#and then all the people in the fandom who i see around

[starryeyedstray]

happy (late) valentine's day!!! the dbh crew are all dressed up and equipped with terrible pick-up lines for the dbh vday card exchange event!

you probably saw these all posted individually, but i'm reposting them altogether because i think they all just look so neat sitting side-by-side (and i may have intentionally matched some specific people in specific colors wearing specific outfits bc we out here shipping specific ships)

og posts are linked below in case you want to see me ramble about them connor | fire markus | luther | artist markus | north pink markus | sixty | john | nines | gavin

thank you for everyone who participated in my event!!!! you are all wonderful and amazing <3333 check out the event tag #dbh vday exchange 2025 to see all the cards!!!

sappy ramblings below the cut

i am feeling very emotional right now because of all the love being thrown around in the fandom the past few days!!!

seeing mutuals trading vday cards and being sappy and kind to each other. seeing everyone hype the flood of art. seeing people who weren't able to participate in the exchange event make their own valentine cards. me personally just receiving so much positivity for my vday art.

AHHH makes me wanna cry and i just wanna say thank you!!! everyone who is in my bubble of the dbh fandom has been so kind and supportive and i just appreciate y'all so much!!! i love being part of this fandom and meeting so many kind and creative and funny and just overall fantastic people.

thank you again for everyone who participated in my silly little impromptu event!!!! i hope we can do this again next year <333

[pansexualhousecat]

seems like mel's VA said that mel isn't manipulative and people are taking her word as gospel as all fandoms do when a VA speaks up about any media, unfortunately.

i understand her point in that mel was trying to do what she thought was right and that is true, mel is someone who grew up seeing war and colonization because of noxus and her mother so she has a different view of the world and thinks what she's doing is the best and she does have good intentions to protect people.

but she was still manipulating the people around her to get what she wanted. does it mean she's a terrible person and the worst villain in the series? of course not and people who think like that are dumb. her manipulation comes from a good intention in her mind (protecting Piltover) but comes at the expense of the people who were actually suffering which are the people of Zaun, the people that the council ignored, let die and rot until they thought they were a threat to their perfect city. that includes mel.

mel is not a horrible person, but she's not 100% good either, her manipulation coming from a place of good intentions does not erase that but it also does not make her the worst person in the show. people don't seem to understand that the characters are not one dimensional, pointing out flaws in a character doesn't mean it's hate, it's analysis of them.

BUT!!! of course there are people who are spreading misogynoir rhetoric towards mel as well and i'm not denying that at all either, people are disgusting towards poc characters and especially women.

i love mel and i think she's one of the smartest characters in the show and her story is incredible, i'm excited to see more and how she grows. i'm not saying she's a villain in any way here, just explaining my thoughts. we should think critically about characters and not see them as just one thing, having flaws is important to every character and sometimes these flaws are something that helps them achieve what they want, just doesn't make these flaws something good.

[deadbeatbirdmom]

Happy Valentine's Day my fellow RWBY fans. This should be a day focused on love. Which is why I'm going to talk about something that's been troubling me for a while. This isn't about any single post, and I'm not singling anyone out. I'd put this under a read more cut but I think it's important enough not to do that. Scroll down for TLDR and a poll.

One of the common courtesies of tumblr etiquette is: don't tag hate with things like a ship tag or character tag. Or should be common, but let's face it, it's more like uncommon.

A good chunk of tumblr users who I end up blocking are those who post hate in tags like the 'Bumbleby' tag, or 'Yang Xiao Long' tag (it'd be the 'RWBY' tag too, but I don't often go there and rarely post in it). No, it's not toxic to block people, it's how you control your tumblr experience. It's how I avoid seeing hate, or try to.

But there are some tumblr users who I don't want to block but also end up putting hate in the tags: some of my fellow fans. It's not intended the same way as those who do it out of spite, but the end result is the same: your fellow fans end up seeing stuff they might prefer not to.

There's another rule, an old one that predates tumblr: don't feed the trolls. Don't give them attention. Please delete anon hate rather than answer it, although I definitely understand how trolling trolls can be fun. Just please don't tag it with the main tags or you'll do the anon's work for them if it's hate about a ship or character.

I see all too much fan art around that gets far less engagement than posts trying to fight back against hate (and unfortunately share the hate at the same time, especially when it's something from elsewhere like reddit or twitter). If you like the art, don't only hit that heart button, reblog it too!

RWBY fandom isn't dead, but we do need to do our part to encourage artists to make and share more art. Likes alone don't help the art get in front of more fans. I don't think everyone looks in the tags to find art, some will rely on those they follow reblogging art. This goes for sharing fic too! And giving fic writers comments (and kudos on AO3).

This is an appeal to keep negativity out of the main tags. I'm not saying you can't post whatever you want, just when it comes to tagging: please spare a thought for your fellow fans who are incredibly tired of negativity. If all else fails, maybe include a tag that can be added to filters? 'Wasps' for posts about Bumbleby hate, maybe?

I don't know about anyone else, but if I wanted to see hate and get angry, I'd be on twitter or reddit. I check tags here on tumblr to find fan art, and to see fellow fans talking about how much they love RWBY and its characters and ships, and find interesting theories and analysis.

I'm also not entirely sure how tumblr works with followed tags and words mentioned in posts. Do untagged posts still show up if the word appears in the post? Does that mean breaking the word with a backslash or something to avoid it showing up? I don't know, perhaps something to consider.

TLDR: please don't feed the trolls and don't tag hate with main tags. Show RWBY fan artists and fic writers some love and reblog their posts, and comment on fics!

One last thing: a poll to find out if I'm an outlier and posting hate is actually normal in this post-twitter world.

[damnfandomproblems]

Fandom Problem #7559:

Look, I understand the "you don't always need to use non-human characters for stories based on real-world historical bigotry. You can just write about said historical bigotry," kind of writing advice. Write the stories you want to write about.

I understand it on paper. In execution, most of my problems stem from the fans.

Nothing is more annoying than seeing the fans look at a fictional story full of different fictional beings and the fans believe they know exactly what kinds of real world instances of discrimination the writers drew from, over said writers.

For example, MAYBE the writers DID NOT draw on the US' history of racism towards other races for the story they wrote. Maybe they drew inspiration from literally ANY OTHER nation on the planet.

Or MAYBE, the writers DID NOT base the slavery depicted in this story on US slavery. That's not the only historical instance of slavery.

And MAYBE this fantasy race is based on a racist depiction from history, or MAYBE they're NOT, and you're just wrong, but too stubborn to admit it or realize.

MAYBE this fantasy world took inspiration from real world human historical events of discrimination, OR you just don't know history OR its purely original with NO real world basis.

It gets even more annoying when these same fans ignore all the evidence they're wrong and still think they're right.

The Writers: We drew inspiration from what the Soviet Union did to Russia, Russian culture and its people as a base for most of the lives the protagonists lived and the kind of villains they're trying to defeat. In fact! Most of our staff grew up under the cruel times of communism or heard stories from our parents.

The fanbase: CLEARLY! THIS IS ALL MEANT TO BE BASED ON THE US GOVERNMENT OPPRESSING BLACK PEOPLE! AND YOU ARE A RACIST IF YOU DISAGREE!

Or only use one example. I would take SOOO many more discussions around this discourse seriously if audiences did not cry, "Why do so many fantasy stories rewrite whites oppressing blacks!?" And if fans could show they knew more history, did not ignore any evidence that said otherwise and/or did not say this about two fictional races who aren't even human or based on said example.

It gets worse when they yell at other fans and believe those fans who dare to disagree or try to give their own take are bigots themselves. And all the exclusion is justified in their eyes.

"Can you all stop saying (insert fictional race here) is based on black people? There's entire discussions that show they're not with truth to them."

"THAT'S RACIST! YOU'RE RACIST!"

Also, gotta love when they presume certain fans that disagree all suffer from internalized bigotry or something along those lines.

Yes. There are black fans who don't see orcs as being based on black people and just have fun. What's your excuse?

TLDR: Stop substituting what you believe happened in canon for what actually happened and stop using it as a chance to other bully fans.

[pynkhues]

I keep seeing posts about Louis being a very incurious person/vampire and I wanted to know if you agreed on that but more so where that comes from? Is it a that’s none of my business thing or a I really don’t care thing. Maybe it’s something else entirely. I feel like there’s a touch of Gabrielle in that… am I reaching?

Oh, I really disagree that Gabrielle's incurious, anon. I think she's one of the most curious vampires in the series, and if anything, I'd say that I personally feel the show's made Claudia a more curious vampire and a natural explorer to parallel her to Gabrielle, not Louis.

As for Louis being incurious - - I've seen a lot of those posts too (some of them are really funny!), and I think they're kind of true, but also not really? I think Louis' incredibly intelligent, and I think he actually has a pretty insatiable curiosity in certain respects. He reads a lot, and he reads broadly - from Charles Darwin to Edward Carpenter to Gustave Flaubert, Colette to - as eagle eyed fans noticed in the BTS shots - Simone de Beauvoir, and has obviously a specific interest in art, and I don't think you read that widely or engage with art that deeply if you're not a fundamentally curious person.

I think from a fandom standpoint that the theory comes from Louis never sharing Claudia's hunger to know about the vampire world, and his resistance to learning more about them in Europe, as well as Louis seeming to not have asked Lestat all that much (which I actually disagree with - he clearly asks Lestat a lot of questions throughout 1.02, and both scenes where Claudia asks Lestat who turned him I think imply that Louis had asked and been similarly shut down before) - but I don't know if I'd necessarily describe that as a lack of curiosity so much as a symptom of Louis' initial denial of his vampirism, and then his rejection of vampire society.

Louis doesn't see himself in other vampires. He denies his vampiric needs in Rue Royale, pretty clearly has an issue with the fact that Claudia takes after Lestat when it comes to both her efficacy as a hunter, and her embrace of her vampirism. He certainly doesn't identify with the 'Catfish-with-Teeth' that they find in Romania, and he pretty much hates the Coven, from the work they do, to the way they hunt, to the individuals within it. I think he feels detached / alienated from vampire society, and by the end of s2, I think he likes it that way. I talked about it a bit in my Byronic Hero post, but it's very common with this sort of character archetype to live either in exile, or in a self-exile, and Louis' both - he's cut out from the human society he wants to be a part of in New Orleans, and he chooses to remove himself from vampiric society in Paris.

And to me, that's what sits at the root of Louis' curiosity.

I think that he has an enormous amount of curiosity around the human society that cut him out - again, he's reading Darwin, Carpenter, de Beauvoir, he enjoys the human opera with Lestat, is following people around Paris trying to photograph them, engaging deeply with human art, taking fascinating human boys to fuck and eat in San Francisco - and a fundamental lack of curiosity in vampire society - he never really follows up with Lestat about vampires, is disinterested in Claudia's research, tries to pull the pin on their trip, doesn't want to engage with the Coven, hates the vampiric theatre, hates his own photographs of the vampires, finds Armand boring! The world's softest, beigest pillow!

Louis' fascinated by humanity and bored by vampires, and I do think that's partially a reflection of how Louis' internalised his' feelings about being rejected by one, and rejecting the other, just like I think his capitalist climb has been about gaining social power in a society that tried to disempower him. So yeah! I think he's curious, he just doesn't care about vampires, haha.

[asneakyfox]

like, look, stede thinks ed wants an unfair division of labor where ed only does stuff he thinks is fun, and in another context that would be a VERY reasonable complaint, but HERE part of the context is that stede's saying they need to fix this in order to make the inn successful, and the inn being successful is kind of the problem. they don't need to make the inn a success! it's already doing well and that's what's making them miserable!

stede is the one who seems to care about the inn being successful and wants ed to work harder at it. but stede is also the one who straight up does not seem to enjoy any part of innkeeping. the framing thus far seems to suggest pretty strongly that ed working harder would not actually solve stede's problem because stede doesn't actually seem to like ANY part of this whole innkeeper gig.

ed meanwhile has been pretty straightforward from the beginning - all the way back to 2x03 when it came up for the first time - that he liked the idea of an inn and he enjoys some aspects of innkeeping, like nonviolent socialization with people who actually want to be around him and getting to be weird about fabrics, but ultimately none of this is about a passion for the hospitality industry. what he wanted was to retire from piracy with stede and get to do some kind of chill normal domestic thing where they'd both be safe. and then ghost izzy points out that yeah you had barely conceived of the concept of retirement when you came up with this so it's not surprising your first plan for how it would work was maybe not as ideal as it sounded at the time.

as far as i can tell this is a problem that would not be solved by ed working harder or being more appreciative and IS a problem that would be solved the instant either one of them said "hey i don't think i really like innkeeping all that much, do you? do you think there's something we could do together that's not innkeeping or piracy? (or maybe there's some alternate way to do piracy where we're not in constant danger and ed doesn't have to be blackbeard idk?) because what really matters to me isn't the fucking inn, it's that i'm with you and we're both happy."

i just don't see any way this is leading up to a resolution where ed, like, realizes he's been immature and ungrateful and he's failing to appreciate stede just like he always exploited izzy's devotion or some kind of shit like that. and not just because that isn't how i've read these characters before this point but mostly because that really doesn't make sense to me as where the bsky narrative on its own could possibly be going. that would only make sense if it were going to end with the two of them rededicating themselves to the inn with a renewed sense of passion for hospitality and a more equitable division of labor or something and lmao that is not going to fucking happen. we have all known that inn was doomed for a year. that's the one thing every single member of the cast crew and fandom have consistently agreed on. the inn is a valuable learning experience in the short term but in the long term the inn sucks! fuck that inn!

i've seen this from a couple different people but i really think it's a misread to think the character arc of gentlebeard in the djenks holiday special is actually that ed is just being lazy and doesn't want to do hard stuff and he needs to be managed. i mean, he could probably help stede out more, but that doesn't look to me like the core of the actual problem at all?

it seems to me like what's going on is that stede is determined to Not Run Away. "i'm not changing my life again." stede abandoned his first marriage, and then he abandoned ed, and then he abandoned his first marriage AGAIN, and then he abandoned piracy, and now! now he's supposed to have things figured out! now he's not going to be a guy who runs anymore! now is when he shows that he can commit to things! he's committed to his life with ed and part of his life with ed is being innkeepers so THE INN HAS TO SUCCEED AT ALL COSTS.

he cannot admit even inside his own mind that he just fucking hates innkeeping, because that would mean admitting failure. innkeeping was ed's dream! how could he be selfish enough to give up on ed's dream? he's gotten his brain into a state where the success of the inn equals the success of his relationship with ed, and he's gotten so obsessed with that he's not paying attention to their actual relationship. and at the same time he's miserable so it comes out as frustration with ed because it can't be that he doesn't like innkeeping and he's working so hard he can't do any more so surely it must be that ed's the one who needs to be more committed?

(plus what would he do instead? he doesn't want to go back to piracy because he doesn't want to die anymore, or see ed die, and what other options are there? if he admits he hates the inn then he'd have to admit he doesn't actually KNOW what he wants to do and that would be terrible because maybe the problem is him, maybe he'll always feel like this wherever he goes, maybe he just doesn't know how to be happy)

what he needs to say is "i want to be with you but i don't want to be innkeepers, can we figure out something else?" but he cannot say that, he can't even think that, and it comes out as "why aren't you helping with cakes more?" it's not about the cakes.

[hopeswriting]

daily life arc miura haru. does anyone know who i'm talking about. do you guys remember her. i still can't believe what happened to her 😔

[arom-antix]

Hey, just wanted to reach out to say that I found you pointing out and calling this person was really great and you shouldn't have apologized. It was incredibly true what you said, and to be honest it seems out of touch with the reality of a great deal of the japanese fandom, the nuances and their culture. Also, it was as you pointed out, extreme and may I say rude. I want to mention too that the way it was written, as if entitled of the knowledge and the 'explanation' made it all worse in context of the 'fucked up'. The original poster always gets away by using the 'well-written academic'' statement of their 'metas' as an excuse to do or say and make everyone else agree and if not, uses victim narrative and discourses exactly selecting wording for people to agree on it or feel bad.

I don't know if they tagging you in the way they did made you reblog and apologizing/backing up, but no one thought bad about you pointing it out. On the contrary, a lot of people had been bullied and discriminated by this person when they called them out/disagreed going onto lenghts of sending their friends to harass people, and the other persons can't even defend themselves because they are effectively blocked. To quite a few people in the fandom has been done, even accusing them as 'acephobes' (when they're not) or even Nazis by spreading lies. So yeah, I just wanted to say that. I think you were right to call them out publicly.

Thank you very much for this ask. To be completely honest I agree with everything you said here and don't actually feel bad about pointing anything out. I mainly apologised because I didn't want any potentially poor phrasing from my side to cause unnecessary hostility and because I myself have gripes with this person's behaviour but didn't want to cause a scene.

My honest opinion is that they have a serious issue with taking accountability for their own mistakes and highly overestimate their own intellect. If you're reading this, @thegirlwhorideslikeasamurai, sorry if I seem harsh, but it's true. I saw your post lamenting how you're the only academic meta writer / fan in the fandom and I didn't interact then because I honestly do not care enough to start that drama but with the information Blonndiec has just given me, I think it's necessary that someone calls you out.

You're not an academic. You're not beyond the mental capabilities of other fans. You're actually incredibly childish in your metas and analyses and I am not kidding when I say that I was halfheartedly writing essays more academic than every analysis I've seen from you when I was barely a teenager. I don't know how old you are and I frankly don't care. You're not as clever as you think you are.

Also, don't think I didn't notice that you didn't reblog my correction (link here to my correction and here to their "response" for those who didn't see that exchange) of your post so that you could control what your followers saw of the exchange. You're the opposite of an academic. You control information to tailor the narrative, you don't cite your sources properly if at all, you don't format your posts in anything close to how an academic analysis would be, you make unbased claims, you reference posts and canon material without in any way indicating where that information is from, you reference your own (equally unacademic) metas and your conclusions from them without indicating what post it's from or that it's your own theory this new one is based on and instead present it as a common fact, and I could go on and on and on. Your posts are also riddled with logical fallacies and you talk in absolutes and opinions when there's no canon basis to claim such things. I'm sorry, but that's not academic in the slightest.

To be clear, you don't have to be an academic to post on the Internet. You don't have to be anything at all. You could up front be a genuine idiot with no remorse and that's fine. But when you claim to be an academic and also put down the rest of the fandom for not being on your level, you have to be able to back that up. It'd still make you sound like a prick but at least your arrogance would have a basis. It currently does not.

I haven't personally seen the discussions that Blonndiec is referencing and I'm not going to claim anything definitive (because that would be unacademic of me, take notes) but if what they're saying is true and did happen as described, which I have empirical, if anecdotal, evidence to believe could very well be (a friend of mine has personally been blocked by you after they criticised you without actually mentioning your name which I of course can't prove is the reason for the block but the timing is awfully convenient), you should know that you should be ashamed of yourself.

If there's context missing, feel free to enlighten me and call out any incorrect accusations. You have every right to defend yourself. However, I encourage you to cite your sources since you're such an academic. If you don't, then it's just your word against Blonndiec and anyone else who might comment's word and that doesn't prove anything. Don't misunderstand, acephobia and nazi rhetoric should absolutely be called out but only if it's actually happening. False accusations can ruin lives. I hope you know that.

I'm not a fan of calling people out publicly and, again, thank you for this ask, Blonndiec. But considering many of the issues I've personally seen and those I've been informed of by second hand sources were posted publically, I don't really feel bad about calling this out. I could do a full breakdown of just the insulting "academic" comments alone and how there's no academia to be found in said academic metas and, Samurai, if you give me reason to, I will show exactly what I mean point by point (and academically just to give you an example of even low level academia).

If you respond to this, do it in a reblog. That's what a real academic would do. If I'm wrong and you can prove it, you'd have no reason to not show my post in your rebuttal. If I'm right, you'd have every reason to be upfront about your mistakes and how you intend to rectify them. There's nothing wrong with being wrong but there's a lot wrong with refusing to admit to it in a way that lets others peer review you (academic thing, look it up) and come to their own conclusions about the situation. That's what you did when you just @'ed me instead of reblogging my response. A true academic wouldn't hide a peer review. You'd know that if you were one.

I swing in many academic spaces and yet that doesn't make me any kind of expert and I don't claim to be one because I'm not. But since you want to be one so badly, reblog this with a response and show us all how smart you are. I'm dying to know what your academic take on this is.

[lunarharp]

played dragon age 2...just simple scribbles

[jilyandbambi]

Weird, it's almost like the fallout of Shauna's stillbirth was a multi-episode arc at the end of s2 or smthg. Almost like Shauna had postpartum psychosis convincing her by turns that her baby was alive, and, later, that her teammates ate him. Almost like the trauma of his loss is still affecting Shauna to this very day, by her own admission.

Sheesh.

What show are people watching again?

Going off of how Shauna's relationship to wilderness baby is depicted in fic, fandom really seems overly attached to this unfounded notion of Shauna as someone who resents her child(ren) and rejects the role motherhood altogether, often contrasting with Jackie, who takes to parenting WB like a natural. Which is doubly weird because canon-wise, it's Shauna who's shown to be the caregiver of the two.

While Jackie whines and slacks off, Shauna's one of the first girls to take on a job. It's Shauna who pushes Jackie to eat, reminds her not to pick at her rashes, and tries to encourage Jackie to participate to get the others off her back. It's Shauna who tries to shield Javi from seeing his dad's dead body, and is the one we see comforting and looking out for him for all of s1.

Adult Shauna is an emotionally stunted, traumatized mess and has trouble connecting with Callie as a result, but at the same time keeps Callie's old stuffed animal in the backseat of their minivan and threatens to kill a man to get it back.

So much of Shauna's character revolves around Jackie and the violence of (homoerotic) female adolescent friendships, and female adolescence in general, that it's easy, I guess, to overlook the other dimensions of her character. But there's an inherent violence to motherhood as well, especially a newly grieving mother, that I think is just as compelling aspect of Shauna's character as JackieShauna (or ShaunaHat) if people would give it a chance.

it’s really strange how many people seem to downplay how much shauna loved her baby because they want to believe that jackie’s death impacted her more. maybe she can mourn two people at the same time? maybe losing a baby that she clearly loved and wanted was really traumatizing for her??

[sukibenders]

Intersectionality is something that, sadly, is often pushed to the side in Arcane discussions, specifically from a certain side of that fandom. They will go on and on about Viktor, as they usually do, talking about how he suffers from classicism and ableism within the show and fandom respectively (as they should as these are issues, but there is a catch when it comes to these fans as well), but when others in the fandom, especially Mel or even Sky fans, point out the racism and misogyny (misogynoir) that is often rampant in this fandom, particularly from said fans mentioned prior, all of a sudden its not possible or being overdramatized. Like they suddenly can't understand how some of their rhetoric includes or invites the same thing black fans have been calling out since the beginning, because how can you discuss the ableism and such that Viktor faces, but laugh or joke around with people who call Mel slurs or just denounce her to a trope? I thought you were for calling out forms of hate within fandom, or does your "activism" only stretch so far? And back to a previous statement, about the catch regarding those particularly fans----some of them regurgitate the same harmful rhetoric towards Viktor that they say they supposedly hate, just in mode subtle ways. How are you going to say you hate when Viktor is infantilized, but will be quick to forget he's a grown man who can defend himself (often when trying to pair him against Mel, framing her as the aggressor, and sometimes even Jayce too but to a lesser degree)? Not saying Jayce doesn't get equal amounts of hate, but his more so gets pushed aside along with his character to ultimately frame Viktor in higher regard, often making him ooc. It's like they pick and choose when the issues are prevalent, and when they aren't, and it's so frustrating.

[fictionalsownme]

keigo in my newer style since I finally watched s7!! 🧡🌟

I had sooo much fun choosing what I would headcanon/fancast his features as (peep the dimples, i like those heheh,, i just know in-universe there would be at least one fan account dedicated to them lol). My style these days is a lot more grounded in realism so it was hard finding references without an exact face to use-- kind of like a collage. I like how it turned out! I hope this fed my MHA followers & mutuals for a bit, I hath not forgotten you~~!! I really enjoyed season 7, I already know the major beats of what happens next in the manga but I haven't actually read it so I'm waiting with bated breath!!

bonus: I rambled about keigo in the tags but I have big feelings after finishing the season so it ended up long hehe (the tags on my posts are slowly becoming a notes app for fandom shower thoughts atm bruh!!)

[snixx]

nina salazar-roberts is such a beautiful case study in comphet and I genuinely think her arc deserves so more appreciation

[manic-sapphic]

my biggest thing in spop is catradora, can't lie, catra's the main tbh, just cause of the way it's nice to see a character portrayed in a way so real & honest & that allows viewers to (hopefully) notice that, yes, they are flawed. but also,

"i know you're not a bad person, catra."

this idea of perfection is one i think is actively questioned throughout the series in many ways. prob has a lot to do w nate's background so i kinda get it. but even as someone who loves catradora so damn much - i actually have no problem at all with entrapdak. i'm happy as hell for them.

cause hordak definitely perpetuated a cycle of abuse, same as shadow weaver, and not just for catra or adora, every last orphan he inducted into the horde. but the key difference in my mind?

shadow weaver knew exactly what she was doing in the sense she knew the effect it would have & that's why she did it. to achieve that effect. much like horde prime himself. hordak may have been trying to achieve a certain effect/goal/whatever for years - but it was all done in a blindly brainwashed need to prove himself to a figure that only ever kept him around as a pawn to serve his own purpose.

just like with shadow weaver & catra. adora too.

truly glad you put this out there tho cause i don't see much of the fandom addressing this sort of thing so, cool to see others are chillin with me on the same page. but i hope i don't offend w the lil addition that, yes it is a cartoon & they are fictional characters - but also, every last character in media is fictional. even if it claims to be reality tv. being a cartoon shouldn't take away from the weight of the messages carefully attempted to be woven throughout, no matter what age group the rating's at. some lady who was a librarian told me once there's a bunch of stuff they have to place in the children's literature section just cause the main characters are kids/teens, despite how deep it often might get.

so i dunno i'd say "taking it too seriously" so much as personally feeling at times that people are "missing the point."

Let's talk about Catra and Hordak

Since this is where most of the drama comes from

It's no secret that Entrapdak shippers are anti-catradora and vice versa. Why? Mainly, the issues people have within these ships are not the ships themselves, but the characters within them; mainly Catra and Hordak. Entrapdak shippers hate Catra because of the toxic relationship she had with Entrapta and other characters. Because of what she did to Entrapta, tasing her and sending her to beast island, and how she just got worse and worse in season 4.

The same could be said about Hordak, regarding the Catradora shippers who despise Hordak for most of what he's done. It's no secret he took over the scorpion kingdom, created the Fright Zone, and brainwashed and conditioned a lot of Etherians into believing the cause, just as Horde Prime did to him. And a lot of that was the cause of a lot of Adora and Catra's issues.

Here's the thing though

I really think Hordak and Catra are similar in a lot of ways. Both grew up in a abusive environment forced to portray themselves as perfect in order to no longer face any abuse from their respective "mentors".

But both Shadow Weaver and Horde Prime would never see either of them as nothing but inferior.

They both suffered years of abuse, Hordak perhaps even longer. And yes, the actions of Hordak had contributed to Catra's abuse as well, but it is a cycle. A cycle they both decided to break.

Catra overheard Shadow Weaver telling Adora that she was a distraction to her, then leaving. Leaving, because she wasn't going to be a part of Shadow Weaver's manipulation any longer. And yes, she may have left due to that very manipulation, but eventually she stays, at the very end, together with Adora.

Then there's Hordak

Ever since meeting Entrapta again, he chooses to hide his returned memories this time and at the end, when Entrapta is being held in front of him and prime, finally he sees the error of his ways, breaking the cycle quite literally. By throwing prime off the ledge.

He does this great speech about giving himself a name, a life, making a friend. He defies Horde Prime's will and finally, FINALLY breaks the cycle and gains control of his independence. And yes, there's that whole thing that happened after, but that was Prime, not him.

My point is, we should stop hating on each other and the characters because people, it's just a show, these are fictional characters with flaws that any person in real life would go through. Not to mention, again, how similar Catra and Hordak are.

If we hate on Catra for the things she did, we have to hate on Hordak for the things he did too. And vice versa. They both had terrible pasts, a long list of crimes, but they're making up for it in their own ways. Redemption is a long road, but it's a good one.

Anyway, this is just my opinion and analysis on the whole thing, you don't have to agree, but let's try to get along alright? Fandom fights and shipping wars are never fun and I really think you guys take defending and attacking a fictional character from a fictional show way too seriously.

I still love Entrapdak so much but I'm not gonna attack Catradora or Catra Enjoyers over it. And if they say something about Hordak or Entrapdak I don't like? The block buttons right there. There's really no need for so much drama guys.

Thanks for listening 🙏🙏🙏

[dykedvonte]

Mini rant below and in the tags, the only time I’ll talk about this and my personal take on it.

The way people talk about hypothetical male Anya on Twitter and the idea of how Mouthwashing would play out if the genders were swapped makes me remember how people still don’t take sexual assault and rape with male victims with the same gravity, especially when the perpetrator is female.

[wren-of-the-woods]

I've been seeing a lot of posts lately talking about how no one comments/reblogs/replies/etc anymore, and, as someone who comments regularly on a lot of fanworks, it sometimes makes me wonder if my efforts are worth anything. Then I remember how much happiness I get from comments on my own work/posts and how much the community of fandom can matter, and I remember the power that can be found in spreading joy instead of disappointment.

So -- to everyone who comments on fanfiction: thank you. You make the writing process worthwhile and so very rewarding. You make people happy every day.

To all the people who reblog art and gifsets and meta and anything else with enthusiastic tags: thank you. You make people smile and promote interesting conversations and make being on Tumblr so much more fun.

To anyone who sends people asks about their works, whether it's unprompted or part of an ask game: thank you. You give people reasons to talk about things they love and feel like a part of a community.

To the people who makes reclists: thank you. You give us more to read while showing the author how much their work is loved and appreciated, benefitting so many people.

To everyone who organizes events and groups and blogs and dedicated to fandom: thank you. You build community and love and excitement so effectively and it's wonderful.

To all the authors and artists who respond to comments and build community: thank you. You make people smile with your work and then again with your response.

To everyone who contributes to fandom and community in all the other beautiful, varied ways that I can't even begin to list: thank you. You are why we're here.

And, finally, to every writer, visual artist, gifmaker, cosplayer, maker of edits, writer of meta, or creator of art in any other form: thank you. Your work is wonderful and you make fandom what it is, regardless of who sees your art or how much response you recieve.

Keep going, everyone. You are a part of something beautiful.