#don't harass people for their ships

[kathaynesart]

sooo if ted is gone now will capril (cassandra x april) ever be a thing in your au? (i love ur au a lottt btw so well written!)

Thank you so much! As I've said in the past, I'm really trying to avoid actual ships in canon Replica! Like the tv show I do not want to make that the focus, HOWEVER I do want to leave it open ended in the same manner so that there's room for your own interpretation! So if you feel that there's Capril is in this Holiday Special... then there is!

For example: isn't it interesting that April is the only one Cassandra told about the pregnancy? Hm, that could easily be interpreted as just "girl talk" (since she's a woman and would understand better than the guys) or "lover's talk." Again I'm trying to leave this open for your personal preference! The same will go for several other ships, including Raph and Cassandra and even Donnie might have a little something going on the sidelines with a character I'll be bringing back in an upcoming update. Hehe.

Now, I will admit I have my personal preference of ships (I'm a huge romantic and have to really rein it in), but I keep them close to my heart and think that's a little unfair to enforce that onto a story that I want to try and keep "canon" when the canon has never confirmed any of them or even played in that space.

So TLDR, it can be whatever you want!

[linkcharacter]

Oh I have so many thoughts on aroace Curly, I think it brings so much on the table when analyzing the game's story.

Amanormativity ties in with the reoccurring mentions of the nuclear family, from Wrong Organ making 1950s mock advert posters, to Swansea talking about how getting a wife and kids didn't bring him any fulfillment in life.

In the cake cutting nightmare sequence, where Jimmy talks with Dream Curly about the mediocre cake, Dream Curly begins to talk about how sometimes you can only get the subpar stuff in live. Sometimes he'll get promoted, buy a house, fall in love. But other times he'll just have some awful fucking cake with his friend.

I think there is that subtle implication that Jimmy does buy into Amanormativity, with him projecting his beliefs on Dream Curly that a platonic relationship is lesser then a romantic one. But we never see Curly suggesting that he wants such a thing in the pre-crash.

With Jimmy thinking that Curly has everything in life, except for the desire (although I think Jimmy would view it as Curly not having the skills for it) to get a romantic partner, he would heavily lean into getting the one thing that Curly couldn't get in life to one up him.

THATS EXACTLY WHAT IM THINKING!!! AMATONORMATIVITY BE DAMNED!!!!

Looking at Mouthwashing through an aroace lens is interesting

"Jimmy thinking that Curly has everything in life, except for the desire", well said, well said! And references to the nuclear family fit in very cleanly thematically for Mouthwashing.

Jimmy leaning into amatonormativity is a smart observation. Jim internalizes all the social norms and standards on what you have to do to have a normal and desirable life, who sees everything Curly has and what Jimmy wishes he had, and is offended that Curly isn't satisfied, that he has the "audacity" to be unhappy. Curly meanwhile only wishes for his life to be something he doesn't have to run from, because by all means, he has already reached a point where he should feel accomplished, but isn't. Curly doesn't want to be a freighter captain his whole life, he doesn't want to settle with his sustainable position, he just wants to be happy. Like Swansea who has reached the "ideal" outcome of his life, having a wife, kids and a good career, it will never feel as good as embracing all what society deems undesirable yet right for you.

Jimmy does imply to seeing himself as lesser as a friend, "fall in love" being a goal and a "cake with a friend" being something he "has to settle for", it's all in the subtleties with underlying themes of "what you're "supposed to want" by society's expectations" against "what feels right for you". Jimmy is frustrated that Curly is going to "leave the dirt behind him", when in actuality, letting the crew and him go is the last thing Curly wants. Curly wants to be with his friends, he deeply cares about his crew, and about his close friend.

Mouthwashing as a whole reads to me as platonic through and through. Swansea and Daisuke having such a meaningful familial bond, Curly and Anya being sweet, playful and caring without romance, Anya and Daisuke having something of a siblings dynamic are dear to me. Also it's really rare to get to see representations of "toxic friendship" in media. Its always toxic romance this, toxic yaoi that, toxic family there, however in reality, friendships aren't excluded from being as rotten and abusive as the others, yet they're often overlooked. Jim and Curly are especially unique in this way. It's very impressive how they managed to showcase Jimmy's mistreatment of Curly in such a platonic way (at least that how I read it). Jim too, like Curly, in general avoids hints at romance and attraction explicitly related to him during his gameplay, not with Curly, nor with Anya (dear god thanks for that at least). It's all spite, annoyance and parasitizing off of these two. (That man's dry and lowkey hates everyone and everything) No attraction attached, no desires except hoping it hurts.

Curly to me is very much aroace, or at least on the spectrum. Like, the trivia fact that one of Curly's fondest memories is that of his friends putting in effort to make a shitty awful cake, tells us all we need to know on how dear his friends are to him. Platonic relationships mean so much to Curly, even when it's Jimmy fucking Mouthwashing, the worst friend ever imaginable.

[skumhuu]

Proshipper = you're against censorship and harassment over fiction & curate your experience on the internet to have a healthy distance from things that make you uncomfortable

Antishipper = you're okay and even encourage harassment towards "freaks" and "weirdos" society deems acceptable to hurt

[starspangledbatter]

⭐️ Goose really needs to tap the sign again because… ⭐️

⭐️ As someone who ships Bunnydoll and ButtonBlossom, this is childish asf. I thought we were above this. ⭐️

[chaotic-neutral-knitter]

my lukewarm fandom take is that even when there's a fanon thing that I despise with a fiery passion, seeing people who also hate that thing (but haven't bothered to curate their space to avoid it) get their brains pickled by haterism about it is genuinely equally annoying/exhausting/stupid.

if you see a post that's like "I'm not really into [ship], but this is the only way it would make sense to me" and you respond to it with "ew omg why are you even THINKING about [ship] that's SO gross" then my guy you have got to log off and touch some grass or maybe find an actual problem to be concerned about.

you can be critical of something without turning into a frothing at the mouth reactionary every time it's mentioned.

[burningcheese-merchant]

Hey Merchant! Brand new to the blog and I love it, but I was wondering your opinion on something. I’ve been noticing recently (especially on TikTok) people coming to a compromise in defending ShadowVanilla but/by antagonizing BurningCheese. They’ll say stuff like “SV has nuance but BC is just toxic” and while I can see that in a way, it doesn’t sit right with me. Again, just wondering how you feel about that (No hate to those people from me though).

Hypocrites. They're stupid, annoying hypocrites. Plain and simple. There's nothing to see except for that. It doesn't sit right because the chair is fucking busted dude, it's got 3 legs and two of them got mauled by termites and the rest got cobbled together by Patrick Star

If Golden Cheese was a man, BurningCheese would be just as popular as ShadowVanilla. It would have mountains of fanart on this dumb website and it would have a million fics on AO3 (400 and counting vs 40, yes I am bitter and disappointed, I'm only one person and there are only so many hours in a day I can't bridge that gap alone) and it would have hordes of dumb, horny fujos running interference for it 24/7 just like ShadowVanilla does. (And I specify GC being a man and not BS being a woman because let's all be real. Nobody cares about f/f ships. M/f and f/f are and will always be overshadowed by m/m whether any of us like it or not.) If they actually bothered to pay attention to the game, and to GC's and BS's characters and how they intertwine/compare/contrast, then they would see that their dynamic has equal weight and value. But they don't. And you know what? At least half of them didn't recognize the weight and value of ShadowVanilla, either, until episode 7 and 8 came out and the concept was directly spoonfed to them by the narrative. The OG ShadowVanilla fans went from rarepair hell to having their ship borderline gentrified, that's a whole separate tragedy honestly

You know what's blinding those people to BurningCheese? You know the truth? I'm going to explain better.

Burning Spice is a man and Golden Cheese is a woman. That automatically sets it back in the eyes of a lot of morons online. Hetero pairs bad. Also, BS hurt GC in the story, which is his literal job as a villain and all the Beasts do this, therefore misogyny abuse toxic blah blah blah. GC fought back and kicked his ass and never once tolerated any of his behavior but that doesn't matter I guess. Shadow Milk psychologically tortured Pure Vanilla and essentially mutilated him mentally/spiritually and turned him into a husk (Truthless Recluse). But that doesn't matter because gay = get out of jail free, also there's probably a dose of "lol men can't be abused or mistreated and anything bad that happens to a man is hot and/or deserved" underlining some people's thoughts let's not kid ourselves

Burning Spice is not a Tumblr Sexyman and Shadow Milk is. Shadow Milk is thin and nerdy and has multicolored hair and dresses like a literal and figurative clown and is kind of effeminate and is basically the final boss of all theater kids and is dramatic and charmingly evil and is confirmed to be about as physically tough as cooked pasta. Burning Spice is built like a brick shithouse and has to bend down to fit through a doorway and speaks in a rumbling baritone and is the "wrong" kind of evil (he is not suave or charming, he is all out bloodthirsty with zero dramatics or window dressing of any kind). Burning Spice is a traditionally masculine man and Shadow Milk is not. And the Tumblr I always thought I knew never liked men like BS, they like men like SM, and so far no one has done anything to prove me wrong. Tumblr Sexymen can do whatever they want and always be praised, regular sexy men can do the exact same shit and be condemned as toxic and abusive because they're perceived as threatening while Tumblr Sexymen are not

Burning Spice and Golden Cheese are not white/based on non-white cultures. They're both very dark-skinned, at that. Yes they are cookies not humans, but come the fuck on Burning Spice is literally Shiva but red instead of blue, certain cookies are obviously supposed to be certain races/ethnicities deal with it!! Skinny white boys have always been what Tumblr and TikTok girlies want, it's always been this way and always will be. Go look at the top pairings on AO3, 99% is yaoi with white dudes. (No you are not racist if you don't like BurningCheese, not liking a ship is not racist good Lord. Racism is a little bigger than that. I'm just pointing out a pattern)

I will say it until I'm as blue in the face as Shadow Milk is, I LOVE ShadowVanilla. I really do. I love them individually as characters and together as a pair, I love all the beautiful fanart, I love everyone's analyses of them, I love all the fantastic fics written by fantastic authors I will never in my fucking life measure up to I don't even know why I bother at this point, I do I do I do. But I am SICK of the hypocrisy. SICK OF IT. I am SICK of BurningCheese getting maligned while ShadowVanilla is celebrated in the same fucking breath. Look me in the eye and tell me SM is any fucking better than BS. Look me in the eye and tell me you'd still like ShadowVanilla if PV was a woman, instead of screeching about misogyny and abuse. I accept and love both ships for what they are and what they can be. If someone can't do that for whatever reason then fine, that's nobody's problem but theirs, it's shipping it doesn't actually matter do what you want, but don't try looking down your nose at others because "Fallen Hero/Heinous Villain Being Canonically Attracted To/Obsessed With Their Heroic Counterpart/Narrative Foil, Whom They Cannot Live Without Because They Are Actual, Literal Soulmates" is better than "Fallen Hero/Heinous Villain Being Canonically Attracted To/Obsessed With Their Heroic Counterpart/Narrative Foil, Whom They Cannot Live Without Because They Are Actual, Literal Soulmates" because ❓❓❓❓❓❓❓

I'm sorry Anon, I'm not mad at you. I'm happy to hear from you, I'm happy you took the time to reach out to me, I'm happy you like my blog and I hope you stay. I'll just be honest, I'm dealing with something genuinely awful in real life right now and I am not ok. I'm really not ok. I needed to yell at something stupid and ridiculous so I could pretend I'm not the utterly powerless creature I actually am, if only for a moment. I saw a punching bag in the shape of your ask and I started swinging. Worst part is I don't even feel any better, but I already typed all of this out so I might as well keep it

TL;DR: TikTok -> OPINION DISCARDED

[royalarchivist]

Everyone this week: *lore, conspiracy theories, long conversations with Cucurucho, multiple attempts to summon the Binary Monster*

Spreen when lore:

[marzipanandminutiae]

Not going to lie, friends, I love a bit of Twisted Fucked Up Gothic Romance but I'm team "no no, he's not twisted or fucked up in the fun way; give Ellen a stake and a mallet and let her do what she richly deserves at this point" re: Nosferatu

obviously you do you! they're fake people and it doesn't matter or say anything about you as a person! if you want to go all Dark Consuming Passion there, that's up to you and does not affect me! that's just where I'm at with it

[kathrahender]

If you want to convince someone of accepting/supporting/liking the ship you like, maybe send death threats and harass them is not the best way. The only thing you're probably doing is making them hate/dislike the ship even more, and not only the ship, but also you and a great part of the fandom who like that ship.

[tigerbears]

Hay Suselle fans.

Awhile ago I was delusional enough to write a 51 page, 12K word manuscript defending Suselle, as a rebuttle to someone's 48 Page document claiming Suselle won't happen/isn't healthy, because they said the most convincing counter arguments will get a free commission.

(Context below read more line. All the links besides my rebutttle contain severe Suselle and Noelle slander. Read/watch at your own risk.)

(Also plz don't send hate/do harassment even if I fundamentally disagree with almost every single argument they sent. Just because they are (factually) wrong doesn't mean you can do (morally) wrong things to them (like harassment.)

Let me restate that. Please do not bother these people with hate. I do not want shipping wars or drama with these people.

The Anti-Suselle video.

The Anti-Suselle document.

My Pro-Suselle rebuttable document

[call-me-copycat]

I don't use it very much but sometimes when my friends send a Reddit post to me, I can't help but think "I wonder how the MHA communities are doing today?" As if they've magically fixed themselves overnight (⁠─⁠.⁠─⁠|⁠|⁠）

Seriously, what an alien place! Blatant BakuDeku hate, they're practically foaming at the mouths constantly over there (⁠￣⁠ヘ⁠￣⁠;⁠) Modern day witch hunt

I thought moderators were supposed to maintain order...

I'm not really a conflict person but sometimes... I get urges

Like. Sometimes I want to make a throwaway account and just slam down a wall of text onto them. How rude they're being. I'm not that type of person. But they're so very mean (·︿· `) Nasty rude people

It makes me too mad, I should stop looking over there. Sometimes you can't help it but in all honesty there's no helping them in their bubble (⁠ ⁠���ั⁠﹏⁠･ั⁠)

[se-hos]

do you even like macdennis if you can't handle the fact that mac is also a piece of shit to dennis

[sainteclectic]

+ personally I don't care for cjshipping discourse? if your hms are brothers that's one thing, but i feel like the "chonny would feel weird if they kissed" argument kind of positions romantic relationships as uniquely More than other dynamics. it places romance on the top of the hierarchy as something that would be inherently deeper and thus more wrong than them being like... friends who cuddle?

what's the difference? none of my posts are "shipping" in a romantic sense, but why does the word "ship" have to exclusively refer to romantic relationships at all? a qpr is still a relationship. friendship is a relationship between people. undefined relationships are, obviously, a relationship. so why can't those be shipping too?

if you see them as family or are just personally uncomfortable with their relationships being romantic, that's fine! I don't see them as dating either! cultivate your online experience as much as you like, genuinely. but romance isn't above or more intense than other types of relationships. y'know?

[gsmith1030]

Not here to hate. But yeah something felt weird in moana 2 when maui was like "i can pull up a million islands but if ur not there". Then him still holding moana's hand for a bit after she wakes up has me skeptical

Okay so here we go.

I have seen both on here, and in some other spaces on the internet of people that were saying that there's potentially some romantic tension between Moana and Maui.

But I don't think that any of that is intended to be romantic in nature (though I respect and understand people that interpret it to be.) Because they did make her into a demigod/demigoddess which opens up the door to practically a whole lot of possibilities that fans can explore until this is ultimately explored in a third installment (if it comes to pass that is.)

The thing is, that it's unlikely that Moana will have any love interest at all considering that Disney really has not really had any of their protagonists have love interests (with the exception of Frozen) in quite a long time. And for the one time that a "love interest" is involved (again, mentioning Frozen.) He's not the center of the protagonists story. It's her sister that ends up breaking her curse.

The fun thing about media is that there's no really correct way to interpret a characters interaction or dialogue. Whether you interpret it as romantic or platonic really is up to the individual audience member. It's the fun part of being in a fandom.

Perhaps I'm out of touch or something, but I'm not really figuring out what "weirdness" you are referring to.

[mileymint]

Normalize enjoying platonic ships without getting attacked for not shipping them romantically.

Normalize enjoying healthy friendships and non-romantic relationships.

Normalize characters interacting regularly without being buddy-buddy or lovebirds.

Normalize enjoying when characters HATE eachother actually without having them fall in love.

[natureboy96]

"You can't write/draw/think that, Feyre is/Rhysand is/Tamlin is/Nyx is/Azriel is/Lucien is/Elain is-"

Feyre/Rhysand/Tamlin are not, never have been and never can be abuse victims or abusers, because they are not real.

Nyx is not, never has been and never will be a child, because he is not real.

Elain is never going to end up with Azriel or Lucien, because they are not real.

These are not people, they are ideas presented in one way from one person. If you like the way these ideas are presented in canon, then enjoy them as they are. If you don't like them as they are, then change them to be something you want to see. If you see someone's ideas that you don't like, in canon or fandom, then find ideas you do like or make your own.

Make them all high schoolers or rival lawyers. Put them all in a polycule at a college frat house. Ship Nyx with Helion and let them fall in love (which already exists, by the way). Make them all preschoolers and reenact the Muppet Babies. Reread the books and enjoy the canon as it is if you like it.

If you see an actual person being abused or assaulted or an actual child in danger, say something. If you see someone writing about or drawing a FICTIONAL CHARACTER who has not been and never will be harmed, and you don't like it, then ignore it or block and go to the ideas you like.

we really gotta talk about this every day apparently... https://www.tumblr.com/natureboy96/759819418730741760/feyre-rhysand-and-tamlin-are-not-real-people?source=share