#i was thinking about how many shipping wars occur in this fandom and was like

[jeglly-bean]

Smthn I feel a lot of shippers don't get about genshin impact is that they CAN'T make any ships canon.

Now I don't know anything about the chinese government and what kind of queer themes the will/won't allow in media from their country, but I do know that genshin's vast well of dynamic characters with plenty of interactions between them makes for a lot of fun platonic, familial and romantic dynamics, and hoyoverse KNOWS this.

There are queer ships that could be seen as canon (Beigguang or Xingyun) but they can't outright state it. A good amount of genshin's fan base is comprised of people heavily involved in shipping culture, but a lot of fans also hate the shipping or just don't like queer ships (not getting into that). So to satiate everyone, they cannot outright state that any playable characters are romantically involved, regardless of if it's queer or not.

"These characters are romantically involved because of this interaction!" "No they're not, that character is in love with this one!" "Uhh actually none of these characters are dating, stop ruining the fandom"

Me? I don't particularly care what's canon or not, I'll ship any characters I think have the most romantic potential, regardless of if they've even interacted in-game.

What I'm trying to say is: whether you like Eulamber of Jeanluc or Zhongven, your ship will never and CAN never be canon. Also I think electro women are gay.

[multifandomloverthrowaway]

Viktor Was a Wasted Character

(But are we really surprised?)

This is my first post ever on Tumblr so please be nice! This is in no way hate towards any particular character or ship; personally I love Viktor as a character and all his ships, and that’s the main reason why I’m posting this. I also know like no LoL lore, so please bear with me. I’m just going to rant and dump my thoughts out here since I don’t really have fans in person to talk to about this, and it’s really bugging me lol!

That being said, I just watched season two, and after sitting with it’s ending, I do not think that the story told in the season is well thought out, and it can be very heavily seen in how characters are treated both in the show and in the fandom. It’s quite disheartening to see the fandom going through the peak-fandom era treatment of mlm and wlw relationships, and the overall treatment of the characters can be a little trashy. How people see Viktor can be very degrading and objectifying, and the whole ship wars and fallout with JayVik is absolutely disgusting. It makes me feel that many watchers did not fully understand Viktor’s character. And to a certain extent, the writers did not care for it either.

Viktor’s character represents what would happen if a Zaunite were able to become “successful” in the eyes of Piltover. Someone who had the intellect and ambition to supersede the conditions in Zaun and were able to compete with those raised in the “better city”. Thus, the questions of “How did they get to their place in Piltover?”, “What flaws do they have?”, “What is holding them back?”, “What is their experience in Piltover like?”, “Are they accepted?”, “Is there prejudice?”, and “What was their life in Zaun like?” are the core questions that make the character and their arc. This character is particularly important because this is the character that shows that those who are oppressed, no matter how “good” they are, will never be good enough in the eyes of the oppressor, especially if they have faults of their own. Viktor is fundamental to the message of season one Arcane. He helps to complete the story in its exploration of class, social, and political divide by personifying that “what if it could work” gap.

Viktor naturally then must be an internally strong character. Giving Viktor a disability is not just good inclusion, but also a good internal motivator. We as the audience then see that his key goal to help Zaun is not rooted in pity for a former home, but rather the cause of an injustice that he was a victim to. We see his steadfastness in going after opportunities that he thinks will benefit Zaun and humanity, and constant relentless means to get there. This is in stark contrast to his personal life. His deeply rooted sentiment that he must be alone because of his disability, along with perceptions of his disability and birthplace, are why he is a closed person only reaching for science, despite being quite empathetic. They also set up his two main conflicts:

1. He is dying with little time to finish his goal of helping Zaun and humanity

and

2. The people around him want to weaponize his creation into something that can be used against his hometown

These conflicts are where the plot fumbled the character. Firstly, we do not see any ties between him and Zaun other than his illness and that he grew up there. Where are his parents that supposedly love him so much? What is his relationship with Sky, which he supposedly cared enough for to bring out of Zaun to work with him and Jayce? His lack of well developed relationships with other characters other than Jayce hurt his character development from occurring naturally. It’s why Sky’s death doesn’t feel like anything. Despite Viktor seeing her in the realm as a metaphor to his shred of humanity left, his garden dedicated to her, her emblem on his robe, we don’t know their relationship or history in his eyes. (It should have been that they were in at least a friendship. Anything less than that would not fit Viktor’s character.) We don’t see him interact that much with Mel, despite her being his close friend’s love interest. We do not see him interact with doctors or his parents. What other real relationship does he have depicted in the show other than, well, Jayce? The only other is perhaps Singed. How do these relationships play into his self perception, and perception of humanity?

Combining his deteriorating friendship with Jayce over politics and with understanding that his work will be used against him without his credit or his voice should set Viktor up for him to make decisions that will naturally lead into his lore as we know it; to create something that allows him to fix himself and others while simultaneously corrupting him, especially in Zaun. Instead in season two we see that path taken away from him within the first Act after he is fused with magic because of Jayce. This is a pity because it makes Viktor reliant on Jayce’s decisions in a way that is outside of their parallel to the power struggle between Zaun and Piltover and thus takes away from his authority as a character - his decision to fuse himself with magic and machinery to go against Piltover needed to be a result of his decisions and actions, not of someone else and magic!

Giving that narrative decision to Jayce also leaves no organic way for Jayce to come to realize who Viktor is as a person outside of just a “partner”. This is especially apparent during the finale, in which Jayce’s love for Viktor is boiled down to “I love you for who you are”… though that undermines Viktor’s illness, why that illness exists and thus his reason to be a character, and by extension… Zaun’s struggle. And yet, Viktor dies accepting Jayce’s words, despite them undermining the reason he exists! Each time Viktor is yet again denied that choice to be what his character represents. Instead he is used as the crutch to Jayce until the end of the second season. This is also why the multidimensional time travel does not work with Viktor being the mage that gives Jayce magic; Viktor’s destiny is then settled firmly in Jayce’s hands and not his own. They are not soulmates; only one’s life depends on the other’s.

Viktor then, despite having some good foundation, never becomes the full representation that his character could be. We see no growth of his insecurities and setbacks that allow him to make the choice to become who is meant to be. Rather we see that narrative handed to another character who does not fulfill his character arc fully either.

It is no surprise to see the JayVik shippers in this case. Because Viktor is so dependent on Jayce in the narrative, there is no other natural relationship for him. This is despite the fact that Viktor’s sax orientation shouldn’t be of speculation, because in the case of the story, it doesn’t matter. Whether or not Viktor is able to have physical attraction to another person is not the core of his story nor his character. (Which is why his ace designation should not be controversial.) However, that his ability to make meaningful connections with the people in his lives, whether as friends or romantically, is. And we do not see that with any other person but Jayce, who cannot not see him as a full person due to the narrative. Viktor, at his essence, is a man whose agency has been taken from him by the narrative.

The better case in the narrative would have been to let the two part their separate ways after the death of Sky and the council attack, and let Viktor be the tragic hero he was made for. The love between each character that was to have a relationship with Viktor would have been that much more apparent, especially with Sky and Jayce. Then perhaps we would not see Viktor become the “disabled tw!nk whose real relationship could have only been with Jayce because only they truly knew and loved each other” because no. Only they didn’t. Viktor always had so much more, which included Jayce, Mel, Sky, and could have been far more! He just wasn’t given the means to explore it. And not by just the characters in Arcane. By the writers too.

[haveyoureadthisfanfic]

i see there's shipping discussion occurring in your ask box so i figure i'll throw in my two cents as well!

i used to be a REALLY heavy shipper, in exactly that shallow "reduce their personalities to the concept of kissing each other" way that tons of people are complaining about. i wouldn't get into ship wars or harass people or anything, but i was totally the kind of person who you couldn't just have a level character discussion with— because i would be pretty intent on just going through the motions with whatever best friend or acquaintance I'd decided they had a huge crush on.

by contrast now my biggest most important "ships" end up all being somewhere between 3-5 people with a lot of care put into the nuances of each connection on the relationship chart— i still refer to them as poly ships (as a shorthand mostly), but of the 3 to 10 different relationships between the characters, i usually only see a few of them as romantic or sexual, with the majority a lot closer to a found family or queerplatonic sort of vibe

honestly i think the biggest reason for the reductive style of shipping was that 1) i wasn't as skilled a writer then as i am now, so i wasn't really sure how to really retain all of the features of a character that i liked, and 2) i wanted the biggest feelings IMMEDIATELY and there's some kind of instant gratification to shipping where the end goal is for them to kiss and you can just draw/write/think about them kissing and you're done.

it's kind of like the instant ramen of fictional relationships to me. it's kind of "one size fits all", low writing skill requirement, low effort, really really fast and easy, and ultimately not really that rewarding at the end of it. and just like how real actual ramen exists separately from instant noodle cups, it IS possible to write a really amazing and beautiful and deep romantic ship fic that successfully plays off of the kinds of people these characters are, but ramen still isn't the end-all be-all of relationships! there are so many different hypothetical dishes that could be made with the same characters!

and my personal favorite is polyqueerplatonic ships for this very reason, because with just a few characters you can get a whole diverse array of interactions and dynamics!!

anyway tldr; i think romantic shipping is fun, and even "cheap" reductive romantic shipping can be fun, but (to return to my instant noodles metaphor) it would be reasonably upsetting to attend an awesome community potluck only to find like 90% cup noodles. and the people serving the cup noodles frown at you whenever you ask if anyone's serving like, gourmet spaghetti or dumplings or something.

so just know that if you're bringing your silly "ouhhh they should kiss" fan works to the fandom, you're appreciated and I'm glad you're having fun, and if you're bringing the super precisely thought-out nuanced relationship fan works to the fandom, you are ALSO so appreciated and additionally i really wish there were more of you in my own fandoms.

flashbacks to the time i looked up a ship that i THOUGHT was pretty popular but it only had like 230 works on AO3 at the time and basically all of them were romantic instead of my hyper-specific one-sided queerplatonic one-sided fully platonic thing i had pictured in my mind....

Okay, as someone who has tried their hand at writing slow burn in the past, I totally get the instant gratification thing. "You know when would be a good time for them to kiss? NOW"

I'd get frustrated at my own characters for not just making out already and I was the one writing them not making out lmao

[pjo-tvs-version]

Here is a little rant about the judo flip scene in the Mark of Athena. Please don't be offended by this because I just wanted to express my views. I respect all opinions till the time they make sense.

At the time I read the Mark of Athena, I wasn't really into the pjo fandom. Honestly the time period from when I read the Son of Neptune to reading Mark of Athena was by far the most stressful and I finished Mark of Athena in just one day! I was soo looking forward to reunion and was flipping the pages and enjoying it as everything came by. I reached the judo flip scene and just read it like it was nothing though I found it surprising and amusing for a short period of time. To be honest I was mentally obsessing over percabeth's reunion kiss not their judo flip. I want to be honest and in this post so I will say that I had literally no issue with the judo flip. I didn't even think about the judo flip after I finished the book (albeit my brain was too busy digesting the ending of the book but you know....)

Flash forward to me now. I am a part of the pjo fandom and like to keep myself updated with everything. In the fandom, the judo flip is unarguably one of the most controversial topics. I was so surprised that there is so much of debate on this one incident to be honest. It shocked me soo much that went and reread the scene again and then thinking to myself - was it that weird?

Now whenever I make an opinion I try my best to hear both sides. People find it toxic and abusive and others find it cute and adorable. Now I will like to remind you that this is strictly my opinions on the topic so please do not be offended if you do not agree with me.

Percy and Annabeth are characters who are fictional. Their relationship is adored by many and a few dislike it which is completely alright. However I would like to point a few things. Annabeth and Percy have known each other for about 4 years. They have been trained in battle and have fought a literal war side by side. Plus they are demigods. Annabeth is a warrior and we know she loves Percy because even if you don't ship percabeth you have to agree with the fact that the girl was seriously concerned when Percy went missing and searched for him for 6 months. Would she do that if she didn't love him?

They are very close and have even dated for 4 months. That is when Percy disappears with no fault of his. But I urge you to just imagine Annabeth's situation a little please. She is seeing her boyfriend, her best friend after legit 6 months of searching, not knowing whether he is alive or not, not knowing whether he remembers her or not.

Obviously her emotions are running high. Their is relief, joy and anger too which is understandable. However this anger is directed to the wrong person and that makes this scene debatable. Annabeth had no right to blame Percy for his disappearance but she did. But now just see her situation too. Like girl was going through a bad phase too and her anger did evaporate when Percy smiled because he too understands what she must be feeling.

What she did was not right but it is understandable too. It depends on perspective. In my eyes I would say that this scene was a failed attempt at humour by Uncle Rick. There were other ways about how he could have gone with this scene.

In the end, do I hate this scene? No. Do I like it? Also No. To me it's just an incident which occured and that's all. I don't really think about this scene often but the fandom has amplified it a little too much ( I know this is so ironic because with this post I'm just adding on to the already multiple discussions on this topic but let's just ignore that fact). One should be free to interpret this scene in the way they want but without insulting the other side. I wish to do the same too...

[irontragedyreview]

I don't have much to say about this new chapter, there are things that I liked, and others that I don’t care about. On the other hand I was pleased to be right about Izuku and him naming her his hero, because many in the fandom prefer to ignore the relationship and importance of Ochako over Izuku for fighting over ships (we all know what I'm talking about). Besides I wasn't wrong when I said that what Horikoshi, did after the hasty fight between Izuku and Tomura could be fixed, it's like the poisoned apple that reaches everything else, some said we had to have faith and that Horikoshi knew what he was doing, I sincerely believe that Horikoshi doesn't care because if that were the case the confrontation between Tomura and Izuku would not have been the mediocrity that it was.

Regarding the chapter in question, I liked the moment between Ochako and Izuku, especially because of the pain shared between them by Tomura and Himiko endings’. We can discuss if this was taking the easy way out, that’s getting rid of the villains because from all of them Toga was the one who had the best chance of surviving out of the entire LOV due to the lack of physical injuries. Although Toga's death is a sign of sacrifice towards the only person who tried to reach her, it’s also a way of saying that she had no place in that society, one of the things that Toga said to Ochako during her fight was if Ochako's plan was to offer her blood and visite her in jail (this occurs when she was still rejection Uraraka). At the end of their fight her sacrifice was also the way in which she didn’t have to give up being herself, the words she says are more or less exact "I am Himiko Toga and I lived as I wanted." I'm not trying to belittle the entire confrontation between Ochako and Toga during this war (in fact, I consider it the best of all), even so, her death seems very similar to Tomura's to me, the fact that both characters die maintaining their convictions, it’s as if living the way she wanted was incompatible with the society in which she lived, so death was the only way out that allowed her to be herself, with Tomura feels the same. Something I'm going to celebrate about Tomura's end is that his convictions were maintained until the end. I think there was nothing Izuku could have said to him that would have made him stop or desist from his own vision of the world, his most memorable phrase for me it's "Even if all my hate fades away and nothing remains of me, I still want to be a hero for the villains”. Honestly I don’t think that the black and white vision that prevails in part of the fandom satisfies me, nor does the part that says he was a monster that had to die, but neither does taking him as a simple victim (not because he wasn’t, but because many times, this vision detracts Tomura's convictions and simply reduces him to the victim or AFO’S puppet and I don't like that)

Getting back to the topic, was Toga's death necessary? I don't know, especially considering how all the important casualties are from the villains, while the heroes maintain their lives, even characters like Edgeshot survive, but the characters of Toga, Tomura and even Touya (who is on the way to his grave), simply seem to die because the society doesn’t have a place for them that isn’t away from the population. This last chapter wants to show us that there is a change in society no matter how small it may be, and that people in general becomes more involved and  not a passive actor, which is why we see the woman who ignored Tenko not commit the same mistake, the idea of ​​reaching out to help others, arriving before the tragedy happens, arriving when it isn’t too late, however these are baby steps and that mentality would still have pushed characters like Touya, Toga and Tomura to expulsion because for society the moment to reach them had already been lost.

The idea of ​​"I wish I had arrived before that everything happened, if I could have been the support that person needed, maybe things would have been different, maybe we would have been different", that words are on Midoriya's side, Ochako's words are a reflection of his own thinking and desire, it doesn’t change the mediocre confrontation between them, it doesn’t change the disaster, but it shows that Horikoshi isn’t mediocrity enough, Ochako's words resonate with him and his thoughts are no different from hers.

[midnighmoonligh]

hello hello! I just recently found your blog and I have learned so much from it! I was wondering if you could do another Voltron story w Keith and Lance, but their roles reversed? Could you also do different backgrounds? As in, Lance in your last story had been a caregiver before, I don’t want Keith to have the same story, y’know what I mean?

you don’t have to do any of this ofc! It’s just a request! Otherwise, I love all your stories and I appreciate what you’ve done to make other people aware.

A/N

Hope I somewhat hit the mark! Took forever to figure out what you meant then I didn't really have any ideas until suddenly I did and now I have too many. I'll think about doing a part two but for now here you go! 💞💞

❀•°•═════ஓ๑♡๑ஓ═════•°•❀

Fandom

Voltron

❀•°•═════ஓ๑♡๑ஓ═════•°•❀

Characters

Lance ;; 18 ;; He/Him ;; Little

Keith ;; 20 ;; He/They ;; CG

❀•°•═════ஓ๑♡๑ஓ═════•°•❀

⚠Content Warnings⚠

Violence, War stuff, General Voltron themes.

❀•°•═════ஓ๑♡๑ஓ═════•°•❀

" Shiro I don't know what you're on about today with bringing this up suddenly, " Keith huffed as he shut down the training bot. His sword remained tight in his hand, breaths uneven from the exercise.

Just behind him, Shiro was leaned against the wall by the doors. His arms were crossed calmly over his chest. A long sigh left him.

" I guess, I just... have been thinking about it a lot recently, " Shiro told him truthfully. " I mean, I know you have always wanted to be a caregiver.. " he trailed off.

Keith gave a short nod. The day that both of them found out they were caregivers was awkward as hell in Itself, but it also gave them something to bond over. The sword in his hand retracted as he turned on his heels and walked toward his oldest friend.

" Just spit it out. What are you thinking? " he spoke harshly, visibly disliking the drag on the conversation.

" What if a little is on our team? Or several? What if we find one out there-"

" Shiro that's really unlikely, " Keith cut Shiro off without hesitation. He ran his fingers through his hair, more intending to get the sweat from his face than anything. " Besides what would you do if you found one out there, " he huffed.

" It's not like the team would suddenly agree to bring a random alien on ship just because you pleaded with them, " he rolled his eyes. However, he paused after. His expression turned into a saddened one, rather than annoyed. " Not after everything we've been through. "

" I know, you're right, " Shiro sighed and pushed himself off the wall. " I'm done now, I guess that just scratched my itch to talk about it, " the older shrugged off before tossing an arm across the youngers shoulders.

" I'm starving and you smell, so let's go, " he smiled down at him.

" Whatever, " Keith grumbled.

***

Keith couldn't believe his eyes. He couldn't believe what was right in front of him. This had to be a joke. He knew the fight they had just barely survived was a lot, but really?

How did Shiro know?

God he is NEVER telling him he was right. He'd never live that down. Just after an attack from the Galra occured, everyone had thought they made it out okay. Besides soreness and bruises from being tossed around. Getting back and removing their gear, Lance seemed to hang by. He seemed off, from dropping things to generally seeming to lack in motor skills. This set off Keith's caregivering instinct, but he decided to ignore it.

As usual, Keith waited until the room was empty before removing his gear. He hadn't realized Lance decided to do the same this time. Which was strange. Usually, he was messy scrambling out of it and one of the first people to leave. When he had finished and turned around, he found Lance in tears. Lance. Crying.

It made his heart sink. Sure they fought constantly and he always was getting on his nerves, but something about their most optimistic team member crying genuinely scared him. He watched for a moment, hot tears falling from Lance's eyes while his gloved hands failed to get a grip on the armor enough to remove it. Carefully, as if approaching a scared animal, Keith inched towards Lance.

" Do you want some help? " he asked, quietly and gently.

Despite his efforts, he still startled him. Lance jumped, head shooting up to stare at him. His eyes were wide, like a deer caught in headlights. His lip trembled, absolutely breaking his heart.

" I just want to help, not to fight if anything, " he reassured.

" Please, " the word, slightly slurred, stumbled out of Lance.

With a short nod, Keith carefully helped Lance out of the armor. Once it was removed, damage under it could be seen. Sometimes, it dug into the wrong places despite fitting to their body types. Taking the wrong blow could cause it to cut in or heavily bruise spots. Lance seemed to have taken too many of these wrong blows.

Keith helped all the way until he was dressed. Then he stepped back. He didn't know what to do, it was making him nervous. Of course he didn't want to assume Lance was regressing or anything, nor force the very idea onto him. He swallowed thickly. Before he got the courage to speak, Lance got it first.

" Can I hug you? " he'd whisper.

The request surprised him. Lance didn't even look at him, rather, the floor looked much more interesting to the younger paladin. Taking a deep breath, Keith loosely wrapped his arms around the taller. He pulled his head against him, where it landed just under his chest since he was sitting on the bench still.

" I know I'm not the best at comfort and all that, but are you okay? " Keith mustered up the courage to ask.

Arms slowly wrapped around him. Soon, hands gripped his jacket while a short sobbed escaped Lance. Keith held him a bit tighter. His chest ached, but he knew this was all he could do for now. He gently ran his fingers through his hair, adjusting a bit to be craddling his head better. It seemed to help, since after ten minutes of straight messy crying Lance had calmed.

" Sorry, " Lance tried to pull away.

Keith only pulled him back, not letting him go just yet. He didn't fight back either just accepted it and buried his face back into his stomach.

" Don't be, " Keith huffed, " I get it. "

" It hurts, " he whined quietly, accidentally cutting off his neee somewhat friend.

" I know, " he sighed sadly, running his fingers back through his hair. " We should get you to bed little fawn. "

This visibly startled Lance. He pushed back from Keith, gently pressing his forearms against his stomach to do so. He got free easily, as a result. His eyes wide as he stared up to him. He looked scared, anxious, all of it really. There was too many negative emotions for Keith to entirely pick up.

" You-"

" Don't judge, " Keith cut him off swiftly. " And accept who you are. There's nothing wrong with you, your mind just doesn't know what to do, " he told him gently. He reached a hand out and ruffled his hair. Then be turned to grab Lance's shoes.

" You know what's happening to me? " Lance asked, stumbling over his words. " You know at all? " he hiccuped.

The sound made Keith worry. He grabbed the worn out tennis shoes then quickly returned. He kneeled down in front of him to help him put them on. Even tying them for him, knowing very well how little it'd make Lance feel.

" I do. It's called age regression, and it's just a coping mechanism. Loads of people do it for various reasons. Some have caregivers and some don't. Me and Shiro are caregivers, if that isn't obvious. "

" You? " Lance questioned with a small giggle, lifting an arm up to wipe his face with his sleeve.

" Come on, don't give me that " Keith rolled his eyes with a huff. Using the bench, he helped himself up. The soreness was definitely getting to him too. " There's loads of things you don't know about me, " he teased with a playful smile.

" Now come on, let's get you laying down at least. "

Lance nodded, offering a hand to Keith who quickly took it. The tired and bruised little pulled himself up with a wince. They walked out of the, sort of, locker room then headed towards where the bedrooms were at. They walked very slow, more because any faster and Lance kept tripping. He held Keith's hand the entire time they walked to his bedroom. When they reached Lance's room, they quickly got him inside and straight to bed.

Keith removed his shoes, helping him get comfortable and even going as far as to tuck him into bed. He sat by him on the bed, just gently petting his hair.

" Why fawn? " Lance asked quietly, slightly fumbling the word.

" You look like a deer when you're surprised, " Keith chuckled with a rare smile. It made Lance smile at him.

" Okay, " he accepted the answer with a small nod.

Then he moved to lay on his side, well, the one that didn't hurt too bad anyways. Keith remained there, quietly humming while tracing circles on his back instead of playing with his hair. It reminded Lance of his mom, his family. As he began to doze off, getting the much needed sleep, he sucked on his thumb without even thinking about it. The exhaustion completely crashed into him now that he was laying down. He accepted it with ease, allowing Keith's humming to guide him through his dreams.

[checkoutmybookshelf]

Ok, apropos of my "For You" page being a dear and showing me a ton of posts about not being a dick to people for their ships and as someone who came to fandom spaces AFTER graduate school...

The fact that people are losing their minds over ships and noncon in fic BLOWS MY MIND given the Western Canon and historical examples of shippers. I'm putting a cut here for people who don't want to see the lists of messed up shit I read FOR CLASS, but for those of you who are curious, read on, please.

Oh, and before I forget: If your automatic response to this post is "Yes, but you are talking about GrEaT lItErAtUrE, it has something to say and a historical context to think about," then take a second and work your way out of the gatekeep-y stranglehold that academia has on you. If context and message matter in literature, they matter in fanfics too.

CW for masturbation, noncon, dubcon, historical ship wars, main character death, violence...as many Ao3 Archive warnings as I (or you) can think of. Dead Dove, Do Not Eat.

The TLDR is that I have taken significantly more psychic damage from canonical literature than fanfic, and a stupid high number of canon writers fit the definition of fanfic writer.

So in no particular order, here are some of the truly fucked up things I read for class:

A short story where a teenage boy steals his little sister's Ken doll, tears the head off, and jerks off into the Ken doll until the plastic torso is full. You know of what. (This was in the Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction, and I'm pretty sure it was AM Homes's "A Real Doll")

A short story where the reader follows a group of kids at Thanksgiving whose parents are doing a laying on of hands to cure their mother's cancer, and while the kids are unsupervised on a trampoline, one of them is bounced aggressively off and breaks their neck in a fall. (Julie Orringer, "PIlgrims")

"The Rocking-Horse Winner" by DH Lawrence, which is read as a masturbation scene in How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster

Every single bed trick in any Shakespeare (or other early modern) play is rape by deception (this occurs in All's Well, Measure for Measure, Much Ado [if you squint], and Two Noble Kinsmen). Bed tricks also occur in the Bible, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Boccaccio's The Decameron, and Middleton and Rowley's The Changeling. Other examples include Zeus pretending to be Amphitryon to impregnate Alcemene with Hercules and Uther Pendragon taking Gorlois's place to impregnate Igraine. And this isn't an old, unused trope either, it's used as recently as The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Family Guy

Titus Andronicus has rape and cannibalism in it, plus a metric ton of violence, brutality, and lopping of limbs. Romeo and Juliet has murder and an attempted forced marriage. Shakespeare in general is fairly fucked up the more you read it.

There are a metric ton of rapes given in verse too, including Yeats's "Leda and the Swan" and Ovid's "The Rape of Proserpina". A more modern example is the Broadway show Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Nabokov's Lolita. 'nuff said.

John Ford's Tis Pity She's a Whore has twincest, graphic violence, and a scene in which the male twincest MC gets pissed off that the female twincest MC sleeps with someone else, so he stabs her through her lady bits so far that when the sword comes out, her heart is spiked on the end of it and he spends the entire next scene running around waving this sword with a human heart on it at people

William Golding's Lord of the Flies has a bunch of kids murdering each other for honestly no particular reason

In Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," a town gets together every once in a while to randomly draw lots to decide who gets casually stoned to death

In William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," an entire goddamn town ignores Emily to the point where when her house smells like her dead, decomposing husband so bad that half the town can smell it, nobody bothers to check in on her. She had been SLEEPING WITH HER DEAD HUSBAND for literal years and nobody cared enough to check on her

Edgar Allen Poe's "The Telltale Heart" and "The Cask of Amontillado." I am aware that Poe is a horror writer. Doesn't make it any less fucked up that the protagonists of these stories murder a helpless old man because his eyes were creepy and brick their friend into a basement to die slowly, respectively

Literally all of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is deeply fucked up, but the moments that my particular English Class could not get over were the crack about Curly keeping one hand soft for his wife, and the fact that George Old Yellers Lenny at the end

The Giver by Lois Lowry discusses eugenics and both infanticide and euthanasia. I'm not going to sit here and say that NO fanfic addresses these topics, but honestly no fanfic I've ever read made me anywhere NEAR as disturbed as reading this book in FIFTH GRADE did

John Knowles's A Separate Peace has one kid thinking he accidentally-on-purpose murdered his best friend for the whole book

Sophocles's Oedipus Rex has incest, self-mutilation, and murder

Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is well-known enough that I don't need to give details, right?

Jean Craighead George's Julie of the Wolves has an attempted underage rape in it

John Gardner's Grendel has a deeply fucked-up relationship with sex and sexuality, and Grendel holds a female character in a split over a fire because of said fucked-up relationship with sex and sexuality

This is nothing CLOSE to an all-inclusive list. So uh...if we aren't going to hold these stories to the moral standards we hold fanfic to, then we should lay off fanfic in general and fanfic writers.

And in no particular order, here are some historical shippers who were powerful enough to change the canon with their ships and fics:

Queen Elizabeth I was SUCH a Falstaff stan that she low-key threatened Shakespeare and insisted that he bring Falstaff back and give the character a happy ending. Hence we have The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Dr. Thomas Bowdler (of "bowdlerize" fame) is objectively a Shakespeare fanfic writer who was not a fan of smut or spiciness. He and his sister Henrietta Maria gave us The Family Shakespeare, a version of the Complete Works that is appropriate for children and women

Nahum Tate was also a Shakespeare fanfic writer--he turned King Lear into a comedy

We also get John Dryden and William D'Avenant fanfic-ing The Tempest, up to and including Dorinda, their OC (do not steal)

Dante and Milton both wrote Bible fanfic in The Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost, respectively

The Arthurian Legends are a goddamn tangled mess of fanfics and fanfics of fanfics that were written by "important white dudes" and so other "important white dudes" decided that the fanon would become canon

SHAKESPEARE HIMSELF was a fanfic writer. He wrote no original plots. He was the Elizabethan EL James but with actual talent

More modern examples? Madeline Miller and Rick Riordan are both writing Greek Mythology fanfics to SIGNIFICANT acclaim

The line between fanfic and adaptation is and has always been ephemeral. Who gets to be "canon" and who is relegated to "fanon" is largely a combination of circumscribing your current intellectual property and rights laws and passion. We don't get to go "canon is always morally fine because it's canon" because honestly I've taken SIGNIFICANTLY more psychic damage from the canon than I ever have from fanon, and at least I know that fanon works are written with love and passion, whereas Charles Dickens was getting paid by the word and IT SHOWS.

Fanfic isn't inherently morally dubious, and canon isn't inherently morally pristine. Fiction has no inherent morality. Worry less about how others engage with fiction, find what you enjoy, and have some fun with it.

[honestlyyoungtyphoon]

Navieshu in an acting au is just so funny because how on earth does sovi reacts to heinrey & navier's scenes? 😭

Does he attends the tapings? do tre fans speculate that navi and sovie are together because when sovieshu express jealousy in the series, it's so raw and real?

Do all casts tease sovieshu because of this? (maybe that's why he got the regression arc, lol. It's the director's gift for him after tolerating henvier throughout the series).

Lol they used a body double for Navier cause she mysteriously caught a sniffle that time and didn't want to infect her fellow co-worker. But actually Sovieshu was acting grumpy after reading the script and Navier thought it'd be better to use a body double to console her bf. 😌

Joking aside, both Sovieshu and Navier are in acting business and they're both professional. This is not her first intimate scene nor it'll be her last. Same goes for Sovieshu. Both of them will act in different roles and they might have to do those scenes if they are comfortable with them. Many actors don't and the directors use body doubles. Not to mention, those scenes are done in front of 30-40 people with the supervision of a sex coordinator, so that sexual assaults don't occur. So it's not so sexy behind the scenes. Lol

In Korea, the lead romantic pairs are encouraged to act friendly during interviews and during cons to promote the ship. Navier has photo ops with both of them as we've seen in the covers but many fans speculate that she might have a thing going on with the bad guy of the show. Cause in some interviews these two seem too "comfortable" with each other 😏

(I've read Sovieshu's character is actually popular among Korean readers contrary to western readers). So there is a fandom shipping war amongst these two groups as usual 😅

Example:

"Is it me or these two seem really into each other? I mean look at Sovieshu swooning over Navier 😂"

"Oh my gosh, they're just friends. They aren't dating. You crazy shippers always try to create smoke without fire 😑"

"Oh I think there's plenty of fire 😏. Look at how he's eyeing her and she's eying him. There's definitely something going on"

And these are the most polite conversation, not delving into toxic name calling ones.

Among the casts, at the beginning only the director knew. Cause when coworkers date, it might cause problems if they break up so the director had to be informed by the actors if they are involved. Rashta found about it accidentally. So she's one of the few people who knows (according to my head canon). Others suspected but couldn't confirm. But Rashta definitely teases a lot cause she loves to take a piss at him.

By the 3rd season all the co-workers knew cause it was obvious at that point. And the leaked photo of Sovieshu coming out of Navier's home , made it obvious for the rest of the fandom. One of the reasons he hates paparazzi.

The regression arc came because the director liked the chemistry between them and the Korean fans also love the pair, them dating irl also helped to greenlight the arc. 😊

Those are my HC for actor TRE Navieshu.

[appalamutte]

10 Qs for Writers

Thank you so much for the tag @thoughtsofthegirlwiththecurl <3

How many works do you have on AO3? 12 (which includes one anonymous fic)

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What's your total AO3 wordcount? 44,278

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What fandoms do you write for? So far, Check, Please! mostly, though I've written/posted for Attack on Titan, and have various WIPs for both Haikyuu and Vinland Saga! (the Vinland Saga one might be posted soon.......)

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Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Of course!! I try to respond to every one

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Have you ever had a fic stolen? Thankfully not to my knowledge

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Have you ever co-written a fic before? I haven't

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What's your all-time favorite ship? Damn, that's a tough one. I love too many too much. But, really, I think Daichi/Suga from Haikyuu just barely edges out Jack/Bitty from Check, Please! as my all-time favorite. Despite Zimbits being my favorite dynamic, Daisuga just found me at one of my darkest moments of life and has quickly grown to be my go-to comfort ship

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What are your writing strengths? I'd say imagery and the justifiable overuse of em dashes, but I'm very interested in what others might think!!

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What are you writing weaknesses? Perfectionism. I have the worst habit of editing as I write, because even though it's the first draft, when I read it back I'm reading it as if it were already posted/published. And that then leads me to obsess over every single sentence and phrase, usually before it even leaves my head, and I'll go back and reread what I've already written and rewrite it all, and it slowly dissolves me until I get so overwhelmed and burnt out that I just. Jump ship lol.

It's why all but one of my posted fics are less than 5k words - sometimes I get the burst of inspiration to sit down for 3-4 hours and bust out a quick 1-3k word fic (i.e., I black out and suddenly a fic appears before me), and it's complete enough for me to feel comfortable posting. Those are just so rare to occur, like maybe 2-3 times a year at most

.

First fandom you wrote for? God, I want to say either Halo Reach or the Red vs Blue webseries by RoosterTeeth (also Halo Reach, really), but that was so long ago that I don't know if I actually wrote something or dreamed that I did lol. I definitely know that somewhere on my middle-school-assigned Google Drive, there's a half-written World War Z reader-insert fanfic collecting dust haha.

But if we're talking about the first fandom I wrote and completed a fic for, then Attack on Titan.

Tagging (with no pressure): @montrealmadison @doggernaut @parvuls @gordiemeow @a-very-gay-disaster @vitaliskravtsov @starthecozy open tag for anyone else who sees this and wants to do it!!

[theyhaveacavetroll]

Tagged by @pazithigallifreya. Thanks, I love doing these!

Tagging @partiallypearl, @imfunnyandrude, and anyone else that wants to!

1 How many works do you have on AO3? 90 works

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 585,148

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Cure for Sorrow

Cup of Their Deserving

As a Stranger Give it Welcome

Reclamation

To the Upper Air

Obligatory disclaimer: I'm only proud of three out of these five, but I'm glad that people are still getting something out of the other two. Cure for Sorrow and As a Stranger were written when I was a different person and well before the finale of Black Sails. 'Nough said.

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to, yes. I sometimes run out of time and energy because I work a full-time job where I'm out of my apartment 12.5 hours a day during the week.

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I don't write fics with angsty endings. Battle Raven comes the closest and even that isn't angst, it's just not sunshine and roses. If you want dark fic or real angst, I'm not your girl.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

I think most of my fics have happy endings. If I had to pick a "and then they all lived happily ever after" fic it's probably most of the stuff in my Fate The Winx Saga works.

7. Do you write crossovers?

Yes, when the idea occurs to me! I'm particularly fond of You Steele Know My Name, which I WILL finish, I swear.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not hate. I've received weird comments and "when will you update" no other feedback given comments, but nothing truly mean.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yep! I've written kink and what I'd consider vanilla, or at least nothing to write home about. I've gotten better at it over the years.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of and that is NOT a challenge.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Again, not that I'm aware of.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yep! I have quite a few co-written fics with various people.

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

In terms of what rewrote my DNA? Probably Flinthamilton but in terms of a ship that I always come back to where I have no negative fandom associations and endless, endless need to fix canon? Bagginshield.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

And the Sea With Its Deepness, aka the Black Sails fic where I faked everyone out with the first chapter specifically to enjoy the screams of "wait, that's WHO that got nabbed?!!" I want to come back to it but... yeesh, the fandom. I left for a Reason, and then there's the fact that I just can't with writing a certain character anymore.

15. What are your writing strengths?

Plot and dialogue. I'm one of the best damn mimics of character voices you'll ever meet and that's just facts.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Action scenes. Action scenes are the bane of my existence, and I have a tendency to end paragraphs on an em dash too often that I've been trying to curb. A few is fine but there is such a thing as excess.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I like to do it but only in short bursts and for languages I can be confident I'm getting right.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Probably Star Wars when I was very, very, VERY young indeed.

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

Does it count if I have an unpublished WIP already? If so, then Downton Abbey and The Hobbit. If not, then honestly I have no idea.

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Ironically, arguably my favorite is one none of you have even seen and might not because I have no idea if I'll ever finish it. It's long, it's sprawling, and I've worked absurdly hard on it but it's just. so. much. As to finished fics, though - probably Reclamation. It's got Themes and everything.

[galaxy-lilies]

I saw that you completely moved to a different Minecraft fandom. Is it ok if I ask you if it's better over there? Like do you find it less toxic? Is it like completely no toxic shit or just a lot less or about the same but less insane?

I'm just curious. It's a little bit like you moved to a different city or school and I'm asking how are you doing over there

it's definitely calmer here compared to dsmp fr fr, less drama to occur, no one is going all "ooo are you team X, team Y, team Z and if youre on one of these teams and not my team then youre BAD youre HORRIBLE youre a PIECE OF SHIT-" like none of that is going on.

The only difference I have noticed is that there's a general / more prevalent "please tag shipping posts" since some folk are uncomfortable with rpf while in the dsmp fandom it was a free for all/a general understanding of its fun to mess around with both cubitos and ccs like "ooo i wonder what karl, sap, and q were doing when they were doing their meetups back in 2022" and "the fiances cuddling in kinoko" were both fair game ideas under the RPF umbrella and that's how i understood it but now i realized that RPF is in reference to the first example LMAO/specifically their irl, cc personas

another nice thing is that there isnt the rush or panic of "oh CRAP i missed this stream!" because, well, the series is mostly on youtube with the occasional stream here and there and there are many POVs to watch and see in bite size 30-40 minute episodes. it's how im getting through cub's season 5 POV, just pulling up the playlist on his channel and letting the videos go

However that isnt to say that hermitblr hasnt had their fair share of shit, running off some hermit ccs off of tumblr before in 2018, 2019 or so, there were some staunch shipping wars, but i think?? i showed up after the aftermath so you don't see much of it / its easier to avoid

and since i was burned already on twitter, im not even going to touch hermittwt :D back to my tumblr roots here i come

Overall, if you dont dig too deep into the fandom its pretty good, its when you back log to years pre-pandemic where some things were. not great. (at least from what i understand thanks to moots who were / are in the hermitcraft fandom) but i don't plan on digging deep anyways, im content with where I am now. It's nice not to stress about drawing or posting ccs that will get you mass unfollowed or blocked

[lurking-latinist]

reviving a meme I previously got from @swinging-stars-from-satellites

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

158 (one currently unrevealed).

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count?

103,185. I cracked 100k recently!

3. How many fandoms have you written for?

All the Doctors Who + Gallifrey + Iris Wildthyme + The Time Travellers + GoR etc.; Ancient Greek Religion & Lore; WtOVPIC; Blake’s 7; Dracula; Discworld; Windrose Chronicles & Sun-Cross series also by Barbara Hambly (one crossover); All Creatures Great and Small; Lost at Christmas, heaven help me. That makes nine as I count it. Most only for one small thing or crossover.

4. Top 5 fics by kudos?

Skipping kudos bot victims:

Ms Smith (13 and Sarah, fun with fake names)

don’t worry, he’s with me (Ten and Donna five-times-fic)

Vicarious (Six & Martha drabble)

Time Flies Like an Arrow (witches fly on a broomstick) (Discworld, Lancre Witches, having a philosophical conversation about time) (I have come to detest this title but I’m glad people enjoyed the fic)

to all our nights and days to come (Seven/Romana Time War AU)

It’s helpful to include extremely popular, well-known characters in your fics. Or, apparently, to write a slightly darker twist on your rarepair OTP and happen to plug it one day on a relevant popular post.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why/why not?

I do, because I love getting comments and I am always genuinely grateful to hear that someone has enjoyed my work!

6. A fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Wow, last time I did this meme I said it was That Which We Call. That’s changed. It might actually be to all our nights and days to come, or else one of the Six-post-Trial ones.

7. Do you write crossovers?

Apparently! But not much, and not well.

8. Ever received hate on a fic?

Nope, touch wood.

9, Do you write smut?

Not my thing.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

11. Ever had a fic translated?

Yes!! @sci-firenegade translated Making History into Portuguese! It is so cool.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Sort of, with Moki! We more tend to write sequels to each other’s stuff, but we also have listed ourselves as co-authors on a couple of things.

13. All time fav ship?

Seven/Romana.

14. WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Never say die! Probably the Eight/Charley babyfic AU, though. If I go back to it it’ll be as a very different writer and I’ll probably want to rework what exists and it’ll be technically a different fic.

15. Writing strengths?

Character voices & dialogue. Also, focalization. I always know what A thinks of B and what B notices about A, which is hilarious as I absolutely do not know any of this in real life.

16. Writing weaknesses?

Used to be length; I’m still very brief but I feel like I have more control over the length of a fic now. Like it comes out more or less the length I expect it to; I can tell what size something’s gonna be. Probably now I would just say plot. I’m not great at Things Occurring. And like everybody else I get hung up on how to describe basic actions like walking across a room.

17. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

Don’t do it if you can’t get the other language right (as well as how code-switching actually tends to work). Also, translation convention exists for a reason. Probably don’t pull an ‘opening lines of War and Peace’ unless you are in fact Tolstoy, in which case you don’t need my writing advice. Nothing inherently wrong with it though.

18. First fandom you wrote for?

Officially, DW. Unofficially, probably something as a kid before I knew fandom existed. Redwall or something.

19. What’s your fav fic you’ve written so far?

to all our nights and days to come, probably.

Not tagging anyone, but memes are for stealing!

[agent-bash]

Confession: I’m a massive worrier usually about things I know I shouldn’t worry about but hey score one for anxiety. Have you been to any conventions q&a things like Jesse is doing tonight? How worried should we be that someone is going to as a ridiculous boundary stomping question or try and get a shipping war started both in show and IRL? I’m just so worried that this is going to be such a sour experience and that a one will ruin it for the many. I’ve had that happen in another fandom.

I've been to a couple of conventions before and attended some Q and A panels. But they were bigger comic-style conventions with like 100+ people in the hall. The Q and A that Jesse is doing tonight is a little more intimate and classier too (the food and whiskey tasting sounds awesome)

I get the worry. I do. Obviously, this is a sad occurrence you've experienced yourself, and I'm very sorry to hear about that. And yeah, at one of the conventions I was at a fan asked an absolutely ridiculously inappropriate question. It does happen, but it does seem to be rare.

If someone asks about something shippy, Jesse has a plethora of options. My best guess is that if that happens (and to be honest it is a fair question, it is), he'll play some kind of peacemaker. We've seen him do it before. It's not like he's going to trash a ship. Depending on the setup of the Q and A period, it's not likely that the asker will have the chance to rebut/argue/demand whatever; there will likely be moderators, and it's their job to cut that stuff off and keep things moving.

As to anything questions that are inappropriate and boundary crossing, Jesse has the complete right to call it out as such and not answer.

I don't know how much of this event we'll see. I think you had to be a United Chase card holder to purchase a ticket (I think. and it doesn't mean you can't gift the ticket to someone else). It's pretty small, pretty intimate. And I'd imagine if anyone does do or say or ask anything inappropriate, it'll be dealt with pretty swiftly.

He's done conventions before; I'm sure a part of him is prepared IF something like that occurs.

[acourtofthought]

I'm honestly scared of the next book lol not bc its going to be bad or anything but bc of the ship war that is going to happen after!! Like I'm 100% with the fact that gwynriel and elucien are endgame bc Sarah loves to write retellings. And gwynriel is the retelling of Lancelot, Guinevere and Elaine... (I'm still not sure what elucien might be tho) And it make sense tbh and e/riels are just trying to ignore that fact and harass anyone who doesn't ship theirs...

And like I said it's going to be so bad bc its already bad and the disrespect ppl show toward each other is scary like we're fighting over fictional characters and not real situation or ppl and how many times I've seen these kind of behaviour from e/riels is concerning bc I feel like I'm already getting mentally tired and burned out and I'm scared I won't be able to even read the next books if I stay in this fandom bc its such unhealthy place!!

Yep... sorry I had to rant somewhere

ps: also about that retelling, from what I read I know that Guinevere fells in love with Lancelot when he saves her from a life or death situation and she falls in love with him ever since also him with her. But he's already married to Elaine and they have a son too apparently but still he has an fair with Guinevere... which I hope sjm doesn't go that far lmao nothing with cheating pls

ps.2: this is so messy, its midnight and I have an exam tomorrow and my mind is a mix of everything lmao idk how you will respond to this haha

I hope your exam goes well (went well?)!! I think your concern is valid and it's probably something we're all worried about. People have invested a lot of time and money into the ships they're hoping to be endgame and that is going to come with a lot of disappointment if things don't turn out the way some thought (understandable). But....there is a lot of negative behavior in the fandom without confirmation of anything so are things going to be worse once there is? As for your worry about the affair and cheating that occurs in the Lancelot fairytale, I do remember SJM once saying that the fairytales she samples from are a "fairytale-light" version. And I think that's pretty obvious concerning the fairytales she's previously used as inspiration are kind of unrecognizable. Like, there are some very loose details but that can be pointed out but I have never seen her force the story to fit only within the parameters of a certain fairytale. If that were the case, Feyre's father would have been kidnapped in book one, she would have gone to rescue him then eventually been the one to tame Tamlin's "beast" form. Instead she and Tamlin made one another worse while together and Feyre ended up having her own beast form. But I would say that if the fandom is ruining your experience with the series, it's never a bad idea to give yourself a mental health break from it all then come back to us when the next one is released! Or...if all you need is to occasionally vent to me in order to reboot your tolerance for the fandom, you can do that as well 😁

I hope you were able to get a good nights rest before your test!

[lauramkaye]

When I first got into slash in the late 90s, NOBODY ever thought that ANY of the ships would ever be canon. It would have never occurred to any of us to even WISH, let alone EXPECT, that our ships would get any validation from the show itself or the creators. There were a FEW fandoms where an actor or writer would tip us a wink (Starsky and Hutch with the "a love story about two men who happen to be cops" comment, the insanely shippy Kirk/Spock stuff in some of the licensed novels etc) but even then it was always given with a layer of plausible deniability.

Fanfic was about transformation, about making room for things in our stories that the powers that be wouldn't put there. That was kind of the entire POINT.

When I first started writing slash, same-sex marriage (full on marriage, there were a couple places with civil unions) wasn't legal. Anywhere in the world. Writing a fic where the slash pairing got married at the end was a FANTASY.

I love that the general culture has shifted far enough that there ARE shows with queer relationships in the canon! That's GREAT for so many reasons.

But fanfic has never depended on validation from the canon or the creators! Most usually, fanfic has existed in SPITE OF them, by going to places they would never go - or at least to go places they weren't ever allowed to go by The Networks etc.

It honestly always baffles me when I run into people who seem to think that like.... fanfic has anything much to do with what the endgame plans for the actual show or book series or whatever are.

Look. Canon is a box of Legos. The way it happens on the show/the way the writers intended is the little handout that shows you how to use the blocks in the box to build a castle or a pirate ship or the Death Star or whatever.

Fanfic is just picking up the blocks you like, maybe combining them with some other blocks you like from a different box, and building the flying pirate castle mecha-unicorn of your dreams. And new canon doesn't have to be anything more than more blocks to pick and choose from.

It probably helps that I have written in several fandoms (comics, Star Wars) that have wildly complicated and internally contradictory "canons" after decades of add-ons, tie-ins, "what-ifs," and retcons. So often writing in these fandoms involves interactions like this:

A Kind Commenter: Ooooh, is [random throwaway reference to some random character or thing I put in for flavor] a reference to [obscure canon character and/or event]??? I think I see where you are going with this!!!

Me: *frantic searching through fan wikis to learn about this thing I never heard of despite knowing WAY more of the Deep Lore than is reasonable or healthy*

Me, internally: oh that WOULD be cool. It wasn't a reference to that BEFORE but it sure is now! *revises outline*

Me, replying to comment: I can neither confirm nor deny! Wait and see! :)

i feel like all fandom spaces would improve dramatically if more people learned how to enjoy non-canon ships which were never written as romantic without acting entitled to official validation or throwing a hissy fit over not getting something that they were never promised

[fozmeadows]

race & culture in fandom

For the past decade, English language fanwriting culture post the days of LiveJournal and Strikethrough has been hugely shaped by a handful of megafandoms that exploded across AO3 and tumblr – I’m talking Supernatural, Teen Wolf, Dr Who, the MCU, Harry Potter, Star Wars, BBC Sherlock – which have all been overwhelmingly white. I don’t mean in terms of the fans themselves, although whiteness also figures prominently in said fandoms: I mean that the source materials themselves feature very few POC, and the ones who are there tended to be done dirty by the creators.

Periodically, this has led POC in fandom to point out, extremely reasonably, that even where non-white characters do get central roles in various media properties, they’re often overlooked by fandom at large, such that the popular focus stays primarily on the white characters. Sometimes this happened (it was argued) because the POC characters were secondary to begin with and as such attracted less fan devotion (although this has never stopped fandoms from picking a random white gremlin from the background cast and elevating them to the status of Fave); at other times, however, there has been a clear trend of sidelining POC leads in favour of white alternatives (as per Finn, Poe and Rose Tico being edged out in Star Wars shipping by Hux, Kylo and Rey). I mention this, not to demonize individuals whose preferred ships happen to involve white characters, but to point out the collective impact these trends can have on POC in fandom spaces: it’s not bad to ship what you ship, but that doesn’t mean there’s no utility in analysing what’s popular and why through a racial lens.

All this being so, it feels increasingly salient that fanwriting culture as exists right now developed under the influence and in the shadow of these white-dominated fandoms – specifically, the taboo against criticizing or critiquing fics for any reason. Certainly, there’s a hell of a lot of value to Don’t Like, Don’t Read as a general policy, especially when it comes to the darker, kinkier side of ficwriting, and whether the context is professional or recreational, offering someone direct, unsolicited feedback on their writing style is a dick move. But on the flipside, the anti-criticism culture in fanwriting has consistently worked against fans of colour who speak out about racist tropes, fan ignorance and hurtful portrayals of living cultures. Voicing anything negative about works created for free is seen as violating a core rule of ficwriting culture – but as that culture has been foundationally shaped by white fandoms, white characters and, overwhelmingly, white ideas about what’s allowed and what isn’t, we ought to consider that all critical contexts are not created equal.

Right now, the rise of C-drama (and K-drama, and J-drama) fandoms is seeing a surge of white creators – myself included – writing fics for fandoms in which no white people exist, and where the cultural context which informs the canon is different to western norms. Which isn’t to say that no popular fandoms focused on POC have existed before now – K-pop RPF and anime fandoms, for example, have been big for a while. But with the success of The Untamed, more western fans are investing in stories whose plots, references, characterization and settings are so fundamentally rooted in real Chinese history and living Chinese culture that it’s not really possible to write around it. And yet, inevitably, too many in fandom are trying to do just that, treating respect for Chinese culture or an attempt to understand it as optional extras – because surely, fandom shouldn’t feel like work. If you’re writing something for free, on your own time, for your own pleasure, why should anyone else get to demand that you research the subject matter first?

Because it matters, is the short answer. Because race and culture are not made-up things like lightsabers and werewolves that you can alter, mock or misunderstand without the risk of hurting or marginalizing actual real people – and because, quite frankly, we already know that fandom is capable of drawing lines in the sand where it chooses. When Brony culture first reared its head (hah), the online fandom for My Little Pony – which, like the other fandoms we’re discussing here, is overwhelmingly female – was initially welcoming. It felt like progress, that so many straight men could identify with such a feminine show; a potential sign that maybe, we were finally leaving the era of mainstream hypermasculine fandom bullshit behind, at least in this one arena. And then, in pretty much the blink of an eye, things got overwhelmingly bad. Artists drawing hardcorn porn didn’t tag their works as adult, leading to those images flooding the public search results for a children’s show. Women were edged out of their own spaces. Bronies got aggressive, posting harsh, ugly criticism of artists whose gijinka interpretations of the Mane Six as humans were deemed insufficiently fuckable.

The resulting fandom conflict was deeply unpleasant, but in the end, the verdict was laid down loud and clear: if you cannot comport yourself like a decent fucking person – if your base mode of engagement within a fandom is to coopt it from the original audience and declare it newly cool only because you’re into it now; if you do not, at the very least, attempt to understand and respect the original context so as to engage appropriately (in this case, by acknowledging that the media you’re consuming was foundational to many women who were there before you and is still consumed by minors, and tagging your goddamn porn) – then the rest of fandom will treat you like a social biohazard, and rightly so.

Here’s the thing, fellow white people: when it comes to C-drama fandoms and other non-white, non-western properties? We are the Bronies.

Not, I hasten to add, in terms of toxic fuckery – though if we don’t get our collective shit together, I’m not taking that darkest timeline off the table. What I mean is that, by virtue of the whiteminding which, both consciously and unconsciously, has shaped current fan culture, particularly in terms of ficwriting conventions, we’re collectively acting as though we’re the primary audience for narratives that weren’t actually made with us in mind, being hostile dicks to Chinese and Chinese diaspora fans when they take the time to point out what we’re getting wrong. We’re bristling because we’ve conceived of ficwriting as a place wherein No Criticism Occurs without questioning how this culture, while valuable in some respects, also serves to uphold, excuse and perpetuate microaggresions and other forms of racism, lashing out or falling back on passive aggression when POC, quite understandably, talk about how they’re sick and tired of our bullshit.

An analogy: one of the most helpful and important tags on AO3 is the one for homophobia, not just because it allows readers to brace for or opt out of reading content they might find distressing, but because it lets the reader know that the writer knows what homophobia is, and is employing it deliberately. When this concept is tagged, I – like many others – often feel more able to read about it than I do when it crops up in untagged works of commercial fiction, film or TV, because I don’t have to worry that the author thinks what they’re depicting is okay. I can say definitively, “yes, the author knows this is messed up, but has elected to tell a messed up story, a fact that will be obvious to anyone who reads this,” instead of worrying that someone will see a fucked up story blind and think “oh, I guess that’s fine.” The contextual framing matters, is the point – which is why it’s so jarring and unpleasant on those rare occasions when I do stumble on a fic whose author has legitimately mistaken homophobic microaggressions for cute banter. This is why, in a ficwriting culture that otherwise aggressively dislikes criticism, the request to tag for a certain thing – while still sometimes fraught – is generally permitted: it helps everyone to have a good time and to curate their fan experience appropriately.

But when white and/or western fans fail to educate ourselves about race, culture and the history of other countries and proceed to deploy that ignorance in our writing, we’re not tagging for racism as a thing we’ve explored deliberately; we’re just being ignorant at best and hateful at worst, which means fans of colour don’t know to avoid or brace for the content of those works until they get hit in the face with microaggresions and/or outright racism. Instead, the burden is placed on them to navigate a minefield not of their creation: which fans can be trusted to write respectfully? Who, if they make an error, will listen and apologise if the error is explained? Who, if lived experience, personal translations or cultural insights are shared, can be counted on to acknowledge those contributions rather than taking sole credit? Too often, fans of colour are being made to feel like guests in their own house, while white fans act like a tone-policing HOA.

Point being: fandom and ficwriting cultures as they currently exist badly need to confront the implicit acceptance of racism and cultural bias that underlies a lot of community rules about engagement and criticism, and that needs to start with white and western fans. We don’t want to be the new Bronies, guys. We need to do better.