#characters' dying is (usually) not about writers hating them (this isn't marvel) but about how their death fits within the STORY BEING TOLD

[imperiuswrecked]

What is the difference between fanon Namor and well written, in character Namor?

Fanon!Namor - misogynistic, alpha male, Chad, will fuck anyone and not care about them aka womanizer, racist, arrogant asshole to the point of him being super cruel for laughs, straight white male self insert fantasy, rapist.

Canon!Namor - noble, confident, respects women, has both good and bad sides; can be soft and emotional, can be hard and closed off emotionally. Arrogant as fuck but backs up his arrogance with his character, like yes he knows he is the best so you peasants should fawn at his feet, has a kind heart, is cold/cruel to those who have harmed those under his protection/are not worthy of his respect, hates bullies and nazis, flirty and charming, loyal, honest to the point he doesn't sugar coat his thoughts, deeply lonely and tragic.

A lot of people think Namor is this weird creepy incel who sexually assaults women and treats them like trash, and makes other men look like Betas, when he isn't and has actually only been in three long term romances and each time they ended (with their deaths) it hurt him alot.

Or people think he is racist because he drowned Wakanda when he was possessed by the Phoenix Force.

Or people think he's a bad character because they personally don't like his character traits: Does Namor have character flaws? Yeah, alot of them, he's headstrong, one of the most arrogant characters you will ever meet, he isn't shy about killing people he deems necessary to kill so you won't find him conflicted about murder, he is not a humble character even if he does have moments of being humble. People who don't read his comics by writers who get his character won't see the moments he lets down the salty crusty shield around his heart and shows his softer side, he deeply cares for his people, he cares about the oceans, and wild creatures/animals. He likes animals more than he likes people. Namor has severe emotional trauma, canon ptsd, and suffers from bouts of depression. He suffered bullying and abuse as child for being half human/atlantean. He was canonically raped by his wife's murderess. Yet no matter what happens he still puts the lives of the people he has under his protection before his own, he'll use his own body as a shield for those who need it, and he never gives up.

People will read Namor written by writers who don't know his backstory or character beats and never read a comic where he plucks a baby flamingo out of polluted water and looks on in horror at the devastation humans have done to nature, or carries dying atlantean children in arms, or vows to watch over his friends grave, or stands up for his friend others deem is a monster and want to send them into space because Namor knows what its like for others to treat him like a monster, or they don't see his fun impish side, or a bunch of other little moments that make up who he is. They don't see that a lot of the times when Namor is angry at the surface world he has legitimate reasons to be upset and isn't just some crazy sea king.

All they see is a cold cruel sneering king who wants to fuck a married woman and drown wakanda.

I usually judge how writers write Namor by how they have him treat women, because Namor is one of those characters who was raised by a single mother, he connects with women more than with men characters, alot of his supporting cast had a lot of dynamic women. Fans who get upset that Namor was mean to their faves are weak. Namor isn't going to like or get along with any men characters who hasn't proven themselves to him meanwhile he is generally more trusting of women.

Namor isn't an easy character, and not everyone vibes with a character like him. I do, and I deeply love Namor's character.

A lot of Fanon!Namor is a result of people not reading his comics and seeing what a complex and interesting character he is so they reduce him to one or two traits. Marvel Writers are not exempt to their Fanon!Namor writing, because there are writers who do the character really well in a way that lines up with the general 80 years of characterization and others who just want to use him for their plots and not care about his character.

It's frustrating as a fan to see this constant trashing of his character from fans, and from Marvel, but I honestly feel sorry for people who don't get to see what a morally complex and interesting character Namor is.

[perverse-idyll]

PI!!!!!! Congrats on your milestone!!!!! So awesome and so well deserved!!

As for emojis how about: 🥺 & 🛒

Thank you so much, Danni! 😘It's a testament to how long I've been in fandom! Never assume the impossible.

Fanfic Writers Emoji Ask

(Buckle up. This goes on for paragraphs - and that's before we even reach the second question!)

🥺 Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?

Any time Snape cracks in front of Harry or ends up vulnerable against his will (and it's always against his will). I think he's so used to associating his deepest feelings with self-loathing, so accustomed to repressing those feelings just to be able to function and then feeling bitter and angry about all the self-inflicted poison in his veins that his go-to reaction to something as powerful as love is to fight it. If Lily suddenly re-appeared in his life, he might grovel and weep before her on his knees (which is more about guilt and grief than love). But with Harry - oh, it's obviously Harry's fault. Snape would blame Harry for his own weakness and insanity. Because, IMO, Snape feels things intensely and incoherently (when did he ever have a chance to learn what's healthy or unhealthy or how he's meant to deal with it?), so when Harry hits a nerve - when Snape can't control himself around Harry and gets desperate to prevent him from knowing - when Snape himself doesn't want to know but his usual habit of repression isn't working, why is it not fucking working - he'd be absolutely devastated by the internal storm of being possessed by love and denying he wants it, dying to consume, dying to hate Harry or go back to hating him or to apply his years-long practice of hatred as a mask for love. Because that self-destructive struggle comes naturally to him. Love has always been stained by hatred. He's lived with this insoluble, painful clash of antithetical feelings since childhood. But it's at these moments that he slips up and Harry sees the truth.

I also love any instance where Harry is stricken by how much he loves Snape, how painfully he feels for this arsehole, like a knife in the heart, even when Snape is behaving horribly or hurting himself. Harry is so often portrayed as emotionally passive in relationships, or easygoing, or as a boy who just wants a family, that it gives me great pleasure to see him shaken by the strength of his feelings for this inappropriate object of desire. It's implicit in most Snarry fics that Harry's the one worthy of being loved, so I like to see the tables turned and Harry just as lovestruck and suffering from desire.

And just any time they yearn for each other, any time there's an attempt at renunciation that leaves an inconsolable, keening void, any principled distance that comes between them - this lights up my whole nervous system. (Mia_ugly is a marvelous example of writer whose fics are suffused with yearning.)

Eh, I kind of free-associated here, so it got long again. Oops. Moving on.

🛒 What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc.

Well, I've joked before that in most of my fics Snape ends up on his knees. How's that for an image? 😉

I'll try to keep myself from writing a whole treatise this time, but I noticed recently that one of the recurring motifs in my stories is death. Not character death, exactly, although sometimes characters die. More as a recurring, dare I say obsessive, concept. This hasn't been intentional, but here's the evidence:

When the Rose and the Fire Are One - Harry's haunted - inhabited, really - by what he calls "ghosts" - the deaths of people Voldemort killed. The guilt over them. The transfer of sins from the Dark Lord to Harry's soul. And Snape's situation is relentlessly pushing him toward believing the only kind of freedom available to him is in death. At one point, he begs Harry to kill him. And of course, in this story, Ron dies.

The White Road - I mean, the afterlife? Lily, from beyond death, watches Snape die. Eventually the question of whether or not Snape deserves to live is in her hands. The mercy of the dead directly affects the fate of the living.

The Lost World - *cough* The ending. Enough said.

In Infinite Remorse of Soul - We end up in the afterlife here, too, where Snape's rebellion against his own sacrifice is a consequence of being taken for granted and lied to - again - and feeling that his own death doesn't even merit a "thank you." Which leads to the death-haunted sequel And Mine the Gall.

No Room for the Weak circles around Snape's death or not-death and his mum's verdict on her son's life.

The Blood of Stars - Snape is sent back to life for a purpose, but allows the world to continue believing he's dead. In the later parts of the fic (unposted as yet), we're - you guessed it! - back in the afterlife, and there is much fussing about how death can resolve things that happened in life.

Impossible Without It - Snape is supposed to be dead. Voldemort is definitely dead. Harry can't remember killing him. If Snape were alive, Harry just might be angry enough to do to him what he presumably did to the Dark Lord. But what is he supposed to with a Snape who doesn't remember killing anyone? Who doesn't even know that magic exists? (This fic is a little less metaphysical about death and more concerned with memory, guilt, and sacrifice.)

Year of the Thestral is mostly about the aftermath of Snape's death and what the revelations mean to Minerva.

The Afterlight has a thematic thread running through it concerning what it takes to live after having died, having returned from death and remembering being dead, a situation both Snape and Harry struggle with. Also, it's an open question whether one or both of them are plagued by a death wish, since they constantly put their lives at risk. Plus there's a serial killer in this one, oh goody.

The Threefold Death - um, I rest my case. Although, fear not, Harry and Snape make it all the way to the end.

I have yet another untitled WIP in which Snape dies his canon death and Harry brings him back.

Phew. Okay, forget my vague protestations, this still went on too long. But holy moly. If I ever manage to type the final period to my current WIPs, I need to seriously consider changing up my sources of inspiration! 😳

[ljf613]

Look, I love Azula. Y'all know this. I probably have more thoughts, opinions, headcanons, and plot bunnies/fic ideas about her than any other character in the series.

But I have been seeing a lot of posts lately trying to reframe the entire series around her. And I need y'all to understand that Azula is not the main character. She is a side character who exists for the purposes of serving the story.

Whatever problems you have with how the narrative frames her (and I have plenty of my own), this was never going to be a story centered around Azula.

That's what fanfic is for.