#anyways. fandom is fun in the sense that it's the same as studying people in a lab

[indi-glo-archive]

and if you're gonna call him emotionally intelligent, you better put "not" in front of it! whack ass hoe

[kandisheek]

FIC REC WEEK 1 – STONY FAVORITES

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: Annie D (scaramouche)

Annie D is a fandom treasure, honestly. Not only is their writing style amazing, but the stories they come up with make me want to just roll around in their brain and soak up the creativity. In a completely chill way, of course.

Here's some of their work that I think you should check out:

The Love Spell

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: G Words: 16,054 Tags: Getting Together, Light-Hearted, Humor

Summary: Tony wakes up in love with Steve. This is an alarming turn of events, because he wasn’t in love with Steve when he fell asleep the night before. That said, it’s sort of nice? To be in love? He’s enjoying it, anyway.

Reasons why I love it: Tony just tears at my heart-strings in this one. Not because the fic is especially angsty or sad, but because he's so goddamn relatable. I love the way Steve is portrayed in this too, how supportive and caring he is. This fic encompasses a lot of the reasons why I love Stony so much. Definitely give this one a read!

Not a Breakup

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: E Words: 33,531 Tags: Friends With Benefits, Feelings Realization, Miscommunication

Summary: Tony knew it was a bad idea to start sleeping with Steve. It could mess up team dynamics, make things even more awkward between them in the future, or just plain get in the way of their trying to save the world. Tony foresaw all of the above but not the advent of feelings, and at the most inopportune moment.

Reasons why I love it: I really, really love how Annie D manages to make the smut in this incredibly hot, hilarious and sweet, all at the same time. Sleep-deprived Tony is so much fun, and his exhaustion being the catalyst for this whole thing with Steve? Love it. Miscommunication is one of my favorite tropes, and the way it's done in this fic feels very natural. All in all an amazing fic that you don't want to miss!

A Late-Night Snack, and Other Good Ideas

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: E Words: 12,117 Tags: A/B/O, Heat Cycles, Alpha Steve / Omega Tony

Summary: Steve's heightened senses means that he always knows when Tony's in heat. One night, he finally does something about it.

Reasons why I love it: Their banter in this is just fucking amazing. And I could cut the sexual tension with a knife, which makes it all the more satisfying when it finally implodes. Plus, I'm always a fan of Steve Rogers Is Not A Virgin, so yeah, this ticks a lot of boxes. Definitely give this one a read if you like A/B/O.

Overhaul

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: E Words: 18,783 Tags: Getting Together, Unrequited to Requited, Character Study

Summary: Steve knows that Tony has feelings for him and, since he doesn’t return those feelings, has been mildly dreading the day that Tony decides to do something about it. When that day finally arrives, Steve discovers that Tony’s wooing strategy isn’t anything at all like he’d expected.

Reasons why I love it: This story gave me so many Tony feels, and then hit me out of nowhere with an equal amount of Steve feels. It's such a fantastic take on their characters, with truly amazing dialogue. If I could take a pen and underline all my favorite parts, every second sentence would be underlined. It's that good. Definitely a must-read!

There's an App for That

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: T Words: 17,439 Tags: No Powers, Romantic Comedy, Mild Angst with a Happy Ending

Summary: Thanks to the modern gig economy, Steve is the successful owner of a break-up service, i.e. people pay him to break up with their partners for them. One day, he gets the first break-up request for Tony Stark.

Reasons why I love it: The concept for this is honestly so cool. I've never read another fic quite like it, and I don't think anyone could do it better than Annie D does it here. It's fun and light-hearted for the most part, but when it hits deep, it hits hard. I love all of it, the happy getting-to-know-each-other parts as well as the angsty-punch-in-the-gut parts. The way they end up together feels so natural, it's all really well written. Definitely check this one out!

Stuck in a...

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: E Words: 13,005 Tags: A/B/O, Mating Cycles, Alpha Steve / Omega Tony

Summary: Steve gets into a serum-enhanced rut. Tony figures that there’d be a long list of people who’d volunteer to help Steve out, but there’s only one person Steve wants.

Reasons why I love it: Steve almost losing his mind because he wants Tony so much but holding himself back to protect him? Um, yes, please. This fic executes the hormone-riddled alpha trope flawlessly, and the conclusion is hot as hell. Plus, omega Tony is a complete delight. I'd recommend this fic to anyone who likes A/B/O.

[museofthepyre]

at this point it'd be better if people sent questions straight to you rather than asking some headcannon blogs or something since you answer them all anyway (in a put together and honestly just well thought out manner)

[just realised it may sound accusatory - IT'S NOT! i'm just in awe of your explanations and thought process. your answers just make sense and idk it seems like you actually take time to engage with source material, and analyse the characters. as with the question of Sydney eating only buttered bread or explaining how both jedediah and elijah are two sides of the same coin, really, and it seems to me now i'm rambling so i just wanted to say. good job. i appreciate what you're doing in this fandom :D ]

AW SHDHSGD THANK YOU 😭😭 I’m armed with autism, a propensity for rambling, a LOVE of media analysis, and encyclopedic knowledge of CHNT specifically 😅 this is what a special interest does to a man

I’ve listened through CHNT over a dozen times, probably over two dozen times, maybe even more… I study the transcripts & wikis like biblical scripture, and mayyyyybe think about things just a little bit too much. Maybe. My word isn’t gospel, most of my takes are just interpretations with evidence, but… I am always so beyond down to give my input on any questions. Ask away! I do adore the CHNT hcs blog tho, it’s very fun and whimsical over there. I think what makes this media fun is just how much of it *is* left up to personal interpretation. We can all connect to it in our own special way! Yay!

[kerizaret]

1, 7 12 and 15 for tsukasa? :>

1. Why do you like or dislike this character?

Why I like Tsukasa is a question that would require a whole ESSAY. He was the first character I got introduced to snd really got to know - i started the game with wxs main story and right before his torpe event started so it was the first event i really played - and I have a tendency to get attached easily. As in, the first character I get attached to is most likely going to stay my fav throughout everything. Not always but often

There's also just something about him being this. Really well done mix of funny, stupid, impulsive and mature, caring, with a heavy sense of responsibility. You can laugh at him or with him but you can also empathise with him or feel his love and care for others, almost like he's comforting you too. It's the onii-chan vibe. I'm not gonna start dissecting his entire character right now, but I also really appreciate his growth - even within the main story itself but throughout all the events mainly. The way he's growing more open with his feelings - both his own and those for his close ones - and becoming more confident, while also acknowledging his mistakes and LETTING himself make them and grow with them, correcting them and moving on. He's both a fascinating character from story and development point of view but also just has the kind of development I like

And don't get me started on his dynamics with other charscters - that are both fun and fascinating and just. So full of love and passion and care and also silliness. What can I say. You just can't be bored with him

There's also the fact he and I also share some similarities or traits, so it's easy to identify with, and consequently grow closer to him often. He's not my biggest kin or anything, and there's plenty that makes us different, but some key values we agree on. If that makes sense. And there's also some things I just admire in his character that i wish I had, could do. And so. I just. Admire him isn't the right word but I can't find a better one rn? Something of the kind

Anyway yeah just. He's awesome. Stupid loser. I hate him

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

I REALLY like the idea of kasaverse. It's so fun! There's so many different like, versions of Tsukasa from various of his plays/events/sets and all and they all have certain characteristics attached to them and can somehow feel like a separate and the same character simultaneously

I like that there's certain traits of tsukasa that those various "versions" of him represent, some widely accepted by the fandom or some just unique to each fan. It just feels like they're pieces of his personality separated from him and shaped into a smaller piece of himself that you can study in this form, and if you piece all those various tsukasas and their personalities together, that's when you get the full tsukass tenma. It makes him feel so.. developed? Idk how to say it. Its just awesome

I do like to imagine that each different tsukasa from the kasaverse is representative of some trait/part/dream/etc of his in a more exaggerated(?) way. Like you probably noticed I love making hinakasa have the Big Bro Tsukasa vibes ×100. I do feel like hina is just this. Representative of Tsukasa's older sibling caring side more than the others, especially seeing what event he came from. In a similar way Torpe highlights his calmer yet dedicated side - I also like to imagine torpe as the part that gets embarrassed by too many compliments (like that scene with shizuku in pandemonium). Knight can be loyalty, can be determination. Fighting tooth and nail for that happy ending. King is that charisma, ability to bringing people together, the leadership. And others. It's just fun to imagine

Also it just fits the method actor vibe SOO well

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

You know, its stupid. You know that moment when you're asked something and. Immediately forget everything you know on the topic? Yeah.... I know i have many I just never have them on hand when needed... Ironic

He's a mama's boy. He's also very close to her right after Saki and loves to spend time together and buy her gifts and help her out at home. Also his canon bedroom is a lie because he obviously has shining in the dark stars on his ceiling like saki and drawings/sketches and many many photos over his desk and plushies on his bed. Colopale is just a coward

Has freckles and thick fluffy hair but you can see that from my drawings. Always has some kind of bruise from practice on him that he never remembers how he got. He's an early bird that also falls asleep very easily and usually early too, on a schedule. Often dreams but quickly forgets, so he always writes those down as quick as he can in the morning for future reference or exchanges their dreams with Saki over breakfast

Always has to do something with his hands, especially when frustrated or nervous. Especially enjoys playing with others' hair. Had a tendency to bite his nails, so saki taught him to paint his nails to prevent that. Currently has wxs colours painted nails as ordered by emu just as the rest of the troupe. Also knows how to braid hair and do makeup thanks to Saki. Enjoys baking a lot and sometimes stress bakes things. He can't swim very well

Also a silly thing but we know hes bad at games overall but he's actually a master at playing word games. Especially Scrabble, with that dumb vast and complicated vocabulary of his. You cannot tell me Tsukasa "I am valiantly trying to confront this unscrupulous spider preventing me from enjoying my luncheon" Tenma would not win at Scrabble (I have an old comic on that)

Idk ahshfjshs 😭

15. What's your favorite ship for this character? (Doesn't matter if it's canon or not.)

I'm gonna be honest recently it's been harder to choose between all polysho tsks dynamics, but I'm gonna say ruikasa because it's the first ship I got introduced and attached to, by the friends who introduced me to the game. And just. the TRUST man. The TRUST

They've got both a funny and deep dynamic and big influence on each other ever since the beginning that can't be denied. I won't really talk much about then right now but I just simply appreciate the way they push each other to be better, to keep trying, to give their all and not hold back, while making sure the other doesn't stop taking care of himself and is aware he's believed in and trusted. Also they are just two insane weirdos who do stupid shit together and it's funny

Yeah :3 I kind of went overboard and gave quite the long answers so I hope they make sense AHDAHA

Thankie for the ask lynnie!! I hope you're doing great <3

[platonically-loving-alastor]

Screenshot Overanalysis Time!

I've actually spent so much time thinking about this image because no one else talks about it, and it's led to headcanons that range in realism from 'this is possible ig' to 'this definitely isn't true but it's still fun to think about'. So being sure to keep that in mind, I'm gonna describe said headcanons.

So, based on google searches for archangels, there are multiple ideas for how many there are, and one of those ideas is 7 (disregarding Lucifer ofc). Those 7 are Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, Uriel, Camael (also spelled Chamuel), Jophiel, and Zadkiel. This is the idea that I'm going to run with to say that the 6 figures in the screenshot are the other archangels. "Oh but how would they be the 7 archangels if there's only 6 of them-?" Well that's what I thought at first, but I'm also persistent. So I started thinking that maybe one of the archangels didn't exist until after Lucifer fell, possibly replacing him (I'll be using Zadkiel to fill this role throughout the post). Of course I don't know much about the system in this universe's Heaven, along with if they'd even feel the need to replace him to begin with, so it was originally just a random fun idea to me more than a genuine possibility.

However, something has since been brought to my attention that makes my idea make more sense. The 7 Heavenly Virtues. Though lesser acknowledged, there is one for each of the Deadly Sins, who we already know exist in the Hazbin Universe, including Lucifer representing Pride; Which is exactly what interested me about it. If the Virtues do exist in Hazbin Hotel's Heaven, that could mean that Lucifer used to be the Virtue of Humility, before unintentionally creating and becoming Hell's parallel to that, the Sin of Pride. With this idea in mind, I think this would make it much more likely for Heaven to actively need a replacement after he fell, they would've needed a new Virtue of Humility. So when Lucifer fell, there would have only been 6 archangels left, the same number we see in this scene, before they had the chance to create Zadkiel.

Also, just to cover my bases and mention the possible argument of Lucifer being a seraphim, I don't think that's technically been confirmed (or if it has, hey it's not like I thought this idea would turn out fully canon anyway lol). Yes, he has 3 sets of wings, which traditionally indicates a Seraphim (from what I've heard in this fandom at least, I have not studied the Bible myself). But we also know that Vivienne doesn't necessarily adhere to biblical accuracy, so this may just be how she's chosen to depict archangels. The main reason I would believe that were the case is the fact that all 6 figures behind him also have 3 sets of wings. These technically could also be Seraphim, but I feel like story-wise it would make more sense to me for them to have been archangels than more seraphim. this is partially because none of the halos look like the one we see on Sera, and I think it would be safe to assume if they were Seraphim in that moment, Sera would have been there with them.

Before I post this, I'm just gonna reiterate in case people wanna take this too seriously; This is mostly a fun and interesting idea that I know won't be true. Just let me do a bit of theorizing without the pressure of realism in this show that isn't exactly the perfect model of realism itself.

In conclusion, I wanna see archangels in the show so bad you don't understand- I've made picrew designs for them at this point, maybe I should post them, for the fun of it 👀

[irambletoomuch]

MUST READS

These are fanfiction that I feel like are must reads. Separated by Fandom. Enjoy!

MCU

🐐Death Before Inaction is literally one of the best Peter Parker fics I've ever read, if you want skewed dynamics, no slash, an OP Peter, and really good story telling this is for you.

The Anomaly is an amazing Into the Spiderverse fic that really goes into Miles character and how giving up; doing everything in your power to prevent something and then it happens anyways, can destroy you and change your perspective. And on the other side how choices can make you regret them.

Bound by a Promise to the Moon is an Avengers work that is focused on characters and relationships between people who have drifted apart. It is IronStrange but nothing in your face for the most part 💀 you can skip those parts if you don't like it😁. It really is worth the read though.

Crossovers

Gaming Spider is a MCU fic that is Peter-centric but be warned because they dropped 8 chapters on the same day in 2022 and haven't updated since. It's so entertaining because Peter just has the Gamer Power (basically Litrpg elements) and grows increasingly stronger after every encounter, and the plot makes sense and isn't only based on the system.

All of the heroes and all of the men, couldn’t save Tommy from getting kidnapped again is such a bias rec on my part, I like crossovers that are done correctly and I was a mcyt and dsmp follower (not really watcher, I can't commit to anything) and this is a story changed by the characters, where the original plot is nothing but a memory to help character development. God I love character development.

BNHA

🐐Parallax is a BNHA fic that is SI and I KNOW BUT HERE ME OUT is basically like if Todoroki was haunted by a physics loving astronomer that made him feel more like someone else, but still kept a lot of what makes him, him. It's so good, like touched me so deeply that I have a hard time explaining it.

A Study In Deceit is a BNHA fic (I know) that is SO FUNNY, basically Bakugou is BBC's Sherlock, but has hid it for all his life, he does cases on the side and turns them in anonymously to the police. It's really good if you're looking for Todoroki and Bakugou friendship.

Foresight now this, this is crack. Want a BNHA fic that speeds through the story in ways that are so funny? Want someone doing something without a clue why? READ THIS. If you know the plot of BNHA it's sometimes easy to guess why he's doing what he's doing but the reactions of other characters is sooo good.

RONIN, ronin, ronin, ronin. This thing is the best ever, BNHA, op Midoriya but now you might be scrolling past, but... It's SO GOOD, BOHB_STEVENS IS A GENIUS this fic was made to practice fighting and ohhhhh did they get plently of practice. If you like fighting scenes that are descriptive, easy to understand, and EXHILARATING read this.

Magneto is an amazingly different BNHA SI fic, where really the story stays the same but I'm a simple person and slice of life interactions can be just as fun as fighting and complicated story telling (the storytelling is good btw) . I think I you want a little angst mixed with mostly good times and crack you should read this.

Pinwheel Eyes is a BNHA if Midoriya had a quirk. But once again the story is original they aren't afraid to make unpopular decisions to keep realism, and he has to win to keep people alive, not just have plot armor. I think if you want amazing fights and to be surprised over and over with how good this is you should read it

Crossovers

🐐A Massacre of One is a BNHA/Worm crossover that is something out of a dream for me. Super long, well written, fight scenes, character development, and well done implementation of other stories elements. With quirks it makes it easy, but still the reactions of others when they figured out what happened is AHHH and the way they make them go through the story is amazing too. Big props to the writer.

Si Vis Pacem is a BNHA/John Wick fic where John Wick (would it be SI?) is reincarnated into Midoriya, and it's pretty good, ngl it updates like 3 times a year so it's been a minute since I've read it, but I remember really liking it.

Be Careful What You Ask Your God is a BNHA and Chainsaw Man crossover where once again (I know I said it wasn't the norm) the characters are the story, here they took a different approach and didn't even focus on the main characters of BNHA and just how the mc's of chainsaw man would live in that world, but the LORE (matpat😭) is interesting.

Misc.

Harry Potter

Porcupine Quills & Potion Spills A Harry Potter (Snape-centric) work. This fic is pretty good, but it's not TOP top tier. The reason it's here is because I've been looking for another fic that has this same idea but none have done it this certain way and I really like the idea. Now it is on Hiatus but its only been a few months, so they'll probably be back (man I hope so).

Crossovers

A Wand for Skitter is a Harry Potter and Worm crossover (if you haven't read worm and appreciate modern sci-fi/eldritch original works you should read it) but the characters are amazing, nothing seems cheap and the ending, THE ENDING it was so good.

Stranger Things

I really didn't mean to hurt anyone is a Stranger Things story that had Steve as Seven. The choices with the way the story is going makes sense and again the characters are so well written. His powers are original and make the story even better and even gets him into some unsavory situations.

Worm

Crossovers

🐐A Massacre of One is a BNHA/Worm crossover that is something out of a dream for me. Super long, well written, fight scenes, character development, and well done implementation of other stories elements. With quirks it makes it easy, but still the reactions of others when they figured out what happened is AHHH and the way they make them go through the story is amazing too. Big props to the writer.

A Wand for Skitter is a Harry Potter and Worm crossover (if you haven't read worm and appreciate modern sci-fi/eldritch original works you should read it) but the characters are amazing, nothing seems cheap and the ending, THE ENDING it was so good.

Kuroko's Basketball

Ball Is Life, But You Still Need To Pay Rent before anything, this work is on hiatus (it hasn't updated since 2022) it's a Kuroko's Basketball fic that is a SI but omg this si is not a John Doe he is so out of pocket I'm not gonna spoil it a lot but if you like the anime you should read this you'll have fun.

The Saga of Tanya the Evil

The Chronicles of Tanya the Fuehrer is another Tanya fic where it's after the war ends, the beginning is amazing, she does get a bit ooc in some parts but other than that the story itself is so entertaining and how they describe things and paint a picture is so beautiful.

Crossovers

A Young Girl's Guerrilla War is a Code Geass and The Saga of Tanya the Evil crossover. It's if Tanya died and was reincarnated again into code geass (another war so on brand) it's something special because it feels like an AU, which so many crossovers can't accomplish, they just follow the plot of the story with new characters without changing the world based on their characters actions. This story is Amazing and something that should become a norm within the trope.

Code Geass

Crossovers

A Young Girl's Guerrilla War is a Code Geass and The Saga of Tanya the Evil crossover. It's if Tanya died and was reincarnated again into code geass (another war so on brand) it's something special because it feels like an AU, which so many crossovers can't accomplish, they just follow the plot of the story with new characters without changing the world based on their characters actions. This story is Amazing and something that should become a norm within the trope.

MCYT/DSMP

Weapon Reforged is something everyone should experience even if they don't know the fandom (I'm not even gonna say it but don't be pushed off once you see it because the story is original and uses characters simple traits to build new ones off of) it's an amazing work of art that is near and dear to me in a big way, it hasnt updated since 2021 but you have to, HAVE TO read this.

Crossovers

All of the heroes and all of the men, couldn’t save Tommy from getting kidnapped again is such a bias rec on my part, I like crossovers that are done correctly and I was a mcyt and dsmp follower (not really watcher, I can't commit to anything) and this is a story changed by the characters, where the original plot is nothing but a memory to help character development. God I love character development.

Blue Lock

A Child's Dream is a Blue Lock fic that is the only reasonabley lengthed fic that isn't slash that I have found. Theres a lot of simping for Isagi but that's normal enough. The development is interesting and keeps you engaged and the interactions are funny and so out of left pocket most of the time.

Déjà Vu is a Blue Lock fic that is probably abandoned, but the idea and execution make up for it, it's also short so don't worry about slogging through 100,000 words then figuring out it's abandoned. It's kind of crack-like but more serious than you would expect.

Miraculous Ladybug

(pockets full of) Stones is a Miraculous Ladybug one shot that is somewhat tear inducing and very realistic. Want a AroAce Adrien Agreste? READ THIS

[duckiemimi]

Your latest post... god tell me about it lol

I knew a fanfic writer that started out small couple of months ago and ever since they've been getting thousands of notes on their work they've become so.... arrogant? Like in a sense that they've started being cocky and mighty about their work and then proceeded to make daily yaps and rants about how other writers are not writing the said character right and dictating and being bitchy how that character wouldn't do A or B? The audacity some people have is just insane to me. imagine constantly diminishing and shitting on other writers because they have a different interpretation of a character that ALSO happens to be a blank slate lol

oh, boy, so this is a universal experience for all fandoms, huh 😭 (or at least i’m assuming this is a different fandom…)

it’s always on the topic of characterization in fanfics! and it’s especially exacerbated when shipping’s involved! don’t get me wrong, i’m someone who tends to enjoy works that lean towards canon characterization (or at least my interpretation of it), but writers aren’t tethered to canon in fanworks. it’s called fanfiction for a reason! it’s a love letter for the source material, not a page from it!

it sucks when writers put other writers down because of dissenting opinions as if we’re not all here as fans to begin with, as if we’re not all here to have fun in the first place. we like the same things! why are we making nonissues issues? as long as you’re considerate towards other people in the fandom (because we all share space!), then it’s fine! writers tag appropriately, and readers have discretion!

i also wanted to add, just in case, that fanfic is different from actual analyses. where you build off of canon in fanfic, you work with what you’re given in analyses. (it’s why i love character studies! a neat, poetic hybrid!) anyway, headcanon is different from canon, so why harass people over it? especially if the character is a blank slate, like you said!

[kharmii]

Maybe Marchy wants you to delete their post because they don't want to be affiliated with you, specifically. You're sort of a trash human being who can't get past werewolves being fictional creatures who have been a part of human mythology for thousands of years. Oh, and you're also transphobic and borderline homophobic. No one seems to like you, Kharm. Take a hint and keep your opinions to yourself for a change.

I haven't seen werewolf pron in a long time because all the people into it blocked me before I had a chance to block them. Srsly tho, there is no fandom as thirsty for dog-ass as submas. Beautiful men = Out of Style. Grotesque hairy stank-factories = In Style.

I don't like a lot of you either. I'd have been over this fandom ages ago if I wasn't into making dubious translations of Asian art. It's not like I'd want to go diving head first into My Hero Academia either, as it's mostly a bunch of kids. I suppose Erasurehead x Present Mike is appealing in the 'opposites attract' sort of way, but I'm not into Endeavor x Hawks because the former is too much of an alpha male. A main plot point was how Endeavor got into an arranged marriage with a once influential family that was struggling. They sold their daughter to Endeavor so he could selectively breed perfect superhero babies.

Endeavor: *taps watch* My recovery time is twenty minutes. That's how often you are getting bred until that baby sticks. After that, we could go once an hour for fun. (My goddamn #1 hero)

Anyway, nobody has yet to answer my question about why it's acceptable in fandom to be a shitting dick nipple fkn furry into a million stupid fetishes, yet a lot of those people still have the gall to have a 'Proshippers DNI' on their pages. Why is it okay to cherry pick the two things? (Pedophilia/Incest) but it's okay to belong to a group of people (furries) who are overrepresented in irl cases of sexual abuse? Why is one sort of weirdo more socially acceptable than another?

Side note: A lot of furries I've encountered are into belly kink. You know how they are always saying yaoi is offensive to irl gay men because woman pidgeonhole gay men into heteronormative female fantasies? Well, first of all, fuck gay men and men in general. It's part of male privilege that all biological males -whether straight gay or trans- have this attitude like their feelings are of utmost importance, and that they should be allowed to regulate what we do. If gay men don't like my gay men fantasies, then fight me.

Where was I....so belly kink is a very heteronormative feminine fantasy. It's a very female fantasy to want to see a feminine looking person being comforted by their masculine partner when they are suffering with a huge swollen pregnant looking belly. I can see the appeal of it if the person with the fat belly is pretty looking, like the Dabiten ship. Unfortunately, I too often saw depictions of this featuring gross ass furries that one could just imagine the stank lines wafting out of.

Another side note: Is there the same sort of crap in other fandoms one sees in submas? -Like does every other fandom get flooded with two-dick dragon morbidly obese omegaverse bullshit? I'll say it again because I have the right to my opinion....I'll bet a lot of monster fkn bullshit is trans coded, like they want to normalize fat hairy men with vaginas and/or dubious genitals (like multiple dicks, yo..) looking pregnant. It's yet another side effect of our fossil fuel driven glut where too many people have amygdales not functioning correctly which causes dysfunction with dopamine regulation. A person with a healthy sense of their own mortality would be repulsed by pregnant trans male figures because of the potential of getting a really messed up baby.

Seriously, doctors are supposed to experiment on animals before moving to humans. How many female animals were pumped with male hormones then made pregnant? Have there been a lot of studies done on what unnatural male hormones might do to a developing baby in the womb? -Or are we in the midst of ongoing legal experimentation on humans?

[whetstonefires]

Hi! I hope it's if ask three questions together: 21, 5 and 8 for that delightful fandom ask 💕

in that order!

21. a fandom you're not active in anymore but that you still really like

Oh, tricky! What does it mean to really like a fandom. I have so much affection for most of the ones I've been active in, but at the same time it's often the fandom rather than the source material I used up my enthusiasm for and departed.

Yu Yu Hakusho, maybe? I posted a lot of like, character study bits on ffdotnet for it back in high school and I often think if the fandom was more active I might circle back to it with my more developed writing chops.

I have a lot of beef with some of the fandom's conventions around shipping though so I may not be able to fairly say I love it.

Maybe Trigun. I couldn't get through episode one of the new anime though because they took my Millie, so I failed to join the renaissance.

5. something you see in fics a lot and love

Also hard! Just for the broad scope of the kinds of things that are in fics. But haha, I'm not responsible for figuring out the the intended thrust of the vague question! There are no penalties if I guess wrong!

I really like the bit in a fic when the writer ties their story down to the canon mid-stream. It's such a distinctive feeling, there's a practically kinetic gestural motion to it, that you can often sense it in fics you've never read the canon for. It works basically the same in contexts where you're tying your narrative to an existing non-copyrighted mythos, or doing your diligence as the writer of a licensed sequel. It's the narrative equivalent of showing your sources and flaunting your tailfeathers. The most basic level is just making a point of including Emotionally Significant Plot Object without feeling the need to re-explain its significance in detail because we all know, but it can get so elaborate.

The other day I was reading this fairly high-concept fantasy novel that's quite well done but I can't decide if I like it or not, and it started becoming clear around the halfway mark that one of the major characters had been Merlin this whole damn time and I hooted in satisfaction and outrage every time a new piece of confirmation dropped. Same kind of deal.

Anyway fic creates so much space to do elaborate things with the relationship-to-source-material and I love seeing people have fun with it.

8. you hope more people will come to appreciate _ (a ship, a trope, an episode, etc)

Hm. How beautifully fucked up Jiang Cheng is? This man is suffering so much and he's reasonably self-aware about it and this does not help in the least.

I think the self-awareness makes it worse, actually, because it means he's constantly on the brink of confronting the things he can't let himself think about straight on or he will have a massive fucking breakdown that he cannot afford.

Not enough recognition for how 90 percent of the time when Jiang Cheng is being awful he very clearly knows he's being awful and he kind of hates that and hates himself and is aware that his mom and dad issues are major drivers of this behavior. And none of that means he's able to stop.

It's such a unique hell. Appreciate.

I don't know why that was the first thing I thought of and I'm pretty sure it wasn't the kind of wish that was intended, but here we are.

[relamune]

Kael'thas for the ask meme thingy please i need

favorite thing about them Okay I'll try not to write a novel here but there's so little I don't adore about Kael'thas & it's hard to choose just one thing for this lmao. Like you can tell he cared/cares about his people a LOT, he just made some very poor decisions. I love that despite everything he tries to put the blood elves first, he definitely shouldered way more responsibility than he really needed to even for their leader imo, he had other people he could have relied on to share that burden! but he didnt!

Even before the scourge or the outlands, kael had SUCH an interesting personality? Like hes sometimes this bratty childish prince that can be stubborn as hell if he doesnt get his way but he's also easily one of the most powerful mages at the time, even getting on the council of six seemingly relatively easily because of it. So he may be a bit spoiled but he definitely clearly knows how to reign himself in & be serious when he needs to be & that makes him such a fun character with depth beyond just leaning into one trait or another.

Blizzard really shafted themselves when they tossed him away, I would have LOVED to see him progress through the expansions beyond being forgotten about until Shadowlands. least favorite thing about them how blizz threw him away :) I will never recover from the knowledge that they used him PURELY to fill a raid boss slot. He had SO MUCH POTENTIAL. I guess on the other hand we probably wouldn't have nearly as much content with the triumvirate as we do but I'm still not happy about nerfing Kael like that. favorite line "This is your brain, say hello brain. (brain says 'Hello!') And this is your brain on fel magic: (fel magic burns)(brain cries in pain) Any questions?"

(Honestly any of the HoTS quotes are gold this one just made me laugh the hardest) brOTP Hot take perhaps? Sylvanas pre-scourge. I like to imagine he kept trying to play matchmaker with her & lorthemar at that time & both of them hated the concept (but unfortunately kael is a stubborn bitch) but otherwise their friendship was equal parts business and jovial (as much as Sylv could be anyways) OTP honestly a BIG tie between Kael x Rommath & Kaellidan nOTP Controversial take in the Kael fandom probably but Jaina. I like them as friends or friendly rivals but don't really understand why there would be romance between them. random headcanon okay idk if this is gonna make sense & this is more of like a character study headcanon rather than a legit "this is how I think he goes about life" sort of thing but i have a big hc the triumvirate are just...sections of Kael. His laidback/care free traits being Hal, His leadership & determination & drive to protect the blood elves being Lorthemar, & his passion for magic & everything scholarly being Rommath. Idk maybe I'm looking to far into it but the fact Lor has reminded Rom of Kael on more than one occasion & vice versa really has me thinking on this.

If you want like a legit headcanon tho I definitely think Rommath got his humor and love of puns from Kael back from when they were younger. Kael said one (1) pun once, Rom laughed his ass off (& still refuses to admit it), & has come to appreciate the crafty wordplay of puns ever since.

Also another for you as an excuse to put it somewhere :: his title "the sun king" was actually from Illidan, back during one of their first meetings. Illidan meant it more in a derogatory way towards kael but kael thought it was brilliant & adopted it unpopular opinion i,,, actually dont like his VA in TBC. Nothing against the guy personally, imo it just doesnt fit Kael? I liked the one they used in Heroes of the Storm & SL (which i...THINK is the same person? idk im bad with remembering names but they sound similar so im sticking with that assumption) song i associate with them I have way too many actually that are just ship songs but I do associate this one specifically with Kael

Glass Animals - The Other Side of Paradise favorite picture of them his hearthstone battleground illustration does very gay things to me

[clotpolesonly]

hi! TRC & TW crossover??? yes please! tell me more? ❤

any time there's a shared surname between fandoms, OBVIOUSLY there must be a crossover, and thus! (also i think the timelines align perfectly, they should canonically be the same grades and ages.) when Adam presses charges against his dad, he can't go home. because he's still underage, CPS wants to put him in foster care, and he really really doesn't want to do that so he offers up an alternative: he can go spend the summer with his cousin, Jordan, who is working as a deputy in california.

he hasn't seen Jordan in a while, but under the circumstances, Jordan doesn't hesitate to throw the door wide open for him. Adam's not expecting Beacon Hills to be anything more than another gossipy medium-ish town for him to work in until he turns 18 and can go back to Henrietta for senior year, and he's definitely not expecting to feel anything weird this far away from cabeswater and his newly-made deal, but.......yeah there's definitely cabeswater-esque energy here too. pretty strong.

he tells Gansey this. and, unfortunately, Gansey has access to a helicopter. SO, by the end of the week, Gansey is in Beacon Hills with half his equipment and detectors and shit. and where Gansey goes, Ronan goes, obviously. and Blue is not about to be left behind when she's finally found a group to belong to. and hell, this town seems to be on the same ley line as Henrietta, so maybe Noah can even make an appearance, he just pops up out of nowhere and scares tf out of everyone XD

idk what would happen first: Stiles being nosy as fuck about his dad's new deputy's cousin suddenly hanging around the station, Deaton connecting with Adam over mystical stuff, Lydia sensing Noah and being like ???!?!!!?!? without being able to put her finger on why, or Derek hearing/smelling a bunch of new people trampling around in the preserve. but all of these things definitely do happen at some point.

other things that happen include: Derek and Ronan bonding over their murdered parents love of driving way too fast; Adam and Isaac forming a quick bond but never actually using words to acknowledge why, they just gravitate together; Allison teaching Blue a bunch of fancy tricks with her switchblade; Lydia struggling to decide if Blue is an absolute eyesore or an avant garde fashion genius; Scott and Stiles nerding the fuck OUT over Gansey's journal; Gansey trying to find a way to tactfully ask Derek if he can study him like a bug, for science, because omg wEREWOLVES ARE REAL; Adam, Blue, Scott, Isaac, and Stiles all being super fucking over having even more obnoxiously rich people in their lives throwing money around like confetti; Blue's presence focusing and boosting Lydia's powers, for better or for worse; Ronan dreaming some kind of monster and the whole pack crashing in to fight it for him because these guys have become pack somehow and that's what pack does for each other.

SO ANYWAY, I JUST THINK IT COULD BE FUN

[theoreticalconstruct]

WIP Wednesday, somehow on Wednesday

(New fandom, who dis)

Yakuza: Like a dragon. Technically two WIPs, one set slightly before the other. Both pre-OT4 (Kasuga/Adachi/Saeko/Nanba) and slightly angsty. Set during Chapters 8-9. Both need some heavy editing, as I want to make sure I'm not Americanizing them.

- Early chapter 9, in Survive, listening to the Barkeep's recording of Kiryu singing Baka Mitai.

When Nanba had sang the song… shit, they had all been cheering and clapping along, hadn't they? Hadn't even paid attention to what it was about. Ichiban knew it was an old song that had been popular in Kamurocho once, but he hadn't really known much about it. And he'd been way too drunk to realize just how sad the song was.

Now that he thought back to it… Nanba had turned away when it was done, had rebuffed his offer to buy him a drink for putting himself out there like that (and for having a hell of a voice, he remembered thinking that too.) He'd kept turning away, like he hadn't wanted anyone to see his face. Like he didn't want to ruin their fun by letting them know he'd been crying. Damn it… how hadn't he seen that he was hurting before?

"I knew the man who sang this."

"Huh?" Ichiban looked up, saw the Barkeep holding the CD case and quietly examining it. How'd he keep moving around so quietly anyway? "So is this the guy who first performed it, or wrote it, or what?"

He shook his head. "No - excuse me. I was unclear. I never knew the idol who first sang this song. But the singer on this CD… yes, I knew him well, once. He always had a fine voice, though his sense of rhythm was shaky for a long time."

"Really? Sounds to me like he's got it down."

"That was after a great deal of practice. A friend of his convinced him to record it, on something of a lark. It's obviously a very rare recording, one that I took great pains to lay my hands upon." The old man was smiling, some weird mix of sadness and happiness. This wasn't just a casual acquaintance, Ichiban knew that much. "But that was years ago."

"Mm." Adachi bowed his head. "I had a feeling he wasn't a pro."

"Not a professional singer, no. Perhaps that would've been a better life for him. But… this recording would not have been so soulful had he lived a peaceful life. Only men and women who've known suffering can sing this song the way he did."

Ichiban glanced back at the others, at Adachi staring down at the table and Saeko studying the Barkeep's face, and said what he knew they were both thinking. "Nanba… he sang it like that too."

---

2. - Sometime before the visit in Chapter 8. I made Nanba a Musician early on, and I had the idea of a bunch of Omi Alliance soldiers asking him to play them a song because they're bored.

Nanba had expected the others to mock him for clinging to that battered acoustic guitar. He didn't know much about the Yakuza outside of terrible old movies and the few tidbits that he'd gathered from Ichiban, but he hadn't thought that buskers and street musicians were exactly their favorite people.

He'd been surprised when a few of them had asked him to play. "C'mon," one of the more vocal of them had said, "just give us a couple songs, won't you? I'm goin' nuts in this boring old office!"

"I'm not very good," he'd said at first, looking away. "I only know a few songs." This was true. He'd had a few lessons in his childhood that he'd thought he'd forgotten, and he'd only just started picking it up again. He'd taken a part-time gig to entertain a bunch of drunk businessmen, so he hadn't exactly had to be great at it. It had been while they were all scrambling to get their feet under them, after their last boss's murder.

A murder ordered by these people, he reminded himself, remembering what Mabuchi had been all too eager to tell him once they were on the same side. But he had to let that be, right? For his brother's sake. Someone had to fight for him, and the only other people he'd met just… weren't strong enough, he told himself. They didn't have enough power at their back, and Nanba wasn't the sort of guy who could stand against the world alone.

"Hey, you can't be worse than those guys who play by the restaurants!" someone else said, accompanied by a few laughs here and there.

"Don't be so fuckin' pushy, assholes!" one of the big ones said, the one with the scar. "Man's a guest of Bleach Japan, just like th' rest of us. Our sponsor ain't gonna be too happy if we run 'm off, yeah?"

Nanba blinked in surprise, hoping the scary man didn't see. "I can… try playing a couple songs," he said, somehow emboldened by someone else in the room telling him that this wasn't an order or a demand he had to fill. "Learned them mostly by ear, but I think I do okay."

"That's th' spirit!" one of the roughs who'd spoken earlier shouted, and a few of them actually cheered. Yeah, this definitely wasn't what he'd expected.

He took a deep breath and picked up the guitar, strumming briefly, fiddling with the keys. Damn thing got out of tune so easily. He needed to warm up.

He strummed a few notes, then a couple of chords, picking out a familiar song… the one he always found himself thinking about, that he'd heard so many times in his life. Finding out the Barkeep had a recording of it and a karaoke track for it had been a shock; he hadn't heard it for a long time, not since that one bar in Osaka he'd visited with his brother years ago. He hadn't been able to resist singing it again, even if it had made him cry. Just like he'd thought it would….

His mother had loved the song. She'd nearly worn out their tape player, their father had joked, she'd played it so much. He didn't remember the name of the woman singing it anymore, just his mother's rendition as she did her work. She'd kept singing it after their father had left, shortly after his brother was born, but it had always sounded rougher, sadder… more real. He'd hated his father for doing that to her - no, to all of them, especially his little brother. It would be years before he wondered why his father had just left and not tried to contact them, but by then the damage had been done.

He remembered his brother singing it at that bar, the night after his wife had left him. She'd said she was tired of being lonely even when they were in the same room, that she couldn't be second to his work anymore. He knew his brother had understood, and yet… damn, he'd sounded tired that night. Not tired enough to give it all up for her, though - that was the thing about the men in their family, his mother had said, they could be so stubborn. It was the first time that Nanba had realized that maybe his father hadn't been a complete asshole for leaving his mother, that he might've had his own side to the story… and he remembered how much he hated thinking that.

Then his brother had vanished, and going to bars to sing had been the last thing on his mind. He wouldn't even have considered it, if Ichiban hadn't kept at him. C'mon, he'd said, you've heard the rest of us sing. What's th' harm in giving it a try? I mean, you heard how bad I am at it, you can't be any worse! And Nanba, who'd always been weak to peer pressure, who'd chosen an entire damn career because he'd thought he'd be admired for it and hadn't taken the time to realize just how hard it was going to be… he'd caved in, of course, and they'd all cheered him on, and he'd turned away before they could see that he was -

Someone cleared their throat, and Nanba remembered with a start that he wasn't exactly in a safe place. He looked up, hoping that there weren't any tears visible behind his glasses, and forced a laugh. "Ok - that's enough warming up. I'm guessing you guys want something more upbeat, so… let's try this one!"

That got him a few more shouts of agreement, although he did notice that a couple of them were giving him really odd looks - or maybe they just looked odd on faces like theirs. Especially that Omi officer… he hadn't expected to see anything close to sympathy from a guy who looked like he could beat him to death with his bare fists. Or maybe it was pity - yeah, that made more sense.

He cleared his throat and started strumming again, more energetically - a song he'd learned from the Barkeep's CD collection, the one about fairy-tale princesses. He could see from a few of the older men's faces that they recognized it immediately. It didn't take long before the entire room was clapping along.

[zgvlt]

Hello again, this is the same anon from here

Honestly any fanfic would do, a series or one shot that seems to have really good writing. I've been trying to look for well written one shots for awhile on tumblr. My friend on here actually introduced me to your blog, they speak very highly of you. But other than your blog I did find people who write in detail but they're from another fandom sadly:(

A questio, do you know the self aware twisted wonderland AU? It's a very interesting AU. You should see the one shots made for the AU although they don't write in detail as much but their ideas for said AU is very interesting, nowadays most of the things being posted about the AU is all about writing letters to your favorite characters instead of one shots so that's why I was hoping you could give me a few recommendations:)

ohhhh i think i understand better now yes. and yes, i know about the self-aware AU! it was popular in the mysmes fandom too haha, it's a fun au for any game. i think a couple of writers have done their take on it so i don't really know who you're referring to or who did it first haha

regardless i guess i'll recommend fics (and honestly? just writers) i personally enjoy, and you can see if they're to your taste as well! or you can scroll through their masterlists yourself! and also this is my opportunity to talk about my talented mutuals oopsies

sorry for the tags pls forgive me hehe 🤗

i already talked about this in a post a few months ago, but i love anything written by @traumxrei-archive !! one of trau's leona fics titled "the shape of one's heart" is an easy new favorite of mine, i love character studies so much and screams and falls into a pit. and speaking of series! trau has a mini series based on fairy gala, fittingly named "the fairy gala collection"... and then and then just... trau's fics <3 heart eyes only!!

these are short but intimate... which makes sense because "fondness found amongst fleeting intimacy" [part 1 w/ idia, vil, mal, crewel] [part 2 w/ savanaclaw boys] by @twsthearts i just think about them every so often, the title itself enraptured me and i was just compelled to read and i had no regrets knox if u see this i adore ur writing sm i always feel like i'm reading one of my poetry books or the diaries of novelists excerpts from your works feel like they belong on a book, and then a pinterest girlie will be so in love they'll scan it and post it on their board

@twstedstoryshop hi okay so i'm going to admit i haven't finished shopkeep's full catalogue yet but i'm going to say "convenient marriage" (deuce historical AU) is probably my favorite bc i just... historical AUs, but i also enjoy "funny thing called fate" (azul soulmate AU) because i'm predictable and I think soulmate AUs are the best!!

@kaiijo ying...!!! such charming writing...! "magnetic" (azul frenemies to lovers) might be to your taste! although i am a simple human and the love triangle [part 1] [part 2] ones are my favorites dreamy sighing

i haven't actually read any of these yet (bc i want to binge all of them in one day oops) but since you mentioned series of one shots i thought of "the who does the prefect like" collab bc some of my (again, talented!) mutuals are participating in it i think it's worth checking out!

these are all i can think of right now off the top of my head that you might enjoy but if i think of more i'll reblog this!

anyway to whoever else is reading this feel free to recommend me some fics as well because i have not been reading a lot of fanfic lately hjsjsjsd i haven't had the time to finish my mutuals masterlists cries +++

i would love to follow more people ahhhh give me your recs &lt;3

[qqueenofhades]

Hi. I’m curious. What did you mean by “women who read fiction might get Bad Ideas!!!” has just reached its latest and stupidest form via tumblr purity culture.? I haven’t seen any of this but I’m new to tumblr.

Oh man. You really want to get me into trouble on, like, my first day back, don’t you?

Pretty much all of this has been explained elsewhere by people much smarter than me, so this isn’t necessarily going to say anything new, but I’ll do my best to synthesize and summarize it. As ever, it comes with the caveat that it is my personal interpretation, and is not intended as the be-all, end-all. You’ll definitely run across it if you spend any time on Tumblr (or social media in general, including Twitter, and any other fandom-related spaces). This will get long.

In short: in the nineteenth century, when Gothic/romantic literature became popular and women were increasingly able to read these kinds of novels for fun, there was an attendant moral panic over whether they, with their weak female brains, would be able to distinguish fiction from reality, and that they might start making immoral or inappropriate choices in their real life as a result. Obviously, there was a huge sexist and misogynistic component to this, and it would be nice to write it off entirely as just hysterical Victorian pearl-clutching, but that feeds into the “lol people in the past were all much stupider than we are today” kind of historical fallacy that I often and vigorously shut down. (Honestly, I’m not sure how anyone can ever write the “omg medieval people believed such weird things about medicine!” nonsense again after what we’ve gone through with COVID, but that is a whole other rant.) The thinking ran that women shouldn’t read novels for fear of corrupting their impressionable brains, or if they had to read novels at all, they should only be the Right Ones: i.e., those that came with a side of heavy-handed and explicit moralizing so that they wouldn’t be tempted to transgress. Of course, books trying to hammer their readers over the head with their Moral Point aren’t often much fun to read, and that’s not the point of fiction anyway. Or at least, it shouldn’t be.

Fast-forward to today, and the entire generation of young, otherwise well-meaning people who have come to believe that being a moral person involves only consuming the “right” kind of fictional content, and being outrageously mean to strangers on the internet who do not agree with that choice. There are a lot of factors contributing to this. First, the advent of social media and being subject to the judgment of people across the world at all times has made it imperative that you demonstrate the “right” opinions to fit in with your peer-group, and on fandom websites, that often falls into a twisted, hyper-critical, so-called “progressivism” that diligently knows all the social justice buzzwords, but has trouble applying them in nuance, context, and complicated real life. To some extent, this obviously is not a bad thing. People need to be critical of the media they engage with, to know what narratives the creator(s) are promoting, the tropes they are using, the conclusions that they are supporting, and to be able to recognize and push back against genuinely harmful content when it is produced – and this distinction is critical – by professional mainstream creators. Amateur, individual fan content is another kettle of fish. There is a difference between critiquing a professional creator (though social media has also made it incredibly easy to atrociously abuse them) and attacking your fellow fan and peer, who is on the exact same footing as you as a consumer of that content.

Obviously, again, this doesn’t mean that you can’t call out people who are engaging in actually toxic or abusive behavior, fans or otherwise. But certain segments of Tumblr culture have drained both those words (along with “gaslighting”) of almost all critical meaning, until they’re applied indiscriminately to “any fictional content that I don’t like, don’t agree with, or which doesn’t seem to model healthy behavior in real life” and “anyone who likes or engages with this content.” Somewhere along the line, a reactionary mindset has been formed in which the only fictional narratives or relationships are those which would be “acceptable” in real life, to which I say…. what? If I only wanted real life, I would watch the news and only read non-fiction. Once again, the underlying fear, even if it’s framed in different terms, is that the people (often women) enjoying this content can’t be trusted to tell the difference between fiction and reality, and if they like “problematic” fictional content, they will proceed to seek it out in their real life and personal relationships. And this is just… not true.

As I said above, critical media studies and thoughtful consumption of entertainment are both great things! There have been some great metas written on, say, the Marvel Cinematic Universe and how it is increasingly relying on villains who have outwardly admirable motives (see: the Flag Smashers in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) who are then stigmatized by their anti-social, violent behavior and attacks on innocent people, which is bad even as the heroes also rely on violence to achieve their ends. This is a clever way to acknowledge social anxieties – to say that people who identify with the Flag Smashers are right, to an extent, but then the instant they cross the line into violence, they’re upsetting the status quo and need to be put down by the heroes. I watched TFATWS and obviously enjoyed it. I have gone on a Marvel re-watching binge recently as well. I like the MCU! I like the characters and the madcap sci-fi adventures! But I can also recognize it as a flawed piece of media that I don’t have to accept whole-cloth, and to be able to criticize some of the ancillary messages that come with it. It doesn’t have to be black and white.

When it comes to shipping, moreover, the toxic culture of “my ship is better than your ship because it’s Better in Real Life” ™ is both well-known and in my opinion, exhausting and pointless. As also noted, the whole point of fiction is that it allows us to create and experience realities that we don’t always want in real life. I certainly enjoy plenty of things in fiction that I would definitely not want in reality: apocalyptic space operas, violent adventures, and yes, garbage men. A large number of my ships over the years have been labeled “unhealthy” for one reason or another, presumably because they don’t adhere to the stereotype of the coffee-shop AU where there’s no tension and nobody ever makes mistakes or is allowed to have serious flaws. And I’m not even bagging on coffee-shop AUs! Some people want to remove characters from a violent situation and give them that fluff and release from the nonstop trauma that TV writers merrily inflict on them without ever thinking about the consequences. Fanfiction often focuses on the psychology and healing of characters who have been through too much, and since that’s something we can all relate to right now, it’s a very powerful exercise. As a transformative and interpretive tool, fanfic is pretty awesome.

The problem, again, comes when people think that fic/fandom can only be used in this way, and that going the other direction, and exploring darker or complicated or messy dynamics and relationships, is morally bad. As has been said before: shipping is not activism. You don’t get brownie points for only having “healthy” ships (and just my personal opinion as a queer person, these often tend to be heterosexual white ships engaging in notably heteronormative behavior) and only supporting behavior in fiction that you think is acceptable in real life. As we’ve said, there is a systematic problem in identifying what that is. Ironically, for people worried about Women Getting Ideas by confusing fiction and reality, they’re doing the same thing, and treating fiction like reality. Fiction is fiction. Nobody actually dies. Nobody actually gets hurt. These people are not real. We need to normalize the idea of characters as figments of a creator’s imagination, not actual people with their own agency. They exist as they are written, and by the choice of people whose motives can be scrutinized and questioned, but they themselves are not real. Nor do characters reflect the author’s personal views. Period.

This feeds into the fact that the internet, and fandom culture, is not intended as a “safe space” in the sense that no questionable or triggering content can ever be posted. Archive of Our Own, with its reams of scrupulous tagging and requests for you to explicitly click and confirm that you are of age to see M or E-rated content, is a constant target of the purity cultists for hosting fictional material that they see as “immoral.” But it repeatedly, unmistakably, directly asks you for your consent to see this material, and if you then act unfairly victimized, well… that’s on you. You agreed to look at this, and there are very few cases where you didn’t know what it entailed. Fandom involves adults creating contents for adults, and while teenagers and younger people can and do participate, they need to understand this fact, rather than expecting everything to be a PG Disney movie.

When I do write my “dark” ships with garbage men, moreover, they always involve a lot of the man being an idiot, being bluntly called out for an idiot, and learning healthier patterns of behavior, which is one of the fundamental patterns of romance novels. But they also involve an element of the woman realizing that societal standards are, in fact, bullshit, and she can go feral every so often, as a treat. But even if I wrote them another way, that would still be okay! There are plenty of ships and dynamics that I don’t care for and don’t express in my fic and fandom writing, but that doesn’t mean I seek out the people who do like them and reprimand them for it. I know plenty of people who use fiction, including dark fiction, in a cathartic way to process real-life trauma, and that’s exactly the role – one of them, at least – that fiction needs to be able to fulfill. It would be terribly boring and limited if we were only ever allowed to write about Real Life and nothing else. It needs to be complicated, dark, escapist, unreal, twisted, and whatever else. This means absolutely zilch about what the consumers of this fiction believe, act, or do in their real lives.

Once more, I do note the misogyny underlying this. Nobody, after all, seems to care what kind of books or fictional narratives men read, and there’s no reflection on whether this is teaching them unhealthy patterns of behavior, or whether it predicts how they’ll act in real life. (There was some of that with the “do video games cause mass shootings?”, but it was a straw man to distract from the actual issues of toxic masculinity and gun culture.) Certain kinds of fiction, especially historical fiction, romance novels, and fanfic, are intensely gendered and viewed as being “women’s fiction” and therefore hyper-criticized, while nobody’s asking if all the macho-man potboiler military-intrigue tough-guy stereotypical “men’s fiction” is teaching them bad things. So the panic about whether your average woman on the internet is reading dark fanfic with an Unhealthy Ship (zomgz) is, in my opinion, misguided at best, and actively destructive at worst.

[googledocsdyke]

Do you have any thoughts/recommended texts for Cas analysis? I genuinely love the dean gender studies and I just wanna know what people might apply to Cas.

yes absolutely!! while dean studies is my first love i also deeply love cas analysis (casnalysis?) and wanna strive to do more of it. here’s some stuff off the top of my head:

1. gender, sexuality, heavenly embodiment

this is much more theological and less psychological than dean’s whole Deal because there’s so much fascinating stuff around how the angels in general experience express and conceptualise gender (@autisticandroids has a good post about angel gender & lily sunder has some regrets) but for cas in particular there’s this fascinating kind of collective fandom agreement (which i DO also agree with) that cas’ own gender kind of is gay man, that he actively chose gay manhood, but also that he’s kind of..... lacking the Insane Genderishness that dean exhibits at all times, even though he actively chose to engage in male gendering and became so comfortable housed Within Jimmy that he, as some post i saw the other day that i can’t find anymore said, “became his own body” when jimmy died. 

like on the one hand there’s an almost-canonical transness to the whole process but it also never feels fully written-into because 1) the supernatural writers for all their insanity are sometimes very boring and *most* of the time only feel interested in narratively expressing angels As Their Vessels anyways and just like leaving convenient spaces around these questions (boldest thing they ever did was hot girl cas which i WISH i had the range to unpack) 2) there’s a vague inevitabilist shrug to the whole thing since they obviously weren’t gonna recast misha collins (though they HAVE tried to get rid of him) and 3) something amorphous about cas’ entire..... personhood? makes him Empty Of Gender as a contrast to dean’s Full Of Gender (i believe it was @deanwinchestergender who said this) and like is it just the juxtaposition to dean/jensen’s whole insane Deal? or something else? 

like he actively chooses the terms of his own embodiment and yet narratively it feels like a shrug. and we’re all like “well obviously even though he’s a celestial being he was always a gay man” and like WHY. i love it idk idk much to think about! and yeah just in general the theological questions of possession and cas genuinely Becoming a man as he iterates himself consciously towards humanity it almost feels like. by doing the most boring things possible with his gender they made it interesting? idk if that makes sense.

2. discipline, free will, metanarratives

cas is like a tool (“i am not a hammer, as you say”) held in constant discipline and surveillance by the system that enmeshes him and it’s really, really fascinating to watch the way the angels hold each other to conformity. especially pre-god they kind of produce each other as foucauldian disciplinary subjects (which i posted about here) in perpetual visibility through angel radio, generating their own and each other’s conformity rather than being directly ruled through like a single centralised source of power. only the spectre of a god. and obviously cas’ whole thing is that he has ALWAYS disobeyed and the narrative affords him this psychological interiority never given to the foucauldian subject, an internal will and desire for freedom in a way that fits more with the liberal subject (super roughly and not with the same pro-capitalist implications but he has this internal drive for self-liberation. 

and that’s also where the metanarrative comes in ofc! i think it was @dykecas who said that cas is a real person written by people who hate him, and there’s this crack in the narrative (mirroring the crack in his chassis) where cas gets in, over and over, despite all the order imposed by the show’s authorfathergod. like we’ve all seen the analysis about how it was Never supposed to be this way they DID try to fire misha collins in 2012 and yet this gay man literally cannot be stopped! i think actually his appearance in scoobynatural is a neat little distillation of this — he drops into this animated world originally with a singular purpose (Save Sam And Dean) the same way he dropped into lazarus rising with a single 3-episode arc (Save Dean). huge hammer behaviour. his “utility” diminishes within the narrative (he finds that he can’t fly in the scooby doo universe) and so he is no longer a tool/means to an end that salvation moves Through. and in the process (and huge creds to @lesbianyuugi for this) he does something ENTIRELY unrelated to his original cas-as-tool aim, and learns, like, the meaning of laughter from shaggy and scooby. WHICH brings me onto the third point

3. love, queer kinship, family-making

HE’S GAY AND HE’S A DAD! i feel like a lot of tumblr throws around the term “found family” in a very flat and tropey way (which is fine it’s cute and fun no matter what!) but like . GOD there’s so much specific stuff going on here. like the way that cas (unintentionally) obliterates the midwestern white christian nuclear family (made incarnate in the novaks) which like could be uniformly portrayed as an act of deep malice and villainy but instead grows to serve as a surrogate (if imperfect/complex, but DEEPLY loving) father figure for the gay daughter who has now escaped that nuclear family/seen it destroyed depending on how you read it? like he remasters the entire concept of fatherhood and it’s a very interesting (if DEEPLY) unintentional subversion of the homewrecking non-nuclear gay trope. cas is so good because his character arc doesn’t say “look, gay people can be normal and have perfect settled families just like you” it says “gay people DON’T have normal settled families actually and they are full of love anyways! or Because of the abnormalcy itself!) 

to cite ziz lesbianyuugi again he DOES queer fatherhood in his parenting of jack particularly because it really is one of the ONLY parent-child relationships in the show that breaks the incessant cycle of abuse and control and cold indifference perpetuated by the authorfathergod (a cycle reified in 15x20 lol). like god’s treatment of cas and his siblings mirrors john’s treatment of sam and dean (particularly dean) mirrors victor’s treatment of krissy and her crew mirrors dean’s later treatment of jack. there is a CONSTANT reiteration of the story of authorfathergod (often a father tightly entwined in biological kinship) treating a child as a mechanism or a tool or a means to an end. and cas looks at ALL that he has suffered and all that he is ever known and chooses constantly to reject it with every piece of love he expresses for his child. and not to sound like the kind of academic people make fun of on twitter but there is an INHERENT queerness to that. gay love will pierce through [the veil of death/the thick silence of abuse/the mechanism of godly control/hegemonic american masculinity] and save the day

anyways here are some very haphazard recs on everything above for further reading:

angels in america (tony kushner)

histrionics of the pulpit: trans tonalities of religious enthusiasm

the public universal friend: religious enthusiasm in revolutionary america

discipline and punish (michel foucault)

friendship as a way of life (michel foucault)

the genesis of blame (recommended by @pietacastiel who has GREAT theology content in general

all about love (bell hooks)

the chapter “when hated characters talk back” in anti-fandom: dislike and hate in the digital age (is actually explicitly about cas)

also cannot recommend enough following the ppl i tagged above!! most of the unlinked stuff is available through http://libgen.li/ and bookshop is a good alternative to amazon if ur american and want physical copies

[tuiyla]

re: liking Faberry and Quinntana in fics - do you have any recs? 😃 even if not, what about them would you say pulls you towards reading/enjoying them? are there certain themes/tropes that stand out? i haven't really delved into fics, just a few here and there but i really do appreciate how writers can flesh out certain aspects of those relationships and turn it into something super great

Oh Anon I'm so terrible at bookmarking fics so I don't think I have any Faberry ones BUT I know I saved at least one Quinntana one. Actually, I'm just gonna recommend anything by tellmeagain on AO3 ('tis the damn season) and then:

The O-Axis by HeadCannon

Elements of Style by nirav

I'm sure other peeps have fic recs for both Quinntana and Faberry, please chime in!

As for what I enjoy about them, it really is the fandom being so talented. Like you say, they flesh out such interesting things. With Quinntana, it's funny because I actually rank it relatively low on my Santana ships list but I did want a midgame for them. I suppose I, personally, don't see a ton of romantic chemistry there but there's chemistry of every single other kind and I always want to see more of my girls. Quinntana have one of my favourite dynamics because there's so much there thematically and then of course the way Naya and Dianna played them was just amazing.

With them, I mostly enjoy post-graduation fics. Either set in season 4 or somewhere further down the line. I think they'd need to mature a lot before they stand a chance of making it work. I also love how writers focus on their respective traumas and how differently they deal with them. Quinntana, perhaps more than any other Santana dynamic are two sides of the same coin, processing things in equal but opposite ways and that makes for really juicy stories. I enjoy character studies in fics I read and there's so much potential there for Quinntana. And then of course Quinn's coming out being part of their journey, how Santana would help with that and how this aspect is again something so similar yet so different for them.

Faberry, well. I never quite know where I stand with Faberry but I always enjoy a good fic about them. It's delicious when people take the canon things, like them going from enemies to good friends and the love triangle and make it so, so much gayer. And like, let's be honest it was already gay. I generally tend to prefer fanon Rachel anyway because I do adore her character but the way the show treats and frames her just gets too much for my nerves at times, so fic writers who get her personality right and put her in better situations are my favourite people. I prefer Pezberry in many ways but Faberry fics allow me to still have Brittana and explore Faberry if they were nudged slightly to the right.

As for tropes, well, I'm a sucker for a love triangle ending with two girls pulling a Korrasami lol. Frankly I don't think Finn and Puck deserved Rachel and Quinn, so. That is already an appealing setup. From Rachel's pov, I like that she's relentlessly trying with Quinn and showing her such kindness. And I like my Quinn to be pining, pining so hard from an early stage but being in denial first to herself and then to everyone else until there's no point in lying anymore. Even in the actual show, I think there's a reading where it's Quinn who falls for Rachel first and rejects it at first because of her background and issues. You know what, I do have a Faberry fic rec, I think this was one of the first ones I read but it's quite the canon divergence and please take the content warning seriously. It's Much More Than by CopperTine.

I hope that made at least some sense and was what you're looking for haha. They're both fun ships, especially in fanon! I still feel like I'm new to Glee fanfiction myself, there's always so much to explore.