#forget ships this is the REAL content we need to use fanon to play with

[holdharmonysacred]

In other news I went to go play with my lil official Oz bunny and like. I have a very stupid thought, which is were the bunnies that Lacie bought that went on to become Oz handmade or mass-produced (or handmade for mass production)? Putting aside that stuffed animals (or at least stuffed animals as we know them) weren’t invented yet during the late 18th century-equivalent time period that the whole Sablier storyline took place in (the series isn’t trying for accuracy so it’s pretty reasonable to forgive this point), like. If the bunnies were in some way mass produced, are there more out there in the PH setting? Are the other ones coveted antiques because heeheehoo ye olde stuffie toys? Are they kept as museum pieces by the time of both the series proper and the 100-years-later epilogue? Is there an in-universe ye olde luxury plush toy manufacturer a la Steiff that made them? Did word eventually get out about “yeah two of these bunnies went on to become the B-Rabbit”, possibly more depending on how much the public learned about the events of the series? Did they develop a spooky reputation by the time of the epilogue because of the B-Rabbit thing combined with general aging? Do people make and manufacture and sell replicas of the bunnies, either because heeheehoo ye olde stuffie or because of spooky B-Rabbit lore? This is the real Pandora Hearts worldbuilding we need to ponder.

[blodreina-noumou]

there have been many unfair and unjust deaths on The 100.

Wells (the first male lead of color, let’s not forget) was slashed to death by an 11-year-old girl in order to correct the tone of the show’s first four episodes - the writers needed to make up for Jasper not dying in the first episode, to guide the show away from its teen drama roots, and to prove that no one was safe.

Finn was on the path to be tortured to death, but was instead mercy-killed by Clarke, while Raven watches and screams in grief and despair. While his death feels inevitable by the time it happens, and is more or less a joke in fandom now, he was a lead at the time, and it was shocking to see Clarke kill him.

Lexa* was killed by her most trusted adviser, on accident, with a stray bullet, just moments after consummating her relationship with Clarke. She doesn’t survive a wound that should have been survivable, despite Clarke’s previous medical capabilities being near-miraculous in other life-or-death situations.

Lincoln* was put on his knees and shot in the head, brutally executed in the mud, sacrificing himself for unnamed Trikru villagers who are never seen or spoken of again. Octavia is forced to watch.

Jasper commits suicide in an exceptionally sad and brutal scene - he could have lived, but had given up on survival at that point, so he didn’t take the chance. Made worse by the implication that Jasper probably didn’t hear Monty’s final declaration of love.

Luna* is killed by Octavia after an unexpected and poorly foreshadowed heel turn, despite seemingly being foreshadowed for three seasons as a peaceful alternative to the violent society of the Grounders.

Shaw* is randomly killed by a radiation shield, after an entire season of building up his relationship with Raven as endgame - another romantic relationship which is cut short just a few hours after it was consummated. Another man of color killed off in a violent and sudden way.

And Bellamy* is shot through the heart by his canonical best friend (and for a very large chunk of the audience, fanon love interest,) dying alone, an enemy and stranger to his former friends and allies, believing in a faith in which the audience has zero interested or investment.

(*It’s worth mentioning that all of the starred characters were written off in part because the actor wanted to leave for another show. In Bellamy’s case, Bob allegedly “asked for some time off” according to Jason Rothenberg. In my opinion, the number of people leaving the show early or wanting time away does not indicate a very positive or happy working environment.)

So, what’s my point?

Bellamy’s death is absolutely on brand for The 100.

Look, it’s okay to be upset. In fact, it’s natural! It’s clear that Bellamy’s death was intended to be upsetting and meant to spark a lot of conversation, if not outright outrage.

But to say that this was out of character for Clarke, who has already made it very clear that she will do anything to protect Madi, or not fully on brand for this show, which kills characters at an alarming rate regardless of perceived status, is just silly.

Death is an integral part of this universe, and we’ve very rarely seen situations where someone’s death is justified or satisfying. I think I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve enjoyed seeing a character die on this show.

If you were pulling for a happy ending for any of these characters, but especially for Bellamy and Clarke - if you were pulling for a canonical “Bellarke endgame” - I truly just don’t think you were paying very much attention to the actual show for the past seven years. 

This is why so many people who don’t ship Bellarke have been so irritated and baffled by Bellarke shippers for so long. The 100 has never and will never be a romance. JRoth made that painfully, painfully clear in 7x13.

But the thing is, it was already made clear for so many of us, so many times over, who have lost our own favorite couples to unexpected and unjustified deaths. And most of those OTPs were actually canon!

(This show has taken something from all of us. Welcome to the club!)

While we mourned Clexa and Linctavia and Zaven, so many of y’all rolled your eyes and just churned out endless Bellarke content and theories, and demanded more and more and more. 

You stole meaningful moments from other characters. You harassed, bullied, and threatened actors like Lindsey Morgan when she spoke out against the ship. You attacked Tasya Teles constantly, and refused to recognize the significance of Echo’s role in the universe and in Bellamy’s life. You cliqued up hard and ostracized people who disagreed with you, especially those who pointed out the inaccuracies in your theories. Some of you even celebrated Lexa’s death, certain that meant that the door was open for Bellamy and Clarke to get together. Ever since Becho became a thing, you’ve vilified Echo and rooted for her downfall and death. You’ve behaved like spoiled, entitled children.

You convinced yourselves that this sci-fi show was a ship war! And you convinced yourselves that you were winning, that you were destined to achieve that bullshit golden ring of a canon romance. 

But that was never real! No one ever promised you a canon Bellarke ending, or a happy Bellarke ending, or even a neutral Bellarke ending!

If you feel cheated out of something, that’s on you.

Fanfiction and headcanons are great! But assuming you have all the answers to someone else’s creative project, to the point where you’re getting angry and acting entitled and throwing around accusations of baiting, only because things didn’t play out the way you wanted them to/assumed they were destined to, is just not a good look for anyone, anywhere.

You aren’t entitled to any ending in fiction. You aren’t entitled to a happy ending or a satisfying ending. 

Yes, you can criticize a creative work if you don’t like it, or the choices don’t make sense to you, or you wanted something different. You can absolutely decide that you won’t continue to support a creator’s work moving forward, if you don’t like what they do with their stories.

But this melting down in the Bellarke fandom, while entirely expected and very on brand for y’all, is just sad. It’s juvenile and it’s embarrassing. 

I hope y’all move forward from this with some lessons learned. Fanon is not canon. And no amount of screaming and crying and tantrum throwing can force someone to write the story you want them to write.

[madara-fate]

Hey, Maddie! I appreciate your blog a lot, but this is the first time I'm sending an ask to you. The reason of my ask i's abt a thing that is bothering me a lot: the "war" among Skr and Ssk fans between the SS fandom. How can I start that? Okay, after years of the heavy angst inherent of the ship, the hateful content of the ASSes and the almost 6 years of cannon, I never expected to see the fans bashing each others for like Ssk or Skr more. Cont (1)

Cont (2) But I'm noticing that there are more Ssk fans complaining abt the "awful" side of the SS fandom than Skr fans, so I thought it would be good to show how the things aren't not so simple. To see Skr more popular among SS shippers nowadays is a big surprise for me. I'm of the time when Skr was treated as nothing but an object that exists only for Ssk's pleasure and joy (sex, children and love). Cont...

Cont (3)I may was rude with my words and I feel sorry, I don't want to hurt others Ssk's fans feelings, but as a huge Skr fan, I got a bit upset in how some Ssk stans are playing victims of this whole situation. Look, there are a lot of people who call themselves "skr fans" and really hates Ssk, we can see it more clearly comes from KS/NS fandom, but there are a lot of skr hate from Ssk fandom too. Cont...

Cont (4) And the reasons they hates Skr is even worse like "She has no big boobs", "Ssk should make a lot of strong babies with Karin/Hinata/Ino, bc Skr comes with a normal family, so she's trash", "she's a obsessive bitch". Some Ssk fans are so cruel that like projects a distorted image of Ssk being evil (only with skr) and got pleasure a lot from that. Even though these things harms Ssk's character as well, I rarely see Ssk stans complains abt that. Cont...

Cont (5) It seems like Ssk became treated like the way Skr was always been treated by many people in the ss fandom hurts some Ssk's fans feelings. But, as a huge fan of both(together and individually), it hurt me 10 times more. I see the main problem in the way many people who like SS just because think they are hot together or are biased by the fanfictions standards(that in most cases are pure ooc),not because their cannon story. Cont...

Cont (6) I don't mind if they like them only bc of these reasons, but I got rly upset when they try to put fanon stuff into cannon stuff. In the middle of all that, as I always talked with my friends, it's indispensable to understand the character as a whole, not thinking abt romance. And I think I find another problem: some people follow some series just bc of ship. Again, I have no problem with it, I made it a lot of time before. Cont...

Cont (7) But these people need to understand that in a Shounen manga like Naruto, the main focus isn't Ssk and Skr living a sweet romance and, tbh, the obsession with romance make many fans lost a lot of good content, even between SS. For ex, in the chapter 181, Sakura say to Sasuke that "he always hated her". Cont...

Cont (8) OMG, it hurted me a lot, bc this same guy was dispose to die to save her from Gaara, he associates her with his dead family two times in part 1 and hear her talk as if him don't care about her probably was awful. But at the same time, we can see how much Skr feelings changed (for better). Cont...

Cont (9) Even in that moment with 12 yrs, she doesn't want make him hers, she knew him deeply(he isn't her old childish fantasies… He is much better than that, but also full of pain…)and saw how lonely and broke he was, but also saw the good things inside him. Even in that time, she didn't want see him become that man we saw in the Iron Land. Cont...

Cont(10) Meanwhile some people prefer to reduce the whole context in "Sasuke been an idiot once again", the true fans can see the connection between them. The fact that they know each other so well always touch my heart.  And abt MultiSaku and Ssk hate, I have been analyzing how many of these "multisaku" fans are only self-insert. Cont...

Cont (11) They like imagine themselves involved in some fetishism like "student and teacher", "old man and young woman", etc. It is why I would like some Ssk stans be careful when they claim that "SS fandom only cares abt skr", it isn't true at all. Many so called "fans" even don't know the cannon Sakura. Cont...

Cont (12) It is pretty funny, look: we know that Skr(as all other Naruto women) could be much more active in battle if Kishimoto himself isn't insecure of write women as he write abt men, but there are features that Skr has in cannon and some fans put them in fanfictions like if it was something new. XD And abt multisaku shippers hate on Sasuke, I got so tired of it. Cont...

Cont (13)They use the moments where she looks sad for Ssk's bad actions and contrast it with Nrt makes her smile, etc. There are also the idea of a man like Lee is much better than Ssk bc he never was afraid of show his feelings for her. Seeing by this perspective, we can almost forget that Ssk isn't the badboy who gets pleasure from Skr's pain, he is a survivor of the biggest genocide of the shinobi world. Cont...

Cont (14)One of the most interesting thing I love abt SS is how they aren't just the stereotype of "bad boy x good girl/fangirl", in fact they are a deconstruction of that and it could be even better if Kishimoto wasn't so shy or if these two belonged to a seinen manga. And speaking by skr side, I also noticed that most men who has no "afraid of showing their emotions to her" are just her fanboys. Cont...

Cont(15) They think she's pretty and want to be with her. They don't know she deeply for treat her like a queen as some people argue. It's like a female version of Ssk. XD And Maddie, I've reading your texts and I also agree that Skr don't want to be treated like this. What she wanted was to be acknowledged as a full human being/shinobi. Skr had a big inferiority/ superiority complex and to be in the same team with Ssk and Nrt made it even worse than her time with Ino. Cont...

Cont(16)Although this aspect didn't received much attention from the author like her teammates issues, it was still there and it is the one of the roots of her sadness, not the simple fact of Ssk's existence as many haters and KS/NS shippers say. And speaking abt that, one of the most enjoyable things I found in SS is that Ssk never saw her in a idealized way(like "that pretty, perfect girl"). Cont...

Cont (17) He saw her flaws and told her abt them face to face (and it made her improve her behavior), but he also showed sensibility to see her heart (when he cheered her up in front many people or the way he compared skr with his family). Cont...

Cont (18) All of this is away better than the idealized "queen" worship, bc he is seeing her heart and not the surface. I also read an excellent analysis abt how Ssk see skr as the same way he saw Itachi (like as if her was a bother to him, which is untrue) and it could help more people understand him.  Cont...

Cont (end) To finish this long ask, there are a lot of fake ss fan in the fandom of both sides and it isn't a new thing, but we, the real fans, will overcome that issues. Our ship is already cannon and they are in the new phase, some people need to grow up with them, too.

To describe that as simply a “long” ask is one hell of an understatement Anon, holy fuck. I usually include screenshots of the ask if it spans more than one part but I wasn't gonna crop and edit 18 different screenshots, lol; Copy and paste will have to do in this case.

Now having said that, yes I agree with the basic gist of what you said ^_^

[nightsstarr]

Hot take: Demonfire isn’t incest

I wanted to preface this post by acknowledging that this is a controversial topic. If I get a whiff of incest I usually keep pretty far away and I'm really going to actually try to explain why I feel like Mar'i Grayson/Ibn al Xu'ffasch or Damian Wayne is not incest. If you just want to fight about it I'm not interested in that, but if you actually want to have a discussion I'd prefer to do it over asks or messages rather than reblogs and replies because I don't need to be fielding responses from people piling up and attacking me.

Mar'i Grayson is not a canon character. People like to insert her into the canon/fanon universe by deaging her to a toddler and leaving Damian the age he is in canon comics and inserting him into some nuclear Grayson family where Dick and Kory are the parents and Damian and Mar'i are the children. This take is cute and the most prevalent, but it's not canon and has no basis on judging the characters. I think that people forget this and get very angry when people play around with the family dynamic of the Graysons, and this is a huge factor in the incest argument.

Mar'i Grayson is only canon to Earth-22, the universe of Kingdom Come. Kingdom Come was very popular when it first came out in 1998 and it has a spin-off mini-series featuring Mar'i Grayson trying to put together a team of her friends to save their universe from erasure. This arc crossed over into the canon comic Titans and is probably where a lot of people first saw her.

In Earth-22, Kory has died of an ambiguous illness and Dick and Mar'i have a contentious relationship. One of their first scenes together in the Nightstar book of the mini-series shows Mar'i literally throwing starbolts at him. Mar'i has also been estranged from Bruce, since Bruce is regarded as a more aggressive vigilante. Dick appears not to have a good relationship with him or any relationship at all.

On this Earth, vigilantes have become violent and dangerous to civilians in Superman's absence. When Superman returns, he is dismayed to see what has happened to the vigilantes and he tries to reform them. He forms of team of good guy vigilantes who want to stop those who have become too violent, and on his team are Wonder Woman and Red Robin AKA Dick Grayson. He ends up going too far and just imprisoning most of the other vigilantes, and Batman gathers his own team of vigilantes called the Outsiders to oppose Superman.

One of the most interesting things about Mar'i Grayson is that she seems to realize that the vigilantes are too powerful and have become corrupt, and she teams up with Batman in an effort to find a way to stop the aggressive vigilantes without imprisoning them indefinitely. For me, this was when I really started to fall in love with Mar'i. As someone who has a pretty bad relationship with my own father, it seemed really cool to me that she was able to make her own decision about something so important and stand up to her father to do what she thinks is right.

I know I've said a lot already, but I realize that a lot of people haven't read Kingdom Come and I think it's important to understand the context to really know Mar'i's character. Basically, Mar'i Grayson is headstrong, she doesn't just do what her father wants her to do, she's had no relationship with Bruce throughout her adult life, and she reconnects with him by defying her father. Mar'i does still love her father, and she saves his life by flying him away from an atom bomb.

Now onto Ibn. He ends up being pretty pivotal to the plot. He teams up with Lex Luthor's Mankind Liberation Front, which is basically a bad-guy Justice League that wants to have the villains in control. He ends up double crossing the MLF and was teamed up with Bruce the whole time and helps save the day, sort of. We find out in his book in the mini-series that he was raised by Ra's al Ghul and NOT Bruce, and that he was tortured and buried alive as part if his assassin training and he's pretty traumatized by that.

So to recap: Ibn and Mar'i both had no contact with Bruce any time before they were fully grown adults. They don't even meet each other until the last installment of Kingdom Come, and it's clear that they're mutually attracted to each other.

To me, this setup works because it seems more like their love and yes, sexual attraction, is pulling the batfamily back together. At the end of these events, while Mar'i is in love with Ibn, she has a better relationship with her father, an actual relationship with Bruce, and she and Ibn have this crazy passionate relationship where they try to help each other deal with their anger, which is an issue for both of them  in healthy ways. The only time incest is ever brought up is by Dick, who is only bringing it up because he objects to his daughter dating the heir to the League of Assassins. Mar'i brushes him off because she's already made it clear that her father can't make her decisions for her.

Mar'i Grayson is so important to me because her entire arc in Kingdom Come is centered around her desire to make her own decisions for herself. She forges her own relationships with people important to her but she still ultimately forgives her father, and even realizes how important he is to her.

I think that's a really great journey for a character who's really only a side character. I love how strong and sure of herself she is.

When people try to reduce their relationship to an uncle/niece relationship, it really defeats the entire purpose of Mar'i's arc in Kingdom Come. She's a grown woman who has made a decision she feels comfortable with and she explains this to her father, and then for people to literally subvert her whole arc and diminish the relationships she built from scratch to who her father is really squashes any agency and independence she shows us.

And, because it's related, I want to defend calling Ibn Damian instead of Ibn. The only name he's given in Kingdom come is Ibn al Xu’ffasch, which is really not a name at all and translated from Arabic means son of the bat. I love Kingdom Come but I feel that it's racist of Waid never to have given him a proper name, and because Damian is the name of Bruce and Talia in canon, I think it's much more appropriate to call him that. Ibn al Xu’ffasch is a title, not a name, and I guess Waid thought it sounded cool or whatever. Also Ra’s doesn’t have a name, his name is also a title (Head of the Demon), but Talia and Nyssa have names so I don’t think this is a good reason.

If Mar'i Grayson was dropped into the canon universe the way it's set up right now, and she had a good relationship with both her parents and with Bruce, then yeah! I concede that it would feel incestuous. But I really don't know many people who ship it in terms of the canon comics. I'm just really tired of people who haven't read Kingdom Come interpreting it as incest without bothering to take the context into consideration. Mar'i Grayson's arc is incredibly empowering to me as a woman with a complicated family, who lost her mother, who doesn't get along with her father, who has a complicated relationship with her grandparents. The fact that people are so quick to take all that away without a thought as to what it actually means is pretty sucky and I just wanted to get my two cents out there.

Because I'm sure some people are thinking about it, I've seen the meme going that if you need to defend something from being incest it's not a good start. But I think that people lately are having a problem where if something seems controversial nobody wants to think critically about it because they're worried they might be giving stock to something morally wrong. Which is a huge problem that definitely has ramifications in real life. If you really think that demonfire is incest after reading this, that's fine and I purposefully never add the Mar'i or Damian tags to any demonfire content because I'm trying to be courteous. But I had to say something because I've never seen someone defend them outside of an active argument.

TL;DR: Demonfire isn't incest unless you take it totally out of context. Demonfire is part of Mar'i's extremely empowering arc in Kingdom Come about asserting her own identity that's separate from the men in her life. Their relationship is empowering to both parties which is kind of rare in comic relationships and part of why I love it so much. Ibn's name is swapped out for Damian's name commonly even though they aren't the same character because they are mirrors, and it's kind of racist that Waid never gave him a real name.

[natsubeatsrock]

The Rewrite of Fairy Tail: Bonus (Gruvia)

How will I handle Gruvia in a romantic sense? 

Well, I've lived long enough. This might be one of the most contentious parts of the series. I alluded to this earlier, but there's no way I won't upset someone by posting this. 

I feel the need to reiterate an important point I've made many times before in this series. My interpretation of how Fairy Tail should be changed is not the only way to change the series or even the best. Everything I'm writing is based on my own interpretations of the series. Even as that interpretation is filtered through multiple readings of the series and about five years of interactions with the Fairy Tail fandom, it is still only one person’s interpretation. I try not to apologize for having the biases I do and, at the very least, do my best to explain how I got to the conclusions I have come to.

I want to start there because there are a lot of interesting ways to deal with Juvia and Gray's relationship as it happens in canon. While I've been an outspoken critic of Gruvia's handling in the series, the possibility for change is not lost on me. I even mentioned a while back that I'd be more apt to make Gruvia canon over Nalu if I were behind Fairy Tail. Heck, I started typing the second draft of this post not long after the chapter in the sequel that implies Gruvia being more possible in the future. I could take any number of routes with Gruvia and find reasonable justification within canon to do so. However, I can only (seriously) go with one interpretation of the ship for rewriting Fairy Tail.

With that said, I want to divide Gruvia's development into three sections: Phantom Lord to Edolas, Tenrou to the Grand Magic Games, and after the Grand Magic Games. How do I want to change what happened during each section? 

To be honest, I don't think there's much of a problem with Gruvia in the first section. If anything, I may smooth over some of the more contentious parts of this section of the series. However, I don't think that it would be a good idea for Juvia to not resemble her canon self in her over-the-top displays of affection for Gray. That feels like too much of a drastic change. 

Though, as I mentioned before, it's after Edolas when things get interesting as Juvia starts to make more active attempts at a relationship with Gray. Even then, I don't want to do too much different before the end of the Grand Magic Games. Considering I want Juvia to have more interactions with her friends, she may get talked out of some ideas. 

Some, of course, being the operative word. Like, does she decide to drug Gray into liking her and almost “destroy the guild” in the process? Probably not. Does she decide to go follow Gray and Erza on their mission? Probably, but not because she isn’t advised to do otherwise.

And then we get to the rejection scene at the end of the Grand Magic Games and we have a real decision to make. There are three ways I see this can be handled: a weak option, a hard option, and a soft option. As I like to remember them, they are interpretations from canon, fanon, and no one I know. (I tried to make them rhyme.) 

The canon interpretation, as you may remember, is that Gray tells Juvia that he doesn't reciprocate Juvia's feelings for him. (Choosing a translation for that would be fun.) However, Juvia effectively rejects the rejection Gray has of her. In the original, Juvia sees it as a way to make Gray like her more. In Fairy Girls, this is clarified as Juvia interpreting Gray's rejection as him being shy with his feelings. 

Frankly, it's hard for me to want to do this. The issue is not that Juvia likes Gray despite being rejected by him. Even if you want to argue that Gray isn't necessarily being sincere in his rejection, I don't think Juvia should act like his rejection doesn't matter. And if that actually was how he felt about Juvia, be it for the time or the rest of the series, it's incredibly disrespectful of Juvia to act this way. Effectively, it's a weak way to keep the Gruvia song and dance going along until Mashima decides to end it for all of us.

By the looks of it, a lot of fan writers seem to think the same way.  Their attempts to write a Gruvia rejection scene have evolved into what I consider to be the hard option for a Gruvia rejection. For the uninitiated, allow me to ruin any Juvia x [not Gray] story you may ever read. As you can expect, Gray decides to tell Juvia that he doesn't like her. However, he does so in a way that makes it very clear that Juvia was not and will never be able to make Gray like her. This usually results in Juvia being in a state of emotional availability (to put it lightly, in some cases) for [not Gray] to sweep Juvia off her feet and make her forget about Gray. Often with, and/or leading to, sex.

While I don't terribly mind this in fanfiction, I don't love this as a reflection on Juvia's ability to be in a romantic relationship that doesn't involve Gray. Nor do I think that it's possible to do this and keep Gray as a sympathetic character, let alone in character. If you're writing a story not bound to the rules that I am, these aren't bad things, in my opinion. But considering I am writing the rewrite with the rules I’ve put on myself, I can't do this.

The third option is one I haven't really seen done by anyone trying to put Juvia in a ship that isn't Gruvia. Some writers may skip the second option but they'll just cut to Juvia in the relationship they're writing for or ignore Juvia liking Gray and not liking him entirely. (Again, that's fine but not for what I'm trying to do.) The idea is that Gray still rejects Juvia but it doesn't break her or their overall relationship. They are still friends and can work together, but Gray is not, at that moment, interested in pursuing a relationship with Juvia.

I don't even think it's wrong for her to still want to be with Gray or even continue to work towards making Gray like her. However, what needs to happen is that, from this point on, she should be more subtle about it. This means that the dynamic changes from arguably willful ignorance towards Juvia's feelings to an actual sense of misunderstanding between them where Gray thinks that Juvia is content with his answer even though she is not. This state shouldn't be terribly hard for people to spot out. I have ideas for how this can look but I don't want to spoil too much. 

However, we get to what may be the most important question I can deal with: do they end up together? While I wouldn't call this a hard answer, I'm currently leaning towards no for at least three reasons.

First off, they didn't end up as canon.  While Mashima seems to be pushing them towards a trajectory of canonicity, he didn't keep them together at the end of 545, my cutoff point for considering canon ships. While their conversation in that chapter has been interpreted by many to be a romantic on Gray's part, I can't say they're canon considering he left Juvia at the end of the chapter. At best, it means he's genuinely willing to start a relationship with her when he returns. At worst, he's only entertaining the idea. Only time will tell how Mashima goes with this. (We don't call the man Trollshima for nothing.) 

Second, I don't really need them to be a couple. I don't know that anything is lost by Gray and Juvia not being a romantic couple. Much of the good about their relationship, as I interpret it, wouldn't be lost if they decided to stay friends and ended up in romantic relationships with other people. In addition to that, I'm not as invested in making them be a couple as I am for other smaller ships in the series I could also work with to make canon. 

But more than either of those arguments, there is the big elephant in the room: Juvia's death. (What? Thought I forgot what day it is?) I don’t have a definite stance on whether or not Juvia should die around the same time she does in the original in my rewrite of the series. There are a number of factors going into my decision based on how it played out in canon that I can easily spend a separate post about why it's not an easy decision. However, it's obviously impossible to make Gruvia canon if I decide to kill Juvia.

Based on Part 19

[monstersinthecosmos]

For the character thing! Bae. (by bae I mean armand obvs)

I got more than one Armand request so this is for alla yous!

favorite thing about them - he is ~comPLex~~!! I mentioned this when I did this meme for Louis and it’s bound to come up a few more times but when you hang out in a fandom enough to cultivate a sense of humor about it and create inside jokes, a lot of times it depends on reducing the characters to 2D caricatures of themselves. It’s the broad strokes, it’s quick, it’s easier to make memes, blah blah. I totally get it! I’m not against it! BUT! It is sometimes at the expense of fanon rising to the forefront of everyone’s mind and sometimes can do a huge disservice to a complex character if we’re not paying attention. SO I MEAN I SAY THAT BECAUSE I think Armand is often polarized in fandom as either being a little fuckin beast or being like a uwu cutie vampire boi and the thing is like HE IS BOTH OF THOSE THINGS and that’s why I love him so much. Plz do not forget. We are constantly reminded of his cherubic Botticelli face and constantly reminded that he’s so capable of being a real monster and everyone around him lets their guard down and doesn’t take him seriously because he’s so smol and pretty. And the things that make him complex, like, his fucked up past, the traumas he’s survived that played a role in him becoming a monster, his capacity to love people which shows us that he is capable of growth and is not ONLY a monster—all these little stories about him just fuck me THE FUCK up. He has the ability to be completely evil and ruthless and yet he still wrenches immense sympathy from me and I constantly just feel the need to protect him. ;.; 

least favorite thing about them - LITERALLY NOTHING, I tried to think of something but. I can’t lmao. Honestly. 

favorite line - I’m at work and don’t have books in front of me BUT A QUICK TRIP INTO MY TAGS GAVE ME THIS GEM AND IT’S P GREAT: Perhaps its worth it to make a foray into the official mortal world once in a while in order to be called “a real trouper” instead of a Botticelli angel, which has become my tag line among the Undead.

brOTP - Lestat! Bianca! Eleni!

OTP - Daniel OR NICKI ;.;

nOTP - Lestat LMAO. I brOTP them for sure but I’m so in love with the idea of them as friendly rivals for eternity but I don’t necessarily ship them.

random headcanon - he LOVES live streams online of totally random shit, like intersections, or the ones in the zoo, and even if it’s not live he loves dashcam channels. Like those ones of bus tours? He’ll watch them all night! It’s especially exciting if it’s the other side of the world while the sun is up. I think he has a little computer setup with a bank of monitors so that he can keep a few of his favorites up at all times. (All love to @theraphaellus and @superhiki for planting this seed in my brain LOL)

unpopular opinion - Although she handles the topic clumsily, I understand what AR meant with a lot of the Armand stuff and it doesn’t bother me at all. I also think AR can be privileged and naive about certain topics and I don’t always hold characters up to the real-world criticisms you can put on the books themselves, vs. appreciating characters and stories within their own universe with their own moral code.

song i associate with them - dudes plz I have like hours and hours of Armand music in my VC playlists and it’s a hot mess BUT FOR TODAY LET’S PICK EAST HASTINGS BY GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR. 

This gives me intense Coven Era feelings. It sums my emotions up very well. LIVING DIRTY UNDERGROUND, STOLEN FROM HIS MAKER, BROKEN, TRAUMATIZED, COLDLY ACCEPTING HIS ROLE, etc. Fuck I’m sad haha. It’s kind of a long song so bonus content: I Believe by Ghost BC. It’s a cover but I really like Ghost’s tone with it. KIND OF AN ARMAND/DANIEL SONG ABOUT GROWING AND STUFF. A lot of Ghost songs give me Armand vibes, not only because of the spoopy Catholic noises but also just their lyrics about Satan can often be easily applied to being about vampires. LOL.

favorite picture of them - OMG this was so hard, maybe THIS ONE? LIKE? Goddamnit. Ouch. Honorable mention to this one by @remarried because I draw on Armand’s expression all the time when I write fanfiction LOL. Thinking about this artwork helps me stay in character. :D

[bookishplays-blog]

some advice

so, you’re joining the hamilton fandom and want to produce content? great!! scared of the unofficial etiquette in this mess? let me help. (disclaimer: this is an UNOFFICIAL guideline. i’m aware that this fandom is a problematic mess that’s full of discourse and the only adult ones tend to be actual legal adults. don’t fuckin @ me saying that hur durr i’m wrong and should rot in hell. this is based off personal experience.)

-SHIPS •Most pairings are accepted. The main ones are Hamilton/Laurens, Hamilton/Burr, Hamilton/Eliza, Jefferson/Madison, Jefferson/Hamilton, Washington/Lafayette, Maria/Eliza (or any Schuyler sister rly) and Mulligan/Lafayette. These usually have the most content, but also contain the most discourse. There’s also some major minor character ships out there; Lee/Seabury, Lee/KG3, Seabury/KG3 etc. I found Eacker/Philip H smut once. This fandom is literally the reason why Rule 34 exists. If it exists, there is porn of it. •Polyamorous ships are widely accepted. I don’t ship any personally, but a few big ones are Hamilton/Eliza/Laurens, Laurens/Hamilton/Lafayette/Mulligan, Hamilton/Jefferson/Madison, etc. Basically, a lot of people like the idea of Hamilton’s cheating being converted into a happy, consensual relationship that’s polygamous, and that’s okay. (Please note I’m not equating cheating with polyamory. Hamilton being a dirty cheater doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with poly ships if you don’t want, but to me it seems particularly common, especially with the ships containing Hamilton and Eliza.) •And I know you want to ask; what’s not accepted? Hard question. This fandom loves its angst, so there aren’t many ships that seem untouchable. For the love of God, though, don’t write anything that’s incestuous. I’m talking father/son, sibling/sibling. Don’t make any of Hamilton’s kids end up with the characters in the show. No, Washington/Hamilton doesn’t count as incest, although I personally can’t stand it. •BASICALLY, don’t be a dick. Also, bear in mind that James Reynolds is the Umbridge of this fandom. If you portray his relationship with Maria as anything less than abusive, there will be riots. I’ve yet to see an (educated) James Reynolds apologist.

-CHARACTERS

•In terms of physical appearance, this fandom is a little wishy-washy on guidelines, unofficial or no. Tip: don’t whitewash if you’re drawing/writing them as their musical characters. Just don’t whitewash in general. This fandom seems to be okay with historical-era fanart and fanfic, which usually involves the characters looking like they did historically, but don’t romanticise them. Don’t romanticise them in general, but especially if you’re making them historical-era. •SPEAKING OF ROMANTICISING, these characters were BAD PEOPLE. Jefferson owned slaves, Burr owned slaves, Washington owned slaves, the Schuylers owned slaves, evidence points to Hamilton owning at least one slave. Don’t let the Alexander apologists fool you; they were bad people historically. Don’t refer to them, ESPECIALLY I HISTORICAL CONTEXT, as ‘cinnamon rolls’. They were misogynists against the rights of women and minorities. Don’t forget that, no matter how much you like their characters. The Jefferson you like is portrayed by a black Jew; the Jefferson in history was a racist with a history of sexual assault and a slavery apologist. •KEEPING THAT IN MIND, personality-wise, what we get from the musical is a little murky. Peggy is a great example of this. Fanon Peggy is very outspoken, sarcastic and a typical millenial. In the musical, she’s shy, hides behind her older sisters and very cautious. This is because of the fact that a) Peggy’s vocals are only apparent in one song through listening alone and b) historically Peggy was very similar to fanon Peggy. THIS DOESN’T MATTER. PORTRAY THEM HOWEVER YOU THINK SUITS BEST. Don’t let the musical force you to make Eliza’s main trait be 'nice’. For all you Laurens stans out there, it’s okay to let him have interests other than art, turtles and Hamilton. Feel free to give them depth, complexities, flaws. Not only is it fucking refreshing amongst the collection of bland chatfics and high school AUs that seem to reduce each character to a single trait, it’s good for original character practice as well. •THE SCHUYLER SISTERS get their own section. If you’re doing something historical, remember that they had other siblings. It’s generally agreed that Angelica and Eliza were closest, but Angelica and Peggy and Eliza and Peggy are shown in the musical as being close too (see Angelica dancing with Peggy and hugging her in Satisfied, and Peggy helping Eliza put away her letters and being dragged along with her in Helpless and The Schuyler Sisters). Sometimes it seems that fics reduce them to plot devices, minor characters or love interests; I won’t go all 'SJW!1!1!1’ on you but they are their own people as well, and flesh them out. (This problem is not as common in artwork, since art of them tends to focus on them either as a trio or Satisfied and Helpless companion pieces starring Angelica and Eliza.) Also, fun fact that this fandom seems to have overlooked - all three of them could play instruments. -REVOLUTIONARY SET AND DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICANS. Things to remember include Madison and Hamilton being friends before Jefferson showed up, Jefferson and Lafayette being close, Mulligan historically being Hamilton’s biggest hypeman (oh, I wish I was kidding) and Laurens and Lafayette being close friends. As for Burr, he’s traditionally relegated to the strange outsider by the fandom. This is more of a personal view, but Burr started off as a member of the Revolutionary Set, and progressed into a Democratic Republican, and this fandom likes to forget that. -THEODOSIA JR. Theodosia is never seen, only mentioned, which basically means everything about her is fanon. Literally. The only confirmed thing about her are her parents. This means Theodosia is good for inserting an audience-type character into; she’s an empty vessel, essentially, so anything you do to her involves zero fact checking. BEAR IN MIND that Theodosia is usually shipped with Philip, and that some members of the fandom will have expectations of her. Ignore those people. Theodosia is a shell of an OC, so as long as you don’t murder her in childhood or something, there’s no real discourse you have to be wary of. (Apart from Philip/Theodosia discourse, which is apparently a thing? But there’s discourse in practically every ship, so by all means, ignore that too.) •UNMENTIONED/UNSEEN CHARACTERS. I’m talking Ben Franklin, John Adams, James Monroe, Governor Clinton, them. John Adams appears to be universally hated, John Jay is often used as a filler or plot device, and the others are just used as names. Don’t bother about continuity with them.

-SOME COMMON AU IDEAS •High School/College Modern AU. This is a big one. There are flaws in it, namely romanticising too much and relegating major characters to 'minor’ status, but it’s so widely used that it’s good to know if you’re new here. •Modern Government/Law AU. Another big one. Not as commonly used because ugh, research and maturity, but there’s a massive pro to them - more complex themes and 'child’ characters can be added because the main lot are usually older. My personal favourite. •Chatroom AU. What it sounds - no real fic, just usernames and text speak. Good for laughs or plain fights, but bad for complex emotion, fluff, angst, or major plot. Also, they clog up the tags of less major ships, especially on AO3. •Soulmate AU. A variety of soulmate AUs exist, but essentially boil down to having some kind of matching mark, etc. Amazing for angst, fluff, plot and character development, but not so great for humour or multi-chapter fics. •Domestic AUs. Exactly as they sound. Massive fluff traps, no real substance but they’re amazing if you’ve had a shitty day and need something to cheer you up. Fan favourite.

So there you go! Everything you need to know if you’re entering the Hamilton fandom, give or take a few things. Don’t bash ships, don’t romanticise them too much, and take Ron Chernow’s content with a pinch of salt (he’s known for 'not finding’ easily accessible content regarding the women of the Hamilverse). Good luck!