#i don't want any discourse over the pairing

[sesshy380]

Ship Ask- Longfic AU Kat x Marik edition

I had seen a ship ask game, and I wanted to be self-indulgent and just answer like 99% of the questions without having people ask them. After encouragement from others that I should just do it, I began slowly working on fulfilling my self-indulgence.

If certain things have already happened in longfic, I’ll mention the chapter where it can be found. Anything that might be a potential future spoiler (meaning it hasn’t been posted yet), I will avoid anything beyond the hinting of it being possibly explored.

Important notes for those who haven’t read longfic: Bakura, Malik (Yami Marik), and Kat (OC) are immortal elemental beings. Their canon pasts are butchered and mutated to fit my AU. Also, so people don’t freak out when reading some of the answers, the Yami’s are the biological paternal figures to their hosts. I’m not dragging out the yarn board to explain how it all works. If you really want to know, just read the insanity. It’s called Tangled Web of Fate for a reason.

Another thing to note: Kat is chronologically 5,000 years old. Physically and mentally, however, she is 16, just like Marik. I have stuck with that age for Marik since the story itself picks up one month after Battle City. If the whole ‘age’ thing bothers you, this is a good time to follow the age old art of ‘Don’t like; don’t read’.

1. Describe their first date.

Found in Chapter 11. Their first ‘date’ was the result of Kat dragging along a reluctant Marik as a distraction to calm down, and it ended with Marik being really confused about why he felt the way he did towards a girl. They both still refer to that day as the ‘not-a-date’.

2. Who wakes up early/Who sleeps in late?

Kat is not a morning person. Marik is indifferent…except when he’s up too late, as is evident in chapter 86. That happened to also be one of those times when Kat was up early…and once she’s up, she’s up.

3. What was their first impression of each other?

I know this question is meant more for the typical couple, but with these two it’s not as simple as ‘they saw the other and thought they were cute’.

Marik’s first time ‘meeting’ Kat (that he knows of) was in chapter 5 in a vision/dream…and she was a cat. He was pretty annoyed with the cat.

Kat, on the other hand, first ‘met’ Marik not long after his birth. She was more focused on her own current situation, so she only saw him as her friend’s heir and nothing more at the time.

4. Who initiates affection? Why does the other not initiate affection as much?

They are both equal in the ‘initiates affection’ department. Kat has always been affectionate even on a platonic level, as can be seen with her weird relationship with Bakura (Marik occasionally questions if the two are really just friends, but he’s not going to be an ass and tell his girlfriend she needs to change how she acts with her bestie). Because of how affectionate Kat is on a physical level, Marik is at ease showing the same level of affection in return. He found he actually likes it.

5. Do they argue often? If so, what do they argue about?

They’ve had a few arguments, but it’s usually because Kat has this bad habit of trying to keep herself emotionally distant (for good reason). Chapter 57 is where shit hits the fan when she confesses to having a moment of weakness and offering herself to her ex (Atem). Marik is understandably upset, and he blows up over it and storms out of the house.

6. How do they make up/apologize after an argument?

Cuddles. Because I’m the author and I am a sucker for post-argument cuddles. No other reason.

7. How often do they say “I love you”?

Marik is the only one to have said it, and he says it often. Kat has implied it, but she’s still emotionally wounded from her marriage with Atem and the fear of being hurt again is strong enough that she actively avoids saying those words.

8. What do they love most about the other? Why?

Kat- How patient and understanding Marik has been with her. Also how he is able to relate to many of the things she says and does in his own way, and it makes her feel more ‘human’ as a result.

Marik- How Kat makes him feel like he’s in a dream he doesn’t want to wake up from. He gets to explore and learn more about himself without feeling judged.

9. What do they dislike most about the other? Why?

Kat- Dislikes when Marik calls her out on some of the things she does, because she’s been oblivious to a lot of her own behavior for several millennia (too many idiots let her get away with just about everything).

Marik- Dislikes that Kat has this bad habit of doing things that benefit others at the cost of her own happiness. Too much of her personality revolves around making others happy.

10. Do they share any hobbies or interests? How do these things bring them together?

They both like to work in the garage. Kat on muscle cars and Marik on motorcycles. Their first ‘date’ took them to a motorcycle shop that Marik had been wanting to check out, where Kat bought him his first Harley Davidson jacket (it was jean of course, because he’s vegan and won’t wear real leather). They also shared their first kiss in Kat’s garage.

11. How do they feel about nicknames/pet names? If they like them, what pet names do they use? If they hate them, why do they feel that way?

They both use nicknames/terms of endearment.

Kat- Was the first by calling Marik ‘Pretty One’, which quickly evolved into the Egyptian Arabic ‘gamiil’. After Marik said ‘I love you’ the first time, ‘gamiil’ became replaced with the ancient Egyptian ‘sehedj-ib’, which loosely translates to ‘the one who gladdens my heart’. This was her way of expressing that Marik makes her happy.

Marik- Since they made things official between them, he has taken to calling Kat ‘habibty’. It’s his way of showing her that he considers her someone special.

12. Do they have a difficult time when separated from each other, or are they fairly independent?

Mildly independent on both their parts, unless something happens that prompts the need for concern when apart, like Marik’s concern after the events of chapter 91.

13. How do they keep in contact when they’re apart? Do they write letters, talk on the phone, or simply wait out the time?

Their time apart is mostly due to Marik attending school. They spend his lunch period texting.

14. Do they enjoy PDA, or are they more private with affection?

They have no problem expressing how they feel with one another out in the open.

15. What songs remind you of their relationship?

Blinding Lights by the Weeknd

16. Would they ever get matching tattoos? If yes, what would these look like?

So this one is a bit tricky. Kat’s body instantly heals and is resistant to scarring, and Marik doesn’t like the idea of having anything that is ‘permanent’ (for obvious reasons). They would, however, both get airbrushed tattoos. It would probably be some form of a phoenix to symbolize being reborn from their past. Plus, there has to be fire to symbolize Kat’s element, which Marik found he isn’t afraid of.

17. How well do they communicate? Are they open with their feelings/thoughts or more reserved? Why?

Marik is more open in his feelings. Kat is still reserved and has a hard time saying how she feels. This is due to the emotional trauma Atem caused her across the millennia.

18. How do they care for each other when one of them is wounded/sick?

Kat doesn’t really have to worry about wounds or illness, but that doesn’t stop Marik from trying to protect her when someone does something to hurt her, or from worrying when she’s not exactly up to par. Chapter 26 and chapters 58 & 59 are good examples of this.

When Marik was nearly drained by Kat in chapter 33 (during a moment when she wasn’t entirely in control), Kat stayed by his side. She only left when Bakura woke up so she could do some damage control with her bestie, but Malik was present and she knew he would take care of Marik in her absence.

19. Do they wear each other’s clothes/jewelry?

They do! Kat has no issue with some of Marik’s more effeminate clothing choices. If anything, she finds it cute. Marik’s only issue is when she borrows something and doesn’t put it back after. Kat has a bad habit of setting things in places she can find them later, instead of where they belong.

20. How do they comfort each other when one of them is upset? Is this method of comfort effective?

Cuddles and talking. This is most effective towards Kat. Marik needs a bit more, and Kat usually sweetens the pot either with motorcycles or sex. Both are extremely effective.

21. Do they enjoy domestic life?

Domestic life is okay from time-to-time, but it’s not something they would enjoy long-term. They both enjoy the thrill of living on the edge and feeling ‘alive’.

22. Are they comfortable joking around with each other and being silly/playful?

Very much so. They were both robbed of having a real childhood, so they are basically big children some days.

23. What are the defining characteristics of their relationship?

Patience, understanding, and acceptance. Also, the exploration of an unknown future and discovery of self.

24. How do their personalities affect their relationship? Do their characteristics compliment each other, or clash often?

Both are a mix of two different eras, which makes it where they can be genuine with each other. Marik doesn’t feel he has to hide any of his Tomb Keeper past or his time running an international crime organization. Kat doesn’t have to hide that she’s an immortal being from 5,000 years ago or any of the ‘not-human’ aspects of herself.

25. Do they share a room/house? If so, what does it look like and how does it compliment their personalities?

At the moment, they live in Kat’s house, but she’s made space in her room for his stuff. Her vanity has a lot of Marik’s jewelry boxes on it at the moment, along with his makeup. Kat is often minimalist when it comes to these things, but she still owns her share of it. It should go without saying, but Marik obviously keeps his motorcycle in the garage as well.

26. What sacrifices do they make for the other?

Kat- Restricts how much meat she eats in Marik’s presence since he’s vegan (and she’s literally the opposite).

Marik- Made a deal with Apep, the Serpent of Destruction, to help keep Kat’s vampire-like nature a bit more under control (Chapter 34).

27. How do they say “I love you” non-verbally?

Have I mentioned these two enjoy cuddling and just being near each other?

28. Who’s the better chef? Do they cook for the other?

Kat is forbidden from cooking (she doesn’t have the patience for it). Marik isn’t really interested in learning. Both are content with take-out.

29. Describe their nighttime routine.

Marik attempting to remove his jewelry and makeup and getting distracted 99% of the time before he’s finished. He’s 16 and sharing a house and bed with his girlfriend. Hormones are in control come nighttime.

30. What are their respective love languages? Do their love languages work well together?

Kat- Gift giving and physical touch. This is her way of showing that she is paying attention to a person’s likes/wants/needs.

Marik- Giving affirmation and physical touch. Affirmation is his way of showing that the person is important enough to him that he understands what they need/want on an emotional level. It’s progressive on his part as well to step away from the ‘ME’ mentality he had before.

Physical touch is a big one that connects them (hence all the cuddling). Kat likes to touch and be touched. Marik allowing it is his way of showing his trust in her, and he enjoys wrapping his arms around her (she fits just right on his lap where he can rest his chin on her head).

31. Do they often go out on dates? What are these like?

‘Dating’ is still a new concept for Kat. She understands its purpose, but it’s something she’s never done before. Atem was Pharaoh, and they knew each other prior to that. There was no official ‘courting’, it was just Atem asking her to stand beside him and she had feelings for him so she said yes.

Marik never dated in a serious sense. All of his dates were purely casual flings or manipulation to get what he wanted (like with Remi, explained at the end of chapter 45 and continued in 46).

Chapter 85 kind of explains Kat’s side of things and continues for the next few chapters.

32. Do either of them drink? If so, who’s the lightweight, and how does their partner care for them?

Being that alcohol doesn’t affect Kat as quickly, Marik is obviously the lightweight in comparison. His first time drinking alcohol in general was with Kat (Chapter 18). He didn’t drink prior to that because he needed to keep his mind clear to control his puppets with the Rod. Kat only drinks when she isn’t concerned with the side-effect of it dampening her ability to use magic.

33. How do they flirt? Who’s the worst flirt?

They are equals in that area. They both love flirting with each other.

34. Do they have any inside jokes?

Mostly sexual innuendos when flirting.

35. Is their relationship a secret? If so, why?

Nope. Though it was a huge shock to Atem who was okay with it until he regained his memories and realized that his wife had moved on with an Ishtar (he had stolen her from an Ishtar 5,000 years prior, so the irony was not lost on him).

36. How do they feel about having kids? Are they in agreement?

It’s not something that’s been discussed, because Kat has informed Marik that she is incapable. She had to enlist the aid of her father, Anubis, to speak on her behalf to the goddess Meskhenet for Yugi and Imhotep to exist.

37. Who’s more emotionally sensitive/cries more often?

Kat all the way. Marik only cries when he’s emotionally overwhelmed.

38. Who’s got a quicker temper?

Kat has a temper to match her fiery element, and it manifests on a physical level. Something has to really hit the right nerve for Marik to fly off the handle.

39. When and how did they admit that they loved each other? If they haven’t yet, why?

Marik was the first, and he regularly says it (Chapter 44). Kat has yet to say it due to emotional trauma from Atem.

40. Do they have any regrets in their relationship?

In the relationship itself, no. Things they have done since being in the relationship, yes.

41. What would they do if they lost the other?

That may or may not get explored in future chapters…

42. What’s their relationship like with each other’s friends/families?

Fairly decent. Imhotep was an issue for a bit, but he chilled out after the events in chapter 91. Kat isn’t a fan of Ishizu…for reasons.

43. If they picked out outfits for each other, what would they look like?

This kind of already happened in chapter 79. Marik convinced Kat to dress in something more ‘fun and lighthearted’, instead of her usual all-black ‘doom and gloom’. Kat likes seeing Marik in his Battle City get-up.

44. Do they cuddle often? Why or why not?

If you read this far and don’t know the answer, I have to ask: Have you really read any of the previous answers?

45. How do they support each other? How do they rely on each others support?

Marik is able to take a lot of things Kat says and does and relate to it in his own way. By voicing those comparisons, it makes Kat feel understood and seen.

Kat does lean on Marik more in this way, but the fact that Kat doesn't judge Marik for things like how he dresses or his sexuality preferences, helps him feel less like a society outcast (considering he's still getting back on his feet from the whole Battle City fiasco).

46. Do they consider their relationship casual or serious? Is the answer different depending on who you ask? Why?

While Kat's original intention was to make Marik her casual plaything, he charmed her in an unexpected way.

Marik had no intention at all at first, but he found himself oddly drawn to Kat.

They both decided to take things seriously when they became 'official'.

47. Do they sleep beside each other? Why or why not?

Absolutely. Nothing like falling asleep cuddled up together (after having some fun).

48. Do they talk about their future together? Why or why not?

Both are still recovering from their past, and it's kinda hard to bring up a future when one of them doesn't age or die. It's one of those depressing things they'd rather not explore at the moment (plus they've technically only been dating for two weeks).

49. Do they keep secrets from each other?

Unfortunately, but not because they want to. Marik is magically bound to keep the secret of Apep’s current existence (first seen in chapter 34). Kat is also bound in a way as well, in that she can’t explain the true purpose of her 3D chess table (explained a bit in chapter 60).

50. Would they ever break up? If so, why? Who would handle the breakup better?

This one is kind of hard to answer, but something may be coming in future chapters that will delve into possible break-up territory. That’s all I’m going to say on this.

And that’s all 50 questions for this pair! I am going to (regrettably) do these for longfic AU Atem and Bakura next. If you love those idiots as much as I do, keep an eye open for their version in the future. I’m hoping to have it done and posted before I go downstate for Youmacon.

[conarcoin]

So Elon bought Twitter. I'm honestly not gonna push away Twitter newcomers, but if you're in the MCYT fandom you need to understand that the social etiquette and expectations and culture here are very different than over on Twitter. So as someone who's been an active part of mcytblr for two years now, I'd like to offer some thoughts and advice!

One: Shipping. MCYT communities on Tumblr have always tended to lean more tolerant towards shipping of roleplay characters due to the idea that this is a space for fans primarily. The creators who visit or actively use Tumblr like Eret and Martyn understand that this is a fan space primarily, and don't bother us for the content we make, and we don't bother them with it.

The number one worst thing you could do is share shipping content with creators who have not asked for it. This is a huge social faux pas here. Secondly, on the other end — writing callout posts for shippers here isn't gonna fly. Even for RPF shippers and people who may ship boundary-breaking pairings, our default is usually to not engage with these people rather than publicly call them out. It makes the space a healthier place for everyone and makes it much less likely that CCs may come across content they are uncomfortable with. It's also considered a social faux pas to ask CCs their opinions and boundaries on shipping, since that's bringing it up when they didn't ask!

Speaking of shipping, people typically don't mind you maintagging ship content so long as you also tag it as shipping so people can filter it. For Hermitcraft the tag is hermitshipping, Life Series has trafficshipping, and the lesser known DSMP tag is dsmpshipping.

Two: Reblogging. This is something a lot of newer users tend to struggle with. There is no algorithm on Tumblr, at least not one that works, so content creators rely on you reblogging their work in order for it to spread. If you see a fic or piece of art you enjoy, please reblog it! I often reblog art for MCYT fandoms I'm not even personally in.

Three: Tagging (again). There are a wide variety of tags you can use for your content! The most common tags you'll want to use are "mcyt" and "mcytblr", and any relevant series, pairing/group or character/CC names. However, please don't use the tag "minecraft"! Minecraft has an entirely separate fanbase on Tumblr that we co-exist with and have some overlap with, but don't necessarily appreciate seeing MCYT content in their tags. Any tag with "minecraft" in it is also a no-no, such as "minecraft youtubers" or "minecraft championships". Please use shorthands!

Four: Opinions on MCYT drama tend to be very different here than they are on Twitter. For instance, you should assume by default that most bloggers here either like or are completely neutral towards "problematic CCs" like Schlatt. But also, we tend to be very against spreading anything originating from leakers, and we also tend to not be fond of making posts "holding CCs accountable" for things they did years ago. Generally, mcytblr prefers to be a more drama-free community, and if you do engage in discourse, many would appreciate you tagging it as such!

Five: CCs do not need you to babysit them.

Generally speaking you will see a lot of jokes and memes on mcytblr that wouldn't fly on Twitter, and it is generally looked down upon to try to speak on behalf of CCs personal boundaries — they are grown adults, and you are a stranger! Calling out or harassing people for "breaking boundaries" is mostly just going to get you looked at strangely, especially if you don't have a source for your claims. Most of us will stop doing something if asked, but we don't need stans to tell us to! CCs can speak for themselves when uncomfortable.

Six: Most mcytblr blogs don't want CC notices. There are quite a few CCs who are active here, but the community is chill with them as they don't tend to talk about us elsewhere and allow us to do our own thing. We do not, however, like encouraging CCs to join Tumblr or to follow us or reblog our posts — many people here actually prefer being out of sight of CCs and many of us consider it rude to seek out attention from CCs outside of sending the occasional ask.

Please treat CCs kindly and don't gawk at them like you just saw a celebrity on the street — the ones who are active here are just Tumblr users like the rest of you! Seeing Eret reblog fanart or respond to an ask isn't something to point out.

While we joke about Twitter users joining, we don't actually have anything against you guys, it's just that we've built a very different community here and ask that you respect it and the etiquette we've come to establish! Thank you, and I hope you enjoy your stay on mcytblr ^_^

[stardustbuck]

I feel like atp even if there were plans to make bvddie canon theyre gone now. if tim minear is even half as petty as I am he would see that reaction and go u know what fuck you u actually don't get what you want now cause ur acting so goddamn entitled. like when tarlos fans got mad about the deleted scenes instead of appreciating them being released and his reaction was to say "okay fine then I just won't release deleted scenes anymore" (like I'm sure it was mostly a marketing decision but part of me thinks they intentionally released a scene about bucktommy just to prove a point.) idk man it's just really upsetting as a bi man to see the absolutely vile shit bvddie stans are saying and even tho I love the ship I now never want it to go canon cause they've fuckin ruined it

hey anon, at first let me agree with the fact that i do in fact also love bvddie a lot and i still love reading fics for them, the edits of them are fantastic and the fanart is S tier. it’s a great pairing with a lot of potential there IF the writers decided to ever go there but…

huge answer below

yeah, i agree. i honestly think before tommy was introduced again in 7x03 and the kiss in 7x04 that in my brain, bvddie was the most logical endgame for buck until it wasn’t.

i came into the show shipping bvddie much like a lot of new fans to the show but instead of hopping onto the tommy anti express hate train i found myself falling in love with buck and tommy together. at first i was still on board with bvddie still being endgame but as each episode aired after 7x04 i became faced with the reality of the situation (at least the way i see it) that bvddie might always be fanon and that’s ok because fandom keeps ships alive whether they’re canon or not. some of the biggest ships EVER are non-canon (i mean, cmon spirk? one of the OG MM ships?) so it didn’t really deter me from enjoying bvddie to this day. what HAS deterred me from interacting with bvddie content is toxic bvddies. i don’t like using the lil nicknames, idc if other ppl do, whatever, but i prefer just referring to certain kinds as just toxic plain and simple.

toxic shippers have made it difficult for anyone who multiships to interact with bvddie content. while there are incredibly nice & welcoming bvddie endgamers out there, it doesn’t overshadow the hateful ones in my online experience at least. i’ve blocked so many ppl over this ship discourse, which ive never had to do with any other fandom before the extent i have with 911. everyday i still find new ppl to block, you go under almost any comment section on the 911 insta and its filled with nasty comments abt tommy and only caring abt whether bvddie will be canon in s8. people projecting their hatred of tommy/lou onto the cast/crew of the show when it’s be said and proven time and time again that it’s quite the opposite. now im certain there’s bad apples in the bucktommy side as well, but from what ive seen online so far it is not nearly to the caliber of the bvddie side. ive blocked maybe a handful of bucktommy’s for being hateful towards eddie or being toxic overall, but ive probably blocked over 100+ toxic bvddies. i can only imagine it’d be worse if i was active on 911 twt which i’m not (thank god) but i have ventured into the tags before on there and let me tell you, it’s fucking horrifying how gross ppl are over there. twt is a cesspool for fandom anyways tho, the fucking asshole of fandom, it’s a septic tank really.

now im my own opinion which could be completely untrue of course, but just basing my thoughts on what i’ve seen online and interviews and such, tim seems to be really happy about bucktommy and idk how ppl believe otherwise. tim has expressed he loves LFJ and wanted him back on the show. tim showed up on set for the kiss scene. tim posting an entire youtube vibe abt bucktommy being soulmates that touches on the invisible string theory and explains how they accidentally found buck’s perfect match. tim sharing the deleted tommy scene is also huge but im waiting to see if he releases more (because i remember seen somewhere that he said there’d be more?) and if he does then great but it’s also still pretty telling to me after the whole karaoke fiasco.

oliver has said nothing but praises towards buck’s queer storyline. he quite literally said if you dont like it then watch something else. despite ppl saying he’s never interacted with bucktommy content online, that’s a lie because he has liked fanart of them.

aisha, kenneth & tracie have all expressed how they like tommy/lou and love working with him.

jlh said she loved bvddie before but is excited to see where buck and tommy go and then on an insta live said she doesn’t think bvddie is happening and was bombarded by toxic fans to the point of ending the live early.

ppl think it’s all some ruse to make it seem like bvddie is never happening so when it does happen it’s a “surprise” ……..

the nasty hate comments are doing nothing but exposing these types of ppl for who they are and that honestly to them, 911 is just the bvddie show to them. the people who run these social media accs for 911 are looking at these comments and cringing, they aren’t running to tim and abc being like “we must give these crazies what they want!” they’re mostly likely being ignored or honestly, as you said, being looked at and just reinforcing their decision to most likely make tommy buck’s endgame so as long as his schedule is open for filming.

what gets me the most about the hate these types of shippers spew online is how they aren’t embarrassed because they are so sooo convinced they will be right one day and therefore their insane, nasty behavior online will be justified. oliver stark literally left twt because of fans like this, people act like he was joking around, that he was shooting the shit probably because “he’s british and british people just have that kind of humor” which yes to a certain extent but let me just add these posts to set an example to why if oliver were still on twt he absolutely would not be happy with the way toxic bvddies are acting right now.

oliver (and ryan&other cast too) being positive abt bvddie never meant it was going to be canon of become canon one day. they do not decide these things, whether they believe it should or not. a lot of bvddie shippers come from previous fandoms where queerbaiting was there, where they were made fun of by actors of their ships, by the creators of the show! so i understand the frustration but oliver is not queerbaiting and buck is not a queerbait character when he quite literally is now confirmed bisexual and in a relationship with a man.

he’s just not the “correct” queer to these people. despite headcanons (hell even i hc eddie as queer!!) eddie so far, in canon, is not queer. by the end s7 he is still shown to not be over shannon and ruins his relationship with his son over this. ryan has stated in interviews he sees eddie as heterosexual, possibly pushing this because of the influx of ship discourse, and he’s glad to see a vulnerable and deep friendship that buck and eddie can have as a straight man and a queer man and how important he thinks it is.

every single thing that points to bvddie never going canon is like they’re being shot point blank in the chest. i get it, your ship not becoming canon sucks, but again, that is what fandom is for! shipping has never been about how canon smth is, there is 20k fics out there for bvddie and they aren’t canon. they can turn that into 40k, 100k, 1M if they really wanted to! instead they use their time and energy posting death threats, wishing death upon a gay character, bullying ppl online for enjoying a ship.

meanwhile from what ive seen bucktommys are rolling with goofy ass spy tommy theories created by antis and making jokes for our own fun.

so yes, i agree overall. they truly don’t deserve what they think they do. we didn’t whine and scream for a deleted scene. they did. we got ours without even expecting it and are having fun.

maybe if they behaved better i wouldn’t be so petty abt it. it’s a shame because of how much potential it has, unfortunately it is just not going that way atm. and even if it does one day, it is not because they paraded online with hate, it is because that’s the story tim and the others wanted to write and abc approved it.

🫳🎤

[elliesflower]

i’ve seen discourse abt ellie being stone top or a switch and i’m curious to know how do u hc her? she’s so hot either way idk how to feel😵‍💫

top to bottom [ellie williams]

pairing; ellie x f!reader

an; thanks for this request!! i've never written headcanons before hehe ＊*♡( ⁎ᵕᴗᵕ⁎ ）

18+ only, mdni!!!

so i know a lot of people actually hc ellie as being a bottom, but i really think she's a switch, though definitely preferring to top.

she'd be fucking whipped for you, eager to please you in any way you want, making her perfect to top you—she's the type to anticipate all your needs, and she'd do anything to make sure they're met.

"i know you've had a stressful week baby, let me make it better. please? i'll make it all better, i promise..."

she's just so casually dominant. she has a filthy mouth in casual conversation, and an even filthier one when she has you in her bed or on the table or in the bathroom or behind the church. she always knows exactly what to say to push your buttons, to rile you up, to get you right where she wants you...she'll have you practically kissing her feet, begging to be fucked.

"i know, sweetheart, you've been so good today...so polite, doing everything i asked of you...why don't you lay down for me?"

i think she'd like fucking you any way she could, but fucking you with the strap has to be her favorite. the way your face twists up in pleasure as she pushes past that tight ring of muscle, starting slowly until you're begging for more—and of course, she'll give it to you.

"oh fuck yeah...c'mon babe, arch that back, lemme in...you feel that, huh? nice and deep, just how you like it?"

she's a fucking sex god. have you seen her fucking fingers? i just know that seeing the pleasure she brings you gets her off—the pretty sounds you make while she's stuffing you full, feeling your pussy clench around her fingers as she draws orgasm after orgasm out of you...i just know she could come untouched.

"ah ah, don't cover your mouth, princess, lemme hear those pretty noises you make...yeah, good girl, that's it..."

she's a fucking munch. PERIODT. END OF SENTENCE.

"always so fucking wet for me...lemme taste you, fuck, i gotta taste you..."

buuuuut, she's also a big softie. she'll do anything to make you smile, and doesn't always take sex so seriously. she laughs at herself sometimes, or takes the worst possible moment to make a joke like when she's about to make you cum on her face.

"sorry babe, i couldn't help myself!"

you always know she wants you to top when she asks you to "watch a movie." it's her perfect excuse to cuddle up in your arms while you rub her back, feeling her breaths get heavier and deeper the further your hand trails down, until the night ends with the movie long forgotten, and her coming all over your fingers.

"it's been a long day, babe. let's cuddle and watch a movie?"

she's a fucking whimperer when she's getting fucked, i just know it. she's a little bossy, tells you exactly how many fingers to use, tells you how to grind your hips while you're scissoring, but you'll always do it, because it draws the sweetest sounds out of her pretty pink lips.

"right there, right there...uh, uh, fuck..."

she just wants to be close to you all the time. days off together are the best—laying in bed all day, in between naps kissing sloppily and lazily grinding your hips together, taking turns coaxing gentle orgasms out of each other...there's nothing like it.

"i love you...so much...my everything...."

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Aita for not making any of my characters, that I have to crank out daily, pansexual/polysexual/omnisexual specifically and only making them bi?

🏳️‍🌈👶🏼 so i can recognize this later lmao also I'm not panphobic or anything, this isn't about the validity of the label, pan is fine.

So i (20snb bi) have a project I'm working on where I take all the characters from a specifc media I'm into and pair them up with each other to make every possible ship kid from every possible ship(excluding characters who are kids themselves or are related or something, that shit is gross). Basically taking every character and pairing them up with another and creating a kid I think they'd have. Its a big project with lots of characters and I'm easily over 400 at this point. I really enjoy this, even if I'm not even 25% complete.

However I set a schedule for myself that at least one ship kid needs to come out each day which, considering I draw them, color them and give them some development and some even have siblings, (The refs themselves easily take me an hour to an hour and a half) I have to make lots of them quickly to keep up with my daily grind. I've been doing this project for over a year and although it's stressful, I can get them out quickly with breaks for myself.

Their character sheets all have some pretty basic info like their name, gender, pronouns, personality and more but it also includes their sexuality/orientation. I have a pretty basic list of options for what their sexuality will be: straight, lesbian, gay, Enbian, bi, Aro, ace and aroace with a few random things like polyam, WLW and a good amount of the something-loving-something/juvelic terms. I did this because, well, there's not many entirely unique orientations outside of them and although I love mogai/xenogenders and complex identities, I dont want to potentially drag up discourse or bring problems to my budding art blog over it. Its just not worth it to me to turn something I really care about on its head, even if I like microlabels.

In this case, I'm using bi as an umbrella term as most of the other terms share the same definition with slight variations in wording or action but not much difference in practice. We all like everyone, it's basic stuff. However, apparently this is a problem.

I've gotten one or two anons asking me questions about my guides asking some kind stuff like is this lesbian ship kid a butch or femme or Is this picture of them now or just at the age you put on the ref and other harmless stuff. Then things got rude with some Nbphobia but thrice now I've gotten asks:

1. Asking snarkily if im a panphobe

2. insulting me for not specifically writing pan or Omni and just writing bi.

3. Saying that I "clearly dont care about pansexual representation." Then brought up how my primary oc is native american so i clearly care about representation but that oc used to be a sona and I'm native?? Its confusing. (And Lowkey racist shit to just assume any native character is a "diversity quota" character instead of just a person existing but I digress-)

Im not pan, im bi so ig these people assume I'm not cool with pan people which isnt true? I have nothing aginest them, they are just pretty similar and I dont feel like it matters if they are specfically bi or pan or poly or any other label. I don't go into details like that for any other sub-group, not even pronouns and I included combinations and some common Neopronouns. I understand the importance of representation but my project has less than 50 people looking at it every day, Im not netflix or something. I'm one guy on the most LGBT blogging site with a big project and very little audience, I'm not showing people who wouldn't already know what pan is that pansexuality exists.

This project isn't that deep considering the characters in question aren't human/dont have human characteristics.(no it's not hazbin/helluva) Also ive never spoken about lgbt discourse or stated anything remotely close to it beyond the guides just passively having characters who are an LGBT identity. I've not even mentioned all the potentional orientations they could have so I'm not sure where/why this came up in the first place. The most politcial things ive said are calling out a creator in my fandom who outed themselves as a transphobe and mentioning im pro-palestine. That's it.

I mean this is pretty low stakes, I can just block these people and be done with it and this some seriously online shit but I just wanna check.

Am I being an asshole for just writing bi instead of specifying their mspec label because I have to produce characters quickly and I don't see enough of a difference to warrant a change/specification that would ultimately slow and clog an already stressful and complex project?

I dont think I am but idk lol

What are these acronyms?

[apathycares]

Why I think the ending of MHA makes sense (manga spoilers)

So I came out of hiding specifically because MHA ended and this blog started off as a place for me to ignore my other works/fandoms and write stuff for MHA so it's a given that I talk about it. Just a little disclaimer – MHA is not my first fandom, and I've been watching anime for forever, so I'm not biased when it comes to shipping or how mangakas end their work. I'm purely speaking from a place of my own sense of objectivity.

Also, since I don't think I've shared my opinion on stuff too much here so it might be weird to my current followers (hi!!), I'm gonna do it headcanon style.

Midoriya being a teacher is not farfetched – some people have said it would've been better if Hori made him a strategist or something along those lines, but you all have to remember that his only goal has been to be a hero. If he wanted to become a strategist he would've (a) thought about/been suggested that when he was quirkless and (b) there's nothing TO strategize since the big bads are all gone. Hawks is running the Commission. Police exist in this verse. He wanted to be a hero fully, so if he wasn't able to do that, then the next logical step would be to TRAIN the next heroes.

Bakugou wouldn't have become number one straight out of high school. Bffr. I know it's anime and we don't have to use real life logic but it's been said over and over again that rankings are both based on feats achieved and popularity, and even though that man has accompanied A LOT, he's always going to be rough around the edges, and as a hero, people are just not going to rock with that. But, given Endeavour's example, I think he could become number one with his feats alone as the years go on in spite of his attitude.

Midoriya not keeping in touch with the rest of his classmates except Bakugou (or maybe not being able to, whichever way it was translated) is NORMAL. How many of you keep in touch with your high school classmates after the fact, regardless of how close you were? How many of you outgrow your very real and very deep friendships? Eight years is a long time. Bakugou being left makes sense because they've known each other forever.

No ships were confirmed. Please let us leave the ending of that as it is. BUT! Let's all ship who we want, create for the ships that we want regardless. That's the beauty of fandoms. We can toy around and find joy in it, but PLEASE don't push that a ship is canon when it's not. As an old head anime fan, there's a distinction between those two. We can all have fun and accept that the series ended with no ships.

Continuing off of the previous point, I LOVE that the manga ended with no ships. That just gives us full liberties to do whatever the hell we want in this fandom and have fun without people rearing their annoying heads and writing shit comments about their pairing being canon. No one gets any ammo.

Aizawa cutting his hair is a crime.

Did they give Touya an ending??? Why can't I remember??? Well, the fact that he didn't is another crime

Everyone else's endings were solid (and I don't see much discourse about this so let's leave it at that)

See now that I'm thinking about it again, Aizawa cutting his hair isn't a crime....but why did they do him like that???

Giving Midoriya a hero suit at the end of it and Bakugou holding his hand out was GOLDEN (I'm indifferent about the suit because Teacher!doriya would've been a solid ending, but the holding the hand out squeezed my heart that was a BEAUTIFUL ending to the entire Deku/Kacchan storyline)

Some people are mentioning that Bakugou calling him Deku destroyed it but y'all forgetting that THAT'S HIS HERO NAME. Stop being lame.

I wanna know the full rankings of everyone just to gauge where Bakugou and everyone else are. Maybe Hori might do a lil something, who knows, but I don't think we need a MHA Shippuden.

High key, if we do get a spin off or something, we need a Misadventures of InsertSomeoneHere to see what a DITL of them at 24(?) looks like

Now that I'm looking at this...the fact that I watched this at their age and it ended with them being 24 and I'm currently 24 is.......

Anyways! Those are my very rushed thoughts. As much as people like to play around MHA, it was a great manga, it had a solid ending for the lore that the story was going for, and it was a great ride. I'm excited to see when all of this gets animated and we can ride this ride again, but this fandom will always be special to me.

[laulink]

Something that I don't often see in the "was Edelgard's war necessary" discourse is the interdependence between the Church and the nobility. The question is always framed such as "are Edelgard's reforms worth starting a war over" or "is the net result of the war positive or negative" or "did she need to invade the Kingdom and Alliance to do her thing or was she just a cold-hearted, power-hungry tyrant" and the arguments given for or against either side of the conflict very rarely includes this simple fact :

No reform is possible in Fodlan because the Church and nobility feed off of each other.

It doesn't matter whether or not the specific reforms Edelgard wants to implement deserve thousands of people to die for them (if such a thing is even objectively quantifiable) ; it doesn't matter what the "net result" of the war is (if you can even make an objective measure on that) ; it doesn't matter whether or not having the Kingdom and Alliance under her authority was necessary to make the reforms she wanted ; absolutely no reform, whatsoever, in any territory, could have been achieved and lasted with the Church still standing. Why ?

Because the Church and the nobility enforce each other's "divine right to rule" and neither wants to lose their power.

Rhea wants to keep Fodlan in stasis until she brings Sothis back. She's done that for a thousand years and will keep doing it for as long as she needs to. How did she do it ? By making the powerful (the Crest-bearing descendants of the Ten Elites) dependant on her. She made their strength (their Crest) dependant on properly following and supporting her Church, instilling in Fodlan's societies the belief that a family won't produce Crest-bearing heirs any longer if they oppose the Goddess. The Crests are therefore both a mark of the Goddess' favour, granting nobles their "divine right to rule", and a pair of shackles binding them to the Church. If the Church falls and the commoners don't believe in the Goddess any longer, they also won't believe in the nobles' divine right to rule anymore and will rebel against the caste system. Therefore, the nobles need to enforce belief in the Goddess by showing how devoted they are, as Ferdinand and Lorenz explain is their noble duty to guide the commoners on the path of the faithful, and by giving the Church money to keep its influence and prestige ; otherwise, the nobility itself will be at risk.

But the reverse is, therefore, also true : if the nobility were to fall or stop supporting the Church (the one Rhea leads, mind you), it would lose power, influence and the money necessary to maintain its presence throughout the continent. The Church needs to make sure that the nobility system either stays the same or at least still relies on the belief in the Goddess. Any reform that abolishes the nobility, title inheritance or Crest supremacy is bound to be an absolute nightmare for the Church. Sounds familiar ?

Three Hopes touches onto this by showing us Rhea's attempts at killing the Bishop of the newly restored Southern Church. She doesn't try to get him killed because Edelgard was the one to choose him, she tries to kill him because this Southern Church represents a threat for the Central Church she leads, and she doesn't accept that.

How is the Southern Church a threat ? Two possible, non-exclusive ways :

The Southern Church's teachings are in opposition to the Central Church's teachings : we don't know exactly what those teachings are, but if the Southern Church's teachings imply that the Central Church's ones are fake, it would put their legitimacy into question. Which brings us to the second point :

The Southern Church is trying to become more prominent than the Central one : the Southern Church was dismantled about 200 years before the start of the game for being "dissident" and is now being revived with Edelgard's support. It doesn't even matter what it teaches the people : it fills a gap in the Imperial citizens' lives. By doing so, and by being morally, publicly and financially supported by the new Emperor, it earns the support of the faithful of the Empire and takes it away from the Central Church, in part at least.

So, because Rhea doesn't accept power being taken away from her, she attacks and tries to kill the "rebellion" in the egg, the same way she did with the "dissidents" of the Western Church in Houses, where she sent her students to execute and capture the priests, then executed the survivors without a trial. Sending an assassin against a bishop is clearly not something she would hesitate to do.

But, in this example, the Church was the one "under attack". You might wonder how Rhea would have reacted if Edelgard hadn't restored the Southern Church or started the war and had simply reformed the Empire without bothering anyone else, right ? Well, the answer is : basically the same thing.

What we know of Edelgard's reforms is that they are meant to end the caste system, let anyone reach a position of power, oust the people who are not competent enough to handle them and deny the very idea that birth determines someone's right to rule over a region or a whole nation. Those are all ideas that the Central Church has spent the last millenia denying and fighting against so the nobles would stay dependant on them ; if Edelgard's reforms were to be implemented, and moreso if they were to be successful, therefore proving that Crests and the ability to rule are not related, the Central Church's teachings would be proved wrong and the people of Fodlan, Kingdom and Alliance included, would rebel and stop supporting the Church and nobility. Rhea would lose her power and Fodlan would evolve, one way or another, outside of her control. She would do anything to avoid that, including sending her knights to support the rebellious nobles (like the ones we see in Hopes) who are bound to fight against Edelgard's tyranny to preserve peace and order in Fodlan, even if it means fighting against the Imperial army until they can march on Enbarr and behead the mad tyrant... which is roughly what happens in SS where the Black Eagles form a rebellion and ally with the Church's forces to fight against Edelgard and ultimately defeat her in order to keep the status quo. Yes, they fought this war because they thought Edelgard was in the wrong and needed to be stopped, but the result is the exact same.

(if you want to get into real world parallels, the Catholic Church was in much the same position of power as the Central Church for a good millenia (the xenophobia and the way it wormed itself into being central in every government by saying the King ruled out of God's will and had to be a good Christian if they wanted to keep their throne is especially similar), but then Martin Luther called it out on its corruption and started the Protestant Church (Southern Church, in Fodlan's case), leading to a long religious and physical conflict where the Catholic Church tried to eradicate the dissidents, with fire among other things)

So, what do we deduce from all this ? Three things :

The Church and nobility feed off of each other to maintain their own power ; if one were to disappear or stop working the way it did in the past, the other would collapse.

Rhea is more than ready to do what it takes to preserve her power and influence over Fodlan because it allows her to keep it in stasis and she believes that is what she should do until her mother comes back from the dead.

Edelgard's reforms would put a dent in Rhea's power, war or no war, which would result in Rhea trying to get her killed so she could put a good, obedient noble on the throne in order to restore the Central Church's power and maintain the nobility's standing in the Empire/Fodlan.

So, in conclusion : no significant change to the system can be made and kept in place for more than a few years, a decade at most, without national level of armed conflict at the very least because the Church and nobility will ally and fight tooth and nail to preserve their power. Taking apart the nobility cannot be done without destroying the Central Church at the same time, for one will always try to save/bring back the other to justify its own power. If Edelgard hadn't started the war, Rhea would have ; if Edelgard hadn't invaded and conquered the Kingdom and Alliance, their nobility would have attacked her in order to avoid her reforms giving ideas to their own population, or the population would have rebelled and started a bloody civil war in order to win their freedom, which would have likely caused more casualties, especially civil ones and children, than a fight between two actual armies.

There would have been war anyway. There would have been thousands of deaths anyway. Edelgard did what she did in order to gain the advantage by attacking first, improve her odds and shape the conflict in a way that would cause the least civilian casualties. We can still debate whether or not she was right or wrong, whether or not there was a better way to achieve her goals and save more lives, but the fact remains that while she did start the war, if she had not, someone else would have in order to stop her reforms. There was no peaceful way to change the whole system. As always, when you want to take power away from a group of people, you have to fight for it, and they will fight back.

[piosplayhouse]

Hi! I came across a post complaining about the guy yuri poll and discourse aside, I vaguely remember you made a post about what is yaoi and what is yuri? I dunno if I dreamed this post up, but I've scrolled and scrolled and I can't find it. So, I wanted to ask (if you don't mind answering >.<), what is yaoi/yuri? (beyond the basic definitions) What counts as guy yuri and girl yaoi?

Uwaa ok so I will say Im planning to actually write a paper on this but I haven't done much research yet so ask in a few months and you'll hopefully have a better answer with cited sources. But here is a bit of what I'm conceptualizing at this point (corrections and additions very welcome!)

What set me down this path really was of course the fantastic Yaoizine hosted by tshirt3000, which includes a rather poignant author's note about broadening the definition of yaoi in public to the abstraction. Indeed, the actual origin of the term "yaoi" is an acronym for "yamanashi, ochinashi, iminashi" (plotless, climaxless, meaningless) from 70s doujinshi spheres wherein it was used as a somewhat self-degrading term to define a specific type of porn-without-plot self-indulgent indie fancomic. These were of course, mostly of the male-male variety. However, as the Yaoizine makes clear, there's not really an inherent gendering within the word in any sense but genre expectation-wise. This becomes particularly salient in the case of perhaps one of the most famous wlw romances out there, Revolutionary Girl Utena. Tshirt cites an interview with the creator of the anime, Ikuhara Kunihiko, where he refers to the relationship between the two main female characters (among other things) as yaoi, recontextualizing the term from merely a mlm genre into a statement on the dynamics of power and consumption as they relate to gender-- an act of sexual passion paired with a reversal of societal norms = yaoi in this case, which is why utenanthy fits perfectly within the term.

Conversely, yuri (lily) is a bit more difficult to analyze from a gender-neutral perspective as it originated not as a counterpart to yaoi, but instead as a counterpart to bara (rose, a term used to refer to erotic gay male content) used when lesbians would write in to gay magazines trying to hook up and whatnot. However, it's pretty agreed upon that the genre grew out of Class S literature, a type of literature based on girls, often senpai and kouhai, going to an all-girls school together and experiencing a connection that straddles the thin line between romance and homosociality. Homosociality like this among women has historically been and to this day remains somewhat under the radar and perceived as a "phase" or an amateur attempt at romance before a woman eventually marries a man. This is where we see significant overlap between pre/early modern Japanese male homosexual literature and lesbian literature, where homosexuality is seen as a youthful phase that will inevitably be grown out of (as in the case with the chigo system, LUG (lesbian before graduation), etc). Essentially, it was very common for the characters of early modern queer literature (mostly written by queer authors btw) to have brief and passionate schoolyard flings before graduating onto "normal" sexuality. Of course, these narratives fell out of style and are considered dead today, but their remnants can still be seen in the subsequent shojo and modern gl manga boom. The yuri that grew from this in the beginning was usually explicitly erotic, but still somewhat held onto the predominant themes of schoolgirl innocence and youthful beauty. Over time, meanings and terminology shifted, and the "yuri" we use today is more interchangeable with "gl", meaning it's not so much of an indicator of explicit content as "yaoi" is. However, I would still argue that one of the largest indicators of a story's "yuri factor" (if you could say that) is its ties to the establishing homosociality progressed into homoromantic relationship genre expectation. Of course, there are many wlw stories that subvert this, (as there are many mlm stories that subvert the yaoi or even bl template) but to me, if you were to compare yaoi and yuri's theming, yaoi's focus tends to skew more towards the intimacy in explicit eroticism, while yuri looks more into the implicit eroticism in intimacy. If that makes sense.

Of course, when looking into "boy yuri" there's also a transfem-coding factor to consider, which I think is what the majority of people have in mind when they refer to a couple as "boy yuri". Historically, there is massive precedent for feminization between male queer couples in historical Japanese literature, as well as in early modern relatives of bl, mainly Inagaki Taruho's work, so it would be somewhat disingenuous to say feminization is a purely modern, female-created phenomenon. But anyway, those are my (somewhat messy and likely inaccurate) thoughts so far, let me know what you all think. Have a happy yaoimas and merry new yuri, as they say.

[roystartt]

stay away from the Buddie fandom! You and ex buddies are so annoying trying to act like you didn’t switch up just exclusively ship bucktommy and stay out of the Buddie fandom we don’t want you here anyway

Um... okay?

I love the fanon pairing of buddie and I also love the canon pairing of bucktommy and that's okay?

What I don't love is how much hate is thrown out with the absence of any and all logic.

Multishipping is perfectly okay and acceptable, and dare I say it... healthy? Because if you get this worked up over a fictional pairing, then that's concerning!

I have always and will always multiship in all and every fandom I enjoy. And I'm certainly not pretending I didn't 'switch up'.

Heck, if we take the singular character of Buck, on top of Bucktommy and Buddie, I also enjoy Bravi, buckxjosh and this one might make you cry but I even enjoyed Buck and Taylor together!

And that's okay!

And it doesn't detract from how much I enjoy Buddie and all this fandom discourse certainly doesn't impact or change whether or not Buddie will ever be canon or not.

[starcanwrecked-confessions]

A bit of a long one so strap in:

Not gonna lie I've seen some posts about Max x Richie that have ended up souring me on their pairing.

I liked the pairing at first, but I also can't really see past the bully/victim trope, especially because Max shows very little if any remorse for bullying the nerds all those years. The closest thing was when he was going to say that the nerds throw a good party, but then immediately turned back on that when he fell 3 stories. Not to mention that he chases and tortures Richie before brutally murdering him.

I do find it interesting to play with the transition of Bully/victim to Jock/Nerd, especially if Max did redeem himself and genuinely apologized, but I suppose I don't see that for him. And whether Richie lives or not, I can't see him putting aside the trauma he faced to date Max if Max isn't truly sorry for what he did to Richie and his friends.

I do see that for Jason and Richie though. Jason and Richie have a cute interaction in the musical before the football game, and Jason genuinely shows remorse for making fun of Richie for as long as he did. He even shows some hesitancy before Max dies (when he says "yeah!" when Max asks if he should let Richie off with a warning, and when he says "if [Steph]'s cool with [Pete], then I'm cool with him."). He also apologizes to Grace at the dance for making fun of her. I think Jason doesn't genuinely want to be a bully, but fears being bullied like the nerds if he pushes back.

But without Max there, he's free to be softer, more caring (consensual butt slaps for the win!), and more willing to apologize, maybe even try to make it up to the nerds. He may have hurt Richie and his friends, but I can see Richie seeing the more caring side of Jason and be willing to pursue a relationship if they both wanted. Heck, Richie called him and Kyle his "bros for life" after the two were genuinely nice to him and his friends for about 2 weeks so Richie is definitely willing to forgive.

I have seen a little discourse of pairing Richie with Max over Jason for other reasons (Jason's paired up with Grace later, potentially racial bias, but I think either way people be sleeping on Jason and Richie in favor of Michie.

I'm not here to ship hate though, these are just my opinions.

~~~

[skywalking-through-life]

what ship do you hate most?

LOL, oh my anonymous friend, I wondered if anyone was going to ask me this. I'm going to try to answer without opening a can of worms about my opinions that I don't know if I'm brave enough to crack open, but we'll see where this goes. This answer - even more than usual - is probably going to be long.

Okay.

I don't hate any ships.

I know that some folks may not believe me, but I genuinely, 100%, I do not. And will not!

Are there ships I don't understand, or don't find appealing, or find disturbing? Yes, very much so! I personally am usually squicked out by ships that are incestuous, ships between an adult and a child, ships where there is a clear and dangerous lack of consent, and ships that are shipped because the person doing the shipping wants to 'punish' or bash one of the characters, so they ship them with whoever will give them the worst time. I have very little patience for stories where the people in the ships cheat on or betray one another in some way as a feature of the relationship, and tend to roll my eyes when I see people use them to vent their feelings about other people's ships. I don't like ships that feel one-dimensional, and I don't tend to like ships absent passion.

But while all of that might annoy or baffle me, dislike of certain pairings or tropes isn't hate, and is small potatoes compared to what I see as a MUCH larger issue.

And that - what I DO hate - isn't any particular ship, but the culture of extreme, sometimes violent, often thoughtless and self-centered emotionalism that (unfortunately) has always been a part of shipping. Ship wars, pro vs anti ship discourse, and the idea that our feelings about the fictional characters we love and hate should somehow translate to how we - REAL HUMAN BEINGS - treat each other; all of this worries me deeply because in this I see the REAL evils of the REAL world bleeding into fictional ones. Hate is a powerful emotion, and to see it applied to real people because of fictional interests? I abhor that - and all it has historically led to - in my very soul.

Whenever I hear about people getting death threats in their inbox for liking/not liking/not having the correct opinions about a ship, whether 'problematic' or otherwise, I genuinely feel sick to my stomach. I understand loving something so much you want to defend it against any perceived attack; I understand thinking something is so evil that it needs to be spoken up against. But I do not, and never have, understood how and why so many folks apply that deep seated anger to FICTIONAL RELATIONSHIPS. Our world is a beautiful and terrible place, and is so wide and complex - wider than the margins of any book, or the frames of any film. Surely we can better spend our passions out there, on the thousands of issues that deserve our attention, our care, and our hearts, rather than in here, on each other, over things that do NOT matter at the end of all things?

And so the end - the ultimate, the core - of this issue for me is this: hating a ship, or participating in ship discourse of some kind, would require me to let fictional worlds have access to my anger, no, to my real, roaring RAGE; to the messy parts of myself and my complicated relationship to the real world that I come into fictional worlds to write myself free of. And I just don't believe there is a place for that kind of vitriol in spaces that are, for me, meant to be joyful and liberative.

[queer-book-character-tournament]

question, does a queer rs mean both characters have to be queer if it’s m/f? Or is m/f not considered queer since it’s a heterosexual rs

i'm operating under if someone is queer its a queer relationship to avoid any exclusionary nitpicking. the last thing i really want to be doing is re litigating the "are they allowed at pride if they're dating xyz" discourse over these silly polls. if i start saying m/f ships are het no matter what so they can't be here, we'd also be banishing some trans and aspec people from the equation even though their identities are queer, which isn't a road i want to go down, and I don't think most of you do either Now if you tell me i have a m/f pairing on here where they are both 100% cishet, no queer identities involved, then yeah they don't count as it's been stated that the queerness must be in text canon, but that's not really what i think the question was

[madam-o]

Omg awesome! The Beetlejuice Beetlejuice trailer is out now! It looks GREAT. Love the practical effects. Keaton stepped right back into that role like no time has passed at all! Adore the rest of the cast and the costumes. Burton always has to have a sexy goth dream woman in his movies, and Monica Belluci looks Uh. May. Zing.

Oooh, Beej is working as an "Afterlife Care Manager". Looks like he may have taken over Juno's job. Oh look, he's got a pic on his desk of Lydia as a 16 year-old. Looks like it's time for more pro vs anti ship wars. Hooray.

Oh wow, would I love to not talk about this again, but I just gotta. I'm a big mouth every now and then. I dislike angry fandom discourse that much.

First off, to the pro-shippers, I'd like to remind you that Movie Beej's emotional interest in Lydia has always been portrayed as creepy and weird. Also I think we have to remember his primary motivation for marrying her is likely to escape the Afterlife and his (likely many) enemies, such as his first wife. Lydia is rightfully scared about him being released based on how he terrorized her family in the original movie, so I doubt she's into it.

To the antis, I'll just point out that Beetlejuice has always been portrayed as a "lovable" antagonist. He's threatening, but he's a big goofy doofus at the same time. He wants to make people like him, but he's terrible at doing it. Also, his lies are very transparent. He's a cartoonish, sleazy con-man. When he's wooing Lydia it comes off as insincere and humorous. I think we're supposed to find him inappropriate for her, but not truly predatory. His motivations are for selfish gain and not seriously romantic in nature. And if he IS serious about her, I don't think WE'RE supposed to take his crush seriously.

Basically what I'm saying is, Beetlejuice has never taken itself seriously, so we shouldn't expect it to give us any solid shipping proof or disproof. This property has always been cartoonish in nature. Getting up in arms and screaming about how certain ships are only for pedophiles is as ridiculous as expecting the sequel to give us real Beetlebabes content instead of, say, Beej ending up flat on his face or in Dead Jail again.

Personally I think he'll escape any danger to leave the door open for more movies, but I'll be genuinely surprised if he and Lydia are paired up romantically in the movie canon. But this hardly matters as canon has very little to do with shipping.

[mecachrome]

wahh thank u @scrappyracers for the tag i enjoyed ur answers a lot :') f1 tag game...

Who is your favorite driver?: i am an oscarybro first & foremost <3 he's the only driver i truly rep because honestly i don't think i have the bandwidth for more even if i wanted to/tried!!

Do you have other favorite drivers?: i would basically put alex below oscar in his own little tier and then it's just like [WALL]... but i'm also fond of yuki + lando + lewis and respekt maxv :') the rest of the grid i honestly don't think about 99% of the time LOL not in a bad way but because i barely have enough energy for My Guys as is u know

Who is your least favorite driver?: 😔 i feel bad sharing hateurisms on my family friendly blog. 

Do you pull for drivers or do you like teams as well?: def drivers first but i genuinely like mclaren as a racing outfit so that helps!!! when oscar was still in alp i suffered so much because of it being a deeply unserious team and even back then when the cracks were still forming this was fairly evident because i had a rossi agenda, so i was like wegghhhh i guess i can enjoy a williams stint/swallow down alpine content for him. 😔 and then he replaced [answer to question above which at the time hindered my mcl support significantly] and i got the ultimate driver pairing at a team i'm actually quite fond of ❤️🤍🖤

If you like teams, what team do you pull for?: any1 else papayapilled??? 🧡

How long have you been into F1?: a little over 2 years!!! how i managed to get into this sport via an inactive reserve driver i don't know.....

What got you into F1?: several friends were getting into it & were reading mxl fic & things of that nature and even though i wasn't really invested in any of the ships presented i ended up biting as well... but fsr i was not compelled by most f1 content / barely watched dts and instead got reeaaally into feeder series, i think perhaps because at the time i was fascinated by prospect projections + mapping / modeling career trajectories + the idea of "ceilings" in hockey and was watching a ton of jr hockey so it kind of translated over and i got to enjoy masterclasses like litr the most broken broadcast streams ever of kimi driving off into the distance in adac f4. But anyway... i also watched chasing the dream and became obsessed with oscar from that and the rest was history 😌🐨🧡

Do you enjoy Fanfic/RPF?: i definitely read it!!! RPF Is Fine etc. i've written 2 effwon fics very poorly and that's it but i peruse the 814 archives regularly..... i forever need to be better at commenting and feel very bad about my own shyness but i think this fandom has such a wealth of incred authors whom i am always in awe of x__x 🧡 tho i will say i'm also a stickler for the 4th wall and it mildly horrifies me that 814 are 75% public..... also fun fact 814 is my favorite oscar ship but it's only my #3 lando ship LOL. j(e|o)ndo you are so special 2 meee

How do you view new fans?: well i'm a relatively new fan so 💗 honestly i barely witness or process most fandom discourse wrt: gatekeeping the sport or dts fans or what have you since i do not frequent those circles of the internet (no public twitter / have never downloaded tiktok in my life) so i don't even know the primary arguments!!

If you could take over as team principal for any team, who would it be and why?: i should never be put in charge of anything. now i'm just trying to think strategically like okay where would i want to live but even then i have no idea... 

Are your friends and family into F1 as well?: my family could not care less but def the former !!! 💗 going to my 2nd gp soon with my beloved chirlie friend who has been with me thru k-pop fandom for like 8 years now hehe

Are you open to talking to other fans/making friends?: yes i'm just very shy & have multiple anxiety disorders Amongst other things so pls forgive my neuroticism 😭😭😭 but i love 2 have discussions.... oscar piastri lore is my passion in fact <3

0 pressure tagging @bright-and-burning @piastrisms @miamimaiden @goingxmissing If u would like !!! these r fun qs i like hearing about people's fandom journeys/experiences hehe :')

[3416]

the thing is, i wouldn't be nearly as bothered about mitch not being on the top line if it wasn't being treated as some kind of proof that he's never been good enough to play there and that it hurts the team or drags auston down when he does. i don't care about domi ultimately, he's an effective player (when he's not taking boneheaded penalties) and obviously it helps to spread out our best guys to make each line that little bit harder to play against by forcing the other team to decide how to matchup. whatever. i don't agree with keefe's choices there but i get the intent.

what i do care about is one of the best players this franchise has ever seen being treated like some kind of anchor holding the team (and auston specifically) back from achieving greatness and using domi's success with auston (BECAUSE of auston tyvm) to paint him as some selfish jealous (genuinely wtf @ this fanfiction in particular coming from an actual media guy) brat pouting over being ~demoted~ when he's never not done what has been asked of him (which is literally fucking everything) and has always been fully on board any time he's been paired with johnny!! or anyone else!! like these are all mitch's guys!!! he loves them and this team /so much/!!!! like i genuinely can't imagine the list of things he loves more than being a leaf is very long

i'm just so tired of so many (non-tumblr) fanspaces being dominated by people who have made an entire personality out of treating him like one of the worst things that's ever happened to the leafs (and, again, auston specifically) because idk they hate his dumb dad (welcome to the club weirdos!!!) and/or can't "forgive" him for his contract. even the critique of him in the playoffs is overblown in comparison to the rest of the team and the goalposts for what it means to be a ~playoff performer~ always seem to find a way to shift as needed to single him out as some kind of unique failure among the group which.. rme for all time

anyway sorry for venting lmao it's just such a bummer but WHATEVER here's to mitchell daniel marner having the best damn playoffs of his damn life!!!!!!!! go leafs go

ohhh anon. so many things i can (and will) say here, but you and i are totally on the same wavelength, lol. that's what has made this stretch so much worse imo... auston on a hot streak with two mid guys and workable chemistry (for now) all around, and we try spreading out the "offense" but actually... for the leafs... i think spreading the offense is less what we're doing w 1634 and more... shifting defensive responsibility off of our 'top' line and giving them easier matchups by putting the tougher ones with the mcmann-jt-marner line bc mitch is there now to take on some more defensive responsibility that isn't doable by players like willy/whoever else plays rw there. (which annoys me in it's own way bc it makes the 'top' line look more impressive stat wise while not even dealing with the most dangerous 'top' line on the other team, lol but.. it's still gonna require auston to be On Top of it all the time bc he's by himself defensively.. only reason it annoys me is the discourse afterward too like anyway). mitch and auston are our best all around players by quite a bit, lol, so i get WHY splitting them up works well too, but when people get mad that they're together so much... when they've proven to work better and be more dangerous year after year as a duo... i mean, peoples anger should be at the rest of the lineup that sometimes doesn't pull their own weight in that regard, lol. i get the experiment we're running rn. i'm not confident it will work, but we will see. i don't care if it does or doesn't... doesn't change the fact that ultimately, i know they want to play together the most and that hasn't changed bc of some randos that came in this year so. i genuinely think auston requests to play with mitch often after not being allowed to for a couple years, and this year he's sucking it up for the playoffs and trying something different for the sake of the team.

as for the way a lot of people treat mitch as expendable... it's so frustrating to me too... just the double standards abt him vs anyone else are insane. even tonight, seeing people lose their fucking minds over max reposting a fan's hype video without credit and assuming he made it (?? lol) and drooling all over themselves about how he "has the passion", but like... mitch had a video made last year and people were telling him to get off social media and perform better in the playoffs in the exact same spaces like. if he even comes on social media near the playoffs, it's always just hateful. honestly.... so many leaf fans don't deserve him and don't deserve to see a cup in their entire lifetimes either, lol. it makes my relationship with this team so much more complicated to have such a hate for the fanbase like that. like . this year, i just care so much less about the team as a whole too. i'm less connected to the overall results, lmao. i love the leafs and want my guys specifically to be able to win the cup in their lifetime more than anything, but i realllyyy don't care about some of these ppl on our team and i hate how the worst fans in this fanbase feel so vindicated over the dumbest ugliest shit. like i'd give anything to not have to see braindead opinions for a single day. as much as i'm rooting for them, if this isn't the year... well. we move, lol. i wouldn't die! (which is exactly why they'll prob do it this year lol) i'll feel competitive while watching the playoffs, esp vs the bruins, but like... whatever happens happens man. my men will be coming back and i hope some other ones won't, regardless of playoff results. sometimes it's even less about the player himself and more about the idiots attached.

all i literally care about this year is mitch's performance since we're going into a contract year for him. nothing he could possibly do would get people off his back but that, and somehow his points never seem to matter in the playoffs bc they're in games we're already winning ?? but yeah. the willy is our best playoff performer narrative makes me fucking laugh man........ like people will lower their standards and move their goalposts and do ANYTHING to make it seem like mitch is cancerous and the reason we keep losing and everyone else steps up when he doesn't and it's just a fucking lie. morgan is the only one with visible elevation in the playoffs imo, and . idk. maybe the way the team's structured rn and shifting players to different lines will work. maybe it won't. we won a round not doing it last year, so it's not like that's THE make or break thing and we haven't even seen this lineup play a single meaningful game in the last month fnlkdsjf or a singular playoff game so. it's all a LOT of big talk. at the end of the day.. if the leafs ever make it to the cup.. itll be 1634 passing it to each other and their names next to each other and that's all i want for them, honestly. leafs duo of all time regardless of the dumbasses the 23-24 season has emboldened.

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/729708592592306176/how-about-a-different-discourse-death-of-the

What this ask is missing, a bit, is that Death of the Author *does* mean that the author’s take on things is no more or less valid than anyone else’s. It’s about decentering authorial intent in analyses of media. Barthes is pretty clear and quite pointed about it in the original essay.

What bothers me about misuses of it and what I think this anon means to say is when people start decentering the actual *text*. The idea behind Death of the Author is also that the text stands alone. You don’t need to look at any extra shit to understand it. As you said, it was a response to a mode of analysis that obsessed over plumbing through author biographies.

The issue with what people do in fandom is they ignore the text. “I don’t like this element of canon, so it doesn’t exist.” (Which is different from arguing that it’s there but it sucks because of XYZ reasons, so I’m going to consciously ignore it in my fan works. This is when people just act like it isn’t there in the text in the first place.) “You have to take my bizarro world out-of-nowhere headcanon that is based on nothing except that I want it to be true, that I love this character and I wish they were XYZ therefore they are” and take it just as seriously as headcanons that actually engage with what’s in the show/video game/book/movie/whatever and use that as their basis (like building off something that is subtextual in the original work).

Granted we all do this to some degree, we all come to a text with our own biases and you can’t *always* easily separate those out, and that can affect, for instance, your interpretation of what the subtext is, but I think the irritating fandom behavior is when this kind of ignoring-the-text-to-substitute-your-own-reality is this very deliberate sort of laziness. The annoying thing in my current fandom is people who are fans of this one ship that they insist is the most progressive and other people just don’t see the scintillating “subtext” of because we are bigots or whatever, between two characters who don’t interact that much for two MCs and when they do it’s not at all shippy (but these characters both have very shippy subtext with different characters), but where these people think the ship *should* exist because of their identities. And their “evidence” for the ship is always gifsets taken way out of context and not including the dialogue that makes the non-shippy context for that scene very clear (including that it might actually be shippy for conflicting pairings). It’s like this bizarre version of “close reading” that strips out the largely context *deliberately* in order to make a particular conclusion seem more compelling than it actually is.

Anyway, all that ignoring-the-text stuff is STILL bad analysis per DOTA. Since the point of DOTA is to go based on the text, if you’re obscuring the text you’re kind of just installing yourself as a new author.

This is why DOTA doesn’t mean “anything goes.” It just means “authorial intent is just one interpretation that doesn’t have to matter.” It doesn’t mean other stuff we use in analysis doesn’t matter, and if anything the point is to make it even more text-centric than the older author-centric analyses were. People can still disagree about what the text says, of course, but they should both be going back to it in how they construct those arguments, and not, like those shippers, deliberately ignoring chunks of the text that weaken their arguments.

--

I don't think all of them are consciously throwing out actual canon, but they are often throwing out all context that would help evaluate subtext.

Like... if you're analyzing a Marvel movie, you might ignore what the director said in an interview, but you probably shouldn't entirely ignore the fact that it is a Marvel movie and apply assumptions that make sense for some arthouse film.

And, yes, if you're arguing for shippy subtext, even unintentional on the part of creators, "I like this ship because..." needs very little, but "This ship has more support than this other ship" requires going back to the actual text and looking at it in its totality.

There's a lot of faux-intellectualism around garbage like TJLC where people try to make themselves feel smart by using the language of close reading while having the media literacy of a bucket of rotting fish.