#not tagging this with things because i don't want to be perceived by a wider amount of people outside of my followers lol

[crescentfool]

"completed" side order (got the credits roll and currently have four developer logs), some thoughts about the gameplay + lore under the cut 👍

i really enjoyed playing side order! i felt that a lot of my experiences in salmon run carried over with having to assess situations and maneuver around large mobs of enemy. so it's not much of a surprise to me that the gameplay structure really scratches an itch in my brain...!

i've played side order for around 10 hours so far (5 hour sessions each)... it wasn't intentional, but i really felt that each run taught me something about the chips/specials and i couldn't help but want to give another try again... (and i do appreciate that the game does allow for breaks between runs, even if i didn't utilize it this time around!)

the only thing i didn't like gameplay-wise (so far) was the weighted rates for certain chips depending on palette, i didn't particularly enjoy my run with charger (even though it's my favorite weapon class), but it could've just been bad rng giving me chips that weren't that fun/interesting...? there's some modifications that i want to explore, but it can be hard to do that with the weighted rates.

that said, i personally think the developers did an excellent job of blending together splatoon's mechanics/objectives with the rougelike style of games! i definitely want to play more sometime, there's still a lot of lore, chips, and palettes i've yet to see. i think it's a breath of fresh air from the other singleplayer parts, but i also recognize that it might not be for everyone (the structure of side order inherently requires a lot of patience and endurance).

as for the story and lore bits, i really liked the framework of the memverse! i do think that some of my affection for it stems from the fact that it has some parallels to persona games (i legit messaged a friend saying "omg it's like apathy syndrome but for splatoon"). but i think side order's a pretty fun follow up to octo expansion, i like that there's potential closure for sanitized octolings and whatever happens to the deepsea metro afterwards. i think it's a pretty cool basis for ocs which is nice!

the bits of character interaction were nice too, pearl and marina are endearing and lovely as always (they are so in love)! deep cut reporting on the side order things before/after the campaign was really funny too, i really liked it (especially after watching the nintendo live 2024 concert).

i think i found the story more satisfying than rotm- the stakes made... more sense to me, but also the setup was just, really interesting to me (persona fan moment). i'll need to check more of the dev logs when i unlock them and reread some things, but, overall, really enjoyable!

anyway, the short of it: side order was fun for me because the gameplay scratches the grinding itch in my brain (salmon run player moment), and also i just like the premise of the memverse because i'm a persona fan and it reminds me of that. LOL.

[morocosmos]

Writer Interview Game

Tagged by @arcaneoddity, tyyyy 💜

When did you start writing?

I noodled at an unfinished story or two when i was a kid (i drew comics a lot more tbh), the first fanfic i wrote was when i was 13 (it is consigned to ff.net, never to be perceived again). i started developing my writing during secondary school, we had to for english class but i genuinely enjoyed those assignments so much that it didn't feel like schoolwork lmao, it was smth of an outlet. i did write a couple of fics for other fandoms between 2016 and mid 2020, but in late 2020 FFXIV revived my desire to create, while @stellarfatalism and @lemoncakedesign's fics inspired me to actually start writing.

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write?

I read a much wider variety of smut than what i could be convinced to write. other than that i think they mostly overlap.

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often?

@haillenarte, @rabbitprint and @sezja's fics have stuck with me the most in terms of "god i want to be able to write characters like this"....i've never been compared to another writer before, never even considered it and idk how i'd feel.

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

I was writing on openoffice at first, but their software has a tendency to crash when you press two keys too fast, for example when you. try to save your work. moved to gdocs to avoid that and so that i could continue working on fic on my phone, but i also use the notes app on there, mainly to get down ideas that i don't want running away or to write more freely. it's easier to be experimental and loose when i'm writing in notes, idk, whereas i prefer sitting at the desk and working on my computer when it's a longer fic or a more """important""" piece.

What’s your most effective way to muster up a muse?

I've let it happen when it happens, for the most part. i was forcing myself to power through job around the time i really grew into writing, so i needed it to be a space where i wouldn't do it if i didn't want to. my feelings about that are more mixed now, because i'm a slow writer to begin with, and i can't help but wonder if more people would read my stuff if i updated more consistently. but i digress - the only time i've had to bring the muse in myself was for to sail your seas, and that was because there was accountability and a deadline. so i guess my most effective tricks are ADHD hacks and brainworms.

Are there any recurring themes in your writing? Do they surprise you?

Until recently i didn't approach fic writing with themes in mind, when i get an idea it's usually about throwing a character at something and seeing what happens. that something tends to be another character, sometimes it's more existential like touch starvation. that said, i do have a WIP where i sat down and thought about what i want the themes to be before i know how it's going to pan out, but it's baby's first attempt so i don't have an answer to this question yet, really.

What is your reason for writing?

Processing things i know and exploring things i don't. when i got back into writing in 2020 it was extremely cathartic, i've burnt out on several creative pursuits over the years and having that spark come alive was, and is still very precious to me. i spent two years writing simply because i had ideas and a vice-grip compulsion to write them out. now that that's slowed down, i've started to think more about craft, and how i might try to hone that when i'm lowkey afraid of this stage of learning, and there's no formal institution to kick my ass into it. but in some ways, i think i write because i can't afford not to.

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

I've been told by a friend that i'm good at continuity, which is nice considering it lines up with the obsessive approach i take towards trying to tie plot/character threads together lol. personally, i still consider descriptive writing to be my greatest strength. it's what i keep going back to, maybe because it was the first thing i discovered i was good at that wasn't influenced by someone else's decision.

How do you feel about your own writing?

I miss the honeymoon period when i thought my writing was the hottest shit LOL. that tapered off towards the end of 2022, but it's not like i think my writing is bad now, just that over time i became more aware of my shortcomings, and how much knowledge and experience i lack. i did have to fight a little to keep my relationship with writing from souring last year, but in hindsight it was more about frustration that i didn't have the energy to write (work burnout wooo) than a problem with writing itself. after a year plus of stalling and big fic projects i just want to have fun again, be a bit silly.

[illarian-rambling]

Thanks for the tag @mysticstarlightduck!

OC Interview

Slowly but surely, I'm getting through my tags! To spice things up, I'm gonna use my new dnd character for this :)

Were you named after anyone?

"No siree, I'm the only Lady 3250 on this here Rock of Bral. I picked the first part because when I used to serve at an art gallery, before I became sentient, all the finest dressed people signed in as Lady. When I gained awareness, I knew I wanted to be like those people, those walking works of art, so that's the name I picked. It was only later that I realized lady was a title and not a name, but by that time, it'd stuck. 3250 was my old designation. I keep it as a reminder."

When was the last time you cried?

"What a silly question, dahling - can't you see these eyes are made of glass?"

Do you have any kids?

"You just really aren't getting this whole warforged thing, are you? I do not have kids. I suppose I could adopt eventually, but for now, I'm not quite ready to settle down."

Do you use sarcasm a lot?

"Only when I'm in suitable company. Politeness is important, but so is humor in the right crowds."

What is the first thing you notice about people?

"The level of care they put into themselves. A man with clean armor can be expected to be thorough on the battlefield. A mage with an organized spellbook is a mage more likely to not miss anything when investigating an old scroll. I try to surround myself with careful people, though I can't say I always succeed."

What is your eye color?

"A sort of glowing yellow. Like lamplight."

Scary movies or happy endings?

"I feel that horror films can produce a wider array of reactions in the audience if constructed correctly. The moments of fear highlight the times of peace and vice versa, making them both seem all the more potent. It's like a splash of orange paint in a sea of blue."

Any special talents?

"I'm quite the artist. My original medium was sculpture, however of late, I've been experimenting more with spray paint. There's something so intoxicating about art where it shouldn't be. I guess I could say I've also been gaining a talent in talking my way into places I don't belong for that very reason."

Where were you born?

"I was constructed as a non-sentient B2 guard unit on the Rock of Bral, a city floating within the Astral Sea. A merchant by the name of Silvanus Renn bought me to watch over his art gallery, where I spontaneously gained sentience after two years of service. Not that I'm not grateful, but I'm rather curious as to why that happened."

Do you have any pets?

"No, but I've heard tell of spells that grant the caster a familiar companion. I think that would be quite an interesting thing to have at my side."

What sort of sports do you play?

"I... don't?"

How tall are you?

"Seven feet exactly, but I usually wear heels. I might have changed occupation and rewired some of my brute strength towards nimbleness, however, I am still built as a fighter."

What was your favorite subject in school?

"I never went to school. When I gained sentience, I found I suddenly understood much of what I had perceived when I was mindless - including literacy and mathematics. Books filled in the gaps. I imagine if I has gone though, I would've enjoyed learning history. It's the world's greatest story, after all."

What is your dream job?

"I always thought it was working for the Bral Artists' Union, but then the guild leader turned out to be a P.O.S. who kicked me out when I left a rather artful, if anatomically exaggerated, marble statue of him outside the guild in retaliation for his changing of my contract without my knowledge. After I've found what I'm looking for out on the starry seas, I imagine I'd like to come back and start my own guild."

I'll tag @the-golden-comet @vyuntspakhkite-l-darling @cowboybrunch and anyone else who wants to play!

Blanks under the cut

Were you named after anyone?When was the last time you cried?Do you have any kids?Do you use sarcasm a lot?What is the first thing you notice about people?What is your eye color?Scary movies or happy endings?Any special talents?Where were you born?Do you have any pets?What sort of sports do you play?How tall are you?What was your favorite subject in school?What is your dream job?

[acollapsar]

i usually don't like to talk about certain characters or ships i don't like in an overly negative way because i honestly see no point in wasting my energy on hating a certain ship when i can spend that time loving my otp instead. however, i'm having a bit of a rough time with filtering on tumblr and i really need to vent... so, i guess if you're a sebac*el enjoyer... don't read?

i'm so insanely tired of going into sebastian's tag on tumblr and be so overwhelmed by all the sebac*el fanart. and what sucks even more is when i see a piece of art of the two of them that i perceive as non-shippy and simply just.... you know, them, in the same manner yana would maybe draw them (which many people would call 'suggestive', yet what i would refer to as just sebastian being possessive over his dinner. i know, i know, this topic is a debate in and of itself but it's not what i'm here for today).

but that is exactly it. that's what pops into my mind whenever i see that type of art of them; ociel being on display, more or less, and sebastian patiently waiting for his dinner to be ready. i don't know if i'm making a lot of sense, but i HOPE people get what i mean; an artpiece that i don't perceive as shippy, but shippers do (i know not all sebac*el shippers are the same, so don't throw that at me - i'm talking about the general degeneracy some seba*el shippers does have).

i see artpieces like that, thinking they look super freaking cool and pretty and i want to reblog them - until i read the tags and they're tagged with their shipname. suddenly i'm so turned off from reblogging it because i don't ship it so i don't want those kinds of artpieces on my blog. maybe the artpiece isn't even meant to be shippy, but the op still tags it as that to reach a wider audience. but how should i know? i don't want to reblog something really pretty that i didn't think of shippy at all, only for it to be intended that way by the op.

now, i'm well aware that art is INCREDIBLY subjective. if i see an artpiece like that and i don't think it's shippy, that should be well but enough for me to reblog it and call it a day. i don't care what other people think of me either if they saw that on my blog and saw the tags on the op post and somehow thinking that i ship it or whatever. but what i do care about is my own immersion. if i look at an artpiece that i do not perceive as shippy, but am told via the tags that it actually is, then my immersion is broken.

people can post whatever they want, i don't care. i try to blacklist certain tags to the best of my ability as it is, but more often than not certain posts slips through the cracks anyways, and i just feel very disappointed.

you can ship whatever you want, and as long as i don't have to see it (hence my tag blacklists) if it happens to be a ship i strongly dislike, i really don't care what you ship. i am also in no single way trying to imply that great artists are "wasting their skills drawing something i dislike" - absolutely no fucking way. but it still doesn't change the fact that i get this sense of disappointment every time i see a really pretty artpiece of the two of them that i want to reblog, only to find out that it's supposed to be shippy.

this isn't even anybody's fault, except tumblr's website because you just can't properly filter out things you don't want to see. it's not the artists fault this website is shit, and it's not even my fault for feeling the disappointment that i do (even if it might make me come across as a little bit entilted just because i'm expressing my own disappointment with the amount of awesome fanart i see that turns out to be something i strongly dislike; it's just that it happens so much and so often that everything piles up within me after a while).

all i want is to be able to browse tags without having posts slip through the crack - whether they're something as trivial as fanart pieces, or even something really triggering type of content.

[noperopesaredope]

My most liked post before this was an ADHD-themed shitpost and it was at about 400 notes last time I checked (which were slowly accumulated over time). This post managed to past 1,000 notes in about a week, and it was the first post of mine where I had to turn off my notifications for it. At the time of this reblog, it has 21,255 notes. I never thought one of my posts would breach contamination like this.

Kinda freaked out a little, since it might get reposted on r/Tumblr or in a YouTube video. Honestly wouldn't mind one of my posts being in a P.M. Seymour video. Would love that, in fact. But as a whole? Being known? Perceived? By a wider audience outside my basic followers and mutuals? For a shitpost? Terrifying.

Part of me is tempted to shut down the reblogs for this post just so it doesn't get too popular. But the thing is, despite being so stupid, I like the idea that it presents and I want to spread that further. People like this post, and there are other people out there who may like it too. And I do love to occasionally check up on this post to, yes, see how much bigger it's grown, but also to just scroll through the notes and read the tags and replies people have written.

Because so many of ya'll have written these simple yet very sweet little add-ons passionately talking about the themes of the show and Eleanor as a character overall. And I love reading everyone's thoughts and opinions and even other show suggestions.

So despite it being a little overwhelming, I'm gonna keep this one up and reblog-able.

Don't know why I wrote all this out, since most of you probably won't see it, but I just wanted to say that I appreciate all of the reblogs and replies and tags that ya'll took the time to write out. Glad to see that everyone still likes and appreciates this show, and acknowledges that Eleanor Shellstrop is a cringefail girlboss queen.

I wish we had more female characters like Eleanor Shellstrop. One of the most unlikable people you've ever met. Read a Buzzfeed article on most rude things you can do on a daily basis and decided to use that as a list of goals. Makes everyone's day worse just by being there. Dropped a margarita mix on the ground and tried to pick it up, only to get hit by a row of shopping carts which pushed her into the road where she was hit by a boner pill delivery truck, killing her instantly. Cannot keep a romantic partner despite being bisexual. Had a terrible childhood but will die before she gets therapy. Best employee at a scam company. Just the worst but also can't help but root for her to improve.

Absolute loser. Girl-failure. Bad at almost everything. Literally perfect female character.

[ellitx]

A question if you don't mind answering: Would Venti find his lover being jealous cute or would it make him feel bad that she's gotten jealous. She gets jealous of the time he spends with Lumine.

It’s both!

He does find it cute seeing his darling jealous and it shows that you truly care for him! But after that, he’ll feel guilty that you felt like you’re being ignored by him when he was with Lumine.

He’ll make it up to you and clear things up that she was only helping him out with his classes. Venti will kiss your temple and ask if you need anything. Do you want him to sing for you? A hug? Wanna go out and see Dvalin? He’ll do anything that you ask and pampers you all day~

But imagine this, after getting a glimpse of your lover was with the traveler, you feel so blue about it. You decided to go to the tavern and have a chat with the other patrons to pass time.

Diluc notices your presence when you enter and begins to prepare your drink. Perceiving how quiet you are not even taking a single sip, it came to him you’re oddly quiet. You aren’t even with the bard but he didn’t press on that matter since it’s not his business after all.

“Hey, Master Diluc?” You started, taking off his attention to the glass he was cleaning. The man hummed and looked at you with his usual aloof gaze.

Fiddling your thumbs together out of nervousness from his long and fixed stare, you suddenly become timid if it’s alright to ask him. It wouldn’t hurt, right? It’s just his opinion so you want to know what he thinks about it.

“Would you say that I’m... a common chest? Or a precious chest...?”

The nobleman’s baffled expression has made you regret your choice of asking him something so odd and unusual, especially that it’s coming from you nonetheless.

Diluc heaved a sigh and placed the glass back in its rightful place before looking at you indifferently— or so you thought it was.

Crossing his arms over his chest and placing all his weight on one foot, he threw you a question. “And why do you see yourself similar among those two?”

You puffed your cheeks and pressed your brows together. “I just wanna know your opinion.” Your delicate fingers traced the rim of the glass out of habit whilst looking at him with your own fierce gaze.

A sudden sharp pain runs through your system. You rubbed your temple and stared at him in utter shock and confusion; he just flicked your forehead as if he was scolding you.

“Well knowing my opinion won’t matter at all in your case.” He stated. Seems like Master Diluc won’t cooperate with you even if you try to pry him to answer your question.

“So you see me as a common chest because I’m a commoner, huh?” You mumbled under your breath and finally gulped down every drop of your beverage. Sighing at the familiar taste you love so much, you slumped your head on the counter and closed your eyes to drift off.

The red-head merely rolled his eyes and shook his head in disappointment like a mother before taking your glass to clean it.

“If it’s because that bard isn’t with you today, I can accompany you if that’s what you wish.”

A big smile of excitement donned your face as your round orbs glimmered at his invitation. “Eh? Really?! Do you really mean that Master Diluc?!”

“Don’t make me repeat myself.”

Chuckling, you placed one hand over your lips and looked at him mockingly.

“Oho? Then how about we continue our game of chess? I want to see what other strategies you’ll try to use to defeat me.”

You were sure you saw his brows twitched and boy did that just make your lips pulled even wider than before.

“Is that a challenge?”

You playfully shrugged your shoulders and giggled at him. The two of you prepared to go to Dawn Winery while you continuously teased him and thought of carrying on the battle of chess against Diluc.

While Lumine and Venti were talking to Timaeus to check the progress of his homework, the bard caught the sight of your figure walking in the town square. He was about to greet you but that backfired when he saw the familiar red-headed man walking next to you side by side.

He almost ripped the paper in half when he watched you laugh from afar at whatever Diluc was saying and sure he did not like the feeling of the sullen danger of anger running through him.

“Professor Venti?” Timaeus asked in concern, garnering his attention back to him.

“Oh! My apologies. I almost forgot we were here to check your homework.”

The emergency ration gave him a dirty look as usual with her small hands settled on her hips. “Seriously? And you even tagged us along to help you with it just for you to forget we’re supposed to be collecting everyone’s poems?”

Venti simply ignored her words. His mind can only think of you and Diluc being with each other— that you’re going to spend your Windblume with the nobleman instead of him, your own lover.

So by the time when you come back to the plaza to meet up with him, he’s in a really sour mood. Forced smiles to whoever greets him, the winds were cold and a bit sharp for your own liking; and when you said hi to him, his fingers were already wrapped around your wrist and pulled you somewhere secluded with fewer people.

Venti pushed you against the wall and connected his lips with yours bringing you into a deep kiss while his knees are in between your legs and both arms are on the side of your face, preventing you from escaping.

Your hands were on his chest, pushing him away at his sudden kiss but he won’t budge at all. He further deepens the kiss, desperate in tasting your lips and feeling your warmth against his own body.

Pulling away to take a breather, your lover rested his head against yours and looked at you in absolute despair and misery.

“[Name], love, I may not be rich, but please know my love for you is always eternal and as caring as the gentle breeze! Please don’t leave me... I can’t bring myself thinking my muse will leave me for another man...”

You could only stand still and blink owlishly at him in pure confusion while being a mess after that short but passionate intimate session he has started.

[star-wars-trash]

Hi I just read your tags on that post about writing short fics and I was wondering if you can elaborate on what the OP does that makes them so good at unreliable narrator? I'm trying to get my head around how to approach approach fic in this way and am really interested to know what makes it click with the reader

I have to preface this by saying I am not a magic word person so this explanation might be a little rough. On the other hand, @nottonyharrison definitely has a magical way with words that I cannot say enough good things about so if you haven't had a chance to read all her fics yet, I highly recommend them! As readers, we already know a lot more than the characters do. We've all seen Star Wars and we know our tropes so we can fill in the gaps easily. The characters don't have that. They don't know they're living in a fanfic and they don't know what comes next in the bigger story. That alone creates some unreliability in your narrator, but Kim goes a little deeper than just knowing how much information her characters would be privy to at any particular point in the story. She gets in their heads and figures out how they would perceive that information based on their own biases or insecurities or life experiences. Just because they have been told some critical piece of information doesn't mean they interpreted it all accurately and it doesn't mean they have necessarily taken specific notice of all the key details. Again, readers have an advantage over the characters because we have a much wider view of the picture than they do. And even when the reader doesn't already know everything, Kim always gives us just enough information that we can fill in the whole story (or at least as much as she wants us to) while the character is still left guessing and making incorrect assumptions. And they make a lot of incorrect assumptions, but never anything that makes us want to bang our heads against the wall in frustration over how stupid they're being. Their assumptions always make sense given the circumstances and the character. She also writes in this unique combination of flashes and stream-of-consciousness that show us exactly what the character sees and how they react to it, even before they've really had a chance to process that information, so we can see those assumptions forming before the character has figured out where they think all the puzzle pieces fit.

[musicallisto]

without fail tag

THE “WITHOUT FAIL” TAG — List five things that you, WITHOUT FAIL, weave into or explore in your stories, whether it be specific themes or tropes, character archetypes, allusions to other literary works, what have you! It really can be anything that you consistently include in your narratives for whatever reason. Then invite others to share theirs by tagging them!

I was tagged by @deadlymodern - thank you so much for tagging me, this tag is amazing and I loved reading your answers! I can tell you have a very thorough approach to your writing & themes, it’s so cool!

(tagging people at the bottom of the post if you want to skip)

1. flowers, skies & words

grouping them together since they're all related to a wider, general literary device: symbols and allegories in my stories. Without fail, I’ll always use flower symbolism to evoke certain themes, places, characters... withered petals for death, blossoms for youth, you name it, it’s probably been in one of my stories. just consider my main WIP’s title, The Grave of Roses (Le Tombeau des Roses). It’s a little basic, and has been used time and time before in literature, but I still love it.

Other elements that often make it into my stories as symbols are planes (because I love aviation obviously, but also as a symbol of breaking free, independence, of man’s domination on mortality, what with having tamed the skies, but also his frail condition and how everything hangs on a thread). Also, the sky is pretty.

And lastly, words, stories, novels always have their place in my stories, and more often than not one of my characters is a writer, or someone who uses words and stories as some kind of comfort, outlet, or a driving force.

At its [the tombstone] foot, below the name, red roses piled up, enough of them to cover ten graves. A single vermilion bud, a wind-swept poppy, clashed with the rest of the bouquet, and Samuel knew that it was William's children who had placed it there. Only they knew that he didn't even like roses anymore, and that he would come to lay poppies on his father's memorial every time he returned to London...

The tomb was both smaller and prettier than Samuel imagined, less opulent than England would have wanted to give its precious child. The morning sun, like a caress, illuminated the epitaph, a Latin verse that Samuel had known in the past. “Bury me southward,” he heard William say so clearly that he almost turned around, "so that I can look at England and France in the same breath." His name, however, was drenched in full light, facing east, and inexplicably this saddened Samuel.

“And there it is... it's pretty, don't you think? I don't know if he would have liked it... You probably know it better than I do...”

“And why do you care about that, huh? You don't even believe in God.” “He's a writer. He believes in symbols.” “He believes in vanity, alright.”

“I think he would have liked it anyway,” he nodded in agreement, his eyes glued to the lonely poppy. (Translation)

2. parental roughnesses

this was bound to come, because I feel like we were all pretty fucked up at some point in our lives from our upbringing. I didn’t go for straight up “parental issues” because I don’t deal with like, abusive or absent parents or anything, just complicated relationships between parents and their children, but who still love each other. Oftentimes it has to do with one of the children idealizing the heck out of their parent and slowly realizing that they make mistakes and are not a hero at all, and/or unmeetable expectations and parental pressure. but it’s not like I’m projecting or anything lol

“You never knew Father, William,” Grace stopped him immediately [...]. “Don't you dare pretend you know what it's like.”

“Growing up without a father is not necessarily better than losing him in childhood! Everyone here has suffered from his disappearance, Grace. You have no idea how much I miss him, despite never meeting him. But that's all in the past now. And there's no reason for there to be another war.”

“Of course there is!” she retorted ferociously, despite the tears spilling from her eyes. “Of course there is, and they're going to send you there like Father, and you'll want to play hero like Father, and then you'll get shot down like a dog! Where's it going to be this time, huh? Above Luxembourg, just like him, or maybe somewhere in your beloved France?” (Translation)

3. patriotism

One way or another, all my stories always deal with patriotism, nationalism, pride in one’s country and more broadly speaking one’s relationship to it. It questions what it means to belong to a country, to share one culture, one language; does it justify acting in the benefit of one’s country, and where do you draw the line before you intentionnally harm others’; what even is a country, a nationality, and it what sense do you belong to one, and what do you owe it, if you even owe it anything? Is it wrong or right to feel love and attachment to your place of origin? And what does it mean to fight for your country, for its values, for its people? & other things of the like. It probably stems from my own experience as a binational person; growing up, I was always asked stuff like “but who do you root for in a football game” “but are you like really French or not?” “if Spain and France got into a war what would you do?”, and this all lead me to question “am I more French or am I more Spanish - which one am I, and which one would others perceive me to be - do I need to pick a side? And how can I express my affection to these places that raised me both differently, without undermining the other - or others? can I still be proud of my heritage given the horrors my countries have committed in the past?”. I still haven’t found a definitive answer, so my writing is just me throwing trails out to the world and hoping I’ll figure it out someday. that’s why my stories often have a war setting; firstly I just love historical fiction, and secondly it’s the perfect backdrop for all these questions to unfold.

William laughed at the idea - he, a true Frenchman! It was a very silly thought. He may have loved what he had seen of Charlotte's country, but England was not to be ashamed of any other land, for it was the only one he would love until his last breath. (Translation.)

4. just a hint of supernatural

I love me a good ghost story, and I’m a fan of everything spooky, but what’s subtly spooky, and not the gory, in-your-face horror. This particular theme may have increased since I saw The Haunting of Hill House which completely OBLITERATED ME with how it uses the house and its ghosts to tell a story of family and trauma and memories... but I’ve loved ghost stories forever. Another piece that truly resonated with me was One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien años de soledad) by Gabriel García Márquez. It was my first dive into the world of magical realism and I didn’t make it out of there the same person I was when I entered. This one is not necessarily included in every piece without fail, because some are just too anchored in reality, but if it’s not a straight-up spirit or an otherworldly creature, I’ll always find a way to include an aspect of superstition, a myth, a legend, a tale from faraway that is neither proved nor disproved throughout the story. It truly adds to the atmosphere of the world, even in a very realistic and gritty setting, I believe.

I hear murmurs of legends among the soldiers. [...] One of those stories caught my attention, I must admit... It is not very special, nothing more than a children's tale, but I thought it was beautiful enough to please your Romantic soul. Some pilots speak of a cemetery, somewhere in the countryside north of London, which has something mystical about it, lost in the flowers that sway as far as the eye can see, in the calm rhythm of the wind, wrapped in the heady scent of eternal spring, and where the bravest warriors would go to rest forever, tired of their exploits and the continual explosions. No one knows exactly where it is or what to do to be buried there, but this beautiful image simply floats like a dream in the minds of many and, I confess, in mine as well since I first heard about it.

It is said that there only flowers dare to disturb the heroes in their sleep... This fragment of silence is called the Grave of the Roses.

So if I were to leave you, if you were to hear that I am gone...

With a bit of luck, that is where you will find me.

5. love

this one is broader and less obvious than you might think. Of course, I’ll always, always implement an element of romance to my story (and more often than not it’s angsty with star-crossed lovers or insurmountable obstacles or forbidden romances and whatnot), but there’s more to it. I don’t think I have ever written a story that is entirely grim and bleak, simply because I do not believe the world is built like that. I’ve said time and time again that love is my favorite thing in the world, and I believe it is the force that drives us all forward and connects us all together; love is, to me, the truest power of humanity, and its inherent purpose. And love covers all subjects and all types of relationships, but my absolute favorite ways to explore and show love in my stories is through long-lasting, rock-solid friendships (because friendships are often overlooked both in fiction and real life), and just a grandiose love letter to humanity as a whole. I’m an optimist, and many people who have suffered more than I have would deem me naive for thinking this - and I cannot blame them -, but as Anne Frank put it more bravely than I ever could, “despite everything, I still think humans are good at heart”. My stories are always born out of love and made for love. For the love of humanity and kindness and literature and love of myself, too, because sometimes I just like rereading the words and thinking, “wow, I’ve made it this far. look at me go.” In a word, yes, I would say that is what it boils down to; my work, but also what I hope my entire life and being will be. An ode to love.

“He admired you and truly loved you, you know. You were a good leader, I'm sure, and a good friend, above all.”

He thought she was going to put her hand on his shoulder, and prepared to bend to avoid it, but instead she came to rest on the polished marble of the tomb, which was already beginning to erode at the corners. The soft light bathed her hand, and Samuel's on the other corner, still resting above William's surname, the only thing he had been proud of from beginning to end.

“And I loved him too. I loved them all. If you only knew...”

well, I got carried away, as I always do when talking about my writing, but it made me miss it so much. I haven’t worked on any of my projects since literally October and I’m feeling the void rn. anyway, thank you again for enabling me to ramble about what I love most, Thais! and I’m tagging @softeninglooks, @lxncelot, @myriadimagines​, @swanimagines & @randomfandomimagine + plus any writer who wants to talk about their marvelous work <3

[sunhowler]

i usually don't add things in reblogs like this but this would be really unwieldy to put in the tags i think, lol. so i might as well say it here.

this is pretty much where i stand on all this too. i feel like i have a unique perspective as an ftmtf detrans person, especially an ftmtf detrans butch lesbian. i'm still very much perceived as a man in my everyday life, since, y'know, facial hair doesn't disappear and boobs don't grow back and all that. i'm perfectly fine with the way i look but getting people to understand me as not a man and something vaguely more like a woman despite my appearance and the way i dress and carry myself is so difficult that i really don't bother unless it's friends, classmates, or professors. then, if they don't know my history, they'll perceive me as transfem, and specifically a type of transfem that people refuse to respect or understand. one that's perfectly fine with her masculine traits but still insists that manhood has nothing to do with her. this is all to say that i've experienced what people call "transandrophobia" and transmisogyny both and they're very different, but they're also inseparable from misogyny. when i was a binary transmasc teenager just starting my transition, i faced transphobia centered around the idea that trans men are just stupid, confused, self-hating girls jumping on a trend for attention. transmisogyny paints me and other transfems as dangerous, perverted, strange men who want to taint the cultural concept of pure womanhood for sick pleasure. it's always about what trans people do to femininity or how they react to their own femininity that transphobes find the most objectionable and repellant. that's why the specific phrase "transandrophobia" rubs me the wrong way... transmisogyny is the specific intersection of misogyny and transphobia against perceived transfems that creates a wholly new ideology, but androphobia is not a thing on any wider societal scale. there is no intersection of androphobia and transphobia because the former doesn't exist. as a whole, trans men are shunned for betraying womanhood. and while there is a contingent of people who whine about them perverting manhood (which, i'd also like to point out, comes from the perception of women as lesser than men), it's so infinitesimally small compared to the misogyny-based hatred. i don't think anyone's denying that transmascs face a form of transphobia that's different from transmisogyny (unless they are, in which case... they can get fucked maybe? god bless), i'm just a bit wary of the inclusion of "androphobia," because it kind of reads no different from "misandry" to me. this is all by definition an incredibly semantic argument but i feel like it's important that we don't distract from the fact that all this has roots in misogyny, and using a term that's essentially the polar opposite of it and slapping "trans" on top of it feels like a step in the wrong direction. i don't have a solution for this, really, but i do kind of like your tag "transmascphobia" because transmasc refers to the actual group of people that this term is for. so it reads less as "the way trans people experience misandry" and more "the way this specific set of trans people face transphobia," which is what everyone is trying to get at in the first place.

i know words have meanings that you wouldn't expect just from looking at them all the time, but if we can make a term that's actually clear, why shouldn't we?

i think there’s an interesting discussion to be had about how white able bodied straight gender conforming trans men (notice how many caveats i had to add to that) benefit from male privilege, but i feel like a lot of the discussion regarding trans men’s oppression or “lack’” thereof ignores the fact that while passing trans men experience male privilege in day to day life, there’s a systemic bias against us that stems from misogyny and transphobia directed specifically against trans men.

we aren’t viewed strictly as women, but we’re not viewed as men either (in the general societal view, not the day to day interactions). we’re viewed as failed women or ‘things’ and degendered entirely, an experience that a lot of queer people face.

i’m apprehensive about the term ‘transandrophobia’ because while our oppression is intrinsically tied to our manhood, it’s not experienced in the same way transmisogyny is. i don’t think it has to be to warrant its own term but people may misunderstand it as the ‘guy form of transmisogyny’ rather than the unique experience it is itself.

idk. just rambling thoughts on trans men and our oppression. its a really interesting topic to think about with how our manhood intersects with our oppression, given that manhood is usually thought as a privileged class, but in trans men specifically’s case, i think its more complicated.

this is far far far from all my thoughts on the topic, and if anyone has their own feel free to chime in! its something im very passionate about and a topic i find fascinating.

[tthael]

Hi, english is not my first language so if I don't make any sense you know why. I'm sorry if i gave you the wrong impression with my ask.I've never read the book so "the shape" of these characters for me personally comes from the movie where Richie is gay. I've recently found out that people that read the book consider him bi. That's why when i read a fic where it's not explicitly stated i always wonder. I saw that you have a tumblr so i was like why not ask.

Hi nonny! Thank you for coming back to clarify, I’m sorry for the defensive tone of my response. Thank you very much for reading my stuff. Nothing about the phrasing of your question was what made me respond that way, just the topic, because I know it’s a hot button issue in fandom at the moment. Nobody wants to be responsible for erasing a sexual minority or a canonical sexual identity--and while in the book Richie’s sexuality is only coded, I’ve been told that André Muschietti explicitly stated that the film portrayal of Richie is gay. So of course, I think that film!Richie is portrayed as gay, and if I were to write Richie based on the film alone, I most likely would write him as gay.

The thing is, I don’t really write exclusively film!Richie. I think that there’s a very rich vein of characterization to be found in the book, which is of course door-stoppingly long, and compared to the limited amount of screentime the movies could spend on each of the Losers, not to mention the changes to their backgrounds the films made (looking at you, tween!Ben who suddenly morphs into adult!Mike), I like to pull from the greatest evidence pool available. That’s why I like to include the teenage werewolf, I like to include Stan’s bird book of North America, I like to include Eddie’s fascination with cars and trains and other mechanical transportation, I like to include Bev’s mother as having been alive during Bev’s childhood, I like to include Ben’s outrunning the track team out of spite, I like to include Bill’s uncanny charisma and his compelling nature, and I like to include Mike with a kinder more curious childhood than he’s allowed in the film. Also, I studied literature in college and I’m just more comfortable with analyzing that than I am analyzing film.

I also really liked the film casting for the adult Losers! It’s very shallow of me but I like how they look, I think they’re all very attractive, and I’m more interested in writing with their physicalities in mind than I am in, say, the actors for the 1990s miniseries. This is a personal preference, just because I myself do not enjoy Bill’s ponytail or Richie’s mustache or Bev as a brunette. I’ve also only ever seen clips of the miniseries. And honestly, I like Bill Hader as Richie in glasses, despite book!Richie wanting to wear contacts as an adult; I find without glasses I have difficulty perceiving him as the character. So I can’t claim to be a book purist--I like writing about the 2016 setting and those are mostly the faces of the Losers I see in my head. I tweak them sometimes--I don’t think I’ve written Richie with blue eyes yet, for example.

So I blend the canons when I decide what to draw on for the fic. That means that, for me, unless it’s explicitly stated, I probably don’t have an intention one way or the other when I write Richie’s sexuality. So far I’ve always written him as a man who loves men, and always as involved and in love with Eddie. I know that for some people that won’t be good enough, that for some people it’s very important to them to see their characters explicitly identify as one label or the other, but I’m afraid that just isn’t a priority for me in my portrayals.

This is informed by 2 things: 1) I like to write the Losers as 40-year-old adults in 2016, and we know that Richie produces a host of problematic content in his career. This of course shouldn’t mean that my portrayal of Richie /should/ be problematic and that’s not my intention--instead, I’m suggesting that when I write Richie, I write a lot about self-loathing and internalized homophobia, and so I focus a lot more on his attraction to men, which in my fic he’s usually not comfortable with, than any potential/past attraction to women. Of course I don’t feel that self-loathing is the necessary response to same-sex attraction, but I also think of the Losers as adults of a certain age who might not always be accurate or thoughtful in discussing the changing world of sexual identities (finding words for them specifically, filling the lexical gap).

I wrote a scene in Things That Happen After Eddie Lives where Richie runs across a gender non-conforming person and initially reads them as female, but then during the conversation remembers that isn’t always the case these days and switch to trying to avoid pronouns for them or trying to refer to them with gender neutral pronouns. But Richie and Eddie still call Jordan and Sarah lesbians, without asking whether they’re a romantic pairing of two bisexual people, or without considering that Jordan might be a man. Richie even wonders if “girlfriend” is being used romantically or platonically the way that women of previous generations do. I have a bead on Jordan’s and Sarah’s identity--but only because Jordan’s me! I think that, as a man born in 1976, growing up extremely closeted, and never engaging in the wider discussion around LGBTQ culture in a constructive way, Richie might be prone to simplification. This, of course, doesn’t mean I’m opposed to a Richie who openly identifies as strictly gay or strictly bi!

2) The second thing that informs the ambiguity of my portrayal of Richie’s sexuality is my own experience with my sexuality and gender. I am closeted in real life. In recent years I have tried a number of identities that, at the time, I believed to fit, but the labels were never clear-cut for me. I am coming to accept, slowly, that in the same way the physical body doesn’t grow to exact neat clean specifications, I might never be able to describe myself accurately and totally in one term. That’s all that I’m willing to share about my experience at this time. My personal philosophy is much like the one Eddie professes when he comes out in Indelicate: it doesn’t seem important to me that people know my preferences unless I’m a) sleeping with them or b) actively dating and trying to put myself out there.

Again, some people have completely different experiences! For some people being closeted is intolerable and having an identity--a word for what they are--really helps them self-actualize and live their truth! For some people, they’re very excited about their identity and participate in Pride events and take joy in asserting that this is who they are to the world! For some people, they never have the awareness that this or that idle feeling might mean they actually /don’t/ fit with how the world sees them. And while I’m a great advocate of self-exploration (comes of being vain as I am), some people don’t do that, and that’s fine!

I know that ambiguity is not a neutral answer when it comes to these questions. In the summer of 2019 when the Good Omens miniseries was released, many fans reached out to author Neil Gaiman asking for confirmation that the angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley were gay. Gaiman said, “Theirs is a love story.” He said, “They’re not human and I can’t ascribe human sexual identity to them.” He said, “My coauthor is deceased and I can’t make such confirmations without him.” (These are not direct quotes and I don’t have sources, I’m sorry, it’s been a year.) This was not satisfactory to all parties. For some people explicit confirmation of that gender identity is important. And why shouldn’t it be? Their own is important to them.

But I’m from a school of literary analysis where I welcome different interpretations of my works, which are in this case of course derivative and dependent on evidence from the canons I draw on. I write Richie in love with Eddie, and that’s enough for me. If it’s not for the reader, either I feel there’s ample room to interpret my Richie the way they prefer--not just limited to gay or bi! After the first sex scene in TTHAEL Richie is stunned by how he enjoyed that far more than any other sexual encounter he’s ever had, and I think that’s welcome to interpretations of Richie with demisexuality /or/ Richie just finally having fulfilling sex with a man because he’s gay or bi /OR/ Richie has had good sex before but this was just WAY better because he likes sex better when he’s in love with his partner. And every portrayal of Richie I write is slightly different, so Richie from Indelicate might have different sexual attraction/orientation than Richie from Automatic - Mechanical - Pneumatic or Richie from TTHAEL. BUT I don’t want to say that my interpretation is the only valid one--just know that when I write Richie, I write him as a man in love with another man. If I were to write a story about Richie involved with someone other than Eddie, I would tag for it up front.

Again, I know this is a very long answer and probably not as concise or clear as you might like it to be. Thank you so much for coming back around to explain your logic, I apologize for my wariness the first time around, thank you for asking these questions in good faith. “Why not ask” is of course the simplest way to settle an issue and I don’t want to discourage anyone from asking me questions about my fic. If there are other things you have questions about, please don’t hesitate to ask, either here or by sending me a private message, I  don’t mind either way.

[alo-piss-trancy]

(( A Dead Dove Warning before anything else: please read the tags on the ao3 post to decide if this fic is for you!

ALSO BIG PLOT SPOILERS FOR D/R TR/IGGER HAP/PY HA/VOC!!!

~~~

'For the mission to succeed, M/ukuro I/kusaba must look like, talk like, and behave like J/unko E/noshima, or at least the J/unko E/noshima her classmates perceive the Ultimate Model to be... But no matter how hard she tries, she can't seem to manage a perfect mirror. She's always a little off. An ugly, distorted reflection. Just as she's always been.

J/unko offers to help her with that. Especially when it comes to the most important part of being a convincing double and manipulating their classmates...

M/ukuro I/kusaba is getting everything she's ever wanted. And it's far more than she bargained for...'

~~~

So this is an odd fic to post during this month lmao, it wasn't what I was planning, just what draft got finished first haha. Some good old-fashioned Despaircest that was supposed to be for FemFeb. It's unhealthy, it's angsty, and it's smutty. The trifecta of my personal garbage fire 🔪💔🔥💅

I can't believe this ship is canon. I was already shipping it anyway but I love that it is. J/unko is such an impeccable villain and M/ukuro makes me so sad. It's perfect. ))

PREVIEW: This felt strange. She'd yet to really investigate down there since J/unko had made her wax everything bare. The skin had only really healed in the last week, and while she'd admittedly thought about it in curiosity, she'd never had the time (or nerve) to go through with it. She'd worn skirts for school before, but not this short, and not with her legs completely smoothed, and with her scars covered in waterproof makeup. It was a foreign body, and she'd never felt so vulnerable.

Her reflection's eyes were boring into her, with a smirk that was growing wider with every heartbeat. Her fingers formed a 'V' and pulled delicate pink folds apart. A blooming rose if she'd ever seen one, with the faintest trail of nectar already seeping out. Careful to only use the pad of her thumb, J/unko sought out the bud at the top, caressing it fondly. 

Every stroke sent another shudder up her spine, her breath growing uneven. Her eyes threatened to slip closed, but she fought the impulse, even as her strokes grew rougher, sloppier. Waves of pleasure washed through her, her hands trembling as she started to dip a cautious finger inside. 

"God, your cunt's wetter than a slobbering dog's mouth… Which makes sense, since you're always looking at me like a slobbering dog."

Her hand froze mid-stroke, the flames that had started to stoke in her stomach wavering. In one icy breath, J/unko had threatened to blow them out. "I-I do?"

"Oh come on, don't try to play dumb, you dumbass! This is your freakin' wet dream, isn't it? I've seen the way you used to sneak peeks when I was changing. You thought you were quiet in the bathroom, or under your covers at night, but I could totally hear you rubbing one out. In love with your own sister…" J/unko broke from her position and leaned forwards, all big eyes and a pouting mouth as she put on her cutesie persona. "Youw sweet, innowcent wittlew sistew!" As the aching, burning shame crept into her core, a sharp cackle erupted from the true blonde, echoing around the room. "YOU SICK, TWISTED FUCK!!!" The snake's tongue hissed at her, and the worst part was, it only stoked the fires in her core to burn hotter. She wanted that tongue deep between her legs, no matter how much nausea churned in her stomach. "God knows I've done some messed up shit, but at least I never fantasized about molesting a little girl! You are so goddamn gross!"

She could argue with J/unko. She could point out that, yes, while she was the older of them, they were in the same grade, for one. That they were twins. She could point out that if their goal was to create a world of beautiful despair, a world without any morals, then there technically wouldn't be any laws about incest anymore. Or same sex relationships. And even if there were, when had they ever cared about following laws, or the social rules of common decency?

But she said none of those things. She said nothing, letting the lashing whip that was J/unko E/noshima's seductive, acidic voice strip away every part of her. She took every fresh mark against her pride, let her sister rip her apart until there were tears on her cheeks and her chest felt like it was bleeding. 

And then, she found the pain in her chest belonged to the black, high-heeled boot pinning her to the floor. J/unko leered over her, and she tried to keep her eyes on the face above instead of the naked mound the skirt had ridden up to reveal. 

"You really do love being my bitch, don't you?" J/unko sneered. "That's the difference between us. I take charge. All you know how to do is serve whoever's holding you by the collar." And J/unko probably would have choked her by the collar too, if only they didn't have to avoid visible bruising. "Even now, you were only touching yourself because I ordered you to. I bet you haven't done anything in this outfit yet, even though you were itching to… Why not?" 

She couldn't find an answer, not one that would make sense to J/unko, at least. It was just as well that she couldn't, because J/unko didn't give her a chance to speak. Instead, the boot's weight was suddenly removed from her, and her sister dropped down to a crouch, snatching both of her wrists with one hand and pulling them over her head. She could have broken out of the grip as easily as breathing. Well, more easily, because breathing, it seemed, was suddenly a herculean task. She didn't break from J/unko's grip. 

"You really are useless for everything except for fighting..." J/unko sighed, looking incredibly disappointed, boredom draining whatever flush sex had brough to her cheeks earlier. Empty blue eyes stared down. "We'll never teach you anything at this rate. It's not sinking through your thick skull… You were sloppy and too forceful, you didn't match my face at all. Even porno actors would think you looked stupid and over the top."

"Sorry."

"Shut up. I don't wanna hear your mouth open unless it's a fucking orgasm."

[37h4n0l]

Oh great, so now a lowly anon can't even come to vent to the one person they think would understand their sentiments, because someone's going to feel offended and write you an essay on how it's 'not all YOI fans' instead of maybe, idk, acknowleding that there has to be something off about the fandom as a whole if so many people are already sick and tired of it (some even to the point of making anti-blogs, which I don't necessarily agree with, but at least can see where they're coming from).

And oh, about 91d being ‘hardly a brainpower draining masterpiece’ - sure, that is, if someone knows how to make a use of their brain in the first place, which apparently is too difficult of a skill for your average viewer, judging from how many people did not understand the ending or where it came from, completely misunderstood the characters, thought of Avilio and Corteo’s relationship as the central one to the plot etc. I guess your average brainpower may not be enough sometimes.

And here I am now, issuing an essay as well, because I want to express my position on this very clearly. (Massive longpost).

I’m sorry if my latest reply came off as hostile towards either side of this issue, I didn’t intend it to sound like that. For anyone to whom this is not understandable; this is about the fandom, which can many times be a big influence on how someone perceives the show as well. To put it in the simplest terms, seeing something over and over again everywhere makes you tired of it quickly, whether it’s about an entire franchise, a ship or a common fan theory or opinion. I will speak for myself; although I’m not as salty as you are, anon, I’m annoyed at how yoi and vikt/uuri are all over the place. Mostly when they keep appearing in other fandoms’ tags (the one where it went the furthest would be the ks tag, that hellish corner of tumblr). The ��not all’ part is included in all this. If I decided to go after every yoi fan, I’d be going after people I like, followers and friends of mine. 

I don’t think I have enough involvement in the yoi fandom to start denouncing its failures internally. I’m part of this weird group of people who liked certain things in yoi, maybe watched it as it aired, thought it was an okay-ish show but got over it quickly and didn’t keep obsessing. I think a line needs to be drawn between behaviour that simply pisses us off personally and more ‘objective’ problems (I put it in quotation marks to refer to things that are a nuisance to a wider group of people). 

Things I personally don’t like: Vikt/uuri ship dynamics, simply because I’ve seen way too many ships like that already and I find them boring due to the lack of angst. Yk’s lack of character development and how the fandom still pretends there was one, as if it could be settled by simply making a stereotypically ‘nerdy’ character do a cool thing out of the blue. The way there’s a yoi or vikt/uuri AU for literally everything, every fandom and every ship. This fandom idea about vn and yk being yp’s ‘parents’, ignoring yp’s anger and disappointment towards vn and antagonism towards yk. I must emphasize how I’m not sitting in front of a computer screaming in utter rage at these things; it goes more like me sighing deeply and going like ‘not again’. 

Wider problems: CALLING PEOPLE WHO DISLIKE YOI HOMOPHOBIC. I want to underline this at least thirty times. Calling yoi progressive, innovative and a pioneer of gay representation while hating on fujoshis and the yaoi/shonen-ai genre. Yoi is (sorry for putting it bluntly) a fusion between a sports anime and a shonen-ai, except the latter would at least have explicit gay romance, while the vikt/uuri kiss was declared by the author to be ‘up for interpretation’. SHIPBASHING, especially the one against otay/uri for it supposedly being underage. Spamming another fandom’s tag with complaints about how yoi is much better than that particular thing (coughKScough) even if it’s an entirely different genre.

I’m reserving a separate paragraph for the Crunchyroll Awards shitstorm. I don’t have a very definite position on anime awards in general and how they should be held (if there’s even an objective way to do that), and while my personal annoyance towards the CR ones persists, I’m not surprised it went the way it went considering it was based on audience votes. Still, calling yoi ‘anime of the year’ is a bit of a stretch. I would’ve personally worded it differently, maybe ‘most popular anime of the year’ or ‘audience favourite’ or something like that. The ‘art is subjective’ versus ‘quality’ debate is a very complicated one. Someone could say that since a lot of people liked yoi, that must mean there was something about it in which it exceeded other anime; and while it’d be hard to pinpoint what that is, we should consider that good PR plays a great role in this as well - being able to target the right audience at the right time and advertise in a compelling way. I remember the times before yoi was released, when all we had was the trailer including the infamous ‘only I know your true eros’ scene; plenty of people were already sold back then. Of course, when you have high expectations of something, you won’t start watching it as some overly analytical movie critic to nitpick every detail. People like their expectations to be fulfilled. Besides the overall quality, there are other things to argue about, and what is often brought up is the animation. Consider: if someone was asked whether yoi had the best animation in 2016, you’d expect them to admit it didn’t, wouldn’t you? And yet yoi won the animation award - by popular vote. We can argue whether it’s more fair to have a committee in the judging process, but letting the audience vote has a downside; mainly that votes won’t always be used as intended. Crazy hypothesis; could it, perhaps, be that a lot of people were emotionally attached to yoi and voted for it in every category? Popular vote is what leads to initiatives being cancelled when 4chan decides to troll them, it leads to Boaty McBoatface and things like that. 

Now, after this huge rant, let’s move on to what happened in the 91d fandom. In my opinion, it’s not like people didn’t have the ability to understand - they didn’t want to. Simply because they perceived avil/ero (let’s censor this word as well for safety) as ‘problematic’ and preferred to ignore the role it played in the plot. It doesn’t elevate people who understood the ending above anyone, it just shows that somehow a lot of people have a very biased view on this - some for not wanting angst to exist, others for not wanting homosexuality to exist - and it results in a huge chunk of the fandom ignoring hints. If yoi was blown up by PR, 91d had the opposite problem; it’s hard to tell whom such a show should be targeted at, so they didn’t go with a precise demographic, they just released material and waited to see who was attracted to it. Is 91d for Fujoshis ™? The hints at gayness are too subtle for that. Is it for people interested in the plot and not the emotional side? How do you explain the last episode and the ending to them? Maybe this is also the reason why the fanbase is so unusually small. 91d is just hard to categorize, that’s the conclusion I came to - and people want it to belong to already existing tropes very desperately, which is where the reaches come from. 

As for this entire discussion; anyone is always welcome on my blog to give their two cents on it, anon or not. All I want to avoid is 1) anyone attributing malicious intent to me 2) people assuming I think things that I haven’t explicitly stated.

[unironicallycringe]

Oh hell yeah @creamkirin

Since the other ones were in the tags, I'll put those basics here and add further thoughts. It's basically all the same as those tags tho.

but yea so anyways there are four main genders in orq'otish gerudo culture. vai and voe of course but then also voie and vei. voie is basically an umbrella term for any sort of polygender and vei is an umbrella term for any sort of agender. there just happen to be less voe but they're not disallowed.

also the gerudo clothing being revealing and ill suited to the weather is only a thing for wealthier ppl. bcuz they don't have to wander around in the fucking sand and heat and can lounge instead doing hashtag hot girl shit

I've seen other people do the vai/voe/vei/some different word thing too, so that's not a Shea Original™️ of course. Lowkey I didn't want gender divides to be a huge thing in Orq'otish Gerudo, so I just dropped that stuff in without much fanfare. Just "oh, your boss is a bit voe and vai? sort of voie then, cool, this is a normal gender expression to me, so anyways" and then one of Shenbar's friends being voe without some sort of record scratch Ganondorf moment.

Basically, my overall Gerudo gender headcanon is like...they just happen to have a different sex ratio and cultural perception of gender than Hylians are used to. It's not some magical thing I guess, and I don't like the implication that Hot Exotic Brown Women are obsessed with finding A White Hylian Man to reproduce with. So I'm just like, fuck it they have kids with each other. "Shea how does that work, don't you need a man and woman to be able to reproduce" nah I don't feel like doing that. They can do it just because. Most of the time their children are physically feminine, at least as perceived from a non-Gerudo perspective. (I also like Scopophobia-Polaris' interpretation that the Gerudo we see in OoT are part of a minority sect which places strong emphasis on strict gender roles, but that not every Gerudo is like that.)

And clothes headcanon!! While "harem pants" (ex: sarouels) and bandeaus still make appearances, I just imagine there's wider variety for both comfort and fashion. Like, less covering is fine in hot weather...if you get to vibe in shade a lot, you know? Otherwise you're gonna get burned to hell regardless of how much melanin you got. (Source: am brown and I used to occasionally hang out while half-dressed in hot arid climates). So in my mind, you'd see a lot more headscarves and shawls and loosely flowing linen rather than "BRA, PANTS, HEELS, DONE" in the working populace.

Uhhh what else. Oh "Gerudic". Just the word. Gerudic is the adjective and language rather than it all just being called Gerudo like in canon. Idk I like the distinction.

I'm still sorting out Sand Goddess headcanons. I don't think we've even seen depictions of her since TP? rip to a real girlboss. But I like her and think she should be a thing. So i guess the headcanon is that the Sand Goddess exists still lol.

Tldr: I don't like Nintendo's weird Gerudo vibes even though I also love the Gerudo because in my heart I am still a child pointing at the TV and saying "they're like me and they're cool desert warriors!"

man I just kinda sometimes think about how they wrote canon gerudo Like That and then I'm like "whew, glad I have fanfiction so that I can pretend the gerudo are Not Like That"

[cheeseanonioncrisps]

I feel like 'step back from fandom in general' is a bit much. Like, you don't have to engage with media better, if it isn't not homework. You definitely do get more out of it if you take the time to analyse the whole work and think about the wider themes, but if you just want to focus on the (perceived or otherwise) relationship between your two favourite characters, then that's also chill.

Having said that, fandom needs to get a fucking sense of proportion about shipping.

Specifically stop:

Writing fic in which you absolutely demonise the canon love interests and partners that get in the way of your OTP, and then harassing the Real Life People who like those characters and the canon ships, because you've somehow conflated your ultra-demonised version and the canon one, and decided that everyone who likes them must be in favour of abuse and puppy-eating.

Assuming people must be homophobes for not shipping the fandom flagship, or for shipping it asexually or queerplatonically. Yes, some people are homophobes, but there are so many other reasons why somebody might ship differently to everyone else. Maybe they actively dislike one half of the pairing for whatever reason. Maybe they just see better chemistry with another character. Maybe they just got sick of all the attention around the main ship and have deliberately decided to go against it! There are so many reasons that aren't homophobia.

Shipping canonically aspec characters with no regard for their identities. Specifically, I hear about this a lot with aro characters. Yes, queerplatonic relationships are a thing, no not every aro has/wants them and no they are not just 'romantic relationships but with a footnote'. Like, if you're not willing to do your research about these things, then you're basically just erasing a character's canon identity because you think it would be cuter if they could date people.

(Also, pet peeve of mine: while I can't tell people what to write, does anyone else find it super irritating when you finally find something with a canon aro main character and then you go to the tag on AO3 and… there is pretty much no content that isn't just their allo friends having various relationships with them as a side character? You never realise how totally uninterested fandom is in platonic relationships until that point.)

Shipping real, sentient people and then pressuring them to get together irl. Those people are alive, with free will, and many of them have existing relationships that they are already perfectly happy in! Don't try to bully strangers into fucking each other because you think it would be hot, you utter creep! I promise you, even if there is potential for a relationship there, pressure from fans will not make anything happen faster.

(And, frankly, this is one scenario in which I whole heartedly agree with OP. If you are incapable of engaging with real life human beings without aggressively shipping them against their will, and often to their active discomfort, then you probably should step away from fandom for a while.)

How do I tell people that sometimes if you turn your shipping brain off you can interact with media better

[ladybirdwithoutdots]

You are taking it (extremely) personally when I honestly did not. Op made a post and tagged it making it visible to a wider audience than their followers, I replied like it's normal for people to do and I didn't even disagree with the main point fir I myself don't like that portrayal. There is nothing passive aggressive in my replies because where I wanted to, I called OP out on the fact they keep making posts that come across as making it a competition between an old adaptation they favor and the one currently popular, well knowing that people track the tags to find content. I didn't say any lie, lol, because OP did make some "Emma 2009 did it better than Emma 2020" posts. Sue me for noticing the pattern. How are people supposed to know op didn't watch the other adaptations, anyway? Now, apparently you decided to misrepresent what I said and start personally attacking me in a clear display of huge coherence (insert passive aggressive sarcasm here) given you are accusing me of doing exactly what you ended up doing yourself. Congrats. If I wanted to be a passive aggressive bitch I'd insinuate, now, that you are just using this post as a pretext to attack me (thus you don't really care about op for your reaction seems disproportionately annoyed given no one was attacking you and it wasn't even your post) because maybe I hit a nerve with what I said about your fav adaptation. That's what happens, criticizing Emma 2020 is all fair and good for some of you but the moment people point up that the adaptation you consider perfect is not like that for others either, it's a problem and people are accused of trying to stir shit in posts that, ironically, are the ones that started doing that if anything. I personally only criticize Emma 2009 when replying to/as a response to the shit I read some of its fans say about other adaptations. I mentioned that thing about Emma's characterization, btw, in context of me explaining why I don't feel like nitpicking or caring about how adaptations handle secondary characters when they are often a hit and miss with the protagonist, that is the aspect I care more about and is more a source of frustration, if anything, for me. I don't have energy to focus much on the rest if they don't get the main thing right for me.

- the "sorry if my comments are longer than a SMS" is a response to YOU being passive aggressive by pointing up my posts are too long ("long ass post" etc) essentially painting this aspect of my writing as an issue or something when it's just the way I express myself, especially because English isn't my native language. So yeah, sorry I write posts too long for you but you aren't forced to read anyway. We aren't all the sane, some people have more points and arguments to make.

- you have no credibility accusing me of being a bully when 1) you are acting like a bully yourself and pretty much doing everything you accuse me of doing, including mispresenting what I said. 2) I have no issues with other fans, I only occasionally reply to the posts that put the two adaptations into a competition. Your big trouble with me essentially boils down to the simple fact I don't shut up, lol, which you perceive as me ruining the party of the Emma 2009 fans who want to criticize the 2020 movie in peace. Add the fact I unfortunately have no issues pointing up the flaws in your fav adaptation if provoked, it's not so hard to understand what's your issue with me even when I actually never replied to posts you made yourself. Not all Emma 2020 fans are vocal like me, yes, most notice, may be annoyed (I know some that are, especially when people attach unsolicited bashing and competition to gifsets ) but ignore you all which, of course, you prefer. I'm not the one starting shit here for everything I say is always a response to other people baiting shit.

- this whole "we don't go in your posts to stir shit" argument is ridiculous. My posts only talk about Emma 2020, I'm not trashing other adaptations to say 2020 is superior, and even when I mention Emma 2009 (like on my post about Emma) it is always a response to posts by Emma 2009 fans that criticize the 2020 version. (the Emma post for example was in response to a post I didn't even reply to. If I had to reply to every post here..) There is a big difference here but nice try equating Emma 2020 or other fans (including Emma 2009 ones) who just make positive content about what they like with the behaviour of some of your fellow Emma 2009 fans who make it a competition and provoke drama with it.

- I don't get your point about 2020 Mr Knightley and how him running after her carriage, or having a meltdown at his home because he thinks she doesn't love him back, does soften him or (my point) tones down his "Emma critic" role more than 2009 when the latter has more moments (invented too) where he's friendly/nice with her, generally giving a more laid-back friendly energy than his book counterpart has at the beginning of their story. Where is the correlation with my actual point (the critic role is preserved in 2020, his confession scene feels authentic in the part where he feels sorry because he does spend a lot of their interactions criticizing her or arguing with her) and what I said about Emma 2009 (the character) and the fact Emma is the most altered in adaptations because they simply cannot accept she's an unlikable woman at first but she has character growth.

The different approach Emma 2009 and Emma 2020 are taking on the marriage of Emmas sister/Knightley brother still blows me away

In Emma 2020 they are so deeply unhappy and literal hate each other, in Emma 2009 they have their problems but then in the finale scene hug each other and grin like idioits

Emma 2020… WHY?!