#and do i have to like them romantically irl to still write a ship between them and my self insert?

[strawberrisoulmate]

okay but consider: you can (self)ship two characters just for the angst of it all :)

you're right. that's definitely true.

i just get a bit of imposter syndrome at the thought of shipping a self insert with a character just for the hell of it if i'm not sure of how i actually feel about them, ya know?

but it shouldn't be that deep and i'm absolutely overthinking it haha

[olderthannetfic]

I don't get my fandom. They want more queer rep. The main cast is a bisexual femme woman with a preference for women, an aroace gender-indifferent AMAB man, a genderfluid all-pronouns using AMAB person with a beard who wears a dress, and a biromantic asexual bigender AMAB man who is agender + male. The supporting cast has a lesbian girl, a middle-aged ace het woman living semi-romantically with another woman who is the main cast's (emotional) adoptive mom, and a ambiguously queer character whose gender is never really confirmed or discussed.

A big criticism I also see is "the writing team is all cishet". One, we don't know that, someone could be closeted. Two, why is that a problem? I think it's great that they went, "this makes sense for who this character is. We don't have to force them to be cishetallo just because that's what you normally see in animation. Web animation can be different. This is who this person is and that's fine."

I'm 19. I talked to my half brother, who is 38, about this and he actually choked on his coffee. He said when he was my age, nothing like this was easily accessible for him. It would have been jaw-dropping representation for him. I asked about the writers being cishetallo and he said, "who fucking cares? I would've moved Heaven and Earth to see these characters hanging out and just fucking existing back then!"

I know you get a metric fuckton of asks, but I'd love to hear your take on this. You've been in the queer community way longer than I have (I've barely started interacting with queer people IRL; I grew up in rural Wyoming) and I do wonder what this debacle looks like to people in other age groups. I'd also be curious to know what older people would've thought if they'd seen this friend group in media when they were younger. I know it means a lot to me. But I feel like I don't get what it would have meant back then.

--

Well, written up like this, it might get an eye-roll for sounding like Captain Planet casting. (You know "One of A and one of B and one of C" in a way that feels kind of forced.)

But yes, I think most older queer people when looking at the actual canon would be like "Sweet! A cast full of queer characters!"

I grew up somewhere shockingly liberal for the 90s next door to some old, married lesbians (who still live there, as it happens). It still sucked for teenagers. I had an okay time, but I was always hearing about other teens having an awful time even as the adults in the same communities did okay. And that's a very, very good version of what it was like in the 90s.

I did have access to queer media, vastly more access than most teens had. It was still mostly art films, boring coming out memoir, and The Pain of Being a Minority serious literature. What I wanted was genre fiction with a romance b-plot between queer characters I found hot. There was a bit of that, but not much.

I don't know that I personally would have killed for the exact set of queer rep in a modern show, but that makes sense. There are plenty of identities that present about the same but where people have internal reasons for choosing one or another. There are different forces making one queer identity or another more embattled at a given point in time. So while broadly similar queer people have always existed, there actually are fads in identity to an extent. (This is different from "wharrgarbl, the blue hairs with their pronouns!!!", which is just people being ahistorical assholes.) Modern media does and should reflect these differences. It might be for me, but it's going to be for 40-something me, not teenage me if it's coming out right now. If it's for current teens, it's not for teen me.

But yeah, in a general sense, I agree with your brother: "Damn, we have so much today! That's cool!"

The kvetching is usually people being angry that it's not representing their exact slice of queerness instead of someone else's. Or, let's be honest, a lot of it is "You didn't make my ship happen! How dare?!" dressed up as activism.

...

One thing I will say is that teenagers were extremely dramatic in my day too, and black-and-white thinking was just as common. Looking a gift horse in the mouth is not new. Yes, your fandom is full of idiots, but I wouldn't read too much into it.

[antimony-medusa]

*new yorker accent* hey what’re yous thoughts on uhhh them queer platonic romances? new york numbah one da big apple babey!!!

Oh I love QPRs, I love relationship anarchy. I love the diverse ways that people can define a relationship that works for them, with whatever they need in it, and it can have sex or no sex, kissing or no kissing, sleeping together or sleeping apart, raising children together, buying a house, marriage, pet names, holidays with family— any sort of thing we put into a relationship, and we can pull that apart and reassemble it in a way that works for us, and it can be romantic or not, or sexual or not, but boy howdy it sure is queer.

Okay I have been assuming that this is in a fandom writing context, but the above all applies to them in real life. In FANDOM—

Okay I may be on the outside with this, but I think a QPR can definitely come up to the line of being ship, depending on the QPR, so I don't necessarily agree with the way this fandom has fallen into QPR = not!shipping that's safe to publically do to cubitos whose creators don't want ship.

Cause like, we have clips from streamers saying they're not comfortable with ship, or not comfortable with things being "weird", but they usually don't specify beyond that. In a lot of cases, they haven't specified if there's a distinction between character shipping or IRL shipping, so like in no cases have they specified if the issue with shipping is sex (cause you can have an ace romantic marriage with no sex— does that count as "ship"?) or romance (cause by definition QPRs would not apply) or strong emotional dwelled on bonds that tie them to another player in a tight way (cause like, this is what a fair number of people writing QPRs fall into, cause from the outside if you're not aro some of the QPRs look pretty close to romantic relationship on the surface! I know it's not romance, and you know it's not romance, but is a streamer just scrolling twitter going to see that at a first glance if they come across a snippet of someone calling each other a life partner and going to bed together?) Cause like, trying to put myself in the shoes of the streamer, I could see the problem being sex (makes sense) OR romance (makes sense) or any really tight emotionally-dwelled on life-bond relationship (some of this I don't know if the streamers might still think it's weird to see done to their characters, even if it's technically by definition platonic). So some of this I still don't know if QPRs are something that every creator is going to feel comfortable seeing?

And I don't tend to love the implications of some of the stuff twitter does where it's like "oh, i can't ship, only QPR", like QPRs are automatically like santitized "safe" shipping, instead of their own category of thing that could mean almost anything. Like in real life if you know someone is in a QPR you know they're in a QPR, you still have no idea if that means they're married, or have sex, or make out on the regular, or call each other lovey dovey things, or sleep together, you just know they have a life bond. This fandom treats QPR like it's only one thing, and like it's a lesser, training wheels type of relationship, and that really grinds my gears.

So for me QPRs fall into a category where I'm like, awesome, pog to do, I know we love to take interactions between cubitos and expand them out and it makes perfect sense to take some of these in a QPR way. Go on with your bad self. But unless a creator has explicitly allowed it/canonized it, honestly I'd treat it the same way as I would some of the more hot-button trigger tagged fics (abuse, cannibalism, whump, mind control, addictions issues, torture) or like "instincts driven" family dynamic stuff or extremely aged down family dynamic stuff, where I'm like yes, technically this is fine, but let's just be safe and keep that where the streamer only finds it if they go looking for it. Please keep it out of TTS. This is something for the fandom, not for the streamers.

Just tag your shit and keep it away from the streamers and you're good.

[sneakyboymerlin]

Making what’s technically a DNI which is funny cause I’ve never been a fan of DNIs, ppl will just ignore them if they want, but ppl will not stop being creeps around me and I wanna put forward what my beliefs & boundaries are

Trigger warnings for everything that’s under the cut are in tags, ‘cause this is p much just calling out the predatory shipping stuff

Oh also spoilers if you haven’t finished the show ig

People who ship Merlin/Mordred (18 and 10yrs old when they met), you need to develop the ability to see dynamics between humans outside of a romantic context, because that shit is disgusting. I don’t care if he “waits until he’s 18” or something. If you think this has no relation to real life, you are lying to yourself.

People who ship incest… get real, it’s 2024. This includes half-siblings, step-family, adoptees, etc. because they ARE relatives. Yes, I have seen ppl in this fanbase say it’s ok to ship adoptees because they’re not “real family” — specifically using Thor/Loki as an example (in the replies of a post about Merlin & Mordred having a “brotherly” relationship, no less). Those of you still shipping Arthur/Morgana and Morgana/Morgause… A ship being gay doesn’t magically make it progressive. Abuse is not progressive, it is a result of one person’s sense of entitlement in conflict with another person’s autonomy.

Racism and misogyny — particularly this fandom’s misogynoir towards Gwen. Common sense, except many of you will read this and think it doesn’t apply to you when it does.

If you think that Arthur is incapable of loving Gwen as much as he loves Merlin (despite the opposite being true in canon), if you call Gwen “a beard” or act as if Arthur broke centuries of tradition to marry a servant out of “convenience” or to use her for her womb — why do you want Arthur to objectify this woman so bad?

If you think that Merlin would’ve needed to teach Gwen, Lancelot, or Elyan how to write despite the fact that Gwen and Elyan were co-running a small business with their father for years + the season 1 photoshoots of Gwen writing + s5 Gwen writing onscreen + the fact that Lancelot and Merlin were writing each other for years — we get it, you watched Holes.

Villainizing Gwen and/or Elyan (e.g. the Kingdom Come fan script). Gwen accepts Merlin’s magic with a grace that Arthur doesn’t offer in the same episode, but fans often interpret Arthur’s reaction with good faith and ignore Gwen’s entirely. She and Elyan both suffered the wrongful death of their father when Uther accused him of consorting with a sorcerer and didn’t give him a trial. Elyan saw/experienced firsthand the wrongful persecution of the Druids when he was possessed by the spirit of a Druid child, so fics where he is disproportionately aggressive towards magic while Leon and Arthur are disproportionately calm are especially transparent (e.g. that Arcane Dominion fic on Ao3).

If you think that whole Helios arc (especially with Gwen’s outfit) or all the “Southrons” shit in the show wasn’t racist (or, if you don’t know, please look up what orientalism is and how it affects people irl).

Homophobia - a lot of merthur shippers (and others, but one’s kinda more popular) have a lot of homophobic beliefs. For example, if you think that sub = bottom and dom = top, that is both misogynistic and homophobic. If you think that Merlin or Arthur (or, like, Gwaine) is “weaker” than the other and decide their position as dom/top or sub/bottom based upon that criteria, again you are being misogynistic and homophobic. This goes double for presenting Merlin as a dom/top because of his magic (not in general), when it’s pretty clear in the show that magic peoples are experiencing a genocide because they are stereotyped as dangerous. Hmm, I wonder what groups this logic might apply to in real life who are demonized and hypersexualized to justify their eradication… not gay and trans people, or poc, or other oppressed groups! They could never have anything in common with a hypothetical oppressed group !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Transphobia - fics going on about how “[x gender] could never [perform y reproductive function]” is obviously something you say when you forget or ignore that trans ppl exist. Doesn’t matter if you’re making fun of mpreg or whatever, and no it’s not just merthur fics.

Religious persecution - first of all, if you generalize any persecuted religious group/culture or decide that genocide is justifiable towards some people, you are either a Nazi, a Zionist, or some other white supremacist, and you are not welcome here.

Now, this touches on homophobia, misogyny, and transphobia, too, but because magic is ultimately a stand-in for religious persecution, it goes here:

When you villainize Merlin for keeping his identity a secret in a society where he is, in written law, to be executed for the way he was born, you’re sending a horrific message to people who should never feel guilty for the most bare minimum acts of survival. Fiction is informed by reality, and may support certain societal aspects/ideas in return. Stories are a form of speech, which is cycled through the sociopolitical atmosphere of the storytellers. You are not immune to propaganda, but you are especially susceptible if you refuse to acknowledge that even allegories exist.

[greenerteacups]

oooh (hello, sorry, hello), quick question, since I saw you mentionned Tonks, via Lupin. What are your thoughts on Tonks/Lupin? :3

Hello! I wrote about them a long time ago in this post, which I don't fully stand by, since I've reflected on it some since. I think my stance on age gaps has changed a bit since then, and I'm more interested in the potential of Tonks/Lupin to be a ship that's not (as I sort of assume in the post) purporting to be an idealized "healthy" couple, but rather is a realistic relationship between two people with similar trauma in an ongoing war. They're not a ship of mine, but I can see what would be fun and interesting about them.

Specifically, I think it makes a lot of sense for Tonks to be attracted to Remus, who is one of the few eligible bachelors available to her (being a guerrilla warrior seriously narrows the dating pool) and also happens to be a grizzled soulful war veteran with a lively sense of humor. That's a pretty normal and predictable crush for her to have, actually. It's also pretty normal for Remus to become attracted to a hot, funny, capable woman who's showing romantic interest in him. But that's where a lot of people run into the squick, which is fair — 23 and 35 is a large gap, and it's early enough that it could be Tonks's first relationship, which would make it more uncomfortable.

That being said, although I remember going ??? when I first read the Remus/Tonks arc, it never occurred to me that it might reflect poorly on Remus. (I was a child when I read these books for the first time, but even so, I definitely could tell when there was something up with, say, Slughorn, who creeped me out for reasons I wouldn't identify for a long, long time.) For one thing, 23 and 35, while not being a dynamic I would support for my friends, is still a consenting relationship between adults. For another, the text is pretty clear that Tonks has been aggressively pursuing Remus for a while. We can litigate how likely that is to be true in any given IRL case, but in the text, it's unambiguously Tonks's passionate and enduring conviction that they should be together, and Remus agrees only after both primary female figures of authority in the series (Molly and McGonagall, respectively) give him their blessing.

My main regret is I wish it was used as a springboard to explore more about Tonks. She was a character with a ton of potential (metamorphmagus! auror! spy! daughter of a disinherited Black! cousin of Draco, niece of Bellatrix and Narcissa, second cousin to Sirius! went to Hogwarts alongside Bill and Charlie Weasley!) and I feel like her love story didn't give her anything all that interesting to do; Remus was the main point of conflict, and even then, we didn't see him get over it, we just saw Molly and McGonagall telling him what to do. This isn't about wanting better writing, it's about wanting any writing for him, man. His scene about Tonks with Harry in the beginning of Deathly Hallows is great, notwithstanding it has the misfortune of existing in the context of Deathly Hallows; but again, this is Tonks being used as a vehicle of character development for two men, and not explored in her own right. So that, if anything, my bone to pick with the two of them.

[askdacast]

since I started liking/posting stuff related to the funny boomer Minecraft Youtubers playing an improv death game, I'm probably gonna post more opinion or lore posts occasionally when I have time; the Life Series is like one of my pet obsessions I circle back to every time a new season comes up like most people.

(to my friends/other followers who have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sorry)

I don't usually watch the main Hermitcraft/other SMP videos because they aren't my thing compared to the Life Series SMPs, but I do enjoy what the creators put out and they all deserve lots of praise for the hard work they've put in (especially after a lot of unwarranted criticism lately over Secret Life + Hermitcraft Season 9)

and now for a scorching hot take that will disappoint a lot of fans

I really like the Desert Duo...but only platonically, and lemme tell you "platonic" and "Hermitcraft/Life Series fanart" go together about as well as water and oil

I'm already not a fan of shipping in general as a personal taste, but when it comes to shipping real content creators, my discomfort is doubled. If you ship them I'm not gonna hate on you or ask you to stop, you're free to do as you like and I'm not the internet police.

That being said, Grian and Scar are super close friends iRL (if you include Mumbo, I consider them a "DO NOT SEPARATE" trio) and it's honestly really heartwarming to see them in other series just goofing around and even doing RL meet-ups (mostly Grian/Mumbo). To me I've always loved seeing really close friendships like these, and I will try to refrain from snarking about how people on the internet are really bad at distinguishing Philia love (friendship, really deep friendship) from Eros (romantic love).

The point is, I kinda feel uncomfortable when I see shipping of them cuz it feels like willfully misinterpreting the bond of actual real people. I know a lot of people say "separate the CCs from their personas in the series/lore," and I understand why, but the whole practice doesn't sit well with me. It almost feels like instead of creating something actually derivative of the real people, it's like smooching two dolls that just happen to be labelled "Grian" and "Scar". And as a writer myself for other things, I really like to pay respect to the subject matter I'm writing about, and that includes real people. And considering Grian iRL is a straight married man who's said before he doesn't really like the shipping (Scar to my knowledge has not given his opinion on it), it feels even more uncomfy to me when people try to ship him with one of his actual close best friends.

Yes in a way the real people are separate from the personas they put in Hermitcraft or the Life Series. They're like actors, doing it for the job and the sake of us the audience. (Considering I'm a big fan of Vtubers, I'm very acquainted with this paradox) Even still I can't help but always be cognizant of how they're still real people trying to put out their heart and soul to the public, and we enjoy what they do with deep respect for what they're doing. Shipping, especially if they've voiced their disapproval for it (even though they haven't banned it), feels just a tinge not respecting them as actual people, and feels a bit parasocial-y.

But again these are just my personal feelings, this is NOT a hate/call-out post to anyone in the fandom or demanding anyone to stop shipping the hermits. That being said you're likely to not get any out of me for the reasons I've stated above.

and a side note to talk about lore specifically, I just think platonic Desert Duo (for the Life Series specifically) is even more interesting than taking the romantic lens, because we can still have the angst and the doomed narrative and the unsaid trust between Grian and Scar, and still be able to celebrate each of them individually as respective players/creators, without having to make every achievement they make be about 'oooo because fate'

I haven't seen anyone yet posit the theory that (CHARACTER) Grian has distanced himself from (CHARACTER) Scar not because of just trauma but also that Grian thinks Scar is perfectly capable of holding on his own (shenanigans and carelessness aside). Like he's known Scar long enough to trust that he can survive on his own, and thinks that they should try to not hold each other back, and depending on who you ask this was either a really good or REALLY REALLY BAD CALL in Secret Life (because Scar did win on his own merits, but was left all alone)

[blackfemmecharacterdependency]

They Should Have Never Given You the Word “Queerbait”

It’s been 5 years and I’m still thinking about this, so now I am going to vent a bit. I hate when there is a Black female protagonist who is queer coded and seemingly in a slow burn setting, and the viewers flag it as queerbait and disengage.

I feel like I have seen so many shows where people can take a character who is never even suggestively queer and nit pick even the smallest glimmers to validate reading them as such and they will be able to ship and create and support all of the ways this is a queer character and trust the writers to possibly give more. 

But, when there are Black women in these areas, it falls down as soon as they aren’t given overt displays of wlw actions. I said its been 5 years, because I’m specifically thinking about Kiss Me First, but I also want to hit on Crazyhead, while I’m here because I feel like it got paid the same treatment in this regard. And both of those shows had such good writing, and as a Black queer woman WITH mental illness, both of these characters spoke to me and seeing them have potential for love stories for wlw stories was so rewarding, only to see the journey get bashed and the shows get cancelled. 

So. Let me talk a minute. Starting with Kiss Me First.  If you haven’t already watched it, you probably aren’t going to, so I’m not sparing potential “spoilers,” as I’ve said, its been 5 years.

Kiss Me First centers around this dynamic of an orphan, Leila, who recently lost her mom and is getting attached to a woman, Tess, that she met in this computer universe, who she also has befriended irl. Leila and Tess start off with some mystery, as you can’t tell what Tess’ intentions are for this woman, but you see very early on that Leila doesn’t necessarily trust people that are in Tess’ life. When Leila realizes that the person who Tess seems to care about the most is a dangerous and manipulative person, she does everything that she can to protect her.

The criticisms of the show were that people were “queerbaited” with the relationship between them because of the romantic and sexual relationships that these characters had with men and not with each other...

This is what is frustrating to me: So much of this series is realistic, INCLUDING the story arcs where these women are in relationships with men that don’t really serve them best. Real life queer people frequently have relationships with partners that they don’t really belong with before finding the love that they had been seeking. But, the moment it happens in media, especially with a Black woman, it is unbearable for audiences. They gotta see her eating box, or it ain’t real.

And it’s aggravating, because there is this fairy tale happening in which Leila literally is on a quest to save Tess. She knows that this guy is dangerous and her entire goal becomes making sure she rescues Tess from him. He lifts Tess on a pedestal and makes her feel like she is the most important person, but he is actually an abuser and preying upon this group that idolizes him, so Leila spends episodes working to get Tess out of his grasp.

In the end, they aren’t IN a queer relationship, but she has absolutely freed Tess and Tess is helping her to escape being framed by the enemy. They are “friends,” but if you have a queer eye, and are not racist, you’d be able to see that this is and was the entire time a fucking love story between these two women! If anything, they tossed in some dudes for the straights to pay attention. I’m livid every time somebody suggests that Kiss Me First is queerbait. To you, but not my Black, gay, bipolar ass. I loved it. I wanted to see them flourish. I wanted to be given the payoff, yes. But, I loved being able to see a beautiful love story between two fucked up people who were side by side at the end.

This happened in Crazyhead, as well.

Raquel is a target for an apocalypse and do you know how Amy saved her and the world? By telling her she loved her and giving her a kiss that brought her back from the brink of destruction...

Now... I will admit, the writers did a “no homo” type thing at the end... but the homo in me seen the homo in thee, so I wasn’t bothered by that. 

I just think that it is an unfair measurement, to expect everything to be served up for you in order to support representation, and not being able to detect subtext or to envision the potential coding shows a huge amount of privilege. I adore the fact that so much queer content as of late gets spoonfed to you, but I also enjoy a slow burn, and it’s not right that Black queer women rarely get one because you give up if there’s not an automatic tonguing and huge declarations. And in the cases of these two shows, there were very clear expressions of love and several moments of intimacy, but I guess they needed to trib for true love. 

Anyways, I love Kiss Me First and Crazyhead, and I consider them representation FOR ME. 

[gwyns]

tbh with you after finishing acosf and the bonus chapter for the first time, all I knew was I didn't want Elain and Azriel to end up together. I wasn't remotely passionate about Gwynriel and Elucien but I definitely knew E/riel isn't going to happen.

Mainly bc through out the whole series even if 3.5 books of it was from Feyre's pov and first person I didn't felt any spark between them. between Nesta and Cassian? NO DOUBT I new they were mates. as casual reader you can feel they're mate material. but even that rescuing scene everyone keep talking about that it's the main reason they're going to end up together fell falt for me!! bc Lucien wasn't there and I'm sure if he was... no one could've stopped him.

like acosf was the last nail in their coffin! sjm could've made me believe that they're endgame specially when it's 3rd person but she didn't even try lmao. but still I was like well... she made me like Nesta! she made me fell in love with her and understand her in a way it felt personal. she made me fall in love with Nessian and Feysand so she can definitely write E/riel that I might change my mind about them... but I was unsure and I was trying to convince myself lol (the way I kept telling myself that it's gonna be okay lmao)

but then I read the bc and it was over... I was done! the way Azriel thought about Elain made me cringe multiple times. the way Elain felt so small in that scene made me uncomfortable and the way he questioned Cauldron as he has some claim on her? oh all I could see was red!!! so that's why I was sure E/riel won't happen and even if it does I was done with this series I'm not even kidding...

so yes this was my experience with the book! and I brought this up bc I saw one of the E/riels say that if they didn't join the fandom they would've known people shipped Az and Gwyn and their irl friends also didn't know that...

honey sorry to break it to you but you need to raise you standards. bc if you didn't notice how toxic that interaction was... I feel sorry for you</3

i agree with you so much! like i admit i have days where i think "am i wrong? am i the delusional one?" because e/riels are just so loud and they get in your head sometimes you know, but then i remember all the canon text and that sjm loves her mates and... well... i feel way more confident. like it's so clear to me what sjm did in that bonus chapter but others don't see it? and az even said in hofas that he doesn't have a mate, so clearly he's given up on that nonsense lol

that rescue they like to bring up is so funny when you remember that the only reason az went was because nesta said he couldn't do it. that's literally it. he didn't care at all until she brought his skills into it. cassian volunteered first, but he didn't go only because his guts were spilling out. but you know, elain and az are true mates, even tho both times she was in danger he didn't react at all. yet they'll say he didn't care about gwyn when she was in the rite, but at least he actually did react to that

that's something i've said before, i may not care for e/riel, like at all, but if sjm did go that route i'm sure she could make me like it in some capacity. she's known for her romances! she can write it!! yet she didn't. she chose not to. instead she gave page time to gwyn and az taking glances at each other and bantering. huh weird... a new example i like to use is helion and the lady of autumn, they didn't even speak in acowar and yet they have that spark and insane chemistry, and all sarah did was tell us their backstory!!! so clearly she knows how to write a romance that'll get you hooked with nearly zero interactions and just a few lines of text. yet, again, she chose not to with e/riel

pretty sure i and others have said it before but if it were lucien calling elain "the third" we'd never ever hear the end of it, but because it's the hot broody bat it's uwu and sooo sexy and romantic!!!!! his part with elain gives me the ick, full stop. i've been sexualized and treated like an object (i had a friend who, after we stopped being friends, i found out had saved pictures of me and got off to them) and let me tell you, it doesn't feel good!! i don't get why they'd want that for elain. i don't think az is a bad person at his core, he's just... going through it right now but that's not elain's problem and she shouldn't have to be reduced to being his fantasy and nothing outside of that

here's a little message to the e/riels that think the average reader doesn't ship anything but e/riel. my irl friend is the most casual reader, she hasn't even finished acowar yet, she doesn't even go into fandoms of things she's passionate about and when i told her people shipped elain and az without any context or bias (i literally just told her they were shipped) she looked at me confused and said "why? elain and lucien are mates. elain and az are too similar, they wouldn't be good together" and by "too similar" she means they wouldn't push or challenge each other and well... she's not wrong lol. she also ships gwyn and az based solely on the "see you tomorrow, shadowsinger" quote i sent her so, clearly casual fans can see it too!

[abri-chan]

To play devil's advocate for a moment and why I think morality should not dictate what you write. But isn't Lisa/Nanao grooming in some way? Because Lisa met Nanao when Nanao was a child and read to her and interacted with Nanao quite a bit, almost like taking her under her own wing, for as long as Lisa was around in the division. Now if it is okay to ship adult Nanao with adult Lisa, because to be fair Lisa didn't raise Nanao as her own daughter and didn't show romantic or sexual interest in her as a kid, why is it not okay to ship ships with similar outcomes?

Shunnao fans pre-manga reveal didn't't know she and Shunsui were related. Sure, the ship is problematic for many reasons, such as having known her as a child, similarly to how Lisa knew her, and age gap, and having taken Nanao under his division wing and mentored her in some form. It's the main reason why you don't date your boss irl. But if it's grooming if Shunsui goes for Nanao why isn't it grooming if Lisa goes for Nanao? You can't say one ship is okay and the other isn't. Plus fiction is not real life, and it will all depend on how the said people are writing their stories (are they fetishizing etc) or what reasons they had to ship whichever of the two ships. You can't go into a space not meant for you and act like you know these people by a few posts.

And no I do not ship shunnao & never shipped them or saw the potential for a ship. But it is not meant for me is all it means. That if I had read Bleach when the manga was still running and not like a year or two ago, and I didn't know they were related, it would still not be the kind of chemistry I want in a ship. I probably would have had no Nanao ship until Jugram came around and later on. But that doesn't mean other people didn't see the potential chemistry they liked. And to this day, many are not clear on how the two are related because of the gaps in timeline, and the fight seems to be between those that take Shunsui's words "she was my brother's wife" to mean Nanao is his niece, and those who take the math that Kubo cannot add to mean that she's probably of some other man the mother slept with or married after the father passed away. There's obviously more to it, like the intention you take after the mom sacrificing her life for a sword and how that would not be a person who cares to find another husband, but the fight seems to be reading the "sentiment" or emotional aspect of the saga, vaguely what you think Kubo was going for, versus how well the world building and timeline was done. And I cannot speak for the second camp because I'm in the first.

I never thought shipping Nanao's mom with an adult Shunsui would be a problem. It is messy for sure because of their family situation, but not problematic in the usual fandom way. They are both adults. And if she were to return in Hell arc which is what most of what I write is based on for the two at least, they would not only be adults but also be adults of comparable age, with Shunsui being older which personally I usually tend to want an older woman with a younger man, but oh well it doesn't ruin the character interaction potential. They're not blood related. And it is also not grooming of the kind of adopted brother or adopted son, as he was none of that to her. She didn't raise him, she didn't even mentor him like Lisa or Shunsui did with Nanao. All and all, he was her husband's younger brother who came around to play once in a while. It is also not cheating in that, 900 years later or however centuries later it would take us to the current Shunsui, her husband (his brother) is long dead, and she's widowed and for all purposes single. I do think the way I read the manga, and idk what Kubo will clearly confirm in the anime, that young Shunsui, as far as late teen Shunsui had a crush on her. That is not rare for teens to have one on adults anyways. I do not think his sister in law knew he liked her. I think she died not knowing that. I do think Shunsui also never moved on from his first love possibly because of how much trauma it gave him and how it affected him. Why else the kimono and hairpins of her, when giving or taking a hair piece in ancient Japan was a love confession? But he's an adult now, he's an adult in Hell arc, and he's also an adult when he takes the sword from her and when he's executed. Again messy, but not "illegal".

The issue here is that it is easy to hate shunnao because the consensus is they are related. Therefore it becomes incestous hence immoral. Is cheating immoral? Some of the best ichiruki comics I've seen and deep art have been cheating ichiruki. I don't think it reflects much about the person that draws them. Isane/Unohana is full of power imbalance in more than one way: Unohana is both her captain and physically stronger. Lisa/Nanao have age gap and that weird part where they actually interacted when Lisa was an adult and Nanao was a child. RenRuki started off with Renji almost killing Rukia because he had convinced himself he had no chance with her if he were to give Rukia a better life now that she was a Kuchiki and he hardened his heart in response to convince himself otherwise that he didn't love her. Toxic no? But he also has one of the best growth scenes where having failed to defeat Byakuya, he begs Ichigo to please save Rukia. Starting off with toxic masculinity to swallow his pride and change. The point is if people were concerned about what is moral or immoral and how it reflects on the person writing the story, it will never lead to any interesting stories. Because stories need friction and conflict and change. I think that's the main problem I have with fandom wars or callouts (and fallouts) and anything of the sort: how it makes people concerned someone is looking over their shoulders so they better behave and what will other people think of me? That's not the kind of place you want to create from.

And this doesn't have to do with ships only, it can happen in gen stories with any characters you like writing about. You will always find something problematic to complain about. I dare you to give me a character and see how people will rip them a new fault. And you see remnants in all aspects of the fandom. You can't write about so and so and so and so with who and who because they're problematic, and thus the person writing or drawing them is wrong because they're perverted or immortal. Or "plain wrong", if we take the side of fandom that argues about what is canon and canon-aligned as though any interpretation by anyone but the author isn't in some broad sense fanon. But also it should not matter because why do you have to ruin it for people who make reader posts or OCs or are OOC what did they do to you personally? Some people are plain assholes. But most people I think genuinely come from a place of concern to warn others to "block and stay safe", but unless the person has done something terribly wrong (like rape and how are we doing on that when it comes to rapist male writers and actors? yeah not good.) it leads to witch-hunts and overreactions. No one is going to go through a person's whole blog to fact check. And even if they found evidence of what they consider "improper"... I think, it is often about things that ultimately will not matter a year from now. I also think it is easier to drive out random fans from the fandom and feel like you did "good activism" for the day.

I don't think people should be mean. I think people should be kind. And I know it sounds cheesy but you'll eventually realize how important it is to surround yourself with kind people or be kind to people in life.

[scummy-writes]

Hello, please call me Scum! If that is too direct for you, you can call me Scummy as an alternative.

I am 29, I go by she/her pronouns, and I use this blog to post my fanfiction as well as my general fandom ramblings and such. I am primarily interested in Ikevamp and Ikepri, though I generally like other eng cybird games as well.

I am pretty explicit at times, and primarily write smut, so I do not want minors following me.

My main account is @strawberry-scum. I do not recommend following it, however if you want to properly block me, you need to block that account as well as this one.

─── •✧ Favorites

Prince: Gilbert, Roderic, Clavis, Silvio, Chev, Keith

Vamp: Isaac, Arthur, Theo, Comte

Villains: Elbert, Alfons, Victor

Tier list here!

─── •✧ Ships (between suitors)

Gilbert/Roderic, Gilbert/Silvio, Gilbert/Chev, Gilbert/Clavis, Isaac/Arthur, Arthur/Theo, Theo/Isaac, Comte/Sebas, Elbert/Alfons- and variations of these ships with mc or an oc in a poly relationship.

─── •✧ Other Blogs

✧ @ikemen-daily-questions - a blog centered on popping out a question daily to think about in regards to your fave character (limited now, posting holiday q's and then ending)

✧ @c-bookwyrm - Oc blog for my ikepri oc Constance

✧ @askgilbertvonobsidian - askblog where I rp Gilbert

✧ @letters-from-ikemen - a blog where other writers and I fill out letter requests from your fave ikemen. Requests are open, and we're still recruiting new writers!

─── •✧ Writing Info

✧ I am not a stickler for IC / OOC. I believe that since we're not official writers for these games, everything we write is OOC. I personally will try to stick to my belief of what I think IC for the character based on what I interpret from the game and don't like arguments about this.

✧ I enjoy gentle femdom, and so loose aspects of that (if the fanfic is not centered on that) will sometimes pop up. It's been a while since I've written it, however.

✧ I usually don't see any of the characters as strictly straight and so will ship suitors together at times, or have the suitors romantically interested in each other when writing polyships. I will also reblog trans hcs and such too if I enjoy them. If that bothers you please just leave me be.

✧ Due to liking Gilbert, I'm now able to have a character I feel like I can explore kinks and themes that I felt like I couldn't with Isaac. Unfortunately, Isaac is the outlier in my normal flavor of faves from before the cybirdie games.

✧ I write for myself first and foremost. If you dislike it, just leave me alone.

✧ Always happy to answer qs about my fics or blog

✧ I have a lot of issues IRL and so it's hard for me to write often, and guilt associated with this is why I do not do requests often.

✧ I don't fuck with people who turn writing into a weird fight for popularity with each other, or who just write for notes/attention rather than the joys of creating. I prefer having a healthier relationship with writing and fandom content as a whole!

─── •✧ Misc Info

✧ I am unsure of how others view me, but I am rather anxious and shy, so I often do not reach out to others. I am also quite busy when I am online, and so messages may be neglected since I do get a good amount of them. I Love to talk to others!! I do not mind (polite) asks and such!! Just....busy.

✧ A huge part of fandom for me is reading other people's interpretations of characters. I think discussion surrounding characters is fun, and I enjoy seeing the various conclusions people come to about how a character is. Because of this, you may see me 'contradict' some things ive written when reblogging others works/discussions, or even discussing things on my own. It's just fun to consider a character through multiple angles.

✧ I can't figure out tone often with the use of anon, and in general I don't do well with 'overfamiliar rudeness' with people I do not know. So please no playfully rude messages on anon.

✧ I treat everyone as equally as possible. More specifically I do not believe there are '#1 fans' of charas, I don't think a follower count = fandom respect levels, etc etc. Unfortunately if you're pretty rude to me, even after a chance to step back, then I'm likely going to be rude back/block. Don't be a weirdo about this.

✧ I've had this blog since 2017, and I've been writing for longer than that. I like being creative, even if I struggle a lot. I am lucky enough to have my writing in a physical zine, and that is gouda enough for me.

✧ I consider this a writing AND fandom blog, and that is why I will make posts about fandom, as well as the games I enjoy, beside my writing.

✧ I used to create for My*me, but I no longer wish to participate with that fandom. If you ever have specific questions regarding my fanfics from that time, feel free to ask, but keep in mind I may not always want to answer.

─── •✧ Last Updated 09122024

[olderthannetfic]

So I know I'm like several years late to the party with this, I just played it for the first time recently, but for those in this F/F discourse who like me, their big stumbling block with a lot of F/F fanfic is that they're specifically into messier, kinkier or more "toxic" dynamics between women than the romantic friends-to-lovers fluff that seems to predominate these days (though considering this is a common complaint, is probably already on the way out): cannot recommend the visual novel Ladykiller in a Bind enough. Especially the route with the Beauty - not gonna spoil, but you'll have fun, at least if you're not totally turned off by BDSM.

Anyway, has anyone noticed that it feels like even if F/F fandom is moving away from the fluff-only stuff, a lot of people who sign up for F/F in fanfic exchanges seem to be realllllly fluffy in their preferences? Like even in a lot of kink-centric ones (like kink in the BDSM/fetish sense, not the way fanfic uses it as just "trope you like"), it's a lot of stuff like that "consensual sex pollen" thing people were ranting about a few asks ago. I feel like the only way I can get the kind of F/F I really like in exchanges is if I get like five of my like-minded friends to sign up, and then we either end up just writing for each other, or are writing and receiving some M/M or F/M ship we also requested.

I sometimes wonder, because this is a trajectory that I went through myself and have seen so many other lesbians and bi women go through, that it has to do with comfort level about your sexuality. Like I was kind of afraid when first coming out to admit the freakier, less "good representation" style stuff I liked, and then once I got over it I was like making up for lost time. Especially when it seems like a lot of people with those preferences also buy heavily into "anti" thinking (like people have discussed with the Rhaenicent stuff), I do kind of wonder if it's motivated by shame in your less "moral "desires. THough obviously a lot of people just like fluffier stuff naturally and can process all they want and that's still goign to be what they like. I tend to have fluffier, more romantic preferences in M/M for whatever reason and all the processing in the world hasn't made me more want to read whumpier or kinkier fic.

(I'm a lesbian, ftr, and again I don't wnat to seem like I'm shaming anyone else, but I have kind of wondered what it means that /I/ am into one thing with the gender I'm actually attracted to IRL and one thing very different with the one I'm not. And then my preferences in F/M seem to be a lot more situational, depending on the ship or the fandom in question or the fanfic writer, etc.)

Also wondering if even more generally, what y'all have noticed is the difference in the overall patterns of preferences of people who sign up for fanfic exchanges vs. fanfic writers as a whole. As someone who does a lot of exchanges, it's something I've kind of wondered about in myself, too, especially compared to my friends who aren't as into them as much.

--

[confessionsofa-roleplayer]

So back when I was first writing on tumblr I followed the ways of those who I first wrote with. Most of whom were single muse blogs and single verse. Admittingly it took me a bit longer to get comfortable with the idea of multiverse/multiship. And that was more so as a lot of the people who I used to write with daily could no longer do so…and my muse was left pretty lonely as a result. I loved to rp so I adapted and began to open up to verses but still didn't want the drama I saw about shipping. A mutual I made asked me about shipping our muses and I declined because my shipping partner was at that time still active and that part of my muse's life was fulfilled. I felt super lucky that there was no drama from that interaction and instead they still wanted to write and explore things like found family, best friends, rivals and adversaries. With how hard people say it was to find people who gave your platonic dynamics a go, I felt so lucky! But then my shipping partner's irl circumstances made it impossible to rp much…and then months…and now it's been over a year. I felt guilty at first when I tried to do shippy things with other people but I came to terms that this is a hobby and we have different opportunities to be on. But if you're not going to even come back to state anything along the lines of 'I'd like if you didn't ship this character with anyone else while I'm away' or 'it's okay if while I'm away since it'll be so x amount of time, I can't expect you to remain frozen all this time' but to just disappear…people move on. The multiship/multiverse mutual is still around pretty often. But since I told them so long ago that I wasn't interested in shippy stuff with their muse…they've never brought it up again. Stuck strictly to platonic and familial stuff between muses. Even when I've done romantic threads with other people now and reblogged shippy memes, they never sent one in. They write their muse so interestingly…now that my old shipping partner has been gone so long I look at their starters and feel so tempted to reply but���I duno…I turned them down for shipping first, is it weird to suddenly reply to one of their open shippy starters?

[i-hear-a-sound]

RWBY

Thank you for the ask! Here we go:

Favorite female character? Ilia Penny Pyrrha Ruby Nora(!!!!) Emerald Weiss and most of all… maria😔she’s so fucking funny i loved her energy v6. Further explanations, Ilia has an adorable design, great voice actor and decent enough representation. Nora’s timeskip design was unmatched and she’s very quotable, plus her personality reminds me of one of my close friends irl. Ruby’s struggles in V9 (until they fucked that up) really hit with me as I’d gone through something very similar, and Penny… Penny just makes me happy. What they did with her makes me angry, but Penny makes me smile. :D

Favorite male character? I got a couple but at the moment it’s tied by Sun and Roman. Sun has fun energy and Roman is himself and iconic. Others are: James is hot and so is the bad bird BF he got by being autistic. Mercury is cool for the 5 seconds of screentime he gets every volume now. Tyrian and Watts got impeccable swag and the 5 hour long make out scene between the two of them was very interesting. Adam is cathartic and fun as hell to write my little meow meow. Jaune is best when he’s just a little loser dork, and Ren is very pretty.

Favorite Volume? Surprise surprise, Volume 3. I fucking love tournament arcs. I. Love. Tournament. Arcs.

Favorite Episode? That whole Apathy Arc in V6!!! Great horror in my opinion. I wish they’d show off more creative Grimm like that again. And as a side note, V6 is just… the best looking volume.

Favorite cast member? If they count, Jeff and Casey!! SUCH good music.

Favorite ship? *cracks knuckles* Freezerburn, Catmeleon, Monochrome, Schne//ekos, Pussy Magnet Purrah, Greek fire, nuts and dolts, Bees Schnees, Khali, Spicecream, Seamonkeys, Emercury, If there’s one between Ilia and Ruby put it here, Ginger Snaps, Arctic Winter, Silver Lotus, *looks at writings on my palm* Snow pines, Ironqrow, James x Oz, Crimsun, Strawbana, Nuts and Volts, and Rosebird. To name a few. Some might not be my favorites, these are just ones I like/like in concept. :) Character I’d die defending? Sienna fucking Khan. The whole White Fang, honestly. I do think protesting through violence against your oppressors is very swag and real actually. Plus she’s hot.

A character I can’t sympathize with? Uhhhhhh…… SALEM!!!!!!!!!! Cinder too ish but Salem mostly. Like, I feel a TINY bit bad, only because the gods are undeniably awful garbage horrible terrible. She still sucks though.

A character I grew to love? …Adam. I did not give a single shit about his decently attractive redhead ass until that reveal and his death in V6. He has become my blorbo; my skrunkly. My cringefail loser, my girly pop. Engrained within my brain like a silly silly worm. He’s fun to draw. Fun to write. REALLY fun to write. I can put him in so many situations. So many bittersweet, melancholic situations. And in so many outfits.

My Anti-otp? Ive got a couple.

Bumbl//Bee. Not my thing. Could have been, had they not continually tried making “Only disabled main character losing her arm” something “romantic” as well as paralleling said character to her partner’s… um… ex abuser? Hello?

Embe//rald. Fuck Abusive ships.

Taura//donna. Fuck Abusive ships.

Frostbite. This one is actually one of my least favorite ships, as it is essentially a pairing between the ex-racist ex-heiress of a huge company to the in universe minority said company enslaved and branded while he was a child. Plus, again. Fuck. Abusive. Ships.

Ar//kos. Not… my… thing.

Winter and Marrow or Robyn and Marrow. Nope nope nope. No. Thank. You.

Etc etc etc I could go on all day. Thank you for the ask!

[stillfertile]

YOU ARE RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!! PREACH!!!!!!!! WE ARE BETTER THAN STRAIGHT PEOPLE ABOUT SHIPPING BECAUSE WE KNOW NONE OF THIS IS REAL AND DON'T SHARE THIS WERE IRL PEOPLE CAN FIND IT! (okay most of us know it's not real and don't post where the irl people can see it; there's always someone...)

A girl toddler and a boy toddler will play nicely together and then their parents will be like tell them that they have a crush (and irrevocably mess up their world view and diminish friendships because of their need to ship their own toddlers -no i'm not projecting i definitely did not embarrass myself as a child because i believed that if i thought a boy was nice i had to be ready to get married to him, i would never, i'm definitely not still traumatized about it) and proceed to plan their wedding and talk about how their toddlers are clearly in love every time they hang out/are mentioned.

But also what even is "normal behavior" my cousin and her friend were holding hands and swinging them while at their swim meet and my cousin's grandma was like "are you seeing this? she's holding hands with a boy" to my aunt who was like "oh that's just [insert name of friend]" fully knowing that a) they really are just like that and b) that he is gay and not interested in my cousin.

My two friends in high school would hold hands platonically (both girls, both straight). People would also call their best friends their "wife" (almost always between two girls or two boys, rarely or never a girl and boy) being completely platonic and usually straight. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS "NORMAL BEHAVOIR" (ALSO THEY MEAN PLATONIC NOT NORMAL THESE ARE NOT SYNONYMS AND GAY AND NORMAL ARE NOT ANTONYMS PEOPLE!!!)

AGREE AGREE AGREE

like…. do yall think about how straight people in closed relationships are rarely allowed to be friends with someone of the opposite gender (unless they are related or gay). like thats CRAZY to me

when I was a kid I also had that experience of my parents teasing me about my friendship with a boy, it was super frusterating :(

I think what people need to understand is that: both sides do this. People project onto others and give them traits that mirror their own.

I feel like a lot more can be said on this subject, about the aroace spectrum, about how literally any action can be platonic (yes even sex), about how some people say “not everything has to be romantic” but they really mean stop making things gay, how other people say “not everything has to be romantic” because they want more platonic relationships in media no matter the gender, again THE AROACE SPECTRUM, ya this subject interests me a lot

conclusion: rpfers I love you, dont feel like youre erasing intimate platonic relationships when you ship same-gender people, the straights are no better at seeing everyone as straight. Please keep projecting your own traits onto characters/fictional-versions-of-real-people so that you can write the stories youve never read about your own identity.

(what anon is talking about if anyone else is reading this)

[themushroomgoesyeet]

POV: you're an ace author writing typical romance tropes

Mainstream romance: the meet cute must be iconic! It's the moment where two star-crossed lovers, soulmates even, will meet for the first time! People must know that the love interest is the most gorgeous person on the planet to the MC and not like other girls™

Me: oh yeah, the meet cute will happen, but these two won't be at all romantically inclined towards each other until they are somewhat friends at least

Mainstream romance: they're obviously in love with each other, so of course they have to kiss 5 seconds into their relationship, no matter what it is!

Me: what is this, Disney? Nah, you ain't getting a kiss until they both confirm that they at least have mutual feelings for each other

Mainstream romance: even though they just kissed, they must bandy about each other in a careful dance without ever admitting that they actually love each other until the fans are ready to kill something!

Me: actually, since they've been friends for a few weeks and have been spending that time getting to know each other, there's enough trust between them to cause a cute & tender scene where one or both of them admits their feelings and immediately get reciprocated for their troubles

Mainstream romance: oh, but if course we also have to have the endearing best friends who interrupt everything, or get confused and try to ship the MCs with the wrong person! Like the romantic rival, for example, who's such a dashing bad boy that we spend an entire section of the story with the MC questioning if they have feelings for the rival instead & the LI being pouty and jealous until our star-crossed lovers feel practically betrayed by each other!

Me: or we could just not do that lol. Hell, make the rival fall in love with the best friend or someone else entirely, wouldn't that be interesting

Mainstream romance: and the sex! They have to be all over each other at every single moment they have, with plenty of accidental (or not so accidental) nudity and steamy bedroom scenes

Me: ......first of all, ew

I'll do you one better though; how about instead of sex we have cute little dates that both further and boost the relationship, with plenty of scenarios that give the MCs safe spaces to open up more and more to each other and build their trust and love for each other. Bonus points if they work through trauma together

Mainstream romance: but now that they're definitely together, we still need some drama so let's break them up in the next installment of the story! (This is definitely not because we don't know how to write romance after establishing a relationship)

Me: wow, that's horrible! I vote that actually, they don't suddenly have a terrible break up when the curtains close, because that's not how IRL relationships work! What's actually going to happen is that now that the MCs are in the relationship, they get to navigate the next part of their journey as a couple, and learn how to communicate properly and deal with things as a team like civilized adults

Mainstream romance: we definitely don't need to care about their married life, if they even get married at all! God forbid they be happy and start growing a family

Me: why not? Marriage is a natural progression in a loving relationship, and can be an amazing thing to explore with your fictional couple. Not to mention all the trials and joys that can come with parenthood. Think of the potential that has for a story! Plus, half the time the fandoms will marry them & invent children for them anyway, so why not make it canon?

Mainstream romance: it doesn't matter what the genre is, even if they're trying to stop doomsday or survive a zombie apocalypse the romance always comes first!

Me: that's so impractical, why? They've got 24 hours to stop a death ray, what on earth makes you think they have time to smooch? Sure they can still have soft, quiet moments, but they're trying to survive/save the world damnit, love is not the first thing they're thinking about

Mainstream romance: love triangles! Love triangles everywhere!

Me: I would literally rather die than write a love triangle. It's either one couple, or they end up being polyamorus. There is no in between

Mainstream romance: our stories are mostly heteronormative, but we'll sprinkle in some gay side characters or a gay sub-ship to fill our representation quota

Me: ah, now that is what I like to call "the token gay person/token representation", and I hate it. Sure, statistically people from the LGTBQ+ community are still a minority, but that's not gonna stop you from seeing them everywhere. Make it natural! Have more than one "gay" background character/ship, have the more important side characters be part of the community, do more LGTBQ+ romance! Same goes for ethnic groups, religious denominations, and people with disabilities (mental or physical). & Don't make them all underdog sob stories either, because while fighting for acceptance & understanding for these groups is very important, it doesn't have to be the only story you tell

Idk what the point of this post was I'm just tired of all these stupid romance tropes

[vendettavalor]

@tacticalvalor said: 🔥 / unpopular opinion -> shipping

⚔️ Munday Unpopular Opinions // ACCEPTING ⚔️

// Praying to God that this doesn't somehow end up in the main tags-

// Caution in the tags. This got long-

// Shipping 47 and Lucas is weird and gross. Like... there is no way to slice it that makes it plausible or okay. They are brothers. They view each other as brothers. This is not fanon or up to interpretation and I think that the only reason people play with the concept at all is simply because Lucas refers to himself as " 47's childhood friend" in the games rather than his brother- a fact that makes sense given the delicate situation in which simply saying that could be overwhelming for 47 who, you know, remembers nothing except the false memories of 6 Ort-Meyer implanted in his brain after the memory wipe.

// But in the comics, which are canon material and relate to the WoA trilogy, the two of them refer to each other as brothers, interact like brothers, and clearly view each other as very close siblings even well into their early adulthood. Until Ort-Meyer wiped his brain, 47 knew Lucas to be his brother. That alone should be enough dissolve any sort of romantic implication between the two. But if you wanna take the biology route, yes- they share the same DNA from the same five people. It's not an exact match, but even if they were exact clones, that wouldn't make it better. They're still biologically related and very closely at that, in addition to being very close socially in a sibling-type bond. Trying to imply that there's some sort of inherent romantic or sexual connection between them now just because they haven't seen each other in 30 years is... strange and creepy to say the least.

// And sure, you could make the argument that "47 is a completely different person" and yeah. He is. But he's still not the kind of person who would fuck someone he barely remembers and is just beginning to recall sharing traumatizing experiences with, least of all if that person is someone he refers to as his brother. And even still, Lucas clearly hasn't changed all that much and regards 47 as his brother just as much now as he did when they were kids.

// I don't know what it is with people looking at clone characters in media that clearly regard each other as brothers and somehow coming to the conclusion that they'd be they'd be "secretly romantically or sexually involved." Except I do know. It's porn-brain, influenced by the copious amount of content revolving around incestuous relationships between siblings and step-siblings that lead people to distort their perception of familial bonds in such a way that they fetishize any connection between two individuals, regardless of the fact that they share a sibling relation. But knowing that fact does not make it any less disturbing or disgusting.

// And I know that topics like this always draw in the Devil's advocates so lemme just jot down real quick:

"If you don't like it, don't read it" - I don't look for it. But people writing this stuff hardly tag their shit properly so here we are. I worry for people who do have triggers for topics like this and click on fics not knowing what they're about to read.

"It's just fiction" - It always is until it isn't. The amount of times I've heard horror stories of people being intimately abused bc their partner saw something in porn and tried to just apply it IRL without asking/consent bc porn has normalized it in their mind as being hot for everyone is horrifying.

"Just let people have fun" - No one's saying you can't have fun. But maybe you should be asking yourself why you feel attacked when people tell you that fetishizing sibling relationships and perpetuating harmful sexualization of innocent interactions might be a bad idea.

"People are allowed to write dark topics" - I agree. But the issue is not the topic itself, it's how you handle it. Of course you can write and explore topics like incest and trauma and their impacts. The issue is when you fetishize, romanticize, and glamorize them instead of treating it with the tact it deserves. These are not topics to make light of or sexualize for your own gratification/fantasies.

"Some people write this stuff as a coping mechanism" - The term for this is known as Expressive Writing. Expressive writing is using journaling, poetry, or personal storywriting in order to process, express, and work through the feelings left behind by traumatic experiences. It's typically done under the guidance of a therapist and is focused on feelings, not descriptions. This is because writing out vivid descriptions can take you back to that place and force you to relive the trauma before you might be ready to do so. Graphic descriptions can also impact the mental health of those around you if it's not done in tactful way. Putting yourself through that actually hinders your recovery from the trauma. So in short, writing graphic depictions of trauma is an unhealthy coping mechanism that can contribute to retraumatization and exposes others to material that they might not be prepared to engage with.