#out of character and only happening bc the writers just hate to see this ship winning and like. if you really think that i genuinely don't

[bitchthefuck1]

you know what, I actually will talk about this because it's bothering me. The issue with focussing so heavily on syd and carmy's potential for a romantic relationship isn't that there's something inherently unintellectual about romance or whatever, it's that a lot of people seem incapable of doing that without immediately flattening the story and ignoring or intentionally misreading any and all nuance for the sake of that romance. Every scene suddenly becomes about how it impacts their relationship, every analysis is done through a romantic lens, every frame or line of dialogue becomes about finding some easter egg or hint that "proves" these people should start dating. Their dynamic is absolutely a fundamental part of this show, but if you can only see it as a will-they-won't-they, you miss so much of what the story is actually trying to say with these two.

There are good versions of this story where their relationship is romantic and there are good versions of this story where it isn't, but as soon as you decide them being together is "the point," you lose the ability to actually judge the story for what it is, not what you want it to be.

[ca-suffit]

sorry how long this is, but this fandom is pissing me off so much and I need to rant a little before I explode lol.

-- madeleine (nonchalantly) says of sleeping with a literal nazi, "I was inviting a frightened boy to cradle my tits," and then when louis turns her we see this as a pleasant memory, and I'm supposed to believe someone who could take pity on a nazi (even if he "wasn't dedicated to the cause") and remember him fondly isn't going to be racist? so I'm the weird one for finding claudeine to be a gross ship and being exasperated by seeing edits of them flood my dash? and every time I talk about this on ANY platform, I mostly get ignored and the few people who do interact w my posts are denying it and saying she had to do it to survive, as if she didn't also literally say she grew up rich like 30 seconds prior.

-- a decent chunk of the anti lestat crowd insists he participated in the trial as an act of revenge and can't say his name w/o talking about how they hate him (bc his racism + abuse), and these are the same people going apeshit over ben daniels saying that santiago was gay and in love with armand, as if he isn't one of the most antiblack characters we've met on the show bc he was quite literally eager to put on the trial solely bc he hated louis for falling asleep during one of his performances. and don't get me started on his monologue about claudia's ashes. and yet ppl are excitedly eating ben's interview up. 🙄

-- the narrative literally showing us that lestat has changed since the attempted murder (going off script on the trial in defense of louis & claudia, taking accountability for his abuse, staying silent about the fact that he was the one to save louis & letting him leave w armand when we know how terrifying being alone is for lestat, spending decades living in that shack and eating rats to punish himself vs the hedonistic & decadent lifestyle we saw him living in s1) and the anti lestat crowd claiming this is just him being manipulative and are furious that the writers had louis forgive him. like normally I agree that it's in very poor taste to paint an abuser as sympathetic, but the thing about this show is that these characters are immortal and have all the time in the world to change. like this isn't the writers sweeping it under the rug, they're explicitly acknowledging how horrific lestat's behavior was and there are literally canon glimpses showing us that lestat has become a better person (and I'm sure this will be fleshed out more next season as we'll get his pov) and, like, isn't it a good thing to see an abusive character realize the error of their ways and alter their behavior and become better????? like it's fair to not want to see that, but this is the wrong show to be watching if you can't handle seeing abusers change their ways & being forgiven by the people they've hurt (especially since it's pretty much confirmed armand/daniel is going to happen at some point and given I'm sure they'll be circling around each other, I feel confident that louis will eventually forgive armand too)

ur fine, u can rant! I have a lot in my inbox but I try to get to it all eventually in whatever way.

idk how much u wanted me to comment on anything or not, but I'm gonna add comments and u do whatever u want with it.

a) ur never going to have an easy time criticizing a white woman in fandom. it reflects too much of what fandom is usually made up of and ppl will usually tell u it's misogyny to judge these characters if u ever try (most of the time it's not, but that's a convenient excuse to shut down convos).

the show intentionally makes everyone do p questionable shit, especially the white characters. it doesn't tell u how to feel about it, that's up to u. that makes ppl uncomfortable. it goes further too when it is someone like madeleine, who is otherwise seen in positive ways. it's reflective of real life and that's what scares ppl the most. nobody ever fits in a box of only "good" or "bad." a lot of what the book for IWTV asks too is what defines that anyways? and S1 also said "are we the sum of our worst moments?" so it is constantly asking u that and it is for u to decide and reflect on.

b) white, gay stuff is also gonna be popular in fandoms. ben daniels is also gay irl and his husband just died so there's crossover from that to praising his character bcuz ppl feel sympathy for him. I also think ppl detach more from his actions bcuz he's not romantically linked to the characters he's torturing. ppl also just honestly dgaf about antiblackness anyways so for most ppl it's easy to overlook. which is how we get posts like this.

I mean, u can also like whatever characters u like for any reason. some ppl like characters not bcuz they support what they do, but bcuz they're just enjoyable to watch in performance or connection to the plot or whatever. I think examining santiago after what ben said about his performance is something ppl should be able to do, and again it circles back to the stuff I wrote for madeleine. where does ur (general u) discomfort lie and why? as u said, if it's ppl who dislike lestat then it's worth looking at that too, why are the characters different then?

c) there's sort of 2 things happening for this part. the first is that 2x8 did have pacing issues, for whatever reasons. a lot of ppl felt like it flattened the plot and characters for the sake of making lestat look the best (over armand) and rly shoving it in out of nowhere. the second part is what u said about the themes. I've always figured they were going to explore forgiveness and personal growth, but I also know it isn't going to be easy for ppl to follow. hopefully the full seasons coming do a better job of this but for 2x8 there were a lot of reasons ppl felt crazy about the way it was shown to us. I also agree that other characters will have these journeys with each other too. it was just such a sharp turn for S2 to end on highlighting the white character we've otherwise seen as being p horrible and suddenly saying "it's the brown character who rly did the worst!" I don't think they intended to come across like that but it's how it landed for a lot of ppl. it doesn't mean ppl have an issue with the concept of forgiveness and stuff otherwise. we'll have to see how it goes. but ya there's 2 things going on there for this rn.

[wendytestabrat]

matt & trey know i exist at this point

ok i swear this is like the 4838289292 time something on south park coincidentally changes the way i want after a critique i made lol. it’s either that or i’m just rlly good at predicting what’s gonna happen bc i know the characters so well. but ummm IT’S NOT A COINCIDENCE THAT RIGHT AFTER I MADE A RANT LIKE A MONTH AGO ABT HOW I WAS TIRED OF KYLE BEING A DICK TO CARTMAN FOR NO REASON WHEN WE LOVE CODEPENDENT MARTYR COMPLEX KYLE MORE, THAT THEY MADE A WHOLESS EPISODE ABOUT CODEPENDENT KYLE AFTER A STRING OF EPISODES WHERE KYLE WAS AN ASSHOLE. MAKE IT MAKE SENSE. AND ALSO i did another rant not too long ago where i talked abt the only way they could make kyman canon that would work and get more people on board with the ship is if they escalate the hints and make them more obvious to casual viewers lol and i feel like that’s exactly what they did in this special. especially in that scene where they were all in each other’s faces looking like they were about to kiss like there’s no way anyone can’t see that that was gay LOL. this was like one of the most on the nose kyman episodes. so yeah i appreciate them taking my feedback on that bc if matt & trey are rlly serious about making kyman happen they’re gonna have to get more people on board and believing that the ship is a thing so people will stop hating lol. BUT ALSO this shit has happened sm in the past. like literally right after i did that analysis defending cartman and why i wanna see more of his good side, then s24 happened and we got that scene where he spared the pangolin. NOT A COINCIDENCE. and then right after i started pointing out how much of a dick kyle is and how he’s the real toxic friend for turning cartman into a monster, they gave us the post covid episodes that RLLY showed kyle has been the snake friend all along the way he was harassing cartman when cartman had genuinely changed and moved on without him. NOT A COINCIDENCE. and ofc right after i started making rants abt how kyle has a victim mentality then they made the episode “the worldwide privacy tour” which deadass called kyle a victim lol. i also loved that moment where kyle couldn’t figure out his brand bc he doesn’t know who he is….right after i pointed out how kyle has no personality outside of shitting on cartman lol. like even if it’s not matt & trey looking at my posts i’m sure someone else in the writers’ room or on the south park team is (bc yeah it takes A LOT of people to make a tv show) and telling them this shit LOL. i’m pretty much a south park writer at this point like where are my royalties??? and the way kyle acted in the obesity special has been pretty well received bc that’s the kind of kyle people like seeing so yeah this should go on my resume 😤

[echobx]

Jiara has done nothing for JJ or Kie's character development. It has actually caused character regression. JJ was a bad friend to Pope last season and he didn't even apologize for the way he handled the whole Kiara situation. Pope deserved better than that. Idc what anyone says their friendship is not the same due to this. It doesn't matter that Pope and Cleo are a couple now. If I was Pope, JJ would be kept at arms length.

As for Kiara, she has a different personality each season so that's why her development is all over the place. The only thing consistent is her loyalty to the Pogues. She deserves a better storyline than just trying to "fix" JJ while he pushes her away until she gets kidnapped. Free my girl from the fans who only see her as their self-insert to ship with the overrated white boys, especially Rafe the Rat!

yeah, JJ didn't feel like himself and more like a bad copy of who he was in the seasons before in like 90% of s3, the only time he was the same as always was ep7-8 when he was with JB.

I don't know if I would say he was a bad friend to Pope, but he was obviously less of a friend to him, and Pope decided to balance it out by spending time with Cleo (which tbh was the one good thing that season) and for selfish reasons I want JJ and Pope to reconcile and go back to being lovesick fools for each other (I'm never gonna let jjpope die. idc about the haters)

the only way I can think of s3 in terms of jiara, is by looking at all of it as sibling vibes (bc that's all they ever had, there was never any romance) and just ignore that kiss that both actors visibly didn't put any work in to make it look like they actually care about the ship.

honest to god, i feel like both Madison and Rudy are probably the biggest jiara haters out there.

concerning Kie, I will always defend her against the writers, bc s1 I actually thought she had such great potential, but then fans wanted her with Pope, so that happened, and then fans wanted her with JJ, and it happened again. wanting a poc woman to be with a white man so hard that you pressure the writers into doing it feels sinister to me. at least she and pope had a tiny bit of chemistry.

but then again, her whole arc is heavily queercoded. and Madison (an actual queer woman) knows this and wants to embrace it, but they won't let her. and I can't even imagine how it must feel to play a character and hope for them to get good character development just for them to fuck you over every new season. s1!Kie was very much a "pick me" girl already, and they could've easily gotten her a great arc and away from this pick me behavior, but instead they leaned into it even more, and then they made her into a bitch who plays with her best friends feelings. her development is literally nonexistent. she stays the same rather shallow girl all the way through.

I watched s1 and hoped to see Kie evolve into a real girls girl, someone who doesn't repeat her dumb hurtful mistakes. but they destroyed it all bc as we have also seen with Sarah, they don't know how to write women.

and I sometimes even question her loyalty to the pogues bc if she was really all in, why would she ask JB to pick her over Sarah. like, I know it makes sense for her as a pick me girl to do that, but i still hate it. and it also seems like most of the time she treats being a pogue like a hobby instead of actual reality and the lives of her best friends. (which is one of the main reasons why her and jj will never work even if they had chemistry)

on Rafe, i do hope they keep Sofia as his gf (even tho RafeBarry is just so much fun) but as much as I hope that they don't pull the "he fixed himself to be with her" I just know that they don't have enough brains to actually know not to do this.

[ivysangel]

wally’s death was the first character death that i ever experienced from a character that i LOVED. like i was crushed and i cried so hard my mom thought someone actually died so i understand your pain!! and when they did the kind of flashback thing in season 3 where dick was hallucinating about being robin with the team and wally was back while fighting on granny goodness’s ship??? the writers were SICK for that!!

also dinah mentioning the sanctuary part at the end of season 4 is supposed to be how wally comes back but i don’t see how cause in the comics he’s stuck in the speedforce but the writers say there is no speedforce?? which why not??

the time jump was the dumbest thing i’ve ever seen cause why??? we missed tula joining the team and then dying, we missed kaldur discovering who his real father is and going to the light’s side (even if it was just undercover), we missed dick becoming nightwing, and we missed ALL of jason. don’t get me wrong cause i love tim and i wanted to see him as robin too but jason is such an important part of tim and dick’s stories so what gives??

and the writers are especially sick for how they did wally and artemis!! cause why tease us with them for the whole season, finally give us spitfire in the last episode of season 1, then have their ENTIRE relationship off screen, and then they kill wally?? we really got no time with them!! like spitfire is arguably the best couple on the show even if the writers clearly do favor connor and m’gann. especially m’gann and i love her but why was dick barely in season 4???

i don't think i cried when wally died bc i'm p sure i spoiled it for myself but i was still GUTTED. me and one of my friends who also watched yj have talked about it so many times. she actually stopped after he died and said she wouldn't continue the show unless they brought him back. i think dc knows what young justice fans want i just don't think they gaf bc that have quite literally not implemented a single thing that fans have REALLY asked for. you'll say "we want wally back!!" and they'll be like "ohhh okay let's remind everyone that he's dead and literally nobodies truly recovered!!!"

also, once again, FUCK that five year time jump. the young justice writers' room utilized the FUCK out of time jumps like every season has at least one or two??? mid-season they'll be like "1 year later" WHAT??? but like i said, nothing is worse than that five year time jump between s1 and s2 because five years is such a long time, especially because the team were practically babies at the beginning. they had so much potential and then the show just jumped to them as adults and a whole new team.

i also fully hate that they introduced rocket in the second to last episode or smth and pretty much benched her as a superhero for the entire rest of the show, i do not understand that decision AT ALL.

and yes, the fourth season being advertised as a season about the og team only for it to be so heavily m'gann and conner centric was so…i did enjoy that we finally got some real zatanna screen time but ugh god i wish it was with the team. like i don't really know how to explain it or if this even makes sense, but even though the show is about a team i feel like we barely get to see the team do actual team stuff like they used to. it feels like a lot of solo plotlines that happen to be going on in the same show with coincidental correlation.

also i think it might've been season 4? maybe 3? but WAY TOO MANY CUTS TO VANDAL SAVAGE'S LIFE STORY. I DON'T GIVE A FUCK.

[mzannthropy]

Hi! I like your opinions on different topics. I am a new fan of Sam Claflin, I didn't know him before I watched Me before you, only because I was scrolling my Pinterest and I saw one of his pictures from Love Rosie, He was looking too handsome in that picture, I didn't even knew his name, Look how underrated he is nowadays, I searched for the film and got to know about him. Then I started watching his films last Summer. I became his fan, I appreciate his acting talent and his good looks😌 I have never watched The Hunger Games before but for him I watched the entire franchise in just a couple of days. Recently I watched Daisy Jones and the Six. I watched the show first and I was so hooked by it, that I just started to live in that show. But when I reviewed it on YouTube I saw people recommended to read the book too, I read it, and now My whole perspective just changed, I used to Ship Billy and Daisy before reading the book, And when I filled my brain with original Djats stuff, I started hating my shipping and Now I'm worshipping Camila like a Goddess. I have no question actually I just wanted to share my feelings with someone so I write it here.🤗

How come he never selected as a sexiest man alive for People magzine??😫

Have you seen the things I say, lolololololol. No, srsly, thanks for stopping by.

I've been a Sam Claflin fan for 4 years now, so not that long, considering his career. I already knew he was a good actor before I truly got into him (I had already seen him in Peaky Blinders which is one of his best performances). Some day I will write my history, maybe.

What you say about shipping in DJATS is interesting. The show went all in with the Daisy and Billy ship which made me feel like I wandered in from a different dimension by mistake. Maybe I just don't get the story, or idk, but not only did I never see anything there, I don't understand why I should. I didn't know anything about Fleetwood Mac or that relationship either (I still don't know what went on with those two bc I intentionally keep myself ignorant, but at least I've listened to the music, and I saw Stevie Nicks live a couple of weeks ago). I was really surprised, not only by the widespread popularity of the D/B ship, but also the rabidity of the shippers. I think it must be the music that makes people so insane (I heard that shipping wars were very bad on Glee). As you've read the book now, you will know that it was much more ambiguous and it was up to the reader to decide whether anything happened or not. I always took it at its word, bc 1. I didn't think it was the type of the story that was supposed to be ambiguous and 2. I don't think TJR is that great a writer to pull it off. (She's not bad, don't get me wrong, she's just not that outstanding). Like, DJATS is not a gothic novel like, e.g. My Cousin Rachel, which never answers the mystery with regards to Rachel's guilt. As you know, Sam starred in the adaptation of this book and if you've watched it, you will know that the films is faithful to this--which proves that a screen adaptation can remain as ambiguous as the book it's adapting, so people who say the DJATS the series showed what really happened are talking out of their ass. Basically, the DJATS writers wanted to serve the D/B shippers so hard they screwed up the story. And Billy's character, bc how the hell are you going to present a married man having an affair with his coworker positively. I still have a lot of resentment over all of it, and I honestly think that show broke something in me (it got to the point that I had to question whether I still should be following Sam) but I weathered that storm and better things are coming. Billy Dunne was a transformative role for Sam and it was life changing for him on a personal level, as he said in many interviews, that's why I keep saying it doesn't matter that he didn't get nominated for an Emmy. He would never have scored the Count of Monte Cristo role had he not gone through the Billy Dunne role.

Worshipping Camila as a goddess, as it should be, lol. Two of the changes I liked were 1. the way they met, I've always wanted to write a meet cute at a launderette and 2. that they made Camila a photographer. Sure, they ended up doing fuck all with it, but that's what imagination and headcanons are for. Also she had such nice outfits.

I'm afraid, though, that I have some very unpopular opinions. I think I need to re-do my pinned post and put a disclaimer there to make it clear from the start, bc although I avoid posting hate (I try to concentrate on love instead), I cannot not express myself when I need to and I don't want there to be any confusion and I can't lie, so... oh dear... inhales... so, I have some... actually a lot... of problems with the other media you mentioned. Finnick's cool and all that, but I can dunk on Hunger Games till the sun goes down and then start again when it comes up. As for the other two... let me just say there is a reason I call myself a heretic of the Sam fandom (and why I keep to myself like the outcast I am).

My tag for everything Sam related is #samblogging, so you can check that out if you want to. I talk about him a lot.

[wewebaggit]

i love how ur bio says safe space for hopper haters bc too many ppl in this fandom are always like “whaaaaat!? but how can u not like jopper 🥺” when he is not only a full grown man who abuses his power and was horrible to Joyce in s3 but also his character itself is literally copaganda

and it’s concerning and so weird (but also unsurprising) that jopper is like… elevated as this god tier ship, even in queer spaces, when in reality it’s pretty mid and also why would I want to ship Joyce byers with a cop

Hey booksandpaperss!

I am a safe space for ALL HATING. But specifically Jim Copper hate simply because he is shown a lot of undeserved grace by the fandom and the writers.

Since it's now in vogue to hate on s3 I'll take this opportunity to escape being called a negative nancy for once and just a hatering hater. Here goes:

My hate for Hopper is not as a result of season 3 but in fact it began with s2. (s1 a wee bit) But truly honestly deeply since season 2.

Hopper in season 2

After giving up Eleven's location in the prior season, Hopper then out of the goodness of his heart (😒) starts leaving Eggos for El in a reverse HansEl and GretEl. The feral El now has a home. But is it a home? Or just another prison? Hopper leaves her alone in the cabin with nothing but a TV. And so El spends her days mindlessly going through all the shit the idiot box has to offer. The only time she's actively interested in the TV is when she wants to use the static to get into the void. Because she has been kept away from the ONE friend she made out of the lab. And let's bffr. It's Mike. She is looking for Mike. And Mike too is the only one thinking about her. Hopper keeping her away from him and lying and being nothing but and angy aggressive cop of a dad is supposed to make the audience feel.....wait what are we supposed to feel? Mad at Hopper? Cuz the end result was people hating on El rebelling against Hopper. And it is all because El's resolution at the end of the Lost Sister episode was......that she needed to go back to Hopper and her friends. However, again it is a point in time when Hopper's at the lab and in mortal danger.

So since we love deep dives and shit and developing lore around characters, would she have been compelled to return to Hopper were he just, idk sitting in his cabin or at the station or whatever. A lot of ST is just about characters deciding to do stuff when someone is in REAL DANGER™️ But specifically with Hopper, he only steps up as dad when El's in danger. Otherwise he's treating her as a pet, something Mike was wrongfully accused of.

The whole entire (almost) year that El was with Hopper we do not see a change in her personality. Her rage has worsened. Her vocabulary is still lacking. In spite of the word of the days. There's no female presence in her life. He neither recruited Joyce nor her aunt (though that would have been sus, agreed n yet would it have been any different seeing as El managed to do it alone.) She's been held hostage for her own good.

Hopper: You put us in danger.

El: You promise. I go. I never leave. Nothing ever happens.

And then he grounds her. Like she was living it up otherwise. (S2E4)

We know it was because this was El's story of rebellion and trying to find her identity and so the story does not have Hopper do these things. But that still means that the story chose for Hopper to not do these things. He is even shown apologising (meh. half assed like his foil Mike, but that's for later) for it towards the end. And yet, that's something that's rarely discussed in fandom circles while talking about Hopper.

Hopper in Season 3

Oh he proves he's a blackhole alright. Sucked Joyce's character development. He's only marginally improved letting Mike see her but beyond that it's still mostly the same. She still is under-socialised. Speaks like that. El herself seeks out Max. Joyce is still too busy being ungrateful (I know not the intent, but the execution nonetheless) she's still not leaving the cabin much and has some curfew. Again which is, well why is it there? Cuz she's been coolly gallivanting with Max at the mall and everywhere else without a problem.

He's a proper asshole to Mike and a bully. Who tf threatens murder to a 13 year old kid? Like between having a chat and threatening homicide, he could come up with ZERO options. He needs emotional laxatives that aren't just anger and bullying.

Hopper in season 3 is an unfunny comic relief. A man baby. A bully who uses his cop privileges. Who treats the woman he supposedly likes like shit. He was so mad about Joyce not meeting up with him despite her telling him the reason. I mean mister you did that with Eleven too and just expected her to understand. The juvenile hUmOUr and the macho man action scenes where he's outwitting trained Russian mercenaries (lmao) is a step down from the basement he was already in. Him treating Alexei like shit when he was the only one who could have helped them. Make it make sense. (Anti-Russia/USSR pro USA copaganda and nothing else)

Also beyond all of this I simply hate Hopper for taking away valuable screentime from the kids that this show is supposedly about but hasn't really been that for some time now. He's a white male war veteran cop who's a Hawkins native and was a popular kid in school too. So he's not even an outsider in terms of being the new man in town, let alone the shit that really matters.

Hopper in Season 4

Not dead enough.

Jopper throughout the show

Mid chemistry. Joyce is already a semi-absent mother but becomes entirely absent after Hopper's message from Russia. She has ZERO clue of what her kids are going through in Cali and then has the fucking audacity to walk out on them without even letting them know that she might not return. She also leaves the only responsible person in that household with the charge as if she ever took it. She is now been relegated to being the comic relief which is neither comical and far from a relief and Hopper's girlfriend. Every season she has proven to be right on the money with her instincts and every season everyone including Hopper question her as if she's the dumb one. Hello. Do you guys clear up your memory after every season? It's annoying and one note. Hopper is a jealous manbaby all of s3 and a fucking liar. "i shOuldn't hAVe seNt yOu the LeTteR" Bitch u did. You wanted out. Dasvidaniya! El's college fund. But you'll only need it if you make it through school 🤷‍♀️. WHICH SHOULD HAVE BEEN HOMESCHOOL HELLO. Though I do commend the subversion of the found family trope where both the adults are pathetic parents. Do love one of the main couples being failparents! (is that a thing? or are they pioneers?)

[eddiediazismyhusband]

Can I ask you to list a couple things you do like about the show? Or the actors? Or the characters? Or heck anything 911 related? Because it seems like you and your other anons don’t like anything to do with any aspect of it at all from the writers down to the smallest of storyline details 😅

which at that point is probably a good time to step back and stop engaging with it either temporarily or permanently since all it’s gonna do is continue to feed into the negativity your having over it since nothing seems to be bringing you joy about it.

can yall not read? like seriously can yall not read the words when i say “i am not goign to watch season 8 until something good happens”

i feel like a goddamn parrot on here when people like you keep coming into my inbox with this same fucking “maybe you should step back” thing like yeah that’s what i have been fucking saying????

im not going to stop interacting with my friends on here- that’s out of the question. i still love being involved in the fanfic community and i still love the first 5 seasons of the show, but im not going to lie and say that i have been pleased with the most recent installments. if you actually took the time to read my blog and what i talk about you would see that i adore eddie and his queer subtext. i adore buddie as a ship, probably to a crazy degree. i love henren, and bathena, and madney. josh russo is literally one if my favorite canonically queer characters on tv.

i adore this cast with the exception of the talentless nepo baby half the fandom wanna suck the dick of (god knows why other than he’s a fugly white man who kissed their favorite white boy) i love seeing them interact with each other outside of the show.

can i ask you what the writers have given us to actually enjoy the past two seasons? other than the madney wedding? nothing else has been decently written, or taken the story in a positive direction. yeah, we got bi buck but he’s in a relationship with a literal misogynistic racist man who has had repeatedly treated buck horribly with no acknowledgement whatsoever. so no, i don’t like the writers or tim minear at the moment because they have had every opportunity to usher in something positive for eddie, but no bc tim “this show is a drama” minear would rather give the happy plots to his white characters while running his poc characters through more unnecessary trauma and pain (with the exception of chimney, although his happy plotline only happened after he was near-fatally sick an entire episode and bobby whose plotline was centered around a black man’s trauma being dug up and thrown in his face)

the earlier season of this show were such a joy to watch live when it felt like there was actually care going into it from the showrunners and writing team, but lately it’s just them throwing darts at whatever wack-ass drama plot they can think of.

this cast works too fucking hard for the vapid shit they get given to act out each week.

which is why i (once again, in case you were about to gloss over this) I AM NOT WATCHING SEASON EIGHT UNTIL SOMETHING IS DONE TO FIX THE MESS THEY MADE

perhaps writing it in bold, italicized caps will make it easier for you to get it through your head.

and as far as “my anons” if you actually had enough confidence in your message, then why are you hiding behind anon, hm?

i have said multiple times i love interracting with my friends and fandom content that doesn’t have to do with spec. i have said multiple times im holding off on season 8. i have never said i hate the cast or i hate every single plotline the show has ever had, but you know what i did hate? how s6 and s7 turned the show into a fucking ooc mess. it is within my rights as a fan to dislike a season of a show for valid reasons.

what’s not okay is you coming into my inbox repeatedly saying “take a break” when i’ve said multiple fucking times that i plan to rather than just blocking me if youre so offended by people agreeing with me that the show is at a make it or break it point.

please kindly take yourself out of my space if you’re not going to actually take the time to read the words i post and just immediately send me anonymous hate because you didn’t like my posts

[sephirthoughts]

sliding more snacks into your inbox > A-Z ask game: O(tailored) bc I'd like to put a song in your hands[And Then is Heard No More, Library of Ruina], W, X please!

O - Choose a song, what ship or character does it remind you of?

You chose the song and let me tell you what happened. I accidentally opened it in two windows, asynchronously, offset by almost exactly 42 seconds, and then i didn't shut the second window because it blew my fucking mind. Now I can't stop listening to it like this. 😂 It clashes in a couple places but that just feels appropriately eerie because it's such a weird fucking song. Like if i didn't look at the windows, i couldn't tell you when one ends and it's only the other winding down. I'm pretty sure it only works so well because the vocaloid's cadence and intonation are all so bizarre. Anyway that's where I'M at.

The song SCREAMS Sephiroth/Cloud to me. The lyrics just go right along with their whole story, plus the fact that its weird and kind of disembodied fits their mental states really well.

W - A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom.

hoooo boy, there are many of these. i stuck with my top two for the sake of not being here all week. also, before i dive in, i wanted to say that if a trope is done really well, i will likely enjoy it anyway, and i LOVE subverted tropes, especially for comedy purposes.

1: Woobified badasses. I really dislike seeing characters who are grown-ass adults who Have Seen Some Shit de-fanged, de-clawed, and behaving like teenaged girls (unless it's forced feminization for BDSM in which case we can talk as FUCK). Anyway, we are all free to play-pretendsies however we like and i'm not offended—it's all fiction—i just don't really want to read it. i don't mean tough-guys having soft moments, i actually LOVE that (give me sephiroth gently carrying a kitty cat to safety before he goes back to finish immolating nibelheim any day). however, oftentimes i see this particular trope happening and it's clearly because the writer has too little scope or empathy, and can't inhabit a character's actual perspective enough to write them in-character. which is perfectly fine, but not for me. i don't demand rigorous adherence to canon (obviously considering every single character i write is trans and/or gay and/or pansexual) but i like the fictional characters i like to at least be recognizable.

2: Pregnancy. Ugh. First of all, it's never done well. Second of all, I am not interested in it whatsoever, even if it was done well. male pregnancy is even more of an ugh. two reasons...three reasons. 1) pregnancy is an eldritch horror beyond my will to contemplate, let alone write or read about in fiction, which i write and read FOR FUN. 2) mpreg is almost guaranteed to be some deeply misogynist shit redirected at male characters (i'm talking to you a/b/o) OR plain ol fetish stuff (which is great have your fun but it's not a fetish i have, so it's not for me). and before anyone says well transmasc people can get pregnant, welcome to reason 3) if it's not omegaverse, it's the transmasc character being made to pop out babies for people's heteronormative family-dynamic fantasies. which sucks. because why must parenting be biological to be valid? why is adoption less worthwhile? why must trans men be forced back into female gender roles to serve as baby machines? i don't speak for everyone on earth and have fun with that if it's your bag but i can't hang with it, so no thank ye. in this house, boypussy is for sexy fun times ONLY.

X- A trope which you are almost certain to love in any fandom.

enemies to lovers enemies to lovers enemies to lovers, or just enemies to enemies who fuck, either way i cannot get enough of hostile sexual tension

sunshine X dark and scary sunshine protector. even better if the dark and scary one is actually protecting everyone else, because the sunshine is secretly a walking apocalypse

our souls are bound together in eternity and i will find you in every universe you stupid bastard

character A: i am unworthy to even think of B so i shall secretly worship them from this respectful distance whilst wasting away from lovesickness because i respect admire and adore them far too much to ever let them know of my disgusting perverse obsession with their angelic self character B: when the hell is A gonna fuck me?

Thank you so much for the ask! Sorry it took so long to get to! I am slowly working through my inbox between family stuff and no-lifing every FF7 game.

[f-oighear]

For the Writer Ask Game with fruits, let me give you some 🍒🍍🍋🍌🍏🍈🫐 for your fruit basket^^

fghjfgjhsd that is indeed a basket. Thanks!

🍒 What’s your favorite character dynamic to write? (Can be romantic or platonic, specific or general!)

I think I've said it several times already but writing Zora and Nebra is always a treat whether it's romantic or platonic. They are so funny.

🍍What kind of AUs do you like? Are there any AUs you hate or just generally have beef with?

I like canon divergence! Both for reading and writing, really. I also love time loop stories or time travel stories.

As for AUs I dislike... it'd be settings I don't understand or lack the knowledge to? (and where it's crucial to have that knowledge) Like some historical AUs or the Omegaverse— I've never managed to understand what was going on in the omegaverse.

🍋 What’s your favorite spicier trope to write?

fhdfhjs none. Spice isn't for me, I'm afraid. Vanilla writer 😂

🍌 In your opinion, what’s the funniest joke/reference/pun you’ve made in a fic?

Ohhh... I like running jokes. Noelle not having a restraining spell is the only one I can think of right now. I also had a lot of fun with Neran in I'll Follow with references and cultural jokes.

🍏 Is there something you overuse, whether it’s a certain phrase, trope, or piece of punctuation?

I think I overuse italics? It was striking in the middle parts of the Soulmate AU (The Agreement, Where The Heart Is, Stargazers). I caught that upon rereading Where The Heart Is a few months ago (and edited some italics out fhdfdsj). I'm also a sucker for stream of consciousness. Love internal monologues. Will never stop.

🍈 Who’s your blorbo and what are some of your favorite headcanons/ideas about them that repeatedly show up in your fics? Free pass to rant about blorbo opinions.

I'd say the Silvas, although I've worked much less with Solid than the other three (I have arguably worked more with the dead OCs than him which is appalling— I'm sorry, Solid).

My favorite head canon about House Silva as a whole is that they are fundamentally seen as 'cursed' by the other two royal houses. I hc that there's only the four Silvas remaining— everyone else is dead or gone— and that's why the current Silva siblings are all so pressed about their reputation. They're alone to fend for themselves.

I think Nebra was clingy as a child. Nozel had a few hiding places in the castle and Nebra found every single one of them. The poor boy could get no peace unless Acier kept Nebra busy to get her eldest some reprieve.

Nebra is messy. She is a pacer, she is a klutz, she is constantly embarrassed by it and hides it behind the usual confident front. It also shows up in several fics of mine but she is absolutely awful at any type of paperwork she attempts on doing.

Nozel doesn't trust his siblings and I think he will tend to fix his siblings' mistakes himself without telling them he did. Especially if it involves squad work. There's also what happened after the dinner of doom in Your World.

Solid was a fussy baby and then a fussy child. Asking for one thing and then crying and yelling because he didn't want that or he wanted it before or he wanted it differently. Fussy.

All Silva siblings have a little box with things that belonged to Acier. Noelle got a few scraps like post cards Acier sent. She has spent so much time trying to copy her mother's handwriting.

Aaaand I think I'll stop here because we're going to sad territory 😂

🫐 What’s your favorite underrated thing in your fandom? (A ship that only you seem to write for, a character there’s almost no fics about, a trope that criminally hasn’t been written yet, etc.)

Mmmh... It's a tough one because I don't usually focus on what's not there or not there enough? I think the good thing about BC is that dspite having loads of characters, they're all fleshed out enough for people to get interested in them? You see fans of different characters or minor characters everywhere (so you see head canons and analyses and fics and art about those characters or ships too). So I don't think there's anything lacking or underrated.

Went on a ramble here and digressed, so I'll just answer the question. Favorite underrated thing in my fandom: Early Black Bulls fics! The chaos it must have been. (also, we thank @acacia-may for the ones she wrote, they are incredible)

[chirpsythismorning]

What do you think about ST writers staying silent when it comes to homophobia in fandom? I've seen some people talking about this and I have to agree that it is getting toxic, and the creators can say something about it. This issue is not about shipping, it is a serious issue that needs to be addressed in this fandom.

I get this, I really do, but there is a reason they don't bring a bunch of attention to the negative and it's the same reason most of the cast tries to not bring attention to the negatives going on that they experience.

This reminds me of when Noah came out for example. A lot of fans were congratulating him with support and stuff. But that didn't last long bc suddenly everyone in the tag was fixating on the negatives they were seeing, reposting homophobic comments he was getting and just freaking out on a loop over harmful shit going on. Some fans even made like plot twist edits of hateful comments he had under his coming out video and Noah himself commented on one of them, like alluding to the fact that he tries to not let it get to him.

When you're in these peoples positions, you're hearing about god awful stuff happening constantly. And that makes sense, when you have an audience of hundreds of millions of people, shit goes down. ALL the time.

And so it gets to a point where, eventually you have to give up basically. I'm sure there was a time early on like in s1, when they might have felt the need to put the fans in check over certain harmful things. But it probably got so big they couldn't do that any more, simply for mental health reasons I wouldn't ask that of anyone.

Think about Finn who has been through some shitty fandom behavior over the years with fans obsessing over him and like essentially photoshopping a fake story about his gf SAing someone. Did he come forward and talk about that? No bc fans like that don't even deserve the attention. And while yes, it's clear that he feels like grateful about this experience, it's also clear he has an intense sense of bitterness over the fact that having millions of fans means that there are bound to be quite a few who don't understand boundaries. And yet it's gotten to a point where acknowledging them only makes them stronger.

And then there's Caleb, who experienced fucking racism as a child simply for his character getting in the way of milkvan... And he only recently over the last year or so has felt comfortable enough to start talking about it more. And it's probably because he was in large part not wanting to re-hash over stuff that is obviously traumatizing and just not fucking fair for him to have to discuss in the first place. He deserves for this to be an incredible experience. He shouldn't have to give any of his time and attention to people that don't fucking deserve it in the first place. He deserves better than that.

And then there's Millie who has also been through a lot, to the point where it's like near impossible to even pinpoint everything because it's just so much. And she has the biggest following on social media so that makes a lot of sense. Her fandom experience is a large part of why she doesn't really use social media anymore. She used to love interacting with fans, but now it's just not something she can handle. Not only does she have to deal with people that hate her for no apparent reason, she also has to deal with so called fans psychoanalyzing anything and everything she does, to the point where they're convinced they know everything about her and her boyfriend and her family, as if they know what's best for her? Like imagine not having a space anywhere despite having millions of people say they love you, when they just turn around and treat you like a product to be consumed and discarded? It's exhausting.

All of them have a story like that, that just makes you realize that this is so much bigger than ship wars and any nonsense fans obsess over. Sometimes we forget these are real people and they have to see this and it obviously effects them mentally over time to the point where they just can't acknowledge it anymore in order to simply live their lives peacefully.

Now, I'm not saying the Duffers will never address the homophobia, bc they no doubt will. However, I think that in large part the point is to let these homophobes especially feel like they are superior and have the upper-hand, only to rip it out from under them basically.

And that's because we're also talking about a show that is hiding the truth in plain sight. This show is in fact for the so called freaks and geeks (and the gays). And so when that truth is finally revealed, THAT'S when they're going to call the bigots out on their bullshit. Because this show was never for them in the first place! And making them tune in for all of it, convinced it was for them all this time, only to find out it wasn't, I'm sorry but it's fucking badass.

If they're hiding that core message in plain sight, and yet most of the audience STILL doesn't see it, and it's also a big reason why they refuse to even consider byler, then yes it makes sense to hold off this scolding for when the reveal happens, only to throw all of that backlash on the people STILL being homophobic when it's all said and done, despite them saying it was all indeed intentional.

Right now there are genuine homophobes out here, and then there's people that are merely misunderstanding the extent of what's truly happening bc of heteronormativity, which is arguably the way the show was intended to be watched, assuming you're only watching it once through and you don't consume any more content regarding it much outside of that initial viewing (most of the ga). And then there's the fans who are literally queer and love queer stories, but aren't allowing themselves to believe it this time bc of how prevalent queer-baiting is.

By no means am I saying homophobia is okay. Obviously it's not. But people are homophobic, people are bigots. You can decide for yourself which situations you want to call it out and when you want to let it just be because otherwise you're gonna be fighting forever with people that do not fucking care, and that's not helping anyone, least of all queer people who would rather probably just ignore all of the noice and be happy being their authentic self, despite all of the hate that's out there.

We'll have to see how fans react to s5. I have hope that it will go well.. I do think that there could be a time period where people are like in denial and grieving or whatever. But we know the evidence is there. We know that the Duffers are going to be happy to admit that it was intentional to disprove the claims that try to say byler came out of nowhere.

Absolute worst case scenario, I think the critical reception will be something along the lines of this:

[liaa--qb]

why sudden hate on darklinas if team green stans rha*nicent, rhaegon ? Atleast Darklina was meant to be canon

Oh God🤦🏻‍♀️ !!!!!! Who is hating darklinas... moreover just bcz I mentioned them once😭 ( btw it was hated enough by it's author herself🤣 I can very much say that after wasting my time grisha books. sorry not sorry 🤷🏻‍♀️)

Before commenting anything some of u really need to read with open eyes n brain instead of ass.

I never hated darklinas or Darkling. I ship them too. Atleast book or whole story should be good enough to even hate or like any character first of all which it never had😑. Darklina is like very much any problematic random Ya bad guy and good girl silly ships u see on daily basis. Nothing more bad than any other Ya ships.

( LB n SJM are not even good writer. I don't like their work at all. Just over hyped to me. Honestly I still think how snb was not cancelled just after S1. If u have problem wf one of my post which wasn't even about them🤷🏻‍♀️ it's ur delulu headache buddy. I don't even involve with them much someone just asked me including Darkling's name that's y I replied... Btw I knew this would happen, bc If someone points one bad thing, all of them will cry their ass out.)

the point was something else n ur question is also wrong. Problematic has nothing to do with canon or non canon for ur info. Majority of YA canon ships are problematic but you can like whatever the f u want.

I never said that Rhaenicent is any healthy ship. Rhaenicent, Daemyra, alysmond , helaegon n majority of ships in hotd are problematic. It's just their Stans fighting is like one idiot jumping on another idiot.That's what I am always mentioning. That's just funny and extremely stupid to like one problematic ship or character n attacking on Stans of other problematic ships n characters.

Some of them shamelessly fight as if their life depends on it. It's really dumb honestly 😂. No one is stopping them btw they can do the heck they want to but also they should not even have problem if someone is pointing out their silliness that's it🤷🏻‍♀️. It's a free fandom ! Just bcz I mentioned some of TB Stans hyporcrisy once , idiots thought I am team green when I am srsly far away from this nursery kid color fight

Same way many of green stans also developed this stupid habit of making their characters as pure Angels just because of the changes done by the show itself which is rubbish instead of that they should really go for better storyline for every character. " Them saying no one should support TB after BnC is....😑" Like y ? Not saying that it was bad but bad things were done from both sides. Aemond n Daeron would have done way worse with Jace n strong boys if all their parents were dead honestly.

just like Alicent's anger on Aemond losing an eye was absolutely correct that same way Rhaenyra's anger was also justified, so would Helaena's anger as she and her children were having no fault in all of this

You can like the villian and their reasons for becoming the villain but I would not say they didn't deserve their death or punishment n I would not give any apology reasons ' like no he wasn't the bad guy or he wasn't a villian'. That's what I am always pointing but logic and GOT/FNB die hard Stans are never at same place 🤡

And regarding ur take one darkling or Darklina, I don't hate Darkling but ye he's not among my fav villians or any good written at all. Not only him, I don't like any single character from that book.

If I love Homelander, Klaus, soldier boy, Tom riddle, Rafe, Billy, Jerome, Roose bolton, Euron Greyjoy.., do you really think I would be anti Darkling or care fr him enough 😂 like these r just some tv screen villains I like but if I started talking about my actual favourite bad guys from Grim dark fantasy novels like Jorg ancrath n many more, Darkling would look like little twink infront of them😭

so pls think.. using your brain is not a big deal 🙏🏻

[dekusleftsock]

THOUGHTS ON 376 TIME! WOOHOO!!

Three thoughts came into my mind on this page.

One, that “we still haven’t had our chat about romance” is a thought in ochako’s head, not just a distraction. (Very interesting..) But I may just be reading the bubbles incorrectly, as I’m aware that last chapter she said this to Ochako. Could it be Toga remembering it? Another possibility too.

Two, that Toga believes this is Ochako trying to TAKE BACK her rejection in some light. To my knowledge, (and if the translators didn’t mess anything up too badly, sorry y’all I’m aware it won’t be perfect no matter what) “taking a hint” is often used in English to describe someone not backing off romantically. The hint being, “I don’t have feelings for you”. (Edit: this post translated it in its most literal form, and it said “persistent” so, I still stand by what I said. It’s sounds like someone rejecting a romantic confession)

And number three, the most important. “Can’t take a hint” is the most tongue and cheek thing I’ve seen. IT SOUNDS LIKE IN MY VERY BIASED SHIPPER MIND THAT, THE AUDIENCE, AKA US, HAVENT GOTTEN THE HINT WITH THESE TWO.

I saw literal radio silence when chapter 375 came out. Now, I’m aware that togachako is a bit of a rare pair. Not only is it a sapphic ship, but it’s also with a more “problematic” dynamic, and with a character that was introduced later on into the series. Wayyyy after ochako was introduced as Izuku’s love interest.

Most bkdk shippers either outright ignore ochako, hate her, or ship her with Tsu. I only judge one option out of the three, as it’s usually born out of misogyny. (Purposefully or not, I’ve seen people love male characters with the same “annoying” traits ochako has. Tbh, most people hate her bc she’s a girl and she’s feminine. That’s it)

Anyway yeah, and the only people who really care about her character development are one: Ochako stans (love y’all <3) two: togachako shippers (me) and three: izu//ocha shippers. (Censored so that I don’t tread on their territory as I’m about to be a little…. Eh to them and their interpretations)

Now, izu//ocha shippers to me are pretty neutral. There’s the dudebros who I think everyone hates, and then there’s the normal batch of people. A mix of people who enjoy the series very casually, or people who just generally like them.

Because of this fact, however, they are, like me, also biased. Meaning if I presented my thoughts on togachako to an izu//ocha shipper, I will and have been called a little bit of a conspiracy theorist about it. That I’m in denial, yada yada. All that junk. And if I’m wrong? Then shit, guess it’s me getting kicked in my ass all over again for trusting a shonen writer. I have fandom to help me cope. I’ll live.

Now, because of this bias, it leaves the interpretations of chapters 289, 342, 348, and even 375 all deemed as “izu//ocha chapters”, because what else could it be leading up to other than that?

And that’s why I HOPE and I PRAY that Horikoshi pulls the rug out from under your feet. I hope and pray every day that’s what happens. If only to confirm in my mind that my eye for detail isn’t sketchy or rough around the edges. Or that my conclusions aren’t just delusions. I don’t like to be wrong, thank you very much.

The other thing I wanted to delve a little into. Toga’s mind is a labyrinth that I don’t think even us as the audience has quite cracked yet.

I like to think I understand people. Not in the casual social way, god no. Social cues are not my thing. But reading people? Getting to the bottom of their issues and wrenching them from their depths and into the open for someone to see? THATS what I’m good at. Understanding a person and how they work. Because, let me tell you, there is a reason for each and every thing a person does. Every little detail, from the way they stand to how they choose their words. How someone reacts defensively and offensively are the biggest giveaways to who a person actually is.

Toga Himiko’s walls are miles thick. They appear sheen, like she wears her emotions on her sleeve, but that’s just not TRUE. Before she broke, it was forced neutrality to the wrongdoings in her life. Possibly even any form of happiness wasn’t deemed respectable to wear. The mask was on at all times, no matter what, but now? Now it’s a smile. The mask is still there, it still exists. It’s just in a different form, something made to protect HER rather than EVERYONE else. It’s interesting.

Another notable thing about Toga, she’s cried once, in the entire manga. She has cried once.

And it wasn’t even for Twice’s death.

If toga were to cry at Twice’s death, if toga were to express any other vulnerability other than anger at his death, then she would be left with two things: the mask, shattered; the one that mattered. And two, she would have to accept that everyone was right about her. That she was a tragedy.

And not only was she a tragedy, but she had to accept that death affected her. That the love she “experienced” for people like Izuku or Sato, wasn’t love. Because she loved twice, yet never wanted to BECOME him.

And I can hear it now, “doesn’t she want to be ochako too?” No, actually. She wants to be like her.

And, if you ship bkdk, you probably follow some other analysis creators on here. People who have talked about Izuku wanting to become LIKE Katsuki, not become him.

And that begs the question, does ochako want to become deku? Or become like him?

I think it’s both.

The thing is, Ochako ofc can’t physically become him, but at every turn of trying to be like him, it hasn’t really let her evolve. It’s held her back, actually, like at the sports festival. Ntm, this requires some level of natural imitation, something Ochako clearly lacks in her relationship to Izuku.

But she does not lack with Toga.

Idk if I showed it here before, and if I didn’t, I apologize for not explaining completely at least. Essentially, Ochako naturally imitates how Toga looks in both her hairdo and some choice facial expressions. Toga naturally imitates through posing techniques mid air and behavior parallels. I don’t feel like grabbing the panels, sorry!!

But back to Himiko, I think that she desperately wants close connection, is extremely insecure about herself, and actively hides behind smiles. Not only that, but she’s been trying to imitate shigaraki this entire time by having his “I don’t care about love and I wanna destroy the world” attitude and disdain. Showing she’s trying to find the most powerful people in her mind right now to hide from herself, her own sadness. She wants to hide from her rejection, and views the rejection itself as her. She knows that people see something especially unnerving and wrong about her, yet doesn’t completely understand why. So this rejection sensitivity is not only heightened by her trauma, but also Twice’s death.

With him gone, she now becomes unnervingly aware that she does not like death the way she thought she did. She also can’t escape the reality that no one has ever truly cared about Toga Himiko as a person.

And in her mind, following Jin’s death, no one ever will.

One last note, these two panels felt like parallels to me. Might be a stretch.

[arggghhhsstuff]

Here's your reminder that straight up trashing on lily evans because you prefer james in a mlm relationship is Not Okay and deeply rooted in misogynity. She is a fictional character whose only action was to protect her son with her life. She did nothing wrong; she just saved her son by loving him. That's literally it. That's all we know about her. That and the description made by remus later in the books: a loving and kind woman. Now if you don't like her character, that's fine, I don't care. I don't necessarily agree with you but I won't come at you either. But don't you dare shit on her just bc she's a woman getting 'in the way' or your favorite mlm ship because that's fucked up on so many levels. And don't get mad at people calling out your behavior, because it is misogynistic.

I think many people in the fandom aren't ready for this conversation, but it has to be said: This fandom is deeply, deeply misogynistic. It has a problem with female characters, not matter the era we're talking about. They are ignored, underestimated, left out in favour of male characters. It's not a mistake or an oversight: it's decision, a choice made by writers and artists to not focus on the girls.

Like, do you know how hard it is to find a fanfiction where a woman is the main character? And it's even worse if she's in a wlw relationship. I don't think i've ever read a 'marylily raising harry' fic, when we have dozens of fics where harry is raised by wolfstar or jegulus. No hate against those, they're great, but come on. Don't tell me you don't see a pattern here. It's the same as everywhere else: people just don't care about the girls. It's exhausting. It's fucking exhausting and I'm sick of seeing the same bullshit over and over again. Like. I am a queer teenage girl. I would like, too, to see myself represented by and in a fandom constituted (mostly) of queer individuals, just like me.

But no. It's like the world is not aware of the existence of lesbians. They exist! They are very much a real thing and would like fics where they are represented, for fuck's sake. The worst part is that I'm not even surprised; angry, yes, and disappointed, but bot surprised. It happens every time.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

Actually, John O’Bryan or Joshua Hamilton (I forgot which one) confirmed on the Braving the Elements Podcast that Zutara was in the original bible and that there was a fight in the writer’s room for making it canon. He even says he’s still Zutara, that they did it wrong, and that in an alternative universe they’re together.

But his version doesn’t really make sense bc the original bible that can be accessed online doesn’t confirm ANY ships. Also, kataang was literally hinted in the pilot. Not to mention that either Joshua or John - whoever wrote CoTL - literally confirmed that Mike and Aaron made him write Omashu for Kataang’s romance. One of them (Joshua or John) pitched the episode as just being a story of Sokka suffering with the nomads, but Mike and Aaron felt it was important to tie Oma and Shu to Kataang. I also believe it was Joshua Hamilton who wrote the inaccurate “Avatar Extras” that confirmed that Zuko was supposed to be Katara’s love interest.

So essentially, what happened was the following (imo): In the early development stage prior to book 1, the idea of Zuko and Katara were thrown around. Some of the writers might’ve latched onto it and, as a result, the ship was teased in late 3.5 (especially given how POPULAR the ship was in 2005-2008). However, Bryke and Aaron felt that Kataang was always the natural direction and made sense story wise. And ultimately, that’s what happened as endgame. The creators and the head writer feeling that a popular fanon ship with a friendship developed in under 5 episodes doesn’t make for a romantic endgame, in addition to a preference for Kataang.

At the end of the day, no one is denying that Zutara wasn’t teased (not even Bryke themselves). We just don’t think it’s a plausible endgame that makes sense as per the series. I can also sort of understand why some of the writers would still prefer Zutara - it does sound intriguing on paper (very YA and disney), but doesn’t make any sense execution wise. Good on the creators for denying that shit.

Assuming that's true at all, and that is something I likely truly won't do until I search said podcast and hear it myself because God knows zutarians lie all the time, that still make it the power-struggle some people claim it was.

One writer having an idea, latching onto it, and then trying to pass it off as "my idea was totally going to be canon at one point, trust me even though everyone else on the team says another thing and the actual main couple was present from episode one."

And even if we exclude the Kataang angle in Cave Of Two Lovers (that Joshua did write) an intervention on his writting process would still be necessary. I love Sokka, but watching over 20 minutes of him just being annoyed would get repetitive and boring really fast. It makes far more sense to balance it out with two of the other main characters learning about a legend of a city the viewers are familiar with (and will see being at the mercy of the Fire Nation) the following episode. It makes the episode more engaging and reminds us of what will be at stake if the Fire Nation wins.

Another thing that makes this story hard to believe for me, is the fact that Joshua didn't write any episodes until book 2 (though obviously that doesn't mean he couldn't be part of the creative team in some other ways), of all the episodes he did write only "The Chase" has Katara and Zuko interacting at all or so much as mentioning each other, he was the one who wrote Boiling Rock Part 2 which has some major Maiko moments, and he was also part of creating the episode "Ember Island Players" which mocks the very idea of Zutara and has the characters themselves be visibly uncomfortable when they hear of it.

Even if we assume that man was secretly hoping Zutara would be a thing alll along, it seems pretty clear to me that he is NOT this "Zutara champion" that hates the canon ships and fought tooth and nail to make his OTP happen, but the other evil writers stopped him.

Hell, let's look at someone who has been very openly shipping Zutara for years: Dante Basco, aka Zuko. That man has said he refuses to watch the live action movie and to say anything too bad about it because he's an actor and doesn't want to risk angering a guy that could end up being his boss in the future. This same Dante has REPEATELY said Zutara is his favorite ship, and that even though he really likes how the show ended, he wishes that pairing had had a chance to happen.

He says that without any fear, and doesn't seem to have suffered any consequences for it. To me, that shows that "Zutara VS Kataang/Maiko" is not the epic power-struggle amongst the team that zutarians love to pretend it was. It was just people throwing ideas around. Some were used, some were not. Just the ordinary creative process, not a ship war.

And once again, this is me assuming that there's any chance that Joshua ever wanted Zutara to be a thing, and that this is not just another case of obsessive fans lying to everyone again to convince themselves they have canon validation. God knows Zutarians have cried wolf MANY times (and I'm amused that in this version, Aaron Ehasz is one of the "bad guys", even though they are still using that fake interview of him confirmig a zutara endgame as proof that their ship was supposed to be canon. These people lie so much, they lost track of who they claim is "one of them" or not).

[maybeimamuppet]

I LOST THE ASK IM SORRY ANON BUT HERE

REGINA

favorite thing about them

heheeeeeehoooo i’m a lesbian but honestly she has so much like depth to her in a way that’s not immediately obvious and it’s really interesting as a writer getting to explore that beyond canon

least favorite thing about them

i don’t like that i relate to her!!!! i don’t like the idea of being mean and she is and i’m entirely convinced she and i have the same personality disorder and i am terrified that i’m like her. some people have said it and i just hate that it might be true

but like as a character in and of herself it’s how she uses people for her own gain. that’s not cool boo

favorite line

“boo, you whore” from the movie

“that’s what i keep trying to explain to the president on twitter but he blocked me” from the show

i can’t remember enough of what she says in the new movie rn but i’ll find smth later i’m sure lol

brOTP

damian. she and damian both love taylor swift and they listen to every song together and fangirl together and also damian gets her into musicals. regina likes the dark gritty ones with good music like les mis and little shop and damian likes the classics (obvs)

OTP

post redemption arc i ship her with like every woman in this. like any combo of gretchen and karen, i’m an absolute SUCKER for cadina (like i’m literally on my knees begging for cadina fic prompts please), rejanis is. it has potential not my fav but i do partake from time to time.

but like aaron would just turn out bad nobody really likes shane or kevin and damian. is gay. so none of the men lol

nOTP

this woman is GAY so again any of the guys lol. also if it’s done wrong rejanis can be real icky and i don’t like that

random headcanon

she can juggle. cady is the only one who knows and regina will absolutely kill her if she lets it slip

unpopular opinion

she is a victim who made the wrong choices and not the monster a lot of people make her out to be. she is not the villain of the story she is the villain of her own life by fault of her own mind which is the fault of her upbringing and she is making the only choices she knows how which just so happen to hurt a lot of people. she absolutely can be redeemed and she deserves it. which is why the bus doesn’t just straight up kill her.

song i associate with them

i think i said this for janis but monster from frozen has very much internal regina vibes to me that she like is terrified of letting anyone else see. also i know it’s about something VERY DIFFERENT but all grown up from bare seems like it would really speak to her. and also just all of renee’s songs bc duh

favorite picture of them

it’s a gif and this is how i lost the post last time but uh

like. holy shit.

DAMIAN

favorite thing about them

i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again but that boy drinks his loving janis sarkisian juice every morning as part of a balanced breakfast. he knows they’re each others person and i think he navigates their admittedly strange relationship really well. 

and also i love that this ~17 year old fat openly gay kid has SO MUCH confidence in himself. could he be overcompensating and actually have a lot internally that he doesn’t like about himself? yes absolutely . but the way he chooses to handle himself with such grace and confidence as he navigates such a complex web of social issues is really admirable to me and i don’t think he gets enough credit :))

least favorite thing about them

some of the stereotypes aren’t like super cool but like they had to come from somewhere so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

favorite line

damian is what got me into this show tbh i have so many

but i thiiiiiink it’s gotta be either “and they are more addictive than opioids and girl scout thin mints combined” (also hot take but i’ve been a girl scout for 18 years and thin mints SUCK)

OR

“did she just leave while i was actively caring about her? no. / she’s leaving! just like my DAD.”

honestly just like all of stop all of cautionary tale just him i love him yes

brOTP

besides the obvious answer of janis again i would say regina. but also he and gretchen get coffee at least once a week and bond over dances and choreography and whatnot and he and karen are joined at the hip whenever they’re together and you cannot tell me otherwise. and cady is basically his little sister

OTP

THEATRE BOY FROM THE NEW MOVIE OMGGGGG but also like. i don’t really know lol

i usually write him as being with aaron but that’s bc when i was writing like three months in i asked and all my (four) readers at the time said they wanted damiaaron it was not my first pick. but it has grown on me a lot and i think they’re super cute together

nOTP

i am terrified of the amount of romantic fic out there for him and janis?? like y’all ran face first into the point and hit ur heads so hard u still couldn’t see it huh

random headcanon

he kicked janis’ front teeth out in tap class when they were five and janis still has a small scar on her lip

unpopular opinion

i know i write about it a lot and stuff but making him trans feels really reductive of his personality sometimes. we need more trans rep obviously and i love people being able to take characters like him and feel seen but i question it with him in particular a lot. similar vibes to people who make matilda trans i just dk. lots of complicated feelings about it

also that he is the best goddamn character in the whole thing

song i associate with them

uhhhhhh for whatever reason 9 to 5 by dolly parton?? and jolene are the first two to pop into my head lol idk why

oh and also better work bitch by britney spears (i think??)

favorite picture of them