#not a ship post but interpret it as you will

[nessquik-icetea-sootyowl]

I’ve been waiting to post photos of the owl stuffies until Penelope arrived and she is finally here!!!

It started with Athena as my study buddy but then I needed Odysseus cause they’re the warriors of the mind and then I got Diomedes and then I needed Penelope (both cause Odypen/odydiopen but also because I saw a post about how all three of them make up Athena and I loved it) and then they obviously needed their son and then I just kept spiralling from there lol.

This is turning into an army. There are already nine of them and I will likely buy more.

Odysseus shipping was also extremely delayed lol

Names left to right top row and then small white one and small purple one:

Diomedes, Odysseus, Telemachus, Penelope, Athena, Pallas, Métis, Nike, Arachne.

I found a purple owl stuffy and the purple made me think of Arachne. This Arachne stuffy is under a very specific interpretation of the myth, feel free to ask if you want but the important part for this is that Athena likes her and makes her a spider so she can weave forever. This owl stuffy army is Athenas army so she has to like all of them lol

If I end up buying, more other name ideas I have are; Medusa (also under specific interpretation), Achilles, and Patroclus.

Closer photos.

Currently exam week so have Telemachus studying so I don't have to

[stupidlittlespirit]

i've seen the "he'd never date a woman" thing with ford so much, which i think about a lot. like it's one thing to just headcanon him as gay but there are a lot of posts where internalized or blatant misogyny shine bright. one i saw straight up had multiple people going "he respects women too much to want to date/fuck them" like hello? do you realize what you are implying ab real women when you say that?

i'm not great at articulating my thoughts but i think it's especially prominent with ford because of his intelligence + unconventional demeanor. he's off-putting and a genius and didn't want to give up his work to settle down into a standard marriage with kids. women can't be weird or smart in the same way men can for example and all women want the typical white picket fence nuclear family american dream. therefore you are off your gourd if you think he'd ever want to be with a woman. so there’s that on top of the already rampant misogyny present in fandom spaces with shipping especially.

there's also the whole "gibe the oracle your phone number" / "i miss dimension 52" that could have some implications if you want but ig i can't blame people for forgetting jeselbraum because hirsch barely expands on her LOL. but basically it’s all up to interpretation and it really isn’t all that wild to think he could be attracted to women.

personally i just enjoy projecting my own sexuality onto him. “what gender are you attracted to?” don’t care. can i show you my isopod colonies. “how would you describe your sexual attraction?” uhhhhhhhhhhh (<- is probably demisexual)

So, I deleted my post because I felt like I was rehashing points I'd previously made a million times before, but I stand by it.

I want to address what you said and then I want to kind of go on a tangent (shocker, I know) about the interpretation of GF at large because I've been engaging with a lot of Lynch stuff recently, who we know was by and large the most influential person for Hirsch, and one of the biggest things around Lynch's work is the beauty of subjectiveness. I think Hirsch carries that legacy with him at the heart of his work.

So yeah, the comments about Ford 'respecting women too much' is insane. If anyone thinks that they are probably the kind of person who doesn't respect a woman anyway. If your hands sully the one you touch, perhaps your hands were not so clean to begin with, yknow? That's the vibe I always get with those kinds of comments.

Society approaches women so differently from men in this regard, as you said. Where a man is 'quirky' and 'cool', a woman is 'annoying' or 'trying too hard'. She suffers for her differences where as he profits for them. She can only commit the crime of being Cringe, and in my experience, people will forgive many things but never that.

There is certainly merit in the way in which a lot of people recognise that Ford is partial to things that are 'weird' or that are shunned by society, especially because of his hands, and that plays well into Queer culture. It's a feeling most of us (if not all of us) experience. So I can see where there connection comes and it's totally cool to hold that belief. Queer is BIG umbrella and I think he falls under it myself, what with the ace/aro stuff. We're given much more canon evidence of him being ace/aro, in fact, than of anything else. I maintain personally that canon Ford is asexual and aromantic, and that romance doesn't factor into his life in the way it does for 'normal' people. It's why when Bill mentions that quiz Ford does in his dreams in TBoB it makes me think of my own struggles with asexuality: "I'm not normal, everyone else is feeling this type of way and I'm feeling that type of way. There's something wrong with me. I'm weird. I need answers." It feels very much like Ford is attempting to understand that side of himself and is very afraid of the answer.

The Oracle stuff makes me so sad it was never expanded on more. I really love Jheselbraum and it felt like she was one of the first people that Ford met who was of higher intelligence than him, and who actually did just want to help. She extended an extreme kindness to him. Whether it was more than that doesn't even really matter. There was still a relationship formed there that can't be discounted. But again, it can be interpreted in lots of different ways.

This is the other thing. There's nothing wrong with projecting yourself onto your favourite character. We all do it. I do it. It's fun and it brings comfort. And that's okay! But that means we can all do it. So it's unfair for someone else to say "you're wrong for thinking XYZ about Ford" because we're all just kids in a sandbox playing house with these characters. You can't gatekeep someone else's enjoyment.

You can believe Ford is gay. You can believe Ford is ace. You can believe Ford is whatever you want him to be, but what you can't do is then rescind that privilege from someone else just because you don't like it or because it makes you feel better about yourself to punch down on someone else. People are entitled to their own interpretations of media, even if they make you feel uncomfortable or whatever.

Which brings us onto Lynch. Now, I'm not a huge surrealist fan, I like Lynch most for the person that he was (ugh I'm still so sad to type that). One of the biggest things about him was that he valued the intelligence of his audience and respected them enough to allow them the space to interpret his works as they saw fit. He never wanted to define his films in a way that would prevent another person from taking their own meaning from it. There was no definition, only feeling.

There's a clip of him being asked to expand on his meaning for one of his films, I forget which one, and he just replies "no". It's so fucking good because that, to me, is art. It is fundamentally subjective in its existence and the way I view something is not going to be the way someone else does, so why take that interpretation away from one to give to another just for their approval? We may align in thoughts but the way we process the media is going to be entirely different. Why? Because we're different people. Our experiences throughout our lives have informed the way we interact with things.

I think Alex Hirsch enjoys other people making their own interpretations of his work in a similar way. Just as Lynch does. Hirsch wants you, the audience, to derive personal meaning. He doesn't need (or even want) to tell you how to engage with the themes because why would he? It would only make him work harder to get a simpler point across and it would risk alienating parts of his audience. He wants the audience to connect and to find their own familiarities, and he respects his audience enough to give them the space to let them do that. He's often evasive when he's asked to tie things down firmly. To be honest, I think he should be braver in just saying "no, I don't want to answer that" sometimes. You can tell he wants to but he also wants to engage with people so it can be hard.

People are very desperate to want to have answers in black and white. They need things to be canon in order to feel vindicated, when in actual fact, an idea is just as legitimate when it comes to fiction. Fiction IS an idea. It isn't tangible and therefore cannot be quantified, so it can be interpreted however.

Anyway, by forcing your interpretation of the work onto others (ie. 'Ford would never', 'Stan would never' etc), I think you fundamentally misunderstand what the purpose of the work is. You're taking away the light of other people because you're scared yours doesn't shine bright enough. And you're scared because other people previously took your light away, but all you're doing is repeating the cycle and taking away from the rest of us.

Your ideas can coexist with others. No one is right and in that, everyone is right. Does that make sense? Idk.

I voice my opinions of disliking certain ways the fandom engages with elements of the show, but I don't think they have less right to have those ideas than I do to have my own. I interpret Bill as one way and someone else will interpret him another. That's okay. You're allowed to do that. But I don't think you're allowed to be actively vicious to others over it.

Engage with honesty and recognise that other people enjoys things in different ways, and it's okay not to control the narrative of that sometimes.

I have my criticisms of Hirsch but I also have a lot of love for the guy, and one of the biggest things I respect about him is him allowing us to draw our own beliefs. Do I think he could stand to do some things better? Yes. But that doesn't mean I don't love what I already have from his work.

I'm not sure if this makes sense, I'm having a bit of a Day, but I hope it at least reads well enough to convey my meaning.

[arcaneconfessions]

maybe this is mostly a tiktok thing, but bitches will wax poetic about caitlyn and jinx’s similarities and differences, their contrasting roles in the story, how they wish they’d had the chance to get along because they’re so similar, and then end the post with 5 different disclaimers to the tune of “in a PLATONIC way. NOT a ship post, if you ship them you’re YUCKY and GROSS and MORALLY CORRUPT because that would be TOXIC.” like are you kidding me? just because you don’t like it isn’t a reason to suddenly shame others for enjoying it, especially when 99% of the time they ship caitvi, which, after season 2, is just as unhealthy than caitjinx, and could be even more unhealthy depending on your interpretation. can’t stand when ppl try to claim their fav toxic ship isn’t toxic then turn around and harass other toxic ship enjoyers who have the balls to acknowledge or enjoy any toxicity beyond just brief dislike to lovers

.

[fortemelody]

okay so like… imma say something maybe perhaps perchance controversial and hot-takey relating to sonic. and i’ve wanted to say this for awhile but didnt wanna get canceled becus it’s something that’s sorta difficult to convey through text…

i remember seeing a year or two ago that quite a few people thought shadamy was wrong simply becus amy reminded shadow of maria in SA2. so basically implying that like if amy is reminiscent of maria, this “inherently” means that shadow thinks of her also as his sibling of sorts.

but i honestly think this way of thinking isn’t correct. if you think about this in any context rather than this fandom then my point will be simpler to understand. for example, you can think to yourself “wow my partner has similar traits to {insert person here} in my family” WITHOUT thinking of them as the same person. acknowledging a parallel in personality should not be off limits when comparing someone you share romantic love with and someone you share platonic love with in my opinion, unless you’re the one constantly choosing to say/act upon that fact in an intentionally weird way.

we also don’t really know *exactly* what shadow was thinking in this exact moment, other than the fact that amy’s kind words changed his perspective and motives, which was the main point of that cutscene overall. it could very well be possible that shadow is experiencing some form of underdeveloped love for amy in that moment, but even he doesn’t know what kinda of love that may be becus he’s spent his whole life just traumatized and not exposed to relationship and friendship status quo of the outside world.

and may i remind you that shadamy is not the only ship to do this… so that argument really doesn’t even work?!? sonadow, probably the most popular ship ever in sonic, does this too. that official japanese art/story with shadow looking at the blue shoes references the parallels between sonic and maria i believe, along with MANY fan works i see regularly.

i’m glad the shift in shadamy has become apparent after TMOSTH and the twitter takeovers. i honestly change my opinion quite frequently between seeing this ship as more platonic or more romantic, but i wanted to still defend it nonetheless becus i find it quite ridiculous how much backlash it got for the stupidest things.

and in case this wasn’t clear- I DONT SUPPORT INCEST AND THIS POST IS NOT TRYING TO EXCUSE INCEST IN ANY WAY. i really just think that characters can be more complex than some people initially interpret them and so to quickly shame others based on these conclusions feels very odd to me.

[lockandkeyblade]

Alright since a lot of people here are talking about how excited they are about worldbuilding and exploration through fanfic I'm gonna politely gesture to this little series I'm building; KH Mechanics to Lore.

It's something I have way too many pages of, waiting to be posted-- a bunch of lore written for a genfic rewrite of the entire series. Different ways that you can take mechanics from the series and spin them into things that make sense for writing, rather than gaming. Take it, rip it off, build your own stories and concepts.

Hell, ask me about something I haven't talked about yet! I'd love to have furious debates about the different ways you can interpret this goofy ass kid's game.

Give me more KH fanfic and readers for KH fanfic there's still plenty of activity on ao3 but this fandom can do better. Go feral. Ship ridiculous things. Be the updates you want to see.

Okay so getting a returning interest in KH means I'm finally catching up on the mobile games and question: when the fuck was someone gonna tell me that Dark Road literally lays out that individual worlds are still reforming during the time when Eraqus and Xehanort are students?

I am frothing at the mouth at the things this game has been confirming that I've been wondering about for years. Yes, Keyblade society has basically been eating itself alive- Scala ad Caelum is near empty even when they're students.

And y'all are gonna let me find out that the worlds are likely still reforming in Sora's time, that time is literally funky between each world due to the differing rates in which they reform, from a goddamn youtube video showcasing cutscenes????

The potential worldbuilding is phenomenal. The potential what ifs are insane. What if LoD and the Keyblade Graveyard had been on completely different time speeds and Vanitas or Ventus had aged differently in comparison to each other? How many years have Sora Riku and Kairi actually been gone? Some worlds take months and some take seconds to rush through and the absolute cognitive dissonance of like, joining an army for the new friend you made who's trying to hide as a girl, for example, spending months gaining the trust of your captain and eventually saving the emperor, just to trot back to Radiant Garden and be told "oh Sora don't be silly you've been gone less than a day"--

This is how I know the fandom is dead on the fanfiction side of things because this is just begging to be experimented with and if it is I am not seeing it.

[sainteclectic]

HEART MIND SOUL??

the gayness...

Chonny jash??

Shipping??

Specifically wholesoul art??

Guess you're my favorite blog

yayy yippee ^-^ they are all like strange bugs to me

my wholesoul is queerplatonic in nature {not that they'd ever call it that themselves, they're too busy being unwell} and I think people should be allowed to refer to non-romantic pairings as ships. they're relationships like any other! so I call them a ship from that angle. I'm also open to interpretations on any of my art/posts about character relationships as whatever you like :-)

to me wholesoul are like bonded cats... they're intrinsically entwined, they can't live without each other, they rely on the other for self worth and identity. do NOT separate them !!

[mihai-florescu]

hello anon who asked about proship here, fandom spaces just made me hypervigilant bc super trigggering content gets thrown around often out of nowhere and a lot of proshippers never really even bother tagging or putting a warning in their bio so i was just worried that's all

Ahh i think we've had quite different experiences, i run into people whose identities are tied to their shipping choices all the time and that to me is incredibly tryhard edgy. The posts often read as heh i love incest and rape of underage characters - no specific ones, just these topics in general. R u triggered puriteens? Heh. <- Fake freak behavior and annoying aura. And theyre always loud... But its funny you sent that ask because im often too wary ill be misinterpreted if/when i post anything slightly taboo (here or on priv), even when sometimes i just want to talk about character readings and interpretations that feel scary to discuss publicly but have basis in the text. I do my best to try to be liked and also (despite the hater descriptor in my bio) like everyone and im open to discuss taboo topics theories headcanons etc if the other party has decorum about it and doesnt just treat it as fandom noise and self gratification material. But then i dont see that as being part of proship culture where theres an echo chamber of edgified taboo topics existing for the sake of it, without adding anything of substance or value and with no sense of the gravity of the topic discussed. Sad! I do wish people overcome this weird chuuni phase that forms an identity with its own pride and all. Alas, ill go back to ignoring anything i dont agree with✌️ But anyway, again, if you feel curious about a particular thing i posted or want to hear my opinion more in depth behind it/ a clarification, you can always shoot a message. This goes for anyone. I dont wish to cause worry especially to people i consider friends, but i also can only strive to stay true to myself and subject myself to outside interpretation

[dreamingofthewild]

I can never understand what joy some people find when all they do is criticise half of the fan content. It’s wild that some will see others having fun, only to call it cringe or implore them to stop.

This is why I actually find those memes that occasionally go around -where it’s like "Going into the fandom tag" followed by a disgusted face - pretentious.

There are things I don’t like, and I have certain tags filtered. That’s normal. But the people creating that content have the right to continue making it. I’m not going to complain about seeing filtered tags in my feed or untagged content with something I dislike. That content isn’t made for me, and I don’t expect every fan creation to align with my tastes or interpretations.

The belief that people should stop making content or be heavily criticised just because you don’t like it is self-centred. Also, if the fandom annoys you that much - even a year later - why do you choose to stay?

It’s not healthy to scroll and feel "triggered" every three posts because it’s another piece of fan content you dislike. You might be better off in a private Discord server with a small group of friends.

These characters are fictional anyway, and I guarantee you that most people playing BG3 who aren’t part of the fandom don’t give a shit about shipping and headcanon's.

Please can we normalise not policing content that other's choose to create/ consume in the fandom (unless it is hate which is posted in the character tags. That's just poor etiquette).

Perhaps It's just me, because I seem to have something against people telling others what they should be doing in their free time in a condescending way. The throwing words like media literacy around like an insult (I think that term is now overused).

A headcanon doesn't need to have three different sources from the original text to back it up, and most people don't consider their own biases when choosing which interpretation they consider to be the canon one. Because what it comes down to is people only accepting the interpretations they agree with or project on to. Which is fine, but then don't act so haughty and holier than thou when others do the same.

Getting worked up over what others create is as ridiculous as a fan of one football team refusing to step foot in a rival team’s city or wear their colours.

I'm sorry, but fandom is a bit cringe, and people are going to have different perspectives. Accept that or get off your high horse.

I said what I said.

[kurtbastianarchive]

Kurtbastian Bingo 2025

February 1-28

This month we're celebrating Kurtbastian fanworks old and new in an event where everyone can have fun obsessing over this ship!

How it works:

Pick a bingo card (or use both!)

Find a Kurtbastian fanwork that fulfills one of the squares - or create something new!

Engage with that fanwork somehow - leave a comment on AO3, reblog with a nice tag on Tumblr, or find another way to let the creator know that you enjoyed their work!

Once you've gotten a bingo (or multiple bingos!), post your filled out bingo card and mention @kurtbastianarchive in the post. We also encourage you to include links to all the fanworks that helped you fill out the card, to further promote them! We'll be reblogging your completed cards.

We hope this is a fun way for everyone to show their love for the artists and writers in this fandom, rediscover some old fanworks, or promote new content! Further details are below the cut, but if you have other questions, just send us an ask!

What types of fanworks can be included?

We want this event to be as inclusive as possible. The things in some of the squares are geared more towards fanfic, while others are more likely to be relevant for fanart or gifs, but any type of Kurtbastian-focused fanwork will qualify!

Can I use my own fanworks to fill in the squares?

Whether you're promoting an old work of yours or making something new, you can absolutely use your own works to help fill out your bingo card!

Can one fanwork count for multiple squares?

Sure!

How strictly does the fanwork have to align with the trope/concept in the card?

Each square is up to your interpretation!

[lover-of-mine]

you haven't recovered? i am with you in spirit and in pain. i made the mistake of reading your gun to the fight post during work today and let me tell you it was such a full body experience suppressing the noise i made when i read people think you "want instant gratification w/ [your] firefighters" that i legit think i pulled a muscle in my groin. buddie warrior since they first eyefucked in 02x01? lolz. there sure are some loose interpretations of "instant gratification" out here. xo aa anon.

HELP I am glad you are with me, I'm happy I'm not alone because I feel crazy over the reaction I get to this whole thing. Because every time someone says "let's wait until s9" I hear the people who told me to go watch lone star if I need "instant gratification" when they were shipping a fucking ship that kissed the same episode they had their first conversation. Instant gratification? My brother in Christ do you know what instant means??? It's been 7 seasons, it's been YEARS. A kid born the day under pressure aired is already in first grade. What is instant about this shit? LET ME OUT.

[jayladfanpage]

There are many things to hate about RHaTO, but specifically when it comes to Jason, the worst one for me has to be the fact he leaves Roy alone in the end.

Like. No. No no no. Jason has major abandonment issues. With Willis being in prison more often than not, Catherine O.D'ing, him finding out about Sheila, and Bruce "replacing" him after his death, Jason would not be willing to let go of someone he's close to. And Roy Harper is, in RHaTO, Jason's best friend.

I understand that Lobdell needed to comic to end somehow, but that was so incredibly out of character (just like everything else) and it drives me crazy. Yes, Jason is selfish and doesn't often take other people's feelings into consideration, but he wouldn't just abandon Roy Harper exactly because he's selfish.

[lucabyte]

there's a stranger who sleeps at the foot of your bed

[renshengs]

what if you were a thousand year old demon lord cursed to be a literal walking vessel for all the world's horrors and i was a young upstanding swordsman who lost my family to your uncontrollable violence. what if i inherited the only weapon in the universe that could kill you and you came to me one day and told me you'd help me learn how to do it. what if i promised you, in all my grief and rage, that i'd be the one to kill you someday. what if you were gentle with me despite my hatred for you. what if you looked out for me, cut yourself on my sword to save me from my nightmares, held my hand and healed the bleeding wound and asked for nothing in return. what if you never asked for anything from anyone and loved the world anyway. what if you wanted to die because you thought the world would be better off without you because the only thing you see in yourself is violence. what if they dragged me through the mud and you stood by me and protected me and looked me in the eyes like you'd always done because you understood how it felt.

what if one day i looked at you and realized i didn't want you to die and it tore me apart. what if i'd rather walk into fire, freeze myself for eternity. what if your death by my hand was written in the stars by our ancestors. what if i know how this story ends, know it can't be rewritten. what if i try anyway. what if i try anyway because i love you.

[harpy-scout]

*shakes this post like a bag of catnip* pspsps, come get your text posts you little freaks

[captainsaltypear]

can someone please give this jester a hug

[phantom-thieves-official]

can I say something controversial. I think by interpreting the Maruki reality stuff w Akechi as 'Joker's greatest wish was for Akechi to live bc they're in love!' is kind of a poor read of the text. Not because I don't ship them or whatever, my shipping opinions aren't relevant to this post. But because I think it overlooks a big part of Joker's actual character. He wanted Akechi to live because he saw an innocent person taken advantage of and discarded. He saw someone who needed help. You can even go further with this and say, okay, Akechi wasn't an innocent person - he killed people and tried to kill Joker himself. And what does that mean for Joker's character? It means he saw someone who had done terrible things - some of them to Joker, personally - and he still came away from Shido's palace with the understanding that while he did bad things, Akechi was a victim of Shido's, too. Good, or bad, or in between, that he still was someone in need of help. Joker wanted to help Akechi. He wanted to give Akechi a chance to make things right, and to show him that they didn't have to enemies - that Akechi didn't have to fight the Phantom Thieves, and he didn't have to be alone; that it's never too late to change course and be a better person and that Akechi's life didn't have to be one of hatred and isolation. He could atone for his crimes, still take down shido, and have a group of people to support him. After the terrible things Akechi did as Shido's lapdog, after he sold the thieves out and plotted to murder Joker. Joker still just wanted to help him. Joker saw that while Akechi was undoubtedly a criminal he was also a victim, and there was something in there worth trying to save. But you know what? He couldn't do it. Right as he seemed to be getting through to Akechi, he was killed by Shido's cognitive version.

And so when Maruki's reality brings Akechi back, it means imo that Joker feels guilty. Out of all the people he'd been able to help, Akechi was the one person he just couldn't save. It's not because they're in love, it's because Joker regrets how things worked out. He regrets that he didn't get through to Akechi sooner. He regrets failing a vulnerable and victimized person whom he feels he could have helped. Even if that person hated Joker. Even if that person had previously tried to kill Joker with his own hands. Joker's sense of justice is imo his biggest character trait, followed closely by his massive savior complex. Of course he wanted Akechi to live. Because in Joker's eyes, despite what he'd done to hurt Joker, Akechi was still a victim. He was still someone Joker should have been able to save.

This all comes to a head when Joker chooses to deny Maruki's reality. He's choosing to live with the guilt; to accept he can't save everyone no matter how hard he tries. He's moving beyond the savior complex and recognizing that sometimes, some people are really just unreachable, or don't want to be helped. It's a moment not only of characterization, but of character growth for him.

anyway that's my hot take. by viewing the third semester through a shipping lens exclusively you lose a huge point of characterization for Joker bc you overlook the nuances of Joker's desire to help everyone all the time and the guilt he feels about failing to help Akechi. You misconstrue Joker's desire to help in the first place as coming from a place of love rather than a place of selflessness and justice; a place of 'doing what's right simply because it is the right thing to do.' You miss out on the subtle ways it shows Joker's not biased by hatred or contempt, how despite the heinous things Akechi has done, and despite the harm done to him directly at Akechi's hand, Joker is still capable of seeing that Akechi is a victim, too - which in itself shows that Joker's idea of justice isn't motivated by personal relationships, grudges, or biases.