#or is this just the confirmation for me being aromantic

[notproofread]

A Court of Mist and Fury pt. 4

Or Somehow its not getting better

hi & hello fellow book-lovers and/or fans of the ACOTAR/ACOMAF-series. I have another part for you about A Court of Mist and Fury. Maybe by now you can tell how many thoughts I had about this book lmao. Anyways this is just my opinion on the matter and should not be taken as the only truth. If you want to you can leave your opinion in the comments or send me a message and we can talk more about it :) But for now let's get back into it.

We have some more Characters to discuss: Nesta, Elain and Lucien. And while we are at it I will also leave you a rant about ships

First things first (and don't get angry with me now): Nesta and Elain are pretty boring up until now. While I have to say that their involvement in the story in ACOMAF is more solid I am still a bit iffy because of ACOTAR. They were introduced to the reader as pretty much useless, rather unlikeable women (hence why I was so happy when Mor and Amren were introduced because finally women who were cool <333) and only got a bit of redeeming when Feyre returned for a short time. But in her absence they got rich. hm. I don't know, something just feels off. Why were we presented with a Cinderella-Type-Story just for both sisters to play an (apparently) much bigger role in this and coming books? Am I really supposed to like them now? And damn how convenient it is that their father is never home lmao. Other than that I don't really have that many thoughts about them as individual characters because well they are kinda bland :/ But I will give Sarah J. Maas the benefit of the doubt for now, maybe both Nesta and Elain will be given more character, motivation and overall substance in the next part of the series.

Lucien on the other hand was amazing in the first book. Personally he is my second favorite after Rhys as of now. We only got to see bits and pieces of him, his backstory and his powers during the first book and even less of that now in ACOMAF, which I found pretty sad. And when he gets to have some "screentime" he gets guilt-tripped by Feyre (as if Tamlin is not his superior and closest friend, of course he would be loyal aaarrggghhhh). However as much as I would like him to have a bit more of a backbone, I can understand why he is staying so loyal to Tamlin, at least based on what we as readers know of him up until now. And yet I can't help to wish for a bit more to his character, more of what he was in the first book: fiery, cunning, cheeky; a fox. Not just Tamlin's pet, only wincing not opening his mouth, except when it comes to Elain.

Which leads me to the trope I hate most in books: the author feeling the need to couple up all of the main characters/all characters in the mc's close circle. And we're circling back to Nesta's and Elain's involvement in the story. Were they brought back from their rather plain existence in the human world and turned to Fae because they need to function as love interests for Cassian and Lucien? Why is Cassian so easily smitten by Nesta anyways? Because she is a cHaLlEnGe to him? Or did he also already have his mate-instincts activated without us knowing? Is the concept of a mate even really of romantic significance, when Lucien had a love interest before in the Autumn Court? Why would Fae even bother to date other people when they can't feel that they are their mates? Because as I understood it the Fae are immediately able to feel if someone is their mate, like Rhys did for Feyre and Lucien for Elain. Or is it just the man feeling this first? The concept of finding your mate is actually something I really like, destined lovers is so cute and asdfghjkl BUT in this universe the extent of this concept is still very much unclear to me as you may have noticed.

Guys, idk about you but I personally do not like it, when every Character needs to end up in a romantic relationship. Is that really the end-goal? If something is turning me off of the next books it's this trope of romance-everywhere, especially when it's this destined lovers one. Because in and of itself that trope is amazing, but when the romantic partner becomes a characters only driving force in their life from this point on it gets old very quickly and most importantly undermines other characters traits a person very much should have. I don't know how SJM will handle this in the upcoming parts of the series. Because looking back at Feyre and Ryhsand I already feel as if their romance is now the focus, the driving force, especially for Feyre. Her thoughts seem to circle back to Rhys constantly as if her returning to the Spring Court would not have any other downsides than not being at Rhys' side. Shouldn't the trauma and fear she had experienced there be a bigger concern? At least at the beginning? Has Tamlin not realized that Feyre is not his mate? Doesn't that mean that there is a person out there that would be the perfect fit for him? Isn't that important enough for him to maybe rethink his actions? And why do I have the feeling that the only reason Lucien will show some backbone is because he has that weird, borderline creepy possessiveness towards Elain? Because let's be real being that possessive is not attractive even when Rhys does it.

[celtrist]

Hazbin & Helluva Vs. Aromanticism

(Aka: I have a problem with the Spindlehorse team about this, not shippers.)

(Also this is mainly about Alastor but can go for Octavia and Mammon too.)

Alright, so I've cleaned up this uh... rant, to make things a little more clear hopefully. But to summarize here, this is about the team's lack of commitment when every other character is allowed full confirmation of their orientations but these (potentially) aromantic characters aren't.

While I have no beef with shippers (I think you can ship whoever with whoever you want, I ship Alastor too on occasion), there is some conversation about how the fandom might be a bit of a reason WHY they "can't" be confirmed as aro. But again, my main problem is more with the showrunners than the fandom at this point about this.

I'll also be getting into why it's "important" and the double standards against characters being aromantic.

This is not an attack, ship however way you wish (again, I do it myself). My intent isn't really to stop the shipping, that would be ridiculous. But more so to give my thoughts on why it's BS characters like Alastor can't be confirmed as aromantic when other characters are allowed confirmed orientations.

I will start off by saying I don't mind the shipping of Alastor. While it's NOBODY'S business but mine, I suppose it's important to clarify that I'm someone who does currently identify as aroace. I might be wrong but who cares, it's how I think of myself now at least to some degree (I do after all still have fictional crushes. Real-life romance is not an interest for me though, don't like 'em).

I'm gonna get what I don't think people talk about enough on both sides of being for and against shipping Alastor, and then I'll talk about the shippers as they're (I realized) not my main issue at this point.

A little history: So Alastor has been long time confirmed as an ace character. He hasn't been confirmed as being sex-repulsed or anything, but I can personally say I don't mind either flavor of him being repulsed or favorable (though I imagine the series will lean towards the former to counter everyone else's sex-favorable attitude and for jokes). This statement was initially taken VERY poorly by fans who, at the time, were shipping radiodust and radiobelle/charlastor, one more than the other. Care to take a guess which? The answer will not surprise you.

But then people realized "Oh, asexual doesn't mean he COULDN'T get with someone" and people even went further to "Being asexual doesn't mean he CAN'T have sex", both very true statements. So shipping was back on the menus boys! And his asexual was certainly blurred a bit (to the point where it wasn't even him being sex-favorable asexual as much as just not asexual, something that still happens but certainly not as bad). But overall, people were taking his canonicity as asexual with as much grace as a duck.

So here's where MY problem comes in. While I have some gripes with shippers, I had an epiphany that "Oh. It's not really the shippers I have a problem with. It's the people WRITING THE DAMN CHARACTER". Which, might I just say, is so much worst.

The shippers, while they got annoying at some points and certainly can be still, are just having fun. Because shipping just happens to be the way most people like to interact with characters in the media they're into. Hell, I am no different. I just have the misfortune of only really getting into rarepairs most of the time (curse you my bizarre tastes). I've even shipped with Alastor, I like AngelicSmile/radiojoy quite a bit.

Back on track. Now, what do I mean by my main problem being with the writers more than the fans with this? Well, queue this darling of a clip about the topic (this is the only clip I've found of the live stream, feel free to watch the whole video but just wanted the clip here).

This. Single. Clip. Infuriates me.

Vivzi, while I'm sure not meant to, pretty much implied "Alastor being aromantic and 'non-shippable' would ruin people's fun". I'm sure she meant it as a way to keep others from policing shippers (which didn't work, it still happens), it really just reads as "a character being aromantic is not a fun character". Like there's something wrong with being aro.

Not to mention some other things that would contradict this statement:

Viv in the past said "fans are allowed to ship outside character orientations", so... what makes that so different here with confirming Alastor as aromantic?

It being confirmed is not relevant to the plot. Great, so is every other orientation not relevant. Why can't Alastor be confirmed as aromantic but Vaggie can be confirmed as a lesbian or Vox bi? What does Vox being bisexual have to do with the plot? Neither is relevant to the plot, but one can be confirmed but not the other?

People were gonna ship him ANYWAY. Like, there's really no point in pretending. They were going to anyway because of the first point I already mentioned, but also people ship against canon orientations ALL THE TIME. It's just gonna happen and there's nothing wrong with that in of itself.

You've kind of just implied it's canon by not wanting to say specifically him being aromantic is canon or not. If Viv had just said "I don't wanna confirm his romantic orientation because...", then this statement would be fine and fair I suppose. But she had to call out him being aromantic specifically. And I mean, he COULD be something else (he was slated to be a couple with Mimzy originally after all), but the context doesn't seem like that would be the case. Plus, would she really feel the need to hold back from saying "Alastor is homoromantic" or biromantic or heteroroman- actually yes for that last one probably.

So riddle me this, with these points, why the FUCK would it be so wrong to confirm Alastor as a canonically aromantic icon and help get MORE REP for this very very very VERY underrepresented orientation? And I've thought of a few reasons to this, one of which being to avoid the same backlash that they got for Alastor being ace. Which, DID HAPPEN WHEN THE VOICE ACTOR AND SOMEONE ELSE ON THE SHOW CONFIRMED ALASTOR AS AROMANTIC BUT BACKTRACKED ON THE STATEMENT.

To which, fine. THAT'S on the fans (especially as no one would've complained if he was confirmed as homoromantic, which is a double standard VERY PRESENT in this fandom, but also many others quite honestly). But I can see another reason is to avoid others policing shippers about it.

Which, if that's the case, shit luck it's happening anyway.

To cower away from this orientation because of fans being upset says a lot, both about the fans and the creators. There is a whisper of "Alastor isn't allowed to be aromantic". That "being aro isn't allowed or appreciated".

We live in a world that at this point has a lot more lgbtq+ characters than ever before. At this point, there's just a lot of gay/lesbian and bi characters, and that's wonderful. But, there's barely a handful of aroace characters. And when they are, nobody wants to pay attention to that part of the character. So why can't the deer man be aromantic? I would imagine it would honestly make things a little better ship wise because ship wars wouldn't occur seeing as, well, there's no ship to be fought for. None of them could be canon.

So you might see where I'm leading into this, but I can only really think of one real reason Alastor being aromantic just "can't be confirmed" where as everyone else's orientations can be.

His popularity. Like, that's weird but walk with me here. Alastor is the most popular character in the fandom. There's honestly no denying it, he just is. And what do people do with the most popular character?

THEY SHIP THEM OFF IN A LOVEBOAT.

But wait, if he's aromantic, he can't be on a love boat. THIS IS BS-

And then... the outcry. And we HAVE seen this happen. I mentioned before, he was stated to be aromantic on two occasions by two people who work on the show, one of which is his voice actor (which I'll be fair, I personally don't think VAs always know the characters they play the best, that's the writers). But they had to backpedal because people DID complain. People WERE upset. So it's kind of shown just aromantism isn't really welcomed, at the very least not for a character like Alastor.

And that's the key: "Not for a character like Alastor". But if it were say, Niffty or Mimzy who are either overlooked or just not very popular, THEN it's probably more than okay for a character to be aromantic. Because no one wants to ship with them much, so they can be aromantic all they want.

AKA. The aro community is allowed the scraps but not the dinner.

At this point, you've probably noticed I switched gears from the creators to the fans because I DO think they could be a reason why Alastor "can't" be confirmed as Aromantic. I'll give credit, I'm pretty sure it's mainly on twitter and wouldn't be surprised if it was a "loud minority" thing going on, but the people have spoken. They vehemently cannot STAND the idea of Alastor being aromantic.

But I don't have a problem with these people quite honestly- I mean I kinda do, but my main issue is the lack of commitment when the other characters are allowed confirmed orientations. Why can't aromantic people get confirmed rep? Because "it'll ruin people's fun?" That's such a crappy reason because it's just saying being aro is bad on some level or isn't okay. Why can't the aromantic community get the dinner this ONE TIME? It's one character in a pool of many others that are canonically gay or bi, so why can't the aro community have this ONE popular character?

I'm not even asking for people to stop shipping him, I think that's perfectly FINE. It wouldn't change the canon. I'd appreciate more LOVE given to the aromantic identity (and I'm talking about the far end of it, so absolutely NO interest in romance as many have used aro Alastor but it still comes off as just normal shipping, but that's just me). There's such a double standard to the treatment of aromantic characters to the other characters in these shows (because Octavia and Mammon are in the same boat here), and the reasons given are so crappy that they sound more like off-hand excuses.

Again, I don't MIND people shipping Alastor, or Octavia, or Mammon who is randomly shipped with Adam the most. Let me repeat:

YOU. ARE. ALLOWED. TO. SHIP. THESE. CHARACTER.

But what I have a problem with is that these characters aren't allowed to be OFFICIALLY aromantic. How would it feel if this was a gay character? That they didn't want to confirm it but there's been indications with past statements and even in-universe stuff indicating so? I WANT Viv and her team to STICK with what route they were gonna go with.

And some might argue "what's so bad with nothing being confirmed?" Other than the fact every other character's orientations are allowed confirmation and Viv's crappy way of putting it in not confirming anything. There's, by all technicalities, nothing wrong.

However, if I may pose a counter, why is it fair for people to demand or ask for gay representation or confirmation but not aromantic? Because it's "not ruining anything"? If that's the case, I'm inclined to say that may be a bit aphobic. Because how is it that a character being aromantic can "ruin" the character or something, but a character being gay DOESN'T "ruin" the character. It's a double standard that I don't think most people realize or want to say because you don't want to be dissing on gay stuff.

But WAKE UP SHEEPLE. The gay stuff has PLENTY of things by this point. Whether through fan works or official media, it is growing and it is growing rapidly. And we should be HAPPY about that. But alternatively, Aromantic (and asexual) rep BARELY gets any attention in either fan works or official media. People would be UPSET if a ship like Angel Dust X Vaggie or Stolas X Verosika got into one of the top most popular ships. But Alastor? Nah, it's fine.

Again, while I don't mind the shipping itself, hopefully, you can understand how it might feel to see one of the most popular ships involve a character that goes against their orientation and it's YOUR orientation. It doesn't. Feel. Great.

And not everyone who ships Alastor even would LIKE him to end up with who they ship. Some people just like it staying in fanon. I have met SO MANY nice people who ship Alastor with characters that I personally don't really like him shipped with. But it's clear that I don't think THEY'D mind if he was confirmed aromantic because it doesn't change their life. They'll still keep shipping him because that's fun for them and that's FINE. People explore themselves through characters with confirmed orientations and they don't always line up with canon, and that's FINE. I don't think people should be policed on shipping with the deer man, they're just having fun. Would I appreciate a little more love for the aro identity? Sure (I mean just look at Alastor's ship weeks activeness vs. his aro week activeness), but if that's not how people have fun they shouldn't be forced to do stuff with it.

But Alastor being seemingly "not allowed" to be confirmed as aro has set a precedent that there's something wrong with being aromantic. And personally, it makes me feel a tad unwelcomed sometimes.

It's the precedents. Again, why is every other character's orientation allowed to be confirmed but Alastor's isn't? What is so wrong with him being aromantic? Hell, he might not even BE aromantic. But at least I'd KNOW instead of floundering around hoping upon a star for some aromantic representation.

It's okay to be gay but- WHOA HOLD YOUR HORSES THERE. WE'RE GONNA HAVE TO PUT A PAUSE IN THAT ARO BUSINESS YOU GOT THERE.

A character's worth is in how shippable they are. And if they're aromantic, they're not shippable. And unfortunately, there are just enough people to throw a hissy fit about it that Viv doesn't want to confirm it.

Because apparently being aromantic would "ruin" things.

[radio-and-the-dirt]

dude i don't really care if people ship aroace characters just please acknowledge that they're aro and/or ace. like,, aro and ace people still can and do enter into relationships of various types at times and not every aro or ace person completely lacks attraction anyway and some date even if they do, so like, ship them if thats what you want but please just be respectful.

just acknowledge that the character is aro and/or ace. do some research about what that might mean for them if you need to. treat those characters in a way that respects their identities and doesn't completely brush them aside.

im just tired. we can be in relationships. we can not be in relationships. we are still aros and aces. dont try and erase what little representation we get.

i would like to note that i see things in this way because i have never seen a 'professional' writer (like non-fanfic or not a small online creator) specify where an aro/ace character sits on those spectrums or how they actually view relationships of any type. i've also never seen any 'professional' writer's characters get to explore or express that part of themselves enough in their stories to give much better an understanding than just "not really interested in sex or romance".

if a more specific understanding of a character was provided and it meant that that character wouldn't be involved in romantic and/or sexual relationships or was repulsed by them than yeah, I wouldn't want people shipping them at all but i dont think i've ever seen that so thats not what this is about.

[frogs-and-books]

I have to admit that it's so frustrating to me that people are doing this "He's canon ace but not canon aro" thing. It feels like people wanting to have it both ways at the cost aro people. If you're going to say only what's explicit in the text matters, then be honest with proper embrace of Death of the Author and disregard what Brennan said outside the context of the text. If you want to invest meaning in authorial intent, than be honest about the authorial intent with Riz. It's hard enough being aro in fandom as it is without people playing both sides of the fence on this

I'm sorry that there is a lack of aromantic representation, but you can't decide what the authorial intent was for the author. He could be aro! There's a lot of subtext and ways to read the story like that, but it's just as easy to read it as him being demiromantic or gray romantic or even just a late bloomer. Because of this, I can't confirm the authors intent unless he states it. I don't personally have an opinion on it, I just like Riz, and I'll like his character no matter what his sexuality is. I'm not going to disregard a statement from a cast member, especially when I doubt Brennan would have said without Murph's permission. That, to me at least, is confirmation of authorial intent.

I can understand why you're frustrated, but there aren't (or at least shouldn't be) sides. I'm simply saying that Riz is not canonically Aromantic, which is true. However, this does not mean that Aromantic people are somehow wrong in saying that they believe he is! Just like many other things, it is up for the viewer to decide currently.

If Murph comes out and says Riz is Aromantic, that's it. He's Aromantic. But until then, it's up for interpretation. You aren't wrong for saying he's Aromantic, but neither is someone saying he's not Aromantic.

I am so glad that Riz resonates with you, but others don't have your same experience and might relate to him in different ways, and their experience and interpretations aren't less valid than yours.

The world isn't black and white. There are so many nuisances that can be beautiful if you allow yourself to see them.

I'm not on the fence. I know exactly where I stand. Riz is canonically asexual and he has no confirmed romantic interests, although he has been shown to be less interested than his peers. This could mean many, many different things, but saying that thinking Riz is asexual but not aromantic is being on the fence is discounting real people who are asexual and not aromantic.

It's not all or nothing. I'm not out to get you or hurt anyone. It just frustrates me when people state their interpretations of media as facts and get upset when other people have different interpretations. Your interpretation isn't more valid just because it's more diverse. That would be like me reading a book where someone was never stated to have a race, but I decided that their character would make more sense if they were black, so now they're canonically black, even though I don't know what the author imagined them like. Just because it's adding diversity doesn't make it more morally correct. It doesn't make it more incorrect either. It just makes it your interpretation.

I know you're probably sick of hearing this, but it's up for interpretation, and you can't fault people for having a different interpretation of a character.

[theatrebooknerd56]

Idk just something about Charlie knowing what asexuality is, and when Isaac confirms he is asexual and aromantic he's met with acceptance and a baseline knowledge of at least asexuality, and not having to explain being aromantic because Charlie will research it himself

Something about that just made me cry a little bit

[dizplicity-draws]

Happy asexual awareness week!

I wanted to celebrate with these aspec icons 🖤🩶🤍💜

Characters and their canon sexuality explanations under the cut!

From left to right:

Peridot - Steven Universe: canon asexual aromantic. Peridot was confirmed to be aroace by Maya Peterson, a storyboard artist for the show. She said in a post on Twitter, “She’s not about fusion. She’s the ace and aro rep.” And true to her words, in the episode Log Date 7 15 2, peridot was shown to have a disinterest in fusion in a scene where she backed out of fusing with Garnet. I know fusion isn’t a direct allegory to romance or sex, but as an aspec person, this scene was super relatable. Also, my personal headcanon is that she is in a queer platonic relationship (qpr) with Lapis :)

Perry the Platypus - Phineas and Ferb: canon asexual. Perry was confirmed to be asexual by Dan Povenmire, a co-creator of the show. He confirmed this in a comment on TikTok, where someone asked “Hey is Perry part of LGBTQ+”, to which he replied, “Does asexual count?” Some believe he only said this because he didn’t like the idea of Perry being shipped. But that doesn’t mean we can’t still claim him!

SpongeBob - SpongeBob SquarePants: Canon asexual. In 2002, Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of SpongeBob said, “I always think of [the character] as being somewhat asexual.” Technically, this was not said as a positive reference to asexuality, but in order to deny that the character was gay. However, Nickelodeon later posted a pride month post featuring a few lgbt+ characters and SpongeBob was included. A lot of people, including myself, chose to believe this was meant to be in support of SpongeBob being canonically asexual.

Zim - Invader Zim: This one is just my own headcanon, but I wanted to include him because he’s a character that’s very important to me and, as an ace, I have always related to. Also, it’s shown in episode 3, Parent Teacher Night, that irkens reproduce by cloning rather than any natural means. And while I know that doesn’t really prove anything, I think it does add to my headcanon :)

Alastor - Hazbin Hotel: Canon asexual aromantic. Vivziepop, the creator of Hazbin Hotel first confirmed Alastor as being ace when she posted a drawing for national coming out day in 2018, which featured Alastor holding the asexual pride flag. Later, she confirmed during a Q&A that he is canonically asexual. During season 1 of Hazbin Hotel, Rosie, Alastor’s friend, jokingly calls him an “ace in the hole.”

[libraryraccoon]

Hi, I would like to request Alastor with a reader who is like the Trailblazer from Star rail please

I just like to think that their dynamic would drive everyone up the walls

- Alastor unleashing Trailblazer!Reader on the world

Gender : GN

Pronouns : None

Message of Raccoon : Alastor with a Caelus/Trailblazer!Reader but it's mostly crack.

Alastor

First of all, you look like a raccoon.

I'm not the one who makes the rules.

You were, in fact, an angel.

But you were fallen because you rummaged through people's trash…

So now you're in Hell.

Alastor met you shortly after you arrived, you were beating up demons with an angelic baseball bat when he found you.

He immediately found you interesting, because :

You had an angelic weapon, a baseball bat. It was the first time he had seen a baseball bat as an angelic weapon.

You were a raccoon demon and you were in a fight. Raccoon demons, according to popular belief, were people who flew unnoticed and fled from any type of battle; they didn't like to fight.

You were beautiful.

But, like, the kind of beauty that was misused.

With all these points taken into account, yes he find you interesting.

Alastor came to talk to you before taking you to the Hazbin Hotel.

Over time, he understood that you were the exception who confirmed the rule on raccoon demons.

Why ? Because you were a being of chaos.

Not a day went by without someone seeing you running through hell, angelic baseball bat in hand, creating chaos and destroying everything.

Carmilla brought him to her neighborhood one day at 3AM because you were creating chaos there.

He swears that it's you who create the principle of chaos.

And when you're not creating chaos, you're rummaging through trash…

How Alastor even began to love you is a mystery even he doesn't have the answer to.

When Alastor realized that he love you, he had two reactions :

“Holy shit I can be in love.” Coming off the aromantic 'can't feel romantic feelings at all' spectrum was NOT one of the things he wanted this year.

“HOLY SHIT I FALL FOR THE VIOLENT RACCOON FROM HELL”

Denial. Instantly.

It took him 3 months to come out of the first phase of the grief, the denial.

Not about being able to love, no, he accepted that.

But falling in love with you ?

Hell nah.

It took him 4 months to accept it, finally coming out of his grief.

He complained to Rosie about it, 100%.

“How could I fall for someone like that..” -Alastor, totally done with all this shit.

“Look on the bright side, Y/N is handsome.” -Rosie, not understanding the seriousness of the situation.

He didn't confess, praying that his feelings would go away.

It was you who confess.

He helped you heal some of your wounds, and you just said "Thank you, I love you." Before kissing his forehead and leaving, like if it was normal.

After that, you got the "you can touch me but not too much" pass, which allowed you to touch Alastor.

And you use it too often at Alastor's opinion.

Now, when you're not digging through trash, not doing what you were created for (chaos), you stay with Alastor.

People don't fuck with Alastor anymore, not because they're afraid to be in his radio show, oh no no ! They didn't want to meet the madman that he call his partner.

You two are the most feared duo/couple in Hell.

Even if in truth you are just two people who love each other and love chaos.

Alastor entertained himself by watching the chaos you created. It's canon, I don't make the rules.

The Hazbin Hotel crew judges you so LOUD.

Charlie is the only one to support you two with Niffty.

Angel Dust asks too many questions for his well-being about you and the history of your relationship.

Vaggie is, and always will be, shocked to see you touch Alastor without consequences, or even to see you kiss him.

Husk asked you how you can love Alastor...

You took 3 hours for explaining the why-

No one asked after that.

Sir Pentious was just like "🧍‍♂️ does that mean you're Alastor's weakness ?"

Lucifer give you a lot of side eyes.

No, I won't elaborate.

Vox tried to kidnap you…

…

There was a week without Vox on TV, and every time someone mentioned your name, he flinched.

Let's not even talk about when he sees you after that..

Alastor himself doesn't want to know what you did to him.

You are the more affectionate and touchy one in the relationship.

Alastor always knows what you are thinking by your expressions.

The day you told him you were an angel and why you were sent to Hell, he was shocked.

Because, how on the 7 circles of Hell, a being of chaos was an angel ??

He just asked "How can an angel be so chaotic ?"

And you just shrugged your shoulders.

You yourself didn't know how you got to Heaven in the first place-

I just know that you touch his ears and his deer tail as soon as you are in private, and that even before being a couple.

You're just a 'I need to touch everything' person.

Alastor tried to get you to stop digging through the trash, but he never succeeded.

Alastor loves you, yes, but sometimes (read : often) he wishes he didn't.

[onesidedradiostatic]

oh is THIS where all the talk about "I don't want to ruin shippers' fun" comes from? oh she actually said that.

I wasn't going to reblog stuff like this for this poll cause I didn't want to sway the results more than I needed to but this is actually the first time I'm getting that first source, thanks for that

social experiment (part 2)

(VOTE ON THE HUSK POLL TOO, THAT IS PART 1)

just vote HONESTLY what you think.

PLEASE DO NOT BRING UP SHIPPING DISCOURSE TO THIS, this is about alastor's CANONICAL identity not what you're allowed or not allowed to ship.

THIS IS NOT A STANDALONE POLL, if you vote on this one vote on husk's one too, they're meant to go together

[ckret2]

Weird question, but do you think ford is/was repressed or in denial? Filbrick doesn't seem like a very understanding parent, and I notice throughout all the lavish praise Ford heaps on Bill he stops short of outright saying he has a crush, which I think hints at ford being unaware that he has feelings for Bill because You Only Get That for the Opposite Gender (and assumes a god like bill is way above his league). The "girls will talk to me" quote in particular seems very much like someone trying and failing to fit himself into heteronormative standards and just chalking it up to social awkwardness, and the way he clings to Bill reminds me very much of a first gay relationship, where the fear of being rejected is magnified tenfold by thinking that literally no one else in the world will love you. Sorry, this became a whole essay, I just have so many thoughts about billford and have spent hours combing through gf Tumblr analayzing their relationship.

You're asking me about what I actually think is true so that's the perspective from which I'm starting here.

First, let me say that I think headcanons are like dartboards. There are some "canonest" headcanons—even if they're not confirmed true, they feel like they're at the bullseye at the very center of canon-compatible possibilities, the thing most likely to be true if canon were ever to directly explore it.

And then there are the "this isn't what I think they'd actually do if canon were ever to go there, but based on what we currently know this headcanon is still canon-compatible." These are the headcanons that are on the dartboard but on an outer ring, not a bullseye.

I think the "bullseye" interpretation of Ford's sexuality is that he's aromantic. Possibly ace as well, but this isn't as firm—Ford does talk like he finds the idea of a committed romantic relationship bizarre, but he doesn't talk like he doesn't understand the idea of being attracted to someone, making me think maybe he does feel sexual desire.

And if that's what Ford is, then he didn't say he had a crush on Bill because he didn't. He was obsessed with Bill, he considered Bill the most important person in his life, he respected him and admired him and liked him more than anybody else, he'd rather spend time with him than with anyone else... but, it's a platonic obsession. It's not in any way weaker for being platonic instead of romantic, but it's platonic. Queerplatonic relationship type territory.

He talks about girls talking to him someday because, for lack of any better evidence, he assumes he must be heterosexual because he has no positive proof otherwise, so he figures he probably just hasn't met the right girl, right? And he hasn't met the right girl because he's so unpopular no girls want to talk to him. Once he meets the Right Girl, he assumes he'll Get It then—because that's what a lotta aros (and aces!) think for the longest time before it dawns on them that that's never coming. (It's possible he even has been sexually attracted to women, further obscuring his aromanticism from himself. He did date a siren at one point. But tbh I don't think it's highly likely.)

That's my "bullseye" "canonest" interpretation of Ford's sexuality.

Now, my personal "on the outer ring of the dartboard" headcanon is that Ford's sexuality is, in extremely professional terminology, demiromantic monsterfucker.

He has felt sexual attraction, he is not in denial or repressing his sexual attraction in any way, he's accepted this about himself; however, everything he's been attracted to is, like... Mothra. or Cthulhu. or a weird singing fish-bird, i.e. that siren.

80% of the time he's had sex it's not even motivated by sexual desire but by other platonic motives. If the Hide-Behind ever hit on him, he would eagerly accept just to find out and document what Hide-Behind mating behaviors are like without ever once stopping to think "but am I attracted though?" Like he'll have a fine time, he isn't repulsed, but he's not doing it out of desire.

He does have the potential to fall in love—he has the potential to fall in love with Bill—but again, I headcanon he didn't say he had a crush on Bill because he didn't. It was slowly building over the course of several years. He was like 97% of the way there...

... when Bill revealed his evil plan and started torturing Ford.

So it never quite tipped over.

Thirty years later, Ford's got enough self-insight to realize that even though he wasn't "in love" with Bill, he was 1) very close, and 2) feeling something platonically strong enough that ultimately, that slight difference doesn't really matter.

I can also see him as just not feeling, understanding, or caring about the dividing line between romantic and platonic.

In either version of my headcanons, I don't think Ford was "repressed"/"in denial" about having "gay" feelings. He's got enough issues, I'm not interested in tossing internalized homophobia on top of it—especially when from college onward he's all about celebrating outsiders and weirdness. At most he'd be a case of queer ignorance where he hasn't explored himself enough to figure out what he is.

Tbh I don't think he's any more likely to be attracted to human men than he would be to human women—and if he did fully fall in love with Bill, I don't think Bill, O Wondrous Interdimensional Muse Whose Body Is A Frigging Triangle, would ping Ford as "male" enough for Ford to feel like his own attraction is "gay."

[prince-liest]

Saw a post recently that rhetorically asked why authors and show writers leaving character sexuality up to interpretation is disappointing when fifteen years ago getting a statement that things were up to interpretation (as opposed to "Definitely NOT gay, you freaks!") was a blessing, and I make a point of never discoursing on the bird app, but wanted to share some thoughts on the subject here - particularly because Alastor is kind of a hot topic on this subject and I think he actually makes for a great example for my thoughts on this.

Honestly, as someone who did live through the "if you think my characters are gay then you're stupid and should die" era, I think it left me with the perspective that even if there is canon sexuality, then no matter what it is, you're free to then do whatever you want in fandom. People might call you a dick for it if you go about it in certain ways, but you're free to do it.

That said... that's not really what wanting canon confirmation is about. It's about having canon representation, especially for identities that we often don't see representation of. For example: Alastor being aromantic is "up for interpretation," and that specifically feels bad when it's explicitly been framed that way as a cop out to appease shippers (per Viv), especially when in canon you can see he's intended to be aroace based off of how Rosie talks about him.

Yes, things are better now than they were 15 years ago... but standards are higher now, too!

And in particular I think that while in 2008 or so, "It's up to interpretation!" basically meant "Yeah, they might be gay but I can't say it," nowadays the meaning has shifted. I see a lot of people chiming into any mention of aroace Alastor with this attitude of "Um, actually, he's NOT aromantic because it wasn't confirmed by Viv (even though he wasn't confirmed to NOT be aro either)," rather than the spirit of "Oh, yeah, he might be aro, that's a valid interpretation!" It actually feels very similar to seeing people go "Well, X is OBVIOUSLY straight (the default) because he wasn't confirmed to like men!"

...in 2008, haha.

Anyway, fandom always feels to me like a 'do whatever you want' zone, but I think just based off of the sheer volume and depth of genuine and heartfelt reactions people have had to Alastor as a character and his portrayal as aroace... having canon representation and seeing yourself in media you enjoy matters a great deal to many people.

I had a really emotional moment when I read my preorder of House of Hades from the Percy Jackson series back in middle school and realized that Nico di Angelo was an actual gay character in an actual real, physical book that I was holding in my hands, not "just" a headcanon from my nebulously safe online fandom spaces, for the first time ever. Similarly, people have been headcanoning various characters as ace for a long, long time, but to me it's never had the same punch to it as it being official when it comes to those kinds of feelings re: representation.

So leaving that kind of thing "up to interpretation" specifically as an alternative to providing representation to a group of people who rarely sees it is disappointing, but it's not for shipping reasons.

[thechurchoftheradiodemon]

I've been mulling over something. I read one of Vivzie's interviews lately and I've come to some conclusions about Alastor's character (these are just my own theories, though, so we'll see how everything actually develops in s2).

Unfortunately, I believe, canonically, Alastor is NOT aromantic. Maybe on the aro-spectrum, and deffinitely asexual, but not aro per se. In this interview, Vivzie confirms Alastor's asexuality, and plays with his aro identity saying something like "I don't want to ruin people's fun with him". This could be queerbaiting in a sense (I don't actually think so, when Vivzie is high on queer representation, but aro people are very left behind in the community, sadly).

But she continues to add on that there are plans for Alastor in the future of the series, saying something like "I can't confirm that he is aromantic". To me, this reads like we will see romance in Alastor's life in season 2, wether it's a past lover/romantic interest or a new one I could not say. She would've had no problem in confirming Alastor as aromantic otherwise, and I interpret this as Vivzie not wanting to spoil part of the plot.

I used to think that Alastor's deal would most surely be with Lilith, but, while it could be the case, I'm not so sure anymore (although it could be a fun dinamic). But, nontheless, I think Lilith's and Alastor's 7 year absence and his deal are intertwinded somehow.

My bet, for the future romance plot, is that it could be one of these three: either Lilith, whom the fandom is already considering in a sense; the mysterious Eve, or... Lucifer. HEAR ME OUT. I don't say this as a Radioapple enjoyer. The reasons I think it could be Lucifer are the same that I think it could be Eve (although we know absolutely nothing about her).

Mainly, I draw these conclusions from the early comic Zoophobia, from where we know Alastor's character was taken. In this comic, his character is supposed to have a crush on the character of KayCee, a powerful being with whom he could have made an alliance to reign chaos.

KayCee's descriptions could match either of the three romantic interests I mentioned, but what strikes me more are her defining traits: white and gold colour palette, and the apple. We know not all of Vivzie's characters stem from Zoophobia, and the ones that do have (understandably so) went through important changes through the years, mediums and aesthetics.

BUT these could be some clues into what we might discover in s2 of Hazbin. And, so long, the character we've seen fit this palette and apple motif is none other than Lucifer himself. Eve, on the other hand, is also shown during the intro sporting some sort of apple motif, which could be indicative of her future appearance in the series. But we know so little about her, and, knowing Hazbin Hotel will only have 2 seasons confirmed, I'm not sure we will see more of her.

I personally don't like the idea of losing Alastor as an aromantic character. I'd much rather not see him in a romantic relationship whatsoever in the canon series. But that is not my call to make, and he will always be our ace-king no matter what. Also, that wouldn't mean his story or character will be less interesting or developed. So we'll have to wait and see...

(This is visual representation of me reaching these conclusions, btw)

I would love to hear what other fans think about this, so if you want to leave and opinion in the comments we can discuss!

[confused-disaster32]

I'm literally so ecstatic that Alastor is canonically AroAce and has been confirmed to be, bc he was one of the first aroace characters I was ever introduced to in media. And was also the first characters I was introduced to being Aroace after just finding out I was aromantic myself and at the time seeing so many people completely ignore that or saying that only the Ace part was canon always made me kinda sad.

And now the series has confirmed on screen that he's Ace? And that Vivzie confirmed he was Aromantic? Not to mention all this extra content showing off all the other characters + the mention of Alastor's deal?

It has literally made my week.

[lightningant]

niche but sadly very core Voldemort meta for me (which not based in anything but vibes I will admit) is that I think he has a lot of unresolved emotions about his parents and it manifests in bizarre ways because he doesn't even understand that's what's bothering him

I'm obsessed with giving him a parent [after he makes at least one horcrux] because a part of him wants to be nurtured, celebrated, and understood. A strong factor "Lord Voldemort" is his determination to essentially create himself; become singular, separate from any line. There is no first name-surname, he is only himself. Because being a part of a line has done nothing for him. It has been wielded against him, it has provided no care, it amounted to shallow indignity on both ends.

So I do think he'd get a lot out of, forgive me for saying this about a platonic relationship, a parent who matches his freak; a boymom who prioritizes him and is willing to engage in complete enmeshment to soothe his feelings of rejection and displacement.

And he knows he's never going to get it, despite not knowing he wants it. So he wants to be the parental enmeshment boymom.

I see Snape as the clearest taste of this, with his abnormal closeness to Voldemort in the inner circle, learning dark magic no one else seems to get to learn, and his blood/class status being completely irrelevant. Voldemort wants to ignite something in him that his past self never got. Your muggle dad sucks. Your pureblood family won't associate with you. But here I am, to raise you as a man like you should be raised, help you become singular and isolated from all others except myself, and I will not interrogate why this is so important to me.

But this only extends to young adults straight out of school; he detests children, and the younger they are, the more repulsed and anxious he gets. I don't think Voldemort trying his hand at boymoming to express what he thinks a fair and just parental influence would look like would make him a good parent. Not even in the gothic way, he'd just be mediocre and avoidant. Sad!

Anyway. Having a mentor figure he's spoken to and had a relationship with is a great spotlight for making this dynamic more stark. A late mentor means a third parent that disappointed, abandoned, and rejected Tom Riddle, confirming Voldemort's hypothesis he must create himself anew, and thus another parent must be eradicated from his personal history and his hurt must be buried where it is no longer relevant. And I'm aromantic so platonic derangement is innately more appealing to me in every situation.

[valc0]

Do not the alastor ship. He is aroace. Your punishment is three days fighting off bots in the asexual tag and saying sorry

I hope this is a copypasta or a joke I'm not aware of, but just in case you are being serious with this.

Alastor has only been confirmed as ace, him being also aromantic is a popular headcanon (which is fine and good btw!) but has never been confirmed in canon. If yall gonna bring up what his VA said, Amir quickly clarified:

I think most of the pushback towards Alastor being shipped is the false belief that shipping automatically means mindless objectifying porn. It doesn't, not for me and not for a whole lot of other people. To me and most of them, shipping is the exploration of two characters relationship and dynamic. The "Alastor is aroace and shipping him is wrong" argument comes out like once a week on twitter, just read the comments from actual aroace people. It's actually not uncommon to see ace, aro and aroace people ship Alastor to explore their own identity.

At this point I also hope I won't have to explain that asexual people can and some do have sex and relationships. Asexuality is a spectrum and NOT a monolith. One simple research will show all the answers you need.

Furthermore, as someone who is not ace I am extra careful with the way I make Alastor interact with others so that I do not erase his asexuality, and if I ever do (or already did), please do let me know.

[flecks-of-stardust]

Donation Commissions for Palestine (PAUSED)

I am opening commissions in exchange for donations to any particular fundraiser I choose for any given day. I am not asking you to donate to me. Payment involves showing proof of donation to the selected channels, and we will discuss from there.

I am opening commissions primarily for writing and fiber arts patterns. If you are unfamiliar with my written work, my old pinned post has links to the work I've done in the past. Additionally, my AO3 is flecks_of_stardust. I am focusing on fanfiction for writing commissions.

The general run down of this process is as follows: You have the option to donate to either the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund or a selected fundraiser for the day. I will change the fundraiser selected for any particular day at 11 am Pacific Time. The selected fundraiser is chosen from the Vetted Gaza Evacuation Fundraiser List. To commission me, you must donate to either the PCRF or the chosen fundraiser and send proof of donation to me through DMs. Please ensure that the fundraiser you donate to matches the one I have selected for today. Once I have received proof of your donation, we can discuss the commission.

More specifics on donations are under the cut.

The fundraiser for now is for the Abu Ramadan family.

General Policies

I am but one person, so there are limits to what I can do. For each donation category, there are a limited number of commission slots that can be taken up. Once those slots are filled up, I will temporarily close commissions for that category. Proof of donation is accepted based on the time you DM me. However, if all my slots are taken, even if you have sent me appropriate proof of donation, I cannot take on your commission until a slot is open. I will notify you when I've taken on your commission should this happen to you.

In the event that this happens to anyone, I will list the overflow slots next to the commission slots. Overflow slots indicate how many people have shown me proper proof of donation, but are not currently having their commission being worked on. This is an estimate of how long it may take for me to get to your commission.

Some notes and rules that apply to all the commission categories:

Donation to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund does not include the processing fee. You must donate the whole dollar to PCRF. This means that if you're donating only a dollar, your actual charge is going to be around 1.35 USD. Keep this in mind for the donation categories; if less than 1 USD goes to PCRF, I cannot accept your donation. Similarly, PCRF must receive at least 2 USD in full for me to accept your donation for the lowest writing commission category.

I will not make anything involving NSFW content, but I am okay with a certain extent of gore and violence. Discuss it with me. I have the right to refuse to create anything I'm uncomfortable with, but I am willing to negotiate.

You will not get anything extra from donating more than the commission category you're asking for, but it's very kind of you if you choose to do so.

I am extremely aromantic. Please keep that in mind if you want me to create something romantic. It is highly likely I cannot deliver, and I recommend you ask someone else.

Do not send me an ask with proof of donation. I need a reliable means to discuss with you, and an ask is not that. You have to DM me. You may request to communicate over Discord if you already know what my username is there, but primarily I will be communicating through Tumblr DMs.

Though all prices are listed in USD, I do not need you to pay in USD. This is just a relative measure of pricing. If your native currency is not USD and/or the payment doesn't display in USD, please let me know what it is so I can confirm how much you've donated.

I will refuse all offers for extensions. While the gesture is sweet, my goal is to get more donations out, not to polish every commission I do to the best I could manage. Quantity over quality, if you will. While I'll make sure to make my commission pieces as high quality as I can manage, if you're really concerned about the quality of what I create, I suggest you commission someone else.

In general, these are the media I am comfortable doing commissions for:

Hollow Knight

Rain World (Downpour included)

Bug Fables

If you'd like to request something that isn't on this list, note that I will only be accepting commission requests for fan media that I am familiar with, and where an exchange of money is allowed. One example is Team Cherry's explicit permission for small scale selling of fan merch. If I cannot confirm it and you do not show me proof that it is allowed, I will refuse your request.

If you at any point violate the rules I have stated in this post and any additional rules I may issue upon discussion of the commission, I reserve the right to refuse future requests to take your commissions even with proper proof of donation. If you do not respect my time and energy, I will not entertain you.

If you are unable to donate yourself, please spread this post around, and I welcome you to follow my lead! There's more than one way to get donations to the people that need it.

Writing (0/3)

Because I want to get through these commissions fast, I will not be spending more than 3 days or 12 total writing hours, whichever comes first, on each commission. I will be churning out these commissions as fast as possible while maintaining as satisfactory a level of writing quality as I can manage. To reflect this, the word counts and the prices for each word count are relatively low:

2 USD - approximately 500 words (hard limit 800) [must donate to PCRF due to donation limitations]

5 USD - approximately 1000 words (hard limit 1500)

10 USD - approximately 2000 words (hard limit 2500)

In the interest of time, I will not be taking original fiction requests. I will allow OCs, but you must let me know specifics on how you'd like me to write them. I am most confident working with canon characters, but please specify the type of characterization you want if you don't want me to use my own characterization.

Once the commission is complete, the completed work will be posted to a Donations for Palestine collection on AO3 unless you decline it. Additionally, you are discouraged from posting the finished commission in public spaces, but if you do so, then you must credit me without making edits to my writing. If you post it on Tumblr, please tag me in your post.

Fiber Arts Patterns (0/2)

I'm also willing to provide you with crochet or knitting amigurumi patterns. I will not send you the finished product. I will, however, send a picture of the finished product alongside the pattern. I will spend a maximum of 10 days on each pattern, and the resulting product will not be larger than 4"x4"x4"/10cmx10cmx10cm in approximate size. Pricing guidelines are as follows:

Baseline price: 12 USD

3 or more colors on the design: +3 USD (be warned that I may not have these colors)

Knitted pattern: +5 USD

I am most comfortable making little animals, and am significantly more familiar with crocheting little dolls than I am with knitting them, though I'm willing to try my hand at that too. I will also try my best to make characters from the above listed media; if you've browsed my crochet and knitting tags, you'll see that I've already made many characters from these franchises, but in much larger dimensions. If I think I'll need the doll to be bigger than my listed dimension limits for the pattern to be viable, I will refuse your request. In either case, please provide a reference picture/drawing of what you'd like me to make, and I'll match it as closely as I'm able to.

The pattern will be delivered to you through a File Garden link to a PDF; please download this PDF, as I may accidentally delete the link later on. Once you have received the pattern, you are not allowed to post it in public spaces. You may, however, post the finished product created from the pattern with credit to me. If you post it on Tumblr, please tag me in the post.

Bonus: Shitty Doodles

If you have less than 2 USD lying around but would still like to donate something, you can still show me proof of donation to PCRF of whatever amount that is for a shitty 10 minute doodle of anything you choose. I will set a timer for 10 minutes and scribble as fast as I can, and what comes out the other side is your commission piece. Do note that this will be a pencil sketch. While I have drawn in the past and consider myself a semi-decent visual artist, it is very much not my forte, hence why I'm not offering it as a serious commission. But if you're down for it, I'm willing to do this too. Just don't expect it to have any sort of quality. Be as ridiculous as you want (as long as you adhere to the above rules)! This is meant to be silly, so pretty much anything goes.

If you have any further questions or concerns, shoot me an ask or a DM. These guidelines will likely be refined as I gain more experience with this.

Major edit on July 10th: I finally noticed that the donation limit for GFM is 5 USD minimum. I have updated the guidelines to allow donation to PCRF as well.

[adhdtsukasa]

in honor of tsukasa's birthday, obviously i need to ramble about my kamioshi and favorite fictional boy ever!! but since i don't have any thoughts that make sense at the moment, i just want to talk about something that i've realized recently and found it pretty cute:

it's probably not as common of a stereotype anymore (i believe), but there was a thing of headcanoning cold and stoic characters as aroace solely because they are cold and stoic, which people often interpreted as the unability to love. and while it can be the case, thinking that being aro equals not feeling anything at all is rather... questionable, definitely. which makes tsukasa's aromantic implications even greater.

i have a feeling that tsukasa's aro moments™ were actually talked about back and forth countless of times, so i'm not going to repeat myself (despite also having a lot to say about it). it's not canon, but i guess you can say that it's implied...? well, not like colopale confirms it or anything (although i'd be very happy if they did, but... yep) so headcanoning him as anything else is definitely okay and valid, but there *are* situations that just scream yeah!!! that boy is so aro!!

and whether you think of tsukasa as an aromantic or not, you have to admit that the thought of tsukasa being aro, as a concept, is so damn cool. he's one of the most apparent characters, after all! he's loud, eccentric, expressive, cheerful, full of life. he's basically anything but devoid of emotions, anything but calm and stoic (most of the times). having him as an aro rep is without a doubt shattering the stereotype of having to be cold and emotionless in order to be aromantic.

he's not unable to feel love. because he feels love! he loves his family — he loves his friends — he loves acting; and it's the highest and purest form of love that he needs in his life. why would he need any other form of love? all the great love stories would be better if they were more violent and gorey, after all

i don't know i'm just saying random things at this point but i need everyone to just think about arokasa sometimes. okay? for me?? because it's his birthday today???