#gay ships have always been more popular than lesbian ships in fandom but this is insane to me

[chaotic-toby]

There is currently 19,488 idv fanfics

But if you check the categories filter...

14,399 m/m fics and only 1,270 f/f

M/M fics make up the majority of all idv fics. That is literally so insane. I will admit, I do tend to read more m/m fics than f/f, but I still do read f/f fics.

This is just proof of how in most fandoms, m/m ships are more popular than f/f ships

[nexlikestoyap101]

Happy Pride Month 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️...check out Splatoon!!🦑🐙

Splatoon is so diverse when it comes to sexuality and gender. Don't believe me? Here's a list:

Pearl and Marina, also known as Off the Hook - the most unsubtle non-confirmed lesbian couple (but it's pretty much canon by now). Check out this post full of evidence!

Acht - the series' first major confirmed nonbinary character, using they/them pronouns, correcting mistranslations from both official sources and fan translations. (Also commonly headcanoned as aroace or other variations, based on their reactions to romantic scenes between Off the Hook)

Orion (the green one) - nonbinary character from the supporting cast, confirmed by this dialogue from their friend. (Only video I could find of the dialogue in quesiton)

The band Diss-Pair - commonly headcanoned as a gay couple based on the fact that they appear in the Valentine's Day artwork for 2019 (by extension, the giant group in the front can be a polycule, if you really want them to be)

Cipher...

And

6. Smollusk - ^ both characters who use it/its pronouns. Listed on their individual wiki pages.

7. Finn - a presumed transgender female fish if we think about real life betta fish biology.

8. Shiver - initially speculated to be nonbinary, based on their pronouns in the Japanese version. Later confirmed to be female in English.

Some of these are more canon than others, but let's just have fun regardless, yeah? And celebrate what we do have!

Some more things I can think of:

Craig Cuttlefish and DJ Octavio - popularly headcanoned as the 'textbook definition of old men yaoi lovers to enemies 🎵'

Agent 24 - popular ship between Agent 3 and Agent 8 (3x8=24, math puns!), due to promotional art + 2020's Valentines Day Artwork. (The characters often change in gender in appearence in promotional artwork)

Multiple ships between the games large cast of female characters

Removal of gendered hair/clothing options in Splatoon 3.

Various same-sex ships from the spin-off manga, Coroika.

Multiple of the above pairings listed are Inkling/Octoling ships (Squid/Octopus) - a reoccuring theme in the game is the opression of Octolings, mirroring real world issues of discrimination and 'forbidden love.'

Jumping off from that middle point, the game is female-centric (with lots of female characters + the default for the playable character being female-presenting), as the developers discuss in a 2015 Famitsu interview:

Splatoon has always been a franchise where hopefully people can see themselves represented in game, particularly young girls. As the franchise develops, more and more diverse characters are added for this exact purpose.

This is an amazing series where hopefully all sorts of people can feel represented in one way or another!

Sorry if I got any details about any of the characters/events wrong - I'm going off of my memory and observations about the fandom, mostly. I just really wanted to share these facts with everyone! You're welcome to share your own intrepratations and facts in the reblogs too! :) Let me know if I missed anything!

Happy pride! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🦑🐙

[crystallinestars]

Wow, it’s such a relief to find people who don’t like Haikaveh either. Was really disappointed when I read Sethos’s voiceline.. I am bisexual and I think that Haikaveh (along with many other pairings) is queerbaiting and some type of fetish. I’ve made a long written analysis on why I think it is and how I think it’s offensive, simply because I find it interesting and enjoy analyzing things. Really love their duo and they’re great parallels but they fit a sibling / platonic soulmate duo better than a romantic one 🤦‍♀️ It’s getting annoying at this point and I wish Hoyoverse would stop, but it earns them attention and money so why would they? Just want to enjoy my favorite character without him being used as an accessory for another. Disappoints me that other gay people don’t notice (or care) that they are being stereotypical themselves and that Hoyoverse is basically using our sexualities for accessories and money. Haven’t looked into the translation thing with Sethos’s voiceline but if it’s true it was more neutral in CN, then that’s interesting. The same Haikaveh defenders will yap about how “CN is the original!1!1!1” but if you bring something like this translation up they lose it. Hoyoverse has never been a “gay representation” company, it’s a queer-baiting one. 🤦‍♀️ But at the same time, I don’t really even care. I’m not a gay person who cares much about my sexuality or others, but things like this are frustrating. Wish there were more people who understand my view on why I think their presentation is harmful.

- 🪷 / 🪽

Hello 🪷/🪽 Anon! (Let me know if you want to go by both emojis or just one) Welcome to our small club of not being into Haikaveh (or most Hoyoverse queer ships).

I agree with you that Kaveh and Haitham have a very sibling/platonic dynamic. In fact, their bickering reminds me a lot of my younger siblings’ bickering, so I view them as brothers, as well. It’s just unfortunate that the fandom rejects any interpretation that’s not romantic.

I also wish Mihoyo would stop, but they’re obsessed with tossing ship crumbs, and only to the most popular ships. As you said, it makes them money, so they have no reason to stop.

There is definitely some queerbaiting in Genshin, but I would say it’s not as bad as in HSR. HSR sometimes made me very uncomfortable with the fetishization of some of their ships, and I wondered if a man wrote it for a straight male audience…

Mihoyo has always had a history of wanting to include same-sex pairings in their games. Honkai Impact 3rd has a confirmed lesbian MC, and also two other female characters who canonically kiss (but due to updated laws in China, they had to remove that scene).

It doesn’t surprise me that they want to do similar things in Genshin and HSR, but they never commit to the ships. They only tease and hint at them, ala “There might be something between these characters, but also not really, but what if…?” and this is pretty much exclusive to same-sex pairings. This teasing and hinting makes the fandom so much worse to be in. Lots of other gacha games don’t do this, but for whatever reason, Mihoyo does.

I suspect some of the employees working on the game may be queer or have a huge interest in BL and GL (though it’s probably a mix of both), which is why they make all these ship crumbs. There’s nothing wrong with having queer relationships in games and other media, but the way they go about it feels… fetishizing, I guess? It doesn’t feel genuine. I can’t quite put my finger on what feels so off about this. You would know about this far more than me since you analyzed this already, so if you have interpretations you want to add, I’ll gladly hear you out.

It sucks because they market their games as being for all audiences, but then do things with a heavy bias for certain ships. It makes it so difficult to enjoy characters the way you want when the developer and fandom constantly shove in your face that your favorite character has an implied relationship or some other such thing.

Regarding the Sethos voiceline… my friend in China, who also dislikes Haikaveh, complained to me about it the other day. She said the original Chinese text felt like it was implying something between Kaveh and Haitham. Of course, that is just her personal interpretation, and some people don’t see a deeper meaning behind the words. However, it goes to show that even the Chinese audience can tell something is up with the voiceline, so it might not be as neutral as we hoped.

I’m all for more media having queer rep, but Mihoyo doesn’t do it right. I really wish I could just play their games without having ship teasing slapped in my face, but alas, they won’t ever change. At this point, it’s better to not play any of their games (though maybe Tears of Themis can stay) and ditch the fandoms for your peace of mind.

[avichor]

🔥🔥🔥🔥 :p

— i've never seen men shipped together more than in animanga and asian media spaces, which that by itself isn't a problem but within the context? eek. the fetishization for both gay dynamics and asian men is astounding. animanga is just a breeding ground for fetishizers and it's become so normalized now and almost ?? a trend ?? that i will see people admitting to consuming and liking things ONLY if it features a mlm ship, that they get off on it, that its the only thing that interests them, etc. etc.

— sorta kinda related to the above, but you never see the level of hype mlm get for wlw. you just.........don't. they're an afterthought. in the context of when people make the gay ships popular, and by default, the women in the media suddenly become "lesbians", it's not because they want to see sapphic rep or content it's just because they want them out of the way of their gay ship. i've spoken about this a lot and even in the past where it like, especially bothered me during the first kill era after it got canceled DESPITE the hype. mlm are more desired than wlw in media. it just is, there's been studies on it and i'll track down an old post i've made before at some point. but it bothers me IMMENSELY. it just comes down to preference for men, to misogyny. and within fandom or rpc spaces, it's always people claiming to want to see more or that they like wlw and they like women but it's not actionable. and in a sorta unfunny, disappointing irony, it's mostly fem - aligned consumers at the crime scene. just ... so many examples of ppl caring only about mlm, with women, and wlw by extension, just an afterthought. not really UNpopular opinion i don't think but def one that disrupts the bubble people live in. i've spoken about this a lot that i'm sure it gets old, but for as long as i'll have to continue to see women pushed aside, i'll keep talking about it.

— if i have to see one more need to get [blank] pregnant "joke", i'll actually start swinging. it was haha sorta kinda funny at first but its actually so borderline disgusting.

— the argument of "i think we have bigger issues than [blank]" is actually so tired. multiple things can be true at the same time. i say this because i've seen the reactions towards those who've made the same statements as i have in the above, and yes, there are worse issues than fetishizers, or whatever else is being discussed, but that doesn't make it less of a problem.

[crimeronan]

On the topic of How Do You Handle XYZ Comment, I've always wondered how you handle terrible responses on your toh takes. Like I know the toh fandom doesn't lack piss on the poor reading comprehension and they also really enjoy wildly out of touch takes, but I've never seen any comments on your princess luz stuff of that nature. I'm sure they must be there but maybe I'm too early? But anyway, how do you tend to deal with the "acktually shipping luz and Hunter is incest" and the "ur not a real lesbian because putting amity in a poly ship is lesbian erasure" and the "as a white person kinda sus you make the poc woman an empress" kind of responses? Ones that are technically not hate and maybe if you squint could be from people who aren't inherently trying to do bad but just lack the maturity needed to engage with the internet at large?

this ask made me giggle. honestly, i haven't received as much pushback as you might expect! way less pushback than i expected. in the princess AU, i've gotten a LOT more "this is actually too grotesque for me to stomach" comments than "this is problematic" comments, which is fine. horror-thriller isn't for everyone, those comments do not upset me.

i have had a Few run-ins with bad faith people, whom i mostly block. there's one prolific commenter in toh tumblr fandom who would repeatedly write angry essays on my humor meta posts -- essays that were all about how belos is too evil to be sympathetic and/or about how hunter is a soft gentle boy who shouldn't be jokingly referred to as evil. then they'd go "i can't help my active and conscious decision to type a bunch of rude fucking words and then my active and conscious decision to send those rude fucking words because i'm autistic :(((" around the fourth or fifth time this happened, i was fucking done with that nonsense and finally blocked them. shoulda done it after the first comment tbh!! no more autism exceptions.

as for the rest of it, my main management strategy is to simply.... preempt the bad faith comments?

i had a LOT more unpleasant and conflict-filled fandom experiences when i was in the raven cycle fandom. that was my first exposure to "you can't ship multi-gender polycules if anyone involved is gay" and "queerplatonic het relationships are just heteronormativity shipping that you're trying to get away with." having dealt with those takes before, i've found a few different ways to disarm bad faith readers before they get started.

first is to be super open and honest about my interests. i talk about what i find compelling in different relationships All The Damn Time. it's really hard for anyone to accuse me of only wanting hunter to fuck amity if they've seen, like.... anything i've said about hunter and amity.

same with hunter and luz. the only negative reactions i've really gotten to how they're written in the princess AU is like.... two people being squicked by camila thinking they're romantically involved. i REALLY expected more pushback on the touchyfeely bed sharing stuff, but from what i remember, there's never been Any....? not even from people who consider them siblings.

i expected a lot of pushback on how mean hunter and amity are to each other, since it's taken So much farther than the canon. but it turns out that there's a very large overlap between people who like dark horror AUs and people who like hunter and amity murdering each other. (in a fluffy fic i don't think this characterization would fly Nearly as easily.)

i find that being funny really disarms people, too. when you look at any of my toh meta posts that could be controversial, they're basically all funny. people are a lot more willing to listen to what you have to say if you make them laugh, and it's harder for them to get angry at you.

and then the last thing is that i think i'm in sort of a privileged position in toh fandom. i've written a lot of controversial subjects and relationships and characterizations.... but i've also written some WILDLY popular mainstream fic. and people who like the mainstream fic don't really want to beef with me about differing niche opinions, bc there's a level of respect there. which they might not have for a writer they don't like.

but anyway. when things Do happen, i almost always just block and move on. there are so many people here who get what i'm talking about that there's no need for me to try to convert people who don't, you know??

[starcanwrecked-confessions]

mspec anon from a couple of days ago elaborating since you asked.

it's just some little things that probably are fine to other mspec people but are weird to me. some of it is how some people talk about mspec. like "this m/f pairing is bi4bi" but not suggesting any attraction, celebrity crush, childhood crush, whatever, they could have or could have had. makes it feel like bisexuality is treated as straight but queer bc straight is bad and queer is good. not saying that attraction = action, or that a mspec person who hasn't dated someone of the same gender is invalid, just that they do have to have or have had attraction to someone of a gender like their own. not saying m/f bi4bi is bad, i write a lot of it myself, just a pattern i sometimes notice.

on the flip side, canon bisexuality is treated as gay but with a different word. there are absolutely m/f ruth fics, but there are more f/f ruth fics. this isn't bad in itself, i love it when ruth gets the girl. and there's a woeful lack of femslash generally. this isn't me saying ruth being with one or several girls is bad, i love it. but i feel like a lot of those don't address that she is attracted to men as well.

i think certain people, when they're doing m/m or f/f relationships with characters without canon/semi-canon queer identites often make them monosexual. not everyone and not a majority. that can feel invalidating bc it feels like it's saying "you can't really be attracted to more than one gender". or sort of "you don't like the same gender as much as a fully gay person can if you also like the opposite gender". not on purpose, i'm sure, i don't think people are actually being biphobic or whatever. it just is an implication that kinda hurts.

sexuality discourse for this next part. like the rest of it hasn't been sexuality discourse.

also bi steph is weird to me. generally. most of the time. people can headcanon characters how they want, always, but i find it uncomfortable when mariah says she's pan, and has said that a couple of times, but people see her as bi because of the vibes or something. bisexuality and pansexuality aren't the same, but they are similar, and i don't think that people who view steph as bi have a real reason for differentiating those two identities other than "edgy popular girl means bi". i understand that's not where most people are coming from, and it's certainly not intentional. from my outside to them perspective, it feels like sexuality defined by personality traits and not just... who they are.

that and i really didn't like that anon about "an angel getting it's wings ripped off". i get it's fandom language, sure. but that's really evocative language to suggest. grace is a lesbian and max is gay. which is fine, excellent headcanon!! see them that way, go for it, (/gen). but it felt like behind that was they can't be queer if they're bi. i'm probably reading too much into things, and i know that, but that doesn't mean it didn't hurt. i think you can have headcanons without going that far.

again i do want to reiterate: i'm not saying people are being biphobic. i'm not saying that your headcanons or ships are invalid. all i'm saying is, as a bisexual, these little things that probably mean nothing to no one ever build up and make me uncomfortable from time to time. and i sent that anon at one of those times. i get that i'm being overly sensitive, i get that other people with different identities (including sexualities) in fandom feel ostracized for different reasons. this is just my pent up experience.

thanks for reading, i am so sorry if this launches a bunch of discourse. or brings up discourse again? i just thought you wanted an explanation so here it is.

~~~

[worlds-oldest-teenager]

Kind of controversial but why are people acting like TSATS is Rick Riordan's first queer book? Like Magnus chase who? Trials of Apollo?

Warning ⚠️: Long rant under the cut. It's not very tsats friendly so please scroll if you don't want to read.

Idk it just feels like sometimes the fandom doesn't really view queer rep as valid unless it centers around romance. Completely biased as a toa fan but toa had so much rep. The bi mc, the gay geysers, the kindly old lesbian couple taking in unwanted kids, ace characters, characters struggling with comphet, characters crushing on people of the same gender and none of it being taken as something out of the ordinary. It just wasn't centred around romance.

The toa fandom has always been pretty small and chill with activity spiking everytime a new book releases. Then suddenly when Tower of Nero came out there were so many people. So what changed, what brought in so many people who weren't even interested in the premise of the book?

It was Solangelo.

I like solangelo as much as the next person (minus the year of seething rage when they were dominating the toa tag) but the way that people discount an amazing series about change, growth and overcoming abuse with some of the best casual queer rep I've seen and consider the only thing of value being a minor mlm couple with a few pages of screentime leaves a pretty bad taste in my mouth.

Magnus chase is another book. Alex fierro isn't perfect rep (stop calling Alex slurs holy fuck) but it was revolutionary to have a gender fluid character in a children's series and this was back in 2016. Fierrochase is pretty popular but I wonder sometimes if Alex and Magnus would be as popular as they are if they never got together. They're still not as popular as solangelo but in good faith that might be because people became too fatigued to read mcga.

It just feels sometimes that these books are viewed as lesser queer books just because there's no shipping or it's not a (I'm so sorry don't kill me ) heart stopper esque gay couple. Idk if im taking this too personally as a potentially ace *slides nsfw art under desk* person whose gender is wonky but it's just my thoughts on this.

But I just feel like the focus should be on the countries banning and censoring the book instead of people with perfectly valid criticism of it. There are so many of his books with queer rep and most of the criticism I've seen have come from LGBTQIA+ people that like these books or at least put the same energy into scrutinizing them too. Idk why people assume anything bad said about TSATS was a bad faith reading done out of homophobia.

All that being said, tsats is definitely being marketed as the first queer book. It's banned not very accessible in my country despite all the others going through- which sucks. It's being treated like the first queer focused book Rick has written and it's coming out at a bad time for everyone but especially people in the US apparently. So I understand why any reactions would be taken as the fandoms reaction to the first queer book.

So who is more homophobic? The person who doesn't like a queer book or the person who holds a queer romance as the pinacle of queer? The answer : no clue man it's complicated and it's sucks that we're all so on edge in these trying times that we automatically assume the worst. There's nuance that a smarter person than me can elaborate on but I am not he.

Sorry for writing something so divisive during pride month but it is a conservation that should be had and what better month than one celebrating queer identity and representation. Hope everyone has a great pride month and stays safe.

Peace and love ✌️🏳️‍🌈💜

[chaifootsteps]

I know a lot of the fandom already shits on BlitzStrike but I think that Blitz x Verosika gets more shit from Stolitz fans especially when people prefer Blitzsika over Stolitz and they try to say shit like it's just because it's straight or some shit despite the fact Blitz is pan and Verosika is probably also bi or pan since it's been implied she likes women but it was also shown in the most misogynistic way with Blitz's line about her "smelling like fish" which is actually a derogatory insult towards sapphic women so shows how much Vivzie respects not only women but lesbians especially and how apparently it's homophobic to prefer a ship over the popular gay ship just because it's "straight passing" because you can't be LGBT and attracted to the opposite sex apparently but then again criticising Helluva has always been "homophobic."

I even saw a commission artist say they refused to draw "toxic" ships like Blitzrika but they were perfectly fine with drawing Stolitz since they were a major shipper but you know what's funny? Blitzrika is actually more healthy than fucking Stolitz ever was! Sure they may hate eachother and are toxic but they are exes so it's perfectly reasonable that they hate eachother and it's only because Blitz fucked Verosika over and they had a major breakup but here's one thing that will piss Stolitz fans off... BLITZ ACTUALLY LIKED VEROSIKA! and not only that... HE ACTUALLY WANTED TO HAVE SEX WITH HER! Sure we may not know what their relationship was fully like but it was clear they actually had mutual feelings for eachother and Verosika liked Blitz so much she literally got his name tattooed on her! And clearly the reason she hates Blitz so much is because he used her! Sure Verosika may be a bitch but she has ever right to hate Blitz for what he did to her and there isn't any bullshitting around that even in the show! And it's clear Blitz feels bad for what he does for how he reacted when she called him a "wreckless heartbreaking freak" or how he still has guilt in his subconscious because if he didn't give a shit about Verosika. Why would he feel bad? Even if he hates her he still clearly does feels some remorse for what he did. And this is shit you can gather from the fucking subtext in comparison to the actual screentime you get with Stolitz. Blitz has been shown more times to have actually been shown to care about Verosika than fucking Stolas? What does that tell you?

Even if they have a fucked up relationship this was only after they broke up in comparison to whatever the hell Stolitz has going on! At least Blitz actually chose to be with Verosika and they clearly had consent! You know it's bad when toxic exes somehow have a better relationship than your so called main forbidden gay love story. Yet the fandom thinks an yaoi sex slave ship is somehow healthy gay representation but exes who happen to have had a messy "straight passing" relationship and now resent eachother over something the other did and are now toxic towards eachother and yet it's clearly shown they do still care about eachother on a surface face level which is something that is actually happens in real life is a homophobic straight ship?

I don't even ship it but I'd take it any day over what ever the hell Stolitz is and them getting back together would actually be much more believable than Blitz having feelings for Stolas will ever be. I honestly think it would be funny if someone pointed out that Blitz has been shown to love Verosika more than he has Stolas as while I do agree BlitzStrike is probably the best ship. Verosika is the only character that Blitz has so far been show to have actually had mutual feelings for unless Fizzarolli counts? But then again they have that weird sort of foster siblings implication going on so who cares? And even then there was still more evidence before Season 2 that Blitz had more feelings for Verosika than anyone else especially Stolas and I am not counting attraction since Blitz is almost always horny so whatever. Still Blitz feeling remorse and even showing that he at one point enjoyed spending time with Verosika is more convincing than whatever love confession they make Blitz give to Stolas.

Sorry for this awful rant.

No need for apologies, Anon, it was a good rant.

Striker, Verosika, Fizz...at this point, I would ship Wally-goddamn-Wackford with Blitz over Stolitz. Anything, anything but that.

[eskawrites]

is it foolish of me to believe that in the celebrity fake dating au several years in the future once the very first fanfic site is up there is a large uptick in erathia sales and tenar/lark becomes a popular ship

not only is it extremely un-foolish of you, anon, it's also completely on point. like, you have no idea. this is something that has been in my notes since basically the beginning of this fic.

like, i think robin in particular has always been a role model for girls since the erathia films, and it's absolutely my headcanon (actual canon?) that there's a small part of her fan base that's just lesbians exchanging knowing looks with each other and quietly wishing her the best.

i also fully believe there was a tenar/lark fandom basically as soon as the second movie came out. after all, nancy and robin put a lot of thought and effort into making their characters' dynamic something more than the usual 'two women fighting over the male protagonist.' (fun fact this is partially inspired by the making of wicked the musical and how glinda and elphaba could've been typical catty opponents and instead became incredible foils who present the show's great love story). combine that with their natural chemistry, and gay/bi women would easily read their relationship as a potentially romantic one. catch a bunch of women in the late 80s/early 90s passing around fanzines a la early Star Trek fandom or something

anyway i could talk about this forever but i probably shouldn't. instead, here's the actual semi-polished lil write up i made a few weeks back:

Tenar and Lark—Nancy and Robin’s movie characters—actually have a bit of a fandom going on and have since the 80s. The fandom only grows when Robin comes out, and then when she and Nancy go public with their relationship (in fact, there’s a bit of a conspiracy for a while in early 1998—Nancy and Robin aren’t hiding anything, but they’re not confirming anything through interviews, either. So when paparazzi photos start coming out of them holding hands and going out together, most of the public is like ‘oh gals being pals’ but a not insignificant number of Erathia fans know what’s up). Anyway, as Robin and Nancy become more serious, more and more people rewatch the Erathia movies and see their characters in a new light. Suddenly all the work Nancy and Robin put into building their characters and creating a three-dimensional friendship between Tenar and Lark translates into the potential for something deeper. Tenar and Lark become one of the most iconic wlw couples, kind of on par with something like Xena on Gabrielle. In the early 2000s, someone asks Scott Clarke what he thinks of Tenar and Lark, and he just chuckles and says it makes sense and he wishes he saw it way back when.

(there are probably some spin-off books, eventual prequel/sequel series, etc and so on that come out--the erathia films were originally based off of the star wars trilogy, after all. and you bet your ass that in all of those, tenar and lark are completely in love)

[eyesofshinigami]

20 questions for writers

I was tagged by the amazing @just-my-latest-hyperfixation and @devondespresso. Thank you lovelies!!

20 questions for writers

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

77 fics from various fandoms. I've had AO3 for a hot minute and it's gone on the same fandom journey I've been on, lol.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

596,417 at present.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

At the moment, just Steddie. But I suspect that I'll churn out an Arcane fic or two when S2 inevitably drops because I'm a simp for Vi and Caitlin, okay?

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

*coughs loudly* Okay, well. They're all old One Direction fics, so I'm going to do the top one from each of my top 5 fandoms:

Right Side of the Wrong Bed (One Direction)

All the Ability to Love I Have (The Witcher)

Don't Be Surprised If I Love You (For All That You Are) (Stranger Things)

Locking Up the Sun (Captain America/Marvel)

Pull Me Out (From Inside) (Arcane)

5. Do you respond to comments?

I try really, really hard to, but I typically forget about it until months later and then I go on a comment-reply spree. So, if you send a comment, I read it and treasure it and you'll probably get an answer six months later.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't have any, actually. I'm not really big on writing angst on the whole because I don't feel like I'm really good at it? So I shy away from it. I have a couple of angsty fics I've written, but they always have a happy ending.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Honestly? All of my fics have happy and hopeful endings! I don't know if I can pick just one that stands out.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not really? I've had one or two comments where people questioned creative choices I made, but that's about it. I don't think my writing is popular enough to attract people who have Opinions About Everything. I'm sure it'll happen one of these days.

I think the closest are some comments I got on a One Direction daddykink fic I wrote, right when that blew up in the fandom. One person wrote one fic and of course the trope went wild, and as always, people have things they feel like they need to say. I miss the days of "don't like, don't read" of yore, yanno?

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Smut is actually the easiest thing for me to write. I write all kinds, but mostly of the gay/lesbian variety, lol. Currently I'm on an A/B/O kick, so there's that.

10. Do you write crossovers?

Not typically. I've only written one, where it was Steve and Bucky and it was a Snowpiercer fusion that I wrote for an exchange many a moon ago. It was fun, but I don't have very many fandom interests that overlap well enough.

I also have about 22k written of a Cap!Steve and Winter Solider!Eddie AU that I cooked up, but it's more of a fusion than an outright crossover.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Probably. I've never gone looking, but I know that Wattpad is a lawless land, so.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yeah, a couple. I'm really picky/choosy about it though. It's gotta be on AO3 where I can see it linked or I say no, tbh.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have! It's not been a recent thing, but I wrote a couple of fics with friends when I was in the One Direction fandom. It's a lot of fun, especially when your writing styles blend together well. I enjoyed it a lot.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

That's really hard to say, actually. I typically go balls-to-the-wall when I get into a fandom, and I'm a die-hard OTPer. I find one and I stick with it. The only exception to that has been the Witcher fandom, because Jaskier and the Wolves were just really fun fandom bicycles to put in many different combinations. I'm only human.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will?

I'd like to think that I will finish all my WIPs but alas. Some are just going to sit and rot in my Googledocs. A Stranger Things one I'd love to finish is the Cap!Steve and Winter Soldier!Eddie one I mentioned earlier.

The one I feel the worst about is the Catskier threequel that I promised ages ago. I open the document and stare longingly into it, but the words just won't work. Maybe one day.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I've been told I write good smut? And sometimes I'm funny?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I have Wordy Bitch Disease like nobody's business. Call me Charles Dickens because sometimes I write fifteen words when it only needed three. Also? I'm awful at writing long fic. I want to be one of those people but I know what I'm about. The most I can manage is about 30-40k and that's that.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Probably not, honestly. Or if I did, I would have a good reason and would try to find a native speaker to help me translate it.

I did it once upon a time for a fic where the main character was a priest and the chapter titles were in Latin, but that's the closest I've come.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Published on a site? Saiyuki. Which is still one of my all-time favorite series for forever. It was my first real fandom experience, back in the Ye Olde Days of Livejournal and Fanfic.net.

But written, even if nobody could see? Probably for Gundam Wing or Sailor Moon. I have notebooks where eleven year old me was writing self-insert fanfic because what else are you going to do when you want to be cooler than you are, right?

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Probably Right Side of the Wrong Bed, my most popular fic on AO3. Not because it's popular, but because I loved the concept, had so much fun with it, and had so many people tell me how they still go back and read that fic for comfort. It was funny and fun to write and I just had a great time with it. It sticks out for me.

A closer runner-up is Show Me, Don't Tell Me How it's Going to Be, which was a very vulnerable fic for me to write. It was an A/B/O fic where I projected some of my own sexual dysfunctions onto Jaskier, and the response to it was incredible. Some of the messages I got made me cry, tbh.

Okay, so now that I'm like... fifty million years late walking in with Starbucks, I'll do some no pressure tags: @ataliagold, @pearynice, @ghostinthelibrarywrites, @thefreakandthehair, and anyone else who wants to do it, just tag me so I can read your answers!

[yuripira4e]

ur points are fine but do you really have to put an obnoxious anon in the mgs tag talking shit abt one of the few games with gay male rep "made up yaoi" and claiming bb/eva is like a Real Canon pairing and not they fucked one bc eva was trying to get something from him and if you want to talk about women her feelings towards him were clearly a lot more complicated than it just being a ship. virtue signaling is also acting like you have to publicly blog about female characters to show that you care and respect them. also strangeboss WAS very popular, more so when the game came out for what its worth. if you really want to get into the nitty gritty im always pretty disappointed that ppl interpret their relationship as cute mutual attraction and ignore that strangelove has an obsession with the boss that likely makes her an unreliable narrator, which imo isnt a bad thing!! i legit think thats really interesting, zero and bb talk a lot about the boss and her will from the pov of soldiers but strangelove equally puts her on a pedestal imo. yeah thats not a good trope for a lesbian character but again! if you want to get nitty gritty. theres a really clear pattern in the mgs series where only villains are CANONICALLY bi/gay, but theres a lot of heavy handed queer coding among the "good guys"

I agree with you too. I’m sorry for putting discourse in the tag. 1. strange boss is a complex dynamic and as much as I love it it is ultimately from Strangelove’s pov. I think that’s just a reoccurring theme with the boss in general. I mean the entire game is centered around the misinterpretation of her will and everyone taking what they thought she meant from it and warping it to for their own perception. I do think strangeboss was mutual but Strangelove was definitely not healthily crushing on the boss either. I haven’t been in the fandom that long so I actually didn’t know the ship was that popular at one point but you have to admit it does get overshadowed as do a lot of female pairings (straight or queer) in the fanbase

2. I already said I don’t ship bb ships. I love Eva and I think her complex relationship with bb and other characters should absolutely be talked about and I enjoy their dynamic so that’s why I said I liked their relationship but not endgame

3. I do think the made up yaoi thing was kind of rude bc I don’t think it was made up at all (I should have said that on that but I don’t really feel like starting arguments or defending shit). I think the mlm representation in the game is honestly really groundbreaking even if it does adhere to a lot of stereotypes and unfortunately villainize it a lot. But it has multiple relationships and single characters in queer or queer coded mlm relationships that differ in age, ethnicity, dynamic, and backstory which is just insanely cool. From like canonically queer characters like volgin and vamp and I’m gonna say ocelot bc I think pw put him past queer coded and into fully implied queer territory to deep, healthy, interesting queer coded relationships like otasune and even liquidmantis I think it’s amazing and should not be minimized even if it could be improved or there are faults in the way other characters are treated because of it at times which is something every fanbase has. Even other ships that I don’t like have a lot of really interesting dynamics and feelings that are undeniably queer coded and I think we should just look at all of it and enjoy the queer media we’ve been given while being able to critique it and not turn on each other

[harocat]

I hope this doesn't come across as rude or anything, as I'm bi myself, but based on some posts from confused danmei fans I've found on the TTEOTM tag, I'm afraid that Tantai Jin or the drama are not gay enough for Tumblr to lose it over him, like they did over MDZS 😢

I'm a lesbian and I'm not offended lol. I think for things to draw the tumblr audience, it's not so much that they have to be gay as they have to be potentially gay.

And by that I mean potentially gay and about men, specifically, because fandom is frankly like 75% less interested in stories about women and it's still rare for a women-centered series and an f/f ship to break out and be super popular.

So something like TTEOTM doesn't really have a lot of m/m shipping potential. There's a bit of a spark between Xiao Lin and TTJ near the beginning, but it sort of pitters out. Nian Baiyu and TTJ are close, but they just don't really have that vibe that makes them feel super shippable. There's no getting around that the most compelling relationship TTJ has in the series is with a woman (though you all, the enemies to lovers vibes you all love are here and they are so good). I've been trying to get all my fellow queer friends to watch Love Between Fairy and Devil because I'm like 'IT'S REALLY GOOD I PROMISE' and I have succeeded with several of them, but the m/m shipping potential is definitely minimal so it probably won't ever catch fire in fandom at large.

Add in that, and this is more important than anything else in this specific case, it's a Chinese drama, which is not something widely popular on tumblr EXCEPT for The Untamed and Word of Honor, both of which are based on canon bl novels, and there's just no hope of drawing people in.

I don't want to insinuate that things are just popular because they're gay or potentially gay, because I do think there's generally a level of quality that they need to have to get people actually into them. And many of these shows have SO MUCH more going for them than just 'they're canon gay' so it's a bit of an insult to insinuate that's the only reason they're popular. I feel like there should be a balance in discussion where you can go 'hey a lot of people may have tried this out because it's canon gay, but the reason it sustained a large following is because it's legitimately a really excellent story with great characters, in addition to the gay.' I always get super defensive when people say Yuri on Ice is only popular because it’s gay.

There's after all plenty of gay or just really slashy shows no one cares about on this site because they're not good. There are exceptions to this (I mean is SPN good? No), but I do think fandom on the whole has gotten choosier in recent years, which is not a bad thing. People are definitely less tolerant of stuff that strings queer viewers along like BBC Sherlock.

MDZS is very good. Wei Wuxian is probably my second favorite fictional character ever. I have issues with the actual narrative of Word of Honor (it's just kind of shoddily written at times), but the characters themselves are very good, and that's what matters most in fandom.

I can never fault people on tumblr for checking into canonically gay media because it is gay, because hey, almost all of us are queer here and we want to see stories about ourselves. But I guess I do get frustrated when over and over the biggest fandoms on here are things that aren't gay, but are just about men that people find shippable. And TBH I think people miss out on so many great stories and characters when they just kind of go purely from big slash fandom to big slash fandom, whatever is popular at the moment.

I also think that, and this is maybe my most salient point of all, people in fandom should try just... not watching everything with a fandom mindset. Like here's a great show, but there's not really a popular ship in it with a lot of fanworks, so people don't watch it. But why not? Not everything needs to be a fandom for you. Sometimes you can just enjoy media, and who knows, maybe something will surprise you and you WILL feel fandom-y about it.

[beevean]

Shipping should have always been just a fun pastime but alas, the shippings wars have soured everyone over it. I still remember when after one certain specifically colored panel of Tangle and Whisper, some twitter lunatics went on a round saying that shipping Tangle and Whisper with literally anyone other than each other is forbidden now because it's not just "muh canon!" its also "muh rep!", with people shipping SilverxWhisper and SonicxTangle taking most of the hits. Another part of the shipping community that's becoming a slight pet peeve of mine is when they do comic page edits to "make them less straight", usually by overdoing the blushing so much the characters start looking like they are either drunk or are having a fever.

I remember that tweet. It's exactly the obnoxious "shipping is activism" behavior I can't stand. A fanart where Silver and Whisper look at each other blushing is not going to invalidate the literal lesbian flag that is in the comic. Also c'mon, as if Sonangle and Silvisper are even remotely as popular as Whispangle by now! It's the fan favorite couple! You're just lording over the superiority of your ship while pretending to fight for the dignity of real life lesbians :\

I saw the same thing in the SU fandom, a person being harassed for a joke comic where Mystery Girl made 👀 eyes at Greg pissing Pearl off. That counted as lesbian erasure, apparently. bruh. bruh you think a fanart would erase the lesbianism of Steven Motherfucking Universe? I understand fighting against misconceptions but holy shit pick harder battles to fight

(not even worth pointing out that in fandom it's massively more common to pick characters canonically straight and depict them as gay or bi. It's also not uncommon to say that a female bi character in a relationship with a woman is actually a lesbian. also i remind of that full comic headcanoning amy rose as a lesbian who only crushed on sonic because of "comphet". but those are okay :) )

[crystallinestars]

"Bullying into submission" is unfortunately an excellent way to put it 😔 People really need to learn that while feeling the need to vent is more than okay (just look at how much I've complained so far lol), making posts / snide comments with the sole aim of creating Drama or Discourse or straight up jumping into someone's space to berate them for quietly enjoying themselves in a way you don't approve of is truly the best recipe if your goal in life is to be miserable 24/7, on top of being a huge dick move.

I was also thinking about what other anons have brought up (how they feel straight up alienated by popular hcs always being one 'extreme' or another with no in-between) and I feel like these discussions (including the ones on social constructs, loved your input about that btw) are all linked by a common factor: some people try to draw hard lines in the sand in order to neatly categorize stuff in easily identifiable boxes or tropes. Sometimes what we could call "the norm" seems so ingrained in people's minds that it does not even occur to them to try and question this status quo, and so a lot of nuance is either lost or not even explored to begin with. At least that's how I see it, I still need to think about this some more.

I'd say that these "hard lines" aren't only drawn between all we've mentioned, but between communities too. I'm going to say this kinda clumsily but like, why are we treating anyone who isn't "just gay / lesbian / straight" as if they were an enemy and/or a threat? Is it some kind of insecurity that can only be soothed by constant validation? Why is it that when someone dares to make something slightly different, we're bringing out the pitchforks?

This hostility (and just the fact that these discussions / this Discourse seems very cyclical) kind of reminds of a tweet I saw a while ago. I unearthed it for the occasion lol:

"People love to pretend it’s so weird that others get upset when you claim something they like is bad lol.

Slandering something that another person appreciates is akin to insulting/questioning their intelligence, especially when it comes to a piece of work."

The original post was about slandering works as a whole, but I think it can also apply to more specific aspects, like enjoying something in particular in a given work. Why are we pretending it's weird that people get upset when you keep telling them (explicitly or implicitly) that their fun is lame at best? I know people love to say "that's just how the internet is, Get Used To It" but honestly? It's such an empty excuse and it makes me want to bang my head on a wall, because why couldn't we just all keep our manners to begin with??

I feel like I'm answering everything in a weird order lol but about Welt, that's pretty much what I had heard about him! I've been thinking that I should at least look into Hi3 a bit, just to see the links between the games and Mihoyo's overall evolution 🤔 And I didn't know about that lore book! I don't even know if I'm surprised about this reaction but I do know that fandoms sometimes confuse the hell out of me because I've seen just as much Guizhong enjoyers as I've seen people shipping Zhongli with Childe??

I'm just going to say it bluntly: people should REALLY pick a struggle and/or another hill to die on, because having a meltdown for something like that is just embarrassing. It does prove your point about the shipping lenses tho, because I can't think about another reason why a LORE BOOK would have made them feel so threatened 💀 I had seen the tantrums about Dottore (apparently he's too evil??) and Raiden (she's not evil enough??) but this?? MAN.

Kind of makes me think that people are lowkey hypocritical with their need to have canon confirmations, because they love to brag about THEIR pairings but as soon as the possibility appears that the devs MIGHT offer some kind of confirmation on one they don't like, even if it's one as 'marginal', for lack of a better word, as this one, they break out in hives. And the Thoma and Ayaka situation is just another proof that 1) YOU SHOULD NEVER FULLY TRUST LEAKS and 2) the bar we talked about keeps getting lower in hell.

And YES! I also felt like there were a lot of things about Alhaitham that were there to tell the players that while it's true he comes off as odd, eccentric, blunt, etc., he's rather kind all things considered! He's letting Kaveh stay in his house even if they don't particularly get along, he sticks to his moral code, he recognized Dehya's capabilities, he helps Tighnari with Collei's education, and so on. He seems to be the type of person that won't go out of their way to be palatable to others, but he also never goes out of his way to hurt anyone? And what's more, if you're willing to hear him out and truly pay attention to what he says, you'll realize that he's actually quite helpful? In a way that he's giving advice and letting people come to their own conclusions? At least that's what I can think about off the top of my head, so it's kind of hysterical to me that he gets reduced to "That Asshole Feeble Scholar".

This ask is getting long again (and messy) but I still want to add that I've seen your discussions about Nilou, Candace and Kokomi with Kaveh and it might be biased and/or controversial of me to say this but honestly? I think people, no matter their identities, just don't like women / don't even acknowledge how much they dislike women. As you said, same-sex pairings (and i'd say BL pairings in particular) are that much more popular and I'm getting pretty sure that it's in part due to the fact people don't pay attention to the female characters because they might be assuming they'll be boring. I've seen so many people bashing Kokomi, especially her story quest, yet they praise characters like Itto to high heavens? I know that it's 'to each their own' but sometimes I do feel like people don't give some (female) characters much of a chance to begin with.

At least to me it's pretty funny to see the difference between how you and the others have talked about your ideas for ships, and how the fandom talk about haikaveh lmao.

Kavelou shippers: I think they could bring out the best in each other, they could bond over their shared love for the arts and share ideas for their respective fields of expertise!

Loud Haikaveh shippers: omg they're roommates lol, when do you think Alhaitham will impregnate his 'c a n o n' malewife?? Why are kavelou idiots such snowflakes, 'conflict' is essential to make a pairing worth it and we're allowed to enjoy some fictional toxicity

Also, a bit of a side note, but it hasn't escaped me that people love to say that "toxic pairings are valid" for their BL preferences, but Acheron and Black Swan get exactly 1 deadly dance video and suddenly it's the most disturbing thing they've ever seen??

Anyway, I've seen you mention at least twice that you're thinking about making either a different blog or creating a discord server for all these rants you receive, and I think it's a lovely idea! I'm pretty sure I have an account on discord that I haven't touched in years so it has probably been deleted by now 😭 If there's anyone else interested in it would be a great alternative for you to separate your writing from the rants :)

Once again, I hope you're having a wonderful day or evening!

🪻

There is a lot to unpack here, but I will try my best to respond to everything. I'm sorry in advance if I don't touch on every point.

Regarding your "hard lines" comments. It's true that people draw boundaries between what they find acceptable and not, and while this would ordinarily be a good thing, here it's more to do with controversial topics like race, sexuality, gender, etc... and I can't help but wonder if the reason for such behavior is due to politics.

Most of this behavior is present in the western and english-speaking parts of the internet where American politics reign supreme. From what I have heard and seen, the progressive side deems everything that is considered the majority (heterosexuality, white skin, male gender, etc) as the opposite of what they stand for, therefore it must be conservative, which is bad. There's a lot more at play here than just progressive vs conservative, but I am not well-versed in politics, so I won't speak on it too much. Plus, this is all just a theory. But as I've said before, the West loves to drag politics into every aspect of their lives, fandoms included.

The quote you found is actually spot-on. Acting surprised when you insult something people enjoy or relate to is surprised pikachu behavior. Though I suspect these people aren't actually surprised, but are just trolling the people they offended, and are gleeful they managed to get under the skin of those whose views they dislike.

I think the lore book tantrum is another example of people wanting their characters to be "shiny toys", as you put it. Having an indication for a NL relationship between playable characters is a no-no for gacha games. It offends a lot of groups of people. For example, those that want to pair Zhongli with Childe, or self-ship with him, and the same applies for the Guizhong side (even though we had no idea what she looked like at the time). For some reason, there's not as much negative reaction if the ship being teased is same-sex though. Might be because it offends less groups, but it's still a baffling phenomenon for me.

Which brings me to the point about female characters.

I agree with you that female characters get hated on. In the anime and manga spheres, have seen a lot of comments about female characters from various fandoms, and the main complain with them was that they are not as fleshed out as their male counterparts. Female characters lack complex writing and character development, and get reduced to plot devices or love interests for the MC. Even in media made by women for women featuring female protagonists, some of these protagonists are pushovers that rely on male characters to save them. There is a desire for women to be equal to men in media, but it's not common to see.

It doesn't help that in Genshin, the first three chapters had bad writing, especially for female characters. Though not all, majority were were one-note characters with not much complexity or plot behind their actions, unlike male characters. This has improved significantly since Sumeru's debut, but I doubt it's enough to change the minds of some people.

So to make my point; female characters get hate for being boring. I also feel like women are the ones who hate on female characters the most? I have seen both fujoshi and yumejoshi communities hate on female characters for being the love interest of their favorite male character and getting in the way of their ships.

I am hesitant to delve into the topic of why some fujoshi hate female characters since it's not something I completely understand. I did a bit of research into why they prefer BL over NL, and while the gripe about female characters being boring was a main factor, there was also a lot of misogyny. I'm sure there are some other reasons aside from these as to why women hate female characters, but this topic is too complex for me to navigate just yet.

I will defend Kokomi with my life 😤 She got a lot of hate even back in her beta, and her story quest came under fire, as well. I thought her story quest was decent, though maybe my judgement is clouded because I love her so much. Regardless, her character is awesome and I relate to her a lot, so Kokomi slander will not be tolerated 😤

Regarding the difference between haikaveh and other Kaveh ships, I can only think that one is a fetishization of a gay relationships, while the other is a genuine appreciation for the dynamic between characters.

I actually saw only positive comments under the Acheron and Black Swan dance video. Yeah, there were jokes it was toxic, but I didn't see anyone complain about it, though I believe you when you say some people found it problematic. BL gets a lot of special treatment, I would say. Everything that's deemed bad/boring in GL and NL pairings is often painted as being better/good if it's BL. I've only seen a couple of "omg toxic yaoi ❤️" posts, and while those were jokes, it's shocking how much people love to pair enemies together. I see a lot of depictions of abuse in BL, and the shippers love it, so I suppose it's not that surprising? I find it concerning, though.

Anyways, thank you for your well-wishes, and have a great day as well!

[zonaenthusiast]

do robin x zoro have more significant interactions than nami x zoro in manga and anime?

i'm new to this fandom since i have only seen the live action and i noticed that a lot of people call nami x zoro siblings while shipping robin x zoro, so what's this about?

i'm loving nami x zoro in opla so far and am excited for robin's future appearance but i dread other shippers hating on zoro/nami!

Uh, well, hello and welcome to the fandom!

Disclaimer: this will have my personal and subjective interpretations of some ships but you are free to think what you like, of course! No ship is bad! (unless it's problematic, then it's bad).

I will try to be a little bit vague because I don't want to give you many spoilers, but the thing about Zoro and Robin is that they had a very peculiar relationship when she first joined the crew. Let's just say that Zoro didn't trust her at all and that lasted for a while but, despite that, he was always willing to protect her if necessary like she was any other of his nakamas (and she was). Besides, she made a few efforts to get close to him and even teased him sometimes.

I think people really digged that dynamic of I don't trust you but I guess we have to work together. This is actually funny because it's actually very similar to Zoro's dynamic with Nami at the beginning, it's just that with Robin he was much more obvious because he had legitimate reasons to distrust her.

That lasted for a couple of sagas and they had a handful of moments together that are pretty interesting (one of my favorite parts of the Skypiea arc is a scene of them) but then, after she managed to gain his trust, they didn't have much more moments together (they have one ocasionally but they are rare). The thing about Zoro and Robin is that they are the most introverted of the crew, so they barely talk to each other because they aren't usually the first ones to start a conversation. You will see them together and they will be confortable with each other, but most of the time they don't talk to each other.

I get the appeal of this ship, but I don't really enjoy it because Robin has... peculiar tastes, to say the least, and Zoro doesn't fit in them. I don't know if you know who the other main ship for Robin is but in the last few years I would say they have become more popular than Zoro/Robin, especially after Dressrosa.

About Zoro and Nami... it's a hated ship internationally, yes, and we are constantly in the trenches for liking them as a couple, but the funny thing is that it's a pretty well loved ship in Japan. Internationally, people tend to see them as siblings but it never happened to me (examples of a sibling relationship for me are Nami and Usopp or Zoro and Chopper, but not them). Besides, the headcanon of a huge part of the international fandom is that Zoro is gay (Zoro's main ship is Sanji) and Nami is lesbian (my headcanon is that both of them are bisexuals).

It doesn't help that interactions between Zoro and Nami have also decreased in recent years, to be honest, but we've been on a roll recently and not just because of the live action. In my humble opinion, Zoro and Nami's interactions are more significant that Zoro and Robin's, if only because they've been together from the very beginning.

Some people think that the scenes between Zoro and Nami were weird in the live action but I promise you, and this doesn't have to do anything with them a a ship, just as a duo: if you've really paid attention to the dynamic that Zoro and Nami have maintained since the beginning of the manga (something I've been doing since I was twelve), you know the only thing the live action has done is make it more explicit. Oda is much more subtle when it comes to establishing relationships between characters but the live action doesn't have the time for that, so they've had to make everything much more obvious, more in your face. But the essence of everything is there and I assure you, the essence of Zoro and Nami is there. If someone wants to ship them or not, it's up to them and their own interpretations.

[papirouge]

Lol I've seen those weirdo women (well, girls many times as most are quite young) that lust after serial killers, they literally are a minority though so I don't know what that anon is even doing lumping them with the bigger "bear vs man" phenomenon lol. I have zero interest in serial killers but I do have an interest in the Columbine School Massacre for some reason, and sometimes you do stumble upon the fangirls of the two shooters, but most people shun them or dont pay them any attention. I think the fanboys are more dangerous as some of them have actually go out and commited their own shootings (many school shooters have cited the Columbine duo as their inspiration and all of them have been male).

Some of those fangirls ship the two dudes together and even make theories about how they actually loved each other romantically, or at least one of them lusted after the other even though both showed clear interest towards girls lol fujoism is one hell of a drug.

Speaking of fujoshis I think yaoi will be the next big trend in romance in America and other English speaking countries. It's become super popular in Japan, SK and China (even though China hasnt got the best reputation with it's treatment of gay people, many bl manhuas have become extremely popular to the point they've shown gay men kissing and straight up sex scenes on mainstream television, which wasnt permitted before, money talks and bl brings a lot of it).

Ive never understood why girls like yaoi so much...

Weren't the Columbine shooters massive racist asshole? noah offense anon, but anyone's obsessing about those dude gets a major side eye from me. That serial killer/mass shooter fandom shit is super white-coded. I also find super funny that a significant amount of mass shooter were atheists, yet barely anyone draws the line between atheism and the god-like complex of causing a murderous rampage because of *whatever psychosis those freaks had*, but the moment one self professed Christian does shit, suddenly it's the fault of Christianity lol

"yaoi will be the next big thing"

Huh? Yaoi /yaoi novel has been immensely popular for years now. Even when I was a teen (mid 2000s) it was all the craze. Fujo culture is the sublimation of the female sexual frustration coupled with the fear of male sexuality. That's why in yaoi (at least written by women) there's always one character representing the "submissive" energy associated the female (slim, naive, younger, etc - never forget that Japan is still mad patriarchal & reinforce gender roles to crazy levels...so I'm not surprised that even yaoi mangaka perpetuate those roles on their same sex stories). That's what makes yaoi so popular. In a society where female sexuality is so restricted or censured, yaoi was a way of expression. There's no wonder this genre is championed by women. And also why it's more popular than yuri fo example (that's much more straightforward than yaoi as it shows actual women having sex) - which is more taboo than gay male sex because lesbian sex has no man involved which is a serious taboo in a very patriarchal society such as Japan.

I've witnessed the rise of gay romance in kdrama too. That's what I would define as a new trend. I don't think much of it besides how pissed anti woke Japanese weebs/Koreaboos probably are about it lol