#queer watcher 2021

[absolutebl]

TOP 10 BL Trends of 2023

This is just me with my analysis hat on. 

1. 2023 = the year EVERYONE went outside their lanes

Everything went topsy-turvy this year in BL. 

For example, Korea gave us agonized yearning and outright queerness (The 8th Sense, The New Employee) while Japan served up soft office workers and tender family (Our Dining Table). 

The BL world went askew for a while, especially in the spring of 2023. 

Not that we still didn’t still get Korea’s soft angsty bubbles or Japan’s “what are you doing and why does it hurt?” kink-fests. But there were quite a few BLs that made us chronic watchers sit up in confusion and wonder if Korea was dabbling in Taiwan’s territory or Japan in Thailand’s. Then they fudged the kisses and we were like... okay, back in familiar territory. 

In contrast, Thailand stayed course-correcting for the damage they’ve done in the past with tropes (2022) and self referential meta criticism (2021), but also almost aggressively returned to their BL roots after last year’s series of shockers. Certainly, they are reexamining those roots, transplanting some, aerating others. But they really went back to classic Thai university and high school BL and pulps in a big way in 2023. 

Taiwan is always difficult to gage because they produce so few but they seem to have stuck with what they do best with no deviation while producing more this year than they have in ages. I’m happy for that, why change a good thing? But there is a tiny part of me that really wants them to hit it out of the part with a quality piece soon. For me, We Best Love still reigns supreme, but I would really like the HIStory franchise to give us that level but longer - like a happy version of Your Name Engraved Herein. I think Taiwan has the chops to give us something as good as The 8th Sense or Old Fashion Cupcake but in their style, and I would like to see them exercise their talent for good rather than just profit. 

I know, what a very odd thing for me to say. But if any BL is going to break into the mainstream American market, I genuinely think it’s most likely come from Taiwan. 

Vietnam and the Philippines are falling behind, in general. They just didn’t bring out very many shows in 2023, and what the brought out tended to fub the endings. This is forgivable in Japan (because of their style and quality) but not what watchers want in the lower production value propositions. In other words, if you do a pulp, you can’t mess up the ending (by romance standards). that doesn’t look to be changing anytime soon. 

2. The Office Romance Dominated

After years of Thailand serving us an endless (and slightly bland) buffet of university (and a few high school) BLs, this year Korea was basically like...

Ofiice. We like the Office. It’s cheap to film we can use grown up actors, acting (mostly) their actual age. 

And yeah... it totally worked. 

To be fair, Japan has always given us office live action yaoi from the beginning (they had the source material) but this year everyone else, including Thailand, seriously started playing in this setting. 

3. Boys Danced with Boys

The darling @heretherebedork​ was a big fan of this one, and I rather like it myself. Prior to this boys dancing together was very very rare in BL, but this year we got way more than our fair share. It was lovely. 

Never Let me Go

My School President 

Bed Friend 

The Day I Loved You 

Step by Step

Be Mine Superstar

Tie the Not 

Dangerous Romance

I think there were a few more. These are the ones I remembered to write down. 

4. Getting (even more) Meta With Tropes 

BL has been getting more and more meta over the past few years but this year they really focused in on tropes specifically. Calling out their own biggest and most favorite tropes in a massive way, especially Thailand and especially GMMTV. 

Like they tunneled in on damaging tropes with Bad Buddy and the like over the past 2 years, and now they are just having fun with us. 

I mean they just started the dancing trope and already they are calling it out? That’s like rapid-fire regurgitated meta there, GMMTV. 

5. Cameos are the norm now 

Taiwan has always loved cameos but in the past the other countries have been show and steady with only one or two a year. (Unless Japan does a parody.) 

This year Korea got in on the game.

Korea rarely starts trends but they do adopt smaller and lesser known existing ones and make them super popular. 

This year they did that with cameo couple appearances, even borrowing a few of Thailand’s pairs (TutorYim and MaxNat traveled north). They did it so much I stopped tracking. Love Class 2, Why R U?, and Jun & Jun were the heaviest hitters. 

Taiwan, of course, came back swinging. Kiseki was the gum-ball machine of pair cameos. (In Taiwan mafia = gay.) 

6. We are entering the cross pollination age

The number of remakes picked up or started this year was startling, not just countries revisiting their own content (Thailand, Japan) but countries revisiting OTHER countries stuff.

Lemme explain...

Korea has started remaking Thai content (Why R U?) alongside cameo'ing Thai pairs.

Thailand is doing Korean IP (My Dear Gagster Oppa) and has 2 Chinese ones slated for next year. 

GMMTV acquired a lot of Japanese IP (Cherry Magic, Ossen, and My Love Mix Up) - and then had problems distributing it. 

This is probably the most surprising trend for me. Especially the Japanese stuff. I would have thought these properties well outside of Thailand's price range (even GMMTV's) not to mention Japan’s legendary IP issues (I swear I typed this pout before the pulled TayNew’s excellent Cherry Magic). 

Also why not option some of the older popular manga instead? Bet that's much cheeper. (I did see a NEW Thai translation of Finder into Thai, which is 90s yaoi, so I have my fingers crossed on that front.)

I shouldn't be too surprised. 

Thailand is running out of y-novel content. Their publication industry is just not robust enough (I was just talking to a friend about this at length recently). But I didn't think they had the funds to option, especially from Japan. 

Perhaps the option deals are for peanuts?

7. Korea got cheeky

I’m not sure quite how else to put this. 

After finally figuring out boys can kiss, Korea started to do not just higher heat but playful higher heat, with more aggressive word play and linguistic innuendo, like they are entering their racy rom-com teenage years (Why R U? Love Class 2 and Jun & Jun in particular.) 

I guess: Welcome to your BL teens, Korea? 

It’s cute of them. I am very much enjoying it. 

And now that comedy is warming them up, we get to see them play with actual queer burgeoning physicality in shows like The 8th Sense. 

It’s nice. I like seeing Korea stretch its wings. They still stick to their bubble, but that bubble seems to be expanding. 

8. The Amnesia Trope is back

And I, for one, would prefer to forget about it. 

9. BL got trendy 

I’m not quite sure how to articulate this category but basically we started seeing a lot of “modern” romance trends out of the west (like a/b/o) show up in our BL. Not a ton and sometimes quite small, but there has a been a steady rise of things like: no seme/uke, femme gay, out gay, condom use, messy gay. 

We also got an increasing range of sub genre frameworks (like mafia, office setting) that’s moved BL pretty firmly (even in Thailand) out of school and into the workplace, whether actual working is involved or not. 

It’s not to the point where it feels like we get more non-school BL than school BL (if I include all countries in this assessment).

Japan, in classic Japanese fashion, quietly started moving in the opposite direction. It’s what they do. 

10. The Vampires are coming 

This is an announcement trend, which I don’t usually report on but it’s so CLEAR. 

So last year we had a spate of announcements of possible Omegaverse (2 from China, 1 from Japan, 1 from Thailand - the only one that’s happened). 

This year we got 5 Vampire (or vampire-esk) Thai BLs announced including one from GMMTV. 

Whether all 5 will actually get made is unlikely, but having had (basically) none prior to this (Kissable Lips), I’m pretty confident that we will get at least 2 of them. And I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one other country made one as well. (Side eyes Taiwan with interest.) 

Final thoughts

It feels like we are also seeing a decline in BL (both by quantity and quality) from Vietnam and the Philippines. As you all know, I don’t track or really watch either of these two very closely. But it feels like, now, no one else is either. 

I think we have likely seen the BL heyday already in both places and their industries are now on the decline. 

We might be witnessing a thinning in the players in the BL field. 

FYI we had approximately 

136 BLs in 2023

Previous Years

2022: 117

2021: 95

2020: 62

2019: 40

2018: 30 

2017: 44 (China’s last gasp)

2016: 27

2015: 17 (50% micro)

2014: 17 (50% micro)

And that’s it! Let me know in the comments if you’ve spotted any additional trends you want to call out.

Last year, 2022′s trend report

2021′s Trend report

Last Year’s Stats & Predictions

(source) 

[normal-enderman]

LMAO no you are absolutely right with those tags on my post. It's the Watchers making the softboys do evil things in the death game guys! "It's all jokes guys, you shouldn't be taking it seriously" (same person then goes on to write a 6 page analysis of watcher Scott)

It's such selective and favorable perception, and it's also extreme toxic positivity because you will get witchhunted for ever labelling a character evil or abusive etc etc. Anyway sorry for this LOL absolutely no pressure to reply. Just wanted to say yeah you're right and I'm glad you understand and I'm sorry for your DreamSMP loss. Every now and then I wish I had been into that instead of traffic because lordy

YEAH I'll be so real I do not understand what the Watcher lore even is but the whole way the Life Series fandom works is super weird just, conceptually. It's not to say the canon content is BAD, but it's absolutely not what the fans make it out to be amongst themselves, they really are just conjuring stuff out of thin air half the time and it's very strange. On the one hand, I love the creativity and freedom of interpretation.... but on the other hand, it doesn't seem like they actually follow through on that freedom? There is a very distinct and well-defined fanon, and fanons which deviate from this aren't seen as valid, despite the fact that they're all equally lacking in canon basis due to the canon material being so bare-bones when it comes to narrative throughline. It's people trying to make emotional narratives and storytelling out of a series that was clearly intended to be "fun ytuber competition between ccs" and not deeply emotional lore and storytelling. The Life Series fandom is trying wrangle story out of a fundamentally incompatible medium, which I admire deeply for their creativity, but I also wish they followed through on their fast and loose approach to canon by allowing different fanon interpretations to exist without?? Policing some for being "wrong" or "bad"??

And hey, you can still get into the DreamSMP, I have a playlist of all the plot related streams I can dm you if you want. Everyone talks about the DreamSMP fan experience being hell, but that was mostly due to how intense the fandom was in 2020-2021 + how shitty a lot of the creators were and how badly the SMP was managed. But since that's all in the past now, I expect you'd actually have quite a smooth experience. Main thing you need to be aware of is unfortunately it's not the most feminist SMP. BUT it is extremely queer. As in nearly 100% of the characters are explicitly canonically queer and the Dream SMP is seen as homonormative society. Anyway, thanks for the ask! I love to nerd out about fandom culture and minecraft roleplay so I ate good with this ask ^w^

[hello-there]

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[solaireverie]

about me ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆

「 ✦ solaire ✦ 」

—eighteen ✧˖° any pronouns ✧˖° queer

—multicultural, multilingual, multiracial

`✦ ˑ ִֶ 𓂃⊹ english, french, chinese

—writer, reader, "amateur comedian"

∘⋆․⊹․∘⟡˖*⊹ ∘⋆․ formula 1

"my mom was a merc fan, my dad was a rbr fan, and that was that"

`✦ ˑ ִֶ 𓂃⊹ 2021? don't know her

—sv5, lh44, mv33, cl16, dr3

—lestappen, maxiel, brocedes, carlando, yukierre

football ⋆｡°✩☾⋆｡°✩

fc barcelona apologist

—messi, mats, lewandowski, pedri

—pedrigavi, mullendowski, modramos, sernando

୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅* ‧₊ ⋅* other

—taylor swift and maisie peters enthusiast

—book collector + s(m)ad girl music™️ connoisseur

—occasional anime watcher + manga reader

—starting over on the hellsite. praying i make it through a few more levels before i pull a dante and leave for purgatory (higher education)

—i used to graphic design / make gifs / make edits but it's been a few years. bear with me

[catboy-jaebeom]

I posted 9,513 times in 2022

That's 6,262 more posts than 2021!

41 posts created (0%)

9,472 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

lefluff

@eyes-of-simha

@meant-to-be-a-hero

@arel-o-imladris

@iforgotmyurl

I tagged 7,353 of my posts in 2022

Only 23% of my posts had no tags

#got7 - 778 posts

#positivity - 740 posts

#!!! - 662 posts

#writing ideas - 613 posts

#writing references - 550 posts

#art - 454 posts

#cats - 289 posts

#queer stuff - 277 posts

#bitter millennial blogging - 250 posts

#hübsche menschen - 226 posts

Longest Tag: 124 characters

#🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

week two of #got7revival: fave era

visually: JayB's Piercing Era

this was the first look and the first couple of pictures I've ever seen of Jaebeom, and although I wasn't present yet when it happened, mentally I'm still there and I cannot wait for him to maybe at least get his nose pierced again. YOU GUYS WILL NOT BELIEVE WHAT HAS HAPPENED!! I've seen the posts of non-ahgase asking who the "piercing guy in GOT7" was, and I wish I had already been a kpop fan at that time, but alas. ( the long hair is a very pretty bonus, too!! )

See the full post

10 notes - Posted October 20, 2022

#4

week one of #got7revival: bias & wrecker

bias: Jaebeom & Youngjae

jaebeom was the first member of GOT7 I found while looking for faceclaims for my fantasy novel about one and a half years ago ( march 2021 ) ; he got me and a friend into kpop and the rest is history. I love this weird cat guy ( affectionate ) with his twin moles and the utter passion and leadership he always brings to the table. I also adore that he talks about his depression and anxiety so relatively openly. he wouldn't need to, and yet he does, and I respect that a lot. it makes even me feel better about myself, and I thought I had a really good grip on mine.

once I knew the members and had gotten familiar with their character and all, I started gravitating towards youngjae as well. I sometimes wonder whether he wouldn't have been my ( actual / only ) bias in GOT7 if a) jaebeom wasn't so very special to me that it feels wrong to switch biases, and b) I had already known the members when I had gotten into GOT7, or if GOT7 hadn't been my very first group and I had already been much more familiar with how groups worked and all that. he's 97 percent shy, innocent maknae, and 3 percent a wicked minx who nobody can be mad at and I love that for him.

the bottom line is that I bias them both and they seem to be okay with having shared custody, if you wanna call it that. I'm calling it that now.

btw, I always consider those people the bias that I have a soft spot for, who I relate to on a personality level, who make me feel all warm and cozy when I watch them do their thing — and the wrecker is the one that just wrecks me with their visuals or voice or whatever it is. I can't look at them for long because that's overwhelming because they're so v attractive ( not saying my biases aren't, but the wreckers just take a bat and swing it at me, while the biases just don't cause that reaction in my brain ) idk, I hope this makes sense, but I've heard people describe biases as the ones that are in "first place" and the wreckers are trying to dethrone them and that's just not my definition of it. kakdif no hate tho! just wanted to explain that.

See the full post

14 notes - Posted October 11, 2022

#3

not to be a nerd on main about this, but we should stop transcribing 형 / 누나 and 오빠* / 언니 as bro / sis. linguistically they have very different connotations and it's kinda driving me up a wall as someone who's very invested and interested in languages, like, I do realize that especially casual watchers of like kdramas, who just started getting into them after Netflix or whomever added a bunch of them to their library, don't really care and that's totally fine with me! it's a considerably small thing, and if you just wanna watch something without diving into the language or culture or anything, then you're totally free to, that's valid, honestly

just. that's not what those words mean, connotation-wise and every time I read "bro!" or "sis!" in Netflix's or even YT's subtitles I die a bit inside.

obviously I'm not Korean and if anyone who speaks the language well / lives in Korea and is well familiar with when those are used, wants to weigh in, feel absolutely free to!

but to break it down briefly, those are honorifics attached to a person's name if they're older than you, but not, like, significantly. older students, older colleagues at work if you're a bit more friendly with them, friends, and ( your actual ) siblings. they are normal and do not immediately imply you view the other person as a sort of sibling from another parent.

yes, they do basically translate to "older brother" / "older sister", but transcribing it with "bro" and "sis" respectively has an entirely different impact than what they are actually supposed to infer. it's a polite suffix, that can in certain situations also imply trust or a more intimate relationship, because otherwise ( especially outside of a school context ) you'd use 씨 ( shee ) after their name. just that nobody especially in a school context does that because they use 형 ( hyeong / hyung ) / 누나 ( noona ) and 오빠* ( oppa ) / 언니 ( eonnie / unnie ) — former is used by males and latter by females, both times to address an older 'brother' / an older 'sister' respectively — either alone or after their name.

the companion piece is adding 아 or 야 (-a for names with a consonant at the end or -ya for those with a vowel ) to the names of people younger than you ( or those you're close with ) — and for example in All Of Us Are Dead they do that all the time and it's not transcribed by cutesy-fying their names is it now. they just put their names into the subtitles and move on.

I personally think it'd be much better to simply use you in any other sentence and if some character yells 형! across the room in distress, to transcribe it with the other character's name for emphasis. that's for me personally the closest, connotation-wise.

or, you know, have hyeong / noona / eunnie / oppa* in the transcript / subtitles in italics and explain it with some translator annotation the first time it appears alone. but that's generally an issue with subtitles on such platforms I feel. they remove words when creating the subtitles and leave out such nuances because gods forbid they'd force casual viewers to pause the show to read the annotations akskdkf. either way,

tl;dr they don't use teen slang in kdramas all the time even if the subtitles would have you believe otherwise and it's probably a problem that stems from companies thinking they can't "bother" their customers with having to pause to read, but I think that's simply taking away important context to a depicted story and I'd really like it to stop, thank you.

*oppa is a bit special because it is also used as a sort of term of endearment by women towards their boyfriends, or like, when they flirt with them pre-relationship, so it can also imply a romantic interest, be mindful of that. but I'd assume then it'd be transcribed with some sort of babe or honey or something.

14 notes - Posted March 4, 2022

#2

week three of #got7revival: fave choreo

See the full post

35 notes - Posted October 24, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

can't believe my dear friend Jonathan is so polite he didn't even get angry when his host simply destroyed his shaving mirror, the only working mirror in the whole castle, especially after he didn't see him in said mirror, like, I get you are finally seeming to catch up but Jonathan pls catch up faster, I'm begging

36 notes - Posted May 8, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[belovedrm]

Hello! Happy June! It's Pride and I have another question (4/30)

Today we are talking about queer representation in media. In 1894 "The Dickson Experimental Sound Film" is released, becoming the first "gay film". It was also known as "The Gay Brothers", it feature two men dancing together and it reportedly "shocked audiences with its subversion of conventional male behaviour". Unfortunately, in 1934 the USA introduced the Hays Code, which, while it didn't explicitly ban queerness, banned queerness in effect. This resulted in three decades of queer-coded villains, such as Joel Cairo in "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) and Jack Favell in "Rebecca" (1940).

The Hays Code was lifted in 1968, and the queer cult classic "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" was released in 1975, and gave a much-needed positive and FUN representation of queer people and queerness. Unfortunately, this was short-lived, as the rising AIDs crisis worsened the stigma around the gay community. This didn't stop everyone though, and in 1985 "Desert Hearts" was released; regarded as the first mainstream lesbian film with a happy ending.

Further on, the first gay kiss on TV in the UK was on "EastEnders" in 1989, "Ellen" became the first American tv show with an openly gay lead in 1997, and other show such as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" started to add recurring LGBTQ+ characters. An important show in the UK was "Queer as Folk" (1999) which was one of the first shows to depict the queer community as vibrant and alive.

Even further forward, and "Moonlight" (2017) became the first LGBTQ+ film (and the first all-black cast) to win Best Picture at the Oscars. GLAAD publishes an annual report showing how representation is changing. 2005-2006 1.4% of regular characters vs 2020-2021 the figure is at 9.1%. So, there is still a long way to go obviously, especially because media is often the main or only place that young people have an insight into the community at all.

Because of this, I want to ask you for a recommendation: What is a piece of queer media that you think more people should see? (it can be literally anything, big/small, funny/sad, smart/stupid <- just anything you think deserves to be watched!:))

(I'll go first: "Eu Não Quero Voltar Sozinho" (or "I Don't Want to Go Back Alone) is a really really cute Brazillian short film available on Youtube! (if you enjoy it, there is also a full-length film version called "Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho" (or "The Way He Looks"))

Happy Pride 🌈 🎉

oh wow, thank you for all the recommendations! the only one on the list that i recognized was the rocky horror picture show 😭 like i said before in my previous ask i’m not really a movie/show watcher 💀 (i blame it on my severe adhd that hardly ever lets me just sit down and relax and enjoy something)

so i really don’t have any recommendations myself. however, i will say it would be nice to have a show about sapphics that wouldn’t get canceled after one season 💀 like, i truly do enjoy seeing clips of heartstopper and young royals on my twitter tl. i think it’s WONDERFUL that more queer media like that is slowly becoming more mainstream. however, as a sapphic myself it’d be nice to see a female equivalent to those shows actually get the same amount of recognition 💀 unless there is something like that out there already right now and i’m just not aware of it! … but … i doubt it LOL.

[mxlcncholy]

As a Lokius shipper, I’m gonna put in my two cents here (I mean no aggression and i don’t want to start an argument. I just want to clear things up).

It’s a common misconception that people think Lokius shippers hate on Sylki because of how it contradicts Lokius. “If Sylki is canon Lokius will never happen, and that’s why we are against the ship!” I’ve seen multiple people on this site make this assumption, but I speak for myself and most probably most of the fandom when I say that this is NOT the case why we don’t really like Sylki.

Personally, I’ve had my fair share of really queerbaity, largely hinted but never canon ‘queer ships’ from different forms of media. And when connecting with other Lokius fans through the internet, I found that a lot of them share common interests with me on those ships as well. I think most of the Lokius fans who share other common interests/ships with me can agree that we are very used to ships not being canon and are completely fine with it. What’s the joy in having a happy, everything-is-fine-and-they-are-canonically-together ship? Isn’t that what fanfics are for?

No, the main reason why most of us Lokius shippers can’t deal with the Sylki ship is due to its really weird message/vibe that it’s emanating. Now I’ve been a crew mate on the Lokius ship ever since the dawn of its existence (the first trailers that came out in Dec 2020 and early 2021, as you will), and I’ve witnessed the entire development of the fandom during Season 1. In the first two episodes, everyone was really excited to see how Loki and Mobius’ relationship would actually turn out, but more importantly, who the mysterious hooded person the trailers showed us was (spoiler alert: it was Sylvie). So Sylvie appeared at the end of Season 1 Episode 2, and everyone went crazy with her mystifying appearance. Introduced at the end of Episode 1 as a ‘Loki variant’, who actually IS she? What is her relationship to VariantL1130!Loki (or in simpler words, our Loki)? What is her deal? How did she get here?

In Season 1 Episode 3, a connection was made between Loki and Sylvie as both of them shared more about their story. But the ‘connection’, as it seems, stems from their common background and origin. The show has established that Sylvie was also ‘a Loki variant’ which, is unnervingly vague. Does that mean she shares the same parentage as L1130 Loki? And again, what is her connection to L1130 Loki?? At the end of the episode, most of us (these statistics all come from experience and online interaction since I was deep in the fandom and gained a lot of Lokius shippers’ feedback when Season 1 was airing in 2021) deemed their dynamic to be very ‘sibling rivalry’ for one reason or the other, 1) because it was the vibe they gave off (I can back this up since I have a sibling), 2) because they have been established as the same person. So that was the direction we thought the show was heading in when Season 1 Episode 3 was airing.

But then. Season 1 Episode 4. They deemed it a romantic connection. Again a million questions surfaced. Aren’t they the same person? Didn’t they JUST give off a sibling dynamic in Episode 3? What the fuck is going on?

Of course, a lot of the ‘Lokius for-lifers’ that have been here since the beginning were confused. Other watchers began to jump onto the Sylki ship, since admittedly, they also have a kind of very… unique chemistry established in the show (and is pretty much canon). This episode was where the Lokius-Sylki ‘rivalry’ originated.

Now I don’t know to what extent you know about this ‘history lesson’ that I’m just mansplaining to you right now, but in the Lokius fandom, it was a really common view that Sylki was just. Weird. Sylvie was introduced as a ‘Loki’ in EPISODE 1. That’s why people did not care for the relationship that Marvel offered us between Loki and Sylvie. Aren’t they the same person? This timeline stuff they’ve put out in the later episodes (4-6) were confusing and the information was densely organised but there were absolutely no clear answers as to if Loki and Sylvie were ACTUALLY the same person or not. But judging on how people interpreted the information about pruned timelines and stuff, there were two verdicts: 1. Loki and Sylvie were the same person (due to how they come from the same MAIN timeline before being apprehended by the TVA, you know, since the TVA firmly believes in pruning any other timeline that deviated from the main one, which was ) or 2. They are not the same person (supported with different pieces of evidence such as ‘multiverse theory’ or ‘Loki is just a title like Spider-Man or Batman’, some of them contradictory to each other, some of them making sense). Some Sylki shippers enjoyed the ship under the circumstance that they are not related at all (which, fair), and I’ve seen some Sylki shippers admit to the incest/sibling factor being the main reason why they enjoy the ship. A bit weird.

As someone who does not support incest (with a very clear reason why), Sylki is a ship that enters a lot of grey area. They do have chemistry, yes, but judging the circumstances, is the chemistry even… ethical? The answers are very vague and very hard to come by.

I don’t speak for the entire Lokius fandom when I say that we don’t give a hoot in hell as to which ship becomes canon. In fact, Lokius-Sylki multishippers such as yourself is proof to how Lokius shippers don’t care about another ship existing at the same time as Lokius. Most of us aren’t THAT immature to shit on other ships because of that contradiction. The reason why we dislike Sylki is due to how it might insinuate incest (or just literal self-cest, it isn’t a word and it isn’t a scientifically possible thing but from the self pollination of flowers, I think we can all hypothesise what happens when the unlikely event of someone getting with another version of themselves happens). If the show writers had CLARIFIED in WHAT way Sylvie is a Loki (and clarified that they AREN’T RELATED IN ANY WAY), Lokius shippers would’ve just stopped attacking the Sylki ship (because if it wasn’t for the potential incest, it would be a valid and healthy ship and no one would have a problem with it).

One last thing, before you accuse me of bias, I would like to say that I have friends that are also Marvel fans that do not ship Lokius or Sylki and are still icked by the Sylki ship due to its potentially incestuous relationship. I’ve seen a lot of comments online that think the same. Similarly, I’ve also seen a lot of comments online that just do not give a shit about either ship and accepts whatever canon relationship Marvel throws at them. It’s a big fanbase. No matter which side you’re on, you will always find someone who shares the same view.

TL:DR: Lokius shippers do not hate the Sylki ship because of how it contradicts Lokius, but they hate the ship because of its potential incest connotations. It’s really not anyone’s fault and I don’t blame Sylki shippers for spotting the chemistry and shipping them under the circumstances of them not being related. The way this ‘shipper war’ can be solved is in the (quite unlikely) scenario that the show writers clarified that they were not the same person, which, would be the best outcome for literally ALL of us Loki TV show enjoyers. Thank you for reading.

I really hate the fighting between Lokius and Sylki shippers.

Unpopular Opinion: I’m on both teams. I ship both of these pairings. Hell I even like Sylvie x B-15. Give me two characters and I’ll find a way to ship them - okay, maybe not all but you get what I’m saying.

My point is, why can’t people just be allowed to enjoy what they enjoy?

I understand the importance of queer characters & pairings, and Loki himself is canonically queer, but that shouldn’t mean we fight each other about what ship is more cannon, or what ship is better or whatever else there is to possibly argue about. I think we can agree marvel isn’t the best (like most shows and money making corporations) at portraying queer characters and relationships.

But just because someone ships Sylvie and Loki, doesn’t mean it’s a personal attack on the ship of Loki and Mobius.

I think both ships are beautiful in their own way.

Mobius was Loki’s first proper friend. He showed Loki it was okay to let down your defences, he was with him till the end (a few wobbles but that’s friendship), and above all he cares for Loki. He risked his skin (literally) to save him and anchor him to the timeline. His first thought was ‘okay let’s sort you out before anything else’ with his time slipping, and helped calm him down from his panicked state, wanting to ensure he was okay. He loves Loki (take that as you will).

Sylvie was the first person Loki was able to relate to personally, knowing how she felt, seeing what it did to her. He began to understand himself because of her. He realised there was more to life than power and a throne, that he was capable of caring for another selflessly. She made him feel how he most likely made Thor feel many times. Betrayed. And it was an important step that Loki needed to take, but he still chose to try and find her because he knows she needs him. She is a complex character, like Loki. He loves Sylvie (take that as you will).

Very different ships. Very different dynamics. Very different people.

Besides, it’s Loki. He probably fancies them both.

(also I’m not that active in either communities because of the drama, but I observe and quietly ship to myself. both ships.)

[noa-nightingale]

Queer Watcher 2021

I am looking back on another beautiful year with @wearewatcher​ and I have to say, I love being in this fandom and in Watcher’s audience as a queer person.

This is the same thing as last year (Queer Watcher 2020), I will list the things I appreciate and enjoy, and once again I am very happy that I can write this. (I also encourage you to read last year’s list since many of the things I wrote there still apply to this year. Also, I will do this again for 2022. ^-^)

This is technically from 2020, not from 2021, but I am eternally annoyed with myself that I forgot to put it in my Queer Watcher 2020 post, and that’s why I am mentioning it now: “I love you, man.” “I love you too.” - Spooky Smalltalk. No, there isn’t anything inherently queer about two men telling each other platonically that they love each other. But here is why I am including it in this list: It’s the open and honest affection. Which brings me to my next point.

First video of the year and I am once again reminded why I love this channel, this content and these people so much. Dish Granted is so wonderfully heartwarming and that’s why I am including it on this list too: I am always looking for this kind of warmth in a world that is often cold towards me (for being queer, for being autistic, for being some other things). I adore Dish Granted and I would like to hug the entire show.

Happy Valentine’s Day to the oars!

Trans Day of Visibility! Watcher asked for trans/non-binary folks to share their art and then supported it by retweeting some of it.

I love it in general when they acknowledge the various Pride days or weeks (International Asexuality Day, Lesbian Visibility Day, Bi Visibility Week etc.)

International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia

Happy Pride Month! First I have to mention the merch, obviously. I did not see that coming at all and it made me very happy. I love my gay oars pins. A lot. And it is amazing that they give some of the proceeds to the Trevor Project.

Happy Pride Month! Again! This was one of my favorite Watcher moments this year: All three co-founders said Happy Pride in unison and I think a small part of me healed. It was so so damn lovely. (I also enjoy it quite a bit when Shane is kind of awkward with showing sincere emotions, a) because it is endearing and b) because I am bad at showing emotions in a way that is probably “expected” (or whatever) and I hate showing strong emotions in front of other people. Also, I really relate to awkwardness in general lmao.)

Every time our favorite co-founders wore or used their own Pride merch. Idk it makes me happy.

Every time people tell Shane that he is the “protector of the gays” or something like that and he does not really accept it. Like. I agree, it would be kind of uncomfortable if he called himself that.

He’s against French ghosts who are bigots though.

Making Watcher! Now on youtube, and it makes me so friggin’ emotional every time. It great to see these people care about each other and about the content they put out into this world. Heartwarming.

Dish Granted with Steven’s parents - same reasons as the ones above but also because of the accidental Believe Me Maizey. Made me cry. A wonderful reminder of our favorite holographic lesbian and her French Fries wife, and of the magnificence that is the hot daga.

That one moment in the cave ep of AYS - “Joe was here! Looking like a total ten.” - “Yeah, he was looking like a whole goddamn snack.” <3

Every time the existence and validity of they/them pronouns was acknowledged.

The return of the gay oars for Puppet History season 4! I love those guys and I loved to see them again and write my silly little tumblr posts about them. I wish I could put into words how much they mean to me but if you have followed me for a while, you know how much I adore them and how often I draw them. There were many beautiful little moments with them this year, and it was fantastic to see them again. Truly a highlight of this year.

We don’t have to talk about the season finale though.

Actually yes we do - here’s another silly little tumblr post you might find interesting. Still very proud of this one. Read it, it’s good.

Dunking on a homophobic ghost during TMS.

“God’s hot.” I can’t agree with the pile of diamonds here but I am happy that the oars are apparently not the only queer puppets.

I left out the patreon stuff on purpose (and there is stuff on patreon, I can only recommend it!) but I want to include a personal highlight here that made me very emotional. Steven picked one of my questions for Watcher Weekly+ and accidentally misgendered me. It was brought up on the Watcher discord and he was there within 15 minutes, acknowledged his mistake, apologized and said he would make an effort to do better. I know this seems like a little thing but I am not used to people handling a situation like that so well and I am very grateful that he did.

All the wonderful people of team Watcher, and all the wonderful people they had as guests.

The casual, constant support. I have said it before but I genuinely believe that it is more important than making one grand statement and then never touching the topic again.

All that being said, I do not want to put the Watcher co-founders and the Watcher team on a pedestal. They have their faults, they have made mistakes before, they are not perfect - nobody is.

There have been conversations about pronouns and using they/them pronouns as the default, and I think that’s something they can work on. (And, from what I’ve seen, they do. They are making an effort, and that’s all I can ask.) Personally, I also cringe every time I hear the phrase “ladies and gentlemen” - I know it is easy to say it without really thinking about it but I just hate it (in general, this is not just a Watcher thing).

But I believe that the Watcher team genuinely does make an effort and genuinely does care about the LGBTQ+ people in their audience.

So, in conclusion: I enjoy being part of Watcher’s audience, as an autistic person and especially as a queer person. I very much believe that they will grow as a channel, company and as people in the future. And I am very happy to be part of that journey and to be able to witness it.

[aliatori]

Masterpost | The Forsaken and the Forsworn

“When Gabriel reacts, he expects to reach down, draw the knife from his belt, and finally slit Hugo’s lying throat. That’s what he thinks he’s going to do. It’s what he’s been swearing he’d do every day for nearly five years.”

The Forsaken and the Forsworn started back in April 2021 as an exchange assignment for the pairing of Pirate Captain/Naval Officer Stranded With Him on an Uninhabited Island. Thanks in no small part to my recipient-turned-dear-friend @liodain (who also made the header art in this post!), it has become a mini-fandom in and of itself and continues to bring inordinate amounts of both joy and creative inspiration.

If you think you’d like…

messy queer, trans pirate-priests who are soulbonded to an eldritch deity as part of their cult

strangers to shipmates to lovers to enemies to ??? with multiple counts of attempted murder

explorations of the razor edge between love and hate

dark magic and tentacles and secrets galore

explosive scorpio + aries dynamics

trauma and faith and the steep cost of both

morally grey-to-black characters allowed to lean into their flaws

worldbuilding full of mysterious deities and locales

Look no further! I’ve done my best to collect the available writing, art, and other media set in/about the F&F universe. Under the cut to save your dash!

[Last update: April 18, 2024]

WRITING

GABRIEL BERTHELOT/HUGO MELANÇON:

The Forsaken and the Forsworn (18k | E rated) - Five years after Commodore Hugo Melançon leaves the fold of pirate-priests he once lived amongst and sailed for, he finds himself stranded on an unknown island—along with Furysworn Gabriel Berthelot, the first mate and lover he left behind.

The Faithless and the Forlorn (18k | E rated) by @liodain - A canon divergence exploration of F&F’s ending, complete with 150% more delightful antagonism and messy feelings.

The Fate and the Furor (137k | E rated) - The direct sequel to The Forsaken and the Forsworn. Gabriel and Hugo must work together one last time to achieve their own ends… if they can.

Forged in Blood and Lightning (4k | M rated) - The story of how Hugo became captain of the Screaming Squall and Furysworn in the one fell swoop.

everything black (1.5k words | M rated) - Gab and Hugo attend a revel where several kinds of tension finally boil over.

Revel and Reprieve (4k | E rated) - Hoping to enjoy a rare moment of downtime back at the fold, Hugo’s first mate has other ideas.

A Dangerous Habit (12k words | E rated) - Delayed from setting sail, Gab and Hugo do what they do best: get into trouble. This time, it involves shotgunning and creative applications of lightning magic.

Goes Down So Easy, Comes Back So Hard (2.3k words | M rated) - Gab reaches out to and for Hugo, in more ways than one.

rise and fall (2k words | T rated) - The fold doesn’t celebrate namedays in the way of the mainland, but Hugo still gets given a gift all the same.

A Heartbeat Ripe with Thunder (9k | M rated) - Born and raised to succeed the Matriarch of Watcher’s Cove, Gab rails against the weight of expectations.

Opening Gambits (3k words | T rated) - Half a year after Gabriel and Hugo’s contentious reunion in the Unchartables, a new storm brews on the horizon.

Kinktober 2021 randoms: breathplay/leather | tentacles | body worship | bloodplay

Kinktober 2022 by @liodain​ (various kinks, labeled for each work)

Kinktober 2022 randoms: spanking

Genuflection (7k | E rated) by @liodain and @aliatori - Gab and Hugo hit their breaking points post-separation.

The Silence on Sacred Shores (6k words | E rated) by @liodain - Hugo may not be lying to Gab, but he sure isn’t telling the truth.

caught up in his design (3k words | E rated) - The compulsion between Hugo and Gab takes a messy turn.

drip down the bluff  (3k words | E rated | CNTW) by @liodain​ - Hugo and Gabriel partake in a filthy ablution.

Leap of Faith (3k words | M rated) - Old habits guide the way to new horizons as Gabriel and Hugo prepare to leave the Enclave.

OTHER PAIRINGS AND GEN:

Objects of Power (4k words | E rated | Ciel Galanis/Jihane N’Ait) - Jihane’s a busy woman, but she still finds ways to take her ease.

Trust and Defying (2k words | M rated | Hugo Melançon/Vidakai) - Vidakai rewards Hugo for a precious secret.

Thread the Needle (10.5k words | E rated | Gabriel Berthelot/Jihane N’Ait) - Gabriel always thought the whole point of politicking was mess—that is, until Jihane introduces him to a different set of standards.

Light as a Feather, Dark as Brine (2.5k | T rated | Hugo Melançon) - After reaching his ten-and-sixth Rising, a young Hugo makes an important decision. 

ART

You liar, you coward, you snake by @liodain - Gab and Hugo stare each other down during their contentious reunion; the piece that started it all.

Relish and Refrain by @liodain - A surefire way of summoning Gabriel Berthelot is to hope for some peaceful solitude. In this instance, Hugo doesn’t mind that much.

Altars to Ashes by @liodain - Religious shotgunning? Religious shotgunning.

Come Down to the Black Sea by @liodain - Immensely romantic underwater kissing I’m still screaming about. ’#keep your bellicose first mate calm by periodically submerging him in salt water’

l'amoureux à l'envers by @liodain - a tarot take on the Lovers but make it Hubriel, and also a solid attempt on my life with how soul-destroyingly wonderful it is

War Hymns by @liodain - Get drawn in by the stunning cover art, stay for the absolute bangers of mini-playlists (also linked below)

Just a Shipwreck in Your Ocean by @liodain - Celebrating F&F’s one year anniversary by lovely, shippy artwork moments before deep betrayal!

The soul-destroying Sparrow/Lucien or Lucrow forehead kiss by @roadsoftrial

roi d'épée by @liodain - A tarot interpretation of Hugo as the King of Swords

l'empereur by @liodain - A tarot interpretation of Gab as the Emperor

A myriad of wonderful pieces by @liodain, in reverse chronological order: Gab and Hugo were meant to kiss in the rain | Gab and Hugo indulging in some shotgunning | Post-Fate Hugo and all his scars | Hugo and Vidakai share a secret | Just Little Guy versions of Gab and Hugo through the years | Post-Fate horrible baby bastard boy Gab | A delightful collection of sketches throughout the F&F timeline | Gab and Hugo share a moment in Fate & Furor | Hugo Thirst Hours, With A Knife! | Dream AND nightmare tbh | A quiet moment of rest in the night | I could fix him… except I don’t want to | Gab gets the sword at his throat he asks for | Stormy kissing in the rain | Alt version of Gab’s playlist cover art featuring Aries levels of intensity | Hugo letting his hair down for this birthday | Gab belongs in the sea, it’s true (cw blood) | Hugo’s back post-fold (cw scars) post fold | Blasphemous kinky focus touching | Gorgeous and terrifying Gab from F&F | Our fave having a murderous good time (cw blood) | The header picture from this post! | Big Pirate Couple Energy (cw blood) | Late night rendezvous | peak!Furysworn Hugo | Hugo having his ‘Oh no, he’s hot’ moment re: Gab | Gab and Hugo in an inn room pre-erotic destruction | The Infamous Shaving Picture I Have Framed In My Heart | Matching Portraits

PLAYLISTS

the forsaken and the forsworn - my obsessively curated, narrative driven playlist for these two messy bastards who I adore

until the storm passes | hubriel by @liodain - i.e. responsible for more than half of my On Repeat for the past five months

watcher in the deep | gabriel & xeheia by @liodain - A mini-playlist ‘for the unholy prince of pirates embracing his eldritch storm goddess and protecting what’s his’

swallower of secrets | hugo & vidakai by @liodain​ - A mini-playlist ‘ for the machinating commodore navigating a pact with an enigmatic deity and preparing to wreck everyone’s shit’

drink the brine | xeheia’s fold by @liodain - if you want some ultimate Xeheia’s fold ambiance, check this one out

cloudburst | gabriel berthelot - Gab’s character-specific playlist

keraunograph | hugo melançon - Hugo’s character-specific playlist

[hag-o-hags]

I posted 1,573 times in 2022

That's 49 more posts than 2021!

145 posts created (9%)

1,428 posts reblogged (91%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@dont-spoop-yourself

@diddlysquash

@glomofnit

@merhasstellyrhas

@batsintheshadows

I tagged 821 of my posts in 2022

Only 48% of my posts had no tags

#art - 37 posts

#pokeymans - 18 posts

#actual photo of my actual dog - 17 posts

#the locked tomb - 17 posts

#sir eduardo h. pancakes - 16 posts

#sugar certified cute or funny - 14 posts

#varmint - 11 posts

#bright in the dark - 11 posts

#words they're all we've got to go on - 9 posts

#oh my god i love dogs - 8 posts

Longest Tag: 78 characters

#🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Damn! Damn! Damn! Every year he forgot. Well, no. He never forgot. He just put the memories away, like old silverware that you didn’t want to tarnish. And every year they came back, sharp and sparkling, and stabbed him in the heart.

GNU Terry Pratchett (Night Watch)

35 notes - Posted March 12, 2022

#4

my cat is turning in circles settling in but also generating more and more static electricity

I must harness this power

38 notes - Posted November 10, 2022

#3

see I keep seeing posts about Ryan Reynolds on Tumblr but no actual evidence of him and y'all sound like Mothman watchers

40 notes - Posted November 6, 2022

#2

The law requires the sharing of Pink Beans, I think?

353 notes - Posted November 30, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

The first person to issue a marriage license to a gay couple in the United States was Clela Rorex. She was the commissioner of Boulder County, Colorado, in 1975, and she kept issuing licences to gay couples until she was ordered to stop.

She understood intersectional equality on a fundamental level -- her logic being that she, a woman, a single mother, a feminist in the 70s, could not deny a gay couple the right to a marriage. She was a champion and a pioneer for queer people for the rest of her life, and she passed away this week.

Remember Clela during Pride, with the fighters and the disruptors, as another person who helped pave the way for us.

18,458 notes - Posted June 23, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[punchholesinthesky]

I posted 9,561 times in 2022

That's 3,746 more posts than 2021!

67 posts created (1%)

9,494 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@ghostsinthecellar

@purlturtle

@isis-

@bundibird

@lonely-night

I tagged 1,762 of my posts in 2022

#watcher - 24 posts

#strange new worlds - 16 posts

#lol - 14 posts

#bering and wells - 14 posts

#buddie - 12 posts

#puppet history - 12 posts

#do revenge - 11 posts

#ghost files - 11 posts

#st snw - 10 posts

#text ramblings - 9 posts

Longest Tag: 124 characters

#🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

BEST. GOAL KEEPER. IN. THE. WORLD.

20 notes - Posted May 21, 2022

#4

i could def see cassian and jyn *almost* running into each other a million times, in different ops, but just missing each other...

and never finding this out cause they never had the time to talk about their past

they were meant to be but they never had the chance

37 notes - Posted November 8, 2022

#3

Jeff the land shark is smooth as hell

45 notes - Posted March 17, 2022

#2

today on twitter: uwu soft trans queer disabled writer who screams about ableism and leftism all day long turns out to be an engineer whos worked at lockheed martin for the past 15 years!

102 notes - Posted July 31, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

christopher eccleston today

324 notes - Posted September 9, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[absolutebl]

Hi ABL! I was wondering if you have recs for bl couples where a younger seme/top aggressively pursues an older, initially-unwilling uke/bottom?

I realized this trope was my absolute JAM when I fell hard and fast for Wei Zhiyuan x Wei Qian, Sun Boxiang x Lu Zhigang, and Yongjie x Xingsi. Bonus points for age gap, stepbrothers trope or the older uke being endlessly indulgent?

I mainly watch China and Taiwan bls, so I’ll love anything from there. I’ll take recs from other countries too, they might become my first foray into non-mandarin bls

I know this is a somewhat specific request so thank you sm if you manage to come up with anything! I really appreciate all the work you put into this blog ☺️💜

Oooo MY FAVORITE!!!

Hyung Romances! (wrap-up post)

I call these hyung romances because that's like noona romances but gay.

Specifically you said:

younger seme aggressively pursues an older initially-unwilling uke

I am utter TRASH for this! YES PLEASE!

Minato’s Laundromat

Japan 2022 GaGa 

AKA Minato Coin Laundry AKA Wash My Heart! AKA Minato Shouji Koin Randorii AKA Minato Shouji Coin Laundry

Younger seme older uke, very clearly yaoi derived dynamic, 10 year age gap. I love this show so much. This is by far the best long running example that really dwells on this trope, Shin is very much the aggressor also very much still a high school kid. Minato is very much NOT. 

Old Fashion Cupcake 

Japan 2022 Viki & GaGa 

Also from Japan, another 10 year gap, and a flipping genius version. This time both parties are older, so there’s less of a stigma around the age gap, but there is stigma about the one being the other’s boss. 

This show had me from the moment they broke the egg yolk with the chopsticks in the opening credits for episode one. It’s about a younger man with a long cherished crush on his boss (ten years older and going through a mid life crisis) who decides to save and seduce said man with pancakes. It’s wholesome, comforting, sexy, and a very necessary narrative about still having hope, interests, and openness to affection at any age. It’s coming of age/queerness packaged in a subtle critique of expectations around masculinity and love and loneliness... and it’s beautiful. Full review. 

Lovely Writer

Thailand 2021 YouTube 

Sib is quite a bit younger than Gene and defines aggressive pursuer. Gene is out of university and established in his career, Sib is still in college.

Thailand criticizes itself and the BL industry while simultaneously giving us classic seme/uke with great chemistry in a one-two punch of “we love it, but are we supposed to? and must we think this hard, yet enjoy it SO MUCH?” This show won’t appeal or make sense to those who don’t already have at least some Thai BL watching experience. What Lovely Writer does, at heart, is reexamine Thai BL has done to queerness, but in a very gentle way that has more to do with Thai BL growing up than any actual queer authenticity. It’s not parody or pastiche, but it is self reflective and trying to correct for some chronic mistakes. Whether it is ultimately successful in this matter is going to depend on the watcher’s relationship to BL and queer identity. But that’s what makes this show beautiful, interesting, and thought provoking. And I, for one, applaud the effort even if I didn’t personally connect to the characters.

Oxygen

Thailand 2020 YouTube 

Thailand’s first real stab at this dynamic as a main couple and it so worked for me. There are many who find this BL too slow and wooden, but I loved it. 

I think of this as a paragon of Thailand’s softer BL style, since Oxygen uses every BL trope in the playbook for one of the gentlest lowest angst BLs ever made. This one showcases how far Thailand is moving BL from its yaoi roots, and is a prime example of the sweet “new BL” model for which Thailand is the main advocate (Korea is liking it a lot these days too, tho). My first watch along. 

SOTUS

Thailand 2016 YouTube 

Guess who started this trope in Thailand? Yeah, sometimes I forget too. But they are not just classic sunshine/tsunder but classic younger/older. Just not by much.

This is the BL that launched a hundred BLs. No literally, it was SOTUS’s international success that pretty much built the Thai BL industry into the juggernaut it is today. People have baggage around SOTUS, I have nostalgia. Trigger warning on bully hazing. Review here. 

En of Love: Tossera 

Thailand 2020 YouTube 

Younger boy wants to court older boy and does and… that’s it. No really that’s the WHOLE STORY. There is actually no angst, drama, or, indeed plot. But are they the softest bois ever to BL as a main couple? Yes they are.

*pulp warning*

Private Lessons

Korea 2020 GaGa 

A BL short from Strongberry that I love, it's age gap and teacher/student (catnip por moi). The chemistry is slightly off though, but stil I do love this one for the dynamic. Certainly worth watching especially if this is your trope since it's like 8 minutes long and very stylish.

MingKit MarkKit

2 Moons (VERY side dish) YouTube 2 Moons 2 YouTube (major side dish) Gen Y (leads) Gen Y 2 (sides again in LTR) 

Thailand’s premier version of this dynamic I just lumped them all into one category. Only in 2 Moons 2 are they played by different actors, otherwise it is all KimCop, and who can complain about that? If you want to watch specifically for this dynamic than go for Gen Y. Trash watch here. 

SIDE DISH CORNER

Not Me (DanYok)

DanYok is an age gap, but it isn’t really the point or the plot of their romantic arc

Don’t Say No (LeonPob) 

Leon and Pob qualify. That’s all I have to say about that. 

HIStory 3: the BL that shall not be named (BoXiang & ZhiGang)

Also appear in HIStory 4: Close to You

The side characters in H3:MODC (and cameos in H4) BoXiang & ZhiGang have a huge age gap, 12 years, and it is a big deal for their relationship. When they start out BoXiang is a desperate himbo high school kid and ZhiGang is a small business owner. BoXiang’s friends tease him more for his lust over such a much older man than for being gay. 

Bonus on this one, there is some very high (and it's Taiwan so) very well done heat. That said, the main couple will, in fact, wreck your psyche for life. Proceed with caution.

THE THAI PULPS

You’re My Sky (SanAei)

Side could (and only good part of this show) SanAei are a classic uni age gap pairing. San is a bit of a spoiled rich kid jock who identifies the older nerd character as HIS and is just like, MINE. That’s MY elder gay. 

Brothers (KhunKaow) 

This is not a good show, but side couple Khun & Kaow are great in it. Khun is in university and Kaow has a small baking business.

Top Secret Together and Love By Chance both have sub plots of high school boys pursuing college ones, but the one didn’t go anywhere and the other went very very bad, so yeah… no. Although I would personally LOVE to see this done well. 

BONUS POINTS ROUND

Stepbrothers trope

HIStory 4: Close to You (sides)

YongJie is quite a bit younger than XingSi, not sure on the specifics but he’s in middle school when XingSi is in high school and still in college when XingSi has his own business.

Addicted has the stepbrothers trope but not the age gap.

Older uke being endlessly indulgent

Future

Thailand 2023 YouTube 

Based on a y-novel by Faddest (En of Love) about an engineering student and a dentist (shocker). This is just a soft sweet cotton candy fluff piece about a younger boy who pursues an older boy and then manufactures silly gay drama. Nothing wrong with that. But I don’t think this style of BL really appeals to a very large market share. Will I rewatch it? Sure. Will anyone else? Nope.

If you want your endlessly indulgent older gay, this is the you crack, they made if for you.

*pulp warning*

Manner of Death

Thailand 2021 WeTV

It’s not really relevant to the story, but Tan is younger. Not only that, he’s Bun’s friends younger brother. Bun is very indulgent, but in a grown up way.

I like MoD a lot but I’m conflicted over it being actual BL. It’s a great gay romantic suspense, although the mystery element is its weakness. MaxTul, the Kings of chemistry, are, of course, perfect and perfectly cast, but their romance thread is more a distraction than an addition. Still, I could watch them make-out the phonebook. Watch along here. 

Seven Days

Japan 2015 grey 

AKA Seven Days: Monday-Thursday AND Seven Days: Friday-Sunday Japan

Seryou kinda counts as the pursuer, but the dynamic is very very weak in this one. Still the way he asks to use Yuzuru’s first name (so CHEEKY) and the way he says “senpai” in SUCH a cute way makes me so happy. And Yuzuru is NOTHING is not indulgent, it kinda defines his character. I mean he just LETS him call him by his FIRST name... right away.

Never doubt my ability to recommend this show. One of the best live action yaois ever made, with perfectly structured angst, fantastic characters and acting, and no problematic tropes (rare in Japanese BL). The leads have excellent chemistry although it’s low heat there’s still some really cute mutual kisses. 

Just Taiwan

HIStory 2: Crossing the Line

2018 Viki 

Seme uke is VERY weak with this one but the younger character is certainly the pursuer. It’s SO GOOD. 

Lin Pei Yu directs this is a sports romance (volleyball) with a good boy/bad boy pairing, and mu favorite of the HIStory franchise. There is no clear seme/uke. Ostensibly it's high school set but Taiwan doesn't care about age appropriate actors. It's a very soft sweet romance with some ridiculously easily overcome conflict. There's great kisses but it's medium heat. The side dishes are the stepbrother trope but they’re very tame, and there’s no other triggers. It's not just my favorite of the franchise, it’s one of my favorite BLs with a perfect happy ending.

Kiseki: Dear to Me

2023 Gaga

The mains are a major age gap, but I always forget because they def don't look it. Also, Taiwan, so very weak seme/uke. Still there is age gap, he's in high school and our gangster is out of college and in the workplace.

The plot is totally ridiculous and slightly unhinged, but that’s normal for Taiwan. It involves all the tropes under a very casual framework of gay mafia gangs + food = love. Absolutely every character is queer. There’s a gum-ball machine of cameos, elder gay rep, great chemistry from all pairs, and a KILLER side couple. As a result Kiseki is a poster child for Taiwanese BL, and I happen to love Taiwanese BL. Bonus? They also managed to END IT WELL, which we cannot expect from Taiwan.

(Triggers for knife play, child abuse, lingering trauma.)

Unknown

2024 YouTube

Unknown is a wonderful BL with a pitch perfect portrayal of long term pining, age gap, and the stepbrothers trope. The acting and chemistry are ON POINT (especially from the leads) which made the resulting characters very believable. When it dwells in intimate family drama, it's stunning. It's slightly less successful when it leaves the home and goes gritty. Still, those are mere quibbles. This is an excellent show, one of Taiwan' s best.

As you see above I mostly had to take you to Japan and Thailand for this one. Considering your preferences try Japan first, it's closer in DNA to Taiwanese stuff, but it won't go as high heat. If you want the heat, you'll need to try the Thai stuff (or the ones from Taiwan you haven't seen). I would start with Lovely Writer.

Okay I think I have given you enough and, unless I miss my guess, I may have tempted you to try some Japanese BL.

Comes to the weirder (and weird hair) side. We have pancakes.

Yeah I think you should watch Old Fashion Cupcake.

EVERYONE SHOULD WATCH OLD FASHION CUPCAKE!!!

(source)

This post dated May 2024, not responsible for hyungs that sling after that date.

[poledancingsquid]

I posted 7,318 times in 2022

That's 6,031 more posts than 2021!

84 posts created (1%)

7,234 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@worthyourweightinfanfiction

@heyitsphoenixx

@mcrbois

@transfivehargreeves

@deadofxnight

I tagged 868 of my posts in 2022

#our flag means death - 27 posts

#ofmd - 26 posts

#mcr - 23 posts

#wwdits spoilers - 22 posts

#my chemical romance - 21 posts

#gerard way - 21 posts

#the umbrella academy - 20 posts

#tuaedit - 20 posts

#ref - 18 posts

#we are watcher - 15 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#my flat is on fire my surgery caused a severe infection there’s a small hoover over the open wound just moved house and am getting divorce

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Very funny to me that Oluwande is clearly written to be like the good acceptable queer character who is just a fundamentally good person and the entire fandom is just like “I love Izzy Hands I can make him worse”

113 notes - Posted April 30, 2022

#4

Have never flip flopped my opinion of a character as rapidly as I did on black Pete and honestly you could show me any character in a healthy queer polyam relationship and my starved for representation ass will simply ADORE them

125 notes - Posted May 2, 2022

#3

Ok absolutely Ed hearing about Stedes death and being wrecked with grief but I raise you…

Ed finding out and knowing with absolute certainty it was a fuckery, but everyone around him thinking he’s in abject denial.

Izzy begging, PLEADING with him to see sense and accept his death whilst he’s out “looking for Stede” who naturally, Izzy immediately accepts has died because that silly man certainly wouldn’t PLAN THIS.

Ed’s triumph and Izzy’s unspeakable rage when Stede appears after finding the ship via gaydar IMPECCABLE

142 notes - Posted July 21, 2022

#2

It’s 2am and I’m losing my mind

167 notes - Posted September 28, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Nobody talk to me about this for 5-10 years

291 notes - Posted October 2, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[omni-scient-pan-da]

I've received 7,809 notes

Top original posts

1). 272 notes - Jul 24 2020

SHIROU IS SUCH A DAD OH MY GOD ITS SO ADORABLE "Is your shoulder better?" HQHAJSJSHWHSV I'M SCREAMING HE'S SUCH AN...

2). 242 notes - Dec 25 2021

Thinking about the whole "Edric and Emira are identical twins and therefore one is trans" theory and would like to instead...

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How I personally would've had Rise of the Titans go

4). 224 notes - Aug 3 2020

Rewatching the Owl House, and definitely getting bisexual Luz vibes, particularly in the library episode Not only does she seem...

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I'M SCREAMING Amity: I... I think I may be hurt Luz: *S C O O P* Amity is just such a gay mess I love her oh my G O D

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External image

7). 196 notes - Aug 13 2021

Left-handed writers should fall in love with right handed writers that way they can hold hands while they draft novels together

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Y'know what, fuck it *yearns for a platonic polycule again*

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So like... Does anyone else have constant queer crisises? Like am I mono attracted or am I mspec, do I feel romantic/sexual...

10). 118 notes - Feb 25 2021

I fucking love watcher

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[mousieta]

Review: Lovely Writer

Country: Thailand Date Aired: 2021 Watched on: Dailymotion / Youtube

Lovely writer is a cute little Thai Boy’s Love (BL) romcom. I am usually pretty picky about romcoms as I have very specific tastes and wants from them. I am also pretty picky when it comes to BL as they have a tendency to come with a host of tropes I adamantly dislike.

However, there was a level of tongue-in-cheek self-awareness in the first couple of episodes and the premise was just the right side of ridiculous that I let myself be drawn in. The basic premise is that Gene is an author who wants to write epic fantasy stories but has, unfortunately, been pigeonholed by his success into writing BL stories. He is so popular a BL writer that one of his works has been picked up for a TV show adaptation. This necessitates being on set when Nubsib - a fresh faced new actor - is cast in a leading role.

Shenanigans obviously ensue (plot points signaling themselves from miles away) and we wind up with a delightful forced cohabitation scenario custom made for our two leads to fall in love. The chemistry between the leads is off the charts and the show indulges itself in putting them in as many sexually charged situations as humanly possible. This, I completely understand and appreciate.

As a writer, I definitely identified with Gene’s struggles. As an avid drama watcher I enjoyed having a secondary romance to root for in the adorable Tify and Tum. As a fangirl I definitely appreciated the gratuitous skinship and kissing scenes (so many *fans self*). But as a queer person, I was surprised and deeply appreciated the depth given to the queer narrative and queer characters.

Lovely Writer is at its best when at its most didactic. The self-awareness that first pulled at me was the show speaking from within its own industry to call out the toxicity that is present within its own genre, which was satisfying. One problem I have with BL dramas is that they often feel more like fantasies of queer men created by straight women for straight women. Which, I want to be clear about, I have absolutely no problem with. I think there is value in those stories. However, they are not stories I am interested in seeing.

So while not only taking pains to call out common BL toxicities played out on screen, Lovely Writer also earns a soft spot in my hear for the depth and breadth they rendered compassionately for their queer characters. We don’t have just one queer pairing in a sea of straight characters. We have a variety different queer characters of different ages and sexualities and genders. This variety is good because it not only reflects the community that many queer people navigate, but it relieves the main queer characters from carrying solely the weight of the queer experience. Our characters are not obligated into perfection by the weight of representation they carry.

And so, we get to see a pansexual woman, and a gender nonconforming man wrestle with the way they can fit into a society with well defined expectations for them. We get older gays working through a society that has reshaped itself over the course of their lifetime and the impact that has on who they are nowddmv. We get our gay villain but also our gay heroes.

The plot is fairly straight forward. The characters are written with just enough depth to convey the story’s message and the actors infused them with more than enough charm to make them engaging and memorable. The villain plot line is frustratingly underdeveloped which had me wishing they’d just cut it out completely. It added nothing but ultimately empty screen time and the general conflict of societal expectations and personal flaws in our leads were enough to carry the whole show.

Directing wise, the show finally felt like it hit on the right execution for its self-aware tone too late (as in, the very last episode). That said, I loved live-watching. The entire experience of waiting week to week for my next Lovely Writer treat brought me some much needed brightness. This show definitely won a special place in my heart for all the things it did so well.

[ineffablebuddies]

Thoughts on how the Star Trek remakes should approach the characters , in a way that I think would be realistic for 2021 and our current climate:

Romantic relationships:

Sulu/Chekhov - We know they spend a lot of time together on a one to one basis, especially in the films, and they are very endeared to each other. It also wouldn’t change their dynamic or the dynamic on the bridge, and could slip into any future films or shows without change to character. (unlike Spock and Uhura, which I don’t hate, but required adjusting Spock’s character in order to enable a pre-existing relationship.) Like, all you’d need is one throwaway line to make it canon and you could keep the rest exactly the same. And there is obvious value in representing an interracial same sex relationship.

Uhura/Scotty - this would work as a slow burn, because Scotty is a bit of a hopeless romantic whilst he is younger, and is easily misled by his heart and can be a bit overprotective in a very 60s style which is a character flaw integral to his character (and is the plot of a few episodes). Which is why a slow burn is nice for him, because he needs to learn to come from a place of genuine respect and deep affection. And whilst I do like that Uhura stays relatively unattached as one of the few prominent female characters in tos, I do think that as a black woman it is important to allow her to have a romantic relationship due to current representation issues. Which is why I think the slow burn is also nice for her, because you can’t change her character, or make her the object of affection, but showing a deep love and affection developing on the job is nice. We also only start getting the scotty/Uhura romantic dynamic coming in the films when they’re much older. And again I think this is one you can show without having to change anything integral to them. Same with checkov/sulu that it shouldn’t be a plot point, but a character thing that happens without needing to be focused on. Neither of them seek it, but it happens naturally.

Amanda/Sarek - obviously this is already canon, but I think it should be explored in a little more detail. I also think we can do away with the whole “Vulcan is incredibly sexist and treat women as property” thing, which doesn’t actually make sense considering the female Vulcans we do meet, so doesn’t really add to the world building anyway.

Ambiguous Relationships:

Kirk/Spock/Bones - now I know this is controversial, but I don’t think they should necessarily make them canon in the remakes, except possibly at the very end of the shows/last film. To focus on the romantic relationship between Kirk/Spock too early on will potentially reduce the time for Bones to be included as a very necessary part of the main three, and the fact of the matter, the three of them are presented as having a deep bond, not just Kirk/Spock. And there’s a certain level of yearning and unspoken love that really defines their relationships. They should always end up together in some manner, with no other romantic attachments. Part of me would love to make it a ployamarous relationship, but I don’t think it’s likely to happen anytime soon.

I do think however that they should make Spock gay, and I think they should keep the relationship with the Romulan commander but make it a man, because that was actually very well written and acted, but the fact that Spock is able to use that romantic affection to his advantage against a woman is a little sexist considering it’s like the only time we see a female romulan commander, but as a man we wouldn’t have those same issues. And I think that’s the only other relationship we should see Spock have outside of Kirk/bones, because it’s marked by the fact that he can’t act on it the way he would like to, and none of the other relationships in tos really work IMO because it just seems ooc for him. But I think it’s important to allow him to be confirmed as gay considering he is queercoded.

I don’t think it’ll be as easy to confirm a queer identity for Kirk, but I think that for the women he has flings with, he should never be the one to initiate it, but have the same flaw of scotty as being a bit of a hopeless romantic who can be misled by his heart, and again that would give more value to the slow burn he has with Spock. I think you can very much allow him to refer to Spock with love, and I think you can confirm a relationship with Spock at the very end, but I think it should be non-sexual. Vulcan kisses are the way to go, and should allow you to give confirmation of romantic love whilst also having plausible deniability for the people who would riot against it.

I think it’d be fucking amazing if we could cast a trans guy as Kirk. I don’t think you’d get away with saying the character is trans, but having a trans actor and just never mentioning it in show may just be enough to get away with it. Especially if this is a relatively unknown actor who passes completely so casual watchers can’t even get fussed about it (I know this wording has some issues, but I’m thinking more about getting around execs and producers, than on what would be best for rep.)

I’m torn on how far you could get away with including Bones in their relationship. The bones/Spock dynamic is interesting because it is like enemies to lovers, they definitely develop that care for each other, whilst Kirk/bones are old friends. I think Bones shouldn’t have romantic relationships on screen, and should maybe be quite unromantic as a result of his divorce. I don’t think we should ever meet his daughter, though I’m also quite interested in the idea of his ex wife having remarried for a number of years and then having a brief affair with Bones, before breaking it off, but then gives birth to his child but it remains a secret. Because it’s definitely part of his character that he has no attachments to his home, and it makes more sense of his attachment - his love for a daughter that never knew him - if it’s one he can’t do anything about. And would understandably make him more bitter towards his ex, which can make him more unromantic. But I don’t think it needs to be a major plot point.

Like I said, Spock/bones/Kirk should always end up together in some way. And I think it’s in their character to never define why they end up together, but to acknowledge that they can’t live without each other. And I think you could get away with including that as ambiguous to how far their love for each other goes. There’ll be too much backlash to make it completely canon for it, but you could get away with the Good Omens approach. Perhaps you could include Bones in a Vulcan kiss subtly enough to get away with it.

Characters who should be important:

Christine Chapel - she should definitely be in it and made a more significant character, because otherwise Uhura is really the only woman in the show. But it’d be very nice to have a woman who doesn’t need to have a relationship, and there’s no need for her romantic desire for Spock to exist in any remakes. It would also be nice to just make her a doctor from the get-go. Her friendship with Uhura was present in tos, but can now be focused on more, as well as her supportive role to Bones throughout. She wouldn’t be part of the main group, but she should be a big part of their lives.

Doctor m’benga - he was an interesting character, and it’d be nice to have a fixed medical team that work closely together. There’s also a potential for an interesting concept of him being an expert on Vulcans, Bones being an expert on Humans, and thus they’ve both been hired on the ship to work together for the sake of Spock. Also, having another established doctor on board could give an actual explanation for why it’s okay that their only doctor keeps beaming down to dangerous missions and going up to the bridge for no reason lol. Plus there is a lot to be said for casting a dark skinned black man in the role of knowledgable caregiver, especially if they can make him more of a scientist of alien biology too. There may be value if it naturally develops of him having a relationship with chapel, because whilst I like allowing women to exist without relationships, it might be balanced out with the positive representation of an interracial relationship.

Lieutenant Rahda - remember her? She was like In one episode but was great, and she should definitely be introduced as part of the bridge team again. Though her exact culture or religion is not disclosed, she is seen to wear a bindi, and i think it’s always a great time to add more diversity. It makes sense to have more people in the bridge crew too, even if they aren’t part of the main team dynamic. Considering the current political climate, it’d also be a great idea to add another bridge crew team who is visibly a Muslim woman who wears a headscarf, seeing as various countries are still trying to ban that.

Walking Bear - he was only in the TAS for one episode, but again I think he would prove a valuable addition, especially considering star trek’s representation of native people has never been the best, so it’s time they started to make up for that a bit. In most episodes there’s always usually others in the bridge that are helping the main team, and it’d make sense to have a fixed cast of who these people are and flesh them out a bit more.

Saavik - she shouldn’t be in it until much later, at least not as part of the enterprise crew, but there is something very interesting about her character and the dynamic with Spock (which is why I think they should meet later on, because he takes on a role of mentor which is a dynamic shift, and thus should probably happen later. Multiple Vulcans on board is also a dynamic shift that I think should be addressed more.) I do wonder whether it might be nice to move her to being a scientist rather than bridge crew, as that would afford her more interaction with Bones as well, who I think we should get to see interact with other Vulcans more, to establish that he is not xenophobic despite his conflict on Vulcan philosophy with Spock. (Or at least if he does start xenophobic, to start showing his development away from this.) She also should not have a relationship, especially not with Spock oh my god. I think a nice way for her to be introduced would be if she was staffed on a Vulcan only ship that the enterprise for whatever reason has to work alongside, because I think we need to see Spock interact more with other Vulcans and see that Vulcans, despite claims to the contrary, can have the same xenophobic failings as humans. I think her being one who is sympathetic to the enterprise and to Spock is a nice set up to them then meeting later and working together (and also why she might change careers and move away from the Vulcan only ships, as we do get the sense it is unusual for Vulcans to serve on board a starship.) Whilst I do think that a romulan/Vulcan offspring could provide an interesting story, I think she should be fully Vulcan in order to make her acceptance of Spock more poignant.

Kevin Riley - I just think he’s neat. Also maybe we can return to the Tarsus 5 colony story point?!?!?!?

I’d also think it’d be cool to establish some engineers that work beneath Scotty, and a mix of genders of course.

But yeah, I think there’s a lot of ways that any remakes could stay true to the original, whilst still pushing for progressiveness in the same spirit as tos, whilst managing to manoeuvre around execs and producers and negative media. Star Trek should always be progressive for its day, and it’s a new day now, so we need to keep moving onwards.

[arofili]

Worldbuilding Exchange Letter 2021

Hello lovely creator, thanks for creating for me in the Worldbuilding Exchange! I’m very excited and grateful for whatever you create for me <3

This letter will restate my DNWs, list my likes, give you a brief rundown of my canon preferences, and then dive into specific prompts for each of my requests.

I’ll warn you upfront that I tend to ramble, so feel free to skip prompts that don’t interest you and/or use ctrl+F to search for whatever it is you want to write for.

My requests are divided by fandom, and in the case of the Silm + Middle-earth Legendarium, by topic too, so hopefully that will be helpful for you! Also, my TAZ request is waaay down at the bottom, so if that’s what you’re here for, just go to the bottom of the page.

Housekeeping:

DNWs:

Non-con

Unrequested dub-con

Abusive/Neglectful parenting (especially wrt Fëanor)

Sibling incest, parent-child incest (cousin pairings are fine)

Unhappy/Unhopeful endings (unless otherwise specified)

Jealousy/Possessiveness

Cheating

Character or ship bashing

Hanahaki/any scenario where unrequited love is physically damaging

Soulmates, especially soulmate AUs (soul bonds are OK, if there is choice involved)

Porn without plot (Porn with plot is fine!)

Food involved in sex

Unrequested Modern AU

Non-trans mpreg

If you’re writing a slash ship where the characters are/were married to/involved with someone outside the ship, please don’t have the character(s) hate their spouse or not have been actually in love with them (the one exception is Finrod; I’m fine with him and Amarië not having been actually in love, but please don’t do this for anyone else, especially not Fëanor)

Hobbit/LOTR-specific DNWs:

The concept of a dwarven “One”

Any Fíli pairing

Alfrid

Legolas or Gimli paired with anyone other than each other

no smut for these fandoms, please

Silm-specific DNWs:

Evil/irredeemable/incel Maeglin

Elwing bashing

Fëanorian bashing

Over the top Fëanorian apologism (they did bad stuff; it was at least partially their fault. you don’t have to address that, necessarily, but don’t rewrite the story to claim they were blameless)

Fingon with a wife

Fingon or Maedhros ships that don’t take Russingon into account (polyamory, an open relationship, Mae with someone after Finno dies or vice versa for an AU, them with other people while they’re separated on the Ice/in Angband - all of these scenarios are fine, but in the end I need them to be with each other first and foremost)

Dark!Maedhros

Elvish re-embodiment after death being an actual, literal rebirth that requires the characters to have a second childhood; I much prefer them being granted a new hröa in their prime (feel free to explore what “in their prime” means, though, especially wrt scarred and disabled elves)

~~~

Likes:

(these might not all apply to worldbuilding, but they might give you a place to start from!)

Gen fic

Found family

Family dynamics

Loving families, even when things get complicated

Friendship, intense/important platonic relationships

Relationships that defy categorization

Queerplatonic relationships

Polyamory

Queer headcanons (especially aromantic-spectrum headcanons)

Trans/nonbinary headcanons (genderbending is also fine, but I prefer trans/nb hcs)

Angst with a happy ending

Gray morality

Explorations of magic

Most tropes

Fanon and fandom tropes

Deconstruction/Inversion of fanon and fandom tropes

Interspecies relationships

Peredhil

Secret relationships

Secret relationships coming to light

Secret kids (especially secret peredhil!)

Giving ships OC kids

OCs interacting with canon characters

Confessions of love

First times

Hurt/comfort

Redemption, forgiveness, mercy

Ironic foreshadowing

Canon divergence AUs/X Lives AUs

Politics and scheming

Resolving conflicting canonical details

Historical/Narrative bias affecting what is and isn’t “canon” (to an extent; changing motivations, consequences, etc is great, but please don’t ignore canon entirely)

Elrond & Elros having complicated relationships with both their bio and adoptive parents

Names fitting the time period (Quenya names in Valinor, please; if this is difficult for you, that’s okay, no pressure, but I do strongly prefer it)

Names having a lot of thought put behind them (does the character go back to their original Quenya name upon rebirth? or do they keep their Sindarin name? or come up with something else entirely? do they hate their new Sindarin name and resent having to use it, or do they embrace it? As long as you put some thought into it, I’m sure I’ll like whatever you decide!)

Author’s notes where you explain your thought process, if you want; I love hearing how the story took shape!

~~~

Preferences re: Canon:

LaCE compliance is always completely optional (except if you’re choosing a prompt that is specifically about LaCE, lol). If you do want to include it, that’s great, but if you just want the characters to fuck without having that be an issue, go for it. I love explorations of LaCE that take into account the exceptions, boundaries, definitions, etc; I also love takes that emphasize that they are Laws and Customs, not biological imperatives.

I’m not picky about my Amrod deaths. He can die at either Losgar or Sirion (or, hell, some other time/place if you make it interesting enough!), whatever works best for the story. I do like Lightly Toasted Amrod, aka he almost burns to death at Losgar but survives/gets rescued at the last minute.

Gil-galad theories are all very fun. Please don’t make him the son of Fingon and a wife; if he’s Fingon’s son, I want Maedhros to be involved at least a little bit (adoption or trans mpreg are both fine in this scenario). Otherwise, I don’t have a particular preference, though if it’s not really relevant I usually default to the son of Orodreth (who is in turn the son of Angrod). Also, I’ve requested “Origins of Gil-galad”; there’s more information on him in that section.

Honestly, when it comes to theories and headcanons, my rule of thumb is “convince me”! I’m down for whatever, for the most part, as long as you can justify it :)

~~~

For all of these, “suggested characters” pulls from the list of characters I requested with that signup, but if you’ve got an idea involving other characters then go for it! And in the end, all characters are just suggestions, this exchange is more about the worldbuilding :)

~~~

The Hobbit (Book)

Adventuring Hobbits Before Bilbo: Who were they? Did they ever come back, or was Bilbo assumed dead because of precedent? Were they all Tooks, or did some other hobbits tag along on adventures, too? Suggested Character(s): Belladonna Took

Dragon Magic & Dragon-hunting: Talk to me about dragons! I’m interested in dragons & dwarves, especially in relation to the first time dwarves were driven from Erebor and into the North and the War of the Dwarves and Dragons. What kinds of dragons set their sights on the mountain? How old was Smaug when all that was happening; did he learn anything from the failures of his kin? Who were the dragon-hunting dwarves who fought in that war? Suggested Character(s): Smaug, Original Dwarf Character

Dwarven Craft and Magic: Enchanted weapons, enchanted armor, runes and spells...all so interesting! Borrowing from the movies a bit, did Kíli’s runestone from Dís have any magic power? What’s the deal with the Arkenstone’s thrall? How do elf and dwarf magics intersect when it comes to objects like Bilbo’s mithril coat? Suggested Character(s): Dís, Frerin, Thorin, Original Dwarf Character (perhaps a craftsdwarf?)

Dwarves and Gender: We need more dwarf women! And I’d love any takes on nonbinary dwarves and/or dwarf-specific genders. Were there female dwarves in the Company that Bilbo mistook for male dwarves? Are dwarven women really only a third of the population? If dwarf men and women are very similar in appearance, how do they differentiate between them, or do they differentiate at all? If you included something about dwarvish braiding styles indicating gender, class, marital status, I would be delighted. Suggested Character(s): Dís, Frerin, Thorin, Original Dwarf Character; in this case I’d prefer a focus on canon characters, but OCs interacting with them would be marvelous, especially people like Dís’ spouse.

The Black Arrow: Bard’s little pep talk to his arrow has always intrigued me. I’d love to see your take on the origins of the Black Arrow. Does it really come from Erebor, and if so, who made it? How did Bard and his forefathers come to acquire it? (I like the movie version that ties it into Girion’s attempt to kill Smaug, so feel free to incorporate that if you feel like it.) Is the arrow enchanted? (Perhaps that could be tied to the Dwarven Craft and Magic tag!) Suggested Character(s): Bard, Original Character from Dale, Original Dwarf Character

The Stone Giants & Were-worms: I don’t have many thoughts on these guys except “neat! tell me more!” I’m fascinated by the creatures Tolkien only gives us a passing mention of; if you feel like it, maybe you could combine these tags with some of the creatures in the LOTR tagset (crebain, cold drakes, Watcher in the Water, Mearas, Kine of Araw, etc...I didn’t sign up with all those tags, but it would be neat to hear about them anyway!)

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The Lord of the Rings (Books)

Cold-drakes and Fire-drakes & Crebain & The Watcher in the Water: Like with the Stone Giants and the Were-worms, I just think they’re neat and I’d love to hear your take on their origins and how they affect the history of Middle-earth. Feel free to combine this with other creature-related requests. Suggested Character(s): Scatha

Ghosts and Hauntings: Barrow-wights? Nazgûl victims? Just your crotchety old hobbit neighbor who still holds a grudge about losing the biggest pumpkin contest despite having been dead for 20 years? There’s a lot of potential for stories here; maybe you could combine a ghost story with some other prompt to add a murder mystery or haunting plot to a relationship you’re exploring!

Dwarf-Elf Relations: I don’t believe All Dwarves and All Elves hated each other! We have famous elf-dwarf friendships across the ages, and really it was just the Sindar vs. the Broadbeams/Firebeards that had the feud. Still, Legolas (a Sinda) and Gimli (raised among Broadbeams and Firebeards in the Blue Mountains) are caught up in that, so their friendship is quite remarkable! I’d love interrogations of how that feud continued across centuries and discussions of what really went down in Menegroth, perhaps with one of the Durins having an elf friend at some point in the past that sheds light on how Legolas and Gimli can get along. (I am here for any and all Gimli and Legolas combinations; I love them as friends, I love them as boyfriends or husbands, I love them as queerplatonic partners, I love them as anything in between! Do whatever you’d like with them!) Suggested Character(s): Gimli, Legolas, Original Elf Character, Any of Durins 1-7

Elvish and Mannish settlements in post-Ring War Ithilien: How do Legolas and Faramir get along, both living in Ithilien after the war? What do Legolas’ people think about being neighbors with a bunch of Men? Faramir and Imrahil were Aragorn’s chief commanders after the war, and Legolas expressed admiration for Imrahil; I imagine Imrahil visited his nephew in Ithilien, so what are the interactions of those three like? I’d love to see an exploration of Silvan elves and their culture here, with Legolas leaning into his Silvan heritage and maybe some Silvan OCs who have spent their whole lives in Mirkwood up until now and have never met Men before now! Suggested Character(s): Faramir, Legolas, Imrahil, Original Elf Character

Relations between the Dúnedain and Rivendell: Talk to me about the Grey Company, or Elladan and Elrohir fighting alongside their distant kin, or Rangers taking breaks in Imladris, how the Rangers think of Aragorn who was raised among elves, etc. I’d love an outsider POV here, such as an OC observing the oddities of a canon character. Suggested Character(s): Original Elf Character, Original Ranger of the North

The Glittering Caves of Aglarond: More Gimli and Legolas stuff - but with a focus on Gimli this time :) Gimli as a lord in his own right, Gimli who takes elves on tours of his dwarf-kingdom and weirds out his people (is it just Legolas, or does he take any Silvan elves with him, or like...his elvish in-laws??), Gimli as a craftsman... Or, alternatively, you could explore the caves before Gimli gets to work on them, what the Rohirrim thought of them and how they were created - by natural processes, or by magic, or a mixture of both? Did Aulë make them for the dwarves to find, perhaps? Suggested Character(s): Gimli, Legolas

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The Hobbit (Movies)

Dragonsickness/Goldsickness: The parallel to mental illness in the movies was really interesting. I’d love to see lingering effects of the goldsickness on Thorin after the Battle (Everyone Lives AU, probably), or an AU where Fíli or Kíli inherit the throne of Erebor and are afflicted by it as well. Or, sticking to canon, how did Fíli and Kíli and the rest of the Company deal with Thorin falling into madness? Were the other dwarves affected by the thrall of the gold? Bard and Thranduil were observers of Thorin’s madness; what did they think of him? Did Thranduil remember Thrór under dragonsickness? Or, since movie!Thranduil is a far cry from book!Thranduil when it comes to going to war over jewels, was he affected by the dragonsickness even from a distance? Was Bard? Suggested Character(s): Thorin, Fíli, Kíli, Bard the Bowman, Thranduil

Dwarves who "choose craft"/Aromantic-Spectrum and Asexual-Spectrum Dwarves: This is pulling more from the books than the movies, but I didn’t have enough nomination slots to include any book nominations, so it went here, lol. Anyway: as I’m sure you can tell from my tumblr url, I headcanon Fíli as aromantic, and I love seeing that in fanworks! It’s really wonderful that Tolkien mentioned that many dwarves choose their craft over marriage, and I’d love to see an exploration of that aspect of dwarvish culture, and how Fíli fits into it. It seems to be fairly common/accepted, but are there different cultural pressures around marriage for the crown prince? How does Fíli figure out he’s aromantic? If aro and ace dwarves are expected to be choosing a craft over romance and sex, what’s Fíli’s craft? Or does he not have one, and people judge him for that? The “choose craft” language I use is very much inspired by this post and the Neo-Khuzdul word “bijebtorva” :) Suggested Character(s): Fíli, Original Character(s)

Governance and Politics in Mirkwood: How did Thranduil and Oropher come to power in the Greenwood? I hate the “lowly Silvan elf” line from the movie; can you somehow justify that with worldbuilding, or show how it’s not accurate? Is Legolas half-Silvan like is implied in the LOTR books? Who are Thranduil’s advisors? Is Tauriel really the only one who dislikes and defies Thranduil’s isolationist policies? Is Mirkwood very patriarchal, and is Tauriel’s appointment to Captain of the Guard something she faced opposition or competition for? Are the Sindar elite colonizers, or did they integrate into Silvan society? How does the average Silvan elf feel about their king, or do they not even think about him? Suggested Character(s): Thranduil, Tauriel, Original Character(s)

Poetry and prophecy: Bard uncovers that tapestry that turns a song from the book into a somewhat ominous prophecy; there’s a lot of discussion of fate and signs from the thrush at the door to the last light of Durin’s Day; Thranduil has seen enough in his thousands of years to have had time to brush up against a prophecy or two. What do these three believe about fate and prophecy? Are any of them prophets in their own right? How does poetry/music lend power to prophecy? (Bonus points if you tie it back into the Ainulindalë...) Suggested Character(s): Bard the Bowman, Thorin, Thranduil

Poisons and antidotes: I love Kíli/Tauriel and the scene where she heals his wound...but the worldbuilding around morgul poison and athelas is a little murky. It’s a decent parallel to Frodo’s condition in the LOTR movies, but it’s confusing lore-wise. Can you make sense of it? If Tauriel is a warrior, where did she learn healing? (In my own headcanons, her foster family are healers, which is how she learned those skills even though she’s primarily a warrior - but feel free to take it in whatever direction you’d like!) Suggested Character(s): Tauriel, Kíli, Original Character(s)

Rebuilding Erebor & Relations between Dwarves + Elves + Men: (I’d prefer an Everyone Lives AU for this situation.) How do Thorin and his Company put Erebor back together again? What are the renovation projects like? How long does it take Dís and the rest of the Longbeards to arrive in Erebor and help out? How long does Dáin stay to help his cousin? I would love to see some politics both internally within the Longbeard dwarves and externally as they relate to Mirkwood and Dale. Smaug’s corpse is just lying in the Long Lake...how do the dwarves feel about their old enemy’s body so close by? Do some Men want to re-establish Lake-town, and demand help from the dwarves who flushed the dragon out of the mountain? Do the dwarves want to harvest Smaug’s corpse for resources? (He’s probably got gold and jewels stuck in his scales, and dragon-skin/scales is probably a good raw material for crafting things.) What’s the process of Bard becoming King of Dale? Does he face any opposition? I love the idea of Hilda Bianca challenging him for leadership, or maybe insisting on some kind of democracy/representation in Dale! And if she doesn’t get her way, maybe it’s her leading some people back to Esgaroth and founding a democracy there that would make the old Master roll in his watery grave... How do Bard and Thranduil and Thorin reconcile after the battle? Does Thorin pay up like he said he would? Does Tauriel hang around, or does she go somewhere else? Are any elves inspired by her, or is she a total outcast? If you choose to explore the Kíli/Tauriel relationship, how does that affect politics between Erebor and Mirkwood? Suggested Character(s): Thorin, Fíli, Kíli, Bard the Bowman, Hilda Bianca, Thranduil, Tauriel, Original Character(s)

Tauriel's fate after the Battle of the Five Armies: This is for exploring what happened to Tauriel in canon. Does she wander the world and explore new places? How long does she mourn Kíli? What does she do with the runestone? Does she return to Mirkwood, and if so, how does she manage to get back into Thranduil’s good graces? There are a million different ways to take this, I’d love to see your take on her! Suggested Character(s): Tauriel, Thranduil, Original Character(s)

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The Silmarillion: Magic & Spirits

Houseless Elves: Why did they refuse the call of Mandos? Do Avari even go to Mandos? Can Melkor and Sauron ensnare these spirits for their necromantic purposes? If the call of Mandos is refused once, does that bar them from listening in the future? What kinds of ghosts are haunting Middle-earth in the First Age? What kinds of ghosts haunt Aman? Suggested Character(s): Original Character(s), Melkor

Magic as a connection to the Music/the Song: Magic isn’t always the best-explained in Tolkien’s universe, but what we do know is the incredible power of the Music. How do the Maiar and Valar, who are not technically beings of Arda, interact with the world? How do elves and men (and dwarves! and orcs!) tap into the Song and manipulate it to their benefit (or detriment)? I have the headcanon that Elemmírë, the elf who sung the Aldudénië, is a priestess of Varda; what was the power of that mourning song, and how was it received by her patron Vala? Suggested Character(s): Elemmírë, Varda, Melian, Melkor, Original Character(s)

Nature Spirits: These holes in Tolkien’s worldbuilding are fascinating to me. What role do nature spirits play? How many are there? I’m thinking particularly of river spirits, like the River-woman and Goldberry, but there are probably also mountain spirits and water spirits and-and-and... Are they Maiar? Lesser beings? What do the Maiar we know of think about them? Gandalf seems the kind to listen to them and learn their stories, but perhaps Melian sees them more as servants in protecting her realm... Suggested Character(s): Melian, Original Character(s)

The Shadow-shapes in the hills above Cuiviénen: What were these shapes? Melkor’s prototypical monsters, Maiar who didn’t know how to interact with the Children, something else entirely? What did the original elves believe about them? Did they fear them, did they try to appease them, did they try to confront them? I headcanon that Elemmírë is an Unbegotten elf, so perhaps she lost friends to the Shadows, or thought she did. If the Shadows did take elves, was it out of malice or curiosity or a desire to protect them from whatever Melkor was planning? Suggested Character(s): Melkor, Elemmírë, Original Character(s)

The Void: Melkor spends a whole lot of time here. Does he have any company? Something or someone he makes to pass the time with? Do the Valar (like Manwë or Námo or Varda or Nienna) visit him there? What is the nature of the Void, is it pure emptiness or chaotic magic or a nightmare machine? Is Melkor being punished or is he being contained? And where are the boundaries of the Void? Varda rules the heavens; does her realm bleed into Melkor’s prison? Suggested Character(s): Melkor, Varda, Original Character(s)

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The Silmarillion: Elven Relationships

Note: This request deals with relationships, and while I’m open to pretty much anything, please keep in mind my DNWs. Exploring these topics using canon relationships is a safe bet; I adore Maedhros/Fingon so having a look at them through this lens would be amazing; I have Aredhel as a character request here, and I see her as aromantic (“to none was her heart’s love given”) so while showing her in a relationship is fine, I’d love it if you could take her lack of romantic feelings into account; if you have a question about another ship, you can check to see what I’ve written and/or send me anon message! Additionally, a lot of these talk about soul bonds, which I’m very interested in, but one of my DNWs is soulmates. To me the concepts are very different things; it’s the destiny and inevitability and universal assumption of romance that really squick me out about soulmates. Soul bonds, on the other hand, have an aspect of choice to them that I really dig. So, please don’t make characters Fated For One Another, but please do explore what joining souls is like!

Laws & Customs of the Eldar: Boy do I have a lot of feelings about LaCE—and I’m always intrigued by other people’s feelings, too! I’d love to see an exploration of how these laws and customs came to be, which parts of the rules around marriage and children and re-embodiment are social constructs and which are innate to the fëa and hröa, and/or relationships that defy the norms. If your take on the laws is hetero/cisnormative, how does that affect queer elves? If your take is free of bigotry, what are the flexibilities around queerness, including asexuality and aromanticism? Laws and customs and rules always have loopholes and exceptions, so what do elves who don’t fit into the expected relationship mold do about these norms? Suggested Character(s): Aredhel, Maedhros, Fingon, Elrond, Any Unbegotten Elf Character(s)

Arranged Marriages among the Eldar: Russingon arranged marriage AU?? Orrrr....Maedhros or Fingon are politically engaged to someone else, and they have to deal with the ramifications of that? (Please don’t have them actually go through with the marriage if you go that route; I’m not interested in a story with Fingon having a wife, even if she’s a beard.) If elves (usually) only love once, and by declaration of the Valar can only marry once (Finwë being the somewhat disastrous exception), how is an arranged marriage justified within the cultural emphasis on these bonds? Are they more like arranged romances, people pushing their children together in hopes that they’ll fall in love? Or is it a stricter rule about “you do what’s best for this family”? (Note: Bad/cruel parenting is one of my major DNWs, so if you’re going that route, please don’t make the parent uncaring or malicious. Stubborn and narrow-minded is fine, as is the genuine belief that this is what’s best for the child, but ideally they’ll learn from their mistakes or perhaps everything will be interrupted and derailed by Canon Events. This is especially important wrt to Fëanor.) Suggested Character(s): Maedhros, Fingon

Creation/Discovery of soul bonds: How do soul bonds work on a metaphysical level? Can they be broken? Do they have to be nurtured and maintained? What’s long-distance communication like? Heck, what’s short-distance communication like, is it like talking in your mind or sharing your feelings or more abstract than that? Can elves form soul bonds with mortals? And most importantly—how did elves figure out they could soul bond with one another?? I can imagine that would be quite a shock when they’re discovering sex and then suddenly they’re inside each other’s minds! Suggested Character(s): Any Unbegotten Elf Character(s)

Non-romantic/sexual soul bonds: I’m good with practically any relationship here. Explore sibling bonds, twin bonds, parent-child bonds, queerplatonic bonds, found family bonds, adoption bonds, the bond between a Vala and their Maia...any kind of soul bond that is familial or platonic or chosen without regard to romance! (Feel free to take a canon romantic relationship and turn it queerplatonic, I live for that shit!) How are these bonds formed outside of sex? What are the rituals and ceremonies around forming them? Is it a public or private thing? Are non-romantic soul bonds taken seriously, or are they seen as less important than marriage bonds? Since elven parents literally give part of their soul in the creation of the child, is that parent-child bond innate? Suggested Character(s): Aredhel, Any Unbegotten Elf Character(s)

Elven adoption: I nominated this with Kidnap Dads in mind (if you go that route I love fluff for them as well as more nuanced/complicated takes on the situation, but whatever you do don’t make M&M cruel, and please include Maedhros as a parental figure alongside Maglor)...but hey, it could work for Fingon (and Maedhros) adopting Gil-galad! What are traditions around elven adoption? Are there soul bonds created between the adoptive parents and children? Was adoption even a thing in Aman, or is it only practiced in Middle-earth? Did elves adopt mortals and vice versa? Is adoption extended to found family other than a parent-child situation? How is adoption viewed by elvish society, especially if inheritance/succession is a concern? Suggested Character(s): Maedhros, Fingon, Elros Tar-Minyatur, Elrond

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The Silmarillion: Noldorin Politics

Original Fëanorian follower(s) who turned on their lords at Sirion: Okay, this is a character tag, but I’m absolutely obsessed with this line: “For the sons of Fëanor that yet lived came down suddenly upon the exiles of Gondolin and the remnant of Doriath, and destroyed them. In that battle some of their people stood aside, and some few rebelled and were slain upon the other part aiding Elwing against their own lords (for such was the sorrow and confusion in the hearts of the Eldar in those days).” Who were these people who followed the Fëanorians into exile, into a Kinslaying, through the burning of the ships, through 30 years of Maglor as a king-regent incapable of treating with the Nolofinwëans, through the scattering of their lords and the harsh conditions of the North, through the Bragollach and the Nírnaeth and a “wild and woodland life” and the Second Kinslaying (where some of them went as far as to abandon children in the winter woods to die because they thought it was what their lord/s would want), through isolation and hatred from every other elven group, through the plan to attack a refugee camp—through ALL OF THAT, and THEN they turn on their lords at Sirion??? Why betray your lords NOW? And the people who DID keep following them after that (after kidnapping children!!!), what were they thinking?? — I firmly believe that Maedhros has many escapees from Angband in his service who are ride or die for him and whose morality was somewhat warped by Angband, but what about Maglor’s followers? Caranthir’s? Ambarussa’s? Even Celegorm and Curufin’s?? There’s just SO MUCH potential for story here, I’m dying to read about them!

Noldorin lines of succession: Was It Sexist Or Was It Not: The Eternal Question aka Why Didn’t Idril Become High Queen After Turgon? Also, what does “eldest of the house of Finwë, and not the least wise” even MEAN, Maedhros?? How did Gil-galad come to power? I find it hard to believe he became king immediately after Gondolin fell; was it a wartime power grab? A battlefield promotion? How did the kingship get established in the first place? Why was Finwë chosen to go with Oromë to Aman? Was Maglor ever really king, or did he only rule as a regent for the missing Maedhros? Suggested Character(s): Finwë, Gil-galad, Maglor

Origins of Gil-galad: I am always so interested in takes on Gil-galad’s parentage. My favorites are Russingon baby Gil (through trans mpreg or adoption, both are good) and secret peredhel Gil (probably an Aegnor/Andreth baby adopted by Orodreth), but I also love Finduilas Is Gil-galad and honestly, any situation is fascinating here—just convince me! A possible way to explore this is through Outsider POV; some noble or historian trying to figure out just what the heck is up with Gil-galad. His parentage being confusing in-canon is so fun!! Suggested Character(s): Gil-galad, Original Nobility of the Noldor

Maglor's Kingship between Maedhros' capture and rescue: Was Maglor ever really king? Did he give up on Maedhros early on, or did he cling to the hope that he still lived? Did his brothers turn to him for support, or did they connive to take responsibility from him? The rift between the Noldor wasn’t healed until Maedhros’ rescue; did Maglor try to cooperate with Fingolfin, or did he keep his people isolated? Was he relieved when Maedhros came back and took responsibility, or was he resentful to lose his power? How does this situation (and Maglor not going to rescue Maedhros) affect M&M’s relationship later on? Suggested Character(s): Maglor, Original Fëanorian follower(s)..., Curufin, Caranthir

Dwarf-Elf relations in the First Age & Dwarf-kingdoms: Dwarf-friends!!! Yes!!! I love elves and dwarves being buds (or partners if you’d like to go that route!) <3 IIRC, Curufin learned Khuzdul, and I’m sure Celebrimbor did too; Caranthir was supposedly rude to the dwarves, but what if that’s just his (and their!) love language? How did relations between the Sindar and the dwarves sour over time? Maedhros was friends with Azaghâl; how did that relationship begin? How did Finrod’s contract with the dwarves blossom into a real friendship? Eöl was also buddies with the dwarves; did he ever bump into Curufin or Caranthir while at a trade festival or something? And the dwarf kingdoms of the First Age are fascinating on their own, too; what was the political structure like? Did the dwarves bring items from the other side of the mountains into Beleriand? How did the petty-dwarves get exiled? What happened to Nogrod and Belegost in the War of Wrath, and were they ever re-established after the sinking of Beleriand? Suggested Character(s): Curufin, Caranthir

Guilds and Noble Houses of Tirion: Give me a Tirion political drama! Finwë trying to appease his lords and craftseldar? Indis integrating into Noldorin society and making connections with the noble houses? Arranged marriage situation between Nolofinwë and Anairë? The younger princes running amok and causing chaos in their elders’ carefully-laid plans and delicately balanced alliances? Suggested Character(s): Finwë, Indis, Original Nobility of the Noldor, Curufin, Caranthir, Maglor

Roles and Responsibilities in the Noldorin Royal Family: There were oodles of princes in Valinor. What did they all do? How did they get the followers who came with them to Middle-earth? Were they free to pursue their own crafts, or did they have responsibilities to the common people? How did this change in Middle-earth when suddenly everyone was in danger and had more pressing needs? What is it like being a re-embodied royal in a society that’s adapted to life without you? Suggested Character(s): Finwë, Indis, Maglor, Curufin, Caranthir, Gil-galad

Fashion as Political Statement: This is an excuse to request Color Coding Politics. Fëanorian red! Nolofinwëan blue! Findis wearing Aggressively Neutral White! Lalwen in orange? Arafinwë in yellow? Finwë in an amazing technicolor dream-coat...or more likely just red, showing his bias once more? Art of this would be absolutely fantastic. I have lots of headcanons about color politics; feel free to ask me about them if you choose this option. Suggested Character(s): Curufin, Caranthir, Gil-galad, Finwë

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The Silmarillion: Trauma & Religion

War of Wrath: For a war that took so long and had such wide-reaching repercussions, we really don’t have very many details about this. It’s free real estate, basically! I have my favorite characters (Maedhros, Maglor, Elrond, Elros, Gil-galad...) that you could use to explore this time period, but literally anyone who’s alive at this point is fair game. And OCs! What do the Noldor and Vanyar (and Telerin sailors) feel about the War and interacting with the war-weary exiles and Sindar and Men of late-stage Beleriand? What kind of culture shock/culture clash is there? Were re-embodied exiles permitted to return to Middle-earth, or were they barred from going to war again? Suggested Character(s): Original Noldorin Character, Original Vanyarin Character

Trauma after the War of Wrath for elves and humans & Exiles adjusting to life in the Undying Lands post War of Wrath & Dealing with psychological trauma in Valinor: Trauma was commonplace in Beleriand, but not so much in Valinor. What’s it like for exiles who sail West to be in a society that doesn’t know how to support them? Are the Valar having to learn how to deal with the trauma of living elves super quickly, or are they reticent to change? How do the exiles interact with their re-embodied kin? What do the Vanyar and other Amanyar think of these elves who have been so deeply hurt? What kinds of treatises on psychology are penned by scholars with little to no previous experience? What is therapy like in Valinor? Do the exiles get together for support groups since no one else understands them? Or did the trauma of the Darkening and the First Kinslaying wake up the Amanyar and get their act together before then; are the exiles surprised by the structures already in place to support them? And what about Avari who have been dying steadily all this time from accidents and incidents in Middle-earth? If they’ve been re-embodied, how do they engage with the Eldar who have similar traumas? Suggested Character(s): Estë, Finrod, Maeglin, Original Noldorin Character, Original Vanyarin Character, Rúmil, Any Avarin Elf Character(s)

Worship of the Valar and Religion & Avarin religious culture: Do the Vanyar really worship the Valar, or do they seem them as hyper-powerful neighbors? What are priests and priestesses like in a world where the gods walk among you? How does each kindred of the elves interact with the Valar? Are Maiar viewed as equal worshippers/servants or as deities in their own right? Do the Avari even know about or acknowledge the Valar? Do they worship the stars, or simply Eru? Suggested Character(s): Pengolodh, Rúmil, Any Avarin Elf Character(s)

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Middle-earth Legendarium: Magic & Spirits

Afterlives: This is pretty vague, but I think it’s referring to the various kinds of afterlife. What are the Halls of Mandos like? What happens to spirits who don’t go to Mandos? Do Men pass through Mandos on the way to Beyond? What happens to Men? Are they reincarnated in the more traditional understanding of the word, do they go to some other realm similar to Arda, are they just endlessly partying it up with Eru? Do dwarves really go to the Halls, or is that just a superstition? And of course, what about orcs? Suggested Character(s): Námo

Fate of orc souls after death: Yeah, really, what about orcs? If the orcs were originally elves twisted into Morgoth’s servants, are their spirits still elven? Are they reborn as they once were, elven despite their life as an orc? What about orcs who are many generations removed from their elvish ancestors? Do they have fëar? Can orcs be rehabilitated? I refuse to accept that all orcs are inherently evil; but what does everyone believe in-universe? Suggested Character(s): Námo, Original Orc Character(s)

Foresight and Prophecy and Doom: I’m honestly not sure if this fanon or canon, but Finarfin and his line having foresight through Indis is a wonderful concept and I’d love an exploration of that. How accurate is foresight? Can fate be circumvented? Are prophecies like the Doom of the Noldor self-fulfilling, or are they warnings about possible futures, or are they curses upon people? If you have a high Doom upon you, does that end with your death, or does it follow you to Mandos and beyond? Suggested Character(s): Námo, Finarfin

Songs and Words of Power: Rap battles with Sauron! ...joking aside, song as magic is just fascinating to me. How does this connect to the Ainulindalë and the Song of the World? The elves named themselves Quendi, the Speakers; how do they view the power of words and their ability to change the world around them? Can music be used as a force of destruction or a weapon (battle bard Maglor)? Can it be used to manipulate someone’s mind (Sauron)? Suggested Character(s): Maglor, Sauron

Stars and Starlight: “All light is sacred to the Eldar...but wood-elves love best the light of the stars.” Okay, sorry for being a Hobbit movie apologist on main, but I do love Tauriel! How do elves view starlight? Is it holy, or are the stars more like their friends and guides? Did the Avari choose to remain in Middle-earth partially because of their love for the stars, which were drowned out by the light of the Trees? How does Eärendil feel about being a star; does he feel blasphemous or holy? What legends and superstitions are there among Avari and Men and others who don’t know the origins of Gil-Estel about the new star in the sky? Suggested Character(s): Morwë, Eärendil

The Unseen Realm: This is the in-between world where Frodo goes when he wears the ring, the world that the Nazgûl in their half-life inhabit. Are Ainur able to slip into this realm at will? Did Gandalf walk invisible in Gondolin? How does Sauron manipulate this realm to his purposes? Is this where elves go if they fade? (I don’t usually like Maglor fading, but it could be an interesting way to explore this...) Suggested Character(s): Námo, Sauron, Nazgûl, Maglor

Magical Artefacts & Magical Communications: Palantíri! Galadriel’s mirror! Ósanwë! All sorts of cool ways to talk with magic. Do the Rings of Power enable long-distance ósanwë? Did the Silmarils contain pieces of Fëanor’s soul? What other marvelous magical creations were there that didn’t make it into the Legendarium we know? Suggested Character(s): Sauron, Maglor, Eärendil

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Middle-earth Legendarium: Politics & Lore

Feudalism between Eldar and Edain: We have Edain entering into the service of Noldorin lords (Bëor and Finrod, Hador and Fingolfin, Amlach and Maedhros) and land being given to Men by elves (or not, in Haleth’s case)...how far did this feudal relationship extend? Were the Edain mostly autonomous or were they very much bound to their elven lords? Were there common elves who paid tribute to Edain lords? Can any relationship between elves and Men truly be equal if this is the way they originated? Fealty kink? Suggested Character(s): Curufin, Original Elf Character

Fourth Age Tirion: What’s Tirion like with a bunch of dead people walking around living again, and a bunch of weird legends now imposing in daily life? What’s the first meeting of Rúmil and Pengolodh like—who geeks out over whom? Are the Fëanorians back yet? Is the average elf even really aware of all the nonsense that happened in Middle-earth, or are they extremely unimpressed with King So-and-So of a square of land that’s now underwater trying to cut them in line at the coffee shop? Suggested Character(s): Original Elf Character, Pengolodh, Rúmil of Tirion, Celebrimbor, Elrond, Galadriel

Relationship between Noldor and Dwarves: See “Dwarf-Elf relations in the First Age & Dwarf-kingdoms” in my Silm request for a starting point...but also, was Elrond’s Last Homely House open to dwarves? How did Galadriel come to respect the dwarves, especially after her Sindar kin grew to hate them? Suggested Character(s): Curufin, Celebrimbor, Elrond, Galadriel

Timekeeping between the Death of the Two Trees and the Rise of the Sun and Moon: Tolkien’s math drives me ABSOLUTELY INSANE. His timelines are contradictory, I get headaches just thinking about the length of elf pregnancy, what does aging mean for an immortal species, WHY ARE TREE YEARS LIKE THAT and WHAT IS A YÉN? Please try and make sense of this for me, I beg of thee. I’m especially interested in the time period between the Death of the Trees and the Rise of the Sun and Moon. Did the Noldor wander the Helcaraxë for 3 years or 30? How long was Maitimo in Angband? Did the Sindar even realize something was different? How did people start calculating Sun years? When was the calendar of the First Age adopted? Who did all this math? Is there an in-universe explanation for these contradictions? Do people fight over math? Do the Ainur experience time the same way the Children do? Did some Noldo genius come up with a timekeeping system that worked with the Moon, only for the Sun to come along and muck it up? Suggested Character(s): Pengolodh, Rúmil of Tirion, Original Elf Character, Fëanor - really any scholarly character, tbh!

Treatment of Angband's Escaped Thralls: Which kinds of escapees choose to go to Himring with Maedhros the Tall, and which choose to go to Gondolin and the House of the Hammer of Wrath? Was Rôg an escapee too? Can Maedhros really tell who’s been turned by the Enemy? Does Thingol have the right of it in turning away thralls from Doriath? (If he even does that, I’m now researching this and I’m not sure it’s actually canon...) What was it like for Maedhros and Gwindor to readjust to elven society? Did Elrond grow up surrounded by Fëanorian followers who escaped Angband, and is that where he learned healing? Suggested Character(s): Original Elf Character, Elrond

In-universe authorial bias in historical texts: All of the Legendarium is a history, which means there’s bound to be unreliable narrators. Was Maeglin really as evil as the story says? What gets left out of the narrative? What gets lost in translation? Who lives, who dies, who tells your story? Suggested Character(s): Pengolodh, Rúmil of Tirion

Trade in Middle-earth: What was trade like in First Age Beleriand? What about Second Age trade between Númenor and the mainland? Was Ost-in-Edhil a trade hub? After Sauron returned and traveling became dangerous, what intrepid traders braved the wilds for the sake of goods and money? How was currency developed around the world? Suggested Character(s): Curufin, Celebrimbor, Elrond, Galadriel

Orcs Surviving the Wars: Again, I don’t believe that all orcs are irredeemably, inherently evil. Were they persecuted and stamped out after the Ring War, or did some escape and adapt to a life without a harsh overlord? What’s orc agriculture like? Would Elrond take a chance on rehabilitating an orc in Rivendell? What if orcs were more complicated all along, and it’s the histories that simplified them to cardboard-cutout villains? Suggested Character(s): Original Elf Character, Pengolodh, Celebrimbor, Elrond, Galadriel

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The Adventure Zone: Balance

My only non-Tolkien request, oops. Don’t think I’m not as interested in this request, though; I’m the only one who nominated for it, so I picked my very favorite concepts and I’d love to see what you do with them!

Angus McDonald’s Grandfather: This guy’s name was lost to time, and he loves silverware, and he has a grandson, and that’s pretty much all we know about him. Was he involved in the Relic Wars somehow? Did his name get eaten by the Voidfish? I imagine he’s a rather eccentric fellow; how much of that did he pass on to Angus? Is he even real, or was Angus lying to Tres Horny Boys about his destination?

Any Wonderland Adventurer(s): I’d love to see what happens to the other people who go to Wonderland before our boys. Do they all die? How many get what they want and get out? Do any of them have weaker moral compasses than THB and agree to advertise for Edward and Lydia? What if Edward or Lydia fell in love with an adventurer and trapped them there? What kinds of things do people sacrifice to the Wheel? We know about the Escape Game and the Healing Game; what about the Recovery Game? How long has Wonderland been around? How has it evolved over time? What was it like before Edward and Lydia got ahold of the Animus Bell? How did they get ahold of it? (Personally I think Barry just gave it to them...but did he have to go through the trials first?)

Differences within species between the Two-Sunned World and Faerun: I love the fanon that Two-Sun elves are juuust a little different from Faerun elves...like Taako’s echolocation, for example. But what if this applies to the other species like gnomes and dwarves and even humans? How are the Seven Birds just a liiiitle off from everyone else around them? Also, Cat Elves. This is an excuse for Two-Sun Cat Elves. GIVE TAAKO A TAIL. (I mean, or not, do what you want, but I’d love to see that, lol.) Suggested Character(s): Any Member(s) of the IPRE, Original Character(s)

Reclaimers before Tres Horny Boys: Who were the other Reclaimers? Who did Lucretia trust to carry out this dangerous mission? How did they all each, inevitably fail? What if Magic Brian was a Reclaimer gone wrong? What was the last straw for Lucretia, the last failure that made her scheme to get her boys back? And the other Reclaimers weren’t officially disbanded right away; how did they feel about the new guys in town, and losing their jobs to these doofuses? Suggested Character(s): Lucretia, Original Character(s)

The Relic Wars: There were wars about the Relics!!! Wars!! That everyone forgot!! Wars where people that THB knew died!! And then we never get into this in canon! It drives me nuts! I would love to see an exploration of this chaotic time period, what the IPRE did to mitigate the damage, which relics were obvious and terrifying and which were secret and terrifying, etc... I’ve written a bit about Relic War-era Hurloane, but what were the other NPCs doing? (Or Hurley and Sloane too, I’d love to see your take on them too!) When Lucretia wiped everyone’s memories, what was lost? (I suspect Angus’ Grandfather got caught up in that...) How did those missing memories lead people to the Bureau of Balance? Suggested Character(s): Lucretia, Any Member(s) of the IPRE, Angus McDonald’s Grandfather

The Robot World's crystal post-Story and Song: The IPRE promised to return the Robot World’s crystal if they ever managed to defeat the Hunger...and we know they can plane hop from the casino liveshow...so, did they ever return the crystal? How did that go down? How does the Robot World rebuild itself? And if we’re going into it being the (K)nights Arc’s setting, are there other characters than Troth that we might recognize? Suggested Character(s): Magnus Burnsides, Lucretia, Any Member(s) of the IPRE

Worlds that survived the Hunger: In the worlds where the IPRE found the Light of Creation before the Hunger arrived, what was it like for the people there who had to endure the Hunger’s attack? What was the scope of the destruction? How did they rebuild afterward? Does uniting against a common enemy bring the people of the world together and create more Tesseralia-like societies? How many people knew about the IPRE, and what did they think about them? When they hear the Story and Song, what’s the reaction? If they didn’t know about the IPRE what myths do they create to explain the Hunger? Suggested Character(s): Lucretia, Original Character(s)

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Alright, that’s the end of my prompts/requests! Thanks for reading this far, and whatever you end up writing for me I am super excited to read it!! And if you have questions or ideas or something, my askbox is open and I have anon messages on, I’d love to talk! Thank you again for creating for me, you are the best! <3