#and is conventionally attractive in a way that makes sense to even non-fandom people | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

marysunshine23 · 1 year ago

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The "Tumblr Sexyman" Formula - It's Not What You Think

I know it sounds click-baity but hear me out.

Noun Tumblr sexyman (plural Tumblr sexymen) (fandom slang) A male fictional character (often conventionally unattractive or non-human) with a particularly devoted fanbase on Tumblr.

So, what makes a Tumblr sexyman? Is it the suit? Is it the height? Is it the face?

Nope.

TL;DR - It's confidence and sass.

Some people might be confused. Think of any tumblr sexyman and why you might like him. And you don't have to think about it very hard. So I'm gonna break down the ones I know/know enough about.

The Onceler

Ah, yes, the one who started it all; The Onceler. With his boyish face, his hipster fashion, his guitar, and his thirst for fame, he was an unintentionally sexy guy. Dreamworks did not plan this. At all. So what about this gangly, clumsy, people-pleasing, one-hit-wonder of a man child is attractive? Well, first and foremost, he makes it clear that he is confident that he has a good idea and that it can be accomplished. He has a plan, he knows how to execute it, he just needs some attention. And when people give him flack for this "stupid idea", he rolls his eyes and makes a snide remark. He's not afraid to tell people where to shove it (except his family, but that's an abusive relationship for you.)

It just so happens that he's got a boyish face and a nice sense of style. But what makes him attractive is his confidence and sass. Next!

Bill Cipher

Now how can a literal animate symbol of the illuminaty be sexy? Well, he's basically a God, so of course he's confident that if the stars align in his favor, he can do whatever the fuck he wants. And when he's underestimated, he's got loads of backhanded compliments and off-handed remarks to make people feel dumb. Confidence and sass.

Sans

Now we have the man, or rather skeleton, that broke the suit rule; Sans. Talk to this guy for more than five minutes and you see he basically lives and breathes sass. And whenever you start getting violent, he makes sure you know that he is a threat. He doesn't even have to do much to show that despite only having 1 HP, you do not want to cross this little skelly-man. Between the jokes and passive-aggressive warnings to deter you from hurting Papyrus, there's no doubt that Sans is full of sass and confidence.

Komaeda Nagito

Komaeda Nagito; love him or hate him, he's almost the poster child of tumblr sexymen. His sass and confidence are so apparent that it becomes annoying despite the confidence not necessarily being within himself. His confidence in his luck and hope drive him to be the most loved, hated, and feared character in the Danganronpa series. His sass often comes in the form of backhanded comments that he "doesn't realize" aren't compliments. Not to mention the fact that despite his attitude and self-deprecating talk, everyone knows he's a threat. Sass and confidence in it's most unusual form.

Alastor

Alastor, one of the revivals of the suit and tie schtick. There's no question of his confidence; when one is an overlord, you can't help but exude it. Not to mention the fact that he doesn't even attempt to be subtle about his sass like some of the other men in this post. If he thinks something is stupid, he'll tell you in the most eloquent and flavorful way he can; all while avoiding profanities. There's no doubt that he is basically a copy-paste example of the traditional sassy and confident sexyman.

Angel Dust

I know my previous example was from Hazbin but there's a reason that Angel Dust is here. Angel is an example of a sexyman who leans into a femboy. Angel is known for wearing the stereotypical suit top in a way that makes him appear to have breasts. He forgoes the suit pants for a mini-skirt and sexyboots, and often wears drag. He's sexy and he knows it. He's the gay friend girls wish they could date, he's the gay friend that will tell that creep at the bar to fuck off and leave you alone, and he's 100% the gay friend you make out with when you're drunk. Angel Dust isn't just a tumblr sexyman, he's what women love about gay men. And that comes with a boat load of sass and confidence.

Jax

The latest entry into the tumblr sexyman gallery, Jax from The Amazing Digital Circus. Next to Nagito and Bill, Jax might be one of the meaner sexymen. He not only cares what others think, he doesn't care much about other people's emotional or physical well-being; and he's vocal about it through snide remarks and backhanded compliments. He is who he is and that isn't about to change. And he brings in that tall and skinny stereotype. Though it might become a stereotype that Michael Kovach needs to voice them as well; because like Angel Dust, Michael sells that confidence and sass.

Conclusion

Tumblr Sexymen aren't necessarily sexy for their appearance, the definition even states that very often they're not conventionally attractive. What we're attracted to is someone who is confident enough to tell people off and sassy enough to do it in a way that is funny. Humans find confidence attractive, and we often will overlook appearance if someone is funny enough. Sass is playful, and it makes us feel at ease. These sexymen are confident enough to develop power, but playful enough to not feel like an immediate threat. None of the tumblr sexymen are the type of guy you'd run into on the street; some of them are charismatic, some of them are kinda dorky, but all of them are people you'd want on your side during a fight. If they care about you, they'll stand up for you and be able to knock down the opponent a couple pegs.

#tumblr sexyman #tumblr sexymen #the onceler #bill cipher #undertale sans #komaeda nagito #nagito komaeda #hazbin alastor #hazbin angel dust #digital circus jax #essay writing

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bagel-boy-sama · 1 year ago

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Astarion Baldurs Gate 3 Isn't A TumblrSexyMan™, He's Just A SexyMan™

I've seen a large number of people, most of whom are in the Astarion Disliker/"I don't get it" camp most who are not on this particular hell site, cite Astarion as Tumblr's latest sexyman. Today, I will be explaining why I do not believe that to be the case. That instead, as the title states, he's just a sexyman.

No real knowledge of the hell site is required, I'll explain things for the new people.

Setting The Definitions

First, definitions because this is now Intro to Writing and Rhetoric. A sexyman would be anyone, usually masc or a man, who is concidered sexy by a wide range of people. Fascinating.

A Tumblr Sexyman, on the other hand, is a thing - usually fictional entity - that is incredibly popular on Tumblr.com to the degree it escapes it's fandom sometimes, in the most extreme of cases, becoming far more popular than it's original fandom. It is characterized by a few major characteristics. Ranging from Twinkism* (be it the character or fan interpretation), generally unconventionally/perceived to be unconventionally attractive in a non physical sense (character traits that wouldn't otherwise be desirable, like absurd behavior or generally evilness), to impeccable drip (either in the original media/design, or done by fans in fanart).

*note: Twinkism (which I did just throw in on the spot this is entirely bullshit for my own amusement) is the phenomenon of skinny, young looking, pretty/feminine white boys who are within media. This is different from twinks, who are understood to be young and skinny - being pretty, popular, or white is not connected. All those who participate in Twinkism are Twinks, but not all Twinks participate in Twinkism.

Does Astarion Baldurs Gate 3 Fit The Definition?

First rule: must be at least a twink. Is he?

No. Yes. Kinda. In a way. Many people would describe Astarion as someone who's gone through "Twink Death". No this is not because he's literally undead. Twink Death, in it's simplest form, is when a twink no longer looks young and/or feminine. Astarion has aged. His crows feet and laugh lines, while beautiful, do not make him look 18. For some this would disqualify him from being a Twink. So perhaps he has failed at the first step.

I, however, am not satisfied with that. Moving on, is Astarion - or would Astarion - actually be considered conventionally unattractive in any way that is disconnected from his appearance? I argue no. Vampires are considered very well, normal to lust after. They're right below succubus on the "This isn't considered weird to find attractive" scale. You aren't romancing The Emperor here. Outside of that he's well groomed, shown to be muscular in game (headcanon does often disagree and while I wish it was true we are working with facts for this specific discussion), and an elf. In personality, while not for everyone, he's the pretty standard fruity sarcastic gay who's a bit selfish. We all know a fruity sarcastic gay who's a bit selfish, and they get laid. So it can't be considered that bad. Probably.

I feel important to note here that I am aroace and have no idea what I'm talking about right now. This is an educated guess.

Astarion has lost now, two for two. He's barely a twink, even going off of his model he's more a twunk. He definitely doesn't fit the Twinkism phenomenon. He's not weird to find attractive, I assume, so what else is there? His drip? I'm sorry, but his base outfit is a bit well Goofy to say the least. Much fanart leaves him in this outfit or a simpler version because drawing ruffles is enough to make anyone want to willingly jump headfirst into the underdark, so he fails the drip test as well.

His final hurtle: is his popularity Tumblr™. In this context Tumblr™ is different from Tumblr. Tumblr™ is the fandom side, where a sexyman would flourish and find their own fandom. Importantly, this fandom needs to be very insular to the site. It's a *Tumblr* sexyman after all. So that begs the question, is Astarion highly liked by mostly or purely Tumblr people/those who have the vibes of a Tumblr user? No.

Astarion is well loved by many people of various vibes. He has affected (previously) straight men on Reddit. Few can escape him and his 10 charisma.

Conclusion

Astarion is just a sexyman. He's just a fictional character that many think is neat and attractive for a variety of reasons. He's the Ryan Reynolds of crpgs. He's some dude, who's generally considered attractive by a lot of people who you both would and wouldn't expect to find him attractive.

#This only matters because when he's inevitably included in a Tumblr sexyman thing that's probably not even on here I'll know that I spent #30 minutes writing a weird essay thing about why he isn't really a Tumblr sexyman #look forward to receiving this link poor souls who decided to be my friend. ive converted all of you to Astarion fans so actually youll like #it probably. im such a good influence #astarion #bg3 #baldurs gate 3 #baldurs gate 3 spoilers #purely because i mentioned the emperor #astarion ancunin #baldurs gate posting #im so sorry to anyone who actually read this genuinely why. if this gets more than 2 notes im going to be homicidal #also F for my followers who dont care about bg3 sorry besties.

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ileftherbackhome · 2 years ago

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the fact that would've could've should've and bigger than the whole sky both sound somewhat like dear john and somewhat like style is really heartbreaking idk if it was on purpose but it makes them sadder

I was fully prepared to laugh at how ridiculous this was but I actually played style and wcs back to back and I'm really uncomfortable by how right you are, anon.

The end of WCS ends with the same guitar note style opens up with, and like she definitely does the same background singing in both songs. I dont know if she did it on purpose, I'm not taylor so I can't say but it feels like she did.

It actually breaks my heart whenever I think about style because I'm actually convinced it is about her ED, just like I think bad blood is about her ED too (or rather how her ED made her distrust everyone and ruin her friendship with katy) and I just hate it so much because it's such a beautifully written song on the surface about a rocky and anxiety fueled relationship (I honestly don't think haylor was pr but I do think it was mostly anxiety and ED fueled... in fact, the way she writes about Harry, it feels exactly like the way I used one of my old flames as a way to feed my ED desire to feel beautiful) and that writing just really adds to the depth of the ED themes of style because like, I don't ever think haylor was a good couple and although they weren't pr, i do think that taylor was kind of chasing like... heartthrob in a sense? Like okay, so

When I was closeted, the type of man that I went after very, very much played into like heteronormative standards of attraction and what white people thought was attractive. Like, not just the race of the person but more like their entire aura and like the way they behaved. I'm not saying I wasn't attracted to non-white people, I'm saying that even the non-white people I was attracted to were like very heteronormative looking.

It played into my desire to feel conventionally attractive and there is a huge thing about queer women not being real women, and I was shamed for my sexuality before I even knew I was bisexual because of this stereotype of queer women being desperate for love that they turn gay when men don't give them what they truly desire.

So, like, not to project myself onto taylor, but the way that she wrote about men reminds me of this same desire I had to market myself as a good woman. Like, the miss American documentary, it's flowery in language and its from a white perspective but I don't think that means it's any less nuanced, right? Like her talking about her desire to be a good woman is really asute of her.

Like, for a white woman, that is the standard of femininity that we aspire to teach our daughters to emulate. We want to been seen as good, and taylor constantly rails against this desire, especially since 1989.

People forget just how outspoken she was for the time, like I was reading her vogue kaylor interview and she was talking a lot about women's role in society. This was in 2014, before she was really seen as a "feminist."

Like, the difference between the social perception of taylor that I remember and me reading these articles is so cognitively dissonant for me. Like, yes, she is a white feminist but like she's really not as white of a feminist as we claim she is as a fandom.

I've been reading a lot of her interviews from 2014-2016 recently and it's crazy how aware she was of the social dynamics and how well she pushed back against those dynamics in a way that she didn't receive flack for being a radical feminist.

Like, she very much was tired of the good girl image that she used to want to portray and I think that we have to keep in mind, taylor has told us this was her belief system. It feels very autistic to me, honestly, but that could just be my autism speaking for my own desire to be a good woman since it's something that all white women are taught to desire, not just autistics.

But I digress, like, taylor doesn't ever say anything controversial during this time but she still tries to make her opinion known while not trying to rock the boat. So like all of this combined, to me, 1989 feels more like an exploration of gender roles than anything else.

Yes, there is romance on the album but it's not an album about finding love. It's about finding yourself outside of the expectation put on women, especially white women during this time, to find love or to make "a man stay."

So yeah, I can definitely see how style is connected to wcs especially and I really appreciate you bringing this to my attention because WOW big brain take anon.

#taylor swift #eating disorders #midnights #1989 #gaylor

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prettyboykatsuki · 2 years ago

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I would looooove elaboration on Toji 😫 Because I completely agree with you but I wanna see your take

this became an essay because i am crazy. so sorry. and i was originally gonna keep this very short but unfortunately i am plagued by thoughts and opinions as always.

major manga spoilers lol

i think one part of toji being heavily mischaracterized is just because he suffers attractive character syndrome. any time a character is conventionally attracted and of age, people just sort of cherry-pick them for their fantasies without much thought given to their characterization so i know that makes up a lot of it.

but on the other hand, even with people who enjoy jujutsu kaisen critically, toji's characterization and honestly his narrative importance is like. consistently overlooked. his womanizing tendencies and his finacial issues make him an easy target for comedy and he's often the butt of the joke. sometimes it's funny to me too so im not like.. upset about it.

in general, i think toji in the fandom is very far removed from his origin story in a way that other characters aren't. and even someone who is a fan of toji with critical thoughts about him probably see how horny his fanbase is and don't bother.

idrk how to explain it but tojis actions all through out the manga is heavily directly related to his position in jujutsu society - as is the case with almost every other character and especially characters related to the zenin clan. toji, specifically, is a non-sorcerer trying to make ends meet with an intense and deep hatred for clan politics.

his resentment tends to be the core of his actions. but personally and based off of those actions in the manga - i believe that resentment isn't related to the system of jujutsu society itself. it's not a sense of justice that motivates him. he differs from maki in this way. tojis reasoning is much more simplistic. he's a prideful character and i believe his frustration lie within the fact he's consistently underestimated. to the clan he's worthless and i believe that emotion resonates throughout the story. he isn't like gojo or getou or maki or anyone else with large aspirations about the direction of the world around them.

but that's kind of the point of his character.

what toji is meant to represent is the common man. the average person in this world. that's why his fight with gojo is so important on more levels than one. they mirror each other in that gojo is the pinnacle of the gifted child - the prodigal son. he was birthed with a silver spoon in his mouth and praised for his ability from the moment he set foot on the earth. toji is the opposite end of that. the bottom of the barrel, discarded from society for his lack of ability.

toji knew he couldn't kill gojo. his sense of unease was represented through the fight. but why did he want to kill gojo in the first place? it wasn't because he disliked gojo and it wasn't that gojo disliked him either. but their natural positions were against each other and toji knew what it would mean if he could kill gojo.

toji's entire career and nickname as "the sorcerer killer" is based on the fact he wants recgonition. gojo is who toji wants to be. who he could've been had he been born with technique. they are mirrors, yet despite themselves, the both suffer intensely at the hand of the society they were raised under. there are no winners in this world, not really.

in tojis last moments, he thinks of his wife and son. we know nothing of toji's character or who he married. but being frank, i will never ever believe toji was a deadbeat father. im sorry but i don't think that's true.

toji operates about megumi in a way that reads generally considerate in his own way. it's with the belief that megumi had potential to make something of himself. in the end, he mentions megumi to gojo because he wants megumi to live a decent life. a better life than he did, struggling in the streets. he saw potential in megumi.

in his mind, megumi could've become a part of the zenin clan. a dream he never achieved himself, but wanted to pass on

people mention that scene where toji can't recall who megumi is but that's always read to me as an obvious mask. i doubt toji, essentially a mercenary and killer of the most powerful beings in the world and surely with a lot of people trying to kill him, would want his son to be associated with him in anyway.

in tojis resurrection in 113, when toji was brought back as an aggressor and a mere shell, he chose to kill himself instead of being a puppet in his own sons death. toji, esentially meant to be a doll, had enough cognition to not only recognize megumi, but speak to him.

with his last words, and with the only opportunity he had left to reveal himself to megumi - he didn't do it. he simply asked megumi was his name was.

"hey. what's your name"

"...? fushiguro?"

"good for you"

#return to sender #fang.jjk #jjk meta #fang.meta

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aconstantstateofbladerunner · 2 years ago

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I did actually get a hint of the racism angle from some of the Dekugate posters. The ones discussing Inko being a "traditional Japanese beauty" and how "conservative" Japan is especially gives me vibes of "Western anime fans who dismiss Japan as a whole as conservative and without any liberal politics or social movements (ex feminism or anti-imperialism), and who's only knowledge of queer culture is Western queer culture + yaoi produced for straight women."

Basically, I'm saying your Dekugate fic really is amazing because it so effectively captures both the overt horror of fandoms centered around these conspiracy theories, as well as the subtle way these homophobic (biphobic specifically in this case), misogynistic, and racist biases appear even in supposedly "woke" spaces.

Misogyny and gay fetishization justified with progressive language are a huge feature of real life celebrity conspiracy counterparts. The most common refrain is the way the actual girlfriends of the center ship are treated. They are not merely women dating men, they are gold-digging influencer wannabes hired by a marketing team to push a narrative that the guys are straight. And because they are willing to participate in ‘closeting,’ it means they are evil, homophobic pieces of shit and anything said about them is fair game. Their weight, their sense of fashion, their bone structure, whether or not they put the man first, how often are they scene without the man present, the way they touch the man, did they ever have sex with someone in exchange for something, what they eat, the way they dance, the way they walk their dog. In the real world, it’s not misogyny to criticize a women for questionable behavior, but you’re supposed to stick with the behavior itself. In conspiracy fandoms, saying that a woman has ‘evil eyes’ is just an extension of the totally reasonable criticism that she didn’t like her boyfriend’s instagram post.

Then there’s the way queerness is used as a justification of misogyny against other, non conspiracy fans. Anyone who doesn’t believe in the conspiracy must be straight, homophobic, stupid teenaged girls without any real life experience. It’s so gross that they think a conventionally attractive person is attractive, unlike the noble pursuits of editing their faces onto gay porn and speculating about what position they have sex in. The reasons they like or connect with the celebrity are totally shallow and insincere. How can they relate to these totally exclusively queer and not all generic lyrics about finding hope through hard times? Oh what’s that? You’re a queer person who doesn’t believe in the conspiracy? You’re not a fan of the celebrity? You must not actually be queer then.

And like i said in the other post, I’m not the most qualified person to talk about racism, but i have seen some shit. A common refrain in some corners is saying that if marketing is going to set the dude up with a fake girlfriend, the least they could do is give him a woman of color who might steer him away from his less-than-progressive image. (I’ve only found one fandom where the focus of the conspiracy is around a non-white celebrity, and even then there is a lot of discourse within about his ethnicity.) Correct me if I’m out of line, but the way they talk about it really sounds like they want a token so their dude looks more progressive in the eyes of people outside their bubble. Especially since that often, when the dude does actually date someone of a different ethnicity, the fandom bends over backwards to ‘prove’ the woman is actually white, ‘white-passing,’ or otherwise not actually ‘enough’ of their ethnicity so they can justify the shitstorm all over again. It’s the same bullshit as when someone wants to make some old school misogynistic joke about women being irrational and annoying, but throw ‘white’ in the front so it can play in pseudo-progressive spaces. And that’s when they don’t just drop the pretenses and start throwing around dog whistles and slurs.

TL;dr: shitty people will often try to come up with moral justification for their shitty beliefs and behaviors, and progressive language is just one of the tools in the toolkit.

#answers #dekugate

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deniigi · 4 years ago

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my supervisor fucked me over with all my other coworkers present. can I request a one shot from you to cheer me up featuring Sammy?

Did I give y’all the fic about the hotpot?

Well if I didn’t, I’m giving it to you now.

Title: hotpot

Summary: Ganke checks the comments for the Blindspot comic daily and there’s this one asshole anon who keeps talking shit about BT.

The Blindspot comic went live in the fall and Ganke couldn’t stop checking the hit count every five seconds. All night there had only been ten hits.

He told himself not to be disappointed. The only person who really mattered had read and loved the comic.

Miles said that BT had even forced everyone on the team to read an abridged version of Journey to the West, and had gone as far as to make a quiz to determine everyone’s character.

Miles refused to disclose who he’d gotten.

BT had clearly rigged the game to make himself Sun Wukong and Ganke was proud of him.

That kind of enthusiasm was exactly what he’d been hoping for, anything else now was just icing on the cake.

Even though it would be cool if it wasn’t just BT reading his own comics.

That would be pretty cool, right? Like. If people online all started reading BT’s comic. That would be sort of amazing.

Kind of excellent.

Definitely worthy of an A+ and double pats on the back.

Right?

The hit counter didn’t think so. But hey, five more people had opened the page since last night. That was something, wasn’t it?

MM: dude why not just ask Sam to tweet out the link?

How dare you, Miles Morales.

How dare you waltz into this place with logical thought.

GL: I can’t do that. That’s like. Idk. Inflating the views.

MM: okay yeah explain to me how appealing to the person in control of the largest part of his own fandom is inflating the views

GL: I see your logic and I’m banishing it

MM: I’m messaging him

GL: DON’T

MM: too late

MM: he says ‘gimme link’

GL: asdksjsjdks

@blindspot: hi I know y’all can’t get enough of me to the point of asking shockingly invasive questions and for you I say good news! Some amazing folks have gone through the trouble of making a Blindspot comic. it’s good guys check it out [link]

It helped.

A lot.

It helped a lot.

People, on the whole, had great things to say. The panels were screenshotted and tagged and sent all over social media and even though Miles was pretending to be chill and aloof about the whole thing, Ganke could imagine him smiling big and bright and white at his phone non-stop.

Mom and Auntie saw a few of the bits on Twitter and tittered over them in the kitchen like pigeons.

The pride rose like a wave. Ganke kept waiting for the crash.

It came two days later in the form of a comment that read ‘Christ, look at all this fuss. BT is fine. I hate his brother.’

It felt like someone punching the wind out of Ganke’s lungs.

He took comfort in the handful of people who leapt in to shout down the commenter. They emphasized that if the anonymous commenter didn’t like the story or the characters, then they didn’t have to read it and they, especially, didn’t have to say anything about it.

Ganke appreciated those guys. He got the feeling that a lot of the people on there knew that the whole thing had been done but a couple of kids.

Not that Anon cared.

Anon replied to all these comments ‘No, I’m gonna keep reading, thanks. Anyways, the brother is lame. The smart part is cool, but why’s it always gotta be a guy?’

The part that haunted Ganke even after he’d shut his laptop and had gone to stick his head out the window for some big breaths of cleansing air was that Anon was kind of right.

GL: should we have made Guotin’s brother a sister?

MM: no

GL: why not?

MM: cause BT’s always wanted a brother

Oh.

Okay. Then it was fine?

MM: yeah man ignore them. it’s chill.

GL: k thanks my ego is huge and fragile

MM: trust me I know

Asshole. Fine, moving right along.

It didn’t stop. Anon commented on every page. Every. Single. Page.

Ganke didn’t know what to do or say. On the one hand, clearly this person was dedicated and deeply engaged with the comic, on the other hand, they needed a Rude Alert button. Ganke wondered if Ned could code one for them and them only.

The latest of their fury was directed at the big reveal in the second issue—BT’s face.

Having now met Sam, BT, Blindspot, Ganke’s whole image of him had changed.

He was not conventionally attractive as far as like, K-Pop idols and famous Chinese dudes went. His eyes were puffy and narrow and his face was round everywhere but the jaw. He leaned more towards ‘cute’ than ‘sexy,’ which Ganke sort of loved about him.

He was friendly. Stressed and grumpy and feisty as hell, yeah, but first and foremost friendly.

Miles claimed that he called it his ‘number one asset in employability.’ Which was wild because hello, Blindspot.

Obviously, BT couldn’t help his face. But Miles and Ganke could help Guotin’s.

Ganke had sent Miles about fifteen different images of Chinese celebrities and had told him to do his worst. They’d reviewed the final few drafts and had picked one that was most like a young Chen Kun. His face was more oval-shaped than BT’s. His chin and lips were slimmer but more defined. He was pretty, but not so pretty as to be called ‘feminine,’ which Ganke thought was a solid compromise between ‘handsome as sin’ and ‘looks like he’s got a quirky sense of humor.’

Anon hated him.

Anon thought that he looked like an idol, and they were not here for it.

They told ‘the artist’ to give him a mole or something, anything to make him look ‘less pristine. God, I can smell him from here and he smells like Dior and staph habitat.’

Ganke had to look up what a staph infection was. He regretted it. He asked Miles if they should censor Anon.

Miles said ‘mmmmm, idk it’s not like they aren’t saying anything that isn’t true.’

Ganke resented that. Clearly this was defamation of BT. This person hated him and was taking their feeling out on the comic.

MM: I mean yeah but it’s not like they’re talking about the comic, man. They’re talking about the style and like, thinking about it, a mole or smth to help you tell him apart from other folks would kind of be helpful. Like, especially if we ever put him in a crowd, you know?

HHHHHH.

Fine.

Anon could stay. But they were on thin ice.

It was hard not to be bitter about Anon’s comments, especially when they arrived daily, as though Anon knew exactly what they were doing and which page they’d left off at. They couldn’t possibly be reading the comic one page at a time, this was intentional.

Ganke’s jaw hurt from all the tooth grinding he’d endured as of late.

This latest one read ‘yo, has BT ever mentioned fighting with a sword? I don’t recall him mentioning. Someone should take that thing away from him before someone loses an eye—or maybe even two.’

That felt like a pointed jibe.

That turned the churning irritation in Ganke’s gut into something much, much colder.

Did Anon know about BT’s black and blue eyes? How could they know? Was it a coincidence? It seemed to be more than a coincidence.

The pile of critiques was growing bigger and bigger, and now that Ganke thought about it, they all seemed to take issue with things that didn’t match the real Blindspot’s personality.

It was as if they knew him.

GL: miles did you read the new comment from AnonTheAsshole?

MM: lol yeah

GL: tell me if I’m talking out my ass or whatever but like

GL: you don’t think they could be Muse, could they?

Silence.

MM: oh no

Yeah. Fuck.

MM: chances are low.

GL: they know so much tho??

MM: might be stalker? Maybe someone who’s over-invested in BT’s social media pages?

GL: maybe.

MM: hold on let me ask Spidey to screen it

GL: does he know Muse?

MM: no, but he’s paranoid and he’ll get Wade to be paranoid with him, and then they can decide whether its worth giving to DD for verification. He knows Muse.

Ganke’s head was spinning. His fingers shook with guilt and the thought of Muse’s pale body hunched over a secret, cracked cell phone in a high security prison who knew where.

In Ganke’s head, he smiled wider and wider, until the skin on his cheeks cracked. He dug out scraps of paper and redrew Blindspot—Sam—with gaping holes for eyes and a screaming mouth and he drew dismembered corpses in black lakes and he laughed.

He just kept laughing.

MM: hey ganke

MM: it’s going to be okay. It’s just a comic. I’m sure AnonTheAsshole is a stalker. They’re not threatening anyone.

MM: Sam can deal with a stalker. And we can too, okay?

There was a reason that Miles was a hero. Ganke wiped at his eyes and swallowed.

GL: okay. Thanks for doing that.

MM: 👍🏾

It took a few hours because Spidey and Deadpool had lives outside of being Spidey and Deadpool, but not so long that Ganke ran out of nails to chew.

Miles messaged him back and said that Spidey had read through everything and ‘escalated it.’ This meant that whatever he’d seen had caused him enough concern to take it to DP.

Miles said that he’d get back to Ganke with DP’s verdict as soon as he had it. In the meantime, he’d run the comments by the other Spideypeople and they thought that it most likely wasn’t malevolent but was maybe something to keep an eye on in the meantime. He tacked onto all, somewhat stiltedly, that he had a weird feeling all of the sudden. The pink Spidey’s tone had changed. She’d shut down and gone cagey, which allegedly wasn’t like her at all. Then she’d told the taller guy to DM her and they’d vanished from the chat. Miles wasn’t sure what was going on there or if maybe they knew something about stuff going on that he didn’t, but he wasn’t super comfortable with it.

GL: crossing my fingers its nothing?

MM: same man, same.

DP escalated it.

Ganke couldn’t stay still in his room. There was no comfortable place to sit or stand or lay. There was nothing to do that would make him stop thinking about everything.

MM: It’s gonna be fine, man, DD always knows what to do.

Miles kept saying that for every step of the way, and yet here they were. Double escalated. Ganke wasn’t so sure he even knew what was happening anymore.

That was scary. Miles was supposed to be part of the in-crowd.

MM: Wade doesn’t think it’s anything that can’t be nipped in the bud.

That was easy for a contract assassin to say, wasn’t it?

MM: he says that you and I are fine. Doesn’t see any links there. Waiting on DD for confirmation of tone.

Hurry up, Daredevil. Your apprentice’s life might be about to take a nosedive into a heap of trash.

Two hours. One text.

MM: >:/

Ganke couldn’t contain the bubble of laughter.

GL: good news?

MM: [image]

He opened it.

SC: HANNAH YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE. STOP BEING A BITCH ON MAIN

HC: You can’t tell me what to do

SC: I CAN

HC: Mom he’s being MEAN

SC: Mom she’s scaring children online

HC: I scare children everywhere I go why are these ones special???

SC: Because I said so

HC: that doesn’t fucking work Samuel you’re not her

SC: I am your older brother

SC: your ELDEST brother

HC: YOU AINT SHIT

SC: THEY DON’T COUNT

SC: HALFSIES COUNT

What.

MM: so.

MM: she’s not Muse.

MM: Red’s laughing his ass off at all of us for taking this to a level three

GL: wait I don’t understand

MM: Hannah is Sam’s little sister. She’s found a new hobby in our website.

Blindspot’s little sister was reading the comic??? Holy shit.

GL: she hates him?

MM: no I’ve been informed that they would literally commit murder for each other but this is how they express love.

No way. Siblings were wild.

GL: so we’re good?

MM: [image]

SC: apologize 🔪

HC: eat my ass

SC: apologize or else

HC: or else what? You gonna come in here and sit on me? Huh? Huh????

SC: I know your email password. All 3 you cycle through. What was his name? Uuuuuuuuuh Jing?

HC: you fucking bastard

SC: Hi Jing, it’s me, Hannah. I’ve been in mad crush with you since sophomore year. Please notice me senpai 😖

HC: Die

SC: kill me

HC: I will.

The giggles that came this time were a mix of relief and genuine intrigue. This lady read the comic every day. She took the time to scroll through pictures of her brother being an absolute lunatic and fighting with a huge monkey. Then she hopped into that comment box and took him—not Miles, not Ganke, specifically Blindspot--down a peg.

She must miss him a lot. Ganke wondered if this was her way of keeping him in her thoughts.

MM: I don’t think we’re getting a sorry, man. DD says Sam’s been at this all morning and has been tricked into apologizing himself twice

GL: so you’re saying that she’s an evil genius

MM: idk but she’s def Sam’s main nemesis. I always thought that older siblings got like, rights or something over younger ones, but idk anymore. Angel says this is normal.

GL: do you think she misses him?

Miles took a long time to respond.

MM: yeah

Yeah, Ganke thought so, too.

GL: should we change Guo tin’s brother’s name to ‘hamish?’

MM: ASDLDSDSFKdsjf

MM: one moment.

MM: sam says yes. Hannah says that she thinks our comic is shit and we need to draw everything uglier

GL: she’s kind of funny

MM: 👀perhaps she would like to be a consultant?

GL: 👀👀👀👀

MM: brb asking

MM: sam says no. Hannah says she’s got better things to do than proofread comics on the internet. She’s also not sorry. She wants that to be clear. DD says that the conversation has moved from English to Chinese and to maybe duck and cover for now. He says all is good tho. Thanks for checking in.

MM: Muse doesn’t use punctuation and talks in riddles, so if we get any of that, we’re supposed to send it to DP right away.

Oh, nice. That was a relief.

MM: oh

MM: sam wants to put us in a chat. Can I give him your number?

Uh, only if he wanted Ganke to hyperventilate.

GL: sure

[GL has been added to a Secure Chat]

It was a page of characters and emojis that were somehow more menacing than Ganke had ever seen them before. Miles popped a little waving hand into the fray, as though testing the waters, but the characters just carried on scrawling around it.

Ganke wasn’t quite sure what to do.

GL: hi? Are y’all okay?

There was finally a pause. Then a few shorter lines of characters. And then finally, Blindspot switched from Chinese to English.

SC: yes we’re FINE. We’re GREAT. Aren’t we, sibling from hell?

HC: who’re you? Why are you in our family chat? This is a family only zone, can’t you read?

SC: God Hannah he’s Korean don’t be a dick

HC: I can’t not be I learned it from you

SC: fair but pretend in the face of company

HC: okay fine. Hello losers.

MM: adksadfadsdfldfsldf

MM: hi

GL: hi?

SC: go on

HC: UGH

HC: fine

HC: I didn’t mean to shit talk your creation. Only my brother.

SC: also a sin, we’ll get to that later

HC: no one cares about you Samuel, stop spreading lies

SC: you first. We both know this is no lie, my white dad cares about me a whole lot

HC: well we can’t all have white dads now can we

SC: don’t be jealous

MM: lol you really call Matt your white dad??

HC: who is this person and how do they know our mutual parent’s name?

SC: this is not a mutual parent situation how many times have we been through this. He’s mine. Get your own.

MM: hi! 👋🏾I’m Bitsy! Spidey no. 4

GL: I’m his friend. He draws the comic. I write it.

HC: oh. nerd children x2

HC: anyways yeah Matt is our dad

SC: ffs

MM: he’s sort of dadly ig.

HC: ?? oho

SC: mind your face. Think about your face. Think about how much you like your face.

HC: little spider, did you not hear?

SC: kay everyone out. We’re done here

MM: hear what?

HC: lol Sammy you didn’t tell them about how Matthew Mcconaughey adopted you in all ways but paperwork?

Ganke held his phone away from his face as far as it would go.

MM: …wait are you for real?

SC: no. okay out.

HC: awwww Sammy so shy now. What are you embarrassed about? It’s cute.

SC: Hannah literally shut up I’m not playing

HC: damn okay sorry

MM: can I be honest?

SC: no

MM: I’m going to be anyways: I think we all sorta knew.

SC: …

HC: right?

SC: what does that even mean?

MM: idk, it just felt right, you know? You two are always fussing at each other and red lost his shit that time you got shot. He doesn’t treat you the way he treats the rest of us and we’re his teammates. He doesn’t even treat spidey like he treats you. So like, yeah. It fits.

MM: I’m really happy for you guys.

MM: is there a reason it’s a secret?

Ganke eased himself back down onto the mattress. This was real. This was like, actual, real information. Something that he and like, four other people in the world now knew.

He kind of wanted to forget it. It didn’t feel right to know.

SC: I dunno.

HC: if sam has an honest emotion towards anything he has to calculate its weight so he can make space for it in his collection of satellites.

MM: wh

SC: you’re so not funny.

HC: it’s called emotional repression, darling. It’s all the rage in this family.

MM: oh

MM: so that’s why you and Red get on so well

SC: HHHHHHH

HC: HA

SC: okay but listen his is different, I’ve only seen him cry at his wedding. I cry at least 4 times a week. Obviously under the bed, but that can’t be emotional repression. That’s expression. That’s clearly expression

HC: I can make the old man cry watch me

SC: please don’t I’ll die

MM: awwwww

SC: shut up it doesn’t even matter.

MM: AWWWWWW

SC: LEAVE ALREADY

MM: no I like it here. I want to hear you talk about how much you love your white dad

SC: I don’t. He loves me. I’m fine with this because it results in food, shelter, and continued employment.

HC: uh huh

SC: I’m using him

HC: yeah because you’re like the most manipulative person I know.

SC: thank you

HC: /sarcasm

SC: I know I ignored it.

MM: so wait why do you actually pretend like you hate him tho?

SC: wh

SC: what the fuck am I supposed to do? Just go on up for a cuddle? Have you met Matt? The second someone starts crying, he finds trash to take out to the bins. Hell no. Life is easier for everyone if I stab him with a stick and he kicks my ass in training. It’s fine.

HC: Sam is learning how to be a Manly Man. This is step one.

SC: I’m plenty manly

HC: you’re what mom imagined as manly

SC: which is perfect. That’s all I need.

HC: mama’s boy

SC: must suck to suck, no one’s kid.

Wow. Ganke had never been more glad that he didn’t have a sister.

GL: That’s kind of cool, though.

GL: that you and DD are close like that I mean.

GL: Its different from all the other mentor/mentee superheroes we see who like, sort of hate each other.

SC: wh

SC: OH. you mean Peter and Kate. Peter doesn’t actually hate Stark, fyi. And Kate calls Hawkeye the Old bi-weekly to make sure he’s still breathing. It’s actually pretty normal.

MM: he doesn’t mean like that Sam. I mean, like those guys don’t associate with their Olds now that they’re grown up and stuff, but you and DD stick together. It’s like you’re family.

MM: and that’s super cool. Idk if Spidey would ever consider me family. I don’t think he wants that for us.

SC: I?

SC: oh shit

HC: CLARITY ON THIS FINE DAY. What was your name again, tiny spider?

MM: miles

HC: PRAISE BE TO MILES

HC: AN EMOTION WAS HAD

SC: get fucked

HC: An epiphany was obtained!

SC: would you shut up

HC: Something has finally permeated that non-porous, two-inch thick skull of my esteemed eldest brother

SC: I’m your only brother

HC: you’re not

SC: they don’t fucking count

HC: now will you FINALLY invite our mutual dad to hotpot?

SC: Hannah he doesn’t want to come to hot pot we’ve talked about this. it’s too spicy for him.

HC: I’ll make it 1/3 less spicy

SC: that’s still too spicy

HC: I’ll make it 2/5 less spicy

SC: 3/5

HC: listen

HC: I have all this fucking equipment that SOMEONE left here callously

MM: what’s hotpot?

SC: 👀

HC: 👀

GL: 👀

SC: well fuck

HC: EYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

GL: have we never taken you with us for hotpot???

MM: no?? is this the sticks?

HC: can be. Where do you live?

SC: Hannah no

HC: Hannah yes. We’ll make one here. You’ll make one there.

SC: do you know how much shit I’ll have to buy? Where are we gonna put it?

HC: this wouldn’t be a problem if you’d taken your goddamn inheritance with you to SF

SC: HHHHHH

MM: you guys are actually being serious?

HC: I am. I am here all on my lonesome. Abandoned by my only kin. I require enrichment.

SC: try doing your fucking homework

HC: did anyone hear something?

MM: lololololol I like you

HC: 😊

SC: wh

SC: oh no. No no no.

SC: you two don’t get to be friends

HC: come here bb pspspspspspsps

MM: I’m here

HC: got ‘im. Let’s have hotpot. Sammy send me resippy. We’ll do it together over video so I don’t fuck it up.

SC: I’ve got to go. This has been traumatizing.

HC: byeeeeeeeeeeee

HC: is he gone? Hell yeah, he’s gone.

HC: hey thanks for making that comic thing. It’s hella rad. He loves it. Mom used to call him Monkey when he was little.

GL: omg aw

HC: ikr? P cute. He misses her a lot so I think it brought back good memories. Anyways, I’m actually going to make hotpot. Come over and have some with me, it’s more fun with more people.

MM: you’re not joking

HC: nope, it’s been ages since your whole team has gotten together, right? Ask them to do it. I’m a shit cook, but Sam’ll show us how not to screw it up. And he’s playin’, he’s totally down to hang out with us. We never had more than three people. It’ll be new. Exciting. Enriching even.

MM: are you secretly a nice person, Hannah?

HC: the fuck do you mean ‘secret’??? I’m a delight.

MM: Okay I’ll ask the team and my mom

MM: ganke?

HC: 👀

That—

Sounded kind of nice?

GL: I’ll ask my mom.

HC: nice. You can tell them that it’s a friends dinner or whatever. Idc. I promise I’m not going to kidnap and murder you. I’ve got like, class and work and shit. I don’t have time for that.

MM: 👍🏾

GL: 👍🏼

HC: great here I’ll message you my number. This is legit our sibs chat so Sam’ll freak if you’re still here when he gets back.

MM: thank you! And sorry for thinking you were muse!!

GL: yeah that too

HC: lol np ttyl

That…had really just happened, hadn’t it?

Ganke needed to sit down even though he was already sitting down.

GL: they’re so nice???

MM: ikr?

GL: are you actually going to ask your mom?

MM: Im gonna ask BT if its cool first. Then yeah. Why not? Our team really hasn’t gotten together in a minute. Everyone’s been super busy. It would be a nice change of pace, and if everyone brings smth then Hannah doesn’t have to pay for anything.

MM: ah, Sam says it’s okay. He says sorry his sister is weird and that he’ll make sure she doesn’t poison us.

GL: I kind of love her

MM: same

MM: okay will check in with the others. Talk to you later.

GL: yeah see you later

Damn, at this rate, Ganke’s family was going to triple in size, and all thanks to a comic.

Before he left for downstairs, he made a note to make Guo tin’s brother snarkier.

#fic #inimitable verse #blindspot #samuel chung #miles morales #ganke lee

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autolenaphilia · 4 years ago

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The Hands of a Murderer

I grabbed this screencap at random, but their expressions sum up this film perfectly

In my quest to watch as many Sherlock Holmes films as I can get my hands on, here we have a really bad one. The genesis of this film is actually more interesting than the film itself, so I’ll write down some info about it. The source for my info is David Stuart Davies’s excellent book “Starring Sherlock Holmes”.

It was the brainchild of scriptwriter Charles Edward Pogue. Pogue had written the scripts for the two Holmes films starring Ian Richardson in the early 80s, which were adaptations of “The Sign of the Four” and “The Hound of the Baskervilles”. The series was cut short, but Pogue had written a third script which was his own story “The Napoleon of Crime” and Richardson had his doubts about the script. Davies’s book has a quote from Richardson: “It began with the public hanging of Professor Moriarty and I said to Chuck Pogue that Public hangings no longer existed in Holmes’ time, but he simply wouldn’t listen. “Who will know, who will notice?”, he said”

Pogue kept the script and it was finally made as a tv movie in 1990, with Pogue as a producer. And Richardson was proven right in doubting the script, it is a mess.

It has a lot of references to the canon and sometimes directly quotes it, but the result bears little resemblance to a canonical story and contradicts it quite often.

Besides the canon references, it re-uses the central plot idea of the 1945 Basil Rathbone film “The Woman in Green” of Moriarty working with a woman who can hypnotize people (played by Kim Thomson in this film, who would later play Kitty Winter in the Granada series) to do her bidding. In this film, Moriarty uses her powers to steal a secret UK government document to sell to Germany, combining the 1945 film with the canon story “The Bruce-Partington Plans” and featuring the German spy Oberstein from the latter. The hypnotist woman in “The Woman in Green” was never the Rathbone series best idea and this film is even more implausible and illogical than the earlier one. It is full of moments that don’t make sense, with characters acting illogically to further the plot. One particularly strong example is towards the ending of the film where Watson has a gun pointed at Moriarty and then just lets Moriarty grab a gun of his own.

But even a heavily flawed script can somewhat be redeemed by a good execution of it. To return to “The Woman in Green”, it is one of the weaker Rathbone films, largely due to the writing, but it has Rathbone’s Holmes, Henry Daniell’s Moriarty and Roy William Neil’s atmospheric direction to compensate for it. “Hands of a Murderer” is not so lucky.

According to Davies, Edward Woodward when first asked to take the role of Holmes , he refused and said that he would fit the part of Watson better. But eventually he was convinced to play Holmes, and the result is infamous among the Holmes fandom. Woodward was a respected and beloved actor, but that was for everything but this film. I can’t find it now, but I distinctly remember the hosts of the podcast “I hear of Sherlock everywhere” once joking about an “Edward Woodward award for miscasting” and now I understand that joke all too well.

The rotund and elderly Woodward doesn’t look at all like the established Sidney Paget image of Holmes, or even like how Conan Doyle described him. Sadly, his acting performance here isn’t enough to convince anyone to accept this very different image. A difficulty in adapting or performing Holmes is making him too arrogant or smug, and this movie’s Holmes falls right into that trap. And when he isn’t smug, his manner of conveying emotion consists largely of being angry or yelling.

Woodward would ironically be almost perfect for the part of Mycroft, even looking somewhat like the Paget illustration of the character, but alas no. Mycroft is in this film, but his actor gets almost nothing interesting to do, spending most of the film as a kidnapping victim.

Woodward’s Sherlock isn’t helped by the lack of chemistry with Watson here, which is an underrated factor for a Sherlock Holmes adaptation to succeed. Watson is played by American actor John Hillerman whose baritone is pleasant enough, but who is putting in the barest minimum of effort here. There is little emotion or energy in the performance, and despite the English setting, Hillerman doesn’t even attempt to disguise his American accent. Granted, considering the overall quality of the film I don’t even blame Hillerman for not trying.

Davies argues that the casting of Woodward and Hillerman can only be explained by their then recent success with the tv shows “The Equaliser” and “Magnum P.I.” respectively and that is the only explanation that really makes sense.

The filmmakers seem to have gone for a very odd take on Moriarty (who is played by Anthony Andrews), with him being young, conventionally good-looking and (hetero-)sexual.

Unlike the Rathbone film, the lady hypnotist is Moriarty’s girlfriend here. It feels non-canonical, because even we don’t explicitly learn that Moriarty is not romantically uninterested in women, we do definitely know Holmes isn’t and Moriarty should as his evil counterpart parallel Holmes.

But it doesn’t really work even if we treat Moriarty as a completely original character for the sake of discussion, their relationship doesn’t really add anything to the film by developing in interesting ways or saying anything meaningful about their characters. It seems only to exist to provide cheap sex appeal by scenes of two attractive characters kissing.

Moriarty’s relative youth also only underlines how too old for the part Woodward is. In fact, Andrews with his black hair and sharp features actually looks like a far better fit for the role of Holmes than Woodward. A movie with Andrews as Sherlock and Woodward as Mycroft would have been a better film.

Despite the questionable writing of his character overall, Andrews’s performance is actually the best part of the film. He seems fully in tune with how silly the script is and turns in an over-the-top melodramatic performance, going full pulp supervillain. He ends up putting far more energy into the film than the entire rest of the cast put together.

Moving on to the direction, editing and cinematography, it is just really mediocre overall in a way that is really hard to say much about. The production values are nice for an american tv movie, but still not outstanding. There are a bunch of action scenes in the movie, but the execution of those scenes is terrible, robbing them of any excitement. These scenes are quite obviously cut to hide the use of stunt doubles for Woodward, with the editing going to extremes to not show Holmes’s face or even his body in a way that feels unnatural and ridiculous. The use of stunt doubles is of course quite common in movies and tv, but a more competent production would make it far less obvious. Granted that is possibly not the editor’s fault but the director’s. It is likely that they just didn’t film enough useable footage and the editor had to make do.

So yeah, that is “Hands of the Murderer”. A weak script, executed in a mediocre fashion at best with the lead actors being miscast or badly directed. There is some silly fun to be had, especially with Andrews’s overacting and the laughably obvious stunt doubles, but there is a lack of energy elsewhere that makes it mostly dull.

#the hands of a murderer #edward woodward #anthony andrews #kim thomson #charles edward pogue #sherlock holmes #(as much as it pains me to write that tag)

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tenrose · 5 years ago

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Doctor Who Tag Game

Tagged by: @sopheirion thank you!!!

Favourite Doctor: Ten, ten and always Ten. I just love David’s portrayal’s of the Doctor more than I can say. I love the good, and I love the bad. I love when he’s being an idiot, when he’s flirtatious as hell with Rose (omg the memories) like you two get a room, when he finally snaps, when he’s a dumb oblivious as fuck and you want to smack cause he’s being an asshole, I love when he’s heartbroken. The faces David pulls are the best thing in the world. Like his ‘I don’t want to go’ ARE YOU KIDDING ME DAVID??? And the whole Doomsday episode, his blank face against the wall omg I’m gonna cry right now. And when this bitch has the audacity to disappear before saying it aaaaahhhh. But also the way he talk quickly and absolute nonsense. His ‘er’. When he’s being silly as hell with Donna, those were the good times. When he’s angry yelling, but also when he’s cold angry in the end of The Family of Blood. When he realize things and make the ‘oh i’m so stupid thing’ but also when he’s realizing sad thing like with the end of Donna. Bitch when he cries under the rain like some edgy boy, I cry too. His smile when things are getting exciting, but also the smile going into his eyes that is just for Rose and only Rose Tyler The various face he makes with Donna, all the non verbal communication. Also when Martha decides to leave and you can see that he’s (too late) proud of her, and after that when he sees her again he’s being honest with her..The way he pronounces certain words if that makes sense???? Also David’s whole acting in Midnight, that was insane on so many levels. And least but not last : his iconic hair. I don’t think I need to tell more. And aside from that, I love all his season’s arcs, all his companions are my top three favourites. And of course, my close second favourite is Nine, cause without Nine, Ten wouldn’t be the Doctor he was.

Favourite Master: tbh I’m not that much into the Master, but I guess it’s Simm!Master cause I love his arcs. But I also love Missy as a character (not sure about her arcs though)

Favourite Sonic: I love both Nine/Ten’s sonic and Eleven’s sonic.

Favourite Companion: aaaaahhhh not this question lmao. So I can’t really choose between Rose and Donna. I just love them both too much. So I’m not even a hardcore shipper of anyything by tumblr’s standards at least lmao, but the Doctor and Rose (both Nine and Ten) as been the first fictional couple I deeply rooted for (like I’ve enjoyed a lot of other ships before but never as harder and deeply) and that I still root for after all these years (in fact Clexa is the only other one that goes that hard, but everything else is just phases, they come and they go but they never stay). I love the tragedy of them, bitch who am I kidding, I love it that much cause it’s a tragedy lmao. I just love how they both make each other better, but also how they flirt like dumbass teens, how they communicate, how they cry for each other. BUT, and it’s very important, I love Rose for herself. She’s not just interesting because of the Doctor. She’s so relatable for instance? Like she’s not from a wealthy family, she clearly doesn’t give two fuck about fashion (or was it 2005 who was like this?), she’s not too smart, too pretty (ok she’s definitely is for me), too much of anything, she’s average. And I love this a freaking lot you can’t imagine. She has flaws, and yes that’s exactly what we want in a character. Yes she has moments when she’s being selfish (but who doesn’t? especially when in love), and yet she has some of the most beautiful selfless moments,sacrificing herlself in Doomsday is the best cause she was literally gonna end up in the void but she didn’t hesitated for one second. Also when she’s showing empathy for other people, she’s being caring and understanding. And she doesn’t take anyone’s else bullshit, she call them out, and that include the Doctor first. Just because she loves him doesn’t mean it’s gonna stop her from telling him to stop being a punk ass bitch. Also she evolved so much between s2 and s4, and I don’t think it’s character inconsistency, it’s just that it happened off screen. BY THE WAY I WOULD VERY MUCH A SPIN OFF ABOUT ROSE TYLER HOPPING WORLDS THANK YOU VERY MUCH @BBC!!!

Now Donna? Where do I start? She’s also average, and also very relatable. In fact, personnally I think she’s the most relatable for me. Using humour, snark and sass to hide 10 thousands insecurities? Yes that’s the most relatable thing ever. Donna is the funniest character but she’s also the one who has the saddest ending in my opinion. Cause she grow up, she sees the world, and she understand that she is THE shit, she matters, she is important, and then she forgets all about it. That’s so cruel, and heartbreaking and angering, cause she deserved everyfuckingthing, she deserved the world. And her departure hit me so fucking hard. She’s going back to her life, thinking she would be not enough, I can feel that so deeply. Aaaahhh I’m hurting myself writing this. But she’s so amazing, she’s smart, thinking out of the box really make her so great, and she’s the one who take the least shit about anything. She stands up, yells, makes a scene, but she get straight to the point. Also she’s not the young and conventionally attractive companion and she knows that. And she’s so funny and sassy, and close to the Doctor. I mean she’s the Doctor Donna for a reason, she’s like a human version of the Doctor, with the sass, the babbling, the clumsiness. God I love Donna so much, I wish I had so much more of her. Also she has absolutely zero romantic feelings for the Doctor and the fact that they are the bitchy bffs of the universe is the best.

Favourite Story: I love a lot of stories, but my favourite is The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End no doubt. The story is a perfect mix of happiness, having every RTD’s characters together, all my fave working together is the absolute best, and of sadness, the departure of Donna (I won’t re talk about it ok) and Ten letting Rose go AGAIN. And the fact that there’s everyone he loves in these episode but then he ends up all on his own. God why do I love being hurt so much??? And the Daleks are also my favourite villains (it’s just such DW bullshit as a villain tbh lmfao) so I have everything I want. Generally speaking I love RTD’s arcs, cause the sign are here the whole seasons (Bad Wolf, vote Saxon, the bees disappearing and she’s coming back) but it’s not a ‘HEY LOOK THERE’S SOMETHING FISHY TO SEE HERE HEYYYY’ or ‘WE ARE STARTING THE SEASON WITH ONE QUESTION, ONE PLOT POINT AND THAT’S WHAT YOU’LL WANT TO BE RESOLVED BY THE END OF THE SEASON’, it’s subtle, it’s casual mention, and it’s when you’re in the last three episode that you’re starting to realize something is wrong...That’s one of my favourite type of writing ever (that’s probably why I love Sanderson’s books too). It’s not some mystery to solve, cause there weren’t any mystery to solve, because me, a dumbass viewer, weren’t even paying attention at first. But it’s here, it fills the plot. And when you see it you’re like ‘of course’. It’s not forced on me if I can say it like this. It allows me to see other stuffs. It’s not attention seeking I guess? But yes the end of s4 is my favourite story, all is in place. All characters do what they do best. There’s laugh and there’s tears, and I love it.

Favourite Soundtrack: everything Murray Gold has been doing for the show is pure gold and I think that’s a thing the whole fandom can agree upon. My artist of the decade according to Spotify is him, and considering I haven’t listened daily to his songs (except for some still regularly) I think that say a lot about how much I used to love both his music and the show at some point. My favourite of his are Doomsday’s Theme ofc, Love Across the Distant Stars, I am the Doctor, Rose’s Theme, Amy’s Theme, Clara’s Theme, Vale and cry. All of them. And that include the one soundtracks for episodes I don’t even like lmao.

Dream Actor for next Doctor: I don’t know, why not John Boyega? He deserves to be the main character and be treated well, of a sci-fi show.

Dream Composer: Murray Gold come back to me. Or I would love a glimpse of what Lorne Balfe could do.

Dream Story: Something that involves seeing Rose and Tentoo, and Martha as the Earth counselor, with Thirteen still having feelings for Rose. And Rose too. But the plot? Idk lmao. However the end would be sad cause Thirteen would have to see Rose and Tentoo coming back to their world, and I would cry. Also Thirteen would aknowledge Martha as the smarter companion the Doctor had ever had lmao.

A Companion You’d like to see back: Martha, but like not as a companion cause she made it clear that she would not come back, and that wouldn’t be fitting her character if she changed her mind. But she could always be accidentally stuck in the TARDIS, I mean it happened once. But really I would just love to have her coming to the rescue when shit on Earth goes too far and the Doctor needs help of a specialist. That’s Martha you need Doctor.

An Enemy/Alien/Creature you’d like to see again: I’m always here to see the daleks.

If you could travel with one of the Doctors, which Doctor and why?: Ten? Because he’s my fave, but also Thirteen because I’m gay and I would like to take my chance lmao

#tag games #dw #this has been long sorry lmao #never awake my dw feels

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enccrypted · 5 years ago

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romance headcanons

name: park tae-joon (alias: kim hyeon)

nickname: “Joon” !! Though generally the only people to ever call him that were Mila and Mystik. And “TJ,” maybe, I can see that one being thrown around a bit.

gender: male.

romantic orientation: he generally avoids relationships and is not extremely interested in others sexually or romantically, but it all comes down to the circumstances and particularly to how he connects with someone. He doesn’t care about the specifics of sex or gender — I do personally tend to lean towards writing gay relationships, but that’s a me thing, and I want to emphasise that it doesn’t really matter to Crypto. I’m generally willing to try what he is willing to!

preferred pet names: hasn’t had any to speak of.

relationship status: single, but might fuck around, might settle down and find happiness in a committed relationship with mirage apex legends, haha just kidding....... unless????

favorite canon/fandom ship: God I have a few... I know that Cryptage (Crypto and Mirage) is a really big thing for the fandom (fic author once called it a “rarepair” and i was like huh??? are you kidding fam), and I personally love exploring their dynamic with vanishout. They have a rough start, but there’s no other person Crypto loves more... im emotional over Them, and Crypto is honestly so smitten. Their ship make me happy

I am also a big fan of Crypto and Octane! Something I’m messing around with whilst writing with deathchasing. They’ve got a lot of potential to go places, where exactly I’m still unsure, but guess we’ll sort that out later. :)

I am generally interested in shipping anyone with Crypto if there’s enough chemistry or an interesting enough dynamic. The only other characters I have on the brain though that I want to ship Crypto with are Bloodhound, Caustic, and Gibraltar. As of now though, I haven’t really properly discussed a ship with anyone else but Julie and Kabu.

favorite crossover ship: I don’t really have any! I can’t really think on the spot of one, either. I haven’t really taken Crypto out of his default Apex verse yet, but I’m willing to try.

opinion on true love: It exists, that much he knows. Love is what carried Tae-joon through life even as an orphan on the streets with nothing to his name. It’s what helped him survive, because he worked and fought tooth and nail every single day for the people he loved. Mila, and later on Mystik, proved without a doubt to him that platonic love exists and is one of the most powerful forces he could know. Without them, I’m not sure where he’d have ended up. He believes in love, perhaps with more conviction than most things.

BUT as for romantic love... sure, he’s absolutely sure it exists. But he’s convinced it’s just not something he can have. Like... Tae-joon’s been through shit, earnt the life he had before the Games with his own blood, sweat, and tears. He knows full well that he has worth, that he is deserving — but the way the Syndicate directly and indirectly stripped him of everything that he loves and cares about really hit him hard. It’s tough for him to reach out and connect with people, and even tougher to allow himself to love again after he’s been taught time and time again that he will lose everything he has valued so dearly, worked so hard for.

And he’s afraid for the people that might be in a relationship with him; loving Crypto doesn’t just make him vulnerable, he puts anyone who cares about him in direct danger as well. In that sense, he doesn’t think he deserves love. Even if he found it with someone who’s willing to care about him, the guilt of making them a target for the Syndicate... bad. It’ll take a hell of an exceptional partner (willing to put themselves in danger and to convince him that they’re okay with this) for Tae-joon to reach a point where he believes he is allowed to have love, and that he deserves it.

opinion on love at first sight: "amused at first sight” more like when it came to Mirage. I don’t think he’s really met anyone he instantly feel in love with on sight though, not as Park Tae-joon and certainly not as Crypto... it’s not hard to feed into the craving for human affection and for someone who really cares when he does slowly edge closer to someone. Like, when he actually allows them to be near him and lets them start forging some bond of trust. Honestly, love is never the first thing on his mind when he meets people, not even when he was living a civilian life as Tae-joon; there were always more important things to focus on.

how ‘romantic’ are they?: Even before the Games, he didn’t really have a great way of going about expressing emotions and communicating how he feels, let alone when it comes to unfamiliar notions of romance. He’s not entirely emotionally stunted, but he has a way of hyperfocusing on work, on taking comfort in things mechanical more than human, and rarely lets people interrupt him when he’s on a roll. He’s fairly aloof, but once he loses his previous life and identity, he comes to a realisation that he took human affection and contact for granted. Unfortunately he has no choice but to live without it after that; I think getting into a relationship, he’d be massively awkward about it to start with, but would quickly warm up and learn to be affectionate. He wouldn’t go out of his way to be, but he definitely would know the importance of even the simplest of gestures. He’d make it a point to show he cares, because he knows it’s not always obvious to someone that they’re loved — even fi it may seem obvious to others. At heart, Tae-joon’s a very soft and very caring person and does try to show it where he can.

ideal physical traits: Doesn’t matter to him. If he starts to love someone, he WILL find attraction in someone inevitably whether they are conventionally attractive or not.

ideal personality traits: he is... weak for soft and kind people. also loves someone who can match him in terms of intelligence and ability, someone who is good with banter. a good sense of competition. people with drive and ambition. there’s probably a tonne more, but it’s just not coming to mind right now.

unattractive physical traits: Tae-joon grew up on the streets as a child, parentless and homeless. He saw it all. It wasn’t hard for him to learn that there’s far more admiration and beauty to found in other things than in the physical appearance.

One point I do want to cover though: He thinks the physical result of his own augmentations and implants are unattractive. They’re a huge part of his survival and certainly technological marvels (designed all by himself, though he found outside help to have them implanted). But having to virtually gut and replace so much of himself really dealt a blow to his whole concept of his humanity and physicality. He has trouble seeing himself as a person sometimes, much less an attractive one with the enhancements he’s gone through.

unattractive personality traits: stupidity. ignorance. unwillingness to learn. taking things for granted, wasting life away. selfishness and lack of empathy / sympathy for others. betraying the loyalty and the trust of the people who love you. complete lack of morals or ethics. acting like you’re something you’re not. people who view themselves above others (even though.. he often does... hahaha)

ideal date: He doesn’t really have any standard of one, not really having been on one before (though can bet that Mila has tried to hook him up multiple times with a blind date or something, they always fell through or Tae-joon just didn’t want to).

do they have a type?: not entirely, I do like to joke around that he’s into himbos though. One himbo specifically, but overall there’s not any real pattern... I guess he would like soft people capable of showing kindness, who are the exact opposite of him in the sense that they still see beauty and value in the world for all the cruel wreck that it is. People who are willing to be kind without expecting kindness back, who is... willing to show crypto that sort of kindness and teach it to him again 😳😳 people who allow him to be vulnerable and understand the place he’s coming from...

average relationship length: So we’re making up pure lies and saying that he’s had actual past relationships? Fuckin wig... but I think he would enjoy moderate to long-term relationships when he does actually get into them. Obviously, he’s not going to start something with ease (commitment is a bitch when you’re in his situation), but he’s not going to start a relationship with the intention of dumping the other person early on.

preferred non-sexual intimacy: i’m thinking he probably values non-sexual intimacy a lot more than sexual actually, especially since i’m exploring current ships where sexual intimacy is involved but human affection and connection isn’t... which, in turn, just makes tae-joon feel a hell of a lot more emotionally disconnected and lonely. He really values the comfort of just being close to someone, around them in close proximity without worry. Being there with them, listening to them speak and paying them attention even if he’s not the most vocal or performative person... there’s a very real comfort in that. Just leaning against someone, I think, sharing contact that isn’t even necessarily romantic. He just wants to feel, and be felt — that simple human connection is Wildly important for him.

commitment level: Really fucking incredible. Like really fucking incredible if you get him to care enough, help him to open up and allow himself to care.

opinion of public affection: It flusters him (though I think he could learn to like at least a little bit of it. Having someone he loves and can show off in a subtle sort of way), and he probably doesn’t ever allow it anyway on account of not wanting anyone with their eye on him to pick out vulnerabilities. He’s very careful about keeping any relationships during the Games highly secret — no point in putting someone he cares about in harm’s way, and honestly I don’t think he could stand losing another person after he puts in all the effort to learn to trust and to love again. Affectionate gestures in private though, as said, is all good with him.

past relationships?: once he talked to a girl on an online mmorpg and they traded items and he thinks he got the better end of the trade so that was pretty epic. But no, he hasn’t had any.

tagged by: @incnspcuous and @deathchasing!!! thanks lads tagging: @aeiiope / @thunderolled pls bless me with yr girls.... @vanishout, @slature

#you're predictable‚ and i'm not. \` * file: headcanon.#long post cw #dash memes.

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crisisoninfintefandoms · 6 years ago

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So, it can be dangerous to take too much from AO3, in terms of trends, since it is after all, only one website with a fairly narrow focus of fan activity. And of course, say, number of fan works alone isn’t necessarily indicative of popularity, and tagging can--despite their team of wonderful wranglers--not always be perfectly accurate.

HOWEVER

I really want to take a minute to reflect on what a phenomenon Garak/Bashir really is, and has become. Like, I have had more than one person who was not at all into trek or DS9 see a pic of Alexander Siddig (not Bashir, like, out of costume/character Sid) and go, “hey, wasn’t he that gay guy on star trek?” Like, it’s moved beyond the ship and the fandom itself and started to permeate general cultural consciousness. And just out of curiosity, I took a quick peek at some numbers on AO3.

AO3 has, as of this checking, 4977 fics--not that many honestly, compared to some other Treks. But out of those 4977, 2078 are labeled Bashir/Garak. The next biggest relationship in the tags is Bashir&Garak 267--I’m gonna ignore those for now, since their might be some overlap and I don’t feel like checking. So, in total, 41% of all DS9 fic is tagged as Garak/Bashir. Like...that’s huge, proportionally speaking.

For contrast, the original grand-daddy flag ship of Kirk/Spock makes up about 38% of Original Series fic. TOS also actually has some real competing ships on that show, like the next biggest in AO3 work, Spock/McCoy, which makes up about 15%. Whereas the next biggest DS9 ship on AO3 after Garak/Bashir (besides Garak&Bashir), is Kira/Odo, which only has 3% of the total works pie.

Just to be clear: having ANY ship have a whole 40% of total fanworks is pretty noteworthy. That’s a BIG chunk of fandom, which tends to be massive, sprawling, and like dabbling in lots of different things. Like...Mulder/Scully from X-Files have only 44%, and they’re in nearly every episode together and are basically the only main characters. For an ensemble show, with a big cast, that’s generally impossible. TOS focuses more fully on the “triumverate” so arguably skewing towards those characters makes a certain amount of sense, but DS9 was much equitable in that regard. It had nine main cast members, all of whom were given a fair bit of attention. And hell, Garak wasn’t even one of them. He doesn’t even appear in 40% percent of Deep Space Nine’s episodes, and a fair number of those episodes don’t even center around him, or Bashir, or have them appearing in the episodes together at all. And yet, here in the fan world, they’re in the same league as Kirk/Spock and Mulder/Scully, two massive ships with huge amounts of canon to draw from.

Look, I don’t really have a point here, I just kind of think it’s amazing that fans so latched on to the potential of this dynamic (in a way the show never really did) and breathed such life into it. And it’s a testament to how strong that initial dynamic was on the show, to be able to support and inspire so much activity, even all these years later. I haven’t gone through every fandom, but having a ship featuring one not-even-most-central character of an ensemble cast and one recurring but not-even-a-member-at-all of the main cast character then become the biggest fandom presence, in fanworks at least, is pretty notable. That it involves someone ethnically non-white and a freakin’ 40+ aged not-conventionally-attractive lizard man is maybe even more notable. Garak/Bashir had a lot working against it, when you think about it, and probably would’ve faded into obscurity if not for Sid and Andy’s stunning performances and chemistry, massively passionate fanbase that could see its potential, and the fact that it has, honestly, such a damn good story at heart of it. It beat the odds because it’s good. It’s a damn good idea, a damn good story, and enough people were able to see that (even if it maybe wasn’t the people who needed to see that at the time)

#garak/bashir #crisis'ramblings #subtweeting R1ckB3rman can u tell

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thewritingpossum · 6 years ago

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You say 'ask me about my hatred for Rainbow Rowell', so now I'm curious...who are they and what did they do?

Ok, so I’ve had this thing in my blog description for litteral years and you’re only the second person who ever reacted to it, bless your soul, truly. It’s gonna be a super long answer tho so I apologize in advance if it bores you to tears. Also there’s some spoilers for her book Eleanor & Park in this thing, if anyone care about that.

So Rainbow Rowell is a ya novels writer who happens to be highly popular around here (I also think she actually has a tumblr? I may be wrong on that point tho) and who was ever more popular around 2013 when she published her first book, Eleanor & Park, a love story between a fat, non-conventionally attractive girl dealing with abuse and poverty and a mixed race (white and korean) boy dealing with a bit of an identity crisis, all of that with a cool 80’s background. Sounds pretty cool, eh? That’s what I thought but…No.

First of all, this book is incredibly racist. Park (the half-korean boy) has a severe case of self-hatred and internalized racism. He wished he looked like his strong, all-american looking brother who even has an american name and is so much more mainly and can even drive shift (he’s supposed to be his baby brother who is like 13 but I get miss Rowell got confused with her own timeline). I don’t have a problem with that in itself: I can totally imagine a teenager growing up in a mainly white community dealing with that.

My problem is with the ‘resolution’ of the problem: Park realize that Eleanor (the “chubby” girl) prefers asian guy and since obviously the marker of wether you’re worth anything or not is how appealing you are to white women, he magically get over his issues. Eleanor also spent the whole book fetishizing and otherizing the ever lasting christ out of her boyfriend. She constantly refers to him (in her head, to be fair) as “that asian kid”, “that stupid asian kid”, “that stupid, beautiful asian boy” and being sooooo into the fact that he’s asian (and has magical green eyes that are so different and non-asian but sooo pretty ). It’s very uncomfortable to read, tbh.

If you think that’s bad, wait until we get to her mother, who is quite litterally a racist caricature. Mindy (an americanized version of Min-Dae -which is not even an actual korean name, no more than Park but it’s whatever at this point) is a manucurist spoking broken english who gets compared to china dolls by one of the main character. She was born in Korea but was “brought home” by her american husband, a soldier who was stationned in her country (it’s already yikes enough and only get worst when you learn that Rainbow based that whole mess on a picture that she found of her own military dad with a woman in korean: I mean, I guess it’s your prerogative to write romantic fanfictions about your parents but like…The reality of thing is that there were no love story between american soldiers and the women of the countries they occuped and it’s time for her to accept it).

We also get two black characters, who are Eleanor’s best and only friends (only that she don’t really appear to give two fucks about them). They’re named Denice and Beebi, names that reaaaaally stand out in a negative way when compared to all white people’ names and they speak…Well, the way black characters in 80’s teen movies made by white people speak. One of them (I don’t remember which one) is dating a much older boy and planning to marry him after high school because that’s what black girls do, right? So yeah, I truly believe that this book is one of the most racist published in the 2010’s that I’ve personnally read. But that’s actually just part of why I hate it and loath it’s writer.

I also absolutely despise the way Rowell writes about abuse: a huge plot point is that Eleanor endure mental, emotional and (if I remember correctly) physical abuses from her step-father, abuses that escalade to sexual harrasment. Her step-father favores Eleanor’s sibling, including his own biological son but he’s also abusive to them and severely abusive to his wife, Eleanor’s mom. That’s some heavy stuff, and if you chose to put that in ya novel (or any novel for that matter), I expect you to be able to handle that sensibly and in a way that make sense, at the very least. I don’t think Rainbow Rowell even tried.

Spoiler alert on how this book end: Eleanor run away from home, starts living with her uncle, the rest of her family escape a little later and her step-father stay alone and brooding in town. WTF?? The idea that abusive men would just be like “oh well, guess I have to accept that my wife left with our children and there’s nothing I can do uwu” is literally stupid. Either the writer didn’t bother making even the most basic researches on abuse dynamics or she did and chose to ignore it. And even outside of that…Talk about a deus ex machina and a cheap fucking ending lmao…

I only read another one of her book, Fangirl. It’s about a girl with anxiety disorder writing gay fanfics and was understandly popular on tumblr when it came out (i’m not hating btw, like…I’m a mentally ill binch writing gay stories so..). I didn’t found it as offensive as Eleanor & Park but her portrayal of mental illnesses was basic and often bordering on insensitivity (I really felt like one of the character’s bipolar disorder was treated as an inconvenience to other characters above anything else).

Also, the anxious character spent a huge chunk of the book eating energy bar because she’s too afraid to leave her room and go eat in the dining hall…Girl, I’m supposed to believe you spend your whole time on your computer and you never heard of ordering takeout online?? Or just going to buy shits to eat at the supermarket?? How far am I supposed to suspend my disbelief to enjoy those books?

One last thing: a huge chunk of Fangirl is an actual fanfiction about some HP ripoff. Well, my homegirl Rainbow published a whole damn book about her actual Drarry fanfiction. I love fanfiction but I really think there’s something sketchy about putting a fake fandom in your book that’s very obviously based on an existing piece of work and then making money off your imitation but maybe that’s just me.

I would probably be able to chill a bit if Rainbow Rowell was not generally presented at this great representation queen who can do no wrong (and yes, I’m aware that she’s not responsible for the way people chose to portray her). Luckily for me, she’s somehow less popular on Tumblr that she once was and I get to have a break from her weird bullshit.

#this is so long and i feel i don't even say that much but oh well #y'all know i can't express even the more basic concept in less than 218729 words #anti rainbow rowell #racism #racism in ya #answer #cedrwyndden

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janiedean · 6 years ago

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In your anti explanation, you said "he’s not technically good looking so it sets people’s worst instincts off" about when talking about the response to Rey/lo. Can you explain what you mean by "worst instincts"? Is it just because people don't want Rey shipped with an "ugly guy" or....? That seems like a pretty shallow way of judging a character or a ship

wait I need to find you the entire sentence okay here we go. first, sentence in question:

to give the to-go example these days because it’s sadly the worst: sw sequel trilogy fandom. rey/kylo has been targeted by antis as the to-go Most Problematic Ship because in order:a) enemies to lovers as a trope which is of course abusive if the good side is a woman (more on that later) b) both are white (so it’s racist to not ship her with the non-white people in the light side *roll eyes*)c) they have a ten years age gap (so it’s pedophilia even if rey’s of age and she kicked his ass more than once)d) he’s not technically good looking so it sets people’s worst instincts offe) these people don’t buy into the fact that people can be redeemed so they decided he’s absolutely Not Redeemable and so onf) it’s an m/f couple

now: the thing is, people actually DO find that an entirely good reason to hate a ship. or at least, if you saw how much crap adam driver gets on this shithole of a website for being UGLY you’d entirely buy it. but like the thing is, on tumblr there’s an interesting phenomena considering *white cishetmen* ie:

they’re technically the embodiment of What Tumblr Hates (white, straight, cis, male)

but since a lot of people on this website are also attracted to men as much as they would like to deny it, people who are *good looking* generally get a pass or get hauled as lesbian icons when they’re like... absolutely cishet *cough* thor *cough*

also if the aforementioned men are not white of course they’re out of the area where they are criticized automatically for being cis straight males MORE OR LESS SORT OF

but thing is, as long as someone’s white on here, and not lgbt, and not good looking, making fun of them is fair game because who cares if majorities get insulted they don’t really get hurt *rolls eyes*

so like... reylo is everything antis hate ie as I said before enemies to lovers, both white, age gap, straight ship, but the fact that he’s not conventionally attractive automatically makes it okay to shit on him and to go like ‘why ship her with the ugly white guy if she can be with the hot black one’ and stuff like that, and no one is going to be offended on behalf of the ugly white guy because the ugly white guy is not a minority and tumblr gives zero fucks. but it’s the same reasoning they make with straight women in fandom who are older than 21, the moment you are and you’re white/straight/not in their age group you’re automatically a fair target for a lot of bullshit because hey, white cis and straight and OLD, totally fair game to leave you hate in the inbox telling you to get away from fandom and get married already! (spoilers: it happened)

what I mean in tldr is: if adam driver was playing poe and oscar isaac was playing kylo I can 100% assure you that r/eylo wouldn’t be half as hated and st/ormpilot would be slightly less popular regardless of how much sense it made (spoilers: on tumblr m/m ships where one of them is not conventionally attractive are basically ‘OH SEE THERE’S FIVE PEOPLE INTO IT AND TRYING DESPERATELY TO GET PEOPLE INTO IT). and that’s bc to the woke/anti side of tumblr adam driver is not attractive, simple as that, and him being not attractive means having free reign to shit on him because if someone calls you out on it you’ll just accuse them of being a white supremacist or smth

and btw this thing re UGLY PEOPLE is not just tied to SW fandom or half of my war flashbacks of the crap that happened in the jaimebrienne fandom concerning the argument ‘you only ship it because you’re all ugly women who can’t get laid and you project by wanting the ugly woman to bang the hot guy’ wouldn’t have happened and I assure you I’ve seen that argument around since forever

so, worst instincts = people feeling allowed to insult someone just bc of how they look.

and if according to you it’s shallow, not to be that person but tumblr dot com at large is generally the shallowest damned website around especially when it comes to fandom so it’s absolutely a plausible, very shallow reason.

but like, ppl don’t want rey shipped with a villain WHO IS MOST LIKELY GONNA GET REDEEMED and happens to be white, male, not conventionally good looking and has ten years on her. that’s about it. *shrug* the not conventionally good looking is the excuse that set them off for good as far as I’ve seen *shrug*

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #reylo for ts #adam driver for ts #kylo ren for ts #antis for ts #social justice calvinism #Anonymous #ask post

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kevin--of-desert-bluffs · 8 years ago

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Most peoples problems with the blond Cecils is that its a really generic kind of design and most peoples art styles just make him look like every bishie ever. I guess we're just tired of seeing the same old same old because nobodies bothered to get more creative with it?

Oh yeah trust me I know a bunch of reasons why people don’t like it, I have a friend with the same ideas, so I’ll list them here (this isn’t me going off at you specifically just trying to cover myself in case others comment the same);

- The design is very generic, very bishounen, very conventionally attractive when most people draw it regardless of the changes they then make. (as a Kevin cosplayer who constantly gets mistaken for a human Bill Cipher, I understand, these designs do come a dime a dozen.)

- Everyone just copied that one popular design and most people would have been more creative if they hadn’t had it planted in their heads.

- They just don’t view Cecil as blond/white and it makes no sense for him to be such to them.

- It’s just tiring to see so many that are very similar when the lure of the fandom was that everyone can look however you want them to and everyone says all Cecil’s are good Cecil’s but still keep these popular designs.

- Because of the popularity it’s hard to get other kinds of Cecil recognised as Cecil without putting a caption on fanart, or telling people at a con who you are, especially if they’re not into WTNV and just casually know it.

To which my answer is…

I’m sorry it has to be this way. When WTNV began people were really desperate to know what he looked like, for the purpose of fanart and cosplay etc. Then we were told he could look like whatever. Through coincidence only, one particular design became really popular. Since then, a lot of people when creating a Cecil will use bits of that to make him (blond hair, three eyes, tattoos, tentacles, technically not v canon smart clothing etc) even when learning that he doesn’t have to look that way. If it hadn’t been that design, eventually someone’s design would have been adopted in the same way, for the same reasons this one has been now.

This is because we wanted to create a sense of recognisablity for Cecil. That’s uh…not a word but I think you get what I mean. It’s hard to cosplay a character that can look like whatever and get recognised. It’s hard to draw fanart of a character with no appearance. Some people just aren’t good at creating a whole new design for him and even when they do, end up creating designs similar to others anyway. There are only so many designs, I guess that’s why some people went non-human. Even the VA’s cosplayed a blond Cecil for Smiling God’s sake, not because that’s his canon appearance but because that’s a recognisable appearance for Cecil and I doubted they had the time to come up with a unique Cecil.

Although, if they had, and if you make a Cecil looking how you prefer, just saying it’s Cecil will have people agree with you. You say that’s Cecil, then it’s Cecil. You’re blond, brunette, red, two-toned, purple haired, bald or inhuman and say you’re cosplaying Cecil? You’re cosplaying Cecil. People outside of the fandom may be confused, but inside of the fandom we know how things work and it’s actually really interesting to have conversations with non-fandom members about how the characters can basically look like whatever.

Lastly, whether you like it or don’t like it, some people like the recognisable traits that have been assigned to Cecil through a kind of fandom osmosis. They like them so much that when they create their own Cecil, it includes some or all of those parts. That is their Cecil. They identify him as that and identify with him through those designs. It takes just one salty post about blond Cecil or any kind of Cecil to utterly destroy someone’s confidence in their fanart, headcanon and cosplay. It takes no effort on your part to not post anything negative about it and just talk about it with your friends if you have to, and let fandom members keep having their fun.

If you’ve ever had someone tell you something negative about a thing you were previously really happy about and felt your stomach drop out and your confidence leave forever, you know what I mean. The solution isn’t for them to get a thicker skin, it’s for other people to be more considerate as to whether their opinion has a point or whether the point is just to make fun of or insult something.

#in reply to the other thing ill link it there #wtnv #Welcome to Night Vale

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ncscope-archived-blog · 8 years ago

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How does the mun feel about the fanon regarding Ana? Are there any particular fanon they do or don't like? How do they feel about Anahardt and Pharmercy, which seem to be the most popular ships for Ana and for Pharah?

For the sake of convenience I’m going to break this post in two, and under the “read more” thingy as to not clog other people’s dash. I’m kind of scared that this is going to turn into a bloody essay about Ana and her place in the O.W fandom. Oh, well.

How does the mun feel about the fanon regarding Ana? Are there any particular fanon they do or don’t like?

I haven’t been in this fandom for very long so I might have missed on a few things, but overall, I’m afraid the fanon regarding Ana is rather limited and limiting. I’ve noticed that very, very very often, the fandom reduces Ana to her being everyone’s mom/granny, and while it’s a trope I enjoy using myself (besides Ana is canonically depicted as the maternal type, her former team calling her “Mama Bear” in the comics), I find it really sad when she’s reduced to that stereotype only.

Yes, Ana is an older woman, she’s a mother, and she has this strong motherly attitude towards her subordinates. But that doesn’t mean she should be reduced to being the comic relief that sleep-darts McCree whenever he goes “It’s hiiiiigh noon” (though I love these drawings, they’re often hilarious), or goes full on protective mom whenever she appears in a Pharmercy strip. Overall I think Ana is very largely overlooked by the fandom and reduced to her age and gender. I would love to see more art or writing about Ana having to deal with Jack and Gabriel tearing each other apart; and how about her being a bounty hunter with a 70.000.000$ bounty on her head (which is more than the bounty McCree, an outlaw, has on his head, if his spray in-game is anything to go by, surely that tells something about what the hell she’s been up to for these five years)? How about her cynicism towards Jack, when she states she doesn’t care for his war - what is it she means and what does it say about her state of mind as opposed to before getting shot by Widowmaker? I need more ghost Ana and I need more of Ana’s darker sides, she’s such a complex and manyfold character, why would you limit her to her being Team Mom or the Cool Gal in the Overwatch founding members trio? How about her relationships with other Overwatch members?

That being said, there are things I absolutely love that the fandom has done with her: while there is little fanart of Ana, I always find it beautiful and pretty on point (there’s just a massive discrepancy in terms of quantity, a lot about her as Team Mom and close to none on other aspects of her personality). She escapes the oversexualisation that systematically happens with other female (or even male) characters (though I’ll talk more about that later, in the question about shipping) and I just love the occasional fanart where she’s just a freaking badass soldier.

Overall I don’t think the fanon completely goes off topic with her - she’s just reduced to the Team Mom trope way too often and it can be incredibly frustrating. It’s not inherent to Ana: I’ve played muses who were older women before, and it’s always, always the same thing, people go to them to serve as their muse’s mother figure. And I don’t now if this is an unpopular opinion or not, but when in the same fandom, you get the older woman reduced to her role as a mother, while the men of the same age with similar jobs/functions/responsibilities get so much more developed and so many more nuances in their depiction and relationships (friends, lovers, enemies, etc), and are not just reduced to beign Team Dads, I call that sexism. It’s nothing new that older wmen get less attention, it’s just a shame when it happens in a fandom that prides itself on the diversity of its cast and leaves out the characters that are less conventionally sexy than others (let’s not even talk about poor Torbjörn).

How do they feel about Anahardt and Pharmercy, which seem to be the most popular ships for Ana and for Pharah?

I’ve ot to admit, I’m not much of a shipper myself. I’m what I call a passive shipper: I’ll never think of two characters as shippable until you show me a nice art or a nice thread between two characters and then I’ll go “oh yeah, that’s really nice actually, I like it!”. That’s pretty much how I feel towards Anahardt: out of all the ships I’ve been able to see in this fandom, I enjoy it because 1. it makes sense, personality-wise and lore-wise (even though I strongly disagree with the idea that Ana and Reinhardt’s lines in-game indicates sexual or romantic attraction, why can’t it just be playful banter/flirting?), and 2. the fact that this ship is P.ORN-FREE. This ship is nothing but fluff and frankly, in the ship hell tumblr can be, it’s really refreshing.

As for Pharmercy, I don’t really care fo that ship. They look good together, it makes sense to me, but I’ve seen quite a few Pharah muns complaining about seeing Pharah being reduced to existing solely for that ship within the fandom, which I find just as sad as Ana being reduced to her Team Mom role. Don’t reduce characters to sexy bodies that onyl exist for shipping purposes, buddies. It’s not cool. Pharah is an awesome character who deserves way more than she’s currently getting from the fandom. But then, I have to say, I’ve never seen more shipping art than in the Overwatch fandom, so I’m afraid almost all characters are getting that treatment, sadly. That, or they don’t even get shipped and are virtually non-existant in comparison to those who do.

Which brings me to my next point, aka Ana being considerably less shipped with than other characters, including her male counterparts Jack, Gabriel, and even Reinhardt (again, Torbjörn feels like an exception). It’s not something that really bothers me, since I’m not a huge shipper, buuuut it bothers me to notice that once more, the older woman is left out of this aspect of the fanon. Soldier:76 and Reaper get shipped a lot with each other and with virtually any other character (even 19yo D.Va), whereas Ana, well… There’s Anahardt, and that’s about it, really. I wouldn’t say it’s her most popular ship, I’d say it’s her only ship, really. Once again, the older woman is left out - it’s a phenomenon you see a lot in movies and popculture as well, why do you think they cast 20-30yo actresses to play the romantic interest of 40, 50 or 60yo actors? Because in our collective imagination, women past the age of 40 cease to exist as possibly romantic and sexual beings - on that topic, I highly recommend this video by Amy Schumer (”How about men, who tells men when it’s their last f***able day?” “Honey, men don’t have that day. They’re f***able forever, they could be a hundred years old and nothing but white spiders coming out but they’re f***able!”).

I’m grateful Ana escapes the gross p.orn and oversexualisation other characters and ships can get, but I’d be interested to see her in other ships, heck, why not? Why not try and be creative? Why not Ana and Reaper? Why not Ana and Jack? Shouldn’t they be pretty obvious? The three of them were always very close, she had a special relationship with them just as much as Jack and Gabriel had a special relationship, didn’t she? How about, say, Ana and Torbjörn, two of the characters that rarely get shipped? How about Ana and Mercy, who also have a long (and possibly complicated) friendship behind them, two supports and founding members of Overwatch? I’ve seen people ship Jack with D.Va or the obvious McReaper shippers saying “age gap is not an issue” - but apprently that’s only the case if it’s two men OR when the man is older than the woman and not the other way around. How about Ana being shipped with a younger character? How come the fandom decides Ana complimenting an old friend on how good they look (which I do all the time with my friends, and trust me they know I’m not flirting with them thank goodness) is blatant flirting, but her telling McCree he was always a charmer is not? I could go on with pretty much all the characters but this is already long enough of an essay, so I shall stop there.

Then again, at least, Ana doesn’t get to be reduced to romantic relationships and that is bloody freaking great.

I feel like I’m just rambling and half of this post lacks coherence and all of it is just messy thought jotted down without structure, and I’m probably forgetting a lot of things, and I’m really sorry about it, but I just thought a lot about all these questions and finally got the occasion to express myself on the matter, so many thanks Anon!

#ooc #ask the mun #munday on a tuesday #thoughts on ana

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