#also me: what if i romanticize it with my fave ships and make them fall in love there 😍😍😍

[halinski]

.

[dylanobrienisbatman]

Omg give us ur rant abt hating d*rklina as a ship.. im petty

Okay Anon, so i saw this the other day and I wasn't in the right headspace to answer but i am now!

So to start off, I am firmly in the ship and let ship category. You like a ship, i don't care. That doesn't mean i won't rag on the ship itself but I don't send hate, I don't really engage with shippers from ships I don't like, and I am liberal with the block button and the blacklist feature. Cultivate your tumblr/online experience, y'all. You don't owe anyone on this hellsite (or any other) a damn thing.

However, I REALLY do hate d*rklina as a ship, and I have a big problem with the way the shippers talk about it, so I hope you were being serious about wanting a rant because here it goes.

As for the ship itself, i feel like the reasons I dislike it are pretty obvious and standard. It's abusive. He is her abuser. He manipulates her. He spends months grooming her and gaslighting her, intentionally trying to get her under his control so that when he literally enslaves her it will go over easier. He never actually loved her, he wanted to use her for her power. It's not complicated, it's not really 'up for debate', that is the way its written, and the author has explained that that was the intended interpretation of her work. I mean he literally sexually assaults her in the second book, and straight up tells her he's going to kill everyone she loves so that she has no choice but to fall to him because she is completely alone in the world. He threatens to skin her alive in the second book when they're on the boat, he has no problem torturing her to get Mal to do what he wants. That's not love. He does not love her. It's pretty black and white, its explicitly written as an abusive relationship. The point was to show how easily powerful men can manipulate and abuse young naive women who don't know any better and try to see the best in people. Alina 'fell' for the version of Darkles Sparkles that he intentionally created to try to control her. Nothing he told her was true, from his backstory, to them both being 'the only one like [each other]' (hello, baghra), to using Genya to convince Alina that Mal had abandoned her, everything he did was manipulation so that he could get her under his control. It is not a romance, it is not 'a ship war', d*rklina is not written as romantic. He is her abuser. Full stop.

There is also the point about him being just a generally horrible person all around. He's not morally grey. He just isn't. He sold an 11 year old into sex slavery, forced her to stay in that situation so he could use her, and then mutilated her when she defied him. He also groomed and abused Zoya, because he saw that she was exceptionally powerful and wanted to use her the way he wanted to use Alina. He enslaved Alina. He blinded and mutilated his own mother. He is a genocidal maniac. He shows no remorse, he doesn't care about anyone but himself and his own power. He is not the type of character that should be romantically shipped with anyone. If you like him, that's absolutely fine! One of my fave characters ever is Kai Parker from TVD. Dude was a straight up psychopath. He tried to kill multiple pairs of toddlers. He brutally murdered his pregnant sister AT HER WEDDING. He is a HORRIBLE person. But I think he's a brilliant character. But do I think he's a good guy, do I want him anywhere near any characters in that show in a romantic way (ehem b*nkai)? Absolutely fucking not. Being a fan of a villain character is fine, but fucking own that shit. Villains can be SUCH good characters, but they're still villains. Erasing the bad they've done so you can justify putting them in situations where they WILL harm the people around them because you can't level with yourself about the bad things they've done doesn't make you 'woke', it just makes you look like you don't understand the media you're consuming.

Which leads me to why I have such a problem with the way D*rklina shippers engage with the ship. They simultaneously wanna say "oh we know it's toxic/bad/abusive/etc., that's why we like it!" and then also they try to claim that it should be endgame, they romanticize scenes where he is abusing her (and by romanticize I mean they literally try to frame his abuse as romantic, not like "oh yeah my ship is interacting!!". those are different things. You can be excited about ship interactions without trying to say that things he is doing to her are actually romantic), they try to argue that he is morally grey/misunderstood/etc., and they straight up try to lie and say he's not her abuser.

If you wanna ship an abusive ship, own it. Be straight up about why you like it. It's okay to be into dark shit, y'all. It does NOT make you a bad person to be into dark shit. But this idea that fiction doesn't impact real life, and that people can't call the ship out for what it is is a problem is a very troubling trend in fandom. Nobody is saying you can't ship it, do what you want. But this idea that these people are 'oppressed' because fans of the show/book continue to point out the facts about the way the story was written and how the relationship is actually presented is fucking insane. Someone saying that D*rklina is abusive is not calling you out, they are stating a fact. It's the story as it was presented. You trying to say it's not makes it look like you have no reading comprehension. And this idea that 'well i'll be on the lookout for evil shadow wizards in real life lol' is such horse shit too. His shadow wizard powers aren't the issue. He is a powerful man who grooms and abuses young women. You're telling me you lived through the Me Too movement and you wanna act like thats not a real threat that young women face every day? You're telling me that you can't see that the actual real life connection you're supposed to be making here? Okay, well you should maybe deal with that and come back to me, because that's an issue.

Fiction is meant to teach us lessons. Darkles is meant to teach us something. He is meant to show us that sometimes, powerful men lie to, manipulate, groom, and abuse young women, and we should be aware of that. The story is about a young woman who is sucked into an abusive situation, and then she breaks free and in the end she is able to defeat her abuser. That is a really powerful story, and one that millions of real life women can relate too. To pretend that that story doesn't have real life connections makes you look insensitive and frankly, kind of cruel.

So basically, in the end, my biggest issue is that D*rklina shippers love to spout this nonsense about 'knowing' it's bad and that he's a villain, and 'that's why they like him', and then turn around and try to say that he's not actually the villain, he's not actually bad, and the things he does to Alina that are abuse are actually romantic and sweet. You wanna ship an abusive ship, you do you, but lets not pretend it's anything other than what it is, but romanticizing and normalizing abuse tactics so you can feel, what? morally superior? Cool? edgy and different? That has real life impacts. You are normalizing abuse. Real people will engage with that rhetoric, and it will make it difficult for them to see abuse when it happens to them or the people around them because they believe its romantic or normal to be treated that way.

You wanna be a villain stan? You wanna ship dark ships? Good on ya, but fucking own your shit, y'all.

[amphxtrite]

Heyyy, congrats on 200 followers!! can I please get a ship? Male, lightning era. My name’s Lana. I’m an Aquarius and ravenclaw. I have straight dark brown hair (almost black) a bit past my collarbones and dark eyes, one being a lil darker than the other. I’m ab 5’8” n skinny. I love diff types of art/expression. Art, music, literature, fashion, and what not. I love indie/garage rock. I mostly read fantasy/sci-fi w some romance thrown in there sometimes. I really like to write as well, basically the same genres. Gotta say, I literally love superheroes. Spider-Man is my main man. I also adore twilight and watching it is like being held in the arms of a lover. My fashion sense is a bit gothic. Edgy, if you will. Like morticia addams and jade west in a blende lol. Like black ripped skinny jeans and sheer lace sleeves. Skirts with sheer black tights also is a great look. A touch of 90s is definitely in there. If I’m not wearing combat boots (love those cherry red jadons) I quite like wearing heels. Boot heels and even dressy heels. I don’t always wear makeup, but when I do I like to go smokeyyyy. I love to laugh n have a pretty wacky sense of humor. Jus a lil quirky. I love a lil adventure. Life would be no fun without it, yk? I love when it rains. I love nature and being outside. Trees are one of my fave things in life. Evergreens are my absolute fave. I love animals! I’m a dog person, def. I’m generally a pretty chill person. I don’t really let things bother me. Except the socially constructed trivialities that have become a demanding part of everyday life. Like sending too many emails and the education system. I was built w a dash of social anxiety, but that’s alright. I value kindness and compassion. Sometimes I really just wanna hang out and vibe, but other times I’m v high energy lol. Thank you so much! :)

ah thank you darling!

i ship you with...

Fred Weasley.

how you meet

Early mornings were never easy for Fred, he loved sleeping in. Rest and relaxation are things that he lived for and school days never gave him that. Sitting at the gryffindor table, Fred has to fight to keep his eyes open as he struggles to bring his spoon to his mouth. His head begins falling forewords and threatening to fall into his bowl with every blink of his eye and George can’t help but roll his eyes.

“Fred you’ve dont this almost everyday for years now whats got you so tired?” George sighs, taking a bite of an apple.

“How can you stay awake so early in the morning it’s so bloody boring and tiring.” Fred groans, leaning on his elbows as he lifts his tea to his lips.

As the cup finally makes contact with his lip you enter the great hall with your friends, your laughs sound through the hall and you immediately catch Fred’s attention. He hate to sound cliché, but you really did stand out to him. Your sense of style caught his eye, dark colours and combat boots that clicked when you walked paired with lace sleeves underneath your uniform. Fred could feel himself perk up, and when you sat practically across from him, only at the ravenclaw table, his arm went limp and he dropped his hot tea onto his lap.

“Bloody Hell!” Fred cries, standing and picking up the cup from his pants. George holds back a ligh as his twin begins to jump back and forth desperately trying to dry himself off.

Your eyes flicker over to the gryffindor and you giggle at his little scenario. Picking up your wand you murmur a spell and the tea from the table and Fred’s lap evaporates into thin air.

“Careful the tea’s hot.” You smirk, placing your wand back on the table and giggling.

Fred sighs in relief at the loss of the burning liquid. “Thank you so much, I’m really out of it this morning.” Fred cringes.

“It’s alright, I’m Lana by the way.” You smile.

“Well thank you Lana, I’m Fred Weasley.” The gryffindor grins in return.

Fred walks you to class afterwards and the two of you become friends

Fred loves your style, he thinks your sheer tights and ripped jeans are badass and sometimes he’ll let you do smokey looks on him because it makes him feel cool

He finds it hilarious when you wear high heels and are suddenly the same height as him.

“It looks as though you’ve grown a couple inches overnight Lana!”

“That’s the point Freddie.”

“It’s wonderful, do you think I could get boots like yours?”

writing quotes from your favourite books and showing them too Fred.

He found your eyes really cool and quickly noticed one was slightly darker than the other and he just gushes about it all the time

you drag him to see muggle films with you and get him hooked on superhero films, you catch him jumping around sometimes pretending he’s an avenger

You also show him twilight and while he doesn’t inderstand the concept of vampires being romanticized, he likes watch your smile grow and your whole demeanour go all warm and fuzzy

He loves your sense of adventure and adores when you pull him out of the castle to explore the outskirts of the forbidden forests and he loves it when you find evergreens and run up to it to prick your fingers against the pines.

One day while you’re walking through the trees it starts to rain and instead of running inside the two of you step out into the open air and just enjoy the little droplets falling onto your skin. Fred pulls you into a dance and you run hand in hand to the sound of thunder.

He loves how strong you are when it comes to injustices and he loves listening to your rants because they show him how passionate you are about things that need to be said.

Your energy is something he loves, how you’re always up for a good time or how fast you can come up with something to do

One day while you’re out in the quidditch pitch Fred brings you to a little warm up area with a couple pull up bars. He climbs up and dangles upside down by his legs and lets his arms fall down. You walk up to him and you’re practically eye to eye

“Look Lana, I’m spider-man!” Fred laughs, holding his hands out like he’s shooting webs.

You laugh and step closer, tracing your fingers over Fred’s features. His brows, nose, jaw and lips and suddenly the atmosphere changes and Fred raises his arms to cup your face.

You close the gap between you and giggle at the fact you were re-enacting the iconic spider-man kiss.

You pull back and Fred swings down, letting the blood rush back through his head before walking over to you and kissing you properly.

“I can’t believe I just did the spider-man kiss.” Fred chuckles, holding your head in his hands

“I know it was awesome.” You giggle, wrapping your arms around Fred’s torso.

Hope you like it!!🤍🤍

[millennialzadr]

About Page!

Hello~! Thank you so much for visiting my blog! My name is Koya, I’m 25, I’m pansexual, my pronouns are she/her, and I’m a full time freelance artist! My main blog is @koyakyuuun, so I’ll be liking and following from there!

Below are some guidelines for those who are curious to know more about this blog and what to expect from it, as well as some general info and FAQs!

Content Guidelines!

The focus of this blog!

So this blog is a mish mash of a couple different themes, but above all it is an adult oriented Invader Zim fan blog!! I grew up with the show and and was a BIG fan during highschool, and after rediscovering it this year I have been DAZZLED and DELIGHTED by the fan content being produced today!! I have a deeply nostalgic yet completely new perspective on the show now that I’m in my 20s, so alongside of celebrating iz content and fan content in general, this blog will center around my niche fave: the iz cast + millennial culture! in other words, the characters depicted as if they lived in the real world and aged in real time! I loved and related to the characters as a kid, and I still love them dearly to this day, so to see people experiment with character interpretations and create adult versions of them means I can still relate to them even now, and even make my own versions! and as a queer neurodivergent millennial who loves niche culture, my favorite versions of the characters are queer neurodivergent millennials who love niche culture!! (and by niche culture I mean MEMES, AESTHETICS, BAD FASHION, GAY CULTURE, CRYPTID CULTURE, DARK CORNERS OF THE INTERNET, CREATIVELY WEIRD SELF EXPRESSION ETC!!)

And of course the other main theme which fits into the first: ZADR! while I don’t ship Zim and Dib as they’re canonically presented in the show, I DO adore the idea of the two growing up together, eventually becoming friends, and eventually falling in love. I’m a Big Gay and I love romance and lgbt content, and ZADR holds such a soft place in my heart 😭 I wrote a big post about why I love it so much which you can see here if you’re curious about my interpretation of the ship!

And now, some guidelines!!

Things I enjoy and will be posting/reblogging!

- general IZ content! because holy SHIT I love the show and ALL the content the fandom creates is awe inspiring and amazing!!!

- millennial culture/humor! I FUCKING LOVE IZ + 2019 POP CULTURE REFERENCES AND MEME CONTENT OKAY

- POSITIVE CONTENT! IZ is my comfort content and I deeply admire the positive impact the show has had on so many people. I also interpret Zim and Dib as having hard lives and mental problems but eventually recovering and finding happiness (and making each other happy!!). I do also love vent content and gritty/dark themes from an artistic standpoint (and of course comedic Depression™ memes) but I will be focusing much more on comforting and uplifting content!

- character development/relationships, fluff, comedy, domestic content, daily life, sci fi, conspiracy/cryptid content, fashion portraits and camp horror!! these are my favorite themes!!

- friendship, romance, and found family!! I adore the relationships between the characters and they ALL DESERVE LOVE!!!!! JHONEN CAN BITE MY ASS

- the IZ creators!! speaking of Jhonen LOL I LOVE seeing content about the creators themselves!! I genuinely have such affection and admiration for the wonderful people who brought and continue to bring the world of IZ to life, they are such amazing and inspiring human beings and I will be celebrating them alongside their creations!!

- IZ characters + aesthetics!! some of my MOST favorite IZ content depicts the characters being stylized with or sporting the fashion of vaporwave, goth, grunge, pastel, spacecore, cryptidcore, future funk, 90s disastercore and any and all things strange, niche, glittery and neon, and I FUCKING LOVE IT. GOD

- and lastly, I talk a fuck of a lot, as you can probably tell by this post lol. I’ll be screaming in the tags constantly and am liable to write the occasional super long text post! for those who are into that, I invite you to have discussions with me! and for those who aren’t, feel free to ignore them!

Things I will be staying away from!

- romantic content that depicts the characters as minors AKA underage zadr!! there will be no kid ships here! I’m an adult and only enjoy shipping adult versions of the characters! kid content will be either canon, wholesome, or friendship content! while I do find adult versions of the characters attractive since they have qualities I find attractive in real life, I see the adult versions as almost completely different people since they’re so far removed from the source content, and the love I feel for the canon kids is HIGHLY maternal and very nostalgia centric. this would probably be more clear if I didn’t lump the two types of content into the same blog, but I really do love both the adult fan interpreted IZ world and the canon IZ world in equal measure, just in different ways!

- content that fetishizes or ‘yaoi’-fies gay relationships! I am a queer person and I enjoy queer content made by queer people for queer people, you’re not gonna find any “B-BUT WE’RE BOTH BOYS!” shit here 😂

- content that depicts abuse between friends or partners!! while violence is an active theme in zim and dib’s canonical relationship, I very much dislike zadr content that depicts the two being aggressive or malicious towards each other while they’re supposedly in love. complex relationships are certainly interesting, but while toxic and abusive relationships are realistic, they’re not okay and should not be romanticized. I understand some people use that kind of content to cope, but for me it’s nothing but bad feelings. sparring and play fighting is fine and good, consensual violence could be interesting to explore, but hatred will stay separate from romance on this blog.

- discourse and long conversations about negative topics! I acknowledge the importance of discussing problems within the fandom, however I wish for this blog to be a positive and comforting place, since iz content in general is positive and comforting for me! there may be an occasional post that touches on real life negative topics but overall this will be kept to a minimum.

- explicit content!! while I DO both draw and consume nsfw adult zadr content, it will not be on this blog! since tumblr decided to be idiots and remove any way for minors and people who don’t wish to see nsfw content to hide it, this blog will remain pg-13. I will also not be providing any links to my other sites because of this (I am a nsfw artist and I sell porn commissions for a living, not trying to shove that in the faces of my minor, ace and sex repulsed followers, but by all means seek out my art if you DO wish to!). similarly, I will not be releasing my nsfw zadr art publicly anywhere, since aged up characters are controversial and my career, being online, could suffer if someone wanted to use that against me. HOWEVER, for fellow adult fans with extra cash who take a shine to my art, paid content could be a possibility in the future 👀

Interaction Guidelines!

Things I’m okay with!

- tagging my posts in any way you wish! kinning is fine! any ship interpretation is fine! any gender/orientation interpretation is fine! sharing your thoughts/opinions is fine!

- as long as you CREDIT me! using my art for icons/headers etc, drawing my iz designs, referencing my art, and reposting my art on other sites is all okay!

- asks or anons of any questions you might have about me or my content!

- asks or anons popping in to share thoughts, opinions and ideas! it’s always nice to hear from other fans!

- leaving comments in the tags/replies/reblogs of my posts makes me very happy!! tumblr is the only place I post my fanart and I love seeing what people think of it!

Things I’m not okay with!

- messages, reblogs, tags or asks that are blatantly rude or disrespectful! I really do not care what the subject or reason is, if you act like an asshole, I will not respond and will block you!

- asks or messages that say only ‘hi’ or ‘how are you?’ I have no problem with people trying to be friendly but I never have a single idea of how to reply to these kinds of messages, I’m so sorry 😂 please talk to me about fandom stuff though!!

- pressure to produce content! I like any other creator adore comments and compliments, but things like “DRAW MORE!!” “MORE ZADR!!” “WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO DRAW MORE!!” are not compliments!! it is in fact very off putting so please don’t do that! it will mess with my motivation! consider commissioning me if you want more content!

- if you are considering trying to be my friend, please be 20+!! I am not comfortable being friends with teens! nothing against my teen followers, I respect and appreciate you, but please understand I cannot relate to you on a personal level, and besides that, being friends with someone over 20 can be harmful and even dangerous for minors! I am an adult and only wish to have adult friends! please respect my wishes!

About my content!

So since what I like to draw is usually pretty different from the show, here are the basic headcanons for my interpretations of adult Zim and Dib~! Basically they’re queer 2019 millennials who are damaged but doing their best and enjoy niche interests and subcultures. Zim is the type who’s tough to handle but it’s worth it because he’s an amazing and colorful person underneath it all and only those he’s close to get to see that, and Dib is an eccentric but completely reliable, intelligent, passionate, and loyal friend whose company is a familiar comfort and a total safe space. They live together and are mutually beneficial allies to friends to lovers!

I HAVE A FIC, or at least an idea for one lol and when using my designs for the characters, my drawings will most likely be set in its context! Affectionately nicknamed the Soft AU, it’s centered around rest, recovery, affection, care and bonding… bc I’m SOFT OKAY 😂 You can read the full summary here, but here’s the gist!

A little over a decade after arriving on earth, Zim’s banishment is reinstated and as a result his entire base and all his equipment is confiscated, leaving him stranded on Earth with no way off the planet and in danger of being caught and killed by the humans. Dib offers him a deal that he’ll hide Zim instead of turning him in in exchange for letting him study Zim. They live together in Dib’s apartment and eventually get used to each other. Loneliness induced affection ensues. Hooray!!

And now for the boys themselves!

My Dib!

- 25, 6′2″, Mexican, cis boy, bisexual, bilingual

- is recovering from depression and anxiety and has ADD and insomnia, has had a nicotine addiction

- has a ton of ear piercings and a few facial piercings, as well as a few tattoos

- is still just as obsessive about his interests as he was as a kid, just with more curbed enthusiasm due to, yknow, depression. researching Zim however brings his enthusiasm back full force. he still sucks at taking care of himself when enthralled with his work but he’s getting there

- runs various blogs, forums, and youtube channels making content about cryptids and conspiracy theories, the ad revenue of which is his main source of income (he dislikes using his father’s money to support himself, but will dip into the family account occasionally)

- is very patient and can communicate and problem solve very well, and is skilled at handling various conflicts and mental issues

- still has his ‘I hate people’ attitude but is more open minded and understanding than he used to be, and more compassionate. he has difficulty trusting strangers but his friends and family are very important to him

- can be moody and dramatic but he’s a big sweetheart at his core

- being friends with Zim has made him more willing to enjoy acting like a huge dork and total weirdo, even in public

My Zim!

- young adult, 5′5″, androgynous presenting demi boy, panromantic demisexual

- has PTSD and anxiety, is recovering with help from Dib

- displays inhuman behavior such as hissing, growling, chirring, chirping, scratching/biting, screeching, territory guarding and dominance displays

- is a demi boy, meaning he identifies as mostly but not completely male, and is more nonbinary than cis, but he’s never given it too much thought because gender is stupid. he has little to no concept and zero regard for human gender roles

- is a SHIT who’s main entertainment is annoying Dib and ‘winning’ arguments, but Dib seems to get harder to piss off as time goes on, much to his confusion

- pitches a fit when he doesn’t agree with/doesn’t want to do something but can be swayed with rewards such as food, sweets, new clothes, video games etc

- rambunctious and high energy, he gets stir crazy often, but since he hates the city he and Dib often take car trips to more fun/nicer places outside the neighborhood

- moody and bratty with skewed logic but smart and more intuitive than he used to be, he’s more than a handful to deal with, but this also makes him the most entertaining person Dib knows

- after having the free time to discover the world of aesthetics, he becomes very much into clothes, make up, accessories etc (be they masculine or feminine) and enjoys making a hobby out of creating a unique self image using fashion (thus also subconsciously asserting his individuality)

- is much more dependent on Dib than he admits (or even realizes)

- his beliefs in nationalism, fascism and genocide are direct results of brainwashing and personality altering programs run by his PAK, and are not actually part of his core personality (these programs will be overridden and deleted eventually)

Side Note: I haven’t thought as far with the other characters but my Gaz and Tak are definitely lesbians 😂

And finally, my tag list!

#my art - things that I drew!

#my post - any post that I posted!

#asks - asks!

#text post - any text post longer than a couple lines!

#video - videos!

#audio - audios!

#canon - content from the show/comic/movie etc!

#creators - any content featuring the IZ cast or crew!

#memes - memes, shitposts, short comics, comedic posts etc!

#friends - friendship art between any characters!

#family - family bonding between the membranes/found family between any characters!

#ships - ship art between adult characters!

#suggestive - any content that could be considered sexual in nature!

#positive - fluff, friendship, wholesome content, uplifting content, characters being happy/cute/having fun etc!

#negative - angst, vent art, violence, mental illness, dark themes, characters fighting/being sad/getting hurt etc!

#kids - content depicting characters as kids/irkens as their canon designs!

#adults - content depicting characters as adults/irkens with noncanon designs!

#millennials - content depicting adult characters that includes any modern culture! (personal fave)

#aesthetic - highly stylized or surreal portraits centered around aesthetic themes!

ship tags!: zadr (zim and dib romance), tagr (tak and gaz romance), rapr (red and purple romance)

friendship tags!: zadf (zim and dib friendship), tagf (tak and gaz friendship), zatf (zim and tak friendship), tadf (tak and dib friendship), zagf (zim and gaz friendship), zag (zim and gir)

character tags!: zim, dib, gaz, tak, gir, red, purple, membrane, skoodge, gretchen, keef, spork, miyuki, recap kid, bg chars, ocs

[busket]

so i thought i’d address something having to do with my old nsfw blog. an apology

so back in like 2015 or 2016 i had a nsfw blog, and since i was big into gravity falls back then i drew nsfw of ford and stan. but this has been sort of weighing on me since i closed it because honestly its really embarrassing.

first of all, i used to be big into billford. people who have followed this blog back then know that, i wasnt secretive about it. i think in a way i was kinda working out my own garbage, trying to process different things, cos when i look back on that time of my life, it wasn’t really bright. i was pretty depressed. im not making excuses, just trying to work out reasons for why i was attracted to a ship like that. i hyper-fixated on it p bad and i drew and wrote some fucked up stuff. all though i didn’t view it like that at the time, it was romanticizing serious abuse

that doesn’t align with how i view it now; i think if art can be used to groom victims then it shouldn’t be made, or at least it should be handled way more delicately than what i did. it was around the time that i deleted that nsfw blog that i was beginning to realize “this is fucked and i dont want it associated with me anymore” but i was too embarrassed to publicly address it

i also posted fetishistic nsfw of trans men. i didn’t know shit about trans issues back then. i had like one trans friend that enjoyed it and so i assumed that everyone might. i was being inconsiderate and creepy. i’ve learned a lot since then, so it upsets me that people think that the only reason i support trans ppl now is for clout or attention but secretly im fetishistic them behind their backs. as a cis person, i know now its not my place to draw or write stuff like that and i haven’t done it since

i understand why people might call me a hypocrite, i was so vocal about being against incest and pedo ships back then (i still am), meanwhile my fave ship was super abusive and i was completely ignorant about trans people. im ashamed of that, and im sorry. im sure some people think this is a silly thing to apologize over, but its been weighing on me for 3-4 years and i wanted to get it off my chest. so thank you for reading

[purfectmlpblog]

so... WHY exactly do you not like those NOTPs of yours? just curious

Rarity/Applejack is just too overrated and forced to me, both in-canon and fandom-wise. While they do admittedly have some decent bonding moments now and then, their differing tastes and lifestyles just seem too drastic for me to see them as a compatible long-term couple. As mentioned in their cutiemark stories, Applejack as a child ran away from the kind of life Rarity always idolized (aka: being a fancy socialite) and to this day continues to remain pretty ignorant and judgmental of the high fashion life (*cough*HonestApple*cough*). Whereas Rarity has proven countless times over that she’d never fit into the farm life nor respect it enough to suit AJ’s tastes. To me this is simply a case where opposites can’t always attract… no matter how much canon/fandom says that they should. So yeah, this ain’t a ship for me :/.

Sweetie/Spike always rubbed me the wrong way since it’s pretty much only ever shipped by Sweetie acting as a “mini Rarity” for Spike to fawn over… so basically like having a diet soda-version of “Sparity” tbh :/. Which to me is nothing but a huge disservice to Sweetie Belle’s character since she’s made it clear beforehand that she hates being compared to her big sister Rarity in any way… plus it only makes Spike look like a total creep to wanna find a “replacement” for Rarity so much that he’d go to her younger sister to “fill in” that role 😖

Sugar/Mac was nothing but a total mess in canon execution… from the cliched love triangle setup, to Mac legit taking romance advice (inspired by outdated fairytales) from children, Mac straight up trying to kiss Sugar Belle in her sleep without consent and then never even bothering to apologize for it… only for Sugar Belle to just be magically okay with him at the end ‘cause he built her a shelf? …Gee, such “perfect” story-telling there -_-. Then I heard that things only got worse in that one “Breakup Breakdown” ep where Big Mac was willing to break up with her solely ‘cause of him jumping to conclusions about her apparently losing interest in him… when she was in fact talking about something else entirely. Gee Mac, you’d think you’d learn a thing about properly communicating with your own girlfriend by now (being an adult, after all)… but I guess not? :/ Really speaks a lot about their so-called “relationship” 🙄

Starlight/Sunset gives me questionable vibes given how Starlight’s among my least favorite characters and Sunset’s my fave girl… shipping them together just never felt all that right to me. Especially with Starlight’s shaky development and manipulative personality at times… I just feel like Sunset deserves better *shrugs*

Zephyr/RD is just…. gross, what more can I say? -.- No means no for a reason, Zephyr… take a damn hint already 😡

Shining/Chrysalis is also pretty disgusting… and it doesn’t help that it’s mostly ever treated in the fandom like some “lol funny joke” with how it implies Chrysalis straight-up raped Shining Armor whilst she was in that disguised Cadence phase… like ugh, just stop already.

Cadence/Sombra shouldn’t need much explanation either… he destroyed her home and terrorized it for centuries, tried to take over it again after the Empire reemerged from hiding, and in the recent season premiere tried kidnapping her own daughter Flurry after being revived again. Even if you try to find ways to “redeem” Sombra, there’s only so much you can forgive a person for and the actions he’s pulled are just too much for someone like Cadence to overlook imo. Plus with the headcanon I’m making with him also being responsible for the death of her birth parents, this just leaves the idea of this ship even more of a “nope” in my books. And don’t even get me started on all their ship art/fics mostly just romanticizing Cadence being unfaithful towards Shining by falling for this “oooh so broody bad boy” behind the scenes and uuugh… 😖

[him-e]

Even as someone who dislikes Dany, it felt weird and umcomfortable to read a lot of biased metas who would tell awful things about her (of which some are partially true but if they are pointed out with ill intentions and out of hate instead of with argumentation it falls flat for me) in order to defend a ship but for what's worth from the outside it is pretty easy to distinguish the older and new jonsa shippers and I dont think people conflate the two groups This said keep enjoying the fandom :)

idk, from the point of view of someone who was not aware that a Jonsa fandom even existed before it exploded during season 6, I think it’s pretty normal to conflate the two groups. But I should clarify that I’m not concerned with being equated with “”””bad”””” shippers. The people I respect in this fandom are too clever to believe that all fans of (x) are a hivemind. I don’t care for everyone else.

My frustration comes from the fact that all this Dany hate is stifling the Jonsa discourse when it would have still so much to offer otherwise, with less divisive arguments. Instead it seems like Dany is the hill people are going to die on, when she shouldn’t have anything to do with the ship and there are plenty of ways to discuss a possible endgame scenario that don’t revolve around constantly shitting on her. I actually really enjoy reading jonsa meta, even of the “will be canon!” kind, but the constant villainization of Dany is ruining it for me, because I don’t consider it a valid or productive argument. Making villain!Dany the linchpin of your ship discourse invalidates the whole thought process, because a) she’s clearly not; b) insisting that she is has a counterproductive effect on neutral fans, as it alienates from jonsa more people than it attracts; c) it actually doesn’t prove anything. Even if Dany were a villain, that doesn’t mean Jon can’t fall in love with her or that his feelings must be insincere. Good people fall for villains all the time, and Jon is not necessarily a paragon of virtue himself. 

Anon #2, I had to edit your ask because I’m not going to address publicly that sort of accusations towards specific users, especially since I have zero first hand knowledge of what happened either way. But I wanted to discuss this:

I’m am so sick and tired of people thinking we don’t like Daenerys just because we ship Jonsa. There are A MILLION valid reasons not to like her that have nothing at all to do with shipping 😒

Of course there are plenty of good reasons to be critical of her. Her storyline and arc and narrative tropes are intentionally divisive and meant to inspire a discussion in the audience. And I certainly don’t think that being a shipper invalidates your perspective on things—hey, I’m a shipper too! 

But would you commit to write tons of meta on how Dany is a villain, if that weren’t inextricably connected to (your idea of) endgame jonsa? I only started to see floods of Dany-critical meta in this corner of the fandom after it became clear she would make Jon unavailable. Before that, non-Dany fans were pretty content ignoring her, or just throwing the occasional remark about how they didn’t like her. It’s pretty obvious that one thing is fueling the other.

In my experience, people�� even on this hellsite—only go analytical on the stuff they hate if there’s an upside to it, be it to elevate your favourite ship/character/idea by contrast, defend your interpretation of the story, gain discourse points or bond over shared hatred for something. But it’s rarely “oh I really dislike (x) so I guess I’m going to spend hours and hours analyzing in depth how (x) is bad without this bearing any relevance whatsoever to the things I like, or consider right and wholesome”. It’s generally “put (x) down to prop (y) up”, even if the latter is not immediately transparent. I think it would be disingenuous to pretend that this link doesn’t exist.

Story time: in earlier fandom days of mine, there was a character I and some other fans really disliked, who was was incidentally the main obstacle to our otp happening. Long story short, we became really invested in a subset of theories about how he was actually a villain all along, and how the narrative would eventually expose him as such (sounds familiar?). There were tons of brilliant, researched, incredibly analytical meta about it. The idea was that eventually there would be a 180° perspective shift, corresponding to the heroine’s finally opening her eyes on his nature. This interpretation was hardly unfounded—the character was a liar, an emotional abuser, a canonical rapist and former slave owner, and there were a lot of shady aspects to the way he had initiated his relationship with the heroine. However, it was also painfully clear that he was “the” male lead and that the writers loved to romanticize him just as much as they liked playing with his darker aspects. Fast forward to the final season and we never had the big villain reveal we wanted—and boy did I feel like an idiot for even believing that could happen. 

The story I played in my mind was interesting—I still think it is—but ultimately it wasn’t the story the writers were telling. There were plenty of signs that it wasn’t. As it turned out, ~controversial but beloved hero is revealed to be a villain~ isn’t a very popular trope. Mainstream fiction is usually geared towards the exact opposite (see: redemption arcs). 

But also, in hindsight, now I understand that I fell down the rabbit hole with that theory because it allowed me to fantasize about a scenario in which the heroine would finally get over the *bad* character and fall in love with my fave instead. Did I have legitimate reason to be critical of that character? I can guarantee I had A LOT. But was shipping + viscerally disliking that character my main motivator in this? YES. 

My point is, you can absolutely hate a character JUST BECAUSE it gets in the way of your ship. Sometimes things are just that simple. It’s completely normal, it’s par for the course, I think we’ve all had that gut reaction at one point in our fandom life. But don’t dress it up as something deeper or more serious than that (don’t get so sucked into your rationalizations that you start to believe them), and don’t be surprised if it alienates other fans. Because it does! Back to my story, now that I’m older and wiser I can see how all our tinhatting and obsessing over our nemesis made the fandom toxic and alienated a lot of neutral fans, let alone fans of that character & relative ship, who were basically silenced since the get go. Which sucks.

Tinhatting is wonderful, it’s one of the reasons I do fandom the way I do, but tinhatting that consistently hinges on hatred and negativity against a specific character tends to get tiring and toxic, not to mention lose validity on a meta level. This is how I see it, but feel free to make of this what you like.

[thelegendofclarke]

I honestly wish people wers allowed to be indifferent to characters and ships. You don't have to come up with a bunch of reasons why you don't really like them, you can just move the fuck on.

Girl, I feel this so hard tbh! Fandom culture on tumblr has basically gotten rid of any ability to be indifferent, or be subjective, or like have a personal opinion about ~anything~ with out someone taking it as a personal insult against them somehow, or arguing with you, or sending you anon hate, or making a vague/call out post about you, or something fun like that. It’s obnoxious. 

Any time I talk about why I love a favorite character, I literally feel like I am a defense attorney making a closing argument for someone accused of capital murder. It gets to the point sometimes where fandom honestly feels like homework. I don’t even bother talking publicly about stuff I don’t necessarily like or the reasons why. Partly because it’s just not how I like to spend my time, but also because it’s just always an absolute nightmare.

Now instead of saying “I like this character/ship because I find them entertaining and engaging, or I really relate to their POV, or they are hot and I want them to bang, or I just do” you have to come up with like an exhaustive laundry list of not only why they are a good character, but also of all their flaws so you aren’t “white washing them” or “romanticizing them” or whatever. And instead of saying “I don’t like this character/ship because there are things about them that bother me or make me uncomfortable, or I don’t really like those characters together, or it just doesn’t do anything for me, or I just don’t” you have to come up with all these moralistic accusations as to why they are The Worst. 

And there is no in-between either, your either a stan or an anti. The minute you criticize a character or say anything remotely negative about them, you’re a hater. The minute you praise them, you’re glorifying them and obviously saying they have never done anything wrong ever in their fictional lives. From what I can tell, being an anti or a stan probably takes more mental dedication and effort that I’ve ever given anything in my entire life; INCLUDING the Bar Exam. But those terms get thrown around all the time along with all kinds of other moralistic accusations and buzzwords. There’s this mentality that people not only owe you their reasons for liking or disliking something, but also that you have any right to tell them those reasons are or aren’t acceptable. I mean discussion and debate is one thing, but that’s rarely ever what the response is. There is no more subjectively enjoying or not enjoying things. It’s all about being the most right and the most meta and the most morally justified. It always has to be A Thing™. 

It’s kind of ridiculous when you think about it? Because we would never operate like this irl… For example, I absolutely fucking hate skiing. And I have plenty of what I consider to be very valid, personal reasons for hating skiing: I hate the cold, I hate having to wear big coats, I have terrible balance so I fall a lot and falling on ice hurts like a sonofabitch, being cold SUCKS, my lips and skin get chapped really easily, I have TERRIBLE knees and ankles which don’t help the falling situation, it reminds me how out of shape I am, ski lifts aren’t my fave, the helmets are super uncomfortable, I really fucking HATE the cold, ect. and so forth. I just don’t like it, it’s not fun for me, I have my reasons, and I will gladly tell any of this to anyone who asks. But no one is going to like, call me from a blocked number to anonymously start an argument with me, or jump in to call me an misogynistic asshole and fail at life, or tell me all my reasons are made up and I only just hate it because I stan the beach or ship snowboarding instead, or refuse to talk to me or be my friend anymore or anything like that because I hate skiing. 

Everything about our preferences is subjective. You get a subjective outlook simply from being alive and having experiences in the world. There really is no such thing as being completely subjective, especially in regards to our likes and dislikes. That’s not how life works… But on here for some reason it does and yeah, it’s exhausting af.