#how did it become so popular in fanon??

[burr-ell]

I didn't want to make this post by @utilitycaster even longer than it was or derail from the immediate subject, so I'm making my own to discuss these frustratingly apt tags:

#tangent but the best way to put it is that there is a FRIGHTENING lack of empathy among a certain set of shippers #and every other character is constant collateral and right now Orym's on the chopping block#but like. feed fcg the coin? guests merely exist to make the relationship happen? Orym would be happier dead? #how dare ashton express they have also experienced trauma? shitting on every past deity-aligned character? it's a real pattern.

Because I was reminded that this is also, by my estimation, the reason a lot of people were genuinely upset with C3 Percy. Some corners of the fandom had spent months building up fanon where Percy, one half of one of the most iconic CR ships (and therefore a huge form of potential validation), would do everything in his power to make Imodna happen bring Laudna back to life and get rid of Delilah. And then Bell's Hells actually met him, and it turned out that under the circumstances, Percy was an individual with his own thoughts and feelings about death and fate who'd had thirty years to reflect and had reservations about resurrection even laying aside the Delilah situation.

It didn't matter that he explicitly said he wasn't rejecting the idea of bringing Laudna back entirely. It didn't matter that he had very good reasons to behave this way, reasons that the entire fandom was reminded about rather viscerally less than a year beforehand. It didn't matter that once he was assured there was no threat, he was actually really helpful and genuinely kind to Laudna in particular. If he wasn't immediately accommodating to fanon and validating the juggernaut ship, he was an irredeemable asshole who deserved to be "humbled" by having his wife and close friend go behind his back despite any reasons they might have to be concerned. (Which, to be clear, they didn't do, but the "nyah-nyah, Vex and Pike totally OWNED that rich old geezer cause they're strong women who do what they want!" sentiment was very obnoxious and I was pleased to see that Matt torpedoed it.)

[bluegarners]

im being so serious when i ask this, but, how has dick's characterization become so opposing to his actual character? like how in the world did this pervasive and frankly invasive depiction of him become so popular? where in the world did people get these scraps of personality that they've frankensteined together to create this fucking weirdo that shakes his ass for criminals and is the biggest attention seeker? for decades we have had pretty consistent source material that continually establishes that dick is quite serious and a leader, and also someone that cares deeply for people and has the skill set and willpower to do literally anything for them. how has this fanon characterization that's quickly becoming canon happened to him?

[deadghosy]

WHAT ABOUT HAZBIN HOTEL X EYELESS JACK READER ?!

Hungry for some kidneys 😋🏃‍♀️

STOPPP CAUSE I HAD A CRUSH ON HIM- WHAT WAS WRONG WITH ME BRO😭 I THOUGHT THIS MAN WAS SOOOO FINE🦆💗 which he still is 🤭😘

HAZBIN HOTEL X EYELESS JACK! READER

prompt: an eyeless man gets dared to go inside of a cartoon for some free “food”

Ben had dared you to go inside of this cartoon show that was becoming popular. You said hell no of course….but then he said the impossible…

“Would you either go in the cartoon for kidneys or listen to me tell you the whole script of the new movie.” Ben says with a knowing smirk at which one you would chose.

Never in your life have you jumped into a tv before so quick. But here you are as you stand in the middle of a red twin with dead bodies around. So you smile behind your blue mask and got to work.

You were so busy kidney hunting, you didn’t notice a tall red figure behind you smiling intrigued at how you were only looking for kidneys with your scalpel. You felt skinny hands touch your shoulders as you immediately tried to stab the hand quickly. But it was a wrong move because you got pushed by some green magic.

“Quick reflexes. Amazing my friend! You would do good for this hotel im helping” the man said as you stared at him. Before you could protest you got transported to a damn hotel.

NOW ENOUGH STORY MODE TYPE SHIT! NOW FOR THE FUN🔥

I imagine Angel one time seeing you use your tongues to eat a kidney that was in disguise and Angel had so many dirty jokes for you.

“Omg, I bet you’re a woman pleaser aren’t you?” Angel says suggestively as you just raise a brow at him not knowing what he is saying.

Charlie would try to get you to wear brighter colors, but you literally deny it as if you are still stuck in your emo phase making Charlie get war flashbacks to her own emo phase.

Imagine taking your bluemask off and scaring sir Pentious into thinking you are a ghost to steal his eyes😭 so evil but so funny.

I can see husk literally side eyeing you as you just eating. Like he is just so confused how you don’t bite on none of your other tongues.

I know some people draw ej with black fingernails, but what if Angel had painted them for you instead 💗

Imagine a cartoony moment where Angel is like “ah shit I lost my wallet..” and STARTS TO LOOK FOR IT IN YOUR EYES 😭 straight up digging his hands in ya eyeless holes to look for it and he actually did find it with a smile saying “ah Hah found it!”

Legit Angel will remind you of Ben as Angel will shove his phone in your face saying some dumb shit like. “Do you see it? Do you see it ? Do you see it?” As he has a stupid smirk on his face. You snapped grabbing Angel by his throat as the crew tried to pull you off of Angel as he struggles to breathe. “It was worth it…”

I headcannon EJ! Reader and Alastor being compatible friends because they both eat from human meat. But both different as EJ! Reader just eats the kidneys as Alastor eats the whole things

NAH IMAGINE KID EJ!READER GETTING THE LEFTOVER KIDNEYS FROM PARENT! ALASTOR’S PLATE😭💗💗 (so damn cute)

“No no, you use the little fork and the knife to cut it.” “….I literally eat with my hands.”

Just two hungry boys staring at each other while discussing flavors to make out of people.

The egg boiz likes to bring you dead sinners as you had promised them to read them bed time stories for kidneys..I mean a fair trade is a fair trade. 🦆

Idk but for me it makes sense for EJ! Reader to bite someone’s hand while sleeping cause in the fanon! slender house they are use to pranks being pulled off so many times.

Literally husk was trying to wake you up cause it was your duty to do the bar tendering and you ALMOST bit his whole hand off if it wasn’t for Husk’s scream.

I can see Lucifer trying to show you his ducks because he found how amusing how quiet and blunt you are as he practically shoved a duck in your face forgetting you don’t have eyes.

“Do you see how cute and amazing this is?! It’s a duck that can do the splits while shooting fire!” “I see.” *awkward silence* “I’m so sorry-” “sorry for what.”

I can see how your dynamic with Lucifer is like “I think I forgot something x I have it in my hand..”

Charlie once had you in red as you actually just stood there while she took photos of you. It was like you were ready for the first day of school as Charlie squealed happy to see her new staff wearing red.

“SMILEE!” Charlie say excited as you just stand there trying to smile but it came out strained showing all of your sharp teeth. “Yeah don’t ever smile again.” Angel said in the background as you jumped at him like foxy in fnaf 2 😭

I imagine you just standing there as Alastor puts his arm on your shoulder like an arm rest. Literally you are “😐 what?” face as Alastor is obviously “😄 what a lovely day!”

I can see you and niffty just playing random games during break time as husk just cleans glasses at the bar. It’s a relaxing sight for once without you trying to get someone’s kidney.

I imagine you and Adam having so much beef as he is annoying asf to you.

“Why are you eyeless? So you can’t see how ugly you are?” “No, so I can’t see how fat you basically are so it won’t affect me.”

THE WAY YOU GAGGED HIM- 😭🤭‼️

I can see the Vee’s trying to get you on their side but you would probably just flip them off as you eat a kidney.

I can imagine Vaggie trying to find out why there is black goo on the hotel stairs to find you are crying since Charlie banned you to scalpel anyone’s kidneys.

Vaggie and Charlie give you the angel dust treatment and try to find any scalpels you have in your room

I can see after the battle of the heaven and hell, you would just stand there like “🧍🏾what the fuck just happened..” as you try to scalpel a few angels only for vaggie to pull your blue hoodie away from one.

When Lucifer first met you, he thought you was a teen demon who just got hired. He wasn’t wrong for the hired part, when you first spoke that man thought he heard god himself as his eyes were wide at you.

I can headcannon Alastor bringing a sinner to your door with a note that say, “eat well <3” and you just stand there like….. “did I just get adopted by a cannibal..” you said picking up the unconscious sinner and grabbing a scalpel.

NAH CAUSE I USE TO BE FERAL FOR THIS MANNNN😨😭😭💗💗 HOPE YOU GUYS LIKE THIS ONE!🦆‼️

[avelera]

Y’know, I’m actually warming to the idea that Viktor (Arcane) could canonically be a trans man. I mean, I’m always in favor in fic, don’t get me wrong, but there’s a difference between canon and popular fanon and while I understood and supported the idea as fanon, I didn’t necessarily think that’s what the show intended.

But now we’ve got Lest as a canonical trans woman character in Arcane S2 and I’ve been going back and doing a full rewatch of the show in anticipation of Act 3 dropping, and I was just noting how a few things:

1) His back brace is exactly in the right place to both suggest and obscure top surgery scars (as if the Undercity wouldn’t have a surgeon who could do it mean honestly, they’ve clearly got very advanced body mods down there, this would be tame by comparison). Now in S2 his body has been completely remade so any old scars are totally gone and the back brace has become a part of him, but he’s also literally been transformed. Like if anything, it makes it a continuation of his story.

2) His build and lack of any stubble somewhat lend to the possibility. It’s more noticeable because Jayce always has a trace of stubble visible so there’s a distinct contrast there. (Not that other male characters all have stubble, a lot of them don’t, but it is noteworthy when we see Viktor and Jayce contrasted so often in the same frame). And while they haven’t gone full frontal really on anyone in the show, we did see Viktor mostly naked and there was nothing to contradict the theory in what we saw.

3) I mean, the Machine Herald’s whole schtick is around transcending humanity, transcending evolution, not just going along with what nature gave you. That feels… very conducive to a trans man read of Viktor that such a background would further lend to his rejection of the notion that our biology is our destiny, in addition to his illness and disability.

Anyway, I don’t mean to offend anyone, I just found it interesting that this fanon at least for me went from “Huh, plausible but probably not intended,” to “Oh hey, it’s plausible and could very well BE intended and actually it aligns with things the character says on screen now!” as of S2.

[nekogaaaaaaa]

AU RAMBLING

Two Faces Alastor

Small Info: Two Faces is a Hazbin AU that mostly focuses on Charlastor, but I’m planning to expand it into a bigger AU for the whole Hazbin Hotel universe

The name "Two Faces" focused on Charlie and Alastor having two very different personas, not as in they’re different people, but more like distinct sides of themselves (that’s why I call it persona instead of personality)

But don’t they already kinda have that in canon? Well, in theory, yeah. But in the show, we mostly see how they act as characters. This AU is OOC! It exists purely for my satisfaction because I love big gap-moe dynamics, so I’m making one for my favorite pairing

This AU is basically me taking the hidden sides of their personalities or popular fan theories and putting those aspects front and center. So honestly, while it’s technically OOC, it’s not completely disconnected from what majority of the fans speculate about them

Alastor

Alastor here is coward and lazy

In this AU, Alastor still acts the same as his show personality, but that’s just a mask, his Radio Demon persona that he uses so no one bothers him. He can switch between grinning evilly and being a complete mess in a matter of seconds, though switching back to the Radio Demon persona is harder

Alastor here is coward and lazy. In this AU, his personality still looks the same as his canon self, the confident, grinning Radio Demon. But that’s just a mask he uses to keep people from bothering him. His true self is more of a coward, though not as sad as his 2P version

I’d say it’s like canon Alastor with a sprinkle of 2P traits, leaning more toward his canon self but with added laziness. Honestly, he feels more like a lazy kind of guy in this AU.

Two Faces Alastor prefers staying out of trouble and would rather run away than deal with problems. This becomes an issue because he promised Charlie he’d protect the hotel. His cowardly side is hidden from most people, but those at the hotel know about it thanks to his carelessness—like sneaking snacks in the middle of the night

Oh, and snacking is one of his hobbies! Since he’s lazy af, he’s always snacking and loves just sitting around reading or secretly watching TV. Yes, this Alastor, who openly hates technology, actually watches TV—but it’s an old one that’s free from Vox’s influence, so he dares to use it

Still Radio Demon, and in hell for reasons

This goes back again to his other persona. As much as I want to be proud of making him OOC in this AU, he’s the Radio Demon and still a serial killer. The difference is that he never looks happy doing it

Not because he’s kind or anything, but more like, “Augh, this is gonna get me into more trouble 😔.”

He always forgets he has power—like teleportation—or that he can just walk around Hell without anyone messing with him because of the reputation he’s built. Instead, he always hides and blends in with people because he feels more comfortable being himself.

I haven’t talked about his life before death yet, but I can say it’s not far from the popular fanon theories that people always use (since we don’t know his full backstory in canon anyway)

In short, he was still a serial killer

He also doesn’t believe in redemption. As much as he hates Hell, he knows he deserves to be here and just tries to survive through it. I did say before that his pathetic reason for being at the hotel is for protection and because he’s homeless, so he bullshits Charlie and the others with his 'Radio Demon' persona

And as you can see from pictures he always looks nervous mostly around Charlie

[teh-nos]

fandom goes into deep denial about the attempted infanticide of baby loki because the imperialism reading of it works against the text and requires that the baby be stolen not abandoned, and that this theft be for the most nefarious and imperialist purposes we can think of. whereas actually - and i was going to say this is 'the obvious parallel' but no it's not even a parallel it's what's clearly happening there - the baby's been left out to die for being disabled hasn't he?

the word 'runt' gets used but adult loki compared to other frost giants is not just slightly on the small side, he's probably equivalent to a human with dwarfism, which definitely brings this into Infanticiding The Disabled Child territory. which a) laufey cannot be allowed to do because that's a fucked up and horrible thing to do* b) we also can't allow that odin just kept that baby because by asgardian standards there was no obvious disability there. (the social model of disability, but with giants and less-giants**) "why would you be throwing out this baby, laufey? it looks normal-sized. it doesn't even have an unusual number of limbs. yeah, i am taking this baby as a friend for my similarly-sized bio-son. mine now. finders keepers." i point this out because the disabled baby is not saved by someone thinking disability-based infanticide is wrong - at least not necessarily so - but by being found by someone who doesn't recognise the supposed problem. to whom it simply does not exist.

and of course fandom loves sad little feeble loki being weak and pathetic in fic, but i have somehow never seen this tied to the fact that he is canonically undersized for his species and likely has some connected internal fuckery going on with his organs. we have no idea what made him that small or what it'd do and - here's the fun kicker for you angst fans! - probably nobody on asgard would either. when's the last time any of them had to look after even an entirely able-bodied jotun? how likely is it that they can just write off to jotunheim to say "hey what's up with that kid your king tried to murder? how would we fix him if he lived here? yeah, our king kept him. no, we didn't eat the baby! can we borrow a medical textbook? what do you mean you don't have paper there. well how do you write down how the orientalist belly-dancer outfits are to be worn? well then how... no, come back. did you just hang up on a letter???"

sorry, i digressed. what i was aiming for was that there is a very obvious reason why loki might be unusually weak for a lad who looks healthy to us and who doesn't seem any smaller or less able-bodied than the people around him, but i just don't see it being deployed in fic or in meta or whatever. is this because the 'laufey just left his baby out for some fresh air like norwegians do' reading kind of relies on that baby not being seen as a burden to be got rid of and we all kind of agree that... no. no, i shall not finish that thought. it is too depressing. it probably is that though isn't it?

anyway. this is me wondering what is up with that. other than maybe some kind of 'echo-chamber effect' where even the wildest ideas can become commonly-held fanon and where it'd be easy to just straight-up ignore a very obvious implication of baby-murdering because someone leaving you to just fucking die for being disabled is somehow not enough oppression for a blorbo in these enlightened times. or because it breaks a popular fandom interpretation of events. or something like that?

*in fairness i'd say humans from earth are probably within the group that's allowed to just not care about humans from earth getting invaded and killed.

**i say 'less-giants' because look:

look at this literal giant among men. tiny scrawny little thing, so smol and so freakishly tall to the humans. i call this 'the social model of smolness.'

[saintsenara]

Why Harry being short and frail (or even petite and delicate) past puberty is such a popular take these days? Sure, he is not bulky, but don't we know from Voldemort himself that James was tall and don't we know that Harry was exactly the same height as James during the final battle? Don't we know that Harry works out 3 times a week and is generally athletic? Is it the same thing that is happening with fanon Sirius or is it something different? Is it because he was short as a child and grew up in a cupboard, thus unlikely to end up like he did at the end of the series? What do you think about it? How likely is it? I keep seeing it in many slash ships and I am genuinely baffled. Is it me who has it backwards? Please solve this mystery, dear Asenora!

thank you very much for the ask, anon!

i think several things are at play, tbh - some of which are more understandable than others.

the first is that daniel radcliffe genuinely is short [for a british man, at least] - his height is given online as 165cm [or 5'5], but looking at pictures of him leads me to suspect that's an exaggeration - and was, unsurprisingly, even shorter when he was a teenager. many of the other actors in the films are much, much taller than him - especially people like alan rickman and david thewlis, both of whom were over six foot - and since the films inevitably influence how people picture the characters physically, the height differences we see on screen end up becoming part of that.

the second is that, while harry is described as "tall" in canon, that term appears to be doing a fair amount of heavy-lifting. numerous male characters are described as taller than him in both half-blood prince and deathly hallows - with the example which always stands out to me being the fact that fred and george weasley are said to "shrink" when they polyjuice into harry before the seven potters chase. fred and george - like charlie - are described in canon as being noticeably shorter and stockier in build than bill, percy, and ron. unless ron et al. are so tall that it would be thought of as really unusual - let's say above 6'6/198cm - harry probably isn't over 6'0/182cm tall.

thirdly, it's worth saying that what is meant by "tall" is culturally contingent. i've said that daniel radcliffe is shorter than average for a british man - and that's true - but his height isn't going to be thought of in that way in different parts of the world. similarly, there are parts of the world where describing a man who was, say, 5'10/178cm as "tall" would be considered quite strange - but i don't think the uk [where the average male height in 1998 was just over 5'8/174cm] is one of them. certainly, i picture harry as around that height [allowing characters like ron, sirius, dumbledore, and voldemort - who are all described as such - to be noticeably taller than him, but not so tall that their height would be considered abnormal], and i don't think it precludes him still being thought of as "tall" within the context in which he lives. but an author from, for example, the netherlands - where the average male height is 6'0.5/183cm - would probably think differently.

[there's a point about cultural contingency in the quip he makes about being short because of the cupboard too: i would read that as a dark joke which he doesn't actually think has any truth behind it specifically when it comes to his height, but which nonetheless expresses that the dursleys abuse him generally and this abuse has had a long-term impact upon him; readers from other parts of the world take it more literally.]

and finally, harry is definitely physically fit and - of course - works out a lot as part of playing quidditch, but both he and james are emphasised in canon as having slender builds - and it's also implied in the text that seekers are generally slim. harry doesn't need to be seen as any less sporty if we presume that he has the physique of a distance runner or triathlete rather than that of a sprinter.

however, there are definitely some aspects to the tendency for harry to be written as short and slender which do bother me a fair amount - and i do think that these have something in common with what we see with fanon sirius.

that is, that harry and sirius aren't written as short and slender because the author wants them to just happen to be short and slender. they're written as short and slender because the author wants them to be passive. their height/build is emphasised in the story in order to hammer this home - and it's often accompanied by them being assigned other aspects of physical appearance, personality, dress, or manner [especially ones which might be considered as "effeminate"] which, once again, aren't intended to communicate anything other than this passivity.

and - of course - in the writing of vast amounts of slash, any indication of passivity, submissiveness, or femininity - and the physical traits which end up equated with them - is taken as an indication that the character in question would be an exclusive - and submissive - bottom, who defers to the whims of their partner, an exclusive - and dominant - top.

and - unsurprisingly - topping ends up being associated with masculinity - and the personality traits and physical characteristics - above all a tall, muscular build - which are equated with that.

frail!harry seems to be most prominent - in my experience - in ships like tomarrymort, not so much because people really care about the implications of harry's characterisation, but because they're hugely opposed to the suggestion that characters like tom riddle would ever bottom [since - of course - they associate the act of being penetrated with femininity and femininity with weakness...]. great lengths have to be gone to, then, to emphasise that voldemort - or whoever else - is powerful and proud and authoritative and masculine and tall. and, for some reason, this is apparently incompatible with the idea that he might also like to get railed... which means that harry has to make sure nobody is in any doubt about who's the woman bottom by becoming as teeny tiny as he possibly can...

[prince-liest]

It's kind of a weird (not sure if good or bad or just neutral!) experience to realize that a lot of the personal headcanons I've written into my own writing have become well-known enough that they're treated as general fanon with a lot of people using them and not realizing that they, like, originated from a specific place rather than just being ambiently popular. Every once in a while I come across a fic where there's an AN that says something to the tune of, "Oh, I saw this popular headcanon that [insert something really specific from 666: Live On Air!] and wanted to[...]" without attributing it to me - or, most likely, even realizing that it came from me!

It's an interesting feeling! I think the times that actually bother me are when it's people that know they got the headcanon directly from me and choose not to credit me (or in one weird instance, credit me, then edit their stuff to bury the credit to be really hard to find for some reason - y'all, I do notice these things even when I don't comment on them).

I've been straight up plagiarized many times before. It's ranged from friends in RP groups stealing my characters because I wasn't using them often anymore, to more recently someone ripping out chunks of one of my Hazbin Hotel fics and rewriting it as their own. It's a uniquely horrible feeling, and I think it makes me sensitive to feeling uncredited as a result even when plagiarism isn't occuring. On the other hand, this is literally how headcanons evolve and I'm actually so fucking happy that specific things that I was outright nervous to post because I thought people would (and in a few cases, people did) react very poorly to them are now, like...fairly common fanon.

Anyway, I don't think it's wrong for people to carry forward headcanons to the point where they don't even know where they came from. I also think most likely some concepts became convergently popular when more than one person had the same thought! It's how fandoms work and I know for a fact I've done the same... but it does very much give me the warm and fuzzies when people that use my ideas do give a nod in my direction for where they got the inspiration! In return, I try to make a point to do the same.

[professional-rat-eater]

It is so interesting to me how popular something like Codywan has become.

It’s been in the top 100 ships on all of tumblr for at least the past two years, last year notably being the most popular Obi Wan ship and I think overall the most popular Star Wars ship (I may be forgetting someone), and I only remember because we obtained that iconic number 69 spot.

And all this over two people who we actually barely get to see interact.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll talk for days about the canon basis for Codywan because it does exist, but everything on top of that is completely fabricated by us and I think that’s kind of amazing. They did have an actual friendship, we just didn’t get to see it for more than thirty seconds at the time and it was always in the background of everything else happening in a show that ended four years ago.

And the fact that we were able to guess Cody’s actions in The Bad Batch (at least so far) based on fanon analysis is crazy.

I ship so many other things in Star Wars too and there’s always people there willing to talk to you about them. For all the issues with toxicity it has, which is to be expected from a fanbase this size, it’s can also be an incredibly cool place.

[nicercymybeloved]

Very attached to the idea that if Percy had been a woman she would have been named Ariadne. Like, I know that Persephone is a popular fanon name for female Percy because it's a nice way to keep her nickname. I've also seen Andromeda used by some because she lives a long life with Perseus in the myths. But Sally would have at least considered it right? Because Ariadne's a popular female figure in mythology, linked to both Theseus and Dionysus, two other famous figures in mythology. She was a clever mortal princess who was dealt a bad hand because her father's arrogance allowed him to think that he could get away with defying a god, just like how Poseidon's arrogance allowed him to think that he could get away with breaking the pact he made with Zeus and Hades. And in the end, Ariadne survived both her family's legacy and Theseus's abandonment, becoming Dionysus's immortal wife in both the PJO universe and in many retellings of the myth of the Minotaur and Theseus in real life. Ariadne got to live out her happy ending just like how Perseus did in mythology, which is the main reason why Sally even gave Percy the name Perseus to begin with. Am I delusional to think that Sally would have given a female Percy the name Ariadne? Who the fuck knows. But I'm so attached to the idea that it literally just supersedes any other name I could have come up with

[welivetodream]

✨ My BSD hot takes/unpopular opinions ✨:

1. Identifying BSD characters as Queer, is not problematic. STOP being so Heteronormative. Gay characters are not gonna kill you.

If I see another "BuT tHe ChArAcTeRs nEvEr SaId tHeY aRe GaY" I would bomb you 💣/j

2. Skk/SSKK/Fyolai/other popular ships, exist because people like it. If you don't ship them, don't engage with their content. Not all shippers act crazy and toxic. Stop blaming everything on shippers.

3. Atsushi/Kyouka is problematic, stop justifying it with "only 4 year age gap". Kyouka is a CHILD, ship her with Kenji if you want. Atsushi, like a normal 18 year old would never look at a highschool freshman and date her. Even if they date in the future, he knew her when she was younger and they had a sibling like dynamic. Lucy is a way better love interest to Atsushi (Don't know if this is an unpopular opinion tho, but I saw some people justifying it 😐😐😐)

4. DAZAI IS NOT EVIL. HE IS FAR FROM EVIL. He is, despite being super popular and the face of BSD, the most mischaracterized and villified character. Morally grey characters exist??!!!

5. Mori is a way worse person than Dazai ever was.

6. PM members get a free pass for any heinous crime they commit by being hot or babygirl-ified (still love them tho, we do not often discuss how bad their actions have been, you can like criminals and acknowledge they are criminals in fiction. I would add DoA to this too, but it's worse with the PM)

7. Akutagawa's abuse of Kyouka shouldn't be forgotten just because Dazai abused Akutagawa.

8. Mori emotionally manipulated and abused Dazai when he was a teen. Just because it wasn't physical, doesn't mean it was nothing.

9. Atsushi is NOT a soft boy, he is way bitter, salty and sarcastic than we give him credit

10. Poe is important to Ranpo and their friendship/relationship is wholesome as hell

11. Ranpo and Yosano's friendship is way better than them being in a relationship in the future

12. FukuFuku is better than Fukumori (imo!!!!)

13. Buying real authors work after watching BSD is actually a really good thing, since more Gen z kids (or other people) will read classics

14. There are layers to Atsushi and Akutagawa relationship/rivalry, and they have the MOST important relationship (not meaning romantic, just in general) in the entire canon.

15. Kunikida and Yosano could be a power couple

16. Fyodor is not a great villain (yet)

17. Nikolai CARRIES the DoA

18. Sigma shouldn't be in the ADA, he needs a happy home, family and some time to adjust to normal life

19. Q and Elise are both underused characters and could become a great dynamic

20. Ango deserves more love, the amount of pressure and stress he deals with is INSANE

21. It's OKAY if everyone joins the fandom for Dazai or skk (I did at first too!!)

22. Higuchi is annoying as hell. I do not get her hype, I like her but not as much as most people (just personal opinion, do not flame me 😭)

23. Everyone in The Guild is forgettable or boring (except Fitzgerald, Poe and Lucy. I like Louisa, but I forget her all the time)

24. Hetero ships are just not that great/interesting in BSD to me 🤷🏻‍♀️ (except maybe AtsuLucy or rare pairs) and female characters are not best utilised, I wish they play more major roles (can't wait for Agatha to arrive!!)

25. Some fan theories/arts get the story better than "canon" stuff at times. Fanon is NOT always the worst (sometimes enjoyable when the canon gets too dark or sad)

26. Toxic ships are okay in fiction as long as they are legal. Humans like toxic things, we consume it like junk food 💅🏻

(These are all personal opinions of mine and do not matter. Feel free to disagree. But, do not hate or be toxic!!!! 😇😇😇😇)

(PS: I compiled all these because of posts I have seen in, Reddit, Pinterest, Twitter and sometimes Tiktok. These aren't really abt you Tumblr folks. I meant to post this on reddit but did not have the courage or mental strength lol)

[rillils]

how do explain stucky from the moment they met to where they are now (together in each others arms) to my friend who knows nothing about marvel

ohh this is a tough one, honey! i think i've got two options for you:

the short answer:

stucky is a compendium of all the best tropes out there, and i'm sure i'm gonna miss a few:

soulmates? check! star-crossed lovers? check! battle husbands? super check! mutual pining? check! 'and they were roommates'? check! best friends to lovers? check check check! long-lost lover comes back from the dead? fuck yeah, check! temporary amnesia? check! dude in distress trope? check! 'they will always find each other and choose each other in every lifetime'? also check! identity porn? extra check! saved by the power of love? you guessed it: check! slow burn or childhood sweethearts? you decide!!! did they share their first kiss when steve was 16, as per a popular fanon theory? did they only confess their feelings during the war? did they only get together much later, when bucky was healing in wakanda? you can pick literally ANY point in their timeline, and it will still make sense! they're all equally valid! you can even have multiple different headcanons at once, i mean who's gonna stop you??? all you have to do is join in the fun! 💕

the long AF answer, aka:

STEVE & BUCKY'S LOVE STORY, UNABRIDGED SOMEWHAT ABRIDGED, part 1/3

all right, let's set the scene:

imagine two young kids, let's call them steve and bucky. they meet, they immediately take to each other, they become instant besties! and as they grow up together, facing many hardships, their bond deepens. not only are they best friends; they are also each other's family. they take care of each other, and they both know they can always rely on one another in times of need.

when steve's mom (and only remaining relative) passes away, bucky reminds him that he's not as alone in this world as he thinks he is: bucky will always be by his side. bucky will always love him unconditionally, will always be there for him, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, for richer and for poorer, and he wants steve to know that.

in fact, he asks steve to move in with him, thus offering steve both a literal and a metaphorical home.

and steve says yes!

SO. they are each other's home, they're living together, they're getting by all right. but then war breaks out, and eventually it reaches their little home as well: bucky is drafted, and steve, due to his many health issues, and despite his best intentions, can't follow the boy he loves onto the battlefield.

it's a very difficult time for them both - so much so that they can't even bring themselves to talk about it.

they have no choice but to say goodbye for now, knowing that they might never see each other again. but here's something you might not know yet about steve: he's the most reckless, most stubborn fucker america's ever seen. he's not gonna let this stop him!!! instead, he goes and gets a very sweet, kindly scientist to fucking experiment on him, because screw it, he's going to fight in this war if it's the last thing he does. and that's how he goes from Smol Steeb to Lorge Premium Steeb.

of course, things don't go exactly as he predicted, and steve is made to be the star of a war propaganda-fuelled musical kinda thingie, which he resents (but he looks fucking precious in his costume)

BUT! he does get closer to the actual battlefield. which is where he discovers that bucky has been captured by the enemy (!!!!!!!) and is most likely dead by now. but steve isn't willing to give up so easily! he'll believe bucky's dead when he sees it with his own eyes. so, he embarks on this suicide solo mission in the attempt to get bucky back, even if it means wandering on his own. into enemy territory. where he would be shot. on. sight. with no protection for his dumb ass except for a bunch of theater props!!! but such is the power of love, y'all.

against all odds, steve finds bucky very much still alive! and as soon as bucky recognizes him, even as confused as he is, he pulls out this beautiful, ecstatic, angelic-ass smile, like he's just seen god or he got high on some real good edibles or maybe both idk, like my man here was having a serious Religious Experience™ you guys

and i just wanna say, they could have totally kissed here and it would have made plenty of sense. but that's true of like 90% of their scenes in this franchise, so *shrugs*

ANYWAY steve takes bucky in his arms (well technically yes he does) and brings him to safety, and on their way there, bucky proves once more just how hard he meant that "with you til the end of the line" from before

afterwards, steve is finally given the chance to fight, just like he wanted.

bucky, on the other hand, could very well leave the war behind and go home; but when he learns that steve is staying, he chooses to stay too, and fight by his side. and he tells steve so in this very intimate, softspoken, delightfully suggestive conversation, which can be summed up like this:

and so they walk right back into the heart of the fight, only this time together, as they were always meant to be!

but. during an especially tricky mission, they're surprised by the enemy, and as a result, bucky falls to his death into a deep ravine.

steve is devastated. overwhelmed with guilt, grief and rage, he vows to bring down the people responsible for his loss, even if it costs him his own life.

and um, it kind of does? cost him his own life?

victorious after his last vis-a-vis with The Antagonist™, steve still chooses to sacrifice himself to prevent the catastrophe set into motion by the aforementioned Antagonist™. he's flying a jet over the frosty expanse of the atlantic, and you know, from the outside, you could easily argue that he could try to save himself. if he really wanted to. but with bucky dead, and the people responsible for all this pain, either dead or captured, it seems like all the will to fight is gone from steve; and so he plunges the jet straight into the ocean, and himself with it.

is this the end of their story?, you might ask.

the answer is: of course not!!!! the best is yet to come, babes!!!

EDIT: here is part 2

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

This probably isn’t the right place to ask, but is it normal to just feel a little uncertain about how you view the show now after hearing so much stuff about it or having seen a lot of fan material that elevate the source material?

It just feels weird to rewatch a little of the show that I kind of don’t do that anymore or let it play in the background.

That's super normal, especially in large fandoms where the fan content vastly outweighs the canon content. There are literally millions of words of Miraculous fic out there. You can read a new story a day and still have thousands left because there are currently 73K fics on AO3. That's over 200 years of fics! An episode a day will take you about half a year. If you're the kind of person who likes to read fanfic or participate in fan discussions, then it's not shocking that you're at risk of getting a warped view of canon because of the way fanon often works.

It's pretty common to see fanon go where canon never dared to tread. This can lead to an interesting disconnect between super fans and canon where popular fanon takes get treated like canon by fans as those takes just straight up consume the fandom. Then you go back to canon and it's jarring because you've spend so much time in fanon that you've internalized all that fanon, creating this alternate, idealized view of the source that has no real backing in the text.

You've got an Avengers logo as your profile pic and I was in that fandom for a while, so let's use that as an easy example. Avengers fanon is found family central! Fans love to bond the team because of course they do! Superhero teams generally should be found families! But canon never actually did that, so watching the movies after reading some fics can be disheartening because you're suddenly reminded that canon never gave us a found family. That's just in your head and the heads of many other fans.

Miraculous does this to an extreme with Ladynoir. Read some fanfics and you can internalize this idea that they're partners like no other with a close bond of love and trust. Then you go watch canon and it's like, oh, right, that never actually happened in the actual show. Ooops. Time to readjust my expectations for the new season.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's generally a reflection of people longing for something that the source will never give them so they go, "fine, I'll do it myself!" And can lead to wonderful things that bring us great joy because you're rarely alone in that longing! But if you're finding that kind of joy in fanon, I've found that it often - but not always! - means that you probably didn't like canon as much as you thought you did.

I know that I personally only seek out fan content when something about canon is lacking. I don't seek out fan content for works I adore because canon is giving me everything I want. Sometimes the thing that's lacking is pretty minor, sometimes it's a major flaw in the source. When it's a minor flaw, fanon is just there to patch a few cracks and I'm still happy to enjoy canon. When it's a major flaw or major flaws? Fanon is my canon now.

That "fanon is my canon now" take only becomes a bad thing when we start blaming the creators for not giving us the things we internalized from fanon, which can and does happen when the fanon disconnect becomes more extreme. Like when fanon takes a character and warps them into a new version of themself with only minor backing in the text. That's always an especially jarring thing to come across.

Miraculous isn't too bad about that one, but there are certainly popular fanon takes that don't come from canon like Marinette keeping the identities a secret because she's afraid that Chat Noir will be disappointed by plain old Marinette compared to the amazing and cool Ladybug. I don't think that's a huge stretch for a potential conflict, but it's got almost no backing in the actual text. Canon Marinette keeps her secret identity for safety reasons and she's generally pretty confident in her role as Ladybug. But if you've read a bunch of fics with secret-identities-only-exist-because-I'm-insecure Marinette and fallen in love with that concept? Then it's gonna be hard to watch canon and follow the actual conflict.

This was a bit of a ramble, but hopefully it was reassuring! I totally get where you're coming from and find it particularly hard for media that you genuinely loved at one point. I never loved Miraculous, but I had genuine hopes for The Avengers and still feel a little sad that the MCU never gave us any found family content outside of the opening of Ultron. It makes it less fun to rewatch even the good movies knowing that it will never deliver the things I was hoping for.

[ttrpg-life]

How the Game Works

Welcome welcome! Here are the basic rules of the game and explainations of the archetypes!

Basic Premise:

RPG Life is based on the Powered by Apocolypse system (specifically I've referenced Monster of the Week, the original Powered by Apocolypse, and Simple World).

It's a system that emphasises roleplay and simplicity. All you need is the basic rules, character sheet, and two, six sided die to play.

You roll the two dice, add them and any relevant stat together. 2-6 is a fail, 7-9 is a mixed success, while 10+ is a success.

Preferable you need 3-5 people to play like most ttrpgs. One player becomes the Game Master (or Watcher in our case) and plays as the world, NPCs, and the in game watchers. The rest of the players create characters with an archetype and an optional hybridization.

Archetypes:

There are (currently) 9 archetypes you can play as in RPG Life. Each one is based on a specific playstyle from the Life Series and popular fanon. In contrast to the Hermitcraft TCG, archetypes are based on how players interact with each other and the world around them rather specifc skills like redstone or building.

The archetypes focus on specific seasons rather than players as a whole.

For example, Grian could be The Loyal in 3rd life, The General in Last Life, The Survivalist in Double Life, The Trapper in Limited Life and so on.

Each archetype has stats and moves (or special abilities) that build your character, much like a class in Dungeons and Dragons. As you level up you can upgrade stats, get more moves from your archetype or a different one.

The Hustler

“I’m gonna need your pants”

What’s better than making deals? Nothing. Hustlers play this death game like they were born to, walking around groups of enemies without a care in the world and leaving with the clothes off their backs. They guide unsuspecting players into contests that lead to their deaths or smooth talk to safety. No matter what, the Hustler knows how to play people like a fiddle and they’ll do it to achieve their goals.

Life Series Characters that fit this role: Scar, Martyn, Tango, and Impulse

This archetype gets options like creating a signature hustle, talking your way out of bad situations, pretending to have better gear than you do, and having a keen eye to read people.

The General

“Me hand, I’m gonna ask ye for the first part of tonight’s test to do a terrible, terrible thing”

Power. That’s what people flock to when the chips are down. Generals lead a group of people to victory through reputation, a silver tongue, or pure strength. They gather in larger groups and delegate tasks to make sure things get done. They have responsibility to bolster their troops, keep order, and maybe sacrifice themself or others for the greater good.

Life Series Characters that fit this role: Ren, Gem, Skizz, and Grian

This archetype gets options like becoming stronger the more sanity you lose, building alliances faster and stronger, giving inspiring speeches for your allies, and stronger fighting when you're with your allies.

The Perceived

“You told me if I did everything you said, that there would be a place for us in the end.”

Something is watching. The Perceived have the unwelcome honor of having the watchers’ eyes on them constantly. They never lose the feeling that something is watching them just out of sight. Perceived players get a few consolation prizes from this attention, they understand the mechanics of the game more than the average player, and the watchers have left gifts of power that come at high costs.

Life Series Characters that fit this role: Martyn, Grian, and Scar

This archetype gives you a secret task given to you by the watchers, whether you are aware of it or not. Then, you have options like a sense of the supernatural, the ability to change dice rolls to affect the narrative, and stonger connection to the watchers.

The Loyal

“I know what’s gonna happen here. You’re gonna end up on the altar. I’m gonna be looking you in the eyes and they’re gonna sacrifice you. And I don’t want that, alright?”

Death is better than winning without them. The Loyal gains strength from helping their close knit group and will do anything to help them. They use this strength of conviction to overcome impossible obstacles, hold true to their sanity, and maybe even find small bits of joy in the games.

Life Series Characters that fit this role: Scott, Cleo, Skizz, and Etho

This archetype starts with a person you are loyal to above all else. Then you get options like the ability sacrifice yourself for your person, a way to harness memories of past lives to change the present, and a way to get back sanity points.

The Lonesome

“How did the guy with no friends win?”

Lone wolves are such a tragedy. In a game of loyalties and alliances, it’s only natural some would reject the status quo, or fall through the cracks. Lone wolves may have a variety of opinions about their situation, but they’ll make the most of it regardless. They will fight tooth and nail to get what they want, whether it’s victory or revenge, and bless the soul that tries to stop them.

Life Series Characters that fit this role: Joel, Scar, and Martyn

This archetype gets options like, fighting better when you're outnumbered, a better way to get secrets out of people to start rumors and gossip, better resource gathering, and a way to get information about the watchers.

The Deranged

“Call the dogs of war!”

The line between genius and insanity is a jump rope. The taste of blood sings to the Deranged longer before they're red. They can smell fear and hunt it. They call this death match a game for a reason and The Deranged revel in its chaos regardless of who might get in their way.

Life Series Characters that fit this role: Joel, Pearl, BigB, Martyn

This archetype get stronger the more insanity points you lose and something that is keeping you sane. You can sacrifice sanity points to save the thing you care about, like an ally, pet, or base, but doing so pushes you further and further off the edge. You also get options like improved fighting, intimidating presence, and an ability to remove sanity points from other people.

The Brawler

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

Punching people is stress relief. Brawlers are skilled in PvP and they know it. This is what they were built to do and others fear them for it. This takes not only physical strength, but strategy, and a reputation. That is what sets Brawlers apart from the rest.

Life Series Characters that fit this role: Gem, Martyn, and Joel

This archetype gets a signature weapon with special abilities. You also get options like doing extra damage and learning the weaknesses of other characters.

The Trapper

“I’m just gonna go big with this idea. You can laugh it off if you want to, but…what about ghast farms?”

Ah, I see you have fallen right into my trap. The Trapper is a commodity in the Life Games. These people use their technical skills and analytical thinking to create contraptions that make life easier for their allies and harder for everyone else.

Life Series Characters that fit this role: Mumbo, Etho, Joel, and Grian

This archetype gets options like a signature trap, a way to get back sanity, better ways to investigate, and more resources.

The Survivalist

"I just wish you were better at this game"

The only goal is to survive the day, and then the next, and then the next. Survivalists will lie, plot, run, hide, anything to live for another day. They are the cockroaches of the Life Series.

Life Series Characters that fit this role: Etho, Scott, Impulse

This archetype gets options like better healing, more inventory, better fighting against mobs and bosses, and an ambush attack.

Stats

There are 5 stats in RPG Life. Each stat is related to 1-2 basic moves that anyone can do and ranges from -1 to +3 max.

Grift: Charisma baby! This is the skill of understanding other people and getting them to do what you want.

Power: Strength and fighting prowess. Beat people up and gathering resources.

Cunning: Intelligent for those of you who are technically minded! This includes powers of observation and creativity building contraptions.

Escape: This stat represents your ability to act in tough situations and hide/get away from dangerous forces.

Weird: This is your connection to the watchers and ability to create magic like potions and enchantments.

Hybridization

This is an optional rule to make your own hybrid to play as. Mix and match a strength and a weakness depending on what type of hybrid you are.

For example

Avian Hybrid Strength: Flock/Herd instincts You build a nest/den in your base instead of a bed. When you nest together with a close ally (2+ alliance points) you both gain 1 sanity back. Weakness: Sensory Overload You are more sensitive to sound, light, touch, or smell. When in tense situations you must act under pressure to stay present and make moves.

This makes it so you can create hybrids that aren't as common or aren't categorized easily. You can start as a hybrid, become corrupted into one as you lose lives, or switch hybridization depending on the story you're telling and how much fun you're having.

Health and Healing

You have two health bars in this game! Health/hearts and sanity.

You have seven hearts of health each life. Once you get down to three hearts you're wounds are too great and start affecting your rolls until you heal. Taking 4+ damage in one hit also knocks takes one sanity.

You have six sanity as well. You can lose sanity a couple of different ways like losing a close ally, failing an enchanting roll, or dying. The more allies you have the less likely you are to lose sanity, so build relationships to stay stable.

This is to reflect the way some players in the series get bloodthirsty once they hit red, while others stay fairly level-headed.

There are very few ways to regain sanity, so be careful.

[allastoredeer]

manlyman al/uwu lucifer, buff al/skinny lucifer, lucifer in a drag with al dressed in a suit - all the same crap, it's also very noticeable how much of luci in dress with al in a suit there is and how little the other way around or when they both in dresses and also luci in dress? 10000+ likes, while rare alastor in dress? well, barely 1000 or 2000. Same with any reverse of usual fandom versions of them. Very telling if you ask me. Blond, short, goofy, did a sad face few times? Of course it's the one who's we gonna make a girly girl here and there's can be only one in our mlm ship 🙄 People want fanon charlastor but without charlie in it because she's actually a female

Damn, you came in swinging.

But, like...I see no lies here. It is kind of funny that people put Lucifer in dresses more than Alastor when Alastor literally wore a nun outfit in the show. It's such a shame too because with Al's long legs and slim waist, DAMN he'd look so good in dresses.

It is very telling that in every fandom space, with at least one pairing - usually a very popular one - one of two becomes a girly girl and the other a darker, menacing, and more intimidating manly man. There's nothing wrong with feminine male characters, nor them being in mlm relationship, but when it happens to every. Single. Ship. where the characters are stripped down to basic archetypes.... ಠ_ಠ

It really is funny, because going by what we've seen in the show, Alastor is so much more of a girly pop than Lucifer is. Him and all his little wrist flicks and sassy remarks.

I mean

Look at this guy

Look at him

LOOK AT HIM

LOOOOOOK AT HIMMMMMMMM

How can people see this man as a super serious big bad muscle daddy? I don't understand. He's so unserious. So full of whimsy. He's a clowning troll. And I'm telling you, look at that thin waist and those long legs. He'd look amazing in a dress.

This actually reminds me of a previous ask I got a while back. The topic was centered around some fans saying that Alastor would never bottom and the over all characterizations of him and Lucifer, and this line here sums it up perfectly:

"shows such a patriarchal-ly drenched heterosexual view of sex, that they then apply to a MLM ship that drives me INSANE."

Particularly, the drenched in a patriarchally heterosexual view. Having one man in a mlm relationship be more feminine than the other is totally okay, there is nothing wrong with that, and there are a lot gay relationships like that.

But the way a lot of radioapple is depicted feels weirdly heterosexual, and it's because of the behaviors and archetypes that get assigned to them. Lucifer becomes this teeny tiny, wide-eyed, awkward little waif and Alastor this big dark possessive boyfriend who's always looming over his shoulder and glaring at anyone who looks at Lucifer. It reads like every other cringy straight romance I've read. Add in the trope of Alastor drinking Lucifer's blood and it's basically "Twilight" set in Hell.

Okay, not to derail, but there was this one AU that I was obsessed with. It's a Hades/Peresphone AU for radioapple, and it sounded amazing, but there were so many depictions of Alastor as Hades and Lucifer as Persephone and I was just...

I was flabbergasted.

You have Lucifer, the king of Hell, the DEVIL himself, be the goddess of spring instead of the Lord of the Underworld. I'm....whut?!!?!?! Alastor is literally a deer, he would be perfect to play Persephone. That guy would be hunting down all the people poaching and harming his domain and making them suffer, and I can totally see Niffty as a psycho little nymph that tags along on his "hunting trips."

I've seen one or two au's where Alastor is Persephone and Lucifer is Hades, and they are glorious, but every time I see the opposite I feel like I'm taking psychic damage. A year of my life gets taken away. I fear I'll be on my death bed soon.

Also this line "People want fanon charlastor but without charlie in it because she's actually a female" it's so true to fandom it hurts, but it's so fucking funny, I'm wheezing

You ate with this ask 🤌

[bekolxeram]

Out of all the discourse, one thing puzzles me the most: people dissuading others from, borderline shaming them for, enjoying Tommy as a character or his relationship with Buck because of his perceived lack of screen time.

When has the duration of a character's appearance become the sole indicator of their quality? Anyone remember Figwit from LOTR?

He was on screen for 3 whole seconds, among other extras no less. Some viewers noticed him, they liked his vibe, they enjoyed looking at this gorgeous dark-haired elf even more than Legolas, so they made a fansite for him. Fans started inventing backstory, writing fanfics, making fanarts about him, and his popularity ballooned from there. So much so that Peter Jackson brought him back for the 3rd film, with a line this time. That was pre-HBO Flight of the Conchords fame Brett McKenzie we're talking about, he was basically just a random kiwi at the time. That is how fandom has always worked, in 2001 or in 2024.

Tommy shows up for waaaay more than 3 seconds, although a lot of stuff was only implied, possibly due to the time restriction, he is an important part of S7. This is also exactly what makes him refreshing: the unknown. It's not only fun to speculate in fanon, it's also interesting to explore in canon.

What happened between him and his father? What was it like working under G*rrard while closeted, having to lie about yourself all the time? What happened post-G*rrard during the 118 orphan era when they could only rely on one another, how did he end up as such good friends with Chimney and at least friendly with Hen? What prompted him to join Air Ops, essentially paying out of his pocket to put his career on hold for 2 years, shortly after Bobby's arrival as captain, did he have something to do with it? How will the 118 interact with Tommy now he's back into their lives?

It also opens up a whole new set of dynamics for Buck. His job was a source of conflict for his previous relationships, now he's dating a fellow firefighter, how will it pan out? It's also the first time he's dating someone who has prior relationships with the 118, someone he makes the conscious decision to actively (and quite aggressively) pursue.

I for one thoroughly enjoyed Tommy's presence in S7, his lack of screen time comparing to the mains only left me wanting for more.