#just a very VOCAL LOUD OBNOXIOUS subset of fans

[durgeapologist]

I'm confused, durge. Do you like Solrook or Solavellan? Your post bashing Solavellans contradicts your recent reblogs defending them. What are your actual thoughts on these ships? Because I cannot tell.

alright i feel like this needs to be said here and now. buckle up because this is long, and probably the only time i will be commenting on this ever again.

i do not hate the solavellan ship. i have stated many times across all my socials that i used to be a hardcore solavellan shipper. i am IN LOVE with my lavellan. i literally started playing the dragon age series because i heard about the betrayal in solas' dai romance, and i am a sucker for angst. i played through dao and da2 just to romance him with my lavellan in dai.

when dav came out, first day of release, i set my world state up to be solavellan. i redeemed him and sent her off to the fade with him. point blank.

however, even before i started shipping dreadrook, i was wary of solavellan FANS. not the ship, the FANS. i am a solas lover to the ends of the earth and back. i can get behind ANY ships that involve him. what i cannot, and will not ever, get behind is the absolute infantilization of both solas and lavellan that many solavellan shippers i have interacted with engage in.

i had to leave and the solasmancers subreddit because they bashed the fuck out of epler for having SANE and NORMAL takes on solas' villainous behavior. because: YES. solas is a VILLAIN. he is an ANTAGONIST. and for some reason, most of the solavellans i was friends/mutuals and most other VOCAL solavellans i saw refused to admit as much.

they baby solas, they baby their self-insert lavellans, and they romanticize the ship without acknowledging the (imo delicious) potentials for a tragic, toxic, and morally-grey partnership. they whiddle solas down to this abused, kicked, drowing puppy that must be saved- nay, can only be saved by their adoring, kind, never-angry-always-understanding lavellans.

i also dislike immensely the way rook gets dragged through the mud, killed off, belittled, bullied, etc. by some (not all) solavellans who cannot handle solas having insane chemistry with another character. because the chemistry between dreadrook is insane.

i could drone on for hours my issues with the solavellan fans that twist and bend the relationship dynamic between the two, but i won't. it's been regurgitated by so many people so many times, and i would be adding nothing new to the conversation.

my canon lavellan romanced solas and moved on to cullen after the events of trespasser. my canon lavellan would never leave her life behind in southern thedas to follow solas into the fade for eternity, especially not after he killed varric. if your lavellan would do that, then kudos to you! really! i am so thankful many solavellans have a way to get their happy endings! i did it the one time for the novelty, and never will again.

but i can't stand solavellans who can't admit to themselves that their pairing is just as toxic as (if not more than) the dreadrook pairing, and i doubly cannot stand solavellans that baby the fuck out of the pairing. these are two grown (pixelated) adults. they are not infants. their relationship is built on lies and deceit (again, delicious dynamic to me!) and it heavily annoys me when people cannot admit that.

THIS IS ALL TO SAY: i do not hate ALL solavellans. my bestest mutuals and online friends are major solavellan shippers. i am a solavellan shipper. i just so happen to enjoy dreadrook a thousand times more, and therefore have my lavellan married to cullen in my canon world state while my rook and solas frolick off into the sunrise together.

tldr; it's a CERTAIN TYPE of solavellan FAN that i do not enjoy interacting with. i do not think ALL solavellan fans are like this. i KNOW they are not. it's just the ones that ARE happen to be the loudest in a room at any given time. that is all.

[biomic]

i feel like dudes who go like 'KAMEN RIDER GOTCHARD IS MID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' are the real life equivalent of that Sonic 'NO FUN ALLOWED' meme. have fun, why dont you. go out and go to the circus. not everything has to be Build, 2! where it just gets more and more dramatic and dark. gotchard is allowed to be a fun Fourze-like.

it's not entirely fair to say everyone not feeling gotchard is being an edgy hater about it. there's valid criticisms to be made about how things have played out so far, and i can't blame anyone for not vibing with a particular season. im enjoying the show a lot so far, but i can see what people mean when they say the cast has some growing to do or some episodes feel a bit aimless/poorly paced

that being said, there's definitely a vocal subset of fans who are being very Loud and Obnoxious about how much they think the show sucks. i know the translator for eigo has gotten a bit of flak on twitter for defending the show (what do you want him to do??), and there was a whole hubbub a while back about how hotaro is So Bad that toei is going to outright replace him with kamen rider legend (sure.), and it's like. this is the show you're getting Mad™ about? you really want to plant your flag as the #1 Gotchard Hater? who has time for this

it reminds me how ghost has been the fandom's punching bag since it started airing. "well, saber was dogshit but at least it wasn't ghost!" "ikki was the woooooorst, still better than takeru though!" and now, not even 12 episodes in, i think gotchard is gonna be in that same boat. three, five, maybe even ten years from now i can very easily imagine this show being used as the benchmark for a "bad season", and as someone who's been down this road before it's already tiring. no more fighting hold my hand