#finally some canon queer content in this fandom

[gay-strawberry]

the peter porn books are gonna be the death of me. im currently reading book 4. so heres yet another shit post

winnie pov:

tink:

winnie:

pan:

winnie:

roc and hook:

vane and pan:

red is bash. blue is pan.

kas would send this in their gc:

the lost boys tm everytime winnie breathes:

(even more shitposts)

[butmemostly]

there is not enough 92sies sprace. i know what you all are doing. 92sies fans did not get on their knees and pick up crumbs to ship spot and race for the rest of us to run off with it and apply it to livesies where not only do they not even directly interact, but fanon prefers because they find the actors more attractive, and then proceed to boil their characters down to 1-2 traits each and ship them in a weird almost f/tishy "dumb feminine man x angry masculine man" way. guys this is a class war not the yaoi war.

[italianpersonwithashippersheart]

Hey bestie, dropping by with a mea culpa. When Peaceful Property started, you expressed concern that GMMTV was inching toward a model of using bl pairs in shows that would avoid being explicitly gay but still draw on shipping fandom to be successful. Coming off The Trainee, which was not a bl but did have expIicitly queer characters and romance subplots, I wasn't sure the intentions were quite that dark for PP, but having now finished it and seen the way some in the production have interacted with shipper fans, I have to call it: you were right to be concerned. At no point was this show ever a bl and none of its principal characters are canonically queer, but they successfully leveraged the TayNew ship to have fans interacting with it as if it was in fact a gay love story, that idea and fan commentary was explicitly encouraged by the creators, and the show has been quite successful despite never actually delivering on all the TayNew bait. I'm definitely concerned that we might have somehow swung back around to queerbaiting being seen as acceptable and good, as long as it features popular branded pairs. I don't have any bigger thoughts to offer about how this should be addressed, but just wanted to come back and say you were valid for naming that!

Thank you. I didn't want to be correct. And I am still hoping to wrong about what this says about where GMMTV is going.

But I am not gonna lie, seeing the posts about the finale did regnite the massive fury I had at this project when it was first called a bromance. So I am going to use your ask as an opportunity to vent.

FOR THE RECORD: I am not mad at you, or at the people and mutual on my dash that have enjoyed the show and are claiming as gay out of spite. My anger is at GMMTV and at GMMTV alone.

THEY DID THIS SHIT TWICE ALREADY!!! Back to fucking back.

I know High Schoool Frenemy is being watched by like 5 people on tumblr. But it's doing well outside of tumblr. They are using bl style fanservice with the 2 main boys of that show. I have seen the shippy content and compilations along with the other bl couples. Not to mention people like Jojo saying those characters are the his new favorite ship on twitter.

AND I AM SO PISSED!!!!

I am glad you brought up TayNew because there is no doubt in my mind that they used TayNew for Peaceful Property as a test. They knew there could be backlash. They knew the bl fandom could have rioted. But they also knew that if it that rage would have been directed at TayNew not at the director, not the company but TAYNEW.

And I think TayNew knew this. Because they spend weeks on social media doing preintive damage control, I have seen the posts of them (or at least New) saying it wasn't going to be romantic. I don't think the two of them forgot how they were left to eat the shit alone over the bullshit backlash during the TayGun kiss situation with GMMTV doing fuck all for them.

And what pisses me off is that BL audience didn't even give a backlash. They eat that shit up like it was fucking icecream.

The BL audience is literally doing their job for them. They are taking a show with some gay subtext and running with it.

They are showing up for the fanservice (again broder audience outside of tumblr), and gleefully closing their eyes and ears and saying well I Think It's Gay.

What do you think Mega Corporation GMMTV is going to take from the success and no backlash? If the answear is anything but: We can produce half of the BLs as usual and make the rest Bromances, you have more faith in corporations then I do.

Because Bromances can be watched by non BL audiences as well. The BL niche is a big one, but it is still a niche.

And now they won't even have to bother inserting arguable quality gay commentary or struggles or homophobia. Or any gay kissing, no more workshops. No more worries about how effective these potential straight boys are going to be at playing gay. All they have to do is making them do fanservice, and they are great at training people for that. Or better yet, actually use one or two ships that have kissed before and done actual BLs.

Will they stop doing BL at all, obviously not, you gotta give the BL audience something to remind them they can still show boys kissing, and we have the Ex Morning and Jojo that will never actually stop making BLs and some gay shit. But if in the next line up we will more bromances, and eventually we get half BL and half bromances I wouldn't be surprised.

Of course maybe I am just pessimistic and cynical. Maybe the proto bdsm in the heart killers is enough to persuade people that I am totally wrong. I guess we will see about that.

Thanks again for the ask and the oppurtunity to vent a little. Again I don't fault anyone for enjoying this, it was design to get the BL audience watching.

I will personally be keeping with my own resolution and never watch another gmmtv show live ever again, maybe binge the few that sound interesting and that's it.

At least I can find comfort in the idea that that other companies do not have the same level of BIG cast of boys and big budget to do the same thing and follow in the bromance trend.

[celerydays]

Hi! I have been following you for some time and I notice you draw more and more Sebastian and Ominis doing stuff that makes me... uncomfortable.....

Sebastian and Ominis are best friends, why people are obsessed with drawing them into weird gay stuff? Seriously.... Why can't be friends.... without all Sebinis... Just stop it...

Normally I would delete messages or simply ignore the things that make me feel uncomfortable–

But, you're on anon and this is my ask inbox, so I can only assume you want an actual, public response. So alright. Fine.

Like I said: normally I would just remove odd, uncomfortable, or even outright rude messages without making a whole thing of it. I curate my own online experience and I try my best to live by that rule.

However, I've now gotten multiple unsolicited DMs over the course of a couple of months expressing the exact same sentiment (and nearly word-for-word as this ask, so I highly suspect I already know who you are). I have duly ignored or glossed over them hoping that the person/people would take the hint to simply stop engaging with the same message over and over again. But an anon ask is my last straw, I guess.

So if you are the same person as in my DMs, I'm finally giving you a response (and if you're not the same person – which I highly doubt – then I'm speaking to both of you).

Firstly, I want to say that I am sorry that your worldview is so limited that this is your stance and feelings on gay/queer ship content for Sebastian and Ominis.

Next, I ask that you please:

Don't make your homophobia anyone else's issue but your own. Don't come into DMs/ask inboxes/comments to make your discomfort with the content I create my problem. I don't know what you hoped to accomplish by sending this message but it's unlikely that you'll find the same feelings or sympathy from the person who is actively creating queer/sebinis content.

Curate your own online experience. Once again, do not make your content consumption anyone else's problem but your own. The "unfollow" button is there. Tumblr has a tag filtering system and I try to tag my art and content as accurately as possible. If you do not like something/it makes you uncomfortable, then do not continue to consume it. And if you still decide to stick around for whatever reason, then please keep your thoughts/opinions on this matter to yourself because I can promise that I don't actually care why you would continue to be here and looking at my art if it makes you unhappy.

Widen your worldview and try to reframe your perspective. Consider that Sebastian x Ominis is just as canon as Sebastian x f!MC or Ominis x f!MC. As much as we like to ship our various MCs with the canon characters, MC never actually amounts to canonically being confirmed as anything but being just friends with everyone. Using the "they are just best friends" / "why can't they just be portrayed only as friends" could literally be applied to just about any other non-canon/non-confirmed ship between friends regardless of gender. If even one of them, Ominis or Sebastian, was portrayed as cis female in canon, I would suspect that you would better "understand" why a ship between these two "friends" may exist. Then also consider a cis male MC; it's possible you may suddenly reframe all the interactions between Ominis x m!MC or Sebastian x m!MC in your head to be "totally platonic/friendly". Your issue is certainly not with their canon relationship vs. fandom portrayal (but I think we both know that).

Educate yourself. Go outside and meet and talk to people, I dunno. It is 2024 my dude. I don't even know how you're on Tumblr – the most queer-friendly social media site – with those kind of narrowed views and stigma.

I would like to finish by saying: I don't wish you the best. What I do wish is for you to learn, grow, and be better than this.

And also please stop sending me messages of this nature, because the next ask or DM I get like this, we're moving on to blocking at this point. And if your purpose was to get me to stop, I can tell you that these messages have only fueled the explicit sebinis smut maker in me. 😤

[hazbinstohell]

Something that I found weird IS how much Charlastor content we got. Don't get me wrong as a shipper, I'm not upset. I was very happy in fact. However, the fact that this fanon ship. This ship that will never be canon unless Viv has a complete change of mind got all of these shippy esque moments while the actual canon ship, Chaggie got virtually nothing is wild. Chaggie isn't my ship, I don't dislike it, I just don't find it interesting, but if I was a shipper I'd be pissed. How the hell are they canon but got scraps basically. It felt like Viv wanted to make a queer ship just for the sake of representation and not because she actually cares about it. Maybe things will be different in season 2 but just off of season 1, she doesn't care about Chaggie and the writing showed. I might be a charlastor shipper but I can put my shipping goggles to the side and acknowledge it's fucked up how this lesbian ship hasn't gotten the proper care and attention it deserved. I can't help but imagine how disappointing it must be to bi and lesbian watchers to think they were finally getting representation and this is how it was handled. Hell, if anything from all the charlastor content we got, I'm inclined to believe that some of the writers are lowkey Charlastor shippers with the material we were getting. Again, I was very happy to see it but at the same time, why did a ship that'll never happen get a lot of content. That's a lot of time dedicated to a fanon ship instead of the canon one. I wonder what went on in that writers room.

Yeah, we all in the fandom felt this. I’m not against Chaggie. I like both characters…but together they brought nothing. Is it the writing or Viv? I don’t know, but I will say this—Amazon is already alluding to Alastor being the leading man, so who knows exactly?

[mrghostrat]

"He needed an internet connection so he could download an app to draw with, but the whole point of setting the thing up in London was because he knew Crowley understood all of this a whole lot better than he did."

Okayyyyy I just got violent flashbacks to the s2 finale this is evil 😭😭

But in all seriousness, I LOVED the new bnf au chapter, I mean the kiss??? I audibly gasped, it was soooo good

I was wondering if the witch and the witchfinder are a canon couple in the nice and accurate prophecies? Or are they just a very popular fanon ship? Or is it like good omens, where people saw the romantic subtext in the book and where it was made explicitly canon in the show?

I just think all options would be really interesting, given that Crowley and Aziraphale are both middle-aged queer people and the book came out thirty years ago. So they either would have had some representation back then, or they recognised themselves in the story and even though it wasn't canon, maybe those ideas would later explicitly be confirmed by Agnes Nutter nonetheless? Since all these options have really interesting implications for the way they both interacted with the source material, I'm really curious what your thoughts on the matter are.

Thank you so much for all the beautiful things you create for the fandom, both your fics and your art give me life and I'm so grateful for them ❤

omg you have no idea how excited i am about this question 😭 as i've written BNF, i've been quietly fleshing out more about their fictional fandom, and accidentally gotten reeeeally invested and am dying to talk about it 😭😭

i'm actually tempted to make some fanart of the witch & the witchfinder, using michael and david as facecasts to go full meta thphptftf. in b4 i write it as a fuckin book series for real

buttttt i'll put all my N&A thoughts under a cut so i dont ramble too long on your dashes 💛

The Nice and Accurate Prophecy: Agnes Nutter's book series (turned play, turned film, turned tv series); the fandom in my fic Big Name Feelings

the idea of using Agnes Nutter's "Nice and Accurate" book for the in-fic fandom was taken from @tawnyontumblr's fic New Messages (i just thought that would be a fun fanon consistency to follow), but all the details about the story and characters are me.

N&A takes inspiration from Good Omens (as a story, and as a fandom) but isn't intended to be a direct copy of it. the original paperback series is a few books long, and each adaptation of the books are considered good, accurate, canonical content. the tv show (a HBO series) is the most recent, highest quality, and most popular. The Witcher style, high fantasy quality.

agnes is loudly supportive of the lgbt community just like neil/david/michael are. but i imagine that for the series to be so "marketable" over the last 30 years, there isn't an explicit queer relationship between the witch & finder. there are canon queer side characters but the witch & finder are a little more nuanced.

the witch and the witchfinder aid each other through time, working together to defeat the evils in the story (like Aziraphale and Crowley from GO). there's tension between them, but boundless love, and plenty of flirtation, despite the running "we shouldn't, we're meant to be enemies" theme. they would canonically get together at some point in the story, probably towards the end after they've spent some time dancing around each other.

the thing that makes this vague is: the witch reincarnates through the story, almost doctor who style. they're a trans icon, much like how the GO fandom looks at Crowley and all his gender ambiguity.

when they finally tryst with the witchfinder, they're female. it's by pure happenstance that they're female presenting at that stage of the story, but still widely critiqued over the years. the thing that canonises the mlm relationship is that the witch is said to carry their consciousness through each reincarnation— they're not a new person like The Doctor is when he regenerates.

the start of the book series spends more time on "Crowley and Aziraphale's favourite male reincarnation", while the movie and tv show only briefly montages through some of the witch's faces. the mlm side of the fandom most definitely lost their minds over the brief few minutes of screentime that they got of the male witch, and has absolutely gifsetted it to death.

i've done it like this because so much of (every) fandom has always been seeking out representation and filling gaps where the original content lacks. there's something to be said about the solidarity of queer fans creating more queer content for themselves. except, in the case of N&A, they're getting to work from a source material that is genuinely queer supportive, unlike fandoms like SPN and BBC Sherlock that are fighting against the tide of queerbaiting and buried gays.

it also gives aziraphale and crowley a chance to band together in the next chapter when they talk to a dickhead at the party:

i haven't exactly decided what happens with the witchfinder, like if the story takes place over hundreds of years and he keeps reincarnating as the same lookin dude (like how jack whitehall plays both Thou Shall Not Commit Adultery and Newton Pulsifer) or if it's set over one lifetime and the witch just gets killed and regenerates a lot. i do like the idea of there being some "through the ages" shenanigans, and a canonical "modern day" setting like GO has.

but i gotta be careful bc i genuinely can't stop thinking about this fake story that's barely mentioned in my fan fic or i'll end up writing the damn thing myself

[vladdyissues]

It's so cute that you uploaded some puffy, you're so kind 😭💞

But I have a question, why did they even block his account? How does Tumblr block an account? He didn't upload anything bad [?]

To the best of my knowledge—and I say this because I did not see every single one of Puffy's posts—Puffy did everything that Tumblr requires when it comes to posting "mature" artwork. She tagged her posts, used Community Labels, cropped and/or censored thumbnails, and made use of the "Read More" option. She was bolder than me when it came to posting certain art styles and speaking unabashedly, but that's a difference in personality. Puffy is a free spirit, incredibly witty, and absolutely hilarious. I'm old and crotchety and try to avoid drama if I can help it—not to say that Puffy in any way invited or deserved termination. She did not.

But she was no match for a targeted mass-reporting campaign. And, unfortunately, there's no way to know just how many people were involved or how much harassment she's been receiving since she joined Tumblr. I know there were at least three asks, likely more, and one rude comment left on one of her artworks early on.

But Tumblr has a poor track record when it comes to making decisions and meting out justice. They don't typically perform thorough investigations, they panic when they see certain words, and they're also prone to outrageous hypocrisy—like the fact that gifs of graphic, live-action porn somehow still manage to survive on this site after 10 years and a purge that cost the company a billion dollars in value, and how they claim to be "the queerest place on the internet" while simultaneously alienating and fostering a hostile environment for the queer artists who are largely responsible for Tumblr's success. Porn and spam bots run amok, but the blogs of marginalized people and artists are first on the chopping block.

I myself have had blogs deleted for lesser reasons. A couple years ago I created a "ship week" event blog, which was deleted simply because at one point in the TV show, one of the characters in the ship was a minor. The blog posted G-rated prompts. It was text-based with completely worksafe header graphics. It didn't endorse any age ranges, but left that up to the discrimination of the participants. The participants complied with Tumblr's TOS if they posted 18+ content, cropping images, using Community Labels and such. Everything adhered strictly to Tumblr's guidelines.

But I was the target for a lot of hatred from the rest of the fandom. They hated my guts because I shipped "the wrong ship"—because it was a gay ship, because it upset the canon heterosexual ship that one of the characters was in, because I wasn't sniveling in fear whenever they sent me hateful asks, because I refused to be bullied or shamed. They went after us because we were a tiny group of fans, easy to target and eradicate. Disgusting behavior, really.

I tried to appeal the deletion, but I never heard back from Tumblr. Fine. I moved the event to another platform (and it looked much better there, too), and that was that.

In short, Tumblr would rather delete a hundred innocent blogs out of fear of offending their ad sponsors rather than 1) investigate the claims made against the blog, or 2) give the blog owner a chance to delete the offending content.

One final thing:

Last month, around 17 June 2024, several Pompep fans on Tumblr received anywhere between 1-3 anonymous asks telling us to kill ourselves or "get raped".

Over cartoon characters.

It's a sad state of things when there's more sympathy, respect and agency given to drawings of fictional lines than living, breathing people.

[unabashedly-so]

💙💜🩷 SDV Bachelor HC 🩷💜💙

How much has each bachelor explored their bisexuality?

Content warning: compulsive heteronormativity, loss of family, grief, risky sexual behavior mention, drinking mention. SFW.

✨The Bachelors✨

Elliott

look me in the eye and just try to tell me this man doesn't already know. i dare you i fuckin' dare you i WANT YOU TO

that line on the 10 heart boat scene about not knowing he could feel that way about another man is bullshit and that is a piece of canon I toss into the sea.

now please understand the majority of this is colored by my very vivid hc of Elliott's upbringing and young adult life, but you're literally reading a hc post that is labeled hc so you bought the ticket now board the train. choo choo mfs.

the low hanging fruit is that this is a man that canonically spends hours on hair care, dresses like that, talks like that, etc. etc.. Yes, you can be cishet etc. and do that, sure.

and don't get me wrong, it's valid that Elliott could just Be Like That. (I love and respect the hell out of that incorrect opinion)

but this man is penny-romance novel cover coded. just. think about that. think about this active CHOICE he is making.

ffs he lives on a BEACH and dresses in a THREE-PIECE SUIT with his PERFECTLY COIFFED hair that he has to spend HOURS on because that's what happens when you LIVE. ON. A. BEACH.

i am going to have an aneurysm about this man's life choices rn

he's arguably pretty self-secure*, which tracks because you don't get to be his age and not have some better understanding of yourself. As others have pointed out, there's no real ""growth"" in Elliott's arc because boy came whole because HE BEEN KNEW HE BEEN THROUGH THIS ALREADY. He's secure in his identity because he's worked it out already! He's moved on! focusing on his career and legacy now that he knows who is he and who he's not!!

*dont make me drag out the receipts his part is already long enough just trust me ok

now meet Elliott in his early 20's and wow, buddy, you are trying way too hard I promise you things are gonna be okay sweetheart

speaking of his early 20's, it's hc to me that he did, uhhhh, so much exploring. of everything. and everyone in the English and Theater department during university.

King Slut, long may he reign. 🙏

just. someone who's not as self-secure and self-aware would not be able to own the aesthetic PLUS the temperament we see with Elliott, who really only gets flustered with the intimate interpersonal stuff because he's a romantic and it's meaningful. He's confident in who he is and the kind of person he wants to be, and you don't get to that point in life without having done a lot of experimenting and soul-searching.

I could write a whole fucking meta on this boy, but for today: 9/10 he knows it, owns it, enjoys it, but he's got more interesting things going on in his opinion than to make one of his core personality traits just Gay/Queer/Bi/Pan, etc. He has an AESTHETIC and BI BY YOBA he's sticking to it.

also he can walk in heels better than you.

Harvey

Hmm, he's actually hard to get a read on for me. There's a few others in the fandom who might have a better take than me, but here's what I can offer.

first let's grant him that he's older. With age comes wisdom, experience, etc. the older bachelor/ettes are just going to be at an advantage vs the younger ones.

also... like 8 years in college. I cannot be swayed away from this as a crucial part of his journey.

twinkle TWINK-le little snack.

it just feels like one of those things he felt happening in high school and might have gotten bullied for it because everyone Knew but he couldn't/wouldn't just own it.

but then in college he finally realized that owning it would give him the power, so he did. kind of. very quietly.

he probably had a boyfriend or two in undergrad. They were definitely the kind to hold hands from the coffee shop to the library. you know the ones, we've all seen 'em. <3

and isn't he just so lucky that he can get butterflies from girls too?

a blessing and a burden for this man with anxiety because, oh no, now everyone's cute.

by the time he gets to Pelican town, his last relationship kind of ended on a sour note, so he's a little discouraged from pursuing romantic relationships, hence why he's a bit guarded and shy and nervous.

he gets a 8/10, he's just quiet about it because who's business is it but his own? also, like, he's literally the doctor for everyone. He's gotta keep some confidentiality in this small town.

Sebastian

while he doesn't show it, I'd say Sebastian is actually quite comfortable with being bi.

I mean like as comfortable as he can be around people in general.

He doesn't bring it up, and doesn't really let anyone know either, but again that's just kind of his MO, regardless of gender.

now when he's Together with someone, well that's a different story. we stan possessive Sebastian in this house 🫡

he probably wouldn't bring it up with the gang unless someone else brought it up first. 🤷‍♀️

would probably give some semi-defensive response of "yeah, what of it??" to his friends, but a low hearts farmer might get a coldly aggro "why are you asking? That's none of your business."

he and Maru Know about each other but keep those conversations private. hashtag just sibling things ig

has definitely kissed guys at concerts before. Lots of people can also provide a feeling of anonymity, letting him get lost in the crowd and not have to worry so much. 10/10

Shane

closeted sportsballer. As a former Closeted Sportsballer, I can see this going two ways.

First option: you DO NOT explore that unless you want things to get real weird REAL FAST.

Like, I'm not even talking locker room nonsense, let's be mature here. Even if you do not like your teammates, you WILL still share a Sports Bond with them built on a shared passion, a common goal, and lots of comiseration.

So if you're already on iffy social standing, which I'm just gonna go out on a limb and say Shane might have had... you're gonna have a bad time.

Then after his gridball career ended, it may have already been baked in that that was Dangerous. OR he could have just been so far down the path of self-loathing that he stopped looking at people romantically.

OR OR--part of his self-loathing actually opened him up to exploring his sexuality......

......which is a very nice way of saying he took part in a lot of risky sexual encounters. 😮‍💨 (with all genders! One night stands do not discriminate!)

so if there were any feelings involved, it was... not good or conducive to self-understanding. Probably made things worse.

cue the drinking! the depression! all the risky behaviors!

ALTERNATIVELY... Option two: he does explore Feelings For Dudes and it could have played into his sportsball exit. 🤔

Hi. Let me just reiterate personal experience here: LEAVING A TEAM CAN REALLY FUCK YOU UP depending on your life outside the sport. Sports teams are a social support group, like, I really hate the phrase "like family"... but literally structurally so similar. If you already don't have a strong family life outside of the sport (like Shane has admitted to, let's fuckin goooooo), AND being on a team is an overall positive thing in your life??

Leaving your team (willingly or unwillingly) takes away that social support. And not just the social/emotional support, but the structure to your life, the routine, the feeling of belonging, the PURPOSE!!!

gee, wonder what kind of feelings those can bring about in a person. like a sad chicken man.

are we seeing a trend here???????

Ok this definitely got more into a sportsball psychological study, but what I'm saying is my money's on gridball heavily influencing his trajectory but since he DIDN'T have the family or social supports outside of it, he crashed and burned afterwards. Contrast with Alex below who DID have social supports and--

focus, bisexuality.

Personally, I like the idea that Shane's been with dudes, but it's never been anything emotionally healthy (except maybe one pre-gridball-exodus which could have prompted the leave......🤔👀) or fulfilling.

5/10, would be 6 but he got -1 because it was driven by self-loathing. >:(

somebody come show him some mlm love!!!

Sam

baby boy. sweet baby boy.

the younger bachelor/ettes are at a bit of a disadvantage because they're in the time of their life where they would be exploring their sexualities in a conducive environment. Not to say the valley isn't but there's, uh, only 11 other singletons there and they all know each other sooooo...

that said, due to Kent's military career, it's likely Sam has had time living outside of Pelican Town, so may be a bit farther ahead than, say, Sebastian who's lived there his whole life.

speaking of Kent, it's canon that Daddy has been in and out of his life and tbf I don't remember exactly how Sam feels about that but

I'm JUST SAYIN'. baby boy gets a whiff of attention from some buff dude who wants to make him his baby girl?? melting.

you know the trope of how girls with absent fathers sometimes overcorrect for that and seek out male attention like crazy? well, who says boys are any different??

what I'm getting at is this: you're trying to tell me Sam has NEVER had a raging crush on Alex?????

I mean fr it was probably like. Alex told him "good choice" on his ice cream flavor once and it was all downhill from there.

plus I'm hoping he's got a solid enough friendship with Sebastian (and Abigail) that they could talk about these things without it getting weird.

also, singer/lead guitarist in a band?? come on, too easy.

anyway 5/10, once again a bit oblivious until he gets smacked in the face. Definitely a flavor of "haha no homo bro! :):) ...... unless...?? 👀"

Alex

closeted sportsballer, round 2 EXCEPT

he canonically admits he crushes real easy. so just statistically speaking, there's an equal likelihood that he's crushed on the male singletons of the valley, too. Which totally doesn't even take into consideration his gridballer time, which I'll get to in a second.

he also admits his crushes don't usually last very long. part of that probably has to do with a lot with attachment issues (seriously he should be more messed up than he is), but if gridball is just SDV American Football, there's probably a good deal of internalized homophobia Alex has had to either work through or not work through. hence why his not het crushes might not last long.

but confusing and conflicting as they may be, THEY'RE STILL THERE. just. probably presenting more like a "wow I'm really noticing this person a lot lately huh. I mean I guess they look pretty good and seem kind of cool..." he's completely and utterly oblivious to so much, his own feelings included.

so what I'm saying is there was a brief window of time where Alex unknowingly had a crush on Sam and, listen, under the right circumstances Sam/Alex (Smalex?) could have been canonized--don'T BOO ME, I'm RIGHT

as for gridball, compulsive heteronormativity is absolutely rampant so there's no way he could have felt comfortable exploring his interest in other gender(s). ESPECIALLY in his case where he's still kind of on the outside, trying to model himself to fit a certain kind of mold. Just, no chance, absolutely none.

and really, Idk, between him and Haley I'm starting to get real compulsive heteronormativity vibes now... not that they're mad about it, but they were kinda forced into those roles and, well, the shoes KIND OF fit I GUESS...

you might say it was ... they're kind of sh... shoeho--shoehorn--*shot*

Anyway, boy's represso. 2/10, if you called him bi he'd say wait why are you leaving , what did you want to tell me???

[bluemagi]

Re. Jumping ship and multishipping

I've been thinking a lot about this these past few weeks, since a certain hot pilot swooped in and stole my heart. I've seen people giving other people shit for "giving up" and jumping ship, for multishipping or even just for liking and enjoying a character. And it's just weird to me how people are so obsessed with controlling other people's behaviors. Just the other day I saw a TikTok where the creator was saying that people who "jumped ship" to Bucktommy were just fetishising because they want to see two guys kissing. Which is just... a terrible take on so many levels.

I was a Buddie shipper too. I enjoyed their on-screen relationship, I saw the signs that there might be more than friendship, and I hoped that something might happen. But I have also been in fandoms for at least 20 years by now. I've been through queerbaiting, I have been through shipbaiting, I have been through relationships I previously loved being destroyed by what happens on screen. I know that nothing is promised and that we have to have realistic expectations. Our interpretations of things are usually not what the writers/actors/directors/editors intend, and so we can always hope, but we have to know that we probably won't get what we want.

I think I grew a bit bored with the Buddie ship around season 5. I was watching queer representation in other shows, like Tarlos in Lone Star, and I couldn't see 911 ever go there, especially as time went on and nothing happened, there were no obvious signs. I didn't think they would ever make Buck or Eddie queer. I still enjoyed the show for what it was and would watch when I had the time, but I wasn't obsessing over it anymore. I would watch the show and hope that either one of them would get an interesting love interest (I actually sort of liked Natalia at the end of season 6), and until that happened, I would just enjoy Buddie outside of that, in fan fictions and Tumblr discourse.

So imagine my surprise when they finally did it, when they actually made Bi Buck canon. Since Tommy had been on the show before, we already knew a lot about him, and we could also read into the difference between s2 Tommy and s7 Tommy and see that there had been a lot of development there. So yeah, I was immediately interested. The more I saw, the more interested I became. So while I can still love and appreciate Buddie, it is far more interesting to me to have actual substance with an on-screen relationship, rather than having to try to interpret and read into every interaction to see if it can relate to Buddie.

But, back to jumping ship and multishipping. I've been thinking back through my fandom history, and I realized that this is something I have gone through several times before, in one way or another. I started out with soap operas, and in those, everyone cheats and nobody is ever happy for long, so jumping ship back and forth happens. Suddenly a character is killed, only to come back to life several years later. They completely change personalities, they change faces (new actors), so things change a lot. I suppose that might be why multishipping and jumping ship is not really an issue for me. It just make sense that you can change your mind about something when more content comes out. It's sort of like a relationship. You can be happy and in love for a while, or for a long time, but things change, people grow, and suddenly that relationship is not right for you anymore.

So I was thinking back on my previous experiences with jumping ship and multishipping, and I just scribbled down some thoughts on them. Starting with....

As The World Turns - Nuke vs. LuRe

I think one of the first times I jumped ship, was from Noah/Luke to Luke/Reid in As The World Turns. An American soap that ended in like 2011. Nuke were one of the first gay male couples on American day time TV, and if you have the time, please go read about them on Wikipedia, because their story is absolutely ridiculous and overdramatic, as most soap couples are. And since this was in the 00s / early 10s, they barely shared any kisses or intimacy. At certain points we were counting the days between their on-screen kisses, and I think we went 200 days without an on-screen kiss while they were in a romantic relationship on the show, and the first time they had sex, I think they just kissed and fucking jumped on the bed or something. It was just ridiculous. But it was representation, which there was not a lot of back in those days.

Then, my beloved Reid Oliver came into the picture. He was out and proud, he was confident, successful, unapologetic, he was just very interesting. Luke/Noah was young love, riddled with insecurity and drama. Luke/Reid was more confident, more adult. And also, it was an option! Back in those days, there were barely any queer characters on TV, and now there were three guys in one show. At the point when Reid came on to the show, I was already finding myself growing tired and annoyed with Nuke, and Noah specifically. So when he showed an interest in Luke and they began their relationship, I happily jumped over.

I was then punished by the show's cancellation and that fucking train, but that's beside the point.... Moving on!

Days of Our Lives - Will, Sonny and Paul

Now this was a fun one! I remember watching Days back when I was in elementary school. My friend and I would go home together from school and watch it before doing home work. I was better in English and in reading than her, so I would be reading the subtitles out loud to her so she could keep up with what was happening. I think Days actually helped me to learn English much better. So I remembered all the drama with Sami, Carrie, Lucas and Austin, and with baby Will. And it was a bit shocking to me when suddenly baby Will was an adult (or I guess in his late teens) and was coming out of the closet. This was around the same time as ATWT, I believe, around 2010, so again, there wasn't a lot of representation on TV.

Also, side note, this was before streaming was a thing, and I lived in Norway, so we didn't even have access to everything. I had to buy DVDs to watch stuff like Queer as Folk and The L Word.

Anyways, Will and Sonny became a couple, and with that, the first male same sex couple on the show. It was the only real option, so of course I shipped it. I am again reading the Wikipedia page for this couple, and their story is quite insane. They recast the role of Will at one point, and I didn't love how the character changed after the actor was changed. So when Paul came on the show, I was immediately drawn to him. His back story was interesting and the actor had amazing chemistry with everyone. So I shipped him with both Will and Sonny (and both versions of Will, tbh). And again, you simply must read the Wikipedia article about this. It was just pure insanity.

Supernatural – Dean, Cas, Benny

We cannot talk about shipping without talking about Destiel. It is simply not possible. I'm not even going to explain anything, because we're on Tumblr, everyone knows Destiel. So unsurprisingly, I am a Destiel shipper. I can't remember when I first started shipping them, but it must have been quite early. Probably not in season 4 when Cas first arrived, but probably in season 5.

So Destiel is an example where I haven't jumped ship, but instead, I have multishipped. Cas has unfortunately not really had any real love interest outside of Dean. I honestly can't even think of any, apart from that random woman he married when he had amnesia, which... just no, dude. But Dean however, he has had some options, and I haven't hated them.

Lisa, I loved her back in the early seasons. And when he went to live with her after season 5, I didn't hate it. I knew the chances of Destiel ever happening were slim to none, so I could enjoy Dean and Lisa together on screen while enjoying Dean and Cas in fan fictions.

Later, we met Benny. And I immediately loved him. He was so interesting, he had such an interesting relationship with Dean, and I was so mad when he died. Again, Dean was never shown to be anything but straight, so again, chances of anything happening here was also slim to none. But I could happily enjoy fan fictions and content on them, alongside with Destiel.

Other honorable mentions:

I was considering writing a whole section about Robron from Emmerdale, but I realized that I am still so pissed off about that whole thing, so I don't think I'd be able to articulate anything good from that. So instead I will just use this as an example of an on-screen couple that I absolutely loved, but that I ended up hating and abandoning due to what happened on screen. I jumped that ship straight into the ocean, and swam far far far away.

Klaine! The couple that got me into Tumblr in the first place! I loved Kurt from the first season, and I was so intrigued when Blaine came into the show (I was also a huge AVPM fan, so that just made it all the better). And I really enjoyed them together for the first couple of seasons. But thinking back, I think I fell out of love with them quite early on. Their stories didn't hit the same, it got boring. I was actually more interested in Karofsky by the time I stopped watching the show, which was probably part of the reason why I stopped watching. It was quite the unpopular opinion back then. Maybe still? I have no idea.

Gallavich! I loved Shameless back in the day, and Mickey and Ian were among my favorites. But at a certain point, I got fed up with it all and stopped watching. The on-and-off stuff got boring, important things got swept under the rug, and I didn't like the treatment of Mickey. Anyway, I gave up and stopped watching. It was only years later when the show was ending that I caught up and found out they actually ended up together. Which was amazing, but still left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.

Anyways, my point is that there seems to be this opinion now that if you ship a couple, you are stuck with them for life. Jumping ship, or even multishipping, is seen as a betrayal, as something horrible. Shipping Buck and Tommy apparantly means that we hate Eddie, and that we don't care about the beautiful friendship and relationship Buck and Eddie have. But that is simply not the truth. At least not for me, or for most people I have seen discussing this.

At this point in time, I am going to enjoy the beautiful on-screen relationship that is Buck and Tommy, and I am excited to see where it goes. If that relationship ends, and somewhere down the line, Buck and Eddie finally end up together, I will probably be happy (as long as it is done right, like Oliver Stark himself has said).

[frownyalfred]

hi res,, im a huge, huge fan of your fics and i've been scrolling through your tumblr for the last hours/day while falling in and out of a weird stomach pain that is totally ruining my winter break! i also don't really know how tumblr works but i had to express my love for you, I feel so much better reading your stuff 😍 your tumblr posts are also amazing, thank you so so much for all your contributions to this fandom AND to ao3/fandom culture in general!! (wow that was a lot of exclamation marks, i swear i know how to end a sentence with other punctuation 😃 namely emojis 😃😃)

I had a question about your opinions on some ships, IF YOU'RE AMENABLE, feel free to ignore; i know you're a super busy person and this is going to be a long message, I'm overwhelmed looking at it myself 😅

Firstly, shipping the batkids together??? I've seen a few fics like that, especially the robins (e.g. dick/jason, jason/tim??) but I generally avoid them bc they make me feel uncomfy personally, even if they're not characterized as brothers/sisters in that particular fic - cuz i cant kid myself into thinking that i'll ever see them as anything but siblings 🥹

then there's also the stephanie/tim thing?? my understanding of stephanie's dynamic in the batfamily is limited since i got into the dc fandom mainly through fic, but i'm under the impression that some canons have that, and stephanie is not totally considered part of the batfamily (as in bruce's daughter). while other times it's tim/kon, and I'm very supportive of the increasing inclusion of queer representation in the "dc canon", but i guess it's just that the batkids all feel like children, like babies even 🥺🥺

yea so that was a pretty long winded explanation for a quick question😭 my bad

and finally, my otp, ghostbat 🥹🥰 i've never really seen you post anything about them, it is definitely a much rarer ship, but i'd love to know your opinion 💙 i would absolutely recommend taking a look into it if you haven't already, their dynamic is so unique (imo) and heart-wrenching! i havent found that much content about them, so if there are any suggestions for content for them, i will take literally anything 🥺

yeah so thanks for looking through all of this mess, i love you and your beautiful brain so much, sending positive vibes and well wishes your way <3

Hi anon! Thank you so much, and sorry you're not feeling well. Some quick answers to your questions below:

People do ship the batkids together, in a variety of related/not related scenarios. It's not everyone's cup of tea. Some people like it. Some people get very squicked by it. All reactions are valid. I am a big proponent of ship and let ship -- people are going to write what they're going to write. If you don't like to read that, hit the back button. Like you said, you have already identified that you don't like it, and now you avoid it. That's awesome!

Tim/Steph vs Tim/Kon can also be a touchy subject in fandom. Steph's inclusion in the batfamily depends on the fanon and/or canon. People have strong opinions about this. My reaction is always, teens have relationships. Messy relationships. Tim and Steph and Tim and Kon can all happen and it doesn't make anyone more or less deserving of love or a relationship. They're kids figuring themselves out -- it makes sense that it's messy.

I like ghostbat! I will admit I'm not as familiar with the ship as I could be. I mostly consume secondhand info here on tumblr. @allgremlinart's blog is a great place to start if you haven't already.

Hope that helps! Feel better soon, anon.

[let-us-cultivate-our-garden]

(。・・)_且 Spill the tea What is something about the TOH fandom you can’t stand?

This is mostly a Twitter thing but I've seen it a few times on Tumblr but I positively loathe when people bully and harass other fans for liking certain characters. We're in this weird moment in fandom where some folks think that if you like a villain character or even just a minor antagonist then that means that you either condone or derive enjoyment from their actions.

That's stupid.

You can't support the actions of a fictional character because they don't exist. You can also enjoy watching villain characters commit villainy, because that's what they're designed to do. It's entertainment. Also, villain characters almost universally get their comeuppance so you can enjoy when they meet their inevitable downfall. That's a normal part of consuming media; I can have a blast watching charismatic bank robbers do a heist in a movie but would call the police if I saw the real thing.

I dunno, it just seems like fandoms for kid's shows have this weird tendency to tie their morality with the type of media they consume, which is just unhealthy. Seems like just another excuse to bully people while feeling "morally" superior about it.

Another thing I can't stand that is applicable to all fandoms is shipping wars. I literally do not care what you ship. It's a stupid thing to argue over. I don't care if it's not canon, ocs and crossover ships are not cringe. Don't ask me what I ship because I don't go there.

Finally, another thing that I dislike is how everyone seemingly puts Dana Terrace on a pedestal. Look, I appreciate the show for what it's doing, the queer representation, the disability metaphors, the visibility of neurodivergent characters, those are all great. But the show is not without flaw and no, it's not all Disney's fault. You can and should be able to criticize the show and the writers for its shortcomings. Dana is a person and all people are imperfect. Nothing we create in this world will be without flaw and that's okay. If anything, when people point out the mistakes, missed opportunities, etc, it just means that the artist can see where their weaknesses are, address them, and produce even better content.

Thank you for the ask!

[rtc-confessions]

Shout-out to @pennylambchops who actually made an argument against me, instead of just telling me I'm wrong! I appreciate it.

Anyway, let's get into it, shall we?

“he is explicitly SAID to be gay. yes, gay doesn’t only mean mlm/nwlnw in some cases but in noels IT DOES.” Yeah, that's fair. I've nothing to say in my defense on that one, it was one of my weaker points tbf.

“fanon very rarely affects canon” FINALLY someone who recognises that I don't think mspec Noel is canon! Thank you!

“i feel like we should still base what we do and what we say about characters a little bit off of canon.” Very fair. I mean, if we just start doing anything we want with characters, we might as well just write an original work. But in this hypothetical case, I'd only be changing his sexuality from gay/mlm to somewhere else on the queer spectrum, it's not like I would drastically change who he is as a person (or maybe I would; with Noel being a very stereotypical gay man, having him be some other label of queer might be detrimental to his character. But imo, that is a problem on Richmond and/or Maxwell's end for making him a walking stereotype and not mine for wanting to mess with it)

“but you choose to ship the gay character with woman.” No I don't! Nowhere in any confession I made did I say *I* ship Noel with any of the women in RTC. I am in fact a Nischa shipper 100%. I just said you could, if you wanted to and if you wrote it well enough that it could be explained (not that it necessarily has to fit in with canon if you don't want it to)

“if you like a dynamic so much between noel and a woman you could maybe idk, make platonic content for it since platonic love is just as important as romantic love” That is exactly what I'm doing. In fact, I think we need more platonic Noel and Constance stuff, because the few moments they share in the musical are actually so sweet and I feel like no one appreciates that enough.

“using sexuality is fluid is also a dumb excuse for making him not gay. because not everyones sexuality is fluid, some people are simply just attracted to gender and that doesn’t change ever.” You're correct, some people's sexualities don't change. And the same could apply for Noel, but it might not. His sexuality might be fluid, or it might not. It's up to the writer, really.

“dont start a hissy fit when people get upset over you taking away their representation.” I'm not taking away anyone's representation. Mostly because I don't actually ship what we are discussing, but even if I did, that hypothetical fanfic would be in my tiny corner of the internet, and if people think my singular, hypothetical work in about 3,000 fics across ao3 and fanfiction.net would affect anything, then I'm fucking honoured that I'm though of so highly in this fandom /s

- Lesboy

~~

[cora-writes-things]

WLW media plans <3 early 2023 edition

You may have seen my first edition of this post; now that 2023 has begun in earnest, let’s see where I’m at!

Media I’m currently in the middle of consuming:

The 100 (I know that I said that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to watch this show cuz I’m tired of tragic wlw, but a friend suggested we watch it together, so here I am)

Clear and Muddy Loss of Love (an AMAZING web-novel!!! I can’t stop reading it! Clear and Muddy Loss of Love, original title 泾渭情殇 (Jīng wèi qíng shāng or JWQS), is a Chinese GL web-novel by Please Don’t Laugh (请君莫笑). Read and buy the original here (here’s a guide on how to use JJWXC so you can support the author), and the English translation by melts (@meltesh28 on Tumblr / @meltsmelts on Twitter) can be found here (thank you so much for your hard work, melts!))

Nevertheless (solely for the crumbs of Sol/Ji-wan content, and you know what? It’s been worth it, even if the main male lead, Park Jae-eon, makes me want to throw my laptop across the room. Seriously, JAE-EON SUCKS SO BAD. NA-BI, WHAT ARE YOU DOIIIING. DO-HYEOK IS RIGHT. THERE!!!)

Warrior Nun (I started watching this show both because it has wlw AND because Alba Baptista is so gorgeous that I can’t stop looking at her. So disappointing that it was canceled recently :()

Media I plan to start (or continue) consuming:

A League of Their Own (for the canon wlw AND all the wlw vibes)

Arcane: League of Legends (I’ve seen enough gifs and fanart for Caitlyn/Vi that I ship it and haven’t even watched the show yet)

Batwoman (for the canon wlw AND all the wlw vibes)

Black Lightning (ditto)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS was available on Amazon Prime for a while but is now on Hulu, so I don’t have access to it at the moment)

The Expanse (I’m taking a break from watching the show to read the books, but I’m also consuming a lot of other media at the moment, so I don’t know when I’ll get back to it)

The Half of It (the premise sounds so freaking relatable I can’t wait to feel some type of way about the constant sapphic pining I experienced in high school & didn’t even know about at the time because of comphet yay)

The Handmaiden (I’ve been trying to get into more international media lately, as you can see by some of the other pieces of media in this post, and this movie looks too good to pass up)

Killing Eve (up to the finale but stopping before the end cuz my queer little heart can’t take YET MORE bury your gays in the year of our lord 2023. also the book series. maybe)

The Legend of Korra (once I finish ATLA)

The Owl House (currently waiting for the next episode. Also, I’m still so mad this show was canceled by Disney >:()

Paper Girls (science fiction combined with middle-grade fiction and queer characters? Sign me up!)

Sense8 (for the queer vibes in general)

The Wilds (for the canon wlw AND all the wlw vibes)

Yellowjackets (ditto)

Media I might consume but haven’t decided yet:

Huge shout-out to @femslashrevolution (abbreviated as F.R. in this post from now on) for introducing me to a lot of these pieces of media with active-ish wlw fandoms through their reblogs!

Astrid & Lilly Save the World (I don’t know much about it, but the gifs reblogged by F.R. look promising)

Harlem (I’ve heard mixed reviews about the wlw representation in this show, but there’s also a distinct lack of black queer shows out there, so I’m considering trying it out anyway)

House of the Dragon (partially because I haven’t finished GOT yet, but also because I don’t want my heart to be broken by the tragedy)

I Know What You Did Last Summer (this show doesn’t have the best reviews, but the actresses in it are so pretty that I might watch it anyway ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

Kevin Can F*** Himself (seems like an interesting premise, I just don’t know if I’ll personally enjoy the show itself or not)

Legends of Tomorrow (Idk what it’s even about tbh, I’ve just seen a lot of wlw-centric and wlw-adjacent gifs reblogged by F.R.)

Lost Girl (it's included on a lot of rec lists of wlw shows, I just don’t know if I’ll actually find it interesting)

Once Upon A Time (a classic wlw fandom, but Idk if I’ll find it interesting enough to actually watch it)

Orange is the New Black (ditto)

Orphan Black (ditto)

Runaways (ditto)

Supergirl (ditto)

Willow (Idk what it’s even about tbh, I’ve just seen some cute wlw gifs reblogged by F.R. recently, so why not?)

Media I've already finished consuming:

Couple of Mirrors (SO GOOD!!! A (sadly heavily censored, but still very well-done) GL-based Chinese drama that is slated to get a second season depending on the support, so please go watch and support it! It also has a manhua (read the original here and the English summaries here))

First Kill (campy with pretty horrid music choices, but I still enjoyed the watching experience even though the show was kinda bad. Who doesn’t like a little bit of camp every now and again?)

Girlfriend Project Day 1 (cute, short little fake dating GL K-drama that is slated to get a second season if they can raise the funds for it! Watch it here)

More than or Equal to 75 Celsius (≥75°C) (short GL K-drama, very aesthetic, and the actresses are beautiful! Watch it here)

Zero Photography (short spin-off GL Thai drama that features Ink & Pa from the bigger BL series Bad Buddy. Definitely worth the watch!)

Have I missed any must-watch/must-read/must-consume pieces of wlw or wlw-adjacent media that y’all love? Please let me know in the reblogs and give me your recommendations!

[mashounen1945]

The Sonic comics' ... everyone (haters, fans, the writer) disappoints the world once more

Hold on tight, people. It's Salty Mashounen Time (with an extra dose of clunky English, written by a momentarily cranky Spanish-speaker).

Here's my attempt at a TL;DR of what happened recently:

The people writing IDW's Sonic comic started doing a bit of "harmless" teasing for gay pairings widely supported by the fandom currently —namely SonicXShadow and WhisperXTangle—, both in the actual comic's pages and outside of them. In the comic itself, they drew a panel showing Whisper and Tangle together and holding hands with a background suspiciously similar to the lesbian pride flag; outside of the comic, in Ian Flynn's personal podcast BumbleKast, he and some friend of his had the idea of celebrating Pride Month by making some sort of 50% parody, 50% serious, 100% hypothetical (officially) "Sonadow Special" where they spent almost half an hour theorizing how a romantic relationship between Sonic and Shadow would probably go in an official Sonic story (they supposedly did it all as simple fans and nothing else, and neither SEGA nor Archie officially had anything to do with this).

Sadly, Sonic fans reacted with all the grace and elegance of English hooligans in the UEFA Euro 2020 final (that is, exactly as expected of them). The bigoted vocal minority (AKA the daily bread in Sonic comics discourse) started harassing Ian Flynn for this, as well as all the shippers of all the pairings that aren't either SonicXShadow or WhisperXTangle. To make matters worse, some fans who aren't bigots or even support one or both of these gay pairings also started harassing Ian Flynn, for various reasons: trying to force him to turn any of these pairings into canon; scolding him because he gave false hope to fans while knowing full well that SEGA would never allow any kind of romance between main and/or recurring minor characters (whether from the video games or from the comic's original cast) to take place in IDW-Sonic; scolding him for actually saying there was officially nothing romantic between Whisper and Tangle in the IDW comic and SonicXShadow wouldn't happen in canon; accusing him of bigotry because that friend starring as his co-host in the BumbleKast had allegedly made a few homophobic remarks at some point in the distant past...

Flynn responded to this whole mess and tried to clarify some things via the following Twitter thread:

I guess I can commend Ian Flynn for coming out and speaking to the fans like this. I'm still very critical of the story he's writing at IDW, and I still disagree at a fundamental level with his vision of the Sonic series and its cast, but he's a good person in the real world (at least as far as he lets the world know over the Internet); he's not a bigot like some Twitter users (of course) are saying, and out of everything he did as head writer of Sonic comics, considering the possibility of including queer characters and/or pairings is one of the very few aspects of his writing I don't have any problem with, and I can understand why it's so difficult for him to have a queer character/pairing materialize in the comic's story (now, if such thing is finally green-lit by both SEGA and IDW, I may have issues later with the idea's execution by Ian Flynn and co. in the story itself, since this already happened with some other good ideas Flynn came up with when he tried to actually put them on the panels of either IDW-Sonic or Archie-Sonic... but that's a different topic).

However, I can't help but feel jaded at him due to the very direct and reckless way he interacts with the fans. There are already arguments to be made for a content creator to maintain some healthy distance from their followers, but this especially applies to Ian Flynn: as someone who spent so much time dealing with the Sonic fandom while writing the comics (and even started his career as a Sonic fanfiction writer himself), he knows very well how neurotic Sonic fans (from any subset of fans) can get. There are also the added challenges that come with trying to introduce queer themes and also trying to get it right on the first try. The desperate thirst of the LGBTQ+ community for good representation in fiction is legendary (and justified since they're on the verge of genocide in the USA and the UK, which includes the very real fear of being not only physically wiped out but also wiped out from the collective memory of the peoples of their respective nations, the Alt-Right has already openly declared "culture war" on them), and on these issues, the old adage "don't make promises you can't keep" is more valid than ever: if you're not guaranteed that both your publishers and the IP owners will allow you to introduce queer themes into your story and also give you the freedom to deal with those themes as you see fit, you shouldn't even leave clues for the audience or put any hints or do any teasing, because the desperate LGBTQ+ audience is always going to take it as a sign that they finally have their representation secured, and then they'll get rightfully angry when that representation never happens or is insufficient or problematic.

All in all, engaging the fandom the way Flynn does is not only highly dangerous in multiple ways, but also some piss-poor PR on a similar level to what you'd normally expect from SEGA themselves. Now he regrets the fandom's reaction, and the fandom certainly sucks for doing crap like this, but to be fair, he should have seen it all coming.

And then there's the terrible long-term effect of this scandal. Due to this kind of reactions from bigoted vocal minorities in the Sonic fandom, the IDW comic had already become quite criticism-proof: any negative opinion is often labelled as "anti-SJW bullcrap" merely because the most vocal haters of Ian Flynn's Sonic stories used to be Alt-Right nutjobs, neck-bearded InCels living in their parents' basement and secretly (or not so secretly) lusting over female anthropomorphic animals, and reactionary conservatives absurdly nostalgic for Ken Penders. But now, IDW-Sonic will be seen more than ever as an unquestionable piece of top-class literature comparable to Sophocles's most iconic plays, thus worsening this "echo chamber" thing going on both among the fans and between them and the comic's writers.

I try not to believe in conspiracy theories, but a part of me is starting to think all of this was partially staged at least: perhaps Flynn realized the way he was writing the story for IDW-Sonic was alienating a lot of fans from multiple, pretty varied subsets, and now those fans could actually provide some reasonable arguments to back up their criticism rather than some predictable homophobic/misogynistic rant; maybe he genuinely thought IDW-Sonic is the best thing he ever wrote and even one of the best stories of its genre, so he just ignored all those readers he lost and focused on the readers he still has, or he agreed with some of that constructive criticism from disappointed fans and wanted to stop writing the comic like this (he does occasionally tone Sonic's "jerkiness" down for a few comic issues, before toning it back up for the next big crisis in the story) but SEGA had already grown fond of the "self-righteous asshole" Sonic, his hypocritical friends and the "bafflingly incompetent super-genius" Eggman created by Flynn for the IDW comic; in any case, Flynn could have amped up the "technically not official" gay innuendos in the actual comic and his podcast in order to get a reaction out of those few bigots in the fandom (and also to get a reaction out of hardcore shippers, who are another vocal minority of Sonic fans with their own issues), then let his readers' blind devotion and the Sonic fandom's paranoia do the rest, making any potential critic of IDW-Sonic be dismissed as either "pro-shipper obsession" or "just the same miserable crap as the Far-Right weirdos" or even both.

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

PS:

If you still feel like going out on the Internet and calling into question any of Ian Flynn's or his crew's artistic/writing choices (either in their role as official Sonic content creators or in any other "informal" situation such as their podcasts, social media accounts and personal forums), feel free to do so (as long as you try to do constructive criticism and aren't bigoted or too disrespectful, of course) but forget about invoking "Sonic Team's original vision", or pointing out any difference between the IDW comic and other pieces of official Sonic content, or pointing out incongruences between the IDW comics and the videogames of whose stories it's supposed to be a continuation, or anything like that. Some purist fans like to imagine SEGA and Sonic Team are the guardians of good/accurate portrayals, but that's just not true and was probably never true: either they don't give a damn about how Sonic is portrayed in the West anymore, or they do care, but they totally allow and endorse —either by action or omission— the current Western Sonic content (along with this sort of comeback of the infamous planned differentiation between Japanese source material and localized Western versions), regardless of whether they do so by action or omission; for all intents and purposes, the "bastardized" Western version of Sonic, whether or not you like it more than Japanese "original" Sonic, is currently part of Sonic Team's artistic vision as much as the videogames made in Japan are (IIRC, I've already talked about this in a previous post shortly before the release of Sonic Frontiers).

In any case, most of the fandom was always wrong in one way or another about Ian Flynn and his dynamic with SEGA: contrary to what his fans may think, any flaws of the IDW comic ain't due to Flynn and his co-writers' creativity being held down by SEGA or its mandates, and contrary to what purist fans may think, he's not irreparably ruining Sonic forever (at least, not as far as SEGA and Sonic Team are concerned).

[rodolfoparras]

I was gonna talk about this earlier today but I was busy so lemme just touch upon it briefly now. It's so genuinely homophobic and fucked up of what I assume is female reader to come here and whine about queer man writing fanfics and self inserts with their favourite characters??? Like they're allowed to do it but we aren't?? Raging homophobia????

I think I'm especially touchy about this cause lately I've been seeing so many fem authors and artists and bot makers just straight up erase or ignore queer identity of queer male characters?? Bg3 fandom is especially awful at this but I saw it happen for few other (some of them canonically gay!!) characters. And I know some straight men are guilty of doing the same thing for queer female characters and I really do feel for like most of girls and normal people in fandoms, it's just people like this that set me off.

And it really is cishet men and women (not everyone ofc, just rude and vocal minority) who are out here complaining about queer people writing queer fanfics. Fandom spaces were always carried by queer people and to see someone come to male reader blog and complain about male reader content when we're like...not even 10% of the fandom is seriously pissing me off. 😒😒

ANYWAYS- sorry for the rant, I saw post few days ago about this that pissed me off on twitter and I've been holding grudge for a while. In good news, I'm supposed to get new laptop soon! I'll finally be able to properly play games and do my graphic design 😭

-🔮

I just have a hard time understanding why we aren’t allowed to write fics like I’d get it if a fem reader was like it’s uncomfortable that u as a male insert fic writer write wlw fics but what in gods name gives a fem aligned person the right to say something about mlm fics 4?:?3

Oh I’ve seen it too!! They’ll take a queer character and basically turn them straight in fics or in bots it’s crazy I think I even talked about this a while ago bc once again what the hell?3?3?3

Yeah and I don’t even understand this anger?? how are fem readers angered that I’m simply writing fics?😭 I’d get it if the day prior I was like fuck fem aligned readers and went to bed but yesterday I posted a piss fic for baby digger like why are you in my ask calling me a predator?

Also don’t apologize sugar!! It’s good we discuss this bc if anything I think we brush it under the rug a lot instead of like discussing that this is ragging homophobia and ppl should be held accountable

Also I’m so happy for you sugar!! What games do you plan to play?🫶🏻

[ravi-is-my-beloved]

Hello, Welcome!

So I think it's time to finally for me to make this sorta intro post, because I have a lot of followers now that I think warrants an intro post. So here it is!

Hi, you can call me Stone or Beloved if you want to. I'm 22, my pronouns are he/him. I'm not really new to 9-1-1, just new to the fandom. I started watching 9-1-1 when season 6 was airing and I managed to binge-watch 9-1-1 before 6b aired. As my username suggests, I do in fact love Ravi Panikkar. I do love using parentheses in my sentences, I can't really stop.

As some of you know, I am a certified Tommy hater. Because I will never be able to like a man who was racist and misogynistic the first two times we saw him. And if anyone likes Tommy, then my page is not for you. (But this is to my followers ((I'm not even going to tag this with fandom tags so this will only go to my followers)), so I highly doubt that any of you are liking Tommy.)

I do know that my recent followers are Buddie shippers, and I previously have said that I didn't ship Buddie. But I have now been letting myself ship Buddie despite it not being guaranteed to become canon.

The last thing I actively shipped and was hoping to become canon was Nygmobblepot and if you know, you know. So I just haven't gotten into Buddie until recently. I was afraid of getting into a queer ship that wasn't guaranteed to become canon because I've been burned by queer ships that I desperately wanted to become canon. However, I'm here to have fun in this fandom and shipping Buddie is fun for me.

If you're chill and not homophobic/racist/misogynistic (and I mean actually homophobic/racist/misogynistic), then you can stay.

Anyways, just wanted to update this post with the revelation that I'm now shipping Buddie. Okay, I'll stop rambling now, I love you all (/platonic).

Tags that I use & what the content under these tags are:

#-beloved's aether = me talking to myself/just my followers

#-beloved talks = just my talks on/about 9-1-1 & the shows characters

#-beloved answers = pretty self-explanatory, me answering asks

#reblog = also pretty self-explanatory