#also this is more about the fandom anyway

[whereispearlescentmoon]

Do you think Scarlet/5am Pearl ever truly returned in any season after double life?

Honestly? No, not really. The only exception is the murder camel.

In short every time Pearl has broken out the Scarlet Pearl skin since DL she has failed to be the PERCEPTION of what Scarlet Pearl is. She hasn't been a cold blooded killer, hunting down players ruthlessly and taunting them as she does. Again, this is with the exception of the murder camel, which frankly only adds to my idea that Pearl was just bending to other players' perception of her. In DL they saw her as dangerous and unhinged so she became that. In SL, Gem knew who Scarlet Pearl was and wanted to see it, so Pearl performed the persona for a brief time. But that wasn't really Scarlet Pearl, just Pearl putting on an act to show off to a friend.

I don't think Scarlet Pearl CAN exist in any other season, and that's for a few reasons (warning that this is long and probably rambling)

The first reason being the literal time change of when they record. I believe it’s around 8-9 am her time now, rather than 5 am. So actual CC!Pearl isn’t sleep deprivation loopy.

The second is that I think the fandom perception of Scarlet Pearl as someone who is like, cool and crazy and dangerous, is only really true in the last session of Double Life, after the reds tricked her and tried to kill her and after a bunch of her dogs had been killed. That is when she gets violent. When she breaks out the axe and starts quoting Macbeth. She hunts down Impulse and Bdubs out of part revenge and part because they are just the only people left other than the other members of the Divorce Quartet who, while she isn't allied with, she can't just attack. When they are gone, she doesn't even hunt down Cleo and Martyn. They go to her and attack her first.

In every other session besides the last (if you're watching Pearl's POV), you would see that it's mostly someone who's very lonely and trying desperately to make friends with people who just Don't Want Her. She is crazy, don't get me wrong, in the sense that she keeps going to Scott even after he says he wants nothing to do with her, and that she doesn't care about taking damage. She also decides a dog is her soulmate, which is crazy depending on who you ask. But mostly it's someone who wants connection and can't get it. Even in moments of community, like the 'pool party' at Impulse and Bdubs' house, she stands away from the main action, because when she does get involved things tend to go wrong. She watches up in her tower as the reds hunt down Grian and Scar and narrates the action to the air because she doesn't have anyone to talk to.

The other reasons are more about the fact that Double Life Pearl was just in such a different circumstance than Pearl has been in in any other life series. She had no allies, which changes her whole way of playing in later series. Pearl is always trying to get her allies the win, and you can't go around antagonizing people if you want BigB/Bdubs/Joel/Impulse to survive. She tries to mess with people for one session in Limited Life and it falls flat because as it turns out, everyone else was busy also being unhinged. And you can't take damage on purpose if you want to get to the end so your ally can win. She also doesn't want to take damage on purpose because the only one it's hurting is herself and the whole point of not caring about it in DL was to bother Scott.

It's also why none of her other pets have been as impactful as Tilly. Tilly was her only friend, her soulmate. She was who Pearl talked to in lieu of another player. And, importantly, Pearl brought her into battle. She was by her side constantly. Froggy wouldn't have been useful in battle anyways, and with her other wolves, Pearl just sat them down at the base in what she thought was a safe place. When you have allies, wolves are actually dangerous because they might accidentally hit you. The reason she was able to build such a large wolf army in DL is because there was no one around to risk accidentally setting them off.

[sillylittlgaythings]

I have a bone to pick with the Yellowjackets fandom, more specifically with the twitter community

im just gonna rant here for a bit. oh. my. god. you guys are UNBEARABLE and ANNOYING.

first: “why did they pair shauna with melissa and not with mari/akilah/gen/x/y/z?”

because melissa was a BLANK character with 0 meaningful conversations with shauna in s1 and 2. shauna already doesn’t like mari. “so now you’re her protector? a little late for that” thats mari to shauna after jackie’s death and the girls wanting to burn her body, they could not make mari into the wide-eye girl infatuated with shauna like they did melissa it. wouldn’t. make. sense. (same thing with gen, she always takes mari’s side and it would be kinda interesting to see this dynamic play out, but anyway).

shauna needed someone she had no previous feelings (good or bad) for and that also includes akilah. she was the one helping shauna giving birth, calming her down and trying to save her and the baby, akilah already had a personality being developed in s2 and clearly had a different plot direction for s3, while melissa didn’t. shauna already had her interaction with akilah and has a perception of her.

melissa was a perfect vessel for shauna’s girlfriend. no meaningful interactions before. no attachment. shauna is able to create melissa the way she wanted in her had, make her a replacement for jackie, use her as she sees fits because she doesn’t know melissa beyond that

second: “why did they get rid off lottie for melissa/they fired simone to afford hillary swank”

thats NOT how the industry works. that’s not how budget works, they’re not taking payment from one actress to give it to another, also hillary’s fees (an award winning actress) are much higher than simone’s (an somewhat unknown actress, love her but it’s true) if it actually worked that way it would made more sense to get rid off melanie or christina, the biggest and most expensive actresses in the adult tml along side with hillary now.

“but lottie’s story wasn’t done” one of the main points of the series is that every death was unfair. the people who died in the crash was unfair. laura lee exploding wasn’t fair. jackie frozen to death wasn’t fair. javi drowning wasn’t fair. nat dying from an overdose after battling addiction and finally getting clean is not fair. every death was unfair. i do think it would be interesting seeing more of lottie’s character but lottie was NOT killed off for melissa, let’s be realistic here.

third: “why are so many shauna scenes?” she’s the main character!!! she’s the one we follow throughout the show, of course there are other principal characters but shauna is the protagonist and the main plot will be around her in some way

fourth: “it’s so weird that tai is the only POC to survive” that’s not true, both lottie and travis were survivors and people of color, yes they’re dead now, but they are still survivors. we also don’t know how many made it out of the wilderness, the 8 survivors theory is just that, a theory. mari, akilah and gen might have made it out and choose to hid/fake their deaths like melissa did.

i do think the treatment of non-white characters and actors in the industry needs to be discussed further and deeply, i’m not saying non-white fans shouldn’t complain about things they see as unfair and wrong, i’m just pointing things out and not speaking over them. i’m not saying they’re complains are justified, but it’s not the intention of this post to discuss this issue specifically.

i’m just so tired of people complaining about every. single. damn. thing this season, of course some criticisms are valid and some conversations are importante to have, but it’s just so annoying to see people nitpicking every little thing about s3 everytime a new episode drops and wondering why certain plots were finish, not understanding why things were written like this or that or etc feels like this is you guys’ first time watching a show with one episode per week like WAIT, BE PATIENT, we already know there are 5 seasons planned so it’s obvious some things will be left unknown or a mystery.

yes it’s nice to dissect a show and analyse the writing and the characters, but it feels like some people either don’t actually like the show or are to stuck in their AO3 fanfic dynamics to enjoy the actual show and characters.

anyway, have a good day guys and enjoy the the season finale next week.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

IDK if that “neutral” Malleus anon is still checking out your blog but even if they aren’t I wanna say it’s not cool of them to send that rant in. Them being so angry makes me think they are actually a Malleus fan because why would you be so mad if you really were neutral about him. Acting like that to one of the most moderate dragon dislikers I know of is why Malleus fans have a bad name.

[Referencing this post!]

Well, I admit that I also found it odd that someone claiming to be neutral about a character would also get so worked up about said character... but I don't know Anon, so I'd rather not make assumptions about them if I can help it. Regardless of how they personally feel about Malleus, the fact remains that they felt strongly enough about my opinions that they were motivated to send in what was swirling around in their mind. The ask started off polite, but then became hostile despite prefacing with "don't take the following as an attack on you" and "I tried to be as respectful as possible" 💦 You don't really think clearly or act like yourself when you're letting your emotions rule you, so I wonder if their emotions just got the better of them once they started typing and then their ask sort of... spiraled from there. ahlbbbayvaqwevuqwoyve Thank you for the title of Most Moderate Dragon Disliker/j 😭 I feel like fandoms throw around the word "hate" too easily these days, so if I have to say I don't like something, I'll opt for "dislike" instead. "Hate" always sounds so harsh and unrelenting (ie "this can NEVER be better"), and that's worlds apart from "critique" (ie "how can this be better?"), the latter being what I actually aim for. I won't blindly hate on a character, I'll stop and ask myself why is it that I don't like them and how could they improve. I don't understand how it is that hate and critique are so commonly conflated... Anyway, shoutout to the sane folks that don't get their panties in a twist when others express a different opinion than them OTL and I am so, so sorry that Malleus likers have a loud minority making y’all look bad…

As I said in my response to the other ask in this post, I don't want to make assumptions about Anon or their life. However 💦 I will confess that I was very surprised by those parts of the ask. At first, I thought Anon was mentioning they speak Japanese and Korean because non-native English speakers will usually preface with something like this to warn me of potentially strange wording or typos. But then this particular ask (despite its length) ended up being in perfect English??? So I wondered why they mentioned their languages to begin with. They did say "Here in Japan", which seems to imply they do live there + speak the language but... again, I find it sort of strange to bring those up without making it very relevant?? If it was intended to lend them more credibility, I thought they would share more about the JP fandom or discuss particular polls more in-depth. (That would have been really interesting, actually!)

My surprise wasn't at the lack of information though, it was at the tone taken and the words used. It may be a little difficult for English-only speakers to understand, but 💦 the way Anon wrote didn't read very "Japanese" to me. Certain phrases (like lo and behold), slang (like LMAO), and even the cadence feel more western than Japanese. These, I guess, could be attributed to code switching (switching languages)?? Sometimes there would be overlap between the two (in this case, English and Japanese)--but more importantly, the overall tone of the ask was extremely confrontational. That was honestly the biggest "huh" for me. Not a single Japanese person I know speaks so aggressively, even when they are caught up in their emotions.

Again, I want to be clear that I'm not accusing Anon of anything, I'm only expressing my shock at the lack of... I guess manners in the ask (even though they said they intended to be respectful)??? When maintaining decorum and staying in one's lane are stressed so much in JP fandoms, especially when interacting with other fans. Anon's ask was like the total opposite of what I'm used to seeing from JP fans ^^;;

I think people tend forget that how you express yourself is just as important as choosing to express yourself in the first place? If you come at someone sounding angry and defensive from the get-go, the person you're trying to engage with will be much less willing to hear you out 💦

I don't really care if they (or others) see Malleus a certain way! It only becomes a problem when they start confronting other people with it (which, unfortunately, happened). And no need to apologize for other people's actions!! You didn't do anything wrong here. I do appreciate the sentiment though!! 🫶

I don't get why some people get so upset at different opinions existing?? (I don't think I even express my opinion in a hateful manner, which is what I believe Anon was accusing me of.) 😔 It's different opinions that make discussions with other fans interesting (and, in Twst itself, it's different opinions that cause conflicts to arise and make up the story that we enjoy). A world without different opinions would surely be a dull one. That specific Anon for sure has to learn how to better contain their anger. I hope that they realize that acting as they did only 1) makes Malleus likers (or I guess "Malleus neutral" fans, as they claim they are) in general look terrible, because even if the majority of them don't act this way, it's the worst experiences that will stick out the most in people's minds and 2) Malleus Draconia is not real and will not personally thank them for crusading for him. This certainly does not help my opinion of him, because this isn't my first time being harassed by someone associated with Malleus. I just do not get what people think they get out of acting this way??? Does it make them feel... satisfied after they rant at an internet stranger??? Make them think they achieved something?? 😅 There are surely more productive methods of catharsis than this... Maybe talking it over with a friend, double checking their phrasing + tone before sending in that ask, waiting until their emotions aren't running as high, even blocking or scrolling on would have been better.

I don't really know anything about Bakugo (other than he's really angy and people like him a lot??) but I find it really funny that his + Crewel's birthday is 4/20 blaze it 😶

[omgwhatchloe]

guys can we plz share some insane rdr2 takes so i feel less alone

my insane take: when making headcanons for john as a child, dutch, hosea and arthur, i think the fandom should put more consideration into what situations they headcanon john is in and if its actually appropriate and realistic for that time. for example, and call me weird if you want, i do not think john is going to be sharing a bed with two adults, two strangers, two criminals that he is not related to in the slightest, just because he had a nightmare. i don’t think its realistic considering in that time, and also in THIS time, its not an appropriate situation for a child to be in, sharing a bed with two adult strangers.

i know these headcanons have no malice or anything strange behind them, which is what makes my take so insane that maybe we need to consider no matter how comforting the headcanons trying to be, it just might not be appropriate for the child character in the headcanon and can always be altered to be just as comforting while also being safe. like, instead of john sleeping in the same bed as them which really isn’t appropriate considering theyre not related and dutch and hosea are still strangers to him and also john is a child, how about hosea sits with him until he calms down and can go back to sleep again?

anyway plz share more insane takes guys😭🙏

[pluckyredhead]

That raises an interesting point... logically speaking *should* Bruce actually be better than the Justice League at anything? Even his much-vaunted Detective Skills shouldn't hold a candle to Clark, who actually has to do that shit as his day job and has about 1 billion advantages in information gathering.

I personally prefer to see each JLAer (or more accurately, each DC character, because this is an issue with the Titans and other teams too) written as though they are the best in their personal arena for team books, and all-around capable for solo books. Which is to say that I love Superman books where Clark (and Lois!) do investigative journalism, but I have no problem letting Bruce take the lead on detection in team-up stories. Or even having Clark focus on getting leads via interviews and Bruce via forensics.

It's always a juggling act, right? Batman has to be on the Justice League for a reason, so he needs to be so good at the things he's good at that they are just as useful as lifting tanks and running at mach speed. And sometimes it's very enjoyable. Like, I love this moment:

The context is that Ollie (who has partial amnesia) kind of flipped out and was waving an explosive arrow around the Watchtower. Bruce knocks him out and delivers that great line in the third panel. It's absolutely a badass moment for Bruce.

However. No one is overawed by him. Diana immediately makes fun of him for skulking. Wally's pouty little "I would've beaten that arrow" is funny, but also true - there's absolutely no question that, had Ollie loosed the arrow, Wally, Clark, and Kyle would all have been completely capable of handling it immediately. Wally and Kyle's banter in the fourth panel acknowledges what a good line Bruce just dropped, but they're also dunking on him. And Clark is catching the explosive to casually smother it between his hands in the next panel - a wordless acknowledgement of how incredibly powerful Clark is, Bruce's knowledge of how powerful Clark is, and the strength of their partnership in that Bruce doesn't have to explain what he wants Clark to do.

(And don't worry, Ollie fans: Ollie sucker punches Bruce in the next issue, and Bruce promises never to mock Ollie's trick arrows again after Ollie uses a fire extinguisher arrow to take down Etrigan.)

This is what I want: not Bruce to be portrayed as useless, but for all of the characters to be portrayed as competent. And for the fandom to acknowledge that the rest of the League knows Bruce very well and isn't scared of him. (Depending on the lineup. It's silly to say "the League" as if it's always the same characters with the same relationships. Which is another thing fandom fully does not comprehend. Also Billy has only been on the League for like...a minute. ANYWAY.)

That's why I don't plan to include that panel of Hal punching Bruce in GL: Rebirth in this series. I'm looking for moments of characters telling Bruce "You aren't better than me"; that was a GL writer having his favorite GL tell Bruce "I'm better than you." I'm not looking for superiority, even for characters I love; I'm looking for equality.

...and also if it's funny. I'm fully willing to include a panel if it's funny, which is why Guy mooning Bruce 100% counts.

[moonstars-tro]

definitely agree, this is absolutely something that needs to be brought to light.

i personally favor leo and donnie because their blue and purple, i always have 😭 (like honestly in every iteration it’s leo and donnie for me just because they’re blue and purple, i start from color and then love the character next. u can look at my favorite characters list and you’ll just see different shades of blue)

HOWEVER, i love raph and mikey so much and i don’t think they deserve to be dismissed or mischaracterized or ignored at all. they’re incredible characters and even moreso, incredibly well written. i do think a large factor that contributes to their lack of popularity is the lack of focus on them in the show, due to the many cut episodes (so many, poor guys… i would’ve loved more sunset duo and brains and brawn) and the lack of a full season 2 in general, it’s the cause of many issues i fear.

little rant abt my love for raph and mikey

mikey is so creative and i love how they made that a bigger part of him in rise, and he’s not ‘just a baby’ he can be childish and immature but he’s also angry sometimes, he isn’t just a manipulative crybaby like some of this fandom makes him out to be…. but he’s funny, he’s got a short temper, he loves so hard, he wants the best for everyone. he’s the baby brother but he’s also the heart and the glue and he deserves the world my baby UAGAHJ i want more attention on him i read two mikeycentric fics lately and they changed my life and one of them wasn’t finished. bc i never checked if it was my heart broke guys.

rise raph is so WELL WRITTEN that it is INSANE. like holy omigosh. he just wants the best for his little brothers but there are so many little moments in episodes that remind you that he is just a child who was forced to grow up too early. he’s so sweet and silly and he’d give the world to protect his brothers. AND HE LITERALLY DID. HE SACRIFICED HIMSEKF FOR LEO IN THE MOVIE that moment still makes me so ill sorry because he cracked his shell that HURTS. omigosh anyways i love how rise kept some small things that make him RAPH, like how he’s impulsive and likes to smash things LOL ❤️ when i first started watching i couldn’t really see how he as raph aside from being physically intimidating and then it hit me as time went on.

point is they are very loveable i feel they deserve the world and so much more attention than they get these poor guys. although sometimes people do this wrong, i don’t think we should start hating on or disssing the twins (i mean u do u i guess 😭) i just think we should start loving sunset more. because they deserve so much love and appreciation and more popularity than they get, i love mikey/raph fans so much because. they always get them so well i don’t know how to put that better, like it’s easy to understand ur favorite character so it helps me a lot with understanding them as well. (mwahaha im actually in the midst of making a mikeycentric fic wish me luuck)

AAALSO i love drawing them i used to hate it because raph’s spikes were hard (i kept making them go the wrong direction sigh) and mikey had a round face when i was used to the twins being like a square and a triangle 😭 but i got practice and they’re super fun !!!!!

leo is my favorite for blue, illusion of ego, flamboyant, funny, and he is my reference for living. i do feel genuinely attached to him but ill never let that be a reason for me to dismiss raph or mikey, they deserve love and respect and SO MYCH MORE POPULARITY. there’s so much depth to them despite the missing episodes and the fact that racism and sizeism is a reason for their lack of love is.. like, genuinely sickening.

sorry about this reblog probably being a whole lot of nothing i yap a lot

Why Rise Raph and Mikey are Unappreciated and Underrepresented in the Fandom: Leo/Donnie Favoritism, Anti-Black Racism, and Sizeism

It's refreshing to see that more Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans nowadays seem to be waking up to the fact that Leo and Donnie get way more attention from the fandom than Raph and Mikey do. However, what's still missing from most of these discussions is exactly why that's the case.

With Raph and Mikey being voiced by Black actors (Omar Benson Miller and Brandon Mychal Smith, respectively) and Raph being a character with a big, burly physique, anti-Black racism and sizeism (in the case of Raph) are definitely factors in all of this. In contrast, Leo and Donnie are voiced by white actors, and both characters have a much smaller build than Raph does. And in the world that we live in with both anti-Blackness and sizeism, sadly and upsettingly, being the norm, it's easy to see why Leo and Donnie receive the favoritism that they do compared to Raph and Mikey.

But this favoritism doesn't just begin and end with the RotTMNT fandom because the series itself shows a preference for Leo and Donnie as well. Arguably, it's those two who receive most of the focus in the show, with many episodes revolving around them or being from their point of view.

The way both the series and the fandom downplay Raph’s parentification due to Splinter’s neglect also is a notable example of how a Black-coded and big teenage character like Raph is treated so dismissively by the creators, writers, and fans. After having raised his three younger brothers for years, Raph has his role as team leader stripped from him by his neglectful father with that role given to his much thinner, white actor-voiced brother, Leo. And, that's not even going into the proverbial mess that is the season two episode "Raph’s Ride Along," which makes light of police brutality and profiling against a Black(-coded) child. The adultification of Black children, and in this instance, specifically large Black boys, is likewise tied into the implications of "Raph’s Ride Along" as well as Raph’s treatment within the series overall. Honestly, all of that deserves its own write-up, but that'll have to be for another time.

Anyway, my point is that Raph and Mikey, especially Raph, haven't been given as much appreciation or grace by pretty much anyone, including the folks who made the series. All this also serves as a reminder for why it's important to have Black talent on all levels of production, not just as performers but as creators and producers. Or if not that, at the very least, projects should have non-Black creators who have enough know-how to portray Black/Black-coded characters adequately, treating them with as much care, attention, and respect as they would their white/white-coded counterparts. RotTMNT fans could also stand to do more questioning as to why they don't feel as drawn to represent Raph and Mikey as much as they do Leo and Donnie.

[hypothermiatapes]

I'm enjoying some of your contents and I wanted to ask what you think about tomarry if you even consider it or if you have a favorite dynamic for them?

Tbh I’m so tired of the whole bottom tom/top harry I've seen lately. It just wouldn’t ever happen, I feel like people are doing it just to be different at this point, like they think flipping the usual power dynamic automatically makes it unique

What’s amazing about sex dynamics is that typically if you don’t like one you can filter it out. This may sound a little rude, but I don’t like how you completely degraded fans who prefer that dynamic. They aren’t trying to be different, it’s something they genuinely enjoy and like. And to be fair, I’ve found a lot more convincing arguments on their side than the other. Also, tomarry would never happen, yet we have fics about it, so why does it matter if Tom’s a bottom and Harry a top? Bottoming does not equate to weakness and topping doesn’t equate to power in my opinion.

So, if you don’t like this dynamic between them you can leave my blog because I support anyone that prefers it, and I have several mutuals who love it. And if you were to look at my intro that’s pinned I said I don’t welcome people who can’t take fandom opinions.

The number one rule of fandom is that if you don’t like something then don’t consume it and ignore it unless there’s an actual issue like transphobia.

Anyways, yeah, I like tomarry, it’s my preferred ship to read. I like it when they’re equals who tear each other apart while bringing out both the best and worst of each other. I also prefer when they’re switches.

[nikito0x]

My first impressions of the tgcf characters before I properly entered the fandom.

What brought me to tgcf was initially the fanart. I just kept on seeing beautiful art of two people who looked absolutely smitten with each other.

The first impression I had of HuaLian:

"Oh, they are the eternal soulmates type of ship." Because I saw fanart of only the two of them together and never with anyone else. I didn't even know their names or the fact that they aren't a ship - they are canon. I compared them to couples like AshEiji , the Ineffable Husbands, Catradora and Merthur. I just loved the fanart because just looking at it you know the artists were trying to portray the love in their eyes.

The thing is, there isn't as much HuaLian fanart where they are kissing as there is of them just looking lovingly at each other or just them laughing together. That's how you know you're dealing with a soulmate couple. You don't need to have them be physically affectionate in art to know they are soulmates.

Anyway. Moving on.

Feng Xin & Mu Qing:

Xie Lian always had two friends/guards of some sort that just kept yelling at him (but also yelled a lot at each other for some reason) to stop going through other people's trash cans and to please stay away from the suspicious dude in red.

And then Xie Lian would be like:

"But the trash is shiny and the guy in red is kind of shiny too..."

And they would be like "Dianxia, no!!" and try pulling Xie Lian away like they were trying to stop their dog from eating something random it found on the ground.

I figured out pretty early on through short comics with them that Xie Lian is or was a prince at some point. I had no idea for the longest time, however, that the books (which I didn't know the name of) were even about gods. Fanart didn't exactly mention that xd.

The realization went something like this:

Phase 1: Oh cool, so one of the soulmates is a prince.

Phase 2: Huh, okay so I guess they are both royalty of a sort.

Phase 3: Ghost city? I mean sure. Humans and ghosts. Sounds interesting.

Phase 4: Gods??? Where did the Gods come from?? Were there always Gods!?... The prince is a God?!?!?

So when this well dressed guy, who obviously had a position of power came around, and was acting all concerned (in fanart) about dear old Xianle but wasn't doing anything to better his situation, I got immediately suspicious of him. But Jun Wu wasn't portrayed that often in fanart with Dianxia from what I could see, so while I was suspicious, I didn't really think much of it.

Characters' names

I was soo confused for the longest time. Everyone had at least two names, some had more than that and then some had additional titles.

When I realized Hua Cheng alone had four different names, I was just about to give up. What is this secret identity bullshit?? This looks worse than Miraculous!!

Like, let's count together.

Hong-er, Wu Ming, San Lang, Hua Cheng, Chengzu, Crimson Rain Sought Flower, a Calamity, a Supreme, a Ghost King.

Can you count them? I don't even want to. And of course his husband-to-be has to match him too, in titles at least.

Then there is the rest of the cast like:

Feng Xin -> Nan Yang

Mu Qing -> Xuan Zhen

Pei Ming -> Ming Guang

Nangong Jie -> Ling Wen

And then there was a sword with the name Fang Xin for some reason and I was wondering how it connected to that Feng Xin guy.

I was so lost. For such a long time. But I didn't have time to read the books so...

Anyway those were my first impressions of the tgcf fandom and characters.

[tributedreference]

Fatal Error is so underrated and underused. As a fandom we kinda collectively view him as the weird cousin in the 'Error family', but his moveset and how it functions says a lot as to what outcodes, universes, and the multiverse as a whole is made of. Fatal is able to copy and paste codes, be sentient or not. If it weren't for the fact that Fatal mostly keeps to himself, we'd be a frighteningly powerful being. He could mass-produce an army of an all-powerful deity. He could mass-produce weapons of destruction and chaos. He could mass-produce healing items and food or stuff with other magical properties. As long as it's made of code, he can abuse it. He can even stitch code together to make something new. Fatal technically could take pieces of code of a similar type and make them into something even more potent. Collect a bunch of healing item code and stitch them together, you get something that could heal an army, like some items in DR heal multiple people. Fatal does actually do something akin to this by going around and copying Swap Sans code to make himself a new Papyrus, named Patch. He can even corrupt code too, to the point one can barely function as they were before, as seen with... *checks notes* ............. *deep inhale* Lost Flicker Gans Bans Ean Missing!File Bob Sans. It also brings up as to what happens if he tries to copy something or someone not made of code, like Nightmare, who's not from the UTMV technically anyway. Does it fail? Fatal isn't really known for his fighting capability, but he's really good at the act of surprise. Outside of 0.7, it is canon in his own comic that he's able to capture and kill a Cross. Like, just imagine a story with me. Someone somewhere manages to get Fatal to join their cause, whether through promises or blackmail. They suddenly have access to an awesome Rogue, cloning ability for free, and infinite supplies. Copies also retain all the memories a person would have at the time of them being copied, and no one can tell if they are one or not. You don't even need to "bring a hostage back alive" for interrogation when all you need is their copy. And the cherry on top, leaving Fatal to his own devices will let him stitch a bunch of code together to make a Frankenstein-flavoured whatever, likely new to the multiverse using old pieces, which could be useful or the downfall of whoever Fatal is working with. The only thing Fatal is really missing to become the danger he could be is motivation. Even then, there was always one special someone he always cared about...

[one-awesome-beetle]

counterpoint - pandora is blackberries and mary is raspberries. I just associate pandora with picking wild blackberries from the forest when camping (and maybe making jam with them) so much, and mary to me is just pure unfiltered raspberry energy. do with this addition what you will

lily is strawberries, mary is blueberries, marlene is cherries, pandora is peaches and dorcas is grapes. fight me

[thecouchsofa]

It might be March, but better late than never!

While I posted more fic in 2024 (see my 2024 year in fic) than I ever have before, I also read an absolute shitload. Below the cut are some of my favourites that were published in 2024, arranged by word count.

As always, there is an absolute wealth of talent in this fandom and the amount of goodness we have here never ceases to amaze me. The fics below all really did it for me in a number of different ways. Though my opinion is subjective, I will happily vouch for all of them. Happy reading! 📚

❤️🩵💛💚

🌹Way to go, Tiger by @houndsinhades | G | 2k | 🌹

The time will arrive for the cruel and the mean You'll learn to bounce back just like your trampoline But now we'll curtail your curiosity In sweetness Way to go, Tiger Scorpius Malfoy's seventh birthday.

Read for: Scorpius at his best, Wholesome Parent/Child Relationship, Draco after the War

Note: This is technically a gen fic, but it gives major Drarry vibes so I’m putting it here anyway

🌺The game's the game by @hogwartsfirebolt | M | 3k | 🌺

Draco might be — definitely is — the world’s sorest loser, but he’s also the world’s biggest slut for Quidditch excellence, and he has it right here, holding him against his hotel room door.

Read for: Quidditch Rivals Harry and Draco, Friends with Benefits, a full story told expertly in a low word count

🌻 The sun between us by @eleadore | E | 7k | 🌻

Draco Malfoy, an omega. It was laughable until he was right in front of you, smelling like he was one shaky step from tripping into a heat.

Read for: Omegaverse, Snarky Banter, Good Characterisation (yes, I’m putting that on a PWP)

🌼 Apophenia by b6p592l11 | T | 12k |🌼

Out of the many things Sirius expected to happen after the war, having to deal with his godson dating a Death Eater was definitely not one of them.

Read for: Sirius Lives, Sirius POV, Draco/Regulus Parallels

🌷The Window by @hoko-onchi-writes | E | 15k |🌷

“I swear all you ever talk about is men.” Ron laughs and vanishes the last of the joint. “Sweet fucking Christ,” Harry says. “Remind me to never involve you in my life in any way, ever again.” He gives Harry a very handsome grin. “Padma said she saw him. At a Tesco’s.” “Who?” “Draco sodding Malfoy.” “At a Tesco’s,” Harry repeats. He’s very stoned, having an out-of-body experience imagining Draco Malfoy in a Tesco’s, holding a frozen dinner. He wonders, very briefly, what Malfoy’s been up to since the war. “I bet you wish you had a map of that Tesco’s. So you could track his name.” “Fuck off.” ~~ In which Harry grows up in darkness, falls in love, fucks up, learns some things, and falls in love again.

Note: this story also features Harry/Charlie, but it is endgame Drarry

Read for: Character Study (Harry), Adorable Scorpius, this line that I want tattooed on my prefrontal cortex: "There’s a very blond man with a laptop, and an equally blond toddler wearing a Wiggles t-shirt and brandishing a trashy romance novel like a weapon."

🪻Je te reverrai by @soliblomst and art by @kk1smet | E | 16k |🪻

When Beauxbatons visited Hogwarts for the Triwizard Tournament, Draco managed to control his attraction to fourteen-year-old Harry Potter. When Beauxbatons returns three years later for a cultural exchange, Draco's attraction to seventeen-year-old Harry Potter is impossible to curtail. In his defence, Harry's perfectly tailored blue robes, mixed signals, and French accent do not help.

Read for: Beauxbatons Harry, French Speaking Harry, Gorgeous Art

🌹Nine Days in Coventry by @sitaz | G | 16k |🌹

When a de-aged Draco Malfoy is discovered in Knockturn Alley, the Ministry appoints Family Liaison Officer Potter as his emergency guardian. Whisked away to a Muggle safehouse, Draco does not cope well, and Harry learns just how hard life can be when a five-year-old declares war on you.

Read for: De-aged Draco, Draco being a brat (but so cute), Harry taking care of Draco, Pre-Relationship

🌺 The most he’s ever said by @fastbrother | E | 16k |🌺

It takes them twenty years.

Read for: Down and Out to Redeemed and Competent Draco, Draco-centric, the Situationship of a Lifetime

Warning: Infidelity, but not between Drarry

🌻You And Me Against The World by @dracowillhearaboutthis | T | 17k |🌻

When Draco finally meets his soulmate, he doesn't want anything to do with Draco.

Read for: Soulmarks, Partial Canon Rewrite, Remus raises Harry, Draco and Theo friendship

🌼Equally Cursed and Blessed by @moonflower-rose | E | 18k |🌼

Harry's back at Hogwarts to attempt his final year, again. This time he's sure there'll be no shenanigans. Well. Maybe there'll be a few.

Read for: Draco’s artsy porn collection, Humour, Harry and Ron’s ride or die friendship

🌷Goodbye, Old You by harDeehar (dryrsheet) | E | 19k |🌷

As an alpha, Harry Potter should not have been an assistant for the newly minted Diversity department, and he definitely should not have been working under Draco. Draco seemed to be the only person who thought Harry was suspicious, but he was used to taking care of things on his own, anyway. Luckily, Draco was not as alone as he thought, and his understanding of Harry's intentions turned out to not be the only misjudgement Draco made.

Read for: Omegaverse, Coworkers, Mpreg

🪻Raising Hell! by @wolfpants | E | 21k |🪻

Harry and Draco are sent undercover as a married couple to investigate a dodgy Muggle love cult. Something evil is lurking in Glastonbury… but to get to it, the reluctant partners must be initiated first. And this is, after all, a love cult…

Read for: Case Fic, Competent Draco, Muggle Sex Cults, Good Smut

🌹The Superfluous Man by peu_a_peu | E | 24k |🌹

A child for Harry Potter is a miracle of magic. And it's the second act of Draco Malfoy's sorry little life.

Read for: Mpreg, snappy writing style, a pre-2015 feel

🌺On the divine agony of longing by @flimsi | E | 25k |🌺

Speaking to Draco is like poking a beehive - and Harry is a glutton for punishment. In which Harry makes some serious blunders and then tries to fix it. Somehow. Draco’s eyes narrow and his mouth purses, pretty and pink and wet from whatever he’s been drinking. “Any mediocre time is better than whatever you can you offer, Head Auror Potter. We’ve had this conversation. I thought I made myself clear.”

Read for: Magically Powerful Harry, Possessive Pining Harry, Competent Draco

🌻Antelucan Ruins by @rainjulyx | E | 29k |🌻

From the bloody Prophet, Draco discovers Harry Potter’s death splashed in grey ink printed on the front page. Potter is dead before Draco gets to see him again to fulfil a half-spoken promise. And yet, these days Draco has the power to bend the world to his heart’s desires, and that includes fucking Harry Potter even after he personally saw Potter’s pale, lifeless body lying in a coffin before it got buried under the soil. — "Do you realise that you're just as pathetic and insane? You're so hung up on the idea of me that you'd fuck a ghost, Malfoy. You risked your life for it." Draco puts an arm around Potter's body, "Whoever says I am sane? Certainly not me. It's calculated risk with more success rate than failure. And you are dead, Potter. You refuse to move on to the next realm because you crave for my cock."

Read for: BAMF Draco, Ghost Harry, a surprisingly hopeful tone considering one of them is pretty dead

🌼The only thing worse than heartbreak is Vermont by @jtimu | E | 31k |🌼

In the aftermath of a failed relationship, Draco Malfoy found himself with three things. His pride (tattered), Theo's luggage (stolen), and an all-inclusive couples' vacation package to Vermont (awful).

Read for: Lumberjack Harry, Banter, International Location

🌷Skipping Stones by @whimsibeee | M | 34k |🌷

Draco receives his very own prophecy. If Harry Potter could leave him alone, he might be able to figure out what it means.

Read for: Coming of Age vibes, Cosy Atmospheric writing, Complicated Family Dynamics

🪻Obscuro by @stratigraphywrites | E | 35k |🪻

Draco is grieving. His conversation partner is here against his will. It's a shameless rip-off of an insipid Muggle reality dating show. Hardly the occasion for true love, if you ask Draco. feat. a cat named Marmalade, a bird named Mumble, Lee Jordan's answer to Love is Blind, and two best friends who only want their dads to be happy.

Read For: Game Show Format, Hidden Identity, Good Smut, Epilogue Compliant

🌹Invito by PrinceMalice | E | 36k |🌹

Draco mused on the possible first use of the charm. What had the wizard been calling for? The text didn’t specify. As for the etymology— the meaning of the word itself was derived from I call, I summon— or the Hungarian variation of the incantation… To invite. Or, Harry keeps inviting Draco places. Draco keeps turning him down… until he doesn't.

Read for: Eighth Year, the sweetest unfolding of a relationship, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Party Games

🌺Gemini in Retrograde by @citrusses | T | 38k |🌺

Draco Malfoy doesn’t understand his son. Scorpius Malfoy doesn’t understand his father. It’s going to take more than one disastrous, body-swapping curse to change that.

Read for: Body Swapping, Alternating Scorpius/Draco POV, Draco being a good dad, Soft Harry, DADA Professor Harry

🌻No Harm by Tessa Crowley | E | 46k |🌻

After a long, bloody war, Draco Malfoy just wants to do something good with his life for a change, and resolves to become a healer. But magical society refuses to make it easy for him, and an increasingly dramatic series of events—all of them instigated by Harry Potter—get him kicked out of med school, force him to live in exile, and threaten to destroy the new life he’s trying so desperately to build. But Harry isn’t instigating anything—at least not on purpose. He’s just trying to work up the nerve to ask him out. His efforts don’t appear to be going great.

Read for: Down and out Draco, Pining Harry, same scenes from different perspectives

🌼Truth to Materials by lately & @toomuchplor | E | 54k | 🌼

In which Harry learns to appreciate art and other pleasures of the flesh.

Read for: Artist Draco, Paris, Good Smut

🌷Pillar of Salt by @epitomereally | E | 62k | 🌷

From the lake in the Room of Hidden Things, Draco knows three things: 1. Mirror universes exist, and he’s going to find the best one—the one where he did the right thing. 2. Harry Potter and him are awfully cosy in some of these other universes, whereas Potter in real life is starting to act very odd around him indeed. 3. Draco’s reflection—the mirror version of him, the worst version of him—seems to be growing crueler. And stronger.

Read for: Eighth Year, Alternate Universes (sort of), Magical Theory

🪻Behind Closed Doors by @stratigraphywrites | E | 77k | 🪻

Twelve years after Harry Potter disappeared from the wizarding world and from Draco's life, his daughter starts at Hogwarts.

Read for: Secret Child, Angst with a Happy Ending, Nonlinear Narrative

🌹A Soft Place to Fall by @amomorii | E | 142k | 🌹

When Harry arrives for his first year teaching at Hogwarts and is struck with a bizarre malignance, how on earth is he supposed to react when Draco Malfoy suddenly cares? Or; A darkness crawls out of Harry, and there's only so long he can keep it to himself.

Read for: Unique Concept, Managing Childhood Trauma, Reluctant Magical Coparenting (but it’s not what you think)

🌺The Star Splitter by @oflights | E | 219k |🌺

On a routine time travel assignment to the past, Draco stumbles upon 7-year-old Harry Potter and witnesses his neglect and mistreatment by the Dursleys. In the moment, there is only one solution, even if it goes against all his training as a Time Agent: he has to bring Harry back to the future with him. In which Draco burns his life down for the sake of his former school rival.

Read for: Time Travel, Draco taking care of Harry, Kid Fic

I hope you enjoy these fics as much as I did! If you read any, don't forget to show the creators some love ❤️🩵💛💚

[azriona]

Friday Five Rec List: Stucky Edition #1

Okay, fine, it's Saturday, be quiet. Rec lists are awesome and I used to do these all the time. I'm organizing these by pairing since that makes the most sense, but as I create more of them, I'll try to keep them linked together. Anyway, Stucky was requested first, so here's five of my favorites. All links lead to AO3.

Ain’t No Grave (Can Keep My Body Down) by spitandvinegar

(E, Canon Divergence, Stucky, warnings for drug use, past non-con, and mental illness, aka “The One with the Goddamn Kids”)

Post CAWS, Steve is in New York, trying to find Bucky. Bucky, however, has given up on trying to find himself, and instead has taken on the mantle of “Revelations John,” a religious-inspired vigilante systematically taking down Hydra with extreme prejudice. Oh, and he’s also adopted a couple of Goddamn Kids, as well as a serious heroin addiction. This is about how he found himself again. All of the characters are wonderful in this, and I love how they are so very different from each other but also very recognizable. Steve’s religiousness (he goes to church twice a week), Sam’s practicality, even the Goddamn kids’ brightness and determination. Bucky’s personality shifts are delicately handled, as are his addiction and mental illnesses. Sam’s theory on Steve as a War Refugee is my favorite thing.

❤️

Operation Gros Michel by SquadofCats

(Explicit, Stucky, Canon Divergence after CA:TWS, Steve & Bucky take on Florida, definitely not about bananas)

Steve and Bucky move to Florida, learn to garden, learn to surf, learn how to be again. And then they become renegade activists and only sometimes Avengers. It’s a lengthy exasperated love letter to Florida with some of my favorite original characters, and Steve and Bucky in Speedos live in my head rent-free entirely because of this fic.

❤️

Hot Neighbor and the Sunshine Baby by ZenaidaMacroura

(Mature, Stucky, Trans!Steve, parenting, slow burn, no powers AU)

Steve and Bucky are both single parents to two little girls who are best of friends. Which is why Steve’s simultaneous crush and inability to say two words to Bucky without putting his foot in his ass is a huge problem. Don’t worry, it works out. Eventually. Bucky saying all breathily “Yeah, I can do that” lives in my head rent-free, btw; this fic’s fault.

❤️

The Steve Rogers Problem by relenafanel

(Mature, No Powers AU, Actor!Steve and Fanboy!Bucky, a love letter to fandom and fanfic honestly)

Bucky Barnes writes smutty fanfic about the characters in actor Steve Rogers’ TV show—and then he realizes he and Steve were childhood friends and Steve’s back in town and wants to renew their friendship. Basically, it is every fanfic author’s worst nightmare. (Mine, anyway.) Hijinks ensue. There’s an AU within the series where Bucky isn’t a fanfic author, and it’s equally delightful.

❤️

Strays by snarklyboojum

(Teen, Bucky on the run, not-Alpine, post CA:TWS)

Bucky saves Steve from drowning, follows him to New York, adopts a kitten, breaks into Steve’s apartment multiple times, and somewhere along the line learns to be a human again.

[plaidos]

how are the epilogues treating gamzee these days. i started reading them and then got mad that theyre still just beating the shit of him lmao. if the writers hate him they should just let him die and move on (sob emoji). anyway i stopped reading bc 16 yr old me was way too attached to that clown and i never moved on. like a normal and well adapted person.

okay, i’m gonna say something that a lot of people aren’t gonna like:

to properly understand the Epilogues, you have GOT to let go of the pernicious fandom assumption that anybody who has bad things happen to them in the story is just “hated by the writers”. Gamzee is pretty obviously a favourite of Andrew’s if anything! like clowns are her whole thing! Gamzee is one of the most brought-back characters in the entire fiction, like more so than Vriska who people for years accused Andrew of having as a favourite.

like, 99/100 times, a story isn’t constructed like, “here’s a list of things that i wish would happen to these characters”. the only things written this way are usually fanfictions. you should try considering what Gamzee’s treatment in the Epilogues represents rather than just assuming “good things happening to character means the writer likes them”. if the writing team hated Gamzee it would be much easier to just ignore he exists or turn him into a background character

Gamzee was raised in an incredibly neglectful environment & brought up to believe himself to be a violent enforcer of the alternian empire despite how little he gave a shit about any of that. do you think it might mean something for him to be positioned as the personal punching bag of an abusive mother, spouse & empire heiress? do you think that the stark contrast between how John sees Jane’s treatment of Tavvy (horrifying, disgusting, immoral) and how John sees Jane’s treatment of Gamzee (constantly framed as comical, non-serious, if anything gross because he’s disgusted by Gamzee rather than anything he’s had to endure).

also i hate to be the one to say it but. spoilers: that is actually what happens to Gamzee. they kill him off. sorry.

tl;dr: the way the narration — or even narrative — treats a character is not usually a reflection of how much they like them.

[axolau]

Transformers and Female Body Types (Rant/Essay)

(I wanted more images in this, but tumblr has a limit and it was a lot of pictures anyway)

Anyone who complains about female transformers having “robot boobs” needs to shut up. Unless it’s a case of critiquing a design that’s genuinely caricatured, this complaint only serves to protest against robots looking too feminine, as if all robots by default should have broad, masculine shoulders and flat chests instead. The problem is that people look at a masculine transformer and say, “Ah yes, an anthropomorphised robot.” But the moment it’s one of the female transformers, it’s “why do robots need boobs?” as if a male-looking body type is anthropomorphizing, but a female-looking body time is suddenly “too human” or “too much.” As if all humanoid robot aliens should look male by default.

That being said, for a long time transformers did have a glaring issue of their female transformers having a generic, Barbie-doll like body type. This especially became problematic as male characters appeared with several different and varying heights and builds, while female characters all looked the same.

This eventually improved with newer media. I’m going to go through different transformers series, giving my opinions on various female Cybertronians designs.

Transformers Animated and Transformers Prime are the cases where we see the very few female characters that there are being designed with this more Barbie doll look, especially in comparison to the male cast, who each have strikingly different silhouettes. I maintain that there’s nothing wrong with having this stereotypically feminine figure as long as it’s not caricatured or designed to sxualize the character (in TFA’s case, Black Airachnid was extremely sexualized, but Arcee wasn’t at least) it’s just the lack of variety that makes it painful. If all female characters were designed with a stocky, square body type, it would be just as bad; the problem is the lack of diversity in representing how each woman is different.

I think Arcee from Transformers Prime gets some of the most comments about how she has breasts and hips and is most often faced with the question “why should robots have boobs?” In response to this question, I propose: why shouldn’t they? The shape of their chassis really doesn’t matter in the end. I like Arcee’s design and acting like she’s inherently caricatured for looking like a woman is just a way of alienating femininity.

TFP Arcee is also unfortunately sexualized a lot by the fandom. Primus forbid a woman exist in peace.

The problem with these ‘Barbie doll’ designs isn’t that they are oversexualized— while this may have been a problem with Black Airachnia, the true problem, as seen especially with the treatment of TFP Arcee, is the concept that any female body traits are inherently sexual, which both creators and fandom spaces feed into.

It’s not as prominent, but I’ve also seen a trend of attempting to give female transformers more diverse body types by giving them… male body types.

In Transformers Cyberverse, the Seekers all have the same body type, whether they are male, female, or genderfluid, the only differences being that the female models have lips and the male ones have facial-hair like chin stubs (and Acid Storm switches back and forth). However I would hardly call this progress, because the body type is more male-leaning, not truly gender neutral.

Often to make something appear gender neutral, people will just remove anything too obviously feminine. This treats masculine traits as the “default” and female traits as a deviance from this. A truly gender-neutral design would incorporate both masculine and feminine traits at the same time.

(What if we just made all the Seekers look like women and gave the dudes chins. What if we did that. Huh.)

Shadowstriker from Cyberverse is a better example of this, having a female body type but a chin stub and generally gender neutral face.

I like the look of Alpha Strike as well, she feels actually gender neutral and isn’t too exaggerated like most muscular (and especially muscular female) characters are.

For example, Clobber’s design is good, but I do think her lips were strangely exaggerated.

Once the IDW run of the Transformers comics actually introduced female characters, they eventually gained a large cast with a variety of different body types. Take Windblade, Nautica, Pyra Magna, the Mistress of Flame, and Aileron.

These aren’t all examples, but IDW certainly had a unique design for each of their female characters, with different heights, width, mixing and matching the proportions of their bodies and displaying diverse body types. Aileron is also a stand-out character design for me, as one of the few heavy-set transformers to be designed in a way that looks more rounded than bulky, implying weight over muscle. We need more weighted transformers in general.

I have many positive feelings about Transformers Earthspark’s choice of character design for their female characters.

Earthspark has the most consistently diverse character design for its female characters.

And it shows that the key to designing actually good female Cybertronians isn’t necessarily to make them not feminine, but to show diverse depictions of femininity. All of the female characters in this show are pretty feminine, but they all look different. Twitch is small and slight, Hashtag is tall and boxy. Each one has different proportions and are easy to tell apart by body type alone. Even better, they each have drastically different facial structures. Twitch has large eyes, Hashtag has a strong chin, Elita-1 has a straight nose and pronounced lips, Arcee has small eyes and a very slight nose, et cetera. Earthspark is definitely a win in this department.

My point with all of this is to say that femininity isn’t a one-size fits all. Every woman is different and everyone should get to express their gender in whatever way they see fit. Transformers gradually diversifying the look of their female characters represents this, and I hope they continue improving as the franchise continues.

[milkfordragons]

Hi! I’m a cis queer woman and a fellow Hannibal fan ofc. While I don’t personally enjoy daddy kink or dynamics like that (even though I did have a rough childhood, which is a noted contributor), I think your impromptu poll on this is very interesting because it dips into a trend I’ve always noticed— people in the Hannibal fandom tend to be more open to or likely to participate in/have “harder” kinks or ones that society as a whole may find awkward or even taboo-adjacent. Many of us are also prone to enjoying contemplating and analyzing things more and have more of a philosophical-adjacent mindset than others. I think it’s very telling about this that the core message of the show is understanding and acceptance and that subjects like violence, manipulation, cannibalism, mutual power struggle, etc are things that contribute intrinsically to the character’s stories in a way that has a gloss of deeper meaning and symbolism. So I think it has a unique edge in drawing in people who are neurodivergent/live with mental disorders like BPD or DID, are queer, interested in certain kinks, or may otherwise be inclined to view those things more objectively in the fictional context and be more willing to think on them. Anyways. Those asks and responses of yours have been making me wonder what percent of the fandom is into daddy/mommy kink, harder kinks like knifeplay or bondage, monsterfucking, or have a different mindset around things like death, morality, connection, etc…. Maybe someone should make a big poll questionnaire lol. Thanks for reading my very lengthy ask that’s more of a letter to the blog author lol 🫶

Absolutely! The nature of the show contributed to the kind of people that participate in fandom, I think it's why it has endured the test of time, frankly. Other fandoms who tend to be more prude, have a rotting quality to them. It gets exhausting after awhile. It's tiring to feel as if you have to hide or over explain yourself all the time to avoid the flood of judgement. I love it here. I love our freaky little corner.

[coriolisunset]

one thing that makes me particularly hopeful about june's transition in beyond canon is that in all likelihood we are going to get TWO distinct storylines out of it: one for meat june and one for candy june.

the last update had laid down the foundations of candy june's transition by putting on fragrant display her unwillingness to face her actual life as an adult who has to decide for herself who to be and what to do, as someone who has a personhood rather than a role to play and responsibilities rather than a quest to follow. she is so attached to the comfortable oppression of sburb that not only has she let it alienate her from everybody who was dear to her, she even reacts with palpable RELIEF (bordering on the villainous) at harry giving her an excuse to get back in the game, even if it's because he's decided he would rather fuck off into a hellhole adventure rather than have to deal with her.

meat june, on the other hand... is a corpse. this obviously puts her in a way different position, but it's ironically one that has a much clearer path to her coming out. despite being 20 years younger, this june has reached the logical endpoint of her candy counterpart's hyper-identification with the sburb narrative and has been consumed by it, getting killed in the progress of fulfilling her predestined role. her only hope for coming back to life is as a sprite in the new session, a literal sburb game piece; being thrust into this new state of being could very well be the triggering event for a serious, much-needed identity crisis. in addition, there's the matter of what she's been up to as a corpse: we don't have much explicit information about what the furthest ring/afterlife's like these days but presumably it now contains the noir city where catnapped and the hyperbolic helltier chamber take place in (the sprites who were left in the incipisphere are there, vriska reaches it through a pinhole in calliope's black hole, jasprose's fenestrated walls are connected to it...) so that also offers another avenue for meat june's personal journey to develop, especially given the connection between the problem sleuth characters living there and the vision of the table-and-chair from when ace dick played the game of life in death's bubble.

part of the reason i hope it turns out this way is that candy june's transition seems like it's shaping up to be a delicious mess, a story about a deeply traumatised trans woman cracking out of her egg right as her dysfunctional coping mechanisms have turned her own family and friends against her and are threatening to push her into a villainous role as dirk's counterpart, nominally benevolent yet just as destructively attached to the narrative, but it's also one that given the state of media discourse and the fandom would VERY easily be read in VERY bad faith ("oh snap john is transitioning but she's EVIL that will surely show all those trannies june truthers classic hussie trolling"), so showing off a more sympathetic transition narrative right alongside it could give the team enough cover to explore it fully.

anyway this is how grimdorks can still win (candy june and rose bond over being shunned and over their shared attachment to The Narrative so they get together; this development weirds THE FUCK out of the other characters and also generates absolutely radioactive wasteland levels of discourse from the worst people you can imagine)