#apex ash fanfiction

[valkyrjuk]

FOLLIES OF THE FLESH

Part 2 of Stonecarver, Follies of the Flesh, is live! As promised, this is the entire 2nd act posted in one go!

We've reached what is truly the emotional heart of the novel and publishing it chapter-by-chapter felt like a waste. In my opinion, this section should be devoured in one heartfelt flurry. Roughly a third of the book is contained in these chapters, but it could be a book unto itself. The story of a woman who couldn't take satisfaction in the world as it was and had to make it her own, or take it by force.

Next week, I will be posting the final chapters in batches of three weekly. Then we're... done?

[freaknerd33]

Anything for Ash and Rev please.. ( I do mean anything )

Yeahhh i gotchu!!

How the Murder Bots Show Affection

consists of: rev being creepy as always (but i think it’s cute!), ash struggling to fully accept how fond she is of you, slightly messy strewn together thoughts on the two

word count: ~500 (496 exactly if you’re curious)

— • x • — • x • — • x • — • x • — • x • — • x • —

Revenant

- revenant can’t help but be permanently menacing. He’s no where near a romantic guy.

- he does show affection though! it’s just… very strange.

- he’s touchy, but it’s discreet. it’s supposed to be at least. teetering hands along your waist or shoulder as he says creepy, but… slightly endearing? remarks.

- he’s a weird, grabby creature

- he doesn’t know how to properly ask for affection. or initiate it himself.

- most times he’ll loom behind you until you face him. If you take too long, he’ll grab the top of your head. it definitely looks very murderous from outside eyes. like he’s about to yank your head off.

- he also tends to grab your face, palm blocking your vision. it’s his way of directly averting your attention. sometimes it’s his way of complimenting your face?

- he’ll sometimes even stand in front of you expectedly. blank and unmoving, which couldn’t look anymore weird to the others…

- refers to you as his “favorite skinbag”. As well as “sweetheart”, but usually when he’s trying to taunt you.

- any rare moment that he’s being normal genuine, he’s likely to call you “hon”. short and simple, subtle enough to almost miss in conversation

- he always knows where you are, so he just comes to see you whenever he pleases. might bring something along with him? a snack maybe?

- has sometimes showed up after you’ve already went to sleep. He won’t disturb you after realizing, but he’ll linger a bit before leaving.

Ash

- not sure how long she thinks she can keep it up, but sooner or later she won’t be able to keep up the formalities.

- she’s wants to put her hands all over you, but it takes her a billion years to get over herself

- literally

- Ashleigh might be the polite side of her being, but she can tease her sometimes and it quite literally messes with her head

- “You’re actually quite fond of them, hm?” “Silence, Reid.”

- She can’t deny it though

- It takes her time to let go of that no love, no warm, “human” feelings mentality. but she likes you so much that she kind of lets that stuff go. at least enough to be a decent lover to you while still keeping up the façade around others

- while around others she’ll link an arm with you, or around you in some way, but anything more touchy embarrasses her

- away from prying eyes though, she’ll let you initiate any form of affection you want. she appreciates hugs a lot actually.

- she likes examining you. Adjusting your clothes, your hair, or taking note of any scars or other healed injuries on your skin.

- If she leaves you to go do…whatever she does… she sometimes tends to come back with an interesting item (i see her as a bit of a trinket gal)

— • x • — • x • — • x • — • x • — • x • — • x • —

banner source

[demonwriterx]

“Book”

He arrived on Gaea for a personal visit to Ash's facility.

Two times a month, he fights training robots and practices his markmanship in her arenas while she watches and provides him with critiques and observations to improve his skills. Initially, he ignored her, only using her for access to her arenas to satisfy his own insatiable bloodlust. Until she fought him one on one. It was then that he realized he had more to learn from hand-to-hand combat. Ash offered him more of a challenge. Because they were simulacrums, they had unlimited endurance, so she could keep up with him. He would spend the whole day and night training with her before growing bored and deciding he had enough before, eventually, returning.

He had visited her for almost six months, and as she observed him, he observed her. He quickly noticed certain...quirks. If she wasn't practicing with him, she would be in her lab pulling up dozens of videos and documents of notes. She would be analyzing and re-analyzing data from their past combat or recent Apex matches. She rarely stopped. It was as if she was a machine. He chuckled at his own analogy but it was the only thing close enough to describing her habits. And if she stopped, her "other" would surface. It was small things, a slight touch to her temple or a rapid twitch of her head. He actually stumbled upon her muttering to herself at one point. He thought it was amusing.

Revenant silently walked through the long corridor before entering her private lab. On one wall, there was a red, dusty couch and a side table. In front of the couch was a coffee table with papers and files scattered. On the opposite side of the room, she had her monitors, decorating the large space. He usually finds her typing away as she writes down data and codes. Today, the lab was empty. It didn't concern him too much. He knew she had gone to the arenas. He had seen her there before, and once she starts, it will be hours until she returns to the lab. He walked to her monitor and looked down at her keyboard. He pressed down on the spacebar and a live video appeared instantly. He released a heavy sigh before muttering a curse. He was correct. She was in the middle of a training match. She didn't know about his visit. Or any of his visits. He came in whenever he pleased and Ash never gave him her personal number. But he never asked. And she did the same for him.

He looked back at the couch and decided to wait for her. He took a seat, immediately taking out his communication pad to delete a large array of requests for his services. He propped his elbow up on the arm rest, and accidently brushed against something solid, knocking it off the table. He heard the thud next to his foot and his eyes glanced down, making no effort to pick it up until he saw it was a book, the back had a yellow sticky note and written in black ink was "Property of Ash". He reached down and picked it up. He saw that the book was old, with yellowing pages. He could tell it had been read many times over, the spine was worn and the pages were slightly torn at the corners. He turned the book, reading the title aloud to himself.

"Under the Solace Sun...huh?" He opened the book and his eyes immediately widened. It was a romance book. He had never seen Ash read a book like this. He thought it would be something boring. He snickered, shaking his head at the thought of her reading the book in her free time. He was about to close it when he noticed a handful of bookmarks placed in certain sections of the pages. He opened one section of the bookmarks and read the page the bookmark was attached to. "And he gently laid her against the hot sand, unable to hold back his passion as he removed his-what?...Their lips found their way to-!" He immediately realized that the bookmarks were all in the love scenes. He stifled his laughter with one hand as he flipped to another bookmark, curious to see what else she had saved for her reading pleasure. He grinned to himself as he flipped through each bookmark, knowing Ash had to save each scene and as he read, his laughter grew.

He was enthralled in another chapter when Ash returned from the arenas. She had heard the laughter echoing down her corrido. She walked in, calling out, "Revenant? What on earth are you laughing-AH!"

Ash shrieked in horror as she walked in and saw him holding her book. Her pet rat flew out of her hood, startled from her sudden scream, scurring to its hole. Revenant looked up from the book and waved it at her.

"Is this what you do in your free time, Miss Perfect? Heh!"

She quickly ran over to him, trying to snatch it from his hands. "Give me that!" She exclaimed. Imagining what her face would have looked like if she had been human, he pictured a red face. He chuckled and held the item out of her reach. Her hands desperatly clawed towards the book.

"Now hold on, I'm in a real good part. Monica is about to choose if she wants John or Michello, hahaha!"

"Return that to me at once!"

He pushed her back, getting up from the couch. She lunged at him again but he managed to hold her back with his arm. He opened the book again and began to read it out loud to her.

"And as she looked at the two men she had loved, she felt her heart yearn for-"

"Stop!"

"Her one true love, the one who filled her with the most passion and warmth- hahaha! Oh! This is good!"

"Enough!" She snatched the book from his hands, throwing it against the couch. "Get out!"

"Now hold on..."He began, trying to stifle his laughter. "I..I got to know... which part was your favorite?"

"GeT OuT, NoW!"

"Because I really liked pg 62!" He released another roar of laughter, causing her to shove him out of her lab.

"Leave! Get out!"

He was forcefully kicked out of her facility. But for the next few weeks, whenever they played in the Apex Games together, he whispered lines from the book under his breath. Only loud enough for Ash to hear before she became flustered.

[revenant-dumpster-fire]

I've gotten questions in the past about fanfics to read, and cryophase has been one of the premier fanfic writers since before I even had an inkling to try. Please check out and support their work if you are looking for new things to read! I have truly adored reading a lot of their short works and watching their art over these past few years.

This entire backlog of work has been on my to-read list for a while, so I wanted to share this with anyone else who might also like to read along with me now or in the future.

And if Cryophase reads this: godspeed, you are magnificent. Thanks for inspiring me to (try to) contribute in this fandom, your work is forever laudable to me.

Since I almost never blog about my Apex fics, I thought I’d do a little masterpost of my longer ones, complete with some of the art I’ve had done for them. Read under the cut for the full list (:

All T-rated, all obscenely long. Art by the amazing Cam who you can follow here -> https://twitter.com/G0rlassar

In order of newest to oldest:

Midas’ Touch

Status: Ongoing, weekly updates

Ship: Maggie+Fuse are siblings basically, Rev/Fuse eventually

Summary: Pirate AU with a (Captain) Maggie and Fuse that never had a falling out, Revenant shows up at some point and does Revenant things.

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43290174/chapters/108813273 Prisoners

Status: Complete, Sequel in the works

Ship: Ash/Maggie

Summary: Ash (eventually) falls for Maggie, grapples with the idea of breaking her out of prison

Keep reading

[brucenat]

February 14th

AO3

Fanfiction

Summary: As far as Natasha's aware, her plans for February 14th this year consist of running errands and lunch with her partner. Post-AoU, canon divergence in which Hulk did not sail off into the bowels of the cosmos.

Notes: You might be wondering why I'm posting a Valentine's Day fic in June. The answer is triple-pronged: (1) you all have been very patient, you deserve something light and sweet, (2) this is from a collection of unposted fics written 1-4 years ago that I decided to try and salvage instead of flinging into the bowels of the cosmos (where Bruce/Hulk didn't belong), and (3) because I want to, as Brucenat fans are always in need of more joy.

Preview

Preview continues under the cut.

Nestled between some corporate office building and a rival residential complex, the refuge of her apartment awaited her. The quaint cafe across the street bursted with bodies—more so than any cafe within walking distance of Central Park did on a typical day. A few couples and families gradually dispersed from the Jewish center on the corner. Cars congested the street, their drivers extra impatient today, judging by the incessant cacophony of horns.

With a bag of pharmaceutical supplies slung over her wrist and two sandwiches from one of the many nearby delis tucked under her arm, she retrieved her apartment keys with swift hands and escaped the restless city streets. As always, out of a perpetual distrust and skepticism of elevators, she took the stairs up to her unit’s floor.

At the apex of her ascent, she emerged into the hallway to a chilled breeze. Someone opened the hall’s one window again. Probably the neighbor prone to triggering the fire alarm with kitchen misadventures that happened whenever the woman plucked up the courage to try some recipe from Pinterest. It happened about every other week, complete with the woman thrusting the window open in a frenzy that included a frantic fanning of her door and miscellaneous shouts that alternated between apology and insistence on everyone carrying about with their day like normal, as if there wasn’t a tinnitus-inducing alarm screeching. Once the alarm stopped, her neighbor would retreat with a slam of her door and the hall window open, forgotten every time. It was a nuisance at most, but benign.

Today, despite it being the middle of February, the incoming air didn’t have the sharpened teeth of a New York winter; it was tamer. It was crisp; it felt like something she could snap into pieces and scatter like ashes or seeds. It felt like, smelled like the kind of air not found in an American metropolis. The keenness, gentled to ribbons as it filtered through the screen, compelled her to sidestep from the stairwell door for a moment in appreciation.

...

The prolonged moment passed like time underwater. Before she crossed the threshold for overstaying in the hallway amidst reverie, she tucked the thoughts away, pushed off the wall, and approached her place. Her key glided into the lock, and then she into her apartment.

Handle in hand, door halfway closed, Natasha froze.

[violet--stardust]

Columbo in "Broken Gravity"

For some reason I was possessed to write an Apex/Columbo fanfiction where Columbo investigates Ash's attempted murder of Horizon.

I'm well aware that the intersection between these two fandoms is likely minuscule but once I had the idea, I couldn't help myself.

You can find it here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45550297

[inactiveblog261838]

welcome to my blog! my name is elliott, i'm 20 years old, and i love video games & writing fanfiction.

requests are open!

currently writing for the following fandoms:

apex legends: revenant, mirage, bloodhound, octane

obey me: all demon brothers + solomon, simeon, barbatos

fire emblem three houses: yuri, dimitri, claude, sylvain, felix, ashe

other: kurt kunkle, steve harrington

request rules:

by default, i use gender neutral pronouns for reader. if you want specific gendered pronouns, state that in your request

i will write nsfw but some kinks are out of the question. ex: ddlg, any bodily fluids besides blood, somnophilia, etc. you're welcome to ask about a specific kink but i can't promise i'll write it.

will not write about pregnancy, su*cide, self harm, eating disorders or anything of the like

please don't get mad at me if it takes me a while to get to your request- i have a job and personal life, so as much as i'd like to, i don't have time to write constantly.

lastly, i can refuse any request that i'm not comfortable writing- however, i'll happily refer you to another writer who can probably write your request.

[wickedwraithcompendium]

Source: @fyeahnix

Title: The Syndicate Dog Pairing: Ash/Maggie (MadAsh) Other Characters: None Rating: Teen and Up for language Words: 676 Prompt: None Other Tags: Post-Match, Blood and Injury, Injury, Hurt/Comfort, Fist Fights, Injury Recovery, Flirting, Enemies to Lovers, Woof Summary: Maggie’s defense; Ash’s offense.

If you like it PLEASE REBLOG. You can read it here or on AO3, via the link found in the notes of this post. Please read on AO3 if you prefer correct formatting!

——

Maggie could take a scrap or two, whether down a back alley in Salvo or in the Apex Games. Ol’ Wally might have stolen her thunder with that godforsaken cage fighting career of his, but she wasn’t some defenseless sap. Been throwin’ hands since she was two feet high. Black eye? Busted, bleeding lip? Cracked ribs? She’s had it all.

Still didn’t make it throb any less.

She hissed through her teeth at the disinfectant stinging her knuckles. They were shredded—skin peeled and cracked and crimson and blistering. It hurt like hell. The gloves she wore for protection were discarded off to the side. Thankfully, the med bay was empty this late at night. Sweet as. Didn’t need the entire cavalry knowing she ate shit earlier than expected.

“Stop. Tensing.”

Keep reading

[blyaem]

tagged by @lechet

Rules: Tag nine people you would like to get to know better.

Top three ships: Miragehound, C/Fe (R.Daneel Olivaw & Elijay Baley), BT-7274 & Jack Cooper

Last song I listened to: Showdown - Pendulum [Live At Brixton Academy]

Lipstick or chapstick: not really a big fan of either, ill put on vaseline lip balm if my lips are rlly dry but besides that nah

Last movie I watched: Klaus.

Reading: Fanfiction, mostly apex fanfiction. Besides that I’m in the middle of Babylon’s Ashes (The Expanse book 6) as well as rereading the danish version of Isaac Asimov’s The Caves of Steel.

What’s your lucky or favorite number? 2, 6, or 8

What color(s) do you associate with yourself?  Not really sure cuz it changes often depending on mood. I like yellow the most. IRL others mostly associate me with blue because of my hair.

Country or city? Why? City because everything is so close and better internet. But still, the country with sounds nice cuz no neighbors close by means I could blast music without worrying about disturbing others.

Amusement park, zoo, or aquarium? Amusement park if there's a rollercoaster. My skin and my head hate the sun so fucking much, but at the same time ROLLERCOASTER.

What’s your current hyper fixation? Why so? Apex Legends. Great characters. It's a fun game, got into it at the start because of titanfall.

taggin: @fruitt-cat @hoxdolum @inkkemulsionwrites @hannanabread-art @smeachthepeach @7clubs @bloodhounds-birbs @shinibobo @cosmic-kestrel

No problem if ya don’t want to do it

[valkyrjuk]

---------SPYGLASS---------

A little sketch of something I'd have done in graphics, but what can you do? There just isn't enough Spyglass artwork out there and it is a tragedy it wasn't expanded on in Titanfall 2.

Fortunately for those of you who found Spyglass' absence a missed opportunity, just as I have, I've written a book where the Vice-Admiral's influence is a driving force of the narrative!

READ STONECARVER!

Chapter Nine: Spyglass is out now!

If you're a newcomer, enjoy following Ash as she tries to access her memories of humanity, while another part of her tries whatever it can to squash her past. Fans of Titanfall, Titanfall 2, and of course Apex Legends will all enjoy this action-packed yet somber, emotional story about one of the Frontier's most terrifying, legendary figures.

Updates every Friday (if I remember...)

Chapter Ten: Black Majesty will be out next week, the finale to Part One: Mechanical Miscalculations, and I've got a very, very special treat to announce with the release!

[freaknerd33]

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖₊˚⊹ Eve’s Masterlist °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

All my works in one place | check out my rules!

Apex Legends

Headcanons

the murder bots showing affection | ash / revenant

the legends receiving gifts | revenant / loba / caustic

making the first move | revenant

dating in secret | rev’s edition | mirage / octane / revenant

general + relationship hcs | alter

words of affirmation | lifeline / wattson / vantage

Fics & Drabbles

confessions | lifeline / ash / rampart

flashy (coming soon!) | revenant

by the way!

I’m thinking of writing for:

Transformers (bayverse/knightverse, prime)

TMNT (bayverse, rise)

if any of you are interested let me know ^-^

[askdragonbladetalon]

ff+vladimir

Send me “ff+” and a character name and my character will react to finding and reading a graphic and sex-filled fanfiction of themselves and that character.

“Everyone’s watching,” Talon hissed, fingers curling to tightly grasp Vladimir’s forearms. He turned his head to a side, the cool bricks pressing against his cheeks as he tried to ignore the curious looks of the nobles.

“So? Let them watch.” Vladimir ignored the tight grip on his arms in favor of nuzzling another bite-kiss to Talon’s throat, scraping his teeth over the sensitive skin in just the way that he knew Talon liked.

“I don’t want them to.” Talon shuddered, trapped between Vladimir and the wall, and let his eyes drift half-shut as his fingers scrabbled against the brick.

“Are you scared they’ll see how much you enjoy this?” A sardonic smile curled over Vladimir’s lips as he bit down again, letting Talon’s heartbeat pulse against his tongue. He slid his other hand under the waistband of Talon’s trousers, feeling the moment that every muscle in Talon’s body locked up as he pressed back against the wall to escape Vladimir’s wandering hand.

“How much you enjoy it as long it’s my touch?” The delight in touching the lean muscles and scarred skin came secondary to the thrill of power Vladimir felt every time that Talon allowed him liberties that another would lose their hand for. He knew well what Talon liked and equally well what Talon disliked.

To be trapped in the open, to have others watching his disgrace, to be touched instead of the one doing the touching… All of those set Talon to fighting his own body’s reactions, faint tremors running through him as he tried not to stab Vladimir and as Vladimir gave him reason after reason to fight. With Talon’s silence and his sharp blades, he might even be a challenge for Vladimir if it came to a fight – but it never would. Vladimir would back off right before the tipping point, right before Talon snapped. And each time, he could push Talon a little more. It was a slow, painstaking process but over his centuries of life, Vladimir had learnt that sometimes the best payoffs corresponded to how much work they took.

“Stop,” Talon said through gritted teeth. The curve of Vladimir’s hand around his cock, sure and cool, was enough to have Talon bringing the dragonblade up against Vlad’s side in warning.

“So soon? You can take more.” Vladimir’s laugh vibrated against Talon’s throat as he pressed his weight more securely against Talon, looking down into pupils so dilated that Talon’s eyes were pools of black trapped within red rings.

Talon could so easily blink away if he didn’t want to be claimed so publicly – but ah, did the little assassin think that would be the same as running away? Talon was so young compared to Vladimir for all that Talon thought of himself as some sort of apex predator.

All too soon, the assassin would be nothing but dust and ash. Vladimir would have his fun with Talon while he could.

Very carefully, eyes blank, Talon folded up the manuscript and tucked it into one of his pouches. If his fingers weren’t quite as steady as they should have been, what of it? There was nobody there to see his hands shake. Not even Vladimir.

[demonwriterx]

I have  published chapter 8 "Shooting Range" where Ash offers Revenant a private lesson on how to shoot headshots.  I hope you all enjoy! 

[travllingbunny]

What even is a Draco in Leather Pants?

Look, I really like the Television Tropes website. It’s fun and you can spend a lot of time reading it. The tropes it has formulated are, for the most part, the tropes you can actually discern and find quite often in fictional works, and the descriptions are usually quite witty and well supported. The examples and their justifications can be...questionable, since anyone can provide them, and may lead to a debate between contributors (i.e. anyone who has bothered to register and post), but still, usually the majority of examples make sense and more or less fit with the description provided at the top of the page. 

But not always.

There’s supposed to be a trope called Draco in Leather Pants, which I had been vaguely aware for a while (basically, that it had something to do with people in the Harry Potter fandom stanning the character of Draco Malfoy and thinking he’s hot), and have been recently reminded because I’ve recently seen at least a couple of mentions of “leather pantsing”in various comments in fandom discussions, or links to the Television Trope page for said trope (for instance, a link to that page was provided in a page of a podcast about Jaime Lannister... who isn’t even among the examples listed on that page, BTW). So, it seems that this is supposed to be an actual trope and that people know what it’s supposed to be about.

Well, since I’ve actually looked at the above mentioned page, read the description and looked through the list of examples from various media given on that page, I understand even less what it’s supposed to be about. If anyone has a better understanding of it, please help me.

So, here’s the description from the Television Tropes page called Draco in Leather Pants:

”A form of Misaimed Fandom, when a fandom takes a controversial or downright villainous character and downplays his/her flaws, often turning him/her into an object of desire and/or a victim in the process. This can cause conflicts if the writers are not willing to retool the character to fit this demand.”

Then the text proceeds to talk about how such a character is treated in fanfiction, why this happens, and finally explains the origin of the term:

“ Named for a term in the Harry Potter fandom, for the mostly sympathetic Fan Fic portrayals of Draco Malfoy, who, in Canon, is a petty, smug, elitist Spoiled Brat. (The term originated in Hurt/Comfort Fics, where Draco was the comforter and Ron was the abuser, usually with Hermione being the victim. Not coincidentally, the Inverted Trope Ron the Death Eater also originated from such fics.) “

I have never read any of the Harry Potter books, and have only seen a couple of early movies on TV, so I’m largely unfamiliar with this entire franchise. But from what I gather, the point is Draco Malfoy is supposed to be merely an antagonistic bully and not a particularly sympathetic character or a sex symbol in canon, but fanon and/or fanfiction made him into both these things? Right? 

However, the description is both highly specific, because it includes several different things that don’t necessarily have to go together, but at the same time strangely vague and wide:

The character in question has to be “controversial or downright villainous”. What exactly does this mean? Does it have to be a villainous character, or a controversial one? Many characters are both of these things at the same time, but a villainous character does not need to be controversial (if almost everyone agrees they’re awful and almost nobody likes them, there’s no controversy there), and there are plenty of controversial characters that aren’t villainous. Controversial merely means that there are very strong and very different and polarizing opinions about something or someone, with opposing views being both shared by a significant number of people. Heroic characters or characters meant to be sympathetic can be very controversial.

The “fandom” takes this character and “downplays his.her flaws”. What exactly does this mean? What is meant by “fandom”? It’s really unlikely that it means “literally everyone who’s a fan of that franchise”, since it’s extremely unlikely that 100% of any group of people feel the same about something, so what percentage are we talking about? 90%? 75%? Two thirds? Over 50%? At least 20%? A vocal minority? A reviewer/blogger or two? Anyone who writes a fanfic or posts a Youtube fanvideo? Someone you’ve just argued with online? What is the cutoff?

 ...” often turning him/her into an object of desire and/or a victim in the process”. So, apparently the fandom, whatever that means, does not necessarily have to turn this character into an object of desire and/or victim, but what I gather from this must be a character who is not presented as an object of desire in canon, and is not presented as a victim in canon. At least not intentionally,  by the creators of said media. 

OK, now we’re getting somewhere. This is pretty specific. The character may or may not be a villain, but absolutely must not be presented in canon as either 1) sexy/desirable or as 2) victimized/suffering in any notable way? Got it. 

Now, I’m not sure why exactly this description suggests that it’s necessary to downplay someone’s flaws in order for that someone to be an object of desire or for that someone to be a victim. I mean, these are clearly three different concepts:

(relatively) flawless person

object of desire

victim

Of course, a real person or a fictional character can be two or all three at the same time, but that’s not at all necessary. They may be just one or those things, or two of these things, but not the third. They may be a character or characters who are none of the three in canon but are all three in fanon/fanfics - I’ll trust the Television Tropes page that Draco Malfoy is all of these things. But I’m not sure how many other fictional characters there actually are that fit that entire description. I can’t think of many.

But since the term “leather pants” is in the title, this should suggest that it’s the sex symbol status that’s the emphasis of this trope, right? Not downplaying of flaws or victimization? Because I really don’t see the connection between people wearing leather pants and people being victims or not having notable flaws. 

So, I guess we could say that Ramsay Bolton in his Villain Sue version in the TV show Game of Thrones is a Draco In Leather Pants, if we treat GoT as a fanfic, taking the canon Ramsay Bolton from George R R Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, who’s described as a very ugly, fleshy dude with no appealing qualities, with a certain low cunning but no great intelligence or skill or courage, who’s not considered as sexy by anyone in universe (and has no consensual sexual relationship with anyone, instead only being interested in raping and torturing people) and turning him into a cute, frequently shirtless Rambo-style fighter with a loving girlfriend who even finds himself as an apex of a love triangle of sorts (even if it’s a one-sided triangle, in that the abused but smitten girlfriend is jealous of the hot new wife Ramsay will get to rape). This fits the trope pretty closely, no? 

However, Ramsay is not in the list of examples on the page. Here are, instead, some of the characters listed by various contributors as examples of this trope. These are about 90% of all character listed that I’m familiar with:

Film:

Jareth the Goblin King (David Bowie) from Labyrinth

Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) from Pirates of the Caribbean

Riddick (Van Diesel)

Frank N Furter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Tony Montana from Scarface

Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs

Darth Vader from the Star Wars saga

Stanley Kowalski from A Streetcar Named Desire (as played by Marlon Brando)

Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator from The Terminator (it's actually mentioned that he literally wears leather pants in the movie)

Sarah Connor (specifically in Terminator II: Judgment Day)

Harry Lime (Orson Welles) from The Third Man (it's actually acknowledged that he's that "both Out and In-Universe)

Loki from MCU

Tony Stark from MCU, called an "Odd heroic variation"

Magneto from X-Men:First Class

Literature:

Hannibal Lecter (again) from Thomas Harris' novels (The Silence of the Lambs and Hanibal Rising are specifically mentioned)

Sandor Clegane from A Song of Ice and Fire

Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights

Mr Darcy from Pride and Prejudice (called "an unusual example of this trope”)

Live-Action TV:

Grant Ward from Agents of SHIELD

Dandy Mott from American Horror Story: Freak Show

Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel

Faith from Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel

The Master from Dr Who ("particularly in his Athony Ainley and John Simm incarnations")

The Tenth Doctor

Ianto from Torchwood (called "an odd heroic version")

Gaius Baltar from Battlestar Galactica

Alex Krycek from The X-Files

Sylar from Heroes

Noah Bennet from Heroes

Cole Turner from Charmed

Phoebe from Charmed

Scorpius from Farscape

Eric Northman from True Blood

Lex Luthor from Smallville

Furio from The Sopranos

Ben Linus from Lost

Gene Hunt from Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes

Alex from Dark Angel ("somewhat. While he's a good guy by the end..." starts the description)

Khal Drogo from Game of Thrones

Dr Gregory House 

Barney from How I Met Your Mother

Tate Langdon from American Horror Story: Murder House

Regina Mills from Once Upon a Time

Rumpelstilskin from OUAT

Jefferson from OUAT

Captain Hook/Killian Jones from OUAT

Tony DiNozzo from NCIS (the description actually says "He's good person deep down (...) and isn't by definition an actual villain" before going into why he's supposedly a Draco In Leather Pants)

Walter White from Breaking Bad

Damon Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries

Klaus from The Vampire Diaries/The Originals

Now, hold on. After going through this list, I’m even more confused. Either the above description of the trope is incorrect or really poorly worded, or most of the people who have posted supposed examples have no idea what that trope is supposed to be about.

Because, while quite a few of these characters - but not all! - are villains/antagonists or were villains at some point, many (in fact, the majority) of these characters are actually sexualized and presented as objects of desire in canon, by actual creators of the media in question. Now, I’m not sure if the writers, producers and directors of The Silence of the Lambs initially intended to make Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter a sex symbol (unlike Mads Mikkelsen’s Hanibal Lecter from the TV show, who clearly was intentionally presented that way and treated as such in-universe) - but I’m pretty sure they always meant for him to be fascinating and strangely appealing while also being super-evil and scary - the way they clearly did not portray Buffalo Bill, or even Chilton, who’s not really a villain but is clearly intentionally portrayed as annoying and hateful. However, I really want to know if someone is seriously going to argue that David Bowie’s extremely tight pants in The Labyrinth happened because the costuming department just couldn’t find anything bigger and looser for him to wear, or that characters such as (among others) Faith, Spike, Damon Salvatore, Klaus, Eric Northman, Grant Ward or Captain Hook from OUAT were not intended to be objects of desire, and that it was somehow the fandom that “turned” them into sex symbols, totally unprovoked, to the total shock and horror of the creators of these shows, who refused to “retool” these characters that were totally not meant to be sexy, no sir! I don’t think that anyone is going to argue that, and if they did, they either did not watch these shows at all, or are being completely dishonest.

What are we even talking about here? It’s really strange if not downright hypocritical to complain about the “fandom” putting certain characters in “leather pants”, when the canon has already put them in (metaphorical and in some cases also literal) leather pants to begin with. That’s not “Misaimed Fandom”. That’s the opposite of it - the showrunners were aiming for it and hit the target, intentionally playing up the actors’/characters’ sex appeal, often in really obvious ways. Unless I’m supposed to believe that things like frequent shirtless or nude scenes, tight/leather clothes, female gazey/male gazey (whichever applies) camera shots, and other fanservicey moments are there for no plot-related reason, just happened by accident, and that the writers wrote these characters as sexy and desirable in-universe with a bunch of other characters commenting on or falling for their charms, not to mention blatant ship teases or actual romantic/sexual relationships with protagonists - but somehow expected the audience to not see them as desirable, at all.

Which, BTW, does not necessarily have anything to do with downplaying a character’s flaws, or to what extent they are portrayed sympathetically. Many of the characters on the list are both given some sympathetic qualities and complexity and intentionally presented as desirable, but you can have one without the other. Case in point: Dandy Mott from AHS:FS - totally evil, no redeeming qualities, not sympathetic at all, but Finn Wittrock sure did not have all the nude scenes because the plot demanded it.

Furthermore, on the second point: most (actually, the majority, although there are some exceptions) of these characters were actually given tragic backstories and/or had terrible things happen to them in canon in scenes that were supposed to be dramatic and tragic and were clearly intended to elicit at least some degree of sympathy or empathy. For instance, you may argue how bad or evil or good Sandor Clegane is, but can anyone deny that he’s canonically a victim of horrible abuse by his brother, which has left him physically scarred and disfigured for life, and left even an harsher psychological and emotional trauma that’s defined his life? No. You can’t deny that. And some of the other above mentioned characters have had entire episodes and storyarcs or, heck, even entire movies devoted to their tragic backstories. It doesn’t make sense to accuse the fandom of “turning (x) into a victim”, when that character is already portrayed as a victim (among other things, and at least at some point in their arc or their backstory) in canon, intentionally, by the actual creators of said media. 

Which, BTW, has absolutely nothing to do with downplaying a characters’ flaws or the villain/hero status in the narrative. You don’t have to be a flawless person or even a good person in order to be or have been a victim (of abuse, rape, torture, murder etc.) and being a bad person or doing bad things does not disqualify you from the victim status. Conversely, being victimized at some point in your life does not automatically make you a good person or a hero, and does not preclude you from doing evil things and/or being a perpetrator of crime/abuse. I shouldn’t really need to explain this, it’s pretty obvious and basic.

In short, there is no reason why villainous, semi-villainous, anti-heroic or super flawed characters can’t canonically be objects of desire, victims, or both. Many, in fact, are.

So then, maybe half of the description of this trope should really be scrapped, and it’s all just about downplaying the flaws of villainous characters?

But that doesn’t fit either, because quite a few of the characters listed on this page either did not remain villains and eventually became heroes (Faith and Spike, for instance - and heck, even Darth Vader got last minute redemption) or simply aren’t and have never been villains. In fact, several of these - such as the Doctor, Sarah Connor or MCU Tony Stark - are definitely heroes and protagonists of their stories. Flawed heroes are still heroes. RDJ’s Tony Stark is clearly meant to be super flawed and occasionally annoying, but still likable, and certainly heroic. Others aren’t heroic, but are clearly not meant to be disliked by the audience, in spite of their shitty behavior (e.g. Barney from HIMYM). 

In fact, people who wrote some of these entries even admit that the character they think is a Draco in Leather Pants is “a heroic example” or “a good person deep down” - which contradicts what the trope is supposed to be about. Some entries are even complaining about the treatment of said characters not by fandom, but in the actual canon - which, again, completely contradicts what the description says the trope is all about (Misaimed Fandom).

OK, maybe listing heroic or other non-villainous characters does not contradict the description - because it says “controversial or downright villainous character”? But a controversial character is simply one that polarizes opinions. It’s usually pretty clear which characters are supposed to be villainous, but any character can be controversial. For instance, someone has listed Sarah Connor and said that people see her as “flawless icon of feminism” and then proceeded to criticize her character flaws - but someone else replied that many people may actually see the character as feminist exactly because she’s a heroine who is flawed and complex, rather than a flawless paragon of anything, and that it’s great to see female characters allowed to be flawed heroes, just like male characters so often are.

How do you actually separate the controversial from the non-controversial characters? If a bunch of people think a character is smart and awesome, and a bunch of others think the same character is stupid and annoying, that’s a controversial character. But do these groups have to be roughly the same in size for a character to be controversial? How many people in fandom need to hold one or the other opinion? Is Dawn from Buffy the Vampire Slayer a controversial character, or just an unpopular one? Many people often go about how hated she was, but I know quite a few BtVS fans who love Dawn.

And even if we agree on that, well - whether people are “downplaying” a character’s flaws is pretty debatable in itself, isn’t it? Yes, sometimes people ignore canon flaws or bad actions of their faves in fanfiction or fandom debates. But what if some fans acknowledge that their faves are flawed and have done shitty things, but insist that they also have good traits and the bad doesn’t outweigh the good, or even simply that they still like them in spite of all? Someone else who hates that character and thinks that they’re the Worst Ever and pretty much the closest thing to Antichrist may say that they are “downplaying their flaws”. But the other party may reply that it’s in fact the hater who’s overplaying their flaws. It’s not really an exact science - and that’s exactly what makes a character controversial. 

And, well, if the point of the trope is to complain that there are different and opposing opinions about controversial characters, in other words, that there’s controversy about controversial characters... well, duh? 

So, at the end of this analysis that’s probably way too long... I’m even more confused than I was at the beginning. I’d really appreciate it if someone would help me understand what this trope is about, if it’s even a trope, and why it’s called what it’s called. Is it supposed to be about:

complaining about characters that aren’t supposed to be sexy /desirable/ appealing in canon, but some rather sizable portion of the fandom treats them as if they were? (Which would be the one explanation that would fit the name of the trope.)

complaining about characters that aren’t victimized/don’t suffer in canon, but some reasonably large portion of the fandom treats them as if they are?

complaining about characters that fit both of the above, at the same time?

complaining about characters that are villainous, but a lot of people like them and sympathize with them anyway (regardless of whether the canon offers them material for that)?

complaining about the fact that authors of some canon works like to make their villains complex and somewhat sympathetic or give them heartbreaking moments and tragic backstories?

not being upset with canon for giving villains heartbreaking moments and  tragic backstories, but complaining anyway about the fact that a lot of fans sympathize with them, because you think that fandom should be stronger than that and bravely resist the authors’ attempts to elicit sympathy for bad people?

complaining about the fact that authors of some canon works portray their villains/antagonists as desirable and try to make them into sex symbols?

complaining about the fact that they’ve actually succeeded in that, which upsets you because you think that fans should all be morally stronger and be able to resists for the authors’ blatant fanservice and sexualization of morally corrupt characters?

just an umbrella term for people’s tendency to downplay or ignore their favorite characters’ flaws (which may apply to not just to villains, but to any character who has any flaws or has done something wrong or morally dubious)?

merely an excuse to bitch about the fact that, shockingly, there are some fans who have a different opinion than you and like a character that you strongly dislike?

[valkyrjuk]

Chapter Fifteen: Metamorphosis

It’s simple: she wants to be punished. But with some six quintillion miles between her and her home, there is no hand which will strike her face or voice which will shout her down or command which will resign her to her room. All there is to do is to punish herself.

So she does.

She locks herself in her dorm. She fails to shower. To drink. To eat. She moves only to piss and occasionally to shit, slurping water from the sink when the feeling strikes her, sucking it down like a fiend. Her dormitory fridge, filled with nothing but condiment packets and garbage food, has been emptied by the whims of her shrinking stomach. She wants nothing more than to lie in bed until she wastes away into it, turning into a gray thing, a rotten thing, sinking into the mattress until the stink is so bad some other student finally performs a ‘wellness check’ and the RA’s find her as nothing more than a pile of black sludge and moldy bones – but her body just won’t let her. The pain in her bladder makes her stand. The dryness of her throat makes her drink. The enduring hunger in her belly makes her eat whatever it can find, any calorie from anywhere.

She is forced to leave her room. Stinking and sick. Her nose runny. Her hair tangled. Looking disheveled, feeling terrible, utterly poor. She walks to a vending machine at the end of the hall and puts her hand in her pocket to find it empty, emptier than her stomach. She turns and shuffles back to her dorm room and as she approaches it she reaches habitually for the security pass that sits around her neck and finds it missing.

She wants to throw up. She heaves, but nothing comes up. Her eyes are wide with terror and wet with grief. All she wants is to lie back down. But her stomach turns, twists into knots and tells her if she doesn’t fill it soon then it will turn its attention to her body, start digesting her until there is nothing left. She wants to let it. But it hurts so much, it hurts like torture. She turns back around. The hall seems to stretch on into infinity, a tiny little glow at the back being the vending machine. It feels completely inaccessible to her. She sees doors that go on forever, gray and watching and judging, each one potentially filled with a person that could help her – but why would they ever? She doesn’t deserve their help. She doesn’t deserve a thing. Everything she has she lied, cheated, and stole for. None of it belongs to her.

Want more?

READ STONECARVER

Part Two: Follies of the Flesh out now!

[valkyrjuk]

You're in the eyes of those whose luck has run out

A tender end to a life of descent

Every lawman knows that you cannot be argued

Even despots know that when they die, you'll rule still

You're supreme, immutable, unchanging

You're never failing through the ages

READ STONECARVER

with part 2 out I really wanted to highlight one of the tracks that inspired this whole thing. SubRosa has been a constant throughout my writing and without their music I'm not sure I'd have accomplished a thing. This track is a long and beautiful song about embracing your own demise, and hailing death a respectable, admirable thing, yet it is the thing we all seek to avoid - Ash, most of all.