#like… some of you bring the way you interact with fandom into how you percieve real people

[beesbops]

I think sexualizing a someone in physical pain receiving medical attention is gross actually

putting the o in olympics

[vanimeldes]

Hey, sorry if this question is bothering you, but can you explain why you don't like Sansa and what makes you have this opinion on her? Hope I'm not sounding like I'm attacking you and I get why you'd choose to ignore this question, but I am curious to know your opinion. Have a nice day and sorry again if I bothered you with this question.

Hey. At first I wanted to just ignore the question, because I tend to keep some of my opinions far from this blog. Then I wanted to suggest you to check my main blog, @marta-elentari , but my main blog is *dark and full of dumb shitposts*, and you asked me too nicely.

So I decided to answer here, since, after all, Tumblr is meant to be a safe space for every opinion who isn't harmful or offensive to other people. So I'll try to articulate my own personal opinion as objective and civil as I could.

So, regarding Sansa, I would lie if I would tell that the fandom didn't have a say in my perception to her, but truth to be told, I read the books long before I started to interact with the fandom and I can't say that my opinions changed as radically as I thought.

I was totally unimpressed with Sansa since her first chapter and she didn't grow on me for various reasons:

I have never been a tomboyish girl myself, I like most of the things girls like Sansa likes such as clothes and boys but I really dislike talking about these things all day long as if these are the most important thing in my life. Even in ASOS, after all she's been through, when LF builds her new identify as Alayne Stone, she still asks him if her father can be a valiant knight who died in God knows what war, and I was like ?????? After how those very knights beated her repeatedly because Joffrey told them so, she still dreams of valiant knights, and this random thought came to me more than shallow, given that, by that time, Sansa had beem through some stuff. Also, this is a personal preference, but when I want to read fantasy, I want to read about girls who, yes, kick asses and discover magic and build kingdoms or even normal, ordinary and human girls that achieve this sort of epic-fantasy greatness such as Eowyn or a sort of epic-fantasy greatness that don't involve swords, because this is possible too; I don't want to read about the same damsel in distress that I found so often in the non-fiction romance books. Neither I am saying that Sansa is a damsel, just that I percieve her as such.

I personally acknowledge her strength, I kbow I would have never been able to live with the people who killed my father, I admit she is observant and receptive; but, in the same time, I was always under the impression that she survived mostly because she was a valuable hostage. If she wasn't, she most likely would have faced the same fate as poor Jeyne Poole. But she survived in KL with her own weapons, namely the "courtesy" that she wears like an armour. Does it make me like her more? No. Not because I am a dumb mysoginist and despise everything feminine and I consider "strong female character" a woman who acts like a man and kicks asses, but because she is not the type of female character that I would root for. These were my opinion before I interacted with her fandom.

And then, her fandom happened. I am sorry for those few Sansa fans with whom I interacted and who are truly amazing people that really thought me to see things in a new light, but 95% of her stans think and act like this: if you don't like her and criticize this, you are a dumb misogyinist who doesn't understand her character, seemingly unable to understand that just because a female character is a delicate feminine girl, it doesn't mean that she doesn't have to be criticized, when critique has nothing to do with her being a girl and being a feminine girl. Casual readers note how she has a part in Ned's death and bullied Arya. Tell this to a stan and get ready for a hate tsunami, because their Sansa can do no wrong. But she can!!! It's in the books!!!!

To deny that she bullied Arya seems like you deny the mere definition of bullying. And as someone with a brother, this sort of behaviour coming from a sister is something I can't tolerate. When she told Arya that she should have been killed instead of Lady, my jaw dropped, and I wasn't impressed in a good way.

Tell them she doesn't look down at smallfolk, another thing I can't tolerate. Speaking of which, I don't dislike her because she is pretty and comes from a privileged backround. I don't dislike a female character because she is pretty and acknowledged as such. My parents aren't the wealthiest people, But they managed to offer me and my brother what we needed and I never lacked anything. I also consider myself pretty and I was told multiple times that I was pretty. Being pretty doesn't make me and shouldn't make me and anyone dislike a character. But it turns me off when being pretty is the only quality through which you managed to go on. And I always was under the impression that The Hound and LF wouldn't have saved her from shit if they hadn't had a creepy crush on her. Yes, LF uses her from his own interest blah blah blah but if You're telling me that he would have been just as interested in her, if she hadn't been pretty and looked like Catelyn, you're not convincing me. At all. Because it's not true.

And as for Ned, no one says that she is the only one responsible for his death, but to deny her involvement is to deny the canon:

Heck, the author himself explained her part in Ned's death:

And while she wasn't completely aware of the implications, her intent was pretty clear, and I was just appalled because even if I was 12, if my father told me that we have to go in secrecy and that our lives depend on it and I must keep my mouth shut, I would never betray his trust. I would know he only wanted what's best for me. I would never sell him.

She looks down at smallfolk and bastards.

She only truly thinks of Jon when she herself is forced to pose as a bastard:

Jon raised alongside her, yet she still regards her "only her half brother".

And, on top of that, She is willing to be accomplice to the poisoning of a little boy!!!!!!

And her stans are bullies. Some of them dared to talk shit about Emilia Clarke herself, calling her responsible for convincing them to make J0nerys happen and she was the culprit all along for Jon and show's treatment of Sansa?????? Ok, let's assume that Emilia had some influence over David and Daniel. Wouldn't you think it would have made more sense if she had tried to convince them NOT TO KILL OFF HER CHARACTER?????????? Just saying.

But they are so willing to twist the other characters (mostly Daenerys, but not only), just to prove that Sansa is the only valid and worthy character in this series. They were hoping for Daenerys to MISCARRY HER BABY AND DIE OR GIVE BIRTH TO A (ACTUAL QUOTE) "MALFORMED INCEST-BORN LIZARD BABY" AND DIE OR KILLED BY JON (which happened) but still......is this ok?? Is ok to wish this for a woman? Is miscarriage or a malformed baby and death in childbirth ok as ling as this put your fave in a good light?

Again, I admit that book!Sansa is not dumb or a weakling, as some people used to claim, but she's not my type of character. She has many moments when she is shallow and vain, and straight-up cruel.

But it wasn't just about Daenerys, really. I saw a lot of ugly things these people wrote about Arya just to bring Sansa up. They wanted Bran, a little boy, to die, so that Sansa become Lady of Winterfell.

Other stans cheered for Missandei's death because she DARED TO CRITICIZE SANSA, not giving a fuck that Missandei's death was just the most racist thing D&D ever did?

And then there's *that* part of the fandom, who goes to such lengths that they distort canon and the other characters just to show that Sansa is and has been the main character all along and she is the only one who suffered and she is so young but she deserves everything. Last time I checked, Jon was 15-16, so was Dany, Arya was 10-11, Bran was 8-9. They act, however, like Sansa is the only one who is young and who suffered in this series, a statements which is, in the context of a series like A Song of Ice and Fire, just - and I won't apologize for the word - dumb.

And then there were my own experiences.

A couple of months ago, I posted a fanart with Jon and Dany because I am confident Jonerys will happen in the books and it was forshadowed. This is the fanart, if you are interested:

Three stans DM me; telling me that this pic was ugly....not because it was some form of constructive criticism (which I am always open to), but because I painted Daenerys and not Sansa.

Other artists who did some Jonerys fanarts told how a Stan took her fanarts, changed Dany's hair from blonde to red, to make her Sansa. This is ART THEFT. This is the majority Sansa stans that I had the "pleasure" to interact or know about. With these sort of stans, It's really hard for me to find a reason why I should like a character.

It's long, I know. There are my reasons and hope I answered your questions.

As for the rest of you who'll see this post, I would kindly ask you to notice that this is my opinion. This is what I think and I'm not shading anyone here (apart those stans whom I interacted and were an unpleasant occurrence). Hate messages won't make me change my opinion.

[bellamygateoldblog]

Blog Summary Tag Game

Find your fandom kru and help them find you. Answer the following and include the tag #the100blog in your answer, then tag some of the blogs you follow.

created by @johnmurphysreddit tagged by @blodreina-noumou !

1. What are your primary topics?

My blog is pretty much divided 70/30 between t100 & skam italia (i do tend to follow more t100 blogs!) Sometimes there’s the odd post of other shows I watch/have watched.

Most of my posts are spacekru, but i reblog lots of pretty gifs/edits of anything from the show because they are beautiful and creators put lots of work into them! I’ll probably also be posting about Octavia, too, throughout s6 because i’m particularly interested in her arc.

I’m not the most eloquent writer, but i do write & reblog a fair amount of meta, some of which are very lengthy, and i understand it could be frustrating if this doesn’t interest you, so I always try to tag them as “#meta<3″ so you can filter them if you wish. (note: my blog is disorganised atm, i’m still pretty new & only just getting the hang of it lol but my newer posts are tagged properly).

2. What tags should a visitor check?

#meta<3 is where i store meta about the show, it isn’t necessarily all my own, but i do comment on quite a bit!

#anti clarke griffin is where all of my Clarke posts go, even ones that I don’t necessarily class as negative, because i think my general feelings about her character give off a negative impression regardless.

I tag with full names (e.g, #bellamy blake) and i do this with any other show besides t100 that i spontaneously reblog, too (such as #deadly class).

3. What do you love about The 100?

I love the dynamics between a lot of the characters, and i tend to focus on them a lot! There are plenty of instances where there are personality clashes, and where they’re forced to challenge one another. The dynamics also give pretty good indications of who are best suited as units or teams, and who can be percieved as being outliers to the rest.

I like that pretty much every character is presented as grey, it makes it more enjoyable to analyse them, their motivations, and their strengths and weaknesses. It’s possible to view a scene from multiple different perspectives and understand where each of the characters stand during that point in time, even when we don’t necessarily agree with them. I love the redemption arcs of both Bellamy and Murphy, I was always taken with their journey’s of seeking atonement, reflecting on their morals and place in the world, and growing as people as a direct result of their actions and the consiquences of them.

I like to be surprised; I can be a fan of major character death if it’s executed properly (no pun intended), and if this end point is consistent with the rest of their arc. I like when the trajectory of a character’s story changes suddenly, such as when Murphy went along with Jaha to the city of light, and then later regrouped with the rest of the mains, but as a member, rather than an outsider. Another example of this, just to be clearer, was Luna’s refusal to take the flame despite all the suspence and mystery surrounding her character, and i like that they didn’t result to compromising who she was in order to drive the plot!

I’m drawn to post-apocalypse/dystopian future style shows and movies for the new and exciting challenges they pose compared to the here-and-now. These types of shows are a great way of exploring ideas that wouldn’t otherwise be appropriate, such as corrupted morals, the difficulty of survival, and taking extreme measures in the face of danger. LOVE fight scenes, especially involving combat weapons, and the thrill the comes with them; they’re much more entertaining than guns.

I love some superficial drama in the midst of all the chaos, usually relationship and friendship conflicts. I feel it just brings so many more layers to the narrative, and makes the world it exists in seem bigger and deeper, while also serving to make the show more engaging by giving us something we can relate to better, no matter how silly it seems within the context of the show. This way, it doesn’t feel too plot-orientated and gives the viewer a breather from the darker aspects of the show. I think t100 did this better in the earlier seasons, especially with Octavia and Bellamy, as the dynamic conflicts that came later on all seem to be plot-related in one way or another.

I love the whole idea of finding your place in a world that works hard to suppress you.

My favourite characters are spacekru + Octavia & Diyoza (both bad bitches which i truely cannot resist). Deceased favourites: Luna, Jasper + Finn (I like the peaceful damaged ones okay)

I don’t focus too much on ships, but i have a strong preference for Becho!

4. What do you hate/what frustrates you about The 100?

Hypocrisy and double standards that exist within the narrative, and especially within the fandom. A lot of the time this is concerning Clarke.

The fandom climate in general! explicit and implicit hostility directed towards people who disagree with popular opinion, people unable to distinguish between actor and character, people opting to attack rather than discuss, people viewing the entire show through ‘shipper goggles’ and ignoring key elements of the narrative in favour of creating their own canon (people who ignore and twist past the point of it just being individual interpretation).

The wasted potential of Jasper & Finn as insights into the harmful affects and futility of war, and the puncture it makes on a person’s psyche. As much as these deaths had me shaken to my core, I could never quite get past the blatant killing-off of two of the more explictly mentally ill characters. Rather than a recovery storyline, the only solution to their struggles was death, and i’ve always felt like the writers had so much potential to address PTSD and depression more directly, through them. I think it could’ve made for an interesting storyline, and it would’ve given the writers more personalities, dynamics, and challenges to play with.

The belittlement/mocking of peaceful characters, which in a way expressed that hating violence and war made you weak and not to be taken seriously (Lincoln & Luna specifically, but also s5 Monty and s1 Finn).

Additionally, the lack of world-building. We were only given minor glimpses into the past of some characters, we didn’t get to see details on how the ark evolved, or how the present culture was formed from it’s history. We see the same approach with the grounders; we learn that every clan is different, but then we barely see how they are different. The small appearance of mutated animals and then no future mentions is another confusing point. I know most of this is simply due to time restraints, but there came a point where we didn’t learn any more than was necessary to advance the plot, and it just made the world and conflicts in it seem smaller.

Characters I dislike include Clarke, Kane & Abby (both equally as frustrating and eye-roll inducing).

5. Is this exclusively a The 100 blog?

No, but i usually only use one other main tag (skam italia) which can be filtered!

6. What else should people know?

I love engagement with my posts! You don’t need to be reluctant to add your own thoughts. Conversation is welcome as long as it is kind and respectful!

I usually don’t speak too openly about this, but I have depression, which means I sometimes go M.I.A and sometimes i’m here most of my time to keep myself busy. It varies! so if I fail to reply to anything, it may be because i don’t have the energy to just yet, but it isn’t personal!

I talk a lot in my tags, sometimes commenting on the post when i’m trying to avoid hijacking, and sometimes talking bs and tagging Bellamy “big sexy”

I have a lot of unpopular opinions in this fandom, i’m well aware of it lol but i don’t appreciate hateful anons (which i have had in the past, and they aren’t pleasant!) I prefer to keep anon turned on because some people are just more comfortable interacting that way, and that’s fine! but don’t take it being turned on as an invitation to attack me.

I don’t follow many people, but here are some people who’s blogs I love, who i tag to do this if they want to (though i know this kind of thing isn’t for everyone!)

@bound-by-stardust @fleimkepakosskairipa @awkwardnarwhall93 @fleimkepajohnmurphy @ringabellamy @spacekru-defense @skaiengineers @alrightsnaps @bunker-boyfriends

Sorry if you were already tagged!!

[deanirae]

@frozen-delight I saw you were interested in the whole Dean as Other & Dean as Feminine parts of my thesis? :)

I’m making this as a separate post because I wasn’t sure if hijacking someone’s (excellent) meta wouldn’t be rude.

I can’t exactly copy paste from the thesis because unfortunately it was written in my native language. Also, the hypothetical reader of the thesis was supposed to be a person who is not familiar with the show so I had to bring up a lot of stuff that is very well known to us, fans, so that would be too much talking about the obvious, I guess.

Dean as the Other (and the outcast) 

The starting point to writing about Dean in terms of being the Other, was a comparison of similarities with Dean from Kerouac’s „On the Road”. It kinda went from there.

I focused on the society-related aspect of it within the diegesis, and because of that, I brought the most attention to the early seasons. I felt like later on the Dean – society dichotomy kind of went away within the narrative as progressively the Winchesters were mostly interacting with other people and beings that were related to the supernatural world.

Dean was both marked as the Other by society and by himself – from the outsider’s point of view, he stands against everything that constitutes the ideal american life style. He detests the middle class and the „values” it represents, which osciliate between consumptionism and superficial morality. The main and first reason why he’s marked as such, is of course, being a hunter of the supernatural, which, in his case, is related to socio-economical degradation: there was a peaceful, middle class-ish life in Kansas (a conservative state which only stronger resonates with the traditional american ideal) and suddenly there was no home, financial issues, constant danger and a dysfunctional family with the extra bonus of alcohol problems and violence. And it’s important to note that while Sam doesn’t remember the past and the change, Dean does. It only adds to his trauma and vision of self that completely differs from what is considered „normal.” Dean learns everything from John and excels at it – a history of violence, lack of a stable job and firm emotional connections, living on the Road, acquiring money through gambling, using fake credit cards and presumably even prostitution (not confirmed canon, just Jensen’s words) – all of that places Dean even below the „blue collar”. To add to that, most of the time he can’t even explain his action to people because that would mean having to explain the supernatural. All of it makes the society percieve him as unpredictable and dangerous, as something that disrupts he suburban life harmony, as a threat. Makes him feel like he doesn’t fit (as shown in “Bugs” and “What is and what should never be”, “Exile on main street”). People distance themselves from him (even Sam, who craved normalcy and upward mobility, and in no way wanted to become like his brother), Dean distances himself from them. In a way, he isn’t even a part of the family unit – Sam always was the son, Dean was the „tool.” In practice, until Sam left for Stanford, it wasn’t „John, Sam and Dean.” It was „John, Sam and that.” Inside the hunting community, he didn’t exactly fit either – didn’t fit the hunter ideal – too sensitive, too pretty, too different.

I also find it interesting how it’s only Dean who gets repeatedly pictured as an animal. Dog!Dean is the most blatant example but not the most interesting in the context of his otherness and attempts to evoke some kind of beast-related asociations in the audience. It’s one thing that Sonny’s called him Dee-dawg and that dog imagery is strongly related to Dean.What really gets to me is that in „Dream a Little Dream of Me” Dean circles dream!Dean (or should I say, the other Dean) like an animal that prepares for an attack (also, the exchange between the two suggests Dean doesn’t exactly see himself as human). And of course, there’s „On the Head of a Pin”, where Dean is not only referred to as „Grasshopper”, but is told that he’s been carved into a whole new animal. Also, I would argue that the fact only Dean was made to become a torturer on the show, amplifies his otherness, in a way. No other character can relate to this sort of damaging experience. That particular burden makes him different than any other human on SPN.

The narrative also presents him as the Other through making other characters the subjects that don’t get their basic agency get meddled with on every available occasion, while Dean has it denied all the time. His choices, emotions and reactions aren’t supposed to be independent, but always are meant to be relative to the rest of his family (mostly). In this aspect, he doesn’t get to be an autonomous being. His loved ones are the Absolute, he is the Opposite.

As for Dean seeing himself as something else – all of it is highlighted in „Skin”, both in dialogue between the brothers and by the shapeshifter!Dean revealing Dean’s secrets, which, literally presents Dean as the Other, seeing how it’s Dean’s skin the monster chooses and how it thinks Dean and it are very much alike.

 Dean & Femininity

The most important and narrative-affecting part of coding Dean as feminine, is him being a victim of parentification (the mechanism affected Sam and John as well, but differently). Dean became Sam’s mother in all the possibile ways. In regards to John, Dean in many aspects stepped into the stereotypically female spouse’s place. In both cases it was instrumental and emotional: Dean was the emotional caregiver, the one who created the „homely warmth”, the one who passed on the tradition, the one who was supposed to keep Sam and John healthy, he was the one who prepared food and made sure there would be food in the first place. He was the mediator between Sam and his father. During conflicts between the two, Dean always shielded Sam with his own body. Symbolically, because of the deal Dean made, he not only gave his life away for Sam, he became his mother even in the aspect of literally giving Sam life.

Even Dean’s personal heaven is a part of the coding. The things that Dean’s soul craves for the most and what he remembers most fondly are things that are associated with women – his heaven consisted of having a happy family, of love, of giving and recieving care. It’s a stark contrast with Sam’s heaven which represented things associated with masculinity – aiming for independence and both social and economical success that would put him in position above other people, wanting to be respected, in general.

Dean i also almost always mirrored not by men, but by women (and also obligatory by mothers, like Linda Tran). Working kind of like Jung’s animas, the female characters are an expression of the emotions and behaviors that Dean doesn’t accept in himself, those he doesn’t want to talk about, those that are supposed to show not tell about his state and those that might also be seen as foreshadowing. Since I was looking into the pat tern with a very specific context in mind, I chose Betsy, Charlie and Suzie Lee as my examples. Since the first two have been analysed to death both in fandom and in my thesis, I’ll Just briefly bring up Suzie Lee since I’ve never seen her mentioned. I read her, in short, as a mirror to Dean deciding to return to his old behaviors and mechanisms, deciding to abandon his personal needs to again become an effective tool (part commentary, part foreshadowing; all of it due to guilt, as always. Because the day the spn narrative decides to not blame Dean for something and make him feel bad, is the day you have to yell ‘christo’ at it.  But that’s a rant for another time). Suzie’s shame about a successful career in the porn industry can be seen as a mirror to Dean exceling in hunting, in using violence, in using his body as a work tool, in general. Both are also a taboo. That would be the cliff notes version, I suppose.

I’m sure there were more instances in all the seasons, in all the possibile contexts, though.