#Not objective

[letslipthehounds]

An Extremely Biased Account of Pro- and Anti- Shipping, from a Genficcer

So, I'm a genficcer. Most of what I write is gen, when I do ship something, it's almost always using canon pairings in the vein of "they're married or extremely together in canon, they're married or extremely together in this fic" type. Most of what I write is PG-13ish. (I do sometimes write darker, but not often). All this to say that I have very little skin in the "game" of pro and anti-shippers.

Or. You'd think I would. Except I firmly believe that this is important, and important to understand.

Warnings: as the title says, I am not going to be objective. I have firm feelings on the matter, and they will be very, very, very apparent in this post. I am not attempting to be objective. If you'd prefer not to read something like that, I'll put the rest behind a read more. But if you'd like to know why I think it's important, then read on.

This was definitely inspired by two things. The poll I reblogged where (as of right now) 9% of respondents think it's ok to harass people over shipping, and someone I follow asking if a certain ship is a "proship".

Definitions as I understand them (this part, I'll try to keep as objective as possible, because some people aren't sure what it means):

Pro-ship: Ship and Let ship. Don't like; don't read; YKINMKATO (aka Kink Tomato, aka Your Kink Is Not My Kink And That's Ok). Effectively, it's the believe that people are allowed to read and write (or draw and view) what they want. As long as everything is properly tagged and warned for, there's no harm, no foul. At least when dealing with fictional character. (Things are more murky when it comes to real people and I'm not going to get deeply into that. This will be talking about fictional characters only.)

Anti-ship: The belief that there are certain ships, or acts, or types of stories/art that should not be allowed to be created or viewed. It doesn't matter if it's with fictional characters. It's still wrong, and shouldn't be allowed on the internet.

Alright, attempted objective part over.

The rest of this is completely my opinion, backed up by being in fandom since 1999/2000.

Antis are dangerously wrong. Flat out. It's a dangerous philosophy.

It's saying that certain things are so wrong, so awful, they can't be seen even in make-believe. A lot of Antis also believe that anyone who is a "proshipper" (which at least the loudest Antis also say means something like "pro-rape" or "pro-pedophilia") is wrong and shouldn't be allowed in fandom either.

I'll get into why that's bad in a bit.

But why is just the belief that some themes shouldn't be allowed in fandom or online bad? Wouldn't that make things safer for kids?

I say... which kids? And safer from who?

Also, who decides what's not allowed? Who decides what are so evil, and so horrible that people cannot be allowed to put them on the internet? Is it fandom people? Is it the people who own the servers (like in the 07 LiveJournal Strikethough)? Is it people outside of fandom? Some antis say that it should just be things that are illegal. in that case... illegal where? There are countries where being gay is illegal, does that mean all M/M and F/F fic should be banned? There are countries where incest, so long as it's consensual, is legal. Does that mean it shouldn't be banned?

How do you stop something like that from snowballing and eventually banning all but the tamest of fics?

But that's just one reason I think it's dangerous.

The bigger reason, is what I stated a few paragraphs up. Some Antis take the position that if you're writing the things they hate (and while sometimes it's serious things, sometimes it's just an opposing ship), you need to be run out of fandom.

And that's very dangerous.

I have seen hate campaigns against writers and authors for daring to write something dark, or shipping a character with another. It's been happening as long as fandom exists, but antis...

The antis that I've been unfortunately enough to interact with believe that if anyone ships a ship that they deem "problematic" is wrong, evil, needs to be run out of fandom, and in some cases have their real lives ruined.

By the way, the problematic in that can range from "I believe this character is too young for that character, even if they're both adults" to "anyone who ships these two character are homophobic, because I think the man should be with another man" to "even rape survivors working out their trauma are evil for writing rape" to things that I hate knowing are up on the internet, but will never ever attempt to have them removed, because it's not my job to police what other people like.

Just a reminder, this is all talking about fandom and fictional characters. I am not talking about real people, real life events, or anything else. It's all drawings and stories. Not photographs or films. (though fan films exist, but I've never seen any antis go against them- maybe I've been lucky. Anyway.)

I have seen people use the anti's to run people they dislike out of fandom. They lie about something someone did- or even tell the truth, but shipping two characters is never a reason to run someone out of fandom.

I am sure that a good chunk of antis are likely either young or new to fandom, and also misinformed.

But some of them are malicious. Some of them hate people who think differently from them, and that those people must be run out of fandom, and if possible, their lives ruined.

So. What can you do to not be an anti?

Well, the very first thing is not harass someone who does fandom differently from you. Maybe they ship a different ship. Maybe they like a character you can't stand. Maybe they like stories that trigger you. That doesn't give you a reason to harass them. That doesn't give you a reason to suicide bait.

Then. Block and move on.

Now, I know I'm not perfectly supportive of all characters and ships. I have characters and ships I absolutely loathe. You know what I do?

I sometimes rant about them on my own tumblr. I sometimes rant about them to my friends. I avoid their shippers/fans. I even occasionally block people who like them so much all they talk about its that. I have a couple of tags I use that indicate my hatred of a certain character. But I keep the character/ship hate in my own blog.

You know what I don't do?

Tell the shippers/fans they're evil. I don't try to make them stop. I refuse to support it, but I don't stop it. I don't take the character/ship hate to the people who enjoy the characters/ships.

That's what a pro-shipper is. Live and Let Live.

And that's why I can't be objective. Because there are people out there who don't want to Let Live.

[itsybitsylemonsqueezy]

How do you rank the Yakuza games by story quality?

Welp, this will be opening up a can of worms, but to thank you for asking... (still leaving out both Judgment games because I'm a loser who hasn't played them) And obviously, this will get long, so much more under the cut:

First: Yakuza 0 -

You can all dunk on me for putting the popular choice first, but it's popular for a reason. The story stands on its own feet; if you never played another Yakuza game, you still got a satisfying story out of this. No dangling plot threads or criminally underutilized characters*. I think as a whole the series could have built more on these themes, I think Kiwami 1 does a little, which we'll get to in due course, but in general my biggest problem with Yakuza series writing is they adamantly refuse to view their writing as a story and only see it as a vehicle for a video game which... makes for some really questionable decisions. (* I know there are those who think more should have been done with Makoto or Nishitani living and there's room to argue here. It's half the reason to write fanfiction, but I think from a bird's eye view, we have a cohesive narrative where the stakes were fulfilled.)

Second: Yakuza 7 -

On the whole, this was a really solid entry writing wise. There's only a couple of missteps I see here and mostly they're to do with the very end. So, spoilers for the end of Yakuza 7, skip to the next point if you don't want to know. I think it would have been really cool if they'd just made Ichiban Black-Asian, but that's a personal quibble for me. I think crowbarring Kiryu in was... questionable and not really good??? For Ichiban??? But my biggest problem was killing Ryo, that was absolutely unneeded and kinda makes a mockery of Kiryu's entire arc. Like, Ichiban and Kiryu, as have oft been noted, are very different protagonists. Kiryu is haunted by the sins of his father and the death of his brother. These slowly eat Kiryu from the inside out (much like cancer) turning him bitter and away from the yakuza as a whole. We deal with these themes in every single game, more or less. That's not what Ichiban's set up to deal with. Ichiban from day 1 is Just Some Guy, started at the bottom now we're here. He's all about success and joy and loving life, especially in the face of adversity, and in particular, in the face of social convention. Killing his brother saddles Ichiban with deep guilt and grief over what could have been, should have been, or at least it should, right? Ichiban spends their last minutes together trying to save his soul and I think would have been successful if the writing hadn't fucked him at the last second. And just... why? What purpose does it serve? Tying up loose ends? I don't know how to explain this, but you actually can let a character's story be over without killing them. That's actually just a very normal thing you can do. And this is what I mean about viewing the story as a video game rather than as a story: the boss must be defeated, Ryo must die, whether or not that makes any fucking sense. And especially in the context of what Kiryu went through, this looks super fucking bad because I can almost guarantee we will never revisit any guilt or sorrow over that death in any future game. Like, we do the exact same thing, Ichiban traumatically loses a brother he had a fraught relationship with, just like Kiryu, but instead of changing him and his trajectory irrevocably it just... bounces off. Really, really bad choice, I do not care for it.

Third: Yakuza Kiwami 1 -

Haters gonna hate, but I love Kiwami 1. I think it's an excellent retelling and refinement of the first Yakuza while incorporating a lot of relevant details and character progress from Yakuza 0. If I was going to level a criticism at it, it would be that we still shy from letting Kiryu confirm his emotional tethers. For all that I think there's some very strong writing regarding what Kiryu cares about and what motivates him, at strange moments the writing will suddenly back down in a fit of cowardly homophobia and cling to just enough plausible deniability that they won't upset censors or alienate less subtextual readers. This goes hand in hand with the narrative cannot fucking figure out what to do with Majima. He's important! But not that important. He's Kiryu's closest friend and also they hate each other. Sometimes the narrative tries very hard to convince you It's Not Gay We Swear, The Rivalry Is So Straight And Malicious You Guys when two scenes before they lovingly stared into each others eyes while speaking deep personal truths for like a full three minutes, unblinking, unlaughing. And in the context of later games, it's weird to give Majima so much space in this game and in 0, to give him oodles of screen time, to make it very clear how close he and Kiryu are, and then frantically backtrack and nearly try to erase him from the narrative later, assure you he's Just Some Guy to Kiryu, after they've already painstakingly proved otherwise. It's frustrating, but certainly not a unique criticism. And I get that Majima has a big pull promotional wise, we all love the mad man, but... pick a lane. Either let him be Kiryu's one true love or stop messing with this shit, since it makes you so uncomfortable to imply otherwise.

Fourth: Yakuza 3 -

Okay, this game has really, really good writing actually! Yes, it drags in spots, but I think this game pulls off the greatest villain reveal of the whole series. It's really hard to reveal a villain's motives at the very end and have it resonate with the audience. And when you hear Mine say "Daigo is the only man I ever loved" it fucking makes sense. All his weird behavior, his barely contained rage, his psychotic choices... it all becomes crystal clear why as you see this picture of a man with the worst kind of self-esteem problems, who pinned the whole of his essence on someone else and cannot come to terms with the reality of human frailty. I make no apologies for being a huge fan of Mine and he's definitely the best written character in the game. This game still struggles with letting Kiryu put proper emotional weight on his core relationships, both with Majima and with Daigo specifically. And even with his orphanage, we introduce all those children but when do they ever matter? Yes, this is a yakuza game, Kiryu has to go out and fight people because this is a game and he's the protagonist, but then why have him retire to the beach at all if you're just going to have him come back, painlessly, every time?

Fifth: Yakuza 5 -

Oh, Yakuza 5, my ugly beloved. My swan song. My cherished disaster. Equal parts sublime and terrible. This is peak writing for Kiryu, of all the games, this one understands him the best. He's tired and sad and bitter, he's riddled with guilt and doing his best and his best is shit, and in the end he still tries to come home. God, this... this was the closest we ever came to letting Kiryu grow, letting him learn his lesson, letting him understand that dying like his father did and abandoning his family is not the fucking answer. Kiryu's arc in this game is so good, so earned, we even let him go bug fucking crazy at the idea Majima is dead, I could swoon. God, this was So Good, I will not hear any criticisms about Kiryu in this game, 10/10 Kiryu.

On the other hand, it has been well documented that I am a Mirei Park hater, RIP to her lovers, but I just hated every part of that. I think Majima was character assassinated this game. I understand that at the time, 0 and both Kiwamis didn't exist yet and so the writing is responding to this impulse that for Majima to work, for him to make sense, there has to be deep pain and tragedy in his background. But this was a catastrophic vehicle for it, it does not fit for him, and they did a 10/10 job in 0 so... that's the canon I believe. Semi-related, I don't love making Haruka an idol? Not only does she state in previous games that she's not interested in being an idol, but I just think it's a waste of her potential. I love her being a protag, I wish we could get MORE protag Haruka, god she deserves it, we deserve it. And I think there were many other ways we could have done that, I think this fell prey to a lack of imagination on the part of the writers. But, she does call her father home in the end and decide this isn't what she wanted after all so... I do love that. They snatched it back in the end.

And hey, we even got a fulfilling arc out of Saejima! Who knew! On balance, the writing of this game is really good, it just has a couple of critical failures for me. But mostly, expert characterization and finally allowing emotional weight to have its due. It's cruel of me to say, but I so wish the series had ended here. Or even hard reboot with 7, that's fine. Just... man. I wish we hadn't destroyed everything we did correctly here.

Sixth: Yakuza 4 -

Everyone loves to dunk on Yakuza 4 for being too complicated and difficult to understand. That actually doesn't bother me. I think the plot isn't that bad to follow and I think the introduction of non-yakuza members to the crime world, Akiyama and Tanimura, are really good world building. It helps to understand that there are forces that can impact what the yakuza do and what they are capable of doing. I think Daigo is 10/10 in this game, I think his mistakes are entirely justified, and I love how we have to deal with it.

What I don't love is Kiryu's amnesia from Yakuza 3, that those lessons seem to be entirely lost and have to be learned again. I don't love that there's no continuity of consequences, either from other games into this one or from this game into later ones. That's really my biggest problem with 4. That despite introducing fan favorites like Saejima and Akiyama, both of whom are executed really well and are excellent additions, the political tension and themes that I think are very coherent here don't have much impact on the later series. And maybe that was down to poor reception and people complaining that they didn't like the story. That could just be an artifact of serial publication and bending to the whims of public opinion. Again, for me that's an issue of viewing the story as a video game and product rather than maintaining loyalty to the story above all else. But that's my bias as a writer and as a professional academic when it comes to story.

Seventh: Yakuza 6 -

Full disclosure: I have almost no love for Yakuza 6. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth and a fog in my brain. I find it particularly egregious of erasing past lessons, of ignoring understandings we already had. I think it deliberately ignores emotional weight we already established and used. I loathe what we do with Haruka, that her entire autonomy is stripped from her and she is little more than a bauble used to torture Kiryu. I find the choices made for her at best perplexing and at worst deeply misogynistic and narrow. I hate that rather than use characters already long-established to deal with Kiryu's trauma regarding organized crime, family, brotherhood, and fatherhood, we introduce new people who do not matter and will never be seen again instead of resolving anything with the people we already know and care about. It feels like an incredible slap in the face to anyone who cared about those previous characters and the relationships they had with Kiryu.

Think about that letter to Daigo at the end. How earned, how deserved it is. And yet, it's so hollow because it's literally the bare minimum Kiryu needed to do for him. Think about how much more fulfilling this story could have been if we actually spent it with Daigo, resolving all the pain there. Also, Kiryu faking his death??? Abandoning his family, after we just literally in the last game proved why you shouldn't do that??? I get that this was supposed to be the end of the series and nothing is more final than death. But at the first opportunity they drag Kiryu back, like they always do. So his faked death does nothing to the plot except hurt the people around him, the people who cared about him. I in fact wrote an entire fic about how bad a job I think this game was and how much it hurt me personally. So it's very hard for me to be objective about this.

Viewing it apart from continuity, it's a relatively engaging story about a middle-aged dad trying to navigate a shady past. And if you look at this like that, if Kiryu was just some guy, some stranger, I know I wouldn't be as devastated by it as I am. For all the people who love this game, maybe that's what's working for you. It's also lush and beautiful and Kiryu's ass is in every shot. But putting it in context... I can't really think of anything I like here.

Eighth: Yakuza Kiwami 2 -

Now, now, before you get angry, I love Kiwami 2! In terms of enjoyment, I rate it very high! But... it's a pretty hot mess in terms of story. It's a real odd duck in continuity and I know that's down to it was originally a sequel to a standalone game that was never meant to have a sequel. And when they remade Yakuza 1, they couldn't very well not make Yakuza 2. But considering what we later did in the series... it just doesn't quite come together. Like, Ryuji should matter. The shit we bring up about that backstory should matter. This was a great opportunity for Kiryu to unpack some of his feelings about the yakuza and it makes sense that he's depressed as shit here, but... there's just a lot of missed opportunities. In our pursuit of putting Daigo on the throne, there was so much more work we could have done regarding the sins of the father, the narrative is kinda set up for that since we're a father-son team, but... we don't really. We again let Kiryu refuse to unpack and shy out of the emotional weight of our choices. I don't love that. And since we do some of the work, we at least start it, in Yakuza 3 with Kiryu having to acknowledge that he abandoned Daigo in a shit position (god if only, if only...), it's weird that we didn't build more of the blocks here. Again, I know this is largely down to Yakuza 2 was never supposed to exist and they didn't know how many games they would get, but since it's a remake, they had time to go back and clean things up. *sigh* Oh well, at least there's Ryuji titty and tigers to fight.

[batshit-auspol]

Fun fact for our international followers: If someone in Australia cuts down a tree on public land to improve the view from their house, the local government will install a sign to block that view again

[lgbtlunaverse]

The world exists in such a baffling state of simultaneous sex-aversion and sex-hegemony. Every social platform on the internet is trying to banish sex workers to the shadow realm but I can't post a tweet without at least two bots replying P U S S Y I N B I O. People are self-censoring sex to seggs and $3× but every other ad you see is still filled with half-naked women. Rightwingers want queer people arrested for so much as existing in the same postal code as a child and are also drumming up a moral panic about how teenage boys aren't getting laid enough. I feel like I'm losing my mind.

[armadillorollup]

biology of a stapler

[knickknackoftheday]

soy sauce flash drive

[valtsv]

to be perfectly honest i think that ghosts being transluscent and faded is kind of antithetical to what they represent. they're an echo that cannot move on, cannot fade out - they should be oversaturated and stiff and strangely out of place and unchanging, like something preserved in clear glass.

[beebfreeb]

[lovertm]

animal-shaped bells by Fatimahandicraft

[crookedtines]

I finally took the time to photograph my vintage dip pen nib collection, and I need to share with you all how wonderful and diverse their designs are.

These two are my favorite. Just look at them! One of them is named Gorille and the other Mephisto, but to me they're little pumpkins.

And of course you gotta love the Pinocchio nib. You get to write with the nose of a tiny guy! Just not something you get to do anymore.

[whats-this-mustelid]

I just think that 'animals are living intelligent creatures that have feelings and deserve to be respected' and 'when done properly farming is beneficial to both people and animals and there's nothing wrong with raising and killing animals for food, clothing, and other products' are concepts that very much can and should coexist

[annabelle--cane]

her pronouns are HE/HIM

[anna-scribbles]

so this summer i am nannying a 5 year old who loves miraculous ladybug (my dream) & every day she asks if we can play ladybug and chat noir at the park. these are some comics based on our various games<3

[fruitzapple]

You've Got Mail

I made this as an artfight attack for @stabberghost It was really fun I adore their character so silly cute and so fun to draw GAAAHHHH it was a blast to make this

[frosthetix]

some dudebros: tom hardy must be held at gunpoint to still be doing these sony venom movies

tom hardy: WRITES the movie, PRODUCES the movies, repeatedly states how much venom and eddie means to him, reads all the comics, #1 veddie shipper