#or that it is strange for me to interact with fan content of my source and fan creators for it and that we will be ostracized as a result of

[candy-red-river]

I wish the ranfren fandom was different here's why

Recently I had a conversation with a friend, which reminded me of things i liked, which reminded me of why i liked ranfren in the first place before i changed drastically.

many months ago, I was out of the hazbin fandom i was exausted and didnt feel like talking to anyone. so i rested and slept as much as i could. when i woke up i felt different, it was one of those times when i would check out strange and surreal media, only stronger. i watched vinesauce, played yume nikki for the first time and adored it,watched vinny play hylics one, and at some point ranren was recomended to me on youtube. i dont remember which one it was but after looking it up on youtube i watched some more vids, the one with nyon and luther particualrly caught my attention because it reminded me of another artist i liked. i had also left another fandom but my memory is sludge. i decided to dig deeper under the assumption that it was made by the same artist i liked, just a longer time ago

the stuff surrounding it shaped my first impressions on ranfren, it was surreal and sounded interesting, it looked like something else so i associated it with other strange media and assumed it would have a mostly quiet theorist fandom with a couple of fan arts but mostly people talking about it was a work of art and expression. (funny fact, i actually disliked randal at first since he looked so anime compared to everyone else, i thought he'd be a yandere side character but i was wrong. i eventually liked him over tim but looking back it corresponds a bit too well with my negative change)

I was wrong. That frustrated me. all i saw was fan art and it just made me feel, empty.

I was hoping i'd find theories, discussuin, analysis, talk about the different parts of the website, talk about its themes and how people felt about it, but i just got the same stuff over and OVER again, which is when i started making theory posts about ranfren, hoping i'd find more people who liked ranfren for more than just it's characters and surface level stuff.

And it worked!! but what happened after is hella complicated so i'll summerize it, when i wouldn't talk to people i'd get bored, so i constantly made new friends in the fandom. eventually i made a friend who i became obsessed with but over time we talked less and less which stressed me out to an extreme degree. eventually today i just had to unfriend them as we refused to block eachother and i wanted to speak to them when i was lessneurotic. which lead my to the first paragraph of this post.

after watching an analysis on something i liked, i felt something and self reflected.

I had become the problem i had in the first place and it had left me nothing but madness in return.

however, it also made me realize something else, why i didn't like the fandom in the first place.

the ranfren fandom doesn't feel like how it should be. ranfren is a free indie project on a website that's almost structure like an arg if you dig though some of the pages, it's surreal self expression from a near illusive person ho keeps themselves private.

yet the fandom reflects none of it, all the fan content feels nearly one dimensional and barely talks about the source material itself aside from it's characters. but nothing else.

all the fandom cares about is social pleasure as well as parasoocial, fanart, shipping, ocs, it all feels so self indulgent in the end without mutuality or respect for ech other, the creator of ranfren, or the project itself. it's shallow water that dries out FAST and it's not sustainable.

the fandom is filled to the brim with hormonal immature teenagers who care nothing for substance, only using ranfren and it's community as a vessel for interaction, not something to enjoy by itself or talk about in a non hypersocial way.

treating the creator like some internet celebrity that they want a piece of instead of a faceless stranger online.

I wish th fandom was a little more quiet, a little more calmer, a little more considerate, and a little more older and that is frankly all i ask by making this post. take of it what you will.

[jayteacups]

my stance on ships & shipping culture - a quick note

(please read before interacting!)

I'm seeing discourse in the AOT Tumblr niche ramp up once again (what would the AOT fandom be without harassment and discourse /s), so I want to put up this quick note to be linked in my pinned navigation post. Therefore, from now on, if someone sends an ask about ship discourse, it'll be clear whether or not they've read this post. Therefore that'll make it easier for me to see who respects my boundaries and who is and isn't worth my time.

This blog is primarily a Levi x Reader-insert/OC-insert/Self-ship blog. If you have a problem with this, save us both the time and energy, and just block me. If you harass me or anyone else who enjoys this type of harmless content, I will block you. This is not up for debate.

However, I am also a multi-shipper. You'll occasionally find that I reblog fanworks of Eruri, Levihan, Rivetra, Levifar etc, and that I tag all ship content so you can filter out the ones you may not like. I’m not a ‘proshipper’ though; for example, you won’t find any reblogs of fanworks involving a veteran character being with a recruit character in a romantic or sexual sense. However, I will never harass anybody for shipping a ship that I don't like, so I expect everyone from every corner of the fandom to return that same courtesy.

So please do not bring me into any ship discourse, I’m not interested in entertaining pointless debates over ships. I do not and never will condone harassment over people's opinions on fictional ships.

If somebody doesn't ship your OTP, or they ship something you personally do not like, that doesn't mean you have the moral high ground over them, and that certainly doesn't mean you can falsely accuse people of awful things or leave anonymous death threats in people's inboxes. Additionally, it's okay for your OTP to be fanon. The canon/fanon status of a ship doesn't make it better or worse than another ship. The sooner people accept this instead of twisting canon to suit a false narrative, the better. On that note, please don't send me long-winded, unsolicited asks about how a fanon pairing is 'actually canon if you read the subtext' whilst quoting 'facts' with no or incorrect sources. Let canon be canon and fanon be fanon. There's a difference, and a reason why they have separate labels. I'm not saying that you can't have a different interpretation of canon or the subtext, but I'm saying that not everybody will agree with you, and it doesn't automatically make your opinion the right or 'true' one.

I should also point out that the actions of a few bad apples is not representative of an entire ship community. For example, I have seen some people falsely assume the entire Eruri community are toxic based on the recent anons harassing Levi-centric blogs. This simply isn't true. The majority of shippers are very chill, but the toxic minority just happens to be the loudest. Let's not make assumptions about Eruri shippers or insult their OTP, because I have seen a few people do this in response to seeing the harassment, which I find incredibly hypocritical and unhelpful. Don't lose sight of the bigger picture - which is that we're all fans of the same thing and we all want to have fun in whatever way appeals to us.

Fandom is supposed to be fun, and I believe you should be focusing your energy on what you like rather than what you don't. Personally I think it's strange that these weirdo anons and harassers spend so much time and energy harassing people who don't ship their OTP, rather than using that time and energy to support creators who make fanworks of their OTP, or even creating some fanworks themselves. They care more about making other people miserable rather than fostering a positive community around their ships, and that is something I absolutely do not support or condone.

If you've read everything and have reached the end of this post, thank you for your time. If you fundamentally disagree with my stance, fine, but don't debate me on it. I've made it clear I won't change my mind on it, and you probably won't either, so I suggest you block me instead of starting a futile argument.

[applesandbannas747]

does pacat rlly not care about fence anymore 😭 i feel like it’s much better than dark rise and could be better than captive prince too…it’s been a year since i last consumed anything fence-related and i really don’t understand what’s going on with the series?? but anyways i like ur fics a lot & agree with ur reviews of srb’s novels, which also could have had so much potential but ended up kind of sucking in a lot of ways.

Pacat is a mystery to me. Personally, I believe Dark Rise is his best work--it shows much better pacing than Captive Prince and gets the same impact and feel without going to such extreme and explicit horrors, which shows a lot of skill (I know CP is his most beloved series but he's improved a lot since writing it haha). What gets me is that Fence STARTED really strong and I counted it as his best work for sure. There were fun tropes and dynamics, interesting characters with a central relationship promising contention, fighting, and tension, and some fun elements in the mystery of Jesse and potential in the reveal of Nick's lineage. And you could tell there was passion in the project...but even by the later issues of the original 12-issue run, Pacat's social media reflected a large disinterest in Fence, and that disinterest has shown in the story as Fence continues to progress.

I try to logic and rationalize and analyze everything Fence related and literally every time I do I get met with 'it's not that deep' from the actual canon lmfao but I'm going to offer my rationalization anyway lmao the only reason I can think to justify Pacat's lack of interaction with Fence on Twitter besides not caring about it much is that it doesn't fit his brand. Which is only defined by two other series, but it's very much a high fantasy/historical fantasy dark romance with stomach-churning undertones and much darker themes than Fence. So I gave him that excuse for a long time. Fence doesn't fit within that brand at all, so from a marketing standpoint, it makes some amount of sense to focus more on the other franchises. However, I think this strategic thinking is giving too much credit--Fence has always had really shit marketing so either Pacat has no mind for marketing or he doesn't care to market Fence, which both get us back to the only real reason being he just doesn't care about it as much as his other things.

Do I expect Pacat to be hanging out in the Twitter FENCEtag? No. But I do think it's strange that he'll post tweets saying happy birthday to other people's books the day they come out, but literally didn't ever make a Fence Redemption announcement or say anything on the release day. The most he's done is retweet a couple things from BOOM! and 2 other outside sources. And this is regular behavior--he didn't do announcements for RIVALS or RISE either and didn't promote them at all. Yet Dark Rise gets announcements all the way along--title announcement, release date announcement, cover reveal, etc etc etc. He also posts and retweets fanart for his other 2 books really regularly, yet he didn't even retweet all of Jo's (the co-creator and illustrator of Fence) pieces for the Fence event Jo hosted in April, let alone bother with much fanart of it. There's just no reason for the vast gap in involvement and enthusiasm other than him very strongly preferring his other projects and not bothering with the effort of interacting with Fence. He'll occasionally ask culture questions (like if Americans say 'coz' for cousin or how to say something in French) but that's legitimately the best argument there is for his interest or care in the project.

And lastly, his lack of interest shows in the story. He handed his story off to someone else to write novels for and simply let her go wild without regard for how it impacted the comics or the fans. Further, Pacat lost track of his own story and characters between Volume 3 & 4 in a way that I cannot excuse as anything other than inconsistent characterization. And I know I'm biased there, but I make so many people in real life read Fence that I don't jabber at about it/pull into the fandom (so they have no knowledge of my takes), and all of them have commented on the 180 the characters made between the volumes. And, listen, if I wouldn't accept that kind of inconsistency in characterization when grading my 12-year-olds' narrative writing projects, why am I still sitting here trying to excuse the lazy/poor writing in a published and successful author? The pacing is also telling--a lot of conflict was skipped over 'off screen' between the volumes (which, say it with me folks, is lazy writing). Nick's resentment toward Seiji turned into full admiration sans any ill feelings or acknowledgment that even if he IS hot shit, he was still a major asshole in his initial conception, and Seiji apparently agreed to drop his thing about Jesse (you know, the thing that had them in a fist fight approximately 40 pages of comic before). There was no build-up to their relationship or resolution of the conflict that made it unhealthy (expect to have Nick 'admit' Seiji was right to treat him like shit...) These things push the story along a lot faster; rivals to lovers moves really fast if you skip all the tedious development of the characters getting to know, respect, tolerate, and then like each other. Pacat loves rivals/enemies to lovers and (to be blunt) mean/cold bottoms, so it is so fucking bizarre to me that he'd speedrun the relationship and change the characterization so much when it's directly moving away from his preferences (see: Captive Prince, Dark Rise). I don’t know how it happened from anything other than sheer laziness or from not caring about Fence so deeply that he let SRB overwrite the characters and romance he'd originally created.

Last, there are just SO many inconsistencies and copyedit-level mistakes. And I get it that typos happen, but it happens so much that it's like,,, are you even rereading the scripts before you throw them at your publisher? And the continuity errors are massive at this point. Seiji's year in France, which was apparently the result of his loss to Jesse, is only possible if time travel exists and also timelines exist simultaneously. How do you fuck up so big when constructing a story you care about? At least by the time it gets published, you should be sure it's READY to be published. It's like he's writing issue-by-issue as he goes with no plan and can't be bothered to skim through the previous issues to check for things.

I just can't come up with a reality where Pacat actually loves Fence when this is all the care he gives it. We are so so so lucky to have Jo--she is literally the most amazing and gives so much love and care to Fence, and it shows...I just wish Pacat's writing didn't affect her contribution to the comic too. But she at least loves Fence even if Pacat doesn't seem to tell her all that much more than he tells the rest of us LMFAO

This turned into a WHOLE messy essay, I just have a lot of thoughts and they've been brewing for years so sorry to go off on my mad ravings and thanks for tuning in XD and also!!! I'm so happy you like my fics TT.TT <33 and also that you see my point about the novels uwu

[ebbyxiii]

I'm very happy to be making progress again on my beloved fic since the last-- FOUR MONTHS?!

No way, you can't tell me it's been four gosh darn months since... oh. Oh wait. No. It has. I checked. I made the note just to embarrass myself as a reminder. A stab at future me. Yeap. I did that. Welp. That's just how it is folks.

Anyway, my darling torment "We Fear the Cry of Monsters" fanfiction is taking off. It just passed 1,000 views on AO3 for the main body and is doing pretty well in other (smut) areas. Which is incredible. I'm so thankful for all the comments and the interactions I've received because of its contents. As a merge between the games Cry of Fear/Afraid of Monsters/ and "Grey", the themes are dark, morbid at times, and indicative of the interpersonal battles of self-control. We all struggle with something. To write about such specific traumas has been very cathartic toward my own. This project has helped me grow as an author and as a member of a weird and awesome community.

In this group of tales, Simon Henriksson takes on the challenge of facing the truth about what really happened to him on The Black Day - the worst event of his young life. Through moments of doubt, perseverance, and opportune interactions, the Author is able to uncover his memories both through a new novel entry as well as in the hospital where he permanently lives. Simon reunites with David, the man behind the wheel of the car that crippled him, who harbors a sinister secret. Grey, a companion from Simon's teenage days. Sophie, his romantic obsession. And Purnell, a pharmacist and mentor who refuses to give up on his patient. (Set in the aftermath of the events of the good ending in Cry of Fear - there's your warning for any spoiler alert concerns.)

I sure would love if you'd come have a peek if you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format ;) It's coming close to a conclusion. I can't promise when, but I'll be finishing this project as strong as I can. I'm excited for what's to come. Maybe I'll find you there... at the Source of everything.

We Fear the Cry of Monsters

[crownleys]

Have you noticed any trends/patterns in what makes you 'fannish' about something? (Particular mediums, character dynamics, aesthetics etc.) Also, is there anything you love but don't feel the impulse to engage in fandom with?

This was a really interesting question, and I had to sit and think about it for a while before feeling like I had some good conclusions to share with you, Anon! I think in general there's three things that have to be in the mix that get me feeling 'fannish'/involved in the fandom for something: 1) Regularly engaging with the source material 2) A good community 3) Space to play

I'll put the rest under a cut because I'm sure I'm about to ramble for a while

So, with regards to point one, it feels relevant to mention that I don't particular feel like I've been a member of too many fandoms. I'd say two, exactly -- Zombies, Run! and The Wayhaven Chronicles. I've dabbled with things like The Locked Tomb Series and Dragon Age of course, but I never necessarily felt like part of the fandom, just because it was so large and multifacted, and I only briefly engaged with it as someone who contributed to those respective fandoms. But with ZR and TWC, they're both things that have stuck around longer, mostly because I've continued to play them for a very long time. I got started with ZR about 10 years ago. When I was my most active with it was when I was going out literally every day and listening to missions, which helped keep the story and characters really fresh in my mind. It also helped me constantly think up new themes and ideas I really wanted to explore within the setting and with the characters. Similar with Wayhaven -- I played through all the books when Book 3 came out in April and I've more or less had a play-through going since then. My actual play-throughs have fallen a little on the wayside just because of life things but I'm still thinking about it & engaging with the source material a lot. So I guess my point is, to truly feel 'fannish' about something I need to be a little bit obsessed, lol!

As for my second point, I've truly felt my most 'fannish'/part of the fandom when I find a good community to interact with. One of my favorite parts of being a fan is actually getting to talk about the material in question -- play with it, theorize, etc. The Zombies, Run! Fandom when I joined was amazing for that, and there continued being a really good group constantly discussing meta on their Rofflenet website the entire time I was a player. There was even a weekly zoom book club to discuss the current releasing missions! It was awesome! And with Wayhaven I feel like I've found a really nice circle of mutuals to sit and talk about the books with (and also obviously, my dearest Delucadarling, who I constantly talk about it with). Which brings me to my last point, is I really like having a lot of space to 'play' and feel fannish. With ZR, it has a huge sprawling universe of a zombie apocalypse, and only a very small portion is shown to the players via the audio. It leaves a lot of room to imagine what happens around the missions. And with Wayhaven, since only a portion of the story is out, it leaves a lot of room to imagine with happens next to all the characters. That is the sort of thing I really find motivating! And there's for sure plenty of things I love that I don't really engage with the fandom for, or engage pretty lightly. For example, I've really been loving Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks, but I haven't really done more than chat with a few friends about it. Similarly for a lot of the books I read -- I'll talk about them with a friend or two but not really seek out a lot of online content for them. I also watch a lot of cooking competitions, lol, so that's different for me to. If you've stuck with me for this long thank you! I really appreciated the question and I hope you have a great day <3

[asachuu]

It’s that time of the month, folks, you know what that means…naturally, my thoughts on Fifteen’s phases 16-17, as well as just some more stuff I simply want to add, because this manga keeps on giving me things to talk about, for better or for worse.

Please note that there will be image spoilers for phases 16-17 below, proceed with caution.

This will be more of a freehand ramble about whatever comes to mind while I’m typing, I’m admittedly somewhat tired today and there’s not much new I could really add as a whole atop the persisting flaws in it, but what I will say is that I’m now starting to think even Chuuya fans are slightly losing here as well, looking at some of these panels. That is not to say they’re badly drawn, once more, I must give all credit to the artwork as I have to admit I very much like it and appreciate the effort that goes into it, but the focus of many of these pages seems to be purely to shock, intimidate or disturb the viewer in a certain way by highlighting the exaggerated abilities of the characters, rather than having the visuals balanced with the actual point of the story itself, which is not— and never has been— about the amounts of power Arthur and Chuuya hold, respectively. Perhaps I will be repeating myself here, but if anyone is to read the novel, they’ll come to find out that there is no more focus on abilities than there is on expanding Dazai, Chuuya and Arthur as characters and human beings within the story of BSD.

Nevertheless, it just so happens that Chuuya thankfully has a certain fanbase, of which the majority of people seem to understand he isn’t meant to be a cold-hearted maniac despite harboring the power of Corruption and being depicted/interpreted in various ways showcasing the extent of his abilities, but speaking from personal experience, the same can’t be said about anyone who comes to know of Arthur, which I don’t mean inherently negatively— I was also once such a person, for which I must sarcastically thank the anime adaptation that initially introduced me to him. At least, on Chuuya’s end, there are always attempts to show his humanity, his actual personality, and I’d have two guesses as to why— first, he’s one of the two most popular BSD characters who has the spotlight on him either by the creators or the fandom almost everywhere he goes; second, his story directly revolves around whether he is or isn’t human anyway, so it’s entirely understandable that a contrast between himself and his abilities would make sense to show, even sometimes exaggerate, just like in Hoshikawa’s adaptation.

Unfortunately, this contrast is just lost on Arthur’s end, because there is no other side of him being anyhow shown to the readers. Personally, I wouldn’t come out thinking Chuuya is some kind of heartless monster, given that he’s shown to interact with other characters normally, he’s seen coming back to his senses after a few panels, and generally, no matter what has been cut out and what has been left in, it just so happens that there is simply enough content of him to be able to merely afford to do any of this— all of which can’t be said about Arthur, who has all the necessary content to understand his character better specifically in the Fifteen light novel (and Stormbringer), not scattered all around several other books and mangas to be able to sacrifice one adaptation of the source material and still carry on. Albeit we still haven’t seen the end of the fight, in which I’m dearly hoping his dialogue is going to be portrayed properly with the same emotion it was presented to us with in the light novel as the absolute last chance for this to turn around in the slightest, I can safely say that there were opportunities to create this same effect with Arthur as with Chuuya, yet these opportunities were all passed up.

From the start, we’re introduced to this strange, yet harmless-looking sub-executive of the Port Mafia, that of which is revealed to be a ruse set up by him, and from that point onwards, throughout the fight, there is no further indication of anything beyond Arthur supposedly being nothing other than a simple cartoon supervillain who doesn’t really care about his actions, even though the novel has enough evidence scattered around that he does— he doesn’t want to be in that situation, he doesn’t actually want to kill anyone, and what he’s after is a memory of someone most dear to him which he’s desperate to get back, and believe it or not, all of this dialogue is, in fact, not supposed to be said coldly and flatly before having his ability centered to no end once more, shining the light on that aspect instead of a character who was originally someone most unfortunate and hopeless, someone who was in an inescapable situation that would have never ended well for him no matter what he’d done, and someone who was far from the person being portrayed in the manga currently.

With all that being said, one more thing I’d like to point out, which is a bit more specific to phases 16/17 at the current moment, is the way the interactions between Chuuya and Arthur are being portrayed as of right now. In the novel, it is made quite clear the two are, indeed, opponents in their fight, but Arthur has no actual desire to kill Chuuya, and Chuuya himself doesn’t actually hold anything against Arthur— in fact, it’s quite explicit in showcasing the fact that Chuuya has respect for him, understanding his motive of wanting to save a dear friend, even cursing out Dazai for not believing it or taking it seriously, and never showing any kind of outward excitement for this fight, which…will be relevant in just a second. If that’s not enough to convince a person, there’s also Chuuya visiting Arthur’s grave further in the novel and quite literally stating he will return to it again, and before that, I believe that Arthur telling Chuuya to live in his last moments also speaks volumes about the fact that there was no resentment or genuine conflict between the two, rather an unfortunate fate they were met with. In the manga, however, I don’t think it’s a reach to say that I’m not quite getting the same feeling. I’ll go ahead and admit that I’m focusing on this because of personal bias, but even despite that, I feel as though having Arthur written off as merely Chuuya’s opponent and nothing more is still not the right way to go about it, considering what I said before— there wasn’t an actual hostility between the two, and not only did Arthur tell Chuuya to live, he also was the one to call Chuuya a human being and see him as such, that of which I’d expect far more attention to just due to the mere nature of Chuuya’s character.

Now, for the first time ever, I will go into some very specific details, because I need them to show what I’m talking about. All further translation credits go to DarkestJay868 on Twitter.

This page from phase 16 was the one right after what was originally Arthur’s monologue about wanting to save his partner, and I believe it’s quite clear how I feel about that part, but I haven’t redrawn this page in particular despite it being in my original plans, so it’s only fair I give my thoughts on it while it’s relevant.

I would normally only nitpick these aspects privately instead of posting them online, but since this manga makes even such small things important for all the wrong reasons, I have to point them out. I initially didn’t think so much of this page, though I did find it a peculiar choice to make him look almost excited for the fight, atop the final line which never appeared in the novel itself— something that may seem insignificant, but ultimately, it does create the effect that Chuuya is somewhat eager to engage in this conflict for whatever reason, which is simply not the case. I could go on about some smaller dialogue changes, even his lack of harshness towards Dazai’s comments that makes his original reaction quite downplayed, but I’m leaving those in a quick mention of acknowledgment, as they’re only secondary to what I’m aiming at here.

I would have ignored this, given there’s a much bigger issue for me to focus on, had Chuuya and Arthur’s skewed interactions not continued onwards to phase 17 as well— more specifically, after Chuuya’s attacks, by the end of the chapter.

If someone were to tell me these two didn’t actually have any kind of internal conflict going on between them beforehand, I wouldn’t have believed it for a second, but here we are. From the first page, in which the original Chuuya of the novel was hurt and tired instead of almost feeling as though he isn’t taking anything too seriously, all while Arthur never said a word that nearly implies him looking down on the latter (his direct quote is “Nothing I say will help…this is my space”, you simply cannot tell me that isn’t far more neutral than what the manga turned it into), to the second page, where not only is Chuuya’s first line much more accusatory and directed at Arthur himself, rather than the original (“…everyone’s an ant to a European ability user…”), but also, might I add that Arthur wasn’t the one to hold Chuuya in place? It’s explicitly stated that Chuuya could no longer avoid the attacks by fault of using too much of his power, and even though this may sound like an insignificant detail when one is to consider the following scene of the novel— that is, almost being the one to end Chuuya’s life, which is absolutely no less cruel than a mere action like that— it still gives off the impression as though there’s some kind of hostility between them when there really wasn’t, not even during a fight to the death, and that, in the context of this manga and its very likely fandom reception…well, I’d much rather just cover even the smallest of details than watch as it ultimately gets misconstrued, as so much media surrounding this novel often does.

Anyway, that’s my take on these chapters for now. I’m aware it’s messy, I’ve only seen phase 17 a couple of hours ago and haven’t exactly prepared some kind of proper dissection. Naturally, feel free to take all this with a grain of salt, or even a whole bucket of it, because yes, I am very salty about the way this manga is going, but I’m hoping to ultimately compare it to the novel and give my own opinion on the development here.

[variousbones]

I’m no longer in the extremely weird fetishizing Gerard way as a supposed trans woman club (led by tumblr user girlgerard), that was 2 years ago and I’ve grown as a person. However comma I will continue to allow myself to still get excited about the interviews where Gerard talks about feeling more connected to women than men. While the trans-truther fan stuff is deeply invasive and inappropriate, I cannot deny that interacting with that content also revolutionized how I view and interact with my gender and allowed myself to explore gender presentation in completely new ways. Like leaning into the inherently monstrous aspects of being trans that are so so so beautiful and sometimes repulsive and also strange and uncomfortable and REAL. I am both Frankenstein AND his monster. Gender is a construct and I am building it with my bare hands using dirty scavenged parts. I was also so positively influenced by the unabashed thirsting over traditionally unattractive features and gender non conformity. Stomach pouch, strong legs and stubble on a fem presenting person, straight silhouette, signs of aging like gray hair, etc etc etc. It gave me the confidence and permission to love the parts I recognized on my own body. Attractiveness is not the be-all end-all of worth, nor should it be. But goddamn it is so refreshing to see a middle aged person with an average body be framed as the pinnacle of sex appeal. And especially because of his gender non-conforming presentation. It’s a kind of representation I needed to unlock new parts of myself. It was so extraordinarily liberating and I’m so grateful for the other healthier sources of those feelings that I’ve found since then. Yes I have a parasocial relationship with Gerard way. Whatever. Yes I still follow an account on here called milfygerard that posts vaguely trans truther stuff sometimes. Sue me, they post really good fandom updates and otherwise I generally agree with their views and approach to things. Whatever. Nuance exists. Two things can be true at the same time. Etc etc. I know how to distinguish online brain rot from real life.

[babyrdie]

Hey!

Vetted Palestinian Campaigns

Donations Masterpost

Basic things

You can call me Birdie.

NO AI!!!

I'm a woman, but don't worry about pronouns.

I'm Brazilian. If you are from a Portuguese-speaking country, feel free to speak to me in Portuguese. If you're Hispanic and prefer to speak Spanish, I can also understand some Spanish although I'm not fluent. I'm not fluent in English either and I'm better at reading than writing, that's why I still have to use online translators. So please consider that there may be a miscommunication when you find something I wrote strange.

If that matters in your decision to interact, I'm an adult. There is some NSFW content here, specifically nudity. It's not a big deal, but if that matters to you please be aware.

I like a lot of stupid and silly headcanons, be warned!

I'm aroace and sometimes that affects my headcanons. I KNOW the characters aren't really aroaces, they're just headcanons! I say this because I've seen some people misinterpret things like this.

I post mostly about Greek Mythology, but I reblog about a variety of things because 1) I have multiple fandoms 2) I reblog beautiful art even if I don't saw the original work. The fandons I'm currently most invested in are Dungeon Meshi and ATLA, but I have others like tgcf, kny, etc.

Interaction

Please don't take everything I say as definitive.

I accept comments, reblogs (when enabled), asks, DMs, tag games, etc. Feel free to interact!

Although I mainly talk about mythological sources, this blog isn't anti-retelling fandom. So if you're going to follow, expect to see Hades, PJO and TSOA. And if you're a fan of any of these and haven't read any mythological sources, that's fine too! Always feel comfortable asking, and if I know the answer, I can try tell you! But I know more about mortal characters than deities, so I probably won't be of much use when it comes to deities! Still, remember that this for me is a hobby and I'm not a classicist or historian or anything like that, so logically I can make mistakes and in that case I'm fine with being corrected. I recommend you check the sources if possible becuase my posts don't intend to be intelectual sources lol. Plus: I'm agnostic, I don't speak from a worshiper's point of view.

More here.

[spawnofthedivine]

ahh hollow being close to front and influencing my (spyte) own emotions towards things is certainly,, Something. its not like its out of the ordinary for us to bleed over neutral or positive opinions + emotions + etc. but like.. this is more negative stuff (which is a little more uncommon, but not rare). its mainly bcuz they dont like any ship content between them and their sourcemates. this is not good bcuz a good 50% of the fan content we see is ships w either quirrel or grimm (and another 50% of those ships arent fucking tagged w the ship names so theyre almost unavoidable). they Do Not like either of them for almost the same reason. theyre repulsed by most people (irl + in source) and they esp dont like romance. quirrel is okay as a person (boring + annoying but not the worst to sit in silence around), and they just dont feel anything towards him and they feel disgusted when they see the fan content. feelings r the same w grimm, they dont like him (boring + annoying again !!! how wonderful) and think hes off putting in the worst way possible.

anyways im neutral towards the ships on a day theyre not bleeding over to me but the days they are,,, wow. okay. hatred and disgust vibes x500

(this is not to say the ships themselves r gross, its perfectly fine to ship them lol. these r just our hollows feelings abt it)

below the read more is in depth stuff abt their dislike of a lot of people cuz they want to talk abt it but its gnna make the post too long lol. also ⚠️ cw for calling people/relationships unreal in a serious way? idk what to call that so its not tagged but heres the warning ⚠️

our mom is okay in their opinion, shes interesting to them and likes us and doesnt get mad at us that often and almost never argues w us. our father though.. he argues with them all the time. anytime he speaks theres always a problem and hollow does Not have a filter so they end up getting pissed and arguing and then its a whole Thing for a few hours and our dad just starts screaming at a point etc. etc. they also generally dont think hes interesting and theres nothing to benefit from interaction w him. sooo 0/10 for dad, 7.5/10 for mom bcuz she does get after us for our arfid and thats beyond annoying.

also, our friends piss them off regularly. they often feel like snapping at them and getting mad but hold back most of the time cuz they know i would cry my eyes out if we even had a minor disagreement. the only times they dont stay quiet abt it is when i agree w them (typically out of confusion on my part).

they also seem to b the main source of our whole "we are the only real people. everyone else doesnt actually exist. no one has real emotions or lives, we're the only ones who actually exist." thing. so thats a bit telling of one reason why they dont like many people. this happens especially with our brother and most people we see once and never again. they also feel this when they see others in sexual, romantic/romance adjacent, or generally affectionate (?) relationships.

its.. very strange to see others be in love and then only have the thoughts and vibes of "thats not right! why are they doing that? thats disgusting, i cant believe thats something they would do in front of us! what the fuck! that looks/is so unnatural!" etc. etc. its like.. x20 strength when we witness someone we're close to doing it. we've been in relationships before, and the feeling only gets worse as time goes on while we were in the relationship.

it also happens to ANY physical touch. handshakes, fist bumps, hugs, kisses (platonic or not), hair touching, cuddling etc. is all disgusting to them (and whoever is close enough to feel it too)

its. also very difficult to get their approval. i think i understand what "they dont like many people, so dont be surprised if they dont like you" means now. they even have neutral feelings towards the other members of the system, and they only like me moderately enough to talk to me.

so uh. i think its safe to say hollow is our main holder/source of repulsion towards people and any sort of relationships. i was wondering where the feelings would come from because they seemed to come and go at random, but i think i got it now :P

[mysticdragon3md3]

8:41 AM 1/6/2023

I think I've come to this weird point in my FE3H fandom, where I've just settled into my headcanons and my personal interpretations of what I like about the characters/story. I've become complacent, but content. I'm no longer taking in much input or looking for discourse. I've already had my time in discourse, and I'm full. Now I just want to enjoy FE3H for the parts that give me joy, in the personal interpretations that I have, and focus on the headcanons that I enjoy.

People are going to disagree with my interpretations of FE3H, but I've now accepted that I'm in this fandom, I'm a fan of FE3H, less to interact with the community discourse, but to just enjoy my own headcanons. Sometimes there's still some fun headcannons or input from the community. And there's definitely great fanart and fanfics from the community. But I finally feel strangely less interested in discourse and less intrigued by long essays about divisive FE3H interpretations, especially on more vague points of the story/characters. I just feel kind of strangely content to stay in my bubble.

Which coincidentally, sounds very similar to enjoying a series as a solo fan, vs being part of a fandom. Before I got on broader, fandom-focused social media, I was essentially a solo fan. I wrote fanfics and drew fanart only for myself and no one else ever saw it. Then in my years on fandom-focused social media, I've gotten a lot of joy out of fandom, a sense of community, lots of insightful input, great fics, and beautiful fanart to look at. But in recent years with FE3H, there's just been a lot of divisiveness and a lack of that feeling of community. (With the exception of a few frequent interactors that I'm grateful for. ---Are we Mutuals? I'm not in the habit of Following, so I don't often have Mutuals. But I do have Regulars that I love to see. Thanks, guys.)

The more I stay in FE3H, the more I realize there's just so much breadth to that IP, but I'm happier just staying in only the corners of it that I'm actually interested in. Though I feel like a lot of Fire Emblem fans will chastise me for not taking into account every character, every route, every revelation, every bit of worldbuilding lore, etc., I'm just not interested. I have to be honest with myself. I came into FE3H because of the Dimiclaude shipping, and that's all I really need out of FE3H in order to be happy. And if I'm not getting happiness out of FE3H, then there's no point in me being a fan of it. I'm not interested in parts of the IP outside of my focus, outside of the archetypes and themes that speak to me (even if those archetypes/themes that I'm seeing, are just my own interpretations and headcanons inspired by the source material, more than actual canon). At some point in fandom, I realized that reading-in my own preferences, onto a series, was more important than the actual source material. Interpretation, introspection, and Thought Experiments, are more important than Authorial Intent…and canon. When I see the patterns in what I read-into a series, I can understand myself better, what I'm drawn to, what themes repeat for me, and I can question why that's important to me. I can better know myself. And personally, I think that introspection is more important than Authorial Intent. It's why most of my OTPs have been non-canon ships, why I've developed favorite ship dynamics, favorite archetypes, and favorite story themes. Even if I have to bend interpretations of a character or simply focus on emphasizing specific aspects of a character, I need to bring to the forefront, the parts of an IP that I'm interested in, in order to enjoy it. So what do I need the excess for? Sure, there's sometimes nice flavoring to help fill-out the world, but I don't need to see the whole worldbuilding and full cast in perfect canon, in order to get enjoyment and personal value out of a series.

Now I'm going to piss off people with examples of things in FE3H I'm not interested in:

The Black Eagles

Edelgard von Hresvelg

The Blue Lions

The Faerghus Four

The Ashen Wolves

The Church of Seiros characters

Byleth

any Support that doesn't involve Claude

Honestly, my myopic focus is amusingly shocking sometimes. Like, despite being a Golden Deer fan, I didn't know that Hilda had what some described as xenophobic cutscenes and her family kidnapped Cyril into slavery???? But honestly, I'm only really interested in Claude, so even if I like the Golden Deer, I still haven't invested effort into watching all the Supports for all the Golden Deer. lol But even if the cast members that I like have canon problematic elements, I just am not interested in focusing in on that.

In my headcanons, I'd personally like to focus on:

Dimiclaude.

Bottomitri.

Claude being playful, not flirty. (He can be a little flirty in private, after an established close bond with Dimitri.)

Hilda being Claude's best friend.

Claude characterization.

Claude being a paragon.

Claude being idealistic.

Claude solving conflicts by maintaining hope in idealistic solutions.

Claude being generally the most intelligent person in the room.

Claude always coming out of every conversation in an advantageous position.

Claude's wyvern excessively attached/overprotective of Claude.

Dimitri proving all of Claude's hopes.

Claude eased out of his self-doubts by finding hope through Dimitri just being his naturally altruistic and compassionate self.

Dimitri being earnestly sweet and pure-hearted.

Dimitri being sincere about all his emotions, from his vulnerability and compassion to his rage.

Dimitri eased out of his angst through Claude's insights, support, wisdom, and practical/logical decision-making.

Claude's dream, ideals, and True Strength.

Claude as the best diplomatic leader.

Dimitri as the most compassionate leader.

Dimiclaude just being a vehicle for my comfort ship dynamic of "sapiosexual-bait, trickster, warm, friendly, reassuring, admirable, seme" person A with "emotionally damaged/fragile, sometimes angsty, sometimes darkly relatable, pure-hearted, sincere, earnest, absolutely complete sweetheart, uke" person B.

Hilda and Claude being mischievous together.

Hilda manipulating people and getting away with it.

Hilda and Claude being equally manipulative, and getting away with it.

Leonie being cool, easy going, reliable, nice, and self-secure---like she is in EVERY Support not with Byleth!

Leonie being nonchalantly gender non-conforming.

Marianne, Ignatz, Raphael---heck, all the Golden Deer being sweet, precious babies.

Marianne being gentle and sensitive.

Marianne surrounded by animals.

Everyone being nice to Marianne. I don't want to see anyone being even slightly mean to her!

Ignatz being an artist and appreciating everything.

Ignatz maybe being the only sane Golden Deer, but too timid to sway anyone else to sanity. lol

Ignatz subtly giving reassurances to everyone, frequently.

Raphael being a loud, encouraging, sweetheart to everyone.

Raphael being enthusiastic about everything.

Raphael always knowing what's important in life.

Bullying Lorenz.

Lorenz being the overly responsible friend.

Lorenz exasperated because he thinks he is the only responsible Golden Deer. (He is not.)

Lorenz being proven wrong or caught off guard, then clumsily trying to recover his "noble" dignity. lol

Keeping Lysithea shoved to the background.

Minimizing or erasing Lysithea's abrasive attitude towards others.

Directing Lysithea's abrasive attitude only towards other abrasive characters, like Felix or those people bullying Marianne in 3Hopes.

Lysithea epitomizing that old anime saying "Trying too hard to be mature, is the surest sign of immaturity", by acting childish (insecurely competitive, scared of ghosts, distracted by sweets).

Lysithea being a very relatable fangirl about desserts.

Lysithea dropping (some of) her ego when sweets are involved. (Kind of like Ken in Persona Q2 dropping the "mature" act when bonding with Futaba over tokusatsu.)

Most importantly, Dimiclaude soothing my anxiety.

Honestly, anything else, I'm not really that interested in (anymore). And I've finally come to a point in my fandom, where that's okay. Why should I not simply focus on the parts of the IP that I enjoy? Anything extra can be nice for expanding the worldbuilding (when I run into such extra discourse/analysis), but I don't always need that perspective on Fodlan. All I need is my OTP and why I love them so much. That's the part of FE3H that makes me happy. I've found my bubble and I am content.

[newrainy]

Week 9 Fandom

My experience with Fandom  

Some may not know my background, but I grew up in Sweden, where Asia and Asian culture was not so prevalent. Due to my mixed heritage of being both European and Asian, I traveled back and forth to Thailand and Malaysia, where my relatives live. Starting from 10 years old, I was exposed to Asian pop culture. I started gaining interest in the famous worldwide genre of K-pop as it is now, but back then, it had a limited amount of popularity. When I returned to Sweden, I emerged with K-pop songs and gained some form of obsession. Yeah, I have once been a so-called "Koreaboo" I wanted to dress like them, speak the korean language, and eat their local food. It became a tiny part of my identity, but I never intended to hurt anyone. I had never had this sense of belonging that I was Asian too. Still, once I found out more about Asian culture, I began to realize that I was brought up in an Asian household, too, and not so much Swedish after all. That’s when I started to realize and acknowledge my own heritage progressively (my malaysian/thai side). 

My classmates ridiculed me for liking K-pop because it was very strange to them. I then participated and started my dance journey through K-pop dances; it's remained on YouTube, but that's a secret unless you are a hacker to the max. You are welcome to watch it if you find it. I participated in the K-pop dance contest made by the idols themselves. Best believe I won 1st place in the Girl's generation – the boys' dance contest, I was 13 years old at that time, and that was one of my early successes. However, I cannot deny that I am still somewhat proud of myself for winning.

Girls Generation - The Boys Music Video 

Interestingly, something can touch you so much to the core that you go all in for it.

How did my Fandom make me interact and engage in communities?

Well, K-pop made me into blogging. My first Tumblr in 2013 contained content from my favorite girl group, f(x), a 5-member group with exciting concepts. This is where I kickstarted my digital design phase, which made me into editing photos and creates GIFS of my biases. Tumblr's engaging and awarding part was the liking, reblogging, and following aspects. I had active followers who reblogged my edits, making me feel excited and happy.

( Pretty Sulli, May you Rest in Peace)

As previously mentioned, I had my dancing journey through K-pop. There was a little community of K-pop dancers in Sweden that held dance party events where we could perform. It's similar to Swinburne's MICS, but this is outside school. It was located in an arena, and other fun activities were also present. K-pop brought many different communities because of shared interests and taught me a lot about diversity, self-progression, and fun. I might not have been this creative, passionate person if I didn't experience all this beforehand.

Today, I’m not partaking in anything strictly fan-based but I enjoy things with balance.

The references for this post were solely based on my own experience, so I didn't provide any sources.

[petrichorvoices]

I don’t know why I still attempt to be presentable on here. This is Tumblr. I don’t need to restrain myself from reblogging an annoying amount of stationary images if I want to, this is exactly the site for doing that.

[kochanski]

Lot of interesting character stuff in Ouroboros and Duct Soup although it's difficult to say I like the group dynamic. Not gonna get into the misogynistic writing, we all know women be shopping etc etc, I just want to talk about how Kochanski fits (or how I think she should fit) in with the boys

I think Kochanski and Lister do have some chemistry, like, the moment when he tries to draw her a bath and make her evening nicer was really sweet and completely caught me off guard since in most episodes she's the one taking care of him. I'm not a fan of the way their relationship is handled in Ouroboros so it was nice to get a Lister redemption moment in Duct Soup.

I also liked that Kochanski decided to mess with him by briefly lying about her reality, although I'm conflicted about the actual content of the conversation (idk, not the worst thing in the world, but as a gay person it does feel a bit uncomfortable to joke/lie about alternate Lister's sexuality). But there's potential for mischief here and I think that's really important, given that she's been presented in her debut as a relatively no-nonsense character/straight man to the boys' chaos. This interaction brings her from being a reactionary character to stirring things up herself and I really appreciated that.

I do like the witty insults and some of the interactions wrt Kochanski and Kryten's rivalry, but it feels like a way more annoying/sexist version of the Lister-Rimmer dynamic. Rimmer wouldn't (probably) have seriously sabotaged the ship in order to screw Lister over- not saying he wouldn't think really hard about it, but their relationship has kind of a weird affectionate feel that's just missing from Kryten and Kochanski's. Obviously this is me scrabbling to take off the shipping goggles I've welded to my face but you know. Their antagonizing does have some foundation of friendship, where K&K don't have that at all. It is strangely endearing how much value Kryten places on his relationship to Lister, but it plays as controlling and petty in a way I don't care for.

Interestingly, early on in Ouroboros, Kochanski desperately needs to know why Kryten doesn't like her, and seems distressed that he doesn't. I kind of wonder if they weren't close in her reality, which makes me even sadder that they hate each other here.

Kochanski and the Cat don't seem to interact much at all in these episodes, but I did find it cute that the Cat follows her orders enthusiastically and tries to impress her. Of course this is likely a sexual pursuit based on the way he talks about her to Lister, but I would actually kind of love if she was His Person like an actual cat. I really like when Cat displays feline behaviors so I think it would be sweet if they had that weird unconditional bond, and I think it would be funny to see Lister a little jealous of that and try to win back the Cat (unsuccessfully) with food or other bribes. Just my two cents

Obviously, we almost never get her interacting with Original Rimmer, but it would be an interesting match. She and Rimmer have a lot in common vis-a-vis wanting to put order to the chaos, and they have similar backgrounds, although Kochanski comes off a lot more posh and upper-class than Rimmer ever has. Still, I think they would have some of the same tastes and be able to empathize with one another to some degree. I'm divided, however, on if Kochanski's competence and rank would be a source of jealousy, or if he would be relieved to have her in charge and start kissing up to her the way he does in the brief flashback in Ouroboros. As the show goes on, Rimmer kind of blossoms into this guy who actually halfway knows what he's doing as long as he doesn't pause to doubt himself, so I think Kochanski would recognize that in him and try (and absolutely fail) to nurture that. They're also both characters prone to anger and rage, but where Rimmer's presents as passive aggression, Kochanski is willing and able to be straight-up aggressive, definitely more so than Lister ever was. I don't know, I think the comparisons are interesting.

Okay wow this is a longer post than I thought but hopefully it's a fun read. Worth noting I'm only 5 episodes into series 7/have been skipping around a bit so it's entirely possible that I'm missing things. I just feel like if this is the character development season, it leaves some things to be desired and I really want to fill in those blanks

[vrishchikawrites]

Ok so like

This is by no means an insult, attack or anything of the aort to you personally, i enjoy your content and opinions and i fully mean this respectfully....

But i find it so interesting that some people can hate a particular character and not read fics about them?

Like, from my first interaction w fandom in general, i could read any relationship/ plot/ ooc as long as it is well written. Even if i hate canon characters, i can usually read them in a positive light. Hell, i can read any JC fix as long as i know if it's positive or negative so i know what to expect

And then i found tumblr discourse

Again, this isn't something I'm criticising, just an observation I'm curious abt, since detachment from the source material seems to be so scarce fandom wise

Ok, so - here's the thing. The problem isn't fans loving JC and writing him favorably. If that was an issue, many reasonable people in this fandom wouldn't be so miffed about it.

The problem is - we can't avoid them. You said it yourself, "as long as i know if it's positive or negative so i know what to expect"

We don't know what to expect.

Everyone wants to tailor their fandom experience. You mentioned you can read almost anything as long as it is well-written. That's a good thing because it opens up the entire fandom for you. But some people have specific tastes and triggers. They would want to look at the content they like and avoid what they don't like.

That isn't possible in this fandom.

I write canon characterization of JC. I am forced to tag is anti-jiang cheng. People write fanon characterization of JC. They don't tag it Jiang Cheng-friendly.

We get fics where JC is suicidal and people are gaslighting WWX - making him feel insecure - in the main Wangxian tag. And that is presented as ok for JC to do. They say it is suicidal JC, they don't mention that JC, Jiangs, and everyone is gaslighting the fuck out of WWX.

Then we have a perfectly good fic that we get invested in and find ourselves in a hole where WWX has crippling self-esteem issues, the Jiang family is abusive, but is brushed aside. There's no tag mentioning OOC WWX with self-esteem issues.

We have fics where Wangxian cheat on each other - with JC. And there's either one or more abusive partner involved. Partner abuse isn't tagged.

We have fics where all of WWX's morality is transferred onto JC. But JC isn't tagged as OOC.

THIS ISN'T TAGGED.

In fact, we have people using deceptive tags like angst with happy ending - Wangxian only for the happy ending to be for WWX to die at the hands of his abusive spouse. Again, no warning. The problem is so common and so many readers are blindsided by it that people have told me they clock out of the fandom because of it.

It isn't something as simple as an attachment to the source material. I am the last person to say fanon characterizations aren't allowed. I have been writing fanfiction for over two decades. Fanon characterization doesn't bother me at all.

There are fandom olds, good people, who will tag fics that are favorable to JC as JC-friendly and I don't think many of us have an issue with them. The problem starts when it becomes difficult to find a good fic where a canonical antagonist isn't allowed to walk all over the canonical protagonists. It is difficult to find a fic where everything that makes WWX so great in the canon is turned over until he only has surface characteristics of WWX but underneath that surface, he's someone we don't know.

Detaching yourself from the source material is one thing. But do you know many fics are out with WWX or LWJ having a bucketful of mischaracterizations? I have a near-crippling problem with depictions of severe self-esteem issues. I was drawn to WWX because, despite everything, he doesn't have severe self-esteem issues. So many fics include WWX with low self-esteem, severe self-deprecation without tagging? Because they consider it canon? I noticed that because I'm sensitive to it. But there are things I am not sensitive to, but other people want to avoid. Those things aren't tagged either.

It is frustrating for people who want to experience fandom, who want to be comfortable in fandom, but somehow have to deal with poor tagging, strange characterization, abuse justification, morality discussions, etc.

Fan content longer a favorable space for many fans. There are only so many fics you can clock out of before you start feeling completely disgusted by the situation.

So the response to all of that shit? Create a fandom vent space where people who do not like all of these things can come together, vent, and share their thoughts on. Venting in the story's comments section or in the author's space is bad form. A venting to people who have experienced similar things away from the creator's space? Fun and good form.

Also, added bonus, every time I see a meta, discussion, or answer an ask that forces me to think - my understanding of characters improves and I incorporate it into my fics.

to conclude - people can be detached from the original source material. But you bet people will rebel when someone tries to shove them in a particular direction. The more stans try to shove people in the direction of fanon characterization, the more people who like canon characterization will cling to it and defend it.

That's human nature.

All of this discourse? A response to being shoved and forced to bear fanon interpretations with complete disregard.

As people keep saying, the Chinese side of the fandom doesn't experience any of this shit.

Also, to clarify - I mean none spitefully or disrespectfully, despite my blunt language. This isn't a criticism of you or your ask, but of the state of this fandom.

[fictionkinfessions]

As much as I adore interacting with fans and fan content pertaining to my source, i often forget about the… more strange side of fandom.

There are times in certain communities, i’ll see someone say things about me that are…quite frankly, awful?? I understand that being from fiction, many don’t see me as a person and act accordingly, but I believe i still have a right to be uncomfortable.

Thank you for listening,

- The Narrator (tsp)

[supertunanana]

I’ve debated writing this for a while, because who wants to read my inane thoughts on the matter? What are my opinions really worth in the grand scheme of things? I’m not so self important to think this will be of any value. But, I’m an extroverted thinker, so this might help my brain finally shut up, and that’s worth something to me. 

The hypocrisy surrounding Jikook. 

Are they a couple? Maybe. I legitimately don’t know. I don’t default into thinking they’re straight. I don’t default into thinking they’re gay. Every member is a blob, sexually, until they define themselves one way or another. Because honestly, I don’t care. That’s between them and their potential paramours. There’s nothing wrong with either option, heck there’s nothing wrong with both or none. Live a life, man... good luck! 

And I have no problems with shipping, to the extent it is done in a sane way and fans do not impose their ships onto the actual people. What I mean is, if you think Tae and JK look good together and you want to read stories or draw art of them as a couple and you want to explore their dynamic, you do you. However, it crosses a line when fans get mad when real people or real situations do not adhere to their fantasy. When they contradict footage and quotes and the feelings of those involved because it doesn’t fit into their little shipping box, that’s when it’s a problem. Be realistic. Have distinct lines between fantasy and reality, between what you might like and what is actually happening. 

It is this reason, that I think shipping generally innocuous and indicative of the shipper more than the celebrity, that I also don’t think the celebrities in question need to be defended against shipping. Because  if it is distinctly fantasy, then unless they express an opinion on the matter, most celebrities don’t really seem to know about it or care. It’s harmless. That defense, those hackles raised, again say more about the fans than the celebrities. When Xiao Zhan’s (XZ) fans got pissed off that some fanfic writer was portraying him as trans, XZ never weighed in on it. It wasn’t until those fans, in DEFENSE of their idol reported the writer and those of their ilk to the censors in China and got AO3 blocked on Chinese internet, that’s when XZ stepped in. And not to thank his fans for defending him, but to apologize to all the innocent Chinese fanfic writers who lost their work and their sanctuary because a handful of his fans had gotten the site banned. Again, the problem here was fans imposing their own beliefs on the celebrity, in this case thinking he would be upset by this and thus needed to be defended. They ended up causing more harm than good.

So the crux of this, what’s been kicking about in my brain, was the need for the fandom to “defend” JK from “shippers” the day after “hickey gate” and why these things only ever seem to focus on Jikook moments.

First off, “hickey gate” stemmed from footage that was a full, editorial choice to be shared on the part of Hybe and BTS. It was behind the scenes, closed set, pandemic lockdown footage edited together and released as official content, not some concert fancam or paparazzo on the street catching a private moment. They chose to leave in both Jimin and Jungkook on TWO occasions addressing the bruise/bite/hickey on JK’s neck, with the source being attributed to Jimin both times. Thus, people discussing this after the fact is a natural biproduct of it being shared. Is it even “shipping” when we are given the footage and the explanation? Is it not just a strange fact? This isn’t someone superimposing a fantasy onto them. This is the boys flat out saying Jimin bit JK and left a mark on his neck. I get debate over whether it was a bite or a hickey might lend itself more to “shipping”, with the latter being more shippy, but seriously, just looking at it would make anyone to question whether the BRUISE was more a hickey than a bite mark. What it says about the nature of their relationship is a whole other animal, but the fact is, it happened. And people are going to have THOUGHTS and FEELINGS about this. And that’s obviously something Hybe/BTS were ok with to share it in the first place (seriously, we would have never known, we DIDN’T even have a whiff of this until they put the whole thing on the DVD, so they were obviously OK with this leading to speculation, because how can a member saying they BIT another on the neck not?). All the content we are given of the boys snuggling, biting, ear sucking, tenderly addressing each other, etc.. is mostly a choice. And that choice will lead to questions and debates, and they’re obviously ok with it. It’s not wrong for people to be like, “huh” when they do questionable things and choose to give us said content about the questionable things. 

But, there always seems to be this backlash when it’s Jikook. We have to “defend” JK, a fully grown man, who brought up the bite himself on camera from people talking about the bite as he himself said it was given to him. No backlash to people saying Jimin claimed doing it to cover up JK’s secret girlfriend (uhhh, when homosexuality is a no-go in SK, that seems a weird choice, but sure, ok.... like just cut it from the footage and slap some make up on like they do during the concert, since none of us noticed it then, and move on if you want to cover it up). But that’s allowed supposition despite having NO EVIDENCE to support it. And what we are TOLD actually happened is not ok and “shipping”?!? 

Worse, when days later some innocuous “TAE AND JK WERE STANDING NEXT TO EACH OTHER OMG! THEY’RE IN LOVE” trends, where is the “save JK from shipping” rhetoric? That is CLEARLY shipping. I’m not saying Jikook shippers don’t do this, too, they do. And I laugh and shake my head at every little thing being dissected and offered as “proof”, but there always seems to be this backlash when it’s Jikook. ESPECIALLY when it’s undeniably... different. Neck biting. Ear sucking. “with JK at 4 a.m.” when they found out Dynamite got number one. Golden Closet Tokyo. These things are facts. Again, they’re... weird facts that do lead me to raise an eyebrow a lot, but they are facts and they were shared by the members as facts. I don’t think it’s necessarily shipping to think weird facts are weird and may lead to conclusions that don’t adhere to the THEY ARE ALL INHERENTLY STRAIGHT manifesto so many fans seem to have (and I think “straight until proven otherwise” is a shitty perspective anyone could have in any walk of life and again speaks to inherent or unconscious heteronormative perceptions in society - hurray -_-). 

But even the dumb shippy stuff that ALL other combos have, is always an ISSUE when done by Jikook. Their bond or interactions are downplayed by major accounts. They’re an outlier. Some shippers even try to make it out like they hate each other (whaaa? HOW?!?!).  Any odd interaction that really is just odd is deemed “shipping” and cast off into the no-no void, where it’s WRONG if you side-eye it. And I know WHY. I know it’s because they ARE different and they do do stuff people just don’t want to look too closely at because it makes them uncomfortable, so it’s easier to just deem it all “other” and “crazy supposition” and get rid of it. But it’s frustrating when it’s legit and it’s stuff they’re choosing to show and give us. It’s frustrating to be told you’re not allowed to go “huh, weird” because now you’re just a crazy shipper. 

And again, I’m NOT saying Jimin and JK are in a relationship, because again, IDK, but I’m also not saying they're NOT either. I’m going to keep side eyeing the fuck out of some of the stuff they do and just enjoy that they are 100% each other’s person in the interim. And if that makes me a crazy shipper, then I guess that’s what I am.