#call if gatekeeping if you want but there’s a reason why fans who were around go so hard for those albums

[iwatcheditbegin]

Lover era was so unique. There’s so much lore and wholesomeness. The five holes in a fence. the random ass mural in Nashville we decided must have something to do with Taylor. The way we were still calling it TS7 even after the first single bc she make us figure out the album title. Supporting the hell outta that album bc it was the first album she owned

[elderflowergin]

why atty jung woo-jin is so important to me (alt title: why I hope the titular good partner includes jung woo-jin too, alt title @haraxvati apologies for workplace romance talk)

If you were in fandom spaces during Sherlock, you know that people went crazy for the deductions, for how they were delivered by Sherlock on the show. Who is a terrible person to most of the people around him! The surface admiration fans feel is for the way he works and not what he does for his friends (we’re talking normal human reciprocity and not lifesaving sorts of things).

So little of romance is devoted to the opposite - women who are good at tough, unsympathetic jobs and are unapologetic about it. If you were ever a woman in law enforcement, litigation or any other job coded to be aggressive or dominant, you’d find no shortage of gatekeeping men telling you how to do your job right, and there is no pleasing anyone in this.

How to speak, how to lower your pitch, what to wear, what NOT to wear, what sort of concessions you should give to the boys in club if you want to be in the club, what sort NOT to give so you don’t look like a chump. Maybe it’s better now than it used to be. Maybe some spaces are better than others. But the outcome was the same - you never win, and someone always shifts the goalposts when you’re done. You’re too sexy, you’re not sexy enough, your voice is annoying, you’re mousy, you’re loud, you’re fancy, you’re too articulate, you’re no fun, you’re a little too much and God forbid you get angry, because no one likes an angry woman.

We don’t see this sort of criticism on the show, because Cha Eun-gyeong is successful, but it’s never far from the minds of small men, be it her boss or the lawyer her husband seeks out. And we don’t have to see more of it - her husband, who by all rights should be proud of her achievements and hard-earned reputation, weaponises her work as the reason she is no longer a mother or a woman in his eyes. Who needs to hear from a shitty colleague when the call’s coming from inside the house? He hates her success, he hates that he owes his own success to her in part at least. It’s no surprise that his girlfriend is not a fellow doctor or someone from an allied or parallel position to him - she is in an admin position subordinate to Eun-gyeong. I don’t say this to denigrate admin positions, but to point out the predictability of men like him, whose anger at not being the centre of a woman’s universe is never far from the surface.

But then there’s Jung Woo-jin, who admires Atty Cha because of all the traits that make her a good lawyer. He points out to Han Yuri that she started out doing a tough job in a time few women took it on, that she took risks and was courageous in her representation of her clients. He admires her and yes, he loves her all the more for it.

If you’re asking me why it matters what a man feels about Atty Cha’s job, frankly I don’t think it does! She’s the fulcrum of her own universe. She’s never needed anyone’s approval to do what she felt was right. But I think it bears pointing out that this is a lonely job. Clients need to be handled and protected, opposing counsel are to be suspected, and judges are to be feared. There’s at least three fronts of conflict, and here is Cha Eun-gyeong, handling it all with infinite grace. And it’s great that she can do it all, but it’d also be great if the narrative could be different, for once; if she could have friends, even lovers, potentially, who love her for all of who she is, and not just the pieces of her that are useful. It’s a fantasy, yes, but a type so specific and so underserved that it had to have been written by a woman in corporate, if not a woman in litigation.

Cha Eun-gyeong is a very good lawyer, a woman who at partner level is still working her ass off to stay at the top, and Jung Woo-jin sees that; he sees HER, and the things that make her a good lawyer are indivisible from her as a person, because they are for Cha Eun-gyeong. Which is why his admiration for her is also indivisible from his love, and it’s also why he thinks nothing of it and Han Yuri catches on immediately. Because he can’t see it, but everyone else can.

But beyond that, for me it’s the moment he bodily puts himself between the CEO (yet another man waiting for her to fail) and Cha Eun-gyeong. I think it’s easy to convey admiration privately, because you don’t lose capital from that. It’s another thing to stand up for a colleague publicly. To your CEO no less, and in front of all your other colleagues, at a time of great personal crisis for Cha Eun-gyeong. (To your CEO who is also your father, no less!). It’s telling that this unassuming man who tends to smooth ruffled feathers does not appeal to his father-boss’s ego or supplicate to secure a temporary detente; what he makes is a threat that the words being uttered are defamatory, a polite suggestion that there will be consequences for careless words, and his father absolutely picks up on it. He may pay a price for it yet, going by the conversation he has later with his father.

I don’t know why this fantasy appeals more than the other, but I think it’s in the instinctive nature of it on both sides. It’s in the way Cha Eun-gyeong - who actively distances him from her feelings, who does not open up to him by design - allows him to act as her vanguard in a deeply vulnerable moment, which in itself is an entitlement she has. It’s food for thought, a glimpse into this bond that has outlasted her marriage.

[crusherthedoctor]

As an IDW fan believe it or not, I do know how you feel, because I sometimes can’t even post funny quirky memes about my favorite idw characters without being told I’m a fake Sonic fan, there is nothing wrong with liking anything from Sonic that isn’t necessarily faithful to the games! If your friends are giving you a hard time for liking a movie they are not your friends! I’m sorry you have to deal with that.

Don't take this the wrong way, but I never thought the day would come where an IDW fan approached me with more consideration and basic decency than game fans. :P First time for everything, I guess.

For what it's worth, whenever someone's followed me and they have an IDW character as their avatar, I always feel bad because "yeah, you're probably not going to be following me for long lmao". Despite my endless layers of beef with the comic - which I should note is doubled by the fact that much like Prime, IDW is bizarrely treated as though it's canon to the game universe despite not actually being the case, which is very much not the situation with the movies and their fans, so that's an additional reason for why the changes in the movies bother me less by comparison - I don't go out of my way to take a piss on the fans who simply like it in their own space. It's always been the Flynn cultists (I don't use that word loosely: I held off on it for a long time because I didn't want to sound like a drama clickbait YouTuber, but with all their growing hijinks, I really struggle to think of a more accurate term for them now) that I have an legitimate issue with.

I already believed that the Sonic fandom (and Tumblr in general TBH) had a bad habit of jumping from one extreme to the other, never learning any valuable lessons all the while. Needless to say, this hasn't done much to dissuade that belief. It's actually one of the reasons why I had my 10 minute retirement period not so long ago: I didn't like how the fandom was shaping me, and I didn't like the way it was changing us. It's not a coincidence that during all this time, I've refused to advocate for intense gatekeeping, because while fandom tourists can certainly create undesirable and persistent complications, just look at Ian Flynn and the Encyclospeedia, that so-called solution is just way too disproportionate and overreaching for my personal comfort. I'm not going to say that I handle fandom affairs perfectly, I know I've made a mistake on occasion, but... I feel like nowadays, I'm being backed into a corner a lot more frequently between both sides of the equation. I don't know what I'm expected to do. I can be respectful, I can be sympathetic, but the one thing I can't do is mindlessly change how I feel about something artificially just so my stance is convenient enough for approval. And when you're always being talked down to like an idiot, no matter how many times you explain yourself, no matter how much leeway you give to them... well, maybe people were onto something about the hivemind accusations...

The worst part in the movie's case is that I knew going in that it was going to be a lose-lose scenario. Either I didn't like it, and thus I wouldn't be able to join in on other people's enjoyment, or I did like it, and thus I would become an enemy on sight for SA2 diehards, regardless of any nuance to my thoughts on it. I knew not everyone would like it, which is fine, but it seems the other way around is non-existent.

I don't know where I'm going with all of this, but tl;dr, I appreciate your understanding. :) I stand by my thoughts on influential adaptations that grind my gears, but outside of the aforementioned cultists and the obnoxious influence and behaviour of the Archie leftovers themselves (shout out to the Shadow scat edit), I'm trying to relax more otherwise, and I've been wondering if more folk could benefit from the same. If the guy who has to keep seeing headache-inducing Eggdad fanart everywhere can do it, anyone can.

[rewritingcanon]

If you don’t mind me asking? why do you believe that Slytherin is a terrible house? Draco was an asshole and some of the other Slytherins(Crabbe, Goyle). although throughout the entire series the golden trio were practically bullies to most Slytherins for no reason(more so in the books)? Slytherins at hogwarts were usually mistreated due to their reputation of producing dark wizards, as if Ravenclaw doesn’t have almost just as much 🙏 plus how biased the entire school facility were with Slytherins, honestly i wouldn’t expect Slytherins to act the best when the whole schools against them.

And Slytherins being bullied or mistreated isn’t a new thing, especially by Gryffindors(Ex; Golden trio, marauders, fantastic beasts).

And whats your take on Ron? i’m a bit meh on him, as he was a good friend although i still can’t forget or excuse him

-Bullying first years

-Abusing his Prefect status

-Almost calling Ginny a slut

-abusing Crookshanks

kinda confused a bit because i don’t remember ever calling slytherin a terrible house lol. i’ve said that slytherin was written with the mind to make it a bad house, with all its characters being pretty morally bleak. hp is not supposed to be very morally complex, all the work in that is mostly credited to fandom.

as readers, we’re positioned to sympathise with the golden trio being mean to slytherin characters more because they have the moral leverage of not being blood purists or terrorists. maybe harry had no reason to go after them at first, but hermione definitely had as a muggleborn, and ron was constantly getting slandered for either being poor or a blood traitor. granted, this was all mostly from draco. the other slytherins are one-dimensional characters who serve as his lackeys, there’s not one that’s properly fleshed out except maybe severus snape and even that’s iffy for a lot of fans.

yes, ravenclaws did have death eaters, but not to the same extent that slytherin was producing them. most death eater characters have unconfirmed houses, the only ravenclaw we actually know to be a death eater is quirrel and thats it. so they’re actually tying with the amount of death eaters gryffindor produces (pettigrew), not slytherin. everyone else— lestranges, blacks, malfoys, crabbes, snape etc— are slytherins. this is unsurprising as salazar slytherin literally wanted to gatekeep his house from progressive and inclusive ideals.

i have many gripes with the oppressive world jkr has written— i don’t think she understands how oppression operates because i agree with what you say about most of the hogwarts staff treating the slytherins like shit. in reality, the ones who are oppressed should be the ones discriminated against, but in the hpverse you see the oppressors getting treated badly. im not saying i think slytherins should be presented as the oppressed, its just horrid writing on her part.

i really like ron, i think he’s a really well fleshed-out character with realistic flaws and a good arc. i cant remember when he bullied first years and i don’t remember him abusing his prefect status in any extremely terrible way that would lower my opinion of him. i do remember him almost slut-shaming ginny, and though i think it was terrible of him i also think it was a realistic thing to say from an older brother to a younger sister in the 90s. i have a younger brother and you should clock some of the arguments we’ve had over the years in the 2020s. it’s within the same vein. ginny was pressing on ron’s sore spots as little siblings do, and ron was attempting to compensate by biting back in any way he could. it was realistic to me. and its been a while since i read the books but ron bitching about crookshanks read as comedic. granted, i was like 11 years old when i read them, but i remember thinking it was justified because to ron, crookshanks was literally trying to kill his pet. he’s not going to be chill around something thats tried to eat his rat multiple times. when someone is attacking your pet, you get scared and angry and try to fight back in defence of your pet because you want to deter that animal from trying anything like that again. they obviously can’t understand you if you simply lecture them. i once had to do something similar (i did not physically fight anything though LOL) when i got a new cat, and our neighbour’s cat would constantly attack and injure him every time we let him outside. and that was a cat v cat, this is a little mouse versus crookshanks 😭😭

[landofzero-archive]

Absolute - To Abhor the Impure World 3

(Location: Hotel (Lobby))

Nagisa: …… It’s not like we were completely unable to comprehend the ambience of Absolute.

Hiyori: Yep. Around the time Eden was first formed, we once came to observe Absolute. 

Of course there would be differences in point of view between being in the audience and being a performer, but we were at least able to grasp the atmosphere.

We thought that Absolute’s stage would be the same as any other idol stage, but it’s completely different. Fundamentally different.

Gatekeeper: It’s good if yer can comprehend that. Besides, even if yer lose big time, it’ll still be a good experience for yer.

It seems back home, you were basically undefeated and became a Tengu (1). It’ll be good medicine for yer to have yer high nose to be snapped broken even if just once.

Ibara: It seems that you don’t think we have any chance of winning, Uncle.

Gatekeeper: No, I don’t know. There might be a 1 in 10,000 chance you will.

I’ve said this a lot of times before but I’m uninterested in idols, so there is no way for me to know just how far you’ll be accepted by the world. 

My first pick to win isn’t yer guys, yer know. Whether the racehorses I didn’t buy betting tickets for wins or loses is of no concern to me, as long as they don’t get in the way of my first pick.

Jun: That first pick would be……?

NEGI: “Hm? Why are you looking at me? I’m not going to appear on something as frightening as Absolute, you know?”

Jun: No, you’re just wearing something that looks like a stage outfit so I thought you’re in the same profession.

NEGI: “Aha. I made this my daily outfit because it’s my favorite. Because Anzu made this outfit for me, you see.”

Gatekeeper: Hmm. My first pick, or rather, first on the list of candidates to win even for the public— as a matter of course, is the six-times successive champion of Absolute, the number one idol in the world.

Even you would at least know his name, right?

Nagisa: …… “Shaka.”

Gatekeeper: Heeh, so you did know. For some reason you can barely hear his name in Japan, though.

Ibara: I’m throwing the words you said earlier back at you; how shameless. Either you or for instance, someone like Priest sealed off that information didn’t you, because that person known as Shaka is— 

Gatekeeper: That’s right. The second thing I want to ask from yer is something related to that.

Convince that asshole Shaka to get on stage one way or another. Because for some reason, that guy is sulking (2) and saying something like he won’t appear on Absolute this time around.

That rumour has leaked to the public, sending all the involved parties as well as the fans who bought betting tickets into confusion.

If the odds are rough, it’ll be profitable for the gambling dealer, and it’ll be an acclaimed hot topic so that’s still a matter of great congratulations though.

Hiyori: Aah, as expected, the gambling that’s happening in Absolute is—

Gatekeeper: Of course, I’m (3) managing that side. It’s a good source of income, yer see, because in every country there are fools who’ll invest in an uncertain future.

No, they’re dreaming idiots who throw their gold down the drain.

I’ll just clean out the mud from the gold those idiots had thrown down the drain, and use it for something more useful. There aren’t any other philanthropists who’ll go to this length like me out there. Yeaah?

Ibara: Putting that Mafia self-justification speech aside, why do you think we would be able to convince Shaka-shi?

Jun: Even I think that part’s strange~ We’re not even acquainted with that person called Shaka, y’know?

Hiyori: We saw him from a distance in a previous Absolute, though.

Gatekeeper: Beats me. Shaka is the one asking for yer, I don’t know why either. You’ll meet up later, so ask the person himself later.

And then, properly convince him and give him motivation.

I said that the gambling den being rough would be more profitable for the dealer, but it’ll be fatal for us in terms of attracting customers if he ends up not showing up.

I’ll be in trouble if the profit from Absolute itself plummets because the gambling is directly based on a part of it.

Ibara: U~m……In a business setting, this sort of situation is when you’re supposed to say ‘Leave it to me! I’ll show you I’ll follow through magnificently!’ while brimming with confidence, huh.

As you’d expect for this time’s situation, we don’t know Shaka-shi’s intentions, so we can't make promises without due consideration, see?

Gatekeeper: Well, I’m just telling you to try doing what you can. It’s not often you get to have the chance to talk with a World Champion, so just think of this as a good experience, yer little chicks. (3)

So then, for the third and last request— well, this one is relatively trivial.

It’s fine to do it when you have the time, I want yer to keep my NEGI-bouzu company.

NEGI: “Hm? Me?”

Gatekeeper: She can’t help it, but I can’t watch this kid keep on moping around like that. Play with her and get her to be lively like how kids are supposed to be.

It’s depressing to be with a gloomy-looking ghost day in and day out.

Ibara: Well, I don’t particularly mind doing that….. It’s not like you though. After all this time, has a real life heinous Mafia bigshot like you awoken to fatherhood? (4)

Gatekeeper: Ah? That’s not it, I’m a rotten-to-the-very-core villain.

Still. If a little kitten strangely got attached and cuddled up to me, I might just start to feel like feeding it for fun.

It’s the same with Anzu. I thought if I do that, I might see something interesting.

I have hopes for you too, Eden. Try to entertain me as much as you can.

TL NOTES

1. ���狗 (Tengu): Either a Yokai or Shinto Kami depending on who you ask. Appearance wise; they have a red face and a long nose. Associated with being harbingers of war and sometimes with ascetics. Calling someone a Tengu is akin to calling them a braggart as Tengu are often depicted as proud beings.

2. へそを曲げる (Heso o mageru): An idiom that literally translated is ‘to bend his bellybutton’, but means to be cranky, or be sulky.

3. The word used is うち (uchi) which refers to the state of belonging to something, and it could be ‘us’ or ‘mine’.

3. ヒヨコ (Hiyokko): lit. little bird, usually means ‘rookie’ colloquially, but earlier in this chapter, GK was making references to Tengu when talking about Eden, which are often depicted with avian features, so Mod felt it’s better to use the little birds/chicks definition.

4. The word Ibara uses here for fatherhood is “父性” (fusei), which happens to be a homophone for the word “不正”, which means “injustice/wrongdoing/fraud”.

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[cookiesauces]

Land of Miracles IDOL AU!!!

Idol!Lan Ge with Fa Hua as his personal manager.

Inspired from this video

Wrote an accompanying fic for this scene also on AO3:

“Great, now we'll just need some kiss marks around your neck and we're good.”

Lan Ge nodded listlessly to Hong Bao's comment. If the world-renowned photographer didn't know him personally, she would have kicked him out immediately. There was a long queue of celebrities dying to work with her. If only she hadn't owed him a favour..

She clucked her tongue. “I tried using a stamp but it looks too fake, so we'll need to borrow someone's lips instead.”

Hong Bao eyed at all the blushing ladies around looking eager to volunteer. They reminded her of vultures until her eyes finally landed on the only man in the room - Lan Ge's personal manager.

“Fa Hua, can you do it?”

The stoic man looked surprised to be suddenly called on. “Me?”

Hong Bao held out a lipstick to him. “Yes, get some lip marks on his neck.”

Fa Hua glanced at Lan Ge for a beat before averting his eyes in hesitation.

“If you're not comfortable, then someone else can-”

“-It's fine.” Fa Hua grabbed the lipstick. He applied it through the mirror clumsily before turning to her with a determined look. “Where do you need it?”

Hong Bao unbuttoned the top few buttons of Lan Ge's white shirt and shoved it off one of his shoulders. She then pointed at a spot above his right collarbone.

Fa Hua took a deep breath before leaning in to push his lips against that spot, his one hand coming up on Lan Ge’s chest for balance.

Lan Ge’s breath hitched when he felt soft lips on his skin, albeit a little moist from the lipstick.

Hong Bao continued to point out different spots and instructed Fa Hua to press harder for more prominent marks.

Lan Ge swallowed, his heartbeat quickening as he was acutely aware of Fa Hua's breathing and the insistent press of his lips. Hong Bao’s instructions became white noise and the world narrowed down to their physical contact. What's going on? Why was he so affected? Was it because he'd never been so close to anyone like this before, or was it because it was Fa Hua?

His stomach fluttered at the thought of the latter.

Fa Hua, his personal manager who was brought in three years ago as his parents’ friend’s godson to help improve his reputation. Basically someone he couldn't insist on firing on a whim. 

Initially, Lan Ge hated him for forcing him to behave during interviews via blackmail. Fa Hua had gotten rid of his housekeeper and made Lan Ge do chores himself as punishment. Imagine him! Washing the dishes! At that point, Lan Ge was irritable from the lack of sleep and was often picking fights with other celebrities. The media painted him in the light of a self-entitled rich second-generation.

It came to a point where they trashed things out and Fa Hua finally realised the problems Lan Ge were facing. He then helped him overcome his insomnia and gatekeep his schedule so that he had enough rest. Fa Hua had also formed many good connections and arranged interactive fan meets that helped enhance his image. Eventually, Lan Ge also got to learn more about Fa Hua and meet the orphanage children. They could finally just play around with the kids as if they were kids themselves. It was fun, and Lan Ge started to realise that everything was more fun with the other man around. 

Fa Hua turned from a thorn in his side to the reason Lan Ge actually does anything. Go for a sponsored photoshoot? Sure, only so that Fa Hua will sneak him out for ice cream afterwards. 2 hours fan meet? Fine, if Fa Hua agreed to wear whatever the fans gave him on their way home so that he could have a good laugh.

Fa Hua became his motivation and the highlight of his days. Not to mention that he's kinda hot, and super cute when he smiles. Does this means that Lan Ge is attracted to him? Was that why he's so nervous right now? Did he actually want Fa Hua to do… more?

“Ok, five minutes break!” Lan Ge abruptly announced as he pushed Fa Hua backwards, grabbed Hong Bao and pulled her away with a “Hong Bao, a word, please.”

“SOS! This is a CRISIS, Hong Bao!” He announced in despair when they were alone in the changing room.

“What’s wrong?” She demanded.

Lan Ge licked his lips. “Let’s just say Fa Hua kissing my neck has awakened something-”

Hong Bao scrunched her face in disgust. “-Oh my god-”

“-No, hear me out!” He threw his hands out. “That's not even the worst part-”

“-That's not?” She looked at him with raised brows.

“I think I'm in love with Fa Hua.”

Hong Bao gave him the flattest glare ever.

“Are you kidding me? Now is not the time to realise your feelings or whatever, I have a shoot to do!” She snarled.

“I know, I know! But imagine someone you like kissing up all over your neck,” He gestured to his bare collar, “can you really blame me?”

“Urgh, you-!” Hong Bao pinched her nose bridge in exasperation. “Ok, forget it. Enough lip marks, this is fine.”

Lan Ge blew a breath of relief.

She snorted. “Ready to get back to work now?”

“I g-guess so..”

She stomped off with a shake of her head. “Tch, men.”

Thankfully, Lan Ge was a good model when he wanted to be - all that effortlessly photogenic charm allowed Hong Bao to complete the shoot in record time. But since they had time to spare, she decided to get some extra shots as payback…

“I need someone with long, black hair,” Hong Bao pondered aloud and pretended to look around at all the fancy-coloured dyed hair before locking eyes onto her target. “Fa Hua, come here.”

She could see Lan Ge visibly stiffened and hid her snort internally.

The personal manager eyed her warily. “Yes?”

“Don't worry, I just need a bit of your back view. Your face won't be seen. Stand here in front of Lan Ge.” Hong Bao adjusted his position.

She then went behind Fa Hua and pointed the camera over his shoulder to face Lan Ge.

“Lan Ge, come closer towards him.”

She enjoyed the look of panic he shot her as he shuffled closer.

“Okay, look into each others’ eyes,” She instructed and bit her lips to stifle her laughter at how red Lan Ge was turning.

“Closer..”

She quickly snapped a few shots.

"Just a bit more closer.."

“Argh, Hong Bao!” Lan Ge couldn't hold it in anymore. Any closer and they were literally going to touch noses! He turned towards her with an accusatory finger. “You're doing this on purpose!”

“Lan Ge, don't be rude. Calm down.” Fa Hua placated as he pulled the other’s hand down. “Sorry, Hong Bao, I think we'll take a short break now.”

“Forget it, I was just trying something out but it didn't work. We're done for the shoot,” Hong Bao concluded apathetically as she sifted through the shots in her camera. “You two can leave now, I won't be sending you off.”

“Then.. we'll make a move first. Thank you everyone for your hard work.” Fa Hua forced Lan Ge to bow to Hong Bao with a hand on his head before dragging him away.

Hong Bao waited till the door closed before she smirked at the pictures she took of them. 

Yes, they’ll make a good wedding gift in the future.

***

“Huahua, what are your thoughts on me dating someone?” Lan Ge brought up some time later when they were alone in the study room. He was lying on the sofa watching Fa Hua flipping through the bunch of paperwork at his desk.

“Terrible. A PR Nightmare. Great hassle for everyone involved,” His personal manager immediately listed.

Lan Ge groaned. “Will it really be that bad?”

“Yes.” Fa Hua gave him a knowing look. “But having said that, I'm sure you'll still do whatever you want anyway.”

“...”

Fa Hua gave a deep sigh. “Who is it?”

“Huh?”

“The person you’ll be dating.”

Lan Ge looked down and played with his fingers. “I.. I don't even know if they'll agree to date me.”

Fa Hua highly doubted that anyone would reject the popular Lan Ge. He sighed. “Just tell me who first so that I can run a background check.”

Lan Ge snorted. “I don't think that's going to be a problem..”

“That's not for you to decide.” Fa Hua snapped a little impatiently as he opened his notebook and got his pen ready. “Name?”

Lan Ge licked his lips. “Ermm.. Well, it's uh, Fa Hua.”

“Hmm?”

“That's the name.” Lan Ge steadily avoided eye-contact. “It's.. you.”

“W-What?” He looked up from his book in bewilderment. “Is this a prank?”

“No, it's not!” Lan Ge insisted before adding petulantly, “I.. just like you. B-But if you don't want to date me, then forget it.”

Fa Hua felt his heartbeat pick up and he took a deep breath. 

“I-It’s not that simple,” He stuttered. “I'm pretty sure it's against my contract to-”

“-So you want to?” Lan Ge sat up and walked over with a hopeful look eyes. 

Fa Hua turned away and shook his head. “No, we can't. It'll ruin everything you have-”

“-Fa Hua.” The singer interrupted as he stood in front of him. He grabbed both sides of Fa Hua's arms firmly. “Do you like me? Yes or no?”

Fa Hua inhaled sharply as he caught the other’s gaze. He should say no. Nip the hope in the bud. It'll be easier for everyone this way. He thought of how the ignorant rich second-generation Lan Ge had come so far from when they first met three years back, and grown into the fine young man he is now.

All his fans know about his voice, about his boisterous personality, but they don't know that he's afraid of spiders, and how he believes that carrots taste better when they are cut into flower shapes. They don't know that Lan Ge was just a teenager who wanted to make his parents proud, but was overwhelmed by the life being a popular singer came with. They don't know that he actually shines best when he's off-stage, laughing and playing unrestrained with the children at the orphanage, when he tries to sing to Fa Hua to calm him down in a panic attack.

Fa Hua closed his eyes and thought of a life without the other man. No more secret escapades Lan Ge will drag him into, no more “We did it!” hugs he gives to Fa Hua after every successful concert. He thinks of Lan Ge getting together with someone else and his heart instantly hurt. He chuckled sadly to himself. Of course he had to fall for this idiot. How could he not?

He allowed himself a moment of truth and admitted in a soft exhale of, “Yes.”

“Huahua!” Lan Ge immediately wrapped him in a hug with a happy laugh that tickled his heart.

“B-But we can't,” Fa Hua reluctantly struggled against the warm embrace.

Lan Ge pulled back to look him in the eye softly. “You're worried about the contract, right?” 

Fa Hua sighed. “Amongst a hundred other reasons, yes.”

“Well, you don't have to think about those anymore.” Lan Ge announced with an eager smile. “Because I. Quit.”

Fa Hua's eyes widened. “W-What?”

“All your concerns are about me being a famous singer. So I'll just stop being that!”

“You- You can't just quit just because of me!”

“It's not all because of you! I've been thinking about it for a while. What's the point of slaving my ass off for all this money I don't even have the time to enjoy? I just wanted to have fun making music and make my parents happy. And it turns out, they are already happy, but now I'm not even having fun.” He sighed as he held Fa Hua's palms in his.

“I'm not saying I’ll retire and bum around for the rest of my life. Maybe I'll join a small band and sing at bars. I know you say normal people have to wash their own dishes but I'd rather wash dishes with you than continue this life where I can't even be with the person I like.”

Fa Hua swallowed. The devotion in his voice made blood rush to his ears. Both their faces were red.

 “You..”

“And it's not like everyone working with me will lose their jobs, either! I'll pass them on to another artiste who is actually passionate in what they do, like Sheng Lian. Except for you, I would like you to stay with me. Or not, if you want to do something else. I can follow you to build your dream instead..” Lan Ge trailed off meekly after his rambling.

“You idiot,” Fa Hua huffed fondly as he leaned forward onto the other's shoulder. Lan Ge could feel his palpitating heart through their clothes. “Who else retires at 27? Just take a break first before deciding that you really want to quit."

“Oh, great idea! I needed a vacation like, yesterday. Let's go somewhere far where no one will recognise us!” Lan Ge pulled back again but stayed close to look him in the eye shyly. “You'll come with me, right?”

“Well, somebody has to keep you in check,” Fa Hua mumbled before leaning forward to close the gap between their lips.

---END

[licncourt]

As far as engagement with your fics dwindling, I think it’s mainly a result of the ao3 tag naturally being flooded with show verse content and book writers disappearing. There’s also the increasing rhetoric among popular show writers/bloggers that continued art and fic for book Louis and Armand is inherently racist so my guess is no one wants to out themselves as someone who enjoys book fic for fear of being shunned. Which is disappointing but with a large fandom that is mainly centered around a popular show, not surprising (not that there wasn’t gatekeeping preshow but the fandom was significantly smaller). I think most fans of the show think with these new (and improved) incarnations of the characters, there’s no need for their book counterparts. And the belief that people who do still enjoy book Louis and Armand are ignorant and fundamentally don’t understand the vc characters. It sucks because it would’ve been sweet if it could all be enjoyed for the multiverse it’s become since there are fans (like myself) who enjoy both the books and the show but there does seem to be an unspoken rule that you shouldn’t still be interested in producing content for the books. However, I’ve always been a huge fan of your works (and meta/thoughts!!) and the quality of your writing and grasp on the characters is still just as compelling as ever so I selfishly hope you continue writing 🫶 I promise I’ll make an effort to drop comments! lol

Well first of all thank you!! I just want to reiterate that the point of my original post was never to fish for comments or anything, I was just curious about why the engagement was happening on here suddenly vs ao3, but I always appreciate comments, kudos, reblogs, etc, it makes me so happy to know people like my writing because I really love doing it. I have plenty more stuff planned just because I love writing fic and I love the characters, so no worries there!

That also makes a lot of sense actually as far as people wanting to send me anons instead of comment. That's a crazy take though, like the books are forty years old you can't expect them to suddenly not have fans because of a new adaptation...? And I think it's a wild take to say that the original books/fans of them don't understand the characters?? Tumblr discourse is on another level always.

Liking the show better is absolutely fine, everyone can have their own preferences in media, but I don't believe for one second that the show is "less problematic" than the books. They just found a different way to be insensitive and offensive 😭 I think Anne Rice IP is just destined to be a morally bankrupt trainwreck and we all have to accept that. No one has moral high ground here really. And in a way it really feels like people coming into OUR house and saying we suck and aren't welcome.

This might be a selfish way of looking at it too, but I didn't get called literal slurs for months because I was defending the show and diverse casting for people to act like I have a problem with black Louis or brown Armand. Myself and friends of mine were harassed (including racially and sexually) for speaking positively about the casting decisions from day one, before most of these people knew the show or IWTV existed. My issues with it only started after episode 5 and that will always be my reason for jumping ship on the show.

I really wish things could have been different too, I was hoping the show would bring new people into the fold and just generally expand the VC multiverse like the movie did except with a new take on the story, but of course everything has to degenerate into a slap fight on the internet.

**There are absolutely people who don't like the show because they're racist shitheads and that is absolutely not a valid opinion to have btw. Just a blog reminder that I will absolutely never support or tolerate racism surrounding the show/the casting/the actors. It could have been a really great thing, unfortunately I just deeply disagree with how it was handled.**

[netflixonyourcouch]

I called it, now why do I feel salty about it?

Chappell Roan is the next big thing. Due to the perfect storm of viral Tiktok success and opening up for Olivia Rodrigo, she's found herself many new fans.

So why do I feel the same exact resentment I did when Fall Out Boy started getting popular in '05?

Those feelings were borne out of my need to gatekeep something cool, but there is no such desire here. I'm genuinely happy that she has new fans and the fame she deserves! I don't WANT to gatekeep Chappell, as I barely like her music anyway but...

I think part of the reason why I'm having such an adverse reaction is because, a full year ago, I thought "Casual" should have been the one to push the button on her. And now when I look at what she's doing now, dressing in elaborate costumes, elaborate facepaint, doing damn near opera songs, I'm like... that's not really what I thought she would be.

The premise and promise of "Casual" felt like a moment that was going to knock the massively overrated Olivia off of her throne if it got the right push. I envisioned a world where Olivia's overdramatic and over sensationalized songs were going to be replaced with someone who was gonna keep it more real with us.

The world Olivia created is of a bitter, jealous girl who is a hater. She can't stand when her exes move on, she keeps tabs on what they're doing, she has a song explicitly titled "I want to get him back" for example. It reeks of bratty, Mean Girls entitlement where I really feel like Olivia might go up to her ex's new girl and ask her how her pussy tastes or tell the new girl that she's having sloppy seconds.

The world Chappell was building in "Casual" felt more like an Insecure episode for the white girlies. Like "hey, you were just eating me out in the backseat, I thought we agreed to keep things casual" lol. (It still would be casual for me, Chappell. Don't get wrapped up because I'm a real eater!) It instantly felt more grounded, more authentic and more relatable, even THOUGH Olivia's brand of music tries SO HARD to appear relatable.

I don't know. I'll just end this at I thought the cultural moment would be centered around "Casual" the way that it was centered around "driver's license" but it's not. It's centered around viral Tiktok fame and Chappell is competing with The Last Dinner Party for who can put on the most theatrical ass performances. But this is still early in her career and we all know pop is about eras, so I'm still holding out for her CTRL era personally lmao.

[thatonedemonnamedlucifer]

i used to like hazbin hotel and helluva boss before i got burned out on it. but there was a reason i tried to avoid a huge part of the fandom. it wasn't because of the shipping. it was because of the discourse around some ships and characters. as an aspec, I genuinely did not mind seeing alastor get shipped. what bothered me was the amount of people who erased his aspec identity. and... don't even get me started on the discourse around angel dust. and sadly, this sort of thing doesn't just happen in fandoms of tv shows, video games, books or movies either. i've sadly seen these things happen in sports and music fandoms too. and not just the gatekeeping and harassment aspects, i've seen puritan mindsets as well. and surprisingly, most of the puritan stuff isn't rpf related at all. In 2021, it was revealed that the Chicago Blackhawks (an NHL team) covered up a sexual assault of a player (i'll spare the details, but long story short back in 2010 basically a coach SAed a player and got away with it). fans were very rightfully upset! however, some fans went a bit too far; many of them started pinning some of the blame on blackhawks fans as well, as saying trash like "if you're still a blackhawks fan you are a part of the problem". heck, many people actually started sending harassment and death threats to blackhawks fans. one hawks fan on twitter even got a fucking RAPE threat because of it. mind you, the hawks were already controversial because of their logo and patrick kane (who was at one point accused of sa himself before he was cleared; that incident resulted in people harassing hawks fans as well).

heck, even years later I *still* see people comment underneath the posts of Hawks fans referencing Kyle Beach (who was one of many victims of the coach). I get being angry, I do! But where is the justice in harassment? heck, it was one reason why i avoided hockeyblr for a while, because i was worried i'd get harassed not for being a hawks fan (im actually a blues fan lol), but because i liked some of the players (even the ones that wearn't even around during 2010). thankfully my experiences so far have been nothing but positive, but the fact i was anxious at all..

honestly, i think the one thing that would solve this is if fans actually took the chance to learn media literacy and held each other accountable. you want a less toxic fandom? HOLD YOUR FELLOW FANS ACCOUNTABLE AND ACTUALLY CALL OUT HARMFUL BEHAVIOR. You want a less toxic fandom? USE THE BLOCK BUTTON, FILTER YOUR STUFF AND TAG YOUR STUFF. you want a less toxic fandom? LEARN MEDIA LITERACY. you want a less toxic fandom? SIMPLY STOP BEING SHITTY TO OTHER PEOPLE. you want a less toxic fandom? RESPECT PEOPLE'S BOUNDARIES!

sorry to be once again discourse-y, but i think people need to realize that the problem with fandom isn't shipping, fanfiction, porn or even fandom existing. the actual reasons why most fandoms become so toxic and unwelcoming is the encouragement of harassment. it's "proship vs anti" discourse (both the people and the terms themselves). it's the puritan mindsets. it's the superiority complexes that people get. it's the gatekeeping. it's the ableism, queerphobia, racism and misogyny. it's the lack of media literacy. it's sheltering people that have done harm (predators, pedophiles, bigots, fascists, etc) all of those are why fandom become toxic.

while i do agree that there ship pairings that are *yikes* and that romanticizing dark elements is *also yikes*, those aren't the main issues. i'd argue that those are a symptom of many of the above, particuarly poor media literacy, sometimes queerphobia (especially when it comes to ace characters), misogyny and a bunch of other things. (well. it's also because some people are just... shitty. but that goes without saying).

[pianostarinwonderland]

Being excited that twst is getting an anime vs having to deal with toxic newcomers

Okay, I’m going to take this opportunity to make a say about all this.

I get it. I get the fear and nervousness of having to see potentially new toxic people. I get the fear of seeing more misinformation about Twst and seeing old misinformation getting revived and spread around.

But why do we have to focus on that?

Why are we focusing on new toxic fans to deal with instead of new friends to talk to? Why are we focusing on the dreadful ideas of people being horrible instead of the exciting ideas of what the anime could possibly have? Why are we focusing on the negative instead of the positive?

Listen. There are two things in this world that exist: the acts of ignoring and blocking. You see someone being shitty? Well damn, either you look away or if they’re being a particular bother to you, block them. If they’re a mutual, then unfollow first. You see Twitter or Tumblr festering with people going, “Wtf is this horny Twisted Wonderland game, how dare Disney do this to our beloved villains???” or something? Stop scrolling, close the app, and keep your interactions with your trusted circle of friends.

Now, if someone is spreading misinformation about the game, then by all means, correct them and educate them! But do it nicely because many of these folks genuinely don’t know that Twst is not an otome or that the characters aren’t exactly the same as their respective villains, only inspired by them. Besides, I’m sure that many of you have been exposed to the whole “Twst is an otome” thing before actually finding out that no, it is not.

“But they’re saying the wrong things about my favorite game! Let me at them!!”

No. You can correct them without being mean.

Don’t be rude.

Don’t be harsh.

Don’t be hostile.

On the topic of hostility, I wish to bring up one thing: stop gatekeeping. Twisted Wonderland is public property. Whether you like it or not, it is out in the public, and thus, people will discover it and get into it. “But I don’t want their dirty hands touching my Malleus!” I hate to break it to you, but Twisted Wonderland is not yours. It belongs to Disney. Malleus is not yours. Neither are Leona or Azul or Jade or Floyd or any of them. He’s yours in your dreams, but in reality, none of the characters belong to anyone but Disney and Yana since they created them.

And if you’re going to be gatekeeping new fans because you don’t want to invite more potential toxicity, I want you to consider one more thing: yourself. Sure, there are people who are wacko in the head, but there are also people who haven’t done anything wrong or made genuine mistakes in their excitement as they were looking up the game. Possibly, there are more nice people than weirdos. Who is really being the toxic one, the person who’s just excited about this Disney game, or the person who’s being hostile towards potentially new fans?

There is a reason why people call the Twst fandom toxic.

So all-in-all, more fans may mean more toxicity, but that doesn’t mean we should focus on that. We can look away, we can block, and if there is misinformation going around, then we can educate and correct nicely. All that time spent on complaining about misinformation can be time spent on explaining what Twisted Wonderland is. All that time spent on complaining about toxic fans can be time spent on conversing with your friends. All that time spent on thinking about the dreadful possibilities of new fans making it worse can be time spent on thinking about the exciting possibilities the Twst anime can fulfill.

[soul-dwelling]

Have you heard something about Ohkubo being racist? I saw some twitter links, which due to personal reasons I cant check for myself, but otherwise couldnt find anything on.

Shared September 18, 2021

I've sat on this question for a long time, and yet my answer will still be incomplete. As I am white, I want to be aware of the white privilege I have, and I anticipate I am going to give a response that fails to address certain topics and concerns--and is just going to be flat-out wrong in a lot of parts. I anticipate I will get things wrong below, I don't like that, but I want to be open to reading more and figuring out what I'm getting wrong so I can fix what I get wrong. And I want to learn from any responses I receive--so I encourage any responses, and I will read and consider them.

At the time when I received this question, I was not aware of any Twitter links regarding accusations of Ohkubo being racist. Despite being a huge fan of Soul Eater, this was something I was unaware of, and I was purposefully ignoring--because I was ignoring any discourse around Fire Force, not around Ohkubo or Soul Eater in general. While I have followed what Soul Eater stuff is out there, I have purposefully avoided a lot of Fire Force content since the anime was announced--including muting any Fire Force stuff on Twitter. While I do not regret avoiding Fire Force stuff (there is only so much annoyance I can take from that franchise), I do regret overlooking this discussion around racism in Ohkubo’s works, I regret that, and I apologize for overlooking it right now--and in the past.

Because I have overlooked racist elements in Ohkubo’s prior works, including in Soul Eater, including on this very blog. I don’t think apologizing is enough, and I am determining what steps I can take to handle this better--and that starts with acknowledging the racist elements in his works. I think some have unfortunate implications that need to be debated.

For example, one Twitter remark I read asked why the South American meister had to be Enrique instead of a human. (And, I anticipate, how that leads to its own set of unfortunate implications, associating being from South America to being a monkey, regardless Tezca, his visual conceit, and his powers being derived from, not South American cultures only or exactly, but from Aztec and indigenous Mexican cultures.) I don’t think adding Enrique as a meister is bad, when the joke works; I think adding Enrique, and not more South American human characters, is a problem, and when your one South American meister is a non-human animal, when no other meister in the series, especially of a Death Scythe, has been a non-human animal, this is going to stick out and be offensive. I have seen and written stories with animals as meisters to weapon partners; it is a great idea, having Enrique be that character is great, but it is a missed opportunity that erases a spot where a person of South American could have been. Having Tezca as one such South American person helps, but again, this is a missed opportunity.

As an aside, this also opens up unfortunate implications to having Black Star being mistaken by Liz as a monkey, given headcanon I’ve seen from fans about Black Star’s identity with regard to Japanese ethnicities and the fact that Black Star does have dark skin.

And another set of Twitter remarks focused on the stylized designs to the band playing at the DWMA Anniversary Party (and here). Regardless whether stylization was used on white characters in that scene, the stylization on the Black characters who were performing in the band is drawing upon a history of racist images (the lips on drummer and cellist) and is racist. I’ll get to this later, but I agree with this remark that it’s bizarre that Ohkubo did this despite what he has done well with inclusiveness amongst his cast. And like I’ll also say later, it’s like me sitting here thinking “How could he do so well at writing a girl lead like Maka in an action series, then fail so badly writing Tamaki in his follow-up series?” My pathetic answer is that no creator is perfect, they make mistakes--and it becomes infuriating when they screw up so badly and don’t seem to learn from that screw-up, don’t show regret, don’t fix what they broke, and don’t improve. I’ve ranted enough here on this blog that I don’t think Ohkubo has grown with his audience: I think he keeps making the same immature mistakes (immature in terms of his craft, immature as well in terms of his humor).

And since I did bring up the monkey remarks about Enrique and Black Star, there are the major sets of discourse around racism in Ohkubo’s works, that being Maka referring to Sid, who is Black, as a gorilla (not to mention “thuggish”), and Shinra in Fire Force referring to Charon, who has dark skin, as a gorilla.

Regardless the excuses made (“racism in Japan is not the same as racism elsewhere”--which, no, fuck that, people globally including in Japan know the racist associations made where being Black or brown is associated by racists with non-human primates), I don’t get why no one, from Ohkubo to his editors to distributors to audiences including me, do not say more about this racist detail.

And I don’t get why no editor or localization staff bothered to change it. I have not sat through the Fire Force dub, but I hope someone working at localization changed the line. (It’s one thing to change a subtitled line and avoid something offensive at the cost of accuracy in translation, including accurately translating content even when it’s awful, or else you’re just covering up for the awfulness in the original work. But it’s another thing to not revise the line for dubbing, when you should have more flexibility in that kind of adaptation.)

(And that’s not getting into casting white actors as Black characters in the Soul Eater dub, but I hope I can address that another time with more depth should Soul Eater ever get a continuation or a re-dub...which, given how enough of the original dub cast have fucked over their careers and revealed their abusiveness and toxic bullshit in their personal lives, either a new anime or a new dub sounds good right about now.)

The responses to this criticism have been to rightly point out that Ohkubo does include numerous varied portrayals of Black characters (also here and here and here), drawing upon Black identities from the United States and Africa, especially for characters like Kilik and Ogun. But, me personally, pointing out what is done well does not negate what is done badly. (And yes, just because I think Maka Albarn is a great representation of a girl character in shonen doesn’t negate how Ohkubo fucked up with Chapter 113 and all of Tamaki in Fire Force).

As a creator, you’re supposed to fix what you did wrong, you don’t distract from what you did wrong by doing something else well later. You fix the character in front of you, not only make new characters and let that distract the audience from what you did wrong. You fix Sid (which, for me, means some potential adjustments to character design and not calling him a freaking gorilla); you don’t distract by creating Kilik and Ogun. You fix Tamaki (give her more to do, don’t make every joke around fanservice, stop fucking sexualizing a 17-year-old); you don’t distract by pointing to Maka or Maki. That’d be like me excusing something I did wrong in one set of responsibilities by asking you to look at something good I did: that doesn’t fix what I did wrong by mistake. Asking people to “leave the medium” is not helping: this is a debate, you get to watch something, you get to decide for yourself whether you think something is racist or misread, I’m not up for gatekeeping people to block them from either criticizing something or enjoying something.

And while your enjoyment of something can reflect on your values (if you keep liking jokes calling Sid a gorilla, what does that say about you?), I said “can,” not “does,” it is by context and debate (you can enjoy slasher movies without being a serial killer, etc).

I wish I had something more meaningful to say, and I don’t like that I don’t. I want to be a better ally, but just being aware that there are racist elements to this series, and just stating awareness, is not sufficient for me. It’s one reason why my focus is on uplifting fan content that does far better at handling inclusiveness and representation in this series. But my focus has been on representations of gender in the series--and that is my fault for not doing more to focus on representations of race and ethnicity, and I wish my apology would be enough, and it’s not, so I’m trying to figure out what I can do that is better. I will read feedback to do better.

[everybody-loves-purdy]

//Swearing + child grooming TW; generally long post

I’m genuinely glad to see people call out the WCRP forums bc I have never seen anyone else do so before, and I didn’t know they were THIS bad. Most users are the worst kind of person to be around; a bunch of snotty, entitled, 11-15 year old white abled kits who think it’s okay to attack people over having different opinions, not roleplaying the way they wanted to, daring to breathe in the wrong direction, etc. I almost considered getting an account at some point; clearly I dodged a bullet.

It’s like acknowledging this series flaws and the communities it harms makes you an radical SJW or some shit. I genuinely came across someone respond to another user stating the series had ableism with a very aggressive “go back to Tumblr”. Lmfao but YES. Come here instead! We’re a better community who can acknowledge this site is less than perfect, get in significantly less fights for less petty reasons, and we don’t go around acting like we’re better than everyone else and anyone with criticism of Brambleshit or the series’ treatment of disabled people should die.

I found a Tumblr blog that discusses the OP’s bad experiences on the forums as well as taking asks from others (don’t wanna tag in case it sends haters their way bc they have anon on, but you can look it up with the #WCRP forums tag and find their post on how bad the mods are, then find them that way). The synopsis is that roleplays are riddled with gatekeeping, people bully each other constantly, staff are ignorant to everything going wrong, and apparently there was outright child grooming going on that the adults just ignored.

And I agree with the previous anons that these people unreasonably believe they’re hot shit or that they’re some kind of silent majority/better part of the fan base, and hearing that they’ll ban for any reason with zero way to negotiate or even hear about why they’re banned is pretty distasteful. No wonder there’s banned accounts everywhere.

Most users just a bunch of usually completely unreasonable, similarly toxic people and a bunch of kids who came just to have fun but ended up getting bullied by older kids and adults alike in a very unsafe environment that other people neglect to make safe. Anyone who isn’t like that is welcome here. The mods there need consequences for their actions.

It’s weird, like you say I don’t see forum callout happen often, but it is just generally a taboo thing to talk about with the wider warriors community- it’s just an unspoken thing just to not go on the forums because of issues like these. Like I say the main times the forum’s existence is acknowledged is because of the spoilers being posted on there. Hell that’s how I first learned about them otherwise I wouldn’t know they existed.

And I had no idea about the gr**ming that is extremely alarming to learn about.

[communistkenobi-archive]

i don’t know what the larger plot purpose of chapter 9 was. i appreciated the fact that the tusken raiders/sand people (i don’t know what to call them cos both terms seem kinda colonial to me) were treated better than in previous star wars episodes. sometimes i wonder tho if the episode just existed to hype of the fans with good action and slash fic bait :(

i still think star wars treatment of the tuskin raiders could be better cos i felt the episode still “othered” them quit a bit. like i felt we weren’t supposed to relate to them like we relate to the marshall’s townspeople if that makes sense :(

The Tusken thing is definitely valid (most of the people who died during the krayt dragon fight were Tuskens iirc), and while The Mandalorian goes a long way to redressing past problems in the canon, I think at certain points it’s impossible to ever fully repair that damage, because you are still representing Indigenous people as an alien species contrasted against the (still largely white and human) colonial default. I think Din being the go-between was a decent way to approach this because he’s also from a group of people who have a long history of colonisation and imperial violence (not just from the Empire but from the Republic as well), but still, those dynamics can never fully be disentangled from their racist elements because the racism is baked into the text. To remove that racism fully would require a complete and total overhaul of the story (which is not a bad thing at all! It just takes more work). 

As for the narrative function of Chapter 9 - I think the most important part of that episode was watching Din interact with someone wearing Mandalorian armour who was not actually a Mandalorian (while also recently being threatened to have his own armour stripped off of him and sold to someone else). It puts his comments to Bo-Katan and Boba Fett later in the season into a much better context. Din is familiar with people purchasing stolen beskar and wearing it for the acclaim and the practical use, but they get to do so without the related baggage and history of suffering Imperial violence. What Vanth did was essentially a form of Mandalorian identity “tourism” - he reaped the rewards from presenting himself as a Mandalorian and using the armour to win fights and gain social power, but he could still shed the armour the moment it was inconvenient or difficult for him. This is something Din cannot do, which is part of why he (rightly) finds it so offensive and is ready to kill Vanth the moment they meet. Because Din knows if someone kills him, they will be walking around wearing his own skin.

That’s also why it’s frustrating to see people say Din is like, “gatekeeping” or being overly exclusionary when he makes the comments he does to Bo-Katan or Boba, because we saw him be threatened with having his armour sold off, and we saw him interact with a man who became a sheriff because he had a set of Mandalorian armour that he didn’t earn. We’ve just spent an entire season with Din where people constantly threaten, harass, and abuse him because of who he is, so obviously he’s going to be deeply suspicious of anyone who removes their armour in public. It doesn’t mean he can’t still be wrong about that assumption (because both Bo and Boba are Mandos), but he has entirely valid reasons for those assumptions, and they aren’t because he wants to be prudish or overly exclusionary. 

[camilliar]

recs for someone new to omgcp

[February 2021.]

Reading, or not reading, OMGCP fics has come up in a couple of conversations I’ve had recently with artists newish to the fandom (ie. @jovishark; @decafffff), who are making OMGCP art (!!!) but haven’t started exploring fic -- but maybe want to? Which of course reminded me that I’ve never bothered to make an actual, concrete recs list for this fandom. So, I mean. Here is one.

The approach is, what do I think about when I think about OMGCP fanfic? What comes to mind, what stands out to me? I have excluded some very popular fics. Some of these I just don’t think are very good, and others I do think are good, and/or I enjoy them, but I don’t see why you’d need me, specifically, to recommend them. I am thinking of a story like maybe i’m waking up, which I discuss below because I link to a podfic of it. It has a lot of merits, to be sure, but it’s the second-most-read fic in this fandom by hits, and it’s got thousands of comments, and it’s by an author whose work is relatively widely praised and circulated. I am not sure what telling you more about this fic will add to the conversation; if you want to find and read it, you inevitably will. I’m happy to, say, answer asks about these kinds of fics, or talk more generally about them via DM or whatever. Feel free.

Also, I don’t think there’s a point to pretending to be objective about fanfic; this list has a perspective and that perspective is mine. In this fandom I largely read stories that navigate the tension around Jack, Bitty, and Parse, in various permutations. This is not to say that I’ve never read fic about the frogs, or that I have no interest at all in other pairings, but I am by no means an expert on Dex/Nursey and can really only speak to the one fic about them that sticks out to me because it goes beyond being merely Dex/Nursey and does something else. This is just to say that I am sure there are great and interesting fics about other things and ideas--but I’m not the person to hear about those from.

Likewise, I’m not super interested in stories that really reproduce that which is already in OMGCP. I like Zimbits--albeit maybe not in the ways or for the reasons most fans would--but I do not really need to see endless iterations of the same story about them falling in love and being cute together. I don’t think these stories are bad or they shouldn’t exist or that they have no merit by default. Still, I don’t need fanfic to give me more OMGCP. I need fanfic to complicate, to comment on, and to transform OMGCP. Many people don’t work like this! Totally okay! But I can’t rec you fics that do that.

What I have noticed, however, is that over time there appears to have been a shift in how people do write fic for this fandom. (Other than, you know, increases and decreases in activity pending the status of the comic, pairings going in and out of vogue, and so on.) Early on, say during Y1 and Y2, the comic was about the group of friends having a cool time at college together; about whether the burgeoning attraction between Jack and Bitty would manifest and, if so, how; and, especially, Jack’s past coming into fuller view for Bitty and how it would have to be dealt with in order for a relationship between them to work. YMMV on how great the comic executed there, but as Y3 went on these themes increasingly disappeared from the story. I think this means a lot of fic written over 2015-2016 or 2017 has one kind of tone, and was written mostly around these questions; after that, it feels like a new crop of writers and a new crop of ideas started circulating, that is, either embracing Jack and Bitty’s canon relationship and accepting its relative straightforwardness in text--or deconstructing it, imagining what readers aren’t seeing, or how problems not dealt with in the comic would manifest later. People who have read my fic know which of these I’m mainly interested in exploring.

All of which is to say, looking at what I’m reccing here, when the fics were posted or when I first read them probably has a lot to do with why they stick out to me so much. Because there’s no real culture of fanfic criticism--and I mean that in the positivist sense of broad evaluation not explicitly for fault and merit but rather, for context--I think it’s really hard to keep this in mind. But I’m obnoxious and I can’t just be easy about things.

Fic recs

In alphabetical order, somewhat unsorted; if a stand-alone fic has a summary I’ve included it, but in other cases I’ve recced a couple of conceptually related fics or series, which I’ve tried to just describe or explain as opposed to copying the summary off AO3.

There are so many more fanfics I think are great and worth reading! In an ideal world I’d come back and add more later, or create a secondary list that’s more along the lines of “if you like this, read these,” or whatever. But, being realistic, this is a starter kit. I’m open to talking about fanfic.

- - - - - - - - - - -

7-0-2 by Idday; Friends in Low Places and Sorry for the Blood in Your Mouth; I Wish it was Mine by blue_rocket_frost | I’m not sure it would be correct to say that I don’t like Parse/Tater, or that I’m not interested in Parse/Tater. I’m not interested in Patater a priori; I think it could be interesting, with teeth. These fics stick out to me when I think about this pairing, because they feel different. Accusations of a preference for just linking any two white men who happen to be hanging around have validity, but because of what hockey is and how it works and who’s hanging around it, it’s not exactly a leap to imagine what kind of gritty spark the friction between two closeted NHL players would create. A little violence in your sex? A little sex in your violence.

A Sight Worth Seeing by sadtomato | A four-fic Jack/Bitty/Shitty/Lardo explicit BDSM series. Either you want that or you don’t. It’s nothing hardcore, and not properly a four-way, really; more properly a kind of voyeuristic round-robin. There’s a more open and egalitarian view of sex here than I really get from the characters in the back end of the comic. It’s an expansive, propulsive view of sex and relationships that’s really nice to see. I love Lardo's detached coolness, and Bitty as a smooth operator; if you’re looking for some kind of Dom/sub dynamics world, this really isn’t it, but it’s a lively exploration into the sexual dynamics in a group of friends that’s super close to the good-times vibe you get from Haus scenes in the first couple years of extras.

call me son (one more time) by Summerfrost, Verbyna, and blithelybonny | This is a series, incomplete, and you will love it or be massively put off by it. I mean that as a compliment. I love it. The premise is, Bob Zimmermann and Kent Parson have been having sex since Kent was, like, 19. Everyone in this story has been chewed up: by themselves, by each other, by hockey. Plainly, this is a pretty bleak view of what OMGCP, as a story, is supposedly offering. If you want fic that is dark and glamorous, treading the toxic melange of substance abuse, sex-as-sublimation, and so much money you can’t possibly throw all of it away without trying, this series has that sick-inducing shimmer to it. But, again, its strength is its examination of Kent Parson, textually and meta-textually, as someone to be projected onto. Bob, Alicia, Jack, and Bitty all impute certain feelings of their own onto him, displacing their own issues to a character who’s centralized in every fic but defies neat or total comprehension. Some critiques I’ve read of this series feel it’s too dark, and I’ve also seen it argued on FFA that an overwhelming amount of praise heaped onto these stories has made it tough for other writers to make headway in writing Bob/Kent fic. But I’m also not sure you could engage with Bob/Kent fic without going down this road at some point? I’m sure there are ways to scale it back, but ultimately it’s a story about how hockey’s violent, homophobic, old-guard gatekeeping has continued to set the terms for a younger and ostensibly less toxic culture. I fully embrace PWP fics that tread on the power dynamic without fully excavating it, but buried within any PWP is the fact that a 53-year-old man is ensnaring a 19-year-old, no matter how much the latter is, realistically, into it, and legally empowered to consent. Not to mention the dynamics of it being a 53-year-old man who is the father of the 19-year-old’s ex-boyfriend, and a 53-year-old man who is an eminence grise in the field the 19-year-old is trying to make a career in  The sexual element--the vaguely incestuous nature of it--is making textual the subtext of how hockey works, actually: objectification of teenage bodies as older men’s capital.

Coach Z by thistidalwave | Just before the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, tp prospect Jack Zimmermann overdoses on his anxiety medication and is admitted to rehab. His future turns from a clear-cut road to the top into an uncertain path filled with therapy appointments, ignored text messages, a group of boys who aren't there to teach him a lesson about himself, and, of course, hockey. | I keep reccing this fic because it has 360 comments on AO3 but nobody, as far as I can tell, has ever read it; it never appears on rec lists. This isn’t the kind of fanfic I usually go in for, but I can’t help being charmed by it. This is a character study in the truest sense, a kind of Mighty Ducks-but-better view on what Jack’s time coaching peewee hockey might have been like. I have no interest in kids and my own aesthetic is maybe a little darker than this, but I admire this story because it injects vibrancy into a period of Jack’s life that OMGCP has left largely unexplored, and so has the fandom. We know nothing about what made Jack want to go to college, nothing about how he spent his days in between juniors and Samwell. It posits a very sympathetic and patient Jack/Parse dynamic, showcasing the exact kind of ragged teenage push-and-pull that would have led to the circumstances we see in Parse I-III. The outside perspective Jack needs is largely present in an OFC who’s not a love interest. Super unique, somehow both engrossing and low-key.

#dirtbags by angularmomentum | A series that is a Kent Parson/Claude Giroux fuckfest with feelings. I’ve long suspected that Parse is popular in part because he is the character who most easily elides OMGCP with the actual NHL, or rather, NHL fandom; I think he made it appealing to write OMGCP fics where the NHL is a factor. Case in point, this series, which is basically “what if Kent Parson was a real hockey player and therefore part of NHL RPS”? I have only read some NHL RPS, so I’m not the person to assess accuracy, but what I do know is superstar IRL hockey players take turns here as the caricature fanfic versions of themselves, and since Kent Parson is already that, it’s great how seamlessly he integrates into their social fabric. Rambunctious energy peppered with regret and loss, but ultimately this series is farcical, and it doesn’t take its sentimental ending too seriously--which, good.

fated to pretend by nighimpossible | 5 Jack/Kent fics that Ransom and Holster dramatically reenact for the Haus + the truth. | As a fic format, 5+1 doesn’t usually work for me, but this one isn’t just front-loaded with five too-knowing vignettes; it then wraps up by using its +1 better than you might expect. Sometimes I talk about economy of fic, and this one exemplifies it. A zero-waste fic.

go ahead and move along by originally | "Leave, Parse," Jack says. Again. Or: Kent finds himself stuck in a time loop. | Kent Parson is trapped in a Groundhog Day scenario on the day of Epikegster. I’m sure you can imagine, just from that, what happens. And yet I think this fic is super entertaining, reserving some key surprises. What this story is doing is something a lot, and perhaps even the majority, of great Jack/Parse fic wants to do: digging into the question of just why this can’t work in comic canon. Most often this is approached from the past, by writing teenage Jack/Parse deep-dives that examine their lives mid-juniors, or by writing AUs where enough circumstances are shifted that it does work, or via future fics that posit enough growth has happened, and enough things have changed. But this fic makes Parse live the same bad day again and again, testing multiple theories about just how dependent on circumstance and incident real life actually is. Another day, another tone, 10 minutes sooner, not at all--you just can’t know why it didn’t work until you exhaust every possible variable. I worry that this rec has sucked the life out of the story, though--it’s so fun!

I Saw a Life and Strange Lovers by @bluegrasshole | Most AUs in this fandom seem to retell the story in a new setting or with some big detail change, following OMGCP’s rhythm beat-for-beat. I think of this as, “It’s the plot of Check, Please, but” -- they’re doing high school football? They’re acrobats? They’re a/b/o? They’re in a DIY punk band? And so on. These two stories are not that! They’re both 1950s AUs, each deeply felt, and yet hugely different from each other. I Saw a Life is about displacement and fragmentation, two sides of a similar but incongruent social critique; Strange Lovers is a finely wrought social drama about coal mining in Nova Scotia in the 1950s, centered around historical events. I suppose a theme on this rec list is something like, “I don’t even like this, but” -- yes, okay, I don’t even like Dex/Nursey, but--! This fic is so overwhelmingly complete, the AU laid out so carefully that the story breathes with all the background details informing the writing that aren’t actually, in the story; you just know they’re below the surface. (With the exception of one investigation of Jack’s character in a short, separate fic.) I Saw a Life, meanwhile, really tests the limits of the notion that Jack and Bitty are soulmates--not by calling it into question but by asking, rather innovatively, how the setting and place of the comic itself activates that.

Les Hivers de mon enfance by staranise | What do you do when hockey is the language of prayer for your soul, and also the toxic thing that almost killed you? 2009: Jack Zimmermann takes a mental health year. God knows he needs it. | Here’s a fic by someone who’s no longer around so much, but she felt ubiquitous in 2016-2019 OMGCP fandom. Before any of that, though, she wrote this one lovely fic about Jack’s pre-Samwell recovery. The author is Canadian and really irritated by hockey culture, and I think this fic benefits greatly because she is clear-eyed about Jack’s being caught in an exploitative system; it’s hockey he’s in recovery for, in a way. There’s an epistolary element that works for me, too. I read this early on in my time in OMGCP fandom and it really stuck with me.

Lysistrata? I Hardly Know Her! (by which I mean everything) by @tomatowrites | It feels somehow like cheating to recommend OMGCP fanfics by my OMGCP BFF with whom I make an OMGCP podcast where we talk about OMGCP. You know the fics I really want to rec, like truly the ones that speak to some kind of shared depravity, are the ones where Jack is miserably mpreg for the second time and accidentally lets his kid see Kent Parson’s Long John Silver’s shrimp scampi promo spot, which obviously would get twisted into a self-hating three-way. How many times do I have to rec this fic? As many as I need to, is my feeling. If you don’t know, Long John Silver’s is an American fast-food chain that sells, like, fried pollock sandwiches; it is nautical-themed; I have never eaten there; I don’t know where there is one; I don’t eat fried fish. (Shrimp, on the other hand?) All of which is to say that it takes a real genius to investigate a premise that far out. And while a lot of people almost certainly will start reading this humanity’s depths-themed sex scene and back the fuck out, readers with refined taste will note that Kent, the point-of-view character, is right there with you, despairing that he can’t help himself. And so long as you’re in that story collection, honestly, you’ll love petite gems like Jack is transmasc, Jack and Shitty play hockey in 18th-century England, and oh, right, he’s from Georgia. Tomato holds the distinction of being probably the gamest author I know in this fandom, just really like fearless in her pursuit of any range of concept she’s pushed to. (I can push her to?) See, for example, a sublime bandom AU; Bitty is cancelled for buying a maybe-unethically exported Roman fragment of a youth’s torso; or, god, the masterwork that is this future fic series where Jack keeps relapsing and Bitty exiles him to their guesthouse. Do I think you need to read a fic where Bitty is snide about the teen prostitute whose baby they’re adopting? Yes, I mean, he would be snide, don’t tell me he wouldn’t. I could go on, but my main thing here is, if I have to pick just one, I’m going to pick this Lysistrata fic. The premise, literally, is that Bitty reads the Lysistrata and it gives him ideas. Like most of Tomato’s OMGCP fic, it’s a stripping away of the comic’s polite fiction that Jack and Bitty could possibly attain the ideal it reaches in the comic without some kind of messy, efflusive breakdown. Life is like that, you see! Tricky. Like a lot of people, although it’s tough to say precisely how many, I have always intuited that maybe Bitty is kind of a natural top? But obviously when you meet him, as a literal virgin, it’s hard to see how he’d go from zero to self-actualization so neatly. This fic floats a theory, and it has a fun little side plot for Whiskey, something I never thought about or needed before Tomato built it out herein. In conclusion, BONUS: Dex’s gay lobster novel.

only fools rush in and the light of all lights by decinq | This person wrote of the nature of the wound, one of the early, formative Jack/Bitty fics that was oft-recced when I was getting into the fandom in 2016. It forms part of a larger series that deals deeply with how Jack has been shaped by his struggles (? I hate this word) with homophobia and his own mental health. It’s a picture of the character as you might have imagined him much earlier in the comic’s run. The formatting is atrocious and he author’s flair is what Tomato would call “AO3 house style.” It’s a voice that works great for her writing. I think it’s at its best in these shorter fics; the former is about Parse and Shitty stumbling into a relationship almost accidentally; the latter, an eerie PBJ vampire fic. I had begun writing a fic where Parse is a vampire early on in this fandom, only to read this and immediately quit, because you only need one, and this one’s all I need. The Parse/Shitty rare pair fic shares its exuberance with hockey RPS when it’s good: here’s how fun it can be when you’re young, rich, and jocular. And I don’t even like accidental marriage AUs, they’re usually boring, so that says a lot. By all means, read the wound fic; read the entire series. But these are highly unusual.

OVERDOSE and Oomph and a little spin-o-rama by jedusaur | None of these are long, or plotty, and they’re all a little experimental. OVERDOSE is an AU set in a world where you know how you’ll die, but no details; Oomph, a little fic where Jack hears hockey pucks talking to him. This is the kind of stuff I used to think I’d find in fandom forever, coming out of Lotrips lurking in the 2000s: short, zany bursts of energy that surprise and delight. a little spin-o-rama peers at Kent’s character through the grim reality of being the hypertalented superstar stuck on a dead-last team. All three are sparse and stylish in a way that’s really smart, practically economical.

Sowing Season by @agrossunderstatement | Parse and Zimms, Zimms and Parse. Kent Parson's life, from the Q, through his early years with the Aces, to Jack's senior year. Canon divergent. A story of love, loss, moving on, regressing, hockey, and found families of all kinds. | Effectively a novel, digging into Kent’s personal history, mostly concerning his life in juniors but expanding into his present, overlapping with the plot of OMGCP. I think there is room enough for endless speculations on what went down pre-canon; this one offers a fuller life for Kent than nearly any others, digging into him as a whole person rather than as a satellite to Jack or the plot of the comic. Which isn’t to say that the Kent/Jack stuff isn’t dealt with here; it explicitly is. But the fact of Kent Parson’s life, if we can begin to imagine it beyond mere text, would exist before, after, and alongside Jack; he gets to juniors without Jack, presumably, and he is the captain of a hockey team without Jack, and Pinkerton lays the foundation of Parse’s character within a junior hockey that Jack also inhabits, more so that Parse existing for Jack, so to speak. And I’m not implying this latter tactic is wrong; I have certainly employed it, and others have employed it to great impact and effect. But, still, the title of this series tells you what you ought to know: Kent and his story are the potentiality of OMGCP, up to a point; seeds being planted. Young hockey players, similarly. The question implied there is, what will be reaped? And the answer to the latter, in a sense, that reaping is a sort of violence. Which makes this series sound pretty heavy, but it’s not -- more like, realistic.

(tell everyone) you were a good wife by @queerofcups | The biggest problem with pretending that he doesn’t know that Kent Parson is fucking his husband is that Jack can’t tell Kent how grateful he is. | The ne plus ultra of PBJ triangulation; I’ve been squealing to the writer about how good it is since August, begging for behind-the-scenes insights, and I’d only do that if I really meant it. The precarious social fabric stretched across these three chapters is fraying before the reader’s eyes. The details are delicious, and I don’t want to spoil them, but they sing in chorus with the plot. My favorite OMGCP fics, honestly, remove the romance narrative guardrails that keep things in the comic itself humming along. I think Dann’s take is to ask who in this comic has power and what they would end up doing with it. (Or not doing, from another angle.) At one point, early on in its telling, OMGCP looked like it was going to be a story dealing with the compounded traumas of hockey’s discontents. Then, of course, it wasn’t. This is a fic that steps back and asks what the fallout of that oversight would be. But that’s just the moldering core of this fanfic; it’s actually embroidered, like I said, with glittering detail. The color of the suit Bitty wears to his wedding is burned into my brain. The gray manicure of a woman Jack knows. The ingredients in a cake. This is one of those fics I still haven’t reviewed because the thought of stacking everything I could say about it into mere AO3 comments is inadequate.

when you’re ready by megancrtr | The Aces’ director of communications gets the call at 3:13 a.m. Jack Zimmermann has withdrawn from the draft. | “What happened at the draft” is so mythological it gets asked in the comic proper, and I’ve never counted how many fics attempt to answer this question--from Kent’s point of view, even--but it’s gotta be, oh, hundreds. This story replays the situation from the perspective of an Aces staffer who just wants to do her job, and gets at the jarring discordance between the plot of OMGCP in its quest for social justice and the business of actual hockey. Important context is that this story was written around the time the comic was playing out the end of Y3 and start of Y4, and Bitty pointedly asked Jack the question, “why can’t we?” This story reframes the question as literal, rather than rhetorical. A sterling example of fanfic being a gloss on its source.

BONUS, podfics

hockeyed up | There are many things on Jack's mind. Namely: hockey, hockey, Bitty, hockey, anxiety, hockey, hockey, anxiety, Bitty, hockey, hockey, anxiety, and hockey. | A fic read aloud by its French-Canadian author. Also a relatively early OMGCP fanfic; composed while the first semester of Y2 was posting, the story suggests a version of OMGCP that was in some ways more and in other ways less complex than what it would turn into not long after. The real power of this podfic, however, is that it’s read by the writer, so you can hear the intended emphasis in every line. Also, because she’s French-Canadian, Sophie’s intonation is what I picture when I read or write dialogue for Jack.

maybe i’m waking up | It’s almost funny. All he ever wanted was to play hockey, to play in the NHL, to win the Cup. This—Samwell, the team, the Haus—was supposed to be just a detour, but now it feels more like a destination he failed to realize he’s already reached.(Or: Jack signs with the Falconers, graduates, and leaves. It's the hardest thing he's ever done. What comes after is even harder.) | Don’t get too excited; this isn’t finished. A podfic of probably the best-known, most-recced fic in OMGCP fandom. Striking for its use of metatext woven into the story, this is one of several early longform Jack/Bitty fics that posits that maybe Jack has a lot more development to undergo before he can really, truly, be okay--or be okay enough to be with Bitty? To be honest, this story strikes me now as too long, but the parts in it that work are effective beyond that which fanfic demands. Meanwhile, this audio version only covers six chapters, but it’s so slick, so well-realized, so true to the story. Podfic as art.

my own dear friends | Ever since the day he met Jack Zimmermann, Shitty has seen it as his solemn duty to aggressively love him. (He just didn't know how aggressive the love Jack needed would be.) | There’s previous little Jack/Shitty in this fandom and a lot less quality BDSM,

the city’s ours until the fall | Kent has been, historically, good at this—forgetting about things until suddenly he doesn’t, and then it’s like the scar has never been there in the first place, just the wound. (Or: Kent Parson lets himself be happy, after all this time.) | I’ve never read this fic and I never will. I cannot imagine how, no matter how good it is, it could compare to the version that lives in my head, with Kent’s voice so totally realized. Vocal fry and pathos, a languid energy that I still think about when I think about Parse.

the model home | It’s going to be better, and that’s great, but sometimes Jack thinks, why can’t it be good right now? | j/k j/k, this is a self-reminder to finally one day review this.

[bigskydreaming]

what are your opinions on we are robin?

Massively complicated by the fact that DC's writers don't have an ACAB bone in their collective bodies.

Dunno how new to my blog you are and thus how familiar or not you are with my ACAB stance for Dick and my personal tendency to never acknowledge or interact with the specific idea of Dick as a cop...like there's more than enough material for me to work with without ever having to delve into that and I fundamentally believe being a cop is counter to everything I see as Dick's core premise and makes no sense given the specific origins and continuities I view as most 'him' -

But I WOULD have a lot of thoughts about how Dick would feel about this massive city-wide movement that he had no hand in creating and how he would inevitably feel personally responsible for every life to put on a facscimile of his family's costume AND the things they did in those costumes (such as the kid who was manipulated into killing someone while in that guise, per the Court of Owls' agenda).....

AND I would have a ton of thoughts about the fact that it was Alfred who secretly engineered this movement and how he of all people should know how Dick might feel about that, and thus how Dick WOULD feel about that information, but complicated and coupled with the fact that Alfred most certainly was motivated in part by his grief for Dick and seeing this as a kind of legacy, a way to honor his grandson, and able to justify to himself any transgressions towards Dick's feelings here with the idea that Dick wasn't alive TO be hurt by his actions here....

BUT the reason I avoid engaging with We Are Robin content beyond acknowledging it as Duke's origin story in the background of Duke content I write....

Is I absolutely can not - or more to the point - WILL NOT - attempt to justify Dick's decision to get all the kids arrested and locked up for their own safety while he went after the Court alone.

To be clear - I absolutely am of the opinion that Dick was and always will be right and justified in not wanting to see anyone get hurt in the colors and image of his family's legacy. That this has absolutely NOTHING to do with his impression of any such individual's competency, nor is it about trying to restrict their agency. That its wholly a PERSONAL thing for him, its a private instinct that is entirely reasonable and allowable, for him to have a kneejerk need to keep more people from dying or suffering in that specific mantle that he never intended to BE a legacy beyond just himself.

I headcanon that after Jason himself, nobody hated the memorial in the cave more than Dick, because the last image he had of his family was them lying dead on the ground of the circus ring, just broken bodies colored from high above in the classic Grayson colors and covered in blood. That THAT specifically is the image Dick so often saw in his nightmares in his early years in the Manor, that is the SPECIFIC visual Bruce so often comforted him about upon waking....and that it was a massive slap in the face and an indication of Bruce's most unfortunate tunnel-vision tendencies in his own grief, that it never even OCCURRED to Bruce that in memorializing Jason in the specific way he did, he was also subjecting Dick to a constant, ever present visual reminder of one of Dick's personal most traumatic images....the sight and idea of his family, now not just his parents but also his brother....reduced to just broken, bloody costumes he'd never get to see as anything but that again.

Not to mention then captioning this memorial with "a good soldier" and thus in the process of disrespecting Jason's true bond with Bruce, simply because Bruce couldn't handle that at the time and was trying to literally DISTANCE himself from that view of his loss, the loss of a son, of family....Bruce simultaneously disrespected Dick's legacy of his family and everything he'd created Robin to be, and envisioned Jason-as-Robin to be from the moment Dick gave Jason his own old costume and embraced him as the new Robin and by extension, HIS family as much as Bruce's.....like, no matter what Bruce intended for HIMSELF and his feelings about Jason's death with that caption, he literally reduced Dick's tribute to his parents and expression of brotherhood to his brother to.....nothing more than the uniform of a child soldier, a subordinate of the Batman in HIS personal crusade. Something that Jason never actually was, and Dick CERTAINLY had never created - or gave Jason his blessing as - Robin to be.

So on that front, I have no problem with Dick WANTING to keep all the Robins, every child who called themselves one, safe - and to take on the Court of Owls alone, by himself, because like it or not, that will ALWAYS be personal for him. That is about HIS family in a way that it will never be about the family, the heritage, of anyone else, even his adopted siblings. The Court were after HIM, specifically, and always were and always would be. I don't see anything hypocritical about Dick's desire to keep kids out of that fight when he himself would have never been okay with Bruce benching him as Robin in some random fight....because this fight is deeply personal for Dick in a way that's not transferable, and to be honest, I see his desire to keep anyone else from dying as a Robin, in a fight against the Court ESPECIALLY....I see it as an inherently selfish want of Dick's. 

A selfishness that I think he's entirely justified in having. Its not about anyone but him. Its about HIM not having to deal with the burden of any more deaths in his family's colors, his family's name, when he in all likelihood originally created Robin in that particular guise because he figured he'd likely die as Robin at some point, and thus he'd never have to see anyone die in the image of his family's costume and colors ever again because the only person left TO die in them, at the time, was he himself.....thus kinda ensuring for Dick that when he did die, he'd go out just as his parents did, which in his youth at least was likely a weirdly kinda comforting idea for him.

So on the one hand, Dick's desire to keep the kids out of harm's way was ultimately a selfish - but justifiably so - desire to not see anyone else dead or injured in a literal WAR of CHILDREN being fought in his personal family colors and image....especially when 99% of them had literally no idea what the colors they were fighting in signified and meant for the mantle's original creator.

BUT.

BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT.

Where this all falls apart for me, and why I don't just go with this take and instead just kinda sidestep around the whole story itself and don't engage with it....

Is there's absolutely no way to 'fix' the story as is.....without coming up with an entirely different middle climax, in which Dick finds some way to sideline the kids without getting them all arrested.

Cuz see, what I'm NOT gonna ever do, is try and argue from an in story perspective, that Dick would ever be stupid enough, or try to justify, getting kids - many of them marginalized, and people of color specifically - arrested in the name of keeping them SAFE.

That's just stupid to the nth degree, and unilaterally the fault of DC's writers being oblivious to the real-world realities of police brutality and the interactions and dynamic people of color have with the actual police.

It was DC's fuck-up there, but I - especially as a white writer and fan - am not going to try and fix or transform that fuck up short of entirely rewriting the whole second half of We Are Robin's plot, which to be honest, I don't see as likely to ever be a priority for me as there's so much other content in Dick's narratives I'd rather get to first. Its just way too far down the list, the premise itself doesn't interest or engage me enough to make me WANT to invest in that particular story heavily enough to create a whole other direction for it, that navigates around the issue I have with it here.

So again, I mostly just....don't engage with it. Because I can't see Dick's stance on the issue of his family's legacy ever being other than what I always see it as, and thus see it as here, but I'm definitely never going to find it appropriate to write Dick trying to justify his decision to ENGINEER the police arresting all these kids for their PROTECTION....to a black character like Duke in specific.

Because its not. But again, this wasn't Dick's decision at the end of the day, because he's a fictional character who can only make the decisions he's written making. And thus it was the decision of writers who wrote these characters in situations that contained analogues to real world issues without keeping centered an awareness of how those issues intersect with people of different identities, particularly people of color and black people in specific.

So its not a decision that made me like, dislike Dick, because its one that I don't think he should have ever been written making, but its not a decision I care to justify in universe.

And that's about all I think I ever intend to - or even could - expand on that subject, I'm pretty sure. *Shrugs*

Oh wait, no, I lied!

Quick thought for white fans in particular....because I HAVE seen this subject tackled at least once or twice in fiction, from an ACAB standpoint that had Duke reaming out Dick for his decision here, for the same reasons I'm outlining above.....

This isn't an attempt to gatekeep or police anybody as like, I'm not actually ever trying to do that, I'd have to know every fic writer's personal identity and marginalizations TO do that, and I'm not pretending to know that or asking to, like, its just not on the menu for me so please don't get me wrong, this is purely aimed at a plea for white writers in particular to exercise personal accountability and good, sincere judgment in this regard:

No matter your personal feelings about Dick Grayson, the subject of Robin, or any of this in general, PLEASE keep in mind before utilizing Duke as a mouthpiece for giving Dick shit for this in the name of smearing the latter's character or making him look bad, like.....

Dick is of Romani descent. In the New 52 continuity as well as pre-Flashpoint. That's been made explicitly clear, and as such......there is no substitute in our current real world zeitgeist for the interactions the police have with black people, but please keep in mind that Romani people have a very, VERY long history of being subject to police brutality and persecution in a wide range of countries. Its a big part of why so many people are so uncomfortable with cop!Dick in the first place, and as such, it makes treating him as this naive, privileged white guy when having the realities of police brutality explained to him by another character, like.....not look exactly like you might intend there, because the reality is he's not SUPPOSED to be that character, but too few people at DC, and ESPECIALLY the people writing the We Are Robin stories, like, completely fail to ever extend the idea of Dick being Romani to any kind of examination of what kinds of lived experiences, perspective or perceptions this results in him having specifically.

And that's a failure on DC's part, but you don't need to go making it your failure as well, so for those of us who are white like, this really is something that should be kept centered before we decide to engage with story elements like the above one from We Are Robin, and like, if we do, then HOW we go about that specifically.

[claireingoldstein]

Valentine Mission

"Shikamaru!"

The man called Shikamaru turned his head and found the two Konoha gatekeepers, Izumo and Kotetsu walking towards him.

"Yo!" Shikamaru raised his hand to greet the two

. "You were summoned by Rokudaime too?" Izumo asked

"That's it, you too?" Shikamaru replied.

They both nodded. It was a strange thing for Shikamaru to see the two Konoha gatekeepers here. Usually the two of them were never assigned to a mission, except when the village was in an emergency.

"Hopefully it's not a troublesome thing," Shikamaru muttered then knocked softly on the Hokage's door.

After being ushered in, they opened the door to the room and stepped inside. Kakashi the Rokudaime Hokage was waiting for them.

"So, what's this time, Rokudaime-sama? Are you thinking of something weird again?" Shikamaru asked.

Understandably, this was the third time this week he had been summoned for some strange and unreasonable reason.

"It's rude of you to accuse me like that," Kakashi said while propping his chin up, "But... hasn't it been too boring lately?" asked Kakashi.

Shikamaru, Izumo, and Kotetsu sighed, for some reason they had a bad feeling. They waited for the Hokage to continue his words.

"I need a change of mood, I'm really bored right now," Kakashi said.

"You can work on the Alliance documents if you're bored, Hokage-sama," Shikamaru emphasized his words.

"It's not like that, Shikamaru. I have a plan," Kakashi said.

Do not ask. Do not ask. Shikamaru and Izumo restrained themselves from asking Kakashi what he meant.

"What is it, Rokudaime?" Kotetsu opened his voice and was immediately greeted with horrific stares from Shikamaru and Izumo. Kotetsu just smirked innocently.

"So ... on Valentine's Day tomorrow I want to see the results of your hard work. I will hold a contest, who gets the most chocolates will be the winner, and those who don't get any chocolates will receive punishment," said Kakashi.

The three young ninja present gaped in disbelief. Seriously, what does hard work have to do with valentine chocolate? Their Hokage is really extraordinarily weird.

'Well then, I'll get one from Ino' thought Shikamaru. Every year, Ino always makes Giri Choco (chocolate obligation) to share with her friends. So it wouldn't be a problem for Shikamaru to get one chocolate. Besides that, Izumo and Kotetsu also planned to ask their kunoichi friends to make one. As if realizing their thoughts, Kakashi again said,

"Oh yeah, Giri Choco doesn't count, nor can you ask for it," Kakashi smiled behind his mask.

"WHAT?!?!" The three men shouted at the same time.

They left the room languidly.

"How about it, if it wasn't Giri Choco, I couldn't possibly get it from Ino. She must have given it to Sai," Shikamaru muttered.

Ino, his best friend, has told him and Chouji many times this week about her plans to confess to Sai on this Valentine's Day.

"Shikamaru!" Shikamaru turned around and found his blonde best friend appear with a big smile.

"Naruto" The two of them are walking side by side now.

"Kakashi Sensei is acting up again, huh..." Naruto started the conversation.

Kakashi had indeed summoned all the shinobi and told them about the contest. Their reactions varied, some were happy, surprised, angry, and so on.

"Yeah that's how it is, but you shouldn't have a problem right? You'll get it from Hinata," said Shikamaru lazily.

Hinata and Naruto have indeed become an official couple since they completed the previous Hanabi rescue mission. And of course, on their first Valentine's Day, Hinata will give Naruto her Honmei chocolate (love chocolate).

"You have to try, Shikamaru. Have you heard what the punishment is?" asked Naruto.

" What it is?" Shikamaru asked curiously.

"The punishment is, you have to escort Aunt Hiruko to shop for a week," Naruto replied with a horrified look.

The two of them immediately imagined the figure of Aunt Hiruko, a rich woman who was a fan of handsome men.

"Damn it... Kakashi really knows how to torture people," said Shikamaru.

"That's why...everyone is trying right now," Naruto said. Just as Naruto finished his sentence, they heard the conversations of the ninjas around them.

"Please, please give me some chocolate!" said a brown-haired ninja to the kunoichi in front of him.

'Has he forgotten that chocolate can't be asked for?' Shikamaru thought, both amused and sorry for the sight in front of him. Meanwhile, next to them another shinobi shyly said to the kunoichi in front of him,

"I've actually been thinking about this for a long time, will you be my lover"

'Die me!' Shikamaru thought. Looks like everyone will get chocolate  except him.

"I can't believe everyone is so serious about Valentine's Day tomorrow, this is going to be so troublesome." Shikamaru collapsed.

While Naruto just looked at him with sorry. The next day, the atmosphere in the city of Konoha completely changed. The men seemed to be busy tidying themselves up and approaching the kunoichis who were their targets, while the women looked embarrassed while hiding chocolate behind their bodies, waiting for the right time to give them.

It was Sakura who picked up Temari that morning, because Shikamaru had other tasks to complete. They were both confused by the sight. Kakashi had indeed asked that it be kept secret from the girls, to prevent them from cheating because they were helped by their friends or acquaintances.

"So what's this?" Temari asked.

Sakura just shook her head slowly, shrugging her shoulders. Suddenly Izumo and Kotetsu approached Sakura. Of course none of the shinobi approached Temari even if they wanted to, they still loved their lives.

"Sakura, don't you feel lonely because Sasuke isn't in the village," said Kotetsu.

"How about you just give us chocolate," continued Izumo.

" No, thank you!" said Sakura accompanied by a death blow to the 2 young men who immediately flew them far away.

"Hi!, welcome," Kakashi said to Temari.

"Ah, Rokudaime-Sama. Thank you," Temari said politely.

"You didn't give someone chocolate?" asked the Hokage.

"No, after all... isn't it a little strange to convey feelings by giving chocolate. To me, it feels insincere," Temari replied.

According to her, feelings must be conveyed directly. Kakashi smiled slightly,

"For some people this may be a strange thing. But you know, chocolate can also convey a message ... especially for people who are difficult to express their feelings," said Kakashi.

'Ah, Kakashi sensei must be on purpose...' Sakura thought.

Kakashi already knows the feelings of Shikamaru and Temari, but it seems that the two people concerned are equally difficult to convey their feelings. This is also one of the reasons Kakashi is holding this strange contest. He wanted to give a little boost to the relationship between the two ninjas.

"If you really like it, you should just say it directly," said Temari.

"That's a good way, but sometimes not everyone can do it," said Kakashi.

Temari was silent thinking about Kakashi's words. Did not feel the time passed, and the day began to turn into night. Shikamaru came out of his room with a tired face. He had just been battling a pile of documents, he even skipped lunch. And as expected, he hadn't gotten a single chocolate.

'I don't understand why a day like this has to exist...' thought Shikamaru.

"...Nara senpai, I-May I interrupt for a moment..." a young kunoichi approached Shikamaru nervously. Her face looks red.

Meanwhile, Temari was looking for Shikamaru because she had not seen the young Nara since her arrival. Usually she is always greeted by Shikamaru when she comes to Konoha, she feels strange when she doesn't see Shikamaru's face when she is in Konoha.

'Where did he go? It's almost night...' Temari thought.

Suddenly her steps stopped when she heard the conversation of two young kunoichi walking towards her.

"Eh? You were rejected by Shikamaru senpai?"

"No, I haven't even had time to express my feelings ..." said the girl sadly.

"Hey, you here?" a voice startled Temari who was busy watching the two kunoichis. Shikamaru appeared from behind her.

"You... why don't you accept the chocolate?" Temari asked.

"Eh?"

"If you receive the chocolate, you will be able to avoid the troublesome escort duties," said Temari again.

Shikamaru looked at Temari questioningly. How did the girl know about the sentencing of the escort and about the one who would be given chocolate?

"Wh-how did you know?" he asked.

"I happened to hear it. Did you get it from the others?" Temari asked.

" ...it's not like that. I understand that it's not Giri's chocolate, so I don't want to give her hope, is it good if I accept it..." Shikamaru said while scratching the back of his head.

Besides, Shikamaru was actually waiting for chocolates from Temari, although he realized that it was impossible, considering that the girl had never given chocolate to anyone. Not even Giri chocolate, let alone Honmei chocolate. And on what basis was he so confident that Temari liked him? Temari smiled hearing Shikamaru's words, in her heart she was a little grateful that Shikamaru didn't receive chocolate from the girl. But on the other hand, she also feels sorry for Shikamaru if he gets punished for not getting chocolate.

"You... are you seriously saying that? Are you okay with the task?" Temari chuckled.

"What a drag, I'll be fine. Alright, enough about that. Are you ready to go eat?" Shikamaru asked.

Let him think about the punishment later, the important thing is that he can spend time with Temari. It was very rare for the girl to visit Konoha, especially after the ninja world became peaceful and the missions were reduced. Honestly, Shikamaru missed the time when the Suna girl would regularly visit him on missions with him.

"No, come with me. There's a place I want to visit." Without waiting for Shikamaru's answer, the girl had already pulled him away.

And moments later, the two of them sat on a park bench. There was a box of chocolates in Temari's lap. The girl smiled happily.

"This is the chocolate everyone's talking about, the chocolate made by Chocolatier Ken!" Temari said with sparkling eyes.

Shikamaru looked at her with a bit of surprise, apparently a human like Temari was also a girl in the end, interested in things like this. Especially for sweet food lovers like Temari.

"I heard this is a limited edition for Valentine, so I wanted to give it a try. Sorry for bothering you to accompany me in line," said Temari.

Yes. They got the chocolate after 2 hours of queuing. Chocolatier Ken's chocolates are currently very popular in Konoha, especially since the chocolates they are after are limited edition chocolates and bought on Valentine's Day too. You can imagine how difficult it is to get the chocolate.

"...Good for you," Shikamaru said curtly.

'She's so excited' Shikamaru thought.

"May I eat now?" Temari asked.

" Of course."

Temari opened the chocolate ribbon that tied the box, took one and put the chocolate in her mouth. The girl's expression immediately lit up with joy when she tasted the chocolate in her mouth.

"Delicious!!!" Temari shouted excitedly,

"This is delicious, deserve to be famous!" she said to Shikamaru.

" Is that true?"

'Isn't that just chocolate? How good is it?' Shikamaru thought

Temari looked at Shikamaru for a moment, it seemed that the girl was not satisfied with Shikamaru's answer. She took a chocolate and without warning put it in Shikamaru's mouth.

"Try it yourself!"

Shikamaru felt the chocolate melt in his mouth, and as Shikamaru expected, the chocolate was indeed very sweet. And for someone who does not like the taste of sweet food, he should feel that chocolate is not good. But because the chocolate was given by Temari, he unconsciously enjoyed the taste.

"... delicious.." he mumbled.

"Isn't that right?!" Temari said with a big smile.

Shikamaru stared at her stunned. His face blushed a little.

"Well, with this you've got one," Temari said as she stood up from her chair.

Ah, Shikamaru got it now. Temari just wanted to help him avoid that annoying punishment. He was grateful but a little disappointed because his hopes of getting Honmei Choco from the girl had to fail again this year.

"Ah ... but Giri choco doesn't count," said Shikamaru.

Temari turned and smiled at him.

" I know!"

Shikamaru was petrified. She knows? Temari know? Is that mean the chocolate just now...

"He-hey, wait for me! What do you mean you know?" Shikamaru tried to stop Temari in her tracks. But a voice suddenly startled him.

"Shikamaru Nara got one, that's great," Kakashi the Hokage and an Anbu emerged from the bushes.

Shikamaru was taken aback, since when were they there? "Since when were you there?

“You were spying on us, weren't you?" ask Shikamaru.

"It's fine, it's just a coincidence. We're around to keep an eye on you so you don't cheat," said Kakashi.

Meanwhile Temari who had walked quite a distance remembered Kakashi's words 'For some people this might be a strange thing. But you know, chocolate can also convey a message ... especially for people who find it difficult to express their feelings'

" ...troublesome..." Temari mumbled with a small smile.

"Alright, the calculations are done," Kakashi said. He smiled behind his mask then looked at Shikamaru.

"In return, how about you ask her out on a date, Shikamaru-Kun," Kakashi teased him.

"Hah ... don't start again Kakashi Sensei ..." said Shikamaru lazily.

He walked away leaving Kakashi who continued to tease him. Kakashi knew Shikamaru would definitely consider his suggestion later.

Inspired by: Some Doujin found in twitter