#It's about lesbians and female characters treated like shit as usual

[set-wingedwarrior]

The way you must justify your lesbian ship even when the characters have canonically a crush on each other (and it's the cutest thing ever) is insane.

"why do you like it, the crush is just escapism on character x's part, I am genuinely confused and want to know why any of you think they should be endgame! Anyway, look at my more straight ships for them that defenitely make more sense character-wise despite them clearly being just friends. I am not an homophobe." Shut the fuck up.

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

Something I noticed as a young adult and budding trans woman are that games with character customization, or at least character building in some way, are very overwhelmingly two different options: men only, or men and women only. Very few of these games were women only, and I kind of jokingly refer to them as "games that would have cracked my egg".

Now I want to preface this with two things: one, this absolutely could be a matter of the genres I was in; and two that not every game that has male AND female options is doing so in a way that is lazy and there are several which make the gender choice impactful in meaningful ways. I want to refute these to a point because I know they're going to be brought up.

First, I mean as a kid I typically played RPGs. I wasn't the type of person who absolutely was only in the "macho" genres that were out there, and I mean I played a shit ton of Final Fantasy 6 and 13. RPGs with female protagonists are very real (and was a big reason why FF13 failed with the Youtube reviewer crowd), but there are basically none with a customizable female only protagonist. In addition, even despite this, why the fuck does genre matter? If your video game genre makes sense for a customizable character, it can make sense to have a female only game in that genre!

Second, this isn't necessarily a point about whether customizable female characters exist in the space at all, but this is a point much rather about how male protagonists are considered the default, and a male protagonist default usually informs A LOT about the game design and the world built around that character. In addition, for every game that gets this right, there are usually five more that don't, and the female character is treated functionally identically to the male character except they have to Ctrl+F all the times they use "he" in the game's script. This is why you get games that are aggressively heterosexual but because they did relatively zero work integrating a female protagonist, they accidentally give off big lesbian vibes. It's the same principle for why the representation for your game shouldn't only be paper-thin bisexuality.

Games with female main protagonists are often notably less common than ones with male main protagonists, and many times, this is buffered a bit by the addition of an ensemble cast. What makes FF6 and FF13 notable amongst their peers, including games like FF16 which have "female protagonists", is that the strongest female protagonists often form the narrative core of the story. FF6 has a large ensemble cast, but it is the struggles and efforts of Terra and Celes that drive things forwards, and to go into how Lightning, Fang, and Vanille form the narrative and emotional core of FF13 is a subject to an entirely different post. But like they still exist.

So many games have self-insert male characters compared to female ones. I'm genuinely surprised when I find a game with a character creator that only has a female protagonist. It is something that says a lot on the general sexism and misogyny in gaming spaces, how the male video game player is still considered the defacto default audience, and how worlds often aren't considered through the lens of female characters, or even just the perspective of a female player.

But on a more personal note, it's just...sad. Genuinely. I probably would have realized I was trans a few years earlier than I did had there been games like that out there and more in the public consciousness. So many games provided a cover in having a male option (and especially since so many of these games are aggressively heterosexual lol, looking at you Mass Effect) that I never needed to confront my feelings. It makes me feel bad than even to this day an entire audience of players aren't really considered as important.

Why can't we have games for us, you know?

[gacha-incels]

The "if there's men I don't play" situation in CN is actually funnier than it sounds.

So, the thing about CN is that a lot of players like to track their favorite game's revenue, and playing a game with high monthly revenue can somehow make them feel better about themselves.

And these dudes' ideal game is kinda like those bullshit isekai clones where the player character is the only man living in a world full of conventionally attractive women whose lives centered around them and them only.

There fellas were loud so a lot of gaming companies chose to pander them. One of the more well-known game, the literal gospel for these dudes, was Snowbreak: Contaminant Zone (Imma call it SCZ for short). It's one of those softcore porn game targeting dudes who are too repulsive for real women.

And SCZ's revenue got steam rolled by Arknights, another CN game knows to have lots of women players and an active fandom composed of mostly women, every single month. Like Ak isn't some saint game made by saint company, but they do have record of firing male employee for engaging in hate speech against women using one of the company's social media account, so they had a relatively decent reputation among gaming women in China comparing to other companies.

So the SCZ dudes gets salty for not being the "silenced majority". They launched an attack on the game, spamming discussion forums when Arknights released a male character (Ulpianus), who debuted like a year ago and was presented in multiple story updates, this May, attempt to stir up community problem by pairing him up with a popular female character(Skadi) who was released at launch.

Now here's the problem. There are some dudes who want male characters out of Arknights completely, but they're like, 1% or something. Most people who played doesn't give half a rat ass about SCZ dude's big problem with fictional men existing.

Furthermore, the two character they attempted to pair together already had plenty of build-up to their relationship, and both the story's narrative and the fandom treat their relationship as teacher-apprentice/father-daughter. So their attack was largely viewed as "out of nowhere" and "ridiculous". They were also ridiculed by the community, people just kinda take their words and made a bunch of copypasta about popular ships in the fandom out of it.

And Arknights's playerbase was huge. It launched at the best time for mobile games in CN and it's the few weeb game that people who aren't into anime or gaming heard about or played. Heck it was even viewed as some sort of cultural phenomenon that influenced the UI, art style, story etc. of mobile games that comes after it. So the playerbase was huge, and the majority of it wasn't even aware that there was an attack at all.

So yeah the attack was as big as an ant bite on an elephant at best. Then these dudes go back to their little echo chamber enjoy their self-declared victory on Arknights. Then life continuous on as usual.

Also these dudes seems to have found a few more new CN exclusive gachas and called praised them too nabraska and back for not containing male characters in promotional trailers, only to be supersized by like one or two playable dudes at launch. Those lads were seething in the comments.

Also the Japanese Himedanshi/Himejoshi(people who enjoys yuri) community mistakenly interpreted their goal to be "only lesbian relationships allowed, no hetero bullshit". Funniest shit.

the snowbreak game is crazy lol truly the future of incel gacha. I feel bad for the women who just wanted to see lesbian relationships.

I’m glad they could be totally ridiculed humbled even though AK pulled this shit on their KR server which was never addressed by Hypergryph. This is at least really funny though. These guys seem to always try this “cuckolding” bait with the characters to make people riled up specifically within these Chinese incel gacha communities. I’ve seen the craziest shit recently looking into the newest clusterfuck going on with them and that Genshin Impact character “Wanderer” they seem to hate to an insane degree. after this I looked up their upcoming white pharaoh ™️ banners, it’s so many female characters and they still lose their shit like this about existing male characters… I think there was also a huge blowup with “Girls Frontline 2” with some assumed cuckolding issue, and the CN Blue Archive server literally had to issue an apology for doing a collab with the game Mahjong Soul because the BA players thought they were being cuckolded by the MA players

I don’t want to get too deeply into the more niche aspects of it because it’s not the main focus of this blog and I feel like I’m falling down a rabbit hole of info lol. but when I have a little more time maybe, just so I know I won’t be rushing and using a place like reddit to double check things. But thank you to everyone who has sent info, it’s been interesting to read about and see how it compares to the other movements chronicled here. It’s been hard to find some of this information in English so thank you to everyone who has ever sent a message for writing to me in English as well. Thank you for your patience. I’m trying to learn Korean on my own now so I can actually speak with Korean feminists in their own language and read their works without machine translation….

[sephirthoughts]

Can you do 15 and 32 for Cid in the headcanon ask game please?

I LOVE CID!! Thank you for the excuse to talk and think about him more

Cid Highwind

-15- pets or feelings about animals:

Cid seems like the type of guy who is just naturally adept with animals. You know the type? Where any wild or uncontrollable animal will be sitting and rolling over on command and eating from the palm of his hand within five minutes of meeting him. I also think Cid has a big, tough, super weirdly well-behaved junkyard dog that is so smart you can't believe it's not a person. Like Dogmeat from Fallout or D-Dog from Metal Gear Solid V, like it guards the airfield and knows how to use a combat knife and scope enemy bases and create distractions. And like Cid can say "Rocket" and then just click to it, and the dog will go "boof" and run off and like twenty minutes later it'll come back with groceries.

I think his love for big dangerous animals (and their love for him) comes in especially handy with Vincent because his Cid magic works on the Galian Beast too, so like everyone's scared of it but Cid. I have this HC that sometimes Vincent can't control the transformation, and just goes feral and becomes the Galian Beast, every once in a while. He usually has some lead-up so he can tell when it's going to happen, and they can get him somewhere isolated before he runs amok, but every once in a while it just happens without warning, at which point everyone is like oh shit we're screwed someone get Cid before Shinra sends in troopers and Rufus bills us for all the tanks that get destroyed

Galian: -rampaging tearing shit up throwing cars- citizens: -fleeing in terror- Cid: HEY! YOU PUT THAT BUS DOWN! Galian: *ROOOAAAAARRR* Cid: I SAID DROP. IT. Galian: *roooaarr?* Cid: -raises eyebrows- Galian: -drops bus and comes bounding over to Cid like a puppy acting like it wasn't the one who was just chewing up post boxes and tossing vehicles- Cid: -petting its belly- awww who's a good boy. citizens: …. Cid: uhh...heh. sorry, everyone. he gets a little rowdy if i forget to take him for walkies

NOTE: this applies even if you don't ship Cid and Vincent. i 100% believe they'd be like this either way

-32- toxic traits:

Ok, well there are funny and not-funny answers for this, but I think the not-funny ones have kind of been stealth retconned by this point, with how they've changed his character and just sort of not mentioned anything about it. Which is good because honestly Cid was a….difficult character to enjoy. Back then his toxic traits were literally verbally abusing Shera into the dirt over his misdirected anger about the rocket launch screw-up, and subsequent loss of his career and everything he'd been working toward. She blamed herself and let herself be treated that way in this simpering, self-flagellating, doormat way that made me eye-roll so hard the planet tilted on its axis. I have seen this trope in Japanese media with female characters multiple times, and it's always portrayed as if the female character is somehow doing a noble thing by spending her life as some prick's punching bag and i fucking haaaaaate it. I absolutely *hate* that they made them married in one of the games, too, because that just makes the situation way grosser and more toxic. The whole relationship between Cid and Shera was godawful and terribly written, especially since the other characters just took it in stride and were like "seems normal to me". It also doesn't track with the way they've changed his character in general, in the current iterations of the story. BUT NEVER FEAR! I have personally de-canonized the whole thing, removed the stupid and pointless abusive dynamic, kept Cid and Shera colleagues and friends who had some rough times and fell out and then forgave each other like adults yay character development, and made her a cool lesbian with her own life who doesn't take any shit from anyone. YOU'RE WELCOME SQUEENIX.

Anyway that's the not-funny toxic traits. On to the fun stuff!

MY Cid's toxic traits are as follows:

Smoking way too much and then being all surprised about it when he gets winded during really demanding fights

Acting like his aviator goggles are glasses and putting them on to pretend to squint at restaurant menus, just to mess with the waitress, like his vision isn't flawless (he's a pilot, it has to be)

Dad jokes

Calling Vincent a series of increasingly ridiculous pet names just to see how long he can get away with it (darlin, sugar, sweetheart, babydoll, cinnamon bun, angel pie, sweet potato casserole, nana highwind's famous pineapple upside-down cake). The joke is on him, however, because Vincent knows exactly what he's doing and takes every nickname in stride without objecting to any of them. Actually the joke is on the rest of the crew, who are the innocent bystanders having to hear all of this. NOTE: this also applies even if you don't ship Cid and Vincent. He absolutely behaves this way toward his platonic best friend. Which may explain why Vincent is his only friend.

Buying loaves of processed white bread and pre-sliced american cheese but then acting all fussy and particular about exactly which artisanal stone-ground mustard is used on his sandwiches

Pretending there's heavy turbulence but actually he's shaking the plane around just to amuse himself and annoy everyone

Using his accent to play stupid so no one asks him questions or expects him to come up with plans, even though he's an actual literal rocket scientist

Falling asleep in the theater during any movie or stage production whatsoever. It doesn't matter if it's boring or interesting or if he's into it or not, something about theaters just knocks him out like a light. As a result, he and Vincent have slept through a grand total of 26 movies and 5 productions of Loveless. Everyone knows about it but the general consensus is just let the old men sleep they're happier that way

OH ALSO this is not a toxic trait just a random HC: i think Cid and Reeve would get along really weirdly well. like they're from totally different personalities and backgrounds and have different lifestyles and careers and yes reeve is an executive at Shinra but they just hit it off like crazy. Cid is always nice to Cait Sith maybe that's what makes me think that. i dunno

Thanks for the ask, I hope you enjoyed my ramblings!

[sleepingdeath-light]

relationship hcs ; vaggie

requested by ; cookie simp anon (14/02/24)

fandom(s) ; hazbin hotel

fandom masterlist(s) ; here

character(s) ; vaggie

outline ; “may i request some vaggie relationship hcs? thanks!

-cookie simp anon”

note ; female reader is assumed because… well… she’s canonically a lesbian haha

warning(s) ; none, just fluff!

vaggie is, above all else, incredibly protective over you as her significant other and would put her life on the line for you in a heartbeat if the situation called for it — but she’s more than capable of handling herself in battle due to her past as a prolific exorcist, so you’ll never have to worry about anything like that

she mainly calls you ‘sweetie’ or a shortened version of your name, but she’s happy to respond to anything you choose to use as a pet name for her — well, as long as you keep the sillier ones to more private settings (she’s not opposed to them, not at all, she just likes to keep certain aspects of your relationship behind closed doors)

she is your number one cheerleader and your biggest supporter without a shadow of a doubt — she’s always there to listen to you talk about the things you’re passionate about, always the first one in your corner when you’re pitching a new idea, always there to catch you when you fall and help figure out a new strategy to get what you want, and always there to make sure that things go to plan (even if that means keeping other people… like alastor… in line through some more militant means)

vaggie is an expert at helping to ground you in the present moment whenever you’re struggling with something like a nightmare, a panic attack, self doubt, or fears about the future — she committed the exercises and reassurances that actually help you to memory and is always able to calmly walk you through them until you’re back in the moment with her and actually able to take in her advice

she has zero tolerance for anyone who talks down to you, makes you uncomfortable, or otherwise tries to treat you poorly and will shut that shit down the second she becomes aware of it — for as sweet and loving as she is with you, vaggie can be a terrifying woman when she wants to be and she takes full advantage of that when it comes to protecting you and your reputation

she loves physical affection, even if she’s not the biggest initiator of pda, and loves any and all forms of it — but there are a few favourites of hers, including: any sort of hug (whether that means you tackling her to the ground, one of you pulling the other into your sides, hugging you from behind and resting her chin on your shoulder as you go about doing your work at a desk, cuddling in bed, or huddling up together on one of the hotel settees and watching whatever is on the television), you playing with her hair, and, of course, kissing

vaggie’s kisses range from tooth-rottingly sweet to so passionate that they leave you flushed and breathless, and she switches between them depending on the mood of the moment

her sweeter kisses are always so very gentle and usually end with the two of you smiling at each other because, well, how could you not? — her thumbs are stroking the sides of your face, her palms are cupping your jawline, and she’s sighing into the kiss as she pecks your lips once, then twice, and a third time before you give in and wrap your arms around her waist to keep her close

intimate, gentle, sweet, and tinged with that unmistakable inclination that she feels as if you’ll vanish from her grasp the second she opens her eye and pulls away

her more passionate displays, meanwhile, are usually saved for private moments or those times just before or immediately after an intense battle where your hearts are beating so hard you can barely breathe and you’re both complete messes but you can’t bring yourself to care because you can see each other and you’re both alive and okay and all is right with the world again — her hands are in your hair or clinging to the back of your neck and your shoulders, her lips are moulding perfectly, wetly, against your own, you have to steady yourself on one leg to stop yourself from tumbling back onto the ground as she throws herself at you and your arms fly to her waist to steady her, your cheeks are both wet with tears of relief, and you’re laughing and crying and saying ‘i love you’ over and over again between kisses

glad to be alive, glad to be together, and wanting nothing more than to clean up as the rest of the world melts away and leaves you both in that bubble of relief and love and adrenaline

once she’s gotten her wings back, she makes a habit of wrapping them around you when you’re hugging — it’s not a conscious thing but it feels right, being able to hide you away from the world and keep you in that private bubble of love and smiles for a little while, so she keeps on doing it (and you’re certainly not complaining)

date nights are usually spent indoors enjoying each others company because of how chaotic and dangerous the world outside of the hotel is — but there’s plenty to do inside so you’ll never run out of fun activities to do

[thelesbianpoirot]

I agree about them treating Syd differently it always happens with Black women somehow when it’s us and a potential love interest (esp a white person) everyone is suddenly invested in the BFF narrative it’s so transparent and insulting and they always do it. They also try the faux woke thing saying the Black woman is a lesbian most times with no evidence and usually I’m all for that because I love the gay agenda lol but half the time it’s to get her out of the way for their white ship most times a gay one but here it happens to be a straight women who want to project themselves into Carmy’s boring gf. Syd and Carmy have a typical male-female lead character ship dynamic and it’s annoying that people (including the cast & crew) act like people are delusional for seeing it. I didn’t think it was that serious until I saw a professional critic write an article about how shipping them is bad then I know shit was up because what? I also hate how the fan base outside of the shippers are so horrible to Ayo and not just on Reddit type of sites even twitter and the tags here sometimes are so rancid about her looks/acting and her in real life. Which is ridiculous because she’s pretty and charming! But that’s how it always goes for BW tbh

I would love if sydney was a lesbian, but she be blushing and twirling her hair (figuratively) when Carmy talks passionately about food or compliments her too much. She's just focus on her dreams, and it's sexist to say het/bi women aren't capable of putting their dreams before romance. There is room for Syd and Carmy, after they feel settled. This isn't a ship that is just two dudes who are friends, or coworkers or mortal enemies. If they want us to not want them together, they shouldn't have them share so many significant romantic moments. I am not in the fandom, the people I follow all love Ayo and reposts gifs of Syd and Carmy together. Fandom is always racist and misogynist. She's plenty talented and the character of Syd draws me in the most, my crush on Ayo Aside, She's really the heart of that kitchen, they wouldn't be where they are without Syd, she was the change in the environment that made it all possible.

[algolagniaa]

I think I used to view other women in my life through a lens of like. oh someone wants you so you’re different from me. and it wasn’t from a place of caring about male approval rly bc I wanted to be wanted by a woman but it was like - in kids books there are often a lot of boys and One girl and that girl is Very Special (and this was def something I picked up on bc I would make a lot of female characters and then despair of the fact I HAD to make enough boys to outnumber them. and the boys would all be super boring cardboard people bc I really only wanted to write about the super awesome girls but I thought that was how it Had to be) and then in teen books there’s again One girl who’s special enough to lead the revolution and have every single guy interested in her. and I have always had a huge complex about being special thanks mom and dad for how thoroughly you set me up for that and it would bum me out like I would lose a sparring match against another girl and in my head I’d be like oh :( I thought I was Alanna the lioness but I’m not :( that’s her and I’m just a normie girl :( which didn’t make sense bc I didn’t think the same about boys at all but it wasn’t even that I thought boys were better in any way I just thought yay I get to beat them up!!! like they weren’t in the running to be special at all bc 1) boys weren’t special and 2) boys didn’t Have to be special. and that was when I was a kid but when I was a teenager it stopped being so much about like, being chosen by faeries or w/e and started being about relationships. bc all my friends had boyfriends or at least boy drama and my brother had a girlfriend and did I have a girlfriend? no. bc I was an out lesbian and there weren’t a whole lot of out teenage lesbians in Orange County in 2009 but ofc I didn’t look at it that logically I just thought it meant I wasn’t Special. and it’s weird bc looking back on my life I have managed to attract a ridiculous amount of girls/women to me considering I’m a lesbian with no game like idk how I managed to do it but I figured it out somehow and p much always had if not a girlfriend at least a girl who I could sleep with. but usually they were very low quality women bc I had no standards whatsoever so they would treat me like shit a lot and then that still didn’t count for what I wanted bc they obviously didn’t love me and I was miserable and felt like I had to play a part in order to keep them interested and I would look at other women who were in relationships that seemed better than mine and go wow she’s Special. she’s so much prettier and better and more interesting than me. obviously or else she wouldn’t have been Chosen when I wasn’t. forget about the fact that we aren’t even competing to date the same people. the light of heaven shines down on her but not me.

anyway I wrote about more about that than I intended to but my original point was - that idea that I’m Not Special has been a part of my self concept for a very long time. and I’m at a point in my life where it doesn’t make sense at all anymore. and not even just because I’m in a loving relationship with someone who makes me feel very special although that does help. it’s a lot more that I have things in my life I’m proud of that I did by myself. not even just accomplishments in the general sense of the word (although getting a degree and getting such good grades and accepted into honors societies is a big part of it) but like I’ve Done things and gone places and had adventures and had so much fun. and I know I’m going to keep doing that. packing up this trailer sucks and is miserable but it’s also really cool bc I remember the miserable mindset I had when I moved in and the mindset I have now is so different from that. and I don’t feel any more like there’s anything that I need that I don’t have. and it’s really incredible BUT my brain still wants to hold onto this mindset of jealousy and not being enough just because that’s what it’s used to and not doing that requires a whole overhaul not only of how I see myself but also of how I see other people. and as hard as it is for me to admit that mostly means other women bc I’ve never in my life been jealous of a man other than my brother I just actually hate them.

[alarajrogers]

It's... also usually not, anyway.

There's a huge difference between teenage girls being all giggly about their first slash ship, which is what is usually meant by "women fetishizing gay men", and men thinking that lesbians more or less exist to get straight men hot. It's a false equivalency.

I haven't yet seen a single complaint about women fetishizing gay men that didn't boil down to "it's icky and might make them feel bad/does make me feel bad", or that cited any actual harm the behavior causes. Men, in general -- including gay men -- simply don't have the right to bitch about what women do with porn. They just don't. I've seen how gay men who create gay porn draw and conceptualize other gay men; this whole "women fetishize anyone" discourse is basically misogyny and women-aren't-allowed-sexual-desires in a vaguely progressive coat of paint, because men, in general, are allowed and encouraged to objectify the hell out of anyone they want to fuck. Including gay men, in any society that doesn't actively criminalize gay porn.

So yeah. This is, in fact, often a TERF psyop to attack transmascs, but even when it's not -- even when it is, in fact, absolutely directed at genuinely straight women giggling over fictional characters they are picturing as gay, imagining them having sex with the same kind of "Ooh, I'm being so bad and transgressive" attitude they have toward getting dessert at a restaurant -- it's still demonizing a behavior that literally causes no real world harm. Personally I have never seen a single bit of evidence that the straight women who enjoy slash fiction are homophobic toward gay men in real life; there is a lot of "I can treat a gay male friend as if he were a female friend, except also kind of passively enjoy the fact that he's male and hot", but you know, I don't know what else you expect from a society that tells women to seek male attention and tells men that women are beneath them and wanting to fuck a woman means you should be demeaning her and treating her like shit. Fix straight men so they don't feel like they have to be contemptuous of the people they want to have sex with, and you will probably eliminate straight women's need to have "safe" male friends who they know won't be attracted to them.

This is similar to "white people mock Indian women for wearing saris and then want to wear them themselves", which, again, is behavior I've never seen coming from the same white person. There are white people who mock Indian women for wearing saris and there are white people who want to wear saris, but generally those two behaviors are never found in the same white person. Likewise, there are homophobic straight women and there are straight women who find gay men sexy and like to think about fictional gay couples, and those are almost never the same straight woman.

If you're a gay man who is bothered by women thinking about gay men having sex... have you tried not being bothered by this, since it has nothing to do with you? Those women have to live in a world where straight men objectify them and other women constantly; why are you so special that you get to say "no, don't think about people who are like me in a sexual context" and have anyone take you seriously? As long as they're not being rude to you or overly interested in your sex life, it literally does you no harm unless you decide to clutch pearls over it. And the truth is, most gay men understand this and are not bothered by it; most of this behavior actually comes from I'm-not-like-other-girls female white knights and people who want an excuse to be misogynistic.

So no. I don't think it's valid to "critique" straight women "fetishizing" gay men (and I don't think any of you know what the word fetish means). I think that if women are being rude to a specific gay man by showing undue interest in his sex life, they should be told to stop doing that because it's rude, but they literally harm nobody by fantasizing about fictional men having sex. And, since it was started as a TERF psyop to attack transmascs anyway, today is a great day to stop doing it.

"But it's valid to critique straight women fetishizing gay men!"

Definitely. But, is that person actually critiquing straight women?

Or are they actually talking about transmascs, and hiding it as "talking about straight women"?

Because that's what a lot of folks actually do.

[rotationalsymmetry]

All right. So, I think it’s probably better to not continue engaging on the original post from a couple days ago and I think it would have been better if I’d done my usual and explained my position separately to start with. There are some things that mean things in context that would not have that meaning out of that context — for instance, perhaps arguing on someone else’s post “I want to be able to complain about stuff without it being associated with calls of censorship” might imply that I want to/am directly complaining to the writers about this stuff, since after all I am tagging this on to someone else’s post.

And there are some things about this that are very reminiscent of other times I’ve waded into Discourse without really understanding the context and as a result came across way, way differently than I intended.

(It’s I think somewhat analogous to the “queer as a slur” thing: the reason that whole concept is so fucked up is because queer IS a slur, queer is often used against us in derogatory ways and this is common knowledge, so someone who isn’t connected to a community that has reclaimed the word is gonna react with “ooh, I don’t like that word” and then you can’t tell which of the “hey just so you know you should tag the q word” people just don’t have the context and which ones are doing it entirely on purpose and which have run into and bought into some terf outlier ideas (like maybe they figure “lesbian” should mean “not attracted to men, period”) but aren’t full terf and might never be.)

There is something about dynamics on social media that just makes all this stuff extremely fraught and doesn’t really cut slack for normal amounts of not knowing stuff, not phrasing things perfectly, and/or picking up code phrases and using them for their surface meaning because you just don’t know what the dog whistles are supposed to whistle for.

Anyways my own blog my own opinions: I think part of where I was coming from is that I do actually think that “hey I have personal ethics and I want my writing to reflect that” I is not the same thing as censorship, and the original post was written as “you don’t have to” (which, when I mean personal ethics I don’t give a shit about, eg, writing about Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy or whatever) and then when Twilight got brought into it I was all like “yeah, I don’t want to write stories about stalker boyfriends who are presented as good and loving boyfriends.”

It’s important to me to tell stories that engage with themes of consent and bodily autonomy, either in the story itself or in the bigger context of the story (ie having a way to label things non-con or dub con if that’s what’s going on.) That doesn’t mean I think anyone else should have to or that I have the standing to tell other people what ethical standards to follow in their own writing if they’re not even asking me. But yeah, for me, if I’m writing, there’s some things I want to prioritize.

I want to avoid writing harmful (racial etc) stereotypes, I want to avoid writing scenes where it’s ambiguous whether this is a rape scene that’s intended to be kind of a turn-on — I have non-con fantasies, I could write non-con fantasies and I could also write stuff really digging into what effect sexual trauma has on people, I want there to be a hard line between these things. And I want to avoid writing stories where side character death is treated as, idk, scenery? ambiance? And I want to avoid “torture is OK if you’re the good guys” tropes and other designated hero tropes where the heroes are not in any way more ethical than their opposition.

I figured out how to work this around 15 years ago. Writing involves two types of things: a creative stage, like a plant growing, and a stage that’s like pruning the plant. (Which is mostly about technical stuff like grammar and pacing, but can also be about “is this the kind of story I’m comfortable writing?”) When you’re writing, “am I engaging in misogyny by calling my female villain a witch?” is going to block the creative flow and you should just use whatever words are coming to you without worrying about it, much as it’s also important to not get hung up on whether your spelling is right or whether you should be using the Oxford comma. That stuff is for the pruning stage. (Although it’s not always a straightforward write/edit thing; sometimes the “I want my writing to do certain things” stuff can be used effectively in the generating ideas phase too. But the important thing is that when you’re growing you should be growing, not second guessing yourself, you shouldn’t grow and prune at the same time.) There is a way in which getting too tense about writing responsibly can get in the way of actually writing, and it’s also possible to get writing responsibly (to your own standards) concerns in there before you’re showing off a finished product.

If you’re showing anyone at all; there is also great value in “I’m writing this just for me”, it doesn’t have to be a thing you show other people to be worth doing.

Most of the sort of ethical writing discourse I’ve seen on tumblr is beyond wonky and I generally ignore it. It is, well, extremely wonky to tell people “you have to write fem slash regardless of what you personally like, I don’t want to hear any excuses” or… I don’t even know what else is going on, because mostly I stay way away from that stuff. But there’s something that actually makes sense a few steps away from that, which is “if your default protagonist is always male, is that because you just haven’t considered trying to write female protagonists more often?” Because sometimes that happens! It happens with me! My internal sense of a default human being is male, in the same way that my sense of a default dog is a Labrador retriever, if I don’t get further direction I’m not going to picture a pekingese or a pug. He’s also white, straight, and abled — I live in a society, you know?That doesn’t mean I’m attached to writing Relatable Everyman characters, it just means if I’m going to avoid writing primarily extremely predictable white dudes (who are probably full of angst, because, well, that’s what I like to write about), sometimes I need to remind myself that other types of human beings exist.

And it’s the same with relationships and rape and stuff. I’ve read two books by women in the last few months that had scenes that were weirdly sympathetic to rapists/almost rapists, and I don’t know these writers’ souls but if that were me, that wouldn’t be because I actually wanted to write that, it would be because I’ve read too much High Literature by guys that treated that sort of thing as Art and I was just kinda copying it because I wanted to write Art too. You know? Whereas if I’m coming from a place of my own values I’m going to center on the experiences of people who are at risk of rape or who have been raped, and I’m going to be saying something on purpose that I want to say.

final thing. Sometimes people internalize other people’s “for me I want to do this” statements as “you should do this.” This is understandable because often people say “for me I want to do this” when the MEAN “everyone should do this” but want to idk be more polite or something. This especially gets tangled up with social justice stuff, because the social justice movement is a mix of people who are primarily interested in the greater good, people who want to personally be a good person and not a bad person, and people who want to be SEEN as being a good person and not a bad person. (And people who don’t want any of that but do want to use social justice language to bully and control and hurt.) It’s a mix of motivations and it’s complicated both by the bullies and by people who aren’t bullies but do want to use social pressure as an instrument of achieving social justice. Which necessarily is going to leverage people’s desires to be seen as a good person. It’s complicated.

[iamafanofcartoons]

RWBY is a good show, and I’m tired of people pretending its not!

I’m sorry, I’m just so tired of all these random claims that RWBY is “boring anime cliche” or “racist white male writing”, So...let’s go over them in segments

Female characters:

Aren’t walking fanservice shots and aren’t sexualized

Aren’t degraded in their field (combat, tactics, dust usage, etc) to boost up male characters (cause seemingly female characters being too skilled at something is emasculating to incels)

When a woman says no to a man, the man takes no for an answer and doesn’t keep trying. (So dear Hbomberguy, stop claiming that Weiss x Jaune was ever a thing)

Women don’t require a man to “Defend their honor” (This is in response to the dude who harassed me in anonymous about V5 who was upset that Yang punched a creep)

Aren’t woobified or emotionally weakened, instead having reactions to things like normal human beings. (Sorry Shonen anime which loves to make women woobified or emotionally weakened vs men) Being capable of emotions but also doing things effectively.

Aren’t made into waifu for male characters. Nora is still a badass and even being allowed to explore who she is outside of Ren, which runs against the usual anime/manga bs. Weiss didn’t get with Jaune after finding out he helped w/ Neptune. Blake actually defended her boundaries when Sun crossed certain lines (even though they’re brotp not romantic, he’s a male character that could’ve been put as a pseudo-love interest). Yang is also shown to be more than just Blake’s GF as we see in Ruby Yang interactions, Yang vs Salem, Yang ageeing to talk with Robyn. They’re all their own characters not trying to be the perfect wife for a male character.

LGBT+ characters:

aren’t in a world of “everyone is gay or straight”, so for me at least coming across as more impactful

have Ilia (lesbian); Coco (lesbian); Terra (wlw) and Saphron (wlw) also married and w/ kid that aren’t treated different to any other couple; Scarlet (gay-male); Nolan (implied, I think its at this point and not confirmed, mlm); May (non-deadnamed, voiced by and helped crafted with the help of a trans VA, and not having her trans status be the central element of her character trans character); Blake (bi) and Yang (wlw) that are a main pair that are being allowed to build to a relationship at the same pacing as the hetero alt. pairing. BB being naturally built up and not rushed into a relationship, though still soft-canon locked in via Nora.

Are ALL ALIVE (funny how the straight white male characters get killed off?)

PoC characters:

Includes Marrow, Pietro, Joanna, Flynt, Yatsuhashi, Lie Ren, and Robyn as default heroes side

Includes Emerald having switched to the heroes side after having it foreshadowed in v3. Also possibly Elm and Harriet, depending on where they go in the future.

includes Sienna, who was admittedly actual wasted potential, being contrasted against Adam as the morally better version of violence in activism. A controlled violence actually giving a shit rights activist leader vs. a co-opting murderous abusive bloodthirsty psychopathic terrorist.

are easily the lesser in villain count vs. Caucasian villains.

So can the RWDE please stop trying to claim how RWBY isn’t better than anime/manga at least, but overall “isn’t progressive” in these areas.

Adam Taurus represents a very real element in real life regarding “Radical civil rights movements” ; extremism and co-opters; While the actual faunus rights aspect on its own is given a sympathetic light repeatedly. We also have Ilia Amitola, the female POC lesbian, get a redemption. While Adam Taurus, the cis white male edgelord? Is Evil  and gets his death by double penetration at the hands of two lesbians. (Edit: yes, I know Blake is Bi, as is her VA. It was an expression explaining how cis white male “authority” individuals get emasculated)

The WF has a lot of references, not specifically the Black Panther one. Also the WF on its own is fine, its the version that gets corrupted by Adam’s psychotic co-opting terrorist ass that is the problem.

 Reflective of reality where if any group for any cause crosses into violence that involves innocent bystanders; then they lose any credibility and are nothing more than terrorists. I don’t care what the cause is. Which is exactly what the WF under Adam presents; but is just 1 vein of it with Sienna’s vein existing, Ghira’s, and even Blake’s. Was it handled perfectly? No, you could have easily have shaved time from Adam to give to Sienna and had her live to continue. Personally I found Sienna to be the actual wasted potential, but EruptionFang naturally loves cis white male evil men as his favorite Meow Meows. Don’t even try to recommend a gay or bisexual dude to rwby critics, they’ll flip and call it pandering.

The MC’s aren’t remotely “paper thin”, nor secondaries. Heck the only ones that fit that bill are characters in the tertiary vein that are supposed to be that way. The “two traits” falls apart if one actually pays attention to the characters.

And most fixit fanfics not only sexualize the characters in a show with no fanservice...

Sadly they also overfocus on male characters and have their favorite male characters talk down the female main characters.

Robyn Hill represents the people standing up NOT against the military, but against fascism/totalitarianism. We see that for all the “good intentions” that Ironwood MAY have? It is always sabotaged by him. Ironwood backstabs Ozpin, brings an Army as a show of force, does multiple projects behind people’s backs, and yet displays more than few acts of hypocrisy. Volume 7 literally showed him acting as a dictator because he believed that only he knew the answer to everyone’s problems. Yet the consequences of HIS actions are what led to Atlas Downfall. Yang and Blake even tried to get Robyn to work with Ironwood and Robyn was literally willing to do so. Which of course pissed off Ironwood stans that anyone, especially a POC hero of the people, would stand against a Cis White Male Authority figure. The elections in V7 meant that anyone’s authority could be challenged by the people. Of COURSE Ironwood stans REFUSE to acknowledge the election part was good.

The attempt to balance idealism with realism is pretty interesting. What do you do against an enemy with an unlimited army, immortality, and agents who seek to turn everyone against each other? Do you submit to the “inevitable?” Or do you keep fighting to the end, instead prolonging the end?

You can think of this as having borrowed a theme or two from dark souls!

RWBY is at the very least leaps and bounds beyond most anime it's close in genre with. I remember seeing, partially in jest, the idea that RWBY has half the fanbase it does for being an action anime with a female case and no fanservice and I think it might almost literally be true.

It is depressingly hard to find a decent action show with a female cast that doesn't sexualize them in gross ways. Even shows I like on the whole end up doing that.

Of course, the points regarding love are helped by the fact that a good chunk of the female cast is front and center in the story. They’re largely in the driver seat and aren’t secondary to any male titular protagonist. Thus you don’t get cases where a girl on the main cast is there to be… the girl.

In any other story, Oscar and/or Jaune  would be front and center. Heck, the three creators of RWBY are guys before their team grew so you’d think they’d “write what they know.” Yet they stick to their guns on having girls get shit done.

One Anime a person I know felt came close to this was, if you can believe it, Fairy Tail where Natsu might’ve been the prominent ass kicker but Erza is the one effectively leader the team, Wendy goes on an arc of learning to love herself and Lucy grows into the wizard that leads the charge against Acnologia.

Yet it sent mixed signals with how the girls (those of age) had designs that left little to the imagination. I can appreciate an artist honest in his horniness… but the Anime did something right when it came to Erza’s torture in Tartaros that helped sell the gravitas of the traumatic experience.

RWBY feels like the above but far more refined in execution. There’s a time and place for schlocky cheesecake but not when it clashes with the narrative and themes overall.

So tell me...without using Hbomberguys’ repeated false information about the “love triangle” or “self-insert” slander...how would YOU respectfully criticize RWBY?  How would you claim to be “a critic” yet still encourage people to watch RWBY? 

If you try to bring up Hbomb’s 2.5 hour hate video, then anyone who tries to claim that a video from 2 years ago no longer is relevant is just being hypocritical. (Looking at you, RWDE Apologist, you know who you are)

Oh, one more thing. RWBY seasons 1-3 were the weakest in terms of writing and animation. But even so, the fact of the matter is that anything that happened in those seasons are ignored by critics, theorists, and straight shippers.

Material Inspired from   https://www.tumblr.com/crimsonxe/691425946111295488/since-i-ran-across-a-dumbass-earlier-that-tried-to 

[captnjacksparrow]

Why do I ship SNS?

It is a known fact that when people experience a good media, they like to discuss various things they liked, hated, interpret what the creator trying to say and get something from what they have consumed. Eventually people end up in a shipping war if there are multiple possibilities. 

I started watching Naruto on a whim, hoping to see some ninjas in action with some revenge as a background (after all when you have power, there will always be a revenge). Am a sucker for revenge, btw. I am a person who hates romance in media. Because, every movie, book, novel, series has this same recycled romance plastered into every story even though the story don’t need at all. So, I am very tired of it. Every media portrays romance as something inevitable, necessary and something we can’t live without. That’s wrong. 

Usually, romance goes like this... Person A sees Person B... they hate each other and add some possessiveness, jealousy... they magically gets attracted through some shared experiences eventually... they kiss and make babies. There’s nothing wrong with this. It’s just very tiring as I’ve seen million forms of this same repeated trope. I always cringe and yell “Can you give us something different? Grrr.....”.

And also, my motto is that love can happen with any person. It can’t be restrained into certain boundaries. So, I don’t like to put some relationship under an umbrella called Gay, Lesbian, Straight or whatever. Of course, illicit relationships and incest are not normal and am not okay with it.

With all that being said...

My experience after watching the Shippuden series until episode 478 was “Wait, do they love each other?”. I know am very late to realize this, but I have never even viewed them with any romantic lens throughout. 

On my first watch, I was always under the impression that “They are friends”... But there are certain moments I felt “Wait, why are they doing like this which could’ve been handled in a different way!!” I will get to this later in this post. But those moments were overlooked by me because of my curiosity of “What happens next ??”. 

And on my rewatch, it only confirmed my view. 

The other popular ships like SS and NH put forth many points to invalidate what SNS represents. The most common being “They are reincarnated brothers” or  “They are best friends”. Am just going to debunk them from my point of view. 

Naruto and Sasuke are like brothers.....

Nope. 

The best brotherhood title, in this series, should officially go to Itachi and Sasuke. 

You can argue as much as you want that Itachi mindfucked Sasuke and killed his parents....yaada yaada.... 

It is repeatedly shown why Itachi put a curtain on his own clan. The reason is, Uchiha clan decided to forcefully take over the village. No matter how much innocent you are, you cannot take over something with force. Dot. I will write about this in a separate post.

In short, Sasuke realised how his clan members were wrong after hearing the story from the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju. That’s why he openly proclaimed “I am going to protect Konoha and become Hokage”. 

Back to the topic, Itachi and Sasuke are blood brothers. If I ship them both, then what you claim is very valid. 

The above gif says, “Sasuke, I know, I made a mistake by filling you with hatred. But whatever you decide to do from now on, I will love you always”. Meaning, He stopped treating Sasuke as a kid and accepts that Sasuke has his own path to walk.

This is exactly how brothers behave. I would do the same to my kid sister. You can see a fraternal instinct from Itachi’s eyes realizing that this is their last time together.

Another thing, Brothers trope always has this hierarchy.... Protect the younger sibling no matter what. It is evident from Madara/Izuna and Hashirama/Tobirama.

Not convinced?

If you pull the Indra and Ashura bullshit, let me tell you one thing. Indra and Ashura were separated and formed their own clan long ago. They eventually branched off into Uchiha and Senju clans. No way you can relate a century old blood relation as brothers. It’s just their chakra got reincarnated over and over. 

Don’t pull up an incest angle between Naruto and Sasuke. Because they never shared a womb. Dot. 

Naruto and Sasuke are Best Friends only.

You know what, you are almost right. I thought that for a very long time. Remember I never wore any shipping goggles ON. 

There are two types of best friend categories. Best Friends without a reason and Best Friends through rivalry. 

Best Friends without a reason in Narutoverse are: Shikamaru/Choji. 

They just became friends and became BFF. They won’t fight or hurt each other. But when you have something to share...you would go to that person and share everything honestly.

Best Friends through Rivalry: Kakashi/Obito, Hashirama/Madara, Naruto/Sasuke

I really cannot provide more proof for the first two pairings as Best Friends as it is not the scope of this post. Although the latter two also qualifies for shipping category. Why?

Because, the common thing among them is that all the three Uchihas awakened/reawakened their Sharingan for their best friend. But Hashirama/Madara and Naruto/Sasuke are the only pairings to awaken or evolve Sharingan when trying to break their bonds with each other. 

Special Brownie points for Madara. He had 4 brothers and lost 3 but still couldn’t awaken his Sharingan but when trying to break up with Hashirama, his eyes were brimming red. 

Sasuke’s Sharingan matures in the first Valley of The End.

That’s why I excluded Hashirama/Madara and Naruto/Sasuke from this Best Friends list.

Because to the both Uchihas, the other person meant something special which cannot be comprehended into a mere term called ‘Best Friends’.

Which is exactly why Kakashi/Obito would perfectly fall into this category.

The way they quarrel, fight with each other, protect each other are perfect scores for a friendship. What makes them best friends is when Obito decided to give his Sharingan despite Kakashi was always putting a cold air around him and most importantly asked him to protect his love ‘Rin’. Also Kakashi carried his friend’s will to his heart and passed on to Team 7.

It all falls under ‘In the memory of my Best Friend’ trope.

Obito may be a trash but he is a good friend. Because after Rin was killed, he massacred everyone around him except for Kakashi. He could have killed him. Understandable. Or he could have plucked his Sharingan back (because he literally plucked most of the Sharingans from the Uchiha clan massacre and kept those eyes as a reserve). This could have enabled him to use Susanoo. I believe Susanoo can only be used with Mangekyo Sharingan in both eyes. But for some reason, he didn’t. 

So what makes me think Naruto and Sasuke love each other, not as a brother and not as a friend but something beyond which I can’t term?

My way of shipping is not about marriage, sex and rearing babies. Because literally everyone does this as an obligation. 

So, I don’t ship them in terms of living together in my headcanon and having sex daily. Nope. But it is not wrong though if you ship in that sense.

In this Narutoverse, Women are just some stow away pieces whose sole existence is to fawn over their dreamboy and cry for them. (Usually literally nothing useful comes out of them). Me being a girl, as much as I hate this setup but I have come to terms with whatever it is and have accepted it. If you are a girl looking for a strong female character...... this is not the place. Watch something else. 

But I draw inspiration from male characters who are characterized deeply for which I have to applaud the creator. Reason being, the very first character which I connected with was Itachi. It was when Sasuke thinks about his past with his family in the flashback before the first VotE battle in part I. I will be writing a separate post about Itachi in this week. 

In short, If you are a person who wants inspiration, draw it from male characters. Not in a single moment, you stoop so low for characters like Hinata and Sakura. That’s not how I envision myself or any woman. Dot.

With all this being said, I ship them as a couple who necessarily don’t have to get married or have sex... But they each other has some special allowance towards each other in their hearts which no one can touch, not even their wives or children. 

This doesn’t mean I accept what came after episode 478 as they are literally something they made for $$$$$. 

There are some basic traits which are absolutely necessary for a ship to sail successfully. They are Acknowledgement, Reason, No Hierarchy, Influence, Owning each others rights and Privilege. (All these reasons should come from both the sides for the ship to be worthy)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Acknowledgement, I mean here, is to accept and acknowledge what they are to each other.

They both agree that they are Bonded/Friends verbally as well as emotionally.

To me, this is essential in any relationship especially for the ones you are trying to ship. I didn’t see this in any other ships like SS or NH where it is always one sided. Sakura confessed before the village entrance to which Sasuke said “You really are annoying!!”. Hinata proposed in Pain arc. Naruto didn’t even acknowledge her confession. He went on to beg for pardon for Sasuke. Again she proposed in the War at the expense of Love Cupid “Neji”. Naruto went on to joke with Minato that Sakura is his Girl Friend. 

If I were in both of these girls place, I would literally be mad and drop this shit right away.

Wheras in SNS, I saw both the people I am trying to ship were asking “What am I to you?”, to which they reply “You are my friend”. To me this is very important.

Reason

To those who are saying “Love is blind”, “Love is Madness”, “Love needs no reason”, you all need self-evaluation. This is not some K Drama situation where you don’t need any reason. You should know why you love someone and why you need the other’s presence.

Naruto’s reason is very simple.

I could provide many reasons. But here, Sasuke, without any reservations... knowing full well of the consequence if he feed Naruto but still extended the helping hand to someone who was always hostile. It is just like what Iruka did. And many incidents which happened during Land of the Waves arc are evident.

He wanted to be friends with this lonely Uchiha boy way back when he was around 7 or 8 for a simple reason that he understands his pain more than anyone. But he really became friends when they were grouped together for Team 7.  

Sasuke’s reason goes even way beyond when Naruto series started.

“Because he felt relief”.

Imagine a young boy who witnessed a massacre before his eyes and lost everyone he loved. But somehow another young boy of his age made him feel relieved. This explains why Sasuke went all out of his way to make friendship with Naruto despite being aloof. 

Isn’t this what we want from someone we love?  

Rather than being completely insensitive about an orphan life or just stalking from the distance and never offered any support, I would prefer someone who understands my pain from their heart and try to reach me. Sasuke reached out to him by offering the lunch and Naruto reached out to him by making him his rival and bug him.

NO HIERARCHY

This is pretty self-explanatory. Unlike blood brothers, there should be no hierarchy in a relationship I want to ship. 

We saw Naruto yells at Sasuke many times absolutely for no reason, despite Sasuke bearing this cold attitude. Probably he is the only person who can call him by such variety of names. 

Sasuke always calls him by his trademark ‘Usuratonkachi’. Sometimes he calls him fool just like everyone. But was never insulting or mean towards Naruto. Except for that time in the final battle, he made fun of his Shadow Clone jutsu citing his loneliness. 

In short, be it a physical fight or verbal offense.... neither of them wilts like a flower. They equally give back. 

The only other person who can verbally assault Sasuke is Karin and probably the only girl who never addresses him as “Sasuke-Kun”. 

U-SU-RA-TON-KA-CHI..... Why do Sasuke spend such an effort to call someone with a 6 syllabic word, instead NA-RU-TO, a 3 syllabic word which is way more convenient to call?? I always wonder.

POSITIVE INFLUENCE

I don’t have to spell out anything here. There are many obvious examples but will try to keep it short. 

Naruto became strong because of Sasuke. He trained hard for 3 years with Jiraiya , a month with Kakashi developing Rasen Shuriken and controlled Kurama’s power with Killer Bee. Except for Sage Mode jutsu everything he learnt was all for bringing Sasuke back. 

In short, Sasuke is Naruto’s predominant strength. 

Though Naruto was not the source of strength for Sasuke, but he brings out many vibrant emotions in Sasuke which he really needed for his traumatic mind otherwise he would always be that cold angry brooding doll without any emotions and I am sure Sasuke enjoys to banter with Naruto.

LOL!!! I don’t know why Sasuke feels competitve here. It’s pretty childish even for Sasuke.

Friendly tease :-) I think he also protected Sakura in this scene. He can also ask her the same, isn’t it? I mean as a friend. 

The best one is yet to come

It’s incredibly hilarious to see how Sasuke pouts when he was with Naruto. Sakura!!!! You third wheeling joker :-D :-D

Throughout Shippuden, Sasuke never shows his emotions with anyone. He either looks very cold or angry.

Reminiscing his Team 7 days, for a split second. 

Probably the only positive emotion is this, in all of the Shippuden. I mean not counting Episode 478.

I don’t think Sakura brought any kind emotions in Sasuke except annoyance when they were together in Team 7. Or Hinata too. These girls just moan “Sasuke-Kun”, “Naruto-Kun” but brings nothing to the table. Total wastrels!!!!!

OWNING EACH OTHER’S RIGHTS

This section is exactly where SNS moves on to a whole different level.

Sasuke wanted to inflict his pain over everyone who lives in peaceful Konoha for what it did to Itachi. (though I don’t really accept with Sasuke here since he never even bothered to question about his clan’s history, but what he was doing is understandable. Just like Naruto tells him).

But the context here is Sasuke is on a murder rampage. Starting from the Kage Summit, killing Danzo, unnecessarily hurting Karin and almost reached a point where he could not be stopped anymore. Then Ms.Annoying appears. She literally have no fucking clue what Sasuke is going through. So started to spout nonsense that she wanted to go with Sasuke-Kun with an ulterior motive to kill him without a strong resolve. 

The interesting SS dynamics here is Sasuke asks Sakura “Do you know what I want?” and to which she gives a carefree-shitty-pathetic answer “I don’t care. I will do whatever you want”. Geez!!!

If I were Sasuke, I would think, “This person standing before me don’t even care about what I want but coming with an intent to kill me and not only that... she is a kunoichi from Konoha where I planned to inflict my pain by slaughtering them.. I better ram my Chidori and be done with it”... He doesn’t see her as his former Teammate. He just want to kill that person.

However, Kakashi deflects the attack and saves Ms.Useless. 

( Me : I am a Sasuke fan through and through. But, Sakura..... You always says you will do this, do that.... But you never succeed at anything... Why is that? Why are you even continue being a ninja? No one asked you to kill Sasuke, you decided to. But why don’t you kill him. Probably you would’ve earned my begrudging respect... Pffft” ****sighs with a heavy second hand embarassment)

Anyways, Sasuke becomes an unstoppable maniac at this point because he was very irritated on seeing Kakashi and Sakura spouting some unreachable nonsense. So he started to attack Kakashi as he is even more irritated on seeing his Sharingan.

Again, Ms.Idiot wants to kill Sasuke when he is at his weakest point due to chakra exhaustion and that too from behind his back. (You!!! Gutless wrench). Sasuke sensed this and attempted to kill her again... (Naruto!!! You idiot. Why did you save her...)

However, Naruto appears and saves her. Naruto and Sasuke’s eyes meet each other.

But somehow Sasuke calmed down and hears out Naruto for what he has to say. He says, “Whatever you are doing until now, it’s understandable”. 

Kakashi wanted to kill him and Sasuke got riled up and prepare his Chidori. Anyways, Naruto intervenes and they go to some meta physical plane and talks privately. And Naruto comes up with his idea and announces as below:

Me: Naruto!!!! Sweety..... Do you realize that you have a big dream of becoming a Hokage which you have been shouting from Day 1? But still you want to overthrow everything for that one person who is in unbearable pain. It’s alright. But you don’t want to go alone or send him alone. No Best friend would go this far. And to those Sakura shippers.... Why didn’t Sakura try to bear the burden? Why didn’t she come up with this Idea? Afterall, you spout nonsense like ‘Sakura saved Sasuke from Darkness, isn’t it?’ And, Naruto.... Who gave you the right to take his hatred and shoulder the burden? And what makes you think you are that only person to do it??? Sasuke, might have other special person in those 3 years. How can you decide on Sasuke’s behalf??? Aren’t you going overboard ?

The answer to all the above is simple, Naruto can risk anything for Sasuke. And he clearly knew that Sasuke’s only living bond is him.

And what happened next was almost unbelievable and for the first time I thought ‘What is it with these two guys?’. 

Sasuke agrees with Naruto’s proposition to not destroy Konoha before fighting with Naruto. 

Me: Sasuke!!!! You have every right to reject his proposition. Since, he was not in your life for the past 3 years, your side of bond with Naruto should have been cut-off long back, right? Sasuke??? Well, at this point he was just your former Team 7 member. You don’t need to honor your proposition. You can attack Konoha anytime. Why did you accept?

Also Me: Sweety!!! Why do you always question Naruto ‘Who am I to you’? Why do you need his opinion always? There is an annoying princess standing behind Naruto vying for your attention. And yet you didn’t even ask her this question at any time. But before Naruto, you completely calmed down from your rampage and willing to wait for what he has to say plus asking for his validation. After all you don’t care about anything, why just Naruto???

And the reason being, Naruto is still his closest bond which he couldn’t cut off despite trying very hard. After all, Many years ago, Sasuke was the one, who readily jumped in to protect Naruto knowing full well that it’s a trap. He was ready to throw away his revenge for this boy back then. Sasuke is afraid that he will give in to this bond once more and Naruto is his weakness which he wants to eliminate so badly.

This is definitely not any Best Friend would do..... Fix that in your mind.

The purpose of these GIFs is not show how protective Sasuke is..... Well, I can talk about it all day. Let’s save it.

Me: Yo!!!! Sasuke..... You wanted to kill Naruto.... You said so yourself under the bridge. Meaning, He is the only person standing between your goal and your resolve and Naruto is always known to weaken your resolve. And yet why are you protecting him here? There is absolutely no need. Because, if there is a situation like Kaguya where both of you are must needed to save this world , then there is a reason to save him. But why now? Plus do you know, if Naruto dies, then Madara’s plan may not succeed because if a Jinchuriki dies, tailed beast also dies. It is perfect for your Revolution, isn’t it? Who gave you the right to own his life? Obito has his reason to kill Naruto, why not let him?Why is it that you want to personally remove him from your life? If he is dead by an external factor, you can carry on your path without any interference and pain. Why go so far to protect him ?

The answer is Sasuke values Naruto’s life more than his own even during his Team 7 days. He has this high esteem for Naruto and almost consider it to be a shame if some worthless fool takes his life. And Sasuke never hated Naruto. He once hated Itachi and his resolve to kill was real and intense. But when Orochimaru asked him to kill 1000 people for practice, Sasuke never killed anyone. He even implemented no kill policy for his team “Hebi”. So, someone like Sasuke who never liked to kill random innocent people, how could he let some trash take away a life, he considers dearly to the same level of Itachi? That’s why in this situation, his body moved on his own to protect something special for him. He may not agree it, but he always shows it.

But some other ship wankers try to say Sasuke may have said “You are annoying” but inside he deeply loved her which is why he was smiling. If so, Why didn’t Sasuke never showed his care not even once? He not only tried to kill her twice when she was defenseless but also let her die twice or didn’t bother at all during the war. Or show me where these soul level connection happened between SS or NH

In short, Sasuke and Naruto own each other’s rights unconsciously. Because they are the only ones who can understand each other’s soul which nobody can reach.

Me: Oh, by the way Sasuke, I think Susanoo should be used like this. You really don’t need your hand to protect Naruto. Susanoo can do it’s work for you. Minato would be proud though!!!!

PRIVILEGE

Most of the points I written above are in and of itself is a privilege they give for each other and not for anyone else. Privilege is essential in a ship. Because it shows how different a loved one is from normal people. 

For Naruto, 

I originally want to put how he begs for forgiveness on Sasuke’s behalf before Raikage and weeps immeasurably before hyperventilating. But this one trumps the other. Naruto literally broadcasted everyone how important Sasuke is to him and how he regretted not offering his friendship at that time and how he couldn’t stop Sasuke from reaching Orochimaru. 

If you want to inspire Alliance shinobi forces, you should have shown how you worked so hard from the bottom to top. Projecting Sasuke as your regret and inspiring people shows how deeply you prioritize this person which affects you after so many years and hence, you don’t want any more regrets. 

It’s very unconventionally romantic which passes the shipping category in flying colours. 

For Sasuke,

The following is the Land of the waves arc which was novelized in the name of Innocent Heart, Demonic Blood released in 2006. 99.9% of the material is exactly as it happens in Manga/Anime. 

This is the privilege Sasuke provides for Naruto. “ But coming from Sasuke, It almost counted as a hug”... 

BROWNIE POINTS:

Now, the following are the scenes which add a mysterious flavour to this ship. I sincerely don’t understand why Kishimoto put this. I mean I am absolutely happy with it, but why? What was he thinking while drawing these scenes? 

It’s also strange that, whenever they clash a Chidori with Rasengan..... They always gets repelled to their own sides and fall with a loud thump. But Naruto’s posture looks very perfect, I mean it looks like someone carried him and laid him down. Anyways, What’s Sasuke doing on Naruto’s side?? He should have fell on the opposite side. Why didn’t he walk away? There is absolutely no reason for Sasuke to come over to Naruto’s side and have an intense meaningful gaze. 

This is another mysterious plus intense scene. I am still wondering, Is this really Sasuke? He is a person who avoids casual touches with anyone other than his brother. I’ve seen so many times Sasuke rejecting hugs from Sakura. I can’t even imagine what Kishimoto was thinking. 

If you people pass these scenes off as Brotherhood or Best Friend chemistry... Then you lack basic human emotions. That’s all. 

Me: Well, Sasuke, If you really want to kill him, you should have shovelled your sword right through Naruto’s vital point when you made that exuberant landing. There is literally no need for you to draw a long sword in close quarters. And what about the Personal Space??? With your speed, you can land without leaning on Naruto’s shoulders... 

Also Me: Yo, Naruto... You were panicking when Sai does the same....but you don’t even flinch when Sasuke invades your personal space????

Anyways, it’s funny that both the intense scenes I have mentioned here were initiated by Sasuke. Quite strange and thrilling.

So, to conclude.... All these scenes I have mentioned  made me unconsciously ship them as a pair. With all these being said, I believe all the ingredients for a good romance were laid perfectly. A moment of impulsive tension or affection, say a hug, between them after a difficult battle could mess with both and make a romance happen. And I don’t think either of them will deny especially Sasuke. 

I don’t see any of this aspect in other popular ships such as SS and NH. If I am Sakura or Hinata in this universe, I will not be okay with my pair doing all these things with other person. I intentionally left scenes from Episode 478 as it is so intense and require a separate post. I am happy that even without Episode 478, SNS ship sails high. So, I believe both Sakura and Hinata are still fourth wheeling their respective pairs in Boruto universe also, I guess. 

P.S: I don’t watch Boruto

Final memento:

No way a friend will look this mesmerized on seeing the other one. 

[deadmandairyland]

Hi! I’m here to bring you yet another Danganronpa tier list: the sexuality tier list, which you can find here.

Now I’m going to be honest here: I don’t really have any LGBT headcanons. It’s just not really something I focus on much when it comes to fandoms. Instead I usually just focus on ships, and as a result from that I tend to present a lot of characters as LGBT in fanfictions and posts I’ve made or reblogged. In other words, a massive chunk of my “headcanons” here are a direct result of shipping (as well as information I’ve picked up from the games themselves). That being said, it was interesting to actually think about this for once, so I’m kinda glad I did the tier list. And it gave me an excuse to bring back the rainbow color scheme I usually put in my tier lists for aesthetic reasons.

The original tier list had Straight at the top, but I moved it to the bottom for two reasons. One, this is Tumblr and that’s not what you’re here for. Two, I gave it a neutral color, and having a gray section next to a white section (i.e. the title of the list) like that looked bad to me. I definitely prefer this setup just on aesthetic alone.

Because this is largely based on ships, I feel it needs to be said that representation does not factor into this chart in any way. I know it probably looks bad that the only character in the Lesbian category is one of my least favorite (though NOT hated or even disliked, I should point out) characters in the main series. That has nothing to do with the fact that she’s a lesbian. She’s just a jerk, and usually not in a way that’s at least entertaining enough for me to like her.

Also keep in mind that this is just the main cast of the main series games. If you were to include characters from the DR3 anime, UDG, or the spin-offs, the Gay, Lesbian, and Ace categories would get more rep, certainly. Think Juzo, Yui, Takemichi, that gay guy with the trumpet, etc.

With that said, let’s go through the list:

Gay

Not gonna lie, one of the reasons why Rantaro is here (and not in Ace) is because of ships. Though I do sometimes ship him with girls, canon suggests he’s not interested in dating girls, and most fans seem to headcanon him as either gay or ace because of this, so I respected that. That being said, I also acknowledge he’s a very popular character in mlm ships, and at the time I was putting this together I hadn’t gotten to Taka yet so the Gay tier was still empty, and Byakuya was already sitting in Ace, so all of that swayed me to putting Rantaro here instead of Ace.

Taka was much easier to place here. He strikes me as a closeted gay man who probably doesn’t even realize he is gay. “Hey, let’s all hang out in the bath, guys! Getting naked is essential to form bonds with your fellow man! No need to be ashamed, it’s tradition!"

Lesbian

Again, ships. I only ship Hiyoko with one other character, and as soon as I say that you already know who she is.

Bisexual (Male Preference)

Akane is mostly here to account for any wlw ships I may have of her (e.g. Hina, Sonia maybe). Obviously she has a thing with Nekomaru, so Male Preference.

Chiaki is here for the same reason as Akane. I’ve shipped her with characters like Sonia and Ibuki before, but she really digs Hajime.

Chihiro honestly could have been anywhere in the Bi and Pan sections, but I ultimately went with Male Preference because of ships, specifically the fact that outside of the more... R18 circles of the Interwebs Chihiro tends to be shipped with guys more often than girls. Also doesn’t hurt that my OTP is Naehiro. I mean, have you seen how often Chihiro blushes around Makoto? (There’s more to it than that, as I’ve covered in the past. I’m just trying to add more fuel to the fire.)

Himiko is probably one of the few characters that isn’t here mainly because of ships. I do think she has some attachment towards Tenko, but I also get “I’m uncomfortable around her” vibes from her, and there are moments where she seems to crush on Kokichi (of all people) so that’s why she’s here. Still very much bi, though.

Hina has a crush on Makoto and has a complex around wishing she was more feminine so she can attract boys. So why isn’t she in the Straight section? ...Because Sakura, duh. And Kyoko too. And any other wlw ship you can think of that might work with Hina.

Honestly if it wasn’t for Miu I probably would have considered putting Kokichi in Gay. Again, while shipping plays a big part of my choices here, much like with Rantaro I have no qualms with putting a character in a tier that contradicts any ships I might have with that character, if those ships aren’t something I’m super invested in. This is a very important distinction, because it’s why I let ships sway my hand for so many of these even if I am also okay with going “Just because I ship this doesn’t mean I headcanon it” as I did with Rantaro. And honestly Kokichi’s ship teasing with Himiko does come off as more trollish than a sign that he’s into her, but he really gets into his back-and-forth with Miu, in my personal opinion, and he gets into it far more often with her for that matter. It’s why it’s one of my favorite ships for both of them tbh, and it’s because I like the ship so much that I just can’t ignore it for this sexuality headcanon tier list.

Maki... is here because of ships (e.g. Kaede).

Sakura... is here because of ships (e.g. Hina). ...What, you were expecting me to put a guy in the example? Remember, she has a boyfriend in canon.

Sayaka... is here because of... NOT ships, but DRAT. Yes, really. (”We really got down and dirty, Naegi-kun.”)

Sonia... strikes me as someone who swings both ways. I can’t describe exactly why I feel that way, but yes.

Bisexual (No Preference)

Celeste wants a harem of vampire boys but shipping her with Kyoko is also very popular and honestly i feel like it would fit her character. She’s got a look that says “I could get any ass I want and I know it.”

Ibuki is decked out in blues and pinks, and also I ship her fairly evenly among both boys and girls. She just screams bi icon to me, more so than any other character in the series.

Junko is either bi with no preferences or pan. She is an equal opportunity heart-and-soul-breaker and lust-for-despair machine.

There is no Mukuro in this list, but honestly I would probably put her where I put Junko anyway.

Kaede... is here because of ships (e.g. Miu, Maki)

Honestly I had no idea where to put Kirumi, so I just randomly chose one that I wouldn’t regret later if I ever put more thought into who I shipped her with.

I’m pretty sure Nagito being bisexual has some degree of canon attached to it??? I think??? I’m not entirely sure tbh, but fuck it. I’m doing this for fun anyway, so this doesn’t really matter.

Shuichi, like all Danganronpa protags, is bi as fuck. I also find him to be more shippable with guys than the other two protags, so IMO he has no preference.

Toko might have a thing or two for pretty boys, but... Komaru, I mean, this isn’t exactly shocking, I don’t think. Probably was closeted before she met Komaru. I mean she did focus on Hina’s boobs a lot in DR1, let’s not forget.

Tsumugi, much like Kirumi, is here because I haven’t put much thought into her ships.

Bisexual (Female Preference)

Gundham has a thing with Sonia in canon, but I can see him being bi. So... yeah, ships again.

Hajime, like all Danganronpa protags, is bi as fuck. It’s just that his Chiaki and Mikan game is just too strong.

Hifumi might claim to only like 2D, but his interest in Chihiro both in human form and computer program form (and the fact that this didn’t go away after the gender reveal) places him here.

Kaito strikes me as a closeted bisexual. The kind that could start any given conversation with “I’m not gay, but...”

Kazuichi also strikes me as a closeted bisexual, only his “I’m not gay, but...” is rooted more in dumbass than it is in systematic homophobia.

Korekiyo... is here because of ships (e.g. Rantaro).

Kyoko is bi as fuck, and I can see her having a preference towards girls in particular. She gets shipped with girls a lot (e.g. Celeste, Hina, Yui, and even Junko and Mukuro), and when she is shipped with boys it’s usually just pretty boys (e.g. Makoto, Byakuya, Ryota, Shuichi, and, depending on your interpretation, Chihiro). Also note that aside from Makoto and maybe Byakuya, Kyoko’s girl ships are far more popular than her boy ships. Just something I’ve noticed over the years.

Leon... is here because of ships (e.g. Chihiro).

Mahiru is here because I’m pretty sure she has a thing for Hajime in her FTEs, but obviously she tends to get shipped with girls more often (especially Hiyoko), and I agree.

Makoto, like all Danganronpa protags, is bi as fuck. It’s just that his Kyoko, Hina, Sayaka, and Mukuro game is just too strong.

Mikan may be interested in Hajime somewhat, but her obsession with Junko cannot be ignored, no matter how much some of you may want to.

Mondo is another character that strikes me as a closeted bisexual. He is said to strike out all the time with girls, so I do think he’s attracted to women. And I do get some vibes that he’s attracted to Chihiro pre-reveal. And if circumstances had been different, I imagine he probably still would have been post-reveal. But obviously it’s his bond with Taka that I feel cements his sexuality in, at the very least, an mlm category.

Tenko... is here NOT because of ships, but because I’m pretty sure she’s at least sort of interested in Shuichi because of some canon thing... and also I don’t want to put her in Lesbian just because it feels like I’d be stereotyping the Lesbian category if I do that. If we were to compare her to the character that I did put in Lesbian, Hiyoko doesn’t treat people like shit because they’re men, she’s an equal-opportunity asshole. Still not the best representation for lesbians by a long shot, but at least Hiyoko doesn’t follow the stereotype of a man-hating lesbian. She’s just like that, and that’s okay. But putting Tenko there, especially if she’s shown some degree of interest in a male character at some point in the game, just rubs me the wrong way personally, because it would feel like I’m ignoring canon just to stereotype her. But that’s just a personal hang up of mine. No disrespect intended toward anyone who genuinely feels that Tenko is a lesbian. Maybe you see something there that I don’t, and that’s perfectly fine.

Pansexual

I don’t remember exactly how her FTEs went, so I’m not going to get into that, but Angie just comes off as pan to me, like gender doesn’t fit into the equation at all for her.

Gonta I can see as either pan or ace. I feel like he wouldn’t care about gender, and honestly the only reason I decided to put him in Pan rather than Ace is because of that scene with Miu.

Imposter is not only pan, they are currently OT3ing it up with Ibuki and Ryota as we speak, and that’s a fact.

Keebo... is mostly here because of ships. A lot of ships, actually. Mostly male ships (Kokichi, Shuichi, Kazuichi, and, depending on your interpretation, Chihiro) but there’s also Miu to consider. And the Miu game is SO strong that I put him in Pan instead of, say, Male Preference.

Just gonna lump them together because I have the same thing to say about both of them: Miu and Teruteru would **** anything that walks. What did I censor? Well, I’m doing the Nier: Automata thing, so you can put whatever you want in there and trust me, it would probably fit, for better or for worse.

Ace

I know this is an unpopular opinion, because Naegami, but I just don’t think Byakuya is interested in anyone, at least not in that way. He might be fascinated with how common people live, because it’s so foreign to him, but that’s about it.

Straight

Even though I do ship Fuyuhiko with some of the boys, his Peko game is so strong that honestly I can’t see him actually dating anyone aside from Peko outside of some very niche fanfiction.

Honestly, Hiro was another one that I was just like “I have no idea what to do with you.” I think maybe his team up with Kanon made me eventually choose to put him in Straight? I don’t remember. I clearly didn’t put much thought into Hiro.

I really only ship Nekomaru with Akane, so that’s why he’s here. I’m sure if I dive deep enough into my psyche I can pull an mlm ship with Nekomaru in it out of my ass, but like Rantaro that wouldn’t be significant enough to change anything.

Peko is in the same boat as Fuyuhiko. I have shipped her with girls before, but her Fuyuhiko game is just too strong.

Ryoma had a girlfriend once, and as far as I can remember he didn’t really seem interested in anybody in the game, so that’s all I have to go off of for him.

-----

So there you have it. Explanations for literally all of them! Explanations that were definitely not pulled out of my ass as I was typing them, nope, certainly not. Definitely won’t be tagging all of them, but I may tag the ones with the longest entries. And like all the tier lists I’ve done, this was just for fun and honestly any opinion I have for any of these characters could change at a moment’s notice because my brain is fickle like that. Tried my best to make sure that every tier had at least one character in it, but I did so without trying to force characters in places that I personally did not believe they should go. I hope you all enjoyed my dive into this area of fandom that I rarely dive into (the LGBT headcanons, not the ships, obviously). It was a lot of fun, and hopefully it will stay fun and not result in angry anons blasting me for my opinions. I am grateful that this never seems to happen to me, but I’ve seen it happen to others and I know what Tumblr is capable of at its worst. These are just headcanons and a matter of personal opinion, and if you disagree with them, that’s perfectly okay. Your feelings and opinions are also valid.

[vintage-bentley]

Clare Devlin is such a well written lesbian character for many reasons; she gets to be awkward, and is never sexualised. She has a distinct personality outside of being gay, and her sexuality is not the sole point of her character. That’s only scratching the very surface, because what I really want to focus on is how she was clearly written to be a lesbian from the start. It’s not like she was written to be straight, then halfway through the show it was decided that a gay character was needed and her name was pulled from a hat. No, she was a lesbian from the very beginning and it’s obvious when you pay attention.

For example, the scene with Father Peter. When he walks in, Michelle, Erin, and Orla are all captivated by him. Clare is completely uninterested, shown both by her facial expressions and her saying “what were you saying, Erin?” Which shows she’s more interested in what Erin had been saying than looking at a man.

Now, it’s true that a large part of her distractedness is all the caffeine she’d just had. But if you imagine any of the three other girls in that same position, you’d probably imagine them being even more obvious about being attracted to Peter, as in more impulsive about making comments and such. Not completely disinterested like Clare.

And if it wasn’t already obvious that she wasn’t interested in Peter at all, the camera isn’t even focused on her.

The way the shot is framed is clearly focused on Michelle, Erin, and Orla, with James and Clare off to the side. Usually in a scene like this, the focus would be on all the female characters in the shot, with the male character being the only one out of focus. So Clare also being out of focus says a lot. (I know that some probably interpreted James’ interest in Peter as attraction, and at first I did too but after watching season 3 I think it’s safe to say he was just craving male company and a male role model, given that he’s going to an all-girl’s school and was raised by a single mother.) I went into the show knowing Clare was gay, so I immediately picked up on this and thought it was great. This scene in particular really shows the distinct awkwardness of being a lesbian surrounded by your straight female friends who are fawning over a guy, and you just don’t give a shit.

I just really appreciated that Clare wasn’t shown to be interested in Peter, only to then later come out as a lesbian. The way she acts in this scene is a small detail, but to me it’s incredibly important. It’s really nice to see a lesbian character who’s obviously written as 100% homosexual from the start, and an actor who portrays it flawlessly. She’s just a really great lesbian character who was treated right, which is rare.

[facepalming-since-chernobyl]

SCs just don't get it.

Ryan's been on the job for over a year.

Lena's never been in costume, so while she knows some, she had no practical experience in a suit.

And bottom line, it's a white woman telling a black woman what to do. Thereby giving the white woman something to do. While sidelining a black lesbian couple in favor of a white fave from another show.

It's problematic as fuck.

i have not read the issue, I just saw some pages and posts of people who read it and complained - Batwoman fans, not the fake folks who came only for sc and Lobotomizer.

I think another problem is, correct me if I'm wrong, but the main authors are white? Especially that woman who is on twitter (Natalie Abrams?) and gushed about Lobotomizer since the beginning.

I mean... there was a lot of fuss about Ryan and how she replaced Kate, it would be nice if it was fully focused on her and her team, I think? Like? Obviously? Since this comic book is called BATWOMAN not Batwoman and Lena Luthor?

And as you said, Lena Luthor is a white privileged bitch, who:

1. created a device that could identify people (aliens, i know, but we can say people from minority) without their consent

2. lobotomized and ENSLAVED TWO man of color against their will and threathened to force one of them to kill himself (Russel, Andrea's boyfriend) and experimented on them both, one again, against their will,

3. planned to lobotomized entire world because of her butthurt

4. NEVER PAID FOR HER ACTIONS OR MET ANY CONSEQUENCES

And as you said, this bitch, is a black main character saviour...? Uhm?

Also, from what I saw, of course supercorp and Lena stans started their usual shit

It looks how once again they say it's ok for a main character being sidelined when it's for LENA, while they have been screaming about screentime and "sidelining Kara for males and female characters" when the show was airing.

Look how once again they dismiss batwoman fans, saying they should be thankful for SUPERCORPS supporting their stuff, like they are saviours and thanks to them the world of other shows and fandoms is still circling. Like.. take a sit...

And once again. They are NOT SUPPORTING representation.

1.They hated on every POC actor whose character was romantically involved with Lena or Kara (aka two white women, who are NOT canonically part of lgbt). They sent death threats to Mehcad Brooks and shit to Staz Nair, who admitted he was depressed and strugled with mental health. Rahul Kohli called them "fan hooligans" and he was in ONE EP and his chaarcter, that was involved with Lena, DIED in the end. Thye admitted more that once how happy they were that they scarried the actors out of social media.

2.They boycotted Nia Nal's ep that was centered about transexuality, because a male character played by a POC, informed Kara about some issues

3.They completly overshadowed the final ep and the fact an interracial lebsian couple had a wedding with their bulshit fake supercorp kiss and in other times, using dansen just to shit on the show and demand sc canon.

4.Don't let me start how they treat Azie and Nicole, asking them to "show Katie sc fanarts" even when Azie was talking about BLM on her insta. And she called them out.

5.They admitted they were stalking actresses to get closer to KMcG and Azie had to move from one apartment to another becasue of some some crazy stans - scs themselves talked about it.

All they support is what they want and what they want is two white women in relationship and they are going to do any bullshit to get it.

So what can i say? I simply hope Batwoman fandom is going to be free of them and their toxicity, because they still are the cancer of the Supergirl fandom and the show - sorry not sorry.

(Not sure if i should tag it as #batwoman, if i should not, just tell me, I'm going to untag it.)

[acloudofsparklingdust]

As someone who has been very deep in fandom stuff and has gotten out of the disgusting aspects of it, I wanted to make an overview of the most obvious aspects that are problematic with ABO dynamics, because I only ever see being against ABO treated as a "preference" issue within fandom, when I think it is a political/societal issue. People only ever want to hear the most comfortable point of view on a subject, no one likes looking too deeply into fandom because it is often people's escape from reality. I too use fandom as escapism, but there are lines that shouldn't be crossed, there is a limit after which fandom can become unhealthy, and instill unhealthy ideas within already vulnerable people.

To anyone outside of my followers who might read this, I want to clarify that this analysis comes from the perspective of a lesbian who's tired of misogyny and homophobia in fandom.

So getting down to a basic view of it, a lot of ABO is set in m/m ships, in order to add either mpreg to the mix, or create a heterosexual-adjacent parallel within a same sex ship. It also uses alpha/omega dynamics as an equivalent to top/bottom, and by extension equates top/bottom to dom/sub, as the alphas are always burly, sometimes even mean, evil, dark, and the omegas are pathetic waifs, who only ever bottom, who only ever serve. This is homophobic. This is normalizing the idea that all homosexual relationships are devious or fetishistic.

My main qualms with the mpreg aspect... Mpreg is used to basically remove any need for women in fandom, and it truly shows how fandom just sees women as breeding machines/wives/mothers, so unnecessary they even take away the ability to reproduce from them, giving it over to men, so they don't have to bother writing female characters at all. These men have fully functional male anatomy, but also somehow a working uterus somewhere in the mix, which is just fantastical, but still, these are fully male characters. (Pointing it out because it will be relevant later on).

Both of these examples (mpreg and using alpha/omega as both top/bottom and dom/sub) tie into what I mentioned about the need to fit same sex relationships into heterosexual roles. You know what couples can reproduce? Male and female couples. Aka heterosexual/opposite sex attracted couples. When you take a gay ship, with same sex attracted individuals, and push them into "able to impregnate" and "able to be impregnated" boxes, you are trying to assimilate a homosexual couple into a heterosexual one, and that normalizes that only couples who can reproduce are worthy of telling stories about.

I've talked about m/m ships because they are the overall prevalent ships in most fandoms, and definitely the most common in ABO dynamics alternative universe fanfiction. However, when ABO is applied to f/f ships, something even more perverse can be observed: often, the alpha female characters are granted a penis. At this point there is no hiding that basically ABO f/f fanfiction is actually f/m fanfiction, wherein one of the characters (the alpha) is actually male, with breasts to go along with a fetishistic, unrealistic view of supposedly f/f relationships. This leads to plenty of heterosexual sex flooding the f/f tags. This leads to the idea that lesbians enjoy penis. It leads to the idea that they need penis in order to have fulfilling relationships, with "breeding" kinks, with pregnancy. Like in m/m fanfic, the alpha character has fully functioning male genitalia, even if they might present breasts.

I don't think it needs to be said that fandom often fetishizes and oversexualizes gay ships. That's already fucked up obviously, but at least outside of ABO, usually the fanfiction is actually homosexual. Through ABO fanfiction homosexual relationships are assimilated into heterosexual ones, and we're supposed to let it slide because of... Why?

The alpha/omega stuff translates into fucker and fucked, one must be the one who "wears the pants" in the relationship, one must be submissive, quiet, subservient.... Aka basic heterosexist bullshit.

This particular fanfiction trope teaches young impressionable gay people that the correct way for them to be is actually heterosexual, and it teaches heterosexual people reading fanfic that actually gay people are totally interested in opposite sex genitalia which is just... Not true. It also teaches women we are unimportant, replaceable. It takes pregnancy, this aspect of womanhood which has historically been used to oppress us, keep us down, keep us quiet and subservient... And normalizes that men could go through that too. It coopts our struggles. So you get a barrage of abortion fics, of teen pregnancy fics, of dangerous pregnancy situation fics... And they're all about men. Not a single woman with a speaking role in sight. Maybe they'll have a daughter, though, so the alpha gets to be overprotective, and they get to be seen as soft dads, and she gets to have no autonomy or personality... Bc what woman ever does?

TLDR; ABO is both homophobic and misogynistic/sexist. Drop that gross shit.

[highfaelucien]

I completely agree with how you feel towards azriel. Thinking about azriel’s character now vs how I used to view him during acomaf times is just... sad and so so so much more complex. Part of me still wants to love him for the character that was presented to us in acomaf and other small good moments, like his friendship with nesta. And then the other part of me is disgusted, disappointed, and honestly kind of terrified of who he may become if sjm allows him to continue acting predatorily/toxic. The whole mor/az situation really fucked me up. As someone who is also a lesbian and an abuse survivor, it broke my heart to watch the situation unfold in acowar. It still hurts seeing many readers (and sometimes even sjm) take az’s side and paint mor as some sort of liar/two faced character that is playing everyone. I kept thinking that things would be fixed in future books, but instead az has grown worse and mor was, once again, sidelined and written out as a character. And honestly... as much as I love the idea of gwyn x azriel ... I think his books would need a lot more focus on his own recovery/growth and not center on a romantic relationship. If anything, I hope it’s written as friends to lovers so az has a better way of interacting and forming relationships with women. Because right now... well, that shit is borderline predatory and isn’t coming across well. And I really really do not want that for him. Basically, azriel deserves a better arc than what has been written for him. I miss him :( he used to be a character that made me feel safe and now :/ idk anymore

I'm going to quote parts of this/chop it up and reply to them a chunk at a time. because there's a lot going on here and I want to try and reply to as much as I can because I resonate with.....all of it. Please forgive me for the length of this.

I completely agree with how you feel towards azriel. Thinking about azriel’s character now vs how I used to view him during acomaf times is just... sad and so so so much more complex.

He feels like a different character? There was always an anger simmering under the calm surface, we knew that. But it was an anger born of love, deep down, and the desire to protect his family, and his court, at the expense of himself. Az was always the first to volunteer himself for dangerous missions, to spare the others.

Now that anger is directed at his family, and at the world, for not giving him what he feels he 'deserves'. That has NEVER been Azriel. Azriel's deepest issues and insecurities have always stemmed from the feeling of being unworthy, and undeserving of anything.

She's just made him into......Every other dude in this series tbh. Snarling, and possessive, and wanting to fuck anything in a skirt that moves.

Azriel was actually somewhat of an original, complex character initially. It's unusual that we see trauma affect men in the way it did Az. Usually it makes them angry, and vengeful, and eager to prove they are the alpha etc. Seeing them withdraw, and think less of themselves/that they're unworthy is something not explored often enough. But bye bye nuance hello #Drama.

Part of me still wants to love him for the character that was presented to us in acomaf and other small good moments, like his friendship with nesta.

I feel this. I found a lot of comfort in Az's character. Particularly the way he reacted with Mor. I was a big fan of their relationship, and I wrote a few 'missing scenes' style fics in the gap between ACOMAF and ACOWAR. One of them was where Az went to her when she had pushed everyone else away, including Cassian, and comforted and calmed her.

I hate that Maas took that away from Mor. I hate that Az no longer does that for her. I hate that Az was the one to betray her along with Rhys and bring her abuser into her safe space behind her back. I hate that he is no longer a symbol of calm, stable, dependable comfort and support for Mor, but is instead a threat. I HATE it.

Every now and then Az has lovely, gentle moments - his friendship with Nesta is a good example, and something I hoped we'd see. But also quieter times with Rhys, and their similarities being explored. And I adored the flying lessons with Feyre in ACOWAR, and the training he did with Cassian and the others in ACOFS.

But then she goes and twists him and does something else that just makes me want to fucking scream. Like the High Lord scene where he 'frightened' Mor. And his entire POV chapter which is frankly fucking gross.

And then the other part of me is disgusted, disappointed, and honestly kind of terrified of who he may become if sjm allows him to continue acting predatorily/toxic.

I agree.

I don't know how she can write a series that explores the effects of emotional abuse so well with Feyre and Tamlin...And then write what she did with Az?

The possession to a traumatised, still impressionable and desperate young woman, who likely finds the same comfort and safety in him that Mor did. Before that got shot to fucking pieces.

He sounds like a whiny toddler 'Cassian has a mate, and Rhys has a mate, where is mine!?!?!?!?' I DESERVE Elain, because I'm your brother and you guys have her sisters and what the FUCK. Who let that shit get published holy mother of god.

It's just...It's so unhealthy? Like, not even talking ship wars here (which I'm aware are rampant, and which I'm trying my best to stay away from). But that just.

How can that ever be a healthy foundation for a relationship? A man who thinks that he deserves, not only to be in a relationship with her, but to be bonded to her. Not because of HER, not because of who she is, or how she makes him feel. No. Purely because her sisters are mated to his brothers?

The whole thing made me feel so uncomfortable. It's predatory and toxic, just as you said. It's not right, it's not fair. Forget alliances and Lucien, even if none of that was a factor, that sort of thinking is still not right. And it's completely unfair to Elain.

But it also just. It didn't read like Azriel. The first part, where he struggles to sleep, and pushes himself until he passes out, and the insight that his shadows are basically hovering beside him screaming SELF CARE YOU DUMB BITCH at all times was very pleasing.

And the part where he goes to Clotho and leaves an anonymous gift for Gwyn. No fanfair. No audience. No pressure on either of them to react/perform. That felt like Az, too.

But everything in the middle. Everything with Elain, was just...Gross and out of character. And this is not because I dislike E/riel as a ship. I could get on board with it, tbh, if it wasn't written the way it was.

But it's not about ships, for me. It's just. Everything felt out of character. The predatory way he was with her. The fact he lies awake and gets himself off to fantasies of her. How apparently quickly he was aroused by putting a necklace on her. Idk, maybe it's my ace ignorance, but that doesn't sound normal/healthy to me.

Nor does him having to leave a room because he can scent her mating bond with Lucien. Or not being able to control himself to sit and eat dinner with her?

This is the same dude who has, apparently, been in love with Mor for 500 solid years, and who never did a damned thing about it. Who always kept himself in check. Even while she's had other lovers. But he can't control himself through one dinner with Elain?

It just. It doesn't feel like him. It feels like...Honestly not even Cassian. It feels like Tamlin on horny, predatory steroids. And that's not something I ever wanted to see from Azriel's POVs.

She could have explored a darker side to him without making it sexual? And misogynistic. And having him treating Elain as little more than a fucking object that he feels entitled to because 'everyone else got one, where's mine?'. What the FUCK???

The more I write it the more angry I get.

Because SJM has consistently put Az in the position of saving women when they were in danger? He was the one who found Mor near death at Autumn. He was the one who rescued Gwyn from her attackers during the war. He was the one to retrieve Elain when she was taken.

She always puts him in this position and, for better or worse, presents him as a safety figure for these women. The first person who they saw come for them, and fight for them, and protect them.

And on the inside she makes him this vile, predatory monster who just thinks constantly about fucking them? Who isn't actually safe at all?? It's sad. And it's infuriating. Because this isn't about ships anymore. This is about female survivors who have an apparent safe person who's presented as almost as dangerous as the people who attacked them in the first place. And that makes me feel so sick and sad that we've gotten here.

It still hurts seeing many readers (and sometimes even sjm) take az’s side and paint mor as some sort of liar/two faced character that is playing everyone. I kept thinking that things would be fixed in future books, but instead az has grown worse and mor was, once again, sidelined and written out as a character.

This is yet another vile thing SJM has done to queer readers with this whole fiasco. Because it puts me in a position where I want to call out her shitty writing, and what she's done to Mor - sidelining her as soon as she became queer. Undermining her power and her strength. Undermining her role as the survivor to look up to. Saying her power is truth but then making her seem like a liar. Which is all shitty, shitty, shitting writing.

But I'm also a queer person. And I will always always ALWAYS want to defend a queer person's right to remain closeted. Regardless of their reasons for doing so. But in this case it's a concern for their safety/a fear of how those around them will react. And I will NEVER condemn that. I will never say Az is suffering more than Mor for her being closeted. I will never call Mor a liar/a manipulator/two-faced when all she's doing is trying to survive.

I WILL condemn SJM for making this a scenario. For putting homophobia in her world purely to cause pain for queer characters, and drama for her straight ones. And for sidelining Mor as soon as she can't write graphic scenes with her fucking men because now she's a lesbian so we best get her off the page so the guys can get their cocks out some more.

And honestly... as much as I love the idea of gwyn x azriel ... I think his books would need a lot more focus on his own recovery/growth and not center on a romantic relationship. If anything, I hope it’s written as friends to lovers so az has a better way of interacting and forming relationships with women. Because right now... well, that shit is borderline predatory and isn’t coming across well. And I really really do not want that for him.

This is going to sound sarcastic but I actually mean it fully and completely genuinely: 95% of the drama inducing problems in this series could be fixed with some fucking therapy.

But I agree with you. I think it's high time Azriel worked on his own issues. Even if they've apparently made a complete 180 from what they were in ACOMAF.

I...Like the concept of Gwyn/Azriel, but I'm not sold on the ship. Not with the way Maas has been writing Azriel lately. That kind of man shouldn't be with any woman right now. But especially not a rape survivor who sees him as one of the first men she's been able to trust in a long time.

Basically, azriel deserves a better arc than what has been written for him. I miss him :( he used to be a character that made me feel safe and now :/ idk anymore

"he used to be a character that made me feel safe" - This shit hit me like a tonne of bricks because this is EXACTLY how I feel about Az, too. You just managed to say it in a few words instead of 12 pages of rambling, like I do.

And I think this was intention. Azriel was presented as a very dependable character. He rescued Mor, and was respectful enough to keep his distance, despite his feelings, for 500 fucking years. Because he didn't think she was ready/interested.

He had a very calm, and calming air about him. Always in control of himself. Without the expected bursts of aggression and temper we'd seen from...Every other male character in this series. He was stable, and solid, and that was comforting. An anchor. And someone who would quietly, and without fuss, seek out Mor/others when they needed someone to talk to or comfort him.

That was a very soothing, reassuring presence in the book, I felt. And now she's made him seem...volatile, and unstable. With this dangerous anger that he can't control, that he uses not to protect, but to intimidate, and to fuel his entitlement and desires.

it's just sad. It's sad that she's taken this away from Mor, but also from other survivors who found comfort and safety in Az. Because I'm sure we weren't alone in that regard.

I miss him. And I mourn the character he was, and feel anger for the character he should have been. but instead he's become yet another possessive, entitled, snarling cardboard cutout dude like...everyone else.

And I ache for the Az/Mor dynamic that we had in ACOMAF. Even without it becoming romantic, there was no reason for that to be destroyed/ruined.

She could have written it that Az is the only one who knows about her sexuality, and that he pretends he's still in love with her as a shield/buffer, so no one looks too closely/to protect her and make her feel comfortable.

Instead she turned it into a soap opera style drama. And wrote it almost as though her sexuality was her cheating on him? Denying him what he deserved. And now she's just...just pussyfooting around it. And apparently he's just. Just moved on. Without them having any kind of conversation or closure at all. He just wanks off to the thought of Elain instead of Mor, now, problem solved /s

I miss what they were. I miss what he was to Mor. I miss when she had that support system, and that safety net. I miss when he protected her. And looked out for her. And understood her in a way that no one else, not even Rhys, did.

Mor deserved that. Azriel deserved that. WE deserved that. And she nuked it for some fucking twisted drama that punishes a lesbian because a man is thirsting after her. it's a fucking disgrace. I'm so fucking done with SJM, y'all. So fucking done.