#major wank

[holding-out-for-hea]

Alright. I’m gonna lose… like every follower, but I just don’t care.

Women were just raped, stripped of their clothes, paraded through cities, spit on, murdered and mutilated.

I understand the complication and the nuances of EVERYTHING in that area- more than you know- but if you’re not even acknowledging this horror, when we all claim to be feminists who want equality and safety of women from evil and sadistic men, then you hold false values.

Women and children are not tools of war, revenge, righteous punishment or anything else! There is no dignity in rape. There is no dignity in brutal humiliation of women’s minds, souls, and bodies. There is no dignity in evil.

Come at me all yah want, I don’t even care. Wanna scream about the other side? I know! I’ll bet my ass I’m older than you and actually lived while other atrocities happened and I don’t care who’s doing it, what color of the person is doing it, what religion the person who is doing it is- if you kidnap and rape and murder women YOU’RE THE BAD GUY and I’ll call you out.

Gosh fucking damnit

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

The world if people stopped applying their understanding of "conservatism" and "religion/christianity" through a very modern, deeply American view onto Death Note (a manga from the Early-mid 2000s which is very much set in the cultural and societal context of early-mid 2000s Japan and all that entails):

[inchidentally]

Inchie we need your words of reason again 🙏 Newer fans have bled over from other hockey rpf and keep crossing lines 🫥

babe idk how wise I am ?? at all but I'm a firm believer in using common sense about rpf. and I haven't personally seen the stuff you're alluding to but! I've seen posts referring to it and I heard smth about another ship suffering a containment breach… so can't hurt to throw my 2c in as well ?? idk?

tl;dr that landoscar is NOT the ship for you if you 're going to try and force it to be "real" in a l*rry way*. this ship adores the real life friendship without having it compete with the guys' other many friendships - and we do NOT hate women and women partners or pretend they're beards/fakes/conveniently open relationship. and we absolutely do NOT push rpf outside of fandom. you'll get blocked/reported if you do. this is NOT the space for you to find your next "omg what if they're actually fcking" ship. Lily and Oscar are basically forever, Lando is rightfully loving his life sharing his beautiful body with people, and the fan fiction for the ship is staggeringly amazing so we're very very happy w the status quo <3

and we do NOT share rpf content with Lando, Oscar, anyone in F1, the families - basically if they're not someone you know solely in fandom, you don't share rpf with them. again, you will not find support for that here.

I "officially" joined landoscar fandom around Silverstone 2023 and these have been the hard lines taken for as long as I can remember and from all of the OG people in this fandom. esp from people who've been here since Oscar's Alpine tweet bc landoscar is unique in not having led with a PR image and we've all gotten to see every nervous, stumbling and authentic progression of their partnership and friendship along the way - at no point feeling the need to cross the boundary between fic and reality. it truly is charming and intriguing and rewarding as it exists in reality!

as far as the 'why' essay I'll drop all that where it can be ignored easily aslfgjalgf

like I said - landoscar has always been the exception of no one ever slipping over into trying to "make it real" in large part bc Lando and Oscar don't do the PR bromance/fake gay/fan service stuff which !reminder! is content in other ships I absolutely eat up and is 100% targeted to me but !! I'm also aware is connected to a lot of inappropriate fan behavior from ppl who blur the lines between amusing PR content and reality. trust me, I had to basically abandon carland0 which was my very first f1 ship bc to this day - fully out in the open - I see casual misogyny thrown around about Rebecca and ppl truly loudly thinking Lando and Carlos - who have always referred to each other as brothers and who laugh at the "gay" stuff they do precisely bc it's not real - genuinely fcked and/or dated. I will never care enough about an rpf ship to willingly encounter that shit on a regular basis. I know there's a lot of good ppl in the ship who don't engage in that stuff but I have such a hard line about wag hate that it's not worth it for me.

ironically or maybe because of, Lando and Oscar are the only drivers to NOT engage in playing gay for laughs BUT also who hit multiple progressive bullet points in things like discussing romance and dating in gender neutral terms and not making a big deal out of consuming or discussing queer media etc. they actually walk the walk in not pushing gender identity or sexual orientation on hypotheticals or on each other. they also don't do any macho/tradmasc behavior with each other or even bro-ey stuff like rough-housing or loud, aggressive humor (nothing wrong with loud bro stuff tho as long as it doesn't veer into toxic territory! I come from hockeyblr originally so it can be really sweet!)

and landoscar is also the exception in that we all ADORE Lily and have zero interest in trying to erase her let alone anyone be hostile toward her. in straight people culture they're basically already married and that's how they were when landoscar started as a ship! a lot of us have regularly made posts similar to this for newer fans to remind them that Lily (and whoever Lando ends up with as a steady partner) are NOT pawns in an rpf game. Lily is a real human woman with a real life relationship with Oscar and while no one is obliged to engage w wag content, respecting her existence is the bare minimum expected.

the last point I should make is that there's a very clear difference for instance on my blog where I see fanservice ship content about say charl0s or frand0 or n0rtrell and lose my mind over it and love it etc. but then there's Alex or Rebecca or Pietra on my blog! bc I can have fun without erasing women or losing common sense!!

whereas whenever I post stuff about a friendship that rly does make me Feel Things and write my insane essays, it's bc of what the relationships verifiably are and not what they aren't. Max F truly has a complexity and level of depth in his relationship with Lando that is unique and special to each other's lives. in the same way, Lando and Oscar truly do have a particular charm and fondness for each other that's made them approach each other unusually tentatively and slowly - while also having such intense blushing fondness as well as a uniquely intriguing maturity to their professional partnership. this stuff is fascinating and those two examples in particular swim around into all kinds of social/emotional territory.

in ways that do not require conspiracies and fan theories of them fcking or dating to make them compelling.

(and tbh the fact that Lando has some form of "crush" on a lot of handsome men and subconsciously/consciously "flirts" is absolutely fine to enjoy... as long as none of it gets outside of fandom.)

and the fan fiction for landoscar is truly TRULY staggeringly prolific and immensely talented so that's where we go for imagining them in any other type of reality <3

*do not get mad or whatever abt this - if you did or still do just want to ship l*rry privately then whatever but that's the like terrible gold standard for horrific real life repercussions of taking rpf seriously and why fandoms should never ever allow that to happen. there's no debate about that.

[zenkindoflove]

I have a new hypothesis about why the ACOTAR fandom is so weird.

And I think it's because there is a difference between the people who enter this fandom as shippers and the people who enter because they like the romance genre*.

I think many life long shippers enjoy romance. Maybe they don't always seek out the genre but they see romance in whatever media they are engaging with and they take those characters and put romance spins on them even if those characters aren't from a romance story. You ship because of a feeling. You see a dynamic or maybe you think about what a dynamic could be and then suddenly you're pulled in. Like falling in love. But you're falling in love with the idea of a couple. How that couple ends up becoming in canon is independent about how thinking about them together makes you feel.

I think romance readers aren't necessarily shippers*. They enjoy reading romance in a romance canon but they don't necessarily ship in the way shippers do with obsession and devotion regardless of what the canon says. They ship because they see that this couple is good together and it does make them feel squishy inside. Similar to a shipper. But they weren't necessarily going to see that until the canon actually played it out. To me that is responding to a romance plot as the author intended.

And maybe that is something different than shipping. I know for myself, I can read and watch romance and feel pulled in by the love I see but I don't "ship" them in the way I have shipped my OTPs with the level of obsession and devotion and need to construct my own head canons and fanon.

And I think that is a big issue when people from different backgrounds try to talk about shipping and the ship war in ACOTAR if they aren't coming from a similar experience. As I discuss a lot on this blog, there is history and culture behind shipping. And shippers have developed a common language to discuss shipping in a way that respects others shipping habits while also maintaining your devotion to your own ship.

It seems like those who are in this fandom because they enjoy canonical depictions of romance only are often confused by people who are taking characters into their own fanons and playing around with them or are devoted to them regardless of what the canon validates or not.

If you are used to shipping generally it seems very weird for people to say things like "I ship this because they're end game" or "I'll stop shipping if they don't end up together". Because shippers tend to not ship because of end game. They would LIKE end game because having canon validation is great. But it is not necessary (I also am tempted to make a whole post defining the differences between canon vs. fanon vs. end game ships because I frequently see the ACOTAR fandom using these terms incorrectly).

I think sometimes we are talking across each other and not to each other because we don't share a common cultural understanding of fandom or approach to shipping.

*obviously people can be both. Maybe the first couple you shipped is because you got into a romance series. But the point is that shipping at its heart comes from a feeling. How thinking about these characters together makes you feel squishy inside. And that can exist with or without canon. Shipping canon couples does come with many rewards, and canon can validate and be positive feedback on your shipping feelings, but you don't ship because they're end game. You would ship them regardless because you saw something special in their dynamic and whether the canon gets it or not isn't going to stop you. I like reading romance but I find romance in any genre because my shipping brain never stops.

[freakinator]

sorry if im what youd call "unbased" but heres some tags i wanted to add to the second latest confession on tge confessions blog lol

like yeah lifesteals changed thats undeniable like for example the lsers arent trying to constantly one up each other with gimmicks anymore but i think some ppl would just be happier watching the vids rather than the streams like the pvp anon and this anon

[saltbind]

i'll b real if cas had been played by anyone other than misha i probably would have really liked his character and i don't think even unrequited destiel would have gotten as far as it did.

[amplexadversary]

So the people who have been saying that CR has been rearing up to switch to a system *they own* so they don't have to play nice with WOTC totally fucking called it. Nice work, and I mean that genuinely.

[crobones]

real ones know it was Scanlan Shorthalt who got the final blow on what was initially a Pit Fiend by trying to keep his promise to his daughter while also commiting an act of true bravery to stay behind; that he saved Vox Machina from the wrath of what was also initially The City of Brass by casting the most clutch use of Modify Memory in existence; that Vox Machina saved two Aasimar children while in the City of Brass, with Scanlan leading the negotiations; that he cast a spell above his ability using a Gate Scroll to summon Yenk to fight Vorugal, and that he cast Dominate Monster to make Yenk fight Vorugal when the demon was at first going after the party.

also, real ones know the Hells are occupied by devils, not demons which is a nothing detail but irked me nonetheless

[cabeswaterdrowned]

Pynch are at their best to me when they’re 1) being judgmental cunts together and 2) being protective of Gansey / their love for him is very present in their dynamic as a duo. And especially this scene where they’re being judgmental loving cunts about Gansey “only learns enough to be superficially competent” “loser” is solid and good. So it says something that td3 Pynch flopped.. for multiple reasons but it getting rid of both the cunt4cunt swag in their interactions and the importance of Gansey in their dynamic really did limit how compelling it could be in that series….

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

Love how you can tell how many Zelda games people have played/know about based on their takes. Like "Oh but Breath of the Wild is the first mainline Zelda game where you can jump on command with a dedicated jump button"

Do they mean nothing to you?

[inchidentally]

for any new followers, bl 'wank adjacent' to not see me respond to tricky asks <3 I always keep them beneath a cut but yk <3

straight up anon I was wondering why the gossip pages suddenly had this insaaaaane influx of Rebecca hate anons when she hasn't done anything of gossipy note with Carlos for a while and then I'm like ahhhh yes either Carlos or Lando decided to pull the carland0 hashtag out. this year's been esp egreeeegious:

_Carlos needs an image boost while he looks for the best seat

_Lando's dad wants in on the ship name hashtag to promote his scooters

_Carlos complains that Netflix has always given him unfavorable treatment so he gets Caco to liaise with them at races, he looks for the Netflix boom to create 'moments' with Lando/McLaren and Kym confirms they prepped Netflix thinking he'd podium at Barca and get to announce his new seat

_Lando needs image rehab and wants ppl off the topic of him and Max fighting

_Carlos is rumored to have lost potential seats due to delaying and might end up having none at all and needs to boost a reminder of the popularity he brings as a driver

and like I always say, yes there is a genuine if not quite the way they portray it friendship between Lando and Carlos! it's the same as Lando has with other drivers but rpf girlies just don't find them as yaoi or they aren't as hot for those guys. and I enjoy all their interaction in the not-insane privacy of my own head where rpf and reality have nice solid lines alsfsljafg. but it also reminds me how much I love that Lando and Oscar never went for any of this PR bullshit and have actually wanted to develop a genuine relationship without fan/McLaren/Netflix/TV network involvement. at no point does Lando turn to gimmicks with Oscar when he needs a PR boost even tho he could easily do so with McLaren's help and Oscar is a solidly safe bet bc he's considered so inoffensive and loved now.

but they won't jump on their ship name, they won't play gay for attention and engagement, they don't create any memes or soundbites, and the sweet and fun things they do aren't buzzworthy or contrived into a bromance format that fans are cultivated to recognize. some fans know Oscar helps Lando's brain sometimes, they get on the same wavelength and have nonverbal communication, they respect and support each other even when there's a huge disparity of outcome in a weekend, and they both genuinely love making the other laugh. like, none of that is something you can stick on a sm graphic and guarantee the kinds of numbers the bromances get. Netflix even made a joke about how they couldn't create a narrative around them even when they openly begged to make it happen salfgsaljfgla.

nobody in PR is at all intrigued by these two guys cautiously getting to know each other and cultivating a unique and unlikely positive and healthy team atmosphere together. there's no handy orchestrated narrative there. McLaren social media occasionally roll with the 'twinning' thing but even that isn't gimmicky enough and it's more about them being on the same wavelength than them actually being identical in any way. even the Oscar nickname thing has been unconsciously taken from fans by Lando bc he only said it the first time without thinking and from there he's kept it as something that just makes them both smile AND has even changed it up when fans started co-opting it too much. and neither of them pull it out in random interviews to try and create a buzz about it.

and whenever we get a dry spot in landoscar content or for the millionth time hear about them hanging out and not posting it - it's worth remembering that we're also not getting the 1D/BTS rpf truther pipeline fans showing up and that no one will try and conspiracy theory Lily into a beard/fake/bitch/leech or even decide to dislike her !! and we don't have to realize ah, they're only hanging out or talking about each other to manipulate fan engagement for a double purpose. they're either together or mentioning each other bc of their job and otherwise it's bc they genuinely like each other.

side note it is always wild to me that I got sucked into F1 solely bc of carland0 PR and I don't normally mind the pandering - and I wouldn't mind it at all if carland0 as a fandom wasn't also responsible for the most repulsive, misogynist, maniacal campaign of hatred toward women and decides that either they're evil and fake/beards or they're brainless idiots with zero self-respect who serve as fake/beards. the fact that I got on f1blr and saw that ppl push that insanity and actually think carland0 could be or is actually a real gay relationship FULLY out in the open and with no shame to this very day... like shame on me for looking at gossip pages but genuinely I see it as much in normal fandom spaces as I do there which is insane. literally Lando decides to hit like on a post to generate the predictable response and the gossip pages go from every day shit to Rebecca back to being treated like a force of pure evil who urgently needs to be exposed and disposed of and who Carlos is paying for and doesn't even remotely like and is pure PR - even though apparently she's also terrible PR?? - and his family all want her destroyed and all the old photos and jobs fans dug up recirculating as "proof" that she is pure evil ??!!!! the woman hasn't even been publicly with Carlos since Barcelona and has done nothing but go horse riding and modeling but then someone sprays water on the carland0 hive and it's suddenly time to martial the fucking flotilla against her again as their only "obstacle" to carland0 finally being together aslsafglsjagflasfgljfag

I do have to laugh bc Carlos only growing in public affection for her and bringing her up when no one else does and him traveling with her to her modeling gigs when he's on break and leaving lovey comments on her content even tho she doesn't on his is already breaking ppls brains and making The Hatred Narratives change up every five seconds to try and de-legitimize them as a couple bffbfbf

[slingerapen]

im genuinely so sorry for everyone who has ever been negatively affected by it, but ofmd discourse is so entertaining

[politicalmamaduck]

I swear if Fave Diloni kills off Thrawn in either season 2 of Ahsoka or the Mandalorian movie I will finally be done with Star Wars.

[theophagie]

anon in ur askbox really playing the game of "don't you know that by appreciating and analyzing stella you're hurting the Real Life Stolas's feelings and betraying him when you say you like him" like is Real Life Stolas in the room with us right now

-marrow

Rl Stolas in the room with us 🥴 who said that It's crazy T-T and really even besides the whole dumb "you're betraying him" thing (there are no rules!!!)... Idk methinks that even if you really hate your fave's antagonist it's still necessary to put them under the mental microscope too (and expect more depth than that of a puddle out of them >_>) at least a little, if only for the selfish reason of needing said antagonist to be a full-fledged, multidimensional character in order not to trivialise your fave's conflict with them..... but no apparently.........

[amplexadversary]

I should not be bitchy when my fandom is getting a new release.

Unfortunately I am an immense pessimist and get disproportionately resentful if I feel someone else's (wrong) preference is gets more or better attention than mine.

That said. I am probably going to be sorely tempted to set myself up for disappointment and put G's anniversary project into a dick measuring contest with Wing's.

If wing gets more dialogue, more art, OR I see more of it on my feed, I'm going to be unbearable to be around.

[ladybhaal]

Fanfiction authors don't receive payment for their writing. If you don't like the types of fic the majority of your fandom writes, either because you find it cringe or because you're not the target audience, you unfortunately have to just start writing what you do want to see. These writers don't owe you anything, no matter how bad you think their content is.

If you don't see yourself in reader-insert fan fictions, stop bitching and write your own. There's probably someone else who feels the same way and would love to support your work.

Similarly, if you have a problem with a reader-insert author writing more targeted reader inserts (female reader, POC reader, etc.), the majority of these stories feature reader inserts that are gender neutral and non-descript. Read those instead, or, better yet, write them.

If you find certain tropes or writing styles cringey, the great thing about fan fiction is that it is (almost always) tagged with an itemized list of themes, kinks, tropes, etc. Don't like? Don't waste your time. Stop bitching and read what you actually want.

Instead of clogging the tags these authors use to share their work with rants about how you wish everyone catered to you specifically, be the change you want to see. Most fandoms on Tumblr are large enough where there's probably someone who notices the same content disparity as you yet small enough where a few people writing new things can shake things up.

Fanfiction authors don't owe you anything.