#i hate fanon i hate shipping culture i hate people having fun!!!

[govnoparashka]

i hate how the fandom treats alyx sometimes. like no... gordon and barney are not her uncles/dads/siblings. it really frustrates me when people can't comprehend characters being friends. when there are 2 characters the fandom feels the need to put them in one of the two boxes: they either have a family dynamic or a romantic one. friends can be close, friends can be your found family, family dynamics and friendships are different. its not wrong to headcanon barney as her uncle or sibling its ok its nice but why gordon. it's weird gordon is around her age gordon is kinda her canon love interest you don't have to ship them but he's not her brother or uncle or dad why can't they be friends. kleiner is alyx's uncle and eli is her dad you don't need to bring gordon and barney into this not everything is about them. eli azian and kleiner raised her. she has parents she has an uncle she has family for the love of god let her have friends. like i get it you ship gordon and barney but you don't have to make their relationship with alyx a family one just so she doesn't get in their way. they can be friends. freemance and freehoun are fine and it's fine to not like these ships. you just don't have to slap a family label to everything that is not dating. people can be friends! with big age gaps even. alyx and barney are friends! gordon and alyx are friends! if you don't care about her that's fine nothing wrong with focusing on characters that you like but please don't pretend that you care if you do it by not taking her relationships with others seriously. god help me

[bicheetopuff]

I just saw the worst takes about bnha’s ending on Instagram (three days ago now, as of posting this). So, today we’re gonna talk about Izuocha, shonen homoeroticism, and fandom… not in that order though…

I: Fandom

Fandom culture for all media has basically always been a war zone that you have to actively avoid, usually with two defining sides: people who try to enjoy media the way they want to enjoy it, and the people who say that everyone is wrong and attack others who they don’t agree with. There are shades of gray on both sides, but in general this is usually the case. It’s never been “‘alphabet mafia’ vs ‘normal’” or “fanon vs canon” or “right vs wrong”… I almost always see people having fun being attacked unwarranted (I am not saying that people being legitimately problematic shouldn’t be called out, pls don’t get me wrong. I’m talking about innocent fun!). And I’m not just talking about dudebros attacking shippers, I’ve seen a lot of shippers attack non-shippers/other shippers of a different ship, and it’s almost always people just saying “you’re wrong, I’m right, and your take ruins this media piece of media for everyone else.” That being said, I wanna talk about the highlighted parts of these comments, okay? But first I need to explain the video that these comments were on.

It was a video by @/d_rich7 on Instagram, a big anime creator, talking about this tweet:

To summarize the video, he went on to say that he’s not surprised because bnha has the worst shipping community since Naruto and how Horikoshi probably felt forced into not confirming any ships because of “threats and hate mail” that he got from his fandom. I’ll come back to that but first I’ll talk about some of the comments:

“At least, they can say they weren’t the reason for the downfall of their anime.”

I've seen this take from different parts of the fandom, whether it was in regard to ships, todofam, or the villains. Just because the narrative of a story ends up matching the theories of people you disagree with, doesn't mean the story is going through a downfall. Just accept that you were wrong and move on. It is okay to not like certain aspects of the story and it's okay to discuss and criticize it, but pinning the blame on people who just happened to be right, no matter how much you hate it, is not okay.

“People need to stop demanding the literal CREATOR of a series to do things how they want it done…They to learn it’s not their story to tell…”

“…like I don’t get how people who have no impact on the writing of a story get mad because the CREATORS don’t wanna use their personal ideas.”

“…from now on imma blame the fandom for fucking up the anime/manga, we could’ve had a better ending if it wasn’t for them…”

Outside of the context, I actually agree with the sentiment that fans shouldn't feel so entitled that they think they have any control over the media they're consuming. But, the commenters don't realize that they're doing the exact thing that they’re talking about. They're convinced that the queer shipping community is the reason the creator decided not to confirm any relationship and are pissed off that the ship they were rooting for, didn't happen. Why are they exempt from this rule? Because straight ships are supposed to happen and queer ships aren't? Because the boy is supposed to win the girl at the end in order to develop a good shonen? I'll go into the misogynistic implications of that later.

Other than that, I have seen a lot of people on tumblr get mad about other things, like before, regarding to the villains and todofam drama to the point that they started insulting Hori. Like I said, it's okay to be mad. Being mad about something doesn't make you a bad person but it was never our story to tell. Criticism and hate, are two different things and come off very differently.

“MHA’s fandom is filled to the brim with toxic, no shower taking, furry loving, lgbtq idiots…”

Honestly I added this one because he's right. We're here, we're queer, and we're idiots in the best way possible. However, I think this also says the quiet part out loud when it comes to the hatred towards bnha and it's fandom.

Shipping communities in other fandoms don't get anywhere near as harassed as often as the shipping communities in the bnha fandom despite not being much different. The difference is, a lot of us identify as and are recognized as queer and Hori himself even recognized that the LGBT community especially took a liking to his manga. But, in other fandoms, it's only okay to consider queer ships if they're recognized by the cishet audience.

Most people in the aot fandom don't have an issue with eremin because it was something recognized and memed by straight men, even if it was mostly as a joke. The kny fandom doesn't care about inotan because it was also recognized and memed by straight men. Narusasu doesn't get much hate anymore because the straight men of their fandom also started to recognize the characters weird obsession with each other and it became more difficult to ignore the ship since there was literally multiple accidental kiss scenes--one of the few times where the source material actively encourages shipping. I can keep going too.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, non-shonen animes with majority cishet women as their audience, no one bats an eye at their ships either, because there's not enough men in their communities to tell them they should feel ashamed for their fanon content and their words hold no weight… and there’s a lot less queer people in those fandoms. You see the trend, right? It's almost like queer shipping is perfectly okay and mostly accepted as long as the community is either majority cishet men, or those men grant permission/approval for the specific ships or the piece of media wasn’t “meant for men.” Otherwise, it's seen as gross and cringe.

There was one other community that was kind of similar to bnha in a sense that it was mostly consumed by queer people and cishet men, where there was a lot of discourse on whether the two main characters were queer or not… which is the Buddy Daddies fandom. When the show was airing, those two sides that I talked about earlier were pretty apparent, with people having heated arguments about whether there were queer undertones or not. The cishet men of the fandom didn't give their approval to ship Rei and Kazuki, so it became an issue. Same with JJK now, more so with itafushi though. SatoSugu was given a somewhat stamp of approval but itafushi is still seen as taboo.

However, for some reason, every queer ship and character (even if it's canon) in bnha is seen as something shameful to recognize which I think is very telling considering how large the queer and disabled part of the fandom is. Minorities are being punished for relating to a manga with discrimination as one of it's core themes. Do what you want with that...

“…hate-mail just pushed him over the edge so he just scrapped everything just as punishment to spite them…”

This kind of references rumors from a few years ago about the shipping community sending hate mail and death threats towards Horikoshi and everyone just running with it without doing their research.

Horikoshi did receive death threats but it was about Dr.Garaki's original name which you can read about here. It was mostly the eastern side of the fandom being aggressive, even going as far as posting videos of them burning the volume where Garaki's name was revealed which isn't okay. However, everyone blamed it on the western shipping community... for whatever reason...

There was another instance where people in the western fandom started sending Horikoshi death threats on his twitter because of a chapter about Endeavor getting attacked by Dabi and an Nomu and the Todo family being worried about him, people claiming that Hori "deserved to die" for romanticizing and glorifying abuse (when that wasn't at all the case, I'm genuinely confused on how they interpreted that...). This came out six years ago but somehow is still narrowed down to the queer community and women being toxic... like what? Do you see my point now of it feeling like we need to be granted permission to do certain things in fandom if we don't want to be punished?

Also who was Hori punishing by not confirming any ships? If anything, I’ve seen most shippers appreciative than not…

II: Ochako Uraraka and her relationship with Izuku Midoriya

Back to that point about misogyny that I mentioned earlier...

"...I would have lowkey wish we got to see deku and ochaco end up together since their relationship was hinted from the beginning..."

Quick warning... this is gonna be a long point.

Yes, they were attracted to each other at the beginning, no one is denying that. No one is denying Ochako’s crush either. Izuku’s nervous around her for the first like 50-ish chapters because he's still used to having friends (especially a girl. If you think about it, if his childhood friends were the only friends he had ever had before getting shunned by his community, then he had never had a girl as a friend before... ever) but their relationship eventually mellows out into a normal friendship. Given Ochako and Toga's arc, I don't think Izuocha was ever destined to end romantically.

Toga was desperate to be loved by someone who accepted her for who she was while Ochako was desperate to be able to show love to someone who she truly admired. Ochako wanted to be like Deku and tried for a while until she realized that she couldn’t and shouldn’t want to be like Deku. She thinks he’s amazing but she realizes that she can’t strive to be like him because she’s already like him but wants to change.

(this is kind of off topic but I just want to point out what Ochako said about Toga being sad about not being able to totally become Jin. Correct me if I'm remembering wrong but, Toga was only able to ever transform into Ochako completely, quirk and all. I think there's an analogy there, where her being able to be just like someone possibly means she's in love with them but she convinces herself that she loves everyone equally. I think it's supposed to be saying that "even though you can't be him completely, doesn't mean you don't love him, you just don't love him in the way you thought you did" and I think Ochako realizes that because she possibly had the same realization with Izuku. Becoming him didn't work out for her because she didn't love him the way others told her she did... I guess it wasn't off topic... oh well.)

The highlighted parts can apply to Ochako too if you replace “bloodlust” with “envy”. She suffered the same issue that Toga did with other people telling her how and who to love which made her feel like she was supposed to be jealous.

She didn't like these feelings of jealousy, so she began to unintentionally be like Deku and hide them. I don't think she ever had an issue with loving Deku but she had an issue with the way she convinced herself of how she loved Deku made her feel. It made her feel like she was hiding something because I think she felt conflicted for not loving him the way everyone expected her to. All the way up to her final fight with Toga, we were only getting intel about her crush from other characters. Not her.

There's a lot of Mina just telling her what her feelings are despite Mina canonically not knowing much about love. Her crush has always been projected onto her which is why she's able to relate to Toga so well and wants to be more like her since Toga is able to live as herself so comfortably and broke away from conformity and what's expected of her.

Ochako's crush is only there because it's expected to be and her arc is meant to prove that she can be more than just the MCs love interest. Ochako's projected crush is Horikoshi trying to prove a point about basic shonen tropes which he's done time and time again throughout the story. SHE WANTS TO LIVE AND LOVE HOW SHE PLEASES WITHOUT SOCIETY TELLING HER HOW TO JUST LIKE TOGA WAS ABLE TO DO! I WILL KEEP SAYING IT UNTIL MY THROAT IS RAW AND DUDEBROS BEGIN TO FINALLY UNDERSTAND AND NOT VIEW FEMALE CHARACTERS AS NOTHING MORE THAN EYE CANDY FOR THE MALE CHARACTERS!!!

In the epilogue. she hides her feelings with a smile because she doesn't want to worry anyone (sound familiar?) so it only makes sense that it was Deku who pushed her to let out her feelings despite not practicing what he preaches. So, she embraced her inner Himiko and let out her feelings with her whole face. Those feeling just weren't for Deku... and they shouldn't have to be.

I genuinely feel like (especially with the way dudebros hate queer ships in this fandom) if Ochako was a boy, her arc wouldn't have been so widely misinterpreted. Because if he had talked about how amazing Izuku was and Mina came in and still said "It's love!" most fans would've taken it as a joke and/or even going as far as pointing out that the crush wasn't real because he didn't actually admit to it and it was projected onto him by other characters. But, the world ain't ready for that conversation.

"...I saw it as the fandom tryn to force their ships into the story 100% ruining key moments..."

I mainly added this quote because I thought it was so absurd. How do you see class-a coming to support Ochako as "omg it's the fandom forcing their agenda and controlling Hori through mind control to force their ships into the story and ruin this key moment,"??? Like, is it really so unthinkable that Horikoshi can have creative freedom outside the norm of treating girl characters as a trophy for the MC? You expected Izuku to marry her on the spot while she's having a mental breakdown? It's just... anyways...

III: Old-Gen Shonen Homoeroticism and it's Relation with Internalized Misogyny and how New-Gen is Changing That

The Shonen genre - especially old gen - is notorious for it's accidental misogyny, queerphobia, and racism. It got to the point where it's just kind of expected at this point.

The main one is usually misogyny. A lot of shonen mangaka like to write women as nothing more than eye candy and when they are actually given a personality and power, their character arcs are suddenly ignored/neglected and turned back into eye candy. Take Tsunade and Nezuko for example. We're told that they're important and powerful and yet they rarely do anything and almost never get important speaking lines and when we get to see them in action, the author makes sure to highlight certain parts of their bodies. Nezuko I think is an especially obvious one, being literally muzzled for most of the story, and when she powers up, she grows up and is suddenly given huge boobs...

Almost every shonen girls' character arcs revolves around a man and if not, then their existence is for the sake of a male character. I will say, I havent watched much shonen because of this aspect that's always apparent, but almost every older shonen I've watched, read, or seen other people talk about, it rears its ugly head at least once.

Because of that, most love interests weren’t given enough personality to actually form a meaningful relationship with the MC that the audience - especially female and queer audiences - can connect to. More often than not, it’s “I like her cuz she’s pretty” or “I like her cuz she likes me” and it’s irritating. And since these relationships are so shallow, authors are forced to create an interesting bond between the MC and a different character which usually ends up being the deuteragonist who is usually another boy more often than not. And boys in media written “for boys” are almost never neglected the way a girl would be, which is a sad truth.

These relationships almost always end up feeling like they’re passed the point of friendship and because of that, a lot of women and queer people end up shipping them instead of the canon love interest. Because their relationship being romantic actually makes sense most of the time.

BakuDeku, Eremin, KilluaGon, NaruSasu, ItaFushi, SatoSugu, IsaBachi, HideKan, GenoSai, LawLight, the list can go on for fucking ever.

However, in bnha and BakuDeku’s case, especially when the “canon” relationship with the “canon” love interest wasn’t really developed at all, and we never got a hint from Deku that he liked her, I don’t think this homoeroticism wasn’t intentional. Like with a lot of new-gen, there wasn’t really blatant misogyny towards the “love interest” present to explain away the closeness between the two male leads.

All of the roles a love interest would usually have, were given to Katsuki. He was damseled for Deku to save, he was Deku’s biggest cheerleader, he risked his life to save Deku, he died in Izuku’s honor, he showed up for Izuku when no one else thought to, he showed up to his hospital room and cried over the condition he was in, and then he devoted nearly a decade of his life trying to bring Izuku’s dream back into fruition… He cares so fucking much and Izuku cares right back. And no one can convince me that it was accidentally gay, because Horikoshi literally felt the need to tell AND remind us that Katsuki doesn’t like girls. Plus, like I said before, all of that was done without neglecting Uraraka’s character arc.

But even though all of that is in text, I think shonen bros just expect it while also expecting the main girl and boy to be together… because that’s how it always used to be. It wasn’t until new-gen - starting with mha - started to purposely parody dated shonen tropes and twisting them into their own stories that shonen bros began to feel threatened by queer ships. Because they know that there’s actually a chance of them happening now, and I feel like IzuOcha not being canonized is the beginning of a new trend. And misogynistic anime fans already hate it.

Conclusion - TLDR

uh idk what to say here.

In conclusion, fandom culture kinda sucks because of unexpected reasons, Ochako’s character arc is ignored for the sake of men wanting her to be Izuku’s prize and it’s irritating as fuck, and I think previously accidental homoeroticism in old-gen shonen is becoming purposeful in new-gen shonen as new-gen slowly becomes more progressive and less misogynistic. Oh and bkdk canon ig (I don’t think I’ve ever said that before, strangely enough…)

[phoenixyfriend]

Apologies if you’ve been asked this before, but do you have any thoughts on fanon!Obi-Wan vs. canon!Obi-Wan? And is there any part of his character that you wish fandom or fic would address more often?

I think that a lot of the fics I had a lot of frustration with aren't really in my search field anymore; I got really frustrated with Woobie-wan and some related themes, and those were really common in Cod*Wan... but since I don't really read that ship anymore, I come across that specific characterization a lot less. It still shows up (especially in fics that decide to have some fun with the Qui-Gon bashing), but less so.

I do think a lot of authors have difficulty balancing the Sass with the Competence etc. but ngl I think one of my biggest Wow That's Uncomfortable approaches is when people can't fathom the idea of Obi-Wan being happy as a monk; in those cases, he's either written as repressed and unable to fathom the idea of loving someone the way Anakin can, or he's written as Secretly Yearning To Break Free For The Ship. A lot of it also has some real shades of "ex-Christian Western Fans project their trauma onto a Space Buddhist who doesn't want to leave his religion/culture despite many opportunities to do so."

(Seriously, there is so much 'oh, you are definitely imagining the Jedi as a fundamentalist Christian sect with culty elements and can't fathom that they aren't evil' out there.)

And like. IDK. I hate that a lot. The man may not be celibate, but that doesn't mean he's unhappy with the life he's leading. He's a space buddhist and happy about it! He doesn't need to be fixed. There are other things he needs help with, other things where he could use therapy or family counseling or something, but his religion is never implied to be something that needs fixing.

IDK if that answers your question but it's definitely the two things I notice most often: Woobie-Wan and Jedi-As-Western-Cult stuff.

The stuff I wish I could see more of is unfortunately less easy to pin down because it's mostly about balancing character elements and that's a matter of skill, not choice.

[tangents-within-tangents]

Local Ace overthinks headcanon and shipping culture

Happy ace week, my friends! Imma be posting some aspec hc's this week so I felt the need to overexplain my personal stance on orientation headcanons and such

To start, as with any and all fandom things: to each their own. People can do whatever they want, and (for the most part) I can choose what I do or don't engage with. I know that hc and shipping and stuff is mostly for fun, or for seeking/creating representation, no hate to anyone who does it and enjoys it.

But also sometimes things can be problematic and I can still be bothered by those things. Even things that are 'just for fun' or 'not for you' can impact and reflect our views and behaviors, so it's still worth speaking about.

Aro/ace-spec identities are really diverse and complex, and we're really underrepresented as is. We have historically and chronically been plagued by problematic misconceptions and tropes, both in canon representation (or lack thereof) and fanon mindsets. Some of the main issues to be aware of with this topic specifically:

The majority of (sometimes unintentional) representation being non-human characters (like aliens and robots) implying that sex/romance = humanity and/or a fulfilling life. (Here's some video essays that touch on this: X X)

Related stereotype issues like racist or ableist de-sexualization and infantilization of certain groups like Asian men, physically disabled people, or people with autism. (It's an intersectionality thing bc yes those people can be aro/ace as well but it's still complicated) (more video essays! X X)

Common erasure of historically aspec characters in favor of allo plotlines bc that's "more interesting/realistic". Or ignoring canonically established aspec characters in favor of allo shipping (often excused by the fact that some aro/ace people do have sex/relationships, which is true but the complexities and nuances are often ignored and there's lots of double standards) (Here's some posts that touch on this: X X X)

Amatonormativity's over emphasis on sex/romance as a fundamental and necessary part of life, which is often reflected in how media and shipping culture are generally allo-centric, and it can just get pretty pervasive at times (note: we aren't a monolith obv, some aro/ace people enjoy it and participate too, but others don't and it is hard to avoid) X X

So while I know there's lots of reasons for shipping and headcanoning, and for the most part there's nothing wrong with it and people aren't trying to do these things, there are still issues that exist. Honestly seeing posts talking about these things has been really validating for me bc it let me know like yeah this is a problem other's have noticed too and I don't have to just accept it.

So with respect and awareness of nuance, ship and headcanon however you want. The rest of this post is about my own personal preferences and such. I'm not necessarily trying to persuade anyone here, I just have some thoughts I want to put into words:

For me personally, when it comes to characters' sexualities/gender identities/etc, I prefer just to stick to whatever is established in canon (or in confirmed intentional coding), and, if nothing is specified, headcanons that are based in canon evidence (more like theories I guess, as opposed to reimaginings or straight-up projection that knowingly ignores parts of canon. Which is fine and fun if that's what you like but to me there is a distinction). This is because:

1: While fandom culture is all about freedom and creativity, I do think it's important in this day and age to recognize actual canon representation and strive towards that because that is what will reach more people and have impact (and personally I think that writers' intentions should actually be given more thought/value)

2: I think that shipping/hc/fandom culture in general tends to perpetuate amatonormativity (specifically in devaluing/erasing friendship and non-romantic love), and sometimes leads to harmful parasocial queer speculation in real life (though again, I know that's not the intention but it's still a thing).

3: Generally, unless it’s explored as a part of a reimagined fic or something, just saying a random character is aspec (or whatever identity) when they did not present that way at all in the actual media doesn't really help me feel seen.

For example, I've seen a lot of people headcanon Mabel Pines as aromantic and that really threw me off bc in the show she is obsessed with romance. Like if other's see themselves in her that is great I won't stop you (the idea is that her crushes are comphet, which is not something I personally struggled with, and maybe I could see it if I rewatched the show with that in mind) but when I watched the show, I specifically did not connect with or relate to Mabel BECAUSE of my ace identity (yeah this post was mainly about her lol) so it just doesn't do much for me to claim her as aspec, in fact it feels counterproductive.

Sometimes it can feel really tacked on too, like 'well it's not confirmed that this character has sex so they could be ace', or 'some ace people do have sex so they can still be ace.' And like sure yes they could be but often it's like a kid show or something so none of the characters' sex lives are relevant or explicitly confirmed. Just bc they aren't not ace doesn't mean that they are, or that saying they are is meaningful if the character/story doesn't actually speak to anything related to the ace identity or experience. (This can happen with canon characters too, like Sponge Bob being asexual means absolutely nothing to me, especially since I get the sense that the creator said that more in a 'sea sponges reproduce asexually' type of way :/ )

So basically, in terms of representation I prefer the theory/interpretation type of headcanons that have supporting evidence of some kind, because that evidence is what makes me see myself in a character and feel represented in some way by them. So that's the type of headcanons I'll be posting, and that's why I'll be discussing evidence and explanations, even though I know plenty of people have fun and find value in just claiming identities without any of that.

Another thing I feel the need to overexplain is kinda the reverse of that. I think it's important to recognize that a character does not have to be a certain identity for you to see yourself in them. Like that sense of relatability and representation is still valid even if they aren't, and I think it's good to leave space for that ambiguity.

This is coming mostly from the fact that I have always valued platonic relationships (between any and all genders) long before I ever knew I was ace. I've always wished that was better normalized and represented in media and real life. I think that is just as important as queer representation, and sometimes they can counteract each other.

Like yes Min and Ryan could be gay and if that's what the writers were going for despite restrictions, or if people see themselves in that, great! But I would also love for this story to give a close friendship this much narrative value for once.

Merida does not HAVE to be aro/ace (or lesbian) to not want to be forced into marriage with a stranger at the age of 16 (in fact she specially says "I'm not ready" and "not yet"). But regardless, aspects of her story are still really relatable to us and applicable to living in amatonormative society.

Mako and/or Raleigh do not NEED to be aspec for this glorious refreshing no-romo moment to happen (nor does one need to be aspec to appreciate it)

And maybe claiming them as aro/ace could even undercut the power of this platonic bond (like saying the only way they could not be interested in each other is if they are not interested in anyone (same if you said they are gay, as if that's the only possible way for a man and woman not to be attracted to each other)). But it's still a moment lots of us aspecs love because platonic relationships AND aro/ace characters do go hand in hand and BOTH are so rarely portrayed in media.

So these ideas also play into my preferences, and I want to acknowledge that my headcanons don't have to be definitive (which like I know that is normal amongst fandom culture anyway) but are more about pointing out aspects we can see ourselves in and relate to, especially in a media landscape that is so lacking in representation and understanding of our identities.

[antianakin]

@theneutralmime

I think everybody has certain things where they prefer the fanon/headcanon version and certain things where they prefer canon. I know I do.

For example, I like to headcanon that, in a scenario where Anakin turns back earlier and he and Obi-Wan are both still alive but Order 66 still happened, that Obi-Wan would not and could not remain friends with him. He might forgive him, but that forgiveness would look more like choosing to let go of his own anger and do what he could to help Anakin let go of the darkness for the sake of the galaxy. In canon, we see Obi-Wan seem pretty happy to stand next to Anakin as a ghost, with the implication that he's decided bygones are bygones and he's just happy to have his brother back or whatever. But that doesn't work for me, so my headcanon is that the only reason he can do that is because they're both dead and still semi part of the Force at that point, so there are things Obi-Wan can let go of in death that he couldn't have done in life.

A LOT of my favorite ships are ships that don't exist in canon because I don't LIKE the ships that exist in canon, and I prefer to allow my faves to find happiness with characters I like better.

But I also prefer the way Lucas's canon handles the Jedi, their culture, their teachings, their position within the narrative, etc. I tend to HATE the way fandom treats the Jedi, I hate their headcanons about the Jedi being "dogmatic" or "old-fashioned", I hate the headcanons about their relationships with the clones most of the time because so often it treats the Jedi either like abusers or like children.

And there are some canon ships I absolutely ADORE and never want to change anything about them ever.

So I don't think it's inherently a bad thing for people to prefer their own headcanons or a popular fanon over canon. It's not even inherently bad for fanon to become so popular that people might not realize it's fanon sometimes. What gets frustrating is when people act like it's canon and get rude at people who don't adhere to a particular fanon/headcanon in their own interpretations, whether they prefer their OWN headcanon or canon itself. You see this primarily in the debate over the Jedi and the way this idea of the prequels being about how the Jedi were corrupt was always the intended message, and people are just SO attached to this that even when they're shown multiple quotes from Lucas himself saying otherwise, they'll refuse to believe it or they'll just dismiss Lucas's intentions and decide that their interpretation means more than the author's actual narrative. And like, if the only way someone is capable of enjoying Star Wars is to view the Jedi as abusive monsters, then fine, whatever, that's their deal. But it should be recognized AS A HEADCANON, as a personal interpretation of the media, and NOT peddled as the intended narrative of the story when it's so easy to find examples of the author saying otherwise.

Headcanons and fanon can be SO MUCH FUN, there's so many that I've seen people come up with that I have adored, I've come up with a lot of my own that I still really like and have fun playing with from time to time. But headcanons being fun doesn't make them canon. It never has.

[verpineshatterrifle]

BIO POST

verp | 26 | they/them

my ao3: verpineshatterrifle

repcomm art blog: @verpine-art

mandoa blog: @akalenedat

this is a general star wars blog, but Republic Commando (novels)/legends mandos are my primary interest and what basically all my own content is about

ABOUT ME

you can call me verpine, verp, ver, V, v-tach, pine, or any other verpine-shatter-rifle based nickname

i don't interact with cloneshipping although i don't mind if other people do, i'm just not going to follow you if there's a lot of it on your blog. nothing personal

not pro-ship and not anti-ship, but a secret third thing: a person with nuanced opinions who can mind their own business

i will not reblog a post i disagree with unless the op is clearly inviting that sort of discussion. i will vagueblog though

FANDOM OPINIONS

top 5 characters: kal skirata, bardan jusik, ordo skirata, mereel skirata, fenn shysa

top ships: ordo/besany, atin/laseema

i don't like the writing of bad batch or 2008 clone wars very much sorry, also mando season 3 makes me sad

my facecast for kal is daniel craig

i am an aro/ace bardan jusik truther

in general i choose to ignore the ending of order 66 and 501st is a whump fanfic with interesting character and lore information in it but it isnt real xoxo

kal skirata is my favorite star wars character and i will block on sight if you try and convince me he's homophobic/misogynistic/emotionally abusive/a fascist. if he's just not your cup of tea that's totally fine, but i'm gonna need you to display some reading comprehension

i like all of the characters, i generally like karen traviss as an author, (i also like kilo-5!) i strongly prefer legends over canon in any instance where the two conflict

DIRECTORY (UNDER CONSTRUCTION)

#verp talks : my own chatty posts

#verp answers : my ask tag

#verp hc : my personal headcanons

#verp art : reblogs from my art blog

#fanon hate, #negative, #vagueblogging : i don't want to be a downer or ruin anyones fun but sometimes i just have to complain. block these tags if you don't wanna see me gripe. or search them if you wanna be salty with me

#mandalorian culture, #jedi culture, #beskargam, #repcomm or #republic commando, and character tags get some good use

[lai-mar]

You know, I really appreciate that you’re out here defending this widely hated relationship. Maybe it’s because the anime-only fans are a very vocal majority right now, but I’ve seen people who ‘watched the anime then read the manga’ *still* shit on Laios and Marcille’s friendship. Like you don’t have to ship it but if you deny that they care about each other or deny that they have chemistry, did you even read the comic?? ‘Oh they’re just siblings/siblings-in-law!’ have you ever had a sibling. have you ever had a sibling-in-law. they do not act like siblings they act like *intimate* best friends. ‘Ridiculously comfortable around each other’ best friends. They have a relationship outside of Falin, that is what develops over the entire damn story. 90 chapters. What comic were you reading where you think Marcille can barely stand him.

Thanks for the ask! Very cathartic to see this. About to go on another rant again lol (will be repeating some of my old points but yeah I need to get it out of my system)

"Defending widely hated relationship" + "anime-only fans are a very vocal majority"

Okay, let me play devil's advocate for a second here. Let's say I despise L/M as a ship and it squicks me out greatly and I think it's a boring ship of pairing the male lead and the female lead. What should I do? Obviously go into L/M posts and argue about it instead of blocking the tag and stating my stance my calmly when someone asks me like your average fan who knows how to curate their fandom experience.

Okay, more devil's advocating. I despise L/M as a ship but I have read the manga and engaged with it critically and understood its themes. Which means I like L+M as a friendship in the same way I like the themes of eating and life cycle and the friendship between the party and the worldbuilding. Because all of these are core parts of the story told. So what I do is to block all shippers and ship tag and look for platonic fics and fanart like Your Average Fan Who Curates Their Experience.

Like I'm sorry. I genuinely feel some people are so caught up in the intense fanonisation of DM that they start forgetting about canon. And I KNOW I am not the only one feeling this way because I read the notes on my posts and other people's posts and there's a lot of good thoughts on this. Plenty of people appreciate them. But to some people in the wider fandom, are we reading the same manga? Our male lead and female lead are friends who save each other. They are not together canonically. So canonically, they don't even get into the way of shipping?????? People can have important intimate friendships outside of romance??? And it's a canon well established friendship? I would say it's one of the most well developed dynamics in the series that we see? We get shown and not told? We see images and words and interpret them in our brains?

Devil's advocate level 3. Let's say mainstream fanonisation of DM is real. F/M is a canon ship and they get together and they get married in the end and L+M become sibling in laws. Maybe L/K is a thing. This still does not erase the entire journey L+M and co went on to save Falin. This still does not erase their friendship and chemistry.

"‘Oh they’re just siblings/siblings-in-law!’ have you ever had a sibling. have you ever had a sibling-in-law."

Okay. I do have a sibling. At this point I've long accepted this much be some sort of cultural difference and some weird American / Western thing I am not used to. And the hilarious thing about DM is that we do get canon siblings!!! It's the fucking premise! Falin and Laios!! And they're fun!

I'm sorry but this must be some cultural difference. Like no younger sibling is calling their older sibling by their GIVEN NAME. The sheer disrespect. I'll be scandalised. As a person with a sibling I don't understand the fandomisation of making non related people siblings in fanon? I'm calling my friends my friends, not siblings. My sibling is like a sibling to me. My friends are like friends to me. Idk. I've written the word sibling so many times that it doesn't seem like a word anymore.

Obviously these are just my personal thoughts but I feel like objectively, there has been a fandomwide trend of grabbing a canon friendship between a man and a woman and going "THEY ARE SO SIBLINGS CORE XD" (not siblings in canon) (not related) (don't even look similar) (they're friends). A lot of times this is valid and even fun but sometimes I get the feeling people sometimes push the fanon sibling thing to show they're squicky about them romantically. To which I can only say: a man and a woman can genuinely only be friends. If you need to magically make them related so you / other people won't see their friendship romantically... it feels like a step back. Why are we doing heteronormativity.

I think I'm the type of person who enjoys and mains man + woman friendships in fandoms (which are, unsurprisingly, unpopular as ships and even as friendships until I start spreading propaganda and pumping fics on Ao3), and I think one of the things that get me is. A man who could be attracted to women + a woman who could be attracted to men having great chemistry but staying friends. I want to stress this is different from a man who is not interested in women / romance + a woman who is not interested in men / romance because there is almost zero chance of a reciprocal romantic relationship going on. But for the first case, which I feel like many people dumb down to "straight people shipping", it's even more precious for them to stay friends and not give into the heternormative expectations despite one or both of them possibly (but not necessarily) being heterosexual. Like, here are two people who could date each other but they're like "nah we work better as friends, so we stay friends". To me, this is one fantastic argument for friendship. Not everything has to be romantic. Even better if they considered and thought about the logistics, but decide their relationship is more special non romantically. Having a taste of how their relationship could go and going "thanks, but no thanks". Is this not a great display of sincere and stable friendship compared to people going "lol they can't work as a ship because they simply physically cannot tolerate the thought of each other romantically". I'm rambling here but I feel like this is what I feel across various dynamics and fandoms. At this point, I think somehow non romantic relationships genuinely fascinate me more than ships. Save me QPR save me.

"They have a relationship outside of Falin"

I feel like some manga readers have missed the point so badly when it comes to this. It's hilarious. They have a relationship outside of Falin it's the whole fucking point about coming to terms with grief and death! You know, one of the core themes of this story that you finished!

And of course this doesn't erase the love they have for Falin. Falin is clearly beloved and their main motivation, but hilariously enough (for the L+M deniers), the manga shows Laios and Marcille's "true" innermost desires being granted and it's not about reviving Falin even though they both clearly want her back and it's at the forefront of their minds. Laios turns into a monster. His curse isn't about Falin not coming back (even though that was his immediate thought), it's about him not being able to interact with monsters ever again. Marcille was traumatised by what happened to Falin (nightmare chapter) but when she turns into a dungeon lord, she goes about trying to fix the lifespans, showing her fear of loneliness and all her loved ones (NOT just a single person!!!!!!!!) dying before her. You can argue they didn't revive Falin with magic lord powers because they don't trust the lion / trust their own plan of eating her, but I think the manga focuses enough on their desires for the interpretation of "the lion fulfills their innermost desires that define their existence" to work. Marcille is the one who finds Laios first after he turned back and Laios broke Marcille free from the lion's influence etc etc we know they play a part in each other's arcs. Laios says they wouldn't be on this journey if Falin hadn't been digested. Marcille says in the end she was okay with Falin not being brought back this time. Laios invites Marcille to stay with him. It's in the text.

"Boring straight ship" or whatever

This comes from what a friend said about my main duo of another fandom but it's like "why isn't [ship] more popular" "because it's easy to fall into the boring trope of pairing a man and a woman together".

And this is a thing that does happen! But not to pairings with strong canon foundation and chemistry sorry. Don't look at me, look at canon. A male/female ship with good canon support is a good ship. Why are you surprised. People like shipping characters who spend lots of time together saving each other and all that. Dare I say: sometimes (sometimes) shipping "straight people" is more respectful to their canon friendship than shoehorning them as siblings. Which I believe is true in the case of L+M.

Anyways. Well that was a nice angry rant. Sorry I had to get it out of my system. I've spend too much time writing this so I won't be doing much proofreading lol. If you've reached this point, thanks for reading <3

[vampireistic]

“annoying gays” aren’t the problem.

the problem with “straight” self-entitlement

the anime/gaming community isn’t known for being very lgbt friendly (the amount of times i’ve been threatened with SA because i’ve called a character zesty is actually psychotic) and to be fair, posting something like this to a website known for being infested with us gay critters seems silly, but i think it’s something worth a discussion.

overall, i want to go over a couple fandoms that i’m deeply engrained in that i’ve personally experienced the shittiest takes with: honkai star rail, genshin impact, jujutsu kaisen.

────────────────────────

“i hate ___ fandom”, do you? or do you hate the fact black and gay people exist in the same space as you? “oh it’s the shippers! they’re weird”, yeah i won’t deny a minuscule percentage are, but do you really think that overshadows the fact the CN part of the genshin community KILLED kittens because they hated scaramouche, the creepypasta fandom saw the emergence of several murderers that varied in concerning age, not to even mention the amount of l*li art that gets made using the excuse that the character is “akshually 500+!” — believe me, these are more egregious sins than simply: “they ship boy and boy so i don’t like.”

“FANON” VS “CANON”

some of you can’t differentiate between: “this makes me uncomfortable” and “this is wrong”.

“headcanons are losing their meaning”, “i miss when headcanons didn’t make sexualities their entire character” — what is it with people being upset that others are finding comfort in portraying themselves in a character they enjoy? “it ruins the character!”, “you’re belittling them and ignoring their backstory!”, how come these are the responses only queer people get?

it’s ok to not like it but you also have to acknowledge that it’s completely harmless and in the grand scheme of things, doesn’t matter. “you’re making it all about sexualities”, “you can’t make everything gay” etc etc — those are just basic homophobic rhetorics. gay people have been demonised in media excessively, of course we want to MAKE representation for ourselves if we aren’t going to get any canonically.

queer people shouldn’t have to be digestible to you and what you like for you to not have a hissy fit that they merely headcanoned a fun character as having xenopronouns. using the excuse that: “oh well, i’m also queer!”, is ridiculous, being part of the community doesn’t absolve you from any type of lgbtphobia. do you really think the straights are gonna come accept you with tears in their eyes because you’re not like those other fags?

────────────────────────

“SHIPPING CULTURE”

getting mad at queer people for not liking straight ships should be a form of comedy. throughout all those decades of entertainment, queer people have been given mere crumbs of what straight people have — why is it expected that we need to absolutely suck up and also enjoy something that we’ve already been force fed our entire lives? this sort of idea is a little predatory, in my experience at least, this rhetoric is the reason i used to HATE even entertaining the idea i could be a lesbian just because it was so disconnected from other sexualities where most revolved around some sort of attraction to men; i feel like this isn’t necessarily that uncommon of a situation either.

this sort of conversation surrounding the concept of “heterophobia” just sparks immediate homophobic rhetoric that intends to make queer people like some villainous group that’s goal is to gayify every straight ship in existence. no-one actually cares, you’re just upset because gay ships tend to get more talked about in fandoms because they’re well liked.

let queer people enjoy solely mlm/wlw media or pairings without making them feel othered or like a “fujoshi” for something normal. if i have to sit here and listen to why you think god should personally make mitsuri and obanai real so they can have a real wedding then you can handle me just stating “idk i think satosugu is good”. i can’t tell you the amount of times my own friends have made me feel weird or icky for watching things that relate to me because i specify i won’t read or watch romance stories with a hetero pairing — like i trusted y’all once with violet evergarden and look where that ended up…

“you’d like ___ if it was gay” / “you only hate ___ because it’s straight” … yeah, because i’m gay dumbass. why the fuck should i pour my energy into a straight pairing i can’t at least resonate with somewhat. there are some exemptions to this rule and i will forever be a hanako kun and nene lover — but that’s purely because they’re a straight ship written for gay people. and it’s actually quite easy to discern the difference between “straight pairing that’s intended for large audience” vs “straight pairing that’s intended to appease fans / soothe the lonely lowlifes who have never touched a woman”

the former being: hanako kun x nene, quite literally any pairing from disney movies, loid x yor, haruhi x tamaki… okay i’m out — and the latter being ANYTHING from the following animes: darling in the franxx, bunny girl senpai, my dress up darling, toradora etc.

also to add onto the whole “you’d like so and so if they were gay”, y’all would absolutely believe ships like satosugu, beigguang, acheswan, eimiko etc were canon if they were m/f pairings.

“QUEER CODING / IMPLICATION”

i don’t understand why this specific topic is so heavily discussed in such a negative manner — if there’s specific references to queer things in relation to a character, it’s obviously intentional. what’s the issue? that it’s gay?

queer coding has long been a subtle yet powerful tool in media, particularly in anime and video games. it involves the inclusion of characters whose traits, behaviours, or relationships suggest a queer identity without explicitly stating it. this coding allows for nuanced representations of lgbtq+ identities in contexts where direct representation might be risky or censored. two franchises where queer coding is evident are genshin impact and jujutsu kaisen.

however, the appreciation of this representation often gets lost in a quagmire of "canon versus fanon" discourse, particularly among straight fans, who degrade these characters and their relationships to fucking “shipping debates.”

“they’re just friends — have you never interacted with a friend before?” / “not everything has to be romantic / gay”

i don’t remember the last time i longingly gazed at my friend after receiving a compliment and smirking while stating: “only a true treasure captures the eyes of __, seems like i’ve struck gold.” homosexual undertones exist!! i don’t understand how this is something controversial or scary to discuss — just because a character isn’t DIRECTLY stated to be queer, doesn’t suddenly mean all the hinting doesn’t mean anything.

heterosexuality isn’t the “default”, why do you have to assume every character is straight? i don’t remember them staring down at the camera lense to specify.

you can’t be so disingenuous and media literacy constipated that you don’t know how to interpret very simple things like yae miko writing a sapphic book where the main two characters resemble her and ei, the fact kaveh and alhaitham’s introductory quest line is titled “pride and prejudice”, the entire story of xiao and venti meeting, and even something as seemingly dumb and simple as ajax being gifted chopsticks by zhongli. repetitive nuances aren’t there for the sake of silly dynamics, they’re there to get past censorship. believe me if they could they would’ve made yae and ei make out by now.

another gentle reminder: wriothesley is based off henry wriothesley, a homosexual man known for having gay relationships who had a close intimacy with william shakespeare. clorinde is based off a historical feminist and bisexual named julie d'aubigny with navia being based off of julie d'aubigny's lover, who was a lesbian. and if you’re going to argue semantics and say that these are either incidental and don’t mean anything — then neither does the argument that nahida was supposed to be based off the hindu moon goddess.

the weird anger that procures whenever gay ships are more popular is so baffling. yaeyato quite literally come along as a reactionary ship to eimiko because…they hated lesbians, straight ghuizhong and zhongli shippers have conjured up this rainbow demon that every zhongchi shipper hates them (despite the fact a large majority of guizhong shippers…are also zhongchi shippers).

similarly, jujutsu kaisen has characters whose relationships and characteristics are imbued with queer coding. the dynamic between gojo and geto, for example, is often highlighted as more than just a rivalry or friendship. their relationship is filled with an intensity that transcends typical "bromance," and the narrative hints at a deep emotional connection that resonates with many queer experiences of longing and betrayal. they’re made to be the exact mirrors of each other, pieces of a puzzle that when put together perfectly balance into a piece of art.

“my six eyes tell me you’re suguru geto. but my soul knows otherwise!”

some of you wouldn’t even have your own mother recognise you in such a manner let alone your best-friend who you haven’t seen in years. don’t remember the last time i purred and groaned my friend’s name while we’re on call and i don’t think i could ever bother staring at them lovingly while propping my cheek up with my hand. geto had this man nearly on his hands and knees in front of a public sidewalk near a non copyrighted kfc because he was afraid of him leaving.

what i find also particularly funny is how these same people will view labelling a character as something that somehow dirties them and then will turn around and ship something like anya and that ugly kid (i’m sorry but i don’t remember his name LMAO) — you don’t care about “pushing sexualities onto a character”, you give a shit because it’s queer.

────────────────────────

here’s some resources i found that managed to vocalise my thoughts rather perfectly:

annoying gays are not the problem

“i’m not one of those gays” - shut up.

a deep dive into the queer coding of genshin impact

is honkai star rail actually queer coded?

homophobia in the honkai star rail community

[dooplissss]

i saw your tags on that post, can you tell me about the homestuck quadrants? i was hugely into homestuck like 10 years ago but i’ve forgotten almost everything. i want to remember the ancient ways

* cracks knuckles >:) *

Matesprit ❤️ is easy, its just what humans see as romance and true love etc. One of the two reproductive quadrants, yadda yadda you get it.

Examples: - Morticia <3 Gomez - Ruby <3 Sapphire - Darcy <3 Elizabeth, with arguably some grey/black romance thru the story but thats what makes it so enduring

Moirails ♦️ is my personal favorite quadrant and is fairly straightforward, tho the canon definition is different from fanon. In fanon, its interpreted basically as best friends/queerplatonic, which, yeah, can and usually does happen with that proximity and thats why I love it, but in canon its more a power balance to prevent violence and death, typically with one figure reining back a more chaotic one. When applying to humans and other fandoms tho its better to lean toward the slightly fanon interpretation since Alternia's violent culture is so different from ours.

Examples: - Nepeta <> Equius - Aziraphale <> Crowley (obvi the situation is changing but lets leave this here) - Dean <> Castiel (obvi i'm team matesprit but canonically they belong here up til cas declares his love) - Joel <> Ellie (this is a strictly platonic quadrant dw) - Caleb <> Nott/Veth (I want to shake liam and sam so bad and explain that the relationship they were looking for was right here and they didnt have to awkwardly choose between romance and friendship)

Auspictice ♣️is the one everyone gets wrong and drives me the most insane. It's a tricky and very specific balancing dynamic thats hard to find, except maybe on the CW. Canonically, its a group of three people, two (left and right leaves) want to outright kill each other. This does not make them kismesis, I cannot stress that enough, kismesis don't want each other dead, but we'll get there in a sec. The third person is meant to prevent them from killing each other, being the mediator. Its rare for this dynamic to not be outright toxic, esp in human examples, but its a healthy option on Alternia to prevent unnecessary murder. I think this dynamic is meant to be temporary tho, even in that culture, as it weighs on the mediator a lot.

Examples: - Eridan <3< Sollux ^ Feferi, unfortunately unsuccessful showing how difficult and straining this relationship type is (also everyone who said eridan and sollux were kismesis owes me $5, I'll become a millionaire instantly) - Edward <3< Jacob ^ Bella - Pearl <3< Greg ^ Steven, a happy ending example of an auspictice (ignore the ptsd)

Kismesis ♠️is. man where do I begin. its so good. its such a fun dynamic, especially when you have a pairing that gets it just right. Kismesis is perfect enemies, arch-rivals that share a mutual respect and drive each other to improve themselves to better outwit their opponent. Its when a captain sees one of their ships on fire and smiles, knowing just who did it. Its tipping your opponents head up by the tip of a sword. Its the bad guy showing up at your doorstep because theres no one else they trust more than their greatest nemesis. Its the other reproductive quadrant because its just as deep and passionate as true love, and it can in fact switch between love and hate very easily and often.

Examples: - Quark <3< Odo (imo the BEST non-homestuck example) - Batman <3< Joker (friend hates when i say this but i'm right, esp with lego batman) - Xavier <3< Magneto - Light <3< L - God <3< Satan, why not lmao

I wish homestuck was seen as less cringe bc the quadrants are SOOO FUN to apply to ships and dynamics in other fandoms and contexts. At the same time, people get the quadrants wrong constantly, especially between kismesis and auspictice. And the quadrants aren't static, you don't have to lock a ship in just one forever! feelings change and very easily turn from black to red to black again, its all so complicated and fun to watch.

Hope all this makes sense lmao, thanks for the ask!

[bestworstcase]

You've mentioned that hatedoms tend to be very similar to each other, if not outright identical across fandoms. What is it that causes them to be like this and so similar to each other?

well. to explain this i think it’s first helpful to lay out why hatedom… exists, because i think that is generally not understood in normative fandom space; what i see happening in a lot of conversations about hatedom is that there is a widespread presupposition that hatedom is kind of a side effect of bullies and bigots lashing out at fans for liking something they don’t, and… that’s a misconception because hatedom is a fandom subculture.

“but farran,” you might be thinking, “hatedom is full of bigoted bullies”—and yes, it is. that is true of fandom across the board and, frankly, the harassment is often mutual. it’s just that trolling hatedom or just being combative and nasty toward people in hatedom is broadly socially acceptable in a lot of fandom spaces and the perception that hatedom is demographically homogenous (white, cishet, male) allows fandom’s bad actors to spin aggression as self-defense by rhetorically invoking identity politics. 

which is not to say that hatedom isn’t ever reactionary or that hatedom doesn’t have a massive bigotry problem—it is and it does—but rather that those things are not unique to this one subculture. it is a Fandom Problem. 

so, with that said, what makes hatedom happen?

it isn’t about not liking something. it isn’t even really about hating a thing. people in hatedoms are… fans, actually. 

specifically they are fans who have reached the natural terminus of fandom’s “fuck canon/yay fanon” culture. this is actually the main reason i tend to get somewhat acidic with the anons i get sometimes kvetching about hatedom rewrites and the like, because… hello? 

inside every happy fan besotted with fanon is an embittered screed just one favorite-headcanon-shattering narrative turn away from getting out. it is the same. mindset. bifurcated solely by whether the preferred fanon resembles the real story enough to believe the fanon is real. 

this is why hatedom is disproportionately populated by shippers of torpedoed ships and hardcore believers of popular fan theories that flopped. (and once you notice this, perusing fandom tags and blogs becomes a fun exercise in forecasting the hatedom.)

anyway the point of all this being that hatedom arises when there is an irreconcilable break away from popular fanon in the actual text. when ships get sunk, popular fan theories get jossed, or the narrative status quo is changed, it’s really common for fans who were deeply invested in that ship or theory or paradigm  to pivot to hatedom because the emotional attachment they have to the story and characters doesn’t go away, it just hits an immovable obstacle and ricochets off in a new direction. 

again, fans do exactly the same thing at a lesser intensity. fix-it fic. headcanons of omission, ie, “i know x happened in canon but i don’t like it so i am choosing to pretend it didn’t, actually.” the entire sentiment that fandom itself is about stripping a story for spare parts to write bespoke au fic tailored exactly to suit the fan’s preferences. 

what distinguishes hatedom—& this is getting to the answer of your actual question���is that in hatedom the “fuck canon/yay fanon” principle is applied in the context of that irreparable breach opening between canon and fanon. in normative fandom spaces, the popular fanon kind of gets superimposed with the text in a manner that allows them to blend together, hiding any small discrepancies. that isn’t possible in hatedom because the discrepancies are always so large.

inevitably what that leads to is this feedback loop where the hatedom develops its preferred fanon through a combination of fanworks, meta-posting about why the fanon would have been better or should have been what happened instead, and cherry-picking whatever bits and pieces from canon people in the hatedom happen to like.

(which is how all fanon develops, yes.)

over time, it’s the meta-posting about the preferred fanon that causes hatedom to dissolve into the vindictive nitpicky circus. no matter where you go in fandom, there is always a huge social incentive to keep coming up with new things to talk about. obviously. in normative fandom spaces a lot of that is generated by excitement and joy and just a desire to spend more time with the story and share what you think and kick fun or interesting ideas around. but in hatedom, the passion binding these fans together is estranged from canon almost completely and the group identity is predicated on this really intense disappointment that the preferred fanon got left in the dust. 

so hatedom is fundamentally driven by a powerful social incentive to keep coming up with new reasons why the preferred fanon is better. that pushes the fanfic away from au and into spitefic territory, leaches nuance out of the discussions, encourages nitpicking and angry screeds. eventually it hits a certain critical mass and tailspins rapidly into bullshit because (and this is the key) people in hatedom are fans. 

as in, most of them like the stories they’re ripping apart. they largely do not actually have any deep problem with the story because they are fans having extreme reactions to disappointment. so they talk shit and nitpick and make melodramas out of molehills and sometimes fling bizarre identity politics around to either legitimize nonsense Story Bad arguments or score imaginary points in altercations with normative fandom. 

if that all sounds familiar, yeah. lmao

i will close with an anecdote to illustrate the broader point. 

once upon a time i made a snarky little post about an extremely stupid ironwood take i scrolled past while blogwalking. somehow or another that ended up in front of one of the BNFs of rwby’s hatedom; he misinterpreted my point (because it was a vague snarky paragraph) and wrote a fairly harsh response based on that misinterpretation. there were several followers of mine in the notes kind of signaling an expectation that i was about to receive a barrage of harassment over this. 

i responded by:

clarifying that i didn’t mean the (genuinely awful!) thing he thought i was saying

indicating that i understood how/why he’d read the post that way and no hard feelings

elaborating in detail on what i did mean and why i thought that

and what happened?

the dude apologized for jumping to conclusions and being so caustic off the bat, then explained his own opinion and the thought process behind it. and that was that. the number of hostile angry anons i received was zero. the number of inane bad faith reblogs i got on other posts afterwards was zero.

now this is a basic, basic deescalating tactic but it’s also really illustrative of what i’m talking about when i say that hatedom isn’t motivated by a desire to bully fans  out of fandom because if it hadn’t been for the handful of people in the notes going basically, “oh no! it’s him! brace yourself!” i wouldn’t have known the guy was a hatedom BNF at all. his initial response to me was indistinguishable from the tantrums the dadpin people or that one penny truther throw in my inbox every now and then and frankly he was a lot more reasonable and mature about our differences of opinion than them once the misunderstanding was cleared up. 

like…

i’m not conflict averse at all. anyone who’s been following me for any significant length of time knows that, lmao. but i do try to lead with reasonable and presume good faith until proven otherwise and the thing is? that shuts down hatedom aggro fucking instantly. because people in hatedom are just… fans, really. fans who are usually pretty stoked to be treated like fellow fans instead of the enemy and will usually make an effort to rise to the occasion. 

and once you grok that hatedom becomes really quite simple to understand; the homogenous pan-fandom slurry of inane bullshit happens because fundamentally most people in hatedom like the story but rode the “fuck canon/yay fanon” train all the way to its very toxic and unpleasant last stop and now they’re kind of… stuck there trying to shout the cognitive dissonance away. most of them would be 1000% happier if they hopped the fence back to fandom and went “here’s my wish fulfillment power fantasy au fic that i’m writing for a target audience of Me” buuut there are a lot of social and emotional headwinds against that. 

so instead they make up wildly entertaining bullshit reasons a story is bad like “the animation is ugly” and “it’s bad writing not to explain how [completely mundane everyday thing that children can understand, like haircuts or the concept of money] works” and “how could the disney princess show have monarchy in it?!/how could the fairytale show have fairytales in it?!” and so forth. it just gets sillier and sillier forever.

[borom1r]

1-25 choose violence ask game ❤️

ALL OF THEM?????? you’re so real for this ty snfnsnbfns. doing LotR bc of course I am

1. the character everyone gets wrong

PIPPIN I HATE TO SAY IT BUT PIPPIN. all those incorrect quote polls that have been posted where pippin keeps fucking winning YALL REALIZE HES AN ACTUAL CHARACTER RIGHT?? with like depth?? and bonds?? and a personality. yall realize that right?????? right??? ik we all love 2 joke but he would not say half of those things

2. a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

ok I personally enjoy both for Boromir BUT if he IS topping. he is a service top. I will die on this hill

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

I block ppl for these takes so no screenshots but everyone who thinks Boromir is a villain. if you think Boromir is a villain I will key your car.

4. what was the last straw that made you finally block that annoying person?

there is one singular straw and it is bad Boromir takes in the Boromir tag

5. worst discord server and why

I don’t join fandom discord servers bc I love myself too much for that 💗

6. which ship fans are the most annoying?

ummm idk? most of my lotr mutuals have different ships from me and it’s all chill. but tbf I’m very selective abt who I interact with now lmao.

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

no one yet thank fuck.

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

Aragorn/Arwen isn’t actually romantic sorry I think it’s fucked up actually. the vibes are off there for SURE

9. worst part of canon

FARAMIR’S “yeah I’m gonna take you from your home and tame you. haha wdym. you don’t need a blade during times of peace.” SHTICK WITH ÉOWYN IN THE BOOKS. UNPACK YOUR BIASES YOU LITTLE FREAK!!!!!!!!

10. worst part of fanon

HM. I will stick with “people who horrifically misinterpret Boromir’s character”

11. number of fandom-related words you've filtered

at the moment I only have rings of power blocked but I’ve had that blocked since it came out bc if I look at the armor in that show I will commit crimes.

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

MOVIE!FARAMIR MY SPECIALEST LITTLE GUY OOOOOOOOOO MOVIE!FARAMIR I LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUU he’s so handsome and special and I love him and you WILL all look at him and clap and cheer. it makes me insane that his temptation by the ring mirror’s Boromir’s and he’s actually fucking normal abt the Rohirrim AND I just love him very much :)

13. worst blorboficiation

ummm idk… maybe Frodo

14. that one thing you see in fics all the time

HMMM exposing myself but I basically only read Aragorn/Boromir fics lmao + since we’re Choosing Violence the most annoying thing is Boromir just being A Brute. like damn I love the surface level reading of the text maybe try engaging with it above a 1st grade analysis next time 💗

15. that one thing you see in fanart all the time

hmmmmm idk cuz again I don’t interact w a lot of fanartists so there’s nothing like. annoying. all th ✨motifs✨ I do see r very fun + I like them :)

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

ummm for Serious, portraying Pippin as Stupid. for Silly, uhhhh Trans Faramir is so real to me I completely forgot cis people both 1) exist in the real world and 2) probably interpret Fara as cis too. i don’t get it :(

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art

trans Faramir 🩵💗🤍

18. it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...

HM idk. trans Faramir again. also bc I love it, utilizing Old Norse culture for the Rohirrim teehee

19. you're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like...

OK IM MAD THAT FINNISH BOROMIR IS JUST ME. THATS ME. THATS AN OUTFIT I WEAR REGULARLY MINUS THE LONG HAIR. I DRESS LIKE THAT TO BUY GROCERIES. i love him for that tho. I’m also mad that MtG Boromir’s stupid pointy muttonchops have grown on me. freak behavior, keeping his facial hair trimmed in those stupid little points

20. part of canon you found tedious or boring

I’m fighting for my life reading the histories rn 😑 I find them very dry for the most part

21. part of canon you think is overhyped

idk? I think there is an appropriate level of hype. but idk if Rings of Power had a lot of hype. if it did, then Rings of Power is my answer

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

idk if it’s IGNORED necessarily but the fact that Boromir carries a Rohirric shield in the films does actually genuinely make me insane 💞 I love that sm

23. ship you've unwillingly come around to

UNWILLINGLY?????? idk?? ummmm I think it’s all fine for the most part I’m just A Fag so I don’t write het ships. it’s like a moral thing. Éowyn/Faramir gets a pass conceptually bc they’re T4T to me tho

24. topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

idkkkkkkk I don’t engage w discourse bc I want this fandom to remain pleasanttttt

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

again idk.. I block on sight if I see a Bad Take + then I erase it from my memory so I can continue to live in a beautiful blissful world where I. forgor abt cis people ☺️

[aspecpplarebeautiful]

I used to engage a lot with shipping. Though frequently I got bored with the ship after a while and became more interested in their platonic relationship. I also often "multishipped" the same ship, i.e. I had fun exploring a relationship both platonically and romantically/sexually.

But since I realized I'm aroace, the way I engage with shipping has changed a lot. I have quite adversial feelings about romance, so romantic relationships mostly put me off. What I love is exploring ambiguous relationships, where there is a lot of tension, a lot of things unsaid, but that remains unresolved. When I am actually interested in exploring a relationship non-platonically, it's largely about a very fucked-up relationship, anything that antis would call "problematic" because in these kind of relationships it's not about romance. Once in a blue moon I don't mind shipping something the traditional way, even if it's not fucked up, but this is a fanon only thing. I may think it's fun to explore this in fanon but I would absolutely hate for it to go canon (which is why I absolutely hate the kiss in certain show tumblr has been going crazy about, it felt so wrong to me - not saying more because of spoilers).

This means that sometimes fandom culture can be frustrating to me because of its obsession with romance. It really sucks constantly seeing stuff like "oh there is no platonic relationship for this" or "the lady doth protest too much". Or that when I want to read about an interesting dynamic 90% of fics are coffee shop AUs. I really hate how people just rob characters of their personality in order to stick them into their bland romantic cutsey world. Like - you can just write original romantic stories. And often I will feel annoyed about people shipping something. But also - I am firmly against censorship, and SALS and Kinktomato are hugely important to me. In times like this where we're backsliding so much, it's very important for me to take a stand against purity culture. So I'm in a weird position where I'm personally annoyed people ship something, but also defend it against people who want to sanitize fandom spaces. I just wish it was easier to find fandom spaces where I can explore interesting platonic relationships with like-minded people that are also free from the influences of purity culture.

(Sorry this got so long 🥺)

.

[mrslittletall]

Choosing violence maybe for 13 and 25? For whichever fandom you have something to say about

I chose violence

13. worst blorboficiation Oh, how fun! I think we could do this for almost every listed fandom ^^ In Dark Souls it is probably Gwyndolin and I have to admit, I am not completely free of guilt of this, but I still fully lean into them having daddy issues and wanting the cycle to continue, I just portray them a bit more sympatethic in the matter, as feeling as if this is the only choice, what they were raised for etc etc. But I also see people write Gwyndolin as this innocent baby angel and not as the last child of Gwyn who is kinda behind the plot of the first Dark Souls. There is some pride in Gwyndolin and we should portray them accurately. Or not. Do what you guys want ^^ I just wanted to point stuff out. Hmmm, in Bloodborne... probably Micolash. I see a lot of people kinda... not leaning into Micolash being batshit insane. If you now point at me and say "Little, your Micolash is a quirky shameless innocent boy", that is Byrgenwerth era Micolash who is like 15 years old and hasn't even thought about the atrocities he will commit! I swear, if I would write canon Micolash, he would be a LOT different. I actually should write him. I never tried and he is so interesting! For Hollow Knight it is Grimm imo. He gets flanderized a lot. He is either the gay uncle or ship material but rarely, very rarely is he the Higher Being he is in canon. I admit I write Grimm as a major troll in my own fic, Off Balance, but he still is a god in this, following his own plan from the start. He never agreed to help PK from the good of his heart and while his plan is ultimately for the sake of another one, I still think I did him justice. I hope ^^ Elden Ring. I don't even have to think about it. Mohg and Morgott! Mohg oftentimes feels like his canon gets completely ignored and shoved under the rug (and if you do this, fine, I get the character makes people uncomfy). But I think Morgott is even worse. Yes, I like Morgott as well and I lean fully into his whole self hating and learning to love himself fanon, but... guys, sometimes I feel you forgot that he canonically killed dozens and dozens of Tarnished, had an order under his command that hunted Tarnished and pretty much is NOT a friend to your Tarnished in canon at ALL. Please, lean more into Morgott that is so into the grip of the Golden Order if you try to write him in canon. Okay and now I probably upset a lot of people. These are just my own opinions. You can blorbofy your blorbos as much as you want. I won't and can't stop you. I might just not read your fic or your comic, that is all. Alright, nobody is offended here, right? I am sure guilty of my own blorbofications ^^

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing Hmmmm... good question. I rarely look at complaints and when it comes to Dark Souls, it isn't a fandom complaint I am sick of hearing, but the "easy mode" crowd. I am not even AGAINST easy modes, but Dark Souls difficulty is so much ingrained into the lore that taking it away would be a really big detriment to the game. For Bloodborne it is easy. Gehrman haters. Please, leave the old man in peace. He chose a fucked up way to grieve someone that he either loved romantically or as a daughter. Canon never does say that he did anything to the doll! If all, the lore implies that he mostly ignores her. Hollow Knight. That PK and Radi are colonizers. Where does that idea even come from?! If you follow the lore, Radi was there first and then PK came and then they had a battle about followers. It wasn't even a bloody battle, nowhere in the lore does it say that countless bugs died or such, it was more so that PK managed to gain more followers and that led to the whole disaster. What they are both guilty of is supressing the void culture, I suppose, but there was also no mention of killing. The whole killing only happened once the infection came into place. Elden Ring. That is also a no-brainer. The whole people who are denying that Mohg is romantically involved with Miquella. If you see it as consentual or non-consentual, Mohg is completely infatuated with Miquella. Nobody who would want to have power would cradle a hand like that and speak that softly. Okay, I think I talked enough ^^ Again, these opinions are my own. If you don't agree with them, that is fine. I am not mad at you. You have a right to have your own opinions and headcanons, even though I don't agree with them.

[cartoonrival]

Nrto/Brto for 3 10 & 17?

bro literally the wider naruto fandom sucks so bad idek where to begin

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

i dont have a specific example so instead im gonna give a general gripe about a trend that ive seen in many takes over time

the black and white thinking and refusal to think for half a second about characters other than ur faves Reminds Me Of Something!real ones know. the way people talk about any character with any sort of greyness to their morality kinda makes me crazy and i lowkey think ppl bring up kishimoto TOO MUCH in their discussion of the storys themes bc while obviously like its important to talk abt WHY he wrote it the way he did esp wrt nationalism and all, i think also it sort of dulls ur ability to think anything complex about it if u blame everything u dont like or think was "sloppily done" on kishimoto. judging every character based on kishimoto's morals instead of their own if that makes sense? its not like "the wrong way to do things" i just personally find it really boring when thats the only way youll look at a text. like no wonder you guys are constantly making jokes about how naruto sucks and you'd never recommend it, you wont even allow yourselves to think about the story as its own piece of art beyond just "kishimoto wrote it this way because he sucks" like do you ever think maybe youre killing some of the fun of media analysis... i think its why so many people hate sakura or kakashi or itachi or anyone else. and this always comes out in the way ppl characterize bc theyre like Um I've Fixed Them :) and then its the blandest shit ever because you absolutely refuse to work even slightly WITH the story you claim to love, only fighting tooth and nail against it.

some examples of what i mean w this: basically any conversation about itachi that tries to categorize him as either good or bad. basically any conversation about sakura that tries to do literally anything or nothing with her. people making sns blandly romantic as if the insane and inventive ways they talk about their feelings for each other in canon isnt genuinely part of what makes it so maddeningly fascinating and awesome. anyone who thinks kakashi is a bad teacher. its just this refusal to meet the characters where they are and think of anything in terms of the text itself rather than exclusively in a meta way, ie "this is how it would be if it was good." no its not. you just made it how it would be if it was bland and obvious. dont you literally think the fact that the guy writing it was accidentally writing his characters to be struggling against the same shit that he was struggling against irl and struggling to keep Out of his writing is like. wildly fascinating and part of waht makes the story intersting to pick apart. but ok. this also applies to aspects of boruto primarily sasusaku and naruhina marriages. no one gets it like i doooooo

10. worst part of fanon

everybodys always shipping kakashi with someone and its never even guy. if youre gonna ship kakashi it had better fucking be with guy bc theres gen srs no one else he would be caught dead romancing with and i cant even see how you could read any of his other relationships as romantic. he doesnt even HAVE a relationship with iruka. i get that not every ship has to have canon support but its all either 1) literally not even interesting to think about or 2) what they have actually going on is way more interesting but see my response to question 3. its the same with gaara honestly the more i think about it the more annoyed i get about the ignorance surrounding just-short-of-canon aroace gaara ToT like if u didnt know then ok... but you should learn because its awesome. i just thinking the shipping culture in the fandom is annoying like everyone has to be shipped with someone and that seems to come before their genuinely interesting relationships. and those genuinely interesting relationships are sanded down into something normal. idk this is a gripe that goes w Many Many fandoms but i feel like w naruto its particularly bad largely on account of See Previous Answer. ppl are like "its written this way bc kishimoto is homophobic i will fix this" then they make it suck because shockingly ik kishi actually wrote a good as fuck story if deeply flawed

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art

ill be fr i dont gen seek out fics or art independently to be 100% sure that stuff i'd be looking for isn't out there somewhere. but i think ppl really really should just. think about sakura more. i literally love her sm but ppl won't think abt her beyond either 1) she sucks and i hate her (but this is because of kishimoto's writing and has nothing to do with me! if i rewrote naruto then she wouldn't be there 😌 this is a kindness to her and not because i cant be assed to think about a woman for 5 seconds) or 2) girlboss!!!! like.... is that scene in the land of iron not BIBLICAL to anyone else....??? is her devotion to someone she's lost faith in out of loyalty to someone she loves and is losing her ability to understand not FASCINATING???? TO ANYONE ELSE???? IS THE WAY SHE PICKS UP THE TRAITS OF HER TEACHER THAT HE SPECIFICALLY IS NOT MEANING TO PASS ON TO HER NOT HEARTWRENCHING???????? you people suck. instead you write ooc sns over and over and draw kakashi without his mask kissing fucking obito

[utilitycaster]

Unpopular Opinion: far too many CR fans enjoyment of characters is based only on their romantic relationship with other characters.

Hardly anyone talked/cared about FCG until they were shippable with FRIDA. 95% of discussions about Laudna are in reference to Imogen (and vice versa). Caduceus got a little attention from fans, but that dried up a lot once he was confirmed aro/ace.

If you only seem to care about a character when they're paired up with someone else, do you really care about the character?

Also a like...half agree. maybe more like 1/3.

Things I agree with: I think there's definitely a culture in fandom at large (not limited by any means to CR) that is only interested in shipping. This is a whole conversation I am not going to have at 10 pm while lightly drinking, but I do think this shapes a very large amount of discourse that goes beyond mere shipping, and might even possibly impact the TV industry in that a lot of shows that only blow up in their second or third season (sometimes after they've already been canceled on the back end for low viewership) do so because that's when the romance happens. I also agree that if your enjoyment of a character is solely centered around a ship and not the character on their own then yeah, you don't actually like them. (and yeah, while the 95% figure is probably an exaggeration for effect, it is true that Imogen and Laudna often get folded into each other in fanon such that it's frustrating if you're looking for meta on them as individuals).

Things I disagree with: Caduceus was still extremely popular throughout C2 including when he was confirmed aroace, and while there's definitely more interest in FCG at the moment there was plenty of discussion before. Like, that's just straight-up false and you're welcome to plumb my blog's FCG and Caduceus Clay tags to find no shortage of posts (and many are reblogs, to be clear, not just my stuff). I also think that like...look, I'm a meta writer and a general one at that, I'll talk about whatever character comes to mind, but a lot of people are just out here reblogging and making little liveblog comments, at most, and there is in fact just simply more to comment about when a romance happens because it is an important and significant dynamic!

Also like...god. I am, to quote Brian Murphy, almost entirely made of salt. I'm a hater and proud of it, I love criticism, I'm actively skeptical of nonstop positivity, but also, in the end, I've had favorite characters who were fan favorites, and favorite characters who were imo seriously underrated, and favorite characters who fell somewhere in between, and obviously more content is great but popularity comes with its own challenges (more terrible fanon, for one). The one constant is that even when being a massive fucking hater I have always had more fun when I don't get mad that my faves aren't more popular. Honestly? That's maybe the top thing I hate on - people getting mad that their favorite isn't everyone's favorite, and that people are talking about other things than their favorite.

[the-obiwan-for-me]

13, 14, and 15 for the choose violence ask?

Oh boy.

I am about to get unpopular (to be fair, I don't know if I'm even popular).

13. Worst blorbfication.

Admittedly, I am An Old, and have a tenuous grip on the meaning of some of these fandom words, but I believe this is just generally a term for "let's really hyperfixate on this particular character, possibly to the point of misunderstanding or completely rewriting their character." Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Cody. Fight me.

I love clones. I understand why they're a popular group of characters to love and write about and make art for. I adore Rex and Wolfe and Gregor. The Bad Batch boys. Beloved Howzer. But the absolute rabidness for Cody makes zero sense to me.

His main personality trait is…. competent? He is a human shaped wall for Obi-Wan to talk at. And he does talk at him. Obi-Wan has more dialogue with Rex, Waxer, and Boil (and probably some others, but TCW is long and I can only remember so much) than he ever does with Cody. He has more chemistry with Rex! 

Clearly this is Codywan related, and, by all means, ship and let ship, but I just really wish people understood that 99% of Cody's so-called personality is absolutely fanon. Not canon. He's boring and flat in canon. Some people write a beautiful character for him, and I appreciate that, but please understand the FANS are making him interesting. He isn't actually interesting. And to be clear, it is the Cody fans that are the brilliant, creative masterminds behind making Cody an interesting character. That's you! Not the creators! Be proud of what YOU created! Be mad your favorite blorbo got the personality of a doorstop in canon!

Runner up is the Armorer, especially in regards to shipping her with Bo-Katan. Y'all, she is not a nice person. Again, ship and let ship, but your favorite lesbian is a cult leader who leads a cult that actively works at alienating the members from each other, she kicked Din out, called him an apostate, and told him he could only be forgiven by doing what was thought, until he steamrolled him way through the challenge, to be an impossible task. She's bad. And it's ok to let bad guys be bad! The baddies are more interesting, anyway! I can go on and on about this but I won't. If you want more, send me an ask.

Honorable mention is woobyfying any baddie. It's cool to dive into why a baddie is bad, but please, for the love of all that is good and holy, understand that it is ok, fun, right, and highly entertaining to love baddies because they are bad. One merely has to read a few of my fics to understand how much I love my garbage boys (Pre Vizsla, Maul, Dryden Vos, Orson Krennic). Let your baddies be bad. You will have more fun, I promise.

14. That one thing you see in fics all the time.

Confession: I read very little fic these days (prefer to write in my downtime), and I typically only read fic written by certain people OR fic that is recommended to me by people who know what I like. I was curious the other day, and clicked on the Obi-Wan/Satine tag on AO3 and was instantly reminded why I have become so discerning about what I read. Despite being on their tag, the first 4 or 5 fics were actually Codywan, Jango/Obi, ArmorBo for some reason, and possibly something else that was definitely not an Obitine fic. And all of those fics were not kind to Satine.

So, this is why I'm pretty picky about fics (keep in mind, I read pretty much only fics about Obi-Wan and/or Kryzes. I have extremely limited interests when it comes to fic, though I'm always up for some good Mara Jade!).

I don't like most m/m Obi-Wan fics. Not because I don't like m/m or I'm a homophobe, or anything like that, but because Obi-Wan is so often written to be a fragile, delicate flower in need of some big strong clone or not-Mandalorian Mandalorian to care for him. And Satine is some mean, bitchy blonde lady who performed cultural genocide. I hate ALL of this. (For the record, while I don't actively seek out Obikin because it just isn't my jam, every one that I have read has been great, because both of them are so well understood by those that write them).

I hate any and all Kryze slander. Full stop. Bo's hate has slowed some with season 3 of Mando (though a lot of people writing her still don't get her because they haven't seen her in anything else, and just don't realize just how far she has really, truly come, or why the absence of Satine's name is felt so deeply by those of who have loved Bo for so long). Satine hate is alive, well, and very strong. 

I also do not like most fics that take you out of a galaxy far far away (I have some exceptions). I love Star Wars because of space wizards, spaceships, laser swords, and aliens. It's fine if you want to pull them out of that world and plop them in….I don't know, a university on earth, but I won't be reading it. It takes all the fun right of it for me.

15. That one thing in fanart you see all the time.

Honestly, I'm never going to gripe about art, really. Obviously, the things that bug me above pertain to artwork, too, but artwork doesn't demand the same time and commitment that reading a fic does. If art isn't for me, be it characters, or style, or whatever, I just scroll on by. If it is, I make sure to like it and reblog it and share the love. 

If you want to find out what's going to make you disown me, send me an ask from the Choose Violence ask game!