#fanon is sometimes NOT AT ALL what its like for us in our canons and its INSANE what takes some people will have

[our-inspire-verse]

Sometimes we see a TOTALLY wrong idea of how someone thinks a character is, like "he hates this" or "he thinks like this" and its the biggest "he would fucking NOT" Feeling in the world. Most often it just feels like this image and me yelling

"WRONG!!!!!"

[froldgapp]

On lollipop sticks and contemporary pop culture storytelling

When I was a kid, sometimes we'd be told to collect a number of lollipop sticks for an upcoming arts and crafts activity. That's popsicle sticks for some of our brethren, I believe :)

So, off we'd go in our numbers; scouring the highways and byways of Ireland for discarded lollipop sticks. This was in the 80s and 90s. Some of them were stuck in half-melted tarmac (does that still happen?), and we'd have to pry them out with our fingers and scrape the tar off with our nails. Then, hard-won gritty and grimy lollipop sticks in hand, we'd do the arts and crafts activity with all the engineering skill that pre-teens could muster.

Then Amazon came along, and suddenly you could just... buy lollipop sticks. A whole bag of pristine lollipop sticks! I still remember this thrill of like... "Now, we will be unstoppable!" But soon after, almost immediately after if I recall correctly, the glimmer vanished. Even as a little kid, and I'm sort of amazed my arts and crafts obsessed kid brain could render this thought, I felt disconnected and a bit empty somehow. The ease of having access to all of this stuff, much of which only the arts supply closet of yore could have yielded, diminished the return of the effort to get it. I realised that the seeking and the yearning was actually part of the process somehow.

So. Batman.

Of late, we've seen an abundance of fan-service, self-reference, fourth-wall breaking, meme-ification, irony spouting, fanon integrating, cow towing, wink wink nudge nudging across a range of media. Clear examples of this can be found in recent Batman/DC properties.

A particularly egregious example is in this month's Lex & the City #1, where the cast of characters behave as if every quirky uwu post across the length and breadth of tumblr was poured into a cement mixer before being uncritically dumped onto the page. And here's the thing: I love a quirky uwu post as much as the next gal. But I love it where it belongs: in community spaces. When it not only filters onto the canon page but also appears to dominate and drive the narrative (as I believe happened in Tim Drake: Robin), it's a bust. It's a bag of pristine Amazon lollipop sticks.

Because, for me at least, what makes moments of irony or narrative self-awareness work in storytelling, is that it happens within a property that is already taking itself, its world and its characters, seriously. It's a moment, a bright pop. The flash of a kingfisher. When it's all kingfisher? We're choking on feathers, lads.

I long for a story that exists, first and foremost, for story. Not a vehicle for or a composite of the common demands of fandom, where one feels the material exists simply to be clipped, Tik Tok'd, memed.

Probably it's a little unfair to use LATC for the example here. It's its own cutesy thing, okay. But when it adds to the pattern of already toothless material, I find myself missing the days when we fans dug the lollipop from the roadside ourselves.

[epickiya722]

The more time passes, the more I came to realize that some people in this fandom really have mischaracterized Midoriya and not understand that he has many, many layers.

Flawed writing or not, I feel like there are some parts of the manga that are easy to understand what kind of person he is and yet...

It's not that people lack reading comprehension skills. I just think some people choose not to use them because Midoriya isn't a character that they care for or the canon version of him isn't the fanon version they cooked up in their head.

Like, a while back like a couple of days ago I saw someone say that Midoriya is "too forgiving" towards Bakugou and that's something I have seen before.

(I touched on this in a previous post.)

I disagree. I disagree so much.

I feel like the fandom sees that Midoriya is a "nice guy" and immediately equals that to being "too forgiving".

It does not.

Just because Midoriya isn't an asshole, or vindictive or cursing out Katsuki or anybody every ten minutes that doesn't mean he's "too forgiving".

He never gave excuses to Bakugou's behavior. In fact, when they have their first fight he straight up tells him he won't be his punching bag anymore.

For that first half of the series, despite do caring about Bakugou, Midoriya does go as far as to keeping his distance. At best, he makes comments but that don't really come off as him validating Bakugou's behavior. Watch the earlier episodes, you'll see sometimes that Midoriya expresses shock. That's because they're now surrounded by other students who aren't brushing off Bakugou's earlier behavior.

Note that though, during times like that when we do get inner dialogue from Midoriya it is very, very brief.

It's something that continues on. Despite him being our MC, Midoriya doesn't really have a lot of inner thoughts revealed. Most of the time, he narrates the story.

That would also include his feelings towards Bakugou. We actually don't know exactly when Midoriya forgave him because we don't get that thought from him. Let alone, I don't think he really expressed it verbally.

Now, I do believe he did forgive Bakugou. Just not as early as some people think.

To me, it's what sticks out and why I say he has layers.

He's an unreliable narrator in his own story. He doesn't share his thoughts with the audience a lot. A lot of what is interpreted about Midoriya within the story comes from other characters and how they interact with him.

Again, Midoriya has those layers.

We see that he is nice and kind, but he's not above it all. People (annoyingly) call him a crybaby, but Midoriya has a range of emotions that sometimes put other characters to shame. While Midoriya may not go around yelling at people, he is also an angry person.

He is indeed quick to anger and we see this plenty of times.

While he's strategic, Midoriya is also impulsive and reckless. Like, he can be a crashout.

While he's caring, he can also be cold.

While Midoriya may want to connect and understand people, he doesn't allow people to understand him because he isn't open about himself.

Midoriya is a lot of things and then some.

Just because he inhabits one trait, doesn't mean he can't inhabit its counterpart. And just because he doesn't express his inner thoughts, doesn't mean he has or hasn't had a specific thought.

Thinking about it, and I would say it's a stretch, because it's so often we do see this with Midoriya... maybe, just maybe... Horikoshi had the intentions for the audience to theorize on what Midoriya may be thinking and try to see that through his actions. To understand him without knowing what he's thinking, but observe what he is saying and doing.

Because, sometimes to know a person may be thinking, you have to try to figure it out through their behavior. That's a real life skill that Horikoshi maybe, again maybe now, wanted us as the audience to apply here.

[zenkindoflove]

Fandom Shipping Terminology 101: ACOTAR edition

Hi! So I decided to put a little resource together for the ACOTAR fandom. Since many people join the SJM/ACOTAR fandom and have never been in fandom before, they encounter a lot of fandom terminology that they are not quite sure what it means or have seen others use it incorrectly so they get a false impression of the meaning of the word. So I put this together, including examples from the fandom, so that people can use it as a reference to learn more about what these terms mean and when they're appropriate to use. This list is focused on words related to shipping.

Tldr definitions (note: these are definitions that I wrote based on my own experiences/research on fanlore. These are always up for interpretation and meaning and nuance change over time and depend on fandom context)

Canon ship - a relationship where the characters have romantic interactions in canon

Fanon ship - a relationship where in canon the characters are platonic but the fandom has accepted as a ship with romantic undertones, canonical potential, or has become so popular within a fandom it's has surpassed the need/desire for canon

Crackship - a pairing of two characters where the idea of them together is strange or funny depending on the circumstances. Often in these ships, the characters have little or even no interactions in canon

Rare pair - agnostic to fanon or canon status. A rare pair simply means the fandom does not make a lot of fan content for it.

End-game - This is a canon ship that is together by the end of a series.

Slash ship - Fanon ships that feature queer relationships. M/M usually takes on the term slash and F/F has the term femslash.

OTP - Stands for One True Pair. This is a ship that a shipper considers to be the most important one that they love in a fandom.

NOTP - anti-OTP, or a ship that a shipper detests/is squicked out by

Multishipping - the act of shipping a character with multiple other characters.

For more context and thorough examples read more under the cut 

First, what the heck is a ship?

The origins of shipping and becoming obsessed with fictional relationships predate our modern understanding of fandom. Modern fandom roots can be traced as early as Star Trek: The Original Series. But the terminology of calling a couple you like a ship or the act of obsessing over fictional (and sometimes non fictional) couples "shipping" has its origins in the X-Files fandom. While ACOTAR is a romance, many fandoms do not have romance as a central element of its plot, and yet, shippers find a way. That's exactly what happened for the fans of Mulder/Scully. Those who wanted them to be in a romantic relationship were called "relationshippers" which then got shortened to "shippers". The verb "to ship" would appear later from this origin.

The way to think about "what is a ship" though is really based on do people think up romantic scenarios with these two characters? If yes, then you have a ship. And in ACOTAR, oh baby, are there MANY, MANY SHIPS.

Canon vs. Fanon ships

Where does a canon ship end and a fanon one begin? Now that, my friends, is not as clear cut as you might think.

I think this discussion is very important for the ACOTAR fandom because of the state of the ship war currently. Often, there is back and forth about which ship is canon or fanon (and *eye twitch* people throwing around crackship as a derogatory term to de-legitimize a ship which makes me wanna punch shit).

I'm gonna burst everyone's bubbles and say, I personally think Elriel, Elucien, and Gwynriel are all CANON ships.

Why? Well, that's the part that is up for interpretations my friends. What is deemed canonical romantic interactions? That is where a lot of lines can become blurry and if you have ever shipped a fanon ship before - you KNOW what I mean by that. Is it a charged glance? A caress of a hand that lingered too long? Is it a shared kiss? Or do the characters have to explicitly declare "I'm yours and you're mine"?

I've shipped a lot of kinds of ships. Canon. Fanon. Canon that had its end-game blown up. You name it, I've shipped it. And to me, a canon ship is anytime the writer of the canon is putting characters in a romantic situation, regardless if they end up together or not by the end of the series. If they wanted you to feel butterflies and think "could they?", and you felt butterflies, well my friends, you're responding to canon romance. And we've seen evidence of all three ships having those moments.

But, what does that mean for fanon ships? I have shipped a fanon couple where I got butterflies from their canonical scenes together. I've read into their moments and thought "wow, that was romantically charged". I think this is where the lines of canon and fanon are blurred. Because what this comes down to is, did the author intend this? Or am I seeing more into an interaction because I like it? Most fanon ships do hinge a lot of their interest in said ship because of what happens in canon. But, often times, the authors of said content are not necessarily wanting you to take away from their writing that these two characters are interested in each other romantically. You just can't help it. You see it. You see the potential, and you want it to go there so you see more of it the more you look.

Sometimes fanon ships are very clear that the canon is not even hinting at these two characters together romantically. And that is perfectly fine. To me, a fanon ship is a ship that has become so ingrained in the fandom community that the fandom thinks of these two together romantically. That it doesn't really matter anymore what the canon says or doesn't. The fandom has created this relationship and it lives and breathes within what the fandom builds for it. Azris is a perfect example of a fanon ship in ACOTAR. The canon interactions between Azriel and Eris are sparse and platonic in nature, yet the fandom itself has created a whole fanon around them with a large enough community that as soon as you enter the ACOTAR fandom, you immediately know this ship exists.

Rare pairs and Crackships

These two terms are often used interchangeably as if they are synonyms. Now, a rare pair can be a crackship but not all rare ships are crackships and vice versa.

Generally, a rare pair is devoid of canon or fanon connotations. A rare pair is a ship that receives little attention from fans and has few associated fanworks. So, a rare pair could be a fanon couple that few people think about romantically. For example, Emerie and Gwyn have a lot of interactions in canon. I would not think shipping them together to be a crackship because I mean, they're friends, they like each other, they read smut together. There are a lot of scenarios one could imagine them falling in love. But they have a whopping 12 fanfics under their tag in AO3. Therefore, they are a rare pair but not necessarily a crackship.

A rare pair can also be a canon ship. For example, Thesan and his unnamed lover are canon. However, when you look up their relationship tag on AO3, there are 23 works and most do not appear to be focused on them.

I also have seen people use rare pair for very popular ships (like Azris) when they mean fanon. Again, rare pair is really an indication of "how much fan content can you find for this" not necessarily are they canon.

Crackships really were birthed from the intention of putting two characters together "4 da lulz" to bring back early 2000s internet lingo. Crack shipping is usually a pairing that the idea of them together is a little absurd but also fun. Beron/Tamlin is a quintessential crackship example, especially why it came to be (but we will avoid getting into all the origins of that). There is no real reason to think Beron or Tamlin would ever have a romantic interaction and thinking about it makes you laugh. Crackships can sometimes turn into fanon ships. This is another example where the lines do get blurry. But really, crackshipping is about intention and the use of absurdism within fan creation.

I also want to say, often what I see in the Elucien v. Elriel and Elriel v. Gwynriel ships wars is the use of crackship in a derogatory way, and thinking that if one of these ships does not become end-game, therefore, it proves the other was a crackship. Simply put - no. That's not how it works.

End-game

Related to the above point, I think often where the ACOTAR ship wars really derail themselves, is conflating fanon/canon/endgame with each other. I don't see people often using the term end-game, when really, it would help so much with the judgmental and strange ship policing that this fandom loves to do. Specifically, this fandom has a hard time talking about the value within shipping fanon, or shipping the blurriness between fanon and canon for any characters that do not have end-game potential. ACOTAR is not a complete series. Therefore, in a strict definition, no couples are end-game. However, given the genre, there are several couples who are clearly going to be end-game. And really, what I think the ship war community needs in their discourse, is to start using the term end-game when they want to discuss the outcome of Elucien, Elriel, or Gwynriel having a canonical Happily Ever After. The reason being is that you can use end-game, and not insult another ship. End-game is simply a fact. There is no hierarchy involved in what ship is best or not. Because ships can be beloved whether they're canon or fanon or canon who did not end up together. And they all can have very valid reasons why people ship them despite not achieving end-game.

I also urge the ACOTAR fandom to realize that end-game is not the end of YOUR experience of your ship. Your ship lives on despite what the canon may or may not give you. Even if you ship a canon ship that does not achieve end-game, you can create those fanon end-games for yourself. Many popular ships end up being popular because of the effect of that ship not achieving end-game. And while I am using the prime-ship war as examples within this post, I've seen other microshipwars popping up within the fandom as well. So, I'm not trying to pick on this specific set of conflicts, it's just the one I see most prominently.

OTP vs NOTP

I think the ACOTAR fandom could also really benefit from adopting this terminology.

The point of declaring OTPs and NOTPs is a way for you to signal to others in your fandom, "This is how much I care about this ship. Whether I love it it or hate it. Tread carefully". These terms are not meant to say one ship is better than the other from a moral standpoint. Instead, it's to indicate to others that you have a strong preference. You're going to love your OTPs regardless of what arguments others throw at you to convince you to not love them. You will probably be very annoyed by your NOTPs regardless of what others try to do to convince you that they're actually cute/sexy/hot/perfect for each other. And what the ACOTAR fandom could benefit from, from readopting OTP/NOTP language, is having a common understanding where different shipping communities boundaries are and how they can better utilize those boundaries to prevent constant fighting. Now, ship wars are inevitable because of how people see their OTPs and NOTPs, but general rule of thumb is - don't engage with your NOTP's content for your own mental sanity.

Multishipping

Multishipping can be used in many ways. Some people use it to say, hey I'm in this fandom, and I ship a lot of couples. But the origins of multishipping as a term, comes from ship war discourse in other fandoms. Multishippers generally are people who ship one character with multiple other characters. For example, if you ship Elain/Lucien, Elain/Azriel, Elain/Gwyn, Elain/Tamlin, etc etc etc, you are a multishipper. I generally would not consider someone a multishipper if all of their ships do not cross streams. It just sort of means that you ship a lot of couples. Which tends to be normal for romance series with a lot of couples. Maybe not a single of those couples is your true OTP, and that's what you mean by saying you're a multishipper. And that's okay. I think though that multishipping generally in other fan spaces is a marker of you telling others that you don't draw harsh lines with who you see characters with. I often see multishippers not declaring NOTPs. It's kind of a state of how you go about shipping often. I, for one, identify as an OTP shipper. I've never really multishipped. But I also have a very strict standard of what I call my "ships". Anyways, this is to say, this term has a lot of uses. And sometimes it can be confusing which of these uses a person means when they say it.

Slash shipping 

I've seen over the years that slash as a terminology has fallen out of favor. In the past, slash shipping was the pinnacle of shipping in fandoms. The term slash comes from the first modern fanon ship, Kirk/Spock, where the / between their names, which we now all know and use to indicate a romantic pairing (note: & is used to indicate a platonic interaction between characters), exists because the Kirk/Spock shipping community really were the originators of shipping communities creating fan content and sharing it in with each other in a massive way. In general slash (and femslash) is an important modifier of shipping because it explicitly tells you that this is a queer ship which often were not mainstream and considered canon until more recently. With the rise of canonical queer ships, I think the subversiveness of shipping queer couples has lost it's edge, therefore slash is not needed as much anymore to directly state the nature of your ship.

I wanted to keep this in the post though, because I think it's incredibly important history for ALL ACOTAR fans to understand. Shipping queer couples, and especially shipping FANON queer couples, has always been the backbone of fandom. Kirk/Spock walked so Destiel could fly. These are all queer ships that have strong fanon roots (and that fanon has had impacts on their canon) and have shaped fandom and your concept of shipping and romance tropes in inextricable ways. You don't have / without Kirk/Spock. You don't have Omegaverse, without gay shipping within the Supernatural fandom. And I wanted to make this point because this fandom has a strong het (heterosexual) ship bias. Which is okay. It's a romance series with a lot of heterosexual canon couples. But, I think because of that, many people are not entering this fandom with an understanding that people shipping queer fanon couples have been the ones who were the originators of many fandom terms that we have come to know and use today.

Conclusion:

I hope you all found this informative and that you can take away something from this post that can help you have better interactions and ability to communicate with others in this fandom. Again, I want to stress, that this is heavily influenced by my own 25 years of experience being in fandoms. And I haven't seen it all. Others will have different interpretations of these terms and experiences using these terms. So, feel free to add on anything that you think would be helpful to those in the ACOTAR community to better understand how to "ship and let ship". I do think that ship war are inevitable and not necessarily a bad thing. But using the right terms can help you engage in a more respectful way within ship war discourse.

[saintsenara]

You mentioned fanon turning barty crouch jr. into an uninteresting character. I don't know much about what the new fanon characterisation has really done with him, but I'm curious for your thoughts on why he's a canonically interesting character. I agree that he is, but it sounds like you might have some interesting thoughts on it that are already fleshed out.

thank you for the ask, @jamesunderwater, and i'm sorry for taking so long to drag myself around to answering this.

as you may have gathered if you’ve read my views on jegulus or wolfstar, the common fanon interpretation of marauders-era characters and i don’t really get on.

this is not a new development - me and goofy fanon sirius have been beefing for over a decade at this point, i fear - but our enmity has taken on a new form since [roughly] 2020, when the emergence of what we might call the modern marauders subfandom brought with it a whole series of expectations about characters, ships, personalities, and appearances in first war stories which - let me state my position immediately - have absolutely nothing to do with the characters as they are in canon.

i could talk about sirius or regulus or james or snape or lupin until the cows come home - as, i’m sure, could many of us - but i also dislike the expectations the marauders subfandom has around its supporting cast. these characters - who largely fall under the categories of women, slytherins, or both - have names that we might recognise from canon, but they are - to all intents and purposes - original characters.

to do some marauders fan defending, i do understand the rationale behind this. hogwarts is a school, and it needs to be filled with the sort of incidental characters that lightning-era writers can pull from the canon text [shoutout to ernie macmillan, the mvp]. if you’re writing about lily, then she needs friends - why not have them be alice, marlene, dorcas, emmeline, pandora etc.?

[well, because dumbledore isn’t running a child army. it makes no sense for the entire order of the phoenix to be in the same school year - and the idea that alice is probably around ten years older than lily, that pandora is around the same age as narcissa malfoy and isn’t a pureblood, and that marlene, dorcas, and emmeline are hard-nosed ministry bitches in their fifties who can have mad-eye moody quaking with just a look is something which can be prised from my cold, dead hands.]

and if you’re writing about the epic highs and lows of high-school football going to school during a sectarian conflict, then you need some antagonists. which is to say, you need some slytherins.

the issue i have is that the three key slytherins who seem to have been elevated to principal cast in the marauders pantheon - regulus black, barty crouch jr., and evan rosier - get what can only be called the smol bean treatment. that is, that three teenagers who all canonically join a terror organisation are turned into soft and tiny babies who thought lord voldemort was just feeling silly when he said, "my aim is the eradication of the muggleborn population through violent means."

and even fics which do acknowledge that the three willingly become terrorists often go out of their way to provide justifications for this which don’t contextualise their decision [something which is important - you can’t write about snape becoming a death eater without acknowledging the way that poverty, loneliness, and a sense of hopelessness make someone an easy target of radicalisation] but which minimise it. sometimes, their violence is turned into romantic vengeance - i’ve seen a fair amount of suggestions that barty goes to torture the longbottoms because frank was the auror who killed evan. sometimes, authors imply - or even outright state - that there’s no need to see these boys as aspiring villains: voldemort is right; the class system is good and should be maintained; and purebloods [usually james, sirius, regulus, barty, evan and maybe a token woman or two] should stick together while the half-breeds and the mudbloods go hang.

this - like all aristocracy wank in this fandom - annoys me enough with regulus and evan. but it’s particularly grating when it comes to barty crouch jr. because - unlike evan, who is literally just a name in the text, and regulus, who isn’t much more - he actually has a canon personality.

and it’s fascinating. indeed, i would even go so far as to say that barty crouch jr. is the greatest villain in the harry potter series.

[my apologies to lord voldemort.]

after all, even though he’s been imprisoned under the imperius curse for over a decade, barty is still so lucid and powerful that he is able to:

produce magic capable of tricking the goblet of fire, which is treated by all the adult characters involved as unprecedented.

pull off a year-long impersonation of a man whom dumbledore evidently knows extremely well without being clocked until his mission has been successful, even though his opportunities to observe the real moody can have been virtually non-existent. he is in character within seconds of his ambush on moody’s home - after the intruder-alert dustbins are set off - and is able to persuade ministry personnel who can be presumed to have met moody personally [including both amos diggory and arthur weasley, who appear to know him not only personally, but well] that he is the real deal. he maintains his performance even under close scrutiny from the teaching colleagues he has to interact with daily at hogwarts, despite the fact that he presumably can’t get a great deal out of the real moody, since he’s having to be kept deliberately weak and docile under the imperius curse.

manipulate multiple people into become accessories to his crimes, without ever being suspected of doing so. with the hindsight of knowing who he is, the first defence against the dark arts lesson in goblet of fire, in which "moody" deliberately distresses neville by using the cruciatus curse directly in front of him, before swooping in to be the person to cheer him up so that he can plant information which will help harry win the triwizard tournament and deliver him to voldemort, is chilling. he just gets unlucky that harry has the biggest martyr complex in human history.

commit murder on hogwarts’ grounds without ever being suspected of wrongdoing.

execute lord voldemort’s plan to kidnap harry and use him in his resurrection ritual flawlessly. the plan itself may be convoluted - but dark lords are allowed to have a flair for the dramatic, as a treat - but, crucially, it works, and barty succeeds in every respect.

but, i concede, we’re talking about the adult barty here. perhaps he was once a sweetheart who went unfortunately off the rails after his father sent him to prison and then - in effect - drugged him for years. that wouldn’t be a ridiculous suggestion.

except for the fact that - canonically - the teen barty was just as clever, sly, manipulative, and - above all - ardent in his support for voldemort as his adult self.

at his trial in the early 1980s, young barty gives the performance of a lifetime. he screams, he shakes, he looks terrified of the dementors, he is pale and weak and harmless-looking, he begs his mother to help him, he pleads with his father for mercy, he maintains his innocence as he's dragged off to his cell. he gives off the impression of simply having been in the wrong place at the wrong time so well that harry is almost certain that his conviction is illegitimate. so too, it is implied, is dumbledore.

indeed, barty plays the part of the wrongfully imprisoned so well that - as canon tells us - he not only influences public opinion to be broadly in favour of his probable innocence [or, at least, his diminished culpability - sirius suggests that the widespread view was that he was probably there, but that he only ended up involved in what was clearly bellatrix’s idea because of his father’s failure to relate to him properly], but also changes public opinion against the government’s anti-death-eater strategy entirely.

following his imprisonment, his father - a man who never met an extrajudicial punishment he didn’t like, and whose ruthless approach to dealing with the death eaters in the first war [such as his use of internment for suspected terrorists and his order to aurors to shoot to kill] was, we are told, enormously popular with the wizarding public - is forced to resign in disgrace from his role as head of the department of magical law enforcement. crouch sr. is quietly shuffled off into a boring bureaucratic position, his ambitions to be minister in tatters, and his only way forward to free his son from the prison cell where he is languishing for the crime he very literally did.

[as an aside, i do think that we are supposed to read bellatrix as the ringleader of the torture of the longbottoms. but, all too often, that gets reduced to her doing everything while rodolphus, rabastan, and barty just stand there gormlessly. they were clearly performing the curses too!]

now, barty’s unusual cunning can - of course - be explained by narrative reasons. the text needs to conceal that he’s the villain [since, as with philosopher’s stone, it wants to imply that the dark lord’s faithful servant at hogwarts is snape] until the very end - and this naturally requires dumbledore to not think too hard about whether his good judy alastor is behaving even more strangely than usual.

the text also needs to suggest that he's innocent in order to properly stick the landing on the narrative role of his father - barty crouch sr. as with dolores umbridge in order of the phoenix, crouch sr. exists to show harry [and the reader] that the rot in the wizarding world was not caused by - and will not stop with the defeat of - voldemort. his ruthlessness and inflexibility, his lack of respect for due process, his astonishingly cruel treatment of winky [brutal beyond even the standard way in which wizards abuse their enslaved elves] all serve to teach harry that the anti-voldemort cause can become just as easily corrupted as the disillusioned young men in voldemort’s orbit. the suggestion that crouch sent his own son to azkaban without good reason, simply because he would not deviate from his beliefs, is an important lesson to harry about what "justice" actually means.

but, despite this, barty is also able to pull off his deception because he’s spectacularly talented. it’s not all just narrative.

and his talents are caused by characteristics which aren’t good or bad in and of themselves. he’s clearly very intelligent [he got twelve owls, the series’ benchmark for genius]. he’s hyper-observant, creative, adaptable, good under pressure, and possessed of nerves of steel. he shares these traits with other villains in the series - voldemort above all - but he also shares them with plenty of the heroes. harry, for one.

which is to say that all of his personality traits could be put to non-criminal uses. but - as with harry, who is capable of being quite sinister when he wants to be [for example, when he manipulates slughorn into giving up the horcrux memory] - they would give a non-criminal barty an edge. and this doesn’t seem to be present in his standard fanon persona - as sweet and goofy as all marauders-era men - to any great extent.

finally, there is another aspect of barty’s character which is absent from his fanon version - that he clearly has some sort of childhood trauma, but that this does not excuse any of what he does.

even though crouch sr. is right to send him to azkaban, he was clearly also a cold and distant father, who had absolutely no idea how to relate to his son.

[as another aside, this emotional negligence is bad enough without it needing to be written as having been accompanied by extreme physical and/or sexual abuse. there seems to be a real tendency in fanfiction - not only in marauders-era stuff, although the exaggeration of orion and walburga black into despotic villains is one example of this - to make childhood misery "worse", in order to justify a character’s later actions.]

voldemort demonstrably uses barty’s terrible relationship with crouch sr. [and his absolutely flagrant daddy kink] to groom him into taking the dark mark [not least because there’s otherwise no explanation for why he cheerfully informs him that he too is named after his dad], which he may very well end up taking when he’s still at school. my reading is that he’s recruited to inform on his father - since voldemort would undoubtedly wish to keep the head of the department of magical law enforcement under constant surveillance - and that this is why the dark lord pays him the attention he is so obviously lacking.

but, as with snape and regulus and draco malfoy and all the other young death eaters, barty also colludes in his own radicalisation. voldemort is a master at ensnaring recruits, sure, but he’s also a busy man. he only bothers to make the effort because the clever, creative, cunning, manipulative young man - who wishes to avenge himself on the father who never paid him attention [sound familiar?] - he finds before him is very much determined to become a spectacular part of his terrorist organisation. and stories which feature him owe it to him to give him that dark complexity of character

show the series’ best villain some respect.

[year2000electronics]

i enjoy mario fanon because its like. ok.

if mario canon is the classic greek mythology, then mario fanon to me has the potential to be stuff like epic the musical and hades. which is to say something new that doesnt undermine the original or belittle it, but explore one's own interpretation of events in a new, different lens than the original often can't provide just because of what it is.

like. ok. the odyssey was written to speak to the hearts and minds of people of THAT era. and epic the musical was made to speak to the people of THIS era, and you see that in things like jorge rivera-herrans being influenced by stuff like kingdom hearts and shonen anime to paint his scenes.

i only say this cos im thinking of mario as Mythological. and how the series should choose to evolve. because peach is playable in wonder, as she is in 3d world too, and every so often you hear people going like "oh finally peach isnt kidnapped" and im like. its an interesting position to be in, no? mario, luigi, peach, bowser, all of them, they were characters made in a modern era of storytelling, but i look at peach being the one to be kidnapped and im like "oh, right, like orpheus is always going to turn around and look at eurydice" or "oh, right, like how poseidon is always going to be fickle because he needs to explain why the ocean is so dangerous". i guess sometimes im inclined to read the main mario cast as like. an Archetype. mario was designed to be a hero, bowser was designed to be an adversary, peach was designed to be a goal. it's a story where the characters serve more as Abstract Concepts.

canon mario has reached Mythological Status to me. so its up to us as free-flying independent people to take these myths and suit them for our own individual perspectives because Myths Are For Everyone

[olddustorange]

I don’t have that much to say about it and ik its a touchstone in how-dick-is-different-from-Bruce discourse and Ego is a very good Batman text with genuinely pretty much no flaws at all but basically most other bruce stories about the psychological separation bw BRUCE and BATMAN as identities and how they’re not integrated or whatever come off really heavyhanded tryhard like ap psych sincere but lecturey &untrue. Its interesting but its shoehorned i think Yes there are the three visible identities, the fanon term for the first being brucie, the second something we can call for now real Bruce, and the third Batman. Bruce def does not have That much much cognitive dissonance about his dumb playboy act. he acts smoothly/painlessly by and it doesn’t really affect him or drain him to pretend that way and it probably is sometimes amusing even if its sometimes annoying. Switching that on and off is obviously deliberate but it’s very easy and not a big deal or burdensome or whatever. It would be for a normal person in our world and that kind of effortless lying would be really scary in our world!! But it’s just a regular degular chill thing in-universe for this character. Not a really draining arduous task that makes Bruce miserable

But there IS a theme well-established and reiterated constantly in 90s and 2010s canon that there’s the whole Bruce Wayne Isn’t Real There Is No Bruce Wayne It’s All Batman. And that is of course wrong because there IS a real Bruce Wayne, but its also actually correct because the man we’re talking about, Bruce Wayne, is still actually all Batman. and that is because because all of Bruce Wayne and all of Batman are the same. So the only point of saying the real Bruce is to distinguish from brucie. i actually feel like bruce is day-to-day pretty well-integrated. so its true that it IS all Batman but its just that Batman is a sincere clever quiet and humane murmury man the way “real Bruce” (who we can just call Bruce now) is. And Bruce is just sometimes pushed to his physical brink fighting crocodiles in the streets wearing ears. They have different voice pitches obviously but i don’t think Bruce like undergoes some mental transformation every time he pulls the cowl over his head. So it’s a false distinction that writers try to draw. But Bruce in the text recognizes that distinction himself!! And so that leaves us with the question of how to explain why BRUCE says that there is no Bruce Wayne? Well its just depressiontalk yelled while spiraling. but its a construct he recognizes, but recognizes where it does not actually exist, because he EXPECTS to have an identity crisis because that is culturally What You Expect If You Wear A Mask. and its also a little because people treat him so differently in vs out of the cowl. And also having the kids resolves this false distinction because no matter what, he is to them The Same Figure, cowl or no cowl. It’s not actually really different identities but just different settings of behaviors suited for different environments

[perseidlion]

On Fanon vs Canon

Look, full disclosure: I hate the name Thomas for The Cat King. I think it's a far too human a name for him, and it takes away from his otherworldliness.

Fandom seems to have attached to the pre-release casting announcement where he was briefly called that and well, fandom's gonna fandom. This would just be a me problem except for the fact that people are acting like the name is confirmed in canon.

I've seen posts from a number of people who think it IS canon due to its ubiquity of use in fandom spaces. They just assume they missed something in the credits of the show, or a version of him existed in the comics where he's called Thomas (there isn't, he's original to the show.)

Now look, this might not seem like a big deal, but I think it IS a problem. I know I might seem biased as a Thomas-name hater, but honestly I'd hate the name just as much if it WERE confirmed canon. I don't hate it because it's non-canonical. I hate it because I don't think it's a good name for him.

The problem comes from when fanon and canon bleed together where it's hard to tell the difference. Where fandom has collectively decided they like certain ideas or tropes and that it fits well with the show. This kind of thing is completely harmless as long as everyone keeps in mind that we're just playing around with fanworks. But when there's slippage...

I've seen it happen in a different fandom where people got deep into their own personal interpretations of characters and dynamics. A lot of people agreed with that vibe and started building off each other. It got pretty far from the source material, but these people felt like they had the right of it. It all made such logical sense to them and they'd spent so much time exploring an avenue in fanworks that it felt inevitable that their interpretation WOULD be canon.

And then a new season came out and not only did it NOT match their fanon, it directly contradicted their interpretation and in some cases proved it completely false.

People got VERY angry and started attacking the show for being "badly written" and accused the showrunner and writers of "betraying" them. When nothing in their fanon was promised or confirmed by canon in the first place, and some of the things they felt were inevitable were SO off what we'd seen on the show that it would have made no sense if their thing had happened.

Then these people turned on their fellow fans who pointed out the things they wanted were never inevitable, and in some cases would have made no sense. And then fandom got toxic.

I don't want to see this happen to the DBD fandom. The way to avoid that is to guard against the slippage between fanon and canon.

There is ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong with playing around in the sandbox of the show's world. That's the point of fanworks, and the fun of it. But we need to let go of this desire to be "right" about canon and that our interpretations are only valid if they are confirmed on screen. And we need to pay attention to the difference between what we see on screen and what makes sense/what we'd like to have happen.

Thomas lovers, you loving that name will not be diminished if he's never actually given that name. And my hate of the name will remain even if it's proven canonical. It's fine! It's not a big deal. Canon and off-canon are both extremely valid types of fandom expression.

Just...keep in mind that canon is canon and fanon is fanon. Sometimes fanon is proved right, but it is not inevitable. And the creators of a show don't owe it to us to do something just because fandom has decided they want X thing.

It starts with a name but can lead to other things if we're not careful.

[stargirlie25]

Ive come to the conclusion that Gwynriels are probably the most healthiest side of the ship war.

Its just my opinion MIND IT!

Like most elriels are sometimes anti gwyn or lucien and have a very strong ego which i wont talk much about. They can also be anti nessian (i dont mind) but also anti Nesta and most likely pro feysand.They have honestly crossed multiple boundaries with the fandom

-threats 2 sjm's family including her son-r@pe dms-shaming real people for not including something or simply saying something-

They shamed author Elena Armas for saying she leaned toward Gwynriel more so much she put it on her story

Shamed an author recently for saying sjm's outfit gave Gwyn vibes

ETC,ETC,ETC

Eluciens in terms of real life are very healthy and are honestly the smaller portion of the ship wars. However as much as it is so fun to ship elain and lucien, many eluciens hold the stance such as ''anti feysand, anti nessian, anti inner circle,anti Azriel'' There isnt anything wrong with that ofc!

Gwynriels have been involved with a bit of both. There have been real life toxic versions of them (imo not as bad as elriels) and they sometimes hate on Elain but that's pretty much it. Gwynriels are most likely eluciens so they love Gwyn,Elain,Lucien,Azriel,inner circle,valkyries,feysand,nessian and the normal. (some dont)

I feel like it we are going to continue the series, its more peaceful to just not hate the characters because honestly you might just have to find a different series because Sarah loves a lot that yall hate.

Just from my personal experience and what i have seen in like my four-ish years in this fandom. Not as long as some of you but around the time the ship wars started haha

I used to be an Elriel too because like most elriels i thought the 3sis x 3bros was perfect. Its not and im not going to talk about it here. Just saying, during those times i was disturbed by some elriels comments and how cocky and mean they could be. It was not even confidence just flat out insults,jabs and comments i hate such as ''ours is canon theirs is fanon'' ''delusional'' ''did you even read the same book'' Keep in mind the fandom was NOT the reason i switched to gwynriel/elucien so don't even try to bombarde me with all the elucien/gwynriel comments and hell yeah i know they exist.

I will forever be an elucien and love elain and lucien together and divided although some of them can be immature and they lack some understanding.

Literally all of this could apply to Gwynriel however being apart of the Gwynriel side is easiest for me!

Can any of yall agree?

Please be nice btw!

[allastoredeer]

I think part of the problem is why those details are... What was the term? Memetize? It's because of how difficult it is to write three-dimensional characters in fanworks and because of the "establishing moment" effect.

Oh, Lucifer has hundreds of ducks!🟰 He likes to make ducks (A fun little detail of his character)➡️ Lol Lucifer is obsessed with ducks (fandom characterization)🟰 now 7 out of 10 fic NEED a scene with the ducks where it's established that Lucifer is barely functional and that's used as a way to show look!! They are IC!!

Alastor uses nicknames 🟰 Nicknames are a way of insulting or insulting someone, and some are fun puns that, according to the word of Saint Peter, Alastor likes (Canon and a way Alastor shows his cunning/funny/manipulative side)➡️now that feature has been reduced to a single aspect, either as a way of insulting (or more commonly as an affectionate way) and the manipulation factor was forgotten➡️Alastor overuses nicknames now, especially the ones we've already heard because people think it's a way to show that the characters are IC

But do you know that I hate excessively? Fandom treated as canon. My eye twitches every time someone uses "Bambi" but good luck reading an appleradio fic that doesn't have it.

This happens because it is DIFFICULT to show all facets of a character in a fic when their different sides are explored little by little in canon or appear in layers. It's easier to catch the author think it's the core and just... Use it in excess or as a base. Sometimes the other parts just fall by the wayside.

And hey, it's fiction, it's not always bad. There's a reason why cafeteria au's are so common (I hate its) sometimes you just want those dolls named after those characters to kiss each other. (sometimes I think I'm the problem because I prefer character-focused fics instead of plot-focused fics and that and the romance only goes well 1 out of 3 times)

FANDOM BEING TREATED AS CANON!!!

You hit it right on the nail, Anon, with this entire most. I love fanon, especially my own (come on, we all love our own fanon), but GOD I hate when it fandom-wide fanon starts getting treated as canon. (I'm also with you about the "Bambi" nickname, I just - I don't see the appeal of the nickname. I really don't. And it is EVERYWHERE. It's not so bad that it'll take me out of a fic, and while I don't see the appeal I can see why comparing Alastor to an innocent, wide-eyed little Disney deer is fun, it's just feels shoe-horned in most of the time.)

And you're right, it is difficult to write a character who you're learning about little bit by little bit, and you have to rely on the things that you see in the show. It's not always bad. These really are just dolls we're smashing together.

Hahah I think I'm the opposite where I prefer plot-focused fics, but the plot in my fics also tend to be very character focused, so....IDK

But yeah, this whole post hit it on the nail. Fantastically worded 👏

[the-cat-and-the-birdie]

Okay okay with all the script hate for ATSV I'd like to at least take a moment to praise How they did Hobie right

And why they got Miguel wrong.

Mini-Ramble: The Concept of 'Can-dom'

a.k.a the writers really love Hobie and just fucking hate Miguel and it's borderline funny.

-------------

So, you know we are called fans, and we have a fandom. The fandom writes 'fanon'.

But what do you call the group of people who write canon?

And can the people who write canon also be a fandom in and of itself?

As someone who has worked on TV and film sets in NYC - across a couple of different departments - I can assure you:

YES.

And they act JUST LIKE US.

And I call it Can-dom.

And there's no better example of this, than the ATSV script.

Look at how they talk about Hobie:

To the writer who described Hobie as 'strong, long, and skinny-hot' and his guitar as 'throbbing' idk what you were on that day but keep it up.

Look at them rubbing their little writer hands together going 'hehehe they're gonna love this mfer to death he's so hot'

Miles calling Hobie cool and Hobie agreeing is literally just the writers complimenting themselves on how insanely rad and attractive they made their own character. I love it.

They could've done so much worse or described him as rowdy or cocky or rough but they're just like 'he's hot. really fucking hot.'

And everybody was in on it.

The designers read the script and was like 'really really attractive? the coolest fucking guy you've ever seen? ok boss'

and then drew a black cop killer with natural hair and beautiful sharp black features

Then the animation team looked at Hobie and was like YEAH HE'S SUPER FUCKING COOL

Then made a supercool technology just for the insanely rad punk character

AND THEY WENT TO DANIEL KALUUYA and had him do the super cool ironic funny lines for the super cool rad fan-favorite-to-be character

And then the whole production team looked at Hobie and they all looked back at their work and his arc and lines and design and animation style and they were like

Because after months and months and months of collective effort and going 'this guy has to be so likeable that disliking him is almost a moral failing'

And then just like us they finally saw the finished product and we're like

'THAT'S A WRAP. CUT. SEND THIS SHIT TO THE PRINTERS. He can't get any cooler we did it.'

Cause as someone who has worked in TV & Film and had been in the offices I can tell you:

Screenwriters are not some big wigs that come to work in suits and sit around on chunky laptops in complete silence sending emails

They are normal ass people in a cramped ass office and cubicles who joke with their co-workers, come in in jeans and a 'casual tshirt', and sit there chilling revising the same script a dozen times because they came up with a new idea that HAS to be in it. And sometimes they be having dogs in the offices.

They're dorks just like us. That's how they got there. By obsessing over the tiniest minute shit in stories and getting way too into characters and writing out our little stories.

To think they were squealing about Hobie Brown this whole time for years while making him.

And then giving him to the fandom and we're like FUCKING THANK YOU HE'S OURS AND WE LOVE HIM.

I know a lot of the time it may come off as a shady corporation manipulating the punk aesthetic for revenue - while it is that - its also an office full of writers and animators and designers literally making a mini fandom between them and snickering at their own jokes and ideas as they write this story I love it

It makes me think that - while the language towards Miguel is like.. undoubtedly questionable and something of necessary discussion -

I also just think that the office fandom just.. didn't fucking like him.

Like in the writers room over time they didn't like him and wanted to bully him 'ayo this dude is a clown and he's wildin out like a BEAST'

And putting in lines of Gwen clowning him just because the writers wanted to make fun of Miguel 😭😭😭

like.. just the thought of that.

- and the thought of the ATSV writers team just ganging up on him only for the animation team to turn around and be like 'give him the thiccest ass imaginable. make it clap when he walk'

HILARIOUS.

And then for the production team to have to look at this script of Miguel and look at his dummy think design and just sigh and be like 'fine okay the lines are fine but you HAVE TO TONE THE ASS DOWN'.

We bully our OCs all the time

And yeah they took that shit wayyyy too far cause like... The Spot murdered people why are y'all not looking at him and also Gwens dad is an asshole

But a part of me feels like the writers and production were fandom before fandom was fandoming.

Just like us they hyperfixated on two characters, the same characters the fandom would later.

And like the fandom originally did, they really really liked Hobie and just REALLY REALLY REALLY didn't like Miguel.

We're all like 'haha let's bully the shit outta Miguel as a little treat' and then they start taking it too far 😭😭

I'm just going to lay myself to (semi-)peace with this thought. I know it's pure speculation - I repeat, speculation - but like, writers are genuinely just like us. I wouldn't put it past them.

With the way the script is narrated I wouldn't be surprised if the first draft they put

**MIGUEL collapses to the ground with GABRIELLA in his hands as she DEPIXELATES. A look is devastation crosses his face. Ha, get owned, you fucking idiot.**

-------------------

Also they absolutely know about fanfiction. I haven't heard them talk about it and I don't know how much they know. But they know.

They may not be in the shows fandom, but they've usually been into older fandoms like Star Trek and thus know about the fanfic and shipping stuff.

If you read this far!! Hey hi how ya doing thank you for listening to my rambling. I wouldn't call this a full essay cause it's just my thoughts and opinions and like.... thoughts???

Anyway here's Hobie to make up for the fact I just said a whole lotta nothing

(actual picture of me arsoning the Sony headquarters if they fuck up Hobies characterization and make me regret this post lol)

Bye.

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

Throughout my time in fandom I’ve seen a lot of people misuse the idea of something being “canon” as a weapon to harass other people who like different things, usually characters or ships, and/or interpret them differently.

Ignoring the fact that a lot of us have issues with conflating our own headcanons or common fanon with what is actually shown in the text, myself not withstanding (I am certainly not immune to this), which can create further division when arguing about canon, at the end of the day we all love the same series, and constantly watching people argue is really tiring.

Takes are empty and I want to see some positivity while I’m recovering from some medical stuff, sometimes “canon” is wrong and we need to fix it, so respond to this with your favorite noncanon ships!

I’ll start by offering up Petrine x Almedha, which while not canonically implausible, does have basically no actual backing in the source material, as well as Petrine x Titania, which would require a lot of rewrites to work (I know from experience) but I still really love them together and think they were meant for each other.

Please excuse any typos and me rambling on, its been a long day, and also please don't miss the point about this being a positivity post and argue abt ships in the comments, that’s not the point of this.

.

[azsazz]

omg BABE congraaats! SO excited for u 👏 I absolutely adored Midnight Muse, so even though a small part of me wants to hoard and gatekeep our precious fic in this fandom, you deserve the success and recognition, and the world deserves good books! 💖

Remember us and remember where u came from when you blow up 🥹 luv uuuuu

now, some questions 4 u:

How was it to 'un-acotar-ize' the story, and find alternate names for everyone? Do you still picture the acotar characters in your mind in the new version? I'm curious what the rest of the changed names are apart from Quinn and Knox (which are awesome names btw), are the other changed names something you can share, or is that a secret? (it's fine if not, I'm just super curious 😁) Also, was 'Knox' a reference to one of Az's sons in your fic family tree?

Also, I notice it says "Book 1 of the Vulcan University series", are there plans for more? 👀

💙

Thank you so much!!! I know i wish we could gatekeep it here too but it was too good not to share with the world! The real ones will always know where midnight muse came from 💙💙

i could never forget any of you!! and you'll never get rid of me either 😈 hehehe. I love you too!! 🫶🏻

Honestly, it de-acotarizing it wasn't too bad. it was a little grating because i basically had to revise 120k 😭 and my version of revising that was literally retyping the entire thing because im a psycho and can't just fix up paragraphs haha. but the plot did get some work after all of the feedback i received and i thinks its even better than it was!! There's def still some subtle acotar hints tbh (maybe to the point where i'm worried it might be a lil obvious but whatevs) but gotta let em know my roots lol

hmmm finding names was kind of a mix of easy and hard for me. i've always wanted to use the name knox because i really like it as we all know so i went with him bcs i love it. it's slightly a reference to the son i made for him, but if you've read the knox x reader fic there's something that i do want to use his (my?) canon (or is it fanon? no idea) character with a variation of the name (so excited about). but that's for when i attempt writing a fantasy so idk when that will happen, there's much more thought that has to go into that than my lil romance 💙 but yeah we love knoxie in any form 💙

sometimes i do picture the characters when im writing...it's surprisingly mostly cass i think about or slip up when i'm talking about it irl 😂 but they mostly have their own personalities now and i adore them all so much!

I would LOVE to share the other character names!! So we have Quinn (absolutely love this name tbh) and Knox obviously 💙💙💙 Then we have Ace (which would be Rhysand's character in the fanfic), Rory - Quinn's best friend and roommate. Then we have Slate (😂 always cracks me up) for Cassian's character, and Reid for Luciens character. Mandy was Mor but only makes a brief appearance! Those are pretty much the main characters for the series 💙

There are plans for more...hehehe...i might be well into writing the second one as we speak, but the goal is to have four books in this series!

thank you for the questions these were so exciting and fun to talk about 🥰💙

[writergracethepanda]

🔥 choose violence ask game 🔥 Secret Shanghai Edition

the character everyone gets wrong

Marshall. He is canonically an excellent cook, s why are we convinced he'd set something on fire if left alone in the kitchen?

a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

no comment

screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

EVERY SINGLE DAMN TIME I have seen Alisa and Phoebe shipped (let aroace people live and bisexuals are still bisexual even in a seemingly hetero relationship) or those takes I've seen on TikTok of people shipping Rosalind and Benedikt and Celia and Marshall if I weren't on my computer I would put sooooo many barf emojis here

what was the last straw that made you finally block that annoying person?

luckily nothing yet I believe

worst discord server and why

mine with my friends its sooo annoying how we have incredibly amazing and intelligent and sometimes incoherent conversations like guys we're the worst (sarcasm)

which ship fans are the most annoying?

like I said, anyone who ships the above things needs to stay 10 feet away from me at all times and undergo intense media literacy training

what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

I think everyone's answer for this is Oliver. I'm so sorry we (especially me tbh) did you so dirty pre fhh I promise we've learnt our lesson!

common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

Oliver loves cats. incorrect. Cats are his entire life. there is a difference, and we need to recognize it.

worst part of canon

roma and Alisa's dad just disappeared before I could beat him up

worst part of fanon

we're too funny my stomach literally hurts from laughing too hard sometimes. Seriously though, the above ship takes that make my blood boil, as well as some complaints about how a lot of us talk about how we think certain characters are neurodivergent/disabled. While I think some of those are actually considered canon, I don't understand why people are so made that we (a relatively neurospicy bunch) are identifying the parts of characters we relate to and labeling them. We're doing you no harm and not interfering with your ability to enjoy the characters. Shouldn't it be a good thing that we're able to identify with the characters? Just mind your business. (also anyone who erases Rosalind's and Alisa's aroaceness that is indeed canon and I hope both sides of your pillow are too warm)

number of fandom-related words you've filtered

I don't think any

the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

I don't think anyone hates these guys, but why don't we ever talk about the couple from LVC? They were so sweet, and I'm kind of sad we didn't get any mention of them in FHH.

worst blorboficiation

I feel like a bad Tumblr user, but I don't know what this means. is this like uwu-ification?

that one thing you see in fics all the time

@typingwithmyhandstied 's GENIUS

that one thing you see in fanart all the time

Juliette always has the appropriate amount of knives thank you very much for that guys :)

you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

I personally don't get into the Rosalind is a vampire thing, but I'm cheering you guys on from afar (im just not into vampires lol)

there should be more of this type of fic/art

idk I should probably work on my university au

it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...

the fact that not only did she feel comfortable falling asleep around Orion (see one of @no-1-rosalind-lang-apologist 's recent posts) but Rosalind was also muttering in French in that scene. Her dominant language. She was both out of it enough/comfortable enough with him that she dropped the I was raised in American fake accent and just started speaking normally in this essay I will- basically we need to talk more about the use of multilingualism in the ss books

you're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like...

past me would be horrified to know that I like Oliver now

part of canon you found tedious or boring

I think TVD can be a bit boring sometimes, but that makes sense, since it was Chloe's debut, and she's grown immensely since then

part of canon you think is overhyped

the seagreen trio is overrated (they are literally my favorite characters)

your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

THE MULTILIGUALISM

ship you've unwillingly come around to

Olivercelia. Like I said, I was his strongest hater pre fhh. Now I see what she clearly sees in him.

topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

discourse on ss Tumblr is mostly joking. my personal favorite is when @marsneedstherapy and I pretend to yell at each other in different languages

common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

"no one appreciates x enough" I do. I love them.

[tfw-no-tennis]

SLAWBO MANIFESTO

Have you considered Sabo/Law? Would You Like To? 👀

so. slawbo. which is the best possible ship name for Law x Sabo 

it all started in 2018 when Ruth drew Sabo and was like “hey his hair looks messed up here bc I didn’t look at a reference and drew it from memory… what if it’s because somebody stole his conditioner?” (see below - and note the date!)

then it popped into her head, “what if it was Law who stole his conditioner?”

rebloggable here!

and thus, slawbo was founded B)

we took the idea and ran with it, and now it’s become its own thing 

the more we thought about it, the more we were like, “this is actually a super funny and entertaining ship idea that would work well” 

but also we have a pretty weird take on it so we made it into our own, basically. 

because of its foundation on Law stealing Sabo’s conditioner (which remains an integral part of slawbo to this day), it’s pretty easily established that Law is The Annoying One and Sabo is The Annoyed One. 

which is kind of opposite of how you would imagine their dynamic, if you know them as separate characters in canon – Law is generally ‘the straight man,’ especially around the Straw Hats, and Sabo seems like a mix between the responsible one (w/his brothers, sometimes, and as a Revolutionary) and the not-so-serious one – so therefore it would be the most interesting for their made-up dynamic if their typical canon attitudes were swapped

now over to Ruth for a POKEMON METAPHOR: 

hey gang, Ruth here! as the resident Pokémon expert, I thought it might be fun to explain our slawbo dynamic using type effectiveness! per my illustration, Luffy’s personality is super-effective against Law, naturally (and unintentionally) irritating him. similarly, Law’s personality is super-effective against Sabo, who finds him super annoying (though Law exacerbates this on purpose, unlike Luffy towards Law). then, Luffy and Sabo don’t naturally annoy each other, because they’re brothers! when they annoy each other, it’s on purpose lol. hope this helped! alright, back to LJ

so in OUR slawbo dynamic, Law is the annoyer and Sabo is the annoyee. which is super fun! 

it also allows for deeper exploration of their characters – what is it about Law that makes Sabo so reactionary? what is it about Sabo that makes Law want to press him for reactions? there’s a lot of potential in two characters having a dynamic with each other that they don’t have with anybody else 

to be clear when we came up with slawbo, and this dynamic, we were NOT thinking deeply about it at all. we literally were just like “ok how funny would this be.”

so, to use an antiquated term: this is pretty much a crack ship 

also, Ruth wanted me to mention that this is NOT something we do a lot. we aren’t really “crack shippers” and pretty much stick to canon/fanon (when applicable – we can be picky). we share a single brain cell so we usually have similar taste 

so slawbo is special <3 

back in 2018 when slawbo first came to be, I started writing what I now refer to as my “pilot slawbo fic.” it’s called “make me burn the candle right down” and it is based on the original slawbo dynamic we came up with at this time

now it’s a bit out of date characterization-wise (also writing-wise bc I wrote it over 5 years ago) but it still holds a special place in my heart, and in our slawbo canon 

so then we have the series of fics I started writing in summer 2021. this is the “main verse” slawbo, the more polished version from the pilot version of 2018. the series is appropriately named slawboverse.

this verse chronicles them meeting and establishing a relationship. pretty straightforward.

it’s worth saying that this isn’t canon divergent or an AU – this takes place within the scope of canon, and we’re not changing any canon events (sorry Ace)

Ruth coined the term “canon enhancement”

there’s going to be a fic series written by both of us (mainly me, with a series of one-shots and a few supplementary fics by Ruth plus beta’ing), and art by Ruth posted to her art blog thirteenth-sword

currently slawbo can be divided into 3 major eras: pre-Marineford, post-Marineford/timeskip, and post-Dressrosa. 

these mark major character moments for both Law and Sabo, and would thus shake up their relationship (like Sabo having amnesia at the beginning vs getting his memory back after Marineford, and Law planning his suicide mission to take down Doflamingo vs after Dressrosa when Law’s mission is over and he didn’t die) 

so the series starts when Sabo is 18-19 and Law is 23-24 – pre-canon (and therefore pre-Marineford) 

so Sabo is not as high up in the Revolutionary Army as he ends up being later, and Law is not as notorious and well-known as a pirate 

this means Sabo has amnesia and an attitude problem, and Law has a plan for vengeance and also an attitude problem 

more specifically, Law, when we meet him in Sabaody in canon, is a smirky, rude bastard. he’s not as serious, and doesn’t have that “straight man” quality that we see post-timeskip. we view this change in character as a combination of him being closer to the zenith of his suicide mission and being around a bunch of insane idiots who defy all logic (the Straw Hats). 

put that together…BAM. magic. ultimate game of gay chicken

also we love and respect aroace relationships but these two fuck nasty. btw.

after Marineford, their dynamic definitely shifts. Sabo suddenly remembers his past, and also Law saved Luffy’s life, which adds a whole layer onto everything. and the fact that Law was THERE, and Sabo wasn’t… oof

a similar dynamic shift occurs after Dressrosa – Law basically planned to die taking Doflamingo down (not in an angsty way, just in a matter-of-fact sense – he essentially thinks he was supposed to die of Amber Lead when he was younger, but Corazon saved his life, so now he’s alive in order to avenge Corazon by killing Doflamingo – which is going to be so difficult that he’s just accounting for his inevitable demise to occur here. so when he survives, Law is like “oh damn this wasn’t really in the plan”) 

so a big part of their pre-Dressrosa dynamic is based on Law being like “fuck it we ball, who cares if I mess with this guy and flirt with him and stuff, I’m probably gonna die in the next few years, yolo.” which is an attitude he doesn’t have towards a lot of other things bc he has to Keep It Together in order to fulfil his vengeance mission, but his relationship with Sabo doesn’t really have any overlap w/said vengeance mission, sooo…

bonus note: Rule Of Cool may not apply to The Slawboverse, but Rule Of Funny absolutely does. if something if funny, regardless of whether or not it might be inaccurate, we will include it (within reason, obviously)

some small details to establish!!

Sabo is taller than Law. fuck canon. imo Law’s growth was stunted a bit from the Amber Lead and Sabo is a beanpole

Sabo has more extensive scarring than in canon, all on his left side (see art for details)

Law has skeleton-patterned vitiligo BUT it’s on purpose lmao. I like to think that he had extensive depigmentation from Amber Lead even after it was cured, so he used his Devil Fruit to move the affected patches of skin around so he’d have a cool skull pattern, because he’s a dweeb

Law also has Raynaud’s and Celiac disease

Sabo has blue eyes (left one is slightly paler from the explosion damage) and Law has golden eyes like in manga canon

Law wears black nail polish always because. gestures to him. also he wears Converse, despite the brand not existing in the One Piece universe. doesn’t matter, he’s so Converse-coded that somehow the multiverse warped and found a way to get them to him

they are both Schrodiner’s Transgendered: are they trans?? perhaps. both have dicks and could have transitioned via Iva (Sabo) or Ope-Ope surgery shenanigans (Law). we’re leaving it open/ambiguous bc it's not really a focus of the series

Sabo defs went through a phase when he was a younger teen where he was hyper aware of his amnesia and would often jump to conclusions about strangers like, looking at him slightly longer than socially acceptable bc he’d be like “do they know me? Did they know me?” He’d be overly fixated on what his life was beforehand and do a lot of research on Dawn Island and would spend hours imagining what it would be like to meet somebody from his past. This stops rather abruptly – after a while he comes to the sudden and stark realization that every time he thinks “hey, this person might know me, which would fill some unnameable void inside of me because they could tell me who I am so I don’t have to figure it out for myself!” it never ends up being the case, so he quickly forces himself to stop thinking like this at all, which results in him slingshotting the other way for a while – where he refuses to even acknowledge his amnesia or the possibility that he might have people out there who knew him or cared about him before. So that is something we plan to explore in his relationship w Law!

another aspect of him kinda ignoring his amnesia would be that he feels like he’s exactly where he needs to be with the Revolutionaries – so even if he did have a life before his amnesia, it can’t be something better than where he is now.

so, that’s it for now! we want to leave some of the ~mystery~ intact to encourage interest in the fics/art, but always feel free to message either of us to chat about slawbo lol. and ENJOY!

[saintsenara]

Literary style (rich prose, use of narrative techniques, etc.); strong adherence to the principle of charity (diversity of perspectives/everyone is given the fairest possible shot); thematic focus on death and its effects on the living (particularly, grief); thematic focus on gender; devastating one-liners; emphatically correct Ron Weasley takes; Voldemort having a thing for mirror sex.

thanks so much, pal!

sex/gender/death are in an exclusive triad over here, but what i most appreciate you drawing out here is the principle of charity in writing [also the subject of this meta: fandom is like medicine].

I've seen a lot of posts from villain-enjoyers recently taking against the idea of redemption. and i do get this - there's been such a move in many fandom spaces against any sort of moral complexity in characterisation that i understand the impulse to say fuck it, and enjoy your favourite horrible people as horrible people.

but i do also think that this rejection of theme of redemption often misunderstands the reading that we all owe our blorbos. i think there's a tendency to believe that redemption would require some sort of damascene extraordinariness which would result in the character in question becoming neutered - perfect and soft and lacking the bite which led to us becoming interested in them in the first place.

but not so. redemption can be small, ordinary. it can be accidental. it can sneak up on you. it can exist in some areas of your lives and not others. sometimes little chips of redemption are gradually carved by bringing the man whose parents you murdered cups of tea - and maybe that's not enough to redeem you fully, and maybe it shouldn't be, but it's something - and by him being charitable enough to understand what happened in your life which led you down the path of evil.

one of the real issues with the harry potter fandom [and this is why i am so frequently on my soapbox about how we need to think about the narrative conventions of the series, and how it wants us to do this and how we should work against it] is that far too many people involved in it find themselves on sides. maybe they identify as gryffindors, and therefore fail to offer any of the other houses the nuance they extend to their favourite characters. maybe they think the villains get a bad showing in the series, so they bash the heroes. maybe they loathe a specific character, or ship, or subfandom, and so they dismiss anyone who writes within those confines.

but this is an error. every single character - just like every single person alive - can be interesting and worthy of exploration and worthy of the chance to transcend their canon [and fanon - catch me defending molly weasley against both sirius and percy nation like it's my paid employment] evils if we just give them the chance.

and i'm not just saying this because i have been recently forced to become fascinated by rodolphus lestrange...

i hadn't deeped before now that the 'lord voldemort enjoys watching himself get fucked in a mirror' thing had turned up in more than one piece... and all i have to say is...

[attention-seeking behaviour here]