#TOXIC DIVERSITY? dude

[fuckyeahstufficareabout]

Seeing all the small minded negativity (almost entirely from dudes) online for things that I enjoy is becoming more and more exhausting. Valid criticisms are one thing but so many people fall for the ragebait grifter content and just regurgitate it in comments, and they are completely unaware of how they've been led down the insufferable piece of shit pipeline 💀. Maybe they've always been like that but the internet is exceptionally toxic lately. And so much of it seems fueled by bigotry, whether or not people even realize it. If a piece of media isn't for them, why don't they just move on to other things instead of making their whole personality being hateful and cruel about it online? What happened to people enjoying things and focusing on things they enjoy instead of things they hate? I really appreciate seeing positive fan posts now more than ever

[thattiredsock]

I’d much rather Christine not have a remake, but don’t think is gonna be that bad as long as Bryan Fuller doesn’t find out about Roland D. LeBay

[muttfangs]

re: the last post I added to can we also gut blizz for the super bold faced racist stereotypes in WoW yet or

[dragonlands]

There's so much negativity around Izzy's death so I wanted to address some of the points I keep seeing thrown around.

"Izzy's death was pointless"

No, he just had his big speech about how basically they can kill him but they cannot kill the movement. That is a clear paraller to a lot of real life protestors of unjustice. He died protecting the community, he died so the community could go on.

"Izzy's death made his healing pointless"

No it didn't. Healing is always good, feeling happiness and belonging are ALWAYS worth it. We never know how long we've got, doesn't mean we gotta stop trying to be better or happier. His healing was still real. It still mattered.

"Izzy's character arc was left unfinished, it's bad writing"

Oh my god. If you open any writing guide about how to write impactful deaths, and the first thing that comes up is to leave some part of their arc unfinished. And his arc did go through quite a beautiful line, sure there could've been more but his story didn't end like, mid arc. As a writer, of course you want to make the audience sad when a character dies. It's good storytelling. Good stories are supposed to make us feel.

"Izzy died on the arms of his abuser"

Where the hell did this idea come from? Ed and Izzy have been in a toxic codependent relationship way before this show started. You could argue that Izzy was Ed's abuser, but that is not the argument I want to make here. Yes, we saw Ed driven to madness shoot Izzy on screen, but we know Izzy's the one that forced him to be Blackbeart when he didn't want it anymore. There's turmoil all around them. But the final moment is them finally meeting as people, not as components of Blackbeard.

"Izzy's death was unnecessarily awful"

His death was sad, yes, but it was quite beautiful as far as deaths go. He was surrounded by family who cared for him. He was loved, and accepted as he is. He knew his legacy will be carried on.

"They killed off the only character that showed us healing is never too late"

Did we watch the same show? That begins with then unhappy 40+ year old Stede deciding it's finally time to reach for his dreams? Where we see Blackbeard slowly gaining back his humanity? Where Black Pete starts off as toxically masculine dude but ends up in a soft gay marriage? Where most of the crew wanted to mutiny but then they realized being soft is good, actually. Jim's whole purpose in life being revenge but them learning to let that go and instead concentrate on love and fun and family. And so on. Izzy's arc is beautiful, but he's not the only person healing who thought it was too late already.

"Izzy's death was bury your gays trope"

No, what, no. In a pirate show where everyobody is queer some queer people will die. Bury your gays is about only having one or few queer characters and killing them off while the straights get their happily ever afters. This is so far from that.

Also, I want people to be aware of the phenomenon, where creators of diverse shows are subjected to more critism than those of non diverse shows. If this intrests you, Sarah Z on Youtube made a great video on it called Double standards and diverse media. Our flag means death has given us so much, queer love story with a happily ever after, finding community, nonbinary character. And the creators have always been so kind to fans, so let's show them tht kindness back. Because critizicing this one aspect can easily turn to seeming like the whole story is just unwanted. That stories like Ed and Stede's aren't worth telling. And I'm so aftraid that will happen, when just now for the first time in years we are finally getting queer stories.

Also, I understand people are sad. I am sad too - Izzy was an amazing character and his death was sad but that's just. Good writing. You can grieve, but trying to turn it into a moral or dramaturgy issue is just not a good look. And attacking the creators of this wonderful show is just horrible.

Remember - this fandom is a safe space ship 🏴‍☠️🏳️‍🌈

[dr-spectre]

I watched this YouTube shorts video which has over 100k likes on it where it basically went "oh the Splatoon fandom is weirdddddd!!! It has weird porn in it guys!!! Isn't that crazy?!?! It's so toxic guys!!! They found ways to weaponise racism guys!! They are so vile about splatfests guys!!!! They are gooning to splatoon characters!!! They are kids!!"

I hate to break it to you dude but.... that's literally every fanbase in existence.

Every single fandom on planet earth has weird porn in it. Splatoon is no different. Is it fucking weird to goon over the player Inklings and Octolings as they are confirmed to be under 18? YES! VERY VERY WEIRD AND THAT BEHAVIOUR NEEDS TO GET CALLED OUT!!!!!! But a large majority of fans who engage in NSFW content are looking at the Idols and other adult characters, not the literal teenagers. Plus adult Inkling and Octoling ocs do exist, i should know BECAUSE I MADE MY OWN!!!!!

Also do not judge people's fetishes unless it's actively harming someone or it's illegal. That's wrong on so many levels. Stop making people feel guilty about what they are into man. If someone wants to make an NSFW art piece with Marie's feet then I'm not gonna judge them publicly for it. That's straight up rude and the guy in the video was basically doing that by showing some stolen fetishy art and adding an "eww" audio clip on it... Fuck off dude. Leave them alone.

He also got the release year of Splatoon wrong by saying 2013 instead of 2015.... Not the worst mistake but still... Kinda paints a picture on how much he truly cares about this franchise you know?

One of his points can be boiled down to "they are using splatfests as a way to weaponize racism." What the FUCK are you talking about? The last time i remember a Splatfest being toxic was in Splatoon 1 with CALLIE VS MARIE! THAT WAS REALLLLLLLL BAD! Other than that it's been friendly jokes and little jabs at the enemy teams. He fucking used this terrible video as a way to demonstrate his point too....

Every Splatoon fan on the planet doesn't like that video, It just comes off to me as so disingenuous.

Also fun fact! SPLATOON 1 TO 3 HAD UNDERLYING THEMES ABOUT RACISM WITH THE INKLINGS AND OCTOLINGS!!!!!! Splatoon 1 was about the introduction of that idea and it was very black and white with hints of grayness found in the sunken scrolls. Splatoon 2 was about making it more gray as Callie joined the Octarians and THE ENTIRETY OF OCTO EXPANSION!!!!!!!!!!! Splatoon 3 was the conclusion to that theme with DJ Octavio helping out the NSBS and Octolings co-existing with Inklings peacefully. But did he bring that up? NOPE!!!!!!!

Trying to paint the Splatoon fandom as some "toxic trojan horse" is just... fucking wrong. There are plenty of fandoms out there that are 100x worse than Splatoon's. The Splatoon community is extremely diverse and sure there are issues that need to fixed and yes there is racism. The Splatoon community is leagues above any other shooter game community by far. Play a bunch of quick play matches of Overwatch or TF2 to see what I'm saying. You're gonna be seeing the n word more times than a Quintin Tarantino movie.

Also he talked about peak character design in the Splatoon games, and the one character he mentioned was.... Big Man... The only male Idol and not anyone else. That just seems a bit.... suspicious to me...

[circeius-invidioso]

I do not get why the Red Corsairs are not a popular choice.

Like.

Like here is the elevator pitch for the warband and then we can come to some justified conclusion.

What isn't there to love?

You want me to turn into an infomencial and make a top 3 reasons why the Red Corsairs are great?

Cause I can.

And I will.

The Diverse Working Enviroment

Here in the Red Corsairs we might have started as Ultramarines but the barrier for entry is on the floor. So anyone can join.

You are Night Lord with a bad rep and no ship.

Buckle up we got you covered.

You are a Fallen and have 20 Dark Angels all up in yo business? Trying to shoot down the boss babe you are?

Fear not, or in our case. Know no Fear. We are strapped and don't get clapped.

You are a traitor that likes their Legion but sadly you got in our way?

Tough luck buddy, you will join or die and your geene seed will join our cause. Nothing personal battle brother. Just business as usual.

Everyone is welcome as long as they follow Huron's guidelines and don't aggitate the topless sweaty Khorne worshipping Ultramarines in the basement.

Sustainability

Unlike the corrupt Imperium of man and the corpse Emperor our leader is powered by miracles (which is trully a miracle how he survived but that on the next section), and we use 0 psyckers to power our crap.

Our carbon footprint is also minimum as we use salvaged goods and don't indulge in toxic industries that destroy worlds.

The Red Corsair base of operation is in the Eye of Terror and from there we expand our scope. A place greatly known for its constant shifts, and horrible conditions but the tan our serfs have are spectacullar from all that cosmic radiation.

Finally we are commited to recycling. As in we take from our victims benefactors and put those stolen goods to some great use. Nothing goes to waste, neither mortal, nor static object. If something is not nailed on the floor we will take it.

In fact we might take the floor too and the nails used to set it in place.

Nothing goes to waste!

Unmatched Leadership

Last, but certainly not least.

The man.

The myth.

The Legend.

Huron Blackheart.

Aka Lufgt Huron.

Aka what would happen if we gave a compressed Guilliman a daemonic familiar and left him to ferment in a warp storm.

Not only the name is so edgy you might cut yourself by saying it out loud. But also it's complex enough that if you say it quickly three times without twisting your tongue theres is a chance furniture might start levitating.

The man has put his Ultramarine brain to use and amased enough influence and power to put the Black Legion to shame.

Huron went from 0 to 100 in no time, he is a self made Warmaster. With no daddy issues or troubles in the world, he goes into battle blasting Alestorm in the voxxcasters.

He does not care.

He probably wears this when he wants to relax.

You think he cares?

He does not care.

He has a biker gang specifically organized to hunt down those who have betrayed him.

They slap those things on their armors not for the usual biker reason

(which fun fact the meaning is, 99% of the bikers are law-abiding, where the 1% are not. That's where the 1% comes from. The more you know 🌈)

no they wear that 1% because that's how high are your chances of escaping from them are.

Is that a bit extreme?

Yes.

You think he cares?

He does not care.

The dude once gathered his buddies and decided...

to you know. Have a casual outing. Nothing too serious, it was a sunday afteral.

So they decided on.

Kidnapping Guilliman.

Which they almost did if not for a Fallen of all people getting in the way.

But still.

The mad lad took Macragge's Honour and went on a joyride/ mini civil war.

Who in the galaxy can turn and say.

Yeah, I stole Macragge's Honour, almost captured my old Primarch. Told a daemon prince they are irrelevant on my way there. Anyway after crushing a fool who thought he could take my crown as king of the space pirates, I went to the home planet of the White Scars and kidnapped and tortured their Chapter Master. What did you do this week? 💅

Who wouldn't want to be a part of that?

You tell me I can be an immortal, gorgeous chaos Ultramarine goth boy going on pirate adventures across the galaxy?

Where do I sign up?

I don't need ink for a signature.

I will use my own blood.

[krystal-blossom]

As much as I love both mlp and Bluey, I'm extremely glad the latter didn't get a following like bronies.

Bronies were a movement started by toxic dudes on 4chan who thought they were special for liking a kids' show. They flooded the community with overly vulgar, edgy, and sexually-depraved content, and left a massive shitstain on both the show and fandom's public image, to which are still struggling to recover from it. Being an adult mlp fan was and still is frequently associated with bronies, and the shit they did.

Bluey's adult following is much more organic and tame in comparison. The show is enjoyed by an extremely broad and diverse range of people, and there is no real reified concept of what a "typical Bluey fan" is like. This lack of essentialism is good.

I'll be honest, in the grand scheme of things, the brony movement should've never happened.

[real-total-drama-takes]

This is gonna be a long useless rant about what is my life’s Roman Empire, the Gwuncan/Duncney discourse. Yes ik this is the most overrated topics when it comes to this show. Idrc.

The point of Duncney is that opposite people with mostly different interests CAN be attracted to each other and work as a couple. Duncney CHANGED LIVES(at least mine) it was a brown girl and a white boy from totally different backgrounds with totally different interests somehow making it work. And that was so crazy for me as a kid. Especially when all the other couples at the time were basically people dating genderswapped versions of themselves (dumb cheerleader type x dumb jock type, chill surfer girl x chill surfer dude, emo artsy guy x slightly more emo artsy girl). (I also want to shout out Leharold for doing the same sort of thing but they were done so dirty by the writers and they aren’t the topic of this rant atm) and they had no signs of being “toxic” until it was time to make a 2nd/3rd season and the writers needed something to add drama and went for the fan favorite ship to mess with us. And basically all that ‘you can date anyone even if they aren’t exactly like you’ messaging gets thrown out the window because fuck having diverse relationships am I right guys? Let’s just put the two alternative ones with dyed hair together and slap everyone in their face. Yeah, you have to date someone who is exactly like you in order for your relationship to succeed. Gwuncan was such a slap in the face. (Not to mention how predictable Gwuncan is like. If you want to do a cheating plot one I want it to be fucking crazy, like bait us into thinking Gwen will have something to do with their breakup but then have Duncan kiss one of the other girls. Or make him kiss a man like that would be crazy)

[malorisaurus]

No shade, promise! I just don't really understand taking murderous and toxic couples that we love for those traits and putting them in scenes of domestic docility? In other contexts, I am perfectly happy to watch characters arrive at their conception of domestic bliss, so it isn't necessarily a problem of not jiving with the concept. Perhaps I get too hung up on my own ideas of what would make sense for a character?

For example, embracing while being gutted/gutting is definitely a penetrative sex act, and bleeding out on the kitchen floor is climax. Even when not doing a stab, characters that express intimacy as though it is a chess game to be won light me up. I am obsessed with that particular dynamic, and I don't really imagine scenes where they set those aspects aside to play out cultural ideals of domestic tranquility. I don't mind or judge people for imagining that, but I just don't understand it (literally). I am trying to! I will often like images that people create because they are so talented and it is clear that so much love goes into it. Plus, little snapshots like that are easier for me to wrap my head around. I struggle more with fanfiction.

To continue to use Hannibal and Will as an example (if it wasn't obvious in the above), I don't even anticipate them having particularly vanilla sex. Vanilla sex was a part that Hannibal played with the people that he was fooling (Alana). And hey, my dude still likes to get off. Good on him. With Bedelia, my personal interpretation was that their relationship flirted with wider exploration, but Hannibal was still playing a part. In my world, if Hannibal and Will even have sex (much of the time, I don't even get there and instead ruminate over their power dynamics as desire), they get absolutely freaky-deaky, and their growth is counter to everything that is held up as ideal culturally (in the US). No nuclear family, obsession as a feature not a bug, and a deep commitment to absolute depravity. And there is plenty of that to be had amongst the fans, to be sure.

I suppose for me, these characters are a vehicle to allow the exploration and expansion of something within me, becoming, as fiction always does, my own. This, of course, is also happening for everyone else. I think what confuses me is reconciling an attraction to these "depraved" aspects of these characters and then seemingly removing them entirely? What is happening for people there? What is it doing for them? What makes that exciting and what feelings arise? Is it a way to reconcile one's own attraction to those themes and dynamics with ideas of how relationships should look? Or is it simply a joy in placing characters in unlikely and varied scenarios? Of course there are probably a million answers.

I am glad that there is a diversity of expression through the characters and these shows, though. I think this is one of the reasons I so obsessively watched film and TV growing up. Going through this process has really helped me to understand a lot more about people. I despise not understanding! XD

[0nyxvesper]

BELPHIE REDESIGN CONTENT

Though they're doodles not character sheets

(its too difficult for me to make whole character sheets at the moment)

I'm mostly going to talk about belphie today!

But first here's the art :

These are just for fun but I thought you'd like them

START OF MY RAMBLING

Belphie is surprisingly one of the characters I like the least out of all of them

(would you be interested in a tier-list kinda thing to know if your options are similar to mine? I try to make content for everyone but obviously my favs are getting a bit more content I can't help it)

I was a firm belphie hater when I started the game because dude just lied to us and then proceeded to kill us and I really thought the game would promote that ''I'm dating the bad boy that insults and hurts me so I'm so cool'' kinda vibe (which is an horrifically toxic kind of trope/relationship, don't let the people you love hurt you)

When he got that ''redemption'' thingy I was real mad at it because it didn't make sense. I mean, he hates humans but just because we're his sister's grand-grand...grand-child suddenly he's cool with us and any human in the world like-

I think he deserved a redemption arc that made more sense like for example, Diavolo could still have put him in jail for a moment and our mc would go visit him so they can have discussions and he could slowly warm up to humans, it would have also gave more time to get the brother's reaction to belphie not actually being in the humain world, because we did get to see that they were shocked but I don't remember it being actually discussed with mc.

Now that I'm way further in both the og and nb games I think he's pretty sweet and I also love is malicious side when he and satan come up with dumb plans to annoy Lucifer

I just think that the way he was introduced was really creative but not handled well

And don't get me started on the time travel thing I will physically explode.

END OF THE RAMBLING

Now let's talk about my redesign!

So, you can't see it here but I made his skin a bit darker (I don't have a reason to do so, I just think it fits him well) I also gave him piercings (septum, labret and a single earing on his right ear) some freckles (beel will have some too) and a scar on his right eye:

I always thought that except for more diversity in the brothers appearance, his bangs had no reason to be. I also headcanon that even if Beelzebub protected him during war, he didn't left the battle unwounded, so that's why I chose to give him a scar (he can't see with his right eye anymore) he mostly covers it so people stop staring at it. He hates it because it's a reminder of loosing his sister for him. (Yippie! angst!🦀)

But yeah that's pretty much it! At least for now

Also here's a poll for the tier-list thingy:

Much love :D

Onyx Vesper

[olderthannetfic]

Just like a small question based on that one ask, but... might the lack of brown/black men in popular M/M ships have to do with people trying really hard not to be racist so they just... never feature black/brown men? Because I know several F/F ships with brown/black women, but I can't remember a single M/M or even M/F with a black/brown male love interest... well, maybe Link/Gan or Zelda/Gan? But besides that one... nothing rings a notable bell.

--

There are more than that, anon, even if there aren't a lot.

If we're talking about AO3, Link/Gan has 785 works. Finnpoe has 8,636. Sam/Bucky has 10,591. Do you just not watch live action media?

--

Part of it is "I don't know. I just don't find them hot for some reason..."-style racism. That can shift with time and exposure but there's no instant fix even if someone is interested in changing their own tastes.

Part of it is being instantly screamed at and held to higher standards. (And yes, no matter how much people want to whine and say this isn't true, it is true, and anyone who goes ahead and writes despite the haters will tell you so.)

Part of it is fear of messing up above and beyond fear of reactions. Personally, I think this is toxic white guilt-flavor time-wasting and it's better to try and fail than not try, but it's a massive factor in what some people choose to write.

A lot of it is simply the composition of the mega-franchises that tend to generate the ships with bajillions of works. If we're looking at AO3 circles, the biggest f/f ships are not that big. If you look at m/m ships of the same size, there are some with some guy who is not white and not a pale-skinned Asian.

Here's the AO3 f/f tag where you can directly see what's big in the sidebar.

Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor (20389)

Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Emma Swan (15516)

Original Female Character(s)/Original Female Character(s) (14062)

Clarke Griffin/Lexa (12661)

Minor or Background Relationship(s) (11492)

Adora/Catra (She-Ra) (10855)

Amity Blight/Luz Noceda (9751)

Sirius Black/Remus Lupin (7913)

Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long (7205)

Korra/Asami Sato (6866)

If we exclude nonspecific tags and misplaced dudes, we add:

Alex Danvers/Maggie Sawyer (6127)

Robin Buckley/Nancy Wheeler (6120)

Waverly Earp/Nicole Haught (5738)

Luz Noceda and Korra have darker skin. Lana Parrilla is Latina, but is Regina Mills? This isn't exactly some paradise for the diversity you're talking about.

Here's the M/M tag:

Castiel/Dean Winchester (107699)

Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski (68231)

Sherlock Holmes/John Watson (65757)

Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter (64761)

James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers (59546)

Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens) (48169)

Minor or Background Relationship(s) (47119)

Steve Rogers/Tony Stark (43665)

Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson (41631)

Sirius Black/Remus Lupin (40374)

Let's exclude some things and see what we get as we head towards the 5-20k range.

Bakugou Katsuki/Midoriya Izuku (38445)

Jeon Jungkook/Kim Taehyung | V (36025)

Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn (35907)

Keith/Lance (Voltron) (31634)

Dean Winchester/Sam Winchester (30488)

Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood (29568)

Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin) (28959)

Jeon Jungkook/Park Jimin (28191)

Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter (27775)

Bakugou Katsuki/Kirishima Eijirou (27193)

Well, we've got Lance. (*shudder*) He's one of the most distasteful and useless stock character types in episode one and is the reason I never bothered to touch Voltron again, but his fans are certainly loud enough about him being Latino.

Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov (26087)

Dazai Osamu/Nakahara Chuuya (Bungou Stray Dogs) (26058)

Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF) (21900)

Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson (21897)

Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV) (21296)

Original Male Character/Original Male Character (21035)

Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion (20224)

James T. Kirk/Spock (18810)

Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru (18703)

Min Yoongi | Suga/Park Jimin (18147)

Eddie Diaz is Latino.

Blaine Anderson/Kurt Hummel (17787)

Levi Ackerman/Eren Yeager (16950)

Dan Howell/Phil Lester (16818)

Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier (16229)

Blackbeard | Edward Teach/Stede Bonnet (16193)

Harry Potter/Severus Snape (15551)

Ian Gallagher/Mickey Milkovich (15539)

Jensen Ackles/Jared Padalecki (14990)

Keith/Shiro (Voltron) (14816)

Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio (14780)

We've got the Taika Waititi thirsters in this cohort.

Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier (14413)

Rodney McKay/John Sheppard (14209)

Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto (13135)

Tartaglia | Childe/Zhongli (Genshin Impact) (13016)

Han Jisung | Han/Lee Minho | Lee Know (12962)

Midoriya Izuku/Todoroki Shouto (12878)

Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead/Yamada Hizashi | Present Mic (12817)

Loki/Thor (Marvel) (12767)

Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren (12391)

Frank Iero/Gerard Way (12146)

Steve McGarrett/Danny "Danno" Williams (12050)

Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou (12002)

Jung Hoseok | J-Hope/Min Yoongi | Suga (11898)

Jeon Jungkook/Min Yoongi | Suga (11352)

Kim Namjoon | RM/Kim Seokjin | Jin (11101)

Levi Ackerman/Erwin Smith (11088)

Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones (11083)

Loki/Tony Stark (10699)

Enjolras/Grantaire (Les Misérables) (10523)

Kim Taehyung | V/Park Jimin (10415)

Bilbo Baggins/Thorin Oakenshield (10312)

Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard (10211)

Miya Atsumu/Sakusa Kiyoomi (9950)

Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne (9944)

Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee (9763)

Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington (9686)

Getou Suguru/Gojo Satoru (9625)

Byun Baekhyun/Park Chanyeol (9471)

Peter Hale/Stiles Stilinski (9367)

Clint Barton/Phil Coulson (9359)

Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist (9347)

Nico di Angelo/Will Solace (9317)

Roronoa Zoro/Vinsmoke Sanji (9186)

Wang Yi Bo/Xiao Zhan | Sean (8973)

Jim Ellison/Blair Sandburg (8785)

Dabi | Todoroki Touya/Takami Keigo | Hawks (8710)

Alhaitham/Kaveh (Genshin Impact) (8657)

Peter Parker/Tony Stark (8607)

Bakugou Katsuki/Todoroki Shouto (8588)

James "Bucky" Barnes/Sam Wilson (8522)

Only here are we finally getting down to the range where a lot of the big f/f ships on AO3 hang out, and here's Sam/Bucky, which is frankly not a small pairing at all unless you only mean in comparison to Stucky.

I'll stop there for m/m since these numbers are getting pretty distorted by me filtering out everything higher up, but you get the idea. Even that wretched Old Guard fandom couldn't completely kill off its ship, though then we get into how you're defining your terms and how much actual skin tone matters.

Here's f/m on AO3:

Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug (32122)

Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy (26417)

Original Female Character(s)/Original Male Character(s) (23498)

Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren (23403)

Minor or Background Relationship(s) (18497)

James Potter/Lily Evans Potter (18142)

Kylo Ren/Rey (15915)

James "Bucky" Barnes/Reader (15200)

Pepper Potts/Tony Stark (14547)

Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley (13843)

Bellamy Blake/Clarke Griffin (13551)

Fox Mulder/Dana Scully (13145)

Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak (11318)

Captain Hook | Killian Jones/Emma Swan (11031)

Castiel/Dean Winchester (10851)

Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth (9236)

Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski (9152)

Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson (9141)

Other Relationship Tags to Be Added (9108)

Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper (9046)

Bellamy Blake's actor is Filipino, isn't he? I remember race wank.

I don't see anything particularly significant until we get further down the listings, but there are definitely smaller fandoms like Leverage where everybody loves and ships the black guy.

I mean, yes, clearly, media does have a bias against darker skin, and the darker the skin, the bigger the bias. This bias may be exacerbated by fandom, but in a lot of cases, it just seems to be replicated at about the same level.

That pattern notwithstanding, it seems like you just haven't heard of a lot of ships.

[frigidwife]

hmm just to add to your points about armand… I also think there’s a good block of loumand fans who are primarily louis fans but who hate lestat. many of these fans are black or bipoc who for obvious reasons just have a visceral negative reaction to lestat, his fans and loustat and would prefer louis with anyone except him (a lot of them are also danlous and like any louis pairing except loustat). some of them might’ve just gotten into loumand cause it’s a rare queer blasian couple on tv and they’re extremely attractive. I’ve never seen any of these types deny that armand is also abusive or that he’s a “better” guy, a lot of them also hate armand sometimes but at least he’s not lestat lol

i can’t say that’s a good way to engage with the show especially after the team has said so many times the show is about loustat and lestat WILL be the lead character but i get why lestat has become such a dog whistle in this fandom like many white dude characters with toxic racist fanbases.

Ok but constantly going "at least he's not lestat" is its own form of apologism . diversity win this abuser is not white?

[thomas-jefferson-miku-binder]

*grabs the mic* ok sit down i have stuff to say. (collection of brain farts below)

Clarifying beforehand that I am a Himejoshi first, person second, but I do find it really intriguing how most of the m/f league ships are more interesting than the slash ones. Which is a bit weird since, like most queer people, I tend to gravitate to. well. queer representation and subtext in media. Rakan/Xayah, Leblanc/Swain, Lucian/Senna, Ashe/Tryndamere, Garen/Katarina, Ahri/Yasuo, etc. have much more concise and compelling dynamics than half of the m/m ships in League.

And, of course, there’s commentary to be made. Het ships get to be explored better and more often than queer ones, so it’s not rocket science to see *why* they tend to have better dynamics. Buuut it still doesn't explain why most of the league yuri prevails over yaoi when it comes to intricacies and overall quality (taking for reference some like Neeko/Nidalee, Caitlyn/Vi, Diana/Leona, Kai'Sa/Taliyah, Scratch/Seraphine, Irelia/Liana, etc.). All the while, I can think of maybe 5 yaoi ships, at least a little canonically sourced, that have as many nuances, diversity, and conciseness.

Another point to be added is that even if the fandom gets more diverse with each passing year, a huge part of the player base is still toxic incels, to whom is inconceivable to see queer men in media because it threatens their pre-conceived notions of masculinity and what a relationship should even look like. So it becomes uncomfortable to see gay dudes in the silly video game!

Wlw relationships get to be better explored in lore because 1) it’s possible to at the same time drive a queer narrative and, with minor adjustments, turn it palpable to that same toxic player base’s consumption through fetishization, and 2) i feel like there’s a higher suspense of disbelief in society as a whole to disregard sapphic relationships as sisterly or platonic love (see the discourse that often surrounds the lesbian ships mentioned above).

And this is in no way meant to say “wlw have it better”, bad/silent representation is just as bad or arguably worse than nothing. It's just interesting to try to reason as to why League is less afraid of developing good and concise sapphic relationships while resorting to bland shit with achillean ones.

*het was used generally, i knooooow m/f ships can also be queer

*this is mostly if not entirely just my personal opinion masqueraded as food for thought

*feel free to reblog with your thoughts! just be polite please

[hasturstoad]

sometimes I feel like I should redraw my 2023 WoF! the owl house stuff (yeah Darius I'm talking about you)

I don't really have any ideas on the WoF! AU (the reason is I haven't thought about it much) buuut maybe someday I will actually draw something. maybe covenheads who I'm thinking about. maybe Hettie (hello @daughterthethird sorry I'm still not sure how to make the mask stuff but I'm contemplating the design)

soooo the Covenheads Ideas™

- I think Raine would be a leafwing or a rainwing (actually I like leafwing one more. I dunno, with the AU stuff I already have and sure in, most of the Plant Coven members are leaf dudes, which is kinda... basic? I mean, leaf dudes' abilities (I forgot what they're called heeeelp) already make a 'perfect PC member'. like, for example, night dudes should be in the Oracle Coven, rain ones in the Illusions, hive dudes in the Potions and stuff. don't really like this tribe-coven idea, so I thought making Raine a leafwing would be somehow more diverse)

- Mason would be a mudwing. well, pretty much obvious

- Darius?? night/rain? I have already drawn him and so I'm sure that I see him as a night/rain

- Vitimir. hivewing. I guess he'd have that stinky tail stuff (Scarab reference) plus toxic saliva

- Adrian? a rainwing? a silkwing? a seawing? some hybrid? I dunno

- Terra, pretty much a leafwing

- Hettie, sea/ice or mud/sea/ice or mud/ice (hello again) or stuff

- Eberwolf? I don't even know what to say here lol. to me, witches and some of demonic species are WoF! dragons as they are canonically, some other demonic species don't belong to any of the WoF tribes, but they still have something dragon-like in their appearance (mostly) as well

- Osran. personally I think of him as a seawing (so Kikimora is also sea dude. non canonic scale colors go brrrrrrr)

- I feel like Lilith would be a skywing (Eda as well). probably using some scale paint stuff or a concealment stone if they have that stuff in WoF! AU (I'm pretty much sure they do)

- Hunter? a sandwing. like Caleb, like all other grimwalkers (though I feel like some of the grimwalkers would not be entirely sandwing cuz of Philip making mistakes in making them), like Belos

- aaaaand Scooter Crane would probably be a skywing, or a mudwing, or a sky/mud hybrid. 'Crane' really speaks for it lmao

[nothorses]

Sometimes I’m scared of becoming a toxic asshole for thinking these things, but when I saw the transmasc separatist dude, some of the things called for were things I already wanted to do. Like, seeking out transmasc authors and read their books, or transmasc musicians and listening to their music, or only dating other transmascs, or sticking to transmasc spaces. But I don’t want to do this because I think non-transmascs are incapable of not being transandrophobic. I want this because I’ve been hurt and all this feels like a way to give me some room to breathe and heal. And it’s frustrating cause the separatist stuff feels like it’s inviting me in for that but I don’t think it will help but I’m scared of others telling me I’m no better than them for needing space. I don’t know. Maybe I just suck at unity. Hate to think that tho.

I think there's a big difference between, like, "it feels good to discuss common experiences with people who understand them" (extremely normal and fine), and "it is only safe to interact with people just like me and everyone else is trying to hurt me" (unhealthy and counterproductive).

Everyone wants to see themselves in the things they read and watch. Everyone wants to relate to other people.

And I mean, I created a discord server for Transmascs for this reason; there weren't really any spaces where transmascs could talk about transmasc experiences with each other, and the lack of any kind of transmasc "community" was very sorely felt. I guess you don't see it as much lately, and I'm so incredibly grateful for why that is- but a lot of the early conversations around this stuff talked about how being transmasc was considered shameful or regressive; it wasn't something we were supposed to find joy or pride in, and it wasn't something you were supposed to connect with other people about. And that did so much damage to transmascs! It made us isolated and lonely, and it made it so hard to talk about anything we were going through that we often bought into the lie that none of it was real, or important enough to discuss. Not to mention the impact on our ability to share and get relevant information or resources.

There's nothing wrong with needing some space to talk about shared experiences with people who get it- and I'd argue that this kind of space is deeply necessary. We don't need to give that up. That's not what unity is.

Unity is recognizing that other transmascs are not the only people we share common experiences with. We're not the only safe people, or the only people with talking to, or the only people we need to be fighting for.

It's good to connect to your community! Keep doing that! Take the time to grow your identity, connect to that part of yourself, and work to heal the ways in which that lack of connection has impacted you.

Just don't do it out of fear of the people who aren't just like you, and try not to limit yourself to one community, or one type of person, exclusively.

You are a multifaceted person, and even the trans community itself is incredibly diverse; you will likely find, if you take the time to listen, that a lot of transfems and unaligned nb folks share a lot of the same experiences, too! Even ones connected to manhood, masculinity, or our perceived inability to be autonomous.

And honestly, it sounds like you know all this already- and like you're maybe afraid you have the wrong intentions, or you might mess up, even if you're honestly just trying your best.

Feel free to disregard this bit if I'm wrong, but if I'm not: trust yourself. Trust that you do not have secret, evil intentions or hatred hidden even from yourself. Trust that if you mess up, you will do your best to correct it when you find out about it. You're doing fine, anon, you don't need to be hypervigilant about your own thoughts and feelings. And maybe you'll find that if you can work towards that goal, you'll start to worry a lot less about Becoming A Toxic Asshole for, like, correctly identifying the kernel of reasonable motivation that lead to someone else's wrong conclusion.

[rickless-self-indulgence]

also sorry to send two asks in a row but do you ever consider the moral dilemma ricks have if they genuienly develop feelings like (prepare for a ramble i am SO sorry)

"i fell in love with myself, from another universe" THATS GOTTA POSE AT LEAST SOME MENTAL INSTABILITY. how would you feel if the most beautiful person youve ever met (personality wise at least) was a slightly different version of yourself, or if you were cloned and suddenly you developed feelings??? how would that even work??? imagine the judgement too bro that would be insane

AUTOSEXUALITY???? does it even matter if your partner looks ridiculously similar to you or not??? i think part of the reason why opposites attract a lot of the time is because genetic diversity gives an evolutionary advantage but in a scenario when thats completely thrown out the window how does that work? would prime and c137 rick have the same genetics??? Hefhv.dnbabmvvjdk

i think too much my thinking has thonked its last thunk

DUDE WGAT NO WAY YOU FUCKING HIT ME WITH A CRISIS AFTER MY DAY COSPALYING @ SCHOOL 😭😭/lh (<= written when I first red that)

I THINK ITS PART OF THE APPEAL like Ricks find the world around them so futile and disgusting they resort to settle with the only people who share the same hyper specific views of the world as them. In my opinion, it’s where most of Prickcests conflicts comes from, Prime likes C137 for his brains and his ability to solve problems in a way that’s different enough for him to not have considered it but can’t possibly understand why he cares so much about anything else than their relationship and it’s kind of the same for C137, he’s extremely smart and autistic so being understood and feeling seen is kind of his grail. Prime gives him just that plus the thrill of being a little bit fucked up in the head.

But we’re talking about general rick4rick relationship not… Their frustrating particular case lol although I can’t help but mention them since Prime (in the garage talk) explained so well the perks of only being around other version of himself. As a Rick the things you love and hate the most are yourself, it makes up for such interesting conflict because trying to ignore someone’s toxic traits is impossible and trying to mold them into the idealized version of them you got in your head is straight up manipulative. The vicious circle of stubbornness and love and hope and escapism leading to rick4rick relationship always violently falling apart is so fascinating to me and you completely understood one of the key elements for why it’s this way…

THANK YOU cinna, thank you for sending this ask it literally rearranged some of my atoms, shook my whole world and bursted a door open in the back of my mind