#and embracing more of fanon and rejecting (even more) of canon

[forestdeath1]

It’s a purely “extended hc”, but Sirius's fanon leather jacket never was about punk/rocker style for me. I like the idea that his jacket references leather bars (an important phenomenon of gay history), which he initially didn't realise because he wasn't familiar with that scene.

So, the motorcycle, even though modified, is also part of the leather subculture, representing heightened masculinity. Marlon Brando in "The Wild One" had a significant influence on gay men and the representation of masculine gays (Brando himself didn't hide his bisexuality). Leather bars and the leather subculture were about appropriating sexual power, heightened masculinity, and moving away from mainstream sexual culture. Among gay men, leather symbolized a rejection of the stereotypes of effeminacy and passivity that had been associated with homosexuality since the mid-19th century. It was a deliberate move away from the image of the “sweater queens” and embraced a more rugged and masculine aesthetic.

In London during the 70s, there was the famous leather bar The Coleherne, which even had visitors like Rudolf Nureyev (a famous ballet dancer) and Freddie Mercury.

I like this because Sirius also had a pronounced masculinity that he saw as something absolutely normal, and it fits well with him, much more than the idea of him being influenced by punk culture and aesthetic. I mean, of course, canon Sirius never visited leather bars, but if we step a bit into fanon, this influence could be there – hence the motorcycle, the leather jacket, and so on.

[frazzledsoul]

I don't mean to step on anyone's toes here (and this does not just come from any particular person) but I don't think there's a shred of evidence in canon that Jess ever really felt he wasn't good enough for Rory or that he couldn't live up to her high society ideals or ambitions. In fact, he makes it a point to tell her that he rejects those upper class values and that she used to reject them, too. He made a successful life for himself on his own terms and he did not need to embrace an upper class lifestyle to accomplish that. He also didn't want to.

The idea that Rory can't forgive Jess for what he did when he was 17, that she doesn't trust him, that even post S6 she finds him unreliable and unstable and beneath her standards as a potential partner....none of that is in canon after S4. It's a fanon affectation pushed on the story but it isn't the story. Rory doesn't see Jess as inferior to her, she doesn't view him as below her standards or "out of her league", and she is not still angry about him leaving town when he was a teenager. When she hurts and uses him in S6, she's the one that apologizes to him and agrees that he deserves better than that. If she wanted to throw his past behavior back in his face, she would have done it at that point.

As for why he left in the first place? Well, that actually didn't have much to do with her. He was failing school, couldn't take her to prom, needed to work stuff out with his dad, and since he wasn't willing to retake his senior year over, Luke asked him to leave. His problems were a lot more insurmountable than hers were, but the bottom line is he needed to get out of that place where he was rejected for not being the perfect small town boyfriend and the judgment he faced from everyone there, including Rory. Obviously he could handled that shitshow a lot better than he did, but even if the transition had been easier I think he would have ended up back in NYC at least temporarily and that relationship wouldn't have lasted much longer.

However, I don't think the fear of not living up to her expectations had much to do with it. He wasn't the person Stars Hollow wanted him to be, and he could only thrive when he left it behind.

[mintacle]

Also regarding fanon Tim it is really pity that a lot of fans and even writers regard Tim as a mini-Bruce when i feel he should be opposite especially when it comes to their social circle. Like Tim is fascinating to me because he looked at the dark and gloom and isolation of both Gotham and Bruce and went, "It deserves to be saved. I will save it and i'll do it without it destroying me" (he failed but he tried, god did he try).

If Bruce Wayne is a mask for Batman then Robin is a mask for Tim Drake.

If Bruce is actively isolating himself then Tim is actively seeking people out (even if it sometimes means slight stalking and casual breaking and entering, which, Tim, buddy).

When his parents died Bruce buried the child he was and dedicated his life to make sure something like this would never happen to anyone else and when Jason he almost went and broke his one rule. When everyone in Tim's life was dead or dying he tried to held onto every little thing that could bring that normalcy back from before everything went to shit, whether it be cloning, trying to find Bruce, or even lazarus pit.

It is why Tim becoming batman always ends horribly, not because Tim is secretly a deranged guy but because becoming batman means affectively killing what makes him Tim Drake. It is also why i think the best ending for him would be retirement, the boy who chose to take up the robin mantle grows up to be the man who chose to give up the mantle (naturally this would take a lot of development since i feel Tim is rather addicted to it but also i think it would be good. I also feel he would still do hero work on side but as a consultant or support)

(I alse feel isolation is a major struggle for both of them. However Bruce embraces it, becomes a part of it, while Tim rejects it, loses to it. A Lonely Place of Dying indeed)

(i am so sorry i feel like i have more generalized both the characters and could be wrong about them since i am still newer to the comics but these are my thoughts from what i have seen so far)

Nah, anon, you're valid. I'm not crazy into Tim and haven't read anything with him yet (though @benbamboozled has convinced me to read Young Justice 98), from what I know of the canon version of Tim, he is very critical of Batman, which you kind of have to be if your goal is to help them (as opposed to enabling someone)

Here we have Tim on Bruce's approach to paranoia and work colleagues:

which will for me always be core part of Tim's characterization. He's very far from the boy who will blindly follow Bruce to get his approval. I think of all the Robins Tim might be the least interested in Bruce's approval. (Modern era Dick is weirdly open about wanting Bruce's approval which I don't like. Nightwing is for me ideally in extreme denial about his and Bruce's interdependance.)

Tim is far too aware of Batman's problems to want to become him. This is the kid that became Robin at Batman's lowest low. He didn't become the sidekick/ward/son of a vigilante who was larger than life, he became the support of a broken down man. It makes sense to have Dick and Jason involuntarily idolize the man, because the Batman they knew was amazing, but the Batman Tim knew? That was a spiralling man.

Which might also be why it bothers so many people that Tim isn't allowed to grow out of the Robin mantle, it feels extremely natural for him to be getting over his original mantle and connection to Batman.

[rriavian]

M and N for the ask game!!

M - name a character you’d like to have for a friend 

Calliope or Jessamy (though if I could I’d give her back to Dream).

But Calliope was my first thought because I adore her character. I could go on for a long time about why but my answer for N is very long so I might save it for another post.

N - 3 things you wish you saw more of in your main fandom (or one of your choice)

Ok this might be a little controversial but…I don’t actually read that much Sandman fanfic anymore. In the beginning I read so much and while I still write, I think what’s kept me around is that I'm trying to write what I want to see more of. If that makes sense?

Firstly, I’d love to see more diversity.

Not just in ships but in fic in general, more gen, more that explore the female characters, more femslash (never written it but I know you mod Sandman Femslash Fans and I really wanted to do something for the challenge! Have an idea but I’ve been a bit ill recently). I wish there was more love for side characters/minor characters other than Hob. And that there were more explorations of the connections between characters outside of shipping.

I never really enjoy fandoms where one ship is a majority, even when I ship that ship, because in my experience it leads to everything being seen through the lens of that ship.

It tends to lean towards certain fanon interpretations being considered canon, with fandoms forgetting to question/step outside of the ships bubble. It's also just not very interesting. Even when there’s diversity within the ship itself I like to see more of a counterpoint. Otherwise it just…makes the universe feel smaller. Like only ever having chocolate cake on offer, maybe in ten different permutations, but at its core it’s chocolate. Different takes on things make people think, challenge them to think, make them alter their perspective, and it’s a healthy thing. I don’t think this fandom is very good for that tbh. 

Secondly, more characterisations of non-human characters that embrace the fact they are not human.

I see this very common binary of more human like = good vs less human like = bad (very simplified but I hope you understand my point!). So would like to see this not just for Dream, but for other characters too. I know we’re humans engaging with this fandom, so it's hard to envision that perspective, but I’d love to see more of us stepping outside of a human lens. As much as the fandom writes ‘nightmare’ Dream, it’s often shown as his dark or unrestrained side (or primarily a sex thing) so would love to see more diverse views on the spectrum of his aspect. On the flip side the human/retired Dream trope (which is personally a hard no for me unless heavily subverted) is far more popular than its opposite.

Again, this is about a desire for diversity. I'm not suggesting there's something wrong with having different tastes!! Just frustrating when it’s hard to find anything else.

I know this is fanfic, and so we all have our own interpretations and AUs, with many of us embracing the opportunity to write a drastically different version of a character. I just rarely see Dream characterised in a way that, again to my interpretation, I recognise as him. That feels authentically him. Other characters like Lucienne or Death or even Rose often feel like they are smoothed out to be perfect or written in a matchmaking role. I wish more fics let them be as flawed as they are, let them be wrong, let them make mistakes. I’d just love to see more complexity.

Thirdly - this is probably a subpoint of the above - but more of Dream actually enjoying his role, and fics that explore his relationship to humanity.

I'd love to see explorations of what it means to be Dream. I see so much of him rejecting it or being overwhelmed by it. While I do think his feelings are complicated, which in itself is very interesting, he’s not just going through the motions/in need of saving. I wish more people showed that it’s not just this burden he needs freedom from. He’s good at it too. That’s what makes things so tragic. He’s smart, communicative in his own way, but Dream just isn’t human, and so he’s not going to act like one.

(Btw this is not anti Dreamling. I’m not here to hate on anyone’s ship, especially one I do ship in certain ways. I just wish there was more diversity, and I personally disagree with a lot of interpretations of Dream’s character. As fans we’re all allowed to dislike a take/trope. I just don’t read those fics because I'm not the right audience for them. I'm only trying to point out that when those takes/tropes are everywhere it’s really hard to find anything to engage with.)

[neverhangd]

ESSENTIALS

name: Anne Bonny, née Cormac age: 24 pronouns: she/her sex: ciswoman orientation: bisexual, polyamorous occupation: pirate height: 6'2 (187.9cm) build: tall, thin; boxy hair: red eyes: light/“sea glass” green, sometimes looks oddly colorless other: left-handed, pretends to be right; irish brogue faceclaim: clara paget

nota bene: despite the rampant use of clara paget and other black sails performers, it is important to know that THIS IS NOT A BLACK SAILS ANNE BONNY. anne comes out of a combination of history and my own creative decisions/lore. i am unfamiliar with the show and am just a huge nerd for history and piracy.

PERSONALITY

prone to violence, anger, sometimes melancholy

secretive

distrustful

abrasive

uncouth

impolite

quiet/reserved

determined, ambitious, loyal

passionate

duplicitous

enneagram:

temperament: Melancholic

People with a melancholic temperament are intense, serious, and deep. They are sensitive and capable of deep emotion. They have a well-developed eye for the tragic or sad side of things, and may easily be disappointed by the coarseness of the outer world. As a result, they tend to keep to themselves, or only really open up around a select few individuals with whom they can exchange feelings and ideas. Sensitive, Pensive, Introspective, Unsociable, Reserved, Anxious

mbti: ESTJ-T || The Executive

People with the ESTJ personality type (Executives) are representatives of tradition and order, utilizing their understanding of what is right, wrong, and socially acceptable to bring families and communities together. Embracing the values of honesty and dedication, ESTJs are valued for their mentorship mindset and their ability to create and follow through on plans in a diligent and efficient manner. They will happily lead the way on difficult paths, and they won’t give up when things become stressful.

Strong believers in the rule of law and authority that must be earned, ESTJ personalities lead by example, demonstrating dedication and purposeful honesty and an utter rejection of laziness and cheating. If anyone declares hard, manual work to be an excellent way to build character, it’s ESTJs.

This personality type is aware of their surroundings and lives in a world of clear, verifiable facts. Their surety of their knowledge means that, even against heavy resistance, they stick to their principles and push an unclouded vision of what is and is not acceptable. And their opinions aren’t just empty talk either, as ESTJs are more than willing to dive into the most challenging projects, improving action plans and sorting details along the way, making even the most complicated tasks seem easy and approachable.

However, ESTJs don’t work alone, and they expect their reliability and work ethic to be reciprocated – people with this personality type meet their promises, and if their partner or coworkers jeopardize them through incompetence, laziness, or, worse still, dishonesty, they do not hesitate to show their disappointment. This can earn them a reputation for inflexibility, but it’s not because ESTJs are arbitrarily stubborn but rather because they truly believe that these values are what make society work.

alignment:

[This is still a work in progress with updates to come!]

DIVERGENCE

While I primarily use history as my throughline for events in Anne’s life and where it’s eventually headed, writing’s all about the fun of exploration, so this blog diverges happily from history, fanon, and canon to plumb the depths.

cw: implied domestic abuse, implied (?) kidnapping, stillbirth & insensitive language around such, trauma

Anne’s story has almost always been a story of the men around her instead; so Anne’s story here really begins just after the Cuba Incident, or perhaps a little before, when she came to realize a number of things. One, Jack Rackham was an abusive shithead who couldn’t keep a promise if it sewed itself to him; two, she was a captive involuntarily houseguest of Jack’s “friends” in Cuba and had no idea what would come next; three, that she was sick of living in Jack’s or any man’s shadow and would get out of it come hell or high water. Anne would later say she gave birth to a corpse and that that was the sign that she wasn’t really living, anyway. Nothing living can be birthed out of something dead. Anne’s baby was silently delivered mid-afternoon, whereon she would never see the child. Some. time that night between when she was put to bed and four in the morning, when a concerned “friend” of Jack’s came to check on her, Anne had disappeared from the villa.

This is where Anne Bonny’s new story starts.

NOTEABLE MARKERS

pierced ears

brown leather ring inset with turquoise, left thumb

hat

coat

sizable J-shaped brand on left shoulder (adolescent injury, traumatic)

secret porcelain-handled jack-knife, kept in hidden trouser pocket inside waistline (secret/not well known)

two gold wedding bands and a heavy signet ring on a leather cord, worn as a necklace

various other scars and burns

frequently chapped/split lips

BIOGRAPHICAL

born: 8 March, 1697 raised: Kinsale (near County Cork), Ireland; London, England; Charleston, South Carolina parents: Lord William Cormac, Esq. (attorney) & Mary Brennan (maid, unmarried) siblings: none aliases: Anne McCormac, Anne Cormac, Andy Cormac, Ann Bonn education: full education plus law clerking; literature, philosophy, Latin, math, law spouse/s: James Bonny (age 16-19), Jack Rackham (age 19-24), none & done (age 24-onward)* children: none* residences: Charleston, South Carolina; the Caribbean Seas disappearance: 22 April, 1721* presumed death: 25 April, 1782*

* SUBJECT TO CHANGE/VERSE MUTABLE 

[indigobackfire]

I get so caught up in hphm's story and characters that I forget it's all built to sell us a game. It's not made to be a compelling story, it's made to get us hooked on a game, then sell us stuff through that.

Anyway, here's a video of a guy that works on JamCity talking about writing for games and... I feel like such a clown that I fell right into the 'emotional investment' trap. They get us emotionally attached to the point that it isn't holding up to the quality it had in the beginning but we're still here because of the characters.

It almost makes me sick to think of stories written no longer with the purpose of telling a compelling story a person (or a group of people) needs to share and eventually sell, but from its conception, it's made with fandom culture (and money) on their minds.

This story is not supposed to be a free2play mobile, in the beginning, it made sense, but how will we move on to an interesting end when these games are made to last for hundreds of levels? This is not like those Choices games where you have dozens of other stories to play once you finish that one - this is one long ass story in an annoying format that is boring to play through again.

He said there, characters were designed to be easy to fanart/cosplay. (Diego's clothes, Merula hair streak, he uses them as examples).

I feel like such a clown for feeling emotional about a story, somebody before me treated it as a product.

What I mean to say is, don't play this game if you haven't already. Go watch someone play on youtube or whatever and play some better game.

[narumika]

Idk if its done already but Vil confessing hcs??? Thank you :D

{ VIL } | ROMANTIC, HCS, GN

⟡ notes — bros gorgeous 💀💀💀 also idc HES A SWEETHEART THAT PUTS ON A FRONT IDC ABT WHAT ANYONE SAYS REJECT CANON EMBRACE FANON

⟡ taglist — @yumetokashite @nnatsume

— refuses to recognize his feelings for a WHILE. he has a career to uphold, he doesn’t have time for dating. he can’t let DATING get in the way of his acting and fame. although he wishes just a little he had the time for it.

— he confesses through a small hangout or during a sleepover, he says something romantic and even a little cheesy before kissing your hand, mirroring the way a prince would in the movies or shows he’d act in

— he gifts you things from the heart that truly remind him of you, advice from rook that surprisingly makes you fall for him even more

— at heart he’s a sweetie that loves you lots, you two hang out and as you lay in his lap he plays with your hair while looking at you lovingly.

— every moment with him seems like a fairytail, except this time he finally got the role of the good guy.

[sodomitecastiel]

oh idk that it’s supernatural Torah study my bg on this is more islam than anything else, and I’m by no means an expert, but the arabic word for sodomy is Liwat coming from the word Lut (Lot) and the word sodomy comes from the story of Lot as well (the city of Sodom, w Sodomite then being an inhabitant of Sodom. Like thruout languages and interpretations many people have decided that the sin of sodom was homosexual sex (that the people of sodom wanted to have with the angels that came to the town!) and that was why the town had to be struck down by G-d. So it makes me lose my mind about the way Cas rejected heaven for Dean like the way his name went from Castiel to Cas, dropping the suffix -iel (meaning of G-d), literally showing us his fall from grace. Cas identifying as a sodomite would be him embracing his love for dean as a religion and a complete rejection of the rules of heaven specifically the rules against angels having homosexual sex.

islam background handholding emoji judaism background tbh!!

when i was doing actual torah study all the time, my rabbi liked to interpret the reason sodom was destroyed was because the men in the city wanted to sexually assault the angels; i always liked that idea a lot, even though in spn it's definitely more in line with the general theology of the show to imagine that sodom was punished for angels having consensual sex with men.

is it fanon or is it canon that cas was actually physically present at the burning of sodom and gomorrah? i remember naomi telling him he was present for heavenly events™ that he didn't remember (because of the lobotomies) but i don't remember if sodom was actually one of them or not... hm........

regardless. yes!!! cas reclaiming sodomite as something beautiful and something to be proud of! one more disobedience! i wrote a whole chapter of my fixit about the nickname cas stripping god off his name, i really do think cas would feel enormous wrenching pride about wearing that as his name :)

[thehollowprince]

I have truly grown to hate shipping. Between every fandom having at least one ship that ruins it for everyone, to people fetishizing mlm relationships, to queerbating, which is a serious issue when it happens, being turned into a buzz word thrown around for whenever two straight (usually white) men don't bang when they want them to, it's just become a shit show. It's no longer a fun fandom thing. It's entitled fans, that throw temper tantrums, and sometimes even send death threats, because they didn't get what they want. I hate it.

Oh, you're preaching to the choir!

I've said this multiple times over the last few years, but shipping culture is ruining fandom for so many people. Far more often than not anymore, if you were to enter a fandom space for a show or book or movie, because you thought the premise was interesting or you loved the story, only to find that all the majority of that fandom space cares about is the ships... be they canon or not. That's all anyone seems to care about anymore.

Take The Falcon and The Winter Soldier as a recent example. The storyline was good (if a little heavy on the propaganda) but if you were to go through the fandom tags, most of what you'd see is people gushing about Sambucky and how they were so in love over and over and over again. Now, I know not everyone was doing this in a malicious way, or even trying to make that the center of what the show was about - we were just working with what we were given - but the amount of people intent on ignoring the relationship that Sam and Bucky had on screen in order to prop up the one created by the fandom was still a lot. Hell, it even got to a point by the second episode where many fans were accusing Marvel of "queerbaiting" them, tossing out the word as a means to invoke an emotional response and get people to side with them on this issue that wasn't an issue.

I even made a post about how it wasn't queerbaiting and how tossing that word out whenever fandom was inconvenienced was doing more harm that good.

They did the same thing with Stucky, focusing more on the fanon relationship than anything that actually happened on screen between the two of them. They took that one line "I'm with you til the end of the line" and made it their catchphrase, repeating it so much that I wanted to scream.

The thing that made it all the more frustrating was the fact that I liked those ships. I liked what was there between Sam and Bucky, or Steve and Bucky, or even Steve and Sam, but I couldn't go into a fandom space to talk about those characters without the conversation quickly being diverted to the ships themselves. I could make a post right now about Sam's arc in TFATWS and how he went from rejecting the shield and mantle of Captain America to embracing it and actively taking both by the end, and it would quickly be taken over by the thought of how instrumental Bucky was to all of that and how he motivated Sam and so on and so forth.

And that's not to say that those things aren't true, but sometimes I just want to talk about a singular character without bringing shipping nonsense into it.

Same thing happened with the Buddie (and to a lesser extent, Tarlos) fandom. I like both Buck and Eddie on 9-1-1, but whenever you mention either character, all the fandom does is scream about how they're queerbaited because these two are going at it on screen. Oliver Stark, the actor who plays Buck, recently deleted his entire Twitter because of the shippers that were tweeting at him and in his DMs, talking about how Buddie had better be canon by the end of the season.

That's not healthy!

Let's talk about Teen Wolf for a minute, as I usually do when this topic comes up. For years, even to this day, people are convinced they were queerbaited with this show when it came to the ship of Sterek. A ship created between two characters that hardly shared any screentime in the first season (and even less when you take Scott out of the picture) that somehow took over the fandom. It took over the fandom to the extent that they started making things up, either scenarios that happened "off screen" (Stiles helping Derek look for Boyd and Erica/Stiles hanging out with Peter playing chess) or even assassinating characters ("Scott is a bad friend") all in order to make their ship more palatable, especially for the "fans" who relied on blogs for this content and never actually watched the show.

Hell, I saw this...

... today, not even two hours ago, almost four years after the show ended, and six years after one half of this ship left rhe show. The shipping got so bad, consumed the fandom to such a degree, that they have utterly convinced themselves that they were the victims of this whole thing, all because a ship that they made up didn't happen on screen. The way they throw around the word queerbaiting, completely ignorant of its meaning and how harmful it is when it's actually done, all while ignoring the canon gay characters of this show is just further proof how how shipping has changed fandom.

Its no longer about just liking a thing, it's become this whole thing that some people have made into their entire personality.

It's why I always hesitate to call myself a shipper, or to say that I ship something, because the immediate connotation when someone says that is that that's the only reason why they're here.

Shipping Culture is the Death of Fandom.

[thoughtsbynyx]

Part 2 of Why I Ship Zutara

(and why Kataang took the short way out)

*this time with pictures* (it’s longer than the previous but worth the read, bare with me)

part 1

GAang Dynamics 

(see Katara and Zuko’s portions I couldn’t figure out a way to incorporate them fluidly)

RoyalTeaLovingKookiness explains the GAang’s dynamic as well 

Katara is (the G)Aang’s Mother/Older Sister Cont. (and character develpment)

In the GAang. Katara “adopts” Aang almost as soon as she bends him out of the ice

She almost always looks after Aang, keeping him on task, helping him learn, being the rational voice they all need to hear sometimes

With Toph she’s less of a mother and more of an older sister that tries to steer their junior in the right direction (they bud heads and have a couple fights, but manage to have fun together and help with what the GAang needs)

She has to unlearn how to be a kid/teen because she learned to be a mom first

She bears a lot of the emotional work and trauma for the GAang, even before Zuko appears in Book 3

In Book 2 & 3 (mainly) she learns that she is allowed to be fun, immature, and selfish with what she needs/desires (which was something she’s been made fun of & had to apologize for)

She realizes and embraces the fact in Book 3 that she can be an individual person that follows what she wants without having to worry or care about what the others thing she should do (this also happens in the NWT, Ba Sing Se, and various places in the Earth Kingdom) (she becomes more assertive in what she needs/wants)

Zuko: the dad the gAang needed

He’s obviously educated (both in & out of banishment)

(Leadership skillz) He’s commanded a ship at 13

Has worked for a living wage at 16 (as seen by Jet, he can (barely) handle customer service)

When he was accepted into the group, he channels the only responsible adult he knows-- Iroh

making tea, reckless outings to help others, thinking ahead of oppnents and obsticles, letting them vent, providing shelter when they needed cover, dad jokes (”leaf me alone!”), and being a human shield

Look at FrostGaurdian’s post for more

Zuko’s Nature

In the Zuko Alone episode we can epsically see that he’s been in the shadow of his younger sister Azula

Throughout Book 1 he threw tantrums left and right

With his obession (read: hyperfixation) on honor, he was stuck in his “failure” against Ozai when he was 13

/\ \/ he relapses into this thinking when he joins Azula in Book 3

He took advantage of Iroh before they separeted, and even then he searched for his approval and validation

The Warped perception of Love and each other

It may not be obvious but Aang has an idea of Katara in is head that is not like her in the SLIGHEST (see Southern Raiders section)

He even points it out in the comics 

Image description: 

*13 and 12 year old Aang and Toph are discussing what it’s like having a crush* 

Aang: “Believe me, Toph, I know what it’s like to have a crush on someone, it can blind--” *Toph is unamused*

Aang: “ Yeesh, Sorry. What i’m trying to say is, sometimes you can like somebody so much that it affects your perception of them.”

Toph: “Kind of like how your perception is affected by your fuddy-duddy traditions”

With Katara in the comics it points out the “right kind of love” but referencing Zuko’s sacrifice in protecting Katara

Image Description: 

*Hakoda talking with Katara about love*

“So you know that the right kind of love-- the kind that’s real, that sacirfices--that kind of love doesn’t blind you. It actually helps you see“

In both instances it shows that Aang is putting Katara in a pedestal and doesn’t see her for who she is because of the crush he has on her.

The Fortuneteller

*Also even though Aunt Wu tells Katara she’s to marry a powerful bender it could’ve been anyone, not just Aang. Zuko, Azula, or Toph (maybe even be single forever and reject it all together because she’s a master bender) were also candidates. She didn’t get any more specific besides powerful bender*

a lot of the information that I gathered is from wednesdaywildheart’s post

This episode shows how Aang’s crush is just a crush, using Meng as an example

Meng points out how both their names rhyme “that rhymes with Meng!”

The Parallels

Like Aang is with Katara, she’s 2 years younger than he is

The “sparkles” show up when they both see their crush and plays the same music

They have tried to flirt the same way with their crush (and were both brushed off when their crush showed disintrest and indifference)

The Differences

Towards the end of the episode, Meng realizes and acknowledges that Aang doesn’t return her feelings and advances. She even tells Aang that she supports his feelings towards Katara

(This doesn’t happen until Book 2) When learning more about the Avatar State, and the Spirit World from Guru Pathik, Aang had to open all 7 chakras, however he couldn’t open the seventh (the Thought Chakra), refusing to let go of is attachment to Katara, blocking himself from the Avaatar State (which bit him in the butt (or back) when he faced Azula) 

(of course this could be because he’s 12, and hasn’t learned the difference between between, lust and Iove, platonic and romantic attraction yet) 

Ember Island Players

Catie-does-things goes in depth with analysis of this episode

You can’t tell me this wasn’t one the most Anti-Kataang, Pro-Zutara, Anti-Zutara, Anti-All three of them episode (besides Fortune Teller and Southern Raiders)

Even though the play is a mockery retailing Books 1 & 2, it does give a possible reason why Katara would choose Zuko instead of Aang, (“the Avatar? He’s like a little brother to me!”) and she even used a similar phrase in Book 1 (“he’s a cute little guy like Momo!”) 

Aang was lowkey OOC here, when it was stated by Actor!Zuko to Actor!Katara “aren’t you the Avatar’s girl?” to which Aang nods, a grim/serious look on his face (because of this he literally confuses canon with fanon, and at the intermission confronts Katara on a statement she never said herself, instead taking to heart what an actress portraying her said)

Literally one of the very few episodes where these two talk about their feelings toward each other (and it ends terribly)

Because Aang is 12 (and frozen for 100 years), he may not (completely) understand romantic and platonic boundries, getting upset at Katara, and not reading her (uncomfortable) body langauge before kissing her

Direct conversation from the episode: 

Aang:“But it's true, isn't it? We kissed at the Invasion, and I thought we were gonna be together. But we're not.” Katara: Aang, “I don't know.” Aang: “Why don’t you know?” Katara: “Because, we're in the middle of a war, and, we have other things to worry about. This isn't the right time.” Aang: “Well, when is the right time?” Katara: “Aang, I’m sorry, but right now I’m a little confused.”

To be continued in Part 3.....

some of what will be featured:

Southern Raiders (supposed to be here but this is wayyyy long)

Parallels

(Blue Spirit & Painted Lady, All Book Endings, Red & Blue ships, Lightning and Blood Bending, Oma & Shu)

[betweenbeatriceandbaudelaire]

Noo not (toxic?)Tatsuhime shippers sayin that it made more sense than IH, bashing it. On early manga? Sure but like overall IH>TH? I dont want them to be IRs in disguise. At this point its like big part of the Fandom hate the Idea of Ichigo developing a special bond with Hime. Its like u ship it or u completely despise said ship. People arent allowed to like canon, u have to despise canon and embrace fanon cuz Kubo trashed his own story. This Fandom will forever have (wrong)bias huh? Idc anymore

What makes me sad is that they really are out there trying to convince everyone that their interpretation is the true one, and that if u liked the endgame pairings u didnt pay attention to the story. Bruh I literally started and finished the manga this year before the 20th ani project(never watched the anime tbh) and I was like ???? Sure final arc kinda trash tbh but the epilogue was good? Such an antagonistic elite, they really glorify their own interpretation of what happened (2/4)

U know, cuz they are true fans. Like, a few moths ago I didnt even knew the name of the pairings, didnt know of any essays and rants, and mid manga I was like "Bruh, Ichigo has something for Hime" and even if the final arc was rushed af I was like: these?? kids?? are literally more than friends less than lovers?? it wasnt forced?? when people in the comments said endparings succed I was totally ready for IR and IS in that epilogue lmao. Really hate it here haha.(3/4)

Srry for the innecesary asks lol, I just wanted to rant a little. Love ur blog, Literally found it like 2 weeks ago. And the fact that u (and many others) can really apreciate the character growth w/out twisting everything. Literally Bless U. I really wish this fandom wasnt such a Hivemind (At least), like, ok, If u dont like IH and like any other ship cuz their dynamic is more appealing 2 u, cool, but dont put ur opinions as canon/better than canon and let people enjoy what they want.(4/4) 

Aww anon thank you for your kind words ! I’m happy my blog can be a little help to you in this mess of a fandom. 

I know what you’re going through anon I used to get SO angry at ichiruki shippers and people saying ichihime didn’t make sense. I get occasionally angry now and again but I mostly made my peace with it because I understood something. 

Those people do not care at all to be wrong. You can argue with them until you lose your voice, you can point at them the multiple evidence there is for ichihime in the manga and they will not care. 

They do not care about what the manga has to say to them. They do not care about properly reading it. They do not care about understanding what was happening relationship wise in Bleach. 

The only thing they care about is their own biased version of Bleach. They like the fandom, they like the obscure nonsensical theories that affirms Bleach is actually a shojo for Ichigo and Rukia, they like the merch with ichigo and rukia standing next to each other, they like the IR comics with orihime getting humiliated being rejected by ichigo as a kind of foreplay for ichiruki happening. 

They could care less if Kubo said he never ever envisionned ichiruki happening because his end for bleach was always for ichigo’s son and rukia’s daughter meeting. 

They could care less about kubo explicitely saying “ This is not a romantic relationship” about ichiruki more than 10 years ago. 

They could care less about the hundreds of pages solely dedicated to the developement of ichihime. 

They will make you argue in vain, they will pretend they care about the source material by twisting it thoroughly in order for their crackship to happen. 

But they do NOT care about what is actually in the manga. 

Once you understand that. Once you get that their fanon version of Bleach matters more to them that what is actually happening in bleach you kinda lose the will to fight them because really what’s the point ? 

[imthepunchlord]

My biggest fear for the Félix episode? That they will go down a more literal path of him being a male Lila/Chloe. Not talking him being a terrible, nasty bully, but him being a terrible, nasty bully who hates Marinette and likes Adrien. Like, I seriously don’t think I can handle that. They can make Félix as mean as they want for me, like sure, whatever, fandom will always be there for me

Uuuuuugh yeah I’d hate that. Nothing gets me out of a fic faster than seeing Felix having devotion and love for only Adrien, it was annoying to see then, but at this point it’d be unbearable to see another character bowing down to kiss Adrien’s feet and thinking the world of him. With Marinette, Chloe, Lila, Nino, and Kagami; we have enough characters who think the world of Adrien and is the only thing to matter in their life. Definitely rejecting canon Felix if he’s another on that list. 

They really shouldn’t get along. I’m very certain Adrien was made to be Felix’s exact opposite, friendly, welcoming, passive, gentle, open minded, and eager to work with all. This makes him an immediate friend to both Marinette and LB, this sparks off an eager and friendly partnership between them; Felix though, especially with that curse, was a partnership being built on deceit and was half-hearted at best. Adrien is also a better character to use to teach lessons, and play off this idea that he is always right, Felix though, often portrayed as mean and cold, it can throw viewers off to see him teaching a lesson, even though characters like him can have solid reasons and views that do need to be brought up (like standing for you own opinion or don’t always go out of your way to please people). 

They are foils to each other, one is made out to be worse than the other, especially at the start, but that doesn’t make Felix an evil character and Adrien all good, especially now that we’ve seen where Adrien’s character has gone. They really shouldn’t be getting along. 

Only reason they would sort of pull this off is that they drastically change up Felix from concept to someone new, to be the latest version of Felix. But, much like most concepts, many of us will look back and prefer that concept, like Alya knew Marinette was LB and actually wasn’t all that crazy about heroes and was potentially more of a friend, LB had a power to make anything and how a diversity of weapons and tools to use (skates, staff, ladybombs, shield, parachute, ect.), and Chloe was a far nicer character and a much closer friend of Marinette. 

They really are at a disadvantage bringing Felix in this late, giving us so much time to look at the concept arts and consider him, and the day Thomas rejected him, declared him a concept and a bad idea, that was the day we took in Felix and made him our own. He’s a character we all have an idea of who he’s like, having him fill in a role that we desire, from being Adrien’s rival and foil and helping him grow, to Marinette’s friend, to a better love interest who better balances her out, to someone who can grow, and to be more of an antagonist if we need it. 

Felix we took in when Thomas threw him out. He can try and come in and say that this is Felix and we’re supposed to hate him and love Adrien all the more, but its a little too late for that. Much like everything, we can reject what’s canon and embrace our fanon. I have my ideas for Felix, and won’t even humor Thomas trying to come and correct those views and try to make me dislike this character as a whole because he doesn’t like him. 

I reject his canon. All of it. 

[bigskydreaming]

Um... /post/188248925631/dick-and-damian-dont-love-each-other-more-than Explain, please. Also curious about your opinion on the Dick and Damian being the mirror of Bruce and Dick, especially things like That scene in Nightwing #20 and fanon's heart nut material that is Dick being Damian's father figure along with brother.

LOL that was a goof post that basically is just another way of me saying “stop making the Batkids have favorites, let them all love and appreciate each other just in different ways.” With the fact that Dick and Damian tend to interact with each other more comfortably than with their other siblings not being proof of favoritism, but rather just...a lot of the same things and experiences appeal to them in very similar ways, so they have plenty of available bonding activities at any given moment. 

Like I see them both as adrenaline junkies in a way that say, Tim perhaps isn’t....like Tim isn’t afraid to do any of the things he does as a vigilante, of course, but he’s a more cerebral character, more of a thinker, happy surrounded by computers and data and investigation files as much as anything else...whereas Dick and Damian I both see as very physically oriented people, they like action, danger and excitement that gets their blood pumping and adrenaline going, like....on its own merits. 

So they’re like “HELL YEAH, LET’S DO THE THING” when the thing isn’t always the most....logical course of action, but hey, at least they’re not gonna be bored, lol. Y’know?

As far as Dick and Damian mirroring Bruce and Dick....I both agree and disagree with it.

I disagree in the sense that canon and fanon frequently views them as an INVERTED mirror of Bruce and Dick, with Dick as the happy Batman trying to cheer up the brooding Robin Damian, as opposed to when Bruce was the brooding Batman cheered up by his happy Robin Dick.

Because I think that devalues Bruce and Dick’s VERY early relationship, the inception of it, the foundation of their bond....and perhaps ironic given how critical I am of Bruce and his badly written or acted upon parenting a lot of the time....I think this perception of Bruce and Dick undercuts some of Bruce’s BEST times as a parent to Dick, specifically.

Because Bruce WASN’T just a dark, brooding Batman for most of the time Dick was Robin, historically speaking. Before the late 70s/early 80s, which was also around the time they started transitioning Dick out of Batman’s sphere and into his own role as Nightwing and most associated with the Titans, like....before all that, Batman tended to be as silly, tongue in cheek, and yes, even cheerful, as he was at times dark and brooding. Like, in pre-Flashpoint stories that trace back to Dick’s early years, Bruce SMILED, even when in the cowl. He laughed, he joked, he called Dick by personal endearments. He was PATERNAL and affectionate.

And given that in pretty much every version of his origin story, and like....in logical view of the events that unfolded in it....Dick himself did not START as a cheerful, happy go lucky Robin without a care in the world. He was traumatized, he was grieving. Depending on which origin you go with, he had massive trust issues, in all origins he has abandonment issues....early Dick Grayson had a darkness every bit as much as anyone else, because he was a lost and grieving child trying to find his way in the world with his usual support, lifeline, the familiarity that had defined so much of his early life in the form of his parents, his friends, his circus....like all of that was gone, and he had to start over in terms of finding things good and worthwhile in a world that had taken all of that away from him.

And it was Bruce who helped him do that. Who was HIS light, HIS brightness every bit as much as people tend to credit Dick with being his, if not more. Like, I would argue that it was NEVER that Dick made Bruce lighter and happier by simply being himself and always being cheerful and joking. More accurately, I’d suggest that it was more that Dick made Bruce lighter and happier by giving him reason to make a conscious CHOICE to be those things...for Dick’s benefit, specifically, so as to help steer Dick away from becoming a replica of his darkest and most brooding self, by setting a more carefree, light-hearted example for Dick to look at and use to help decide how he wanted to shape himself and what he wanted to shape himself into.

So the irony is, I think Dick and Damian are MORE of a mirror to early Bruce and Dick than people actually deem them to be. That they weren’t actually an inverted mirror, with Dick always playing the role of the cheerful inspiration that brightened his counterpart’s demeanor. I see it as Dick occupying the exact same role Bruce did in Damian’s life, leading him by example, out of his own personal darkness, the way Bruce had once done for him...no matter what differences came between them later in life.

The part where I DO think they’re actually an inverted mirror of Bruce and Dick, is in the paternal bond between Dick and Damian, that fandom highlights so consciously. Its not that Bruce wasn’t paternal, as I said earlier. Its more that like....there was always that slight distance or buffer (that grew as Dick grew older) that came about because of the uncertainty between Dick and Bruce as to what they actually were to each other, what label to use for each other....friend, brother, partner, father/son? And I do firmly believe that as the adult and guardian, it was Bruce’s responsibility to take the lead in establishing what they were to each other...or at least, what they COULD be, if Dick wanted it to be.

Like, I mean, the popular take is that Bruce never adopted Dick as a kid because he didn’t want to replace Dick’s father in his eyes. But like, there’s all of one story in pretty much their entire history when Dick ACTUALLY says anything like that himself...and its back when he’s like, ten or eleven, and they’re trying to keep him in Bruce’s custody and so like, a judge is forcing ten year old Dick to like....put a label to them himself. And Dick is many things, but presumptuous on his own behalf has NEVER been one of them, so I have super negative feelings towards that always being pointed at as why Bruce didn’t adopt Dick as a kid and saying see, it was for Dick’s benefit because he was just doing what Dick wanted....like, no. An orphaned kid who lost everything once, has massive abandonment issues, and ended up taken in by a billionaire who gave him more than he could have imagined....like that kid is NEVER going to be the one to push the envelope and say “hey this isn’t quite enough for me, could you please also adopt me, Bruce, even though you’ve never given me any clear indication that this was okay with you or something you even wanted?”

Like. Its just not realistic. Or fair to put that on the kid, to be the one to open up that avenue for exploration. This is why people who foster or adopt older kids are HEAVILY stressed to make clear to the child like....what their OPTIONS are. Like if they foster them initially, its not presuming anything about the child’s wants to just....make it clear that hey, if this is ever something YOU want, we would be very much open to adopting you and changing our dynamic accordingly, but if not, that’s fine too.

Kids just aren’t going to have the confidence to ASK for that. They’re just not. Especially when they come into the relationship with the kind of emotional baggage and familiarity with total upheaval that Dick had.

So my point being....I don’t think it was ever truly that Dick wanted to not be adopted, or expressed or hinted at that in any way. I think its more likely that Bruce projected his own wants on Dick, based on the fact that he initially identified with him and his circumstances so much, seeing himself reflected in Dick’s tragedy when losing his own parents. I think Bruce’s hesitancy to raise the issue of adoption when Dick was a kid was far more likely to do Bruce assuming Dick wouldn’t want that....because Bruce projected himself into DICK’S shoes, and based on THAT, operated off of what HE would have wanted as a kid....which was to NOT see his parents replaced in any real way, even though Alfred of course was very much a paternal presence throughout his later childhood.

So its not even that Bruce didn’t want to adopt Dick either - I think he very much did. He just told himself that Dick wouldn’t possibly want that, because Bruce couldn’t imagine have wanted that himself when he was Dick’s age, in Dick’s situation. And so Bruce held back from ever really raising it while Dick was a kid, because he was afraid he’d only get rejected if he did....again, just based purely on his personal assumptions and history.

The irony, for me, and why I see this as an inverted mirror to Dick and Damian’s bond....is that I think once Dick was in Bruce’s shoes....he did the EXACT SAME THING BRUCE HAD DONE....just in the other direction. He, just like Bruce had with him...projected himself into Damian’s shoes, and based his decisions off his assumptions about what Damian wanted or would want....which were in turn, based on his memories of what HE had wanted when he was the one in Damian’s position. Which was for Bruce to fully act like a father to him, to not hold back or hesitate or be afraid to step into that role.

So because of that, Dick tried to avoid what he saw as responsible for so much of the distance between him and Bruce - that hesitancy to establish a clear relationship and bond that left no real doubt how either felt - and so he in contrast all but threw himself into the paternal role with Damian...also using it at the same time to hide from his own grief and other issues stemming from Bruce’s death as well as having to be Batman. He EMBRACED being there and available as an actual father figure to Damian, if Damian made moves in that direction - which of course Damian inevitably did, because he was a kid desperately in need of affection, and here Dick was offering it freely and openly.

I think this additionally played into why Dick was so resistant to believing Tim about Bruce - it wasn’t that he didn’t WANT Bruce to be alive or that he didn’t trust Tim or WANT Tim to be right....it was that on some level, because of what he saw as so crucial to being for Damian’s benefit, and to avoiding making the same ‘mistakes’ with Damian that he felt Bruce had made by holding himself back from him at times, emotionally....Dick couldn’t afford to see himself as a placeholder in Damian’s life. Especially not without any guarantees that Bruce actually was alive or could come back....let alone how long that would take to happen. If he did that, accepted that, it would be all to easy to put off establishing that firm presence and role in Damian’s eyes for longer and longer....until one day he might look up and years might have passed and Damian was sixteen and pissed off and moving out because he didn’t know what he was to Dick and Dick was afraid to tell him, because he was afraid of replacing Bruce in Damian’s eyes.

So I think on some level, Dick just couldn’t allow himself to believe Bruce might come back, because if he did that, he wouldn’t be able to commit to what he truly, honestly felt Damian needed him to be, for Damian’s sake.

With the end result being that strong father/son seeming bond between them....and Dick not having ANY clue how to handle it when Bruce DID ultimately come back, and he probably went in his head....oh shit, I fucked up, I replaced Bruce in Damian’s eyes, or at least made it weird or difficult for them...I gotta get 1000 miles away from here STAT, otherwise I’ll fuck things up for them more and they’ll never have the father/son relationship I want them to have and they deserve to have, and it’ll be all my fault. And PS no this does not have anything to do with my devastation that I went all in on this whole ‘treating Damian like my own son’ thing and now I can’t do that anymore, I have no real claim, that’s not my place and I gotta just make my peace with Bruce occupying the role I came to want and love having myself.

*Shrugs* So yeah. All of that.

Oh and also....it does feed my ire on the ‘treating Dick like he’s only sorta Bruce’s son because of the smaller age gap between Dick and Bruce and how young Bruce was when he took Dick in’ front. Because Dick and Damian have just as small an age gap and Dick was pretty much just as young and Damian just as old as Bruce and Dick had been, originally...

And yet notice how fandom has NO trouble characterizing Dick and Damian having an almost father/son dynamic even WITH Bruce still present and even WITH them only having occupied those roles in each other’s lives for a year.

But meanwhile, Dick raised solely by Bruce from ages 8 through the end of his childhood, and some people still can’t wrap their heads around how they could possibly be TRULY a father and son to each other because this reason or that one?

Meh. Sounds fake. Hard pass. LOL.

[thunderheadfred]

Why I Love Spike But Also Hate Him A Lot: an unsolicited essay by me

OR: Why I personally relate to blood-sucking poseurs OR: dude what if I ever got high enough to rewrite season six?

(under a cut because this goes on for a while. also discourse frightens me)

Okay. I’m like twenty years late. But I’ve been rewatching BtVS s5 during my latest depression spiral and wandering against my better judgement into the Spuffy fic verse. Disclaimer that my grasp of the series’ larger canon is meh at best, and frankly I don’t care.

As usual, I have too many thoughts.

Spike is, hands-down, my favorite character on this show. Maybe one of my favorite characters, period. He’s just... good to watch. But listen. Secret poet or no, he was never an inherently good person. Meek and shy does not equal Buffy’s equal. I squirm at this apparently massively popular canon interpretation of his human character as some kind of adorable perfect cherub, as if William the Dipshit Poet is somehow preferable to Spike the Complicated Murderer or like, we should just automatically assume that cute shy white people who lived in 1880 London are default Lawful Good when in fact... ahahaa haaaa YIKES COLONIALISM?

I actually think the reason Spike is “more human” than other vampires (in the weird, contradictory Buffy soul-canon) is exactly because William was not Pure, he was a Pratt. Sweet? I guess. Loves his mum? He’s got that going for him. But that guy?? Is not Buffy’s long-lost true love, not a weepy ghost to be shoved into Spike’s Billy Idol cosplay bod at the last minute. In a show that, at its best, tries to give us a protagonist who fundamentally believes we must always make the choice to keep living mindfully, accountably, and with purpose... we get a love interest who is... Spike. A guy who, until the very end of his arc, acts as though he has zero fucking free will. Even though, through a combo of deliciously fun and inconsistent writing, Spike is apparently the only vampire in the Buffyverse who does.

I’ll get to that but first, let’s accept for a minute that Free Will + Buffy = good, and people who roll over and say “I had no choice” + Buffy = Mr. Pointy. This counts for her friends too, (*coughWILLOWcough*) and it’s one of the reasons I love the show despite its many textual problems. As a character piece, it’s great. People fail to take accountability for their behavior all the time. It’s an extraordinarily human flaw, one that rarely equals automatically evil, and I love that it can bite characters on the side of good, too. But that’s not the point of this, oh shit!

Okay. William, cute glasses aside, has no free will. He didn’t even sign up for the vampire thing, he just wanted to get felt up by a pretty girl who saw him cry and didn’t laugh at him. At every point, he was an immature, weak-willed, naive dreamer type who wanted nothing more than to be validated by his shitty friends. The vampirism made him a killer, yeah. But it also inadvertently gave a cowardly nobody a lot of good qualities. Now he’s a weirdly observant, relentlessly optimistic, fun-loving, sexually secure Cool Guy who gave up poetry for punk... but still tries too hard to impress his shitty friends. Basically, being a vampire made this guy a happier-but-still-undeniably-crappy version of himself, especially... considering all the murder. 

But now, let us transparently and metaphorically link cartoonish Vamp!Murder to addiction. Because wow, death in BtVS is either a manipulative authorial gut-punch or a dumb joke, and either way, it’s almost impossible to take seriously in this show, so let’s not.

How to make a remorseless bloodsucking fiend out of of “boo hoo I’m a bad writer and I wish some jerks thought I was cool?” Ha ha you can’t!  Turns out you basically recreate my early twenties but with more murder. Spike is a socially-dependent ADHD art school reject on a century-long avoidance bender. He’s a codependent, moon-eyed boyfriend who learns how to aggressively project not caring while caring Far Too Much, all while clinging to aesthetic as an identity. ALTHOUGH let us not deny that he 100% enjoyed all the killing - wtf so much killing - because for vampires, killing equals pleasure, and charming, “happy” addicts always justify the comforts of their vices. He talks the talk cuz fitting in is his whole deal, but he’s not actually in it for chaos and destruction or any high-falutin’ evil reason, or even really for eating delicious ladies but because, in the end, it feels good and the only girlfriend he’s ever had thinks eating people is cool. Even his whole (gorgeous, splendid to watch) episode-long speech about killing two slayers was written more for Buffy’s character arc than his; we don’t really know why he killed the slayers other than like, “Because they had a death wish I guess. Side note: it was fun.”

There wasn’t much legitimately vengeful or hateful stuff in sad little William for demon!Spike to work with, and apparently William’s soul-or-whatever moved about twelve inches over his left shoulder and stayed there, occasionally poking him for the next hundred years. So it should shock no one that he immediately switches sides when a) his girlfriend dumps him, b) his addiction suddenly hurts, and c) it’s time to impress a new friend group.

I get that Spike’s whole soul-getting between s6 and s7 has been interpreted in fanon as a grand romantic sacrifice (ehhhhhhhhhhhh) and I get why that’s tempting, but the show itself bungled that up way bad and I just can’t get behind it. R*pe idiocy aside, making it ultimately all about Buffy just kinda cheapens what could have been a really fucking powerful redemption arc, one that would have led to a far more satisfying love story. Especially from Buffy’s perspective. 

Okay listen.

We have a guy who has been playing the “duh, Vampire!” card for a century, pleasure-seeking and self-centered, pandering to various peer groups, murderous or otherwise, a happy addict, impervious to change. So when finally, after a HUNDRED SODDING YEARS of being a soulless, hilarious dick, Spike has consequences shoved into his gray matter by the government, he doesn’t change. At all. He just starts obsessing over another woman, doing what he thinks she wants. A woman he thinks will give him new pleasures, a new, perpetually fine status quo. But this woman is Buffy, whose identity is rock solid even though her life is constantly full of challenge and change and choices. She “rewards” Spike only when he makes willful, selfless decisions. And the rewards aren’t romantic, either. Not early on. Even in canon, she keeps rejecting him over and over again, for crystal clear reasons. Thank god. Because when he accepts that she’ll never have him, but still does the hard stuff anyway, he’s unwittingly starting to change. It’s not just Buffy. Buffy demands real personhood. Independence. Identity. Choice. 

Uh oh. She’s gotten to him, then. Though it starts out selfish, he still makes a CHOICE. Quite literally, he takes on the pain of self-improvement - first by embracing the consequences of his chip, later by going on his fancy sparkly soul quest. Buffy is the catalyst, no doubt, because once a poet always a poet and girls are pretty, but Spike’s path to improvement (if not redemption) was already there, laid out nice and neat. His narrative low point, the lightbulb moment that makes him want a soul again, should never have come out of a season of terrible backsliding, culminating in the shower scene we all regret.

It should have been The Gift. 

Death isn’t Buffy’s gift. It’s love. And not that simpering, easy kind of love that just says, “there there,” but the hard, truthful love that makes you want to keep getting that goddamn rock from the bottom of the hill. Yes, Spike’s arc should still be about Buffy, it’s Buffy’s show, but it should have been more about the hole she left behind. Not just in Spike but in the world. 

What’s left? This latest and greatest group of people who have so far RIGHTLY rejected a demon whose sole motivator seems to be comfort. And maybe when these particular people hit rock bottom, they have enough wisdom to see a monster down in the dark and recognize themselves. Maybe Dawn (whose humanizing effect on Spike has been nearly as important as his obsession with Buffy) shows him that rare, rare thing called Validation. And oh god, he realizes he’s never actually moved beyond trying to sell effulgence to Cecily Whatsherface, that he’s been sitting on his own grave for a hundred years, waiting for someone to coddle and fix him, and now the only woman who might have, the best woman, literally the one girl chosen one above all others... is gone. This would be a good time to die. 

Or...

...maybe there is no magic soul cave, maybe he tries to end it and makes the CHOICE not to. Chooses to stay and help, because what else is there? Then BAM! it just slams back into him in a way that hurts like you can’t even believe, because admitting how bad you’ve fucked up is the most painful moment of a lifetime and I’ve lived it and I wish I’d had a hellmouth to jump into, but the Scoobies pull him back, and he takes care of Dawn until life seems to have some meaning again, then Buffy comes out of the earth traumatized and broken and no one is better equipped to help her than a recovering Spike, not because he’s magically her rock but because he’s also learning how to roll his own rock and keep on climbing, because Camus ruined us all for metaphors...

THE END

Anyway. As a recovering addict and toxic person who has been struggling a lot recently... who wants to improve and be able to give more to the people I love, Spike has an arc that just like... cuts me deep, man. Especially because of what should have been.

[docholligay]

An unnecessarily lengthy ode to the deadlock disaster children

Decided I had to submit this instead of comment endlessly on your post… because I just love Ashe and McCree so much more than I could have ever predicted?? I would feel about characters from this game?? You already know this but you did ask for reasons, so I’m gonna give them to ya.

I was drawn to Ashe when I first picked up the game because I tend to prefer longer ranged weapons and also because I took one look at her and said ‘i choose you, criminal lesbian.’ I didn’t even watch Reunion for a little while, but I was/still am so into her weapon-focused kit and the challenge that learning to play her even relatively well has posed (I still run out of bullets and boop myself off ledges more than I care to admit). So for Ashe far more than McCree, there’s a gameplay element to her that does actually factor into loving her as a character. 

I wanted to play McCree a lot when I first got the game, because cowboy, and because me (the prism of my experience of rural life has affected a lot of what I see in mcCree and is probably a solid chunk of the reason I was able to write him into a character I liked) but his gameplay was just too hard and I didn’t love him like I did Tracer, so there was no reason for me to continue. 

Obviously we have very little canon for her, but I love a lot of what we do have. I love that she’s quick to anger and bossy and pretty selfish and quite good at what she does. I love that she clearly cares about McCree even as she isn’t prepared to ever let go of her grudge against him, that’s the kind of tension and conflict that I am always so into, perhaps in part because I have so much experience with it personally. She’s got high expectations of everyone, probably too high, and she prizes loyalty above all else - feels very relatable to me, tbh. I love her aesthetic and her ridiculous voice acting and I really really really love BOB’s mannerisms and general role in her life.

If and when I am ever tempted to do something with Ashe, I think the most interesting thing to work with would be her sort of spoiled brat mentality, and how that hits up against Actual Cowboy Ethos (I utterly, utterly reject the idea of the Deadlock Gang being a biker gang, at least before Ashe took over. I’ts a boring choice made for aesthetics.) The idea of her having conflict with everyone who taught her everything she knows and completely thinking that SHE’S RIGHT really intrigues me. 

As far as headcanons/my writing of her goes, though, I feel like I’m trying to flesh her out as a character who experiences a lot of growth, but never ends up much closer to perfect or even to good (because I don’t think she’s good, I don’t really have any interest in redeeming her at all, though I think humanizing her or exploring the ways that she can be relatable is interesting). I think one thing they did really well in introducing her (and some of the others, obviously Fareeha is similar) is that she’s a person who’s had an entire life, a childhood and a young adulthood and is now a grown woman. I find that super helpful in thinking about what particular things make her immature when she’s first meeting McCree and starting the gang, and then how she addresses or doesn’t address those things as she gets older and has to adapt. I also like that she’s a criminal, clearly not a good guy character, but also doesn’t at this point have a direct tie to the Big Bad organization of the franchise - I’ve not shared many of my ideas for where my fic series is going, but I like the idea of her flat out refusing any/all offers from Talon to team up for several reasons. Like having Vishkar and Lumerico and even Volskaya as sort of villainous presences, keeping Deadlock and Talon separate helps the world feel less manichean/more realistic to me, so I actually hope there’s not a move to tie everyone together too neatly.

I also have NO desire to see her team up with Talon except maybe in selling Talon weapons or something. BUt that’s business, not teamwork. I see Ashe as left with basically a name of the Deadlock gang, but without anyone but BOB who REALLY has her corner. 

I do wish that the whole 'her parents ignored her entirely’ and 'she’s richer than god’ things had been considered a bit more in relation to one another - it doesn’t make any sense to me at all that her parents would continue to bankroll their at large criminal daughter that they don’t care about at all, for instance. My other major gripe with how she’s been handled is actually about her legendary skins - let her look like herself, Blizzard!! Let her have her white hair and red eyes instead of just blatantly embracing the fact that you made another same face white woman who you will play Barbie with and give her dark hair or blue eyes whenever it’s more convenient. Also make her look her age, damnit. 

You’re completely right and all of this is dumb. But I’m not shocked, tbh. LET OLDER WOMEN LOOK IT!!! LET WOMEN BE OLDER!!! 

ANYWAY, her origin story and Reunion give me a lot to work with. ESPECIALLY because I’m not at all convinced that Reunion is the first time she and McCree have seen each other since he left the gang, or at least I feel very strongly that it shouldn’t be the first time. There are a lot of things about how they both act that I’ve chosen to read as suggesting this is kind of a recurring thing, he shows up and makes her mad and messes with the gang but neither of them will actually hurt the other, and then she has to go back to acting like he’s her nemesis when really he’s the one person who can make her break her own rules about punishing betrayal. I’ve got no particular investment in Blizzard telling their stories that way, but to me it makes a lot more sense than that confrontation being their first meeting after 20 years.

I haven’t decided what I think about McCree and Ashe’s relationship in specific, only in broad strokes, and I chalk a lot of that up to my general reluctance to engage with Ashe and what Blizzard seems to be trying to do with her. I’ll have to come up with something, if only in passing, but yeah, I dunno. 

AND SPEAKING OF MCCREE. He’s so sad, I love him. While I don’t see him joining Talon usually, I definitely agree with you that he just kind of bounces around from group to group and place to place throughout his life, and to me that’s in part because I see him as just kind of taking things as they come at him, but also because he’s so deeply convinced of his own 'badness’ and guilt that, without someone else prompting him like Ashe or Gabe, he’ll just default to running on his own so as not to hurt or disappoint anyone, including himself. But even as he’s convinced that he’s not a truly good man, he still works to do the right thing in the ways he knows how and feels cut out for. And I love that he’s polite, and that he seems largely to be pretty unflappable but is willing to get angry and express that anger when something is important enough to warrant it, and also that he’s a fuckin terrible dresser. 

Yeah, I think McCree is a tumbleweed, and he’s always looking for something, and he never really quite finds it, at least not for a long time, Eventually, in the fullness of time, he becomes a sort of officer for Overwatch, in my world, but even there he feels that he is doing a good and useful thing but does he “fit”? Will he ever be settled like Pharah? Loved like Tracer? Who knows! Not him! He’s just a cat dad doing his best. 

Idk, I was skeptical of getting into a game that wasn’t first-and-foremost narrative driven, but I’ve found that many of the characters are set up in such a way that even though they’re not fully fleshed out, there’s a lot to work with that’s super interesting and fun to me, so Overwatch has been an incredibly pleasant surprise. I love others, too, but these two appeal directly to my two greatest weaknesses when it comes to fictional characters (bitter lesbian who yells and sweet guy who tries really hard to do the right thing even though he fucks up a lot because the world is complicated), and it’s very fortuitous that they’re actually linked to one another within the lore. If my faves were like, Zen and Reyes, for instance, I don’t think I’d be as jazzed about the franchise as I am. But I lucked out with these two losers, and as always I love the way that you’ve written McCree (can’t wait to see what you do with Ashe) so I’ve gladly incorporated fanon into my thoughts and feelings about him, so it’s kind of just been a perfect storm for me, and now here I am writing excessively long submissions to you about why I love them.

Yeah, I think it works out nicely when you find a character that the franchise loves too. I did not go into Overwatch expecting Tracer to be my favorite, not even remotely. I expected it would be Widowmaker, actually. But Tracer just got me, something about her sense of goodness without naivete, her courage and her brightness. She’s the hero with the strength to get up and still see that corner of blue in the sky. ANd then go shoot a man to keep it. 

[3hams]

some impromptu Dick Grayson meta

While DC has always enjoyed wrecking Dick’s love life in bizarre and disturbing ways, I have my own fanon (is that still a word?) theories.

He and Kory didn’t work out because Kory embraced him wholeheartedly and unconditionally. Dick had internalized all this guilt from his parents’ deaths and a feeling that “real love” had to be earned through Bruce’s unintentional conditioning. So when Kory tells him he’s good enough for her, she must be lying or delusional. Or he must be great at faking it. He’s never good enough. He has to sweat for every scrap of love or it’s not true, not deep.

This terror that she will reject him once she sees his failings causes him to lash out, accuse her of things she hasn’t done, and try to control her. Basically playing on all her issues (Kory being one of the most honest people in canon with a history of being hurt by control) and making Dick’s fear of rejection come to fruition when she can no longer reach him.

At which point he goes back to Barbara, a woman tied up in his history with Gotham and Bruce, a woman who is hot and cold with him for a variety of reasons. That repetition compulsion to seek out those he knows are likely to reject him is indulged in Barbara. Both of them carry so much baggage and pain and love and just pummel each other emotionally until Babs gets fed up and boots him out.

(In some corners of fandom, Dick also indulges these issues with morally ambiguous older men, but that’s another essay for another time.)

All of this, and in the background, a highly critical father figure, a brother who insults and even attacks him every time he sees him, innumerable other people Dick feels he’s failed, and oh yeah, tons of combat trauma and assault. He sometimes plays out the push-pull routine with friends too (see: Roy Harper).

Honestly, it’s pretty bonkers that he’s functional, but I think the reason he’s one of the more gifted heroes in the DCU is that his neurosis fuels his drive. Much like Bruce’s neuroses fuel him.

Above all, he is Bruce’s son. Tim may take after Bruce in his intellect and personality, but the psychological intertwining of Bruce and Dick is something to behold. At their worst, they are somehow both codependent and distant, but they love each other so, so deeply. Some authors basically write them as soul mates. That tracks for me.

Is there anyone more driven to do more, be better? Is there anyone more desperate to avoid failure at any cost in the shadow of Bruce’s expectations than Dick Grayson?

Well, yes, actually. His name is Damian Wayne.*

When Damian comes along, he has been ruthlessly trained to avoid failure, to scoff at unconditional approval and love, to become the perfect heir of the Bat. Dick’s eyes are opened when he sees these internal struggles play out so externally with Damian. The confusion, the desperation and longing and fear. It all looks so different now that he’s finally grown up.

Dick can see the striving, hurting child he was in Damian, but this time, he can help. He can work to make his brother’s childhood a better one, can understand Bruce a little better watching the two of them. He can see Damian’s mistakes and cruelties and love him anyway. 

And maybe he can imagine a world in which all those people who told him they saw him and loved him no matter what (including Bruce) were telling the truth.

Loving Damian is a healing act for Dick. Healing for them both. And that potential is what makes Robin a hopeful character even when the costume is worn by a tiny angry assassin. 

*You can make an argument for Tim here too, but I actually think Tim has a better grip on his sense of self around Bruce than most of his brothers. Tim is more driven by fear of loss or loneliness than fear of disapproval. He becomes Robin despite Bruce’s explicit dissaproval.