#not exactly ship art but consider it what you will

[hexscode]

dude i just noticed that red pixel after i was done im so mad right now its insane

[talxns]

Academic Articles that Analyze Queer Readings of Batman and Robin (Brudick)

There actually exist multiple!…but the ones I want to introduce right now talk specifically about how the creation of the batfamily was DC’s attempt to dissuade brudick readings. and that it can be argued that DC is still doing the same thing today.

The first article is called “All in the Family: Homophobia and Batman Comics in the 1950s”, published in the International Journal of Comics Art in Fall 2000 by Chris York. It was not available for free online, but I bought a digital copy of the volume it was published in and provided screenshots because it’s been 24 years and I hate the fact that academics are behind paywalls so I’m sharing.

This article was actually infamous because DC refused to grant permission for the use of their panels in this article.

Click for better quality.

Notable Quotes:

“National [Periodical Publications]’s biggest step, however, was the introduction of other members of the Bat-family, which would give them permanent female counterparts and solidify their heterosexual status.”

“It is clear that, although Batman and Robin remain partners, their interests are no longer as the Dynamic Duo, but as a Bat-family.”

“Taking the focus of the comic away from Batman and Robin was exactly what these superfluous characters were designed to do.”

The second article, published in the Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies in 2005, is called "Domesticity, Homosociality, and Male Power in Superhero Comics of the 1950s" by Mark Best.

Good news! This article is available online for free and it’s a great read.

Notable Quotes:

“In contrast to the Marvel family, however, the Batman and Superman families were modeled more after the familial relations of the nuclear family and the gender expectations of the domestic ideology.”

“One way the genre attempted to contain any “subversive” potential, including the possibility of homosexual readings of the comics, was through the narrative device of the “super­ hero family.””

Here is more academic reading with the themes of Batman and homophobia, written in 1991. This article is referenced in the former piece.

In summary:

(lest we forget) Batman has had queer readings since its inception, specifically between Bruce and Dick.

The creation of the batfamily served to curtail those brudick readings

It seems pretty obvious that the same attempts are STILL being made by DC, now with the exaggerated push for explicit familial titles like “father” and “son”. And are still working if you see any discourse online from fans who strictly oppose brudick on the basis of their “father/son” relationship (which seems to me a more modern emphasis compared to in the past, maybe i’ll make a different post about that later.) They are unknowingly parroting Freddy Wertham’s concerns and eating up DC’s new strategy of distancing Bruce and Dick, just under an accusation harder to argue against nowadays. It’s gauche to criticize queerness nowadays, but consider it incest and suddenly it’s acceptable to bash again.

I just find it incredibly fascinating that brudick had been discussed and analyzed in multiple academic articles! And reading some comments I saw lately of people exclaiming “I can’t believe Brudick is this popular!/Who on earth is shipping Brudick!?!” made me sigh and really want to pull these out. Brudick has been a thing before all of us were born. DC’s propaganda/internet purity culture has been doing too good of a job lately. We have to remember our roots.

[lavenders-and-carnations-zine]

Welcome to Lavender's and Carnation's, an MCYT Pride Month Zine!

This is a zine dedicated to and honoring the queer CC's who have made an impact on this fandom and their fans! It'll feature art, fanfic, and stories about how openly queer CC's have helped people accept/become more comfortable in their identities! (Which, by the way- you don't have to be signed up for the zine to share your story! Anyone can submit one!)

So, how exactly is this zine going to work?

Lavender and Carnation's will feature art and writing like most zines, but it has a special addition to the usual- you can submit your own stories without having to be an official contributor!

Have a CC who helped you become more comfortable with your identity? A CC's character who's impacted you via their story, or has helped you through a rough time in your life? Share your story (anon or not) and you can have it featured in the zine, interspersed with art of that CC's characters and stories!

Okay, this sounds awesome! But wait, how do I apply? What's the criteria for a CC getting nominated for this event? What's the schedule?

Great questions! Here's a basic run-down of the event (along with links to fully explain it)

Applications

There are four roles you can apply for within this event;

Mod

Mod's will help manage the discord server, answer questions, and offer any assistance you may need while creating your piece!

Cover Artist

Cover artists will either be able to apply for the zine cover (which will be a full page spread all the CC's featured in the zine), or as a CC cover artist (which will be a full page spread of all of a CC's character's/relevant side characters)

The applications are open for two zine cover artists, and one artist per however many CC's end up in the zine.

Artist

Non-cover artists will be creating half/quarter page illustrations to be featured along side submitted stories! These drawings can feature the CC themself, a character they portray (alone or with friends!)

If applicable, they can also apply to do a full page drawing of a canon queer relationship with a CC's character in it. (This will only include relationships that are explicitly stated to be romantic/queerplatonic. Examples of this are Milo and Scott from Witchcraft SMP and Aismey and Guqqie from Area Unknown.)

Writer

Writer's can apply to create a piece of writing exploring/featuring a canonical queer character’s identity/relationships. This can feature headcanons for other characters, but please avoid gender-bending for ships (ie, making a M/F ship M/M or a F/F ship M/M!) or changing the canon identity of the CC’s character!

(More information for contributors and mods)

CC Nominations

CC's are nominated based on what the community wants! A Google form with be posted on January 25th where you can nominate your favourite CC's to be featured in this zine. If your CC gets 10 nominations, they'll be considered for the zine!

After that, if enough people sign on to create for your CC, they'll be featured on the zine!

(CC Nomination Requirements)

Event Schedule

The event officially begins on January 12th with an interest check!

CC Nominations and Mod applications open on January 25th and end on February 5th.

The discord server opens on February 8th, followed by Contributor applications opening on February 10th and closing on February 23rd.

Story submissions will be open from February 10th till March 10th!

(How do I submit my personal stories?)

(Official event schedule)

If you've made it this far, please reblog this post so that people who would be interested are able to see it! Thank you for your time, and I'm really excited to see this zine through!

[wttt-week]

Presenting the official list of WTTT Week prompts!

What is WTTT Week? #WTTT Week is a week to celebrate the U.S. state-themed video series of YouTuber and comedian Ben Brainard, including Table News, Welcome to the Statehouse, Florida Man in SoCal, etc., as well as the small but dedicated fandom these works have inspired!

Are there any rules? The only rules are to be creative and have fun! You can submit any kind of fan work, including art, fic, edits, headcanons, memes, etc, etc. You do NOT need to follow the prompts exactly; consider them more as a rough guide. They’re pretty broad for a reason! The main rule is just to create and to keep this fandom alive.

Please don’t feel obligated to participate; and if you do, it’s okay to only do one or two of the days! If you choose to participate, tag your works as #wttt week! You can post as much (or as little) as you want each day!

Main Themes/Prompts: Based around the different “sub-series” of WTTT:

Day 1: Table News- Take inspiration from a recent or current event to make your own “Table” episode or scene!

Day 2: [State] Joins the Table- Time to showcase your favorite character!

Day 3: Table History- Put a “WTTT” spin on a historic event or theme

Day 4: Weird Laws- They say that every weird law was made for a reason. Showcase some State hijinks/shenanigans that may have led to the creation of some weird laws…(historical accuracy *not* required)

Day 5: Dating Games- Your favorite ship/relationship, whether that be romantic, platonic, etc.

Day 6: “Meanwhile In…”- Anything about non-canon characters/OCs. Cities, other countries, etc. Now’s the time to share your own ideas!)

Day 7: Free Day! (Freedom, baby! 🦅)

What are the secondary/alternate themes?

The secondary themes are to help provide more specific ideas for each day. Do NOT feel obligated to use them. If you have an idea for a day already that has nothing to do with the secondary theme, that’s okay! But they’re there in case you need something a bit more specific.

Day 1: Weather/Natural Disasters

Day 2: State Symbols

Day 3: Folklore

Day 4: Animals

Day 5: Music

Day 6: Regions

That’s all for now! Go forth and have fun!

[firelightmlpoc]

I recently received a DM from a fellow who was a junior mod in the Shipping Container server, & they’ve been gracious enough to allow me to use their words on the current happenings, covering the events of the 0303Emily internal happenings of the server at that time.

Now, you may wonder why exactly I’m bringing up the 0303Emily debacle, much less in association with Pansear?

Well, besides the fact that the accusations leveled against 0303Emily are baseless themselves (One example of why at the bottom of this post, completely ignoring the fact that Azriel was only a month or 2 away from being 18 at the time of the accusation while 0303Emily was just 20.), they indicate a trend between both accusations that further shows minimal actual PROOF & deliberate misinterpretations of situations to then twist things into a more negative light.

Now, the statement from the junior mod:

“first off, sorry this isnt really that well worded. i dont even know where to start with all this. i wanted to offer my view on things from the internals of the SC server and some info that might explain the origins of all this. ive wanted to talk about this for a while but im not a very confrontational person and i didnt even have a tumblr or twitter

i was a helper (basically junior mod that had bare mininum perms) on SC during the entire event, and while I did not participate in the decision because it was really complex and i was busy with finals but i did lurk the convo and read a lot of it. i dont have any screenshots of this because i left a few weeks later after the entire mod team basically dissolved and the server lost all its users.

basically a while back before the grooming accusations some kids (like under 18) on the server were going around looking up artists on furaffnity, e621, and other nsfw websites and then reporting it to the mods of SC and i think mainworld too. the mods were pretty "this isnt really our business" about it and told the kids to stop snooping, and that was the end of it.

a few months later still before the grooming the issue resurfaced with the same users going after nsfw artists, they were again told to mind their business but a few weeks later came back with the grooming accusations on top of it. the key thing here is that the mod issue was heavily centered around the nsfw art that emily had been making, along with several other users who were in nsfw servers that these kids had joined to snoop around. they logged thousands of messages from multiple users and sifted through them looking for anything that could be added to this report.

again i just want to emphasize that this was not at all about Emily and Azriel at this time. The entire report was about NSFW people were doing in private NSFW sites and places that the kids had to lie and sneak into because they were LOOKING for dirt on these people. It was not just emily but around a dozen users in our server that had been perfectly fine up until this point.

there was a lot of delay with getting this report finalized and the grooming accusation came later. however given the context this seemed to raise a few red flags for the staff because the accusors had been so intense about their search for info and the fact that the conversation between them was months prior, there was some question of if the accusors had coached or otherwise convicned azriel about them being groomed just to get more dirt on emily.

Well the SC mods were tired of the NSFW artists being reported and considering the number of people being reported (again, more than just emily) and the methods the accusors had taken, decided that this was basically tantamount to stalking and kicked everyone involved.

What you see on tumblr is the response to that. They went and said "SC is run by groomer zoophiles" and everyone who had a hate boner for pansear jumped on board and it went nuclear.

I dont really know if this helps but i am just tired of sitting here being unable to speak about it because i dont have a following and i really miss pansear.”

I want to further emphasize this part:

“again i just want to emphasize that this was not at all about Emily and Azriel at this time. The entire report was about NSFW people were doing in private NSFW sites and places that the kids had to lie and sneak into because they were LOOKING for dirt on these people. It was not just emily but around a dozen users in our server that had been perfectly fine up until this point.”

Minors actively invaded adult-spaces, willingly & ACTIVELY exposed themselves to adult content EXPLICITLY to ‘dig up dirt.’

So, with that in mind, why would they stop at that? Why would they stop at something so trivial as faking screenshots? Multiple members have actively made threats to people accused & they care not about spreading a falsehood (Just look at Pansear’s old Tumblr handle!).

And here’s the example I said I’d give earlier. Azriel starts the conversation with mention of the horrors of some NSFW content from the fandom & then gives an example. 0303Emily follows up with a shared experience. This is some of the ‘proof’ that was presented in the doc Azriel & Co. put forth.

This doesn’t even mention any of the other discrepancies in their own ‘proof.’ The ‘Zoophilia’ allegations are once again Anthro on Anthro characters engaging in sexual acts, just like the allegation against Pansear.

Don’t believe me? Their own google doc is right here on this chap’s post. Read through it.

And if you want to read more, read this. It further emphasizes on this matter.

[zeroducks-2]

I am conflicted. Your SlaDick art makes me go hnngg, but I've never found Slade to be a particularly interesting character. A good 80% of what I see about him on here is just discourse, which usually points towards a character being super intriguing, but most of what I've read in the comics he just seems like 'Generic Assassin Character With Bonus Divorced Dad Elements' What am I missing out on???

(Also, can I have a link to your header image? I need to reblog that asap)

Hey Tiger! How are you doing? Unfortunately I can't give you a tumblr link to my header image because tumblr's puritan ass considers it too much and took the post down LOL (it is literally just a guy in lingerie so idk what they're on about). You can have the Bluesky link instead.

Okay so about Slade. I honestly don't get the whole, uhh... "it's funny cause he's divorced" thing going on in the Slade fanbase. Like yeah he used to be a military man, he got married and had kids, but because he secretly became a mercenary and made lots of enemies, one of his sons very nearly died and his wife (understandably!) divorced him for it. I don't get what's funny about it, I don't get why people go "LOLOL he's a divorced guy!" like where's the punchline exactly? Lots of people get divorced is that a funny thing...?

Well but anyway. He used to be a very complex, very gray character in the 80s, when he was written by Wolfman and Perez. Initially he was not exactly a bad guy despite acting in the role of an antagonist, he was going against the Titans to honor the memory of his dead eldest son. Of course being a mercenary with little qualms about killing people put him in the gray area by default, but he was nice with the kids when the situation allowed it, very loving towards his middle child (Joseph, who also was a Titan), and he and Dick held mutual respect for each other (to the point that Dick convinced Bruce that Slade was actually a good man, and a honorable man who would never break his word. Which tbf was true).

The run Deathstroke The Terminator which ran from 1991 to 1996 is interesting and complex, selling itself like a Macho Man Thing! With Guns! And Explosions!, while it's actually tackling delicate themes such as parental grief, loss, CPTSD, the horrors of war and such. Slade's incrollable friendship and loyalty towards William "Billy" Randolph Wintergreen (former comrade in arms) is a very important and fairly touching aspect of it, and Slade's struggle to just Be A Good Person despite everything (and failing) is imo very compelling.

Over the years (and at this point irremediably), Slade has veered from being a gray, complex and multidimensional character into being only a villain. He stopped being caring towards his family (or he's directly manipulative and abusive especially towards Rose, youngest child born from adultery), he stopped being "fatherly" towards the Titans, and lost complexity overall. What he gained were impeccable Daddy Dom vibes, also thanks to the cartoon (Teen Titans 2003), where a Slade Wilson inspired character (called only "Slade" and voiced by Ron Perlman) is the embodiment of evil and has a fixation on young Robin Dick Grayson.

There are more "modern" moments in which Slade is still an interesting character. Like when he tried to steal the speed force from Wally (and eventually got it from Ace) to go back in time and save his eldest son's life (and failed miserably, but managed to change the fact that Grant, his boy, had died alone, because he held him through his last moments). The Slade you see being shipped with Dick is sort of an amalgam of all that... sometimes he's the sharp, wicked monster of the tt03 cartoon, sometimes he's a more gentle elder man who genuinely grew fond of Dick, sometimes he's a piece of garbage who's toying with a kid, and most of the times he's a ruthless mercenary who will stop for nothing and no one to fulfill his contracts... but he has a soft spot for Dick.

This last bit of characterization comes from the most iconic Nightwing run (1996 by Devin Grayson), and it's where Dick and Slade have some of their most interesting interactions since the New Teen Titans run of the 80s. There Slade acts like a lazy but dangerous big cat, and Dick has his carefully studied methods of dealing with him, which work because Slade is very fond of him basically.

There are more things to say but this post is long enough already! I feel Slade is one of the characters who have been done dirty by DC executives, because they have a hard time dealing with gray characters overall. He's versatile when it comes to fanworks because his characterization is all over the place (except a couple core concepts he's a different character in each media he appears in, basically), and Sladick is ridiculously hot and works imo very well in lots of different circumstances.

[onepiece-polls]

One Piece Crack Ship War - Round 3 Side E

CoraBelle art by @halacska-fins

Propaganda under the cut.

CoraBelle:

A surprisingly popular ship considering they never interacted, but I see the appeal. Both former Marines, both loving and caring adoptive parents.

Two of the best parents in One Piece, imagine if they both lived and raised a happy little mixed family together.

Best adoptive Dad + Best adoptive Mom. I think they would vibe.

Cora is Bell-mere's malewife failure and she loves him. She enjoys making him flustered and tripping him up. He is just heads over heels in love with her, he loves her so much Just the thought of Bell-mere making a man who's twice her size completely melt for her fills me with joy. They were both apart of the Marines and ended up adopting children while on the job. I'm not exactly sure who died first but learning about your lover's death (if it wasn't covered up) is amazing angst potential. They're watching over their kids in the afterlife together.

Dead serial adopting Marines smokers, what else is there to say?

hi i’m back with my corabelle agenda. these two are a match made in heaven. literally. they have so many narrative parallels, it hurts. they both sacrificed themselves for their adoptive kids’ longevity, they’re both former marines who deserted their positions in order to give these kids a better life. they were both killed by a flintlock, and their last words to their kids were “i love you.” !!! it’s uncanny!! they could have known each other when they were marines, too! bell-mere is just one year older than rosinante. they were from different blues, but there’s a chance they could have run into each other or even trained together for a period of time. bell-mere would be the perfect friend for a young rosinante who’s preoccupied and stressed over his brother. in terms of personality, that’s where we get some of that juicy opposites-attract theory into play. they do have a lot in common tho! some common flaws, (hotheaded, a bit irrational, impulsive), and some common strengths as well, (determined, fearless, values the strength of a smile)! but otherwise, bell-mere isn’t afraid to lay the flirt on and seems a bit more extroverted, where rosinante is a little more reserved and keeps a very small circle of friends, (literally one and it’s sengoku). someone direct like bell-mere could easily draw him out of his shell, and someone down-to-earth and occasionally goofy like rosinante could help keep her grounded.

Both marines with rough lives who seemingly picked up children when they weren’t expecting it. Bellemere would make a great mom to Law and Corazon would make a great dad to Nami and Nojiko. Both of them would bond over the bullshit of the world!!

Art by @gendervapor14

Cobradile: The Hero of Alabasta and the King of Alabasta caught in a sordid secret love affair that ends in a brutal betrayal.

[inuxi]

that ask was rude of me, i should've just blocked you instead of telling you about it, i'm sorry. i'm aroace and sex+romance repulsed, and i guess i thought alastor was gonna be something i could enjoy for once like everyone else gets to without feeling like i'm intruding on a conversation i have no right to be part of. i'm on ios so i can't use browser extensions to actually get rid of all the alastor ship posts like i want, and i'm not sure my problem even has a solution short of just giving up trying, because so far i have found exactly zero blogs that are 1.) still active at all, 2.) still post about Hazbin, 3.) aren't actually 12 years old, and 4.) don't post about fucking Alastor ships. i got so excited seeing such good, recent art i haven't nuked yet considering how old every other post i can still see is, and i'm not kidding when i say i sent that ask through tears. it was rude and unacceptable either way, and i'm sorry.

i've blocked over 200 different people and i'm not exaggerating that number even a little bit. i would rather put a gun to my head and pull the trigger myself than see them so much as breathe next to each other ever again. i am so. so so so so so sick of searching and searching and searching and finding nothing.

the thing i've learned from alastor's aroace representation is that not only is the world as a whole not made to accommodate me, fandom space isn't either. i am an alien on a planet i was never made to fit into, and i don't even get to escape that through fiction like everyone else does. no amount of filtering and blocking and searching will bring into existence a community for me that simply does not exist, and it is futile for me to try. that's what this fandom has taught me.

i think the chances of me sticking around in this fandom are slim, so at least it won't be an issue for anyone else anymore. i think being excluded from conversations about an aroace character sting a lot more than just not being represented at all to be honest.

Okay, listen.

First of all, Alastor is officially an Ace, NOT an aroace. That means he can still be interested in any romantic things or finding a couple. No one is stopping you from seeing him exclusively as an aroace. But shaming people who don't share your point of view is a bad idea.

Secondly, I am an aroace artist myself. Romantic and sexual themes are virtually non-existent in my art. I can joke about it, but almost all of my drawings explore completely different things. And you come to me and try to talk about how hard it is to feel socially comfortable being an aroace? I understand your worries, but, again, trying to shame other people because they don't share your point of view is NOT a healthy coping mechanism.

Third, I have done THREE drawings in all my time that include a romanticized Alastor. Two of them were collabs, and the third was asked to be drawn by people. And these three drawings made you give up on my art, which you said you really liked?

The community is too heavily oriented towards romantic and sexual themes, it's true. People like us are often uncomfortable in that environment, that's also true. But aroace people can't just come in and ban others from having fun just because we don't find that fun or interesting.

Man, I'm not even Alastor's artist! What the kind of Alastor shipper am I? And you picked me out of a thousand people to block? Oh my God, that's as funny as it is sad.

In case you haven't looked at my art, I am a Lucifer artist. I very rarely draw Alastor, simply because I don't find him interesting enough. And because of that, I find it so funny to be labeled an “Alastor shipper”

[lets-try-some-writing]

Okay, I was reading the Mr. Pax Teacher Au and this idea popped in my head. So basically Optimus is finishing up a work day and a staff member comes up saying someone is here claiming to be his ‘wife’. Optimus questions the staff for a bit and then they reveal they have “pink hair”. Optimus then goes outside to see someone patiently waiting for him with a smile. (I’m a sucker for OptimusxElita, sue me!) Also Elita going “Yeah, you would.” Cause she just knows him. Hope this idea is fun for you!

Well I can't NOT write a snippet for this thank you. I have exactly two ships that I will devour without hesitation and Optimus/Elita happens to be one of them.

━━━━━━ ⊙ ❖ ⊙ ━━━━━━━━━━━━

Optimus's digits tapped on the desk along to the beat of a simple tune he hummed to himself as he looked over the day's papers. There were quite a few interesting pieces from his young archivists- students. His dear students. They showed such interest in the history he taught them. It was a joy to watch them grow and thrive under his tutelage.

"Abigail, you impress me yet again." He smiled as he looked over the girl's artwork. The assignment for the week had been to compose a model of something Cybertronian. Abigail, one of his more artistic students, had created quite the work of art. Despite having never seen any actual images of Optimus's fallen world, she managed to capture an admittedly quite accurate, if a tad abstract, vision of Uraya. It prompted his spark to flare in joy within his true frame.

"Mr. Pax, apologies for intruding." A feminine voice broke him from his work, prompting Optimus to place down his pile of paperwork and look up. Mrs. Glass, the school nurse, stood in the doorway nervously. She patted down her knitted sweater in what Optimus could only assume was anxiety considering the lack of any noticeable contaminant.

"Can I help you Mrs. Glass?" The nurse shifted uncomfortably before she nodded. Optimus stood up slowly, concern growing in his processors as he ran through the possible issues that might have arisen while he was working. Was the headmaster trying to tamper with affairs again?

"There is a woman outside who is claiming to be your wife." Optimus froze, his expression shifting as he tried to parse out what was happening. Arcee had already taken on the role of "aunt" for Jack. Being Optimus's wife would break her cover. It couldn't be June either for similar reasons.

Was he being stalked?

"Does she have any distinguishing features?" His expression settled into something firm as he readied himself to have to politely tell a confused woman that she had the wrong individual.

"She has pink hair and bright blue eyes. I think she might be wearing colored contacts." Whatever worry was settling into his spark halted the moment he got out the door and heard the nurse's explanation. Instead, faint hope grew steadily as he increased his pace and Mrs. Glass continued.

"She stated that her name was Ariel of Iacon. Although I am not sure where that city is-" Optimus stopped listening and broke into a sprint as he forced his holoform to go faster than it should have been able to according to human biology.

She couldn't be here.

He sent her away after the Allspark was taken from its place.

There was no way his Conjunx was on Earth after so many millennia apart.

"Being a teacher suites you." It was not the voice he knew, not entirely. There was none of the underlying glyphs or tones of their homeworld, but he knew her voice anywhere. He could never mistake her.

"Elita." He stepped out, his holoform momentarily flickering as Elita-One waited for him patiently, her arms crossed over her chest and a font smile on her face. He could almost see the mighty warrior that was his Conjunx through the veil of her disguise. He could hardly wait to wrap her in his arms properly as soon as they were away from prying optics.

"I missed you." She was the first to wrap her arms around him, organic as they were. Their forms melded in places as their holoforms struggled to maintain the illusion alongside their raging emotional states. However, Optimus found he didn't care as he looked into oh so human eyes and saw the spark of a Cybertronian hidden behind them.

She was here. He didn't know how or why, but Elita was here with him once more.

"I stopped by your base before I came here. I wanted it to be a surprise." She laughed as she nuzzled against his neck, searching for sensory lines that where not there. Optimus wrapped his limited EM field around her as he processed her presence and relished in it.

"It has been a most pleasant surprise to see you here after so long." Distantly, he noted Mrs. Glass watching from the school entrance. Optimus didn't bother looking back as he pulled away and took Elita's hands in his. The paperwork could be dealt with later. For now, there were bonds to be reforged, memories to share, and many long cycles apart to make up for.

"To base then?" Elita smiled up at him. Optimus could almost imagine her antennae perking up as he grinned in response.

"If that is what you want love."

[juniscoff1n]

JUNI'S PINNED POST !!

hi beautiful people!!

this post is to introduce myself basically,, sooo LET'S GOOOO

Read this if u want tho. There I mention my DNI basic criteria and socials if u want to interact with me somewhere else (I'm not that active here)

(PLS DON'T SEND ME DONATION ASKS CUZ I CAN'T DONATE,, AS I SAY IN MY DESC I'M A MINOR)

BESIDES,, ANY AGELESS PROFILES WILL BE INMEDIATELY BLOCKED. ALSO IF IT DOESN'T HAVE A PFP AND/OR BANNER,, SINCE YOU'LL BE CONSIDERED A BOT OR A TROLL.

I don't really care if you're +18,, just don't be weird.

Even if you're a little flirty or you behave like that as a joke,, you'll be blocked. That's disgusting.

(If you don't feel comfortable with me interacting,, tell me and I'll stop !! I always put other's boundaries first)

SFW accounts only !! DNI if you post NSFW content (Slight NSFW or that type of content with TWs is fine to me,, however)

~ . ~

Anyways: As said in the carrd,, I love the things I mentioned there (cartoons,, musicals,, etc.)

Here I tell/show u some of them :] (Bold ones are my special interests,, and italic bold ones are my comfort shows!!)

• Metalocalypse

• The Oblongs

• The Venture Bros

• Smiling Friends

(credits to @alfieandrews)

• Drawn Together

(credits to @tychos-huzband)

• Futurama

• Inside Job

• Bojack Horseman

• Clone High

• Monster High

• My Little Pony

• 6teen

• Every 70s-90s-2000s cartoon in general (Nicktoons like CatDog,, Spongebob Squarepants,, Danny Phantom,, Invader Zim,, My Life As a Teenage Robot,, etc. and Cartoons like Courage,, the Cowardly Dog,, Johnny Bravo,, Samurai Jack,, Ed,, Edd 'n Eddy,, The PowerPuff Girls,, Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends,, TAWOG,, etc.) (I like currents cartoons too tho,, no problem w them!!)

• Wander Over Yonder

• Any type of webseries

• Homestuck

• The Eltingville Club

• Adult Swim/Comedy Central/Adult cartoons in general

• The Muppets

• Wicked

• Six

• Beetlejuice

• Epic

• Ride The Cyclone

• Heathers

• Hamilton

• Tv Girl

• Alex G

• Tally Hall

• Miracle Musical

• Weird Al Yankovic

• Mitski

• Laufey

• Chappell Roan

• Sabrina Carpenter

• Ariana Grande

• Doechii

• Jazmin Bean

• Your Favorite Martian

• Will Wood

• Tylerthecreator

• System of a Down

• Pierce the Veil

• Sleeping Sirens

• Asking Alexandria

• Scary Bitch3s

• Beabadoobee

• Radiohead

• Vocaloid

Anddd so on lmao.

(credits to @strangergraphics)

I'm also dividing my content into hashtags,, cuz it's rlly random and varied lmaoo (Probably going to add more over time):

#juni's rambling - just me rambling about random things,, idk.

#juni's ships - exactly what u read,, my friend: the section where i talk about the ships i created,, or simply the ships i like.

#juni's fictypes - my fictypes,, memory shifts or shifts in general,, etc. just me talking about fictionkin stuff.

#juni's projects - here i talk about. . . well,, projects that came to my mind or simply ideas.

#inside job the renewal / #inside job the sequel - my most recent,, and biggest project so far!! if ur an ij fan and ur still mad at netflix for cancelling that incredible show. . . this may be the hashtag- and fanmade show for u. here i share sneak peeks/previews,, chapter clips,, fanart,, etc.

coming soon :D

#juni's art - lastly but not less important. . . my art,, yayy!!!

- -

also,, SHOUTOUT TO ALL MY AWESOME MOOTS WOOO!!! :3

@shimmeringliteringprime

@torir0lls

@ellieseightfingers

@eloose

@xxzom6ixx

@bingusdingusbitches

@magusjune

@monsterhighlover333333

@0mg-1-k1ll3d-k3nny

@milo-sillyguy

@animeshades1

@aminogood0

@melanchovy

@cogneatoinc

@himejoshireagan

@losersandwich

@theoriginalgayever

@silkytheangelicmoth

@absent-jonas

@sk3tchysakuraa

@4everdulce

@odin0n0me

@shroommoggy

@blo0st4r

@missykix

@sadl1lsunshine

@turnipwithatophat

@mothonmeth

@angry-oil-slick11

@blackmoons

@ganstalesbo

@vivivinn

@cheeztheclown

@le0nardo-84

@ladypink101

@weegle-peegle

@sxirenzz

@momomoths-blog

@cheriebunie

@zombzgirlowo

@k9ninedecay

@aliensagainstworld

@jud4s-1s4-l0s3r

@d-llp4rts

@deerslav

@apple-roan

@lilraingirl

@redthoughtsfashion

@sweetangle8

@robinbriar

@iluvtvgirl

@c0rps3-xo

@lizzyfizzyyyyay123

@r4g1ng-s0c13ty

@marilynmydarlinggirl

@starblob1

@piretoshwnasid

@carcin0-88

@ell-es-dee

@microwavedjuicebox

@wolftroll2

@violetwolf101

@meridwarden

@pawzel

@mammothzw1fe4ever

@callistos-posts

@vockoronst

@shepherdzcane

@chiro447

@gavayounette33

@botis1st

@russ14n-r0ul3tt3

@froggowivdagudvibes

@human-centipuppy

@yourfandompersn

@nsnkdkii

@saccgiriangel

@deadpoolkisser

@voidsedghi

@clowndestruccion

@invadersun

@puddinzducky

@rottingvulture

@stupidlysunny

@jasperthejesterrr

@tychos-huzband

@pawfish

@crowwolf8

@clownsareeverywhere

@jujuu-bug

@vampviolyn

NO LIKE,, SERIOUSLY- YALL ARE AWESOME- I even consider u my family!! tysm for accompanying me in this thing called life :3

( btw: if I unfollowed u/stopped being moots with u,, it's probably bc I lost interest in something we had in common - for example,, i got out of the athf fandom so I stopped being moots with athf fans - or ur acc is mainly made of reblogs - idk,, it doesn't tell me anything abt u -. it's not bc I hate u!! so sorry for doing this,, it's js for the reasons I mentioned :[ )

Well,, someday I'll start showing u some projects or ships I create (U r gonna kill me for those ones)

But yeah,, thats all for now BAIIII!!

[diamondkat]

I keep finding out about little ship dramas. According to a small shipping corner of Radiobelle, Radioapple shippers hate them and keep targeting them. There were accusations of Radioapple fans coming on Radiobelle posts to attack them and stealing Radiobelle art to edit it to Radioapple. This was interesting to me because prior to this what I had heard was that it was Radiobelle fans attacking radioapple fans because they wanted their ship to be canon. It must be noted that I have not seen anyone from either of these ships do these things but my experiences are not universal. I am likely protected from things like this because I am not usually in the ship tags. I only found out about this by accident because I clicked on a Radiobelle fan's account.

Now, I am a multi-shipper myself with Radiodust, Radioapple, and Radiostatic being my main ships. I also like most of the other ships with Alastor because Alastor is my favourite and I consider ships a way for me to get more things related to my favourite. Radiobelle fans make some truly beautiful artwork of my darling even if I prefer Chaggie. I also don't think any ship involving Alastor is going to be canon. They are all to have fun and explore the characters. I therefore understand that I am coming into this from the perspective of someone who isn't as deeply invested in the ships themselves.

However, I must ask the Radioapple and Radiobelle fans who are engaging in this unnecessary shipping war behaviour what exactly they think they are doing. Do you know that to anti-shippers and people who hate shipping Alastor, you are the same? There is no difference between Radioapple and Radiobelle fans to them. To them, you are all crazy people shipping characters who do not belong together and trying to force your horrible ships to become canon regardless of what anyone including the creator wants. Something that Radioapple fans and Radiobelle fans would both disagree to be true regarding their ships. Stop doing the work of people who hate both of you for them. Most Radioapple fans, even if they aren't Radiobelle fans, aren't actively against Radiobelle fans and vice versa. Don't let the voice of a few assholes, amplified by antis, convince you that the other side is your enemy. Let's enjoy our ships and let others do the same.

[howtofightwrite]

Speaking of martial competence, do you have any examples of characters that are actually written with this in mind?

Loads. Some actually even make good on that.

So, there's different kinds of martial competence. There are characters who are proficient in combat directly, there are well written strategists, there are characters who excel at military leadership, and when they're written well, you can actuallylearn some things from them.

I'm going to give some examples, and at least one cautionary example.

For, just, raw combat prowess, I still go back to Robert E. Howard's Conan short stories. It's easy to meme on the character, especially 90 years after the fact, with the cultural persona that's grown around him, but Howard's original writing is excellent. The character would not have survived Howard's early (and, frankly, tragic) death if it was just the one note gag you might expect, if your only exposure to the character was through cultural osmosis and the films.

Howard's fight scenes were shockingly well written. To the point that it is still absolutely worth reading if you want to write a fantasy fighter.

For strategists, three characters come to mind, but only two are literary, and all are Science Fiction.

Grand Admiral Thrawn is probably one of the best villains Star Wars has ever produced, it's part of why he's one of the few characters that's migrated from the original EU to the Disney era. My personal take is, as a character, he's lost a lot over the years, but the original incarnation from the early 90s novels is a very solid model for a strategist. Particularly in how he takes time to understand his opponents while looking for potential weak points to exploit.

His practice of studying a culture's art to understand their psychology might sound a bit goofy, but the concept does have a real basis. (At least, until it metastasized into a superpower, in later adaptations of the character.) Being able to psychologically assess your foe is an incredibly valuable element of strategy, and one that you probably want to consider when you're writing a character who is supposed to be a “strategic genius.”

When writing fiction, you want to consider all of your characters as if they were people, rather than as hollow, plastic toys. And, yes, the obnoxious villain who knows exactly what your heroes will do because of authorial fiat is going to be a more compelling character than the ambulatory goldfish villain who exists as a prelude for your heroes showing off how badass you think they are.

Granted, even in Heir to the EmpireThrawn was already drawing strategic insights that strained credibility, but understanding your foe is an element of strategic thinking that is often forgotten in literature. So, even as a villain in a tie-in novel (we're not done with tie-in fiction yet), he is worth looking at. At least when written by Timothy Zhan, Thrawn was a well written character, and even if he bordered on a Mary Sue at times, he escaped a lot of that stigma by justifying his competence.

It's also probably worth mentioning in passing that he's one of the few Imperial leaders in Star Wars who isn't also criminally incompetent.

The non-literary example of a strategist would be John Sheridan from Babylon 5. Unlike Thrawn, Sheridan's main strategic focus is on situational exploitation. A little of that comes from his knowledge of enemy procedures and psychology, but at lot of it comes from a rather ruthless approach to technical limitations. An alien race is using technology that blocks human targeting systems? Set up a nuclear mine and then send out a fake distress single to lure them in. Need to deal with a significantly larger, more dangerous ship? Lure them into a gas giant and and let the planet's gravity well drag them past crush depth. Bruce Boxleitner's performance helped sell the character, but Sheridan is a really solid science fiction strategist, who really exemplifies how technical limitations can have enormous strategic considerations.

I'm not citing Sheridan as an excellent example of a leader per se,it's certainly there, but it is harder to unpack from Boxleitner's performance. It does have some good payoffs much later in the series when he starts making some orders that cause his subordinates to sit up and stop what they're doing. And that is a consistent theme even back to his introduction, but, it's a tangible consequence to an intangible cause.

The last example is a negative example, both for strategy and leadership. And, as much as it pains me to say this, at least Orson Scott Card understood that Ender was a bad leader. At least in the original novel. To be blunt, Ender is a mediocre strategist at best. His highlights in the book involve, “inventing armor,” and creative movement in micrograv. That's setting the bar exceptionally low, and while it is reasonably within the range of what you could expect from a pre-teen, that's not much of a justification.

Again, I'm not a fan of Card, and I'm reallynot recommending Ender's Gameto anyone. However, if I didn't mention it, you know there'd be a reblog going for twelve hundred words about how Andrew Wiggin is the best strategist in literature, which, yeah, no.

Do you want a goofy, tie-in fiction, literary suggestion for the best leader in sci-fi? Too bad, because I'm pretty sure Ciaphas Cain is not that person. The Ciaphas Cain novels by Sandy Mitchell are unusual as leadership recommendations, because of how much Cain internally processes the social manipulation involved in military leadership. He's not a great leader, but he is exceptionallygood at explaining to the reader how he's creating that illusion to motivate the soldiers around him. In fairness, some of that is an intrinsic character flaw, he is incredibly insecure, and desperately trying to hide that fact. And the difference between being a great leader, and effectively creating a comprehensive illusion of a great leader is: There is no difference. As a serious complement, it is one of the few times I've seen an author treat leadership as an actual skill, and not simply an extension of a character's charisma. Which is why I'm singling this one out. It might sound like a joke inclusion initially, and the books are quite funny in a Warhammer 40k kind of way, but there is quite a bit of  value to be had.

-Starke

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[author-main]

Welcome back to Author Takes the Romance out of Wrightworth just to Put It Back Later. The reason why I do this is because, I'm a relatively newer fan, haven't been here for super long. And I wanna share my thoughts and opinions as a fan who got into the games because of nrmt/mtnr. I (personally) think a lot of the meaning in the characters' dialog gets kinda lost in fanon. So today, I will discuss how:

Phoenix becoming a lawyer for Miles isn't THAT extreme when you learn how easy it was to "change his life" to do it.

By that, I mean... it wasn't THAT big of a change.

Point One: Phoenix did not change his entire college course for Miles, nor did he need to.

I should start with: becoming a lawyer is no joke, no matter where you live. But since I'm American, we'll follow the localization.

In the U.S. you're required to obtain your Juris Doctor (J.D.) to take the bar exam. What you need to start working towards a J.D. is any bachelor's degree. Phoenix was 21 and still an art major (April 2014), even after knowing for up to over a year (February 2013) that Miles was a prosecutor. He is said to have taken law classes, that could mean three things

Law electives

Law minor

double major

Note: The double major is the least likely in canon, because if that was the case, his character profile in 3-1 would've mentioned it.

Given the timeline of events, I believe that Phoenix was already a graduating senior at by the time of 3-1. Not a super important thought, just a "he's pretty much ready to get into a grad program anyway" thing.

Point Two: Larry Butz is his other reason in becoming a lawyer.

And not so many people ship them now do they? Most people either see Larry as just a friend to Phoenix, or they outright forget him (which is why I have to point him out NOW). Phoenix knew Larry for his entire life, longer than he knew Edgeworth. And he's the reason they all became friends in the first place. But he's even more important than just being the reason he and Miles became friends.

Phoenix wanted to show his gratitude to Miles and Larry in the exact same way, by defending them in court. This isn't romantic, this is wholly platonic. This is his way of showing how much they actually meant to him, how much their friendship meant to them. He's trying to show them what exactly they've done for him. They changed him as a person. Showed him that he should follow his convictions and intuition, to believe in people and defend them especially when the rest of the world is against them.

Point Three: "I'm the only one who knows the real Edgeworth": You NEED to pay attention to the entire conversation to understand why he said this. (though I obviously can't share it all here, but here are the most important parts for this post)

Probably the most seemingly obsessive part this of is: "He's in pain… And no one's on his side. I'm the only one who knows the real Edgeworth. I'm the only one who can help him." But you really need to actually consider what he's saying here. Phoenix knows that the world is cruel and that mob mentality can form no matter the demographic. He knows that whether it's a class of elementary school kids, or full-grown adults in suits and ties; if the world thinks you did it, you're discouraged from defending yourself. If the world thinks you did it, you'll start believing it too. If the world tells you to apologize and take responsibility, you're going to do it, even if what they accuse you of isn't true. And Phoenix knows what it's like to not be able to defend himself. He knows that he needs to defend the seemingly indefensible. That's why he became a defense attorney. That's what the class trial taught him, what Miles and Larry taught him.

"I'm the only one who knows the real Edgeworth." -> "I'm the only one who knows what it's like to be in Edgeworth's shoes and I know for a fact that he's innocent. I know that no matter what happened in the past, that he doesn't deserve this."

Extra: The other reason why I decided to write this is because of Xitter lurking

This was all part of a conversation but I'm only sharing my own opinions

[pro-sipper]

I definitely agree with "fiction affects reality" in the sense it can introduce new ideas and concepts to an audience that never considered or heard of them. What I take issue from puritans drawing the conclusion of "oh so this means someone reading an incest fic will make them want to kiss their sister" is that they only ever think about how it can make someone do bad things but never positive things. In fact, if they think about how fiction can motivate someone to do good things, their argument would fall apart quickly when they realize how often this isn't the case in reality. There's so much popular fiction out there you can find radical, far-left themes inside of so if fiction really was this powerful mind control device that puritans act like it is, all the normies who watched stuff like Gundam or Squid Game or Chicken Run or Hunger Games would have become radicalized anti-war vegan anti-capitalists but they didn't. While there are people out there where that absolutely was the case, that was entirely on those peoples' own ability to see those themes and agree with them. You can also find bigots in fandoms for media with positively portrayed women, queer, and BIPOC characters. I could drag a raging homophobe into a movie theatre to see every action movie with a positively gay character in there, he's still going to walk out as a homophobe. The reality is, fiction can never make you learn something you refuse to learn.

...and people are absolutely not looking at ship art, reading AO3 smut, or playing morally bankrupt eroges with the intention to learn something, nor expect that these things were made with the purpose to educate.

Exactly!! Such a good point about how they only expect fiction to affect things on a 1:1 level if it's something negative.

I'm sure it's been said before but overall positive and light shows like My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic or Steven Universe have so many good messages that are delivered in an appropriate way for even kids to understand and yet their fandoms are notorious for being full of hate and arguing. If a show was all about the power of friendship and fiction affects reality so severely, surely their fandoms would be the happiest places on earth?? No? Maybe because that's not how things work...

Hopefully one days antis will understand. If they even want to at this point.

[dapper-lil-arts]

I find it hella ironic how misogynistic Fluttercord truely is considering the fact that this was supposed to be a show for young girls. And the worst part about this is that it's pretty obvious that the writers didn't give ANY deeper thought as to how this dynamic would be presented. But this is what happens when you continue to appeal to the brony community.

I'm not sure who they were trying to appeal to with that, but theres a profoundly ironic thing relating to Fluttershy as a whole. ...After all, she was voted to be everyones favorite pony. Aparently a lot of people loved her. So if the writer's and showrunners decided that her fate was to be bound to an awfull guy that eveyrone hates and is annoyed by that is a risk to the entire world and is in a codependent unhealthy relationship with her in which she is the only reason he even slightly tries to do better, why, that's almost fucking hilarious. That loops right back around to almost being performance art, lmao.

...Also I will never fucking get over the fact he caused the finale. He caused it on purpose. He wanted to put the whole kingdom at risk just so twilight would have a final boss. he did it for a heehee. For a hahaa, even. Send that man to stone

Either way, I don't have the willpower to try to argue with anyone that likes the ship that a woman being in charge of a man's emotional fragility and being the single reason he isn't destroying the world for shit and giggles isn't exactly healthy. Like, if you get it you get it, if you don't you dont, etc etc.

[prodigal-explorer]

i dont exactly consider myself a pro-shipper but i am VERY anti-censorship. i hate all censorship. absolutely nothing in media should be censored whatsoever, the only exception being media that is marketed towards children because it should be up to parents/guardians/trusted adults to decide what media children are ready to consume.

but when it comes to adults? hell no.

“but but but it’s a problematic ship!!! 🥺”

there are problematic romances in real life. there are abusive relationships and sexual assaults in real life. we cope with these things by reading and writing about them and realizing that we are not alone, we are not crazy, we are going through something real. media is meant to connect people, and with the influx of social media, people don’t connect with each other anymore and censoring stories about sensitive topics purely because they’re problematic is severing that connection even more.

“but but but it’s pedophilia! 🥺”

i am a victim of pedophilia. i know many people who are also victims. again, if we don’t tell these stories, then there will be kids who have nothing to connect to who think that what they’re going through is normal or that it’s something only they will understand. it doesn’t normalize anything. if you read about pedophilia and your first thought is “okay great, now i can be a pedo because i read about pedophilia!” then it’s not the story or the author’s fault. it’s the pedo’s fault because they’ve always been a pedo. they were just looking for something to twist into justifying their actions.

and also the example i just described is something that absolutely NEVER happens. it’s something that antis made up so they could spread their censorship bullshit.

we should read stuff we disagree with. we should read stuff that is disgusting and messy and horrible if we want to. because those are all stories about the human experience. and if we censor one thing, what’s to stop people from censoring everything?

do you antis know about the wales padlock act? in america in the 1920’s until i believe the 50’s or 60’s, there was a LAW that stated that people could be ARRESTED if the media they created had any form of “obscenity” in it including nudity, pedophilia, and oh, you know what else? homosexuality. transgender characters. in fact, a play called god of vengeance by sholem asch was forcibly closed down and all actors and producers were arrested for “obscenity” because it described a beautiful and loving homosexual relationship between two young women.

do you see now? do you get why censorship sucks? you can’t just have some censorship. anybody can view anything as obscenity. bigots will turn ANYTHING into obscenity and lump it in with all the “problematic” stuff y’all want to censor. lgbtq+, interracial romance, etc. it could all be lumped in there and censored too.

i would rather have a few stories in the world that i disagree with or a few stories that make me uncomfortable than absolutely no stories that depict the human experience in a raw, unfiltered, uncensored way because when you censor art, it immediately severs all human connection that could have been formed from it.

so yeah. antis get the fuck off my page unless you want to change. i hate you and all the censorship bullshit you stand for.