#idk if this was supposed to be shipped or not but you can tag with ships if you’ll like

[animentality]

I've always harboured a mild dislike for x reader stuff. I never really held it against people because I don't have the time to antagonise them, but it was so upsetting when every time I opened the fandom tag and all I saw were posts and posts and posts of bland x reader stuff that clearly is ooc with no real substance to them at all. So many of the RP blogs seem the same way.

As someone who tries to make analysis posts and art for the same fandom, it is disheartening when I spend hours and hours on an analysis post about a character and it maybe hits 120 notes while an OOC x reader of the same character soars to the thousands. Maybe it's selfish of me to say but I say it anyway.

The fandom is full of youngsters and I never felt comfortable voicing my opinion for the same because it just felt wrong to tell kids to stop existing in communities. But the amount of times I've been put down for shipping characters with each other rather than myself is an honestly surprising number.

Um. I don't really know where I was going with this.

But your post definitely opened my eyes a little bit on even why I dislike x reader so much. It's sinking in a little bit. My hatred for OOC stuff seeps into this, I suppose. So I wanted to say that. Yeah. I agree with you.

Thank you for saying it.

Signed,

A fellow analyser / artist / fanfic writer lmao

— @lunarcloak

I get you, man.

I know self shippers have always existed.

I don't mind them. If that's how you enjoy the media, then fine.

However.

I just don't think that the sudden rise of self shippers over fan analysis and shipping is a good sign.

I think it comes from a lack of media literacy and willingness to actually engage with a piece of fiction. At least shippers and fan analysts actually talk about the world and plot itself.

self shippers imagine themselves dating a character in an au that is completely disconnected from the story, and acting in a way that's not even close to how they are in canon.

which to me is like... you have a creative writing prompt but it's not a story you're actually engaging with. someone showed you a picture of a handsome man and said write a story about how he'd kiss you.

and it's like... ok. there's no crime in just being horny, but... when that's all a fandom is... I don't consider it a fandom, it's just a masturbation fantasy.

I thought the whole point of fiction was to dive into the human experience and try and understand ourselves better. See the perspectives of others. Live vicariously in another person's shoes.

Fan analysis about themes? Perfect. You're thinking. You're feeling. You're articulating. You're growing as a person as you decide what you like or don't like, or try to put together puzzle pieces so that the whole picture makes sense. Shipping? You're imagining scenarios. You're bending canon to fit your interests. You are developing your own ability to write characters, and growing as an artist and a writer.

But self shipping...?

Eh.

You're writing, I guess, but when you reduce yourself to just... idk, some generic girl that Gojo decides is the Bella to his Edward... I mean I'm glad you're happy and all.

But how happy are you

Are you happy at all, or are you frustrated by this aching loneliness deep in your gut that you just don't understand, and it never quite feels whole bc you keep cramming nothing into it.

And it's not the loneliness or the social awkwardness that I'm criticizing here ok, shippers and fan analysts can be just as lonely. I just think that the human relationship to art should be confusion and appreciation.

you should be trying to understand others or yourself.

you can insist well what's so wrong with escapism? why does everything have to be an intellectual exercise?

it doesn't have to be ... but there's a reason people feel so hollow watching marvel movies.

art without substance is consumption. it's a distraction from your own humanity, it is not anything more.

not to you, anyway.

and I don't know.

that's really sad.

I've made so many friends through ships and babbling about canon and gushing about narrative beats.

I feel like I got something out of fandom, if other people force me to see the world in another light. I feel like a story has done its job if it's made me feel something. and it's really done a great job if I feel invested enough to hope two characters smooch.

but self insert?

eh. so you just like the character and think they're hot. that's fine.

not that interesting to talk about either. requires very little analysis on your part.

they just provoke sexual feelings or romantic feelings , which are easiest for you to process, and then you can move on to the next pretty boy you can turn into a Dom.

it irks me, man.

just a tad bit.

[laurellala-comics]

A Shakespearean comedy of errors

bonus:

[mamawasatesttube]

tbh i do think its annoying when people tag poly ships as all the variants of that poly ship (i.e., #ABC #AB #AC #BC). i am not going into the clois tag because i want to see bruce wayne. i am not going into the timkon tag because i want to see bernard dowd. please. if i wanted to see that guy shipped with these guys i'd be in the poly ship tag. get that man out of here

[ophiliaclement]

and all the light in the world converges on you.

[lolo-l0ved]

↳ DDLC Girls matching layouts

“I loved Lucia-sensei history class ! Always fun to learn things I hadn’t known before.”

Day 4: layouts / edit multiple characters in a single frame - Edit contest entry for @toranekooo 800+ followers event !

Reblog / Like if you save or use 💗

[coulsonlives]

Omg, Dante Basco ships Zutara! My life is complete.

[im-still-watching-anime]

one piece is crazy fr like what do you mean you’re following up Everyone’s Dead™️ with Objectifying Women: The Arc™️

[fluffle-writes]

I wanna. Pick them up in my mouth and shake 'em around like a dog obliterating a squeaky toy

[romanticatheartt]

I just want to say, bringing down another character/ship to praise your favorite one, doesn't make me agreeing with you, it makes me hate the favorite character/ship of yours and despise your childish personality... just saying :)

[crowaroni]

the carlos sainz/james vowels movement is the absolute last thing i expected but now i highkey fw it

[galactaknightyaoi]

What are your ships?

I really enjoy shipping but I actually only have one in Kirby that I absolutely love and would say I ship. And that would be Metadede.

I like others, but I either don't feel nearly as strongly about them, or only enjoy them aesthetically and don't really care for them on a deeper level.

Besides, I tend to think of most of these characters as aromantic, or on the aromantic spectrum, so that contributes to how I feel about properly pairing them up in an AU or something.

That being said there are "canon" couples in my AU thing. It's two. Or technically five.

There's Metadede, of course. And then there's this... Giant. Nefarious. Queerplatonic polycule.

It'd take a whole separate post to explain it in depth, but here's the short version of it.

Wave 3 is in a poly relationship, but then, separately, Susie has something going on with Francisca, and Magolor has something going on with Chilly.

Also Marx is there. Her and Magolor and never too far apart so she's here now.

I could not pick one pairing, since I liked all of these, so I thought I just wouldn't pick any and I'd just have the one couple in my thing.

But in a moment of weakness I started designing hypothetical fankids for two of pairings, since I really like coming up with those, and got too attached to them so I found a way to make it work. And then just decided I wouldn't pick just those two, and I'd just make everything work all at once.

I've grown fond of this mess, I think it's funny and I like how the relationships developed even outside of the fankid context it originated in. So it all worked out in the end.

[kjclfaller]

sorry I'll go to bed I just gotta RAAARARFARAFAFHGDHDHDJJD

[itsgirlcraft]

👀

if horrific mutant born from grief then why so perfect??

[its-no-biggie]

been thinking about..... those dramatic otp tags some blogs have.......

[somerandomcryptid]

having self inserts that are minors is so fuckin weird bc for multiple dynamics I'm just like... if they were an adult then these guys would fuck. but I'm not doing that bc they are a CHILD and I just don't want to explore that particular flavor of terrible with my blorbos it's just like T-T why does my brain keep wanting to make any of this shit romantic/sexual in any way I fucking hate you brain.

[piningpercussionist]

(ooc)

I want you all to know that if I had the energy for it. There are so many posts stored in my drafts I long to queue... but neglected to preemptively tag, despite knowing I am Like This....

Anyway, there is a slight chance the queue might run out tomorrow unless I can get more responses in there-- I am,, tired,,