#most of you are reasonable tbf so thank you to people who ship what they want in a positive and genuine way

[trans-buckleyy]

this could blow up in my face but as a bi man (also aspec for transparency but not rly relevant to the point), I'm starting to get really fucking pissed off with a very small subset of b*ddie fans who are usually straight women, telling anyone who ships bucktommy that we're the ones fetishising bi and gay men... obviously there aren't many of these people but there's enough for it to be a genuinely grating part of the fandom. people like this are not fucking activists and they sure as hell don't give a fuck about actual queer men if this is the way they choose to behave. like your ship, fine, play w/ your fictional characters and and make them kiss like barbie dolls, whatever but don't pretend to have a moral high ground because you support the most popular fanon ship.

[angelthemanspanker]

10 and 24 for the violence ask game!! i want the drama!!!!!

also your askbox name is so funny like are we supposed to submit guys xander might've fucked or what cause if so can we go cross-ip or is it just buffyverse people

asfgjkl my thought process was basically if anyone is coming into my ask box to talk about literally any guy my stance is that xander probably fucked him at some point. the cross-ip thing has potential tho who did you have in mind bc I personally think Xander could have the stupidest babies with Scott Pilgrim

10. worst part of fanon

There is this. version. of Buffy Summers that I see in fics. Mainly tbf ones not about her, usually mlm stuff bc that's what I'd be reading but I feel like pops up a lot in general where she's like. This judgmental bitch who looks down on everyone and could do with being brought down a peg or two. With a big vibe being that the Scoobies are all a bit sick of her attitude but no one's willing to call her out until the writer has somebody turn to her like Buffy shame on you, how could you fail to consider that Spike is sorry now and he's so hurt by your rejection of his five minute redemption, Buffy why do you always have to be so stubborn, Buffy why do you always see things in black and white. And just. Who IS this girl. Its like people base Buffy’s entire personality on the I Am The Law speech out of context, that she is undeniably fighting for good but just wants to kill everyone who steps out of line and has no capacity for forgiveness, her friends can't and shouldn't go to her with their problems bc she'll immediately judge them, and she always needs a rational word from Giles or Willow or somebody to reel her in and see someone else's perspective. It makes me unwell. Negatively.

24. topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

literally any attempt to hold a character accountable for capital E Evil they commit, to explain why a ship is bad or why fans of that character are bad or whatever. Not saying people can't swear off a character who did something they can't stomach but more the idea that stuff like Angel eating Holtz's family or Anya's history of horrific punishments against guys she admits did Not all deserve it or yeah, even that a not-insignificant percentage of the cast have committed sexual assault should mean the characters should be written off. Obviously this comes up most in Spike vs Angel wars as a way to say which one is the worst when their body counts really truly do not matter on the character front. If Angel has killed like a thousand more people than Spike does that really mean fucking anything if Spike has still killed thousands of people. This is a 'verse where The Forces of Evil are very much like. A thing. Demons who kill people for no reason that we need to fight once a week exist. But hey what if one of them like Angel or Anya or Spike suddenly had to stop killing and get a job and try to maintain a friend group. That's what this shit is all ABOUT. Its FUN. And it vitally requires a cast full of people who have DONE HORRIBLE THINGS. We would have no story if they hadn't

Thanks for the ask 🤟

[good-wine-and-cheese]

hey carmen! i hope youre doing well! :D P, G, R, W for the ask game?

I'm doing dandy thanks and thank you for the ask! :)

P. Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas).

Oh fun! Since I'm in Pluto brainland right now and already have a bunch of AUs rattling around about it I'll share one of those. I have in mind this AU where, during the 39th Central Asian War, Gesicht is critically damaged and has to be sent back for repairs by his creator (the damage is too intricate and complex for most field techs to fix him). Hoffman, faced with the visceral consequences of Gesicht being sent to war, takes matters into his own hands and runs off with Gesicht. I just think about how it's probably something Hoffman never wanted to put his creation through but wasn't able to stand up to higher ups at the time. I think faced with the violence and terror of the war coupled with Gesicht returning to him badly damaged would be the catalyst for him to recognize the system for what it is and work to support robots in a more earnest way that maybe requires him to be in hiding.

G. Have you ever had an OTP? If so, do you remember your first one? Who was in it?

So I don't think I define OTP the same way that most people do. "OTP" to me is just "the ship that is my favourite to think about" I guess, but I will still actively ship those characters individually with other characters, too. That said, my first OTP was McSpirk. 12 year old me took angsty pictures of Spock, Kirk and McCoy (and variations of them together) and made Windows Movie Maker slideshows with them to angsty billy talent and three days grace songs

R. Which friendship/platonic relationship is your favorite in fandom?

Favourite platonic relationships in fandom! That's hard, because tbf I like a lot of them. It's generally my favourite type of relationship between characters. Generally speaking though, any adult-child dynamics that are particularly wholesome (especially when one or both are severely broken people) will destroy me.

On a recent rewatch of Eureka Seven, I found I really appreciated the crew of the Gekko a lot. They're just a bunch of weirdo roommates and the vibe of that whole dynamic was really good to me. As far as platonic relationships in series go they feel very close to how actual people interact with each other so I guess I'll say whatever the crew of the Gekko has going on.

W. A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom.

Normally I'm pretty forgiving with tropes honestly! If it's an annoying trope that happens a lot of times I'll probably skip out, but it's hard for me to say any "specific" trope will make me "hate" it when generally I will give them a 3-strike grace or a "that was funny actually" level of acceptability. I guess I do have one that consistently pisses me off though.

"Shitty sex scenes used in place of character growth" is my biggest fiction pet peeve. It's not sex scenes as a general rule, but in so many shows I've seen the writers will give me absolutely no reason to believe character A and B would fuck (in fact, they usually seem to hate each other and Not in a oh they wanna fuck kinda way), then suddenly they fuck (and it's framed to be as bland as possible) and then after that they're super close meanwhile I have had absolutely nothing shown between them that would lead any of this to feel like it would feasibly have happened. It's bad writing and completely takes me out of the narrative and makes me think about how I would have written character development to get from point A to point B.

Ask game

[splishsplashyouropinionistrash]

We’re back, bitches!

You will never escape me.

It’s time, once again, for AFTG Hot Takes, the show where I just say whatever the fuck pops into my head.

Today’s topic: Kevin Day and his romantic interests.

Now, okay, I’ve discussed this a bit in previous posts. I’m not going to go too far in depth for the two ships I’ve talked about already.

Please, for the love of god, these are just my opinions. I’m literally just a teenager on the internet. It’s not that deep, you don’t need to write a ten paragraph essay on why grooming is okay (although tbf that made my night. Still waiting on a reply, bb)

With that out of the way, let’s get into it.

I’ll be honest, I’m not a fan of most Kevin ships. I only like two of them, so we’ll save those for last.

1. First up we’ve got Kevandriel, Kevneil, and Kevandrew (pls dont @ me, i’m not 100% on those names)

I hate it. Despise it. Just so bad. Ew.

I made a whole post on why I have Kevandriel, read it if you want. 

Kevandrew (Kevin/Andrew) just doesn’t make any sense. Their personalities don’t mesh at all. Kevin doesn’t take no for an answer, which is something that is so important for Andrew.

Kevneil (Kevin/Neil) is one I just don’t like because, as we all know, I am a petty bitch. I don’t have a reason for disliking it, really. It just... idk, gives me the ick.

2. Moving on, Kevin and Thea.

I made a post regarding this one too, check it out (or don’t).

I don’t feel like rehashing all of that tho, honestly. (but pls feel free to read the reblogs, some were v good and others just made me cackle. Still looking at you, grooming guy)

3. Now, onto the ones I haven’t discussed. We’ll go with Kevjean first.

So, I mean... it’s not impossible that this actually happened in cannon, however. Just judging by the reactions these two had to each other once Jean was out of the Nest, them sustaining a healthy relationship would be nearly impossible.

Also, I am a diehard Jerjean fan (thanks gus_47, I blame you and the masterpiece that is Hoax for this) so I just... can’t bring myself to picture Jean with anyone else.

4. Kevin and Jeremy!

Listen, I don’t hate this one. I simply adore those fun lil fics where Kev is tripping over himself cause he’s in love with Jeremy (looking at you, quicksand). They’re so fun! But, Jerjean owns my soul (again, thank you Hoax) so it’s gonna have to be a no from me.

5. Kevin and Matt

I’ll be real with you, I didn’t know this existed until yesterday, and I am shocked.

I haven’t stopped to think about it much, and I probably won’t, because Dan. I just- that is her husband, excuse you.

6. Kevallison (Kevin/Allison)

I don’t mind this one, honestly. I sorta get it, tbf. 

HOWEVER.

Diehard Renison fan. Enough said.

And now, at last, we come to the two Kevin ships that I can (and do!!) suport whole-heartedly.

7. Kevaaron !! (Kevin/Aaron)

Listen, I just love their personalities. I love the idea of these two assholes healing together. Simply adore.

Before you say it (you know who you are, and yes I’m still salty ab this) I. Don’t. Ship. It. Because. I. Want. Andrew. And. Kevin. Together. ffs, people. What kind of person do you think I am? 

8. Kevin and... (drumroll please)

Himself!

I am 100% in support of aroace Kevin living his best life with his friends and family.  

I mean, it’s lovely. Spectacular. 10/10, adore it.

Okay okay I’m done (for now)

Let me know what other hot takes you’d like to hear!

And as always, if you disagree with anything I’ve said, fight me! I mean that, i love a bit of lighthearted discourse. (unless your opinions are truly heinous, in which case I will verbally punch you in the trachea.)

Blah blah hitman, blah blah death threats

[ultravioart]

I am assuming you don't wish to be tagged here bc icky topics on my long og post, but this is REAL. REAL REAL.

The ship would be fine if OW writers just made one change time wise???? No idea what they were thinking, it really feels like this was a later addition to Pharah's character rather than inherently planned for Pharah.

Which... okay! Ideas change, so do concepts and characters, but retcon the extra crap then! Augh. I feel bad for fans who are just trying to have a good time in fandom content only to stumble into the thorn nest that is "drastically important ow lore that you need a microscope to find" that completely butchers a ship out of the blue 🤓 like DOOD it is so time consuming to sift through, the only reason I have dove in is because my brain thinks omnics are neat:tm: bc robot media is a special interest. And don't get me started about the ow books... I can't imagine most people have read those, and I am not buying them so lol I am out of the loop there, too.

But to the point: I dislike "airdropping" identities in general, no matter the series. Either have it never matter ('they just are (insert thing)' rep can be good when done right), or have it properly incorporated into the story from the start: Tracer works because of her comic, it felt natural and well intended. aka pre plan it so wack contradictions or implications do not exist.

I understand creators trying to get around censors for LGBT+ rep but Overwatch is like. Already out there. Wayyyy out of the closet by now. No need to hide identities for a big reveal, it feels like trying to hype train the existence of well. Existing. Homo FOMO the corperation yells, hoping for big money from hype trains.... no thanks... I prefer my rep treated with respect. :,)

Fr they can just announce it alongside nationality and age when the character is first announced. Like imagine if they airdropped ethnicity-- Oh wait they did do that with Cole Cassidy confirming he is just a "very tanned Caucasian" LOL too late tho fanon has already adopted BAMF cowboy from Blizz anyhow. And tbf, I agree with common fanon there-- I always interpreted Cole as mixed heritage because of. well. Irl Cowboy history and cowboy movie culture? That's like. His whole THING. BAMF Spaghetti Western Cowboy, living in OW as an actual rootin tootin cowboy running into the sunset. As stated, fanon can be better than canon sometimes. Or fanon can be worse.

Anyways, I AM happy to see more LGBT+ rep, I am just very (side eye) at ActiBlizz because it's well. Actiblizz. No more needs to be said there.

Or... uh, as of recent events.... I guess microsoft-actiblizz??? ActiBlizzSoft??? Corperate titan assimilation does not bode well for authentic art creation imo. :/

[noco7]

*evil grin* I've asked you about your favorite TD moments, I now want to know your least favorite moments and why 😈

Thanks for the ask! I'll list the least favorite moments in the same way I did the best moments, aka season by season, in reverse order. However, I’m not going to be talking about important character moments this time. Because I don’t really hate those, even if I disagree with them. Although I question a lot of TD's writing decisions, I'm not usually angry. I'm just intrigued. Why did they make those decisions? How did those decisions affect the plot of the show? How did the fandom react? And is there a different way to interpret what happened? There’s just a lot to chew on, and I’m hungry for meta-analysis. So, yeah, while I disagree with a lot of choices, it doesn’t necessarily mean I hate them.  If you see me being dramatic about a plot point I don’t like, chances are I was just hamming it up for the audience. So what about the moments I do hate? Well… 

RR: I've already talked a lot about how much I disliked Noah's elimination, which is probably the REAL worst moment. But there is another moment that is living rent-free in my brain. I've watched RR once, so most things don't stick with me. But this one did.

It's Ep:11 I love Ridonc & Roll, which is surprising because I've praised this episode to the moon and back, calling it Noah's REAL best moment. And it is. But I dislike Emma in this episode. It's weird to me that she's Noah’s love interest, yet she can't even give him a quick pep-talk about stage fright. So instead, Owen does it. A classic romantic moment is to help people past their weaknesses - we saw it with Courtney helping Duncan face the cardboard cutout, we see Zoey reassure Mike about his DID, hell the thing that really starts Davesky off is that when Dave is feeling stressed because of his germophobia, Sky helps him focus. Whatever your opinions on Davesky are, the moment was still sweet. So it’s weird to me that Emma doesn’t get to do it with Noah. (Also now I’m realizing it’s mostly women comforting men. Hmm. Can’t tell if that means anything, or if I just missed something.) But anyway, that’s another reason I feel N*mma is a kind of weak ship, storytelling wise, because their huge emotional beats are with other people - Emma with Kitty, and Noah with Owen. Tbf N*mma has romantic beats, but that’s it. And I’ve already talked about those.

Anyway, that was just an unnecessary rant. The moment I’m actually here to talk about is after Noah proves himself. There's a scene where Emma talks about how she only realized how much she liked Noah when she was worried she'd never see him again. Which is fine. And she says she's going to stop taking him for granted. Good! And then Kitty jokes, "I don't know, are you sure he's still into you?

Emma and Kitty: *both start laughing for an extremely long time*

Emma: "Yeah."

Me, a N*mma hater: BUT HE SHOULDN'T BE! NO! NO!

Lmaoo, you would be surprised about how personally I took those lines. It felt like they were laughing at *me*, lmaoo. Honest to god, it felt like some redditor was smugly telling me how Noah liked Emma, you idiot! He'll never like anyone else! HAHAHA! You're so stupid! Except it was canon. And it was the writers.

I don't even think they meant it like that, lol. It was a joke at Noah's expense, not mine. And even if they had meant it like that, then it’s even funnier. I commend the boldness.

Pakhitew: There's not much I vehemently dislike about Pakhitew. Is there stuff I find annoying? Yes. Sammy and Amy's arc should have been longer. Topher should have been an intern Dakota-style. Scarlett should have had a different resolution to her arc instead of being duped by a Chris-robot. Oddly, as I go on and on about Pakhitew’s flaws, the more I feel endeared to it. Like a woman who purposefully goes to broken down houses, beams, and is like “I love fixer-uppers!” So many characters I liked that didn't get full arcs... characters I can make my own stories for, bring out my own paint. Yess… yesss… yesss.

But. One thing I do dislike a little more than the rest is the Ella vs Sugar thing. And also Sugar's elimination. They make a huge deal out of Sugar being a former child pageant. So when she gets the chance to design a challenge, she works her pageant background into it, via a talent show. And then she loses her own challenge. And tbh, this just feels *mean* to me? I know she had to go, for the Sky vs Shawn finale, but …. everyone else got to show off how good they were at their thing, but not Sugar? She's still being treated as a joke? Like this was their chance to show a different side of Sugar, or just capitalize on the intelligence she had already shown. But nothing? She just does a terrible job and embarrasses herself. It’s SAD.

Unpopular opinion but Sugar VS Shawn in the finale would have been lit. And her helper could have been Ella, and it would be great to see Sugar be forced to work with the girl she hates, and then maybe Ella sees the bad confessionals and realizes that Sugar never liked her or smth. And then... either she decides to be nice, or she decides to get the money to herself. I needed their arc to resolve. 

Lingering_Reflection pakhitew rewrite when, amirite?

All Stars: There are so many All Stars things that didn't work. I could easily just say Jo's elimination because she's one of my favorite characters and therefore I was mad that she was eliminated. (Which is actually rare for me? I don’t care when my gen 1 faves get eliminated, because one, I knew it going in, and two, they have other seasons + TDR. I will get enough time with them either way. Can’t say the same for 2nd and 3rd gen 😭).

The only other All Stars moment I'm passionately angry about is Cameron kissing Courtney against her wishes. It's just. That's a bad thing to do? Like I get it, he's working on Mal's orders for his evil plan. And I love evil plans, and I even love the idea of Evil!Cameron. And I like Cody and Sierra, so it's not even like "i dislike problematic people," either. I just dislike how the show itself treats it.

There's no backlash for Cameron, no callouts. He’s happy with the results. Scott doesn't believe her. Gwen doesn't take her side. Zoey tells her "at least 2 guys kissed you," as if that's any better. I think TD plays fast and loose with sexual harassment as comedy, and this is one of the moments it really shows.

ROTI: I genuinely really love this season, I really really really need to rewatch it. And uhh. I really dislike B's elimination, because it was so heartbreaking. But I also really like Scott, and it was a smart move. So not that. The thing I dislike is one line from Sam - which… I can’t find now? I’ve watched like two episodes, and two Sam compilation videos, and uhh. Nothing. So. Umm. Just not going to say anything, other then the fact that the worst moment about this season being one I imagined speaks to how much I like this season. (Tho there are some things I’d correct, and I suspect I’ll find new things on rewatch.)

World Tour: Okay, another personal one. I dislike C*derra pretty heavily, I don't think that should be a suprise to anyone. I do find most of their interactions funny, and while I don't think Cody *should* be friends with Sierra, it makes a lot of interesting story potential, whether you play it for fluff or for horror.

But there is one thing I just can't look past. In Episode 25, when Cody's balloon has crashed and he gives up, Sierra starts yelling at him.

"You want a number one fan, mister? That comes with responsibilities! You can't let me and the rest of your fans down!"

And there is so much wrong with those sentences?  Sure Sierra is a "Number 1 Fan," yeah, but she's also a STALKER. For most of this season, Cody DIDN'T want her! He didn't! Because she treats him terribly! Sure she’s been nice to him a few times, but overall she’s abusive. It’s a straight-up Mother Gothel moment. I do everything for you, so you can’t let me down. Bro, you’re a terrible person! You don’t deserve anything from your VICTIM!

And even if she wasn't a stalker, and just a genuinely nice fan, who did no wrong -  her statement is terrible. I'm an ex-kpoppie, so I've seen fan celebrity dynamics, and the question of "how much do creators owe fans and vice versa," is something I have strong feelings about. Yes, celebrities do have responsibilities. You can’t be famous if you don’t DO anything, and you usually can’t *keep* being famous if you stop producing content. That’s true. But the idea that you should do something purely because “you can’t let the fans down,” is toxic.

Because there will always be things out of your control, and there will always be times where you’re just not into something. And yes, if you have promised something, you should try to deliver. Especially when there’s money involved. But Cody did not promise *anyone* that he would win. He didn’t promise anyone a hot air balloon ride from Alberta to New Mexico? What? To say he owed her, or his fans, even an attempt, is weird to me. Sierra was a fan by choice. She decided to root for him! So Cody should also be allowed to make his own choices. He’s allowed to quit. And if that means that you as a fan, feel betrayed, then whatever. Choose to support someone else. Because it’s your choice, and you cannot force your choices onto others, just because you “deserve it,” for…. Liking them? Like it makes no sense. I love you, so you must do something… no. That’s not how it works! If you love someone, you do something. Because it’s your feelings, not there’s! It stinks of fan entitlement. And I don’t even like celebrities - like I’m not out here to defend celebrities for their mistakes. But Cody wasn’t “making a mistake,” he was just trying to quit on his own terms. And Sierra yelled at him for it, and told him he owed her to try harder!

But I understand why she feels entitled, because I've seen it in a lot of kpop fans. A LOT of fans invest huge amounts of money and time into their idols.  There's so much pressure to be a "good fan," a "true fan." You not only have to buy their music, but you must promote their music, you must stream their music, you must vote for their music, you must praise each and every one of them, you must defend each and every one of them - it becomes a job. A job that fans do, willingly, or unwillingly, because they like the idol that much. And if you’re putting in that much work… wouldn’t you want the same kind of dedication in return? Imagine hyping up someone’s upcoming concert for weeks, and then they cancel it. Wouldn’t you be a little angry? You were so excited, you did your part and they didn’t do theirs. “Stress,” or whatever. Sure. You’re stressed too. But if they want fans like you, they owe you top-tier performances. But you can’t think like that. You can’t. I understand your feelings, but you cannot try to control someone else’s life. In fact, the more you truly love a person, the less you should want to control them. Sometimes things happen, and you have to accept that. Take the refund and go. People are allowed to quit, allowed to take hiatuses. People aren’t machines that output what you put in - they have their own lives, and their own issues, and like. Just stop. (This attitude isn’t actually that common in kpop, but it is there.)

Basically, my argument is that what Sierra says to him, that he owes the fans something he’s never promised, and something he doesn’t want to do - is very unethical.  There are people who like this moment, and I get it. "Wow, Sierra's finally holding Cody accountable! Finally, she’s making HIM do something!" And that is a flip from the way Sierra usually treats Cody - at least on the outside.

But Sierra isn’t the victim in the Cody-Sierra relationship. She never was. She's always been demanding more for him, or not even demanding - just taking! She’s been touching him and kissing him against his will, she’s guilt-tripped him. Yes, she puts up with a lot of disrespect from Cody. But he’s put up with a lot more, and everything he’s done has been a reaction to her. So no, this isn’t really character development for Sierra. This is just a different shade of entitlement. Action:

Umm. I think everyone knows that the way Trent was handled sucks. We also know that Gwen didn't deserve flack for dumping him. Gwent sucked in Action is not a hot take. And I've also already talked way too much. So just take this screenshot:

"What can I say? Kid's hot." I don't think you need me to tell you why that line is wrong. There’s also the finale, which also isn’t a hot take. But my problem with the finale is less that I dislike the contestants, but more that I don’t think they fit the theme. The finale is heavy on Good VS Bad, which is a classic. I don’t have a problem with that. And Duncan does fit “Bad.” But Beth doesn’t fit “Good.” There’s the time where she kissed Harold against his will (eww), the numerous times she bragged about her boyfriend when people weren’t into it, the time Courtney made an alliance with her, and there was a whole thing about how she wasn’t as nice and naive as Courtney believed her to be. Like that was the point! That she could hold her own! The alliance ends with her betraying Courtney! Betrayal! And then I’m supposed to believe she’s the GOOD side? I don’t think she’s evil, or even that bad. But she’s not nice. She’s average!  To be fair, it could be argued the only nice character on TD is Owen. And Owen was already a finalist. But if so.... just don’t make a good vs bad finale? (Or don’t eliminate Geoff and Bridgette immediately. Or Harold. Or Leshawna. Hmm. There were so many better candidates to fir this theme. Why Beth? I need to know. If anyone has any ideas, please tell me.) Island:  There were actually two moments here, but I decided to cut it down to one.  It’s Heather reading Gwen's diary outloud. And this is not because I am a Gwen stan. I’m a Gwen centrist, if anything. This moment is here because it’s stupid. There’s a lot of stupid TD moments though, so what’s so special about this one? Uhh, it’s just the reason I don’t care for Heather. With faves like Courtney and Scarlett and Amy, you’d think Heather’d fit right in. But nope! And that's because I expected more from her. To be frank, I was expecting Alison DiLaurentis from Pretty Little Liars. I'm talking master manipulator, gaslighting genius, bachelor's in bullying. And Heather's just... not. And yeah I'm holding her to unfair standards, but come on. Why read Gwen’s diary aloud? Like, what did she expect to happen? Yes you've humiliated Gwen, but you haven't actually made her look BAD. You’ve just made yourself look like a bully. Heather could have pulled a Regina George, and wrote random mean things in Gwen's diary, read it outloud, and had the whole team turn on Gwen. She could have revealed something genuinely disgusting, made the team trust Gwen less. She could have held off, and used info from it as blackmail. But nope! Instead she reads it aloud, and it's just the Trent crush? Like no one cares. No one cares!!! What did you accomplish, Heather? What did you accomplish? Nothing! It feels so middle school. Do better! Tl;dr: Most of my least favorite moments are really just personal peeves, instead of problematic plot points. Or like. I just hate sexual harassment. Not that it can’t be shown in media, but I’d rather it be taken seriously.  Bonus: the tags that I couldn’t post because of an error message

[caffeine-clouds]

Hm... SonElise with numbers 7 and 9? :3

Ooooo, anon hitting me with the interesting one. DISCLAIMER: I don't give a shit whether anyone ships Sonelise, Roupaz, or Eggline like- who honest to God cares? The beastiality argument, which I'm so glad has died away over the years but some dumbasses keep bringing up, never really held any validity in my eyes. The Sonic characters have way more things in common with humans than they do animals - they are short weird mutant creatures that act like humans and have some animal features. So chill out - I'm tired and depressed, and we're all going to die soon so let's just fucking vibe. That being said though... I dislike this ship! - Are they an absolute NOTP, or are there very specific requirements a fanwork must have for you to enjoy them? I don't seek out Sonelise content nor do I stumble across it often - but I think for me to enjoy them at all - Elise is in need of some, *some* amount of personality. I understand that Elise being reserved and non-expressive is kind of the *point* with her - because she's constantly restraining her emotions because of the fire demon - but with her being the way she is, I fail to see what SONIC sees in her. To me, it always seemed that Sonic would prefer a partner that could keep up with him and fight alongside him as an equal. Elise doesn't offer him that, quite the opposite - she was often the damsel he had to chase after. So I don't really see what was appealing about HER for HIM. She's strong, I get that - she didn't cry for like her whole childhood - that's a strong will right there, but just - it's hard to ship Sonic with a piece of cardboard, you know? I see where the affection comes from on Elise's side - I can imagine her being in love with the guy who taught her to smile, run, and be free. i think she'd be happy to run off on Sonic's adventures alongside him, but she kind of needs to hold onto his hand the whole way - and I personally don't think Sonic would be in a romantic relationship like that. I feel like Elise would want a lot of affection as well - and we all know Sonic isn't really the type to give an abundance of it, especially romantically. But for a fanwork - if you can expand on Elise's personality and give some concrete reasons as to why Sonic is interested - I dunno, I might check it out. I dislike this ship! - Do you understand the appeal at all? Or do you not see how anyone could enjoy it? I do see the appeal tbf. It's got similar elements to ships like Sonadow, Sonknux, Sonaze etc. - where Sonic helps out someone who is clearly struggling and is far more rigid than him - he teaches them to let loose and be free, and that is romantic - don't get me wrong! And tbf to Sonelise shippers - ya'll have more validity than most other Sonic ships because ya'll got a canonical kiss lmao. It's also got the general appeal of opposites attract - and maybe some people just want to see Sonic with a nice gentle lady and you know what? Good on you. I also think the ship is vague enough and dances around their feelings for each other to the point where you could slap any headcanon you wanted on it - which is totally valid, some people just like having the freedom. And I think some, not all but some, can probably self insert with Elise a bit - because still - she's a bowl of bland oatmeal with not much going on, so if you wanna project and imaginine yourself on a romantic expedition with Sonic the Hedgehog - Elise is your vehicle. But anyways - thanks for the ask anon!

[tcmmykinard]

hi! twitter hater anon here!! i think it’s so strange how we have had completely different experiences on the buddie vs anti buddie train, but i also think it’s because i love og, but my heart lies in lone star, and a lot of the buddie twitter people (and other platforms, they spill over into instagram, which is where i’m active most besides tumblr) get so angry and bitter that tarlos exists and it makes no sense to me??? like they treat tarlos like it’s competition and go out of their way to bully people who like them and it’s really frustrating, which is kind of like why i am the spiteful anti buddie i think.

however after reading most of ur anon answers, i have a feeling i know EXACTLY what subgenre of anti buddies you’re talking about, and they’re the reason i don’t have anons on my account. they grasp at straws to say that everything you do is problematic, even if it doesn’t necessarily have to do with buddie. i had one anon that kept throwing stones. i could tell it was the same account. one that straight up yelled at me and called me racist for saying michael was BEING A DUMMY for running into the hospital after david in 5.08 as i was live blogging.

anyway!!! i think i get it now! i’ve had /neg experiences on both ends, so i normally stick to lone star! i just figured i would pop in and give my two cents! hopefully i’m making sense and not being rude in any way!! thank you for taking time out of your day to answer anons!!

oh wow really? that's strange and i guess kind of just proves that fandom has so many different aspects to it.. i've never seen any kind of hate towards tarlos in my experience with the buddie fandom/twitter but i have seen anti buddie stuff from tarlos shippers 😂 that's so funny to me but really, why can't we be positive about both ships regardless of one being canon and the other not ?

but oof yeah the anti buddies that i see the most are definitely the ones that yell racism at a lot of things or are like morality police or whatever, they like to nitpick at stupid things just to start an argument for the sake of having an argument lmao

and noo you're not being rude at all and i totally understand where you're coming from!! tbh if lone star is where you're happiest with the fandoms then that's awesome and you should stick to it!! tbf fandom really has no business being so negative and complicated anyway lmao

[formulinos]

Hyperfixation Corner: A Special | Undestanding (and Ranking) the Landogates

Oh, what is Formula 1 if not a concoction of men who are products of their times and women that are so much better than them. We have had our share of controversial figures, whether they gladly took the role of the villain or found themselves as a parachute for trouble. It's not different that the masses in 2021 would latch onto charismatic figures looking for guidance in these so trying times or, even worse, look for something that just isn't there as means of a distraction to the utter chaos that is the Roaring 20s of the XXI century.

This is the case of Lando Norris, milk aficcionado and McLaren-Tangerine driver. Lando is practically a child of Y2K, born in November of 2021 and carefully crafted by the British system of drivers to be one of the next generation drivers of our era. He also happens to seem to be a light-hearted boy, who just likes to drive his fast cars and play his silly little video games, but once you unpeel the outer layers, you might just be surprised. Fundamentally speaking, Lando Norris has the motorsport bravado and never shied away from the opportunities that fell in front of him, but to his demise, his loyal army of Lando fans are always by his side, ready to dissect his every move whether he likes it or not.

Today, we're going in the lions' den and ranking the most memorable out of Lando's little run-ins with the outer society, fondly called by the F1 populace "Landogates". 

Before we start, I would just like to thank the 25 Lando stans or former Lando stans that talked to me or answered the form - and to those who attempted to contact me but Tumblr is a bitch and I was also sick so there's that. Anyway, I really appreciate your help and I have learned a lot from you! Thanks for helping science!

5) Fanficgate

No, this isn't about the Reddit meltdown that happened in the beginning of the year, although that was a choice too. We're talking about December 15, 2020, when Team Quadrant posts a very harrowing tweet that will enter the annals of history.

The format is quite known: celebrity goes into social media content about him, reads everything and does funny lighthearted comments or snaps back at the haters. Naturally, all sections of the fandom go insane and start to discuss whether Lando will find out about this or about that and so did f1blr, blowing things out of proportion like one would. People started posting "Lando I'm so sorry" or "Hey Lando, if you're reading this hiiii". TBF I even think I did too, although I hit my head and my memory is glitching ever since. Anyway, the ethics of shipping Carlando were discussed, the ethics of fanfiction were discussed, the ethics of stalking were discussed, but here's the error though: Tumblr believed they were a social media worthy of recognition in 2020.

My guy wasn't even CLOSE to tumblr. TBH? Coward. It's easy to go on Twitter/Reddit, try spending one day in this Godless land. Anyway, the fact that we all suffered from collective delusion there - including those of us who knew there was no way in hell Lando would read their 50k childhood friends to lovers carlando one shot but still had a meltdown - makes it a non-entity gate and therefore, the worst ranked out of those. Overall, the people I interviewed were like "lol oop that was nothing" so, I think the fandom agrees with that one. I rate this a 1 out of 5 suggestive lando pic

4) Feetgate

This is the Funniest Shit ever and nothing will ever compare to this. The only reason I'm ranking this so low is because the following three are more based on reality, but this is the narrative I want to be included in. Absolutely legendary. 

It starts with Sylvana IJsselmuiden, Formula 1 legend (I'm calling her like this from now on) and Dutch personality. Sylvie went on a podcast called "F1 Aan Tafel" on December 7, 2020 and started dropping barz on barz about Formula 1 drivers sliding on her DMs and sending her dick pics (if you know Dutch, here's the link. The Queen of Feet starts talking about it on min 32:50 if I'm not mistaken - I heard a Leclerc in Dutch accent and I am worried). Basically, she says that Lando shoots his shot constantly on DMs and that there are talks of him sending dick pics around, so she decided to answer the last time he had hit her up and see what happens. 

Everybody gangsta until Sylvana said she photoshopped pictures of her feet to make them thicker and sent them to Lando, who responded with 'sexy feet'. Anyway, again, meltdown ensued. Some people latched onto the fact that Lando allegedly send unconsented dick pics to women (that is shit if true), some people decided to DM him their feet (this is so funny i am 10) and some people were just laughing at this, especially considering that when this came out it was really late at night for the Europeans and they would wake up with whiplash.

There were also people who tried to discredit Sylvana because she photoshops herself with drivers on her instagram. To me these look like a joke but even if she wanted to pass them off as reality, you know what? If she says she went to a bike trail with Lewis then to me that's real. She is my queen and God forgive who disrespects my queen.

Mostly, people just laughed at the fact Lando can't get no coochie and has a foot fetish because come on. Come ON. But also, the sentiment is that it's his life and a foot fetish is as normal in these days as wearing a mask to go out (I hope to FUCK no anti-maskers are reading this). The extra funny part is that Lando keeps going back to feetgate himself, by constantly talking about his socks during streams, having a foot cam (I mean, most drivers do anyway because they think it's interesting to see their feet while they play racing video games. I don't think it's even interesting to watch people play video games but well, I like to write things people will never read so who am I to judge). Here are two tidbits: one of Lando himself resurrecting Feetgate from the dead and one of Noel Miller also indirectly referring to it

This is stellar, fuck it. I rate this a 5/5 Sylvana's feet

3) Portugalgate

Portimão was definitely one of the races of all time. For Lando, it had started brightly as he was Top 3 in the first practice session (as if this meant anything) but by Qualis, we knew it was going to get real as he landed in P8, behind Carlos his beloved. The race wasn't sexy either at all, and while his teammate moved up, he actually got left behind, and by Lap 18 his race was as good as dead when he bumped with Lance Stroll, who thought the gap in Turn 1 existed. In case you guys don't remember, on Friday Lance had also had an incident with Max Verstappen on that same Turn - and tbh I think Max was just as amateur there as Lance. 

Naturally, Lando wasn't happy at the moment, using some choice words at Lance. To be quite honest I am not English, so I have genuinely no idea of the impact this has in society, but most of the Brits that talked to me were the ones who highlighted his use of the C-word while the non-Brits didn't even look at it, so that's curious. He apologises for his language at the end of the GP on radio, but boy, he was ready to go wild.

Post race interviews come, he's still not happy: "He obviously didn't learn from Friday but he doesn't seem to learn from anything he does. It happens a lot with him, so I just need to stay away," he said to a reporter who couldn't believe the gold he had just found. Later, he was also asked on his thoughts about Lewis Hamilton's incredible 92 GP Victories, a record he had just taken away from Michael Schumacher's hands. His answer was very sweet: “It doesn’t mean anything to me, really. He’s in a car which should win every race, basically. He has to beat one or two other drivers, that’s it. Fair play to him, he’s still doing the job he has to do.” (I only found the video with Brazilian commentators on top, muh bad).

He was also not done with Lance, having a dig at him on Insta:

Yeah, you can tell the major reception of this was,,,, not what Lando expected. I sincerely think he got post-rant clarity because the Twitter apology came faster than the Merc in Portugal. 

(lmao I love when people say "I am not that kind of person" in their apologies as if they weren't caught in 4k being that sort of person). To be honest, even though the wide majority of F1 fans thought that Lando was goofy as all fuck for having said the Lewis comments, there are still apologists who think that he was just saying what we were all thinking, while Lance's were just part of the game and he was in the heat of the moment, he was also raging still when he also talked about Lewis, it was a bad moment. 

To be quite honest as well, there were quite a few discussions about Lando not being mindful of the race factor when he jabbed at Lewis - some people thought he should have been, some people actually thought that for once someone was assessing the situation as it really is and that removing the "activism" part of the equation was reasonable as cars are cars, political disarray is political disarray. The Lando stans I spoke to were quite divided about this as well, more than the Lance comments and many thought he was a bitch while the rest argued that "he said what we're all thinking". 

There was still a very poignant comment about how part of Lando's identity as a media darling in Britain is that he is the anti-Lewis, and I am going to quote it here because it just…. NGL lads it gave me pause: 

"Lewis gets hate for not living in the UK and “tax dodging”, Lando lives here. Lewis gets hate for being in the best car. Lando can’t be accused of that one. Lewis gets hate for being black, I don’t need to explain that one. Some even claim he gets preferential treatment because he is the only black driver. Lewis gets hate for his clothes, Lando seems to live in black or white. Lewis active support of BLM got him criticism because he should just stick to racing, however Lando’s vocal support of BLM, his support of Mind and his genuinely sweet support and friendship with Sir Captain Tom Moore was applauded. Lewis speaks his mind, gets slated. Lando speaks his mind, gets slated by his fans but Joe public F1 fans think he amazing for speaking his mind. There are people who actively oppose his knighthood. When you see what other sport stars have been given knighthood for in this country, 5 and 6 times Olympic Gold Medalist, 2 x Wimbledon Winner and 2 x Olympic Gold Medalist. I think he’s in that elite bracket now dont you? Lando is celebrated for just not be Lewis by some Brits. Is it any wonder George keeps his mouth shut?"

I am thinking. I really didn't know Lando was that deep - and honestly after learning more about him straight from his fans mouth's I still don't, but the Lando lore does have meaning. Amazing. Either way, people cannot claim this was all one time road rage if Carlos' commented that Lando goes into terrible moods even while playing golf. GOLF. Mayhaps a therapist could help. However, since he did apologise and then managed to keep his mouth shut about Lance and congratulated Lewis on his WDC later on, one must not dwell too much on these things. I rate this one a 3 out of 5 world records.

2) COVIDgate

This was low. Like, very low. Basically, Max Fewtrell did a livestream and discussed going to Dubai for the holidays (around December 29, 2020. wow all of these really happened in like a week). Max basically made it seem as if Lando would join him and @sebastonstroll, braver than the US marines actually caught some blurry screenshots of Lando's arm and wristwatch during one of the Dubai streams (actually, that was a joke. but God liked and subscribed so I think maybe we could call it "pioneering" instead). That's all fine, I mean, places are there to be visited, except there is this little thing called a "coronavirus" or something I'm not a doctor, which means that you kinda should stay at home…. and there is like, the Law or something that kinda makes it so you have to stay at home as well. I am not an expert on any of these things, but it sounds like Somerset, where Lando lives, was in a Tier 3 Lockdown, which means "sit yo ass down", so the plate was served.

Now, it was the holidays, we were all frustrated I'm sure and overall, there wasn't a lot of meat on that beef stew for one to actually feel well-fed, so there were again discussions on the ethics of stalking, how thin was the line between stanning and paranoia and why. Most fans kinda relaxed and reached the conclusion there was no way this could be real since there was a tier 3 lockdown and Lando was just home for Christmas, but as the days went and suspicious screencaps showed up online, it was harder to discern the benefit of the doubt from denial.

Thankfully, there was no need to keep that debate going for long. Not so fortunately, that was because Lando joined the ranks of F1 drivers ahead of the game who didn't wait for the vaccine to become immune themselves.

The question that remained was: is he isolating in England, or in Dubai? Don't worry fellas, McLaren got him!

Considering Lando was as good as caught, McLaren took no time to 'fess up, and I mean, what would be the point to try and cover up if the whole purpose of Dubai during the pandemic is to be a safe haven for the rich and privileged to have parties for the 'Gram, right? However, they chose an intcheresting expression, "training camp". So, he was there for a scheduled team training camp… but he arrived there early… Ok, maybe so he could have a 14-day quarantine… except that didn't really land because if you knew where to look up you could even see his brother was in an ice rink one day after Lando announced his COVID diagnosis - and arguably as a "contact case" he should also be in quarantine. But that's fine, it's a team training camp and these things are common…. except Danny Ric didn't get the memo because he was doing a tour in Los Angeles as well. Well fuck me, then, Lando legitimate, royally, fucked that one up.

Talking to the Lando side of the website, no one was particularly happy. Doubts were raised about how people reacted to Lando's announcement in comparison to Pierre's or Charles', but like, I don't think one thing outweighs the other, and I agree with the sentiment that people were reasonably madder at Lando because he always sold the image of being a socially conscious person, while Charles' has always been dumb as all fuck and no one is really checking for Pierre, let's be honest. (well, we are checking for Pierre. more of that on #1). I asked the folks how they felt about McLaren's response as well, and the answers basically varied from "good on them" to "they totally lied to cover his ass lmao". At last, there were some valid points on how we're not entitled to know where Lando goes or what he is doing, fair, but then again, we're not exactly in the most "normal" of times, and there were a few sweethearts who were like "sincerely, I didn't even registered he had fucked up until after I digested the fact he had COVID, I was too busy being worried about him and wanting him to be healthy".  Overall, the lowest of lows, really, no one was happy. I rate this begrudgingly a 4 out of 5 covid positive F1 drivers, genuinely not taking any pleasure in this.

1) Pierregate - I'm not gonna call this anything else. Too funny.

The one personality trait I was sure Lando had prior to 2021 was that he was thirsty. Like, mega thirsty. There are screencaps as far as July 2019 of him using his official IG account to like posts of Instagram models, which to me is most pleasing and amusing. I particularly enjoyed this compilation from @opendirection that led me the right way and no, I don't think Lando should use his finsta to get girls, or attempt to. He should be clear, he is here for coochi, so am I, coochi is great.

Enter Katerina Berezhna, a model/entrepreneur currently based in Dubai, and hot, very hot. Katerina had been in Lando's radar since September 2020 at the very least. They would have regulary IG activity - very well received by the most patrician of Lando fans, as you can see and by the Abu Dhabi GP, when he said he was taken, she was the most likely candidate to the role. 

Covidgate comes and with it, some curious activity of Katerina. Seemingly, she takes down pictures of herself at the beach after the announcement and replaces them with pictures in her room, watching Netflix or doing yoga, kinda making it seem as if she was quarantining too. I don't come here, so I won't claim this is true, but I will tell you she has stories from Dubai up in her highlights and you can do the math that the yoga selfies that are up are from that time frame, so she was mostly indoors, officially at least. 

Pierre gets to Dubai around the same time and also decides to party. Not only is he seen, but he is also perceived and pics of him in a party go around, we're all like "fucking hell Pierre, wear a mask, Lando just got COVID". However, if you go to the insta highlights I linked up there, the story right after the yoga pics is a story of Katerina in a beach party… where Pierre and her got clocked at together.

This is awkward. Anyway, the math was done by the most dedicated of Lando and Pierre stans alike, but this only blew up after right at the end of January, Pear also got, as they say it in French, l'infection.

After this, we got a very hard-hitting investigative piece of journalism by @ef-1, who uncovered how far their beef went: they don't follow each other on IG and as far as February, Pierre made a point of not liking Lando posts on McLaren's profile. This gave birth to one of my favourite screenshots of all time:

(btw, here's a picture of Pierre and Katerina FACTUALLY together. I have found none of Lando with Katerina)

Pierregate ranks the highest out of them all because it just brings out the best of all these people: Pierre has a history of being petty out of nothing, Lando has a history of not being able to get any and Katerina is so hot. None of the Lando stans that came to talk to me are actually in the sector that gave a real shit about this besides amusement and disgust at the fact they were most likely kissing the same mouth during a pandemic. Either way, it's their life and none of our business……. but this is so INTERESTING THO.

I would just like to state by the way: Katerina isn't a gold digger per se just because she dated or flirted with two formula 1 drivers, but IF SHE WAS, good for her. There is nothing more girlboss empowering than a Real Gold Digger™, and you know, many Sugar Baby/Daddy relationships are based on sexist concepts, while proper gold digging is one of the most sublime forms of historical reparations out there. I stand with my fellow opportunists. Good for you. I rank this a 5 out of 5 models that Lando liked an Instagram post of.

ROUND-UP: WHAT DID I LEARN FROM THIS

Well, I'm gonna be real with you all: my opinion of Lando and his fandom was very low before talking to his fans and actually looking deep at his controversies. It seems I'm not the only one, as all the fans I talked about quoted at some point the whole toxicity of the fandom and let the steam out. While I do think people take it TOO far when it comes to him, and it's not just here, all social media involving Lando are cesspools in one way or another, I do feel like I can relate to people more. To many, Lando is a young driver that is relatable, a lot of you were in the 20s age gap (and there are younger folks of course) who just has the sort of sense of humour and concerns that we do. There is still a great identity aspect of him being a British McLaren drivers, which is so strong a pull considering this is one of the greatest teams there are and Brits have historically bred world champions, who knows, Lando could be the next one.

That being said, I still kinda don't vibe with him. Not my type. But I do hope that 2021 brings a Lando that stays in his lane for the sake of internet and because my guy could take a break. It seems he is going on the right direction and taking F1 seriously, but also I hope he doesn't try to rehabilitate his image (not that he needs to, but clearly he WANTS to rebrand) too much to the point of losing himself. Also, I did not touch on this week's drama because I even asked around and people weren't able to tell me properly what happened, so there isn't anything much. I hope he behaved well though, if he didn't then I guess it's time to update this post lol.

Anyway, I guess my point is that everyone is kinda crazy, but I do think that Lando fans are kinda cool now. I cannot repeat this enough, thank you to everyone who spared some time to talk to me and let me know the scoops. This was your girl formulinos in a redux version of the Hyperfixation Corner - stay tuned for the next one that is done, but I needed to take a proper breather from it, you'll get why soon, I hope! Screw you guys, I'm going home :)

21/03/2020 - NEW ENTRY - SEXISMGATE In the words of the great philosopher Jake Paul, "it's everyday bro". The latest entry in the Landogate compilation is a series of clips taken from streams done by Max Fewtrell (at this point laid ease, honestly, if you guys stan Max F. I recommend a doctor, ngl) featuring Lando. Just a few days ago, a very progressive conversation was had during a game session (or whatever you call it, I'm not a gamer girl) of Escape From Tarkov. The clips have been cropped around and shared by @carlandonorri-s (big shout out to you, braver than US marines etc), but I got them backed up on streamable :D. Summaries:

1) Lando says that if a girl talks to you about star signs, you should leave. They talk about a certain girl Max "never had" that could have sat down next to him one night and this elicits a strong reaction from the streamers. Lando adds "you might have been made to sit next to her one night and she might have coughed on you". A charmer.

2) Allusions to calling a girl "cowboy" and "this might not be the only snake in my boot". Max thinks it's not a dig, just funny. Lando has referred to the same person as "cowboy" and "cowgirl" in yesterday's stream on Max's page as well (rather curious how I haven't seen yet the same conversations in Lando's streams, only in Max's less famous ones lol).

I will disclaim I don't have it in me to watch full vidya streams because I don't get what's fun in them, so if there are any further clips out there, yeah they're out there <3. Kush @sebastonstroll (who also ripped the last clip I talked about! Thanks for that) whistleblew and did the post that gained more traction, there are a few commentary posts out there as well (in particular this one from @babettevdw is very neat) and overall, not a good look. I have no personal hot take from this, men are pigs and I think that's it. I was waiting for the apology tweets but to be quite honest due to the sheer volume of "but if this was a woman talking about a man you wouldn't care" and "what about that time this driver said women can't drive" I highly doubt Lando will say something as his new strategy is to lay low - and I don't give a shit about if Max F apologises or not as he will probably never do something relevant in F1 anyway let's be honest. I rate this a 1/5 incel face structure pic due to the fact that if Lando's dad didn't have any money he wouldn't even be in F1 and have the chance to travel around the globe and meet hot chicks. Chaldish.

16/08/2021 - NEW ENTRY - MEXICANGATE

We had managed to spend almost 5 whole months without a Landogate everyone, so of course that when a new one happened, it would be A Doozy.

Let's set the mood: you're rich, you're finally in a good moment in your career, you are moderately ok looking, you have freeloading friends and a instagram/tik tok girl on a yacht and it's the summer. You're at the top of the world, basically, and you and your lads still find the time to be just... whatever this is

On Instagram even. With videos too. A bit extra, I'd say.

There was already a pretty perfect post by @maxricciardo​ on the subject of cultural appropriation and why this sort of display is not humorous, just prejudicial, so I won't elongate myself much on it. I will, however, pull my "As A Latina" card and say that I'm not surprised that's in its majority, a bunch of European Lads on Tour doing this since they tick all the boxes of privileged to think it's funny to do it.

Obviously, I don't want to talk on the name of Mexicans in particular and I don't even think that it's pleasant to go and Ask Your Local Mexican if this is ok or not, but I can draw parallels with my culture and say that when there are cultural parties here and foreigners come, even people who come from the Western Euro/North American are, they are more than welcome to take part in our culture WITH us and wear whatever you want WITH OUR CONSENT under a respectful environment and context. What these guys are doing, however, is basically take a stereotype derived of years and years of humiliating oppression perpetrated by biased accounts and media and laugh it off on their little bubble. It always hurts to me when I see accounts of Brazil being talked about as nothing besides drug trafficking and sexual tourism, I don't need to extrapolate too much to think about how it feels for my fellow Latinos.

And that's another important things I want to get in, I've seen a lot of people claim this was racist, and here's a lil fun fact: we can't tell. We don't know. Our concept of race is incredibly different from the one adopted by Europeans and North Americans, who lump us all into one ethnicity ("latino") and try to tell us we're POC even though, depending on the place you're at, you couldn't tell the difference between here and Germany. This is not cool by the way, because unlike the myth that says that Latin America is a big haven for the plurality of cultures (and it is, the sheer fact we have had different colonisers, influences from a lot of countries, the indigenous presence, unfortunately the influx of African cultures too because of slavery, people who ran away from wars in their countries, etc etc), we all suffered because of "Whitening", that is, the racist insistence of making sure that people had mixed children with white people to improve our bloodline. The result is that our race is very much something we identify socially with and a lot of people who read as POC outside of Latin America aren't considered POC here. That's not to say it wasn't wrong just because "it wasn't funny". It's xenophobic, it's prejudice, it's everything else and a bit more. 

To make matters worse, I unfortunately have to talk about the reactions of the fanbase because during this write-up, I usually checked the reactions of the Landosphere and talked to Lando fans, but this time I didn't need to because a lot of them showed their asses on social media, for free. People claimed that Lando is persecuted, that it was just funny and that it made sense to wear those costumes on a Mexican-themed party, saying that if you can't do this you can't wear Lederhosen in German parties either, and that's the point innit? Germans, Dutch, French, whatever.... they WERE the colonisers. At the very least the colonies in Europe were far more comfortable and less ravaged than the Africans, the Latin Americans, and when you look around, you see the influence in Asia too and it's not a good look (again I can't speak for everyone so if any of you want to drop a comment on how you resent Imperialism etc. feel free to). You're not mocked, at the very least you get laughed a bit but you're not REDUCED to just this as part of your identity. Sorry for the lack of eloquence, it just hit a little too close to home.

So, honestly, I'm done here with the Landogates because I don't want to have to see whatever he did next - and I never needed to, I started these because they were amusing and it felt like the noise they made were not proportional to the actions of the driver, but nowadays it feels like he's having the opposite of character growth, enabled by the fans who believe he can't do any wrong or that he is just a kid. The discussion about problematic faves is a whoooole other topic, but at the very least if you're not ready to unstan, just shut up, take the L and let people rip him off for a day. Stay on your lane when you know there is no defense.

To those of you who were very nice while talking to me, thanks a lot! To those of you who stopped stanning him at some point, don't worry, there is always another driver. And to those of you who think I'm wrong etc, I suppose you're entitled to, but I also do suggest that you evaluate if it's worth it you know.

I rate this a 0/5 and I am tapping out.

[onewomancitadel]

How would you feel if Jaune ended up with someone besides Cinder? Is there anyone else you think makes sense as his romantic partner or even "could" be his romantic partner?

Hi anon, thanks for your ask. I hope you've had a good day so far. <3

Well, I think the latter question is more important than the former, and I like to think that my feelings about the show do come from a place of trying to take the story seriously. That is to say, you kind of can't really have a story without emotional response. :D

I don't think we're in any position where I would consider the story writers being misleading with Knightfall, though, just Cinder's redemption. If she doesn't get redeemed, I think they critically failed her characterisation and backstory in V8 in particular. (Not even just showing it: the particular framing, and the continual, repeated scenes of her torture).

However, I do consider Jaune as a pretty critical piece in her redemption; I don't actually know how they'd get from Point A (Cinder hates Ruby and is terrified of her silver eyes, the major weakness of the so-called boon Salem has given her) to Point B (Ruby purifies Cinder of the Dark Curse). It requires a complete shake-up of Cinder's worldview and for her to realise that the Grimm arm is hurting her and she doesn't deserve that. It's already been shown in V8 that the 'power of friendship' was insufficient to help her, but I actually don't think that means she's too far gone, because she still didn't let anybody in at all, maybe only Penny a tiny bit.

I kind of maintain on that front that romance is involved in Cinder's redemption since we've got it only teased with Ilia's one-sided feelings for Blake - which tbf, at the time was a very compelling ship for me for obvious reasons. XD But I feel like with the style of redemption arcs being built up, one of the most complicated and interesting in the show involving all of those earlier elements... ? That makes a lot of sense.

I mean, even arguably Emerald's redemption involves romance (in a fashion): Mercury leaves for Vacuo with Tyrian. So again, I expect some type of healing reprisal of this theme, particularly if V8 decided to show Cinder learning the lesson of friendship... wrong. I think Cinder's redemption arc is distinct on this front because she doesn't just need some gestural and moral help, I think she needs someone totally 100% committed to her above all else, and the narrative irony of that being Jaune makes me very happy. I know, I know, friendship can do that too, but so far they haven't written the friendships that way and I literally don't know who else could fill that spot except Jaune (unconditionally, and unreservedly) and it would be silly not to make it romantic.

As you can see, I do think Knightfall is wrapped up in more than just whomever Jaune and Cinder end up with.

I consider it to be thematically critical and answering a lot of what's there in the story, which you can see in my Knightfall masterpost. Given that Cinder really hasn't been set up with anybody else, her endgame doesn't seem to interest people as much, and Jaune's endgame seems to be more of a question of personal interest, but to me both of their endings answer ideas in the story in a really, really interesting and salvific way.

Because of this, I would feel like it would be a critical misstep not to capitalise on the pair, and I would feel that I completely misread into the themes of the show, which is pretty devastating, or if they tick all of the boxes except Knightfall and Cinder's redemption, I would wonder why they left them out. It would just be incoherent then, and some sort of clear, embarrassing line about being 'too evil' they decided not to cross...

But the really critical thing wrapped up in this question is whether the story is doing things with intertextuality that we think it's doing, and in particular for me, whether the Jungian storytelling is actually there. The reason I really don't like Jaune/Weiss - other than that it's lazy - is that it totally breaks Jung, it breaks the intertextuality, it breaks the colour-patterning, it breaks Reverse Ozlem, it breaks all of it, and it would mean essentially none of it ever mattered, which would thereby weaken the story and overall weaken the complexity of the relationships.

So there's virtually no other Jaune pairing I can see that would work if he's paired up with anybody but his anima, like all of the other romantic pairings (there are some familial sets of animus/anima to be fair, but Jaune and Cinder aren't related). I can't even see an intelligible argument for why it ought to be pattern-breaking; the new relationships of this cycle-breaker should be healing and positive compared to Ozlem. I would really wonder why they would, say, commit to linking Jaune to his anima and then not have him fully reconcile/accept her when the rest of the anima are romantically paired... and when Ozlem were romantically paired. So no, there's no one else he can be paired up with.

I've written a post before trying to read Weiss as his anima and it doesn't work. So I would have to accept R/WBY isn't using these narrative and character structures, which would be heartbreaking, because I can see the clear evidence of them and most importantly in Cinder's respect, I can see her intertextuality with Rhodopis. The details of Rhodopis and Sappho's brother falling in love are, um, particularly damning. You could argue there's room for subversion, and I think there is, as I remarked in the Knightfall masterpost: Joan of Arc's end.

On a taste level? Nothing hits like Jaune and Cinder. It's unexpected. It's exciting. It's different. It's salvific. It's redeeming. It's knight and Maiden, saint and heretic, good and evil, healer and killer. It's got the most dramatic potential. They would be really fucking funny together. It's the thing I've shipped more than anything else ever in the history of ever. It answers the themes of the story. It's the long way around to a happy ending. It's not too late and you could still come back. It's not about fighting what you hate, but saving what you love.

I used this screencap to break the text up, and evoke the feelings of the pairing, but I do want to note I think it's extremely significant that this idea is specifically explored with Cinder here and presented to her, and we later get this idea explored with Penny again, and the mercy-killing.

To be quite frank, I would be emotionally devastated if it didn't happen, but I would also be prepared to accept it. Ironically enough, I'm not insecure about the way I feel about stories anymore. As I've been kind of talking about recently, the viewer who invests themselves and takes a story seriously is not at fault or inherently deficient in their approach. I do accept that if you negate the proposed themes of the story, the apparent narrative and character structures, Jung, the intertextuality, the fairytales of the story itself, and pretty much everything, and instead put on a much more cynical lens, you get a very different answer to the ones I've proposed on my blog...

Yet this is why I remain intrigued. Because as easy as it would be to say you're too evil and it's too late and nobody will ever love you (just like the lyrics of The Truth which plays during Cinder's backstory... so it can't be true) and the world is actually a cruel and dark place and there's no room for hope and you'll never be forgiven and it was stupid to be compassionate and there really isn't a happy ending after all that loss and happy endings are stupid, too, I actually don't think any of that sentiment holds up to scrutiny in R/WBY. At all.

I just can't see how you could redeem the Maiden powers without Cinder. I can't see how a show like R/WBY would say that the legacy of the Maiden powers will just forever be corrupt. I can't see how they wouldn't capitalise on that major theme of Oz and Salem's daughters, once slaughtered, now symbolically living on through the power. Something beautiful which came from Oz's grief. That alone is enough to make me wonder.

So no, there's no relationship with Jaune and Cinder outside of each other which makes sense. It's more than just ship drama or me being a romantic, it's actually narratively critical. There is absolutely no way you get the same narrative effect with any other Jaune pairing or any other Cinder pairing. It's not subject to the individual whims of the viewer because they think Weiss should stop being a bitch and notice Jaune, or Ruby and Jaune should stop pretending that women and men can be platonic friends, or Jaune and Neo apparently have things in common and Neo is secretly a major character in the show, it's got to be saying something just like the other romances and just like generally well-written romance. (No offense if you ship those just for the fun of it, but this is not the approach I personally take and I'm obviously not talking about people who do ship those ships without canon consideration).

This includes Jaune never ending up with anybody and staying pining after Pyrrha. That would just be so damning to his character and it would be depressing, and honestly after V6 I don't even see how that's an option at all.

To summarise, I think there are serious thematic considerations as part of the Jaune/Cinder pairing which makes other possibilities simply unviable. I also think the pairing would be exciting. I think that if they didn't go that direction, I would wonder how they manage to pull Cinder's redemption off - since there's some key connecting her getting to Ruby, and I really don't think it's anybody like Emerald - and most importantly I would wonder why her, out of all of the characters, doesn't get a romance, when we're told directly that a chorus which sings for her in her backstory - arguably something which she remembers, just like Without you, I am nothing - tells her that nobody's ever loved her. Love her. Love her. You've got to subvert that, you have to, it's the law.

I hope that's a sufficient answer! Romance is serious business.

[akaashism]

The thing about Arthur critical ppl that bugs me is that they seem to love to ignore all the wonderful things about Arthur make him out to be this jerk. Esp in regards to Merlin. I've seen Merwaine shippers act like Gwaine is the only one who cared about Merlin. As if Arthur didn't risk his life and go against his father for Merlin after knowing him for a couple of weeks. Or defy his father again to help him save his village. And that was just at the very beginning. I'm not saying Arthur didn't have plenty of flaws but the thing is so did the others including Merlin. But Arthur was also an inherently wonderful person who did his best and it frustrates me how ppl try to gloss over that or downplay his trauma.

YOU'RE RIGHT AND YOU SHOULD SAY IT. Thank you so very much for this!

Honestly, Arthur's character was the most inconsistently developed out of them all and it was frustrating. But even then, it's super easy to make out which scenes were in character for him and which weren't and I feel Arthur haters refuse to see that on purpose, just to have an excuse to mindlessly hate on him. I'm not saying he was perfect or that he didn't have faults but he was without a doubt one of the best characters on the show. He was complicated and made bad decisions sometimes and there were moments when he was a little oblivious and lost too but at his core, he was fundamentally a good person, who ALWAYS strived to do his best, to improve himself, to be a better king for his people and TBF 200% had a better moral compass till the end than most of the others. Gwaine stans should understand that their fave decided to follow Arthur and pledge him his undying loyalty for a reason.

Anyway, don't even get me started on how annoying it is when his pretty heavy trauma is ignored and dismissed, especially when it's done so in comparison to Morgana. BOTH OF THEIR TRAUMAS WERE DIFFERENT BUT EQUALLY DAMAGING AND THEY BOTH DEALT WITH THEM IN DIFFERENT WAYS. Don't fucking talk to me if you think differently.

Coming on to a different topic, Merwaine is a great ship, just like most ships in the show. I see the appeal in it, I lowkey ship it myself but what I'm really tired of is Merwaine shippers (or any other non-Merthur shippers) using their ship as a goddamn weapon to undermine Merthur and establish their ship as superior or better. Maybe there can be multiple good things in the same franchise and people have different tastes and enjoy different things? Maybe live and let live? Maybe let people ship whatever they want without trying to shove some far-reaching "toxic" elements of a ship down their throat just because you're salty that their ship is more popular than yours? I've seen this sort of meaningless activism a lot in this fandom and it's unfortunately put me off some great ships.

Anyway, I should stop before I get personal lmao. Thanks for the ask, you're totally right!

[jilyesplz]

20 Questions: Writer's Edition

Thanks for the tags, @missgryffin and @blitheringmcgonagall!!

How many works do you have on AO3?

9

What’s your total AO3 word count?

82,420

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Only Jily recently, but I started with some Maximum Ride stories that will never again see the light of day.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. Dear Tuney (Jily smut at Petunia's party :o - WIP)

2. Potter and Evans (TLAT continuation - WIP)

3. Howlers and Nail Polish (old old old canon 6th-year Jily WIP)

4. Meeting the Potters (old old old olllllld Blackevans brotp vibes. Maybe the first Jily I ever wrote? But I don't completely hate it)

5. Saving Seats and Sugar Quills (established relationship TLAT Jily fluff - one shot)

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Yes! Hypothetically! AAH! I'm a really sporadic Jily community member in general, and I always feel guilty about writing too slowly, so I tend to opt to write instead of responding when I have time, but I lovelovelove and always mean to respond to every comment.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

ummmm that's gotta be as-yet-unpublished Potter family fluff set on October 30th, 1981. But in terms of what's published right now, definitely Potter and Evans chapter 2.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Gonna be P&E ☺️ and I've written it even though you haven't seen it so it counts.

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

No.......although sometimes I do daydream about what would happen if different authors' Jameses and Lilys met each other. Is that relatable to anyone? No? Just me, then? Okay.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Honestly, never! I've been super lucky, everyone's been so sweet. But I also haven't written that much tbf

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Um, yes. But only in ridiculous situations? For some reason I feel weird writing two adults having sex in their bedroom so I compensate with Nerf guns and other people's ghastly dinner parties lol

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

No but this would be amazing!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, this would be awesome but I'd probably never finish my bit 🙈

What’s your all time favorite ship?

When the sex is so good you save the wizarding world

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Howlers and Nail Polish for SURE

What are your writing strengths?

I think dialogue (especially dirty talk, apparently!), and my Sirius—he's a lunatic, but I love him. I also think I'm good at writing fun and/or dramatic twists you genuinely don't see coming.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Description!!! Specifically, visual scene-setting and deep emotional dives. I write in my head before I write on the page, and I'm a very verbal person, so that means I either plan out dialogue or a specific inner monologue/memory, and meanwhile the scenery and people's physicalities and emotions are just...there. I know what they are. I was experiencing them during the daydream. Why can't readers just like.....sense the vibes from my brain?

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I've never tried, and I'm not great with languages, so I think I'd be nervous about getting it wrong.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Maximum Ride....they had wings and really canned comebacks, and I put them on a farm.

I've never been to a farm.

Let's never talk about this again.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Potter and Evans. It's the one I've put by far the most time into, and the thing I'm proudest of having done—it has changed and improved my writing far more than anything else I've ever done, because trying to mimic someone else's style makes you way, way more conscious of your own. Honestly recommend this as a writing exercise to everyone

Tagging: Idk who hasn't done this, but currently obsessed with @theresthesnitch!

[edenwritessomething]

the 3rd and final ask🤩

🌸1001 nights🌸

whitch one of your characters would enjoy resident evil 8 the most? whitch one would hate it? whitch one woild be too scared to play it?

do ya have any characters that ended up bein apart of the alphabet mafia by accident? like accidentaly getting gay vibes, agender vibes, bein enby etc

whitch character would ya consider the most emotionaly intelegent?

do any of your characters deal w trauma? can we know what caused it? how of they deal w it?

whitch character is the shortest? whitch one is teeh tallest? does the "short people evil, tall people chill" thing fit w them?

between whotch characters is this comvo most likely to happen?

these asks are literally perfect for them are you spyin on me (ty for the asks btw, and no i won't stop thanking you)

1001 nights

whitch one of your characters would enjoy resident evil 8 the most? whitch one would hate it? whitch one woild be too scared to play it?

haven't played, so i can't really judge. however, i feel like Noah, Morgiana, Sindbad and Shahryar would love it. Shahrazad wouldn't be scared but she wouldn't enjoy it. she might play out of boredom or cus her friends want to, but probably not out of her own accord.

do ya have any characters that ended up bein apart of the alphabet mafia by accident? like accidentaly getting gay vibes, agender vibes, bein enby etc

yup definitely. sindbad is just .... gay. by accident. as in, in the reference material he has a wife. so i basically just resorted to making him pan cus the vibes are still right. also a minor character, Badr, is a trans man. this ... just happened. it's absolutely irrelevant, so it might not even end up being, like, on the page, but he 100% is. other than that, i am certain that most of the characters are pretty bi just because i personally don't know how gender plays into attraction, but that's not a conscious choice lol.

whitch character would ya consider the most emotionaly intelegent?

pleASE. none. at all. they all need therapy. they all have serious problems and don't know how to handle them. to sum it up... morgiana internalizes everything and puts up barricades; shahrazad bottles everything up; noah ignores all of his problems; shahryar acts out in wrath; sindbad jokes about his trauma though it affects him deeply. so ... yeah, these guys aren't role models.

do any of your characters deal w trauma? can we know what caused it? how of they deal w it?

... all. in different forms, though they have a bunch of similarities (no living mums, complicated relationships with dads, if they're alive). i'm just gonna run through them (editing me says 'shit it's long'):

shahryar: (murder tw) if you know anything about Arabian Nights, you know this, but basically his beloved wife cheated on him and now he has trust and anger issues, so 'every day a maid married, and a wife murdered'. basically, he handles the trauma shit-ly. in my WIP, he also has a certain amount of trauma from the actual murdering of his wife, but he also hides that until it's inevitable (for example when he talks in his sleep), but the only people that witness this if at all are the wives that get killed anyway, Shahrazad being the exception. and he also sometimes speaks to the moon which is kinda like his therapy.

morgiana: (oppression tw, death tw) well, for one, she doesn't know who her dad is. she's also a slave and for the first ~20 years of her life her slaveholder (Qasim) treated her and her mother terribly, resulting in the death of her mother so that was traumatic. however Qasim does die (gets killed) and she is passed on to Ali Baba, his brother, who is a better master, but she still lives in oppression. she's also now being forced into a marriage she doesn't want, so all in all a pretty shit life. as for how she handles it, she basically has two personalities at this point. in front of anyone who has authority over her, she's submissive and sweet to avoid punishment. but in reality (and throughout the majority of the book) she is snarky, witty, rude, unsympathetic, which is her way to keep people out since she has trust issues.

noah: (pregnancy tw, death tw) he's not as openly affected from the traumatic experiences as the rest, but he's still gone through a whole lot. the entire reason he was born was so that his mum, a slave, could breastfeed her master's child (Shahrazad) once they were born, so his father never played a role in his life at all. when he was 2 his mum (pregnant again) fell down the stairs, miscarried and bled to death. since then, Shahrazad's mum took over raising him (which is how they became close), but when he was 8-9 she also died. his master, the vizier, ie Shahrazad's dad, had hated Noah all his life because Noah's dad (also dead at this point) stole from the vizier and now there was no one left to protect him, so he went super harsh on him. Noah handles all of this with stride, he hates the vizier but doesn't take anything personally, he never thinks about his two mums and just lives his life–on the outside, but actually he really needs to talk about it to someone, he just doesnt like to think bout it.

shahrazad: (pregnancy tw, death tw, infanticide tw, suicidal thoughts tw) since she was born a girl, her fate was initially to be buried alive. and though her mother stopped her father from killing her last-minute, and she was (obvs) very much too young to remember it, the thought of it is traumatic to her, so there's that. it also causes a somewhat tense relationship with her dad, though he now (?) loves her a lot. she was very close to her mother though, who taught her to read and write and basically everything she knows, but ...... her mum dies when she's 9-10. shahrazad never talks about this trauma because she and her sister lowkey hate each other and the only other person that'd understand her, Noah, doesn't like to talk about her mother's death, so it's all bottled up. she also has ... problematic ideas of romance, and pretty much suicidal tendencies which stem from this trauma.

sindbad: (rape tw, pregnancy tw, suicide tw) ahh, sindbad. my poor, traumatized soul. his trauma starts before he's even born, so let's get into it. his mum was a beggar and lived in the same harbour he lives in now. she spent all her time there, because the marketplace was near and lots of sailors came, so it was a good source of money. one day however, she was r*ped by a sailor whose ship was in the harbour. he left, not knowing (nor caring) that she was now pregnant with his child, who'd be sindbad. she now had another mouth to feed and also her own trauma to deal with. her trauma hindered her from going to certain places where she'd usually get her money, so basically now there's more demand and less supply. as sindbad got older, things got worse because he looked a lot like his father (white skin, blue eyes, straight nose), so he was a trigger to his mother. she never had a motherly instinct concerning him anyway, and now he was triggering to her also, so she basically started hating him, taking less care of him etc. when he was 10, her trauma and guilt concerning him got so bad that she threw herself into the sea of the harbour in front of him. that was all very triggering to sindbad, especially considering that he sees himself as the cause of his mother's suicide. the port, though he depends on it for life, is triggering to him, and this trauma is his drive throughout the book. concerning how he handles the trauma,,,,, terribly. his coping mechanism is joking about it, even if it hurts him. he has no one to talk to and is surrounded by triggers, which doesn't help.

whitch character is the shortest? whitch one is teeh tallest? does the "short people evil, tall people chill" thing fit w them?

Sindbad, my honeybunch, is shortest, but tbf also the youngest. he's 167cm (5'6 i believe). out of the main cast, Noah is the tallest (180cm or 5'10). if you extend the question to all characters, the tallest is Zobeida (187cm or 6'1).... i know you like tall ladies ;) ..... i'm also starting to realize she might look a tad too much like calliope from disney's hercules,,, my childhood crushes are coming through O.o as for part 2, no, not necessarily. noah is pretty chill yeah, but so is Sindbad and very much so. Zobeida is this weird in between. she has a very powerful aura but she also seems very relaxed but then again always on the lookout and ready to kill. so not really, it doesn't actually apply.

between whotch characters is this comvo most likely to happen?

Noah: You're just trying to stall me.

Sindbad: Interesting theory.

Sindbad: Care to discuss?

it wouldn't really happen in canon cus Noah would be far chiller about it all, but it's something Sindbad would say for sure.

okay this was basically way, way longer than i expected, so sorry it took so long, but the questions were too perfect and i love the characters too much lol. thank you so much for the asks, they're always appreciated :D

[lordeasriel]

I know its controversial but I actually kind of like Malcom/Lyra better than Will/Lyra. Will is kind of a butt hole to Lyra. Malcom seems devoted in a sweeter way.

I actually know a fair amount of people who like the pairing, so I don't think you're alone, but I think you are the first person I've seen that doesn't like Will/Lyra alongside Malcolm/Lyra, which is surprising. I don't ship Malcolm/Lyra nor Will/Lyra, and personally, I don't make it my business to bully people over pairings. I try to make my blog a place where people can come with the most controversial takes without being afraid of being idk, harassed or something (unless ur a bigot, but that has never happened here before thank God)

You might see me criticise these pairings within narrative context, sometimes. (I think I am notorious by now about not liking Will lol, so I feel like people rarely ask me stuff about him, so I very rarely talk about him here)

I don't disagree when it comes to Will being rude to Lyra. As far as I've been on the fandom, I often see posts about will being absolutely rude to Lyra vs Will being rude because X reason (usually it's because he has a rough childhood) so "people who say he is mean to Lyra is stupid" or something like that. I get both answers, mostly, except I don't think rough childhood excuses any behavior of any kind (and a lot of the issues this create could have been fixed if Pullman hadn't tried so hard to have Will take Lyra's protagonism - one of the show's strengths it's how well they handled Will).

For me, the biggest issue with Will and Lyra has always been the fact it never felt natural to me, and I know this might seem crazy for some people, but not only he treats her rather cruelly - at first, at least I'm gonna be fair, but his behavior towards her is rather annoying to me across TAS - they don't have anything in common other than "we are new on this world". Anyway, I derailed a bit but I felt like I needed to explain this lmao

As for Malcolm/Lyra, Philman's handling of the pairing on the text was very bad, that much I can't deny. While they are both adults when the story takes place meaning the relationship is not wrong or illegal in any shape or form, Malcolm being infatuated with Lyra as a teenager was rather bad - all that 'scent of warm child' like, what the fuck. As someone who lives in a country where the age of consent is 14 - in fact, in high school my chemistry teacher was dating my 15 year old schoolmate - that rubs me off the wrong way.

Philman was rather defensive of his writing of Malcolm's feelings, and his answers rubbed off badly as well, and he could have done a much better job with it - instead having his feelings happen when they were both adults and not otherwise. Like, personally, I wouldn't ship it anyway, because it's not a dynamic that appeals to me and personally, I wish more stories with female protagonists didn't rely so much on making a romantic subplot or whole plot out of it (which has been my greatest disappointment with TAS, and the fact I don't like Will or Will/Lyra comes from this place as well).

Your point about Malcolm's devotion is one of the things I think was ruined when Philman decided to make this a love story (technically not yet a love story, but all his defense of the relationship he wrote has made the fandom assume it might happen. Frankly, I hate to suffer in anticipation, so I treat this as 'high chances of happen, yet hasn't happened yet'. Personally, Malcolm could have been much better used as a mentor figure, but alas here we are. I also think that while Malcolm isn't rude to Lyra like Will was, he patronizes her a lot (everyone in the book does, tbf, they treat her like a dumb child, which is more of a writing problem than character problem). Will also does patronizes Lyra, but given he is a kid, I'm less irked about it because kids are dumb and they do dumb stuff at time. But again, it's also a writing issue, not a character problem.

However, like I mentioned, I don't generally think that people who ship Malcolm/Lyra as adults are evil people; I don't feel comfortable bullying people over fictional characters. I think fandom escalates very quickly, it just isn't a pairing for me, so I don't interact with it at all and I hope you're not having a bad time for liking it, to be fair.

[definitely-not-gremlins]

hi for that ask thing ,, 1. critical role / 2. shadowgast / 3. caleb & essek respectively

Hell you’re just going right for the jugular. 

001 | Critical Role:

Favorite character: Caleb Widogast but all of the M9 are absolute wonderful, vital and irreplaceable and I would murder for all of them. From c1 it would be Percy but again the whole dynamics in-between characters  in both the M9 and VM are what really makes the show great.

Least Favorite character: I want to say Trent Ikithon because I mean. Duh. But I find him interesting and I want to know what his angle is on several things. I have a seething hatred for Ripley, though.

5 Favorite ships (no order):

Shadowgast 

Widomauk

Beauyasha

Percahlia 

Scanlan/Pike (i dont know their ship name and im too lazy to look)

Character I find most attractive: Beau, Caleb, Percy

Character I would marry: hhhhh idk

Character I would be best friends with: Frumpkin. 

a random thought: I will never get over how cute Pike & Grogs friendship was it always makes me smile.

An unpopular opinion: Discourse! You can’t really compare Caleb’s & Essek’s guilt with the info we have. Or you can but not draw a definite conclusion.

My Canon OTP: Percahlia

My Non-canon OTP: I guess Shadowgast but like I’m cool if it never becomes canon and stuff.

Most Badass Character: All of them have moments of badassery so I don’t wanna pick one.

Most Epic Villain: The Briarwoods. 

Pairing I am not a fan of: Hhhh I dunno.

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): None. Helps that for each main character there’s someone responsible just for them. :D Though Molly got really screwed over tbf. Haha.

Favourite Friendship: NO I CAN’T PICK JUST ONE AND YOU CAN’T MAKE ME. 

Character I most identify with: Oof. I don’t really know, to be honest. 

Character I wish I could be: None of ‘em have you looked at their backstories? 

002 | Shadowgast:

When I started shipping them: Episode 91. YEAH I HELD OUT LONG.

My thoughts: Though I see the probability for them becoming canon to be very low as of right now, I’m very curious to see where it will go. Even as a platonic relationship their dynamic is just super fucking interesting and I can’t wait to see what happens with it. Just kinda hope they don’t kill Essek off before it can go anywhere.

What makes me happy about them: The whole ‘kindred spirits’, common ground vibe

What makes me sad about them: Aside from the canon problems, I always get sad when I remember their different lifespans. I know that with consecution and Transmogrification there are ways to make it better but still.

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: Those are all more Caleb-specific than ship specific. I can’t think of any specifically for this ship though there’s probably some.

Things I look for in fanfic: Oh I’m not that picky, I think. And it changes with the time of day. I just like seeing interpretations of them in general. Oh wait I forgot. Angst. So much Angst. 

My wishlist: For the M9 to find a way to deal with Essek that doesn’t end up in his death.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Essek I would find absolutely weird with anyone else to be quite honest. As for Caleb, as long as it grows organically I’m fine with most anyone. Yes, Jester, too.

My happily ever after for them: Essek resigns and leaves his Den and the Dynasty. When the Nein are done adventuring and Caleb survived all of this they settle down somewhere and do research forever and put their joint names on many a spell. Caleb becomes a teacher. Essek can be one too. I haven’t given this a lot of thought but their Happily Ever After is SOFT okay.

003 | Caleb:

How I feel about this character: I love him, find him interesting and love to see his journey and his backstory.

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: Primarily Essek, recently also Molly (sads) and a little bit of Jester

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: Here’s the thing. Caleb has great platonic relationships with everyone in the M9 and with Essek. So. Hm. Maybe Empire Kids.

My unpopular opinion about this character: I really don’t like it in fanfic when people retcon his backstory relationship to have been with Eodwulf instead of Astrid for absolutely no reason.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: That Jester-Insight Check, man. That should have FAILED. Other than that I really can’t wait for more brushes of him with Trent in some way.

Favorite friendship for this character: See above for ‘non-romantic relationship’

My crossover ship: Not a fan of crossovers.

003 | Essek:

How I feel about this character: Love him even just as a fascinating character. Hope he will see that he did a bad and try to do good but he really needs to not be indifferent to the consequences of his actions. We’ll see!

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: Caleb. 

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: ... Caleb. And the M9 as a unit.

My unpopular opinion about this character: See above in 001 “Unpopular opinion” i think it counts.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I wish Beau hadn’t tagged along to walk him home. No hate on her it was top tier sibling energy but still. In the future, hope he keeps his head on his shoulders for a while.

Favorite friendship for this character: See above for ‘non-romantic relationship’

My crossover ship: Not a fan of crossovers.²

THANKS FOR THE ASK SORRY THIS GOT SO LONG.

[olivieblake]

... I'm sorry, my message was too long and I couldn't be bothered to split it up LOL.

I just read Paradox and it was?? a masterpiece??? But I saw in the FFN comments that you said on your Tumblr that it was controversial oh yeah a lot of people had a lot of issues with it (the fuck) so I had to come here to (1) see and (2) spread some more love bc YOU ARE TOO TALENTED LMAO

AU Hermione was iconic as hell, and I loved her!! this is a very unpopular opinion and I appreciate it very much—she’s the primary reason this fic got so much negativity; people who chose to see her as purely a romantic rival for potterverse!Hermione decided to be v mean about her I actually preferred both AU characters initially - both Hermione and Draco - but tbf I love morally gray characters in general. Like that scene with her knife to Draco’s throat, can I say sexy??? yes like can you blame him? And the conflict with Voldemort, the fact that she took charge, my god. I am obsessed with literally everyone in your story and that is all I need to say 

You even got me to ship Jilly and while I’m not a Snilly shipper, I literally hate every man from Lily’s time so like. The fact that your writing actually got me to ship Lily with James of all people. I’m dead. Also I kind of loved James. That scene where he talks about Draco. I think I read it like 10 times bc I loved it so much I definitely think that’s one of my most memorable scenes from the fic

Actually there’s like at least 30 subchapters that I read about 10 times in a row, it made me take at least twice as long to read the fic as I normally would have

Admittedly both the originals grew on me, and I ended up preferring them; especially since new Draco was MIA for most of the latter half HA.

And also because – old Hermione did grow a lot more confident, and the fact that she stole the kiss, her entire realization about confidence and seizing what you want, I DIED 

And I also need to add your prose is BEAUTIFUL your dialogue is BEAUTIFUL your banter is BEAUTIFUL your characterization is BEAUTIFUL. I rambled about all this already in FFN comments but just. BEAUTIFUL. I appreciated the comments very much and am very happy to hear it!!

I’ve actually been in the worst reading slump for the past - year, actually LOL. it happens Nothing I’ve read has really seized me until Paradox - and honestly it did, woooo! it grabbed me from the very first chapter, and it was in part due to the hook (“wtf is goin on with hermione”) and in part due to, just, ugh, your writing, delicious. And then it just kept getting BETTER??? I was like “wow how does she do this” and then I was too busy gaping and screaming to ask that question anymore 

And that kiss??? May I say, the kiss at the end, it was. Perfect. I can’t. Not only was it beautifully written in general, but also, the moment with Draco’s recognition - the moment with him going *oh*, xyz, *oh*, that was so rhythmical on top of beautiful and I just. I screamed. definitely one of my favorite scenes I’ve ever written, thank you. writing it was a dream

I’m sorry I turned this ramble into an entire essay but basically

Love

I’m so excited to read Nobility and Lady Vengeance and actually everything you’ve ever written lmfao

Actually I’m pretty sure I slept on Nobility bc it was “eventual Dramione” according to tags but with the way you write Draco (even the original) and his intensity (see below) I just. I am willing to raze my Tomione heart to ashes haha. well, I do think part of the reason you were able to enjoy this fic more than some of the early readers is because you may have come in with a more open mind? certain dramione fans were…. upset, to say the least, about the two being paired up with the “wrong” versions. regardless I’m happy to hear it

I also really love the way you write Pansy based on your Sirius fic so. Ugh. I’m very excited like you don’t even know

Also old Draco’s intensity in the final half/third of the story I can’t

He went from “very canon Draco who works well with Sexy Hermione” to me going laksjdf;asjkdfdjkdskskskskskks 

literally just

Draco: *stares silently at Hermione for five seconds, except written beautifully*

me: *dramatic swooning only it’s bc I actually fainted bc ur draco is a treasure and i am WEAK* wonderful

also the reconciliation scene at the end. so perfectly written; it was inevitable I’d love the one between old draco and new hermione, but I also loved the one following; it was – both meaningful and oddly sweet and – nostalgic, I think, is the word I’m looking for aw that’s nice

and that reminds me

you are SO GOOD at setting atmosphere it’s just – I feel like that’s one of the hardest things to write, is atmosphere, and yet. You do it so seamlessly in such an impeccable way to the point that I just got swept away by the story before I even realized it and just. ugh. thank you! all of this is very nice to hear

Your writing is amazing thank you

Also I’m sorry I didn’t mean to ramble quite this hard LOL it happens to the best of us. thanks so much for reading and reviewing!! I appreciate it IMMENSELY and I’m always especially happy to hear someone enjoys this story in particular