#I think there are like. Generation gaps in fandom culture

[beloved-child-of-the-house]

i see way way way more posts yelling about how wrong it is to tell middle aged women that they’re too old for fandom or tumblr than I see people saying anything of the sort to middle aged women. Like I’m 36 and I’ve never had anyone tell me I’m too old to be here 🤷🏽‍♂️

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I have a question about Jpn v Eng fandom differences? I've always been really disturbed and hurt by how the Eng fandom treats Jamil's ob situation compared to the other boys as somehow less forgiving or understandable since Kalim is so beloved. But I've been told this might be because the Eng servers greatly tone down the slavery/master situation as less "indentured" and more "employed but miserable". How does the Jpn fanbase generally feel about Jamil?

Yes, there were significant changes made to the Scarabia duo in the Twst localization and I believe it is these changes that resulted in the English-only fandom misunderstanding Jamil's reasons for overblotting + treating Jamil's OB as "less serious" than the others. I believe it has very little to do with Kalim's popularity, as I don’t recall him being very popular in EN and especially when compared to the other dorm leaders.

So firstly, what you heard about EN changing the master/servant relationship to an employer/employee relationship is somewhat correct. In JP, they consistently use "servant", "aide", or "personal attendant" to refer to Jamil and his family members' status. In EN, they sometimes use words like "helper" or "employee" or “aide” instead of "servant". Jamil’s parents are referred to as part of the Asims’ servants, but the term “servant” is scarcely used to refer to Jamil’s own relationship with Kalim. This by itself already somewhat lessens the power gap between the two, as using words like "helper"/"employee"/“aide” just give the impression that Jamil is simply disgruntled and could leave to find employment elsewhere whenever he likes. In reality, this is not the case--but it is not properly conveyed in EN.

The bigger factor at play here, I fear, comes from the edited lines of dialogue explaining the consequences for Jamil breaking from the Asims' control. In JP, he states that his entire family would suffer if he dared to defy the Asims. He provides an explicit example of being put out on the streets if he acts in selfishness. These lines are scrubbed and replaced with, "How could I betray our history like that? It would be beyond the pale. Not to mention the lecture I would get from my parents. I'm sorry, but it just wouldn't be right."

So... in EN, Jamil's worst worry is that his parents will be mad at him, versus in JP, where Jamil confesses his entire family will be without ANYTHING if he steps of line. JP gives the impression that the Vipers are almost being held hostage to force Jamil's obedience and servility. I think you can see why this would result in some different perceptions based on which version you play. To be fair to EN though, Jamil does get the line, "There would be consequences for my entire family if [Kalim] were exposed to any danger." However, said "consequences" are left vague and never elaborated on.

This has been an endless source of ire for Scarabia (and especially Jamil) fans 😔 It hurts them to see their favorite boys and their nuanced relationship fudged this badly. It hurts them to see others not grasping the full extent of how powerless and hopeless Jamil is in his circumstances. It hurts them to see people comparing Jamil’s trauma to others’ trauma and deeming it unworthy of empathy. It’s so ironic that a huge part of Jamil’s frustration stems from him having no one who understands him, yet the localization has made it so that English-only players aren’t understanding him as intended.

To your question; Jamil is actually a reasonably popular character in the JP fandom. He's not top 5, but I believe he's usually in the top 10. I think a lot of it comes from finding his story complex (as they're getting the original version), but also because a LOT of Japanese people--or those who come from collectivist cultures--find his struggles relatable. Filial piety is very strong in many eastern cultures, and Asians generally feel an immense pressure to be loyal to their families or to take actions that would benefit the group, even if it makes the individual miserable... all for the sake of preserving the group's harmony. This concept is less prominent in the west, so this, paired with the changed dialogue lines, may have resulted in Jamil's story not quite landing with western audiences.

[fanoftheimagines]

With the finale of season 2, I’m going to take a swing at the hornet’s nest. I’d like to take some time to discuss some discourse in the Joel Miller x Reader side of the fandom. Now, I wanted to stay out of it, but not only is the issue incredibly irritating, it’s also devolved into a toxic back-and-forth of miscommunication, mistagging, and anger.

I know it’s a lot to ask these days, but I’d like to address and analyze this recent discourse with a bit of critical thinking. However, there’s a bit of housekeeping I must do first. I want to make it clear that I have an opinion on the matter. I am not coming at this without bias, nor am I attempting to. That being said, I am not judging anyone in this fandom space for their opinions or kinks. To each their own. This is not coming from a place of pearl-clutching purity culture bs – in fact, I’m a proponent of making fandom weird again and don’t like, don’t read. I am also aware that a majority of one side will probably not see this post, as I’ve blocked a lot of people in this fandom over the years. I am simply a fan who wishes to have a mature conversation about this interesting, and complex, piece of discourse. This is also not coming from a place of behavior-policing. You can write what you want, and I will block accordingly.

So, what was the discourse to begin with?

The core of it is quite simple. One side is fans who want less dramatic age gaps, more reader inserts in their 30s+, and less DBF/daddy kink fics. The other side became angry of these complaints and are demanding people ignore these fics. This discourse originated in the PPCU fandom* and was not specific to the Last of Us fandom**, which leads me to believe this problem is purely due to the nature of Joel Miller being played by Pedro Pascal and not an inherent aspect of the Last of Us fandom. Now, I’ll get into the analysis of these arguments in a moment, but first, I’d like to go over some numbers.

To start, I analyzed everything posted from May 1st to May 21st in the Joel Miller x Reader tag. I recorded the type of post (whether it was a fanfiction, a picture, a video, a rec, or a general post), the date, and whether it fit a certain set of categories. The categories were classified by whether it contained the following: age gap (and what that age gap was), DBF (or other related kinks), daddy kink, incest or step dad kink, dark fic, or what I classified as “old man kink” (basically anything that sexualized old men and labeled old man!Joel specifically).

I want to make it clear, I’m purely looking at the amount posted not how popular these fics are. As much as I would’ve liked to analyze both, I am one person with a busy life, and my hypotheses didn’t focus so much on popularity as frequency.

So, what was the data?

There were 1093 total posts within the 21-day span, 678 of which were fanfictions. For reference, there were 309 general posts, 69 pictures, 19 rec posts, and 18 videos. Of the 678 fanfictions, approximately 641 were Joel Miller x Reader fics. 289 met none of the categories and 349 met the categories. Per day, there was an average of 16 fics posted that met the categories verses an average of 13 fics posted that didn’t.

Let’s focus on the categories, namely, what’s the breakdown?

Age Gap: 154

DBF: 80

Dark Fics: 48

Daddy Kink: 31

Old Man Kink: 17

Implied Age Gap: 7

Incest: 7

Step Dad Kink: 2

BFD: 2

HBF: 1

The age gap ranges in these fics, where expressly stated, were the following:

20s to 50s: 16

20s to 60s: 8

20s to 40s: 6

30s to 50s: 6

30s to 60s: 6

Late 20s to 50s: 5

Late 20s to 40s: 4

Late 20s to 60s: 4

20s to 30s: 2

There were approximately 88 unspecified age gap fics.

Now, I don’t pretend to be a wis with numbers, but I am an academic with enough know-how to analyze data. My numbers may be slightly off, but they are approximately accurate.

What can we conclude from these numbers and how does it inform this discourse?

The categories represent certain kinks and tropes that in mainstream fandoms are relatively niche. Certain kinks and tropes can be more common in some fandoms than others, for example, pseudoincest is common in the Umbrella Academy fandom. However, up until recently, these specific kinks/tropes were not as common in the Last of Us fandom. I didn’t get the numbers on this, but some of you might recall that before season 2, these kinks/tropes were not a common occurrence.

Now though? Over the 21 days I looked at, there were more fanfictions posted that fit into these categories than didn’t. Not only that, these fanfictions were posted with slightly more frequency on average per day. It’s easy to see why some fans feel these kinks/tropes are overdone and annoying, even people who enjoy these tropes. I’d argue the amount and frequency of these fics has caused a bit of fatigue.

Given the nature of Joel’s character, it is also easy to see why these tropes/kinks make people uncomfortable. A large and distinctive part of Joel’s character is his relationships with his daughters and how he pseudo adopts any young woman comes across. This is evident with Sarah and Ellie, but also with Dina (S2E1-2) and Abby (S2E2). Being a father defines Joel’s character. He attempted suicide because he is a father who lost his daughter and couldn’t live without her. He kills an entire hospital of people because he is a father, because Ellie became his daughter and he loves her just as he loves Sarah. His death was due to his actions protecting his daughter, and arguably because he saved Abby from the horde, because she’s close to Ellie’s age.

As I mentioned before, certain kinks and tropes can be more common in some fandoms than others. The themes in their source materials often determine what kinks and tropes develop in fandoms. They determine what kinks might be considered niche in the space. For example, pseudoincest is not considered niche in the Umbrella Academy fandom. In the case of Joel Miller, as previously discussed, the themes do not really lend themselves to DBF, daddy kink, and age gaps. The Last of Us has a focus on familial relationships, not romantic relationships. X Reader tends to lean heavily into romantic relationships, and so it is not surprising that Joel Miller x Reader is popular. However, what is surprising is how common these kinks have become even though the themes of the story do no necessarily lend itself to them. On top of that, I would argue that DBF is a niche kink in the general sense, as my friend – who is into fandom and “very into freak shit” (her words) has never heard of it until we talked about it.

Now, again, I’m not kink-shaming the people who write these. I believe the majority of them are likely young and writing reader inserts close to their own age. Plus, I am a huge proponent of writing what you want, and I want to be so clear that I am not saying you can’t write these types of fics, but you can’t deny that they are completely out of character for Joel Miller and don’t fit the narrative of the story. So, I can’t help but wonder why? I think the answer lies in the fact that he’s played by Pedro Pascal. The PPCU fandom* is full of smut writers who often veer into kinky and dark areas of smut. They are not necessarily focused on characters or stories, but their attraction to Pedro Pascal. It is unsurprising this translates to Joel in such an outstanding way.

So, I guess the real question is how do we as a fandom resolve all this? In a perfect world, these fics would all be explicitly tagged and people who don’t want to see them can block the writers or tags, and both parties could live peacefully in their own fandom bubbles. But these fics aren’t properly tagged all the time, nor are they always clear in the headings. The toxic attacks from both sides only makes it worse. It’s important to remember that fandom is supposed to be fun, and its community. We don’t have to like each other, or all the fanfictions written in this fandom, but we shouldn’t be attacking each other or making this space a toxic hellhole. But, tbh, that feels like asking too much.

*This is not a fandom, but a stan-dom, which is different and oftentimes more toxic. As evident here.

**I am not apart of the PPCU stan-dom, but I am apart of the Last of Us fandom, so my opinion is coming from that perspective.

EDIT: I would like to thank @letsgobarbs for filling me in on the finer details of the drama in the PPCU 'fandom' regarding the whole of this matter. And to them and @almostempty for touching on the racial overtones of DBF/Age gap fics - I didn't feel it my place to touch on the topic but it's a very important (if not one of the most important) aspect of the conversation.

[nauticaltrain]

is the way you interpret the stex characters, are they robots or a mix? since they don't feel pain, but bleed oil etc. what is the lore? are they built at a young age or are they built into adults? (p.s your art is delicious too look at !!)

ohohoho boy, the lore i have for you, strap in

(brief note, this is all my personal interpretation and is definitely not the word of god lol. I genuinely love every interpretation and believe that headcanon variety is vital to a healthy fandom ecosystem)

So, this is something I have thought a lot about and still continue to think about. I'm pretty sure I've nailed it down but it might still be a little nebulous so bear with me.

In the most basic sense, my interpretation of Starlight Express, and all of its characters, is that they are real world pieces of rolling stock that have the ability to shift between a train form (primary configuration) and a human form (secondary configuration). Not an uncommon idea in this fanbase.

However, I'm an overthinking bitch, and I love going in-depth on things like this, so let's expand a little.

There are three main phrases that I use to define my interpretation (headcanon? au? lore?) and to keep myself on track when developing ideas. Sort of layers, if you will. They are as follows:

Fabricated manifestation of psyche - This is rolling stock's appearance in secondary configuration, or what we see in the musical. Their human bodies are a cosmetic representation of their will. A psychological trick. It reflects their personalities, their jobs, their mental age, the demographics of the region they serve. There about a million different factors that go into how they look, and like us, they can't control it. (well, except for CB, but he's another story) It's important to note that this is a manifestation. They are not Transformers. Secondary configuration is not 1:1. There are certain things that get muddled in the changeover. Wheel arrangements being different, missing certain parts, changed color palettes. You could open one up and see parts but not in any sort of similar arrangement to their blueprints. I mean, who can honestly picture every single part of their body in perfect detail and then reinterpret it into a new shape? (this is in part my answer to discrepancies between the real costumes and my lore shh shh)

Counterfeit reflection of humanity - This is their minds. They are our copies. They experience everything we do. They work, play, socialize, fight, fall in love. You could talk to a piece of rolling stock and have a fully human conversation. They are people. However, the longer your conversation goes on for, you may notice certain...oddities. Gaps in their knowledge, speaking in rhythmic sentences, constant repetitive movement. Someone copied humans and didn't do the most perfect job. Like looking at human culture through a lens. Many a train has pondered the simultaneous existence of being machine and being alive.

Physical incarnation of industrialism - Now this, is the origin of all of this. The humans did not create trains to be the way they are. Every piece of rolling stock is designed as they would be in the real world: vehicles to transport people and goods from one place to the next. No one designed Greaseball's slicked back hair or big, studded belt, they designed an EMD E7 built for pulling fast passenger trains. My point is, at the advent of industrialism as we know it, the trains manifested their secondary configurations themselves. They are the offspring of humanity, sired by ingenuity and innovation and birthed from the overturned earth of the Industrial Revolution. No one knows how or why, they just are.

So, in summary, they're sort of robots? Sort of a power of the mind situation? Sort of my own self-reflection on the nature of being alive?

Bonus facts!

Indeed, they do not feel pain. In fact, much of their sense of touch in general is limited. It ranges from same sensitivity as human flesh (hands, face, wheels) to just registers contact (shoulder boxes, hip plating, couplers). I have a diagram of the exact distribution somewhere lol

They bleed? Kind of? If parts are pulled off or damaged, they sort of…leak. Also, if their fleshy bits are "injured", the wounds only heal when the actual machinery is repaired. Also also, if you remove a human part (arm, leg, head, etc.) it will turn back into a train part!

Their temperature resistance is notable too. Comfortable is between -10 F to well over 500 F. Anything above or below that, and they start to complain. Wooden rolling stock have a harder time than steel ones.

They're afraid of deep water and tornados.

In addition to their nails being painted in relevant colors (which I believe is a semi-popular headcanon already), their mouths are the same. Some more unnatural colors include, black, yellow, and blue!

Tall! Generally between 12 and 17 feet. Loosely correlates to their height in primary configuration. Some are the same height, some are taller, some are shorter. Really depends on personality. I contemplated once to have their heights be the length of their primary configurations, but that would result in some pretty awkward height differences and they would be too big for their loading gauge.

They always manifest as adults, or at the very least, late teenagers. They kind of age? Sometimes? Momma started out a bit middle aged, but Rusty has spent like 50+ years looking 25. Really depends on the person, workload, environment, etc.

[multifandomhellhole]

I rarely say my takes unprompted but I genuinely can't stand modern fandom and need to scream into the void over it to thug it out.

it genuinely feels like fandom is in its gen alpha age of regression. I've noticed this heavily with other fandoms, for me I've seen it most in resident evil but now I'm seeing it in arcane too of ship wars being taken WAAAAY to seriously and just everything in general being surrounded by weird purity culture. Not to mention someone always trying to find some deep controversial reason into why you don't like a popular character or treating it like it's a direct attack. That weird portion can be left in 2020 with kinnies and IRL character shit.

What really pisses me off is that people especially on twitter, scream for fandom culture to be back, but the slightest mary sue, terrible animatic, out of character x reader, large age gap, weird fanfic, horrible but fun take, insensitive joke about a well loved character, and/or rare pair art gets crucified there. And y'all wonder why fandom is dead. Genuinely who wants to provide any material for an ungrateful bible thumping community and a hostile one at that? Or one that's so obsessed with canon.

Fandom etiquette is absolutely dead on any other website minus this one and even then I'm seeing some popular tweets that erase the fun of it here on Tumblr for some reason. Since I'm focused on arcane right now I'll be using that as an example. So what if people want to think jinx and Jayce would be friends? That doesn't mean they didn't understand the show or are less superior watchers to you. That means they don't have a stick up their ass. Who cares If someone makes a Viktor coughing joke? He does in fact cough a lot and it's placement can be funny. You are not morally ascended cause you didn't laugh at pixels fictional lung cancer. In fact you are morally shity for telling someone to kill themselves for joking about it.

Who cares if someone ships cait and Maddie over vi or vi with maddie. Or cait with ambessa or Viktor with sky or Viktor with silco. Literally the world kept spinning. Genuinely who gives a fuck it's an animated show about league not a real time war documentary 💀 Creepypasta literally turned a bunch of murders into a found family let's not forget how being delusional makes fandom more fun.

Like I said, Unfortunately since Im in an arcane place of focus this post will be using arcane examples but this does apply to every fandom.

[pro-sipper]

"Dead Dove: Do Not Eat"

About the tag, the origin, and why I think no one on either side of the fandom divide knows how to use it

First of all, I'm crosstagging because I think it's a general issue, not just something for pro or anti shippers. I see the tag get misused on both sides and I just wanted to throw my two cents in

So, where did the term originate? Like all culturally significant things online, it started as a meme. More specifically, a meme from the television show Arrested Development. Character A has put a dead dove into a brown paper bag to store in the family's fridge. On the bag, he has taped a sign that reads, in big bold letters, "DEAD DOVE. Do Not Eat!"

Character B comes across the bag, reads the warning, and opens it anyway. When he's met with, you guessed it, a dead dove, he proclaims "I don't know what I expected".

This is an example of (and has since basically become the spiritual successor to) the "Exactly What It Says On The Tin" trope.

If you want to check out the full history and countless examples of the trope, please check out the page on tvtropes. But for a slightly shorter history - it originated in a British commercial for Ronseal's Quick Drying Woodstain, which the tin claimed "dried quickly". And in the commercial they told you "It does exactly what it says on the tin!" So, the tin says what the product does, then the product does it. You get the idea.

In fandom spaces, the trope just means that the title of Thing (be it movie, show, fanfic, etc) tells you exactly what happens IN Thing. If a show is called "Buffy The Vampire Slayer", you already know it's about a girl named Buffy who slays vampires. If the movie is called "Cocaine Bear", you can bet a bear will get into some cocaine at some point. If there's a fanfic called "Fluttershy Has Tea With Jesus"... you get the idea.

While both tags started out with the same intentions and meaning, I don't think it's any wonder that "dead dove do not eat" has been so easy to misinterpret. For one, "exactly what it says on the tin" sounds more straightforward. You don't have to understand the specific reference to infer it means to check the label (in this case, tags) before purchasing (opening) the product (fanfic)

But dead dove is harder to understand if you don't know the reference. And at a glance, it sounds much darker. Doves have symbolism in multiple religions, and are seen as a symbol of peace. A dead dove evokes images of gore, violence, general unpleasantness. It must only apply to something sinister, right?

The thing about "exactly what it says on the tin" is that the tin needs to say something. You can't point at a blank label and say "here's what you can expect". People would be much less likely to engage with your product if that were the case

In the same vein, slapping "dead dove do not eat" on a fic with no other tags can lead to confusion. In this tag's case, it's a warning. But what are you warning about if you don't also put it in the tags? It leaves people's minds to conjure up only grim and upsetting images of what might be in your fic. Especially when, as it's also common to do, the tag gets shortened to simply "dead dove".

And while, yes, the tag is most likely to get slapped onto fics with dark or upsetting subject matter, that means something different for everyone who comes across it.

Most people seem to think it only applies to inappropriate relationships (age gap, incest, etc). But I've seen it applied to a variety of things, from potentially triggering material (like suicide) to things that simply may not be everyone's cup of tea (like excessive gross-out toilet humor).

In the end, "dead dove do not eat" is a tag that, in my opinion, should not be used as a descriptor as to what type of content your story contains. But rather, a gentle warning to say "hey, I'm specifically telling you what you're about to encounter, so whatever happens next is up to you".

After all, if you read the warning and still open the bag to find something you don't like...

I don't know what you were expecting.

[chuluoyi]

honestly i don’t want to start discourse but it makes me so sad to see so much hate towards caleb girlies and caleb online :( like i had to block like five people on twt in a ROW cuz all i keep getting on my feed is people calling caleb girls weird for enjoying his story or calling caleb ugly or literally only talking about zayne’s cameo in caleb’s story and it’s like?? why is it okay to do that with caleb’s story but not okay with all the other LI’s…

LADS is either a bunch of girls first otome game or they’re not over 18 with the immaturity they’re showing towards not only darker tropes but to other ADULT women who enjoy darker content like yanderes in fiction :/

this is actually just a case that can be resolved as simply as “don’t play it if you don’t like it” 😐 they can always skip caleb if they don’t want him, and if they hate him so much then they can discuss it with their own circle rather than spewing hate on ppl who like him

you see, i don’t even bother to open twitter anymore bc of how toxic lads global players there. they’re practically rioting over the banalest things everyday and it all comes down to how they can’t accept that this is a game by a chinese company and thus will inevitably have some chinese culture in it—bc let’s be real, all this caleb discourse stems from the fact he’s called “gege” in the first place :)

and then the sylus discourse too. it’s strange how i’m also a sylus girlie but i see no problem with his content so far? but they’re trying to make it as if sylus has little content and bad myth when caleb gets the same treatment. infold is not an all-perfect being, they’re innovating bit by bit too (they might say i’m defending infold but hey, all content we get is from them too—i’m not a hypocrite). i don’t compare sylus or caleb to xavier-zayne-rafayel bc they’re the first to be announced so ofc there will be a gap between them, but yeah some people can’t accept it. maybe bc i’ve played other otome games before, but later characters usually have less content than the original characters first announced in the game so i’ve come to think of it as normal. but we never know, it could be that infold is cooking behind the scenes too so why not wait and be patient like a cultured person?

and you’re so true when it comes to immaturity—it’s as if all content/characters have to cater to their own wants and needs 😐 and it’s always the global players. the cn/jp fandom don’t really have this sense of “entitlement” from what i’ve seen or at least, not as severe. some global players keep demanding as if they’re the only consumers infold has when the chinese market generates revenue many many times than them. why should infold cater to them? sigh

[damnfandomproblems]

Fandom Problem #7510:

I forgot which submission number it was that talked about how Puritanism and Puritanism culture were terms being watered down unless I’m remembering a completely different blog, feel free to correct me on that, but I am aware what Puritan culture is outside of fandoms are those toxic extremely religious group of people that think that punishing people who participate in pre-marital sex. I am also aware that ironically, puritans have groomed young women, which sounds similar to how Antis are ironically always the one to be caught being a predator. But when we say things like Puritans in Fandoms or when we call most antis Puritans, we’re not watering down any terms nor are we misusing it.

Antis have attacked people who shipped ships that were basically not the sterilized vanilla ships. Shipped two characters with an age gap that isn’t too sus? Antis will label your ship as “pedophilic” because the age gap makes them uncomfortable. Shipped characters that are in NO WAY related but most people view the relationship between the characters as siblings? Antis will label your ship as “incest” even though again, the characters are in no way, shape, or form related and they will force their “sibling dynamic” headcanon down people’s throats because god forbid you ship a straight ship nowadays.

Also, this is a heavily “depends on the fandom” situation where if it’s between a WLW or MLM pairing, it’s fine, but if it’s a straight ship, then suddenly it’s sinful. Sometimes it’s vice versa, but either way, you delve into a taboo kink in fiction that you don’t want to indulge into in real life because for example in real life, a teacher dating a student (college professor or high school reacher) it’s illegal and unethical as hell, but in fiction, no real student is being taken advantage of, so it’s okay and the author does not encourage that type of behavior. Another is public sex. Obviously, another one that is very illegal because it can get you put on a list, but writing/reading about it in a fanfic is fine because you’ll be indulging in a scenario in fiction that won’t get you arrested.

But even with the creator saying that they do not in anyway condone specific sexual behaviors like the ones I mentioned above, the antis and puritans will pop up and say how gross, disgusting, repulsive, and whatever other colorful term they want to call writers or artists in other cases.

If a ship that we like isn’t the sterilized vanilla type of ship, the boring fluffy fanfiction with no sex to be seen or mentioned, or the cutesy pure wholesome artwork of the popular LGBT ship of the month, that creator will sometimes be attacked.

And I don’t think I even need to mention fandom double standards when it comes to male characters and female characters being sexualized and the minute a female character is being sexualized, some of the loud toxic voices in the fandom are quick to call people who don’t like seeing female characters be desexualized for the sake of “empowerment” when the fictional men are being sexualized one hundred times more, “misogynistic.” Then I guess LGBT women and women in general have internalized misogyny for also wanting to see hot women in fiction. Plus, there are worse things that happen to established female characters in fanfiction when they get vilified for no reason for the sake of an MLM ship or a reader insert fic, which I personally think is worse as it slanders the female character’s personality and twists them into a character that they are not.

Unfortunately, just like most things outside of fandoms such as sexism, homophobia, transphobia, racism, xenophobia, ableism and ageism, Puritanism has crawled its way into fandom culture as the years went on.

I am a bisexual woman who doesn’t want to see boring vanilla takes of WLW ships and that drawing of a female character? No real women are being harmed and surprise, surprise, there are many women out there who have made R34 of female characters, there are women who made or helped make Hentai, etc. Besides, the amount of energy antis put into defending fictional female characters from being sexualized could’ve been used and should’ve been used to help real women who are going through or went through far worse situations.

So the long story short, I have no idea what submission number this was, if that type of submission was made on this blog that is, Puritanism isn’t being watered down for fandom. Puritanism culture really has bled into fandom culture alongside many other toxic aspects that ideally shouldn’t even be in fandoms, but unfortunately, those problems still persist. If I got anything wrong, correct me, because my memory sucks.

[hamiltonconfessions-but-better]

I highkey hate Jamilton haters. I'm (not) sorry, but their reasons for hating the ship are either hugely similar to purity culture or just plain double standards. Before I start, I'd like to say it's completely fine to dislike Jamilton, I'm not forcing anyone to like it, I'm just explaining why it's stupid to hate on it. Let's debunk some of the most common arguments Jamilton haters use: "They had a huge age gap" 12-14 years is not that big of an age gap and by the time they met they were both adults. "It's toxic" Tell me you've never seen an enemies to lovers ship without telling me you've never seen an enemies to lovers ship. I do agree with the fact sometimes the way they're written is basically toxic waste, but that's not the ship itself, it's some portrayals of it. "Hamilton was in love with Laurens" First of all: no. Lams is not historically canon, if you wanna know why, read the crashout on here (i did not write it btw, full creds to them) Second of all: it's just such a close-minded argument, to be honest. i really don't understand why shipping one ship makes you automatically hate on the other. "They were real people" Okay, and? Me personally, I don't care about "preserving their legacy" and what would they think if they saw it, because, newsflash!! They won't see this, because they're six feet under. They were slave-owning, homophobic, racist, and just generally terrible people. Their legacy can rot in a hole, for all I care. "Hamilton was happily married to Eliza" And he cheated. If he did it once, he'd do it again. This is not that big of a dealbreaker and I say this as a Hamliza shipper. Besides, most people that say this ship other slash ships in the Hamilton fandom, and to that I'd like to say: And the characters you ship were not? When has that stopped you? Never? That's right, because it's only bad when you don't like the ship. "They were straight" When has that stopped any fandom from shipping characters? If you don't like shipping, fandom isn't for you. That's just the truth. This isn't an argument against a ship, it's just you showing you don't belong in fandom.

To the haters, who are going to make fun of me for defending a ship in this way: I really don't care. Give me more arguments, I'll debunk every single one. Genuinely, you are so miserable for hating a ship in a fandom so passionately. I can't imagine hating on people for what they like. It's just pathetic. If you're gonna just say "im not reading allat'', you're just gonna prove to me you don't have the reading comprehension to think past basic ship dynamics and enjoy the more complex and layered ones. It's jarring how people only decide if they like the ship based on how "morally good" it is. Live a little, explore different dynamics. Don't limit yourselt to just "friends to lovers who never argued once", because that's the only dynamic I see not being ruthlessly shitted on. Please, either find reason or just shut the fuck up.

.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

To add onto that Malleus popularity speculation, I think another major reason why that you never mentioned is the simple fact that characters of Malleus' archetype are just more popular in general in the west amongst working age women.

There are plenty of adult novel containing male supernatural love interests. Fae and vampire romance novels are still extremely popular amongst adult readers. A Court of Thorns and Roses is technically an ADULT novel, NOT YA. Even m|m supernatural stories even fall into this category with Stolas/Blitz from Helluva Boss being an extremely popular over here. That pairing is from an adult animated show. Stolas shares a lot of similarities with Malleus.

Hell, even if you step into western contemporary romance novels, the male love interest tends to be more brooding and angsty with flawed leads. Everything from classic literature like Jane Eyre to modern shit like anything Colleen Hoover writes. (Don't get it twisted. I'm NOT saying that Malleus is anything like those leads. Just using those very popular example of brooding bad boy love interests in adult contemporary fiction in the west.)

Meanwhile in East Asia, those sorts of leads tend to be geared towards teenagers. Working age women want a more stable, realistic love interest that would take care of them like Trey.

Westerners seem to prefer more complex, intense romantic relationships, where the stakes feel higher and the emotional payoff is more significant. They will naturally write Trey off as a "big brother" character instead of seeing him as a romantic lead material thanks to being more used to seeing characters like Malleus as the love interest in stories.

I could be way off base, since I'm not Asian and far from being an expert on Japanese culture, but that's my two cents based on my observations. This is also based on broad generalizations. Neither culture is a monolith.

[Referencing this post and (more specifically!) my speculation here!]

Oh, for sure 💀 I made a post a while ago talking about how Malleus (especially from the yumejoshi/self-shipping perspective) reminds me a lot of the new "Shadow Daddy" archetype that has emerged in the romantasy genre. I mean, just look at how many of the Shadow Daddy traits Malleus ticks off:

is a nonhuman being (usually fae)

500 yrs old (or at least several hundred years old or a significant age gap between the Shadow Daddy love interest and typically female main character)

looks young and hot/conventionally attractive despite the age

is OP (usually with shadow/night/darkness related magic)

is royalty or in some kind of position of power

dark hair and/or skin (sometimes both)

“morally grey” and/or has issues (you can fix him)

brooding

looks or is rumored to be intimidating but is actually lonely and misunderstood, with a heart of gold

animalistic in some manner (usually with bat/raven/dragon-like wings)

has a tattoo or some kind of bodily markings (Malleus has the scales under his hair; you could also count the OB facial markings I guess)

Outside of romantasy novels geared towards older teens (18-19) and adults, the west seems to really love brooding bad boys as love interests in a lot of its media. Something else I noticed is that the "good guys" or the "boy next door" types like Trey tend to be "the other man" in heterosexual love triangles, which miiight also explain why he gets looked over in the western fandom. (I discussed some of my own observations, which are similar to the points mentioned here, in the posts linked above.)

I wouldn’texactly phrase it like westerners preferring "more complex, intense romantic relationships [... with higher stakes and more significant emotional payoff]", as that unintentionally implies that there has to be brooding or angst in order for the story or character arc to be "good". I feel a lot of it actually depends on the execution rather than the tropes present. For example, I've seen many "Shadow Daddies" that exist purely for wish fulfillment rather than emotional or story/character complexity (which, to be clear, there's nothing wrong with if this is the kind of thing you enjoy!). Wholesome or "normal" romances also have the capacity to be complex, intense, high-stakes, and emotionally significant too! Again, it all depends on the quality of writing and what one's personal preferences are. You'll find outliers regardless of culture as well--as the asker has stated, no culture is a monolith!

[majaloveschris]

I hate that this is going to be an unpopular opinion but I feel it has strong merit:

The main reason people have been up in arms about AB since she entered the chat is because of her age.

I’m willing to bet 100% that if she was about 10 years older, or simply around his age, there would 50% less toxicity, while 50% of the fandom would still dislike her simply because she was with him. They would still dig up on her and the fact that she’s an obvious lazy opportunist would still be factored in, but they would treat her more like how they treat Annabelle Wallis since she is dating SS. Some don't mind her, some hate her, some like her/don't care. She'd be another boring blip in the radar.

The big thing here is that many of CE’s fandom wanted him to be a guy who “doesn’t date younger women” because that’s such a big deal for some of these people. It’s not for me, because despite whatever bs some people love making up on the internet, CE has always dated women his age and seems to get along best with people in his age group. If you look at his known relationships, both romantic and platonic, he gets along with women and men and his best friend of forever is older than him. His known exes are his age. His friend group outside of HW (and within it) are mostly people he’s known since HS and they’re all in his age group. His known flirtations with women in the industry have mostly been in his age group. these are real patterns that reflect and trying to make assumptions because he followed actresses or influencers in their 20s makes little sense because hate to say it, thats most guys married or not. He clearly connects best with people who understand the same references and cultural upbringing. You can see it when he talks to others. People bring up his old GQ interview where he was flirting with the reporter who did the spread. Guess what - they seemed to vibe because they were the same age and from the same area. She even wrote how he seemed to love that they got the same references and it just made it easier to connect. You usually do that with people in your same generation or demographic. I think the same thing happened with him and Jenny. Same age range, from the same area, got each other and just connected despite however their physical looks differed.

It’s due to his IG followings of some younger actresses and then AB that these rumors about younger women really began and to me, that’s projection. Also, lots of men do like younger women and that’s a pretty normal thing despite however you want to feel about it. It’s only a real problem now because people are much more aware of things like grooming and etc that they’re drawing attention to age gap relationships. But even Ryan Reynolds and Blake have a big age difference and he married her in 2012, when she was barely 24. He married Scarlett when she was also in her early 20s. Ryan is beloved (and now also hated) in the industry and known as wholesome family man but think about how his relationships being accepted but tbh could there also be some grooming involved? He was well into his thirties when he dated/married both these women but more or less the GP doesn’t bat an eye.

For CE, they couldn’t accept AB and that’s why the whole racism and problematic friends came into play so quickly after they went public. IMHo, the fandom needed a reason to dislike her even though she is easily able to be disliked even without her dumb friends tweets. She has no talent, no charisma, seemingly no work ethic, and is an obvious clout chaser with a very bizarre Lolita obsession and a weird obsession with older men.

That’s enough for me to side eye her but having the fans project things to hate on her makes them look worse and her like a victim.

But if she was the same age as CE, would it matter if she looked younger or did weird Lolita things? At that point, people would chalk it up to her just being a weirdo or at least compliment her for having good genes, but at least they’re the same age and then she has even less of an excuse to be as immature as she seems.

Her age and “inexperience” in Hollywood are the only passes I see her getting.

Also, CE clearly doesn’t find her attractive as his body language shows that literally for the past three years. Some of you need to stop attempting these gymnastics in your head and just admit that the relationship looks off because it is. It is most likely heavily manufactured and he needs to be married to someone to really uphold his rebrand. She clearly spends alot of time in a different country no matter what people wanna think and hollywood smoke and mirrors have a lot to do with it.

Yes, they are married and yes a bunch of PR rehearsed answers to push this and make people think it’s true love. But really…he is in the business of smoke and mirrors. Anyone who takes this stuff to heart really shouldn’t. It’s not that deep and will never be that deep.

I disagree but agree with you at the same time. I think her age plays a huge part in why people dislike her, but at the same time I don't think that's people's biggest problem with her. What I say is that even if she was older or closer to Chris's age, her behavior would still be the problem. I'm not saying people wouldn't just simply dislike her because she is dating Chris. That's a real thing and has always been in this fandom or even in different ones. I'm not in the Seb fandom, so I don't know how they treat her or what they are saying about her; however, the two situations aren't really comparable, since Seb is kind of over something similar to what Chris is still in (minus the kinda weddings part).

I think most people would've gotten over the age gap if she was a decent human being and if they actually looked in love with each other. I'm not saying that people wouldn't have disliked her just because, but it's much more than that. Her behavior is the problem; her friend's behavior is the problem. The age gap is also a bit problematic because she was only 23 when they got together. Their little trollings didn't help either. It's about her and her friend's personality and the way they behave around each other; the rest would've been forgotten after a while. 

As you said it, it's not that deep. Whether this is real or not, it doesn't really affect our lives. It isn't worth it.

[ninepiecesofcrait]

Hi I have a question. How do you square writing/enjoying HP fanfic with the Problematic Author and how she uses her influence? This is not snarky at all, I am genuinely curious because I’ve been able to comfortably do so for a long time as Author doesn’t make anything off of fanfic and I can make the characters as queer as I want or give actual depth, redemption, and pathos to Draco. And now I’m lost. Thank you if you answer. I love your writing so much!

i think a lot of people are wrestling with this question right now, nonny, so you are in good company, if that can be a kind of cold comfort. if, however, you were hoping i had some secret silver bullet to alleviate bad feelings, i’m afraid i don’t—only a collection of thoughts, which may or may not help you sift through yours.

it feels prudent to begin with the obvious here: the author has not recently become terrible. even in the hp books themselves, bigotry of all sorts is on the page, right there in black and white—and it’s not solely from the antagonists of the series. this wasn’t a scooby doo-style villain reveal: it was the logical culmination of a decade of transphobic hate rhetoric.

the uk supreme court decision is devastating, not only because it is shunting the nation backwards with respect to trans rights, but also because that decision will trickle down through other countries as anti-trans rhetoric rises. historically, that sort of development has a domino effect—legislation to restrict queer rights, legislation that will harm both cis women and gnc people, legislation that will further entrench wealth gaps largely to the detriment of people of color.

caring for our trans community members is the perfect example of how the phrase “a rising tide lifts all boats” can be true. trans people often exist at the interstices of multiple marginalized identities, and by making the world equitable, accessible, and safe for trans folks, we attend to the needs of the citizenry as a whole.

for us, the easiest way to hurt the intended transphobic crusade is to stop putting money towards the hp series. personally, i have not bought anything hp related in about a decade and i plan to keep that streak going. at the individual level, it may not feel like much, but enough of us have done so that the brand has lost power. we know this bc they don’t trot the author out when they release their video games or announce developments for the tv series that she’s going to be executive producer on. wb studios fully abandoned the back half of the fantastic beasts films because they were bad, yes, and also because jkr had become pr poison.

in regards to fandom, over the past few days i have seen a wide range of responses, all the way from “i can no longer write anything related to hp” to “i am here to write things that would piss her off”—and i think those feelings, and the spectrum of sentiments between them, are all reasonable. the only sentiment i do not think is acceptable is one of indifference hiding behind a “separate the art from the artist” line of logic. as someone much smarter than me put it, “separate the art from the artist” is often used as a bromide to protect ourselves from having tough conversations about whether that nastiness was in the art all along. in this case, it was.

that being said, i do think there is room for nuance here in that fanfic is free and generates no income for the author. that’s not to handwave this problem, however: i also think that fandom is political, and how we engage in it shows what we believe. as senlinyu once put it, fanfic can be your 95 theses nailed to the wittenberg door. it can be your phd dissertation on all the ways the original ip falls short. it can be your Bad Feelings Box—the place where you are sorting through your own emotions and what you’re learning and processing as you grow. it can be playing with barbies in a way that celebrates the beauty of the queer community, that demonstrates the richness of disability culture, that upholds the dignity of trans people, that puts characters of color front and center.

when i write fanfic, i do so in the fullness of my queer identity. with rare exceptions of the narratively-necessary variety, everyone is welcoming and affirming. and, besides my advent piece which was a game of word count chess, i very intentionally include trans characters in all of my hp fics who range from background characters, to characters who show up for one or two scenes, to characters who are integral parts of the story. regardless of which category they fall into, my trans characters are (if i’ve done my job right) imbued with the dignity, hotness, interiority, and power they deserve. that is my fanfic level of rebellion.

i also pair that with my real life activism, which is in the classroom. my time and efforts are spent trying to cultivate the skills of critical thinking, metacognition, and empathy in my students. i’m not 100% effective at it—would that i could be!!—but training the next generation to think beyond their own experiences and to understand how they have power that can make the world a better place is my activist project. for better or for worse, my work is there, and my Work is there, as well.

for me, knowing that i’m doing all that i personally can to combat transphobia and make the world a better, fairer, kinder place is enough.

it may be that it is not enough for some people, and i think that’s understandable, too. if this is your line in the sand moment, it is a 100% reasonable one. the uk supreme court decision was bought and paid for with nefarious intent and celebrated with malicious glee. it’s easy to feel overwhelmed or powerless in a moment like this, and taking a stand by saying “i won’t engage with this any longer” is one way combat that.

at times when i feel powerless, i volunteer. i put my money, time, and talents where my yapping mouth is. i go back to the words of my queer ancestors, whose bravery and defiance allow me to sit here, making my little stories, living my gay life. without indomitable trans women like marsha p johnson and sylvia rivera, i would never have been able to marry my spouse, to know that we will have access to gender-affirming care, or to know that when one of us passes, the other will be legally recognized as next of kin. but honoring the queer liberation movement and their tenacity with where i spend my time, my income, is only part of the equation: educating myself, getting involved in my community, and contributing to the cause of revolution are the other, more long term, less glamorous, and equally crucial parts.

there is no liberation without trans and queer liberation. no freedom without a free palestine. no equality without equity. all these struggles are connected.

all that to say: i think that feeling like you can no longer tolerate any participation in hp fandom is a reasonable and valid response, just as i think that spite-writing gayer, more trans-celebratory fic is a reasonable and valid response, too. only you can decide what will allow you to look in the mirror and still be at peace with yourself and your actions.

us trans advocacy orgs: comprehensive article with orgs in all 50 states, including mutual aid funds: https://www.them.us/story/orgs-fighting-back-anti-trans-legislation the org i donate to monthly is the trevor project:https://www.thetrevorproject.org/ trans lifeline also enormously important now that the us is cutting funding for the 988 hotline’s lgbtqia+ program: https://translifeline.org/volunteer/

uk trans advocacy orgs: https://www.transunite.co.uk/ uk mermaids: https://mermaidsuk.org.uk/

[anncurseoftragedy]

Why do people ship KuroKura?

(Art: 10hong_hong04 on Twitter)

I want to understand why people ship these two, so I've thought about it for a while. I've seen people ship KuroKura for a few different reasons. They ship them because of the "Enemies to Lovers Trope", age gap relationship, for the angst, because they're two conventionally attractive men, and/or because they "ship" them as platonic rivals/mortal enemies. While not all ships are romantic, shipping culture puts an emphasis on romantic relationships. Some simply enjoy KuroKura as enemies, which is why they're often paired together. Remember, shipping means to pair two characters together, not always in a romantic context, but it usually is or has romantic undertones. I find KuroKura to be disturbing, but I know many enjoy more toxic dynamics or like the idea of seeing how enemies navigate a romantic relationship with one another. As for the age gap, people assume Kurpikra is 17, refusing to acknowledge how characters age in the manga, as it's still ongoing. Kurpika's birthday is April 4th, 1982. He was 17 during the hunter exams, but two-ish years have passed since then, making him 19 in the manga. Shipping Kurpika when he was 17 with Chrollo is a pedophilic ship, making it a pro-ship. If you're shipping him with Chrollo when he is an adult, then it isn't pedophilic. I do find their large age gap to be weird, but I don't think age gaps between two adults should be seen as a big problem in fanfiction. Most people that I've interacted with or have seen ship KuroKura do not want them to ever be canon, but do enjoy the hypotheticals of seeing how the two would work together. While I don't ship them, I don't mind if others do as long as they aren't being weird about it. I do want to talk about my problems with KuroKura fandom and why I don't like them in future posts. As of right now, I won't dive into it much, but I will talk about Chrollo having killed Kurapika's clan. This is the main reason I don't ship them, and something I see people complain about when it comes to the ship. While I understand people enjoy problematic and complex dynamics, this one isn't one I can ever see happening in canon, and most Kurokura shippers agree on this. While Chrollo, I don't think, is shown to hold any animosity towards Kurpika, seeing him as a threat to the troupe at most, Kurpika, on the other hand, holds a deep-rooted hatred towards the Phantom troupe, aka Chrollo. This has great potential for an angsty fanfic and depiction of a complex ship dynamic. However, this should never be something that is generally romanticized. Which is why I understand the hate for the ship, and why I don't like it. However, for me personally, this isn't enough for me to really want to see the shippers be persecuted for those who like it. At most, I just block them and move on if they're causing problems. With this being said, I would like to see more Kurokura ships have them work through their hatred and in the end go their separate ways. Allowing Kurpika to truly feel the grief of his clan and Chrollo to gain a sense of humanity. This is unrealistic for their canon character, but for a fanfic, I would adore this. This is the only time I'll ever be caught enjoying the ship, as I love "doomed relationships" that end with the two not being together.

[direwolfrules]

Here, have some random Satine Rambles

I like to take a lot of the fandom misconceptions about Satine and the New Mandalorians and headcanon them as in-universe Death Watch propaganda.

Like the idea that Satine banned Mando'a. This is a weird one to me. So, Mando'a script is all over the place in Sundari. It's on the police speeders, it's on signs, it's on the wall of the Cadet Squad's dorm room, all of which is official government property and would have been some of the first places to have Mando'a removed if the ban was an actual thing. Also, Satine speaks Mando'a and Concordian (the dialect from Concordia and in Legends Concord Dawn). We as the audience don't see her speak Mando'a often because when she appears she's usually either:

1) Talking to someone whose primary language is Basic.

or

2) In a setting where slipping into Mando'a to talk to one person would be seen as undiplomatic at best.

Also, we as the audience don't primarily speak Mando'a, a fictional language with massive gaps in the canon vocabulary, and why would the Clone Wars crew put effort into translating a bunch of conversations into Mando'a for a kids show. They barely had an animation budget, you really think they had the money and time to translate politics into kid/teen-friendly language and then translate that into Mando'a?

Also, Pre Vizsla doesn't speak Mando'a in the show. I don't think he even says a single Mando'a word, which is less than what Satine says.

Or, the idea that Satine banned beskar armor. Here's the thing about armor, based a bit on real-life history. Armor is expensive. Especially well-forged armor. Especially well-forged armor made of a rare, extremely valuable metal with important cultural significance. And if centuries of strip mining depleted the supply of that already very rare metal, and damaged the ecosystem enough that mining it was banned? Well, now the price is at a point where anyone who isn't a noble or exceedingly wealthy can't afford new beskar. Even then, most noble families passed on their beskar through the generations, partly because of legacy and religion and also partly because obtaining new beskar was already ruinously expensive unless you took it from an enemy in war, which would have been ruinously expensive in other ways.

The fact that we barely see anyone wear beskar in Sundari isn't indicative of a ban on beskar armor, it means armor isn't a practical or attainable expense for the average citizen of Sundari. Sundari was a city at peace, before Sidious' plots and Vizsla's attacks. There was no need for anyone but the Mandalorian Guard to wear armor. Does a midlevel office worker need to wear armor to go about his job? Does a retail employee need the weight of beskar plate in addition to whatever stock they have to shelve? Unless you were a member of the warrior caste, which was primarily made up of nobles who either already had or could afford new beskar, you didn't need to be constantly armored.

And since we're talking about armor, the next logical misconception to discuss is the "weapons ban" that keeps getting brought up in every single "Satine Bad" fanfiction ever. When we first meet Satine, there is no weapons ban. Carrying weapons in a city at peace like Sundari is probably frowned on the same way carrying weapons on Coruscant's upper levels is frowned upon (if you're not Padme "Constantly-dodging-assassination-attempts" Amidala that is). It's a case of why would the average citizen need to carry a weapon, not them not being allowed to.

The first and only mention of a weapons ban in the show is when Ahsoka is welcomed to Sundari in "The Academy". Everyone's least favorite corrupt worm-man Almec says that after the trouble surrounding Master Kenobi's last visit, offworlders can't bring weapons into Sundari. It's literally just a ban for offworlders, which is reasonable when you figure out most of the terrorist group threatening to destroy your hard-fought peace and overthrow your government is based off-world.

And like, we see Mandalorians carry weapons. Satine has her deactivator, which we know from the actions of Rush Clovis and Lolo Purs can be a lethal weapon if used against organics. We see the Mandalorian Guards carry stun batons and shields, and some, like Captain Patrok Ru-Saxon, carried blasters to use as a last resort option. The Protectors, who at this point were Satine's bodyguards, had blunt-tipped spears that, judging by how they could be used to block blaster bolts during the warehouse raid in "Corruption", were probably made of beskar. Also in that same warehouse raid we see the Guard use flamethrowers.

Another common misconception is that Satine is opposed to any kind of violence, even in self-defense. This is not true.

As stated above, Satine carries a deactivator, a weapon primarily used to disable droids, but by its very nature of being a weapon designed to output high-level energy blasts can be lethal to organics. When she's using her deactivator she tells Obi-Wan, "Just because I'm a pacifist doesn't mean I won't defend myself".

And this is true. If Satine was so opposed to violence that she wouldn't fight back if threatened, she either would have died on the Coronet or been taken captive by the Separatists. She would have been killed back during the first confrontation with Vizsla, or during the arc on Coruscant. She would not have taken part in the warehouse raid. Satine was not opposed to violence in self-defense, she was opposed to violence as the first option and lethal violence as anything but a last resort.

One of the only times Satine doesn't fight back is when Pre Vizsla and his Death Watch soldiers invade the palace during the coup. If she had fought back, she would have given Vizsla exactly what he wanted: evidence of her betraying her ideals just when her people needed them the most, and an excuse to kill everyone on her side of the throne room. Satine made a choice to let herself be captured in order to spare as many lives as she could. And the minute she has a chance to escape, she takes it.

Then there's the common fandom idea that Satine is destroying Mandalorian culture, which is just ridiculous. Culture is more than just martial abilities and rigid clan hierarchies. It's food, art, clothing, language, etc. Satine telling her people they're not allowed to kill and bomb each other indiscriminately and empowering a central government over the hereditary clan-based caste system is not destroying Mandalorian culture, it's trying to save Mandalorian culture. After all, who'll be left to practice their traditions, to speak their language and sing their songs, if they wipe themselves off the face of the galaxy?

Mandalore had been jumping from one massive civil war to the next for generations, not to mention the wars against outside powers like the Republic. These are massive depopulating events. Each successive war does more and more damage to the planets in the Mandalorian sector. Mandalore went from a lush jungle to a desert. Concordia was nearly entirely deforested. A third of Concord Dawn is rubble drifting through space.

Satine made decisions that, until the machinations of the Sith, brought a level of prosperity and growth to Mandalore that it hadn't seen in living memory. The forests of Concordia were growing again. Trade was beginning to flow. Her people were happy and not constantly fearing war if one of the Houses took offense to something another one did.

Satine encouraged and promoted the aspects of Mandalorian culture outside of the martial domain. She was a patron of Mandalorian artists, and favored geometric designs and art styles, something that most Mandalorians also enjoyed. Her personal yacht was designed to display Mandalorian goods to representatives of other sectors/governments/galactic powers in order to promote trade and encourage a demand for Mandalorian goods. Her iconic dress with the massive headdress is meant to look like a mythosaur, with her earrings serving as the tusks.

She had that classic Mandalorian love for children. The only times we've ever seen her come close to compromising her principles was when children were threatened. When Mandalorian children were being poisoned by black market tea, she threatened the school's superintendent with violence. She was so enraged by the senseless deaths of many of the poisoned children she ordered the warehouse the black market goons had set up in burned down. When Almec went to torture Korkie and his friends she almost gave in to his demands, despite not cracking when she herself was under torture.

And New Mandalore in general was not a society built on cultural genocide like so many people in this fandom like to claim. In New Mandalorian Society a traditional kar'ta was present on many buildings, clothing (there are like five on the Academy's uniforms), and even hairstyles. Sundari's architecture was filled with geometric buildings that only really differed from the Clan Wren stronghold in height and number of turrets.

The real major difference between New Mandalorian culture and the old ways is those not of the noble, warrior caste had much less political power under the old system. New Mandalorian society is committed to peace, because many New Mandalorians are everyday individuals who now get a say in a diplomatic government instead of watching their system get crushed under leaders who only need to know how to fight well. Farmers don't have to worry about their local lord and his dumbass kid pissing off the neighboring lord, leading to a war that burns their fields and orphans their children. Business owners and employees don't have to worry about losing their shops/factories/office spaces in constant bombings.

Speaking of New Mandalorian society, another common misconception I see is people claiming Satine/New Mandalore was racist because it's all white blondes and brunettes. So like, that was a bad design decision by the Clone Wars crew, who wanted to make Mandalore look like space Scandinavia, and it's compounded by the reuse of models and assets. Korkie's class at the Academy has three groups of identical triplets. The crowds of Mandalorian citizens have so many repeated models, hairstyles, and the like, that there are more identical individuals there than on Kamino. The explanation there isn't "Satine is racist", it's "Cartoon Network gave them zero animation budget". Mandalore only got more diverse after Filoni got called out for it and had the budget and opportunity to fix it, which happened after Satine's rule ended.

Also, I see a lot of people taking the word of Death Watch members, children of Death Watch members, and Death Watch-aligned groups as gospel when it comes to Satine. Like, holy unreliable narrator Batman! If the person criticizing Satine is a member of the terrorist group dedicated to her death, a child of one of those terrorists who has probably been indoctrinated in Satine hate from day one, or a member of one of the splinter factions of that terrorist group, they're probably just a little bit biased, ya know? Satine's people genuinely loved her, Pre Vizsla had to stage elaborate schemes with Sith backing to sway the people's support away from her.

Oh, and people like to say that Satine was a bad leader/bad politician because she "left Mandalore weak" and "wouldn't join the Clone Wars". Which is just— did we watch the same show?

Joining the Clone Wars would have been Bad with a capital B. Palpatine wanted a Grand Army of the Republic presence on all the major worlds to facilitate his takeover when the time for Order 66 came. Mandalore was a priority target, remember when he doctored that footage of Satine's Deputy Minister to get the Senate to vote on sending troops?

Mandalore was along the Hydian Way, a major hyperspace route that was the site of frequent conflict. Mandalore's place on the Hydian Way, if they had joined either the Republic or the Separatists, would have made it and its vassal worlds battlefields. It would have devastated the hesitantly recovering Mandalorian people and the even more hesitantly recovering ecosystems of the planets.

Mandalore's position along the Hydian Way also meant that for some trade goods it depended on the CIS and for others it depended on the Republic, so committing to one side or the other would have made the already dangerous black market situation during the war even worse. What Satine did by declaring Neutrality and forming the Council of Neutral Systems was protect the interests of her people and form a voting block to prevent those interests from being trampled over.

Even with all its problems, Mandalore under Satine was strong, just going through issues many other worlds underwent during the war. Death Watch was a relatively new problem, as Pre Vizsla and his followers only got up the guts to act when their Sugar Daddy Dooku gave them Separatist backing. The food shortages were directly tied to the war disrupting the major trade route Mandalore depended on. Corruption amongst members of the government was a plot point in half the episodes of the show.

Mandalore only fell because Satine fell. Satine kept the war away from Mandalore as much as she could. Sideous couldn't get troops onto Mandalore while Satine was alive. With the exception of the very vocal Death Watch minority, the people were united behind her. It was only by running false flag operations with Maul's Shadow Collective that Death Watch was able to generate enough support to stage a coup. A coup that involved killing any government officials and trained warriors who refused to forswear their loyalty to the Duchess, thus robbing Mandalore of a considerable number of possible defenders and the people who knew how things ran and where the paperwork was filed.

If it wasn't for Vizsla's coup, and Maul's second secret coup, there would have been no need for Republic troops at the Seige of Mandalore, because there would have been no Seige of Mandalore. But there was, and Mandalore fell to the Empire. Which led to more internal Mandalorian on Mandalorian violence, which killed even more warriors. Which paved the way for the Night of a Thousand Tears.

[tathrin]

Tagged by @roselightfairy, thank you! I never remember to check my stats on this stuff, so it's always interesting to see when somebody reminds me that that's a feature that exists lol.

How many works do you have on AO3? Ninety-six, which is nearly everything I've ever written, although there are a few very-very-very-old-and-abandoned fics that never made it off FFnet (and do not need to shhhh!).

What's your total AO3 word count? 2,010,650 (we're not going to talk about how I discovered a little while ago that there's a character-limit for individual google doc; thank goodness for Ellipsus!)

Your Top 5 Stories by Kudos:

Green-Eyed Snake - an old HP fic from back before the TERF-in-Chief made even thinking about that fandom unendurably vile, and it's funny to me that this one has accrued the most kudos because it's a canon-compliant take on Slytherin!Harry which means it makes a lot of readers very very angry even to this day, since I refused to write this bewildered ten-year-old as a suave and sexy machiavellian mastermind lmao.

The Filth of Saruman - a gap-filler Gimleaf story which I am delighted to see take the second-top spot, because it's one that I'm quite fond of myself. It features the obligatory post-Helm's-Deep-bathing-together-scene, in which Gimli is Having A Lot Of Feelings That He Is Not Interested In Articulating To Himself Yet, Thank You! which has definitely become a common feature of my stories.

A Slip Of The Tongue - another Legolas and Gimli post-Helm's Deep one, albeit set in Movie!Continuity which is a rarity for me, in which there is a little more articulating, if only by accident. Also featuring Third Wheel Aragorn, which is my favorite flavor of Aragorn. This one is short and cute and I like it a lot for what it is, so I'm pleased to see it's a popular one too!

Green-Eyed Snake II: Heir Of Slytherin - book two of the aforementioned series. Alas, I only made it through book four before her vileness became too prominent to make writing this stuff palatable, which means we never got to the stage of their adolescence in which we would have gotten into all the queerness and gender-fuckery that would have really pissed her off.

A Broken Bridge In Erebor - Oh I think this is my first romantically-inclined Gimleaf fic, actually? So it's lovely to see that this one is well-liked too. Not that they get to the point of articulating/figuring out any actual romantic feelings here either, so it could just as easily have been tagged with the & as the / — but one of the joys of gimleaf as a ship to me is that there's no real notable difference in how their relationship is written on either side of the romantic/platonic divide. They're together, whether they're kissing or not, and that's what really matters.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Oh, yes! Yes yes a thousandfold. The whole point, to me, of sharing fanfic is having people share their thoughts back. Otherwise you might as well just leave them sitting on your hard drive, right? Fandom is supposed to be a shared space, where we can all squeal and gush and flail and talk to one another about the stuff we like, so I absolutely answer back when people are generous enough to share their thoughts or feelings with me!

Do you write crossovers?

Nope. Although I do have an old Star Wars/LotR cross-over from way back in college that never made it past the opening chapters that I might dig-out for the briliant @goodintentionswipfest next year, now that I remember it exists!

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do, as of pretty recently. I'm not sure how to define "what kind" because I'm not really sure what kinds there are, uh...cross-cultural/cross-species stuff that is heavily centered in world building, I guess? I'm not sure if that's what the question is asking exactly, but that's an accurate way to describe what I write at least lol.

I started mainly because I wanted to get my fantasy-biology-headcanons down in more coherent form than just random unwritten musings, and I admit that's still what I find most fascinating about the concept, most of the time. But the more of it I write, the more I enjoy the characterization and emotional moments you can get into those scenes, so that's fun.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not so far as I know. Although I did have some of my fics kicked off FFnet before.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Somebody once asked to do one but I don't think they ever did, or at least, I don't have a link to it if they did; but I suppose since I wouldn't be able to read it in any other language because I suck, it doesn't really matter (except that I'd love to have linked to it from the story). I think it's incredibly cool that there are people who both can and want to do that stuff, though!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have not, although I've done a lot of shared-world-building with @babybat98 for Green/Mirkwood which is sort of fic-co-writing adjacent I guess (and is also loads of fun).

What's your all time favorite ship?

About that... yeah. It's funny, really, because I spent my early years of LotR fandom virulently opposed to the very idea of them being a ship (thanks to personal issues with romance-vs-friendship at the time, due to being terrified that someday I would fall prey to icky-romance-grossness myself eww) and now, I am clearly not only very invested in them (shh) but in fact, I would say that I literally "learned how to ship" from them lmao.

So, yeah. I loved them together even before I was willing to accept that they were "together," tbh. (Adolescence is complicated when you don't even know your sexuality exists, okay?) Now that I have, I'm quite happily besotted.

What's a WIP that you want to finish but probably never will?

Ugghh definitely Shadows Creeping. It's a mess of a fic that would take SO much effort to fix, and thus all but impossible to even think about finishing, but it's sooooo close to the end of the story, and I feel bad forever that I let it languish like that.

What are your writing strengths?

Descriptions and world building for sure. (A little too much so sometimes lol.) I'm also pretty good at chameleon-ing—adapting tone/style to match or at least mesh with somebody else's (see: the Celebrimbor Fellowship AU, my Animorphs AU Series, or even the aforementioned HP crap, in all of which I've tried to ape the original author's writing style, sometimes to the point of even sliding excerpts from the original text right into the story, hopefully seamlessly). Oh, and fight scenes! I'm told those are a real struggle for a lot of people, but I find they generally come pretty easy to me, and are fun to do.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Too much description and world building. I get lots in the exposition-weeds way too easily. I struggle to find the balance between telling enough and telling way way way more than anyone wants to actually read. And tend to err very much on the side of the latter. Oops.

What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet, but want to?

I haven't actually written Celebrimbor/Anntar/Narvi together on the page yet, although I've come close. Honestly if I had all the time in the world, I would love to sit down and work on putting together that Huge Epic Rise And Fall Of Ost-in-Edhil Fic that feels like has been lurking in the back of my brain pretty much since the first time I read the Silm, if not longer.

What's your favorite fic that you've written?

Ohhhh I have such a hard time picking favorites for anything, really, because "favorite" always depends on "of what sort" to me...but if I have to, I'll probably go with this one, because it's the story I'm currently fixated on. For completed stories, probably this one. And for best thing I've ever written, it's hands-down this one. (Once I have the remaining two parts of that trilogy written, I think I want to get them all printed so I can put them on my bookshelf, that's how happy I am with it!)

Thank you so much for tagging me for this @roselightfairy, it was loads of fun to look at and think about stuff I don't often spend time/though on. And I shall in turn tag: @babybat98 @sallysavestheday @thescrapwitch @mossy-thing

[zahhaked]

Curious, do you have any other ssmy/hrkg rare pairs/ships you like? I love the way you wrote the main four in your fics and I was curious if you had any other pairings you liked or would want to write?🫶

Oh my gosh this question makes me so happy??? Like it means the world to me that you've enjoyed my writing and want to know more of my thoughts.

In general I'm an unrepentant multishipper so it's honestly more likely that I'm willing to consider a ship than not. Other than every possible combination of the main four, and Shirahama/Niibashi which I've also written (but may end up revisiting), I'm definitely 👀 about Kagiura/Niibashi. It's a ship with some good angst potential but also, in a slightly different circumstance, they'd just be really cute together between Niibashi's ego that hides a heart of gold and Kagiura's eagerness to please. That good puppy/master stuff, you know? Niibashi would take it a lot farther than Hirano would lol.

And not to pick on Niibashi too much but the aesthetics of him and Miyano together are so good. Two pretty twinks who know what they want? Both (in my headcanon) plugged into gay culture? I see their relationship being a little more hot and cold but isn't that also fascinating??? (And the two of them in a threesome with Sasaki???? It would be his honor to be the filling of a twink sandwich I'm sure.)

I was pretty into Tashiro -> Hanzawa for a good while, I'm not sure i see it totally being reciprocated due to all of Hanzawa's hang ups and internalized homophobia (I also kind of think he's aroace and sex repulsed?). But also Hanzawa really goes out of his way to keep Tashiro in the ping pong club and it's a different side of him that's very endearing.

Oh also, Shirahama absolutely has a crush on Miyano, I feel pretty convinced canon is going in that direction, and I love the pain of like, fuck, it's not even that the guy I like is straight, it's just that someone else got to him first (which is kind of a funny echo to Kagiura's jealousy of Sasaki too; they could form a Sasaki haters club).

I refuse to spare Ogasawara — I think a threesome with him, Eimi, and Sasaki would be so good. Especially if it's less "threesome" and more "voyeuristic fantasy fulfillment". But honestly that seems like a nightmare Ogasawara would have more than something he or Sasaki would agree to.

Kuresawa isn't spared my reach either - I think he'd cute with Miyano, super indulgent and affectionate. I also love the idea of him having a starry-eyed puppy crush on Sasaki after he literally rescues him from being beat up. I don't see that crush going anywhere or even lasting very long, but I always think about his insistence that Sasaki is "very cool."

I'd love to write Ichinose and the dorm manager someday. There's something so sweet to me about Ichinose's crush on this older male caregiver who checks on him when he's sick. I've never written an age gap/power imbalance sort of fic before but they make me wanna try!

Surely I'm forgetting some, but that's what comes to mind for now. With this fandom, as in most of my fandoms, I'm really open to anything!