#fucking each other way more than the canon mlm ones. lmao

[pizzecato]

Touch Starved

[sequs-art-box]

Idk if you've been asked this already, but what's your opinion on every inside out ship ( just the ones with emotions )

All of them? Well..

Let's get The Big Three Out of the way.

Brickstar (Joy and Anger) Feanger and Starnerve (Joy and Fear) are my top dogs. They're my otps of all time. Love them to bits.

Now....

Joy ships:

Joy and Sadness: Classic! I like the ship, even after 9 years. They don't drive me as insane as the big three though.

Joy and Disgust: I'm kinda in the middle with them? I've seen some great content on those two but they just don't do it for me.

Joy and Anxiety: I see the vision but I personally don't ship em. Power to those who do cause I've seen some very cute fanart.

Joy and Ennui: Eh I don't really see the appeal but that's not a bad thing. I just personally think they vibe more with other emotions than each other.

Joy and Emb: Eh?? I can see it working but I have the same opinions for them like I do Joy and Ennui.

Sadness Ships:

Sadness and Anger: THEY ARE SO UNDERRATED. I have a very specific vision for them: They are so queerplatonic coded to me it's crazy. They'd be secret besties who complete each other. Theyd give the other their full 100% attention and I think thats beautiful. God I love them sm.

Sadness and Fear: See the vision, don't ship unfortunately.

Sadness and Anxiety: Eh. Not enough content for me to form an opinion.

Sadness and Ennui: ^^^

Sadness and Disgust: Don't see the vision sorry :/

Sadness and Emb: Don't ship em but I HAVE to admit they're very cute.

Disgust ships:

Disgust and Anger: Oooh they're in the middle with me too. I can totally see them being a power couple but at the same time I think they'd hate-love each other if you get me.

Disgust and Anxiety: No opinion.

Disgust and Emb: At first i didn't see the vision but a really good friend of mine made me reconsider. They're so fucking cute holy shit.

Disgust and Ennui: I can see it a little bit??? But they make me feel nothing sry lol

Disgust and Fear: Another classic. Can't really go wrong with them, like Joyness. It's also canon at this point lmao

Anger ships

Anger and Ennui: I follow some really cool people who ship them but PERSONALLY.... I don't ship em lol. Maybe if they had more interactions in the movie I'd ship them more.?? Idk i have mixed feelings.

Anger and Emb: Underrated gay bois. They need to kiss at least once.

Anger and Anxiety: I NEED TO DRAW THEM SO BAD BUT IM NOT GOOD AT DRAWING ANXIETY GOD. Another QPR coded ship to me. I fw them.

Fear ships:

Fear and Anxiety: Prolly the biggest ship recently. I don't see them as siblings, but I also don't really see them being together??? I know there are those scenes with him in IO2 and they can be interpreted any way people want but I really don't see it tbh. He's better for Joy and Anger sry.

Fear and Ennui: Ehh.?? Same as above.

~~~

Fear and Emb: All the MLM ships are so underrated (except feanger lol). I haven't drawn any content but they're cute in my eyes.

Others:

I don't really have any opinions on them except Anxienn. I ship em hard but they don't drive me insane as the big three. They're just enough for me to make them canon in a couple aus I made! I vibe with it lowkey.

UHMMM I think thats it? If I missed any I'm sorry, it's midnight and I should get to sleep lmao (Didn't include Envy or Nostalgia for obvious reasons). Lemme know if I missed a ship and I'll edit the post!

Hope I don't piss anyone off LAWL I try to be fair here.

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

[cws: non-detailed discussion of both fictional and irl SA/CSA/abuse dynamics, apologia for the previous, homophobia, fetishization of wlw, and anti rhetoric.]

-

having a lot of thoughts about the wider fandom's treatment of the various abuse dynamics present in sdmi--supposedly in the name of being anti-abuse--and how instead it's propagated deeply anti-survivor/abuse apologist sentiment and behavior through where they choose to apply that rhetoric, and where they choose to look the other way.

(first off, if you're someone who does not and has not done this, thank you from the bottom of my heart. second, this is not at all exhaustive of my feelings on the subject and there will probably be more posts about these dynamics and people's behavior toward them in future. as you can imagine by the length of this post that is saying something lmao)

one of the reasons i feel as strongly as i do about the way both canon and fandom have historically been about pericles, pericky, and shitting on anyone who likes them because it Normalizes Abuse(tm), is that their fans are pretty open and emphatic about the fact that it's Fucked Up. it's why we find it compelling. it is vanishingly rare that we don't.

meanwhile, velma is the UwU Cute Sassy Lesbian Icon whose relationship with shaggy was Cringy and Immature (and mutually so 🙃) at worst, when it directly mirrored such visceral aspects of my experience with CSA that i almost threw up rewatching the second episode.

and that's not even getting into how normalized it is for women to abuse men in a relationship, in broad fucking daylight in front of other people, and how men are supposed to Always Want It and it's an insult if they don't, and how the vast majority of CSA--which it overtly is in shaggy's case, he is implied not to be an adult yet--is perpetrated by other kids.

and it's also not getting into the fact that the ~cute lesbian relationship~ is almost certainly going to end up with the other queer girl in the show also being abused, because abusers are not Magically Cured by True Queer Love's Kiss. how it is incredibly difficult for survivors of abuse in a wlw relationship to be acknowledged or get support because then they'd be a Traitor, or people would rather maintain the feel-good fuzzy feelings wlw exist to give them, or they're closeted and it's not safe to let people know they're in a relationship with a woman. how queer relationships, especially between women, are fetishized as cute pure healthy fairytale romances and not dynamics involving real people who might harm each other or be harmed and need help.

and that's not even getting into the fact that mlm are seen as inherently predatory to an extent that the majority of other queer identities are not. how older queer men grooming boys is a classic homophobic stereotype used to justify violence toward them, up to and including lynchings, and how that is the abuse dynamic everyone in the show and fandom latched onto to revile as the Disgusting Evil Predatory One while giving everything else a pass. how mlm have a long history of forced institutionalization and psychiatric torture and abuse, and the Predatory Gay Man is subjected to decades of--you guessed it!--forced institutionalization and psychiatric torture and abuse, which is framed as what he deserved and where he belonged. how he's supposed to be unattractive (and the majority of the people who do this shit lean hard on that), while people are way more likely to give Charming Attractive Aesthetically Pleasing abusers a pass.

this is just..... normal, to the fandom. it's treated as completely normal. and i think that's a whole lot more fucking harmful than finding emotional catharsis in exploring an abusive dynamic that would not fly in broad daylight irl in a million years.

[hadesisqueer]

The thing about people saying that Bumbleby is a forced couple with no build up is that sometimes I wonder if they have eyes or something.

First of all, the storyline is clearly heading that way, but they're not a couple yet, as many antis love to remind the shippers. Therefore, how can they be a forced couple if, as you say, they're not dating yet??? They're STILL developing the couple lmao.

Second, it does have build up. The thing is, you dismissed many of those interactions as friendship, saying that there are a lot of ways of love, not only romantic and all that.

And you're right, there are many ways to love someone, and platonic relationships are just as important as romantic ones. But then again, you are missing a very important detail: the context of the scenes.

You can interpret Yang saying “I love it when you're feisty” and “If you feel like coming out tomorrow, I'll save you a dance *wink*” as friendship considering “Yang tends to be kind of flirty and affectionate with everyone”. It's not entirely true but yeah okay, I get that. There's also the fact that females are more allowed to be affectionate with their other female friends. So when you see a woman being flirty with each other you'll interpret it as friendship when it's actually not. That doesn't happen to straight couples (they will smile to each other once and they will already be in love and the audience will never hace doubts), or mlm ships, because males aren't seen to be as affectionate with each other as females, and when they are, it's seen as romantic (even if they're platonic, and people will call it queerbaiting).

Examples (and no shitting on the other ships. I fucking love Renora):

Renora holds hands after a really emotional moment, or to reassure one another: Totally romantic.

Bumbleby holds hands MULTIPLE TIMES after a really emotional moment, or to reassure one another: Gal pals.

Or

Clover winks at Qrow in a cocky way and says a “lucky you huh”: Damn he's sooo gay.

Yang winks at Blake in a cocky way and literally tells her that she's saving her a dance after a clear joke with the “coming out” thing: A great straight girl!

See what I mean? Honestly I don't blame people for this, because I myself dismissed the whole flirty Yang thing in the first few volumes as just friendship and teasing for the fans. It's just heteronormativity that we all have inside.

However, there are some things that, if you interpret them as friendship... Well.

One of the most obvious ones, and which confirmed to me that Bumbleby was, indeed, romantically coded: THAT scene at Heroes and Monsters. How blind do you have to be to deny that it was meant to be romantic?

You can say “Oh but there are many ways to love not just romantic it could be sisterly love” and as I said, you're right. If you had put Ruby instead of Blake in that situation, it's clear that it would mean sisterly love. But that scene is not meant to be “sisterly”, no matter what you say. Because, the scene is: Exboyfriend threatens Girl to destroy everything she loves and then Other Girl (who was directly compared to Exboyfriend earlier) appears looking for Girl, and Girl looks at her terrified, Exboyfriend notices. You know the rest.

This is, as I call it, the classic “summon love interest” card. If you changed Blake and Yang there and you put Ren and Nora (who, until their backstory in vol 4, didn't even have that much development nor confirmation of being really romantic, just teasing and a song -you know, like Blake and Yang-) in that situation, there's no way people would have thought that it was friendship lol. Damn, if they just made Yang a male, with all the interactions they'd had and that scene, people would have been chanting CANON in that moment.

Also, vol 5 chapter 8. Yeah, that talk in which Yang admits to Weiss that she is really hurt by Blake leaving and that she wished she hadn't because she wanted to be there for her and needed Blake to be there for her as well could be friendship... Except it isn't. Because, considering the past scenes, the ENTIRE conversation and the fact that it took place in the same episode other girl confesses to have romantic feelings for Blake... Well. Oh, and basically the whole reunion scene when all Blake could say was “Yang?” and Yang.exe stopped working. And don't get me started with the songs (come at me with a straight face and tell me that bmblb is about a bike, I fucking dare you). All That Matters just...

And of course, the entirety of their interactions in volume 6.

Oh, and let's ignore the fact that these two characters that pretty much are a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast, because it was a last minute decision pushed by the fans; it's not as if Red like Roses pt 1, the first song that we hear in the series and which lyrics are foreshadow for the characters, literally said that they are “Black the Beast” and “Yellow Beauty”.

“But, Sun”.

Look, I was a Blacksun shipper when I started watching the show; I still am, actually, I just like Bumbleby more. And I understand why people want them together. However, saying that they had better development than Bumbleby as a couple is just not true. Because they have barely any development: the first volumes was just Sun crushing hard on Blake the moment he sees her, and Blake kind of returning the crush but never at the same level or with the same enthusiasm. They barely have any interactions in vol 3. In vol 4 Sun can't understand Blake and she could barely stand him. And in vol 5, Sun has finally given up on Blake romantically speaking and now they get to develop, but as friends.

Also, have this in mind: when Adam fought Sun, he didn't see him as anything else than Blake's classmate, and even called him that. Because he never saw them as a “rival” when it came to Blake. Now, Yang? He tries to kill her out of jealousy the first time he sees her because he noticed the way Blake was looking at her. He tries to kill her again multiple times in that fight in volume 6; again, out of jealousy, because he sees how they're looking at each other. Damn, he even screams “What does she even see in you?” when they fight. So yeah, the fact that Adam, Blake's exboyfriend, is jealous of Yang and sees her as the romantic rival instead of Sun should have told you something back in vol 5.

Look, you don't have to like Bumbleby, and I'm not saying it's perfect, because it isn't; there are things that could definitely have been done better. But saying that it's forced (when, again, they're not dating yet), that they have no build up because you never saw it coming... Watch the show again, man.

[dykesprentiss]

ok so. i know a lot of this has probably been said before, but i wanted to put my two cents in. very rambly and disorganized because i am just like that.

i think everyone in this fandom needs to examine the way they interract with male vs female characters. why is it easier for you to focus on and create content for male characters that have appeared in 2 episodes maximum, then it is for the women that are in the main cast? why do you gravitate towards ships between two male characters who have never met (specifically jonah and like. his harem of old british men. usually based on one single line of dialogue) then the actual, canon wlw relationships?

like dont get me wrong, when lonely eyes first started cropping up it was funny! i enjoyed it, i enjoyed the multiple divorce jokes, because it was a small fandom in joke that made fun of some old bastards. and now its the second most popular ship in the fandom. now its so popular, people think its canon before they start listening. why are you unable to muster that same kind of enthusiasm for any of the female characters? gertrude and mary have very similar appeal to lonely eyes, and yet its a fringe ship that nobody ever talks about. gertrude and agnes have very significant moments and mentions in the podcast, and yet the only people i see talking about them are wlw.

or we could talk about michael and helen! helen who, as of this moment, has become a key player in the storyline. helen who yeeted michael out of existence, who took over the power of the distortion by her own choice, and with her own strength. and so often i see her relegated to "vodka aunt that coos over jonmartin" is that a bad take on her? of course not! but having her only purpose be to comment on the male characters rubs me the wrong way.

lets talk about elias and mary. elias gets praise, and love, and devotion, regardless of the horrible things he does. the entire fandom has the reputation of eliasfuckers now because everyone goes so crazy for him. mary is just as evil, has just as sexy a voice (i assume lol cause tbh? eel eyes does not do it for me and never will), and people just. hate her. full stop. why is that?

it seems like manuela has been. completely forgotten. i Never see anyone talk about her. she has just as much appeal as the male avatars, so why are you so uninterested in her? sasha and tim have the same amount of importance, and both have died, but there is So much more focus on tim. why.

daisy/basira and melanie/georgie are incredibly well developed relationships, their stories are as beautiful and tragic and intimate as jonmartin, but the f/f and m/m fic ratio on ao3 is abysmal. because it seems to me that the only people writing about them are wlw.

which happens.....a lot. het relationships and gay relationships are for everyone, but lesbian ships? thats just for gay women. everyone goes head over heels for mlm movies, regardless of sexuality, but wlw movies never receive the same kind of treatment. why.

this isn't even touching on the. blatant and disgusting fetishising of mlm. elias is evil because hes gay and skanky. tim is bi so he must sleep around. tim and martin are both mlm in the same vicinity of each other so they must have had a friends with benefits relationship. jon/elias and peter/martin have significant age differences and power disparities, so they must have an incredibly fucked up sexual relationship. jon is ace, but yall just fully ignore that so you can write horny fic of him. (and im going to be completely honest, if you get legitimate joy from writing manipulative r*pe fic involving these characters, Especially involving an ace character, ( edit: i apologize for my wording here, i didnt intend to compare trauma between ace and non ace ppl. my point is that jon seems to be the main target in these fics, and that they seem to be a direct response to his asexuality. fic like this is bad regardless of who is targetted). than that is a big problem. you arent "exploring dark topics in a meaningful way" youre writing fucked up porn for your own sick enjoyment. get angry at me all u want lmao but i stand by that)

i could go on about this forever, but what im really asking is for people to look inward and ask yourselves why you are so against connecting and interracting with female characters? no one is saying you cant like the men, but if theyre the only ones you care about? thats a problem. there are more women in tma then there are men, but they still feel like the minority because of the way the fandom acts. this isnt just a tma problem either! you can put as many rounded out female characters as you want into your content, and every time without fail they will be pushed to the side in favor of the men.

and dont come at me with "oh if you want content of the women you should make it" like we fucking are. the issue is that wlw are the only ones doing it. just take a second and think. are you ignoring the female characters in favor of the men? why? why is that your first instinct? why do you not feel the need to go against that instinct?

[jonathanrook]

legally i have to give you intern 2

em you have awoken an ungodly beast inside me so i need to warn everyone that this post is. incomprehensible. but so is mymusic so i guess we're all used to it.

How I feel about this character:

i watched mymusic as it was airing/running/coming out specifically bc i'm a jack stannie, and as a kid melvin was my second favorite character (w scene being in first, obvs) for mostly that reason. he basically hovered around this ranking until my most recent rewatch in the summer of 2020, which was actually spurred by some events in my personal life that vaguely reminded me of scene's season two arc w jeff, and i thought it'd been a funny/nostalgic way to get my mind off things.

(i want to side note here that -- i know you didn't ask, but -- i love jeff. i have since i was a kid. like, obviously not as a person but i think he's honestly the best written character in the series, w indie close in second. idk what it says about the f*nes that their most interesting and well rounded characters are the villains, but i digress. to this day i'm salty that jeff never got added to the theme song and wasn't really included in promotional merch.)

however, in said rewatch, certain things about how he was written started to really get under my skin, and certain moments in particular have really stuck out to me in a negative way. like, for the entirety of season one and a good chunk of season two he's one person, and then he leaves mymusic and we have an entirely different person, but not in a nuanced character building sort of way.

i've said a few of these points before but i'll repeat them here regardless. at the risk of sounding like i've put on a tin-foil hat, it's my sneaking suspicion that scindie was supposed to be endgame, but since fan reception to it was pretty neutral, and scenechart stans were, at the very least, more vocal, changes were made to the intended finale, which is why in the last scene he's basically just. indie. like, if everything about the show was exactly the same but indie was the one who had ended up w scene in the end that would have made so much more sense since a) scene had a crush on indie that he/everyone knew about and b) indie was kind of a dick despite the half-assed attempts at redemption, so both combined make it slightly less weird/out-of-nowhere that he kisses her w/o her consent (since, even though like. implied consent is not real at worst and a fuzzy subject at best but you could argue that scene would want indie to kiss her); and this isn't even taking into consideration that c) melvin is heavily queer-coded in both seasons, with his friendship with nerdcore being, dare i say, homoerotic at times, and his arc about leaving the company and changing his name mirroring nerdcore's almost perfectly (with nerdcore being a character who b*nny [at least] has all but confirmed is actually gay).

i've also been on the fence about melvin's behavior in that final scene making more sense for indie's character being an intentional decision as a way of shoe-horning in a theme about the lasting effects of abuse/cycles of abuse/the corruption of power but i also don't think the f*nes are smart enough for that. however, for the sake of defending my straw theory, i also point to the scene where indie comes to visit the acid factory after melvin told him to shut up, and we see melvin use reggie as a foot-stool, going as far as to say that it feels good to do so (which, in all honesty, i think is a bit that was entirely improvised, since the f*nes were "notorious for never saying cut" [paraphrased from a bts video], but work w me here). he's also given a seltzer mug that perfectly resembles indie's kombucha mug. in these moment melvin is directly emulating the behavior of his previous abuser, purposefully or not, literal moments after being promoted to an equal position of authority, which was totally just included as a joke, but could also be argued is meant to show that he's becoming indie; or, if we acknowledge that the f*nes have no fucking clue what they're doing and were just directing like chickens with their heads cut off, it at least shows that melvin's new position of power is leading him to understand where indie was coming from, which is supported by their conversation in the finale.

the following contains a couple brief mentions of irl sexual assault so if that's something you'd like to avoid skip to the next section!

HOWEVER, that alone isn't what i have a problem with, since i think melvin is completely justified in being a dick to indie (and also reggie enthusiastically consents to being used as an ottoman so good for him i guess). the issue comes completely in how he treats scene in the scenes where the f*nes clearly thought what they were writing was super romantic. like, the fact that the only thing he's got hung on his cubicle wall is a single picture of scene taken from the fucking opening credits (like. how hard would it have been to have. literally any other photo[s] esp since there's an abundance of cute bts pics of the cast in costume that could have been put there) and him scrolling through her twitter at work really creep me out (and at the risk of oversharing the weird, like, social media stalking angle really fucks w me bc that may or may not have been the exact fucking thing i was trying to escape in rewatching mymusic in the first place). also, having him sexually assault scene as a means of comforting her after she had just been sexually assaulted in the same way by someone else was... a choice (which is also, uh, personally familiar).

again, i recognize that demonizing melvin wasn't what the f*nes were trying to do here, and i perhaps seem hypocritical for opening liking jeff, but what makes jeff work is he's intentionally "the bad guy." having melvin do the same things as indie and jeff uncritically only proves further that the f*nes can't write for shit, and ruins his character which had, up until he quit mymusic, been unironically good. like, it's obviously not beneficial that the exact asshole things he does are personally triggering, but the character would still be a mess and i would still dislike him regardless.

i want to say though that jack delivers a surprisingly great performance despite how shoddily his character is constructed and how little experience he has as an actor. like, it's clear he was having a lot of fun on set and i would love to see him in something, like, good; i think he could pull off even like, guest television roles, which is a lot more than can be said for other youtubers.

-----

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

nerdchart should have been canon i'm sorry. i know that close, nonromantic male friendships are valuable, esp between queer men, but also gd wouldn't it have been baller to have a canon interracial mlm ship. like. c'mon. and they could have been such a good friends to lovers story! we already got to see how melvin was the only person nerdcore could really be himself around so it would have been so cool if melvin's self-advocacy arc/flowchart arc had revolved more around nerdcore with a little role-reversal! and then they kiss! like god intended!

also i ship him and indie bc i'm a grubby little gremlin man ohoho. enemies w weird sexual tension? sign me up. not even enemies to lovers i'm not saying this one should have been canon i just love the vibes. do you think melvin and indie ever explored each other's bod-- *gunshot*

-----

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

i wish him and scene had just been bros. god remember in season one when they were just bros that was the life.

alternatively, i wish we'd seen more bonding w him and metal, as a means of reconciling that. uh. moment from season one. along similar lines i would have loved to see him get closer w rayna in a similar way to how she bonded w nerdcore in season two. i think that could have also worked to show how she'd grown between the two seasons.

-----

My unpopular opinion about this character:

HIM. AND. SCENE. SHOULD. HAVE. JUST. BEEN. BROS. (though i think my general dislike of him is pretty unpopular, lmao).

when the show was coming out i don't think it's unfair to say that scenechart/scenetern 2 was the most popular ship (aside from potentially techstep whatever) but luckily we're all gay and have better taste now. unfortunately i totally fell into this camp and scenechart was even my otp for years (until it was arguably more unfortunately usurped by reddie in 2019) and i didn't even realise that it's a hot mess until, again, the summer of 2020.

when actually watching the show the choices the f*nes made in regards to how the ship actually became canon are so odd and out of place, too? okay, so, on one hand everyone just shipped scenechart bc it was the whitest hettiest ship in the show (esp in season two when idol left) aside from scindie (and we already discussed what's wrong w that). but, on the other hand, lainey and jack clearly also just got along? and i suspect that lainey probably also admired jack's work and was happy to be working with him bc we have so many shots throughout even the first season when the ship wasn't the intended endgame of lainey scene looking really fondly at jack melvin at times when it doesn't make much sense at all, esp since she's smitten w indie? this trend continues into the second season which arguably works but it still seems really out of place for him to be the one to ultimately make the first move on her since it's clear she was the one crushing this whole time and also he's gay! this bitch is gay what the fuck!!

-----

One thing I wish had happened with this character in canon:

at this point i'm struggling to think of anything i haven't covered yet. oops.

i've talked at length before about how he should have been a woman/lesbian, but the tl;dr is that it would have solved a lot of the queer-coding "problems" that just didn't get resolved in the show. if he'd been a lesbian then not only would the friendship w nerdcore still made sense, but scenechart would have as well (not even mentioning that both of scene's other relationships w men make a lot of sense as comphet anyway).

[a-flickering-soul]

do kylux for the ask meme 😳 you + me = mental illness

i love you so much for sending this in this truly is the mortifying ordeal of being known

putting this under a readmore because it is LITCHERALLY 1.2k words because i am literally clawing at the walls of my enclosure about these two

ANYWAYS go ahead and send me a character and i’ll give you some headcanons bc im having fun doing these!!!

Kylo Ren

Sexuality Headcanon: ambiguously queer. Don’t make me think about him having sex he makes me so angry

Gender Headcanon: he Must be a cis man. He has so much mommy issues. He is such an incel. He is so full of toxic masculinity. He must be a cis man.

A ship I have with said character: Kylux. Every single angle you take this ship from it’s funny and good. Canon—they hate each other and want each other dead. AU—they still hate each other but they’re (probably) less fascist and genocidal. It’s just so funny. They are so obsessed with each other. They gaslight each other into love confessions. It’s unreal. I’ve been thinking about Kylux for the past month and I feel like an entire geological age has passed. You can tell I’m a Kylux shipper and a R*ylo anti because I almost exclusively refer to him as Ren instead of Kylo. The gay angel went to superhell for Kylux to go canon in Lego Star Wars (twice) and a kids’ comic book. God mocks me to my face.

A BROTP I have with said character: This got literally shot to shit but post-TFA when a bunch of people headcanoned Rey as Luke’s kid and she and Ren were cousins and he reluctantly babysat her because he was literally ten years older than her (hhhhh.) and they had this weird mildly-contentious relationship as adults where they grudgingly acknowledge they are both the most powerful Force users in the galaxy and are the only ones who mutually understand the legacy they bear and care about each other but also cannot be in the same room together and hold a civil conversation for more than five minutes before resorting to uncomfortable silence. Like when you’re at a family reunion and you’re automatically shunted with the only other kid around your age so you have to make conversation but you are just so fundamentally different there’s nothing to talk about. Unreal.

A NOTP I have with said character: Hhh. R*ylo. I’m one of those evil lesbians who hate that ship viciously and one of my dreams is to be one of the mean antis that that bully a shipper in a story that’s clearly exaggerated or made up and then get cancelled for having good taste.

A random headcanon:  I think he and Phasma used to spar a lot. I keep thinking about the five years he spent on the Finalizer pre-canon and I can’t reasonably justify the Knights of Ren hanging out with him for the entire time on a literal military ship and I like the idea of them being the only people that are reasonably on par physically (I also like how Phasma is an inch taller than him because....whew).

General Opinion over said character: God. He drives me wild. I have a lot of thoughts about him and how good he was in TFA and the pre-canon comics/novels as a really fucking good example of a morally-conflicted villain (especially the comics where it made it really clear that he was very much manipulated and gaslit since like…ten years old). Like! The way he could flip at will from drawing strength from both the light AND dark side of the Force is just!! So cool! The way his strength literally derives from moral conflict is just really interesting to me but….idk the way post-TFA he was thrown into a redemption (Rendemption) arc that hinged on Rey being a literal genuine fascist sympathizer made me just really disappointed. He had a lot of amazing potential to be either a really interesting semi-redeemed Byronic antihero OR a full on unhinged animalistic power-mad villain that Rey has to mercy-kill like a rabid dog. And then. Well. Yeah. I like him a lot in very specific contexts and flat out hate him in most others.

 Armitage Hux

Sexuality Headcanon: gay! He is gay! I have an entire list of reasons why he’s gay and it grows daily! Without a doubt a homosexual! Gay and repressed!

Gender Headcanon: Also a cis guy even though I still do have a lot of half-formed thoughts about gender in the First Order/post-collapse of the Empire society.

A ship I have with said character: Kylux! Again! I’m obsessed with how obsessed Hux is with Ren. He hates him so much it’s unreal. I keep reading the novelizations and thinking so fucking hard about how consumed Hux is with hatred for this one man. He’s so repressed. He’s so damaged. It’s unreal. The brainworms in my head have metamorphosed into moths and they’re flapping their wings so hard they’re disintegrating my grey matter. I think near-daily about how he personally went down to retrieve Ren from the collapse of Starkiller Base and yet would not touch him to drag him to shelter in the Hux graphic novel. Would you take off your glove to check his pulse or would you attempt to feel it through the leather and touch something’s dead skin rather than his living warmth. I’m so deeply unwell.

A BROTP I have with said character: Him and Phasma!!! The way they are on first-name terms with each other….the way one of the few times in the graphic novels you see him smile is when Phasma comes back onto the base…..the way they plotted to kill Brendol together….truly evil mlm/wlw solidarity you simply love to see it

A NOTP I have with said character: Oof I see a lil bit of shipping him with Resistance members (I think I’ve seen him with Rose and also Poe??) and I know TROS made the decision to have him defect from the First Order (out of. again. his obsessive hatred with another man. writing choices.) but it makes me INSANELY uncomfortable seeing people of color being shipped with a literal fascist parody of British colonialism and imperialism lmao like….just ship Kylux bro they’re mutually bad people AND a power couple

A random headcanon: Frankly at this point I joke so much about how much like a sick Victorian orphan he looks like that I could write an entire fake medical file for him but I’ll spare you all and simply say that I am incredibly partial to the headcanon that Hux is a freak that bites string cheese instead of peeling it like a normal person. Also…the implications that he Personally placed the tracker in Ren’s belt rather than someone else, so that he alone could keep tabs on him…..I’m unwell. Enough.

General Opinion over said character: If Ren is a character I love to hate, Hux is a character I hate that I love. I just. I can’t stop thinking about this gay little war criminal. It truly, genuinely baffles the mind how much information there is about him. It triggers that same little part of my brain that goes wild over like. ARGs and stuff. There’s just so much lore. With every new piece of canon or semi-canon information I learn about him I can feel my grip on sanity slipping. He owns a black robe. He has a personal hitman in the First Order ranks to poison people he doesn’t like. He drinks tea. He’s a bastard son. He’s great with kids. He was in charge of a squad of feral orphan child soldiers at five years old. I just. I just don’t get it. I’m enamored with him. His compulsive attention to grooming. His hubris. His ambition. How literally unhinged he is (the “rabid cur” line genuinely lives in my head rent free). The way he systemically killed every single person who saw him weak and abused as a child. There’s just so much to talk about with him. He’s so evil. He’s so fucked up. I love him so deeply. He is such a horrible person and he is so fun to make fun of and he is so fun to think about. God wants there to be a bullet in my head so badly.

[gunkyengines]

4, 7, and 9, for the s/i questions if you're still taking them!

Ohhhh my gods @jetsetspy I’m so sorry for answering this question so late ;-; My answers are under the cut!

4. Does your insert have a backstory? Tell us about it! How does their backstory, if any, define who they are? How does it reflect their relationships now? Their hopes and dreams?

Bellamy Amplexus – Final Fantasy XV SI

Bellamy doesn’t have much of a backstory just yet, but I do know this:

·         Their family isn’t a huge part of their life, aside from a younger sibling, who, to this day, I have not yet named.

·         They want a sense of belonging somewhere, and have a number of self-image complications (it’s not really a set of “issues” to them, because they’ve found comfort in their body and self over time, but they still have wishes about what they could be seen as—androgyny is a tough line to straddle).

·         They hate the nickname “Bella”.

·         Bells, as far as I’m concerned right now, finds their sense of belonging amongst the ‘Bros ever since they just sorta started… tagging along, I guess? It was just an act of good will from the prince and his guards and a bit of hitchhiking on Bells’ end that got them where they are now.

·         They were originally a bit of a vagabond prior to meeting up with the guys. Hitchhiking, walking absurdly long distances, camping out often, all that jazz.

Junko Hisayo – Persona 5 SI

Junko is a character who I largely based off of my late-high school self for both self insertion and coping reasons, but a few things do set her apart from me. As in, she’s a pretty close approximation, but by no means is she a direct, direct copy of me.

She’s a student at Kosei Academy, simply due to the fact that I read on the wiki that it’s speculated to be a catholic school (I was brought up in the catholic education system, so, I could find some accuracy and likeness in that), and attended meetings at both the drama and art club there. She has bitter memories of the two clubs, as she was betrayed by the one major figure in both: her childhood friend Hideo Sunjaya. Since then, she’s taken to expressing her creative outlets in circles outside of her student life, and finds her passion in writing. At the time of Persona 5 canon, she’s set on becoming an editor. In the future canon, she does in fact achieve this goal. In this way Junko’s less of a model of who I was, and instead she’s what I hope to be.

She comes from a somewhat broken home, but has a strong relationship with her mother. Despite her current disconnect, Junko feels that she owes it to her parents that she has such a good understanding of her own identity, as they were supportive when she first came out as sapphic, and continued their support when she decided to be GNC and soon after came into her identity as a demigirl.

Elizabeth Beaufort – Red Dead Redemption 2 SI

Lizzie is a pretty lighthearted simulacrum of a more feminine version of me, translated loosely into the scope of the year 1899. I’m by no means a historian, but here’s Lizzie’s life.

Elizabeth Beaufort is a born and raised resident of the town of Valentine. Her mother is whatever the RDR2 universe’s equivalent of Quebecois French is, having moved to Saint Denis due to a family matter down there, and subsequently met her father. A Valentine resident himself, he beguiled her mother and convinced her to move to Valentine and live as the wife of a livestock owner (he comes from some blue blood ‘round those parts—as mentioned by the VDL in Chapter 2, the town is a goldmine of trade).

As a lady of relative privilege, life was… well, it was what a privileged life is. Sheltered, simple, and for the most part pretty damned easy. However, her naivete wasn’t something that her mother would stand to see Elizabeth keep, as she wanted a strong daughter who wouldn’t simply bend to the hand of tradition. Would I say that Lizzie would’ve most certainly rallied with those girls in Rhodes? YES. I’d rather die than portray any iteration of myself as complacent rather than progressive lmao. Elizabeth Beaufort flows in the vein of RDR2’s… I guess, progressive* writing? More** on that below, I guess???

*I don’t actually know how well it was received by everyone else, and honestly, I’m not even gonna try to speak on anyone else’s behalf but my own—I found that RDR2, despite some shortcomings, made itself a relatively hospitable environment for me as a white queer.

** Lizzie does struggle a lot with her internalized homophobia? Like… she had a lot of difficulty when she was younger coming to terms with the fact that she’s bisexual. This is less prevalent in her backstory considering it only ever surfaces post-canon. Yes, my SI and her FO came out to each other at random after being married to him for approximately 3 months. And it went fuckin’ great cos guess what!! Theyre both bi!! WLW/MLM solidarity!!! Don’t @ me.

Gillian Wright – Red Dead Redemption 2 SI

·         Gilley was brought up amongst a gang of outlaws, and her being born a woman changed nothing about the things she was taught by said gunslingers. She left the group she once called family because of the leadership turning sour. From that point forward she went it alone, shifting in and out of her identity as Gilley Wright and her masculine persona (a pseudonym-turned-identity) Giles Kingsley, to keep herself straddling notoriety and anonymity.

·         Gilley only started wearing her hair short because of an encounter in which her longer hair was used as a means to pull her back into harm’s way. She lopped it off shortly after out of the feeling that it was a necessity, but soon found that she preferred it that way.

·         Thaddeus, her large draft horse, once pulled carts. She took him during a robbery so that she’d have an adequate mount for her getaway. The connection was instant between them.

Taeko Atou – Tokyo Ghoul OC

Taeko went by another name before her time in the 20th ward. She had another face, another life. But that was a self she had to leave far, far behind. Before “Taeko”, she was a reckless twentysomething ghoul living off of her father’s money, basking in the upper echelons of society, indulging in Scrapper shows and seeing humanity as nothing but an unprepared buffet. The danger ranking on her CCG profile demonstrated as much.

One night, however, her cushy life changed drastically. She went out drinking after a Scrapper show with one of her friends and decided to go hunting with her. Things were as usual, they stayed in their territory, but ended up getting apprehended by a group of Doves. During the getaway, her and her friend were separated, and she had no way of knowing whether her friend was alive. Drunk, desperate, and rather terrified, she decided to abandon all else and ripped her mask off to taunt the officers. They deserved to see her face, covered in gore and as ghoulish as they came! Nothing mattered to her at that point and she wanted to give them a scare…!

That is, until the next morning, when she recovered from her hangover and realized what she’d done. One of those Doves got a picture of her. In a panic, she called her father to ask for some sort of mercy money to clear the issue up. He’s frustrated with her constantly getting into increasingly worse trouble and tells her this: he’s going to pay for her to completely change her identity and her face so that she can move elsewhere, completely out of the way of harm. After that, he’d be cutting her off, leaving her with only the savings that she had prior to the cut-off. No more handouts.

This is when she became Taeko Atou, a pseudonym based off of her Scrapper show guest alias, “Miss AT”, and moved to the 20th ward. She has to adjust to average life a la Schitt’s Creek or Arrested Development.

7. What kind of clothing style do they like? What would they never be caught dead wearing? What’s likely in their closet right now?

Bellamy Amplexus – Final Fantasy XV SI

·         Bells LOVES anything that’ll make them look cute and androgynous. They’re super partial to a femme prince aesthetic. Blouses and linens and vests and suspenders and a bunch of that cute shit. (Yes, this is my preferred fashion style and I wish I could look like that all the time.) They’re also into stuff like your average sundresses and such when it’s too hot for “princey” attire because hell yeah.

·         They’d hate to wear… hm… short party dresses? Cocktail dresses n shit. (No shade to those tho theyre cute. Just not Bellamy’s style.)

Junko Hisayo – Persona 5 SI

·         Junko’s super masc and butch in her presentation, binds her chest, does the simple graphic tee + jeans thing a lot. Think “Kanji Tatsumi but a lesbian”.

·         She lowkey doesn’t like wearing overly feminine clothes, like, she does not vibe with dresses.

Elizabeth Beaufort – Red Dead Redemption 2 SI

·         Lizzie is pretty standard when it comes to clothes: blouses and skirts, dresses, all just… really basic stuff. She likes simple and solid colours, maybe simple patterns. She’s also like… very cottagecore. Probably likes overalls if she ever wears ‘em?? I’m not a frickin’ historian and I’m not gonna google early 1900s clothes styles at this hour don’t @ me.

·         This is literally just because I’m basic as all fuck and I like a skirt/blouse or sundress style outfit. I don’t wear it often but that’s my jazz y’know?

Gillian Wright – Red Dead Redemption 2 SI

·         Gilley’s another one of my more boyish characters. She doesn’t deliberately go out of her way to look like a man unless she’s under the guise of her male persona Giles Kingsley. But let me tell you—she goes all out for those occasions, even electing to simulate stubble on her face with cosmetics. Think “cowboy drag king” and you’ll hit the mark.

·         Other than that, she just wears whatever’s convenient and comfortable.

 9. Their favorite foods? Colors? Activities? What do they enjoy in life? How do they express their joy for things they like?

As dumb as this sounds I completely burnt out after writing only 2 self insert likes/interests profiles, forgive me lol.

Bellamy Amplexus – Final Fantasy XV SI

·         Favourite Food: Bells is indecisive, but they will gladly eat anything Ignis puts in front of them. They’re thoroughly convinced he uses magic in his cooking. (They’re only half joking about that—it’s so good!) If they were made to decide a top three, it’d likely be Garden Curry, Broiled King on a Stick, and Moogle Mousse with Kupoberry Sauce. Honorable mention being Gyashi Chips (yes, they like what’s effectively Eosian kale chips).

·         Favourite Colours: ANYTHING PASTEL will win Bellamy over, along with any colour considered light and airy. White, silver, pale green, soft gold, baby blue, lavender, and also whatever the sky has going on at any given time of the day—they’re an aesthetic little shit.

·         Favourite Activities: Travelling, leisure shopping when funds allow it (if given the means, Bellamy will 100% engage in excessive retail therapy, no joke), swimming, loving their friends, talking about books and music, gardening, and (I know this sounds vain but bear with me) preening. Yes, they’d be a vlogger in another life. Don’t @ me

·         Bells loves to talk in excess about what they like, and on occasion, when words fail, they tend to express it through squealing, jumping, etc. If someone points out how passionate Bells is about these things, they’ll end up flustered and ask the person if they could continue. I guess you could say Bellamy stims? I’m not diagnosed with anything, so take this with a grain of salt, but I do have stimming habits.

Junko Hisayo – Persona 5 SI

·         Favourite Food: Junko’s pretty partial to miso soup. It’s one of her weaknesses. Total comfort food. (Bro I fuckin’ love miso soup.) As well as baked goods like cupcakes.

·         Favourite Colours: Red, black, silver, pink, blue, purple.

·         Favourite Activities: drawing (sketches, scribbles, doodles, colouring, etc., singing, baking/cooking, writing, and she learned to love gardening after getting close to Haru.

·         Junko tends to show her happiness through verbal and artistic expression, she’s also the type that tends to crack jokes (mostly shitty puns followed up by finger guns).

Again, thank you so much for asking, thank you so much for asking! QwQ Asks are still open, everyone.

[nbapprentice]

there’s so, so, SO much nonsense surrounding this game that i’m gonna do my best to separate it into digestible bits, with its own categories. even then this is... wow. it’s big.

Warning tags will be added at the start of every section, but the general gist is: incest, pedophilia mentions, fetishization of rape and abuse, fetishization of mlm, fetishization of people of color, racism, ableism, nb erasure and transphobia. aside of the warnings, this post will also touch upon Scummy Business Practices

let’s get going

Dana Rune’s and Elle’s lack of moral fiber: #incest #pedophilia#rape and abuse fetishization #homophobia

tl;dr: dana loves incest porn, elle loves guy on guy rape, and the both of them are friends with at least one pedophile

dana rune has run, is still running an incest zine (please visit my faq on what i think about “thats not really incest” and “it’s just fictional!”). The Arcana, as a dev team, clearly does not care, as shown in their e-mail responses.

dana also very much doesn’t care and has reacted to any criticism on this by dismissing people and blocking actual incest victims who tried to contact her about it claiming it was for her “mental health”

in some tweets she claims she “interprets” the characters as not siblings, but she never really cared enough to cover her ass when it all began (she happily admits she’d “cross the incest line”)

dana has commissioned artists who also ship incest, draw near-pedophilic art that’s supposed to pass as acceptable because the character involved is supposedly not a minor despite looking like a child down to wearing pigtails (the character is also wearing a racist-ass belly dancer outfit), AND even made white-washed fanart of The Arcana.

dana follows twitter user kapymui who also produces incestuous Fire Emblem art

dana has retweeted omocat long after it came out that omocat is, at the very least, consuming pedophilic content (on “omocat didn’t know what shota meant!”: yes they did)

moving on, elle has a long, long, LONG history of fetishizing mlm and the rape and abuse that comes with yaoi and had a rich, RICH “yaoi” tag before they deleted their tumblr

they curiously deleted their tumblr right after i made this reblog

shortly after that, tumblr user thalassiq remade and started attacking and insulting any blogs criticizing them - even people providing support in IMs. Since this doesn’t match Dana and Elle’s normal pity parties I’m personally willing to believe they were just a person wanting to start shit - but it’s so telling how Elle used this chance to dismiss everyone who disagrees with them by calling them “children” and did not even bother to offer a kind word to people who were harassed and even had their trauma mocked by this person. It costs 0 dollars to say “that was not me but I’m sorry about people who were hurt.”

Dana and Elle are close with Ava’s Demon creator Michelle Czajkowski aka that one person who endorses child porn of her characters, and even had her draw a promo image for the game. Michelle has been creating highly sexualized content of her minor characters for a while now.

ok so elle and dana are gross freaks, how is that related to the game?

oh it’s very very related

Dana Rune’s and Elle’s lack of moral fiber that’s Actually Inside The Game or The Game’s Blog: now with more #racism #fetishization of poc and mlm #whitewashing #fat hate #pedophilia #nb erasure #transphobia

tl;dr: the arcana is filled to the brim with racism! so much of it! haha holy shit! and that’s not even where it ends!!!

their game is rated PG-13 but includes incredibly sexual situations such as Julian making this fucking face while getting off on pain. This isn’t the only time Dana and Elle use their videogame aimed at young teens to showcase their kinks and fetishes. I have no issue with NSFW or titillating content, as long as it’s rated accordingly. This content is NOT and it’s a blatant disregard for their audience just to have a larger, more pliable demographic and have more money sent their way.

if you start your argument with “well, teenagers look at porn” 1. shut up 2. theres a HUGE difference between teenagers going after adult content aimed at adults, and adults creating content they know will be seen by kids barely starting puberty

as pointed above, dana has 0 qualms literally commissioning people who make whitewashed fanart of her own fucking game that’s supposed to be all about the inclusivity and safe spaces

thearcanagame blog has a pattern of reblogging whitewashed fanart (before you come in swinging with the good ole “ITS THE LIGHTING”: 1. no it isnt 2. the artist should’ve picked better lightning then 3. i draw and post shit online too so dont come telling me i just dont understaaaand),

fanart of their fat characters showed skinnier than they are in their sprites (although to be real for a moment - Portia is curvy at most and them behaving she’s fat rep is HILARIOUS).

going back to NSFW content: nadia and asra are overwhemlingly sexualized in the game, and were the first to have sexualized CGs and sprites introduced.

CGs: Asra’s here, here aND HERE, Nadia’s here with a NSFW warning because she’s just got her whole fucking ass out. Sprites: Asra’s thank god for whoever compiled it all in one image, Nadia’s and once again, NSFW warning lmfao!

Julian’s sprites on the other hand are noticeably tamer, including the one where he’s fucking strapped in leather. His only sexual (NSFW warning because its literally softcore tentacle porn WHICH, ONCE AGAIN, SHOULDN’T BE PUT IN A GAME AIMED AT 13YOS) CGs were also included months after Nadia and Asra received any of theirs.

Through all of the updates, people have constantly requested that Asra and Nadia’s sexualization be toned down, and time after time The Arcana just churned out fetishistic, hypersexualized content at an absurd rate, especially when compared to the one white love interest.

Oh, speaking of the one white love interest: Julian is based off of Jeff Goldblum (this is not spectulation - they p much bring it up at any given time) but like. If Jeff Goldblum was white. They base their favorite love interest off their supposed favorite man in the world but casually leave his skin tone behind. Lmao.

they also play favorites very obviously - in the prologue, Nadia and Asra have a romance paid scene each. Julian has a scene... that requires no coins. Julian was also the first LI to receive three CGs, two of them requiring no coins, while both Asra’s and Nadia’s first CGs were behind a paywall

Dana and Elle have been notoriously skittish about confirming or denying their characters’ ethnicities. After hyping for weeks on thearcanagame that they would confirm the character’s races they basically made a post that amounted to “well they’re not white lol!”

they only relented after the perfectly understandable outrage... and posted a thread about it on Elle’s twitter. Nothing on the actual thearcanagame blog. Anyway, here’s the thread. Note how there’s mention of Julian being Jeff Goldblum... but nothing about him and Portia being Jewish (or “fantasy Jewish” as it were).

The one time they did confirm their jewishness dana then backpedaled and said she shouldn’t have done that lol.

another fun tidbit of how well The Arcana handles race and how much it cares about feedback from fans: an ask was sent about an anon begging for Nadia to step on them. The blog, with the finesse of a bunch of horny dumbasses, didn’t just publish the ask, but approved of it (even though the fans of color had long, long, LONG been telling everyone not to fetishize Nadia into a “step on me kween” wet dream). People were outraged, of course, and the blog ~apologized~ and said they were still learning.... then a new chapter included a scene of Nadia stepping on the Apprentice. 🙃

not to mention elle, on their twitter, made a passive aggressive “women can be doms?” tweet, trying to twist it into a “yr oppressing women” angle (when the issue is that women of color are always constantly portrayed as aggressive and domineering)

Now for a wombo combo of racism and Elle’s fetishization of mlm:

the devs have spoken at length of how Julian’s and Asra’s relationship was quite unhealthy. In a paid scene in Asra’s route, they’re depicted as Asra being disgusted w Julian touching him+Julian following Asra to his shop when Asra refused his offer to go with him (aka julian... stalked him lmfao).

.......... this scene is promptly followed by a highly sexual scenario where Julian’s pain fetish is played up. Remember how this game is rated PG-13? Me neither. Asra’s previous disgust with Julian is also forgotten, for some reason (and by some reason i mean Elle wants to make them fuck w/o buildup or logic).

Then Asra’s route has yet another paid scene dedicated to Asrian, even though he’s supposed to not even like Julian! And be head over heels with the Apprentice! But Elle just has to make these two be entangled despite insisting their relationship was not good for either of them!

Now here’s the kicker: Julian doesn’t have any paid scenes related to his romance with Asra. Note how it’s one of the brown LIs whose route is highjacked by the white LI, but not vice versa. Hmmmmm.

Now, on the topic of Asra: thearcanagame has said repeatedly that he’s nb and uses he/him pronouns, and promised (since last year) that there would be dialogue where he speaks about his gender

as of the making of this post such dialogue still does not exist

so basically asra is the nb to dumbledore’s gay: anyone who just plays the game w/o keeping up with the official blog has no idea of what asra’s gender is supposed to be.

aka he’s not nb. he’s just a cis guy. the arcana just doesn’t want to put its money where its mouth is, i dont care if elle is nb themself. the team made a promise which has not been fulfilled yet and i suspect will not be.

instead, our introduction to canon nb characters is... these two.

By “these two” i mean neither vulgora nor valdemar are even fucking human, and stick out like sore thumbs with their monstruousness.

so our nb rep is... non-human villains. a few books later one of Nadia’s sisters with they/them pronouns shows up, but that’s too little too late on top of the fact that we should’ve known Asra was nb from the first to begin with. It’s a fucking embarrassment and an insult.

at least two villains are visibly disabled (Lucio’s missing arm and Volta’s blind eye+intentionally asymmetrical face). Julian’s eye doesn’t count because, spoilers, he’s not lacking an eye and even if he was it’d still be hidden behind a dashing eyepatch instead of grotesquely displayed as a sign of his lacking morality.

BUT WAIT! IT DOESN’T EVEN END THERE!

The Arcana Exploits The App Business Model To Price Their Full Game at $500, $1000 if the three extra routes make it out, and they never delivered their Kickstarter rewards:

tl;dr: you heard me

the original price per route was planned on being $1.99

they took that “subject to change” really seriously, it seems, because now each route, once the game is fully out, is estimated to cost around $170 each.

both those screenshots are taken from this post which explains in detail just how truly scummy all of The Arcana’s business model and decisions are: https://mysticmicrotransactions.tumblr.com/post/174308723344/dishonesty-from-the-arcana

the tl;dr is basically what’s listed in the beginning of this section, but other highlights from that post are: the use of addictive gambling mechanics such the Wheel of Fortune, and the dazzling calls to action in the new mini-game.

something that The Arcana supporters forget (or choose to ignore) is the fact that for a long, long time the game did not have the mini-game or the log-in rewards for coins. Players depended only on the gambling of the WoF or paying absurd amounts of money for the new chapters.

the devs went from playing the victims who were unable of controlling prices to (as spoken of in the link from mysticmicrotransactions) saying the making of the game (a pathetic little app game backed by a studio and a kickstarter) justifies the prices

they also gave people false hope about maybe changing the prices in the future, all while bleeding money from loyal players in “micro” transactions

the arcana literally added a $99.99 coins option on their latest update

in case it hasn’t sunk in yet: you can pay a hundred dollars upfront to the arcana, and you still will not have access to the whole game

there is no defense to this

none

“it’s free stop whining” let me explain:

“spend months on end accumulating fake currency or pay hundreds of dollars up-front to be able to play” is a scummy business model no matter how you look at it

if i can spend $60 upfront to play an AAA game there’s no excuse to demand more than that for a game with much smaller and, honestly, inferior content

the combination of there being already far and few games featuring lgbt characters and characters of color AND the little cult of personality set up by Dana and Elle makes people feel that spending money to support them is an acceptable expense.

it’s not

manipulating people into spending ridiculous amounts of money and then claiming “it’s their choice” is just scummy business, baby, and thats all the arcana does

the devs are brats who instead of admitting $500 is absurd for a game instead write petty little caricatures into their game - like, lbr: dana, elle, if i could afford diamonds in my hair i wouldn’t have even bothered with your shitstain of a game

despite bragging that ppl would get the full story w/o needing to pay, the paid scenes are pretty much required - the first few books of julian’s route have no romance without accessing any of the paid options. you dont even get so much as a kiss in without handing coins over. many, many people were baffled when julian had a teary break-up scene when from their perspective they hadn’t even started building a relationship.

wow that’s more than i ever thought it’d be

and i’ve been aware of their bullshit for near a whole year now!

i don’t have much of a note to end this on, other than: the arcana just isn’t even that good. it suffers from weak writing, pathetic character development and above all actually harmful content. do not try to argue with me on any of these points unless you’ve read all of that, because whatever you have to say i’ve likely mentioned before. if you still are that determined to yell at a me on the internet, please preface your argument with the phrase “I’m a pee pee poo poo man” so I know you’ve read everything in here. thank you!

[dent-de-leon]

I heard Season 7 wasn't so great. I'm sure you think otherwise, but what were some highlights that you think made it worthwhile, if you did?

Alright,, get ready for this, cause I think Season 7 was pretty good, so let’s get to it:

I think lots of people who were disappointed with season 7 conflated the importance of certain things and events--especially Adam--and their hatred for the season is more so a result of it not adhering to expectations they arbitrarily decided on. 

For instance, before season 7 even dropped, we still had people claiming Shiro and Adam were fiances previously, somehow still fiances, or were meant to be. People honestly thought they’d get back together after a messy breakup and years of distance. So many fans thought a wedding was inevitable. All of this in spite of the show runners repeatedly confirming that they were never engaged, the relationship was permanently over, and Adam was really just part of Shiro’s backstory. And you can bet lots of them treated Shiro like he wasn’t “real rep” after Adam was gone, which wasn’t fair honestly. 

So anyway, some of the things season 7 did for us:

fINALLY REVEALED THE LONG AWAITED PREKERBEROS BACKSTORY BETWEEN SHIRO AND KEITH,, we’ve waited years for this guys!! It was so heartwarming and beautiful to see how their pasts intertwined to shape the present, how Keith is still by Shiro’s side all these years later,, even paralleling his devotion to Shiro with Shiro’s literal ex-boyfriend,, 

REVEALED SHIRO WAS CANONICALLY MLM,, LIKE,, THIS WAS THE REPRESENTATION THE SHOW RUNNERS HAD BEEN FIGHTING FOR ALL THIS TIME. AND IT WAS EXPLICIT, ONSCREEN REP FROM A LEAD CHARACTER. THAT’S FUCKING AWESOME,, and I’ll literally never be okay with people still crying “queerbaiting” after everything the staff went through to do this for us,, 

Keith literally willing Shiro back to life with the power of love made me like cry I can’t get over how soft and sweet they are,, 

Exploring the inner-workings and politics of the Galaxy Garrison 

WE FINALLY GOT SOME MORE QUINTESSENCE SENSITIVE KEITH AND DRUID CONTENT!!! Again, this is the payoff we’ve been waiting for since season 1!! Do you know how long I’ve wanted a Druid with more of an established character and background beyond just Faceless Enemy?? We got so much interesting info here. And the episode played out with all these neat little horror tropes--Keith hiding and tensing up when the Druid walks over his spot and that one step creaks, that maniacal laugh and mask splitting open, some of Macidus’ creepy mannerisms, ect. Parts of that episode gave me chills, I loved it!! And again, these are some of the answers and world building tidbits we’ve been waiting ages for,, 

Shiro’s new hand is cool and I love the design. I don’t care that lots of people think otherwise lmao. It’s so fun to me,, I love how big and floaty it is,, and I love that scene where Allura uses the tiara crystal to salvage Shiro’s connection with it. She was so ready for that, no hesitation, and I wish that maybe there was more of a followup to that--Allura thinking of how she got the tiara from her mother in a flashback, Shiro thanking her afterwards, something. 

SHIRO CONNECTING WITH ATLAS WAS BEAUTIFUL,, that moment where everything just sort of clicks into place. And everyone looks to him for guidance. It’s really magical. And I honestly think Shiro being able to create his own mech through his bond with Atlas is kind of a callback to that scene where Allura tells him he was meant to create, not destroy. 

In the same vein, I also think it was actually really great that Keith was the one to cut down Sendak. You can read my whole thought process on it here, but long story short, Shiro was tortured both mentally and physically by Sendak for so long. And all the time, he kept trying to push Shiro, trying to force him to be the monster the Galra always intended to make him. Killing Sendak just isn’t Shiro to me, but it’s the kind of thing Sendak would love. At least then, he’d get in a last word about how they’re supposedly the same or some other bullshit that would just torture Shiro more. And honestly, I think Shiro has been forced to do enough violence at the hands of the Galra. Keith killing Sendak is him shouldering the weight of taking a life so Shiro doesn’t have to. It’s a reprieve. It’s Keith cutting down Shiro’s demons and then being there to hold Shiro in his arms afterwards. Psychologically, I think this is so much more healing for Shiro than the alternative. That shot where Keith takes Sendak down? That’s not a Big Hero moment, it’s dark and viscerally personal. It’s not Keith stealing the spotlight from Shiro or anything, it’s Keith doing something gutting and ugly so Shiro doesn’t have to, it’s freeing Shiro from Sendak’s influence for good--and ensuring Shiro won’t have to make the killing blow frees him in a way, ends the cycle of Shiro potentially being haunted by the continued cycle of violence Sendak tried to trap him into. 

And again, I’m saying all that with the context that Shiro always pushed himself to do everything on his own, to shoulder the weight of the world--hello Atlas--because he spent so long with others looking at him with the misconception that he needed to be shielded and protected, that he couldn’t do things alone or couldn’t push past a certain point, reducing him to the symptoms of his illness--hi Adam. This season doesn’t coddle Shiro or remove him from the action. He’s not “retired,” he’s Captain, Commander. He lets himself lean on Keith for support, be held safe in his arms. But then shoves a medic away and runs to his battle station in the very next episode. Part of his character arc is learning that there can be a balance between others thinking they know what’s best for him and doing everything on his own. He learns, through his bond with Keith, that he can lean on someone and look to them for support--without being coddled or looked down on. “We saved each other”--Keith has always believed in him, has never once doubted his abilities, so trusts him enough to let be vulnerable with Keith, to let him help out when he needs it. 

WE FINALLY GOT A BIGGER HUNK STORY ARC--ALSO THE AMAZING SCENE BETWEEN HUNK AND KEITH THAT BUILDS ON THEIR EARLIER DEVELOPMENT TOGETHER,,

We see the wonderful payoff for Lance and Allura’s feelings for one another--the cute little exchanges,, Lance’s sister noticing What’s up,, the blushing and soft looks...it was so good...a lot of people hated that cause they hate the ship, but like, it was a buildup of natural progression for these characters. 

Everything in regards to Hunk, Lance, and Pidge’s families building on their respective backstories and character development

KEITH TAKING KROLIA TO VISIT HIS FATHER’S GRAVE WAS SUCH A NICE TOUCH IT HURT BUT IT FELT LIKE GOOD CLOSURE,, 

ALTEAN REI,, THE WHOLE NOTION OF HAGGAR ABANDONING THE DRUIDS AND CREATING AN ALTEAN ARMY,, THAT’S SUPER INTERESTING IM READY TO GET MORE INTO THAT,,

ATLAS IS A REALLY AWESOME MECH AND IM GLAD SHIRO HAS IT,,

So,, in conclusion--I don’t think the season’s perfect, there are some things I think could’ve been improved, but I also think it honestly did a lot of good things and built on established canon. Season 6 is what I see as the writing’s highest point for reference, btw. 

[lesbiansforboromir]

Thots on aragornXboromir? BUT, it's movie!Aragorn and Book!boromir.

I was wONDERING when this ask was gonna come around so lets HAVE AT IT.

Upon just initial consideration, I’m not really for it. Their personalities and compatibility alone don’t seem promising. Boromir and Gondor as a whole is full into dadaistic and nihilistic humour whereas movie!Aragorn seems to take everything so seriously. I feel like Boromir’s sardonic joviality would fall on kinda deaf ears and leave a lot of awkward silences. Meanwhile Boromir just doesn’t find Aragorn’s more intellectual humour very funny. Like! Was he really gonna kill Boromir on top of that mountain? Were you gonna stab Boromir on this mountain in broad daylight, Aragorn. Also could you not have been even mildly less weird when you met film!Boromir in Rivendell like what the fuck was that bit honestly.

Admittedly if it’s book!Boromir we’re adding in here, the dynamic will be changed significantly. No angry outburst at the council, no bitter rejection of Aragorn’s kingship. Boromir remains a reliable, calm and confident leader whilst Aragorn is still umming and arring about whether he wants to be King at all. Which I think would cause a different kind of conflict between them, because Boromir’s fully content to lead or be lead, either one will do. He just needs to know which it is, and whilst book!Aragorn is very very clear who the leader is, film!Aragorn is kinda... soft spoken, quiet and not overly dominant. He’s one of the types who are good at leading but they also don’t like it and avoid it if possible. Which I think would annoy Boromir to no end. 

He tries to lead, and Aragorn disagrees with him or casually undermines his authority without meaning too. He tries to follow, and Aragorn doesn’t step up to fill the role. Gandalf is only partially a leader and Boromir needs STRUCTURE and CLEAR LINES. And since the elf can’t take anything seriously and Gimli thinks himself too young and inexperienced, it has to be one of them! But this wouldn’t really manifest in anything specific, he and Aragorn work alright together most of the time, I’d say it’d just make Boromir annoyed and generally not amenable to any romantic feelings. 

Of course, this changes with the film’s narrative, Aragorn steps up to a more leadership role when Gandalf dies, but if we’re going with canon then we’re very close to Boromir beginning to fall thoroughly under the ring’s control and I don’t think he’d have time or space to appreciate this sudden change. SO LIKE. Just going by likelihoods and chemistry, I don’t think there’s much there. They have a nice friendly manner with each other certainly, and I like the sense of easy teamwork they get in the books, but more than that I can’t see realistically.

Then again... I do really... QUITE like the concept of the ‘Boromir makes Aragorn see his humanity in a different light and Aragorn inspires the hope in Boromir he never imagined he could find again’ themes the film gave us being played out romantically... like I do feel that neat dynamic. Like what better way to scrub Aragorn of his elf fetishism than to have him swoon over literally the least elven man imaginable? He doesn’t realise how much he’d come to value and depend upon Boromir’s girding and pushing presence until he’s gone ect ect

It would have to be in a Boromir!Lives AU, since there really just isn’t the time otherwise, which gives some nice reunion elements to it and-... I am basically planning out a slow burn fic that spans the entire damn story aren’t I. Look I’m not gonna half ass thinking about anything Boromir related.

WITH THAT IN MIND I have other issues with this pairing and, indeed, with any mlm pairing that Aragorn’s given. What do you do with Arwen? If it’s film Aragorn, I suppose he assumes they broke up when he left Rivendell, but does that mean it’s just really goddamn awkward when Arwen arrives to find her fiance’s just gone and found a bear instead? And yes I know, Aragorn has two hands, but I really can’t imagine Boromir being amenable to some kind of poly hinge situation, especially with it being Aragorn, his lawful wife and Queen vs the Steward he keeps as his... secret lover? Boromir’s too proud for that. And I always have issues with mlm ships that get rid of a Lady to make it work. 

And t h e n if I’m being honest and stepping out into the fandom rather than canon for a moment, all the boromir/aragorn fics are... w i l d. Boromir is either a 41 yo stroppy man-child that Aragorn has to top into submission or a rough barbarian who Aragorn ‘tames’. All the fics I’ve seen that try to consider a more complex dynamic still end up just saying ‘Aragorn tops the pride and King-suspicion right out of Boromir’ and like... lmao... ok you’re a numenorean and all Aragorn but dick ain’t that good. And of course it assumes that Boromir’s just automatically distrustful of the Kingship because of pride and power hunger alone which is false on literally every possible level, including the premise itself. Boromir doesn’t gIVE a shit about Aragorn being King, he doesn’t care! They’re all about to die he really doesn’t care, Aragorn can wield a cool sword and is willing to help OK great lets gooooo.

... SO. YEAH. As with everything about Boromir, I have mixed feelings and a lot of opinions, but here with this one thing I think I’m pretty much against it. Merry/Boromir and Gimli/Boromir are way better fellowship ships in my opinion. 

[primrose-path-of-dalliance]

For the Fandom and Shipping asks, number 7

What are your top five ships of all time?

(from this post.)

okay so, imagine a cute backyard with a big pool in it. in that pool are about a thousand tiny boats bobbing on the water. that is the choice i am working with here!

with that said lol, here is what i can come up with in no particular order.

sorikai, kingdom hearts

they’re just adorable. the og trio. childhood besties. symbolized by a beautiful local myth of their home island. snarky bf and gf love and protect their sunshine bf. they’re the epitome of one who’s Soft and the others who will Kick Your Ass.

kallurance, voltron: legendary defender

they’re the sweetest. the human + half-galra + altean legacy. they balance each other out so well: keith, the silent brooder who will spend far too long in his own head, taking everything seriously; lance, the silly comic who nevertheless exercises top-notch communication and self-care; allura, who understands how to prioritize but knows what it is to feel in over your head. they get each other.

frankly, they deserved to be canon. (and also to be more popular than 40 fics on ao3.)

shakadolin, the stormlight archive

aka shallan/kaladin/adolin. it’s okay if anyone doesn’t know who the heck i’m talking about lol. they’re the cool kids, except shallan and kaladin only joined the club proper bc of adolin (and, you know, the magic powers). shallan and kaladin are big mental illness and wlw/mlm bi solidarity. adolin’s their sword-wielding mom friend that gets them juice packs, and they adore him for it. also they Fight Good Together. too much inherent homoeroticism to be denied.

xehaqus, kingdom hearts

there is a bit of a funny story behind this. i was into this ship long before the Great Wave of KH3 that has made it semi-popular. i had this entire idea that eraqus had a bit of a hero-worship crush on xehanort while they were students together, since xe is older and in many ways more technically skilled, and there was this whole concept in my little youthful head of eraqus making xehanort a wayfinder in their childhood as an Elaborate Ritual. and now people are pumping that sappy shit out bc kh3 made them cute teenagers lmao.

anyway, xehaqus are my disaster men. they are horrifically dysfunctional and inflicted so much harm bc of their myriad obsessions/shortsightedness. they are both huge assholes and willing (for xe, actual) child murderers, and i adore them. (i don’t know why the local antis like them so much. i’m too afraid to ask.)

royai, fullmetal alchemist

listen.  l i s t e n .

hiromu arakawa is a god of characterization. their relationship is startlingly complex. the codependency is unbreakably strong with these two. they are incapable of being untangled from the story of the other without indelibly changing them (for the worse? or for the better? that’s part of the joy). there’s not only their strong personal bond to each other but a bond of responsibility. that a young roy mustang was gifted a young riza hawkeye’s trust in numerous ways and then proceeded to shatter the shit out of all of it, while committing mass murder on top, and that both of them came out of a genocide soaked in blood and choking on their guilt.

that they’ve essentially chained themselves together in an unwritten contract of that immense shame, and that roy has chosen to return his gift of flame alchemy to riza by literally giving her his life in her hands… and that that trust nevertheless puts his potential blood on her hands. that roy loves her, knows all of this, hates himself for it, and does it anyway. that they both submit to the idea that their lives no longer mean anything except service at their own expense (up to literal execution) bc of their crimes.

they’re seriously fucked up. i love them so much.

(and thank you so much for the ask

[sombrz]

Hello please talk about king explosion murder

THE BOY!!!!!

can you believe i spent months trying to be lowkey about my bakugou ships? it took me a while to even admit he was my favourite despite the fact i knew from the start i’d end up a bakugou stan. i never had a ‘oh no this kid’s a mean terrible person’ phase - it was a ‘oh, i can’t Reveal my character tastes like this. not like this.’ phase.

this got…..long. so uh. under the cut it goes:

ANYWAY: i ship bakugou with…..uh…….a lot of characters. kiribaku is the easiest to explain - dumbass jock boyfriends who do shit like baku using kiri as a hammer to make mochi. and kiri being gung-ho about testing his unbreakable mode (which, btw, was motivated by bakugou’s words!!!) by having bakugou fucking. use howlitzer impact on him. you know how i feel about bro ships (hint: i love them). how kiri went from ‘man this bakugou guy is nuts!!! we have to stop him!!!!’ to ‘wow bakugou is so manly and cool and i wanna be by his side’ in the span of (1) one-on-one convo. HE LIKES BAKUGOU SO MUCH. IT’S CUTE. LIKE, I DON’T THINK BAKUGOU GETS HOW HAPPY HE MAKES KIRISHIMA LMAO. how bakugou so readily accepted kiri as an equal - bakugou, who only had two categories for people [extras vs rivals], never thought to seriously think of kiri as anything but an ally and a friend, people always talk how kirishima was the first classmate bakugou even bothered remembering the name of, and with reason, since it says a lot. kiri’s got quite a bit of mlm subtext going on, tbh, and bakugou’s the source of almost all of it. soooooo there’s that too. 

but i’ve also fallen Deep into bakudeku. it’s the shared development, okay. the history and complex emotions and the slowburn to becoming partners. there’s just so much, and they’re so ENTRENCHED in each other. for better or worse, for how much they might dislike the fact they can’t stop thinking about each other, they just can’t help it. they couldn’t understand each other at all but somehow still knew the other inside and out. and deku’s been so smitten since he was like a baby 3 year old and it breaks my heart. it’s honestly one of my favourite shounen rival ships bc it keeps subverting your expectations. and every episode/chapter that deals with their issues and nudges them closer to the ideal - the endgame - is guranteed to be among the best. they’re the backbone of the series, and i love watching them grow together. the fact that they’re currently HEALTHY RIVALS AND TENTATIVE FRIENDS (like deku feels so comfortable gushing over bakugou to his face again and bakugou is so invested in deku’s improvement & is only snappy w/ him out of reflex lmao)….that bakugou is deku’s secret keeper and deku is the one person bakugou allows himself to be vulnerable around……HOO BOY. i just imagined bakugou holding out his hand for deku to take - or accepting deku’s hand at all - and died.

ALSO, TODOBAKU….my darkhorse ship, which hit me in the face one day when i realized how a) hilarious they are together and b) how the series keeps shoving them together (sometimes literally - thanks slidin’ go for giving them the group hug they deserved). i love how they’re so different yet similar - bakugou is loud and obnoxious while todoroki is stern and quiet, but they’re both rude prodigies who needed to be jumpkicked into realizing that they could become better people with the help of others instead of letting anger and bitterness swallow them up. and the provisional exam course made it so they were forced to hang out with each other 95% of the time for three whole months and i LIVE FOR THAT. i love how funny they are - todoroki is snarky & doesn’t even bat an eyelash over bakugou’s tantrums but genuinely tries to be nice and make friends with him! bakugou is so petty and wants todoroki’s attention soooo bad but don’t think i haven’t noticed that most times we’ve seen him genuinely smile has been in todoroki’s presence (ok, then todoroki reacts to it and bakugou instantly goes back to a snarl but STILL). also the fact that the narrative doesn’t want us to forget that bakugou eavesdropped on todoroki telling deku about his family, and bakugou is always Alert and keeping an eye on todo whenever endeavour is involved bc he’s sympathetic and y’know??? cares????? SO GOOD. AND THEY’RE SUCH A GOOD TEAM - SURPRISINGLY IN SYNC AND THEIR QUIRKS MATCH UP AND I LOVE THEM!

GOD, HORI…..BAKUGOU/URARAKA WOULD BE SO GOOD. like, can you *imagine* the sheer potential of a ship that you only really have them interact during one goddamn tournament fight and yet it becomes arguably the most popular het ship in your series (w/ only the main character and his canon love interest as real competition????) i love them though, like,,,,i find it so interesting that uraraka has shown, despite again - minimal onscreen interaction - that she understands bakugou better than most. she knows how he’d handle their fight and uses that to her advantage. (and while she still lost, she gained his respect and a new drive to get stronger!) she’s the one who brings up how HE’D feel about the plan to go rescue him - that his pride would prevent him from easily accepting help. i’m desperately trying to figure out a way they could animate that omake where uraraka plants herself in deku’s seat and demands that bakugou bury the hatchet with him while gently but firmly calling him out for his root issue of fear and his defense mechanism of violently pushing deku away. and it managed to calm him down and honestly, i wouldn’t be surprised if he ruminated on those words for a while. IT’S SO GOOD, WHY WASN’T IT IN THE STORY ITSELF!!! and like, the mere fact he respects her a lot and ended up *psyched* to continue fighting her - and after he’s told deku had nothing to do with her plan, i don’t think he’d make that mistake again, which makes it easier for him to understand her back. he knows she’s smart and talented and that everyone else was wrong to underestimate her. also, i love that uraraka thinks bakugou is like…..funny? he’s out there threatening to murder kaminari and uraraka’s like ‘hahaha :’’)))’ bc she has such a Bro/vulgar sense of humour. like, i think they’d have a lot of fun together. LET THEM TALK MORE, PLS!!!!

THOSE ARE MY MAIN SHIPS BUT I ALSO SHIP HIM WITH THE REST OF THE BAKUSQUAD! BOTH PLATONICALLY AND ROMANTICALLY! I HAVE NO SHAME! baku/kami is so underrated and great - kaminari is just as much bakugou’s bff as kirishima is, tbh, and he has absolutely No Chill which makes their interactions - especially the further the story goes and bakugou’s edges soften - so much fun. one moment, he’ll be casually commenting that bakugou is the worst and needs to change his whole rotten personality - then the next second, he’ll be sprawled all over him, calling him kacchan and defending his honour from actual haters. and bakugou just fucbdhfhd lets this happen. bakugou likes kaminari enough to just let him. do whatever the hell he wants. ALSO, THE BAND. admittedly, sero is the only one with enough common sense and actual standards to avoid dating bakugou (’HE’LL NEVER BE BEAUTIFUL’ ghdhfhd sero) but i still adore them. sero’s so tricksy and loves playing the reverse psychology trick on bakugou, who just constantly falls for it. i bet he was the first person bakugou let just hang out in his room, and he probably appreciates that sero actually gives him his space when he needs it! i can’t believe baku/sero is the Real ‘bakugou pining’ ship. @ hori: GIVE MINA AND BAKUGOU ACTUAL INTERACTIONS, GDI. i’m forced to headcanon their whole dynamic from near-scratch. whereas kiri and kami are more the type to glue themselves to bakugou’s back, i imagine mina’s the type to actively drag bakugou along places. she probably cried when she found out that a) his parents are rich designers (’BUY ME CLOTHES, BAKUGOUUUU’) and b) his glycerin-based quirk and taking after his mom means he usually has perfect skin and has never broken out in his life. she doesn’t speak to him for a week until he takes her out to dinner and buys her a cute dress. and i’m super fond of baku/jirou. i love that their dynamic is like…..while the rest of their friends are doing dumb shit For The VineTM, they’re on the sidelines waiting for shit to hit the fan. they’re punk buds and prob do that couples clothes switch thing a lot just to see if anyone notices. jirou bosses him around and he takes all her advice seriously and like, they trust each other! they have great team synergy! she was the first person bakugou both consciously protected and asked to protect him in turn!! DID I MENTION THE BAND?? i also ship him with camie! it’s just such a funny concept to imagine - like imagine you’re in class 1A and bakugou shows up out of nowhere with a hot girlfriend who talks. like that. and she makes him laugh??? and no, seriously, does he actually understand what the hell she’s saying???? WHAT’S HAPPENING. but yeah, she very casually teases him but also seemed comfortable w/ him right off the bat and i know in my heart that bakugou relented and let her have his phone number. also, i find it funny people started shipping him with shindou after bakugou was the one to call him out for being duplicitous. bakugou’s the type of character that just needs to interact with another character once and *someone* out there will be like ‘what if………..they were dating’ and that’s so valid of them.

good bakugou ot3/ot4s: kirishima/bakugou/uraraka, todoroki/midoriya/bakugou, todoroki/inasa/camie/bakugou. i reblog a looooot of kirishima/kaminari/bakugou and bakugou/uraraka/midoriya even tho i don’t actually ship either as an ot3 that much, oops? they’re good ships tho.

is there something i’m missing? I MIGHT BE MISSING SOMETHING.

[vld-spoilers-blog]

ive been awake all night. i own voltron now. heres season 7

-once the crew has found a planet to camp at for a night lance and allura have an honest sit down. allura thanks lance for being there for her during the whole loturd mess, and also admits that the mice spilled the beans about lances crush on her. allura says that she respects lance as a person and paladin, but after everything thats happened, shes not ready for a relationship, and she feels they work better as friends than they would partners. lance is obvs heartbroken, but supports her and understands what shes gone through and what she needs/wants. after this discussion their friendship grows even stronger.

-keith and crew take a moment to just... appreciate that theyre alive, that everyone is okay despite the hardships theyve endured. the team bonds w krolia and the wolf dog and they discuss the last 2 fucking years. keith and lance break off from everyone and have a convo along the lines of “hey man i missed you, im glad youre okay/i respect how you/we’ve grown”, where lance semi admits to the one sided rivalry as a coping mechanism for feeling insecure, and now that shiro almost died and all the other shit hes realized that he needs to put all that behind him and continue maturing like keith has.

-the journey to earth is long af considering they dont have a teleduv to wormhole them across the galaxy, which means hours of them all flying in their lions playing ‘i spy’ ‘20 questions’ ‘never have i ever’ etc to pass the time and “bond”. of course the paladins are gonna have some kinda trick contest w their lions bc flying for hours on end gets boring as shit. also? roadtrip sing a longs started by hunk and pidge which end up lasting for hours w almost everyone chiming in depending on what song theyre singing. during this time pidge and hunk work on a replacement prosthetic for shiro which is sick as FUCK. 

-once they finally make it to earth, first thing lance does is find a phone and call his family. like fuck the government, fuck the garrison, this boy is calling his family they need to know hes okay. of course he cries on the phone w them. hunk calls his moms and pidge contacts her mom and dad, matt fully joined team voltron on their way to earth bc by god hes not gonna go see his family all together again. keith and shiro visit keiths shack/wherever shiro and keith lived before the kerberos mission. ummm shiro has a husband named theo like that one post ill link when i have the energy, so they go and find theo and shiro and his husband just,, sob into each other. shiro feels like this is the first time he can breathe in years: being back on earth with his team and keith and his husband there and hes no longer connected to the galra and hes just,,, ALIVE. 

-team voltron is cordially invited to dinner at lance’s familys house which is just a mad house considering how many people there are when u combine his family and team voltron lmao. but they all get along so well and its the happiest the team has ever seen lance, dudes talking a mile a minute and laughing with his siblings and giving his parents the tenderest looks like if keith wasnt already in love w lance hes fucked up now. lances siblings DEFINITELY tease him about his obvious crush on keith theyre like, “youve been back home for 5 minutes and weve already seen you make goo goo eyes at keith 3 times”. 

-lance is out on the back porch after dinner after sunset, listening to the waves crash on the beach that sits a block away from his family home, smiling at the din of voices he can hear from inside his warmly lit house. keith steps outside to join him, to which lance quips about it being too cramped for keiths liking: 

“actually, it’s.. nice. youre family is really special lance, i can see why you missed them so much.”

“i did. its funny - i dreamt about being back home every night up in space, but now that im here it doesnt feel real.”

keith hums and moves closer to lance, resting his hip on the railing of the porch. he quirks his lips into a smirk “it’s definitely real, considering that your sister showed me all of your middle school theater pictures. i couldnt make that kind of awkward tween imagery up.” lance sucks in a breath and groans, turning his body towards keiths. “please dont tell me she showed you pictures of my role as mercutio in romeo and juliet when i was in 8th grade...” keiths turns his gaze back towards the house, his grin showing absolute mirth and... tenderness as he nods. he shrugs and scuffs his boot across the porch boards, “i thought it was cute.” 

their eyes lock, searching each other as they shyly smile. “careful kogane,” lance says, his eyes glinting, “get all mushy on me, i might think you like me or something.” keith leans forward, his bangs falling over his eyes. “i do like you, i never disliked you.” hesitantly, lance reaches upward and brushes the hair away from keiths forehead, his fingers lingering near keiths temple. “neither did i.” lance breathes. their eyes meet again, challenging each other to move, and so lance does. in one careful motion, he brings his hand down to cup keith’s jaw, angling him so that they align perfectly as lance brings their lips together.

inside the house the familiar chatter continues, and lance has never felt like hes belonged anywhere more than now.

-during their time on earth, allura meets a wonderful girl named erin whos patient with her and caring and admires allura in every way, but meets her w enough fire to keep allura on her toes. allura falls in love with her the moment she sees erin smile.

-since lotors cis ass is gone voltron essentially takes his position as head of the galra empire?? like the people who chose to follow lotor cant necessarily go to sendak bc their traitors to him, and leaving the empire to form another doesnt offer much protection, so team voltron releases the planets that they had under their control and team up w the galran army against sendaks “empire” and rip that bitch to pieces lmao

-after the big ol battle everyone retires back to earth where they all live together/relatively close to each other since they cant imagine being apart from their family after everything theyve been through together. shay leaves her planet and comes to live on earth w hunk after a while, and earth becomes a hub of peaceful human and alien life.

im real tired so this might not make a whole lot of sense but anyway shiro retires, lance becomes black paladin and keith goes back to red, bi lance is canon king, allura and lance are the wlw/mlm solidarity we deserve, everyone on team voltron deserves to be happy. in this essay i will-

[officialpittacuslore]

Why do you ship Jadam? I'm not asking this in like a mean way, I'm just curious. Sorry if it sounds mean. But yeah.

You’re one of the far tamer anons I’ve gotten about Jadam, Anon, do not fret! I keep getting told I’m wasting my time and reaching to be a special snowflake on sarahah from all of my compulsive heterosexual Instagram followers, lmao

Really, it’s the developing relationship between John and Adam’s characters that I sort of slept on in the wake of other ships that really pulled me in hardcore? An RP a few friends and I run really started the while analyzing process tbh. Like, for example, Stohn is rough and tumble, it’s a strong trust ship built over several trials and errors and has these two sort of opposite personalities learning to fight together and be equal to each other instead of be a leader and a second in command and then Adive is like these two lost souls learning to love themselves after everything they’ve endured as well as each other after coming together over their paralleled means.

Jadam is one of the most open and communicative ships I’ve considered tbh, it’s softer and gentler than y'all’s average MLM ship, it’s a lot of bantering, playful humor and late night conversations over things that only they can talk to one another about. Like John and Adam? Relationship or not, these two have an understanding of the other ones’ story that the rest of the Garde and their other shared friends won’t understand. These two were drawing ever closer in general since they first initially met at the end of Fall of Five, they’ve always been up front and bone brittle honest with each other about the little things and the deeper ones.

In United As One, Adam is one of three characters who(though yes he does ask John if he’s ok but also *knows* it’s a dumb question as soon as he asks it)doesn’t completely blank or shut out on John’s darker changes, he understands them. The only other characters who don’t ask and don’t press it are Nine and Five, the two who both sort of crave or currently live in chaos. Sam is John’s best friend and he honestly doesn’t really… do much for John when he loses Sarah, UAO really focuses Sam on his relationship more so.

John couldn’t fall sleep no matter how exhausted he was alone but he collapsed in seconds next to Adam.

John literally argues with Adam over his choice to stay in the Arctic with the other Mogadorians but tries to understand it. He goes out of his way to make sure Adam is comfortable and at his best, always. John’s first concern when Adam struck the General was if he was ok with killing his own father, even after Adam was so open about his hatred for the abusive asshole. Not to forget John makes an extra ass scene in front of Lawson because of what happened to Adam at the military base.

They’re just. They’re good shit. I know one reason I keep get rudely asked about Jadam(again Anon, not you but others from Insta mainly) is there’s a wing of this fandom that’s so hellbent on Oadam and the straight canon ships(though the Jarah defenders didn’t come up until Jadam surfaced a few weeks ago so I’m guessing it’s more Oadam drama using John’s relationship with Sarah as nothing more than a reason to refute any and all LGBT ships so, you know, nice bi, demi, and pan erasure, you fucking assholes) that the mere idea that anyone in your ship can be paired with someone else is like poisonous and they want content for their ship and honestly that’s why people stop making content. I also never liked the idea of “since half of my ship is dead and actually can never come back, I guess the other person can never love again” that this fandom does with Adam and Marina, lol. Like. That’s cruel and unusual but it’s one of the negative aspects in all around fandom culture.

I also never was super into Oadam? I like never read Adam’s novellas either though, Knave is pushing me to do so trust me. I just got more into Oadam by reading fanfics and seeing the edits and work for it, but in the main timeline I never really… got a ‘straight’ picture about Adam either. Not entirely gay but definitely not dead set vagina only. I liked Adive way more when it surfaced, Adarina and Adix are both good options too, and I was open to the idea of Nadam when Knave tried that out, but never heavily Oadam. Like, I felt like especially then, the ship of Adam and One was put on this pedestal by the fandom with Navrina so high that I stopped paying attention to it unless one of my friends made something for it. Like I’ve never been a Navrina super fan either, just casual for it.

I ship based off chemistry completely, not gender because that’s glorifying the sexualization of LGBT people and that is FUCKED, and I’ve never personally read any of Oadam’s chemistry in its source material; now, granted, Adive has no in book chemistry and that one is more of a theory based chemistry ship versus context one. Nadam had some playfully bickering but not a whole lot extra to go off of.

Now, Jadam does have something going for it.

Jadam has crazy chemistry but it’s constructed way differently than the ships that have to have fire and ice to survive.

I’m so sorry this is long omg, a lot of thoughts on ships here in this head of mine apparently!

[elfyourmother]

I’ve been following this thread with no small amusement because this conversation has been going on for literal decades in Fandom at this point, from email listservs to message boards to e/yahoo groups to LJ and now here. and just like all the other times it’s happened, I’m seeing a lot of the same weak excuses and ignoring the elephant in the room: the fact that western society values (cis, white) men above everyone else in every conceivable arena, and we internalize that being born and raised in western society. we’re told over and over again, overtly and subtly, that only men have contributed anything to art or science or sports or music or history, that only men’s stories are worth hearing, only men have rich inner lives worth exploring, only men’s struggles and triumphs are worth talking about, that men define the human experience, etc etc.

we’re steeped in this day in and day out. it’s the constant white noise in the background of our daily lives. at the same time, women are simultaneously devalued, silenced, our contributions erased, our passions dismissed as hysteria, our worth defined by our proximity to men. wlw relationships in real life are devalued, dismissed. the whole “gal pal” phenomenon is well documented at this point.

is it any wonder then that fandom’s focus is on men and their relationships?? this isn’t rocket science fam

my favorite bullshit excuse is the “women characters just aren’t fleshed out!” one, because while that’s definitely true most times? damn near every single fandom has at least one white guy character who’s barely more than a name on a page or a minor supporting character at best, essentially just a cipher, yet this dude has reams of meta written about him, is one half of at least one popular mlm ship, has an entire fanon personality crowdsourced for him from nothing along with popular headcanons, etc. I call them Bread Boxes because there’s literally nothing there until people fill them up. And they do. Every time! Blaise Zabini was the Ur example (at least until JKR said he was black lmao) but damn near every fandom has at least one of these dudes. All of you reading this can name at least one, and if you can’t, you either just got here or you’re lying lol. Characters being fleshed out or not in canon means fuck all, because fandom will take hammers and nails and DIY random male characters until they’re practically OCs.

Conversely, you almost never see this happening with female characters. It’s not an accident.

and btw! race absolutely cannot be divorced from any of this because stats have shown time and again that mlm ships involving moc aren’t nearly as popular as ships with just white guys.

tl;dr wlw ships are unpopular in most fandoms because fandom—despite being overwhelmingly female—is still a reflection of society, and society doesn’t care about women and believes our relationships with each other are meaningless cotton candy, all empty calories with no substance. the way we look at media reflects this.

I predict a lot of salty responses to this, because that’s how this always plays out. the truth stings. people never like being called out on latent prejudices. at the end of the day as a content creator I make what I want to see, and as a militant polyshipper I ship literally all kinds of consenting adults. Idc what other folks do. I mean, like what you like...but at the same time, I think we all would benefit from a little self-reflection. Preferences don’t create themselves in a vacuum. and for those of y’all who want things to change, we have to actively unlearn these things. And you can’t do that until you recognize what the problem actually is.

In your experience, do people always love mlm ships more than wlw ships? Why is that so? I have lots of hetero ships but my OTP happens to be an mlm ship, and lately I’m thinking whether I love them simply because they’re a mlm ship(and idk if Im fetishising gay men, which is absolutely not my intention).

There is a lot of space on the spectrum between liking an mlm ship and fetishizing gay men and without more information I can’t really say if that’s the case. 

When it comes to mlm ships, though, there’s a viewpoint I’ve read before that resonates with me. It’s easier to ship male characters with each other for two very big reasons: 1) there are more men presented on the screen than there are women and 2) male characters are given more screen time, back story, and characterization. When you put those two ideas together, it’s not surprising that those are the characters that people ship together, regardless of gender or sexuality. 

That is a very brief description of my opinion, but since I’m not mlm myself I’d rather leave the floor open for them to share their thoughts.