#I'm not saying this for the sake of defending a ship but because i love El as a character

[drukkaris-blog]

This scene is so adorable and all, their little conversation, Mike reassuring El she doesn't need hair to look pretty. Even expressing how happy he is to have her back home, which says a lot about how Mike feels about El at this point. Everything is normal again for them even if a second later it falls apart.

But

I think it's rather important to remember how this could have been their first kiss if they weren't interrupted. The fact that El tried to initiate the kiss, she knew how she felt for Mike in that moment. Even if she couldn't properly express it through her words, she expressed it through her actions and what she felt. Love is a feeling, it's not something you have to learn about. I can't say this enough because a lot of people try and claim Mike was the one who kissed her first, which he did, but to say he took advantage of her because she didn't know much about anything??? It's so gross and shows the lack of attention you guys have when it comes to this show. Or how you view El as a character, even now nothing has changed. Y'all still treat her like the little girl she was in S1, saying she needs to be independent, or single to be independent, like no, stop degrading a female character instead??? El's independent arc was written from the moment S2 was confirmed, she has been independent since than. She even stood up to her abuser in S4 and confronted him about EVERYTHING.

She has sm character development y'all just refuse to acknowledge it for a m|m ship. Which is extremely sad.

[missheavenfield1215]

I think taking the relationship between Beetlejuice and Lydia for granted in the new film is too hasty to say.

I know it's hard to tell them not to be hopeful when they've already released this kind of official material. I mean, have you seen this?!

Or the certainty that Lydia accepted without hesitation Beetlejuice's proposal to look for her daughter. (although it is more than obvious why she accepted it) min: 3:57

Or even this video... Are you really saying that a relationship is very difficult when you talk about his "relationship" with Lydia??

And let's also talk about this face... Jesus... It seems that Beetlejuice has found the love of his life when he sees Lydia. (Personally I think in the second GIF Beetlejuice is looking at his wedding cake or something else, because it seems that he is still with his back to her)

But I think there's something they're forgetting.

This has also come out and is behind the scenes.

You can use the ending of the musical (although I doubt it very much, Tim and Michael refuse to see the musical). Here I believe that Beetlejuice will choose Astrid or she herself will offer to marry him to save her mother and so they would kill Beetlejuice, staining her dress with his blood.

I'm not a person who gets excited when I see some romantic approach, I expect it to really happen.

Have they forgotten the unfinished ship ReyLo?? Zutara's discarded idea?? The bland romance between Lucy and Raoul? The main couple of Wish with Asha and Starboy who they discarded because #feminism?

I think this could be the same...

I feel like they're not really going to pair Lydia and Beetlejuice. Because even though their deal is transactional, (he helps her find her daughter and she marries him to bring him back to life and get him away from his ex-wife, Delores).

I feel like all these "shows of affection" are a farce... This comes across as:

-"Like why do you say you can't marry me?" "You say it's because you don't love me and I don't either?" "So here, take (literally) my heart and shut up."

I don't like to be so pessimistic, I really wish they stayed together, because for God's sake, they are an iconic couple in gothic horror and black comedy movies even though they have never really been a couple (plus ALL if not most Tim Burton movies have romance or proof that there was going to be a romance (like an unfinished pairing). As in Alice in Wonderland, Edward Scissorhands, Corpse Bride etc).

If the Beetlebabes is canonized, Tim Burton risks waves and a HUGE amount of hate for "pairing a girl with a disgusting adult" (even though in the movie Lydia is already an adult).

Beetlejuice has a picture of Lydia when she was a teenager, which means that he fell in love with her when she was an underage girl...

Even if he says that Beetlejuice and Lydia were created to be together (as some sort of "soulmates") and that at some point in a sequel they would make that a reality, there will be a lot of people who will be very angry about this.

I really don't think Tim Burton would risk all the criticism and hate...

Unless he makes the decision to defend this Ship openly, he will not do so without at least giving as an example the musical, whose directors ignored that detail (of the "soulmates", Perhaps because of the pressure to be politically correct by Broadway standards) because they did it at his expense and not with his help...

Let's remember that the musical and everything in it, is not from Tim Burton's own mind, but they did do what they wanted with his characters without consulting him first.

But I still thinking that claiming victory so hastily would be very bad for the whole Fandom.

I ask you not to celebrate such an abrupt "triumph"... The film has not yet been released.

I ask you to wait at least until the premiere of the film.

I ask you to wait until it is 100% confirmed.

[trexiejan]

My opinion : Babs was deaged to be with Dick.

Okay so I've seen so many dickbabs shippers try to deny that Barbara was deaged to fit Dick for the purpose of defending dickbabs or make them look better i guess. They keep saying that wasn't the reason why she was deaged. they always point to the 1st time she got deaged.

like why are they so upset when they see people say that. I wonder if they care more about the ship than barbara as an individual character.

cuz if they truly liked Barbara separately from Dickbabs maybe all the anti-dickbabs comments wouldn't be an issue for them. 🤷‍♀️

anyway i'm going to explain why it's true.

here's the thing :

Barbara was deaged more than once.

Crisis on Infinite Earths wasn't the only time she was deaged, she got deaged again in other books/continuites.

So The real question is where did they deage her to be the same age as Dick to make them work not when was she first deaged. (we all know it's always in dickbabs comics where she's written as the same age as dick, i wonder why)

The 1st time she was deaged was in Crisis on Infinite Earths, it was so Jim could be younger but they only decreased her age slightly because she's still written as older than Dick, here is a panel from Secret Origins #20 that was published in 1986 exactly 1 year after she was deaged in Crisis on infinite earths (1985) she said Dick is too young for her and that batman is always the one on her mind. So Dickbabs during this time still has a big age gap so they're still unable to work.

The 2nd time or 3rd time she was deaged is in dickbabs comics where she was finally made the same age as Dick so dickbabs can finally work as romantic pairing. 

Instead of being older she's now written as a part of Dick's generation.

From a congresswoman to someone who went to highschool prom with Dick.

Even Tom Taylor wrote them as childhood sweethearts so he can portray them as soulmates in his comics. a huge wtf moment for me because Babs wasn't originally this young when she first met Dick 😭

pls She had a PHD, has been working as a librarian and congresswoman when dick was still a young boy in gotham.

Barbara is now written as a part of his generation and his one true love since day 1. (from an independent congresswoman to Dick's childhood sweetheart and girlfriend who revolves around him)

Before Dickbabs couldn't work because of their age gap but now they can work. thanks to dickbabs comics deaging barbara again and this time for the sole purpose of reducing Babs into Dick's love interest.

So Just because she wasn't deaged to be with Dick in her 1st deaging doesn't mean she wasn't deaged to be with Dick in her 2nd or 3rd deaging 🙃

Dickbabs shippers can deny it all they want but at the end of the day dickbabs wouldn't have worked out if she wasn't deaged to be the same age as dick.

and even if they're right, let's say for the sake of their argument they're right that babs wasn't deaged to be with dick, it still doesn't change the fact that dickbabs is weird.

Regardless if Babs was deaged to be with Dick or not, It's still weird to see Dick being put in a relationship with a woman who was originally a congresswoman when he was still in highschool.  

It's like deaging Batman into a teenager (like let's say it's because they want to make Bruce appealing to teenagers) but years later they decided to give him a love interest who is also a teenager as part of the new batman stories.

So even though his deaging has nothing to do with women or shipping in the first place, it's still weird to suddenly see Batman in a relationship with women who are a part of dick's generation knowing he was originally much older than them.

Like Bruce/Raven or Bruce/Starfire suddenly becoming a thing 🤢 No amount of deaging would be able to justify those pairings.

The same happened to Barbara she was originally a part of Batman and Superman's generation.

for goodness sake she dated Superman!!!! She was so much older than Dick.

Also remember when Dickbabs was originally a pedo-like ship and it was so controversial and hated the same way Brucebabs was hated today? Because Barbara the adult woman is kissing minor grayson but now she's fully making out and having sex with minor grayson in dickbabs comics.

The reason why Dickbabs fans don't want people talking about this is because they care more about making dickbabs look good than barbara's independence. They don't care that Barbara lost her independence, her phd, her solo careers, her librarian and congresswoman job because of dickbabs shipping.

They don't view Barbara as a character seperate from dick. Barbara is trapped in this relationship because of people like them. They don't fight for Barbara's independence. The only thing they want from her is to be the girlfriend of Dick and nothing else. It is so hard for them to let Barbara Gordon be independent and not just “Nightwings girlfriend."

Barbara's real enemy is the dickbabs ship. Before, she is able to stand on her own, but now she's nothing more than just a love interest who can't live without dick and too dependent on him and his solo books to exist.

DC really needs to get Barbara some actual character building that doesn't involve Nightwing whatsoever but it's hard to do that when she won't even stop chasing Dick nonstop like a dog in his solo books and thinking about him 24/7 because of writers like tom taylor who is always busy making babs' entire personality all about dick than writing solo babs stories.

Dickbabs is unnecessary and disservice to her character, it does nothing for her independence. She is forever demoted to Dick's love interest unless they free her from this ship.

poor babs she deserves better than people who only want to associate her with dick 24/7.

[purpledemonlilyposting]

And here we have Lily Orchard unironically defending moé anime just because I'm critical of it despite it being the exact kind of stuff the so-called disgusting weebs who "fetishize Japan" she loves to complain about are into. More under the cut!

[Lily's Post]

"Director" in anime does often equate to "show runner" but there is barely any information on the development of this bland paint by numbers anime about moeblobs next to big ship machinery.

But considering Hanada was in charge of the series composition and wrote the screenplay of every single episode I would say he shaped the thing. It's just funny that Lily bitches about moé anime seasonal slop when that's Hanada's bread and butter.

But ah yeah, those stupid feminists, complaining about shows where female characters are all depicted as pure, airheaded, simple-minded and idealized for the male gaze. Totally not the response you'd see from an MRA neckbeard weeb, eh Lily? And you're agreeing with it.

What "pro moé" anime fans are ripping me apart except for "Christian libertarian communist" @kuuderekun over there? Who is probably sending all of these asks. Are these really the sorts of people you're making your bed with Lils? People who like School Days and lolicon?

You'll notice none of my critiques of A Place Further than the Universe have been "toddlerface bad". It's brainless teenage girls designed to appeal to the male gaze bad. And Lily, you were squealing the entire video about how cute and dumb the girls are. Yeah. That's the appeal.

Given I'm a feminist I maybe don't like women and girls being depicted as simple-minded creatures to be cooed at. It's still objectification. You're just not experienced enough with anime to have recognized what this boring, poorly written show is. Everything in it is just in service of putting moé joshi kosei next to big technical machinery to appeal to otaku autists. It's not the WORST example of this kind of show, but it is one.

For god's sake the girls only get on the expedition through sheer dumb happenstance and narrative contrivances. Zero characters besides Shirase have any real reason to go to Antarctica, even her mother didn't. Her mother wasn't even an Artic researcher or an engineer or anything, she just wanted to go to Antarctica cause it sounded neat. She and her two adult female friends also act like doe-eyed braindead teenagers.

And then the mom died going out in a blizzard trying to retrieve a laptop leaving her daughter motherless for no reason, but this is treated as nothing but beautiful and heartwarming by the show. It's so asinine.

How's that Antarctica video doing by the way?

[spxdyr]

Ok so first of I wanted to preface this by saying I 100% ship Buddie and am a bit disappointed by BT’s existence (if they wanted Tommy to be a compelling love interest they’d have to have more time with him to characterise him earlier and make me fully ship him with Buck etc, and they dropped the ball with that here), but I was wondering if you’d ever considered you may be a bit harsh to BT shippers? I just read an ask in which you replied saying something along the lines of “there’s no evidence any of the crew aside from buck like Tommy” and I just felt that was a little “ehhhh” since they did have (I think in Chimney or Hen begins) a scene where T was leaving the 118 and their relationship with him had evolved positively to the point where they felt comfortable pranking him in a way I read as amicable, and the fact he and Eddie were hanging out enough that Chris got to speak extensively to T about Buck?

Sorry if this is like overstepping but I felt a little bit obliged to counter your take based on what I’d experienced differently

I will say that I should've said that Eddie and Buck have no knowledge, as far as we know, of Tommy's past.

But also, and if this comes across rude to you I'm sorry that's not my intention, truthfully I don't care if I'm coming across harsh to BT's. Ultimately, my opinion of tommy will never be neutral because he was racist for 60% of his screen time. And spent 2% defending his actions on "i guess gerrard made me a bad person."

In terms of canon, I'll say again what I said to anon. I, like I imagine Chim and Hen, don't give energy to people who have been racist to me in a workplace or non-social setting. If we've separated "amicably" what that means for me, and again I'm assuming Hen and Chim, is that I don't care about you one way or another but if we have a mutual friend, I will tolerate you because I love them.

i strongly believe that when buck learns who tommy used to be he will go to hen and chim and they will admit they only tolerated him for his sake.

but ultimately, i don't believe in being kind to people who are willing to excuse racism because "he was a closeted gay man" or any reason to be honest.

[tamelee]

i just saw a posts about novels that went like

sarada told sasuke he has lipstick stain, sasuke tries to wipes it off and she says he doesn't have one and sakura doesn't wear lipstick.

how do they defend this novels with their lives? it confirms sasuke never kisses sakura and doesn't know if she wears lipstick or not and kisses someone else who wears lipstick. it also confirms naruto likes to wear lipstick XD.

Please. These novels are ridiculous. Kishimoto already confirmed they’ve never kissed in Gaiden. Twice. 

(* something nicer = meant the forehead poke)

Though I wouldn't believe anyone if they said they actually like these novels, because the story (or lack thereof) is complete shit, but it’s fine if they do. A good story isn't the intention unfortunately. I genuinely wish that people understood what exactly it is they are defending. I’m writing a post for someone who asked something regarding canon, but I need to take brakes from it because it pisses me off that this happens constantly to franchises— not just Naruto. 

And in this case it’s even worse, or perhaps it’s just a prime example, because Jun Esaka (writer for some of these novels) made such a fool of herself on twt by making it all too obvious what her intentions were by writing them. (If it wasn’t already obvious.) First, when people pointed out the many flaws, she admitted that it’s “just her story” and “just her interpretation” (she had only read 'Naruto' for the first time a few months before that), but when other ss-shippers started to defend her and said she was a better writer than Kishimoto (as there’s 0 love between SS when he writes), she basked in that glory and went along with it. Even to the point that she completely disrespected Kishimoto, the story, the craft, openly made fun of other characters (mostly Hinata) and ships like NH and demanded her other novels to be animated as well. It’s unprofessional af. And then when fans asked her for a nsfw novel for SS she agreed and told them to harass the company about it. (She didn’t say ‘harass’ exactly, but come on you can’t be that dense given their reputation with staff.)

What are they defending? 

How can you defend anything when the motive is so obviously just personal bias/gain and/or financial profit to a company where both in this case don’t give a shit about the original story. It's not about shipping though, it happens all the damn time to all my favorite franchises and I'm genuinely sick of it. And it's not even about a writer writing about what they want either because I already expected that, but Esaka did her absolute best to try and disprove the bond between Naruto and Sasuke and change narratives completely even for individual cases for the sake of telling her "story". SNS-moments weren’t romantic to her and she quite literally made fun of it by copying them in her story to point out its "irrelevance", but give them to her het-ship and now all of a sudden it is romantic???? She basically calls Kishimoto a liar because ‘Sasuke Retsuden’ in particular is a direct response to ‘Gaiden’ (made by Kishimoto). She blatantly tried to disprove anything he said and indicated about her ship. She wrote about characters that, yes, have the same name as those in ‘Naruto’, but are so out of character it hurts. It took me months to recover my lost braincells. 

I don't think my post about it is still up, but to name a few things in that novel if you're interested: Sasuke resents Naruto and his test-tube daughter because he’d rather travel with Sakura, his wife whom he loves so much. But he has to do stuff just because Hokage Naruto said so and his daughter wants to stay in Konoha so he has no choice but to comply. Being apart from his wife-(did we mention he loves her so much? because he does. so much.)- makes him feel so very lonely and he misses her body so much because he knows it so well. He fails to do anything other than being jealous about the women-deprived prisoners going after the new hot doctor, Sakura, who is his wife btw. that he loves a lot in case you missed it. and he rather stares at trees that remind him of her than helping his friend Naruto who’s apparently dying from his own chakra or whatever kind of bs. Sasuke lets himself be bullied by prison-guards that aren’t even Shinobi, for having long hair and looking like a girl, though Esaka makes sure to mention how so very handsome he is and he looks like a cat. Sasuke loses a battle against an overgrown lizard and tries the same damn jutsu 4 times(!!!!) before realizing it may actually not work, I think because he forgot how to fight, but he can however create anything from ice like Elsa (Frozen), or from dirt like some Gaara-hybrid to make Sakura a ring because he loves her so much ofc… oh and he’s now a healer too. Sasuke sacrifices people’s lives even when it’s not necessary at all bc ig Esaka thinks he's a killer, and also he wouldn’t mind being brought back with Edo Tensei if it means he can stay with Sakura, because fuck everything they’ve been through in the original story, yeah? They also immediately forgive the bad guy cuz he's so relatable even though he just murdered I dunno how many people. SS kiss while an injured Naruto is squished in between them because SS-shippers have some sort of “Naruto has to watch our ship being in love to really make it legit because that’ll learn him for getting in between!”-kink (that's real actually) and according to Esaka, Sasuke is so worried about his daughter and in fact did meet up with them during those 10+ years because he loves them oh-so-much and fuck you Kishimoto that’s why. 

Be so fr right now. It’s such a joke. And these are just the few things on the top of my head that I remembered ;-; ...

Again, what are they defending exactly? It would be nice to just have a genuine fan of the story write an actual story. No other motive other than "I really like the story and would love to explore some options while respecting Kishimoto's work because it'd be fun!" Except, that's unfortunately not very marketable and ffs it's just sad. (I know there's a Kakashi version and I personally really want to know more about his role as Hokage and what he's done etc, but alas.)

[pocket-jack]

KidKiller as Mcyts, because I'm killing some time

Killer would be PvP master, always sitting in the Skywars when he's alone and want to kill time. He definitely was a champion and appeared in top of the best PvP players. He would also stream his clashes, because Kid advised him to do so. The crowd demands to see Massacre Soldier and Killer is delivering.

His streams are always chill despite his name and reputation. He's not greedy to give his own advices on how to level up your PvP skills, and he always supportive. His streams are LGBTQ+ friendly

To be honest he feels comfortable making Minecraft streams, because he doesn't have to show his face. Once he used Pngtuber model, which was him, but with a striped masked on his face. Everyone enjoyed it so he started to use it.

Kid is a typical builder/redstone guy. He's not a streamer (because Twitch would ban him when he opens his mouth). He's usually doing the Minecraft video of him building an impressive builds in hardcore. Likes creative mode, but hardcore is just adding a challenge to the builds he's making. Was reported a lot and false blamed for a lot of things. Had a lot of conflicts on Twitter, which resulted in Killer deleting his account for the sake of his roommate nerves. Once in a while comes back with a new set of drama and then rage quit because Twitter is trash.

Actually pretty chill too, and he's loyal subs knows that. Supports a lot of victims of abuse and s/a, charges a lot of donations and actually does charity. Everyone loves this contrast between his cocky and impulsive personality and his moral, so he has a lot of subs who creates a lot of wars on Twitter when their Captain Kid is offline and can't defend himself. All this drama is just making him more popular.

Once they started their own hardcore SMP. By the time it was just two of them, but eventually all Kid's Crew and more joined. Kid wasn't interested in slaying the dragon and went in the End only for materials. The minute he stepped into the server he already went under ground.

Killer took his time settling the base and the farms. He actually build them a nice cozy cottage house and by the time Kid ran out of food he climb to see it and actually complimented it (even though he is known for insulting others builds and being toxic to others Mcyt's).

The chat will always spam messages "KidKiller is canon" when they just looking at each other. One day someone will ask Killer how does he feels about people shipping them and he responds with "What can I say? KidKiller is canon"

[garbagechocolate]

I mean, this is the internet, the straight characters are going to be drawn and written having gay relationships, the AroAce characters are going to do the same by giving them a very active romantic life, and none of that should matter because this is content MADE by fans, It's not Canon. I think we would all be more at peace if those who enjoy making content about Moon having a partner didn't impose the idea on others or try to justify it. Suffice it to say that this is an AU. Do not waste time or effort trying to convince others that the idea is better than the original, will not succeed.

LIKEWISE, it is just as important that those who DO NOT like couples content simply IGNORE or block the blogs that produce it. Because going to artists' or writers' publications just to make them feel bad because they like a ship is not cool.

This is internet dude, if you're sad because there isn't enough material of Moon being an AroAce, do it yourselves. Defend the canon you like by making content and not crying bothering those who make contrary content

(Waddles in) I was just explaining why I don't like solarmoon. It's not a very big deal. But also, excusing everything with "but it's the internet" is stupid. Added on, the Aspec community has every right to be upset about people shipping moon for the sake of shipping moon. If a character was confirmed to be YOHR sexuality, but people around you disregarded it or used the excuse that it's a spectrum to ship how THEY want to, it's just. Bad. Like you COULD ship them, but if you're going to do that while keeping that they're aroace I'd expect you to handle it while acknowledging that at many times, aro people just don't fall head over heels in love. If anything it takes time. Or sometimes we do, but the feeling dies off when it's reciprocated. The problem comes with the fact that they do not acknowledge it at all and that they ignore it.

Also. I'm not crying or whining about it. I never EVER liked Solarmoon but I've never made much of a big deal out of it. The most was making a post on Twitter saying if you ship solarmoon I'll probably be unfollowing? I understand that shipping discourse between these two robots is so, so weird, but it doesn't change the fact that I personally feel very uncomfortable around it because it seems like incest to me.

I already have the Solarmoon tag blocked and I was explaining to the other anon why I don't like the ship. That's all <3 I also have. Thoughts. About the first thing you said and characters being hc different sexualities but that's a topic for another day.

[vaspider]

Last night, I turned off ep 4 of Discovery out of disgust and went to watch Fallout.

I put up with a lot, but you don't drydock a fucking starship in atmosphere and Utopia Planitia is on Mars, for fuck's sake. It's not sitting in the fucking hills of San Francisco where you can see the Golden Gate Bridge out the window.

[Below there be spoilers.]

For 4 seasons, I have defended the FUCK out of this show. For 4 seasons, I have genuinely loved most of Discovery, and I've loved it enough to make me keep watching it even when we only found out that one character basically had a full-body prosthetic in the episode where they killed her off, and when the Red Angel turned out to be the hokiest answer ever, and when Disco fell prey to the storywriting trope I tend to call Skywalker Syndrome (you know, the one where there are only like 6 people who matter in an entire galaxy and anybody who matters has to be related to them somehow).

But I can't fucking put up with what they're doing to Discovery.

It started with the decision the writers made - for the sake of POINTLESS DRAMA - to have an Admiral look at two captains about to go on an Extremely Crucial Mission, which they told us over and over again was Extremely Crucial, using a term nobody had ever heard before like we were supposed to know or care what that meant, "why don't you two try to get along" when they asked who was in command of the mission.

Okay, look, first of all, absolutely not, and you're a shitty admiral if that's what your response is. SOMEONE is in command of this mission. And second of all, if you're the admiral and that's what you said, then who is the one in trouble when things go to shit bc there is no clear chain of command? YEAH. IT'S YOU. Holding one of your captains responsible for making a decision that you wouldn't have made, and for "not listening to the better decision," and taking his ship away? That's bullshit. You put two captains at odds and then you hold them responsible and not yourself?

Dude, you fucking suck, and this shit ain't Starfleet. It ain't even acceptable under the "oh no we're post-Burn and getting our shit together." This is basic stuff. There's a chain of command for a reason.

Then you have Saru suggesting that Burnham make her Extremely Recently Ex-boyfriend, a convicted criminal who stole crucial technology from the Federation and tried to break the universe, her Number One bc Saru is resigning his commission to become an ambassador. Her never-been-Starfleet ex-boyfriend. Yeah, sure, I'm sure that's the Very Best Idea that a Federation and Starfleet idealist like Saru would suggest. Let's put this guy who has never worn a uniform and has been very loudly Not A Team Player and has no idea how Starfleet works and hasn't done his Time In Grade one heartbeat away from being in command of the Discovery. I'm sure that will be GREAT for crew cohesion, having this dude who has not put in the time just leapfrog his way past everyone who has been busting their ass for years and who literally left their entire lives behind, centuries in the past, to land in the XO spot because "he works well with you" and "he knows [this season's antagonists] and how they work."

Thankfully that didn't fucking happen, but having Saru even suggest it felt like a profound betrayal of Saru *as a character.* File that under He Would Not Fucking Say That.

I can't even enjoy Leoben's actor, and i can't even enjoy him being from an alien species that somebody dug up from one episode of DS9, because he is not just an asshole but he's an asshole who has no respect for anybody or anything. Star Trek's assholes are always the ones that you can at least understand why they are the way they are, and you can excuse it because they are Federation Idealists or they have such great skills or respect for an ideal that you might not understand but you understand that it's important to them.

No. This guy is just there to be a dick and make Burnham look cool and reasonable and nice by comparison, and he's 90% of the time incompetent as fuck. Like, one time his ideas are good, but when his ideas are good, it's only because he's been disrespecting chain of command so hard for so long that he has info he shouldn't have. They made him suck so much that I can't find ANYTHING about him to like, AND I LIKED LEOBEN.

"But at least we've got our gay relationship-- " Nope! They broke up one of the queer relationships pretty much right away, and the other one gets zero screen time and might as well not exist. They don't even really interact at the one party we've had. It's almost painfully obvious that they're avoiding having the two of them together.

"Maybe I can tough it out to see Tig, I love Commander Reno-- " Nope. We've gotten one scene in which she predicted the breakup of the baby gays.

It really feels like they took away all the writers who know and love Trek and understand what makes it good, and filled the writers room with people who are just standing around and peeing on the show Bible while saying "THIS WILL MAKE GOOD DRAMA."

I'm sad. I hate this season, and after suffering my way through s3 of Picard out of hopes they'd answer the goddamned question finally, I'm not putting myself through this again.

I used to love this show.

[marybeatriceofmodena]

I'm curious, do ppl hate Love Never Dies because they think Eristine is problematic and it's made canon in it, or is it due to something else? I havent watched it yet or anything but i like the vibes, lol

Heh... Love Never Dies has always been controversial at the very least? It came out at a time where Erik/Christine was still the most popular ship in the phandom - it still is, by the way. That didn't change despite a clear shift in fandom and ""problematic content"" around 2013, so a good 3 years after the musical came out. If anything, Raoul/Christine shippers have been a minority for most of the phandom's history, and both sides of the debate at some point more or less decided to agree to disagree (I mean, the homophobic slurs Raoul would get at times were starting to REALLY be in poor taste), except on the point that without the love triangle, there wouldn't be much of a story, and there are various ways of interpreting said love triangle. So, quite frankly, I don't understand why some people on either side are trying to restart discourse in the POTO fandom but I digress. And look, if you see people in the tags saying that Erik/Christine is problematic, they're probably new, and not really representative of the phandom at large. Anything having to do with Sierra Boggess is more controversial.

I really don't think the controversy stems from it making Erik and Christine bang and have a love child - I know there are some people who are against the idea of any kind of sequel, in fanfic form or otherwise, for a variety of reasons, but most of them were being responsible adults about it and didn't actively seek fanfic. As I mentioned before, a lot of folks were Erik/Christine shippers and thought that Christine was more into the Phantom than into Raoul, that's nothing new. But a lot of them also had issues with how LND dealt with it, for several reasons. It didn't come from an "anti" sentiment, it was very much them having issues with the material that was presented to them.

Raphael/phantoonsoftheopera (who is a long time fan of POTO) goes into more detail here and I think he sums up a lot of phans' thoughts back in 2010 when LND came out (whether they shipped the Phantom and Christine or not), and I think @musicalhell is another one who was also around at the time (feel free to pop in, and hope I'm not bothering you with the tag).

As for the rest, I wish I could defend ALW's choices here in the same way I'd defend Lana Wachowski for Matrix Resurrections - i.e. you're allowed to not like it but this is this creator's baby and they're allowed to do whatever they want with it, so let's all respect art for the sake of art here. But LND is very much a vanity project, as ALW has proven multiple times, that is mean-spirited to its core in various ways. For my fellow SW fans, it's the TROS to POTO'S TLJ. The cast and crew were treated in a really shitty way back in the original London production days, same with critics of the show, and there was even a case where a journalist and long time phan who provided a critical review of LND was demeaned in an article as some sort of sad housewife who was obsessed with POTO. Mind you, ALW has tried to make LND work FOR YEARS, with various productions and tours opening here and there, but it always underperforms. And mind you, the Eristine crowd is still hanging around, and POTO is doing extremely well whereever it goes to this day. If the Eristine content was good, the crowds would follow, "problématique" posts and tweets or not. They aren't there.

[marley-manson]

Xena:WP for the ask meme!

Thank you 💖

my favorite female character

Xena man. Untoppable. There will never be another female character as satsfying and gratifying to watch as her - not just because I'm cynical but also because the kind of power fantasy she is is tied to the tone and genre of the show, which is functionally dead now.

I love that she's not just the best most competent warrior and person in the room almost every time, but that everyone acknowledges it, and by season 6 it's just taken as a fact of the worldbuilding that Xena is the best mortal fighter in the world and cannot be defeated. I love that she has an evil past and still slips into it at times, sometimes with actual fucked up results (fuck yeah the rift). Love that she does have the capacity to be a danger to Gabrielle and it's part of their relationship that they have to deal with. Love that she's toppy in her het encounters (but it's also implied sometimes Gabrielle doms and that's hot), and watsonianly at least it's for her own gratification rather than for the men, who are generally less into that dynamic.

Love her stoicism but also love that she loosens up eventually and can be goofy. Love that she loves fishing, loves fighting, loves fucking, all unabashedly. She has shame but it's for her past evil actions as a warlord, not for her intrinsic personality traits, even the ones that contributed to the warlording. Love her body language, how she fights as a power house sword and sourcery style warrior rather than as a lithe acrobat (though she can pull out the acrobatics too of course), how Lucy Lawless makes her feel larger than life. Love that she's bi and has multiple female love interests pre Gabrielle.

etc lol. I could go on forever.

my favorite male character

So few to choose from lol, so I think it's gotta be Ares. Some of his episodes make me cringe (Ties that Bind eg lol) and he often sucks, but he's consistently an entertaining villain, I love the frenemy vibe he eventually falls into with Xena, I don't dislike most of his shit in season 5, love his mortal episodes, love that he never gets together with Xena but don't mind shipping them a little on the side.

Caesar has also kinda grown on me this rewatch after not giving a fuck at all about him the first time I watched. His dynamic with Xena is interesting.

my favorite book/season/etc

I think season 2 is probably the best season, but despite some lows I think my favourite is actually season 4. It has a few of my favourite episodes (Paradise Found, Crusader, Ides of March) and I love the overarching theme of exploring Xena's darkness and saying it's great, actually.

my favorite episode (if its a tv show)

God now this is impossible to choose. I've never fully thought about it lol. Have a list of some faves: A Day In the Life, The Price, The Debt, When in Rome, Crusader, Paradise Found, Ides of March, You Are There, To Helicon and Back

my favorite cast member

no opinion

my favorite ship

Xena/Gabrielle of course. They're one of those ships that's incredibly fun to watch to see how far they'll push the gay subtext, but also has extremely solid chemistry, a lot of drama and episodes revolving around their relationship and love for each other, and enough darkness and angst to be interesting. And the old fandom often actually leaned into the drama and darkness rather than ignoring it! Modern f/f fandom needs to learn from their elders tbh.

a character I’d die defending

I was gonna say Xena, but honestly I'm a lawyer for the prosecution there lol, I like to emphasize everything that makes her darker or evil, rather than exonerating her. My defense is 'she did all those things and it was awesome.'

Oh, Najara! I'll defend her to the death for sure, anyone who hates her is wrong, including whoever wrote her second episode lol.

a character I just can’t sympathize with

There are characters you're not supposed to sympathize with, like Alti who's just evil for the sake of evil lol, but that feels like cheating as an answer. Also Michael lol, love that he's a villain in season 6 and totally sucks. Can I say the God of Love in general lol? Fuck all that shit.

a character I grew to love

Joxer 😑 It took 4 whole seasons but I did eventually warm up to him enough that Livia (episode) made me sad lol. Love is a strong word but on rewatch I was fond of him and found him more funny than annoying.

my anti otp

Hmmm... Gabrielle/Joxer maybe?

ask meme

[citrinitxs]

KNOWING YOUR PARTNER WELL CAN POTENTIALLY MAKE WRITING TOGETHER A LOT EASIER. REPOST, DO NOT REBLOG!

NAME: Navina! However, people call me by different nicknames and alias/es, such as Navi, Nav, menace (/aff), and even by my anon alias, ✨!

PRONOUNS: they/them!

PREFERENCE OF COMMUNICATION: tumblr asks & dms, but if we're friends/mutuals and we can vibe, then discord <3

NAME OF MUSE(s): main muses are albedo, kaedehara kazuha, alice! The rest that arent my mains are on my carrd, which you can check because Im too lazy to list them all out

BEST EXPERIENCE: personally, I think my best has been w/ meeting new people and discovering what they like from our muse dynamics. I absolutely love talking abt how they may act and how, in certain verse/s and plot points, their relationship develops. I have a particular fondness for those who are doomed by narratives to only say "fuck you" and REWRITE the damn thing themselves... or just be tragic for the sake of the majority <3

RP PET PEEVES / DEALBREAKERS:

- no communication. I refuse to tolerate people who can't communicate how they feel with me, especially if I did something they don't like. got an issue? talk to me! I promise you, I will be more supportive and willing than me finding out you talked shit about my style, muses, or me in general.

- acting/proclaiming we're exclusives WITHOUT my prior knowledge NOR consent. I personally am not interested in being exclusive with people unless we're genuinely close friends (and there's chemistry for our muses to the point I can see it), and even then, I would prefer if we talked about it and we're both FINE with the idea. However, if you say that I'm ONLY allowed to speak/interact with your muse and NO ONE ELSE'S? That's a hard block. This is an auto block if we are not mutuals and you proclaim I am exclusive with your muse.

- romanticizing dark themes and/or glorifying it. Enough said. I have some issues that I refuse to talk about and I am also sensitive with certain topics, and I refuse to glorify anything that can be considered dark. I may tackle on it sometimes (be it by muses, myself, etc.), but if you romanticize or glorify themes like sexual assault/harassment, incest, and the sort? Instant deal breaker. "Don't speak to me again" type of deal breaker. Don't test my patience. (bonus is if you try to defend it. You will be blocked the moment you try, so don't bother.)

MUSE PREFERENCES: characters that have genuine potential and dynamic where you can just see how fucked they can be, how you can make each other worse, how they can be each others' star-crossed lovers and forever in tragedy. They can literally be the most normal couple to exist or something, just so as long there's chemistry & where we can channel our inner conflict together for them to conquer! (Bonus points if they're ALSO a doomed by the narrative character. dw bestie, we'll redeem them ourselves...... after they go through hell and back ofc LMAO)

PLOTS OR MEMES:  BOTH AND I'LL DIE ON THIS HILL. Listen, plots fit a LOT for me because then, we can plan out how our characters may act + make it easier. It's also long-term for me, esp for ships and muses I'm interested depending on the fandom. Memes, however, are good pick me ups because I will send them en masse. Woe, meme be upon ye, y'know?

LONG OR SHORT REPLIES: Ok, both (for my rp partners), BUT not 1 sentence short. Please add depth. If you need the minimum, 3 to 5 sentences is good! Just go wild! I personally write a lot because ranting abt things have me hyped, so expect like. maybe? 3 paras? probably 4 or 5? Just medium length rlly, but if I am EXTREMELY hyperfixated on a verse/muse/plot/dynamic...... yeah gl LMAOOOOO

BEST TIME TO WRITE: goddamn, it's when my brain can focus. it can be late as fuck and I would be too into writing to sleep, and sometimes, its IN THE MORNING. LIKE. HELLO? so yeah what's time actually. (/silly)

ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSE(S): In my personal opinion? Not really (esp not Albedo lmao??) but. apparently my friends think. that I do?? honestly ask thea and a few of my mutuals, they'll answer this better than I can tbh

TAGGED BY STOLEN FROM: @glacialswordsman & @poswiecenia (lmao hi I live in ur notif walls <3) TAGGING: @vagrantshiraeth ; @amemoire ; @constarellations @lorendiel ; @livingakasha ; @bloodied-bets ; @ anyone else (hi I will live in ur walls soon, move over /j)

[franciskirkland-deleted]

i saw you say that you’re take on spamano diverts from canon and honestly i’d love to know more about it, i feel like most spamano shippers do this and i love hearing all takes because i feel like they’re all interesting! and i love them so so much!! do you have any hc’s that you think are unpopular with the fandom?? or do you like they way spamano is represented for the most part??

Hi! Thanks so much for the ask 💕 If you're the same anon who sent the last one I'm working on it. To answer honestly, I don't interact with Spamano fanwork enough to know what is and isn't popular or accepted as fanon these days.

But I'll hesitantly say that no, I think my views on this ship differ from that of the fandom status quo, as they usually do. I don't say this for the sake of being edgy or a need to always play contrarian, but bc I have a unique perspective.

Disclaimer; long post ahead. my opinion was asked for and you're about to receive it. Everything stated is opinion and I'm not discrediting alternate headcanons.

So I'll start by saying I'm not an expert on Spain's history or characterization. I have mentioned this before but the way Himaruya chose to portray him is a bit odd to me. Then again, Hetalia nations aren't really direct representations of their government, but instead stereotypes of their people. If everyone was accurate they'd all be unsympathetic assholes.

Spain as an empire was once a ruthless colonial force, and as a nation in more recent centuries they have a history of fascist rule, violent uprising and general civil discord.

Spain as a character is a sunny, bubbly himbo after he lost his reputation as a global power. I think he has a tendency to downplay the harm he's caused in the past and manipulate others into viewing him as a shiny happy goofy airhead.

Don't get me wrong, I think Antonio is adorable. He's cute, right? Dude's main personality trait is having a GREAT ASS 🍑 and liking tomates 🍅 He loves to cook and dance and do fuck all. The Hetalia wiki describes him as a, quote, 'cheerful country bumpkin' and honestly, let's go with that for the sake of his personhood?

This is why I like human AU. I enjoy reading historical Hetalia, but writing it isn't for me. As a creative, I don't want to operate within the limits of real world events and not gonna lie I prefer writing them as people!! And that's where I exercise some divergence from canon.

So obviously there's the dynamic of boss and his underling that existed when Romano was young. We can't entirely ignore that that arc exists and is part of his character development, but when Romano grows up I don't see them that way, and there's no denying their romantic potential.

I hear, and understand the common criticisms of Spamano. I don't view them as related, and Romano is not Spain's territory anymore. To me it's fair game. Hetalia is complicated bc well... these nation-beings are hundreds of years old, therefore the case for morality in shipping isn't black and white.

Personally I don't believe any ship is 'too problematic' to exist. I'm of the opinion that we can explore just about any dynamic in fiction as long as we do it mindfully. I'm a multishipper, these characters are all so versatile.

This might sound silly to say about an anime character but my analysis of Romano's personality is more in depth. As someone of Italian descent I recognize his stereotypical traits; and feel pretty strongly about his mischaracterization.

For one, he has a small dog Napoleon complex and that's a big thing for Italian guys (more on that later)

In canon (i.e. world history and Hetalia itself) when Romano was young, Spain did spend a lot of money protecting and defending him. Now as an adult he feels guilty, like he has an obligation to him, and he doesn't want to be seen as weak, reliant or incapable ever again. I don't think he'd allow himself to be dominated, in any way, or even want to be.

Here's an unpopular opinion; he is very masculine, but I think people have a hard time comprehending what constitutes masculinity.

And I'm not saying Antonio is therefore feminine. They're both cis men to me, and switch in the bedroom, but I will admit I prefer Lovino as the generally more dominant partner - in a physical and hierarchical sense.

Ultimately I don't think they box themselves into heteronormative roles all too much. Maybe for funsies, because Lovino likes feeling needed and Antonio to me doesn't have the discipline it takes to wear the proverbial pants in the relationship.

In a comic strip, Spain proposed to Romano when same-sex marriage became legal, and he basically said yes as long as you cook for me?? They're husbands!! It's canon 😎

It's a bit hard to explain, but in my perspective, Lovino would protect and cherish Antonio like a man would his 'wife'. He's his Carino. His Tesoro. His Amorino. Toni might be taller than him, but he's always talking to him like a child - mostly affectionately, but we've seen otherwise.

One of my favourite Romano lines is from the April Fools episode, "No talking to me when you look stupid", that to me is a defining moment of their relationship 💖💖💖

So anyway, this attitude of his brings me to the topic of Maschismo. If you're not familiar with that term, it's a performative, arrogant, and fragile brand of toxic masculinity that's prevalent in men of Mediterranean and Latin American descent. Any man can be machismo but the term is associated with these cultures.

(Again I'm of Mediterranean descent, I have lived experience with this, please don't think I'm racist and if that's legitimately your takeaway you have the reading comprehension of a sea cucumber)

In machismo society, men are discouraged from showing any emotion except anger. They're expected to be strong, and are extremely affected by any implication of personal failure, or threat to their (imagined) role as top dog. When something upsets them, aggression is the default response.

Men affected by machismo are often possessive, competitive, and motivated by material success; because there's an expectation to provide for - and honor - your family. They will often talk over women, objectify or ignore them completely, like second class citizens.

Whether this was a conscious intention or not, Hima actually does a great job at displaying Romano as a machismo poster boy. He's simultaneously expressive and repressed. He's stubborn, defensive and argumentative, and if that doesn't say Italian dad to you then you're probably a WASP /hj

What the fandom might see as a little tsundere uke, I see as machismo tough guy. He's not soft, that's the thing, but he deserves space to be soft because so does everyone. Maybe Antonio does bring that out in him. But it's not easy and it's not for anyone else to see. He pretends to hate when Toni calls him cute because he doesn't allow himself to feel appreciated on that level. He actually has a deep, unspoken respect for Antonio. It's just easier to tease him.

And he actually does care. He just does it in a way that isn't instantly recognisable as caring because it's not 'gentle'. He's jealous of Feliciano because he's the 'nice' brother. He's concerned for Feli when others mistreat him. That concern and protectiveness translates into condescension and ironically, distancing.

Sorry for going so in depth on what is essentially old man land mass yaoi, if you've read this far thank you and congratulations I guess.

[ladyfromaspookyforest]

What Is Will's Arc if Mlvn Is Endgame?

A Byler trying to make sense of the show from a mlvn POV

I like to be informed on both sides of a debate. So I'd like to understand what evidence mlvns have to support their ship. Unfortunately, most Milkshakes think mlvn endgame is obvious and therefore that they don't need to prove it. So basically, this is me trying to explore the one thing that just Does. Not. Make. Sense. to me from a mlvn endgame perspective. And that's Will's arc.

Will's arc IS STILL SUPER IMPORTANT when addressing the show from a mlvn standpoint because ships do not exist in a bubble. Therefore, it is essential to acknowledge that Will is integral/central to the show and that supporting queerness has been an ST theme since day 1. Will's arc has never been about familial acceptance. The first episode of the show demonstrated that Joyce loves Will no matter what. We had a queer-coded acceptance speech from Jonathan in that same season (another in season 2) and a far more blatant one in season 4. The series wrapping up with yet another would be dissatisfying and redundant.

Acceptance from his friends is not it either, because we also saw his friends sticking up for him despite being bullied about his visible queerness. Not once did anyone stick up for Will by denying his queerness. This is likely a consequence of taking Will's lead, suggesting Will has never denied his own queerness. It is very clear that this has been going on for quite a while and his friends not only do not have an issue with people thinking Will is gay, but will defend him on account of it. Will's friends accepting him is no great revelation.

Will's conclusion CANNOT be something that has been a truth from the start. If Will's story begins with being loved by all of his friends and family whether he's gay or not, we can't watch five seasons of him struggling only for the conclusion to be that he is loved by all of his friends and family whether he's gay or not. There is ZERO development. It can't be romance if it's not Mike. The turnaround is too quick for Will's feelings to come into the open, for him to be definitively friendzoned, for him to get over these feelings, for him to meet someone new, for him to develop feelings for this new person, and for him to get involved with this new person. This is literally impossible to cram into the final season even for a side character we WOULDN'T mind a rushed romance for. But ESPECIALLY not for Will, one of the backbone characters of the show (*cough* whose queerness has been integral to the show's very makeup from the start *cough cough*).

So if I'm fighting for my life over here to make mlvn make sense for Will, in order for this to work, you have to remove romance from Will's arc completely. Yes, we as Byler shippers are fully aware of the moment romance became integral for Will.

BUT for the sake of this exercise, we're going to say that Will's romantic plotline is a dead-end (I'll come back to the queerness) and that he's going to have to put his feelings for Mike on the backburner for the sake of the world. With this logic, you'd have to acknowledge that Will is going to be at the center of the supernatural plot, which most people do but some mlvn dingdongs think he's a gay, irrelevant, crybaby. So. Pretending we have logic: Will's at the center of the plot. Here's an imaginary arc for Will I've constructed in which he does not get the boy OR get sidelined:

Scenario

This is extremely dependent on the parallels between Will and Henry.

For the sake of this exercise, Henry is queer. He may or may not be within the actual world of ST, but for this to work, Henry's queerness would need to be expressly stated within the show. Additionally, THIS IS NOT A THEORY and it's not what I THINK will happen, so anything related to timeline theory is being side-lined here. For this scenario to work, there is one Henry and he becomes Vecna. Henry feels like an outsider. He is made to feel "wrong" and different. It would be necessary to parallel Virginia with Lonnie and to introduce a friend or a neighbor or some boy Henry had a crush on. If we wanted to explore more mature feelings to be closer to Will's, this could even take place later in the lab when he's older.

The gist is that Henry would have to experience the heartbreak of having feelings for a straight boy combined with internalized homophobia and a lack of acceptance from the people in his life. Both Henry and Will would experience harassment, feelings of being different, unrequited feelings, and come to a confrontation with one another. For maximum impact, Mike just found out about the painting/Will's feelings and reacted poorly (because of the lying, not the gay). Now Will's in a trance, having a one-on-one with Vecna in his mind lair and Mike's freaking the fuck out and feeling like an asshole and Vecna tries to relate to Will and Will's big triumph is realizing that Vecna is RIGHT and they are so much alike, but despite what Mike said, Will knows Mike loves him anyway. And despite being sad, gay, and alone, Will still loves the people in his life and he has some big moment of AND I LOVE MYSELF TOO and yay Will self-love hurrah you're sad but not going to let it ruin you woohoo and he tells Vecna there was nothing wrong with him when he was a wee lad either and yada yada you get the gist.

Why it works and why it doesn't

Ignoring what this does to Henry (because that's a whole other thing), this actually concludes Will's struggles with his own queerness perfectly fine. THEMATICALLY, it's trash. And that's the big issue with Will ending up single. When you look at Will as a character within this body of work, sans themes, you can see his arc as one of needing to accept HIMSELF. As I said before, it isn't about his family or friends accepting him (although explicit scenes of this would be beneficial for Will's self-love journey). We know he has accepted his own queerness, but he still feels like a mistake. His arc culminating in his acknowledgement that he is NOT a mistake is super important for him. I do, in fact, believe it's a large part of his REAL arc. Being able to take ownership of this part of himself and feel happy with it is necessary for him with or without romance. And within the story, it's okay to tell a tale about a queer boy who doesn't get the boy he loves if the story ends with him learning to love himself.

The issue is that this body of work exists in the real world. It exists in a world where telling that tale of the gay kid not getting the boy is delivering a negative message about queerness. It exists in a world where PR has been done surrounding the show that both allowed and encouraged the shipping of these boys. If the show ends with this bittersweet conclusion of Will's arc, letting go of his love for Mike but gaining love for himself, it won't be JUST about Will. Because Will represents gay youth in general. And ending with Robin and Vickie together does nothing for this message. It doesn't serve to show us that queer relationships are good and possible and that Mike and Will just weren't meant to be. Because Rockie is not a stand-in for Byler. That PR I mentioned still exists. You cannot say, "well we queerbaited Byler, but we still gave you a queer relationship!"

And way back to the beginning when I mentioned that supporting queerness has been woven into the show since the FIRST episode, while my (stupid) scenario or something similar allow Will's personal arc to conclude in a way that doesn't negate the narrative, it DOES negate the message.

So...WHAT is Will's arc if mlvn is endgame?

Self-love, IMO. I think Will's arc is equal parts learning he is NOT a mistake and learning that he CAN find love despite his queerness, but if mlvn were to be endgame, it could only be the first half. And if the show played his journey strong enough, they could make that extremely powerful on its own. Unfortunately, it's impossible to create this ending without sending a negative message. So while I DO think it is possible to wrap up Will's arc sans Byler in a way that makes sense within the narrative, I don't think it's possible outside of it. In a world where people consume the narrative and recognize that sad gay boy ending up alone = bad message. That even if queerness is accepted, celebrated, and supported WITHIN the show, the show says the OPPOSITE by allowing the only single party member to be the gay one.

I think this is where a lot of mlvns get confused. I'm not talking about the extreme antis and the homophobes. But for the people who genuinely care about Will and ship mlvn (they exist), I think this ability to disconnect Will and his journey from the Real World the show airs in is what allows them to believe mlvn endgame is not harmful. The people saying "It's realistic!" about Will being sad and in love with his straight best friend in the 80s are failing to recognize that THIS IS NOT THE 80S. It's MEDIA.

This is the major difference between Mlvn + Will and Byler + El. Both El and Will need to learn to love themselves and find strength in themselves outside of other people's perceptions of them. But, even if we ignore the depth/nature of feelings both El and Will have for Mike or the ways in which their relationships with him have been portrayed. Let's say Will and El feel EXACTLY the same about Mike. Byler + El = sad but empowered El while Mlvn + Will = sad but empowered Will + bad message.

I did genuinely set out to try to explain this argument to myself, not to go on an anti-mlvn tangent. But...my conclusion is that I can't (shocker). Art was meant to be perceived. Thank you and goodnight (it's afternoon).

[ryuichirou]

Hello!! I'm too shy to send you this out of anon, but I wanted to let you know how much I admire you. I'm a TWST artist myself, and I like certain problematic tropes and pairings. I also want to draw nsfw of my favorite ships, but I'm too afraid of doing it. The anti movement in fandoms is too overwhelming and I'm scared of people going after me. I don't mind kids yelling at me for drawing teens doing what most teens do nowadays (like sex) but everything has escalated so far that people are willing to doxx you and ruin your life over what you ship or draw, and that's what I'm scared of. I know that you probably get nasty messages and people bothering you, but seeing you and Katsu continue creating regardless of what people might say gives me encouragement to post whatever I want. And you seem to be a sunshine of a person, not to mention that your art is amazing. I wish I could post daily as you but sometimes I'm a little bit lazy and I yet need more confidence even if I've been drawing since I was a teen. Anyways, sorry if this got longer, but thank you for contributing amazing art to the TWST fandom. (I'm also into Hetalia and SnK!!! Seeing that you like DenNor made my day haha)

Sending you and Katsu my best regards!

First of all, thank you so much for your support and for your kindness, Anon. And thank you for messaging us at all about this topic, even if anonymously. I think this is a very important thing to talk about, and your message honestly made us kind of emotional. It was a bad idea to read it before going to bed lol

Just like you said, the anti movement is honestly psychotic. I feel like a lot of people who participate in it simply don’t realise the weight of their actions and words, which make sense, because the majority of them are very young; and the ones that are adults are usually quite deranged and dangerous. It’s not rare for their actions to lead to horrible consequences, but I guess this is nothing new. It used to be overbearing conservative parents, now it’s some kids with too much free time. That being said, these days we see more and more people who ignore, criticize or ridicule the antis for their hypocrisy, and this is very nice to see.

We really do get quite a lot of hate, but honestly, we used to get even more stupid comments, even though we haven’t been hated with such passion before. But still, the support we’re getting now is also much more impactful and vocal than what we used to get. There also are people who aren’t even into our ships, but would defend us just because of what this whole thing represents: their own right to do whatever they want when it comes to fiction.

Our personal thing is that we’re just way too spoiled and self-indulgent with stuff that we like. Even if it meant that we’d never get hate, we would be miserable if we had to restrict ourselves for the sake of others; and I know that because we tried. So the worst thing that could happen is that we’ll stop posting, but we’ll still continue creating, because it gives us too much joy to give it up just because someone has no friends at school and wants to impress other antis with their sick (moronic) post when they completely miss the point of our content and ignore our 18+ warnings.

So yeah, I hope you’ll remember what you love about drawing and keep doing whatever you want, even if you don’t post it. But I also think that, if you’re comfortable at any point, you should also post it. You can create an account with no link to your regular acc and your personal info whatsoever and post whatever you want there. You could still get hate, but at least it will be safer and without any high stakes, although I understand you might feel fear because people could recognise your artstyle and connect the dots.

Also preventive bans work wonderfully. If we stumble upon a post that has certain aggressive messages (you know the ones), we simply block everyone who interacted with that post. It takes time, but it’s worth it, I think. Hell, people use “call-out” (because there is nothing to call out, we’ve stated everything plainly ourselves) posts with us to block people.

Also also, ironically, ignoring the hate also kind of helps… I know it’s easy to say, and it’s not a 100% guarantee, but we just think that people are more prone to attacking you if you react to hate in any way. So the best thing is literally to just block and delete it. Oh, and always report it if it gets aggressive – this could do nothing, but it could also bitchslap them out of nowhere lol

Anyways… I am very grateful and glad if we could give you any type of reassurance and comfort with our posts. I hope to see your stuff one day, and I hope there’ll be more people who post whatever they want, so fandoms can become healthier again.

And I’m very happy you like Hetalia and SnK too, especially DenNor! <3

Thank you again from both of us, and I hope you’re having a good day.

[kirider]

I'm gonna be the most predictable bitch on this planet, Vice and Kiriya for the ask game

I planned to only have Vice under the read more but. this absolutely got out of hand ooops :P I have much to say about the blorbos

Kiriya

First impression: He's a bunch of my favorite tropes condensed in a cool design i was doomed from the start XD

Impression now: He's one of those blorbos who lives rent free in my mind I love him so much. I think he's one of the smartest charactes in Kamen Rider tbh, not in anything specific like Sento or Philip but just as how quickly he connects dots and figures out things. They had to kill him otherwise the series would have ended too quickly XD /j But also he's just a silly guy tee hee ^w^

Favorite moment: every single time he's on screen <3 /hj But if I had to pick some specific, mmmh. Well, I have to go with Gorider bc I have a reputation to mantain, that scene when everyone is accusing Emu and he's the only one defending him is so good; the beach scene because of course we all know the beach scene; and the reveal in Tricks because ough my heart

Idea for a story: okay so. For me current Kiriya can either be OG Kiriya who is a cockroach who refuses to die, or a bugster copy of Kiriya from Chou Super Hero Taisen who deluded himself that he's the real Kiriya (I like playing around with both depending on the situation). But the second one has so much potential for angst ough. I need him and Game Hiro to talk and have Game Hiro make him confront his delusion (since they're both copies of ExAid riders but Hiro accepts that fact while Kiriya doesn't) (and by make him confront I just mean Game Hiro is being his usual brash self he absolutely did not sign up to give Kiriya therapy he's just here to check on his kid). And slightly related but would probably be in a separate continuity (unless I figure out how to connect the two), Kiriya having an identity crisis regarding this (is he the OG Kiriya or is he just a game copy?) and Emu reassuring him that he doesn't care, Kiriya is Kiriya. For the sake of everyone I'm gonna stop here but. I have many thoughts about Kiriya XD

Unpopular opinion: ...I'll be honest, I made myself such a nice bubble in this fandom that I've only seen love for Kiriya so idk what an unpopular opinion would be XD

Favorite relationship: KiriEmu of course it's KiriEmu. I also love when he interacts with Nico I think they should have interacted more :3 Also also the show is a coward for not having Kiriya and Hiro interact more c'mon-

Favorite headcanon: This is super self indulgent lol. I think he's a patological liar, but he's getting better now that he has friends to help him :3

Vice

First impression: Oh I hated him so much it's so funny XD Everytime he broke the fourth wall I was ready to fight him

Impression now: He's just a (very loud and exuberant) silly guy yay ^w^ He cares so much about his family and his friends and specifically Ikki

Favorite moment: idk if it's the favorite moment but I love the last arc of Revice , Vice is so good in that aaa çvç o|-(

Idea for a story: most of my ideas for Revice stories are more about Ikki dealing with the loss of Vice tbh, idk if I have anything Vice centric 🤔 The first part of the Blue Exorcist crossover is technically more Vice centric I guess, with Ikki being knocked out during it and Vice having to protect him. I also have an idea for a one shot not-fic where Ikki and Vice are having an off day so they just spend the whole day merged, I do have some sketches for that somewhere

Unpopular opinion: Liking Vice itself is an unpopular opinion apparenty XD Also idk if it's popular but on ao3 there's a lot of people shipping him and Ikki and that squicks me out :/ They're brothers to me

Favorite relationship: Vice and Ikki of course. Their relationship is so intresting, all the human-demon relationships are so good and unique and it's such a pity this show is not the kind of show to explore this kind of stuff because aaaaa. And the demon sibling dynamics is so good, Vice Kagerou and Lovekov is such a good trio that was underexplored. Also I love the completely made up relationship he and Tsumuri have in my mind (from when the promos for their Outsiders episode came out. I have not watched that episode yet and I am still living in headcanon only land) They're besties your honor

Favorite headcanon: Vice will not allow himself to see Ikki again. He can't deal with having to say goodbye everytime (at the end of the series and during the stage show and after the Desire Royale) and if it keeps happening one day he'll be selfish and keep Ikki for himself and away from their family and he knows Ikki wouldn't want that (even if Ikki wouldn't remember them) :)