people wouldn’t like. Obviously they were tales that likely alienated a chunk of the Fandom that was looking for a happy ending. But honestly, the unbridled fury and subsequent harassment of people over them is just plain embarrassing. It was confusing then, and it’s even more confusing now, well over half a year since their release, and still sending random Tumblr Blogs this kind of bullshit.

So there you go! All of your questions and your bullshit, answered! Now let’s get this out of the way: You’re not going to like my answer, you’re not going to agree with a majority of what I just said, you’re not going to CARE about any of what I just said. Spare me the fucking asks and anon hate. Just move on and do something productive with your time.

[aprilmaybcnot]

meet April May, resident pretentious art graduate and maker of first contact with aliens.

app

「  florence  pugh  ,  twenty  three  ,  cis  woman  +  she/her  」  ˚╰  ❃  ╮  did  you  know    APRIL’s    real  name  is    APRIL  MAY    ?!  around  the  island  they  seem  to  be  quite    gregarious    ,  but  also    short-sighted   ,  but  it  makes  sense  given  they  are  a    GRAPHIC  DESIGNER / INTERNET  CELEBRITY    and  come  from    AN  ABSOLUTELY  REMARKABLE  THING    .  you  can  hear   DON’T  STOP  ME  NOW  by  QUEEN    blasting  from  their  house  ,  but  be  careful  !  they  can  be  agitated  as  nightmares  bring  back  memories  of   KNOCKING  ON  HER  BEST  FRIEND’S  DOOR  AFTER  BEING  PRESUMED  DEAD  FOR  A  YEAR  DUE  TO  ALIEN  ABDUCTION   .  even  so  ,  it’s  impossible  to  see    mugs  piled  up  in  the  sink,  a  phone  lighting  up  with  a  million  notifications,  leaving  a  bed  in  your  living  room  because  you  don’t  want  to  officially  move  in  with  your  girlfriend    and  not  think  about  them  .  

stats

name: April May

age: twenty three

pronouns: she/her

sexuality: bisexual

fandom: an Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

occupation: graphic designer (marketing); internet celebrity (yes she’s embarrassed by that fact)

the real story (spoilers for AART obvs)

Nothing really interesting happened in April’s life until she was already out of art school. Her parents were well-off, having sold their dairy farm and getting into the farm machine business. They were never rich but they certainly never wanted. She has an older brother but they were never very close. In fact, she was always distant from her family for no reason other than her emotional unavailability.

She went to art school in NYC where she met her future girlfriend, Maya, and her best friend Andy Scampt. The three were inseperable. Maya and April moved into together and started dating after that, meaning they always had a couch in their living room because April didn’t want to make it official.

One night, after staying over at the start-up she worked at, she came across a transformer-esque statue in the middle of NYC. She called Andy, they shot a youtube video where she dubbed the statue Carl, Andy uploaded his video, they went to bed. 

Then April woke up and learned that the video went viral and that a number of other Carls had appeared all over the world. She does some appearances on TV news and one late night TV show. 

So basically the Carls are actually this one alien dude and the species as a whole gave humans a mystery & puzzles to solve together so they could Judge us. This led to 1) a contagious dream and 2) far right nationalistic terrorism. April helps solve the puzzles but only technically. 

The far right losers make her into their number one enemy bc she did ya know get famous for discovering them. She gets really well-known for defending the Carls and that only makes her hate them more. This goes on for a long ass time until there’s a series of terrorist attacks on a few of the sites where the Carls are and one of them tries to murder April but Carl’s hand (which detached from Carl when April, Andy, and this hot scientist named Miranda gave it some chemicals in LA) saves her.

She and Andy go to film a video at the site of New York Carl after the attacks on the same day. The man who tried to murder her tries again. He stabs her. Carl turns him into grape jelly. She goes to the hospital, meets the president, everything is all good.

Few weeks later the far right terrorists in the US (the Defenders) hijack one of the dream puzzles and trick April into going to a warehouse where they you know lock her in and then set it on fire. She uh pretty much died. However at the same time the last dream puzzle was solved by a bunch of people around the world. After the display of humanity working together on such a grand scale Carl saves April.

She spent a few months just in space I’m guessing. Idk the sequel isn’t out yet so we might learn but I kinda doubt. So i’m saying she was just chilling in space, healing, talking to aliens about how they view about humanity. She was presumed dead.

After all that, she’s sent back to earth. She buzzes Andy’s apartment and texts him knock knock. For us this is when the Forces That Be grabbed her up and sent her to Aurora.

her life 2: electric boogaloo (aka the fake shit)

April’s life on Aurora is much less dramatic than her real life. It really doesn’t get interesting until when she was 18 and getting a double major in marketing and graphic design with a minor in art history. She was goofing around with her friends and made a video about a weird art installation on campus. It wasn’t serious and no one expected anything to come from it but it got fairly popular.

So April, a broke college student, decided to use this to her advantage and built a brand around herself. She plays up the fact that she’s a pretentious pretty white girl and leans into to how generally disconnected from pop culture. She doesn’t pretend to be someone else but she certainly cultivates who people see. 

wanted connection

to be added maybe

[dimples-of-discontent]

Don’t you think Jensen always denying that dean is bi is because it hits close to him? Like Dean’s behaviour around men and Jensen’s around Misha is kinda similar so?

Hello Nonnie,

Whew, oh boy! Ok, I got this ask in a few different forms so hopefully one answer can serve for them. 

The first thing I’m going to do is remind everyone that Jensen has never commented publicly on his sexuality at all and that, therefore, it’s none of our business. It never is, actually, unless someone brings it up themselves and indicates that they wish to discuss it. That’s just a rule for life. Private is private, even if you’re an actor. The second thing I’m going to do is assume that you know what kind of blog this is and that I backstroke through the garbage fire pretty regularly including speculating about Jensen and Misha. So, yes, I am guilty of engaging in this type of posting. 

But there’s rules! The main rule being that these things we say for our entertainment (curiosity, whatever) in fandom spaces are never in a billion years to be brought into the actors lives in any way. Do not ask them about it. Do not show them posts or fic about it. Do not tag them in Twitter posts about it, even if those are adorable posts collecting all the Cockles cheek kisses or whatever. Fandom spaces are ours; they’re imagined communities and we behave differently in them than we would in the real world. 

Plus–again this should be obvious–we’re just posting shit we infer from a very limited viewpoint. Jensen and Misha give us a lot to work with (hoobooy they do!) but we’re seeing them in the public eye, at cons mostly or on livestreams. We have no freaking clue what they are like alone…and that’s how it should be.

And now that I have attached that upfront (I know I do this all the time and that if you read a bunch of my posts you may be getting sick of it…apologies, but RPS is very tricky and I feel like I need to foreground some of the boundaries for newcomers) let me put a cut below which you will find my thoughts on this.

It’s no secret that Jensen has a very high degree of character bleed with Dean–he straight-up admits that. I wrote a long post that’s been going around about how Jensen views Dean very experientially, knowing what Dean knows and doing what he thinks Dean would do, and about how that makes it tough for him to distinguish what he thinks of Dean from what DEAN thinks of Dean. Dean is a part of Jensen, as he has said.

What’s slightly less obvious, though intuitive, is that Jensen is a part of Dean. The vulnerability that Dean has had from the beginning is, to my mind, all Jensen. A lesser actor, or a lesser sweetheart, in that role would have made Dean pretty unsympathetic with his sarcasm and his machismo and his dumb, smirking face. To me, this is the same thing that happened with James Marsters on “Buffy.” He was supposed to be a straight-up villain, in just a couple episodes, but audiences went nuts for him. He got more episodes but Whedon still wanted to keep him a villain…except that James couldn’t keep that vulnerability and uncertainty and humanity out of the character. So instead we got a love story and a big, ol’ redemption arc. (I realize that it also sounds like I’m describing what happened with Misha and, in a sense, I am.)

Now, Jensen is a better actor than James Marsters (even though I think James is an amazing actor…and I love that he dropped out of Juilliard), but I’m willing to bet that what James did with humanizing Spike was more deliberate than what Jensen did with Dean. I think Jensen feels things intuitively about Dean and that he just goes for it without additional self-reflection. That’s why when he’s called out on something that he hasn’t deliberately chosen to do–like many of the bi!Dean or Destiel moments–he’s confused and slightly defensive. He makes some deliberate choices, obviously, but especially at this point he’s going on mostly instinct and doesn’t HAVE to examine those choices.

That is, unless we ask him to. I think often his encounters with questions about playing Dean a certain way (bisexual, in love with Cas) DO ask him to reflect on himself and ask himself why he made particular choices. And that’s not easy to do, especially onstage and in front of a crowd!! It’s like we’re always going, “Ok, Jensen, so clearly your instinct is to [insert non-hetero thing here]…why IS that?”; no wonder he will freeze-panic and sometimes say something thoughtless and/or rude! (Personally, I would like us to stop asking, largely for this reason.)

So, I suppose my answer to your question is “yes, exactly.” I think Jensen is an intelligent, meticulous, and thoughtful actor. I also think, subconsciously, he channels a ton of himself into Dean and that his being defensive of certain aspects of Dean (e.g. his sexuality) is indeed also his being defensive about those aspects of himself. Look at how much more easily the other cast members are able to analyze their characters, including comments about their sexuality. Just this weekend (at Jaxcon) Rich pretty much confirmed that he sees Gabriel as non-straight (pansexual?). Jared has said that he sees Sam as straight but that it’s ok by him if other people don’t. Ditto Misha about Cas (though he usually gets asked about his being Ace). And, yes, that is Jensen’s party line on the Dean question too. “You have your version and I have mine.” But his reactions to it are, to me, notably different from the rest of the cast.

I haven’t mentioned Misha yet but, well, if there’s any time we see Jensen acting non-straight it’s around Misha (in character or not). I’m not fully on the train for “Destiel is Cockles’s fault” because “Destiel” is a complex phenomenon 10 years in the making. But I’m not ever going to deny that their chemistry was a huge part of it taking root and growing. And it’s impossible–absolutely fucking impossible–not to notice the overlap between the trajectories. The first time Jensen met Misha was the first time Dean met Cas; they were both freaked out by this kind of alien being as much because he inspired “weird” feelings in them as because he was so “weird.” Jensen had Misha’s handprint applied in makeup before he met him just like Dean was branded by Cas. They had kind of an enemies-to-friends-to-lovers thing. They experienced some kind of betrayal and breakup and then a tentative reunion. They’re basically married now. 

So, yeah, when Jensen is asked about Dean’s sexuality I do think he experiences it as a question about his own sexuality. And when he’s asked about Cas I do think he experiences it as a question about Misha. And, as others have said, either he’s been subtly playing Dean’s attraction to guys (including Cas) the whole time or he’s kind of lost control of himself and enabled his own attraction to men, and particularly Misha, to creep in unintentionally. (Note that I don’t think that makes him a “bad actor”; like I said, I think he acts Dean very intuitively at this point so his decisions may be unexamined but are not “bad” choices.) 

This is already long, so I’m not going to comment here on what I think of Jensen’s sexuality. Well, actually, you’ve stayed with me so long that I feel I owe it to you. The short version… I do think that Jensen isn’t straight. I think he’s a guy who thinks of himself as straight even though he sometimes hooks up with dudes. The fact that that is inherently not straight doesn’t bother him. He doesn’t think it’s a big deal (though he used to, and that panic can still get activated). He doesn’t care about the labels and he finds the idea of seeing himself in the LGBTQA acronym ridiculous. 

He and Misha may argue about this. It is, after all, a form of enormous privilege as an incredibly attractive, cis-het, white dude to just choose not to join a marginalized group. I do think that’s one reason he and especially Danneel support a lot of LGBTQA causes. (I don’t think she and Misha are straight either and I think they probably don’t self-identify that way.)

Maybe in another post I’ll go more fully into the long version of sexuality speculation. It’s such a delicate thing to do and I want to do it as respectfully as possible and I just don’t have the energy at the moment. I have written about this before, though, if you’re looking for more; I have a tag for “jensen is not straight” and (I think) “jensen is bi” although I dropped that b/c it was too definitive. There’s also one for “sexuality speculation” and “misha is not straight” and “misha is bi” (same reason for the tag change…too definitive.) 

Remember the rules, though, and keep everything respectful and confined to our own lanes.

[dear-indies]

I love writing and RPing but I want to quit. I send tons of memes to people and get none in return, I post opens, I reply to opens. I make sure my opens and replies have a plot and multiple things for partners to reply to. I've spent years developing my characters. I add a half developed, conventionally attractive dude and all the people who ignored my female muses are suddenly interested. I'm tired. Most of my characters are woc, not straight and despite my best efforts I want to quit.

✨✨ Please like this post if you’re willing to interact with anon / let them approach you if they want to interact! ✨✨

Hey anon - I’m sorry that you’re having such a hard time finding partners. Sadly some roleplayers in the community do flock to men more so than women and especially non-cis characters but there are some wonderful roleplayers out there who will write with you!  If you’re worried people are only using you for certain muses it’s fine not to roleplay with them, it’s also find to only roleplay with those who are interested in roleplaying with your other muses too. That’s something mentioned on the dashboard a lot.I know that sounds totally cliche and that you’ve probably tried everything but please don’t give up. You’re not alone. Some more suggestions would be that if you’re a fandomless character or a character from a small fandom maybe make some fandom specific verses in hopes roleplayers from said fandom are interested? Tagging starters and promos with different fandoms that you��re interested in roleplaying with? Try following a bunch of people from our masterlists the original character page literally has hundreds of blogs listed. Reach out to people if they post or reblog wanted plots. Like starter calls. Make starter calls. People are more willing to select the easy options. I’ve also put a little note for people to like this if they’re interested in roleplaying with you so hopefully you’ll discover some new and amazing people. Take care! -C

[vanilla-inkwell]

boi has the local X-Men fandom been having some discourse lately, here’s my contribution

1) AGE OF X-MAN IN GENERAL IS REALLY, REALLY GOOD, AND X-TREMISTS IS EXCELLENT

For real, I’m stunned people are ragging on one of the best X-events in years, and seemingly because it’s an AU with a secretly dystopian world that’s... narratively framed as being every bit the evil, awful, fascist system we recognize it as? Like, y’all realize we’re supposed to dislike seeing X-Men working in a fascist system, right? That it’s meant to be wrong, and twisted; that’s the driving force of the conflict. 

And this isn’t a mutant utopia. Being free from human prejudice doesn’t mean this is a successful, perfect mutant society, and it also doesn’t mean this is the only way a purely mutant society could be. The idea is quite clearly that this world, although on the surface it appears to be a mutant dreamland, is deeply flawed. I’d think y’all would catch on to the very intentional, important detail that a straight, white, cis man who banged his mom’s clone’s ghost was the creator of this world. They’re not making any negative point about marginalized peoples, they’re making a point about entitled dudes who think forcing the world to be their perception of “better” is the right way to go.

2) THE X-MEN MOVIES ARE GREAT AND DARK PHOENIX WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY ALSO BE GREAT

I’m actively avoiding the new trailer, because I want to go in as unspoiled as possible, but I’ve no doubts that Dark Phoenix is gonna meet the same level of quality the previous X-Men movies have. Are there a handful of problematic elements scattered throughout the XCU? Sure, without a doubt. Are they inherently embedded in these movies, though? No, and most of those issues are far from unique to these movies. We can criticize them without cancelling them, y’all. We can loathe Bryan Singer all he deserves and still laud Days of Future Past all it deserves (and it deserves a lot of praise). 

Honestly, it’s like some of y’all X-Men fans don’t want to like any new X-Men content. We got 

- a whole-ass series of (largely) excellent movies, with two coming out this year

- two separate, fantastic X-Men or X-related shows (one of which is legit the emotional, intense, character-driven X-Men drama we all want and deserve, while the other is a brilliant, surreal, cinematically stunning David Lynch meets Wes Anderson headtrip) 

- a steady stream of (largely) excellent comics spread across numerous, highly distinct series’

- a special focused event going on in the comics that’s doing extremely cool and distinct and bold stuff

AND all of this media is comprised of a bunch of different flavors of X-Men, AND we got the inevitably upcoming MCU X-Men movies. Don’t like the current ones? Cool! That’s fine! Hype up the MCU ones we all know we’re gonna get. What do you accomplish by complaining about the existing movies, other than annoying the people that love them? Why not focus on the X-Men stuff you’re excited about? 

Y’all’s negative as hell, and it’s bonkers, ‘cause we’re in a stellar time for X-Men content, if only y’all would loosen up and give it the focus it deserves.

[olderthannetfic]

You can't tell me that Shinji wouldn't have some fierce pent up rage he'd let out in the bedroom whenever he manages to make it in there.

Idk, I know my experience isn't universal but I only saw the anti-pages and flash games in the fujoshi sector. Flame wars on LJ with het ships oh absolutely. Hello stalking and other such nonsense. If you saw any hate/kill pages for het ships I'd love to hear about them because that's a weird part of internet history that I sometimes wonder if I dreamed up. That experience was a big milestone during my formative years. I could've done better without that experience. Either way, internalized misogyny is something we all get to battle, I'm sure, but I do take exception to people weaponizing and pedestaling Teh Gays to do it. Or any race someone doesn't have a dog in really but to stay on topic. The overall vibe I recall was 'this is so taboo and that makes it sexy so let's play in this filth for a while and kill Asuka' etc and I just think it'd be nice if that was done? So yeah. 1) Are we normalized yet and 2) What's the updog on the female character hate-sites?

IS IT SAFE YET?

--

Hmm... an intriguing point.

Fandom! Please weigh in on this pressing topic!

How does Shinji fuck?

--

I think the het side of fandom just called their enemy characters "whores" instead of "stupid and boring" like the m/m-shipping side tended to. IDK. It's not like over-the-top hate for the character in the way of the ship has ever been restricted to one group.

Plenty of female character hate I remember was from straight dudes who pretended not to care about shipping. That absolutely includes jokey shit about Asuka being raped or murdered for not fawning on their self-inserty take on Shinji or for not being a ~demure lady~ like Rei or some bullshit. I'm sure they too would be quick to blame it on the icky m/m shippers now though.

There's a really toxic subtext to your comments that's a lot more pressing than someone's character hate webshrine from twenty years ago.

"Or any race someone doesn't have a dog in really" is such a covert radfem way of thinking. That's for two reasons:

1. A shitton of conflicted AFAB m/m shippers grow out of their "girls suck" problems when they finally realize that they are not girls and that this hatred of everything to do with women is coming from a place of being constantly triggered by how people perceive them.

I remember reading some of Billy Martin's old stuff as a teenager and being really grossed out by how it treated women. I liked the m/m parts and the kinky shit, so I kept reading, but yikes. Years later, finding out that Poppy Z Brite was struggling for years and eventually became "Doc" and then Billy Martin made so much sense. That doesn't make misogyny cool, but I'll cut the dude some slack for taking a while to figure his shit out.

I don't restrict that to trans men. NB people and, frankly, a lot of more-or-less cis women with non-normative gender in some way follow a similar path.

2. What makes you think I don't have a dog in that race? What makes you think a woman cannot relate primarily to male characters or equally to male characters?

As a bisexual woman, I like bisexual characters. I don't give two shits about lesbian ones. My first point of identification is orientation, not gender.

The reason I say your (extremely common and thrown at me daily) talking points are covert radfem is that they posit a situation in which women should identify first and foremost with other women. We should choose women. We should center women.

Why?

What if you want to center your ethnicity? What if you want to center your age? What if you want to center your neurodivergence?

Or what, for that matter, if you want to write about the inside of your head and not the outside of your body? There are many, many reasons people choose these cross-group identifications for that purpose. The entirety of drag queen culture and gay men's use of female celebrities is a version of this. Sure, some trans women have been into the same stuff, and it was an expression of them being women, just as some m/m-writing AFABs in fandom turn out to be men, but there's also this whole other thing that has to do with making art that expresses your insides, not a representation quota.

--

Are we normalized yet? Is who normalized? Gay men? People who hate on m/m shippers in cliched ways? Yes to both. If you want to hang with the cis gay dudes, I'm sure they're around somewhere, though probably not in the middle of AFAB-ville on fanworks fandom tumblr. If you want to find a bunch of dickheads who hate "fujoshi", often in self-hating ways, they're all over the place though. Throw a rock. You'll hit one.

Character shrines, positive and negative, are long dead thanks to geocities and its ilk deleting our collective internet history, but as long as you see strawmen lurking around every corner, it will never be safe for you.