#it's the first non-canon ship I ever read fan fiction for

[zenkindoflove]

Fandom Shipping Terminology 101: ACOTAR edition

Hi! So I decided to put a little resource together for the ACOTAR fandom. Since many people join the SJM/ACOTAR fandom and have never been in fandom before, they encounter a lot of fandom terminology that they are not quite sure what it means or have seen others use it incorrectly so they get a false impression of the meaning of the word. So I put this together, including examples from the fandom, so that people can use it as a reference to learn more about what these terms mean and when they're appropriate to use. This list is focused on words related to shipping.

Tldr definitions (note: these are definitions that I wrote based on my own experiences/research on fanlore. These are always up for interpretation and meaning and nuance change over time and depend on fandom context)

Canon ship - a relationship where the characters have romantic interactions in canon

Fanon ship - a relationship where in canon the characters are platonic but the fandom has accepted as a ship with romantic undertones, canonical potential, or has become so popular within a fandom it's has surpassed the need/desire for canon

Crackship - a pairing of two characters where the idea of them together is strange or funny depending on the circumstances. Often in these ships, the characters have little or even no interactions in canon

Rare pair - agnostic to fanon or canon status. A rare pair simply means the fandom does not make a lot of fan content for it.

End-game - This is a canon ship that is together by the end of a series.

Slash ship - Fanon ships that feature queer relationships. M/M usually takes on the term slash and F/F has the term femslash.

OTP - Stands for One True Pair. This is a ship that a shipper considers to be the most important one that they love in a fandom.

NOTP - anti-OTP, or a ship that a shipper detests/is squicked out by

Multishipping - the act of shipping a character with multiple other characters.

For more context and thorough examples read more under the cut 

First, what the heck is a ship?

The origins of shipping and becoming obsessed with fictional relationships predate our modern understanding of fandom. Modern fandom roots can be traced as early as Star Trek: The Original Series. But the terminology of calling a couple you like a ship or the act of obsessing over fictional (and sometimes non fictional) couples "shipping" has its origins in the X-Files fandom. While ACOTAR is a romance, many fandoms do not have romance as a central element of its plot, and yet, shippers find a way. That's exactly what happened for the fans of Mulder/Scully. Those who wanted them to be in a romantic relationship were called "relationshippers" which then got shortened to "shippers". The verb "to ship" would appear later from this origin.

The way to think about "what is a ship" though is really based on do people think up romantic scenarios with these two characters? If yes, then you have a ship. And in ACOTAR, oh baby, are there MANY, MANY SHIPS.

Canon vs. Fanon ships

Where does a canon ship end and a fanon one begin? Now that, my friends, is not as clear cut as you might think.

I think this discussion is very important for the ACOTAR fandom because of the state of the ship war currently. Often, there is back and forth about which ship is canon or fanon (and *eye twitch* people throwing around crackship as a derogatory term to de-legitimize a ship which makes me wanna punch shit).

I'm gonna burst everyone's bubbles and say, I personally think Elriel, Elucien, and Gwynriel are all CANON ships.

Why? Well, that's the part that is up for interpretations my friends. What is deemed canonical romantic interactions? That is where a lot of lines can become blurry and if you have ever shipped a fanon ship before - you KNOW what I mean by that. Is it a charged glance? A caress of a hand that lingered too long? Is it a shared kiss? Or do the characters have to explicitly declare "I'm yours and you're mine"?

I've shipped a lot of kinds of ships. Canon. Fanon. Canon that had its end-game blown up. You name it, I've shipped it. And to me, a canon ship is anytime the writer of the canon is putting characters in a romantic situation, regardless if they end up together or not by the end of the series. If they wanted you to feel butterflies and think "could they?", and you felt butterflies, well my friends, you're responding to canon romance. And we've seen evidence of all three ships having those moments.

But, what does that mean for fanon ships? I have shipped a fanon couple where I got butterflies from their canonical scenes together. I've read into their moments and thought "wow, that was romantically charged". I think this is where the lines of canon and fanon are blurred. Because what this comes down to is, did the author intend this? Or am I seeing more into an interaction because I like it? Most fanon ships do hinge a lot of their interest in said ship because of what happens in canon. But, often times, the authors of said content are not necessarily wanting you to take away from their writing that these two characters are interested in each other romantically. You just can't help it. You see it. You see the potential, and you want it to go there so you see more of it the more you look.

Sometimes fanon ships are very clear that the canon is not even hinting at these two characters together romantically. And that is perfectly fine. To me, a fanon ship is a ship that has become so ingrained in the fandom community that the fandom thinks of these two together romantically. That it doesn't really matter anymore what the canon says or doesn't. The fandom has created this relationship and it lives and breathes within what the fandom builds for it. Azris is a perfect example of a fanon ship in ACOTAR. The canon interactions between Azriel and Eris are sparse and platonic in nature, yet the fandom itself has created a whole fanon around them with a large enough community that as soon as you enter the ACOTAR fandom, you immediately know this ship exists.

Rare pairs and Crackships

These two terms are often used interchangeably as if they are synonyms. Now, a rare pair can be a crackship but not all rare ships are crackships and vice versa.

Generally, a rare pair is devoid of canon or fanon connotations. A rare pair is a ship that receives little attention from fans and has few associated fanworks. So, a rare pair could be a fanon couple that few people think about romantically. For example, Emerie and Gwyn have a lot of interactions in canon. I would not think shipping them together to be a crackship because I mean, they're friends, they like each other, they read smut together. There are a lot of scenarios one could imagine them falling in love. But they have a whopping 12 fanfics under their tag in AO3. Therefore, they are a rare pair but not necessarily a crackship.

A rare pair can also be a canon ship. For example, Thesan and his unnamed lover are canon. However, when you look up their relationship tag on AO3, there are 23 works and most do not appear to be focused on them.

I also have seen people use rare pair for very popular ships (like Azris) when they mean fanon. Again, rare pair is really an indication of "how much fan content can you find for this" not necessarily are they canon.

Crackships really were birthed from the intention of putting two characters together "4 da lulz" to bring back early 2000s internet lingo. Crack shipping is usually a pairing that the idea of them together is a little absurd but also fun. Beron/Tamlin is a quintessential crackship example, especially why it came to be (but we will avoid getting into all the origins of that). There is no real reason to think Beron or Tamlin would ever have a romantic interaction and thinking about it makes you laugh. Crackships can sometimes turn into fanon ships. This is another example where the lines do get blurry. But really, crackshipping is about intention and the use of absurdism within fan creation.

I also want to say, often what I see in the Elucien v. Elriel and Elriel v. Gwynriel ships wars is the use of crackship in a derogatory way, and thinking that if one of these ships does not become end-game, therefore, it proves the other was a crackship. Simply put - no. That's not how it works.

End-game

Related to the above point, I think often where the ACOTAR ship wars really derail themselves, is conflating fanon/canon/endgame with each other. I don't see people often using the term end-game, when really, it would help so much with the judgmental and strange ship policing that this fandom loves to do. Specifically, this fandom has a hard time talking about the value within shipping fanon, or shipping the blurriness between fanon and canon for any characters that do not have end-game potential. ACOTAR is not a complete series. Therefore, in a strict definition, no couples are end-game. However, given the genre, there are several couples who are clearly going to be end-game. And really, what I think the ship war community needs in their discourse, is to start using the term end-game when they want to discuss the outcome of Elucien, Elriel, or Gwynriel having a canonical Happily Ever After. The reason being is that you can use end-game, and not insult another ship. End-game is simply a fact. There is no hierarchy involved in what ship is best or not. Because ships can be beloved whether they're canon or fanon or canon who did not end up together. And they all can have very valid reasons why people ship them despite not achieving end-game.

I also urge the ACOTAR fandom to realize that end-game is not the end of YOUR experience of your ship. Your ship lives on despite what the canon may or may not give you. Even if you ship a canon ship that does not achieve end-game, you can create those fanon end-games for yourself. Many popular ships end up being popular because of the effect of that ship not achieving end-game. And while I am using the prime-ship war as examples within this post, I've seen other microshipwars popping up within the fandom as well. So, I'm not trying to pick on this specific set of conflicts, it's just the one I see most prominently.

OTP vs NOTP

I think the ACOTAR fandom could also really benefit from adopting this terminology.

The point of declaring OTPs and NOTPs is a way for you to signal to others in your fandom, "This is how much I care about this ship. Whether I love it it or hate it. Tread carefully". These terms are not meant to say one ship is better than the other from a moral standpoint. Instead, it's to indicate to others that you have a strong preference. You're going to love your OTPs regardless of what arguments others throw at you to convince you to not love them. You will probably be very annoyed by your NOTPs regardless of what others try to do to convince you that they're actually cute/sexy/hot/perfect for each other. And what the ACOTAR fandom could benefit from, from readopting OTP/NOTP language, is having a common understanding where different shipping communities boundaries are and how they can better utilize those boundaries to prevent constant fighting. Now, ship wars are inevitable because of how people see their OTPs and NOTPs, but general rule of thumb is - don't engage with your NOTP's content for your own mental sanity.

Multishipping

Multishipping can be used in many ways. Some people use it to say, hey I'm in this fandom, and I ship a lot of couples. But the origins of multishipping as a term, comes from ship war discourse in other fandoms. Multishippers generally are people who ship one character with multiple other characters. For example, if you ship Elain/Lucien, Elain/Azriel, Elain/Gwyn, Elain/Tamlin, etc etc etc, you are a multishipper. I generally would not consider someone a multishipper if all of their ships do not cross streams. It just sort of means that you ship a lot of couples. Which tends to be normal for romance series with a lot of couples. Maybe not a single of those couples is your true OTP, and that's what you mean by saying you're a multishipper. And that's okay. I think though that multishipping generally in other fan spaces is a marker of you telling others that you don't draw harsh lines with who you see characters with. I often see multishippers not declaring NOTPs. It's kind of a state of how you go about shipping often. I, for one, identify as an OTP shipper. I've never really multishipped. But I also have a very strict standard of what I call my "ships". Anyways, this is to say, this term has a lot of uses. And sometimes it can be confusing which of these uses a person means when they say it.

Slash shipping 

I've seen over the years that slash as a terminology has fallen out of favor. In the past, slash shipping was the pinnacle of shipping in fandoms. The term slash comes from the first modern fanon ship, Kirk/Spock, where the / between their names, which we now all know and use to indicate a romantic pairing (note: & is used to indicate a platonic interaction between characters), exists because the Kirk/Spock shipping community really were the originators of shipping communities creating fan content and sharing it in with each other in a massive way. In general slash (and femslash) is an important modifier of shipping because it explicitly tells you that this is a queer ship which often were not mainstream and considered canon until more recently. With the rise of canonical queer ships, I think the subversiveness of shipping queer couples has lost it's edge, therefore slash is not needed as much anymore to directly state the nature of your ship.

I wanted to keep this in the post though, because I think it's incredibly important history for ALL ACOTAR fans to understand. Shipping queer couples, and especially shipping FANON queer couples, has always been the backbone of fandom. Kirk/Spock walked so Destiel could fly. These are all queer ships that have strong fanon roots (and that fanon has had impacts on their canon) and have shaped fandom and your concept of shipping and romance tropes in inextricable ways. You don't have / without Kirk/Spock. You don't have Omegaverse, without gay shipping within the Supernatural fandom. And I wanted to make this point because this fandom has a strong het (heterosexual) ship bias. Which is okay. It's a romance series with a lot of heterosexual canon couples. But, I think because of that, many people are not entering this fandom with an understanding that people shipping queer fanon couples have been the ones who were the originators of many fandom terms that we have come to know and use today.

Conclusion:

I hope you all found this informative and that you can take away something from this post that can help you have better interactions and ability to communicate with others in this fandom. Again, I want to stress, that this is heavily influenced by my own 25 years of experience being in fandoms. And I haven't seen it all. Others will have different interpretations of these terms and experiences using these terms. So, feel free to add on anything that you think would be helpful to those in the ACOTAR community to better understand how to "ship and let ship". I do think that ship war are inevitable and not necessarily a bad thing. But using the right terms can help you engage in a more respectful way within ship war discourse.

[theotterpenguin]

I really like the nuanced take about Zutara and why it makes some people uncomfortable and I can see both sides of it. I ship Zutara now but at first I didn’t and it made me really uncomfortable but I think it was just because of certain fan content I was coming across. Some people do portray Zutara in an extremely fetishized & creepy Stockholm syndrome way that makes Katara come off like some helpless damsel stereotype. It made me feel really gross thinking about as a young WOC but rewatching the show and seeing the true dynamic of these characters made me fall in love with them again. So I guess my feeling is that in canon i really love the dynamic but I hate the way *certain fans* twist it and refuse to acknowledge the racism & misogyny in what they’re doing

this is a complicated topic with many layers to it but first - i am sorry if you have ever felt unwelcome in the zutara fandom due to experiences with racism/misogyny.

it would be ignorant to claim that the zutara fandom is somehow uniquely unaffected by systemic racism or sexism, but it would also be disingenuous to claim that these issues only exist in certain parts of the atla fandom. racism, sexism, and general bigotry exist in every fandom due to institutionalized inequality in social structures. and to make it clear, i'm not directing this criticism towards you, anon, you are entitled to your own personal experiences, but i have seen a broader trend of people attempting to use fandom racism to moralize their position in ship wars, which is diminishing from the actual problem - the focus should be on acknowledging the existence of fandom racism/sexism, combatting implicit biases, and creating spaces that can uplift marginalized voices, rather than focusing only on optics in an attempt to gain moral high ground in a silly *fictional* ship war.

however, given all this, the reason that i am still in the zutara fandom is because i appreciate how many people in the fandom are dedicated to unpacking issues of racism and sexism and cultural insensitivity in atla's source material, which i personally haven't seen in many other sides of the fandom (that often sanitize what actually happened in the text to avoid acknowledging these issues in their favorite show). of course this is a broad generalization, but that's generally why i stick with the non-canon shipping side of the fandom because fans that are willing to stray away from canon are often less afraid to engage in critical analysis.

i also do think the zutara fandom has come a long way from the early 2000s when the show first aired. for example, when i first joined the fandom i had mixed feelings on fire lady katara, but i have since read some fanfics that have done an excellent job deconstructing some of the problematic ways that this trope could be interpreted and balancing respect for katara's cultural heritage and autonomy with the political and personal difficulties of being involved with an imperialist/colonialist nation. the fire lady katara trope, capture!fic, and other complicated topics/tropes are almost never inherently racist/sexist, but rather, their execution is what matters. and all this is not to say that issues of systemic racism/sexism do not still exist in this fandom, but it personally has not significantly negatively impacted my experience in the zutara fandom due to the wonderful content that so many other fantastic people produce, though everyone's mileage may differ with what they are comfortable with. anon, i hope that you are able to find a place in the zutara fandom for you! but i also know many people that have stepped back from other fandoms due to experiences with racism/misogyny, so i understand that decision as well.

on a final note, i think it's important to acknowledge that fandom doesn't exist in a vacuum and broader issues of racism and sexism are rooted in the media, the entertainment industry, and mainstream societal norms. while i do sometimes focus on fandom dynamics/discourse in my criticisms, i think it is equally as important to acknowledge how issues of prejudice and inequality are perpetuated through larger social structures, which is why it frustrates me when the atla fandom refuses to acknowledge the flaws of the original show, which has far more influence and social power over the general public than discourse over fandom tropes ever will. personally, i don't understand the phenomenon of holding fan-made material to a higher standard than mainstream media.

[galaxygolfergirl]

Some of my favorite Helsa fan arts I’ve done throughout the years (dates are in the alt text).

I’ve been thinking about this ship recently, especially its place in the fandom, and I have some thoughts (read below)

Ever since I was roped into this franchise 10 years ago, I think I’ve almost always drawn Hans with a beard. Primarily, it was because I felt that if he ever did show up again in Frozen media, he would be more weathered and unpretentious about his appearance since dropping his facade in the first film. Also because I just thought he would look better with more facial hair (it’s a me thing).

As for Elsa, I’ve never been consistent in drawing her, as it was hard for me to read her animated model, what with her huge eyes and baby nose, as normal, so that’s evolved over the years to a happy medium where it still reads as Elsa, but also reads as human with normal face proportions.

As to why I’ve shipped helsa all these years? Hans and Elsa are two sides of the same coin to me, the main difference being that one of them succumbed to their worst intentions and desires, while the other freed themselves and learned to embrace love and peace in their life. Both were isolated during their childhoods, resulting in years of loneliness, misery, and bitterness; both try to appear poised and reserved, hiding their inner self-loathing; both are intelligent and cunning, both have a definite aggressive streak, and both have interesting chemistry in their very few scenes together. Hans seems to be the only one on equal footing with Elsa who can get through to her throughout the film, mainly for his own ambition, of course, but it intrigued me to see even all these years later how compelling their interactions are.

Why would he sympathetically plead, “don’t be the monster they fear you are,” and stop her from killing those two guards? If he was planning on killing her, why would he go to her and ask if she could stop the winter? Why does he look shocked, almost sad when she tells him that she can’t, like he’s regretting having to kill her? It’s moments like these that paint these characters with more nuance than meets the eye.

I’ve always thought after the first movie, there was definitely potential for a more nuanced and interesting story if Hans were to return. Not simply for revenge, but rather an “enemy of my enemy is my friend” situation, where Frohana would have to work with Hans somehow to fend off an invading force or adversary, like the Southern Isles, to stick it to his family. He and Elsa would be adversarial, for sure, but through forced cooperation, they could open up and become more vulnerable with one another. The amount of angst and turmoil over their feelings for one another would be doubly engrossing. The drama would be incredible.

Now listen: I don’t really expect any of that to happen. I got off the Helsa or die party bus years ago and I’m just mainly enjoying it as it’s own non-canon concept. Believe me, I would love it if it did happen, god willing and the creek don’t rise. But really, when you get down to it, these are movies marketed at little girls, and I don’t think it would really go that far. It’s not easy to come back from holding a sword over a girl’s head, as quoted by Santino Fontana himself.

I grew up with this fandom, I started all the way back in middle school 10 years ago, and this has been a definite learning experience for me in separating the extrapolated world of fan-fiction and the reality of a pg animated musical. I’ve grown up and my expectations are different, and now I understand that canon doesn’t mean shit. I beg, do not take any of this seriously. Just because it has the Disney trademark slapped on it does not mean it’s the end all be all of a story. Stories are fluid things that adapt and evolve in each of the hands they pass through. No one interpretation of a story or a character or a relationship has to be “the right one,” and not every character has to sit on a black and white scale of moral dichotomy, there are always shades of gray.

I’m not saying all of this to be deep about a ship between a Disney princess and a Disney villain that I got into when I was 13, believe I know it’s not that deep. I’m saying this because I’ve lived through fandom and set myself up with false expectations, only to be disappointed. Hell, I took a break from helsa for a solid 3 years because of how burnt out I was. It’s far too easy to dissociate from the text and treat fanon as canon; you’re just setting yourself up to be disappointed. Just let it be its own thing! Like I said, canon does not mean shit! Don’t take things so seriously! Feel free to tell your own stories!

Anyways, I still love this ship, or at least the version I came up with in my head, because I am a storyteller, and I saw potential in these two that could be realized through other means. It doesn’t matter to me if it’s canon or not. Just enjoy it as it is.

[moriarty1234]

T*LC Refutation (but decidedly NOT johnlock refutation)

[Note: I love and ship johnlock because I saw it for myself in the show when I watched it and was part of the general audience in the past. I even want it to become canon in some Holmes adaption in the future. But T*lc needs to get sucked into obscurity and forgotten. Other fandoms like Good Omens, etc., are following the same rhetoric in their "meta" posts, and that needs to go. This is crucial for our basic critical thinking skills and objectivity.]

Read Part - 3 : Everything wrong with "subtexts" and "symbolisms" here.

Part-4: The Harmful Aspect of T*LC:

Let's move on to some more serious issues, or why we (Kim and I) don't believe for even a second that hardcore t*lcers (the ones who're rabid about this theory) ever cared for any type of representation, or even johnlock in itself for that matter.

I say hardcore t*lcers because the normal ones simply believe in t*lc and keep that shit to themselves. I'm even mutuals with them on Tumblr (although I know that when the show was on air, hardcore, insufferable, and deeply problematic t*lcers were in the majority).

1.) The very definition of t*lc : The general idea of t*lc is that johnlock has been planned since 2010 (right from the first episode of S1), this whole show is essentially a love story between Sherlock and John, the cases are not so important, and that johnlock is going to be the endgame canon ship. When the writers deny anything related to johnlock in their own show, they're lying to keep their elaborate plan under the wraps. When Sherlock and John kiss on screen, it'll be a rug pull moment for all the non-believers, their love story will be groundbreaking queer representation in mainstream media, and BBC Sherlock will become a culturally iconic Holmes adaptation. Because sometimes, the queer characters can be the heroes of the story.

All this sounded so nice and fancy to me when I was new to shipping johnlock. Because BBC Sherlock was my first fandom that I ever participated in. Johnlock was (and is) my first ship. I used to be a non-shipper before this, because I'm not exactly a Romance-genre fan in published fiction.

Now I don't like the general idea of this at all. Not because I don't want johnlock to become canon in some version (I really do), but there are so many flaws in the very idea of t*lc.

a.) They didn't even plan what they were going to do with Rosie Watson in S4. They just introduced the pregnancy subplot to raise the stakes in HLV. Only for shock value purposes. This was Mark Gatiss' statement (now I can't find the link but I've seen an article about this before). To think they'd planned an entire romance storyline, but it was just under the wraps the whole time, is unrealistic.

b.) While it's true that showrunners or directors do lie to their fans before a work is published to maintain an element of surprise, Moffat and Gatiss had denied anything related to johnlock too many times, and almost vehemently for most viewers to believe that they're just lying. One can only lie too many times, after all. And something needs to be there in the actual show for (maximum) fans to catch on that they're indeed just lying. There wasn't enough evidence for that. Too many of those scenes just came off as gay jokes instead of anything of real substance. That wasn't a good look.

c.) The third part is really what gets me the most here, and one of the main reasons why Kim and I began to actively despise t*lc, even though we're both still pro-johnlock. These people really thought the ultimate rug pull moment for the entire audience should be... that John and Sherlock are in love? Really? That's it? That's highest standard you have for supposedly groundbreaking queer representation? That doesn't sound right. Queer representation really shouldn't be used for shock value. As if we're not marginalised and isolated from most people already. Especially in my country. That just sounds as though you want to place these two characters in a museum as though they're some exotic beings or something. That's the opposite of a healthy queer rep.

d.) Even if johnlock were canon, it would've hardly been groundbreaking for the purposes of queer representation. Even in the 2010s. Because shows like Breaking Bad (a show from 2008, i.e., before BBC Sherlock, in which a very significant character is canonically gay and black), Elementary (where Mrs Hudson is canonically trans, Joan Watson is a well written character even as a poc female lead, Jamie Moriarty is also properly characterised when mainstream media doesn't have a lot of well-written female villains to begin with), London Spy (which is also a BBC show from 2015), Money Heist (which also features a significant canonically gay character), etc., still existed. I'll even list The Irregulars as an example, even though the first season of that show was aired in 2021, because that was still before the Sherlock Holmes franchise entered the public domain. Watson is canonically gay and black in that one.

e.) This is a detective show you're talking about. Cases aren't important? You kidding me?

2.) Rabid t*lcers were hypocritical as hell. They used to demand canon johnlock for "representation", but they were all sorts of bigoted people themselves.

a.) They made racist comments about Lucy Liu.

(From Sarah Z's video) :

They've called slurs to fans of colour in the fandom (I can think of one fan specifically right now) for not shipping johnlock.

b.) Characterising Sherlock as a twink, gay baby, or "smol" is fetishistic. It's just homophobia indirectly.

c.) They went rabid about the bisexual Sherlock headcanon, Instead of simply disagreeing with it for whatever reason. You're not doing the queer community any favours by h/cing John as bisexual just for your johnlock shipping, only because he has canonically shown attraction to women.

See this:

Stop playing the victim card right after perpetuating biphobia lol. You need to rewatch the show if you think mere fascination was all he felt for Irene. Also, even if he genuinely didn't show any attraction to any woman in canon, fanon can still be its own thing. Not everything has to be strictly canon compliant.

One more:

Stop straw manning and assuming real people's sexuality. Stop ship bashing. Enough with the biphobia.

This person is a johnlocker and "The One" obviously means johnlock here. No, not everyone is uncomfortable because of johnlock for bigoted reasons. People are allowed to have preferences.

Another one (probably my favourite) :

Talk about hypocrisy. The title of this post sounds so positive to bisexuality, but then OP goes right ahead to frantically claim Sherlock is 100% gay and not anything else!!! 1!!

Sherlock is heavily queercoded in the show, I agree. I don't even care whether that was the authorial intent or not at this point. That's what a non-insignificant amount of people took away from this show.

But his canon sexuality was never specified. People are allowed to interpret his sexuality however they want. You are nobody to state your own headcanons as facts.

More hypocrisy.

d.) The acephobia was rampant in this fandom mostly because of these people. It's a well-documented fact.

e.) The misogyny in this fandom was ugly. The kind of outlandish metas they write trying to disprove adl*ck from the show... jeez. If adl*ck definitely doesn't exist in this show, why would you need to disprove it so many times through your meta posts?

Can't erase something that really isn't there, just saying.

"Irene is just a personification of Sherlock's libido for John." Seriously? Do you even listen to yourself?

Don't get me wrong. I blame Mofftiss equally as much for not writing women properly in general, Irene Adler in particular. They butchered canon Irene Adler (a queen) way too much in their show. But the fans' response to her was almost worst.

It's understandable if the show's version of Mary doesn't sit right with you for whatever reason. People are allowed to have preferences. Personally, I'm quite neutral about Mary Morstan in this show.

But these people used to take their hate for her too far. These people have never been as mad at Moriarty, or even at Culverton Smith, as they all were at Mary for shooting Sherlock. Again, this is a crime drama show. Not all characters are going to be sunshine and roses.

3.) Rabid t*lcers hardly ever tried to explore johnlock in other versions. If you're a fan of Sherlock Holmes, you'll be at least curious about different adaptations that exist out there. Why did they hardly ever posted about The Irregulars when it was aired? An adaptation in which Watson is canonically in love with Holmes? I've been around in the johnlock fandom enough to know that the rabid t*lcers (NOT ALL T*LCers) never really cared about the possibility of johnlock in some other version after it ultimately didn't become canon in BBC Sherlock. They only care for johnlock as long as Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman are associated with it.

... Yup.

(ACD canon Watson was in his early thirties in the first novel. That's not middle aged. Joanlock didn't even become canon - something that was specified since Day 1 - in Elementary lmfao. Also, Lucy Liu was in her forties when Elementary aired. Get your facts straight.)

All these three points are enough to conclude that what t*lcers usually posted about was obviously not "demand for representation", but rather a demand for some extremely specific fantasies acted out on screen with an even more specific choice of actors.

I even joked to Kim about this: The stuff they demand for is so extremely specific that it sounds like a Starbucks order lol.

Part: 5 - Conclusion:

I want johnlock to become canon in some version of Sherlock Holmes adaptation. But I want t*lc as a theory to be completely forgotten and obscured. T*lc is definitely not the way to go about it. Other fandoms (namely Good Omens) have started to write "metas" with the exact same rhetoric in them, and now it's completely unacceptable. It's 2024 now. Let it go.

Some interesting links Kim and I found that are very insightful and relevant to this post:

About cults and the followers

Cult psychology

Conspiracy theory psychology

Science vs pseudo-science

Science vs psudo-science - 2

Conspiracy theory psychology - 2

Signs someone is a pseudo-intellectual

One explanation why even otherwise sensible people seem to believe in t*lc

PS: Not every dark haired character/ blond character is a Sherlock/John mirror respectively. That's not how character-mirroring works. Experts would know this.

T*LC refutation (but NOT johnlock) refutation master post.

[leedee013]

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 ILU have fun!!!!

AFTG ask game

I LOVE YOU TOO MWAH

all my answers are going to be under the "read more" because hoo boy.

When did you first read aftg?

I first read AFTG by listening to the first audiobook while riding around the bus and trains in Germany, then Seth died, I immediately needed to finish the series, and then I read the entire series in less than 48 hours rifp.

2. All For The Game or The Sunshine Court?

All For the Game. The Sunshine Court is about my son, Jean, but also... because he's my son I have a lot of points where I simply like what I wrote better! and a fair number of complaints with TSC, since a lot of the way Jean's trauma rears its head is far less realistic than how Neil's trauma rears its head.

3. Favourite scene(s)?

I won't lie, one of my favorite scenes is when Neil gets back from his father's home and the Foxes all sleep on the floor together. I'm a huge sucker for found family and hurt/comfort and MAN that scene ticked off all my boxes. It's the one that I'll actually go back every now and then to reread. Wymack's joke about "Wesninski" and that feeling of finally having a family gets to me literally every time. And blah blah yeah I also really love the mentality of Andrew dragging Wymack behind him as he crashes through everything just so he can get back to Neil's side.

4. If you could choose to make one fictional place from the books real, which one?

That place they go to when they get ice cream/milkshakes before going to Eden's Twilight! It sounds amazing

5. A character you think deserves to be more present in the books?

Hngh this is difficult because I do believe that, at least as far as AFTG goes (aka excluding TSC) the characters are all as present as they need to be. Neil is very tunnel-visioned, and I think that it's a solid amount of screentime for each character, so to say. Like my first thought was Seth, but it wouldn't have fit Neil's character for Seth to haunt him at all. Therefore, I think overall I'd liked to have seen more of Jean for purely selfish reasons. Also more Renee!

6. A non-canon ship you love?

Jean/Renee, Jean/Jeremy, Jean/Kevin, Renee/Riko, and then any mix and match of those characters in throuples/quoples/poly ships! I'm also a big fan of Dan/Renee because woooo enemies to lovers?

7. A part of the extra content you whole-heartedly agree with

Andreil never say "I love you" or get married. Also that Dan gets to take over the Foxes when Wymack retires. Also Sir and King but like. Who doesn't agree with that.

8. A crackship/crackships you've come to love

Rinee (Riko/Renee), I adore it so much okay. I love the healing energy of it all and also the way that Renee attracts the most strange and unhinged people to her.

9. Underrated aftg fanartist / fic writer (tag them!)(link if they're not on tumblr)

well obviously @capcavan @jtl-fics and @emry-stars-art can never be OVERrated. But I think the true underrated AFTG fanartist is @noomyart <3

10. A villain you think is fucking hot

well. uh. villain I guess would be Nathan. Antagonist? Riko

11. A side character you love and/or appreciate

NICKY, I love him so much. Also Renee. And Dan. And Matt. I'm so mad I can't just say Jean anymore since he's not really a side character anymore GAH

12. Favourite narrative foil?

I adore the Riko/Neil narrative foil. Both the sons that were not wanted, both having their lives attached to Exy and using it as a way to solidify their freedom/independence, while Neil had someone who tried to save him and Riko could only ever try to save himself.

13. Favourite narrative symbolism?

In general my favorite narrative symbolism are the keys; how they unlock opportunities for Neil; how they are signs of trust that others put in him; how they are something I don't think he ever thought he'd have (solidity/a home). I also love how much symbolism they hold for him, as well.

14. A character you would actually get along with in real life

Nicky (we'd bond over escaping our parents by running to Germany and using each other as an excuse to practice German) or Matt (because he's chill he's fun and he reminds me a lot of some of my actual friends from college).

15. A character you love but would deck in real life

Neil lmao

16. How did you even get here?? How did you discover AFTG?

I was browsing the Banana Fish tag and saw a post that was like "hey! do you wish that you had a series that was everything you loved about Banana Fish but with way more of Eiji pole-vaulting? then you should check out All for the Game for its mafia-infused sports anime vibes! and huzzah I haven't gotten off the hook yet

17. Would you play exy?

I feel like I'd be pretty good at it if I'd put my mind to it. It seems like fun and also I'm a bit of a masochist so I think the rougher plays would be really fun!

18. A fancast you will never let go of

Tbh I don't really have a fancast for any of the characters

19. A fancast you love that is super silly

I did see a guy the other day who made me double take and go KEVIN???? in my head if that counts

20. Which character would be the last to die in a actual zombie apocalypse?

Probably Renee tbh because she's unsuspecting, can broker peace between people who are fighting, and has absolutely no issue wielding and using knives in fights.

21. Would andrew minyard have beef with you?

Idk I feel like we'd vibe really well but wouldn't necessarily be close. He might get annoyed at how go-with-the-flow I am, though

22. Hyperspecific aro and or ace kevin headcanon?

I enjoy these headcanons and seeing people write them but I personally don't ever write him as either aro or ace. All the power to those who do though <3

23. Something you are very sure will happen in TSC2

Trojans win and 2. Jean meets the Foxes again before/after a game and it's emotional

24. Nicky or Allison? (Character wise and personality wise seperate)

I'm biased but Nicky. I relate way too hard to his story to not be biased here. But also I relate heavily to Allison and love her as well. I think she's also a lot more underappreciated out of the two, and gets a lot of unfair hate.

25. You're now only allowed to ship Kevin with one person (1) who is it?

man you're really out here discriminating against me and my poly ship here /t, but if it's only one person then I'd say Jean because again, I'm biased.

26. A 2000s song any one/ship/group of character would listen to

I feel like Andrew would secretly adore Lady Gaga's Poker Face and know all the lyrics even if he'd never sing along.

27. A detail or element from an older draft you would've loved to see in the final draft

LMAO so. I'm personally a fan of the version where Riko shot Kevin because Neil dodged/Kevin dove in front of him. I don't think I would have swapped the ending that we got for it instead, but I did think that it would have been an interesting change.

Also Riko and Kevin with longer hair

28. If you had to kill a fox. (Seth doesnt count.)

Aaron, because oh boy that poor medical student is probably already begging for some anvil to drop on him from the heavens

Question 29 for jean! Name a favorite Jean dialogue/quote

All of them because Jean is my favorite but also I think I'm going to go with "I will endure. I will endure. I will endure" because it's the first one I found while flipping through my copy of TSC and skimming for lines I thought were powerful. A classic is "Did a week away from the court damage your ball-battered brain?" (TSC 24), though. And then of course, as a Jeanee fan, the entire conversation between Jean and Renee on pages 68-69 where they talk about finding the joy in small things in life and taking a chance on himself and and

anyway hello thank you for coming to my TED talk

[marashi96art]

Questions for the fanfic writers about Leon S. Kennedy's lack of background story: How do you deal with it?

I've been haunted by this problem for MONTHS and I needed to spit it out. I feel like Tumblr is a better place for long text and reasoned discussion, and most importantly: fanfic writers.

It's long and I sincerely look forward to your opinions. Even though I only draw Cleon, I didn't mention any ship in this post so I won't add ship-related tags here; if you're gonna list examples based on your ship, please respect each other.

So hear me out:

The best part and the worst part about Leon S. Kennedy is that HE DOESN'T HAVE A BACKGROUND STORY and a CONSISTENT characteristic development...and it's driving me insane.

The benefit of it is that I can shape his past into whoever I want to fit my stories. But it brings out a bigger problem: the development is solely depending on my understanding & knowledge of character design. He's pretty much a blank sheet of paper, except he's extremely famous, and I don't want to stray too far away from the canon info that we've got on him(and get "canceled" for OOC).

(I don't actually write stories into fics, but I DO write short scripts for my art when they are intended to be a series. I guess the prep work to start anything is the same: write it down in words, then expand the idea.)

I love AUs and I'm more interested in sci-fi/fantasy than modern/zombie-apocalypse kinda thing. But when I wanted to dig deep into their backgrounds, to start world-building, there's NOTHING for me. It's so frustrating.

For example, I'm currently working on a Monster Hunter AU based on the RE4R DLC Hero Outfit, which basically is the whole RE gang running around in the woods hunting supernatural creatures. (Not just CAPCOM's MH series but with the general mythical creatures, werewolves .etc)

And they have a Hunter's Guild, different tribes and clans, you know the drill. Since the setting was in a fantasy world, their surnames have caused me great pain from the start.

The easiest one is Redfield. It can be interpreted as "fertile land" or "battleground", and from these I immediately have quite a few visual ideas of how they'd look like, and what they'd do for a living. Chambers, Valentine, and Oliveira are "OK", but the surname Kennedy doesn't fit in ANYWHERE.

(Yes, I googled. It's Irish; but let's be honest, our first impression was a certain American political family.)

Then I read this article that shares a similar concern: Is Resident Evil 4’s Leon S. Kennedy Italian? An investigation

It pretty much sums up the most common FANDOM theories of Leon's background info. But all of them are still just, headcanons.

The more I try to dig in, the lack of this crucial element--a character's canon background story--is really blocking me to create things I enjoy. Even though I've been drawing him for almost 50 pieces of fan art, I still don't know what he's actually like. I can only imagine his personality by referencing other fictional characters/actors whom I think share a resemblance. (I have a soft spot for Keanu Reeves, Faramir from TLOR, and Sanji from One Piece. But that's another story for another time.)

Of course, I'm aware of the fact that, instead of spending this huge amount of time to rewrite a fictional character I don't own, I can create my own OCs and build everything from scratch. But that's not the point. I only started playing video games in 2019 when I bought a Nintendo Switch; and my first-ever, modern game experience was Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

The whole game-wise fandom and RE series are pretty new to me. But I've been in fandoms of books/movies/TV shows for over a decade. It shocked me that Resident Evil, this world-popular series has almost 30 years of history but non of the main characters have a consistent background that follows through the in-game timeline. There're huge gaps between the games even if we add all of the movies in it. How did that work? How do you get to know them? How do you get attached enough to write your own fan story?

In conclusion, I don't think I like Leon S. Kennedy, cuz he remains a mystery. Instead, I just combine all of the good qualities of other characters I like, create my version of Leon Kennedy, and hopefully pray that when he reappears in a new RE work, I didn't do him wrong.

[tickldpnk8]

Shipper Tag Game

Thanks for the tags @windsweptinred and @writing-for-life! Sorry it's taken me a bit: this week has been really hectic, but this is a fun one! I suspect that my answers may be a bit of a blend of both of yours.

What ship were you completely obsessed with as a teenager, but now you don't care about anymore?

I still actively ship the same pairings I did as a teenager. Mostly because I tend to like canon pairings, so when I engage with a fandom, it tends to be through that lens.

What ship would you consider your first one?

The earliest ship I remember liking is Clark Kent/Lois Lane from Lois and Clark. But this was pre-computer in my house growing up. The first ship I really got into online fan culture with and fan fiction was Harry/Ginny from HP.

Your first fanfic was about which couple?

So I've never written fanfic: I'm more of a fan art person, although I'm pretty shy about posting it. My earliest fan art was probably something Disney...most likely The Little Mermaid as a kid. My most recent foray back into fan art was for The Unknown and Static Strange, Dreamling fic. Otherwise, I've just had fun painting Morpheus' hair.

Do you remember the first couple you saw fan art of?

Most likely Harry/Ginny: there was this excellent artist, whose name (I think) was Marta, who used to post watercolor sketches on her own site called The Art Dungeon: they were gorgeous and really helped shape how I pictured the characters as I read the books. I'd love to find her artwork again to see what her portfolio is like now if she's still working as an artist.

Have you ever gotten into ship discourse?

Oh man...do you know how non-confrontational I am?? I won't touch it with a 10 ft pole: first whiff of a debate going heated and I nope out of there. I took a peek at the Loki tags when season 2 came out and couldn't close my browser fast enough. Ship and let ship, but don't ask me to comment on it.

Did you use to have any NOTP or have one currently?

I generally avoid anything that a huge power imbalance: (think: underage student with an adult teacher). But other than that, I've come to embrace any ship if the writing is good enough. Almost any trope too.

Who were the last couple in the last fanfic you read?

I'm super excited to see Hounds is updating again, even if I've largely moved on from actively pursuing Dreamling. And I LOVED @writing-for-life's The Light of Stars (Morpheus x OC). I dabbled in a few Loki one-shots recently, too.

Currently, do you have any OTPs?

Man, that's hard...because I'm honestly not reading fanfic for the ships: I'm mostly reading it to satisfy the brain rot. So while I tend to prefer canon-adjacent or gen fics (missing moments, alt POV, etc), it seems that the best way to find those is through searching ship tags. Sandman seems to be the exception: I want all of these characters to pair up with all of the other characters and all bets are off the table. If the writing is solid and the plot is intriguing, I'm in!

Is there any couple that, to this day, that you are extremely mad about not getting into?

Not really: I don't invest so much in the ships I like and hate that I can't Ship and Let Ship. Likewise, if I want to read something, I will. And if it's not for me, I'll just ignore it. I also don't get so invested that if it doesn't become canon I'm upset: I kind of figure all things are possible in Lucienne's library

Is there any ship you used to dislike but now you think they're kind of interesting?

I honestly didn't really like the idea of Dreamling to start: it's not a canon pairing, I wouldn't have put the spin on Hob's character that fandom seems to have latched onto, and I really like that he's the one platonic friendship that Morpheus has able to form. But I find the idea of someone living for that long infinitely intriguing so I dipped into the tags, and some of the most well-known and well-beloved early fics for this pairing really caught my attention and hooked me in. But since then...my interest has waned. As others have pointed out, it's just everywhere and hard to filter. It's also starting to feel a bit OOC as fandom does what they do in shaping a character's portrayal.

I tend to go in spurts where I really like a certain dynamic and then I get bored with the fic selection for a pairing. But generally, I'll always come back to it after enough time. I really want to see more Desire-centric pairings like Desunity as I think they're a really interesting character and it could be interesting to explore them in different relationships given their function.

Do you have any ship that, in the past, would have been considered normal but now you would be cancelled over?

I've been in fandom spaces a long time, but I don't think any of them would be considered problematic today. It's more likely that there are things I used to feel were problematic, but I'm actually okay with now. I've grown a lot as a reader (and a human) over time.

What is your favorite crack ship?

Prob Morpheus and his Helmet (have we named this yet @writing-for-life?? it needs a worthy ship name). I'm also fairly certain that I coined the name Timeslayer for the Loki fandom (or might have simultaneously come up with the name when others did). But I've never seen a ship sink so quickly.

What is the couple you read the most fanfics about?

Lately, it's been Dream x Joanna (ConstantDream) coming off of a big DreamMuse kick that was followed by Dream x Lucienne.

What do most of your ships have in common?

That's hard! I was going to say Hard Candy Shell of a Guy reveals he has a Gooey Nougat Center...but really it just comes down to 1) is the writing good? 2) is the plot intriguing? 3) do the characters feel in-character? If you satisfy those 3 things, I'll likely read it.

What do you absolutely hate in a ship?

Absolutely nothing outright. I'll sometimes go off a ship a little once it reaches that point where fanon locks in too tight around it. But I think that's a very me problem, as I crave variation/new experiences/ideas. I'll still love the ship, I'll just know that's just my time to move onto something new and come back and visit every so often.

^ @windsweptinred couldn't have nailed this better. I crave new: new perspectives, new takes on a character or dynamic, new AU scenarios. So once things get a bit too repetitive across authors, I'll pull back and visit something else.

This was fun! Thanks again for the tags. I've been minimally online this week so am not sure who else has done this: if you follow me and want to participated consider this your chance!

[hislittleraincloud]

Idk if you’re friends or friendly with Romance Dream, but I would suggest telling her to cool it on the posts. She’s making a fool of herself and misrepresenting Percy fans :/

I'm not anyone's babysitter.

I've already mentioned in a reblog or two that I do not approve of her RPFing, and to tone down the language when talking about Wenclair. I don't like it when she goes and uses negative judgemental language like "disgusting" when it comes to the ship itself.

What is disgusting is the insane objectification and projection going on with the Wenclairs. It's a behavioral issue, not an inherent "this ship is {insert whatever negativity you've seen/heard}".

Whenever someone says that the ship itself is disgusting, I have said that it isn't. LGBTQIA+ ships aren't disgusting. If I thought they were disgusting I would not write the Nightshade ladies in as I have (Tanaclay, Yokovina). Or write Moira!Chancellor/Larissa Weems (I started the 🔥, almost trans-centric post-Walker Wake deleted scene, it's in my files along with an unfinished Pink Bubblegum (Donovan/Wednesday/Enid) AU fuckfest...I haven't finished either because I'm just too busy with 8, Miller's Girl Universe stuff, and other non-fandom writings). Even ABW getting railed by Donovan while at the same time psychically experiencing a male orgasm counts as queer.

But I digress.

Again, I'm not her babysitter, and no one has any obligation to listen to someone you are just acquaintances with (I would only call people whose faces I've seen in long chats over multiple weeks/months "close"), but it would be nice if those who weren't Wenclair would be reasonable and not behave like a fucking homophobe who hates the ship "because they're gay", just as the more psychotic Wenclair people should back the fuck off when it comes to Ortega herself and her friends and co-workers. Bitches are already complaining about "the age gap" between her and Glen Powell under this post:

The 🏳️‍🌈 are just pissy that she's swapping spit with cis males (and probably loves dick, just like her buddy Sabrina C.). They'll never fucking let up until she cuts all of the fans off for real (which she basically has, by avoiding all social media save for IG). Or until they make her job unbearable because she can't pretend to fuck men as part of her job.

I played a gay ass trans man on screen (yeah, I'm on IMDB 💩). I'm not gay. It was called ACTING.

There is such a dearth of reason and reasonable people in this damnable fandom. I'd say that most of the people in this fandom are kids whose brains haven't settled yet, but then again, I came across someone who's in their goddamn 30s who can't grasp simple concepts. The infantilizing of our youth/young adults is nearly complete.

ETA: While editing this post, I glimpsed at one of her later posts and comments. Does this work for you? FTR I didn't do it for anyone, I did this because it pissed me off when I read it.

Also FTR, I supported Trio Sandwich (Harry/Hermione/Ron), Drarry, Dramione, Snamione, Wolfstar, Gin & Tonic, Lucmione, and Weasleycest. My ex wrote a gnarly McGonagall/Lucius short before. Neither of us cared WTF was written, so long as it was written well. I wrote the first shorts/drabbles for certain rare pairs that no one would touch. We all wrote something like that because there was no lacking in creativity with the Potter people.

Jesus, I never thought I would ever say this — given how shitty JKR is — but I miss when that fandom was a big fucking family where we had our Weird Uncle Johns/Aunt Janies (like me...people from Pornish Pixies and Parry Hotter on LiveJournal) but we still understood that fiction is fiction and that we all loved the same canon. That all went to fucking Hell once this place became popular for fandoms and people started behaving like the goddamn Warriors for Innocence.

[swannposting]

What are some background facts/headcanons you want to tell about your fic "An Innocent Question"?

Ah!! ♡ Thank you for reading, that fic is my pride and joy and might be my favorite thing I've written.

First off, I should let you know that I am actually working on a sequel of sorts. I really want to expand on this ship because I think there's fun potential there. But as always I must apologize in advance for the slowness of my writing. Muse is a very fickle thing for me.

So-- I do have Elizabeth in that fic as being gender non-conforming both in presentation and identity. I wish I would have gone into more detail on that in An Innocent Question, but the focus of that fic was a lot more on the smut so I chose to leave it just at the mention of binding her chest for now.

Due to the historical nature of the canon, I don't think I'll ever write her as establishing her identity in the more definable terms that we use today, but I am very intrigued by the idea of having her use he/him pronouns at times. I plan on using her relationship with Scarlett as an avenue for Elizabeth to play with gender roles. I would love to have her replicate some of the courtship norms that were prevalent at the time from the male perspective, both as a way for her to explore her own relationship with gender, and as a way for her to reflect on the implied period of courtship she has with Will between CotBP and DMC. (Side note: I have been very inspired and enlightened by @elventhespian 's ongoing fic Best Laid Plans, which goes in-depth on what that span of time was like for Will and Elizabeth, with a ton of historical background. Check it out! ♡)

So, some background on the dynamics I had in mind while writing that fic-- as some of you may already know, I'm a big fan of poly relationships in fiction. So when I wrote An Innocent Question, I had already somewhat decided that I wanted Elizabeth and Will to have an open marriage. I chose that mostly because I wanted to keep the fic (and any potential sequels) as lighthearted as possible, and to give Elizabeth the opportunity to build relationships and explore sexuality with other characters, while still maintaining her canonical devotion to Will. Long story short, in my mind, Spillabeth (J/W/E) is pre-established in that fic, though I did not mention it in the text. I do plan on delving into that a bit in another installment, though the focus will still remain on her budding relationship with Scarlett.

As far as Scarlett-- I'm still mulling over ideas for further development of her character beyond the 2-D nature of her appearances in canon. The PotC films have a tragic lack of women, and I want to take the time to flesh her out more, even if it takes a few different works to fully figure out what that looks like. If anyone has any suggestions or thoughts about her, I would love to hear them!

That's all I've got for now. Again, thank you thank you thank you for reading my work, and thank you for the opportunity to yap about my blorbos! ♡

[rockinlibrarian]

10, 16, 24 for the fandom ask 🧡🧡

Whoo-hee, I have an Ask! (To be fair, I've HAD an Ask for several days, but this is the first I've gotten on my computer proper to answer it).

So let's see.

10. a blog (mutual or one you follow) that has made your fandom experience brighter:

I'm going to give this one to @non-plutonian-druid, who not only posts delightful fan art, they also post delightful fan art in even more delightful crossovers, which is just very fun.

16. a tiny detail in canon that you want more people to appreciate:

Ah. Hmm. Which canon even? Oh you know what, I'm going to be obnoxious and say, if you pay attention in TUA you'll NOTICE that Five totally reacts differently to Viktor than to everyone else. He smiles more. He's less insulting. There's this scene in S3 where he goes "I hate to say I told you so" and Viktor shoots back "You LOVE to say I told you so," and Five just smiles and nods! You CANNOT tell me he wouldn't have a snappy comeback if ANYONE ELSE had dared! So I know I can't convince anyone to ship them but you DO SEE they have a DIFFERENT relationship from the others, right? :P

24. how has fandom positively impacted your life?

Well. I have been writing stories since I learned how to write, and making them up for longer, but after my first child was born it was like everything shut off. I was so tired! I had no more free time! How could I take time out of my busy day to write when I could be using that time to, Idaknow, sleep? Before I could get into the habit again I started doing collection development for the library, and it was like, do you have any idea how many books are published in a year? And it's really important for more diverse voices to be uplifted. So like why do I, a white (basically-)straight mainstream-Christian (relatively-)able-bodied (not neurotypical, but come on, Anne of Green Gables was published in 1908 and she's the most perfect female-with-ADHD character ever, so it's not like THAT one's lacking) ciswoman even need to write a book? Who cares? Yes, I am aware this is a lie ones brain tells to be obnoxious, but it still made it impossible for me to actually carve out time to write when who cares?

The first step in me getting past this was the writing prompt that became "The Pipeweed Mafia Epic," which was, technically, fanfiction. It gave me permission to just HAVE FUN with writing, without thought to whether the story is Needed or if anyone's going to read it at all. Some of the only other stories I managed to get out for the next few years were ALSO fanfics. But it was infrequent, and I didn't share them. AND THEN, here on Tumblr, I saw a post for a Legion FX fic exchange and I said, "You know, I think I can do that. I should take the chance!" So I did, and ended up writing not just my assignment but also a little fic that popped into my head just in the process of me deciding what I wanted to ask for! And now I had an AO3 account, which meant I suddenly had an outlet when I saw a movie that desperately required some rethinking! And suddenly I was waking up to emails that said "You've Got Kudos!" and THAT'S a hit of dopamine, so it suddenly became so much easier to just get an idea for a silly little story I could stick on AO3 and maybe get a "You've Got Kudos!" message the next day!

So long story short, fandom helped me get WRITING again. I'm still not sure when I'll ever get back to ORIGINAL fiction, but at least the storytelling itch in my brain has an outlet!

[danikatze]

Shipper Tag Game

Tagged by @tj-dragonblade! I'm not sure if (m)any of these answers will be interesting at all, because apparently I have a bad memory for ships apart from the ones I made fanart of myself, and I haven't read a lot of fanfic for a long long time.. But I've attempted answering these questions anyway!

What ship were you completely obsessed with as a teenager, but now you don’t care about anymore?

I didn't ship much as a teen. I liked the Marauders gang from HP a lot as a kid, tho, likely even in a shippy way. Obviously HP has left a really bad taste my mouth.

Which ship would you consider your first one?

It was probably a HP one, I was properly obsessed with Sirius, James and Remus for a long time, but like I said, I have a hard time telling when I started consciously shipping characters.

Your first fanfic was about which couple?

Hinata and Naruto and it was baaad. I guess it was maaaybe kind of cute, but it was not good.

Do you remember the first couple you saw fan art of?

Not at all. The most likely options are anyone from HP, Death Note, or InuYasha, but it hasn't stuck with me.

Have you ever gotten into ship discourse?

Nah, the closest I've gotten was the time I got put on a blacklist (or two?) for a shipping Yamato and Sai. I didn't care and so didn't address it, until someone sent me a (kind) message about it. I then explained my feelings about the problematic aspect and the (few) responses I got were 100% positive.

Did you used to have a NOTP or have one currently?

There are plenty of ships I don't particularly like, but I wouldn't call them NOTP's. Except maybe the very very popular ones. I only take real issue with ships that become canon, like a fair few Naruto pairs..

Who were the last couple in the last fanfic you read?

Reading has been hard the last couple of years, so I haven't done much of it.. But it has to have been a Dreamling fic - I'm so excited you've been writing again, TJ 💖

Currently, do you have any OTPs?

MatsuMasa, although they're not my otp in the literal sense. I like them both with Yaichi, and Matsu (non-romantically) with Ume - and the fun thing is that it works all at the same time 😎

Is there any couple that, to this day, you are extremely mad about not getting into?

Hmm well I'm kinda mad at not being as into Dreamling as you are, TJ. I like Sandman and Dreamling! Very much looking forward to the second season and I enjoy the things you blog about, but it's never been more than a general appreciation. And that's fine, ofc, but it's always been such a joy to be excited by the same things as you haha

Is there any ship you used to dislike but now you think they’re kind of interesting?

Maybe KakaGai? Only I didn't dislike it, just didn't consider it. And I don't think it's kind of interesting, I deeply love it.

Do you have any ship that, in the past, would have been considered normal but now you would be cancelled over?

I already mentioned YamaSai, but there's also ShisuItachi. Some people say that the latter is incest. It's been too long and I don't remember their specific relationship, but afaik they're not (direct) family, just from the same clan. Can't get too bothered about family trees in fiction.

Kikyo and Kagome from InuYasha is by some considered gross as well, comparable to incest, because Kagome is Kikyo's reincarnation?

Idk, is FjorClay problematic, because Caduceus is canonically aroace? I feel like it's not a super popular ship anyways, but I still like them a lot. In a queer platonic way.

What is your favourite crack ship?

I don't think I have one. Although I wonder if JonGerry from the Magnus Archives could be considered crack ship? They aren't from different fandoms, but they only met once after Gerry had already died. And then at Gerry's request, Jon sort of killed him again. It doesn't really count as a crack ship, but this is my answer anyway

What is the couple you read the most fanfics about?

Hm, I don't know! The last time I really obsessively read them was in my Naruto era.. So who knows - KakaGai is a very plausible answer.

What do most of your ships have in common?

I guess I most commonly like pairings with a Gentle Giant™ (preferably kind of dumb) and someone grumpy and/or cynical and smart and/or skilful. MatsuMasa, BeauYasha and ShikaChou come to mind.

What do you absolutely hate in a ship?

Hard to explain. Wrong vibes lol. Look I can appreciate love-hate or even hate-hate relationships as much as the next shipper, but there needs to be at least some level of respect/consent/two-way-street? I still dislike SasuSaku, because they very much have none of that from what I remember. They've always been close to a NOTP and then they became canon so..

[obstinatecondolement]

One of the issues I have with purity culture in contemporary fandom is that a lot of its most ardent adherents have a very... unexamined approach to a lot of their most hardline beliefs?

CW: discussion of incest, rape, harassment, suicide baiting; references to the lynching of Emmett Till and anti-Black racism

Like, for example, many of them seem to a) have an extremely broad interpretation of what relationships are incestuous and b) do not really know why they object to incest beyond it being yucky disgusting. But here's the thing: lots of things are yucky disgusting that are perfectly fine to do with a consenting partner or partners.

Which leads me to what I believe to be the real issue with non-fictional incest: it is almost always a form of sexual abuse.

I notably saw a group of people (who I do not think would harass people over this, to be fair) very earnestly making the point that you could not ethically ship Saavik and David, because they were "step-siblings."

Let's unpack that. Kirk is the biological father of David Marcus. He did not raise him and only met him for the first time when he was an adult with a terminal degree. Saavik is, in Beta canon, adopted into Spock's family (she seems to have been raised by him and his parents rather than being his literal adoptive daughter, although I haven't read the relevant novels) as a young child. Kirk and Spock, in fandom, are a popular ship.

So like... let's take at face value here the idea that Kirk and Spock are definitely married post-canon and that David considers himself 100% Kirk's son and Saavik considers herself 100% Spock's daughter. Are we to believe that people who met as adults, whose parents get married after they met, cannot ever have a consensual romantic and/or sexual relationship? That this kind of relationship can only be exactly equivalent to one where a sibling sexually abuses another and should be condemned in exactly the same way? Like... really? Do you not think that is enormously insulting to survivors of incest?

To take a more actively harmful example: what are the people who profess to believe that fiction about certain topics can cause real life harm believe they are doing when they tell people to kill themselves? If they actually believe what they say they believe, are they not at best attempted murders by their own standards? Is trying to kill someone not bad? And if they don't believe that they should be accountable for someone taking them seriously and obliging their request by killing themselves... then do they not feel embarrassed to expose their own hypocrisy like that in public?

And it gets even more absurd when the same people claim to support prison abolition, because they have inferred from the social justice internet zeitgeist that that is an extremely progressive thing to support. Girl! You openly believe that immoral fan fiction is a capital offense! But you want to extend restorative justice to violent offenders? Make it make sense. Or do you interpret prison abolition to be a pivot to mob justice where "the real sickos" get what's coming to them, as opposed to a belief that the state's abuse of prisoners is unconscionable? Because I invite you to read Emmett Till's fucking Wikipedia page if you think that's a great idea.

And I hope that I'm not being gauche by invoking the murder of a 14 year old child by racists so married to white supremacy that they thought a Black child whistling at a white woman was punishable by torture and a slow, painful death. This is not that by any stretch of the imagination.

But people have killed themselves over this shit. Children have died because of harassment they got over liking Problematic Things. It's certainly not anything like comparable to anti-Black violence in scale—and being a fan of yucky disgusting fandom content is not a marginalised identity that is literally inescapable without becoming estranged from your family and community for life, and that itself not being an option for most, as is the case of passing for white—but it has been lethal, and to the families of the people who died, I doubt it is any comfort that it was because of fandom bullshit as opposed to systemic oppression. And I do think that the patterns of thinking are parallel here, even if it would be enormously inappropriate to claim a one-to-one relationship between the two. To be fair, I think that the people I am talking about here would not themselves participate in a physical murder, but they may certainly approve of one they perceived to be righteous.

But, ugh, yeah. I'm just sick of people parroting back things they have been browbeaten into believing are Irredemable™ without any fucking reflection at all about why those things are bad and why a proportional response involves harassment and death threats or suicide baiting. I think probably most of these people are afraid to think for themselves, in case they think the wrong thoughts, but at least some of them are aware that it's all a fucking grift and just love harassing people for the rush.

[theladyragnell]

Tag game!

Tagged by @eisoj5, thank you so much!

3 ships: My three biggest right now are probably Haoti/Valira, Elyn/Brennu, and Binx/Andhera, because of who I am as a person.

1st ever ship: First romance I got wildly excited about in fiction was probably Beauty. First romance I shipped that was non-canon was Dorothy/Ozma. First ship I read significant fic for was Bella/Edward (more as original romance novels, though I was a fan of the books). First ship I wrote for was, obviously, Arthur/Merlin!

last song: Tongue-tied by Emily Portman

last movie: Falling for Christmas on Netflix, I think

currently reading: The Far West by Patricia C. Wrede

currently watching: Leverage: Redemption, Abbott Elementary, various bad Netflix cooking shows, a few Dropout things

currently consuming: Just finished some Thai noodle salad.

currently craving: A visit to the ocean!!! So much.

And I am doing this in the five minutes before I leave the house, so I do not have time to tag anyone, but as always, I love seeing people’s answers to his kind of thing, so feel free to do it if you’d like!

[lingy910y]

Weekly Tag Wednesday Friday

thanks @lupeloto for creating the game and @mybrainismelted for tagging me

favorite tv show? shameless

favorite character? ian

favorite relationship in the show? gallavich

favorite sibling relationship in the show? ian and lip. also if you enjoy their relationship this edit will fucking kill you

favorite art form? books but specifically fanfics ty

a talent you wish you had? rn it’s sewing…then i can make clothes for my plushies

what is one thing that can always make your day better? coming onto tumblr dot com and seeing notes, fandom events/games, or amazing gifsets/fics/art on the dash

favorite fictional character of all time? still ian

dream place to travel to? japan

you’re planning a huge party, what’s the theme? gallavich wedding inspired 😌

favorite pizza topping of all time? plain cheese thanks

you can pick one celebrity to have dinner with…who? cameron monaghan yes my answers are very predictable

favorite movie that you kinda know is bad but still love? i think most of my fav movies are perfect despite popular opinion but the rwrb film…it just changed too much things so it’s not as good as the book but still good

how would you describe your style? casual

finally, something making you smile this week? my decomytree messages 🥰

combining that with last week's bc i didn't do it (yes this is the first time i've done a weekly tag wednesday the week after) thanks kat and @energievie for tagging me

choose a fandom: shameless

how did you first hear about it? i remember hearing abt it here and there on social media but not paying attention cause i wasn’t into live action at the time. i purposely searched up “top 10 canon gay ships” bc i was too frustrated with queerbait lmao. everyone was praising gallavich so i looked them up and gallavich scenes welcomed me with open arms 😌

do you own only merch? yes! from the gallacrafts shop: paper dolls stickers, breakfast boys stickers and stained glass window pin. i lost my fimo boys pin and i’ll never be over it 😔 also two keychains, three stickers, four fake id cards, two instagram cards, and a ring necklace with “shameless” embroidered on it that came with my gallavich plushies 🥺🥺

what thing involving this fandom do you think non-fans would be surprised to hear? seconding deanna—how it’s majorly a supportive community despite a quite tragic and graphic show

favorite character? the chick from the movie brave

in 5 words explain why they’re your fav: industrious, ambitious, conscientious, work ethic

choose another fandom: bnha

what’s your least favorite thing about the source material? the current war arc cause the pacing sucks

favorite ship: bkdk

best fanfic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/31715602/chapters/78496537

one of the only longfics i ever liked bc it just got me so emotionally invested in updates 😭

describe the vibe of the fandom in 5 words: drama, competitive, complain, talented, discourse……….yeah

what’s your name spelled backwards? gnil

tell you how old you are the way a three year old might: i will be a grown up next year

what is your favorite ice cream? vanilla

tell me something you wish more people knew about you: how much hours i spend ruminating bc of anxiety on some days and how hard it is to control

where is home for you? my bed

if you could be an anthropomorphized stuffed animal, what stuffie would you want to be? idk ppl say i’m like a dog

the movie you wish everyone would watch: eeaoo, still think it’s an universal movie

what makes you really emotional lately? ppl saying nice things abt my fics, rewatching shamey with my friend

are you okay? kinda

tagging no one cause it's too much to read

[chocolatepot]

OP, I'm sorry to jump in because I'm sure you're going to get dozens of responses (and in line with them I'll tell you that I'm 36 and have been in fandom since I was 12), but I wanted to highlight a couple of things in your response to the ask that stood out to me.

With so many new queer shows (which is an incredible thing, btw), younger people don't really seem to understand that for most of our teenage/childhoods, we didn't have queer relationships to look up to. It's in really bad taste to mock queer adults for finding community in non-canon ships like Stucky in their adolescence because we wouldn't have had anybody to look up to otherwise. People have created a very dedicated community out of necessity, and that's why so many Stucky stans are so defensive.

Like Appleteeth is saying, we were actually there. We are by and large not only old enough to remember the 2010s and its slash juggernauts, but the 2000s and 1990s when queer shipping was often derided or harassed even within fandom. Queer people who just wanted to reflect themselves in the fiction they were reading were often relegated to the fringes of fandoms, required to use heavier warnings on their fics and accused of doing something wrong by "making them gay". AO3 was created in 2009 - several years before Winter Soldier! - in part because slash fandom's existence was so tenuous. You could be kicked off an archive if the canon het fans got sick of you or if a homophobic religious group pushed advertisers, so we needed a space by fans, for fans, that was explicitly welcoming of queer ships (and that's why even today stats from AO3 do not tend to reflect wider fandom when it comes to types of ships, just saying; I wish people would stop disregarding this when going ooooo fandom just likes men, look at all the m/m).

In other words, nobody is mocking Stucky fans for finding their own queer community in slash. They are mocking Stucky fans for positioning themselves as the first to find queer community that way, as deserving deference for it.

OFMD fandom is in fact made up of more older fans than others I've been in online. There are younger people in it as well, but nearly everyone I digitally rub elbows with on a regular basis is 30+. This is because we also spent years finding ourselves and each other in slash fandoms for shows that were never, ever going to make the queer ships canon, and then found this show that wrote pretty much exactly the sort of dynamic we were used to (oh, they're opposites? oh, they don't have solid/believable romances with women? oh, they immediately mean more to each other than anyone else? oh, they'd risk death for each other?) and then actually followed through instead of pretending there's no romance in it.

The reason we are so goddamn annoying and loud about how much we love this show isn't because we're teenagers who have lots of time on our hands to be stupid online. It's because we're middle-aged queers who see ourselves reflected in the text for the first time in our lives. And being validated by the cast and crew of a show we love this way for the first time in our lives, rather than laughed at by them as sad weirdoes who are watching it wrong.

OFMD fandom as an entity is very young. OFMD fandom as a collective is much older and reflects fannish history in a significant way.

Additionally, it was the dedication of fans in the 2010's that got studios to understand that there was a demand for queer shows/movies, which absolutely paved the way for the queer shows that younger people/newer fans take for granted (imo). OFMD and other shows like it would not exist without non-canon ships like destiel, spirk, stucky, etc.

Likewise, here I don't think you're entirely wrong - though as Appleteeth noted, our writer specifically wasn't even aware of queerbaiting, or I think slash fandom. I do think studios started to loosen up because slash fandom became more mainstream, and that's why we keep getting minor queer ships dotted here and there in the media landscape. However, again, we were part of the 2010s-era non-canon shipping. If you're saying that OFMD would not exist without these efforts, you're really telling us to celebrate ourselves. We owe its existence to a collective that we're part of, and what has been making us upset over the last week is the insistence that we're not a part of it and we owe deference to all of these fans who are younger than us and who have been in fandom for less time than us just because we are now into a canon ship, which is silly.

(Also, it's worth noting somewhere in here that HBO MAX did not act like they liked this show at all. We all found out about it via word of mouth. We did a ton of publicity for it ourselves, as did the cast and crew members who believed in it. We had to sit in limbo for over a month to find out if the show would get renewed even though it was breaking records in streaming because they simply did not want to seem to acknowledge or reward it. There was no publicity for s2 until like a month and a half ago. The success of the show is not a reflection of rainbow capitalism we're too young and stupid to understand - it's a reflection of how much we as fans loved the show and demanded more of it.)

Hey I’m sorry about your poll, I didn’t vote but when I looked and saw how many ofmd fans were getting death threats I stopped looking, so I don’t know much of what is happening, but I am sorry you’re sad. Fandom is supposed to bring people together and I feel like that girl from mean girls that just wants everyone to get along

First I want to start off by saying that people shouldn't send death threats unprovoked, that's doing a bit much for an online poll.

I think the main problem here is that a lot of OFMD fans are relatively young, and/or relatively new to fandom spaces, especially tumblr (from what I can tell). Tumblr has a lot of kind of unspoken etiquette, as do fandom spaces as a whole, and I think it kind of rubs years-or-decades-long fans the wrong way when people who don't understand the history and etiquette of fandom start acting in certain ways.

I also think that a lot of OFMD fans, again being younger and only starting to consume media and enter fan spaces in the 2020's, have no idea how long fans have been waiting and fighting for adequate queer representation. With so many new queer shows (which is an incredible thing, btw), younger people don't really seem to understand that for most of our teenage/childhoods, we didn't have queer relationships to look up to. It's in really bad taste to mock queer adults for finding community in non-canon ships like Stucky in their adolescence because we wouldn't have had anybody to look up to otherwise. People have created a very dedicated community out of necessity, and that's why so many Stucky stans are so defensive.

Additionally, it was the dedication of fans in the 2010's that got studios to understand that there was a demand for queer shows/movies, which absolutely paved the way for the queer shows that younger people/newer fans take for granted (imo). OFMD and other shows like it would not exist without non-canon ships like destiel, spirk, stucky, etc.

I feel like I'm rambling but yeah that's pretty much it. Younger people in fandom spaces should respect the literal decades of fandom that created the shit they take for granted. This was really never about the poll, it was about the disrespect OFMD fans showed towards Stucky fans.

[zacekova]

just wanted to let you know that I saw some of your RoyEd posts and I was like, "Hmm, what's that about" because I kind of ship Roy and Riza but I'd always liked Ed and Winry better as besties, so I was like, "lemme check this out" and now I'm reading a 200k!!! word fic and it's aLL YOUR fAuLt

OMYGOD, okay, I am so excited to introduce you to this wonderful world of Royed shipping. I’m extra excited because I literally fell into this ship myself, it was my first official non-canon shipping adventure. I had JUST discovered AO3 and fan fiction within like the previous week or two and was searching through the FMA stuff for fics and color-me-surprised that there was WAY more content for Roy and Ed than any other pairing. It took about a week for curiosity to get the better of me and I finally decided to read a fic and... well yeah, just like that I was hooked. 

Okay, so I’m gonna recommend some of my favorites to you, most of which are probably gonna be from @tierfal because she is a goddess and a fic-writing powerhouse. 

Pretty Good Company by Tierfal 

This was the beginning of the descent, the first Royed fic I ever read and I still really like it, although I don’t think it’s my favorite. Just a typical post-canon Brotherhood get-together fic, not especially different from many others like it, but Tierfal always manages to write things so much better than everyone else. Some additional recommendations by her are the series Leading the Blind and Loud and Clear, though the latter is still ongoing. I also just finished reading But Not Buried This Time and it will forever stand in my memory as the fic that takes like over 50,000 words what most people would tell in like 5,000 and yet I was never even slightly bored. The first chapter alone literally blows my mind. Her prose is the eighth wonder of the world. 

Reverti ad Praeteritum by Batsutousai 

This has got to be the absolute best time-travel fic in existence. I am not exaggerating. 250k+  of rewriting the entire Brotherhood storyline when The Truth gives Ed a second chance, a do-over on the whole adventure. I have never seen someone take that trope and write it so well. It will take you forever to read this but it is so beyond worth it. 

The Ishvalan AU 

I’ve seen a couple of different takes on this idea, but I like ShanaStoryteller’s the best. Basically Trisha was an Ishvalan. Ed and Al still look the same but the whole Ishvalan Conflict and whatnot is seen in a different light because of this single change. It’s also written in kind of a distant, dreamy quality, a bit formal too, that I really like. The story isn’t really super focused on the Royed relationship itself, but it is a good story anyway. And it has a happy ending. 

States of Matter by Tierfal 

Okay, so this is just one of hundreds of silly one-shots but for some reason I just really like this one. It’s sweet and humorous and I’m a nerd who likes science jokes. It’ll give you some fuzzy feels and is a nice break from a lot of the heavy stuff I’ve recc-ed so far. 

Sel Euraidd by Winds_of_Water 

If you like ugly crying, this is the fic I didn’t expect to like but now have to recommend. Edward is a selki, which is one of those odd mythological creatures that doesn’t get talked about much and didn’t really appeal to me plot-wise at first. But I really like the story, despite the sobbing I was subjected to because of it. 

So those are some of my top favorites. I am a shameless multi, so I still definitely like Roy/Riza and Ed/Winry but Roy and Ed have such an interesting dynamic and there’s a lot of potential for angst which I am a total slut for. 

Feel free to come scream at me over these two literally anytime, I love them.