#ancient yaoi lmao

[simoondraws]

Are they flirting or ...what are they even doing?🤨

[riotcat103]

Achilles: I have to ok?! I need to restore my honor! Patroclus: I'm sorry can your "honor" make you orgasm? Achilles:..no? Patroclus: exactly so it's either me or-

[impureserenity]

how it feels to always get seme or alpha results in yaoi quizzes/generators

[zeherili-ankhein]

Yeah must have been bestie stuffs who knows...

LAMO YEAH the Tamils and Shaktas saw the North Indian writers work and were like “imma make that gae for you just see” and they did well

Honestly kudos to them but aslo how many more were lost because people didn't wanted to write about them

OKAY OKAY SO

I don't think it's fair to credit ONLY ancient Tamil writers for the Harihar yaoi cult cuz in some Shakta beliefs Vishnu is seen as an avatar of Shakti, and HENCE...

Vishnu and Shiva are... technically married...canonically.... if u think about it

So a big shoutout to ancient Shakta writers as well!

I like to think that the North Indian writers were planning to make them a canon ship but were a little too hesitant so the Tamil and Shakta writers stepped in and said "Fuck it. We'll do it instead. Tumlogo se nahi hone wala."

Honestly BIG slay. They were TIRED.

EXACTLY LIKE THE ENTIRE KRISHNA = KALI THING PROVES THIS

Does that also mean Krishna stepped on Shiva-

Honestly the North Indian writers should have done that :/ sad they chickened out

The Tamil and Shakta writers honestly had a Thanos moment and said “fine I'll do it myself” AND THEY COOKED 🥘🥧

[velveteen-vampire]

please tell us more about the Jiequan/Yi swap pretty please with a cherry on top

i can try to wrangle my brain in enough to dump a little bit of what we had figured out for it.

basically jiequan used his money and research into transmutation to join the tiandao council like in canon but in this au he is much less about trying to replicate the aesthetic and ideals of jietong and much more about putting up a veneer of "righting ancient wrongs" and "using jie's resources for the good of all of penglai" in order to put public opinions in his favor (while still doing fucked up shit like torturing kanghui on the downlow). this is why he hasnt transmutated himself (or if he has its not in the same way as canon) yi is mostly normal UNTIL heng actually dies of tianhuo way before new kunlun is finished with construction. in his grief he becomes entirely misanthropic and demotivated, opting to basically shut himself away from the world and just focus on his work. with yi even more antisocial than normal and completely out of the public eye, jiequan uses his charisma to position himself as the face of new kunlun i havent entirely figured out why eigong kills him (probably something to do with her realizing that he fully intends to overthrow her and revive the jie kingdom when tianhuo is cured) AND i havent figured out how he ends up in the apeman village at all but he does! and he gets shuanshuan'd. in this au the home base is not the pavilion, but the prison, changed in layout slightly to accommodate being a safe-ish zone. the home base part of it is only a few walls away from all the guards and sentries, though. jiequan is keeping his kid only BARELY out of harms way. yi also took over the transmutation factory in jiequan's absence.

ji is also here helping jiequan. he ends up taking a very abacus kind of role. though he still makes jiequan fight him before eigong. both of them are excited about that fight lmao

when it comes to the sols, jiequan actually kills kuafu. kuafu is the sol right before yi and killing him triggers yi to come out of hiding and send an endless wave of geno guards after jiequan to capture him. when he does he tells jiequan that he found shuanshuan and captured him/took him away but he is actually bluffing because ji hid shuanshuan away somewhere else before yi could search the entire prison. yi decides to torture jiequan to get revenge for kuafu's death but it activates the secret freak inside of him and he enjoys it a little too much. which jiequan notices. jiequan is still a little bit on his "we're actually the same" crap with yi and he is a little bit right.

theres a miniboss with abacus where you have to insert some kind of sabotaging device to break him entirely. and i think theres probably a little mini boss with yi somewhere in here where jiequan kills him but he regenerates, so at his actual fight jiequan actually rips the cords out of yis head and plugs him into abacus, trapping him in a goumang-like feedback loop where he is alive but totally suffering the entire time. this, too, is yaoi.

we also had a few ocs in there for fun, like marble's zhan and my buddy rubric's xiawen, but this post is already getting long so ill probably talk more about their involvement when we actually figure that out.

[pokemxxn]

SPOILERS FOR NEUVILETTE STORY QUEST, ANCIENT COLORS WORLD QUEST

Just finished Neuvillette story quest and since I'm very normal about him I'll share some thoughts I NEED to get out of my system about his links with other fontaine characters.

First, the relationship between the melusines and him makes so much since. I think it was pretty explicit in his story quest but he helped them out of pure empathy because they're the same as him. They didn't know the cause of their existence and what to do with it, which is exactly what Neuvilette feels/felt about himself. They also had basically the same developpement, Fontaine was wary of them so they had to stood up for each other as they were treated as aliens by the people of Fontaine in the past.

For this reason, I think it was easy for him to communicate and understand them (they have the same upbringing). All of this makes his father and childs relationships with the melusines so wholesome and understandable.

I cried so much for the acceptance of melusines and Neuvillette at the end of the quest, it made me insanely emotional you can't even imagine. It means that Neuvillette was right to invite the melusines and that he has somewhere to call home after feeling like an outsider all this time.

We know where the melusines are from but I don't know if Neuvilette is aware of Elynas or not. I know it's unlikely but I'd like to imagine that it is the case because him having a relationship with Elynas and deciding to take care of the melusines for him would be peak angst, it would also be ANOTHER very strong relationship with another man where he takes the role of one of the caregivers (Old dragons yaoi my beloved istg). HOWEVER, I'm still reluctant with this because I feel like Elynas' way of speaking was really childish so idk but we can say that it's an after effect of dying... ?

Let's talk about another man with which he was very close to and where he took the role of a caregiver... I agree with the fact that there isn't a whole lot to work with to interpret their relationship as romantic but I think it makes everything hurts more and their relationship paralleles my favorite pairing with Neuvillette so... Yeah. I like the romantic interpretation (+ it's very romantic coded for me to have two father figure to a child coded character, like that's homosexual adoption to me lmao).

Okay, i'll share my vision now. We know that Vautrin was (most likely) the only human friend to Neuvillette at the time. It's so insanely beautiful to me that, he believed in him when no one was ready to trust him yet in Fontaine. I think Vautrin wasn't too fond of the Melusine idea at first but choose to believe in Neuvillette while keeping his distance to not get too hurt when it goes bad (he was convinced that it wasn't possible). Carole touched him but I think Neuvillette was also responsable for his slow character growth. I think they were pretty much a familly with Neuvillette and Vautrin being fathers for Caroline. Thinking about them having this kind of relationship makes the ending of the story where he has to sentence him all the more heartrenching. He lost the only human he was close to and he was the one who was responsable (as a Judge but also for bringing the melusines to Fontaine). I think Neuvillette is a character full of guilt, he believes in what he is doing but he's still the one who has to take most responsability in the end.

DO YOU GUYS SEE THE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN VAUTRIN AND WRIOTHESLEY ?? Please, it's so there !! First, both of them has been sentenced to prison by Neuvillette. I can only imagine what it must feel like to sentance a literal child to jail (especially in Wriothesley situation, it was very much deserved). BUT THEN, this child who he never really forget about becomes the most important figure in the very same jail he was sent to. Neuvillette didn't see Wriothesley growing up but when he did become a man, he became very important to him and they learned to trust each other deeply. After all, they're two part of the same coin (while Iudex IS Justice, it's the official justice, the Law. Wriothesley is personal justice and the application of said law, he is the one who does while Neuvillette is the one who gives order). I can't help to imagine Wriothesley and him getting closer while he is striked by the memories of the day he say him as a child covered in blood maaaaaaaan. Vautrin was sentenced after he and Neuvillette formed a bond while Wriothesley is reversed... Also they have the same dynamic with Sigewine that Neuvillette had with Carole and Vautrin.

Just imagine, Neuvillette with his guilt and grief over loosing Vautrin and Carole, getting approched by Wriothesley who reminds him of his lost lover... With him, he learns to redo his life even when he felt like he didn't belonged and wanted to stay as far from other as possible to not be too emotionally involved (to make his work doable and to protect himself).

Also I love how Neuvillette acceptance doesn't come just from Wriothesley and Fontaine's people but he is also freed in a way from the guilt over what happenned to Navia's father. She was angry at him (rightfully so) and he always thought it was deserved, he says in his voice line about Navia that he has guilt about this event. But Navia still goes out of her way to help him, knowing how much the melusines and him are connected. That's very touching to me and show him how much he is accepted and forgiven for his mistakes.

This character is so very dear to me, I relate to his struggle with his emotions and the way he seems to study humans through trials to better understand himself and humanity. When he says that he feels that he changed throughout all these years and traveler says : "He is already very human" makes me tear up... And all the scenes where he is ankward with others are so djsbdizj I love them so very much

Anyway, I love this silly dragon man !! Hope all of this was interesting to you...

[lily-alphonse]

for the rare pairs, did you ever get one with marlon and rasmodius? i haven’t been able to stop thinking about them together 👀

Old man yaoi is such a crowd favorite fr lmao

Ok you guys aren't ready for where I'm going to take this (except Human) because I had an idea for vampire!Abigail that involves Marlon and Rasmodius getting together. Cuz you know, like, 2 dads or whatever. (Technically 3 but Pierre? Ugh. He’s wimpy comic relief in this only)

For the purposes of this fic, Abigail is the wizard's daughter and only him and Caroline know.

Anyways I'm trying to do A LOT with this one so maybe I just do bullet points this time to give you the idea

There's no farmer, instead Marlon takes Abbie under his wing as a young adventurer

Rasmodius (because he watches everyone, like a creep) sees this and is like UGH not that THAT GUY, because Marlon is essentially his annoying coworker. Marlon tries to be buddy buddy with him and Ras is not about it. Like bro do your job protecting the valley and shut up pls.

Abbie stumbles on something she shouldn't in the mines, accidentally unleashing an ancient evil vampire and getting bit. It's very important to me that she turns into a bat. It happens automatically when the sun touches her skin, as a defense mechanism. She can survive in the sun as a bat.

So shit hits the fan obviously. Caroline goes to the wizard's tower screaming and freaking out because her daughter is missing and she is certain he has something to do with it (she hadn't known about Marlon) and Rasmodius pieces together it probably has something to do with the ANCIENT EVIL now on the loose. He assures her he is going to take care of it and has no choice but to team up with (ugh) Marlon.

Marlon doesn't know about Abbie. Ras is keeping all his secrets close and being careful about which info he gives to who. They go on an adventure of bonding. Important features of which are homoerotic wound dressing, and Marlon getting serious with Ras about his past and stuff. So he sees another side to him and starts to gain respect for the man.

A lot happens next that I don't have worked out yet sue me its just a concept rn. I have a few different ideas for how Abbie's side of things can go. She could potentially get out of the mines and turn into a bat which leads to her flying to the tower bc who else would believe her? Or she could be trapped in the mines with the original vampire and be like his spawn under his control or something.

Either way, we end up at a moment of truth where Marlon realizes Abbie has turned and feels like they need to kill her or otherwise trap her for eternity or something. And Ras is like tf no Im not condemning my daughter to that and Abbie and Marlon both are just [shocked pikachu face]

BATTLE OF THE DADS. DAD DUEL. FATHER FIGHT where they are physically fighting but also arguing about who knows best for her since the wizard has literally never spoken to her in her life but is also the one trying to save her, while Marlon actually did become a strong father figure for her but wants to kill her (only to end her suffering ofc)

Imagine they are fighting and Abbie just calls over them like "Not really suffering a whole lot, to be honest!" because this is a dark comedy as well as a romance.

Ras wounds Marlon badly enough (owie, it hurt his heart to do though, what is this, FEELINGS?) that he is subdued. Abbie and Ras take on the ancient vampire and nearly DIE but Marlon comes back and saves the DAAAY

He has the opportunity to also kill Abbie and doesn't, he's come around to compromise his morals for the sake of the ones he loves

Potentially even more homoerotic wound dressing and then they KISS with their old scruffy man beards and Abbie pretends to vom

The End

If you want this one to exist be sure to reblog and vote for it in the poll! This would be a hell of a fun one

Send me any Stardew Valley rarepair and I will tell you how I would make them work! (Even non-marriage npcs) If youre lucky you may get a mini fic out of it. Check the list below to see if Ive already answered yours

Rarepair Masterlist

@totallyhumanexe @chikoxiko come get ur old men

[real-total-drama-takes]

"Noco is ancient yaoi"

Tell that to Gilbert Cocteau and Serge Battour lmao. Noco is like 35 in Yaoi years, no where near ancient.

.

[atherea]

@shadowsportrait replied to your post “RULES: make a new post with the names of all the...”:

hit me with the yaoi

​ooh ok, so background info, i got really obsessed with these two guys from dimension 20's fantasy high junior year, spoilers below for yall who haven't watched it but want to

one of them (Porter) wants to kill an ancient god of rage and conquest and take their place and the other (Jace) is. there for the ride?? idk. what we do know is at some point, Porter killed him and he was brought back to life wrong because of the rage god and is now helping Porter gain divinity

there's no other reason apart from "they've always been sort of a pair" so in my mind i've interpreted it as they fuck nasty in between their evil schemes because why else would they consume my thoughts like this

anyway, here's a sneak peek, Porter's pose (right) is giving me difficulties because it's hard for me to get a reference of aghhh

its probably the catholic guilt but fucked up relations with divinity are a guilty fave of mine lmao, and what's more fun than some guy and the man he's making into his god?

[rometalia]

APH CARTHAGE/HANNIBAL

Tbh he’s a bit complicated to explain for me 🤔 but to start, he’s the son of Phoenicia/Melqart! He and his father weren’t always super close but Carthage respects Phoenicia. Phoenicia taught him everything he knows about business, trading and his knowledge on the seas in general lol. To be honest, I didn’t want to take the military route I see most people go for with their APH Carthage ocs which isn’t bad at all! I just thought it’d be interesting if he was more based on Carthaginian politicians.

He’s very prideful, a bit stuck up but presents himself as superior (like literally everyone in the ancient world). He’s a bit narcissistic too but it’s more or less just having an inflated ego. He likes to show off his navy and how good at trading he is and a lot of the times, his wealth.

Before I go any further I AM A TOXIC DOOMED UNHEALTHY CARTHROME TRUTHER. THEY ARE AT EACH OTHER’S NECKS AND REGRET THEY EVER TRIED TO MAKE A RELATIONSHIP WORK THEY ARE SO TOXIC YAOI.

Rome and Carthage’s relationship to me is veeeery interesting. Like… Carthage knew he was great. The people around him knew he was a great. He was a big, maritime trading empire. But he needed more. It was never enough for him—I’m not sure if he feels guilty about this want for more and more but I’m leaning towards yes.

Rome was the same. He was just a regional power at the time, away from his siblings trying to conquer the Italian peninsula. But he oh so desperately needed to be recognised as more. He wanted to know he could rest comfortably knowing there was nobody that was going to try and invade him at any given time. Most of all, he wanted superiority (young Rome was EXTREMELY narcissistic lmao.. glad he’s toned it down overtime).

Their relationship just started out as acknowledging they needed something from each other and they were the ones that were going to give it to each other. But they got attached, “somewhat”. I think Carthage especially knew it was wrong and he shouldn’t try to pursue something more with Rome because he just has this gut feeling it’s not going to end well for him—Rome is growing, he!s becoming stronger, and sooner or later he wasn’t going to need Carthage anymore. But he did it anyway.

When Rome did eventually end up leaving him Carthage was PISSED (and maybe a lil heartbroken but shhh Carthage voice im a manly man that doesn’t need romance), but he could stomach it for now until that shit with the Mamertines happened—honestly thats another conversation in itself but basically, I have two Mamertines ocs, a set of siblings and being the land pirates they were they reunited Carthage and Rome except it’s not a happy reunion and Carthage wants to see Rome burn at a stake and vice versa.

The Punic Wars:

Carthage voice I’ll make you pay Rome….. I’M NOT DONE YET….. evilly laughs

Rome voice I’ll make you pay Carthage….. I’M NOT DONE YET….. evilly laughs

Rome voice heh. I told you.

When Carthage found himself at Rome’s mercy it was like his pride had disappeared. After the first Punic War, he was discouraged but he still believed he was going to win. At the end he had to face the fact he wasn’t invincible—and so did Rome. (After the second Punic war in particular I’m pretty sure he’s thoroughly a bit afraid of Carthage and the seas from the first coughs HANNIBAL IS AT THE GATES!!!1!1!1!)

In the afterlife, Carthage is more of a bitter old man. Distant, doesn’t really say much and just kind of lives alone lol. “Requiem for O.M.M.2” is him/CarthRome coded

Anyways fanart time! (Check alt texts for second and third)

(Credits: @gracheeee for the first, @fertaine for the second and third, and @pin4tre for the last)

[growling]

Headcanon that Yomi actually does go to several psychiatrists (due to popular demand from his coworkers) it's just that none of them so far had the courage to say that there's anything wrong with him

Backstory behind it is that something has been bothering me lately about the way I perceive things and so I decided on the trusted ancient technique of "ok so draw yaoi hecksmirk from code rain saying all that and see if it sounds normal to you then" and. hmmm. i will do my best to not acknowledge tha- no we will not we will settle this like men. chat judge on whether i am being reasonable rn and once i get an outsider answer then i will continue to try my best to not acknowledge that but like I feel like I'm gonna implode upon myself if I continue to not tell anybody anything for 2 more minutes lmao. And I am losing my ability to articulate myself once again so this shall be it for the paragraph.. for now

(not putting this on the mdarc side I think, reblogs are fine dw just don't. clown on this im begging you)

[victorsandvanquishers]

I just realized a few days ago; how old is Koyo Toya? He looks like he's in his mid-50s at the beginning of Hikago while Akira is 11-12. So what do you think the age gap between Koyo and his wife is? I has to at least be 10 years.

Hello! I actually don't think Touya Meijin was that old lol. I think part of the reason he LOOKED so haggard and crusty was because he was always stressed because of Go, which ultimately did hurt his health significantly, but I don't actually think Touya Meijin was older than 45. I also don't think there was much of an age gap with his wife either, because I think she was just hot because she took care of herself while Touya Meijin was drowning in stress and heart problems, a very clear contrast between the spouse who can look after themselves and the one who cannot lmao.

I say this because Ogata was in his late twenties/early thirties by the time the manga ended, but he himself looked like he was a 34-year old-Yaoi-Protagonist the entire time. However, I think that was because WE the audience were reading the manga through the eyes of an eleven year old, and someone as young as Ogata (who is now younger than me LOL) would definitely LOOK old as hell to an eleven year old even if Ogata was only in his late twenties.

And someone like Touya Meijin, who was an illustrated Go player with a wife and kid, a man in his mid-forties would ABSOLUTELY look ancient to a kid lol. I know I used to think my 25 year old art teacher was old. I was in the seventh grade tho, I aint know no better

[sleepydrabbles]

Things I Have Been Obsessed With:

Wings

Scars

Injury

Pain

Loneliness

Description of Emotion

Manga (as a specific art form)

Anime (as a specific art form)

Bakugan

D Gray Man

Pokemon

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Horses

Japanese (the language, yes.)

Describing personal experience

Money (not in the fun get-rich-quick way, no)

Drawing

Writing Original Stories

Writing Fanfiction (yes, that’s a different art form entirely)

Photography (of small things)

Organization (konmari’d the fuck out of my room three times)

Social Connection (I’ve elaborated on this too many times to explain here)

Astrology (Babylonian, Chinese, Personality Typing, etc.)

Random Generators (using them)

The floor (my RA has a photo of me lying on the dorm floor because I still find it nice and grounding)

Religion (mostly Ancient Greek, Ancient Roman, some Ancient Egyptian. Never got around to the Catholic Saints but it was a desire)

Piano (quit because brother stole my piano book and hid it for ‘being annoying’)

Fairy Idol Kanon (it’s a real series I swear)

Happy Happy Clover (manga)

Pandora Hearts

My Hero Academia

Genshin Impact

Books (Book Hoarding, Dragon Style)

Dragons

How to Train Your Dragon

Rise of the Guardians

BTS (Bangtan Sonyeondan, Beyond the Scene, etc.)

SEVENTEEN (kpop group)

Fashion (continues to baffle me)

Stretching (Inherited super stiff, tense muscles and wanted to be able to touch my toes)

Pilates

Haikyuu

Aikatsu (anime)

Nest Building (as in bedding, comfy clothes, etc.)

Food experimentation (not anything wild. Grapes and yogurt wrapped up in a tortilla was pretty good)

the details TM (apparently. I get told frequently that I notice the little things. I do not think they are little things. I continue to miss things my mother finds obvious.)

Tragedy (why the fuck did I read so many books about people suffering and getting hurt as a teenager. I can’t stand true crime, but I did read “Reviving Ophelia” by Mary Pipher and it did some serious damage)

Music (as a listener. I was looking for a vibe that I have now found successfully many times over but still can’t describe to people, lmao)

Eragon by Christopher Paolini

Circle of Magic series by Tamora Pierce

Harry Potter (spare me. I was eleven.)

The Fire Within Series by Chris D’Lacey (just checked to make sure I didn’t hallucinate it)

Mistborne Series by Brandon Sanderson

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (my copy is a wreck of notes and underlined parts)

Studio Ghibli Movies (My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo, Song of the Heart)

Avatar the Last Airbender

Tourist Spots in Japan (I’ve since discovered through personal experience that the normal city streets are my favorite)

“Aesthetics”, as in the practice of throwing together a bunch of photos with similar color schemes and themes and calling it a summary of a vibe

Eve’s Music (JPOP)

Yoasobi’s Music (JPOP)

Kenshi Yonezu’s Music (JPOP)

Aimer’s Music (JPOP)

Teddy Bears and stuffed animals

Stickers

Swimming

My Little Pony

Littlest Petshop

Barbie

American Girl Doll

Vague Endings to Stories

Angst

Hurt/Comfort

Found Family

LGBTQ+ Labels and Groupings

Gender Presentation

Yaoi

Throwback Lists of 2000s Dance Songs

Character Playlists (That spotify thing where you name a playlist ‘[character] vibes’ and fill it with songs you think could be their theme)

Fairies (specifically that one book of flower fairies that’s really old and cute and seasonal)

Elves

being a Good Student TM (grades looked great! Other stuff not so much)

Human Biology

Drawing Manga Style

The Concept of Art

[ashes-goin-down]

Can someone please tell South Park fic writers to stick to writing teenagers, if they really struggle writing anyone older?

I don't mean to be cruel, but I've read three fics, in the last three MONTHS, where characters in their mid or even EARLY thirties are written as if they're in their fifties. Graying, balding, heart attacks, aching joints, describing themselves as "middle aged" . . . I could go on. The fics are even tagged as "old man yaoi". (I wish I was kidding.)

I know we all had to start somewhere and I'm genuinely not trying to shit on these people, but it's embarrassing, and no-one seems to be telling them. Most of them have anonymous comments turned off, so even if you want to do them a favor and nudge them in the right direction, you can't. But this seems to be becoming a fandom-wide issue, and as a fellow old as balls fandom member, I needed to get it off my chest. Sorry, kids - but if it's that hard for you to get your head around how a 30-something thinks, you shouldn't be writing us! And I say that with love.

Seriously. I don't know where this skewed perspective they have is coming from. Are they observing Millennial memes from the outside and misunderstanding the tone? Watching Kylie Jenner get a facelift at 25, and not realizing her sagging face was from filler overuse, not aging? Watching Gen Alpha come online and feeling like if they're getting old, as Gen Z's, then Millennials must be unfathomably ancient? (Gen X-ers like Matt and Trey must seem as old as Methuselah.) Whatever it is, I am begging them to stop. Nothing pulls me out of a SP-kids-as-adults fic faster than feeling like it must have been written by a twelve year old, because the 30-something thought process is so alien to them and it SHOWS.

Another fucking essay because I can’t seem to answer asks normally lmao Some thoughts on writing older characters under the cut.

I fully understand your frustration, anon. When I describe myself as “old as balls” I definitely mean that in ‘fandom years’. Of course the term is somewhat subjective but I wouldn’t actually consider myself to be all that old IRL.

While I’d agree that young people’s exaggerated view of how old thirty actually is partially stems from internet culture, I think blaming that solely gives off major “Socrates complaining about the youth”-vibes, because I honestly think that’s just kind of the way things have always been. Some people in this fandom are young enough that their parents are still only in their thirties – and your parents always seem old™ to you, no matter their actual age. When you’re that young aging is simply such an abstract concept that it’s nearly impossible to put yourself in the shoes of a character that is over a decade your senior. The trend of fic authors writing people in their thirties as if they’re just about to keel over from old age is honestly very funny to me since I remember it being the other extreme back when I was starting out in fandom, with characters in their fifties consistently being written like teenagers. As time went on this would be met with more and more critique, however, and I believe that this fact, along with the recent “old man yaoi”-trend has perhaps caused writers to over-correct a bit. (As a side note, I’m sure at least some of the people who use the term to refer to characters in their early thirties do so in jest. I know at least one couple IRL, both aged 32, who jokingly use it to describe their own relationship.) Either extreme portrayal stems from a lack of understanding of the mindset of a demographic the writers of these fics don’t belong to and I actually think that you can't criticize them too harshly for that. After all, “write what you know” is sound advice because it’s really, really hard to write what you don’t know without messing up. But while there is obviously no substitute for lived experiences, it is still very much possible to write a compelling, realistic story about characters vastly different from yourself if you put in the necessary effort and I think authors shouldn't be discouraged from trying. I used to write a lot of Jimbo/Ned when I was young and even though I’m sure I’d cringe intensely at those stories if I were to reread them now, I’m still very glad I wrote them. Because even though I’m sure ultimately failed, I did try to make them somewhat realistic and as such I did a lot of research. I read up on the American military, on war history, on PTSD and – most importantly – I sought out blog posts and memoiristic writing of Vietnam veterans.

At some point my fascination with the topic definitely eclipsed the ship but it still was the original reason for my interest and as such I credit it for teaching me a lot. It might sound silly but through writing those fics I unironically learned much about empathy, as it prompted me – as a little girl in rural Germany – to consider the perspective of characters that belonged to a demographic completely removed from my own. This consideration obviously extended to the characters’ ages and I distinctly remember how writing about them caused me to reflect on what a romantic relationship might realistically look like at that stage in life. As such, I think the “old man yaoi”-trend is, on the whole, a positive development, since I think that it might encourage young people to reconsider the notion that life ends at 25 - an idea which many unfortunately seem to hold. I see so many young people barely out of school worrying about “having nothing achieved” or even “ having wasted their lives” and it’s honestly heart-breaking. There seems to be this weird paradox where people think you need to have your entire life figure out by your mid-twenties while simultaneously waiting longer and longer to settle down and start families since that’s what old people do and to be old is to be avoided at all costs. To mention South Park again, I found it very interested that even in the “good” timeline Stan and Wendy were shown to still only be in a situationship because I think that’s something that is slowly becoming much more common for people at that age. There’s still a sheer endless number of paths one’s life can take after exiting your twenties and if writing fanfiction helps someone realize that I’m actually all here for it. ALL OF THAT SAID, I completely get where you’re coming from.. It really is intensely annoying when writers portray anything above thirty as elderly, particularly when this is done with actual malice, which I’ve unfortunately definitely seen before. Some writers unquestionably actively refuse even trying to realistically portray "older" characters to the point where it really does seem somewhat disrespectful.

But don't let it get to you, anon. One day they’ll be middle-aged thirty year olds too 🤭

[jellyfitzjelly]

ok anon, it's probably silly of me but i like you so i am contractually obligated to share my favourite shows for you to watch! The links are youtube playlists. :D

Legend of Zhen Huan (you can sometimes find it titled Legend of Concubine Zhen Huan or Empresses in the Palace): a 2011 Chinese period drama following the rise to power of a young woman in the imperial harem during the Qing dynasty. Don't let the number of episodes frighten you! You will be left wanting for more at the end of every episode! I guess you can say the drama is "old" by internet standards, but I think it aged gracefully. There clearly was budget invested on costumes and locations, so even now you can find people making gifsets on tumblr of the costumes! This is the drama that got me into Chinese dramas. It is SO good! The romance is incredible. I highly recommend it! If you can read Mandarin, I recommend reading the books it is based on, I've heard good things about it! The series recently received a new, excellent translation thanks to the awesome Magpie Brigade team. You can watch it all for free on Youtube. Stay away from the Netflix version titled Empresses in the Palace, which boils down a lot of the storyline into 6 humonguous episodes for western audiences.

Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace (also titled Legend of Ruyi) was originally slated to be a spin-off of Legend of Zhen Huan following Zhen Huan's emperor son and his love story with his childhood friend. It was eventually cut off and the series now stand on its own, though the drama is still based on a novel by the same author. The drama follows Ruyi Ula-Nara's journey from being the emperor's childhood sweetheart to the disgraced empress. Again, don't let the number of episodes put you off! I swear you WILL devour them all! The drama is very beautiful and relatively recent! It's free on youtube with English subtitles. It's heartwarming, romantic, tragic... I love rewatching it.

Nirvana in Fire is, simply put, The Count of Monte-Cristo but chinese version lmao. A young man comes back under a new identity to clear his dead family and army from a sinister plot that costed him everything, but also to help his childhood friend become the new Emperor. It deals with a lot of themes and does it quite gracefully, and has great, complex antagonists. It's also one of the first dramas I watched! Funnily enough, this is an adaptation of a BL (Boy's Love, aka yaoi, aka Men Loving Men) novel. You'll only get crumbs of it in the series tho because of Chinese censorship.

Magnificent Century is a Turkish period drama centering around the rise to power of Hürrem (known in the West as Roxelana), from slave to legal wife of the sultan. The story is set during what is considered the golden age of the Ottoman Empire: the reign of Suleyman the Magnificent (fun fact: he's actually known as the Legislator in Turkey thanks to his many reforms). This show is actually a soap opera, so it's quite dramatic but oh so gripping! I believe it also dates from 2011, so you may find it a bit cheap looking especially in the costuming department, but don't let that frighten you! After years of mourning the fact I couldn't find it anywhere, they finally put it on youtube with english subs! I know it looks super long, but trust me you will find yourself binge watching it at 4am...

Magnificent Century: Kösem is a spin-off following another famous sultana, set roughly almost a century after Hürrem's story. I actually never watched more of a few episodes because its storyline is basically the same as in its original series... Nonetheless, it is more recent and has much more budget, so you may want to start with this one especially since you don't need to have seen Magnificent Century to watch this one. Choice is yours!

The Rebel Princess (also titled Monarch Industry) is a costume drama set in a fictional, ancient dynasty. It follows a princess and her marriage of convenience to a freshly promoted general. The drama is very beautiful and the romance is so good! It's also packed with action and plot twists! I literally binge-watched it. The drama features a lot of veteran actors, so the acting is really good. Available on youtube with english subs. I didn't watch it on YT so idk about the quality of the subs. I can give you alternatives should they prove subpar!

[coiled-dragon]

Its funny i dont ship teen and adult ships much nowadays just my old nostalgic ones but now its like 30 year olds with ancient demons like dracfield like i gotta relate to the baby in the ship 😄

For me its fandom dependent, like I dont choose the ship, it chooses me xD 2022 was a big year for shipping adults and teens but then Dracfield came in like a wrecking ball and was like TOXIC YAOIIIII!!! Technically not really old man yaoi because Hoult is like in his 30s but also technically old man yaoi because both characters are over 100 years old LMAO