#I'm literally so sorry this is my only contribution to the GO fandom
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martianbugsbunny · 1 year ago
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A.Z. Fell? More like A.Z. Sauntered Vaguely Downwards
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chloeangelic · 1 year ago
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thank you and goodbye 💗
I've made the decision to leave Tumblr and continue posting on AO3 instead (including my ongoing series, ie SWID, TMWH and SFTD). I am not deactivating - all my posted works will stay up, but you won't be seeing me here at all, I'm sorry.
I can't stay in a community where people are so concerned with avoiding drama that they're willing to stand around and watch someone get bullied and harassed until they no longer feel welcome here. I understand not wanting to post about it in fear of getting harassed yourself, but that shouldn't stop you from reaching out to the person involved and asking what's true and not. You're still welcome to message me for clarification if you wish.
I wanted so badly to just ignore it and move on but I'm not made of stone. I can't scroll the feed anymore without wondering who thinks I'm a terrible person based on claims that were admitted to being fabricated. I haven't talked shit, I haven't lied, I haven't manipulated, I haven't done anything I've been accused of and neither has Iris. This has been insulting and awful for both of us, and there's been almost zero repercussions for the people starting this drama.
If you have no idea what I'm taking about, please read this post. If you contributed to this through spreading rumors, trashing me in group chats, vagueposting about me, or reblogging nasty posts/anons about me - congrats, you've bullied someone on the internet. Do you feel better about yourself now?
The only way I can continue posting fic is unfortunately by removing myself from what has become an incredibly toxic environment, which is disappointing and shocking to see from a fandom full of grown adults.
So to my readers and the friends I've made here - I love you with all my heart, and I can't thank you enough for your support. My casual readers, my reply guys, you have given me the gift of writing, which has been so healing for me and something I hope to keep doing for a long time to come. I want to stay in touch with you and I want you to be able to continue reading my stuff, so you have a few options.
I will be posting on my AO3 account also called chloeangelic. If you subscribe to me there, you'll get emails when I upload. If you don't have an AO3 user, message me on discord @ chloeangelic and I will personally send you the link when I've posted to whichever series you're interested in. ETA: I tried to make a new account to message with people but tumblr shadowbanned it, so discord will be the only way to get in contact with me.
I might come back one day, but right now, going on the dash literally gives me a stomach ache and I don't see that changing in the near future. I have high enough self esteem to know that I don't deserve to get treated the way I have, and I need to go where I'm celebrated, not just tolerated.
All my love + I hope to see you over on AO3,
Chloe
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shaanks · 18 days ago
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every time you speak of shanks an angel gains back its wings. your latest post about shanks and how the fandom depicts him badly... like yes you get it.
I would like to think this side of the fandom, that yk contributes with fan work and shares a safe place, understands and loves one piece's themes and depth of the characters better than well, power scalers for example. Like I'm pretty sure everyone dislikes power scaling because it excludes the themes, plot and characters' personalities and thoughts, only making it about 'feats' and strength.
But ironically the same happens on this side of the fandom with characters' fanon archetypes. Watering down characters' personalities into a few 'main'' features and making them almost as shallow as power scalers do. And dear god does Shanks' 'incompetent' -archetype piss me off. When Shanks is exclusively portrayed as just an alcoholic, not taking anything seriously, bad at reading emotions and his crew is always exasperated with him. This depiction is just so frustrating because it doesn't feel like Shanks at all??? Like where do people get this interpretation of him??
1. Alcohol abuse. Do we ever even see Shanks drunk? Yes we see him drinking and partying (with Mihawk, Makino and Ace at least) but in these moments it seems like he's genuinely just having fun, he's celebrating Luffy. No one calls Zoro an alcoholic even though he is drinking Sake for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But bcs Shanks drinks beer when partying or IN A BAR and Sake in like that one scene with Becks he has alcohol problems. ok. cool.
2. Not taking anything seriously. Bruh. Again I feel like there's more moments where Shanks is serious than where he isn't. I don't even know what to say to this bcs the material speaks for itself.
3. Bad at reading emotions/just incompetent. Kinda going together with the previous point. I think this comes from that scene with Buggy where they were literally kids that just lost their whole family. How was Shanks supposed to know what to do there when Buggy didn't know either. Idk how people can blame Shanks in that situation, NEITHER ONE was at fault. To me he is one of the most competent characters in the whole show. He's an emperor of the sea yet not ruthless and evil like Kaido and Big Mom (or the WG). He handles situations maturely and ends more fights than starts them. Let's a lot of bullshit slide by the next generation like with Kidd and Bart. People seem to love him and be comfortable with him (that one lady hugging him sigh im jealous). Whitebeard pirates trusting him with Whitebeard and Ace's burial. etc.
4. His crew is always exasperated with him/He's a bad captain. Bro howwww HOW. Beck has like one line that's something like "Shanks is a lot" and to me that's just teasing. No one says that Luffy and Roger are bad captains even though they seem more chaotic than Shanks, but again it's an issue only when Shanks' crew teases him bruh!! He has a healthy relationship with his crew like Luffy cmon guys. But ig this headcanon only exists if you already think that Shanks is an alcoholic or something. Bcs I just can't understand it otherwise.
Okay this has gotten insanely long I'm so sorry LOL. I really needed to rant this out it seems... and I could've ranted even more. Ik he's just a fictional character and it's not that serious yada yada. Buuuuut I just wish we could see his character be explored more in the fandom!! I feel like this archetype is just misunderstanding his character so badly it genuinely hurts my brain. Anyways. Thank you for always blessing us with amazing Shanks headcanons. Genuinely like a breath of fresh air. SORRY THIS IS SO LONG SJKFHSK
Okay so first PLEEEEASE never apologize for sending me long impassioned messages I love hearing from people and I love talkin about Shanks (or anything anyone wants to talk about!) together!
I wanna go through this point by point so I don't miss anything so i'm gonna put this under the cut for ease of viewing but for your primary point I REALLY agree. I feel like a lot of people selectively ignore character nuance unless its about their faves, or easy to digest, and so especially people who have already kind of written Shanks off will just take the top 2 surface level traits we see of him--carefree and silly--and just throw everything else out with the bathwater.
Which like. To a degree I understand there are like 70 relevant and recurring characters outside the Strawhats and nobody is gonna put max brain power into all of them, but I feel like there's a difference between skimming a character and totally mischaracterizing them--and then dunking on or hating that character BASED on said mischaracterization. Weird work, to say the least. But okay, the rest under the cut --
You put the points by numbers so I will too just for the sake of organization.
Okay, so, Shanks' alcohol usage is implied in canon to be a dependency issue, but NOT in the way fandom tends to want to write him. We have actually seen Shanks drunk several times--the manga does a better job of depicting that clearly than the anime does but it's whatever--but generally when him being intoxicated is getting focus, it's to parallel Rayleigh, Rayleigh's drinking problem, and the implied reasons for said drinking problem. Shanks has spent the better part of 25 years pretty regularly intoxicated, but because it's implied that he knows things about the world, about the war that's coming, about what Roger saw and learned, perhaps about his own lineage, and the stress of that knowledge is driving him to drink. There is a major tonal difference between the times where he's shown drinking with his friends and having a party, and the times when he's shown actively drunk, but the parts of the fandom who have chosen him to shit all over for no reason tend to throw out both the context of him having fun with his friends AND the context of him drinking to deal with the stress of his position and just chalk it up to "dumb irresponsible alcoholic who is lazy and drinks constantly expecting to have his messes cleaned up for him" which is like soooooooooooooooooooooo endlessly infuriating lmfao.
This one gets under my skin all the time. Shanks puts on a silly goofy exterior and acts like he's too laid back to be bothered about things on purpose!!!! Either to make his friends and the people around him feel more comfortable, or to stop stupid disputes in bars from escalating to violence all the time. Shanks, in generally, is a really kind and laid back guy. He wants to have fun with his friends without them being uncomfortable around him due to his stature or status, and also doesn't want to have to end up fighting idiots left right and center. The fact that he's laid back most of the time is a SIGN of how seriously he takes his responsibilities, both as captain and as an emperor. Shanks will be like "I'm not gonna pick a fight with these people over a little spilled liquor lol" and people will really be like "look he's so stupid and lazy he won't even fight back" and i'm like. Y'all just drew the same conclusions as an 8 year old. Like surely y'all realize how sad that is right?? He's dedicated his entire adult life to being responsible for the world, it's fate, the new generation, and whatever job Roger left him saddled with, stopped a war, stopped Kaido and Big Mom from going on a rampage, tried his damndest to get Whitebeard to recall Ace before things went south, lost his ARM to make sure Luffy was safe and people will just like close their eyes and plug their ears about it. Sighs.
Shanks is both deeply observant and incredibly emotionally competent, and that's part of why he plays things so close to his chest!!! He purposefully makes his public persona a little flighty and vague because it's better for everyone if he's not honed directly in on everything. His internal monologue and thoughts are always apt, perceptive, thoughtful, and compassionate, but as always those things get swept under the rug bc applying nuance to this man makes it harder for people to write him off as a dumb drunk slut. :/ Also the people who put the blame on him for the miscommunication after Roger's death boggle my mind. Shanks and Buggy were 14 years old, had just watched their father figure be killed by marines after having spent a year watching his health deteriorate and their crew fall apart, and suddenly found themselves totally alone in a hostile world. They were children. Buggy was terrified because it seemed like the last tie he had to a stable life--his best friend--was giving up before his eyes, and Shanks was overwhelmed by loss and fear and the burden of whatever Roger left at his feet to accomplish. Of course they fucked up that interaction. Most adults wouldn't have probably handled that very well. Idk what people wanted out of them exactly but whatever lol.
This one is so crazy because if you look with your eyes for even one second at the Red Hair Pirates it's CLEAR that they all fucking adore him. Everyone is always looking at him with so much fondness, affection, and respect, they tease him about things sure but it's always playful and in good fun!!! Benn has a bit of resting serious man face and a dry sense of humor, but it's really clear when he's just teasing Shanks to get a rise out of him, and how much affection and mutual respect is there. And yet there's a really dedicated part of the fandom that constantly writes like his crew and everyone who has ever cared for him is just faking it ig?? And can hardly tolerate him?? Or think he's a bad captain? Like they could have made it that far if his crew didn't respect him lmfao. IDK how they all mesh how universally adored he is by his crew and subordinate crews in canon with their world view because it is not subtle at ALL.
Okay I think that covers all your points!!! tl;dr is I fully agree, I think people are really determined to dislike and misunderstand him for reasons that boggle my mind, and it's frustrating to see lmfao.
Thank you so much for your message and your kind words, I'm glad I can offer a little bit of a Shanks Sanctuary here!!
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Sorry to post something more than drawings and this might be an incoherent post but,, everyone has touched on it without actually linking their very similar ideas together, so I wanted to do that for all of you. If it wasn't clear, I will be talking about Sanders Sides.
The importance of every side is a very nuanced subject that barely gets touched on anymore by the fandom. @beauty-and-passion has made a lot of very good analyses, theories and headcannons about the sides and you should definitely check her posts out.
However what I don't understand is how everyone can touch on the importance of Virgil without actually linking every piece together. It had always been confusing to me (ever since I joined the fandom in 2018) what the sides can do and what they can feel. I now understand that what they feel has nothing to do with what they can do, for Thomas. Virgil, despite being anxiety, can feel happiness, can have empathy, can be logical. He understands all the points made by Logan once they're explained to him in a way he can understand.
A lot of people have also talked about ego, id and superego, and how Freud's theory on them is supported by Sanders Sides. I won't go on too much detail but basically, ego is the logical part of your brain, superego is the moral part of your brain and id is the creative part. You can see how that beautifully ties in with Sanders Sides.
However a lot of people have written about how anxiety and your fight or flight can be used as a weapon for self care. Anxiety is a fight or flight response, so it obviously can get you out of harming situations (see: aa part 2). Anxiety can also worsen intrusive thoughts, something we've seen before. But worsening them for a person means making intrusive thoughts (ehem, ehem, Remus) stronger. In AA part 2 we also saw the contribution anxiety makes to the creative process, by making (specifically) Thomas "rehearse and rehearse". Not to mention that ever since his acceptance, he has been siding with morality a lot more, because it's the fear of getting caught that stops us from breaking most laws, it's the fear of being judged (by a higher force) that stops us from being immoral ("Similarly you fear being perceived as a bad friend" -Deceit, SvS). Even Thomas himself has said that Anxiety probably plays the most crucial role, not only with the consequences being so very severe of him "ducking out", but also by his own admission ("You're the one that pushes me out of bed in the morning"). And forgive me for talking from a personal point of view, but as someone who studies science, anxiety is the drive I need to study, contributing to my overall ability to learn.
Virgil, as a lot of you have pointed out before, is one of the most character developed sides of them all. And I doubt that it's because he's so well liked by the public, and more because he is literally the driving factor of the series. Virgil isn't a "dark" side or a "light" side because, as we've seen from 'Fitting in', he can't be boxed in a specific label. He is the one who makes Creativity act, Intrusive thoughts more powerful, Morality abide, Logic work, Self care active and so so much more.
I can't wait to see how Mr. Sanders will continue the series, but I also can't wait to observe more invisible strings of all the sides to Virgil. No wonder he's that powerful, is all I'm saying.
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myokk · 24 days ago
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HELLOOO 💋
I simply felt like it so I'm just gonna hop in here and tell you, —
You're amazing and talented and so kindhearted I can't even comprehend it.
— You're amazing, cuz you're so positive, creative and open towards everyone, you write for us and feed us even when you have little time and that's a true sacrifice. 🦅🦅 & every single one of your posts radiate that positivity and THAT IS SO GREAT, YOU ARE ! 💖 (I'm just adding in a whisper, that I REALLY love it when you post your drawings with a snippet from your fic and when you just make a yapping post !!! You don't even have to ask !!! ♡)
— You're talented, cuz HELL JUST HOW CAN SOMEONE WRITE AND DRAW LIKE YOU DO ??? Your writing style swept me off my feet and your drawing style— *chef's kiss 🤌💋* each one of your drawings are so magnificent even when they're only "small 5 min doodles" (I'm not buying that /jk ♡) you're just so talented, that you can throw together a masterpiece in mere minutes ✨
— And you're kindhearted, cuz you were born that way 🥹🙂‍↕️ you're a literal angel. 🤍 You always have such a positive attitude towards everything, it's contagious! You make me smile with every post of yours! ✿ You're just so kind to literally EVERYONE and I love that about you so much, you're simply so lovable, I just wanna run over to you and squish your face and hug you! 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🫂🫂
So basically just...
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LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU MADDY 💘
AND I'M SO SO SORRY FOR YAPPING THIS MUCH 🙏🫂 feel free to ignore this ♡ ;)
— I don't even introduce myself anymore, I always bombard you with asks, sorryyyy 😖❤️
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LUCY😭😭😭😭😭 where do I even begin…🥹♥️♥️♥️
YOU ARE TOO SWEET AND KIND TO ME !!!!! WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE SUCH AN AMAZING MESSAGE🥹🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂 I’m crying…(but in a good way dw🫶♥️)
Im so happy you like my writing and my art so much😭♥️♥️ I feel like I’m just starting out with both & I’ll keep posting regardless bc I have a lot of fun with it, but it means so much to me when I see this message!!!🫶
I love that I joined this community and have received so much support since I started🥹♥️♥️ I always try to return it when I have the time because I ALSO love seeing what everyone else posts!!! Sometimes I feel guilty bc I don’t see everything, or have the time to read everytbing, but I always try to spread the love because supporting and leaving comments is MY FAVORITE THING !!!!!!!!!!!
Especially this month i have been so extremely busy (🥲) & I have no time bc who knew that getting and moving into a new house 45 min away was going to be so much work😭😭 in addition to still working full-time and dealing with some sick dogs AND being sick myself all month bahahahahahahahah. But it’s always a highlight of my day to come on here in the mornings and at night for a bit, see what you all are up to, and contribute some oneshots/art of my own when I’m able to!!!!! ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️
ANYWAYS AFTER THIS THURSDAY I WILL BE A FREE WOMAN !!!!!!!!!! And hopefully I can start posting and interacting a bit more again🥹🫂♥️
LOVE YOU SO MUCH LUCY🥹♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️ IM SO HAPPY YOURE PSRT OF THIS FANDOM & THANK *YOU* FOR EXISTING🫶🫶🫶
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traceytries · 2 months ago
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I don't know what made you think that everybody in fandom has to worship you now. You used to be someone I look up to but meanwhile it's only annoying to watch you whoring for attention and literally making everything about you and only you. Yes, your INAP fic was successful. Many people used to love it, me included. But the last 2 chapters were so bad, the quality deteriorated drastically. Same with your new fics. A mere one shot posted in 5 million tiny parts? PLEASE! You wonder why nobody really gives a shit about those fics? Well, it's because the writing just ain't it. You think you can just write anything, just sneeze onto the paper, and people will worship you. You think you deserve praise and admiration for works that most people think just suck because they are neither well written nor well thought-out with all those plot holes and things that don't make sense. You ask for people's opinion on something, making polls, only to do what you prefer yourself anyway. What's the point of asking then? You ask people for recommendations but if they don't say that your stuff is the best, you ignore it. You go on other people's posts only to make things about yourself. You CONSTANTLY ask for feedback, begging for comments on your fanfics, yet you don't even reply to them. You are not the least bit thankful. You are just a huge bitch who craves attention and it's high time you need to learn how to humble yourself. Go outside and touch some grass. You take a shit in the toilet just like the rest of us. But you act like you're a celebrity, saying you will answer the comments on the last chapter as if that's such a generous graceful thing for you to do. FUCK OFF! Other authors are always happy to engage with their readers and fans, yet you act like some queen who's above us peasants and sooo much better than everyone else. You constantly yap and bitch about not receiving as much attention as you think you deserve, yet you never even support other writers. Never leaving comments yourself, hardly reblogging anything - no. This is a one-woman show. The Tracey-show. Where everything else is insignificant. And then you have your 3 clowns who always come to your aid when you cry about lack of attention again, spouting ridiculous nonsense like 'you hold the fandom together' while there are literally hundreds of others, posting fanarts and fanfics daily. What a joke. You and your 3 devoted cult-followers insult the whole fandom by acting like you are the only one contributing. And then you have the audacity to post these fake anon-asks, just as a way to get attention from your followers again, hoping to gain pity and that everyone will tell you how amazing you are. Well, here is a real one. I wonder if you dare to post it. But you probably will, since this will be the perfect chance for you to play the victim-card again.
What the fuck man. This is the meanest message I have ever received, are you the same anon as before? I don't know what to say to this, you obviously have been wanting to say this to me for some time. I'm sorry if maybe I've hurt you somehow?
I'll try to get through everything.
Yes, you're right, I guess I am a bit shameless in promoting my work. But I think I yap about my fics as much as the next writer. I'm proud of what I've made/am making and I want to talk about it. I sometimes tag #tianshan when talking about my fics, but oftentimes it's just #inap or #ddd because I don't want to bombard the tianshan tag with my silly posts.
And what sucks is what you're seeing as attention-seeking is half true (everyone makes posts to get attention, that's neutral fact), the other part of it is: I'm trying to make a connection. The way I wish someone would just DM me and talk to me directly about tianshan, or the latest ox chapters or hell, my fics - that would make me so happy!! Not many people do, and so I continue making posts about tianshan, making polls, asking for engagement from the fandom because bruh I've been into tianshan for practically a decade - I want to talk about them!
That bit about replying to every comment on the last chapter of inap is a weird thing to criticise. Over the years, I've struggled with replying to comments, and though I know it's not a requirement to do so, I've always felt bad about that. But by leaving that end note, I was holding myself accountable, making sure that I appreciate everyone who got to the end of my fic and left a lovely message for me. That's all man. There wasn't some superior mindset behind it. Someone leaves a message, I'm going to say thank you!
I answered that previous anon message because I know it's true, I'm not a good writer. I get stuck describing scenes very literally, I'm not good at metaphors or romantic wording, and I use italized words as a crutch to illustrate internal thoughts. When I was replying to the anon I was agreeing with them, to like idk, take the wind out of their sails?
I suppose I should've just deleted the message but idk, I didn't think much of it. And just so you realise, I didn't tag anything in that other message, so the only people that should see it are people that follow me? Unless Tumblr put it in like your For You tab or something? That'd suck, I hope Tumblr doesn't do that.
Also I do comment on fics wtf? When I love a fic, I make sure to leave comments. Especially because I know how good they feel to receive them. And I do reblog and promote other people's fics and fanart too! Go back to my teanshan blog and search the #fanart #fanfic #fic #toread tags! Also do you guys remember when I literally commissioned powerandpathos a few times?? They're the best! And everyone knows it!
I have never said I'm 'holding the fandom together', and I don't think anyone has ever told me that either. I just post about tianshan dude.
With your last lines of your message, you're putting me in a shitty position. Either I don't post this and you're leaving me to feel shitty by myself. Or I post it to respond to your accusations and you make me feel like I'm only doing it for attention! Well, I think this message is really fucking shitty and I need to tell you that this sucks. I hope you work on yourself in 2025.
I've turned off 'reblog control' so no one can reblog and defend me. I'm not sure about replies tho. I'll just say no one has to reply to this either. I don't need defending. I'm going to ignore future anon hate. and I'm going to carry on making posts about tianshan, talking about my fics, self-reblogging my work, and engaging in the fandom as I normally fucking do.
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ascendancyzine · 4 months ago
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Contributor Spotlight: CountessLamont!
WRITER Name: JediHlaalu / Hlaalu Tumblr: @jedihlaalu AO3: CountessLamont
Hi, I'm Hlaalu! I've been a Star Wars fan since my parents took me to see the special editions in theaters in 1997. My college roomomate and I had a star wars "shrine" in our dorm room with all of our action figures, posters, and a yoda pillow. I've made some of my best friends in this fandom, been writing for over a decade, marketing professionally for almost a decade, and am currently praying for a live action Sinjir Rath Velus in Andor S2.
Favorite Ascendancy Character? Ziinda! I think she has the best character arc. And watching her go from the hothead in Greater Good to the only one able to calm Roscu down in Lesser Evil is just *chefs kiss*.
Favorite Star Wars book / tv show / movie? Sorry chiss fans - the Aftermath Trilogy (and Sinjir Rath Velus and Sid Uddra of course) will always have my heart. THEN it's the Ascendancy Trilogy (Sinjir/Conder OTP <3).
Why (or what) are you contributing to the zine? I'll be writing about Ziinda and probably the Grayshrike fam because they deserve infinitely more love than they usually get <3 (I also named one of my cats after Ziinda :D)
Are you elsewise active in a star wars community that you'd like to highlight? I'm a mod over in the Chiss Ascendancy Discord (link). Come join us and hang out!
Fun Facts?: "Countess Lamont" is the protagonist in my fantasy novel! Also, I have an ISD Chimaera tattoo that I've forbidden myself from having finished until I get into the 501st (which -- hopefully soonish ... we'll see). PS: if you've read any fic on AO3 with Sid Uddra in it, it was literally all me. Please someone else get obsessed with this BAMF so I can read stuff about her I didn't write XD Art by @grand-admiral-lawn for JediHlaalu
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panharmonium · 1 year ago
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Hi! I love your Naruto thoughts and meta posts with all my heart and I want to ask your thoughts on something that has been on my mind literally since I was 13: what do you think about the relationship between Sasuke and Sakura? I went from being a hardcore shipper when I was a teenager, to being against any romantic relationship in Naruto after finishing the anime when I was in my early twenties. Nowadays I'm very into platonic love and depictions of friendship and I think the anime's obsession with forcing the "romantic interest" curse upon the main female character robbed us of... so much. There are a few wonderful moments in the anime where Sasuke and Sakura acknowledge each other, but because she's always "the girl with the crush", her actions are so often interpret as irrational or selfish by the fandom.
Hi @riemmetric!  It's great to talk to you again! Sorry it's taken me so long to answer this; RL has been making demands of me lately and it took me way longer to finish writing this up than I wanted it to (then again, I knew from the minute I read your original ask that my reply was going to get long, so I suppose I should have predicted a delay XD)
It's funny, my sister once asked me to choose between Sasuke or Sakura for an “unpopular opinion” meme, and I ended up doing Sasuke solely because I think the negative fandom opinions about Sakura are so unhinged and divorced from the actual text that I wouldn’t even know where to start.  People are entitled to dislike whatever characters they want, obviously, but there are some fandom takes that are, for me, so obviously rooted in bad faith viewings/readings that there’s no urge in me to discuss them.  That said, since you asked, I’m happy to go into my own thoughts on this a bit, with the disclaimer for other potential readers that I only write about fandom things for my own personal enjoyment, not as a contribution to The Discourse. If you don’t like Sakura, great!  I have no interest in changing your mind. Please consider this a sincere invitation to scroll on by and go enjoy whatever parts of the fandom appeal to you.
In general terms: I love Sasuke and Sakura’s relationship as much as I love all of the relationships in Team 7.  If we’re talking about them specifically as a romantic couple, then I probably fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, because I do like them together in a post-canon (to be clear: non-Boruto) setting, after time has passed and they’ve continued to develop individually and reconnect with each other, but I also wouldn’t exactly call myself an intense “shipper,” in the sense that I have no interest in pulling things out from the text and incorrectly citing them as evidence that Sasuke has hidden romantic feelings for her during the canon period. He cares about her in the canon period, just like he cares about Naruto and Kakashi.  That’s not up for interpretation; it’s the text.  But Sasuke during the canon time period does not demonstrate specifically romantic interest in anyone.  
[A note before people who might ship Sasuke with Someone Else emerge to rail against this statement - please just scroll past and continue enjoying fandom in whatever way is most fun for you. It is cool to ship whatever fanon thing you want; I think that’s great!  But earnestly citing any loving or emotional thing Sasuke does re: various characters in this story (yes, Sakura included) as indicative of specifically romantic love isn’t supported by the text. I know there are always going to be enormous subsets of any fandom who insist that it is, and I'm certainly not going to barge into anyone else's space to complain about that (because other people having fun together is harmless and none of my business), but I'm not obligated to indulge it on my own blog, either.]
Anyway, that said - the reason why I love Sakura and Sasuke’s relationship (from here on out I’ll use “relationship” in a general, non-romantic sense) is precisely because Sakura isn’t just “the girl with the crush.” Sakura has an arc when it comes to Sasuke, and its trajectory moves in the exact opposite direction of “irrational” or “selfish.”  She specifically goes from “the girl with the crush” to “the girl who steels herself and tries to put her personal feelings for Sasuke aside for the greater good” to “the girl who knows she can’t put her feelings aside, but who also knows full well that Sasuke doesn’t reciprocate them, and who still wants to save him regardless, because he matters to her as a person and a friend.”
[I'm putting the rest of this under a cut to save everyone's dash, and also to emphasize once again that this is a personal post on my personal blog which I wrote in response to a question from a personal acquaintance, the full content of which no one is obligated to read. I am not sending this post to random strangers and forcing them to look at it. I'm not even putting it in the character tags. I'm typing it up on my own blog and putting it under a cut. If you already know that you don't like Sakura, but you still click the link/read the post and then feel an urge to comment and complain, I am going to copy-paste this disclaimer and remind you that I specifically recommended that you scroll past and go have fun with fandom in your own way. Thanks in advance for responsibly curating your own fandom experience!]
So, from the top:
1. the girl with the crush
Sakura is, obviously, completely obsessed with Sasuke at the beginning of Part 1.  She’s also deeply clueless about him and his history (bizarre though it is, the story seems to indicate that she initially doesn’t know what happened with his family, the same way young!Obito is initially clueless about Kakashi’s father).  But what I like about Sakura and Sasuke’s Part 1 relationship is how this changes over time.
The critical scene that kicks this off happens right at the beginning of the manga, when she and Sasuke are talking by that bench - she complains about Naruto and blames his behavior on him being all alone/having no family to scold him; and even says she’s jealous that he doesn’t have parents to nag him all the time.  This obviously triggers an outburst from Sasuke, who tells her she has no idea what loneliness means and that she “makes him sick”/she’s “annoying” (importantly, the exact same thing Sakura said to Naruto in anger earlier that day), which in turn prompts Sakura to reassess herself and wonder whether she’s been making Naruto feel this terrible all the time, too:
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From that point on, it’s a process of her putting little pieces together.  She still has a MAJOR crush, and she still acts like a twelve year-old, but as we approach the end of Part I, Sakura actually has a more accurate grasp on Sasuke’s current state of mind than Naruto does.  Naruto is initially excited to fight Sasuke on top of the hospital, because he feels like Sasuke’s finally acknowledging him, whereas Sakura is the one who immediately recognizes that something is wrong about this situation.  She is also the one who, after this fight, is concerned that Sasuke is really unwell and might do something drastic like run off in pursuit of the power Orochimaru promised him, but when she communicates this to Naruto, he assures her that this would NEVER happen:
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(Sakura isn't convinced, though, because she goes to monitor the exit out of the village anyway.)
I’m not criticizing Naruto for his response here.  I ADORE hearing him say that Sasuke is too strong to need Orochimaru, with such perfect confidence - I love seeing how much respect and admiration he has for Sasuke underneath all their fighting, because that’s the whole reason he’s always baiting Sasuke and yelling at him and claiming “you're not so great!” He looks up to Sasuke; he wants to be like Sasuke; he thinks Sasuke is awesome! (It’s that Obito @ Kakashi behavior, you know?) But the fact remains that he is clueless about what’s actually going on with Sasuke in Part 1, and he remains clueless(ly optimistic) for a long time.  
(Eg, when he catches up to Sasuke during the retrieval arc and Sasuke climbs out of that cursed seal coffin, Naruto waves at him and calls "Come on, let's go!" as if Sasuke has been successfully rescued and is now going to come running home.  Even in Part II, when Naruto hears that Sasuke killed Orochimaru, he beams and immediately says, “So he must be on his way back to the Leaf Village!”  And everyone else in the room is like, “....,” because they know better.  Naruto doesn’t yet fully understand [or doesn't want to accept] the extent to which Sasuke has willingly chosen this path, and it’s not until after Jiraiya’s death/the Pain attack/the Five Kage Summit that Naruto really starts to understand Sasuke more clearly, which is something he himself admits.)
Sakura, in Part 1, has access to more information about Sasuke - she’s there for his first dissociative monologue during the bells test, she’s there for the curse mark’s placement, she’s there for his first violent transformation in the Forest of Death - she is, in fact, the unwitting catalyst for it (“Sakura…who did this to you?”), and her compassion is the reason Sasuke is later able to overcome the curse mark’s influence - so she has a more accurate/complete picture of “how he’s doing,” for lack of a better phrase, whereas Naruto, who doesn’t know about the curse mark in the first place, is still in the dark.  This means that Sakura is able to accurately discern that Sasuke is struggling more than Naruto realizes, and specifically to predict that he’s going to run away.  
(This dynamic is then interestingly flipped in the back half of Part II, since at any point after the Five Kage Summit, Sakura doesn’t have access to extremely relevant [if currently questionable and unproven] details that would in any other circumstance inform her behavior).
Of course, just because she has more info in Part 1 doesn’t mean she has some kind of miraculous insight into Sasuke’s every thought and feeling.  There are parts of her attempt to convince Sasuke to stay in the village that are as clueless as any of Naruto’s assumptions, and they showcase the kind of magical thinking common to childhood - like when she says that if he stayed with her, she could give him happiness, she’d do anything for him, even help him get his revenge - this idea that she herself can do something to make him feel better, that she can love him powerfully enough to defeat his pain - obviously none of that is rooted in realism.
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Is this part of her approach irrational and immature and inadvertently self-centered?  Of course it is!  But it’s no more irrational and immature and inadvertently self-centered than Naruto’s stated plan to drag Sasuke back to the village even if he has to “break every bone in [his] body!” 
Hating on Sakura for her Part 1 attempt to convince Sasuke to stay in the village while simultaneously lauding Naruto for his feels like a bad faith misread of what is, to me, pretty clear narrative intention.  The story doesn’t at any point intend for us to see her begging him to stay as a selfish or conniving attempt to get something she wants.  She’s begging him to stay for the same underlying reason that Naruto is: she cares about him.  She thinks he’s making a mistake that will only cause him more pain in the end (she’s right) and she wants to make it so he feels less pain right now (she can’t.  But she doesn’t understand that/isn’t able to admit that, and she’s willing to try ANYTHING that might help).  
It’s critical that this farewell scene is set in front of that same bench from their first important confrontation - she references that day and how angry he got at her, and this time she tells him that she understands his reaction.  She’s learned things and she recognizes how insensitive she was being back then (“I know what happened to your clan, Sasuke”), even though she still can’t fully grasp all the complexities of the situation. She tells him that him blowing up at her back then helped her understand what loneliness actually meant (as opposed to her previous shallow understanding of it), and she challenges him about his choice right now: "So that's it, you're choosing the lonely path?" And when she tells him that she'll be very lonely if he leaves, we're immediately shown a panel of Sasuke thinking of both his friends, with the very clear implication that if he goes through with this, he will be lonely without them, too - that he's still struggling with the idea of leaving them, no matter how hard he tries to pretend:
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Sakura at this point knows that Sasuke isn’t interested in her the way she is in him, but she still wants to give him happiness, however fantastical and immature her ideas sound to us (and, I’m sure, to him).  “I’ll do anything, even help you get your revenge/we'll have fun every day, and...and you'll be happy! I'll make sure of it!” - of course, it’s completely childish.  It’s irrational.  It’s ridiculous to think that any of this would ever be effective, but no more ridiculous than Naruto’s belief that he can simply break every bone in Sasuke’s body and keep him in the Leaf by force.
Both Naruto and Sakura are children who have a deeply oversimplified understanding of Sasuke’s situation.  They both still think they can fix him themselves.  They both think they can save him themselves.  They both think they can convince (or force) him to do what they want, what they think is in his best interests.  Both of them don’t yet understand that he has to want to come back, if it’s ever going to mean anything.  Their attempts to keep him in the village are immature and unrealistic, yes.  What they aren’t, however, is selfish, because neither Sakura nor Naruto are doing any of this with the intention of advancing their own interests.  They’re only thinking about Sasuke - how to keep Sasuke safe, how to make Sasuke happy - even when neither of them are taking an approach that will actually work.
Naruto and Sakura are children.  They’re afraid of losing somebody they care about.  Their attempts to prevent that from happening are desperate and messy and ultimately ineffective, but they are also genuinely felt and rooted in a true desire to rescue Sasuke from his pain, which - and this is the single most important thing that should impact our viewing of Part 1 - is something that Sasuke RECOGNIZES.  He doesn’t spend that agonizingly long moment bowed over Naruto’s defeated body so we can pretend he doesn’t understand that Naruto was just trying to help him.  He doesn’t take the time to murmur, “Sakura…thank you,” before laying her out carefully on a bench, just so we can discount it and pretend that he doesn’t recognize and appreciate her genuine intention to make things better for him, however clumsy that attempt might have been.
2. the greater good
If Stage 1 Sakura is "the girl with the crush," then Stage 2 Sakura is a progression to “the girl who decides to put her feelings for Sasuke aside in order to protect innocent people, including (but certainly not limited to) Naruto.”  She’s driven to this decision by interactions with Shikamaru, who all too recently had to grow up fast himself (“We're not kids anymore...we can't allow a war to break out between the Hidden Leaf and the Hidden Cloud because of Sasuke") and Sai, who risks his new friendship with Sakura and Team 7 in order to speak some hard truths and deliver one of my favorite lines in the whole story: “I don’t know what promise Naruto made to you, but it’s really no different than what was done to me.  It’s like a curse mark.”
(INCREDIBLE.  How can anybody be complaining about a season where Sai gets to say something that goes THIS HARD and Sakura LISTENS and takes DRAMATIC ACTION that actually propels the story forward in a meaningful way - )
[Okay, yeah, brief personal opinion interlude - it is just bonkers wild to me that there are people who complain about Sakura in the Five Kage Summit arc. That entire season is the greatest character arc she ever has.  Literally she has never been more interesting and dynamic than in Season 10; it’s the first time she ever gets to be as deep and fascinating as the boys; what is everybody so worked up about?  Oh, “she lied to Naruto that one time” - Sasuke joined infant-kidnapping baby-murdering human experimentation machine Orochimaru when he was twelve years old in order to (dare I say it????) selfishly pursue his personal goals and yet, somehow, we are still able to root for him.  He abandoned his friends/allies to imprisonment and death (Suigetsu and Jūgo) or outright stabbed them in the chest himself (Karin) in order to (SELFISHLY) get what he wanted, and yet, somehow, we are still able to love him, understand him, and be on his side.  Naruto is canonically not upset with Sakura about her lie after receiving context for the situation and I think we can probably take our cues from him without feeling the need to bring her up on war crimes; please calm down]
[Sorry, I just really love most of Season 10 and think it’s one of the best examples of how good this story can be when every single character gets to do something that matters (as opposed to things being all Naruto, all the time) so I get a little bit worked up over people complaining about some of the best writing Sakura ever gets.  I don’t understand what certain elements of fandom want from her. People complain about her being “useless” and not doing anything that contributes to the story, but then they complain just as much when she does finally get to act decisively and have just as complex/dynamic an inner world as the boys.  She’s “weak” for being unreasonably in love with Sasuke, but when she tries to be “strong” and put her love for him aside and eliminate him in order to protect Naruto and the rest of the world, she’s evil, because she should have been more understanding of his situation (despite the fact that she doesn’t KNOW anything about his situation).  But then when she can’t go through with killing him after all because she cares about him too much despite the things he’s done, she’s not "compassionate" or "kind" or "a good friend," she’s “weak” again. Nothing Sakura does in S10 is more wrongheaded or rash than any of the batshit, buckwild things Naruto and Sasuke have done in the past (and will continue to do in the future), but when Naruto and Sasuke have big feelings or take bold action, it makes them interesting characters, whereas Sakura can’t breathe in anyone’s direction without being minutely scrutinized for moral impurities.]  
Anyway. Back to a more measured response.  
Every single piece of development Sakura has with regard to Sasuke in this season satisfies me so much.  Her initial shock and disbelief at hearing that Sasuke had joined the Akatsuki?  Good, appropriate.  The fact that she starts to acknowledge the reality of what Sasuke’s done sooner than Naruto does?  Also extremely appropriate, very in-character for both of them.  Her taking Sai’s words to heart and deciding that the promise she asked Naruto to make when they were children is causing him to suffer and she has to relieve him of that burden?  Juicy!  AND thematically significant (promises!!!!  the burden that a promise places on a person, especially when it can't be kept - we've seen that before in this story and we'll see it again).  Her anguished pivot from wanting to protect Sasuke to realizing that she has a responsibility to protect the countless innocents who will die because of the war he’s trying to start?  HELLO THIS IS INCREDIBLE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.  Her knocking out the classmates who agreed to help her so they don’t have to share in her burden (and so the only person Naruto will hate when it’s over is her)?  BRUH.  Her being so committed and focused on her goal of saving innocents and protecting Naruto (not just from being harmed by Sasuke/the Akatsuki, but by the possibility that Naruto will someday have to hurt Sasuke himself) that she tries to take everything on by herself and walks into a confrontation that she absolutely cannot win??  INCREDIBLE.  (Literally the first time I watched this, I said, “Finally!!!  It’s Sakura’s turn to go off the rails!”  I laughed with my sister about how Kakashi isn’t even mad, because Naruto and Sasuke have been pulling stunts like this for years and Sakura was way overdue for her own meltdown.)  And then, after Kakashi intervenes in the fight - Sakura barreling back into the battle when she realizes he’s going to take on the burden of killing Sasuke himself in order to spare her and Naruto the horror - “I can’t let Kakashi-sensei bear this burden!”  I love her for that.  
And then, of course, in the end - her not being able to do hurt Sasuke after all.  Despite committing herself to the act, despite forcing herself to put her feelings for him aside, despite resolving to stop him from starting a war and killing innocent people, she can’t harm him.  She cares about him too much.  This, too, is thematically significant - think about Itachi’s “you don’t have enough hatred” - she doesn’t have enough hatred to kill someone she cares about, even if it seems like he deserves it, even if would be the right thing to do to protect others.  She can’t do it, and Sasuke almost kills her for her compassion.  
I love the dynamic this sets up between her and Sasuke, for a few reasons:
1) Personally, I think Sasuke respects Sakura much more for trying to kill him than he would have if she’d just tried to talk him out of his behavior or beg him to come home (a la their original confrontation in Part 1).  This is the first significant interaction he’s had with Sakura in years, and the fact that she does something SO contrary to his memory of her is an important demonstration of the fact that she’s not the same girl she used to be.  Sasuke spends a lot of time after his defection declaring to his old team “I’ve changed; I’m not that person anymore,” but this is one of the moments where he’s forced to acknowledge that his teammates have changed, too.  Time didn’t just stop for them when he left.  While he was turning into someone new, so were they.  They grew up without him, and his old memories of them can’t encompass the whole picture of who they are now.  
(This is a little tangential, but in general, I love the spectrum of reactions that Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi have in this sequence, and the way that all of them are ultimately messages Sasuke needs to hear.  Sasuke - who we know textually regrets what he did here, who apologizes to Sakura for it later - for “everything,” in fact - needs Naruto’s aggressively optimistic open-arms policy, yes, needs that potential, that unconditional possibility of return.  He also needs Sakura’s refusal to let him hurt her friends and start a war that will kill thousands of people, needs her surprisingly ruthless attempt to take him down; needs just as much her failure to do so, because it shows him that she still loves him too much to kill him even as she condemns him.  And he needs Kakashi’s grim line in the sand, needs someone who very possibly won't hesitate like Sakura (despite the horrifying personal cost), someone who will try to reach him but also won't let him escape and become the next generation’s Orochimaru, who won't let him cause untold suffering to untold numbers of people just because a teacher loved him too much to stop him when he had the chance. 
(And then even Kakashi chooses not to deliver a killing blow when he has the opportunity -)
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(I know that in fandom people are more likely to be all, “oh, Naruto Good, everybody else Bad,” but I don’t think the narrative frames Sakura or Kakashi as “worse” than Naruto in any way.  The story goes out of its way to make it clear how desperately they don’t want to hurt Sasuke and how much they care about him.  And [this is just my interpretation, so obviously I won’t claim it as fact], I personally think that Sasuke - Sasuke, who, looking back, can see how lost he was then and how tortured he would have been if he’d gone through with many of his plans - would be grateful to Sakura and Kakashi for making an attempt to stop him when he couldn’t stop himself.)
2) On the other side of this, the fact that Sakura wasn’t able to deliver the killing blow means a lot. Sasuke was incapacitated under that bridge; he was completely at her mercy - but she stopped with the kunai an inch from his back.  She couldn’t kill him, even though she knew that he was completely willing to kill her (because he'd attempted to Chidori-assassinate her from behind just a few minutes ago).  That’s huge!  Sasuke is too out of his head right now to process this or understand it, but later, it's going to matter.  She stayed her hand.  She spared his life.  She loved him too much to hurt him, even when he’d given her every reason to take him down.  She hesitated, and he almost killed her for it, but her inability to strike him ultimately gave him yet another chance to come home, another chance to get better, another chance to have a life outside of his pain.  Despite everything, some part of her still hadn’t really given up on him, and that knowledge will matter later, when he’s finally able to acknowledge it.  
The point of all this is to say that I really have no complaints about Sakura and Sasuke’s dynamic in their S10 confrontation.  This season is the point where Sakura fully grows past her “girl with a crush” stage and into her “shinobi must make very harsh decisions” adulthood, but it never means that she doesn’t care about the person she’s trying to take down.  Her ultimate inability to deliver the killing blow remains a dangling lifeline for her relationship with Sasuke, an open door that Sasuke is able to walk through at the end of the story (literally, in fact, when Sakura opens that portal for him and saves him from Kaguya’s desert prison, and figuratively, too, when Sasuke apologizes to her).
3. she only wants to save you
The last stage in their relationship is what Sakura settles into during the war arc.  She started off Part 1 being just a girl with a crush, then tried to harden her heart and put her feelings for Sasuke aside in service of the greater good, but she was unable to actually follow through and kill him, and because of that, what she’s come to accept by the war arc is actually two things: that 1) Sasuke truly is willing to let her die if it furthers his goals, and 2) she wants to save him anyway.  
She has no intention of pursuing Sasuke romantically.  She knows full well that Sasuke isn’t interested in her.  She even knows that Sasuke isn’t really on their side (there’s a great scene where Sai questions Sakura about Sasuke’s return, and she reassures him that everything is fine, and Sai sadly thinks to himself “even I can tell your smile is fake”).  She’s well-aware that Sasuke didn’t try to help her when Madara stabbed her.  She’s well-aware that he left her to die in the lava pit.  She’s also well-aware that none of this is enough to make her stop loving him.  He doesn’t have to care about her - she still cares about him.  She still wants to help him.  She still wants to save him.
This is not hidden, hard-to-parse character development.  It’s explicitly articulated on the page:
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Sakura’s not trying or wanting to make you hers!  She only wants to save you.
I’m not sure if people look at this last confrontation and unquestioningly take Sasuke at his word (as if we haven’t just read 71 volumes/watched 700 episodes showing us how how painfully distorted his thinking is), or if they stop reading/watching before the end of the scene, or if they don’t understand that Sasuke saying something doesn’t make that statement an accurate representation of reality.  The entire point of this scene is to show us how deeply mistaken Sasuke is about Sakura (and, by extension, the rest of Team 7).  He’s locked into a false pattern of thinking.  His single-minded focus on revenge and destruction has blinded him to the unconditional love his friends feel for him; he’s become so accustomed to using others and being used that he can’t understand or accept that someone would care about him without needing a reason, without needing him to love them back, without needing to receive something from him in exchange.
Sakura’s not trying or wanting to make you hers!  She only wants to save you.
Sasuke matters to Sakura as more than a love interest.  He always has.  She does love him romantically, yes, but she doesn’t only love him romantically, and her desire to help him is not and has never been contingent on him returning her feelings, romantically or otherwise.  Sasuke isn’t able to acknowledge that in this scene, but that doesn’t mean we’re supposed to just sit back and agree with his warped perspective.  Kakashi is the one who’s explicitly positioned as the voice of the narrative here.  We, as the audience, are supposed to recognize that Kakashi is the one telling us the truth.
[tangential thing 1: You don’t have to love Sakura's last plea to Sasuke here. It’s not my favorite, either - the best part, other than Kakashi’s speech at the end, is the moment after Kakashi collapses when Sakura’s expression changes from pained uncertainty to pure rage, when she grits her teeth together - when I first saw that, I almost leapt out of my seat like “Oh my god.  She’s finally going to let him have it.  It’s finally happening - ”  I wanted that so badly, and I still think it would have been a more effective writing choice for Sakura’s last words to lean more into her anger at the suffering Sasuke is causing all of them (himself included!) and less into yet another of Kishimoto’s “let me have Sakura articulate what a shame it is that she can’t do as much as Naruto despite the fact that I literally just went through a major reveal sequence in the war to show that she’s caught up to the boys; I can’t make up my mind about whether I want her to progress or not” - it’s extremely frustrating (and it's something he does at the very end of the S10 Team 7 reunion, too, which is the ONLY moment of S10 that falls flat for me).  But at the same time, even if there are ways this sequence could be more satisfying, it doesn’t change the fact that her plea to him is not remotely motivated by a desire to be with him romantically and not anything to condemn her for.]
[tangential thing 2: I do like how she remembers that moment when Sasuke says “Thank you.”  That panel precedes her saying “If there’s even a tiny corner of your heart that thinks about me…” (which I’m sure is one of the things that people like to criticize about this scene, aka “oh she’s sooooo self-centered” etc), but that particular line of dialogue is preceded by that particular flashback panel for a reason: Sakura knows that Sasuke DOES think about her.  He thinks about all of them.  Sakura remembers that “thank you,” and it reminds her that despite everything Sasuke has done and said since, despite all evidence to the contrary, she knows in her bones that his expression of gratitude back then was genuine.  He cared about her once.  He cared about all of them.  She’s trying to reach the part of him that still does, if it exists.]
[tangential thing 3: The fact that Kakashi says “she suffers from loving you,” and it triggers Sasuke to remember his own family - thinking about how much he suffered (and still suffers) from loving them - “Perhaps…those are the ties to a failed past” - the idea that it’s not worth it to have bonds if it means you suffer this much…that it’s too difficult, it’s too painful, and if Sakura and the rest of Team 7 were smarter they would just give it up (all Sasuke knows how to do now is sever potential bonds before they can hurt him; so why aren’t Sakura and the rest of his teammates doing that, why can’t they let it go, why are they making this so hard - ) << yeah, he clearly doesn't care about her/them at all.]
4. the shadow of my family
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This has all been a really long way to answer the original question, but the short response to “What do you think about the relationship between Sasuke and Sakura?” is “I really care about it,” just like I really care about the relationship between Sasuke and Naruto, just like I really care about the relationship between Sasuke and Kakashi. And I don’t think the story ever asks me to choose between them.
I’m not sure whether it’s the impact of Boruto-era “canon” that gets in the way of other people approaching things this way (I don’t consider sequel material when I evaluate the original story), or if it’s Kishimoto’s frequent disinterest in/disrespect towards female characters, which yes, does sometimes make it harder, or if it's a shipping thing (bane of my existence), or some combination of factors, but for me, taking one member of Team 7 out of the equation hobbles the rest of the story.  I can’t read/watch Naruto while hating one of the protagonists and loving the other three.  It doesn’t work like that for me.  The story wasn’t written that way, and there’s nothing in the text that would cause me to receive it that way.
That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with disliking one of the main foursome (or any character, for that matter) - obviously we're all going to have different preferences, and everyone is free to enjoy or reject whatever parts of a story they want, or to like or dislike whatever characters they want. I know that some people have more fun disregarding canon and doing their own thing, which is fine.  My own personal zone of enjoyment comes from receiving the story as closely to how I think it was intended to be read as I can, and personally, when I look at this particular story, what I see is that all the members of Team 7 clearly demonstrate their love for Sasuke in ways that he himself later recognizes and acknowledges. All of them are driven by their desire to save him and their unwillingness to hurt him. All of them make repeated choices to chase after him when he runs away, to trust him when he hasn't exactly earned it, to give him another chance when he doesn't appear to deserve it. ALL of them, not just Naruto, do these things multiple times throughout the story, and Sasuke owes his life (and thus his eventual recovery) to ALL of them, many times over. Kakashi disobeys Hokage-elect Danzō and breaks the law to negotiate for Sasuke's life with a foreign head of state. Sakura and Kakashi both have opportunities to kill Sasuke in the Land of Iron, and they choose to spare him instead. Kakashi stops Sasuke from killing his only friends at two different points in the story, which would have been a mistake Sasuke couldn't have recovered from. Sasuke would have died in Kaguya's desert dimension if Sakura hadn't saved him (Sakura, who knew that Sasuke wasn't even truly on her side yet, who knew he'd abandoned her for dead multiple times already that day). Kaguya's bone bullet would have killed Sasuke too, if Kakashi, with his intention to die in Sasuke's place, hadn't leapt in front of it (Kakashi, who also knew that Sasuke wasn't fully on their side yet, who also knew that Sasuke had abandoned him for dead earlier that day). Sasuke and Naruto would have BOTH died in the Final Valley if Sakura and a severely injured Kakashi hadn't chased after them to heal their injuries.
Remove any one member of Team 7, and Sasuke never makes it home. Without the combined efforts of all three of his teammates, he doesn't survive.  That’s the way it should be, thematically, for a story whose first and most foundational premise was the importance of teamwork, and since Sakura was just as essential to that framework as everyone else, I’m just as invested in her relationship with Sasuke as I am in his relationship with everyone else.  You can’t remove one leg from a four-legged stool without damaging the integrity of the entire structure, and for me, discounting any single member of Team 7 irreparably damages the integrity of the entire story. 
TL;DR: I love all of the Team 7 relationships, including Sakura and Sasuke's, because despite what some segments of fandom seem to believe, the text of the story never gives me any reason not to.
#naruto#meta#replies#anyway that's that! hopefully that is a helpful answer#thank you for the question! i honestly don't think i would have ever gotten around to writing about this if i hadn't been directly asked#i love talking about the stories i enjoy (obviously; we all do; that's why we're here)#but i'm usually ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ about responding to takes that blatantly misread the narrative to justify hating a particular character or ship#mostly because a) it's whatever. as long as people mind their own business and leave me to enjoy myself they can do what they want#and b) some opinions are so divorced from the actual text that they're not worth discussing#like. what's the point of responding to random internet posts saying that sakura was selfishly pursuing sasuke as a lover the entire time#when that is textually and provably not the case?#if you're that committed to experiencing things in direct contradiction to what the narrative is asking of us then just go ahead#is it mildly annoying to me? sure. but so are lots of things and it's better to just let stuff go#like - i initially planned to take this piece of meta all the way up through sakura and sasuke's last scene together#the one where he tells her 'maybe next time' and finally reclaims and redefines itachi's forehead tap (INCREDIBLE. THIS SCENE.)#but ultimately i changed my mind because everything i wrote for that last section was coming out too harsh#i generally prefer to talk about fandom stuff in a chill/friendly approachable way#but i kept thinking about the most obscenely & disrespectfully inaccurate read of that scene i'd ever seen#and i couldn't figure out how to talk about it in a non-scathing way#that scene and the one where naruto gives sasuke's headband back are the ONLY well-written things about the finale of naruto#they are SO perfectly constructed and i can't respond to people slandering either one without feeling an urge to kill#so i just deleted it. partially because again - this is fandom; it's not that serious; people can do what they want#but also because i know i get extra frustrated about people picking over the text and plucking out isolated bits and pieces#to contort into blatantly misinterpreted mutant shapes that 'confirm' whatever pre-existing judgments or ships they had#instead of experiencing the story as a cohesive whole & keeping in mind the greater context of what it's always been trying to communicate#people on this website say 'we all interpret things differently :)' as if it means no one can ever be wrong about what a text is saying#newsflash: not all interpretations of a text are valid. things can't in fact mean whatever you want them to mean.#the ***story*** persists and exists even if the author is dead to you#if you choose to ignore that then that's fine; it's just fandom; who cares. but i'm not going to pretend you're 'analyzing' anything.#(ok now i'm really done. you can see why i deleted this section XD)
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angie-words · 3 months ago
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2024 fic roundup
Thanks so much to @cheeseplants for tagging me in this Ask game!
The idea is you can answer these questions yourself, as many or as few as you want 💜
What fandoms do you write in?
Good Omens, baybeee 👈😎👈 I don't think another piece of media has ever quite so completely owned my ass. Well, maybe Sherlock Holmes (not the BBC one, sorry), or Due South (look, the tale of a misfit, repressed Mountie masking all the time? A neurodivergent hero), but I haven't written anything for them in yeeeaaars
How many words have you published in 2024?
141, 427, about half of that on Write A Way (Explicit) alone. Wow that's... huh. That's a lot...
What is your greatest achievement this year?
It's a tie between creating my first ever multi-chapter piece of work and joining @whickberstreetwriters 🥳 I'm extremely proud of Write A Way - I've had so many comments from people talking about how seen they've felt as neurodivergent people, not just in the common struggles but in our joys as well. It truly makes my heart full. Being invited to join WSWA contributed massively to me being able to feel confident in my writing again. Honestly, without their support, beta reading and friendship I do not think Write A Way would exist.
Top 3 fics you've written this year?
Have I mentioned Write A Way (Explicit)? A tale of two sparring authors, both successful in their own right, both neurodivergent... and both secretly fans of a certain show?
Then there's How to Play (Mature), where I really wanted to experiment with ramping up the sexual tension inherent to their 1941 shenanigans
Finding a Rhythm (Explicit) is one of my most recent fics and I thoroughly enjoyed writing Aziraphale's incredibly obvious seduction attempts while Crowley is incredibly oblivious.
What was your biggest pit of despair moment?
I don't think I truly had one, but there were a couple of snags. I guess for me it was realising a chapter in Write A Way just wasn't working and feeling a bit downcast. Work was stressful and the thing that was meant to bring me joy was causing me a headache. I wanted to have Azira and Crowley smooch in a way that felt natural, but it was really fighting me; it was only through the help of my beta readers that I was able to persevere and make those two twits snog
What have you learned?
Listen to your beta readers but also ask questions - I made way too many assumptions early on when I was getting used to having my work beta read. I've also learned that I can write long-form fics! I genuinely didn't think I had that in me
What fic did you want to do but never made it off the ground?
Do not look at the 5000+ word unfinished draft in my folder... It's been going around my head for a while, this idea of Dr Aziraphale going to a conference with his university colleague Dr Crowley and sexy shenanigans happening. Mostly involving thin walls and vibrator wands.
Did you beta any fics?
So many, you have no idea! I've done some for the GOAD Writers Guild, but the WSWA fics have been my core source. One of the things I love most about being in the Whickber Street Writers Association server is that we're a micro-community of writers and I get to beta some absolutely stunning fic. It's inspiring
What 3 fics have you read this year that you love?
Just 3? Gaaaah OK
I recently read The Apple Doesn't Fall Far (Explicit) by @cheeseplants - it was so sweet and lovely and it felt so grounded. I'm a sucker for fics that focus on two people not exactly fixing one another, but who just by being close inspire each other to be better
Show the Way (Mature) by @the-literal-kj is an incredible fic where Aziraphale and Crowley go to war during a community theatre staging of Hadestown. KJ really draws out some amazing, tender characterisation and I really enjoyed the bickering and progression as the enemies turn to friends then lovers
Last but certainly not least: A Wank in the Park by @rofell a story where Ezra and Anthony, both in their very early 20s, meet while working on a production of Shakespeare in the Park, forming a very believable and ridiculous friendship with benefits. I had the great joy of beta reading this and watching with mounting amusement as these absolute "turbo virgins" go into denial about the fact that their sexual experiments together are anything more than that
What ideas are percolating for next year?
See my Drs Aziraphale & Crowley mention 😅
Who do you want to thank?
Everyone at the GOAD sub for their wonderful support (and putting up with my meme posts). However, a very special thanks to everyone on the WSWA server - I truly could not have written half as much half as well without their help and inspiration
Feel free to take part, choose and ignore questions as you'd like, and here's to our world 🥂
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linkspooky · 4 months ago
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Hello! Is it alright if I ask for writing help? This idea has been shuffling around my head for a few months now. I really want to solidify this idea but I'm struggling to figure which fandom to place him in. They don't have big motivations, no "I want to save everyone" or "I want to live a meaningful life". They're motivated by day to day things, like "I want to buy that new game" and "I want to have sushi for dinner". However this OC is also a big coward, and refuses to give his life for anyone but himself. Essentially, "I am me, I exist. And I want to keep existing."
I'm tempted to put him in JJK, but given the themes of it I don't think he'd last long. Or even be that powerful, if this isn't your thing please ignore and I'm sorry for bothering you!
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So I can't really write your own characters for you, so to try to give you advice, I'll describe the process of how I came to create Michikatsu Gojo, my favorite OC that I've written for my Nobody Dies Au.
The first thing before you even start is you can't afraid to have your character be a part of the world. You especially can't be afraid of having your character interact with canon characters. That is literally the point of fanfiction to put the canon characters in made up scenarios. Your own ocs can be one such device for putting characters into scenarios.
People always say they hate reading ocs in fic, but what they really mean is they hate reading bad ocs. Often I think the problem is people are too afraid to make their ocs plot important, so they turn into nothing burger characters. Why is this character here if they don't add something to the story? Or they intentionally flatten their ocs because they're too afraid of taking attention away from the canon characters.
The best thing to do is just let your ocs interact with canon characters. Let them be plot important. It's alright as long as they contribute something to the original story you're trying to tell. If you want your imaginary little guy to interact with Yuji and Co go for it.
I usually get the feedback of "I don't usually like Ocs, but I like yours." I'm sure there are people who don't like how much I use Ocs in my fanfics, but I assume if it's against their personal taste they just don't read. At some point you just have to accept that either people will like your story choices or they won't.
So that out of the way the first thing is to try to find a place in the story you want to tell, whether it's just a brainfic, or an actual fic you want to write out. With Michi I started out with "I want to do backstory for Gojo Satoru. Gege is never going to tell us anything of substance about the Gojo clan so I'm going to make up my own."
So I created Michikatsu. Gojo's cousin. Someone who grew up in the Gojo clan alongside Gojo. However, while Gojo was blessed and spoiled, Michikatsu because he wasn't born with a good technique was reviled. They are both shaped by the corruption of the Gojo clan albeit in opposite ways. They are connected, and are technically family but in a distant way. Michikatsu is a cousin, he's not a sibling. They did know each other growing up but you couldn't say they were childhood friends or anything. Michiktasu is the foil to Gojo, Gojo is blessed and Michikatsu is curssed, Gojo is strong and Michikatsu is weak.
They also have very different ideologies. Gojo only values strength and only takes an interest in strong people. Michikatsu believes that there's a strength in weak people trying and struggling to live their lives even if they're not strong like Gojo or like Yuji. Gojo is recruiting strong kids to his child army, Michikatsu wants to spare weak children like Junpei, Mimiko and Nanako etc.
So Michikatsu is basically crafted entirely around Gojo to be his shadow and his foil. His main plot purpose is to further characterize Gojo, shed light on his backstory, and inform you of certain things about Gojo by contrasting and comparing to Michi.
The next thing is to try to focus in on the central idea of your character. Characters are just ideas after all. Michi's central theme is motherhood. His central philosophy is that there are no bad children. Therefore there are no bad victims. His goal is to become a teacher like Gojo, but unlike Gojo who wants to teach children sorcery Michi wants to teach them math. Unlike Gojo who wants to reform the sorcery world, Michi wants to take his little family and run away from the sorcery world entirely. Gojo takes in strong students, Michi wants to protect weak children. Gojo can't save bad victims while Michi believes that no children are truly bad so he always saves the bad victims.
I know I'm making it sound like Michi is a better person that Gojo, but like, Michi hung around with Geto and he was fine with Geto murdering people and only drew the line at murdering children. Gojo sacrifices the few to save the many. Michi can only save a few people, and isn't powerful enough to stop the deaths of many people.
Michi also doesn't really care. If a child dies right in front of him he'll care. If a hundred people die, as long as they're not children he wouldn't really care.
So you could really just have a character motivated by only the small things in life. "I want sushi for dinner" is valid. Miwa and Kusakabe both don't have any grander motivations or notions of being a sorcerer it's just a shitty job for both of them. I think your character could be like a person who's like "Well, I can't kill myself because I want to see a new episode of the anime next week." That's as valid a motivation to live as anyone else.
Of course you have to come up with curse technique after that, and remember that curse technique should be a metaphor for personality. Michikatsu's curse technique is mind controlling people and turning corpses into puppets, because Michi has had to learn to become a manipulative person in order to survive. Gojo's technique makes it impossible for anyone to touch him because he believes he's truly above everyone to the point of not being able to interact with the world or being understood by other people.
Character design wise I also wanted Michikatsu to compare and contrast with Gojo. Gojo is albino and pale as possible, Michikatsu is brown skinned, has brown hair, but otherwise similiar face shape and hair to Gojo. They're both unnaturally tall and thin. Gojo is someone who is the ideal of jujutsu Society and fits the mold perfectly, whereas Michi is someone who'd be discriminated against because he's biracial. He's immediately identifiable as different.
I'd also say that I made Michi openly queer, because Gojo is queer too but it's relegated to subtext in the story. Gojo has the most queer relationship with Geto ever but they never say it out loud. Michi is just, he's bigender. He is a woman. He uses He / She pronouns interchangably. He'll show up in suits and dresses. He'll be dressed like a man and be like "Damn, I am a gorgeous woman." He only sleeps with men, but it's okay, if you're a straight man you can still be straight and sleep with him because he's a woman. He will adopt you and be your mommy if you want him too.
When it comes to making a character, what's most important of all is making all the details of that character reinforce that central idea, or at least characterize them further. That's the best advice I can give you.
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wylanslcve · 1 year ago
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Something I don't see anyone speak about (if you have and I just haven't seen it... I'm sorry :( ) is how Wylan not only reclaims his identity by the duology's conclusion, but he also reclaims Marya's. I feel like we as a fandom overlook just how much J*n put Marya through in an attempt to erase Wylan from the public memory: he had her declared insane as a grounds for divorce and institutionalised her, leaving her "abandoned along with her defective child" in order to "forever rid himself of any evidence that Wylan had existed". This transcended to J*n not allowing Wylan to grieve his mother's 'death' because, as he put it, "it didn’t pay to dwell on the past" - and Wylan tells Jesper that J*n never brought Marya up after breaking the news of her finality to his son, confessing "we just stopped talking about her".
What we also need to remember is that the Van Eck mansion "had belonged to Wylan’s mother’s family for generations before Van Eck had ever set foot through the door". (Edit: I didn't mean to write that the mansion belonged to the Hendriks - it was part of the property under the Van Eck name. Sorry about that!) Just like how J*n separated Wylan from his mother, he simultaneously took so much from Marya - first her home, then her name, her fortune, her own child. This is why Marya was admitted as Marya Hendriks, not Marya Van Eck: this is J*n quite literally stripping her of her name to permanently erase her from the public memory. The nurse addresses Marya as "Miss Hendriks", to which Marya mutters "Van Eck" in response, because "she was not Marya Hendriks, she was Marya Van Eck, a wife and mother stripped of her name and her fortune." So why is it that Wylan says, "I am Marya Hendriks' son" if Marya Hendriks is the woman who's left after Marya Van Eck had her name and her life taken away from her? Because this is Wylan reclaiming his mother's identity.
If we examine the moment Wylan visits his mother at Saint Hilde, Marya's first words to him are "did you come for my money? I don’t have any money" to which Wylan replies that he doesn't have any money either. The money neither of them have comes to signify the lack of autonomy they have over their identities, which have spent so long confined by J*n's contempt as he gradually works towards making them vanish entirely. J*n tried desperately to erase Marya's memory as a means of gradually erasing Wylan's - however, Wylan is the only one who keeps his mother's memory alive, just like how Marya keeps her son's alive. Upon arriving in the Barrel, Wylan detaches himself from his father's name and, instead, uses his mother's maiden name. Yes, he's doing it to not draw attention to himself (because what would the child of one of the richest men in Ketterdam be doing in a place like the Barrel?), but he's also preserving Marya's memory, clinging to it like a lifeline without even realising it. In a way, it's saving him.
Before I go on any further, I'm taking a brief detour to discuss the transition in Wylan's motivations upon discovering what really happened to his mother (it's relevant, I promise). Wylan completely breaking down when he realises that his father is indeed evil is such a pivotal moment that marks a major transition in his motivations. Jesper comforts Wylan during his breakdown, assuring him that "Kaz is going to tear your father’s damn life apart" - a sentiment that "felt like cool water cascading over the hot, shameful feeling of helplessness he’d [Wylan] been carrying with him for so long". His continued contribution to the Dregs’ mission is no longer about making the money to “get out of town and never speak the name Van Eck again” - now, he's "here for her". Now, it's about punishing his father, saving Marya and returning all J*n took from her: “what am I doing here? But he knew the answer. Only he could see his father punished for what he’d done. Only he could see his mother free.” He realises that J*n's life falling apart means that, with his money, "he could take his mother from this place. They could go somewhere warm. He could put her in front of a piano, get her to play, take her somewhere full of bright colors and beautiful sounds. They could go to Novyi Zem. They could go anywhere." He could save her, liberate her from the confines of J*n's contempt - and only he can do it, because who else would?
Meanwhile, Marya clings to the memories of her child even though J*n took him away from her. While institutionalised, Marya would paint - and in her paintings, "repeated again and again, was the face of a little boy with ruddy curls and bright blue eyes". We know that J*n wanted Wylan to disappear "the way he’d made Wylan’s mother disappear" - what we don't know, however, is what J*n told Marya during the time she was institutionalised. Did he visit her after sending Wylan away, supposedly to study music in Belendt, to tell her that Wylan is dead? Did he ever visit her before then and tell her that her son is dead to expunge his memory from Marya? We can only speculate - but what we do know is that, regardless of whether or not she thinks he's dead, Marya is grieving the loss of her child.
Something that Wylan fears if the Dregs’ mission is unsuccessful is that he’s “going to die and there will be no one to help her. No one to even remember Marya Hendriks” - and the same could be said about Marya’s feelings of responsibility for preserving the spirit of her child. Amidst her grief is the strive to save him and his memory, because she’s really the only one who’s willing to remember him. At the asylum, her paintings are thrown out “every six months” because “there just isn’t enough space for them” - but that doesn’t stop her from continuing to paint the face of her child and, thus, remembering him, making sure he doesn't disappear. Wylan confesses to Jesper that his parents “fought all the time, sometimes about me”, revealing how Marya has always fought for Wylan - and her being institutionalised, having her paintings thrown out every so often, won’t put an end to her fighting for him. She's hellbent on ensuring he doesn't vanish, because there’s no one else who would. (Think of this in relation to the meaning behind “no mourners, no funerals” - if Wylan disappeared, “no one would come looking”, as is the case with the rest of the Crows.)
Now, let's examine how, by the end of the duology, Wylan not only liberates himself from the pain caused by his father's wrongdoings, but also saves his mother. He'd "chosen to use a portion of his newfound wealth to restore his home", exemplifying how inheriting his father's fortune represents him reclaiming his identity from the pain and abuse J*n's contempt inflicted upon him. However, I mentioned earlier that the Van Eck mansion didn't actually belong to the Van Ecks in the first place - it belonged to the Hendriks. (Edit: again, not the mansion, but part of the property under the Van Eck name.) Thus, Wylan's position by the end of Crooked Kingdom also comes to represent him reclaiming his mother's identity as he returns everything J*n took from her. By "restor[ing] his home", he's also restoring Marya's.
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alchemical-rhapsodaire · 1 year ago
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Recently, I've only reblogged posts that speak about the matter, but this is genuinely heartbreaking so I'm choosing to speak up about it here.
First of all, I'm not Brazilian and I don't have twitter, so I can only imagine the pain and fear all the xenophobia and racism the Brazilian community is facing right now. The Brazilian community, at least on Tumblr, are some of the kindest people I've interacted with online and learning about your language and culture has genuinely made this fandom experience so fun and enjoyable. NOBODY deserves to receive any form of hate simply because of your identity. You shouldn't have to be living in fear or be driven out from a platform or a fandom simply because of where your from.
I am extending my heart and giving all my love to the Brazilian community and the CC's that have been through shit and are going through literal hell right now just to receive basic kindness and respect in this community. People have been trying to dig up dirt on Brazilian CC's to justify the hate they're sending to the community, which is just fucking disgusting. This has been going on for MONTHS and has ruined/still is ruining lives to this day. Cellbit should not have had to justify his sexuality for the internet or publicize (words cannot describe) his very traumatic past just to appease a bunch of strangers on the fucking internet.
The QSMP is supposed to unite people of all languages and cultures and create a safe community for all people to engage in regardless of their language or background. It's insane how a lot of people missed the fucking point of the project. If you have been/are being racist or xenophobic to any community regardless of if they are part of the QSMP or not, know that you are not welcome in this fandom and in this space. It's disgusting and ridiculous that so many people are living in fear due to receiving so much hate simply for who they are, where they're from, the language they speak, etc.
If you have been/are being racist or xenophobic, get the fuck out of this community and don't return until you've learned how to be a decent human being. If you can't extend the most basic form of respect or kindness to other people then I seriously hope you get help and reflect on your actions and learn to be a decent fucking person.
It hurts that we must have these discussions and that many people/communities have to beg to be heard and respected in this fandom.
I am so sorry and I'm giving all my love to the Brazilian community during this time. Know that you all are loved and welcomed in this community and in this fandom. We love having you here and I cannot imagine the QSMP without all the contributions, passion, and enthusiasm the Brazilian community has put into it. Thank you and I love you all very much!
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aydaptic · 1 year ago
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Sorry if you've already answered this before but I'm new to the fandom and I found your account through your web-comic and I was wondering what is it about Gavin that you like so much? Why is he one of your favourite characters in dbh? (I've noticed that he isn't much of a fan-favourite in this fandom 😔)
This'll be a long post, but you asked (...and I'll happily answer!) I'll add some descriptions for context. At the top of my head, I can think of 21 reasons why I like his canon equivalent.
1. He's charismatic
Gav gives off an energy that makes it easy to hang onto his every word. I can quote all his lines by heart and I like listening to Neil Newbon (in this specific role) talk. I remember some of Kamski's lines as well -- also mo-capped/voice acted by Newbon -- but Kamski doesn't have nearly as much charisma as Gav does.
2. He's expressive
Ppl who 'talk with their hands' are more charismatic. Gav is all over the place in the break room if you stick around. Hand gestures capture people's attention as they emphasize what is being said.
3. He doesn't think androids are alive (...so in his eyes, the way he treats them isn't wrong)
"Could always try roughin' it up a little. After all... it's not human." - Gavin Reed, The Interrogation
That means he wouldn't rough up a human suspect. This alone justifies his unpleasant attitude towards androids. Hank -- who treated Connor way worse than Gav ever did -- changed his mind. Nothing says Gav can't do the same.
If Alexa suddenly said she was alive, the vast majority wouldn't take it seriously (if any at all.)
4. He's sarcastic
"Congratulations on last night, very impressive." - Gavin Reed, Waiting For Hank...
5. He has dark humor
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6. He looks down on people that pay for s*x
Quote above. You don't call someone a "pervert" if you agree with their actions. The Eden Club, in particular, is immoral AF... bc those androids don't have a choice. Gav doesn't care about them being androids, but he still looks down on the guy who paid money to get laid, and I applaud Gav for that. Especially when said guy also had a wife and kids.
7. He has valid concerns about androids taking jobs
Anyone who says differently is either in denial, uninformed, or never had a job they were scared to get fired from. There's already been an uproar about ChatGPT and that's nothing compared to how advanced Detroit: Become Human androids are. The unemployment rate in this game is 37% -- higher than it was during the Great Depression and C*VID -- and androids are the main cause.
I've seen a lot of ppl ask this question:
Q: Why not just buy an android and have them do your job for you, then? You get the money anyway bc it's your android!
A: Bc, believe it or not, the vast majority of men want to work. This is a strange concept to grasp for a lot of ppl. I admire Gav for being one of those men who wants to do it themselves. Letting someone else do your job is taking the easy way out.
8. He's a hard worker
Gallery: "...Ruthlessly ambitious, Reed will do anything to advance his career, even if it means treading on other peoples’ toes."
9. He's ambitious
See the quote above.
10. He doesn't sleep well
This isn't just a headcanon. He has literal bags under his eyes. Just knowing he doesn't sleep well already has me asking, "why?" It's interesting.
11. He puts his feet on the table
After Connor interacts with him in the break room, Gav will go to his desk and do this. I'll go into detail about why this contributes to my liking his character in the very last point.
12. He calls Hank out on his alcoholism
As much as most of us love Hank, he's not in a good space mentally. Showing up drunk/hungover to work should not be tolerated. It not only puts coworkers, but also civilians, at risk. Hank should be in therapy instead of working at the DPD until he gets his life sorted out.
13. He calls Fowler out for giving Hank special treatment
"You won't get away with it this time." - Gavin Reed, The Interrogation (after Hank pulls a literal gun on a human coworker AKA Gav)
So Gav has brought it up to Fowler before and is about to do it again. Ties into the point above. What Hank does -- like assaulting a literal FBI agent -- shouldn't be tolerated.
14. He's a control freak
I gravitate towards ppl and characters who take charge. Those who like being in control and know what they're doing. I'm a control freak myself, but I'd prefer to let someone else take the reins as long as I agree with their methods. I like it when ppl know what they want and act on it. Gav does both.
15. He's protective of his coworkers
I was unsure whether or not to add this as I guess it can be seen as a subjective theory and not an objective fact.
Gav only ever steps in with the gun in The Interrogation when Con uses aggressive force on Chris Miller by tearing him away from the deviant. Con did this after disobeying Gav 3 times. So yeah. Gav is justified for stepping in. Hank, on the other hand, isn't justified for pulling a gun on a human coworker. I see this scene as Gav protecting Chris from Con who is showing signs of deviancy.
16. He can't wink
Endearing.
17. He pouts a lot
Again, endearing.
18. He swears like a sneezing kitten
Same as the two points above.
19. He doesn't like Connor
I don't like Con, either. Yeah. We exist. Personality types like Con's "let's be friends" attitude and constant positivity pisses me off. Before anyone comments that the player decides Con's personality... no. Only to an extent. There are several instances where the player has no say whatsoever. Some of Con's pre-determined responses annoy me.
20. He has great fashion
Big fan of leather jackets.
21. I like him bc I'm a narcissist at times
He's essentially the male equivalent of me to the T. I'm only an asshole internally, though. We love (or hate) characters we relate to. I relate to every single point except 17 and 18 on this list.
There you go :)
His OOC fanon equivalent has a huge fanbase -- especially on Twitter/X and Tumblr turning him into a blushing teenage girl -- but it seems like I'm the only person who can't stand that OOC portrayal of him. That said, I adore his canon equivalent in all his asshole glory.
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romajuliettemai · 1 year ago
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A few more SSS incorrect quotes
I haven't posted sss stuff in a while and this has been in my drafts for forever so here we go! (Some of these were edited or created by me & take place in a past timeline- also don't ask why some of the spacings are weird idk)
Silas: Do you cook?
Roma: I made a cake once.
Marshall: Yeah, it was good.
Roma: Really?
Marshall: Don’t make me lie twice, Roma.
Orion: Some people are like slinkies.
Rosalind: What?
Orion: Not really good for much but bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.
Rosalind:
Rosalind: Please don't push Alisa down the stairs.
Orion, pushing Alisa down the stairs: Too late.
Benedikt: You need to stop swearing so much. Oliver: Shut the fuck up. Benedikt: Yeah, that's not how you do it. Oliver: Alright sorry. It's just that it's hard not to swear. The words just creep up on me when I least expect it. Benedikt: Now now, don't be like that. Just replace the swear words with 'beep' and you'll be fine. Oliver: Shit the beep up. Benedikt: Oliver: SHUT, DAMMIT! I MEANT SHUT!
Orion: I've never encountered a problem that can't be solved by an spontaneous musical number.
Juliette: BEHOLD, the field in which I grow my fucks! Lay thine eyes upon it, and thou shalt see that it is barren!
Alisa: Uh, I think I got your lunch. *Holds up a note that reads: ‘I am very proud of you. Love, Orion’* Rosalind: Oh yeah. I didn’t think this was for me. *Holds up a note that reads: ‘Be good. For the love of God, Please be good.’*
Rosalind: I owe you one.
Orion: It's ok, you can just date me and we'll call it even *winks with two eyes*
Alisa, after getting a library card: Now I know what true power feels like. *proceeds to climb on top of the bookshelves*
Roma: Guys, Orion is missing. Celia: Good.
Alisa: I tried to write ‘I'm a functional adult’ but my phone changed it to ‘fictional adult’ and i feel like that’s more accurate.
Orion: Oliver is at that very special age where a kid only has one thing on their mind. Phoebe: Girls? Oliver: Homicide.
Phoebe: Hey! Wanna hear a joke? Silas: Sure. Phoebe: Your life! Silas: Actually, my life isn’t a joke, jokes have meaning. Phoebe: Silas...no.
Orion: Now, if I may speak for good-looking people everywhere... Oliver, rolling his eyes: Only as their rodeo clown.
Benedikt: Celia, we tried things your way. Celia: No, we didn't. Benedikt: I did it in my head and it didn't work.
Roma, clearly exhausted: Did you have to stab them? Future Katherina: You weren’t there. You didn’t hear what they said to me. Roma: What did they say? Future Katherina: "What are you going to do, stab me?" Juliette, calling from the other room while sharpening her knives on a bowl: That’s fair!
Roma, rubbing his forehead, annoyed: In what world?
Alisa: I desire moisture. Oliver: Please just say "I want water" like a normal person.
Silas: You know I think my life has value. Orion: Who are you and what have you done with Silas?!
Sorry for not having posted anything Secret Shangai in a while- just been super busy. Probably not going to be as active on here just because I literally do not have the ability to be- but I'll hop on every so often and check in! Thank you to everyone doing their best to keep the fandom alive, I'll continue to try to contribute to that! <333
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uriekukistan · 11 months ago
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1, 23, and 24 for jjk for the ask game :p
suddenly i'm scared to have opinions but i do wanna get a lot of these things off my chest so
1 - the character everyone gets wrong :
i wanna say the character people get the most wrong is gojo actually. so many people just portray him as a cocky, silly guy, and miss the deep loneliness and insecurity that comes from being the strongest. its kinda sad because i think his inability to form a true and vulnerable connection is not only heartbreaking, but fundamental to the way he acts and how the story has played out thus far.
that being said, the most frustrating thing for me, and this is not an everyone thing, but i would say the overall...horniness of the jjk fandom contributes to a lot of mischaracterizations. im not saying there's anything wrong with writing or reading smut fics, but i think for a few characters their smut fic personalities have led to a more shallow understanding of their character. gojo is one, as i just mentioned, but also choso and sukuna. (im a bit scared to put this opinion out there, but it's been on my mind for a bit, ever since the gojo figure incident)
23 - ship you've unwillingly come around to :
i guess choso and yuki is one? i didn't really see it at first, but i guess it's kinda sweet, if a little bit one sided. i just don't see choso as the type to be seeking anything out like that, his priority is very clearly protecting his family.
there's more ships i wouldn't touch with a 10 foot poll that i don't see myself ever coming around to, such as MEGUMI AND SUKUNA???? aside from the fact that megumi is 15/16 and sukuna is 1000+, it's still an absolute no from me.
24 - topic that brings up the most rancid discourse :
i try not to get involved in jjk fandom discourse (except this post maybe?), and i wouldn't say this is "rancid" more-so irritating, but i mentioned today how i think specifically the tiktok jjk fandom lacks basic reading comprehension and analysis skills. people are understandably bored with the kind of cyclical writing gege has been putting out there recently, but also some of the ways in which they are criticizing jjk just show a lack of understanding of what's actually happening and the story that's trying to be told. spoilers here i'm sorry you thought the biggest supervillain of the series was going to be taken down easily? i'm sorry you weren't expecting lots of battles in jujutsu kaisen, which literally means sorcery battle? i think it was pretty obvious that this wasn't going to be a normal power of friendship manga from the junpei incident. the whole point of the hidden inventory arc was to show that the point was always to raise a new generation of sorcerers who would be able to work together and be the strongest together. gojo was never going to singlehandedly take down sukuna, and neither will any other character. the individual battles themselves could have more variety, but the direction the story was going was clear from pretty early on. no more spoilers
yeah anyway that's not really "discourse" im just sick of seeing the lists of reasons people think jjk is "mid" now, and all it is is them saying they dont understand plot points that were clearly established and explained.
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lightofraye · 7 months ago
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So as everyone knows Elta weasled her way into the Wales comic con. That has me questioning what was the con promoter/booker thinking?! I think Misha was originally supposed to go but backed out. So they got Elta to fill that spot. Which out of the 2 I would have preferred Misha. Cause we all know Elta is going to go for the cringe PDA kiss like she did at the con she went with him to last year. She has no reason to actually be there her character was useless. It brought nothing to the plot taking her character out changes nothing. She has nothing to contribute since she was in only 5 episodes. Also despite what she says when she claimed she knew all of Cas’s lines we all know that is a lie. Why is it a lie? Cause Jensen exposed her saying she basically only watched 5 episodes which knowing her it was the episodes she was in. Elta was in Supernatural for 2 reasons first reason she didn’t want to be a liar. Fans had asked her when was she showing up in Supernatural. She replied on Twitter if Supernatural made it to season 13 she would appear. Her character shows up Sesason 13 episode 13. Also her saying if it made it shows she had no faith in the show or her husband. The main reason she was on there is cause Gen was on there in season 4 and people talk about how she fell in love with Jared. We all know Elta tries to one up Gen every time. So she begged Jensen to get her on there. I still think someone hated her cause her character Anael take out the e it’s Anal which she can be at times. I just know Jensen’s joy will not be there. We won’t see that eye crinkling beautiful true smile of his we will see the fake one he gives when he is not feeling it.
I know I am rambling I am sorry just miffed she weasel her way into a con. But what I find hilarious is the pics they used to advertise her looks like two different people. One is her as Anael the main pic is from her early days before all the fillers and Botox. I believe it’s from her OTH days. But it looks like 2 different people there. Her “fans” want to say oh she is just getting older she didn’t have work done. Uh yeah she did have work done. If you get a picture of Danneel from OTH to now you can literally see she has work done cause she looks unrecognizable. If Jensen wasn’t with her people wouldn’t know who she is. Can’t wait to see what new face, horrible clothing choice and messy hair style she has then.
Hi anon!
Also another apology to be issued for the lateness. Life, y'know? But thanks for the message!
Now to respond/address what you've said.
I don't know if Misha was supposed to go, as I had never seen anything about him going to Wales. But it's possible. Or Elta insisted on having her own little European vacation after seeing Jared and Genevieve having fun.
That's the hard choice--which one do we want, Misha or Elta? Can neither be the answer??
God, that PDA kiss at last year was AWFUL. Cold fish kiss. Zero love, passion or chemistry.
Yeah. Anael/Sister Jo had zero reason to be in the plot. And the writers had to have known what they were doing by making Anael a materialistic bitch.
Yeah. Elta basically forced Jensen to get her added to Supernatural because she wanted to be involved, and used the Destiel fandom to harass and abuse her husband as well. She wanted the attention and loved how uncomfortable it was making Jensen. It's also why she kissed Misha's ass and gave him a lap dance.
Yes… Jensen will be miserable in Wales. I'm not looking forward to his sad smiles.
It's okay to ramble! I do it all the time! That's why my blog is titled "Ramblings of a Writer". I ramble!
Yes! No recent photos of her for them to use? Really? So they use unrecognizable ones? Haha!
Yep. She absolutely had work done, numerous times. Her hairline moving north means numerous facelifts. Her smile--called the Joker smile for a reason--shows other work having been done as she looks horrific.
She needs to lay off black. Black emphasizes nothing good on her. She needs color. She needs an actual stylist because if Marcus is responsible for past choices, he's an awful one. Get a vocal coach because her voice is just AWFUL.
And then, y'know, therapy to fix her narcissistic soul. If that even works.
I feel you, anon. I'm not looking forward to her being there at all.
I only hope Jensen will be okay.
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