#i think its fine for people to go off canon and explore different things with splinter

[purplepixel]

Rise splinter is my fav bc HE IS FLAWED. This is why he's the most interesting splinter to me. Unlike other iterations, hes not "the wise one" who always knows what's best. Not to throw shade at other splinters, I'm just saying he's more of a character in rise than just the mentor figure. And I love him for that. He arguably got the most character development in rise

No but like every time I think about Splinter and what he had to go through just to keep the boys alive, my heart hurts for him so badly. Is he perfect? No not at all, but none of them are and by god does he love his sons.

The fact that all of them are alive, and grew to thrive despite the circumstances surrounding them is a testament of how much Splinter loves his boys. He raised four babies following the most traumatic time of his life, all alone with nothing but the sewers to house them (to hide them.) I feel like he’s not given the credit he deserves for all he’s done.

And I get that it’s easy to hold up his flaws and faults when it comes to parenting, I myself like looking into them because flawed characters are super interesting and said flaws make them more realistic and engaging, but he tries, and again, so many others would have given up on the boys or failed along the way but Splinter didn’t.

He’s their father, for all his faults he did his damndest to make sure they survived.

[perseidlion]

On Fanon vs Canon

Look, full disclosure: I hate the name Thomas for The Cat King. I think it's a far too human a name for him, and it takes away from his otherworldliness.

Fandom seems to have attached to the pre-release casting announcement where he was briefly called that and well, fandom's gonna fandom. This would just be a me problem except for the fact that people are acting like the name is confirmed in canon.

I've seen posts from a number of people who think it IS canon due to its ubiquity of use in fandom spaces. They just assume they missed something in the credits of the show, or a version of him existed in the comics where he's called Thomas (there isn't, he's original to the show.)

Now look, this might not seem like a big deal, but I think it IS a problem. I know I might seem biased as a Thomas-name hater, but honestly I'd hate the name just as much if it WERE confirmed canon. I don't hate it because it's non-canonical. I hate it because I don't think it's a good name for him.

The problem comes from when fanon and canon bleed together where it's hard to tell the difference. Where fandom has collectively decided they like certain ideas or tropes and that it fits well with the show. This kind of thing is completely harmless as long as everyone keeps in mind that we're just playing around with fanworks. But when there's slippage...

I've seen it happen in a different fandom where people got deep into their own personal interpretations of characters and dynamics. A lot of people agreed with that vibe and started building off each other. It got pretty far from the source material, but these people felt like they had the right of it. It all made such logical sense to them and they'd spent so much time exploring an avenue in fanworks that it felt inevitable that their interpretation WOULD be canon.

And then a new season came out and not only did it NOT match their fanon, it directly contradicted their interpretation and in some cases proved it completely false.

People got VERY angry and started attacking the show for being "badly written" and accused the showrunner and writers of "betraying" them. When nothing in their fanon was promised or confirmed by canon in the first place, and some of the things they felt were inevitable were SO off what we'd seen on the show that it would have made no sense if their thing had happened.

Then these people turned on their fellow fans who pointed out the things they wanted were never inevitable, and in some cases would have made no sense. And then fandom got toxic.

I don't want to see this happen to the DBD fandom. The way to avoid that is to guard against the slippage between fanon and canon.

There is ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong with playing around in the sandbox of the show's world. That's the point of fanworks, and the fun of it. But we need to let go of this desire to be "right" about canon and that our interpretations are only valid if they are confirmed on screen. And we need to pay attention to the difference between what we see on screen and what makes sense/what we'd like to have happen.

Thomas lovers, you loving that name will not be diminished if he's never actually given that name. And my hate of the name will remain even if it's proven canonical. It's fine! It's not a big deal. Canon and off-canon are both extremely valid types of fandom expression.

Just...keep in mind that canon is canon and fanon is fanon. Sometimes fanon is proved right, but it is not inevitable. And the creators of a show don't owe it to us to do something just because fandom has decided they want X thing.

It starts with a name but can lead to other things if we're not careful.

[linkspooky]

Hey. Long time follower here. Your metas, your discussions of "bad victims", your nuanced view of heroes and victims, your favoritism towards "losers"...not only did you heavily influence my own writing and my own favorites in different medias (I'm entirely blaming you for me being a Makima stan) but you helped through an extremely dark time in my life. I don't think that you just made me a better writer, you also sort of saved my life. I'll always be grateful for that.

There's something I want to ask. You answered to another ask that you don't regret reading MHA because focusing on what doesn't work about it made your writing stronger. Do you feel the same about Homestuck? Or about the more disappointing parts of Tokyo Ghoul (and, while we're being candid here, Avatar?).

Thank you for your compliments they're very encouraging to read.

At this point this blog is becoming the bad victim lovers support group where we all hug each other and cry over how MHA is treating all of its bad victims.

HOMESTUCK: Honestly, my main problem with Homestuck is that ACT 6 was so long and uneventful full of characters not doing anything that by the end of it the only character I was invested in was Vriska. ACT 6 also did go out of it's way to kill my enthusiasm for everything I liked in ACT 5, especially John Vriska. I've never seen a comic throw out all of its previous development that the audience was invested in and like everything that was foreshadowed - oh wait My Hero Academia. Unfortunately Vriska is an all-time-fave so I still write Homestuck Fanfic about her to this day. I used to like think the finale of Homestuck was one big "meh" but after years to reflect upon it, I do like Vriska's arc ending on a final note of Terezi searching for her in the void, possibly forever, and the ambiguity of whether they'll reunite.

TOKYO GHOUL: I remember being mad about Kaneki getting a happy ending that he didn't earn. Kaneki was a character that really frustrated me for a long time, but I came to realize that if you like remove Kaneki from his group of codependent enablers he's actually a really interesting character when he's alone. So he's a character I love to explore in fic, even if I disliked what they did with him in canon. Also, Tokyo Ghoul killed off its biggest victims Furuta and Rize in a really cruel way, but it didn't kill off every single victim so it just disappoints me instead of making me sick to my stomach like MHA does.

ATLA: I actually think the Avatar the Last Airbender ending is fine. Which like, isn't saying much because I think the Season 1 finale and Season 2 finales are some of the best things ever put to television. The worst sin that the ending does is number one lack of foreshadowing in earlier in the season and number two rushed plot points. Aang not wanting to kill the Fire Lord makes sense. I think the reason a lot of people criticize this and call it an ass pull is that it's not even BROUGHT UP until the finale. Vash the Stampede is pacifist and one of my favorite characters, but it's established from episode 1 that Vash is constantly up against people who want to kill him and he either has to run away or find a way to fight back nonlethally. Azula's insanity and mental instability could have been a thing, but it's not foreshadowed at all so all it ends up doing is conveniently nerf Azula for Zuko, and also being ableist. The worst problem is while there are epic fights it doesn't feel like an ending, because everyone's character arcs are 3/4ths of the way through. ESPECIALLY ZUKO's. Like people say Zuko is acting out of character in the comics, but I think Zuko is the only person in character in the comics because that's how Zuko without a proper end to his character arc would act. It really feels like they had plans for a fourth season that they didn't get, and their solution was to cram an entire season worth of development in everything post the eclipse on season 3. The fact that Azula is left as such a hanging thread is like proof of that, and the fact that Azula's last shot in the series is just her crying and screaming with like no follow up afterwards is something I've been bitter about for fourteen years.

I could write an entire post about how Zuko's redemption arc is unfinished though. It's like the same problem as Catra. I like both characters and I'm glad they got redeemed but they crammed in the entire redemption arc into 1/2 of the last season and that simply wasn't enough time.

[phoenixyfriend]

This was on a reblog of a fic concept someone added one of my posts but I decided it was risking backlash against the person, and also it ended up half vent post, so just tucking it into its own little post here instead.

I'm glad you're enjoying this, but... Okay, actually, I'm really sorry but this goes against what I was thinking with this post in a lot of ways. I know you didn't intend any malice, but I just. I cannot not talk about this right now. I need people to know to just... not do this to my posts. Because it keeps happening.

I do know which "the younger person should be the sugar daddy, like they made an app or something" post you're thinking about, and i'ts a good post, but that is 100% an Obikin plot. Cody is not a guy to make a super successful app. That is an Anakin thing. In that respect, this is an Obikin fic in Cod*Wan clothing. I mean, I've talked about wanting people to do more Obikin plots in Cod*Wan, but that's about exploring the age difference and power dynamics, not Cody Is A Tech Whiz.

A billion is too much. The only, only ethical ways to get to billionaire status are 'lottery' and 'relative I never heard of just died and left me everything.' In both cases, the only ethical way to proceed is to invest enough to live off of comfortably, and donate the rest. If an app makes that much money? The app is screwing someone over.

I also cannot imagine Obi-Wan in the financial industries sector unless he absolutely loathes his job or is an auditor who delights in making Rich People's Lives Miserable. Better option would be that Obi-Wan is the president of a charity that Cody partners with, like the CEO of a Free Housing For The Homeless initiative or a big name lawyer in an activist lobby for environmentalism or something. This might just be my "I am a business major who hates the business major norms" and look at financial services industry types with uhhhh distaste. If he's a financial advisor, it is for a nonprofit. At most, he is part of a company that specializes in helping rich people funnel their money into charitable ventures.

This also just doesn't fight my envisioning of either Obi-Wan or Cody.

I do need to throw in that my first thought reading this was my Codakin version where Cody wins the lottery and Anakin is the sugar baby. It's not that similar, but the vibes were there (for me).

Finally, it's just... the point of this post is that I find it frustrating when people make Cody the same age because I find it disingenuous to flatten the power dynamic. Some people do it fine, are multi-shippers who are as honest about Cod*Wan as they are with something like Obikin. If they have one fic where Cod*Wan are the same age with no power diff, and another where the power dynamic is flipped, and a third where the power dynamic is as in canon and just explored as necessary, that's fine.

But with the number of Cod*wan (and Barr*ssoka, which is full on NOTP for me as a direct result of this behavior, despite having a canon age diff of 4yrs) folk that have talked shit to and about me and mine for doing something similar with ships like Rexsoka or Obikin... The amount of shit I've had to deal with for shipping Rexsoka for adjusting ages in a modern AU, coming from people who do the same thing with Cod*Wan, is the driving force of this post. It's basically this: If I don't get to change the ages a bit to make things palatable, then neither does anyone else.

This is not just about the age difference. It's about looking at canon and going 'if you guys are going to give me shit for my ship, then play it straight on your end. What does it look like when you're honest about the power dynamic?

There is a reason my first suggestion is Cody having a crush on his boss.

The intent was always that Obi-Wan is the sugar daddy, because Obi-Wan is the General. Because Obi-Wan is the one with power. Because Obi-Wan is the one with control.

Because this post was about "if I don't get to change my ships to make them less problematic, then neither does anyone else."

Also because I just find a lot of Cod*Wan fics to be OOC, and not in the fun way.

[hellsingmongrel]

So, bit of ramblings on my Post-Trimax Wolfwood headcanons.

Man, one of my favorite tropes in media is a character who's spirit lingers on after they've died, but it's usually something you only see in fanfic, so I cannot get over how FUCKING FERAL I was when I realized that it was legit a thing in Trimax, and that Wolfwood was the one we actually got to see, legitimately talking to the people he'd left behind and confirming that ghosts in the canon weren't just hallucinations or something! Like yeah, we saw Tessla leading the boys to her body, but since her ghost was never mentioned again, it could have easily have been written off as a fluke, right?

NOPE. They are real and they linger after to watch over the people they care about or to send messages to the people who are still alive! And the fact that the character who had just wormed his way into being just as beloved to me as my favorite character (Which NEVER happens, I usually only have enough brain cells for one at a time!) and that we had just had our hearts ripped to shreds watching him die was also the one we got to know had definitely stayed behind to watch over the people he loved just makes me SO HAPPY! I rp that asshole from time to time, and I just love exploring the implications of it!

I play him like he's been there a LONG TIME. When he died, Rem was there, watching over Vash, but when Knives spent the last of his energy, she chose to move on with him, now that she knew Wolfwood would be there to keep watch over Vash, and he took it SERIOUSLY. He's been waiting so long, he's lost his sense of time, he thinks it's only been a couple decades when it's been CENTURIES. And the time has softened his own trauma, he's gone from being surly and angry and defensive to being at peace and finding comfort in the fact that its allowed him to see more of Vash's life than he ever would have been able to live long enough to see when he was alive. And it's given him time to notice just how unwell Vash is, how broken he is, watching over him when he thinks he's alone and lets himself break down.

But it's also made Wolfwood a bit unwell in his own way; as time went on and the people he knew in life began to pass away, too, his interest in paying attention to what the people around them were doing wained, and his dedication to watching over Vash until it was his time to pass on became a strange sort of dependence. He loses his sense of self, in a way, until the most important thing in his existence is being there for Vash, waiting for him, having long-since accepted that when the time comes, it'll be over and he's alright with that.

He's happy, but to the perspective of a living person, it would seem TWISTED in a way. He still thinks he's a damned soul, stealing more time than he's allowed and only damning himself further by doing so, and he just knows that when he gets to walk Vash into whatever comes after for them, they'll be separated again, for the last time, and there won't be any coming back from it that time, because Vash is too good, too kind, too HOLY to ever be damned. But it's fine. Wolfwood knew he was damned long before his death, and time has just given him the chance to make peace with it and simply be happy with the fact that at least he'll be able to be with Vash when he can move on to wherever good people go at the end. And yet when it happens, Vash feels the same way about himself, so certain that he's the one who's damned, and their reunion is wonderful and painful and terrifying for both of them in different ways.

He's even worse with interacting with people, once he's forced to interact with the living. I play Wolfwood in a game where he stumbles into revealing himself after spending centuries never letting himself be seen, and he worries that going "silent" again will upset people. He's spent centuries being a silent shadow, certain that letting Vash know he was there would only cause more suffering for an already unwell mind, so he's forgotten how to interact with tact, blurting out whatever pops into his head because he's only had himself to talk to for all that time. He hurts people without meaning to, begins to suffer from the crisis of worrying that no matter what he does, he's a burden to the people who mourn him, he doesn't belong, his existence is nothing but a constant reminder of what's coming and will only cause the people around him pain. He's both able to be the kind, caring, loving person he might have been if the Eye of Michael had never taken him from the orphanage, and also a HUGE, ANXIOUS WRECK.

And the thing that makes it all worse for him is the fact that when he was dumped into the game I have him in, he was separated from the Vash of his timeline, and now lives in constant fear that he'll never see him again, that he won't be there when he passes on and there won't be anyone to greet him on the other side, alone and never knowing that he was waiting for him. He made a promise to Rem that he'd watch over him for her, that he'd lead him to his final destination where he could be with his family again, and now that he's lost that, what purpose does he have? He's terrified to let go himself, worried he'll pass onto the other side when Vash was right around the corner, but the thought of lingering without finding him again, missing his chance to be there for him when it's his turn, leaves him in an almost constant state of almost-panic.

I also just think it's kind of sweetly poetic, if in the end, he chose to continue the role he'd been forced into; take Vash where he's supposed to be. Only this time, it's his choice, and it won't be to his death. He wants to guide him to where he knows people are waiting for him, where he'll finally be happy and be at peace. He doesn't mind the fact that he's going to Hell, so long as he was able to be the one that leads Vash to the place where he won't have to be in pain ever again.

[jtl-fics]

Hey, no need to respond to this, truly, but I just had to say something. Feel free to ignore and I won’t bother you about this again, but it makes me uncomfortable how you portray Riko as this traumatized kid who just needs love&attention in your writing when he is canonically an abuser. He nearly beat Jean to death and ordered other Ravens to rape him. He broke Kevin’s hand and tried to emotionally abuse him into returning to him. He helped Drake cross state borders while he was being investigated for child sexual assault and pointed him at Andrew. He paid Proust to assault Andrew. He tied Neil to a bed and tortured him. He killed Seth. Yes, his backstory is tragic but he is an abuser. And it’s uncomfortable reading about how his victims should feel sorry for him bc now they’re older and more mature and Riko “was a kid”. I recognize you have the right to write what you want, I just wanted to tell you how it reads. I’m not trying to be mean or harass you & I won’t send anything else other than this. And do not post this to the public if you don’t want to! Seriously, I’m not trying to be mean or hurt your feelings, you’re a great writer and I don’t believe you meant anything malicious or were trying to communicate what I took from how you wrote Riko, just that that’s how it comes off.

Hey, I am going to respond to this just because I want to be clear that I am writing Riko very very aware of the fact that he has done things in the books that make me really dislike / hate him as a person. Still, as a character there are things I want to explore with him y’know?

Especially from people who he really has no power over at this point. Especially from people who he did use to have power over at one point.

Some of this might be coming across a certain way just due to the fact that I had some ideas earlier on in the writing of these that I've discard. Such is the nature of a WIP. The other part is that a lot of the snippets are missing broader context. Such is the nature of a Snippet.

Either way you're fine to be uncomfortable with that and to not like how I'm writing it but I do just want to cover generally how I'm approaching Riko in the 2 AUs I'm really treating him differently than canon.

In the Math Nerd AU I want to explore a Neil who is a lot older and who still, honestly, hates Riko. He hates him and would love to watch him sink into the pits of hell once again.... but he's also a Neil who has grown a lot since he was 18-19 and dealing with Riko the first time around. He's a Neil who not only benefited from but now truly and absolutely believes in the power of giving someone a chance. Wymack has had that level of influence on his thinking.

He was a Captain and stayed close with the Foxes and Wymack over the years. He has seen all of the kids that Wymack gave 2nd chances to.

Some of them deserved that second chance and they utilize it.

Some of them deserved that second chance and failed to utilize it.

Some of them didn't deserve those second chances and did utilize it.

Some of them didn't deserve that second chance and proved that they didn't deserve it.

Wymack still offered it to all of them and he didn't always like those kids but Wymack still did his best to help them. Neil thinks Wymack died with his only regret being that he didn't have a chance to drink the pricey bourbon they'd gotten him and that he wouldn't get to call Kevin after his games.

Neil WANTS / NEEDS / CRAVES that peace of mind for reasons I'm not going to touch on here because it doesn't involve Riko.

I have decided on a few things that are different from the initial description, such is the nature of a WIP.

Its not quite clear in the snippets because hey they’re snippets and not the full story and honestly I’ve avoided doing these snippets from Neil’s POV. All Neil is doing right now? He’s offering Riko a chance and that's it.

What Riko does with that chance I haven’t touched on at all. Neil is offering a Riko an opportunity to stop before he sinks his own ship and Neil won't even toss a life preserver because watching him drown was immensely personally satisfying to Neil last time. What he wants is the certainty that there was no redeeming Riko, that there was no excuse, and that he's totally normal for thinking about how Riko looked the night he died with warmth. If Riko proves him wrong? If all Riko really did need was someone he had no power over to treat him like a person and not a commodity?

It'd be the ultimate proof that anyone can benefit from a second chance, that Wymack was always right to offer it. He'd be okay with that too.

I also want to explore what Neil can gain by delaying the satisfaction he got the first time around by outright telling Riko to just fuck off. How playing it a bit nicer / smarter with Riko means that the Foxes are safer and also gives him the opportunity to protect other people he has had a hand in saving. Andrew was the first person that Neil saved when he went back in time, but he wasn't the last. Neil also wasn't always successful in saving some people despite his foreknowledge.

Again, nature of the WIP and nature of the Snippet were not everything is here since I sure as hell am not writing this in order with the snippets but I am going to touch on it in a WIP Wednesday ask pretty soon, probably once I finish this beast / make myself dinner.

For New Kings it's a lot easier since mostly I'm treating Riko as a joke. Someone who wants to be a threat, who remembers being terrifying to these Foxes. Except now he...just kind of isn't. He has no power over any of them. Like Nicky said, he's seen home loans scarier than Riko is at this point.

It really is them just seeing someone they remember being so huge and threatening and scary and…..its just this sad sack 20 something playing at being God because he’s good at a sport. Honestly, in comparison to what some of them got up to later? He's not even that good.

They won’t take him seriously because why the fuck should they? That would just feed into his already insane ego. In my experience there’s nothing that upsets an abuser more than his once victims just won’t give him any power over them. (Again its the nature of the snippet in that its not the full picture and I haven’t even covered Riko’s reaction to the Fox’s dismissal of him as a threat in all its unhinged glory nor Renee's grand theft Moreau.)

STILL, if that isn’t something you want to read then please just add the tags #Math Nerd AU and #New Kings AU or ME (jtl-fics & justthislazy) to a block list. I'm religious about tagging so if you still want to read other stuff then just blacklisting those tags will keep you safe.

I can add Riko Moriyama as a tag on the parts that involve / mention him if you still want to read the snippets that don't include him.

I’m not out here to make someone uncomfortable but I do want to explore these things in my writing. It might change the further I go but it might not so please proceed at your comfort level.

Thank you for writing to me with your concern and I’m more than happy to accommodate with tags if you wanna message me.

Still, like you said, I'm going to write what I want.

[enemywasp]

OMFG A PROSHIPPER !!+! SAME BUT I HAVE TO HIDE MY IDENTITY BC EVERYONE HAS DNI PROSHIP IN BIO LIKE WHY?????

UMMMMM ..... Rant bc it's so rare to find a kindred spirit in this shitty immature ""war""

it fr just means i believe we should ship and let ship??? why is the "i don't judge u for your preferences" thing seen as bad idfk like. it's fucking fiction.

if it's problematic then I don't condone it irl. but I'm human. I have curiosities and shit. Like,, ppl don't listen to true crime bc they condone murder and ppl don't go calling true crime fans murderers. so WHYYYY is shipping any different, in fact it's b e t t e r bc at least fiction. isn't. real.

like why tf is what i ship anyone else's business??? unless it's bc we have smthn in common to bond over, why tf do ppl care abt the ships we don't have in common.

istg ship wars are crazy af and this whole pro- anti- ship shit is just another way to try to control smthn that doesn't need controlling.

it's like U said no one fucking cares abt it irl and the damn DEATH THREATS ppl get over **not giving a damn what other people ship** instead of being the fucking fandom shipper police or smthn is disgusting and i hate that im never allowed to talk abt this w/out ppl hating me and calling me a disgusting monster.

why can't I just do what I fucking want when in my own privacy while not causing any harm???

like ppl are so damn delusionalllllllll!!!!.!.!.!

-> some proshippers just mean they support any and all ships bc fiction is fiction

-> some proshippers ship "problematic" ships and that is FINE because it is NOT REAL and THEY ARE NOT HURTING ANYONE and i meannnnm ppl are curious right. they gonna explore alien concepts some way or another. why tf would ppl stop them from exploring it in a safe. healthy. fictional. harmless. way.

why is it that it's okay to consume problematic content but not okay to ship problematic ships?? literally what is the fucking difference ships are a subgenre of content.

if you think it's okay to be a fan of lotr or american psycho or some shit then it is damn hypocritical to say it isn't okay to ship something problematic. same thing if you think it's okay to stan/simp for a villain character.

it's only even called ~problematic~ bc that's how the relationship would be if it were real. which it isn't. so it isn't fucking problematic bc it's fictional content and the ppl shipping it do not condone the irl versions.

also sidenote,,, why tf are proshippers and multishippers grouped together in the dni stuff?? they are not related. a multishipper just. ships the same character w/ more than just one (1) other character. how is that problematic too?????

okay sorreryyyyyy i just have so many thoughts on this that im never allowed to share pls feel free to let this one collect dust in the inbox. or just straight up delete it lol.

Do not apologise! I love a good rant!

If you want to interact with proshippers more the tags "proshipper", "proshippers pls interact" and "proship positivity" are usually very nice and lots of wonderful people post there!

And you could always make a side account for proship stuff if you want to be able to take a break from the intense pro vs anti stuff if and when it gets too much, whilst still having a place to enjoy that stuff.

Honestly I think a lot of the issue is people seem to take the word "ship" as their ideal relationship. Less so than a dynamic they enjoy in fiction. But I don't know, I can't pretend to understand the mind of antis.

Proshippers and multishippers getting clumped together is probably linked to the idea that a ship is a pairing you want to see canon and shows actually pandering to ship wars lately. Or maybe people are just weird!

Everyone takes shipping way too seriously now and acts like a fictional pairings existence will romanticise the topic and brainwash kids. My general rule is that its for fun, who cares ?

And feel free to rant in my inbox whenever! It's always open to anyone. Glad you could get that off your chest :)

[rodimissliveblogs]

Yknow. Off of a post I reblogged to my main. Thinking about how the Grey Wardens are the only main Veilguard faction that the devs let be fucked-up and insane and how I think that substantially weakens the world. They want to have their cake and eat it too with Lords of Fortune being "pirates but nice". They ignore everything Zevran established about the Crows. When I read Eight Little Talons in Tevinter Nights, and then later heard that Teia and Viago would be in this game, I thought that would be a really fun opportunity to explore Teia's idealism regarding the Crows - she calls Caterina "Nonna", she considers the Crows her family - versus the ugly reality of them. But. no.

And even the wardens! Antione and Evka very clearly say that what they do - administer the Joining for infected people and then don't make them join - is against the order. I give them that. It's still established they shouldn't do that, and I grant the game that. Wardens doing things against the order is also something I love to explore. I am fine with Antione and Evka. But Davrin says he just walked up to the wardens and asked to join - he says that any criminal/person running from their past can just go join the wardens. The wardens don't take just anyone! Anders has to beg Stroud to take a dying Hawke twin! Is it different in the Anderfels?? I feel like saying that gives the game an excuse that it doesn't actually even care about having. I feel like that gives it too much credit.

(I was gonna make a complaint about Valya saying that she was recruited to the order but left before taking her Joining, but I just checked the wiki and apparently that is canon to The Last Flight, so that's been locked in for ten years, and is also due to particular circumstances. Okay. I'll accept that one.)

Anyway. I think they needed to let the factions be fucked up and insane. They can still be likeable despite that! I like Isabela, and she nearly let the Arishok burn down Kirkwall because of her actions (and in fact can just never bring the tome back if she doesn't like Hawke enough!). I liked Teia and Viago in Eight Little Talons, even with all the fucked-up Crow lore from Zevran running in my head! They chose to shave down all of the edges of their factions and the larger worldbuilding and that very seriously hurts the game. I have fun with it on its own, but when I start thinking about it in the context of all that came before, I start frothing at the mouth in anger.

[arcann]

if you don't mind me asking what FFXIV classes do you like in terms of gameplay/fun to actually play versus ones that are fun for the story/characters; taigat related or not

Taigat is canonically a conjurer (... just a conjurer), dragoon, dark knight, red mage and reaper. He won't ever be a ranged dps because he's missing an eye.

My top favorite classes by just their gameplay are reaper, red mage, dancer and sage. I like playing all roles of the triad! They can all be fun but tbh I don't like all classes.

For gameplay, I enjoy warrior very much because it's a no brainer and you can just rush through dungeons without the help of a competent healer esp by level 90. Dark knight and gunbreaker are also very fun but they do requiere more attention. I never adapted to paladin because it feels like a hot mess. It got a rework like a year ago and it's still pretty annoying.

I agree that dark knight is the best job storyline as it is the accepted general opinion. Gunbreaker is nice but too short. Things they tried to explore are explained way better in a different raid mission (Bozja). It also had a random dark knight garlean duskwight villain that came out of nowhere and they said he was as poweful as gaius which was super random and ooc for garleans to recruit a guy like that. Warrior is mid but it takes a turn for the worst when the mentor gets introduced to The Girl tm and they fall in love (heterosexual af despite the girl being a better warrior than him). Paladin is the worst, I know you didn't like the gladiator part and tbh it just introduces more and more annoying characters and very little of it's lore is worth it. They completely leave out ishgardian knights in favor of uldans 💀

I love healing too except maybe astro. It's enjoyable and very pretty but some parts of the rng are annoying and it's always getting reworks. It will probably get another one in dawntrail. Sorry to the people who main it if that happens. Sage is my favorite and I find white mage and scholar very fun too.

I love the white mage's npcs they're very cute to me especially Sylvie and Gatty. E-Sumi-Yan is one of my favorite mentors as well. I've mentioned it before but Taigat ran the whole whm story but only to help Sylvie and the Senna twins. The rest are fine. Just fine. Scholar and Astro give some neat lore tidbits but tbh I'm not that interested in them. Sage has you running around with a sharlayan cop catgirl so several points will be taken off bc of that.

The only caster I like for its gameplay is red mage. I know black mage players enjoy how much freedom they get to make their own rotations but I just don't see it, also it changes a lot depending on the level you're in. Summoner got reworked in ew and now it's a no brainer (Sasha has a lot more to say about these changes, I just didn't experience it when it wasn't like this) and like I get no braining tanking with warrior bc I'm pulling all the heat and still living but. just clicking 5 buttons without worries? While nothing is chasing me? Not for me. Red mage is super fun and sexy. This is a good mix of melee attacks and ranged magic. I wish paladin would approach it a bit but tbh I don't imagine how. Blue mage doesn't really count and I haven't played through it but it feels like a hassle.

Thaumaturge's plot is pretty funny because you see how fucking pathetic those lalafell siblings are. I made it so that Taigat goes through it post ew but just so he can go "you're all freaks i'm stealing something from your house". Dyulgor did the black mage storyline decades before ARR happened. It's interesting and it has a moon keeper conjurer who doesn't trust you and it was cool to think there was still enmity between black and white mages but they kinda ruined him a bit by making him have a crush on our lalafell mentor. Some beast tribe members are also important here but tbh they act to much like caricatures and it's sometimes annoying. Summoner introduces a lot of interesting lore about your relationship with the primals and allag + you hang around with y'shtola's half sister and she's very neat + the ascians are one of the main villains which is unique outside of the msq. The red mage storyline has voidsent and weird implications about getting close to vampirism with this class which gets an automatic 10 from me. The mentor is a really nice catdilf from ala mhigo who fought long ago, before and during the garlean conquest. He's also Alisaie's mentor and he will mention her a couple of times. Blue mage sounds fucking awful and that's all I'm saying.

Dancer has a very unique rotation and even if parts of it are rng based I can't complain because you're mainly support and you're there to buff other teammates. Machinist is fine even if I don't like certain attacks where you have to stand still or else you'll interrupt your attack. Bard's rng is a mess right now and in lower levels your rotation feels very incomplete which is pretty unsatisfying.

Dancer's story is really bad and like gunbreaker, too short to explain anything introduced there well enough. It would have been better to give them something to do in Thavnair. Machinist makes you spend a lot of time in Ishgard and I think that's great but I didn't care much about what happened. I'm glad the mentor kicked nobles' butts though. Archer is kinda rancid bc it's about a racist elezen learning that maybe moonkeepers are people and still being super rude around them. Bard has this two mid looking white guys so ofc there's a section of the fandom that is obsessed with them but I don't care for them. Moogles give you your job stone and they're involved so that is a plus.

Tbh I like all of the melee classes' gameplay. It traumatized me a bit that I wasn't playing dragoon right for a long time but I recovered. I probably don't remember all the rotations that well on account of not practicing lol.

I like Foulques way too much to let him die so like you I make him older and changed his background quite a bit. He does have a competitive relationship with Taigat but after they save him from falling down that cliff they start bonding. If anything Taigat visits him more than anyone at the lancer's guild but I imagine Foulques travels a lot around the Black Shroud so sometimes it's a bit difficult to find him. Dragoon is neat. Just neat. It was fun to see Estinien lose his marbles and swear revenge then several days later going "no no, I'm fine, we're fine. Let's forget that happened." in the msq. Puglist and Monk suck so bad especially that racist historian I hope he drops dead and his wife cucks him. Samurai started really strong but after you reach Kugane it becomes a story of "maybe the oligarchy is there for a reason and everyone who defied them is being too violent ergo worse than it" which. why. why. Rogue is an interesting idea to insert in limsa, which is very much filled with plot holes but having a secret police to keep the pirates in check is neat. Hated that the mentor is just a nod to jack sparrow. I imagine Dyulgor has a huge problem with these guys since he's very friendly with the sahagin and he has killed several of the people sent to investigate him but they can't track the murders back to him, lol, lmao. I don't remember ninja quite well but the main rival was a clown who annoyed me real bad. I'm glad the mentor and his main ally came back for Bozja and got away from that guy.

Y'all know I'm insane about reaper but it did a good job at having a neatly closed story imo. Tbh sage did so too, when compared with gunbreaker and dancer. Maybe they realized by then they would have much less screen time and organized the story beats better.

For dawntrail, viper and pictomancer look extremely unappealing to me right now. Viper seems like samurai but with nothing cool about it and pictomancer looks like something adapted from neopets. Not excited about this at all.

[horizon-verizon]

what do you think of this post. i think people should ship what they want but this fandom cannot stand opinions that differ from theirs.

https://www.tumblr.com/livinginafantasysposts/726238416723935233

Going to the link you provided, the original author (lagosbratzdoll) is criticizing the JacexSara Snow ship for the shipper's racism:

They say it'll [including Sara Snow in the show] deepen Jace’s character and make him “interesting”, whatever that means. The problem with this assertion is that Jace is already plenty interesting, he led the war councils while his mother grieved, and he recruited the blacks' most important allies. Allies who remained steadfast even after his mother's and his own demise. Furthermore, Jace has existing relationships in his life that the show could explore to delve into his connection with bastardy. Three of whom are canonically Black, by the way. So, the question arises: what unique perspective or insight can Sara Snow provide to Jace's struggle with his bastard status that Nettles, Addam, and Alyn cannot?

When the OP asked what made Sara so enticing or "interesting", more than Nettles and the other dragonseeed as well as Baela, there was no salient answer in the comments. Or there were just denials. And OP has made points. Including this:

but now you cannot go five minutes in Jace or Baela’s tag without seeing someone wish they'd include Sara Snow in the show.

You: "i think people should ship what they want but this fandom cannot stand opinions that differ from theirs."

My questions to you, anon are:

What is with people trying to overwhelm and disrupt the hype shippers have for Baela and Jace in particular?

With these two supposed to be betrothed to each other in canon and continue to be so in the show, why is it that there is a change in how people see Sara Snow and Jace and Baela after we see the Velaryons and dragon twins' actors are Black?

Why is it that there is such an overwhelming intercession on the online JacexBaela shipping from JacexSara shippers as opposed to ships with white/white-adjacent couples?

Why is it that with such stronger evidence for Jace and Baela being romantic over Sara's very existence much less the ship, that the Sara Snow x Jace ship is as popular as it is?

Sara Snow is a character, in F&B, who Mushroom brings in to add intrigue, and he was never there to witness such a thing happening, so how could he know about this girl and witnessed Jace fall for her?! And the other thing is the implications of Sara Snow being Jace's "Jeyne Westerling". Unlike Robb Stark & Jeyne, Jace & Sara are presented by Mushroom and real shippers as true and closely-bonded lovers. Robb married Jeyne because he wanted to honor her and not have bastards. It was not lovey-dovey. Narratively, Baela was so dedicated to Jace (and just fierce all on her own) that she wanted to stay and fight with him at Dragonstone or follow him. For all the desire for a couple who desires and is devoted to each other, it's funny how Sara x Jace shippers aren't impressed enough with Baela. So shippers of Sara and Jace are going off of pure conjecture and desire more than other ships/shippers. This would be fine, if not for the change in actors coming with a higher support for a character that doesn't seem to exist.

Before HotD aired with its black Velaryons and dragon twins (and I've looked around at dates) there was very little hype for Sara Snow even as a person, bc there was literally no evidence--not even suggestive--for her existence besides Mushroom's unsupported say-so AND it was understood that Jace wouldn't even endanger his family and himself or hurt Baela by endangering their Velaryon alliance. Especially when his brother dies and there is no heir to Driftmark aside from Joff (a whittling-down of heirs). The blacks needed the Velaryons even after Rhaneyra dies (Alyn and Daenaera)!

It is totally antithetical to Jace's needs short-term and long-term needs to set aside his betrothal to Baela.

We have to remember that he and his two brothers have been suspected as bastards and likely treated accordingly if people could get away with it. For more than 10 years! Rhaenyra had to essentially flee to Dragonstone to get away and provide a quieter, freer life for herself and her family as well as actively "practice" and get in the groove for ruling. He would be anxious to prove how he is fit to follow his mother after she dies and rule Westeros. And like Jon/unlike Robb Stark, bc of that niggling bastardry claim, he would be more motivated to not have bastards of his own or do possibly introduce an innocent, less-able-to-take-care-of herself-girl into an incoming war. (Jenny of Oldstones doesn't count bc she was proven real through her interactions with courtiers, Prince Duncan's parent was not female and set against, his parent was not usurped, there was no war, nor was Duncannever suspected a bastard. He could afford it).

I mean, it's supported by what Jace says here ("The Blacks and the Greens"):

He has lived physically and emotionally close to Baela all his life, and considering this need to consolidate power as well as his contracting his trust towards mostly family, it's not likely that he just trusts any person he isn't likely to get aid from. Cregan Stark was the lord and liable to help Rhaneyra bc he just imprisoned and ousted his uncle to get his Winterfell seat. Supporting Rhaenyra helps him, and this lubed them both up for a closer bond.

It is way more likely that Jace, rather than show!Aemond, was the devoted son trying to actually help and protect his family by reading "philosophies" and presenting himself as a capable ruler. I think that it is dumb of the writers to then flip this show of loyalty to one's family into Aemond using it to show disloyalty to his own and not emphasize Jacaerys' own development. Aemond even left his mother, sister, and brother all to basically fend for themselves in two opportunities to join Daeron or fly to KL and fight Rhaenyra, Daemon, or any black who he would happen to see. Even though he was the one to order Criston Cole to march their army to KL so he could also confront the blacks. He specifically states that going south to Daeron and grouping up was "craven" and cowardly! In this one way, Aemond is Jace's foil and it emphasizes Jace's loyalty and devotion and Aemond's self-serving ambition, even though both have that desire to show their military worth. One works for unity, the other for individual glory and disunity. Jace ios the one to actively came up with effective plans and arrangements for the blacks, as OP stated. It shows his intelligence, care, and concern for protecting his family as well as his mindfulness towards bastardy. We're supposed to see the irony of this suspected bastard using the bastard phobia made against him for their own benefit. (Even though there were two traitors, Rhaenyra still depended on these dragon riders to intimidate/fight against any would-be greens and their armies. One of which is responsible [Addam Velaryon/of Hull] for at least pushing back Daeron and Lord Hightower's forces even with his own death. This event more showed how deep in paranoia & blood purist Rhaenyra was, not how dumb or incompetent Jace was.)

And Baela is not a bad person, merely self-confident and a Targ. Show!Baela is Black, and there has been no standoffishness towards her book character before the show besides the usual misogyny towards self-confident girls and Targ women. She has done nothing wrong to anyone, and has only displayed bravery until presumedly the day she died and set aside by history.

So from my standpoint, it looks like the motivation behind thinking Baela x Jace as less appealing or "interesting" than Jace x Sara is that Jace x Sara can undermine his relationship with Baela, his ties to the Velaryons and their alliance, and separate Jace's devotion to his family and reduce any tie to his Targ identity. This is definitely not what this character would likely be drawn in by if he ever did meet a Sara Snow who he might be at least sexually attracted to.

Just as making Rhaenyra not want to imprison Otto bc of a damned page from a woman who tried to get said sons killed, Jacaerys allowing himself to not only marry someone other than his betrothed siphons out his intelligence, unique sense of self-assertiveness and responsibility.

Other Ships I Wish Were Not as Shipped Exist, Why, and are Really the TV Shows' Faults

See, I talk about people saying one shouldn't ship ANYTHING in ASoIaF/GoT/HotD/Fire & Blood HERE, where I argue that shipping is people presenting political and social taboo/dynamics, i,e, a particular narrative they are fascinated with.

It's not just about what one thinks should be reality. However, for some people, it is and some ships gather more…bigoted people than other ships. Rhaenicent is one of those ships. There are some genuinely good or at least self-aware Rhaenicent shippers, but the most vocal ones tend to be misogynist and think themselves feminists when they are actually saying that Rhaenyra should grant Alicent all sorts of graces and expect nothing in return bc Alicent is a feminine goddess who looks out for "the realm". Some call her "mannish" or the "man" of the relationship. Most are tradcaths and transphobic (Emma D'Arcy). Most hate Targs and Valyrian customs, esp citing their hatred against incest…meanwhile, their own ship is incestuous, and even the Faith they admire and see their Catholism in at one time had a High Septon vocally denounce a Hightower lord marrying and having a relationship with his dead father's wife, his own stepmother--Samnatha Tarly. On the specific claim of incest. Later, when this Septon died, they were finally allowed to marry by the next one--their influence had grown enough or stayed its Hightower self, assumedly, as well over the years.

Jonsa is another ship that mostly has misogynists and praisers of "soft femininity". Sansa becomes a totally different creature in their eyes, and Arya also gets interpreted as "mannish", even having "internalized misogyny" for not being as "girly" as Sansa. Jon, like Rhaenyra, is also totally reduced and recharacterization to make Sansa this higher kind of feminine goddess through the chivalric narrative canon!Sansa is actually growing out of bc it has led to her many losses, including her own innocence! Jon doesn't even like (as in attracted to) "girly" girls who cannot even attempt to physically defend themselves! His favorite sister is Arya and Sansa has dismissed him for his bastardry several times! Because they think he will become some sort of great leader, even King Beyond the Wall, and Sansa will be Queen in the North or some jazz, they believe that this version of "Jon" as a "knight" is perfect for their "delicate princess" Sansa.

Daemon x Nettles

I'm a Daemyra shipper and I do not think Daemon x Nettles is either a canon or good ship in of itself, and the material in F&B that wants us to think they were sexual or romantic uses misogynist and classism to present Nettles as Daemon's lover AS WELL AS not his lover. But always it's logic that is against Nettles' true, brave heart, and Daemon's fidelity to Rhaenyra, despite him choosing to die for her instead of just leaving Rhaenyra behind and vocalizing hatred toward Mysaria's for deceiving her. And though it is not my passionate ship like the Daemyra one, I definitely think Jace x Baela makes way more sense than Jace x Sara Snow. And Nettles doesn't need to "steal" Rhaneyra's man to actually dominate Rhaneyra for her blood purity or to be an impressive girl, and this would not be a healthy relationship (she was 17, Daemon 49-50). If they seriously consider grooming wrong and believe Daemon groomed Nettles, then they shouldn't enthusiastically ship Nettles with Daemon.

Conclusion

Some ships just do not make sense or are totally antithetical to the arcs and personalities of the original characters. They are more making wish-fulfillment fanons struggling to be canon so they can generate antipathy against those shippers/characters/storylines that should really be appreciated for the nuance they provide. Instead of vacuuming out nuance to replace them with fairytale, bigoted, and flat narratives. And so they should be put into skeptical investigation instead of just flat-out "accepted", like how some artists have purposefully drawn the dragon twins out of their family portraiture of the blacks.

EDIT (8/22/23)

It's also funny how--with the examples of other ships--when it's something race-related or when some people in the fandom want to protest against such intrusions and the subsequent denials of intrusions it tends to be about certain PoC or interracial ships. AND that it defaults as "everyone has the right to ship/draw/etc however they want!" when someone brings up race more than ships with gender or sexuality or class switching. Hm...

[whetstonefires]

hey I was the one who asked about ao3 I'm sorry if the question came off as odd, I love your takes on mdzs and was wondering if you ever wrote any fics because you have really great diction on your posts and I thought 'This person could make really great fics' so I thought id ask, that's all

it's fine! lmao it just really looked like i was potentially getting set up for some weird anon hate game.

thank you! and the answer is i do have an AO3--i used to link it here a lot--but it's only got two mdzs fics on it. despite my having struggled to focus on any fandom besides mdzs for like two years.

because what happened when i got stuck in this fandom like a suction cup directly to the brain is, i wound up reading a lot more smut than i usually tolerate, because of the nature of the novel and how their relationships with sex are meaningfully integrated with their characterization and development as people and relative to one another. so a lot of the smut in this fandom has substance in a way i care about.

and my writing always reflects my reading material in a 'ooh i could do that like this' kinda way, so i started generating my own fic concepts with a sex element that i wanted to explore.

and then i got really invested in this new form and its tricks and affordances, so the only fics in this fandom i've actually been finishing are E-rated, because i'm inspired by the learning process.

(also because it turns out this shit is so easy to write, like you can cheap out on so many structural and narrative elements if you put sex in there, i'm so mad about this still. cheap!!!)

and having finished them i want to share, you know?

so i got a different ao3 for that, since mostly i like and write gen stuff, and i didn't wish to subject my existing subscribers to my learning to porn. i'm not sharing it here though, sorry, because everyone i've shared it with (upon request) has been weird about it.

the fic isn't even particularly outre! i'm remixing stuff that's done a lot in the fandom, according to my own artistic sensibilities! i do not know what the Weird is and what private conclusions are being made about me as a person on the basis of my very ace sex pollen remixes and shit. but it makes me anxious so i will Not be doing it anymore.

anyway as a reward or something for the guts to come back with your name out and take another shot and for the compliments <3, which of these not-sexy mdzs fic concepts do you vote i thwack into a postable form over the next month or so, and put on my main?

post-canon wwx gets amnesia back to the yiling laozu in burial mounds era and his current life explained very badly by lan jingyi, and concludes the lan have coerced him into a very creepy situation

funny wangxian modern au incorporating the height thing i was talking about earlier this week, where the main plot is ripped off from an autobiographical anecdote the singer told at a concert i went to and i was like, this would make a great one of those modern aus people keep writing. oh no now i want to.

time travel fixit outside pov, where wwx and wen ning get physically catapulted back from the qiongqi pass to before the war, and go and intervene just before lotus pier can be destroyed, wearing a mask and spooky cloak so no one will know the yiling laozu is wei wuxian (and a weimao so no one notices the ghost general is wen ning but let's be real that was less likely to happen for several reasons)

thing where the misunderstandings go off in a different direction early on, and wwx thinks lan wangji and mo xuanyu were actually an item and his impersonation has been tragically successful. very funny dramatic irony concept that is in execution going to be like 70% angst. some of it very funny angst though. (this one is the least developed because it doesn't really suggest its own plot.)

find what already exists at Kieron_ODuibhir lmao.

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

Consider Downey eventually getting his doctorate, Vetinari has the city so everything stopped being so much on fire for five minutes, he has some money, he could go on his own field trip - not the Grand Sneer, mind you, just to, you know, explore, see different cultures, collect exotic rare poisonous plants, see what delightful alcohol is made over there.

Of course, when he comes back, nobody believes that he made it to the Counterweight continent, that's bullshit, it's walled-off (yeah, but assassins don't see walls as obstacles), and sure he's made friends, but why don't they never write? (Maybe because communication to and from is very limited? Downey offers, but yes, it'd be nice to exchange letters here and there.)

But after the Silver Horde gets the hold of Agatean Empire and letters and later clacks become regular, Downey gets in touch with all those people he's made friends with and who were honestly pretty thrilled about that one time he got painted as a tiger (because tigers are awesome!).

And it's all fine and dandy until one of the friends sends Downey a copy of a book he's working on, and Downey who can speak Agatean but not read (because the pictograms are even worse with way more wiggly lines) takes it to Vetinari, because Vetinari can read agatean (gods know why he learned), and Vetinari has a Very Difficult Time to keep his face neutral because he's just gotten into his hands the Discworld Art of War and Downey had apparently seen its author more hungover than sober most of the time.

I love that today is the day for "what if" asks with my peak favourite characters. This delights me to no end.

Downey would take himself on the most decadent, obscenely lush Tour that ever happened. He'd show Vetinari the itinerary and Vetinari is like 'I feel that at some point this is going to kill you, however you are so incredibly pleased with yourself about the entire situation I shan't infringe.'

yeah, but assassins don't see walls as obstacles

Especially not Downey. Who sees anything that involves Rule Breaking as a Fun Challenge. Something to pass the time. He likes puzzles - not the wordy kind Vetinari is so keen on - but the practical physical kind.

Downey is the sort of person to be faced with the riddle "there's a fork in the road and two angels guard the paths forward. One path will lead to death, the other to life. One angel always tells the truth, the other one lies. They know which they are. They know where the two paths go. You may ask one yes or no question. What do you ask to determine which path leads to freedom?" with like "well, I poison both and then send people I don't like down each path and take the option that didn't result in the horrific death of one of the participants."

Vetinari: that's not the solution, Downey.

Downey: it's A solution.

Vetinari: you're supposed to ask a question.

Downey: I ask them: would you like some tea?

Vetinari:

Vetinari: I hate that you followed the rule that it's a yes/no question.

Downey: if they say no, I just stab them.

--

Tigers *are* awesome!

(Vetinari: I am aware of this)

--

I love the idea that Downey speaks Agatean but can't read it and Vetinari can read it but can't speak it. I love that between them, they one whole person who is fluent. It's so very them and I think it beautiful.

Downey is like, 'wow this takes my dyslexia to whole new levels' and his friend Discworld!Sun Tzu is like, 'you know, it's fine. I'll just read everything to you.'

(Vetinari learned Agatean because he was bored one summer and that's just the sort of man he is.)

Vetinari gets really into the Art of War mostly because it's things like: The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. And Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.

--

I love this entire thing as a premise and have accepted it into my head as canon.

In other news, you should maaaaaybe write?? it??

<3 <3 <3

[jellybeanium124]

so first off SALS includes the right both to like and hate a ship. it just means be chill. but basically as someone who (sorry) enjoys steddyhands/stizzy (sorry)... man I wish more of people who were into it were normal (sorry again). like dude it sucks having to basically go into fics with a checklist of things that it needs to do or avoid, or suddenly hitting one sentence and going "fuck this shit, I'm out."

I've always been a crack-ish multishipper. putting characters into relationships who are not canonically in one and maybe shouldn't be and thinking about what might happen has always been fun for me. relationships are emotionally intense and great for character drama/interactions in general. and these ships only work if you soften izzy. like obviously. I think there are ways to do it that keep him more recognizable, but sometimes people just don't care.

to me, stizzy without steddyhands only works in some kind of au where neither of them know ed, and even then I think you should ask yourself why you are pairing them together and not gentlebeard. I think there are legitimately premises that you could explore with stizzy and not with gentlebeard. on the most basic levels there's the enemies-to-lovers thing, but there's also izzy's toxic masculinity/internalized homophobia issues. how would he deal with being in a relationship with his complete antithesis? how would this force him to confront his inner demons? how would stede react to these struggles? how would he try to help, and when would he get mad at izzy for being an asshole? you can write a story where getting together with stede forces ed to confront his inner demons, but the stizzy version of that and the gentlebeard version of that are not going to be the same story.

in the end, I think this comes down to a very basic disconnect (besides the racism and shitty tropes, and all that). in my mind there are two kinds of fanfiction: fanfiction that exists primarily to be in communication with its source text, and fanfiction that exists primarily to get an emotional response out of the audience (porn, hurt/comfort, angst, fluff, any emotion, basically). this isn't a one-or-the-other situation, but every fic and every writer thinks one of these is more important than the other. every fic favors one of those goals. and having the latter goal isn't a bad thing! most bad fics have the latter goal, but not every fic with the latter goal is a bad fic.

stizzy and steddyhands, as ships, do not exist primarily to be in communication with the source text. and if they are, that communication is usually opinions I don't like (izzy deserves to be a protagonist or some shit, yknow). these ships exist for porn, for hurt/comfort, for angst, for fluff, for creating a highly specific emotional experience for the author and readers. "well why are they even writing fanfiction then?"/"why don't they go find other characters who are closer to the dynamic they're writing" because they are attached to these characters and want them involved in these emotions, and because they are okay with their work being very different from the source material.

idk if this makes any sense lol. it's not exactly a defense or anything. it's definitely not a defense of people who think ed needs to be babysat, fuck those guys. I guess I just kinda wanted to give my perspective on why these ship interest me? I think a lot of y'all's posts on the subject come down to: "why would anyone like this? it wouldn't work in canon" and the canyon response to that is "well it does actually *some fucking bullshit, etc etc*" and my response to that is "I know, I'm fine with that, I just like the situations it opens up and I like the emotional catharsis I can experience from some of these fics, even tho they are 'bad fics' in that they are not in any sort of real communication with the source text." and you can think that's bad lol, like it does sound kinda bad when I write it out like that. but you can't get the specific flavors of emotional catharsis from fics from any other medium of art, generally speaking. not in the same way, not easily, and not in 2k words.

[silencedrage]

my self indulgent list of ideas/dynamics/plots i want to explore - yj edition

pretty much exactly what the title says - these are mostly basic, half-formed ideas that have rapid cycled through my brain so if anything sounds interesting, come yell at me ty. nothing here is exclusive, meaning if, in the unlikely event that more than one person is interested in the same idea, i'm more than fine to explore it with multiple muns/muses because i believe each version will be unique in their own ways. the list below is also non-exclusive and i might add things to it over time, so just because it's not here doesn't mean i'm not interested!! also ocs/canons from other media are equally welcome, we will figure something out

l.ottie:

literally anything with l.aura lee

the 2 month gap between s1 and s2 in the 96 timeline - exploring a little more how they went from doomcoming to lottie leading the wilderness cult; was there ever a conversation about it with anyone?

lottie and travis over the years - it seems like trav was the only one who semi-stayed in touch with lottie, at least enough to be able to call her when he was in crisis (note: i don't view their relationship as romantic but it is Very Important to lottie)

v.an:

someone please give me natvan childhood besties and all the complexities that come with that (i.e., issues when taivan becomes a thing and tai/nat butt heads, the shit they go through in the trailer park with their parents, was van out to nat before the crash? is that why she was so casual about ben?, more strain when van starts following lottie, why don't they keep in touch post-rescue) - idk i just need it

the push-pull between tai and lottie. idk how this would get explored, i am just obsessed with this dynamic

post-breakup situationships where she gets her "needs met"; the rise of dating apps and how that affects her self-esteem, just mess

t.ai:

post-rescue (and breakup) fuckboi tai and some messy af situationships before she settles down with simone

secret meetings with shauna in the years between the timelines bc shauna had a nokia flip phone in her safe to contact tai like they were illicit lovers having an affair

tai and nat and their many discussions (and arguments) about rehab

s.hauna:

callie and/or jeff (that's it - i just need more of them)

pre-crash stuff that shows her relationship with the others outside of jackie, and also with jackie bc i feel like there's a difference between shauna and shauna when she's with jackie and that distinction comes out swinging in the wilderness

honestly like... anyone around wiskayok? could be a canon character, could be an oc, but i imagine she's almost like an urban legend around the town. other than misty, she's the only one who's stayed local (as far as we know) but on the surface she leads such a very normal, boring life. idk i just think locals would be so weird about her lmfao

n.at:

honestly any of the van/nat or tai/nat stuff that i talked about above

the on again-off again stuff with travis, the interplay with her stints in rehab, etc.

how her addiction affects her relationships with others: did she ever end up on shauna's doorstep, or van's before they lost touch? shauna doesn't trust nat in s1 and makes a lot of quips, and feels like maybe shauna's been burned by her addiction that we don't know about?

anyone she met in rehab, anyone she met in her addict circles, people who were around natalie at her lowest - who try and tempt her back, who want to see her succeed, former sponsors, people she's sponsored, etc.

anything with lisa, pls give me the babs

s.imone:

honestly i added her on a whim because i need to explore every possible permutation of simonetaivan in all of its glorious complexity

i'm trying not to delve too much into post-s2 stuff because i want to leave that for s3 so she's pretty open atm

khalida:

any and all versions of akilah pls

something with adult tai tbh? especially in a reality where akilah is not a survivor, i just think there would be something really fucking interesting to dig into there given what we've seen of akilah and tai's relationship

any of the other adult survivors too - the complexity of resentment that they made it back when Akilah didn't, while also wanting to ask them what happened to her baby sister. wanting to blame them but also seeing the horrors reflected in their eyes and knowing she could never fully judge them for anything they had to do to survive

i think the above would be especially funny/complex/tragic with misty, who probably has all of khalida's info when she kept tabs on everyone else too. misty being someone who knows what khalida will always want to know: what really happened to akilah. and misty knowing she'll never tell the truth but enjoying the power that simply having that knowledge gives her. is that fucked up? maybe, but is it anything more fucked up than what the show has already shown? not really

[egg-emperor]

I wish I could say the same about Frontiers!Eggman, but... I'm sorry, I still don't like it. The Villain's Precious Child trope is one that I largely roll my eyes at regardless of how it's done, which naturally applies double to a villain that it doesn't even work for IMO, and no matter how the Sage stuff is portrayed, the fandom's already made its mind up on his character, and we know I rarely trust what Flynn claims. Top that off with him still being upstaged by a purple testicle, and... yeah.

That's fine. Coming from someone who's now been on both sides of hating and loving it, and contrary to the beliefs of those that made me their enemy when I was bitter on it too, I have a lot more respect, understanding, and acceptance for those with different opinions to me than they do. :P In fact, I'm even more mellowed out and chill about it than ever because I want to make sure I'm never like those that turned so hostile on me, though I was never close to that in the first place.

I personally think it can work for Eggman but not in the way a big majority of fandom has taken the dynamic from Frontiers and sanitized and simplified it for wholesomeness factor, it's complicated, shallow, and toxic instead. So I still can't engage in fandom the same I could before as fanon is far from it, plus people still see my analysis and writings as criminal for presenting the dynamic as unhealthy, despite how it's canon accurate based on both official word and actual in game content.

I think the "Eggman genuinely accepting creations as being like his kids" thing is fine in itself as he is close to being their father just by being their creator. I've never had a huge problem with him calling himself Metal's father in comics as it was presented as casual and not as deeper, selfless, sincere care. Looking back at Frontiers made me realize it's quite similar with Sage, he accepts the dynamic based on the fact of being her maker and for selfish benefits he states multiple times.

I think it works as being in casual joking manner from Eggman, as a way to butter up his creations and keep them loyal (I can't imagine him referring to them affectionately/praising or showing them affection outside of this), and as his reasonings behind it actually being really shallow, self-centered, and conditional and ultimately only for what he gets out of it with his own pride as creator and benefit in being served by them. I just think all of that is pretty interesting to explore.

The mass majority of fandom definitely isn't going to change its mind on the Eggman portrayal and the dynamic until canon shows them what it really intended much more clearly than Frontiers though, so it doesn't allow for the chance for people to mistake it and put down those who see it for what it is and was even described as by Ian Flynn himself (which I'm half surprised they didn't listen to him but also half not because they always reject canon official stuff in the games they dislike that disprove their theories too)

I can actually see what Flynn means with his explanation of the dynamic and Eggman's "unsettling" side of it and the assertion that he's a "BAD person" warming up to the idea "for all of the wrong reasons", as he emphasized in his Bumblekast answer though. It's definitely actually there in the game. But I still think it's a problem that it's only so clear through certain memos, as it being in a few lines of optional audio over it being shown in actual scenes wasn't the best place to put it with how the dynamic is being misinterpreted for wholesomeness.

And of course I'm still not ever going to be a fan of him being upstaged by the sexy purple testicle when I obviously think him actually getting to control and use the newest powerful evil thing will always be way cooler but my biggest problem this time was the fear he was OOC and I'm just happy it's not the case upon closer evaluation. Of course he deserves way more respect and spotlight too but I'm happy for the bare minimum of his character still being the same in these dark desperate times ngl lol

[mestos]

CA headcanons that im too lazy to draw or have no idea how to write

Putting them together to keep my brainrot ongoing and ONE DAY draw them...

Shinichi/Conan:

- i am a firm believer in glasses shinichi. i know glasses for this character is stupid lore integral but i literally don't care. My basis is that repercussions of being shrunken takes form in the slightest ways, such as weaker immune system plus weaker vision. it was inevitable anyway as well, given his bad screen practices and genes. he wears circular glasses though as shinichi and only wears it at home, and vehemently refuses to be seen outdoors with glasses.

- that post that's like, "i love my men with blood on their hands and traumatized"? i love to hc b.o takedowns where he actually kills gin. shoots him. Fucking murders him and destroys his principles. i need him to actually face a stake in his life and be it this sort of loss??? so much room for growth.

- contrary to how hes portrayed, even if he praises holmes as his god, he genuinely does read other mystery novels. often seen with a pocket mystery novel

- tbh. i think of them as different people but not haibara/shiho as different people Hahahah!! I love the idea of growth in the form edogawa conan. I think in a no antidote route, conan is less serious, still snarky, but more willing to tease. exceptionally casual and confident, but humbled with scars. Understands his limits but also very sweet to his gf

- in a no antidote route, i also hc conan to be more explorative. my conan experiments everything with his two bros mitsuhiko and genta, praises them both, and actually wants to find a seperate hobby that makes him different from the shadow he once was

- in a no antidote route he also dyes his hair a lighter brown to be different

- hes closer to mitsuhiko! in fact he is so proud of mitsuhiko very often, and supports him where he can. they study together. he and genta are both in soccer teams, and they go to practice together and hang out with the team

- also i am in firm belief he can be a romantic if hes not thinking about it. but sometimes he does know what hes doing. and is pretty damn good at it.

- unsurprisingly easily jealous but isn't that petty about it

Shiho/Ai:

I have lesser HCs for haibara bc i actually am fine for the most part with the canon supplement material. i just feel bad for her lol i want to save her from the show's canon...but!

- her self destructive behaviour can sometimes cause a wedge between them. he is very patient with her all things regardless, but they have had a fight about it before—and she knows she needs to do better, in order for their relationship to work. He cant always be the only one apologizing

- despite being the one who seems unfallible she's just very good at hiding when she's embarrassed/affected by shin/con. he gets pretty good at figuring this out a few years into their r.s.

- (SA mention) i definitely think she has some kind of unprocessed SA trauma behind her, but contrary to what people may think, she isnt sex-repulsed or unwilling. they have healthy times for it and both of them explore things at their own pace together. she trusts her partner with herself and has found her own autonomy after everything

- i double as a seraran stan but i think she and ran would actually be good friends too!!!!!! even if she wouldn't be as close to her as shin would ever be, they have lunch together once a month as adults and often talk about their partner's tendency to get sucked into cases and their fangs...

- i strongly hc shiho as demisexual/demiromantic. even supposedly if in any canon of mine she doesn't get w shin (unlikely) she takes time to herself and live freely independently until she finds her own partner. i dont think its some cut off goal of hers to get one anyway, she feels loved as she is and is fine with that

- she has trouble voicing when she's touchstarved. he tends to notice, though, and acts quickly. she avoids the feeling vs him being needy about it

- in a no antidote route she experiments growing her hair out once. it felt foreign, and difficult to maintain her curls, so she cut it the next summer. shin liked it either way though

CoAi/ShinShi :

- ShinShi move in together at age 20-21. he proposes relatively early—only after 3 years of dating—but they dont get married until they are like 26. they just kept putting it off lmao

- penthouse apartment in the city. Its luxurious but shiho constantly jokes about the idea they get bombed. shinichi doesnt like it.

- Shin gets his license immediately after turning 20. Shiho tends to do most of the driving still, but they take turns during road trips with the kids

- If ShinShi revealed their identities to the kids (whether the kids figured them out on their own or not), shinichi puts on his conan glasses for them and shiho puts on a similar, adult sized sleeveless turtleneck whenever they're together. they assume the roles of Conan and Ai with them (even going as far as introducing themselves as such to other people with the kids). It gives them a state of normalcy even if they have a larger age gap, intergenerational friendship alongside some parenting.

- they do get two dogs. shiho allows him to name only one of the dogs and of all names he chooses its freaking watson. the other dog is named vivi. short for vivianite, a mineral that can form on decaying corpses. Watson is a german shepherd while vivi is a pomeranian husky mix

Will update if i ever think of more