#it is my personal agenda to spite the fandom as much as i can

[stargazeraldroth]

Hm… I’m curious- How does 404 even know Ink? Assuming he actually knows him at all, of course- Did he wanna be Ink’s rival when they were younger, only to get upstaged by Error? We’re they friends and 404 just got way, way too possessive? Does he actually think Ink is in love with him, or does he not care about that? Do Ink and Error even know he exists, or is this a case of, like, erotomania or something?

Does Didi factor into it at all- What does she think of Error and 404?

Congrats, Anon, you did it. You made me look up what erotomania is. Not like it's dramatic or anything, since I know some similar words (such as nymphomania), but still. I didn't even know this was a word. For those who don't know what that word means, it's basically just an excessive desire to smash like hell.

And you know what? Yes. Yes he does. He's also a fricking yandere, for that matter. But the erotomania isn't that important, it'd really just be like, trivia or subtext or some crap. I know I said that there would be more mature content in the Pokemon AU, such as Pokemon experimentation (*cough* Didi *cough*) and potentially even character death, but I don't know how I feel about adding any kind of NSFW content. If I do, it'd most likely be in the form of adult jokes, like the ones hidden in cartoons or something.

I actually forget what the plan for 404 was, so I'm just gonna be pulling everything out of the trenches of my memory and my ass. I think one of the ideas was that 404 was gonna be one of the students that went to the same academy as Ink, Error, and others. 404's a strong trainer in his own right, but battling also isn't his strongest passion. I'm thinking he's kinda like Colress. I'd say he and Ink at least knew each other, maybe they were classmates, but drifted apart due to different paths- Ink went on to become a Champion and 404's working as a scientist. The important thing with the Cult is that they're all pretty delusional, which should be obvious by their goal of obtaining perfection by any means (and what the frick they're doing), so 404 is very much delusional about what could be. I like to think that 404 and Error were always rivals, even when Ink wasn't in the picture, and the fact that Error married Ink just rubbed salt in the wound for 404.

Astral Mother: And then we'll kill Ink, one of our greatest opponents-

404: NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Astral Mother:

X-Gaster (he's also here, completely separate from normal Gaster):

404:

Astral Mother: ... Fine. You can keep him.

404: YAY :D

Didi is actually very crucial to the storyline, more than what you'd expect for a Champion's Pokemon. Didi was actually one of the Pokemon experimented on and abused by the Cult, which led to the discolored look they have. Instead of looking like a shiny Diancie, they have a brownish palette for their "skin" (is it skin or is it all just rock?), to match Broomie's own color palette. I forget if I mentioned that, but Didi's basically the Broomie of this AU, hence why she has a nickname and isn't just called "Diancie". The Cult used Didi to create hundreds if not thousands of diamonds for their larger scheme. This is where Ink comes in: in true Protagonist Fashion, he ambushed the operation and beats everyone there, freeing Didi in the process. Now, just to clear things up, the Cult wasn't present for this. It was actually a different group carrying out orders from the Cult. In other terms, the Cult is pulling the strings behind everything, and other Cults essentially get forced into cooperating with them.

As for Didi's bond with Error, there... really isn't much of one. Until it gets revealed, Error's actually one of the only people who knows about Didi being in Ink's possession. And while he can't say he's too fond of Didi, they're a good Pokemon. He just wishes they would stop trying to jump on the bed, they can't keep replacing the sheets and blankets. Well, they can, they're rich, but you know what he means.

So, to summarize: 404's a yandere and a sore loser, Didi is an experiment survivor, Didi tolerates Error, and Didi despises 404.

[littleshysheep-at-da]

Do you happen to have a discord account? There's a Kumo Desu discord. It's really not the most active nowadays, but it's there

I do actually! But I have probably the smallest social battery in the world and am also just a person who is INSANELY introverted, so I’m a very infrequent conversationalist. (Just a heads up to everyone I tend to give my Discord as a method of Content at Cons but uh… If I ever meet you in person and add you pls don’t worry if I don’t message you, I’m not trying to avoiding you or trying to ghosting you I’m just anti social and a dumby).

But honestly? I avoid general Fandom Servers (and ESPECIALLY Reddit Subs) like the plague. They’re just… too… unfiltered? Like I’ve come to learn how in Fandom everyone has different things they’re interested in. So you can be into the same Series but just completely incompatible, and that’s not that incompatible people are not bad people at all!!! You just have vastly different focuses and therefore not a lot to talk about! And since I’m mostly a Character Analysis Shipper type (and particularly a DIEHARD OTP/OT3 person) I tend to avoid more Gen stuff cause Shippers often get shit. Like excuse you Shippers DO care about Analyzing the Media!! But a lot of people in Kumoko are really in to like… Power Levels? And I mean yeah it has a lot of Stats and stuff so I don’t think that’s like an invalid point of interest!!! But it’s just never been my thing.

Plus with Kumoko I once checked the Reddit (mistake on my part I know) and (if I’m being honest about my bitterness, so heads up this next part is full of spite I’m sorry) saw people going for Ships I hate with such a passion I had to question if they even Read the Series or are Literate at all. Like my god I have never had NOTPs THAT STRONG. Like not liking the same Ships doesn’t have to be a dealbreaker (really depends on what they are though)!!! Like usually Ships I don’t like fall on a scale of “I could see it but it’s not my go to” to “that kinda icky but I knew it would be gross” but this was a “I have never questioned someone’s Reading Comprehension harder in my life and I want murder”. And do not get me started on people who Waifu Shiro and dumb her down to a Dere girl when her best quality is being insane. And people on Reddit are often mean and idk if Discord Servers are the same.

I mean… I guess this me having to come clean that I am… weirdly over protective of my Character Reads and Ships in Kumoko. Like a lot. Like a “I genuinely don’t understand why I get worked up about it so much?” (My best guess is left over Bullied Kid Trauma but I ain’t about to Trauma Dump rn) So ummmm there’s that… (my other all time Fav Series is Persona and idk cause it’s a Game I kinda expect there to be lots of people with bad takes cause people do Play Games without Reading the Dialogue at all (I know it’s super weird) and it’s a big enough (much bigger than Kumoko) Fandom for there to be people of all takes…) honestly Posting on Kumoko content has been super good for me cause it’s making me feel more comfortable talking about my Opinions? So I always have to give a BIG Thanks to people who send in Asks and Like my Posts.

… SORRY THIS REPLY GOT SO LONG AND PERSONAL GAH! Basically I didn’t know there was a Server but I’m not super interested. I’m gonna instead try to cultivate (with an emphasis on cult lmao) the kind of very specific Content I want to see on my own Blog 🫡

Basically I’m a Post about Shiro x Ariel and there three kids Mera, Kyouya, and Sophia as well as my Shun x Katia x Kyouya Agenda until you all go insane and it invades your brain.

[broadwaytheanimatedseries]

I like the idea more that their human halves are underdeveloped compared to their ghost halves in various ways, a theory that I feel their designs support!

Adam - physically a ghost and human at the same time, being easily the most tangible of the clones. (Insert d20 Kristen becoming flesh and spirit in one reference, anyone who hasn't seen sophomore year yet pretend you didn't read that and anyone unfamiliar with d20 sorry for not making any sense) but mentally? Nah that's very rudimentary human intellect, just barely passing the threshold necessary to be considered a person.

Ashton is definitely smug, silly, and as middle children often are in order to stand out is exceptional in one particular way which is his superior intellect to his fellow triplets. Easily the smartest of the three as displayed by his innate understanding of how putting on a bedsheet makes you look more like a "classic" ghost, (Because do you really think Vlad explained anything to these guys other than their mission?) Not that it takes that high intelligence to understand how his human half is underdeveloped - he ain't got no skin! Papyrus looking ass bitch over here, he's probably got body image issues too which is what the sheet is actually for. ;-;

Now Bob got the shortest end of the stick, fittingly enough, with his physical human half being practically non existent leaving him as just loose ectoplasm with nothing solid to hold it together and his mental human half isn't too far behind. Yknow how I said Adam just barely passes the threshold for counting as a person? Yeah well, he's still doing better than Bob, there's a reason he's named after a type of house cat. The hissing and scratching is just about his only form of communication as he lack both the vocal chords and brain capacity to do much else to express emotions. And he really only feels one in this sorry, miserable state of existence. Anger. That's right folks, this incredible little creature, this freak of nature that simply should not be and has no logical way of surviving is holding itself together through sheer fucking spite. Good for them.

I think your observation on Adam looking a lot like Jack and Vlad having feelings about it is spot on and I also really like the idea of Adam being as smart as the monster his name is inspired by, though I do agree that it doesn't hold up canonically... but!

Let's talk about these headcanoned versions of the clones post ecto dejecto:

Once again starting with the elder, Adam gets to have a ghost half and a human half, already being the closest to a stable clone and gets a mental boost along with it.

His human half looks a lot like a mix of Jack and Vlad, all shock white hair and bright blue eyes, and with his newly improved and quite impressive intellect (not as much as Ashton's as he now has time to learn more, but still on par with pre dejecto Ashton) along with his already impressive strength well... it's safe to say Vlad has all sorts of feelings about this. (Forver pushing my Jackvlad agenda, these bitches messy) in addition to all this, having always been Vlad's least favorite but also the most resilient, he had long since been his father's guine pig when it came to tempering with the genetic sequence of their template's ectoplasm and as such, his core is not ice but lightning.

Next is Ashton, who's new upgrades are a give and take, literally. He gives up some fundamental ghost abilities like his intangiblity and invisibility, but he gains a full body and a real human half. His ghost half retains his old color scheme, glowing neon ecto green hair and blood red eyes, with a neat looking black skin tight outfit.

Which, by the rules of color invertion which we as a fandom have collectively imposed on all halfas, his human half has Jack's blue eyes and Maddie's auburn hair. He can fly and see through things, and I think he probably has better access to the ice aspect of his powers than any of the clones, Dani included, (especially as I kinda headcanon her as actually having a water core due to being able to melt on command post dejecto unless im misrembering that) and he definitely has the ghost sense by extension of having an ice core. He's the clone who could most easily pass for Jazz and Danny's actual sibling in his human form.

Finally, you have the youngest triplet, being the worst of the batch Bob requires not only an ecto dejecto to stabilize their tiny form but also more ectoplasm in their diet to help them grow and support the human body that's slowly generating, and yet another DNA sample from a full human to help complete the missing bits of the human half. Jazz is more than happy to volunteer her DNA to save her clone sibling and skulker ends up hunting them for sport which for once, is both for his own fun as well as his target's who appreciates the practice and the opportunity to unleash all their growing rage and test their developing skills, and he actually end up bonding with the little scamp that rather than try to take his pelt as a prize he bring him home to his haunt and introduces him to Ember, who instantly adopts the feral cat of a growing ghost boy and proceeds to smother him in love.

Youngblood even comes by to babysit when the couple wants to have a date night which, at first the kid ghost hated the idea of babysitting as he saw it as adult responsibilities, but when he realized it was just an excuse to play with a new friend he was ecstatic! He taught Bob all his favorite tricks, including ghost speak as Youngblood always appreciated how silly and weird it sounds to non ectos, like a bunch of incoherent oohs and ahs. Eventually, as Bob grew into their new form, they were a mix of all the DNA that made them up and all the ectoplasm they had absorbed via regular contact with other ghosts. They were playful and cheery like Youngblood, along with being taught ghost speak by their babysitter Ember had helped them work on their ghostly wail and they often sang back up vocals in her songs (the one she wrote for her GZ exclusive concerts which weren't meant to hypnotize anyone and were also written and preformed in ghost speak), his ghost form had also changed quite a bit to reflect his developing human one, and he looked as tho he and Ember could be mother and son in the after life, all flowing blue hair and bloody red eyes. They had Skulker's ferocity for sure, although that had been true even before all the growing pains, but they had grown into their viciousness with a stamina to back it up, like a true persistence predator. Their human half looked a lot like an androgynous Jazz, they still had Danny's unmistakably recognizable eyebrows, but their orange hair and aqua eyes made them look more a clone of Jazz than of Danny. They also had Jazz's intuition when it came to empathy and emotional intelligence, and with all the aforementioned traits you can see how they've become. If their siblings are high and higher int, then they're high wis. They also have Danny's love of one liners tho, especially in human form although even with all that work, their vocal chords are still more suited for their ghostly speak and ghostly wail, so they execute their quips through sign.It is unclear what kind of core they have as they display no abilities that are core specific, but it's possible that they're still just classified as a sprite despite having grown in size and become a halfa like their siblings, and so their ghost half isn't much stronger than it used to be.

(Anyway, let's play "can you tell who Dandy's clear favorite is?!?" Come on, you get three guesses!!)

Well, that's all I got for now, let me know if you want yet even more of the adventures of the clone sibs, perhaps with guest appearance by their papa Vlad and how they all play into his redemption arc!

Not Enough Survived Clones Content Out Here, Especially Since It's Technically Canon....

According to the wiki:

"Dani and the other clones can be seen in Phantom Planet."

Now I know how most of this fandom feels about Phantom Planet but whether or not you accept any of it as canon, the concept of the clones surviving is wonderful regardless and deserves to be explored...

So I gave them names!

So let's start with Fentonstein over here (and yes, I'm aware he'd technically be Fentonstein's monster by the nature of that reference, do not start this with me, commenter I made up in my head!)

Anyway, I believe I made the name pretty obvious, one of the names given to Frankenstein's monster is Adam and it was a whole lot better than calling him Prometheous Plasmius although lbr, Vlad would absolutely be that extra. Also yes, the clones did not have the arc that Dani did so I don't think they ever stopped thinking about Vlad as their father, sad as that may be.

Then we have - Holyshit it's lord death man! And I thought this wasn't gonna be a batpham crossover!!

So why Ashton? Well Ashes, for one, both for his dark, almost burnt looking bones and for the death symbolism of it, and ton from skeleton, but also I just think it suits him? As much as a glowing green skelton can look like an anything, he looks like an Ashton to me, yknow?

And finally, we have Bob.

I don't have a joke for him, he's just Bob. Like, no lie I've had him named that in my head for years, while the other two I'd only managed to name just five minutes ago, istg.

So, why Bob? Easy. Because they made him fairy like. A pixie, one might say.

And for that reason alone I always called him Pixie Bob, which eventually got shortened to Bob.

Anyway, if anyone is interested I might write some more clone lore because I love the idea of giving these idiots individual and interconnected arcs.

[yazthebookish]

Since I haven't written a long post on here in a while I'm just going to sort of a refresher post on how the narrative supported Gwynriel from my reading experience while reading ACOSF.

I would also put a reminder here that I wasn't a hardcore shipper in the fandom before ACOSF and wasn't really involved in the fandom pre-ACOSF, so I was pretty much a casual reader and wasn't motivated by a certain ship or something to push an "agenda" to spite other shippers, because as I said I wasn't a hardcore shipper of any of the ACOTAR characters I was happy with Rowaelin so I already won.

But fun fact, I always had a gut feeling a new character might be Azriel's endgame. I loved Azriel but I wasn't convinced of any of the current options. I didn't think Elr*el had much because a lot of their interactions were open to interpretation and 3 brothers and 3 sisters is just very convenient and uninteresting. I have to give it to them the fanart was pretty and made them more appealing (I even had a few Elriel and Elucien art saved on my old Pinterest ACOTAR board) this was before I shipped Az with anyone.

I've always been the type of reader who will go with whatever SJM will write because I enjoy everything she writes despite their flaws. Her books give me so much comfort.

Moving on.

I read purely for Nessian but I was also looking forward to how Azriel's journey would be set up. I think even in one of my older Instagram posts before ACOSF I mentioned how excited I was to see how SJM is going to set up Azriel's journey because she gave him a bonus chapter from his POV and that alone made many readers assume the book after ACOSF is his.

I adored Gwyn from the moment I met her because it was so fun to see someone just be a tad snarky with Nesta. Gwyn wasn't all that friendly with her they were still testing the waters around each other but the more we read about her the more we saw an amazing character. I can tell Sarah enjoyed writing Gwyn because she got a lot of moments of spotlight in ACOSF and we will get back to that.

Now let's talk about Gwynriel.

I think one of the most important things people need to remember is, this is not a ship that came out of nowhere. If some casual readers say they didn't see much of it then that's valid (it's true Gwynriel are not romantically involved at this stage) but when there are other casual readers like myself who brought it up and said it's clear to us SJM is setting them up, why is that invalidated?

Eventually I wasn't just a casual reader I got heavily involved in the fandom and became an active Gwynriel fan. I was pretty thrilled about it after ACOSF and their future potential and was starving for more content from other fans.

I personally find it silly when people claim that Gwynriel is a crackship or made up. Its totally valid to prefer other ships and not be fan of it, it's not cool to invalidate what readers picked up on what the author put in her own book. Interpretation will differ and people will have different meanings for those crumbs, but regardless they are right there in the text.

Let's remember that this is an unfinished series. The author can throw in new crumbs that could establish something in the next book. We will know for sure in the next book.

In time it can be proven true or false, but Sarah has a pattern and her writing style can be predictable sometimes. She is not a subtle writer and she confirmed while talking about Azriel she threw in crumbs in ACOSF and in his bonus chapter and was looking forward to see what theories readers will come up with. That is confirmed by her, but readers will have different interpretations to what those crumbs mean. Me, as a casual reader that went into this book with no expectations, finished it thinking she is setting up Gwyn and Azriel (and at this point I still haven't read the bonus chapter. Now, after reading the bonus chapter it confirmed to me what I suspected while reading the book itself and I thought they were likely be mates). The bonus chapter to me was more in favor of Gwyn than it was for Elain because when the reader finished reading that chapter they are left with how it ended: Azriel burying the image of Gwyn's joy in his chest.

But the popular argument is the bonus chapter is not accessible for everyone and that's true. The bonus chapter gives us a hint to what's going to come up in the next book. Now, people have different interpretations to what the bonus chapter is hinting at but it still made people talk about Gwyn. Whether readers think they're mates, whether she's a Lightsinger, it just proves how the narrative placed Gwyn within Azriel's circle and this doesn't apply to the bonus chapter alone this applies to the book itself.

Now, we need to remember that ACOSF was narrated through Nesta and Cassian's POVs and so it won't focus on developing a romance off-page because no one wants that but it can still establish a connection or a future set up for certain characters. The narrative repeatedly paid attention to Azriel and Gwyn's interactions. It doesn't matter if it's romantic or platonic, Azriel was around other priestesses and Emerie (who we never saw interact with on page) but what the narrative kept bringing up is the interactions between Azriel and Gwyn even if they were subtle.

Sarah is known to leave subtle crumbs that she can build on later and it makes sense because Gwyn is a new character but I would dare say among the secondary characters in Nessian's book, she got more development than the other characters and Sarah left quite a few threads that she can connect Gwyn to (The crossover, Autumn court, Valkyries/Illyrian conflict, mysterious parentage, etc.) and she also established her healing journey and left it unresolved (her wanting to leave the library, her saying she still feels guilty over Catrin's death despite training, her not wearing the priestesses stone yet). This is why Emerie was a bit more in the background because Sarah did not put her in the spotlight as much as she did with Gwyn and we definitely want to see more of her and hope we do n the future books.

There would be an argument on why would Sarah dismiss potential ships that were there since ACOWAR and go for a new character. Let's remember that ACOWAR was published in 2017 and ACOFAS in 2018 while ACOSF was in 2021. Plenty of time passed and this is the reason Sarah herself explains why she never confirms ships—it's because she gets surprised where her characters take her on their journeys and there was even one interview where she said a new ship could pop up and she could go for that even if she had a different ship in mind originally. And to be frank, we can argue endlessly about what she had always planned but in reality no one knows anything. She's an author that could change a ship on a whim and still make it make sense and write a beautiful story for them. Even Gwynriel is not safe, Azriel could have an entirely different romantic partner in the next book that isn't Gwyn or Elain only because Sarah liked that option better.

So I feel like invalidating something based on what she wrote pre-2018 especially for ships doesn't really hold up. She already retconned two events from ACOMAF and ACOWAR in ACOSF so what she wrote in the past could not be that relevant in what she writes in the present day (and that depends). Azriel had shown romantic interest in Mor in ACOMAF, ACOWAR and ACOFAS. His interactions with Elain since ACOWAR were open to interpretation and based on how the fandom is divided on that can be interpreted as for either and again, bonus chapter isn't accessible for anyone so no one will know they almost kissed. It's not about who has the most interactions, it's about who is being set up as the endgame couple in the main novel eventually.

We also need to bear in mind that changing romantic endgames does not impact the overarching plot because if the author wants the new couple to be involved in that she can easily tie them to it without justifying why she wanted to do that change.

Now back to Gwynriel. As I said the narrative paid special attention to some of their interactions and Sarah making Gwyn a unique case when it comes to how Azriel's shadows react to her compared to everyone else is such a big thing. It was written intentionally and because she was a unique case many readers picked that up. It's spoken about a lot regardless of how the theories differ.

ACOSF made the fandom speak a lot about Azriel and Gwyn whether it's someone who is an anti or a fan. She is placed by the author in Azriel's circle there's no denial about that because even antis theorize about her role in Azriel's story since the connection is there.

So someone could be like "hey show me where they are romantic or confess their love for each other" that doesn't really kill that possibility because the crumbs are there, in an SJM book that what matters. We had Chaol and Yrene as an example of a couple that met in one book and fell in love. Gwyn and Azriel, if they're getting the next book, at least had a set up prior to their book. Many readers speak about the set up they have and what that could lead into in the future. Ultimately, what matters is what happens in the future and that's why I believe with what we have now it's likely going the Gwynriel route.

Am I saying this with 100% certainty? nope because I'm not the author but the last book published is what convinced me that it has a high chance of happening.

[roxannepolice]

What's this? An essay in this collection considering the possibility that the silks so fine people just can't see them are in fact the emperor's naked hairy ass? Surely I will have nothing to snark about with this one?

Nope. Brace yourselves, for I'm about to defend Chibnall Who.

Almost like this show is family entertainment escapist fantasy or sth?

Citizens of the Earth, rejoice! A British-Indian screenwriter has been enlightened as to what he had to say about his history by an (admittedly brown) American scholar! No srsly, she doesn't even mention Demons of the Punjab were written by Vinay Patel. Scholarsplaining much?

But of course, my fave part had to be

Don't forget he has also been a cat.

That's... this... character's... shtick. They're an alien hellbent on universal domination in browraisingly creative ways. It's what they've been up to for 50 years and counting. And cherished for, may I add.

He's an alien. This is a family entertainment escapist fantasy. 5 year olds can generally understand the idea of fictional aliens. Much likelier than being able to immediately identify the performer's DNA makeup on sight. Also, can we appreciate how smoothly Loza twists the Master's long standing spite of humans (specieism?) into racism?

THAT'S. THIS. CHARACTER'S. SHTIIIIIIICK!!!!!!!

So yeah, this was something. Like, I agree that even (or especially) the most "innocent" texts deserve scrutiny, but Loza completely ditches any contextual reading (THEY. ARE. ALIENS.) in favour of pointilistic picking out stuff. And this - this is bad faith criticism, albeit dressed in scholarly robes. This is assumption that you've cracked the malevolent agenda behind someone's action and twist all their words to fit. And the results can be sorry. Saying DW is ruined by PC now is incorrect, but if the writers decide that every sensitive issue should be discussed in the form of a thorough bio-interview instead of a sci-fi story, it just might.

Sorry, but that part about the Master really pissed me off, because what the author basically implied is that this character - the Doctor's shadow, mirror, sword and shield - can never be played by anyone else than a white man, or else things get problematique beyond your imagination. Yes, the triumphant "Now they'll see the real you!" was beyond bad, so bad in fact that I think the fandom silently agreed to acknowledge how bad it was and not even try interpreting it (unless it's in the context of 13 is a horrible person! - 13 is just deeply full of rage!), so this was somewhat eye opening ad to what this scene could have meant, but my point still stands. Diversifying the cast is a good move, and acting as if power obsessed villains - often among the most iconic characters in the franchise - can only be played by actors fitting the image of a white colonialist isn't helping anyone.

I bet you anything that if this Master was "toned down" the argument would be made about brown people not being allowed to be domineering *cough*Missy discourse*cough*.

[tarar16]

GFY Legacies. . .

I’ve never felt so personally attacked by a fictional TV show/character before.

According to the spiteful 12 year old writers on “Legacies”, country music is ‘garbage’ listened to by ‘garbage-people’. The fact that they wrote this as a throw-away line, like everyone should just automatically accept this as true was truly insulting. And that it was said by one my former favorite characters, Rebekah, really ticked me off.

I really wish that writers would stop using shows as their own personal pulpit to push their Hollywood agendas. Like if you don’t subscribe to whatever popular/mainstream PC BS that they forcefully put out, then you’re somehow inferior and stupid. Sorry, but I prefer to do my own thinking for myself.

Cancel-culture is getting out of hand and just plain asinine these days. I watch TV to be entertained, not preached at or judged. Having my own personal preferences slammed and thrown in my face is not entertainment to me. That really puts me off and leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

Whatever happened to free will and letting people like what they want to? As long as it hurts no one and doesn’t promote anything bad, then why do you even care? Who are they to judge anyone for having different tastes?  Why was this hurtful comment even necessary?

Who are they or anyone to look down their noses at it, as if really intelligent people can’t like country music. Like it’s all nothing but ignorance and white trash.

Granted, there are some very redneck-y country songs. But not all of it is like that. That’s why I hate ‘blanket-statements’ like this which are used to encompass an entire genre. There are some country ballads that are truly beautiful, IMHO.

What kind of music do they listen to in their writers’ room? Probably Bieber and KidzBop. So only they can do what they want, but if anyone else does it’s suddenly wrong? Guess they’d better never use any kind of even slightly country-sounding music at all on the show ever again then. Otherwise they’ll be blatant hypocrites.

As if I needed yet another reason to hate this shit-show!! If there was a petition to get this show off the air, I’d sign it in a heartbeat! I don’t even know if I want to watch “TVD” or “The Originals” on Netflix anymore.

That statement just really alienated me from wanting anything to do with any of the shows/fandom anymore. Talk about promoting toxicity/marginalization. So much for trying to ‘be inclusive’. Apparently that only applies to people who fit a certain conforming ‘narrative’. Only this is seen as ‘progressive’ now, I guess.

But don’t mind me. Guess I’ll just be over here in the corner with the rest of the ‘garbage-people’ blasting Luke Bryan all night, getting drunk, and enjoying myself while flipping these no-talent assholes off.

Apparently I’m not classy enough to impress such snotty Hollywood people. But I don’t much fucking care either. They can feel as superior as they want. I’m not gonna let it affect me or my life.

This is me, this is what I like, take it or leave it. If you don’t like it, that’s your prerogative. But I’m not gonna change what I like or what I post just because it’s not popular or accepted. I’m going to listen to the music that I want to. And I’m going to watch the shows/movies that I want to.

I’m just as valid as anyone else. No one has to follow me or read my posts if they don’t want to. You don’t have to agree with me either. You can like or dislike what you want also.

Just don’t expose yourself to things that you don’t like and don’t punish those who do like it. Live and let live, people. Why is this such a difficult concept to grasp?

[elizabethrobertajones]

Did Bobo really create the Wayward Sisters? If so, why weren't Jack and especially Cas included in that episode? That's my biggest issue with that pilot honestly, I mean, the fact that the show abandoned Claire and Cas' bond after season 10 and gave that storyline to Salmondean. Her bond with Cas is more interesting because of their connection to the Novaks. I also think that Claire and Jack would've made a more engaging dynamic and spin off together, I think they're strong characters & actors

Hi there!

Bobo isn’t the “creator” of Wayward so much as it can even have one, as it was a very organic idea, which even involved a healthy amount of fandom input. The original campaign in season 10 was for Wayward Daughters, and the idea picked up so much steam the altered title for, I guess, a mix of copyright and thematic relevance was the Sisters one. I’d say 10x08 was the real genesis of it as something that could be really solid. Once Kim and Briana were put together the chemistry and star power they could have had together was really meteoric as far as our small SPN world was concerned. Phil Sgriccia directed 9x13 and wrote 10x08 and was more of the parent of Wayward than any specific writer in that sense. Jody and Claire were pretty much common property of the show by that point. Claire was really introduced again in relation to plotlines and questions about Cas and less to do with them really going out of their way to re-launch her. I think they’d have been much cornier about it from the start and while YA protagonist diary writing her way through the end of Wayward Sisters was cute, it’s the sort of cutesy that really has to be earned. If she STARTED that way, like maybe me and 3 friends would be stanning her and everyone else would be revolted :P

(I am a YA fantasy novel author, but I do think everyone should make room in their hearts for this level of cheese)

In any case, Bobo just threw his hat into an already crowded ring with Alex, but obviously loving the characters and having his own personal wayward child to contribute did help elevate him to the prospective showrunner seat, but also all the other writers who’d written these characters except Dabb had left at that point. If Bobo was going to shepherd them through to their new show, he’d be the legacy writer, even though he was a new baby writer in the season Donna was introduced... Attrition aside, he did genuinely write them very well, loved their stories and was great with writing Jody when he could get her, so he would also have been a good choice even if all the others were left still... 

But anyway. Season 10′s subplot for Cas was about Claire and learning some stuff about himself along the way, but she was used very much for his personal development and for Dean as well, being a mini Dean herself in a season where he had lost a lot of his sense of self. It’s a total accident of scheduling but Angel Heart (10x20) being the last episode before 10x22 is a nice touch in that regard. And while Cas tried really hard with Claire and awoke his inner Dad side so that he’d be more prepared for fatherhood next time, it was pretty insurmountable between them to have anything more than a bittersweet relationship where the best he could do was make up with her and see her somewhere safe. The fact of him looking like her actual dead father is horrendous the more you think about it and while she managed to see him for who he was instead of a horrible monster, that’s more than enough trauma to inflict on an already traumatised girl for the sake of helping Cas’s manpain and tidying up the sticky question of Jimmy and Cas’s right to the vessel. 

Angel Heart very specifically ends with TFW mailing Claire to Jody because they know she’s already good with Alex in a genuine way and can handle these sort of issues and has done it before. And also because she can be a guardian who will not constantly remind Claire that her father is dead but something is walking around wearing a perfect reconstruction of his face. Carver era did a few things here and there with bodily autonomy and the problem of angel and demon vessels, but it was also really hit and miss. They’d get random waves of feeling guilty about it but then by necessity go back to stabbing angels in their still-living vessels an episode later. Claire was a way to address at the very least that whatever Cas was being put through was only a punishment on Cas and not on Jimmy as well, which is probably why we got such sappy Heaven scenes. We NEEDED to be shown he was in Heaven and largely okay with what was going on so that the show could justify using Cas at all as a character without breaking the code of ethics they tried to make their own characters adhere to. Aside from that it also gave Cas a side plot for when he wasn’t needed in the main plot, and any emotional connection to anything that wasn’t Sam and Dean.

Anyway 10x20 caused this huge fandom high which was followed by one of the lowest lows of the fandom immediately after, and both centred on female characters (in fact, now we know, 2 lesbians even! Though I’d wonder if, The Gay Agenda aside, Bobo spite-wrote that specifically because of the roots of Wayward) and I think that galvanised the whole movement of fans and hopefully some self-reflection in the show. They DID start making an effort in season 11, which shows some of the early signs of better inclusion but also backtracking or edging nervously away from the more intense Carver era stuff. Not just because Dean didn’t have the Mark any more but in general it was like someone had opened a window and let in some fresh air... Even before Carver bailed somewhere around the midseason to go do a different show and Dabb started to step up. 

All this to say that the Wayward stuff was always about the female characters and making up for the past sins of the show. It’s even a riff on the “wayward son” line which obviously centres around male protagonists and their journey. Claire stumbled into being a part of it in the lucky way of being in the right place and time, but the journey had already started even in the season 10 momentum with earlier work and it was that which suddenly made the prospect that Jody had two young women living with her now seem like a starter for the next generation of the show as it was a mirrored format to season 1 in a way, if you took Alex and Claire as the new Sam and Dean. It was exciting but people flipped out after Angel Heart because stuff had been bubbling since season 9 and earlier in season 10, so this was just pouring more candy into an already visibly full bowl of potential tasty gems. It made a possibility seem real that hadn’t before because we already had Kim bitterly complaining that the CW refused to hear the case for a Jody spin off because she was too old. The next best thing was a Jody spin off where she was the Gandalf to some CW age appropriate characters.

(the CW is and always has been garbage)

Anyway in season 13 Jack was introduced as a Claire 2.0 but as a male character with staying power for that reason, but he was filling the space she left for Cas. He couldn’t be a father to her and neither really wanted that set up anyway. But thematically it had created the possibility of Dadstiel and the space he had in his heart for that. Since the show was in its waning years they would be looking for endgame and handing Cas an easy win with a son he could unconditionally love who would love him back unconditionally absolutely filled that gap. It was a non SamnDean thing that Cas could have for himself outside of whatever happened with them. Not sure the memo came back that he was supposed to have mORE than that but oh well it’s not real if you don’t watch it :))) But yeah Jack was always going to be linked to Cas’s endgame, he wasn’t a free-floating character such as Jody who could go where she wanted and do as she pleased. He was main story relevant from start to finish and tied inexorably to another main character’s fate. Because the show wouldn’t do that with its female characters they could be bundled into spin offs but in practical terms Jack was both never what the Wayward as envisioned by fans or writers was about, nor would he have been free to go. 

Since it would have been about centering the stories of people overlooked by the main story, Claire a case in point that she had her life ruined in season 4 and it was a footnote until season ten, and then metaphorically more the concept of having queer and non-white characters in the mix of main characters, it would have represented a future of the story where the main show was unable to tread. Probably because of the CW. Also inherent biases in the writers. Bad cocktail. Jack is both too white and too male to fit the brief to ever leave SPN, and not only that but he is so as a precise mirror to the main white male characters, being passably any one of their sons if you squint, and meant to be instantly instinctively read as such... he was one of the safest bets of representing the show as the network wanted to imagine its target demographic.

So I really don’t think that Jack has any place being in a spin off of the show unless you want more of the same. They tried to give us something different and the CW didn’t like it because it wasn’t more of the same. Ironically a Jack spin off, with or without Claire, would have more chance of being greenlit and more chance of success. But the spin off they put their heart behind was Wayward Sisters as it was. And I think it was absolutely correct that never mind leaving Jack out of it after his work was done in the lead up episode to help set the table, but honestly they could have cut all the middle scenes of Sam and Dean wandering in the woods and gained precious seconds with the girls and still had a functioning story with those guys. It was like some cowardly missive was sent that the show couldn’t actually go more than 10 minutes without showing a flesh and blood Winchester or the whole thing would spontaneously sizzle out of syndication and the money tree would wither on the spot. And in the mean time, we could have been having Banter with the girls. Or Claire and Kaia holding hands some more. The good stuff :P 

[dappercritter]

She-Ra for the ask meme! (Maybe a bad time with the final season so close, you can save this until after if you like.)

(Based on this meme.)

Well, did I save this for later or what?

The first character I first fell in love with: Entrapta. Aside from her colour scheme—I do love a good purple girl, to say the least—I adore her for her enthusiastic, inquisitive, compassionate, and rather eccentric personality. Not to mention her design is an absolute joy to watch in action; from the goggles to the prehensile hair, is creative and adorable. She steals every scene she’s in with her loveably manic energy. The fact that she’s a scientist, who specializes in advanced technology no less, makes her an important character in a magic-driven fantasy setting—her design helps her stand out among the more traditional looking princesses, too! The fact that she’s some of the most effectively authentic examples of autistic representation in children’s fiction only enhances her likeability, in addition to the most interesting and sympathetic examples of morally grey characters that I’ve seen. Her wonderful chemistry with the rest of the Horde adds both to her charm, and really helped lighten things up on the villain’s side for the first 2-3 seasons, and her relationship with Hordak… Well, I’ll get to that shortly! 😉

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Madame Razz. I figured Razz was going to be a fun mentor character, but I could have never suspected she’d be the best mentor I and Adora could ask for! I’m not familiar with her original counterpart, but whatever they had to work with, I applaud the crew for taking the silliest looking character in the original line-up and turning her into this charming little old lady whose equal parts Yoda and Ghibli grandma. (Or at least that’s how I describe her.) Her design gets special mention, too, for just how dang cute she is! The big glasses, the raggedy dress, big fluffy hair with moths flying around, and her witch broom all come together so well. Out of all Adora’s mentors, she’s the best— having no ulterior motives, agendas, or any manipulative or toxic behaviour laced into her teaching style, offers the best life advice she can to someone who clearly needs it out of kindness. And because she bears a certain resemblance to someone she once knew in a similar position.

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: Catra. Shocking right? Look, I know that she had an awful time growing up in the Fright Zone and by the end of the show she became more well-rounded and likeable. Any grief I have with her is pretty much over done with. Problem is though… it is pretty hard to forget everything she did. Now, I know it’s all in the past and a lot of people haven’t forgotten what she did either, and that some of it has to do with the ugliness of the Catradora vs. Entrapdak dynamic discourse and I don’t want to go into that. I really don’t. But put as simply as possible, she was a toxic friend, especially in regards to Adora (the Season 1 and 2/3 finales in particular) and Entrapta (who she betrayed, left to die after lying about her to her lover/best friend, and the offering the bare minimum of an apology), and escalated a war just to get back at Adora. After she tried to destroy REALITY to get back at her. I’m glad she changed but it still feels like too little too late.

The character I love that everyone else hates: Swift Wind. Sure, he’s a talking horse with a design that can wander a good ways into the uncanny valley, and who tries too hard too hard to be funny, but in spite of that I think he’s got a good heart behind that strange face of his. He does his best to be a good friend to Adora, supporting her both as herself and when she’s She-Ra, as well as doing his best to support Adora’s other friends as well (see “Boy’s Night Out”). Chiefly by trying to make light of Adora’s duties as She-Ra by trying help her find the fun and excitement in it. Of course, he doesn’t just try to keep the energy up, he shows genuine concern for Adora and all her friends, not hesitating to rush to their protection or point out when a situation seems especially dire. (see “Beast Island” and “Failsafe”). But I think my favourite example is from “Hero” where he casually reveals that he regularly checks in on Madame Razz because, as he says, “You gotta check up on old ladies alone in the woods.” What a horse!

The character I used to love but don’t any longer: Glimmer. I used to love her personality and her design. A peppy rebel who lived for adventure and a good friend to Adora and Bow. Even if she had her flaws like her impulsiveness and her stubbornness, she was still pretty likeable. But then she called her mom a coward for acting as a strategist and looking after Bright Moon, which ended up convincing her to sacrifice herself to close the rift at the end of S3. Alright, fair enough, some things can’t be avoided. Then she took over as queen, and I can understand there was A LOT of factors that were in play—namely grief and Double Trouble deliberately playing on her strained friendship with Adora and Bow as part of one of Catra’s plots—but boy howdy, did she start showing a pretty unsavory side what with her increasingly ruthless demeanor, trusting Adora’s abuser (hi Shadow Weaver, be with you in minute) over her, choosing to leave Entrapta in very real peril on Beast Island, and willingly using a weapon she knew could destroy all of Etheria to win a war. Perhaps I wouldn’t have minded as much if season 5 didn’t rush through her apologies and redemption so quickly, but the fact remains that Glimmer’s character took an awfully dark turn that’s not quite going to be so easily forgotten.

The character I would totally smooch: In a dark future where Entrapta never found love with Hordak, for one terrible reason or another, I would totally give her a smooch. I’ve said it before and say it again: Mad scientist princess is best princess! The character I’d want to be like: Bow. In some capacity I’m already like him, namely being super emotional and doing his damnedest to be a good friend even when things are tough, as well as being the voice of reason and a tinkerer (what? Tinkering with artsy stuff counts!). But I’d like to follow his example of being more level-headed, softer, optimistic, but also more assertive as opposed to my impulsive, harsher, cynical, and reserved current self.

The character I’d slap: Shadow Weaver. Need I explain? No, and anyway I can’t slap her anyways because she pulled the most manipulative heroic sacrifice I’ve ever seen. Dammit it, Shadow Weaver! (I really wanted to say Horde Prime but I feel like he wasn’t developed quite enough to be as hateable as he could be. Not to say that he isn’t an absolute piece of trash who deserved what he had coming already, but we didn’t get to spend three whole seasons getting to know the depths of his manipulative depravity while simultaneously weaseling his way into a twisted version of a redemption arc, unlike someone else I just talked about.)

A pairing that I love: Entrapdak. In case, it wasn’t already obvious. To summarize, in spite of all the drama that surrounds them and their actions, they honestly have the sweetest, most affectionate, and quite possibly the most healthy and engaging pair of the entire show (next to Spinnerella and Netossa, of course). Shoot, if it weren’t for these two and my hopes to see them reunite again, I would have left the fandom entirely at this point! (No seriously, I’m getting tired, folks.)

A pairing that I despise: Hordak X Horde Prime, but I think that’s the point, since most people use it to explore toxic relationships from a distance. Anyways, I really do not want to talk about abusive alien selfcest.

[drunkserval]

A Fresh Canvas: Incomplete Preview

Quite some time ago I did a silly little thread on Twitter, and I’ve always wanted to take that and actually make something out of it. Well it was a little harder than expected, but it’s coming along!

When I have the entire thing done I will be uploading it to AO3, but for now it seemed seasonally appropriate to at least drop this.

I wanted to have this posted yesterday but festivities kept me busier than expected! Story is below the cut. Keep in mind that this is still technically a rough draft, and will receive its final beta pass before the full story hits AO3.

(Tentative) Title: A Fresh Canvas Fandom: Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System by MXTX Rating: G, No Warnings Apply Summary: Shen Jiu and Shen Yuan are neighbors in the same modern apartment complex who, despite looking similar enough to be mistaken for each other, couldn’t be any more different. Or so they think.

----------------

Shen Jiu and Shen Yuan were neighbors in the same apartment complex. They lived on the same floor, in the same hall, and were often mistaken for one another due to this proximity combined with how similar their appearances were.

But there were key differences, as both would readily point out to their neighbors. Shen Jiu’s hair hung shy of his shoulders while Shen Yuan’s was shorter and lighter in tone. 

And still the mix-ups kept happening, particularly if they were at some distance or facing away. The misunderstanding would very rarely last past the first glance since Shen Jiu would snap and take immediate offense, and Shen Yuan would just sigh and say, "Sorry, wrong one."

Shen Yuan had no idea why Shen Jiu got so offended over it. Surely he didn’t look that bad, come on!

The neighbors eventually started learning to look at the clothes first--or to at least look for Shen Yuan’s thick-rimmed glasses. 

Both men carried and dressed themselves so differently. Shen Yuan dressed in hoodies and jeans--well, if he was planning on going any further than the mailbox, that was. Otherwise why bother changing out of pajamas or sweatpants?

On the other hand, Shen Jiu didn’t touch anything that wasn’t from a known designer. 

Shen Jiu spent proudly--and why shouldn’t he? Because he at least earned his money!

That Shen Yuan kid down the hall? Rumor was that his parents were paying his rent and he'd never had a real job in his life.

But because he never went out, Shen Yuan was one of the only people still hanging around the apartment complex when Shen Jiu went around knocking during a major holiday. 

In Shen Jiu’s arms was a box containing two fluffy black pups.

Shen Yuan’s eyes widened at the sight of them and he completely forgot to greet his neighbor until Shen Jiu cleared his throat. The dogs were like little storm clouds with feet and stubby tails, staring back at him with big black eyes. One started wagging its tail with such vigor that its whole back end wiggled about.

It took Shen Jiu a moment to find his voice as he followed, such was the state that his neighbor had chosen to answer the door in. Hideous cucumber-print pajama pants, a tacky anime shirt covered in snack crumbs, and unkempt hair had greeted him. But the continuous movement of the box in his arms reminded him of his mission. 

“I found... ” Shen Jiu shifted the box in indication as Shen Yuan shut the door behind them, “these, out by the garbage.”

Shen Yuan blinked as the other passed by him, “Have you tried calling any nearby shelters?”

“Of course I have,” Shen Jiu scoffed at the implication that he was so simple. “You try getting a real person on the phone today, though. It’s impossible. I could only leave messages.”

Shen Yuan put a finger to his lips, “Oh, right. Today is…” Glancing at a wall calendar almost as ugly as his shirt he nodded, “Right. Right.”

Did this kid ever so much as leave the building? Shen Jiu was starting to wonder. Shen Yuan dressed like he’d just rolled out of bed in the latter part of the daytime. And he hadn’t realized it was a major holiday. And then there were the countless odorous takeout boxes covering every available surface in his apartment.

Shen Jiu wrinkled his nose but still asked in spite of his rapidly growing doubts, “You don’t know anyone who can take these little mutts in for a day or two, do you?”

Shen Yuan shook his head and heard Shen Jiu sigh. His neighbor set the box down to give his arms a rest… but Shen Yuan couldn’t seem to rip his attention away from one of the pups. It hadn’t stopped staring at him, or shaking its fluffy little behind, for a moment.

“What if we take them in?”

Shen Jiu’s tone was flat, “What.”

Shen Yuan picked up the excited little pup and it immediately started wiggling in his grasp. Not struggling, however--just trying to get closer to his face, paws waving in the air and its little pink tongue darting out to reach for him even though it was still well outside of range. He had to fight back the urge to laugh at the silly little storm cloud. 

“The building allows us to have one animal per unit, right?” Shen Yuan shrugged, “so what if we each took one, even just long enough to find them new homes?”

Shen Jiu frowned. Taking in a dog, or really any animal, had never been on his agenda. He liked his nice clean apartment and intact furniture unlike a certain someone. Plus he was more partial to cats. He moved his gaze from the overexcited animal back to the box. Though the pups looked identical on the surface this one was clearly the calmer one. It looked up at his scowling face but put forth no such ridiculous display… thank goodness.

Who knew? Maybe Shen Yuan’s idea wasn’t so bad. And if it was, it was only a temporary arrangement, in the end. He might be able to get rid of the animal as soon as tomorrow if it was truly intolerable.

Tentatively, Shen Jiu reached out to pick up the dog…

And felt tiny teeth close around his fingers.

Jerking his hand backwards, Shen Jiu sneered down at the animal. “What, you ungrateful little beast!” 

Shen Yuan finally stopped cooing at his own pup to look over and said, “Maybe he doesn’t like your cologne?”

“And what’s wrong with my cologne?” Shen Jiu snapped, voice raising.

Stepping back, “Nothing, nothing!”

“It was a gift, you know!”

Shen Yuan barely avoided tripping over a haphazard stack of game cases as he kept moving away. “P-perhaps it’s just too strong for a dog’s nose, that’s all!”

This time Shen Jiu moved quickly, snatching up the dog by its middle before it could get its ridiculously tiny muzzle around anything, and he stared directly into the animal’s eyes.

“Do that again, and I’ll put you back out in the cold where I found you. Understood?”

The dog stared back at him, placid and indifferent… until its tongue darted out and licked the end of his nose.

“...good enough.”

----------------------

It was a few days before the two of them crossed paths again. 

It’d seem they both had decided to keep their newfound pets and they were both out that day to take the dogs for walks.

The air in the park was warm, so they sat themselves on a bench to enjoy it for a bit longer and soak up some of the sunlight that was so rare that time of year. Shen Jiu’s pup sat like a sentry at his feet while Shen Yuan’s pup curled up on his lap the moment he sat down. 

It was through the ensuing conversation they realized they both gave their dog the same name by sheer coincidence.

One was too lazy and the other was too stubborn, so neither changed it. At least they’d bought different-colored collars. But this brought to light a new revelation, and Shen Yuan just had to ask…

“How did you come up with it?”

“It was just the first thing to come to mind,” Shen Jiu had explained, “from something I’ve been reading, probably.”

"Wait, you read that too!?"

As he suspected! That name was from one of the top-rated web novels that year, from its stallion protagonist: Luo Binghe!

Shen Yuan couldn’t imagine someone as outwardly prim as Shen Jiu reading trashy webnovels, but it turned out to be true. It was just a quick, easy way for him to kill a few minutes of downtime at work, Shen Jiu reasoned in his defense.

Whenever they met up from that point forward, Shen Yuan talked his ear off about his various grievances with Proud Immortal Demon Way.

‘Villains that dig their own graves but don’t bother finishing! Women that lead the protagonist on a three-chapter long subplot just to get to their lewd scenes, only to never see them again! And every single character lost all of their intelligence when the protagonist came around!’ 

And yet he had nothing but praise for said protagonist… almost excessive praise. 

Shen Jiu is annoyed at first but he starts enjoying the company. Which is good because the dog turns out to be a menace.

Well, both dogs could be counted as menaces, just in different ways.

Bing-mei (as they come to call him) would start whining so pitifully when Shen Yuan shut the door between them, thus he often just gave up and took the dog with him whenever it was feasible.

Bing-ge, on the other hand, broke his toys within days, climbed around on furniture he wasn’t allowed on--sometimes when Shen Jiu was looking right at him, too--he barked, he scratched furniture, he tore up pillows.

Despite all the trouble he was causing for his master, Shen Jiu would no longer entertain the idea of giving him up. Not after Bing-ge tore up three separate muggers on three separate occasions and growled at the person who kept taking his parking space until it never happened again.

But the biggest takeaway from their conversations, for Shen Jiu, wasn’t webnovels or dogs. It made him start to realize how lonely he'd been. 

The only other person he really spoke to was halfway around the world for their work and they only spoke a couple of times a month. Now that Shen Yuan was around, Shen Jiu actually started to have things to look forward to besides the monotony of work--knocks on the door, long walks with the dogs, the occasional cup of tea afterward on colder days...

Shen Jiu was never the sort to be up-front with his feelings, so he found a way to show his gratitude by helping Shen Yuan with his confidence issues. He started encouraging him to go out more, and to put a little more effort into his looks when he did. This morphed into helping clean up his squalid apartment since Shen Jiu could barely stand to look at it when he came over. 

Months later, Shen Jiu’s recommendation had helped Shen Yuan to land an entry-level job. That, and a steady habit of going out once a week, gave them something else to do and talk about.

Progress was slow, but visible. Shen Yuan seemed a little less awkward in public with each passing week.

One night they were leaning on Shen Yuan’s balcony. It was a night of celebration, for he’d just earned his very first promotion, and Shen Jiu had brought over wine for the occasion.

He found himself leaning closer to Shen Jiu, telling himself it was just to get a better look at him in the dim light of the city night. His focus wasn’t the best even when he was sober after all. Yet Shen Yuan didn’t stop. And when Shen Jiu turned to look at him in confusion, and their lips met, he didn’t withdraw for several seconds.

Neither did Shen Jiu.

Shen Yuan tried to flee as soon as he realized what he’d done only for Shen Jiu to pull him back saying:

"Don't run, take responsibility. We talked about this."

[gamebunny-advance]

The Thrilling Continuation~

@kujo-supernova​

As to not clog the dashes with increasingly long posts of anyone who has to put up with this, I started a new post~

[Original response here]

K, I agree with 95% of what you said, so I don't feel the need to go over it point by point. Even the stuff I don't agree with I’m not going to really address  because it's irrelevant to the argument I’m trying to make. This isn't even an argument about each other's opinions anymore so much as I'm just commenting on the fandom at large now. So basically everything I'm about to say is not really directed at you (except for the last part), and is more directed at this fictional straw man of the fandom that probably doesn't exist, but I'm gonna attack anyway because it helps illustrate my thought process.

But thanks for reading anyway if you do~

I don't take issue with the fandom because I'm trying to defend Kliff or say that anyone else is 100% in the wrong here. This is a story about flawed individuals that make bad decisions. It's multi-layered and complex, and that's why I love this game so much.

My issue is largely with how the fandom in general is hypocritical in the way they treat Kliff because they see him as *more* "wrong" than he actually is, but my goal is not to prove that he was in the “right”.

Yeah, B2J (mostly Mayday) did get to learn from the experience that they were wrong because they're the protagonists: the purpose of their story is to learn that lesson. Kliff exists to be Mayday's "shadow". He represents an extreme that Mayday could have become had she not realized that taking over NSR isn't the solution to her problem. But as the true antagonist, Kliff literally *can't* come to that same realization: it would be redundant. And that's fine. For the purposes of the story that it wanted to tell, Kliff getting a resolution was not necessary, even if it leaves him in a bad spot with the other characters.

But that story is done and now fandom gets to write new ones. He still has a lot of character that can be explored: Now that rock is back in the city, what will he do? Why is rock specifically so important to him? Why does he know so much about every artist in the city? Why does he look so much younger than he actually is? *cough*becausehe'savampire*cough*

But largely the fandom doesn't seem interested in exploring any of that and more than just a handful of people seem to outwardly reject the idea of writing him as even *capable* of the kind of growth that B2J went through.

I brought up DJSS specifically as a counterargument to Kliff because he is THE scummiest person in the cast for all the reasons you said and more, but he is still one of the most popular characters because he has a cool design and a sexy voice, and maybe some people see him as a "sad boi" and want to coddle him. I am also one of those people for all 3 1/2 of those reasons, but I don't believe that you need to think that a character is a good person to justify liking them. There's a lot of reasons to like a morally gray or even morally black character, and agreeing with their actions/opinions doesn't need to be one of them.

I just think it's hypocritical to excuse one character for their flaws and not another with similar ones. Like there's some nuance to it that can change what makes something okay in one context and not okay in another, but I think the comparison between DJSS and Kliff is apt.

In my opinion their shared flaw is being egocentric. They are both willing to sacrifice the health and happiness of others for their own agendas. They express it in different ways, but it all comes from the same place: They think that what they're trying to achieve is more important than the feelings/condition of others.

DJSS seriously does not give a damn about anyone other than himself and he doesn't even have the courtesy to try and hide it. Even after his district is restored, he's still the same asshole he always was. He STILL calls B2J "Plutonians" (and I don't count him saying that "they aren't so bad after all" as "change", because even as a professor he was capable of expressing backhanded gratitude) and his reason for playing music is STILL "self-importance". He is in the same place that he started and will probably continue to abuse his district over his sense of ego unless Tatiana or someone else finally forces him not to. And everyone either accepts that or disregards it because that's just who he is. And again, that's fine, but I find it hypocritical.

Like I feel like many people's problems with Kliff is that they're not interested in exploring his character beyond what has been presented in the text. And that's fine too. It is perfectly valid to enjoy the game as it is and not want to explore it beyond that, but if having such a small scope of a game's themes and characters causes you to get "bugged" when someone presents a different interpretation, then it might be beneficial to look at another reading.

For example, let's go back to the satellite argument. My point about the satellite being "symbolic" was to disprove "murderous intent". His motivations for dropping it are totally separate. You say that you still think his motivation is being fueled by bitterness over Tatiana leaving rock. Your exact words: "I still think part of it was done out of spiteness for Tatiana leaving rock", but I feel like that's a very surface level reading.

In my opinion, rock is just the window dressing to the core of his actual problem: he feels like he's not getting back what he gave. He drops the satellite after her response to this question: "Did my loyalty mean nothing to you?" Which was, "I don't give a damn about you. I owe you nothing." which I think is far from a trivial response.

In any relationship, even a non-romantic one like this, it hurts knowing that the other person isn't as invested in it as you are. Even more so if they were to flat out say, "I don't give a damn about you." Like, can you imagine being told by your favorite content creator that they hated you to your face after you've done everything you could do to support them as a fan? Would most people react calmly to that in the heat of the moment?

Like we don't know the extent that Kliff was involved in Tatiana's life, but Tatiana never implies that he's lying about supporting her after the Goolings disbanded. Their relationship couldn't have been completely parasocial because she immediately recognizes him and addresses him by name when she sees him, and her being Kul Fyra isn't common or easy to obtain knowledge, so he must have been close to her to even know that. We know what he may have been willing to do for her given how much he helps B2J, and had Tatiana been upfront about her feelings with Kliff in the past, then I don't think he would have even bothered to give his sob story because he would have known that she wouldn't be receptive to it.

What I'm getting at is that "abandoning rock" isn't the actual reason he felt hurt enough to want to retaliate. It was likely more about "abandoning him" than it is a loyalty to any particular genre.

Even with this reading of his motivation, I don't think he was justified in doing what he did. Tatiana was totally right in calling him out, even if she was harsh about it, because in the end it doesn't matter how much he might have done for her if she didn't want it to begin with. He should have just walked away and accepted that she wasn't the person he thought she was, but people don't always do the right or rational thing, especially if they're caught up in the heat of their emotions and I think that's a relatable emotion worthy of discussion and dissection, even if it's not positive.

Will reading any of that change your mind? Probably not, but it's another perspective, and that's really all I want to offer.

Saying you're okay with someone liking something that you don't, isn't the same as understanding it, and that's what I want to change. I don't need anyone to agree with me, I wouldn’t start these discussions with strangers if I did. My end goal is to get you to understand where I'm coming from, and I think you're just *barely* missing my point. Hopefully I’m understanding your points too, but maybe I’m wrong about you’re getting at as well. UoU

[panharmonium]

Hey, do you ship merthur? I have conflicted feelings about it because Merlin does love Arthur but also their relationship is kinda shitty.

short answer: i do not

longer answer: i might not be the right person to ask about this, because i don’t really “ship” anything?  it’s not how i engage with fandom.  (disclaimer: this is not a value judgment of folks who do engage with fandom that way.  just an explanation of how my own brain works.)

extra long answer: under the cut, because i suppose it was only a matter of time before someone asked me about merlin/arthur, and i might as well put my entire response in one place so that next time, i can just link to it.

questions like this are a little tough for me to answer, because i am completely uninterested in romance as a premise.  if it’s not there, i don’t care.  if it is there, i often wish it weren’t, because it’s almost never developed in a way that lives up to my standards.  i don’t always mind if something contains romantic relationships (provided they’re written well), but i don’t want them to be the point of a story.  i honestly cannot think of anything less interesting to me than a story that has as its main plotline “x character falls in love with y character.”  for me, in my brain, it’s like, “okay...that’s it?  do you have anything else to say?”  there is literally nothing about that that i care about.

this can be a little difficult to navigate in fandom, because one of the oft-heard commendations of “fandom” is ‘gosh, fandom is so wonderful, we can watch the same two characters fall in love again and again and again in a million different scenarios!’  which is true, for the people who care about that sort of thing, but that’s not actually ‘fandom.’  that’s shipping.  and there’s nothing wrong with shipping, but shipping and fandom are not the same thing, and they’ve become so conflated that it can be very difficult to engage in the latter without being absolutely swamped by the former.

many times, for me, fandom can feel synonymous with shipping.  there was a post i reblogged recently whose tags described shipping as often feeling like a prerequisite to engaging with fandom, and that is often what it feels like to me, particularly in fandoms where one ship is so ubiquitous that any and all other material is utterly dwarfed by it in scale.  (for me, my last two major fandoms have been merlin and teen wolf, so - i’m sure you see my dilemma, heh.)

all of that said, in terms of arthur and merlin specifically...

disclaimer: everything i say here is relevant to me only.  these are my own feelings.  i am making this post on my own blog, in my own space, in response to a question about my own thoughts.  i do not want, expect, or need anyone else to share these thoughts.  any commentary i make about fandom trends is not equivalent to condemnations of individual people’s opinions or shipping habits.  i do not mind or take issue with folks who ship these two characters.  i am glad you are having fun.  please do not @ me about something you disagree with.  i promise you it is not necessary.

okay.  with that out of the way.  

part of me is reluctant to expound further on this question, because my personal philosophy is that merlin and arthur as a ship have had more than enough time and space devoted to them in this fandom (way more than their share, frankly) and i generally prefer to focus on merlin and the other people in his life, as a deliberate counter to that.  but, since you asked, and because i have been experiencing the “i’m tired of romance” bug more strongly lately, here is the long-form version.

the number one reason why i don’t ship arthur and merlin is what i already outlined above: i don’t really “ship” anything.  i have never looked at two characters who were not already together/on an obvious potential path to being together and said “i want them to fall in love.”  that has just never happened to me.  (again - it’s not a BAD thing to have this happen, it’s just not something that’s ever happened to me.  i can’t relate to the experience.)

therefore, when i do appreciate a romantic relationship, it’s pretty much always because canon has shown me something romantic (or clearly pre-romantic) that i find to be well-written and compelling.  (it’s rare - as i outlined before, i would usually rather not deal with romance at all - but it happens.)  

arthur and merlin, then, never had that effect on me, because arthur and merlin, as depicted in the canon, are not in love.

[to anybody reading this who just snatched up their keyboard and started furiously typing, i beg you - please go back and re-read my disclaimer.]

they’re not in love.  the truth about these two is that if i had watched this show without having grown up in fandom as a culture (and without knowing exactly what kind of ships fandom immediately sees EVERYWHERE) the idea of anybody shipping these two together would never have even entered my mind.

(and like.  because i DID grow up in fandom, and i DO know exactly what kind of ships fandom sees everywhere, i knew before i even started this show that arthur/merlin was going to be an inescapable thing.  but that would not have been the case, if i had watched the series in a world where i didn’t know what fandom was.)

arthur and merlin, in canon, are not in love.  the show never does anything to give me an inkling that either of them are harboring romantic feelings for each other.  that is never what is happening onscreen.  literally the last thing on merlin’s agenda is romantic attachment, ever, and arthur is never, ever shown to be in love with anyone who isn’t gwen.  the show, onscreen, never tricks me, teases me, or leads me on.  i was never under the impression that merlin and arthur were in love with each other, because they weren’t.

but that DOES NOT MEAN their relationship matters less.  just because they aren’t IN love with each other doesn’t mean they don’t love each other, and one of those things is not bigger or better or more powerful than the other.

i struggle a lot in fandom (all fandom, not just merlin) with the persistent idea that romantic attachment is the peak, the natural endpoint on a scale of “how deep is your love?”  i am constantly running up against posts where the commonly accepted structure is to cite a moment of devotion or caring or some instance of basic connection between two characters, and then add a caption or tag saying ‘because they are JUST FRIENDS, right?’ or ‘^^totally platonic interaction between characters who are not at all in love, sure jan.’  

and honestly?  i hate that.  that is one of my least favorite things about fandom.  it makes me so tired.  

i am completely disconnected from this idea that there are like...things you can do that are too caring to count as friendship.  like - that there is too much devotion you can show, and if you go over the limit, then it’s laughable that you would do those things for “just” a friend.  that’s so unpleasant to me.

(and i do think [when it comes to non-canon queer ships, anyway - straight ships unfortunately have no excuse, sorry y’all] that part of this probably has its roots in pushback at the tendency of people who try to “gal pal” actual queer ships (or literal real life relationships), so this, at least, is something i can understand.  i’m queer myself; i get that.  and that is why i will never like - attach myself to someone’s post and start complaining.  people can vent however they want.)

it doesn’t change my own feelings, though.  i hate seeing every meaningful friendship i’ve ever been invested in talked about like it’s just a romance in disguise.

other things: i am uninterested in romance as a motivator.  

truly, from the bottom of my heart, i don’t care.

we are, at least in my corner of the world, oversaturated with romance, to the point where any piece of media that doesn’t include it in some fashion is shockingly bizarre.  it is EVERYWHERE.  it is in EVERYTHING.  i cannot pick up a book without running into a romantic plotline.  i cannot watch a movie or a tv show without being forced into multiple romances that i don’t care about.  (rare exceptions apply, as always, but i’m speaking generally.)

this oversaturation, for me, means that romance as a storyline no longer holds any meaning for me.  i see it EVERYWHERE.  it is in literally EVERYTHING.  making merlin into a “love story,” for me, makes the show so much less interesting, because there are billions of love stories out there.  love stories are practically the only kind of story our media remembers how to tell!  why would i take a story that is so unique in its exploration of deep friendship (that isn’t even quite friendship, because it’s not real, but merlin wants it to be real, but making it real would also destroy it) and loyalty (that isn’t necessarily deserved, but is still offered, but is damaging to the person offering it) and love (that exists in spite of arthur’s position as the oppressor, but still cannot erase merlin’s oppression, and is patently not a magical fix for the very real problems merlin is facing), and then want to water it down to “and then they fell in love”???

merlin bbc has so much to say about the transformative, redemptive power of love (not just romance), and the bonds we form with each other despite the fact that we don’t always deserve each other, and what we can do to make ourselves better, and how do we make amends for the ways in which we hurt the people we care about, and it is so complicated and there is so much beauty there and i adore it specifically because it is one of the rare pieces of media out there that doesn’t prop up romantic love as the most important and powerful force in the universe.  romantic love is not what moves the story.  merlin’s love for the people around him is based on compassion.  it’s bigger than the familiar and overused ‘i am desperately in love with this one individual person and that’s what drives my actions,” which is a premise all of us know has been done to death.  merlin’s love is not about romantic attachment.  it’s a deep, abiding love for humanity.  it’s based on hope, and faith, and the inherent belief that everybody matters, even in their worst moments.

condensing that kind of story into “and then they fell in love” erases its meaning for me.  it makes it trite.  uninteresting.  i have seen “and then they fell in love” fully sixty thousand times.  “and then they fell in love” has been done so often that it is utterly devoid of power for me.  boring.   i literally do not care.

other people might feel differently, and find a romantic love story compelling.  i don’t.  

i’m guessing the message that prompted this essay is asking me to evaluate how i feel about the “goodness” of the merlin/arthur ship, aka whether it’s worthwhile to ship it or not based on how healthy/unhealthy it is, which i definitely can’t answer, because i don’t think whether it’s “good” or not really matters.  i am definitely too old to be riding the newer wave of, uh...idk, purity culture type stuff that is so oft-debated on here, lately.

but you’re absolutely right, anon - merlin and arthur’s relationship IS kinda shitty!  it 100% is.  it doesn’t mean you can’t ship them, though, if you want; otherwise i wouldn’t be invested in any aspect of their friendship, either.  

the fact that merlin and arthur’s relationship is kinda shitty is an essential element of the show; it’s the microcosmic representation of the macrocosmic problem merlin is trying to solve, and even with that being the case, we can see clearly that this also doesn’t preclude them from having real moments of connection and care and love.  this is the contradiction i have to keep in mind whenever i engage with them in the friendship sense - merlin has been wronged by arthur in so many ways, and yet he still loves him and believes arthur can do better, and yet his dedication to arthur really does destroy his life piece by piece, and you really have to walk a line between those extremes and be thinking: in what ways was this a noble, honorable path for merlin to take and in what ways was this damaging, and was it all worth it in the end?

we probably wouldn’t still be watching this show if we didn’t ultimately think the answer to that last question was yes.  but there are also equally valid ways in which the answer is, truthfully, no, and i think really the only important thing when dealing with merlin and arthur’s relationship (in whatever capacity you prefer) is to keep that dissonance in mind.

so, to more directly address your question, when it comes to my interaction with the source material, i don’t ship merlin and arthur romantically because i don’t see romance when they interact in canon, and i don’t think their relationship could be improved or made more interesting/more meaningful by adding extra-canonical romance into the mix.  that’s really it.

but the other side of things is this: even if i were granted someone else’s ship-goggles to somehow see romance between these two (eg, once, in the distant past i read a harry potter fic that was so well-constructed it sold me on a relationship i didn’t [and still don’t] actually see in canon), i still wouldn’t choose to ship merlin and arthur, and it’s not because they’re a “bad” ship (no such thing, folks - tag your stuff and let people live their lives, thank you), it’s because this fandom has already been swallowed by them and i cannot bring myself to make that imbalance worse.

trying to be in the merlin fandom without shipping merlin and arthur is just...a little bit difficult sometimes.  i think probably even people who do ship merlin/arthur are aware of that.  sometimes it can feel like merlin/arthur is a given in this fandom, not one of many options - as if you’re not in the merlin fandom, but rather the merthur fandom, and you know you really, really do not belong there.

and it’s not even a canonical ship!  it’s not even real.  and yet if you like this show, and you want to engage in the fandom, your experience is, without exception, going to be chock full of merlin/arthur content by default.

essentially, my struggle with the merlin/arthur dynamic in fandom is two-fold:

1) the strikingly imbalanced content distribution

the merlin fandom, in terms of content distribution, is a pretty accurate mirror of merlin’s own existence, to be honest, in that pretty much every aspect of it is eventually taken over by arthur pendragon, and in that there’s a reasonable debate to be had about whether or not that’s a good thing.

(spoiler alert: it’s not.)

even so, it is what it is, and as i said before, me commenting on fandom trends is not meant as a condemnation of individual preferences.  people like what they like!  that’s just how things are.  shipping arthur and merlin isn’t a Bad thing to do, by any means, and the fact that so many people do is just, you know, bad luck for me, lol.  but at the same time, the wildly unbalanced distribution of content does make it more difficult for folks who don’t ship merlin/arthur to engage in fandom with quite the same level of ease, and even though it’s nobody’s fault, it is still perfectly reasonable for people who don’t ship merlin/arthur to be frustrated about that.

fanfic is a pretty good case study for how this plays out.  i saw a post a while back that was titled something like ‘merlin bbc gothic,’ and the first bullet point was “canon ships are rarepairs,” and HOO BOY, that is true.  stats-wise, merlin/arthur makes up ⅔ of the merlin fic on AO3.  ~25,000 fics.  the next most popular tag after merlin/arthur is arthur/gwen, but arthur/gwen have ~2,900 fics in their tag.  and when you remember to exclude any instance of merlin/arthur from the arthur/gwen tag, that number drops by another thousand, to ~1,940.

that’s buckwild.  come on.  merlin/arthur has twenty-three THOUSAND more fics than the next most popular (and CANONICAL, i might add) ship?  and every other ship’s numbers are even lower than that?*

and if you don’t want to read shippy stuff in the first place, like me - the merlin “gen” tag has less than 8000 fics in it, by comparison, and then you STILL have to filter merlin/arthur out of the gen fics, leaving you with about 6300 - which number has to be filtered down further to remove OTHER ships that still make it past the gen filter.

in comparison to 25,000.

like.  i’ve been in fandom long enough that i’m not surprised - mean, i came into merlin directly off a teen wolf phase, and boy, that’s a whole other bowl of noodles right there, with added squick factors that are irrelevant here - but i’m still just...man. 

it still makes my head spin.  and it is still frustrating, every time.

*(there is a lot more to be said about how gwen fits into all of this, and i know it has been discussed more thoroughly in other places, but yes, another reason i am leery of arthur/merlin as a thing is that i’m just...not super comfortable with what that implies for gwen and her position in the story.  even if i personally am slightly more compelled by gwen/lancelot, technically - i still don’t quite feel comfortable taking gwen out of her canonical place.  she belongs at the top.  she deserves to be the love interest and she deserves to be the queen.  and like - people can say that her relationship with arthur isn’t “developed” or “convincing” enough to warrant retaining in fic, and i get it, the show really did fail gwen in S5 - but i still don’t buy that argument.  people literally INVENTED a romantic relationship for themselves and put 25,000 fics worth of effort into building it up; there is no reason why an “underdeveloped” canon romance couldn’t have gotten the same treatment.  except, of course, for the fact that one [Black, female] character was being shoved aside to make way for yet another two white dudes.)

(and i’m not saying that everyone is doing this deliberately or maliciously.  but we all know this is a cross-fandom trend.  there is literally no reason for the gap in content to be THAT wide.  a canon relationship with twenty-three thousand fewer fics than an invented ship?  just...that is a stat that bears thinking about.  it doesn’t mean that merlin/arthur is a “bad” ship, or that you can’t prefer lancelot/gwen, but it IS still important to recognize these patterns where they occur, across fandoms, and to really think about what they mean.)

2) the arthur-goggles

my second struggle with merlin/arthur in fandom is the ubiquitousness of the arthur-goggles, aka: the tendency in fandom, as in canon, to make everything in merlin’s life about arthur, and everything in the show about merthur.

this one specifically really gets to me.  i am very committed to the idea that merlin is a complete individual, whether arthur is there or not.  i write a LOT of meta about merlin being a whole person, specifically pushing back on the idea that merlin was “born” for arthur’s benefit - my motto is basically that “merlin’s life does not revolve around arthur pendragon,” and the way his life begins to revolve around arthur pendragon in later seasons is not in fact touching or romantic or beautiful; it’s a tragedy.  merlin does not exist only in the context of his relationship with arthur; he possesses worth outside of his mission to save the prince of camelot, and he was already a complete person before he ever met the prince of camelot, and one of the many issues we have to think about when dealing with arthur and merlin in any capacity is how merlin is told from the get-go that he is supposed to devote his whole life to arthur, but arthur is never given any such reciprocal responsibility.  

merlin and arthur’s relationship, just like the distribution of content in this fandom, is wildly imbalanced.  merlin spends all of his spare time thinking about arthur’s life; he ties himself in knots trying to help arthur develop as a person.  he is constantly working to keep arthur safe and happy.  but arthur, at the end of a long day, doesn’t spend his nights agonizing over how he can improve merlin’s life.  he just goes home and goes to bed.  he never once thinks, ‘my purpose on this earth is to serve and support my friend merlin.’  he is never told his life isn’t his own, that he is supposed to be one half of some two-sided coin.  only merlin is told that his entire existence is earmarked for someone else, that his life’s purpose is to be someone else’s better half.  only merlin is expected to devote his entire being to someone else’s betterment.  only merlin is expected to say demeaning, self-abnegating things like “i was born to serve you.”  

arthur, by contrast, is allowed to have a life of his own.  he is allowed to exist on his own terms.  he is never told that his worth is dependent on how well he can prop someone else up.  and while fic might like to imagine merlin being the most important thing in arthur’s life, in canon that is just not the case.  

merlin exists on his own merits, and the idea that he does everything he does just because “he’s in love with arthur” will never sit right with me, because it’s simply not true.  merlin and arthur’s relationship is important to both of them, yes, and of course it is undergirded by deep love and care, but it is also way more complicated than that.  merlin’s investment in arthur’s life - and his grief at arthur’s death - are NOT solely driven by his love for arthur as an individual; they are inextricably bound up with a sense of obligation and duty and self-worth and, eventually, failure, because he’s been told that protecting arthur is a) the only thing that matters about his own life and b) the only way to free his people and save an entire kingdom.  and i think ignoring this very real complexity in favor of “merlin does what he does and feels what he feels because he’s in love with arthur” cheapens the depth of the story and flattens merlin’s character.

arthur-goggles automatically make everything about merlin/arthur, though.  so the difficulty, for me, with merlin/arthur as a ship, is that it can be hard to make/find things about merlin that people don’t instantly, always try to link back to arthur in some way.  merlin is not allowed to have things that are just his, and he can’t exist in a state where arthur doesn’t somehow factor in - no matter how unrelated to arthur something is, or how non-shippy it’s meant to be - there’s someone out there who’s going to loop it back to merthur in some way.

just like - scattered examples of things I’ve encountered:

all of merlin’s non-arthur love interests on AO3 having massive chunks of their ship tags actually being merthur fics, with the non-arthur ship serving solely as a stepping stone on the way to getting merlin and arthur together

readers, on fics that are specifically designated as focusing on merlin+someone else and in which arthur does not appear, leaving comments asking “so how long until arthur shows up,” “can’t wait to see arthur,” etc

meta about how ‘merlin’s time in camelot was actually really bad for him as a person’ being reblogged and modified by someone else with an addition like “but merlin doesn’t regret a second of it because he wouldn’t have known arthur if he were anywhere else,” and the OP having to reblog their own post and explain that this is literally the exact problem they were trying to critique

in fic, merlin’s friends being utilized only as vessels with whom he can have discussions about his developing relationship with arthur

etc etc

it’s not always huge egregious things, but wearing arthur-goggles means EVERYTHING comes back to merthur in some way, which for me is just...really insulting to other characters, and really limiting in terms of story analysis.  

so, for example - this is a VERY specific example that few will relate to, because i am probably the only person on here who has ever tried to search the tag for merlin’s friend will from ealdor (a niche fave of mine) - but with him, especially, it is very hard to avoid bumping into a lot of people wearing arthur-goggles, because everybody seems to imagine him as merlin’s ex, who is only upset about what’s going on in 1.10 because he’s jealous about arthur appearing alongside merlin, never mind that will and merlin have known each other since birth and have a relationship that LITERALLY predates arthur by two decades.

so with him, as an example - the other day, i saw some post in the tag that was like “will gets teary when arthur makes his inspirational speech in ealdor because he finally understands what merlin sees in arthur and he can’t be mad anymore”

and that is just patently untrue.  it is not even remotely close to a legitimate interpretation of what is happening in that scene.  will hasn’t come around to arthur’s way of thinking yet; he literally still packs his things and leaves after this happens, and he is - i mean, first of all, he’s not crying, lol, and he stalks out of that scene weary, angry, and fed up, because he thinks the village is delusional and all of his neighbors are going to get killed in the morning.  his arc - his dissatisfaction with what is going on, his anger at the ignorance arthur wields as a nobleman with all of that wealth and privilege, his resistance to the big “let’s fight kanen’s men with sticks” plan - that is about him and his history and who he is.  it is not about an (imaginary) merlin/arthur love story.  

but when the arthur-goggles are on, all roads lead to merthur.  even when the other characters in question (*coughWILLIAMcough*) would be beyond mortified to have merthur, of all things, assigned as their motivation.

SO.  now that i’ve gone over both the canon and fandom aspects of my reasoning, the succinct summary in response to your question is just that no, i don’t personally ship merlin/arthur.  because:

a) i don’t see it b) the fandom is already trying to drown me with it and i choose to center other characters out of spite c) i just think merlin deserves better lol

however, as i said in my disclaimer - that doesn’t mean other people shouldn’t ship and enjoy it!   merlin/arthur is very much not my cup of tea, but that’s no reason why other folks can’t have fun with it.  i think the best portrayals of it, probably, will be those that keep in mind exactly what you said - that merlin and arthur’s relationship is “kinda shitty” - but this is fandom, so if what folks really want to write is just lots of happy AU’s with no issues, then they should go for it!  the point of fandom is to have fun connecting with people over a shared love of something, so i am happy to let others have fun doing their thing, and i will just be over here doing mine. 🙂

[bigskydreaming]

Say, what's your thoughts on Dick's Harem of Morally Ambiguous Older Men (TM)?

Not a fan. Tbh, I just hate the trend of ‘surround Dick with uneven power dynamics and never ever let him interact with someone on an even playing field, and requiring every relationship in his life to be heavily loaded with advantages the other holds over him, or obligations he feels towards them.’

But even more than that, I hate the fact that said harem exists not because of canon, but because of fandom’s absolute INSISTENCE that Dick’s ‘suitors’ all be predatory and so much his better in terms of fighting, experience, strategy, that they’re usually written as more toying with him as much as they are....engaging in an actual relationship. Because, idk, that makes the relationships ‘dangerous’ and that’s sexy? Meh.

But the reason why that bothers me so much in particular, is because like.......the vast fields of difference in skill and expertise that we so commonly see in S/ladin fics and the like.....

LITERALLY DON’T EXIST IN CANON.

This dynamic where Slade is wholly Dick’s superior who has so much to teach him if only he would deign to learn from him.....like, the ONLY place that actually exists is the one Teen Titans cartoon from like twenty years ago, and its fine if people want to go with that for whatever reason, but when everything else about the fic screams “this is very much a comic-based story except for that one element”....that’s when it gets frustrating. 

Because you can do what you want of course, but I’m always gonna wonder WHY it was deemed so necessary, that Dick always be at a sizable disadvantage to Slade instead of an enemy he respects as being equal in threat to the threat he poses himself.

Because as I’ve said many times....Slade does NOT consider Dick a relative novice, still years away from being an actual threat to him in combat or capable of interfering with his plans.

NO, NO, NO, NO, NO.

The entire REASON Slade started out as a Titans villain, a nemesis for the whole team, and eventually just became Nightwing’s enemy and occasional ally, but with all of Slade’s attention usually focused on him and ignoring the other Titans entirely most of the time....

Is because Slade views Dick as being personally responsible for the times the Titans defeated him or foiled his plans. He chalks it entirely up to Dick’s strategic mind and leadership abilities, as well as his effectiveness in combat when the two of them engage hand to hand.

Slade focuses on Dick not because he thinks he has so much to teach him or Dick still has so much to learn or ‘could truly be a threat someday’.....but rather, because Slade ALREADY VIEWS DICK AS THAT THREAT AND HAS FOR YEARS.

He’s compelling and frustrating to Slade in equal measure because of all the Titans, Dick is the one Slade views as an actual threat, the one he has to either get out of the picture or else get on board with him if he wants to proceed with his agenda of the moment without it being thwarted by someone aka Dick Grayson.

Like yeah, Slade’s decades older than Dick with the experiences to match that, but the Titans and Dick himself have always defeated him or driven him off ON THEIR OWN, without having to call in ‘the adults’ to back them up or be the cavalry or whatever......so how do you figure they can manage that, if their leader and strategist and the one most directly/immediately targeted by Slade each encounter.....is like.....at the same time, significantly lesser than Slade in skill, expertise and ingenuity?

IT DOESN’T WORK, LOL.

What, like Slade just ‘lets them win’ all the time out of the goodness of his heart? This is the same guy who nuked Dick’s whole city just to spite him personally!

But anyway, my point is, using Slade as my primary example here though it applies in some form or another to all of the members of the Harem of Morally Ambiguous Older Men.......

Dick doesn’t need to ‘level up’ ten or twenty years into the future before he’s finally on Slade’s level. Slade doesn’t view him like a college recruiter scouting for talent and going ‘hmm, that one could have potential after putting a certain amount of work into getting him to a higher level.’

Slade ALREADY views Dick as his primary threat and personal antagonist, and that’s 100% the reason why he focuses on just Dick off on his own doing the solo hero thing just as often (if not more) than he takes on the whole Titans. Because for all the Titans’ vast powers, Slade has a way to beat each of them. He’s studied them, he knows their strengths and weaknesses, how being dependent on a superpower rather than acquiring a broad arsenal of skillsets can make them particularly vulnerable if their power is countered or negated in some way.

Dick is the wildcard. Always has been. Right back to their very first encounter in the Judas Contract, where Slade decided the fact that Dick alone had escaped being captured was a negligible problem, because he figured Dick presented the least threat out of all of them. And was proven very definitively wrong, lol.

Because Dick’s ultimate strength is in his adaptability. In how his life has shaped him to be a fucking paramount grandmaster of thinking on the fly, reacting to changes in his situation, environment, and anything else that disrupts his own plans, and requires he adjust to a new status quo and make new plans based on that.

Dick has been doing this to EXTREME degrees since before he was even ten years old, and he is fucking GOOD at it by now.

And the ultimate threat to a meticulous planner and strategist like Slade.....is always going to be a genius strategist whose specific strength lies in thinking on his feet. Someone capable of upending the whole chess board and rendering all pre-planned moves irrelevant, and then already being ten steps into a new plan before his opponent has wrapped their mind around the fact that most of the preparation that went into this encounter is useless and irrelevant now. 

A lesson Dick taught Slade in their very first encounter, in the Judas Contract, when he was the only Titan who slipped free of being captured by Slade....and when Slade made the mistake of thinking this was no big deal, as he viewed Dick as posing the least threat, especially on his own without the rest of his team.

And its  a lesson Slade has never forgotten. 

And see what I mean, just from my phrasing there? How often in S/ladin fics is it framed as though there’s even the CHANCE of Dick having anything to teach Slade instead of just being taught? Or even just surprised and having his ego checked by the fact that this decades younger hero has just defeated or outwitted him AGAIN?

They don’t do that, in my experience. Because they’re written to DELIBERATELY be imbalanced, like the uneven playing field is basically the POINT of the relationship, given that......the authors have to reshape Slade from the archnemesis of equivalent standing to Dick, into this vastly more skilled and experienced figure who Dick has no prayer of defeating on his own, unless Slade like, decides to stop toying with him on his own, or Dick’s saved by the intervention of family and/or teammates.

And to me, that defeats the entire point of Dick Grayson. The guy who saves himself time and time again, the survivor who doesn’t NEED anyone to save him or for those with more power than him to take pity on him and stop rubbing it in his face while not changing the power dynamic in the slightest.

I mean, that’s LITERALLY the basis of my being so invested in his character, lol, so even though I’m not a fan of sizable age gaps in romantic relationships in general, in this case, SPECIFICALLY - there was never a chance in hell that any of those relationships were ever going to interest me.

Especially since, as I said with Slade.....the entire actual dynamic Dick has with the other character has to be altered specifically so that Dick is in a more vulnerable position than they occupy, in any relationship they form.

Sorry not sorry, but I will never understand why a fandom that talks such a good game about Dick’s status as a survivor, seems at the same time to be constantly fixated on finding new ways to stack the deck against him....all while continually eroding his ability to fend for himself - thus REDUCING him from a self-saving survivor who picks himself up and dusts himself off each time he’s knocked down, to a victim who is measurably less powerful/skilled/capable than the threat he faces, and thus doomed to fail if he’s on his own, meaning he inevitably needs to be saved by others.

[ohnobjyx]

A snow storm out of nowhere

Part Two: March

In this post we continue to go through XZ’s situation, to better understand why he is where he is now. The ask that originated everything is here, with an index. 

Disclaimer: I try to keep the content objective, but I am biased, by the kind of content I’m usually exposed to and by my own perception of their situation. I may be wrong, and language barriers and cultural differences have to be taken into account. If anyone wants to discuss this, please make sure you have enough information to do so.

I think that even with all the “darkness” this post has, it express also quite nicely why I think XZ won’t be defeated by this. We will see him again, let’s be patient. 

So, taking from Part One, the next day public thought that XZ’s Studio and his team were trying to hush all the commotion. People were very very furious, looking for a way to vent their anger. Some said that the only way they’d let this go was that XZ retired from the entertainment industry.

Attacking his endorsements

That night, Olay was to air a live video with a product that XZ was going to endorse, and antis realized that they had a new way to express their anger. The comments and their interventions during the event made it impossible to progress adequately, and the announcement of XZ endorsing the product had to be put off.

Antis and haters realized the power they had, and started to announce that didn’t just reject the products endorsed by XZ, they also rejected the brands that worked with him. In the face of such controversy and boycott, many brands chose another spoke person temporarily for their commercials and banners, removing XZ’s from their websites.

From March, the antis centered themselves around the topic “Not buying products XZ endorses”, making his value go downwards. The brands he worked with decided to stay low for the time being and removed his image from their websites. Some even decided to terminate their contracts with him, in fear of being boycotted.

Douban

By the 3rd day ao3 was down, reality sank in and people turned to douban, were C/QL, The Joy of Life, Jade Dynasty were in the top 3, all of them series were XZ is lead actor or secondary actor. The antis placed bad reviews, to the point of bringing down the score of C/QL from 8’5 to 7’9 in a single day (we’re talking here of 1′5 million reviews as of today) and affecting every project he has worked on since the beginning of his career as an actor.

Public scorn

XZ as well as XZ fans became the objective of public scorn. From the 1st of March, some of the accusers apologized for “the problems caused”, and the one that had led the report posted a public apology and deleted every post related to the reporting. However, to the rest of the users it looked like they were apologizing against their will, and that they still thought they weren’t wrong, but were doing so in an effort to preserve XZ’s public image, as well as their own image as XZ’s fans.

The conflict ceased between XZ’s fans and the cp fans, now uniting in an effort to lesser the damage. They agreed to bring down the tone of the discussion, and once things cooled down a bit, XZ Studio posted a public apology, asking people to support their idol rationally, to speak and act carefully, as well as saying that XZ was currently quarantined at home.

Antis brought up more complaints about XZ’s fans. Unfortunately, it’s a fact that some of his fans had taken sometimes unreasonable measures to give him the spotlight, such as:

Making him the center of attention in a tv drama in which another actor was the male lead. They took over the community in w/ibo and started to delete all of the other actor’s fans from the group.

Some fans attacked WYB, so XZ wouldn’t have to “divide” his success from C/QL with him. They reported WYB for not having a “host degree” (whatever that is). This was shot down by a statement from Hunan TV, by the way.

Attacking whoever says that they don’t have any interest in XZ’s works (a professor was asked to have a look at his works, and he refused, so XZ’s stans started to attack him).

(Again, bear in mind that antis and hater and these kind of very obssesive fans are a minority, and they are greatly outnumbered by the rest of the people that like and support XZ in a much more rational way... but they make more noise, so to say). 

Antis and people resenting XZ for the 2/27 incident wanted a scapegoat. So I think the resentful party wants the fans to know “so you take away this, I want your idol to pay for it” and antis… they have their own agenda, and that’s for another post. 

XZ Studio’s apology didn’t do much and the drama continued to unfold. Maybe XZ’s Studio wanted to wait for the storm to pass, and since acknowledging the issue would give it importance, they waited until they couldn’t put it off anymore. I don’t know if this was actually right or wrong, but people weren’t satisfied with this apology. XZ’s fans would try to argue with the antis, and thus keeping the image of obsessive fans, even if many of them were actually right.

People were disappointed by the actions taken by his team and waiting for him to say something, but, to their disappointment, XZ didn’t express his opinion. 

Other authors

Fanfiction writers, mostly from the BJYX fandom, would receive insults and attacks from antis and XZ’s stans still pursuing their original stance, so a lot of content has disappeared. 

(To this point: I don’t like RPS. I don’t read RPS fanfics. I didn’t like seeing them and adjusted the filters in ao3 so I could only see fanfics from CQL. But attacking the authors this way is also terribly wrong).

Responsibility and consequences 

XZ had previously signed up with many companies, with WJJW being the main stockholder. Since he was under so many companies, none of them wanted to take responsibility of the matter and try to solve it, so it was left to XZ’s Studio to try and fix it.  

Investors, directors, brands’ representatives... they all thought that it’d take at least half a year for XZ to recover from this blow, and it also depends greatly on how his next work is received by the general public. He still has the support from his fans, but that alone wasn’t enough in the face of such boycott.

While later people who supported him appeared, there were voices at first too that asked him to take responsibility. 

(These are influential people, and, while I’m not surprised that their stance was to support public opinion, as a public figure, you may find yourself in the future in the same position as XZ. To add oil to flames doesn’t seem very kind to me, but again, this is a competitive industry.) 

Support 

At the same time people criticized him and his studio for his management of the issue, prominent people stepped forward and talked in his behalf, like critics, directors, and even lawyers, talking about the legal aspect of the fanfiction, saying that, by Chinese laws, it was indeed violating the law.

(However, there was another article I agreed more with: not liking a content doesn’t give you the right to manage it. That’s the duty and right of the platform, in this case ao3. You may report the author and the work if you find it unsuitable for the platform, but to call the authorities on them is quite excessive). 

It was also positive that in spite of everything, the sales of the products he endorsed remained high and in the lead in March, and the trend continued all the way to July. He’s still considered one of the most influential celebrities, taking usually the top 1. This is why his companies, agencies and his team hasn’t given up on him. As sad as it may sound, if he’s a profitable asset, they won’t give up on him, because he can still earn money for them. 

Since the antis were spreading hate, rumours and false news, trying to damage XZ’s image, the fans also tried for the contrary. They posted about XZ’s kindness and polite gestures, to try to counter the antis’ attacks. 

However, no matter how much his fans support him, the greatest help came from fellow acquaintances, coworkers and friends from the entertainment industry. It’s a reality that no matter how much a fan likes their idol, the average fan doesn’t know him personally. But that can’t be said of people who have worked with him. 

People he had worked with (fellow actresses, critics, directors, screenwriters) supported him by posting comments defending and praising him, expressing their dismay about the antis or by praising him in livestream. For well-known people to step up and speak for him, when they could have stayed silent in fear of retaliation, it’s a true give away of XZ’s character and what these people think of his future, especially if we consider that they are facing a group of unreasonable antis.

(In fact, many of the people who supported him received hateful comments and were attacked for supporting him, but none of them took away their support, that I know of). 

Happy Camp’s support

It was also a good sign that while brands still avoided his image, tv programs didn’t shy away from his image. Happy Camp emitted a video in which XZ appeared, so fans interpreted this as a sign of silent support from the program and the tv channel.  

This was also very important. There have been cases before, when an actor was being seriously boycotted because he had been having an affair, that the tv stations refused to work with him. It got to the point that, when a episode had already been filmed, they used photoshop to erase his image and simply cut out all of his interventions and interactions with other participants .

See that space there, between the girl in blue and the guy with a suit? Such are the miracles of photoshop.

So if an actor has really committed a mistake, the entertainment industry will not hesitate to take away their support. It’s also a way to say that they disapprove of what that person did. 

(To those who are curious, this man had been a very successful actor for many years. He was “happily” married and had a 20 years old son. But when people discovered that he had been keeping a mistress for almost two decades... he fell out of favor. Quick.)

XZ’s very brief appearance in Happy Camp was an auspicious sign for his future, meaning that tv stations are still willing to work with him and that his dramas will likely be aired in spite of everything. 

(I’ve never been happier to wrong, since I thought this would take longer to pass at first. But when I thought about this carefully, I realized that anyone could see that XZ in himself isn’t at fault for what happened, so why would they reject him once the storm passes?).

The start of the public welfare project 

So, in the midst of this situation, which was very serious at the time, XZ’s fans Public Welfare Group was founded, with the support of XZ’s Studio. 

(This is actually quite common in China. A group of fans create a welfare group, and they do volunteering projects and others in the name of their idol. Many celebrities’ fans create a group like this when the fandom is big enough.)

I think it served to remind that idols can use their influence and unite a large group of people to serve purposes that are beneficial to the society (at least in Asia). It came in a “good” moment, because if nothing else, XZ can’t afford that the first that comes to mind to the general public when they see him or his fans is this small group of people, who are the representation of the worst part of his fans.

(Since this project has the support of his studio, he must know of it and must have given his approval. But he is not the one to actually initiate the project, that was a collective effort from his fans: to do welfare projects in his name. He collaborates with welfare projects, he had done it before, and did it again in June. This a reflection of a more positive part of fan quan culture, which will be explained in the next post).

However, because he was in the middle of great controversy and criticism, this move was also considered “hypocritical” and “insincere” by the antis. Nonetheless, the influence such a large group of people have is undeniable (in promoting local commerce in this case), and the local representatives thanked them for their support. They kept on with their projects these months, usually promoting agricultural products from impoverished provinces. They were also praised by the media for the results they achieved.

For those who are inclined to doubt whether this was a move to improve his image, here it’s a compilation of charity and public welfare projects that XZ’s fans pushed forward in 2019, collecting for numerous projects an amount of almost 450.000¥ and 620.000¥ as epidemic relief effort during the coronavirus period, that started in December 2019.

The welfare project was also a source of controversy later... but again, people always seem to find fault with everything you do. 

[chattegeorgiana]

What do you think of Leeten? I’m perfectly fine others shipping it but it’s kinda annoying that the fandom sometimes portray Tenten as Metal Lee’s mom. We can all have our AUs but you know?

Another thing I’ve noticed in Leeten and NejiHina fandom is that Tenten is often portrayed as jealous or spiteful with Lee’s relationship with Sakura. Tenten is a side character but it was never confirmed she canonically felt that way. Whereas the bond between Lee and Sakura is. I can’t deny Lee has a bond with Tenten too but sometimes shipping fandoms make the characters OOC.

NGL NejiTen fandom did the same, but I feel like they had more of a chemistry.

Ooh, I was not aware that this is how things are in the LeeTen family.

Well, I’m indifferent towards it, truth be told. At some point I used to kinda like them and didn’t consider NejiTen that much, because LeeTen reminded me of the dynamics of NaruSaku, but upon further inspection, I realized I was in the wrong.

Tenten clearly cares about Lee, but her inner, true self desperately wants Lee to be a more serious type like Neji is.

Whereas Sakura secretly enjoyed Naruto’s prankster side, so then I realized that while the dynamics are similar on the surface, if we go a little bit more in depth, things are different.

That’s how I ended-up switching more towards NejiTen.

However, as for the fandoms, sadly the fandoms nowadays are toxic gatherings. Not saying all of them are, but that’s the trend.

People fight each other and force their views onto each other and mischaracterize characters so it fits their agenda and whatnot.

That’s why I personally ended up enjoying things in my own corner, with few like minded people.

And trust me, it’s SO MUCH BETTER!

People in large numbers ruin things... I mean, look at the story of Naruto...

[tvcoroner]

Kara Deserves Better...Than This Fandom (Huge Rant)

I have a question to ask people.

Why the hell are you freaking out about William so much? You have no fucking clue where this is going to lead. Do you remember when you guys lost your shit for WEEKS after William asked her out the first time and the result was Kara telling him she wasn’t interested?

Sure, she only did that because Lena has made her feel so insecure about keeping her secret as Supergirl that she was scared to open up, but you idiots lost your minds for weeks for NOTHING.

And your dislike for William does not match his oh so horrendous crime of being mean to her a few times at the start of the season. Like seriously, book-fucking-hoo. Lena literally manipulated Kara and then encased her with kryptonite, a substance that is AGONIZING to her, and you people excused that away in an instant. William isn’t kind for a little while? Well, he’s canceled now!

But to me, the most ridiculous part is that so many of you are taking this like it’s a personal insult to you. Like this is only happening to give you the middle finger.

Get the fuck over yourself, you self-absorbed baby. This might come as a surprise, but decisions are made on this show without anyone giving a fuck what you think or feel, and I honestly don’t blame them for that after the years of literal bullying you have sent their way.

You cannot treat people like shit and then expect to get what you want, and treating people like shit has been your primary method of expressing yourself almost the entire run of the show.

If seeing Kara being happy is such a problem for you because she’s not happy in the exact way or for the exact reasons you want her to be happy, then I’m sorry to report the obvious here, but you don’t give a fuck about Kara.

I have seen way too many of you throw her under the bus at every opportunity. This season alone has shown more than any previous that so many of you people care more about what Kara can represent for you than the person she is or what she does.

I mean, the Supercorp fandom can barely manage to give a damn about Kara anymore. For a long time now Supercorp has been about Lena, and what’s good for Kara is secondary to that, if even that.

This season has just shown time and again how little respect so many of you have for Kara. Most of the time it’s because of poor baby Lena, so misunderstood with her mind control and human experimentation and torturing Kara with kryptonite.

I watch a lot of reaction channels. Probably too many. While some were sympathetic towards Kara when she told Lena enough is enough, a lot of them got angry at Kara for daring to call Lena out on her bullshit. I mean, when Kara said if Lena continues to act like a villain then she will be treated like one, a large chunk of them just turned on Kara for daring to hold their Queen accountable for her shitty actions.

Call me crazy, but I want something good for Kara. I want her to focus on herself and what she wants. If what she wants is William then I’m behind her completely, if she discovers she wants something completely different then I’m still right there with her.

This show is called Supergirl, not Lena Luthor, but so many of you treat Kara like her entire existence is there to fit whatever agenda you’re trying to push, and every single time she operates outside of your fantasies you tear her down.

And William hasn’t done nearly enough to earn so much hostility. For the vast majority of his screentime this whole season he has been a pretty good guy, and his reasons for keeping Kara at a distance at first made a lot of sense. People reaching to him being mean a few times as an excuse to give him shit are so laser-focused on such a minor, stupid thing that they use it to define his entire character.

Meanwhile, Lena can get away with FAR worse shit and have people in this fandom practically bend over backward trying to justify it. It’s extremely disingenuous.

This fandom’s constant need to demonize every male character on this show that even gets close to Lena or Kara is disturbing. I mean, they were still giving James Olsen shit for not trusting Lena for one episode in season 2. They were so desperate to demonize him that they completely ignored every single time he had her back after that, including taking a fucking bullet for her. And unlike Kara, he can actually be killed by one, so it’s much more significant when he does it.

You know what? I’m fairly indifferent to the growing relationship between Kara and William. 99% of my focus is on Kara doing something good for herself. That may change with time, because, and for some reason a lot of idiots are missing this very simple fact, Kara and William are not a couple yet. They’re going to see where this takes them. They’re not in a committed relationship, they haven’t done anything even remotely intimate yet.

You people keep acting like this is being rushed but nothing has happened yet. Literally nothing has been rushed. We’re 14 episodes into this season and they only just got to the “Let’s go on a date and see what happens” phase.

Just for the record, every single relationship on this has happened faster than Kara and William. Is Maggie and Alex’s relationship now less significant because it happened a lot faster? How about Kara and Mon-El? Alex and Kelly? Lena and James? Brainy and Nia?

The show rushes every relationship out there, and Kara and William are the least rushed, so using that as yet more ammo against them is kinda stupid.

I am just...so tired of this fandom’s selective memory and outrage. So many of you get almost psychotically angry at the dumbest shit. You treat people like garbage but still expect to get what you want. You bully actors, you misread things intentionally and then get angry when the show exists in spite of the fantasy you built up, and you have double standards for EVERYTHING.

I mean come on, Lena can experiment on human beings and you will excuse her for it, but if someone acts a little mean, and by sheer coincidence, he happens to be a man, you will tear him down for that for YEARS. But Lena Luthor gets a free pass on everything.

You know what, after watching this fandom go to shit over the last five years, I absolutely understand why most of the actors on this show barely interact with anyone anymore. I can understand why the writers ignore you at every turn. I can understand why Melissa and Chris turned off comments for both their engagement and baby announcements.

And just because it’s not plainly obvious to the professionally offended, if you don’t participate in this toxic behavior then I’m not talking about you anywhere in this. In a world where people didn’t look for excuses to be offended by people, I wouldn’t need to make this obvious statement, but if I don’t put down a disclaimer somewhere I will get one of those stupid comments about how I’m unfairly judging those who don’t do any of this. This entire fucking rant is one big qualifier, genius. If you don’t fit in then I’m obviously not talking about you.

[grelleswife]

Why do male pronoun fans hate you so much? What did you do? All I see is you minding your own business but the other side posts passive aggressive posts directed at you at least twice a week. I've been scrolling on your blog but all you do is post things you enjoy?? Why are people so obsessed with you and your ships. I don't understand.

Hi, there! I apologize in advance if my response sounds a bit snippy at times; this rancor is not directed at you but at the "haters" alluded to above. There are a few potential reasons behind their hatred, though the validity of those reasons might be open to debate depending on one's views. First, I am very passionate about promoting Grelle's identity as a trans woman. While I do not send anon hate (that's extremely immature, to say the least) or anything of that sort, I make no attempt to hide my anger when people misgender her if I believe their actions to be motivated by transphobia and/or fujoshi tendencies. My sharp tongue and Mediterranean temper most likely earned the enmity of many male pronoun users.Another potential reason for their hatred might be the frequency with which I post. I adore Grelle with every fiber of my being, am naturally obsessive, and have an imagination that won't shut up. As a result, I come up with new posts about her on a regular basis and reblog my fair share of Grelle art (often with rather effusive tags!). I suppose these "enemies" might assume that I'm doing this simply to spite them? I can be petty, but I'm not that petty, and my world doesn't revolve around TERFs. I just love Grelle (to DEATH!) and want to share that love with the rest of you.A third reason (often alluded to in the vagueposts) is that I headcanon Grelle as bi and tend to shamelessly make and reblog a fair bit of content featuring her in relationships with other Kuro ladies, most prominently Hannah. I'm also the evil bisexual mastermind behind the upcoming Sapphic Sutcliff Week. (diabolical laughter) All jesting aside, I'd like to use this ask as an opportunity to explain my motivations for doing so.

The people who oppose my actions make me out to be a fetishist with the rather ignoble "agenda" of putting Grelle in wlw relationships solely for the sake of titillating my own lusts. However, my main intention has always been to create the representation I want to see. As a sapphic bisexual, I love to see content featuring romantic relationships between women that are healthy, loving, and stable. I adore domestic fluff between female characters. Since my religious denomination forbids marriage between women, it means a lot to me when I can see happy sapphic marriages in fic; if I am denied that in real life, at least I can enjoy that domestic bliss in the realm of my imagination. I especially want wlw content that is made by us and for us, portraying the women and their experiences in a realistic, respectful light rather than reducing them to mere sex objects. However, there tends to be a paucity of such content in almost all the fandoms with which I'm involved, Kuro included. There is little denying the fact that there is a dearth of high-quality content featuring Grelle in relationships with women that also uses the correct (female) pronouns for Grelle. I wanted to see more positive wlw representation involving Grelle, so I resolved to make my own. I realized there were other people who shared my sentiments, so I proposed the Sapphic Sutcliff fandom week as a means of organizing our creative endeavors. I'd like to add that I only ship Grelle with women when the relationship seems plausible to me based on the characters' personalities; while the aesthetic does play a role, it is never the end-all-be-all in any of my OTPs, which I feel sets me apart from a mere fetishist.

One thing I find rather disturbing is that some of the male pronoun users are apparently under the impression that all wlw relationships are inherently "weird" or "gross." We are not intrinsically filthy creatures! We are people just like you, and we deserve the right to see ourselves portrayed in a positive light. Although some of my own content is rather mature, I'd like to think there's more to my work than mindless sex.As a final note, I find it mighty interesting that these people lose their minds over consensual relationships between women while never uttering a peep about Sebaciel. Mighty interesting.Since I don't interact with these people directly, I can't say for certain, but I'm assuming those are the main reasons for their animosity.