#every time I admit to my problematic interests I’m like “sure hope this doesn’t backfire on me again!”

[sydchan]

Me posting things on the fankid blog really do feel like this sometimes

[fatbitchwrites-archived]

okay so i’m doing my senior thesis on game of thrones, sansa stark, and how tumblr users talk about her so i’ve been DEEP in the anti/sansa/stark tag and i have some things to fucking say

also, i don’t know or care about any leaks, this is mainly a response to the absolute fuckery in the tags right now. let’s fucking go, shall we

first of all, blaming her for things she did as a child is fucking stupid. yes, arya didn’t do these things. yes, dany didn’t do these things. they were different people. sansa and arya are different; that doesn’t make one bad and one good. this entire show is about moral ambiguity; neither one of them are perfect. she was a bratty kid who did what she thought she was supposed to do. “what she was supposed to do” saved her own ass over and over again. if you blame ned stark’s death on her instead of joffery, littlefinger, or cersei, you are out of your goddamn mind

second of all, she has the right to be pissed at jon. they won winterfell back - the battle wouldn't have been won without her and that’s just the fuckin tea. her entire arch for the past few seasons is about getting her home back, getting her autonomy back. she told him that dany would make him bend the knee and take the home that she just got back. he gave winterfell to a foreign queen. i personally think that she has more claim to the north than he does, but the north claimed him as king and like it or fucking not - she backed him. people said she was the one who was supposed to rule and she said that jon was their king and they should respect that.

also, i’m going to lose my fucking mind if someone says shit about her “undermining” anyone. despite the fact that many of her “teachers” were shitty, she does know what the fuck she’s doing. she knew that going south was a mistake, she knew that the food would become a problem if their armies suddenly doubled without anyone telling her, she knew that resting was in the best interest of fucking everyone. she’s a smart bitch, that’s just the tea on that. as the lady of winterfell and one of the two leaders responsible for getting winterfell back, she has every right in the world to share her opinion on it’s upkeep and independence. 

just bc she doesn’t agree with everything jon does doesn’t mean she is undermining him. just bc she doesn’t agree with dany doesn’t mean she is undermining her. sansa is advocating for the 

third of all, her being weary of dany is absolutely 100% justified. i’m not going to discuss ships bc this is not what this is fucking about. this one is going to be a while, so settle the fuck in. 

sansa is traumatized - by cersei, joffery, littlefinger, lysa, ramsay. the fact that she doesn’t trust someone calling themselves queen - esp without living or understanding the culture and history of the country she is going to rule. dany clearly doesn’t know jackshit about some of the houses she’s trying to bend to her will or understand their fear of her house in general. 

not to mention, another smarty pants on the show said something like - anyone who feels the need to call themselves queen/king clearly isn’t one so fucking take that as you will bois

also, jumping back to the first episode of this season with the whole “whatever they want” bullshit; dany straight up admitted that the dragons were a danger to the people of the north and her own armies. she showed everyone that the dragons and dany are unpredictable. that was a fucking power move by dany and it backfired. 

not to mention, dany has consistently threatened sansa over and over again throughout this season. sansa has every fucking right to be pissed about that. she didn’t bow to dany, the north didn’t bow to dany - having a targaryen come in and threaten her in the home that she has been fighting to get back since SEASON FUCKING ONE is more than enough reason for her to get fucking pissed. so yeah, sansa has reason to not like dany. the whole idea that her dislike of dany is not warranted is absolute fucking horseshit.

and dany didn’t save the north out of the decency of her heart, let’s get that fucking crystal clear. dany is an aspiring monarch who wants to rule over the seven kingdoms and she couldn’t have done that if the seven kingdoms’ people were all fucking dead. so sansa and the north aren’t “ungrateful” for dany. dany did what she did to preserve the country she hopes to rule over. she didn’t want to be the queen of the ashes or frost or bones or whatever the fuck. i’m not even saying that’s a bad thing - it makes total sense that she would want to do that but for the love of god, stop acting like she did this bc she’s such a good person. she did it for herself and for the kingdoms she wants to rule over. yeah, jon convinced her there was a threat and that’s why she felt the need to move forward but it was a self serving move. that’s fucking it. 

to be fair to dany, jon also convinced cersei of the danger and she didn’t actually care bc she has always been fine being the queen of the ashes or frost or bones. so, yes, i will admit that dany did better than cersei did.

fourth, the little bird conversation pissed me the absolute fuck off. it’s lazy and problematic writing. there is a whole bunch of other people who discussed it more eloquently than i can atm so plz go read those. 

fifth, as for the whole oathbreaker thing - get the fuck over yourself. brienne said it best - this isn’t about loyalty or oaths, it’s about survival. i understand this was in reference to the long night and the war aginst the NK but it still applies. all the signs are pointing to dany going full mad queen and sansa is going to do whatever it takes to ensure the survival of her people. and honestly, in my opinion, the benefits of this might vastly outweigh her telling tyrion. dany is going to burn hundreds of thousands of innocent people to get to cersei and if this is the start to her reign, what is end? sansa doing what she did could save so many innocent people.

also, when the fuck have y’all given half a fuck about the religious honor and shit of GoT?? like i’m sorry, you don’t get to worship arya for the whole god of death thing if you’re going to condemn sansa for not honoring the weirwood tree. fuck off with that absolute bullshit. 

ALSO IF I SEE ONE MORE PERSON SAYING THAT SHE’S A SHAME TO THE STARK NAME OR A DISAPPOINTMENT TO NED STARK, I WILL LOSE MY FUCKING MIND. she is doing whatever the fuck she needs to do to protect her family. she has lost nearly everyone in her family and until theon told her otherwise, she thought she has actually lost everyone. now that she found it, she’s going to protect it. she is the reason jon even fought for winterfell and she is the reason they got it back. she is finally back in her home and with her family and you think she is going to risk that?? she is a fucking stark and you all can fuck off.

also, ned stark did everything he could to preserve his family, to keep them safe - and in the time and setting he was protecting them in, he lied to keep jon safe. in this context, keeping her family safe is vastly different than it was with ned. dany has shown on multiple occasions to want sansa out of the picture, who is going to be the future of house stark. if sansa is half as smart as anyone thinks she is, not to mention if she can read jon, she knows damn well that dany isn’t happy with jon having a stronger claim and can probably tell that she might do something to make sure he could never take the throne to begin with. letting someone else know - like tyrion or varys - means that there is some insurance policy on jon. dany can’t fucking off him or have him killed or some shit without cause now that other people know what’s going on. 

about the future of house stark comment - bran, as the three eyed raven, cannot and does not want to rule winterfell; also, dany seemed pretty fucking pissed with bran bc he knew too much so.... also arya has shown no interest in ruling winterfell. jon, as it stands right now, doesn’t have the stark name. the actual name of house stark will fall to sansa. 

sixth, “sansa is conspiring against dany so fuck her.” HA BITCH, what the fuck do you think dany is doing???? what the fuck do you think everyone in this goddamn garbage fire of a game is doing??? i personally don’t consider her pulling a varys and doing what she can to protect winterfell and her family (and the realm indirectly) is conspiring to do shit but we can fucking go this route if you want bois. 

there is a theory that dany was planning on legitimizing jon as a stark, like she did to gendry, to get sansa out of the way as a political rival and i think that’s def true. whether or not that was her plan to begin with doesn’t matter; she sees sansa as a threat and we’ve seen the lengths she’s willing to go to if it means eliminating a threat. dany even said that she’s also clever and learning how to play the game of wits instead of just using force. that implies that she’s planning on doing more of that shit. she is absolutely conspiring; so is tyrion, and varys, and arya, and cersei, and jaime, and literally everyone. except maybe jon??? i personally think political!jon might be a thing but also the manbun boi has been proving to be just as pretty and dumb as we all knew he was going in. 

seventh, “sansa admitted to wanting to be queen” yeah in season one, when she was starry eyed and a fucking child. but yeah, shit on her and not dany. it’s not like dany says “i’m the queen” every fucking five seconds. clearly, sansa is the real power hungry one for wanting to be the lady of winterfell and keeping her fucking family safe.

eighth, i wan to thank all of the antis in the tag bc you are absolutely proving my fucking hypothesis that most, if not all, of the hate centered around sansa is rooted in sexism and femmephobia. it’s been absolute hell dealing with all of your comments but i truly owe y’all for proving that to me

[silentauroriamthereal]

I hate Mary Morsan too

When I first saw this, I thought about just saying something like, “yay, high five!”, but then I reconsidered. Expressing hate for any woman, even a fictional one, is always a bit troubling for me. I truly am a feminist to the core of my being, and as someone who is known for writing the character of Mary as I truly see her in the canon, I’m already uncomfortably aware that people see me as a Mary hater. Johnlock shippers have been getting this since 2014 now: if you hate Mary, it’s only because she gets in the way of your ship, and the Johnlockers hate all of the female characters in Sherlock.

The second is patently untrue. That said, I’ll allow that Moffat and Gatiss are notoriously poor at writing female characters. (This has been well covered in many articles.) They, Moffat in particular, have a troubling way of aligning the concepts of female power with abuse (Irene uses sex to extort people for the terrorist she works for, Mary shoots people when they threaten to show her for the assassin and criminal that she is, even Molly and Mrs Hudson resort to violence in so-called moments of “strength” - Molly with her slapping and Mrs Hudson pulling a gun and handcuffs on Sherlock before having a bunch of men throw him into the trunk of her car). Moffat and Gatiss have an issue when it comes to writing a well-rounded, believable female character whose entire purpose doesn’t revolve around the male main character(s) and doesn’t come off as… well, a man trying to write a woman. That said, filling things out and making them work is also part of the joy of writing fanfic, and I, along with many other Johnlock writers, have definitely done my best to do that. I’ve even given several women on Sherlock their own stand-alone stories, told from their points of view, even Mary! If you’re curious: 

Janine POV: The Green Carnations

Mary POV: Moving on/Making do (split between Mary and John’s POVs), Stand-in, Want (split between Sherlock, John, and Mary’s POVs)

Molly POV: The Red Roses, The Clouded Eye (split between Molly and Sherlock’s POV)

Sally Donovan & Mrs Hudson POV (first and last sections of Inappropriate)

Irene (not her POV, but definitely featuring her): From the Bottom of the Well

I’ve done my best to round these women out and give them credit where credit is due, whether or not I personally like them. I didn’t make them two-dimensional. And I didn’t write them the same every time (for those whose POVs I wrote more than once), either! Molly in The Red Roses is vulnerable, strong, self-sacrificing, and brave. Molly in The Clouded Eye is manipulable, jealous, possessive, yet (I hope) still understandable, pitiable. The point, ultimately, is the same as with any character: to be able to see their complexities, their depth, and to observe their actions objectively. 

People wanted so badly to like Mary. They wanted to love the strong woman that John Watson chose to marry. I didn’t see any hate leading up to series 3 at all, neither toward the character of Mary Morstan, nor toward the person who played her. I saw open-mindedness and a wiliingness to take her into the collective fandom heart. For me, I was always wary, I’ll admit. I thought from the start that it was a mistake to take such a miniscule role from the original canon and make it such a big deal. I thought then that Moffat and Gatiss were trying to stomp out the Johnlock ship and rumours of their queer-baiting. Surely if John got married, we couldn’t possibly see it as gay anymore, right??? I saw their choice of actor as a deliberate attempt to parry the natural chemistry Benedict and Martin have onscreen, and I thought then that it was an overly desperate attempt. I maintain that to this day: I think it backfired. But that generosity of spirit was there toward Mary, even after series 3, for the most part. I saw many, mahy Johnlockers try to include Mary as part of a newly-formed OT3. I saw them identifying with Mary, trying their very best to love her. 

Many of them still may. I don’t. For me, feminism means being seen as a human being first, and if a person’s experience as that type of human being has meant some kind of persecution or prejudice or abuse, it helps understand their actions. But not to excuse them. It doesn’t make it okay to murder people if you manage to look cute while doing it. It doesn’t make it okay if you did it to protect your own interests. That’s just selfishness, and defending it isn’t feminism. That’s just making excuses. Mary is a person who, in some unexplained backstory, chose a career wherein she kills and gets paid for it. She worked, to quote her, for the highest bidder. It wasn’t something she did out of a moral position, for love of country, for self-defense, for a cause, however just, as a cog in some great war machine. She didn’t do it do defend people she loved, or innocent bystanders, or children, or people too weak to defend themselves. She didn’t do it for some satisfying and long-deserved vengeance: she did it for money. Tawdry, dirty, blood money. And then she built a mountain of deceit, fed it to a man who was grieving, his trust broken and all but lost, and sold him a house of lies. And when his clever best friend discovered her, she shot him in cold blood, threatened him while under the influence, and hunted him down like an animal to put an end to him. 

Pardon me if I don’t find that “cute” or “strong” or anything I feel like modelling myself after, anything I would want young women or my own nieces to look up to and admire. 

I’ve talked about this before, but Mary is also extremely problematic in terms of blurring where the moral centre of Sherlock and John is. The thesis of the show has always been that Sherlock and John are damaged, problematic people, but ultimately good men. Ultimately, they’re on the side of the angels. Mary isn’t. Mary is on the side of the terrorists. She’s on the side of whoever will pay her the most to be on their side. In a way, that’s almost worse. Sherlock may “flirt” with Moriarty or Irene (though I always saw it as pretty one-sided on the latter) in the same way that he flirts with danger, with addiction, with obsessive behaviour, but he would never align himself with any of them. He may admire a clever plan, but his far greater fascination and draw is to the plain goodness of John Watson, extraordinary in its very ordinariness, yet it’s hardly ordinary, either. John can pull off making it look ordinary, but for someone who’s been through what he’s been through, it’s amazing that he IS still, ultimately, despite his own problematic behaviour, a good man. He and Sherlock both are, and it’s what they admire in each other, calling one another things like the best and the bravest and the kindest. That’s what they both seek, temporary fascinations with the devil they face every day in their line of work notwithstanding. Mary and Irene are both faces of this evil that Sherlock and John oppose. It’s the way things are: Sherlock and John are on the side of the angels. Mary and Irene work for the terrorists. Having Sherlock and John align themselves with Mary is incredibly problematic. 

I maintain that everything about Mary Morstan was a mistake. It was a mistake to bring her onto the show, a mistake to try to make her 1000% more interesting than she ever was in the original canon, and certainly a mistake to have had John go back to her, to have had him and Sherlock put themselves on her side, to have made themselves accomplices to her crimes by the very act of helping bury her past. It was a mistake to then not see her arc through the way it began, her irritating ghost appearances bearing no resemblance to her canonical behaviour, and her proprietary brokerage of Sherlock and John’s friendship completely out of place and undeserved. 

So yeah: in a response that’s probably 5,000 times longer than you were hoping for (apologies!), it takes a lot to make me admit that I hate another woman, even a purely fictional one. But Moffat and Gatiss succeeded on this one. I do hate Mary Morstan. I hate her because she’s an unrepentant murderer and liar, a narcissist whose only motivations are what she wants and feels would be good for her, and did everything in her power to tear Sherlock and John apart, and failing that, to outright kill Sherlock or manipulate him into killing himself. I see absolutely nothing admirable about this character and am just so glad she’s off the show. I wish she’d never been there in the first place.