#i don't even hate the ship itself it's the fans who take scenes out of context and depth from the characters to make the narrative fit

[torgawl]

unpopular opinion but a ship being queer coded doesn't make it compelling

[angels-heap]

we get it, you hate hlvrai. how about instead of being bitter you let people enjoy things. fr whats the point of gatekeeping a 20 year old game?

Look, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you didn't live through the 2020 fandom bullshit, because if you'd witnessed it, even peripherally, you would not have felt compelled to send this ask. So, a few things you should know:

I don't actually hate hlvrai! I genuinely enjoyed the series and still quote it regularly. I even used to enjoy some of the fan content, before the fandom exploded in popularity and there was a huge influx of mostly of very young fans (fine, but not my scene) who wanted me and most of my friends to die (bad; see below).

I'm not dreading more hlvrai content; I'm dreading the potential fallout within the fandom. Canon tags flooded with unrelated content. Wildly OOC characterizations of canon characters based on similar characters in an unrelated series. Endless racism discourse that somehow manages to affect everyone except the tiny fraction of fans who are actually being intentionally racist. Pushback against mature content for an M-rated game because "there are kids here now!!" Ship discourse. Death threats and endless harassment related to the ship discourse. Being accused of being a child predator and threatened with doxxing for shipping two grown adults in a different fandom.

A lot of really lovely people were driven out of the canon HL fandom because of bullshit instigated by hlvrai fans who either didn't know anything about the canon series, didn't care, or were learning incorrect information through "fandom telephone" and decided to take it upon themselves to rid the internet of anyone who didn't ship canon Gordon with their benrey-fied version of Barney "the right way." Can you really blame anyone for not wanting that to happen again?

Honestly, as long as the new content doesn't include too much conflicting lore/characterization related to canon HL characters and the fandom manages to behave itself, I'm excited to see more people get into Half Life. A lot of my current favorite HL artists and writers got into HL through hlvrai. This doesn't have to be a shitshow, but I don't think it's unreasonable to worry that it might become one.

TL;DR: Nobody really wants to "gatekeep" a 20 year old game series. We just want to be able to continue talking about the series and creating fanworks without being bombarded with unrelated content, death and doxxing threats, and baseless accusations that could ruin our actual, offline lives.

[katyspersonal]

Sigh..

Soooo yeah.. I am genuinely surprised by how hard Tumblr is trying to destroy itself. Tumblr THRIVES on random reblog chains getting progressively cursed, someone making a random post about their fandom, a lot of personal interactions, people osmos'ing unfamiliar fandoms and characters through mutuals-in-law and other stuff like this. Like.. there are 0 reasons to make it another Amino.

Not to mention how much it nurtures things that RUIN fandoms, like "fandom leaders", "cool kids" groups, fandom trends, gospel headcanons etc. So, imagine if like, a cunt that hates your ship or your headcanons on a character or anything like that 'claims' the fandom community first! So now everyone that dares to have different tastes and interpretations from them will be excluded from active discussions because many users, instead of checking fandom tag and 'wild' dashboard will hang out in community bubbles instead and not see the takes which that bitchy control freak admin dislikes! People that disagree with that community's admin will be left with no choice but to create their own space, and either 1) Tumblr will disapprove multiple spaces for the same theme 2) their community will be less active since most fans WILL naturally prefer the one that came first or 3) in general, fandoms will suck more because of large amount of "us vs them" moods.

Nothing is worse for a fandom than giving someone power to decide who "belongs" in it and who doesn't. And there is NO way to prevent the situation where it is specifically a control freak that will exclude people with "wrong" ships or "wrong" headcanons that claims community. Like, yeah, different 'sides' of the discourse-torn fandom (so, ANY fandom lol) having to fight for audience because this audience can't be active in every community, even neutral ones that'd like to see any ships and any headcanons!

Did Tumblr staff not THINK about what this could mean? Like, do they want dens of scumbags proliferating behind the scenes? And don't even get me started on the morality of sanitising the posts into 'OnLy ReLeVanT cOnTeNt uwu' when so-called "meaningful connections" are formed EXACTLY when a blogger breaks the fandomry-posting routine to get personal or political, to show more of themselves! People don't need a new space where they can "escape" "uncomfortable" topics or news (cough cough), because they already have this space. This space is called 'their friends'! Once again, proves how corporations have NO idea now actual humans work.

[fanfic-lover-girl]

Problems with the Romantic Flight Scene

As I drag my feet to watch HTTYD 3, I am still fairly neutral on Hiccstrid. Don't love it or hate it - it's just there. But honestly thats how I feel about almost all canon romances in the media I have consumed. The canon romance is just there for the hero to have a wife or girlfriend at the end in most cases.

Anyway, I was rewatching Pop Culture Detective's brilliant video essay on 'Abduction as Romance'. How deeply entrenched this trope is in media...am I the only one who sees this kind of playing out in the Romantic Flight scene??

Hiccup basically kidnaps Astrid as she tries to run back to Berk. It's understandable why he feels he needs to do that...but wasn't he planning on running away anyway??? At least Astrid telling Berk would give his dad closure that his son wasn't kidnapped or something. Did Hiccup even write a note??

So yes, Toothless drops Astrid on a tree so she has no avenue to escape and is forced to go along with Hiccup to prevent falling to her death. All the while, the scene is framed romantically.

Then, to make matters worse for Astrid, Toothless decides to give her the flight from hell, terrorizing her. I hated how Astrid hurt Hiccup in the forrest with her axe so part of me thinks its deserved punishment...but it's still not cool. So Astrid is forced to apologize to appease Toothless. All the while, Hiccup gets to have Astrid clinging to him for security. It's kind of the vibe of couples going to see a horror movie so the guy can act as a protector when the girl gets scared.

But all of this ceases to matter, because Toothless takes them on a beautiful flight. Suddenly, Astrid's kidnapping becomes a romantic flight with sweet music and imagery. She realizes how amazing dragons are. Suddenly, Astrid completely mellows, all grievances forgotten. Hiccup wins her over and is rewarded by Astrid snuggling into his shoulder.

Hiccup takes Astrid against her will and at the end he gets a cheek kiss from his dream girl who out of nowhere has a crush on him now.

I liked the scene when I first watched the movie. I thought it was gorgeous but I wasn't a die hard fan of it. I was just confused why Astrid liked him all of a sudden. I think Hiccstrid is cute but I just dislike the execution in the two movies, especially movie 1.

Edit: I tagged as both hiccstrid and anti hiccstrid because the post could fit either based on perspective. I am more criticizing the trope than the actual ship itself. But I do want to get views from fans and critics of the ship to hear what people think about the romantic flight scene.

[beevean]

I think I can finally pinpoint what bothers me so much about the Lenector ship - not even how it was treated in the show, but the very idea of making it "nuanced".

Long story short, I found an author that promised to flesh out the Lenector storyline in the show, including getting a better insight into Lenore's thought process and rewriting some of the dialogue (I appreciated that they fixed the "interrogation" in S3 to make Hector specify that he never cared about a reward, it made him look less stupid)

Author never rewrote the rape scene, which disappointed me but oh well, but they did write Hector and Lenore finally talking about the ring, a discussion sorely missing in S4. It was more or less what I would have written: Lenore swearing that she had no choice and it was for his own good and protection, and Hector lamenting that she still tricked him and made him into a pet and she could have been honest because he would have agreed to work with them.

... but he's still in love with her. He kisses her gladly. And his "conflict", his anger at the betrayal, is framed as something in the way of his love, an obstacle that he'd have to get over it.

And there it is.

Even with the acknowledgement that what Lenore did was horrible, there is the assumption that Hector, after a good talk, is bound to forgive her. That it still makes sense that he'd be attracted to her. That it's okay, because she meant well. That it's okay, because she didn't technically lie, only twisted the truth to wear down his mental defenses (already worn down by imprisonment and abuse)! Oh, I guess I must have dreamed Lenore saying that she wanted to run away with him before kissing him :) to be fair, it was a terrible piece of writing. Good thing it wasn't real, apparently!

Yes, Hector's forgiveness should have taken time, but it should have happened. Because Lenore is not a bad person and they deserved to be together. Because what she did, which was deliberately push her prisoner in a delicate mental state into having sex with her so that she'd put an enslaving ring without his consent, was just an honest mistake and doesn't speak at all of her morality.

She's the best he got. She's nice to him, because she makes cute dick jokes and goes to whine to him. She's better than Dracula, who lied to him (Lenore never did), and better than Carmilla, who was violent with him (Lenore never was). This is not to be taken as a sign of how horribly this man has been treated in life, and how he'd be happy with the smallest of crumbs because he has been broken that badly. Lenore is the happiness he deserves. Ignore how "your life could be worse" is literal textbook abuser logic, it's true in his case.

The problem with S4 is not that it excused Lenore's rape by deception. It's that it rushed the forgiveness that was due and didn't allow them to be together. Lenore's suicide was Ellis hating this character that completely overtook Carmilla's already established role and was treated far more magnanimously than the similar Japanese not-twins, clearly!

And this is the impasse I cannot get over. Every time, every damn time, even when fans agree that S4 was a disaster, all arguments funnel to this one part: Lenore raping Hector for her plans is not a moral event horizon. Hector loving her makes perfect sense and it is a tragic, "nuanced" romance that should have ended with the two kissing in the sunset, finally having in their arms someone who truly respects them.

^ the face of someone who only wanted to protect and take care of the prisoner whom she tricked into sex. She should have been happy with him forever and ever, really 🥺

I'm not judging the shippers' morality, obviously, I don't know any of these people. But the arguments they use make me sick to my stomach, which is made even worse by the fact that the show itself pushes this narrative, just in a way that was so shitty that even the fans were like "bruh".

I won't bother rewriting this trash, because I can do better with the gameverse. But if I ever did, I'd only ask for Hector to at least be conflicted until her sunning (which is not as nonsensical as fans seem to think lol, it just needs to be worded better). Like he recognizes that she did improve his life, but she used unforgivable means for no good reason. You want a tragic romance between two kindred souls? Remove that despicable, cruel act. The Lenore of S3 and the Lenore of S4 are irreconcilable and trying to do so always degenerates in rape apologism whether you mean it or not.

[allthedamnlove]

https://x.com/rafiacomfort/status/1858494671829323876?s=46

sharing this because i know you love rofia and i could talk about them for hours😣💕💕

the parallels between them are like woah… and ppl expect me to believe their not endgame?? PLEASE🙂‍↔️

*Pulls up a chair*

I literally liked that tweet first HELP.

This is a very unpopular opinion but drew and fiona this season had more chemistry than rudy and madison LIKE I AM SORRY BUT I GOTTA BE HONEST WITH YALL

But I love jj as a character and I know jj as a character loved kie to death and kie will probably take a LONG TIME to forget jj. It is impractical for the pogues and rafe to go to Kildare cuz they are OUT FOR BLOOD and will go to lisbon for revenge so kie literally jumping to rafe is NAWT HAPPENING regardless of sofia. So the point I'm saying is, RIARA STOP HATING ON SOFIA YOU FREAKS

Buttt yeses OMG THE PARALLEL. Throughout s3 and s4 there are soo many dialogues and plot lines that can be explored further abt rafe and sofias relationship. The dialogue in the tweet "you are a good girl, how did that happen" itself is very cryptic. Her family which was there yet not mentioned in the story at all. The fact that both were betrayed by themselves (sofia by pushing rafe with hollis and rafe by being a bitch *YES HE IS A BITCH* and shit talking about a person who will literally give up everything for her love by saying she's a pogue behind her back) are insane parallels.

I know KNOW that drew is going to insane levels of fame and heights in acting AS HE FUCKING SHOULD but i would love a small spinoff movie abt how rafe and sofia met. The fact that they didn't even showed how they met yet throwing a proposal (WHICH I AM A OK WITH BTW, it was my favourite scene of the ENTIRE SERIES LEMME TELL U) makes "rafe" fans really weirded out and I kinda agree with them. But I say that it's the writers fault.

Drew and fiona, again and again I will say HAVE INSANE CHEMISTRY. I hate that their dynamics I'd not explored more. Rafe is very very intense and complex and the relationship between a very soft spoken normal girl and a borderline psycho murderer has so much more potential than just being a filler storyline. Rafe has been not loved truly by anyone in his life and the fact that sofia loves him truly even with the amount of minimal screentime shows that these actors are not to be made uses in scarcity

Weirdly with jjs death rafe will probably become one of the centers of the story arc butt again they will be going to Lisbon I don't know how sofia and rafes relationship will be explored. But I know that this is not the end of rofia. I hope to god thar they end up together and we see a montage of them getting married and having kids.

Butt there lies the entire shoupe deal too so im also scared abt that. But I have started praying and there's a year left so atp we can only hope that rafe and sofia end up together.

Also I feel like they should have included fiona in the cast interviews. She is so sweet and bubbly and would have made a great addition to the fun and I WANT TO SEE FIONA AND DREW INTERACT TOGETHER. I hate that even Austin was in the press tour like gtfo.

So basically if rofias not endgame, I will personally b*mb jpates residency so that they don't ruin another ship.

Also thank you so much for sending an ask. Me @araybiaaa and @lostsyren are holding the Fort for rofia so talking about it is so cathartic and less lonely. Hope you have a great day.

[skaruresonic]

I really don't like how the description of the promo image of the full Dark Beginnings has to specify that they're reaching for one another "like long lost siblings".

What is the difference between reaching for one another platonically and romantically? What makes that drawing different from the nearly identical scene of Sonic and Blaze in Rush, used as Sonaze fodder since the game came out? How is a blind person, the target audience, supposed to imagine the difference? And why does it matter?

It breaks the flow of the description and it feels... cowardly. Whoever wrote that description likely knows that a growing portion of the fanbase, especially on Twitter, thinks shipping Shadria is immoral, so they put their hands forward and shouted "THEY'RE SIBLINGS YOUR HONOR" to appease them.

Yes, I know the manuals have described their bond as sibling-like since the beginning, or at least ShTH. But was there any need to specify it here? Especially when Dark Beginnings itself just added more Shadria fuel (yeah it's very sibling-y to caress your brother's chest hair lol)?

I am not invested in Shadria but I don't understand the hate for it. It's cute. Shadow and Maria care for each other and are important to each other. There is no need to pigeon-hole their bond in a convenient label. There is no need to give an arm to the uptight fans who wrap their ship war (because let's face it, I'm sure many of those anti-Shadria people ship Sonadow lmao) in a morality question.

That piece has some real "Chihiro and Kohaku falling out the sky" energy going on tbh. Very kawaii and kakwáhyę. <3

Managed to find a few based tweets amidst the sea of Shadria antis popping champagne bottles, lol:

Based and Maekawa-pilled.

I do find it a tad sus how hard people cling to the ShTH manual as "proof" of pair's sibling relationship when the game proper never has Shadow or Maria describe it as such. The omission becomes even more salient when you recall that the Commander described Maria as being "like a sister" to him and "the only familly" he knew. Why does a Donut Steel nobody gives a shit about use those words, but not Shadow?

You mean to tell me in all 326 routes of Shadow The Hedgehog, Shadow does not take a single opportunity to say "I miss my sister Maria"? Wow, it's almost like ST left their dynamic open to interpretation for a reason. :v

Besides, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. If the ShTH manual is watertight proof that shipping Shadria is incest, then I reserve the right to say that Sonic was forced into a date with Amy under duress in Unleashed because Black Knight's manual describes him as awaiting a "stressful encounter."

---

(yeah it's very sibling-y to caress your brother's chest hair lol)?

...I don't think the antis realize that just makes it even hotter. what are you doing, step sis

Yeah, Maria has some... brow-raisingly romance anime-coded behaviors in these shorts. She's, uh... notably touchy-feely with Shadow.

Also, one last grenade to lob into the water, because fuck it, we're waking up and choosing violence today lmao:

[zanysmurf]

Sorry if this has been asked before but what is Zany's Smurf gimmick?

see, you think this would be an easy question to answer and by all means it should be! so get ready for a disjointed one. multiple, even. i just kind of say things here:

my original idea was that he'd have a gimmick similar to flighty (always doing various "zany" activities when he's not helping greedy) or jokey (annoying misc. mischief). "zany" is a word people use to describe like any cartoony nonsense, basically interchangable with "wacky", OR a noun to mean an eccentric person (which he was supposed to be) so it's hard to narrow that down. that was supposed to work to my advantage but at the same time it really didn't LOL

one of zany's activities is taking dares when he's bored and he'll do the dumbest things. jokey likes taking advantage of that and smurfs such as smurfette are like "oh for smurfs sake leave him alone. stop daring him to stick his head in dirt for hours" and greedy would say something like "you shouldn't do that type of stuff you need self control." [a smurf dares him to eat 30 cookies] "30???? i can do more than that"

the thing is: i created zany in 2019 for the sole purpose of interacting with my favorite smurfs / shipping him with greedy. i didn't want to use jokey for that stuff, i wanted something that felt more like me at the time. i was like. having a lot of trouble figuring all this out because i usually just wanted to focus on his dynamic with greedy. in older posts you might see him in scene gear with a patterned bandana because i was generally embracing my younger self back then and self-expression / having fun. he fell under 'smurfs if it was modern' or 'what if a modern day smurf was in the show's canon like a time traveler' au imaginings whenever i wasn't picturing him in the show canon, but i think i've drifted away from that (though i still completely get the appeal of the scene zany design)

speaking of him and jokey, i figured maybe they'd pull pranks together or something and when i learned the historical definition of a zany i was like *JAWDROP*

anyway: i'd say zany's gimmick was meant to be unpredictable by nature, but he could also be a vehicle for lighthearted poking at the show itself. ie. he'd be in a cage and notice the bars are tall and wide enough apart so he'd just slip right out. greedy/another smurf would say "how did you do that". and he'd shrug. that's more self-aware than i usually go for but if i was making a joke like that i'd want it to be silly

overall zany is a lot of things the show wouldn't allow: peyo hated when hb made new smurfs so a bunch of them never made it into the show / only lasted a while. his design is very simple but says nothing about his gimmick in a way that i feel would piss off both hb AND peyo. (which tbh i was thinking about redesigning him in some way at some point). there was also a bit of dissonance in terms of "i want this character to be more fleshed out than the show would allow, but i treat the other characters a similar way so it's fine" and making jokes like he's just some minor smurf who by all means shouldn't exist in-universe, ie. "omg remember zany he was in scampering smurfs in the background at 5:06". at one point he had a backstory and stuff that really honed in on the latter idea of "he's too different/not supposed to be here" ie. he used to be something other than a smurf or created artificially but i don't think i even like those ideas anymore

in comparison to fan characters/sonas i've made recently, zany is not one i'm particularly proud of. i love him and greedy but everything was suuuuch a mess. as the above demonstrates, i had far too many conflicting ideas. maybe that's part of the joke of who zany is. or maybe one of these days i'll try and give him something more cohesive. we'll see

[autistictaylorhebert]

See, if wildbow did join tumblr (and was active here) i don't think he'd get "bullied off" the platform, but I also don't think he'd "win" and get the interaction he wanted out of the community. No one would win, and no one would change anyone's opinion.

The most likely possibility by far is that he would just create dividing lines within the fanbase on tumblr, and/or intensify the dividing lines that were already there.

He'd get into arguments, people would make fun of him and defend him, people would block each other, and he'd probably end up with a group of blogs he could have Neil Gaiman-esque interactions with. A bunch of other people would go on with him blocked/ignored, and a good chunk of people would deactivate or just stop posting.

But crucially, fundamentally, this wouldn't give wildbow what he wants. He would still get takes on his dashboard that he hates, as well as art he doesn't like. There would be well meaning fans who ask questions or interact with him in ways he isn't comfortable with. There would continually be new controversies and clumsy fan interactions, especially with new blogs who had just discovered his writing.

I know this, because this is how /r/parahumans already works.

There's the main subreddit/community, and then there are offshoot groups that have been somewhat alienated and separated. Examples of this include the spacebattles fanfiction scene, wormblr itself, and to a lesser extent places like /r/wormmemes, /r/occultmagiconline, and various discords.

These places obviously aren't monolithic and or divided from each other in a meaningful sense, but there are big differences in prevailing sentiment and opinion from place to place.

This is kind of deliberate on wildbow's part, he has made a deliberate effort to moderate the subreddit and limit specific things people want to talk about there.

The thing is, again, this doesn't work out how he wants it to:

For one thing, over time, those differences in sentiment between websites have become more extreme and fermented, as a direct result of the fact those sentiments and ideas were limited in the platforms wildbow moderates. You can't really talk about fanfiction on /r/parahumans, so /r/wormfanfic and spacebattles became more insular. Criticisms of representation and similar are looked down upon in the subreddit, so parts of wormblr got more focussed on this criticism (even if this is often balanced by other, more positive posts).

Additionally, wildbow isn't able to consistently keep those sentiments (or ways of responding to his writing) away from the subreddit. There's still bleed over (it's just more extreme than it otherwise would have been), and there are always new fans who haven't really read the room yet.

You still get posts from fanfiction readers asking about jumpchain or quests or shipping. You still get people trying to talk about the bad gay representation (or just wholesale linking tumblr posts without the bloggers' permission). You still get people on the subreddit surprised about ward!Amy and similar things...

...and it results in continuous, intermittent discourse.

It's a pattern that we've seen happen over and over again, and it would probably play out the same way on here as well.

Finally, recently, wildbow has been making these kind of lamenting comments about how the fandom was toxic to him, or how someone crossed boundaries, or someone made fanart he didn't like, etc.

On one level I think he's telling the truth about some of the more toxic or parasocial instances he talks about, and those things are a real shame.

But at the same time, I think there's this undercurrent of wildbow having all these expectations about how much he can control or direct the response to his work, and then getting frustrated when he comes up against the fact these expectations are largely unrealistic.

[mauveberries]

I saw your anti-Jegulus post, and wanted to offer my two cents. I actually don’t personally mind Jegulus as a ship itself (I wouldn’t call myself a fan or anything, but I’m not too bothered by it), but I actually do think a lot of the fanon portrayals of Jegulus have constant hints of misogyny. For example, I’ve seen a lot of Jegulus fics/headcanons about Lily having a baby and essentially abandoning her family in order to leave room for Jegulus raising Harry. It’s a very tired cliche of fans of MLM ships trying to get women out of the way any way they can, as long as they can get use out of them first (in this scenario, Lily giving birth to Harry).

Another common thing I see is the criticism/opinion that Jily is boring (which is absolutely fair, everyone is entitled to their opinion) but then project a lot of Jily’s tropes onto Jegulus (some that I’ve seen are matching patronuses, James being extremely infatuated and pining over Regulus, or making Regulus’ personality identical to canon Lily’s and then turning Lily into a bland, one dimensional character). I think where people are coming from is that because of this, it genuinely feels like these people would in fact like Jily, and the only issue they have with it is that Lily is a woman. I also find myself genuinely wondering if Regulus would be as popular as he is now if he were a female character.

I don’t think people who like Jegulus are individually being misogynistic, I think it’s more of the general concept of Jegulus becoming popular and the treatment of all characters involved has strong undertones of misogyny.

This isn’t meant to be hateful or combative btw, so I hope it didn’t come off that way. I just saw your post and wanted to offer my perspective on it.

oh no worries anon, your message is clear. and you are right, the jegulus fandom is misogynistic in the way that you say that they are, and i dislike that.

but the point of my post is that you can't exactly be mysogynistic towards lily evans, because the author herself is already misogynistic towards her. my point was that jily is no better than jegulus.

think of it this way, lily evans, the mother of the protagonist of the series, whose love saved the protag’s life should have a more prominent role in the series. but instead, her whole life is portrayed to revolve around male characters. her role in ths story is reduced to being a mother. [i'm not saying motherhood is a bad thing, i just wish it was explored with more complexity and nuance.]

jily is also the most basic, misogynistic heterosexual pairing ever imo. james is immature, lily is mature, and james changed for her because he wanted her to like him.

that's it, that's literally it. the fact that james 'changed' himself is the more important part of their dynamic. lily herself is not shown having any feelings for james, and how she went through the process of forgiving him. james is this manchild, with atrocious behaviour and he's expected to change for lily. it's like lily isn't even her own person anymore!

i don't like the jily dynamics as well because james was lowkey blackmailing lily into dating him and the way that their romance is pprtrayed, it feels like she just eventually accepted it, after he 'changed.'

at this point, even though it was lily's love that saved harry's life, she is such a non-entity in the series. harry is portrayed to be more interested in learning about james, and lily is depicted as having NO concrete friends in canon! the mary detail in canon hardly counts because that scene was more focused on snape! another man. seriously! every aspect of her life revolves around some GUY.

not to mention, after she graduates, guess what. she stays at home to take care of the baby while james becomes a strong auror! are you seeing this?! she's a trad wife. she's literally a stay-at-home mum because she decided she wanted to get knocked up in the middle of the war. the only counter-point to this is if voldemort wasn't after harry, she might have gone to work, but it is iffy, too, because who decides it's a good idea to have a baby in the middle of a war? she could have fought alongside james but nooo she has to watch while james puts his invisibility cloak on to goof around with sirius while her baby's life is in danger.

"it genuinely feels like these people would in fact like Jily, and the only issue they have with it is that Lily is a woman." <- you're right anon, but this doesn't matter to me as i feel that both the ships are equally bad.

tl;dr: jily is also a lowkey misogynistic in my opinion. jegulus is just as bad, and you are right, some of its fans are misogynistic as well.

[quillkiller]

for the hot takes thing:

idk if they are hot takes on this blog tbh because the tumblr fandom has messed up my perception of what is popular and what is not but anyway here they are

i do not give a fuck about dorlene. i cant see it. it very often seems like forced lesbian representation to me. like, oh, lets throw them in here so that people dont say maybe i should have some sapphic women in my art if im trying to write about the queer experience. i read only one fic in my entire life that made them interesting and fleshed out characters. usually they are incredibly boring and i dont like it

marauderstok makes me a gatekeeper. i hate gatekeeping but then i see someone on tiktok talking about bartylily or sunkiller or moonrose or peter x barty and i just cant deal with that. they dont get them!!!! i dont even like most of these ships that much but i have moots that do and im overly protective of their blorbos. those people on tiktok dont understand bartylily!!! they are just into it cause it seems weird and unusual!! they dont see the vision of the pure hatred between barty and james that turns into sexual tension! they dont understand why barty would fall in love with peter and they try to make all of these ships into sketches!!! they are not!! those are my children youre talking about!!!

i am not a james fan tbh. probably because of how long ive hated him for. when i was a child and read hp for the first time the scenes with snape made me despise the guy. i spent years trying to explain to people that yes maybe he changed but he was still a terrible bully and nothing can ever excuse that. it got so bad my mom banned me from talking about james potter in our house because ive just said the same things over and over. 9yearold me was very determined. i know that all the marauders were involved but somehow it only affects my relationship with james. i know it unlogical but i just dont like him

on the topic of marauders and sev. i HATE the way fandom acts about it. acknowledge that your favorite characters were flawed! they weren't good people! what the fuck do you mean "i'm proud of james for bullying snape! someone had to do it. snape was just so bullyable"?? snape was a 11year old kid who was incredibly abused at home!!

again on the topic of severus. if i see one more joke made about his hair i'm going to go insane. are you guys aware that sometimes children are neglected so bad that their parents don't teach them things that are obvious to most of us, like how to wash your hair? have you heard about this concept of people not caring about their child and not buying them hygiene products? have your heard about poverty? have you heard about not having enough money to provide your child with all the things they need, including shampoo?

sorry for all that about sev. i am just very passionate about the way he's treated in this fandom. on the topic of characters being treated poorly by the fandom - dumbledore. some people truly believe that it's all his fault which is just so weird to me. he's obviously a deeply flawed man who made a lot of mistakes and i don't necesserily like him but i think we can all acknowledge that he's not the one who killed lily and james? like. he should've fought harder for sirius, obviously, but he didn't murder dorcas. he's not the ultimate villain that people make him out to be

i realise this is more about the fandom than the characters itself and i apologize it's just what's currently on my mind

whew lets get into it……

agreed. they often feel like the token lesbians that are just. already there. so might aswell just throw them into the story lmao and they wont have to flesh them out. i like my own version of dorlene, but yeah :/ people just aren’t interested in lesbians but what else is new

PEOPLE ON TIKTOK ARE TALKING ABOUT BARTLILY ????? jesus…………..

honestly i respect this so much... your mom banning you from talking about james made me laugh out loud…… Mad Respect

honestly. im very grey in this area. i like making fun of his hair unfortunately, but in other contexts i also think sevs greasy hair has a swaggy seductive lesbian flair. depends on how he’s being characterized. i saw a post today that was like ’cant help but laugh at people being angry about people objectifying fictional characters when they’re fundamentally dependant on being objects’ which i fully agree with. it’s part of litterature and film making that the (im gonna talk in film terms bc im a film student) that the mise-en-scene is an active choice, meaning that the way characters are dressed and presented is meant to, on purpose, reveal things about said characters. and often its driven by stereotypes that the audience has. severus is meant to look like a loser because he’s portrayed like a loser / and as someone who will be the victim of bullying. its simply the way his characters is canonically written and portrayed, and writers and viewers pick up on that. also im unfortunately one of the people who think bullying fictional characters is funny. it’s fictional and fandom, and never once have i stumbled upon a person who can’t balance the made-up fandom rules regarding fictional characters and their actuail real life morals. not saying these people don’t exist, but i certainly don’t kiki with them. fandom just doesnt affect real life issues in way some people sometimes seem to think. im personally a severus Lover and his biggest hater depending on the setting/hc’s/etc

i love albus, but i love him because i genuinely think he’s despicable. im not interested in his supposed reedming qualities and i personally dont think he has any….. he allowed teenagers to fight his wars and canonically didnt deny that he doesnt care for harry / and that he raised him like a pig for slaughter. its what makes him interesting. his childhood and early adult years make him one of the most fascinating characters in the fandom.. like i have so many feelings about him. he breaks my heart, he’s awful, he believes he’s good because he has good intentions, he yearns after grindelwald all his life and it was a 2 month summer romance, he killed his sister, his brother barely speaks to him. he’s a tragedy, but still despicable…… but i respect your opinion so much king thank you for sharing

MWAH loved these, thank you…. 🤍🤍

[theroundbartable]

You said to ask you about your takes about Merlin, and I always find it interesting to find out which angle people approach an ot3 of, so which edge of the triangle arthur/merlin/gwen was the first you shipped? Or was it the full ot3 right away? 👀

Ah, yes. When I started watching Merlin back in 2019, the very first thing I shipped was Merthur.

I usually don't start shipping right away, I start looking at the different dynamics and wait where it may take me. And the very first episode left all dynamics open. So, I wasn't an instant Merthur fan but I could tell that this was where I was heading.

Even though I wanted to ship Merlin x Gwen first because Gwen had a crush on Merlin and Merlin was oblivious and Arthur was an arse in season 1. I still knew I would end up a Merthur main.

Back in 2019 I was still working through a lot of stuff when it comes to relationships, sexuality, identity, trauma, etc, It sounds weird but what I needed at the time, was characters that I couldn't "be" and that also couldn't be attracted to me. The reason for that is too personal to post here but that's why I distanced myself from female characters in ships at the time. That's why I knew Mergwen wouldn't be where I'd end up. I didn't hate them, I just couldn't deal with certain things.

And then came the Elena episode in which Merlin tells Arthur that he will be a better king with a woman by his side whom he loves. I was already lowkey shipping Merthur by then, but THAT scene burned itself into my DNA and changed me forever. I LOVE that scene! If I ever had any doubts until then, they were gone the moment Merlin hands Arthur the sword and says: " I think you're mad."

I knew from the beginning that Merthur wouldn't end up canon, and that without looking at spoilers. The show is from 2012, I just knew. In fact, I was delighted with how FAR they took it despite that!

And I absolutely loved how the canon ship actually made sense. And Ioved how it was a learning curve for me too, to see them grow to make sense. In the beginning it felt a bit sudden but when I watched the show again, I realized just how many moments they actually had.

Plus, Gwen wasn't a mere love interest, she was a real character. Basically, she passed the bechdel test, lmao. I love that she's a blacksmith, that she had her own story arc, her own tragedies and losses, a full family that we SEE in the show, etc. And I loved her dynamic with Arthur growing from awkward to genuine. I always thought that relationshipwise, they were one of the best portrayals of lovebirds I've seen in a series in a long time. And BBC merlin is PG so that was a bonus. And they always had space for Arthur's friendship with Merlin. (This is very important to me, as an ace person who used to think they would lose their friends due to their relationships)

And well... years have passed and I slowly got over my trauma through writing fanfiction and some mild confrontation therapy. There was one fic especially, that paved the way for Mergwenthur. I think that one was Wired... (2021) in which time is a circle and Merlin lives long enough to see Arthur be born again. In that one I tried to be as close to canon as I could, while also writing a Merthur story. Originally, Arthur was meant to choose Merlin, but during the darkest hour, in which the story begins, he's already head over heels for Gwen. And the more I tried to grasp Arthur's feelings after the magic reveal, the less possible it was for me to not see Mergwenthur.

As Arthur starts realizing his fellings for Merlin, his feelings for Gwen don't change, because why would they? The feelings were different but they were both of love. And when I tried to characterize Gwen, I ended up thinking of their three person date in season 4(?) in which Arthur says:" Isn't it nice to be here? Just the two of us?" And it's GWEN who says: "you mean, the THREE of us. " When I thought of that, I just couldn't imagine that Gwen didn't already know and accept Arthur's feelings. And I couldn't imagine Merlin wanting Arthur to choose him over Gwen. While at the time, Mergwen wasn't really on my mind, I thought this was where the story was naturally progressing, so I let it.

I've always been a multishipper. But this dynamic is important to me. I've analized their relationship a couple of times and come to the conclusion that Gwen is the better Queen (some people like to call Merlin Arthur's queen). Because her relationship with Arthur is build on mutual goals and their future vision of Camelot. Their relationship is reasonable and healthy. I think their love is very soft but strong. While Merthur is just unhinged soul bond, ready to sacrifice everything for each other, including Camelot. Merlin would be a terrible Queen, like, seriously. Camelot would be destroyed the moment Arthur gets abducted once. Their love is intense and fickle in the sense that they can't live without the other. And Mergwen should have had more moments. Gwen was always the one person picking up that some things about Merlin were a bit odd, like the Lamia episode, or servant of two masters, etc.. I feel like Mergwen is a ship that's friendship first and can be both wholesome and completely mad, depending on which of the two indicates the action.

So, it was a bit of a curve for me. I ship them individually, I ship them together, apart, with other characters, everything. But the more I look into the show, the more sense Mergwenthur makes to me. Regardless of whether they are platonic or not, I can't unsee them. And why would I? they are fun.

Haha, this answer was very long, but I hope it answers your question :D

[bobbydagen24]

It kinda bugs me people always stating that things like Huntlow and Lilith being Aroace are cannon when they technically aren't. ( this isn't a Huntlow hate post btw )

It seems to be widely believed in this fandom that things like Huntlow and Luz being adhd and Lilith being aroace are cannon

And tbh I feel this fandom has kinda gone a little out of control in this regard as in the case of Luz and Huntlow these are things that are merely implied not confirmed

And in the case of Lilith its not even implied in the show let alone confirmed there's other things such as Hunter being Bi and whatnot

And the fandom usually seems to deem these 100 percent cannon because 1. there's a little bit of implication and 2. because Dana and the crew mentioned it after the series ended.

But thing is this doesn't mean these things are definitive cannon, info given outside of the main work itself really is a take it or leave it type of deal

And Dana Terrace has literally said she believes in this kind of thing herself that any HCs her and the crew may have outside of the work don't hold any more weight than a HC held by an average fan.

So things like Huntlow and Luz's adhd and Lilith's sexuality are merely very popular Head cannons not actually cannon

Luz's adhd was a popular fan theory for sure throughout the show and Huntlow is a very popular ship hence why they had that scene at the end implying they were together

but the key word is implied implication and confirmation are not the same thing and think about it this way if they really wanted to make them an 100 percent cannon couple with no wiggle room for anyone to think any differently

Then why not make it 100 percent clear? why not have them quickly kiss on screen? or refer to each as a partner? or anything? why just leave it at them holding each other and being physically affectionate

Something which your perfectly valid to read as just two people being close friends ( like I did the first time I saw it )

the reason why is that the owl crew wanted to leave it up to interpretation so if you wanna believe they are together you can do that if you wanna believe they aren't you can do that too

( same way who Hunter lived with wasn't confirmed either so literally any HC about who took him in is equally as valid )

but neither interpretation holds any more weight than the other as Huntlow simply isn't a cannon couple Lumity is a cannon couple.

and the owl crew admitting they like Huntlow as well doesn't suddenly make it cannon as by their own admission anything they say outside of the show doesn't hold any cannon weight.

tho at least with stuff like Huntlow and Luz's adhd I understand why fans would consider it cannon given it was at least implied

but in the case of Lilith being aroace the fandom acting like this is cannon genuinely baffles me tbh because it directly contradicts stuff we were shown in the show itself

Lilith and Hooty have a very strongly implied romantic relationship fans consider Huntlow cannon based on two scenes of them being affectionate

well Lilith and Hooty have like a whole season's worth of interactions like that, again I wouldn't say they are a cannon couple as they technically never got together on screen

But they were definitely very strongly implied given their hyper affection shown towards each other so the fandom dismissing all this in favour of Lilith being aroace

Because one of the owl crew mentioned it as a HC of theirs outside of the work is kinda crazy to me tbh

like if you wanna HC her as that by all means go ahead but to try and tell other people that this bit of info is 100 percent cannon and to act like the opinion you have holds more weight than the opinion of a fan

who is basing their take on stuff we actually saw in the show is where I feel this fandom has gone way way too far with all this off screen "" cannon "" info tbh

Yeah this has happened in the past to me and I've noticed to others hence why I'm talking about it as this fandom straight up uses word of mouth from the creators

as a weapon to put other people down for having opinions that differ even tho their very own opinions are no more valid

what I'm saying is at the end of the day Huntlow is a HC plenty of HCs are based on implied scenes but we don't go stating them as 100 percent cannon

Luz being neurodivergent of some type is just a HC because the series heavily implied it

Lilith being aroace is just a HC and Hunter being Bi is just a HC etc etc.

and Your perfectly free to think them but trying to claim them as if they were as cannon as Lumity or as cannon as Belos being a murderer

and attempting to act like your HC opinion holds more more weight than someone else's and putting them down for their own HCs is just going too far.

I don't even hate any of these HCs ( except for the Lilith one since I believe in her and Hooty's love 😂😂😂😂)

I'm fine with Huntlow I've even read fics that have made me love the pairing, Luz being neurodivergant of some kind is well something I thought myself when I first watched the show

And Hunter being Bi I have no issues with.

so this rant isn't me complaining about this because I don't like these HCs its just me pointing out how unfairly the fandom treats these HCs

Now I know people have different definitions of cannon for example some people are fine with stuff confirmed outside of the work while others arn't

but that has to be done with the understanding that its your cannon no one else's hence you don't get to go claiming it as someone else's cannon

and trying to tell them they are incorrect for thinking something that differs from what you personally consider cannon.

so for example if someone stated that Luz was 100 percent straight that's an incorrect piece of info

that is factually proved wrong by multiple pieces of confirmation in the show itself and thus you'd be correct for correcting them on it.

but if someone states that Huntlow is not cannon then that is equally as valid as someone stating that it is given the little info the show gives us that can be interpreted both ways.

look my point is the fandom just needs to chill when it comes to its popular HCs I love HCs I have many myself

but it loses its fun when you have fans getting so passionate about them that they try to force them on other people by claiming their opinions as cannon for everyone.

anyway thanks for reading and I hope it was 100 percent clear that I'm not trying to hate on anyone just for liking these HCs I just want the fandom to treat them a bit more fairly that's all.

[narhinafan]

Honestly SP seems to make me hate ships that I normally would not hate because they're in the realm of fanfiction and fan art and I think that's harmless. Not taking the toxic fandoms into account it was SP that made me hate NaruSaku and Ichiruki.

I'll make this brief. Why do I now hate Ichiruki? I didn't always hate it. I was actually more of a fan of Ichiruki than Ichihime until I reread the bleach Manga last year and then watch the anime as well and I grew annoyed every time there was an Ichiruki moment. Not only does it break the pacing of scenes it makes characters acting out of character Ichigo and rukia especially. I don't mind non-canon crack ships as long as it's kept in the realm of fan art and fanfiction and not inserting it into what is supposed to be Canon moments in the story and at the expense of other characters.

What could have been an amazing movie where we explored a mirror universe instead we had NaruSaku the movie where Naruto and Sakura are acting both out of character and it kind of feels like there were two movies in one and the version that Kishimoto wrote was mostly cut from the cutting room floor.

There was a huge opportunity to explore a different aspect of Hinata and Sasuke's characters. Instead we got some stupid ship movie with NaruSaku. I mean there was so much potential with road to ninja Hinata and Sasuke and it was wasted. I mean the exact opposite of who these characters are in personality. I mean there's so much you could have explored. The best scenes of that movie arguably were like 5% of the film if even that and when you compare it to the likes of One piece strong world which came out a few years before actually respected The source material and the author you could tell the difference is night and day hell Naruto the last felt like a genuine story by Kishimoto and you can tell the difference between that film and road to ninja.

I argue that the tie into the movie was better than the movie itself because it actually explored Ino and explored the road to ninja version of Sakura who arguably was more likable than her canon counterpart. It's rare that you get to explore near universe versions of characters concepts are usually explored in science fiction and the very fact that SP wasted a cool concept was tossed aside for a freaking ship that had no chance in hell ever being Canon will never not piss me off.

SP makes it seem like every anime they seem to do a series of it makes it seem like that series is concerned with shipping and I don't think shipping is bad but it should never come at the expense of a Canon story written by the author. The author and only the author in my eyes in an official product should be able to dictate what ships happen and what ships don't for better or for worse we're not the people that choose who ends up with who the author does. This shipping bullshit kills the integrity in my opinion of these stories that we all enjoy because it seems like certain people are more concerned with the shipping aspect then the actual story

Honestly I was never a fan of Sakura, but it was more her fandom that made me hate her, SP's bias was just the icing on the cake that gave me more reason to dislike it.

I am more of an IchiRuki fan I watched the anime long before the manga hence all the scenes made me a fan though I have nothing against IchiHime and after reading the manga it was obvious why they happened and that SP was really bias towards IchiRuki through out the anime. Its no surprise the author had complaints and refused to let them do another season without his supervision.

Yes RTN was ruined by NaruSaku honestly considering it was set after Pain's confession and none canon it could have tied into Hinata's feelings for Naruto/Menma while exploring a different take. I really want to know why Menma ended up dark side considering he had a family and Hinata clearly loved him. It could have been a sweet story where Hinata toughened up to help Menma after people rejected him for the fox.

So true SP's shipping bias is so unprofessional and as you said ruins the integrity of the stories as they force a ship that contradicts canon and usually in ways that aren't believable.

[braemjeorn]

some scrambled thoughts post moving (2023)

i might need to watch the series again to catch some details so excuse me if I'm confused about the obvious. but spoiler alert, to those who haven't watched it.

me when the temporary teacher got stabbed: (blinks)... i mean I don't like you, not that I want you to die either. oh well.

so what was bang kisoo looking for loitering in the school like that? his files to better his report? the files of the ones with powers to verify things? maybe han byul's memory card too? to observe what had happened in the gym? to pick up a fight with kanghoon? man i lost somethings really...

...so kisso wasn't the one to sabotage that jumpboard?

it was that temp teacher/agent?

anyway what is wrong with that tempt teacher honestly - did he sabotage kisoo's ankle just to find out if he has power or just out of sheer distaste like...?

gosh i hate him now, but he died! we'd never know his motives!

(the way this drama have 20 ep but i still have questions)

(it's the flashbacks. too many flashbacks when we could've gotten new scenes. i always hate this abt kdramas)

on the good side, kisoo going soft and protective with han byul when he realized the NK agents aren't here to play

that was a really short and sudden ship but o ma gosh the potential

hyewon too deserved more screen time - like suddenly moving schools too?

like honestly a bummer that they're graduating college - bongseok, huisoo, hyewon, han byul, ganghoon and kisoo would have been such a good friend group (or pairing, if you want it that way. the potential is there, honestly)

anyway about kanghoon - takes-his-duty-seriously class president kanghoon

wanna see him working as an agent/civil servant in the NIS

working under that seagull guy? *rubs hand excitedly* is gonn be fun honestly, man we need a SEQUEL we really do!! the next gen of supers is gonn wreck some stuff, i can feel it!

i came to this show to see mihyun and doosik but ended up being such a fan of guryongpo

mr ryu was the topmost actor in the wikipedia page so i was like, oh he's the main main guy turns out!

he came to any scene and i was like "guryongpo! he's alive! huisoo appa! 희수 아빠 멋있다! 희수 아빠 화이팅!!"

best man, best partner, best husbando, best dad

i thought frank rolling over him with that truck again and again was bad but then he had 200 gang members breaking his bones with their cars like... you've been through a lot sir.

episodes abt his and jaehee's married life was either the cutest or the most heartbreaking like staph, my heart cannot heal itself

unconventional couples are the cutest i swear by it

huisoo >< jaehee: helps lost adult men on the roadsides

juwon >< jaeman: protective dads

on a more depressing note, that useless jo principal might have orchestrated jaehee's accident.

maybe just to see if huisoo has powers. the wife dies as consequence? not my problem, i'm just gonna wait in this car.

his death seemed excruciating. well deserved, i might say.

and Frank still didn't die either lol not even fire stops him

curious as to what he's gonna do next 0.0

(crack suggestion: he can work at the chicken shop and they can rename the shop as immortal chickens)

(i don't know how huisoo got yongdeuk to work at the shop but if she can persuade her dad to take in a defector, she can persuade him to take in an assassin that once wanted to kills him)

(that's jaehee's passion running through her)

is elias gonna be worse or what? also a korean native?...gotta see that episode again to look at the boys

another thing i feel robbed off: reunions.

moonsan and guryongpo needs to meet up I NEED TO SEE IT

code names?? f- that, name's kim doosik. you're my hyung now, let's work well together.

THEY WERE PARTNERS FOLKS, PARTNERS. DOOSIK LEFT JUWON HIS KNIFE GAH

THE KIMS AND THE JANGS NEED TO EAT DONKASS AND CHIKIN TOGETHER!!!

(imagine the conversation abt huisoo and bongseok relationship will go abt lol)

(JW: sunbae, i respect you a lot, i'm glad you're back, but that's my only daughter-- DS: hyung, i just got to know my son again this year-- MH (towards the kids): i knew it, you two are just the sweetest!)

you know, for someone who doesn't know if her husband is alive or dead for 13-14 year but constantly waits for his return by leaving hints, mihyun is very composed at seeing dusik just landing on her rooftop

i don't know if i should credit that to her training as a black agent or toughened up by being a single mum for that long

but she didn't even react at seeing jang juwon at the teacher's office although it's been like, 24 years and suddenly you're here coz your kid's in the same school as mine? coincidence? I think not! this institution is more slippery than fish!

mihyun's really cool like, she's still that sharp and quick even after doing office jobs, farming, single-parenting and managing a restaurant. what a role model. you really don't forget your training huh?

Yellow Man Bongseok - Bunggaeman being his inspiration is just--

oh i also really liked how that NK agent pulled the trigger like you wanna look inside my loose sleves. wepl, surprise bish! the mechanics and how it's shot is just *chef's kiss*

you know for some scenes that we were robbed off, it's a lovely drama

i like action movies a decent amount, and this hits the spot. korean style,especially.

really really REALLY looking forward to that sequel now, gosh just give it to me.

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s2 ep26: Basics pt 1

Voyager's first season finale cliffhanger! While I hated cliffhangers back in the day (waiting months to find out what happened was not fun, let me tell you) I think this one was pretty good in general, and it certainly set up some very high stakes to be resolved in the next season opener.

I'm not a fan of the Seska baby plot, and I honestly don't see how they wouldn't have figured out it was a trick, but I guess suspension of disbelief is required here. If I were Janeway, I'd never risk my entire ship to go rescue some baby who's most likely not even in any danger, but I guess when someone tells you they love you, it puts you in a weird bind where you kind of have to give them leeway to go back for the kid they didn't want with the Cardassian spy you both hate. (But yet, no such concern for the Threshold lizard babies- why didn't they go back for them??? Huh??? Why are Cardassian babies so much more important than lizard babies?? Answer me that, Kathryn! And I see Commander 'fuck them kids' Chakotay whistles a different tune when it's his unwanted space children they want to leave behind! Dude really hates Tom Paris that much, doesn't he?? What did he ever do to you, Chakotay?? I'm joking, but also a little bit serious.)

We get some Suder scenes, where, thanks to his mind meld with Tuvok, he's now just a weird ass dude obsessed with gardening, which, somehow, makes him even creepier.

If you ignore how stupid the actual plot itself is, the rest of the episode, where they try to figure out a way through Kazon space, and come up with ingenious ways of tricking the Kazon into thinking they have more ships, is actually pretty interesting stuff. (It could have done without the zany gag of accidentally projecting the Doctor into space in the middle of the battle- the whole episode has been pretty serious, and it was a little too incongrous to stick a silly gag in there while shit is otherwise getting very real.)

The part where the Kazon take over the ship is pretty hair raising stuff, I don't think we'd ever seen anyone capture a Starfleet ship on screen before. It definitely did not need the gross gendered violence thrown in there though- a bad guy hitting a Starfleet captain on their own ship is enough to show villiany, we didn't need the 'you're just a woman, shut up' bs in there too, that was just gratuitous misogyny. We've already established the Kazon are misogynists, there was absolutely no reason to put it in there. And did they really have to have Seska making a false rape accusation? The misogynist trope that women just go around making false rape accusations to get what they want is only bolstered by stuff like this, and it's harmful and unnecessary. We already know that Seska is bad, they didn't need to add that at all. (And anyway, a patriarchal society like the Kazon probably wouldn't even care or believe her, so they should have made up another reason for Cullah to want the kid.)

Leaving the crew stranded on a planet with no Voyager, no tech, a bunch of volcanos, some possibly unfriendly natives, AND a large snakey-dragony creature looming in the background seems almost like overkill in terms of having enough peril to place them in, but I'll go with it. Everything moved along at a good pace, and having the ship stolen is a hell of a cliffhanger. Seeing the Kazon fly Voyager away from her crew is deeply sad, and you know seeing that would have just lit a fire in Janeway and company to work even harder to get it back. And they do have a small sliver of hope of rescue- Tom Paris is out there in a shuttle, which was presumed, but not confirmed, to be destroyed (because of course Tom volunteered to fly a shuttle through a space battle to go back and get help) and Suder is still on board, having hidden in the vents when the Kazon takeover, and he said he wants to do something for the ship, so he's probably gonna fall back on what he knows best: murder! But like, its for a good cause this time- he's gonna kill those Kazon and present them to Janeway llke a cat bringing it's owner a dead mouse lol.

So yeah, even though I had a few issues in this ep, it's still an edge of your seat cliffhanger where you have to see what happens next.

Tl;dr: Some questionable story choices, but done with enough panache that it compels you to find out what happens in the second part asap.