#sorry guys I really want to contribute to fandom

[anamelessdragon]

One of the pups has decided that now that I’m not having hundreds of dollars each paycheck bled out by the various effects of months of repeated intense storms in the area that she’s free to have an out of nowhere incredibly rare for her size/breed bloat issue, resulting in a 7-10k emergency surgery. Which means most vacation/staycation/extra days off to Do Things plans this year have been cancelled to make way for a continuation of the overworking for me and alas, less time for fic writing will be ongoing until further notice. :/

Pup is currently hospitalized but okayish. Surgeon said she was the best case of this particular issue she’d ever seen and her organs look amazing for her age.

I miss writing so much! I wish RL wasn’t being such a pain at getting in the way of that.

[what-am-i-doing-in-this-fandom]

Pokemon AU my absolute beloved 🙏🙏

(Translation for Ford's cursive/complete image description in the ALT text ❤️)

Made a companion piece to this!! See it here ❤️

[fromtheseventhhell]

One major factor missing from most debates on Arya and Lyanna's beauty is that they're being judged by their society's extremely patriarchal values. In both looks and personality, that context is essential to understanding how others perceive them. George explores the misogyny experienced by non-conforming women, especially with Arya, and it's interesting how he plays with that regarding their physical beauty.

Her mother used to say she could be pretty if she would just wash and brush her hair and take more care with her dress, the way her sister did. (The Blind Girl, ADWD) "You never knew Lyanna as I did, Robert," Ned told him. "You saw her beauty, but not the iron underneath. She would have told you that you have no business in the melee." (Eddard VII, AGOT)

These two quotes offer a nice summation of this idea. With Arya, her supposed lack of beauty is defined by her being a non-conforming wild child. Her hair is messy, her face is dirty, and she's often in "lower class" clothing while engaging in unladylike activities. None of this says anything about her physical beauty but it tells us everything about how she's perceived. Arya could be pretty...If she conforms to society's standards for a highborn Lady. With Lyanna, however, we get the opposite. Where Arya is judged based on her personality, Robert's romanticization of Lyanna is rooted solely in her looks. He doesn't know anything about the person she really was. There is an assumption that, because she looked a certain way, her personality must fit and Robert imagines her much softer and more passive than she actually was.

That Arya isn't pretty or Lyanna wasn't wild are two perceptions that George specifically pushes back against. This is where people miss the brilliance of them being linked as literary mirrors; it is largely about us learning more about Lyanna, but it touches on more than that. The significance of them being written as wild, willful, and with their own beauty is that George isn't writing his female characters around patriarchal expectations. When people debate their beauty, that's often the trapping they fall into. Beauty and non-conformity are treated as mutually exclusive factors when the story itself never makes that point; this is also the logic that leads people to the (incorrect) conclusion that Lyanna and Arya aren't meant to be similar. Arya's self-esteem issues around her looks and being a Lady make this a topic certain to be addressed in the future; George has made it a part of the story. The conclusion shouldn't be that "looks don't matter", but that looks aren't indicative of a character's value, personality, or morality.

[compacflt]

If you don't mind me asking, do you read fanfiction? Either for Top Gun or other fandoms you're in?

Yes! Not for Top Gun though. if you follow me at all you know how truly tapped out of the fandom i am. my typical fandom experience is as follows: for 99% of fandoms i am a consoomer and never a poaster. for 1% of fandoms (TG included) i am a poaster and not a consoomer. I don’t consume any TG fanworks besides my own. Which is why, if you’re asking yourself, why does compacflt act like theirs is the only right interpretation, it’s because mine is the only interpretation im ever exposed to lol. i do really feel bad about not being more connected to the fandom—but i think it’s just a writing thing, i don’t want to be unduly influenced by others’ work. maybe once i stop writing i can enjoy what other people have done. but also i know the second i stop writing my very specific interpretation im not gonna be interested in top gun anymore because it’s those issues i find interesting, so…

i havent been reading much FF lately cause i don’t really have any active fandoms now that succession is over. need to find me some new IP. but when I do read ff i have exorbitantly high standards so i read very little anyway lol

[ravensmadreads]

.

[bataddictedloony]

Okay, i’m sorry, i know this is an ode to the specific fanfic experience of seeing the story develop with the author, and that’s awesome and beautiful. But it’s also super fucking condescending. “If you want a finished story, go to a bookstore” are you 5? I don’t read unfinished fanfics for a reason. Some of us have a schedule with no room for just 1 chapter per week. Some of us son’t have the time or energy or mindset to wait to know the end. Some of us just don’t want to. Most of us have memory issues. And you or anyone else has no right to say whether that’s a less valid way of experiencing fanfics or not. The author notes don’t become less interesting as time passes. Nuanced readers can and will feel shifts in the story and go “oh the writer is thinking smthn different here, oh let’s gooooo”. We leave comments every chapter too. We’re not doing anything that’s hurting anyone.

Is it true that authors feel more enthusiasm for writing when there’s readers from the beginning? Absolutely.

Is binge culture harmful for the streaming industry? Yes.

Am I gonna make myself hate fanfics because some asshole on tumblr told me I’m not a Real Fanfic Reader if I don’t follow unfinished works from the beginning and then forget with every new chapter what happened before and spend time and effort into remembering or rereading the previous chapters until it looks so much like homework, I stop reading alltogether? No. Fuck off. This isn’t a club. This is fandom. And anyone can and should experience fandom the way it is comfortable for THEMSELVES. We’re not. Hurting. Anyone. We’re just slower.

not reading wips feels anti-fanfiction to me. and i don't mean that in a "so you're a bad person if you don't read them" kinda way. do what you want. but i also feel, that you are completely missing the point. with fanfiction you're supposed to come along for the ride. the epic highs and lows of highschool football. the comment sections. the conversations. the theories. the "sorry i didn't update last week i was abducted by aliens and then my cat got stuck in a tree." LIKE. if you just want a story that's fully finished and polished go to a bookstore. fanfic is an EXPERIENCE. and ALSO. participating in the process is part of the way you make fanfic writing worth while. it's part of how you thank authors. like why would anyone write fanfiction if no one was going to interact with them until it was done? it again feels like a way that fanfiction is being eaten by consumer culture. you're waiting for your product. but this is supposed to be a club. you don't turn up to drama club like "where's my play bitch?" NO ma'am. we're supposed to paint these cardboard trees together. ok. i may have lost control of this metaphor. BUT YOU GET IT.

[19catsncounting]

I Got Really Into Anti/Proship Discourse And Read +30 Academic Studies - My Findings

(It’s a Yapfest but the whole post is a very long essay and study on morality and fiction and children’s safety and rape culture with a fuckton of freely accessible academic articles and resources on the subject, and I want to talk to other people about it. For a shorter abstract with all the articles and more easily ignored yapping, see my shiny new Carrd:)

It’s been a little shocking lately to have certain discussions with some parts of fandom. I spoke about shipping/harassment and how that contributes to the death of fandom on TikTok assuming that younger folks are just really, really intense about preventing sexual violence, but the more I saw the words “morally wrong” and “disgusting” and “addiction,” the more I thought about this guy-

That’s Jerry Falwell, and I fucking hate this dead guy. You see, Jerry Falwell was a preacher who hated porn, feminism, and homosexuality. And I'm seeing his rhetoric and reworked quotes a lot.

Jerry would say stuff like:

“Pornography hurts anyone who reads it - garbage in, garbage out.”

“Someone must not be afraid to say ‘moral perversion is wrong.’ If we do not act now, homosexuals will ‘own’ America!”

Jerry wanted people to believe that it’s possible to see so much sexual content that it warps your sexuality, because he was gay and wanted to think that was due to thinking about gay sex too much. Jerry did not have a lot of evidence to prove that homosexuality was harmful, so he relied heavily on how “morally distasteful” it seemed to be to suburban Americans.

I spent the majority of my teen years arguing against Jerry’s rhetoric for the right to live as a lesbian online, and I never thought I’d see morality rhetoric in people I’m otherwise very politically aligned with. And I definitely never thought fandom of all things, in all its beautiful subversive glory, would seriously start advocating for censorship, anti-porn, and to consume fanwork with moral purity.

So, I’d like to have a deeper discussion on it, both here on Tumblr and on TikTok, but that does mean checking a few things at the door:

Personal feelings decide your personal life. What you feel is valid for you, not anyone else.

In general, things that do not cause direct and undeniable harm should not be broadly prohibited just because they’re weird or distasteful to the majority of folks. Ex. Loitering does not cause harm and is a tool of systemic oppression.

The discussion of “fictional CSEM” is the most inflammatory fork of this and it is often used to derail these kinds of conversations. This is all I will say on it - the legal status of explicit visual depictions of minors is muddy. In the US, there is just one dude in Utah who pled guilty for possessing explicit lolicon he bought by mail order without also possessing CSEM with real children, and explicit writing about fictional minors has been settled as protected free speech. Dedicated organizations from the NCMEC to Chris Hansen have asked that fictional content is not reported as CSAM as it is not actionable and clogs up finite resources. 90% of NCMEC reports were not actionable last year. There are studies suggesting that virtual CSEM or other non-victim alternatives could reduce actual child harm, but there is need for further research.

We’re all in agreement that untagged NSFW is not cool, and kids deserve kid-only sections of the internet. People who are triggered by or dislike problematic content deserve to be able to not see it. 👍

 (I’ve seen the argument that blocking tags/people should not be required - sorry, PTSD still requires that you manage your triggers, up to and including swearing off platforms just as I have sworn off bars/soap brands/etc to avoid my triggers.)

I have found a lot of accessible and free articles and studies that I will link throughout so that we can discuss the fact-based reasoning, in an effort to have a civil conversation.

(Also because we are not flat earthers, we are Fandom, and if we’re going to be annoying little shitheels in an “Um Actually” contest, we’re going to have the sources to back it up.)

Minors and Explicit Material

I’m not supporting minors engaging with explicit material. I have such little interest in the subject that I’m not even going to bring in articles, but you can feel free to. I personally engaged with explicit material as a preteen of my own free will and did not find it to be harmful, and the majority of people throughout human history have been exposed to explicit material at an early age with varying degrees of harm. There are undeniable legal and harm-driven differences between a 12 year old girl looking at Hustler on her own, a 14 year old boy being sent nudes from a grown woman, and a 6 year old viewing PornHub. (And I think the guardians of that 6 year old should be charged with grooming just like the woman, tbh.)

Personal Disclaimer

I’m an adult survivor of CSA and incest. I’m a happily married adult. I don’t personally like lolicon/shotacon/kodocon. I don’t like kids. I don’t like teens. I’m personally not attracted to underage fictional characters. I have family, the idea of fucking any of them makes me want to throw up and die, so I don’t write or read RPF of my family.

I am really, really fucking intense about preventing sexual violence, supporting survivors, and fandom, which is where this all comes from.

I read and love problematic fiction - my favorites are ASOIAF, Lolita, and VC Andrews. The most “problematic” thing I’ve personally written are Lucifer/Michael fics from Supernatural back in 2012. They are “brothers” in CW Christ, not blood. They do not have any blood.

Gen Z and Online Grooming

In 2002, a survey of 1500 minors from 10-17 found that 4% had been solicited for sexual purposes by an adult online.

In 2023, that number increased to 20%.

While the linked 2023 Thorn report suggests that the vast majority of these inappropriate interactions happened on platforms that allow for interpersonal communication, which by and large minors were greatly discouraged from and had less access to in the early 2000’s, a trauma-informed approach does not allow for blame to fall on the children. The guardians of those children have monumentally failed to restrict and educate before giving children the means to access those platforms.

It is my uncited but personal opinion that the increased rate of grooming, as well as an increased interest in combating rape culture, has led to well-intentioned individuals to become digital vigilantes attacking those who they hold responsible for their traumatic experiences in a search for catharsis and justice denied for themselves as well as a desire to make the internet safer for other children, whom they are increasingly aware are entering online spaces unsupervised at distressingly young ages.

Is harassment and bullying bad for perpetrators of it?

Before we get into how ship-related hate campaigns do not affect predation or combat rape culture, we should acknowledge that it’s actually pretty harmful for the people who cyberbully. Not just in the legal/social consequences, but people who participate in cyberbullying and cyberhate campaigns have higher rates of depression, estrangement from their parents, self-effacing habits, social anxiety, lower empathy, and so forth.

One study suggests that the treatment and prohibitive for cyberbullying, which contributes to a culture of cyberhate and a lower likelihood to report or confront other incidents of harassment or toxicity online, can be combatted with media competency to increase empathy along with other important life skills.

Some Common Pro-Censorship Myths

“Pornography is Addictive/Consumption of Pornography Leads to Increasingly Hardcore Imagery And Ultimately Real-World Violence” - The American Psychological Association does not recognize Porn Addiction as real and the DSM-5 does not classify it as an addiction. Additionally, many methods used in articles claiming that porn is addictive or causes users to seek out more hardcore material were flawed or biased. There is actually some evidence that compulsive porn use, the closest you can get to a porn addiction diagnosis, is associated with shame and the user’s belief that pornography is morally wrong, which sex-negative attitudes encourage.

“Jaws caused shark culling” - That's unfortunately a simplification that ignores a LOT of surrounding context. WW2’s modern naval battles with an increase of ship sinkings and thus contact with sharks prompted the invention and use of shark repellant by aviators and sailors in the 1940’s. The most deadly and famous shark attack of all time was the USS Indianapolis sinking in 1945, which led to 12-150 deaths. The 1974 book Jaws by Peter Benchley, which was the entire basis of the movie, was inspired by One Fucking Dude who started shark hunting tours and overall seemed to have a really immaculate vibe. The interstate highways that finished in the 1950’s increased beach tourism in the 60’s and onwards, inspiring the American surf culture, further increasing the cultural desire to purge sharks for the new swath of beachgoers and their fondness for using surfboards which make them look like seals to sharks. Additionally, 1975’s Jaws inspired a huge desire for education about sharks, and the relationship between problematic media and education will be the core of this yapperoni pizza.

“The Slendermen Killings/Other Fiction Inspired Crimes” - The ACLU states that “There is no evidence that fiction has ever driven a sane person to violence.” Inspired crimes are indeed no less tragic, and thankfully rare, but people who suffer from inability to discern reality and fiction do not necessarily need fiction to commit violence. The “Son of Sam” murder spree was not inspired by a book or movie, but instead Berkowitz’ auditory hallucinations.

“Violent videogames DO cause violence” - After a great deal of funding and study, the American Psychological Association has concluded that teens and younger may have increased feelings of aggression and not necessarily physically violent outbursts as a direct effect, but older teens and young adults do not encounter statistically meaningful rates of aggression.

“Your brain can’t tell the difference between fiction and reality” - Factually incorrect. Children as young as 5 years old can tell the difference, and they can even be more suspicious about “facts” that come from sources they know also host fiction, such as TV shows.

“This stuff shouldn’t be online because it can be used to groom a child” - While I could not find specific statistics on how often pornography is used to desensitize child victims, nor how often that is specifically used in online grooming, and especially not how much of that pornography is made from fictional characters - out of a mixed group of convicted offenders with adult and child victims, 55% of offenders used pornography to manipulate their victim. I would never refute that explicit fanart or fanfic could be used to desensitize a child, but that is by far not the only tool (asking about sexual experiences/identity, making jokes, etc is extremely common grooming behavior), and there is no evidence to suggest that it is used to a statistically significant degree. In my own anecdotal experience, normal vanilla legal pornography is used with far greater prevalence, and there isn’t a similar movement to shame its production for that possibility. Nor should the creators of any material, pornographic or otherwise, share blame in the actions of a predator.

The Fiction Affects Reality Carrd

(No hate to the person who made it, in fact I give props to them for trying to find unbiased sources, I just want to point out that their interpretations of their articles are kinda flawed and one of their studies is a kind of a perfect example on small and culturally biased samples.)

Reading Fiction Impacts Aggressive Behavior - (I cannot access the full study but this article is the primary source used in the Carrd and it goes into detail) - A study showed that 67 university students were more annoyed with a loud buzzer after reading a short story about a physical fight between roommates compared to a story with nonviolent revenge. However, this study was conducted at Brigham Young University, the same campus where we got a whole video series of hot ethical takes like “I’d rather shoot a kitten than drink coffee,” so uh. Yeah. Kind of a prime example on why it’s important to have large and culturally varied sampling. (Another BYU study with 137 BYU students being odd about moral ambiguity in fiction, just because I’m starting to add Dr. Sarah M. Coyne to my list of “Sarah’s That I Dislike.”)

Your Brain on Fiction - a NYT article that describes Theory of the Mind and how fMRIs captured how readers’ minds would light up centers of muscle control when reading sentences like “Peter kicked.” The quote “The brain, it seems, does not make much of a distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life; in each case, the same neurological regions are stimulated” is speaking of motor functions. Emotional centers of the brain were not included in the study.

How Fiction Changes Your World - a Boston Globe article that actually describes how people who read more fiction are more empathetic and tend to believe in a just world. It does not state that the empathy a reader feels for fictional characters extends to corrupting their moral compass. In fact, there’s such a thing as a “fictive license” to explore taboo themes more thoroughly because it is not real - 123 participants were interviewed after watching two actors play the part of detective and murderer being interviewed, and participants who were told it was fake had more varied and inquisitive responses.

The Social Impact of Books - Actually reuses the previous study about the just world, so point remains. Empathy is understanding, not mirroring.

Is Problematic Fiction Good for Survivors of Trauma?

It absolutely depends on the individual.

Writing expressively about traumatic experiences has been shown to be effective to reduce depression, or more effective in reducing dysphoria and anxiety than talking to fellow survivors, and Written Exposure Therapy is broadly prescribed to survivors of trauma, with one study centering on car crash survivors finding that WET resolved their PTSD symptoms and continued to be effective after a year.

In this study, which sadly is not available online but it is too important to leave out completely, survivors of CSA were given fictional novels about CSA and in closely reading and analyzing those stories, were able to understand their own experiences and were indeed drawn to write about their own experiences as well.

Engaging in problematic fiction, like all fiction, allows for consent as well as control. If at any point a survivor does not feel in control or wishes to stop, they can at that instant. They can even rewrite their narratives and take control of their story in fictionalizing and changing the account. They can even try to understand what their abuser felt through fiction, which is helpful considering that the vast majority of survivors had a relationship that had been positive and even loving with their abusers at times.

Is Problematic Fiction Good for Everyone Else?

It again depends on the individual.

Antis might be a little right that most people don't want to read problematic stories. In a study exploring whether fiction can corrode morals, 83% of study participants stated that they would prefer not to read a short story justifying baby murder if they had the choice, even if that exploration isn’t inherently harmful.

This very small sample study of 13 participants discussed how young women interpreted sexual themes in writing, including explicit fanfiction, and how that was beneficial and informative to explore sexual desire and examine healthy and unhealthy relationships in a safe and controlled environment.

This meta-analysis further discusses how problematic and sexual themes in YA literature are useful to illustrate what sexual violence looks like, and begin educational conversations through those depictions to break down harmful myths such as “if she didn’t scream, she wanted it.”

Empowered by the “Fictive License” previously cited, problematic fiction can be beneficial for anyone who desires and is capable of consuming and analyzing it.

This study analyzing abusive aspects of three films - Beauty and the Beast, Twilight, and 50 Shades of Gray - concluded that these abusive themes should be discussed to increase recognition and awareness, not censored based on those problematic themes.

This study of 53 women were asked to read different versions of fictional intimate partner violence flags, or “toxic behavior” like surveillance, control, etc. In every version of the story, whether the female or male had those behaviors either courting or committed, the women recognized the behavior as wrong.

Another study that reading allows for the moral laboratory to explore morality in fiction without decisive impact to corroding moral permissibility.

Is There Ever Any Point Where Fictional Interests Definitively Speak On Someone’s Morality?

In short - not really. Loving Jason Vorhees does not put you at risk of murdering campers as long as you know he’s not real. Writing Wincest does not mean you look forward to family reunions, as long as you know incest isn’t okay in the real world. The real world, where real people are harmed, is where you find the measure of someone’s character.

This Psychology Today article is the best source I could find for quotes from a fantastic book ‘Who's Been Sleeping in Your Head? The Secret World of Sexual Fantasies’ by Brett Kahr regarding taboo sexual fantasies and how they are not only common, but not inherently harmful.

There are people who enjoy problematic media in an entirely nonsexual sense, of course. I myself don’t get off on problematic media - I think it’s just interesting to explore different experiences, and I think that can be revolutionary.

Additionally, fantasies in general have almost always been in the vein of “things you don’t want to really happen in reality.” In a study of 351 asexuals, more than half reported that they fantasize about having sex, but that doesn’t mean that they actually want to. You can fantasize about dating Billie Eilish - it doesn’t mean that you’d be happy dealing with celebrity culture.

(I personally fantasize about the internet being just for adults, but in practice I think that would be incredibly harmful and isolating for at-risk youth and LGBTQ teens) Fantasies always pluck out only the bits of reality that you want to engage with.

If You Get Off On Fictional Kids, You’re Attracted to Something About Them Being Kids

Not inherently, surprisingly. Wearing a schoolgirl uniform is a pretty common roleplay, and it’s not meant to “fool” the participants into thinking they’re indulging in pedophilia. There’s a wealth of emotional and sexual nuance in that specific kink - innocence and virginity play, tilted power dynamics in ‘scolding’ the uniform wearer for dress code violations, even the concept of a sexually provocative “teenager” can be played with without shame, because the world of fetish and fantasy is separated from condonable actions for the vast, vast majority of adults. (The only study I could find on this is this small study of 100 white guys found on Facebook, which itself states it is not definitive, found that while there might be correlation between attraction to children and interest in schoolgirl uniforms, there is no proof of causation. AKA, the rectangular pedophile might indeed like square schoolgirl uniforms, but not everyone - in fact, the majority at nearly 60% in this very survey - that likes square schoolgirl uniforms is a rectangular pedophile.)

Even sexual age play between adults is not indicative of pedophilia because it exists in a setting between two adults who fully understand that the mechanics are completely fake, allowing the power dynamics that would be abusive between an adult and child to be ethically explored.

I don’t have an official-looking study to cite, but I have asked people who like content about underage fictional characters why they do so. Overwhelmingly, a lot of the ones who like underage age gaps like the fantasy of an older and more experienced character taking a younger one under their wing, to have the opportunity to commit violent and blatantly objectifying harm and yet try to create what inevitably does not truly pass as consent, but seems near enough to the characters. Some think that the characters themselves have an interesting chemistry. Some read underage fic and still imagine the characters as adults. Some like to explore the feelings of shame that the older character must feel and how they mentally compartmentalize to go forward with the relationship, and how the younger character found themself in that vulnerable position - which is exploring a harmful situation through fiction to understand how it could play out in real life.

People who like fictional incest like exploring the shameful components of that taboo relationship - and I have seen a lot of works that compare how bad incest could be to other harms, like the Gravecest route in a game with parental cannibalism. And then there are folks who like analyzing the codependency of having one person fulfill every social need - family, friend, lover, AKA Wincest.

What makes a predator if it’s not just sexual attraction?

90% of CSA survivors know their abuser, discrediting the still-entirely-too-popular Stranger Danger myth. And shockingly, only 50% of abusers are pedophiles.

That means 50% of child molesters do not have sexual interest in children because they are children, but they victimized children because they are more accessible in lieu of adult partners, with increased rates of incest.

While I could not find a specific study on the relation between dehumanization/objectification of child victims and child molesters (and if you find one, please send it to me!), this study speaks on dehumanization as a precursor to adult sexual violence.

This study, conducted on convicted child molesters in prison, showed that child molesters tend to fantasize about children while in a negative mood, further contributing to the theory that child victims are dehumanized prior to abuse.

This very small sample study found that in a mixed sample of internet only/contact crime/mixed offenders, offenders who had contact with children had lower rates of fantasizing about children.

In short, half the time a child predator is someone who wants to offend against a child regardless of attraction to the fact they are a child.

Resources To Recognize Grooming/Abuse Victims/Predators

I would absolutely be remiss to not share my collection of resources to help detect signs of abuse/grooming as well as warning signs of a predator who may be targeting elders/women/teens/children:

Darkness 2 Light is a fantastic resource overall, this page details stages and signs of grooming.

RAINN personally helped me through my PTSD journey, and this article detailing the signs of sexual trauma in teenagers is thorough and non-judgemental

Signs of abuse as well as warning signs of predation that does not use gendered language nor play into the Stranger Danger myth.

Education, not Censorship

I think a lot of the energy against taboo content among young people still has a lot to do with the desire to end rape culture. The tools that we Millennial Tumblrinas gave you Gen Z kids were snatches of leftist theory, deplatforming, and voting with your dollar, so it’s reasonable to think that removing taboo content like pedophilia, incest, rape fights rape culture.

It doesn’t.

Rape culture is fought by education. Comprehensive sex education, education about consent. Talking about what consent looks like, what sex can look like, what rape can look like.

There should be more taboo content to talk about these things, to show all the shades it can look like. From a violent noncon to fics that aren’t even tagged as dubcon yet still are in shades that are hard to suss out, we should talk about it.

A Non-Empirical Example Of Good Media Analysis and Education to Combat Rape Culture

Let’s use the example of Daemon and Rhaenyra Targaryen’s relationship in House of the Dragon. Canonically, in both the book and the show, they have a romantic relationship that appears for the most part to be positive (the show being more contentious but I dedicated an aside to Sarah Hess and our beef at the bottom of my Carrd, but feel free to ask how I feel about writing producers with any variation of the name ‘Sarah’) despite an age gap, a sexual relationship that began while Rhaenyra was a minor, and incest - the problematic hat trick if you will.

I have seen anti-Daemyra shippers condemn Daemyra shippers for “Condoning grooming, age gaps, pedophilia, and incest.” Which is not just a broad, inaccurate, and harmful statement, it’s not at all constructive or educational analysis.

It would actually be beneficial to say “Daemon is grooming Rhaenyra as a teenager with gifts, devoted attention that takes advantage of her isolation and vulnerability, frequent nonsexual touches, the extreme desensitization to sexuality in the brothel visit,” etc etc. And even so, it is not useful to say that people cannot still ship the relationship and acknowledge those aspects. They might want to further explore the issues of consent in their dynamic in fiction, they may want to strip away some of them with narrative reimagining. Some might want to ignore the taboos completely and indulge in the fantasy entirely, and some might find the actors hot as hell - AKA, anyone who watches the show.

It’s honestly a little similar to me in how Jerry Falwell would tell his followers not to watch or read or take in any media that dealt with homosexuality unless it was condemning it - even Will & Grace was on Jerry’s shitlist. And so, Jerry’s followers missed out on a lot of media that could have educated them about queerness, could have humanized queer people for them - and that did not make queers go away. Just like ignoring or shutting out media about incest, rape, and other forms of sexual violence doesn’t make those things go away - it just tends to make you less informed, and little less capable of empathy towards people affected by those subjects.

So let’s stop shaming those that ship a complicated dynamic - you get less fanworks exploring those taboos, and less of a discussion overall. You shut down the morality lab of fiction, and to be honest, it’s wet sock behavior.

Some FanFiction Specific Studies

How dubcon fanfiction can flesh out the intricacies and messiness of realistic consent

A review of darkfic written about Harry Potter in 2005 (which, I will personally attest has never been outdone in how profoundly taboo those works were)

Interviews with 11 Self Insert writers who wrote on themes of rape, abuse, control, yandere, etc, and how that was beneficial to some who had experienced sexual violence themselves

Conclusion:

H…holy shit, you actually read all of that?? Congrats dude! That is a lot of time and brain power to dedicate to any one thing!

By the way, I am not really gifted at writing articles or any of that junk, and I tried to make my hyperlexic ass a little more accessible instead of bringing out all the $5 words. I am literally just an autistic who took a couple technical writing classes over a decade ago and really wanted to sort out my thoughts and try to have a platform for discussion. Also, I am really fucking bad at math. I failed two different college level statistics classes twice each. Gun to my head, I could not tell you what a standard deviation is, which is why I worked entirely with the percentages.

And I do want to have a discussion! I would in fact like to not report anyone for sending me gore or death threats or any of that stuff! I don’t think everyone will agree with me, in fact I’m certain that you could find studies that contradict some of mine, and I’d love to discuss them!

I’m sure it will still be tempting to throw around accusations of pedophilia because sometimes, confronting your previously held beliefs is incredibly uncomfortable. If you could not do that, that would be great? I don’t like being compared to someone who profoundly abused me just because I have a different opinion on how to combat rape culture and empower survivors. If you can do that, I’ll do my absolute best to be cheerful and welcoming and respectful as well. 😁

PS - I’m also not really going to be phased if you call me weird or cringe - I am. Always have been. Cringe, weirdness, and autism have made me do and capable of doing some fantastically neat and impressive stuff. But if you try to say something like “proshippers are too yucky and weird to be in fandom” - I’m going to have to refer you to your similarity to Kate Sanders of Lizzy McGuire fame, you “prEpz >:(“ - [My Immortal, legendary author unknown]

[inkedinserendipity]

CHEESING SO HARD RN!! RAHHH LET’S GO JOEL!!

oh man. oh man okay. oh man so many thoughts. first of all SO proud of my boy joel smallishbeans lifeseries he was so anxious like a little puppy and he did it!! it’s about FAMILY

- grian v joel top two PVP went SO hard it was crazy! add that to grian telling joel like twenty minutes before that he’d give his life for him, and then going down swinging - so tasty. So Freaking Tasty.

- tango killing bdubs made me laugh so hard, especially with bdubs’ “oh i’m dead!” as he went. chihuahua-coded

- scar’s snail being what got him killed me. if not for the snails he would have done so much better omg

- also grian being like yeah, so glad scar died because now i can do the bamboozler trap without worrying about him. calling them strong allies. desert duo real

- gem. just. gem. i don’t know how she wins from this point on. because everyone knows how dangerous she is! she has a reputation! people were out for her blood so so quickly. and even if she made a bunch of allies and avoided dying for like a comically impressive amount of time - she really does have a target in her back! like what does she even do? does she just…pretend to throw? lost from being too good at the game.

- OH YEAH jimmy got flight!! and then grian got it! everything i wanted for the avian headcanons thank you random superpower gods

- pearl walking into her fifteen thousandth finale PVP, cigarette dangling from her lips, dead inside: “here we go again”

- no genuinely it’s so funny she’s been one of the top players in a comical amount of series she’s so good

- GRIAN!! his lines went SO hard! when he killed jimmy (and lizzie sorry lizzie) the line of like “it was always gonna end this way” was absolutely crazy. he said he’d take jimmy out of the series and he DID. and then when he escaped the tower the “not like mumbo, not like skizz, not like that, not today” was so fucking hard. that was insane. those lines went OFF

- which, also, fanon-lore-wise, the watcher going vengeful after the freed canary is fascinating.

- speaking of which, grian just. cannot be without his team. grian let skizz (and mumbo) be dead for like one episode challenge he can’t he just keeps bringing them back

- bigb dying to his snail first, and his last death being to his snail…poetic

- joel’s trap failing to kill him was chef’s kiss hilarious. sorry you suck at traps bud good thing you’re killer at pvp

- impulse i was rooting for you. impulse you just went down trying to hit the wrong guy i’m so sorry. you’ll get em next time. i wanted you to win :’(

- okay like, i saw this post about how the life series either has to end soon or the winners have to start letting themselves re-win to prevent the victories from being like “okay everyone gets one!” and like, i don’t know if it was excellent acting (and to be fair he did say he’d give his life for joel a few minutes beforehand) but grian looked like he was really gunning for that win. would’ve been fascinating! especially if you like watcher lore, the concept of him leaning so hard back into watcher abilities that he wins again is just so Tastey

- and to conclude: what a good fucking series. can’t wait to see what the fandom comes up with in terms of lore and headcanons and joel joining the winner’s pantheon! huge kudos to grian and the mods and the production team and everyone who contributed to this season. hilarious, entertaining, enthralling - what a good thing they’ve made. kudos and more kudos!

[ysljoon]

konig is your roommate

wc: 995 warnings: none just fluff, quick mentions of crying, fem reader (not much metions of female characteristics) a/n: oh lord my first contribution to the cod fandom after consuming brainrot on here and tiktok for the past couple of months :3 i can def do a pt 2 to this with smut but i just wanted to dip my toes in first and see if anybody even likes this lmao MINORS DNI (have your age in your bio or you're getting blocked)

How you ended up with a man in his mid 30s that’s retired from the military as a roommate is beyond you

You were a broke teacher living paycheck to paycheck and you needed to find a way to conserve costs

You posted a Craigslist posting (definitely not shady at all) looking for a roommate and he messaged you within the first hour of you posting to see if he could check the place out!

It was mildly jarring seeing a 6’10 man in a black surgical mask show up ringing your doorbell. You couldn’t even see above his chest when you looked through the peephole 

He was so quiet when you first tried to spark up a conversation with him that you thought he hated your apartment and maybe even you…

Before he even finished his tour of the apartment he took out an envelope of cash from his pocket that had enough to cover the first three months of rent :0

He moved in all of his belongings the following week while texting you a few times leading up to his move in date just confirming what time he’ll be showing up and if you’re still okay with the agreement

He was equally dry over text as he was in person it was a hard obstacle to jump over to get him to open up with you

The first time he actually started a conversation with you was when he saw you diligently working in the living room on a lesson plan for the upcoming week

At first he just sat down on the couch silently from you just watching you and this didn’t bother you as you’ve come to learn that he is more of an observer than a talker

“Um…what are you working on?” 

Your head shot up and a smile spread on your face this was the first time Konig has expressed any interest in your career

“I’m cutting out flashcards I made for the kids so they can match the words to the pictures! I just procrastinated a little bit so I’m doing it all now.” You chuckled and he hummed in acknowledgement 

After that conversation the interactions over the months got a lot more comfortable 

So here we are now (it’s been about 5 months) and you and Konig are having your weekly movie and pizza night

You let Konig pick the movie this week and you were quite surprised that he chose ‘Inside Out’

Seeing such a large man engrossed in such a cute animated movie made your cheeks hurt with how it made you smile

He was quite surprised when he turned around and saw tears running down your cheeks after watching the scene of Bing Bong die

His eyes widened and without thinking he scooped you up into a hug while you let out all the sad feelings from the characters sacrifice

“Gosh Konig I’m so sorry! That was really silly. I shouldn't be crying so hard over a kid’s movie.”

You looked up at him and your eyes met with his cerulean ones. They had such a tender look to them and it made you and the room feel a lot hotter than what you remember 

With a haste Konig pulled down his mask and placed a chaste kiss on your cheek 

Needless to say you guys just stared at each other like this: :000 for about a minute before either of you said anything

You were the first one to speak up

“Konig, that was the cutest thing you’ve ever done.”

He just blushed and broke the eye contact and coughed to try and clear his throat

“I, u-um I wanted to do that for a while actually.”

Hearing him say this made you giggle and to reciprocate the feelings  you’ve also been holding on to you placed a peck onto his forehead.

“I’ve wanted to do that for a while too so now we’re even! The ball’s in your court now Konig, do with that info what you will.”

You pranced off into your room and giggled while Konig was stuck on the couch just absolutely stunned as to what happened.

The next day you wake up and see a note that was slipped under your door. You open it up and it brings a warm smile to your face

‘Dinner at my place tonight! Wear something nice ;)’ You giggled knowing that Konig wasn’t the biggest fan of being in crowded places so a dinner at home was a perfect plan

You noticed Konig wasn’t home so you decided to go to the grocery store really quick and pick up two bottles of white wine for the night

Once you were back at the house you heard Konig was in the shower so you decided to go take a shower yourself and get yourself ready.

You decided to go the full nine yards and put on a red velvet mini dress and do your hair 

When you stepped out you saw Konig already at the stove getting dinner ready. You snuck up behind him and wrapped your arms around his waist 

“Whatcha cookin’?” Your voice was muffled into his back and you felt the vibrations of his chuckle

“It's a surprise schatz so go sit in the living room till I’m done”

“What’s a schatz?” All he did was laugh at your response and usher you out the kitchen

You sat in the living room with a pout on your face until you heard Konig call your name to let you come back into the kitchen

Your mouth watered seeing the chicken parmesan dished out and two poured out glasses of wine

“Oh Konig, this is great!” You stood on your tippy toes to give him a kiss of gratefulness

“Careful Y/N if you keep kissing me like that we’ll never get to dinner…” The sound of his voice was deep and a bit gruff

“And is that really a problem?”

[aziraphales-library]

Hello, hello, hello!

First off, I wanted to say thank y'all for all you do in the fandom, you guys are the main way I find new fics to read :D

Secondly, sorry if this has been asked before but is there any fics where Aziraphale is talking negatively about himself and Crowley is having none of it?

Once again thank you, y'all are the best!!

You'll want to check out our #insecure aziraphale tag for loads of fics like this. Here are more to add...

Thou shalt not seek release by StormIn_A_Bottle (E)

"Say it, angel. Repeat what you said earlier." "That I was fat. And unattractive." "And what did we decide about that?" "That I would be punished for telling lies." - Another contribution to the Spring Kink GOAD event, this time with the prompt "Orgasm Denial"

And Aziraphale Cried by Wintersprings23 (NR)

Aziraphale knows what he’s doing is bad. He knows that he shouldn’t do it, but he also knows deep down in his gut, that he deserves it. He’s seen how much harm he has done, by being ignorant, thinking he was better than these humans. And he has tried to make up for it, he really has, but he still lies in bed at night thinking about what he could have done. Who he could have saved. Aziraphale had done so many blessings, but sometimes they hadn’t worked. He had seen so many humans shorten their already short lives, hollow eyes and wounded body beyond saving

You're beautiful by Between_stars_and_Nebula (NR)

Crowley and Aziraphale have been living together as lovers for six months. Everything is going well but for the last two weeks, Aziraphale seems turned off, tired and depressed. Crowley decides to figure out what's wrong with his handsome lover “Crowley had his nose buried in his angel's perfumed hair, tears in his eyes at this violent suffering that he did not understand. The muscles ached from holding Aziraphale as hard as possible against him in the hope of calming his trembling. " What's wrong ? ", he whispered softly, almost more to himself than to the angel, "What's happening to you? What can I do? " "

Insecure by White Queen Writes (T)

When gaggles of women start flooding his shop on their lunch hours just to gawk at his sexy husband, Aziraphale begins to succumb to the new doubts and fears that come as a result of going native. Luckily, Crowley has a cure for that.

There is strength in your softness, Angel by Cuppa_Rosie_Lee (G)

A soft little drabble about a soft angel. Crowley and Aziraphale return to the bookshop after a date at the Ritz. Aziraphale becomes self-conscious about his weight, but Crowley is having absolutely none of it. All the feelings and a ridiculously soft demon in love.

I won’t stand for it by Dancer_in_the_rain (T)

“Look, if you don’t want to see me again, that’s fine. I just would have liked to know what I did wrong. But if you don’t want to talk about it, I guess I’ll just-“ His hand started slipping from Aziraphale’s and in a sudden rush of panic the angel gripped onto the demon tightly. “No!”, he gasped, the thought of his beloved leaving indefinitely suddenly feeling like a crushing weight on his chest. Crowley looked back down at him, his expression confused and hurt. “Tell me what’s going on here then, angel. What has suddenly gotten into you?” Aziraphale worried his lip between his teeth, unable to meet the other’s eyes. He could feel his heart beating up his throat. Was he really about to tell Crowley? Well, yes. Crowley deserved his honesty. If anything he didn’t deserve Aziraphale throwing him out and not even giving him a reason. Even if it was a good reason. He felt like fainting when he looked back up again into the face that he loved so much. The face that he felt so undeserving of loving. “Would you… do you think I should get a new corporation?” Or: Aziraphale overhears Crowley reprimanding his plants and starts to wonder if he’s even good enough for his demon.

- Mod D

[milfzatannaz]

I realize that a lot of you guys signed on for fandom related content and general fuckery, and I’m sorry that a lot of yall had to watch the collapse of my life in real time.

recently, the abuse I was experiencing from my mom ramped up to becoming physical. I got on a bus and escaped to my best friends house, and it has been one of the hardest periods of my life. Like I thought I was already beaten down by a shit year- suicide, death of my grandad, financial insecurity and just a lot of struggling. But after that I just haven’t been the same. I’m experiencing symptoms like nightmares, becoming triggered by seemingly mundane things (my roommate did dishes and I could barely breathe for two hours), really visceral periods of intense recollection and I’m honestly drowning. I have no energy for classwork and I’m struggling. I need to keep my grades up for grad school. I miss my family. I’m homesick. I’m really, really raw. I miss my cat.

if you read this, thank you. and everyone has been so wonderful and supportive- I’m so serious, this community I’ve built is the only thing keeping me afloat. I’m actively trying to keep going, I promise.

if anyone wants to reblog and help support me, it’s my final college semester and most of my plans can’t happen because well, neither of my parents are currently helping. Hopefully my campus job will let me get paid in three ish weeks at the earliest. It’s okay if no one can contribute anything, I’ve certainly been really well taken care of and ppl have been beyond generous. But hey, you might just help a really scared vulnerable 22 year old afford dinner.

[fanganfessions]

vent !! chapter 2 ep 15 spoilers

god and i cant even begin to express how much i hate veronika after this last episode. i was already beginning to have mixed feeling about her after being harassed by a few veronika defenders which only caused for me to not like her more out of spite. but my god the way she kept antagonizing ace seriously broke me. this man expresses how he was offended and all veronika can say is: "Oh, that hit a nerve. Didn't it?" what kind of person says those kinds of things?? thats just so cruel. maybe part of the reason why i hate veronika is because she reminds me so much of my sister. my sister is 10x worse than veronika but i cant but wanna claw my eyes out when i see her. shes a constant reminder that my feelings arent valid and i will never be anything more than something to make fun of. because thats exactly what she does to ace.

just for now im muting all the drdt tags besides any related to ace. i dont wanna see anything about any other character besides him. because it'll just remind me that not even the fandom appreciates ace as much as i do. they all care about everyone else. for fucks sake even hu and arturo are more liked than ace when they have contributed nothing useful besides a tiny bit of lore here and there.

just hearing ichiko aoba humming makes me think of last night where i cried over ace. its so calming but also so traumatizing because just hearing it reminds me of him. honestly i didnt think some jockey would impact me this much but god it hurts like a bitch.

i just want more ace content. seeing people positively talking about ace and making things for him makes me feel loved. when people express how much they love ace and dont want him to die, it makes me feel accepted and cared for. 

speaking of acceptance, i can only say this through an anon because i dont feel safe expressing my thoughts and feelings openly. ive been harassed by too many drdt fans for such petty reasons. i just wanna feel safe and liked in this fandom but i cant because i constantly feel like everyone is judging me and talking shit about me. i dont want that. i want people to like me.

theres probably going to be people suggesting for me to not associate myself with drdt (or atleast any ace markey media) for the sake of my own mental health and like.. take a walk or something. and while i do agree with you 100%, i kinda cant. drdt is my only hyperfixation atm. ive been obsessed with it for over a year now! most hyperfixations last only a year. i dont know how to stop thinking about ace's possible death, especially with episode 16 coming up in a few days. its really not as easy as you guys think it is. im not choosing to feel like this, i promise. (SENDING IN MULTIPLE PARTS BECAUSE IT KEEPS SAYING "We’re sorry. There was an error processing your post. tumblr")

.

[photogirl894]

Oh my gosh, y'all, I was ready to throw hands with someone on the Star Wars Facebook page!! 😡😡 Angry rant ahead! Slight spoilers but not really...

It started off with the guy saying the new episode of Bad Batch was "another filler episode", (which that word makes me SO angry already) so I told him that word is so overused and this wasn't filler. I even broke down the points of each episode that contributed to the plot as well as character development. Then we kept going back and forth about it and he questioned if we watched the same episodes and I'm like "clearly not cuz you obviously missed the point!" and he said "we didn't need 3 episodes in the prison". I told him there were only 2 in the prison: the first and the third because the second was centered on Hunter and Wrecker. Then this asshat had the nerve to say "The second episode was horrible and I tend to block out every episode with Wrecker because he's the worst Star Wars character ever created after Omega"............ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh the absolute RAGE I felt when I saw he said that!! 🤬🤬

I so wanted to say, "well no wonder you're missing the point of the show cuz you're blocking out one of the best characters who's in pretty much every episode of the whole damn show!!!!"

But I was getting so mad that I just blocked him instead. I didn't wanna hear anymore of his wrong opinions. Though I did say before I blocked him "wow...just when I thought your opinion couldn't get any worse...you had to say THAT". Uuuggghhh I was furious! I honestly still am!

Nobody...and I mean NOBODY...talks about my boy, Wrecker, like that!!!!! He is a wonderful, sweet, funny and complex character that has more emotional maturity in his pinky finger than that guy could ever hope to have! He's incredibly kind, intelligent and is in tune with his emotions. He might not know a lot about technology or things like that, but he knows how to disassemble an explosive and makes a pretty good tank! He cares so much about his family and can bring a smile to anyone's face!

Ugh sorry...I got so mad seeing that comment from someone who clearly has no understanding of Wrecker's character and ZERO understanding of The Bad Batch in general. I'm so sick and tired of many people saying it has a bunch of "filler" episodes, which is 100% false! The show would do so much better if more of the freaking SW fandom had better media literacy, but clearly, that ship sailed long ago 🙄

I love this show so much and I will defend it to my last breath against anyone who dares to say it's nothing but "filler" or anyone who dares to insult ANY of my boys or my little blonde angel!!!

[sepublic]

It may be just us being involved in different fandom circles but I feel like you run into the stuff you complain about way more than I do. It always makes me surprised to hear some of the things you hear about (sorry you get exposed to so much of it btw that sounds pretty frustrating)

It’s because I used to frequent the Belos circles and enjoyed some of the popular blogs, but when the finale came around soooo many people went mask off when they realized the finale wasn’t going to give them what they wanted. And so that part of fandom became unbearable overnight, as I realized that a lot of people I thought were chill or assumed had a basic understanding of the narrative or even storytelling… didn’t.

It’s really disappointing, as someone who was a fan of Belos well before anyone else, since the fifth episode (something others might’ve noticed); Is it too much to want fandom to discuss a character as he is onscreen, recognize his role in the larger story, and appreciate how he contributes to other characters’ meaningful arcs???? Most “fans” are fake, they don’t even like Belos and need to sanitize and mischaracterize him.

It’s disheartening realizing people don’t care for the main characters at all, and how this all ties into this fandom’s larger White Guy favoritism; Because even white women are being ignored in favor of this specific colonial family (which includes Hunter)!

I dunno how anyone can be so brainrotted by the Wittebane obsession that they can’t appreciate at all how S3 was a love letter to Luz and her relationship with her family, some can’t even find solace in it… I guess none of it counts if there isn’t a dedicated section to those white guys! People love to take their anger out on Luz’s character by disparaging her arc and making “Fix-it” stuff about her being there for Belos, because they hate the finale said she doesn’t owe him a damn thing and doesn’t want to.

Plus, I often look through #The Owl House tag a lot, especially the Recent section. So I’ll see a lot of stuff regardless of whether I’m looking for that specific character, because all of the characters fall under that umbrella tag, naturally. And I can’t just filter Belos because sometimes there’s actual good stuff using that tag.

Overall, there’s a reason why I now avoid Belos-centric blogs, because so often there’s a dedicated tag to complaining about how their white guy fave got done dirty and how the entire show is retroactively bad, often reblogging a lot of those aforementioned blogs’ bad takes… I was all for the “We can enjoy him critically!!!” crowd until I realized they don’t actually enjoy him critically, they just stop at the “He shouldn’t commit genocide” bit. Which is not even the bare minimum, it’s just part of it.

I see PoC be harassed by waves of anons for criticizing how people discuss Belos on their own blogs. Meanwhile the top Belos blogs are so openly, blindingly white, and infantilize themselves in a White Fragility way; Esp when it comes to acknowledging their fave is racist, or that their writing and fanart has issues. Belos fans love to prove everything we criticize about them, huh?

[the-dumpster-fire-of-life]

I absolutely love the hype Bill’s getting and I’m here to contribute ꨄ︎ My request of today is; Remember the celeb crush thing I requested a while ago for Tom? Well my love for Bill is taking over and I’d love to see how you’d adapt it for him! To make it more interesting, I thought maybe the reader is already a fan and confidently goes out to talk to them even though the language barrier is present. Couple days later she goes and surprises them at a concert and makes this a little tradition til she and Bill realize they’ve developed feelings for each other but of course, work and distance is a huge obstacle

(Hello, lovely! Sorry this took so long and I didn't know if u wanted a oneshot but I was pretty lazy so here ya go! Enjoy!)

Bill Kaulitz x Celeb-Crush Reader

He actually was pretty calm when he first noticed you

He had been one of your fans for a bit, seeing you in tabloids and online and had even gone to one of your concerts when him and the band weren't really well known

You were actually an example of his dream of being young but making it big

And as he grew up in fame, you never really left his mind because you also grew with your fandom and fame

Your style may not have been the same, your music either, but Bill still loved watching you on stage and on videos

He was almost starstruck when he actually saw you in the flesh when they were performing

YOU were at THEIR concert?!

By choice?!

He almost freaked out on stage but surprisingly hid it well

He just smiled, flashed a wink at you and somehow kept making eye contact

And you didn't look away and you fed into it from the crowd!

He tried so hard not to faint

When it was all over and he went backstage he was ranting to Tom, Gustav and Georg the whole time

"She looked at me! She looked at me- huh?! Who?! (Name)!"

Bill almost knocked Georg out right then and there

They then clicked in their mind he was actually talking about the one star he could rave about for-literally-ever

Bill was still a mega-fan, and the boys were dragged into it or ranted too

But what really almost killed Bill was after the concert and they were meeting with fans and signing stuff

He had just finished up taking a photo and signing a T-shirt and looked up to see you!

He took a moment and was just staring, mouth open and looking to Tom to see if he was hallucinationing

Tom laughed at his brother as Georg and Gustav watched as Bill almost dug his grave

You had to snap him out of it as you asked for a autograph

You almost out him in cardiac arrest because he rushed to find a marker

He snatched Tom's marker in the moment but he didn't give a shit

He was so giddy you asked him for his signature and was so happy

He tried to strike up a conversation but failed

Not to worry, you were absolutely glad to talk to him

Bill was so happy, and he and you had much in common and actually flirted surprisingly

Once he got over his shock, of course

You guys actually clicked

Turns out, you were a fan too, which shocked Bill

There was a language barrier, but Bill spoke a bit of English so he could at least speak to you

You knew a bit of German due to playing there either solo or in a band and you guys figured out a way to understand each other

As time went on, even after you guys parted ways, you somehow kept in touch

You would go to their concerts and he would be glad to go to yours

You guys were spotted by photographers leaving hotels, walking in the city on "dates" as they called it and many more

Fans went crazy and so did paparazzi, chasing you guys down almost all the time

You and Bill didn't mind, even enjoying it in photos and you guys got a few photoshoots together

You guys were a pretty popular celebrity ship but would never admit it, even with the looks and smiles you two would give over time

Bill always thought he was in a fever dream

Because no way his celebrity crush would actually like and be a fan of his, much less spend time with him

You and Bill developed a tradition of traveling to see each other

You mainly did yours in surprise, but sometimes it was difficult

You were on tour and so was he, so spending time and being together for a bit scarce

You did your best hut Tom and you spent less and less time together and it was actually quite sad

Until you surprise him by showing up backstage, which he was shocked and ecstatic to see you

It was a tradition, either of you would sneak off and find one another no matter where

But it got a bit complicated as fans doubled down on this ship and your friends always compared your "relationship" and labeled it more than a friendship

Maybe there were feelings, maybe there wasn't

But the red dust and smile on Bills face would choose the latter option

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hi Hi Hi!!! lol sorry I’m the anon who called you TWST Jesus! It’s just a new thing I do whenever I find a tumblr blog where people frequently ask the person to do in depth analysis type stuff on whatever fandom they write for 😂

This actually ties in with an ask you got from two other anons a while ago (they wanted your opinion on whether you think Leona will already be aware of his dream in the next part of book 7). I saw a post from today of a screenshot from back in book 6, and in it Idia is saying “Leona’s probably the kind of guy who always know’s he’s dreaming, where’s the fun in that?” And then it struck me…is it possible that the devs used that as foreshadowing for the Savanaclaw portion of Book 7? We all know Leona is beyond exceptionally intelligent, noticing things that other students haven’t, coming up with plans on the fly, and the game has been very consistent with that. So is it possible that the game developers decided to use that line as a way to foreshadow that Leona will already know he’s dreaming? Because honestly it wouldn’t be like him to NOT know, especially with how frequently he sleeps, or do you think it was a coincidence? 🧐

Here’s the post I was looking at: https://www.tumblr.com/ladyyummy/759496757321318400/calling-it-now-leonas-gonna-know-hes

Here’s your post that I said ties in with this ask: https://raven-at-the-writing-desk.tumblr.com/post/758633674087579648/idk-if-anyone-brought-this-up-before-but

[Referencing this post!]

Aaah, I see 😅

I don’t think we can really say one way or another whether Idia’s one line is meant to be foreshadowing… TWST has a track record of promising things but then not delivering on them just as much as it actually foreshadows things and then actually follows through with it. They’ve fucked up before with representing Leona’s intelligence and it’s possible that they miss this opportunity the same as they did back then.

I’d personally love for nothing more than the monotonous dream segments to be significantly changed up and for the main story to acknowledge Leona’s big brain cells again, but at the same time I don’t know if I have the faith in TWST to break from the pattern they’ve established, especially so late in the list of boys to wake up. If TWST wanted to do something different, I feel like now’s too late and they should have started changing things up for every dorm so Leona’s not the only one that stands out. I mean… better late than never, but I feel like that would only contribute to the wonky pacing of book 7, and not in a good way OTL I dunno, it’s complicated.