#I was in so many different fandoms for a bunch of stupid reasons

[mssoapart]

Four years ago from now, I participated in a collaboration within Winx Ask (not on Tumblr). The idea was to create an "edit" emulating a visual novel for Halloween. I drew one of the backgrounds and a couple of NPC sprites.

Date: 2020

[yuikomorii]

// I’m making this post, as a result of seeing way too much hate and misinfo regarding every character. Nobody stops anyone from voicing their opinion but the need to degrade a character, while providing BAD reasons or stating incorrect/out-of-context facts about them only for the sake of internet validation, is such a loser move.

We’re all in this fandom to have fun and even if you have something negative to say about a character you don’t like, keep it to yourself or in private with your friends.

Ayato:

“I don’t like Ayato, he’s overrated”, omg you’re just sooo different! Definitely not like other girls/guys!

Everyone is allowed to dislike whatever they want but if Ayato is your least/one of your least favorite DL characters, then your opinion ISN’T valid. This is a franchise full of abusive characters and he’s literally the most heroic love interest. Why would you hate the hero…?

“He’s dumb and annoying”, says the person who spends their time insulting FICTIONAL characters. 1) Japanese fans like dumb characters, since they come off as endearing; 2) Ayato outdid everyone throughout the routes.

He did more good than all of his brothers and saying that X, Y or Z deserves the main role more, is fake fan behavior because at this point you’re just setting up your favs.

Kanato:

No, you’re not cool for calling him ugly. It’s okay if you’re not into that type of characters but his design is not bad at all.

“He had no development”, he does in CL. It’s not major but it can still be visible.

The whole Teddy thing might be annoying to some of you, but his fans get why he acts that way. Let’s not forget that he is a victim of neglect.

Yes, he was sexually exploited too. Don’t forget this x2.

Laito:

“I hate Laito so much, he was so cruel in HDB 😢”; stop living in the past and move on already.

His development shouldn’t be overlooked only because your opinion about him was formed on something that came out more than 10 years ago.

He’s still the most fascinating DL character and I get that he might make some of you feel uncomfortable but don’t project your triggers on a character that’s merely made after a trope.

Shu:

No, it’s not Shu’s fault for the way Reiji acted. Envy is never a good reason to hurt someone.

“Shu roasts the heroine the most!”, I get that it’s rude but his insults are actually funny?? A bunch of people will like him for being brutally honest or a jerk because it’s literally a game for players with masochistic fantasies. They WANT to be roasted by good-looking men. That’s the point.

“Shu is lazy and stupid, he’s the only one who failed his school year”, genuine question: If you were an immortal creature that doesn’t need food or sleep to survive, would you still care about grades? Besides, he’s really smart.

“Shu doesn’t care about Yuma, he just feels guilty”, in LE he sacrificed himself for him and reincarnated merely because he wished to meet Yuma again and get on well with him in another life—

Reiji:

“He hurt Shu and Yuma”, well yeah but he was shown plenty of times regretting it and trying to fix things. Stop reminding this to Reiji stans because that conflict is already closed.

“He is so mean in other routes”, obviously?? If you don’t teach him how to love, he won’t suddenly act nice towards anyone.

Without him Yui would fail her tests and the Sakamaki household would be in chaos.

Subaru:

“W-What do you mean baby Tsundere is not soft innocent virgin boy? 🥺”; he has never been like that, that’s how YOU perceived him. Stop acting so shocked every time Subaru does something bad because he’s still a vampire after all??

Also, why are so many people reducing his character to Kou and/or Yui—? He’s much more than that and has his own interests, struggles, likes, dislikes, and so on.

“He’s irrelevant”; Diabolik Lovers has 13 love interests, they can’t make everyone extremely important to the general plot. Just enjoy a character as it is, it’s not that hard.

Ruki:

The cat jokes were funny when the Meow Meow Vampire art came out but MOVE ON. I hate that scene and Ruki was in the wrong but come on now, that’s not even the worst thing he has done and MB happened in 2013.

I understand not liking Ruki as a person, because he’s mostly not a good one, but this doesn’t mean he’s not a good character.

“Ruki deserved what happened to him in the past because he was cruel towards everyone”; while I agree that Karma hit him, I wouldn’t say any child really deserves to go through that. He was just a spoiled brat, who most likely wasn’t taught by his parents about modesty or kindness.

Kou:

“He was so cruel in MB 😣”, and HE HAD DEVELOPMENT! He’s not the same anymore, nobody is.

“He overreacts”, sometimes he’s not in the wrong and has all rights to be angry.

Kou isn’t afraid of going against Ruki, even if he’s the brother he admires the most, as long as he knows that what Ruki is doing isn’t good.

Yuma:

“He beat Yui up in the MB bad ending!😡😡”, it’s a bad ending for a reason, lol.

Pretty reminder that Yuma always tries to help others with Kou and Azusa, and was even willing to save the ghouls in LE.

“Yuma doesn’t care about Shu”, did we play the same game or…?

Azusa:

“Azusa is so horrible, he threw Teddy in the fire!”; and he only did it to save Yui, it was not intentional.

While not all his actions are good, keep in mind that he never means any harm and is overall such a sweet guy.

“He is too clingy”; I know that might not be everyone’s cup of tea but is it really worth hating a character just for wanting affection?

The Tsukinamis and Kino:

“They were too easy to defeat in DF!”; Dark Fate wasn’t entirely about them to begin with. Most routes focused on the boys’ internal struggles with their trauma and how to move past it.

“Kino is sometimes mean for the sake of being mean”; it’s almost as if he’s the ✨villain✨

It’s dumb questioning the morals of characters supposed to have an antagonistic role.

“Kino hurt Ayato in LE”; out of all characters who have wronged Ayato, at least Kino felt bad and wanted to apologize.

Yui:

“She’s dumb and ugly”; Japanese fans literally love her for being an idiot because it wouldn’t be fun to see the heroine being the best at everything or not making mistakes at all. Plus, her design is definitely not ugly.

Stop creating your own version of Yui in your head and ending up disappointed when she doesn’t act the way you expect her to. No, Yui is not OOC for liking being bitten, having a low learning ability or saying things she shouldn’t in the wrong moments. Nobody is perfect and everyone has their own kinks and flaws.

“She’s too innocent”; she’s not?? If you really want to see her thirsty, go play Ayato’s routes, especially the heaven scenarios.

“She’s weak”, she’s the opposite. Yui is one of the most mentally strong DL characters.

I can’t understand people who hate on heroines when they’re present in all routes and are the most positive characters.

[agoldenblackbird]

i'm gonna be a ranty bitch for a minute.

tbh i'm turned off even reading new buddie fic despite being a multishipper and have unfollowed a bunch of buddie accounts because i'm sick of the smug attitudes. one ask that i am otherwise not going to publish or respond to ended with 'sorry you don't understand media literacy bestie :)' fuck off. listen INFANT, i have been writing fanfic and original fic AND watching, reading and analyzing queer media since before you were born, i understand how character and story development works, and i know the difference between 'storyline i personally disliked' and 'bad writing.' this was BOTH, and it also was marketed to us as 'carefully crafted bi rep' and 'queer love story that is not about a bunch of pain and conflict FOR ONCE' so we have every right to be upset at the bait-and-switch.

the fact that i'm seeing the same exact posts - 'bt bones buddie CANON' that i saw three seasons ago after the bucktaylor breakup, or every time they thought buck and taylor MIGHT break up - says something. the fact that so many fans seem genuinely convinced (STILL!) that buddie is inevitable because there have been so many 'signs,' and then they rattle off a convoluted theory that would make the most hardcore taylor swift stan say 'wow, that's a bit of a reach,' honestly weirded me out a little when i first joined the 911 fandom. i have never been in a fandom where so many fans are insistent that their ship will be - not might be or could be, but WILL be - canon. i am skeptical both from past experience with other shows mishandling queer storylines or ship-baiting, and tim minnear's proven track record with this one of not really knowing what to do with buck's LI's. but i didn't want to yuck anybody's yum, so i let them have their theories and squee in peace, and unfollowed or blocked certain tags if i was seeing too much of it and getting annoyed. it's too out there for me, but i'm glad they're having fun!

yet they can't give us the same courtesy. they deride us as delusional for thinking that a canon pairing that was presented to us both in promo and the show itself as different and important (eg the bobby approval convo and 'buck getting off the hamster wheel') might last, and we're stupid to have ever liked tommy or lou or be disappointed at how the breakup was written, and if we point out the biphobia it's just sour grapes.

the bucktommy breakup is not the first time 911 has started out strong with an interesting storyline and fumbled it in the 4th quarter either because the writers got bored or in the name of needless drama/a 'gotcha' sudden twist. amir & bobby, eddie's fight club arc, the sperm donor SL, hen vs councilwoman ortiz, whatever the hell is going on with harry, the whole mess with shannon/kim, just to name a few. and especially the past couple of seasons, for me since 6b, the pacing has been off. they seem to have too much happening at once and many of the storylines don't have enough room to breathe to be narratively satisfying, or they get resolved in ways that feel lackluster.

if the toxic buddie stans who have been attacking lou on sm and sending death threats (wtf!) actually get what they want, which i admit is possible, but it's certainly not guaranteed….i don't know why they think the writers won't fumble that just as badly. it's not going to happen precisely the way they want it to because it is impossible to please everybody, that's what fanfic is for. but at this point i have zero faith that it would even be well done at all, and zero trust in the writers not to just sabotage or regress a character for funsies, and that's an excellent reason to stop watching the show. in most of my other fandoms i regard canon as a jumping-off point or a blurry outline at best, and i can have just as much fun in the 911 sandbox without any further input from canon at all, once i'm less angry.

[olderthannetfic]

I feel like Homestuck is an interesting case study when it comes to comparing numbers of M/M vs. F/F fanworks. Because the gender ratios of Homestuck's protagonists are scrupulously balanced -- all of the protagonist groups have exactly equal numbers of male and female characters.

However, just because the genders are balanced in theory, that doesn't necessarily correspond to the characters' prominence in the narrative. Dave and Karkat (both boys) have the most lines of any characters in the comic… and guess what, Davekat is the most popular ship! Meanwhile, the two original female leads (Rose and Jade) barely have any conversations with each other over the entire comic, and both of them have significantly fewer lines than the two original male leads (Dave and John, who do interact with each other a lot and are the third most popular ship on AO3).

There are places where (Tumblr and AO3) fandom's preference for male characters becomes obvious, though. The trolls (a secondary protagonist group) are technically gender-balanced, but the ones who end up becoming most important to the narrative are mostly girls. And yet Eridan/Sollux (a ship featuring two minor male trolls) is almost twice as popular on AO3 as Vriska/Terezi, two girls who are both very important characters and whose deliciously complicated relationship is frankly the core of Homestuck. And to be honest, I do truly believe that Vrisrezi would be way, WAY more popular if Vriska and Terezi were boys instead of girls.

But really… even if it's not "fair" that Erisol is more popular than Vrisrezi, there's no point in scolding people for their individual ship preferences. People like what they like, and if someone isn't interested in femslash, guilting them over it isn't gonna magically make them enjoy it.

Hell, I'm part of the "problem" myself in that I almost exclusively write M/M… because I'm a dude who's attracted to other dudes, and what I want to do with my free time is write about hot men being complicatedly in love with each other. Sorry to the girls; they're all very interesting but I'm just not horny for them. Them's the breaks.

--

Yeah. I'm certainly not denying that AO3 has a trend towards male characters overall... it's just that it's not meaningful in the way people think it is. AO3 was built by a bunch of slashers, so there's that. But the really significant thing is that there are spaces that are mostly horny fan art about girls and we don't go "Gosh, why is there no dude stuff here other than Link getting railed???"

There's only a mystery if we think there's a "normal" level of femslash that the specific demographic on AO3 would "naturally" be producing if we weren't sexist. This idea is based on... well, on nothing, usually, but if it's justified at all, people are like "Well, you're a woman and you like pussy, so you would naturally also like fanfic of two women." There are plenty of reasons why this is a stupid assumption, starting with the fact that fanfic is inherently about pre-existing material.

Honestly, when I encounter media with two female leads with a complicated relationship and I think both of them are super hot, I ship the hell out of it. That happens like once a decade. Thanks, casting directors. (I've never read Homestuck because the art makes my eyes bleed.)

The real question is how many different places Homestuck fans hang out and whether they all look the same. Tumblr and AO3 are both huge, but when people get on their high horse about too many people having the same taste in these spaces, I have to wonder if they have a problem with people of like tastes hanging out together full stop.

[allwormdiet]

Extermination 8.5

Skitter is now one for three on interacting with New Wave kids without making them hate her.

Also fun fact I actually hit the image limit while making this post so I had to nix a few of the smaller observations made, there's just that much shit going on

Neat to meet more of New Wave, but boy I wish it was under different circumstances

Also Taylor you were so close to making that descriptor of their anguish work, you shouldn't have acknowledged it

How fucking harrowing must it be to let your daughter go anywhere near the fucking thing that killed your son.

Also I like how even as Skitter realizes that this is not the time or place, she's still indignant at being called "the girl."

What an awful fucking day for all of them. What can even be done, what can even be said?

Just a wet fucking cat of a girl, being carried through the air.

Oh hey Coil, bet your asshole is clenching really fucking hard rn

I wish there was a way for Coil to drown down there without killing Dinah too, but alas

Also absolutely insane that this has all been in the span of, what, an hour? Maybe a little more? What the fuck

And here's Parian proving that she's actually a huge badass

"Why manipulate cloth" honestly my first assumption is that it's bc her power is cloth control

Really fucking funny that people apparently keep thinking that superpowers are magic, though

We hardly knew ye.

I did learn that this is a retcon; Browbeat survived in the initial version of the story, although he quit the Wards in the wake of this attack and never comes up again. The retcon was in... 2019? Reasoning is speculative but I guess people kept making stupid jokes about Browbeat and he got tired of it?

Hey you know what though, really good showing overall, better than a bunch of other capes today

Okay so did this attack go through Leviathan? What the fuck is going on with this Flechette girl, that is utterly fucking cracked. Armsmaster's fucking nanothorns couldn't hack that, what is she doing where her shots do this kinda damage.

Leviathan likes playing with its fucking food, which is weird as hell

This dramatic fucker

God that's so cool, just opening up a fucking chasm in the middle of the battlefield.

...I wonder if it was trying to get into the bunker like Coil was afraid of. I know enough about Noelle to know that could've gone really fucking poorly.

Laserdream is cool, does she get much love in the fandom or is she too peripheral a character for that?

This is kinda funny ngl

That's a lot of fucking dead people, Jesus H

Taylor you are genuinely being too cool about this, your arm is still broken

He can do anything he wants down there, it's terrifying

Very funny that Armsmaster's brand-spanking-new halberd is being put to better use in this fight by people who aren't him and for purposes he didn't intend

Haha, wuh oh!

First indicator that Coil's got some pretty remarkable commercial ties considering he managed to sneak his own fucking Endbringer shelter in for private use and nobody noticed.

Also, god that's gotta be fucking terrifying

...I think like 99% of things that have come up in this arc are fucking terrifying if we're being real for a second but I'm gonna keep saying it

Seeing someone who treats you like dirt and have a happy life outside of treating you like dirt is a certain kind of agony. Also fuck Gladly on principle tbh.

Ah fuck

She could have so easily given into spite and let them all suffer and die. She was under no obligation beyond her own drive to be good, to be better, to be better than Gladly. And that's why she's among the best of these fucking people.

And so the bug girl, both creepy AND wet, goes in there and saves everyone left standing by shoving the Halberd up Levi's nonexistent asshole and baiting him back out the shelter

She's a bigger hero than so many of the others

This might be one of the most intensely and personally terrifying moments of all. Paralysis and drowning hand in hand. A slow and insidious kind of horror.

Rachel Lindt MVP

Well hey, cool of Rachel to be concerned though

They should be giving Bitch the key to the fucking city for this, honestly

This poor girl sacrificed the closest thing she has to family to buy even a fraction of extra time for this asscrack of a city

And then there's this fucking asshole

Imagine if God thought you, personally and specifically, fucking sucked. What a weird feeling that must be.

Skipping past the downturn in the fighting and the teleportation bc we have to get to the conclusion of the chapter

Taylor did more to save this whole city than any of these people can even imagine, and they manhandle her into a cot and cuff her broken-ass arm because y'can't be too careful with villains, can you

This is going to go so poorly

Current Thoughts

Taylor did more, in the moment-to-moment breakdown of tracking, fighting, and responding to Leviathan, than like 90% of the other capes in this whole fucking deal, and nobody will ever know the full extent of it. She might have honestly saved more lives than Armsmaster, because he was too busy fucking grandstanding in the moments leading up to his, ahaha, disarmament.

Skitter is a hero, idgaf what anyone says. She earned better than what she's about to be fucking put through, that's for sure.

[utilitycaster]

no d20 spoilers here since i know you know the gist of the drama but the fact that both kipperlilly (and the ratgrinders as a whole) and laudna are sending the their respective fandoms into meltdowns is FASCINATING to me!!! Especially happening at roughly the same time

I am now officially caught up and. not to brag but, called it re: the Rat Grinders, huh, except it's even more stupid. Like. The "but they're literally minors?" argument sort of falls apart given that they're the same age as the Bad Kids, and are actively trying to kill them, the "but redemption" argument doesn't mean shit since at no point did they make any forays towards redemption and indeed sicced a bunch of dragons on the Bad Kids, and so we're left with nothing but an impotent desire to not have a sick-ass battle in the finale of a D20 Campaign. And, perhaps, an uncomfortable realization that they are not unlike the Rat Grinders and the narrative said "lmao yeah you suck".

Laudna's shit? not that different actually. Like there's a lot of reasons why the arguments defending her are bullshit but the biggest one is that the "Laudna has never done anything wrong ever in her life and Imogen is her tether" crowd have painted themselves into a delightfully tiny little corner and they can't hide it anymore. Like, okay, so, is Laudna in control of her actions? Because if so she just attacked Orym in the middle of the night. Is she not? Because if so why hasn't she made the efforts that Chetney and FCG and Imogen (at least sometimes) did to address that? If the issue is trauma why is hers more valid than that of others? If it's abuse tell me how you feel about Caleb, Fjord, Beau, and Percy? Why is Orym shutting down the conversation when he says the Vanguard killed his family but Laudna's not doing the same when she tells Ashton not to speak to her of loneliness and Chetney not to speak to her of loss when she doesn't have a monopoly on either?

Why is it Bells Hells' job to endlessly accomodate Laudna and why are so many people suddenly talking about Bells Hells as an abstract 7-headed entity that didn't deal with Laudna's problems when those same people (if they were around at the time of the gnarlrock airing, and many of them weren't) were like "NO THEY SHOULD MAKE UP AS FAST AS POSSIBLE AND IMOGEN IS A BITCH BECAUSE LAUDNA DIDN'T MEAN IT." Why wasn't it an issue for them when Laudna's ranting about her time in Issylra and how hard it was got shut down by Imogen kissing her because that's why it didn't stay in the spotlight. Why wasn't it an issue for them when Imogen said "if you need her, that's my answer"? Why is it Orym or "Bells Hells" in the abstract who never spent time on Laudna's trauma after months if not years of throwing a fit any time someone (often me) (not always though) pointed out how much Imogen and Laudna were shoving under the rug and not dealing with? What does it say that you can't even expect Laudna's partner to be the one supporting her through this- it has to be Orym? Why doesn't Laudna have any responsibility here? At minimum she could have spoken up about the sword at at least two if not three junctures and she didn't.

There's a lot of things I hold in contempt, and after the obvious things like bigotry, two I really detest are hypocrisy and dereliction of responsibility. It's been extremely telling with both the D20 and CR discourse that people do not like seeing the story and the fandom say "hey actually you need to take responsibility for your actions, you only get redemption if you work for it, and if you leave a room hoping someone will follow you without saying that's what you want? Don't be surprised if no one does." The reason everyone was preparing to stop Laudna was because she was, in every action and decision, showing herself to be a person in need of being stopped. Can you describe this perfect balance of gentleness in which she's never pushed too hard but she does talk about her trauma and work through it and in doing so leaves Delilah? Have you demanded any other member of Bells Hells be granted that same gentleness and patience and kindness or do you think Orym should get over his grief because it's inconvenient to your arguments.

Just as the Rat Grinders show the narrative saying "being an entitled, resentful, jealous person who hurts others from jealousy makes you an easy tool to be manipulated into cruelty and you need to deal with that," I think Laudna shows the narrative (and certainly the fandom) saying "you do have an obligation to deal with your trauma, especially if it causes you to hurt others, and you can ask for help but you can't just sit on your ass waiting for someone else to initiate the process for you" as well as "if you do hurt people because of your trauma they may be angry with you, this may shape how they see you, and they are justified in that because you hurt them" and I think people in both fandoms hate being told that because I think a lot of the people sparking the discourse really do think that you can shield yourself from criticism over your hurtful actions by claiming trauma or neurodivergence or mental illness or whatever and it's like, no, you do still suck, you just also had sucky things happen to you as well.

[badgalsasuke]

What are your thoughts on this sns-critical post?

https://www.tumblr.com/writingwhilequeer/672650382032437249/i-wish-i-saw-more-either-anti-naruto-or-critical

Hey anon!

Oh great, another moronic Sasuke stan with an extremely surface level understanding of Naruto's character that unsurprisingly doesn't quite understand Sasuke either lol at this point I'm so bored of their "arguments" on how Naruto is this terrible, selfish, obsessive narcissist forcing himself on Sasuke.

Anyway, let's go by bits

SJSJHSJKKHSH and I'm supposed to take this person seriously?

"I don't like what Kishimoto wrote because it doesn't add up to my completely made up idea of who this character is so I'll just ignore it" woah you could've just said you have no reading comprehension skills, same thing.

This argument that Sasuke never liked Naruto is so stupid because hello??? have you been reading the manga with the rest of us?

Sasuke's very first appearance is in the manga on the very first chapter before we even learn his name or who he is, is him looking at Naruto but Sasuke saying in ch. 698 he's always been looking at Naruto is out of character? please don't make me laugh, I can't take those wild claims seriously

We see the boys training just the two of them together all night, we see Sasuke leave dinner to check on Naruto, we see Sasuke blushing simply because he's walking next to Naruto, we see Sasuke defend Naruto from Sakura's nasty comments, we see Sasuke saying with his own mouth his body moves on his own to protect Naruto, mind you this is just what happens in the Land of the Waves arc, but ch. 698 is shitty flashbacks that we're now supposed to believe? what a moron

The whole land of the waves arc is basically stating that Naruto is Sasuke's precious person he wants to protect. That person is saying "Sasuke is PURE metaphor, you really have to pay attention to him to see what his deal is" but somehow missed the entirety of the first arc of the manga? You see how Sasuke stans who pride themselves as the smarter bunch of the fandom are actually incredibly stupid?

And this is just the first arc of the manga. Many other blogs have already written about how even after Sasuke left Konoha he still cared for Naruto to the point they call him a fake IDGAFER lol [LINK]

But let's keep going

Another sad case of a Sasuke stan projecting their politics onto Sasuke and expecting something Kishimoto never promised. Like okay, just rambling here.

Yeah, Naruto wants to be acknowledged by Sasuke, that's never been a question, he literally states it waaaaay earlier in the manga because that's the theme of the fucking manga omfgggg.

Now this stan is either being dishonest and obtuse on purpose or is just straight up a dumbass. Sakura and Naruto's pursuit of Sasuke is not the same, and the fact that they cannot recognize how Kishimoto is contrasting the connection both have with Sasuke is just baffling. It's not an accident, Kishimoto wants us, the readers, to compare Sakura and Naruto's feelings for Sasuke and see how shallow and superficial Sakura's are compared to Naruto's unconditional and authentic love for Sasuke, hence why Sasuke reacts so differently to both of them (even if it pisses off this stan that Sasuke is receptive of Naruto's actions and words lmao).

Sakura doesn't understand Sasuke because she doesn't want to, she just wants a perfect boyfriend and wants that boyfriend to be the boy all the other girls in class had a crush on because that'd make her look better.

Naruto, on the other hand, understands Sasuke, they're both orphaned outcasts of society, Naruto eventually loses people he loves that allows him to understand the pain Sasuke went through, he even calls out Itachi on his bullshit for all the pain he put Sasuke through but yeah he's this selfish, obsessive asshole...

Yeah, the reason why those headcanons this person made up in their mind don't happen in the manga is because they're that, headcanons. Their idea of who Sasuke is as a character is completely different from canon Sasuke and instead of accepting they just want to play dolls with Sasuke because idk I guess they find him cool? They're antagonizing Naruto, Kishimoto and the fandom, like baby just accept that the shit you made up isn't real instead of claiming ch. 698 is an OoC writing of Sasuke and Naruto is aCtUaLly the real villain lmao.

Also, I wonder what this person thinks the themes of the manga are to think that if the complete opposite had happened it would be better??????? If Kishimoto is writing a manga where the main theme is acknowledgement, how the fuck is Sasuke not acknowledging Naruto embodying the themes better? like what??? This person thinks they're analyzing Naruto (both the character and the manga) but they're straight up writing a fanfic here.

"This story would be better if the author had written the complete opposite because that's what I wanted" <- This is the laziest literary criticism you could give and THANK GOD naruto fans don't write the manga.

Sasuke stans are really mad Naruto didn't want to see Sasuke leave Konoha to go to a GROOMER and then become a renegade that was SENTENCED TO DIE for committing several crimes (that he begged Sasuke would be forgiven for) and was basically SELF-HARMING with the whole "I need to kill those who I love so I can succumb to darkness". Like woah, Naruto you're such a prick. Sasuke stans just heard Sasuke say "Revolution!" and kinda forgot (or deliberately ignore) that he's actually in his most self-destructive state and is Naruto who helps him get out of that.

The thing is Naruto's not selfish so no one can give you a serious analysis that depicts him as such. He's just another orphaned traumatized boy who is trying to save his friend from darkness, there's nothing selfish about that. Of course sometimes Naruto didn't always have the perfect tools to aid Sasuke, he even acknowledged this himself (like the Kage Summit arc is right there), but that's because he's just 12-17 years old. Sasuke himself didn't handle the best way his own trauma either but that is okay too. These two boys are young, naturally they'll be emotianlly immature but on top of that fictional characters don't have to (and should not) be perfect, that'd be pretty boring.

Also, notice how this person said that Sasuke was assimilated and brainwashed into serving Konoha but didn't give Naruto the same grace even though he went through the same because then their headcanon of Naruto being this absolute asshole wouldn't work anymore, hilariously pathetic honestly.

Anyway, that was one of the most mediocre analysis I've ever read

[yourlocalbadgerscales]

Okay so you say you're a demigirl and a lesbian so I'm guessing you're theyfab as fuck. Listen bitch, when a trans girl tells you you're probably a terf, then you're probably a terf. Suck my dick. And no, I'm not the pedo accusing anon or whatever you mentioned in the rbs. Nice distraction tho.

what’s they-fab lol

If you have actual evidence of me being a terf then you can show me them, I’ll gladly do anything I can to change my way to make more people happy with what I’m posting. The problem is, you don’t seem to have real reasons to think that about me? It’d be a different thing if I kept buying Harry Potter merch and engaging in the fandom in a way that provides the author with my money, and I’ve already told you I don’t do that. I have almost all books in the series since I was a child, and the ones I’ve gotten this last year I’ve bought second-hand. Nothing new, no merch or anything, nothing that pays jkr.

So I do not engage in anything that helps the author keep on with her sick feminism. And I am a minor, so I’m gonna have to wait until I’m older and famous (lol I won’t be famous but I wanna be a singer) until I can criticise her in the open and have an actual audience that knows what I stand for. There’s not much I can do right now. All I can do is make sure that bitch doesn’t get a single euro from me, and that nobody thinks I support her. I guess I failed in that last part 💀

Okay, here you have it. I do NOT support the author of the HP books. I do not support ANY terfs or transphobes. I am trans myself and have a bunch of trans friends, and if you read @homocidalpotat’s response to your last message you’d know that. Even if I didn’t I’d support trans people anyway. I’ve supported y’all since day 1. And it’s gotten me in trouble in school, and it’s led to arguments between me and my mother. But that isn’t a reason for me to stop fighting for y’all, and I will continue to do this until the day I die.

I recommend you read @homocidalpotat’s paragraph. They said pretty much everything for me. The marauders fandom has made me and so many other trans people (and people in general) find something we have a burning passion for. Heck, some of us find the strength to keep living in this fandom. It’s a beautiful thing, and we all take distance from jkr and her bullshit. Do you even know the amount of fics we’ve all written? We read those more than jkr’s stupid, poorly written books.

I’ll say it again. Since I learned about trans people and jkr’s transphobia, I have not ONCE bought any of her stuff. I have not ONCE praised her. I’ve come across plenty of transphobes on this site and argued with them, and they are sick in the head. They are proud of their transphobia and do not hesitate to let us know what they stand for. If I were a transphobe, I would brag about it. But here I am, and being a bigot is nothing to brag about, and I’ll spend so many more days of my life fighting those bigots, even though they’ll never listen to us.

I get enough anon hate for supporting the trans community, and my friend got send a dick pic while arguing with a bigot about how someone’s genitals doesn’t decide what gender they are. I know how horrible transphobes are, and I hate to know that people think I’m one of them, but there’s nothing I can do to change your mind. I won’t waste too much time on you now, k? 💋

Stop sending hate. I get enough of that for being the very opposite of what you think I am.

P.S I am aware that trans people can be transphobes as well. That’s why I’d love to hear some of your reasons to think I’m one. If you’d just tell me your reasons, I’d do everything in my power to change that. But being in the marauders fandom isn’t enough evidence to me. Have a good day.

P.P.S I don’t wanna suck your dick, so I’m gonna have to say pass.

P.P.P.S Okay. Thanks for letting me know it’s not the same anon!

[dinosaursatemymom]

Yk what's kinda sad? Is that kenhina seems like it used to be fairly popular. Cause there's a bunch of older kenhina content and the tag has like a lot of members it's just dry now. I bet this came about when people started to hate on any ship with Hinata that wasn't with Kageyama. Like now I'll see posts being like, "the old hq fandom was so bad Hinata was getting shipped with everyone blah blah blah..." like yes??? It's a fandom ofc people are gonna ship Hinata with different people😭 especially when he interacts with them.

Got too long so I rant about fandoms under the cut

But I think this comes from the larger issue of fandoms and shipping culture just becoming more strict which probably is cause of the amount of non fandom people calling us weird and like making fun of us. And like now I see so many fandoms trying to separate from the past fandoms and be like, "oh no we're normal now" and it's just making fandoms not as fun anymore😭 like who cares if we get made fun of 😭 fandoms are spaces for weird people to be weird about something they enjoy and if someone who isn't like that wants to make fun of us then let them. It's not for them. Y'all remember when people would ship characters from different universes just for shits and giggles😭 bring that shit back, that was so fun. I remember when I was younger, before I had really joined any fandoms, and watching ColeyDoesThings and Strange Æons on YouTube and just thinking that fandoms and Tumblr sounded so fun and then I joined expecting that, and it was like that for a while but it seemed to shift to more rules and strict shipping and people CONSTANTLY making fun of each other even within fandom spaces. Like yeah I think some stuff is cringy but I just move on cause they're having fun. I'm so sick of the arguing and the making fun of each other and the shipping wars. AND MULTISHIPPERS🫶 oh my gosh as a multishipper, I literally have been attacked so many times for saying that I enjoy two ships in a ship war (ex. bk//dk & Izu//ocha) like ship wars are so stupid and another reason why fandoms become less fun, I and many other people are in fandoms to consume fun content about the ship I like, not argue with other people about which ship is better ESPECIALLY when I enjoy both ships. And even when there is a ship I can't stand I would NEVER go into their tags and hate on it. That's just a dick move even if they do the same. Oh and like I'm guilty of some of this too but I realized that it wasn't what I wanted to be doing 😭. But like the main point was that people hate on rarepairs so much and it gets so tiring 😭 just let the few of us enjoy our ship in peace. Anyway bring back weird fandom culture.

I'm done now 😭🥰🫶

[road-rhythm]

I love your SPN fic so much that I think I’d get into any new fandom just to read your fic for it. I notice you write for Critical Role, but I have no idea what this is, where this media is, or how to get into it. Is it something you watch? Something you listen to? Do you think you can give a brief summary of why you like Critical Role and its characters, and how one should go about consuming this media? I’m curious what made you get into this particular media after writing exclusively for SPN so long. I’d love to be able to read and understand your Critical Role fic, so any navigation for how you think this media is best enjoyed would be helpful.

Nonny, you know how to get me. I cannot pass up an excuse to try to get more people to watch (or listen to!) Critical Role.

As Matt Mercer would say:

"Welcome to Critical Role, where a bunch of…nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons and Dragons!"

And, well, yep. That's what CR is. It's a stream of professional voice actors playing DND.

You do not need to play DND to enjoy the show. A lot of fans do--hell, a lot of people started playing because of CR--but maybe just as many fans don't.

There is a lot of CR, and a lot about CR. Getting into it for the first time can be overwhelming, so I'm going to try to streamline what I say about it here.*

(Try.)

Where to find

You can watch Critical Role videos on demand on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@criticalrole

Alternatively, you can listen to Critical Role as a podcast. CR is its own podcast now, but you'll find the early episodes under Geek and Sundry's Critical Role, a separate podcast. LMK if you have any issues finding it.

Campaign 1 has also been adapted into an animated series, The Legend of Vox Machina. But for reasons I'll explain below, this post focuses on Campaign 2. An animated series is in development for that, too, but I don't think we have a release date yet. Due to the different medium, there are likely to be substantial differences from the original story, as there are between C1 and LoVM.

Finally, you can find all things Critical Role on the dedicated platform the cast launched last year, Beacon. They do have trial memberships available, but if you're brand-new to the show, checking it out on one of the free outlets probably makes the most sense.

Where to start

There are a lot of Critical Role episodes, and yes, they are long. The average is probably something on the order of 4 hours. If you're reading that and thinking, "No way in hell I ever fuck with that," all I can tell you is, the first time I heard of it, I thought the same thing.

Because CR is a dnd game rather than a scripted show, it's broken up into what are called campaigns instead of seasons. There are 3 so far, usually abbreviated as C1, C2, and C3.

I highly recommend starting with campaign 2 (C2), The Mighty Nein.

>>>>> Watch it on YouTube <<<<<

C2 is where I'd recommend any CR newbie start. For one, C1 picks up in the middle of an ongoing game and had various production issues in its very early days, because it's a project that gradually took shape. But the biggest reason is that the cast intentionally crafted C2 to stand on its own.

The second campaign takes place in the same fantasy world as the first, but on a different continent and 25 years later, with entirely new characters. The cast wanted people to be able to watch it without having seen a single episode of C1, and you can.

And a reason why I would recommend that you, specifically, Nonny, start with C2, is that all of my Critical Role fic is for C2. C2 is my fucking jam. I love the characters, I love the story, I love the setting, I love this stupid fucking show so much oh my god

What it's about

When you've got a show that runs for hundreds of hours per season, there will be a lot of answers to that question. But roughly, and with an intentional emphasis on what draws me to CR given the context of your ask:

Campaign 2 is the story of a disparate group of adventurers who eventually come to call themselves the Mighty Nein. (Mighty Nein--difficult to translate that faithfully from the original Zemnian! Some translators have suggested "the Big Nope"; others, "the Hard Pass." Both have merits.)

The seven members of the party come from different nations, cities, and backgrounds on the fictional continent of Wildemount, but they first converge in a small town in the strict, powerful, and insular Dwendalian Empire. After an adventure there upends what stability some party members once knew, they all decide to stick together.

At first, each is mostly concerned with their own agenda, and traveling with the group is just a convenient way to pursue that. But things begin to shift when the party witnesses a catastrophe they don't understand--something frightening, dangerous, arcane; something for which they have no context--and suddenly the Dwendalian Empire goes to war with its eastern neighbor, the Kryn Dynasty. Borders start locking down, the party find themselves holding a mysterious artifact that powerful people will kill for, and all they know for certain is that what's happening is bigger than they are.

Because it's a dnd game, CR's story is heavily improvised and collaboratively told. That doesn't mean there's no direction or intentionality to it, but it does mean that it's sprawling and expansive and sometimes turns on a dime. I love that about it, personally. As someone who was brand-new to dnd when I got into the show, I cannot express the way my mind got blown. But if you're looking for a tight, crystalline narrative, for sure this is not that. Then again, if you made it through any amount of SPN, that probably is not a deal-breaker for you.

Who it's about

The members of the Mighty Nein are disparate. Some are happy-go-lucky; some are shifty motherfuckers. Some are literal vagrants; some were born to privilege; some come from places with a class system so different that they can't be easily sorted into such boxes; some don't even know where they're from. All of them have a metric fuckton going on under the surface, but it's not always under the surface because they have Big Secrets or even secretive personalities. I mean, sometimes it is that. But sometimes, it's just that they're people.

The character I write the most about is probably Caleb Widogast, the party wizard. Without straying too far into spoilers, here is how Liam O'Brien, Caleb's player, introduces his character in c2e1, "Curious Beginnings":

LIAM: I'm pretty filthy. I have a mess of reddish-brown hair, and really filthy road clothes. I wear a long coat that I slept in. I slept about 20 hours last night. Jeez. Unshaven, a bit of a mess…. It was a rough day yesterday.

Or, as Caleb himself puts it a couple episodes later:

LIAM: I'm a dirty hobo and I reek like yesterday's garbage.

Why is a literal, actual wizard who does literal, actual magic a hobo who sleeps in ditches? Read Watch and find out!

Here's Caleb's starting portrait (level 2):

The character I probably write the second-most about, by a slim margin, is Beauregard Lionett, the party monk. Here's how Marisha Ray, Beau's player, introduces her character in c2e1:

MARISHA: Simple girl, simple needs. Just wearing nice, baggy clothes, some monk vestiges. They're in nice blues and greys. You notice I have a blue sash around my belt. Got a nice shave going on, little undercut. Looks like maybe I put on makeup two days ago, and I'm like, "Yeah, it's still holding up. It's fine. I can work with that."

Why is a literal, actual monk hanging around taverns in two-day-old makeup acting like a shit-kicker? Read Watch and find out!

Here's Beau's starting portrait:

Caleb and Beau have a contentious, complicated, loving, infuriating, brother-sister-like relationship that leads to them sometimes being dubbed the Empire Siblings in fandom and makes me personally insane.

There's another character you may see me write about a lot, too--Essek Thelyss. But Essek is an NPC, and his first appearance isn't until almost 60 episodes in. Since he first appears so far in, I won't get into spoilers. But he is a significant presence in the campaign.

Critical Role is also about the cast having fun. That's an unavoidable, distinctive part of telling a story by playing a game. So everything is happening on (at least) two levels at any given time--in game and out of game. There's a net of relationships and interpersonal dynamics between the characters in the foreground, and a set of cast dynamics and interactions in the background. I'm not very interested in the CR cast beyond the story they're telling, but I still enjoy the vibe, and that is a big part of the draw for me.

CR is also canonically queer as fuck.

And the credit music fucking slaps.

What the fuck is happening why are so many dice rolling what are these numbers oh my God what the fuck

Like I said, you don't have to play dnd to enjoy the show. Here are a few basics I knew going in that I think did help me, and may help you. (If you know this stuff already, apologies.)

The cast consists of 7 players, each of whom plays a single character (PC), and 1 Dungeon Master (DM), who narrates the game and plays all the non-player characters (NPCs) the players encounter.

Characters belong to certain adventuring classes. Each class has different abilities, strengths, limitations, and so forth. Some rely mainly on casting spells, others on physical abilities (in or out of combat).

As the party gains experience and progresses toward its goals, player characters advance in levels. In general, 5e dnd offers player levels from 1 to 20. At level 20, your abilities are near-godlike; at level 1, you might lose a fight to a chicken. Campaign 2 runs from levels 2 to 15.

Much of what happens is determined or influenced by dice rolls. E.g., if a player tells the DM that they want to try to pick a character's pocket, the DM will tell them to roll a die to see if they succeed (and if they get away with it).

Combat is turn-based. If a fight breaks out, everyone involved will roll initiative to determine in what order they act, and then each will take a turn in that order. Combat continues through multiple rounds until the conflict is resolved (which doesn't always mean killing the enemies).

If you're interested, the specific gaming system used is 2014 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons.

Why should I spend a billion hours watching this?

For one thing, it's really good.

For another, you don't have to spend a billion hours watching it. Though I eventually wound up watching most episodes, my first run through the campaign was listening to the podcasts. I don't watch a ton of TV or movies because I am absolute shit at paying attention to anything for that long if I can't move or at least do something with my hands. I first listened to the vast majority of C2 in the car, doing chores, or walking outside. (I also listened on 3x speed, but that's personal preference in how I process audio, generally.)

For another, it has a delightful fandom with, bar none, the most insane volume and variety of fanart I have ever seen. (Some of which people drew for a fic of mine and I still can hardly fucking believe my luck or the sheer amount of talent in this fandom????? what the fuck) Like, be careful of spoilers if you can, but man, oh, man, the hours I spent searching up CR fanart just before bed back when I first got into the show. I'll never be over it.

For another, it's really good.

------------------------------------------------

* Yes, I know I'm leaving out a lot, but this post is already so much longer than I meant for it to be. Please feel free to add things in the comments, but don't come for my ass because I omitted [detail], or [character], or [thing]; I know

† Case in point: yes I know session 0 was a thing but close enough

[beanghostprincess]

What are you most controversial/unpopular OP opinions??? Sorry if it was answered before

You want me to get canceled so bad-- If I speak-- But idk, I guess I'll say the controversial opinions I can say publicly without a bunch of people coming at me!

Zo$an is a bit... Overrated? And by overrated I mean extremely/annoyingly overrated. I like the ship and its canon dynamic but I think at least 80% of the fandom portrays them in a very mischaracterized way. Not to say that... The ship is literally everywhere and the shippers always look for every little thing to prove they're canon, even if the "proof" has literally nothing to do with them. It's not that I don't enjoy the ship (although I must admit I prefer other dynamics a lot more) I just can't stand shippers that go to extremes. It's funny because I think Zo$an's dynamic is way more interesting and romantic in canon than it will ever be in the fandom. It's a bit sad, ngl. I liked them a lot at first but it got so tiring and now I am pretty exhausted from seeing it everywhere. The people force it to be more than it is when the canon is already pretty fucking great.

Adding to the Zo$san thing. I think that relationship would only work if Luffy is there somehow but it wouldn't last a day without him in the relationship. Unless there's like, a ton of character development most of these people don't make them go through.

One Piece Film Z is my worst enemy. It's such a boring movie. The only good thing is the soundtrack and maybe the suits but God watching that was torture.

Boa hate is uhhhh weird. I mean, I get why the joke about her being in love with Luffy might be annoying, but I think most of you need to learn to understand that Oda's sense of humor is sometimes a bit too exaggerated (and not funny) and it has basically nothing to do with the actual canon dynamics between characters. Boa likes Luffy because he's one of the first men who has ever treated her right, so of course she confuses that feeling with love. And of course, yeah, it isn't canon. Whatever. Just read between the lines, maybe? And also, stop using words like "pedo" to describe her because using that term so lightly about 1) a fictional character and 2) somebody who's clearly not a pedo is fucked up. Lmao. Do you even know what that word means???

Once again complaining about Pudding hate and saying that it's stupid. I won't overanalyze because I always do it with her, but the only reason people hate her is for misogynistic reasons and because they're babying Sanji. Evil male characters are okay and hot and very traumatized but the second it's a woman she's the most evilest person ever! Because God forbid they make mistakes! Suddenly their character development isn't valid because they hurt their babygirl!

Now that we're talking about my dearest Pudding. Not tagging anybody of course, but I saw this post with so many interactions of people agreeing about Sanji considering violence as a sign of love which??? Doesn't make sense at all?? OP said it was because he couldn't tell the difference between love/abuse because of his family, but that's just... Not accurate. That could only happen if they had manipulated him into thinking abuse is a type of love, but he had healthy love growing up. Even when he was with the Vinsmokes (Sora and Reiju, I love you). And yet OP said Sanji considered Pudding's behavior flirting (wrong) and that's why he let her attack him (nope) and that it was proof of Zo$an. And okay, it's not a hugely popular theory, but a lot of people agreed with it and it bothered me a lot because it's both out of character and also using Pudding (complex female character) once again to try and prove the canon of a ship (that doesn't have anything to do with WCI either???). It just bothers me. People can perceive the story however they want but... Y'know.

OPLA isn't that good. Or good at all? I only like it because I like the cast and it's funny seeing my blorbos irl. But the script is simple and dull and just stupid most of the time. The characters are either simplified, mischaracterized, or forgotten. And tbh most of the shots are very awful and could be a lot better. The directing is also nonexistent. It's 6/10 and 3 of those points are because both the Zolu and the cast.

Apparently this is a very common theory about Nami's origins, but, uh, I don't think we need to know? What else do you need to know about her? People say she's a lost princess or something like that as if we didn't have a lost princess already (Sanji ily). Repeating the same plot would be boring and underwhelming, but also? It'd be extremely useless for the plot and it'd go against everything about Nami's story and the way Luffy reacts to it.

Luffy isn't canon aroace. In fact, the reasoning people use for him being "coded" is the same Oda uses for Zoro too and Zoro is almost never portrayed as the "idiot who doesn't know what sex is" the way Luffy often is. If you're calling Luffy canon aroace for what Oda said about him being focused on adventures, the same goes for Zoro being focused on his dream. They could be coded arospec but there's nothing confirmed and the constant discourse about it is stupid. Attacking others because of their ships just because you don't agree with them and saying it's wrong using our identity to do it is very fucked up. Especially since most of the time people complaining aren't even aroace. The only reason people do it (attacking others saying they can't ship Luffy and that it's "weird" and "wrong") is that they infantilize Luffy/Don't want him getting in between their ships (<- aroace person writing this) (also, it's very ableist since people agree on Luffy also being neurodivergent coded and treating him like a kid bc of that but this isn't about that now).

Somehow this is very common. Some fucking how. I can't believe I have to say this. I'm tired of people blaming Usopp for what happened in Water 7. Or in general hating Usopp. Actually, he's one of the best-written characters in the whole show and he's so underappreciated it's so frustrating.

Sanji's perv jokes are annoying af and we all know that, but people who hate the character and consider him a red flag for that are missing the point completely. The point being "Oda exaggerates jokes to an annoying extent and most of the time they don't even reflect the character". I understand they can make you uncomfortable (same here tbh) but reducing Sanji to only those jokes is a waste of his character. You need to take jokes less seriously.

If I see one of these "red flag OP boys" TikToks adding Law/Ace/Zoro/Sanji next to fucking Doffy I will riot. Also, stop adding Crocodile there. He's a mafioso, there's NO way he won't be a sweetheart to his lover.

Baron Omatsuri's artstyle and animation is amazing and it fits the plot and aesthetic of the movie perfectly and people saying it's ugly will forever bother me.

"Usopp is suddenly hot after timeskip!" He has always been hot what the fuck are you talking about.

People reduce Nami to her "mean"/"sarcastic" personality a lot when she's quite literally one of the most kind-hearted characters of all. That being said, morally speaking she's probably one of the worst. I could explain how that works but I don't want to do it now, the point is-- Let the girl be sweet instead of making her mean all the time. And also, let her be mean and selfish without making it her entire personality. There's something called "balance".

Film Red was kind of bad. Like, the songs are amazing (thanks, Ado) but the ending is awful and the plot is very meh. I'm only here for Uta and Shanks but the rest of the characters are just useless. I do appreciate Sanji's hair in the movie, though.

[foxgloveinspace]

tron fic recs??👀

Hi there! I have to preface this by saying I mostly read (and currently write) Sam/Tron (or Rinzler depending on the fic). While I do read a bunch of just general Tron fic, I tend to have a ship I like and stick with it.

I am really enjoying Salvage What You Can by TooManyTeeth, more so the concept then some of the ideas. (I don't ship sam and quorra), but I can get over those for the concept of Rinlzer and Tron being in the same Grid and not the Same People, and Rinlzer finding out he's the 'evil twin' as the tags put it. I'm only on chapter 14, and there have been some moments that have down right broke my heart. Lots and lots of Rinzler angst.

Want some fluff about pre movie Tron and Clu learning swear words?? No Stupid Questions by bowiesinspace is the fic series for you! It's crack (in the since that it's silly, not you know. weird). and Just an all around fun time.

While this one has a bit of of Sam/Tron in it, the pov is Alan and it's not exactly about Sam and Tron, it's about how Alan feels, seeing and being around Tron, and is very very emotional. But also my second favorite fic in the fandom. And that is Mea Culpa by 2019-2020 (EnglishLanguage).

My first favorite fic is by the same author, and that is Genesis. I don't have words for this fic honestly. It's from Sam's POV, and it's about him coming back to a completely empty Grid. There are lines in this fic that literally left me gasping for air. It's almost GEN but there's hints of the fact that there will be something more between Sam and Tron.

I'll be a bit of a silly goose, and plug my own fic here, Whatever Here (That's Left of Me) part one has no shipping besides Lora and Alan, and is about Sam fixing the Grid from the other side of the screen, having a lot of family moments with Alan, Lora and Quorra and talking with Tron. The second part will be about Sam and 'Tron' falling in love. (which knowing me and my writing, means also at least two smut scenes). So if you just want to read part one that is a-okay with me!

Lastly, in this category I am recommending every single one of Solar_Siren's fictober collections. (and one Angstpirl challenge in there as well) There is a lot of different ships in here (Mostly Tron/Yori) and a lot of Uprising stuff. A lot of REALLY good fics in here.

and now the rest of these will all be just Sam/Tron.

for T rated fics,

Sam and Tron going on a first date, and it's not going as well as Sam would like but they have a good time. Falling in Tandem by bowisinspace (I also rec all their fics. they are all very nice. The kudosbot fic??? HUh?? Why am I emotional over a little ai?? *cries*)

Late Onset Digitalism by EnglishLanguage & Lobster_Emoji is not finished, but I really enjoyed this fic, and I don't think it ended on a clif hanger? I only read it the one time though. I still think it was worth the read. another Sam fixing the Grid fics, but with some fun twists.

We Are Pilots by shirozora is a CLASSIC samtron, and just Tron in general, fic. I read this fic once a year and its just. really good. Sam goes back to the Grid to try and see if Kevin left any clues on what he meant by 'Quorra will change the world' and instead finds Tron, and a Grid in chaos. (One small note is that, even though it's rated T there is some smut towards the end.)

E rated Fics:

First two are longer fics where the smut is only a scene or two. Last one is a smutty one shot.

Someone Has To Draw First Blood by dreamlittleyo is another classic. Kevin took Sam to the Grid when he was a kid, and only luck is the reason that Sam didn't go with him that night of the coup. When Sam shows back up as an adult Tron follows him out the Grid, and then they fall in love.

One Miracle at a Time by dreamlittleyo another 'Sam goes back to the Grid' fics. I haven't read this one in a while, but I remember really liking it. I should reread it soon. Maybe I'll do it tonight.

Patience, Sam Flynn by bowiesinspace (how many of their fics have i recced haha). Short one shot, it's very nice, I love the end cause they get very snuggly.

[rosekasa]

🦉🌷🔮 for the fanfic writers game!

HANAA, JAANEMAN!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!

🦉Is there another author that helped inspire you to write?

omg so many come to mind and im actually afraid that im going to miss people out because i feel like the only reason i write is because of the people i admire. between 2021-2023 i really struggled with writing for a bit, i dont know why, someone gave me nazar probably, but there are some writers who i would read COPIOUS amounts of and think, this, THIS love i feel while reading is the love i want to feel about my own work

@jattendschaton , obviously, has been one of my biggest inspirations since i was a BABY. their writing is so descriptive and evocative. so insanely detailed. studying their writing was what got me into the habit of trying to find different ways to express a sentence to see if i could get a more accurate representation of the feeling i wanted to convey

@frostedpuffs and @lnc2 were the first ml writers i ever read <3 i didnt even know i wanted to write fic at the time! honestly a lot of my earlier characterisations/ways of writing are heavily inspired by their works because i was so obsessed with them! they made me want to start posting on ml ao3 in the first place

@xiueryn , i downloaded a bunch of yilena's fics onto my kindle in late 2022 and fucking DEVOURED them. i hadn't really been reading longer ml fics at all at the time but yilena's... i could not stop. their worldbuilding, their pacing, the way they make writing 40k+ word fics seem almost effortless? it became a joke with my irl best friend because i would literally randomly say "oh yilena you legend" while readingsdjkfhsd

@miabrown007, i read seven is a lucky number and it RUINED me for life. i dont know why this is what keeps coming to mind, but in her a/ns she mentioned that she HAD to end the word count on a multiple of seven, and i was like, oh my god, she puts so much structural thought into her stories. meeting her irl and hearing her talk about her writing process in detail was an out of body experience. that day itself i wanted to finish a multichapter

@asukiess, if loving ao3 user asukiess was a cult i would run it. i read tbsym and it really slapped me in the face because, having encountered it at a time where i felt like i ran out of any and all ability to be unique and creative with ml, i was like, oh my god, this person just wrote 10k+ words about. kuro neko?? a twenty minute episode? and she got SO MUCH out of it? and it hit me that like. if you love something enough you WILL find a way to create more out of it.

🌷What's one of your fics that isn't as popular, but you hold dear?

i have all my stats turned off on ao3 so i havent actually had that feeling of "aw i love this fic i wrote but it didnt really get popular" in like. three years sdjfhdsjkfds but checking my stats now, hmm. maybe ya'aburnee? which is funny because although it has fewer kudos than my other fics it's also the fic that people who i meet in the fandom yell at me for the most. at the mcm ml meetup a friend who came was like "HOW ARE U COMPLAINING ABOUT MCD YOU LITERALLY WROTE IT" and i so vehemently was like NO I LITERALLY DIDNT WHEN and they were like??? are u fucking stupid. it was great

🔮What's your favorite plot twist you've ever written?

the plot twist to ya'aburnee was a banger in the outlines but i feel like i didnt execute it that well in the actual fic. but lpoam i think was my FAVOURITE favourite. i even cried while writing the death scenesfdjshd

[homuracar]

personal complaining rant about haikyuu and hypermasc fanart--because!!! speaking exaggeratedly for fun, and because i don't think anyone's reading

i just saw very very veryvery cute sakuushi art, right after seeing some haikyuu fanart that i really do not like... thing i've realized is i think i hated a lot of the haikyuu fandom so much because, a lot of the art was very masculine LOL. it'll depend on the fandom side ofcourse... and it's not like everyone drew it like that. but i was always stupid and crazyparticular sometimes. hypermasc depictions of characters, in haikyuu fandom i reaaaally hated it. especially because my favorite was ushijima (>_>) it was over. i didn't know how to explain it back then because i was a kid and totally disconnected from that thought, i decided it was because i didn't like my fav being sexualized(complete lie lmao)

a lot of haikyuu fandom sees the boys more as love interests in like, an otome game? or something. or potential husbands. which is fair, people can do what they want... i don't care... well i do care because i hate the drawings and i hate the depictions. but this is my own problem mostly, i didn't end up aligning with most of fan's views on it. ushijima isn't my husband... (gnaws hand) i wouldn't intrude like that... he wouldn't see me like that even if i wanted him to be my wife..... and i would pale in comparison to his other suitors(is now just crazed). not only that i don't align with their shipping views either?! if i was bored by most of the main pairs the fandom decided on when i first got into haikyuu, by now i basically hate them. fuck bokuaka and fuck that one fanfic. (seethe) well actually the ship is fine, most ships are fine or would be fine if i didn't think a lot of the fanwork was atrocious about the characters lol. my art leans feminine, and most of my preferences does too. but i didn't Like the characters that fans decided was feminine like that. i didn't care for them, or i didn't even see them like that! maybe my view of what is fem/masc is a little too jumbled up, but i abide by it. fuck all of this. fuck you. and fuck ushioi. oiushi is fine. ushioi nearly made me dislike oikawa with it's sheer force. oikawa is fine actually he's funny. in fact ushijima and oikawa's relationship IS interesting... i just hate 90% of what i saw of it fanon-wise. sakuushi is precious to me, because gap moe is super. i never liked sakuatsu and i probably never will. i love atsumu but this is not where he should beee...(rolls around). it also made me despise mafia aus by instinct. im crazy but heta is kind of fresh air to me for this, so many cutesy art... so many fun art... and the source material goes with it too. if not outright cute then it's funny, which is cute itself! even if it's dark or weird it's still cute. and so much more ryona than i could ever dream of (Im So Happy). at least back then when i was more brain tied to haikyuu, there were the bunch of people who'd make more cute art. in english fandom, the cartoonish funny cuteness. i find easian fandoms get the characters down in a way i like much more most of the time tho lol. for some reason the jokes people pick up on are different? like you don't see obsessive fan shirabu in english fandom LOL. but seasian fandom does a lot of handsome ultramasc husbando haikyuu fanart(gnaws hand). that's not surprising... i know indonesians like manboobs... whatever idon't even care. i don't care. i don't.

i'm complaining so i might as well, but saddening to me when art of characters being feminine felt so limited. especially for the characters with more "masculine" bodytypes(fuck all of you). again my view of fem/masc is a little jumbled, or kind of weird so my words don't mean much here. but i never understood why characters were so limited by fans in it. if a ""masculine""(fuck you) character were to be given like, a dress, or feminine clothing, it'd be like, deliberately an outlier in some way. like for the "absurdity" of it... they'd never shut up about the absurdity too... i don't care if it's sexualization it's just really annoying to keep being like this guy is so masculine but he's wearing a dress!!! crazy right!!! look how annoyed he is scowling and jaw hard and muscles tense!!! don't you see how crazy masculine he is while in that dress!!!! i'll kill you all. characters flustered in dresses is cute. nobody understands. it's over. it's just strange to see, the only characters where anyone ever acknowledges their feminine traits are whoever people decide are twinks. the characters who isn't usually get focus on how dominant and masculine they are. No i think ushijima has feminine traits? fuck all of you. it's kind of my fault for preferring feminine things while falling in love with strong/big characters LOL. fml... not my fault the fandom's dearest chosen twinks are MID and not WIFE MATERIAL. i don't like twink atsumu miya actually but he's still a cute puppy. okay? fuck. can't we balance this out. can't a cute girlfriend who gets red in the face also work out and be professional athletes? can't tall fit girls faces get flushed confessing to you? do you hate me? why can't everyone be cute girls is it so wrong? look they're slice of life-ing isn't this so cute?!?! don't you agree that it's cute to see them eat meat buns in the snow and have puffs of breath show up?! i'll just yuribend them all. i guess

i say this but i also just never rly gravitate towards more petite or smaller characters. so. lol. and if they have a shy timid pathetic personality it makes me want to see them seme more... lol... the predicament. all the characters with aura is decided seme tch.... which makes sense... tch.. i guess... i'll accept that ame makes sense seme/uke(but i'd never ever let him or draw him seme don't get me wrong.) but i won't allow it for ushijima. im smiling at the sky. my girlfriends are so cu

but if you dig you can find fanart of them in super very cute artstyles! the core of haikyuu is volleyball fun after all. most of the time the characters behave very endearingly, rather than the super macho mafia bosses people are so insistent on. for the majority of it's runtime they're stupid teenage boys, and even after timeskip they're having good fun. they're happy and loving. i really can't stand a lot of the fanart. but if you find right you will find the best the cutest the sweetest. (my current heta twt used to be the acc i used scouring for cute haikyuu fanart and posting them LOL... i still follow some haikyuu accounts bcz of it)(korean sakuushi art!!! the absolute best!!!) ones that really understand haikyuu's cuteness. it's still a manga dear to my heart, even tho i'll avoid checking in the fandom 90% of the time.

[the1975attheirverybest]

Don’t get me wrong, I’m really excited, but I’m getting a bit nervous about going to see The 1975. I’m a pretty new fan, as I only started to listen to them last January. I’m worried about being judged for not knowing the lyrics to all of the songs, cos I do struggle with learning lyrics, and I’ve seen so many TikTok’s slagging off “fake fans” who don’t know the words. I’m also worried about being judged for not being a fan of certain songs that others go crazy for. (I’m not a big fan of People, for example. It’s okay, but I tend to skip it as it’s not really my vibe).

I know it seems stupid that a woman in her 30’s is genuinely anxious about this, but I’m also Autistic, so I struggle with shit like this. It’s gonna be a big thing for me, as this is the first gig I’ll have gone to completely on my own.

Any advice?

oh my goodness I’m so excited for youuuu. 💗💗💗

babe, first off, let me apologize on behalf of the entire fandom. Old fans and new fans. For making your experience anything less than perfect. Fandom politics are fuckin insane and we need to just stop with that shit. I’m not sure if any of this counts as helpful advice but I think, while it is okay for some songs to gain iconic status, generally speaking, everyone related to and experiences music differently. Like, I think Robbers, Somebody Else, About You, etc will always be special songs no matter what because they’ve come to symbolize huge milestone moments in the boys career. But other than that it’s not fair for anyone to decide that if you don’t like a certain song then that makes you less of a fan because we all engage with the art that we like differently and for different reasons. Our subjective tastes are informed by our personalities and experiences and things we enjoy. How boring would it be if everyone liked the exact same stuff and expressed their enthusiasm of it in the exact same way all the fuckin time????

Plus, this is not Harry Styles or Taylor Swift or whatever. The boys make the kinds of music that they do because they know there’s not one right way to be a fan. They’re fans of a bunch of different stuff. What was it that the ad that mads received after her show described them as? 😂 @toomuchracket was it “genre-hopping”?? Lmao. They’re genre hopping!!! So if you don’t like People then you’ll POTB or LIIWMI or Playing On My Mind or Sex or Fallingforyou. Because the boys themselves love emo and punk but they also love country and pop and house music and 70s rock and soul etc etc etc. the idea that you must like certain things to be a fan is dumb and counterproductive. And if I could line these people up against a wall to smack them one by one I would. Cuz all that does is make the fandom toxic and makes newer fans uncomfortable.

actually I highly recommend songs you don’t necessarily like. Before my show, I was okay with Heart Out but it wasn’t like my favorite thing ever. It’s not like the first thing that pops into my head when I think of the 1975 and their artistry. But then they played it at my show and OH. MY. GOD. I am a changed woman now. The drums!!!! George made the floor underneath my feet vibrate. I felt it in the ground first then it went up to MY FUCKIN RIBCAGE. And the guitar??!! Jesus fuckin Christ. I mean I’m sure it’s just that they tune it differently for live shows but it sounded so much fuller and multi dimensional and stronger. Blew my mind. Now I LOVE heart out. Hahaha.

I also just think we need to be better at approaching newer fans because if nothing else they’re proof that the band is still connecting with more and more people and reaching places it hasn’t before and more people joining the fandom means they’re successful!! there’s only one wrong way to be a fan and that’s to disrespect their boundaries like fuckin morons on TikTok and Twitter stalking Matty’s hotel and his house. Or talking about house ATVB used to be fun when he used to be problematic even though that obviously hurt him mentally and emotionally and affected his career. Or like acting as if the 1975 is just matty. That’s the wrong way to be a fan. Other than that you’re literally doing what music was meant for and enjoying what you like nobody has any right to judge you for it and if they wanna be asshole they can get fucked. IM SO SO EXCITED FOR YOU. YOURE GONNA HAVE SO MUCH FUN!!! The fans are generally kind and sweet for the most part I made so many new friends in the queue and in the pit I promise it’s gonna be amazing. please come back and tell me how it all went 💖💖

[ssaalexblake]

the not-relatable-so-not-good trend of media analysis is troubling for so many reasons, but honestly did get a bit of a rue giggle out of the person annoyed at the wicked book because it wasn't ~relatable~

Because i mean, a) this is set in Oz and the yellow brick road is there. Did you think you were in for something easy to parse and not allegorical and straight up Weird As Fuck? And for adults, too, so there's deeply weird sex stuff too.

and b) Personally i found the situation all of them were in was Horribly relatable honestly. I mean, sure, magic and Super weird religions with mechanical creatures and Munchkins and all, but at its heart, one of the main concepts the story is is about normal ass people trying to survive under a newly fascist government that wasn't stupid enough to Immediately declare horrible laws and drive people into open revolt, it was the frog in a boiling pot method of slowly slowly chipping away at societal rights to the point that by the time people noticed it was too late.

It was about a group of very different people responding in very different ways to the situation and how this effected them. Elphie basically achieved fuck all the entire time. Lost almost everything. Got a bit (a lot) unhinged at the end there. Were her morals worth nothing, then? Glinda showed aptitude for empathy and sparks of intelligence and all the potential Elphie saw in her was There but it went nowhere because she did not wish to upset the status quo for a bunch of different reasons. Neither of them really achieve anything at all. What's better?

Every other character is reacting to it, too. Boq in the end ends up too scared to even voice a negative opinion on the emperor in case he Might end up under his thumb again, he's not even under his thumb at that point! Fiyero comes to sympathise with the 'terrorists' even while he has moral objections to the idea of collateral damage. He doesn't do anything to the regime at all, but is murdered anyway by association to Elphaba. Nessa declares independence for her people and their land to succeed from the Wizard's evil but the people hate her as much, if not more, than the wizard for her religious regime imposed upon them.

Sooo many explorations of how a society deals with a rise in fascism, and you know, I didn't actually find any character in the book relatable on a personal level, but lol, sometimes the thing you can find familiarity in is the situation. It's not necessary to be able to relate to Any aspect of a story for it to be good, but this particular idea of relatability in fandom is small and naive. It doesn't even get past the idea of 'i relate to that person'. Like, come on.