#and the discourse gives me the same feeling that i get when i see ppl saying like

[ghosttotheparty]

didn’t realise there was actual discourse ab steve being masc or fem and now im annoyed so rant in the tags ig

[meowchela]

god following a couple swiftie accounts is healing my soul ngl.....like i'm so used to people on this site wanting her dead in the streets its nice to see someone else who actually likes her music for a change 😭

[ellilyre]

Reyna is aro/aroace and you shouldn't ship her

(by an aro guy)(please read (especially if you ship her romantically)

(simple lexicon : aromantic = little/no romantic attraction. asexual = little/no sexual attraction. alloromantic = average romantic attraction.)

Here I mostly talk about aromantism bc 1)as its children books there are not mentions of sexual attractions 2)I am aro but not ace, and I do not want to talk for a community I am not part of.

I can't find the screenshot but Rick said she's ace. Ace ≠ aro, but I wouldn't be surprised if Rick (a white cishet man (love him tho)) doesn't know the difference between the 2 (just like many queer ppl active within the community). So I assume he means she's aroace.

The discourse she has in ToA where she explains she doesn't need a romo partner is the most aro-coded thing I've ever seen a character said. I teared up because it's the first time I see a character actually vocalizing what I feel.

Shipping Reyna romantically is just like shipping Nico with a woman.

"But aro ppl can still date !"

Yes they can (i have dated romantically both before and after figuring out my aromantism). The questions "can we ship aro characters" is often talked about in the aro community, and one answer often comes up :

Most aro ppl are not comfortable with allo ppl shipping aro characters.

To me, this sentence feels like an excuse to ship her and ignore what aromantic is (in most cases) about. You want to give her the label so you're inclusive and an ally, but you don't want to commit to it and actually address her identity bc it would change from your habits (shipping).

You have every character. You can take any characters and ship them. There are less a-spect characters than homo/bi/trans characters. Often, if we call a character aro-coded we get called homophobic for "ignoring" the bond they have with a same-sex character (that could very well be platonic). In 19 years, Reyna is the first character that I actually can relate to.

Why can't Reyna's identity be as important and respected as Nico's ? Do you only care about queer representation when it work for your ships ? Do your support stops when the identities are not longer "fun" ? I am genuinely asking these questions.

Do not erase her identity and what she represents for many people. Shipping is less important than queer representation.

[nightcolorz]

Sending you more lighthearted asks bc I’m already seeing Armand hate on my tl and my autistic ass takes it personally 💔 anyways, what do you think Armand’s love languages would be? Same with Daniel ?

stay strong solider 🫡🫡🫡 and omg ahhhhh i love this question!! I think Armand’s love language is definitely acts of service and gift giving! With Daniel he expresses his love for him by buying him expensive things and taking care of him, shaving his face and bathing him etc, buying him night island, feeding him, protecting him from perceived harm. He does this with his other loved ones too!! Like in Prince lestat he designs Louis a home in New York (trinity gate) so that he can nurture him and keep him safe. This also def applies to amc Armand ‼️

I think Armand expresses his love by caretaking partly bcus he uses marius as a model for what love is, and Armand perceives Marius taking care of him, giving him a home, protecting/saving him from his past, ect, as what love should be/is. Armand looks primarily in relationships for a sense of security/safety, so he looks to provide that for the ppl he loves since it’s so important to him. Also bcus of Marius, Armand has an internalization that he is commodity that should be used for other ppls pleasure and or convenience, so I think there is also a pressure there where Armand believes that if he is not being useful his loved ones will leave him 💔. Like how amc Armand justifies his place by cleaning the house for Louis and wiping the tracks of his mistakes.

I think Daniel’s love language is physical touch 🙏. In Devils Minion he feels most connected to Armand when they are physically touching, sharing blood, kissing, etc. He is a very sensual person, feeling things physically is rlly important to him, which is part of why I think he wants Armand to turn him so bad, so that he can feel as close and connected to him as possible. He wants to merge with him lmao. Daniel’s love language is NOT receiving gifts, while Armand considers giving Daniel things a testament to how much he cares for him, Daniel thinks it’s shallow and insincere, which causes part of their major relationship conflict. Daniel would much rather be held by Armand, breathe in his scent, hold his hand, kiss him, etc, then get a gift, bcus what he wants is to feel Armand, not material objects.

thank u sm for the ask I love this!!!! Hope it cheered u up lol. I haven’t watched the new iwtv episode yet but believe me when I do I’ll be right on that discourse 😭

[ianthes-missing-arm]

The term "non-binary" and my relationship with gender

I have used they/them pronouns within my closest circles for around 4 years now. I used to identify as non-binary until, last year, I went through an nth wave of self-discovery regarding my lesbianism, internalized homophobia and gender.

It is not that "non-binary" technically doesn't encompass how i feel about my gender identity. It does. What actually made me estrange my relationship with it, was the lack of understanding that cis people and some fellow trans ppl in the community have of "non-binary" being an umbrella term, as well as ignorance about lesbian gender identity.

Now, "gender non-conforming" actually is more accurate to how i feel in its title, and perhaps, even for the ignorant, it could give an understanding about my lesbianism and rocky relationship with womanhood.

I do not reject womanhood. I am a woman, the world sees me as a woman (when it wants to), and being socialized as one has been and will always be part of me.

Moreover, I am a brown latin woman and a lesbian. I am clearly gender non-conforming to a western society in presentation since my ethnic features are considered "unfeminine" and I will never go the extra mile to conceal them. This, somehow makes it easier for me to be read as androgynous even though I might be wearing the same gym clothing as a fem white woman.

I get the impression that a lot of folks have the misconception of "non-binary" being completely gender-neutral, as if it wasn't 1) and umbrella term, 2) something unique to each person and their lived experiences.

While it's in good faith, some people prefer walking on eggshells when it comes to referring anyone who's not cis, instead of asking, preferrably privately, how we would like to be treated. I have even heard binary trans ppl talk about this. Instances like:

Trans person: "yeah when i was a little boy i loved playing mario kart"

Cis Ally: "you were always a little girl inside!!!!"

Trans person: "its ok i don't mind referring to myself pre-transition this way"

Cis Ally: *brain explodes or worse, they actually overstep*

These are a collection of thoughts and experiences i just put down. I'm not really looking for discourse, I only wanted to express my feelings and hopefully reach anyone who can resonate with them.

In conclusion, while it's well-meaning, I think there's still a lot of misunderstanding around non-cis gender identities, and a lot of people seem to run with meanings or guides they saw on buzzfeed or an HR corporate "diversity!!!" course. To the cis ally, ask comfortably if you are afraid of making a mistake. Listen to us and don't take each experience as universal.

[dayurno]

sorryyyy for bringing some type of discourse to your inbox but I just giggle whenever anyone brings up the fact that nora soad andrews a misogynist and their only argument is the fact that he's friends with renee and dating neil who said women are the strongest ppl i know, like i don't personally think he's a misogynist, but i feel like there has to be better arguments for it😭

maybe it's bc the fandom gets on my nerves so I'm more sensitive to any attempts a defanging and making characters more palatable bc I'm not a fan of the widespread fanon versions of the characters also it's sad I feel like the fandom made some sort of progress where discussions were being had about the problems in the series and now after tsc came out it feels like we're back to where the author can do no wrong and it's hard to criticise anything

what do you think about tsc being a triology, I feel like two books can hopefully give Jeremy the depth he needs i remember you found him a bit flat as well when you read the book, I see a lot of people saying he needs to have a mean side or a traumatic past but I feel like a kind, nice character can be interesting without those things and not every kind character needs to have this secret mean side anyway, personally I groaned out loud when I found out it was a triology bc that would mean the fandom would be alive for longer and it's so crazy out of any book fandom I've ever been in for some reason the aftg fandom feels the most obnoxious maybe it's bc the books deal with heavier topics close to the heart so there's more feelings involved🤔the only book fandom who has pissed me off a comparable amount would be asoiaf but that's a whole different thing

I really do try and be happy I'm not even in the fandom anymore and I've never followed aftg twitter accounts and I don't even check the tags I just go on certain blogs but i still see things it's horrible💔like I can't believeeee we're still discussing if Kevins a coward or not and how selfish he is for leaving the nest like we've already argued about this to death on tumblr back in like 2016 now it's the same thing again💔

LOL i understand honestly so many of these discussions are repackaged wide-spread 2015 opinions which don’t reflect the original text that it’s hard to do anything except use the we have this thread every week comrade image and let it go. andrew being misogynistic is not even hard to come to terms with considering it’s not an interpretation or a headcanon it’s the author’s own words and will for the character incorporated into canon. there are things to disagree with nora sakavic for, but ultimately there is a difference between disagreeing with the author and willfully ignoring the intention with which a character was written

& i didn’t really care much for the news, i think the lack of planning and the rushed way the books are coming along are grating on both the author and the fandom, but i don’t blame her for wanting to get this done and over with. it will show more insight on jeremy hopefully, but unfortunately i already don’t care 😭 i think the route tsc took was in general uninteresting and pedestrian enough to not warrant a second thought, and i’m not particularly interested in any plotline beyond what pertains to kevin and the ravens. what surprised me really is the total lack of impact tsc had on the fandom, which is to say, i think it was so in line with the same 3-5 headcanons passed around the last 10 years that it has genuinely done nothing for anyone aside from the people who were already very invested in jean and/or jeremy. it feels like a different fandom from aftg altogether, which i’m happy about if only because it keeps us all locked in different cages, but it still baffles me to see people dedicate so much thought to a book whose characters bar jean are, as of now, the very definition of Nothing burger. all in all the answer to that question and most questions pertaining to tsc is Who cares. because literally who cares

LMFAO staying away from aftg twt is really good for you & honestly all of us. it’s still so funny to me that not even nora sakavic herself wanted to touch that mess. mentally ill white suburbanite teenage shut-in echo chamber ass fandom

[lovelykhaleesiii]

can I just say this fandom is getting so ... toxic and out of hand I go to twitter there's shit, I come to tumblr there's more shit 🤡 honestly the hate towards actors and even amongst fans, and creators be it art, fanfic or whatever... Is so disgusting... It's like either you have to agree with every single world someone says or else you're the enemy and get told you should go kys or worse... the racism towards poc actors and overall bully behaviour makes me mad af ... ppl forget how they are just doing their jobs, they don't write the scripts they just act them out...

I haven't interacted with fandom for months now, given the amount discourse between writers had me shook, so basically blocked every account that showed up on dash regarding it all, but with season 2 coming I thought hey why not see how things are... Idk it's like nothing changed for some folk ... They still hate Emma for not being the Rhaenyra they want, the hate Olivia for just playing her part, they hate tom because ... the poor man is playing a controversial character ... They hate Bethany for being a woc ...

Sorry for the rant, I've just been so frustrated with seeing everything... Plan to block all hotd tags and certain creators because honestly I just pop by on tumblr to browse through things and sometimes read a fic or two but lately the amount of bad behaviour I've seen in this fandom from writers or just random hateful folk have just ruined the whole experience for me.

I totally get you nonnie & I’m so sorry you feel this way, especially with s2 just days away from airing…

I do think as unfortunate as it is, majority of this fandom is actually quite heinous and disgusting. the behaviour I’ve seen towards the cast members and towards each other in this space is so hostile and vile, I’m openly ashamed to be part of it. all this back and forth bullshit with TG vs TB is just actual fucking nonsense. like who gives an actual shit? there’s an entire genocide happening but let’s ignore that and rip each other’s heads off about fictional people… humanity at its finest.

I’m actually being deadass when I say, I’m so over this discourse between the teams regarding HOTD. like no team is better than the other, that was the whole point of the story.

hence why, I’m trying to remove myself a little bit from the fandom space especially on tumblr. only trying to focus my energy and interest into the story / show itself.

after all the drama that unfolded especially in this fandom these last few months, there’s a lot of hypocritical behaviour and I’ve honestly got no energy anymore.

more important things in life than arguing with twats on the internet.

so I definitely recommend removing yourself from toxic people in this fandom, whether you need to ghost or block them. you’ll be saving yourself 🫶🏻

sending you only good vibes anon, and I hope you can find some solace in my little corner. that’s what I can offer to anyone that feels the same!

[dearweirdme]

(warning, this got way longer than anticipated sorry)

ik this is probably a dead topic to you and i apologize for bringing it up again but i was just rewatching the leaked jk videos of him in his apartment with that girl bc i saw some discourse abt it in another tkk blog’s comments. some jk stan who’s convinced he’s straight, that he was sleeping arnd/had a girlfriend, and that we’re all delusional came in the comments and basically started stirring shit lol. they mentioned they believed he was dating that tattoo artist girl who he was photographed w his arms arnd as well. but i thought she had a bf at the time of that pic being released? idk fs tho and that pic def gave off close friend vibes to me?

anyways, seeing the discourse made me go back and watch the video again and the more i watch it the more conflicted i get. like he is rlly all over her. arms wrapped all around her and walking holding her from behind like that. ofc it’s POSSIBLE that they’re just friends especially if he is gay/queer (ik that kind of physical affection is more typically acceptable between queer men and straight women than when both parties are straight). but to me for some reason it seems improbable and like that’s just an excuse to keep myself believing in tkk ? like really…we’re convincing ourselves him and the girl he had at his apartment at night alone w him are just friends when almost everyone and their mother would see that as clearly romantic and crossing platonic boundaries ? he’s THAT close, comfortable, and affectionate w a girl he’s just friends with ?

lol subconsciously i feel like im probably submitting this to ur account hoping ur response will give me reassurance that the interaction was not romantic even when it’s likely that it was. to me the video is clearly real and it is actually jungkook so that’s not at all the part that im debating about, but just the nature of the interaction ig ? like how long am i going to convince myself he’s queer and w taehyung when theres a lot that implies otherwise…

but then i think back on the reasons why i believe in tkk and that makes me even more confused lol. bc if i tell myself to just accept that jk is straight/not romantically involved w taehyung then idk how to make sense of many of tkk’s interactions either. like the kappa sweethearts tshirt is the one that rlly gets me for some reason. bc there’s no shot it was a coincidence they were wearing such a specific niche tshirt on the same day at the same time too. and why would friends wear matching literal “sweethearts” tshirts? they wouldn’t right? ik other ppl value the dream premiere and other moments more but those tshirts are so unarguable that it’s something i always circle back to. like to me saying their clothes at the dream premiere were intentionally queer coded is not something that is necessarily factually true. it’s more so an assumption after extensively digging into the background of their clothes which they may or may not have even noticed/intended. that to me could be argued as a coincidence but the kappa shirts are 100% the same specific tshirt and it was 100% the same day. that being a coincidence is less likely to me.

the other thing is the way they keep their friendship/relationship so much more under wraps than the others. but maybe that’s something we’ve just convinced ourselves of when maybe they haven’t rlly been that private/secretive abt it? idk i just go round and round in circles. i’ll come to a point where i feel SO sure that tkk are romantically together (especially with how explicit tae is w his support of the queer community) but then i’ll see some shit like that video of jk in his apartment w a girl and the whole thing gets derailed.

sorry i’ve just talked in circles atp and i could probably go back and forth w more examples for forever but yeah idk just wanted to hear your thoughts bc idk how you’re able to stay so secure in believing they are together. and i don’t think u seem like the type to just continuously convince urself of something that is delusional through confirmation bias and disregard of opposing evidence.

Hi anon!

Yeah, you probably ar submitting this because you want me to reassure you 😊 and that’s totally fine honestly. I mean, we are invested in Tae and Jk and stuff can really become complicated and confusing at times. Being confused is never a great feeling and you just want to not feel confused.

I need things to be realistic myself as well. I don’t need Jk and Tae to be together, I basically just think they are. I’m not afraid to step away from them if I feel they’re no longer together (or.. if they never were). And I will definitely let everyone know if/when I ever feel like something is off (and right after that I will hide because Jkkrs and anti’s will come for my head 😂).

To me it is all about the things I know for sure. Like Tae wearing that t-shirt for instance.. on the same day as Jk when he shot that mv. To me that is something strong and real talking in favor of them being together. Same goes for other situations: Tae and Jk at that hotel after/before Dubai, Jk singing that song to Tae, BH acting weird about them (and them alone), the way Tae constantly mentions Jk… and I could go on for a while probably. Those are actual things we have witnessed.. things that are real and when you look at the whole of it.. things that are consistent and that we have witnessed for a prolonged duration of time.

When I look at the footage of supposedly Jk with that girl, I see a person backhugging a girl for a real short amount of time. I have no context, I have no clue about there being more people or not. I can also clearly see that the footage is manipulated. I know it was released at a shady timing, with the purpose of harming him. I know that there’s an actual platform where people who hate him gather and plan stuff like this.

So when I put what I know is true about Jk and Tae next to what I know of that footage… the scale just tips over. I do not trust shady footage more than I trust what I know of Jk and Tae. And I might be wrong.. absolutely. But I just don’t think I am.

If I had no knowledge about Tae and Jk before seeing that footage.. maybe I wouldn’t have secondguessed it as well. But, I do have that other knowledge and therefore if I see something that goes against that.. I look at what’s fed to me more critically.

I don’t know if this has settled your mind anon. Personally I always feel fine with not having all the answers, but I can also understand that can be real unsettling. Maybe try and land in the ‘I don’t know for now’ zone for a bit?

[vacantgodling]

personally bothers me when ppl are like uwu Iago is gay for othello and completely ignore his racism let alone the racism throughout the play

lmao thank u for stopping by to talk old books with me :3c

but tbh thank god i’ve never seen this take in the wild because i just 👁️👁️ did we read the same play? are you okay??

iago’s like not even subtly racist. like the whole play is very racist in general when you start deconstructing it and thinking about it with a critical lens.

(such as: black/dark skinned men are going to come around and seduce your pure white daughters with either “magic” or their physicality, abuse them, black men are inherently violent and angry and good for their physical prowess, the only reason a white woman would love a black man is because she pities him… like i can go on)

however, aside from desdemona’s father, iago is the Most and honestly only maliciously racist character, and it’s not even just towards othello lmao (looking at his speech about how a black woman who’s smart would only be of value if she married a white man 😒) like, i understand the ideology behind wanting to read homoerotic jealousy into his actions because why is he so fixated and jealous of this (1) man who has “everything he wants” and tbh perhaps it could work if the play itself wasn’t saying, in part, that othello cannot be trusted with the things he was “freely given” stolen because he’s black/dark skinned/from the Moors, however ya wanna put it.

like it’s easier to read homoeroticism into fucking julius caesar (the play, and i suppose the man) than this play. in hamlet, CLEARLY, than this one. and then it creates a whole host of other issues with the play IF iago is gay because then *insert a slew of homophobic stereotypes here*

however, what gets me is the play already does give reasoning behind iago’s actions. like as i was reading wiki and analyses of it after i finished my first pass of it, there seems to be a lot of “discourse” around iago’s motivations and how they’re not clear… but they are? at least to me? like, he’s egotistical, and big for his britches. he’s petty and jealous and feels that he deserves things simply because he wants them. he wants the lieutenant position because he feels he’s owed it for being done the disservice of having to serve a Moor in the first place and for being a tenured soldier for so long; and whether or not cassio is competent are neither here nor there, the point is if you get passed up for a promotion at work: work harder, accept it, or just fucking quit. but iago decided to make it everyone else’s problem. it really didn’t have much to do with desdemona herself (though i could argue that he was perhaps jealous that othello had a pretty wife who actually loved him; because even though i mentioned the racist sentiments about white women and black men earlier i don’t think desdemona is a racist character in the slightest: she fell in love with othello for who he is and she is faithfully in love with him to the end. that doesn’t change the outside perspective of those who see their interracial relationship, which is very translatable into real life in how interracial relationships are viewed but that’s a whole different conversation), nor do i think did it have to do with this weird homoerotic tension people want to force into the reading.

whenever iago says that he ‘loves’ othello, people should understand that in this time period the word “love” was (1) more freely used to describe a wide variety of positive emotions (2) in this context probably meant something more akin to “loyal” that he wouldn’t betray othello or that he values him as a subordinate should (which is clearly sarcasm) and (3) be read with heavy damn sarcasm especially when iago is not talking directly to othello. he doesn’t care about othello in the slightest; and i would argue that even if iago was made lieutenant from jump he would be scheming about how to become general. we would still have a play about how iago hates and wants to “dethrone” othello. like he’s just fucking selfish in how he treats everyone throughout the play lmao. he doesn’t even describe othello in a “i hate that i yearn for you” type of way like there is Nothing that can construct this narrative to me in the text.

so like long story short (i didn’t mean to rant but yknow ya got me going) i think a homoerotic reading of iago is just kind of out there at best and just irresponsible at worst. there’s plenty of other characters you can read as gay in shakespeare’s works, even fucking desdemona and emilia in this play itself have a better gay reading than iago and othello lmao.

obviously shippers gonna ship and like do you but i just don’t see it.

[tamelee]

fuck booktok fr it literally recommends the same ten books over and over again, mischaracterises or twinkifies half the characters and then act like theyve done no wrong when other book communities hate on them. LIKE BABES YOU LITERALLY TURNED LITERATURE INTO FAST FASHION. capatalism is at an all time high in booktok, with ppl having 200 physical tbr's and five editions of the same book. but if you say anything about it, you hated on for hating???? we really need to go back to libraries, its like ppl have forgotten those exist. anyway that was my small little rant hehe (sorry feel free to ignore)

Oooooh, book-community discourse is a thing? *-* Interesting. I do know they get a lot of backlash from the art-communities because every damn novel has one of three cover-designs and they all look the same nowadays. You can hardly tell the authors apart. Most are made by AI as well -.- (I mean, shouldn’t writers/authors and artists be on the same page about the matter? No? Imagine complaining about your writing being stolen and then using AI for your cover-art… come on now.) 

Feel free to rant always xD I’m actually happy to know I’m not the only one feeling weird about these 10’ish recommendations that you see over and over again. I picked one out that was Goodreads #1 bestseller once (2022, I believe) and seeing people rave about it and giving the monstrosity 5-⭐️ catapulted me to an alternative Universe to rethink my entire life. I don’t think I’ve ever been more confused. (Beautiful prose though, I’ll give it that.) 

((I put book-tok and -tube together because to me it didn’t seem like it’s much different? I don’t really use tiktok, but they all repost their vids and recs through yt-shorts. Not sure if putting the two together pissed someone off then, but please do correct me if I’m wrong.))

Yeeaaahh, you’re right actually. I never really sat down to think about it, but that analogy you made is pretty brilliant. I mean, it’s sad, but a lot do treat books like fast fashion from what I’ve seen. I may not like majority of these ‘trending’ books, but treating a piece of work that way (cheap and trendy) hurts my book-loving heart a little. If ever possible in the future, I’d love to have a library in my home with my favorite books. (Dark academia style of course.) I usually only buy a physical copy if I really liked it after reading the digital version. Unfortunately around here, most libraries have closed :( So I’m afraid you’re right about that as well— people really have forgotten. 

[raytorosaurus]

bit of a weird ask but I saw a twitter post saying they were 'devastated' over what frank said in an interview about performing/writing in ls dunes compared to some other bands (theyre assuming that the 'other bands' means mcr because they cant think of the 20+ other bands that hes been in) and after reading it a second time it doesn't even seem that negative?? it just talks about different processes and his excitement for dunes, but I still feel down anyway now because of that reaction, and it really makes me doubt that part of the fandom's faith in the band and its members im kinda close to quitting the fandom because of this and idk how the tumblr/twitter gang here survives it y'all are troopers, im unsure how to avoid that kind of doomposting

sorry i totally forgot to answer this the other day, i hope you see this!

but yeah, i see the same thing and it is. pretty irritating haha. it speaks to the unrealistic traits and behaviours fandom has applied to these ppl over the years/decades - which are harmless enough on the surface, but left unchecked you end up with doomposting or disproportionate levels of discourse when one of them doesn't behave the way their textpostified personalities would have you believe hahaha. if frank isn't anything but reverential towards mcr then he must hate it. if gerard puts time and work into his artistic and career pursuits that aren't related to mcr he must be giving up on the band like he supposedly did in 2012. if ray, who hasn't done a single interview since 2016, isn't on stage showing frank public affection or admiring him on twitter, he must be bossy and arrogantly taking all the glory for mcr's guitar parts and musicality. if mikey does anything it's gotta have something to do with gerard or mcr because obvs he doesn't exist outside the band etc etc. again none of these things are like. problematic or bad**, just kind of. annoying to engage with as an adult in the space i go to enjoy myself hahaha.

but this specific discussion abt frank implicitly dissing mcr also cropped up after that podcast frank did with travis, where he discussed writing music with ls dunes vs every other band/project he's been involved in. which, let's remember, is a fucking lot. how many albums has frank made or been part of? too many to easily count. only about four or five of those were with my chemical romance. ls dunes is only set apart from the rest because they're currently active after mcr's huge reunion, and they're a supergroup so they're getting a lot of press attention. people have never batted an eye in the past when frank has discussed how great it is to be working with this or that musician on this or that album - it's just the timing of ls dunes and our own high hopes for new mcr music that make people take this one in particular so personally.

on top of that... we've always known mcr has a fraught and stressful writing process??? that is like. a major part of the lore? we're all compelled by the insane amount of unlikely success mcr achieved in their careers, and by the fact that they were always controversial. we reblog quotes about gerard saying mcr's purpose was always to be against something, to undermine expectations, to infiltrate, contaminate etc. i thought this was something we were all drawn to about mcr? so i'll never understand the shock and disappointment when frank makes the simple statement that writing with ls dunes is easier, less stressful, and more lighthearted than writing with mcr. like...duh it is? mcr have always been open about how much they put into writing albums - and also about how they're proud of what they created, and that they consider each other cherished family.

the most annoying part for me is when people take quotes about frank working with travis and twist them into some kind of dig at/criticism of ray. i can only assume these people aren't used to working with others in a creative capacity, especially long term, because i just totally can't understand where it comes from lol. as someone who's read/watched every guitar-related mcr interview i've ever been able to get my hands on: ray and frank have literally never been anything other than fully complimentary of, respectful to, and affectionate with one another. ray was far from the first guitarist frank ever worked with and leagues from the only one. also, creative partnerships are extremely complex and every one is completely unique, with it's own strengths and difficulties. if ray and frank didn't love playing with each other they wouldn't have done it for years and years. that doesn't mean frank can't vocally love playing with other guitarists??? these things are not contradictory and appreciating aspects of one creative partnership is not equivalent to bad-mouthing a different one? like that is just not how it works skdkdjd

anyway i think a lot of it comes down to the fact that, for us, we see these people as parts of my chemical romance. naturally, because that's the reason we know they exist! but all of these people live rich and full and complex lives like any other person. the only parts of those lives that we generally see much of are the my chemical romance parts. we look for mcr in everything they say, which is understandable but unrealistic. all we need to do it keep that in mind imo

**(tho ppl's tendency to pit ray and frank against each other for some reason, which used to be a way common but is unfortunately a sentiment i'm starting to see crop up again in some places, definitely can get. suspicious and uncomfortable. especially considering that frank is the fan favourite so these pointless comparisons tend to err in his favour, and in either direction they tend to be very shallow and uninformed anyway. but that's a separate conversation)

wow i literally did not intend to turn this into a giant essay im so sorry. kudos if you made it this far lol. and i feel you anon, it's discouraging and puts a bad taste in my mouth when i come to this fandom for fun and fulfillment. i wish i had better advice because im feeling a little similar but just try to remind yourself that other people's opinions are just that. i find it helps if you can curate your own dash/feed or make friends in more discussion-friendly spaces like dms or gcs or discord servers. or even a priv twitter account with a few like-minded mutuals where you can vent ur shared frustrations over things without making it a whole big deal HAHAHA. the less time you spend scrolling thru ppl's public posts and the more time you spend diving into interviews, podcasts, videos, the web archive etc to detach yourself a little from group fandom-think the better you'll probably feel about mcr tbh! also long as you have friends or close mutuals that's all that matters imo <3

[secretsofthewilde]

About your post about misogyny in fandoms and shipping spaces, I do 100% agree how a lot of female fans do have internalized misogyny based on how they navigate fandom spaces. It doesn’t have to be extreme like hating all women, but people do have biases where they tend to gravitate to more male-dominated shows or would justify why they hate m/f or f/f bcuz it’s uncomfortable for them to write about the female body due to personal reasons. Which i used to be as a teenager but overtime i learned to come to terms with my own version of feminitity and became more comfortable with writing m/f ships. Sometimes when i see that brought up, im like “okay dont u see there is a problem there? like u discomfort of the female body has some ties to misogyny and u cant just write it off as an excuse for the majority of female fans.” Even the defense of the lack of female characters is also flawed due to the fact that some ppl would desperately two male characters together even tho one character was in two scene for less than 2 minutes yet completely ignore the other female ccharacter that has more interactions with the male lead. You could also throw in racism as this is also always used for WOC and justified as “oh not everything has to be about shipping” when those the same ppl that ship anything and everything in other fandoms

Yes, you are so very right!! And thank you for giving me an excuse to continue to talk about this. (Post anon is referring to is here x)

I tried not to generalise too much in the initial post bc I think there's different reasons and I guess flavours of internal misogyny which contribute to individual fans dismissal of f/f. Your example isn't exactly relatable to my personal experience, but it is one that makes sense to me and is something I assume is the case for many others too (including one of my best friends actually!). For me personally, I knew I was queer around the same time I got into fandom (so quite young), but despite being aware of this I still found myself feeling uncomfortable or even guilty for looking for anything f/f. I think that this was bc there was this ingrained fear that by engaging with female characters in any way I was sexualising them*. Which is ridiculous in retrospect, considering there's no sense of guilt for so many of us to engage with male characters in ways that are actually sexualising them.

Bc of the patriarchal society we live in we tend to see male characters as "neutral" ones (the same way whiteness is considered "neutral"**). By engaging with male characters repeatedly and normalising both the general celebration of them but also the sexualisation or queering of them, we ended up somehow creating an environment where male characters being queerified in fandom is seemingly more neutral than doing so with female characters - by which I mean that we expect to see people in fandom creating and celebrating m/m or m/f ships of male characters in any given fandom regardless of who they are canonically, whereas to do so with female characters is often considered to be unconventional or strange. I mentioned briefly in the post about the projecting of self onto male characters, and I think that's because they offer us a "neutral" character to explore queerness but also just multifaceted characters in general. There's so much more fanworks exploring things like the nature of morality or mental health issues using male characters than there are with female ones. That's because our engagement with female characters is kind of stuck in this area where we can't be neutral with them.

With the way that fandom discourse works nowadays we often analyse our characters as being figures of representation***. This means that even though we are now getting more media with female characters at the front of it, we often view them through the overly critical lens of "how is this representing us?". Even something as shallow as a joke about the character enjoying retail therapy then becomes something that is used as an excuse to tear the character apart, because we don't want to be seeing what we have been taught to view as negative female traits on our screens. Women can be bitchy, they can be jealous, and even evil. We need to learn to recognise that our discomfort in seeing them portrayed as such on our screens isn't always due to being upset about the representation of all women, but rather our discomfort in seeing these traits within ourselves.

*There's something particularly difficult about combating internalised homophobia when you're young and also learning about feminist ideologies where we want women to not be viewed as sex objects. I think this may also be a huge contributing factor for queer fangirls' tendencies to subconsciously project themselves onto male characters.

**'The Matter of Whiteness' by Richard Dyer explains this theory really well and is an academic essay that I highly recommend everyone read. I also think it's a pretty good starting point if you're not familiar with reading academic texts and are interested in intersectionality, racial bias, media analysis etc

***I'm borrowing from Dyer's theory here, which essentially argues that a black character's existence will always be viewed (and judged) as a representation of all black people. In comparison we will watch white characters and view them as their own individual character. To apply this to my above points; we don't question whether it's bad representation for our male lead to enjoy watching action films because we just view that as a character trait of his, whereas we will be critical of the female lead who enjoys watching chick flicks because we will then view her as a shallow representation of women.

[ca-suffit]

anon from this ask: https://www.tumblr.com/ca-suffit/757613676896337920/im-sorry-your-takes-are-generally-pretty-great-and?source=share

first thanks for hearing me out and your thoughtful response. had to think about it a bit and analyze some of my own biases. i think i have a certain amount of trust in the show around what I expect they're going to do with lestat in terms of examining the privilege he has (a white abuser in the spotlight telling his story would be a great topic to unpack, especially via daniel), but i know that's fully based on nothing! it would just be such a waste if they didn't. so I am putting more expectations on an objectively minor glimpse of information so I'll pare that back in my reply.

the one thing i wanted to clarify and emphasize was the 'groundbreaking'-ness of whatever lestat is doing here. i am not really arguing that he appears to be doing something cutting edge or never been done before, and i don't think he needs to be. (practically speaking, we're talking about art within an art aka a tv show, the art of a fictional character, there are limits.) given the large list of influences, they appear to be leaning into recognizable fashion and sound, but just because it's pastiche doesn't make it, like, uninteresting as a queer performance. on a more meta level, it's really fucking cool to see them leaning into glam rock and queer influences after the heterosexualization of Queen of the Damned, and letting a lead queer character be trashy and messy and also polarizing - not everyone is going to LIKE his music.

and yes it will speak to the individual. not every queer person will find this interesting. i guess what i wanted to defend was the elements of queer fandom who feel seen or moved by what they've decided to do here and i hate to see that get dismissed as memes alone or like no real queer person would find this good/worthy, as some of the other asks have implied, or that it's ONLY a symptom of white fandom. but i get that your blog in particular makes a space for fandom critique and there certainly is a lot of critique, and a lot of uncritical ~slay queen~ type response. i wanted to offer an alternative perspective, i guess. (and when I think of lestat making himself into a "queer icon", i personally don't mean a champion of activism or a beacon of positive representation. he's a horror character at the same time and has done terrible things. this is why I like the show, though.)

lastly, your point about the other characters and their art connections: absolutely!!! the fact that EVERY character here has an art connection for me makes this tv show a queer text in general. I want to add these art connections are complicated. lestat is as much a monster about music as it gives him humanity. louis's struggle with photography feels like a coda about his former struggles about his homosexuality. claudia giving up on her passion for the stage through armand's abuse is heartbreaking.

emphasizing lestat as the only artist would be a mistake. I think what sets him apart for me is that his art and also his queerness vs, say, louis and his art and queerness, is more of a divide between public vs private. louis did make an attempt to enter a public space and was shut down/discouraged. lestat reaching an in-fiction iconic status is a matter of privilege (as well as his personality, lol). i don't really have an argument here, just responding and hopefully adding to the discourse.

hi and thank u for coming back!!

despite what some ppl want my reputation to be, I do actually like talking about things and giving space for multiple perspectives. it helps nothing to take sides and be at war with each other all the time. a lot of why this fandom has gotten worse is bcuz ppl are doing exactly that. u can like whatever u like, but understanding the criticisms of the thing are crucial too. a big issue surrounding lestat is that ppl aren't used to his whiteness (or whiteness in general) being commented on. white fans, especially, will find it rly jarring to be perceived that way and take it rly personally. there's so many ppl here who think I'm calling them racist just bcuz I'm talking about lestat and prbly his white ignorance or smthing. they apply it to themselves and feel like a bad person for liking him. then they shut down and block me, even if our conversation was calm. white fragility is a hard thing to overcome.

there's not much u can do to avoid maybe being clumped in with white fandom if u like lestat, but it's not like the reality is that those are the *only* ppl who like him. that lie they perpetuate that everyone else is a lestat hater, loumand shipper or whatver is bullshit. they're overly simplifying a deeper issue bcuz they're racist, manipulative, and stupid. plenty of ppl like lestat and aren't part of that group. but u are gonna have to get used to being judged for liking him in some ways bcuz this fandom *has* made association with him a red flag. it doesn't mean *everyone* is gonna be hostile to u about it tho, but it does mean ur gonna have to change expectations and be a lot more open to hearing criticisms of it all. ppl aren't rly dismissing him outright or saying ur bad for liking him, it's just a fatigue surrounding his character and the fierce protection of whiteness this fandom has built around him (alongside anne's racist history and favoring of him too already). I mean, it seems like ur already aware of this, but just to put it into words too. lestat has always been an interesting, fucked up character and ppl should feel free to identity and explore whatever with him just like any other character.

tbh a lot of his point has been to be a little stupid and cringe anyway. idk how ppl read his narration and take it srsly and believe he's actually hot shit. he should be a disaster idiot rockstar with an ego that doesn't match his actual presentation. I'm hoping they might explore a lot with that. he's having a mental breakdown in every book but doesn't seem aware that he is, so what better way to explore that than with the white rockstar angle. that's p much all of them anyway lol and if ur queer (and a vampire having a neverending existential crisis) then even more so prbly.

[cogbreath]

what is your opinion on pro ship discourse? I know it is a tough or awkward subject, you do not have to answer this

im not proship myself but at the same time it seems completely unrealistic and infeasible to try to put a stop to it, people r gonna write and create stuff like that no matter what, and i genuinely do believe that some of it is done for shock value/attention , and giving it a response or acknowledgment is what they want. basically i take a sort of "dont feed the trolls" mentality about it. i dont want to see it but i also dont want to let it get to me. the internet is a place where theres some truly heinous and nasty shit out there and i feel like you'll destroy yourself mentally if you make it a major thing to worry about.

i do kinda live online but the fsct is that for the most part (outside of some things ive heard abt happening at like fan conventions) that it can be avoided by logging off. so becsuse of that as well i dont find it exactly an issue thats worth prioritising the way some ppl who r against pro-ship stuff are.

way more important things to spend your life worrying over.

what i find very annoying is the whole "dont like dont read" defense, and its really pathetic and stupid the way proshippers act like their writings are immune from criticism, or that any criticism that is against the subject matter in their writings is invalid, and they cry "harassment" too often.

frankly you shouldnt be surprised also that ppl will tell you to kill yourself and think thst youre disgusting if youre writing that kind of stuff, and i cant feel sorry for you if you dont have the backbone to take it. if its a problem then stop writing that stuff lol. if u have the guts to do it you should have the guts to handle the hate.

also the way some of them literally compare criticism to actual book burnings and police violence??? which is racist and ludicrous.

a lot of them also looveeee to use lolita as a gotcha but the truth is their writings are nothing like nabokovs in terms of quality and worth, and they dont seem to realise he wrote that as a critique of the normalisation and glamourisation of pedophilia.

out of morbid curiosity i once read a fanfic that touted itself as being inspired by such. i wanted to see what that author thinks being inspired by nabokov's work means, and not big surprise, it was masturbatory slop.

sure its possible that you can write fanfic that involves dubious subjects like that and do it well, but its rare.

irt to people who say they write it to cope, i have my doubts on that as well unless its a story where its clear that characters involved will grow and heal, or its very clear its written as a cautionary tale or something to that effect. maybe some ppl out there legit do cope with writing something that i find to just be nasty masturbatory slop, i dont know, but i dont know if thsts actually a healthy coping mechanism.

many ppl say that if you want to do that you should make it all original, but i think we are past that point, and fanfic is a medium that a lot of ppl use to express and cope about things. I've done it myself (albeit unpublished) and i find that argument to mostly be based in that they feel its cringe bc its fanfic rather than anything to do with genuine criticism.

ive also noticed the emergence of new terms like "comship" ? i kind of forget whst this means i think its like being neutral on it? i find it a bit shitty that ppl consider neutrality on it to be a bad thing? i csnt blame someone for not giving a shit about it. i think its lame to expect everyone whos involved with fandom to pick a camp to sit in, especially when the subject matter is often triggering. someones neutrality could be bc they dont want to think about it too much for that reason.

and as far as it goes though for RPF? i think it's really not THAT bad of a thing. especially bc in all honesty its moreso about that persons public persona. & just because its parasocial doesnt mean its wrong to do, thats simply a descriptor of the dynamic between fanbases & public figures. there is some absolutely NASTY and questionable stuff out there especially like for kpop bands 😭

that being said public figures do have the right to be uncomfortable about it either way and i do find it unfortunate and disrespectful that fans arent willing to listen to them when/if they say they dont like having it written about them. ABSOLUTELY shouldnt write it about irl minors though regardless.

oh and also like if ur writing it about like. ur coworker or someone u kno personally thats kinda really creepy . but its also not wrong to fantasise about people thought crimes arent real. just. dont publish it or show them that

anyway feel free to disagree with anything i have an open mind abt this most of its based off personal inference i havent rlly ever discussed it much ^_^

[georgiapeach30513]

your takes on CE characters are refreshing haha.

Though for me personally Steve is my baby and I will baby him until the end of time. He is my all time favorite character and is the farthest thing from a deviant or dom. I respect the people who imagine him as such but I cannot see it. I felt in the first avenger the entire movie they were disrespecting him and man was I sad for him. He was so damn earnest and positive throughout it and that’s what me cherish him. The soldiers booing him and throwing tomatoes at him. Him feeling like a dancing monkey but still found it in him to go rescue the 106th. what I loved so much about how they did the character in the first film was that even after he got the serum - he wasn’t immediately cool or accepted or even respected. He had to really earn it and I really enjoyed that gradual transition into him becoming the captain while Steve inside. But I digress. Everyone has different takes on how they feel marvel did his character and I really rather not ruin it with discourse.

But ransom - I am very intrigued by your take on ransom because most ppl tend to assume he’s evil to the core. I think he got written that way by rian johnson but Chris played him in a way that gave him a bit of a “possible redeemable” side but idk if he even meant to do that. Maybe it’s his own personality coming through - he honestly seems like even if he was trying to be this awful human being he can still be lovable. It’s like you can’t really hate him even if you’re supposed to. Idk how he does it.

It’s funny, when defending Jacob came out there was a split on twitter between ppl who were team Andy and those who were team Laurie. Some People thought Andy gaslit Laurie and also did some really dumb shit (hiding a murder weapon as a DA?). Andy wasn’t what I would call a super great lawyer. But I did think it was sad he seemed to have no friends and his whole life was Laurie and Jacob. I could understand why he was so ride or die for his family and I also thought it was super sad at the end when he told Laurie he loved her even if it didn’t mean much to her and she just walked away from him. (Don’t make your spouse your whole entire life, ppl. If it falls apart you’ll have nothing.) I do think his character had a lot of flaws and personally felt he did a lot of self sabotaging but I could also understand why he did it. One thing that did make me really really sad for him was that each time he would get angry or upset with either Jacob or Laurie he would still always want to make up or apologize. I think he just lived/loved for them both so much that he couldn’t bear the idea of losing them or having them be angry or walk away from him. In some ways, he’s kinda similar to Pete Brenner (sad upbringing, basically alone in life no family). For Andy, his self made family is all his has, then his work, and Pete, his work is all he has, then his family.

I haven’t seen all of his characters/films but one recent standout is Pete from pain hustlers. I extremely disagree with critics who claimed his character wasn’t enough or that he was lackluster. WRONG! Pete was FIRE to me and man do I want more of him. I’m still reveling from his performance because for a role that got so downplayed by critics, I was expecting basically nada but got so much more than I bargained for. The little bit about Pete’s background in foster care was very eye opening and the scene where he gives Liza that rookie of the year bracelet??? He got so timid and was like “just wait a bit before you pawn it” and I got so 🥺. He really liked Liza and I think that betrayal he felt from her really cut deep. So sad.

Anyways I digress. I just love your takes and the discourse on your blog!

You’re one of the few blogs I’ve seen where even if your personal views or preferences aren’t always the same as the anons who post to you, you are always respectful and give an open chance for discussion. I really dig that!

I love hearing takes on characters!! This is why I love Chris’ work. He plays his characters so nuanced and layered, so naturally people are going to pick up on different cues.

Now, what you said about Steve, I believe that for CATFA. But I think being out of time hardens him, and that’s why I have that take on Steve. Plus, I’ll be honest I can’t forgive him for leaving Bucky and Sam when they needed him. And he went back to Peggy after she said she lived her life. He showed how selfish he can be.

I think Chris is the reason Ransom was layered. You can tell that Rian wanted him to be very one note. But then Chris had those little pouts, and breath intakes. Ransom was a spoiled child that didn’t get love and attention that he wanted and deserved. There’s a reason that he’s Harlan’s favorite. He’s smart. He can be conniving but imagine that intelligence is for good? He would be so loyal if he found the person worth being loyal to.

I hear everything you’re saying about Andy and I agree. That’s why I get the vibes him and Laurie just weren’t good for each other. They barely knew each other when she got pregnant. So they grew apart instead of together.

Yes about Pete!! I’m so glad you picked up on all that! I found myself wanting and yearning to know more about Pete and his life. How did he end up in that situation? Because I think, like Ransom, Pete wanted love. He respected Liza so much. And the hurt 😭 Chris did so good!! I hate that most of the negative reviews focused on him. Because I think he was the saving grace.

If we can have good conversations about Chris and his career/characters I’m here for it. That’s who I’m a fan of.

[theredpharaoah]

Hermione clears Jaime with very little effort I fear. She don’t even gotta be in striking distance. This is an interesting take on his part cuz for me, the weakest aspect of his universe is the grossly under-developed magic system. His magic system is quite literally “plot”. Not that JK’s is great. I’ve said a lot about the inconsistencies and under-developed points of her magic system and society as well. But her magic system is still more fleshed out than his. Her weak points is that she never fleshes out dark magic past 3 spells and she doesn’t make the line between light and dark magic clear. We don’t see a culture or specific magics that the dark side are apparently so interested in protecting. The dark side seems to have access to all the same general spells that everyone else has. It would be different if they had private family grimoires full of private spells they’re being barred from using. We don’t see how her feudal society works; what are the purebloods lording over? Is it land they own? Who are the commoners? Half-bloods? And a bunch more stuff. But that being said, I still feel like she has more in universe scaffolding to stand on then GRRM when it comes to magic. GRRM’s answer to everything is that’s the “mystery and wonder” of magic…that isn’t satisfactory in a fantasy series where we’re told magic was perfected to a science by almost every civilization at one point. And Terfling has an advantage cuz her domain of discourse only deals with magical beings. GRRM’s doesn’t, and so when you say people are either born with magic or they can’t use it - it makes things strange. If this was the case, why do they have the alchemists guild? How do they learn magic at the red temples? How did the First Men learn from The Children? And then there’s the Rhoyne and Valyria and Asshai. It seems a little weird that it’s something that can’t be cultivated at all. And I know we generally assume the Children and the First Men interbred, but I’m questioning the logistics of that. Maybe there was some genetic manipulation through Weirwoods or warging or something idk. Also, GRRM’s world building leaves a lot to be desired. A lot of it is just references to HP Lovecraft and other series. There’s only so much you can try and use actual history as an excuse for. Especially when you also make use of your world being very different from actual history - particularly when it comes to trade. And as I’ve stated multiple times; the Targaryens make no sense. The reason they have nothing from Valyria other than dragons is very obviously just “plot”. That’s not good. And this holds for other instances too; the reasons the Blacks lost The Dance? Plot. The reason The Dragons stopped hatching. Plot. We’ve yet to have a good in-world answer for this past speculation. I can’t stand Terfling, but I’m also sick of ppl acting like GRRM is this godly writer above critique. He’s very much at her level. He just manages to get past it because his works is for adults with adult content, and that gives it this air of being “elevated” above some of his peers.