#in a fandom that literally makes stuff up (even when there is canon to suggest otherwise) we've backed ourselves into a box

[elysianymph]

hands you 🔥

THANK YOU DARLING i will use this opportunity to talk about the black family bc i find that whole situation very strange in this fandom.

people like to use sirius' running away as proof that walburga and orion were abusive parents but has anyone stopped to consider the fact that he ran away bc he simply disagreed with this family's ideals and didn't want to become the heir to a house full of pureblooded supremacist maniacs??? sirius has obvious distain for his parents but kreacher also mentions that walburga was heartbroken when sirius left. heartbroken. what a strange adjective to use for someone who fandom views as a heartless abuser. kreacher didn't say walburga was disappointed or angry that she had lost an heir, she was heartbroken over losing a son. a child. her own flesh and blood. if walburga and orion were actual heartless monsters don't you think they would've disowned sirius the moment he was sorted into gryffindor, among the blood traitors? but they didn't. sirius only gets disowned when he runs away from his duties to his family, which his parents would obviously consider the ultimate betrayal because family is everything to them.

to be clear i don't think the black family was healthy or loving but i don't think it was abusive in the way most fics show. they definitely didn't physically abuse their children or use literal curses to discipline them. if there was abuse it was definitely more emotional, manipulative. the black family kept their children isolated from the wizarding world until they couldn't anymore bc they had to be sent to a boarding school. they taught their children everything at home in their most formative years so that they could indoctrinate them into believing their fairytales. you're of superior blood because you bare our last name and you look like our forefathers. everyone else is beneath you and you aren't to associate with filth that doesn't acknowledge our superiority over them. that kind of thing that permanently damages a child's view of the world and their relationships to those outside their family (bc as we're well aware, the blacks were very much into keeping it in the family).

i'll mostly talk about the main black family here because i still have conflicting thoughts about the black sisters and their parents but i think walburga genuinely loved her children. especially sirius who was by all means the perfect heir (up until his years at hogwarts), he was sociable, talented, smart, powerful and above all confident and so so full of himself. he embodies the traits that make what the black family superior to others. regulus more or less is the opposite of his brother so there's room for more conflicting thoughts there. he isn't mentioned as particularly good in school or popular or liked at all. sirius calls him naive for believing their parents' stories and blood mania but that naïveté probably extended to other areas as well. he had a literal shrine on his wall devoted to voldemort (it you needed any more proof of how much of a loser he canonically is shsjsj). orion seems to be pretty detached (which is completely normal for the time like we're talking about 60s/70s parenting. fathers were mostly absent), he was likely more of a mentor for sirius if anything. teaching him how to handle the black family fortune and all that. i think walburga played a bigger role in their upbringing considering that was what was expected of her as a woman. she was likely their tutor before they started school, i doubt the black family would let anyone else teach their children.

i have a Lot more thoughts about them. i've talked about why i actually like walburga and how different i see the black brothers dynamic being from what we usually see in fanon in other posts. i don't think i can ever actually explain well enough how i imagine them though </3

[decepti-thots]

okay well ACTUALLY i will elaborate on my Whirl feelings. fandom tends to parse 'I want my hands back' as Whirl very specifically being upset he has claws, because they are assumed to be less functional, and broadly that he wants a body which is not empurata'd again. but as I said in this post, we know people who underwent empurata can get new hands and faces- perfectly good ones. tarn used to be damus and damus was a victim of it too, and they got the guy a whole new body! there's no way that with ratchet as autobot CMO, he would not be insistent that they make time and find resources for any empuratee who wants new hands or a new face at SOME point throughout the war. let alone now it's over.

but they would be new ones. the point is that when whirl says 'i want my hands back' he doesn't (just) literally mean 'i want hands again instead of claws', or even 'i want the original hands i was forged with back'. i would argue he means he wants to go back to the person he used to be before the shit he went through beat him into a new shape he hates. (because whirl reeeeally hates himself. we are literally introduced to him during a suicide attempt as his defining character moment, i mean…) but he can't, because that's not possible, and getting new hands won't magically make him the person he was when he was a watchmaker even if it'd make it easier to make watches again.

and that's why whirl doesn't get new hands or a new face! because it's scary to admit that doing so doesn't make him the person he once was again, and if he did it and was still the same damn person, it would be that ultimate proof that nothing he does will ever acheive this. it's safer to remain as he is in a body he hates than to change it and not actually have solved the underlying issue.

it's also why he rejects the offer of ratchet's hands in LL #25. at that point, he has been able to accept the person he now is and will always be going forward, so they no longer carry the same symbolism. sure, that means he could choose to take them without fear, but it also means he can reject them as not really necessary anymore, and i think it makes the most sense for whirl's arc that he chooses the latter, tbh.

(sidenote: especially worth noting we never actually see if whirl can't make watches with his claws. he can at least make clocks! i've seen people suggest you can interpret it as him actually being perfectly capable with his current frame and he doesn't want to admit it and learn a new way because *points at above*, and honestly, intentional reading or not, i fully buy this. i like to imagine post-canon, he's perfectly good at making them with his current hands, because now he's not so hung up on all that baggage that teaching himself the necessary new techniques is unbearable to consider like it was before. this also has the bonus of mitigating some of the comic's uhhh. confusing? messaging around forged/constructed stuff and disability, so i'll take it.)

[mllenugget]

Hello I mcyt fandom-ified la Team du Lundi members and wrote a shit ton of text about it

After exhausting myself on trying to catch up on the current QSMP lore I got a sudden craving for a more familiar and fast paced kind of minecraft content and ended up rewatching all the Team du Lundi's SMP best of's I could find

And while doing so with my brain still hazed in fandom brainrot, I started picking up on minor details or info the players casually dropped, and drew parallels to the French speakers' QSMP counterparts This is going to be a long wordy post I don't even know what I am rambling about and for. Three things you need to be aware of about la Team du Lundi before reading :

Baghera, Antoine and Etoiles are the only QSMP players that are part of la Team du Lundi

As far as I remember the only two elements that suggest that la Team du Lundi's SMP could be canon to QSMP are Antoine being pressured into building another Tower of Shit, and Baghera's infamous fountain being mentioned when she was asked if her character remembers anything from her past before the island

La Team du Lundi's SMP was NOT a roleplaying server, it was just a private survival server for a small circle of friends casually playing together. So whenever I quote someone in this specific post, it is the streamer : there is no character other than the persona the streamer is usually showing on stream, but I just thought it would be fun to interpret certain situations while keeping in mind the QSMP lore. And here goes :

Baghera claims that when she was a kid she strongly believed that she could breathe underwater. The others joke about her having fins

Antoine jokingly tells Baghera he doesn’t need oxygen at all

Antoine claims he will still be alive thousands of years forwards

Antoine’s voice shifts when he wants to appear creepy

Baghera built an aquarium at her place, then helped Antoine build one at his tower, then built a giant swimming pool, then a fountain, then a waterslide- do you see a theme ?

Baghera knows that her skin is actually that of a chick and not a duckling, and calls it so here

Chat said that Baghera has a middle child syndrome, justifying that she bullies Angle Droit because Etoiles bullies her in the first place (Etoiles has also called her « little sister » in a derogatory way)

Etoiles has repeatedly asked people to play Valorant with him at least once

Here's a clip of Etoiles getting languaged in french and owing "a gifted sub in the swear jar"

Unrelated random clip of Etoiles because it creates happy hormones in me brain

Etoiles is regularly refered to as "the warrior"

Etoiles guided the whole group during an expedition to the End and he was literally glowing doing so (enchanted arrows effect) Everyone called him "the guide"

Baghera was the one who gave the final blow to the Enderdragon (and died from magic right after)

Etoiles spent most of his time adventuring in order to bring stuff and gear back to everyone for their builds

Etoiles asked Aypierre for help in order to design a redstone door for his cave which could only open upon solving a puzzle (which was egg & arrow related) (Aypierre was not a member of the server)

Etoiles built a nightclub with the walls and ceiling covered in wardenblocks making it look like a starry sky. He also rehomed Allays holding golden apples inside claiming them to be the souls working for him and that they lived there peacefuly

Etoiles jokingly talks about Antoine acting jealous and violent towards him because Etoiles told him he wanted to go and visit Kameto (who also was not a member of the server)

Baghera (along with Horty) had a rivalry with Joueur du Grenier (host of the server with admin powers) after he decided to build a massive parking lot right next to their house. They countered by covering the whole thing with dirt, followed by JDG building a factory and the two parties went back and forth. Baghera argued that it was stupid because they didnt even have cars to begin with (which is a sentence she reused when talking about Forever's roads) Also she tells JDG that he could've built a seaport instead, which makes JDG contemplate the thought of building an airport (and though he ended up never building it, I am side eyeing the French's plane crash)

At some point JDG wonders about what a roleplaying minecraft server would look like (RPZ 2), to which Baghera replies that she has a hard time picturing the thing "We'd all just build things you see ? I don't think we'd create stories, we would all just be like "I'm a builder, ah you too ? Well awesome, builders, cool"" and I find this to be hilariously ironic (fun fact : Baghera had no idea that QSMP was a roleplaying server when she first joined and often claims she would've taken a different approach with her character had she known right off the gate)

As I was finishing to write this down, these fuckers (/lh) decided to host a closure night for the server as they've never really officially did it, everyone just sort of deserted the server after a while. Baghera, Etoiles and Antoine kept referring to QSMP throughout the night, mostly talking about how weird it felt without mods. Among other meta commentary things

They mentionned Cellbit and Bad multiple times as the group was trying to solve enigmas. Antoine talked about "the cultural sharing" between communities as he taught insults to each others with Mike, Roier and Maximus in their respective languages Multiple more players were namedropped (including eggs) while Antoine was talking about how the server functions

Yes, Baghera and Etoiles kept their QSMP skins. Etoiles with his code corrupted purgatory one, and Baghera with her fading pink disheveled hair (with the addition of her cubito wearing Horty's merch)

Baghera admits that going back to this small familiar vanilla server feels like coming back home to your family during the holidays

Team du Lundi's cameos in QSMP :

Though Pomme has never canonically met JDG (even though most of her parents have talked about him to her at least once), she occasionaly breaks the 4th wall to refer to him. She once compared one of BBH's "vacation" flower shirts with his, and when Foolish and Bad asked her to elaborate (obviously not getting the reference) she proceeded to play JDG's music theme with the flute instead (Also I really feel the need to once more point out how mindblowing it is for your average french speaking viewer to have JDG's intro theme being added to the mod they use in the QSMP because of how anchored it is within french internet pop culture. Like this shit has been existing for 14 fucking years, it's part of the childhood of a lot of us, so to find a clip of British hardcore player Philza peacefuly listening to Mexican egg admin Tallulah play this theme on her flute feels like a multiverse fever dream)

Horty has been on Quesadilla Island through cc!Baghera's account, but neither of them really wanted to justify it RP wise. Baghera just wanted to give her best friend a tour of the island. Horty only got to meet Richarlyson who gave her a tour of Cellbit's castle and made her pick a room (she chose Chaos). She also chatted with Etoiles who tagged along for a bit and (this is obviously justified by it being a one-shot out of roleplay filler episode kind of night) they both already knew each other and were on friendly enough terms to bicker with one another Also she was part of the French speakers Quackity reached out to to invite on the server, but she had to decline because she was very busy at that time (and also not interested) Also also she was Baghera's teammate for that Formula 4 event, and Baghera has discussed it and showed pictures to a couple of islanders, including Richas who was very hyped about it

Another player the viewers were hoping to see on Quackity's server is Mynthos. He exists within the server with the picture of him that hangs in Pomme's art gallery, the cursed animation video that used to play in La France, as well as with Aypierre's health potion factory that bears his name

Angle Droit and Zerator are sometimes namedropped when the French speakers talk with their chat. Angle Droit frequently raids Baghera's and Antoine's streams, and though it has never been confirmed, a lot of viewers theorized that she was the +1 player Baghera and Etoiles wanted to invite on the server had they won the elections.

As for Zera, Etoiles went AFK on QSMP a couple of times in order to test some of Zerator's TrackMania maps (which he later discussed with Pac). I also remember a very trivial conversation Etoiles had with Mouse and Aypierre where he laughed about hurting his back very badly after carrying a fellow streamer during a caritative event, said event was hosted by Zerator (he's also the one judging them with concern from his desk)

I'm done.

Bonus alternative design for Angle Droit because at first I thought she was a fox then it turned out she was a corgi but then she changed it again to a fox and woop

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

Zeeks are astonishing.

They seem to analyze the cartoon with the microscope. Nothing will escape their eye, they’ll find the tiniest hints supporting their ship (“see, when she touches his scar, her thumb is on his lips!” it isn’t any more in the very next frame even though Katara didn’t move but who cares, “see, his expression changes from angry as soon as Katara talked to him!”, “see, she played with her hair while he suggested that Aang sits next to him!”). They’ll take literally anything and perform terrific mental gymnastics to link this anything to their ship. Of course, finding similarities and parallels between Katara and Zuko in every thing that ever happened to them is a child’s game. So observant…

And then suddenly when you ask them about anything else – they sound like people who hasn’t watched “Avatar” at all! Missing the whole idea of the show, not remembering important plot lines, denying canon character interactions, misunderstanding the simplest, most obvious things and so on and so for…

That’s such an impressive way of watching/enjoying/analyzing any media.

"It's like they haven't watched Avatar at all!" Honestly, at this point, most of them didn't, at least not in MANY years. They engage with the story through out of context gifs and zutara metas/fics.

Honestly that's part of why I make sure to rewatch the stuff I'm in fandoms for - not just my favorite episodes or scenes, but the whole thing. It's really easy to misremember or straight up forget stuff about the actual source material when you engage solely with the fanon version of it and sooner or later you end up saying some bullshit.

Even for stuff that REALLY let me down, like How I Met Your Mother, I just have to rewatch it every now and then because otherwise What's The Point of saying anything, positive or negative, about a story that you can barely remember?

[laundrybiscuits]

Just curious and i like hearing your thoughts on this stuff. May i ask what aspect of steddie fanon you're referring to (which don't fit IRL queer culture so accurately)?

Ahaha...okay so. IMPORTANT NOTE: fandom is not that crucial, do whatever you want, run free through daisy fields of whatever headcanons and characterizations you please. Also, fic is not real life and that's okay!!

That being said, fandom can get slightly weird about sex, especially queer sexual cultures and especially historical queer sexual cultures. I mean, I get it! Our current hegemonic understanding of sexuality is actually pretty recent; I studied sexuality from a sociological perspective as part of my undergrad degree, focusing on moral panics (gosh I wonder why Eddie's character arc appeals to me! so mysterious!), and I know just enough to know that I don't know shit. So I certainly don't expect anyone to be doing paradigm-shifting sociohistorical research for a fic. That would be ridiculous.

All of this is leading up to say that based on 1) the relayed experiences of queer mentors who were in the scene in the 80s 2) the secondary sources I’ve researched 3) personally having many gay male friends who love oversharing through the last ~15 years, I believe that if canon-compliant gay Eddie Munson is a virgin, it’s largely by choice. 

I've seen it suggested that Eddie's poor academic performance and nerdy interests would be, essentially, a dick deterrent. And like...I enjoy Eddie’s weirdo loser vibe as much as the next fan. I fully support him not being in any way smooth or cool with boys. But even when I myself was in my late teens/early twenties, many of my closest friends were awkward nerdy twinks who absolutely managed to get laid every weekend because MSM* hookup culture is eternal. 

And in the early 80s, when Eddie would’ve been in his late teens, MSM hookup culture was at its peak. AIDS still wasn’t being taken that seriously, and transmission etc. wasn’t really understood because…well, you know this story. It’s not a good story. Fuck Reagan. 

In short, I really can’t emphasize enough how certain types of sexual contact were extremely available for men seeking sex with men. A pretty young thing like Eddie could have literally as much sex as he wanted. Nobody is asking him for a high school transcript or anything about his hobbies, they’re asking if he tops. 

Now, would Eddie actually participate in the hookup culture of the time? That's a more complicated and speculative question, and not actually what you asked, but I'm going to talk about it briefly anyway.

In the 'yes' column: he has his own vehicle**, zero supervision, and a penchant for risky behavior.

In the 'no' column: the boy has at least three extremely involved hobbies eating up his spare time and energy; he's also a not-so-secret romantic.

Personally, I can see the pseudo-intimacy appealing to Eddie's tendency to keep people at arm's length, and I think it’s very plausible for him to be curious and experimental enough to want to explore a bit. I tend to land on 'tried it a few times, doesn't make a habit of it' in my backstories. I also tend to hint at the softer, friendlier side of hookup culture in my fics, just because I don’t often see it represented. 

Of course it’s like any other scene, there are bad actors and generally shitty people/situations, and sometimes the MSM scene specifically can be a bit of a soul-draining meat market. (ETA, because I am not white and neither are the vast majority of my friends and I felt increasingly weird not mentioning it even though it's not relevant to Eddie's situation: the scene is often also super racist, among other things! But that's a whooole other complicated kettle of fish, and again, not relevant to Eddie's situation.)

But there’s also space for casual sex to be part of a friendly relationship, in a way that I don’t really see in hetero circles. It’s hard to explain. It’s one of those dynamics that basically never shows up in mainstream media at all, so I absolutely don’t blame fics that don’t show it either. It’s just one of those things.

This is a step to the left, but I recommend checking out Dykes To Watch Out For: it’s practically an anthropological document depicting dyke culture in the 80s, it’s often funny as hell, and it’s just a fantastically detailed and relatively accessible window into a particular way of life that doesn’t really exist anymore. 

*MSM = men who have sex with men. It’s a sociological designation; not everyone in this category identifies as gay, bi, queer, etc. It may be useful to think about sexuality as having three distinct components: behavior, identity, and desire. The term “MSM�� puts focus on the behavioral aspect, because it’s most relevant in this context. 

**As someone who has experienced several other countries' driving cultures, I just want to emphasize to non-Americans how willing many Americans are to drive for multiple hours for basically any reason whatsoever.

[nixthelapin]

Humble suggestion: while I love the Guardian Marinette stuff in s4, I think a cool different route for s4 would’ve been to basically jumpstart s5 early by having Hawkmoth never lose the Miracle Box at the end of s3.

Now, Miracle Queen was obviously the fandom’s least favorite episode (that is now in debate with s5 finished, but I digress). But I think ending it on a low note like s4 did would’ve been so cool, and also help with some of the show’s plot armor.

The specific plot armor I’m referring to: Marinette has all but 2 Miraculouses as her disposal, and yet they make no progress against Shadowmoth. It’s literally 17 v 2. They almost won against him with just 5 (s2 finale) and only didn’t because they were caught off guard by Mayura. Hawkmoth upgrading to Shadowmoth does nothing to really make him stronger other than making it easier to make senti beings, which they have already faced before.

The proposal: Miracle Queen happens mostly like canon, they use the existing Miraculous users to fight Ladybug & Chat Noir, but Hawkmoth and Mayura keep the rest, maybe even hide the Miraculouses (and let’s say they take them out of the box to use the box as a decoy so when Fu changes ownership, they won’t be trapped inside). Ladybug and Chat get the Miraculouses from the active users back, so not all of them are lost. So, to keep track:

Hero Team: ladybug, black cat, fox, turtle, bee, snake, dragon, horse, monkey (9)

Villain Team: (everything else) butterfly, peacock, rabbit, tiger, ox, mouse, pig, rooster, goat, dog (10)

So it’s almost an even match! (In terms of numbers at least… those power sets are arguable 😬)

But! It has the same Ladybug-guilt issues as s5 (her feeling at fault for losing them) because she accidentally led Hawkmoth to Fu, and I think it helps solve the issue of how many individual new Miraculous episodes they had to stuff into s4 before she lost them at the end (Penalteam was really doing overtime lol).

I do think this version would lose the Alliance rings, but it would be good ground for setting up some kind of villain team instead. Probably not with all of them at once- while that would be smart to overwhelm the heroes, Gabe doesn’t have that many allies 😂. Natalie is half dead and that just leaves the psycho 14 year old (Lila).

The heroes could also win back the Rabbit like they did in s5 with the time chase (with some tweaking because the dynamics of the two would be different from that point). Because that thing is WAY too powerful to let the villains keep yet not let them win with it (not this time, plot armor!) At least with the heroes they have the excuse of “don’t mess with the time continuum,” which hawky clearly wouldn’t care about.

Thoughts?? This was just a tangent thought that popped up out of nowhere, so there are probably some holes, but I think it’s a fun idea! Any other suggestions or add-ons? Or do you think I’m totally off my rocker? I’d love to hear anything!

[ch3rr13zk1n]

Alright its introduction time

Im CHERRIEZKIN! PHILIPINES RGAHHHHHHHHHH ‼️‼️‼️🗣🗣🗣🔥🔥🔥

Why the fuck am i so currently fixated on regretevator

I like memes and things i enjoy, like art! Also if you catch me being an awful person PLEASE tell me.

I tend to also get sorta uncomfortable with people being confused by my stuff or someone seemingly not in the same fandoms as me liking my fandom content as it sorta makes my brain explode and PANIK!!! Not like you can't enjoy my stuff when you don't know shit about the stuff i like but it sorta makes me think some random person just came across my stuff out of nowhere

And i occasionally make weird jokes about fictional characters (sorry about that I'm possibly hypersexual.) but i don't wanna see NSFW TOO often so purely NSFW accounts.... don't even like a single post of mine at all plz :3 (unless you make NSFW of characters i like like..... Heheh. Not really but really)

Also I'm a minor!!!!!!! Never forget that! (Or do if you make Wallter ns- IM JOKING IM JOKINF I DON'T MEAN THAT)

Sorry about the suggestive and NSFW jokes i have no idea why but sometimes i just have the urge to say that publicly on the internet. Maybe that furry fetish game i found when i was nine really did fuck me up badly. Also i password locked cherrysimpingtime for the sanity of the Regretevator fans. D:

Anyways i got like.. 2763 interests like Solarballs, Shovelwares brain game, Captain underpants, The youtube shorts arg, Vocaloid (Ish), Undertale , SMG4, DHMIS, Alphabet lore, OMORI, Bugbo, The amazing digital circus, Pretty blood, Art, BFDI, Object shows in general, REGRETEVATOR, Tally hall (ish), Vs Bob and etc (The ones highlighted in green are the ones that are fixations as of the time of editing this and the ones in purple are dying/dead interests or got pushed aside by the others. The amount of purple is crazy)

though i post about some fandoms more than others but it doesn't mean i don't like/don't know any fandom on this list that isn't mainly being posted about here

its just that i draw Wallter from REGRETEVATOR pregnant instead of talking about how Rinny from Pretty Blood is a fucking bitch because my fixations are in a constant war

i also have a Tiktok and a mostly abandoned Youtube account (don't look at certain posts on my tiktok you'll go blind)

Also this account is mostly full of shitposts, Memes, Reblogs and doodles so good luck finding high quality art here!! I don't put my own tags a majority of the time and don't even tag some of my posts with the art tag since I'm insecure and stuff. I do create a bunch of dumb shit like Wood Noise~ Bark Bark Dog Mannequins so maybe you can check stuff like that out if you like my shitposts.

Also Wallter is my favorite character and my heart cannot be put on a leash so i have a crush(?) on that gayass (whoops)

Though the crush part is debatable as i still question if i really do feel romantic attraction.

I'm also a bit of a shipper and i ship SnowBoots, Glecctor, Wallmark, Walljim/Jimwall, SlimJim and etc. If you are uncomfy with any of the ships listed or literally want shippers to get the fuck off your page then block me or tell to to leave your page

Also sometimes i don't read people's pinned posts and generally just reblog because that's sorta like a secondary more useful like button to me (this has resulted in BAD consequences..)

i also had a bit of a tier list showing my opinions on the regret characters but that's kinda outdated and may not be fully reliable on my actual opinions on those characters however you should know that Wallter is.. According to my moots and other people... My comfort character, My favorite character and my "fictional crush" currently. He sorta means a bunch to me rn so don't potray them as an abuser or rapist.. Please. If you violate these boundaries then i may not hesitate to block you.

Actually.. Not just Wallter. ANY of my favorite characters.. Or maybe just any character in general unless its canon or smth and NOT romanticized. However i may not be able to tell which one is spreading awareness, a vent or just literal fetish/kink shit.

But i am more forgiving towards vents and spreading awareness now (don't ask why i dunno I'm sorry)

anyways that's all you need to know i guess! uhh have a weird image and stan Wallter on my page! (Not forcing dw)

glevil x mannequin mark shippers dni.

[megaderping]

Late night SALT activated...

Disclaimer: This post is mainly about really aggressive/hostile fans. Disliking stuff is totally valid and curating one’s online experience is important, but... I’m very strongly convinced that the majority of people who vehemently hate Goro Akechi or Shuake to a really hostile degree either haven’t played Royal, haven’t moved on from base game, haven’t maxed his confidant, or really lack reading comprehension. ‘cause disliking a ship or a character? Super valid! Everyone has their preferences and comfort zones. I would never shame someone who genuinely just... doesn’t vibe with it, finds it uncomfortable, and wishes to avoid content or posts w/ the character or pairing. I also completely understand the frustration of wanting Goro content that isn’t ship-focused, since sometimes fandoms can make a pairing consume a character in fanworks (though I’d argue you can have the pair and still give him agency outside of it, at the end of the day, there will always be people who just don’t want it). But when I see factually incorrect arguments like, “Joker and Akechi hate each other,” I just go... “Did we play the same game?” The game where Joker’s greatest wish was to see Akechi again. The game where Morgana outright states that Akechi doesn’t really hate Joker and Akechi himself laments that they didn’t meet years earlier, and if they had, how they could’ve been friends. A game where it’s made very clear that despite the stupidity of going with the revenge plan with Shido and the lives taken along the way, there was still a disgusting power imbalance with Shido, a grown man in politics, effectively molding a broken teenager into being a hitman... And even the betrayal toward the PT- I feel like Akechi’s offer to have Joker join him was genuine as a sort of last ditch effort to get him out of that situation. The SIU director notes how the plan is way too callous even for Akechi, and after it happens, Akechi tries to downplay the dangers of the PT to Shido, suggesting a part of him, even if only a small one, does feel some remorse.

There’s this messy complexity to Akechi and his relationship with Joker and the PT... and people try to strip it of all of its complexities to make it a bland, black and white matter, and it sucks. It feels like those kinds of people want to turn Akechi into a hatesink when Shido is literally right there. And Kamoshida, and Okumura, and many other awful adults in P5. It’s weird how little flak they get by comparison? And I’m biased- Akechi was a character I developed an attachment to as I reached third sem and his character just came together for me. But it’s so freaking annoying to try and search up art of the character or ship on sites like twitter only to find the worst takes possible. Folks gotta separate their personal feelings from the feelings of the characters. The actual canon interactions and relationships are infinitely more compelling than “Joker/the Phantom Thieves all hate Akechi.” I much prefer what the game presents us- with characters like Haru and Futaba not forgiving him, but still sympathizing with his situation and (perhaps reluctantly) being willing to work with him when it’s absolutely necessary. The friction is just so compelling, because even if he’s a tragic person, his actions still robbed them of loved ones. ...but also, President Okumura requested many shutdowns himself and was an awful person, which also adds to the messy complexity for poor Haru.

Anyway, this is just a late night ramble because I went to find fanart and found annoying tweets. Argh.

[minu-moni]

Both Kankri and Porrim are correct about gender roles in Alternian and Beforan society, but not on the way they probably think.

Easiest to address, let’s start with Porrim: she is indeed correct when she claims that women are oppressed in a way in Alternian and Beforan society. For example: Karkat calling the stuff Tavros likes “games for girls” on a derogatory way, Kankri being misogynistic to women, Doc Scratch being the real one in control of Alternia (him having an influence over HIC) etc.

Those are things that we actively see happen in Homestuck’s canon, they’re undeniable. We can’t turn a blind eye and pretend this isn’t a thing that happened. It literally is, just read the comic.

Meanwhile, Kankri is also right in that it doesn’t make sense for things to be like this. Alternian and Beforan society have no reason to have evolved in this way, considering male and female trolls serve the same purpose socially. So much so that, in canon, we don’t know what the difference between male and female trolls. Sure, female trolls have boobs but it’s never stated that trolls are mammals, while it was shown to us that they are born and grow up like insects, to the extent most people in fandom compare them to bees (they call their houses “hives”, there are drones that serve a reproductive role in their society, the Mothergrub functions similarly to a Queen bee, etc).

There was a point in fandom where people were theorizing that female trolls were actually biologically stronger than male trolls, specifically because Karkat calls LARP a “game for girls”, and we all know how deadly that game is. Also the fact that jadebloods are mostly females and are sent to take care of the caverns, which in practice means “your duty is killing unfit grubs”. Pretty brutal and nothing like human maternality (if you can even call what jadebloods do maternal)

So what’s the real issue? Why is their society like this? Well, I can’t say I know the truth, but I have an idea and it’s pretty simple:

Hussie did not plan troll society from the beginning and/or doesn’t know how to handle gender on a society where gender doesn’t play a big role.

By all means, troll society has no reason to be gendered the way it is. Female and male trolls serve the same purpose, only varying due to their blood, not their gender, and we don’t know anything about their history or worldbuilding to make a fair assumption that isn’t straight up made up.

It’s not really a perspective issue, but a writing issue. Hussie probably didn’t plan troll society all that much besides what little we see, and they sure as hell didn’t plan from the beginning to make 12 more trolls that were caricatures of tumblr users.

There’s multiple moments where characters are misogynistic for no reason and a few hundred pages later we learn that trolls care so little about gender that they don’t even have a concept of gay relationships, despite there not being gender prejudice in that regard. Meanwhile, at the same time, we have Feferi assuming Eridan was interested in a girl first and then later she suggested a boy and showed much more shock and intrigue on that possibility. It just doesn’t track!

For people who didn’t get the reasoning when people point out that Alternian and Beforan society have gender issues because of the way their biology works, now you have an explanation: poorly throughout worldbuilding, for which I can’t really fault Hussie for considering how insignificant it is on the long run.

So, how would a better gendered alien society with no gender influence look like worldbuilding wise? Well, I can’t really tell you a definitive answer since everyone is free to make their own version of it with a variety of possibilities. There isn’t a right or wrong to this question.

Now, if you would ask me how I’d write it, I’d tell you: I’d write it like Invader Zim’s Irken society.

On Irk, male and female irkens serve the same purpose regardless of gender. They all reproduce asexually (through means of the machine fuckery we see in flashbacks), serve the same roles, and societal positions are determined by another factor: height. Sound familiar?

It’s possible to explore gender oppression in a society like this regardless if the writer wants to, but it’s not a must. There’s plenty of space to write whatever variety of worldbuilding you want, and I think that’s pretty great!

Gender issues is a thing in Alternian and Beforan society as we see in canon, that’s undeniable, but now you know why it’s so weird that it’s a thing in a society where gender shouldn’t matter: poorly though-out worldbuilding.

[thisbuildinghasfeelings]

Lone Star Season 4 Thoughts: I love Season 4...mostly

With the prospect of season 5 filming beginning so soon, I've been thinking a lot about season 4 lately. I felt like rambling out some of my thoughts on here.

First, perhaps an unpopular opinion (?) but I love season 4. Sure, it has its flaws, but to me, the good far outweighs the bad. For one thing, I personally don't mind Gabriel's death. It's not what I would have chosen myself if I were writing the finale, and I think it could have benefited from a 3-5 episode arc rather than being squeezed into two already very busy episodes, but I appreciate a lot of what came with it and the potential it provides for season 5. Rafa's acting in the finale was incredible and the aftermath of Gabriel dying resulted in one of my top 10 Tarlos scenes of all time (the scene of them deciding to postpone the wedding at the beginning of 4x18) and one of my top 10 non-Tarlos scenes of all time (the Owen and Carlos scene). Season 4 also gave us the incredible soulmates scene, Lou II, lots of other excellent Tarlos scenes/episodes (4x02, 4x04, 4x08, 4x12, 4x16-18), some new love interests I really liked (Asha, Joe, and Trevor...NOT Kendra), a true showcase of Rafa's talent as an actor along with (finally!) the screen time he deserves, a Marjan storyline that wasn't perfect but had a lot of good stuff to enjoy, and a mention of the Tarlos wedding in every single episode. I enjoyed watching every episode (with the possible exception of 4x03...but even there I can find things to enjoy).

As far as the whole Iris/secret marriage storyline goes, yeah, it's not great. But I can still find a lot to appreciate within it. I love Iris, I love her friendship with Carlos (Rafa and Lyndsy sold me on their friendship with a single hospital scene in 4x03!), and I think it added fascinating elements to Carlos' backstory...like the fact that he was so lost and upset after his family's reaction to his coming out that he married a woman to try to be the man he believed they wanted and needed him to be. For the parts I don't like as much and that--let's face it, don't make much sense--I'm able to look past them or make up head canons to explain them away. (And the talented fic writers of this fandom have done a great service to help that process along...there are many great ones, but particular shout out to Where All This Love Comes From @carlos-in-glasses, which managed to make better sense of Carlos' backstory than I ever imagined possible...if you haven't read it yet, I suggest you do so ASAP). I certainly don't blame anyone who can't do this...that storyline was a mess, I can't deny that! But for me, there's enough to appreciate that it doesn't mess with my enjoyment of the season.

Aside from the secret marriage thing, I think the worst storyline of the season was the Owen/FBI storyline. The sad thing is that this one could have been ok had it been executed better. The biggest issues here were (1) too much Owen off on his own time, which is never good--Owen is at his best when he's in storylines with the other main characters--and (2) they completely failed to stick the landing. BADLY. If you're going to do a white supremacist storyline, you need to commit! Instead, they tried to throw in so many twists that they ended up trying to make us feel sympathy for and see the white supremacist gang members as victims. Yeah, not going to work for me when, in a previous episode, you told us they were literal Nazis! But ultimately I don't really care all that much about a solo Owen storyline to begin with, so it didn't affect my enjoyment of the season as a whole.

All of that said, the thing that irritated me the most about season 4 was the 8 week deadline for the wedding. The ridiculous Lone Star timeline has always been a bit of a thorn in my side, but it really got out of hand in season 4. What bothers me most is the fact that the whole 8 weeks thing is both so completely ridiculous and so completely unnecessary! It is clearly there only to slightly raise the stakes for the first few episodes of the season. It's "Oh no, they have to get married in 8 weeks, which means Carlos has to hurry up and get divorced from Iris to make the deadline, only now Iris has gone missing and she hasn't signed the divorce papers yet so they won't be able to get married!" The exact same thing could have been accomplished with an even slightly more realistic deadline--say 4 months. A 4 month deadline would have still been an incredibly short amount of time to plan a wedding and it would have still required urgency in the divorce process. And yeah, 4 months would have still been a bit unbelievable, but it would have been the ordinary tv show timeline kind of unbelievable, and it would have fit far better with the other markers of time in season 4, like the fact that it's explicitly stated that it's January in the beginning of the season and May at the end.

To make matters worse, the urgency for Iris to sign the papers--once again, the whole reason for the 8 week deadline-- isn't really even addressed after 4x02 because once Iris goes missing, her safety is the main concern. Then, once they wrap that storyline up, it is literally never mentioned again. I spent the entire season waiting for it to become an issue, but it never does. The writers essentially forget about it and spend the entire rest of the season providing dates and stating that amounts of time have passed that add up to way more than 8 weeks. It's just so RIDICULOUS and it means NOTHING!

Ok, whew, got that out. Probably no one is still reading at this point, but if you are, thank you for reading my essay and I love you 💜

[naranjapetrificada]

Consider this your opportunity to be an Astrology Bitch and go off about Leo Stede!

(signed, a Virgo sun, Cancer moon, Capricorn rising who simultaneously is and is not an Astrology Bitch, more of a Tarot Bitch tbh)

Okay! You asked for it lol.

I should start by saying that I'm an August Leo sun. Stede is a July Leo, as confirmed by the show:

July Leos are...different somehow? It's not a bad thing and it's not their fault, and if anybody else comes for them we August Leo's will throw down for our siblings, but there's something about the vibes! Maybe it's the Cancer proximity, idk. If anything my anecdata suggests that they're more well adjusted than the rest of us. 🦁❤️🦁

Anyway, I immediately sat up and noticed when they cut to the gravestones because it's second nature for me as an Astrology Gay. Obviously I didn't know Stede at the time and I don't actually know what went down as the character was developed, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if I learned that at least one person in the writers room was a fellow Astrology Gay.

So I completely forgot about his birthdate because a) ADHD and b) swooniest romance I'd ever seen, but I started thinking about it again when I showed up like a year late to the fandom and saw people talk about whether they were Ed coded or Stede coded. I am heavily, heavily Stede coded for neurodivergent reasons, but he also exhibits certain Very Leo traits that I recognized immediately.

Leo stereotypes:

Let's get the stereotypes out of the way because while they do apply sometimes (especially for Stede), there's no need to rehash them in detail.

Leadership, which he struggles with at first but a) takes up the mantle of it anyway and b) improves enough that by the end of the season the crew that wanted to mutiny saves his life.

Good hair. Nuff said.

The man has an auxiliary wardrobe for fucks sake.

His "theatrical instincts are finely honed" and while Izzy says it to encourage the fuckery, it's not a lie.

The Revenge

If an 18th century Leo was going to custom build a pirate ship and money was no object, they would 1000% build the Revenge. I could see arguing that a Taurus might build something similar, but honestly I'm not sure a Taurus would become a pirate by choice. Maybe a Taurus might build like, a pleasure yacht or something. A Libra might build a ship that's as good-looking as the Revenge but sharing expensive tastes isn't enough to convince me either. Stede's money allowed him to build and decorate luxuriously, but plenty of rich people used to comfort didn't have ships like the Revenge. As Nigel says during his tour, it's just so incredibly him.

Now for some feelings stuff:

Leos love it when other people are happy, and when we can be involved in fostering that at all for people we care about we are ON IT. Stede wants to create space for others to get what they need to make that happen. Literally in the first episode he talks about the Revenge as somewhere for his crew to work on their trauma and communicate their feelings.

The above is also an extension of Stede's instinctive generosity. Canon doesn't tell us where Ed got his clothes for the French boat party in episode 5, but given that Stede has an auxiliary wardrobe (which he shared with Ed almost immediately) the most likely scenario seems like he loaned (or maybe even gave!) it to Ed. Another possibility is that it was on the ship where Frenchie found his and Oluwande's outfits, but the purple jacket in particular seems very extra in a way that says "Stede" to me.

Speaking of episode 5, let's talk about the party game. Obviously the main takeaway is that Stede has enough of a handle on passive aggression to make the French assholes tear each other apart, but it's not just the passive aggression, it's in the delivery. With sufficient motivation (Ed's hurt feelings, if not his own) we see Stede command the room with confidence. He chooses his targets well. He knows just what to say to get them to agree to play the game at all. The fire wasn't part of the original plan but it shows just how powerful those hard-won skills are when he wants to apply them. (This doesn't feel like it merits its own bullet point but Leos are protective, ride-or-die friends, something else we see in this episode.)

Stede's love language, imo, is quality time. There are arguments for others (there's also a really good meta about his love language causing miscommunication with our touchy-feely boy Ed, if I can find the link I'll edit) but quality time seems the most appropriate to me. Another part of the whole generosity of spirit thing is that he seems to enjoy what a friend of mine called "engineering experiences" for people i.e. crafting activities and jam sessions for the crew. The most obvious of these is the treasure hunt for Ed, which of course comes out of his fear of Ed leaving, but it's also a way for them to spend time together. I'm not at all surprised that a lonely, bullied kid would grow up to value quality time.

I would also extend this to the clearly routine (but still extravagant) breakfast for two that we see Calico Jack crashing in episode 8. Not to mention the first breakfast he and Ed ever share up on the maintop in episode 4. It's not fancy, but he wakes Ed up to share in that moment because he's enjoying the sunrise and the marmalade, and I can't think of anything more Leo than enjoying something then immediately wanting to share it because someone else might enjoy it too.

Stede's not perfect of course, despite all those seemingly positive things I just said. In the way of some Leos he is frequently thoughtless, up to and including when he didn't make to the dock. I can't speak for every Leo but I have definitely accidentally flirted with/been read as flirting with people before, whether I was attracted to them or not. And yeah his quarters are nice but he could have used some of that space for more crew quarters, right? And how could a Leo possibly misread "what makes Ed happy is you" as badly as he did?

Well I may be an Astrology Binch but I mostly like it (and anything else that puts personalities into discrete groups) as an analysis tool. It's just a fun lens to examine behaviors through, IRL and with fictional characters. Also, the show is clearly trying to examine things like trauma and self-loathing in ways that are gonna inform character behavior way more than a hypothetical astrology enthusiast in the (admittedly pretty queer) writers room. But the vibes? The vibes are so there.

[tallaxia]

(For the ask game) - 5, 8, 12, 22 & 23, for jack, scott AND lon suder >:)

5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?

Jack: Army of Lovers - Obsession

The lyrics, the unhinged video, the 90s trash...it's perfect.

Scott: The Prodigy - We live forever (and a lot of other 90s Prodigy Tracks like Firestarter, No Good or Timezone Bomb )

It reminds me strongly of the chase scene. Could be a perfect alternate music video imo!

Unfortunately, I can't think of anything at all for Suder... any suggestions?

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

Considering how little fanwork there is, it's hard to say. I really haven't read anything yet that I really despise.

Jack: Maybe Jack taking hard drugs? He's the only one of all the characters who doesn't smoke, neither weed nor cigarettes. He certainly wouldn't have a problem getting his hands on all kinds of pills, but I rather see him eating sweets and junk food all day long. (he should try weed though, dude needs to chill)

Scott: I totally go along with Scott being closeted gay or maybe bi, that fits SO well! But I absolutely can't picture him with Raimi or anyone from the Humanist Alliance. It's a fun crackship tho XD

Lon: Somehow I can't picture him in a former relationship. He gave up his place in civilized life and we know that even among outcasts, the Maquis, he's the odd quiet outsider. He's so off and consumed by his compulsions that he isolates himself and therefore can barely build a real relationship with anyone.

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

Jack's signet/logo on his shirt he sprayed everywhere looks very similar to the character in the cartoon loop at the beginning. His drawings, which are scattered all over the place, are quite scruffy, but his technical drawings of Warbeast were very clean and accurate, which means he can actually draw well. Maybe the loops are his own animations? So the mad cartoon scientist is basically his OC. Scott: Scott is quite young for a chief executive (I mean, Richard was 29...) He climbed the career ladder way too quickly and got power and a lot of money very fast. Maybe he didn't always have such a big ego and only became jaded by the industry and became such an asshole. When he's alone, insecurities and worries certainly come through, but he wouldn't show them to anyone.

Lon: I think he was born the way he is. Not necessarily that violent to that extent, but without any telepathic abilities. This cut him off from much communication with other Betazoids and he was also an open book to everyone else. Children his age could read his thoughts, but he couldn't read theirs, and that made him an outsider and despicable weirdo from the start.

22. If you're a fic reader, what's something you like in fics when it comes to this character? Something you don't like?

Jack: His past and probably many years in CHAANKS basement are always an interesting theme to explore, but tbh...just put this weirdo in situations and I'll feel entertained. The strange mixture of a silly cute goofball, dangerous creep and lonely socially awkward genius is what makes him interesting to me and I just like these "wtf is wrong with him?"-moments. Besides that I see him as a switch and obviously kinky AF. He can be really mean and his kink for all kinds of weapons, preferably lethal, is so obvious, but deep down he's also a sub with a mommy kink. I really love him on both sides, but have a slight preference for needy sub-jack.

Scott: He is a slimy asshole with way too much ego and I love it when someone makes him shut up. Verbally, maybe literally. He definitely needs a lesson and I just love the scenes where he's really scared: not a trace of his arrogant attitude left. A bit of backstory and stuff that happened at Chaank pre-canon is also always appreciated!

Lon: Probably the character with the most lost potential. I particularly like stories where he survives and tries to fight his demons. His death was an easy way out of a moral dilemma and I love to read about a possible future on the ship. And of course I like the twisted psychosexual dynamic with Tuvok. I don't see them in a classic romantic relationship, but they both have a very strong fascination for each other and Suder definitely has a crush. After the meld he would do literally -anything- for him. And I'm sure Tuvok is always there to help him control his remaining violent tendencies.

23. Favorite picture of this character?

It's a pity that there are no really good official pictures of any of the three... all potato quality ;_; so some nice screenshots instead~

[coraniaid]

Top 5 parents? (in Buffy and/or Angel)

(Top 5 anything.)

Hmm.  I'm not sure there are as many as five unambiguously good parents in Buffy.  But, uh, let's see.

5) Joyce Summers [from Season 1's Welcome To The Hellmouth until ... well, you know.]

Cons: Famously doesn't react well to finding out that her only daughter is metaphorically bisexual.

Pros: Reacts a lot better to finding out her other daughter is metaphorically adopted.  Did lie to the police for Buffy at least once, and used an ax to protect her from a vampire.  Brought Buffy a nice dress to fight the Master in, and later bonded over a mutual dislike of Principal Snyder.

I've said before -- and will continue to say -- that I think Joyce is treated very unfairly by the fandom (particularly compared to how the fandom talks about Giles, who you'll note is not on this list for any number of reasons).  That said, while I think the show is actually very consistent about the fact that Buffy loves her mother and wants her mother's approval (it's not an inconsistency just because you personally don't like Joyce!), it's pretty inarguable that Joyce does and says a number of terrible things.  Which if she were a real person would matter a lot more than it actually does.

Ultimately, I think Joyce Summers tried to march in the Slayer Pride parade but did a pretty lousy job of it. Even when she wasn't being possessed or magically mind-controlled by a demon or a warlock or an evil robot (which … happens a lot, doesn’t it?).  The fact she's on this list at all is more of an indictment of the other options than it is an endorsement of her as a parent.

(Obviously I'm ignoring the big Normal Again retcon here, which I just don't think makes sense with what we see of Buffy and Joyce in the first five seasons of the show.  But yeah, if I accepted that as canon obviously Joyce wouldn't be anywhere near the list, even by Sunnydale's abysmally low standards.)

4) Amy Madison's dad [from Season 1's Witch]

Cons: Left his pre-teen daughter to be raised by a abusive mother who would go on to learn witchcraft and steal her daughter's body using evil magic. Never actually appeared on screen in the show.  Or given a name.

Pros: Don't think he knew about the witch part.  Definitely guilty about the whole thing afterwards anyway.  Amy seems pretty happy that he's back in her life at the end of the episode. Not involved in the whole witch-burning thing in Gingerbread, for some reason (well, okay, it’s because nobody bothered to cast an actor to play him or even remembered that Amy had a father, I guess).

A deleted scene from Season 6 suggests Amy's dad goes back to being a terrible parent later on, and even ignoring that he is kind of conspicuous by his absence after this one episode.  Letting your teenage daughter eat brownies whenever she wants: good parenting!  Letting your teenage daughter visit magical crack dens whenever she wants: significantly less good parenting!

3) Oz's Aunt Maureen [from Season 2's Phases]

Cons: Literally only exists on the show for a single five second phone call where we don't hear her or see her on screen.

Pros: Seems pretty relaxed about the fact that her son is a werewolf (that's not a pro for Oz, sure, but hey, we're not ranking how good an aunt she is).  Trumps Amy's dad by virtue of having a name.

I hope things worked out okay for little Jordy and the many, many werewolves he unwittingly sired by biting people when he was a kid.

2) Buffy Summers [from Season 5's Forever onwards] 

Look, she's Dawn legal guardian, so she counts.

Cons: Not as good with Dawn's social worker as a literal sex robot was. Tried to kill Dawn one time when she was possessed (... hey, I guess at least Joyce would be proud?).  Managed to miss the fact Dawn was skipping school … and dating a vampire … and stealing from the magic shop.  (She had a difficult year, okay?)

Pros: Made up for the social worker stuff by ... uh, turning invisible and ruining said social worker's life.  Literally died to protect Dawn from being murdered by a god in Season 5. Then worked incredibly hard for two years to protect Dawn from an even more terrible fate (having to go back to LA to live with Hank Summers).  

For somebody who was terrified by the thought of becoming her mother (whether played for laughs as in Season 2's Bad Eggs, or for real in Season 5), I think Buffy does a pretty good job with Dawn.

1) Nikki Wood [first seen in Season 5's Fool For Love flashbacks]

Cons: None.

Pros: She's perfect.

Lies My Parents Told Me can fuck right off.

[princessallura052]

Black Paladin Keith (detailed analysis)

Okay, so I did promise you guys an analysis. I did not expect to get this done so quickly but this moron who wanted validation on the mini-meta did made me angry enough to put this out there because *shrilly Angelica from Rugrats voice* Omg Keith and Black were such dicks to Shiro, aren’t they just horrible beings? Yeah, you guys just saw my petty side which I normally only show to close friends but to the sane VLD fans out there, I feel sorry for us having a fandom like this, we deserve better. So whether you agree with all this analysis or not, don’t be a toxic jerk. You can hate Keith all you want - I’m not a huge fan of Lance and don’t support LGBT stuff (unless canon and there are some exceptions too) but I’m not going to turn into Angelica from Rugrats on anyone who disagrees with me. 

So, the first screenshot is from Season 2 episode 1. Shiro is being attacked by giant lizards and Red is out of commission. Keith is not the Black Lion’s Paladin but the way he respects her is shown in the two screenshots below.

The way Keith speaks to Black despite his tone is so respectful. He’s not sure if Black will accept him because at this point, she’s not his lion but he talks to her and he waits for her. Also, some people may not consider this a huge deal but this is season 2 Keith. The Keith who literally blows up at everything - not calling him out, he is my favourite but unlike certain character fangirls, I won’t deny he has flaws because it makes him even more awesome.

Now, we’re going to jump onto s3. I know what some people are going to think. Keith was impatient with Black when he became her Paladin at first but like, give the kid a break. He’s just lost Shiro and been forced into a position he never asked for. Not to mention, Black isn’t as fast as Red is and that takes some getting used to.

So I’m going to go onto another episode after clone Shiro returns because this to me, highlights how quickly they bonded. Angelica from Rugrats also mentioned that Black Lion knew the clone wasn’t the real Shiro because she was in communication with the real Shiro. She knew it was not the real Shiro but saying she was in communication with him, I don’t know were we really ever given proof that lions retaining the essence of their Paladin was a voluntary thing?

Not to mention, how do we know Haggar didn’t give clone Shiro some ability to trick Black? Alfor made the lions from Altean alchemy but Haggar is also Altean. However, those are theories for another time. I would like to bring your thoughts to this conversation in season 3 episode 6 of Tailing the Comet.

Okay, so the reason I am giving these screenshots one by one is so I can explain myself a bit better. I may have to split this meta into a few parts too. Okay, so basically in this scene, clone Shiro who we believe to be Shiro at this time is trying to remember what happened. Keith tells him the last thing that happened was he had unlocked Black’s ability to teleport and the first thing he thinks is that Black was trying to protect Shiro. It’s the first suggestion he offers. This is the lion he didn’t even want to bond with because he was replacing Shiro but it took what? 4 episodes and he’s bonded with her and thinks so positively of her. And the scene isn’t over yet but I will mention a potential trigger warning here that there is victim blaming and victim shaming in the continuation of this scene. So please take care of yourself and do not hurt yourself to read this meta if you are triggered by that.

Clone Shiro in this scene tries to put all the blame onto the Black Lion. Angelica back there may argue that Keith was being a dick here though because this fandom sadly is toxic enough to be okay with victim blaming if Shiro is the one doing the victim blaming, clone or not. Sorry guys! I don’t hate Shiro, he’s actually one of my favourite characters believe it or not. But I hate what fans have turned such a wonderful character into and you can tell I’m still mad at this moron.

Ok, but look Keith is defending her. Keith is defending his lion from who he thinks is his brother - still think they’re not the perfect partners? Not to worry, I have one more evidence and this time, it’s not from Keith’s end either. It’s from the Black Lion’s because it’s at but the good news? I won’t have to do a second part because I should be able to fit this all into one meta. Ok, so this next scene is still from Tailing the Comet. 

Keith did not like the the slight competition between himself and Shiro. It put him in a position of choosing between Shiro and Black and although he ultimately chooses Shiro, it is a mistake and he acknowledges this in a later episode. But you saw earlier that Keith defended Black but the relationship is not one-sided. Black takes a stand for him too in that ‘no, I want Keith’ to the point that Keith basically has to remove himself completely, not just stepping aside for a singular battle because he doesn’t want conflict with Shiro and at this stage, he’s weak and honestly, a little codependent. It makes sense given his childhood that he would be but I never realised he was before. 

Now, we could argue that Keith and Red had a very mutual relationship too. I do not deny this - Keith has a beautiful relationship with both his lions as Keith is a character that loves very deeply. Red responded to that by being loudly protective while Black is more a quiet protective where you will not see her coming. I think I will do a two-parter to this. S6-8 do not have too much for them so it’ll be a shorter part than this but there are moments showing their bond.

I have given my screenshots as evidence for you but Keith and Black are healers for each other. Black was abused by Zarkon and Shiro was abused by Haggar, so the two had this in common but that was the only thing they had in common. Keith, once he gains confidence in himself is exactly like the kind of leader Black is. He’s emotional but he also thinks. I know a lot of Shiro fans are like: are you calling Shiro a bad leader? No, I’m just saying Keith is a better leader of Voltron. Shiro is a great leader - he helped them build alliances but Keith being the leader of Voltron and Shiro being the leader of the Atlas was a very smart choice. When Shiro was the leader of Voltron, he always was stressed and wanted to be the protector, making some bad decisions because he took much onto himself. There are a few examples of this too such as him taking all of Voltron to save Allura - they could have come with a better plan. Or continuing to shoot at cube monster despite Pidge trying to warn him and it nearly getting them all killed for not listening to her. Pidge is always right, Shiro. Have you learnt nothing? But compare this to how Shiro is when being the commander of the Atlas. He’s still a leader and he’s the one who gives orders but he doesn’t have a responsibility to protect them because they’re younger. 

But just to wrap by what I mean by Keith thinks. As most of you know I’m a Kallura fan, so Keith saying they shouldn’t go to save Allura in s1 did break the heart of this Kallura fan. But Keith had no idea how to people then - if he did, he was basically saying let’s not form Voltron and go save her head-on but he worded that very poorly.

This is just one example, of course from early on. Has he made hot-headed decisions as the leader of Voltron? Of course, he’s a flawed character but he grows to be the kind of leader Black is. Quiet and commanding but never overtaking anyone else. I think I’m going to ask you guys - do you want meta of Keith and Black from s6-8 or is this enough to make you think? 

Also, if you are toxic or a jerk, I will not reply to your comment. You are entitled to your opinion - I firmly believe you can express that opinion in a civil and humane manner. If you can’t, I will block you.

[doriandrifting]

I need to state my piece with canon v. fanon, and like forewarning this is just my personal perspective because ultimately you can create whatever you want and that’s a good thing!

So like I don’t mind fanon—obviously any hc, fic, artwork, etc. is going to have elements or be entirely fanon. When people are complaining about “fanon” —or at least I’ll speak for myself—it’s not about the actual fanon itself but moreso the culture around it?

I’ll use Byler as an example (but I see the same stuff being said about other ships and fandoms lol). People will take traits that Mike or Will have in canon and slowly turn up the dial until they’re basically a caricature of themselves or turn them into an OC via projection. And if you want to do that it’s your business! But the problem comes in when people will literally start to fight you for side eyeing something or not acting like this interpretation is the One True Interpretation™️.

I’m gonna use an extreme example just to make my point a little clearer: a few people took the rain fight’s “It’s not my fault you don’t like girls,” removed all the nuance, and turned that into fics with Mike hurling slurs or being aggressively homophobic. Now, we know very well that in S1, Mike was Will’s #1 defender against homophobic bullies—couldn’t even stand them calling him a “fairy.” But whatever, again, you can write whatever you want. The problem for me was so many people were being like “WHAT?? You didn’t read XYZ!? It’s basically canon!” or some of the fics were tagged canon compliant, and basically nothing to suggest that anyone is acting OOC. I saw people push back on this being Mike’s canon personality, and dude people in the fandom were tearing into them. It was wild.

A less extreme example is when people project their music interest onto Will. Personally I’m definitely mutuals with some people who do that and read fics from people who do that because a lot of them are great and it doesn’t inherently bother me! What frustrates me is when people insist that if you have a different view—one that aligns with canon—that he listens to alternative music, people act like you’re weird or deluded.

Anyway, the best thing to do is just protect your peace and curate a fandom space that caters to what you’re looking to get out of it. Like everyone I follow has various interpretations and theories, a lot that are different to mine, but I’ve made a point not to follow people whose interpretations are super ooc and super insistent because I know myself and I know that I don’t like that. I personally don’t have any problems with my dash, so maybe some of this comes from the whole “did you see what was in the tag” thing, because yes, the tagging system is meant to enable you to search all of tumblr, but it’s primary function is to sort posts on people’s blogs. The general tag is gonna have a lot of different opinions, some canon compliant, some not. It’s also gonna have fans at varying levels of maturity whose interpretations may reflect that. You’re going to have fans who have watched the show once, and fans who have rewatched a million times. So find out what you like and ignore rest. You’ll have a better time. I promise!

[sanityshorror]

Hi sanity,, this is the same anon who asked to ship my OC and jtDM. Okay I need to apologise for asking about shipping. Julius is new to me yes I was unaware he's homosexual and taken Dx I love KillMaker now their ship is too perfect to ignore,, I HAVE to ship it >0< oh I took your suggestion,, looking into the jtdm and mwtsn Killian. Okay well HOLY SHIT I did not see that coming.. hmm...

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These things ~i don't want to type~ J + K does mixed,, with the intense detailed backstory parts I've been able to so far find on your blog...he is the best crp EVER. JtDM (K too) is beautiful also he's terrifying and a for real creeps. Julius deserves so much more love,, he's the most under rated under appreciated crp when he is the best crp O,w,O can I spam his blog please? TuT

Imma be real with you anon: I expected either no follow up or the exact opposite reaction lmao. Indeed, you have pleasantly surprised me! /Gen /pos

Thank you so much for the kind words about my creations, it genuinely means a lot. If you have yet to read Julius' pasta, though it's tongue in cheek and meant to be really cheesey-tropey, it's definitely a fun read. Even I like to reread it occasionally (and I usually hate everything I write and illustrate, for the matter). If you enjoy the fucked up horror aspects and want to read a book that has much more depth and detail, you can find where to get my book The Man with the Scarred Neck on my website (linked). And ofc, Julius is in it lol. Julius and Killian are my brain babies❤️❤️❤️

You're so right about Julius and Killian being perfect together, quite literally made for each other. As horrible as their actions are, they are just so cute together lol. I really appreciate you respecting Julius' orientation and the canon relationship (though I do not police fan content at all, many people write Julius x female reader stuff, honestly IDC, I don't have that energy and I'm just happy to see people enjoying my creations so much).

As for Julius' RP blog, @juliusthedressmaker (there are NO other RP accounts that are official, I've seen a few so I just wanna make it clear this is the only real/canon one), fuckin go for it. Just be prepared for answers that are not always the nicest, often quite whacky, and lately the fandom has been torturing Julius about feet. 😭😭😭😭😭😭 All I ask is to please try to keep any sexual type of asks pg-13. And please no Julius-dick questions, I constantly am asked about this, literally everyday, on both my blog and his. I ignore the asks but they are fucking exhausting. 💔 Julius is very interesting beyond his, let's say, visual appeal.