#fandom dynamics is a separate conversation to be hand i think

[9w1ft]

Am I the only one only one who thinks the girls wanted people to think they broke up? That their teams even spread rumors of it? Because they had big personal plans for 2020, and it really behooved them to quiet down the rumors that they were together, because of these big plans (that were foretold and then happened?) I don’t even blame people for believing it and I don’t blame people for stepping away from the fandom either, because at that point it got serious. The kaylor fandom was too big and too mainstream in 2019. Where it stands now is a nice, cozy safe place for it to continue to exist and capture the evidence, without being a danger to their private lives.

oh yeah for sure this is quite possible, though for me, i think there were several things going on and adjustments were made along the way and personally i don’t think it was one single plan executed uninterrupted from start to finish.

i think there were signs in early 2019 pointing toward karlie being reintroduced into taylor’s friend group in later 2019 (her hand in the yntcd promo, her posting using the lover album filter and congratulating taylor, etc) and if the deleted tiktok duet with the rainbow dress that christian siriano did a few years ago is an indication, taylor was in fact likely going to come out in between that.

for me and some of my mutuals, we think that they adjusted the plans to reunite once scooter jumped in because he had positioned himself to profit from taylor coming out and karlie being her friend while it happened. and as taylor has said in interviews since then, she is someone who will deeply inconvenience herself to prove a point. and i think things like the i can and i will necklace that karlie wore in late 2019 add to this idea, and songs like mad woman and vigilante shit point to this as well. as in, i believe it’s possible that they spread a rumor of a new rift between one another even among industry folks, in order for scooter to be lulled into a false sense of security around karlie, and in the end that’s how they got a lot of dirt on him. i remember how karlie posted from paris sipping tea just days before scooter’s infidelity was first reported.

and then from within everything that happened with late 2019, lover fest being announced that september with such limited dates, miss americana becoming what it was, the the man mv, among other things, i get the sense there was a shift again like i feel like they might have extended the period of distance between them for reasons i think you were alluding to, although there was talk of taylor touring less because of her mom, and then quarantine came and the shift to a more private few years was natural, so the whole thing is still a little haze-ridden. but, i firmly feel that with each album since lover she has given us progressively more clarity as to what has transpired.

so to circle back to what you were suggesting, i dont necessarily think that they spread break up rumors in 2019 in order to lower the number of kaylors so that they could have a more private life. i think the chief driver was revenge on scooter, with then not taking it all back being a potential choice because of what they might have gone forward with under the circumstances they found themselves in.

[crystalrabbit246912]

Group Dynamics in NRC

I think that Group Dynamics in Twisted Wonderland are the funniest things ever.

Spoilers for the Stitch Event, Glorious Masquerade, Book 5, and Book 6 under the cut.

There's the obvious ones, like the first-year crew and their friendship, with them constantly making quips and having fun at each other's expense, and the dorm groups, like Azul, Jade, and Floyd, who are hilarious to watch together, or Kalim and his tired babysitter Jamil.

But then you get to the events, which introduces dynamics that we haven't seen before simply because there's so many characters and each pairing has so much potential together.

Like in the Stitch Event, where we see Floyd and Lilia being chaos buddies together. I think that if they were left alone with Stitch, they could have blown up the whole island and laughed while doing it, and we hadn't seen that before because Floyd has had no reason to interact with Lilia prior.

In Glorious Masquerade, we first see a bunch of different groupings, such as Azul with Deuce and Epel, which is hilarious because we have the two innocent freshmen and Azul, who's trying to say things with subtext that goes completely over the duo's heads. Of course, we already know that Deuce and Epel are cute together, but seeing Azul frustrated at their naivety is something new.

The other groups contain Idia, Ruggie, Silver, and Rook for one, which means that Idia's always-fun dialogue paired with Ruggie's desire to get a good deal paired with two sunshine children, a.k.a two of the light magic users.

The third group is made up of Riddle, Jamil, Malleus, and Sebek. The first three possess a certain maturity that the other first-years, not counting Jack, don't have. Sebek being the shouty crocodile that we all love adds some excitement to them. We've already seen a bit of Riddle and Jamil interaction with Book 6 and Riddle and Malleus are both Housewardens even if the latter doesn't get invited to meetings much.

Yuu, Grim, and Rollo drift among the groups, which adds some extra spice as Grim is... Grim and Yuu is friendly with basically everyone so there's not much animosity there. The friendship is something that would be boring anywhere else, but the amount of animosity between most NRC students makes it refreshing instead.

Later, the group has to split up to deal with the firelotuses and get at least one of their members to the top of the tower to ring the Bell of Solace. They drop their members in groups of two, leaving fascinating pairings, with Idia, Malleus, and Azul making it to the top.

The first pair to drop is Riddle and Epel. The two of them are somewhat commonly shipped in this fandom, but we don't actually see them together much in the actual game. Riddle is immensely talented with magic and Epel has good flying skills, so the two of them act as a diversion so the rest of the group can make it past.

Riddle obviously wants to be a good upperclassman and protect his junior, Epel, but Epel also wants to protect Riddle, which leads to a spirited conversation between them, at the end of which Epel uses his UM on Riddle to protect him and manages to divert the firelotuses until the main group rings the Bell.

Next are Jamil and Ruggie, who get separated from the main group and are forced to be left behind so the Bell can be reached. The two of them share a common willingness to dirty their hands so they can survive, which means that they're willing to use other students as bait so they can survive the night. Their UMs make this possible, and Jamil states that he's glad that he ended up with Ruggie, since the hyena beastman was the only one he could pull the trick off with.

Beyond that, Deuce gets injured in the ballroom and Rook stays behind with him so the group can progress forwards without them. The two of them interacted a little in Book 5, but it was mainly Vil speaking and I don't think they had any individual interactions, though I may be forgetting something.

This is another upperclassman wants to protect their underclassman situation. There's a cute scene where Rook is on the verge of giving up, but Deuce keeps going and Rook says that Deuce's inspired him, in the classic Rook way.

Sebek and Silver clear the way so that Malleus, Idia, and Azul can make their way up the tower. These two are together a rather lot, both in the actual game and in the fandom, either as a sibling relationship or ship, but Silver feeds into the competitiveness between them, whereas it was previously assumed that it was a one-sided thing from Sebek.

Malleus, Idia, and Azul are hilarious together.

Malleus, despite being a Housewarden like the other two, isn't seen much with them. Idia and Azul are seen together often, as members of the Board Game Club, but Malleus not so much.

Malleus' manner of speech and unique quirks are new to the other two, though Azul is quite used to Idia's social anxiety and dialogue while Idia has had plenty of time to get used to Azul and his way of working. When both Rollo and Malleus think that Azul sacrificed himself, Idia is the one that knew that the Octavinelle Housewarden had something up his sleeve.

Idia and Azul both struggle with physical activity, so while the physically and magically powerful Malleus can climb the tower with ease, the other two are struggling immensely. There's a line of dialogue that says that he couldn't carry the two up the tower because there wasn't enough room for him to carry them under his arms, which I found really funny.

I think I derailed this post somewhat, but my conclusion is that group dynamics are funny here, and if you put two people who would never in normal circumstances be near each other in the same room, I think the result would be great.

(Example: Deuce and Idia. Idia is terrified of Deuce, as he is of most people, yet shocked by his determination and also a bit thankful towards him for being Ortho's friend. Deuce initially has a high impression of Idia because of Ortho's praise, though the impression just downrails into confusion.)

[tragedy-of-commons]

an apology for the last one. and also one from the correct fandom this time: robin + PURPLE LILAC + catharsis + redamancy, please? thank you :D

PURPLE LILAC:  they’re falling first, and falling hard.

catharsis  —  emotional release.

redamancy  —  the act of loving in return.

childhood friends, pre-canon (both reader and robin are kids here), fluff and pining, mentioned sunday ^^

“Miss Robin, I just wish I had your hair!”

Your gushing is accompanied by skillful, dexterous movements of your fingers. The gentle appendages glide through her tresses, looping and arranging each strand to your liking. It’s a familiar scene, the one she shares with you now; baubles lined against the vanity’s edge, a collection of perfume bottles, barrettes, and other wondrous beauty paraphernalia present. 

You go about weaving a crown plait, the very same hairstyle you’d pointed out earlier in Penacony’s Lovely Lady magazine with a stubby finger, proclaiming that she simply must allow you to style hers in the same manner. Robin had immediately agreed, trying in vain to shield the flush of her cheeks with her headwings.

For the little time you’ve known one another, you sure do know how to endear yourself - with excited smiles and promises of boundless friendship.

“It’s not that special,” she dismisses easily, staring at her reflection. The lightbulbs affixed to the frame of the mirror really make her feel like the rising star she dreams of becoming, even if she’s just in her bedroom with you. “And you don’t have to call me ‘Miss Robin’ if you don’t want to. There’s no need for formalities, promise.”

You sigh, shrugging. “Oops, sorry. I guess I’m just not used to being so informal. I think my mom would kill me if she heard that I didn’t address you properly! The Oak Family was kind enough to give her a job, so it just feels like the right thing to call you.”

Robin wishes that you didn’t feel like that - like there’s a whole world separating you from her. She’s never known a bond this close save for her brother, whom she is grateful for, by the way - but the dynamic she has with you is different. The Halovian siblings have always been sheltered and warned of external influences, but the day you bounded in by your mother’s side, introduced as part of the staff, you were (hesitantly) deemed fit for Robin to associate with.

The signature mellow jukebox churning out a tune brings her back to the conversation at hand. “I understand, but I hope you know you’re not obligated—”

“There you go again, talking like a grown-up,” you laugh.

“Sorry! I don’t mean to.” 

“No, no. I like the way you talk; it’s pretty like the rest of you! And besides, you’re gonna need to sound all mature when you give interviews all over the cosmos.”

It’s pretty like the rest of her. 

Robin focuses on you, now. You’re still hard at work, making sure her hair is evenly distributed to make the perfect wreath. It accentuates her halo which floats inches above her head, making your aesthetic choice all the more thoughtful. Your eyes, slightly narrowed in concentration, don’t notice the unadulterated look of admiration she’s sending you. 

“Interviews…” she swallows. “You really think I’ll get that far? I haven’t even sung in front of anyone besides you and Sunday.” 

Taking a moment to close her eyes, images of you and her brother pop up in her mind; the pair of you sitting cross-legged on the floor while she tremulously stutters along to handwritten lyrics. Sunday shooting to his feet first after she’d hummed the final note, you following suit to join him in a standing ovation. 

Robin likes to think she’s improved a little bit since then, and she knows that even with the Harmony’s blessing, her voice wasn’t exactly… proficient, all those months back. But she felt on top of the world, like the luckiest girl in the universe - because you were there. 

Her brother may fight you for the position of her #1 fan, but you, the one who’d gone out of their way to befriend her despite the obstacles? 

Yeah, she’ll always see you as the cool one.

“Of course you will!” you scoff, like her potential success is some undisputed fact of nature. “And if you ever get nervous, talking to reporters or paparazzi or whoever,” The updo seems to be to your satisfaction, so you grin and reach for a bottle of hairspray, “I’ll be there to help! I can be your cheerleader.”

Her heart lurches. Sure, she’s imagined you in her daydreams. Sometimes you’re a backup singer, sometimes you’re on the keys, and other times, you’re in the first row of the audience, with that same lovely smile on your face. To hear that you want the same thing, even in jest, is enough to hammer hope into the future beyond - the one she’s previously sidelined for Family obligations.

Robin’s eyes fly back open, startled out of her stupor as you assault the finished crown plait with the setting agent. She coughs in surprise after inhaling the cloying smell, causing you to laugh. 

“What, don’t want me there?” you tease, meeting her gaze in the mirror. “I get it—”

She interrupts, determined and teary-eyed, “No! I’d love that. You… that’d be really cool. We’d travel together and lift people’s spirits, bringing so much joy to those that need it.”

You want to be there, in this hypothetical future. With her.

“Okay. Let’s call it a promise,” you recover from your chuckling and then gesture to her hair with a gentle flourish. “Whaddya think? You look amazing!”

A promise she’ll do anything to keep, she decides.

You hold up a gilded hand mirror so she can get a good look at the back, but she’s still entirely focused on the miracle that is you. The Halovian tilts her head this way and that way to cover this up, but it’s fruitless. She cannot help but be taken with her best friend and the inspiration of her latest piece (work in progress). 

“I love it. Truly.”

event post here. network members only!

[cinnabutcringy]

vertin and her relationships with others

hoo boy this one is gonna be a long one; i've barely really interacted with the fandom so admittedly if people have been talking about this, i might not really know! feel free to engage with this conversation however you'd like. this will also not be very structured, i am a pure yapper, a pure rambler at heart.

[ spoilers for the main story but specifically the first 4 chapters, i know i'll probably mention at least ONE major spoiler; also just as a cursory warning i will be talking about vertin-related ships in this one if that for some reason puts you off ]

so this has been in my mind for quite a while; again, as i don't engage a lot in fandom content (i am extremely nervous about joining discords despite wanting to and general fandom experiences make me wary but anyway) i'm sure there are people who have talked about this or think about it and i'm just not around to see it

before i TRULY begin, i just want to state: THIS IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HATE TOWARDS VERTIN SHIPS, PARTICULARLY THE WLW ONES.

i understand how important this game's sapphics are to people and i'm not trying to say you cannot ship sonetto with vertin or schneider with vertin, but i think that fandom culture as a whole is incredibly ship-reliant/ship-focused and in my opinion that tends to take away from the nuance of certain media/characters, and i just want to see if other people also share my thoughts but haven't voiced them or whatever.

anyway, to start this post out: i do not think vertin is capable of forming truly deep bonds and relationships with people. romantic or otherwise. at least, not right now.

while vertin isn't entirely separated from her friends and allies, i think it's pretty evident that on some level, she puts up walls between herself and other people. vertin as a character is extremely composed, reliable and overall a trustworthy leader. and she's not entirely aloof, she has her quirks and interactions to show for it

but the fact remains that i think vertin, ever since witnessing the "storm" at such a young age, has put up walls between her and others just enough to where she can assume her responsibilities without letting her relationships stop her outright.

what i mean is basically, vertin allows herself to get close to people to an extent, but there's always a bit of distance between her and especially the people she's known for years. she never read as someone who gets particularly chummy with other people and i assume it's both because she feels obligated to carry out her duty, and because ever since the first "storm" she witnessed, she's felt it incapable to get too close to people because she felt it was her fault.

the close bonds she had with those at a young age made it all the more painful when she witnesses what the "storm" is truly capable of. i think it's reasonable to say that because of this, she's hesitant to truly let herself express this closeness to other people.

this post was originally going to be focused on vertin and schneider's dynamic, because to me it's the one that is both the least developed and just makes the least sense, but honestly? ironically that'd also be focusing too much on the ship in my opinion. plus, it's not just schneider, it's sonetto. it's mesmer. it's matilda. it's practically everyone she's met in her life.

schneider is just the easiest example to me because (and, this could just be because of the pacing of the early chapters, who knows) vertin never truly had an opportunity to get to know her. vertin knows her backstory, vertin knows her personality, and vertin ultimately knows that schneider will not be forgotten. but that doesn't mean vertin is in love with schneider.

on the contrary, i think she has empathy and care for her, but i think schneider is more infatuated with vertin and the genuine kindness she was shown. vertin on the other hand treated schneider like she treats everyone else: with kindness, compassion, and understanding.

the kiss scene i think kind of gave people a preconceived notion about vertin or at least, people used her reaction as fuel without considering anything else. (personally if schneider kissed ME like that i think i'd be just as shocked but COUGHS thats just me)

another example with a character basically outright stated to be in love with vertin is sonetto; i think that vertin has or at least had feelings for sonetto too, but she drowns them out because of the reasons stated before. with sonetto i actually think there's even more layers to how she feels seeing as she knew sonetto since they were kids, and sonetto got to see vertin change in real time in response to the experience she had. though analyzing specific ship dynamics in this post too much will take away from the vertin analysis so i'll probably leave that for another discussion.

i think vertin's sense of responsibility and duty ultimately mixes a lot with her trauma and makes it harder for her to prioritize herself and whatever feelings she may have for people; she can't risk getting too close, because if she does, she may lose the ability to do her job and i think being the timekeeper is something that matters deeply to her.

in conclusion, i think vertin is a very complex character. i mean, duh. this post wouldn't exist if i didn't think that. she's been deeply wounded and is trying to avoid that wound being constantly reopened because of her own habits (getting close to her allies, letting her guard down too much) and i think as a result she ends up putting up walls when she feels she's probably getting too close to someone.

obviously this is the sort of post i'd want discussion to form around, so if anyone thinks i'm wrong or there's some sort of objective evidence anyone wants to share i'm happy to engage. clasps hands Let's Discuss.

[blorger]

I find the family dynamics interesting Bella seems to still care for Cissy and Andromeda too despite Andromeda becoming a traitor

Sirius on the other hand only care for the Potters as I think he really didn't care much for Regulus (I could be wrong though)

But honestly this has been bugging me but why was Sirius still able to inherit Grimmauld when he was disowned/removed from the tapestry?

How can the Will be written? It wasn't sure he is still part of the family, and he prefers to spend time with the Potters and after their death, wasn't he busy chasing after Peter before being thrown to Azkaban?

Friend, you have set a terrible curse upon me. I went combing through the books to look for any mention of wizarding laws, since we know so terribly little about them, and now I'm sitting on an essay on law in the magical world :(((

As for the rest:

Your guess is as good as mine vis à vis the inheritance of Grimmauld. I went through the conversation that Dumbledore and Harry have in book 6 about it and we learn very little:

and

and

and

We basically learn that Sirius's will is legally binding because Harry becomes Kreacher's owner, which means that somehow wills in the magical world (or at the very least some wills) are also magically binding.

I also find it interesting that Dumbledore seems very sure that:

There's a separate enchantment on Grimmauld to prevent it from being owned by non-purebloods

The ownership of Grimmauld has passed onto Bellatrix.

We are generally supposed to take Dumbledore's word as law so it's interesting that he's proven wrong and Bellatrix isn't the rightful owner. I get the vague sense that Dumbledore didn't put much faith in Sirius's abilities and partly added enchantments to Grimmauld because of that.

Also, it's never proven conclusively wether said anti non-pureblood enchantments even exist.

As to the matter of Sirius's will, I find this passage from book 3 to be interesting:

To me, this reads like Harry's parents appointed Sirius as Harry's guardian on top of him being made godfather, not as part of it; mayhaps as part of a will?

It's not unreasonable, they did know they were being haunted, and perhaps this also helps us establish when Sirius's will was also made. I can imagine Sirius making (or amending) his will as a consequence of the Potters' will, especially since this likely happens after Regulus died and he also knows Grimmauld is likely to pass onto him.

Just throwing this out there, idk.

Changing subjects completely, these are the only times Sirius talks about his brother:

and

and

I think Sirius's words are vague enough that you can read them pretty much however you please. I get the vague impression that Sirius himself is not sure how he feels about his brother but he recognizes that Regulus behaved they way he did in order to please their parents (and perhaps to compensate for Sirius's own unwillingness to uphold the family ideals).

I also went looking for proof that it was Sirius who kept Regulus's room unchanged once the order moved into Grimmauld, since it's a popular fandom assumption, and the books say nothing on the subject. I honestly think it's more likely that Kreacher is the reason why the room was kept as is but that is just pure conjecture.

[igotthis-egg]

I’ve been thinking about it a lot, but I feel like I should clarify once more that Felix and Bridgette from my pv au, “an unlucky cat’s love”, are completely separate in my mind from Adrien and Marinette. Conversely, Felix Graham De Vanily (or whatever his last name is) is also different from the Pv Felix Agreste. Saying this because I have another fic idea with Adrien and Marinette brewing about the darker aspects of Adrien’s family dynamics and delving into Marinette’s mind. I don’t really want to work on it right now because I have an Unlucky Cat’s Love and Bunker of the Bleak (different fandom) for now so my hands are full. I will want to talk a little about and develop it in the future though!

[the-sweet-hibiscus]

On the Topic of Christina Strain & SaB

So while browsing the hellscape that is Twitter today, the first thing you see in the Shadow & Bone Fandom, is this exchange between Christina Strain (a producer/writer on the show) and a fan.

And I didn't think this would be necessary to say, but this is EXTREMELY unprofessional on the part of Christina.

But I do want to take the time to look and explain WHY from the perspective of someone who is a professional creative by job description. Christina, openly, speaks about her time as a writer on Shadow and Bone. Which is well within her right, as a creative, many times the appeal of following is for behind the scenes takes, more insight into writing decisions, and generally furthering the interest in a show / property after it has concluded. Especially if the conclusion was incomplete and/or canceled before the full story was told.

So here we have a situation.

The Question:

So the question Merel (the fan) asked was about the obvious sidelining of Alina Starkov, our main character. It's not an opinion that Alina was sidelined, it's been observed numerous times, most recently in this collider article talking about / reviewing the blatant reduction of character for Alina.

Merel's question, originally was about S3. Specifically, where was Alina, was there ever a plan for her? Originally, Christina just said, there was nothing written for Alina, and she had a vague idea of a separate storyline.

To which, Merel responded with the wide-spread rumor that Six of Crows, had been rejected by Netflix three times. For reasons not relevant — that rumor isn't true. But she also expressed frustration, as since the announcement of the show's cancelation, Christina specifically has given an overwhelming amount of attention and care to Six of Crows, while not seeming to have any real passion for the Shadow and Bone property or it's characters. Christina's response starts out professional. She clarifies, Six of Crows was not rejected (aka the rumor wasn't true) and that she didn't have control over that decision, which is true.

Where Christina stops being professional, is the other half of her response.

The Response

Here is where so many people take offense, and find issue. Christina, openly shames the Darklina ship. Which isn't inherently bad, no one is forced to like a ship, however. It had NOTHING to do with the question at hand. Just because a fan likes a certain dynamic, of a ship that at one point was canon, and likes to explore that, doesn't mean that they don't know what they're talking about when they're just asking about the future of a character. Merel didn't ask "Oh, how are you going to make this darklina?" She didn't even mention the ship. The only reason Christina even knew about Merel's shipping preference is because she either went on Merel's page or looked at the "Relevant People" column on Twitter for Desktop.

And now we venture into a much worse territory.

Bullying

Let's take a look at the power dynamic in this exchange.

Christina has 9.58K Followers on Twitter. Merel has 114.

Christina is a producer/writer on the show. Merel is a fan.

Christina has a self-appointed responsibility to promote the petition to bring her show back. Merel is a part of the larger community who supported the show. Christina is 42 years old. Merel is 19.

Instead of, ignoring the second response. Or even just clarifying the rumor and moving on, Christina decides that it'd be best to expose this account to harassment from her much larger base. Who responded in kind.

What was the reason? Truly?

Fans are supposed to only engage with a show if it matches how you specifically view it? They can't have questions, or criticisms, or thoughts? Because what was so mean about Merel's statement? What was insulting that Christina had to bring in shit that had nothing to do with the conversation? The rumor accusation? Is that worth getting attacked over? Is that worth attacking over?

The Correct Response

Move on.

No one would have an issue if the conversation ended a tweet earlier. Christina has over 9K followers, anyone could reasonably assume she was simply inundated with responses and couldn't/wouldn't respond further. Her first statement, was fine. To book fans, it may be frustrating, especially if they believed the rumor, but it was still a calm-ish response.

Merel could've been frustrated and that would've been the end of it. Instead, Christina decided her best course of action was to attack a fan, just because she enjoyed the same ship dynamic as people who were rude to her before. Decided to belittle that fan's interest in her show, bc she didn't like the way that fan interacted with them.

It's childish. It's gross. It's lashing out at someone b/c they want to know why the main character wasn't paid attention to in their show.

Anyway, it's clear Christina has a definitive disdain for the darklina fans of Shadow and Bone. It's clear she doesn't respect the people who support her show — unless they just unconditionally praise it. So that's it then. A disappointing end to Shadow and Bone, and an even more disappointing showing of character from the producers/writers.

[thegirlwhowrites642]

It's funny to me how you guys get so pressed when the way Hinny was written faces constructive criticism. No one is hating on Hinny the ship. But pointing out how they could've had much more meaningful build up. Believe it or not an entire community of Hinny shippers agree with this. Think critically before letting your bias blind you.

What...?

I just said that the Harry Potter books are filled with things that could've been better written so there's really no point in talking about a specific storyline instead of talking about the issues of the writing of the series.

The Harry Potter books are a coming-of-age story which means that the emotional exploration of the characters is supposedly quite important and yet they were written by an author who didn't really care that much about the emotional exploration of the characters and instead just wanted to write about her little mysteries.

This is why there's no real storyline about Harry learning more about his family despite family (and not found family) being one of the main themes of the books.

It's why the fight between Ron and Harry in the fourth book is completely ridiculously written and it becomes really difficult understanding what exactly is going on in Ron's head. It should have been written as Ron progressevely getting more and more angry.

It's one of the reasons why we know nothing really about Hermione's family which creates a giant hole in her characterization.

The lack of focus on the emotional exploration of the characters on hinny has the consequence of a reduced number of scenes compared to the ones they should've had because obviously focusing more on the emotional exploration of Harry's character would mean more Ginny. But you still have all the elements to understand why they should be together and it is gradually built throughout the story.

A problem of lack of scenes can be said also about the relationship between Harry and Sirius, but the fandom doesn't have a fixation on father-son relationships and Anglo-Saxon literature doesn't give its best on this particular type of relationship so people basically never discuss this. As someone who comes from a very family-focused literary culture: it is an extremely obvious issue.

But while Harry's relationships with characters like Ginny or Sirius lack in quantity, they really deliver in quality because they are characters a bit more separated from the plot while still being essential to the meaning of the story.

On the other hand, the relationships Harry has with characters who are very involved in the plot deliver a lot in quantity but tend to be short on quality because every scene is devoured by the plot.

It's pretty simple, really.

Then we can start a conversation about how Rowling's decision to follow a very rigid structure produced a story that gives you a sensation of coming home every time you pick up the books again but it becomes also incredibly creatively limiting. For example, the trio dynamic that we know organically ends in the fifth book which led Rowling to then write Dumbledore saying to Harry that ridiculous thing about talking about the prophecy only with Ron and Hermione. The fifth book has Ginny being introduced as this person Harry can say things he can't say to anyone else and there are six people that go to the Ministry. But having Ginny there the whole time besides Harry or introducing really Harry to the Order would've meant radically changing the structure of the story to the point that the last two books would have created sequels of the original book series instead of chapters of the same saga. So the organic development of the characters needed to be stopped.

Talking about hinny for example, but also plenty of other things of these books, without doing this reasoning, without analysing the context first would be completely stupid.

And don't even get me started on the original target audience discussion.

[kimium]

What are your favourite things about Chrobin (FEH) as a ship? Feel free to expand as much or as little as you want in terms of details! 💜

Aw, thanks friend! I'm super excited to answer this question! For anyone who isn't aware, Chrobin is the name of a ship from Fire Emblem Awakening (Chrom/Robin). They also appear in the mobile game, Fire Emblem Heroes (FEH).

Note: When I talk about Robin in general, I use gender neutral pronouns (they/them). Unless I'm talking about a specific Robin from FEH.

I also have spoilers for Fire Emblem Awakening here.

Let's get started!

Reasons I love Chrobin

I think the core reason why I love Chrobin so much is summed up nicely in this post HERE (not my post). I highly recommend reading it to understand the full picture, but in general:

I like Chrobin because it wasn't intended to be "canon" yet recently Intelligence Systems (I.S.) seems to be pushing it as a "heavily implied canon pairing".

I think it's so funny that within the game proper I.S. strongly intended/hinted that Sumia is Chrom's "canon wife". Yet in recent material for Fire Emblem Awakening (in Heroes), this perspective has shifted drastically to focus on Robin. And that the first time we as a player base saw this "unofficial shift" was in the Valentine Banner with Duo Chrom.

Now, I know the logical answer to why they paired Duo Valentine Chrom with Male Robin is because they didn't "want to suggest a canon pairing with Female Robin". However, when past Valentine Duo units HAVE been canon couples/ very strongly hinted canon couples (such as Alm/Celica), there was no way the fandom was going to sit and go "yeah, this is 100% heteronormative". Nope! Instead I saw fanart for months after that banner's drop with all the gay Chrobin dancing across my dashboard.

However, the cherry on top is how it seems I.S. is leaning into Male Robin/Chrom HARD. I'm still not over the Engage paralogue, I.S. They're spirits. Together. In a Ring. Are you kidding me??

Also, I love how I.S. simply isn't separating Chrom and Robin. Look at our most recent example is with our new Young Awakening banner dropping tomorrow. I.S. once again did NOT separate Chrom and Robin (this time a duo unit with Female Robin in lead). I hope this won't be the last time I.S. strongly "suggests" Chrobin because I'm loving this.

Love is presented as both a character flaw and strength regarding Chrom's death at Robin's hands.

Due to being a strong Chrobin shipper, every time I think about the bad timeline, I want to scream my feelings out to the world. Chrom dies by Robin's hand only because they're possessed by the Fell Dragon, Grima. There could have been other ways to kill Chrom, I'm certain, but the implication that having Robin do it was the most efficient way to do it? That Chrom would never see that coming because of the trust, loyalty, love, and devotion to Robin?

(Or what about Lucina? If Robin is one of her parents this means Lucina willingly travelled back to the past knowing she has to kill Robin. That's the entire point of time travel is to stop the apocalypse. The only way is to kill Grima's vessel AKA Robin. Yet, she can't do it.)

Are you kidding me, I.S.?? I need to scream into my pillow all my feelings.

They always had chemistry (my opinion) in their supports, but Heroes and Engage only added more.

Look. I walked into Awakening blind and I 100% firmly believed in my first play through that Chrobin was end game. I thought their relationship dynamic was interesting and clearly charged with "they are more than just friends" energy. We add in the Duo conversation/dialogue from the Awakening Valentine banner + Engage's entire paralogue with them?? I'm looking at I.S. like I'm looking into the camera from The Office.

And there you have it friend. I know I have other reasons why I like this ship but here are my core reasons. I hope you like this answer!

[hxzelwallflower]

⋆˙⟡ Knowing your partner well can

potentially make writing together a lot easier

Name: - Bravo.

Pronouns: - she/her.

Name of muse: - Eileen R. Roosevelt.

Preference of communication: - Dms are good as long as we're following each other. I do have a Discord, but I'm very selective of who I give it to since I'm easily overwhelmed and have days where my social battery is low. Don't get me wrong I love talking and writing random scenarios, but during the work week my brain is extra smooth.

Experience/how long (months/years?): - My very first roleplay was with my best friend back in 2009, when "P.ictochat" was still available for the N.intendo Lite. I didn't start engaging with the public until mid 2012-2013, where I was introduced to platforms like Y.ahoo M.essenger and D.eviantART. While I originally joined T.umblr back in 2017, I never got involved with the rpc until December of 2021. I've been just about everywhere from old Y.outube comments, S.kype, T.witter, and even MSN. In total, I have fourteen years under my belt.

Best experience: - A T.witter thread between my current muse, (Eileen) and a Mafia!Fell Sans that wound up becoming one of the biggest slow burns to date. For two years me and my friend dragged out their relationship, deconstructing and piecing them back together to create a long-term ship that finally set sail two years down the road. They were one out of a handful of people from the Undertale community that really gave me a confidence boost, helped me improving areas of my writing as well as becoming some of my closest friends.

RP pet peeves/dealbreakers: - I'm chill when it comes to this community, very few things annoy me and I tend to blacklist whatever characters or fandoms I won't engage with. However, jealousy towards roleplay partners or vague posting is something I do not tolerate. Same goes for people who actively display passive aggressive behavior, or drag others into drama they have no involvement with. This community is a safe space for folks to come after a long day, whether to let off steam or just kick back and relax, nobody wants that negative shit.

Muse preference (fluff, angst or smut?): - Casual conversation is my go-to for days I don't feel like writing more than a couple paragraphs, it's always fun to see where things lead and get a feel for the others literature. 'Course fluff and angst are loved all the same, though recently I've focused more on domestic scenes of just day to day habits with a little of both sprinkled into the mix. I'll be honest though it's been, several years since I last wrote smut. Nothing against it I just, don't really think about it much since I prefer to explore character dynamics with something softer. My muse in general is soft, and it's extremely rare she gets put into a situation like that.

Plots or memes: - I'm a hoe for plots, but the easiest way to kick things off is to meme your way. I tend to approach people with questions about their muse if they're from a verse I'm not familiar with, and you're more than welcome to do the same! Eileen is multiverse for a reason, and while some of the more primary ones are listed on her carrd she does have a few that aren't on display.

Long or short replies: - Somewhere in between. I tend to mirror my partner's writing to make it easier, long as there's one paragraph for me to work with I'm not picky.

Best time to write: - There's never really a "good" time, but your best bet is on my days off. (Sun-Tue), I try to dedicate a few hours among my schedule to drafts or social media so they don't pile up. My activity is spotty enough, so don't take it to heart if I don't respond to you right away. I always draft things.

Are you like your muse: - In many ways, yes. While I'm more educated in sign language than French that's one thing that separates me from her. We do share alot of sensory/neurological challenges on a day to day basis, the need to keep our hands busy whether it be with a toy, with work, or other things as well as becoming short with people when we're overstimulated.

tagged by: yoinkus from @/lultimagoccia , now you do it weenie!

[certainlyyet]

the prevalence of proship discourse is really interesting to me because like, it feels like it has expanded so far past the initial questions that it centers on. to get to the niche of "problematic shipping" you first have to engage actively in fandom, then engage in shipping of characters, and then have to get specific ships that may be problematic, which don't necessarily exist in every fandom, then you can finally engage with the question of what makes a ship problematic and what the ethical consequences are of shipping those characters or engaging with the dynamic between those characters in the original piece of art.

i personally don't engage with many fandoms and not that intensely when i do, and i only casually engage with shipping and conversations around it. however, i still see proship and anti as terms being used Everywhere. this makes some sense, since fandoms and discourse spread widely on the internet and are favored by algorithms. the part that is more interesting to me, though, is how obfuscated everything is. without doing separate, kinda inconclusive research, it was hard for me to know if the "pro" part of proship meant "for" or "problematic". both feel sourced from separate biases when it comes to how they fit the belief set they represent, and the latter doesn't meld well with the alternative being "anti-ship" (?). much to think about.

in that obfuscation comes another major element that i find interesting: it's kinda hard to tell how much it's really about shipping right? examination of ethics in shipping is an intriguing topic to me. how do you talk about a canon unethical relationship? what are you tangibly doing when you ship two characters that are related? how do you engage with art depicting abuse? is it okay to ship characters if their ages are vague? all interesting questions to me in the abstract, but when i see people talking about pro- or anti- ship, i rarely see any specific discussion about topics at hand.

it feels like, from the outsider perspective that i inhabit, the two categories read as "pejorative labeling someone as a freak/sex pest melded with neutral categorization as heavily pro-kink" and "pejorative labeling someone as prudish/vaguely anti-kink/regressive and self categorization as against pedophilia/incest/etc." while these do have connections to being for or against various types of problematic ship, they're still evolved much past that.

while i find the stripping away of these symbols for sides of an argument into "good vs bad" or "bad vs good" to be frustrating, and i do think that the conversations underlying the initial state of the terms would be healthier if it were not for that evolution into obfuscation, its hard for me to feel like its anyone's fault. a lot of terms broaden and lose meaning over time and the internet can facilitate that. you don't have to be close to a topic to get a passing familiarity with it, and this post is testament to that. with that passing familiarity, its easy to get things wrong or overgeneralize what you see, and if that happens enough times, the generalizations become the primary sociocultural use of the terms. is it too corny to call this a ship of theseus? maybe.

[sasheneskywalker]

1. It Sounds Good On Paper

One of the most agonizing, challenging things to try explain to anybody is why this is bad. As someone who’s autistic and struggles with things like insincerity, I also have a horrible time wrapping my head around the idea that someone could lie, or be operating in bad faith. Everybody hates pedophiles. Everybody hates child predators. And so when a friend of yours starts talking about the pedophiles in fandoms writing gross, predatory ships, and how they’ll say anything to justify sexualizing minors? Of course you want to agree with them.

So let’s break down that statement.

“….the pedophiles**** in fandoms** writing* gross, predatory ships***, [who will] say anything***** to justify sexualizing minors…” This is, for what it’s worth, composed of several anti statements that I’ve seen, and is one of the less straight-up bad faith ones I’ve seen, somehow. But let’s start here.

*[Writing]. Writing, as in, creating fiction. None of this is happening to real people. Now, that said, there’s been a lot of conversation about representation, and appropriate ways of writing difficult topics. It’s not something to dismiss entirely out of hand… but nobody is being physically hurt here, not directly.

**[Fandoms] …Except, in addition, these aren’t people with published books. There’s a separate convo to have about published books that still ends up pretty similar, but this is another one to break down. Fandom generally means tagged on AO3, or otherwise warned in some way; you know what ship you’re walking into (it’s horrible etiquette otherwise and going to get you flamed one way or another), and the fic will be rated and tagged or be deliberately *un*warned and *un*rated, which is a warning in and of itself. Fanfiction and fanart do not have a lot of reach, so conversations about representation that start with multimillion dollar franchises like Star Wars can’t be used as a 1-for-1 with fanfiction. That doesn’t mean there’s no conversation. But you can’t just slip the word ‘fandom’ in there like it doesn’t matter.

***[Predatory ships] You’ll also sometimes see them just straight up say ‘child porn’ or something equally vile. There’s a lot to unpack here just from two words, though. Ships – as in, pairings of two characters – aren’t an inherent measure of positivity. They aren’t always intended to be healthy anyway. Additionally, ships by definition are so open to interpretation. No character is ever written the same way twice, and this is just as true of ships. Wars are fought between people who ship the same two characters over top/bottom dynamics (something which I have… my own opinions about, but a tradition is a tradition), and AUs – alternate universe fics – thrive on ever-so-slightly changing character dynamics. It’s incredibly difficult to find even one character trait that remains in a character through every fanfiction about them! This applies just as much to age as anything else. Even if people who say this are referring to pairings with significant age gaps or where one is a child in canon, there’s a good chance that a significant number of people writing that ship do not write it in that way. When they do, there’s an equally good chance that it’s deliberately predatory, deliberately unhealthy, much in the same way that Fight Club and Lolita are not about aspirational human beings with iron-clad ethics. The other corollary to this, of course, is…

****[Pedophiles] Pedophile is a term with some controversy around it these days, but used in this sense it means “attracted to children and/or child abuser”, so pretty much what you expect. And… there’s literally no reason to think so. Setting aside how there’s plenty of reasons to write about these topics anyway, until you ask about the content, there’s just as good a chance that this is about shipping two 16 year old characters as it is anything that would be pedophilic in real life. Overwatch fandom is plagued by antis who consider a 20-year or so age gap between adults problematic (and off the top of my head, the younger of them is in his late twenties…), and anime in general has to fend off a lot of arguments about ‘minor-coding’ concerning young, cute-looking characters who canonically could be anywhere between 13 and 300. It also gives away a certain single-mindedness on the definition of “predatory ship”. A year or so ago, a drawing of Kuzco and Pacha from The Emperor’s New Groove went viral and sparked a round of anti-ship discourse because of the age difference between the two (which is extremely unclear even within the movie!)… and it was pro-shippers (that is, non-antis broadly, more on that in a bit) bringing up that if anything, given the events of the movie, there should be more concern about Kuzco preying on Pacha. No matter the age of a young emperor, after all, he has more power in his pinky finger than a peasant like Pacha has in his whole body.

*****[who will say anything…] And this is where you get into the real double-faced nature of this, which has done a number on a lot of people I know. This whole statement is already manipulative, but this sets up that no matter what someone says in their defense, you’ll read it as an excuse. The reason this works is because you’ve already been told that they’re pedophiles and child abusers. After all, there’s no reason to hear out an abuser. But what if they’re not?

This is much like the catch-22 that people incarcerated in mental institutions go through. (Addressed out loud in movies like Girl, Interrupted and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, for their flaws.) When everything you yourself say is discounted because of your supposed status, and you’re given no way to clear your name, what on earth are you meant to do? This isn’t helped by the specific way that the #MeToo movement has unfolded. #MeToo is a powerful, important movement about believing victims of harassment… that has spent relatively little time on how accusations of sexual abuse and predatory natures have also been used to silence marginalized people. So when someone accuses you of abuse, you’re expected in many leftist circles to sit silently and accept it, whether it’s true or not. (And to add insult to injury, actual abusers have much more ability to shrug off those accusations. The horrible truth is that if you manage to actually ruin someone’s life with an abuse accusation, they probably didn’t do it.) And even if you’re not actively accused of abuse, who wants to be the person who looks like they’re defending pedophilia? It doesn’t matter whether or not you’re technically right. You have to trust that other people will spend the time to find that out.

Behind the Curtain: Anti-Shipping is a Bad Faith Position

[theundeadsnake]

Stumbled on this blog just now and aah I'm really liking ur writing style!

Was wondering if you could do some headcanons for a mortician reader whose really passionate about the job with eyeless jack, I feel like they might have some common ground there lol

Hell, thank you for the request :) It's a very interesting idea. I had a lot of fun working on it and hope you enjoy my upcoming headcanons. I was hoping to get this out much sooner but sadly until the end of April, my life is way too full of responsibilities. Though I do love writing for this fandom ^u^

Jack loving and being with a reader that’s a Mortician is a very interesting dynamic within itself. Your profession, the passion and the sparkles in your eyes make the bond you two share so much stronger than it would have been otherwise.

There are many ways you could encounter one another. Perhaps, one day you will be greeted with a strange monstrous creature feeding on one of your patients - out of desperate hunger for the flesh of the deceased. A moment full of evident fear on your part. How could you not be afraid? Who wouldn’t be? And to your surprise, that frightening being will reveal itself to have a much more tender, human-like element to itself. Instead of treating you as his next snack, or a witness who needs to be silenced, he will instead attempt to comfort you. Such a wild scenario, you would think to yourself. And yet the creature would seem so sure in his choice. Because on an instructional level, Jack knew, that this well-organized office and that unique look in your eye screamed you to be a kinder spirit with much softer, kinder tendencies.

Or, it may be that a handsome young "doctor" will reach out to you during a conference, seeking to converse with you upon noticing how much knowledge you had to offer. At first, you would be a teacher to him, and he would be your eager-to-learn student. A very fitting dynamic – don’t you think? The passion, interest and knowledge you both share would surely blossom into a great friendship. Over time, both you and Jack would realize that the feelings you both share go beyond the level of friends and eventually you would discover more about his true nature.

Either way, you two are an excellent fit.

He wants you to have the freedom to explore your interest and career. Thus he will do all in his power to keep your life and his world separate from one another.

Expect him to be a frequent guest at your house and morgue, conversing with you and helping you out in any way he can. A fresh cup of your favourite drink, a box full of treats, and a tender touch that will comfort you in times of need. Jack will go all into this relationship.

Your job more specifically brings him a great amount of comfort. Just knowing that you are willingly used to being around the dead, corpse scent and flesh, makes him feel more confident in how you view him, much less concerned about you finding him or his feeding habits to be disgusting.

While he may be a demonic being that has lost most of its humanity, a part of him is still very much the man he was prior to becoming a human sacrifice. A man with feelings, insecurities, and love.

Your career path and passion for your job, as well as his desire and need to learn go hand in hand. The two of you will get into countless topics, everything raging from what death is to how one should show respect for those who were once living. He won’t be able to get his eye-holes off you, and the smiling gape with razor-sharp teeth will greet you every time you passionately express your views and interest.

The two of you have a bright future ahead of you, he just hopes he will be able to keep you safe from his criminal life.

[just-antithings]

All these people saying to go outside and talk to "normal/real" people make me laugh. I talked with my friend who is more vanilla than vanilla extract a while ago about fanfic stuff and outside of that she is basically entirely offline she doesn't participate in fandom she doesn't use social media or tumblr or any of this stuff. We just got to talking and she brought up some 'problematic' ships from Teen Wolf that would get someone fucking roasted on tumblr for even mentioning let alone straight up saying this is my favourite ship to read and I just love the dynamic between the characters. I came out of the conversation so happy to finally talk about this stuff with someone without fear because I knew she got it and subconsciously knew before she even said anything we've been reading buddies for years she gifted me one of my first large books back in grade 3 and we've traded reading suggestions ever since both of us where pros at both separating reality from fiction and deciding if we where reading something that was to much for us from a young age because we both read well outside of our recommended age range and had to exercise our own caution deciding if we could handle something or not, my reading tastes often skewed slightly darker than her but we both knew that if we brought up something absolutely vile that happened in a book we'd read it was not a positive judgement on the action being a good thing in real life because that's just not how books work and we knew that I read detailed torture scenes fresh out of elementary a character was threatened by two grown men while she was lost trying to get back to the group after they'd beat up her travel companion and the men where not subtle about their intentions if they got their hands on her I knew that I was mature enough to handle that and draw a line in my mind between fiction and reality, and finding someone else my age who learned that young on the same books and talking about fiction with them was a breath of fresh air after the bullshit I see on this website do often. Long story short the "normal" people these antis keep talking about think proship ideals are perfectly fine, my friend reads massive age gap (minor and an older adult) enemy to lovers fics my mum who's nearly 60 thinks that it's silly to believe that what a person reads is a reflection on what they think is moral antis need to take a deep breath and exercise their critical reading skills and then come back to the table and maybe we can start having a civil conversation.

I love that for y’all

[bloody-wonder]

the game of kings: a queer reading

hello, tiny fandom! i bet you thought you'd seen the last of me :D but nooo i have been quietly re-reading gok once again which brings the total amount of the times i’ve read it to an impressive 3.5 (0.5 is bc this last time i read it in russian but then re-read all the lymond scenes additionally in english bc i couldn’t help myself🙈). i have also read laura caine ramsey’s guide as well as every piece of secondary literature on the lymond chronicles i could get my hands on which makes me a nerd an expert and today i decided to grace you with a kind of post i honestly wish someone with a degree in literature and queer studies would have written instead but since such a person hasn’t volonteered so far we’ll have to make do with what i’ve scribbled in here. this post was inspired by my irl friend who has been buddy reading gok with me almost entirely out of free will and who informed me that she “doesn’t see the homoerotic subtext”. we then had an enlightening conversation that revealed differences in understanding of what subtext actually means and provoked many thoughts which i just had to write down somewhere. i’m fully aware that by posting this on tumblr i’m preaching to the choir but please bear with me, especially given that i’ll be talking not only about lymond’s relationship with one pathetic maladroit nincompoop but with mixt and subtle christian as well.

i tried to keep this spoiler free for the rest of the series but one or two vague things might have slipped through. also, i couldn’t be concise if my life depended upon it so it’s basically a whole treatise, you have been warned😬

sooooo i do hope it is a truth universally acknowledged that lymond cronicle gay. but in what way is it gay exactly? especially the first book which doesn’t have robin stewart, gabriel, jerott and marthe, not even danny hislop, and is very subdued in its references to same-sex love and desire in comparison to the later installments - where does it store its queer subtext? in this essay i will undertake the noble mission of finding out :D

a couple of introductory remarks before we start: first of all, i’m fully aware that assigning modern labels to historical personalities and fictional characters in historical settings is Bad and so i tried to refrain from it as much as i could, except in cases where i do it for comedic effect. but secondly, i do hope you will grant me some licence since i’m not doing historical research but instead something more akin to literary analysis (the horny kind). in that sense, while we can’t assign a label to lymond since those didn’t exist in his time and the very understanding of what we call queerness was entirely different, we can however compare him to a number of similar fictional heroes and see that some of his behaviors are far from typical, they are pretty queer in the broadest sense of the word, and to me this quality constitutes a very important part of lymond’s appeal. which is why when i say stuff like “a straight man would never do that” i am only half joking😏

part one: will scott and gay subtext 

fine so let’s read queer, let’s look at the textual Evidence. firstly, one of the most entertaining things about lymond in the earlier books is his flirtiness and in gok will is his primary target

sure lymond does it in order to tease and provoke but one doesn't prevent the other. besides, flirting and pointing out will’s good looks including his red hair (for which lymond clearly has a thing and you can’t convince me otherwise) as a teasing strategy is. a choice. not to mention all the petnicknames and terms of endearment with various levels of innuendo which are so manifold and suggestive i had to compile them into a separate post

secondly, there are some. ambiguous scenes and phrases, such as

this is right after lymond figuratively brought will to his knees after the hume caste mission and maybe it’s just bc i find power dynamics hot but i think that this passage is worded in a *certain* way and once you see it you can’t unsee it. i admit this one is a bit of a stretch but the other ones are absolutely not.

for example, the famous scene at the ostrich is brilliant bc you can interpret it either way - will expects to have sex either with one of the girls OR with lymond (or both? does our boy willy expect an orgy? do i underestimate his kinkiness?), the ironclad arguments in favor of the latter being 1) it’s much more fun and juicy and 2) i don’t think will’s a virgin at this point (he just came back from his study sojourn in paris and i doubt all he did there was study) and his inner monologue in this scene indicates he’s about to do something new and exciting such as gay sex with a man he has an angry crush on. in any case, his disappointment at not getting laid is cute and lymond’s sarcastic reaction is hilarious bc he clearly can read will like an open book and so he intentionally pranked him bc toying with people is his love language.

another example of "dunnett didn’t have to write it like this but she did bc she wanted us to ship them and who am i to disagree” comes up during their fight after the margaret lennox fiasco

interesting... why did you need to stress that, lymond? once again, you can interpret it as lymond being self-deprecating and ironic (”i’m such a lousy cavalier that i only fight women bc they’re the only ones i can hope to win against”) OR you can look at this sentence in the context of the scene in which he and will are quarelling like an old married couple and lymond even draws a parallel between how his bitter ex margaret gets on his nerves and will’s bitching AND lymond explicitly points out that will’s “admirably pretty” for the umpteenth time (in his defence, he’s as drunk as a sailor) - in which case the meaning of the phrase may be something along the lines of “i get involved only with women” - which would sound like a confirmation of lymond’s heterosexuality if it weren’t pointed out so entirely unprompted and in such defensive a manner. the gentleman doth protest too much

and that, my children, how subtext feeds on ambiguity. but i’m not done

bc sometimes the carefully composed subtext can in a way become text if the characters acknowledge it in-universe. the way this happens in gok is characters drawing parallels between will scott and all the women lymond allegedly seduced. richard does it

lauder & co do it multiple times during lymond’s trial accusing him of cultivating “associations both natural and unnatural”, “enticing” and “corrupting” will in the same manner as they believe he did with christian and mariotta and forcing lymond to defend will by describing him as “a normal, lively youngster” (lol i wish will had been there to hear this insightful assessment of character)

hell, even will himself does it after lymond is captured and brought to threave castle and christian reveals their acquaintance in an attempt to save him - and in such a petulant manner too

stop being jealous, will! the master has two hands! 

this Evidence is already vast even without me going into will’s complicated and ever-evolving feelings towards lymond, including but not limited to admiration, hero worship and desire to surpass, envy and frustration, anger and disappointment, mistrust, lots of confusion, remorse, and finally, in their last scene together, “enslaved eagerness” and delight (big Gay). lymond dismisses all of it as a kind of teenage idolization which will is going to outgrow (although the readers who continued with the series know that that’s not true) bc lymond firmly believes himself unworthy of love and interprets every kind of love people show him as some other convoluted emotion. as for myself, i think this intricacy, this ambiguity and openness to interpretation are qualities dunnett put there on purpose and they are meant to intrigue and invite us to make connections. if gok had been written today it would’ve definitely been accused of queerbaiting of some sort, but since it wasn’t we can just live in peace and enjoy the homoerotic subtext. speaking of which.

the aforementioned friend said that in her opinion lymond has nothing but “fatherly feelings” towards will which led me to believe she must think my gushing about the homoerotic subtext of gok must mean that i think lymond lusts after will or smth. and like, no? i mean i do ship them bc dunnett left me no choice but. this is not what subtext is about?

are will and lymond gay / bi? was lymond attracted to will sexually or romantically? did will want to have sex with lymond? these questions miss the point bc they are too direct and the beauty of subtext lies in its subtlety - the art we’ve started to lose in recent years as queer rep far too often takes the shape of throwing around labels but not depicting experiences they’re meant to represent with any subtance or nuance - which is why dynamics that can’t be described in one word like that of will and lymond are fascinating to me and i think the liminality of this relationship, its inherent ambiguity and resistance to being defined are part of the appeal. if you don’t reduce the queer aspect to the surface-level observation that their tension didn’t result in anything explicit (which like, people in general and these two people specifically have many reasons not have sex even if the attraction is there) thereby proving them to be straight once and for all, you can interpret what they had in any way you like and that’s what makes it compelling and fraught with meaning and queer - as in “peculiar” but also potentially as in “if lymond didn’t automatically friendzone everyone who might develop feelings for him he and will totally would’ve banged” or “i don’t wanna assign modern labels to fictional people in historical settings however not in a million years would i believe lymond isn’t queer”. in conclusion: it’s about the vibes👌

that being said, despite the possibility to interpret lymond and will’s relationship any way you like which is sufficiently provided in the text, the interpretation depends entirely on who’s doing it. like, i’m sure my esteemed colleagues on tumblr caught each and every nugget of gay subtext dunnett wrote or alluded to or thought about briefly in the summer of 1960 but my friend, my mom, some (many?) og lymond fans just don’t see it or choose not to. this is not the case with lymond and christian’s relationship which is universally understood as romantic - on the one hand, bc we live in a heteronormative society and have been taught by media to think that any relationship between the opposite sexes must be romantic by default and any woman in a male-dominated story can only occupy the role of the love interest, and on the other hand, bc dunnett did rely on certain tropes that date back as far as chivalric romances and the very invocation of those tropes signals to us the presence of a romantic relationship regardless of whether it’s actually there or not. all this to say, i personally believe dunnett only invokes those tropes to subvert them.

part two: christian stewart and platonic love

during lymond’s trial harry lauder sums up his and christian’s relationship in the following way: “an honest, gentle and virtuous girl, a young girl of open and innocent years, betrothed to a fine man, who fell into the power of a practiced and powerful seducer, appearing to her in a guise both insinuating and irresistibly romantic”. now, the readers know that this can’t be further from the truth bc christian isn’t naive or excitable and lymond is a gentleman, but what i’m interested in specifically is how jarring the difference is between what lymond stands accused of and what his and christian’s relationship actually was like - as compared to the case of will who after all was, in a sense, led astray, who did display that “emotional instability” bishop reid describes so vividly, who, even if he wasn’t seduced and driven to anything “unnatural”, still in the broadest sense corresponds to the narrative the prosecutors present in court. christian however doesn’t bc her and lymond’s relationship wasn’t anywhere near what people are led to imagine when they find out about the manner in which their secret meetings took place.

by virtue of being a relationship between two people of opposite sexes set in the 16th century lymond and christian’s interactions are much more ceremonialized and less casual than, say, between lymond and his brothers in arms. at the same time, since lymond believes christian doesn’t know who he is, he doesn’t feel as much need to perform a certain identity in front of her which leads to a much more honest and genuine relationship - one that is entirely chaste, devoid of innuendo and filled with banter which, while not lacking in intensity compared to lymond’s banter with will scott, is much more amicable but definitely less passionate. an affair of minds, if you will.

in a different story our romantic leads would’ve fallen in love as soon as they met but in this case there are few indications that they develop anything resembling romantic feelings towards each other at all. we aren’t privy to lymond’s true thoughts or feelings but even from outsider pov he doesn’t strike me as a lovestruck man. there’s no pursuing the lady in order to have the pleasure of her company nor are there any melodramatic love confessions at the deathbed - a trope that one could expect these characters to engage in in a different story.

does lymond flirt in a similar equivocal way he does with will or maybe even make advances? in fact, there’s only a handful of times in all of their dialogues where romance is touched upon at all. the most evident of these few instances in my opinion is the following exchange after agnes herries’ wedding which is obviously conducted in a humorous tone

the rest are mostly implications of the poetry lymond quotes - and very subtle implications at that. for example, this is how the author of nowyouhavedunnett blog interprets lymond quoting a single line from the clown's courtship to christian during their inchmahome meeting

The whole poem is a proposal of marriage. Francis would not have lightly chosen to quote this poem at this moment. He is the clown, the fool, as he says, and this is as close to courtship as he can allow himself to come. He is telling Christian, obliquely, that if he were free to come every day to woo and win her, he would. But he cannot and he will not. (x)

and this is how they interpret lymond referring to himself as a "joyless jeweller” during christian’s death scene

Lymond is in full self-flagellation mode, saying he has been a "joyless jeweller up to the last, exquisite drop from the crucible." The phrase "joyless jeweller" comes from a medieval English poem, Pearl. It expresses the deep despair of a man who lives while the one he loves resides "glad and bright/In Paradise, of strife unstrained...." (x)

while i wouldn’t presume to contradict any of these interpretations, i have to say that last time i read gok along with ramsey’s guide and even then i could hardly understand the connections. do you see what we’re required to do here? we’re invited to interpret the romance into lymond and christian’s relationship (if it’s something we’re interested in doing, that is) much in the same manner as we’re invited to do it in will’s case (although i must admit the stuff lymond quotes to will is much more explicitly flirty and doesn’t require an encyclopedia to comprehend). the romantic hints are there but they are buried deep under all the references and require lots of rigorous interpreting. the difference between will and christain in this respect is that with will the romantic subtext is much more obvious but, depending on the reader, much more readily ignored, whereas with christian it’s hidden very deep and yet we still view lymond and christian as lovers by default bc of all the reasons i’ve cited above. i would argue however that the subversive value of gok lies in the fact that there’s plenty of room for them not to be viewed as such.

during the trial lymond says that there was nothing but friendship between him and christian (whereas his line of defense in will’s case is “this youngster is entirely normal and not gay at all”) and that it was enough for him to be ready to sacrifice his life in exchange for her freedom, no matter how ludicrous it may seem to lauder. obviously, lymond would never claim anything else publicly bc christian’s virtue is at stake, but even so i don’t think he’s lying. it’s said multiple times that christian would go to the same length for any of her friends as she did for lymond and it’s stated at least once that lymond would give himself up in exchange for any of his men should they be captured bc of him (to say nothing of friends and family). i think this allows for a much more noble understanding of their charactes than if either of them did what they did just bc they were in love.

as lymond remarks, lauder and the jury might find ludicrous the fact that his actions were inspired exclusively by friendship - and that is ofc bc the society we live in is not only heteronormative but amatonormative as well, which means that in the hierarchy of human relationships romance is placed at the top and all the most profound and overwhelming feelings and noblest gestures are associated with romance. many people subscribe to this view, either consciously or not, and i, for one, firmly believe that we should strive to deconstruct it in any way we can. christian indeed has feelings towards lymond and the more their relationship develops the more intense those feelings get - but the thing is, intense feelings aren’t always romantic in nature. as an aroace person i can assure you that you can experience all the spectrum of what christian felt towards her mysterious friend without being in (romantic) love with him. her emotions could very well reside in the realm of agape and philia - a kind of heavenly, altruistic love that becomes more and more personal as she gets to know lymond better. and i think ascribing a romantic sense to lymond calling christian “a woman with a familiar spirit” would be very limiting.

that’s what i find alluring about their relationship - it is a High Romance but not as in “a tale of romantic love” and instead as in “a fascinating story about a marvellous adventure” that happens to be centered on friends instead of lovers and elevates friendship in that imaginary false hierarchy of relationships by being just as grand and dramatic, sweeping and beautiful as often only romances get to be. 

so. can lymond and christian’s relationship be described as a romantic involvement? would they have married if christian had survived? just as in the previous case, these questions miss the point in my opinion bc they try to force what they had into a box - specifically into a heteronormative one - whereas their actual relationship is much more undetermined and ambiguous and, if you look at it through the aspec lens, queer.

this ofc is not to say that there’s not enough evidence to interpret their relationship as a good old traditional romance and to answer those questions positively, but merely to draw your attention to the fact that dunnett wrote these relationships in gok in such a way that, once you think about them outside of the  constraints of gender roles and sexuality norms, leaves plenty of room for interpretation and queer reading - not just in the case of lymond and will scott but also, despite it not seeming as intuitive, in the case of lymond and christian.

i’d hate to end this on a serious note so here are some selected suggestive quotes from the one and only prosecutor for the crown

if wishes were buttercakes, mr. lauder, beggars might bite :)

[active-mind-15]

I love the description of Rakuzan because it really is so accurate. With all their crazy ass abilities, an intelligent 5 y/o child truly is the least of their concerns, LMFAO.

And yes, I love interacting with people who come across my work! In the face of so much kindness and excitement, it'd be discourteous of me to ignore that, especially when it brings my energy up like this. 😆

In this world, Mayu absolutely has friends. Mainly as an excuse to include him in my fic but also he's probably friends with this person because they go to the same anime conventions or sumn. I would not put it past him. But I also love the idea of Mayu coming back to Rakuzan just for the rooftop. Imagine if that becomes a regular tradition and he's just known on campus as that one weird alumnus who sleeps on the rooftop.

Mayu would absolutely keep his mouth shut. Less so because he's an Akashi ride-or-die (at least he pretends not to be) but because he refuses to be named as an accomplice for any of Rakuzan's shenanigans. He's like that one grandpa or uncle who catches you sneaking out at night and is like "I ain't see nothin but you better be responsible wherever you're going to".

I will also have to inform Akashi he lost his idgaf award to Mayu he might not be happy about that

And MayuAka is very much a hilarious dynamic because both believe they are normal and the other person is weird but in reality both are just different brands of insane.

Oh wait Akashi got another award yaaaay. I feel like Akashi's passive-aggressiveness/complete tactlessness in certain situations is underrated and needs to be talked about more because I love the idea of Akashi being so baffled or disgusted by something that he just starts speaking his mind freely with zero filter. It makes great material for hilarious dialogue.

Also, the whole Boku-chan thing was truthfully unintentional but I'll pretend like that was my plan all along. Pass me the "being delulu is the solulu" medal. 🏅

Yeah Rakuzan is absolutely the family and Bokushi is the baby and I know this because I was the judge

Speaking of baby Bokushi, I went through great pains to balance his character between being childish and being mature. I do have my own separate observations of Akashi in the main series canonically slipping into this sort of bratty prince role around certain people (mainly Midorima, since you can see how Akashi speaks and behaves more casually around him when they're alone. And Akashi genuinely gets a kick out of pushing Midorima's buttons.) So, I envisioned Bokushi's dynamic with the original Seijuro to be like that but turned up a notch. Because OG Seijuro knows everything about Bokushi, which means Bokushi has nothing to hide and, therefore, no need for keeping up facades. That's why he feels more comfortable indulging in childish behavior compared to their other Teiko friends. I would say if it were a tier list (in terms of who Bokushi feels most comfortable being childish around), it would be Seijuro -> Rakuzan -> Teiko gang.

(And yeah, I had a lot of time on my hands when I was 17. KNB, especially Akashi, was a MASSIVE fixation of mine. It took up almost all of my thoughts, and I remember having so many conversations about Akashi with other Akashi lovers just picking apart his character and trying to understand him more. I was truly buried deep into a very niche part of the fandom at that time.)

But you bring up a very interesting point about watching a younger version of himself receiving the care he should have gotten as a child. I deffo think that Akashi finds something comforting about Bokushi's childish behavior. There is a saying that goes something like "i'd rather have a child be comfortable enough to act out in front of me than have a child that is afraid to act out at all". And this is me paraphrasing the actual quote but basically it speaks to the point of emotional regulation and how children who grow up in hostile environments can sometimes as a result learn to keep their emotions to themselves so as not to anger or inconvenience others. They hold themselves back from being a child because they are growing up in a place where being a child is simply not allowed. So if a child is, you know, acting like a child in front of you, they are doing so because they feel safe to behave like that in front of you and are not afraid of how you will react to them. Akashi grew up in a household where he wasn't even allowed to grieve after losing his mother, so I'm sure as to not repeat his father's mistakes, he gives Bokushi room to be childish as much as he'd like (within reason, of course, because I'm sure Akashi doesn't want to be the victim of another water attack).

Also LMFAO at the self-care, I'm giving him a medal for that too 🏅 (but you're right he still needs the therapy aha x).

These chapter-by-chapter commentaries are so entertaining. Thank you for reading, and I look forward to any future thoughts.

I finally updated my Akashi fic

After six years of writer's block, I finally did it. I'm sure if you've been seeing my posts within the past few weeks, you'd know I was working on trying to update one of my old KNB fics, and now I think I'm finally comfortable with sharing it with everyone else.

The fic is called Accidental Siblings, based on fanart by one of my fave Akashi accounts, @clubakashi (they haven't posted in a long while, but I hope they're doing well). I liked this piece of fanart so much that almost eight years ago, I decided to make an AU where after the Jabberwock vs. Vorpal Swords match, Bokushi is reborn again but as a five-year-old child outside of Akashi's body that has retained all of his knowledge and memories from when he was still in Akashi's subconscious.

I actually wrote a lot for this story, but eventually, life got in the way, and the lack of official content from the KNB realm when the series officially ended just really put a damper on things. And I ended up moving away from the fandom for some time.

But now that I'm back and my passion for KNB has been reignited, I wanted to go back to finish old stories of mine, and this one was at the top of my priority list. So I dug up the latest unfinished chapter for this fic a few weeks ago and managed to complete it. The latest chapter (chapter 20) was written at two different time periods. The first 5k words were written when I was between the ages of 18 and 20 (I'm almost 25 now for context as to how long ago that was), and the last 6k words were written by me over the past two weeks. I only made minor edits to my old chapters in order to preserve the essence of my old writing style, but I did clean up the formatting and correct the timeline to match the canon just so it's an easier read.

Anyway, here's the link if anyone wants to start from Chapter 1, so I hope you enjoy, and let me know what you think! I would be fascinated to see how people perceive the writings of my jobless 17 y/o self. Go easy on me, though. 🤭