#fuck the villain police

[veliseraptor]

out with redemption arcs, in with rehabilitation arcs

[not-poignant]

A lot of folks don't realise that they're fanpolice, or at least have the potential to be fanpolice (or engage in feelings yakuza style behaviours), and a good way to check if you're fanpol - at least when it comes to fanfiction - is a common sentiment that even I've fallen into the trap of expressing, and it goes like this:

'I just need the author to know they're writing something that's wrong.'

It could be that you read something triggery or squicky, or that the author is writing something so dark, you're genuinely unsure they understand that something is morally objectionable irl.

On AO3 this is very easy to check: Did they use appropriate warnings? And tags? Does the content of this fic reasonably fall under these tags and warnings?

If the answer is yes, then the author knows.

They might not share the same understanding as you, but they certainly know enough to warn folks in advance. It might even be tags that you've always been comfortable with but for some reason, in this one fic, get squicked by, and immediately assume 'oh god it's the author' and not 'oh god, it's the writing, I've been squicked.'

If you're still unable to distinguish whether the author knows the difference between right and wrong after seeing an author appropriately tag a work with something like 'dead dove: do not eat' - you may not be able to tell the difference, or alternatively, are having a kneejerk reaction to something very squicky personally.

(In the case of fics that have been inappropriately Warned for - i.e. 'No Warnings Apply' in the case of Rape or Major Character Death, you can certainly give AO3 support a heads up about these fics. There's a reason those warnings are mandatory in the absence of 'Creator Chose Not To Use')

Some folks are just going to be 'antis' about everything, but some of us can stumble into fanpol behaviours when we're shocked by content we didn't expect to find shocking, and we immediately look for somewhere to blame our unexpected shock and discomfort. If the first place you go is into the author's comments or inbox with that blame (or an attempt to shame, ridicule, or mock) that's fancop behaviour.

I think it's worth noting that there's a grey area where many folks have engaged with fanpolice / fanpol / fancop / anti style behaviour while still generally being very supportive of philosophies like 'don't like / don't read' etc. and not realising that these philosophies still apply to you even if you have an extremely strong emotional reaction to something you didn't expect to.

Many of us are going to also experience this, or have in the past. If we like surfing certain tags, if we've read enough DD:DNR fics 'safely' it might not occur to us that other authors might have different ways of writing under those tags.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Certainly because I've done it myself, years ago now, and I've seen other folks who would consider themselves very supportive of all fanfiction do it, and you can sort of tell by the language they use. As soon as you see a: 'I wish I just knew that the author understood this was wrong irl :/ ' - and the fic is tagged for - there's something going on that's leading to fancop style thinking. Often it's to try and correct a sense of emotional injustice or betrayal, sometimes it's grounded in moral panic.

Folks who cling to fancop style behaviours believe that feeling their own strong emotion (particularly those of revulsion or disgust or fear) is an accurate compass re: identifying moral injustice, and then proceed to apply 'corrections' to those around them who have caused that revulsion, disgust, or fear. But imho, it's easy for everyone to feel a strong enough emotion that they might slip into fancop thinking or behaviours without realising, for say one particular fic, or one particular ship, without ever realising, because they're 'permissive the rest of the time.'

Anyway, just some barely coherent thoughts on the matter that I'm barely even resolving here. I miss using Tumblr to think about this stuff out loud, so here we are, lol.

[caesarsprincess-moved]

Someone on reddit: Caesar Clown has redeeming qualities, I don't hate him

Reddit:

Look in the notes for psrt 2 and 3.

[vashtijoy]

bff: I am taking you by the shoulders and looking earnestly into ur eyes and saying

bff: For ur own peace of mind u need to let go of the concept that u are only permitted to give villain characters x amount of leeway

bff: Even if canon supports more leeway

[darkladynyara]

Current least favorite genre of fandom post:

It's fine to like evil characters, so long as you never ever disagree with the morality of the narrative justify their evil actions. It's important not to interpret them in complicated ways or talk about what shaped them woobify them. You can only like them as entertaining monsters. If you disagree with that designation it's because you're just too immature to properly appreciate problematic characters.

(It's especially fun to see one of those posts tagged with a character that 99% of the fanbase already interprets as a pointlessly malevolent monster with no redeeming qualities. In direct opposition to what the canon creator has said about them, even.)

[theeternalfool]

RED HOOD!!!! KILL THIS DUMBASS CLOWN!!! AND MY LIFE!!! IS YOURS!!!!!!

[maybeitsalivescribbles]

Oh oh!!!!! Can you do prompts about "Language"!!!

Been wanting to write a language related fic for months but can't think of any cool ideas :(

Best regards,

@heroes-villains-side-blog

Ah, apologies for the delay, I’m not always online.

Anyway, let’s see what I can do:

Language

There’s yet another prophecy about doomsday, but it’s encrypted/in an ancient language. Time for Hero to ask for Renowned Linguist’s help once again, aka Villain under their secret identity.

Superhero claims that Citizen’s body language shows that they were lying during their interrogation. They’re not. They just really, really don’t want to be here.

Hero and Villain are the only two who can speak a dying dialect. Reluctantly, this brings them together.

Same idea, but they’re absolute nerds and speak Vulcan or Elvish fluently.

Hero&Sidekick (or Villain&Henchman) share a second language the other team don’t speak. It’s great to yell messages at your ally that your foes can’t understand.

Hero and Villain don’t speak the same language. They need Henchman/Sidekick to be a translator to understand each other. The translation might or might not be accurate.

Villain has captured someone who knows things, but speaks in a language they can’t understand. They use an online translator. Confusion ensues.

Villain has captured someone who knows things, but speaks in a language they can’t understand. They kidnap Sidekick to force them to be a translator. Sidekick tries to communicate with Citizen and find an escape plan together without getting caught.

Villain’s Evil lair has a great gadget able to detect any kind of human voice to detect any intrusion. Shame that Hero speaks ASL, then.

Once captured, Villain has a lot of four-letter words to say about the way the heroes treat them. Hero whumps them into watching their language.

I hope these can be useful to you! (I'll keep your other ask for later.)

*

More prompts like this under this tag.

Back to Hero x Villain Masterlist

[veliseraptor]

sometimes I read the words "I don't excuse [x]" about fictional characters and a little part of my brain just goes "well I do!"

[oopey-doopey]

I hope The Spot gets to die as a himself like pre-powers. It’s likely he’s gonna destroy himself trying to destroy Spider-man (I think he’s gonna for the mythos of the hero not just Miles, if the flash forward is any prediction) cause he’s either not gonna be able to handle the full effects of his abilities it and needs to be saved but it’s too late for him or does some not fully redeeming sacrifice as he realizes he didn’t have to resort to villainy and doesn’t want to go out with people fearing him rather than respecting.

It’d make the point that anyone can be Spider-man under the mask string as it’d point out that depending on circumstances anyone could become anything. In this case none of them would know The Spot personally or even in passing as Johnathan Ohnn, so seeing a complete stranger, someone who could of been anyone, defeated at the end of the battle would invoke a lot with the random chance and fate that comes along with being Spider-man if not just going through life rather than the adherence to canon events that is trying to be pushed on characters.

I feel like giving the Spot his face back would just make the climax feel more complete, an odd commentary on being true to oneself even if it is past your time.

[evelynpr]

The LoV, Dabihawks, and more Hawks

Suddenly actually quite into Dabihawks (only took like, 5 more years lmao) but also their individual relationships with Twice, Himiko, and the rest of the LoV.

I really think the story should've given us more filler and time of them bonding together. Imo, that would've made their arcs and stories so much more emotionally investing, and their faith and care for each other even more apparent and genuine. Not that it isn't, but I think it wasn't given enough time and space to really grow.

Just thinking about Hawks, a brainwashed child soldier, suddenly becomes quite close to a bunch of people who genuinely like him and accept him for his past, his identity, and his mistakes, because that is just what the LoV are, a place of acceptance and change. His relationship with them initially out of necessity (as SxF Loid would put it, "For the mission"), growing into smth more genuine.

How in the war, he killed Twice, betrayed Dabi (and the whole LoV obv), and ordered Himiko to be killed to, but only upon losing his quirk and seeing Himiko's Twice clone does he realize the emptiness and foolishness of his whole life- that he accepted being stabbed by her.

This man can fit so much guilt and tragedy, and with his new position in the HSPC, I think he genuinely would try his darn best to change the system for the people who he betrayed. Honestly, a fucking tragic guy, and I wish the story made that more apparent.

[marinecorvid]

blorbos from my brain

[masked-and-doomed]

Why is Takao the only one who gets punishment in the 3rd World. Huh.

[pixelpaladin24]

People: ...but they're evil!

Me: That's the fucking point, thank you very much.

[sweaters-and-vertigo]

trigger warning: animal torture

[veliseraptor]

"i'm not an [x] apologist" fool. weakling

[number-1-panstander]

I am baffled. astonished. perplexed. shocked. how did he even do that. what.